Author: Jeff Englund

He called out to them, “Friends, haven’t you any fish?”
“No,” they answered.

This point in John’s gospel is very different from the rest. At the beginning of his story, Jesus calls the disciples to follow him. He does not explain why he wants them to follow or what he expects them to do. He does not tell them that their lives will be changed forever in ways that they cannot even begin to understand. He simply calls them to himself.

They come to Jesus because of John’s testimony that Jesus is the Lamb of God, God’s “Chosen One.” (John 1: 29, 34, 36) They believe rightly that Jesus is the Messiah, the Anointed One. In the Old Testament writings anointing someone or something with oil was associated with God choosing a place or a person. The first example of this is in Genesis 28: 16-17 when Jacob pours oil on a pillar of stone to mark the place he experienced the LORD in a dream. Later, in Genesis 31: 13, God refers to this act as an anointing. Throughout history, anointing with oil has been used to consecrate the holy things of the temple, consecrate priests, and later to or show who God had chosen to be king.

When the disciples come to Jesus they understood him to be the “Anointed One” that Daniel writes about in Daniel 9: 25-26. They were likely expecting Jesus to rise up in earthly power as they had been taught. At some point, Jesus would unveil himself to be the king that would restore Israel to its rightful place as God’s chosen nation. Of course, it turned out that God had other ideas.

The Jesus they encountered was humble, not flaunting his authority. He served the people of Israel, healing the sick and feeding the hungry. He taught them amazing things and performed incredible signs of his Godhood. They had seen him walk on water and calm the storm. If he could command the raindrops, it shouldn’t surprise us that he can command fish, too.

When Jesus asked, “…haven’t you any fish?” he already knew the answer to the question. He had seen to it that they would not have any fish that night. Is there any other explanation for them not catching a fish and then catching 153 fish in one cast of the net?

Application: Jesus is watching. Even the fish are under his control. His authority is absolute. His eyes are everywhere.

Food for Thought: Whether we are fishermen or doing any other kind of work we face the same challenge. When the work doesn’t go as planned, is it God’s fault? If God is responsible, is there a reason for what is happening? If there is a reason, how do we discern it?

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Continue reading “Something’s Fishy – John 21: 5”

Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus.

Back in the post titled, “Reunion Movie,” we explored what the scene might have looked like when Mary failed to recognize Jesus. In this passage, we find that something similar has happened. This time it is the disciples who do not recognize Jesus. Why?

The answer to “Why?” is that we don’t really know. John doesn’t tell us why. He only says that they did not recognize him. Still, it is not hard to imagine why.

Recognition is based on being able to discern enough detail so that our minds can “connect the dots” between what we know what we are looking for and what our eyes are actually seeing. Distance diminishes the detail. Perhaps the morning sun was glaring off of the water.

Application: Jesus doesn’t always show up in our lives with a neon sign that says, “I’m here!” Instead, he often comes quietly and unexpectedly. Be ready!

Food for Thought: What helps us to be more ready to recognize Jesus when he comes?

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Continue reading “Neon Welcome – John 21: 4”

Afterward Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Galilee. It happened this way: Simon Peter, Thomas (also known as Didymus), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. “I’m going out to fish,” Simon Peter told them, and they said, “We’ll go with you.” So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.

Peter, Thomas, Nathanael, James, John (son of Zebedee), John (the author of this gospel) and one other disciple are hanging out together by the Sea of Galilee. If you remember, this means that they had traveled north of Jerusalem about eighty miles. Days or weeks might have passed since they saw Jesus on the first Easter.

In a sense, they have returned to the beginning. Peter had been fishing when he was first called to be a disciple. (Matthew 4: 18-20) Now he is standing on the shore staring at the sea. Perhaps it all felt like a dream. Three years of wandering with Jesus. Three years of amazement. Three years of walking with God. And now, Jesus was gone. Yes, he had been resurrected from the dead, but he was not to be found. What were they to do? Not knowing what else to do they climbed in a boat and went fishing.

Application: What were you doing when Jesus first found you? Have you gone back to doing what you were, or are you living for Christ?

Food for Thought: What else could they have done at the time they went fishing? Is there something else they should have been doing?

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Continue reading “Back to the Beginning – John 21: 1-3”

But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

As I write these words, I am typing on a modern laptop computer. If I make a mistake the computer corrects it for me effortlessly. Years ago, while I was in college, I owned a portable electric typewriter. It was great for typing but it didn’t know beans about spelling and neither did I. The combination meant that typing was a real chore.

Back in the days before electric typewriters, mechanical typewriters were preferred. You could make duplicate copies as you typed by inserting carbon paper between two pieces of paper. They also had a funny way of getting stuck if you didn’t pace your timing on the keys just right. If you tried typing too fast the “keys” would jam up like a freeway traffic jamb. Then everything would stop. For the next few minutes, you would have to carefully try and back out each key from the jam.

Before typewriters, there were ballpoint pens. Before ballpoint pens, there were ink pens that had a rubber bladder inside and a tiny lever on the side of the pen. You dipped the pen in ink and moved the lever to fill the bladder with ink. Then you snapped the lever back into the side of the pen and you could write several sentences before you had to refill the ink again.

Back in John’s day he probably wrote on parchment or papyrus. His writing tool would have been a reed pen or something similar. You dip it in ink and write one or two letters. Then you dip the pen in ink again and write another letter or two. It was slow and laborious work. The work was complicated by the danger of spilling ink or smudging what had been written. Writing required both having something to say and the skill to record the words in writing.

The work involved in putting together John’s gospel is phenomenal. John’s gospel contains over eighteen thousand words. (English, KJV) The Greek word count should be similar. That is a lot of writing. John made the effort to record these words so that you and I might believe.

Application: John’s work in recording the story of Jesus Christ’s life on earth is priceless. Today, most people in America are within arm’s length reach of a Bible. Shouldn’t we spend a few minutes each day honoring God by reading His Word?

Food for Thought: If John had added more words to his gospel account, how would that have affected his message?

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Continue reading “The Reason Why – John 20: 30-31”

Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book.

Isn’t this an intriguing passage? John bluntly tells us that his gospel is but a brief peek into the world of following Jesus. How much more did the disciples see? Fortunately, we have other accounts of Jesus’ life in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. They offer more details about the things that Jesus said and did.

Imagine what life was like tagging along with God’s Son. The crowds wanting to be healed. The words that he spoke. The anger, frustration, and hate in the eyes of the Jewish leaders. Then imagine walking with Jesus every day. Watching him work. Listening to him teach. Seeing him heal all who came to him. What was that like?

It is important to let Jesus be Jesus. The danger in the written word is that we might worship the word instead of our God. The risk is that we limit our God to what we have read instead of letting him into our lives today.

Application: Allow time and place for God to enter into your life. Invite Him into your world and listen to Him all day, every day. Let go of what Jesus did two thousand years ago and embrace what he is doing today.

Food for Thought: What kind of signs does Jesus perform today?

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Continue reading “Signs (III) – John 20: 30”

Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

Who has seen Jesus? All the people who saw Jesus in the flesh have passed on. For the last two thousand years, all that people have had to go on is the story told to them by those who saw Jesus in person.

Or is it?

Is there something else that gives us reason to believe?

Pastor Rich can offer up dozens if not hundreds of reasons why we can and should believe in Jesus. I admire his command of history and scripture. My understanding of such things pales in comparison. Even so, I believe. Why?

Application: My own experience is simple. Jesus lives inside of me. I can’t ”see” him in the same way that the disciples did but I can ”see” him in me. Jesus gives those who believe in him his Holy Spirit. Jesus and the Father and the Holy Spirit are one. In my personal experience, I live with Jesus every day.

Food for Thought: How are we who have not seen Jesus blessed when we believe?

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Continue reading “Inside of Me – John 20: 29”

A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”
Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”

Three times in John’s gospel John the Baptist declared Jesus to be the Lamb of God, God’s Chosen One. The clarity of John’s understanding of who Jesus is seems quickly lost. Then, near the end of chapter one, Jesus calls Nathanael to be a disciple. Nathanael’s response to his calling is to exclaim, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel.”

Sometime later after feeding the five thousand, Jesus begins talking about people eating his flesh and drinking his blood. He questions the disciples; will you leave me, too? Peter speaks for them all when he says, “We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.” (John 6: 69)

The next revelation about Jesus is from the man born blind. Jesus heals him but the man does not know it until he washes in the Pool of Siloam. Before he sees Jesus he sees the Pharisees. Under questioning, he realizes the full significance of what has happened. As a result, his testimony changes. First, he says Jesus is a man, then he calls him a prophet. When he finally meets Jesus in person, he calls him “Lord.”

Finally, during the conversation after the last supper, the disciples say that they, “…believe that you came from God.” (John 16: 30b)

Was there ever a question that Jesus was the Son of God? Well, yes. Over and over again the disciples rediscover who Jesus is. When Jesus appears to Thomas, he too discovers for himself that Jesus is, “My Lord and my God.”

Application: Discovering Jesus is not a one-time thing. We are temporal beings. We learn over and over who Jesus is and how real he is. The challenge we face, like Thomas, is being open to Jesus when he appears out of nowhere and steps into our locked rooms.

Food for Thought: How do we “stop doubting and believe?”

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Continue reading “Belief – John 20: 26-28”

Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”
But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

Since I was a child I have known Thomas as “Doubting Thomas.” This always seemed like an easy way to pass off Thomas’ failing as his alone. But is it? Is he the only one that doubts? Didn’t Peter and John both doubt the message that Mary gave them? How is this any different?

The only real difference is that it is Thomas’ fellow disciples who tell him about Jesus. And not just one disciple, but all of them. Yet Thomas is defiant. Why?

Thomas wasn’t there when Jesus appeared to the rest. Is it possible he felt left out? Was he angry at Jesus for not appearing to him, too? How would you feel if you were in his place? Sounding somewhat like a stubborn three-year-old Thomas lists his demands. Not only does he want to see Jesus, but he wants to see the nail marks and the wound in the side. More than that he wants to prove it is Jesus by putting his hand and finger into the places where Jesus was wounded. He is not asking for much! Then he states that unless his demands are met, he will not believe.

Application: Satan tempts us to test God all the time. If God were real, how could he let ______ (Fill in the blank with my favorite aunt, my mom, my dad, my child, my friend, my cat, etc…) die? If God is a loving God he would ______ (Fill in the blank with: not allow people to go to hell, love homosexuals, wouldn’t have had people in the Old Testament killed, etc.). Or, the all-time favorite: If God were a loving God he would ______ (Fill in the blank with: make sure I was never hungry, get me that raise I deserve, provide us with a new car, make sure my stock picks do well, etc.). Our challenge in life is recognizing this tendency in ourselves. When we put conditions on our belief as Thomas did we only hurt ourselves.

Food for Thought: Does Thomas wanting to put his hand into Jesus’ side sound a little weird?

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Continue reading “Poor Thomas – John 20: 24-25”

If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.

As John describes the day of Jesus’ resurrection, we see Mary discover the empty tomb, then Peter and John race out to the tomb to see for themselves. After they leave, Jesus appears to Mary and gives her a message for the disciples. In response to this news, the disciples gather together but behind locked doors. They are afraid.

Jesus appears in this locked room full of fearful people. The first thing he says is, “Peace be with you!” The thing they lacked the most is what he offers them right away. Peace, the antidote to fear. Then he shows them the evidence that it really is him.

Then he says, “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” After this he breathes on them and says, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

What next? In short order, he has given them peace, proof, a mission, and his Holy Spirit. Isn’t that enough? Apparently not. For then he adds his last words to them that evening, “If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

What does he mean? Is there a secret meaning here? Why does he say this?

Continue reading “Forgive – John 20: 23”

And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

In Luke’s second book called, “Acts of the Apostles” or “Acts” for short, in the second chapter, he describes the Holy Spirit coming on the apostles at Pentecost. Generally, when I think of the apostles receiving the Holy Spirit, it is Luke’s account that I think of. But here it is the same day that Jesus rose from the dead. It is evening, and he says to his disciples, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” These two experiences are related but different.

The story that comes to mind as I read this passage from John is the one that Moses recounts in Genesis where God gives life to the dust he had made into a man.

Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. (Genesis 2: 7)

In the first recorded conversation between God and man, in the very first sentence spoken by God to man, God says, “…you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” (Genesis 2: 16-17)

So what do Adam and Eve do? They allow themselves to be guided by lies instead of truth. They eat of the forbidden tree and they die. Not physically, but spiritually. At that moment their relationship with their Creator was severed. They became spiritual outcasts, spiritually dead. Only through the sacrifice of God’s son would mankind, including Adam and Eve, be reconciled with God.

As it turns out the Greek word translated as “breathed on” is the same word used in the Greek Old Testament to describe God breathing life into Adam. Coincidence? I think not. What we have here is the restoration of life to spiritually dead bodies.

Application: It is notable here that this giving of the Holy Spirit is a quiet event. It is not marked by loud noises or tongues of fire. Jesus simply breathes on the disciples. In the same way, when we come to Jesus, he quietly breathes life back into our empty souls.

Food for Thought: What makes the experience of the apostles in Luke 2 different than what they received this first day of the resurrection?

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Continue reading “Breath of God – John 20: 22”