Sacrificial Love

We are going to be finishing the book of John today. We’ve been going through this book of and on since the end of 2023, so it’s been a year and a half.

This Chapter starts off with 7 Disciples, that are not sure what to do. As we saw a few Sundays ago, Jesus had already appeared to them twice, and he blew on them and said “Receive the Holy Spirit”. He also said, as the Father has sent me so I am sending you, giving them a new mission, a new purpose for their life and a change in carriers. What were some of these disciples occupation before Jesus came along? They were fisherman. So the disciples went from being fishermen, to following Jesus learning many things from him, wherever Jesus went they went also, they walked in his footsteps; but now there are no footsteps to follow, and they don’t know what to do. The disciples had gone out before in Luke 9 Jesus had send his disciples out to proclaim the kingdom of God and heal the sick but now they were unsure.

After this Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias, and he revealed himself in this way. 2 Simon Peter, Thomas (called the Twin), Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together. 3 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.

Here you can already see that Peter is the leader among the disciples, and Peter comes up with an idea, he says “Lets go fishing”. This is not what Jesus had in mind for these men. When Jesus had originally called Peter, he said, I will make you fishers of men, not of fish, of men. He went from being just a regular fisher guy, to having a three year encounter with Jesus, maybe you could call it bible school, now he believed in Jesus as the Messiah, but when life went back to normal, when Jesus was gone, when he was back home from bible school nothing changed.

I’ve seen this many times where someone goes to bible school, or they go to a Christian camp, they make all kind of commitments and vows to themselves and to God, just like Peter said to Jesus before he was crucified that he was ready to die for him. But once the spiritual high comes back down to ground level, there is little or nothing to show for it. There was actually a study done that showed that when young people went on these big YWAM trips, or other bible schools (Nothing against YWAM) and came back alot of times the faith of these students will fall to a lower point in their faith than they were before they had left. This sounds a little bit like Peter. Why is this?

Luke 12:47 And that servant who knew his master's will but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating. 48 But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.

Jesus had entrusted Peter with much. What do we do when we show we trust someone? We hand them the keys. For you parents it may be handing your son or daughter the keys to the car. What would happen if they came back and there was a big dent in the car? A severe beating (JK) What would happen if you gave your employee your keys to your business just to find out the next day he went at night and stole a bunch of stuff? He would get a severe beating with the law.

In Matthew 16:19 Jesus says to Peter “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” And now he decided to not show up for work. So in their disobedience they went fishing for fish and what does the last phrase say? They Caught NOTHING. They went fishing all night but caught nothing. There is no blessing in disobedience against God. When know what you ought to do and you don’t do it, it is sin.

But what can we do? If you’re not living to the fullness of what God has called you to, what can you do? We will get to that near then end.

What always happens when your not doing what your not supposed to do? The boss shows up. And that’s what happens here in these next few verses.

4 Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. 5 Jesus said to them, “Children, do you have any fish?” They answered him, “No.” 6 He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.”

So the disciples, professional fisherman, have been out here all night with nothing to show for it probably very frustrated, and now there's this guy, we know it was Jesus but they didn’t yet, saying all you need to do is throw your nets to the other side! Thomas probably says to Peter “Look at this foolish guy! He thinks it’ll make a difference if we throw our nets on the other side! Peter probably says” Well why don't we try that just once and if it doesn’t work were done.”

So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, because of the quantity of fish. 7 That disciple whom Jesus loved therefore said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When 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. 8 The other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, but about a hundred yards off.

Jesus wants a genuine relationship -