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The Gospel of John, The Period of Consummation, Part XVIII, John 20:6-10 - Lesson 195
Read Verses John 20:3-5 for review, 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, and came first to the sepulchre. And he stooping down, and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying; yet went he not in.
John 20:6,7 Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lie, And the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself.
Peter did not hesitate to go in and he also saw the linen clothes lying.
He looked closer and saw that the napkin, the towel that bound the face of the body lying separately and wrapped in a place by itself.
It appeared that everything was orderly and in place.
There was no evidence of haste or vandalism.
People that steal bodies do not do what Peter and John saw.
Light was beginning to shine in their minds.
The linen clothes lying were a sign of the resurrection.
No one who would have removed the body would have stripped it of the linen cloth.
No one would have taken the trouble to wrap the napkin which was about his head and set it apart from the linen.
What they saw was not the action of thieves who would naturally be in a hurry.
John 20:8,9 Then went in also that other disciple, which came first to the sepulchre, and he saw, and believed. For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead.
What John saw led him to believe that Jesus Christ came out of the grave clothes bodily and left the grave clothes in the same wrapped condition that they were while on his body.
Something convinced John immediately when he went in the sepulcher.
He saw and he believed what he saw for as yet they knew not the scripture that he must rise again from the dead.
It was not that there was no scripture regarding the resurrection but Peter and John did not know it.
Nor had they taken in his own words that he should rise from the dead.
They did not know the scripture but they knew what they saw and it must have been convincing evidence that the body of Christ rose bodily through the grave clothes.
The grave clothes were left in the tomb so that two witnesses could testify that the only explanation was the resurrection.
God used John's hesitation to go into the sepulcher so that in the mouths of two witnesses a thing would be established.
John and Peter both saw the sepulcher just as Jesus Christ had left it, undisturbed, and what they saw caused them to believe that he had risen through his grave clothes
John 20:10, Then the disciples went away again unto their own home.
John, no doubt, hurried home to tell Mary, Jesus' mother of these startling events.
Why they did not stay and see if Jesus came to them we do not know. |