And the Gospels are drawn to a close.....Jesus appears in His resurrected form to various people. They are eye-witnesses of the resurrection and the central tenant of our Christian faith. John was there and called himself, "the disciple that Jesus loved"......it was not easy for everyone to believe this resurrection. Jesus understands their hearts..a denial is different than a doubt. If a doubt makes you research or look closer to something, it is good. Since Jesus conquered death, we too as believers will have resurrected bodies. Jesus' body had flesh and blood, after all he ate with disciples to teach that He was not a ghost. However, he could appear and disappear. He could keep himself disguised, and then open peoples' eyes. Jesus was especially kind to Peter because He probably knew how worthless Peter felt for denying his dear friend and teacher, 3 times. Note that He asked Peter 3 times if he loved Him. He made Peter face his feelings and as we'll soon see, Jesus had great plans for Peter to grow the church.
Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit into the disciples.....this was a foretaste of Pentecost which we'll read about in Acts I. Remember how God breathed the universe into existence.....and how He breathed life into Adam.....Note how the Scriptures were opened to the disciples for understanding......that is what the Holy Spirit does....that is why Scripture to a non-believer is "stupid".....now, we won't get instant scholarly understanding when we read the Bible sometimes, but the Holy Spirit gets us to commentaries, or people like Beth Moore or our Pastor to begin to help us understand.
This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down. We know that his testimony is true.
....and we will read more about an ultimate vision of this very disciple when we get to Revelation.
Question: do you have a favorite Gospel and why?
Look what comes up from the depths of the sea.
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Now this is cool.....Peter is the one who betrayed jesus....and felt bad....and in Luke when he hears the news....instead of doubting like the others.....he ran to the tomb, saw the body was gone.....and left in wonder at what happened.
ReplyDeleteNow I notce John has a different version of the story....mary did not see the angels, but the tomb opened and ran to tell the others......then she came back an saw the angels....
Nice verse: John 20:29 "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
Also, in John, I notice the fishing story.....didn't we read that earlier where he went fishing with them and they did not catch anything and he told them to cast the net on the right side and they caught a bunch of fish.....he did this as a human, right?
Could you help me with John 20-25? I am kinda confused who they are talking about? Peter was forgiven, so who is Peter talking about?
Sure...clarify your reference for me..not quite sure what you are referring to specifically...
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