Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:04 Good Morning Village Church.
Speaker 0 00:00:06 Good morning.
Speaker 1 00:00:07 It's much more receptive than nine <laugh>. My name is Eric Bowling and my wife Christine and I have been regularly attending here for the past five months. And I want to just give you three observations that I have made, uh, about you as a church. Observation number one, you all really love Jesus, and you care a lot about the Bible and truth and love. It's awesome. It's observation one, observation number two. You all really love each other, that there's a family feel. A lot of churches will, will talk about community and family, and they put it on a website and it looks good, but you go there and it's just doesn't hit, but it hits here. The first Sunday, my wife and I were here, we walked out and we said that felt like family. And I think that's on purpose. Y'all love each other.
Speaker 1 00:01:02 Number three, y'all love the community. You love the people outside of these walls. You love your neighbors. You love those that, that are not necessarily a part. Um, the extravaganza, right? My wife and I, we wanted to get involved, and I'll be honest with you, I was a little bit skeptical of this event. I was kind of like, okay, we're gonna set out some eggs for children. How big a deal is this really <laugh>? Um, I got a clue when I came to the, like the egg packing and we packed, what was it, uh, 75,000 eggs, right? And it took all afternoon. And I was like, wow. Okay. Uh, and then I went to the event <laugh> and I, I will admit I was wrong. <laugh>. I will admit that you guys love our community. And so I just want to, uh, say on behalf of my wife and I thank you for, uh, being a place that we can come to and, and call our church.
Speaker 1 00:02:03 Um, I'm up here this morning because one of the things, uh, that, that both my wife and I wanted to do when we started coming here is we wanted to get involved. We just didn't want to, uh, to sit. We wanted to be active participants. And I am by career a high school educator. I'm the director of student leadership and service at Wheaton Academy. Uh, in addition to that, I'm a classroom teacher. I've had experience speaking at retreats and chapels and conferences. I've done preaching in other churches. And I was at Coffee with Michael and he was asking me a little bit about myself, and I shared that with him. Uh, and he essentially asked if ever I would be willing to maybe speak on a Sunday morning. Uh, and I said yes, and I, I guess I just didn't realize it was going to be this quick <laugh>.
Speaker 1 00:02:52 Um, so I think there's a lesson there for us. Be very, very careful around the church talking about things that you may want to help with <laugh> because they're going to do that, right? So that's why we're here. I don't know about you, but I love a, a good story, something that just, you, you read it or you watch it or you experience it and you come away and you're just like, man, that was great. That was awesome. I I'll watch that again and again and again. Um, and I think the reason we love good stories is because they, they connect us to something deeper. Like a great story has the storyline, and then there's the meaning beneath the meaning. And it hits us at that heart level where we're like, oh, man, I get it. I, I'll share a quick story. My all time favorite movie is, it's a Wonderful Life.
Speaker 1 00:03:50 I lo Thank you. I love that movie. And I remember when my kids were little, we're like, we're gonna watch. It's a wonderful Life. And they're like, dad, it's like three hours long and it's black and white. And I was like, yes, but, but you're missing the thing beneath the thing, right? It's about George Bailey and his willing, and he has to stay in Bedford Falls and complete the mission. And oh, man, full dis full disclosure, I cry every time when at the end where it's like to my big brother George, the richest man, and, uh, I'm weeping. My kids are like, dad, what's wrong? I'm like, you'll get it someday. <laugh> love a good story. When we come to our passage today, we're gonna look at John chapter 21. We're gonna look at the first part of it, verse one to 14. And this is a good story.
Speaker 1 00:04:39 This is a great story. And the reason that it's great is it because it connects to, to the meaning beneath the meaning, kind of the thing beneath the thing. And so when we read this passage, there's, there's gonna be the surface level story. And what that is, it's about the disciples and Jesus, and it's a, it's really about Peter's reinstatement. And we're gonna just look at a couple different verses in this story. Uh, but ultimately the theme that we're gonna try to land on is this is the story of how Peter didn't, and Jesus does the story of how Peter didn't, and Jesus does. Before we get into that, we need to, to set a little context for where we're at in John chapter 21. If we go back and remember, kind of prior to Easter resurrection, Jesus has told all of the disciples that they're going to fall away from him.
Speaker 1 00:05:38 And that's fulfillment of an Old Testament prophecy from the book of Zacharia. And so Jesus has told his apostles, all of you are going to fall away. And he specifically talks to Peter and he says, Peter, you are going to deny me three times. And Peter is adamant that it will not happen. Peter goes on to say, I will die with you. Peter compares himself to the other disciples and he says, even if all of these fall away from you, I will not. And yet, unfortunately, we know from John chapter 18 that Peter does in fact deny Jesus, not once, but twice, but three times. And so all of that is some context to where we find ourselves in John chapter 21. Now, what's interesting is John is going to get us to the meaning beneath the meaning, and he's gonna use three images. He's going to use fishing, fire, and food.
Speaker 1 00:06:43 And what he's gonna use is he's gonna use these three images and he's really going to, uh, highlight the story of Peter and Peter's reinstatement. And so this week we're gonna talk about the first part of this, and next week will be, uh, some very specific things related to Peter's reinstatement. But this is the, the setup and the context. So let's look at the first thing that John is going to use, which, which is fishing. Let's look at chapter three. So John 21, verse three. So Simon Peters said to them, I am going fishing. They said to him, we will go with you. They went out and got in the boat, but that night they had caught nothing. And I think it's interesting to ask why are the disciples fishing at this point? Like, what, what, what is going on that they decide this is what we should do.
Speaker 1 00:07:35 Now, they had just had a couple of appearances of the resurrected Christ, and they're like, you know what? Let's go fishing. I think there's really two things that connect this for us. Number one, uh, is they leave Jerusalem and the chaos following all that had happened, they had gone through a lot in a relatively short period of time. They had experienced the triumphal entry, they had experienced, uh, the upper room in the last supper. They had experienced Judas betrayal. They had experienced Peter's denial. They had seen Jesus go to not one but two trials, both the Jewish trial and a Roman trial. They had seen Jesus crucified. They had seen Jesus resurrected. There was a lot going on for these guys in Jerusalem. And so I think one of the reasons they go fishing is they literally just needed to get away and, and to, and to be out of that kind of environment.
Speaker 1 00:08:30 I think the second reason that they're fishing, uh, is they needed to work. They, they needed money. And these guys are particularly Peter, uh, was a fisherman prior to following Jesus. And so he goes back to what he knows. He goes back to his livelihood. And so we find these guys fishing. But what's interesting is John includes this detail that, that they had fished all night, but they hadn't caught anything. And that's an important connection because what he's going to show us is he is going to show us they didn't catch anything for a reason. And that reason was so Jesus could show up. Let's look at John 21 verse five and six. Okay, so the disciples are fishing all night. Jesus is on the shore. He says to him, children, do you have any fish? They answered him. No. He said to them, cast the ni the net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.
Speaker 1 00:09:30 So they cast it, and now they're not able to haul it in because of the quantity of fish. Now, I don't know if you fish, but I will tell you I like to fish, right? And a matter of fact, the first Sunday we were here, Michael was talking about his dislike of fishing. And that was tough for me, but we stuck it out and we're here, right? But I like to fish. And one of the things I like about fishing, uh, is there's a lot of skill required to fishing. And same thing that hasn't changed as long as there's been humanity and fish that hasn't changed. For the disciples, the same thing. So they're in this boat and they're fishing. And to be a fisherman, particularly in this time, in this culture, required some extensive knowledge of like bodies of water, how to navigate a boat, how to na, how to use a net.
Speaker 1 00:10:22 But one of the things is technique. Like how, what technique do you use to try to catch the fish? And what's interesting when Jesus calls to them, they don't know it's him. So they just hear this kind of voice from the shore and they don't know it's Jesus. And he says, have you caught anything? They say, no. He says, well, throw it off the right side, and you will find some, that's the wrong technique. Like two fishermen at this time. That doesn't make any sense. But to the disciples credit, credit, they try it. And what do they experience? They experience this massive hall of fish so much that they can't even get it in. And I think what Jesus is trying to communicate through this is he's telling them, fish like I'm telling you to fish, fish like I'm telling you to fish. And you know what?
Speaker 1 00:11:17 This isn't the first time that Jesus has used fishing for these guys. If we look back to Luke chapter five, there's another story where the disciples are yet again fishing. And Jesus comes and he tells them how to fish and they do it, and they have this miraculous catch. And then Jesus says to them, at this point, you're going to fish for people. And it's a calling and, and it's a, a transfer that he's offering them. You can leave this and follow me. And so I think what John wants us to connect to the first image of fishing is this, even though the disciples, all of them had fallen away at some point, Peter, especially in denying Jesus, that Jesus is saying the mission is is still here, it's still on. I have called you to do this. If you will fish like I'm telling you to fish, then, then you will be successful.
Speaker 1 00:12:18 And I think it's interesting. One other point with this passage that, that Jesus, uh, doesn't say throw it on the right side of the boat and, and you might catch something, he says, you will catch something. He, he guarantees. And I think for the disciples, they needed to know that, that there was a specific call for them and they were not disqualified from that call. And so the first image John uses is fishing. The second image John uses is fire. If we look back at the passage, we're gonna look at, uh, verse nine. And so it says that verse nine says this, when they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire in place with fish laid out on it and bred. Now it's interesting that, that a charcoal fire is mentioned, uh, specifically. Now, again, there's some things, there's a reason. It's, it's probably mourning.
Speaker 1 00:13:14 They've been fishing all night, it's likely cold, they gotta cook what they have. But I think there's a meaning beneath a meaning here. And that is this. If we look back at John chapter 18, Peter's denial, Peter denies Jesus at a charcoal fire in, isn't that interesting that Peter's at a fire and he's asked, do you follow Jesus? And he says, I don't know him. I don't follow him. And now here he is, he's in front of the resurrected Jesus at a fire. And Jesus is going to ask John three very pointed and specific questions that we're gonna talk about next week about how, sorry, I asked Peter three specific questions about how does Peter Love Jesus?
Speaker 1 00:14:08 And so we have this fire. Now, I asked a question and to, when I was reading this, I said, well, why would Jesus like recreate this fire scene? You know, the place of honestly, Peter's greatest failure. Why, why would Jesus want to take him back to that? Why? Why would Jesus want to kind of re-image that for him? I I think there's, there's two reasons for this one. So I think Jesus wanted to remind Peter, look, you can't and, and you won't and you didn't. I think Jesus wanted to remind Peter, look, I know what you said and how adamant you were and and how much you want to follow me and how passionate you are and how enthusiastic you are. But on your own, Peter, you're gonna fail and you did fail. Now if Jesus leaves Peter there, that's just cruel. But he doesn't.
Speaker 1 00:15:05 I think what Jesus wants to Peter to understand is that even though Peter can't and won't and didn't, Jesus can, he will. And he does. And so I think what what John focuses in on, on this fire is to give us the setting that what was Peter's greatest failure is gonna be a future of victory. So instead of looking back at the fire and remembering failure, he's gonna look at this specific instance with Jesus. And he's going to, to, uh, focus on his future, which is building the church, spreading the gospel, sharing the news of Jesus' death, resurrection, salvation for sin and belief.
Speaker 1 00:15:50 John uses a third imagery here and it's food. Now, one of the things I didn't mention earlier about food in our church is you all love food <laugh>, right? That was one of the things, uh, when we walked outta that first service, <laugh>, the sun was hitting the tables just right. I was like, whoa. And then someone told me about savory Sunday. Oh yeah, you, some of you've been around, you know, I was like, wow, food. And it's interesting. John is going to use this imagery of food again to reconnect back to the disciples he used fishing to remind him of their call. He uses the fire to remind Peter that he's not left in his failure and he's gonna use food, and food is going to serve two very specific purposes here. Let's look at verse 10. Jesus says, the disciples bring some of the fish you have just caught.
Speaker 1 00:16:51 What's interesting is we just read that there is a fire and there's fish already there. Why does Jesus need more? Well, remember the connection Jesus had told them to fish, like I'm telling you to fish. They have this massive catch. The Bible says it's 153 total. And then he says, bring some to me. Now, this isn't the first time Jesus has asked his disciples to bring food to him. In order to get some context here, we have to go back to John chapter six and the feeding of the 5,000. And if you remember that story that Jesus is teaching and there's literally thousands and thousands of people following him, and there's no food and people are hungry and Jesus has compassion. And he says to the disciples, what are you guys gonna do about it? And their response is, we don't know. Like you're, you're Jesus, right?
Speaker 1 00:17:50 Like, what do we do? And he says, go find food. And they do. And they go and they find just a couple loaves and a couple fish, and they bring it to Jesus. Jesus takes it. He presents it to his father and he blesses it. And then it's distributed. We're told in scripture that everybody had enough to eat. There was so much food that the leftovers took up like 12 basket. Like there was a ton left over. And I think what John wants us to connect to the meaning beneath the meaning here is that Jesus will take what the disciples can bring and he's gonna multiply it beyond what they can even imagine. And we see this play out in the Book of Acts when you have Peter, especially becoming the leader of the church and stepping into this role, whereas he had denied Christ before and now he steps up in boldness and he proclaims Jesus' death, resurrection, and salvation from sin. And this concept of bring me some of the fish you caught, really connects to this idea of Jesus will do more than they can imagine.
Speaker 1 00:19:00 John is gonna use one other food related, uh, image, image here. And if we look at verse 12 says, Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them. And so with the fish, so Jesus distributes the food to them. Again, John, connecting meaning beneath meaning. There was another time Jesus distributed food to his disciples, the upper room to last supper where Jesus had gathered with them shortly before He's betrayed and he goes to his death and he shares with them a meal. And this is where he blesses the bread in the cup is his body and blood, which is for them. And I think the connection that, that this is mentioned here, that Jesus feeds them, is Jesus is reminding them, look, it's not necessarily about the physical needs, this bread and this fish you're gonna need to eat again. But it's about the spiritual nourishment that he's gonna provide for them.
Speaker 1 00:20:07 And so when we, when we look at this, I think we could summarize this chapter by basically saying, Jesus confirms for the disciples through, through recreating the calling to fish for men through recreating this fire. And this instead of denying Jesus, Peter now has a confession to following Jesus, to looking at food and how Jesus is gonna multiply what the disciples bring and he's gonna share with them, uh, the spiritual food. So I think Jesus is reminding him and confirming that the gospel mission is still on. See, I think the disciples probably had a few doubts at this point. They'd already gone through that chaos in Jerusalem like we talked about before. And they'd been waiting for kind of what's next. And here, Jesus sets the stage that it's still on what, what I'm going to accomplish is still going to happen. Matter of fact, all this other stuff has just served to set up what's next. And not only that, I think he wanted the disciples to know you have a significant part to play. Cuz I'm sure the disciples probably felt like they were disqualified at some point. They all had fallen away to some measure. Peter especially had fallen away. And Jesus says, no, the mission's still on and you still have significant roles to play.
Speaker 1 00:21:42 So, so what I know around here, we act as, so what, what is this mean? Like how does this relate to us? Number one, Jesus mission is still for us today, the same mission given to these disciples is the same mission given to you and me that we are to go and we are to spread the news about him. We're to be very simply about helping people find and follow Jesus. It's the mission and it's still for us. Number two, what fuels the mission is the gospel. And the power of the gospel restores three relationships for us. The first relationship that is restored through this gospel, this idea of Jesus death, resurrection, forgiveness for sin. Salvation is this, that we're restored to God and that relationship is set right? We're told in scripture that prior to accepting Jesus, we are the Bible uses phrases like we are objects of wrath, that we are dead, that we, uh, are God haters, like strong language to say that, that we're out of, we're disordered in our relationship with God.
Speaker 1 00:23:04 That something, it needs to be set right? Something needs to be restored in the gospel through Jesus tells us this is the way that it happens. This is the restoration us to God. The second way that the gospel restores is to ourselves, it's to ourselves. What happens to us sometimes is that we, we get disordered in the sense that that things just, uh, aren't clear for us. And we, we kind of lose sight of, of who we are and we lose sight of, of what we're to be doing and how we're to be doing it. And, and, and it's like we become confused and we, when we are disordered and understanding, uh, exactly what we're to be about, like what does it mean to be, to be human? Like what does it mean to have all of these things? And and we see when we, when we get confused about this, it leads to all kinds of outcomes that, that are really, honestly just all over the place.
Speaker 1 00:24:08 And yet what the gospel does is it helps order us back to ourselves. So through the gospel we can say, I know who I am. I know where my identity is, my identity is in Christ. I know what I'm to be doing. I'm to be following the mission. And it just brings us back into order with ourselves. And so we have this restoration to us as a people. We have this peace in our hearts. The last thing that the gospel does is it helps us restore to other people. It helps us to be able to bring other people into this relationship. We're told in scripture that we are to be ambassadors. We're to be reconcilers and our messages so people are reconciled back to God. And so we have this, this mission that isn't just about us and God, it's about us and God in everybody else. And sometimes this is hard. This is why we need Jesus, because it is hard to love other people. It is hard to love other people. Sometimes it's hard to love other people that we see, but they're distance from us. And, and honestly like it's easy to ignore that,
Speaker 1 00:25:28 But sometimes it's hard to love the people in our own homes or the people we work with or the people that quite frankly just drive us crazy. But yet the gospel says, love that person, love that person. Help that person find and follow me. It's a, it's a beautiful thing. So the gospel is what drives this mission, right? Relationship with God, us and other people. But let's talk about what happens when we fail. I know walking in here this morning that w there's probably, uh, all of us probably have stories of failure, things where we have just, we have just blown it sometimes in, in small ways, sometimes in big ways. But we fail. Sometimes we fail and, and it's, and we don't, we don't mean to. It's, it's, it's an error. It's an accident. And, and you know, we, we, we try not, but it happens. Sometimes we fail and it's a hundred percent our fault. It's a hundred percent. I said something, I did something or I didn't do something. And the blame is on me. And when that happens to us, we have a tendency as people when we fail to try to minimize that,
Speaker 1 00:27:01 Oh, it's not that big a deal. Oh, it's that you misunderstood. Ah, it's not important. It's not what I intended. Sometimes we just outright deny that. Nope, didn't do that wasn't me. We put the, we put it onto somebody else. We deny it's us. However, we, we deal with our failure. One of the things, if we don't deal with it through the gospel, is it leads to, to, to shame. Where, where we look at ourselves and we say, oh man, like I, I, I, I blew it. It's my fault I failed. I can't overcome this. I can't undo this. But here's some hope. Jesus forgives failure, past, present, future, doesn't matter. Jesus will looks at what has happened in the past and he says, forgiven. Jesus looks at what's gonna happen maybe even today. And he says, forgiven. Jesus looks in into the future and he knows. And he says, forgiven the book of Romans tells us nothing can separate us from the love of God, which is found in Jesus. And so sometimes when we look at our failure and we look at the past and we think, oh, I'm disqualified from serving Jesus. And Jesus says, no, you're not.
Speaker 1 00:28:34 And we're reminded of that through John 21. These guys had failed. Peter failed, failed spectacularly. But yet Jesus said, I forgive it. And not only do I forgive it, Peter, but you have work to do. You've got a mission to accomplish. And so when we look at our failures, I wanna leave you with one last encouragement is this, don't give up hope. Don't give up hope because it's true. If it's up to me and if it's up to you, we can't, we won't, we don't. All of those things are true of us. But yet Jesus can, he does and he will. And that's what's true of him. And so that gives us hope that if and when we fail, there is forgiveness. We know the scripture says if we confess our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive us sin and to cleanse us from that unrighteousness.
Speaker 1 00:29:40 I just want to want to encourage you with that today, to not give up hope cuz Jesus is not giving up on us. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this reminder of your grace and of your mercy and of your love. What I know is as we sit here today, there's, there's those of us who are following you. And tho there are those of us who are not yet following you. Jesus. You know that the answer for both is exactly the same. Forgiven I have a mission. Lord, help us to walk in light of the gospel, to walk in light of, of your truth, to walk in light of your grace and mercy. Empower us Lord, as we go to our homes and our communities, help us to, to be people that know through the gospel that we are in a right relationship with you and a right relationship with ourselves and a right relationship with others. Not because of what we have can do, but because of what Jesus has done. Thank you for the truth of your word. Thank you for what it means to us. And I pray this in your name. Amen.
