After this Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias, and he revealed himself in this way. 2 Simon Peter, Thomas (called the Twin), Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together. 3 Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.” They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. 4 Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. 5 Jesus said to them, “Children, do you have any fish?” They answered him, “No.” 6 He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, because of the quantity of fish.7 That disciple whom Jesus loved therefore said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment, for he was stripped for work, and threw himself into the sea.8 The other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, but about a hundred yards off. 9 When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire in place, with fish laid out on it, and bread. 10 Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.” 11 So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, 153 of them. And although there were so many, the net was not torn. 12 Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” Now none of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. 13 Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and so with the fish. 14 This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.
Over the next couple of mornings, in the context of the miraculous catch of fish, I want to draw four vignettes. But none of these are what we might call easy. They are not what folks want if they are seeking an undemanding Christian life or if they want Jesus on their own terms instead of His.
But first let me tell you WHY they are not easy.
There are many faithful churches over this land of ours that seek to make much of what God has said, who want to cut no corners, wanting the full counsel of God to be heard and to truly live in the joy of Jesus.
We seek to be that kind of church and although we are far from perfect, the Lord knows that is our heart, to throw caution to the wind, that we might be found pleasing to the resurrected Savior, as the apostle puts it, to live so as to not be ashamed at his coming.
What often happens is that when trying to correct, when trying to get back to what the Bible says, we find that at certain points we are so far away from biblical faithfulness that it, biblical faithfulness, actually looks odd, even extreme…biblical faithfulness requires in these areas that we admit, we have had it wrong, dead wrong, and although it might seem and feel odd to make a break with what we have always known, or what we have always thought, it is precisely what we need to do, and many are simple unwilling.
For example: If we were to set out what the bible actually says about sexual purity, sexual identity and the evil of calling sexual sin by anything other than what God calls it… it would sound so foreign to many professing Christians, that they would dismiss it or worse attack us for our insensitivity.
*If we were to speak of the true place the husband and father are to play in the spiritual lives of those under his care…again, it would, to many, sound crazy…but it would be God’s way.
*Or if we were to talk about nothing but what the Christian life looks like in imitation of Jesus, or what our responsibilities are to justice and mercy, or what the missionary enterprise is really to be about…or what ministers, again, according to the Bible are really to be doing…
All of these and many other things as they are being taught and practiced in our day, are far from what the Bible says they should be. We have on many occasions settled on what we want those things to mean, not what Jesus says they mean.
We want the church, we want as Christians to be full, to be spiritually prosperous, to know the Lord’s presence, to know His blessing, to see the power of the gospel in our lives, in the lives of our children, and in every place we go and everything we touch. Jesus deserves, well, he demands, no less.
Vignette #1 and #2 I am going to combine: Thomas and the Purpose of the Lord’s Day.
As I have mentioned on a number of occasions: Thomas gets a bad rap. Thomas’ unique problem was not his doubt, sinful as it was, the other disciples were no different; they doubted and they feared as well, after all they were locked away in a room shaking in their sandals. They were not beaming with confidence and great faith, any more or less, than Thomas, and yet Thomas is forever known as…doubting Thomas.
Thomas’ unique problem was that he was not with the gathered saints of God to meet the risen Christ. He was not where he should have been and he missed it…and his life, his lack of faith, evidenced the fact that he had not been where the others had been, in the presence of the living Christ at Christ’s appointed gathering, continued.
His doubt was not squelched, and was not put to death. His faith was not encouraged. His fear was not put to rest. And why? Because he was not in the presence of the risen Savior that he might be assured and given courage and faith, to bask in the victory and glory of God.
He had to wait one week, didn’t he? He had to wait until the next Sunday, the next time the Risen Jesus meets with his church. The Lord Jesus has ordained the day of light, the Christian Sabbath and there is nothing you do more important or more necessary to your living than this?
I am convinced that in Thomas we get a condensed picture of what happens when someone, who professes faith, ignores the Lord’s Day, or stays away. This picture is compressed for us over a one-week period of time in Thomas’ life, but our experience will be the same, perhaps a bit more spread out, if we neglect meeting with the risen Savior.
What I want us to grasp is that Jesus pronounces His peace upon a gathered company, a company representative of his church particularly gathered in the Christian Sabbath context, the first Christian Sabbath.
The Lord’s Day brings to bear the realities of the new creation, it brings the realities of what the church is to experience in relation to the work of God in Christ Jesus. Think of this: In the OT the Sabbath was kept from sun down until sun down. This is in reflection of what we read in Genesis, chapter one, about creation and how the days were counted, have you ever thought about that?
How it is that in Genesis we do not read it was morning and evening, but rather, we read that it was evening and morning, the first day…evening and morning the second day.
In the OT Sabbath, following that creation pattern, as the Sabbath is said to do in Exodus 20, we move from darkness, evening, to light, morning, almost as if there is in the old economy, the expectation of light coming. But the new Sabbath, the new creation, coming in Christ’s victory begins with the breaking of light, 21:4, and is marked by the pattern of Christ meeting with his own, morning and evening.
The pattern is set and set by the risen Jesus. The focus is there, at the beginning, in meeting with the risen Jesus, on the Sabbath day. To miss worship, to miss the appointed fellowship with Jesus, is to miss Jesus Himself.
To put aside the Sabbath day, to say good-by to the Sabbath, to stay home, or go out to do other things, or whatever it is that has more importance at the moment…which sadly so many are doing is to miss:
*Jesus’ ordained gathering wherein He meets with His other worldly people.
*It is to miss gathering before the face of the Savior, in the heavenly places.
*It is to miss the appointed way of God to hear the voice of Jesus speak to you.
*It is to miss the nourishment that God says is to our faith, in and through the sacraments.
*It is to miss the supernatural empowering of heaven to live faithfully in our calling in this present evil age.
This experience is so focused on the new pattern, that if you are not at the appointed place on the appointed day, then you miss meeting with the Risen Christ in this heavenly ordained way.
To be continued…
Prayer: Gracious Father, set a guard over my soul and help me to value what You value. Help me to be circumspect over my heart and its thoughts that I might prize what You prize and see Your gifts as being displays of Your love for me. Do Your sanctifying work that I would call the Christian Sabbath a delight and I would be pleasing to you and edifying to my brothers and sisters in Christ. In Jesus name, Amen.
Hymn: I Need Thee Every Hour