 Yes, good morning. We have two students online. Perfect. So, if we could have one of you pray. Jeffina, is that okay? Would you be able to pray? Sure. Go ahead. So, I'm going to be coming to you under the name of Jesus. Thank you for this day. Thank you for this time of prayer that you have given us. Go ahead. As we are about to start the class, we just invite you to be with us and guide us in your work. We are blessed, blessed to be with you. My name is Jesus. I pray with you, which is the name of Jesus. She can share this deep truth in the Bible in a way that you can understand. And God, I pray for all the classmates who are about to come. Help them to come on time and give us good life and connection throughout the session. Let the legalation of who you are, who we are in you, and what we are called to be extended in our minds. Jesus, open our spiritual minds, our spiritual lives and spiritual lives. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Thank you. So, we begin. So, we are back. Yeah, sorry. I think there was a temporary issue with the internet, but then we are back online. So, yes, we will be doing chapters 20 and 21 today. If I could please have, you know, volunteers reading out the verses even as I request. You know, we'll just go through this as quickly as possible. So, we can begin with verses 1 to 10, I guess. If we could have someone please read out for us. The first 10 verses of chapter 20, we will look at some details regarding this. So, John chapter 20 verses 1 to 10. If anyone online could please read out for us these 10 verses. Go ahead, please. Now, on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early while it was still dark and so that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. Then she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved and said to them, they have taken away the Lord out of the tomb and we do not know where they have laid them. Peter therefore went out and the other disciple and we're going to the tomb. So, they both ran together and the other disciple outran Peter and came to the tomb first. And he stooping down and looking in. So, the linen clothes lying there, yet he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came following him and went into the tomb and he saw the linen clothes lying there. And the handkerchief that had been around his head not lying with the linen clothes but folded together in a place by itself. Then the other disciple whom who came to the tomb first went in also and he saw and believed for as yet they did not know the scripture that he must rise again from the dead. Then the disciples went away again to their own homes. Thank you. So, we see that early on the first day of the week, we have Mary Magdalene coming here to the tomb and then when we look at the other gospels, we learn that at least five ladies were there. So, different gospels give us a portion of the information. So, when we put it all together, we observe that at least five ladies, if not more, as a group, they all come here to the tomb on the first day of the week. Now in the Jewish calendar, you would have the day beginning in the evening. So, as the sun goes down, that day is now considered ended and a new day begins. So, at sunset on Saturday, the day is now considered complete, the Sabbath day is complete and now a new day would have begun even as it becomes dark. So, on the first day of the week, many, many hours after sunset, early in the morning is when these ladies have now come to complete some of the burial honors which could not be done earlier because if you remember, this was a high Sabbath. This was a special, this was a Sabbath day when you would also have a festival being celebrated. So, those would be called your high Sabbaths and so on this high Sabbath, the Passover was celebrated. So, for the sake of those festivities, they had to quickly take down the three crucified persons and so Jesus was buried quickly wrapped in linen but all the ceremonies which are involved were not performed at that time. Last week, we had looked a little bit at some of the burial rituals which they practiced in their day. So, we saw that when member of the family who was passed away is placed inside the family tomb, that body is laid out in one particular portion of the large cave for about maybe one year or two years until all the moisture inside the body gets evaporates and you have all the internal organs drying up and the skin will shrivel up and stick to the bones and after all that has happened, so the word that would be used is desiccation. After the body has become desiccated and dried out, then they would be able to put it in a box called an ossuary and then they would place it in one of the compartments which have been carved out of the walls of the cave. So, you would have entire generations being buried in that way. So, the entire family would be placed in the family tomb which is why to kind of speed up that desiccation process, they would bury the body along with herbs and spices and other things which will aid in that entire burial process. So, all of these details could not be taken care of when Jesus was brought down from the cross, so everything had to be done in a hurry. So, now these women have come here to finish the procedure. So, they come along with spices and herbs to honour the body of Jesus in this manner. So, when they enter into the, I mean the details are not given over here about how they wonder among themselves who is going to help them in opening the tomb stone because you see these would be family tombs, so they would not want anyone disturbing the remains inside. So, generally these tombs would be blocked by a very large rock and so in front of that cave they would probably carve out a kind of deep channel and this very very large stone would be rolled and placed inside that groove, inside that channel so that if someone wants to open the entrance they would literally have to roll it along that groove, open it up and then once they have finished with whatever procedures they want to do, the stone is rolled back. So, the stone kind of sits inside a groove which has been carved out for that purpose and it serves like a kind of doorway. So, these ladies are wondering who would help them in opening up that and then when they come over there they see that already the stone has been rolled away. All of those details are not mentioned over here in the Gospel of John. We just get to know that they go inside and when they look inside they realize that the body of Jesus is no longer there and we are told in verse 2 that Mary Magdalene, she immediately runs to the disciples to inform them what has happened and these are the words that she uses. She says they have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we don't know where they have put him. So, in her mind she is assuming that whoever they are, some enemies of the Lord have come and they have stolen the body just to maybe dishonor the body and she is very deeply upset about it and so she immediately goes and informs the disciples regarding this and so we see two of the disciples quickly running to the tomb to confirm whether what has been said is indeed true and so you have Peter and John running over here to the tomb and they look inside and when they look inside they see that the strips of linen were lying there. Now the word that is used in the Greek is not really the word which is used for folded. I mean those are some translations used the word folded. It just means the word used over there indicates something that is just lying in its place. It could be something that is folded and kept in its place or it could just be something that is lying in its place which is why NIV tries to use that kind of translation just to kind of bring out the meaning of what these two disciples see when they look in. So, it could either mean that someone neatly folded up the linen and kept it, all the body linen was kept in one place and the linen used for the head was placed in a different place or it could mean that everything was just in place as it was when they had left immediately after the burial. So, either it could be that when Jesus rose up when he resurrected he literally just came out through the cloth and the cloth remained in the same position in which it had been when he was buried. So, he could have maybe evaporated through the cloth and come out because you see now solid objects don't seem to be an issue for his resurrected body. He goes in and out of walls as he wishes. So, it could be in that sense that everything was still lying in place in the form of a body but there is no body inside or it could be that maybe angels came down and folded the linen and kept it in a folded position. So, we don't really know what is indicated over here but one thing is very clear that no grave robbery has taken place because if someone wanted to steal the body and for some reason they wanted to remove the linen before they steal the body what would they have done? They would have removed the linen and scattered it all over the place and then they would have left with the body. They would not have neatly folded it and kept it in place or it would not still be retaining the same shape of the dead body. That would not be the case. You would in fact maybe see strips of linen fallen all over the place in case there had been a robbery. So, over here what John is trying to clearly indicate to his readers is that even though Mary Magdalene goes and says they have taken the Lord that is not what has occurred. There has been no robbery of any kind rather Jesus has risen and the positioning of the linen indicates that no robbery has taken place. So, most probably when he resurrected he just simply rose out through the cloth and the cloth maybe just stayed over there in the shape of the body and he is no longer inside it because he has resurrected. So, that probably is the explanation. So, we have this being briefly referred to even in Luke where it says Peter looked at it and went away wondering what it meant when he saw these strips of linen in the position in which they were. It just says over there he looked at the linen and he went away wondering what it could mean. So, my assumption is that maybe Jesus just literally came out from the cloth without even disturbing the cloth and it just was positioned as it was originally. When it talks about the handkerchief the translation which is used in some of the Bibles regarding the head cloth that would just basically be the cloth which is generally used to keep the jaw closed in place because once the person passes away the jaw kind of opens up so they keep the tire cloth around the face to hold the jaw in place. So, that is positioned near the head. The rest of the linen is positioned a little away from that. So, all that John is trying to communicate to us is that no robbery has taken place. The body was not disturbed in any way. It's just that Jesus has vanished. He has resurrected. So, up to here the storyline is rather clear. After that things get a bit puzzling if we were to do a comparison of the four gospels. So, what are the passages? In case you are interested you could just jot it down. So, in Matthew it would be Matthew 28 verses 5 to 8. In Mark it would be Mark 16, 2 to 8. In Luke 24 it would be verses 1 to 8 and of course here in John we are looking at John chapter 20. So, in Matthew we see one angel being mentioned who comes and tells the women not to be afraid and that Jesus has risen up and that they should go and inform the disciples about it because later on he is going to come and meet them in Galilee. That's the message which this one single angel gives in Matthew. But when you look at Mark, in Mark 2 you see a young man, they see a young man sitting at the right wearing a white robe. In Luke it talks about two men or two angels in dazzling clothing which shining clothes. And here in John again we have two angels being mentioned. So, based on these eyewitness accounts of these ladies who have actually seen these angels we get the impression that they were not all standing together and they did not see the angels together. So, what do we assume? Most probably we have these two disciples coming running over there to the tomb to confirm whether indeed the body has disappeared. They see that this has happened. They go back to their home but it looks like as these women continue to stand around wondering what to do and most probably they kind of spread out to go searching to see whether his body has been hidden somewhere nearby. So, they probably spread out and so some of them encounter one angel, some of them encounter two angels. So, that is why we have a difference in the eyewitness reports that are being given. And it looks as though Mary Magdalene has somehow, you know, it's kind of separated from the others because they all have their encounters with the angels. They are terrified, they're excited, they quickly run back and tell the disciples, you know, we've seen angels and the angels are saying that Jesus has risen. So, that's the report which they have given. But it looks like Mary has kind of been got separated. Maybe she went searching farther or far than the others. I mean, I do not know. But now she has come back and she's still standing over there near the tomb and she's weeping because she's heartbroken that someone would do something so cruel where they would actually steal the body of her master. And so, as she is weeping, she looks inside that would be in verse 12 and she sees two angels in white and they say to her, why are you crying? That would be in verse 13. And this is again what she says in verse 13. She says, they have taken away my Lord, where they have put him, I do not know. So, she's still thinking about it in terms of a robbery and the angels do not say anything to her because Jesus himself is going to give her the message about his resurrection. So, she kind of looks back and she sees a person standing over there. She does not recognize him, which means that Jesus now looks different from the way he did earlier. And so, she just assumes that maybe he is the caretaker of that place and so she says to him in verse 15, Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him and I will get him. It shows the deep commitment and devotion and the gratitude that this lady has because you see the Lord delivered her from all those demons that were persecuting her and had made her life miserable. She's so grateful to the Lord for what he has done and now she is so heartbroken that she's unable to find the body and then Jesus says to her Mary and that one word is enough, it opens her spiritual eyes and she realizes that she is literally in the presence of her master even though he looks different. And so then in the Aramaic language, she says Rabbanayi, which basically means teacher and so obviously she either probably fell down at his feet I know and held on to his feet or she was holding on to his arm. We don't really know but basically she's very thrilled, very, very happy and then Jesus says to her in verse 17 Do not hold on to me for I have not yet ascended to the Father go instead to my brothers and tell them I'm ascending to my Father and your Father to my God and your God So earlier, we had the early translation saying Do not touch me as though in some way a human being touching him would contaminate him in some manner and that was bringing out a very wrong meaning So now most of the translations are careful including NKJV They're all careful to use the more accurate Greek translation So even NKJV now it says Do not cling to me is what Jesus is saying So all he's not saying don't touch me because he's going to get contaminated in some way No, not at all. I mean throughout his ministry he happily went and touched lepers and he never got contaminated So this is not about anything wrong being done by someone touching him Rather he's saying don't cling on because there's one final thing that has to be done So he says I am ascending to my Father and your Father Go tell this to my brothers So we get the indication that some kind of an ascension takes place at this point Now we know that Jesus continues to stay for 40 days He interacts with a lot of people, he meets them, shows them that he's alive So all that happens for 40 days and then bodily, physically he ascends But now at this particular point something does take place And most probably this is what we read about in Hebrews chapter 9 verses 11 to 15 Where we are told that this Jesus Christ our High Priest in Hebrews 9 It says especially in verse 12 it says He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves But he entered the most holy place once for all by his own blood Thus obtaining eternal redemption So now this is purely theory because we don't know the details Jesus does not mention the details over here in the Cospels Maybe in spirit he goes into the tabernacle, not the human temple The actual, the human tabernacle was a representation of what is there in heaven Where you literally have the most holy place where you have the Triune God seated So he goes over there to that most holy place, not the earthly one In spirit probably he goes over there and he declares See I have completed the work of atonement The word atonement means peace being made between God and humans So I have now made the atonement So therefore I have now obtained eternal redemption for humankind So he goes in over there presents the sacrifice which he has made The perfect sacrifice And thereby what happens if you continue to read over there in Hebrews 9 In verse 13, why does he do this? It says in Hebrews 9, 13 The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a hyper sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean Cannot sanctify them It can sanctify them so that they are outwardly unclean But what does Jesus Christ do? The blood of Christ it says in verse 14 It cleanses our very consciences So it's not just outwardly that we are made clean He literally cleanses from us on the inside So this is something that happens I think immediately after Jesus makes his announcement to Mary Magdalene And he says I will go tell my brothers Because you see this is his immediate family He first wants to assure them and inform them I'm fine Everything is good You know everything is because they're in mourning So he needs to assure them So after he has told this I'm assuming that in spirit he goes Presents himself in the most holy place in the heavens With his blood to show that now the eternal redemption has been accomplished And so by doing this He everyone who now believes in him and has been following him Not only are they going to be outwardly made clean Their conscience is going to be cleansed From the inside out they are going to be cleansed So this work of redemption takes place now In the heavenly realm In the spiritual realm And then Jesus makes an appearance to different peoples He makes an appearance on the road leading to Emmaus Where he appears to two disciples to two followers And then later on in the evening he comes and he visits the disciples So I'm assuming that this is the sequence of events which takes place So he says now over here to her Before he does this He says to her don't cling on to me For I have not yet ascended to the Father So this is something that he needs to do And then he says go tell my brothers He doesn't say go tell my followers Go tell my disciples He's now talking to family members Because now through his redemptive act We have become family Actually literally immediate family Amazing And he says I'm ascending to my father and your father So you see now this heavenly father Is our father as well Because now through this redemptive act We have been bought Literally into the family of God So this is an amazing thing which the Lord says over here And having said this So Madeleine stops clinging to him She quickly runs back to give the good news So that would be in verse 18 Where it says He told them that he had said these things to her So the first eye witness report Of the resurrected Jesus is given to a woman Now in the ancient culture of that time Women were never regarded as trustworthy eye witnesses So in case there is a court case You know in case something has happened And there is a court case being conducted It's always the male witnesses who are called To give their testimony in the court Never a woman You may have three women standing over there And having witnessed the same event But when the court case is being conducted It's always the male witnesses who are called Simply because the status of women Was not good in those days They felt that women cannot give a clear testimony They will not be able to tell this Present the facts clearly And yet here Jesus deliberately chooses a woman To be his first eye witness Who will go and report to people And say I have seen him I mean it just shows the way Jesus The way God looks at women So differently from the way you know The people of that time looked at women So this is just an important point Because you see if somebody living in those days Wanted to choose their first eye witness Of something as spectacular as a resurrection They would probably have chosen a Roman An important Roman official Or they would have chosen some important Jewish leader But Jesus chooses to make his first appearance To a woman and she becomes the first one To go and give the testimony of what she has seen It just shows that God looks at his people In very different way from the way The world looks at them Alright So now in the evening After having finished appearing to the two Followers on the road to Emmaus And then having appeared probably to other people I mean we do not know who else Jesus appeared to On that particular day Finally in the evening Of that same day Sunday Of the same day Now he comes here to the disciples Where it clearly says to us When the doors were shut It says in verse 19 The doors were shut and the disciples were assembled For fear of the Jews So they have locked themselves up Here somewhere in some In some place in Galilee Because they are afraid of All the events which have taken place Their master has been crucified Not following legal procedure You know legal procedures were bent To make him To have him crucified So now they are wondering what would be the consequences For them So reports have been coming in throughout the day First was Mary Magdalene coming With the shocking news that she literally saw him Before that the ladies had come Saying that the angels are saying that he is resurrected Then the men from Emmaus They also come and report saying They have seen him All these reports have been coming in But they have not believed And that is very clearly brought in So it is not really mentioned over here But in Mark we get to know That they have not believed in spite of hearing All these reports which have been coming Into their ears throughout the day And now Jesus himself Is standing over there He does not knock on the door He literally just comes into the room Through the wall And he says to them So over here we are just told That Jesus says peace be with you But in Mark we get to know He rebukes them For not having believed all the reports Which were brought to them So in Mark if you were to read Mark 16 verse 11 It talks about Mary Magdalene And it says in Mark 16 verse 11 When they heard that Jesus was alive And that she had seen him They did not believe it And then it says about these people From Emmaus In verse 13 These returned and reported It to the rest But they did not believe them either And then in verse 14 It says that Jesus comes over there to them And it says he rebuked them For their lack of faith And their stubborn refusal To believe those who had seen Him after he had risen So Because if you remember In the final weeks leading up to the crucifixion Again and again he had spoken about this He had spoken about how For a little while he will go away And then he will come back And all of that And they just somehow could not understand those Things So now he rebukes them For their lack of faith And then he says to them Peace be with you So he is assuring them That he will take care of them They do not need to be afraid He was 20 onwards John 20 was 20 onwards He shows them his hands He shows them his side So we get to know that even though He now has a resurrected body He retains these marks Of the crucifixion And in fact Even in Revelation when we see It talks about the lamb who looked As though it had been slain That is the wording that is used over there So Jesus Chosen for all eternity To retain those marks And in that sense He is standing over there In the presence of the Father And he is interceding In the sense of he is over there Showing always for eternity That I have mediated On behalf of the humans And therefore now the Propheciation has been Paid And the atonement Is now complete So those marks are always an indication That he has done this on our behalf And therefore now peace is established Between God and us And we can call God our Father In the same way that Jesus calls Him my Father It is an amazing amazing status That has been given to us So Jesus has retained Those marks And he shows them to his disciples And it says that they are overjoyed And then he says to them Again in verse 21 Peace be with you As the Father has sent me I am sending you So Jesus was sent to the earth With a great commission That humankind Can be restored once again to the Lord And Jesus fulfilled his part Of the commission Now he is passing on to them Their part of the commission The Father sent me and now I am sending you You need to go and tell people What I have finished The work that I have completed So that they too can be restored to the Father In the same way all of you Have been restored to the Father And so Having said that In verse 22 it says And with that he breathed on them And said Receive the Holy Spirit And what had he said to them earlier You know when he was speaking to them In John chapter 16 If you were to look at that Entire portion John 16 Versus 7 to 11 Over there you know we had read Jesus had said Unless I go away The Advocate will not come to you But if I go I will send him to you So Now He seems to have gone into the heavenly realm He presented himself over there As the atonement that is required And now having completed that He can now impart the Spirit to them In such a way That the Spirit will now reside inside them Up to now the Holy Spirit Could be with them But he could not be in them But now that he has finished This high priestly act In the most holy place In the heavenlies He can Very freely, generously say to them Receive the Holy Spirit And in a moment they just will So that has now become possible So Great, amazing, eternal Things took place on that day It must have been the most Amazing Experience for these disciples To have experienced All of that He says to them I am sending you They receive the Holy Spirit And he says now that this has happened Verse 23 If you forgive anyone Since their sins are forgiven If you do not forgive them They are not forgiven Again you see he is referring to What he had talked about And explained to them earlier in John 16 Because he said If I go away I will send the Advocate to you And what will the Advocate do When he comes he will prove to the world The world to be in the wrong He will convict them of sin, righteousness And judgment So in that sense now The believers can speak to people about The gospel and they can Declare to them Through the Holy Spirit About sin, righteousness and judgment So when they speak out This truth of the gospel Convict the people of this They will not convict of course The Holy Spirit will convict them of their sins The Holy Spirit will tell them About sin and righteousness So if the people Accept it Their sins will stand forgiven If they do not accept it If they reject it Then their sins will remain upon them So in that sense verse 23 Should be taken In line with the explanation Which is given by Jesus in John 16 If you forgive anyone Sins, their sins are forgiven In that sense Through these disciples who are being sent out The Holy Spirit will convict He will do his work of bringing People to the Lord If they choose to believe that true message Yes, their sins will be forgiven If they refuse it Their sins will Not be forgiven So here in verse 23 It's not talking about any human leader Speaking over a person And saying I declare your sins forgiven This is not talking about some kind of Human Confession Ritual We cannot go up to a spiritual leader And say I'm coming to you please forgive me My sins even as I confess them to you No Humans will not Cannot offer you forgiveness It's a divine act That has to be done by the Holy Spirit Who does that work Of conviction inside the person So if that person repents Then the righteousness Which the Holy Spirit is telling them About that will come to them If they have accepted Jesus Christ So verse 23 is not talking about Us going to a leader And confessing our sins and that Human leader declaring Oh I forgive your sins It is not talking about that We cannot separate what Jesus taught In John 16 with what is happening Over here the two are connected And we need to take them in that Sense all right So If Jesus over here Is breathing upon them They have received the Holy Spirit Whatever is going to occur next in their ministry Is going to happen through the Holy Spirit It's not human beings Who are going to go around declaring People's sins forgiven and forgiving them It's a divine work Of the Holy Spirit that's going to take place Which is why you know when we talk About sharing the gospel That's all we are doing We are testifying and saying This is what Jesus did for me in my life This is what I have learnt from the scriptures This is what the Lord has taught me From the scriptures about eternal life So we just go and we testify And we share and we tell about these things It's the Holy Spirit Who does that internal work Of transforming that person And bringing them to the Lord The Holy Spirit was inside us He does the eternal work Of converting those people And bringing them into the fold Of the Lord So please let us not take this Verse as talking about some kind Of human confession made To a human leader Or some kind of spiritual authority No it's not talking about that All right so That was an important point that we needed To develop on Now let's move to Verses 24 Onwards If we could have someone Read out for us please Verses John chapter 20 Verse 24 to 29 Verses 24 to 29 If someone could read out from John chapter 20 Now Thomas called the twin One of the 12 Was not with them when Jesus came The other disciples therefore said to him We have seen the Lord So he said to them unless I see In his hands the print of the nails And put my finger Into the print of the nails And put my hand Into his side I will not believe And after 8 days his disciples Were again inside And Thomas with them Jesus came The doors being shut And stood in the midst And said peace to you And he said to Thomas Reach your finger here And look at my hands And reach your hand here And put it into my side Do not be unbelieving But believing And Thomas answered and said to him My Lord and my God Jesus said to him Thomas Because you have seen me You have believed Blessed are those who have not seen Yet have believed And it is a bad rep They say oh my the man refused to believe But even the other disciples also did the same thing And Jesus rebuked them as well I know so They only after they saw With their own eyes When he showed the marks in his hands And his side It says they were overjoyed And they believed So Thomas too is following in the same footsteps He too has to see And only then he will be willing to believe It is another 8 days before He actually chooses to believe So Jesus says reach out your hand Put it into my side I think he actually does not do that He is just I mean someone just walked in through the wall I mean the doors were closed I think that itself was enough for him So he says my Lord and my God So We got to remember this was the Thomas Was willing to go with Jesus To Lazarus If he is going to be killed Let's die with him These are good men Who loved the Lord So now he is willing to believe And Jesus makes this amazing statement He says because you have seen me You have believed Blessed are those who have not seen And yet have believed So you and I are those great people Who have not physically Seen the marks in his hands We have not physically Put our hand in his side But we have believed And the Lord has himself Spoken a blessing over us So you know we can remind the Lord And say Lord you said that we are blessed So I think that blessing rests Upon each of us, all of us Believers who did not get to See with our eyes what these Disciples saw And yet by faith Through the convicting of the Holy Spirit We have chosen to believe We are blessed So John wrote these words For his first time readers Because many of them did not get to see They were not there in that room When Jesus appeared And they all chose this account Which John wrote They chose to read it Believe what John has written over here So he was telling them You people are blessed Because we got to see You didn't get to see but still you have chosen That what himself said That you people are blessed Because we have chosen to believe in this way So it would have been a great encouragement To his readers to know that this is What Jesus said about them And the same encouragement Is given even to us We are blessed because we have chosen To believe him And so over here We see John concluding and Saying in verse 31 He says Jesus performed many other signs Which are not recorded But these are written That you may believe That Jesus is the Messiah That he is the Son of God And that by believing You may have life In his name So in the name of Jesus We have life Eternal life in us So Jesus never said that We will not have trials and difficulties Those will always be there But the power of his name It is with us because what does Jesus say In his intercessory prayer If you remember when we covered that He says the power of your name You know Lord let it be with them So that they will be protected They will be kept safe So yes trials will be there Everyday difficulties would be there Persecution in fact also Would be there For that name The power of that name That's always there with us So as long as we choose to believe in this Jesus Choose to believe what he has said in his word Choose to Believe to the extent where we submit and obey The power of his name Is always with us He will be there to take care of us Which is why he says When he is talking to his disciples He says you will face trials But do not fear Do not be disheartened Because I have overcome the world Is what the Lord says So he is with us We can have that confidence That no matter what we are facing The Lord is always by our side Through his name Because we trust in that name So this is the privilege Which is granted to us So we will Now be looking into John chapter 21 If Let's just get into the Chapter maybe we can cover At least a few verses So in John chapter 21 We see That These disciples have Chosen to go Fishing To the To the sea of Galilee Alright so in John chapter 21 Verse 1 This is where it says That Jesus appeared again to his disciples By the sea of Galilee And we are told that Later on in one of the verses That this was the third appearance That Jesus makes to his disciples So the first of course Was immediately on that same day The resurrection day in the evening The second occasion of course Was when Thomas was present And now this is the third time When he comes to these One of them was a traitor He is gone but then we have 11 disciples Here so this is the Third appearance of Jesus to these People And in verse 2 And 3 We get to know that they decide To go fishing and there's a lot of Negative things that are said about the disciples Going fishing as though they have Abandoned the Lord and gone back Into the world and all of that But we don't really see This anywhere in the New Testament Where people are just Depending On the people in ministry Are just depending on charity and not Earning their livelihood We don't see that Anywhere in the New Testament Yes there were people contributing To the ministry of the Lord But all these people Were doing whatever they can To continue supporting themselves They were not a burden To society So if you look at Paul he follows the same Practice later He is deeply interested In spiritual matters He in fact Chooses to be trained under Gamaliel he chooses to buy heart Because in those days someone Who is getting trained under Gamaliel would have had to buy heart Huge chunks of the Old Testament So he did all of that And later on when we When he is talking I think in Galatians is it or is it in Philippines He says when it comes to the matters Of the law I kept it most perfectly So when it came To all the spiritual matters Paul was Fully completely involved In all these religious spiritual Things But he never depended on the charity Of people he taught himself How to trade He taught himself how to make tents And that is basically what he did He supported himself Before he became a believer After he became a believer He had a Means of livelihood In the same way the disciples over here They are not going to sit around Waiting upon other people to give them Money This is their way of earning a livelihood And so they go fishing Any kind of crime in going and fishing They were supporting themselves They would gather the fish They would sell them They would feed their families So over here Even as we just look at the beginning Of this chapter Let us understand That these disciples Have not committed any crime In earning their livelihood Now we will go on to see After the break what Jesus says to them And we will see in what Way we should understand what is being Told So let us take our break And come back in 10 minutes