When the doors were shut, came Jesus, This fact is twice repeated "When the doors were shut....came Jesus and stood in the midst" we read in the 19th verse, of St. John 20. And then in the 28th verse, "Then came Jesus the doors being shut, and stood in the midst."
Surely this double connection of the shut door and the Christ manifest cannot be without meaning for us? And I would have you notice that not only these two, but all the manifestations of the risen Lord, have in their setting two common factors, two invariable characteristics.—The manifestations are made to those, and those alone, who love him and long for him; and they are made when they have come apart from the world. He came not fo the Sanhedrin, revealing himself to prove his ressurection—but to Mary, who loved him so utterly, and to ber in the quiet garden, at the break of Gay.—To the two who looked that he should have been the Saviour of Israel. on the lonely road, and later in the house at the journey's end.—To his disciples on the Lake shore. in the early morning—and repeatedly in the upper room of sacred memory.
When the doors were shut....came Jesus, Let us recall for a moment the scene and the setting. It is the first day of the week the third day after the Crucifixion, the disciples are gathered in the Upper Room—probably the same room where just a few evenings before they had partaken of that last solemn supper with Jesus. They had been scattered that fateful night, but now they have rome together again, because of strange news and developments. They have gathered in fear, and many of them in despair at first, and "the Goors were fast closed," we read, "for fear of the Jew And now they hear strange tidings. Not only has the tomb been found empty, but there is a strange story of angels who have put to flight the Roman soldiers who guarded the tomb, and others tell of angels who appeared to them with messages. And Mary and Peter are unshaken in their conviction that they have seen and spoken with Jesus alive, and risen from the dead. The little band is profoundly stirred. hope is born anew in many hearts. One feels that they have taken their hopes and fears in prayer to God. Perhaps one of the band is praying aloud—when suddenly Jesus stands in the midst—Suddenly he was visible. Those who loved the shut out, Christ draws near and manifests himself to us.
In the incident from which our text is taken, the enemies which were shut out were obvious, and tangible—but as St. Paul reminds us again and again, all our enemies are not visible. "We wrestle not against Flesh and Blood", the foes of the Christian Life are not always visible and tangible things, and perhaps just because they are often unrealized and indefinite, they are the more dangerous. And yet having said that, nevertheless the enemies of those first disciples do suggest some of the enemies against which we must be on our guard—The foes of our moral and spiritual life, who must be kept outside if we would have the vision we seek, and realize the risen Lord with us.
Let us consider a few of the outstanding characteristics of the enemies of Jesus in the days of his flesh, and draw the lessons from them.
In the first place, as we study these men as they stand on the pages of the New Testament, we must be struck not only by their lack of a living faith, but equally by their unwillingness to believe. It was not without reason that in his teaching cur Blessed Lord placed the emphasis: that he did, upon faith and belief. For it is only to the humble and teachable spirit that he can reveal himself, This is true in other than spiritual things—it is true of all knowledge. The Scientist and the Explorer, the Discoverer in any realm, work on this principle, Progress is only as we go from the known to the unknown, stepping out in the dark. They walked by faith not by sight,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.