Christ’s Appearance to His Disciples

Beloved reader, the content of this text brings us to the evening of the day of Christ’s resurrection. Three things ask our attention.

Disciples

What kind of people were these ten disciples as far as their soul life was concerned? They were all people who had been drawn out of darkness into God’s marvelous light by the wonder of God’s sovereign grace—people, who by discovering and uncovering grace in the way of falling under God’s justice, had been brought to the knowledge of the Saviour. Reader, do you, also, know about these things? After all, this is indispensable on our journey to eternity.

Moreover, these disciples were given to walk with Christ and to receive His instruction for three years. Especially during the last weeks, they received much instruction about the necessity of His priestly work, wherein they had to learn that Zion would be redeemed with judgment only. They had learned that to be saved with Jesus was something different from learning to be saved by Jesus, and when they had to learn that lesson, they fled from Him as enemies in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Are there any readers who, with sorrow and shame, understand this? Are there those who learned in the Passion weeks that lie behind us that they are nothing but enemies of free and sovereign grace with everything that has happened in their life? That is not pleasant, but it is profitable for the soul. Thus, the disciples now sat together— without hope and expectation because their dear Saviour had died, and therewith their hope was gone. May we put it this way: These disciples were not only brought to an end in the standing of the life of grace, but they were worthy to be cut off from their lives as enemies of God. People of God, have you already been brought to that place by the indwelling love of the Spirit?

Closed doors

Thus, they sat together behind closed doors. No one could just go out or come in. Nor were they expecting anyone—not even Christ.

Closed doors—there you have our picture, reader. Because of our deep fall, the door of our heart is closed to the Lord, His service, and His Word. It is impossible for us to ever open that closed heart to the Lord. Far worse, we demonstrate in an ungodly or religious way that we even prefer to keep that door closed forever. How necessary, therefore, that the Lord by grace should open the door of our heart through the power of His Holy Spirit. Is that still possible? Yes, unconverted fellow traveler, the event of salvation of Easter points to this. Because Christ is risen, lost, elect sinners will rise from the dead through Word and Spirit, and according to God’s good pleasure, closed hearts of children of Adam will be opened. Beg the Lord that He will also work that miracle in your heart. That is still possible; but it is a matter of haste.

Closed doors—this is also so often true in the life of God’s Church after having received grace. This was the case with the disciples; they were behind closed doors. On their side everything was impossible and had ended in death. Would there ever be a change, it could only happen if the Lord Himself would intervene by way of a miracle. Thus, God’s children in all standings of the life of grace always remain dependent on the Lord, on His gracious coming, and on a miracle of God, also by renewal. That miracle God was again going to glorify in Christ through the Holy Spirit in the lives of these disciples. Then we pay attention to a coming Jesus.

A coming Jesus

“Came Jesus.” He came while the doors were shut, but He opened them by His power. He came one-sidedly, sovereignly at His time. He then turned His hand to His disciples with whom everything had justly ended in death. He appeared as the risen Prince of Life to reveal, bestow, and apply His acquired benefits to them. They received the forgiveness of sins, peace with God, and a right to eternal life on the basis of His death and shedding of blood. They not only understood but also received and appropriated by faith that He was delivered for their offenses and also raised again for their justification. That is the benefit of Easter—in perishing under God’s justice, to hear from the mouth of God the Judge by virtue of Christ’s labor through the Holy Spirit: “I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions” (Isaiah 43:25a). Would God’s Church not be eager to learn this? After all, regeneration is vital, but justification is necessary!

When He comes, He will always stand in the midst. By that you can know whether He has come in your life for the first time or by renewal because that is the fruit of every exercise of faith or benefit which the Lord grants His people. Christ will be in the center. There it becomes true: Wanting to know nothing else save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Then the triune God will receive all the glory.

Dear reader, have you already come to know this Saviour in an honest, scriptural way? Has He become the only ground of your salvation in the loss of all that is of you? If that is true, there remains only wonderment that He wanted to come when your doors were closed, and that He Himself stood in the midst. Here, people of God, you sadly must testify so often that you stand in the midst and that you have yourself in mind. However, presently, when you will have been delivered from your own I, that Lamb will eternally stand in the midst of the throne, and then you will magnify Him eternally and perfectly. May the Lord grant that miracle to you and to me.

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