Welcome to a new edition of the Weekend Sermon. Thank you for reading the blog. It is my prayer that all of you are doing well.
This week I have been feeling quite a bit better. Thank you for all of your prayers. I also got some good news about my roof damage due to the wind storm. It is not going to cost me as much to fix as I thought. I am very happy about this.
In prayer this week, let us focus our prayers on France and those still recovering from the tragedy that occurred there. Let us all pray for an end to terrorism around the world. I am so tired of all the violence and warfare in this world. Lord, let there be peace. Please come back soon so that all may be well on this troubled earth.
For the last several weeks, we have been concentrating on the book of John and the way in which John presents the deity of Jesus Christ. Last week, we looked at the ultimate sign in the book of John which is the bodily resurrection of Jesus from the grave.
In today's message, I want to focus on John 21. In this chapter, we see Jesus performing a miracle at the end of His ministry that He also performed near the beginning of His ministry.
John 21 finds the disciples not quite knowing what to do. Jesus has already appeared to them since His resurrection. Peter, Thomas, John, Nathaniel, James and two other disciples decided to go fishing on the Sea of Galilee. They fished all night, but they were not able to catch anything.
As the Sun was just coming up, Jesus appeared along the shore. He told the disciples to throw the nets on the other side. When the disciples did this, they had such a large haul, they could hardly drag in the nets.
At this time, John realized that Jesus was the one who had commanded them to throw in the net on the other side. Peter jumped into the water and swam to meet Jesus on the shore.
John and the other disciples were able to recognize Jesus in this miracle, because this had happened to them before. Luke 5 records a day when Jesus asked Peter to put down his nets again for a catch. Peter said that they had fished all night and caught nothing, but since Jesus asked him to do it, Peter put the nets back into the water. The nets were filled to the point of breaking. Peter left his nets and worshiped Jesus. At this point, Jesus asked Peter, James and John to follow Him and become fishers of men.
I find these two accounts so interesting and full of meaning. When Jesus performed this miracle the first time, it was His initial call to some of His disciples to join Him on His path of ministry. He was calling them to be His disciples. In the second occurrence in John, the disciples feel somewhat discouraged even though they had seen Jesus.
All of the disciples except John had abandoned Jesus during His time of trial. In fact, Peter even denied that he knew Jesus. I'm sure that they all felt that they had let Jesus down.
Jesus was there to pick up the pieces in His friend's lives. By performing this same miracle, Jesus was in essence calling His disciples to serve Him again. He was saying to them that He wanted them to follow Him and spread His messages. It was like a renewed call to service. It was a call that the disciples responded to positively.
Jesus knew that His friend Peter needed a little extra help. Peter had denied Jesus three times. Jesus would ask Peter three times if Peter loved Him. Peter responded that he did each time. Jesus called Peter to feed His sheep. Peter took up that call, and he became the leader of the early church.
What does this repeated sign have to teach us today? For me this sign demonstrates that Jesus is always ready to forgive me when I fail to do what He wants me to do. All of us sin and go astray. However, Jesus is always ready to forgive and offer us a second chance to begin again and follow Him and what He has called us to do.
Jesus knows that we are weak. He knows that we are just human beings trying to do the best that we can. He cares about us, and He will forgive us and help us.
All of us have betrayed the Lord by our actions at sometime or another. Jesus wants to forgive. He gives us the opportunity to serve Him again and make a difference.
Look at the disciples. They certainly had their ups and downs. However, these men changed the entire world. They spread the message of Jesus' love across the world. They kept their eyes on Jesus. They knew that Jesus was there friend and that He cared about them. Knowing this, they were willing to give up their lives in His service.
This message will wrap up our series in the Gospel of John. Next week, I will have a message on the theme of thanksgiving. On that note, the library where I go to post the sermon will be closed next Friday. I will be posting the sermon on Saturday next week. I will post the verses on Monday and a review on Wednesday.
During the month of December, I will be posting sermons with an Advent theme. After the first of the year, I will be starting a new series of messages. I have several different series worked up, but I am not sure which one I want to start the new year with yet. I will have more to say about his later. I am also going to do something different with the verses I post on Monday next year as well. More on this later. Thank you all for reading the blog. May God bless you all, and may there be peace on earth. Amen.
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