John 20:19
It was the first day of the week, and that very evening, while the disciples were together with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them. "Peace be with you!" He said to them.
It was the evening of the first day of the week
This phrase marks a significant moment in Christian history. The "first day of the week" refers to Sunday, which is now celebrated as the Lord's Day in commemoration of Jesus' resurrection. The Greek word for "week" is "sabbaton," which can also mean "Sabbath," indicating the transition from the Jewish Sabbath (Saturday) to the Christian day of worship (Sunday). This shift underscores the new creation inaugurated by Christ's resurrection, symbolizing a new beginning for humanity.

the disciples were gathered together
The gathering of the disciples highlights the importance of community and fellowship among believers, especially in times of fear and uncertainty. The Greek word "mathētai" for "disciples" emphasizes their role as learners and followers of Jesus. This assembly foreshadows the early Christian church's practice of meeting together for worship, prayer, and mutual encouragement, as seen in Acts 2:42.

with the doors locked for fear of the Jews
The locked doors symbolize the disciples' fear and uncertainty following Jesus' crucifixion. The Greek word "kleio" means "to shut" or "to lock," indicating a physical and emotional barrier. Historically, the "Jews" refers to the Jewish authorities who opposed Jesus, not the Jewish people as a whole. This context reflects the tension and danger faced by early Christians, yet it also sets the stage for Jesus' miraculous appearance, demonstrating His power over physical and spiritual barriers.

Jesus came and stood among them
This phrase captures the miraculous nature of Jesus' resurrection body, which transcends physical limitations. The Greek verb "erchomai" means "to come" or "to appear," suggesting a sudden and divine presence. Jesus' ability to stand among them despite locked doors signifies His victory over death and His continued presence with His followers. This moment fulfills His promise in Matthew 28:20, "I am with you always."

and said, 'Peace be with you.'
The greeting "Peace be with you" is deeply rooted in Jewish tradition, where "shalom" signifies not just the absence of conflict but the presence of wholeness and divine blessing. The Greek word "eirēnē" translates to "peace," reflecting a state of harmony and reconciliation. Jesus' words offer comfort and assurance, dispelling fear and affirming the peace that comes from His victory over sin and death. This peace is a central theme in the Gospel of John, as seen in John 14:27, where Jesus promises His peace to His disciples.

Persons / Places / Events
1. Jesus Christ
The resurrected Lord who appears to His disciples, bringing them peace and reassurance.

2. The Disciples
Followers of Jesus who are gathered together in fear, yet are the first to witness His post-resurrection appearance.

3. The Locked Room
A place of fear and uncertainty, symbolizing the disciples' state of mind and the barriers that Jesus transcends.

4. The Jews
Refers to the Jewish leaders who were perceived as a threat to the disciples, causing them to lock the doors.

5. The First Day of the Week
Signifies the beginning of a new creation and the day of Jesus' resurrection, which later becomes the Christian day of worship.
Teaching Points
Peace in the Midst of Fear
Jesus' greeting of "Peace be with you" demonstrates that His presence brings peace, even in fearful circumstances. Believers can find peace in Christ despite external threats or internal anxieties.

The Power of the Resurrection
Jesus' ability to appear in a locked room highlights His divine nature and the transformative power of the resurrection. This power is available to believers, offering hope and assurance of eternal life.

Community and Fellowship
The disciples were gathered together, showing the importance of community in times of fear and uncertainty. Christians are encouraged to seek fellowship and support within the body of Christ.

Faith Over Fear
The locked doors symbolize the disciples' fear, yet Jesus' presence overcomes their fear. Believers are called to trust in Jesus' power and presence rather than succumbing to fear.

The Significance of the Lord's Day
The first day of the week marks a new beginning and is a reminder of the resurrection. Christians are encouraged to honor this day as a time of worship and reflection on the new life in Christ.
Bible Study Questions
1. How does Jesus' greeting of "Peace be with you" in John 20:19 apply to your current life situation?

2. In what ways can the resurrection power of Jesus help you overcome personal fears or challenges?

3. How can you foster a sense of community and fellowship within your church or small group, especially during difficult times?

4. Reflect on a time when you experienced peace in a fearful situation. How did your faith play a role in that experience?

5. How can you honor the significance of the Lord's Day in your weekly routine, and what impact might this have on your spiritual growth?
Connections to Other Scriptures
Luke 24:36-49
This passage parallels John 20:19, where Jesus appears to His disciples and offers them peace, emphasizing His physical resurrection.

Philippians 4:7
Relates to the peace Jesus offers, which surpasses all understanding and guards the hearts and minds of believers.

Revelation 1:10
Connects to the significance of the "first day of the week" as the Lord's Day, a time for worship and reflection on the resurrection.

Acts 2:1-4
The gathering of the disciples in one place, similar to John 20:19, but this time filled with the Holy Spirit, showing the transformation from fear to boldness.

Hebrews 10:25
Encourages believers to gather together, as the disciples did, to strengthen and encourage one another in faith.
A Memorable SalutationD. Young John 20:19
Sermon for the First Sunday After EasterSusannah Winkworth John 20:19
Christ Among His PeopleT. Whitelaw, D. D.John 20:19-23
Christ's Appearance to His DisciplesD. Thomas, D. D.John 20:19-23
Christ's Peace the Antidote for the World's DistractionsDean Stanley.John 20:19-23
Christ's SalutationJ. BeaumontJohn 20:19-23
Jesus in Our MidstC. H. Spurgeon.John 20:19-23
Jesus Meeting His Disciples After the ResurrectionT. H. Day.John 20:19-23
SalutationsDean Stanley.John 20:19-23
The Appearance to the Second CompanyC. Stanford, D. D.John 20:19-23
The First Lord's Day EveningProf. J. R. Thomson.John 20:19-23
The First Lord's Day EveningJ.R. Thomson John 20:19-23
The Risen Jesus Appearing to His DisciplesC. Bradley, M. A.John 20:19-23
The Risen Lord's Greetings and GiftsA. Maclaren, D. D.John 20:19-23
The Tears of ChristCanon Liddon.John 20:19-23
People
Didymus, Jesus, Mary, Peter, Simon, Thomas
Places
Jerusalem
Topics
Assembled, Disciples, Doors, Evening, Fear, Jews, Locked, Midst, Peace, Sabbaths, Says, Shut, Stood, Week
Dictionary of Bible Themes
John 20:19

     5364   key
     5819   cowardice
     6700   peace
     6702   peace, destruction
     7430   Sabbath, in NT
     7505   Jews, the
     8117   discipleship, benefits
     8754   fear

John 20:11-31

     9311   resurrection, of Christ

John 20:18-20

     2555   Christ, resurrection appearances

John 20:19-20

     7110   body of Christ
     7930   Lord's Day, the

John 20:19-21

     2318   Christ, as prophet
     6704   peace, divine NT

Library
May 20 Evening
Jesus saith unto her, Mary.--JOHN 20:16. Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by name: Thou art mine.--The sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name. And the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me. The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his.--We have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God.
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

September 5. "He Breathed on Them" (John xx. 22).
"He breathed on them" (John xx. 22). The beautiful figure suggested by this passage is full of simple instruction. It is as easy to receive the Holy Ghost as it is to breathe. It almost seems as if the Lord had given them the very impression of breathing, and had said, "Now, this is the way to receive the Holy Ghost." It is not necessary for you to go to a smallpox hospital to have your lungs contaminated with impure air. It is enough for you to keep in your lungs the air you inhaled a minute ago
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

October 9. "Peace be unto You" (John xx. 19, 21).
"Peace be unto you" (John xx. 19, 21). This is the type of His first appearing to our hearts when He comes to bring us His peace and to teach us to trust Him and love Him. But there is a second peace which He has to give. Jesus said unto them again, "Peace be unto you." There is a "peace," and there is an "again peace." There is a peace with God, and there is "the peace of God that passeth understanding." It is the deeper peace that we need before we can serve Him or be used for His glory. While
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

Thomas and Jesus
'And after eight days, again His disciples were within, and Thomas with them. Then came Jesus.'--JOHN xx. 26. There is nothing more remarkable about the narrative of the resurrection, taken as a whole, than the completeness with which our Lord's appearances met all varieties of temperament, condition, and spiritual standing. Mary, the lover; Peter, the penitent; the two disciples on the way to Emmaus, the thinkers; Thomas, the stiff unbeliever--the presence of the Christ is enough for them all; it
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture: St. John Chaps. XV to XXI

The Resurrection Morning
'The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre. Then she runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid Him. Peter therefore went forth, and that other disciple, and came to the sepulchre. So they ran both together: and the other disciple did outrun Peter,
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture: St. John Chaps. XV to XXI

The Risen Lord's Charge and Gift
'Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto yon: as My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you. And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.'--JOHN xx. 21-23. The day of the Resurrection had been full of strange rumours, and of growing excitement. As evening fell, some of the disciples, at any rate, gathered together, probably in the upper
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture: St. John Chaps. XV to XXI

The Silence of Scripture
'And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book: But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through His name.' --JOHN XX. 30, 31. It is evident that these words were originally the close of this Gospel, the following chapter being an appendix, subsequently added by the writer himself. In them we have the Evangelist's own acknowledgment of the incompleteness
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture: St. John Chaps. XV to XXI

The Lord is Risen Indeed
But now the Lord is risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept. A s, in the animal economy [As, in the function of physical bodies], the action of the heart and of the lungs, though very different, are equally necessary for the maintenance of life, and we cannot say that either of them is more essentially requisite than the other; so, in the system of divine revelation, there are some truths, the knowledge and belief of which, singly considered, are fundamentals with respect
John Newton—Messiah Vol. 2

Supposing Him to be the Gardener
It is not an unnatural supposition, surely; for if we may truly sing "We are a garden walled around, Chosen and made peculiar ground," that enclosure needs a gardener. Are we not all the plants of his right hand planting? Do we not all need watering and tending by his constant and gracious care? He says, "I am the true vine: my Father is the husbandman," and that is one view of it; but we may also sing, "My well-beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill: and he fenced it, and gathered out the
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 29: 1883

The Evidence of Our Lord's Wounds
Among us at this day we have many persons who are like Thomas--dubious, demanding signs and tokens, suspicious, and ofttimes sad. I am not sure that there is not a slight touch of Thomas in most of us. There are times and seasons when the strong man fails, and when the firm believer has to pause a while, and say, "Is it so?" It may be that our meditation upon the text before us may be of service to those who are touched with the malady which afflicted Thomas. Notice, before we proceed to our subject
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 34: 1888

Easter Day.
Then the disciples went away again unto their own home. With this verse ends the portion of the scripture chosen for the gospel in this morning's service. It finishes the account of the visit of Peter and John to the sepulchre; and, therefore, the close of the extract at this point is sufficiently natural. Yet the effect of the quiet tone of these words, just following the account of the greatest event which earth has ever witnessed, is, I think, singularly impressive; the more so when we remember
Thomas Arnold—The Christian Life

Sermon for Thursday in Easter Week
How we ought to love God, and how Christ is a Master of the Eternal Good, wherefore we ought to love Him above all things; a Master of the Highest Truth, wherefore we ought to contemplate Him; and a Master of the Highest Perfectness, wherefore we ought to follow after Him without let or hindrance. John xx. 16.--"She turned herself and said unto Him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master." WHEN our Lord had risen from the dead, Mary Magdalene desired with her whole heart to behold our blessed Lord; and
Susannah Winkworth—The History and Life of the Reverend Doctor John Tauler

Sermon for the First Sunday after Easter
(From the Gospel for the day) How we are to ascend by three stages to true peace and purity of heart. John xx. 19.--"Peace be to you." PEACE be with you," said our beloved Lord to His disciples after His resurrection. All men by nature desire rest and peace, and are ever striving after it in all their manifold actions, efforts, and labours; and yet to all eternity they will never attain to true peace, unless they seek it where alone it is to be found,--in God. What, then, are the means and ways to
Susannah Winkworth—The History and Life of the Reverend Doctor John Tauler

The Eternal Manhood
(First Sunday after Easter.) John xx. 29. Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed; blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed. The eighth day after the Lord Jesus rose from the dead, he appeared a second time to his disciples. On this day he strengthened St. Thomas's weak faith, by giving him proof, sensible proof, that he was indeed and really the very same person who had been crucified, wearing the very same human nature, the very same man's
Charles Kingsley—Town and Country Sermons

The Higher Faith.
Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.--JOHN xx. 29. The aspiring child is often checked by the dull disciple who has learned his lessons so imperfectly that he has never got beyond his school-books. Full of fragmentary rules, he has perceived the principle of none of them. The child draws near to him with some outburst of unusual feeling, some scintillation of a lively hope, some wide-reaching imagination
George MacDonald—Unspoken Sermons

Thoughts Upon Self-Denyal.
THE most glorious Sight questionless that was ever to be seen upon the face of the Earth, was to see the Son of God here, to see the supreme Being and Governour of the World here; to see the Creator of all things conversing here with his own Creatures; to see God himself with the nature, and in the shape of Man; walking about upon the surface of the Earth, and discoursing with silly Mortals here; and that with so much Majesty and Humility mixed together, that every expression might seem a demonstration
William Beveridge—Private Thoughts Upon a Christian Life

Sixth Appearance of Jesus.
(Sunday, One Week After the Resurrection.) ^D John XX. 26-31; ^E I. Cor. XV. 5. ^d 26 And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them. ^f then he appeared to the twelve; ^d Jesus cometh, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you. [He came in the same manner and with the same salutation as formerly, giving Thomas a like opportunity for believing.] 27 Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and see my hands; and reach hither thy hand,
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit as Revealed in his Names.
At least twenty-five different names are used in the Old and New Testaments in speaking of the Holy Spirit. There is the deepest significance in these names. By the careful study of them, we find a wonderful revelation of the Person and work of the Holy Spirit. I. The Spirit. The simplest name by which the Holy Spirit is mentioned in the Bible is that which stands at the head of this paragraph--"The Spirit." This name is also used as the basis of other names, so we begin our study with this.
R. A. Torrey—The Person and Work of The Holy Spirit

The Work of the Holy Spirit
The Holy Scriptures in the New Testament. "But these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through His name."--John xx. 31. Having considered the apostolate, we are now to discuss God's gift to the Church, viz. the New Testament Scripture. The apostolate placed a new power in the Church. Surely all power is in heaven; but it has pleased God to let this power descend in the Church by means of organs and instruments, chief
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit

Ambassadors for Christ
T. P. John xx. 21 "Who are these who come amongst us, Strangers to our speech and ways? Passing by our joys and treasures, Singing in the darkest days? Are they pilgrims journeying on From a land we have not known?" We are come from a far country, From a land beyond the sun; We are come from that geat glory Round our God's eternal throne: Thence we come, and thither go; Here no resting-place we know. Far within the depth of glory, In the Father's house above, We have learnt His wondrous secret,
Frances Bevan—Hymns of Ter Steegen, Suso, and Others

Whether Sacred Doctrine Proceeds by Argument
Whether Sacred Doctrine Proceeds by Argument We proceed to the eighth article thus: 1. It seems that sacred doctrine does not proceed by argument. For Ambrose says: "where faith is sought, eschew arguments" (De Fid. Cath.), and it is especially faith that is sought in this doctrine. As it is said in John 20:31: "these are written, that ye might believe." It follows that sacred doctrine does not proceed by argument. 2. Again, if sacred doctrine proceeded by argument, it would argue either on the ground
Aquinas—Nature and Grace

Whether God Always Loves Better Things the More
Whether God Always Loves Better Things the More We proceed to the fourth article thus: 1. It seems that God does not always love better things the more. It is obvious that Christ is better than the entire human race. Yet according to Rom. 8:32 God loved the human race more than he loved Christ. "He that spared not his only Son, but delivered him up for us all . . ." Thus God does not always love better things the more. 2. Again, an angel is better than a man, according to Ps. 8:5: "Thou hast made
Aquinas—Nature and Grace

It was but a Little that I Passed by them when I Found Him whom My Soul Loveth. I Held Him; Neither Will I Let Him Go Until I Bring Him into My Mother's House, and into the Chamber of Her that Conceived Me.
The soul having thus come forth from self and left all creatures behind, finds her Well-beloved, who manifests Himself to her with new charms; which causes her to believe that the blessed moment for the consummation of the divine marriage is at hand, and that she is about to enter into permanent union. She exclaims in a transport of joy, I have found Him whom my soul loveth, I embrace Him and will never let Him go. For she thinks she can retain Him, and that He only left her on account of some fault
Madame Guyon—Song of Songs of Solomon

The Resurrection.
"Now on the first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, while it was yet dark, unto the tomb, and seeth the stone taken away from the tomb. She runneth therefore, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we know not where they have laid Him. Peter therefore went forth, and the other disciple, and they went toward the tomb. And they ran both together: and the other disciple outran Peter, and
Marcus Dods—The Expositor's Bible: The Gospel of St John, Vol. II

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