'A New Shepherd'
- Golden Plate engravings like the wounds of the Savior
- John specifically writes to testify of 'The Son of God'
- John recounts Jesus' miracles in Galilee
- The word 'love' in the ancient world
- Peter given 'keys to the car', time to drive!
Come Follow Me
LDS Mormon New Testament Matthew Mark Luke John
in this episode we learn about a new
shepherd here we go
all right so we're going to focus
primarily on John 21 here to wrap up the
Gospels but before I do that I want to
back up and give a couple of follow up
points to the last episode part one for
this week first of all as we talked
about the wounds and how the act of the
resurrection had to be something real it
actually happened and Christ coming back
to show the women and show the Apostles
the disciples that he was real that he
had a physical body and that this event
actually took place Gethsemane was real
the cross was real and the resurrection
is real these are not just things that
are symbolic of a principle or of a
teaching but they are physical facts and
that's an important thing a comparison
to that would be would be the Book of
Mormon we get some talk out there in the
Mormon ether if you will about how maybe
the Book of Mormon wasn't real or the
plates at least weren't real and Joseph
Smith could have had this idea or this
inspiration about writing something that
was fictional history but that taught a
lot of very positive principles and good
religion that was Christ centered again
problem here just as Jesus came back and
showed himself physically to everyone to
show that this really happened that this
was a physical event Joseph Smith was
shown by the angel Moroni where the
plates rested he went and he picked up
the plates he wrapped the plates and he
used the plates now he didn't of course
always use those plates to go through to
get all of the translation done that's
not how it happened in fact he only did
that to start but they were there and
they were covered but the
plates were there and they were real and
we have witnesses to that the three
witnesses and later the eight witnesses
and another witness actually as well but
the plates were physically real and just
as the Apostles and the disciples were
able to feel the wounds the markings the
engravings on Christ's body the
witnesses and Joseph Smith were able to
feel the engravings on the gold plates
the Book of Mormon has to be a physical
item it is a real item it actually was
buried and was actually written upon by
these ancient prophets and so we can
have symbolism and we can have
principles and that is what the
spiritual side of things is it is
metaphor in symbolism but as you peel
that away you've got to come down
eventually to a physical act to
something that is real in time and in
space so I just wanted to follow up with
that and give that comparison of Jesus's
body and the golden plates the second
thing I wanted to say it appears that
the chapter 21 of John may have been
written after he wrote the other
chapters in other words the first 20
chapters may have been complete for some
time and at the end of chapter 20 we
would kind of see something that would
show us kind of an ending to the gospel
remember that John starts the gospel out
talking about how the Word was made
flesh that's how he starts it out so
what he's saying there again these
titles to Jesus to the Messiah are very
important and they each have a
significant meaning in a temple drama
and in a certain context and so I've
heard previously some commentaries on
John's gospel
and him showing why he wrote this gospel
and he does give the reason in the very
last verse in chapter 20 which seems
like an ending to his book and here's
what it says it says but these are
written talking about the signs and all
the works that Jesus did that G might
believe that Jesus is the Christ , the
son of God and that believing he might
have life through his name so the word
being born being made flesh
corresponds here to the Son of God
that's what the Son of God means we have
this idea as the son of God I need to do
a separate podcast on this that it's
it's just the son of the father that
that's why he is the son of God but
that's not true
we get that context because that's
typically how he is presented so at
Jesus's baptism with John the Baptist
when the father's voice comes and says
this is my beloved son or with Joseph
Smith in the first vision where again he
says this is my beloved son
of course he's the son of the father
he's the firstborn but the son of God is
a specific title that is not necessarily
in reference to the father now before
you think that I'm going off on some
fringe tangent here let me just explain
myself he is the son of the father but
the son of God is a very specific
reference and these commentaries that I
hear sometimes about why John wrote his
gospel they conflate the titles they
just think it's all the same thing that
you might write this that you might
believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son
of God and it's all kind of the same
thing and all these titles are just put
together and made to be kind of the same
person but again these all have specific
contexts they all have specific they're
tied to specific purposes and reasons
and meaning and so when he says Jesus is
the Christ the Son of God he's writing
this because he wants to specify that we
understand that this is not just the
Christ this is not just the Messiah but
this is the Son of God and what that
means and I know I've gone over this
before but I just want to make sure we
have this clarification ending here and
John is that the king of kings in the
temple drama would go into the Holy of
Holies and he's going to come out of the
Holy of Holies through the veil
what is the veil if you watch or listen
to the episode on LDS woman in the veils
that I have you'll learn a little bit
more about what that represents he's
being born through material he in other
words he's taking a physical body on and
being born of Mary and that is what
makes him the Son of God so when we talk
about the titles here of the son of God
in our minds even if we make a
distinction between Christ and the Son
of God which we should we may oftentimes
be thinking well he's the son of our
Heavenly Father true but it's not what
they're saying what they're saying is
that he's the son of God that was
foretold up by all the prophets that
would come to earth the God that would
come to earth and be born of a woman
take on a body and live in mortality and
in those circumstances with that body
take on the sins of all mankind and die
and sacrifice himself that's what
the Son of God is so when we hear a
commentary that says something about why
John wrote the Gospels all of the
Gospels were written to testify of Jesus
Christ what John is doing here since he
is the last of the
Gospels he's already got the other
Gospels and he's adding this in here as
he is making a very specific distinction
to make sure though we do find it in the
other Gospels but he is making sure that
we understand who he is who Jesus is
that he is that person who the Jews
don't believe in but that through
certain traditions that people were
still holding on to some people that he
was going to he that he was Jehovah and
that he would be born of a woman and
take on the sins of the world come into
mortality that's why John wrote the
gospel and all of his writings here in
the gospel are focused on that to show
that he's the son of God that's why he
starts off with a creation motif talking
about Jehovah the creator of the world
being made flesh because he's talking
about the Son of God in that exact
context so I just want to make sure that
we get that that out there that that's
clear all right
chapter 21 so this may be an add-on as
you can see from chapter 20 verse 31 it
looks like this is kind of the ending of
his book later in life John ends up in
Ephesian and he very well could have
written this book in Ephesians chapter
and added this chapter on later some of
the verbiage is a little bit different
there are some things that don't fit as
well into the rest of the gospel but
whether he did or he didn't look at the
very end here he's adding something in
even if it's he's writing it right at
the end of when he wrote the other
chapters but he's adding this in after
he said why he wrote the gospel and what
is the experience that he's writing
about what he's writing about is an
experience of the resurrection so let's
go to verse to chapter 21 and go over a
couple of these verses here so starting
in verse 1 after these things Jesus
shewed himself again to the disciples at
the sea of Tiberius this is Galilee and
on this wise shewed he himself John
filling in the gaps for the other
Gospels had been writing mostly about
the teachings and events in Jerusalem
mark Matthew Luke the synoptic Gospels
write more about the events in Galilee
that he has and so here John is going to
Galilee to kind of wrap things up with
Peter and himself and John and remember
that Jesus had said right as he had been
resurrected that he would go before the
other apostles and meet them in Galilee
and so this is one of those events where
he is meeting them in Galilee and verse
2 there were together Simon Peter and
Thomas called Didymus John's the only
one that uses that term Didymus or that
name and Nathanael John's the only one
the mentions Nathanael of Cana in
Galilee and the sons of Zebedee and two
other of his disciples of course John is
one of those sons as James and John and
verse 3 Simon Peter saith unto him I go
a-fishing
they say unto Him we also go with thee
they went forth and entered into a ship
immediately and that night they caught
nothing so what's happening here is John
is going to give us a summary of many of
the things that had previously happened
in Galilee and it seems to me that what
he's doing is he's trying to say that as
much as things change they stay the same
and he's kind of wrapping up these
events and having them happen again in a
way and so remember when we get the
whole term come follow me is when Jesus
comes to the Sea of Galilee and the he
says come follow me and the disciples
toss their nets and immediately go and
follow him well here he sees them again
and he's a voice that's calling from the
show
or they don't recognize him again
another example where each time whether
it's Mary Magdalene whether it's the
Apostles at first whether it's on the
road to Emmaus they don't recognize him
at first and we might say well his
countenance maybe has totally changed
who knows what the exact reason is but
we get that kind of a theme even where
Jesus has kind of been hiding before
when he goes into Jerusalem a bin a die
comes in in disguise into the land of
Nephi as well and so he's kind of in
disguise perhaps or in a way somehow
where they are not recognizing him where
he has been distanced from them and as
is now returning and so Jesus yells out
to them from the shore and says have you
got any meat or do you have any fish
have you had anything and they said no
and he says well toss your nets over to
the right side of the ship and they
tossed their nets over the right side of
the ship and they pull up a hundred and
fifty three fish and the net doesn't
break it should have broke with that
many fish in it and they haul it in and
then John leans over and basically says
it's the Lord so there is a an act that
happens where there is a miracle that
has already happened before where there
is all of the fish remember also in
Galilee when we had the loaves of bread
and the fish that were fed out to the
multitude to the thousands and so this
is a memory of that happening again
the fish that are caught and the
multiplying of the loaves and the fish
and so Peter then realizing that it's
the Lord
jumps out of the boat and into the water
where have we seen that before
right so that's another throwback this
is authorship this is what John is
writing about here he's bringing these
events together and summarizing them in
a sense giving throwing us back
the beginning of the teachings of Jesus
into his ministry it's the beginning of
what he started
and there's a reason for that and so
Peter jumps out into the water no he
doesn't walk on water this time he swims
and he swims into Shore and the others
bring the boat in and as they get to the
shore Jesus has these hot coals going so
they're gonna have a little breakfast
here this has been happening overnight
and on these coals are the fish and
bread hey you see what's happening here
you see what he's doing and again it's
not that he's making up fiction here
that's not what the deal is
Jesus is probably the one that is trying
to put this all together and make a
reminder of it but John who is there and
his writing as a witness from exactly
what is happening here he wants to make
sure that these things are emphasized
these are the parts of the story that he
is focusing on anytime we see this
authorship we need to remember that
there are a lot of events and little
tidbits that are happening and the
author is pulling out a narrative or
events and items and objects to create a
narrative it says in verse 14 men this
is now the third time that Jesus shewed
himself to his disciples and after that
he was risen from the dead I want to get
back to the number three in a minute
because this is something that's brought
up often as well in just a second
another reference to the number three
and so in verse 15 then it says so when
they had dined Jesus saith to Simon
Peter Simon it's another thing that John
does is he uses the term Simon Peter
more than the other authors do Simon son
of Jonas lovest thou me more than these
pretty couple of other opinions on this
we don't really know exactly what's
being said here for a lot of people
talked about this being the fish do you
love me more than these fish I can
understand that I can see where it's
kind of a lower law higher law type of a
teaching
in other words this is something where
you said you wanted to go a-fishing and
this is going to be something that
sustains you physically and that's been
a lot of what especially Luke talks
about in this these high that's higher
in this lower law and that if you love
the fish so much then that's gonna
sustain you do you love me more than
what would sustain you and that could be
possible but I would probably say that
this is more likely using the word love
the way they did back then which is
different than what we do we use love as
a feeling and they use love as a verb
which is really the way it should be
used we should have a different word for
the feeling of love as opposed to the
verb the action of love which is an
effort and a sacrifice and an investment
in our time and in our effort and I
think that's actually what is being said
here so if we read that again thinking
about love as a verb and it's not this
way it's not such a diss to the others
that I think that he's actually
referring to first 15 again so when they
had dined Jesus saith to Simon Peter
Simon son of Jonas lovest thou me more
than these
so to me it seems here using that as a
verb that he's talking about the other
apostles because that's the scenario
here that he's about to setup has
nothing to do with a fish the scenario
is you're going to be the leader you
have been given the keys already do you
love me more than these that might be
hard for us to hear because we're so
trained to think of what love means in
our modern Western Minds but for them it
was who's going to give the most and
who's going to sacrifice the most and
that's I think what he's talking about
because Peters going to be asked to do
the most and so if you love me more than
the others do and that would have not
have been anything that would have been
offensive to the other apostles at all
it would have simply meant you have to
step up more than everybody else I think
that's what he's saying here and he
saith unto Him yea Lord thou knowest
that I love thee he saith unto Him feed
my lambs so in other words again
referring to the other apostles he's
giving Peter the specific assignment and
stewardship of the church he's given him
the keys already but he's coming back as
a resurrected being saying I'm done here
with my mission in more in mortality now
it's your turn he's turning over the car
keys over to Peter here he's given the
spiritual keys over here he's kind of
given over the car keys and saying time
to drive and in verse 16 he saith to him
again the second time Simon son of Jonas
lovest thou me in other words do you put
me first above everything he saith unto
Him yay Lord thou knowest that I love
thee he saith unto Him feed my sheep
it's also harkens back to the fish in
not in the not in the sense we were just
talking about but in the sense that
Jesus before in this area with the fish
when he asked them to come follow him
told them that he would make them
fishers of men and that is similar to
what he's talking about here with feed
my sheep and then in verse 17 here we
get the number three again we just heard
it before Jesus his third appearance as
a resurrected being here he uses number
three again John does verse 17 he saith
unto Him the third time Simon son of
Jonas lovest thou me and Peter was
grieved because he said unto him the
third time lovest thou me and he said
unto Him Lord thou knowest all things
thou knowest that I love thee Jesus
saith unto Him
feed my sheep so three times now we've
we've seen this number three a number of
times in in similar circumstances one
way to look at this that we hear often
is that Peter had denied Christ three
times and this is kind of balancing that
out right making that up it's like okay
you denied me three times I'm gonna ask
you three times to kind of make that up
and and balance it out and that could be
true that could be what is happening
here but we see this in a number of
circumstances the number three where
this happens
remember when Joseph Smith goes to the
Lord about the hundred and sixteen pages
of the transcript of the Book of Mormon
the book of Lehi basically and then some
and the Lord says to him no you can't
let Martin Harris and his wife see us no
you can't you can't give us away so he
goes back a second time and asks and the
same answer comes back it's no and then
he finally goes back a third time and
that was the magic number and in the
third time the Lord says okay fine
that's enough of an effort on your end
you obviously want this very badly so
I'm going to allow this and he allows
him to take the hundred and sixteen
pages or what about the Lamanites they
were mostly laminitis seems and the
Nephites at the time that Jesus came
down from the heavens and they heard a
voice and they couldn't hear it the
first time it wasn't very clear and then
they heard it again
maybe a little bit clearer but they it
wasn't that clear the second time and it
wasn't until the third time that they
actually heard the clear voice so this
number three is something that can be
kind of important we learn about what
witnesses are by the mouths of two or
three witnesses so this is kind of like
witnesses maybe it's still from just one
person but in Peters case here he's
witnessing this same question this
confirmation three times we've talked
about
these numbers that are used in the Bible
previously the number three at least in
ancient Greek thought I'm not saying
this is what the reason is but a lot of
these thought systems are very
intertwined in the ancient world and the
number three was the triangle right it
was you have one point it just sits by
itself two points gives you a line and
three points gives you a triangle and
that's the first shape that you can have
or the first ability to have surface
space making something real and so they
would oftentimes use that number three
saying that this is now something that
is real it has surface space on it too I
said we might say it has teeth in this
sense it's a reality so that
may be something that they're using here
or that may be something that the Lord
uses just a thought and then Jesus
goes on to tell Peter about how he's
going to die and basically he says when
thou shalt be old thou shalt stretch
forth thy hand so he's talking about
crucifixion and another shall gird thee
and carry thee whither thou wouldst not
so to his death to his crucifixion so
he's telling him how he's going to die
in the future and then with John he
tells him that he will be around until
he comes back now for them that probably
meant in the near future but John is not
writing this especially this last
chapter until a time where they knew
that the time when originally they
thought Jesus would be coming back has
already passed that's come and gone and
so this would be a very future event at
this time so John seems to know that in
writing this chapter and the thief this
is late in his life and this is part of
the add-on that might be one of the
reasons that he's including this is so
that he was showing how he was going to
not die that he was going to be
translated and so then John concludes
this chapter with the following two
verses
he says this is the disciple which
testifieth of these things he gives us
his testimony he always talks about this
disciple which is himself and wrote
these things and we know that his
testimony is true and there are also
many other things which Jesus did the
which if they should be written every
one I suppose that even the world itself
could not contain the books that should
be written amen so he concludes with his
testimony about everything that he is
written focused on the fact that Jesus
is the Son of God that he suffered in
Gethsemane and that he died on the cross
and that he was resurrected and all four
of the Gospels give us this testimony
for witnesses for accounts of the life
of the Savior in his ministry and in his
sacrifice fortunately for us we also
have the testimonies of Joseph Smith and
the prophets of the Doctrine and
Covenants and the pearl of great price
the book of Moses and of Abraham the
first vision and of course we have the
testimony of all of the prophets from
the Old Testament including zenos and
Zenock from the Book of Mormon where we
are given a volume of Scripture that is
another testament of Jesus Christ and so
with Jesus ending his mortal mission and
being a resurrected being he has now
transferred his mantle his mortal mantle
over to Peter and told him to feed his
sheep
in other words Peter is the new Shepherd
to talk to you next time
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