Sermon Series: John 19-21

About this sermon

John’s gospel closes with Jesus restoring Peter and with the testimony of the disciple whom Jesus loved. That disciple was a real historical figure, an eyewitness who stood at the cross and saw the empty tomb, and the church affirms that his testimony is true. The gospel is not an exhaustive record but a sufficient one, written so that readers may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and have life in his name. That testimony becomes the church’s testimony to the world.

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Sermon transcript

For our scripture reading this evening, I’ll ask that you turn to the Gospel of John chapter 21. And as you do that, I’ll ask that you first of all allow your eyes to rest on verse 14. John 21, verse 14. For there is a certain irony tonight, I think, in that this is now the third time that I have stood before you since my stroke to preach from John chapter 21.

Our scripture text this evening, our scripture will come from John 21, beginning with verse 15, and we’ll read through the end of the chapter. But for the sermon, we will particularly focus on verses 20 through 25. John 21 verses 20 through 25 tonight.

And the sermon title, since it did not make it into the bulletin, is The Witness or the Testimony of the Disciple Whom Jesus Loved. The Testimony of the Disciple Whom Jesus Loved will be our sermon title tonight. So I do ask you now to give your full and undivided attention at the reading of God’s word as we turn to John 21 beginning with verse 15.

So when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? He said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him, tend my lambs. He said to him again a second time, Simon, son of John, do you love me? He said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him, shepherd my sheep. He said to him the third time, Simon, son of John, do you love me? Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, do you love me? And he said to him, Lord, you know all things, you know that I love you. Jesus said to him, tend my sheep.

Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to gird yourself and walk wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will gird you and bring you where you do not wish to go. Now this, he said, signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he said to him, follow me.

Peter, turning around, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them. The one who also had leaned back on his bosom at the supper and said, Lord, who is the one who betrays you? So Peter, seeing him, said to Jesus, Lord, and what about this man? Jesus said to him, if I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me. Therefore, this saying went out among the brethren that this disciple that that disciple would not die. Yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but only if I want him to remain until I come. What is that to you? This is the disciple who is testifying to these things and wrote these things, and we know that his testimony is true. And there are also many other things which Jesus did. which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written. Thus ends the reading of God’s inspired and infallible word.

Let’s pray together, shall we? Our Father God, we bow before you tonight, thanking you for the testimony of Holy Scripture. And we do pray, oh God, that indeed we would give our hearts attention to these words. as we would receive that one who is revealed here in the word, even Jesus Christ, our Savior, that we would confess him as Lord and acknowledge him as the Christ, the anointed one whom you have sent into the world for our redemption. And we do pray, Father, that you would guide now not only the reading, but also the preaching of the word, and that we would be ready with open hearts and minds to receive that word, O God. May you pour out your Holy Spirit upon this congregation tonight, that this would be indeed a word from God, a word that we are ready and willing to lay up in our hearts, that we might go forth from this place to bear fruit for your name and for your glory. We ask, O God, this humbly now, in the name of Jesus. And for his name’s sake, we pray it. Amen. We have seen in the past couple of sermons that the end of John’s gospel actually constitutes a new beginning for the disciples.

In, yes, his third appearance to the disciples after his crucifixion and resurrection, Jesus, through the provision of a miraculous catch of fish on the Sea of Galilee, and then a dramatic exit interview with Peter described in John chapter 21, verses 15 and following, Here Jesus recommissions Peter as a fisher of men. Yes, Peter, Peter, who less than a week earlier in a single night leading up to the crucifixion had denied his Lord three times. But now the Lord is calling him afresh to follow and to love Jesus and to demonstrate his love for Jesus by caring for Jesus’s sheep, predicting for Peter a martyr’s death. a death that Peter would not have wished for himself, a place where he did not wish to go. But yet it was the death by which he would glorify God, we’re told, as Jesus speaks this word to him.

What matters in this passage before us tonight is the future of both disciples and their interconnectedness to one another. Jesus urges Peter not to meddle with what Jesus has in mind for the other disciple, even if it differs from what he has predicted for Peter. Jesus’ answer suggests, in fact, that the end of the other disciple will be different, the destiny. The emphasis here is on Jesus’ authority and power conveyed in the words.

If I want him, that is, if I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you, Peter? Jesus’s will prevails. He does not have to ask Peter for permission. It’s really none of Peter’s business. Peter should follow Jesus regardless of what Jesus has in mind for this other disciple. This then is how we must view verse 23.

The author tells how Jesus saying was received in the church, quote, among the brothers, unquote, as the word that the disciple would not die. He immediately adds, however, that Jesus did not at all speak of the disciples’ death, but said, if I want, or if it is my will that he remain until I come. To substantiate this, then the author of our gospel again cites Jesus’ words, which speak not of not dying, but of remaining. And thus he suggests that while Peter’s destiny lay in the God-glorifying significance of his death, Jesus’ purpose with this other disciple lay rather in his remaining, though not in the sense, as the evangelist expressly states, that this disciple would not die before the coming of Jesus.

Instead, by remaining, he would serve Jesus as his disciple throughout his life. Again, it is the will of the Lord that matters. It’s his prerogative at stake here. What applies to both disciples, Peter and the disciple whom Jesus loved. What applies to both disciples is the call to follow Jesus, each with his own destiny. For Peter, it means that he will complete his life like the good shepherd in self-offering for Jesus’s flock. For the beloved disciple, this means his continuing witness until the coming of the Lord in glory.

Thus the gospel ends in verses 24 and 25. This is the disciple who is testifying to these things and wrote these things. And we know that his testimony is true. And there are many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. We notice here in verse 24, that a, quote, we, unquote, has taken the floor, and in so doing, placing all possible stress on the permanent significance of the beloved disciple with reference to the content of the gospel. And notice the reference to these things. Verse 24, this is the disciple who is testifying to these things and wrote these things. And we know, it says, that his testimony is true. Notice the reference to these things and the we. referred to receive those things. Now the question as to who are the we in verse 24 has actually prompted much discussion and speculation down through the centuries.

And we’re going to simply say this evening that these people, this we, are evidently those who by adding these words are putting the finishing touch on chapter 21 and are thereby presenting the whole gospel to its readers as the work of the beloved disciple. This we is understood generally to be the community that formed around the beloved disciple, the church, to which he left his gospel as his legacy.

Clearly here is the beloved disciple referred to as a historical figure, not as some symbolic figure. He lived alongside Peter as a member of the circle of Jesus’ closest disciples, and as such, was beloved by Jesus. The concern of the statement here in verse 24 is to characterize the role and importance of this disciple as that of eyewitness, and we’ll add the words, and ear witness of these things, and to describe him therefore as most reliable in his witness. This qualification we can now observe agrees completely with the role that earlier passages that speak of him, that is the disciple whom Jesus loved, and how those earlier passages have spoken of this one. And so then we say, since therefore the historicity of the beloved disciple’s role in the gospel can hardly be denied, it is natural to ask here whether we can identify him among the disciples of Jesus known to us.

And we dare say all of the data point in one direction, namely towards John, the son of Zebedee, so often named in the synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. But John, interestingly, is nowhere explicitly mentioned here in the fourth gospel. Rather, we have this recurring phrase of the disciple whom Jesus loved. And so we ask then, what then is the significance of the identification of John, son of Zebedee, as the disciple whom Jesus loved.

I’m going to ask you to let the apostle speak for himself, for he declares elsewhere, that is, we believe him also to be the author of the epistles, in 1 John chapter 4, 7 through 11, where this apostle indeed himself defines love. And so what does he think he means when he says, and when he calls himself the disciple whom Jesus loved? Let him speak, 1 John 4, 7 through 11.

Love is from God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this, the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent his only begotten son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.

1 John 4, 7 through 11. And so clearly John would define love as having had the Son of God, the only begotten Son of God, sent into the world to be a propitiation for his sins. And so he felt that most keenly and understood that most clearly. And so again, letting John speak for himself, These words were not authored by Tim Tebow, as some might think.

The great theme of the gospel, John 3.16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. That verse speaks of God’s love, God’s love for the world, of course, for we know that in the fourth gospel, Jesus But we know from the Gospel of John that Jesus clearly distinguishes between the world and those who are not of the world. Jesus did not love John simply in the common sense, or common grace sense, or in a generic sense. But Jesus loved John as one of his own, to whom he gave eternal life. And what is eternal life? John writes, this is eternal life, John 17, that they may know you, God, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

And so for John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was to get to know God and to know Jesus whom God had sent into the world. So I ask you this evening to consider tonight, as we reflect upon this gospel, this fourth gospel, to consider the wonder and the beauty and the love made manifest to John in his having been called to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, the one whom God sent into the world, his only begotten.

And not only so for John, but for John to have had the privilege to be the one, the very one to whom it was given to rest on Jesus bosom at the Last Supper and to be not only so, but present at the crucifixion And beyond that, not only that, but to be the first one, John, to enter the empty tomb, he was chosen to be present, to hear and to see Jesus, to understand Jesus as the bread come down from heaven as he was present there at the feeding of the 5000. It was given to John among the disciples to witness Jesus opening the eyes of the blind. and to receive on that occasion the disclosure that Jesus himself is the light of the world. And John was able to hear the testimony of John the Baptist as he proclaimed, Jesus is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

And it was given to John to hear and write down those glorious words of John 3 16. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. And it was also given to him to hear and write down the words which we know and love. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. In other words, Jesus was pleased to make the father and himself known to John and to give John eternal life.

And not only so, but to commission him as a witness, as a witness so that others too might know and believe. So the disciple whom Jesus loved purposely set out to write these things so that you, as he says at the end of John chapter 20 verses 30 and 31, the one whom Jesus loves set out to write this very gospel so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name. We see that the gospel purports to be the record, a record of the signs which Jesus did. admittedly not an exhaustive record, he says so, but a sufficient record, sufficient to convince the readers of the gospel of certain truths about Jesus, particularly that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One, the Son of God, he wrote specifically for that purpose, and he believes that the words that are written here are sufficient for that end, that you might know Jesus to be the Christ, and through such conviction, That word might bring life to you in his name. Even so, the testimony of John 3, 3 still applies.

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. The Jesus revealed in the gospels is the Christ, the promised one, the fulfillment of the offices of prophet, priest and king, as we know that revealed and prophesied in the Old Testament. Jesus is the word who became flesh. He is the consummate mediator. He is the consummate prophet, the consummate priest to whom has been given a kingdom, as he says himself in this gospel, a kingdom that is not of this world.

Jesus is the only begotten Son of God, full of grace and truth, one who has come down from the Father to make the Father known and to give life to all whom the Father has given to him, the Son, and that through new birth and the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

So here is the testimony of the disciple whom Jesus loved, who wrote these things, and we know Verse 24 says these first this we says, and we know that his testimony is true. But the question is, how do we know? How do we know that this and the rest of the scriptures are true? Because we say so, whoever the we are in John 21 24. Do we know the gospel testimony is true because some members of the first century church said so?

No, we answer, and we quote here the first chapter of the Westminster Confession of Faith, which states that the authority of the Holy Scripture, and thus the authority of the fourth gospel, which is part of Holy Scripture, for which it ought to be believed and obeyed, dependeth not on the testimony of any man or church, but wholly upon God, who is truth itself, the author thereof, and therefore it is to be received because it is the word of God, we may be moved and induced by the testimony of the Church to a high and reverent esteem of the Holy Scripture. But as our confession says, the heavenliness of the matter, the efficacy of the doctrine, the majesty of the style, the consent of all the parts, the scope of the whole, which is to give all glory to God, and the full discovery scripture makes of the only way of man’s salvation, and the many other incomparable excellencies, and the entire perfection thereof, are arguments whereby it doth abundantly evidence itself to be the word of God. Yet notwithstanding, our full persuasion and assurance of the infallible truth and divine authority thereof is from the inward work of the Holy Spirit bearing witness by and with the Word in our hearts. And so I address you tonight as those beloved of God. Has the Holy Spirit persuaded you that this gospel of John is true?

Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God? After all, the Bible itself teaches us that no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. And you’ll not see him as king of a kingdom, a heavenly kingdom, unless you’ve been born again. Indeed, unless a man be born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God. But if you see Jesus as the Christ, and if you are persuaded by this gospel that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, Be assured that that has happened only because the Holy Spirit has convinced you of the testimony of this gospel. Unless a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Do you see and believe? Then I say to you, praise the Lord for what he has done. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another, as John himself says elsewhere. Together then, as we read this gospel, which concludes with the words and we know that his testimony is true. Do you know that his testimony is true? We have seen and we testify together that the father has sent the son to be the savior of the world and we know that the testimony is true and that according to the word of God, the word of God is its own best defender. Should the world believe the Bible because we say so? Absolutely not. They ought to believe the Bible because it’s true and God himself has demonstrated it to be so.

As we read those words of the confession of faith, can you think of any more excellent gospel than the gospel of John? Can you think of any more excellent book? more heavenly in its character and the discovery that it makes of the way of salvation. Can you think of a more adequate proof that Jesus is in fact the Christ, the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy of one who would come to establish a kingdom and redeem his people from their enemies? Can you think of a word anywhere to be found that surpasses this word of the Gospel of John?

And as wonderful as that John 316 is, we ought to be reminded day after day that it’s a word spoken unto us. Indeed, if we believe that word and receive Jesus as the Christ, that we might have life in his name. Here is, in fact, a true and faithful testimony that we can bear to the world without shame, without apology. Indeed, this is the testimony of the disciple whom Jesus loved. And it becomes our testimony, does it not? Is this not the word that we want to bear to the ends of the earth, that Jesus is the Christ?

He is the anointed one of God. He is the fulfillment of every prophecy. He is at the heart of the word of God from beginning to end, Old Testament and New Testament alike. And so as we conclude this evening, the gospel of John. I remind you of the great love not only that is spoken of there, but the love with which this gospel was was written for our instruction. He wrote it so that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and that believing we might have life in his name. And so it is love that will take this gospel to the ends of the earth. Love one another, John writes, Jesus says. Indeed, let us love as he first loved us and gave himself for us as a propitiation for our sins that we might have life eternal. It is he who has made known the father to us that we should be counted among the children of God and such we are and what a glorious gospel it is.

And for this, we give thanks and praise the Lord for that outpouring of the spirit that has now come upon us that we should be counted among the people of God. And this we say and preach in Jesus’ name. Amen. Let’s pray together, shall we? Holy Father, indeed, this is the gospel to which many people first turn when they become a Christian.

This is the gospel that has been used of God time and again to point men, women, and children throughout the ages, throughout the world. to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it is then that we join our testimony with men of old who declare that we know, we know that this testimony is true. It’s not a guess. It’s not an estimation. It’s the truth. It is the truth revealed.

And what a marvelous scripture, what a marvelous Bible we have before us, O God, as you have been pleased to make yourself known unto us. Indeed, we can rise up and go out of this place saying, indeed, we are those disciples whom Jesus loved. We are those very ones to whom the love of God has been made manifest in the world. And in this, we will rejoice and give thanks. And all this, we pray together now in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, and for his glory and for his name’s sake, we pray it.

Amen. I’ll invite you this evening then to turn with me to hymn number 460. 460, again, sorry I didn’t make it into the bulletin, but hymn number 460, and we’re gonna sing the second tune. Let’s stand together as we sing, shall we? ♪ Come, ye high altos and stallings ♪ ♪ Joy of heavenly birth, come now ♪ ♪ Lift it up, star of full building ♪ ♪ All our grateful hearts raise now ♪ With us, with thy salvation, enter in plain trembling heart. Breathe, O breathe, Thine loving Spirit into every troubled breast. Let us all in Thee inherit, let us find the promised rest. Take away the bomb of sinning, Alpha and Omega be, End of faith as it begins, Set our hearts at liberty. ♪ Let us all thy life receive ♪ Suddenly return and never, nevermore thy temples leave ♪ Thee we would be always blessed ♪ Serving as thy host above ♪ Pray embrace thee without ceasing Let us see thy great salvation perfectly. restored in thee.

Changed from glory into glory. Till in heaven we take our place. Till we cast our crowns before thee. Lost in wonder, love and praise. Amen. Beloved of God, let us hear the Lord’s benediction upon us. May the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace, both now and forevermore. In Jesus’ name, amen. Amen.

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About this sermon

On the shore of the Sea of Galilee, where Jesus first called his disciples, the risen Lord asks Peter three times, “Do you love me?” and three times commissions him: “Feed my lambs; tend my sheep.” Peter, who denied him three times, is restored, and Jesus tells him he will glorify God by his death. Love for Christ shows itself in patient labor for his sheep and in following him by the way of the cross, until he comes again.

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Sermon transcript

The disciples, it appears, were conscious of a certain uneasiness in the presence of their risen Lord. There was something quite familiar in having with them there by the lakeside, yet there must have been something quite unfamiliar for them in the company of one who had returned to them from the dead. Formerly, they would not have thought of asking him, who are you? But now they felt as if they ought to ask him, Yet they could not bring themselves to do so, because after all, they all knew who he was. It was the Lord.

Significantly, Jesus chose to appear to them at the Sea of Tiberias, a most familiar place, sometimes called the Lake of Gennesaret, but more often called the Sea of Galilee. The Sea of Galilee is a freshwater lake to which the River Jordan runs. It is 12.5 miles long, it is 6.75 miles wide, and it is quite remarkable from a geological point of view, especially in the fact that the Galilean Sea is 655 feet below the level of the Mediterranean Sea. That’s from a geological point of view. But from a theological point of view, it must always be most interesting to us as Christians because some of our Lord’s mightiest miracles were wrought on the Sea of Galilee or close to it.

Here it was that our Lord walked on the water when he came to the disciples who were rowing futilely in the midst of the great storm. You remember Jesus spoke and the wind and the waves were made still there. Here on Galilee he lifted for four of his disciples a great catch of fish. Here also he provided the coin for payment of the tribute tax out of the mouth of a fish which he commanded Peter to catch. Nearby, near to the Sea of Galilee, he had fed a multitude of 5,000 with a few loaves and fishes. And there also on a high cliff overlooking the lake, he had cast out the legion of devils, allowing those demons to drive some 2,000 swine into the sea.

And in the towns of Corridon, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, each of them located on this lake, Jesus did some of his greatest miracles, And once, while sitting in a boat on this lake, he delivered the parable of the sower, which we heard in our passage this morning. In short, all of the districts in which our Lord preached and wrought miracles, there was none which saw and heard so much as the district around the Sea of Tiberias. And when we remember all of this, can we doubt that our Lord had a deep purpose and meaning in choosing to appear to His disciples there at the Sea of Tiberias? Can we doubt that He meant to remind them of all that they had heard and seen in former days of His wisdom, His love, His power?

And that’s shown and spoken there by the side of these well-known waters. Now the things here demonstrated and spoken in John chapter 21 are after the resurrection, after the crucifixion and resurrection. And so we must count these things that we read here tonight as among the last things that Jesus’ disciples witnessed from Jesus, with Jesus. Things that were so reminiscent of some of the first things that had been revealed to them. And that at the very place where he had first called them to leave their boats and their nets, to come follow him and to become fishers of men. So we have come full circle where he had begun with them. There he would also have one of his last interviews with them before leaving this world.

When Jesus appeared to them, Peter and the others were probably fishing in their own boat in a most familiar place. And although they saw him with their outward vision, and though they knew him quite well, of course, yet in a sense they saw him as a stranger, one who henceforth belonged to another order of existence.

But Jesus put them at their ease, inviting them to come now and share the breakfast which he had prepared for them. The bread and the fish represented, and think about this, the harvest of the earth and the harvest of the sea, respectively. In Luke’s record of his Easter appearance to the disciples in Jerusalem, it was the disciples who gave Jesus a piece of broiled fish. But that was to strengthen their faith, not to supply his need. In other words, it was a demonstration of the reality of his resurrection. But here it is Jesus who feeds the disciples as he had fed the multitude on a hillside in Galilee during his earlier ministry prior to the crucifixion.

Indeed, as we see the event here, if he had not explicitly ordained the bread and the cup to be the memorials of his passion on the night in which he was betrayed at what we know as the Last Supper, the Lord’s Supper, we could well have envisioned the emergence out of this day, the emergence of a sacramental meal of bread and fish being maintained in the church. As it is, we may wonder, how much the early Christian use of a fish as a symbol, both of Christ and of his people, owes to the part played by fish in the feeding narratives of the Gospels. We know, of course, that the five letters of the Greek word for fish, which is the word ikthos, spelled IOTA, CHI, THETA, UPSILON, SIGMA, work as an acrostic of the title JESUS CHRISTOS, THEO, HUIOS, SAUTER, JESUS CHRIST, GOD’S SON, SAVIOR. The letters of the word fish spelled that out, or as an acrostic, if you will.

In our previous sermon, we commented on verse 14 of our text that this was now the third time that Jesus was manifested to his disciples after being raised from the dead. This refers in particular to John’s gospel narrative as we come to the end of the gospel of John. The previous two times Jesus manifested himself were on the evening of the resurrection day and then a week later, eight days later, when Thomas also was with the disciples and put his hand forth and touched and saw Jesus also. that on the first day of the week when the disciples were assembled together. And those two previous events recorded in John chapter 20. We draw attention here in chapter 21 to the verb in verse 14, which says that Jesus was manifested.

As it implies, the self-disclosure of the risen Jesus to them, he was making himself known to his designated witnesses, those who would be apostles sent out with the gospel message. He wanted them to know, and so this is a self-manifestation, making himself known to them. It is certainly noteworthy then that after breakfast, after this morning meal, Jesus took Peter for a short walk and held his conversation with Peter in private, asking him the three times, Simon, son of John, do you love me?

The phrase in the first asking of the question, more than these, is a bit ambiguous. Does Jesus mean do you love me more than these things related to your fishing activity? Do you love me more than these nets? and these boats and these things that you do here? Or is Jesus asking whether Peter loves him more than the other disciples? There’s an ambiguity in the question. Do you love me more than these other disciples?

So often in the course of Jesus’ ministry, it was Peter who would jump up and speak first or act first. We see it here tonight in the fact that he was the first to jump out of the boat and race towards the shore to see Jesus. And we remember that it was Peter back at Caesarea Philippi who made the stunning confession when Jesus asked the disciples, point blank, who do you say that I am? Without hesitation, it was Peter who spoke for the others saying, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. and Jesus speaking those wonderful words, and you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, he says, Matthew chapter 16.

But we also remember Peter as the one who first and most strenuously stood in opposition to Jesus just moments later when Jesus declared that he must go up to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed. and be raised then on the third day. When Peter heard that, Peter was the first to speak, and he strongly rebuked Jesus, saying, Lord, God forbid it, Lord, this shall never happen to you. How slow was Peter and the others to learn and embrace the cross as the way of discipleship. They rejected it. They fought against it. They swore it wouldn’t happen. But even on that day when Peter said, may it never happen to you, Jesus reproved Peter, saying, get thee behind me, Satan, for you are a stumbling block to me, for you are not setting your mind on God’s interest, but on the things of man.

And despite so many foibles on Peter’s part, nevertheless it had been Peter who had declared on the night of the Lord’s Supper that he was ready to lay down his life for the Lord. And how remarkable then that it was Peter who distinguished himself that very night, not by laying down his life for his Savior, but by denying Jesus those three times.

But as we come to the end of the gospel, chapter 21, and this is the third time Jesus meets with them, we have acknowledged that this is a new day, a new beginning, as Jesus, beginning with Peter after breakfast, sets forth a new call to discipleship.

And the disciple whom Jesus loved, who would write this very gospel of John, was close at hand, walking behind them, following them, when Jesus took up his conversation with Peter. And Jesus asked, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? Some think that our Lord purposely avoided the name Peter here, calling him Simon instead of Peter, in order to remind the apostle how, on a recent occasion, he had shown himself not as firm as a rock, which the word Peter means, He had not acted agreeably to his name, but he had shown himself to be as weak as a reed blowing in the wind. Or it could be that our Lord, in speaking the word Simon, calling him Simon, intends to remind the apostle of that memorable day when at the first, Simon began to become a disciple of Jesus, when Jesus had said to him, you are Simon, the son of John. And so in repeating it here, he may be taking Peter back to that first day as if he were asking Peter, do you remember the day when you first came to me and believed on me as the Lamb of God?

You know all that you have seen and heard since then and all that we have gone through together since then. Of course, this follows the crucifixion. This follows the resurrection as Jesus speaks these words. And so Jesus, Continuing here, once more do I address you by the name with which I began. We’re back to Simon at the beginning. Before sending you forth, Simon, and before commissioning you once more in the presence of these brethren as a restored now and trusted disciple, I ask you simply, do you love me?

The question which Jesus asked of Peter was very simple, but it was also very searching. It was a simple question, but it struck to the heart. Even a little child knows whom he loves. Peter could surely tell his heart’s affection for Christ, but the question draws him up short. Surely Jesus knows his heart, he says. It is though, our Lord said, Simon, I know all your history.

I know what you have done. I know what you have been. I know about the time of my betrayal and crucifixion. I know how you denied me, but I’m ready to forgive. I’m ready to move on. But one thing I must have in my disciples, and that is a sincere and loving heart. I must have love. So I ask you again, do you love me? Yes, do you love me is a simple question.

But the truth is, We may know very much, we may profess our religion very much, we may talk much, and we may work much, and we might go through much, and we might make much show externally in our religion, and still not love. Without love, there is no vitality about our Christianity. What does the Apostle Paul say about it? He says in 1 Corinthians 13, 1 and following, if I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and I know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing, says Paul.

And similarly, the Apostle John writes elsewhere, 1 John chapter 4, Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God sent his only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.

1 John 4, 7-11. Note well here in John 21 that each time Peter replies to Jesus’ question, Christ follows the question with a command for Peter. He first says, tend my lambs. Then he says, shepherd my sheep. And then again, he says the third time, tend my sheep. This charge, repeated these three times, is filled with deep meaning.

It was meant to commission Peter once more to do the work of an apostle as an under-shepherd of Christ, notwithstanding his recent fall and denials. But this was only a small part of the meaning. It was meant also to teach Peter and the whole church through the scriptures the mighty lesson that usefulness to others is the grand test of love. And working for Christ, the great proof of really loving Christ, We are to do good to all men, the scripture says, but especially to the household of faith.

It is not loud talk. It is not external religion. It is not even impetuous, spasmodic zeal and the boast of one’s readiness to draw the sword and fight. It is steady, patient, laborious effort to do good for Christ’s sheep scattered throughout the sinful world. which is the best evidence of being a true-hearted disciple of Jesus. This is the real secret of Christian greatness.

It is written elsewhere, spoken by our Savior Jesus. Whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave. That’s Matthew 20, verses 26 to 28. Forever let the parting charge of our blessed Master abide in our consciences and be the practice in our daily lives. If you love me, do what I say towards my sheep.

These things have been recorded, beloved, for our instruction. They were spoken by Jesus just before he left this world. And let us aim at a loving, doing, useful, hardworking, unselfish, kind, unpretentious religion. Let it be our daily desire to think of others, to care for others, to lessen the sorrow and increase the joy of those around us. so living we shall find it abundantly true that it is indeed more blessed to give than to receive.” And that’s an apt lesson for this Christmas season, of course. In the closing verses of John’s gospel, we learn that Jesus knows what lies ahead for his disciples.

He speaks of Peter being led where he did not wish to go. Now this he said, the scripture tells us, signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he said to Peter, follow me. Ironically, at this point, we are told that Peter, turning around, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them. And Peter can only ask, Lord, and what about this man? Jesus has just told Peter by what kind of death he would glorify God. And that, coupled with the command, follow me, and Peter turns back to look at this other man, John.

And it certainly implies that Peter would die a martyr’s death after the pattern of the Savior’s death. and tradition indicates that Peter too was crucified even. He is said to have been martyred by Emperor Nero and chose purposely to be crucified upside down on an inverted cross as he saw himself unworthy to be crucified in the same way as Jesus. Now be that as it may, let us be reminded from John 21 verse 19. that the believer’s chief end is to glorify God in life and in death, to glorify God Here the Holy Spirit tells us the truth in plain language. Jesus said these things to tell Peter by what kind of death he would glorify God. The Spirit graciously interprets the dark saying of Jesus which fell from our Lord’s lips about Peter’s end, about his death.

In other words, we may die to the Lord as well as live to the Lord. We may be patient sufferers as well as active workers. As one saint put it, quote, we may glorify God in death by being ready for it whenever it comes. The Christian who is found like a sentinel at his post, like a servant with his loins girded for action and his lamp burning with a heart packed up and ready to go, the man for whom sudden death is sudden glory, that is a man whose end brings glory to God. We may glorify God in death, beloved, by patiently enduring its pain without murmuring or complaint, silently enjoying inward peace that comes only from God. This is, again, a man whose end brings glory to God. We may glorify God in life and in death by testifying to others that God is our comfort and support, which we find in the grace of Jesus Christ. It is a great thing indeed when a mortal man can say with David, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.

We ought to see how Peter’s question in verse 21. And what about this man? What about this other guy? is met with a prompt response from Jesus in verse 22. And Jesus says to Peter, if I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me. Peter seems to want to know what will be John’s lot. We ought to understand Jesus’ reply as a rebuke.

The words, follow me, should always teach us that we are to follow Christ and walk with God, whatever others may do or not do. Whether they suffer or do not suffer, our own duty is clear and plain. People who are always looking at others and considering others and shaping their own course accordingly commit a great mistake. Woe to those who remain apart from Christ and the church and go on excusing themselves while accusing Christians of hypocrisy. To such persons the word of our Lord apply with emphatic force.

What is that to you? You follow me. Before we leave our text tonight, we must not miss the implication of Jesus’ words pertaining to John. If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? The command to follow Jesus comes with a promise and a hope. That is, what is that promise and a hope? He is coming again. Do you see the implications? If I desire him to remain until I come, what’s that to you?

The institution of the Lord’s Supper picks up those same kinds of words and declares that as often as we do eat the bread and drink the cup, we do show forth the Lord’s death, quote, until he comes. Likewise, the great commission given at the end of the Gospel of Matthew is issued with the promise, lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

And then following the crucifixion and the resurrection. At the ascension, there were angels gathered who appeared to the disciples there when he was being taken up into heaven. And what do they say? They declared to the disciples, this Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will come in just the same way as you watched him go into heaven. Acts chapter one, verse 11. So the question that could be asked then, how long then shall we follow Jesus? And the answer to that is an emphatic, until he comes, we’ll keep following Jesus, until he comes. Yes, until he comes again.

But next time, not as a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, but in the clouds of glory, as king of kings and lord of lords, coming to judge the whole earth. Therefore, he declares to his disciples at his departure, do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me, he says. By way of the cross, the resurrection, and ascension, Jesus, we know, has gone to prepare a place for us. And even so, as he declared, he will come again, and he will receive his own to himself, that where he is now, there we may be also. And it goes on in John 14 to declare that he is the way, the truth, and the life. All who believe in him come to the Father through him. So once again, hear him say, You follow me when he comes again, then every eye will see him, every knee will bow before him, and every tongue will confess that he is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Friends, as we are headed toward that end, even so we pray, come Lord Jesus, amen and amen. And let us follow him until he comes, amen. Let’s pray together, shall we?

Our Lord Jesus Christ, as you have declared, we thank you for it. We thank you for the commission that you gave to your apostles to go make the word of God known to the ends of the earth. And we are thankful that that gospel has come to us. And just as you called them at the beginning, as you renewed that call here at the Sea of Galilee, so that call is issued to us to come, follow Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Lamb of God. as we are called to take up our cross and follow after him, so that in life or in death we may glorify our God, giving honor to the one who has loved us and given his son Jesus for us. We know love because you first loved us. Let us then, beloved, love one another. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Shall we turn then to hymn number 147 as we close this evening? That great Adler hymn, O Come, O Come, Emmanuel. 147. I invite you to stand together if you’re able. O come, O come, Emmanuel And ransom captive Israel That mourns in lonely exile here until the Son of God appear.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel. O come, O come, Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come. shall come to thee, O Israel. O come, Thou Rod of Gethsemane, thy hope from Satan’s tyranny. From depths of hell, thy people save, And give them victory o’er the grave. Rejoice! Rejoice!

Emmanuel! ♪ Shall come to thee, O Israel ♪ ♪ O come, thou dayspring, come on high ♪ ♪ And cheer us by thy drawing nigh ♪ Disperse the gloomy clouds of night, And as dark shadows fall to flight, ♪ Red rose and white are heavenly home ♪ ♪ They speak the way and means of life ♪ ♪ And flows of love through the ages shall ring ♪ ♪ Rejoice, rejoice, all ye people of God ♪ Before we sing our closing, hymn number 86, the last verse 3, Let us look up together and receive the benediction of our God. He who testifies to these things says, yes, I am coming quickly. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. May the grace of the Lord Jesus be with you all. Amen.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

About this sermon

After the resurrection, seven of the disciples return to Galilee, and Peter says, “I am going fishing.” They toil all night and catch nothing. At daybreak Jesus stands on the shore, tells them to cast the net on the right side, and they cannot haul in the catch; the disciple whom Jesus loved says, “It is the Lord.” Jesus feeds them breakfast from his own supply. Men who thought the cross had ended everything learn again that he called them to be fishers of men, and that he provides for those he sends. He calls his people to take up the cross and follow him.

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Sermon transcript

Let us turn together this evening to God’s Word. We’re going to read from two passages. The first is Psalm 8, Old Testament Psalm 8. And if you’re looking in the Pew Bibles, you might look on page 395. And we’re reading Psalm 8. And I just want to make a couple of comments before we begin to read God’s Word. Psalm 8 is a psalm of David.

Psalm 8 reflects on man’s privilege of being God’s vice regent in the created realm. You know the story of Genesis chapter 1 and 2, where God creates man in his own image and gives him their dominion over the birds of the air and the beasts of the field and the fish of the sea. Well, Psalm 8 not only speaks of Adam in the original creation, but it is a prophetic psalm pointing to the new creation and the new man.

David asked the question, what is man, O God, that you care for him, that you take thought of him? The psalm begins and ends with the same verse, and you’ll notice that as we read it here this evening. O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth.

And yet God, mindful of man, gives him dominion in the creation story. And then in the new creation, it is the new man, the second Adam, Jesus Christ, who is given dominion not only over this world, but of the world to come. Indeed, eternal life. He has been lifted to the highest place at God’s right hand where He is exalted over every dominion and authority and given a name that is above every name. That at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

You know that. Indeed, so Psalm 8 speaks of those things. So as we read it together this evening, I want you to reflect upon those things. upon Adam’s marvelous position in the creation, but even more so Jesus Christ, even more excellent position in the new creation as King and Lord over all. So hear then the word of God as we read from, listen, as I read to you from Psalm 8, a Psalm of David. This is the word of God.

Give your full and undivided attention. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth, who have displayed your splendor above the heavens. From the mouth of infants and nursing babes you have established strength because of your adversaries to make the enemy and the revengeful cease. When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have ordained, what is man that you take thought of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than God, and you crown him with glory and majesty. You make him to rule over the works of your hands.

You have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes through the paths of the seas. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.

Amen. And do reflect upon that psalm this evening. We’re turning tonight to the Gospel of John, Chapter 21, as our second passage, the Gospel of John, Chapter 21. Again, in the Pew Bibles, this is in the New Testament, page 90, in the little black Pew Bibles that you may find near you. John, Chapter 21. And once again, I’m going to ask you to listen carefully for this is the inspired and infallible word of the true and the living God. Let’s pray. God, bless us as we read this word. Open it to our understanding, we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen. John 21.

After these things, Jesus manifested himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias, and he manifested himself in this way. Simon Peter and Thomas called Didymus and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee and the sons of Zebedee and two others of his disciples were together. Simon Peter said to them, I am going fishing. They said to him, we will also come with you.

They went out and got into the boat, and that night they caught nothing. But when the day was now breaking, Jesus stood on the beach, yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. So Jesus said to them, children, do you have any fish? You do not have any fish, do you? They answered him, no. And he said to them, cast the net on the right-hand side of the boat, and you will find a catch. So they cast, and then they were not able to haul it in because of the great number of fish.

Therefore, that disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, it is the Lord. So when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put his outer garment on, for he was stripped for work and threw himself into the sea. But the other disciples came in the little boat, for they were not far from the land, but about 100 yards away, dragging the net full of fish. So when they got out on the land, they saw a charcoal fire already laid and fish placed on it and bread. Jesus said to them, bring some of the fish which you have now caught. Simon Peter went up and drew the net to land full of large fish, 153.

And although there were so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, come and have breakfast. None of the disciples ventured to question him. Who are you knowing that it was the Lord? Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them and the fish likewise. This is now the third time that Jesus was manifested to the disciples after he was raised from the dead. So when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?

He said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him, Tend my lambs. He said to him again a second time, Simon, son of John, do you love me? He said to him, Yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him, Shepherd my sheep. He said to him the third time, Simon, son of John, do you love me? Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, Do you love me? And he said to him, Lord, you know all things. You know that I love you.

Jesus said to him, Tend my sheep. Truly, truly, I say to you that when you were younger, you used to gird yourself and walk wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will gird you and bring you where you do not wish to go.

Now this he said, signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he said to him, follow me. Peter, turning around, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them, the one who also had leaned back on his bosom at the supper, and said, Who is the one who betrays you? So Peter, seeing him, said to Jesus, Lord, and what about this man? Jesus said to him, if I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You, follow me. Therefore, this saying went out among the brethren that the disciple would not die. Yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but only, if I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you?

Thus far, the reading of God’s holy and inspired word will end at verse 23. Once again, let’s pray together. Holy Father, we bow before you because we are weak, but you are strong. And we look to you tonight to make yourself known in the scriptures. and through the reading and now the preaching of your word. And we pray that you’ll give us each ears to hear and eyes to see that we might glorify you as our God and that we would confess together, oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. For surely you have loved us with a great love and given your son, Jesus Christ, for us that we might have life eternal. Now bless us this evening, Lord, that we would rise up from this place and go into the world to follow Jesus in all things. And this we do pray in our beloved Savior’s name and for his name’s sake.

Amen. One of my therapists this week asked me, are you a little nervous? I said, yeah, a little nervous. He said, well, good, you should be. Give your attention to your people of God. We might have thought that we were finished with the Gospel of John. After all, it has been a while, and considerable time has passed since we finished John chapter 20, And if you’re counting, we could say exactly it was September 26, 2010. So it has been a little while since we’ve ended John chapter 20. And many changes have come for us in the interim period. But more than that, as you look at the closing verses of John chapter 20, I trust you have your Bibles open, specifically look at verses 30 and 31.

And those two verses appear to summarize and to bring the gospel to a fitting conclusion. The writer tells us there why he wrote the gospel, namely, therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book, but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name. Thus it would appear And some have strenuously argued that this indicates the end of the gospel as it was originally written.

But that leaves us with the questions. Where did chapter 21 come from and why was it added? To put it simply, we’re not finished yet, so we shall continue. And if we pick up on the inspired biblical transition, we underscore the opening words of John chapter 21 verse one. After these things, John writes, and we ask after what things? Well, naturally, the things that went before the things before the end of chapter 20. So we’re talking about.

I trust you know the gospel of John well enough to know that we’re talking about the crucifixion and the resurrection and the subsequent appearances of the resurrected Jesus to his beloved disciples. He who was dead and buried is now alive. In John 21 verses 1-3, we see that the gospel writer deliberately reconstitutes a situation such as is typically described in the synoptic gospel traditions. And by the synoptic gospels, of course, we mean Matthew, Mark, and Luke. And he’s reconstituting a situation that from those gospels, had occurred at the very beginning of the ministry.

That is, when Jesus called his disciples to leave their fishing nets to come follow him. But as you read John’s version here, there is an added feature, however, in what he says, whereby we are taken way back by way of reminder to John chapter 1 and the scene that is there In John chapter 1 verse 45, the place in the narrative when the Lord first appeared to his disciples in Galilee, when his first sign was done at the wedding feast in Cana. There in John 1, we meet for the first time Simon Peter and Andrew and Philip and Nathanael, who are all mentioned again here now in chapter 21 in these opening verses. But take note, however, in chapter 21, verses 1 to 3, that only seven of the 12 were present when Peter declares, I am going fishing. We ask, how is it that these men, witnesses to the signs that Jesus did, those marvelous, miraculous signs, and now witnesses also of Jesus raised from the dead.

How is it they are now back in Galilee, apparently back at their old occupation, back in the boat fishing? How can that be? Though Peter thinks he is to return to the catching of fish, he is here to learn all over again that what he has been told at the beginning of his discipleship, as the synoptic writers recorded, that he was to become as Christ’s disciple a fisher of men. As you know, perhaps you do.

The night was the best time for fishing, but on their own, without their Lord, these disciples could do nothing. They could not make anything, even of the best opportunities. I want you to note, however, that John 21 is a resurrection story. And like the narratives that are in chapter 20, It begins very early in the day, or as verse four puts it, as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the beach unrecognized. He asked the seven whether they had caught any fish and was told, no. You can perhaps hear the irritation in their answer.

And he said to them, cast the net on the right hand side of the boat. And in so doing, they made a very great catch and were unable to haul it in. Therefore, the beloved disciple sensed that the stranger on the shore was Jesus and told Peter of his conviction. Impetuous Peter, true to his character, put on his clothing and sprang into the water. The disciples, meanwhile, left in the boat, brought the vessel and the catch to shore.

Here are found in this story some of the usual elements of an Easter Day appearance of the Lord. It takes place early and there is a lack of recognition. The beloved disciple and Peter play the same roles recorded of them in the story of the Passion and Resurrection.

There is also to be seen a considerable likeness to the story of the miraculous draft of fish in Luke chapter five. It seems neither impossible nor improbable then to see in these phenomena an interesting example of John’s way of history telling. A mark may tell us at the beginning of the ministry, Jesus called Peter to become a fisher of men, Mark 1 17. A gospel writer like Luke may give the same information, spelling it out with the story of a miraculous catch of fish under instruction from Jesus to show how marvelously the fishers of men would practice their new trade under the guidance of the Lord.

But John, putting these elements of the story at the time when the glorified Lord was making himself manifest to his disciples at a time when they had decided to return to their old trade, makes it quite plain that the call to Christian discipleship is not really fulfilled until the Lord is crucified and glorified. And that when the call proceeds from this point, it is finally and completely effective in the world. By way of inference, it would seem likely that John is saying that just as the calling of the disciples recorded earlier in the ministry really stems only from crucifixion and glorification of the Son of God, so does the Lord’s communal meal.

Verse 14 here reports that this is now the third time that Jesus was manifested to the disciples after he was raised from the dead. The first two occasions recorded by John in chapter 20 were behind closed doors on the evening of the resurrection day and a week later on the evening of the first day of the week when doubting Thomas was also present. While John 21 speaks of Jesus preparing a breakfast, not a supper, it is premised on the beginning of a new day that has dawned.

Of course, breakfast comes at the beginning of the day. This can be viewed as a sacramental occasion, therefore. The Lord’s Supper of fish and loaves for 5,000 served on a Galilean hillside before Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection may have been a meal of anticipation. But this breakfast meal by the lakeside was one of fulfillment.

Jesus already stood on the beach. When the disciples got out on the land, a charcoal fire was already laid and fish placed upon it. And there was bread that Jesus had already provided, again suggestive of a sacramental meal prepared by the Lord. Still, Jesus tells them to bring some of their catch also. The disciples’ catch, let it be known, was parabolic. It’s a parable.

Out of the catch that would come later, Some of the fish Jesus himself had already provided, but part would be brought by the church and through its mission. Can it be then that the fish already provided represent the Jews to whom Jesus the Lord came and whom he still represents in the flesh? And that the fish caught by the disciples represents the Gentile world and thus the bringing in of the whole of mankind? Could that be?

Again, we say that the disciples’ catch was but parabolic of the great catch that would come later. that great catch would come only when the disciples, now sharing the sacred meal with their glorified Lord, had themselves shared in the cup which he first had had to drink, as indeed Jesus is going to go on to say to Peter later in this chapter. Here for the moment, the nucleus of the church, these seven disciples, gathered in a fishing boat, are learning that if it obeys its Lord, its mission will be miraculously successful, and that it can along the way maintain fellowship with Him and receive sustenance from Him.

For even if they should be unfaithful in their appointed task, He will still come to them and call them back to His service. You will remember, of course, that at the crucifixion they had all scattered, even Peter, who had declared after the Lord’s Supper his readiness to follow Jesus and that he would lay down his life for Jesus if need be. Chapter 13 of John, verse 37. But that very night, Peter fulfilled the Lord’s prophecy and denied him three times, and he, like the rest, scattered at the cross. Ironically, now here at the Sea of Galilee, for the third time Jesus was manifested to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.

Here were the would-be fishers of men, where they had spent a night without catching any food, but now they were to be fed from his supply. For three years they had followed Jesus. They had heard his teaching. They had witnessed his miraculous signs. They confessed him even to be the Christ, the Lord’s anointed one, expecting through him the arrival of kingdom glory. But then came the betrayal and the hideous crucifixion. And together they had gone through then the dark night of despair, nothing to show for their efforts.

And they had thought the whole thing was over. and that they might as well return to their earthly occupation. Seems reasonable enough, doesn’t it? Given the circumstances, they thought Jesus was the Christ who was going to rescue them from all their enemies, but instead he’s crucified. So they’re going to go back to their old way of life. But now here for the third time they see their Lord alive from the dead, and they were to learn that truly a new day has dawned, and that new power would come to make them, in Paul’s words, more than conquerors. In other words, Jesus is showing them, you thought it was all over.

You’re so ready to return to your former trade, but your days as fishers of men have only just begun. With Jesus at the right hand of the Father, the gospel of the Kingdom of God would now be preached with Holy Spirit power to the ends of the earth, and their gospel nets would be made full. Not one of the elect would be lost. The nets would not break.

If the first man, Adam, the earthy man in creation, was given dominion over the birds of the air, the beast of the field, and the fish of the sea, how much more so the last Adam, the heavenly spiritual man, the new man, the resurrected man, Jesus Christ, is given dominion over the whole of the new creation.

As Hebrews 2 verses 5 to 8 makes abundantly clear, Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of Psalm 8. And I’ll ask you to reflect on that this week. Jesus is the fulfillment of Psalm 8. He is crowned with glory and honor. He is now exalted as head over all things, over all the new creation works of God’s hands. And he is given as head to the church.

As he then, in terms of the Psalm 8, is the good shepherd, as he himself revealed in John chapter 10, the good shepherd who will rescue his flock from the hands of thieves and hirelings and the faithless shepherds of Israel. He will bring them safely his flock into his fold such that no one can snatch them from his hand. To repeat, Jesus is the good shepherd. But we will add that he is also the good farmer who shall bring in his great and full harvest of souls from the field of the whole world at the end of the age. But Jesus Christ is also most surely the good fisherman who will bring in the great and final catch.

His dominion extends over all the earth and to the highest heavens. All things have been put in subjection under his feet, He is truly the exalted Lord, the exalted head of the church, who reassembled and recommissions here his fishers of men to go make disciples of all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that he commanded them. And that with the promise, Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Matthew chapter 28 at the end of the end of the book of Matthew.

So then as the church sets sail on her fishing mission, it is the good fisherman who goes with her, guaranteeing the success of her catch. Yes, he can calm the storms, but he will also fill the nets of his fishermen. And just as the sheep know his voice and follow him, so too his fish come into the nets and will not escape. All those that the Father gives him will come to him, John 6, verse 37, so that God’s purpose according to election will stand.

Those of you memorizing John 9 will recognize verse 11. Let us turn then toward the end of our passage in John 21, and we will pick up the story at verse at the verse where Jesus begins his conversation with Peter. I believe it’s verse 13. And we will see that that conversation is focused especially on Peter’s continuation of Jesus’ work in the church, and in close conjunction with that, on the future of the beloved disciple also.

Jesus’s threefold repeated question, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? Certainly reflects Peter’s threefold denial of Jesus and that brazen dialogue that had preceded those denials as they arose from the last supper and the disciples went out, Peter saying, Everyone else may deny you, but I will not. I will lay down my life for you. But notice how Jesus’ questions cut to the heart of those denials. Jesus’ words of address also recall those words spoken at Jesus’ first encounter with Peter, where He said to Peter for the first time, You are Simon, son of John. You shall be called Cephas, that is Peter.

In this use of Peter’s original name, then, it seems that Jesus wants to make Peter feel that before going further with him, he must first make a fresh beginning with him. The repeated question, presumably in view of what follows in verse 18, relates not only to Peter’s attitude towards Jesus, but also and especially to his readiness to serve and follow Jesus.

The words added the first time Jesus asked the question, more than these, might refer to the way in which Peter has until now taken the lead in comparison to the other disciples. In other words, do you love me more than these other disciples? You seem to be the first one to jump into everything. And it might refer to the way in which Peter has until now taken the lead in comparison to those other disciples. or to Peter’s earlier statement that he was willing to lay down his life and give all for Jesus.

And to what Peter will, Jesus’ words also relate to what will happen to Peter as his experience in the future. In any case, thus formulated, this question is designed to let Peter know that loving and following Jesus can have more implications for him than he perhaps has thought and practiced in the past. Peter’s affirmative answer is without hesitation, and he appeals to Jesus’ knowledge of him.

The appeal does not have the sense of, why ask me? You know me, don’t you? Jesus’ knowledge is rather the last thing on which Peter can base an appeal before Jesus. His own actions have witnessed against him. And more than these seems to mock him more than justify him. All that is left to Peter is, you know that I love you. and appeal to Jesus’ knowledge of him as one of his own.

Notice that in response to Peter’s repeated assertion of his love for Jesus, Jesus answers with the words, feed my lambs, tend my sheep, feed my sheep. And the variation there in those comments, the differences between lambs and sheep, between feed and tend, can, if taken strictly, Express the shepherd’s total care for the whole flock, both sheep and lambs. Both feed the sheep and take care of them, tend them. But one thing is pivotal here. Jesus attests and he attests again three times and in the presence of the other disciples, his full confidence in Peter as a future shepherd of his church. We note that shepherding is one of the most frequent and characteristic images for leadership and care of the church.

It is rooted in the portrayal of God as a shepherd of his people and of Jesus as the good shepherd. As such, it is not typically then purely apostolic that the apostles are shepherds, but rather that word shepherding is characteristic of every task or ministry in the church. caring for the sheep of Jesus Christ. Accordingly, then, there is, in the repeated designation of Peter as shepherd, nothing unique Peter is not charged with the care of the entire flock as Jesus earthly vicar as claimed by Rome. And he is not the chief shepherd to whom all the other shepherds are subordinate. Peter’s commissioning here is not different from that of all of the disciples.

This charge to Peter is so emphatic because of his earlier threefold denial and Jesus’s thrice attested willingness to continue to entrust to him the care of his church. Yes. Jesus had asserted Peter as the rock on which he would build his church. Yes, that had been true, Matthew 16. But that assertion applied not only to Peter, not only as spokesman, but as the first mentioned of the various disciples. As until now, even with all of his ups and downs, Peter has acted as the first mentioned, But Jesus speaks to him not just as the first of the apostles, but no less or perhaps even especially as a follower.

Peter, you’re a follower for which Jesus had destined him as is evident in Jesus’ closing words at the end of verse 23, you follow me. And Peter is grieved because Jesus asked him the third time, Simon, do you love me? What Jesus adds in verse 18, in a sense, explains all that precedes. Jesus has sought not so much Peter’s triple retraction of his denial, and even less has Jesus sought to embarrass Peter before the other disciples. It is rather what awaits Peter in the future that prompts Jesus to reinforce his ties with him as never before. And so to that end, Jesus now applies to Peter the image of one who in the strength of his youth could walk and stand wherever he pleased, but in the weakness of old age must depend not only on the help of others, must depend not only on the help of others and on their will, even if they take him where he does not want to go.

In Peter’s case, it will not be occasioned by the infirmities of old age, nor even by a stroke, but by the death he will die. Those words are specifically stated in the gospel. Jesus said these things to speak of the death that Peter would die, which we have understood to have been, for Peter, the way of martyrdom. He would die for his preaching of Jesus.

Significantly, in John 21, the ministry of the gospel then is likened to fishing and shepherding. They are laid parallel one to another. In the end, the catch and the flock belong to Jesus Christ, the Lord. Ministry then is a stewardship of what has been entrusted to the man fishers and the under shepherds by Christ himself, who shows grace and gives gifts to his church in the whole of his new creation realm. He says to Peter, feed my sheep. He could just as well have said, feed my fish. But he says, feed my sheep. Thus, in the words, follow me, John is picking up on the words that Jesus had spoken to his disciples at the beginning.

We are looking at a new beginning here. And the gospel writer’s profound point is that true discipleship, again, flows from the death and the glorification of the resurrected Lord. The scene then with Jesus and the fishermen is a solemn one. The seven disciples who had gone back to their old job had found that the glorified Lord came to them even there, and he fed them with the bread and the fish that had been a symbol of the bread of life, which was himself. He is the bread of life. such as was made known at the feeding earlier of the 5,000 on the Galilean hillside, where Jesus ministered, we are told there, to a people who were like sheep without a shepherd. Therefore, the apostles were to go forth as shepherds and fishermen for the ingathering and the feeding of Christ.

Jesus’s church. The way they were to follow was set by Jesus in his humiliation and exaltation. It is the way of the cross. It is the way of love. Confident of the Lord’s provision in his presence and power, then, these disciples being returned to their task as fishers of men, were to press on, fixing their eyes on Him, and we too, beloved, confident of the Lord’s presence and power with us, we too shall press on, fixing our eyes on Jesus. After all, it is a new day in a new creation. So let us take up our cross and let us follow Jesus. As one of those campfire songs says, no turning back, no turning back. And I’m going to say at the end of that, amen. Let’s pray together.

Our Father God, we thank you for the Lord Jesus. We thank you that he is indeed the Lord of all the earth and he will gather his sheep and he will feed them. Even as he will gather his fish from the farthest reaches of the world, he will gather them in and not one will be lost. The great harvest will be gathered into his storehouse, O God. How we thank you for the promise that he makes to his church then that he will be with us always, even to the end of the age. For it is his power that gathers the sheep. It is his power that fills the net.

And so we will not lose heart. We will press on together in him according to that gospel provision that we are to take up our cross and follow Jesus who set the way for us. and who is now resurrected and at the right hand of the Father. And so from that powerful right hand of heaven’s throne, as the disciples learned as they cast the net over the right hand side of the boat, the nets were made full. So too shall we then, seeing and hearing these things, press on in the surety of your presence with us.

And for this, we give thanks and praise the name of our great God, even as we thank you for this evening and the opportunity to open your word together. We do pray in the name of Jesus Christ, the head and Lord of the church, who has been made head over all things in heaven and on earth, whose name is the name above every other name, that at his name, we should bow our knee and our tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. And we pray in Jesus’ name, giving thanks, amen.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

About this sermon

Eight days after the resurrection Jesus again stands among his disciples, now with Thomas present, and invites the doubter to see his hands and side. The text does not say Thomas touched him; Jesus’ offer exposes his unbelief, and Thomas confesses, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus blesses those who have not seen and yet believe. The risen Lord is the same Jesus who came in the flesh, and the gospel was written so that readers may believe that he is the Christ and have life in his name.

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Sermon transcript

will pause to allow them. This is John chapter 20. I’m beginning to read at verse 19. This is the word of God, the gospel of Jesus Christ. So when it was evening on that first day, first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, peace be with you. When he had said this, he showed them both his hands and his side. The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord. So Jesus said to them again, peace be with you.

As the Father has sent me, I also send you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them. If you retain the sins of any, they have been retained.

But Thomas, one of the 12, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples were saying to him, we have seen the Lord. But he said to them, unless I see in his hands the imprint of the nails and put my finger into the place of the nails and put my hand into his side, I will not believe. After eight days, his disciples were again inside and Thomas with them.

Jesus came, the doors having been shut, stood in their midst and said, Peace be with you. Then he said to Thomas, reach here with your finger. See my hands and reach your hand and put it into my side. And do not be unbelieving, but believing. Thomas answered and said to him, my Lord and my God.

Jesus said to him, because you have seen me, have you believed? Lest are they who did not see. and yet believed. Therefore, many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book, but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.

This ends the reading of God’s holy word. Let’s pray together, shall we? Father, we thank you for this gospel of John, Thank you for this particular passage. We pray, O God, for the insight and grace of the Holy Spirit that we might embrace the things that are revealed here for our encouragement, that we would be built up in a most holy faith and in a great love for the Lord Jesus Christ, our risen Savior and King, indeed, our Lord and our God. It’s in his name we pray. Amen.

The narrative that continues in verse 24 is closely tied with what has just preceded in the text, in that Jesus appears again under much the same circumstances as the prior meeting on that first Lord’s Day, that first day of the week when Christ had been raised.

Now a second time, a week later, he appears again. But this time he appears also in the presence of Thomas. Thomas was not there the first day, the first time. Thomas, who was also called Didymus, the twin. Thomas again comes on the scene in a way that can be called characteristic of him and for him. as the disciple who, though evidently, genuinely loyal to Jesus, repeatedly gives evidence of his resistance to Jesus’ departure to the Father and his lack of understanding of that departure.

For example, in John 11, verse 16, Thomas speaks up when Jesus proposes to return to Judea at the occasion of Lazarus’ death. The disciples are dismayed that Jesus would dare suggest such a thing knowing that the Jews were there seeking to stone Jesus. Dare we go there again is the implication. And Thomas there in that context in 11.16 soberly says, let us also go that we may die with him.

Another way of saying, how can anything good come out of this? In chapter 14, verse 5, Thomas responds to the Lord’s great and marvelous exhortation. Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. I go to prepare a place for you. And you know the way where I am going.

Thomas, in chapter 14, verse 5, typical Thomas, says, Lord, we don’t know where you’re going. How do we know the way? that he, Thomas, the one of the 12, was for that very reason not in their company when Jesus came on the evening of the first day of the week when Christ had been raised from the dead is an obvious inference. And by that I mean his skepticism, his doubt, his sobriety about this whole business of where this is leading. Though not said in so many words, it is understood that Thomas’s resistance to Jesus’ departure, his doubting and lack of understanding, which were somewhat characteristic of him apparently, had kept him from being there on that first evening when the others assembled and Jesus appeared in their midst. While not said, that’s certainly the implication, particularly as we go on to read about Thomas, who has the infamous nomenclature, doubting Thomas, as you know. So in any case, when the others had told him the great news, we have seen the Lord. How does he respond? As Mary Magdalene had come to the disciples saying, I have seen him and he has spoken to me. How does Thomas respond?

When they speak to him of Jesus’ pierced hands and feet, Thomas not only did not believe it, but he did not even take their word seriously. His reaction, you know it, unless I see in his hands. the imprint of the nails and put my finger in the place of the nails and put my hand into his side, I will not believe. That statement is undoubtedly not intended to lay down a serious condition for belief. In other words, anyone who is going to believe in Jesus has to be able to touch the body of Jesus. But what Thomas is doing is, in his mind, exposing the absurdity of what they tell him. Before I would believe that, I would first have to touch and see and be there. I can’t believe it.

Accordingly, Thomas’ unbelief, about which there is much debate, as you might imagine in the commentaries, does not mean that he, like the people in Cana, want to see signs and wonders before he believes. He’s not one of those unbelievers who is demanding a sign. Unless I see a sign, I’m not going to believe. It means rather that he rejects as impossible the whole idea of the miracle of which his fellow disciples are talking. This doesn’t add up. So it is not as a miracle-hungry Thomas, but as the skeptical, doubting Thomas that He appears on the scene here again in John 20.

Notice how verse 26 ties in very closely with verse 19. Eight days later, hence again on the first day of the week, the day of the resurrection, Jesus’ disciples were once again together in a closed room, but this time with Thomas, who despite himself, despite his doubts, had sought out the company of his fellow disciples. And again, like in the prior episode, again Jesus comes with the doors having been shut. This time that the doors were closed is noted without the explanation for fear of the Jews, as had been a week earlier. And therefore, more clearly here than in verse 19, this closed door setting to indicate the miraculous, the irresistible character of Jesus coming into their midst.

And again, he thus presents himself in their midst with his peace, greeting, peace. be with you.” Only this time, Thomas is present. We draw attention once again that last week in that earlier episode on that first day of that first evening of the resurrection day, Jesus, verse 19, and again in verse 21, repeats the phrase, peace be with you. And now a third time, with Thomas present. Peace be with you.

And having said so, he immediately turns to Thomas and responds directly to the manner in which Thomas had expressed his disbelief. What does Jesus say? Reach here your finger and see my hands. Put your hand into my side. And be not unbelieving, but believing. Many interpreters here think that Jesus’ invitation is intended literally. And that Thomas literally complies before he makes this confession that he makes. And that Thomas does a head. Let me touch it. I really do want to touch that hand. I really do want to put my hand into your side. But the text doesn’t say that, does it?

It seems rather that Jesus’ offer is meant to humble Thomas with his own words. You who said a week ago, I won’t believe unless I can touch. Go ahead, Jesus is saying. It certainly seems unlikely that Thomas comes to his great confession only on the basis of Jesus lifting his robe and opening his hands. An examination of Jesus’ body has to take place here.

The confession more sounds like a direct and a spontaneous reaction to Jesus’ appearance in their midst and the words which totally overwhelm Thomas. Foolish me, my Lord and my God. The confession, my Lord and my God, conveys Thomas’ own deep shame on the one hand and his reverence on the other at now seeing Jesus in his divine glory, resurrection glory, a glory surpassing all human standards. His confession also reflects the strong personal sense with which Thomas immediately, spontaneously, joyfully yields to Jesus.

In the combination of these two titles, My Lord and My God, some scholars refer Again, these two titles, some scholars refer to passages in the Old Testament, in which the psalmist, for example, in Psalm 35, 24, prays to God and says, my Lord, my God. That is while ascribing to Thomas, seeing Jesus, he cries out to God in heaven, my God, what have I seen?

Scribing to him sort of a measure of piety here is the way some commentators approach it. That these words are seeing Jesus, he praises God. They see it little different than the man on the street suddenly struck with an amazing and startling phenomenon, crying out to God, oh my God!

We’re not gonna go there. Other commentators, notably two famous men in history, Augustine and Applinus, have viewed the two predicates, Lord and God, as descriptive on the one hand of Jesus’ human nature, and on the other hand, his divine nature. And so Thomas is giving us a theological lesson here, in terms of humanity and deity, as two natures in one person. We’re not going to follow that quite either here tonight. But in Thomas’s spontaneous exclamation, we do not have a liturgical or a dogmatic formulation. The case was rather that the usual address of respect, my Lord, with which he would have addressed Jesus many times, was simply not enough. For what at the sight of Jesus filled Thomas with awe he had only one word left, my God.

For who could do what Jesus did and thus as the one who was pierced appear now in omnipotence, in resurrection beauty. But he with whom God had united himself in this manner here truly was and is God’s beloved son. But this does not alter the remarkable fact that here, for the first time in this gospel, note well, for the first time in the gospel of John, Jesus is addressed personally, face to face, in the absolute sense as my God. And that with this lofty word, and that this lofty word, at the end of the gospel, near the end of the gospel, comes from the lips of wavering, wavering, unbelieving, doubting Thomas. Here is an important clue to the origin of the high character of the entire witness in John’s whole gospel, to Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, the Word become flesh. Here is John’s Christology coming to confession by a disciple of Jesus. For the first time in this gospel, you see, in this gospel, My God.

In the drama of the unfolding details of Jesus’ life, the unfolding redemption accomplished in His death, His resurrection, and ascension of Jesus the Messiah, and in this confession of Thomas, mind you, doubting Thomas, however personally it is formulated, my Lord and my God, The fourth gospel here comes to a dramatic climax and in so doing returns to its starting point that is found in the prologue. In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God and the word became flesh and dwelt among us. the coming, the work of Jesus the Christ, the Word that was from the beginning with God and was God, becoming flesh, dwelling among us. Here, Thomas is set before us. Thomas himself is set before us as a paradigm for the fact that only the superiority of Jesus’ self-historical revelation, his self-revelation, with many a bump in between times on the way to this point in the Gospels and in the story of the disciples. Though they have stumbled and bumbled and been confused and lacking understanding, here for the first time in a clear, direct, and powerful way, the disciples have been brought to the confession of Jesus as Lord and God. Here it is. Aha! We see it. We see who this one is. And we know that we have witnessed nothing less than the appearance of the Word of God in the flesh. The Word that is God.

And such constitutes the foundation of this gospel’s high Christological message. Jesus’ resurrection is the end and the climax of that historical self-revelation. And on seeing the risen one, it is that Thomas surrenders. and that in him paradigmatically the disciples begin to understand who in truth Jesus was in the authority with which he has spoken to them and in the works that he has done. This understanding will from now on be deepened by the coming of the paraclete, the Holy Spirit who will be poured out, that he will speak of me, Jesus says, you will know that I am he that the Father has sent into the world, the one who was promised them in order to witness with them to this very reality, the witness that they would in turn bear to the ends of the earth through their apostolic witness. But all this does not mean that faith in the risen heavenly Lord will cause the image of the earthly Jesus to grow dim and transform it into that of the heavenly Lord. Suddenly, we forget all about the fact that Jesus appeared in the flesh. But rather, we are reminded that just as no one ascended to heaven but he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man, so also no one will know the heavenly Lord and Son of God other than in his descent, in his glorious appearing in this world. glory of the incarnate word of God.

To this, Jesus’ last word to Thomas testifies, as do the words with which the evangelist concludes his gospel in chapter 20, concludes his gospel in a certain provisionary way. We’re not done yet. There’s a chapter that follows, to be sure. But at the end of chapter 20, verses 29 and 30, We have almost an end of the gospel. It sounds like the end. We’ve often quoted those verses.

Many other signs, therefore, Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book, but these have been written that you may believe that Jesus is Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.

I want you to note well that Jesus does not reject Thomas’ confession. He accepts it. You want to argue with a Jehovah Witness? Anytime anyone tried to worship an angel or one of the apostles, no, no, no, don’t worship me. Worship God. And here is Thomas saying to Jesus, my Lord and my God, and Jesus accepts it, receives it without rebuke. Jesus does not say, do you not know I’m just a creature like yourself? Worship the creator instead of me? No. Jesus accepts Thomas’ confession saying, because you have seen me, have you believed? Whether Jesus’ reply should be even framed as a question is debatable.

But what is not doubtful or debatable is that Thomas’ faith is reliable. This is real faith at work here. His unbelief, his doubting has been overcome and his faith is acceptable to Jesus and his confession is acceptable to Jesus. And Jesus not only then speaks a word to him, but also pronounces a blessing on those who did not see and yet believed.

Some view this as a temporal or a timeless statement that faith doesn’t need or even ought not to be based on any kind of sight. Of course, we know the definition of faith, the assurance of things unseen. And so people have read that with that view of faith that says that we don’t need anything to appear in the flesh. We don’t need any sight upon which to base our faith.

And so then they’re understanding what Jesus says as to be directed against Thomas, a rebuke, if you will, whose faith did rest on site and was therefore inferior to other people’s faith. But I want you to note that Jesus is here speaking of a transition that will come into effect from this point on. From now on, At least after Jesus’ final departure to the Father, people will have to believe without seeing, simply on the basis of the Apostle’s witness. The Apostle’s witness, mind you, they saw something and they heard something and they were there. And such people of the future like you and me, the church of the future, Jesus addresses, speaking out across Thomas, over his head as it were, with his last word, blessed are those who have not seen and yet will believe. A beatitude for them all. There is undoubtedly present in the contrast here something of a general reproach to Thomas.

He has not believed, listen, he has not believed the testimony of his brethren, fellow disciples who have seen. that he doesn’t believe what they’ve seen the Lord. He dismissed it as absurd, even though as one of Jesus’ designated witnesses, he himself will soon be out asking people to believe the same thing he wasn’t believing. He’s gonna go tell the world about this Jesus that he saw that they didn’t see. But believing on the basis of seeing, mind you, is not thereby degraded as a concession that Jesus makes to the weakness of some, a concession that ought not to be needed.

Why do we need a real human Jesus anyway, who appeared in the flesh? If it were that, if it was to say we don’t need a Jesus in the world, we don’t need a real human being in the world like Jesus, then all of the appearances and the miracles in which he has revealed himself in the presence of his disciples would fall under that same judgment, you didn’t need any of this. Then why’d he come?

Some people say he didn’t come, you see. He never did really appear in the flesh. That’s just a myth. The resurrection is a myth, they say. But beloved is no myth. It’s what they saw. And thank God there were witnesses, there were testimonies to be born by apostles who were sent out by Jesus. This view that it wasn’t necessary for an actual appearance not only rests on a spiritualizing denial of the reality of the resurrection narratives as signs of Jesus’ glory, but also conflicts with the entire import of the gospel itself. The good news that the Son of God became man for our redemption. As is clear from that summarizing epilogue to the gospel, that these things have been written that you might believe. that Jesus is the Christ. A real, a really necessary and adequate type of belief does not discard the sign or the appearance of the risen Jesus.

For the visible is an indispensable condition of the words having become flesh. As long as Jesus stood among men, faith had to deal with the one who had become visible. He did become flesh. But now here at the end of the gospel, the beginning of the apostolic age, another attitude becomes possible and necessary, which will be the era of the spirit, the invisible presence of Christ, and the era of signs or appearances is passing away.

Blessed are they who have not seen. who will yet believe through your testimony, Thomas, and the testimony of others. One era, one epoch in the history of redemption proceeds, and it transitions into the other. Jesus is about to return to the Father in full. But for the fact that Thomas and the other apostles saw the incarnate Christ, if they had not seen the Christ, there’d be no gospel after all. But they have a gospel to preach.

And there is such a thing as Christian faith in the testimony that they bear, in the witness that they have borne to us. Or as the evangelist himself phrases it, he has narrated what he has narrated. He has told us what happened, signs and all, so that people may believe and have life, eternal life in Jesus Christ.

Peace be with you. Amen. Let’s pray together. Our Father, we thank you for the situation of this disciple, Thomas. His situation in the gospel narrative, who comes with all of his doubts, fears, and misunderstandings. Who in beholding and hearing the resurrected Christ, is brought to the glorious conviction that here stood God in the flesh, God in resurrection body of a man, and that having conquered death for his people. Our Father, we thank you for that glorious gospel peace which belongs to a people who believe, who believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ, the word who became flesh, visible in this world for the very purpose of revealing himself, of accomplishing the salvation we so desperately needed. We praise you, our Lord and our God. In Jesus’ name, amen. Let’s sing together, shall we? Hymn number 69. Hymn number 69. Let’s stand together, shall we?

With glowing heart I’ll praise Thee, For the bliss Thy love bestows, For the pardoning grace that saves me, And the peace that from it flows. Help, O God, my weak endeavor, This dull soul to rapture raise. Thou must light the flame, or never Can my love be warmed to praise.

Praise my soul, the God that sought thee, wretched wander far astray. found thee lost and kindly brought thee from the paths of death away. Raised with love’s devoutest feeling, him who sought And the light of hope revealing, Made the blood-stained cross appear. Praise thy Savior God that drew thee to that cross new life to give. Held a blood-sealed pardon to thee, made thee look to Him and live. Praise the grace whose threads so marbly Browse thee from thy fatal ease. Praise the grace whose promise warm thee, praise the grace that whispered peace.

Lord, this bosom’s ardent feeling vainly would my lips express. Oh, before thy footstool kneeling, Dain thy suppliant’s prayer to bless. Let thy love, my soul’s chief treasure, Lost pure flame within me raise. And since words can never measure, let my life show forth thy grace. Amen. Look up and receive the blessing of our God. Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ with a love incorruptible. Amen.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

About this sermon

On the evening of the first day of the week, the risen Jesus stands among his frightened disciples and says, “Peace be with you.” He shows them his hands and side, sends them as the Father sent him, breathes on them, and gives them the Holy Spirit with authority to declare sins forgiven or retained. The meeting marks the beginning of a new creation and of the church’s mission: apostles sent by the Son carry his word of peace and forgiveness to the world.

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Sermon transcript

I remind you that this is the inspired word of God, the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, beginning to read at John’s gospel, chapter 20, verse 19. Give your attention. So when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, when the doors were shut, where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, peace be with you. And when he had said this, he showed them both his hands and his side. The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord. So Jesus said to them again, peace be with you.

As the father has sent me, I also send you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them. If you retain the sins of any, they have been retained.

But Thomas, one of the 12, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples were saying to him, we have seen the Lord. He said to them, unless I see in his hands the imprint of the nails and put my finger into the place of the nails and put my hand into his side, I will not believe. After eight days, his disciples were again inside, and Tellimus with them. Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst and said, peace be with you. And he said to Thomas, reach here with your finger and see my hands. Reach here your hand and put it into my side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing. Thomas answered and said to him, my Lord and my God. Jesus said to him, because you have seen me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see and yet believed.

Thus far the reading of the word of God. Let’s pray together. Our Father, we pray that the spirit of the risen Jesus would be at work active among us here now, both in the reading, preaching, and hearing of the word. Also, Father, in our ability to lay hold of these things, might we, Lord, be built up in our knowledge of Christ, our love for Christ, the peace and the assurance that are ours because of Christ. that your church might be sustained for the work that is before her, oh God. And may, Lord, even tonight that word that you have revealed in the gospel be a blessing to the lives, to the souls of this people gathered here, to others that they might meet and have contact with in their daily lives. We pray these things together now in Jesus’ name, amen.

This narrative and the preceding incident at the tomb involving first Peter and John, along with Mary Magdalene, and then Mary Magdalene seeing the risen Jesus. Now Jesus meeting with his disciples on the evening of the first day of the week post-resurrection. This narrative and the one that had just come before it are certainly distinct. But in content, there is a very close connection in that the disciples’ involvement now in Jesus’ ascent, mentioned last week in verse 17, is being further explicated. Jesus had told Mary, that you go tell my brethren, that I ascend to my God and your God, my Father and your Father. And that ascension has already begun, that ascension of Christ raised from the dead and his participation now in his glorious resurrection and the outworking of what that means in terms of the turning of the ages, the transformation that has come upon the church as a consequence of the resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. So what we’re looking at this evening in chapter 20 is particularly verses 19 through 23 in this first meeting with the disciples on the evening of that first day of the week of this new week of new creation, as it were, following the glorious resurrection of Jesus Christ. This incident which John reports as taking place on the evening of the resurrection day is peculiar to John’s gospel.

John is concerned with establishing the identity of the person of Jesus who was crucified with that of the one who is and will always be the ever-present Lord of the church. And to point out to the church what the nature of belief in the Lord may be. In other words, here is comfort, here is assurance, here is a clear indication of who Jesus is and what that means in his resurrected and ascended state for the church of Jesus Christ. The manner in which Jesus now reveals himself to the disciples, and as the risen one, gives them direction for the future of the church. give special meaning to this first appearance to them on that first day.

This narrative of John 20, 19 and following certainly connects with what took place in Luke’s gospel in chapter 24, verse 36 and following, where Jesus is described as meeting with the disciples. But for all of the agreement in the substantial, the fact that there was a meeting, John, the gospel writer, conveys the story in a form and a wording that are uniquely his own, as we’ve seen time and again. And he does this in a very strongly summarizing manner, first by briefly describing the appearance of Jesus, and then by speaking of, in three main points, and here’s three main points for your sermon topic here this evening, the instruction and powers that Jesus gives to the disciples, their mission, verse 21, the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, verse 22, and their authorization to forgive and retain sins, verse 23. And so Christ instructing his disciples regarding one, their mission, verse 21, the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, verse 22, and their authorization to forgive and retain sins, verse 23.

There’s your three points in this particular text. The story begins with a clear time reference that marks the salvation historical character of this Jesus’ first meeting with his disciples. It was evening on that day, the first day of the week. Resurrection day, the evening of that first day of the new creation beginning, post-resurrection.

That the doors were shut where the disciples were is explained in part in verse 19 by their fear of the Jews. As several of the disciples were well-known followers of Christ, they would have still felt threatened by the Jewish presence in and around them, so that at Jesus’ arrest they had all fled and sought their shelter each on his own. But now they are assembled again all together but not without taking precautions. They have locked the doors or closed the doors because of their fear of the Jews.

Still, the prominent mention of the closed doors is undoubtedly also and primarily intended to indicate the miraculous character of Jesus coming to them. All at once, despite the closed doors, Jesus came into their midst and addressed them with his reading. In these circumstances, a particularly powerful reading. He comes into their midst and speaks to them a word. Again, think resurrection, think ascension, think of a church that has been wounded terribly by the crucifixion of Jesus. He comes into their presence behind closed doors and says to them, peace.

Be with you. And we’ve called our sermon by that title here this evening. And I want to emphasize that text. Although we’re focusing on verses 19 to 23, you’ll see two times in that text, 19 and 21 is the repetition of this phrase. Peace be with you. Peace be with you. But also down in verse 26, it’ll come back again. Peace be with you. I believe it’s improper to come to this place in the text and this place in the gospel story and not catch that emphasis. And if you have a red letter edition, it’s highlighted for you. The words are in bold and red print for you to see.

Jesus, the resurrected Jesus, on the first day of his resurrection, and then the eighth day of the resurrection, again on the Sabbath, the first day of the week, standing in the midst of his brethren, standing in the midst of the disciples, saying, peace. be with you.

After he greets them, Jesus shows them his hands and his side as a means of self-identification, self-disclosure. He has returned to them in his identity as the historic person who before his death gave them the promise of that return. You remember how Jesus in the course of his farewell discourses through the large portion of John’s gospel had said to them after a little while you will see me and not see me and then a little while you’ll see me again and here he is. He has kept his word.

He has come back and shows himself alive to them even raised from the dead and in that process of ascending to the Father. And to prove who he is, he shows them the scars of his suffering and of his violent death, not just as signs by which to recognize him, but also as signs of victory. He is alive, after all, raised from the dead. He shows himself to them as the triumphant one, the one whom they pierced. the one whom they crucified, in keeping with what chapter 19, verse 37 has said about the prophetic messianic significance of his pierced side. The one whom they have pierced, they will mourn his crucifixion, his death, but now he is alive and he is raised from the dead. He returns to them to enable them to share in his victory over death and over the grave and thus to give them the sign by which they will be allowed to continue his work on earth.

He’s not taking them out of the world. He’s prayed the Father to keep them in the world. They are in the world but not of it. They are to continue his work on earth and they are to know the secret of their power, the content of their message as they go forth into the world.

We are already given verse 17 concerning the nature of Jesus’ self-revelation as the risen one. in this present tense context of I ascend or I am ascending to the Father. He tells Mary Magdalene, don’t cling to me in this world. I’m the resurrected heavenly Jesus, heavenly Son of God about to return to the Father. And it is in keeping with the transformation of Christ himself in terms of that exaltation and ascension, it bears with it the transformation of the standing of those joined to him. by faith.

That is the church, the disciples. It is clear that in rising from the dead Jesus does not hear return in his earthly corporeal existence. This is not the old body. This is the new resurrection body. The body that Jesus will bear with him into heaven. And the involvement of his body in the event of resurrection to which the earlier verses so clearly testified points precisely to the transition to the heavenly body. Put in the grave, raised from the dead in glorification, raised from the dead in resurrection body, the transition, the translation to the heavenly body which Paul describes in Philippians chapter 3 verse 21 as the body of his glory. This is the body that will be and is in heaven and we shall see again.

It is on the basis of this ascent which began with the resurrection. that here he makes himself known to his own in his victory as the one who was pierced on the cross just as he had made himself known to Mary Magdalene by calling her by name to the disciples going to Emmaus and the breaking of the bread and finally as the one who from then on takes his leave from the earth at his ascension to heaven in Luke 24 and Acts 1 when we see We hear of Him rising.

Here He is giving Himself to His disciples, showing Himself alive. They see the wounds, the former wounds of His body. They see Him and hear Him declaring, Peace be with you. We do not need to assume then that this is His earthly body, but the resurrection body. All the text here allows us to say is that during the time of Jesus’ ascent, he revealed himself and he appeared to his disciples. We lack adequate words and ideas for this manner of self-revelation. It is a glorious new thing that has come to be.

But the evangelist, John, immediately after relating Jesus’ appearance to Thomas, mentions this manner of Jesus’ revelation after his resurrection among John’s gospel, the end of the text we read this evening, mentions the manner of Jesus’ self-revelation after his resurrection, among the signs that Jesus did in the presence of his disciples, and that form the content of the apostolic witness and the faith of the community based on that witness, that this is the Christ, the son of the living God, and that believing on him, we may have life in his name. And so here in this appearance is one of those signs, one of those indicators that he gave to his disciples post-resurrection.

Of the disciples, it is then said, and this is their only reaction here in verse 20, that they, quote, rejoiced when they saw the Lord. This is not merely a comment in passing, beloved, but this is clearly a reflection of the joy that Jesus had promised them earlier. This was a people who just hours before had been a people cut to the quick, devastated by the death of Jesus. But Jesus had promised them in his farewell address, saying to them, your sorrow will be turned to joy and that your joy would be made full.

Chapter 16, verses 20 to 24. And so for John to record the fact that they rejoiced when they saw the Lord, indeed is verification of those very words that Jesus had spoken to them earlier There he had spoken of the joy of seeing one another again, in contrast with the sorrow of the farewell for which he was preparing them.

He has returned. He is back. He is resurrected from the dead. He is ascending to the Father. And that very simple statement, so profound in its meaning, they rejoiced when they saw him. It is that joy of reunion that in part determines and gives content to the repeated benediction we find in this short passage of 10 or 12 verses.

Peace be with you. Raised from the dead, ascending to the Father, my Father and your Father, my God and your God, brothers, peace be with you. Earlier he had said to them, again in his farewell addresses, peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you, not as the world gives, do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.

Earlier in that 14th chapter, Jesus had said, let not your heart be troubled, you believe in God, believe also in me. In my father’s house are many rooms. He had said to them that they should rejoice because He goes to the Father, chapter 14, verse 28.

And in John 20, this joy and this peace in turn forms the transition to those three core statements in verses 21 to 23. Those three very specific, very compact statements of what Jesus did in His appearance with them on the evening of that first day of the resurrection. joy, peace, peace be with you, Jesus raised from the dead, Jesus ascending to the father, their father and his father, and giving to them these transitional statements that we find here in the gospel, a summary that is strongly reminiscent of Jesus’ word of farewell in the great commission of Matthew’s gospel, chapter 28, verses 18 through 20. The summary that we have here in John, first of all, concerns the disciples’ mission, which Jesus has spoken of in His farewell prayer to the Father. John 17, verse 18, speaking there of sending them into the world. So Jesus here in verse 21 of chapter 20 said to them, Peace be with you as the Father has sent me I also send you.” A very compact statement to be sure. Here in John 20, He addresses it to the disciples themselves. Not praying to the Father, but now to the disciples.

Even as the Father has sent me, I send you. And there in the prayer, so here also, He speaks of their mission in immediate connection with His own mission. as the one sent by the father, which is again related to the unity of the father and the son, both in their deity, but also in their purpose and the decree and the execution of the decree, a unity now in which the disciples are understanding they are participant. Even as the father has sent the son into the world, he is sending them. As the Father in sending the Son continues to stand beside, behind the Son, and to take part in the Son’s work, so also Jesus, being sent by the Father, remains in force in the mission of the disciples, who will continue his work on earth. And he gives them a part in that work in the sense that in keeping with the meaning of the Greek word used here, apostolane, from which we get the word apostle, which means sent, messenger sent with a message. They represent him according to the rule that whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. Coworkers with the father, as the son sent by the father, so now the disciple sent by the son.

Apostles. I love the book of Hebrews chapter 3 verse 1 that speaks of Jesus as the apostle of our confession, the apostle and high priest, the one sent with a message from heaven. And now about to send the apostles into the world with that message to go and preach Jesus to the peoples of the world. Very compact statement, however. The content of their mission is not spelled out here in John 20. Also are lacking the words that were found there in John 17, 18 in the prayer into the world. He simply uses, so I send you. All the stress here falls on the idea of authorization.

When we think of Jesus’ words in Matthew 28, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples. Well, here, too, the concept that falls, the emphasis that falls on these words is authorization, Jesus sending them. Even as the Father sent me, I now send you. Although this last component of being sent is indelibly included in the calling that the disciples as apostles of Jesus must fulfill, their authorization is not limited simply to missionary activity, that is to activity outside the church, but is also evident from what follows where this mission coincides with the bestowal of the Holy Spirit and the authorization that we’ll see in the third instance to forgive and retain sins. role and discipline and the ongoing care and life of the church, which clearly relates to an ongoing activity of the disciples in the community of faith that takes shape as a result of their labors. Authorization of the one who sends them, the authority with which he sends them. So that’s the first point of the being sent.

Verse 22 speaks of this giving of the Holy Spirit. as empowerment for the disciples’ mission. The text says, subtly but powerfully, he breathed on them and said to them, receive the Holy Spirit. Of course, the word for breath, the word for breathe is the same word as the word for spirit. And so here is the one who gives the spirit, the one who dispenses the spirit, who sends them with the spirit as he breathes upon them his own breath, saying to them, receive the Holy Spirit. This breathing on the disciple certainly recalls biblical texts for us, something like Genesis 2-7, where God breathed life into the man that he had created out of the dust.

Or Ezekiel 37-5, where the prophet is commanded to preach to the dry bones and the spirit brings life and puts flesh on those bones and raises them up in the valley of dry bones. We have not, however, a clear reference to those texts. It’s more indirect than direct. And if it were more direct, it would be that the meaning would be just that.

As at the beginning, God breathed the living spirit into humankind, so in this moment of new creation, Jesus breathes the Holy Spirit into the disciples and so grants them eternal life. The manner of the expression and the context of the expression can also refer to the transmission of the working of the Holy Spirit in a broader sense, not just life giving, but in this present context of the spirit that is given in the context of the mission and of the authorization of the disciples to be sent into the world and to remit or retain sins. There is a power that is dispensed here. The giving of the spirit can therefore be understood as Jesus equipping of the disciples for the work for which they’re being sent into the world to do the work which has been assigned them. The last words of Jesus addressed to his disciples are also to be understood in that close connection have, first of all, this business of being sent, secondly, receive the Holy Spirit, and then the third, the close connection of what follows.

If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them. If you retain the sins of any, they have been retained. Such a verse, such a word clearly recalls the administration of the keys of the kingdom referred to in Matthew chapter 16, verse 19. where Jesus speaking to Peter and the disciples. And chapter 18 of Matthew, verse 18, again, where this business of retaining, giving, remitting sins, and reconciliation in the body of Christ.

This saying also contains the central content of the disciples’ mission referred to in verse 21, namely, to proclaim with authority as representatives of the exalted Lord, The remission of sins as the real goal of His mission from the Father and therefore also of their mission on His behalf. To go and preach the forgiveness of sins to all who believe. For as many as will believe in Him will most certainly have eternal life.

The main point in these three items, however, is the authority given to the disciples. And it falls here in this, particularly the third one, that they have an authority. They are, if you forgive the sins of any, they are, or they have been forgiven. Again, if you retain the sins of any, they are retained, or they have been retained. That is, they are retained by God.

Often this is understood as referring to the pronouncement that God will make in the final judgment. That what you say about them will be what comes into pass at the final judgment when God declares the outcome of all men. And that is certainly undoubtedly included in these passive expressions speaking of God’s action, but still forgiven and retained cannot be speaking solely of the final judgment for in the proclamation of the gospel in the name and in accordance with the instruction of Jesus.

Jesus himself is the speaker, the one who speaks through them. And he came to earth to forgive sins and to declare the forgiveness of sins, not just at the end of the world, but here and now that men and women and children might hear the gospel. He came to earth to forgive sins. That forgiveness goes into effect with his word.

And so here also the disciples are permitted in their being sent to pronounce a word that declares forgiveness and declares those who will not be forgiven, who do not repent and call upon the Lord Jesus. For that reason, it is undoubtedly important that the authority to forgive sins is closely associated here with the reception of the Holy Spirit. By the Spirit whom Jesus bestows on the apostles for the appointment and fulfillment of their task, he shows himself to be present with them as the living Lord who forgives sins on earth. The authority to forgive and to retain the sins of others that Jesus gives to his disciples consists in placing people before the decisive choice of the gospel, to accept in faith the grace of God manifest in the sending of the sun, or to remain in sin and to fall under divine judgment.

Without Christ you perish. as we conclude on these three items that Jesus speaks. I’m sending you as the Father has sent me. Receive the Holy Spirit with you. Those sins you forgive are forgiven. Those sins you retain are retained. But still left finally is the important question. Whether the powers that Jesus confers on his disciples are exclusively or at least primarily for the narrow circle of the 12. Is this the last place this has effect of these 12 chosen disciples? 11 at that hour, of course.

Or do these words apply without distinction to the whole church? To all who believe in Jesus as the Christ? Is this the commission that is put upon every believer? To all who believe in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, or is something else in view?

Carefully, we must see the fact that throughout the gospel, The appointment and the authorization of these first 12, these first apostles, are foundational for the faith of the church. The work of the apostles will be continued in the church under the banner of the ongoing promises of the risen one, now ascended, and by the power of the spirit sent by him. But it will continue only on the foundation of those who have been his witnesses from the beginning and in accordance with their standard. In other words, we are an apostolic church, after all. And that is the foundational authority. And their word stands.

In that sense, then, they, the apostles, have a unique standing in the history of the church, a unique standing in reference to that commission, if you will, that is given in Matthew 28 and here in John chapter 20. in the history of the church and in the apostolic provision made through them and recognize that through the apostolic provision, there are provision for offices. We’re not going to go into a detailed discussion of offices tonight, but it will be through the apostolic writing that we hear and read of pastors and teachers and ruling elders and deacons in the carrying out of the responsibilities of the Great Commission. Here in John 20, it is the provision of Christ and the abiding peace which are emphasized for the new church about to be sent into the world through her apostolic witness. The provision of Christ and the abiding peace emphasized for the well-being, for the comfort, for the joy of that church that is emphasized here. We are not left in the world as orphans. but as those who are well cared for by the ascended Christ.

I send you even as I have been sent, he says to the disciples. Receive the Holy Spirit and the sins that you forgive, I forgive. Those that you retain, I retain. Peace be with you. And they saw the Lord and they rejoiced. Our Father, we see the formation, the commission of the Church of Jesus Christ here in this resurrection event, this ascension event as Christ is taking his place with the Father and appointing his church in the world to be that instrument that he leaves in the world for his mission. Father, we thank you for the apostolic mission, the apostolic word that we have before us, the foundational truths that are laid out in the gospels and in the apostles’ epistles that are instruction for us. And Lord, as we think upon those words, we receive them as they are, the instructions of the King who is in heaven, the Lord Jesus raised from the dead in power and glory, the Lord who is providing for his church and can declare to her who was once beside herself with intimidation and fear, peace be with you. Don’t be afraid. Be about the business for which I, the son, have been sent into the world in which I now send you into the world to the ends of the earth for the in-gathering of his own, of those who belong to Christ. Lord, we thank you for this word of direction and comfort. We praise you for it in Jesus’ name. Let’s sing together hymn number 230.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

About this sermon

Mary Magdalene, a woman forgiven much, lingers at the tomb and is the first to see the risen Lord. When he says, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father,” Jesus points her to a new and better relationship. His glory and his presence by the Spirit after the ascension surpass his earthly company. He calls the disciples “my brothers” and speaks of “my Father and your Father, my God and your God,” so believers belong to the family and household of God.

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Sermon transcript

I remind you that this is the Word of God, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, reading from John chapter 20, beginning with verse 1, reading through verse 18. Give your attention. Now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb while it was still dark and saw the stone already taken away from the tomb, so she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved. and said to them, they have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.

So Peter and the other disciple went forth, and they were going to the tomb. The two were running together, and the other disciple ran ahead faster than Peter and came to the tomb first. Stooping and looking in, he saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. So Simon Peter also came following him and entered the tomb. and he saw the linen wrappings lying there and the face cloth which had been on his head not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. So the other disciple who had first come to the tomb then also entered and he saw and believed.

As yet they did not understand the scripture that he must rise again from the dead so the disciples went away again to their own homes. But Mary was standing outside the tomb weeping And so, as she wept, she stooped and looked into the tomb. And she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had been lying.

And they said to her, woman, why are you weeping? She said to them, because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him. She had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there and did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, woman, why are you weeping?

Whom are you seeking? Posing him to be the gardener, she said to him, sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him and I will take him away. Jesus said to her, Mary. She turned and said to him in Hebrew, Rabboni, which means teacher.

Jesus said to her, stop clinging to me, for I have not yet ascended to the father, but go to my brother and say to them, I ascend to my father and your father and my God and your God. Mary Magdalene came announcing to the disciples, I have seen the Lord, and that he had said these things to her.

May God bless to our hearing this portion of his holy word. Let’s pray together. Our Father, believing that faith comes by hearing, hearing by the Word of God and the Word of God being preached by those who have been sent. We pray, O Father, that your Word that comes into our midst this night will have its good effect, producing that grace of faith in us. May the Holy Spirit be in the preaching and in the hearing of the preaching tonight, that we, O God, would be built up in the knowledge of Christ, and that we might have life in his name We would confess him before men that we might glorify our father, which is in heaven. Father, hear us as we pray this now in Jesus name. Amen.

The narrative that began with Mary Magdalene in verse one, but was interrupted in verses three through 10, the story of the arrival of Peter and the disciple whom Jesus loved. The narrative is now from verse 11 on, focused on Mary’s experiences at the tomb.

The transition is somewhat abrupt in that her return to the tomb with or at least some distance from the two disciples is not mentioned, but simply assumed. The opening words of verse 11, but Mary was weeping, was standing outside the tomb, excuse me, but Mary was standing outside the tomb do however clearly tie in with what proceeds.

She did not go home as the two disciples did. In her grief, twice expressed here by her continued weeping, I ask you to notice the double mention in verse 11 of her weeping. She could not take leave, however purposely she might seem to be walking around. Everything here points to the special ties that bound her to Jesus. In that state of distress and weeping then, this close connection to Christ, she bent forward to look into the tomb and saw there two angels clothed in white, we’re told.

One sitting at the head and the other sitting at the foot of the place where Jesus’ body had been. Again, as in verse seven, the notation of the emptiness of that space. The body is not there. The other Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, also mention Mary encountering angels at the tomb. But there, as messengers of salvation, they play a central role. Here, the role they play is totally subordinate to the appearance of Jesus himself.

They do ask Mary, Woman, why are you weeping? This is the question, as it were, that is posed from above. That is, from the perspective of the resurrection to those who, in their grief and uncertainty, still judge everything from the perspective of death. But Mary’s grief is so intense that even the presence of angels in the tomb can spark no other answer than the complaint with which she earlier turned to the two disciples, this time with Mary speaking to figures who were unfamiliar to her, and speaking, you’ll note, entirely in the first person singular, because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him. Could they These two perhaps tell her more about this, what they have done with my Lord, whom I might take.

I do not know where they have laid him. But all at once, Jesus himself is there on the scene. He is, as it were, in a position of taking over the angel’s side in the conversation. How he came to be there is not described. Suddenly Mary is conscious of the presence of someone behind her. Without waiting for the angels to speak as to her question of where have they laid him, she turned around and beheld Jesus standing there, the gospel tells us, without however recognizing him.

Her failure to recognize him has been explained in a number of ways. It was still somewhat dark, perhaps. Couldn’t really tell his facial features. Or perhaps it was given her state of mind. She could not have expected him there. It was too much of a shock and a surprise. Perhaps she was dealing with someone else. As the text says, she thought he was the gardener. Perhaps he could answer her question. Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him and I will take him away. Verse 15.

All this is designed to bring out something more than Mary’s state of mind, however, as one still roping in the dark. We should rather think of the supernatural character of Jesus coming as the risen one, as a result of which contact with him was unlike a natural encounter with the senses. You’ll remember in Luke 24 it was that way with the disciples going to Emmaus who also failed to recognize Jesus in the traveler who joined them on the road.

And again in the story of the miraculous catch of fish in which the disciples standing on the shore, John 21.4, did not know that it was Jesus. This is not just a case of darkness. This is not just a case of state of mind. This is a case of There’s something about the man. In fact the words in John 21 4 are identical to the words in John 20 verse 14.

They did not know that it was Jesus. Mary does not recognize Jesus until he calls her out of the spell of her confused cares over his dead body by simply but emphatically addressing her by name. Mary. He approaches her as one who knows her and wants her to recognize him also. I believe it is intentional that we are to think of John chapter 10, verses three and four. Chapter of Jesus, the good shepherd, who knows his own by name and his own know him and know his voice. and follow Him. This risen one is none other than the very Jesus who has known her and whom she has known in that good shepherd-sheep relationship. At the sound of His voice then calling her name, Mary, she recognizes Him.

Now turning to Him, with the name in which her belonging to him finds expression, Rabboni, which means teacher. The evangelist, John, the gospel writer, puts that word Rabboni in Hebrew, actually Aramaic, and places it on her lips as the name of her past connection with Jesus. explaining it for his Greek readers as he does here in the gospel, as teacher, as we’ve said. Rabboni literally means my teacher or my master, but it is used elsewhere simply as an equivalent to the more common word rabbi. But nevertheless, in this description of Jesus’ appearance to Mary, there is undeniably something very personal going on here. Unlike his other resurrection appearances, here Jesus simply calls her by name and she recognizes him and she hears him as she hears him. So the way in which she turns to him and answers him with the word Rabboni does express a strong personal and affective component.

This is the one whom she knows, whom she loves, the one who has spoken life to a great sinner. such as she was. And her words akin to that verse 13 where she spoke of, they have taken my Lord away and I do not know where they have laid him. All this is easy then to link with her prehistory. As a woman saved by Jesus from great distress, as one who loves much because she has been loved much in the forgiveness of her sins. But even though John does not mention that connection, I believe we know the story. And the gospel writer knows that we know that story well enough to make the connection.

Jesus then reveals himself to her. But then notice in verse seven that he distances himself somewhat in what he says to her in verse 17. From which we may perhaps infer that even in this encounter with Mary, we are shown that with Jesus’ resurrection, a new era and another kind of relationship between Jesus and his own is being inaugurated. In this respect then, this reunion with Mary Magdalene, the woman who felt so much personal affection for Jesus, is strongly reminiscent of Jesus’ farewell to his mother in John 19, 26. For what was true when Jesus addressed his last word to his mother from the cross is also true for Mary Magdalene when he appears to her first. From now on, nothing will be the same. Everything will be different, including the way he relates to her in this present context. That everything has changed is also conveyed by what Jesus says to Mary next.

In our version, the New American Standard, stop clinging to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Both parts of this statement have given interpreters considerable trouble, as is evident from the multiplicity of explanations this verse has received. The two clauses must be understood in close connection with each other. For that reason, the common translation, do not touch me, is not satisfactory. There has to be an understanding of the words of Jesus.

Stop clinging to me for I have not yet ascended to the father. There is a close connection between these two clauses. It’s not don’t touch me. My body hasn’t set yet or I’m not ready to be touched in some way. No, it is from the standpoint of something new. I have not yet ascended to my father.

Certainly the meaning cannot be that Jesus, not yet having ascended, stands in the way of touching him, or that one could touch him only after he had ascended. What is referred to as not touching, but clutching at, holding on to, in the former way. After all, remember, The same Jesus who says to her, don’t cling to me, is the Jesus who says to the disciples, put your hand in my palms and touch my side. What is referred to as not touching, but the clutching at them with the intent or the result of the idea of holding on to or holding back.

As you see the connection in verse 17 of those two clauses, there is a for, F-O-R. Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father. The for linking the second clause to the first leads to a natural explanation why Jesus rejects holding on by Mary. He has not yet arrived at His goal. His ascent to the Father has not yet been completed. While he is on that journey, Mary must not hold him back or want to keep him with herself in the old way.

And the next statement then is entirely congruent with this understanding. For he commands her, instructs her to go to my brethren and say to them, I ascend to my father and your father and my God and your God. These statements refer twice to Jesus’ ascent to the Father. One is inclined to think here, of course, of the ascension 40 days after the resurrection described in Acts chapter one. But as is evident in the second part of verse 17, John uses the word in a broader sense, not just the physical ascension on the 40th day. But the present tense is used here in this verse. For he says, I ascend, or I am ascending to my Father.

Indicates that Jesus’ ascent to the Father, His departure from this world, has begun. It’s already underway. There’s an alreadyness to it. And it is still being accomplished. as an ongoing and yet uncompleted event. This manner of speaking that I ascend to my father or I am ascending to my father.

This manner of speaking implies a close link with Jesus statements about being on the way and going to the father as he has been sent by the father. He is predicted even before the crucifixion that I’m going to the father. As he spoke to his disciples in his farewell discourse, And there too, he says, I’m on the way, or I’m going to the Father, are spoken in the present tense, accomplished in the cross and post-crucifixion, in the resurrection, and in the fullness of the ascension to the Father. And we have in mind here, not just a single verse, but several verses that could be pointed to in John chapter 14, verse four, chapter 14, verse 12, chapter 14, verse 28, chapter 16, verse five, chapter 16, verse 28. I go to the father, I’m on my way to the father.

But now, however, this going away has reached the stage of ascending. Jesus’ departure from this earth. Everything is thus rooted in the fundamental statement in chapter three, verse 13, where Jesus’ entire coming and work is summed up and described as the double movement of the son of man’s descent from heaven and his ascent to heaven. No man ascends unto heaven, but he who descended from heaven. He’s on his way.

And of course, at the heart of this is the crucifixion and the resurrection. And of course, the actual event of the ascent is part of it, but he’s on his way to the father. This is not to say, however, that in the fourth gospel, Easter and Ascension and Pentecost all coincide. One can say all one can say is that in the one word ascending, I’m ascending or I ascend.

Everything is summed up that belongs to Jesus’ passage from this world to the Father. His resurrection from the dead and His enthronement as the Son of Man. And you think of the Daniel 7 text about His coming into the glory to receive a kingdom. He is ascending to the Father in that glorious final sense of what the Son of Man will accomplish.

But from chapter 20, verse 17, it is clear that this entire salvific process, the process of being saved, is realized in phases, each with its own meaning. Jesus is ascending, but for a long time has not yet ascended. And each phase in the movement of the gospel and the revelation that we have before us has its own part in Jesus’ self-revelation to us. From now on, speaking as he does to Mary, speaking at this turning point, this post-resurrection point, from now on as the risen one, raised from the dead, victorious over sin and death, Jesus is no longer with his own on earth as before. A new hour, a new day has dawned. But at this point, the stage of the Spirit’s indwelling in Jesus’ own, His own disciples, His own church, after His ascension is completed, the outpouring of the Spirit, the permanent indwelling of the Spirit, has not yet begun in that final sense. But in the same way, the glory that Jesus exhibited to His own during His earthly life differs from the glory they will behold when they are with Him, where He is in His ascension, in the final consummation.

As we look at these words in verse 17, then, and wrestle with what Jesus is saying to Mary, stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. I ascend, or I am ascending to the Father, to my God, my Father and your Father, my God and your God. At first sight, those words in verse 17 may seem to contrast what we had said about Jesus identifying Mary as he did in the words immediately preceding. We had said that his identification with her as one who knows her, one who loves her, one who is affectionate toward her as Savior and Lord.

And yet these words seem to set a distance between himself. But rather than believing that that be the case, there’s no contrast here. And there could be no mistake greater than to suppose that the Lord’s sole or chief purpose was to remind her of restrictions now imposed. Don’t cling to me. Don’t touch me as some have suggested.

It’s not that we’re moving into a place of restriction at all, restrictions that were henceforth to govern the relationship. but rather a movement into a new phase, a new development in the process of redemption, affecting the relationship, the spiritual union between himself and this woman, Mary, and others like her. It’s not that he is holding her a distance, but rather his intention was much rather to show that the desire for a real communion of life with the Lord Jesus would soon be met in a new and far higher way, a far better way of which Jesus has spoken often. It’s better than I go to the father, for if I go, I will send another to you. And when I go, you will pray such as you’ve never prayed in my name and so on. that the real communion of life would be met in a new and far higher way than was possible under the conditions of local earthly nearness as it has been up till now.

Stop clinging to me then does not mean don’t touch me. The touch is too close a contact to be henceforth permissible. It means instead the provision for the highest, the best, the ideal kind of touch that has not yet been completed but is about to be completed in that I am ascending to the Father.

His words are a denial. of the privilege she craved only as to the form and the moment in which she craved it. In other words, she wanted something other than the best. She was wanting to hold on to Jesus in the old way and he wants her to understand what it means to be commune with him in the new way, the better way, the resurrected way, the ascended way in which he is now moving. He’s not denying her. but denying her what she mistakenly craved and desired. In their larger sense, Jesus’ words then are a pledge, a giving, not a withholding of himself from her.

The great event of which the resurrection is the first step has not yet fulfilled itself in terms of coming to its completion, the ascent to the Father. That’s coming. And so in this moment of his exchange with Mary, he is preparing her for that better moment. But when once this is accomplished, the ascent to the Father, then all restrictions will fall away. And the desire to touch or cling to that made Mary on that occasion stretch forth her hand shall be gratified in its fuller and better capacity. The thought is not different from that expressed in the earlier saying to the disciples, you shall see me because I go to the Father. I go to the Father and the world won’t see me. But because I go to the Father, you will see me. John 16 verse 17.

There is a seeing, a hearing, a touching, first made possible by Jesus ascension and entrance into heaven and by the gift of the Spirit dependent upon the entrance of Jesus into heaven. The Spirit’s about to be poured out in a brand new and better way.

Accordingly then, John 20, 17. mentions the phase of Jesus as yet uncompleted. His ascent to the Father, not in some obscure abstract sense just to boggle our minds, but in direct connection with what this ascent means in all of its facets for his own people. What it means for the process of their coming to understand the great gift of salvation accomplished in the death and resurrection. and ascension of Jesus Christ, of Jesus’ resurrection, and what it means for Mary as she and through her Jesus disciples become aware of their involvement, yes, their participation in Jesus’ ascent to the Father. And as they are prepared for the task that Jesus will give them in that involvement as the church who is going to take the gospel to the nations. A new day has dawned. And at this moment, then, Jesus’ earthly task is about to give way to the permanent fellowship that he will have with his own from his heavenly abode.

And what he said to Mary, he commissioned her, listen, to repeat to his brethren that they might also be taught, go tell my brethren that they might be taught to view the event in its proper perspective also. As we finish this evening, may we not fitly close our study of the text with reminding ourselves that we too are included among the brethren to whom he desired these tidings to be brought. Now here’s an important element in John’s gospel.

Before this, before this statement, He had never called the disciples by this name, my brother. Go tell my brothers that I ascend to my father and your father and to my God and your God. We are moving into this new phase of what it is to understand our position as brothers, sisters of Christ, members of the family and house of God. Things that are spelled out in the apostolic epistles to help us understand what it means, this new day that has dawned, that we are the members of God’s family and house and Jesus dares call us brothers. in this new and better sense of the word. By this name, he had never until now so suggestively identified himself by speaking of your father, my father, your God, my God.

And here then we are once more assured that the new life of glory, instead of taking him away from us, has made us in a profounder sense his brethren, and his father is our father. Though unlike Mary and the disciples, we have not been privileged to behold him in his resurrection body as yet. Yet together with the believers of all ages, we have an equal share in what is far sweeter and more precious. the touch through faith of his heavenly person for which the appearances after the resurrection were but a preparation. What he shows himself to those alive for 40 days is but a preparation for the dearer, nearer, closer communion that we enjoy with the exalted Jesus. our brother who sits at the right hand of the Father for us. Let us then not linger at the tomb weeping, but let us turn our faces heavenward and stretch our hands upward into heaven. Where as Paul puts it, our life is even now hid with him in God. That we have been seated with him in the heavenly places, made partakers of the Holy Spirit that has been poured out upon us. And whence from that heavenly abode he shall also come again to show himself to us in all of the fullness of his and our glorification. when we shall see him face to face as he is, and we in glory will be like him.

Don’t cling to me here, Mary. I’m going above, and it’s far better for you and for me. Let us rejoice. Our Father, we thank You for the great love with which You have loved us. And this great day, this glorious day, when Jesus, raised from the dead, the risen One, speaking to His own, sending Mary to go and tell His brothers that I ascend to my Father and Your Father, to my God and Your God. Don’t cling to me here. but embrace my ascension and the glory that is bound up with it. Our Father, we rejoice in our exalted Christ, and we know that our lives are hidden with his in heaven at God’s right hand. Our prayers we lift up now in the name of Jesus, and we are filled with the spirit that he has poured out from that heavenly place in power upon the nations by which the many are being assembled as his true brothers and sisters in Christ. And our Father, let us rejoice. Let us rejoice that now that Christ is raised and now that he is ascended, that we are made partakers of that heavenly spiritual blessings in the heavenly places, and that we, O Lord, are one with him as he is one with us. Our Lord, our Savior, as we call upon our God, and our Father, which is in heaven. We pray, giving thanks in Jesus’ name. Amen. Let’s sing together hymn number 209, shall we? Hymn number 209. Let’s stand together as we sing.

How calm and beautiful the morn That gilds the sacred tomb Where Christ the Crucified was born And veiled in midnight gloom your slain, the Lord is risen, He lives again. Ye morning saints, dry every tear, for your departed, O Lord. Behold the place The tomb is full and barred. The gates of death were closed in vain.

The Lord is risen, He lives again. Now cheerful to the house of prayer, your early footsteps bend. The Savior will himself be there, your advocate and friend. Once by the law your hopes were swayed, but now in Christ ye live again. How tranquil now the rising day, Tis Jesus still appears, Arisen, Lord, to chase away Your unbelieving fears! O weep no more, The Lord is risen, He lives again. evening fall, when like last hour draws nigh. If Jesus shine upon the soul, how blissful then to die. Since He has risen Look up then and hear the Lord’s blessing.

See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called children of God And such we are. For this reason, the world does not know us because it did not know him. Beloved, we are children of God and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when he appears, we will be like him because we will see him just as he is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on him purifies himself just as he is pure. Beloved, may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

About this sermon

Peter and the beloved disciple see the empty tomb and go home, but Mary Magdalene stays, weeping. She sees two angels and is unmoved, intent only on finding her Lord’s body. The risen Jesus speaks her name, and she knows him. The first person to see the risen Lord is a weeping woman whose faith rests simply on Jesus as her Savior from sin, and he sends her to tell his brothers that he is ascending to his Father and their Father.

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Sermon transcript

This is the inspired word of God. Now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb while it was still dark and saw the stone already taken away from the tomb. So she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved and said to them, they have taken away the Lord out of the tomb and we do not know where they have laid him.

So Peter and the other disciple went forth, and they were going to the tomb. The two were running together, and the other disciple ran ahead faster than Peter and came to the tomb first. And stooping and looking in, he saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. And so Simon Peter also came, following him, and entered the tomb, and he saw the linen wrappings lying there. and the face cloth, which had been on his head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself. So the other disciple, who had first come to the tomb, then also entered, and he saw and believed. For as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead. So the disciples went away again to their own homes.

But Mary was standing outside the tomb weeping, and so as she wept, she stooped and looked into the tomb. And she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had been lying. And they said to her, woman, why are you weeping? She said to them, because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him. When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there and did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, woman, why are you weeping?

Whom are you seeking? Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him and I will take him away. Jesus said to her, Mary, she turned and said to him in Hebrew, Rabboni, which means teacher. Jesus said to her, stop clinging to me for I have not yet ascended to the father, but go to my brethren and say to them, I ascend to my father and your father and my God and your God. Mary Magdalene came announcing to the disciples, I have seen the Lord and that he had said these things to her.

Thus far, the reading of the inspired word of God. This is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Let’s pray together. Our father, grant us understanding that the word of God might be opened to that understanding, O Father, we would receive what is spoken here and embrace the word of God and embrace the one who is revealed here, and that believing and receiving him, we might have life in his name. We pray, O God, thanking you for the preaching of the gospel that you have appointed as a primary means for us to come to know you, that we might believe We pray, O God, that you would make that preaching effective, that you, O God, would transform us by the word of truth, the word of the gospel here tonight. That we be built up, made strong in our faith, in our devotion, and in our service to Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen. Supplementing the account of John, the gospel of John with the statements of the other evangelist, we gain something like the following conception of the course of events previous to what the text relates.

A small company of women went out at early dawn, while it was still dark, towards the garden. carrying the spices, prepared as a last offering to honor Jesus. From among these, Mary Magdalene, in the eagerness of her desire to reach the place, must have run forward and discovered before the others that the stone had been taken away. Without awaiting the arrival of her companion, she hastens back to tell Peter and John what she supposed to be true, Quote, they have taken away the Lord out of the tomb. Roused from the lethargy of their grief by this startling announcement, the apostles immediately went to the place and by their own observation verified Mary’s report.

John came first, but merely looked into the tomb. Peter, who followed, entered. and beheld the linen cloths lying and the napkin that was upon the Savior’s head rolled up and put by itself. Then entered the disciple whom Jesus loved, John, and he saw and believed.

And the scripture text says, for as yet they knew not the scripture that he must rise again from the dead. Their eyes were so fixed on the things they saw that the true explanation never occurred to them. Perplexed, but not moved from a despairing state of mind, they returned to themselves, to their own abode, pondering what they had seen.

Mary, meanwhile, must have followed the apostles at a distance back to the tomb, when these two disciples had come in haste to see for themselves. For after they leave, we find her standing without the tomb, outside the tomb, weeping. Is it not remarkable that while both Peter and John departed, Mary remained? Although the same hopeless conclusion had forced itself upon her, yet it could not induce her to leave. In her mind, it only intensified a thousand times the purpose with which she had come.

How striking an illustration of the Savior’s word that much forgiveness creates abounding love. Out of her, Mary Magdalene Jesus had cast seven devils, and she became one of his most devoted disciples. She became a disciple during the early Galilean ministry of Jesus and was one of those who joined the little company of Christ’s immediate followers. In Luke chapter eight, verses one to three, we read how she was one of those who contributed of her own means to the needs of Christ and the 12. And we read that in Matthew 27, 56, Mark 15, and so on. I’ve jumped my place here. She was one of the few women who gathered at the cross of Jesus, and that’s Matthew 27, 56, Mark 15, 40.

In other words, the testimony that she was there at the cross as Jesus lay dying on the cross. As we read the story of Mary Magdalene, we say, sadly, that Bible skeptics have dared to speculate the worst about Mary Magdalene. You know the stories. You know the reports. You know the accusations. Even those who dare blaspheme the name of Jesus Christ in the process, alleging improprieties in his relationships to her, things that have made their way into books and movies and the like.

But instead, may we not believe that still something else, something far different reveals itself in the text of Holy Scripture and in her behavior in the course of the pages of the gospel. Mary’s attitude towards Jesus, perhaps more than any other disciples, seems to have been characterized by that simple dependence, which is but the consciousness of an ever-present need. It was a matter of faith as much as of love that made her differ at this time from the others. Unmixed with further motives, the recognition of Jesus as the only refuge from sin and from death filled her heart. In a measure, of course, he had been this to the others also, not just Mary Magdalene. But while to them he stood for many other things in addition, the circumstances under which she had become attached to him made Mary’s soul the mirror of saving faith, pure and simple.

And because she was animated by this fundamental spiritual impulse of Jesus as Savior from my sin, drawing her to the Savior more irresistibly than mere affection or mere sorrow could have done. Therefore, she could do nothing but continue seeking Him, even though unable for the moment to do nothing else than weep near His empty tomb. And so as she wept, she stooped and looked into the tomb, As she still searches for an answer to what she does not know.

Where they have laid him. This cannot be the end. His body must be somewhere. This cannot be the end. That he is crucified and then he just disappears. There must be something more. In vain. Does Calvary proclaim that the Lord is dead? In vain does the tomb declare that he has been buried. In vain does the absent stone suggest that they have taken him away. This threefold witness will not convince Mary that he has gone out of her life forever. And why?

You know. Because true faith is at work in her. Saving faith. In the depth of her being, she believes. Lord, help her unbelief. Her lack of understanding. In the depth of her being, there was an even more emphatic witness that would not be silenced. which continued to protest that she must in some manner receive him back again, since he is her savior after all. Contact with Jesus Christ, communion with Jesus Christ had become to her the vital breath of spiritual life. to admit that the conditions rendering this possible had ceased to exist would have meant for her to deny salvation itself. Am I not forgiven? Have I not been redeemed? A certain darkness, to be sure, still remained.

And while she could not yet see beyond the darkness, her soul reaches out beyond the darkness. to embrace what she cannot as yet articulate. She can only reach out for that something more. There must be something more. At this dark hour, whether she knows it or not, she is seeking the living one in the place of the dead. She does not yet understand where else to look, but to stoop and look into the tomb just like the others. Hence the tears. The tears. Suppose she had found what she sought after. Suppose she did find the dead body of Jesus. Would that have satisfied the longings of faith? Would that have been enough? Is death all there is?

Faith says no. There’s something more. There’s something better. There is life. There is resurrection hope. There is resurrection hope for Mary Magdalene. After all, redemption is real. It does not end at the grave. And though the woman is not as yet aware of the resurrection as an accomplished fact, she had by faith laid hold upon the supreme principle from which the resurrection necessarily flows, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Once given the intimate bond of faith between a sinner and his or her savior, there can be no death to such a relationship. And so it is for Mary in her simple dependence on Jesus that she had risen to the point where she sought him in life and sought in him life and sought it all the more abundantly. To her faith, he was conqueror over sin and death long before he rose from the grave.

Believing, but as yet her vision was darkened. She can only look vainly into the tomb And what does she see? She beheld two angels in white city, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had been lying. Two angels, two messengers, two heavenly witnesses, two ministering spirits, as the book of Hebrews puts it, two ministering spirits sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation.

Hebrews 1.14.

Their question, woman, why are you weeping? That question is meant to stir up the faith that is in her. It is of service to God and to the Saints. Her answer, because they have taken away my Lord and I do not know where they have laid him. Her, I do not know, is honest enough.

Her faith is still clouded by unbelief. While faith is operative in her heart, she did not at that moment perceive the pledge of hope contained in faith. Her grief was too profound to see any further. Grief even hid from her vision the objective evidence of the resurrection that lay around her. The rolled away stone, the tidy grave clothes, the empty tomb, even to heaven sent angels. But she confesses, I do not know. Seeing, she did not yet see clearly. Even seeing Jesus, she did not as yet recognize him.

Yes, she is there seeking, searching, reaching out, Still what strikes us in John’s account is that even the vision of angels did not sufficiently impress her to raise the question as to what the appearance of these two celestial messengers might have meant. Why are you here? Surely this must have been the first time she had come in direct contact with angels, with the supernatural in that particular form. The place, the day, was certainly charged with the atmosphere of mystery and wonder that she apparently encountered angels unaware. No sense of awe, unfazed, unmoved from her grief, she turned around and beheld Jesus standing there and did not know it was Jesus. Verse 14, the very one she was looking for. His question repeats the identical question of the angels. Woman, why are you weeping? But he goes one step further asking, whom are you seeking? Beloved, understand the drama of the moment.

Beloved, here is the resurrected Lord. Before her face. The debt has already been paid. It’s finished. He laid down his life and he took it up again. Just like he said. This is no time for tears. Jesus is alive. He is risen in glory, the King of life. Listen well to John’s gospel.

The first person to whom the resurrected Lord showed himself alive after the resurrection was to a weeping woman who had no greater claim upon him than any other simple penitent sinner. She stood there for us all, and he appears to her. Indeed, no eye except that of the angels had yet rested upon his resurrected form the moment the redemptive historical moment, the dramatic redemptive historical moment. This time was as solemn and majestic as that of the first creation. When light burst out of chaos and darkness. No, even more so. This was a greater moment. Heaven and earth were concerned in this event. It was the turning point of the ages.

The man Jesus is alive from the dead, not merely resuscitated, nor even simply given a new lease on life like Lazarus, having been raised. Now, here is the first human resurrection. the firstborn among many brethren, raised from the dead in resurrection body. And what does he do first? According to the gospel, he first appears to a weeping woman at the garden tomb. And she once held captive under Satan’s domain, but now set free, sees that man standing and supposes him to be the gardener, the keeper of the garden, the maintenance man at the tomb. Perhaps he had laid the body elsewhere. But this is not the gardener. This is no mere man. Does the text not cry out to be understood in its new creation light? The weeping woman has been looking out through tear-filled eyes. Not just Mary. The weeping woman has been looking out through tear-filled eyes across the ages for the man of God’s promise who would bruise the serpent’s head as according to God’s promise that man would come.

In the figure of Mary, then, we are taken back to the very foundation of the earth. In her, we are confronted with the depth and the severity of the darkness that has long prevailed. Its history is as old as Genesis 3, as ancient as the Garden of Eden in the day that Adam sinned and he surely died. And now Mary is brought by faith to a garden, a garden looking still for the man of God’s promise.

She looks for him in the tomb, but he’s not there. And we think of Eve brought to the man in the garden, the man who died because of sin. If in that first garden man died being disobedient as he was, in the second garden man, in the second garden man is made alive. If in that first garden, the grief of sin and the sorrow of being exposed in that sin, her grief would be compounded in childbearing. In the second garden, the woman will be comforted. If in the first garden, the woman found no one, not even her husband to stand in her place, to die for her in order that she might be reconciled to the light of the glorious knowledge of the true God. In the second garden, she finds the resurrected Christ, a new man, a second Adam, an elder brother, who has not only offered himself up for her, but now claims her as one of his father’s house and family.

I ascend to my father and your father, our God, my God and your God. claims her as one of his father’s house and family. And so the Rabboni, the teacher, peels back the darkness, enlightening the woman in the truth, even opening heaven that the light might now shine in the darkness. And the darkness cannot overcome it. Not in clinging to him here, but embracing Him in heavenly resurrection glory where He ascends to His Father and our Father, having now gone to prepare a place for us. That one will come again from heaven and receive us unto Himself where He is we might feel so.

Jesus then commissions the woman with this message to go and tell the brethren The message that the life from above, the life from the risen, resurrected, ascended Lord, the word who became flesh is the light of men. And she went and she told the brethren what she had seen and heard. Her tears were turned to gladness and her suffering for the cause of the gospel and the name of Christ would be made cause for rejoicing. Woman, why do you weep?

We have, after all, by faith seen the Lord, and the darkness is dispelled in Him. He is beloved, the light of the world. Our father. Help us to see. In the unfolding drama at the tomb. Revelation of that new. That second Adam. That new man. The heavenly man. The resurrection man. the Son of God, Son of Man, in whom is life and light, in whom there is no darkness at all.

Father, help us to know the power of the redemption accomplished, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and life everlasting that has now been made known unto us and is being made known. to the ends of the earth. Our father help us to see in the woman. Her tears taken away. And to see ourselves given that same joy. That with eyes of faith, we can say that we too have seen the Lord. And it is good, for he is good. and that we, oh God, like the woman said, to go and tell the brethren, would see ourselves in the church as that commissioned body, the bride of Christ, sent into the world to bear the good news of what we have seen and what we have heard and what the Lord himself has taught us.

Our Father, we pray, thanking you for the scriptures, for all of their beauty and wonder and astonishment, O God, of such great things beyond our ability even to imagine or think. Our Father, we pray that you’ll bless this congregation. Thank you that we could be here tonight in this place to hear your words. May your name be lifted high as we call upon our God and our Father, having been brought near through your Son and our Savior, Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen. Let’s sing together, shall we? 298. Let’s stand together.

Blessed Jesus reigns through distant lands His triumphs spread And sinners free from endless pains Own Him their Savior and their Head He calls his chosen from afar, They all at Zion’s gates arrive. Those who were dead in sin before, By sovereign grace are made alive.

Gentiles and Jews, His laws obey, Nations remote their offerings bring, And unconstrained their homage pay To their exalted God and King. O may His holy Church increase, His Word and Spirit still prevail, While angels celebrate His praise, And saints His growing glories hail. ♪ Alleluia to the Lamb ♪ ♪ From all below and all above ♪ ♪ In lofty songs exult His name ♪ ♪ In songs as lasting as His love ♪ Look up and receive the blessing of our God. Now to our God and Father be the glory forever and ever. And the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brethren. Amen.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

About this sermon

John begins the resurrection account while it was still dark. Mary Magdalene finds the stone rolled away and runs to tell Peter and the beloved disciple, who race to the tomb and find the linen cloths lying in order. The disciples did not yet expect a resurrection, and their careful testimony to what they saw is all the more reliable. Light dawns on the first day of the week, as it did on the first day of creation: the risen Christ is the light of the world.

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Sermon transcript

Without apology, I begin this evening’s sermon with an extensive quotation from a sermon by your dearest boss on the same text as our scripture reading tonight. I want you to realize that these are but the opening words of a rather lengthy sermon, chapel message entitled Rabboni, that was delivered at Princeton Seminary to students and fellow faculty nearly a century ago. I offer these words by way of introduction to this new section of scripture, John 20, verses one through 18.

Boss writes, our text takes us to the tomb of the risen Lord. On the first Sabbath morning, of the new covenant. It is impossible for us to imagine a spot more radiant with light and joy than was this immediately after the resurrection. Even when thinking ourselves back into the preceding moments, while as yet to the external eye there was nothing but the darkness of death, Our anticipation of what we know to be about to happen floods the scene with a twilight of supernatural splendor. The sepulcher itself has become to us prophetic of victory. We seem to hear in the expectant air the wingbeat of the descending angels come to roll away the stone and announce to us, the Lord is risen indeed.

Besides this, we have learned to read the story of our Lord’s life and death so as to consider the resurrection its only possible outcome. And this has, to some extent, dulled our sense for the startling character of what took place. We interpret the resurrection in terms of the atoning cross and easily forget how little the disciples were as yet prepared for doing the same. And so it requires an effort on our part to understand sympathetically the state of mind they brought to the morning of this day. Nevertheless, we must try to enter into their thoughts and feelings, if for no other reason for this, that something of the same fresh marvel and gladness that subsequently came to them may fill our hearts also. Whether we may be able to explain it or not, the gospel tells us that notwithstanding the emphatic prediction by the Savior of his death and resurrection, they had but little remembrance of these words and drew from them no practical support or comfort in the sorrow that overwhelmed them. In part, this may have been due to the fact of our Lord’s having only predicted and not fully explained these tremendous events.

At any rate, the circumstance shows that there is need of a deeper faith than that of mere acquaintance with and consent to external statements of truth when the dread realities of life and death assail us. Dare we say that we ourselves should have proved stronger in such a trial, if over against all that mocked our hope, we had been able to place no more than a dimly remembered promise. Let us thank God that when we ourselves enter into the valley of the shadow of death, we have infinitely more than a promise to stay our hearts upon, that ours is the fulfillment of that promise, the fact of the resurrection, nay, the risen Lord himself present with rod and staff beside us.

Now, as you look at that sermon, and you could go to careroach.com and you could see that sermon online, that’s just two little paragraphs of a sermon that goes on for quite a while in Vassa’s preaching. I ask you to remember again, it was a sermon offered in a seminary context. But what he is getting at here is that we need to get ourselves into the scene, what was happening in light of what had just happened, that is the crucifixion of Jesus and the pallor that hung over the people who loved him and had witnessed this betrayal and in turn crucifixion as they come to the tomb on that first day of the week of this, what Voss calls this new covenant week, this new creation week as it were.

So I ask you then with that by way of preparation that we turn to our text tonight and that we begin to look at John chapter 20. Let us therefore turn to the text being careful to observe details, especially as we find them here in John’s gospel. As we’ve said repeatedly, John has a unique slant, a unique commentary on the things that happened. The Johannine resurrection narrative begins with what we could call traditional material.

The women walking to the tomb. The evangelist, John, took for granted that his readers knew of this story. Remember, John is writing his gospel later. And as he tells the story, look closely at the text, he mentions only one woman. And that by name, Mary Magdalene. But notice in verse two, that when she speaks, she speaks in the plural. So John is assuming there were others there from the other gospels. We know there were other women there.

But in verse two, she speaks, we do not know where they have laid him, plural. John focuses completely nonetheless on the special role that Mary Magdalene plays in all of the events of that morning. of the first day of the week. He does not say why she went to the tomb as the Synoptic Gospel writers do. All attention here in John is immediately focused on the fact that when she arrived at the tomb she found the stone which was there to seal off the tomb had been removed.

In John 21 through 18 we find a story, beloved, that we all know. John’s account of the morning of the first day of the week following Christ’s crucifixion. But did you notice in this opening of John chapter 20, John’s mention of the darkness. It was still dark, verse 1. John’s account of the morning of the first day of the week following Christ’s crucifixion, he mentions it was still dark. Only John among the gospel writers tells us it was still dark. When it was dark, that is when darkness still enveloped everything, including those most devoted to Jesus, the disciples, the women, the followers of Christ, still in the dark, if you will. It is not as if the light has not shined. Magnificently, light has burst forth in the resurrection of Jesus.

The light, this light, was like that which burst forth once before at the very beginning of time on the first day. as you go back to Genesis 1 and think of the creation story. You see the first day of the week of which John writes reminds us of that very first day in the very first week of the original creation.

Now as then, God performs a hidden work. At creation no one but God and his holy angels witnessed what took place. Who was there to hear the Almighty say, let there be light? It is the same at the resurrection of Jesus. Here again, it’s a hidden word. And in it, God brings to life this dark world’s light.

Do you remember how John’s gospel had begun? In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. All things came into being by him and apart from him nothing came into being that has come into being. In him was life and the life was the light of men. The light that shines in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it. John 1, 1-5. It was still dark. for those who loved Jesus.

Remember also Jesus words to Martha in John 11 on his way to Bethany and then to Jerusalem knowing himself that Lazarus was already dead four days in the tomb when Jesus said I am the resurrection and the life he who believes in me shall live even if he dies. Everyone who lives and believes in me shall live even if he dies chapter 11 Verses 25 and 26.

We know resurrection as Voss puts it. We know on this side what happened that day. But for the disciples and the others who came, the women, the woman, Mary Magdalene, it was still dark. Now as we read the narrative of John 20, we already know that Jesus is raised from the dead.

But those who came to the tomb that Easter morning do not know it. Remember that. Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early while it was still dark, and seeing that the stone had been taken away, she came to the naturally logical conclusion, quote, they have taken away the Lord out of the tomb. End of quote.

That discovery is reported also by the other gospels. but they have the women come closer and they encounter angels and all kinds of things happen in the Synoptic Gospels. But here we read of Mary Magdalene that when she came and found the stone rolled away, that she ran immediately, apparently without entering the open tomb or even looking inside.

She concludes that Jesus’ body has been taken away and she runs off to Peter and to the beloved disciple. in order that she might tell them this shocking news. And I ask you to look closely there again. She ran, came to Simon Peter, verse two, and to the other disciple.

She says more than she can prove. They’ve taken his body away. Her entire conduct betrays the special ties she has had and she has with Jesus. What she has seen makes her fear that some have not been able to leave Jesus’ dead body alone, but they have removed it from the care of those who would be definable as his own, his beloved. Somebody else has intruded and done something with the body of Jesus.

So she goes to Peter and to the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. Undoubtedly on account of their special position among the disciples. These are two of the chief disciples of Jesus after all. Some think in that context of verse two that the repetition in the verse of the preposition, small thing here, to Simon Peter and to the other disciple. Do you see the repetition of two in both places?

She didn’t go to Simon Peter and the other disciple. She went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple. And they have taken that to suggest that Peter and the other disciple probably weren’t in the same place. That she had to go get one and then she went and got the other one. And that Mary ran first to Peter and then to the other disciple.

We’re not told where they, that is Peter and the other disciple, had gone. After having been in proximity to the court of the high priest, you remember Peter and John outside in the court, Peter’s denials and so on. We’re not told where they had gone after Peter’s denial, Peter after his denial, or after the beloved disciples presence at the cross. What did he do after Jesus was crucified and they had taken his body away?

But now the two of them, Peter and the other disciple having been summoned, they are both now going to the tomb, and the two we are told were running together. It is indeed remarkable how graphically the evangelist describes the two disciples going together, running together, and then being together at the tomb. We’re told something seemingly so insignificant as the other disciple, presumably John, the other disciple ran faster than Peter.

He came to the tomb first. He stooped. He looked in. He saw the linen wrappings lying there. But he did not go in, we’re told. But Peter, who was running a little bit behind, comes, true to his impetuous form. He’s the first one to go into the tomb. Perhaps it’s even the case that this other disciple even waited for Peter. I want you to have first opportunity or let’s go in together. To give him the priority at least not to enter the tomb without him that the two would be there.

Something is repeated here that can be observed over and over in the relationship between the two men. The beloved disciple has a unique position alongside that of Peter. These are two of the disciples. And in some respects, this other disciple stays ahead of Peter, but without in any way diminishing Peter’s special place among the disciples. Small detail, but keep it in mind.

However one wants to judge this matter, here the dominant emphasis is not on the differences in the conduct of these two men, But, and this was of far greater importance to the church and is of greater importance to the church, on what they saw together as two important witnesses, eyewitnesses, apostolic witnesses, what they saw together that early morning.

They saw Jesus’ tomb was empty. For that reason, verse three, after they were going to the tomb, we read the emphatic addition, and the two were running together. Verse four. The statement that the other disciple ran ahead faster may be striking, but it can hardly mean that already before he had seen anything, he knew or suspected more than Peter.

The detailed manner in which they went to the tomb is described. Yeah, it’s not a race. This is a sorrowful event, but perplexity has come. The intention of the text is rather designed to put all of the stress on the intimacy of these men’s knowledge of what they saw.

The knowledge and the reliability of their testimony, the two of them together. at the tomb. And that same precision with which John here tells the story and tells the story, we were both there and we both saw it and I was ahead but we got there and he went in first and then I went in and we both saw it. The same precision also applies to their observation of the linen cloths.

The other disciple came first, stooped down, saw them in the tomb, he looks in. But he did not enter. Peter, on the other hand, immediately, in character, went in, saw not only the linen cloths lying there, but also the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head. Though it was not lying with the linen wrappings, but in a rolled up in a place by itself.

Again, details of those who were there who saw it and who testified together of it. At the entombment, these claws served to keep the hands and the feet of the body of the crucified Jesus together, to hold the head in the position with the mixture of myrrh and aloes put upon the body, preparing the body for burial. But now those claws lay there, left behind in good order, each in its own place, as two discarded attributes. that we might say, that were no longer of any use. And also with the stone that had been rolled away, those linen claws lying there lay as silent witnesses of Jesus’ victory, not only over death, but also over the grave in which the body of Jesus had been laid.

Of no less importance for the understanding of the whole further, is the manner in which the evangelist, in just a few sober words, describes and judges the reactions of the beloved, the reactions, excuse me, of the beloved disciple. After Peter had gone in, carefully surveyed everything, then the other disciple, who had come first to the tomb, entered then also, notice the text, and he saw and he believed.

That’s verse 8. He saw and believed. And so we ask, what did he see? And what did he believe? We’re not told. What did he see and what did he believe beyond the grave linens? Does he go, does he now understand all that had happened and why? That’s not in the text. Does he go away rejoicing in the resurrection, eager to tell others of what he now knows? It does not appear to be so. Yes, the tomb was empty. Yes, the burial linens had been left behind. Yes, the body of Jesus was not there.

He at least saw that much and believed that much. But read the next verse, verse nine. For as yet, they did not understand the scripture that he must rise again from the dead. Even still, this is after he saw and believed. He still, they still, plural, they did not understand the scripture that he must rise from the dead. The dramatic conclusion here for Peter and the other disciple is on what they as yet did not understand.

And so we read in the next verse that the disciples went away to their own homes. Literally, they went away to themselves. They didn’t go out witness bearing. They didn’t go out, he’s alive. They went to themselves. Translated, paraphrased, they went to their own homes. to which we say, for them, it was still dark. And so it is at this point, the disciples, two of the prominent disciples, the would-be apostles, and they would be apostles, are removed from the scene.

And it is Mary, Mary Magdalene, who reappears in the narrative on the scene. There is Mary, still standing outside the tomb, weeping. And as she wept, she stooped and looked into the tomb herself. The narrative that began with Mary Magdalene in verse one, but was interrupted in verses three through 10, is from this point on the narrative that began with Mary was then interrupted for those verses now focuses on her experiences at the tomb.

The transition is even somewhat abrupt. Where has she been? When did she return? Surely she must have followed the disciples as they ran to the tomb. But at this point, nothing is recorded of her encounter with them. They came, they saw, the other disciples saw and believed, they went to themselves.

And Mary’s still standing there, weeping. She lingers at the tomb, weeping, weeping. For her, the darkness remains. She does not know where they have taken her Lord. She does not know where they have laid him. That’s her story, and she’s sticking to it. In her darkness, she stoops and looks into the tomb. And behold, for she meets the angels.

Then she turns and she meets Jesus himself, but she does not recognize him. And notice the question that both the angels and the Lord ask her. It’s the very same question. Compare verses 13 and verse 15. Woman, why are you weeping? And in both cases, she gives a similar answer. To the angels, I do not know where they have laid him. They’ve taken his body away. I do not know where they have laid him. And in speaking to the Jesus, yet unrecognized, she says, tell me, thinking he’s the gardener of all things, and that in itself is another sermon. But says to Jesus, tell me where you’ve laid him.

So why is it that we focus on Mary? Why is it that the text focus on Mary? Why is it that we focus on Mary who comes to the tomb while it’s still dark and who returns to the tomb weeping, weeping? Could it be? that Mary stands there for you and me, for the church of the ages. Could it be that her tears are the tears of the saints from the beginning until now? Could it be in her longing to hold on to Jesus a Messiah in our presence who will make things better for me here and now. That her tears are the church’s tears, both old and new covenant churches’ tears.

It is only the word of the risen Savior who by the way knows her by name, Mary. Tells her not to cling, that he must ascend, that he goes to the Father as he has said time and again in this gospel and in his ministry. Here is Mary. Here is the woman. Woman, why are you weeping? What she needs and what she had not yet gotten was an apostolic word, an apostolic testimony that Jesus is alive and the victory is complete.

It is finished and our sins have been paid for and Jesus has raised from the dead and he has ascended into heaven and he sits at the right hand of the father. Woman, weep no more. When the spirit would be poured out and the apostolic witness would begin speaking the words of the teacher, speaking it to the church. Yes, yes, Jesus is alive. What a rich text. And we’ll come back. Let’s pray together.

Our Father, we thank you for the details of the gospel, the things that were written for our instruction, that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. and that believing we might have life in his name. That he is the light of the world who dispels the darkness and who dries the tears of his people. Our father we thank you for the good news. The good news that was being accomplished in the hidden purposes of God now to be revealed. And not only to be revealed but to be declared. to the very ends of the earth that the many peoples might hear and believe and be saved and have eternal life. The tears of a people languished under sin and death, the power of the evil one might be set free by the light of the world who dispels the darkness and gives life. to those who are his own, whom he knows by name. We pray in Jesus’ name.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

About this sermon

After Jesus dies, the soldiers do not break his legs and a spear brings out blood and water, fulfilling Scripture that not a bone of him would be broken and that they would look on the one they pierced. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, once secret disciples, now openly honor his body with a costly burial in a new tomb. The scene marks a reversal: the crucified one begins to draw his own to himself, as the gospel was written so that all who read may believe.

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Sermon transcript

Once again, we’re reading from the Gospel of John, chapter 19, verses 31 through 42, the end of the chapter. John chapter 19. Hear the word of God. Then the Jews, because it was the day of preparation, so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath, that Sabbath was a high day, asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, that they might be taken away.

So the soldiers came, broke the legs of the first man and of the other who was crucified with him. But coming to Jesus, when they saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. One of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.

He who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true. And he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you also may believe. For these things came to pass. passed to fulfill the scripture, not a bone of him shall be broken. And again, another scripture says, they shall look on him whom they pierced.

After these things, Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but a secret one for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus. And Pilate granted permission, so he came and took away his body. Nicodemus, who had first come to him by night, also came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about 100 pounds weight. So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen wrappings with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. Now in the place where he was crucified, there was a garden. In the garden, a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. Therefore, because of the Jewish day of preparation, since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.

This is reading of the word of God, the gospel of Jesus Christ. Amen. Let’s pray together. Heavenly God, may your word have its good effect in us tonight. We pray that we would be attentive to that word. governed by that word, believing that word, O God, and serving you in accordance with that word. We ask, Lord, that you would bless the preaching and the hearing tonight. And indeed, we would receive grace upon grace from our God, our Savior, through the work, the finished work of Jesus Christ, by whose life, death, resurrection, and ascension We have been brought to life, eternal life, in him by grace through faith. We pray, Father, now that you’ll hear our prayers and bless us. Pour out your spirit upon us. We ask in Jesus’ name, amen.

Beloved, as we begin this evening, I am asking that you bear with me in a little excursus. For those of you who may not know what an excursus is, an excursus is something of a detailed discussion of a particular point, added as a kind of appendix, or it can be understood as something of a digression. So I’m asking you to bear with me as I digress tonight and address a couple of particular points that seemed worthy of backing up and addressing a bit. While it is certainly my intention to focus on verses 31 to 42 of John 19, and especially on verses 38 to 42, I want to back up for a little bit and address a couple of questions and comments that a few of you have raised related to passages handled in earlier sermons.

And the first of these had to do with Peter’s denials. It goes back to chapter 18, where Peter’s I am nots, if you will, two times he says in denying Jesus, I am not, in which Peter’s denials, his I am not, stood over against Jesus’s I am’s. You might recall that. That is, whereas we know Jesus in the gospel of John to be the great affirmer, I am, we understand that to be in keeping with his identity as the son of God, the second person of the divine trinity. Yahweh, I am who I am. You recall when Moses asked the Lord to identify himself as to what he should tell the sons of Israel in Egypt. If they ask him, who sent him? What if they ask, what is his name? What shall I say to them?

And God readily identifies himself as Yahweh, I am who I am. Then we think of Jesus. In John chapter eight, that’s back a ways, telling the Jews of himself in an exchange over there, he’s called them children of the devil. Their father is not Abraham. Telling the Jews of himself to their great dismay, we might add, before Abraham was, I am.

Well, it was particularly in John 18, that Jesus, at the time of his arrest, repeats that affirmation quite clearly and distinctively, I am. And when he does declare himself in that first instance to those who came to arrest him, those who came to arrest him hearing him say, I am, we are told in the text that they drew back and fell to the ground. Surely this is intended to reveal something of the divine majesty and authority at work in the man the chief priest and officers know merely as Jesus the Nazarene. Two more times in that same context of those verses, Jesus affirms, I am.

And it is in that context immediately thereafter that Peter immediately following what we read of Jesus I Am that we read of Peter’s threefold denial. And it seems textually clear that Jesus’ threefold affirmation, I Am, is set over against Peter’s threefold denial. Heightened, of course, by Peter actually using the words two times in the first and the second denials, I am not. in contrast to Jesus I am.

You can look at chapter 18 verses 17 and 25 and see Peter saying I am not. Well the question that was raised back then was whether we might take Peter’s I am nots and find in them a providentially placed affirmation, if you will, that distinguishes Peter from Jesus in such a way and to such an extent that we have Peter himself denying for himself and denying to himself the title of a Pope and reserving for Christ alone the honor that is due unto him.

I’m not the Christ. In fact, he wants to say I’m not even associated with him in this case of his denial. But the suggestion that was made that Peter may well be saying something about himself that ought to resonate, ought to ring across the ages. I’m a man. I’m not the Christ. I’m not the head of the church. To a certain measure, your pastor resonates with the suggestion that was made to me.

Peter is not someone meant to be set on a pedestal. The case for the papacy offered by the Roman Catholic Church has holes in it. And this is a major one. Peter, an apostle? Of course. Peter, the first Pope and earthly head of the church? By no means. To digress or digress even further in the gospel, we might think of John the Baptist. And again, I think this is intentional and clear. John the Baptist, who was adamant in chapter one, in verse 20, in confessing, he confessed and he did not deny, confessing, twice fold for emphasis there, I am not the Christ. I’m not. When asked, are you the Christ? And when they ask him, are you Elijah? His answer, I am not. Ask, are you the prophet?

He says clearly, no. I’m a voice crying in the wilderness, he says. Make plain the way of the Lord, preparing a people for the coming of God. Well, with an equal adamacy, albeit a sinful adamancy. Peter is saying for the sake of the annals of redemptive history, I’m not the Christ either. He would call himself an apostle, read his letters. He would even describe himself as a fellow elder with others. 1 Peter chapter 5.

But does he affirm his own supremacy among the apostles? Absolutely not. by no means, and neither does he or any other apostolic writer pave the way for such an office among mere men. There was and is and always shall be only one head of the church, the Lord Jesus Christ. And it seems very plain that John’s gospel is intent on saying that from beginning to end.

Well, so much for Peter and that particular point of our excursus. There has been a more recent point of inquiry and comment coming from the congregation that arose in reference to chapter 19, verse 25. Our excursus continues. And in that chapter 19 verse 25 is a question or a comment concerning the Marys, plural, at the cross.

And the question is, is there some special significance that we have the mother of Jesus and Mary the wife of Clovis and Mary Magdalene, we might say we have three Marys standing by the cross, is there some significance? to those three Marys. Well in a manner similar to the situation that we’ve just described with Peter, please notice that Mary, the mother of Jesus, is not mentioned by name. There are three persons there who bear the name of Mary, and as highlighted in a previous sermon and recapitulated last week in our sermon comments on verses 26 and following. It is clear from verse 28 how much meaning the gospel writer attaches to Jesus’ words to his mother and to his beloved disciple in the framework of the work of salvation that he had been sent to accomplish. Again, reminding you that the disciple here, whom Jesus loved, goes unnamed. And the woman, the mother of Jesus, is likewise unnamed. Though we all know her name, we know it’s Mary. Our attention immediately goes to Mary. We think of Mary. But for some reason, the gospel doesn’t include her name. but prefers to leave her unnamed instead.

And so we have an unnamed disciple whom Jesus loved, and we have an unnamed woman, though we clearly have a sense of both of their actual identities. We think likely the gospel of John, the disciple whom Jesus loved is John, and the mother of Jesus is Mary. But these two persons, though we know who they are, are set before us, we have argued, representatively in a redemptive historical fashion.

The disciple then is any disciple. He is every disciple. He is every son of the woman. Think not only of the Johannine letters, 2nd and 3rd John in particular, but also think of Revelation, where is they’re the woman and her offspring, the woman and her seed. Think in those terms here presented in the gospel so that the disciple is any disciple, every disciple whom Jesus loves and the woman, the elect woman of second John is the church collectively, corporately. represented as the woman does even in creation, in the marriage, as the wife or the bride of Christ. To the disciple whom Jesus loves, the church is his mother. To serve and to care for, to love the church and give himself for her as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her. to the church, to the elect woman, the elect lady, the disciple, whomever he is, every disciple is her son, her child, her covenant child to love and to nurture, to feed and care for, to pray for, and to embrace. This communication of Jesus from the cross saying to the beloved disciple behold your mother and to the woman unnamed behold your son.

This communication here in John’s gospel constitutes the concluding act of Jesus’ work. It is finished. All is accomplished we’re told. And it leaves nothing more for the completion of that work to occur. He has, Christ has established his church by way of his own life and death, having given himself up for her and for his disciples.

You will note, then, how the relationship of the woman and her children are worked out, as we’ve said, in the epistles of John, in terms of truth and love, and worked out in the book of Revelation, as well, in various ways. Well, in terms of our excursions here, and in terms of how this is somewhat comparable to Peter, by way of emphasis meant to capture, to catch our attention, of those who stood by the cross, two Marys are mentioned. The other one we know to also be a Mary, but she’s not named on purpose. And it seems apparent that the text is drawing us away from the mother of Jesus, drawing us away from Mary as Mary. but as mother, the woman, you see, that we might see her intentionally as the unnamed woman, along with the unnamed disciple whom Jesus loved. And so thus, here too, we are being prompted by the text itself to think in redemptive historical terms. And once again, we are being taught by the spirit of Christ even before it commences the evil of Mariology, of putting Mary in a special place, or what has been described as Mariolatry.

This text isn’t asking us to honor Mary as Mary, but to see her representatively as the woman along with the son. the church and her child, her children. What has been prescribed by Catholicism in reference to Peter, what has been prescribed in reference to Mary, and what men have raced to confess, the scripture, it appears to me, particularly in John’s gospel, has gone at length to emphatically deny not Peter the Pope, not Mary the great mediator and comforter of the afflicted. But yet what the scriptures have affirmed, men have raced to confess. And what the scriptures have affirmed, the sinful men continue to deny. What the scriptures deny, they confess. What the scriptures affirm, they deny.

The text is not asking us to exalt Mary, I say again, to elevate her to the status of a mediator rivaling Christ or expressing a tenderness that he cannot express by no means. Mary, in the Bible, is a sinner like us, in need of a Savior like us, and that Savior is Jesus Christ. Peter is not the head of the church, Jesus Christ is the head of the church. Peter is a sinner like us. Mary does not confess herself to be what she is not. She is the handmaiden of the Lord, uniquely privileged to be sure, but she, like the others, is one of us.

Well, that’s been our excursus. And this evening, we will continue to deal with individuals in representative and redemptive historical terms. in keeping with the scriptures own intent. In particular in what remains tonight we shall be dealing with the figures of Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus in their roles in the gospel story and in reference to the burial of Jesus. Look then in the gospel chapter 19 verse 38 With the words that appear in verse 38, after these things, the account of Jesus’ burial begins. And the account of his burial concludes the passion narrative and forms in this position, textually, the transition to and preparation for the resurrection narrative. What stands out here is the special care that is devoted to Jesus’ body, 38 to 42, along with the honorable character of the burial he receives.

The description in verses 32 to 37, especially in the scripture citations we find there, the verses just preceding, the description of those verses of the reversal that has now begun and has begun immediately following the it is finished and Jesus death the reversal that is begun there is continued through the end of this chapter in this transition. What kind of reversal are we talking about? A reversal that occurred when Jesus doesn’t have to have his legs broken like the others do. He’s already died A reversal that occurs when they pierce his side in accordance with the scriptures and it flows out blood and water. A reversal that will carry itself now into the burial story as it relates to Joseph and Nicodemus.

John’s report here in this section of the gospel of the burial of Jesus largely agrees with that of the synoptic writers Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Both John and the synoptics include the initiative of Joseph of Arimathea to take the body, to bury it. Both reveal the burial in an as yet unused tomb, similar stories. Both the synoptics and John speak of the imminent Sabbath that is at hand, that hastens the burial of Jesus.

So there are similarities among the Gospels. But there are also important differences. One, for example, the involvement of Nicodemus. He’s not mentioned in Matthew, Mark, or Luke here. The involvement of Nicodemus along with Joseph. The mention of a large amount of myrrh and aloes by these two men brought by Nicodemus for the burial. It’s not the women bringing the spices and the burial ointments on the first day of the week. No, this is before Jesus was buried. And this is John’s contribution to what happened. And there are no women mentioned here in John’s account. There were women at the burial of Jesus in the synoptics as well.

But even in what John has in common with the synoptics, for example, the mention of Joseph of Arimathea, Even in something that they share, the details are different and John’s own unique perspective and purpose stand out in his account. Joseph’s request to Pilate for permission to take care of Jesus’ body is reported first, as in the Synoptics, there’s a similarity. The phrase of Arimathea evidently refers to This Joseph agreed as his place of origin, not to his place of residence. Mark and Luke actually mentioned his membership in the Sanhedrin.

So he sat in the council in Jerusalem. Matthew indicates that the tomb in which Jesus is placed actually belongs to Joseph of Arimathea. So good indication that he’s a, he’s a, he’s a Jew. He’s, he lives in Jerusalem. He may have his origins in Arimathea. But he’s a Jew. And apparently, as a council member and in the manner in which he is able to approach Pilate, he is apparently a man of some prominence, having a fairly wealthy tomb in a particularly prominent place, in a garden there in proximity to the place of the crucifixion. But here is where John stands out, as John is apt to do.

John tells us, identifies, describes him as quote, being a disciple of Jesus but a secret one for fear of the Jews. That language is not new in John’s gospel. That language has some precedent earlier in the gospel specifically namely in John chapter 12 verses 42 and 43 where it says Many, even of the rulers, believed in him.

But because of the Pharisees, they were not confessing him lest they should be put out of the synagogue, for they loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God. So we’re given to think in terms of the descriptions that John himself has included, that Joseph was one of those kind. I believe But I’m not believing so much that I’m going to go out on the limb to believe lest I be put out of the synagogue a man who loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God. It doesn’t speak real well, real highly of Joseph of Arimathea in terms of this description found in John 19. He was one of those secret believers who wasn’t going to go out on the limb for Christ.

But here, in the place of reversal. Joseph comes forward. He stands out like a sore thumb in Israel on that day. Just like we saw, Jesus’ legs weren’t broken. Death has come quickly. We’re moving on now. The blood and water have come out of his pierced side, suggestive of the redemptive efficacy of his death. The blood is poured. The cleansing flood has come out of his side. We’re moving in the realm of mission accomplished. It is finished. Debt has been paid.

And there too we read the Zechariah prophecy about them looking upon whom they have pierced. and if you look in Zechariah chapter 12 around verse 10 in that context we suggest that they will look upon whom they have pierced and in that context it is indicated that there’s going to be a pouring out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace. The one whom they pierced there’s going to be an outpouring of grace upon whom they now look with mourning and sorrow for what they have done. Now see then, a secret disciple comes forward, not ashamed to be identified with the bloodied body of the crucified Jesus. And soon thereafter, Nicodemus, Also, Nicodemus, look in the text, John 19, the end of our chapter, what does it say about Nicodemus?

He was that disciple who came to Jesus, how? By night. One of those stealthily touching Jesus, you see. I don’t want anybody to know this. I come to him by night. And then you understand in that third chapter of the gospel, you see Nicodemus as one who was quite dull. D-U-L-L. In his ability to understand spiritual things like the new birth. What do you mean? Do I have to go back into my mother’s womb a second time? You know Nicodemus. Well, here’s Nicodemus in a time of reversals coming and bringing the sizable amount of a mixture of myrrh and aloes to help in providing a more than decent burial, a burial, look at the text, after the custom of the Jews. Again, while it is still day, it’s not night, Nicodemus, it’s daytime, before the beginning of the Sabbath at sundown, here is another Jew openly having to do with Jesus, albeit his body, his crucified body.

And these two men then are to be seen as representatives, representatives of the new Israel. Again illustrating even more strikingly the gracious reversal that is afoot. Hours before none identified with the scorned King of the Jews. Now here are two men giving Jesus an almost royal Jewish burial. in an unused, influential rich man’s garden tomb. You see? Not sparing on the spices nor the linen.

The report, perhaps also the site of Jesus’ death has given Joseph the courage he lacked earlier to stand up for Jesus as his disciple. Proof that Jesus’ power as the one pierced extends even into the Sanhedrin. And that the inscription on his cross, the King of the Jews, will from now on make itself felt in its true divinely intended meaning. the true King of Kings and the Lord of Lords in the new Israel. At an hour, remember, at an hour when even Jesus’ closest disciples are still powerlessly looking on at what is happening, or are not to be found because of their still unconquered fear of the Jews, Joseph comes forward first, and then Nicodemus.

Joseph approaches Pilate, who had no authority over Jesus except what had been given him from above, the power to execute, the power to release. But Pilate now willingly, and in accordance with divine working and the divine necessity, Pilate now gives up the body of Jesus. He can’t hold him captive. Joseph willingly, despising any shame that may have now been attributed to him, does not hesitate.

He comes and he takes that body away and gives it a decent burial. And so Nicodemus comes also, a member of the Sanhedrin as well. Once by night, now in the open, a change, a reversal has occurred. Seeing signs. You remember, no one can do these things except God be with him. He has seen signs, but that didn’t bring him out from the nighttime. Seeing signs had not changed him, but the death of Jesus changed him. There is power in the cross. There is power in that pierced side. The Jewish day of preparation has been completed. And a new day is about to dawn. And in that new day, there will be light. A new creation day. Let there be light. a day of power that will mean life not only for the Jews but also for the Gentiles. Redemptive history has come to its most dramatic crossroads.

The gospel of Jesus Christ would soon be preached and as you know is now being preached to the ends of the earth. For if this one, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Son of Man is lifted up he will draw all men to himself. Even Jews who once would not come for fear of being ostracized from the synagogue. He will draw all men from every nation, tribe, and tongue to himself.

And so, beloved, we who believe are not ashamed of the gospel. It is the power of God and the salvation. To them who believe, to the Jew first and also to the Greek, who believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing have life in his name. So we’ll preach Christ and him crucified, having determined to know nothing else.

Let’s pray together. Oh, Lord, we thank you for the beauty, the power, the gospel. Thank you, Father, for the manner in which that gospel points us to those things yet to be fulfilled and accomplished in the outworking of the ingathering of the sheep from other folds, from the nations, and that in consequence of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Our Father, we thank you for your great love toward us, that we might know and that we might understand, that we might believe and confess and not deny Jesus is the Christ, that we might, as those who believe in Him, have life in His name. Believing that if we confess Him before men, He will confess us also before the Father. We pray in Jesus’ name, amen.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

About this sermon

John’s account of the crucifixion stresses that everything happened so that the Scripture would be fulfilled. Jesus is delivered over, crucified as King, and dies having accomplished his work; “It is finished” announces that the Father’s work is complete. He gives up his spirit by his own royal act. The unbroken bones mark him as the true Passover lamb, and the blood and water from his pierced side testify to a real death that brings life to all who believe.

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Sermon transcript

Let’s turn together in John’s gospel this evening. Our scripture reading is John chapter 19, verses 23 to 42. Again, John’s Gospel, chapter 19, beginning with verse 23. This is the gospel word of God. Give your attention. Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his outer garments and made four parts, a part to every soldier and also the tunic. Now the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece, so they said to one another, let us not tear it, but cast lots for it, to decide whose it shall be. This was to fulfill the scripture. They divided my outer garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots. Therefore the soldiers did these things.

But standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister Mary, wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus then saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, Woman, behold your son. And he said to the disciple, Behold your mother. From that hour, the disciple took her into his own.

After this, Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished to fulfill the scripture, said, I am thirsty. A jar full of sour wine was standing there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine upon it. branch of hyssop and brought it up to his mouth. Therefore, when Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, it is finished. And he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

Then the Jews, because of the day, because it was the day of preparation so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath, for that Sabbath was a high day, asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man and of the other who was crucified with him. But coming to Jesus, when they saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.

And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true. And he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you also may believe. These things came to pass to fulfill the scripture, Not a bone of him shall be broken. And again, another scripture says, they shall look on him whom they pierced.

After these things, Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but a secret one for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus. And Pilate granted permission. So he came and took away his body. Nicodemus, who at first had come to him by night, also came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about 100 pounds weight.

So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen wrappings with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. Now in the place where he was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden, a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. Therefore, because of the Jewish day of preparation, since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.

Since the reading of God’s inspired word tonight. Let’s pray together. Our Father, we are thankful for the faithful and true witness that we have in the gospel. We are thankful, Father, for the scriptures as a whole, as they have come to their fulfillment and their expression in the person and work of Jesus Christ. We are thankful, Father, that we here now might hear this gospel, might we embrace it, receive it by faith, and receive the one who is revealed here, the one who is the Christ. very Son of God, and that in believing in Him we might have life, eternal life, in His name. Bless, then, the preaching and hearing of your word tonight. We might receive it as it is, the very Word of God, for our encouragement and instruction in the things of the faith. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

In the course of John’s narrative of the crucifixion, we note various things are said to have taken place in order that this or that scripture might be fulfilled. In the first place, in verses 23 and 24, the soldiers dividing of Jesus’ garments was done, quote, that the scriptures might be fulfilled. They divided my outer garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots. In verse 28, in order that the scriptures might be fulfilled, Jesus said, I am thirsty.

In the manner in which Jesus’ legs were not broken, But that the soldier pierced his side, we are told, verses 36 to 37, for these things came to pass that the scripture might be fulfilled. Not a bone of him shall be broken. And again, another scripture that would be fulfilled, implied in the text, says, they shall look on him whom they pierced. that the Scriptures might be fulfilled. But the agents, the agents who did these things, that is, divided the garments, chose not to break Jesus’ legs, the soldier who pierced his side, had no idea that they were fulfilling Scripture. Their actions were providentially overruled and superintended for Scripture’s fulfillment. But there is one case in our text this evening where Jesus is the agent, however, and the situation is different.

It goes without saying that he was actually thirsty, to be sure, and he craved something to drink hanging from the cross. Exposure on a cross to the Judean sun must have caused rapid and exhausting dehydration. But as he uttered the words, I am thirsty, he knew that in doing so, he was fulfilling the scripture. The particular scripture in question appears likely to have been Psalm 69 verse 21. For my thirst, they gave me vinegar to drink.

Although Psalm 22.15 also comes into view where we read in Psalm 22, the great suffering psalm of the Christ, my tongue cleaves to my jaws, it says there. John does not want to give some sort of theatrical impression of our Lord’s utterance in order to put on a show in keeping with that psalm.

His words were, no doubt, unreservedly spontaneous and intentional. Indeed, the more really expressed and the more spontaneous they were, the more truly was the scripture fulfilled. In other words, not just that he said he was thirsty, but he really was thirsty. He really did fulfill the prophetic word of the Old Testament Psalms.

As we have already highlighted in our sermon last week, in the comments we made on verses 26 and following, it is clear from verse 28 how much meaning the gospel writer attaches to Jesus’ words to Mary and his beloved disciple in the framework of the work of salvation that Jesus had been sent to accomplish.

In that exchange of verses 26 to 28, you remember Jesus saying to John, behold thy mother, and to the woman, behold thy son. the unnamed disciple whom Jesus loved, so identified here, he’s not called John, the unnamed disciple whom Jesus loved, and the unnamed woman, Jesus’ mother, though we have a clear sense of their actual identity, we declared last week that they are set before us representatively in a redemptive historical fashion.

The disciple whom Jesus loved is any disciple, every disciple whom Jesus loved, whom Jesus loves. And the woman, the unnamed woman, is the church collectively represented in her. And so then to the disciple, the church is his mother to serve and care for her. And to the church, the disciple, the beloved disciple of Jesus is her son. to love and to nurture.

And so we see in the completion of Jesus’ work on the cross, the setting forth in this testamental way of the church and her children in the completion of the work of Christ on the cross. And we noted that this communication in John’s Gospel is particularly located as the final act of Jesus’ work in that declaration of setting the church in place and declaring the relationship that she is to bear to her members and the members to her collectively. The communication as the concluding act of Jesus’ work, leaving nothing more for him to do for the completion of that work in terms of his earthly ministry.

You will note how the relationship of the woman and her children do not end here. It’s not just a one-time deal with John, but they are actually worked out in the epistles of John in terms of truth and love. I’m particularly thinking of the love that we are to have for those whom God loves in 1 John, but also in terms of the elect woman and her offspring, her children that are mentioned in the second epistle of John and in the third. You see, there is those things being worked out even more graphically in detail in recognition of the ongoing ministry that continues after the resurrection of Christ.

And so we left off there last time in terms of that completion of work, that finishing that took place. And so nevertheless then, in between the reference in John 19, 28, to Jesus knowing on the cross, knowing that all was now finished or accomplished, knowing that he had completed the work. And then in his own statement in verse 30, it is finished. It is in that context of having had this exchange with the woman and the beloved disciple and the final word from the cross, it is finished.

It is in that framework of the finished work of Christ that is inserted the passage about Jesus thirst. I am thirsty. Mark and Matthew also mentioned Jesus thirst to be sure, but there are no words from Jesus on that. account, nor is there any reference to Scripture. But here, in John, it is the reference to Scripture that stands in the foreground as the motive of Jesus crying out, complaining of thirst, as it were.

In order, quote, that Scripture should come to its fulfillment. We might insert there that the Scripture should come to its final fulfillment. For here in these contexts of where we have these three instances that the scripture would be fulfilled here uniquely, the word that is translated fulfillment is a derivative of the word telos, meaning end or destination. And so the word that the scripture should have its full fulfillment or a final fulfillment or come to its destination is closely related to the words in verses 28 and 30. It is accomplished. It is finished. He knew that the work was finished. And then the declaration, it is finished. It is finished. It was accomplished. The scripture is coming to its destination. It is finished. The threefold emphasis that John gives us.

The other context or the other places where we have the word fulfillment in our English text here, that the scripture would be fulfilled, is actually the word plerao, not the word talos, but the word of filling up. In other words, fulfillment in the sense of coming to the fullness of what had been intended from the beginning. And so the intent is not to add something to the proceeding that all was now finished, when Jesus says, I thirst, all was now finished, but to show how Jesus, even in his final moments, when there was nothing more left for him, quote, to do in terms of the redemptive work, still in his thirst, one of the most terrible torments of death by crucifixion, he purposely fulfills the scripture in speaking of his thirst. Though it would appear Psalm 6921 is clearly in mind, we quoted it before, they gave him vinegar to drink in the midst of his thirst. It’s not quoted here specifically, but the scripture might be fulfilled in a fullness in the sense of coming to completion. And while the text is not quoted, it may be suggesting then that the reference is not to the fulfillment of a specific detail, but to the entire picture. of the suffering righteous one of whom there is mention or is who has spoken of in Psalm 69.

A Psalm that John, the gospel writer, has cited elsewhere. We think of the occasion in cleansing the temple in Chapter 2, the verse of Chapter 2, verse 17, zeal for thy house will consume me. That’s from Psalm 69. We can also think of John 15, 25, where Jesus, where John says of Jesus, the fulfillment of the scripture, they hated me without a cause, Psalm 69. They gave me vinegar to drink, Psalm 69.

And so in the sense of coming to the fullness or the completion, the fulfillment of the end of the suffering of Christ. And so in describing the depth of Jesus’ sufferings, Here, the fourth gospel in its unique kind of way. Here, nowhere comes any closer to the final word on the cross that we have in Matthew and Mark. You know the text, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me, which is the last words of Jesus spoken in Matthew and Mark by Jesus in the crucifixion. But here, for John, in his concise and his intentional, purposeful, theological kind of way, he simply says of Jesus here, or quotes of Jesus, I am thirsty. You compare that to the fullness of the picture of Jesus suffering on the cross. Although it is probably characteristic for the fourth gospel that the word of extreme forsakenness of Psalm 22 is not here.

My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? From verse 28, it is again evident that the regal power and authority of Jesus, which is so prominent in the gospel of John, with which Jesus accepts his suffering and goes out to meet his enemies, as you recall in his arrest, is in no way, it no way means that John or Jesus is fundamentally immune to suffering and passes through it unaffected, but rather John is putting before us the kingship of Jesus. This intentional, purposeful, decisive, authoritative, royal fulfillment of the scriptures is coming to pass.

Even in his suffering, you see, there’s a sovereignty in the one who no one takes his life from him. but he lays it down of his own accord in order that he might take it up again. Jesus suffers. John is not overlooking or downplaying his suffering. but he is putting it in the theological context of Jesus the King, who suffers according to the scriptures, according to the purpose and the plan of the Father, as Jesus drinks the cup that the Father has prepared for him. Jesus says, I am thirsty. It’s not offered here just simply as a proof of how strictly Jesus fulfilled scripture, but it is in fact a lament rung from him out of the depth of his suffering. Consider it in all of its fullness and the extent of the suffering of Jesus in which he, in his solidarity with those who had lamented their suffering in scripture of the Old Testament, he is now taking that suffering to himself and it consists above all in the fact that he and His people took their suffering to God, laid it out before Him, that Jesus knew better than anyone else before or after Him, that in His suffering He was fulfilling a divine calling, is evident then from His last word, His very last word on the cross in verse 30.

It is finished. It’s filled up with suffering for Himself. But this in no way detracts from the deep reality of that suffering, of his solidarity with his own people. It is rather the very foundation of Jesus’ last word. I have stood with them in their suffering. I have taken it to myself, and I have fulfilled it for their redemption.

The details described here, specifically of the sour wine that is offered Jesus, again, referring to Psalm 69, 21, for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. In the psalm, the presentation of this drink is an act of hostility paralleling the offering of gall for food. The two are in the same verse side by side. They offered me gall or poison for food and vinegar to drink.

But here in John 19.30, it evidently doesn’t have that connotation of offering them, offering him a poison or offering something undesirable.

But all of the stress is on the thirst of Jesus and the soldier’s response to it. Admittedly, the manner in which the drink is offered does depict the extremity of Jesus’ situation. A sponge soaked in the sour wine, attached to the top of a stalk of hyssop, so held up to Jesus’ mouth, is the only way to give him a drink. Again, consider the extremities of his sufferings.

This that is here in John’s gospel is not to be confused with the synoptic gospel in Mark, for example, where the wine was mixed with myrrh, where Jesus refused what was offered to him as he arrives at the place of execution. In other words, that which is spoken of in Mark was a sedative provided by someone who was trying to numb the pain and numb his senses. a way of dulling the sense of the victim to relieve something of the agony that he was about to face, where there Jesus resolved to die with unclouded mind, he refused the offering.

But here it says it was touched to his lip and he received it. And said, it is finished, having drunk that sour wine. Here in John, the sour wine is brought to his mouth, he receives it, and with that the end came. And after saying, it is finished, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. Gave up his spirit, mind you.

Again, the purposeful, sovereign, authoritative, royal. He died of his own volition. This whole scene typifies his death as a final act and a decisive underscoring of that word. It’s something he did. Yes, passively submitting himself to the cross, but actively. in a kingly fashion, putting himself in the place of redeeming his people. A final act of self-offering done after he had finished the work that God had given him to do. It is also this act that the all of verse 28 refers.

All had been accomplished. All was finished. Accordingly, we cannot weaken then the statement of Jesus. It is finished. By hearing it only as a sigh of relief, oh, it’s finally over. No, that’s not the word of Jesus here. It’s not some personal completion of saying, oh, well, I’ve reached the end of my journey now. This is it.

But it is precisely as a reference to the task that the Father gave the Son Jesus to perform. that this cry, it is finished, indicates for him not only the end of the road that he had to travel as a son of God, but also the completed work of redemption, of salvation that he has now accomplished, that he has now finished for his own as the new foundation laid once for all for the life of the world, for those whom he loves. Then what follows after that declarative word, Jesus bowing his head, giving himself to death, giving up the spirit. And what follows in the remainder of the chapter, here of chapter 19, as we read John’s narrative henceforth, he is anxious among other things to leave his readers in no doubt, leave us in no doubt at all, that Jesus really and truly died. And that his death was wholly within God’s purpose and design. The evangelist again tells us things here in his gospel, in his uniquely designed narrative, separate from the other synoptic gospels.

For John, it was doubly important that the bodies of the crucified men not be permitted to hang on the cross beyond the end of the day, since the day of crucifixion was a Friday, and the next day was not only a Sabbath, but also this year, the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread of the Passover.

The Jews therefore asked Pilate for the men’s legs to be broken, to ensure their death in time, for removing their bodies before the Sabbath would begin. Pilate, as you know, readily complied with their request, and the soldiers were sent upon their errand. But when they came to Jesus, they found that he was already dead, having given himself up, as you know. His legs, therefore, were not broken. But to be certain of the death of Jesus, in his case, having died seemingly sooner than usual, one soldier pierced the side of Jesus with a spear.

Then, John, the report of an eyewitness strongly emphasized at this point is that blood and water issued forth from the womb. The evangelist expresses here his conviction that the incident, like the others, as the crucifixion itself, could be seen as fulfillment of Scripture, the things that God had intended. The last scene here of the dying of the Lord Jesus comes when Joseph of Arimathea sought permission from Pilate to bury the body of Jesus. That permission being given, Joseph and Nicodemus put the body in a tomb in the garden near to the place of execution, using a large quantity of spices in doing so. It was evident their intention that after the Sabbath they would move the Lord’s body to some permanent grave.

And the report that is given here by John, specifically and intentionally and solely by John, is that blood and water should have come out of the pierced side. And that testimony, that testimony that he alone brings, has evoked much attention. Medical experts have debated what’s going on here, what’s the significance. The opinion is divided as to what was the cause of death and how that came to be. But for John, it’s not the cause of death that’s of first importance, but the fact of death. with which he is most concerned. For John, it was important that the reality of Jesus’ death, and therefore the reality of his manhood, was so objectively established.

This was sufficient answer to those forms of docetism that were current when he would have written his gospel, which held that Christ didn’t really die. We can even recognize the persistence of this view being reflected in the Koran. Yes, the Islamic Koran that quotes, they did not kill him, neither did they crucify him. It only seemed to be so. John refutes it in his epistles as well as in the gospel. He really died and the blood and the water issued forth. Here, John, in this context, applies two different Old Testament passages related to the death of Jesus.

One coming from the Exodus concerning the Passover lamb, that its bones must not be broken. And one from Zechariah, that God will pour out his spirit upon the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem when they look upon him whom, quote, they have pierced. They shall mourn for him as one mourns for an only child. If these two text, if these two scriptures that are brought to bear here are applied to the emphasized action of the soldiers in not breaking the legs of Jesus on the one hand and in piercing his side on the other, it becomes fairly clear what the evangelist is trying to state. In the case of the first prophecy, he is saying that Jesus Christ may be considered as the true Passover lamb, the fulfillment of that which was spoken of old. Slain at the proper time for Passover lambs to be slain and like a proper lamb for the feast without any broken bones, according to the Exodus prescription for such things.

And in the case of the Zechariah prophecy, the evangelist is predicting that they will look upon him whom they have pierced and they will mourn, they will mourn the death and the killing of Jesus, which is to say John sees a day and envisions the final triumph of Jesus in the conversion of the Jews and the gospel being received by all men, Jews and Gentiles alike.

Here, truly, is the King of the Jews. Here is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, whose death means salvation to all who believe. The blood and the water then, speaking of true death, are not then left without meaning beyond the fact that Jesus died. The blood certainly stands for the life of the Lord Jesus, given in sacrifice for his people, for men, as that comes to be symbolized even for us in the Lord’s Supper as we Remember the blood that was shed for our redemption. And we think of the water that flows from his side as the water indicating and symbolizing the gift of the spirit that will be poured out on all men for the cleansing of the nations and the accomplishment of the salvation to the ends of the earth. That which is symbolized for us in baptism, pouring out of water upon a people, indicating the outpouring of the spirit that comes from this one in whom it is finished. it is accomplished. For here is the Passover Lamb, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, who baptizes not in water, but in the Holy Spirit.

Truly, this is the Son of God. This is the accomplishment of our redemption. Herein are the scriptures fulfilled and brought to their completion, to their destination in him and in the church. Let’s pray together. Holy Father. Help us to read the gospel as it asks us to read it. As the spirit who moves the writer to write, might we see what it is that we are to understand.

That we would embrace Jesus in the fulfillment of his role as king, as the messianic son of God, son of man, who had come into the world to save his people from their sins. The good shepherd who gives his life for the sheep, the sovereign one, from whom no one takes his life, but he gives it freely for the redemption of his people, his own, and entrusts his own, oh, Father, to the care, the nurture of the church, entrusting her with the responsibility of loving those whom he loves, for whom he gave his life, and that those who are loved of Christ would count as their own the very church that Jesus purchased. Our Father, we pray, thanking you that even in the thirsting of our Savior, thereto are the scriptures fulfilled in the suffering servant who gave himself up to the full in order that we might be saved to the full. Our Father, we thank you even now. in the consideration of these things, pointing us to the Lamb of God, pointing us to that Messianic King, that one who would pour out his spirit upon the peoples, and we would look upon him and receive him and believe in him and be saved.

Lord, thank you for the worship of your people. Thank you for the gathering of the saints here this Lord’s Day. Thank you for the reminders that come to us in Holy Scripture fulfillment of those things found in Jesus Christ and in him alone. In his name we give thanks. In that name we praise. Amen. Let’s sing together hymn number 80, shall we? Let’s stand together, shall we? How firm a foundation, ye Saints of the Lord, Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word. What more can He say than to you He hath said, You who unto Jesus for refuge have fled, You who unto Jesus for refuge have fled, have fled.

Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed, I, I am thy God and will still give thee aid. I’ll strengthen thee, help and cause thee to stand. Upheld by my righteous omnipotent hand. Upheld by my righteous omnipotent hand. When through the deep waters I call thee to come, The rivers of woe shall not be overflowed. Thy troubles to bless, And sanctify to Thee Thy deepest distress. And sanctify to Thee Thy deepest distress. When through fiery trials thy pathway shall guide, My grateful sufficient shall be thy supply.

I trust to consume and I go to refine. I trust to consume and I go to refine. Even down to old age, all my people shall prove my sovereignty. Like lambs they shall still in my bosom be born. Like lambs they shall still in my bosom be born. The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose, I will not, I will not desert to his foes. I’ll never, no never, no never forsake. I’ll never, no never, no never forsake.

Look up, then, and receive the blessing of our great God. That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your heart being enlightened so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of the inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power for those who believe.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.