Category Archives: John

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A Resurrected Lord For My Real Life

Being With Jesus:
John 21:1

Afterward Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Galilee.

John 21 is a rather strange chapter. In a sense, it almost seems unnecessary. John 20 could have easily been the conclusion of this amazing Gospel, for it more than adequately tells the resurrection story (John 20:1-10), more than adequately offers proof that Jesus was alive (he visibly appears four times to his disciples in John 20:11-29), and more than adequately summarizes the purpose of John’s account along with the core of salvation (John 20:30-31).  The End!

But then, like a man who wears both belts and suspenders, as if we really needed any more, here comes chapter 21, and John feels as if he needs to offer even more stories that Jesus is alive indeed. Yet these stories are a bit strange in that they are not so much on the level of the grand appearances of the Resurrected Lord in all his empty tomb splendor, a la chapter 20, they are more of the garden variety insertions of Jesus into the common moments of his disciples’ everyday life :

  • Jesus shows up at work during the graveyard shift to offer some helpful advice: “Hey fellas, try throwing your nets on the other side of the boat. I betcha there’s a bunch of fish over there!” (John 21:6)
  • After work, he has breakfast with his team: “Hey guys, I got a fire going, so bring some of those fish you just caught. Let’s eat before you head home.” (John 21:9-14)
  • Before they leave, he offers some challenging but encouraging professional direction to Peter, discouraged from failing the Lord in his moment of need: “Hey Peter, I know you denied knowing me at my trial, and you probably think that’s a deal breaker for me using you as team leader to this band of disciples, but chin up, I’ve got a big job for you.” (John 21:15-23)

This story has a very common, average, everyday feel to it that is easy to miss.  You see, much has been made in this chapter about the disciples going back to what they previously knew—the fishing business—as if they were giving up on their call to ministry. But I say that is highly unlikely. After the grand appearances of the Resurrected Lord in chapter 20, certainly these guys weren’t giving up on Jesus—they were more than convinced he was alive, and therefore Lord over death and Author of life. No, they were simply doing what good men did in those days—work. They were bi-vocational pastors, so perhaps they were just being responsible.

Likewise, much has been made about the miraculous haul of fish—153 large ones, to be exact. But was it a really a miracle, or was it simply the result of Jesus seeing from the shore what the disciples a hundred yards into the water couldn’t—a school of fish on the opposite side from where they were looking.  In commentary on John, William Barclay offers this interesting insight into this incident, quoting H.V. Morton, a well-known nineteenth century travel writer who extensively wrote on the Holy Land,

“‘It happens very often that the man with the hand-net must rely on the advice of someone on shore, who tells him to cast either to the left or the right, because in the clear water he can often see a shoal of fish invisible to the man in the water.’ Jesus was acting as guide to his fishermen friends, just as people still do today.”

Furthermore, much has been made about Jesus’ interaction with Peter—a difficult conversation where the Lord presses him on the depth and strength of this disciple’s love. Many preachers have highlighted the different Greek words for love used by Jesus (agape) and Peter (philos), as if there were some veiled secondary conversation going on between the two. But perhaps this was nothing more than the Lord showing a struggling disciple, embarrassed and discouraged that he had failed the Lord, feeling unworthy of even being around Jesus, that there were indeed  big plans for a future of ministry impact.

For certain, John 20 is about the spectacular, undeniable miracle of the Resurrected Lord walking out of an empty tomb, but chapter 21 brings to us the spectacular, undeniable miracle of a Resurrected Lord waking into our ordinary moments. As I ponder the purpose of this addendum to the resurrection, it seems to me that more than anything, this chapter is simply yet thankfully showing us how Jesus goes out of his way to come to us in our mundane moments—the difficult slog of our daily work, the banal details of our daily breakfast, the harsh reality of redirecting our failure into building blocks of a future usefulness in service to him. John 21 is the ongoing miracle of the Lord in the details of our dull dailyness.

Thank God John included this postscript of a Risen Savior who goes out of his way be the Resurrected Lord for my real life!

“The whole life of a Christian should be nothing but praises and thanks to God; we should neither eat nor sleep, but eat to God and sleep to God and work to God and talk to God, do all to His glory and praise.” (Richard Sibbes)

Getting To Know Jesus: Write down three ordinary moments of the day that is ahead of you—a stop for coffee on the way to work, a trip to the post office, taking out the trash when you come home, etc. Now, thank God in advance that Jesus will be with you in those moments, and anticipate how he will help, encourage and direct you as you go about your ordinary day.

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What Christ’s Resurrection Does For You

Being With Jesus:
John 20:19-23 (NLT)

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. 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.” 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.”

It was the evening of resurrection Sunday, and the disciples were abuzz with the resurrection. A few of them had encountered the living Lord but others of them had only heard rumors of resurrection. They were about to get the surprise of their lives—and this would be a game-changer.

No man had ever risen from the dead, and if this were indeed true, it would prove beyond all reasonable doubt that Jesus was who he said he was—God come in the flesh. And if he was who he claimed to be—the living Lord of life and Savior of the word—he therefore had it within his authority and power to do what he said he would do: forgive sin, heal the sick, set those in bondage free, provide his subjects with a real experience of the Kingdom life and in fact, grant them eternal life.

This was truly the Good News!

Yet for all their anticipation of a resurrected Jesus—and all that it implied—these disciples were still huddled in fear behind closed doors. They were still intimidated by the religious leaders who ruled the day with an iron fist and the religious system that had sent their Lord to the cross in the first place. There was still a major disconnect between what they intellectually accepted and their emotional reality. Fear and concern dominated their better judgment.

Now before we get too far down the road on this, perhaps we ought to admit that fear and concern often dominate our emotions, our behavior, our thinking as well. We accept that Jesus is risen, that he is Lord over all, yet we easily get intimidated by circumstances, get set back on our heels by the system, whatever that might be for us, and give into fear in our emotions. We are really no different than the disciples—their story is our story.

But thank God for Jesus! While he suddenly appeared among those first disciples—one of the benefits of having a resurrected body—he no longer needs to do that with us. Why? He doesn’t have to; he is already among us. In fact, his promise is that he will never leave us nor forsake us. (Hebrews 13:5) Moreover he shows himself to us, not necessarily by opening his wounded hands, but by holding our hands all along the way. (Isaiah 46:3) It’s true, that as we look back over the course of our journey with Jesus, our testimony has to be, “the Lord has led us all along the way.” (Deuteronomy 8:2) Then to neutralize our concerns and fears, he grants us his peace—the peace of Christ that rules ours hearts. (Colossians 3:15, Philippians 4:7) And he makes all of this not only possible, but sustainable by placing the Father’s gift within us—the precious Holy Spirit, who infuses us with both the authority and power of God Almighty to do his will and work.

So rather than living our lives huddled in fear and paralyzed by worry, like the disciples, as we act in faith upon what Jesus has done, we can live in inner confidence and spiritual power—we, too, like those first disciples, can change the world. At the very least, our corner of the world can—and should—look radically different now that the resurrection has rocked our world.

This truly is and always will be the Good News!

“If Jesus rose from the dead, then you have to accept all that he said; if he didn’t rise from the dead, then why worry about any of what he said? The issue on which everything hangs is not whether or not you like his teaching but whether or not he rose from the dead.” (Timothy Keller)

Getting To Know Jesus: Take a moment to invite the Holy Spirit to remind you of the full power and real authority that is now within you to live in the reality of Christ’s resurrection.

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Letting Go Of Immature Views Of Jesus

Being With Jesus:
John 20:17 (NLT)

“Don’t cling to me,” Jesus said, “for I haven’t yet ascended to the Father. But go find my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

Imagine Mary’s surprise—and joy—at hearing that familiar voice tenderly whisper her name as she stood before the tomb of Jesus: “Mary!” (John 20:16) She turned to see what she had never expected to find when she left early that morning to care for the Lord’s crucified body. Jesus was alive! And Mary was overcome with a thousand different emotions all at one time that she grabbed onto Jesus like she would never let go again. She had lost him once; she was not about to let that happen twice!

If you are a parent and have ever lost your child in a department store, you will understand that scene: After minutes that seem like hours of panicked searching, you find that child, and while you feel like giving them the mother of all spankings, instead you hug them so tightly they almost suffocate.

That is exactly what Mary did, but in grabbing on to Jesus, she becomes a timeless picture of our tendency to cling to yesterday in order to feel good about today. We do that in a variety of ways:

We fiercely cling to a “spiritual high” from yesterday, wanting it replicated today.

We fiercely cling to wounds from disappointment, failure and hurt, and as a result, fear, guilt, and un-forgiveness now controls, if not defines our lives.

We fiercely cling to the attention we get by being needy.

We fiercely cling to immature views developed in our spiritual adolescence of a God who winks at sin and really doesn’t punish our wrongs, or who must not care about us because he let bad things happen, or who is nothing more than a celestial “sugar daddy” who gives everything we want.

Mary was a spiritual clinger; she was guilty of all those incomplete and immature views. Jesus, however, refused to let her stay in that frame of mind, so he said to her, “Don’t hold onto me!” (John 20:17) The word “hold” is hapto in the Greek text, and it means, “to cling, to desperately grasp onto!”

Grammatically, in the negative it means to stop doing what you always do—and are now doing again. Jesus is really saying, “Quit hanging on to your warm, fuzzy memories of past experience of me. That limits your view of who really I am. Raise your expectations!” Then in the rest of verse 17, he says to Mary, “I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God!”

Jesus is pointing to a whole new order. He is more than just the crucified Savior who can forgive your past. He is more than just a rabbi (John 20:16) who gives you guidance and stability in the present. He is the risen Lord, who by virtue of his own transformation from death back to life, has the authority to transform your life today—and every day from here to eternity. And now he is going to the place of authority from where he will be your constant advocate, constant empowerer, and constant companion—in other words, he is your living Lord. Jesus is more than Savior—he is also Lord.

Finally, the light dawned for Mary. She got it! Mary went and found the disciples in John 20:18 and said to them, “I have seen” … not “the teacher” … not “the Savior” …but, “I have seen the Lord!”

I hope you will get it too! Stop clinging to your immature and incomplete views of Jesus. He is not only your Savior—the one who forgives you of your sins, he wants also to be your Lord—the one who will rule over your moment-by-moment life.

 

“There is not an inch of any sphere of life of which Jesus Christ the Lord does not say, ‘Mine.’” (Abraham Kuyper)

Getting To Know Jesus: Is there any area of your life that does not belong to Jesus? Your thought life? Language? Use of money? Friendships? Sex life? Attitude? Treatment of others? If he is not Lord over any one of these areas, he is not Lord at all. So hit your knees and surrender to his Lordship—and never turn back. You will not regret it!

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Following Christ Without Any If’s

Being With Jesus:
John 20:3-6 (NLT)

Peter and the other disciple started out for the tomb. They were both running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He stooped and looked in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he didn’t go in. Then Simon Peter arrived and went inside.

You’ve got to give Peter credit—he was never one to hold back. John outran him to the tomb, but nervously stopped at the entrance to peek in. Not Peter! When he finally arrived, huffing and puffing, Peter, ignoring graveyard protocol, pushed past John right into the place where Jesus was buried.

Of course, the greatest part of this story is that Jesus wasn’t there! He had risen from the dead, the victor over death and sin, and now was alive forevermore. If Peter had found Jesus’ body still sealed behind the stone entrance of that tomb when they arrived, nothing else about this story would matter. But Jesus had risen, indeed, and that is why the other details of this story matter. Even small, seemingly insignificant details become both interesting and instructive—like Peter pressing in past John to witness the reality of the resurrection first hand.

Peter’s spiritual pushiness is what endeared him to Jesus. His personal deficiencies are well documented, of course; the entire world knows of them thanks to the Gospel writers. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John pulled no punches in their accounts of this braggadocios, foot-in-mouth, leap-before-you-look, think-before you speak disciple. Yet is was Peter’s reckless abandon when it came to spiritual expectancy that led Jesus to declare,

“Peter, on your kind of faith, I am going to build this small team of disciples into a world-wide force called ‘the church’ that will take back Planet Earth from Satan and return it to its Rightful Owner.” (Matthew 16:18)

Sure, Peter got into trouble more than his fair share, but he was the only disciple to actually get out of the boat to walk on water—albeit a walk that was short-lived and ultimately very wet. He was the first to go into the empty tomb—Ground Zero of the Christian faith. And he was the first one called upon in Acts 2 to give the inaugural sermon of the Christian era—where two thousand people responded to his altar call.

Jesus loved Peter’s brassy boldness. That was the kind of raw material the Lord could work with. It was certainly raw, but it was ready. It didn’t take much to light a fire with Peter; he was a tinderbox waiting for combustion.

I think we could learn something from Peter’s example. Peter didn’t have it all together in his life, but he was always willing to offer all that he had, raw as it was, and press into Jesus with full expectancy of what could happen when raw readiness met with resurrection reality.

“Faith takes God without any ‘if’s.’” (D.L. Moody)

Getting To Know Jesus: Be Peter-like today in your journey with Jesus: a bit bold, daring to go so far as to be a little spiritually pushy. Chances are, you will encounter some resurrection power. Word has it that it’s still floating around out there.

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Death Is Buried In The Crucified Christ

Being With Jesus:
John 19:30 (NLT)

Jesus drank the wine and said, “It is finished!” Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.”

Mission accomplished! The purpose for which God became man was complete! Jesus, the perfect God-man, had just offered himself as the only atoning sacrifice to the Heavenly Father for the sin of the world. He then proclaimed for all of heaven—and hell—to hear: It is finished. Having done that, Luke, one of the other Gospel writers, tells us that Jesus cried out in a loud voice then surrendered his spirit to God.

What I find profound about this is that a man in the final throws of death doesn’t cry out in a loud voice, unless he is a courageous soldier—a war hero dying in battle to defend his cause, liberate his people and defeat an enemy. No, a dying man usually whispers hoarsely, or whimpers pitifully, or expulses a cry of pain—or perhaps just gives up and quits breathing.

But Luke carefully chose the Greek phrase, fone megale —mega-phone—to capture Jesus’ final word. This was a shout of triumph, an outburst of victory! As he hung on that cross, Jesus had in his sights sin and death—those evil twins that had thwarted God’s original intent and tormented humanity since the fall of humanity back in the Garden of Eden.

Now, Jesus had defeated sin. He had offered himself as the once-and-for-all sacrifice for sin, he had forgiven the repentant thief, he had extended forgiveness to the ignorant who had sent him to the cross. Jesus had won! It was finished and Jesus knew it. Not his life; not his future; but his work was finished—complete, mission accomplished.

Yet there was one more thing he needed to do; one more enemy to defeat—Death. As Jesus’ life quickly ebbed toward death, the spirit of death appeared out of the invisible realm, ready to claim yet another victim—this time, to crush the life of the One who claimed to be the Resurrection and the Life. But just as the death demon reached out to take hold of Jesus, the Lord of Life laid hold of death instead.

Death was grasped and dragged until it was absorbed into the bosom of the Eternal One…and so, in that moment, all things were crucified —every last thing! Sin, sickness and suffering along with hell, the grave and yes, death, were crucified—all things!

But wait, there was one more thing: you and I. We were crucified with Christ…nevertheless, in dying with him, we live in him.

That was the loud voice—the fone megale—the shout of triumph. Our victory had been forever won! And having won the greatest of all victories—our eternal salvation, he bowed his head and surrendered his spirit. And the very next thing he heard on the other side, I imagine, was “well done, good and faithful Servant!”

 

“The death of Jesus Christ means the death of death itself.  The death of death in the death of Jesus Christ also means victory over death for those who trust in Christ as their God and Savior.” (Thabiti Anyabwile)

Getting To Know Jesus: Find a hymnal—you might have to look long and hard these days—and sing the him, “Christ Arose” as a prayer of gratitude to God for Christ atoning sacrifice for you.

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It Got Ugly

Being With Jesus:
John 19:15-16 (NLT)

>“Away with him! Crucify him!” yelled the Jewish leaders. “What? Crucify your king?” Pilate asked.
“We have no king but Caesar,” they shouted back. Then Pilate turned Jesus over to them to be crucified.

From our perspective as Christians nearly two thousand years after the event, the arrest, trial and crucifixion of Jesus has become a thing of redemptive beauty. This was God at his best—his love, grace, mercy, redemption and sovereignty on display as Jesus was beaten, mocked and nailed to a cross for the sins of the world.

Yet on that exact day Jesus was forced to endure this suffering, it got ugly—beyond description. So brutal was his treatment we would have averted our eyes in horror were we to witness it first hand. So disgusting was Pilate’s cowardly desire to placate the rabid hatred of the Jewish leaders we would have shaken our heads had we witnessed it for ourselves. So unhinged was the hatred of the Jewish leaders for their Messiah we would have dropped our jaws in disbelief had we witnessed it with our own eyes.

The prophet Isaiah described the physical horror that Jesus endured as so graphic we would have had to turn away, unable and unwilling to grasp what Jesus actually experienced: “He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.” (Isaiah 53:3).

John 19:1-3 tells us, “Pilate had Jesus flogged with a lead-tipped whip. The soldiers wove a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and they put a purple robe on him. ‘Hail! King of the Jews!’ they mocked, as they slapped him across the face.” Thirty-nine times the whip crafted for maximum damage to a human body, was brought down upon Jesus’ back, ripping open the flesh, tearing at the nerves, muscles and sinew, laying him open to the bone.

Amazingly, Jesus survived a trauma no human should ever—perhaps could ever—have to endure, but only to have a crown of long, sharp Judean thorns forced upon his brow, penetrating down to the skull. Then the soldiers who had mockingly crowned him began to beat the defenseless Jesus, punching time and again with full force in the face.

It got ugly the day God died—so bad was the physical violence that Isaiah 52:14 says, “Many who were appalled at him—his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being and his form marred beyond human likeness.”

Then Jesus was brought before Pilate, the Roman governor, who was to hear his case. After the Jews brought their trumped up accusations against the Lord, and after Pilate had interviewed him, he tired to release Jesus: “I find him not guilty.” Pilate said. “Take him yourselves and crucify him. (John 19:6) Not guilty—that usually secures freedom for an innocent man, yet Pilate was more afraid of man’s opinion than dispensing deserved fairness. And in that moment, Pilate secured his dark place in history as the one who could have freed an innocent man, yet sent him as a lamb—the Lamb—to the slaughter.

It got ugly the day God died—the innocent dying for the guilty: “He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished.” (Isaiah 53:7-8)

But what of the Jewish priests and officials! Here we find misguided religion at its worst. The long-awaited Messiah was finally among them—his life of love on display in every action, every miracle, ever word—yet they are so blinded by hatred they stop their ears and cry all the louder, “crucify him” as Pilate weakly pleads for Jesus’ release.

It got ugly when God died—those who were his own people willingly, knowingly, visciouly sent their Eternal King to his death by claiming loyalty to a temporal king.

Yet for all the human ugliness inflicted upon Jesus, Isaiah tells us that it was “the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer…to makes his life an offering for sin.” While man’s darkness was being exposed, God’s sovereignty was powerfully moving events toward a glorious end, the redemption of sinful man.

Yes, it got ugly the day Jesus died, but Jesus had to take the ugliest of human darkness and sin into himself so that he could crush to death what would crush him to death. It got ugly for Jesus, but it became a thing of beauty for you and me.

“Upon a life I did not live, upon a death I did not die; another’s life, another’s death, I stake my whole eternity.” (Horatio Bonar)

Getting To Know Jesus: Read through Isaiah 53, taking time to pause after each thought to offer gratitude to God that in Jesus’ death, sin met its match and you found your freedom.

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God Holds All The Cards

Being With Jesus:
John 19:11 (NLT)

Then Jesus said, “You would have no power over me at all unless it were given to you from above.”

There is nothing in this world that happens apart from God’s sovereign knowledge and by his sovereign permission.

Jesus understood that as he stood before Pilate, who nervously tried to impress upon our Lord that he held the power to either crucify him or free him: “Why don’t you talk to me?” Pilate demanded. “Don’t you realize that I have the power to release you or crucify you?” (John 19:10, NLT) That is when Jesus, who, up to this point, had held his peace, looked Pilate directly in the eye and informed him in no uncertain terms that even though he might be a high officer of the Roman court, he held no such power—only God did.

In the awful light of what Jesus had been through, and what he knew he was about to go through, what an amazing statement of not only understanding the sovereign will of God, but of complete trust and submission to it. That was the reason Jesus could so calmly and resolutely traverse the terrible way of the cross. And that is the reason you can walk through the difficulties of your life as well—even if your path takes you through the valley of the shadow of death. As King David said,

“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” (Psalm 23:4, KJV)

You can know what King David knew that our Lord knew: Because of God’s sovereign control over all the affairs of this universe, and because of his immeasurable love for you, this world is a perfectly safe place for you—even if you are standing before your cross.

Before you begin this day, take a moment to read the Shepherd’s Psalm printed below. In fact, you may want to read it every day this week before you head off into the busyness and challenges of your world:

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.

He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

What a great declaration: The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. Yes, God holds all the cards, so put your confidence in him.

“Much that worries us beforehand can afterwards, quite unexpectedly, have a happy and simple solution…Things really are in a better hand than ours.” ~Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Getting To Know Jesus: Memorize Psalm 23 from your favorite version, and pray it each day this week.