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Go to the book of John. The book
of John. We're gonna look at a passage
of scripture that occurs pretty recently after the events that
we celebrate this morning, or celebrate today, Easter. Not
immediately after, but pretty soon. In John chapter 21, I'm going to ask a simple question,
a question that I will not be rhetorical. I'm not going to
ask for you to answer me out loud, but I'm going to ask for
you to answer the Holy Spirit. We'll get to that in just a moment.
But John chapter 21, I'd ask for you, if you don't mind,
would you mind standing with me as you're physically able? I'll
just read about six and a half verses or so. John 21, we won't
go long this evening. John 21, I've learned you can
lull people into a sense of complacency. If you go about 30, 35 minutes
Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, you can go like three and a half
hours and fool them on Wednesday. Man, they're already here. I
won't do that to you. Don't stay away on Wednesday.
I will not do that to you, all right? It'd be a ghost town around
here. John 21, in verse number one, the Bible says this. After
these things, Jesus showed himself again to the disciples at the
Sea of Tiberias, and on this wise showed he himself. There were together Simon Peter,
and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana, and Galilee,
and the sons of Zebedee, and two other of his disciples. Simon
Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing. They saying to him, we also go
with thee. They went forth and entered into a ship immediately,
and that night they caught nothing. But when the morning was now
come, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples knew not that
it was Jesus. Then Jesus saith unto them, Children,
have ye any meat? They answered him, No. Can you
imagine how dejected, how disappointed, No, and he said unto them, verse
six, cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall
find they cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw
it for the multitude of fishes. In the first half of verse seven,
therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter,
it is The question I'd like to ask
this evening, as we look at these men, you realize they walked
three plus years right in lockstep with Jesus Christ. They were
not unfamiliar to him. He was not some enigma. He was
not constantly cloaked in some large robe to disguise himself. People knew who this was, and
no one should have known him better than these men. My question
though is, do you know him? Do you know him? We're gonna
ponder that this evening. Father, we thank you for this
night. Thank you for the opportunity
we have to gather around your word. And as we really launch
into these services, I ask that what's spoken about tonight from
your word would be a help, be a conviction, Lord, it would
be precisely what you'd have for this hour. Thank you for
your goodness to us, and we thank you for what you will do. And
your sons and me pray, amen. You may be seated there. I'll
kind of give you an introduction to this passage and break it
down. In verse number one, you realize
this is one of the last appearances of Jesus Christ. This is one
of the last times he appears robed in human flesh. Now, we
realize he was the God man. He was 100% God and 100% man. My daughter, we were driving
up 135. And when I say up 135, I mean
up 135 with the RV. And talking to Pastor, he counseled
me not to go back down 135 with that RV. But we'll be careful
about that and go a different way. But my daughter, for some
reason, they were in the back of the RV. And it stopped somewhere
and she came up and she asked if she could sit by me and the
other ones were in the back. And she started asking me some
questions about the Trinity. Now, you've never figured out
whether you know a Bible doctrine or not until you've tried to
explain it to a six-year-old. Now, the nice thing about the
Trinity is, I can honestly say, no man really understands it.
Intellectuals try to explain it. It's like water. It can be three, you know, gas,
liquid, or solid. Some people talk about it being
an egg, and use that illustration, the shell, and the yolk, and
the egg white. Kind of tell you, at the end
of the day, we're not going to know until we get to heaven, right?
I can't explain it to you, and I did my best to explain. I wanted
to sound like a smart dad and just lay it all out for her.
I had to tell her, at the end of the day, we're going to find
out when we get to heaven. I can't tell you how three in
one works. The same is true for the God-man,
Jesus Christ. I'm not sure how he could give
up some of his, I wouldn't say give up his ability, but he decided
to become humanity and divinity all at the same time. Honestly,
I can't explain it. Maybe some far smarter than me
can. But wouldn't it have been something to be able to see him?
Wouldn't that have been wonderful to be able to walk alongside
him? to actually maybe, just maybe, speaking of fast food
and all that type of stuff, can you think of what a privilege
it must have been to go into that village and while he was
talking to the Samaritan woman, to go find Jesus some food? To
come back and say, here, here Jesus. To just be a, to wait
hand and foot on him, robed in human flesh. But can I tell you,
for as much of a blessing as it would have been to be able
to see him there, I'm glad he left us something
so we could know him. I'm glad he also didn't leave
us comfortless either. But this is, in verse number
one, one of the last appearances of Jesus. But then, you notice
here, the Bible, I believe we do have an every word Bible,
in verse number two, there was, maybe I'll call it a limited
attendance. There were more than seven disciples, but there were
only seven here in this list. They were together. Verse two,
Simon Peter and Thomas called Didymus and Nathanael of Cana
and Galilee and the sons of Zebedee. There were two of them, right?
And two other of his disciples. So we add up to seven there.
Sometimes I realize we can feel like our group is small. Sometimes
we can feel like, we talk about, for Baptists and just in general,
it being a small world. Probably you have friends, and
we don't even know we're friends with each other, but we have
friends, and can I tell you, no matter how small you think
your group is, God's always big enough. I'm glad for the fact,
there was a, used to say, one of the old statesmen said something
along the lines of what used to be said, you and God make
a majority. But then one of the old statesmen
of the faith said something along the lines, he doesn't even need
you. He's got a majority all by himself.
Aren't you glad for that? Unlimited attendance. But then
I notice, and this is where it kind of hits me, I see in verse
number three a lacking attitude. Look at verse number three. Simon
Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing. Is there anything wrong with
fishing? Now, I am horrible at fishing. I do a lot of fishing,
I don't do a lot of catching. There's nothing wrong with going
fishing, but this, you know as well as I, this is Peter turning
back to an old lifestyle. This is not just recreational
fishing, this is Peter rejecting where God put him and going back
to something he should not have been doing. I go fishing. Then
I see, Continue to verse number three there was a losing attempt. They didn't do very well. They
said to him We also go with thee they went forth and entered into
a ship immediately and that night they caught Nothing it doesn't
it seem like when you go without God it never works out the way. It's supposed to There's an old
song how many know that song come thou found you know that
song come thou found no I That song was written by a man named
Robert Robinson, all the way back in the 1700s, long time
ago. Robert Robinson accepted Christ
at about 20 years old or so, under the leather-lunged preaching
of a man named George Whitefield. George Whitfield, obviously you'd
name this, we still remember hundreds of years later. Robert
Robinson, maybe not so much, but he wrote that just three
years after his conversion, after he got saved. He went on to become
a Baptist preacher, had a church running almost 1,000 people later
on in life. But towards the very end of his
life, he did not finish strong. He strayed. He went away from
the Lord. He backslid, if you want to call
it that. But he had written that song many years ago. And he was
riding in a carriage. He had lived for many years at
this point now, astray from God, the God that had maybe inspired
him to write those words. And he was riding in a carriage.
And to save money, there was another young lady splitting
the fare. They were going between cities. And she, to pass the
time, realized they didn't have phones. And they didn't have
all those types of things. And she began to sing a song.
You want to guess what song it was? Come thou fount. And then she got to that last
verse, prone to wander. Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave
the God I love. Here's my heart, oh, take and
seal it. Seal it for thy courts above. You think about an ice
cold dagger to the heart, that was. And she, not looking for
a compliment, she turned to Mr. Robinson and said, sir, what
do you think of that song? Asking the author himself. And
he said this, ma'am, I would give a thousand worlds if I had
them to feel now as I felt then. I'm the man that wrote that song.
You ever been away from the Lord? Maybe, just maybe. It could be
that you came to Easter Sunday services in that place, and maybe
you're tired of the attempts to salvage what you've made of
your life away from the Lord. I see here a losing attempt,
but I also see in verse number four, but when the morning was
now come, I'm glad the sun's coming up in the morning. I'm
glad the light arises and illuminates the Lord's arrival. But when
the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore. Aren't you glad? I want you to
notice here, verse number five. Then Jesus saith unto them, this
is kind of introduction, long introduction, very short message.
Then said Jesus unto them, children, have ye any meat? I am so glad,
now we serve a God that always deals with the root of the issue. You ever notice that about God?
He is able to cut right down to where the crux of the matter
is. But I am so glad that he is kind enough when he deals
with the cause, He also gives loving attention and deals with
the symptoms too. Say, what are you talking about
here? Do you think in the grand scheme of eternity, God cared
if they caught any fish? But I can tell you it meant something
to those disciples. You ever had your head down just
plowing forward, seemed to be failing at everything? Isn't
it such a blessing when God just comes alongside and helps you
in your present? Even when your present distress
is a place you put yourself, it's a blessing when he comes
alongside. Children, have ye any meat? Showed some loving
attention. I'm glad for the fact that we
serve a God. He doesn't just give us the medicine, but he
gives us a spoonful of sugar to take it with. He gave this
loving attention. But then I noticed there, verse
number five, Bible says, then Jesus said unto them, children,
have ye any meat? They answered him, no. And in
verse number six, I see a leader's authority. He said unto them,
cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find
they cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it
for the multitude of fishes. And in verse number seven, finally,
we see a logical acknowledgement. Oh, that's Jesus. But we go through
those six and a half verses because I want to ask the question, we've
already asked, do you know him? But I want to figure out why
it was, do a little detective work, how and why was it that
the disciples finally figured out who it was? It took them
a little while, didn't it? Now, I realize that it may have
just been the beginning of the day. I realize that the light
was just coming up. Maybe it was shading him just
a little bit. But I'd like to look at why and
how they figured out this was Jesus, because it might help
you figure out where Jesus is in your life, too. I think sometimes
I can only speak for myself. I think sometimes we get out,
as with Dale, I think you said, we take things into our own hands
sometimes. We get out a little ahead of God. We get behind God
a little bit. And we forget the last place
we left him. But then when we try to get back in fellowship,
get back in lockstep, it's hard for us to recognize him sometimes.
I want to talk about that for just a moment here. How did they
know him? First, was his presence evidence
enough? Was his presence evidence enough?
We're not going to, for sake of time, we're not going to look
at all of what we call Christophanies. times when Jesus Christ came,
maybe pre-New Testament appearance of Jesus Christ, but there are
often times, and I would tend to agree with this, when you
see the phrasing Angel of the capital L, capital O, capital
R, capital D, Angel of the Lord, it very well could be that that
was Jesus Christ coming and spending a little time with his people.
Would you like to guess where the very first time that he visited,
I would say his people, but it wasn't his people. The very first
time that he did that was to speak to a little Egyptian named
Hagar. Can you believe that? It wasn't
Abraham, wasn't Isaac, wasn't Jacob. Speaking of him having
time for the little people, I'm glad that he gave us that little
help. We could look through all the
times he spoke to Abraham, to Isaac, Jacob as I mentioned,
visited Moses, Gideon at the threshing floor, those three
Hebrew children. Aren't you glad there was a fourth
man in the fire? You would think, now, I'm not trying to be spooky
here or anything like that. For me personally, I tend to
shy away from these grandiose conversations or ideas about,
you know, the hair on the back of my neck stood up. It's like,
that may be a little bit much for me, but you would think,
think about this, you would surmise that when God shows up like he
was in John 21, you would think people might take notice You
would think it might feel just a little bit different. You might
think the disciples might figure out, that's Jesus over there,
but apparently his presence wasn't evidenced enough. One of my favorite
studies, number two that I've done in recent days, asks this
question, did his posture expose him? You think about this, moms,
dads, moms probably more than dads, but when you see your kids,
you see a pack of kids like they were all running out here a second
ago, you can figure out which ones are yours pretty quickly.
Not even by the squeals of delight or the crying. You can figure
out, just in a silhouette, you can figure out, that one's mine.
You can look at the back of your husband from across the way.
He might be wearing something different than you thought he
was. And you can figure out, I know that guy. Just by the
way he holds himself, by the way he carries himself. Our posture
is our own. It's very individualistic, is
it not? Jesus, 100% God, yes, but he was 100% man, too. You
ever want to do a fun study, look at the postures of Jesus.
I see a few different ones in scripture. Apparently, this wasn't
enough for them to figure out who he was, because he's standing
over there on the shore. You would think it was the same
old Jesus. You'd think they would have been
able to figure out who it was. If you ever want to do a study,
you can look at the sleeping posture of Jesus. Think about
a little baby in a manger. Aren't you glad that he was in
that manger for you and me? Remember when he was sleeping
in the back of a boat in Mark chapter four? You can study the
sleeping posture of Jesus, but he was rarely, he was a busy
man, busy God. Very rarely was he sleeping.
How about the seated posture of Jesus? Aren't you glad for
a Jesus that will accept the little ones to come to him? and
sit in his lap. We could talk about him seated
at a well in John chapter four. He must needs go through Samaria. I'm glad he went through Samaria
for that woman. I'm glad he came through wherever
I was when he came to get me. The seated posture of Jesus. We could talk about how the fact
that he is, his posture right now, he's seated at the right
hand of the father. What a blessing that is. How
about the stooping? The stooping posture of Jesus.
What are you talking about? Remember when he stooped over
to write in the sand? We don't know what he wrote.
That's one of those things I'm looking forward to, you know,
the 360 camera when we get to heaven so I can watch this Bible
account and I'm going to see if we can move that camera around
and look over his shoulder and figure out exactly. And I think,
I'm pretty sure in my glorified body I'm going to be able to
read whatever language he was writing that in too. Apparently it was
enough to make all those guys walk out. They wanted nothing
to do with it after he started writing this in. I'm glad he
stooped down. I'm glad he stooped under the weight of the cross. That leads us to, you talk about
the supplicating posture of Jesus when he was in a garden, praying
as it were, great drops of blood. That led to the sacrificial posture
of Jesus, hung on a cross for you and for me. But one of my favorite, you may think
it's not as interesting as some of these other ones, but it is
to me, one of my favorite postures of Jesus is what we find in John
21. We say standing. Everyone does it all the time.
My favorite example of the standing posture of Jesus is when one
of his men, Stephen, was being stoned. Because before that,
before Stephen was being stoned, the Bible talks about, actually
in the book of Matthew, how he is seated, going to be seated
on the right hand of the Father. That's where he was going to
ascend to the Father. He was going to be seated on the right hand
of the Father. So that's, we know, that was a posture he was
going to assume when he got to heaven. And we know after that,
in a multitude of places, the Bible talks about how he is now
seated on the right hand of the Father. But in the book of Acts,
when Stephen was being stoned, I see, him standing, almost like
he was giving a standing ovation to
one of his own. But did his posture expose him? Apparently not. It
wasn't immediately after they saw, oh, wait a second, that's
Jesus. That wasn't enough. His presence
wasn't enough. How about his proclamation, the
way he spoke? I've been told, I had someone
ask me the other day, where are you from? Better than that, they were trying
to ask about my voice. I had someone a couple of months
ago, the aisle was much smaller in this church, and she kind
of accosted me right here in the middle aisle. It was real
tight, and I couldn't get, I wasn't trying to get around, I was just
gonna step to the side so she could go by, but she wanted to talk to
me. She said this, what are you? And I said, I'm sorry, ma'am,
what are you talking about? She said, what are you? I am so glad
for people just willing to ask the question. They want to know.
And she was asked after my ethnicity, I'm actually, my mom was half
Korean. So I get, I have about a quarter
Korean. And my mom and dad, I mentioned this morning, both of them were
half Jewish, so I get some of that as well. The other quarter,
if you're doing the math, is Scottish, Irish, German, and
so I am a mutt, is what I told her. That is what I am. But with
that background, and the fact that we moved constantly, there
was another lady at church, I was just at Washington State, she
asked me, now are you from Arkansas? I said, and nobody, I'm not from
Arkansas. My dad was in the military. She
said, oh, that's why. And she was trying to place my
accent. She said, I thought it was kind of Arkansas. And like,
she added like three or four other things that could be in
there as well. One of these days, I told her, I'm going to go to
a dialect coach and figure out what I sound like. I have no
idea what that is. It's probably an amalgamation
of all kinds. And the problem is, if I'm at a place too long,
you know how this is, you can kind of slip into wherever you're
at and just try to blend in a little bit. But Jesus, I've got to imagine,
it was pretty obvious when Jesus spoke. I've got to think that
when, I mean, my sheep hear my voice, they know my voice. Yes,
I realize that that's a big picture thought, spiritually speaking.
But you think those disciples didn't know what Jesus sounded
like? But for some reason, and you know as well as I, that water,
we don't know how far they were across, but they were carrying
on a conversation across the water. Water transmits sound
really well. It probably wasn't too garbled. But his voice wasn't enough.
His posture didn't expose him. His presence wasn't evidence
enough. Was it, and this one, we have just two more. This one,
saying it at last, I would be willing to debate. This one,
I'd be willing to consider, but I don't believe it was this one
either. Was it his power? Extraordinary. I'd understand
if you thought it was this one, but I think there's one more
to go. You think about these disciples, they saw Jesus do
a multitude of things, didn't they? They saw him do, I mean,
from, Master, carest thou not that we perish? The woman with
the issue of blood, all the way down, the maniac of Gadara. Can
you imagine those disciples tripping over themselves trying to get
back in the boat as that maniac came running at them? He met
them, the Bible says, immediately when they got out of that boat.
And Jesus just started talking to him. Pretty soon he was clothed
in his right mind. They saw Jesus do some incredible
things. A man let down through the roof
and he's standing up pretty soon. All kinds of crazy stuff. Maybe,
just maybe, it was that. But I think there was something
else that got. You know that disciple whom Jesus
loved? His name was John, right? It didn't occur to all of them
at the same time. Look at verse number six there. He said unto
them, cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall
find. They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw
it for the multitude of fishes. Therefore, you know what they
say about therefore, you're always supposed to look at why it's
therefore. You say, yeah, Jesus did a miracle
just now, that's why. Could I give you my thoughts?
I won't take this to the bank. It could have well been his power
extraordinary, but I'd like to submit this to you. As we ask
the question, do you know him? I believe that what finally made
them go ding, ding, ding. I was in a church down in the
South not long ago. I'm sorry, when I was a kid.
And there was a lady in the church. She said like this, has the clue
bird landed yet? I think she meant it when I was
being dumb, she was asking me that question, but the clue bird
landed on John, didn't it? You know what I believe it was?
I believe it was previous experience. Do you remember another time
they were in a boat? Remember another time that the fishing
was pretty lean? Remember another time when Jesus
was the difference maker in their life? We won't turn there for the sake
of time, but you know the story. Those ships out there cast the
net, cast the nets, I should say. Jesus said nets, plural. And what'd they do? Put one net
out there. Almost killed themselves trying
to get it back to shore. I believe John said, I've seen
this before. That's Jesus. My question is, as you look to find Jesus, as
you ask the question, do you know him? I'm asking, do you
have previous experience with this Jesus? Could you go back
in your mind's eye to a time Maybe it was a revival of years
past. Maybe young people, it was a summer camp sometime. Maybe,
just maybe, it was a time in your life when you knew there
was nothing between my soul and the Savior. My question is, if he were to
walk in the room, would you know him? But our God doesn't work in the
wind or in the flame. He works in the still, small
voice. And I believe so oftentimes we shut him out because we're
too busy with other loud voices. I believe we have so much going
on, the klaxons of the world screaming in our ears. And we're
too busy with what we've got. I've got to catch these fish,
don't you know? And we forget the fact that he's asking, children,
have ye any meat? They should have known him. There
should have been, it wouldn't surprise me if there was just
a warm glow that came off of Jesus, that his presence alone
should have been, that's Jesus. His posture should have made
them say, that's Jesus. The way he spoke should have
made them go, that's Jesus. But it took him getting their
attention with something, oh, we've seen that before. My question is, what's it gonna
take to get your attention? I, you cannot convince me that
God doesn't still speak today. You cannot convince me that God
doesn't have a great work for his people. I'm not talking about
the movement of fundamentalism. Revival doesn't start in movements.
It doesn't start in churches. It starts in individuals yielded
to the cause of holy God. And you can't convince me that
he's not speaking to you. We may drown him out. We may
have our hands too busy holding on to our nets, not the nets
to go catch the lost, but our own personal nets, things that
we think are so important. You know, when they finally straggled
ashore with nets full, Jesus already had the feast laid out. Do you know him? Honestly, this
question isn't so much, are you saved? It is that, too. These were, if I can call them,
they were first called Christians in Antioch, I realize that, but
these were Christians, if I can call them that. They were disciples,
just like we're supposed to be. Men that should have known him. The reason I preach this, I believe
the Lord laid on my heart, but the reason I preach this now What a sad thing it would be
for God to be speaking, hey, hello, I'd like to get your attention. I don't think he beats on the
door of our hearts like a cop would. No, I think just, hello,
anyone home? Would you know him if he was? As we conclude tonight, I'd ask
you, do you know him? I'm not asking if the back of
your, the hairs on the back of your neck are standing up. Not
asking if you have a spooky feeling about his power or if you can
hear some 90 foot Jesus talking to you. What I believe could be the biggest
help to you tonight would be to spend a few moments making
an altar of your heart or maybe an altar here looking back on what God has
done for you, and then using that to look forward
to what he might have for you to do. Every head bowed and every
eyes closed. I ask, friend, do you know him? If you're here today and you
don't know him truly, you're not saved. there'd be no better
night to get that settled. I know for a fact there'd be
a lady that would love to talk to you, lady, a man that would
love to talk to you, sir. We'll open for an invitation
in just a moment. A Christian friend, if God were
to speak to you, would you know him? Would you hear him? If you're here tonight and you
know for sure that you're on your way to heaven, you're not
ashamed of that fact. You know that you know that you
know. Let the redeemed little Lord say so. If you would, by
uplifted hand, would you lift your hand in praise to God? You're
on your way to heaven. Thank you so much. You can put your
hands down. If you're here today and you don't know, can I tell
you, I'm going to pray for you. I will not make you stand up.
I won't call you out. If you're here and you don't
know, would you just lift your hand for just a moment so I can pray
for you? Christian brother, brothers and
sisters, in just a moment I'm gonna pray. When I say amen,
maybe we'll stand together, the music will begin to play. Can
we take a moment revisiting that last place that we know we left
him? Think about Jesus' earthly parents,
left him behind in Jerusalem. You know where they had to go
to find him? The last place they saw him. Maybe it's been a while
since you saw him in evidence in your life. Maybe you'd like
to take a few moments and go back there, meet with him, and
see what he has for you in future. Father, we thank you for this
evening. Thank you for the testimony of
folks that are saved that know you. But Lord, as we go forward
by faith, it's so hard to do when we can't look back at what
you have done for us. but there is so much you have
done. May we not neglect, may we not forget that fact as we
go forward by faith. May the faint stirrings of revival
not sweep across the church, but sweep across individuals
tonight. And may we do something with what we've heard today.
We ask all these things in your sons, let me pray. Pastor. Heads
down, eyes closed.
Do You Know Him
Series 2024 Spring Revival
| Sermon ID | 412407445109 |
| Duration | 34:59 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - PM |
| Bible Text | John 21:1-7 |
| Language | English |
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