NT Lesson 79-80 John 20-21

https://www.lds.org/manual/new-testament-seminary-teacher-manual?lang=eng

Lesson 79: John 20

Introduction

On the Sunday after the Crucifixion, Mary Magdalene discovered the empty tomb and informed John and Peter, who then ran to the empty tomb. The resurrected Christ appeared to Mary Magdalene and later to His disciples.

I. John 20:1–10  Mary Magdalene discovers the empty tomb and tells John and Peter, who then run to the tomb

---To prepare students to study John 20, invite them to think about a time when a loved one or the loved one of someone they know passed away.

• What feelings might we experience when a loved one passes away?

---To help students understand the context of John 20, remind them that after Jesus died at about 3:00 p.m. on Friday, His body was placed in a tomb late that afternoon and a large stone was set to seal the entrance of the tomb. The Sabbath then began at sunset. (You may want to explain that before the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Lord’s covenant people observed the Sabbath from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday.)

---Invite a student to read aloud the following statement by Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Ask the class to imagine how the disciples of Jesus felt on that tragic Friday.

“I think of how dark that Friday was when Christ was lifted up on the cross.

“On that terrible Friday the earth shook and grew dark. Frightful storms lashed at the earth.

“Those evil men who sought His life rejoiced. Now that Jesus was no more, surely those who followed Him would disperse. On that day they stood triumphant.

“On that day the veil of the temple was rent in twain.

“Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of Jesus, were both overcome with grief and despair. The superb man they had loved and honored hung lifeless upon the cross.

“On that Friday the Apostles were devastated. Jesus, their Savior—the man who had walked on water and raised the dead—was Himself at the mercy of wicked men. They watched helplessly as He was overcome by His enemies.

“On that Friday the Savior of mankind was humiliated and bruised, abused and reviled.

“It was a Friday filled with devastating, consuming sorrow that gnawed at the souls of those who loved and honored the Son of God.

“I think that of all the days since the beginning of this world’s history, that Friday was the darkest” (“Sunday Will Come,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2006, 29–30).

• If you had been one of the disciples who were there on that Friday, what thoughts or feelings might you have had?

---After students respond, read aloud the following additional statement by Elder Wirthlin:

“But the doom of that day did not endure” (“Sunday Will Come,” 30).

---Invite students to look for how “the doom of that day did not endure” as they study John 20.

---Read John 20:1–2 aloud. Invite the class to follow along, looking for what Mary Magdalene discovered when she arrived at Jesus’s tomb early in the morning on the first day of the week, or Sunday.

• What did Mary discover?
• What did Mary do when she discovered that the stone had been removed from the entrance of the tomb? What did she assume?

---Take turns reading aloud from John 20:3–10. Ask the class to follow along, looking for what Peter and John, who was referred to as “that other disciple” (verse 3), did after hearing Mary’s news.

• What did Peter and John do after hearing Mary’s news?
• According to verse 8, how did John respond to seeing the empty tomb? What did he believe?

---You may want to explain that until John looked into the empty tomb, he had not fully comprehended the Savior’s declarations that He would rise from the dead on the third day. As John saw the empty tomb, he remembered and believed (see John 20:8–9).

II. John 20:11–31  The risen Savior appears to Mary Magdalene and later to His disciples

---Read John 20:11–15 aloud. Ask the class to follow along, looking for who spoke to Mary after Peter and John left the tomb.

• In verses 12–13, who spoke to Mary?
• Who spoke to Mary in verse 15? Who did Mary think Jesus was?

---Read John 20:16–18 aloud. Ask the class to follow along, looking for what Jesus instructed Mary to do once she recognized Him.

---To help students understand the meaning of the phrase “touch me not” (verse 17), invite a student to read aloud the following statement by Elder Bruce R. McConkie of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles:

“The King James Version quotes Jesus as saying ‘Touch me not.’ The Joseph Smith Translation reads ‘Hold me not.’ Various translations from the Greek render the passage as ‘Do not cling to me’ or ‘Do not hold me.’ Some give the meaning as ‘Do not cling to me any longer,’ or ‘Do not hold me any longer.’ Some speak of ceasing to hold him or cling to him, leaving the inference that Mary was already holding him. There is valid reason for supposing that the thought conveyed to Mary by the Risen Lord was to this effect: ‘You cannot hold me here, for I am going to ascend to my Father’” (The Mortal Messiah, 4 vols. [1979–81], 4:264).

• According to verse 17, what did Jesus instruct Mary to do?

---Invite students to imagine that they had been one of the disciples who heard Mary’s witness. Ask students to answer the following questions in their class notebooks or scripture study journals:

• What do you think you would have felt as you listened to Mary?
• Would you have believed her? Why or why not?

---After sufficient time, invite a few students to share what they wrote. Remind them that some disciples struggled to believe Mary’s witness (see Mark 16:11).

---Read John 20:19–20 aloud, and ask the class to look for what happened that evening.

• What happened that evening when the disciples were gathered together?
• What important doctrine did Mary and the disciples learn? (Students may use different words but should identify the following doctrine: Jesus Christ overcame death through His Resurrection.)
• According to verse 20, how did the disciples feel when they saw the resurrected Lord?

---Invite a student to read aloud the following statement by Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin:

“In an instant the eyes that had been filled with ever-flowing tears dried. The lips that had whispered prayers of distress and grief now filled the air with wondrous praise, for Jesus the Christ, the Son of the living God, stood before them as the firstfruits of the Resurrection, the proof that death is merely the beginning of a new and wondrous existence” (“Sunday Will Come,” 30).

• How can knowing that Jesus Christ has been resurrected help us as we grieve when someone we love passes away? (Because Jesus Christ was resurrected, everyone who has lived on this earth will also be resurrected [see 1 Corinthians 15:20–22].)

---John 20:21–23 says that after Jesus showed His disciples the wounds in His hands and side, He commissioned them to do His work and said to them, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost” (verse 22).

---Read John 20:24–25 aloud. Invite the class to follow along, looking for the Apostle who was not present for that sacred occasion.

• Which Apostle was not present when the other disciples saw the resurrected Lord?
• According to verse 25, what did Thomas say he needed in order to believe?
• How did Thomas’s response recorded in this verse differ from John’s response when John saw the empty tomb as recorded in John 20:8?
• Why do you think it was difficult for Thomas to believe?

---Take turns reading aloud from John 20:26–29. Ask the class to look for what Thomas experienced eight days after he said he did not believe that Jesus had been resurrected.

Instead of having students read, you could show the video “Blessed Are They That Have Not Seen, and Yet Have Believed” (2:29) from The Life of Jesus Christ Bible Videos to help students visualize Thomas’s experience as recorded in these verses. This video is available on LDS.org.

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• After Jesus allowed Thomas to touch His hands and side, what choice did He invite Thomas to make? (Be believing.)
• According to verse 29, what did Jesus want Thomas to understand?
• What principle can we learn from the Savior’s teaching? (After students respond, write the following principle on the board: We will be blessed if we choose to believe in Jesus Christ even when we cannot see Him.)

---Divide students into groups of two or three, and provide each group with a handout containing the following questions.

(click to view larger)

We Will Be Blessed If We Choose to Believe in Jesus Christ Even When We Cannot See Him

1. Why do you choose to believe in Jesus Christ even if you have not seen Him with your mortal eyes?

2. What can we do to demonstrate that we have chosen to believe in Jesus Christ?

3. How have you been blessed by choosing to believe in Jesus Christ?

© 2015 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved.

---Invite each group to discuss these questions together and to write their answers on the handout or in their scripture study journals. After sufficient time, invite a few students to share their answers with the class.

---Although Jesus taught that we will be blessed if we choose to believe in Him even if we cannot see Him, He provides witnesses as a basis for our belief.

---Read John 20:30–31 aloud. Ask the class to follow along, looking for why John recorded these events.

• Why did John record these events? (You may want to explain that the word life [verse 31] refers to eternal life.)
• What truths can we learn from verse 31 about the testimonies of apostles and prophets? (Students may use different words but should identify truths similar to the following: Apostles and prophets testify of Jesus Christ so that we may believe that He is the Son of God. By choosing to believe in the testimony of Jesus Christ given by apostles and prophets, we can receive eternal life. This belief implies that one will strive to keep His commandments and live true to that testimony.)
• How have the testimonies of apostles and prophets strengthened your belief in Jesus Christ?

---Conclude by sharing your testimony of Jesus Christ. Encourage students to apply the truths they have identified in John 20 by determining how they will demonstrate their belief in Jesus Christ.

Commentary and Background Information

John 20:11–18. The first witness of the resurrected Christ

President James E. Faust of the First Presidency explained that the first person Jesus appeared to as a resurrected being has a great deal of significance:

“No woman should question how the Savior values womanhood. The grieving Mary Magdalene was the first to visit the sepulchre after the Crucifixion, and when she saw that the stone had been rolled away and that the tomb was empty, she ran to tell Peter and John. The two Apostles came to see and then went away sorrowing. But Mary stayed. She had stood near the cross [see Matthew 27:56; Mark 15:40; John 19:25]. She had been at the burial [see Matthew 27:61; Mark 15:47]. And now she stood weeping by the empty sepulchre [see John 20:11]. There she was honored to be the first mortal to see the risen Lord” (“Woman, Why Weepest Thou?” Ensign, Nov. 1996, 54).

John 20:16–20. “Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord”

Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles described the despair of the disciples of Jesus Christ on the Friday He was crucified. Then he added:

“The despair did not linger because on Sunday, the resurrected Lord burst the bonds of death. He ascended from the grave and appeared gloriously triumphant as the Savior of all mankind. …

“Each of us will have our own Fridays—those days when the universe itself seems shattered and the shards of our world lie littered about us in pieces. We all will experience those broken times when it seems we can never be put together again. We will all have our Fridays.

“But I testify to you in the name of the One who conquered death—Sunday will come. In the darkness of our sorrow, Sunday will come.

“No matter our desperation, no matter our grief, Sunday will come. In this life or the next, Sunday will come.

“I testify to you that the Resurrection is not a fable. We have the personal testimonies of those who saw Him. Thousands in the Old and New Worlds witnessed the risen Savior. They felt the wounds in His hands, feet, and side. They shed tears of unrestrained joy as they embraced Him” (“Sunday Will Come,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2006, 30).

John 20:22. “He breathed on them”

President Harold B. Lee said the following about this statement:

“He ‘breathed on them and said unto them, receive ye the Holy Ghost,’ (John 20:22) which in all likelihood was the confirmation and the commission to receive the Holy Ghost, or the baptism of the Spirit, by the laying on of hands for that was the procedure followed thereafter by His disciples” (in Conference Report, Apr. 1955, 18).

Elder Bruce R. McConkie of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles similarly suggested that the phrase “Jesus ‘breathed on them,’ … probably means that he laid his hands upon them as he uttered the decree: ‘Receive the Holy Ghost.’” Elder McConkie goes on to teach that this event illustrates the difference between the bestowal of the gift of the Holy Ghost and actually enjoying that gift: “They thus received, but did not at that moment actually enjoy, the gift of the Holy Ghost. … The gift of the Holy Ghost is the right, based on faithfulness, to receive the constant companionship of this member of the Godhead; and this gift is conferred by the laying on of hands following baptism. This gift offers certain blessings provided there is full compliance with the law involved; everyone upon whom the gift is bestowed does not in fact enjoy or possess the offered gift. In the case of the apostles the actual enjoyment of the gift was delayed until the day of Pentecost. (Acts 2.)” (Doctrinal New Testament Commentary, 3 vols. [1965–73], 1:857).

Supplemental Teaching Idea

John 20:3–10. Video presentation—“To This End Was I Born”

Instead of inviting students to take turns reading aloud from John 20:3–10, you could show a portion of the video “To This End Was I Born” (time code 24:25–26:30), which depicts Peter and John seeing the empty tomb that Mary Magdalene had discovered. This video is available on New Testament DVD Presentations 1–25 and on LDS.org.

© 2016 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved.

Right margin extras:

Help students understand the context of the scriptures

The context of the scriptures includes the circumstances surrounding an event recorded in a scriptural passage. Understanding this context will prepare students to recognize the messages of the inspired authors of the scriptures. It will also help students mentally step into each author’s world as much as possible and see the events as the author saw them.

Lesson 80: John 21

Introduction

The resurrected Lord appeared to His disciples while they were fishing. On the shore, Jesus ate with His disciples and invited Peter to demonstrate his love for the Lord by feeding His sheep. Jesus foretold both Peter’s martyrdom and John’s translation.

I.  John 21:1–17  The resurrected Lord appears to some of His disciples at the Sea of Tiberias (Sea of Galilee)

Draw a large heart on the board.

---Invite students to come to the board and write inside the heart two or three of their favorite things. Explain that these could include people, possessions, or activities.

---When students have finished, you might also list a few of your favorite things.

---John 21:1–2 says that after seeing the resurrected Lord on two occasions, Peter and some of the other disciples were on the shore of the Sea of Galilee (which is also called the Sea of Tiberias). Invite a student to read John 21:3 aloud. Ask the class to follow along, looking for what Peter decided to do.

• What activity do you think Peter might add to our list of favorite things on the board? (After students respond, write fishing inside the heart on the board.)
• How long did Peter and the other disciples fish? How much did they catch?

---Ask students to consider how they think Peter and the other disciples may have felt after a long night of fishing without any results.

---Read John 21:4–6 aloud. Ask the class to follow along, looking for what happened the following morning.

• Who was on the shore?
• Did the disciples recognize Jesus at first?
• What did Jesus instruct them to do?
• What happened after they followed Jesus’s instruction?

---Invite a student to read aloud the following statement by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles:

“Just three years earlier these very men had been fishing on this very sea. On that occasion too they had ‘toiled all the night, and [had] taken nothing’ [Luke 5:5], the scripture says. But a fellow Galilean on the shore had called out to them to let down their nets, and they drew ‘a great multitude of fishes’ [Luke 5:6], enough that their nets broke, the catch filling two boats so heavily they had begun to sink.

“Now it was happening again” (“The First Great Commandment,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2012, 84).

• How might this second miraculous catch of fish have helped the disciples recognize who was on the shore?
• What might you have thought or felt if you had been in the boat with the disciples?

---John 21:7–14 says that as the disciples struggled to lift the net full of fish into the boat, John declared that the man on the shore was the Lord. Peter eagerly dove into the sea and swam toward Jesus while the others went in their boat. When the disciples arrived on the shore, Jesus was preparing a meal for them.

---Elder Jeffrey R. Holland elaborated on this account by teaching that after Peter and the other disciples had dined with the Savior, Jesus may have “[looked] at their battered little boats, their frayed nets, and a stunning pile of 153 fish” (“The First Great Commandment,” 84) and then spoke to Peter.

---Read John 21:15–17 aloud. Ask the class to follow along, looking for a question Jesus repeatedly asked Peter. You may want to suggest that students mark what they find.

• What question did Jesus ask Peter three times?
• When Jesus asked, “Lovest thou me more than these?” (verse 15), what do you think the word these referred to? (Jesus could have been referring to the pile of fish or other things associated with the life of a fisherman. Write the following question on the board near the heart: Lovest thou me more than these?)
• How did Peter respond?
• How might you have felt if you had been in Peter’s position and Jesus had asked you three times if you loved Him?

---To help students understand why Jesus may have asked this question three times, invite a student to read aloud the following statement by Elder Holland:

“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. … 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’” (“The First Great Commandment,” 84).

• What principle can we learn from Peter’s experience? (After students respond, write the following principle on the board: If we love the Savior and Heavenly Father more than anything else, we will feed Their sheep.)
• Who are Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ’s sheep? How do we feed them?

---Invite a student to read aloud the following statement by Elder Robert D. Hales of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles:

“This is the call of Christ to every Christian today: ‘Feed my lambs. … Feed my sheep’—share my gospel with young and old, lifting, blessing, comforting, encouraging, and building them, especially those who think and believe differently than we do” (“Being a More Christian Christian,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2012, 91).

---To help the class understand how the principle they just identified can relate to us, invite three students to take turns reading the following scenarios aloud. (You can adapt these scenarios according to the needs and interests of your students.) After each scenario has been read, ask the questions that follow.

1. A group of boys invites a young man to sit with them during lunch, and he hopes to become friends with them. During their conversation, one of the boys in the group starts publicly making fun of another boy.
2. A young woman loves playing soccer. She devotes many hours a week to playing soccer and has little time for other things such as family home evening and personal scripture study.
3. A young man has been very busy with both academic and extracurricular activities. All week, he has been looking forward to spending some rare free time with friends on Friday night. Just before he calls one of them that night, his home teaching companion calls to see if he can go with him to help one of their assigned families with an urgent need.

• What choices are available to this person?
• What could this person do to demonstrate his or her love for the Lord? How would that action show love for the Lord?

---Invite a student to read aloud the following statement by Elder Holland:

“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?’” (“The First Great Commandment,” 84).

---Share your testimony of the importance of choosing to love Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ above all else and showing that love by feeding Their sheep.

---Refer to the items listed in the heart on the board and the question written next to those items: “Lovest thou me more than these?” Underline the word these, and invite students to answer the following questions in their class notebooks or scripture study journals:

• If Jesus were asking the same question of you, what do you think He would refer to as “these” in your life?
• How would you answer His question?
• How will you demonstrate your love for the Lord?

II. John 21:18–25 Jesus foretells Peter’s martyrdom and John’s translation

---In John 21:18–21 Jesus prophesied that when Peter became old he would “stretch forth [his] hands” (verse 18) and be carried where he did not want to go. It is traditionally believed that Peter died by crucifixion. However, it is said that Peter requested to be crucified upside down because he considered himself unworthy to die in the same manner as the Savior (see Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, comp. Bruce R. McConkie, 3 vols. [1954–56], 3:151–52). After hearing about this prophecy, Peter asked what would happen to the Apostle John, also known as John the Beloved.

---Read John 21:22–23 aloud. Ask the class to follow along, looking for how the Savior answered Peter.

• What did Peter learn about John?

---The word tarry in verse 22 means to remain alive on the earth. Thus, John would remain on the earth as a translated being until Jesus Christ’s Second Coming. Translated beings are “persons who are changed so that they do not experience pain or death until their resurrection to immortality” (Guide to the Scriptures, “Translated Beings,” scriptures.lds.org).

• According to verse 22, what did Jesus want Peter to focus on rather than concerning himself with what would happen to John?

---Read John 21:24–25 aloud. Ask the class to follow along, looking for what John wanted everyone to know as he concluded his record.

• What did John want everyone to know as he concluded his record?

---Write the following questions on the board:

Of all that was written in the records of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, what story, event, or teaching from the Savior’s mortal ministry has had the greatest impact on you? Why?

---Invite students to ponder their responses to these questions. You might quietly play a recording of a hymn, such as “Come, Follow Me” (Hymns, no. 116), and allow students to review their scriptures and class notebooks or scripture study journals to recall some of the truths they have learned. After sufficient time, invite a few students to come to the front of the class and share their responses to the questions.

---You may want to conclude by testifying of the truthfulness of the accounts of Jesus Christ’s mortal ministry and Atonement written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Commentary and Background Information

John 21:1–19. The first great commandment

For additional commentary regarding the conversation between Jesus and Peter as recorded in John 21, read Elder Jeffrey R. Holland’s talk “The First Great Commandment” (Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2012, 83–85).

John 21:22–23. “Tarry till I come”

“Earlier in His earthly ministry, the Savior had said, ‘There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom’ (Matthew 16:28). The resurrected Christ foretold that John would be one who would fulfill that prophecy and ‘tarry’ on earth until He came again (see John 21:22–23). A more complete account of this conversation between the Savior, Peter, and John is found in Doctrine and Covenants, section 7, which is ‘a translated version of the record made on parchment by John and hidden up by himself’ (D&C 7, section introduction). This revelation clarifies that John asked the Savior for ‘power over death, that I may live and bring souls unto thee,’ and in response, the Savior granted John power to live until His Second Coming (see D&C 7:1–3). John thus became a ‘translated’ being. Such beings are ‘changed so that they do not experience pain or death until their resurrection to immortality’ (Guide to the Scriptures, ‘Translated Beings’; scriptures.lds.org). For more information on translated beings, see 3 Nephi 28:4–40, which affirms that three Nephite disciples experienced the same change undergone by John (see 3 Nephi 28:6)” (New Testament Student Manual [Church Educational System manual, 2014], 271).

The Prophet Joseph Smith taught in June 1831 that John was at that time ministering among the lost ten tribes (see History of the Church, 1:176). Besides this statement, we do not know the specifics of John’s ministry as a translated being. It is unwise to speculate about John’s whereabouts or achievements.

© 2016 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved.

Right margin extras:

Writing exercises

Occasionally inviting students to write down their responses to thought-provoking questions helps deepen and clarify their thinking. Among other things, writing assignments provide students with opportunities to participate personally and to receive inspiration about how to apply what they are learning.