Sojourners become clarions of news to uninformed ears in new places from the places where they have witnessed life.
The ‘rumour‘ to which the Gospel-writer Luke refers (above) is Jesus’ raising a young man from his coffin along his own funeral procession in Nain in remote Galilee. Other English translations of the same Greek word [λόγος] use “report.”
When we return to John’s Gospel (Good News) we will encounter such reports again, some stories which veer from the truth.
Good News/Bad News: True or False?
The Disciples who traveled with Jesus from town to town reported the Good News of Jesus the Messiah of Israel to many who had not heard in places distant from the events they had witnessed. Reliable reports from other witnesses also reached the ears of thousands who had not yet seen Jesus in Person.
The four written NEWS accounts of JESUS CHRIST are not the only news of the Savior. Many reports are oral, even many first-hand stories from witnesses to Jesus’ many miraculous events recorded by the Apostles.
Picture the Apostles after Jesus’ death and resurrection as reporters and add to their number every saint of the Church who consequently believed their report of the Lord Jesus Christ, then you may realize why John and others had to address false reports of their time.
While reading the Gospels we discover many who reject the “Good News” of Jesus which challenges one or more of their earthly embraces of sin. Many reject God and refuse to acknowledge or let go of their sins.
Some will believe in anything in order to deny the Truth.
Roger Harned – talk of Jesus .com
All the REPORTERS of Jesus had to be taken at face value for their rumors (stories) of the Messiah. Those who did not witness an event had to ask themselves the same questions we would ask today.
Is this even possible?
Is their report TRUE or FALSE in some way?
If it is true, is this GOOD NEWS or BAD NEWS for me?
How should I react? (What must I do?)
What is my response to this NEWS to others who have not heard?
Brief Vitae of the Good News Reporters
As mentioned previously in Witnesses to Jesus Risen! John and the Apostles continue to report their GOSPEL to others until the end of their lives and John writes to some who have witnessed even more miracles than he reports in his Gospel.
Briefly from our Gospel archives take a look at these dates of the reports.
Jesus was crucified around the year AD 30
John Mark’s Gospel – before AD 49; martyred AD 68
Matthew’s Gospel – as early as AD 50, before martyrdom ~AD 60
the physicianLuke’s Gospel/Acts – AD 60-61, prior to the great persecution that began under Nero in A.D. 64; Luke likely martyred in AD 84
John writes his Gospel to the churches after AD 85 [~AD 90-100]
2nd c. AD – many Church fathers, disciples of John, Peter & others, testify to the truth of their Gospels and oppose false reports by false teachers.
Countering False Reports
So this rumor spread to the brothers and sisters that this disciple would not die. Yet Jesus did not tell him that he would not die, but, “If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? ”
5 So Jesus said to them, “Children, you do not have any fish to eat, do you?” .. 7 Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!”
Peter enthusiastically dove into the water and swam to meet Jesus on shore before the other Disciples came onshore in a boat filled with fish.
Simon Peter and Jesus have a conversation about feeding His sheep and Simon hesitates in his answers to the Lord (our Shepherd).
Jesus asks:
“Simon, son of John, do you agapaō Me more than these?” then, “Simon, son of John, do you agapaō Me? and finally,
“Simon, son of John, do you phileō Me?”
Peter’s hesitates in answering Jesus call to agapaō and each time confirming that he loves Him (phileōdiffering slightly in meaning).
The Lord commands him with some subtlety after each response:
Tend My lambs.
Shepherd My sheep.
Tend My sheep.
And to the reader knowing that Peter has already died for his Lord, (Peter’s dearly departed friend) John offers an explanation.
17 .. Peter was hurt because He said to him the third time, “Do you love Me?” And he said to Him, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You..
Good News, Bad News
John gives the reader some ‘bad news,’ which is no longer NEWS to most and the ‘good news,’ which the other Apostles also witnessed. (Most of them had also died for their witness of the risen Christ Jesus!)
Rumor vs. TRUTH
Who said it?
What is the RUMOR?
Where were they when it happened?
When might this have taken place?
Why would your NEWS source tell you?
How does this impact you?
WHO DO YOU BELIEVE?
As the last surviving Apostle, John witnesses the Good News of Jesus Christ and His resurrection for decades!
What happens when a rumor creates a myth short of truth?
This would happen later when the Church tells stories not supported by Scripture.
When the saying (or story or myth) multiplies, then eventually encounters truth what most certainly will happen? The rumor is crushed and faith along with it (when the aging Apostle dies).
And remember, regardless of when or how the saying had started, it has already been around for a time since the original witness is some fifty years before John writes his Gospeltruth.
Many disciples of The Way and saints of the church might easily elevate John (or for that matter, Simon Peter, other Apostles or even family of Jesus) to glory and worship due only the LORD.
John’s simple approach to false witness
The always esteemed and ever truthful Disciple does two things:
John states the false witness (translated: saying, rumor, story)
He refutes it by his own authoritative true witness.
WHO DO YOU BELIEVE? It’s as simple as that.
The incident in question involves what JESUS said to Simon Peter. Only six other Disciples including John witness it first hand. So John states:
21:23 Then went this saying abroad among the brethren, that that disciple should not die:
yet Jesus said not unto him, He shall not die;
(FALSE rumor – John categorically states: – Jesus said NOT)
but,
(here is the truth I witnessed, says John)
[Jesus said ..],
If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? [KJV] or
“If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you?” – NASB
The Disciple by quoting Jesus refutes the rumor of John’s alleged immortality told in this story circulating among early Christians.
John squashes this rumor before it can multiply into false teaching which will cause us to doubt the ‘Gospel Truth.’
His own witness, true to facts unknown through rumor, states what happened (decades ago):
20 Peter turned around and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them—the one who also had leaned back on His chest at the supper and said, “Lord, who is the one who is betraying You?”
So Peter, upon seeing him, said to Jesus, “Lord, and what about this man?”
Jesus said to him, “If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow Me!”
Peter turned around, John was following him and Jesus.
Peter asked the Lord about John, because Jesus had just told Peter:
18b “.. when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will put your belt on you, and bring you where you do not want to go.”
John tells the reader, who likely knows of Peter’s crucifixion, why Jesus said this.
After having refuted the rumor with the truth, John puts his seal on the whole truth of restating the ‘story.’
This is the disciple who is testifying about these things and wrote these things, and we know that his testimony is true.
John 21:24 NASB
John’s closing is comparable to Paul writing, “I sign this in my own hand.” At stake is the Authority & Truth of the Lord Jesus
Rather than adding questions on this section of John,
I leave you to question Truth vs. fiction.
Please click PG 2
Read any obituary of a famous teacher, even a celebrity leader of men and you will discover one thing: They left behind everything. Now the legacy of this body buried or scattered to the dust of the earth must decay.
We memorialize men and women, especially the same many idolize in life. Those who loved any breathing soul speak of the dead in the past. Some ask, ‘IF there is a God, what hope does this departed soul have now?‘
The Apostle John answers these deep longings of the souls of mortal man.
More specifically, the LORD GOD reveals the only Good News about death and life is through the Lord Jesus Christ – born of man, buried like all who must suffer death.
By His words we have hope, but by His death we have redemption from sin and judgment.
For by Jesus’ RESURRECTION in BODY and SPIRIT, followers of the Way of Jesus in life will follow Him to certain resurrection of the body and of our soul.
Do you desire an eternal after-life in the Presence of the LORD our GOD? Find it in the Good News of Christ Jesus.
Witnesses to Jesus’ Resurrection
In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.
The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
The Good News of John 1:4-5 NASB
John presents man as either belonging to one of two things: the darkness or the light. There is no in between. The darkness is associated with death, while the light is associated with life. – BlueLetterBible intro to John
No Gospel addresses ‘LIFE’ more than John and no book of the Bible more than the 150 Psalms.
We now return to John’s witness of Jesus in a third appearance to Disciples along the shore of the Sea of Tiberias after His resurrection.
Trusting that you read Witnesses to Jesus Risen! – the Eleven, a Passing Witness, recall the 1st. century A.D. events disciples of the Way of Jesus encountered even before John wrote his Gospel — after A.D. 85 & before A.D. 100.
Remember to see John’s Gospel with eyes of a 1st. century believer who already knows that Peter was martyred for Christ perhaps decades earlier.
Peter’s witness of Jesus’ Resurrection
No Disciple of Jesus impacts the Church more than Simon Peter. After paying little attention to interactions between Peter and Jesus, today we will look closer into this loving relationship of discipleship.
Previouslyin Witnesses to Jesus Risen! – the Eleven, a Passing Witness. the Apostles had seen Jesus in the flesh twice, except Thomas only once, in Jerusalem. John names five present now and mentions two others, but not by name.
Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” – John 21:3
It’s now close to daylight after a night catching no fish.
7 The disciple, the one Jesus loved, said to Peter, “It is the Lord!”
Peter and John who humbly refers to himself as ‘the disciple Jesus loved’, along with his older brother James have been Jesus’ three closest Disciples. During three years of the Lord’s earthly teaching Jesus had often shared understanding He does not reveal to others.
In his Gospel the beloved Disciple speaks of their close friend Simon Peter who has already been martyred for Christ with loving compassion; not eulogizing or elevating Peter in any way, but giving honest witness to Peter’s actions and failings in life.
John’s empathy for Peter’s heart after denying the Lord is clearly evident. The Disciples remembered how Jesus had prophesied Peter’s denials before the cock crowed at dawn that fateful evening prior to His arrest. Peter of course had denied that it could ever happen.
Peter, now with his former boldness, dives into Lake Tiberius and swims to shore (just two hundred cubits, about 100 yd. or 90 m.) away from Jesus who is broiling fish over a fire.
The other six Disciples return in small boats with the catch of ‘the multitude of fishes’ [KJV], which they then account as a total of 153 large fish filling a net that remains untorn by the huge catch.
Three Questions of Restoration
Remember, John witnesses this to Christians after Peter’s faithful death for the Lord Jesus Christ. Here is what John testifies:
15 Now when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?”
(We will examine Peter’s answers separately.)
16 He said to him again, a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?”
17 He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?”
The common language of the Apostles in addition to their local Aramaic is Greek.English translations lack subtle detail connecting context in these scriptures.
John, Peter’s other friend of Jesus’ inner circle besides his own brother James, calls him Simon Peter or simply Peter.
however Jesus calls him only Simon or the Lord addresses John & James‘ friend rather formally as: Simon son of Jonas.
Could Jesus also be reminding the Disciples of His many prophesies connecting His Resurrection to the Prophet Jonah?
Note what Jesus asks Simon, yet note subtle differences in Simon’s responses which show the depth of wounds of Peter’s guilt before he understands Jesus’ tender requests.
(Again recall that John tells this to readers who already know that Peter has died for his faith in Jesus.)
Jesus’ questions to Simon Peter
English also clouds our understanding of overlapping Greek meanings of love.
“Simon, son of John, do you [e] love Me more than these?”
“Simon, son of John, do you [g] love Me?”
“Simon, son of John, do you [i] love Me?”
[notes] Here is an instance where NASB & other notes may help.
See the Greek text referenced below.
affection, good will, benevolence, brotherly love,
charity or a feast of charitability (like a generous family meal of Thanksgiving),
All active, rather than passive acceptance of another. Jesus first question asks Peter to stand firm in His love of their friends.
Jesus asks in effect,
“Do you think (Simon), that because you greeted Me first (perhaps with an expected kiss of phileō just as Judas Iscariot had in Gethsemane), — do you therefore believe that you agapē Me more that those who did not jump from your boat to reach Me first?
(And recall what John had witnessed of Peter when they first ran to the empty tomb.) Peter lost that physical race with John, but it did not matter who was first or who came to Jesus last. What did matter was the Lord’s commands.
On the night in which He was betrayed Jesus gave them a new command.
It is the verb root of agapē love. Yet its own root may also share in actions associated with the verb phileō. (We won’t take time to dwell on this.)
of persons
to welcome, to entertain, to be fond of, to love dearly
of things
to be well pleased, to be contented at or with a thing
Three times Jesus uses agapaō in His New Commandment to the Apostles and then the Lord continues by applying agapē love as evidence to others that these are His disciples.
“By this all people will know that you are My disciples: if you have love for one another.”
John 13:35 – The New Command of Jesus – agapē
Jesus’ New Commands to Simon Peter
We have examined with some detail the context of Jesus’ questions to Simon that John witnesses in his Good News to believers long after Peter’s own death.
NEXT: We will continue in John 21 with the Lord’s Commands to Peter and hear John’s empathy for Peter shared with saints of the 1st century A.D. Church.
To be continued...
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