Question:
When the disciples were assembled on the morning of the resurrection, were they there for worship and had the door locked because the Jews were opposed to their way of worshiping, or were they living there and afraid the Jews would kill them?
Answer:
We have no account whatever in the Scriptures that the disciples met on the morning of the resurrection. The record which speaks of their meeting together, with the doors closed for fear of the Jews, refers not to a morning meeting, but an evening meeting, held toward the close of the first day and continuing until the second day had well begun. See John 20:19, “the same day at evening.” Also, note that that text expressly says that the doors were shut where the disciples met for fear of the Jews. That was not an assembly for worship, for we read in Acts 1:13 that this upper room was the place where Peter, James, John, and the other disciples were staying. It was their common living abode.
During the whole of this first day, they were in doubt, in trouble, in perplexity, many of them doubtless ashamed to appear in public because the One in whom they had hoped was lying dead in the grave. So far from meeting to celebrate His resurrection, they did not even believe that He was raised from the dead. See Luke 24:36-41; Mark 16:11-14.
