But my confession to you all today is I am terrible
at fishing. I am absolutely terrible at fishing.
I was a teacher for about seven years and we
were out at this retreat and as we were out there
I had a fishing pole and I was like there were
a bunch of people on this dock and we're all
fishing and I was going at it for about I swear,
it felt like 30 minutes, just going, nothing,
nothing, absolutely nothing. And kids nearby
me, they're catching fish, and I'm like, okay,
fine. So I hand the pole to this youth behind
me, went to the exact same spot I was at, and
in 10 minutes caught five fish. That is the kind
of fisherman that I am I had a buddy of mine
Take me over to a tank about an hour west of
here, and he's like oh, this will be really really
easy I was casting for two hours nothing every
spot. I went to he'd follow behind me cast catch
two fish, and then throw them back in. And I'm
just like, I don't even know. I had one friend
that even took me to a tank. He says, don't worry,
you just put the pole in. There's so much fish,
you'll get one. After 20 minutes, he's like,
I think my tank is broken. It was just, that's
the kind of thing that I go through with fishing.
And that's the thing about this, is that it is
not my spiritual gift. See, sometimes it's just
hard to accept. what it is that we miss out on.
It's just hard to accept that there are just
some things that seem to evade us. But whenever
we do so, whenever we realize that we're struggling
in some area, there's something where we just
can't seem to quite get there. Sometimes we're
wondering whether we're just wasting our time.
Are we just trying to go through the motions
and we can't quite seem to get there? Are we
wasting our time even trying? Or second, sometimes
we might even just feel like, well, we're a failure.
Maybe we feel like, well, you know what, I've
done all this just like everybody else did, but
I still can't seem to accomplish anything. It
must be me. I must be a failure. That's a hard
feeling to have, for sure. whenever we're wondering
whether or not it's just something about us that's
worse than the others around us. But as much
as we might have that struggle, are we willing
to still keep going and to try again? I still
have the fishing poles in my garage. They're
still ready to go at some point. I just have
to decide whether or not I'm brave enough to
go back out there and risk... standing there
for another two hours with nothing. What do they
say? It's fishing, not catching. Well, I haven't
figured out the catching part anyway. But this
idea of what fishing really is all about, this
idea comes up over and over again in our Gospels.
Because we have several of the disciples who
are fishermen. That's what they do. And so, whenever
you're not sure what you're up to and you get
bored or you've got some extra time, you always
do what it is that you're most comfortable doing.
If you're a mechanic and you have free time,
what do you do? You go and you fiddle with the
car. If you're someone who goes out and cleans
houses for a living, if you're bored, what do
you do? You go and you clean. If you are a pastor
and you don't really know what to do with your
day, what do you do? You go lecture at people,
right? That's what we do. But what we end up
seeing though is our fishermen, they're not sure
what to do now. Jesus has come back from the
dead. Jesus has appeared to them. They know something
is different, but now what? What is it that they're
going to do at this point when they know that
everything has changed, but they haven't been
told what's next? And so what do you do? Let's
go fishing. All right? We'll go with you. Now,
you end up spending the whole night, and you're
not catching a single thing. How do you think
that they're probably feeling at this point in
time? Whole night. You're just like frustrated,
annoyed. You're like, what's going on here? We've
been off following Jesus for so long, did we
somehow forget how to catch fish? But what's
interesting is that this is so similar to what
happened when they first met Jesus. Is that they
were out there on this lake, and they couldn't
catch a thing. And Jesus had said, go ahead and
throw your nets on the other side. But what's
interesting is that back then Peter had said
well, we haven't caught anything all night But
if you say so sure because you can tell he's
skeptical He's not sure that this is going to
do any good at all but this time they just do
it and It ends up being overflowing with fish
see that's the thing oftentimes is that we may
feel like we're spending all this time, and we
can't seem to get anywhere. They were catching
nothing, but they were open to trying something
different. How often is it that somebody has
some good advice for us? You know that feeling
where things aren't quite going the way that
you thought that they would, and someone comes
up and they've got some good advice for you?
you're kind of like uh -huh blah blah blah like
I didn't try that out already that's great and
then you try it and then it somehow works. Like,
I was over there trying to get the bulletins
printed, and I kept putting them through the
machine, and it kept folding them the wrong way.
And then Sue came over, took them, opened the
tray, put it in the exact same way I did, and
then it started folding exactly, perfectly right.
And from then on, I've never been able to duplicate
why I couldn't do it right the other time. Nobody
believes me, but, well, Sue saw it. She's like,
yeah, it was really bad. You know, that feeling
where somebody tells you, just do this, and you're
like, but then you try it, and somehow it seems
to work now. But there has to be a part inside
of us that's willing to try. And that's the thing
that you end up seeing is so different with these
disciples. From the way that they were when they
had first gotten to know Jesus, to where they
are now, Are you open to seeing something new?
Are you open to what God might do now? See, having
their hearts open is the reason why Jesus was
able to give them their whole catch of fish.
And the whole narrative, the whole narrative
is just... a little bit strange the way that
it comes down is is that they were down to their
undergarments maybe or maybe even less than their
undergarments and Peter puts on his outer cloak
so he can jump into the water most of the time
people don't actually put on more clothing to
go swimming it's a little bit different but there's
a belief that maybe the you know putting on the
clothing might have actually been that he tied
them up around him the way that the translation
goes but you know of course if you're going to
be hanging out with people you should probably
have more clothing on anyway. But as he gets
to shore and all the other disciples are trying
to bring those fish to the shore, how tiring
would it be when you've got all of these nets
that are overflowing and you still have to pull
them in and then imagine then you'd have to go
ahead and clean the fish, cut it up, cook them,
get them all ready. But Jesus is already there
with breakfast. And that's the thing is that
often times we see the life that we have in Christ
as something that we have to take care of by
ourselves. We have to get it all done. We're
going to have to bring in that haul. We're going
to have to cut it up. We're going to have to
cook it. We're going to have to take care of
it all. And then sometimes we realize that God
is taking care of things beyond anything. that
we could have done for ourselves. At the times
whenever we're weakest, at the times whenever
we need someone to look out for us, is that there
is Jesus on the shore with the fish that we need
to keep us strong. And 153 of them. Could you
imagine which guy was standing out there? It
might have been Matthew. You know what? I've
got to know how many there are. And he counts
them all. And apparently there have been... for
centuries, theories as to why 153 is an important
number. And somebody, I think it was Saint Augustine
was like, well, 10 is the number of the law and
seven is the perfect number of creation. You
add them together, you get 17. And if you take
every number from one to 17 and add them together,
you get 153. That really is what his theory was.
I'm just gonna say it was a lot of fish. We're
just gonna go with that. But now Peter's on the
shore. one -on -one with the person he denied.
You know those times whenever you know that you've
had a really tense relationship with someone
for a while, and you're always trying to look
for other people to be around before you have
to see them? I mean, that kind of explains most
Thanksgivings, I would say. And you're over there,
what do you say? What do you do? What do you
talk about? And what does Jesus end up doing?
Because remember, He denied Him three times.
And Jesus says, Do you love Me? There's a lot
of discussion. about this word for love and parts
of it in the Greek some of them use the word
agape and some of them use phileo and the fact
that agape is supposed to mean the love of God
and phileo is the brotherly love between people
and it goes back and forth and the theory is
that Jesus trying to get Peter to say do you
love me in a God like divine love, and he keeps
saying, I love you like a brother, phileo. And
the difficulty is that those two words are oftentimes
used back and forth in Scripture. So it's not
a hard and fast rule. Yeah, but also there's
words for feeding, bosco, and taking care of,
poimino, and lambs, for arnea, and sheep, and
probata, and oida, and gnosko, for no. The words
go back and forth. But what really matters here
more is that he asks them three times. Somebody
asks you something three times. Doesn't that
get on your nerves? You're like, okay, you're
asking me the thing that you know I've already
answered, I've already taken care of. Why are
you asking me again? and then you get to the
third time, and you just wonder, do you not believe
me? Do you not trust me? Why do you have to keep
asking? And then you have to remember that he's
the same one who said it three times himself.
Because the whole point is not that Jesus is
trying to throw it in his face. The point is
that he's trying to show him, I truly Forgive
you Because even Even if you say that you love
me, and I know that you could fall away I'm still
going to keep forgiving you when you walk away
And that's the thing about forgiveness is that
it has to still be there We oftentimes see these
things in our lives Whenever we know that we've
struggled with the same thing over and over again.
When we know we've struggled with our temper,
and we're like, we'll do better, and then we
still struggle with our temper. Whenever we've
struggled with what we eat and drink, and we
say we're going to do better, and then we struggle
with what we eat and drink. But here's Peter,
and he's flustered because he knows he failed.
And he knows if Jesus is asking him three times.
Do you believe that I really do love you? And
that's the thing about this is that it's not
as important that Peter loves Jesus as much as
that Jesus loves Peter. And that's the thing
about this is that if you look at his life, Peter
has been an evangelist for the last few years
to share the gospel and then reveals himself
to be a sinner who still throws it in Christ's
face. and yet he is now the one that Jesus is
saying, I need you to pastor the people around
you. Does this mean this is the last time that
Peter is going to end up failing? Let's just
be honest, it's not. The life that is to come
following after this is still going to be a life
of struggle, and it's still going to be a life
that requires the cross of Christ. See, that's
the thing, is that being restored with Jesus,
this isn't, hey, let me just answer the question
one time and then we're done. It's that we have
to keep coming back to the same thing over and
over because we keep struggling over and over.
Isn't it amazing how many sermons are like, okay,
you did wrong, now here's the better thing, okay,
now we're done, as if... Magically hearing the
sermon has somehow fixed everything in your life.
I would be very remiss if I thought that everybody
had everything down from here on out, especially
because I've listened to my own sermons pretty
much every single time, and I have definitely
not become a perfect person by any means. There
was that one sermon that I gave though, oof,
that was boring. The thing about being restored
though, is that it does keep bringing you back
to the cross. because the Christian walk is not
always glorious. Peter discovers what that means
in his own life. He may not have realized what
it was that Jesus was saying at the time. That
commentary is being written by John. John outlived
all the other disciples. But the thing about
going to the cross is that we are part of what
Christ is doing. even the hard parts. See, Peter
would end up going and struggling with the same
thing again, worrying about what other people
thought of him. He would later on be so worried
about the Jewish converts that he would end up
avoiding eating with the Gentiles and Paul had
to come along and call him out later on. Just
like he was worried what people thought when
they saw him with Jesus. He still... struggled
with the same mistakes. That's the thing about
grace. Grace doesn't somehow disappear because
we're struggling on that road. The grace of God
is still there, restoring us time and time again.
Not so that we ignore the issues as if, well,
I'm always going to struggle with that so I might
as well just give up. But also, not expecting
that we're going to have it all figured out.
The thing about grace is that it knows we may
be sharing the gospel one day, caring for people
another day, and completely falling off the trail
of the next. And yet God is still welcoming us
back into His Kingdom. And that's the thing that
I'm wanting to make sure I bring up for today.
Because we have a person confirming his faith.
He's going to come up here, and he's already
sent me what it is that he's planning to say.
And if you're going to go off script, just warn
me first, okay? If you know Nevin, you know that
that's always a risk. But the thing about it
is that today he's going to confirm his faith.
Is that the last time he's ever going to struggle?
Is that the last time he's ever going to doubt?
is that the last time He's ever going to need
to come back and be restored back to Christ.
And when those days happen, that doesn't mean
that He needs to go get re -baptized or somehow
hope that maybe has to get re -saved or anything
like that. But to remember, it's that the same
God loves Him today as He did yesterday. Because
Jesus brings grace for the second chances. See,
there will be the times whenever we feel like
we've stalled. We're out there fishing, or doing
whatever keeps us busy, wondering what's next.
And we wonder whether or not we've dropped the
ball, and whether we really have any part in
this kingdom with God. But there are also the
times whenever we know that we've failed. We
know we dropped the ball. We know that what we
did was wrong. And we're wondering, what now?
But there are also times whenever we're afraid.
Because the Christian life does involve the cross.
It is hard. It is a struggle. And not just with
the world, it's oftentimes even with each other.
Sometimes our life in Christ is hardest because
of one another. But it is still a life with Christ.
Because whatever we may be facing, is that each
moment is still a time for a second chance. So
whatever it was that maybe you've been struggling
with in your Christian life is that today is
always a day to be restored because of God's
grace, because of his son, and because of what
he is doing in your life each and every day.
With that, thanks be to God.