The Disciples See Him

Solely Jesus

John 20:19-21:14

The Disciples see Him

This week and next

17 months of Sunday’s

Last week – Mary and other women had gone out to the tomb to finish the job of spicing Jesus body for burial

They were going to go into the tomb – unwrap his body – apply more spices and then re-wrap his body

When the got to the tomb – the stone was moved

The tomb was empty

They ran back and told the disciples that Jesus’ body was gone

Peter and John took off running

John beat Peter to the tomb but didn’t go in

When Peter gets there and goes right in

Sure enough Jesus’ body is gone
There is only the wrappings

John enters and sees the wrappings – their eyes are open and they understand that Jesus rose from the dead

They head back to Jerusalem where they had been staying

Mary stays at the tomb weeping

She sees a man – she thinks it is the gardener and asks where he put the body

It is Jesus – he calls her name and she freaks out

Screams and jumps on him

Jesus settles her down and then tells her to go tell the disciples

She goes and tells the disciples but they don’t believe her

That Sunday evening the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! "Peace be with you," He said.

Behind locked doors -because they were afraid

Jesus had warned them that they would be hated on his account and that they would suffer

Now that Jesus body is gone – surely the Jewish leaders /Roman guards are going to come looking for them

Who wants to suffer?

Suddenly – There is Jesus and he gives the standard Jewish greeting – Shalom Aleichem – Peace be upon this house – peace be with you

Peace/Blessings/Good fortune/God’s hand upon you

Luke says that they thought it was a ghost and were frightened

Jesus – Ghosts don’t have flesh and bones

Look at my hands and my side

As He spoke, He showed them the wounds in His hands and His side. They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord! Again He said, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent Me, so I am sending you."

Again he speaks the word peace – begins what will be the constant message over the next 40 days

I’m sending you

The Father sent me into the world to love and serve the world

I’m sending you out into the world to love and serve – John’s version of Jesus Great Commission

Then He breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone's sins, they are forgiven. If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven."

Jesus breathed on the disciples just as the Father had breathed on Adam at creation

This was the beginning of a new creation

This was the beginning of God’s work in creating a new race

A race of followers of Jesus who would have the HS living in them

Starting in October – The Spirit and …

One of the twelve disciples, Thomas (nicknamed the Twin), was not with the others when Jesus came. They told him, "We have seen the Lord!" But he replied, "I won't believe it unless I see the nail wounds in His hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in His side."

Thomas, for whatever reason wasn’t with the disciples when Jesus first appeared to the group

John makes the point that Thomas was the one nicknamed the Twin to distinguish this Thomas from some other Thomas

Remember he is writing to a specific group of people

This is not an account of Jesus which would be ‘published’ – as if John shopped around for a publisher

JK Rowling - Harry Potter series – 12 publishers turned

Rowling was living off of government assistance,

Retyped complete copies of the manuscript for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone to send out to publishers because she was too broke to have photocopies made.

So she sent off her precious slaved-over copies of the manuscript to publishing houses, where they promptly went into the trash.

Most of them because it was a typed manuscript and not a photocopy or computer printout

John was writing his account so that those he was responsible for would continue to believe and follow Jesus

The disciples told Thomas that they had seen Jesus

That they had touched his hands and his side

Thomas – I’m not going to believe unless I see it with my own eyes!

Eight days later the disciples were together again, and this time Thomas was with them. The doors were locked; but suddenly, as before, Jesus was standing among them. "Peace be with you," He said.

Eight days later they were still together in Jerusalem – this time Thomas is with them

Again the doors are locked – presumably out of fear

There is Jesus

Again he greets them with – Shalom Aleichem

Then He said to Thomas, "Put your finger here, and look at My hands. Put your hand into the wound in My side. Don't be faithless any longer. Believe!" "My Lord and my God!" Thomas exclaimed. Then Jesus told him, "You believe because you have seen Me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing Me." (John 20:19-31 NLT)

Without Thomas saying anything – Jesus goes straight to what had been Thomas’ declaration

Jesus wasn’t with them when Thomas said what he said

Jesus again shows his understanding of the human heart, objections and circumstances again speak right into the situation.

Don’t be faithless any longer – Believe!

Can some of you hear Jesus say that to you?

Don’t be faithless any longer – Believe!

"You believe because you have seen Me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing Me."

Blessed is person after person, generation after generation that believe without seeing …

Blessed – happy, Favor of God

The favor of God is on those who believe without seeing …

Peter picked up on this same idea – Letter he wrote about 20 years after Jesus death

You love Him even though you have never seen Him. Though you do not see Him now, you trust Him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy. The reward for trusting Him will be the salvation of your souls. (1Pe 1:8-9 NLT)

There is a reward for trusting Him

That’s why we talk about: Trust your past, present and your future into his hands

Later, Jesus appeared again to the disciples beside the Sea of Galilee. This is how it happened. Several of the disciples were there—Simon Peter, Thomas (nicknamed the Twin), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples.

After Jesus appeared to the group the 2nd time in Jerusalem

Feast of Unleavened Bread – 7 days of celebration following the Passover

The disciples head to Galilee – with the crowds of people that had traveled to Jerusalem for the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread

At some point after they get to Galilee

There is no Jesus

Even though Mary had been told to tell them that Jesus would meet them in Galilee

We don’t know how many days have passed

How long it took them to get to Galilee and how many days they had been there

Jesus appeared to them

John tells how it happened

Simon Peter said, "I'm going fishing." "We'll come, too," they all said. So they went out in the boat, but they caught nothing all night.

Peter gets tired of sitting around

They have to eat

They’ve got to make a living

“Waiting for the Messiah to visit them was not going to pay the bills or put food on the table.” Unknown

Might as well do what we know how to do

The other disciples decide to go with Peter and they head out to fish

But they caught nothing

Can you imagine what the night was like?

Jesus hasn’t shown up

They have no explanation/understanding of why Jesus hasn’t shown up

They don’t know what they are going to do

Discussion on the boat

Where is Jesus?

What’s he doing?

When’s he going to show up?

What’s taking him so long?

He told us to wait here …

How long do we wait?

At dawn Jesus was standing on the beach, but the disciples couldn't see who He was. He called out, "Fellows, have you caught any fish?" "No," they replied. Then He said, "Throw out your net on the right-hand side of the boat, and you'll get some!" So they did, and they couldn't haul in the net because there were so many fish in it.

As it starts to get light they hear a man calling from shore but they couldn’t tell who it was

They probably thought he was someone wanting to buy some fish

Got any fish to sell?

Tells them to throw the net out on the other-side of the boat

Maybe Jesus could see a school of fish in the water

They did throw the net in and they had more fish than they could haul in.

Then the disciple Jesus loved said to Peter, "It's the Lord!" When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his tunic (for he had stripped for work), jumped into the water, and headed to shore. The others stayed with the boat and pulled the loaded net to the shore, for they were only about a hundred yards from shore.

John immediately realizes that it is Jesus!

The same thing had happened to them on the same lake – 3 years before this

Peter, probably in just his underwear, puts on his outer garment and jumps in the water

The other disciples kept working to get the net ashore

When they got there, they found breakfast waiting for them—fish cooking over a charcoal fire, and some bread. "Bring some of the fish you've just caught," Jesus said. So Simon Peter went aboard and dragged the net to the shore. There were 153 large fish, and yet the net hadn't torn.

When they finally got the boat to shore they found Jesus waiting for them – already cooking fish and bread

Jesus – Bring some more fish

Peter gets on the boat – drags the net further ashore and gets some fish

153 fish

Jerome – 4th Century church leader/teacher/writer – that was the number of kinds of fish in the lake – coded message about Jesus wanting to reach all the different groups of people in the world

Sequence – 1+2+3+ … 17 = 153 ----- 10 and 7 are perfect numbers therefore …

That was the number of languages that were known about …

What if it was so incredible that it lodged in John’s memory?

It was actually 153 fish

"Now come and have some breakfast!" Jesus said. None of the disciples dared to ask Him, "Who are You?" They knew it was the Lord. Then Jesus served them the bread and the fish. This was the third time Jesus had appeared to His disciples since He had been raised from the dead. (John 21:1-14 NLT)

Jesus sat and ate with them

No one dared to ask … Who are you?

They knew it was the Lord

WE’LL PICKUP THE STORY RIGHT THERE NEXT WEEK – FINISH JOHN’S ACCOUNT

Teachers/preachers/pastors have often come down on Peter because he decided to go fishing …

I think that is unfair and I think that it is a misunderstanding of life and of faith

Think about it … the times when it is easy to hold on and trust is when Jesus is there

When we feel him

When he seems closer than at other times

But what about when he’s not there?

Or at least He doesn’t appear to be there?

When you are expecting God to do something

When you are continually scanning the horizon for some sign of God being at work

There is an account in the life of Elijah – OT prophet

God had just done some amazing – miraculous work through his ministry and then God goes silent

Elijah is hiding in a cave – Gone fishing

God says go out and stand on the mountain and I’m going to talk to you

Elijah goes to the entrance of the cave

Violent wind – tore the earth apart and shattered rocks – but God wasn’t in the wind

Incredible earthquake – But God wasn’t in the earthquake

Fire – But God wasn’t in the fire

It’s relatively easy to trust my past, present and future into God’s hand/care when He’s right there

When I feel close to God – there is very little challenge to trusting him

Those Mountain top experiences are awesome – we want to live there

When we can feel God

When we can see God

When God is working in amazing ways

But what about when we can’t feel? See?

What about when there is nothing amazing happening?

Jesus said to Thomas – Blessed are those who believe without seeing!

Doesn’t life still have to be lived when we aren’t seeing?

When God’s not talking?
When it is not clear what we are supposed to do next?

Doesn’t Jesus still call us to love God and love our neighbor in the silent times?

Jesus’ brother James – “Consider it pure joy when you go through trials …”

Not – Consider it pure joy when you feel Jesus really close and he’s doing amazing things

For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing. (James 1:3-4 NLT)

Memorial on the beach – God gets a bad wrap

In this guys case – if everything in life had been up and to the right always I’m not sure that he would have come to faith – but in the moments of trials/waiting/where … his faith was tested and his endurance had a chance to grow

I think that Peter gets a bad rap for going fishing!

When Elijah was up on the mountain

Just like God told him to do

The wind, earthquake and then the fire

He heard a - Gentle breeze – he wrapped his cloak around himself

Walked out into the open --- that was when he heard God

It was in the gentle breeze

You might be wondering where Jesus is right now

Why isn’t he … $, health, relationships, business, child’s/grandchild’s life

It doesn’t mean that he’s not doing something.

It isn’t wrong for you to live life …

Expectation is that you would love God and love your neighbor even when you are waiting

Remember what Jesus said:

“Blessed are those who believe without seeing Me."

Remember what Peter wrote – INCREDIBLE ENCOURAGEMENT