The Story of the Bible

The ten disciples and other followers of Jesus were together in a room on that night, and the doors were shut. Suddenly Jesus himself was seen standing among them. He said, "Peace be unto you!"

Some of them were alarmed when they saw him and thought that he must be a spirit. Be he said to them, "Why are you troubled? And why do fears come to you? Look at the wounds in my hands and my feet! Handle me, and see. A spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see that I have."

And he showed them his hands and his side. They could scarcely believe for the joy of seeing him again. He said, "Have you here anything to eat?"

They gave him a piece of broiled fish and of a honeycomb, and he ate before them. And he said, "This is what I told you while I was with you, that everything written of me in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, must come to pass. It was needful that Christ should suffer thus, and should rise from the dead, and that everywhere the gospel should be preached in his name. I will send the promise of my Father upon you; but stay in Jerusalem after I leave you, until power shall come upon you from on high."

Then when the disciples saw that it was really the Lord, and that he was alive from the dead, they were glad. And Jesus said to them again, "Peace be to you, as my Father has sent me, even so I send you. May the Spirit of God come upon you!"

And this was the fifth time that Jesus showed himself alive on that day. This Sunday was the brightest day in all the world, because on it Jesus rose from the dead. And that Sunday in every year is called Easter Sunday.

THE RISEN CHRIST BLESSING HIS DISCIPLES

The Stranger on the Shore

Matthew xxviii: 16 to 20; Mark xvi: 14 to 20; Luke xxiv: 50 to 53; John xx: 26, to xxi: 25; Acts i: 1 to 11; I Corinthians xv: 3 to 8.

When Jesus showed himself to the disciples on the evening of the day of his rising from the dead, only ten of the disciples was him, for Judas was no longer among them, and Thomas the twin (which is the meaning of his other name, Didymus) was absent. The other disciples said to Thomas, "We have seen the Lord!"

But Thomas said, "I will not believe that he has risen unless I can see in his hands the marks of the nails and the cross. I must see them with my own eyes, and put my hand into the wound in his side, before I will believe.

A week passed away, and on the next Sunday evening the disciples were together again, and at this time Thomas was with them.

The doors were shut but suddenly Jesus was seen again standing in the middle of the room. He said, as before, "Peace be with you."

Then he turned to Thomas, and said to him, "Thomas, come here, and touch my hands with you finger, and put your hand into my side; and no longer refuse to believe that I am living, but have faith in me!" And Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!"

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."