Category Archives: Jesus is the Christ

Breaking News Alert!

Do Not Be Afraid.

These 4 words appear over 70 times in the Old and New Testament.

Do not be afraid… when you don’t know what will happen next.

Do not be afraid… when God’s promises seem far away.

Do not be afraid… when the enemy looms large.

Do not be afraid… when armies surround you.

Do not be afraid… when you carry out God’s calling.

Do not be afraid… when rumors abound.

Do not be afraid… when discouragement is all you see.

Do not be afraid… when you feel as if no one hears you.

Do not be afraid… when you can’t understand all that is happening around you.

Do not be afraid… when you feel alone.

Do not be afraid… when all you experience is pain and turmoil.

Do Not Be Afraid.

There is a lot going on right now in our world. Hospital visits. Illnesses. Cancer. Layoffs. Stress. Pressure to conform. Planes being shot out of the sky. Ground wars. Work place drama. Hurt feelings. Confusion. Loneliness. Depression. Anxiety.

When fear grips us, often times we react in ways that are contrary to how God would have us respond. We may lash to at those closest to us or retreat back to the relative safety of our own homes. We may look for blame or we may begin to resent a particular people group. We respond to the things that scare us in fear rather than in faith.

Paul tells us in Eph 5 to “Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. (Ephesians 5:1–2)”

If you want to overcome fear, look to Jesus. His example of facing fear and standing firm didn’t come from a cereal box. If didn’t come from his strong backbone or situational ethics class. This ability to overcome fear came to him through the Holy Spirit and faith in a God who keeps his covenant of love.

So today, before you look at another news article… before you read another headline or watch another breaking news alert…

Remember, our Savior faced the cross for you. Remember, our Savior died for you. Remember, our Savior, conquered the power of sin and death for you. Remember, our Savior is still firmly in charge and is coming back for you.

Do Not Be Afraid.

Do You Have A Theological Vision?

This Fall I have spent a great deal of time reading and thinking through Tim Keller‘s excellent book, Center Church: Doing Balanced, Gospel-Centered Ministry in Your City. Keller is the Pastor at Redeemer in the heart of NYC and is one of my favorite authors/thinkers. Rather than a “cut and paste, this is how we do ministry-this is how you should do ministry” book, Center Church focuses on developing a Theological Vision that is consistent with what a particular congregation believes and that drives the way ministry happens. Too often the ministry expressions of a church are divorced from or even at odds with their beliefs as well as unconnected from the very people they are trying to reach. This causes frustration within the congregation and confusion from those outside looking in.

Keller defines Theological Vision as an underlying vision that brings your theological understanding (doctrine, beliefs) to bear upon your ministry expressions (practices, programs). It is in essence, a faithful understanding of the Gospel “with rich implications for life, ministry, and mission in a type of culture at a specific moment in history.” Developing a robust Theological Vision is important because it forces the people of God to think long and hard about the character and implications of the Gospel, what the Gospel has to say within your particular culture, and what it means to do ministry in your time and place.

With a Theological Vision in place, leaders and churches can make better choices about ministry expression that are faithful to the Gospel while at the same time are meaningful to their ministry context. That means a greater impact in Worship, Discipleship, Evangelism, Service, and Cultural Engagement.

A Theological Vision helps you determine what you are going to do with what you believe within your cultural setting.

Keller sums up the importance of this vision when he says, “A Theological Visions allows (us) to see (our) culture in a way that is different than (we) have ever been able to see before… Those who are empowered by the theological vision do not simply stand against the mainstream impulses of the culture but take the initiative both to understand and speak to that culture from the framework of the Scriptures… The modern theological vision must seek to bring the entire counsel of God into the world of its time in order that its time might be transformed.

In order to develop a Theological Vision Keller says that you must spend time in “deep reflection” on Scripture and the particular culture that you minister in. In order to think deeply and reflect on these things, Keller offers 8 questions to help in the development of a robust and significant Theological Vision.

They are:
1) What is the gospel, and how do we bring it to bear on the hearts of people today?
2) What is this culture like, and how can we both connect to it and challenge it in our communication?
3) Where are we located — city, suburb, town, rural area — and how does this affect our ministry?
4) To what degree and how should Christians be involved in civic life and cultural production?
5) How do the various ministries in a church — word and deed, community and instruction — relate to one another?
6) How innovative will our church be and how traditional?
7) How will our church relate to other churches in our city and region?
8) How will we make our case to the culture about the truth of Christianity?

Keller warns that the development of this type of vision is hard but it is essential. The quality of your Theological Vision will determine your effectiveness as you find ways to communicate the Gospel of Jesus Christ clearly to your particular place in history.

Over the coming weeks, I am planning on meeting with a group of leaders to think through these 8 questions as a group in order to gain a better understanding of our mission to those within our church body and our surrounding community. The Starbucks near us recently built a new location complete with a variety of warm and inviting meeting areas so we are going to wrestle with these questions in the heart of the local agora just like Paul did in Athens. Of course Paul, as far as we know, didn’t get to sit in plush leather chairs sipping a peppermint mocha from a red cup.

If you have not read Keller’s Center Church: Doing Balanced, Gospel-Centered Ministry in Your City, I want encourage you to pick it up and wrestle with these questions within your own ministry context. I’ll be posting my thoughts and feelings as we go along so you are welcome to join in the conversation here in the comments or on Facebook and Twitter.

So what do you think of all this? Is a Theological Vision important? In what ways have you gained a greater understanding of the Gospel? In what ways have you worked to gain a better understanding of your particular culture?

Blessed

When it is late at night and everyone has gone to bed I find myself alone in the quiet and stillness- often for the first time of day.

It is these times that I’m able to reflect on the events that have transpired over the course of the day. I think about things I learned or opportunities I missed. I think about places where I fell short and victories attained. It is in these times when I feel a strong hand form the Lord.

It is in these times that I know I am blessed.

  • I have a wife that loves me unconditionally.
  • I have a beautiful son who has a personality as large as his heart.
  • I have a beautiful daughter that is, right this minute, being knitted together by her heavenly Father.
  • I get to serve a church body that I love with all my heart.
  • I have men in my life that walk beside me as mentors, guides, and friends.
  • I have the ability to read and laugh and grow and share and the ability to do countless other things.
  • I have a Savior who, while I was still a sinner, died for me and purchased my freedom with his own life.

I live a crazy BLESSED life.

Want to know a secret? So do you.

Get quite, get still, and get thankful for all that you have been blessed with.

Who Are You For?

While reading through the book of Joshua yesterday I was challenged once again to answer this question:

Am I going to live my life concerned with who is FOR ME or AGAINST ME or Am I going to be consumed with who I AM FOR?

In Joshua 5:13-15, Joshua encounters a man who has his sword drawn standing in front of him. God has revealed to Joshua that they will take the heavily fortified city of Jericho captive but it seems that this man is standing in Joshua way.

Joshua asks the man, “Are you for us or for our enemies?”

The man quickly replies, “Neither. As Commander of the Army of the Lord I have now come.”

Joshua falls to the ground and with humility in his voice asks, “What message does my Lord have for his servant?”

Joshua initial posture towards the man was a defensive one. He wanted to know who was for him or against him.

Isn’t this the age-old  question for those of us who lead people?

Do you trust me or them?
Am I your man or not?
Who’s side are you on, anyway?!?!

These questions breed a sense of fear into the heart of a leader. As as Master Yoda says, “Fear leads to suffering.” He couldn’t me more right. When a leader begins to make decisions and lead out of a sense of fear everyone suffers. Worrying and always looking over your shoulder wondering who likes you or who is after you is no way to live or lead.

The Commander of the Lord’s Army challenges Joshua by telling him that he doesn’t serve the big city, the mighty king, or even Joshua. The Commander is for Yahweh and Yahweh alone.

It is obvious from this point on Joshua was no longer concerned with who was for him or against him. Joshua had settled in his heart once and for all who he was for.

“Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” Joshua 24:14–15

What about you? Today, will you be more concerned about who is for you or against you? Or, will you decided to be concerned with The One you are for?

Unstoppable

Unstoppable iPad Bgrnd

Yesterday, I kicked off a brand-new series entitled “UNSTOPPABLE” that is based on the life of Elisha.

Elisha was FULLY COMMITTED to the mission that God called him to. In fact, he was so committed that long after Elisha was dead and buried a group of Israelites were in the process of burying their friend near Elisha’s burial place. Their funeral was interrupted by the news of a Moabite raiding party and since there was no time to bury their friend, they threw his body into Elisha’s tomb. When the dead man came in contact with Elisha’s bones THE MAN CAME BACK TO LIFE! (2Kings 13:20-21)

Elisha was so committed to God that even his bones did miracles!!! Take about a legacy of faith!!!

We too can have the ability to impact and change lives long after we are gone.

This faith legacy begins when we COMMIT TO FOLLOWING JESUS. Jesus doesn’t just want some of our life- He wants it all. He tells us that he wants all of us- our heart, mind, soul, and body.

Are you FULLY COMMITTED to FOLLOWING JESUS with EVERYTHING you have?

If not, what are you waiting for?

Blindsided

When I was a Senior in High School, I was injured during a football game and had to endure a few weeks of physical therapy in order to even walk without pain. The day I was cleared to return back to football was a Friday afternoon. Even though I knew I wouldn’t get to play that night I was so excited about being able to be on the sidelines, dressed in my gear, with my teammates. I couldn’t have been happier. That’s when it happened.

As I was driving to the game, I lady in a giant Cadillac t-boned me. She just decided that  she might try to cross 4 lanes of traffic by sliding under my Chevy pick-up. The back end of my truck popped up and I would have flipped or landed on my side but “luckily” the nose of my truck came down on the back end of an Infinity Q45.

I was disoriented. “What happened?”
I was angry at the lady. “Are you SERIOUS!!!”
I was confused. “Why did this happen to me?”
I was angry at God. “Why did YOU let this happen?!?!”

I had been blindsided. Things were looking up for me. Then out of nowhere… this. I had been enduring pain and frustration for so long. Now that I was better and things were getting back to normal how could this have happened? What’s the purpose? Why?

Have you been blindsided by life? I know you have because all of us have experienced a moment where everything changes in an instant.

The phone call with the test results.
When he told you that this isn’t working out and would like the ring back.
The heartbeat isn’t on the ultrasound.
A parent having to move in with you so you care care for them.
The scholarship that never materialized.
The rumors swirling around the break room about the cutbacks.

As I’ve been studying a preparing for my sermon this week I have been thinking about what our response to these moments should be. As children of God and as disciples of Jesus our response to pain, suffering, frustration, and disorientation is directly related to what we believe about God and His Son, Jesus Christ.

I wrote this down: In all things do not fret and do not fear, take courage and know that God is near.

God is with you. Jesus is here. That’s the underlying message of the Incarnation. God became flesh and dwelt among us.

Do you believe that? I hope you do. May that belief- the belief that God is with you- sustain you the next time the Cadillac of life decides to plow into you.

Do not fret and do not fear, take courage and know that God is near.

Gauging the Temperature Pt. 1

I’ll let you in on a little secret ambition of mine. You ready?

I want to be the Bobby Flay of my sphere of influence.

I want to be known as a great cook. Not just someone who can prepare a good meal. No, something greater! I want to amaze people with the way I combine meat, seasonings, flame, and creativity. For my birthday last April my parents bought me an honest to goodness bar-b-que smoker and grill. I love grilling and had no problem using the propane side of my new toy. About a month ago, I gave the smoker an inagural spin. I bought a book extolling the virtues of Low and Slow grilling and followed the lessons to a T. What happen was that I was able to cook two whole chickens perfectly! The flavors of the marinade combined with the flavors of the smoke made for and incredible dinner and a lot of leftovers. I can’t wait to work my way up to slow cooking some ribs and pork shoulder. Believe me- it is on!

The most important thing that I’ve learned about this style of cooking has been learning to monitor the temperature inside the smoker/fire box. You don’t want to keep opening the lid each and every time you check on your food. The lid has to stay closed. 1.5 hours for my chicken and up to 8 hrs or more for pork shoulder. The only thing that gives me insight into what’s happening inside is temperature reading on the outside.

As the summer comes to a close I’ve been thinking about my students and their return to school. Right now many of them are running hot and on fire for Jesus. They have expressed excitement for their faith, concern for their friends, and many have made deep commitments to discipleship. Summer gives me the perfect opportunity to be among them on a consistent basis outside of their school year routine. When I am with them I get to monitor the temperature of their lives. As they head back to school I want to make sure that I find ways to monitor their faith, give them encouragement or direction, and help feed their spiritual fire.

Next: 3 Ways to Monitor Your Youth Group Temperature During The School Year

Sermon: Over The Edge

Take a moment and let’s read the words of Jesus from Matthew 11:28-30.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30 TNIV)

I’m here to tell you. I am TIRED! The month of April has wore me out! Anyone else here just plain tired right now?

When I about 12 years old I had a season pass to Wet ‘n Wild in Garland. I would ride my bike to the park and then spend the entire afternoon riding the rides and hanging out in the wave pool. Oh. I loved the wave pool! If you’ve never been to one of these water parks there is a large pool in the center of the park and every fifteen minutes or so a bell rings, kids go crazy, and everyone flocks to the pool to enjoy the waves. A giant machine pumps water into the big pool and causes these massive waves to build up and if I remember right these waves can get as high as 30-50feet (Don’t check that fact. Just trust me).  The wave pool really is a ton of fun but it can also be really, really dangerous. One time I was in the wave pool and I was extremely tired. I decided I was going to climb out of the pool at the ladder but I slipped, fell into the high waves, and then struggled to stay above the water. The waves kept coming and pounding me and I was helpless to do anything. By the time it was over I felt bruised, beaten, and helpless. I was done with the water park.

The sheer power of the water and the constant beat-down I received from the waves drained me of all energy and stamina. I couldn’t take the constant pounding. I just wanted to quit. I was tired. I was used up. I was done.

Maybe that’s how some of you feel today as you sit here. April has been a difficult month for us all and some more than others.

  • Stomach bug
  • TAKS test
  • Surgery
  • Illness
  • Accidents
  • Emotional pain
  • Allergies
  • Death

This week I heard a seminar teacher challenge me with this thought. He said each week, someone in your community is In Trouble, Under Tension, or Going Through Transition. That pretty much sums up our problems doesn’t it?

This week, some of you were In Trouble. Your marriage is in trouble. Your kid is in trouble. Your job is in jeopardy. The credit card payment is due and you have no idea how you’re going to pay it. The brakes went out and there goes your bonus. Trouble is beating you down.

This week, some of you were Under Tension. (Joker- Dark Knight Score- The tension just keeps being ratcheted up as the film progresses) That relationship you’re in did not get better, in fact it is now worse. You were tested this week to compromise your integrity and your faith. You are under tension. Some of you in here are Under Tension with God. Your faith has taken so many hits you don’t know if God is even real. You are struggling to even care about your faith. You are living Under Tension.

This week, some of you are Going Through Transition. You are adding a family member. That means a new budget and a new schedule. You got promoted and demoted. Your teen started driving or got in a wreck this week- either way you’re transitioning into a new payment plan with your insurance agency. Life may be full of transition but transition/moving is tough.

Trouble, tension, and transition can be overwhelming. For some people the problems in life get too much to handle. People get depressed, apathetic, and despondent. Life becomes way too much to handle. When life becomes this hard we can relate to these words of Lamentations:

“Remember, LORD, what has happened to us; look, and see our disgrace.

Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our homes to foreigners.

We have become fatherless, our mothers are widows.

We must buy the water we drink; our wood can be had only at a price.

Those who pursue us are at our heels; we are weary and find no rest. (Lamentations 5:1-5 TNIV)

However, there is good news. Today’s message should not leave you feeling like Debbie Downer. Here is the Good News:

“What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then can condemn? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:

“For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:31-39 TNIV)

Have you ever heard of the Tojinbo cliffs of Japan. These cliffs on the northern coast of the Sea of Japan are a formidable sight. Powerful winds and waves have pounded these shores and over time they have carved these ominous and treacherous cliffs.

Just looking at these cliffs you can almost imagine the sheer power and the drama that carved these cliffs can’t you.

The country of Japan has been faced with a suicide epidemic over the last few years. The suicide rate in Japan is more than twice that of the US. According to Time magazine, 1 in 5 Japanese men and women have contemplated suicide and 30,000 a year for the last 10 years have committed suicide. That is 300,000 people! In fact the article I read was from 2009 and that year from Jan to April, 11,236 people had committed suicide that year.

Many of those suicides happen at the Tojinbo cliffs. When the weight of the world comes crashing down on people they come to these cliffs to contemplate the end of their lives.

Maybe some of you have been in a similar place in life. The weight of the world seems like it is about to crush you and you just need some help, some relief.

Some of you know what it is like to stand at the cliffs of Tojinbo. You know what it is like to feel overwhelmed, lost, afraid, and alone. I think feeling alone and abandoned is the worst part of our pain. And Satan loves to exploit this. He’ll whisper to you that God doesn’t care. God can’t hear you. God has abandoned you. Satan loves to make you feel alone.

For years, the people who went to the cliffs of Tojinbo to end their lives were alone. However, since 2004, they have someone looking out for them. There is now someone who meets them at the cliffs, who counsels them, and who takes them in.

From TIME.com:

For five years, Yukio Shige, 65, has approached people at the cliffs’ edge with a simple “Hello” and a smile. He might ask how they came there and at what inn they were staying. Sometimes after a light touch to the shoulder, Shige says, they burst into tears, and he begins to console them. “You’ve had a hard time up until now,” he says, “haven’t you?”

The retired detective from nearby Fukui City has patrolled the cliffs two or three times a day since 2004, wearing white gloves and a floppy sun hat, carrying binoculars to focus on three spots on the cliffs where suicides are most common. After he’s talked them off the cliffs, Shige–a trained counselor–takes them to his small office, (for) counseling sessions. For men, Shige says, the biggest problems are debt and unemployment; most of the women are there because of depression or health issues. “If it’s a case of sexual harassment, I’ll go with her to the office and confront her boss,” says Shige. “If a child has issues with his father, I tell the parent that he is driving his child to suicide and get them to write a promise to change. They hang it on the wall.”

In April, on the fifth anniversary of starting his operation, Shige sat reading a three-page, handwritten letter he had received that day from a Shizuoka man, one of many he gets from those he has helped. The letter concluded by thanking Shige for providing the man with an awareness of the love that surrounded him. As Shige finished reading, the melody of “Amazing Grace” rose from his cell phone. “I want Tojinbo to be the most challenging place,” he says. “Not where life ends, but where it begins.”

Guess what? In your life today at your cliff of Tojinbo- whatever your feeling, whatever your trouble, whatever the pain- you have Yukio Shige and his name is Jesus Christ.

You see, Jesus himself has been to the cliff. In Genesis, we find the first prophecy ever concerning Jesus. God warns Satan about the coming King by saying that, Satan will bite his heel but that Jesus will crush his head. One of the Hebrew words for a cliff is SHE-en and it means Sharp as a Tooth. Jesus triumphs over the Sharp Teeth that try and destroy us.

Jesus left the throne room of heaven to become a man. He walked the earth and lived among us. He didn’t just speak to us from afar behind the pearly gates. He didn’t call out from behind the clouds, “I feel your pain!” No! He came to earth and he touched and healed the sick, the poor, the hurting. He knows what you’re going through because he knew suffering while on this earth. His family rejected him, his followers abandoned him, he was beaten and hung on a tree.

Jesus deals with the true source of our pain- Sin. One of my favorite parts of the article is when Shige deals with the source of the people’s pain. If the problem is the boss, he talks with the boss. If it is a family member, he talks to the family member. He goes straight to the source of the pain and the problem.

For us all pain and hurt and confusion come back to Sin and its effects. Sometimes the sin is committed against us and sometimes we suffer the consequences of our own sin. God was no satisfied with sin separating Him from us.

“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2Corinthians 5:21 TNIV)

The Cross is where life begins. If you are struggling in your life right now with anything you are at a moment of challenge. How will you respond? Will you give up, abandon hope, abandon faith? Will you believe the lie that you are alone and that God wants nothing more to do with you? OR… Will you believe that through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ you have an advocate and a Savior more powerful than any problem in your life?

“We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

If we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.

Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.

In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 6:2-12 TNIV)

New Day, New Beginning

“Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”

So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.

Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomband saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.

They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”

“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”

Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”

Jesus said to her, “Mary.”

She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).

Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.

On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!”After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.If you forgive the sins of anyone, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”

But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!”Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”

Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”

Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

Afterward Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Galilee. It happened this way: Simon Peter, Thomas (also known as Didymus), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. “I’m going out to fish,” Simon Peter told them, and they said, “We’ll go with you.” So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.

Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus.

He called out to them, “Friends, haven’t you any fish?”

“No,” they answered.

He said, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.” When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish.

Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, “It is the Lord,” he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water. The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far from shore, about a hundred yards.When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread.

Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish you have just caught.”

Simon Peter climbed aboard and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish, 153, but even with so many the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” None of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came, took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. This was now the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead.

When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?”

“Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”

Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”

He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.”

The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”

Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.”Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, “Follow me!”

Peter turned and saw that the disciple whom Jesus loved was following them. (This was the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper and had said, “Lord, who is going to betray you?”) When Peter saw him, he asked, “Lord, what about him?”

Jesus answered, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me.”Because of this, the rumor spread among the believers that this disciple would not die. But Jesus did not say that he would not die; he only said, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you?”

This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down. We know that his testimony is true.

Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.” (John 20:1-21:25 TNIV)