Sunday Sermon
morning service 21st Dec 2008
John 21
The disciples are in a transitional phase at this time.
This is the 40 day period before the Ascension and Jesus is teaching the disciples at this time about “the kingdom of God” Acts 1v3. The Holy Spirit has not yet been given.
The disciples are not even all together. Only 7 of them are here at this time.
They seems to be in a bit of a muddle. Not really knowing what to do.
Peter is still the leader – he suggests the fishing trip and all the rest follow.
But they have no success in their night of fishing until Jesus turns up.
His timing is everything. They have toiled all night for nothing and then just a word from Jesus and they catch a massive haul.
Then he provides them with a wonderful breakfast of hot fish and fresh bread!
Further he serves them!
What was Jesus doing?
As we have seen from Acts he was teaching them about the Kingdom.
What was he showing them at this early stage?
He was showing them that nothing had changed!
He was still the same, the Lord Jesus Christ!
He knew where they were and what they had been doing all night, he had directed the fish away from their nets until the last moment!
He knew how hungry they were so provides breakfast for them!
Basically he was saying to them – the mission is still on!
The kingdom of God is still open and available – and you need to get back on with the work!
This is the Lord Jesus – the same today as he was then!
He knows all about us, what kind of night we have had, what our needs are now.
How confused or otherwise we are! He knows it all – He is the Lord!
And the Lord who loves us despite it all!
The disciples we far from perfect, yet look at the kindness and provision of the Lord for them.
· But what of the rest of the chapter?
What are we to make of this interchange between Jesus and Peter?
From Peters side we now see a certain modesty!
Remember Peter was always the one to speak first think later!
He always put on a larger than life faith and commitment to Jesus.
He confessed Jesus as the Christ before anyone else!
But then tried to turn Jesus away from talking about the Cross.
Then of course in the moment of trial, he denied his Lord!
What a humbling experience that must have been for such a man.
But it seems the experience has changed him.
Now when challenged – does he have the greatest love there is possible to have of the Lord, that is agape love, love that is centred in the will and choice, but also permeates all the other parts of the human psyche, it is Christian love, he cannot jump right to it!
He knows his weakness. He knows that he did not selflessly love the Lord unto death earlier on. So he cannot now say that he Agapes the Lord.
But he does say he has phileo for the lord, which is an emotional devotion to another.
It itself is the best kind of love that the world can manifest, Peter says that he does have that for the Lord!
So when the Lord challenges him even to the reality of that Phileo love, Peter is most upset!
Thus he gives in. He has nowhere else to turn, he takes refuge in the Lord Himself – “you know all things” v17.
That there is the open kind of honesty that we need to have before the Lord. We do not know our own soul, the depth of the soul are mysterious enough for the psalmist to often address the soul in the second person!
This is how we are to come before the Lord! This is humility of soul that He is looking for!
From the Lords perspective what do we see?
We see his great concern for Peter.
He knows Peter. He knows all he has been through. He knows all his gifting. All his failing.
He knows what Peter really needs.
1) He needs first of all, to be challenged as to his love of Christ over everything else “more than these”.
Whatever “these” may have been is not the issue.
The issue is Jesus and Peters love for him.
That is the central issue for all of us!
Love for the Lord is what commitment to him is all about.
Without knowledge of Him leading to love of him there is no following, no discipleship.
He denied his Lord three times, now he is given the chance to confess Him three times.
The Lord was not being cruel in questioning him 3 times, instead he was getting Peter to set straight in his own mind where his faith was really at!
And as we have seen the questioning worked. Peter was far more humble, far more reliable on the Lord, rather than on his own strength.
And that is where God in his grace was moving Peter, he needed to be dependent on grace for the work that was ahead.
2) Then he needs secondly to be given work – feed the lambs, tend and feed the sheep.
Peter, like all of us, needed work. With all his energy and talent he would never be happy unless put to work.
And in this we see the wonderful forgiveness of God.
Peter is not put onto the damaged goods shelf never to be used again!
What about you? Do you ever feel that your chance has gone? You’ve slipped up too many times? That can never be the case with God. He is full of forgiveness, patience and faithfulness; he will never give up on you!
3) Thirdly he needs to know the key to getting it all right.
This comes in the end when he is told to “follow me” v19
This is the starting point for all of us.
At the beginning of the Lords ministry he called Peter to “follow me” Mat 4v19.
Now at the end of his ministry on earth the teaching is the same – “follow me”.
Interesting to note that John does not record the original “follow me” calling of Peter.
But he has it here!
Doesn’t this show us that we are meant to see this as a moment of new grace for Peter.
He is being given a fresh start. His denial is all forgotten.
He can start again, and follow the Lord!
That really is the mission of the disciple today. Our call is to follow Jesus.
No matter how we have been getting on in the past, today is what counts and the word from the Lord is “follow me.”
evening service 21st dec 2008
Gen 22
What can we learn about the life of faith from Gen 22?
This is one of the most famous passages of scripture and for good reason.
The basic teaching is that faith is tested!
1) testing in the life of faith.
V1 lets us in on the secret right from the start. God was testing Abraham.
What is testing all about?
Deuteronomy 8:2 Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.
Deuteronomy 8:16 He gave you manna to eat in the desert, something your fathers had never known, to humble and to test you so that in the end it might go well with you.
Deuteronomy 13:3 you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. The LORD your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul.
Judges 2:21-22 21 I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations Joshua left when he died. 22 I will use them to test Israel and see whether they will keep the way of the LORD and walk in it as their forefathers did."
2 Chronicles 32:31 But when envoys were sent by the rulers of Babylon to ask him about the miraculous sign that had occurred in the land, God left him to test him and to know everything that was in his heart.
Psalm 26:2 Test me, O LORD, and try me, examine my heart and my mind;
In the testing God is looking to the heart of the person to see if they really love and obey Him. To see if they really fear Him!
But does not God already know all things?
In the mysterious depth of God - yes He does.
But here we are told that God tests Abraham to find out the real condition of his heart!
So at another level God does not know until we freely act!
How does this tie up?
All I can say is that God is hiding his knowledge from himself, so that we are free to act. E.g. Adam hid in the garden and God asked where he was. God knew, but God was hiding himself to so that Adam could hid!
In the end God is mystery and we cannot logically tie up our responsibility and Gods sovereignty into nice little boxes!
But faith does not need to, faith takes the word of scripture and lives by it.
The first test Abraham faces is this: is he listening?
God called him and he responded right away - “here I am”
Lesson 1:
- faith listens for Gods voice. He speaks and we are to respond.
We may have questions. We may have doubts but we respond nonetheless.
This is the exact course Abraham took.
V2 Abraham is told to sacrifice his son!
V3 - he obeys right away! - passes the second test
He listens and then obeys
- faith is obedient to whatever the Lord says.
V4 - it was a long journey. God was leading him all the way. Thus Abraham was still passing the test. He could have turned off the track at any point.
He could have stopped listening!
V5 then he separates from his servants. Full of assurance that he and the boy will return. To worship lit- bow down. Pay homage.
Lesson 2: strong faith is always assured of Gods goodness.
Faith is sure over all seemingly contradictory evidence that God is good and faithful to his promises.
This is what we see as the story continues.
V6 Isaac carries the wood, Abraham carries the fire and the knife
V7 Isaac notices that the actual sacrifice is missing!
V8 faith responds - God will provide the sacrifice Himself!!
V9 at the place of sacrifice Abraham gets it all ready
V10 he is about to slay his son
V11 then God speaks again! Abraham responds in the same way “here I am”
- Faith keeps on listening! And takes all that God has to say.
Faith has no right to pick and mix the message of God.
V12 told not to touch the boy. God now knows that Abraham fears God above everything else.
- faith asks first and foremost - what does God think: that is the fear of the Lord.
V13 then the ram is used as the sacrifice in place of Isaac.
V14 thus Abraham’s earlier prediction came true v8 - God did provide.
Faith knows that before it happens! Faith trust.
V15 God speaks again. Angel, lit- messenger.
Note: where does God speak from? Heaven - but that is just the surrounding atmosphere. It is not far off, but right here.
V16-18: the message is a reaffirmation of the covenant promise.
V19 following this momentous mountain top experience Abraham just gets back on with life at hand!
Lesson 3: living faith spends most of it time off the mountain.
- faith has great spiritual highs, but most of the time faith has to work out in the simple bread and butter of normal every day life!
Faith is not allowed to stay on the mountain top!
Tests may seem hard, but often through them we receive the mountain top blessing!
Final note:
The NT interprets this whole event for us in Heb 11v16
Hebrews 11:19 Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death.
The interpretation is that Abraham used his mind to logically consider the command of God. He considered Gods promise about Isaacs role in the covenant, he considered Gods faithfulness to keep the promise, and he considered Gods power to raise the dead. Having considered in this way he got on with the task of obeying!
Faith demands that we sit down and think!
God expects us to use our minds. Living by faith does not mean that we have to sacrifice our intellects!
Christianity is not a cult, we do not live by blind faith.
The best of our thinking, reasoning and thought has to be poured into our faith.
Yet there will always be a tension this side of eternity. We will not always be able to reason and figure out why! But we need always to come back to Trust.
With the words of the disciples - “to whom else shall we go, you have the words of eternal life” John 6v68.
