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Last Sunday morning was the closing
rally of the 169th assembly of the Convention of Atlantic Baptist Churches,
Oasis 2015.
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On that morning, the speaker for the
rally was Rev. Dr. Peter Reid, our executive minister.
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Peter read for us the first part of
the 21st chapter of the Gospel of John, and the title of his message was: 153
reasons to be hopeful.
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Now Dr. Reid did not preach a 153
point sermon as I also will not do, otherwise we will be here all day.
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However, he did find his title in
the gospel text that we are about to read.
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(Read John 21:1-17.)
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At the beginning of our passage,
seven of the disciples had gathered on the shores of the Sea of Galilee.
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We might wonder, why?
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Well, first, there was an emotional
draw to that area; that is where it all began for Peter, James, and John, and
the rest of the disciples.
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Galilee is where Jesus called them.
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Second, we also know that at least
three of them were fishermen (PJ&J).
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Third, Jesus said he would meet them
in Galilee, and the lake shore would be a natural place to meet Jesus.
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As they're there waiting to meet
Jesus, Peter decides, "I'm going fishing!"
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The rest agree and go fishing with
Peter.
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Why? Why did Peter go fishing?
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The events of the week leading up to
Jesus’ suffering and his surprising resurrection left them bone tired and
depressed, exhausted and discouraged.
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They felt like failures. The night Jesus was betrayed, they acted like
cowards, running and hiding.
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The questions the disciples must have
been asking themselves after Jesus rose from the dead probably went something
like this:
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What can we do? What do we have to
offer? How can God use failures like us?
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Those negative tapes that often play
in our minds were playing in the minds of the disciples.
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Therefore, exhausted and discouraged
Peter decided to return to the familiar. He decided to do something that he
might be able to do with a degree of success and the rest with him that night
agreed.
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They figured that since they
couldn't follow Jesus right, they could probably do fishing right.
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Fishing was what they knew. After
the way they abysmally failed to follow their Lord and Teacher, fishing was
easy.
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But that night, the Scripture says,
they caught nothing all night! They caught nothing all night!
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And this experience of fishing all
night long and catching absolutely nothing adds to their exhaustion and
discouragement.
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Not only have they failed Jesus, but
now they can't even get fishing right; something that they figured should have
been easy for them.
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They didn't have Jesus figured right,
and now they can't even fish right!
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After that fruitless night of failed
fishing, early in the morning, right at the break of day with the light of the
sun filling the sky before it peaks out of the East, Jesus stood on the shore.
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But the disciples do not recognize
that it was him.
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Jesus already knows the answer to
the question he's going to ask them, but he asks, "Children, have you
caught any fish?"
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Nope! Came the reply.
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"Cast your net on the right
side of the boat, and you will find some," said Jesus.
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So they did and they were not able
to haul in the net because there were so many fish.
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How many times all night long had
they cast the net on one side of the boat and then the other side of the boat,
but upon hearing the advice of the solitary figure standing on the shore and
having nothing to lose, they let down the net.
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Why would they do this after fishing
all night without success?
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One simple reason: they were
exhausted and discouraged and they had nothing to lose. They had nothing to
lose.
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They followed the advice of this
unknown person standing on the shore line, and when they did, they could not
pull in the net because there were too many fish.
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I wonder if the apostle John's mind
went back to the episode recorded in Luke chapter 5 because that's where my
mind automatically goes, the other miraculous catch of fish.
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Jesus tells Peter to put out into
deep water and let down the nets, and Peter says, "Master, we've finished
all night and caught nothing but we will do it because you say so," and
they haul in a catch so big it begins to tear the nets and the boats began to
take on water.
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Upon seeing the miracle, Peter
glimpses the holiness of God present in Jesus asking him to leave because Peter
was a sinful man.
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But Jesus said, "Don't be
afraid, from now on you will fish for people."
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In the moment of that second
miraculous catch of fish, John remembered the first miraculous catch, and has a
flash of inspiration, it's Jesus! John says to Peter, "It's the
Lord!"
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Can we see what Jesus has done in
the lives of his disciples?
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Before his suffering, his disciples
were a cocky, arrogant bunch.
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They thought they knew what was
coming, and that they were the new chosen elite, hand-picked by the Messiah.
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The cross stripped that away.
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Jesus tells them he'll meet them in
Galilee, and Peter and the seven with him figure, “Well, if we can't follow
Jesus right we can at least do fishing right.”
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They already thought they were at
their lowest point, but that whole night they failed even in doing something
that was old hat, familiar, comfortable, easy.
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Jesus stripped away their ability to
do even fishing right.
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And in their brokenness and their
willingness to admit their need, Jesus shows up at just the right time. The
same is often true of us.
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Many times in our lives, we need our
pride, our self-reliance, even those things that we return to with ease to be
stripped away, so that in our brokenness, we find our willingness to admit that
we need Jesus, and then we can see Jesus.
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Without Jesus, we fail. In John 15:5
Jesus said, "I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and
I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do
nothing."
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John realized that Jesus was there
and with his presence comes divine intervention.
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We need to remember that true
ministry is a partnership. As Jesus said, "apart from me you can do
nothing."
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We can't accomplish anything unless
we are abiding in Christ.
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We can not do ministry in our own
power and produce fruit that has eternal significance.
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True ministry is a divine-human
partnership.
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Well, Peter abandons the others and
swims to Jesus. He can't wait!
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Oh that we would have the same
anticipation and excitement about our times in prayer and in the word.
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Peter hears John's exclamation, the
coats on and he's in the water heading for Jesus.
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The others follow in the boat,
towing the net along with them; they arrive on the shore, and there's
breakfast!
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Jesus said to them, “Bring some of
the fish you just caught,” which was, of course, with his help, his
partnership.
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153 large fish that filled the net,
all of those fish represent success.
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Those fish point to God's
superabundant provision. They didn't need 153 large fish for breakfast, but
where God provides he provides super abundantly.
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Success comes when we partner with
the Lord Jesus on his mission in his way.
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All night long they failed, until
Jesus arrived and told them to let the nets down again.
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Remember what Jesus said in John
15:5, "I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in
him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do
nothing."
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Jesus said to them, "Come and
have breakfast." None of the disciples asked who he was, for they all knew
that it was the Lord Jesus.
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They went to him and Jesus served
them breakfast.
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He wasn't giving up on them. He
meets their physical need and their spiritual need; he gives them food and
intimacy.
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The Lord Jesus wants that for us. He
wants us to come to him, to begin again with him, and he wants us to know that
things will turn out according to his plans for us as we partner with him.
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Just as Jesus met the needs of his
disciples, so also the Holy Spirit will meet our needs.
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When we partner with Jesus,
there is hope!
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God doesn't want us to worry and
stress and fret over the details, but to focus on the big picture, and the big
picture is our partnership with Christ in the mission that he has for us.
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Are the details important? Yes, they
are, but more important is recognizing our need to be with Christ and depend on
him and his guidance and direction in our partnership with him in carrying out
his mission.
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When we partner with Jesus,
there is hope!
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After breakfast, the hard word
comes. Jesus turns to Peter and says, "Simon, son of John, do you love me
more than these?"
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What is Jesus talking about? To what
was Jesus referring when he asked Peter, “do you love me more than these?”
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Well, I want to suggest that Jesus
wasn't referring to the other disciples.
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I think when Jesus asked Peter that
question he was looking at those 153 fish, at that miraculous catch.
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I think Jesus was asking Peter, “Do
you love me more than this miraculous catch of fish? Do you love me more than
fishing? Do you love me more than returning to what is familiar, what is easy,
what is comfortable?”
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Why? Because Jesus wasn't calling
Peter to do something easy.
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With those same three questions and
same three commands, Jesus was saying to Peter, "I'm not calling you to do
something easy!"
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And the Lord is saying the same
thing to us, "I'm not calling you to do something easy. I'm not calling
you to return to something that's familiar. I'm not calling you to do something
that's comfortable."
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But When we partner with Jesus,
there is hope!
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The Lord Jesus called Peter out of
being a fisherman and into becoming a shepherd of God's people.
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These are two radically different
vocations. Just as Jesus called Peter to do something radically different than
what he used to do, so also the Lord Jesus calls us to be and do things
radically different.
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Jesus is
asking us, "Do you love me more than... Blank?"
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As you think
about filling in the blank, as we ponder that together, we need to ask
ourselves: What is my easy "go to" answer? To what comfortable,
familiar thing do I return?
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We need to
be willing to do the hard work that partnership with Jesus is calling us to do.
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We need to
be willing to walk away from what we know, from what's comfortable, from what's
easy, and from what we feel we can do with a degree of success.
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What we
know, what's comfortable, what's easy, what we can do successfully is not what
God asks us to do because it leaves God out of the picture, and God calls us to
do things that would be impossible without him.
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God calls us
to be partners with the Holy Spirit on mission with him.
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When we
partner with Jesus, there is hope!
