Easter 2015: Restart - Holy Week

Father, I want to thank you and praise you for these young people and the energy, the vision, the passion that they give us as adults through their worship.

And Father, we are here to worship you.

You rose from death, came back to life, entered the fourth dimension, and then came back into our world to introduce to us a new way of living through the power and the humility and the wisdom and the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

So, Holy Spirit, come.

Be here tonight.

God, as we open up our hearts, as we worship you, have your way, Lord, with your saints.

In your name we pray.

Amen.

So Jesus on Friday before sundown is dead.

Not spiritually dead.

By the way, none of you are going to ever spiritually die.

But he's physically dead.

Jesus physically dead.

And he entered into hell.

And somewhere in those three days, he goes into hell.

And he does something that's never been done before since.

He went up to Satan and he demanded the keys of sin and death.

And he took them.

In some mysterious way, it seems that he took captivity captive.

And he ushered in a new era of salvation and heaven that humankind had never had before.

But from the three-dimensional world, from a human perspective, he is dead.

And there before all of the Roman authorities, Jewish authorities, Roman soldiers, a hissing, as well as a weeping crowd.

Probably all the disciples were there.

We don't know for sure, but they probably were there.

We know that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was there.

We know that John was there because of the interaction at the cross.

But within that variegated crowd, there were those that I'm sure were praying that a miracle will occur.

This is the man that had walked on water, healed the sick, cast out demons, done signs and wonders that no one had ever seen before on the face of the earth, and he dies.

And I'm sure the Roman authorities and the Jewish authorities were praying that he would die.

And he did.

And all their hopes and all their dreams were gone.

They heard him say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

And then they commented, is he calling out to Elijah, the great prophet Elijah?

What is that?

And then they heard him say, It is finished.

And then he expired.

And he gave up the ghost.

He gave up his spirit to the Lord.

And I believe that as they watched this scene, those that were followers of Christ, all their hope just dissipated.

And they felt like their life was finished.

They had left everything to follow him.

We know that Peter and James and John and Andrew and Thomas and Matthew had left thriving businesses in Galilee.

And it's just this.

I mean, think about the week.

The week they had gone.

They had come in on what we now classically call Palm Sunday on the Mount of Olives, coming from Bethany and coming down into the Kidron Valley with this massive parade.

Palm branches being thrown down, which were signs of followers giving allegiance to a king.

And in just five days, the parade was over, and it all ends with murder and death, and all their hopes are dashed.

And so the next day, the chief priests get together with the Pharisees and the Roman authorities, and they explain to the Roman authorities look, this guy said that in three days he's going to rise again.

And just think that the whole farce of the beginning of his life is going to be worse than the first if we don't do something about it.

And so, would you put a Roman guard over the tomb?

And so that's what they did.

They put an allegiance group of about 50 soldiers and put a Roman seal on the tomb.

Peter, James, John, Andrew, Thomas left everything to follow Christ.

All hopes dashed.

Mary Magdalene, we know from Scripture that seven demons were cast out of her.

So what's she going to do?

Go back to her demons?

We don't know what Mary's feeling.

Think about Mary, the mother of Jesus.

Think about the brothers and sisters.

Just a few months before they had actually been in a situation in which they had come to Jesus when he was teaching in the area and he wouldn't even meet with them.

So wait, your family's here.

Your mother's here, your brothers and sisters are all here.

And then Jesus said, Well, this is my family.

This is my mother and father.

This is my brothers and sisters, those who do the will of God.

And now he's a criminal that's been crucified on an ugly, Roman, brutal cross.

Where do they go?

Their name is despised.

Matthew, a successful IRS agent.

What's he gonna do?

Get back to ripping off Jews?

Peter and six others decided to go fishing.

Have you ever made plans?

Have you ever put all your hopes in something?

Maybe even built something?

Maybe it's a company?

Sacrificing for your kids and your family?

And then begin to see it slipping away?

Have you been blessed with great health?

And then it starts to slip away?

Or you gave yourself to something where you, you know, you you put all your reserves in it, you put all your investments in it, and it's gone.

It's gone.

Have you ever had a relationship with someone that you really deeply care about?

And you trusted them and you believed in them, and they betrayed you.

If you have, then I think that's what's going on here.

I think that's what these disciples feel.

This is what Mary and Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of Jesus, and Peter and Andrew and Thomas, their hopes are dashed and discouragement has set in.

But then Matthew and Mark, the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Mark, record that Mary Magdalene and the other women hurried to the tomb.

One account says that Mary Magdalene left at dark.

And if we know Mary, the mother of Jesus, and the other Mary, probably Mary Magdalene is younger.

So she gets to the tomb first.

And an angel of the Lord, the scriptures say, who looked like lightning, said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for I know that you seek Jesus who is crucified.

He's not here, for he is risen as he said.

Come see the place where the Lord lay, go quickly and tell the disciples.

So she comes in and she looks in.

And I don't know if I've been to the right tomb or not, but you sure pay a lot of money to be at the right tomb when you're in Jerusalem.

So I've seen this tomb, and it's about the size of this stage.

And she looked in and then she bolts.

And somewhere between when she gets to the disciples and leaves the tomb, Jesus appears to her.

So she sees Jesus.

And then according to Luke, Peter then runs to the tomb.

So she goes, finds Peter.

Peter runs the tomb.

He sees an empty tomb.

But he doesn't see Jesus, but he sees an empty tomb.

Then there's these two followers.

We don't believe that they're actually one of the Lamb's twelve disciples that are on the road to Emma, seven miles away, and they're just walking along, and then Jesus starts hanging out with them.

And they don't even recognize him.

So there's something even mysterious about that, about his makeup, and we don't know if maybe they didn't know Jesus personally, so they know exactly what he looked like, because everybody's got beards back then and stuff, or if actually there was a different state, because we do know this, that Jesus at one point will not let himself be touched.

And then later he is touched by Thomas, who touches where his wounds are.

Because it says, Was our heart not burning when he gave to us the word?

And then the scriptures indicate that he appears to Simon, then to ten, ten disciples, then eleven, including Thomas, and then in Galilee on the sea, then he appears to over 500 people at one sitting.

Over 500.

Then later to Paul on the road to Damascus, and then later on a mountain in Galilee.

But I want us to open the scriptures on my most favorite story of the resurrection of Christ.

It's my favorite story.

It's in John chapter 21.

John 21 · chapter mention

So would you turn with me if you have your Bibles to John chapter 21?

John 21 · chapter mention

I love this story because it's so manly.

It's a fishing story.

And it's just like Peter, which I hope you can relate to Peter.

If you sometimes, men, if you sometimes feel like an idiot with your wives, Peter's your man.

And I just the way this story unfolds is Peter-esque, but I just think it's also male.

It's just the way we are.

Now, women, you're gonna get something out of it too.

So it's not just to the men, but but there's something special about it in relation to how we deal with grief.

And I think it's true for all of us how we deal with hurt, how we deal with hopelessness, how we deal with despair.

You're gonna go through despair.

You're gonna go through hopelessness.

And that's the setting.

So look, maybe we could put the rubric over this is despair.

John 21.

After these things, Jesus showed himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias.

So that's that's the introduction.

He hasn't shown himself yet.

So it sounds like he has, but he hasn't yet.

And in this way he showed himself.

You'll notice that most of your Bibles would have a colon at that point.

So this is a setup for what is about to be read.

Simon Peter, Thomas called the twin, Nathaniel of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together.

So these are all, listen, these are all commercial fishermen.

They know how to fish.

Simon Peter said to them, I'm going fishing.

Now, you guys that fish, that's all you need to say.

I'm going fishing.

And every guy who hears that is envious because you're going fishing.

Well, they're so envious in this case that everybody comes along.

And immediately got into the boat.

They went out.

And that night they caught nothing.

When the morning had now come, Jesus stood on the shore.

So they're not going to even recognize him at first gang.

Yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus.

Then Jesus said to them, Children, have you any food?

And they answered, No.

Now this is a remarkable story on a number of fronts.

The first is that we as men tend to want to escape and be with either no one or in some kind of a challenging situation when we're feeling depressed and when we're feeling down.

I mean, it's a classic story.

And these guys know how to fish.

I mean, if we were using sort of classic language today, it'd be like, I'm going fly fishing.

And he grabs his fly ride, and all the other guys say, so are we.

And so they all take off.

And I can promise you, all night they never talked.

That's what guys do when they go fishing.

We don't talk, we catch.

And if we don't catch, we still don't talk.

I mean, occasionally you'll say, Well, how's the wife?

Yeah, I'm good.

How's Larry?

He's alright.

And that's pretty much it for the next hour.

We fish.

And now we talk about fishing.

So this is Sea of Galilee, and they're not fishing with rods.

Obviously, they're throwing nets, so they're trying to net fish, and they just keep trying and they keep failing.

Another insight.

And all of us.

I think when we're hopeless, when we're despairing and when we're hurting, we go to what's familiar, don't we?

All you men and women in this room that are unmarried, you tend, if you're not careful, to go back to that old boyfriend or back to that old girlfriend when you're despairing.

And that's dangerous ground.

Dangerous ground.

But we tend in our lives when things haven't gone our way is to go back or to go into those things that have worked before.

And it appears that Peter and James and John, the sons of Zebedee, the sons of Thunder, that they were pretty successful as fishermen and that they had a thriving business there on the Sea of Galilee.

They know how to fish.

So they go back to what they're familiar with.

And we tend to do that.

We tend to do that even in our lives as it relates to spiritual, mental, emotional struggles that we go through.

Be careful with that.

Be aware of that.

When things are not going our way, when we've been hit with a few things that have maybe humiliated us, or I think probably the biggest, and I'll talk about this in the summer.

The most powerful way that Satan works in your life is through shame.

He shames you.

Some of you have things in your life that you're you're ashamed of.

And so you hide it.

As soon as it starts to get exposed, you go back to the hiddenness.

You go back to the way you had hide before, right?

Everybody go like this if you understand what I'm saying.

We do.

Everybody, I don't care how strong of a Christian or weak as a Christian.

We all tend to run from our shame.

That's what's happening here.

This is what these guys know.

They're hopeless.

Everything that they banked on has been lost, and they're going back to that old habit.

That old habit of fishing, but it's not working for them.

It's not working anymore.

Have you ever thought about the fact that God might actually be in charge of things not working out for you?

That God actually might not want it to work out for you, that God might actually cause you to not make the deals that you used to make or have the relationships that you used to have, or that doesn't feel the same way because he loves you?

Because he's breaking you?

Because he's humbling you?

Because he loves you.

Well, I have a computer.

I use a MacBook Air.

I remember when I first got the MacBook Air, I just thought it was cool because it's so little and almost looks like an airplane wing.

It's really, really sweet.

And uh and I was approved by our stewards here at the road to get a new computer.

But I keep not getting one because I like my MacBook Air.

I know how it works, it's really light, I can take it on flights and stuff like that.

But one thing that's true about the MacBook Air, and it's true, I think, with most of your computers, is at that point where you can't get, but I'll just say this.

It's kind of like I've got a little bit of a fetish with Macs and with Toyotas.

And that is this, that they don't mess up very much.

And so this rarely happens.

But for you that don't have a Mac, this happens more often.

And that is that you sometimes just you're missing your internet, right?

You can't get the internet.

You've been sitting at the same place, but it's it's not connecting, or your emails aren't working.

So what do you do?

You have to do a restart.

And when you push, at least on the MacBook Air, on the right side, there's a button.

When you push that, it gives you three options.

The first one is sleep, the second one is shut down, and the third one is restart.

So you know what sleep is.

We do sleep, then everything goes dark.

Everything goes dark.

It's asleep.

And if you just kind of tap the bar, everything wakes up again, right?

So sleep.

Nothing happens that is going to help it when it's asleep.

It's just gonna save power and save your screen and stuff.

But but your sleep mode doesn't help get your internet better or your emails better.

But you're asleep.

You go dark.

But then there's shut down.

And shut down is you're quitting, baby.

And I think some of them say quit.

Mine says shut down, but you got shut down, you got quit.

You're gonna cut it down, you're gonna, it is off.

Can't use it.

And then there's restart.

And restart, as we know, shuts it down but then restarts it for you.

Well, I'm gonna propose that most of us in this room may in 2015 need a restart.

A fresh restart with the Lord.

These guys need a restart.

They don't need sleep and they don't need a shut down.

They need a restart.

So look at verse six.

So he said to them cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.

What an understanding.

Statement.

Don't you love people that underpromise and over-deliver?

This is classic underpromise, over-deliver.

You'll find some.

To commercial fishermen, and they don't even know it's Jesus yet.

Who is this guy?

Got a little fire going?

He's just standing over there.

Hey.

Cast it on the other side.

You'll catch some.

I mean, you gotta you gotta live this a little bit.

You gotta be in the boat with these guys.

There's like, what who is that guy?

But they're desperate.

They're desperate.

You ever been desperate?

I've been desperate this past year.

Desperate's good.

Desperate's not bad.

Desperate's good.

The problem is when you don't know you're desperate, and you are.

That's bad.

Well, these guys are hungry.

No fish, no food.

No food.

Mama's mad.

You don't want mama to be mad.

She's got the grits and she's got the fried okra, but we need some fish, folks.

So they're willing to try what this lone guy on the beach who has a fire says.

So they cast.

And now they were not able to draw in because the multitude of fish.

Therefore, that disciple whom Jesus loved, that's John, said to Peter, It's the Lord.

Nobody else could do this.

It's gotta be Jesus.

What's he doing up here?

Because remember, he had done this before.

They had seen the same miracle before.

Now, Simon Peter, I mean, Simon Peter is really fun to preach on because the kind of stuff he does is like kind of outrageous.

But I don't know about you, but if I'm going swimming, I take stuff off.

I don't put stuff on.

Right?

He put stuff on.

This guy's weird, man.

So when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment.

For he had removed it.

And he plunged into the sea.

This guy's weird, man.

I think he's just so freaking out that he wants to look nice.

I think he's thinking, I gotta put on my Easter vest.

So he puts on his clothes and then he jumps in the water.

So if you have any kids that pull that stunt, just like Peter, just give him a big high five, because that's weird.

So he puts on his stuff and he jumps into the sea, but the other disciples came in the little boat, for they were not far from land, but about 200 cubits, dragging the net with fish.

Then as soon as they had come to land, they saw a fire of coals there and fish laid on it.

So Jesus already caught some and bread.

Jesus said to them, Bring some of the fish which you have just caught.

Verse 11.

Simon Peter went up and he dragged the net to land.

So he he comes in.

I imagine he, I mean, I think he probably embraces Jesus.

He's probably weeping.

He's so pumped.

And then he realizes he left everybody behind.

And so then he goes out and he pulls in, he pulls in the fish.

153.

From zero to 153 in like 15 minutes.

I don't care whether you know anything about fishing, that's good catch.

Zero to 153 in about 15 or 20 minutes.

And although there were so many, the net was not broken, and Jesus said, Come and eat some breakfast.

Now, this is the way Jesus works.

This is why this is one of the greatest passages in all of the Bible.

Because here's a bunch of hopeless guys doing the only thing they know how to do and doing it poorly.

And when Jesus gets involved and we start listening to his voice and we start letting him guide us, and in a sense, listen up, you almost have to be transrational in dealing with Jesus.

Because Jesus does not make logical sense lots of times.

Go back to her.

Go back to him after what he did.

Forgive?

Are you kidding me?

Jesus is constantly saying, throw it on the opposite side of where you're doing your fishing.

He is so counterintuitive.

And so he gives the command, they do it by faith, and 153 fish.

Now there's a lot of conjecture.

You read the commentaries, and some say that, well, it represents 153 nations of the world.

It's the idea that Great Commission's going to go to the whole world.

You know, and I think that's dumb.

I don't think that's true, because there's more than 153 nations, and there's less than 153 nations.

It's just 153 fish, folks, that Peter probably counted.

I mean, when everybody came up and they ate their fill, he wanted to know, did we win?

Because he's a guy.

And that's the way guys are.

You I've never met a guy, then I ask, well, how many fish do you catch?

Well, I don't know.

And if they do, they're trying to be really cool and humble because they're catch and release guys, which those are my guys.

I mean, that's what I am most of the time, too, is catch and release.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Caught a few.

But if they say that and they're not catching release, it's because they didn't catch squats.

Well, I don't really know how much we caught.

You didn't catch anything.

No, no, we caught a few.

Oh, you did?

How many?

I don't know.

You didn't catch anything, man.

153.

Because these dudes are counting.

They're counting.

You can count on Jesus.

You can count on Jesus, gang.

You you need we need a restart.

And I don't know what we've been through, and all of us are different, and we've all got our story.

But I know this that when you put it on sleep mode, you go dark and nothing changes.

And so many believers today are sleeping.

They're just sleeping their Christian life away.

And you're missing out on miracles, you're missing out on adventure.

You're missing out on joy.

You're missing out on the experience of peace and even prosperity in your life and in your spirit.

Because you got it on sleep mode.

Others of us, we shut down.

We quit.

It's too hard.

Right?

Man, I know that feeling.

You know that feeling.

We all know that feeling.

I want to quit.

I want to shut down.

I want to sleep.

And by the way, sleep's great.

Sleep is awesome in its right place, but you still got to wake up the next morning.

I want restart.

How about you?

Can I challenge you this Easter, this day of the risen Lord 2015, that you would push restart?

Would you restart your Christian life?

Would you look at your life and say no to sleep and say no to quit and say no to shut down and say yes to restart?

There is fish abundant on the other side of your boat.

I challenge you, you you put it on restart.

And then on Monday morning when you go to work, start asking God, what where's the fish?

Where's the fish?

And you'll start to hear his voice, and he'll lead you to the fish.

And you're in that relationship, and I mean it's it's a it's a crummy relationship.

And I know some of y'all's relationships, and some of them are pretty crummy.

And I've been in a lot of crummy relationships in my life this year.

But when you start asking Jesus, what do you want to do in this relationship?

What are you up to?

Where are you moving?

He will start to show you stuff that'll be a restart.

There's fish on the other side of that boat.

Some of us here have made massive mistakes this year.

Big-time mistakes.

Folks, there's a restart.

There's a forgiveness in Christ that begins with throwing that net where he tells you to throw that net and following him and going after him.

That's the restart.

And for some of us here, you've never really given your heart to Christ.

You've been to church, you're probably up to here with churchianity.

Going to church doesn't make you a Jesus disciple any more than going to McDonald's makes you a hamburger.

Your faith, your decision and choice to restart and to put your faith in Christ is what invites Christ in.

And this church is full of restarters.

We're just a church full of restarters.

We've got people that have broken the power of addictions, immorality, alcohol, drugs.

We've got a church full of people that have been through miserable divorces and seen God show up in mighty ways.

We've got people in this church that have had affairs and they've repented and they've gotten back and they're getting their life back on track because Jesus is a God who can change and transform wherever we're at.

There's always another side of the boat and we can trust him again.

Jesus said, the thief comes only.

The thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy.

Jesus said, I came that you might have life and might have it abundantly.

We choose Christ.

And when we choose Christ, we break the power of the devil.

The Bible says, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

Old things have passed away, and behold, all things can become new.

Isn't that good news?

The Bible also says, for by grace you've been saved through faith, not of yourself.

It is a gift of God, not as a result of works that no man should boast.

For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works.

The word workmanship is the where is the is the Greek word where we get the word poem.

You're a poem of God.

You're a workmanship.

You're beautiful, created by him to be fruitful.

Created by him to be beautiful.

Restart.

Restart.

Restart.

Restart.

What is it that the Lord is saying, restart this year?

What is that other side of the boat that he's asking you to throw the net?

Trust him.

He loves you.

Let's pray.

Father, I ask you in the name in the blood of Jesus.

Father, you would speak to our hearts right now.

Where do we need to restart?

Where's the place of that restart?

Speak to our hearts right now.

Men and women, I sense there's some of you here tonight.

God is burdening your heart.

That you have concerns, doubts, lack of assurance of your salvation.

You're not sure if Christ is in your life.

Give your heart to Christ right now.

Give your heart to him.

Open up your heart and restart by giving your heart to Christ.

I'm gonna ask all of us to pray together out loud with those that are praying this prayer.

So with your eyes closed and your and your head bowed, if this is your prayer, make it your prayer to receive Christ right now.

Lord Jesus, I need you.

Let's all pray together.

Lord Jesus, I need you.

Thank you for dying on the cross for my sins.

Thank you for rising again.

Thank you for forgiving me of my sins.

Past present and future.

I give you my life.

I surrender my heart.

Come into my life.

Make me a new creation.

Empower me for a restart of my heart and my life.

In the name of Jesus.

Amen.

Now, if you gave your heart to Christ tonight for the first time, or you're making that decision and you realize, you know, Steve, I need to get baptized.

We just had a baptism a couple weeks ago, but last week young man gave his heart to Christ.

And so each week people are receiving Christ.

Be watching and be looking as we uh as you start to come to the road.

We'll have another baptism soon.

And uh be looking for that.

And then we have a bookmark, and uh we'll we'll have those next week.

I don't I think we're all out right now, but we've got a bookmark to help you start learning to read God's word in a systematic way, and it's been very, very helpful.

We call it P, B, and J, and it's not a sandwich.

Okay, it's not peanut butter and jelly, but it's prayer, Bible, and journal.

Prayer, Bible, and journal.

And if you're wanting to do a restart in your relationship with God tonight, start with the Gospel of John.

So I have a kind of a typical, this is not a this is a non-study Bible, but if you open your Bible into the New Testament, you have Matthew, Mark, Luke, and then you have John.

Start there and just read one chapter, just one chapter a day, then get a journal, just get a spiral-bound notebook or something, and just put a date at the top, read one chapter, and then say, God speak to me.

God speak to me.

And you know what'll happen?

You'll get hooked.

You'll get hooked by God, and what is 15 or 10 minutes will grow as God starts to speak to you.

That's P B and J.

So, see, it's more than just peanut butter and jelly.

It can change your life.

Let's stand.

Do we want them to stand, bro?

Okay, you guys, let's stand and worship.

God bless you.