Jesus appears to his disciples

24 v 36 Now as they said these things, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them, and said to them, "Peace to you."

Understanding human nature better than anyone else, Jesus appeared in person to them. He ate in their presence (verses 42 and 43) to prove to them he was really alive and that they were not seeing a vision.

24 v 44 Then He said to them, "These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me."

Have a look at some of the cross-references from this verse in the Cross-references page to see some of the verses Jesus could have referred to.

24 v 45 And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures.

Here we have another exposition of scripture that would have been well worth hearing!

24 v 46 to 48 Then He said to them, "Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things."

The cross-references from these verses in the cross-references page are also worth looking at. There are a lot of them, but they indicate how much of Jesus’ work was predicted in the Old Testament.

Read John 20 v 20 to 31

John 20 v 20 When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.

Jesus now gave them evidence that he was alive. Possibly their minds could not have coped with the fact of his resurrection direct, so he sent messages via the women to put the idea in their minds first.

John 20 v 22 and 23 And 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."

John 20 v. 23

Cross Reference

Matthew 16 v 19;
Mark 2 v 5 to 10

Looking at this passage and the cross references, we conclude that:

Jesus had God’s authority to forgive sins (Mark 2 v 5 to 10)
Jesus promised to pass on authority to Peter (Matthew 16 v 19)
This authority was given to all the apostles (John 20 v 23)