Sermon Tone Analysis

Blessed Lord, You have caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning.

Grant that we may so hear them, read, mark, learn, and take them to heart that, by the patience and comfort of Your holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life.

… through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Last night, into early this morning, I struggled with this text, and with the strength to stay awake to prepare this sermon.

At length, my my physical weakness overtook my purpose and I drifted asleep.

Meanwhile Dinah had another struggle.

Dinah was struggling to go to sleep in obedience to her mom’s directive, but she could not sleep without my presence, so at 1 am, she got up, braved her way through the darkened hallway, and found her daddy, asleep over an opened laptop.

She climbed up, moved my arm, and nestled in my lap.

all of which woke me up.

The story, at least from Dinah’s perspective, ends well.

I got up, closed the laptop, and took her to bed, laying there with her until she closed her eyes in peaceful sleep.

In our Gospel text, the Apostles appear to have had a problem too.

We know that the first two appearances of Christ after His Resurrection took place in Jerusalem in the upper room where they had celebrated that first Lord’s Supper.

This passage takes place alongside the Sea of Galilee, also known as the Sea of Tiberias by the Romans.

Matthew tells us that the Apostles were directed to go to Galilee to meet Christ the Lord ().

According to John, they do not immediately depart Jerusalem for Galilee, but remain in the Upper Room(?) for at least a week (, ).

Only after this, according to , do the disciples actually go to Galilee.

John alone records this event in which the disciples - and Peter - receive the reconciliation and restoration that are the necessary preparation for their being sent forth after the events of Maundy Thursday of denial and desertion.

After this, they return to Jerusalem and Jesus teaches them the things concerning the Kingdom of God, as revealed by Luke in .

Why must they go to Galilee?

The first answer is simple: Jesus said to do so.

Until Thomas had been restored by faith to their fellowship, it might have not been possible for them to obey that command and experience the fulfillment of the promise that He would meet them there.

The Lord supplies what they need so that they can do what He commands.

The Lord supplies what they need so that they can do what He commands.

Until we can receive this, we will always struggle with the will of the Lord as it is revealed in the Commandments.

God gives us the Holy Spirit, and the teaching concerning the obedience of faith () as the balm that heals our affliction of fear and doubt.

But what role does today’s Gospel lesson play in all this?

As the narration of this third appearance begins, we see seven of the disciples - Simon Peter, Thomas, Nathanael, James and John, and two who are not named - together by the Sea.

Nothing seems to be happening, and we don’t know how long they have been there or where the others are.

Out of the blue, it seems, Peter says, “I am going fishing,” and the others respond that they will go with him.

Peter might not be the boss, but at least he has an idea, and doing something beats doing nothing.

Except in this case, doing something ends up with the same results as if they had done nothing.

No sleep, no fish, no results.

I know of nothing worse than a night spent with nothing to show for it!

Can I get a witness?

Worse, now somebody asked the one question that rubs it in: “Children, you don’t have any food?”

They are so tired, all they can get out is “No.”

Then this person, standing on the shore, has the audacity to tell them how to do their job!

I don’t know, but if I were one of those guys, I’m probably grumbling when we hauled in the wet empty nets to throw them over the other side, as if somehow this guy knows more about fishing than we do - but wait, what is this, or, more likely, what the - well, you can imagine the rest!

All of a sudden, the nets that caught nothing, not even a tree branch, are filled to the bursting point, to the point that they could not haul it in!

I think that part of the reason “the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord,” was to stop him from the stream of curse words and invectives that were on the tip of his tongue - y’all remember that Peter had the gift of cursing don’t you?

Now they come in with a net full of fish, just like the first time that Jesus gave them some fishing advice, recorded in .

On that occasion, Peter begged the Lord to get away from him, this time he jumps into the water, messing up all his clothes, and heads to shore, about 100 yards, and no, he didn’t walk on the water.

When they get ashore, they see something interesting - a charcoal fire, with fish laid out on it, and some bread.

Then Jesus tells them to bring some of what they had caught.

So now, they have what Jesus provided, and what Jesus directed, for their breakfast, but everything that they had came from Jesus.

Everything that they had came from Jesus.

Have you caught the revelation yet?

Did you catch it yet?

We can do a lot of work without results, but once God directs our steps, we will bear fruit.

You can count on that.

I’m not trying to reinvent the wheel regarding ministry, evangelism or outreach.

I’m just trying to be faithful to what the Lord has given us in His Word.

We don’t need a fancy stage show, tricks and gimmicks to bear fruit, to see the church grow.

We just need the obedience of faith.

We just need to believe that God wants us to live and not die.

He planted us, He will sustain us, and He will give us the increase!

Is there a believer in the house?

The same Jesus who knows more about catching fish than we do, knows more about catching men than we do!

When we get past our fears, get past our doubts, and get out of our own way, we just might find that nothing is impossible with God.

I don’t know what they did with all those fish, but I know what they did with their time spent with Jesus - they learned the things pertaining to the Kingdom so that they could fulfill their vocations as Apostles.

Soon, we are going to spend some time learning that so that we can do that, because, I don’t know what you came to do, but I came to bless His name!

So let the peace of God, that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jwesus our Lord, Amen