Daybreak Hope

Transcript

With me to the Gospel According to John, chapter 21. The Gospel of John, chapter 21. And you found that. Go ahead and stand with me for the reading of the Word.

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So we're looking at John, chapter 21. And we'll start with verse nine here. This is a little. Little bit of an extended reading here, which. Which I love.

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Powerful passage. Notice these words. This is the word of God. Jesus showed himself again to the disciples by the sea of Tiberius. And he showed himself in this way.

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Gathered there together were Simon Peter, Thomas called the twin Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other of his disciples. Simon Peter said to them, I am going fishing. They said to him, we'll go with you. They went out, got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. Just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the beach.

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But the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, children, you have no fish, have you? They answered him, no. He said to them, cast the net to the right side of the boat and you will find some. So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in because there were so many fish.

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That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, it is the Lord. When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on some clothes, for he was naked and jumped into the sea. But the other disciples came in the boat dragging the net full of fish. For they were not far from the land, only about 100 yards off. When they had gone ashore, they saw a charcoal fire there with fish on it and bread.

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Jesus said to them, bring some of the fish that you have just caught. So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore full of large fish, 153 of them. And though there were so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, come and have breakfast now. None of the disciples dared to ask him, who are you?

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Because they knew it was the Lord. Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them and did the same with the fish. This was now the third time that Jesus appeared to the disciples after he was raised from the dead. When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? He said to him, yes, Lord.

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You know that I love you. Jesus said to him, feed my lambs. A second time he said to him, simon, son of John, do you love me? He said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. Jesus said to him, tend my sheep.

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He said to him the third time, simon, son of John, do you love Me, Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, do you love me? And he said to him, lord, you know everything. You know that I love you. Jesus said to him, feed my sheep. Very truly.

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I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go. He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God. After this, he said to him, follow me, Jesus, thank you for your holy word, your amazing, powerful word that comes to us as humans, that we can hear with our ears and that we are called to believe. We pray, Lord, that you would increase our faith today, increase our love for you and others, and give us a hope that is unshakable.

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We pray in your name. Amen. And you can be seated, man. I don't know about you, but this passage is just a foundational text for our faith. And if we could say this way, I don't know if you can, if some of this foundation, I don't know if it can be more, but if it were more, it's also beautiful.

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It's not only foundation, it's not a foundation for us, but it's also a beautiful, complex text. Because John, as you can see, is weaving all sorts of imagery and symbolism, not only here in 21, but all throughout his gospel. And of course, he is known as the one who flies high. You know, remember he's, he's represented of the four gospel writers as an eagle because he soars high in his Christology, not, not to say that he downplays the humanity of Jesus, as for instance, Mark will show us specifically, but nevertheless, John is going to lift our gaze to the highest sort of intellectual, but also symbolic levels. And it's really just remarkable.

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I mean, every single detail here. Now, you can already tell that I'm like stoked about this passage, okay? And amped about it, if you will. However, I'm not able to share all that I want to share. I'd love just to sit here and have a three day Bible study on this one passage, which we easily could do together.

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Not because I'm smart, but because this is brilliant. However, I want to boil it down just to a few things. And the first to note, I think, is this. John in his gospel is going to land. This is the last chapter, of course, he's going to land right here where he began.

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And this is often the mark of. Of a poetical or. Or. Or brilliant writer who knows from the beginning where. What the end is.

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Does that make sense? In other words, just like a hymn might start out with a stanza and come around like Psalm 8, does the heavens declare the glory of God? Right. And then it moves through and then again the refrain, the heavens declare the glory of God. Well, that's what we call in, in grammar or literature here, an inclusio, which is just to say it's bookended with two things of the same nature.

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Right? So you got something set at the first that is said again. But now, because we've gone through the journey of the hymn or the psalm or the book now, for instance, this book now we have new light of understanding that same phrase differently. Does that make sense? So, for instance, in the book of Matthew, it begins by calling Jesus a unique name, Emmanuel.

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You remember this in chapter one, Emmanuel. Okay, what does that mean? God with us? Well, we come all the way through the whole story of Matthew all the way to chapter 28. And what do we have at the end of 28?

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I will be with you always. Right? Emmanuel again. But we understand Emmanuel now that we've worked our way through that gospel so much deeper. You see, same thing here in John.

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John is going to have multiple things in chapter 21 that relate us right back to chapter one. A few of those things are this the calling of the disciples. You Remember in John 1. This is where some of them get the call, remember, not all of them. And it's interesting here we don't have all 12, do we?

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We have seven. And in John 1, it's a very similar situation. Also, finish fishing is mentioned at the beginning of his gospel. And now again at the end, right? Let's go fishing.

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Okay, we'll go fishing, right? Which I hear a lot of these days, by the way. Baylor's into fishing. So. So this specifically hits me.

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He's like, I'm going for, you know, Anyway. My father also is very much into fishing. I like it a little bit, but it's not just. It's a little, maybe a lot boring to me, that's one reason I don't do hunting is either because, you know, it's not. You ever notice it's not killing and catching, but rather hunting and fishing, which means there's a lot of waiting involved.

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And some of you say you're not patient, and yet you wait in the cold. Come on now, you know what I mean? Anyway, Peter's going fishing. Well, guess what? Jesus found Them doing When he first called them, they were fishing.

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And he says, you know what, guys? I'm going to make you fishers of men. But now we come to the end of John, and trust me, there's a lot of events that have transpired throughout John that he specifically gave us signs as they were correct. And now we get to the end and we have this deeper understanding, and yet we still see them doing what? They're fishing.

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They're fishing.

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And then there's a recognition of Jesus. You remember this. They recognize him as Messiah. Nathaniel, you remember this whole exchange between him and Andrew. And it's like there's this.

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There's this thing going on where they recognize Jesus in the. In the Gospel of John in the beginning. And now guess what? Again, they recognize him by his voice. And then he says, follow me in the beginning.

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And now at the end of the Gospel, he says, what? Follow me. Now, they've been doing that for three. In other words, the gospel has transpired over three years. And he says to them, again, follow me.

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Okay, so inclusio bookends for us to look at. Almost a recapping or fancier word recapitulation of what has already happened, but with new insight. With new insight. Okay, now, first thing I want to just lift for our consideration this morning is this. I am going fishing.

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Peter says this, right? And everybody follows because Peter is de facto the leader of the disciples. And we could prove this in many different ways. I really shouldn't have to prove it in a room like this where you're familiar with the gospels, other than to say that Peter often is the first to speak, right? He's the first to jump out there, and he's very bold in his faith.

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But not only that, Jesus appoints him as a leader among the disciples. In fact, he says, peter, on this rock, I'll build my church. And of course, that can be interpreted various ways. But nevertheless, Peter is a leader among the disciples. And there's no doubt about that in any sort of reading of the gospel story.

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And you know, here's the good thing about Peter being this sort of leader or example for us is that we all can, I think, identify with Peter at some point, can't we? Like, I mean, most of us know Peter's story without having to retell the whole thing. But some of us, when we shouldn't be speaking, we are speaking, right? No, nobody, you know, when we put, you may ever put their foot in their mouth. Peter does this.

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Okay? Peter speaks when he shouldn't be speaking. And he does the. You say, well, yeah, that's not me for sure. But other times when he should speak up, he doesn't.

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I don't know the man. I don't know who he is. Right. We're either or typically in our life. And we can identify with Peter.

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Not only that. You ever been rebuked before for doing something wrong? Well, welcome to Peter's life. The strongest rebuke in all of the Bible. The entire thing was given by Jesus to Peter.

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Get behind me, Satan.

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Now, Peter didn't go to his little corner and hoo, hoo, hoo, you know, and just give up. Some of us if we get rebuked, it's like, oh, my whole life has ended. I never wanted anybody to know that I didn't do everything correctly.

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Well, some of us need to kind of get over ourselves, like Peter had to do, even though he was right. You remember his great confession? You are the Christ. And Jesus says, peter, listen, that was something only God could give you. Way to go, man.

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And Jesus says, now listen, guys, I'm going to go to the cross, I'm going to suffer, go to Jerusalem, go suffer. And then die on a cross and be resurrected in three days. Peter says, let me just stop you right there because I've got a word from God that's not going to happen. Because you know what? I conceal, carry, ain't happening.

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They come at you, I got you back, bro. You know what I mean? And he tried, didn't he? Pulled out his sword, cut Malchus's ear off. And Jesus, Peter, remember, I already rebuked you for not going the way of the cross.

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You see, that's the real point. Peter wanted the blessings that Jesus offered without the suffering and death. And that's Satan's way. It's still Satan's way. We want the goodies from God without suffering.

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We want the goodies of God without carrying our cross. And that is not the way of Jesus. It's the way of Satan.

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And so we identify with Peter. And in fact, it's kind of really apropos to talk about Peter these days because the Pope has died. Now, we're not Catholic, of course, but the Pope, if you remember by title, is the Bishop of Rome. And who else was the Bishop of Rome but Peter? The very first Pope.

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And that's not a Catholic thing, that's just a historical matter. Okay? So we may not as Protestants, for instance, give the sort of credence of authority to the Bishop of Rome, but nevertheless, we recognize that office and that There has been a bishop in Rome since Peter was there who knew Jesus. This is that apostolic foundation. Does that make sense?

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We don't have to go along with everything as if, you know, there's this supreme leader. And yet Jesus does say, I'm going to build my church on the rock, when he's playing around with the name Petros, which is Peter. Like that's what that means, right? So there's something there that we want to honor. There's something there that we want to historically ground our faith in.

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Even if we don't come under that authority directly now, we can. We can talk about that later if there's issues, which I'm sure there are. The Vicar of Christ is another way. To speak of the Bishop of Rome, the successor of the Prince of the Apostles is another way. Or the Supreme Pontiff, or the Primate of Italy, or the servant of servants, which I like the best.

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And this is really what Peter learns, is the kind of servant leadership that Jesus is offering to his disciples. And he himself, as was indicated here in the text, will go to the cross, not mentally, not phenomenologically in his head, but rather in reality, physically, and be counted unworthy to be crucified like his Lord. So he's crucified upside down. And this is the martyrdom of St. Peter.

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And so we want to recognize today that historical apostolic faith that we just said we believed in. Right? We believe in an apostolic faith, which means that what has been passed down today to you from this text out of my mouth is apostolic. That's why we have ordination. That's why we have an ordering in Christ Jesus Church, is because, number one, he ordered his church in this way.

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And we, meaning someone like me, but also someone like you, who's a priesthood of all believers, must. Our faith must be grounded in those apostles that knew Jesus. Right now we don't have to go further in apostolic succession than that. But nevertheless, it is a true thing. And so we all, thankfully, can identify with Peter, who betrayed the Lord too.

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But. But guess what? Peter's difference in all the other betrayals of the 11, we might say that John stuck in there because he was at the cross, in fact, and didn't run away, but everybody else did, and they all betrayed him. Judas never repented and tried to handle it himself by hanging himself. That's not the way when we mess up, when we betray the Lord, we repent and weep bitterly, like Peter did.

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And now we have a restoration of Peter here. And so they go fishing, which is something they had already done before. They know. Well, it's something that's. That's really second nature to them.

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And some have criticized them for going fishing. I don't. I don't know if we have to criticize them. I think it's one of these things when you don't know what to do, do what you know to do. That's kind of a good rule of thumb.

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In fact, it's a maxim of my dad, who says it all the time and did when I was growing up, and it stuck with me. And guess what? I got into some tight spots and have been in some tight spots in my life since I left his home. And that maxim has come true. When I don't know what to do, when I'm looking at a situation, I don't know what to do.

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If you do what you know to do, in other words, the right thing that you know to do, that's it. Just the next step. That right. Next step. That's what you do if you have no idea what to do.

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Pray, Right? Because we know we should pray. You don't know what to do. Read the Scriptures and seek God there. Because guess what?

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We know we're supposed to be doing that. When you don't feel like getting up and going and meeting with other believers, brothers and sisters, guess what? Go do it anyway. Because you know you should be doing those things. Do not forsake the gathering of ourselves together as the manner of some is instead come together around the name of Jesus to worship him.

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And so when you don't know what to do, do what you know you should be doing. And this is something you know, hey, let's go fishing. But guess what? They didn't catch anything, did they? They fish all night.

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And of course, in the first century, you fished at night. Because it wasn't rod and reel fishing, you know, or just jigging it instead had to do with nets, okay? And so they catch fish with these nets, which is why when Jesus found them, remember, they were cleaning their nets, weren't they? You remember this? And he says, hey, go back out there and throw them in there.

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It's a lot of work to do that and a lot of faith. But they did it anyway. And of course, they come in with a hole. Well, here. They fished all night long and caught nothing.

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You ever been there? You ever been there in your life where you toil all night long and there's just nothing? There's just nothing. Nothing. I love that it uses the word nothing.

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They didn't catch a couple they caught nothing. And I felt like that in my life where I am toiling, I'm working away, and it just seems like for nothing. In fact, some of the times where I've invested in someone and put a lot of time and energy into something and it fails or they leave or nothing happens. It's really demoralizing, isn't it? You pray and you pray and you pray for this family member, for instance, and nothing happens.

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It's like a dark night. But get this. And I think we just sang about it, or maybe I heard it on the way here. But when day breaks, it's a new day, right? And guess what the next word is here.

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Just after daybreak, after fishing all night and getting nothing, day breaks and they hear a voice. After toiling all night in the darkness, they hear a voice from the shore. Now, remember that the sea, in the scriptures, really in life as well in literature, always represents what is unknown, unpredictable. So. So in that sense, we all are on the sea of life, right?

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I mean, this is a very common theme within our literature and kind of an archetypal understanding of reality is that we're in the sea. It's. It's tumultuous. It's jerking us around at time. We can't direct it, right?

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We're riding these waves, okay? And we don't know what's down there. We really don't. We don't know what we're going to get. Throw it on this side, throw it on that side, and there's nothing, okay?

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But he hears a voice. Notice from the shore, which the shore is sure, right? That's the point about the shore. It's short. He's here.

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And they hear a voice. Now they don't know it's Jesus. It's a voice out of the darkness, if you will, because it's just daybreak. So it's that moment where it's hard to tell if you just all of a sudden were placed there, if this is sunset or sunrise, right? One time I went to a.

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We call those things lock in, you know. And I slept after that, lock in so long that I woke up and it was either daybreak or it was sunset. And I couldn't tell the difference. It happened to be sunset. And, you know, life seems like that sometimes to me.

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I've thought about that a lot, actually, is there's just enough light. But we're not sure if everything's about to close in around us and be dark forever. There's been times in human history, maybe now some would See, as we're almost going into the abyss, into the darkness forever, perhaps. Or that there's a new day coming. There's a new dawn, right?

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Well, I'm here to tell you that one day, one day it'll be light and no darkness at all. Now, that's a day to look forward to, isn't it? In fact, the light that we have now is shining from the Resurrection. So the. So the hope that some would say meager hope that we have as Christians is daybreak.

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It's actually daybreak, and it's turning from dark. We were falling into darkness completely. And then guess what? He overcomes the darkness. The light John says has come into the world and is shining.

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And guess what? It's going to continue to shine until there is no darkness at all. In fact, the same John who uses the sea in this tumultuous way in Revelation. Remember what he says? He says there will be no more sea.

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Oh, man. There's not going to be a beach. No, no, no, no. He's saying there's not going to be tumultuous uncertainty in life anymore because we'll see him face to face.

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Yes, we do praise him for that. And it ought to give us great hope as Christians today. Listen, it can't get dark enough that his light won't shine. That's our reality. The best, no matter where you're at on the mountaintop or in the deepest, darkest valley, the best is yet to come for Christians.

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And that means for you who follow Jesus Christ and listen, listen to his voice. They hear this voice out of the darkness, out of the mist. I kind of picture, like this morning fog where, you know, the water is at a different temperature than the atmosphere, so it's a little foggy. And this voice comes out. You didn't catch anything, huh?

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Nope. Nothing. Throw it on the right side.

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And they listen to it. Okay, sure, we'll do it. Might as well. We're coming in anyway. And they bring in this hall of fame.

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And right when that happened, guess what? John, with his spiritual perception, he says, that's the Lord. That's not just some old man over there on the shore. That's a fisherman, you know, just curious about what we're doing. No, no, that's the Lord.

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And so as soon as he says, it almost feel like Peter's, like, you know what, John? You beat me to the tomb, but you ain't beat me to the shore. Ain't happening, you know. You remember when they ran? You know, in the Resurrection story, they're both running, but John's younger and beats Peter, and he's not this time.

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Bud puts on his clothes and jumps into the sea almost as if he's a fish himself, getting to Jesus, almost as if there's a baptismal scene here where he's passing through the waters to get to Christ, just as we all have. And we'll remember here in just a moment as we again touch the water, because we are the fish that are being caught here. This imagery here, this symbolism really has to do with being caught, if you will, in the net of grace. This is similar to how a net would have looked where it's tied off at all these little places interconnected, networked, literally together. And we are to be caught, caught up, if you will, in this network of grace, of God's grace.

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We are the 153 fish that are being, listen, pulled out of the darkness of the sea and brought up to the surface. And not only that, but pulled into the sure shore where Jesus is.

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You see, we're on a voyage. The bark, or the ship of the saints is in the middle of the sea right now that we're on. But one day we'll come to that happy shore, won't we? That's the shore that we all have as our aim. And Jesus is on that shore in person, in his spiritual, glorified body.

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You see, we're all to be pulled up from the depths. And the way that happens is through his body, the church. It's what our mission is. So when we look around here and we see empty seats, it's those people that we exist for, not ourselves. We don't come in here to just receive salvation for ourself, but instead we receive God's salvation and then give it right back out again.

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That is the mission of every single one of us who are called to be priests, which is all of us.

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He says it's the Lord. It's the Lord now being naked. He just means, like, basically in his swim trunks, okay? Because they're fishing at night, so it's dark, and he's. He's basically fishing in his swimming trunks because it's easier to work like that.

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The term here is the. Where we get gymnasium from, because that's where they would have also been naked doing the Olympics as well. Now, the Greeks actually did do it naked, okay? But. But here, probably Peter's got at least his.

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His undergarments on, puts on this coat and jumps into this, which is the exact opposite sort of of where we have in Genesis, where They are naked, and then God clothes them. Right? Now Peter is clothed in a similar way, sort of by the Holy Spirit, or clothed here in the, if we will, the righteousness of Christ. So we get some similarity there as well. And then they're invited for breakfast.

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And you might as well call this is a divine breakfast. I mean, of all sorts of breakfast. This is a divine one. And in fact, I love that when they get to the shore, they see a charcoal fire and there's already fish on it. Now they're pulling in all this fish, right?

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But Jesus already has fish from somewhere. Isn't that awesome? I love that little detail that John gives us. He's already got the fish, but he says, you know what? Go ahead and bring your fish too.

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You know, we're gonna have a big breakfast here. And so Jesus is cooking breakfast. He's got. He's got the bread and the fish. By the way, this is why my dad says he fishes, you know, is because it's the food of Jesus.

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Right? Yeah, I think the same thing. Right. Nevertheless. Nevertheless, it is.

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What he's doing here is absolutely Eucharistic. Okay. If you're thinking Holy Communion when you read this, you're on the right track for John. He sees this breaking of the bread notice, and he gave it to them. That is sacramental language.

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It's the language that we just had in chapter 20, remember? In the breaking of the bread, he disappears. And they said, oh, how our hearts were warmed by what he was saying. We didn't even know it was him. Notice there's this mystery around his glorified body where he.

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He only is seen when he wants to be seen. Otherwise, Mary mistakes him in the garden, right? Thought he was the gardener until he says Mary. Until his notice voice is heard. Notice here.

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The voice of Jesus is heard when we can't see him. Guess what, brothers and sisters? We can still hear that mysterious voice of Jesus calling out of the darkness, calling out of the mystical reality that is our lives where we can't see Him. We're still in the boat. We can't see, but we can hear him.

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And I hope you hear today, John saying to us, it is the Lord. Did you hear him? What will we do? We ought to be dragging those that are caught in the net of grace with us to the shore, with our leader Peter, the apostolic leader, leading the way, leading the way straight to Jesus, who is becking us to come and dine with him in a. In a meal that he has prepared.

00:32:11

Now, finally, we deal with Peter this section again, so much here. But remember, Peter, do you love me? Yes, Lord. Do you love. Yes, Lord.

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Do you love me, Lord, you know everything. You know that I love. Now, a lot is missing here in the English, to be honest with you. This is one of those rare places where I would direct you to the Greek to say we're missing some things here, in fact, and that is Jesus actually says to Peter, do you agape me? Like God's kind of love.

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Remember, in English, we just have one word for love, so it just shows up as love. But in Greek, remember, there's at least four. There's really more, but at least four primary ones, and two of those are agape and phileo. So he actually says to Peter, he goes, do you agape me? Peter says, lord, you know, I phileo you.

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Like brotherly love. Remember Philadelphia? That's the same word there, okay? And Jesus says again, do you agape me? He says, lord, you know, I phileo you.

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I love you as a brother. And he says, finally, the third time, do you phileo me? And he says, lord, you know everything. You know that I filet o you. What's he doing here?

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Peter knows he doesn't have God's kind of love, so he's unwilling to match it with agape. Agape to agape. So Jesus comes down to his level, just like he always does for all of us, doesn't he? He comes down to Marshall's level, which is. I'm talking about way down there.

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I'm serious. Way down there. Hey, buddy, listen. But you love me at that level, right? Yes, Lord, I do.

00:34:05

Even though Peter betrayed him three times, now Peter is restored back to his position that Jesus ordained for him, ordered for him, and he restores him three times. And then. You might have missed it. And I did for years, feed my lambs, tend my sheep. Feed my sheep.

00:34:32

Lambs in the first instance, sheep in the other two. Feed and tend. Do you know that we're all called to pastor or shepherd, what God has given us? You know, you're like, yeah, Pastor Marsha, that means it's all up to you, man. No, no, no, no.

00:34:52

I've got my stuff that I'm supposed to shepherd, but you have your stuff that you are. Listen, you're not gonna be able to bring me in and say, hey, he was supposed to be doing that. In the judgment, you alone will stand before Jesus. I alone will stand before Jesus. And he'll say, what'd you do here?

00:35:11

He said, I didn't think Christians got judged oh, Christians will stand before Jesus Christ. Let me tell you, every single human being will stand before Jesus, which is why we really need to think about how we treat every single human being.

00:35:33

And you're going to have to give an account. The scripture says you will give an account. Now, for us Christians, we know we will be with him and we will be saved and all of that, but we will still apparently give an account for what we did. And that, I think, at least for me, is going to be very painful at times.

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Now, he will wipe away all our tears after this, and there won't be any crying about it, and we're going to move on. But we will be accountable. We will be held accountable. Sometimes we get this idea, oh, yeah, just ask Jesus to forgive you. It doesn't matter what you listen, I'm here to tell you, like, it matters what you do.

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It matters what you do.

00:36:14

It matters what you do. And you know what matters most, and Jesus says it here, is love. Do you love me? And some of our love is so broken. Mine is.

00:36:29

And I don't live up to the love I want to have. That's Peter here. And we can identify with that. But you know what changes for Peter Pentecost when the Spirit descends and he's filled with the Holy Spirit. He finally has the love agape, love.

00:36:44

And not only does he have it, he now is able to give it. And that's the calling for all of us. Receive the Holy Spirit. Hear the voice of God today, Jesus calling out of the abyss, out of the darkness.

00:37:03

Recognize it and do something about it. That's the point. And then listen. Be invited today to this holy meal, this mystery, this mystical union where we put Christ in us in a physical way, but it shows forth spiritually. It is spiritual food for us.

00:37:31

Just like his body was, was now not a physical body, but a spiritual body, so too, one day we will put on immortality.

00:37:48

And Paul actually says it this way. He says it's like a seed. It's got to start now. Like right now, today. That's when he puts that seed in us.

00:37:58

And when we die to ourselves and then die physically at the end, the resurrection of the dead, the general resurrection of the dead. When Christ comes back, we'll all be raised, all raised up to new life. And that is the hope the world needs.

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You see, it's daybreak. Do you hear his voice? It's daybreak. Is. You hear him?

00:38:21

He's inviting you here. In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, may you be called in the net of grace.

00:38:31

Amen.

Total Duration 00:38:33