From John 21, Morning Praise (2)
First B Jackson
2013-04-07

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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Good morning. Good morning. Alright. I've got a couple of of slides this morning that are gonna be weird. We're gonna be in John 20 '1, but Mark, would you mind swapping over that picture I gave you just a little bit ago?

Those two skinny people are telling me from twenty one years ago. Twenty one years ago last month actually almost to the day, that was our first date and we just so happened we met in photography class so we happened to have black and white film and a black and white camera. We didn't meet in black and white but we did have black and white camera with us and we went the first time we went anywhere. It's interesting how beginnings tend to set a tone. We went because we were asked by a professor of mine, he sent us, he sent me with her actually, he found out she was doing pictures of homeless people and she was trying to help the situation, socially relevant statement about the homeless and trying to help and she was doing it by herself and he said you need somebody to help you do that and protect you so he sent me with it.

So I went with it and we went that day, we have been a couple of different times just in that role but we went down to the Dillingham Street Bridge in Columbus Georgia and there were no homeless people at home. They really weren't there and that's where they stayed. And so we rode over in the Phoenix City, Alabama and there were no homeless people to be found in their regular homes in Phoenix City, Alabama. We're not sure what. 1992 was March.

And so we decided we'll just keep going. We were enjoying each other's company and we rode up down to Eupaula, Alabama about 50 miles further down the road and there were none in the nice homes of Eupaula or any of the surrounding areas and we were halfway by that point, almost halfway to Panama City Beach. So we just kept rolling and that is completely whited out because we were in photography class and I didn't put the fixer on it like I should have. But behind us is the ocean I know that I can smell it I can look at that picture and smell it I know exactly where I was. When we were in Dublin, Alabama on the way down there, Tanya said, oh we could go to Panama City.

Actually, Destin. She Destin's a little snoorier than Panama City. I had spent the summer before in Panama City. Tanya had spent the summer before in Seaside Florida. And she said, oh, we could get a cracker roll.

She started getting this taste too. And so we went down and we had a sandwich. We stood there on the beach and we clicked the timer and I ran around and stood beside her. It's our first date. Yeah.

I knew her to be generous and caring about other people and interesting and I loved her. At this point, I had not told her, but I loved But that kind of set a tone. It was a spontaneous thing. We turned around right from there after we ate the sandwich and we drove back. It's four and a half hours there.

We turned around and drove four and a half hours back home. She went to her mom and dad's house and I went to mine. But it was, that's the beginning and like I said, y'all can't even see it right there. You can't see anything but white behind us but I know that the ocean was right back there and I can smell and it brings it back. There are certain sensory things I can see that and all those things come back to me and my heart's filled with love by the way too which is great but you can switch back over to the slides now.

John 21 if you look at the headings and like a New King James Bible it'll say breakfast on the beach, the restoration of Peter and something like the beloved disciple in his book. Y'all know we've been studying this now for a long time. John 21 is the last chapter. You would think it would be over by now. After last week, the last thing that he said was these things have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ and believing have life in his name.

So he's already given us the purpose. Why would he give us the epilogue? The epilogue John's a very symmetrical book. It starts off with a prologue and it ends with an epilogue. I told you it's like the first week of his ministry is given great priority, the gathering of the disciples, And then the last week, the passion week, I have a professor that always said that the gospels are all passion narratives with long introductions.

And John is no different than the others in that sense. One more thing before we get going, because of the breakfast on the beach and because of the catch of fish that we'll get to in a minute, this is a fishy chapter not because it's furious or we don't think that it is for real but a lot of people read that purpose statement and think why would he add this on? So some people think it's kind of fishy and that reminded me of this. One of the things reminded me of this, there's tractor. If you haven't noticed, the tractor comes all over down in Jackson.

Dave Kaufman is working on that project and people riding by, riding by, riding by. There's one guy who sits out there and his job is just to note what's going on, make sure the barrels get back in place and I was talking to the guy, not that guy that does this job, another friend of ours that does this job. And he said some of the worst drivers on the road have this simple on the back of their car. And he said they drive like they expect God to take really good care of because they're driving like crazy people. Do you all know what this Jesus fish means or where we get it from?

Some of you probably do, some might not. The Jesus fish. The word bitch in Greek is icthus. That's the transliteration, I c h t h u s. In English, it's echthus.

Normally, when you see it in the New Testament, every time that you see it, it's like that second. That's the lowercase symbols, e o, ki or ki, theta, opsilon, sigma. And then the other is uppercase. Now you don't see a whole lot of Greek written in uppercase unless it's on a sweatshirt. When you see Greek written it's usually in lowercase but the reason that this one is often written in capital letters and sometimes you'll see this fish and it has that in the in the body of the fish, it'll say Ephesus.

That's a there's a reason for that. It means that Yoda means Jesus, which means Jesus. The chi or chi means Christos, which is Christ. The theu, it's not theos' God, but theu is algod. It's a genitive, possessive genitive for those grammar nerds.

We us, Upsilon, the other, omicron, sigma is son. So Jesus Christ, son of God. And then the last sigma is for soter, which is savior. You ever heard of soteriology? It is the study of salvation.

So the Jesus fish is not just a symbol of solidarity among Christian right wing conservatives. It's not just for bad drivers. What it means when you look at that symbol, what it means is Jesus Christ, son of God and savior. It's a declaration. Jesus Christ, son of God and savior.

Now there are lots of legends about how when they were under extreme persecutions in Rome, one Christian could walk up and draw an ark on the ground and kind of stand back from it and wait for somebody else to come along and complete the little fish. And if he did, he knew he had a Christian brother and they could meet at that time probably in secret so that they would not be killed. But tons of tons of legends spring up, but this one there's no doubt about it. The reason that we have an ichthus is because it means Jesus Christ son, God, savior. So the word fish in Greek, ichus, stands for that.

That's why it came to be attached. Also, this chapter and many other chapters in, the New Testament have something to do with fish. What were the disciples? A bunch of fishermen. What was he always talking about?

Fishing for men. When Peter need to pay his taxes, what did Jesus do? Go catch a fish. He catches a fish with a corn in his mouth. Fish are all over this testament.

Well, you could have gotten that from a seminary education, first semester seminary class on Greek or you could have just gotten by reading this guy's t shirt. Finishing up, we have covered everything in yellow up there. The prologue, period of consideration where John presents evidence, a period of controversy where there is a growing resistance If you have controversy, eventually it will come to conflict and a death and they outright the chief priests and scribes and the barristers outright became so angry that they wanted to pursue Jesus and this became a crisis. And at the point of crisis when everything was coming to a head, John takes four chapters to tell us about this period of conferences. Jesus' period of conference with his disciples, tell him what life is gonna be like when he's not around physically anymore.

He also has a period of conference with his father where he prays for us. I have prayed for you that God will sanctify you by his truth. And then there's the period of consummation which we see as the darkest tragedy in the Bible that becomes the greatest triumph. So this is the time of the cross, the betrayal, arrest, trials, death, burial, and resurrection. That's the period of consummation and then it ends up with John's purpose statement which I've already mentioned.

But the epilogue has four main things to consider and I'm going to go over this whole chapter today. I want to look at it in order. Four main things I think that the verses show, no doubt about it, And then hopefully you'll see that it cycles back around upon us. This is, you know how sometimes when people are preaching they they expound on the word and what it means and then when they get to the end it says, so what? This is the action step that you should take away.

John 21 is an action step. It is the it is the gospel of John has been preached. It is the gospel of belief so that believing you may have life in Jesus name. But the epilogue is okay, so what I do with it? First of all, Jesus' manifestation verses one through eight in chapter 21 say, After these things Jesus showed himself again to the disciples at the Sea Of Tiberias, that's the Sea Of Galilee.

And in this way he showed himself, he manifested himself, the word right there for show is manifested. Simon Peter, Thomas called Didymus, Nathaniel, Canaan, and Galilee sons of Zebedee and two others of his disciples were together. Did you notice that that list looks almost exactly like the list at the very beginning of this chapter of those people who picked up the first week? It's almost exactly the same list. Simon Peter said to them to the other guys there, I'm going fishing.

Which is great, he's a fisherman but this is after the resurrected Lord has come to him. Some people read again well he's going back and sinful, he's turning away. No, He's going fishing. They're probably hungry. So going fishing.

And they said to him, we're going with him. They went out and immediately got into the boat and that night they caught nothing. But when the morning had now come, Jesus stood on the shore, yet the disciples did not know it was Jesus. Then Jesus yelled to them or said to them, children, boys, guys, fellas, have you any food? And they answered him, no.

And he said to them, cast the net on the right side of the boat and you will find some. So they cast and now they were able to draw it in. They were not able to draw it in because of the multitude of fish. Therefore, that disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, it is the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment before he removed it and plunged into the sea, but the other disciples came in the little boat for they were not that far from land but about 200 cubits dragging the net with fish.

Then oh, let me stop right there. So you see what's going on. They're fishing, not catching anything. Is this the first time this has happened? No.

When Jesus calls out to him, if you remember when I was talking about timing out, the things you see at the beginning are the things that you still see. That's that's the way that this kind of whole chapter goes. There are linkages to the past throughout this chapter and those linkages point you towards your future too. So he manifested himself. The word here means to make manifest or visible or known that which has been hidden or unknown to manifest, I keep saying, what if our words or deeds or any other way make actual or visible, realize to make known by teaching, to be made known.

When we talk in the very first sermon, the prologue, said it was this big deal. The transcendent God has become imminent in the person of Jesus Christ. He made real that which was ethereal and above us and out of our scope of understanding. Jesus made that real. He made it known.

If you have ever been a trucker or a sea captain, probably not as likely the sea captain thing, but if you've ever been a trucker, do you know what a manifest is? There's a list of everything on that truck. If you've got a barge and you're sailing out in Mississippi and somebody pulls you over and ask you what you have on board, you should, you better have a manifest and that makes plain and clear the bundles and bundles of stuff that you have on board. It makes it known. The seminary that I went to, our motto is to know him and make him known.

It is both. It's to know Jesus personally, yes, but it's also to make him real to other people, to make him known. That's what Jesus did for God. That's what we as Christians are to do for God is to make Jesus known. So find it out and I'll read something here.

Every time this is interesting too. I'm not one I've to several of Doctor. Shea's sermons online and listened to several of them on the tapes and he's great. He's fantastic. He counts everything.

My goodness. That word's used 25 times and so this week I've got a couple of those where I've brought those out. In the Gospel of John, this is used eight times. It's used two times in this chapter and it's like brackets. He's saying he made manifest.

He showed it to be plain. He made it really, really super clear. He says that twice in this chapter and I think he's pointing back. If you'll just listen quickly to the other times in the first chapter, John the Baptist says about Jesus, at first I did not recognize him but so that he might be made manifest, made obvious to Israel, I came baptized him in water. The beginning of His signs Jesus did in Cana Of Galilee at the wedding and manifested His glory to His disciples.

He made His glory known to His disciples. The chapter three, but he who practices the truth comes to the light so that his deeds may be made manifest as having been wrought by God. For no one does anything in secret when he himself seeks to be known publicly. This is Jesus' brother who's telling me needs to go up to festival in Jerusalem and he says if you do these things show yourself, make yourself plain. They thought Jesus was being sneaky.

Jesus answered it was neither that this man sinned nor his parents. Do you remember the blind man that Jesus healed? What did he say? He said, but so that the works of God might be made manifest, find a rapport in him. And then this chapter says he has made I have made I have manifested your name chapter 17, I'm sorry, when he's praying, he's praying to God the Father and he says, I have made clear, I have made manifest your name to all of those who you give me.

Does this make sense? So manifestation is a part of this. It's not just this theopony, It's not this kind of a thing where God presents himself as something else. No. He's presenting himself as a man.

So Jesus' manifestation is very important. He is making clear the unseen and unknown God. Jesus had an invitation verses nine through 14. Then as soon as they had come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, a charcoal fire there, and fish lay on it and bread. So he already had the fish there and bread.

Jesus said to them, bring some of the fish which you have just caught. Simon Peter went up and dragged them at the land full of large fish, 153 and although there were so many, the net was not broken. Jesus said to them, come and dine, come and eat breakfast. Yet none of the disciples dared ask him, who are you knowing that it was the Lord? Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, likewise the fish.

This is now the third time that Jesus made manifest himself to his disciples after he was raised from the dead. His invitation was come and dine. There are just a few things about that that I want to bring out. For one thing, he was sitting there by a charcoal fire. When's the only time we read of a charcoal fire in the New Testament?

There's one other time and it hadn't been that long ago. Peter's denials. When Peter denies Christ it says that he was warming himself near a girl near a barrel near up I imagine a barrel. That's my own town. But he was she was warming herself near a charcoal fire and Peter was there when he denied Christ.

And so for his restoration, the sights, the smells, the charcoal fire pursues you. You sit around a campfire singing songs, you just think like it until you have a couple of good baths. So he's bringing a sensory experience and Jesus is literally providing for them. He had a fish. He didn't eat their fish.

If they hadn't caught anything, he'd still have had fish and we know what Jesus can do with fish. He could have fed 5,000 fishermen if he wanted to. He's also inviting them to join him. He was on the beach and he was going to eat. He was preparing this.

Now some people might say, oh, glorified body and all after the resurrection did he mean to? He can pass through locked doors to the eat. And what's up? Luke says that he ate broiled fish to prove to the disciples that he had literally risen from the dead. It is not a subjective experience based on what they're thinking in their mind.

Jesus really did rise from the dead and really did appear to his disciples over and over again and to 500 others Paul says. So he's inviting them to join him. And I think of this, when I read that verse that says, and Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them. What does that call back to? Communion.

We're gonna celebrate communion here in a little while, Lord's Supper. Jesus was literally feeding them for sustenance, but he also had told them that every time you do this, do this in remembrance of me. I think that in the pompous circumstance that that many churches have taken with how we do communion, we've kinda lost the sight that when Jesus was feeding the disciples bread and wine, that's what they ate. And he said, every single time you nourish yourself, do it in remembrance of me. Does that make sense?

I agree it's a sacrament ordinance, whatever you wanna call it, and it's nice to set it apart, but I think that it's fantastic that he was having communion with his disciples after he had risen. Korean barbecue on a picnic table in the backyard is communion. If those who are celebrating it are Christians, it is communion with our risen lord. And of course, because it's Jesus, it always comes with a teaching session which is great. So far we've got manifestation and invitation.

Next we have motivation and occupation. These two go hand in hand. I'll go through them rather quickly. We have all heard sermons on this. Everybody who's heard a sermon has heard a sermon on this.

Jesus says to Peter in verse 15. Let's go ahead and read 15 through 17. 15 says, so when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon, Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? And he said to him, yes, Lord. You know that I love you.

And he said to him, Feed my lambs. And he said to him again a second time, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me? And he said to him, Yes Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him, Tend my sheep. And he said to him a third time, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me?

Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, do you love me? And he said to him, Lord, you know all things. You know that I love you. And Jesus said to him, feed my sheep. So what is Peter's motivation to be here?

Do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me? His motivation? Love.

Jesus is asking that, do you think he was questioning Peter's love for him, really questioning whether or not he did? Just like Peter said, you know me. You know my heart. You know that I love you. Do you think he was questioning it or do you think three times to match Peter's three denials?

That Jesus forecast ahead of time he'd do three times. So the motivation is to be loved for Jesus Christ. This is why we should be doing whatever it is that he has asked us to do. Now in Peter's case, do you love me? Yes.

Feed my lambs. Verse 15. Do you love me? Yes. Tend my sheep.

Verse 16. Do you love me? You know I love you. Then feed my sheep. That's what he tells them to do.

Peter is the great example of a man who has been humble and then given a great responsibility to shepherd. The very first series I preached here was on first Peter, and it was mainly because it's the most pastoral book in the New Testament to me. He experiences life as a man who has been broken but he has been restored. This is Jesus' public restoration before the other disciples of Peter. So we have Jesus' manifestation, his invitation.

His motivation plus Peter's occupation motivated by love is to be occupied and concerned for others. But the final expectation, the final expectation that Jesus has is in verses 18 through 23. 18 through 23 says, most assuredly I say to you, now this is Jesus speaking to Peter, when you were younger, you girded yourself and you walked where you wish. But when you're old, you will stretch out your hands and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish. John adds a little narrator's note here, says this he spoke signifying by what death he would glorify God.

And when he had spoken this, he said to him, follow me. Then Peter turning around saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following him, who also had leaned on Jesus' breast supper and said, Lord, who who is this one who who betrayed oh, excuse me. So this is the guy. He's describing who John is. The disciple whom Jesus loved who's leaning on Jesus' breast during dinner and said, who is this that betrayed you?

Talking about Jesus. And Peter seeing him, seeing John said to Jesus, but Lord, what about this man? Doesn't that sound kind of like childish? Jesus has just said, you know, this kind of a cryptic statement about how Peter would die. And then as soon as he gets finished with his cryptic statement about how he died, he said, follow me.

What's the first thing that Jesus said to Peter in the gospel? Follow me. Drop your nuts and follow me and he did. And so the last word he's saying, follow me. Beginning to have a way of of pointing towards endings.

And so the final expectation for Peter was to follow me. Now when he said what he said, John writing this knew how Peter died. And tradition tells us it's not a biblical story that Peter was crucified, someone else stretched out his arms for him. But in humility, he did not wanna be crucified in the same manner as Jesus. He requested that he be crucified upside down.

So following Christ got him the same place that it got Christ. But Jesus' response to him was he says, but Lord, what about this man? Jesus said to him, if I will that he remain till I come back. What is that to you? You follow me.

And it's very, very emphatic. To follow me in '19, it's just follow me. But you, Peter, you, dude, follow me. You. Don't worry about what everybody else is doing.

Don't worry about what I've got for them to do. If everybody takes the attitude that we need to follow after Jesus and do exactly what he is telling us to do at the speed he's telling us to do it, then everybody's gonna be better off rather than looking around. You follow me. I don't think that's just the expectation for Peter. I think that's God's expectation of all of us.

It's just you don't pay attention to whatever anybody else is doing. You just follow me. And so how do we follow Jesus? That's like a that's like the question. If you get to the point where you believe, okay, well, I'm gonna follow after.

This is what I wanna do with my life. I wanna I wanna follow Jesus. Well, how do you do that? Well, just from this chapter alone, I think it's a cyclical thing. It looks like to me, you manifest him to others.

You make Jesus claim to other people. How do you do that? He says, let your light shine before men so that they may see your good deeds and glorify your father who's in heaven. So make God and Jesus manifest to others. Make him real to them.

Invite him to come and die. That's not a bad idea. Meal, music, message on Monday night. So the reason meal is in there, Jesus literally was providing for their needs. He did want for them to join him in what he was doing so that he could have a conversation.

There's nothing like dinner time around the family supper table. Nothing else replaces that. There's something to it coming down. Motivated by love for Christ. Not necessarily love for the people in front of you to begin with.

If you don't know him, he's commanded you to love whether you're enemies or not, but your love for Christ is what should motivate this. You should be occupied by a concern for other people. It should not all be about you. It should not all be about me. So this is exactly what Jesus was modeling in this.

And then the expectation of following Jesus is that eventually we will be where he is. We're saved by grace alone. Don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to say works. I'm not trying to say it's all how many people you feed or how many you teach, anything like that.

Fully expecting to arrive where Jesus is is what you get when you follow him, when you believe him. You will not follow him unless you believe him. That makes sense. Actions follow belief. It is not the other way around.

Then the last note about this is the disciple fill up a book, and this is what it says. This is the disciple who testifies of these things and wrote these things. And then this is funny. He kinda has a chorus of the elders of his church chime in, And we know that his testimony is true. I think that's great.

It signed off on it, wouldn't it? And there are also many other things that Jesus did which is they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. Amen. What does amen mean? So be it.

So that's the end of the gospel of John. There is no doubt that he presents Jesus as the son of God. Jesus is the Christ and the son of God. He has said it over and over and over again. But do you believe it?

The answer to that question makes all the difference in this world and in the next. It makes all of the difference, period. Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God? Is he your savior? Can you put the fish on your cock?

Can you, do you believe that little egg fooch? Do you believe? Jesus Christ us. Son of God, savior. Amy, would you come up?

We're gonna go into a town. I'm gonna invite you to come and dine. This is an open table, open communion table to anyone who has received Jesus as their savior. If you believe him to be the son of God, if you believe him to be the Lord of your life, he says that he will be. And so I'm gonna ask for the communion team to come forward too and we're gonna just go into a time of communion.

I do and I went through with seminary professors over and over again about this because I I think that what Jesus was saying was every time that you get together and you ingest anything and you do it in remembrance of me, this is what I'm talking about. So every time we eat, do it. But this is a special time where we together as a family have table fellowship. So if y'all would, you can go ahead and distribute the bread. For I live deliver to you first of all that which I also receive, that Christ died for our sins according to the scripture, that he was buried, that he rose again the third day, according to the scriptures, and that he was seen by Cephas, that's Peter, then by the 12.

After that, he was seen by over 500 brethren at once of whom the greater part remains in the present, but some fall asleep. God, I pray that you would be with us in a very real way, Lord, every day as we partake of anything you have given, Lord, may remind us of the sacrifice that you've made on our behalf and call us to greater holiness living before you. The Lord that which I delivered also to you, the Lord Jesus. On the same night he was betrayed. When he had given thanks, he broke and said, take.

This is my body which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same manner, he also took the cup after supper saying that this is the cup. It's the new covenant in my blood. In Revelation, it says that we will overcome or actually it says evil will be overcome and we will overcome By the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony.

This cup is a new covenant in Christ's blood. He said this, do as often as you drink of it in remembrance of him. Get get the band to come back up. We're gonna sing one more song. Paul says that as often as we eat this bread and drink this cup and proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

We're gonna sing a song called overcome in just a minute, and it is about overcoming by the blood of the lamb, but also by the word of his testimony is how people will be overcome because other people still don't know him. So we need to be making a manifest and inviting him to know him. We need to be motivated by love, occupied by concern for them. And I wanna say one more thing about the Gospel of John because if I were to say this at the beginning or end, I forgot it at the beginning so here it is at the end. This is by one of the best commentaries I've read on the Gospel of John.

It says opening opening paragraph it says, I like the comparison of John's Gospel to a pool in which a child may wave and an elephant may also swim. It is both simple and profound. It is for the various beginner in the faith and for the mature Christian. Its appeal is immediate and never failing. It is a simple gospel.

The humblest believer can read it and understand it and profit by it. But there are unplumbed depths in the clarity of the writing. What at first appears plainly obvious is presently seen to pose problems. Most students would agree that after years of close study of this gospel, they don't leave you with a feeling of having mastered it but rather the conviction that it is still strange, restless, and unfamiliar. I would say that if you are someone who has never reached the Bible, read John.

It's the first place to start. If you're somebody who's been a Christian a long time, read John. It's the great place to be. And if you ever get confused by things centering the focus back on Jesus as the person and work is right where you need to be and that's what John is. I know more than one person that when you ask them how and when they became a Christian they can't make a date but they could say it was somewhere between John three and John four or John six and John seven.

Have a good friend that says John nine. John nine is where I became a Christian. He doesn't have the date and year doesn't it? But read John and encourage others to do so. Let's sing.