Gone Fishing

Do you ever wonder if all of your hard work pays off? Do you ever feel as if you are stretched so thin that no matter what you do it seems futile? How are we to live as Christians when we consider work of the church and our daily vocations? Are we living our life s God intended?

Intro

Gone fishin’

Illus: Fishing trips I used to take to relax and just enjoy nature

Trips to clear my head and just focus on catching fish

How many of us have ever gone fishing and saw Jesus?

Resurrection

Jesus has appeared to his disciples already

To show how life would be after the resurrection

Why once more?

As a methaphor for the life of the disciple

Drama

Fishing Trip

7 disciples go fishing

They toil and catch nothing

a man shows up and advises they cast the net onto the other side

Mark 1:17 ESV

And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.”

The life of the Christian includes things in the church and things outside of the church

Normal occupations, normal activities, normal everyday life

Doctrine

The life of a Christian seems disappointing at times (1-3)

John 21:3 ESV

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.

John 21

Jesus has authority over creation and allows them to catch nothing

God sometimes withholds from his children to build faith and trust in them toward Himself

God wants our trust

Illus: Andrew Brunson - Sits in a Turkish Prison

2. The work of Christ is always fruitful (4-6)

John 21:6 ESV

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.

Jesus does not command, but only gives advice

Seeking their obedience

Obedience to God often brings great success - Success because it is ordained by God

OT is proof of this

Evangelism

The net and gathering could represent the gospel and the people of God being drawn in to the church - His church

A net that does not tear, and a huge gathering

Jesus is at work building his Kingdom and drawing people to himself

He does great miracles in the life of men - drawing them from darkness into light

3. When there is success the credit should be given to God (7-8)

John immediately knew Jesus was involved

He knew it was too miraculous for anything they could have done or any stranger could advise

When was the last time John would have witnessed such an ordeal with fish?

Feeding of the 5000?

Here we see just how Christ works in the life of the Christian

He expects us to live this life and to the Glory of the Father, yet being mindful of our job in His kingdom - ready to follow his advice and do the work of his kingdom at a moments notice

We should live balanced lives - seeking to do the work before us and the work of the church at all times

Doxology

As Christians in response to God’s work we should:

Leap for Joy at the presence of Jesus (7-8)

Peter jumped at the work of Jesus

Peter jumped at the work of Jesus

Faith and trust? Calving calls it ZEAL

One author noted that Peter got dressed before he jumped

Shame and meeting the Lord of the Universe

Men desire to hide themselves before a Holy Master

How many of us are hiding ourselves from Jesus?

Peter had Zeal for the Lord.

Illus: Have you ever met someone who had so much zeal for God that it was scary. Some who all they talk about is Jesus. Jesus Freaks?

We need to have constant reminders that Jesus has not left us

Upon hearing and seeing thee things we need to follow him with Zeal

Spirit of Christ in us whispers advice in our ear, we need to respond with zealous obedience - Jump from the boat

We need to spend time in our relationship with Jesus (9-14)

third time he presented himself to the disciples after resurrection

Actually it was seven at this point nut John gives us three different days

His point was that Jesus had been viewed in intervals.

To eat with the disciples

Jesus provides the food and preparation of it

Closely resembles the LS

This may be to establish again that He is the source for sustainment in life to keep on the mission

Living life while evangelizing the lost

every provision comes from God

Jesus continues after the resurrection to have a meaningful relationship with his Apostles

He does so with us

We should know that Jesus is with us all the time

Conclusion:

Now we know that Jesus no longer roams the earth and fellowships with us the way he did here

But we also know that we are united to Him and spiritual he dwells within us

If we believe this then we do have this same relationship that the Apostles did

We are expected to live this life and continue with our daily worldly tasks and jobs. But, we are also to realize that Jesus is never very far away. He is actually right there with us providing as he always has. If Jesus ever feels far from us it is us who are too far imbalanced that we are consumed by the things of the world and not of the Kingdom.

When we become imbalanced and lose zeal for Christ we must come back to the ordinary ways that he has ordained to relate to us:

The Lord’s Supper is one of those ways. He ordained it because he knew we would be imbalanced and lose our zeal for obedience and trust in Him

Lord’s Supper