Resurrection of Christ

 Names: 

Rabboni/Master (John 20: 16), my Lord and my God (John 20:28), Christ (John 20:31), Son of God (John 20:31), Lord (John 20:20) 

 

What stood out to you as you studied this week?  What insights did you gain or questions did you have? 

 

Listen to Follow Him podcast from 2:18-9:55. Perspective on what we know and how blessed we are. 

 

*Timeline wise we are going to skip around just a bit because there are a few things I want to be sure we discuss...and then we’ll come back to a few things if we have time at the end. We’re going to spend most of our time in John 20 and 21 but will also read a few verses in the other books, depending on time. 

 

Luke 24: 1-7 JST Why seek ye the living among the dead? 

Mark 16: 6 

Thoughts on these verses?  

 

Quote #1 President Nelson said, “The gift of resurrection is the Lord’s consummate act of healing. Thanks to him, each body will be restored to its proper frame and perfect frame. Thanks to him, no condition is hopeless. Thanks to him, brighter days are ahead both here and heareafter. Real joy awaits each of us on the other side of sorrow.” (October 2005) 

 

Quote #2 Elder Neal A. Maxwell taught: “Christ’s victory over death ended the human predicament. Now there are only personal predicaments, and from these too we may be rescued by following the teachings of him who rescued us from general extinction.” 

 

Marion Hanks gave a talk in April 1992. He told of an 11 year old boy, Philip, with Down Syndrome. On Easter Sunday, the teacher gave each child an empty egg and asked to go outside and find something to put in the egg that would remind them of Easter. All the children happily searched for and found something and returned to class. They had items like a flower, a twig, a blade of grass. Then Philip opened his egg and it was empty. The other kids laughed. Then Philip said, “Teacher, the tomb was empty.” A few months later, Philip passed away. A newspaper article reported that at the end of the funeral, the 8 children in Philip’s class marched forward and place a large empty egg on his casket. On the egg was a banner that said, “The tomb was empty.” 

 

Quote #3 President Howard W. Hunter said, “Without the resurrection, the Gospel becomes a litany of wise sayings and inexplicable miracles, but without any ultimate triumph.”’ 

 

If you leave with nothing else today, I hope that we will all remember how blessed we are to have this knowledge...He is risen. Because of Him, the grave hath no victory and death has no sting. We have hope. We will be healed. We will rise and live again. Death is not the end. 

 

John 20:1-10 Can you imagine what they must have been thinking and feeling? 

John 20: 11-13 “My Lord” Do we think of Him in that tender and intimate of a way? My Jesus. My Lord. My Redeemer.  

John 20: 14-15 Gardener...symbolism...He tends to our souls. He nurtures. He helps us grow. He tends to our needs.  

John 20: 16. Mary. Christ knows our names. Rabboni, Master 
 
Quote #4 In The Day Star Rising, Elder Holland writes: “...A sinless, pure, and holy man, the very Son of God Himself, did what no other deceased person had ever done nor ever could do. Under His own power, He rose from death, never to have His body separated from His spirit again....That first Easter sequence of Atonement and Resurrection constitutes the most consequential moment, the most generous gift, the most excruciating pain, and the most majestic manifestation of pure love ever to be demonstrated in the history of the world. Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of the God, suffered, died, and rose from death in order that He could, like lightning in a summer storm, grasp us as we fall, hold us with His might, and through our obedience to His commandments, lift us to eternal life.” (page 155) 

 

 

John 20: 19, 21, and 26: “Peace be unto you” 

Quote #5 Elder Holland wrote, “The tragic irony is that peace is the commodity that is so difficult to find. I think Christ’s initial greeting when we see Him will be “Peace be unto you.” Let us try to find it now. We may not make much headway politically, but maybe in our chapels, our homes, and as individuals we can find peace.” 

Quote #6 Elder Eyring in April conference: “There is an enemy of your soul who does not want you and those you love to find peace. He cannot enjoy it. He works to prevent you from even wanting to find the peace the Savior and our Heavenly Father desire you to have....my optimism rests in another gift from the Lord. It is this: that He raises up many peacemakers among His trusted disciples. They have felt the peace and love of God. They have the Holy Ghost in their hearts, and the Lord can guide them to reach out to the wandering sheep....The rising generation will become the nurturers of the generation to follow. The multiplier effect will produce a miracle. It will spread and grow over time, and the Lord’s kingdom on earth will be prepared and ready to greet Him with shouts of hosanna. There willl be peace on earth.” 

I’m struck by this prophecy. There is plenty to worry about...but there is also much to be hopeful about and to look forward to. There is cause for optimism and joy. 

 

President Nelson in April conference: “True disciples of Jesus Christ are peacemakers....Peacemaking is a choice. You have your agency to chosoe contention or reconciliation. I urge you to choose to be a peacemaker, now and always.” 

 

John 20: 24-31 

What lessons do you learn from these verses? 

First, I want to just remind us that back when Lazarus had died, some of the disciples told Jesus not to go to Bethany because the people wanted to kill him. Thomas, full of faith, said, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” Thomas was an apostle...and he had moments of great faith and courage...and also moments of doubt.  

Jesus waited 8 days to appear again...the number 8 in Jewish numerology represents new beginnings. When God created the Earth, he created it in 6 days, rested and then the 8th day was a day of new beginnings. But also this probably felt like a long time when the disciples are still not very clear on what the Resurrection means. And Thomas doesn’t fully believe or understand.  

Are there times when the Savior might say to you or to me, “Be not faithless, but believing.” How can we believe more fully? 

 

John 21 is a deeply personal chapter for me. I’ll share why in a few minutes, but let’s read a little bit. 

 

John 21: 2-6 What do you learn from these verses? 

John 21:7-12 

In Inklings, Emily Freeman shared something she learned just recently from a Jewish man in Israel. It’s oddly specific that there were 153 fish. But in Hebrew each number also had a meaning. You could write out words but you could also substitute numbers for the words. And Emily learned that 153 means, “I am God”. So as soon as they counted the fish, they knew this was the Savior. They recognized His handwriting. (We should know the Savior like we know our moms) 

John 21: 15-17 What do YOU learn from these verses? 

Personal story of Elder Holland’s talk.  

I know some of you have heard this story before, so I apologize for the repetition. I hope you’ll bear with me...but it is one of those stories that I want to share often because it is one of those moments that shaped my life and that showed me that the Savior is deeply and personally aware of me. When my girls were little, Alfredo was not active for awhile. And it was hard. I brought my kids to church on my own. And it sometimes caused some contention. In addition, I was working full time in a very challenging school. And I just felt exhausted. I didn’t feel like I was the kind of mother, wife or teacher I wanted to be. Everything felt hard. And I began to think that perhaps things would be easier if I stopped going to church for a time. I had a testimony...but it was just so hard. I’d been thinking about things and praying for help to juggle all my responsibilities. And one 5th Sunday, Bishop Delamare taught a combined lesson. Most of the lesson was a talk by Elder Holland given to missionaries. (Elder Holland gave almost the same talk a few months later in General Conference.) IN this talk he spoke about the Savior asking Peter if he loved him and Peter’s response. Then he said these words: 

 

Quote #7  

“Peter said for the third time, “Lord, … thou knowest that I love thee.”12 

To which Jesus responded (and here again I acknowledge my nonscriptural elaboration), perhaps saying something like: “Then Peter, why are you here? Why are we back on this same shore, by these same nets, having this same conversation? Wasn’t it obvious then and isn’t it obvious now that if I want fish, I can get fish? What I need, Peter, are disciples—and I need them forever. I need someone to feed my sheep and save my lambs. I need someone to preach my gospel and defend my faith. I need someone who loves me, truly, truly loves me, and loves what our Father in Heaven has commissioned me to do. Ours is not a feeble message. It is not a fleeting task. It is not hapless; it is not hopeless; it is not to be consigned to the ash heap of history. It is the work of Almighty God, and it is to change the world. So, Peter, for the second and presumably the last time, I am asking you to leave all this and to go teach and testify, labor and serve loyally until the day in which they will do to you exactly what they did to me.” 

Quote #8 My beloved brothers and sisters, I am not certain just what our experience will be on Judgment Day, but I will be very surprised if at some point in that conversation, God does not ask us exactly what Christ asked Peter: “Did you love me?” I think He will want to know if in our very mortal, very inadequate, and sometimes childish grasp of things, did we at least understand one commandment, the first and greatest commandment of them all—“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind.”13 And if at such a moment we can stammer out, “Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee,” then He may remind us that the crowning characteristic of love is always loyalty. 

“If ye love me, keep my commandments,”14 Jesus said. So we have neighbors to bless, children to protect, the poor to lift up, and the truth to defend. We have wrongs to make right, truths to share, and good to do. In short, we have a life of devoted discipleship to give in demonstrating our love of the Lord. We can’t quit and we can’t go back. After an encounter with the living Son of the living God, nothing is ever again to be as it was before. The Crucifixion, Atonement, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ mark the beginning of a Christian life, not the end of it. It was this truth, this reality, that allowed a handful of Galilean fishermen-turned-again-Apostles without “a single synagogue or sword”15 to leave those nets a second time and go on to shape the history of the world in which we now live.” 

 

These words sunk deep into my soul. They were an answer to prayer. I knew right then that I wanted to be this type of disciple. I wanted to follow Christ every day of my life, even if it was difficult. I DO love Him and I wanted to show my love for Him by feeding His sheep. I don’t do it perfectly—none of us will—but that call has been given to all of us. Feed His sheep. Love God with all your heart, might, mind and strength. Defend His faith. Exactly how you and I will do that will look differently. I might be asked to feed His sheep by teaching gospel doctrine or by serving in Young Women’s while you might be asked to lead the Elders Quorum or Relief Society or to hold activity day activities or to lead the music or play the organ. But we all have a role to play in feeding His sheep. We can all testify of Him and show our love through our loyalty.  

Luke 24:13-14 

For quite a few years, Sara and I went walking regularly and a few other friends sometimes joined us. The last year and a half or so, we haven’t been walking as much...but still go for a walk when we can, especially if one of us is troubled by something. We’ve had many rich gospel discussions. We’ve discussed worries about children or challenges we are facing. We’ve wrestled with challenging questions. I can absolutely imagine Sara and I...or Alfredo and I...walking along a road and talking about all that has happened.  

Luke 24: 15-19 How can you not know what has happened?  

Any thoughts about the story so far?  

 

Luke 24: 25-27 

He taught using the scriptures...and helped them understand the prophecies and promises.  

 

Luke 24:29 Abide with us (Abide with me) 

Strong’s Concordance gives the following meanings for this word: stay, remain, wait with or for to be constantly present, to put forth constant influence upon, to establish permanently in my soul, to last, to endure with 

Wow! I want Christ to abide with me! 

Luke 24: 31-32 How do WE come to know Him?