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 John 21:1-14: Danger! Leader at work!! (please click here for todays passage)

Here is a leader in full swing. He decides to do something (3), and others say, ‘’We’ll go with you.’’ They take their inspiration from him. (See again 7, 8 where the rest of the group follow Peter).  Now the text does not criticise Peter for his decision to go fishing, but I note that there is no record of his praying about it. You may say, ‘’Well why would he? It was probably just an obvious thing to do.’’ But he returned to what was his old occupation, before Jesus called him to a whole new life. When he pushed the boat out onto Galilee, he was acting on his own initiative. And the result? ‘’…but that night they caught nothing’’ (3b).  It was only when they heard the voice of Jesus, and were obedient to Him, that they caught fish (6). In fact, it was a miraculous haul, as on a previous occasion (Luke 5:1-10). For me, the lesson is clear: a church wanting to be fruitful in evangelism must pay close attention to Jesus.

Bill Hybels, the senior pastor of Willow Creek Community church, Chicago, has a mantra: ‘’Speed of the leader, speed of the team.’’ Because leadership is so important; because so much in the church rises and falls with leadership; because leaders create waves for good or ill, with their words and actions, brothers and sisters, I urge you, PRAY FOR YOUR LEADERS! Make them the object of sincere, believing and fervent intercession. You many never know on earth the good you will do for the church by your prayers, but if you are content to be invisible to man, but known to God, what a ministry you can carry out on your knees, and in the secret place. Because Simon Peter’s are going to be followed by Thomas’s, Nathanael’s etc, pray that these Simon Peter’s will not just act, but act on the word of Christ. There are many good ideas in the church that did not have their origin in heaven. We may be impressed by them. They make perfect sense to us. There’s just one problem – they are not of God.                                                                                                          Here’s one final thought, Jesus is there in our moments of failure (4), but we may not recognise Him. But once we do see Him, and respond to His voice, we are on our way to real success. Your failure can be the doorway into a more fruitful life.

John 20:24-21: Thomas, my twin!(please click for passage)

I remember one Bible commentator saying ‘’Didymus’’ (24) means ‘’twin’’. He admitted that we don’t know who Thomas’ twin was, but, he said, ‘’We sometimes think we are!” He has a point.  It may be a bit of a cliché, and yet I think it is a valid point, that you never know what you might miss when you skip a meeting. Of course, it’s true that everyone misses church at times. We go away on holidays; illness can intervene; we may have family to visit. So many valid reasons can keep us away. Nevertheless we are living in an age, in the West at least, where many Christians seem to have higher priorities than regular fellowship. I sometimes wonder what church membership means for people who are haphazard and irregular in their church attendance. When Thomas ‘’missed church’’ his fellow-believers let him know what he’d missed (25a).

The sight of Jesus’ wounded body must have made a profound impression on the disciples (20), and it seems that they spoke about this to Thomas (25b) But he replied like a true rationalist. Some have tried to explain away the resurrection appearances of Christ as hallucinations. But Thomas was not about to have one!

One week later, the scene was replicated (26; see 19). The only difference was that Thomas had made it to church! When Jesus graciously gave this personal invitation to Thomas (27), the sceptical disciple must have realised that Christ was in the room earlier when he spoke his unbelieving words (25b). Certainly He had heard them. Earlier this year, while Jilly and I were visiting a church of many thousands in Singapore, something was said in the sermon that made us realise that Jesus knew all about a conversation we’d had earlier that morning. The detail doesn’t matter here. But Jesus has ways of letting you know that He knows you through and through, and He knows precisely where you are.                ‘’Lord’’(28) can be a polite courtesy, like ‘’Sir’’. Or it can mean ‘divine’. Here it must have the fullest content. Thomas did not need to apply his ‘tests’. He was humbly convinced. In (29), the Lord pronounces a blessing on all who believe without seeing. That embraces the majority of Christians. The world says, ‘’Seeing is believing’’, but we say, ‘’Believing is seeing’’ (Hebrews 11:1, 6).  The chapter closes on the note of informing the reader that Jesus did many more ‘’miraculous signs’’ than those recorded in this gospel (30). But those which have been written down are intended to lead to faith.

PRAYER: Lord Jesus, I find myself with Thomas – wanting to worship you as ‘’My Lord and my God!’’

John 20:19-23: The secret of peace.(please click for passage)

Fear keeps many a door locked. Think about the damage done in relationships; the ways we lock people out – often through fear. We have already seen that Jesus is not limited by our locked doors.

As I prayed though this section earlier today, I thought, ‘’When people come to church they are wanting to see Jesus (12:21). This is the longing in their hearts. So may my preaching answer that deep need.’’ The vision of Jesus is indissolubly linked to the experience of profound joy (20).Someone described joy as ‘’the serious business of heaven’’. But it begins even now as Jesus walks into your room (19) and shows Himself to you; when He breathes His Spirit into you and speaks peace upon your life. What a glorious, life-changing thing it is to meet Jesus. You don’t have to literally see Him with your eyes, or ear Him with your ears to know that you have encountered Him. However, I remember hearing the story of a prisoner, lying in his cell one night, and Jesus came through the walls and spoke to him.He’s not the only person, by any means, to have had such a vision. It’s an interesting thought that after the Lord ‘’showed them his hands and side’’ the next thing it says is that ‘’they saw the Lord.’’ If you see Jesus – really see Him – you will see His cross; see that His wounds were for you. To truly see Jesus means that you will see that He died for you. To see the Lord is to see that the heart of what He came to do centres on the work of Calvary.

Twice in this short section Jesus says, ‘’Peace be with you!’’ (19b, 21). In between those statements, what did Jesus do? ‘’…he showed them his hands and side’’ (20a). The cross is central to peace. There can be no experience of ‘shalom’ without ‘’Christ crucified’’ (Ephesians 2:14, 17). We need Jesus, today, to breathe His Spirit on us if we are to know His Presence, hear His voice, see His sacrifice and go out on His mission. The words in verse 23 do not mean that we can bestow forgiveness, but we can announce it. We can say to people who repent of their sins and trust in Jesus that they are forgiven.

PRAYER: ‘’O Breath of God breathe on us now, and move within us as we pray.’’

John 20:19-20: No locked doors! (Please click for todays passage)

There are no locked doors to Jesus!

It appears that there was something different about the Lord after His resurrection. He was not always instantly recognised. It also seems He could just appear and disappear without warning. He could enter a room without needing to bother with the door. A lock and a bolt could not stop Him.

There are locked doors to us; but there are no locked doors to Jesus. He can get into seemingly impregnable situations. Look how Bibles have found there way into ‘closed’ countries. See how the persecuted church has thrived in nation after nation where the ruling elite were desperately trying to keep Christ out. Jesus is unstoppable. He gets to where He wants to be. The ‘iron curtain’; the ‘bamboo curtain’ – they just have not stopped Him, and they can’t.

I was thinking recently that Jesus can get behind the ‘locked doors’ of people’s illnesses and problems. What seems intractable, insoluble, incurable is a specialism for our Lord. An old chorus says it well: ‘’Got any rivers you think are uncrossable? Got any mountains you can’t tunnel through? God specialises in things thought impossible. He can do just what no other can do.’’

So have hope and pray on. Pray for open doors (Colossians 4:3;1 Corinthians 16:9).     ‘’Faith, mighty faith, the promise sees, and looks to that alone. Laughs at impossibilities and cries, ‘It shall be done!’ “

But, and it’s an important point, wouldn’t you want the Lord Jesus to keep every door tightly shut that He doesn’t want you to go through? We may need protecting from ourselves and our desires.  ‘’What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open’’ (Isaiah 22:22; Revelation 3:7). There is safety in that.

John 20:14-18: Don’t lose these keys!(please click for passage)

How can you be a joyful disciple in all circumstances? How can you avoid unnecessary tears? Here’s a bunch of keys:

Key one: Recognise the presence of Jesus in negative circumstances (14, 15). Learn to see Him there with you. Admittedly, this may take time, and will not be possible without the Lord’s own gracious revelation. Nevertheless, for our part, we can believe that there are no wasted situations, and discipline ourselves to look for Jesus at work when He most seems absent. Pray that you will see ‘’Jesus standing there’’ in the midst of your pain, and recognise Him.

Key two: Question yourself (15a). In other words, counsel yourself. Ask, ‘’Why?’’ ‘’Why are you feeling (thinking, acting) like this? If this other reality is true; if Jesus is alive; then ‘Why?’ Why the downcast eyes and the down turned mouth? Why?” There is a precedent for this taking yourself in hand approach in the psalms. For example: ‘’Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Saviour and my God.’’ (Psalm 42:5, 11; Psalm 43:5). Many years ago, a preacher friend painted a verbal picture, and it has remained on the canvas of my heart,unfaded, ever since. He said, ‘It’s like the psalmist takes his soul out of his body and gives it a good talking to.’ Learn to preach to a congregation of one – YOU!                               On occasions, we may need other people to ask these questions of us. Sometimes we will need the courage to ask such questions of others. I’m still working on this in the belief that good questions can be more helpful than good answers. A well fashioned, well-timed question can leave you seeing the irrationality of your feelings, the implausibility of your thoughts, and the unbelief in your behaviour.

Key three: To have real joy and peace you must see who Jesus is. You cannot live the Christian life to the fullest while you remain mistaken about His identity (15). If you think Jesus is someone other than who He actually is, you will have problems. Bad theology leads to bad living. (However, consider this: ‘’Mary’s intuitive guess, that he must be the gardener, was wrong at one level and right, deeply right, at another. This is the new creation. Jesus is the beginning of it. Remember Pilate: ‘Here’s the man!’ Here he is: the new Adam, the gardener, charged with bringing the chaos of God’s creation into new order, into flower, into fruitfulness. He has come to uproot the thorns and thistles and replace them with blossoms and harvests.’’ Tom Wright: ‘John for everyone, part two,’p.146.)

Key four: Listen out for the Word of Christ. Live your life daily close to the sound of His voice. One word from the Lord can be life-changing. Eugene Peterson makes the point that prayer is always an answering word – the Word of God comes first. In the last twenty four hours I have been discovering afresh how powerful it is to take the Bible and turn it into prayer. Much of what I’m writing today has come from what I’ve seen in praying the Scriptures.

Key five: Submit to Christ as Lord (17, 18). ‘’Do whatever he tells you’’ (John 2:5). Mary’s ‘agenda’ was not a bad one. It was born of love and adoration for Jesus. She wanted to cling to Him. But Jesus’ agenda for her was different. This was now a new day. Their relationship would be on a different footing. She would need to relate to Him ‘’after the flesh’’ no longer. He wanted her to ‘’Go…and tell…’’ Tom Wright, thinking about the prejudice against women in that day, makes the observation that anyone wanting to invent this story would not make a woman the ‘star’ of the show, and especially not a woman like Mary Magdalene.

It’s been said that, ‘’God loves you, and people have a wonderful plan for your life.’’ Sometimes we too have to resist other people’s well meaning plans for us. Jesus Christ is Lord, and His is the only agenda which counts. ‘’Do whatever he tells you.’’

JOHN 20:10-18:WHAT’S IN A NAME?

Doctor R.W.Dale was a British Congregational pastor and theologian. One day he was preparing an Easter sermon when the truth that Christ truly is alive hit him forcibly. He had known the doctrine Iin his mind for years, but that day it overwhelmed his heart. From then on ‘’the living Christ’’ became the theme of his preaching, and he got his congregation to sing a Easter hymn every Sunday morning: ‘’…Sunday,you know, is the day on which Christ left the dead.’’

It’s been pointed out that it appears we have a kind of ‘lying in state’ in (12) – but with the body missing. (It’s interesting that a little while earlier, Peter and John had apparently not seen these angels. Here is another example of that ‘ring of truth’ so evident in the gospels. Someone wanting to manufacture a story would probably want to erase such an inconvenient detail).                                                                                                                                There was no body in the tomb because Jesus stood outside it. He’s alive. There was something different about Jesus in His resurrection appearances. People often didn’t recognise Him immediately. That was the case with Mary, and we can’t help but smile wryly at her words spoken to the Lord (15b).                                                                                   Jesus had said earlier, in His famous ‘’good shepherd’’ discourse: ‘’…his sheep follow him because they know his voice…they do not recognise a stranger’s voice’’ (10:4,5). Again He said: ‘’My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me’’ (10:27).           Hearing Jesus speak your name makes all the difference. It did for Mary; it did also for Saul of Tarsus when he was ‘’still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples’’ (Acts 9:1). He was on his way to Damascus, armed with arrest warrants to put Christians behind bars. But while on his journey he ‘’felt the Hand of the Heavenly Policeman’ on his shoulder. He was apprehended by Jesus and taken into custody. The Lord spoke to him by name (Acts 9:4), and everything turned around from that point.

When you hear Jesus speak, you know who He is (16), and you discover what He wants you to do (17). Both Mary and Saul heard His voice and received a commission (Acts 9:15, 16). There can be a tendency for believers to ‘’hold on’’ to Jesus, but our job is to ‘’tell’’. Mary did not waste any more time standing around weeping. She was swift to pass on the good news (18), becoming an ‘apostle’ to the apostles. ‘’Mary not only shared the fact of His resurrection and that she had seen Him personally, but she also reported the words that He had spoken to her. Again, we see the importance of the Word of God. Mary could not transfer her experience over to them, but she could share the Word, and it is the Word that generates faith (Rom.10:17). The living Christ shared His living Word (1 Peter1:23-25).’’ Warren W. Wiersbe: ‘The Wiersbe Bible Commentary (NT)’, P.312.

PRAYER: Lord Jesus, please fill my heart with so much love for you, and so much joy because of you, that my heart empties out in words about you. It thrills me to know that you know me by name. Thank you.

John 20:1-3: The day that changed the world.(please click for todays passage)

WHAT MARY DID: Our last look at John 19 revealed two courageous men. Chapter 20 opens with a glimpse of a courageous woman. Her name was ”Mary of Magdala” (1), and it must have taken considerable courage to be out in Jerusalem that early morning, ”while it was still dark”. But those forgiven much, love much, and that was Mary Magdalene. Bob Goff wrote a book entitled, ”Love does”. Love cannot stand idly by when there are duties to be performed; good deeds to be done. What will your love drive you to do this day? It may take courage. (Incidentally, many Christians through the centuries have reported the wonderful spiritual revelations they have had in the early part of the day.)

WHAT MARY SAW: She ”saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance” (1). The tomb was a cave cut out of the rock. I have read that the stone placed in front of this tomb would have been heavy. It fitted into a groove that went slightly downhill, and probably took several men to roll it into place. This was a security measure to prevent grave-robbers from successfully pursuing their disgraceful aims. But Mary saw that the huge, heavy stone placed in front of Jesus’ grave had been rolled away. All four gospels report this to be the case, and the fact that the grave was empty. Someone observed, ”The stone was rolled away, not to let Jesus out, but the church in.”

WHAT MARY SAID: She hurried off and reported her staggering discovery ”to Simon Peter” and the beloved disciple (2a). She does not specify in her breathless outpouring who ”They” are, or who ”we” are (2b). We know from elsewhere that others were with Mary that morning (Matthew 28:1; Mark 16:1 and Luke 24:1). And we also know that no-one took Jesus out of the tomb except the Father and the Holy Spirit. Mary appears in John as the first apostle; an apostle to the apostles – a messenger, a ‘sent one’. It’s fascinating that the first witnesses to the resurrection were women, and a woman’s testimony was not accepted in a Jewish law court. You surely would not invent a story like this? Would you not try to edit out the unacceptable bits?

This I can say for sure: it’s good to make haste to spread the good news of the empty tomb. When we hear it we should ‘run’ to check it out; to examine the evidence. This matters so much.  It’s been pointed out that there is more running in John 20:1-10 than in the rest of the gospels put together. 

Professor Joad was a philosopher at London University, and a broadcaster. He was once asked, ”Which figure of history would you most like to meet, and what question would you put to him or her?” He replied, ”Jesus of Nazareth. And I would ask Him, ‘Did you or did you not rise from the dead?’ ”

RUN to see for yourself!