The gathering of the disciples in 20:19 in the evening of the day of the Lord’s resurrection may be considered as the first meeting of the church before Pentecost. This meeting was to fulfill Psalm 22:22 according to Hebrews 2:10-12 for the Son to declare the Father’s name and to praise the Father in the church. To declare the Father’s name is to make the Father known to the disciples as the source of life that they might partake of His divine nature. To praise the Father in the church is to praise the Father in the praising of His believers in the church meetings. According to Psalm 22:22 and Hebrews 2:10-12, the resurrected Lord did both of these things in the first meeting of the church on the day of His resurrection.
After His resurrection, the Lord came to meet with His disciples, starting from the evening of the first day. Thus, in the Lord’s resurrection, the matter of meeting with the saints is crucial. Mary the Magdalene met the Lord personally in the morning and obtained the blessing (20:16-18), but she still needed to be in the meeting with the saints in the evening to meet the Lord in a corporate way to obtain more and greater blessings (20:19-23). In this first meeting of the Lord with His disciples after His resurrection, we have the Lord’s presence, the peace, the Lord’s sending, the breathing, and the authority to bind and loose. These are the blessings which the Lord brought to His disciples in that church meeting. However good Mary’s fellowship was with the Lord during the morning watch, she still needed to come to the evening meeting to obtain all these blessings. These blessings are greater and more important. We may receive something from the Lord and even of the Lord during the morning watch, but this is something we need personally and individually. We must also come to the meetings to receive something more important. The morning watch and the church meetings are two aspects. We need the personal blessing of the first aspect as well as the corporate blessing of the second.
Thomas missed the first meeting the Lord held with His disciples after His resurrection. However, he was compensated for what he missed in that meeting by attending the second meeting (20:25-28). Oh, we must not miss any of the church meetings! We should not say that it does not matter and that we shall rest at home. If the Lord comes, we, like Thomas, may miss Him. Thomas missed the Lord’s appearing. Due to his absence from that church meeting, he really lacked something. This chapter is full of revelation, but Thomas missed it all. He missed the revelation, the discovery, and the experience of the Lord’s resurrection because he missed the morning watch and the church meeting. He missed the revelation that the disciples are the brothers of the Lord and the sons of God. He missed the peace, the breathing of the Holy Spirit, the divine commission, and the authority. He was saved and he was a brother, but because he did not attend that meeting, he missed a great deal.
In the mornings we should have the morning watch personally and individually, but in the evenings we must come to the church meetings. How we need to come together with the other brothers and sisters! Then the Lord will come with something more, something different, and something greater. Do not be proud of your wonderful experiences during morning watch, and do not say that morning watch by itself is good enough. You also need to come to the church meetings and meet with the saints. Some of us miss the morning watch and some miss the evening meeting. But we must have a personal morning watch as well as attend the corporate evening meeting. The morning watch cannot replace the evening meeting, and the evening meeting cannot be a substitute for the morning watch. We need both. With God, everything is of two aspects. Even in contacting the Lord, there are two aspects, the personal and the corporate. For this matter, there are the morning watch in the morning and the meetings in the evening. Therefore, we must neglect neither the morning watch nor the church meetings. Mary received something new, fresh, and firsthand in the morning, and nothing could replace it. Nevertheless, she still needed something more—the peace, the sending, the breathing, and the commission. These things can only be received in the church meetings. The commission from the Lord is to the church, not to the individual. Thus, we must be in the church before we can be sent. The commission is a matter of the Body. Hence, we must be sent by the Lord in and through the church.
It is strange that this chapter never indicates that the Lord departed. It never tells us that He left the disciples. It is so strange that the Lord, with a physical body which could be touched, came in through the closed door. This means that, after His resurrection, the Lord was the Spirit. Because the risen Lord is now the Spirit, He can be with the disciples at any time and at every place. Since His resurrection, the Lord has no problems with time or space. The Lord can now be with us under any circumstances. Although we may shut the door, He is still with us. According to this chapter, we do not know from where He comes or when He comes and goes. I have read this chapter many times and I cannot find any indication where the Lord went. This means that after the resurrection, the Lord is the Spirit and is with us as the Spirit at any time, at any place, and under every circumstance. The Lord is always with us; the only difference is that sometimes we sense His presence and sometimes we do not. Even when we do not sense His presence, He is still here. With us today, it is not a matter of His coming or going; it is a matter of His appearing or disappearing. When He comes, it means that He appears; when He goes, it means He disappears. Actually, however, He is here all the time. Whether we sense His presence or His absence, the Lord is still here. There is now no coming or going with the Lord. Now it is only the difference of His appearance or disappearance. Since He has accomplished everything, He has made Himself one with the disciples, and they are now one with Him.