THE LAST RECORDED MIRACLE OF JESUS
By
Betty Freauf
April 8, 2012
NewsWithViews.com
It’s Easter time. I happened to be in J. Vernon McGee’s John 21 commentary and suddenly felt inspired to borrow excerpts from him to write this article. McGee died in 1988 but his Thru the Bible radio sermons are still on the air in different languages worldwide. I’m troubled that he never exposes “easter” has having pagan overtones; however, this article is how McGee describes the disciples as Jesus’ problem children that represent you and me today. Let’s see if any of us fit in these categories.
McGee calls them the convention of the problem children as they are waiting for Jesus to show up on the seashore. Simon Peter, fervent but failing, warm-hearted, yet walking afar off; he is impulsive and impetuous and affectionate. Then there is Thomas, that magnificent skeptic, who has a question mark for a brain. He becomes known as doubting Thomas. Nathanael is the wisecracker who was also a doubter at the beginning. Then he calls James and John, the sons of thunder. There were two others who were not named.
The Sea of Galilee was a familiar spot for these men. Jesus had asked them to go to up into Galilee where he’d meet them and they were waiting for Him. Peter becomes impatient and says, “I’m going fishing” and the others join him. McGee says many worthy commentators condemn these men for going fishing but the Lord didn’t rebuke them when He appeared to them. They were there at Galilee by His commandment.
McGee said he’s been in that area at Easter time and he describes how the warm zephyrs from the south make ripples near the shore and whitecaps out on the sea. The surrounding hills were green and there were wild flowers in profusion and imagines it was even more beautiful then.
They
made their living fishing and they fished all night and caught nothing
and McGee says, with tongue in cheek, this may be the only true fish
story ever told. They had been restless before waiting for Jesus to
come and now they were even more frustrated. It’s easy when the
fish are biting; it’s irritating when they aren’t. The morning
dawned and suddenly there was Jesus in His glorified body on the seashore.
He could be recognized and yet they would have been a distance out on
the lake and in the early morning it would be difficult to identify
people on the shore.
McGee said on the Easter morning he was visiting he felt like shouting
when he thought of this incident, the last recorded miracle of our Lord
and the only miracle recorded after his resurrection. This is most important
because you and I are concerned about the ministry of Christ after His
resurrection. Paul says, “…yea, though we have known Christ
after the flesh, yet now henceforth we know him no more.” (2 Cor.
5:16) We are not joined to the baby in Bethlehem but to the resurrected,
living glorified Christ at God’s right hand. This is why His ministry
after His resurrection is so vital for us.
After
the disciples had fished all night and caught nothing, He walked to
them on the water and then they recognized Him when he got to the boat
and when asked about how the fishing was going, they told Him they hadn’t
caught a thing so He told them to cast their net on the right side.
They caught so many fish and the net didn’t break so they were
unable to draw the net back into the boat and dragged the nets to shore.
Jesus gives the instructions and if obeyed, life becomes easier. This
is an example of how Jesus wants his followers to be fishermen of the
souls of people. Peter was being called to feed the sheep and feed the
lambs with the Word of God. And then we have the story about impulsive,
affectionate Peter jumping into the water to be closer to Jesus and
when he begins to sink, Jesus helps him walk on the water but he was
successful only as long as he kept his eyes on Jesus. This is another
example for us today. I know there are many jokes by the doubting Thomases
and skeptics about how he walked on the water because he knew where
the rocks were. It takes faith to believe otherwise. When they got to
land, Jesus told them to bring the fish so He could put them on the
fire which He’d prepared for their breakfast. However, McGee said
there was another time when Peter caught a miraculous number of fish,
recorded by Luke. It was in the early days of Jesus’ ministry,
and He was calling Peter to be fisher of men. That time the net broke.
McGee suggests this may have been a lesson for Peter that many would
follow Jesus, a great teacher or a prophet, but they would not all be
believers. The net would break and many would swim away. With the gospel
of a risen, glorified Christ it will not only save, but it will hold.
After they had dined on fish (John 21:15-17), the Lord takes Simon Peter and calls this faltering, failing, fumbling disciple to service. We learn one all-important lesson from this interview. Love for the Savior is the prerequisite for service. After earlier denying Jesus three times around a little fire of coals that had been built in the courtyard of the palace of the high priest the night Jesus was arrested, Simon Peter went blundering in there to warm his hands and made the fatal mistake of his life. It was there he denied the Lord three times. Jesus now interrogates him three times to affirm his devotion to the Savior. McGee finds it interesting that now by the Sea of Galilee, around coals of fire, after a miraculous catch of fish, the Lord Jesus restores his commission to him. Here the Lord Jesus puts Simon Peter back into service. What a picture of spiritual beauty, says McGee.
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I always take a chance when I take on Biblical subjects because I can generally count on someone correcting me. In 2003, I heard from one person in Niangua, MO. telling how much she appreciates the articles I write for News With Views and noted I was correct about the “Ishtar” worship in my April 2000 article on Traditions but I did not inform the people as to how to know when or how to celebrate the True “Passover.” She writes the word “easter” was written only once in God’s word in Acts 12:4 stated by Herod, a known Pagan, and yes, it is a fact that our people have been worshipping a pagan “holiday” that God never directed them to do and then she notes how He hates the “grove” worship – known in current days as the New Age environmental tree huggers – worshipping the creation instead of the creator. She said if I was interested in finding out when and how the true Passover originated, go to Exodus meaning “The Coming out,” but there are still many with one foot in Egypt.
Lucifer’s goal has always been to control and enslave the populations of the world and to do that he would need the prophesied one world government which includes a one-world religion, one-world currency, a one-world economy and a one-world military. Presidential candidate Ron Paul reminds us continually that only Congress can declare war but today, this is ignored. NATO and the United Nations controls our military and veterans who are used as cannon fodder to intervene in other nations where we are not wanted nor appreciated causing the “blow back” claimed by Congressman/Dr. Ron Paul. I was informed by numerous readers, including a long explanation by someone in Sweden, that “blow back” was not invented by Ron Paul. It’s a CIA term. Correction so noted! He also went on to write that one city in Sweden took in more Iraqi refugees from the US’s war in Iraq than the rest of the world put together over a 5-year span in the mid-2000’s. He says Sweden has been helping to clean up the mess that the US/UK/NATO caused with the weapons of mass destruction (WMD) lie-inspired nightmare in Iraq.
The “peace-loving” Muslims in Iran recently hung Youcef Nadarkhani, a young family man with two children. Why? Because he was found guilty of being a Christian. The 8/3/2009 NEW AMERICAN reported about the “Rape Wave” in Europe mainly caused by Muslims and suffering with its share of “honor killings,” the Muslim practice of killing wives, daughters and sisters who displease their husbands, fathers and brothers by considering divorce, dating non-Muslims, or adopting Western attitudes or accouterments and in America honor killings are becoming more and more prevalent and while some states are considering outlawing aspects of Shariah law, in September 2011, The New York Times was promoting Shariah Law showing pictures of Muslims holding signs, “Shariah the only solution.”
Of course, I’m always reminded about Rev. Martin Neimoller’s quote. He was a German Lutheran pastor arrested by the Gestapo in 1937. He said, “In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me and by that time no one was left to speak up.” I find today that to be a bit of an oxymoron because American leaders have been accommodating the Communists and radical trade unions for years and lately it’s been the Occupy Crowd with the blessing of the POTUS opposing “crony capitalism” which is when people and businesses buy governmental favors to advance their business dealings but evidence shows that the hypocritical Obama administration is rife with such donors.
And now the president was caught on an open mic on March 26th telling Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev, “On all these issues, but particularly missile defense, this can be solved, but it’s important for him (Putin) to give me space…this is my last election. After my election, I have more flexibility.”
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M. Stanton Evans in his 1966 book THE POLITICS OF SURRENDER told about the test-ban trap that became particularly dominant in 1961 when President Kennedy sent his team of negotiators to Geneva to meet with the Communists and again, the result was a staggering series of Western concessions. Later he writes how Krushchev spelled out the strategy of “co-existence” and the expansion of business and cultural exchanges. U.N. Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge was presented an eagle, a token of friendship by the Soviets – complete with a concealed microphone and another Democrat president, Lyndon Johnson was seeking to expand these exchanges by a treaty to swap Consolates with the U.S.S.R.
And what is concerning the mainstream media – Trayvon Martin, and President Obama trying to intimidate and influence the decision by the U.S. Supreme Court on his Obamacare which says an RFID implant chip is due in three years after signing of H.R. 3200 (Obamacare) which would mean March 23, 2013. Does this mean only two ways out if the Supreme Court doesn’t reject Obamacare- the Rapture or death – the chip or death as explained in Revelation? Get in, sit down, buckle up and enjoy the ride. This may be our last Resurrection Sunday.
� 2012 Betty Freauf - All Rights Reserved
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