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Can I get a witness: When the Spirit has His way 5th Sunday after Easter, April 20, 2008
We’re continuing in our sermon series Can I get a witness today by taking a look at the third time Jesus appeared to a group of His disciples. The first time He appeared to them was behind locked doors when Thomas wasn’t with them, and they thought He was a ghost. By the way, that group of people wasn’t just the inner 12 disciples (minus Judas and Thomas). Luke tells us there were others with that core group in the room. I’m going to make an assumption and say this would have included Jesus’ mother Mary. Why? John had promised to take care of her, and in chapter 19 of John, we are told that from the day Jesus was crucified on, John took Mary into his home and treated her as his mother. The second time He appeared to them was when Thomas was with the disciples and made his declaration of “My Lord and my God!” This is now the third time Jesus appeared to a group of at least seven of the inner 12 disciples. We’re looking at John 21 beginning at the first verse. There are so many different ways you could go with a sermon on these verses! You could talk about the reinstating of Peter; you could talk about forgiveness and restoration. You could talk about the silence of God. You could even talk about the consequences of making rash decisions without Jesus, just to name a few. Today, we’re going to talk about giving up! Well, ok, not ‘giving up’ like the we might all be thinking ‘giving up’ means right now, but giving up – or giving in may be a better way to put it – to the Holy Spirit. So let’s begin right at verse 1: Afterward Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Tiberias. It happened this way: Simon Peter, Thomas (called Didymus), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. “I’m going out to fish,” Simon Peter told them, and they said, “We’ll go with you.” So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus. He called out to them, “Friends, haven’t you any fish?” “No,” they answered. He said, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.” When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish. Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, “It is the Lord,” he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water. The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far from shore, about a hundred yards. When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread. Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish you have just caught.” Simon Peter climbed aboard and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish, 153, but even with so many the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” None of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came, took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. This was now the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead. When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you truly love me more than these?” “Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.” Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you truly love me?” He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.” The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. I tell you the truth, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, “Follow me!” Peter turned and saw that the disciple whom Jesus loved was following them. (This was the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper and had said, “Lord, who is going to betray you?”) When Peter saw him, he asked, “Lord, what about him?” Jesus answered, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me.” Because of this, the rumor spread among the brothers that this disciple would not die. But Jesus did not say that he would not die; he only said, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you?” Picture the scene: Jesus has shown Himself to the disciples now as a group on two separate occasions. He’s also shown Himself to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus (and if you remember we said it’s possible that may have been Clopas/Cleopas and his wife, Mary), Mary Magdalene, and Peter. And then it went quiet. Jesus hasn’t been seen for a few days. Now is the time when push comes to shove, and there’s a big issue of trust at hand. Did Jesus really show Himself before or were we all delusional? Did we just dream that? Why hasn’t He come back? What are we supposed to do? You know what would be horribly ironic? If ‘doubting/unbelieving’ Thomas was the only one at this point saying, “He will come again, why do you all doubt?” But it’s been a long time, or so it seems, since the disciples heard Jesus voice, and they’re beginning to wonder what to do. Beginning to wonder how to go forward from where they were. Beginning to wonder if it has all really been worth it: leaving behind their former lives and livelihoods to follow Jesus; this Jesus that seems to be so silent now. Been there? Can anyone relate? For whatever reason, Peter decided to turn back to what he knew: “I’m going out to fish,” Simon Peter told them, and they said, “We’ll go with you.” To begin with, we need to answer the question, where were they, exactly? Take a look at our map up here. There were going fishing in the sea of Tiberias, also known as the Sea of Galilee. That sea lies at the north end of the Jordan river, which flows south into the Dead Sea. We’ll get to the significance of that in just a couple of minutes. Peter walked away from what he was supposed to be doing – waiting for Jesus to come again and even more so, to be clothed with the Holy Spirit. He walked away, and returned to the world he had left behind. What’s even worse, is he convinced at least six of the other inner 12 disciples to turn away with him and go back to the old life. What was known was more comfortable for Him than the promise of Jesus that wasn’t being fulfilled the way Peter thought it should be. Been there? Can anyone relate? He went back to fishing, and he caught nothing until Jesus came. It’s a lesson for us: on our own we can do nothing, but when Jesus is in charge, the sky’s the limit. When Peter and the others submitted to Jesus’ Lordship once again, their net was overflowing. I want to be very, very careful here, because I don’t want you to hear what I’m not saying. I’m not saying that if we would just submit to Jesus we’d be blessed with an overwhelming amount of money or things. Jesus provided that for these disciples to show them who He was and that He was still in charge. What I am saying is that when we submit to Jesus – and I mean really submit: turn our lives and all we are and have over to Him – we receive, we get, a ‘net’ full of His presence, His love, His Holy Spirit in our lives. This is the same Holy Spirit that enabled the disciple John to recognize Jesus and turn to Peter on the boat and exclaim, “It’s the Lord!” This is the same Holy Spirit that enabled Peter to jump out of a boat and swim 100 yards to shore through the cold waters of the early morning sea. This is the same Holy Spirit that enabled the disciples to pull in an overflowing net full of fish without the boat sinking or the net breaking. This is the same Holy Spirit that comes to us today, and He’s waiting to fill us too. He’s waits for us to turn back from what we’ve turned to instead of Jesus. He’s waits for us to submit to Jesus the way the disciples did when they obeyed and threw their net into the sea when Jesus told them too. Because you see, what Jesus told them to do didn’t make any sense. They had been fishing all night. It’s not like it hadn’t occurred to them to move the net around and try on both sides of the boat. They’d done that all night long, and it hadn’t made a difference. Once they submitted to Jesus again – once they listened to the preposterous proposition Jesus gave them, and just did it – that’s when they were blessed with the power of the Holy Spirit shown in simple things like a school of fish that just ‘happened’ to swim into their net. And it happened when they said ‘Ok’ to what Jesus told them – even though conventional wisdom said it was wrong; even though tradition and practices they’d always done would have told them not to. Even though they ‘knew better’, when they gave up trying to run the show and just handed it over to Jesus, everything changed. Been there? Can anyone relate? You know, I think we’re a lot like the disciples sometimes. We figure we know what the score is and have a pretty good bead on things. We know what to do and we go off and follow the course of action we’ve decided to. And what do we say while we’re doing this? “Please bless me in this!” Perhaps it would have been better to start with “What do You want me to do? Because if I do what You want, then it will be blessed.” I want to pass on to you one of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever heard. I think it’s something every Christian and ever church should always have at the fore-front. Here it is: “Plan on doing something that from the human standpoint is utterly doomed to fail, unless the Holy Spirit is in control.” Casting their nets to the right side of the boat was doomed to fail, except the Holy Spirit was in control. Starting a church or opening a church’s doors is doomed to fail, unless the Holy Spirit is in control. Living lives in light of the risen Christ, or trying to live those lives, is doomed to fail, unless the Holy Spirit is in control. Let’s invite Him to do that with us as individuals, with this church, with our leaders, with our adults, with our youth. Let’s submit to the power and work of the Holy Spirit, and watch where He’ll take us as individuals and as a church. I can guarantee you one thing: He’ll take us to the same place Peter was taken – to the place of being a witness. Jesus asked Peter three times “Do you love me?” Each time Jesus asked Peter if he loved Him, it had to be like a dart in Peter’s heart, because remember, the last recorded thing Peter said about Jesus was that he didn’t know Jesus. And he said it three times, the third time even cursing when he said it. And now Jesus asks Peter three times if he really loves Him, and tells him in response to take care of and feed his sheep and lambs. “Take care of my sheep; feed my lambs.” Be a witness to those who don’t know me. You have been filled with the Holy Spirit – let it out to fill and feed others. That, then, brings us back to this whole thing regarding the Sea of Tiberias and the Dead Sea. The Sea of Tiberias/Sea of Galilee is a living sea. That means there is life in there: fish, marine life. The Jordan River is a living river. There’s life in it, too. Do you know why the Dead Sea is called the “Dead Sea?” Because there is no life in it – it’s dead! You can’t go fishing in the Dead Sea, because it has no fish or aquatic or marine life in it; you won’t catch anything because there’s nothing in it to catch! Some of you have heard this before in our Adult Discussion time and we even touched on it during our Lenten midweek services, but do you know why the Dead Sea is dead? It’s because it has no outlet. The Dead Sea is a great collector of life. The living waters of the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan River flow into it, but once those waters hit the Dead Sea they stagnate and die. If the Dead Sea would just have an opening and let the living water flow through it, it could have life. If it would just do something with what it’s been given it could abound with life like the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan River. But it won’t open up, it won’t let out of it what it has received, and so even though life flows into it, it remains dead. Jesus told Peter to let out of him that which had been given to him – the Holy Spirit and the faith in Jesus as His risen Lord and Savior. “Take care of my sheep; feed my lambs, follow me.” Submit to me and my Holy Spirit and watch what I will do. Jesus gives us the same invitation: let Me have all of you. Let Me fill you with My Spirit, and then let that Spirit flow out of you to others. Be my witness. Follow Me. How do we follow Jesus? Mean it when we pray, “Your will be done.” Spend time in His Word. Spend time with Him in prayer. Talk to Him and listen to Him. Listen to those things He speaks to You from His Word; those things He impresses on Your heart (and you’ll know those things are truly from Jesus if they are in agreement with the rest of His Word); and listen to those things He reveals to you by way of learning in worship and the classes we have here: Sunday School, Adult Discussion, Women’s Bible Study, the Men’s conference next month and the activities that will be starting here soon for the men. Watch what happens when we follow. Watch what happens when the Spirit has His way.
Amen
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