Tag Archives: John 20:19-31

John 20:19-31 – Receive the Holy Spirit

January 20, 2026 R. T. Tippett Leave a comment

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”

A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

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This is the Gospel reading from the Episcopal lectionary for the Second Sunday of Easter, Year B 2018. It will next be read aloud in church by a priest on Sunday, April 8, 2018. It is important as it sets forth the premise that personal contact with the physical body of a living Jesus cannot and will not be the measure from which true belief comes.

The statement of timing that begins this reading has to be understood in Jewish terminology, not the terminology of Gentiles. As such, when John wrote, “When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week,” that says it was after three or four p.m. but before six o’clock [when day became night and Sunday became Monday]. Because John clarified “evening” while confirming it was indeed “the first day of the week,” meaning to Westerners “Sunday,” it had not yet passed from Sunday to Monday. The following day would technically begin after six o’clock p.m.

Confirmation of this is found in Thayer’s Greek Lexicon, where “opsias” is defined as: “evening: i. e. from our three to six o’clock p. m.” This was different from the Evening Watch, which began at six o’clock p.m. and lasted until nine at night. By understanding this timing factor, one can see that Thomas was not present with the other disciples because it was “evening” of day, and not the Evening Watch of night.

Since the upstairs room was like a rental room [an inn-like place], thus not a full home, there would have been no disciple-owned supplies that would be permanently kept there, such as food or cooking materials. Probably, there would have been no means by which a fire could be controlled for cooking, as in a fireplace. As dinner would be normally consumed at “evening” in a home, the upstairs room presented a need for food to be secured elsewhere. Sending one or two out to obtain food for dinner would have been preferred, rather than everyone going out into the public seeking something like a restaurant.

This can be assumed because the disciples feared risking being seen and identified as associates of the “criminal” recently executed – Jesus. It would be best if one of them went out and secured food for the rest, so the majority could stay safely behind a locked door. By seeing this background scenario, one can then safely assume that Thomas was the one selected to get food for the group, which was why he was absent when Jesus first appeared there. Thomas might have gone with a companion who was not “one of the twelve.”

[Please … feel free to comment if this seems unbelievable to you.]

Another thing to grasp is Luke wrote that Cleopas and Mary had invited the stranger that was Jesus into their home in Emmaus, saying, “Stay with us, for it is getting toward evening, and the day is now nearly over.” (Luke 24:29) There, Luke wrote the Greek word “hesperan,” which means basically the same as John’s use of “opsias.” This, when seen as the same timing of the first day (as Luke said it was still the first day of the week that was not yet over), Jesus was appearing as a stranger, blessing and breaking bread in Emmaus at about the same time he appeared to his disciples (sans Thomas) in the upstairs room. The two groups saw Jesus at two different places at the same time.

[Please … feel free to comment if this seems unbelievable to you.]

This timing link continues, as Luke wrote, “They [Cleopas and Mary] got up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found gathered together the eleven and those who were with them.” (Luke 24:33) With Emmaus seven miles from Jerusalem (sixty furlongs), and assuming the aunt and uncle of Jesus were easily in their fifties, it would have taken them about 30 minutes to enter the one of the gates of Jerusalem (which would have restricted access once night time came). Once in Jerusalem, it might have taken them another five or ten minutes to reach the upstairs room. Realizing a total of about 40 minutes had passed since “they got up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem,” one can see the time they traveled was the same time Thomas was not in the upstairs room, when Jesus first appeared there.. Cleopas and Mary entered that room after or at about the same time that Thomas had returned with broiled fish for dinner. They came to tell their news, only to be told the news of their having seen Jesus alive too. The disciples excitedly said for all the returning disciples, “The Lord has really risen and has appeared to Simon(-Peter).” (Luke 24:34)

This means that at or about the same time that Jesus “took the bread and blessed it, and breaking it, He began giving it to [Cleopas and Mary in Emmaus]” (Luke 24:30), right before “he vanished from their sight” (Luke 24:31), Jesus just as suddenly “came and stood among [the disciples and their companions] and said, “Peace be with you.”’(John 20:19) Both events took place around 4:00 PM, with Jesus appearing in the upstairs room before Cleopas and Marry arrived, while Tomas was out.

We know that because Luke tells of Jesus appearing and asking for food (Luke 24:42-43), which was after Cleopas, Mary, and Thomas were all present. By John telling of Thomas being out at “evening of the first day of the week,” Jesus first appeared in the upstairs room well before Cleopas and Mary could have gotten back to Jerusalem, and as Thomas was out procuring food for dinner. This means the risen Jesus appeared in his mortally wounded body and appeared as a stranger, suddenly disappeared and then appeared without having a door opened for him (twice), and instantaneously travelling seven miles, all in one evening … within an hour’s time.

Where John is said to write, “A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them,” this again needs to be read from a Jewish perspective. What the Greek actually shows is “Kai meth’ hēmeras oktō palin ēsan esō hoi mathētai autou , kai Thōmas met’ autōn.” That literally translates to say, “And after days eight again were inside the disciples of him, and Thomas was with them.” This is not a statement of eight days further into the future, where one can translate “days eight” as meaning “a week later.” That translation is quite misleading.

Instead, the “days” are a reference to the numbered “days” in the Counting of the Omer. The Sabbath (when Jesus actually rose from death – at 3:00 p.m.) represented “day seven” or “seven days,” which made “the first day of the week” be the eighth day in the countdown to fifty days (Pentecost means “Fiftieth day”). The Passover festival in Jerusalem always lasted eight days, with that particular year being the eight days from Shabbat to Shabbat. The Counting of the Omer officially begins on the second day of the festival, which that year was Sunday. Therefore, Sunday was “day eight” or “eight days” in a greater count to fifty.

This means the statement by John actually means, “Later that same day the disciples were again in the house [with the upstairs room], and Thomas was with them.” The use of “again” infers more information about that day, when time was dwindling away towards the next day, but was still “day eight.” This means Jesus appeared between three or four o’clock p.m. in two places, and then came back again to a bigger crowd, when his “disciples [were] together again.” That use of “together again” means those who were not there during his prior visit – Cleopas, Mary, and Thomas – remembering how Luke referred to Cleopas and Mary as “disciples” of Jesus. At the second appearance, Jesus knew that food had arrived, via Thomas, so he asks if they have any. He is then given a piece of broiled fish, which he ate in front of them.

“Jesus, I bought this at the market around the corner.” “Thank you Thomas.”

With that timing established (as the same two to three hour period on Easter Sunday), look at what Jesus said to the disciples. Both times that he suddenly appeared inside the upstairs room, Jesus said, “Peace be with you.” Certainly, this has since become a phrase of greeting in the Episcopal Church, with the auto-response trained to be, “And also with you.” The Big Brain of hindsight can almost wonder why those fool disciples did not greet Jesus in return, the way an Episcopalian would. That, of course, misses the point of what Jesus said.

The Greek words that John wrote down twice, saying what Jesus told the disciples, was “Eirēnē hymin.” While that can be read as a greeting (demanding a response of greeting), it is instead a command. The literal translation that makes this clearer is, “Calm yourselves,” where “Peace” is meant to demand an “Undisturbed mind.”

The reason Jesus would make this command was the disciples and companions were already afraid the Temple police would arrest them and turn them over to the Romans for crucifixion. As such, they were on edge; and this was denoted by the information of how the door to the room being locked. THEN, Jesus suddenly appeared with them, without a knock on the door or anyone opening it for him. Thus, the natural response to that sudden appearance would have been the terror of seeing a ghost appear. So Jesus’ command had the divine effect of calming those fearful minds.

This was no different that when the angel of the LORD appeared to the shepherds on the evening Jesus was born. Luke said they were “terribly afraid,” but the angel said to them a command: “Fear not.” The same fear came upon Zacharias when Gabriel appeared before him, and again a command was given to not be afraid. In all Biblical cases where fear of angels comes, commands have the divine effect of instantly calming that fear. This is the power of the divine, where words have the ability to affect others mentally and physically, where understanding the words commanding “no fear” then acts to cause the brain to affect the body, placing it automatically in a relaxed state.

Jesus often displayed this power of “immediate suggestion” whenever he commanded one to “Go. Your faith has made you well.” Thus, when Jesus said “Peace be with you,” that was in no way meaningless words of greeting being spoken. It says the minds of the disciples were instantly made “undisturbed.”

Once everyone was placed into a state of calm being, Jesus then gave them an instruction for the disciples to follow, saying, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” In this instruction, “Peace of the LORD” is a required state of Christianity. It is not a recommendation that one be “at ease,” like a military order, but a demand that their human brains (the root of the self-ego and the seat of all doubts and fears) step aside. The “control rooms” of their bodies [their minds] would no longer be allowed to sway with the winds of human emotion. To serve God, through Christ, one cannot hold onto human fears.

This was the way of life that Jesus had known since birth (“As the Father has sent me”), and this would be the new way for each of the disciples (“so I send you”). That condition had nothing to do with the brain being allowed to ponder, “Do I want to serve the Father in this way?” Their brains had all previously led them to follow Jesus (self-will), such that their new commitment had brought them to the point of an ultimate sacrifice – each would die of self and be replaced by the Christ Mind. Just as they did not have to worry about how not to fear, they would not have to worry about how to suddenly begin acting righteous.

When one next reads, “[Jesus] breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit,” this was like God giving the breath of life to newborn babies. The breath of life is the entrance of a soul into a human form. When Jesus “breathed on them,” God sent eternal salvation onto their God-given souls, through His Son. Just as Jesus gave a command to be calm, he then gave a command to be reborn in soul.

This is then what John the Baptizer meant when he said, “I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” (Mark 1:8) John dunked bodies underwater to symbolically clean the sins from their physical lives, as repentance. The guilty came to John for outer cleaning, seeking to be washed clean of their sins. Jesus “breathed on them” the cleansing of sins from their souls, as his saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit” meant to have their souls repent and be forever dunked into eternal righteousness, when sin cannot exist. The disciples had likewise come to Jesus for that purpose, knowing what John the Baptist had said, but without understanding what that meant.

This is why Jesus next told the disciples and their companions, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” This weak translation gives the impression that any human being can possess the power of forgiveness. However, that is not the best translation of “aphēte” and “apheōntai” in this statement.

The root word, “aphiémi,” means “I send away, I release, I let go, and I permit to depart.” For it to mean “I forgive,” one has to see that use meaning, “I give over,” as a statement that the ONLY ONE a human being can “forgive” – is self. The word “any” does not mean “others,” as one has no control over anyone but “self.” One can only release (“forgive”) a desire for “any sins” or “retain” a desire for “any sins.” Thus, that command by Jesus does not mean sins have been approved as allowable, but cleaned away from repentance; but rather it means oneself has given away further association with sin. Therefore, Jesus said, “If you send away the temptation of any sins, [then] those sins are forever gone away. [However], if you retain desires for any sins, [then] those sins will remain on you.”

To “Receive the Holy Spirit,” one must choose to repent the sins of one’s soul.

To clean his uniform, Superman would fly into earth’s sun. Since the soul is eternal, it is symbolized by Superman. As the cleaner of souls, Jesus is represented by the Sun.

The elements of John’s Gospel that deal with the absence and presence of Thomas (which is not noted in Luke’s Gospel) can be seen as a less than public display between Jesus and Thomas. John was witness because of his relationship to Jesus and his fondness of Thomas. While Thomas might have made a public display of sadness and anger over having been sent out to provide for the group, missing the first appearance of Jesus in the upstairs room, it was probably more discreet when Jesus spoke directly to Thomas. Matthew and Mark wrote vaguely of “some who doubted,” which would confirm Thomas having loudly said, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.” Luke mentioned how Jesus “showed them His hands and His feet,” but did not mention anyone touching them, nor did he write of Jesus showing his spear wound. However, when John remembered Jesus saying to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe,” that would have been a private conversation, to which John was witness.

Seeing that exchange in that way makes the removal of doubts be less about public displays of emotion and more about the personal relationship each disciple of Christ must develop. For the others, having seen Jesus twice was proof enough to believe; but for Thomas, Jesus wanted his words to come true, so he offered his wounds for physical touch. Keep in mind how Jesus told Mary (while appearing as “the gardener”), “Do not touch me, as I have not yet ascended to the Father,” where hugs and kisses was deemed emotional clinging to the material; but Thomas was allowed an emotionally detached inspection, which later led to an emotional reaction – “My Lord and my God!”

Still, when Jesus said, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe,” he was not speaking solely to Thomas. That message was to everyone present. Therefore, it is a message directed towards every Christian at all times, as a personal question of one’s true belief.

Your faith cannot be dependent on physical senses. Seeing spiritually is believing.

This returns one to the statement Jesus made during his first appearance in the upstairs room, before Cleopas, Mary, and Thomas were there. When Jesus said, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you,” that was not a statement that implied, “Just as the Father has sent me for you to see, so I send you to tell others what you have seen.” All who would become Apostles were also “sent by the Father,” just as Jesus of Nazareth, born of a woman in Bethlehem had been sent – with a soul breathed into a human form. However, just as that Jesus had “received the Holy Spirit” from birth – as the Messiah – so too would “receive that same Spirit of Holiness” –becoming the Messiah reborn.

This is how the word written by John that is translated as “seen” means more than that. The Greek word “heōrakas” is a form of the root word “horaó , which also means, “experience, perceive, discern, and beware.” What Jesus asked his disciples, and thus all Christians, goes beyond the function of one’s eyesight and physical vision. It goes to faith that is based on “experience, perception, discernment and caution” against misreading what the physical senses are limited to “see.” It was a statement that goes to what the higher mind of God knows, where faith climbs to that level, allowing belief to come from personal enlightenment.

This means the power of the lesson from the Second Sunday of Easter (the 14th day in the Counting of the Fifty days) is to realize a personal need to sacrifice a human ego for the Christ Mind. Like Jesus died and was reborn as the Christ, seen as the Holy Ghost among his believers, so too do the disciples need to kill off their desires of sin so that the Christ Spirit can be reborn in true Christians. One cannot be led astray by fears and doubts, as all non-believers say, “I will not believe unless I see.”

Belief cannot come by the will power of a human brain. Belief cannot be deduced by human reason. One can only believe by personal experience of Jesus Christ being alive within one’s soul, instantaneously bringing one “Inner Peace.” The acts of the Apostles require that level of faith first, through the repentance of all sins and baptism of the Holy Spirit of Christ.

Acts, Language, Teaching

Acts 4:32-35 – Whatever happened to the “All in” Church?

January 20, 2026 R. T. Tippett Leave a comment

Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common. With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. They laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.

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This is the Acts reading for the Second Sunday of Easter, Year B. It will next be read aloud by a reader on Sunday, April 8, 2018. During the seven Sundays of Easter, you will note that readings from the Acts of the Apostles replace those that would normally come from the Old Testament books. This reading, as all the others from the Book of Acts, is important because it shows that faith alone is not a guarantee to eternal life in Heaven. Works are required beyond faith; and here Christians are shown the importance of total commitment to those acts of faith.

The first part of verse 32, which is translated above to state, “Now the whole group of those who believed,” is an over-simplification of what was stated in the Greek. The Greek states, “Tou de plēthous tōn pisteusantōn.” Rather than saying “the whole group,” the implication is: “The [one] and the many the [one] having believed.”

This missing factor that identified each one of the many is how there is not some nebulous “group mentality” that generally guides belief. Instead, the fact is stated that each one (“Tou”) is replicated “many” times over into a “multitude” (“plēthous”), where all have become the same in their histories of “having believed.” This means the “congregation,” or the “assemblage” of believers, was not simply many lambs of ignorance who followed a few Apostle rams, doing as told. Thus, the “multitude having believed” must be firmly grasped as ALL “having believed” through personal experience causing that belief.

Belief comes from experience, such that one does not learn faith. One learns the foundations upon which faith is built … like the dogma of religion is learned. Knowledge then leads one to test the solidity and validity of those foundations learned. The experience of testing what teachers have taught becomes what one truly believes. Therefore, the “whole group of those who believed” had experienced the Resurrection of Jesus the Christ, which means all had gone far beyond being told the events of Easter Sunday. Their experience of “having believed” was more than having been taught that Jesus was dead and returned to life after three days dead.

When we then read how the group “were heart and soul one” (which is a segment of words separated by commas, so they stand alone as a statement that is relative to their belief), the Greek word “kardia” is translated as “heart.” “Heart” means more than a physical organ of the body. It implies “mind, character, inner self, will, intention, and center.” Further, when the Greek word “psychē” is translated simply as “soul,” one misses how that word has a greater depth of meaning. That meaning goes beyond: (a) “breath of life,” which is due to the presence in a body, or (b) “a human soul.” The word “psyche” also is a statement of “(c) the soul as the seat of affections and will, (d) the self, (e) a human person, or an individual.” By realizing those alternative implications, one can see how the unification of “heart and soul” is a statement of God’s presence within the spiritual self, beyond the emotional reactions that a body has in response to life events.

Heart and soul become one after the marriage of God within one’s heart (a soul in love with God), such that the self-ego of a free soul has willfully decided to surrender its control over the body it has possessed. The marriage of the heart to God brings the union of the spiritual divine, to be one with the spiritual life force that inhabits a physical body. That marriage is then consummated through the offspring produced – Jesus reborn – such that the brain’s intellect becomes supplanted by the Christ Mind. The human brain is still capable of thought; but from a chosen role of subservience, as an obedient servant [wife – regardless of human gender], the human brain only listens, learns, and obeys.

This is then reflective of the true presence of the Trinity, where Father is in union with the Son, through the Holy Spirit becoming one with the soul. Heart and soul are one. It was the state of being that Jesus of Nazareth lived; and it is the state of being all apostles have lived, are living, and will live in the future, because all apostles are Jesus Christ resurrected. Every time God becomes one with a soul in a human body, the Trinity is present. Regardless of human gender, humans will always become the Son.

This becomes a statement that Free Will creates the illusion of two beings, rather than one. God union with a soul means Free Will dissolves, so the inner and the outer become one. It replaces sole focus on the physical by adding knowledge from the spiritual. The world tricks humanity into maintaining a separation between science and philosophy, where this duality keeps Man from entertaining any reason for ever being God – as His wife unified as one through heart and soul. However, through the deepest level of true belief, the reality of One comes forth.

See this mirror image as the normal dividing of cells as life that leads to mortal death. The reverse becomes the joining of all into one again, as eternal life.

This has just become the definition of a “Church” of Christians. The “assemblage” of those of “same mind” (“psychē”) means all have the same relationship with God (“kardia”). In the truest sense, a Church is the assembly of all God’s wives, married to Him through a deeply committed love. While there may be some who are “engaged” to marry God, whose lamps are lit but they are still awaiting the Holy Spirit to descend and unite their heart and soul to God, no one in a true Church of Christ is a casual bystander. A true Church of Christ can have no members who are only seeking to profit from being associated with the true “multitude” of believers. All must have true faith from personal commitment and experience with God and Christ.

This is then stated to be the “ALL IN” true Church of Christians. There are zero denominations that divide and subdivide this Church, where membership is ranked by how much one donates or gives. Rank is based on length of service, such that children and young adults are always learning to find their experience of belief. Leadership is not based on how much outside knowledge one has gained, in abundance over others. Instead, leaders are those who seek to promote, maintain, and advance the presence of the Christ Mind in all believers. It is expressly defined as a Church where “no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common.”

I once asked the leader of a Episcopalian church’s Sunday lectionary class, “Whatever happened to that “All In” Church?” That leader was a wealthy lawyer, and a man who donated much of his time and money to that Episcopalian church. He was a mentor for others who regularly attended that church. Needless to say, he was a respected member of that church’s congregation. Yet, his response to my question was, “That didn’t work out too well.”

I do not see his answer as blasphemy. I see it as a reflection of just how little faith is present in the masses who claim to be Christian today. Christianity long ago ceased being about “the whole group of those who believed they were of one heart and soul.” Christianity stopped being about the resurrection of Jesus Christ and being about human things. It has degraded to a point now that leaders of Christian churches think being Jesus Christ doesn’t work out very well.

Christianity (be it Baptist, Catholic, Pentecostal, Anglican, or whatever names that genre can go by) has become a club of exclusivity, where wealth is the determining factor as to how much God loves His Christians. This club then elects leaders, based on the religious philosophies of the majority contributors of an individual church, parish, abbey or temple. A small group then becomes the dogma taught, with many in the United States regularly seeking to promote the welfare of everyone, everywhere, of every faith, while pointing fingers and speaking negatively about others supposedly Christians. A Church where everything is owned in common can never work very well in modern times, as my Episcopalian friend said.

If it wasn’t for the poor always being poor, touring popes would have no one paying to see them. Sadly, an Argentine socialist as pope merely reflects the failure of a Church to pass the torch of Apostlehood onto others, simply because it takes a true Apostle to do that.

The leaders of organizations calling their institutions “Christian” and “religious,” act as if they alone have been touched by God to speak for Jesus, while doing none of the other miraculous deeds (the Acts or the Works) of that historical figure. No one is led to becoming Christ reborn, thus all are kept prisoners of ignorance. Christians today are taught to idolize Jesus Christ, as a god equal to God, teaching that no man or woman can be a god like Jesus. Rather than millions of resurrected Jesus-Apostles, we worship cults of personality … human reproductions of gods to be worshipped like Jesus. American Christians love a holy man to follow, rather than being holy themselves.

This state, where heart and soul are clearly not of one mind, is a sign of denial. It is no different than seeing a mole on one’s skin change colors, signifying deeper issues of health that have been long ignored. That “mole” symbolizes a Church that has denied God its heart, thereby it has summarily rejected Christ over some lesser philosophy of man. Such a mole is a sign from God that death is surely coming … rather than eternal life.

Verse thirty-three begins with the separates segment that becomes a clear statement of those who claimed “all things are held commonly” (rather than proportionately accepted). The verse states, “And [with] power great.” That means all true Christians have the power of God available to them. God does not send Apostles [reproductions of the Jesus Spirit] to save the world by social changes in civil laws, where governments dictate the common sharing of taxed wealth. Instead, God saves Christians individually, through their personal sacrifices of faith. That commitment on an individual level is what leads God to give one the power to project his or her faith into the hearts and souls of others seeking salvation.

Every true Christian has no needs go unmet. Thus, true Christians do not flock to churches because of need. They congregate as those of unified hearts and souls, those of one Mind, as those who are at peace as they labor to bring others to their same state. True Apostles do this work with not one iota of monetary or material needs (they do not sell religion for profit), which means they do not offer such gains to others. True Apostles do not live in mansions or castles, as those material things prevent the seekers from having access to an Apostle. Their needs are easily met because the Christ Spirit has reduced their worldly expectations to only that which is truly a necessity.

True Christians all have the full support of all other Apostles, as they are all together in heart and soul, as One Church serving God in the name of Jesus Christ. This means they have all been reborn as Jesus Christ, and not simply tacked that name on a board nailed to a building. Being reborn as Jesus Christ, each individually, is their great power … not some mysterious ability to solve poverty, persecution, or inequalities that are ever-present in a world influenced by evil.

By separating “And power great” from the following words that have been translated above to say, “the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus,” one is able to read those following words with a new perspective. First, it says all of the “assemblage” (i.e.: true Christians) are “Apostles” (“apostoloi”), which means they are “messengers, envoys, delegates,” or those “commissioned” by God, who is One within the hearts and souls of His believers. Second, one can see how those then “give testimony,” as messengers of faith. Still, a third awareness is how that testimony is not that Jesus died and came back to life. Their message is they have each become “the resurrection,” speaking as “the Lord Jesus Christ,” who has been reborn (come to life in human form again) in each of them.

One has to see the complete trust and confidence that comes from absolute faith. Someone who says he or she believes in something, but then never fully acts upon that foundation of trust, is either lying (never had faith) or is too fearful to totally commit (faith without acts). In my mind, most who claim to be Christians are claiming that belief through misguided sincerity. Christians today are exactly like the Jews of Judea and Galilee were, when Jesus walked the land. However, their failures to act as Apostles, being All In as this reading clearly states, are due to having never been presented with reason to believe, by having never encountered one who is clearly identified as the reborn Christ.

Only then can one fully understand how it was written: “There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold.” My Episcopalian friend who saw change as the natural decay to be expected over two thousand years of trying to believe without a true union of heart and soul with God means “what didn’t work out very well” was that Christianity now equates to everyone is needy.

Today, “believers” are blinded to a communal existence, where Christians live together and support one another totally, as a light that draws the needy to them. Rather than Christians offering the lesson that total commitment to God is the answer to all one’s needs, they now seek the right for personal possessions (inequalities of wealth), under governments that are expected to eliminate all the woes of the needy. Many churches raise funds for the purpose of sending a select few thousands of mile to help strangers, while leaving behind thousands of poor neighbors. It is a repeating of the blind leading the blind.

Brother can you spare a hundred bucks so I can buy lottery tickets for the Mega-Millions drawing?

Since land ownership is an ancient practice of humanity, where legal deeds have long been how one can rightfully claim a place to call home, it is important to grasp the depth of meaning that comes from verse thirty-four. In the Gospels, we know Joseph owned a home in Nazareth; but Joseph also had family who owned homes in Judea (such as the one Mary, Martha, and Lazarus lived in at Bethany, plus the one Cleopas had in Emmaus – all relatives of Joseph). The point of verse thirty-four is the consolidation of lands and houses, such that an Apostle was found “needing” the fellowship of other Apostles in Christ. Because the first Christians lived scattered, here and there, in pockets amid Jews who did not believe in Jesus as the Christ, they needed to sell in order to buy elsewhere, so all could live together. Therefore, the sales of lands and houses, with the profits “laid it at the apostles’ feet,” was for those proceeds to be “distributed to each as any had need” in this manner.

That would have meant the purchase of large tracts of land, where new homes could be erected for all the true Christians of one geographic area to settle in. This would be meager homes, where tools and supplies for farming would provide for them. This would also allow them to support evangelism to spread the Gospel, as well as welcome those seeking Christ into their midst. This is a “need” for a community of Christians, which was similar to the necessity of Jews to live separately from Gentiles.

This was the model that existed prior to someone getting the ideal that the spread of Christianity, through true Apostles, was bringing in so much wealth that someone had to rise to an elite status who would oversee all that wealth. Rather than focusing on securing lands and building houses for concentrations of Apostles, the focus would shift to building large buildings (like castles and cathedrals), while all the common Apostles lived on the lands surrounding those large building (like models of Jerusalem and its Temple). It then became necessary for some higher-ranking Apostles being needed to maintain the needs of the buildings.

The people worked to support one another, while the fortress surrounded the religious buildings, offering refuge at times of need.

From those changes popes and cardinals rose to prominence, as overlords of the bishops and the assembly of Apostles. After a few hundred years, the spread of true Apostles had slowed, with the new Church (as a model of the Temple) persecuting the true Apostles, even murdering them for challenging those changes that the new leaders imposed. This slow devolution has left us with too many denominations to count today, as protesters resisted decrees without divine explanation. Sadly, with few true Apostles left to spread the truth of total commitment to God, the hierarchies of churches gained full power and control, to tend the flocks under them merely for the wool they produce.

All of this is the natural overgrowth that occurs wherever buildings cease to be alive with owners who care for them. The Church of Christ was never about buying lands and building large monuments of stone, where people would fight over ownership and who got to be employed to maintain them. It was and will always be about the unification of one’s heart and soul to God, which brings about the complete willingness to serve God (a marriage to Him) as His Apostles, ALL in the name of Jesus Christ (as Jesus Christ resurrected).

With that known, one only “needs” access to a Holy Bible (with the Greek text and a Strong’s Concordance), a devotion to prayer, and a willingness to become a new bride of God (human gender is meaningless). If others are not leading you to total commitment in God, then open yourself up to guidance. Find the Word and pray for understanding. Find understanding and then give that to others. The Holy Spirit will defend you as you defend what it tells you to tell others. A big brain of limited intelligence becomes one with the Christ Mind and God’s knowledge. That is the lost Holy Grail, which disciples should seek. Then, the lost art of Apostlehood can be rekindled through the the same belief that led to the Acts of the Apostles.

That realization of “need” then relates this to the Second Sunday of Easter’s Gospel reading from John (John 20:19-31), where Jesus said to Thomas, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” A true Apostle is blessed by God with the ability to see the truth of Jesus as Christ, as a reproduction of Jesus Christ, such that belief does not come from placing one’s fingers in a freshly opened wound in our Savior’s body of flesh, but from having our Savior’s Spirit within our own bodies of flesh, where our opened wound is the loss of one’s ego and selfishness. That is the only way belief leads to total commitment and being All In.

John, Language, Teaching

John 20:19-31 – Receive Spirit Sacred

January 8, 2026 R. T. Tippett Leave a comment

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This is the Gospel selection for the second Sunday of Easter, Year B, according to the lectionary for the Episcopal Church. It will be preceded by the mandatory reading from Acts (Acts 4 this Sunday), which says, “With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.” That is followed by a reading from Psalm 133, which sings, “For there the Lord has ordained the blessing: life for evermore.” Additionally a reading from John’s first epistle is read, which states, “This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all.”

This selection is poorly translated, simply because there is a disconnect between Judaism and Christianity, such that Christians today do not understand a Jewish writing that implies another Jew would readily understand the meaning of references to time. The timing elements being explained make this lesson clearer to understand.

When the translation says, “it was evening on that day,” the operative word here is “day” [“hēmera”]. That becomes a statement of it being daytime, or when the sun is shining, with the Hebrew clock being divided into two times: day and night. The aspect of “evening” [“opsias”] can better be translated as “late” (a viable option), so it is “late” in the day, such that “evening” of “day” is after 3:00 PM, before 6:00 PM. The word translated as “that” [as “that day” or literally “day that,” from “hēmera ekeinē”] implies “the same day,” which is Easter Sunday.

Where the translation says, “the doors of the house,” there is nothing that says anything more than “doors.” The Greek words “thyrōn kekleismenōn” can translate to state “doors having been shut” or “gates having been closed,” but nothing says a house is where the “doors” were. Because this day is connected to the story in Luke, of the two traveling the road to Emmaus with Jesus (in unrecognizable form), after they realized it was Jesus (and he disappeared) they hurried back to Jerusalem, their rush was so they would get back before they closed the gates. That event was still an hour or so away at this point, meaning the timing of Jesus appearing here, with his disciples, was around the same time he was seen walking the road to Emmaus, unrecognized by his uncle Cleopas and aunt Mary.

Where Luke 24:33 states, “[Cleopas and Mary] got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the eleven and those with them, assembled together,” there is nothing stated there that says they entered within the city walls. One can assume they stayed in a house, one which was a safe place where the Jews of the Temple could not easily find them. That could mean they found refuge in the upper room, where the Passover Seder had been held eight days before [a Sabbath evening], but that is not stated. As that room [presumed to have been in the Essene Quarter of Jerusalem] was not property owned by any of the disciples, a more likely place would be the property of Joseph of Arimathea. That estate would have been close to the cemetery where he owned a tomb, in which Jesus’ body had been placed; and, as a wealthy man, one could presume Joseph had a place large enough that a numerous group could seek refuge there, discretely. However, such a place for Joseph would most likely have been outside the walls of Jerusalem.

Relative to Jesus suddenly appearing among his disciples [women and men], saying, “Peace be with you,” the capitalized Greek word “Eirēnē” is written. That does translate as “Peace,” but the capitalization raises the meaning beyond a physical state of calmness or serenity, lifting the meaning to a divine state of being. On a mundane level, the lower case spelling could mean “peace,” which was a commonly used Jewish word of farewell; so, it could have been heard the first time [by some] as if Jesus appeared to them, to say “goodbye.”

To grasp a divine level meaning, the capitalization makes one become aware of the root meaning, which comes from the word “eirō.” That etymology is explained as such: “from eirō, “to join, tie together into a whole.” Thus, the word “properly [implies] wholeness, i.e. when all essential parts are joined together.” (HELPS Word-studies)

When directed “to you” [dative plural], “Eirēnē hymin” [“Peace to you”] is a command, gently stated, which called them all to become United or Joined, such that the capitalization becomes a directive for all in the group to be married with God’s Holy Spirit. Jesus thus announced to all a proposal for marriage, to each individually, all together as one.

This becomes important to grasp, when Jesus later repeated this gentle command, saying “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”

In that verse [John 20:21], there is a semi-colon after “hymin” [“to you”], such that there is not a complete pause following, with no separate statement being made. The presence of a semi-colon says the “Unity” that comes “to you” from marriage with Yahweh is [a literal translation available], “according to the manner in which has sent forth me this Father.”

At that point there is a comma mark making that statement be separated, such that Jesus just said, “Unity to you” is “according to the manner in which I have been sent,” where “Unity” or “Joining” is “this”[from “ho”] that Jesus referred to as “Father.” That says Jesus was a soul married to Yahweh, via His Holy Spirit, so “Union” is the way Jesus was put on earth. That then leads to Jesus adding [after the comma], “I also put forth you.”

In the use of “pempō,” which is the first person singular stating, “I put forth,” or “I send,” the same word can translate as meaning, “I produce.” [Wiktionary] This is not so much a statement that says, “because Jesus is married to Yahweh he can make decisions about sending out people,” as it is more a statement that the “Unity to you” makes all become just like Jesus. It implies each will become Jesus reborn, so “I put forth” or “I produce” is then relative to the result of being married to Yahweh.

When Jesus then said the capitalized word “Father,” immediately before the comma mark that leads to “I put forth,” the divinity of the capitalization certainly makes “Father” be Yahweh. Still, from the comma, it is possible to see the first person singular now coming from the voice of the “Father” within Jesus, who says “I put forth you” or “I send you.” That speaks as Him saying through Jesus His Son that it was Yahweh who sent Jesus to the world. Likewise, Yahweh will “produce” more like Jesus.

The repetition of “Eirēnē” makes “Marriage” to Yahweh be the utmost message to receive here, because after all: Jesus just suddenly appeared through closed doors, as one risen from a gruesome death they all had witnessed. That was not Jesus being superman, but the power of Yahweh manifesting before their eyes. The metaphor becomes the voice of God to those souls still trapped in bodies of mortal flesh, saying, “You see I raised Jesus to eternal life. I can do the same for you … if you accept the proposal and let’s get married.”

When one realizes the presence of Yahweh in the body of Jesus, one can then read the next words with divine insight: “When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

Here, the third person singular form of “emphusaó,” as “he breathed upon” [from “enephysēsen”] must be seen as God’s breath of life. All possessed the gift of life in the flesh because of God’s “ruach” or “breath, wind, spirit.” Therefore, Jesus, in a risen body that had been dead just a day before [or so], was not breathing upon his disciples. It has to be seen as Yahweh doing that breathing, based on “Eirēnē” and “Patēr” being manifested in “Kyrion Iēsous” [“Lord Jesus”], with “Jesus” a name meaning “Yahweh Will Save.”

That aspect of divine essence in capitalized words, where even Jesus is an extension of Yahweh [Jesus is not a co-equal of God], the third person singular of “legó” [“legei”] has Yahweh again speak, saying “Labete Pneuma Hagion” or “Receive Spirit Holy.”

When the capitalization is recognized as Yahweh speaking, these words speak as a Husband to a wife [each individually, while all collectively the same] to allow Him to penetrate their souls [His breath – “ruach”] with His presence. This divine ‘insemination’ merges their souls with His Spirit, such that the one capitalized word “Pneuma” means Holy Spirit, without the necessity to add a word that says “Holy” to it. Therefore, when the word “Hagion” is added, this becomes the result of that divine ‘insemination,” where one’s being becomes “Holy,” as was Jesus, with “Hagion” also translating as “Sacred” or “Set apart by God” (i.e.: a Saint).

If it wasn’t for the halos, everyone would still look exactly the same as before.

A quick point about the element of “sins.” The only one who can forgive anything that would condemn a soul is Yahweh. A soul has no power to forgive anyone or anything, because that means raising one’s ugly brain to some level of self-importance or self-righteousness. Once married to Yahweh, Yahweh does all the talking and the soul can only say “Yessir.” Thus, if Yahweh says to do something that might have once been a sin one enjoyed doing, but now ceases because Yahweh says so, those past sins are forgiven by Yahweh. If something a soul has thought to be a sin, even if it did help others from time to time, so it sinned and hid it has been judged by Yahweh not to be a sin at all, then those limited acts can be kept, forgiven as not sins after all.

The point of this is this: If you are married to Yahweh you become a most holy temple, with Yahweh on the throne of your heart, where all Law is written. You walk where Yahweh sends you to walk. Thus, no matter where you go, you always remain within the limits of the Law.

At this point, John’s Gospel shifts to explain that Thomas was not there when Jesus appeared. That says two things: First, it says Jesus disappeared after appearing and saying those words. This is similar to his speaking and then suddenly disappearing when at the home of Cleopas and Mary. While it is certainly within the realm of possibility of Yahweh, to have His Son appear at two different places at the same time [the truth of the concept of Christianity], the appearance and disappearance of Jesus while Thomas was away says that was planned. God knew Thomas was away, so He sent His Son to establish the protocol that will forever remove any excuses for doubting Yahweh, because Jesus in the flesh is not around to “prove himself.”

This again brings up the timing factor. In this, one needs to realize the fear that had grasped the hearts and brains of the disciples and followers of Jesus. Amid the fear, there was still a need for food for the group. Mary had prepared food for Jesus in her home in Emmaus, because it was time to eat. She and Cleopas invited the stranger that was Jesus into their home for supper. In the same way Mary made bread, Thomas had been sent out to find bread and fish for the group to eat, as they were not in a house they owned, one stocked with food. Thus, Jesus appeared at two places at the same time, disappearing each place after making a point for faith in Yahweh; so, while Cleopas and Mary were walking quickly back the seven miles to Jerusalem, Thomas was out seeking food to purchase, most likely trying to remain incognito while doing so.

Again returning to Luke’s version of what happened, he wrote about Cleopas and Mary returning to where the others were holed-up, writing: “While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” This says Tomas returned with fish and bread after Jesus disappeared, but before Cleopas and Mary could get back to them [probably an hour and a half, walking very quickly]. This then means Thomas had returned and the group had eaten, as the two relatives of Jesus walked back. It was then after they walked in and were talking about having seen Jesus that Jesus reappeared, when everyone was all together. This would place the time not long after 6:30 PM, when the gates of Jerusalem would have been closed and more closely guarded.

This is where the NRSV [and every other version I checked – NIV, NASB, KJV] mistranslates the Greek text, so it says, “A week later” (or “After eight days”). That is not what is written. The Greek text states, “Kai meth’ hēmeras oktō,” where one must take note of a capitalized “Kai,” which always denotes importance to follow. The capitalization of that word now elevates that importance to a divine level of understanding. Thus, it is the capitalization of “Kai” that says the following timing is divinely related.

The Greek words following “Kai” then literally translate to state, “in company with of day eight.” Even by using the word “after,” so it reads “after of day eight,” the genitive singular spelling of “hémera” says “of a day,” not a total “of days.” In the genitive singular, the spelling of “hēmeras” says it use implies: “within a certain number of days; by day; sometime during a particular day.” (Wiktionary) When the capitalized “Kai’ is seen as an indicator of divine elevation in meaning, John was speaking in terms that Jews would readily understand, while Gentiles would read and think he said, “A week later.”

This means the timing of John is a statement that the time has now gone beyond 6:00 PM, when the first day of the week has changed to the second day of the week. In Jewish ritual, which Christians make a point of not learning or knowing anything about, the week that follows the Passover feast [aka the Seder meals] is called the festival of the Unleavened Bread. There are two Seder meals, on beginning at 6:00 PM on 15 Nisan (the evening of 14 Nisan), and at 6:00 PM on 16 Nisan (the evening of 15 Nisan).

In the middle of the festival of the Unleavened Bread there is a day set aside for the feast of the First Fruits. The First Fruits are green grains and fruits set in the Temple of Jerusalem [back then], which would be blessed by the high priest on Shavuot, which takes place on the Fiftieth Day [Pentecost]. The ritual was then to nightly say a prayer for those fruits left to ripen, in what is called “the Counting of the Omer,” where an “omer” is a dry measure of grains or fruit. Each night the Jews pray and add a day in the count, with the first day in the counting of the omer being at 6:30 PM 16 Nisan [or when night has clearly fallen]. Thus, John was making a statement that this he was writing about here “Importantly” [“Kai“] was “in company with” that counting “of day,” which at 6:00 PM became the number “eight” in that count “of days.” That is then setting the date to 23 Nisan.

The Passover feast [second Seder meal] was when Jesus was arrested [16 Nisan]. He was arrested on the first day of the week [a Sunday, early in the morning]. The first day was the first day of the counting of the omer. After seven days of counting, it was Sunday, 22 Nisan [numbered at 6:00 PM on 21 Nisan, when it became the 22nd]. Thus, at 6:00 PM on Sunday evening [when it officially became the 23rd], that was when all devout Jews would say a prayer in the counting of the omer, declaring it “day eight.” So, all John was saying was 6:00 PM on Sunday had come, making it the eighth day in a count to forty-nine [seven weeks, such that Shavuot means the festival of Weeks]; but, it was just Sunday night in Christian minds.

That then establishes the timing, such that it was after the Jews determine “night,” with each “day” beginning with night and ending in day. It does not say it was dark, as in most months of the year it is still light outside at 6:00 PM, thus evening of “night” [the “Evening Watch” by the guards at the gates of the walls of Jerusalem]. That was when Jesus reappeared to the group, just as suddenly as he had before.

The purpose of that planned second visit was so God could speak through His Son, saying, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” This demands closer inspection as to what was written.

The Greek text shows Jesus saying, “Hoti heōrakas me , pepisteukas ; makarioi hoi mē idontes , kai pisteusantes .” This statement breaks down into four segments that need to be understood separately, with the last word being very important to grasp, because it is preceded by the word ”kai.” These four segments literally can translate to state the following:

“Because you have perceived me ,”

“you have shown belief ;”

“to be envied those not having experienced ,”

“kai having faith in .”

The root word of “heōrakas” is “horaó,” which means, “I see, look upon, experience, perceive, discern, beware.” The root word for “idontes” is the same “horaó.” Thus, the multiplicity can be read in a number of ways that are not the same. As such, I have translated above: “have perceived” and “having experienced.”

While it is easy to know that Thomas had eyes and Jesus appeared in solid flesh, which Thomas touched with his hands, the key goes back to the capitalized word “Hoti,” which places “Because” in a divine state of being. Everything Thomas did “to see” Jesus had risen was actually him [and the others watching] having a most religious “experience” with Yahweh, through His Son. By physically being able to see a dead body alive again, one they had all “seen” hanging lifeless on a cross, “watching” a Roman guard pierce the side of Jesus with a spear, so fluids poured out of his lifeless body, they were then “seeing” Jesus and “believing” he had some magic power to return to life. They had all been raised spiritually to a divine state of being, which “Caused” them all “to see” Jesus risen. “Because” they physically “perceived” Jesus does not prove he was real, as if God did not “Cause” them to have a mass hallucination and sense his presence, like all were living in a most vivid dream.

In the Easter Sunday readings last week, either from Mark or John, both Gospels tell of perceptions of Jesus. He did not look like Jesus: he looked like a young man robed in white; and, he looked like the gardener. In the Luke story on the road to Emmaus, Jesus did not appear as Jesus. In all three appearances, it became understood that what was being seen was Jesus. The all “perceived” him. The disciples, on the other hand, saw Jesus (without Thomas) and, “The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord.” However, as the saying goes: “Seeing is believing.” But, that is the flaw of logic that magicians play upon, using tricks that prove “the hand is quicker than the eye.”

By realizing this, the repetition of “horaó” needs to be seen in Spiritual terms. Thomas looked upon God, manifested as the man known as Jesus of Nazareth. Thus, Thomas “believed” in Jesus. Thomas then becomes metaphor for the divinely elevated state of belief in God or a god that is Judaism, Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity [any other religions where proof is reason for belief], because there are physical tests that can be done which prove each religion is believable. They each “have shown belief” as the tests proving worthy of their support.

That says all Christians who see the powers of Jesus as reason to believe in him [not Yahweh] and count on him returning [not Yahweh] and any number of other things that make Christians get down on their knees and pray to Jesus [not Yahweh] that devotion to Jesus acts as the weakness that reduces them to needing proof to believe in God. They say they believe what they read written in mistranslated versions of the Holy Bible. They say they believe what some minister, preacher, priest, rabbi, or theological scholar [most likely bestselling author] states as his or her reasons for belief in Jesus. In that sense, the Word as shown by the NRSV, as orated by pulpit speakers, becomes belief in the physical body of Jesus, which comes complete with holes you can drive a truck through. [Don’t ask questions, just believe what you are told!] It makes waiting for Jesus to return be nothing more than a sad state of faithlessness.

Thomas reflects a human being who demands God jump through a hoop, like a trained dog [God spelled backwards, in the lower case English], at the command of a human being. With Jesus, it seems so much easier to get God to do what one wants, because Jesus is like one’s mother. Jesus is not the Father, who always says, “No!” Instead, when one has “United” with Yahweh in marriage, having totally submitted one’s sense of self to the Will of Yahweh, then one has so much more than belief. One KNOWS there is no “I’ left to my flesh, as Yahweh Commands and wives comply … with love and “Peace.”

This means the Greek word “makarioi” (translated by the NRSV as “blessed [are]”) bears the truth of those “to be envied,” because those “[are] happy.” The meaning of “blessed” is so meaningless coming from the mouths of Christians these days. The word is used commonly, as “Have a blessed day,” like the one saying that is so holy that he or she can save Yahweh any excess work blessing lives of human beings. To think like that says one thinks “blessed” means, “Jesus has jumped through another hoop for me today! I am so blessed by having received something meaningless!”

Those who do not need to see Jesus to have true faith KNOW that God is their husband, who totally leads them through life. They are the one’s always “happy.” They are the ones who must “be envied,” because they are truly “blessed” by Yahweh, by having their souls promised salvation. They do not simply “believe” in Jesus, they ARE JESUS REBORN.

When John then wrote, “Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples,” the heading appears in the NRSV that says, “Why This Gospel Was Written.” Few people are able to see just how clearly that says, “Jesus became one with each of his disciples, so in his presence [THEM AS JESUS REBORN] they did many other signs.”

What would be the point of Jesus doing many other parlor tricks for his disciples? Wasn’t seeing him alive, after being dead and still bearing the gaping holes in his flesh as evidence, enough of a “sign” to keep them believing? They became the green fruit picked from the Jesus vine. They were maturing in Christ [meaning as “Anointed ones” by Yahweh], so that after six more weeks they would be deemed ripe for ministry.

John did not write his Gospel so “many would believe in Jesus.” Certainly, many Christians believe in Jesus and they point to the Gospels as why they believe in all the stories told about Jesus. However, Christianity today is so far removed from what Christianity was at the beginning, is there any wonder the world is going to hell in a handbasket because so many Christians are just like doubting Thomas? There is no need to see Jesus come back in the flesh, just so believers can point at all the bad people, saying, “See! I told you he was real!”

As the Gospel selection for the second Sunday of Easter, the theme of the season needs to always be kept in mind. John is telling us what we each need to do individually, which is marry Yahweh and become His Son reborn. We need to “Unify” or “Join” with Yahweh in marriage, where our souls are offered up to God in submission, in return for eternal salvation. We have to each Receive the Spirit of Yahweh and become His Saints. The Easter season is when we should be practicing being Jesus, so we can perform the signs that tell God we are ready for ministry.

John, Language, Teaching

John 20:19-31 – Came this Jesus and stood in their midst

December 28, 2025 R. T. Tippett Leave a comment

[19] When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” [20] After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. [21] Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” [22] When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. [23] If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

[24] But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. [25] So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”

[26] A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” [27] Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” [28] Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” [29] Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”

[30] Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. [31] But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

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This is the Gospel selection that will be read aloud by a priest on the second Sunday of Easter, Year C [and all Years], according to the lectionary schedule of the Episcopal Church. This Sunday’s lessons will begin with a mandatory reading from Acts, where Peter spoke as one with the other apostles, speaking as Jesus reborn before Caiaphas the high priest, saying “We must obey God rather than any human authority.” That will be followed by a singing of either Psalm 118 (where new verses will be added to those sung on Easter Day) or Psalm 150 (only possible to be sung on the second Sunday of Easter). A new verse from Psalm 118 sings, “God is the Lord; he has shined upon us; form a procession with branches up to the horns of the altar.” Psalm 150 sings, “Hallelujah! Praise el in his holy temple; praise him in the firmament of his power.” A reading from Revelation will then follow, where John wrote, “Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.”

In 2018, I wrote about this reading selection and posted my views on a website I had at that time. Those observations are available here by a search of the reading. In 2021, I made a couple of tweaks to that commentary; and I wrote a new commentary, which I published just last Easter season. That commentary can also be read by search of the title reading. What I offered before is still valid. Both commentary titles tell of the “Spirit Holy,” based on the written text. The Scripture has not changed. However, I will now deeply add some new observations to those before, some of which have comes to me just recently. All need to be restated as importance worth knowing fully.

In the above translation by the Episcopal Church, from the NRSV, I have added the verse numbers. I believe it is important to see the transitions of that written, as each verse holds its own set of important statements that must be firmly grasped. This truth can be seen in how the presentation above has gaps between the verses, as this is a story told in multiple parts. The first part is Jesus appearing while Thomas is away. The second part tells of Thomas returning and being told Jesus had appeared. The third part tells of Jesus re-appearing after Thomas has returned. The fourth part sums up the forty days Jesus would spend with his disciples, and the importance that period of teaching would have on the world. Each part must have deep meditation placed on it; and, each part must be seen as if John were writing these verses for you specifically to understand. If it is read only as a story, then one is far from realizing Salvation. It is imperative to see John trying to help you see the truth, so you will receive the Spirit and become Jesus reborn.

I want to place important focus on John writing, “ēlthen ho Iēsous kai estē eis to meson”. He wrote that segment of words as the fifth segment in a verse that has six segments. Those words separate from the rest (by comma marks) and say, “he came this Jesus kai made a stance into this midst”. In that, the use of the word “kai” indicates importance must be seen in this “stand into this midst”. One must realize that prior to this, where “he came” (“ēlthen”), John had said the disciples hid in fear of the Jews, in a room where all the doors were locked. There was no knock on the door [which could have been, had Thomas returned – a ‘secret code’ knock]. He just “came.” When John then said “this Jesus” (“ho Iēsous”), the name “Jesus” is capitalized, which makes it have divinely elevated meaning. While everyone knows Jesus was divine, the written name “Jesus” means it should be read as saying the meaning behind the name: “Yah Saves.” So, John said while the disciples shook with fear and hid away, “Yahweh came to Save them.”

This understanding then leads to the “kai,” so the importance of “taking a stance into this middle” is speaking of Yahweh, as His Son’s soul, not some physical entity that suddenly appeared as a separate man in the room. The soul of Jesus “came kai took an upright position in union with each soul” (“the center” of each) that sat, leaned, stood, or curled up in some fetal position on the floor. This is most important to grasp.

In the Greek written by John in this segment of words, the word “eis” translates as “into.” It leads to “meson,” meaning, “middle, in the midst of, between, in the middle.” While that can certainly be read as saying, “Jesus came and stood in the middle of the room,” the word “eis” needs deeper understanding. According to HELPS Word-studies, this preposition properly means, “into (unto) – literally, “motion into which” implying penetration (“unto,” “union”) to a particular purpose or result.” Now, it could be nice to see Jesus as “in union” with the room, having “penetrated” it; but the use of “kai” forces one to see a soul (that of “Jesus”) “penetrates” and “takes a stance” within the “center” of human beings, by importantly coming “in union” with other souls (one at a time, all at once).

Here, it becomes important to dovetail this reading from John in with the reading from Luke 24:13-35 (read during the third Sunday of Easter in Year A), which tells of Cleopas and his wife Mary walking home to Emmaus, on this same Sunday – the first day of the week – after the Passover festival was over. They encountered some man that they did not recognize; and, he filled their souls with marvel, quoting how Scripture had been fulfilled by Jesus. They invited him to “Abide” (a capitalized “Meinon”) and we read, “he entered in of this to abide with themselves” (where a “self” is a “soul”). The word Luke wrote that says this pilgrim traveler “entered in” is “eisēlthen,” which is similar to John writing “came this Jesus” (using “ēlthen”). Both mean “to come, go,” with Luke’s usage adding “in,” which is like John adding “eis.” In Luke’s story, he wrote that this man broke bread and blessed it and then “he vanished having become away from them.” Up until that time, the soul of Jesus had “come in union” with their souls (their midst), in the same way the soul of Jesus entered each of the disciples’ souls, as John recorded.

For this selection to be read aloud by a priest on a Sunday in the Easter season, the point is to see the resurrection of Jesus is pointless, if that resurrection is not within one’s own soul. One has to see the Easter season as that time when the body of Jesus has forever been taken away. What appears to be his body of flesh is an illusion that will suddenly “vanish having become away from” one’s peepers. In the Acts reading, where Peter spoke as one with “the apostles,” everyone of those apostles were shaking with fear in this reading from John. The difference between shaking with fear and standing before the High Priest Caiaphas and telling him things only Jesus would say speaks loudly that Peter and the apostles were reborn as Jesus. This is the truth of Christianity.

Now, in John’s account we find Thomas was not there. Because it was evening on the first day of the week, it was time for a bite to eat. While it is not stated where this room everyone was locked inside was, for it to be the upper room in the Essene Quarter of Jerusalem (real close to where Caiaphas’ house was), the owner would have extended his generosity to the group, so they had access for the entire eight days of the Passover festival [Essenes recognized the Passover as Mount Carmel, in Samaria]. Because that room would be a loaner, one that does not come with free meals or a well-stocked kitchen, it would be necessary to leave to secure food. Rather than send everyone out (and the disciples locked in the room included women and children), Thomas (and probable his sons or the sons of the others) would have gone to get food, in order to bring it back for the whole group. Meanwhile, after Cleopas and Mary sat down for their evening meal (when Jesus was realized, before disappearing), they jumped up and began a quick walk back to Jerusalem, to tell the ones in hiding what they had witnessed.

The first block of verses speaks of the typical fears human beings have. They think they are bodies of flesh with life. They think their brains are the most powerful gods on planet earth. Their thought surround them with an overwhelming knowledge that their little bodies of flesh, despite having such big brains, as powerless against the human authorities … if those human authorities decide to come for little people who think and squash them like bugs. Everybody is afraid of its own shadow; and, everyone’s soul trembles within that body of flesh, cowering down in submission to the world. This fear is the wilderness test that is miserably failed. That failure is because a soul alone is nothing. It must be joined in divine marriage to Yahweh; and, then it must become the soul that gives rebirth to the resurrected soul of Jesus. This first block paints a picture that says every lead disciple in that room would have never been arrested for preaching in the temple, using the name Jesus while they preached. They never would have been freed from lockup; and, they never would have gone before Caiaphas as brave men, without all that divine union transfiguring their souls. Without Yahweh and Jesus reborn, all human beings are afraid to ACT.

The second block says Thomas (a name that means “Twin”) is one who is less afraid than the typical human beings. The capitalization of this name gives it divine elevation as a “Twin,” where that word means “made up of two similar, related, or connected members or parts : DOUBLE.” (Merriam-Webster’s 2a) This brings out the duality of the number “two.” While the one was afraid, the two was brave. Thomas was the one who volunteered to go out into the world and get food. While there, he would see what was really going on. Rather than let his imaginations get the better of him, he wanted to see for himself if there was anything to be afraid of. On a deeper level, a “Twin” becomes a statement of one soul being where a second soul is resurrected. As such, the soul of Jesus becomes the ”Twin” that becomes the Lord over a soul and its body of flesh; so, bravery takes control, leaving the fear to hide deep within.

Taking this into account, Thomas was not yet a “Twin” reborn of Jesus. He was a “Twin” of fear, who was the opposite, to the point of being dangerous. When Thomas told the others, “I hear ya, but I remember watching all you trembling so bad, I volunteered to go get food, just to get away from all your fears. Now you say your wild imaginations saw the man we all saw dead on a crucifix and wrapped in burial cloths, put into a tomb is now up and walking around. Well, for me to believe in ghosts, I have to see one to believe in one.” This becomes the part of humanity that does not accept anything that cannot be measured by the five physical senses. Therefore, Thomas is the “Twin” for religion, which is “Science.”

Now, when Jesus appeared [a word that does not appear in any text written in John 20] the first time, we read of Jesus speaking to their souls (the words “legei autois” translates as, “he says to themselves,” where a “self” is a “soul”), saying, “Peace to your souls” (from “Eirēnēhymin” likewise places focus on “themselves” – “souls”), the capitalization of “Eirēnē” says a divine elevation must be applied to the word that translates as “one, peace, quietness, rest.” I have written in the past about this becoming a ‘catch phrase’ for the Episcopal Church, where everyone runs around saying, “Peace to you,” as if anyone not filled with Yahweh’s Spirit can give the ‘Lord’s Peace’ to anyone. Here, we need to look at the truth that is said, which is possible when one realizes this is not some separate entity standing amongst the fearful disciples, telling them to “Calm down fellas and fellettes.”

The translation as “one” needs to be grasped. According to HELPS Word-studies, the word “eiréné” is: “from eirō, “to join, tie together into a whole.” Therefore, they add, “properly, wholeness, i.e. when all essential parts are joined together; peace (God’s gift of wholeness).” So, “Peace” is a true translation; but it is one that leads one away from the whole truth. For Jesus to be raised in the dead of his disciples’ bodies, he has become “One to themselves,” as “One with their souls.” Jesus was not talking like a two-fingered hippie Episcopalian priest or bishop, his soul had raised their souls to a state of divine “Oneness.” They were spiritually told, “We are One now.”

This statement was made before all the disciples were shown “his hands” and “his side.” When one reads the Greek slowly, with prayer, one sees that written says, “he showed <kai> his hands kai his side to themselves”. As such, everyone in the room became like the man who walked with Cleopas and Mary to Emmaus. Each one “showed” their own bodies as that of Jesus. They had become “his hands” and more importantly (“kai” usage) they became “his side,” where each of “their souls” (“themselves”) had been pierced (“eis” as “penetrated”) by his soul. The angle brackets around the word “kai,” after “he showed,” says the following statements are not visible, but hidden within. Thus, seeing themselves as a resurrected Jesus, they “Rejoiced” (“Echarēsan”), where that capitalization states a divine elevation applied to “Gladness.” They saw with their souls, not with their eyes. Not only did they know Jesus was raised from the dead, Jesus was raised within them, saving their souls from death (eternal life makes one “Rejoice”). With this realization known to each and every living human in that room, Jesus then repeated what he had said before: “Oneness to your souls.”

When John wrote, “Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord” (verse 20, NRSV), the capitalization of “Kyrion” must be seen as another capitalized word, raised divinely to a higher meaning than “Teacher” or “Master,” as a title. Because the soul of Jesus had been raised within his disciples’ souls (him in each one) – and they knew it by “Rejoicing” – that soul resurrected within each became each soul’s “Lord,” over their souls and their bodies of flesh. This is vital to see, as it was this “Lord” that possessed all of the apostles, so they preached in the Temple “in the name of Jesus,” which led the Sadducees of the Sanhedrin to have them arrested [the Acts 5 reading for this day]. Peter spoke to Caiaphas as “the Lord” Jesus, not as scared of his own shadow Peter.

When Jesus divinely spoke within them all, saying they each were “One” with his soul, Jesus then explained, (I paraphrase now) “Just as the Father sent my soul in the flesh, now that that flesh has returned to Eden, I now send your flesh out as me reborn.” When John then wrote, “enephysēsen,” meaning “he breathed into,” this is a statement of a rebirth, where birth receives a soul – the breath of life by Yahweh – now a second “breath of eternal life” was “breathed into” each breath of life in a body of flesh.

When verse twenty-two has only three capitalized words in one segment – “Labete Pneuma Hagion” – that says each soul then “Received” that breath of eternal life, as a soul joined as “One” with the soul of Jesus. The capitalization of “Receive” is what a wife does to her husband on her honeymoon. The divine elevation says each soul there was then married to Yahweh, as having “Received” Him in the marriage chamber. That was fertilization of the seed of Jesus was compliments of the “Spirit” of Yahweh, who not only breathed life into dead matter when they were born, He now had poured out His “Spirit” in Baptism over their souls. From that “Spirit” infusing their whole being (soul and body) they were then deemed “Holy, Sacred, and Set Apart by God.” This means all of the followers of Jesus then became “Saints.”

When the NRSV translates verse twenty-three as saying, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained,” this is easy to misinterpret. Everything is written in the second-person and third-person plural. No one is given any powers to forgive anyone. Everything is relative to “if of a certain one,” which states a conditional for those new Saints, pertaining to their past sins. Some things they had been told were sins, when they were not (such as healing on a Sabbath). Some things they had done were sins they retained. The point of verse twenty-three is your past has been justified. It says, from now on you will act according to the voice of Jesus, who speaks for the Father; so, everything done in the future will be without judgment as a sin, regardless of what Sadducees on the Sanhedrin (and their minion scribes) might think. The problem that comes from not realizing this comes when some elevate mere human beings into pope-like positions, who then make believe he or she can forgive anything. Only Yahweh forgives. All others just say, “Yahweh, you know.”

When the second group of verses has Thomas returning, it is important to realize that Jesus did not leave. Jesus was still “One to their souls,” he was just “vanished” from someone doing the secret knock on the door and then being let in with some broiled fish and fixings (a super-sized to-go box). Therefore, when Thomas said, “Unless I do the physical proving that Jesus has indeed been raised from the dead, I will not believe,” there is merit to that statement.

The key word there is “pisteusō,” which either means, “I will believe” or “I will have faith.” The two are not the same thing. Thus, for Thomas to enter into a room that is filled with everyone else being Jesus reborn (just not looking like Jesus), Thomas reflects an outsider (a Jew, but without being reborn as Jesus that only meant he was a different style of Gentile) entering into a true assembly (ecclesia) of those Anointed by Yahweh’s “Spirit.” Everyone in that room was a true “Christian” because they had become “Received” by Yahweh, filled by the “Spirit” of Yahweh, and made “Sacred” by Yahweh’s forgiveness. Thomas was not so blessed. Thus, what Thomas said becomes the truth – the mantra – of ALL who are not filled with the “Spirit,” made “Holy” by Yahweh, and “Received” as Saints by the possession of Jesus’ soul. To be an outsider being told Jesus has risen will always have the same effect. Without proof of that divine presence within, nobody will do more than (“not”) say, “I will believe.” Christianity is not about belief. It is about faith; and faith comes by being Jesus resurrected within one’s soul – the proof needed.

In verse twenty-six, I have written in the past about this, but it bears repeating. The NRSV translation that says “a week later” is complete ignorance of how John wrote. He wrote, “after days eight,” which has absolutely nothing to do with saying “eight days later.” The Passover festival began a counting of the days until the first fruits would be deemed ripe and ready (on Pentecost – the Fiftieth Day). That count begins after the first full day of the Passover (15 Nisan) has ended. At six in the evening (official night; and, official change of date) the numbering of the “days” began with “one.” Sunday – the first day of the week – was the seventh of the “days.” When it became officially night (after six), then that time on the same day becomes the meaning of “after days eight.” The counting of the omer just became the “eighth” of the “days.” Each of the “days” means the Jews recite a prayer for that day. So, it wasn’t a week later. It was after the official time of night began and the official numbering of the “days” went from seventh to “eighth.”

This says Thomas had been out getting food and returned in time for all the food to be spread out on a table. All the people there (disciples and family – all filled with the “Spirit” and reborn as “Jesus”) were eating, with Thomas, when Jesus again suddenly appeared like he had before. Now, he is within Thomas, in the same way he was inside the souls of the others. Everything Jesus commanded Thomas to do, Thomas did it with his own body of flesh, having become the reborn body of Jesus. Thomas is truly a “Twin” with Jesus’ soul. Here, one needs to realize the truth of those words that make it seem as if Jesus were scolding Thomas.

After Thomas also realizes the soul of Jesus is his “Lord,” whose presence within his soul-body brough the blessings of Yahweh, his “God,” the soul of Jesus then “Spoke” within Thomas (from the capitalization of “Legei”). That divine inner voice said to Thomas, “Because you have seen me , you have faith.” The capitalization of “Because” raises this “Cause of faith” to an awareness of the presence of Yahweh’s Spirit AND Jesus’ possessing soul within. That “Cause” is the truth of divine possession. It goes well beyond anything possible to be believed, based on hearsay. The meaning of “pepisteukas” is it states true “faith in,” not simple “belief in.” When Jesus then continued, saying, “blessed those not having seen , kai having faith,” that demands one realize what “blessed” means.

In the so-called ‘Sermon on the Mount,’ the first focus made was on those “blessed.” This is generalized (based on the Latin word for “bless”) to be “the Beatitudes.” Everything written in Matthew (and others) uses the same word written here by John (only capitalized), “makarioi.” The translation as “blessed” transfigures into a statement that says, “saints.” Therefore, what Jesus told Thomas says, “saints are those souls having not seen with physical eyes, who importantly have faith nevertheless.” This says nothing bad about Thomas, because Thomas was a disciple of Jesus of Nazareth (born in Bethlehem), whose eyes knew what the body of Jesus looked like. Thomas, like all the others in that room, saw the body of Jesus as their own bodies. In the future, being able to visualize that long ascended body, having never laid eyes on the flesh that the soul of Jesus was born into, will be impossible. Still, saints will come as Jesus resurrected without that ability to see him as proof that he is raised from the dead.

This means that today, nearly two thousand years after Thomas had his personal epiphany that Jesus was raised in his flesh, one can still become a saint by Receiving the Spirit and being made a Saint, by doing the Acts told of in Scripture. One’s soul must hear n inner voice lead one to find the proof one needs through works of faith. One must be told to believe. One must take belief to a serious level of commitment. One must prove Jesus lived through the divine words of Scripture. When one sudden finds “he came this Jesus,” within one’s soul and flesh, then one will be able to see the truth of his wounds in one’s own flesh. One needs to be able to see divinely, not physically. That divine insight comes from sincere efforts of belief.

When this is realized, one can then see how John wrote that the full scope of Jesus is beyond what can be written and captured on pages placed in a book. When John wrote, “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples,” this must be read as meaning today, with one reading those words being a “disciple” of Jesus, who is “in the presence of his” soul. Those are the ACTS that Jesus commands one to do, once one has truly gained faith. When John then wrote, “these (words) are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God,” this says these words are written in a way that leads to belief, but through deeper inspection (with meditation and prayer) leads deeper to the truth, which becomes the proof of faith. One cannot simply believe that Jesus is the Anointed one, without being oneself (a “self” is a “soul”) a “Christ,” with the “Spirit” of Yahweh poured out upon one’s soul. That brings the divine possession of “Jesus” resurrected, where all such “Christs” are “brothers,” all “Sons” of the Father, in His name (Israel and Jesus).

As the Gospel reading chosen for the second Sunday of Easter, the point must be seen as oneself being like all of the frightened disciples. Fear comes from being mortal, knowing death awaits out souls, for Judgment. That fear can become the pretense of bravery, when one rejects the tenets of religion, as things said without proof. That rejection snowballs when those teaching have no divine possessions within their souls, being hired hands that recite prayers from books and do nothing that explained the truth of Scripture. To be in a room alone and frightened means to be a believer of Jesus, when the Church is known to persecute any and all who threaten their livelihoods by knowing the truth of Jesus raised from the dead. That says it is up to oneself to read Scripture and pray for the truth to be shown one. Acts of this nature bring forth the Angel of Yahweh that frees one from one’s prison and sets one free to teach, so others will not be led by the blind any longer. The truth of this reading from John has to be found on one’s own, because few priests are explaining this Scripture as I just have.

Explaining the Readings