April 29, 2001

John 21: 1-18

Children’s Message:    "Jesus, the Face of God"
  One night a little girl was getting ready for bed. As her mother was tucking her in, the little girl remembered that she had left her favorite teddy bear, "Teddy" in the playroom. "Mom, I need to get Teddy. He’s my best friend!" Her mother had been trying to share the Christian faith with her daughter, and so she said, "I thought God was your best friend, not Teddy." Her daughter replied, "Teddy has a face."
 Sometimes God can seem a bit fuzzy, a faceless person. From time to time we may all wonder, "What is God really like?"
 The Bible has an answer to that question. What is God like? God is like Jesus. In fact, Jesus
puts a face on God. The Apostle Paul wrote, we see the "Glory of God in the face of Christ" (II Cor. 4:6). Jesus shows us what God looks like. God "looks" like Jesus. The Bible says that Jesus is "the image of the invisible God" (Colossians 1:15). He has made the invisible God visible. When we look at Jesus, we’re seeing God at work. And that’s how we know for sure that we are loved by God -- Jesus told us so! "As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you" (John 15:12).
 Let’s pray and give God thanks for sending us Jesus:
 Thank You, God, that You have sent Jesus to teach us about You, the invisible God. Thank You that Jesus has made Your love so visible and so real. Thank You, Jesus. Amen.

Sermon:
We study the Bible to see how God works, to see how God operates in this world. Specifically, we study the Bible to see how God relates to human beings -- to learn the ways of God, the ways of God with us. The Resurrection accounts are great resources for this, because they involve the Risen Christ appearing to stunned, fearful, disbelieving, and sometimes ambivalent disciples. So these are relevant texts for us.
They’re also important because we live on this side of Easter. We are Easter people with a Living Savior, not a dead one, who desires our companionship & our discipleship.
 Now, the Gospels are full of Resurrection appearances. The Risen Christ appears to Mary Magdalene & the another Mary (in Matthew 28) outside the tomb, he appears to the disciples in the Upper Room twice, to Doubting Thomas, to the disciples on the Road to Emmaus. Luke says in Acts 1 that Jesus appeared to the disciples over a period of 40 days and gave many convincing proofs to them that he was alive. I Cor. 15 says Jesus appeared to the disciples and later he appeared to more than 500 believers at one time, "most of whom are still alive to this day," writes Paul to the Corinthians.
 So there were eye witnesses alive for years following the Resurrection. It’s one of the reasons why the faith spread to rapidly & vibrantly. Even when the New Testament was being written there were still eye witnesses alive to validate and verify the accounts.  (I Cor. 15: 6)
 Isn’t that just like Jesus, he appeared to over 500 believers, but he didn’t bother going to Pilate or Herod or back to Jerusalem to show off and gloat or make a spectacle of himself and of our faith. He only made himself known to those who had loved him. I guess you have to fall in love with him to see him.
 Illustration. A young Artist once brought his painting of Jesus to a master painter named Dore. Dore was slow to give his opinion of the young painter’s work. Finally he did so with one sentence: "You don’t love him or you would paint him better."
 We can only see Jesus once we give our hearts to him in love and obedience. Remember what we said last week, to believe, is to give one’s heart away. The Risen Christ appeared to those who had given their hearts to him.  "Mary" And how he appeared to them, how related to them . . . just might help us relate to him today.

 The thing that stands out in John’s Gospel is that Jesus always attacked at the point of greatest resistance. The Risen Christ was not bashful or shy. He focused in on their resistance and went right after it.

 Illustration. I’m sorry to tell an old high school football story, but the only illustration I could come up with was the night we played Central Bucks West when I was a sophomore. I did not see any playing time that night, much to my relief because they were big and strong and ugly! And they had a guy named Frank Case, 6’5", 255 pounds. He went on to play for Penn State. But the thing I remember was our gameplan. Our coach said, "If we’re going to beat West, we’re going to have to deal with Case." "And so for most of our plays we’re going to run right at him." "Because if we can’t beat him, we don’t deserve win."
 Jesus is a lot like my old coach, he goes after the strongest opposition. And so Thomas says, "I don’t believe." And Jesus says, "OK. Fine. Go get Thomas." "Here Thomas, see my hands & side. Put your fingers here. Stop doubting & believe." He meets him in his doubt. He goes right at the point of greatest resistance.
 So here in John 21 the Disciples have gone back to fishing. Now that’s a bizarre thing to! If you were friends with the Messiah and he had just risen from the dead and had commissioned you to go & tell the whole world, would you go fishing? In John 20, the previous chapter, he had said to them, "As the Father has sent me, so I now send you in to the world." And so they we
nt fishing. It may suggest an ambivalence to the call, or even a certain disbelief about it all. Or it may just be that they needed a little spending money. Either way, they were not with the Risen Lord, and so he appears to them on the shore.
 Isn’t that just like Jesus, they’re wandering from their call, and he has to go after them. Like a gentle shepherd he must nudge them with his crook and bring them back into discipleship. And so his tactic is, he stands on the shore and says, "Hey boys, have you caught any fish?" Now, he’s Jesus. - he knows they haven’t caught any fish! But isn’t that just like Jesus, gently but clearly pointing out to them the futility of their lives without him.
 Then he proceeds to give them some advice on fishing. Now they had been fishing all through the night and had caught nothing. They had to be very tired and very frustrated. And I’m sure it felt so good when some stranger shows up on the shore line and starts giving them advice. We men love advice especially when we’re tired & frustrated. And so Jesus says, "Throw your nets on the other side." Isn’t that just like Jesus, coming in to rearrange our messed up lives, showing us  the way to a  better life if only we’d listen.
 Each time in these appearances, he meets them at their point of greatest resistance. He sees their ambivalence - they’ve gone back to fishing - and so he meets them on the shore line. He needs to get across to them that he has called them to a new and completely different life, and so he says to them, "Have you caught any fish?" He knows that men at work hate to get advice, and they’re going to have to learn obedience, so he tells them what to do and how to catch fish. Isn’t that just like Jesus!
 But the best part of this chapter, John, ch. 21, is when Jesus appears to Peter. Three times Jesus asks Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" And three times, Peter answers back, "Yes, Lord. You know that I love you." Peter doesn’t understand at first.  He’s grieved, embarrassed, maybe a little ashamed. But why does Jesus make him profess his faith three times? Because just days before, Peter had denied he ever knew Christ, how many times?  He denied Christ three times. Isn’t that just like Jesus, so pastoral here, meeting Peter at his point of greatest need (his shame, his guilt). Peter is restored, rehabilitated, recommissioned, reconciled.
 By the way, there’s an old legend, we’re not sure if it’s true or not, but the legend is that Resurrected Jesus even appeared to Judas, who betrayed him. The New Testament doesn’t tell us this. It’s a legend from the Early Church. We know that Jesus appeared to Mary, Thomas, & Peter and the others, but some later said that he even went Judas to offer him forgiveness. Now if Jesus can appear to Judas, he can find you, too. He can love you, too. He can forgive you as well.

 What is your point of greatest resistance to God? What is your greatest point of resistance to a deeper spiritual life? Fear?  Ambivalence?  Doubt?  Busyness?  Guilt or Shame? A certain Sin?
 Whatever it is . . .  the living Christ wants to meet you there. These resurrection appearances make it clear that Jesus is not afraid of what we’re afraid of. He doesn’t run from the things we run from. Instead he runs to them. He runs to your greatest point of resistance, the very thing that keeps you from a closer walk. For He knows that a human soul is like a bone, in that the very place where it breaks, once fixed & mended, becomes the strongest place. And that’s where Christ wants to be in your life and mine.
 Isn’t that just like Jesus!

Let’s pray.
 Lord Jesus Christ our Savior and Redeemer, we run but you are faster. We hide but you see all things. We doubt you but you never stop believing in us. Thank you that you meet us on the road of faith at the very spot where we are stuck. Give us the faith to journey with you. We give you our hearts and our love this day and forever. Amen.

Rich Knight