Three Days, But Who's Counting?

JOH 2:19 Jesus answered and said to them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." JOH 2:20 The Jews therefore said, "It took forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?" JOH 2:21 But He was speaking of the temple of His body. JOH 2:22 When therefore He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He said this; and they believed the Scripture, and the word which Jesus had spoken.

There has been a tradition in the church for many generations that Jesus was crucified on Friday, put in the grave on Saturday and was resurrected early Sunday morning. The reason this tradition was established was because they had to remove His body before sundown on the day of His crucifixion because the next day was a Sabbath day. Since the Sabbath day was Saturday, they assumed that He was crucified on Friday. Of course to do that they had to ignore all these scriptures. Therefore, there must be a better answer! There is!

LEV 23:6 'Then on the fifteenth day of the same month there is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the \Lord\; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. LEV 23:7 'On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall not do any laborious work. LEV 23:8 'But for seven days you shall present an offering by fire to the \Lord\. On the seventh day is a holy convocation; you shall not do any laborious work.' " This "holy convocation" is also called "a high day" in John 19:31. The first day of Unleavened Bread was a "holy convocation" or "high day" and the last day was also the same. No laborious work could be done on the first day or on the last day. Both were days of Sabbath rest. The day following the sacrifice of the Passover lamb was the first day of Unleavened Bread, which was a Sabbath day, a holy convocation or a high day when no laborious work could be done. Since this was not a weekly Sabbath, the day would be different each year. At this particular time the Feast of Unleavened Bread began on Thursday. The reason we know that is because We know that Jesus raised from the grave following the weekly Sabbath, which was Sunday.

Since He had to be in the ground three days and three nights, we just have to count back three days and three nights. He had to be in the ground on Thursday. That means that Passover was on Wednesday. He was placed in the tomb just before , or at the time, of the changing of the days which was at sundown or approximately at 6:00 o'clock in the evening. LUK 23:54 And it was the preparation day, and the Sabbath was about to begin. At sundown the day changed to Thursday which was the Feast of Unleavened Bread. This was the "high day" that John spoke about. A day of complete rest. We can assume that Jesus was resting in the tomb at that time. The next day was a work day so we can assume that Jesus could then descend into the prisons in the earth and do His work of releasing the captives.

Jesus was buried in a tomb not far from where He was crucified near Jerusalem. That would have been a good place to go and wait to see if His words were true. Now "the women" came on Sunday morning, not to watch the miracle of resurrection but to put spices on the body. It says in Luke 24 that they were perplexed when they didn't find His body. LUK 24:4 And it happened that while they were perplexed about this, behold, two men suddenly stood near them in dazzling apparel; LUK 24:5 and as {the women} were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, {the men} said to them, "Why do you seek the living One among the dead? LUK 24:6 "He is not here, but He has risen. Remember how He spoke to you while He was still in Galilee, LUK 24:7 saying that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again. " LUK 24:8 And they remembered His words,

LUK 24:13 And behold, two of them were going that very day to a village named Emmaus, which was about seven miles from Jerusalem. LUK 24:14 And they were conversing with each other about all these things which had taken place. LUK 24:15 And it came about that while they were conversing and discussing, Jesus Himself approached, and {began} traveling with them. LUK 24:16 But their eyes were prevented from recognizing Him. LUK 24:17 And He said to them, "What are these words that you are exchanging with one another as you are walking?" And they stood still, looking sad. LUK 24:18 And one of them, named Cleopas, answered and said to Him, "Are You the only one visiting Jerusalem and unaware of the things which have happened here in these days?" LUK 24:19 And He said to them, "What things?" And they said to Him, "The things about Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word in the sight of God and all the people, LUK 24:20 and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him up to the sentence of death, and crucified Him. LUK 24:21 "But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, it is the third day since these things happened. LUK 24:22 "But also some women among us amazed us. When they were at the tomb early in the morning, LUK 24:23 and did not find His body, they came, saying that they had also seen a vision of angels, who said that He was alive. LUK 24:24 "And some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just exactly as the women also had said; but Him they did not see."LUK 24:25 And He said to them, "O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! LUK 24:26 "Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?"

This whole scene seems incredible that, after all that, they were going away without personally checking out these testimonies. Even after Jesus gave them a long Bible study, proving that the Christ had to fulfill all these things, they didn't turn back and check it out. It was not until He broke the bread that "their eyes were opened" so that they could recognize Him. LUK 24:31 And their eyes were opened and they recognized Him; and He vanished from their sight. Then they returned the 7 miles to Jerusalem. They found the disciples and told their story. While they were telling it Jesus Himself appeared to them all.

Now, of course, they all could believe because they had seen with their eyes. LUK 24:41 And while they still could not believe {it} for joy and were marveling, He said to them, "Have you anything here to eat?" LUK 24:42 And they gave Him a piece of a broiled fish; LUK 24:43 and He took it and ate {it} before them. LUK 24:44 Now He said to them, "These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled." LUK 24:45 Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, LUK 24:46 and He said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and rise again from the dead the third day;

There are very many things that we can learn from these scriptures. For example: no one is going to recognize Jesus or receive revelation unless this grace is granted them. Until Jesus personally opens our mind to understand the scriptures they remain closed. Very much is written about the end time and about eternity but we still must seek God to open our minds before we will be able to find the scriptures and make sense out of them.

We may hear anointed preaching and teaching in the same way they did and actually hear nothing but words. There is a "hearing" by which faith comes but it is not just hearing words in our ears. ROM 10:16 However, they did not all heed the glad tidings; for Isaiah says, "\Lord, who has believed our report\?" ROM 10:17 So faith {comes} from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. Faith comes when we "hear" but hearing comes by the Rhema of Christ.

The conclusion is this: Those who pray, seek God and fellowship with Him, within the context of the New Covenant, will hear the rhema of Christ and believe with God's kind of faith. We are not different from the disciples. We can see much and hear much but believe very little. It is in that personal touch that Jesus opens our minds to understand and to believe.

It may seem amazing that of all His disciples and followers there was not one who believed the teaching and testimony about the three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Maybe it was the part about the rising again that confused them. MAR 9:31 For He was teaching His disciples and telling them, "The Son of Man is to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill Him; and when He has been killed, He will rise three days later." MAR 9:32 But they did not understand {this} statement, and they were afraid to ask Him. This appears to be a clear and straight forward statement that anyone who was listening could understand. As we saw in Luke 24, those disciples on the road to Emmaus understood about the three days. By this time they had also heard the testimony from the women that had heard from the Angels that Jesus had risen from the dead and was alive. What did "rising from the dead" really mean? From our vantage point we know it means resurrection. For them resurrection was a strange thought. Even after Jesus told Mary and Martha that Lazarus would raise from the dead, they assumed He meant someday after all was fulfilled.

They understood the concept of resurrection. JOH 11:24 Martha *said to Him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day." JOH 11:25 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me shall live even if he dies, Jesus was demonstrating the immediate fact of resurrection but they still could not grasp it's reality.

JOH 20:1 Now on the first {day} of the week Mary Magdalene *came early to the tomb, while it *was still dark, and *saw the stone {already} taken away from the tomb. JOH 20:2 And so she *ran and *came to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and *said to them, "They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him." JOH 20:8 So the other disciple who had first come to the tomb entered then also, and he saw and believed. JOH 20:9 For as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead. JOH 20:10 So the disciples went away again to their own homes. It says they believed but it doesn't say what they believed. It must have been that they believed He was not there.

JOH 20:13 And they *said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She *said to them, "Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him." JOH 20:14 When she had said this, she turned around, and *beheld Jesus standing {there,} and did not know that it was Jesus. JOH 20:15 Jesus *said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?" Supposing Him to be the gardener, she *said to Him, "Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him away."

JOH 20:24 But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. JOH 20:25 The other disciples therefore were saying to him, "We have seen the Lord!" But he said to them, "Unless I shall see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe." JOH 20:26 And after eight days again His disciples were inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus *came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst, and said, "Peace {be} with you." JOH 20:27 Then He *said to Thomas, "Reach here your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand, and put it into My side; and be not unbelieving, but believing." JOH 20:28 Thomas answered and said to Him, "My Lord and my God!" JOH 20:29 Jesus *said to him, "Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed {are} they who did not see, and {yet} believed."

This is almost unbelievable that there could be such an incredibly lack of faith after three years with Jesus. Three years with Him but the three days and then resurrection was too much to believe, even with testimony of other disciples. We see their actual experience but we doubt that we would be so dull. However, if we could look at our own unbelief from a distance, we would see very similar experience. We may not doubt the resurrection but how many other things do we doubt that is clearly spoken? For example" You shall receive power after the Holy Spirit comes upon you". "Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every person". Thomas may be excused because JOH 20:22 And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and *said to them, " Receive the Holy Spirit. JOH 20:24 But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. Jesus had not yet breathed into Thomas as He had the rest.

Now they had adequate proof of Jesus' resurrection. They were convinced that Jesus was who He said He was. They saw His hands and His feet . He had breathed on them and imparted the Holy Spirit to them. Surely now they were adequately prepared to carry on. JOH 21:2 There were together Simon Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the {sons} of Zebedee, and two others of His disciples. JOH 21:3 Simon Peter *said to them, "I am going fishing." They *said to him, " We will also come with you. "They went out, and got into the boat; and that night they caught nothing. We wonder what does it take to get this bunch going? There was obviously one more thing before they could begin. LUK 24:49 "And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high." ACT 1:8 but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth. " The book of Acts is a testimony of what took place from this point onward.


	THE GRAVE BUT SUNDAY IS COMING THREE DAYS BUT WHO IS COUNTING? MAT 12:40 for just as \Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster,\ so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. MAT 26:61 and said, "This man stated, 'I am able to destroy the temple of God and to rebuild it in three days.'" MAT 27:40 and saying, "You who {are going to} destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save Yourself! If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross." MAR 14:58 "We heard Him say, 'I will destroy this temple made with hands, and in three days I will build another made without hands.'" JOH 2:19 Jesus answered and said to them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." JOH 2:20 The Jews therefore said, "It took forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?" JOH 2:21 But He was speaking of the temple of His body. JOH 2:22 When therefore He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He said this; and they believed the Scripture, and the word which Jesus had spoken. MAT 16:21 From that time Jesus Christ began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day. MAT 17:22 And while they were gathering together in Galilee, Jesus said to them, "The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men; MAT 17:23 and they will kill Him, and He will be raised on the third day. "And they were deeply grieved. MAT 27:64 "Therefore, give orders for the grave to be made secure until the third day, lest the disciples come and steal Him away and say to the people, 'He has risen from the dead,' and the last deception will be worse than the first." MAR 9:31 For He was teaching His disciples and telling them, "The Son of Man is to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill Him; and when He has been killed, He will rise three days later." LUK 24:7 saying that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again. " LUK 24:21 "But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, it is the third day since these things happened. LUK 24:46 and He said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and rise again from the dead the third day; ACT 10:40 "God raised Him up on the third day, and granted that He should become visible, 1CO 15:4 and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, There has been a tradition in the church for many generations that Jesus was crucified on Friday, put in the grave on Saturday and was resurrected early Sunday morning. The reason this tradition was established was because they had to remove His body before sundown on the day of His crucifixion because the next day was a Sabbath day. Since the Sabbath day was Saturday, they assumed that He was crucified on Friday. Of course to do that they had to ignore all these scriptures. Therefore, there must be a better answer! There is! JOH 19:31 The Jews therefore, because it was the day of preparation, so that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high {day}), asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and {that} they might be taken away. Jesus was crucified on Passover which was the day the Passover Lamb was prepared and all the other arrangements for the feast were being made. Work could be done on Passover but the next day was the feast of Unleavened bread. That was a Sabbath day and no work could be done. It was not a weekly Sabbath but a "high day" or a feast Sabbath. LEV 23:6 'Then on the fifteenth day of the same month there is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the \Lord\; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. LEV 23:7 'On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall not do any laborious work. LEV 23:8 'But for seven days you shall present an offering by fire to the \Lord\. On the seventh day is a holy convocation; you shall not do any laborious work.' " This "holy convocation" is also called "a high day" in John 19:31. The first day of Unleavened Bread was a "holy convocation" or "high day" and the last day was also the same. No laborious work could be done on the first day or on the last day. Both were days of Sabbath rest. The day following the sacrifice of the Passover lamb was the first day of Unleavened Bread, which was a Sabbath day, a holy convocation or a high day when no laborious work could be done. Since this was not a weekly Sabbath, the day would be different each year. At this particular time the Feast of Unleavened Bread began on Thursday. The reason we know that is because We know that Jesus raised from the grave following the weekly Sabbath, which was Sunday. Since He had to be in the ground three days and three nights, we just have to count back three days and three nights. He had to be in the ground on Thursday. That means that Passover was on Wednesday. He was placed in the tomb just before , or at the time, of the changing of the days which was at sundown or approximately at 6:00 o'clock in the evening. LUK 23:54 And it was the preparation day, and the Sabbath was about to begin. At sundown the day changed to Thursday which was the Feast of Unleavened Bread. This was the "high day" that John spoke about. A day of complete rest. We can assume that Jesus was resting in the tomb at that time. The next day was a work day so we can assume that Jesus could then descend into the prisons in the earth and do His work of releasing the captives. This time of three days was a time of severe testing for the disciples. It was a time when they had to remember what He said and to stand by faith that He would raise on the third day. They had no past experience upon which they could base their faith so they had to just trust in what He said. Jesus was buried in a tomb not far from where He was crucified near Jerusalem. That would have been a good place to go and wait to see if His words were true. Now "the women" came on Sunday morning, not to watch the miracle of resurrection but to put spices on the body. It says in Luke 24 that they were perplexed when they didn't find His body. LUK 24:4 And it happened that while they were perplexed about this, behold, two men suddenly stood near them in dazzling apparel; LUK 24:5 and as {the women} were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, {the men} said to them, "Why do you seek the living One among the dead? LUK 24:6 "He is not here, but He has risen. Remember how He spoke to you while He was still in Galilee, LUK 24:7 saying that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again. " LUK 24:8 And they remembered His words, Some interpret this act of the women to be great faith but the fact is they forgot about the three days also and came to anoint the body. When the women went to tell the Apostles about the resurrection they responded in unbelief. LUK 24:10 Now they were Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the {mother} of James; also the other women with them were telling these things to the apostles. LUK 24:11 And these words appeared to them as nonsense, and they would not believe them. Therefore, on this same Sunday morning, two of the disciples, who had heard the women testify, were going on the road to Emmaus which was about 7 miles north west from Jerusalem. They knew about the three days and remembered clearly about what He said but instead of going to the tomb to witness the miracle they were going the wrong way. LUK 24:13 And behold, two of them were going that very day to a village named Emmaus, which was about seven miles from Jerusalem. LUK 24:14 And they were conversing with each other about all these things which had taken place. LUK 24:15 And it came about that while they were conversing and discussing, Jesus Himself approached, and {began} traveling with them. LUK 24:16 But their eyes were prevented from recognizing Him. LUK 24:17 And He said to them, "What are these words that you are exchanging with one another as you are walking?" And they stood still, looking sad. LUK 24:18 And one of them, named Cleopas, answered and said to Him, "Are You the only one visiting Jerusalem and unaware of the things which have happened here in these days?" LUK 24:19 And He said to them, "What things?" And they said to Him, "The things about Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word in the sight of God and all the people, LUK 24:20 and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him up to the sentence of death, and crucified Him. LUK 24:21 "But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, it is the third day since these things happened. LUK 24:22 "But also some women among us amazed us. When they were at the tomb early in the morning, LUK 24:23 and did not find His body, they came, saying that they had also seen a vision of angels, who said that He was alive. LUK 24:24 "And some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just exactly as the women also had said; but Him they did not see."LUK 24:25 And He said to them, "O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! LUK 24:26 "Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?" This whole scene seems incredible that, after all that, they were going away without personally checking out these testimonies. Even after Jesus gave them a long Bible study, proving that the Christ had to fulfill all these things, they didn't turn back and check it out. It was not until He broke the bread that "their eyes were opened" so that they could recognize Him. LUK 24:31 And their eyes were opened and they recognized Him; and He vanished from their sight. Then they returned the 7 miles to Jerusalem. They found the disciples and told their story. While they were telling it Jesus Himself appeared to them all. Now, of course, they all could believe because they had seen with their eyes. LUK 24:41 And while they still could not believe {it} for joy and were marveling, He said to them, "Have you anything here to eat?" LUK 24:42 And they gave Him a piece of a broiled fish; LUK 24:43 and He took it and ate {it} before them. LUK 24:44 Now He said to them, "These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled." LUK 24:45 Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, LUK 24:46 and He said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and rise again from the dead the third day; There are very many things that we can learn from these scriptures. For example: no one is going to recognize Jesus or receive revelation unless this grace is granted them. Until Jesus personally opens our mind to understand the scriptures they remain closed. Very much is written about the end time and about eternity but we still must seek God to open our minds before we will be able to find the scriptures and make sense out of them. We may hear anointed preaching and teaching in the same way they did and actually hear nothing but words. There is a "hearing" by which faith comes but it is not just hearing words in our ears. ROM 10:16 However, they did not all heed the glad tidings; for Isaiah says, "\Lord, who has believed our report\?" ROM 10:17 So faith {comes} from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. Faith comes when we "hear" but hearing comes by the Rhema of Christ. The conclusion is this: Those who pray, seek God and fellowship with Him, within the context of the New Covenant, will hear the rhema of Christ and believe with God's kind of faith. We are not different from the disciples. We can see much and hear much but believe very little. It is in that personal touch that Jesus opens our minds to understand and to believe. It may seem amazing that of all His disciples and followers there was not one who believed the teaching and testimony about the three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Maybe it was the part about the rising again that confused them. MAR 9:31 For He was teaching His disciples and telling them, "The Son of Man is to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill Him; and when He has been killed, He will rise three days later." MAR 9:32 But they did not understand {this} statement, and they were afraid to ask Him. This appears to be a clear and straight forward statement that anyone who was listening could understand. As we saw in Luke 24, those disciples on the road to Emmaus understood about the three days. By this time they had also heard the testimony from the women that had heard from the Angels that Jesus had risen from the dead and was alive. What did "rising from the dead" really mean? From our vantage point we know it means resurrection. For them resurrection was a strange thought. Even after Jesus told Mary and Martha that Lazarus would raise from the dead, they assumed He meant someday after all was fulfilled. They understood the concept of resurrection. JOH 11:24 Martha said to Him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day." JOH 11:25 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me shall live even if he dies, Jesus was demonstrating the immediate fact of resurrection but they still could not grasp it's reality. JOH 20:1 Now on the first {day} of the week Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb, while it was still dark, and saw the stone {already} taken away from the tomb. JOH 20:2 And so she ran and came to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and said to them, "They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him."* JOH 20:8 So the other disciple who had first come to the tomb entered then also, and he saw and believed. JOH 20:9 For as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead. JOH 20:10 So the disciples went away again to their own homes. It says they believed but it doesn't say what they believed. It must have been that they believed He was not there. JOH 20:13 And they said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him." JOH 20:14 When she had said this, she turned around, and beheld Jesus standing {there,} and did not know that it was Jesus. JOH 20:15 Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?" Supposing Him to be the gardener, she said to Him, "Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him,* and I will take Him away." JOH 20:24 But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. JOH 20:25 The other disciples therefore were saying to him, "We have seen the Lord!" But he said to them, "Unless I shall see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe." JOH 20:26 And after eight days again His disciples were inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst, and said, "Peace {be} with you." JOH 20:27 Then He said to Thomas, "Reach here your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand, and put it into My side; and be not unbelieving, but believing." JOH 20:28 Thomas answered and said to Him, "My Lord and my God!" JOH 20:29 Jesus said to him, "Because you have seen Me, have you believed?* Blessed {are} they who did not see, and {yet} believed." This is almost unbelievable that there could be such an incredibly lack of faith after three years with Jesus. Three years with Him but the three days and then resurrection was too much to believe, even with testimony of other disciples. We see their actual experience but we doubt that we would be so dull. However, if we could look at our own unbelief from a distance, we would see very similar experience. We may not doubt the resurrection but how many other things do we doubt that is clearly spoken? For example" You shall receive power after the Holy Spirit comes upon you". "Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every person". Thomas may be excused because JOH 20:22 And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, " Receive the Holy Spirit. JOH 20:24 But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. Jesus had not yet breathed into Thomas as He had the rest. Now they had adequate proof of Jesus' resurrection. They were convinced that Jesus was who He said He was. They saw His hands and His feet . He had breathed on them and imparted the Holy Spirit to them. Surely now they were adequately prepared to carry on. JOH 21:2 There were together Simon Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the {sons} of Zebedee, and two others of His disciples. JOH 21:3 Simon Peter said to them, "I am going fishing." They said to him, " We will also come with you.* "They went out, and got into the boat; and that night they caught nothing. We wonder what does it take to get this bunch going? There was obviously one more thing before they could begin. LUK 24:49 "And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high." ACT 1:8 but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth. " The book of Acts is a testimony of what took place from this point onward. The real question here is how would we respond in the same situation?