Participants: Deyvy Rodriguez & Jon Paulien
Series Code: JBOTB
Program Code: JBOTB00027B
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00:01 And welcome back.
00:02 We are studying the last chapter of the Gospel of John 00:05 and with us is Dr. Jon Paulien 00:07 to help us with this Bible study. 00:09 So Dr. Paulien, now they catch a 153 fish 00:14 and so what is Jesus doing next? 00:17 What does He tell them after they catch all these fish? 00:22 He says, "Bring them over here." 00:25 He adds them to the breakfast. 00:28 Jesus evidently had been fishing too 00:30 and I guess you could tell me if I want to be more like Jesus, 00:32 I should maybe get into fishing also. 00:35 Its clearly, He was able and willing to do that. Yeah. 00:39 But anyway, Jesus fixes breakfast over a fire 00:43 that He had gone by the beach 00:45 and that was a privilege to visit 00:47 what's likely had been on that spot a couple of times. 00:51 And it seems to being kind of a quiet breakfast. 00:55 Let's read verses 12-13. 00:57 "Jesus said to them, "Come and eat breakfast." 01:01 Yet none of the disciples dared ask Him, 01:04 "Who are You?" knowing that it was the Lord. 01:07 Jesus then came and took the bread 01:09 and gave it to them, and likewise the fish." 01:12 So it seems to be kind of a quiet breakfast 01:15 you know, they are kind of like, okay, what's going on here. 01:18 I don't know quite how to relate to it. 01:20 So they know it's the Lord 01:21 but they just don't want to ask to Him. 01:23 They don't really know how to relate to Him now. 01:25 Something is different and they capture that. 01:28 Interestingly, the language here in the original 01:32 is the language of the Lord's Supper. 01:34 He came, He took the bread, He distributed to them, 01:38 you know, did the same with the fish. 01:40 So it's kind of a bread and fish communion almost 01:43 and it's part of John's practice of putting the Lord's Supper 01:49 in other places then in Chapter 13 01:52 where you would expect it. 01:53 And the Lord Supper appears at a wedding, 01:56 at a picnic lunch and a picnic breakfast. 02:00 So it's reminding us to keep Jesus in mind 02:05 in the everyday things of life. 02:08 Moving on, verses 14 and 15. 02:11 "This is now the third time Jesus showed Himself 02:14 to His disciples after He was raised from the dead. 02:17 So when they had eaten breakfast, 02:19 Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of Jonah, 02:22 do you love Me more than these?" 02:25 He said to Him,--" Hang on there. 02:26 Okay. Yeah. 02:28 There's something you are not going to see in English here. 02:31 But the word, "Do you love Me more than these?" 02:35 In the Greek it's one of those rare places 02:38 where the masculine and the neuter are the same. 02:42 So you can't tell just by looking at these 02:46 whether it's masculine or neuter. 02:48 Now why does that matter? 02:51 If its masculine, Jesus is saying to Peter, 02:55 "Do you love Me more than the other disciples?" 02:58 And that's believable, 03:01 because Jesus does seem to have the disease-- 03:04 I mean, Peter seems to have disease of comparison. 03:07 He likes to compare himself with the Lord, 03:09 you know, I will follow You even though 03:11 everybody else leaves you behind. 03:12 I love You more than anybody else. 03:15 You know, well what about him, following us on the beach? 03:17 What's going to happen with him? 03:18 So he is constantly comparing. 03:20 So it could be Jesus is saying to him, you know 03:24 "Do you really love Me more than these disciples?" 03:26 As if to invite him to say, "Well, Lord, you know, 03:30 I was little over the top there." 03:32 In which case, the silence of Peter 03:34 to that question would be a confession. 03:38 You know, yeah. Okay. 03:40 But the neuter would be interesting. 03:42 "Do you love Me more than these?" 03:44 And that would be the boats, the nets, maybe even the fish. 03:50 In other words, are you committed to the mission, Peter? 03:53 You know, are you going to go back to business as usual 03:56 or you going to make me 03:58 and the mission here the center of your life? 04:00 So it isn't clear from the Greek itself 04:04 whether He is referring to the disciples, 04:07 "Do you love Me more than these 04:09 or do you love me more than the fishing tackle 04:12 and all of the rest of what's going on here?" 04:14 So it's interesting how in the English language 04:18 where we don't even think about such things, 04:21 people have just assumed, 04:23 "Do you love Me more than the other disciples?" 04:25 and that maybe what He is saying. Yeah. 04:26 But it isn't the 100% clear in the original. Right. 04:30 And whatever the Greek word would apply to 04:32 it seems that the question, 04:34 "Do you love Me more than these?" 04:36 I think even for us if you were to answer that, 04:38 there should be nothing that we love more than Jesus. 04:43 Whatever it is or whoever it is. 04:45 So then, can I keep reading verses? 04:48 Why don't you read 15-17. 04:50 "He said to Him, 'Yes, Lord, You know that I love You.' 04:54 He said to him, 'Feed My lambs. 04:57 He said to him again a second time, 05:00 'Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?' 05:02 He said to Him, 'Yes, Lord, You know that I love You.' 05:06 He said to him, 'Tend My sheep.' 05:08 He said to him the third time, 05:10 'Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?' 05:13 Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, 05:16 'Do you love Me?' 05:18 And he said to Him, 'Lord, You know all things, 05:21 You know that I love You.' 05:22 Jesus said to him, 'Feed My sheep.'" 05:26 Now the word love takes on many roles 05:30 in the English language, you know. 05:32 I love my wife, 05:35 I love Jesus, I love pizza, 05:41 I love France, you know. 05:44 You can say love about many different things. 05:48 In the Greek language there are different words for love. 05:52 There are actually four 05:53 different kinds of love in the Greek. 05:57 One of these is self-sacrificing love. 05:59 What we've learned to know as agape. 06:02 A second is phileo, it isn't Philadelphia. 06:05 It means the love of a brother, 06:08 the love of family type of love, friendship and family. 06:12 Then there's eros 06:14 and that is erotic love, sexual love 06:18 and then there's storge which is affection that 06:21 you know, would be appropriate to animals or acquaintances 06:25 and things like that. 06:26 So the New Testament doesn't use all of these words 06:29 but two of them are in this passage 06:32 and you can't tell from the English 06:35 which one is being used. 06:37 But scholars have noted that Jesus starts out saying, 06:41 "Peter, do you agape Me?" 06:44 and Peter response, "Yes, Lord, I phileo You." 06:47 In other words, do you love me with self-sacrificing love? 06:51 And Peter says, "Of course Lord, 06:53 I love you like a friend." 06:55 And then Jesus asked again, "Do you agape Me?" 06:58 And Peter says, "Yeah, I phileo You." 07:01 And then the third time Jesus says, 07:04 "Do you phileo Me?" And Peter agreed. 07:07 It's almost as if Jesus is offering him some slack 07:11 that Peter can't quite make it up 07:13 to the standard of cruciform self-sacrificial love. 07:18 But more recently scholars have looked 07:21 more carefully at this 07:22 and they have determined that in the Gospel of John 07:26 these two words are used interchangeably. 07:29 For John, they don't seem to mean different things 07:32 but he can use each of them 07:34 for what the other might signify. 07:37 So probably we shouldn't make 07:39 too much of the changes of word. 07:41 Even through I think a lot of people have heard about that 07:43 because it's been used by many preachers 07:46 through the years of saying. 07:47 Ah, you know, poor Peter 07:49 couldn't quite come up to the standard 07:50 but you and I, we can agape Jesus, you know. 07:53 So probably that's not the point 07:55 but what the point is, is Jesus is cutting really deep. 08:01 I mean, Jesus is not about surface life change. 08:04 When you say, do you love me? 08:07 And the person response... Really, do you love me? 08:13 Listen, I got to ask you one more time, "Do you love me?" 08:17 I mean Peter is kind of like, 08:19 come on, you know, what else can I say, what else-- 08:22 I know I messed up but Lord please, you know. 08:25 And Jesus is just boring deep down into his heart 08:29 and into his soul. 08:31 And he is not satisfied with shallow, 08:35 surface type of following. 08:38 And instead, He invites Peter to go truly, 08:40 truly deep to deal with the sin in his life 08:43 and to truly commit to Him. 08:46 So that third time the Jesus asks Peter, 08:50 "Peter, do you phileo me?" 08:51 What did Peter, how did Peter responded the third time? 08:54 "Yes, Lord, I phileo You again." 08:56 Yes, he was-- So, he never changes. 08:58 So, he never changes, yeah. 09:00 Is that significant or is it not, that's the debate. 09:03 Probably, it isn't. 09:05 Why don't we go on to verse 20-21, 09:07 where Peter betrays the disease of comparison again? 09:11 "Then Peter, turning around, 09:13 saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following, 09:15 who also had leaned on His breast at the supper, 09:18 and said, 'Lord, who is the one who betrays You?' 09:22 Peter, seeing him, said to Jesus, 09:24 'But Lord, what about this man?'" 09:27 So Peter here is still, you know, comparing 09:31 but I think what Jesus is saying here is look, 09:34 you know, Peter would like to be the head of the church, 09:38 you know, the big guy 09:41 and John is also going to play a significant role. 09:44 And Jesus is saying to Peter, "He is not your concern. 09:47 He is not in your jurisdiction." 09:49 So Jesus is pulling back from the idea 09:52 that there's one dictator, head of the church and so on. 09:56 The church is to have multitude of leaders 09:58 and a multitude of counselors, their safety. 10:02 And then in the very next, the rumor in verses 21-23 10:06 it gets into the rumor 10:08 that John would live to see Jesus come 10:11 and he uses that to dispel this rumor 10:14 and then let's go to very last two verses of the gospel. 10:19 "This is the disciple who testifies of these things, 10:22 and wrote these things, 10:24 and we know that his testimony is true. 10:27 And there are also many other things that Jesus did, 10:30 which if they were written one by one, 10:32 I suppose that even the world itself 10:34 could not contain the books that would be written. Amen." 10:40 Well, it's time to go to conclusion 10:41 but before we do, just one little extra thought. 10:45 Disciples catch a lot of fish and those are directed by Jesus 10:50 but they are connected to the disciples. 10:53 If this is a parable of the church 10:55 in the second generation, 10:57 who are the fish that Jesus caught? 11:00 And some have suggested, 11:02 maybe those fish represents some people 11:04 that Jesus takes directly 11:06 that never actually join the church on this earth 11:09 but they still belong to Jesus. 11:11 Maybe Muslims, Hindus, 11:13 who knows that there are others as well who become connected 11:17 to Jesus in other ways than through the church. 11:20 There's something to think about. Yeah. 11:21 But here in the conclusion we see that there's 11:25 abundant number of gospels could be written 11:28 and John has been validated 11:30 as one of the true gospel writers. 11:32 However the gospel that matters the most 11:38 is the one that Jesus will write on your heart. 11:43 Your gospel is the testimony of the words 11:47 that Jesus left behind in these gospels in your life 11:51 and its transforming effect. 11:53 So there's no end to the books 11:57 that could be written about Jesus 11:58 but the key is this, 11:59 our account of the Gospel of John 12:02 is coming to an end. 12:04 The story of Jesus' impact on your life is only beginning. 12:11 You know, Dr. Paulien, 12:12 I think that the Gospel of John is now my favorite gospel. 12:15 Good for you. 12:17 God bless friends till next time. |
Revised 2014-12-17