Late on the first Easter Sunday, after the Lord had risen from the sepulcher, ten of the disciples gathered for the evening in the upper room of a house in Jerusalem (John 20). They were afraid and probably confused. Since their leader had been crucified by the Roman power, as organized by their own Jewish leaders, they feared that now his followers might also be hunted down and punished. They closed and locked the doors. Were any of the women there? The story does not say, but Peter and John were, who saw and talked with the angels that morning, and the stories of the women were known. Some time must have been spent wondering and perhaps arguing - was He really alive? How could they know it was really Him? This kind of thing, coming back to life after you’re dead, this doesn’t happen in this real world, there must be some mistake!

Then two of the followers, not of the twelve, but the two that had gone to the village of Emmaus, came in, excited and bursting with their news. They had seen Him! They had walked with Him for seven miles and He had told them wondrous things! They had only recognized Him when He broke bread and ate with them. "Don’t doubt us, it really was Jesus!"

And then as they all talked and argued, there He was, standing with them in the room. "Peace be unto you," He said, and He showed them His hands and feet and His side, where he was wounded. He calmed them, and told them that just as he had come down to mankind, so they must go out and teach to all people all the true things that He had taught in the years He was with them.

It was these truths about how to live one’s life that were saving, not the disciples themselves. These saving truths have the power to remit or retain sins, because they were from the Lord, the disciples only transmitted them from the Lord to those who would listen and take them to heart. Then He breathed on them - representing His holy spirit - so that they would not only want to pass these truths on to people, but would also be given the words to say whenever the times came. And then He was gone again.

Thomas was not there that night. We don’t know why. And Thomas, when he heard the story, just could not swallow it. "Except I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into His side, I will not believe", he said. (John 20:25.)

The next verse tells us that the next Sunday they gathered again, and that Thomas was present this time. As before, the Lord was suddenly there, saying again, "Peace be unto you", and then directly to Thomas, "Reach hither thy finger… and reach hither thy hand… and be not faithless but believing". Now Thomas's response was, "my Lord and my God". It seems as if the Lord came this time just to convince Thomas, because it was Thomas who needed Him.

I think He does work this way. I am reminded of another story, from the gospel of Mark (Mark 9:17-27) where a father comes to Jesus with a young son who is possessed by a devil, and asks Jesus to cure him, and is asked in turn: "Do you believe I can do this?" In Mark 9:24 the father responds. Crying out, he said with tears, "I believe, help thou my unbelief."

I think many people have this conflict between lingering doubts and a desire to have the doubts taken away. If we carry on and make our decisions in life as if the doubts were indeed gone, then indeed they will lose their strength and actually will be gone.

These are the only details given of these two meetings in Jerusalem. Chronologically the next post-Easter stories are the ones that take place in Galilee.

John does go on to say at the end of his gospel "...many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of His disciples which are not written in this book. But these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God...." (John 20:30-31). Perhaps there were more post-Easter stories that weren't written down, but the ones we do have are strong. For the disciples who were involved, there was an unstoppable impact from the life and teachings of the Lord, and His crucifixion, and physical death, and now - in these stories - His resurrection. Hearing the Lord's charges to them, these Galilean fishermen and their colleagues launch out into the wide world, and work to achieve the Great Commission, enduring hardships and persecution, and succeeding - probably beyond their wildest dreams!

532. CHAPTER 12

1. Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.

2. Then being with child, she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth.

3. And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven jewels ¹ on its heads.

4. Its tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child as soon as it was born.

5. She bore a male Child who would shepherd all nations with a rod of iron. And her Child was caught up to God and His throne.

6. Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they may feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days.

7. And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and its angels fought,

8. but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer.

9. So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, which leads the whole world astray; it was cast to the earth, and its angels were cast out with it.

10. Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, "Now salvation, and power, and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, which accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down.

11. And they overcame it by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.

12. Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, knowing that it has a short time."

13. Now when the dragon saw that it had been cast to the earth, it pursued the woman who gave birth to the male Child.

14. But the woman was given two wings of the great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she might be nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the face of the serpent.

15. So the serpent spewed water out of its mouth like a river after the woman, that it might cause her to be swept away by the river.

16. But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the river which the dragon had spewed out of its mouth.

17. And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and it went off to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

18. Then I stood on the sand of the sea. ²

THE SPIRITUAL MEANING

The Contents of the Whole Chapter

The subject now is the New Church and its doctrine. The woman here means the New Church, and the child that she bore, its doctrine.

Dealt with also are people in today's church who, in accordance with their doctrine, believe in a trinity of Persons and a duality in the Person of Christ, and in justification by faith alone. These are meant by the dragon.

Depicted finally is these people's persecution of the New Church because of its doctrine, and the Lord's protection of it until it grows from being among few to being among many.

The Contents of the Individual Verses:

THE EXPOSITION

Now a great sign appeared in heaven. (12:1) This symbolizes a revelation from the Lord concerning His New Church in heaven and on earth and the difficulty of its doctrine's being accepted and the antagonism to it.

A sign from heaven means a revelation concerning things to come, and a great sign appearing in heaven means a revelation concerning the New Church, for the woman clothed with the sun, as described in this chapter, symbolizes that church. The male child that she bore symbolizes its doctrine. Her being in pain to give birth symbolizes the difficulty of that doctrine's being accepted. The dragon's attempting to devour the male child, and then persecuting the woman, symbolizes its antagonism. All this is the meaning of the great sign that appeared in heaven.

In the Word a sign is mentioned in relation to things to come, and it is then a revelation. It is mentioned in relation to truth, too, and it is then an attestation. And it is also mentioned in relation to the character of a state or object, and it is then an indicator.

A sign is mentioned in relation to things to come, and is then a revelation, in the following places:

Let them... declare to us what will happen..., that we may... know the latter end of them; or give us to hear things to come. Show signs for the future... (Isaiah 41:22-23)

(The disciples said to Jesus,) "What will be the sign of Your coming and of the end of the age?" (Matthew 24:3, cf. Mark 13:4, Luke 21:7)

...there will be... signs from heaven... There will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars. (Luke 21:11, 25)

Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear... (Matthew 24:30)

(Hezekiah the king was told:) "This will be the sign... that Jehovah will do this thing... I will bring the shadow... on the sundial of Ahaz... backward." (Later Hezekiah said,) "What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of Jehovah?" (Isaiah 38:7-8, 22)

And so, too, elsewhere.

That a sign is mentioned in relation to truth and is then an attestation, and in relation to the character of a state and is then an indicator, is apparent from other passages in the Word.

Footnotes: