Let me just quick hit on our Westminster Shorter Catechism question and answer for this evening. I'm looking at question and answer 50. What is required in the second commandment? The second commandment requires the receiving, observing, and keeping pure and entire all such religious worship and ordinances as God has appointed in his word. And so this question and answer is looking at the positive things. What must we do in our worship? And you see us putting that into practice with the prayer, the reading of scripture, the singing of psalms, and the due administration of the sacraments. And so this is where, when God tells us what we can do to please Him, to honor Him, let's do that because it gives us that security that God can be pleased with us by the means of grace that He has blessed us with. So I want to welcome up now my brother Tiago as he is going to be sharing with us from God's Word. Thank you so much for sharing. Pleasure to be with you all, to be here with both congregation, both OPC churches. And my expectation is that the Lord may bless us through his word. The passage for this evening is found in John chapter 21, verses one through 19. John 21, verse 19. 1 through 19. Listen to the word of our God in John 21. After this, Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the seed of Tiberias, and he revealed himself in this way. Simon Peter, Thomas, called the twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two elders of his disciples were together. Simon Peter said to them, I am going fishing. They said to him, we will go with you. They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore. Yet the disciples did not know what it was Jesus said to them, children, do you have any fish? They answered him, no. He said to them, cast the net on 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 of the quantity of fish. That disciple whom Jesus loved therefore said to Peter, it is the Lord. And Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord he put on his outer garment, for he was stripped for work and threw himself into the sea. The other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish. But they were not far from the land, but about a hundred yards off. When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire in place with fish Jesus said to them, ìBring some of the fish that you have just caught.î So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore full of large fish, one hundred and fifty-three of them. And although there were so many, the net was not full. Jesus said to them, ìCome and have breakfast.î Now none of the disciples dared ask him, ìWho are you?î They knew it was the Lord. This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed 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, you know that I love you. He said to him, feed my lambs. He said to him a second time, Simon, son of John, do you love me? He said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. "'Tend my sheep.' He said to him the third time, "'Silent son of John, 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 everything. "'You know that I love you.' "'Jesus said to him, "'Feed my sheep. "'Truly, truly, I say to you, "'when you were young, you used to dress yourself "'and walk wherever you wanted. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go. This he said to show what kind of dead he was to glorify God. And after saying this, he said to him, follow me. The grass withers and the flower fades. Let us pray once again. Father, please help us. We are before a text that has the power to change our lives through the Holy Spirit. So do so for our benefit and for your glory. In Jesus' name, amen. Have you ever had a deja vu before? Have you ever experienced something that you kind of, well, that's familiar. It's happening again. Well, I think this text is shot through with deja vu, with the purpose to manifest who Jesus is. See, in verse 1, it says that Jesus appears to them, reveals himself again. And it says again, verse one, he revealed himself in this way. And you have the same information in the verse 12, I mean 14, that says, this was the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead. The same verb, to be manifested, to show himself. And the disciples should recognize this reason Jesus. In verse 4, they did not recognize at first, but in verse 7, you see them recognizing Jesus in verse 12 as well. But tonight, I want you to see that not only the disciples should recognize the risen Christ, but the readers as well, you and I, to see the risen Christ. that he is the true fisher of men, verses one through eight. Remember, says Jesus, that I am the true fisher of men, verses one through eight. You see, in verse one, they were there in the Galilee, the Sea of Tiberias, and Tommy Peter, with all the other disciples. I mean, Thomas, Nathaniel, and some others. And Peter said, I'm going fishing. They said, oh, we'll go with you. They all went to the boat at night. And the text said in verse 2, they caught nothing. Zero. Nothing. And then in verse 3, you see that after they 4, at the breaking of the day, it was night now, morning is coming, I think it's very important, this information. After darkness, light, after death, resurrection. And Jesus appeared, stood there at the shore, but did not know Jesus. And Jesus said, children, do you have any fish? And probably they answered in an angry way, no. And he said to them, cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you'll find some. And you know the story. All the fish of the sea jumped into their net, such a way they could not drag their hard-time dragon to the shore. You know this is deja vu, isn't it? That's what happened. first time that Jesus did exactly the same thing. And here at the end, after Jesus was rose from the dead, was risen from the dead, now, the same thing. And I think that's why John said, that's the Lord, because he had a deja vu right there. And you know the end of that passage, verse 11, fear not and look far. from now on you will be fishers of man. And I think here, John, is the same principle. to draw, when they were drawing the fish, they were drawing the nets, that verb is used by John, in the Gospel of John, for conversion of men. Chapter 6 verse 44 says, no man can come to me except the Father which has sent me, what? Drawing. Or if you go to chapter 12 of John, verse 32, you have another deja vu. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to me. So it's men coming in faith to Jesus. And that's the deja vu conversion of men. Remember, Jesus says, I am the true fisher of men. I am the one who has authority and power in heaven and earth, just like I have power over nature and make fish jump into your net. So also I have power to convert a multitude of sinners, like I did with you. You remember Pentecost, right? Not long after this event, 3,000 people with just The gospel swept the whole Roman Empire. Now we have nights without catching it, don't we? Can you remember? That preached the gospel to your dear ones, neighbors? Proclaimed the gospel, the gospel to people who do not want to listen. Yes, we have masks without catching it. But remember where the power is. Remember who the true fisher of man is. Have that déjà vu of the risen Christ this evening. Remember where the power is. We are merely vessels of clay. Remember who the true fisher of man is. Remember the power of the risen Christ. I have here a quote from a pastor who passed away recently, Harry Reader III. He wrote this article for the Table Talk. this gospel-driven life. And I have a little quote that will give us this hope and this deja vu to show us where the power really is when we are discouraged after preaching the gospel proclaiming. I'll tell you a story. Listen to this. When I was 16, he said, my father bought me a car at an auction for $75. It was a pink 5074, which dad insisted was coral. I could not drive a pink car to school. I then heard words that in the not-too-distant future, my children would hear, son, a pool ride is better than a proud walk. It was said so convincingly, I knew it was probably in the Bible. Then my dad opened the hood, and to my surprise, underneath was a 390 engine with the two four-barrel carburetors. The car had been a South Carolina State Interceptor, a highway patrol car. Nothing had more power under the hood. The space and conviction prevent me from detailing the surprises that Corvettes and Roadsters would get after they looked latently at my pink 57 Ford while sitting side by side at spotlights. It did not look like much. It didn't look like much. But there was power under the hood. And here's his application for us. people of the church. The world despises the gospel in its simplicity, in disdaining the vassals entrusted to carry and proclaim it. But there is power under the hood. Live the gospel. Believe and preach the whole gospel. The gospel blessings that declare who you are in Christ. The gospel imperative that calls you to your new life for Christ. preach it to yourself, to each other, and to the lost, and know the joys of the gospel-driven life. Don't you ever forget where you go when you go to the streets, when you are at the family meal, where your job is, when you proclaim the gospel because of the reason Christ there is power under verses 9 through 17. You see another deja vu there? They came to the shore and find fish and bread in verses 9 and 13. Bread and fish, meals, reminds us of what? In John. It's another deja vu, isn't it, when you read it? If you're reading through the Gospel of John, John 6, it's another deja vu. Multiplication of bread and fish to the multitude. It's a deja vu of miracles. of the literature of the Gospel of John. You see, in the beginning of chapter 2, you have the change of water into wine. Plenty, plentiful wine. In the end of chapter 6, plentiful bread and fish. And here at the end, plentiful fish. You see, in the beginning, in chapter 2, it's noted the plentiness, how plenty was the wine. Six stone jars. Kind of 20 to 30 gallons of wine. And then you see in chapter six, 12 baskets of loaves. In here, 153 fishes. That's why I think he gave you the numbers. So for you to see again, he gave us the number in chapter two, he gave us the number in chapter six, and now he gave us the number. It's history, it really happened. That's why he gave us the number. And all three occurred in Galilee. All three. The wedding meal, 5,000 a year meal at the shore. What is all this about? Wine, bread, and fish in the Gospel of John. It's a common meal at that time. It's the echo of Jesus, the true shepherd. of John 10 and 10. I came in order that they might have life in heaven in abundance. Come and have breakfast, says in verse 12. No more hunger, no more thirst. John 6, 35. He that come to me shall never hunger, and he that believe on me shall never thirst. The reason Jesus, here's the point in application for all of us as a deja vu, He is your satisfaction. The Lord is my shepherd. hear the reason Christ is incarnate Yahweh, is your satisfaction, is your shepherd, for that reason you shall not want, even if you lack everything in this life. We just Even if we lose everything, our family, our health, everything, our goods, we will not let them go because he is our shepherd. But not only this, but Jesus shows that he is the true shepherd with Peter. Now he zooms in so that we can have And Peter has a deja vu when he sees in verse nine a pile of fools, right? Because the only other place that this word appears again is the entire Bible, is in John 18, 18. And here Jesus takes Peter aside, as it were to, in the presence of everyone, to show us another deja vu. And he asks Peter three times, do you love me? Do you love me more than these? It doesn't matter what these are. Am I the number one here? And then a second time, do you love me? And then a third time, do you love me? Isn't that a deja vu? You know what? Not to kill him, but as a good physician, to heal him, to deal with him, to go right inside of his heart. Jesus goes to the heart of the matter. Jesus does not say or ask, are you a coward? Are you faithful, Peter? Peter, do you tell the truth? Are you a truth teller? Are you a liar? He doesn't ask that, you see? Because that's the symptom, the consequence, the result of something much deeper. Do you know what the depth is of our sinful heart? That Jesus is asking probing questions to deal with His heart and as a consequence with our hearts as well. Do you love me more than these? The real problem with our sins is that we love more others things than Jesus. Can you see that? Can I see that? This is the problem. We do not only break rules with our sins. The heart of the human Jesus. The one who gave up his life for us. And this is another data for you, isn't it? Jesus is applying what he already said. keep my commandments he that hath my commandments and keep them he it is that what love me and he that love me shall be loved by my father and i will love him and will manifest myself to him exactly what he's doing with me manifest Worship. And how can Peter show love to Jesus? Do you love me, Peter? How can Peter show love for Christ? What is Christ's order? Do you love me? Yes, I do love you, Lord. Did Jesus say, then worship me? Come on. Bow down. Kneel down and say to me, right now, that I will know that you love me. Is that what he did? No. What's amazing is that Peter must do exactly what Jesus is doing with him, to shepherd, to feed, not Peter's flock, not Peter's sheep, but Christ's sheep. Feed my sheep. Do you see what Jesus is doing? Were you fished out by Christ? Do you love Christ? Then feed Christ's sheep. Serve his people. Love the church. Because what you have here in a narrative is the doctrine of power and doctrine of union of the church with Christ. You show love for Christ when you show love for whom? For the church. Because he gave his life for the church. It doesn't make any sense that you can have Jesus as your shepherd and say, I don't like the church. I don't want to go to church. I can't stand those people. Yeah, they're so hard and so difficult, hard people. It's, ah, I can't stand anymore. If you love Jesus, you love his bride. As if someone comes to me and says, I love you, but I hate your wife. Oh, come on. That doesn't make any sense. You see the doctrine, the union with Christ, amazing. But you say, I can't do it. I'm not worthy. How can I feed Christ's church? Zechariah, the unworthy, the coward, the fearful disciple of Peter, the biggest failure of the group. He said, if everyone denies you, I will not. And he did three times. He was the biggest failure of all. But after he repented, you see his repentance. bitterly. We seek God's mercy upon him. That is why he was used for the kingdom. Grace, sheer grace of the gospel here being poured out. And that's where God uses you the most. Only the gospel that the worst failure is used for the gospel. The one who is the most forgiven is the one who is the most who loved and want to love back, serving Christ, right? Do you see how much the shepherd is dealing with you? If you go to any place, any company, if you fail three times like Peter did, you are fired. You are out of the job. here in the kingdom of heaven with true repentant people. He uses us in an amazing way. So remember, I'm the true fisher of men. Remember, I'm the true shepherd of dirt. And lastly, remember, I'm the true love. Verses 18 and 19. You see there, it says this, truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go. This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God. And after saying this, he said to them, follow me. Can you see the deja vu here? In what manner would Peter die to show love for Christ in his church? Peter would die for God's glory, right? How would he die? The text says, stretching out his hands. Verse 19 says this so clearly. This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God. That's it, the exact same words. in 19 found in chapter 18, verse 32. 18, 32. That says this. This was to fulfill the word that Jesus had spoken to show about what kind of death he was going to die. And you know what kind of death he was going to die. 33 of chapter 12 says this, and I, when I lift it up from the earth, will draw all people to myself. He said this to show but what kind, the same expression, of death he was going to die. You see the vision? He's telling you, Peter. That's how Jesus death glorified God, the Father. He stretched out his hand for Peter. Jesus did on the cross what he did. Peter will do the same. Your future, Peter, will be like mine, says Christ. The cross. That's your great heaven. And that's love. You know what love is? To stretch out your hands. You know what that means? Vulnerability. Because when you don't want to be vulnerable, when you are in a fight, in a fist fight, what do you do? You don't open up your arms. You close them. You protect yourself. But if you want to hug someone, you become vulnerable for them. vulnerability is part of being someone who wants to love, to really show love. You cannot love if you are not willing to be vulnerable and open to get hurt. Oh, how much I see that in myself. We keep relationship in the church with people with a distance because I don't want people seeing my my failures, my spots, my problems. I don't want to be vulnerable. That's the part of love is to be vulnerable, to open up your hands, stretch your hands, and to die. That reminds me of a Korean pastor there in Brazil, the seminary that I went to. And he used to say to all the students who came first to the seminary, he said to all of us, Pastor Sum, do you know why you came here? He asked. Do you know why you are here? and follow Him. That's the message here. To die for ourselves, to die for our sinful hearts, to wake up every morning and see the old Christian, the old Tiago there and say, I'm now a Christian and you old man, you need to die today and to live again with Christ. I died with Him. and I rose up with Him again as a risen Christ to live for Him out of love, because He loved me first. Now I can do that, to love Him back, to die for myself. Let me end this sermon, that I think it illustrates how Christ is the true Yeshua of man, true shepherd, and the true love. The story that I heard in the Kirtan Conference by Lincoln Duncan about Jonah Carter, it was about a young girl from a Muslim country who was attending the master's college. She came to faith by listening to a broadcast of MacArthur's sermon read by a man in her own language. He was translating MacArthur's sermon to her and she got converted. Jesus caught her, made her to jump into his net. Her father was a mid-level official in the government of that country. And at Matthews College, she majored in computers and technology, because her country would not allow her to study Christianity or the Bible. When she got to Versailles, I wanted to know more about the Bible. Sent me to a college there, and I'll study computer on the side, And the first thing that she encountered, first person, was her uncle, who was waiting for her at her home. And he asked her, are you a Christian? And she said, yes, I am. And then he picked up a chair, broke it over her back. And then he took a leg of that chair and began to beat her up to death. And when she feared for her life, her dad rescued her and put her in an airplane and sent her back here to America. Don't come back here again. And when she was telling that story to Dr. McArthur, MacArthur asked, what was going on in your mind when your uncle was beating you to death? And I think her answer, I think, was the best summary of what Christianity is all about. Why Christianity is one of a kind. Or better yet, why our reason for Christ is magic. This man has a religion that he would kill for, but I have a savior that I would die for. What a gospel. What a shepherd. What a future of me. What a lover. Because he loved her first. Remember, Jesus said to you, I am the true fisher of men. Don't give up. If you have discouraged, if you are discouraged, he says, I am the true fisher of men. There's power under the hood. Keep it up, brother and sister. If you are convicted of your sins, he says, I am the true shepherd of your soul. Come to me. Like Peter did, swinging after Jesus, right? Like he did, right? If you are cold in your spiritual life, he says, I am the true love. Follow me. The day shall come. Experiencing, re-experiencing the risen Christ. Let us pray together. Our Father, thank you so much for Christ. Thank you so much for the gospel. Oh, Father, please, by your Holy Spirit, deal with our amnesia. We are so prone to forget the wonders and the blessings of the gospel. Give us these kinds of deja vus, we pray.