05-01-2022
JOHN 21:1-19
21:1 Later, Jesus appeared again to the disciples beside the Sea of Galilee. This is how it happened. 2 Several of the disciples were there—Simon Peter, Thomas (nicknamed the Twin), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples.
3 Simon Peter said, “I’m going fishing.”
“We’ll come, too,” they all said. So, they went out in the boat, but they caught nothing all night.
4 At dawn Jesus was standing on the beach, but the disciples couldn’t see who He was. 5 He called out, “Fellows, have you caught any fish?”
“No,” they replied.
6 Then He said, “Throw out your net on the right-hand side of the boat, and you’ll get some!” So, they did, and they couldn’t haul in the net because there were so many fish in it.
7 Then the disciple Jesus loved said to Peter, “It’s the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his tunic (for he had stripped for work), jumped into the water, and headed to shore. 8 The others stayed with the boat and pulled the loaded net to the shore, for they were only about a hundred yards[d] from shore. 9 When they got there, they found breakfast waiting for them—fish cooking over a charcoal fire, and some bread.
10 “Bring some of the fish you’ve just caught,” Jesus said. 11 So Simon Peter went aboard and dragged the net to the shore. There were 153 large fish, and yet the net hadn’t torn.
12 “Now come and have some breakfast!” Jesus said. None of the disciples dared to ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord.
13 Then Jesus served them the bread and the fish. 14 This was the third time Jesus had appeared to his disciples since he had been raised from the dead.
15 After breakfast Jesus asked Simon Peter, “Simon - son of John, do you love me more than these?”
“Yes, Lord,” Peter replied, “you know I love you.”
“Then feed my lambs,” Jesus told him.
16 Jesus repeated the question: “Simon - son of John, do you love me?”
“Yes, Lord,” Peter said, “you know I love you.”
“Then take care of my sheep,” Jesus said.
17 A third time he asked him, “Simon - son of John, do you love me?”
Peter was hurt that Jesus asked the question a third time. He said, “Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Then feed my sheep.
18 “I tell you the truth, when you were young, you were able to do as you liked; you dressed yourself and went wherever you wanted to go. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and others[f] will dress you and take you where you don’t want to go.” 19 Jesus said this to let him know by what kind of death he would glorify God. Then Jesus told him, “Follow me.”
Who here has a Brother or a Sister?
Even in the Best of Families, If there are Two or more Siblings, Then there is:
Competition!
And Opposition!
This is just something That seems to Never Escape Families Who Have More than 1 Child
It Displays Itself When One of the Children “Cries Out: “You LOVE her MORE!”
And Later – As Adults, We See It When One “Argues over the Family Fortune!”
There Just Seems to Be A – Real - Need To “BE VALUED” And To “FEEL ALIVE”
And Wouldn’t You Agree That There Is Almost An OVER-POWERING 'URGE TO WIN’!
This Competitiveness Is ALIVE and GROWING From Our Earliest Years!
The Seeds Are Planted In Our Childhood Board Games of LIFE, SORRY, and MONOPOLY
And This Continues to Grow – Well Into Our ADULT-HOOD
WE – JUST - LOVE – TO - GAIN THE UPPER HAND OF AFFECTION!
Don’t You Agree?
ALL TO OFTEN – This URGE to WIN, It GROWS AND TRANSFERS Into An ALMOST A NEED
TO GAIN The Upper Hand of Affection!
IT SEEMS THAT We are by Nature – BORN TO BE - Competitive PEOPLE.
While – It Is TRUE - We Value Fairness, BUT – We Also Want TO FEEL That They Have Been Specially Chosen.
It Doesn’t Matter If We Are Center Fielder in Little League, An Adopted Child!
A Fiancé! A Job Candidate! Or An Award Winner!
Just The Act of Being “CHOSEN,” It Brings with It The FEELING Of VALUE.
We Feel CHERISHED! APPRECIATED! PRAISED! Loved And EVEN - Just SEEN!
NOW – Who Here Would Not Want, Or Does Not Desire To Actually F E E L That FEELING
OF Being Valued? Do We Not ALL Desire That?!
SO, – Do You Know - What Went So - HORRIBLY Wrong With The Jews?
The Jewish Were/Are A Group of People Who From the Moment Of Father-Abram- From the Dawn of The Covenant - No One Can Not Deny That These People Have Been Especially Chosen by God.
When God said, “You will be My people, and I will be your God,”
Jeremiah 30:22
At First – It Was A Matter of Honor! But Later ON – Did That Change?
YOU SEE, After A Period of Time, This Sense Of “Chosen-Ness” It Changed WITHIN THEM!
The “Chosen-Ness” Turned Into A Sense Of “Exclusiveness!”
And, Of Course, There Is Always a Danger Of FEELING A Sense of CHOSEN-NESS.
It Seems It Is a Slippery Slope From The Belief That One Is Not Just - Cherished and Valued -But Being Cherished and Valued “Above All Others”
You SEE – The Scriptures Tell Us That God Particularly Noted That The Israelites Were CHOSEN –
This Is TRUE BUT – CHOSEN TO SHINE THEIR LIGHT TO - ALL – OF – THE - NATIONS!
God CHOSE Them – To Be “The Ones” Who Truly “Knew” God (Yhwh) And Then They Could Show The World What It Meant to Be In A Covenant - with the “One True God”
They – the Israelites Where Chosen To Be the FIRST MISSIONARIES!
BUT – Over Time, It was the Israelites Themselves Who Turned Their “CHOSEN-NESS” Into Being “Better Than”
And by the time When Jesus appeared on the scene, This “CHOSEN AS BEING BETTER!”
It Pretty Much Turned into Them Being: “WINNERS” “PERFECTIONISTS” And The “ELITE JEWS”
In other words, They Were the Ones Who HAD - ALL OF THE POWER!
But – How Do You Think The Unchurched of TODAY – SEE YOU?!!
How Do YOUR Neighbors, HOW DO THEY SEE US?!!
Have YOU Have WE – Here at HALL Have WE Now Become One Of The “WINNERS”?
The “PERFECTIONISTS”? And the “ELITE”?
You SEE – In the Jewish Life, There was a Clear Drawn Line Between “Those Who Belonged” And “Those Who Did Not” And Our Question Should Be: Do We Do the Same - Today?
IS It - ONLY The ELITE - Who Are The Ones WHO Are the Chosen Ones?!
But that is not the end of the Story Of the Jewish History!
YOU SEE – IF You Were a Jew – You Were “CHOSEN” BUT Here Is The THING, - You Were “EVEN MORE CHOSEN” IF You Lived Up to The Set Standards of Being Jewish,
These Standards, THEY held an EVEN MORE Exclusively HIGHER Bar!
We Need to Keep a VERY - Watchful Eye And NOT Turned OUR “CHOSEN-NESS” Into Being the “Better”!
We Need to Be ON GUARD And Resist ALL Temptations – And To NOT Do as the Jews Did!
We Need to Resist The Temptations Of Becoming The BETTER THAN Christians Of Us Becoming
The ONLY “WINNERS” “PERFECTIONISTS” And “ELITE CHRISTIANS”
YOU SEE - While it is True – Jesus Christ Set Out to Reach Everyone; To Make Disciples Of EVERYONE. But ultimately, It Was Those Who Didn’t Belong, They Were the Ones Who Found His Reinterpretation Of God’s Original Message Most Refreshing.
IT Was This - New Sense of Belonging And Identity Which FUELED HIS MESSAGE His Mission To Establish a Different And “INCLUSIVE KIND OF “COMMUNITY.” IN A VERY REAL WAY, Jesus Leveled the Playing Field!
And As We Know – This Was Much To The Dismay of the “Elite!”
But It Brought Much JOY To The Oppressed.
Jesus Gave Them A Meaning! An Identity! And a Restart to Their Dignity!
Jesus Treated Them with Respect!
He Gave Them Hope for A Different Future!
And The Promise of a Better World!
He Offered Them a Life In His Family!
And He Reframed the Definition Of “Chosen-Ness”!
And then, He died.
Can You Imagine HOW IT FELT For the People Who Knew Him?
Can You Imagine their Disappointment?
Their Disillusionment?
Their Crushed Hopes?
Can You Imagine their Shock?
For most – Not only Did Their Leader Die, But Their Dreams had died with Him.
Their HOPES:
• Of Having a Different Kind Of Life! - GONE!!
• Being Part of a Community! - GONE!!
• Having a Changed World! - GONE!!
o Their Belonging!
o Of Them Being Equal!
o A Live Worth of Cherishing!
GONE – GONE – GONE
HE IS NOW - DEAD!
So – NOW WHAT?
What Could They Do Without Jesus?
• He Was The-One-Who Had “SEEN” Them And Given Them Their Voice?
Depressed!
Disappointed!
And Saddened!
Now - The Easiest Thing Was to Simply And Quietly – Just Go Back to Their Old Lives!
LET US STOP – And JUST – THINK ABOUT IT!
After Jesus Died,
• Thousands Whom Jesus Called Disciples!
o Those Who Followed Him!
o Those Who Put Their Hopes in Him!
o And Those Who Proclaimed Him!
They Just - Silently Went Back.
They Returned to Their Former Lives and Families.
On The Road to Emmaus (E-MA-US),
• The Disciples and Their Relatives,
o Who Were Close To Jesus.
They Were Returning Home from Jerusalem.
Their Faces were Downcast!
Their Manner was Defeated!
And After Staying - In A Locked Room –
• For At Least a Week,
o Even Jesus’ Inner Circle Began to Disburse
And Go Back to Their Former Lives.
For Them - This Mission - Had Ended.
And For Most - This Meant Fishing.
I AM GOING FISHING!!!
Do You Remember
When Jesus Started to Call His Group?
ONLY a Short 3 Years Earlier, Jesus Was Walking Along the Shore, And He Called Several of His Disciples From A Thriving Fishing Business.
And - Now - That Mission Which Called Them Away, It Has Now - “Failed!”
SO – Why Not?
Why Not Go Back To What We Know Best?!
But I Wonder – How many Times Do We, (You and I) Call It Quits on Listening and Following God,
And We return to - “What We Know Best!” But It Was Peter – He Broke the Silence within the Room and Said: “I’m Going Fishing,”
But What He Really Meant was “This Is All Over” “I’m Going Back to My Life.” And The Others Followed.
YOU KNOW - The fall from the Disciple’s Mission Pedestal Had to be Especially Difficult.
Within – Just - One - Day, The disciples And Thousands of Jesus’ followers Went from “chosen” To Deserted And Downhearted.
SO - How Do You Deal with Disappointments?
How Do You Handle Roadblocks?
Economical or Physical?
How Do You Handle Pauses in Your Life?
How Do You Handle Frustrations?
How Do You Handle WAITING?
HOW DO You KNOW that these Setbacks?
• Are They of God’s Doing?
o Or Is that Just the way that the world turns?
SO - What Do YOU DO?
Do You Pause and Pray – Asking for Direction?
Do You Just Give Up on Your Dreams?
Or Do You Forge Onward - No Matter What the Cost?
When Failure Looms Over Us
Or When Our Hope Has Been Crushed,
For Many of Us,
It Is Easy to For Us to Feel Defeated,
And then We Choose – The Easy Way Out!
To Return “Back to Our Old Life”
Check Yourself Out And See How Things Are Being Done Within Your Own Life!
When Times Get Truly Difficult
1) Do We Not Either Give Up
2) Or We Buckle Down And We Push Through - With No Regards Of What the Cost Would Be.
3) Or Is There Still
Another CHOICE?
What DO YOU DO
When YOU Are Faced with Failure?
DON’T We Almost Always
Return to What Is Easy and Familiar to us.
AND - Fishing Was Peter’s Livelihood.
So That Is What He Returned To,
And The Others Followed Suit.
That Was
Until Jesus Appeared on The Shore That Morning.
But – As It Happened for Them,
• It Also So Often Happens to Us –
At First - THEY Didn’t Recognize HIM!
He Was Standing on a Distant Shore for them.
But As They Neared, He Called Out,
“Have You Caught Anything to Eat?”
And They Answered, “No.”
Now – JUST AS HE HAD Told Them
Back on that First Day,
Jesus Told Them to Do the Same,
“Cast Your Net on The Right Side of The Boat,
And You Will Find Some.”
And The Miracle Repeated Itself.
And With That, They Recognized Him.
And It Is ONLY A Short Time Later,
• We find them together, eating breakfast.
But That Isn’t the End of This Story.
Jesus Needed to Restore
• His Foundational Disciple, Peter.
Jesus Knew that Peter is the One
• Who Would Lead
o The Others Back into God’s Mission.
And so,
• Jesus Pulled Peter Aside.
• And Jesus Reminded Peter of God’s Mission.
Now – For Most of Us
• Look at this Scripture
o And We Focus Upon
The “LOVE LANGUAGE”
Between Jesus and Peter,
And Of Jesus’ Request
For Peter to Feed His Sheep.
But What Comes After
• May be Even More Important:
Verses 21:18-19 (NLT)
“I tell you the truth, when you were young, you were able to do as you liked; you dressed yourself and went wherever you wanted to go. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and others will dress you and take you where you don’t want to go.” Jesus said this to let him know by what kind of death he would glorify God. Then Jesus told him, “Follow me.”
Jesus’ Words Is in A Sense
• An Echo to the Words Recorded in Zechariah 8:23:
“This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: In those days ten men from different nations and languages of the world will clutch at the sleeve of one Jew. And they will say, ‘Please let us walk with you, for we have heard that God is with You.’”
Just so we know,
The Idea of Someone ‘Clutch at the Sleave’,
• And Some Versions Read ‘Grasping Someone’,
That Means:
That They Would Be Led.
This Would Be Peter’s Mission.
As He Remembered - His Role –
• As Being the Rock of The Movement!
• Fisher Of People!
• And The Light to The Lost!
This Was the Mission Which He Had Signed Onto!
And The Truth of It Was
• That Peter No Longer Need Jesus
o In The Flesh –
NOT - Any Longer.
As Jesus Called Peter
• From His Former Way of Life,
A Fisherman of Fish.
Jesus Is Now Re-Calling Peter
• Once Again from His Fishing Business
o Back Into His Life’s Vocation.
Peter Would Be a Leader…
• And Until He Himself
o He Would Be Martyred.
It Is His Identity
• As The One - Jesus Chose
o To Lead the Others,
And A Mission
• Which He Could Not Run From!
• Nor Hide From!
• Nor Deny!
Jesus In His Exchange Was Asking Peter
• To Resume His Mission,
• The Mission which He Consented To,
• And The One He Was Called To –
o A Mission to Heal the Hurting!
o To Give Hope Once Again
to The Downhearted!
o To Reassure the Disappointed!
o And To Restore the Lost!
Now Was His Time.
• Peter Can No Longer Do as He Wishes!
• He Has Now Come to Maturity as A Disciple!
• And He Must Now Do as He Has Committed….
• Even Unto Death.
In Jesus’ Name
• Now Peter Would Give Hope to The Dying,
• Offer Equality to The Discarded,
• Heal The Sick,
• And rescue the Meek.
Jesus Words to Peter Was: “You Can Do This!”
BUT What About You?
Do You Know That You Are:
A Disciples of Jesus?
Do You Know That You Are:
Are Chosen for A Mission,
Do You Know That You Are:
Called To a Vocation, a Career.
For Some of Us
• It May Be Clearer on What That Is.
And For Others
• You May Still Be Discovering
o Of What Your Path is in Jesus’ Footsteps.
But The Fact Remains the Same!
We Are All Called to
• Fulfill The Commissioning
o That We Have Received at Our Baptism–
To Follow Jesus Even unto Death.
Once You Are a Christian in Jesus Christ’s Name,
• We Can Not Choose to Turn Back,
• To Go Back to A Pre-Christian Way of Life,
• To Return to A Faithless Existence,
• To Refuse to “Feed Jesus’ Sheep.”
By Our Name As Disciples,
• We Are All Chosen
o To Be a Light to Others.
And There Is No Turning Back.
Today,
• Think About Who.
• And Whose You Are.
• And Where Your Life Is Going.
For You Are Chosen.
• Not For Perks.
• Not For Honors.
• Not For Status.
• And Most Certainly - Not For Power.
But Rather - For
• Humility,
• Love,
• And Mission to The World
o Telling All - That Jesus Loves.
