Tag Archives: John 21

November 11, 2023 Bible Study — The Importance of Forgiving Others

Today, I am reading and commenting on  John 19-21.

When Jesus appeared to His disciples after His resurrection He told them that He was sending them into the world as the Father had sent Him.  He followed that up by telling them to receive the Holy Spirit and that if they forgive anyone’s sins, those sins are forgiven, and if they do not forgive those sins, those sins are not forgiven.  From one perspective, Jesus was sent into the world to forgive people’s sin.  So, Jesus sent His disciples, and us, into the world in order to forgive people’s sin. This has some serious implications.  First, Jesus carried out His mission to forgive sins by dying n the cross, so we should expect that we may be called upon to suffer and die for others.  Not all of those present when Jesus said this died as martyrs, so not all of us will either.  I also want to stress the importance of forgiving the sins of those we meet.  Jesus told us that those we do not forgive will not be forgiven.  Of course, He also told us that if we do not forgive others, we will not be forgiven.

I want to add one final note: while it is important that we forgive the sins of others, there must be some sins which we should not forgive.  If the latter was not the case, Jesus would not have granted the Church the power to refuse to forgive some people’s sins.

Note: the Church is the Body of Believers. That is, each one of us who put our faith in Jesus Christ represent one portion of the Church.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

November 11, 2022 Bible Study — “We Have No King But Caesar”

Today, I am reading and commenting on  John 19-21.

When Jesus told Pilate that he would have no power over Jesus unless it had been given to him from above, Pilate would have understood Jesus to mean “given to him from Caesar”, when we as Christians understand Jesus to have meant, “given to Pilate by God.”  I believe that Jesus meant the traditional Christian understanding, but intended Pilate to take it the way that he did.  With that thought in his mind, Pilate would have found it difficult to oppose the argument that Jesus claiming a king made Him an enemy of Caesar.  There is another aspect of these two different possible meanings of Jesus statement about power being given from above, it highlights the idolatry which the Jewish religious leaders expressed when they said they had no king but Caesar.  A consistent theme throughout the Old Testament presented God as the king of Israelites.  The kings of Israel ruled as surrogates for God’s rule.  By declaring that Caesar was their only king, the Jewish religious leaders were denying a commitment to God as the highest authority.  More importantly for us, they were replacing God with the government of Caesar.  We must be careful not to make the same mistake: the mistake of allowing ourselves to think that the government can bring us salvation from whatever problems we believe are overwhelming.  We have just come off of an election where too many Christians put their hope for the future in voting, and thus in the government, when they should be putting their hope in God.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

November 11, 2021 Bible Study — Only God Can Give Someone Power Over Us

Today, I am reading and commenting on  John 19-21.

Pilate tried to find a way to avoid ordering Jesus’ crucifixion because he did not believe him guilty of any crime deserving of crucifixion.  We can see that he became frustrated at Jesus’ refusal to make any arguments in His own defense.  Jesus’ response to Pilate is something we should bear in mind if and when we find ourselves facing government persecution for following our faith in Him: Pilate only had power over Jesus because it had been given him from above.  In the same way, the government only has powers over those who serve Jesus if God gives it to them.  I will also note that Jesus did not tell Pilate that he was not guilty for ordering the execution of One he knew to be innocent of the crimes with which He was charged.

When Mary Magdalene first saw the empty tomb, it must have been a real gut-punch for her.  She was already grieving the horrible death of someone she had loved, now she couldn’t even get closure by finishing the preparation of his body for burial.  Peter probably also felt even worse when he found the empty tomb, but for different reasons.  On one hand, perhaps someone had stolen to body for who knows what nefarious purpose.  On the other hand, perhaps Jesus had risen, after Peter had betrayed Him by denying that he knew Him.  Then came the joy!  For Mary it came quickly.  Jesus appeared to her and she realized that He had risen.  I want to take a moment to emphasize that John tells us here that a woman was the first witness to Jesus rising from the dead, and the first to believe that He had risen.  Once again, God did not first reveal Himself to those the world considered important.  If John was making this story up, why wasn’t the first to see the risen Jesus one of the male disciples?  OK, back to my main point here.  It took a lot longer for Peter to feel the joy of Jesus’ resurrection, because he had to deal with the fact that he had denied Jesus at the critical moment.  And yet the joy he must have felt when he realized that Jesus asked him three times if he loved Him for a reason.  Jesus gave Peter the opportunity to declare his love once for each of the time he denied Him.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

November 11, 2020 Bible Study They Have No Power Over Us Except That Given Them From Above

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on John 19-21

From time to time we will face those who seek to use whatever power over us they may have, whether that power is legitimate or just bullying, to keep us from standing up for what we believe in.  In those circumstances we should remember what Jesus said to Pilate during His trial, “You would have no power over me at all unless it were given to you from above.”  This statement is equally true of those who attempt to exercise power over us.  They will have no more power over us than that which God gives them.  Therefor we should not be afraid to stand up for what God has revealed to us in the face of such threats.

I have always identified with Thomas in this passage.  When the other disciples told him that they had seen Jesus after the Resurrection, he did not believe them.  He was a skeptic.  However, he was what I would call an honest skeptic.  He thought the claim that Jesus had risen from the dead was extraordinary and therefor required proof.  He did not call his friends liars, he merely said that he could not take their word for it.  Then he laid out what he would consider sufficient proof that Jesus had risen from the dead.  However, the most beautiful part is that when he did see Jesus in the flesh, he did not need the proof which he had demanded.  Thomas was willing to believe, but was not willing to be deceived.  We should seek to emulate him.

November 11, 2019 Bible Study — Where Do Our Loyalties Lie?

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on John 19-21

When the leading priests declared that they have no king but Caesar they were making a blasphemous statement.  They intended it as a political statement to force Pilate’s hand, but it was also a repudiation of God.  By making this statement, they were declaring that their highest allegiance was to Caesar when it should have been to God.  This should be a warning to us.  We can get so caught up in promoting our political ideas that we place government above God.

I love thinking about what was happening when Peter went fishing again after Jesus’ resurrection.  Peter did not know what else to do, so he went fishing.  The other Apostles joined him because they did not know what else to do either.  All of them had been spending all of their time for the last three years following Jesus around.  Now He had died and while He had risen from the dead and appeared to them, He wasn’t around all of the time.  So, Peter went back to what he knew, fishing.  I was going to focus on the fact that Jesus got Peter to declare that he loved Him once for each of the times Peter had denied Him, but I realized there is another point to this story.

Peter went back to fishing because, now that his days of being a disciple of a famous rabbi were over, he needed to support himself.  However, he spent all night fishing and caught nothing.  Jesus showed up as he was giving up and told him to throw the nets back into the water.  They did as He said, even though they were too close to shore to reasonably expect to catch anything and as a result they caught an extraordinarily large haul.  Then Jesus tells Peter that he needs to focus on building up those who chose to follow Jesus going forward.  God would take care of his needs.

November 11, 2018 Bible Study — Just Because Someone Else’s Sin Is Greater Does Not Mean That You Are Not a Sinner

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on John 19-21.

    When Jesus was before Pilate He told Pilate that he only had the power to crucify Him because it had been given to Him from God. The same thing applies to us and the authorities. Jesus did not answer to Pilate and we do not answer to the authorities of this world either. Jesus answered only to the Father and Pilate, the authority of this world, only had the power over Him which the Father had given him. Now, as I was re-reading this in order to compose the above thoughts, something new struck me. Jesus told Pilate that he was going to order His crucifixion even though Pilate knew that Jesus was innocent of the charges. By doing so, Pilate would be sinning, even by Pilate’s own moral code. When those in authority break the rules to mete out punishment on the innocent (whether they know they are innocent or not), they are sinning and God will hold them accountable. I wanted to point out that Jesus’ statement about those who turned Him over to Pilate had the greater sin still implied that Pilate sinned because all of the commentaries I remember on this verse tend to make you think otherwise. Those who bring punishment down upon those who they know have been falsely accused sin, but those who bring the false accusations commit a greater sin.

    I have often wished we knew more about Thomas because he is the one of the Twelve I most identify with. Thomas was not willing to take the word of the other disciples on Jesus’ resurrection. He needed to see for himself. He was skeptical of the testimony from the others because it seemed to him like wishful thinking. In many ways Thomas represents the answer to those who question why, if Jesus did the things the Bible says He did, so few non-Christian sources mention Him at all. How could someone see what Jesus had done, even before the resurrection, believe that He was someone significant enough to mention, and not become His follower? If you saw what Jesus had done and were skeptical of His miracles, then He was just another rabble-rouser, and not a particularly significant one since He made no attempt to raise an army to overthrow the Romans. Only those who believed He was the Messiah would have viewed Him as significant until His followers numbers in the 10os of thousands. I want to circle back to Thomas before I end. Thomas shows us that God will provide convincing evidence for those skeptics who genuinely seek the truth.

November 11, 2017 Bible Study — He Is Alive!

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on John 19-21.

    Near the end of Jesus’ trial before Pilate, Pilate tried to find a reason to release Jesus (if for no other reason than that he did not like being used by the Jewish leaders to get rid of their enemies). As part of that he asked Jesus if He understood that Pilate had the power to either have Him crucified or released. Jesus’ answer applies to us as well. Pilate only had power over Jesus because it was given to him from God. The same is true for us, government authorities, or anyone else, will only have power over us in as much as God has given it to them. Then, in a final attempt to get out of sending Jesus to be crucified, Pilate asks the priests if he should crucify their king. Historically we know that the priests had been vehement about defending their symbolic independence from Rome (they had no actual independence, but they tried to pretend that the Roman authorities needed their cooperation), crucifying their king ran counter to that. Their response goes even further, becoming a rejection of God. When the priests stated that they had no king but Caesar they were denying God’s kingship over themselves. Today, many Christians do something similar when they rely on the government to do things which Jesus said were the job of the Church.

    I know that I can credit Don Francisco for this, but every time I read John’s account of the empty tomb through Peter’s profession of love I get choked up. That song allows me to feel the strong, confused emotions the disciples would have felt that morning. First, grief and fear, followed by a forlorn hope, and finally joy beyond their ability to express. I want to note that once again it is a woman who is first to see the risen Jesus and feel the joy which came with the realization. Then we have the story of Thomas. I think Thomas is the disciple with whom I most identify (both from here and other places he appears in the Gospels). When the other disciples told him they had seen Jesus he was not willing to believe. I think that is because he did not want to have his hopes smashed one more time. He was afraid the other disciples were believing an hallucination. He wanted to be sure that his desire to believe did not lead him to do the sames. Finally, when Jesus asked Peter three times if he loved Him, you can just see how Peter is feeling, “Because I denied Him those three times when He needed support the most, Jesus won’t believe that I love Him now. He will never trust me again.” Yet, after the third time, Jesus makes it clear that these three professions of love were for Peter for him to profess his love once for each time he denied Jesus. The final thing is that after that third time Jesus tells Peter that the next time he is called to risk all for Jesus he will rise to the challenge.