Risen
Lord Initiating Headship (Jn.
westminsterreformedchurch.org
Pastor
Ostella
Introduction
For communion reflection today, I want to direct your thoughts again to
the resurrection appearances of the Lord Jesus. I want to direct you
specifically to the actions of Christ that are recorded at the end of the Gospel
of John (particularly 20:19f.). We should view them in the context of the
Headship of Christ because they are the first things that Jesus did after His
exaltation to be Head over all things to the church (Eph.
Another way of saying that Jesus is Head of all is to refer to Him as
Sabbath king. On resurrection day, He entered into a royal rest. That is, He
ceased from the redemptive work of humiliation and began His redemptive rule of
exaltation. Consider what happened on that day. Jesus, son of Mary, became
universal sovereign redeemer on that unique day in history. Recall that in a
number of ways, John calls our attention to the day of the resurrection not just
to the fact of the resurrection (for example, cf.
Now I want us to soak in John's perspective regarding the first things
that Jesus did on resurrection day and immediately flowing out from that day
(the lack of specificity regarding the precise day of some post-resurrection
events puts the accent on the specified day in even bolder relief). All the
actions on the other days flow out from the first resurrection Sunday as acts of
the ascended Lord even though His literal ascension did not occur for another
forty days.
As Sabbath king:
He bestows the Holy Spirit (Jn.
He announces the blessing of the church (Jn.
He gives a great catch of fish (Jn. 21:1-14)
He restores Peter (Jn.
He affirms His Lordship (Jn.
1A.
Initiating Sabbath Lordship, Jesus bestows the Holy Spirit (Jn.
It may be somewhat difficult to put this account together with the day of
Pentecost because Pentecost was the time of the Spirit’s coming to empower the
new covenant church (Acts 1:4-5). So this is sometimes called John’s Pentecost
and a kind of pre-Pentecost, a stage in the process of preparing the apostles
for Pentecost and the work they will have to do when the Spirit is poured out on
the church.
This pre-Pentecostal bestowal of the Spirit is surely significant in the
change in the apostles from dismay to joy that occurred before the day of
Pentecost (Lk. 24:52-53, “they returned to
But what is most important from John’s account is that the gift of the
Spirit was associated with the promise that the apostles will have the power to
forgive or withhold forgiveness (
Bottom line: Jesus initiated His Sabbath kingship by giving the Spirit to
make the apostles the foundation of His church. Ultimately, these words direct
us to the NT as the testimony of our king by the Spirit and through the
apostles. Jesus is giver of the Spirit, giver of the unique apostolic witness,
thus giver of the NT, and through these means the giver of forgiveness of sin.
2A.
Our Sabbath king announces the blessing of the church
By the Thomas meeting Jesus not only drove home the fact of the
resurrection but He announced (pronounced) the blessing of the church in the
time of His absence (Jn.
Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!" 29
Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me?
Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
We walk by faith not by sight (2
Cor. 5:7). It is not a bad thing to walk by sight because it means that Christ
is again present with us. It is not that faith is good and sight is bad; indeed,
sight is the greatest good because it means that the journey has attained its
goal. So this word to Thomas is a
word to the church on the way to seeing. It is a word to you and me as we live
in this time and we do not see Jesus in the flesh. He is no longer here on earth
but has ascended to the throne on high.
This is a promise and comfort to us. It helps us orient ourselves to the
nature of things and the structure imposed on history by our Sabbath king. He is
Lord of the Sabbath and thus Lord of the weekly cycles of earth history. He has
appointed this time of His absence from us but it is the way of blessing: you
are blessed in believing without seeing. So trust Him, entrust yourself to Him.
3A. Our risen king
gives a great catch of fish (Jn. 21:1-14)
Remember the apostles were called to “catch men.” “Fishers of
men” is what they will in fact be. What a loving, down to earth, and
reassuring way to reinforce the apostolic calling with great promise for the
time between! Consider what transpires. Jesus speaks to the apostles out in the
boat fishing and calls them children (21:5a). He then tells them to cast their
nets on the other side of the boat and they will find some fish (5b). They obey
and catch so many fish that it was difficult to haul them in; this blessed catch
of fish led them to recognize that it was Jesus: “It is the Lord” (v. 7).
Next Jesus told them to haul the fish ashore which led them to observe the fact
that so many large fish were caught without tarring the net (v. 11). Finally,
with the “charcoal fire in place with fish laid out on it and bread” (v. 9)
Jesus invited the apostles to “Come and have breakfast”; then Jesus ate with
them (v. 13). It is amazing that no more is recorded. Nothing else that Jesus
said during that breakfast by the
As the apostles follow the Lord’s directives for their work of fishing
for men (and they will do so by the power of the Spirit bestowed on them) their
work will in fact be successful: there will be a great catch of people to make
up the church that Christ is building. Jesus is revealed here as the Great
Fisherman. So down through the ages while He is absent the church will be drawn
from the sea of nations into His family to be His children along with the
apostles. A great future is promised; the great catch of fish is under way.
Finally, we should note that we are to do all of our work by hearing His
word in two ways: a) He calls out to us and gives us direction (the apostolic
NT), and b) He promises that when the fish have all been hauled ashore, we will
rest and have breakfast with Him, to eat and drink with Him in the consummation
of the kingdom of God. This is simply another way of reassuring us that we
travel now and work with the promise of eternal Sabbath rest always out in front
of us. Rest with Him is at the end of our work. This
account raises our hope of success on the way and of safe arrival to heaven in
the end. It is so because Jesus is
the universal sovereign, risen Lord, Sabbath king, Head of all things, and Head
of the church.
4A. The Head of the
church teaches the duties of pastor and flock (Jn.
Of all the things that might be said and were said, we have very few
recorded. The ones recorded become all the more important. They shape the memory
of the church for the time between.
Peter had denied the Lord three times and His love for the Lord is
expressed three times though somewhat reluctantly and humbly. Central in this
account is the point that love for Christ will lead to the feeding of His lambs
and sheep (
To reiterate what we have so far: by the Spirit, in the time between with
Jesus absent, there will be a great catch of people, and they are to be fed and
receive feeding as the lambs and sheep of Christ.
5A.
The Lord of the Sabbath affirms His Lordship over discipleship (Jn.
“Follow me” (Jn. 21:19); these are the words that summon Peter to
follow Christ, to follow Him to the very end, to his very death by which he will
glorify God (21:18-19a). Peter, of course, cannot keep a thought in his head; he
must say something, he must inquire about what will happen to the young apostle
John (vs. 21-22): “What about this man?” And Jesus said, “If it is my will
that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!”
What a marvelous lesson for us all regarding discipleship under the
Lordship of Christ. You follow
me. Do not look around at what others are
doing, at their circumstances and blessings. Comparing your lot with that of
others can be a dangerous spiritual and emotional pitfall. Instead of doing
that, Jesus says, “follow me; you follow me.” Jesus is the Lord of our
living and of our dying. He is the Lord of discipleship. He is provident Lord of
history. He is the giver of the Spirit as the gift of His atoning work. He is
the one we trust in the time between. He is bringing in the great catch of fish;
He calls us to giving and receiving gospel food; and He is the Lord of life and
death. Our Sabbath king holds the keys of death and hell. Our goal in all
learning must be following. So whether we live or whether we die, in whatever we
do we must remember to do it all in honor to our Sabbath king who set these
basic things in place until the end of the age because He is:
Giver of the Spirit
Object of faith
Great fisherman
Good shepherd
Lord of discipleship