04/06/2021 – Gospel of John fellowship – Chapter 21 wrap up – “Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written”. John 21:25 (concluding verse)/ Finally: “Our hope of resurrection and life everlasting is based, not on a philosophic guess about immortality, but an historic fact.”
I encourage y’all to search all Gospel of John posts: Search on text: “Gospel of John”. You will get about 9 screens in results, the two posts in Feb22 for our last cycle of “21 chapters in 21 days will appear on or around the top of the third screen of nine. Post 1 of 2 is titled: “Resurrection is a historic fact.; and Post 2 of 2 is titled: “Universality of the Church”.
- Why did Jesus’ followers, including the disciples have so much trouble recognizing him post-resurrection? Thoughts?
Here is a link to a Fr. Longenecker’s explanation -:
- John sensed the importance, as did the other Gospel writers, in emphasizing that Jesus rose from the dead bodily, in the flesh, not just spiritually. As William Barclay points out in his commentary, pg 283 – “Gospel of John – Volume II”: “The first and simplest aim of this story is to make quite clear the reality of the resurrection. The Risen Lord was not a vision nor the figment of someone’s imagination, nor the appearance of a spirit or a ghost; it was Jesus who had conquered death and come back.”
- Why was there a specific mention of 153 fish in the nets? Barclay’s simplest explanation – 3 or 3: “The simplest explanation is that given by Jerome. He said that in the sea there were 153 different kind of fishes; and that the catch is one which includes every kind of fish; and that therefore the number symbolizes the fact that some day all men of all nations will be gathered together to Jesus Christ.” True or not, it is a sublime reflection, and I expect there are untold levels of truth yet to be unraveled.
Here is Matthew Henry’s full commentary on Chapter 21:
https://biblehub.com/commentaries/mhc/john/21.htm
‘Let’s look at 21:15 within the section titled “Jesus Reinstates Peter” in my NIV bible. Why did Jesus ask Peter: “Do you love me…?”, three times , back-to-back. One commentator posited that it stemmed from Peter’s denial three times. I believe that Peter does show a spiritual renewal, it is not so much the boisterous cocky follower, but a humble trusting servant.
Henry Haley’s interpretation of this section in his Bible Handbook is fascinating!:
” ‘More than these’ (15). These things? Or, these men? The masculine and neuter forms of the Greek word for ‘these’ are the same. There is no way to tell in which sense it is here used. ‘Do you love me more than these other disciples love me?’ Or, ‘do you love me more than you love this fishing business?’ Was Jesus twitting Peter for his three-fold denial? Or was he gently chiding him for returning to the fishing business? We are inclined to think the later.
‘Lovest thou me?’ (15,16,17). Jesus uses ‘agapan’ Peter uses ‘philein.” Two Greek words for ‘love.’ Agapan expresses a higher type of devotion. Peter refuses to use it. The third time Jesus comes down to Peter’s word.”
And finally !:
I hadn’t planned on it but I am going to share with you Henry Halley’s concluding section : “The Resurrection” under the Gospel of John:
‘The Resurrection of Christ from the Dead is the ONE MOST IMPORTANT item in the whole fund of human knowledge: the grand event of the ages, toward which all previous history moved, and in which all subsequent history finds its meaning. The story of it has plowed through the centuries, and changed the face of the earth.. (See note on 1 Corinthians 15.)
Is it a fact? Did he really rise from the dead? If he did not, what became of the body? If enemies stole it, they surely would have produced it, for they stopped short of nothing to discredit the story, even to the murdering of those who told it. If friends stole it, they would have known they were believing a lie; but men do not become martyrs to what they know to be false.
One Thing is Certain: those who first published the story that Jesus had risen from the dead BELIEVED it to be a fact. They rested their faith, not only on the empty tomb, but on the fact that they themselves had SEEN Jesus ALIVE after his burial; not once, not twice, but at least ten recorded times; and not singly, nor alone, but in groups of two, seven, ten, eleven, five hundred.
An Hallucination! Could it not have been an ecstasy? A dream? A fantasy of an excited imagination? an apparition? Different groups of people do not keep on seeing the same hallucination. 500 people in a crowd would not all dream the same dream at the same time. Moreover, they were not expecting it. Considered it an idle tale’ at first (Luke 24:11). Did not believe it till they had to.
Only in a swoon? Could it not be that Jesus was not really dead when they buried him, and that he came to again? In that case, weak and exhausted, he could scarcely have removed the heavy stone door and gotten out of the tomb. Besides he had new powers that he had never manifested before – to appear and disappear through locked doors. The eleven (or 120?), in a group, personally saw him slowly rise from the earth, and disappear behind the clouds.
The records tampered with? Could it not be that the resurrection was a later addition to the story of Christ, invented years later to glorify a dead hero? It is known, from historical records outside of Scripture, that the sect known as Christians came to existence in the reign of Tiberius, and that the thing that brought them into existence was their belief that Jesus had risen from the dead. The resurrection was not a later addition to the Christian faith, but the very cause and start of it. They rested their faith, not on records, but on what they had seen with their own eyes. The records were the result of their faith, not the cause of it. Had there been no resurrection, there would have been no New Testament, and no Church.
What a Halo of Glory this simple belief sheds on human life. Our hope of resurrection and life everlasting is based, not on a philosophic guess about immortality, but an historic fact.
Soli Deo Gloria! Grab on and don’t ever let go! Always connected through His grace and by prayer…