CMLC 2025-05-04 Sermon

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.