The Number Three: Divine Completion John 21:14

Text:  “And this is now the third time that Jesus showed Himself to His disciples, after that He was risen from the dead.”

John 21:14.

          “And there are THREE that bear record in Heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost; and these Three are One.  And there are three that bear witness in earth, the spirit, and the water, and the blood; and these three agree in one."                 

1 John 5:7-8.

Good morning, ordained Christian witness!  Just as the Lord Jesus "…showed Himself to His disciples…" three times, "…after that He was risen from the dead."; you and I - who have by God’s free and Sovereign grace been Spiritually regenerated and saved from our sins - are ordained by God to bear witness to others of His completed Sacrifice at Calvary’s Cross. 

“But ye (the redeemed) shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you; and ye shall be witnesses unto Me (Christ Jesus) both in Jerusalem,  and in Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”  (Acts 1:8)

Let us ask ourselves: are we faithfully bearing such Christian witness daily?  A challenging question with which to commence any new day, what?

Let us first focus in on exactly what the Holy Scriptures are teaching us here in our Journey In John’s Gospel. 

This third time appearance of Christ Jesus was not merely a third time meeting with men in the course of normal everyday events.  This was the appearing of One Who had been publicly and cruelly scourged and brutally beaten by the Roman soldiers; nailed to a Cross; tortured in this manner for hours in the relentless heat of the sun; then viciously thrust through the heart with a spear and killed stone dead!  Of these facts there could be no doubt.

This was a third time appearing of Christ Jesus ‘…after He was risen from the dead…’!  We are talking about a Supernatural event here; we are, perhaps, too calmly reading about a complete miracle of God!  Hallelujah!  What a Lord God!

“Ah Lord God!  Behold, Thou hast made the Heaven and the earth by Thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is NOTHING too hard for Thee.”  (Jeremiah 32:17)

The evangelist and Gospel writer, John, was an actual eye-witness, on this third occasion, of the walking miracle that was, and is, the risen Jesus Christ.  There was, therefore, absolutely no doubt whatsoever of the truth and facts of Christ’s miraculous resurrection from the dead.  

Jesus Christ, the Eternal Son of the Living Lord God, is alive and well today!  Glory to His very Name!

“…Fear not; I am the first and the last; I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for ever more, Amen; and have the keys of Hell and of death.”  (Revelation 1:17-18)

The apostle John was tasked by the Lord God to make a faithful record of what he and the other disciples had witnessed with their own eyes concerning the Lord Jesus Christ.  He did so, and now we have the written Word of God, the Word given to men by God; the Word of God Himself depicted in human accounts for our Eternal benefit.  We are His witnesses!

“If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for this is the witness of God which He hath testified of His Son.  He that believeth (trusts, and continues to trust) on the Son of God hath the witness in himself; he that believeth not God hath made Him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of His Son.  And this is the record, that God hath given to us Eternal life, and this life is in His Son.  He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.  These things have I written unto you that believe on the Name of the Son of God (Jesus Christ); that ye may KNOW that ye have Eternal life and that ye may believe on the Name of the Son of God.”  (1 John 5:9-13)

This is a full quotation from God’s written Word - do you believe it?

If you believe God’s Word - then you are tasked to be His witness.

The witness given to mankind by God is true. The complete evidence of this truth was the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, from the dead.  The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit - co-equal Persons in the Eternal Godhead of Jehovah - declare this Gospel record to be God’s own revealed Truth.

Thought:  Let us - we who are saved by God’s Truth and what He did for us on the Cross - never tire of being ordained witnesses of Christ’s Salvation record of grace.  The Lord returns real soon.  Amen. (Rev. 22:20-21)