Identifying Our Risen Lord

Well, I want to introduce our speaker to you today, but I don't know that he needs much of an introduction since Pastor Dave has served as one of our missionaries since, I don't know, it was 2001 or 2003. I think 2002. All right. By the way, that characterizes our relationship. I always say something and Dave always has to correct me. I knew who Dave was, Dave Durnland was, in college because he and I were in the same graduating class, even though he is noticeably significantly older than me.

But he came to college later. He was already married and already had some children. And so I knew him from a distance. I kind of knew him from a distance. He was one of the coaches there at the college as well as a student and so forth. But I think I got to know Dave more as he ministered at Grace Chapel in West Liberty.

And a few years after, three or four years after I came here, we got connected and have been growing close all these years. He and Sue have been very dear friends of Beck and I. If you don't know, Dave's sons were pretty good wrestlers here in Ohio. And so when my boys were wrestling, we'd talk a lot, and we'd get together and talk about wrestling, although primarily it was Becca and Dave, because Becca would say to Dave, okay Dave okay explain again to me how you glorify God by choking somebody out okay how does that work she never was entirely convinced but that didn't do anything that didn't hurt the friendship at all but anyway our brother Dave has served served for about 25 years in West Liberty at Grace Chapel and then having grown close to him over all those years having him Beck and I and Rick Wilson and Deb and he and Sue go out to eat and him dropping the bomb on us saying, I going to go to try him I going to resign as pastor and we leaving And it was like no you not You not going to do that And I imagine the people at West Liberty said it with much more passion than we did But through those years we have grown closer as we've served together in Romania, and at least I have with Dave, Romania, Moldova, Mongolia, Azerbaijan.

And it's just been a delight. And it is my privilege to introduce my dear friend Dave as he comes to minister his word. Obviously, Tim is very close and dear to my heart, so thank you for sharing your pastor with me. And it's a joy to worship with you. One thing I love about your church family, there's a lot of things I love about your church family, and a lot of people I love in their church family.

One thing I love is you're God-centered in your worship and not man-centered. I travel a lot. I'm in and out of a lot of local bodies worshiping. And we need to be God-centered in our worship, not man-centered. And it brings great fear to my heart to see the progression towards man and away from our Father. Enough said.

As we continue to spend our time in worship, I'd like to think with you this morning about identifying our risen Lord. Now, when I say that, I'm not thinking about him as an ancient Savior, but as a contemporary Savior. As a contemporary Lord who lives in relationship with you and me today, in our present lives. even when we stumble and fall in sin, even when we find ourselves far away from him.

One of my favorite poems was written by an English poet named Francis Thompson. He entitled it The Hound of Heaven. I fled him down the nights and down the days. I fled him down the arches of the years. I fled him down the labyrinth of ways of my mind. and in the midst of my tears I hid from him. Some of you might remember that great poem Francis Thompson was a drug addict He was addicted to opium and he struggled most of his life to be able to break away from that Aurelius Augustine, you and I know him as Saint Augustine of Hippo.

He is one of the most well-known theologians and philosophers in all of history. He's a man whose writings actually influenced and brought the formation of Western Christianity and Western philosophy to what it is. And yet he lived for years as an immoral reprobate, despite the pleas of his mother and the prayers, her passionate prayers. David, the revered king of Israel, the king of the nation that God chose to set his heart upon, was an adulterer and even a murderer, right?

All to hide his sin. And Solomon destroyed not just his kingdom, but he destroyed himself because of his untamed passions. Theoretically, Solomon had all the answers, right? And yet he never seemed to be able to live out what he knew. Everyone has a breaking point. You have a breaking point.

I have a breaking point. We all have a propensity to fall away from God, a propensity to follow our own ways in this life. And the question which often haunts our minds because of that is, is there any hope for such flawed people, such hopeless people like me, such flawed and hopeless people like each one of you? Is there a hope for ourselves? God's word has the answer for that, doesn't it?

I'd like us to look at that answer as it's contained in John 21 this morning. So if you'll turn to John 21 in your copy of God's Word, and I ask you when you have that to just stand with me. I'm going to read verse 1 through 19, and I just want us to show our continued reverence for our Father as He speaks. John 21, beginning at verse 1. After this Jesus revealed Himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias and he revealed himself in this way Simon Peter Thomas called the twin Nathaniel of Cana in Galilee the sons of Zebedee two sons and two others of his disciples were together Simon Peter said to them, I'm going fishing.

They said to him, we will go with you. They went out and they 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 that it was Jesus. 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. the disciple whom Jesus loved therefore said to Peter it's the Lord when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord he put on his outer garment for he was stripped for work and he threw himself into the sea the other disciples came into the boat came in with the boat dragging the net full of fish for they were not far from the land but about a hundred yards off when they got out of the boat they saw a charcoal fire in place with fish laid on it and bread.

Jesus said to them, bring some of the fish that you have caught. So Simon Peter went aboard and he hauled the net ashore full of large fish, 153 of them. And although there were so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, come and have breakfast. Now none of the disciples dared ask him, who are you? They knew it was the Lord.

Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them and so with the fish. This is 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?" And he said to him, Yes, Lord, you know that I love you. And 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. He said to him, Tend my sheep. He said to him a third time, Simon, son of John, John, do you love me? And Peter was grieved because he said to him a 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, 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 by what kind of death he was to glorify God. And after saying this, he said to him, follow me.

Let's pray together. Father, you have spoken. You have spoken clearly. Father, we need to understand clearly. and so we ask that you might draw back the tainting of sin upon our heart and give us ears to hear your word clearly so that we will respond in a way that honors you Father thank you for meeting with us this morning for without you we would be hopeless people but with you we have great hope for now and for all of eternity So work your work of grace in us through your word this day, and we'll praise you for that, both now and forever.

Amen. Please be seated. When you open up the New Testament portion of God's word, and you begin to carefully reflect through the scriptures, we quickly realize that standing there before us, stepping off the pages of the scripture, is a clear presentation of our saving Lord. The first four books of the New Testament, the Gospels, paint a very, very powerful word picture of the person of the Lord Jesus.

But almost everything that is written in the Gospels reveals what Jesus was like prior to the crucifixion and resurrection. It is almost all an ancient word picture which portrays the life that Jesus lived 2 years ago before he died before he was resurrected But we live in a post world Along with the disciples, our minds often at times are filled with clouds of doubt, dark shadows of uncertainty about the resurrected Lord Jesus. we wonder, what is the risen Lord Jesus like? We wonder how he relates to us when we live like Francis Thompson, like Augustine, maybe like David or Solomon.

In John 21, John, the apostle that Jesus loved, gives us a very powerful, a very pungent answer to that question. He tells us in verse 1 of John 21 that our resurrected Lord revealed himself in this way. Through his personal actions and attitudes towards the disciples, after his resurrection, Jesus will now pull back the curtain of darkness in our minds.

He'll remove the doubt about himself in the minds of those men and he'll allow himself to be seen as he really is in his resurrection life. Now, this is a wonderful life-enriching revelation, not just for them, but it's for you and me too, because this is the Christ that we live with, right? The way our resurrected Lord enables us to see what he is like is through the prism of the life of Peter.

Almost every follower of Christ I know really likes the Apostle Peter. He's this guy who seldom gets it right the first time. He's this guy who attempts to walk on water and he gets all wet, right? He's this guy who tries to chop off some soldier's head and all he does is get an ear. He's this guy who loudly boasts, I'll never deny Christ. And yet he does it three times, right?

And we all love Peter because Peter had breaking points too, right? Yeah he had this propensity to fall back into sin and fall short of the way he should live for Christ And all too often I like that And aren we all right Peter gives us an excuse then. He provides us a person to kind of point our finger at. When we break and we fall and we fail to faithfully live for the Lord, we just kind of often hide behind Peter.

And so the awful failures of Peter's life just provide a background then for what we're going to learn about how Christ relates to us when we fall and fail. Now in verse 1 through 9, the first identifying characteristic or mark that I see in the life of Jesus is that our risen Savior pursues his people. okay Peter had been called by Jesus away from his former life as a fisherman out of his life's occupation he'd been called into a life of following Jesus and fishing for men but as a follower of Jesus Peter had repeatedly failed and failed miserably he'd even denied the saving Lord three times as we mentioned and at least one of those humiliating um denials of him was to like one of the little ladies sitting up here in front a little girl who's watching the door of the high priest's house she's probably 12 to 14 15 years old and he doesn't even have the boldness as a man of christ to say yes that's my lord right and so before this little girl he fails Peter's failure made him feel condemned and he actually began to falter even more after that. And he wavers in his following of Christ and so he said to several of his fellow disciples, verse 3, I'm going out to fish.

And so he returned to his former way of life. Several of his old fishing buddies say, well, we'll go with you. And they go and they fish all night. So these disciples, these followers of Jesus have turned their back on him. And they have turned their back on the ministry that he called them to be involved in And they walking away from Jesus they walking back into their old way of life They have reached one of those breaking points When things go wrong for us in life, in our relationship with the Lord, we often do the same thing, don't we?

We may stop showing up at church, like was our habit, and then we begin to withdraw maybe from that weekly Bible study that's been so critical in our life and then we may even stop showing our face around town where we live start shopping at a different place and we just step by step start to withdraw and we withdraw often into our own home and sometimes because our family's there and close to us and we don't want them to know where we're at in our life and relationship with the Lord, we often even withdraw from them, right? You can do that, right? By hiding in your own mind, and no one knows the thoughts that are rolling there.

Hiding in your own heart, and no one knows what's going on there. But you know what? Even when you draw that much in, I want you to know something. Christ is closer than your own heart, and he has not turned his back on you. Now, the very next thing we see with these men is what takes place in our life. Verse four, early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore.

Peter and the disciples were not aware that it was Jesus, but he's going to help them figure out who he is. So he calls out to them. Verse 5, children, do you have any fish? No, they soberly reply. Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you'll find some. Instantly, the net is so full that they struggle to bring it in, right?

What's happening here now? The sovereign of the sea, the Lord of all of creation and everything that happens in creation, is revealing who He is, right? He's the Master of the seas and the Master of every one of their personal lives. The ability or actions of our resurrected Lord bring an instant awareness to John and he says to Peter, it's the Lord! Within seconds, Peter's breaking Michael Phelps' world record for the 100-meter swim, right?

And he bursts into the water and he's almost ashore with a few strokes. Now, I want you to think about something real careful here. Isn't it interesting that in God's sovereign providence, he allowed these men to go their own way and it gained them absolutely nothing he allowed them to reap from what they had sown right in the face to in in the face of their desertion of him he calls them back to himself and he blesses them and he used providential life life-related circumstances to do his work.

Peter seemed to assume that his failure had left him far from the Lord, but our resurrected Lord pursued him and stayed close to him. Luke 19 and 10 says, the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost, and our resurrected Lord was doing exactly what that verse says in Peter's life and in the life he does it in the life of all of his children we need to understand more clearly he uses providence he uses life-related circumstances to pursue us people say to me I never see God I never see him work anywhere because they don't look at the life-related circumstances and realize that God's using those. He uses those to call us back to him.

Think, why did you lose that job? Why was your child injured in that accident? Why? Why? The disciples were having troubles recognizing Him. Often we do the same thing.

But I want you to know something. He's always standing in the shadows. The ball game that lost or the ball game that won The good test at school kids The bad test at school He's there in those providential situations in life. Psalm 121.3 says, He will not let your foot slip. He who watches over you will not slumber. And as the Good Shepherd in John 10, he said, No one can ever snatch you out of my hand.

And in Psalm 63 and verse 8, the psalmist says, your right hand upholds me. He pursues his people regardless of the way you live. He pursues you. The second identifying mark I see in verse 9 through 14 is that our risen Lord provides for his people. Listen to those verses again. When they got on land, they saw a charcoal fire in its place with fish laid on it and bread.

And Jesus said to them, Bring some of the fish that you have just caught. So Simon Peter went aboard, and he hauled the net ashore full of large fish, 153 of them. And although there were so many that the net was not torn, Jesus said to them, Come and have breakfast. Now none of the disciples dare ask him, Who are you? They knew it was the Lord. And Jesus came, and he took the bread, and he gave it to them, and so with the fish.

This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead. So here we are upon reaching the land with their net full of 153 fish. These hungry fishermen see fish cooking on an open fire. And there's warm bread there too. and I want to say for a bunch of hungry fishermen who've been out there all night on the Sea of Galilee I want to say it doesn't get any better than this but you know what it does it gets better than this if you realize if you take time to contemplate the identity of the chef who has prepared this meal for them right the chef who had prepared this breakfast on the beach for the risen Lord, think about it now, this is the Creator of the universe.

The One who spoke and the stars came into existence The One who spoke and Adam and Eve came into existence The Creator of the universe cooked breakfast for his friends The holy one of heaven the one to whom if we get close because he so holy we would disintegrate It's like getting close to the sun. It's good for you, but you get too close and you burn up, right? This is the holy one of heaven.

And he's cooked breakfast. He's cooked breakfast. wasn't Becca wasn't Emma right this is God he's kind to them he cares about all of their needs and where are they remember they're the ones running from him right first he provides for them a net full of fish and then he provides for them with a catered breakfast on the beach. Did you remember they're running from him?

He didn't come with a switch or a stick. He doesn't punish his people. No, no. He provides for them, right? He provided for them not only in a way which met their need, but he also provided for them in a way which assures they will realize they need him. And they will realize that they will always be dependent upon him.

Why am I saying that? What did he let Peter do? What did he let the disciples do? He let them go and try to catch fish on their own first, right? And they failed. Then he provided for them.

So he lets them go and he lets them fail So they'll see, hey, I'm the one who's the sustenance of life for you. And then He provides in abundance. So He allows them to go on their own. He allows them to labor and struggle on it. And to come up empty handed. You know what?

He allows us to do that too. Yeah. Yeah. The Lord will let you do that. He will let you go on your own. And He will let you come up and be handed I been there I know But what we must recognize about the risen Lord Jesus is that He doesn condemn His people He doesn't punish His wayward people.

No, no, He provides for them. He may allow us, again, to reap what we've sown. He may allow us to go our own way. but he'll never forsake us. Psalm 34 and verse 7 The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and he delivers them. Verse 9 Fear the Lord, you saints, for those who fear him lack nothing. Verse 10 The lions may grow weak and hungry but those who fear the Lord lack nothing.

Did you catch that verse? The lion, the most powerful animal in the jungle, the one who can have his own way, right? He may grow weak. He may even go hungry. But those who fear the Lord lack no good thing. So there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Peter acted as if he assumed that his unfaithfulness in life, his threefold denial of Jesus in life, meant that he would receive rejection or condemnation from Christ. But our resurrected Lord showers upon him grace and loving kindness instead of harsh judgment and condemnation. Remember on the cross, Jesus entered the darkness, right? It even turns dark for three hours.

Right? Symbolizing He's entering the darkness. What happens in the darkness? The condemnation of God comes upon His own Son. Why? So that I won't have to endure the condemnation of my sin. my falling away even when I said I'd be faithful like Peter was paid for on Calvary's cross when Christ went into the darkness and faced the condemnation of the Father that's the background of Romans 8.1, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, right?

Our resurrected Lord, folks, provides for his people. He doesn't punish or condemn us. He took our punishment so he could give grace. Hebrews 4.16, right? Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence. Confidence because of who we are?

No. Confidence because of Christ who entered the darkness, right? So that we may receive mercy and we may receive grace in our time of need. Let me ask you something again. How did you get that new job which fits you so well? Why was it that your child came out of that accident?

Okay. He's in providential life happenings. And he's giving you grace and he's giving you mercy. I know I've reaped that instead of what I could have had. So he pursues his people. He provides for his people.

The third identifying mark that I see in verse 15 through 19 is that our risen Lord personally confronts his people to restore them. Listen again. When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? And he said to him, yes, Lord, you know I love you. He said to him, well, feed my lambs. He said to him a second time, Simon, son of John, do you love me?

And he said to him, yes, Lord, you know I love you. He said, then tend my sheep. He said to him a third time, Simon, son of John, do you love me? And Peter was grieved because he had said a third time, do you love me? And he said to him, Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you.

And Jesus said to him, feed my sheep. And truly I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted. but when you old you stretch out your hand and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go this he said as he talked about the kind of death he would have to glorify Christ And after that Jesus said to him follow me Now apparently, Jesus and his friends ate this breakfast in silence. The resurrected Lord Jesus seemed to be allowing quiet time for them to contemplate. why are we out here working catching these fish right and they're contemplating and why aren't we fulfilling our call from christ doing what he asked us to do why are we back here doing fishing right then with infinite skill the eternal physician cuts through the silence.

He cuts into the deepest recesses of Peter's heart using words which are sharper than a surgeon's scalpel by saying not once, but three times, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? Do you love me more than what the world has to offer? here again the aim of our resurrected Lord is not to severely condemn no no it's to sincerely confront Peter Jesus is after Peter's heart raising the question of Peter's love three times would have gently but unmistakably resurrected those three denials in Peter's mind, right? Jesus also used two different words to question the sincerity of Peter's love.

I'm convinced that by using those words to challenge Peter, he's challenging him to reflect upon the devotion of his love in contrast to the emotion of his love. Did Peter genuinely love Jesus in the depths of his heart Would Peter foremost love be for the risen Lord Would he show that by sacrificing to follow Jesus even in those times when your emotions say don do it Right? Jesus is not punishing Peter.

No, no. He's lovingly pushing Peter to do what? personally reflect on the reality of his love? Is it just emotion? Or is it true devotion? Right? He's pursuing Peter's heart because he wants him back.

Because what's ahead won't be a chariot ride to heaven. No, no. Someone will lead him where he doesn't want to go. Church history says he was crucified, right? Yeah. Do you love him with emotion or with a devotion that you'll follow him as he says there?

Follow me. This is what I have for you. this passage in John 21 sets before us a powerful portrait of our resurrected Lord. This is the Lord we live with. He pursues us. He provides for us. He personally confronts us and He calls us to love Him more than we love ourself or our own interests.

Not simply with our emotions, but with the devotion of our whole heart. This understanding of our resurrected Lord should have a life-changing impact upon every child of God. It's amazing what's here. Think again through it. He loves us wholly even though we love him half-heartedly. He pursues us even though we pursue paths of life which lead us far away from him. and he conquers us with this unyielding love even though our wills are stubborn right he sees our breaking point and he gives us hope beyond all of that show me a message anywhere in the world Show me any world view with components like that and I listen to you But this is the only one I've ever heard.

And it came from Him. He wholeheartedly loves you, even though you half-heartedly love Him. He breaks down the stubbornness of your will. Not by coercion, but by a conquering love. And He takes this perishable, breaking down, falling apart life, and He makes it whole and gives you hope. This type of loving relationship with Christ should be life transforming for us.

Listen, because the risen Lord Jesus pursues us, we can pursue others with that same eagerness and compassionate heart yeah he's our lord he lives in us so we can pursue those you don't have to give up praying or pursuing your family member or your friend who has wandered away from jesus or wandered away from our church family don't give up he didn't give up on you. He pursues you and he never stops pursuing you. And he's the one who lives in you, so pursue them.

Because of Jesus provides for all of us. I am free, you are free to be generous, to be open-handed with anyone who's in need. I remember one time your old friend and my old friend, big old John McQueen and I pursued this guy and he took from us and he took from us and he took from us. And big John looked at little Dave and he said, Pastor Dave, how much more are we going to give this guy?

We're going to run out. I said, we won't run out, big John. We can give him all we've got. Because the Lord of Eternity's got us. We're never going to be short. We're never going to be without.

We can keep giving. And then, because Jesus unwaveringly loves us and pursues us and restores our heart, we can love others with that same kind of love. of love because his love has conquered us right so you see what we have in john 21 isn't just meant to be a beautiful picture of our resurrected lord no no it's meant to bear fruit in the resurrected lord's followers right we are meant to be his reflections in this world when he was here he said I am the light of the world when he left he said now you are the light of the world so what we've seen in John 21 should be reflected in all of Jesus' followers here in the community of Luru and everywhere we go right? let's pray together Father we need you to transform us For like we've confessed today, we have a propensity to love ourself and forget to love you and others. Transform us, Father, so that we are true, authentic, genuine reflections of the Lord Jesus who lives within us. for the sake of Your name and the good of Your children.

And we'll thank You both now and forevermore. Amen.