We Are Fishers of Men—Do What He Says (21:1–8)

The Lord had told His disciples to meet Him in Galilee, and this is the reason they were at the Sea of Galilee, or Sea of Tiberias (Matt. 26:32; 28:7–10; Mark 16:7). John does not tell us why Peter decided to go fishing. Some say he was quite within his rights to do as he did; he had bills to meet, and fishing was the best way of getting the cash. Why just sit around? Get to work!

Some believe that Peter was called out of that kind of life (Luke 5:1-11), and it was wrong for him to go back. Peter said, "I go a-fishing," and they said, "We will go with thee!" If he was mistaken, they were mistaken also, and it is a sad thing when a believer leads others astray.

It is likely that at least seven of the twelve apostles were fishermen. Why did Jesus call so many fishermen to be His disciples? For one thing, fishermen are brave, and Jesus needs people with a brave heart to follow Him. They are also committed to one thing, and it's difficult to keep them off track. Fishermen never surrender! (We are, of course, talking about professional fishermen, not holidaymakers!) They know how to take orders and how to work together.

We have no way to prove whether Peter and his friends were right or wrong, but they were mistaken. However, we do know this: their efforts were wasted. Had they forgotten the words of the Lord, "For without Me ye can do nothing” (John 15:5)? They worked all night and caught nothing. Peter must have remembered what happened two years earlier when Jesus called him to full-time discipleship (Luke 5:1–11). That night Peter had fished all night and caught nothing, but Jesus had taken his failure and turned it into success.

Perhaps Peter’s impetuousness and self-assurance were showing again. He was honest; he did his best, but it was all in vain. What a likeness they bear to some of the Lord's servants! They really think they are doing the will of God, but their works are vain. They are without the guidance of the Lord, so they cannot expect to receive blessings from Him.

Our Lord was sometimes unrecognized after His resurrection (Luke 24:16; John 20:14), so His disciples did not recognize Him when He appeared on the shore at dawn. His question anticipated a negative answer. You haven't caught anything to eat, have you? The answer they gave was short and perhaps a bit sheepish: “No.”

It was time for Jesus to take over the situation as He did when He called Peter into discipleship. He told them where to cast the net. They obeyed, and they caught 153 fish! The difference between success and failure was the width of the ship! When we let Jesus give the orders, we are never far from success, and we are usually closer to it than we think.

John was the first to recognize the stranger on the shore as their own Lord and Master. It was John who had leaned back at the table on the breast of the Lord (John 13:23) and who had stood by the cross as his Lord suffered and died (John 19:26). Love is that which recognizes the Lord and bears the joyful news to others: “It is the Lord!”

Peter, in a typical impulsive move, quickly put on his outer garment ("naked" simply means "stripped for work") and dove into the water! He wanted to reach Jesus! This behavior runs counter to Luke 5:8, where Peter tells the Lord to leave him alone. The other six men came in the boat with the net full of fish. In the experience recorded in Luke 5, the nets began to break. But in this experience, the net did not break.

Maybe these two ‘fishing miracles’ can be viewed as showing how the Lord helps His people fish for lost souls. Without His guidance and blessing, our labor is wasted. In these days, we do not know how many fish we have caught, and it often seems that our nets are breaking. But at the end of the age, when we see the Lord, not a fish will be lost, and we shall know how many there are.

Jesus told the disciples, and us, that we are to be “fishers of men.” This phrase wasn’t new with Jesus; it was used by Greek and Roman teachers for years. To be a “fisher of men” in that day was to seek to persuade men and “catch” them with the truth. A fisherman catches living acquatic fish, but when he receives them, they die. Christian witness is trying to catch "dead fish" (dead in their sins), and when he or she "catches" them, they are made alive in Christ!
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Now we can see why Jesus had so many fishermen in the disciples' band. Fishermen know how to work. They have the courage and faith to go out “into the deep.” They are very patient and persistent and won’t give up. They know how to work together, and they know how to use the equipment and the boat. What examples can we follow in our quest to “catch fish” for Jesus Christ?

We are “fishers of men” and there are “fish” all around us. We will catch the fish if we obey His directions.

CONVERTED TO SERVE (John 21)

The average reader would expect that John concluded his book with the dramatic testimony of Thomas (John 20:28-31) and wonder why John added another chapter. The main reason is the apostle Peter, who was a close associate of John in ministry (Acts 3:1). John did not desire to close his Gospel without telling his readers that Peter was restored to his apostleship. In addition to the information in this chapter, we ask why Peter was so prominent in the first twelve chapters of Acts.

John had another purpose: to correct the false rumor among believers that he would live until the Lord's return (John 21:23). John stressed that the words of our Lord had been misunderstood.

I think John had something else in mind; he wanted to teach us how to relate to the risen Christ. During the forty days between His resurrection and ascension, our Lord appeared and disappeared at will, visiting with the disciples and preparing them for the coming of the Spirit and their future ministries (Acts 1:1–9). They never knew when He would come, so they had to stay alert! (The fact that He could come for His people today should keep us on our toes!) The time was important for the disciples; they would take His place in the world and start to carry the message to others.
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In this chapter (John 21) I see three pictures of the believer, and with each picture there is a responsibility.

Death to Life (20:29-31)

John could not end his book without bringing the resurrection miracle to his readers. We should not envy Thomas and the other disciples, because we can experience the power of Christ’s resurrection in our lives today. That was why John wrote this gospel—so that people in every age could know that Jesus is God and that faith in Him brings everlasting life.

It is not necessary to “see” Jesus Christ to believe. Yes, it was a blessing for the early Christians to see their Lord and know He was alive, but that did not save them. They were saved, not by sight, but through faith. The emphasis throughout the gospel of John is on believing. In this gospel, we are called upon nearly a hundred times to believe in Jesus Christ.

Today we cannot see Christ or the miracles (signs) that John wrote about in this book. However, the record is there, and that is all that we need. “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10:17; and note 1 John 5:9–13). As you read John’s record, you come face to face with Jesus Christ, how He lived, what He said, and what He did. All the evidence leads to the conclusion that He is God in the flesh, the Savior of the world.

The signs that John selected and described in this book are proof of the deity of Christ. They are important. Sinners are not saved by believing on miracles; they are saved by believing on Jesus Christ. Many of the Jews in Jerusalem believed on Jesus because of His miracles, but He did not believe in them (John 2:23–25)! Miracles brought great crowds after Him (John 6:2), but in the end most of those people left Him for good (John 6:66). Even the religious leaders who plotted His death believed He did miracles, but this “faith” did not save them (John 11:47ff.).

Faith in His miracles should lead to faith in His Word and to personal faith in Jesus as Savior and Lord. Jesus Himself said that faith in His works (miracles) was only the first step in the direction of faith in the Word of God (John 5:36-40). The sinner must “hear” the Word if he is to be saved (John 5:24).

There was no need for John to describe every miracle that our Lord performed; in fact, he supposed that a complete record could never be written (John 21:25). The life and ministry of Jesus Christ were simply too rich and full for any writer, even an inspired one, to provide a complete record. But you don’t need a full record. All of the basic facts are here for us to read and consider. There is sufficient truth for any sinner to believe and be saved!

The theme of John’s gospel is that “Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God." He offered a threefold proof of this thesis: our Lord’s works, our Lord’s walk, and our Lord’s words. In this gospel you see Jesus doing miracles; you see Him living a perfect life among His enemies; and you hear Him saying things that nobody else could say.

Jesus was either crazy, deceived, or exactly who He claimed to be. Some of His enemies did say He was deranged and deluded. But most of the people who watched Him and listened to Him concluded He was unique, different from anyone they had ever known. How could a madman, or a deluded man, do what Jesus did? When people believed Him, He changed their lives! That doesn't happen when you trust a madman or a deceiver.

He said He was God in human flesh, the Son of God, the Savior of the world. That is what He is!

John was not content to explain a subject. He was an evangelist with a mission to complete. He wanted his readers to believe in Jesus Christ and be saved! He was not writing a biography to entertain or a history to enlighten. He was writing an evangel to change men’s lives.

“Life” is one of John’s key words; he uses it at least thirty-six times. Jesus gives sinners abundant and eternal life. The only way they can have it is by personal faith in Him.

If sinners need life, then the implication is that they are dead. "And you hath He quickened [made alive, resurrected] who were dead in trespasses and sins" (Eph. 2:1). Salvation is not resuscitation; it is resurrection (John 5:24). The lost sinner is not sick or feeble; he is dead.

This life comes “through His name.” What is His name? In John’s gospel, the emphasis is on His name, “I am.” Jesus makes seven profound “I am” statements in this gospel, giving the lost sinner all he needs.

Eternal life is not "endless time," for even the lost will live forever in hell. “Eternal life” means the life of God Himself, experienced today. It is not a quantity of time, but a quality of life. It is the mystical experience of “heaven on earth” now. The Christian does not have to die to have this eternal life; he possesses it in Christ today.

The ten disciples were changed from fear to courage, and Thomas was changed from unbelief to confidence. Now John asks you to trust Jesus Christ and to be changed from death to eternal life.

If you have already made this life-changing decision, express your thanks to God for the precious gift of eternal life.

​If you have not decided to do this, do it now.

“He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3:36).

From Unbelief to Faith ​(20:26-28)

Why was Thomas absent when the disciples met on the evening of the resurrection day? Was he so disappointed that he didn't want to be with his friends? Usually, when we are discouraged and beaten down, we need our friends even more! Solitude feeds discouragement and lets it grow into self-pity, which is worse.

Maybe Thomas was afraid. But John 11:16 appears to make him out as a brave man, ready to go to Judea and die with the Lord! Thomas was a spiritual man who wanted to know the truth and was not ashamed to ask questions, as we see in John 14:5. Thomas appears to have had a "pessimistic" perspective. We sometimes call him “Doubting Thomas,” but Jesus did not reprimand him for his doubts. He upbraided him for unbelief, saying, "Be not faithless, but believing.” Doubt is often an intellectual problem: we want to believe, but our faith is flooded with problems and questions. Unbelief is a moral problem; we refuse to believe.

What would Thomas doubt? After all, the other Christians reported that Jesus Christ was alive. In John 20:25, the verb "said" is in the active voice, thus implying that they were saying to him that they had seen the Lord Jesus Christ alive. The women and the Emmaus pilgrims certainly added their witness to this testimony. We admire Thomas’s desire for personal experience but must fault him for laying down conditions for the Lord to meet.

He had two names like most people in those days: Both “Didymus” and “Thomas” mean "twin" in Greek and Aramaic, respectively. Who was Thomas’ twin? We don't know—but occasionally you and I feel as if we were his twins. How often have we refused to believe and required God to give us proof of Himself!

Thomas is a powerful warning to us all not to miss meeting with God’s people on the Lord’s Day (Heb. 10:22–25). Because Thomas was not there, he lost the opportunity of seeing Jesus Christ, of hearing His words of peace, of receiving His commission and gift of spiritual life. He had to go through a week of fear and unbelief when he could have had joy and peace! When you are tempted to miss church, think of Thomas. You never know what special blessing you might be missing!

However, he deserves credit for showing up the next week. The other ten men had told Thomas they had seen the Lord’s hands and side (John 20:20), so Thomas used that as his test. Thomas had seen Jesus raise Lazarus, so why doubt the resurrection of our Lord himself? But he still wanted proof; "seeing is believing."

Thomas’s words help us see the difference between doubt and unbelief. Doubt says, 'I can't believe it!' There are too many problems!” Unbelief says, “I will not believe unless you provide me the evidence I ask for!” In fact, the Greek text uses a double negative: 'I will positively not believe!'

Jesus had heard the words of Thomas. No one had to tell Him. So, on the next Lord’s Day, the Lord came into the room (again, the doors were locked) and addressed Thomas and his unbelief. He still said, “Shalom—peace!” to them. Even Thomas’ unbelief could not take away the peace and joy of the other disciples in the Lord.

How gracious our Lord is to come down to our plane of experience to lift us up to where we ought to be. The Lord gave Gideon the “tests of faith” he asked for (Judges 6:36-40), and He gave Thomas what he asked for too. There is no record that Thomas ever accepted the Lord’s invitation. When the time came to prove his faith, Thomas needed no further proof.

Our Lord told Thomas to stop becoming faithless but become a believer. Jesus saw a dangerous process underway in Thomas’s heart, and He wanted to stop it. The best commentary on this is Hebrews 3, where God warns of "an evil heart of unbelief” (Heb. 3:12).

The psychology of doubt and unbelief is difficult to understand. Maybe it's something to do with personality traits; some people are more trusting than others. Maybe Thomas was so downhearted that he was ready to give up, so he “threw out a challenge” and didn’t really think Jesus would take him up on it. But in any case Thomas was faced with his own words and had to make a decision.

John 20:29 shows that Thomas’ testimony was based not on touching Jesus but on seeing Him. My Lord and my God! This statement is the last of the testimonies to the deity of Jesus Christ that John records. The others are John the Baptist (John 1:34), Nathanael (John 1:49), Jesus Himself (John 5:25; 10:36), Peter (John 6:69), the healed blind man (John 9:35), Martha (John 11:27), and of course, John himself (John 20:30-31).

It is comforting to know that the Lord had a personal interest and concern for “Doubting Thomas.” He wanted to strengthen his faith and to share in the blessings that awaited His followers. Thomas reminds us that unbelief deprives us of blessings and opportunities. It may sound sophisticated and intellectual to ask what Jesus did, but usually such questions are evidence of unyielding hearts, not of searching minds. Thomas represents the "scientific method" of living, and it didn't work! When a skeptic says, “I won’t believe unless—,” he’s already admitting that he does believe! He believes in the validity of the test or experiment he has invented! If he can believe in his own “scientific approach,” why not believe in what God has revealed?

We have to remember that everyone lives by faith. The only thing different is what that faith is in. Christians believe in God and in His Word; unsaved people believe in themselves.

​THE POWER OF HIS RESURRECTION.

As the news of Jesus’ life began to circulate among his followers, at first hesitantly, then with enthusiasm. His disciples didn’t even believe the first reports, and Thomas wanted proof. But wherever people confronted the reality of His resurrection, they experienced a change in their lives. In fact, you can experience that same transformation today. As you see in John 20:19-31, the changes that took place in the lives of people, ask yourself, “Have I met the risen Christ? Has He altered my life?”

From Fear to Courage (20:19-25)

Our Lord was laid in the tomb on the Sabbath and rose again from the dead on the first day of the week. Sunday is called by many the “Christian Sabbath,” but Sunday is not the Sabbath day. The seventh day of the week, the Sabbath, commemorates God’s finished work of creation (Gen. 2:1–3). The Lord’s Day commemorates the completed work of redemption of Christ, the “new creation.” God the Father labored six days and then rested. God the Son suffered six hours on the cross and then rested.

God gave Israel the Sabbath as a special “sign” that they belonged to Him (Ex. 20:8–11; 31:13–17; Neh. 9:14). The nation was to have that day for physical rest and refreshment for man and beast, but for Israel, it was not commanded as a special day of assembly and worship. But the scribes and the Pharisees put all kinds of restrictions on the Sabbath observance until it became a day of bondage rather than a day of blessing. Jesus observed the Sabbath day but intentionally violated its traditions.

On that first day of the week, there were at least five resurrection appearances of our Lord: to Mary Magdalene (John 20:11–18), to the other women (Matt. 28:9–10), to Peter (1 Cor. 15:5; Luke 24:34), to the two Emmaus disciples (Luke 24:13–32), and to the disciples without Thomas (John 20:19–25). The next Sunday the disciples met again, and Thomas was there (John 20:26–31). It appears that the believers met together on Sunday evening, the day that came to be called “the Lord’s day” (Revelation 1:10). The early church met on the first day of the week to worship the Lord and remember His death and resurrection (Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:1–2).

Jesus rose from the dead after the Sabbath was over (Mark 16:1). On the first day of the week, He rose (Matt. 28:1; Luke 24:1; John 20:1). The change from the seventh to the first day was not due to a church decree but to the faith and witness of the first believers. For centuries, the Jewish Sabbath linked itself with law: six days of work, then you rest. But the Lord's Day, the first day of the week, is the day of grace. First there is faith in the living Christ, and then there will be works.

The Scriptures provide us no evidence that God ever gave the original Sabbath command to the Gentiles or that it was repeated for the church to keep. The church epistles repeat nine of the Ten Commandments, but the Sabbath commandment is not repeated. Paul is clear that believers should not use “special days” to test fellowship or spirituality (Rom. 14:5ff.; Col. 2:16–23).

How did our Lord turn the fear of His disciples into courage? For He had come unto them. We do not know where these ten frightened men met behind locked doors. Jesus came to them and reassured them. He could come into the room without opening the doors in His resurrection body! It was a physical body, for He asked them to touch Him—and He even ate some fish (Luke 24:41–43). But it was another sort of body, one not subject to what we call 'the laws of nature.'

It is an amazing thing that these men were really scared. The women had told them Jesus was alive, and the two Emmaus disciples had added their personal witness (Luke 24:33-35). Jesus probably appeared to Peter personally sometime that afternoon (Mark 16:7; Luke 24:34; 1 Cor. 15:5), although Peter’s public restoration would not occur until later (John 21). No wonder Jesus reproached them then “for their unbelief and hardness of heart” (Mark 16:14).

His first word to them was the traditional salutation, “Shalom"—peace! He might have rebuked them for their faithlessness and cowardice on the preceding Sabbath, but he did not. He hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us after our iniquities. (Ps. 103:10). The work of the cross is peace (Rom. 5:1; Eph. 2:14-17), and the message they would carry would be the gospel of peace (Rom. 10:15). Man had waged war against God (Ps. 2; Acts 4:23–30), but God would declare “Peace!” to those who would believe.

Not only did Jesus come to them, but He also reassured them. He showed them His wounded hands and side, giving them the opportunity to see that it was their Master and not a phantom. The Gospels do not record wounds in His feet, but Psalm 22:16 shows that His feet were nailed to the cross as well.

However, the wounds were more than identification; they were evidence that the price for salvation had been paid and man indeed could have “peace with God.” It is in the person and work of Jesus Christ that we have the ground of all our peace. He died for us; He defeated death and rose from the dead, and now He lives for us. He cannot be shut out from us in our fears! He comes to us in grace and comforts us with His word. 

Shining Faith (20:11-18) - Part 2 of 2
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Some students feel that Jesus did return to the Father that morning, and that was the ascension He was referring to. No other passage in the New Testament supports this interpretation. I think it stretches the type too far to say He was fulfilling the symbolism of the Day of Atonement and presenting the blood to the Father. (Lev. 16). He had no blood to show; He had presented it on the cross when He became sin for us. In His resurrection glory, Jesus was “flesh and bones” (Luke 24:39), not “flesh and blood." The resurrection itself was proof that the work of redemption had been accomplished (raised because of our justification—Rom. 4:24-25). What more could He have done? Absolutely nothing, praise His holy name.

Our Lord never spoke of “our Father" or “our God." He rightly made a distinction between His relationship with the Father and that of the disciples. We say “our Father” and “our God” because all believers are part of one family and stand equally before God. He told Mary and the other followers that God was their Father and that He would be with the Father in Heaven after His ascension. In His Upper Room message, He had told them that He was going back to the Father and that the Spirit would come to them.

It was the same Jesus, only with a glorified body, but it wasn’t quite the same relationship. We must be careful not to relate to Christ “after the flesh” (1 Cor. 5:16), i.e., relate to Him as if He were still in His state of humiliation. He is now the glorious Son of God, and we must worship Him as such. When John was with Jesus at the table, he leant against His bosom (John 13:23), but when John saw Jesus on the Isle of Patmos, he fell at His feet as dead (Rev. 1:17)!

If Mary had kept Jesus to herself and had been selfish and disobedient, she would have lost Him. She stood up and ran to the disciples and told them the wonderful news that she had seen the Lord alive. “I have seen Him!” (see John 20:14, 18, 20, 25, 29). Mark tells us that these believers were mourning and weeping—and they would not believe her (Mark 16:9-11)! Mary had been crying too, and Jesus had turned her sorrow into joy. Their grief would have been turned to joy too, if they had believed. Unbelief is terribly deadening to a person. No wonder God warns us against "an evil heart of unbelief" (Heb. 3:12).

Mary told of His resurrection and that she had seen Him personally, but she also spoke of the words that He had spoken to her. We see once again the importance of the Word of God. Mary could not transfer her experience over to them, but she could share the Word, and it is the Word that produces faith (Rom. 10:17). The living Christ gave us His living Word (1 Peter 1:23-25).

Faith based on solid evidence is a valuable thing, but the evidence should lead us to the Word, and the Word should lead us to the Savior. It is one thing to accept a doctrine and defend it; it is quite another to have a personal relationship to the living Lord. Peter and John were convinced Jesus was alive, but it wasn’t until that evening that they met the risen Christ in person with the other disciples. Jesus appeared to Peter sometime that afternoon (Luke 24:34; 1 Cor. 15:5). Proof that does not issue in experience is only dead dogma. The key is believing God’s Word.

Shining Faith (20:11-18)
​Part 1 of 2

I think of Proverbs 8:17, “I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me," when I see Mary Magdalene alone in the garden. The love of Mary for her Lord brought her early to the garden. When Mary went back to the tomb, Peter and John had gone home and did not tell her what conclusion they had come to based on the evidence they had seen. Mary still thought Jesus was dead. Another verse comes to mind, Psalm 30:5: “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.”

Mary's weeping was the loud lamentation characteristic of the Jews in the expression of their sorrow (John 11:31, 33). There is surely nothing wrong with honest grief, for God created us to shed our tears, and weeping is good therapy for broken hearts. But the Christian's sorrow must be different from the hopeless sorrow of the world (1 Thess. 4:13-18), for we have been born again unto “a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." (1 Peter 1:3). We do not cry because our believing loved ones have gone to heaven but because they have left us and we miss them.

Mary looked into the sepulchre and saw two angels in white. Their position at either end of the shelf on which the body had lain suggests the cherubim on the mercy seat (Ex. 25:17-19). It is as if God were saying, 'Now there is a new mercy seat! My Son has paid the price of sin and opened wide the way into the presence of God!' Mary was apparently not disturbed at seeing these men, and there is no evidence that she knew they were angels. The short talk didn’t dry her tears nor quiet her mind. She was going to find the body of Jesus.

Why did Mary turn round and not go on with her talk with the two strangers? Did she hear a sound behind her? Or did the angels stand and know the presence of their Lord? Either of these speculations may be true, or neither may be true. She knew the Lord’s body was not in the tomb, so why remain there any longer?

Why did she not see the One for whom she was so earnestly searching? Perhaps He hid Himself from her, as He would later do when He walked with the Emmaus disciples (Luke 24:13-32). It was still early; maybe it was dark in this part of the garden. However, her eyes were probably blinded by her tears.

Jesus asked her the same question the angels asked: “Why do you weep?” How sad that she was crying when she might have been praising had she known her Lord was living! And He said to them, “Whom are you seeking?” (He asked the mob the same question in the garden—John 18:4.) It is encouraging to us to know that “Jesus knows all about our sorrows." The Savior knew that Mary’s heart was broken and her mind confused. He did not rebuke her; He manifested Himself lovingly to her.

He had only to call her name, and Mary knew Him instantly. His sheep hear [know] His voice; and He calls His own sheep by name (John 10:3). Mary had evidently turned away from Jesus, and when He called her name, she had to turn again to look at Him. What a blessed surprise to behold! The face of her beloved Master!

She could only say, "Rabboni—My Master, My Teacher.” Elsewhere in the Gospels, the title "Rabboni" is found only once, in Mark 10:51 (in the Greek text, “Lord” is “Rabboni”). "Rabbi" and "Rabboni" were interchangeable terms of respect. The Jews in later years recognized three levels of teachers: 'rab' (the lowest), rabbi, and rabboni (the highest).

Mary talked to Him, yes, and she took hold of His feet and clung to Him. This was but natural.

Now that she had found Him, she did not want to lose Him. There was still so much for her and the other believers to learn of His new state of glory. They still wanted to relate to Him as they had in the years of His ministry before the cross.

Jesus did not forbid the other women to hold His feet (Matt. 28:9), and they did. Why did He say to Mary, “Do not touch me”? Partly it was that she would see Him again, for He had not yet ascended to the Father. After His resurrection He stayed on the earth for forty days and appeared to the believers to instruct them in spiritual truth (Acts 1:1-9). Mary did not have to panic; this was not her last and final meeting with the Lord.

Secondly, she had a job to do. To go and tell His brethren that He was alive and was going to ascend to the Father. He is not ashamed to call them brethren (Heb 2:11). "I will declare thy name unto my brethren" (Ps. 22:22). He had called His own servants (John 13:16) and friends (John 15:15), but now brethren. I believe this meant that they had shared in His resurrection power and glory.

Faith Dawning (20:3-10)

John 20:3 says that Peter went out first to run to the tomb, but John 20:4 says that John got there first. Why? Maybe John was a younger, fitter man, or maybe John was just a better runner. It is tempting to “spiritualize” this foot race and connect it to Isaiah 40:31 and Hebrews 12:1–2. It is difficult to run the race of faith when a believer is out of fellowship with the Lord. However, both men deserve credit for the courage to run into enemy territory without knowing what lay ahead. The whole thing may have been a clever trap to catch the disciples.

When John came to the tomb, he stood outside looking in cautiously. Perhaps he wanted Peter to come with him into the burial chamber. What did John look at? The grave clothes lay on the shelf of stone, and there was no sign of violence or crime. But the grave clothes contained no evidence of a corpse! They sat there like an empty cocoon, still in the form of Jesus' body.

Peter came up and went into the tomb on impulse, as we should expect him to do. He also saw the linen clothes lying there empty, and the cloth for the head carefully rolled and lying by itself. Grave robbers don’t carefully unwrap the corpse and leave the graveclothes behind. Indeed, with the spices in the folds of the clothes, it would be almost impossible to unwrap a corpse without damaging the wrappings. Only Jesus passing through them as He rose from the dead could have left those linen clothes in that condition.

Then John went into the tomb and saw the evidence. He saw, and he believed.

In writing this account, John chose three different Greek words for seeing. In John 20:5 the verb simply means “to look in" or "to peer into.” It means “to look carefully, to observe” (John 20:6). The word "saw" in John 20:8 means "to perceive with intelligent comprehension. Now their resurrection faith was dawning!

It is hard to believe that the disciples of Jesus did not expect Him to leave the tomb alive. He had told them many times that after all, He would be raised from the dead. Early in His ministry He had said, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up" (John 2:19). The disciples remembered that He had said this after His resurrection (John 2:22), but His enemies did too (Matt. 27:40, 63–64).

He likened Himself to Jonah (Matt. 12:40) and twice expressly foretold His resurrection after three days (Matt. 16:21; 20:19). On Thursday of His last week of ministry He again promised to be raised up and meet them in Galilee (Matt. 26:32; see Luke 24:6-7).

What kind of faith did Peter and John possess at this point in their spiritual experience? They had the evidence. They had faith. They could see the graveclothes. They knew Jesus’ body was not there. But evidence, good as it is to convince the mind, can never change the life. For those of us who live centuries later cannot examine the evidence, for the material evidence (the tomb, the graveclothes) is not open to us to examine.

But we have the record in the Word of God (John 20:9), and that record is true (John 19:35; 21:24). In fact, it was faith in the Word that the Lord really wanted to develop in His disciples (John 2:22; 12:16; 14:26). Peter said that our faith must be based on the Word of God, not on personal experience (1 Peter 1:12–21).

The disciples had nothing but the Old Testament Scriptures, so that is what is meant in John 20:9. The early church used the Old Testament to prove to both Jews and Gentiles that Jesus is the Christ, that He died for sinners, and that He arose again (Acts 9:22; 13:16ff.; 17:1-4; etc.). The gospel includes “and that He was raised again the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:4). What Scriptures Did Paul and John Refer To?

Paul placed the resurrection in Psalm 2:7 (Acts 13:33). Peter saw it in Psalm 16:8-11 (Acts 2:23-36, and see 13:35). Peter also cited Psalm 110:1 (Acts 2:34–35). The phrase “he shall prolong his days” in Isaiah 53:10 has also been taken as a prophecy of Christ’s resurrection. Jesus Himself used the prophet Jonah to illustrate his own death, burial, and resurrection (Matt. 12:38-40), and this would include the “three days” part of the message. Paul saw in the Feast of Firstfruits a picture of the resurrection (Lev. 23:9–14; 1 Cor. 15:20–23), and this would include “the third day” again. Some students see the resurrection and “the third day” in Hos. 6:2.

The Lord did not reveal Himself to everyone after His resurrection, but only to certain witnesses who would tell others the good news (Acts 10:39–43). Now this witness is found in the Scripture, the New Testament, and the Old and New Testaments agree in their witness. The law, the psalms, the prophets, and the apostles all testify that Jesus Christ is alive!

Peter and John “saw and believed” the evidence. The Holy Spirit confirmed their faith through the Old Testament Scriptures. That night they were to meet the Master Himself! The faith that was clouded over is beginning to dawn, and the light will get brighter.

Belief Overshadowed (20:1–2)

Mary Magdalene and some other women decided to go to the tomb early on the first day of the week to demonstrate their love for Christ by completing the preparations for the burial. Circumstances had hurriedly prepared His body for Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, and the women wished to complete the work. Their great worry was, how do we get into the tomb? Perhaps the Roman soldiers will pity them and give them some help.

What they didn't know was that an earthquake had taken place and the stone had been rolled back by an angel! It seems that it was Mary Magdalene who was the first of the women to go to the tomb. When she saw the stone rolled away from the door of the tomb, she thought that somebody had broken into the tomb and stolen the body of her Lord. We can criticize Mary for jumping to conclusions, but given the circumstances it is hard to see how she could have come to any other conclusion. It was dark, she was alone, and, like the other followers of Jesus, she did not believe He would come back from the dead.

She ran and told the news to Peter and John, who must have been living together at a house known to the other believers. Perhaps it was in the Upper Room where they had gathered with Jesus. Mary’s use of the pronoun “we” is particularly striking, for it included the other women who at that moment were discovering that Jesus was alive (see Mark 16:1-8; Luke 24:1-8)! The women left the tomb to tell the other disciples the message of the angels.

The first witnesses of the resurrection of Christ were believing women. The testimony of women was not highly regarded among the Jews of that day. "It is better," said the rabbis, "that the words of the law be burned than be delivered to a woman." But these Christian women had a message greater than the law, for they knew their Savior was alive.
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Mary's faith hadn't been snuffed out, just eclipsed. The light was still there, but it was obscured. Peter and John were in the same spiritual condition, but soon all three of them would emerge from the shadows into the light.