John 20 - New Spirit-Filled Life Bible

20:1–10 The first day of the week: The Resurrection distinguishes Christianity from all other religions. In commemoration and celebration of this event, Christians gather on Sunday to worship the resurrected Lord. The graveclothes were not unwound or disarranged, but still retained the shape they had when they covered the body, the upper layer having fallen on the lower from the weight of the spices, and the head wrapping separated from the rest by the length of the neck. Apparently the body had simply passed through the burial shroud.

20:2 The other disciple was John, the writer of this Gospel.

20:12 See note on Luke 24:4.

20:17, 18 Do not cling to Me reinforces the now changed condition that is to exist between Master and disciple, a condition which Jesus tells Mary will be fully inaugurated with the Ascension. There is no justification for the carnal presumption asserted by sinful minds that some amorous feelings existed between Mary Magdalene and Jesus. There is neither any evidence that she had been a prostitute (only that she had experienced a great deliverance, Luke 8:2), nor that her age was even approximate to Jesus’ age. Her companying with a group of older women argues otherwise, John 19:25.

20:19 Closed doors were not a barrier to the risen Lord (see v. 26).

20:20 The appearance of the risen Christ dispelled the fears of the disciples. They were convinced that He was the same Jesus who had been crucified a few days earlier, as the scars in His hands and side showed.

20:21–23 The commissioning of the disciples to the mission of Christ is what made them “apostles,” or “sent-forth ones.” The empowerment for such mission comes through the Holy Spirit, poured out upon all believers at Pentecost. See note on 3:32–36.

20:22 Breathed: The allusion to Gen. 2:7 is unmistakable. Now Jesus breathed life into His own. Some interpret the statement Receive the Holy Spirit as symbolic and as anticipating Pentecost. Others understand the Greek to denote immediacy in the sense of “receive right now,” and view the day of the Lord’s Resurrection as marking the transition from the terms of the Old Covenant to those of the New Covenant. The old creation began with the breath of God; now the new creation begins with the breath of God the Son.

20:23 The disciples are to preach both the way of salvation and the way of damnation explaining how sinners can be forgiven and the danger of rejecting the gospel. Whether or not the hearers’ sins are forgiven depends on their acceptance or rejection of Christ.

20:30, 31 John states both his method and his purpose in writing.