Come Follow Me LDS- Matt 28, Mark 16, Luke 24, John 20-21 Part 2

'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!

 

 

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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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