Jesus reinstates Peter- feed my sheep (John 21:15-25) By Rev.Katherine Liu Bruce

Jesus reinstates Peter- feed my sheep (John 21:15-25)

By Rev.Katherine Liu Bruce

Christian Arts Ministries: Biblical precepts & Gospel music

 

15When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” “Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.” 16Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.” 17The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. 18Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” 19Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, “Follow me!”

20Peter turned and saw that the disciple whom Jesus loved was following them. (This was the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper and had said, “Lord, who is going to betray you?”)  21When Peter saw him, he asked, “Lord, what about him?” 22Jesus answered, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me.” 23Because of this, the rumor spread among the believers that this disciple would not die. But Jesus did not say that he would not die; he only said, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you?” 24This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down. We know that his testimony is true. 25Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.      

Here in verse 15 the Lord was restoring Peter’s love toward Him. Peter did have a heart to love the Lord, but he was too confident in his own strength, his natural strength. Peter’s love for the Lord was precious, but his natural strength had to be denied and dealt with. The Lord allowed Peter to fail utterly in denying the Lord to His face three times (18:17,25,27), so that his natural strength and his self-confidence could be dealt with. Furthermore, Peter had just taken the lead to backslide from the Lord’s call. His natural confidence in his love toward the Lord also must have been dealt with by this failure; yet he might have been somewhat disappointed. The Lord therefore came to restore his love toward Him, to charge him with the shepherding of His church, and to prepare him for his martyrdom so that he would not follow Him with any confidence in his natural strength.

Verse 15 Jesus said, “Simon Peter, Do you love Me?” the Greek word refers to a higher and nobler love. So for the first love in v.16. Peter responded “ Yes, Lord, You know that I love You.” The Greek word denotes an intimate love. So for the second love in v.16 and for all occurrences of love in v.17. The fruit-bearing in ch.15 is the outflow of  the riches of the inner life. Here, to feed the lambs is to nourish them with the riches of the inner life. To feed others, we need to enjoy the riches of the Lord’s divine life. This requires that we love Him. To believe in the Lord is to receive Him. to love the Lord is to enjoy Him. The Lord came as life and the life supply to us. We need to have faith in Him and love toward Him. This Gospel presents these as the two requirements for us to participate in the Lord.

Verse 16 Shepherding is for the flock (10:14,16), which is the church (Acts 20:28); hence, it is related to God’s building (Matt.16:18). Later, Peter in his first Epistle indicated this, saying that growth by feeding on the pure milk of the word is for the building of God’s house (1Pet.2:2-5) and charging the elders to shepherd the flock of God (1Pet.5:1-4).

Verse 17 Perhaps in questioning Peter three times, the Lord was reminding Peter of how he had denied Him three times. The first know in this verse refers to the inward, subjective consciousness; the second refers to the outward, objective knowledge.

Verse 19 Later, Peter referred to this (2Pet.1:14). What the Lord wanted here was to prepare Peter to follow Him unto death, not by anything of himself or according to his own will.

Verse 22 The Lord was there with the disciples. How then could He say “Until I come”? since He was there, He did not need to come. If He meant that He would leave them and later come back to them, how could He say to them, “Follow Me”? How could they follow Him? the answer to all these questions is related to His invisible presence. In His visible presence He would leave and come back later. But in His invisible presence He would be with them all the time. On one hand, He would be with them, and on the other hand, He would be away from them. So on one hand, they could follow Him, and on the other hand, they would have to wait for His coming back. After His resurrection the Lord remained with the disciples for forty days (Acts.1:3-4) in order to train them to realize , practice, and live by His invisible presence. In v.23 the Lord indicated that some of His believers would follow Him unto death, and that some would remain., i.e., live until He comes.

Verse 23 The span of what is covered in the last two chapters of this Gospel is broad. It begins with the discovery of the Lord’s resurrection and ends with His coming back. Between these two events are all the matters related to the Christian life during the church age; seeking the Lord with love toward Him; seeing the Lord in resurrection; receiving the revelation of the issue of the Lord’s resurrection –that His Father is our Father and we are His brothers—by experiencing His manifestation; meeting with the believers to enjoy the Lord’s presence; having the Lord breathe the Holy Spirit into us, and being sent by the Lord with His commission and authority to represent Him; learning how to live by faith in the Lord and trust in Him for our daily living; loving the Lord, the natural strength having been dealt with; shepherding the flock for the building of the church; practicing the Lord’s invisible presence, with some following the Lord even unto death to glorify God, not by self-will but according to His leading, and some living until He comes back. 

Verse 25 This verse, together with 20:30-31, affirms that this Gospel is the record of selected things that serve the purpose of testifying to the matter of life and building. In Matt.28 it is pointed out that the Lord’s ascension is not mentioned in John or Matthew. The reason it is not mentioned is that today, after His resurrection, the Lord is still on the earth tobe with His believers, and He will be with them until the end of this age, when He will be manifested in His visible glory (1Pet.1:7;2Thes.1:7), that is, when He will come back to the earth in His visible presence (Matt.16:27) to establish His visible kingdom. The Gospel of Matthew unveils and testifies that today, after His resurrection, the Lord, who is the spiritual King of the invisible kingdom of the heavens, is still on the earth in His Spirit of resurrection to be with the people of the kingdom  of the heavens in His invisible presence; hence, Matthew does not mention His leaving the earth to ascend to the heavens. The Gospel of John reveals and testifies that as the Triune God, the Lord became flesh (1:14) to be the Lamb of God (1:29) and, after accomplishing His redemptive death for man, was transfigured in resurrection to become flesh (1:14) to be the Lamb of God (1:29) and , after accomplishing His redemptive death for man, was transfigured in resurrection to become the life-giving Spirit (1Cor.15:45) and to enter into those who believe into Him to be their life for eternity, never to be separated from them; hence, it would have been inappropriate for John to mention His going away in ascension.

Furthermore, the four Gospels are a full revelation of how the Triune God came to complete Christ, that is, to make Christ complete. The record in the Gospel of John is crucial regarding this matter. It shows us that the completing of Christ, who was anointed and commissioned by God to accomplish God’s eternal will, was carried out by the Triune God becoming flesh in order to be united with man. First, through His death in the flesh He accomplished redemption for man, and then through resurrection He was transfigured to become the Spirit that He might enter into the believers (20:22) to be united with them, that they might be united with the Triune God (17:21). Thus, He became Christ, the embodiment of God, and is able to take away men’s sins and enter into men to be their life that they may become the sons of God to be His members, constituting His Body as the full expression of the Triune God. Thus, He is in them to be all their reality and to be with them invisibly until their bodies are redeemed and transfigured that they may enter into His visible presence to be completely united with Him and completely like Him, and to become the New Jerusalem, which is about to be completed, as the mutual habitation of the Triune God and His redeemed people for eternity.

 

Bibliography,

Lee, Witness. The New Testament (R.V.) Anaheim, CA: Living Stream Ministry, 1985.

Ryrie, Charles C. The Ryrie Study Bible (NIV).Chicago, IL: The Moody Bible Institute, 1986. 

  

Jesus manifested and miraculous catch of fish (John 21:1-14 ) By Rev.Katherine Liu Bruce

Jesus manifested and miraculous catch of fish (John 21:1-14 )                                             By Rev.Katherine Liu Bruce  

Christian Arts Ministries: Biblical Precepts & Gospel music          Date :2/23/2026

Jesus and the Miraculous Catch of Fish (John 1-14)

 1Afterward Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Galilee. It happened this way: 2Simon Peter, Thomas (also known as Didymus), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. 3“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. 4Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus. 5He called out to them, “Friends, haven’t you any fish?” “No,” they answered. 6He said, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.” When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish. 7Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, “It is the Lord,” he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water. 8The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far from shore, about a hundred yards. 9When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread. 10Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish you have just caught.” 11So Simon Peter climbed back into the boat and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish, 153, but even with so many the net was not torn. 12Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” None of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. 13Jesus came, took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. 14This was now the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead.

     

 

          By the end of Chapter 20 the Lord had come back as the Spirit, as the pneumatic Christ, to be with the disciples as everything to them. Therefore, this Gospel might be considered closed there (20:30-31). But how could the disciples make a living? What should they do to carry out His commission? How should they follow His after His resurrection? What would be their future? This additional chapter is needed that these problems might be dealt with.

           Verse 1 this proves that His coming to the disciples in 20:26 was actually a manifestation, for here it is said that He manifested Himself again to the disciples. He was again training them to practice His invisible presence. It was a matter not of His coming but of His manifestation. Whether or not they were conscious of His presence, He was with them all the time. Because of their weakness He sometimes of their weakness He sometimes manifested His presence in order to strengthen their faith in Him.

Verse 3 it must have been because of the trial related to their need to make a living that Peter returned to his old occupation, thus backsliding from the Lord’s call (Matt.4:19-20; Luke5:3-11). Peter and the son of Zebedee (John and James) were professional fishermen, the Sea of Tiberias was large and full of fish, and night was the right time for fishing; still, through the entire night they caught nothing. This was a miracle! It must have been that the Lord bade all the fish to stay away from their net.

Verse 5 Fish is not in the Greek text; however, because the Greek word here refers to something prepared for eating, fish is implied. When the disciples were in the right position, as in Luke 24:41-43, they had even in the house more fish than they needed, so they offered a piece to the Lord. But here they were in a backslidden condition; thus, after fishing the whole night, they had even on the sea –no fish, not even one piece!

Verse 6 Morning (v.4) was not the right time for fishing, but when they obeyed the Lord’s word and cast the net, they caught an abundance of fish. This surely was a miracle! It must have been that the Lord bade the fish to come into their net. In Luke 5:3-11 the Lord called Peter by a miracle in fishing. Here 21:6 Jesus recovered Peter to His call by another miracle in fishing. He is consistent in His purpose.

Verse 9 Here the Lord trained Peter to have faith in Him, for his living. Peter and those with him had fished the entire night but had caught nothing. Then, according to the Lord’s word they cast the net, and they caught abundance of fish. But without these fish, and even on land, where there were no fish, the Lord prepared fish and even bread for the disciples. This too was a miracle! By this the Lord trained them to realize that without His leading , even if they should go to the sea, where the fish were, at night, the right time for fishing, they would catch nothing; but if they followed the Lord’s leading, even on land, where there were no fish, the Lord could provide fish for them. Though they caught many fish according to the Lord’s word, the Lord would not use these fish to feed them. This was a real lesson to Peter. For his living he needed to believe in the Lord, who calls things not being as being. (Rom.4:17).

Verse 12 This indicates the Lord’s gracious care for the need of His called ones.

Verse 13 In the Lord’s provision, bread represents the riches of the land, and fish represent the riches of the sea. 

 

Bibliography,

Lee, Witness. The New Testament (R.V.) Anaheim, CA: Living Stream Ministry, 1985.

Ryrie, Charles C. The Ryrie Study Bible (NIV).Chicago, IL: The Moody Bible Institute, 1986. 

 

           

Resurrection of the Son of God (John 20:19-31) Rev.Katherine Liu Bruce

Resurrection of the Son of God (John 20:19-31)

Rev.Katherine Liu Bruce  

Christian Arts Ministries:Biblical precepts &Gospel music

 

Jesus Appears to His Disciples (John20:19-23)

            19On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 20After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. 21Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

 

Jesus Appears to Thomas (John 20:24-29)

24Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25So 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.” 26A 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!” 27Then 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.”28Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”29Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

The Purpose of John’s Gospel (John20:30-31)

30Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. 31But 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.

      Verse 19 The gathering of the disciples here may be considered the first meeting of the church before Pentecost. This meeting took place to fulfill Ps.22:22, according to Heb.2:10-12, so that the Son could declare the Father’s name to His brothers and praise the Father in the church, which is composed of His brothers. Though the doors were shut, the Lord came with His resurrected body (Luke24:37-40;1Cor.15:44) into the room where the disciples were. How could He have entered, having bones and flesh? Our limited mind cannot comprehend it, but it is a fact! We must receive it according to the divine revelation. This was a fulfillment of His promise in 16:16; 19:22.

Verse 20 this was a fulfillment of the Lord’s promise in 16:22 Now they rejoiced because they saw the newborn child (16:21), who was the resurrected Lord, born in His resurrection as the Son of God (Acts13:33). The Lord fulfilled His promise and came back five blessings 1) His presence, 2) His peace, 3) His sending, His commission (v.21), 4) the Holy Spirit (v.22) and 5) His authority with which they could represent Him (v.23). Verse 21 The Lord sent His disciples with Himself as life and everything to them. This is why, immediately after He said, “I also send you” He breathed the Holy Spirit into them. By His breathing into them He entered as the Spirit into the disciples to abide in them forever (14:16-17). Hence, wherever His disciples were sent, H was always with them. He was one with them.

Verse 22 This was the Spirit expected in7:39 and promised in 14:16-17, 26; 15:26 and 16:7-8,13 Hence, the Lord’s breathing of the Holy Spirit into the disciples was the fulfillment of His promise of the Holy Spirit as the Comforter. This fulfillment differs from the one in Acts 2:1-4, which was the fulfillment of the Father’s promise in Luke 24:49. In Acts 2 the Spirit as a rushing, violent wind came as power upon the disciples for their work (Acts.1:8). Here the Spirit as breath was breathed as life into the disciples for their life. By breathing the Spirit into the disciples, the Lord imparted Himself into them as life and everything. Thus, all that He had spoken in chs.14-16 could be fulfilled. As falling into the ground to die and growing out of the ground transform the grain of wheat into another form, one that is new and living, so the death and resurrection of the Lord transfigured Him from the flesh into the Spirit. As the last Adam in the flesh, through the process of death and resurrection He became a life –giving Spirit (1Cor.15:45). As He is the embodiment of the Father, so the Spirit is the realization, the reality, of Him. It is as the Spirit that He was breathed into the disciples. It is as the Spirit that He is received into His believers and flows out of them as rivers of living water (7:38-39). It is as the Spirit that through His death and resurrection He came back to the disciples, entered into them as their Comforter, and began to abide in them (14:16-17). It is as the Spirit that He can send His disciples for His commission, with Himself s life and everything to them, in the same way that the Father sent Him (v.21) They are thus qualified to represent Him with His authority in the fellowship of His body (v.23) for the carrying out of His commission.

The Lord was the Word, and the Word is the eternal God (1:1). For the accomplishing of God’s eternal purpose, He took two steps. First, He took the step of incarnation to become a man in the flesh (1:14), to be the Lamb of God to accomplish redemption for man (1:29), to declare God to man (1:18), and to manifest the Father to His believers (14:9-11). Second, He took the step of death and resurrection to be transfigured into the Spirit that He might impart Himself into His believers as their life and their everything., and that He might bring for the many sons of God, His many brothers, for the building of His body, the church, the habitation of God, to express the Triune God for eternity. Hence, originally, He was the eternal Word; then, through His incarnation He became flesh to accomplish God’s redemption and through His death and resurrection He became the Sprit to be everything and do everything for the completion of God’s building.  

Verse 24 After His resurrection the Lord came to meet with His disciples, beginning from the evening of this first day. Thus, in the Lord’s resurrection the matter of meeting with the saints is crucial. Mary the Magdalene met the Lord personally in the morning and obtained the blessing (vv.16-18), but she still needed to be in the meeting with the saints in the evening to meet the Lord in a corporate way to obtain more and greater blessings (vv.19-23). Thomas missed the first meeting that the Lord held with His disciples after His resurrection, and he missed all the blessings as well. However, he compensated for it by attending the second meeting (vv.25-28). 

Verse 26 This was on the second first day of the week, the second Lord’s Day after the Lord’s resurrection. The gathering of the disciples here may be considered the second meeting of the church held with the Lord’s presence before Pentecost. After the Lord came in v.19, eight days before, there is no plain word or hint in John’s record that the Lord left the disciples. Actually, He stayed with them, though they were not conscious of His presence. Hence, His coming in v.26 was actually His manifestation, His appearing. Before His death the Lord was in the flesh, and His presence was visible. After His resurrection the Lord became the Spirit and His presence was invisible. His manifestations, or appearing, after His resurrection were to train the disciples to realize, to enjoy, and to practice His invisible presence, which is more available, prevailing, precious rich, and real than His visible presence. In His resurrection this dear presence of His was just the Spirit whom He had breathed into them and who would be with them all the time. Verse 28 This Gospel proves strongly and purposely that the man Jesus is the very God (1:1-2; 5:17-18; 10:30-33; 14:9-11).

 Verse 31 The Christ is the title of the Lord according to His office, His mission. The Son of God is His title according to His person. His person is a matter of God’s life, and His mission is a matter of God’s work. He is the Son of God to be the Christ of God. He works for God by the life of God that man, by believing in Him, may have God’s life to become God’s many sons and work by God’s life to build the corporate Christ (1Cor.12:12), thus fulfilling God’s purpose concerning His eternal building.  

 

Bibliography,

Lee, Witness. The New Testament (R.V.) Anaheim, CA: Living Stream Ministry, 1985.

Ryrie, Charles C. The Ryrie Study Bible (NIV).Chicago, IL: The Moody Bible Institute, 1986. 

 

 

 

Resurrection of the Son of God (John 20:1-18) Rev.Katherine Liu Bruce

Resurrection of the Son of God (John 20:1-18)

Rev.Katherine Liu Bruce  

 Christian Arts Ministries :Biblical precepts &Gospel music

 

The Empty Tomb (John 20:1-10)

 

 1Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!” 3So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. 8Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb, first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9(They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) 10Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.

 

 

The order of Christ’s appearances after His resurrection seems to be as follows: (1) to Mary Magdalene and the other women (Matt.28:8-10;John 20:11-18; Mark 16:9-10; (2) to Peter, probably in the afternoon (Luke 24:34);1Cor.15:5); (3) to the disciples on the Emmaus road toward evening (Luke 24:13-32:Mark 16:12); (4) to the disciples, except Thomas, in the upper room (Luke 24:36-43;John20:19-25);(5) to the disciples, including Thomas, on the next Sunday night (Mark 16:14; John 20:26-29); (6) to seven disciples beside the Sea of Galilee (John 21:1-24); (7) to the apostles and more than five hundred brethren and James, the Lord’s half-brother (1Cor.15:6-7); (8) to those who witnessed the ascension (Matt.28:18-20; Mark 16:19;Luke 24:44-53;Acts1:3-12).

Verse 1, the first day of the week, or the day after the Sabbath, signifies a new beginning, a new age. In Lev.23:10-11, 15 a sheaf of the first fruits of the harvest was offered to the Lord as a wave offering on the day after the Sabbath. That sheaf of the first fruits was a type of Christ as the first fruits in resurrection (1Cor.15:20,23). Christ resurrection on precisely the day after the Sabbath. By His all-inclusive death He terminated the old creation, which had been completed in six days, after which was the Sabbath day. In His resurrection He germinated the new creation with the divine life. Hence, the day of His resurrection was the beginning of a new week – a new age. This day of His resurrection was appointed by God (ps.118:24), was prophesied as “today” in Ps.2:7, was predicted by Himself as the third day. (Matt.16:21; John2:19,22) and later was called by the early Christian “the Lord’s day” (Rev.1:10). On this day Christ was born in resurrection as the firstborn Son of God (Acts.13:33; Heb.1:5) and the Firstborn from the dead to be the Head of the Body, the church (Col.1:18)

The Lord’s resurrection had been accomplished, but the discovery of it required the disciples’ seeking in love toward the Lord. It was thus that Mary the Magdalene discovered it and obtained the fresh manifestation of the Lord and the revelation of the issue of His resurrection: that His Father is the Father of those who believe into Him, and that those who believe into Him are His brothers (v.17), Peter and John only knew of the discovery; but Mary obtained the experience. The brothers were satisfied with having faith in the fact of the Lord’s resurrection, but the sister went further and sought the resurrected Lord Himself, i.e., the personal experience of the Lord. The Lord was there all the time, but He was not manifested until verse 6.

Verse 5 all the things that were cast off from the Lord’s resurrected body and left in His tomb signify the old creation, which He wore into the tomb. He was crucified with the old creation and buried with it. But He rose from within it, leaving it in the tomb and becoming the first fruits of the new creation. All the things left in the tomb were a testimony to the Lord’s resurrection. If these things had not been left there in good order, it would have been difficult for Peter and John to believe (v.8) that the Lord had not been taken away by someone but had risen by Himself. These things had been offered to the Lord and wrapped around Him by His two disciples. Joseph and Nicodemus (19:38-42) what they had done toward the Lord in their love to Him became very useful in the Lord’s testimony.

Verse 6 the strips on linen lying there. If the body been stolen, the thieves would have carried body with linen, not unwrap it; but even if they did, wrappings would have been strewn around tomb, not lying in perfect order as they saw. The strips would have been tossed.

Verse 9 the Lord is not only life but also resurrection (11:25). Hence, death cannot bold Him (Acts 2:24). He went into death of His own accord to accomplish His work. When He finished His mission, He came out of death and rose up from it.

Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene (John 20:11-18)

 

11Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. 13They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?” “They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” 14At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. 15He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”). 17Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ” 18Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.

 

Verse 17 on the day of His resurrection the Lord ascended to the Father. This was a secret ascension, the ultimate fulfillment of the going predicted in 16:7. It occurred forty days prior to His public ascension, which took place before the eyes of the disciples (Acts 1:9-11). On the day of resurrection, early in the morning He ascended to satisfy the Father, and late in the evening He returned to the disciples (v.19) the freshness of His resurrection must be first for the Father’s enjoyment, as in the type the first fruits of the harvest were brought first to God.

Previously, the most intimate term the Lord had used in reference to His disciples was “friends” (15:14-15). But after His resurrection He began to call them “brothers,” for through His resurrection His disciples were regenerated (1Pet.1:3) with the divine life, which had been released by His life-imparting death, as indicated in 12:24. He was the one grain of wheat that fell into the ground and died and grew up to bring forth many grains for the producing of the one bread, which is His Body (1Cor.10:17). He was the Father’s only Son, the Father’s individual expression. Through His death and resurrection, the Father’s only Begotten became the Firstborn among many brothers (Rom.8:29). His many brothers are the many sons of God and are the church (Heb.2:10-12), a corporate expression of God the Father in the Son. This is God’s ultimate intention. The many brothers are the propagation of the Father’s life and the multiplication of the Son in the divine life. Hence, in the Lord’s resurrection God’s eternal purpose s fulfilled. 

Through His life-imparting death and resurrection, the Lord made His disciples one with Him. Therefore, His Father is the Father of His disciples, and His God is the God of His disciples. In His resurrection they have the Father’s life and God’s divine nature, just as He has. In marking them His brothers, He has imparted the Father’s life and God’s divine nature into them. By making His Father and His God theirs, He has brought them into His position-the position of the Son- before the Father and God. Thus, in life and nature inwardly and in position outwardly they are the same as the Lord, with whom they have been united.

 

Bibliography,

Lee, Witness. The New Testament (R.V.) Anaheim, CA: Living Stream Ministry, 1985.

Ryrie, Charles C. The Ryrie Study Bible (NIV).Chicago, IL: The Moody Bible Institute, 1986.