Why didn't Jesus appear to more people after His resurrection?

There were good and necessary reasons why His resurrection could not be seen or attested by outsiders. In general it called for chosen witnesses familiar with Him. Again, how could a Greek, still less a Jew, get over a resurrection? and this predicted at least a thousand years before by David (Ps. 16:9-11)? Over and over it was announced beforehand to His own disciples; but they never took in so strange an intimation till it was accomplished. To own that fact, at least to believe God in it, is to become a Christian, if one by grace get possessed of heart, conscience, or sound judgment. For Him to be raised as He said, on the third day, was to lay the foundation of the gospel. The God who alone raised Him from among the dead gave in that fact the mightiest proof possible that the world, Jew and Gentile, hated Him whom His unjust judge acquitted yet gave up to the murderous will of Israel. God then and thus vindicated the Man who will come to judge quick and dead. How could any sober man expect unbelieving Jews or Gentiles to record such a wonder to His glory, and to their own necessary condemnation? Yet thousands of unbelievers were brought to believe, and suffered for their faith unflinchingly.

In the first stage of the Lord's coming, He will be concerned only with the removal of “His own.” And of this coming the world at large will be ignorant, or oblivious, or incredulous, as the case may be. In effect, the great aerial event will, no doubt, be disregarded by Christendom and heathendom alike as entirely as were the Lord's appearances after His resurrection by Jew and Gentile. Those appearances were confined to a limited circle as the first stage of His second advent will be. As Peter said to Cornelius, “God … gave Him to be openly seen (emphanees), not of all the people, but of witnesses who were chosen before of God” (Acts 10:40-41). Thus, the risen Lord manifested Himself to certain of His disciples (John 21:1), but not to any of His enemies; to such as Peter and John, Thomas and Cleopas, but not to Annas and Caiaphas, Pilate and Herod, nor to any of their followers. They, His adversaries, to whose unrighteous judgment He meekly submitted Himself, will nevertheless, according to His own testimony before the Sanhedrin (Matt. 26:64) “see the Son of man” in the day of His manifestation or appearing when He comes with clouds of glory and majesty to exercise His judgment upon all evildoers.

There is one point, to which we do well to draw attention. When our Lord rose from the dead it would have been very convincing if He had suddenly appeared to Pilate, Herod, the chief priests, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. In such a case surely the evidence to His resurrection could not have been denied. If the narrative had come from the pens of uninspired writers, this would have been the likely story they would have given forth. On the contrary our Lord’s appearances in His risen state were only to His own disciples, to those who loved Him, and not to the world. The Apostle Peter emphasises this when we read:

Whatever appearances may say, the will and word of God stands for ever; and faith knows it. 'Him God raised on the third day and gave Him to be manifest, not to all the people but to witnesses that were chosen before by God, to us who did eat and drink with Him after He rose from the dead.' The resurrection is the pivoting and clenching of the gospel. If unbelief hold out against its testimony, what is clearer than that man hates both the love and the truth of God, and will not be saved at any price? The same resurrection of Jesus separates those who believe according to the value of Christ's death before God, making in their measure witnesses of Christ men who bowed to the testimony of the fore-appointed witnesses. He Whom they slew on a tree ate and drank with His own after He arose from the dead: not that He needed the food, but they needed the testimony that He was alive from the dead, a truly risen Man, Who having loved His own that were in the world, loved them to the uttermost.

This testimony is recorded again and again in the three synoptic Gospels. The fulfilment of it is recorded by the Apostle Peter in Acts 10:40 and by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:4. The evidence of the resurrection is very ample and full in the Scriptures. For full forty days did the Lord remain on earth after his resurrection and before His ascension. He appeared only to His own, in accordance with His own word spoken when weeping over the city that He loved. Yearning over Jerusalem, willing to gather her children, as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, He was obliged to say in deep sorrow:

In these two verses we see how the denial of the resurrection means the complete overthrow of the Christian faith, than which nothing could be more serious. But in the case of our Lord the testimony to His resurrection historically is so full and complete, that even acute infidel lawyers have found it impossible to deny that it did occur. Our Lord, had He wished, could have gone straight to glory when He rose from the dead, but instead He spent forty days on this earth, proving to His disciples beyond any doubt that He was indeed risen from the dead. On one occasion the number of witnesses, was very great, for we read, “He was seen of above five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep (1 Cor. 15:6).

The apostles would not accept the word of the women as to the resurrection of the Lord, in spite of their no doubt repeating the words of the angels as to the Lord's own declaration long before that He would be crucified and rise again the third day. The disciples probably questioned, if He were raised, why had He not been seen alive? But God's wisdom is seen in this, for it was a test of the faith of the disciples as to Christ's own words, attested by the report of angels to the women. Moreover, the cynicism of the disciples is clear proof that they had no thought of inventing a false story of resurrection to deceive the world.

The Lord however did not leave the earth immediately after rising from the dead. He showed Himself to His disciples now and again “during forty days,” but only to the “witnesses chosen before of God” (Acts 1:3; Acts 10:41). And He treated them as altogether apart from the Jewish world, taken out of it in order that they might be sent again into the world in its fuller extent (including Gentiles as well as Jews), even as He Himself had been sent of the Father (John 20:21). He had already prayed for them as the Father’s own gift to Himself and as no longer belonging to the world (John 17:6-10, 16). It was from their midst that He went up to heaven leaving them still to wait on earth for the promised gift of the Holy Ghost. He fulfilled that promise “when the day of Pentecost was fully come,” ten days after His ascension. Thenceforward every saved soul was no longer considered as being on Israelitish or Jewish ground, with earthly hopes, but on the contrary as having heavenly hopes in and with Christ. Belonging to Him who was risen and glorified, they were “added to the Church” (Acts 2:1, 47).

The apostles were witness of all these things that the Lord had done, and also of the cruel opposition of the Jewish leaders, who had slain Him, hanging Him on a tree. No doubt Cornelius had heard this too, but beyond that he needed the most vital news that Peter had to give him, that God had on the third day raised Christ from among the dead and showed Him openly. This was not however to the public generally, but to special witnesses before chosen by God, the apostles and others who actually ate and drank with Him following His resurrection.

Having a message of such tremendous import, Peter and the other apostles had been commanded by God to preach to the people and testify that this same Jesus has been ordained by God as Judge of the living and the dead. His resurrection is proof of this great prerogative (Acts 17:31). Notice that in all this matter there is great care given to back up everything with solid proof, God having first shown this in the two visions given at corresponding times to Cornelius and Peter, then in all that Peter speaks.

So Peter could say, "That word … ye know." There were however, things that they did not know; and these all-essential matters he proceeded to unfold. The death of Jesus had been a public spectacle and everybody knew about it. His resurrection had been witnessed by only a few, and common report denied it, the denial having the backing of the religious authorities, as we learn from Matthew 28:11-15. Hence Peter now announced the astonishing news that the crucified Jesus had been raised from the dead by an act of God, that he and his fellow Apostles had actually seen Him, eaten with Him, and received from Him a command what they were to preach to others. In verses 42 and 43 Peter made the announcements he was commanded to make.