It's wonderful to be here with all of you today and has already
been mentioned. We welcome everyone that's with
us. We have visitors that are among
us and we want you to know that you are, as our brother said,
you are our honored guest and we say welcome.
We have several of our number that are missing today and I
hope and pray that they're OK. Maybe some illness is going
through the congregation that we have some folks that are
traveling, but we hope and pray that all is well.
But we have a great crowd here because you're here today and I
have enjoyed worshiping with you so far, and I am always honored
to be your speaker. We're continuing this morning in
our series on the 40 days from the time that the Lord was risen
from the dead until he ascended into heaven in Acts chapter 1.
And we're going to get to some very significant things about
the 40 days in our next lesson of this series, when Jesus
restores Peter. You remember, Peter denied Jesus
three times. We all know the story.
And we're going to find that Jesus is going to restore Peter.
And it's actually sometimes called by scholars the second
conversion of Peter. And may I just suggest, I'm so
thankful when I read about Peter and I'm so thankful when I read
about the forgiveness of the Lord because Peter was imperfect
in so many ways, and yet he was one of the chosen vessels of
Jesus. And we find the forgiveness of
the Father and the forgiveness of Jesus.
And it's a wonderful story. And that's next time in our
series on this event on the Sea of Galilee.
The significance, though, we'll talk about what was significant
about those 40 days. Let's just back up a little bit
just for those that have not been part of our series.
Let me just back up to where we began.
I took us from the time that Jesus was arrested in the
garden, all the way through the mock trials, all the way through
the crucifixion, all the way through the burial, all the way
through the resurrection, all the way through the early
appearances of Jesus before those precious women and all
that. And I began this series of the
40 days in Luke chapter 24. It was the morning of the
resurrection and Jesus appears before 2 disciples on A7 mile
journey to a little village from Jerusalem to Emex.
And those two disciples were traveling along.
One of those names was Cleopas and we don't know the other one.
It doesn't really matter if the Lord wanted us to know who the
other man was and it would have said his name.
It says 2 disciples and it mentions one name and that's
Cleopas. And they're walking along and
they're discussing all the things that had happened all the
week, the last week in the life of Jesus and all the way through
the crucifixion. And all of a sudden on the scene
comes Jesus and he appears before them and he begins to
walk alongside of them, but they don't know who it is.
And Jesus says, what manner of communications are these that
you're Speaking of? And are sad.
You know, the Lord is basically just kind of serving them up
here. He's kind of tossing up a
softball. Here it comes.
And they said, what do you mean? You must surely be the only
stranger in all these parts to not know about the things that
we're talking about. And Jesus says, what things?
Well, all about Jesus of Nazareth, how we thought he was
going to come and redeem Israel. And now he's been crucified, and
it's the third day, and we don't even have his body.
And the Bible says that Jesus began with Moses and all the
prophets from the Old Testament. And he preached A sermon
prophetically about himself. They come to Emmaus, that little
village, and Jesus makes like he's going to keep on walking
by. And they compelled him to come
into their house. And you know, there's a lesson
to be learned there. Jesus will never impose Himself
on you. He offers all kinds of stuff,
but He will never impose Himself on you.
If you want Jesus in your life, you got to make the choice to
bring Him into your life. He is always ready.
They called Jesus and they asked him to come into their house.
And all of a sudden Jesus reveals himself to them in the
breaking of bread, and then he vanishes from their sight.
And of all the things that they could have been impressed with,
that was quite an experience by the way.
They just saw Jesus, the resurrected Christ.
They just heard a sermon by Jesus himself.
And of all the things they could have been impressed with, this
is what they said. Didn't our hearts burn within us
when he showed up to us? The scriptures along the way, It
was the word of God that burned in their hearts that produce
faith and not the experience. May I just suggest, a lot of
times people are looking for an experience to produce faith in
their life. It's never been that way.
That was a wonderful experience. And maybe you and your life have
had experiences that have led you to the point that you're
looking for Jesus. Maybe that's true, and I'm not
downplaying that. What I'm saying is this.
A person's faith has to be based upon the word of God.
And it was with those two disciples what happened.
They heard the word of Jesus. They heard the word of God.
It burned in their heart. They couldn't sit still.
They got up immediately. They travelled 7 miles back to
Jerusalem. They just had to tell it.
And now they're behind those closed doors with 10 apostles.
Why 10? Because Judas Iscariot had
betrayed Jesus and he went out and hanged himself.
That's number one. And #2 for whatever reason,
Thomas wasn't there. So here he comes.
The two disciples are telling the story that they just saw the
resurrected Christ. And about that time, here comes
Jesus through the door, and they're scared to death and they
think they're looking at a ghost.
And Jesus says, don't be afraid. He says, these are the words
that I spoke to you when I was yet with you.
Nothing is different. I told you I was going to die
and I was going to be raised from the dead.
Here I am. And then he does what?
He goes back from the Old Testament scriptures and he
preaches A sermon. He shows them the marks of
identification about the crucifixion.
And they believe, but the Bible says Thomas wasn't there.
Jesus vanishes from their sight. Thomas now appears.
They tell Thomas, we've seen the resurrected Christ.
And Thomas said unless I see his hands, unless I touch the nail
prints in his hands and thrust my hand into his side, I will
not believe. I'm not going to go into that.
We did that last time. He gets a bad rap.
Don't give him a bad rap if you weren't here last time.
He asked me some questions later.
I went all the time and went to it.
He there was reasons for his being apprehensive.
OK, what happens a week later? One week later, Jesus appears
before them. Now there's 11, Thomas is
present and Jesus walks up to Thomas and he says, Thomas, look
at my hands and take your finger and put it into my hands and
thrust your hand into my side. You know what?
Thomas says, my Lord and my God, And Jesus says you believe
because you have seen, But blessed are those who believe
and have not seen. And I want to make a point of
clarification for something that I said in the last lesson.
All of those that he's talking about are sitting in this room.
All of those that are talking about are talking about anybody
that comes to Jesus that has never seen Jesus in this life.
And I said this, we will never see Jesus.
What I meant was we will never see Jesus as Thomas saw Jesus in
the flesh, in this life, standing before him, looking at
those male prints, looking at the side that was pierced.
That's what I meant. Oh, but we will see Jesus again,
won't we? We're going to see him again.
It just won't be in this life. It's when he comes back in the
second coming, all right? Now all that being said, we come
to the 7th appearance of Jesus and there were 10 post
resurrection appearance #7 is in John chapter 21 and I have
dropped down to verse John 21, but I've used as a text to and
introduce our title breakfast by the scene.
By the way, if you look at this and all of you that know me
really well, you're looking at these verses.
Maybe you're saying, I know you, Frank, there's no way we're
covering 14 verses in our allotted time.
Have No Fear. I'm not going to be like Paul
and continue my speech until midnight.
OK, Don't worry about that. Some of these verses we will
narrate through. Some we'll spend a little more
time on. But we're setting the stage
because the events that are going to happen in our next
lesson, we can't get them in this lesson.
We got to go to the next lesson for that because that's a lesson
all by itself when Jesus restores Peter.
But let's drop down to verses 10 through 12.
Here's our introductory text about breakfast by the sea.
Jesus said to them, Bring some of the fish which you have just
caught. Simon Peter went up and dragged
the net to the land full of large fish, 153 And although
there were so many, the net was not broken.
And Jesus said to them, Come and eat breakfast.
Yet none of the disciples dared ask him, Who are you, knowing
that it was the Lord? We're going to get into these
passages in just a minute, but this is where we picked up last
time after Jesus appears before the disciples and Thomas.
Now we come to chapter 21 and verse 1.
And I don't know how much time went by from the time that he
met with those 11, with Thomas included and these Scriptures.
I don't know that we're not told, but let's begin.
After these things, Jesus showed himself again to the disciples
at the Sea of Tiberius, and in this way he showed himself.
By the way, the Sea of Tiberius, don't be confused, is just
another phrase or another term for the Sea of Galilee.
Why is the Sea of Galilee or why is Galilee significant?
Let's back up. Don't turn there, stay with me.
I'm going to narrate this Matthew chapter 28.
Do you remember what happened in Matthew chapter 28?
Jesus was risen from the dead, and those two precious women the
Bible described in Matthew's account, there was Mary
Magdalene and the other Mary. What do they do?
They just couldn't stay home. They just couldn't stay away.
The Sabbath is now behind them. It's the first day of the week.
It's Sunday morning, and here they come.
They go to the sepulchre and what do they find?
Early on that Sunday morning there was a great earthquake,
and an Angel descended from heaven and rolled back the
stone. And those precious women were
there. And the Angel said, be not
afraid, Come see the place where the Lord lay, They said.
The Angel said, I know that you're coming to look or coming
to search for the one who was crucified, for he is not here,
for he is risen. Remember what the Angel said
about Galilee in verse 7, and go quickly and tell his disciples
that he is risen from the dead, and indeed he is going before
you into Galilee. There you will see him.
Behold, I have told you what happens next.
These precious women go to do exactly what the Angel said, and
then there's Jesus. And they fall down at his feet,
and they grab his feet, and the Bible says they worshipped him.
And then Jesus says, go, tell my disciples, go tell my brethren
to go to Galilee and I will see them there.
Galilee was very significant. The Sea of Galilee was very
significant. Galilee was the place that Jesus
says I'm going there and I'm going to see my disciples there
and a lot of great things are going to be preached there and
said there and discussed there. But I want to say something
about these women for just a minute.
Don't you think it's interesting that the Lord chose these women
to be first hand eyewitness testimony of the resurrection?
You might think, well, So what did you know that Roman and
Jewish law all basically and Roman and Jewish tradition and
Roman and Jewish culture, OK, all said that you have to take
the testimony of women very lightly.
You can't take it very seriously.
You know, the Bible does never says that.
And you know what else? It isn't true.
The only reason that they could have thought such things was by
way of culture and tradition. By the way, there are three
sources by way of Roman culture. It's found in a textbook for New
Roman students called the Justinian Institutes, saying the
very same thing about women. What things?
Their testimony is of limited value and they're unstable.
I didn't say that. OK, What else?
How about a how about a Jewish historian, Josephus?
He wrote the same thing about Jewish culture.
What else? How about in the Mishnah, a
collection of Jewish tradition and scripture all saying the
same thing? That was society.
That was culture. Now here comes Jesus and he
handpicks two women to be first hand eyewitness testimony of the
resurrection of Christ. That's what the Lord thought of
that. And you know what else?
It was absolutely brilliant. Had it been the apostles that
were first hand eyewitness testimony of the resurrection of
Christ, then those Jews that rejected Jesus would have said
no. It would have supported their
lie too, by the way, that somebody stole the body and they
lied about it. Oh no, it was two women.
They had no axe to grind. They had no agenda at all.
Just two precious women that just couldn't stay away.
How must it have been for the rest of their life for people to
come to them and say, what was it like?
You saw Jesus 1st. And by the way, don't ever think
that women are less courageous than men or less strong than
men. Don't ever think that at all.
OK. These women had courage.
Where were the men? They all forsaken.
The all fled. Yeah.
Where was Peter? With all of his athletic
prowess? He denied him three times, even
cursing and swearing. I know not the man.
So don't think for a minute, by the way, that women are lacking
in that capacity at all. Just share something with you.
Happened the other day. So there's this older lady that
I know and I didn't know her all that well, but I've known her
kind of of her for a long time. And she keeps her horses where I
keep my horses. And she was telling me about her
husband. She was saying, you know, my
husband got sick and she goes, you know, husbands.
She said men are babies. She they really are.
When they get sick, they're really babies.
She's going on and on and on and on.
And I and I had something to say and I was going to respond and
she was bracing herself. She thought I was going to
defend men. I said, well, you do know you
are tougher than we are, You do know that, right?
She lit up. We're best friends now.
Every time I see her, man, she just can't wait to come and talk
to me. Listen, culture and society had
a picture of women that was not true.
And Jesus chose and God chose in this miraculous event the
precious women that just couldn't stay away.
To be first hand eyewitness testimony of the resurrection.
Look at verse 2. Simon Peter Thomas called the
twin. These are the ones that were
present. Nathaniel of Cana in Galilee,
Nathaniel of Cana, Galilee, the sons of Zebedee and two others.
Other disciples were together. What about Nathaniel?
Who is Nathaniel? Nathaniel is another name for
Bartholomew. If you look into the gospel
accounts in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, you will read that in all
of those times in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, whenever the apostles
are listed, all 12, there are always listing Bartholomew and
never Nathaniel. What about John in John's
gospel? He mentions Bartholomew one
time. He mentions Nathaniel 6 times,
no problem. All that means is this folks,
Nathaniel's Bartholomew is the same guy.
It's the same man. Notice then in verse 3, Simon
Peters said to them, I'm going fishing.
They said we're going with you also.
Now interesting about this, we know that they were fishermen.
We also know that commercial fishing around that lake at that
time was very important to the local economy.
We know that too. But it very well may be that
Peter says I'm going fishing and they said I'm going too, that he
was just talking about their immediate needs.
Maybe they were hungry. We don't know that for sure.
All we know is Peter said I'm going fishing.
The other says, yeah, we're going too.
All right, maybe immediate consumption was all they were
concerned about. Notice.
So they went out immediately, got into a boat, and that night
they caught nothing. OK, historically speaking,
Galilean fisherman, by the way, they would take torches and they
would go out at night and they would take these Nets and there
would be weights around the perimeter or the outer edges of
the Nets. And they would take those drag
Nets, if you will. And they would go far out
because they can take those those torches and go farther in
the dark. And they can drop those weighted
Nets down so they can drag it along and they can catch more or
fish. Well, you know what they did?
They went out that night to do just that.
You know what they caught nothing.
Now I'm going to tell you something.
What's amazing to me is how many people have looked at this
narrative and really even some commentators have looked at this
narrative as a as nothing but just a whole host of ordinary
events. I'm here to tell you the divine
hand of God and the divine hand of Jesus is all over this entire
thing. They go out at night, they're
looking to catch fish, they catch nothing.
And then all of a sudden in verse 4, when the morning had
now come, Jesus stood on the shore, yet the disciples did not
know that it was Jesus. Now in this little picture, by
the way, when I put up a picture, it's just a visual aid.
I don't know what Jesus looked like and neither do you.
OK, Also in this picture here, you know, a picture is worth
1000 words, but let me just make a clarification.
It shows that it's kind of lit up, like maybe the brightness of
the morning. It's probably more likely that
it was dark that morning. And that's why at first they
didn't recognize that was Jesus out on the shore.
And we're going to find out exactly how far the boat was
away from the shore in just a moment.
But notice, all we know is it's early in the morning and they
didn't recognize that it was Jesus.
It was probably because it was still dark and they didn't
recognize Him then. Jesus says to them, children,
have you any food? And by the way, do you think the
Lord needed to really know what that question was or that answer
to that question was? He knew exactly that they'd been
out all night. That's the Lord we're talking
about. He knew exactly the answer, that
they had no fish. He said children, have you, have
you any food? They answer no, obviously, but
the word children actually means little ones.
Moffett says the word means lads.
It's a term of endearment, it's a term of affection.
What he's saying is, is children, not in a condescending
way, but in a loving way. You got any food?
Did you catch anything last night?
They said no and then notice and he said to them cast the net on
the right side of the boat and you will find some.
All right. I did a little reading about
this. It was very customary to have
the net on the left side and the reason for that is the OR for
steering was on the right side. So scholars would say that
usually because the ornith steer for the boat would be on the
right side, they always cast the net on the left side of the
boat. Is that true?
I don't know. It wasn't there, but it makes
sense. The point is they did have the
net on the left side for whatever reason.
And Jesus says take that net and cast it on the right side and
you will find it. You will find fish.
Now I got to say this. Please get this number one.
Jesus had divine power #2 Jesus had divine knowledge.
So there's a big discussion. Did Jesus create the fish or did
Jesus just know where they were? You know, my answer to that is,
who cares and why does it matter?
The bottom line is, is if they may have just been there, a
school of fish, he may have created those fish and put them
there. That would have been divine
power. They could have been there
because of natural means, but Jesus, by divine knowledge knew
that they were there. Either way, it's still the
divine power of Jesus, isn't it? Jesus?
Take that net, flip over to the other side and you'll find some.
Again, these aren't ordinary causes, ordinary occurrences.
This is the miraculous demonstration on part of Jesus.
What do they do? They cast it to the other side
and the fish were so many that they couldn't draw in the net.
Again, people that try to rationalize this event as being
nothing out of the ordinary. I like what Burton, what Kaufman
wrote about this. Now you got a picture.
All these fish in the net, you've caught nothing the night
before. Jesus just says they're on the
other side of the boat, Chuck it over there, and all of a sudden
you got so many fish you can't even pull it in.
Then Kaufman says the entire narrative here cannot be
explained at all except in a frame of reference, including
the supernatural power of Jesus. Can it be doubted that Jesus
already knew exactly where to find the apostles?
That he knew of their fruitless night's work, or that he had
built the fire and prepared food at exactly the place where Peter
would swim the shore, or that he already knew that they had
nothing to eat? How in the world could that be
ordinary? And then in verse 7, therefore
that disciple whom Jesus loved, that's John said to Peter, I
love this, it's the Lord. You know, I don't know if it's
because by now the sun kind of came out and they could see that
it was Jesus, or maybe they now hear the voice of Jesus, or
maybe they put two and two together with both those
occurrences. But John says it's the Lord.
But notice now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he
put on his outer garment, for he had removed it and plunged into
the sea. I've always got a kick out of
that. You know, we always talk about
impulsive Peter, right? How many times was Peter
impulsive in his life, even to the negative side?
When he pulls out of his sword in the Garden of Gethsemane and
he cut off Malchus's ear, all the negative stuff.
Well, here he's pretty impulsive too, except now he can't wait to
get to Jesus. But we got to back up and talk
about this just for a little bit.
OK, first of all, the new King James says, for he had removed
it. The outer garment, The old King
James says for he was naked and because of that, because of that
phraseology, he was naked. Some people think that he was
there with no shirt on. In fact, you know what?
When I was looking for pictures for my little slides here, I
found a picture of it was Peter. I didn't put it on here because
that's not what the Bible says. I'll show you why, But it had
Peter on the boat looking at Jesus with his shirt off, bear
bare Chester with his shirt off because people think for he was
naked. This is what Thayer says.
Thayer says that the phrase means he was wearing only the
undergarment. He wasn't naked.
It was referred to as naked in his mind, and we'll get to why
in just a moment. But he had only on his
undergarment. So I did a little research and I
found this. It was very common, which is
also common now in today's day and age too, that a hard working
man will often times remove his shirt and work with his T-shirt
on. How many times do people do
that? Sometimes they even got those
tank top looking T-shirts. You know those ones have a
specific name for those, right? Or AT shirt or an undergarment.
That's what the phrase actually means.
Wearing only the undergarment, when he saw Jesus now, he
evidently removed the outer garment, which would have been
in cumbersome. It was actually called a
Fisher's coat. And he removed his Fisher's coat
and he went to work. They were working there, right?
But then he saw the Lord. Please get this.
Then he saw the Lord, and he felt like he was unpresentable
in only his undershirt because that was Jesus.
So he throws it on. He throws on the outer Fisher's
coat and jumps into the water and starts swimming to Jesus.
Now verse 8. See, I told you we're going to
breeze through these getting faster.
But the other disciples came in a little boat, so they stayed in
the boat, and they were not far from land, which was about 200
cubits. How far is that?
200 cubits, by the way, is 100 yards.
Now, if you've ever swam, maybe you're a good swimmer, maybe
you're not so, so good swimmer, maybe you can't swim at all.
But 100 yards is still the length of a football field.
It's still a pretty good swim. Peter doesn't care.
He can't wait to get to Jesus. John says it's the Lord.
Peter throws on his Fisher's coat and man, that's all she
wrote. He dives in, he's going to get
to Jesus. The rest stayed on the boat.
You know why they got all those fish in the net?
So it's about 100 yards. Notice in verse at the end of
this verse, and they drug the net with fish alone.
Again, here's another miracle. The very fact that the net did
not break. Remember Luke chapter 5?
We don't have time to go into that, but Luke chapter 5, I
think it's verses one through 11.
They caught a great number of fish and what is the first thing
it says? And the net was breaking because
of the great catch. This is an enormous catch and
the net didn't break. Let's look at these miracles.
Jesus knew where the fish were. He told them where to get the
fish. He said drag the fish.
All those fish are in there. We're going to find out how many
in just a moment. All those fish are in there.
They're being drug along. And it's, by the way, if you
ever drug anything in the water, it's heavier than the actual
weight of what's in the net. If it was on dry land, it gets
heavier and heavier and heavier as you drag it through the
water. And yet the Bible makes it clear
they drugged the net, and it did not break.
Verse 9. Then as soon as they had come to
land, they saw a fire of coals and a fish laid on it and bred.
Westcott said this. The very manner in which the
charcoal fire and the fish and bread upon it are presented here
suggests that they were provided supernaturally.
All of it was supernatural. All of it was a miracle.
Then verse 10 when Jesus said to them, bring some of the fish
which you have caught. Why did Jesus do that?
You ever stop to consider that Jesus always makes us do or the
Lord always requires us to do our part?
I don't know what it's like in your life, but I know this.
Every good and perfect gift is from above.
So if you've been blessed monetarily, even by the way,
even people that are anti God, the Bible says the sun shines on
the good and the bad, on the just and the unjust.
In other words, there's a lot of people that don't believe in
Jesus, but they're blessed monetarily.
Sometimes we think that's not fair.
I'm struggling. Anyway, my point is this, if
you've been blessed, it's because you've been blessed by
God. God always does His part, but
God always requires that man does his part.
In fact, if you ever stop to consider we can't do God's part,
but he won't do ours. So God blesses us.
He does the blessing, we do the working.
I don't think this is an accident.
I think this is a perfect picture of exactly what all the
Lord had ever taught in the New Testament when He had His
three-year personal ministry. He told them, do your part,
bring the fish that you caught. One more thing about this, just
by waving an example. Just one more thing.
Do you know when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead?
This just kind of proved my point.
When Jesus in John Chapter 11 raised Lazarus from the dead,
Jesus miraculously raised him from the dead, right?
We all know that He planned to raise him from the dead.
He miraculously raised him from the dead, and he did so by
speaking words. Lazarus come forth, right?
But do you remember what happened right before that?
What did Jesus do? He told them, take away the
stone. God wants us to do our part.
God wants us to go to work every day.
God wants us to be responsible. God wants us to do what we can
so he will do what he will. And the same was true with this.
There was already fish on this on the shore.
Jesus provided it. There was bread on the shore.
Jesus provided it. All miraculous.
I don't think Jesus went fishing early that morning.
I think he just miraculously provided it.
But then he told them, do your part, notice, please.
And then Simon Peter went and dragged the net to the land full
of large fish. How many?
153. And although there were so many,
the net was not broken again. Again, a miracle.
You know, these Nets were woven from hemp or flax.
So if you put 153 fish in that thing and you drag it in water,
it's going to break. And it did that too.
It busted a little bit. And Luke and Luke's account that
we already read, and Luke's another whole nother story, but
not here. That was a miracle.
Now, I got to tell you, I did a little research about 153, and
it's amazing how many people make a big deal about the number
153. Let me just share with you a
couple of things. Why was it 153?
Some scholars say this. The number 153 is a triangular
number with a base of 17. So in other words, it's a number
formed by adding all the cardinal numbers consecutively
from 1 to 17, thus making it a perfect number.
Some suggest that was the significance, others suggest
there's no significance at all with the number of fish any more
than the six water pots in Cana when Jesus turned water into
wine and he says take those six pots and fill them with water
and then he turned them into wine.
Some say that the number 153 is no more significant as it's not
significant that Peter swam 100 yards to shore to meet Jesus.
Whether this 153 is a complete number and that's why it's found
in the scriptures or not, to me is irrelevant.
Let me tell you what is relevant.
Don't you think 153 is pretty specific?
It doesn't say and they caught a bunch of fish or they caught a
great number or a whole mess of them.
It says 153, not one 5153. I think the significance is
this. It proves the miracle that Jesus
did was specific. It also gave the disciples
something very specific to give first hand testimony of that
event later on. It was 153 fish exact.
It just adds credibility to the miracle and then the fact that
it was miraculous and it was divine and it did come from
Jesus. In fact, once Kauffman said
this, the big point of such details proves that not only was
this miracle by Jesus, but also the disciples had eyewitness
testimony to these very specific facts.
Now then Jesus said to them, come and eat breakfast.
Yet none of the disciples asked. Baird asked him, who are you
knowing it was the Lord? You know, I've tried to wrap my
mind around this a little bit, but maybe in their mind they
wanted to be sure. So that's why it says that they
dared, that they none dared ask him.
So there was a little bit of fear that there they wanted to
ask him. Is this really you?
I don't know if it was because of a, of a hint of disbelief or
maybe they had some doubts and they wanted to be certain.
But here's the whole point. Nobody asked him because the
evidence was clear. It was Jesus, it was Jesus, and
then in verses 13 and 14, Jesus then came and took the bread and
gave it to them, and likewise the fish.
Notice this is the third time Jesus showed himself to his
disciples after he was raised from the dead.
But it was the 7th overall appearance that the Lord made
OK, three times before the 10 on the day of the resurrection, the
night of the resurrection, one week later before the disciples
and Thomas was their present. And now this was the third time.
All right, now we've laid the foundation for the narrative on
the Sea of Galilee. Next time we're going to
continue with what happened after breakfast.
And that was when Jesus restored Peter.
Now I'm going to say this, and I'm finished.
The next time I preach is Labor Day Sunday, and because of the
California Labor Day meeting, the church meeting up north
where quite a few of our members will be, I'm going to preach
something different that day. And then the following Sunday,
the 1st Sunday in September, I'm going to keep up.
I'm going to take over or pick up where we left off here and
talk about when Jesus restored Peter.
That's the narrative that leads to that.
Remember, everything that happened was divine.
Nothing happened by happenstance or circumstance or coincidence.
It was purposeful, it was divine.
It was done by the Lord and gave the disciples something very
specific. Remember, we're going to get
into the significance of the 40 days.
These things had to happen as they built their faith and
increased their faith as they move forward because you know
what's going to happen after Jesus ascends to his Father in
Acts chapter one, They got to stay behind and they got to take
the gospel of Christ to the world.
That's the lesson this morning. Thank you so much for your kind
listening and for your attention.
I said in the introduction, I said when a person wants Jesus
in their life, you have to invite him in.
Jesus says, behold, I stand at the door and knock, but the
doorknob is on your side. He's at the door, he's knocking,
but you have to open it on your side, and that's your heart.
This is how you do it. How do you open up the door and
let the Lord in? The Bible says this, and we
always extend an invitation to somebody that might be subject
to that gospel call. The first thing we do.
You got to hear the word of God. Remember those on the road to
Emmaus. It was the Word of God that
produced faith in their heart, not the experience.
Romans 10/17 So then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the
word of God. After you hear the word of God,
everybody's got a choice to make.
Am I going to believe it or am I not going to believe it?
You got to believe with all your heart.
It says Hebrews 11 and 6. Without faith it's impossible to
please him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and
that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
But then guess what? I got to do something in my
life. I can't just keep living the way
I've lived. I got to change.
It's called repentance. I got to repent of my sins.
Acts 17 and 30. Truly these times of ignorance
God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent.
All that means is I've been going in that direction.
I want to make an about face. I want to follow Jesus.
Not going to be perfect, going to mess up.
I want to change the direction of my life.
That's what I want to do. Then what I got to be willing to
confess Jesus Christ as the Son of God.
Acts 837 Then Philip said, if you believe with all your heart,
you may. And he answered and said, I
believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
All of these steps lead toward or point toward the point of
salvation. But the point of salvation is
being baptized for the remission of sins.
Mark 1616. He who believes and is baptized
will be saved. He who does not believe will be
condemned. Is it necessary?
Is baptism necessary? First Peter 321 The like figure
where the even baptism does also now save us.
Not the putting away the filth of the flesh, but the answer of
a good conscience toward God by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ. If you've never taken those
steps of obedience to become a child of God, we would love to
assist you in that today if you would.
Maybe you have, but maybe there are things in your life that are
not what they should be. Maybe you just been away from
the Lord. OK, fix it, repent of it,
confess those things. We'll pray with you and for you,
and God will forgive and restore.
If you want to be the class, come forward while we stand and
while we stand.