THOMAS ANSWERED, "MY LORD AND MY GOD!"
Then Jesus said to him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed."
You remember that the angels had said to the women at the tomb of Jesus that his disciples should go into Galilee, that his disciples should go into Galilee and there they would see the risen Lord. They went to Galilee, and waited for some days without seeing Jesus. Finally Peter said, "I am going fishing."
"We will go with you," said the others. There were with Peter the two brothers, James and John, Thomas and Nathanael, and two other disciples. They went out upon the lake in the fishing goat, and worked all night, but found no fish. Just as the day was breaking they saw some one standing on the beach. It was Jesus, but they did not know him. He called out to them as one friend calls to another, "Boys, have you caught anything?"
They answered him, "No."
He said to them, "Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and you will find some fish."
They may have thought that standing on the shore he could see the signs of a shoal of fish, which they from the boat could not see. But the quick eyes of John, the beloved disciple, were the first to see who was this stranger on the shore. He said to Peter, "It is the Lord!"
THE RISEN CHRIST ON THE SHORE SEEN BY THE DISCIPLES IN THE BOAT
When Peter heard this, he flung around him his fisherman’s cat, and leaped into the water, and swam to the shore to meet his Lord. But the other six disciples stayed in the boat, and rowed to the shore, dragging after them the net full of fishes. When they came to the land, they found burning a fire of charcoal, and a fish broiling upon it, and a loaf of bread beside it. They all knew now that it was the Lord Jesus, and he said to them, "Bring some of the fish that you have now caught."
Simon Peter waded out to where the net was lying, filled with fish, and drew it to the shore. Afterward they counted the fish that were in it, and found them one hundred and fifty-three large fishes, besides small ones. Yet the net was not broken with all these fish in it. Jesus said to them, "Come now and breakfast."
THE NET FULL
He took the bread, and gave it to them, and gave them fish also; and the seven disciples ate a breakfast with their risen Lord. This was the third time that Jesus showed himself to his disciples in a company after rising from the tomb, the seventh of the times that he was seen.
After the breakfast, Jesus turned to Simon Peter, the one who three times had denied that he knew Jesus, and he said to him, "Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?"
Peter answered him, "Yes, Lord, thou knowest that I live thee."
Jesus said to him, "Feed my lambs."
Then after a time Jesus said again, "Simon, son of Jonas, dost thou love me?"
Peter answered him as before, "Yes Lord; thou knowest that I love thee."
And Jesus said to him, "Tend my sheep."
The third time Jesus said to him, "Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?"
Peter was troubled to have this question asked again and again, and he answered, "Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee."
And thus Peter, after his fall, three times declared his love to Christ, and was again called to his place among the disciples.
After this the followers of Jesus met on a mountain in Galilee, perhaps the same mountain where Jesus had before given the teachings called "The sermon on the Mount," if which we read in Story Thirteen. More than five hundred people were gathered at this time; and there Jesus showed himself to them all. He said to them:
"All power is given to me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and preach my gospel to all the nations of the earth, baptizing them in the mane of the Father and the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; teaching them to keep all the commands that I have given you. And I am with you always, even to the end of the world."
This was the eighth time that Jesus was seen after he rose from the dead. The ninth was when he showed himself to James, not the apostle of that name, but another James, who was called "The Lord’s Brother," and may have been a son of Joseph, the carpenter of Nazareth, and Mary his wife. We do not know what was said at this meeting; but from this time James was a strong believer in Jesus.
Once more, the tenth time, the risen Saviour showed himself to all his eleven disciples. It may have been in Jerusalem, for he told them not to leave the city, but to wait until God should send down upon them his Spirit, as he had promised. And Jesus said to them:
"When the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you shall have a new power, and you shall speak in my name in Jerusalem, and in Judea, and in Samaria, and in the farthest parts of the earth."
(670) Jesus led his disciples out of the city and over the Mount of Olives, near to the village of Bethany. And he lifted up his hands in blessing upon them; and while he was blessing them, he began to rise in the air, higher and higher, until a cloud covered him and the disciples saw him no more.
JESUS TALKS WITH TWO OF HIS FOLLOWERS ON THE WALK TO EMMAUS
While they were looking up toward heaven, they found two men, like angels, with shining garments, standing by them. These men said:
"O ye men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up into heaven? This Jesus who has been taken up from you, shall come again from heaven to earth, as you have seen him go up from earth to heaven!"
Then the disciples were glad. They worshipped their risen Lord Jesus, now gone up to heaven; and they went again to Jerusalem. And they were constantly in the Temple, praising and giving thanks to God.
The Church of the First Days
Acts i: 12, to ii: 47.
After the Lord Jesus had gone away to heaven, the eleven disciples and a small company of those who believed in Christ were left alone on the earth. But they were not sad, as were should have expected them to be. They were very happy, for their Lord had left with them his promise to send power from God upon them. Every day they met together, and praised God, and prayed, in the large upper room where Jesus had taken his last supper with them.
The eleven disciples chose a twelfth man to take the place which had belonged to Judas the traitor. His name was Matthias. With these were Mary, the mother of Jesus, and his brothers, and the women who had been at the cross and the tomb, and a number of others, men and women, who believed in Jesus as the Christ. The whole number of the company was one hundred and twenty people. In all the world these were all who at that time believed in Christ.
Ten days after Jesus went away to heaven there came a day which the Jews called "The Day of Pentecost," or "The Fiftieth Day," for it was just fifty days after the Feast of Passover. On that day the believers in Christ were all together in the upper room praying, when suddenly a sound was heard like the rushing of a mighty wind coming straight down from the sky. And what looked like tongues of fire seemed to be over the heads of all the company. Then the Spirit of God came upon them all, and they began to speak of Christ and his gospel with a power that none of them had ever known before.
This strange noise as of a sounding wind was heard all over the city, and at once a great crowd of people came together at the place to learn what the sound meant. There they saw these people, one hundred and twenty in number, singing, praising God, and telling of his wonderful works. And there was another marvelous thing. These people who had heard the noise, and had been drawn to the place, were Jews from many lands, who had come up to Jerusalem to worship, some from the lands far in the east, others from lands in the west, and others from isles of the sea. Every man heard these believers in Jesus speaking in the language of the land from which he had come! It was as though in every tongue of the earth men were telling of God’s wonderful work.