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We have seen that the Gospel of John is composed of two major sections. The first section, comprising chapters one through thirteen, unveils the eternal Word incarnated coming to bring God into man. The second section, comprising chapters fourteen through twenty-one, reveals Jesus crucified and Christ resurrected going to prepare the way to bring man into God, and as the Spirit coming to abide and live in the believers for the building of God’s habitation. In this second major section there are four subsections: life’s indwelling for the building of God’s habitation (14:1—16:33); life’s prayer (17:1-26); life processed for multiplication (18:1—20:13, 17); and life in resurrection (20:14—21:25). In John 14, John 15, and John 16, the Lord expounded how He would come into us to be our life and to be mingled and built together with us that there might be a mutual abode for God and man. This mingling of divinity with humanity is the very organism in which the Triune God grows and expresses Himself. After expounding this matter, the Lord prayed for it in chapter seventeen. After praying, He went through the process of examination, death, and resurrection. Having passed through the process and having come out of death, He is now the life in resurrection. When He is in resurrection, He is life as the Spirit, for He is the Spirit in resurrection. In this message we need to see how this life is now the Spirit in resurrection.
As life in resurrection, the Lord firstly appeared to His seeker (20:14-18). This was His first appearing after His resurrection. Mary, however, could only see Him; she could not touch Him because the freshness of His resurrection was reserved for the Father. In His appearing to Mary, the Lord unfolded the revelation of the issue of His resurrection — the “brothers” and the “Father” (20:17). This is the revelation of the brotherhood and the Fatherhood. In His resurrection, all His disciples have become His brothers, and His Father has become their Father.
In 20:17 the Lord Jesus said to Mary, “Do not touch Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father.” After He appeared in resurrection to His seeker, He secretly ascended to the Father on the day of resurrection. Many Christians have never seen this matter of the Lord’s secret ascension. Before the Lord ascended publicly in the sight of the disciples forty days later (Acts 1:9-11), He ascended secretly early in the morning of the day of His resurrection to the Father for the Father’s enjoyment and satisfaction.
The Lord offered Himself to the Father as “a sheaf of the firstfruits of the harvest” for the “wave offering” (Lev. 23:10-11, 15). According to the Old Testament, the harvest was taken to the barn, but the firstfruits were always brought into the temple as a wave offering (Exo. 23:19; Lev. 23:10-11). As we have seen, the wave offering, which was offered with a back-and-forth motion, typifies resurrection, and the heave offering, which was offered with an up-and-down motion, typifies ascension. The firstfruit, which was brought into the temple and offered in the presence of God as a wave offering, typifies Christ coming into the presence of God for His satisfaction early on the morning of the day of His resurrection.
Have you ever noticed that Leviticus 23:11 speaks of “the sheaf”? A sheaf is not just one stock of harvested grain but many stocks which have been bound together. What is the significance of this? Matthew 27:52 and 53 say that after the Lord Jesus died, “the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after His resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.” Thus, the firstfruits of resurrection were not only the Lord Himself, but also the others who had been raised from the dead. Together they were a sheaf.
The Lord’s secret ascension was the fulfillment of the going predicted in 16:7, where He said, “It is expedient for you that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Comforter will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.” John 16:7 was not fulfilled in Acts 2 but in John 20. Most Christians think that it was fulfilled in Acts 2, but it was fulfilled in chapter twenty of John.
Christ ascended to the heavens with a resurrected body, and now, in John 20, He comes back to the disciples also with a resurrected body (Luke 24:37-40; 1 Cor. 15:44). With a resurrected body, the Lord came into the room where the disciples were with “the doors shut” (20:19). Since the doors were shut, how could He enter with a body of bones and flesh? Our limited mentality cannot comprehend it, but it is a fact, and we must receive it according to the divine revelation. According to Luke 24:37-40, the Lord showed His disciples His physical body, and according to 1 Corinthians 15:44, this body was a resurrected body. Consider the illustration of a carnation seed. A carnation seed has a tiny, round body. But when it has been planted and has grown out of the ground, it has a stem and a blossom. Is this not also a body? Before the carnation seed was sown into the ground, it had a little body. After growing out of the ground, it had a different body. This is exactly what Paul mentions in 1 Corinthians 15:44: “It is sown a soulish body, it is raised a spiritual body.” The body is sown in one form and raised up from the ground in another form. The one sown is the original, natural body, and the one grown up is the resurrected body. After His resurrection, Christ had a resurrected body; yet it was physical and could still be touched. Even though the doors were shut, Christ entered into the room with this body.
Although the Lord had a resurrected body, the prints of the nails were still in His hands and feet (20:20, 27; Luke 24:40). Why did the resurrection not heal the prints, and why was His side still open? We do not understand it, but we know that it is so. Do not try to know so many things by your mentality. Do not trust in your limited ability to know, for there are a great many mysteries in this universe. Even we ourselves are a mystery. Tell me, where are your conscience and your soul? Are you able to locate your spirit? Many scientists refuse to believe in anything which they cannot see or understand. This is nonsense. I would ask those scientists if they have ever seen their conscience or their physical life. Although we have a physical life, we have never seen it. If we cannot understand ourselves, then how about the Triune God, the Divine Being?
After the Lord showed them both His hands and His side, the disciples “rejoiced when they saw the Lord” (20:20). This was a fulfillment of the Lord’s promise in 16:19 and 22, where He said, “You therefore now indeed have sorrow; but I shall see you again and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you.” Now the disciples saw the newborn “child” (16:21), who was the resurrected Lord born in His resurrection as the Son of God (Acts 13:33). As we shall now see, this fulfillment by His coming back to His disciples brought them five blessings: His presence, His peace, His commission, the Holy Spirit, and the authority to represent Him (v. 23).
In both 20:19 and 21 the Lord said to His disciples, “Peace be to you.” This took place in the first meeting of the Lord with His disciples after His resurrection. Peace is something which is often brought to us in the meetings. Many times we need to come to the meetings before we can have peace. The Lord brought peace to the church. Hence, we must attend the meetings, for it is in the meetings that we enjoy peace.
After saying, “Peace be to you,” the Lord said to His disciples, “As the Father has sent Me, I also send you” (20:21). The Lord said that just as the Father sent Him, so He would send us in the same way. The sending of the Lord is the same as the sending of the Father. The Father sent Him, and He will send us. By what way did the Father send the Lord? It was only by the way of the Father’s being in the Son. The Father sent the Son by being in the Son. The Father’s life, nature, presence, and the Father Himself came with Him. The Lord sent His disciples with Himself as life and as everything to them. In the same way, the Son now sends us. He sends us with His life, His nature, and His presence. As the Father sent the Son by being one with the Son and by being within the Son, so in the same way the Son sends us by being one with us and by being within us.
The way the Lord sends us is by breathing the Holy Spirit into us (20:22). This was why, immediately after saying, “I also send you,” He breathed the Holy Spirit into them. By His breathing, He entered as the Spirit into the disciples to abide in them forever (14:16). Hence, wherever His disciples are sent, He is always with them. He is one with them. As we shall see, to breathe the Holy Spirit into us means that the Lord breathes Himself into us. The Lord sends us by being within us. The only way that the Lord can be one with us and be within us is by breathing Himself into us. Therefore, we must receive the Spirit, which is the reality of Christ. If we have received the Spirit of Christ, we have received the reality of Christ. In other words, this simply means that we have received Christ Himself. By this we see that the Lord sends us by breathing Himself into us.
Verse 22 says, “And when He had said this, He breathed into them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit.” The Lord is the Word who is the eternal God (1:1). In the Gospel of John, the Word passes through a long process and eventually becomes the breath, the pneuma, that He might get into the believers. For the accomplishment of God’s eternal purpose, He took two steps. Firstly, He took the step of incarnation to become a man in the flesh (1:14), to be “the Lamb of God” to accomplish redemption for man (1:29), to declare God to man (1:18), and to manifest the Father to His believers (14:9-11). Secondly, He took the step of death and resurrection to be transfigured into the Spirit that He might impart Himself into His believers as their life and their everything, and that He might bring forth many sons of God, His many brothers, for the building of His Body, the church, the habitation of God, to express the Triune God for eternity. Originally He was the eternal Word. Through His incarnation, He then became flesh to accomplish God’s redemption, and through His death and resurrection He became the Spirit to be everything and to do everything for the completion of God’s building.
Never forget that the eternal Word took two steps: the step to become flesh (1:14) and the step to become the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). We must remember these two “becomings” — becoming flesh and becoming the life-giving Spirit. The eternal Word firstly became flesh and then, as the last Adam, He became the life-giving Spirit. The first step was the step of incarnation, and the second step was that of resurrection. The first step was for redemption and the second step was for life-imparting. After becoming flesh to be the Lamb of God to shed His blood for our redemption, He became in resurrection the life-giving Spirit for the purpose of imparting Himself into us as life. Not many Christians have seen this clearly. Most Christians only realize that Christ took the step of incarnation for the accomplishment of redemption. They do not see the second step — that in resurrection the last Adam in the flesh became the life-giving Spirit that He might come into us to be our life. But the Gospel of John clearly reveals both steps. In chapter one, the eternal Word became flesh to be the Lamb of God. In chapter twenty, this wonderful One took another step, the step of resurrection, to become the life-giving Spirit. Thus, in the evening of the day of His resurrection He came and breathed Himself as the Spirit into the disciples.
This Gospel testifies that the Lord is God (1:1-2; 5:17-18; 10:30-33; 14:9-11; 20:28), the life (1:4; 10:10; 11:25; 14:6), and the resurrection (11:25). Chapters one through seventeen prove that He is God among men. Men are the contrast to Him as God. Chapters eighteen and nineteen prove that He is life in the environment of death. Death, or the environment of death, is the contrast to Him as life. Chapters twenty and twenty-one prove that He is the resurrection in the midst of the old creation, the natural life. The old creation, the natural life, is the contrast to Him as the resurrection, of which the Spirit is the reality. As the resurrection, He can only be realized in the Spirit. Hence, He is the Spirit in resurrection. He is God among men (chs. 1–17), He is life in death (chs. 18–19), and He is the Spirit in resurrection (chs. 20–21).
The Holy Spirit in verse 22 is the Spirit expected in 7:39 and promised in 14:16-17, 26; 15:26; and 16:7-8, 13. Thus, the Lord’s breathing of the Holy Spirit into the disciples was the fulfillment of His promise of the Holy Spirit as the Comforter. As we shall see, this fulfillment differs from the one in Acts 2:1-4. In chapter fourteen the Lord promised that He would ask the Father to send another Comforter. Here in chapter twenty He brings to His disciples the other Comforter, the Spirit of reality. Now the Spirit of reality has come into His disciples to be within them; now the disciples know that the Lord is in the Father and that the Father is in the Lord; and now they are in the Lord and the Lord is in them. They realize that they are now one with the Triune God. Therefore, all that the Lord had spoken to them in chapters fourteen, fifteen, and sixteen is fulfilled at this very moment. We must read those three chapters in order to understand what is happening here. The fulfillment here is just that the Lord went by death and resurrection and now comes to the disciples as the Spirit, coming as the second Comforter to be their reality that they might be one with the Triune God. At this time the disciples were happy and glad. The Lord had told them they would not see Him for a little while (16:16). Now, after a little while, the disciples saw the Lord again, fulfilling what He had spoken in chapters fourteen through sixteen.
The fulfillment in 20:22 is different from that in Acts 2:1-4. Most Christians, however, think that the promise made in John 14, 15, and 16 was fulfilled in Acts 2 on the day of Pentecost, thinking that the Comforter came on the day of Pentecost. The fulfillment in Acts 2:1-4 was the fulfillment of the promise of the Father given in Joel 2:28-32 and referred to by the Lord in Luke 24:49, which says, “Behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you, stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” The Lord reminded the disciples of the Father’s promise after His resurrection, close to the time of His public ascension. Everybody agrees that this promise of the Father of being “clothed with power from on high” was fulfilled in Acts 2. The promise in John 14, 15, and 16, however, is not the Father’s promise of power but the Son’s promise of the Comforter. This promise of the Comforter was fulfilled on the day of the Lord’s resurrection. Before He reminded the disciples of the Father’s promise, the promise of the Comforter made in John had already been fulfilled. After His resurrection, close to the time of His public ascension, the Lord reminded the disciples to wait for the Father’s promise of power.
The fulfillment on the day of resurrection was the promise of the Holy Spirit as the life and the truth, the reality. The fulfillment on the day of Pentecost was the promise of the Holy Spirit as power. These are two aspects of the Holy Spirit. On the day of resurrection, the disciples got the Spirit of life as the reality of Christ, and fifty days later, on the day of Pentecost, they received the Spirit of power. Pentecost simply means fifty days. On the first eighth day (this signifies resurrection), the Holy Spirit was received as the life and reality of Christ; on the eighth eighth day (this signifies resurrection in resurrection), that is, on the first day of the eighth week, the Holy Spirit was received as the power and equipment for their work.
The Gospel of Luke and the Acts were both written by Luke. Luke’s line is the line of power for work, and John’s line is the line of life for life. If we read the Bible carefully, we shall see that the Spirit is firstly the Spirit of life and secondly the Spirit of power. In Luke’s line, the Spirit of power is likened to clothes which we put on. In John’s line, the Spirit is likened to water which we take in by drinking. Clothes are something outward to cover us, and drink is something inward to fill us. According to Luke’s line, when the Spirit comes, it comes upon us (Acts 1:8). In John’s line, on the contrary, the Spirit comes into us, for the Spirit of reality abides in us (14:17). Thus, John’s line is for life in us, and Luke’s line is for power upon us. Furthermore, if we read Acts 4 carefully, we shall see why power is likened to a cloak, a uniform. A policeman’s uniform gives him authority. Likewise, the Holy Spirit came upon Peter and the other disciples as power to be their uniform. But on the day of resurrection, the Spirit was breathed into them. This was not for outward clothing but for inward filling. In Luke’s line the Spirit of power is also likened to “a rushing violent wind” (Acts 2:2). The wind is for power. In John’s line, the Spirit of life is likened to breath. Breath is not for power; it is for life. In John 20:22 the Spirit as the breath was breathed as life into the disciples for their life. By breathing the Spirit into the disciples, the Lord imparted Himself as life and everything into them. Thus, all that He had spoken in chapters fourteen through sixteen was fulfilled.
As the falling into the ground to die and the growing out of the ground transforms the grain of wheat into another new and lively form, so the death and resurrection of the Lord transfigured Him from the flesh into the Spirit. As “the last Adam” in the flesh, through the process of death and resurrection, He “became a life-giving Spirit” (1 Cor. 15:45). As He is the embodiment of the Father, so the Spirit is the realization, the reality, of Him. It is as the Spirit that He was breathed into the disciples. It is as the Spirit that He was received into His believers and flowed out of them as “rivers of living water” (7:38-39). It is as the Spirit that through His death and resurrection He came back to the disciples, entered into them as their Comforter, and began to abide in them (14:16-17). It is as the Spirit that He can live in the disciples and they can live by and with Him (14:19). It is as the Spirit that He can abide in the disciples and they can abide in Him (14:20; 15:4-5). It is as the Spirit that He can come with the Father to His lover and “make an abode with him” (14:23). It is as the Spirit that He can make all that He is and has to be fully realized by the disciples (16:13-16). It is as the Spirit that He came to meet with His “brothers” as “the church” to declare the Father’s name to them and to praise Him in their midst (Heb. 2:11-12). It is as the Spirit that He can send His disciples with His commission, with Himself as life and everything to them, in the same way that the Father sent Him (20:21). Hence, the disciples are qualified to represent Him with His authority in the fellowship of His Body (20:23).
