From the Pew to the Pier: When Sunday Faith Meets Monday Fog (John 21:1-14) | Pastor PJ Berner

Uh, there's some heroes among us that I just wanna shout out.

Our trailer drivers, uh, they, they get all of this stuff here, the seed that

you're sitting on and all that stuff.

Uh, the stage, everything else, they get it here week and week out.

I've got good news for you two that I forgot about in the announcement.

Um, we're gonna be able to store our trailers on site at this new school.

So, um,

so that's great news.

It also means that if you own a truck, you just became a trailer driver.

Uh, 'cause we're gonna have you help us get the No, I'm just kidding.

But, uh, yeah, there's so many good things that's just Oh, so,

so more that I could talk about.

But for right now, we need to get preaching.

Um, you know, there's a great southern theologian.

His name is Travis Trit.

Uh, some of you may know him.

He's, it's a great day to be alive.

That's, that's Mr.

Travis Trit.

Uh, but he has another song called The Best of Intentions.

And the song starts, or the chorus goes like this.

I, I'd give you a ring and I promised you things I always thought we'd do.

But my best laid plans slipped right through my hands to show my love for you.

And if you could read my heart, then you'd know without exception, it was all what?

Somebody sing it?

No, with the best of intentions, you know, that that chorus that is written obviously

for a, a woman I, I think, is a chorus that we sometimes sing to God on Fridays

after a week where we think, man, God, I, I had the best of intentions this week.

I had the best of intentions that this week was gonna be different.

It was gonna look different.

I was gonna, that momentum, that wave, that excitement that, that, that faith

that was building on Sunday morning, I was gonna sustain it all the way through.

And I had the best of intentions until the, the fog of Monday set in and that

faith that I had on Sunday was derailed by that Monday fog This morning.

I'd like to talk to us about how we can make this next week different.

How we can make sure together that we avoid the Monday

fog that so easily derails.

The Sunday phase so that we're not with Mr.

Travis Tritt singing.

I had the Best of Intentions, Lord, as we get to Friday, John 21, as

we get into our text, uh, this is a bit of an epilogue in John's gospel.

It's the, and then, uh, 'cause John had wrapped things up with his purpose

statement at the end of John chapter 20.

John 20 · chapter mention

And now in John chapter 21, he is kind of given us the rest of the story.

John 21 · chapter mention

He's, he's helping type some loose ends here.

Some ends that, that need to be tied up.

For example, we're gonna find out next week what happened with Peter and, uh,

and, and some of the other disciples here.

But for this morning, we open up, it says after this, it's the word in Greek metta.

It's, it's two words there, undefined amount of time, basically sometime

later you could translate it that way.

It, it doesn't mean immediately on the heels of when he appeared to Thomas

and the disciples in that upper room.

In fact, we know it must have been some time because they had

been in Jerusalem and now we're gonna find them up in Galilee.

And so sometime later after this, Jesus revealed himself, manifested himself again

to the disciples by the sea of Tiberius.

The Sea of Tiberius is another name for the Sea of Galilee.

In fact, if you go to Israel today, there's still a region known as Tiberius,

and the reason is that was the Roman name.

That's what they referred to it as.

They referred to it, that region as Tiberius.

And so as John is writing his, his gospel, the fourth gospel, uh, sometime close to

the end of the first century, ad Tiberius would've been the common name at the time.

And so that's why he says they were near the sea of Tiberius.

But earlier in chapter six, he had mentioned, and the, the Sea of Tiberius

and said, this is the, the Sea of Galilee.

So they're there.

Why?

Because Jesus, in Matthew 28, verse 10, had said to the women, he had

Matthew 28:10

said, don't be afraid, but go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee.

And there they will see me.

So the disciples are there, at least in part, in obedience to Jesus.

Jesus has said, go to Galilee and I'll meet you there.

Well, they get to Galilee and there's seven of them here.

Look at verse two.

It says, Simon Peter Thomas called the twin Nathaniel of Cana and

Galilee, the sons of Zebedee.

That would've been James and John and two other disciples.

We don't know who they were, but all these seven, they were

together there in gallery.

And, and they're there.

They're waiting for Jesus.

And yet Jesus hadn't shown up yet.

It, it reminds me a little bit of the story of Samuel and Saul, where Samuel

told Saul, Hey, I need you to wait for me.

Wait seven days and then I'll be there, and when I show up,

then I'll, I'll, I'll help you.

Well, Saul was waiting, and at the end of seven days, Samuel wasn't there right

when Saul expected him to be there.

So Saul went ahead and offered the burn offerings and sacrifices

against the law of God.

And Samuel showed up right after that and said, Saul, what are you doing?

You shouldn't be doing that.

This isn't as egregious because God didn't prohibit his disciples from

doing what they're about to do.

And yet God also didn't tell the disciples to go do what they were about to do.

And so in verse three, Peter says to the others, I'm gonna go fishing.

And the others said to him, well, we will go with you, Peter, James, and John.

We know for sure that at least three of the seven were avid fishermen.

These were the, the, the men that Jesus had called from the boats.

They were mending their father's nets.

And Jesus had said, come and follow me and I will make you fishers of men.

And so now they're in Galilee and I want us to, to get the scene.

They're there, but they've just come off of this mountaintop experience with Jesus.

They've just come out of the upper room sometime before this, but

still in recent enough memory.

I mean, Jesus was only on earth for 40 days after the, the resurrection.

Jesus has risen from the dead.

He showed them the nail pierced hands and feet, and they felt his side and,

and they get to Galilee and it doesn't take long before that Monday fog sets

in, so to speak, and they look around, they're like, well, Jesus isn't here.

What should we do?

I guess let's just go fishing.

And I just, I want us to, to feel that and also to be careful of

chronological snobbery, to think that, well, we would've never done that.

We would've known, Hey, Jesus is coming.

He told you to be fishers of, of men, not fishers of fish.

So just wait.

Just be patient.

Hold your horses, Peter.

But church, I, I, I think there's ways that, that we quote, unquote

go fishing just like Peter and the other disciples went fishing.

That, that, that we come off of a weekend.

That we come off of a time where, where we spend this time together on a Sunday,

and maybe you, you hear a message that really encourages you or convicts you

or challenges you, or you, you're just built up by the worship and you're

just fired up and you feel like, man, I just, I'm, I'm ready for the week.

And the, and the wave begins to crest and, and you're just ready to go

out and make this next week the best week walking with Jesus that you've

ever had, only to wake up Monday.

And the, the drift to the default happens.

You wake up Monday and your schedule's there, you've got meetings, you've

gotta get kids out the door to school.

You've got a, a job in front of you that you wish you didn't have to go to.

You, you've got tension at home between you and your, your spouse.

You've got a, a wayward child that's not walking with the Lord, and all

of the realities crash back in.

And all that momentum that you once felt on Sunday morning, Monday hits

and the fog sets in and the faith of Sunday disappears and the fog on Monday.

And you look at yourself in the mirror and you say, well, I, I

guess I'm just gonna go fishing.

My first point for us this morning as we consider about how to avoid this,

is this, don't go fishing on Monday.

You say, well, that seems like a little bit of a, of a vague point.

It it's not as, as clear as some of the other ones that you've given in the

past, and I get that, but I, I want it to set in with us, and I'm not, if you're

a fisherman, this is not about you.

Okay.

You can go fishing on a Monday.

Literally.

That's okay.

I'm, I'm, as long as you're glorifying Jesus with it.

That's that's all right.

I'm just saying don't let the default sit in again on Monday.

Don't drift to that default.

Don't let the Monday fog derail your Sunday faith.

When I first graduated from seminary, um, I was looking for a job in ministry,

and while I was looking for that job in ministry, my mom, who was a doctor

at the time, at a private practice, she hired me to, to be the person

that goes into the waiting room and calls you back and, and, and weighs

you, and then puts you in the room.

And says the doctor will be with you in about two hours and then goes

back and enters in the information.

That was my job.

Um, and I, I was thankful for it.

It was, it helped support my wife and my kid at the time.

Um, but I knew it wasn't what God was calling me to do.

I knew it wasn't really what I was supposed to be doing, and

if I had stayed doing that.

Then I would've been going fishing, so to speak on Monday.

So one of the ways you might go fishing on Monday is when you're ignoring something

that God is impressing upon your life.

When you're ignoring something that God has equipped you to do when

you're not using the giftedness that God has given you in, in the

way that he would have you use it.

That's one way that you might go fishing on Monday, but there's other

ways that maybe you could go fishing on Monday that are, are probably

more, um, more in our kitchen.

Uh, lemme give you some examples of what this might look like.

Maybe you hear a sermon on Sunday from the pastor saying, Hey, you know what?

You, you need to be in the word of God on a daily basis.

You've heard me preach that before, man.

We need to be in God's word regularly, and maybe the, the wave,

the, the momentum begins to crest.

As you're sitting there and you're listening to this sermon and you're

thinking to yourself, man, he's right.

I gotta get in the word of God.

I gotta get after it.

And this is great, and I love this moment right now, and I'm convinced that I'm

gonna read the whole Bible on Monday.

And, and that momentum is just building and you're just chomping at the bit.

You can't wait to go and get after reading the Bible on Monday, but then

after church, you and your family, maybe you go out and you grab some

lunch together and you get busy talking about what's coming up this week.

And maybe you're watching the Rangers lose another game in the,

the restaurant there on TV because their offense has just gone away.

Uh, and, and you're just going, oh, okay.

And, and, and that, that passion that you felt that wave is, is beginning to.

To, to peter out a little bit, and then you get home and, and that bible that

you were so excited about getting into, man, you've got that table by your door

that you normally keep your stuff by, and you throw that Bible down on that

table like you do every week, and then all of a sudden it's Wednesday and you

look up and the Bible's still sitting there and you haven't been in it at all.

See sometimes on Sunday, it, it's like a wave.

If you stood on the beach and you've seen those waves rolling in off the, the, the

ocean, and they come in so powerfully and they look like they're just monstrous,

and you sit there and you go, man, if I was standing out in the water when that

wave hit me, I'd be just knocked over.

And yet, by the time it gets to you on the shore, it's just

barely lapping at your toes.

It's lost all of its fervor, all of its energy.

If we're not careful, y'all, that's what it's like when we leave church.

Super motivated.

To go out and make a change.

Super convicted, super encouraged, and, and yet if, if that's where

it ends, then that wave of momentum is gonna crash out on the shore

of the apathy of Monday morning.

Maybe it's reading your Bible, maybe you hear a sermon on roles of husband

and husband and wives, and you think to yourself about your own marriage

and you're sitting there going, man, yeah, we, we could do some work here.

We've got some room to grow in our marital roles.

I wanna be a better husband.

Your ladies.

I wanna be a better wife.

And I'm, I'm fired up and I'm excited about this.

But then, you know what, you, you get home from church and your kids are

like, mom, dad, I'm, I'm, I'm hungry.

And so you gotta get about getting them lunch and you're, you're feeding them

and, and then they're like, uh, mom, dad, I've, I've got this field trip tomorrow.

Did you sign the form for me?

And so then you're trying to chase down the form and, and then they're like,

uh, I, Hey, I've gotta pack my lunch.

And, and we don't have food in the refrigerator.

So then you're trying to get creative to figure out how you can make lunch out

of carrots and, uh, and cel restocks and some Vegemite in your, your, your pantry.

We don't have Vegemite, by the way.

I don't know why I said that.

That's just what popped into my mind.

And then after all that is settled, then by that time it's, it's time

for dinner and you don't, you're trying to scramble up dinner.

And then after that, the kids need baths or showers, and

then they've gotta go to bed.

So you're doing the whole bedtime routine, and then finally when you and

your husband get a free moment to sit down together on the couch, you're so

worn out and exhausted from everything that all you can do is pick up your

phone and jump back into Instagram again, and then Monday hits, and then

you're back into the routine of the week.

That's another way we can go fishing on Monday

Church, if we're going to avoid this.

We have to make sure that that wave of momentum that we're

feeling right now doesn't crash out on the shore of Monday's.

Apathy.

We've gotta make sure that the fog on Monday doesn't derail the faith of Sunday.

And, and, and the way that we do that is we have to be intentional.

When you're feeling that, that, man, I'm excited about this.

I wanna make these changes, y'all.

That's the spirit's work in your life.

And then it's about going home and sitting down and going, okay, how am

I gonna plan to make sure that this doesn't crash out on Monday morning?

How am I gonna do something with this?

How am I gonna make this last so that I don't just go

fishing again tomorrow morning?

Couple thoughts I wanna suggest for you that I think will be helpful.

Number one is to ask the question, what are the changes that you wanna make?

You feel this momentum, you feel this encouragement?

Let's talk reading your Bible.

And, and so on.

Sunday, you're like, yeah, I, I need to be in my Bible more regularly.

So you're going, that's a change that I need to make.

And so you hear the sermon, then you go home and you're sitting down,

you're going, I need to identify what's the change that I need to make.

I wanna read my Bible every day this week, at least for five

minutes a day, every day this week.

Or maybe you're already doing that.

You're gonna, I, I just wanna do more, I'm gonna add 20 minutes

to my Bible reading this week.

Okay.

So you're asking what changes need to be made.

You're identifying that.

Second, you need to then ask, okay, well what routines or structures do I need

to be putting putting in place right now in order to sustain these changes?

Because to identify the change is one thing, but then the question

becomes, how do I sustain that?

And, and that's where routines and structures come into place.

So maybe it's Bible reading and you're gonna think, you know what, if I'm gonna

do my Bible reading in the morning, then I just need to wake up earlier.

So I'm gonna wake up 30 minutes earlier tomorrow morning and every day this week.

And that means I'm gonna try to get to bed 30 minutes earlier each night this week.

And so the routine and structure that you're gonna put into place

that's gonna help you read your Bible is pulling out your phone and your

alarm clock and setting your alarm clock to go off 30 minutes earlier.

Okay?

So what routines or structures need to be changed?

Third, where's accountability gonna be found?

That's crucial to this too.

And so if you're married, maybe that's your spouse, maybe you're

gonna say together, Hey, we're gonna get up and do this at the same time.

Or maybe you've got somebody in your community group that

you can say, you know what?

I wanna read my Bible more this week.

This is what I'm committing to.

Will you text me?

Will you text me daily and say, Hey, are are you doing it?

Will you hold me accountable to this?

Listen, these aren't guarantees that this is gonna sustain the momentum

that you've got, but it's gonna help.

It's gonna help.

And, and I can tell you, if you don't do this, you're gonna be far more likely

to have Monday's apathy, cause that wave to just crash out on the shore.

Don't go fishing on Monday.

Uh, what we read next in the text, it says, just as day was

breaking, Jesus stood on the shore.

Yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus.

So, day is breaking, the sun is just barely coming up.

Uh, the, the fishermen in Galilee, they would fish overnight.

They would go out all night long, and, and we know that to be still

true today with fishermen, they don't keep the same schedules.

We keep.

The show Deadliest Catch if you guys have ever watched that, right?

They're out all night long on the, the bearing sea and they're, they're out there

and it's, it's all hours in the night.

It, it, they don't keep the same schedules.

So likewise here, the, the fishermen, they'd been out all night long

fishing and they don't catch anything.

And listen, I don't think that was on accident.

These are, they know what they're doing.

The Sea of Galilee was their home turf.

They had been out there countless times before they knew how to catch fish.

So I don't think it was an accident that they came back skunked.

And we'll talk about why in just a minute here.

But they come back nonetheless.

And Jesus is standing on the shore, says they did not know that it was Jesus.

Why not?

Well, maybe he was keeping them from understanding that the way that he

had with the disciples on the road to Emmaus or initially possibly

with Mary Magdalene in the garden.

I think it's because they're a hundred yards off shore

as we're about to find out.

And it's dark, okay?

There's no light pollution like we have in our society today.

So imagine being in a pitch black football field.

And you're standing on one end of the football field and looking to the other

end of the football field at the earliest rays of dawn breaking forward, and there's

just a person standing at the other end of the field, you're probably not gonna

be able to tell and pick out who that is.

And so I think that's why the disciples don't initially recognize who Jesus is.

Jesus calls to them though in verse five, children, do you have any fish?

Well, wouldn't they have recognized his voice?

Well, if he's trying to cover a hundred yards, he's having to raise his voice

and holler at them a little bit.

And when you do that, the voice changes, its timber a little

bit and it's hard to pick up.

So I still don't think that we're in grounds to say, well, why

didn't they understand children?

Do you have any fish?

Now, the word children there in the Greek pion is not pejorative, but it's,

it's a term of endearment, of affection.

Jesus is referring to them as his beloved children.

His followers, his the rabbi would often do this with his students, and

so his children, do you have any fish?

Jesus knew they didn't have any fish.

And he's, he's, I think, trying to get them to realize why don't,

why don't we have any fish?

We're good at this.

What, what, what are we doing wrong?

And they say in a probably short, a little bit impatient answer.

No, no, we don't have any fish.

Verse six, he said to them, cast the net on the right side of

the boat and you will find some.

So they cast it and they were not able to haul it in because

of the quantity of fish.

Now do you think they had thrown the net on both sides of the boat overnight?

A couple times.

Now some have suggested, well, the steering ore was on the right side of

the boat so they wouldn't have thrown it naturally on the right side of the boat.

No, I, I think Jesus is just showing that this is Jesus.

And, and he says, cast it on the right side of the boat, and immediately

they, they catch this quantity of fish.

153 is, we'll find out.

That's so great that they're barely able to bring it in.

They're not able to even haul it in.

And then look at verse seven, that disciple whom Jesus loved.

That's John therefore said to Peter, it is the Lord.

It's the Lord.

It's Jesus, Peter.

Now, how do we know?

How did he know?

Why was this the moment of recognition for John, do you think?

And I think the reason is you're probably right.

So track with me for just a second.

You just nodded your head along and then everybody will think that

you know exactly where I'm going.

I'm sure you do.

Luke chapter five, you remember the disciples, they had been out

fishing all night in that context.

Jesus came out and got in the boat with the disciples.

And he said to Peter, Hey Peter, shove out into the deep water

and let your nets down again.

And you remember what Peter said to him?

He said, Lord, we've been fishing all night long, but okay, Mr.

Carpenter, we'll push out into the deep.

We'll do it because you're telling us to.

So they shove out into the deep water and they let their nets down.

And what happens?

They catch a, a hall of fish so big the nets were, were breaking.

And what does Peter do?

Peter falls at the knees of Jesus and says, I'm an unworthy man.

And so I think here we have a callback to that.

I think Jesus at multiple times in John 21, is doing these little

callbacks to remind them of who he is, and here's one of them.

And so that's the moment that John, who is there with Peter goes, it's Jesus.

It's the Lord.

And I love Peter.

I love Peter because Peter, it says, when Peter heard that it was the

Lord, he put on his outer garment.

Now.

And that, that's a little bit misleading.

He was probably wearing a fishing smock, which would've hung down a little bit.

And, and, and so when he saw that it was, Lord, the word put on in the

Greek actually means to gird up and, and to gird up would've been something

that they would've done in preparing for battle or more laborious work.

They would've taken the robes and they would've pulled it up under, and they

would've tucked it into their belt to make them more freely able to move around.

And, and so when Peter does this, he, he girds himself up.

He's not putting on a bathrobe.

Nobody in their right mind would do that and jump into the water.

That's not gonna help you get anywhere.

And so he, he, he girds himself up because he let it down to fish.

Okay?

So he girds himself up and he jumps in the water and he swims a hundred

yards to shore to be with Jesus.

That's amazing.

Meanwhile, the other disciples not thinking, it's so amazing, they're

like, don't worry about it, Peter.

We'll handle the fish.

You go, man, we got the fish back here.

And so they, they take the net and they're dragging the net full of

fish for, they were not far from the land, but about a hundred yards.

Y'all.

Here's a, a picture of what this, uh, rock is, that Jesus was

purportedly traditionally, at least standing on when he called out to

the disciples there in Galilee.

And so if you go to Israel, you may notice that sign on there.

It's probably hard to read still, but it says this is holy ground.

That that tradition from the earliest parts of the church believed that this is

the rock and held, that this is the rock that Jesus stood on and called to the

disciples while they were out fishing.

And you may notice in this original picture that there's

a building right next to it.

That building is a church because that's what the, the, the people,

the crusaders especially used to do, they would go to Israel and be

like, look at this cool holy site.

Let's build a church on top of it.

And so you go inside that church and there's this rock here, and

this rock has a sign in front of it that says Mensa Christi.

Which means table of Christ.

And so this is the rock according to church history tradition, that this is the

rock where we're gonna find out that Jesus had prepared the fire and the fish that

he was going to enjoy with his disciples.

And so just, I, I want you to see that, that this is not just a fairy

tale, that there's, that's legs to this, but back in our context here,

the disciples had gone fishing on Monday, but Jesus was patient with them.

Jesus was kind and loving to them.

He shows up and he pursues them even when they're out fishing.

Not for men, but for fish.

And he stands on the shore and he calls them back.

And y'all, he still does that for us.

When we're out fishing on Monday, the spirit pursues us.

The Spirit provokes us.

The Bible that sat on our table as we've walked by, it calls out to us.

A thought from the week, sermon the week before jumps into our mind.

And all I'm saying y'all is, is let's be a little bit like Peter in those moments.

Let's be like Peter, who nothing was gonna stop Peter from getting to Jesus.

That was the only thing he wanted was to be with Jesus.

So he girds himself up and he jumps in the water and he swims to shore.

Point number two this morning.

Is this be like Peter, in your pursuit of Jesus, be like Peter,

in your pursuit of Jesus this week,

huh?

Our garage door, um, sounds like what I imagine the demons chained in the

utter darkness sound like when it opens.

All that just loud noise.

But what that means is this, it means that my, my kids know when I get home and

every so often, not enough in my book, but every so often my two youngest ones will,

will come out to meet me when I get home.

They come out to meet me when I get home.

Now, on Friday mornings, they come out to meet me when I get home 'cause I have

donuts with me and they want the donuts.

But other times they come out to meet me 'cause they just wanna be with me.

Dad's home.

And you dads who've had that experience, you know how much

joy that brings to your heart,

y'all, let's be like that with Jesus.

Let's pursue Jesus like that.

Nothing was gonna keep Peter from getting to Jesus.

What's keeping you from being with Jesus?

Some things that might be keeping you from being with Jesus.

Maybe work your schedule is keeping you from being with Jesus.

He was just like, man, I'm, I'm just, I know I need to read my Bible.

I know I'm supposed to pray.

I know I'm supposed to, to be involved in a community group.

You know, I, I wanna do these things, but I'm just so busy I can't.

Are you so busy with work that you're saying, I, I'm gonna pursue

my work over pursuing Jesus?

Are you conveying to Jesus my work is more important than you are?

And listen, I'm, I'm not suggesting, well, what do you want me to do, pastor?

Just quit my job and walk away so I can spend time with Jesus like a monk.

No, that's not what I'm suggesting.

The, the disciples still tended to the catch.

Did you notice that?

And when they get to shore, Jesus doesn't look at them and be like,

why couldn't you be like Peter?

Why didn't you just leave that out there and come with me?

In other words, the disciples still did the work that needed to be done

that day, but they still got to Jesus.

And I'm just saying church, that we need to make sure that we are getting to Jesus.

That we're like Peter, in our desire, and sometimes work needs to be rethought.

We need to rethink our schedule.

We need to get up earlier.

We need to find time, get creative with our calendars

to find time to be with Jesus.

'cause we need to want to be with Jesus, like Peter wants to be with Jesus.

Maybe it's it's legalism.

Say what?

Legalism can be an impediment to you being with Jesus.

Here's what I mean by that.

You can think, well, A plus B plus C equals this.

Equals intimacy with Jesus.

So if I read my Bible and I pray and I go to community group and I've got my

kids involved in church and I'm doing all these things, then I'm pursuing Jesus.

But the problem is you're pursuing things about Jesus, but maybe

not pursuing Jesus himself.

The apostle Paul said this, he said, I, I, I'm not ashamed for

I know whom I have believed.

Paul didn't say I know what I have believed.

The, the one responsible for, for 90% of our New Testament

doctrine in theology, right?

The Apostle Paul, he said, I know whom I have believed.

And so we need to be, be sure that that our pursuit of our Bible reading

and our prayer and all these things is really about Jesus and not about

checking boxes to think that we're okay 'cause we've done enough.

The other thing that can keep us from Jesus is just our, our own

laziness, our our love of leisure.

We'd rather just pick up our phones.

We'd rather just turn on the tv.

We'd rather turn on the, the, the radio host in the car and just

listen to the political talking heads than to be with Jesus.

All of us have things in our day that we have to tend to, just like

they had to tend to the catch.

I just wanna make sure that we're still getting to Jesus,

pursuing Jesus like Peter.

But why would you want that?

Well, Jesus said this in Matthew chapter 11 about what

Matthew 11 · chapter mention

it looks like to be with him.

Matthew 1128 through 30 come to me all who labor and are heavy

laden and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart,

and you will find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

A rabbi's yoke was his system of teaching, his principles, his laws,

his statutes, his commandments that he would give to his followers.

And so Jesus is telling us, come to me.

My yoke notice he says, is light and my burden is easy.

He, he wants us to understand that, that to follow him this way, if we begin to

pursue him like Peter was pursuing him.

That we're not gonna find itsome.

We're not gonna find it burdensome.

We're not gonna find it to be something that we can't bear up under.

Rather, the more we do this and the more faithful we are in this

pursuit, we will find that it is easy and the burden is light.

If all this sounds so good to you, but you're like, okay, but how do I get there?

If that's not where I'm at, how do I get there?

Can I suggest to you very carefully here?

I wanna be careful with this because I, again, I don't want to create

this mindset that if I do all these things then I'm gonna be good.

But I do wanna suggest that sometimes y'all, our head needs to lead our heart.

Sometimes we need to begin to discipline and, and to choose to do some of

these things in pursuing Jesus.

And at the same time, pray, God, please use this to draw me near to

you, to deepen my relationship with you, to stir my affections for Christ.

And I believe wholeheartedly that he will delight to answer those prayers.

But maybe for you, that means that you need to spend, choose with the the mind

over the heart to spend time with Jesus during your commute instead of again,

listening to that political talking head.

Maybe that means that you need to choose to spend time with Jesus

first thing in the morning instead of picking up your social media feed.

Maybe that means that you need to, to choose to spend time with Jesus on your

lunch break instead of your news browser.

Maybe that needs means that you need to choose to spend time with Jesus on your

walk instead of your true crime podcasts.

Maybe that means you need to, to choose to spend time with Jesus in the evening

instead of watching just one more episode.

Maybe that means you need to choose to spend time with Jesus when getting ready

in the morning instead of worrying about your meeting schedule for that day.

Jesus is there, and for us it's just about, Hey, do you want to pursue him?

Pursue him like Peter, and there's joy there.

Psalm 1611.

In your presence, there's fullness of joy.

Ultimately that's about eternity, but I'm, I'm saying right, right.

Now, Christians, if we begin to pursue Jesus and if we deepen our relationship

with him again, we're, we're gonna let the, the head lead, the heart, but we're

gonna pray that the heart follows, right?

If we get there and our affections begin to be stirred for Jesus, we are gonna

know some of that joy that's in his presence, even here and now pursue Jesus.

Like Peter,

as we get back into our text though, verse nine, verse nine.

When they got out on land, 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 just caught.

Okay, who's providing the fish here?

Jesus'.

All of it.

Notice that the disciples are bringing some of the fish that they've just

hauled in, and this is a great picture of how Paul says, work out

your salvation, knowing that it's God who's at work in you, both the

willing to work for his good pleasure.

Because the disciples are bringing some of the fish that they've

brought from the shore, but who gave them the fish to begin with?

Jesus did.

And so all the fish being provided is still from Jesus here.

So Jesus has a couple of fish, uh, on the fire as, as well as some bread.

Here's another callback for you.

When was the last time that we saw Jesus with fish and loaves

feeding in the 5,000, right?

And so there's another flashback here for the disciples, and they get on

land and, and Jesus says, bring some of the fish that you've just caught.

And so Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore full

of large fish, 153 of them.

Well, what does 153 fish represent?

I think it represents 153 fish.

Now, pages of commentaries have been written about what 153 means, um,

example of, of one solution, uh, that it is purported that, that at this

time in history there were 153 known varieties of fish in the world who.

Figured that out.

Somebody smarter than I did, figured that out.

So they have said, well, because there's 153 known varieties of fish

in the world at the time that John is trying to communicate to us, or Jesus

is trying to communicate to us that he's after fishing from all different

types of people, all kinds of different people, disciples of all nations.

And so that's why there's 153 fish in that.

Others have broken it down in ways that I can't even begin to

explain to you to try to make 10.

And, and the, the, this is what it was.

The numbers one through 17, when you add all of them together, it equals 153.

I didn't do it.

I read it.

I trust whoever did it.

And they're trying to, to make the argument that, that, that 17

is 10 for the 10 commandments, and seven the number of God.

And so Jesus is communicating something with that to us.

Here's the thing, y'all, John is really good about explaining what he means

with a, a term that we wouldn't know.

He's done that through the whole gospel.

He did that earlier with the Sea of Tiberius back in John chapter six, and

then he said, which is the Sea of Galilee.

And so I think if John meant for us to understand something deeper with 153, he

would've communicated that to us as it is.

It was common practice for fishermen to come back from

fishing and count their catch.

They needed to know the number because they were about to take that number into

town and sell it, and so they would've needed to know how many fish they had in

order to go into town and sell the fish.

153 was a large catch.

John had made that point, so I think what John is doing is saying,

yeah, this was a massive catch.

We had 153 fish in this thing, and so Jesus says, bring some fish.

Peter goes out, gets some of the fish from the 153, and then it says there, although

there were so many, the net was not torn.

Jesus then says this.

Come and have breakfast with me Now.

None of the disciples dare to ask him, who are you?

They knew it was the Lord.

Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them and sow the fish.

This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples

after he was raised from the dead.

I love verse 12.

Come and have breakfast with me.

The disciples don't get back from fishing on Monday, only for

Jesus to go, what are you doing?

You knuckleheads.

Jesus doesn't berate them.

Jesus doesn't look at them and be like, you fools, I've got

other things for you to do.

He doesn't even get them back on shore and be like, okay, now that you're back,

go do what I told you to do, please.

He says, Hey, come and eat with me.

Come have breakfast with me.

Come spend time with me.

Third callback that we see here, when's the last time Jesus took

bread and gave it to his disciples?

The upper room.

So all of these moments of intimacy between Jesus and the disciples just

flooding into their memory banks here, but Jesus I love says, come and eat with me.

Come and have breakfast with me.

To, to have a meal with someone in our day is not as intimate as it was in this time.

You may invite a stranger who you're just getting to know

out to, to lunch after church.

You may invite your neighbors who you're just getting to know

over to your house for dinner.

But in the ancient ne Near Eastern culture, to have somebody into

your home or to have a meal with somebody was an expression of

intimate closeness and friendship.

And so Jesus, before he sends them out on mission, says, Hey, I

want to start by being with you.

I want to start with a meal with you, church.

My concern is that for some, the only meal you have with Jesus is Sunday morning.

And as we're after, making sure that the wave of momentum that we

have to today doesn't crash out on the shore of Monday's apathy.

We need to make sure that that Sunday's not the only meal with Jesus that

we're having throughout the week.

Our third and final point this week is this Feast with Jesus every day.

Feast with Jesus.

Every day

in Revelation three 20, Jesus says, behold, I stand at the door and knock.

If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him

and eat with him and he with me.

You may have heard that preached evangelistically, but really that's about

believers, about the idea that we have an opportunity to fellowship with Jesus

to pursue that M intimacy with Jesus on a daily basis, and he desires that with

us Church, if I can put it this way.

Your effectiveness and your usefulness to Christ will only grow in proportion

to your fellowship with Christ.

Jesus wants to be with you now.

Point number two, I was talking about pursuing things, some of the nuts and

bolts of our relationship with Christ.

Here, though, I, I wanna talk about something different.

Not so much what you're gonna do for him or in pursuit of him, but I wanna

talk about being with Jesus during the week, being intentional to be with

him and, and, and this is admittedly where this gets hard to preach.

Because this is an intensely personal and this is an intimate, and this

is something that is not formulaic.

I can't stand up here and preach to you.

This is what it looks like for you to be with Jesus this week.

I can't stand up here and preach to you that if you do this plus this,

then you will feast with Jesus today.

This is something that's gonna look different for everybody in the room.

And hey, as long as it's not sin, there's freedom in Christ for how

you're gonna choose to be with.

Jesus this week, but I want you to focus on being with him every single

day, this week being in his presence.

And certainly that does come through our time in the word and through prayer, but

I think there's some more than that too.

And so I'm gonna list some things, but again, I, I do this with the caveat

that, that this is not A plus B equals C.

This is not a formula that I'm about to give you, but just some ideas of what

I'm driving at here with what it means to feast, feasting is meditating on Christ.

New age meditation is emptying your mind.

Biblical meditation is filling your mind.

So feasting with Jesus on a daily basis is filling your mind

with the truths about Christ.

Feasting with Jesus is talking about Jesus with other people

through text or phone conversations, or in person to feast with Jesus.

To be with Jesus.

To sit with Jesus is to talk about Jesus.

Feasting with Jesus is worshiping Jesus.

And so often we think about this in song and, and yeah, that's what I'm driving

at primarily right now with this one.

Maybe you wanna create a Spotify playlist this week, feasting with Jesus.

And you're gonna put in there some of the, the hymns that you love or the

praise songs that you love, the ones that stir your affections for Christ,

the ones that you're gonna be at the stoplight, belting out at the top of

your lungs, not even caring, saying, Jesus, come quickly as everybody's just

staring at you, but you and Jesus are spending time together in that moment.

Feasting is journaling.

Maybe for some of you reflecting on your day and, and being honest before the

Lord about your day and what he's done and, and what that's looked like for you.

Maybe for some of you feasting is fellowshipping with other believers,

spending time with other believers who stir your affections for Jesus,

who make you love Jesus more, who cause you to think about Jesus more.

Maybe for others.

Feasting is taking a walk.

You're going outside and you're seeing the beauty of God's creation and your

time with Jesus is realizing that he's the creator and sustainer of the universe.

That in Him all things hold together and you're seeing that beauty and it's

moving you to praise and worship God.

Maybe for some others, feasting might be just redeeming your dead air.

What I mean by that is that time that you really aren't doing anything else.

Getting ready in the morning, taking a shower, your commute to work.

What are you filling that dead, dead air with and how you, how can you fill

that dead air with time with Jesus?

Y'all Sunday morning can't be the only meal that we enjoy throughout the week.

In a few moments here, uh, we'll take communion together.

Not yet, but just in a few moments here and, and we will remember

the death of Jesus as we do this.

And, and that's so significant for us because if, if we're gonna

avoid the, the, the fog of Monday driving out the faith of Sunday.

If we don't have what we're about to remember, then we can go somewhere

else and hear a motivational speech that's gonna make you want to be

a better businessman or a better husband or a better parent or

whatever, and, and, and the world can teach you all of those things.

The difference here is because of the death of Christ, we now

have a relationship with the God of the universe, and it's the God

of the universe calling us into.

This motivation calling us into this desire to change.

And it's the God of the universe, who, by his grace, has given us his spirit

to be able to walk in obedience to him and to be able to do the things

that we're talking about this morning.

And so in just a second, the elements are gonna be passed,

the music is gonna play here.

And, and maybe as you hold those elements, ponder some of the things that maybe

you do want to see change this week.

And consider what steps are necessary to secure and maintain

those changes at the same time.

And so as the elements are past the music plays, I'll come back up here in a

moment and we'll take them all together.