Breakfast on the Beach
Dec 8, 2019 2019-12-08 Ben Hoyer John 21An Advent message on the resurrected Jesus in John 21, where he makes breakfast for his disciples on the beach and restores Peter, illustrating Jesus' deeply personal, reciprocal love and the hope of a world to come.
Read transcript
Auto-generated from the audio — may contain errors.
Well, good morning. Glad you all made it this morning. I don't know what you had to go through to get here. Sometimes Sundays are more work than you want them to be, but I'm glad that you made it. And we started last week on this, um, this season of Advent, um, which has been kind of an evolving tradition over the history of our people, the church,
um, with pieces added on, um, in different generations. But this notion of taking the four weeks leading up to the celebration of the incarnation, uh, is like a season of preparation. In the little corner of the church that we come out of, the church here starts with the first Sunday of Advent. And then for four weeks, you prepare to celebrate the incarnation. And the way that you prepare to celebrate the incarnation is you take stock of the
fact that because Christ came once, it means that He'll come again. And you begin to ask yourself, uh, through the season of Advent, what does it mean for me that the Christ will come again? That's why we have this purple color here, because purple is the church or the liturgical color for kind of penit, penitence and reflection. It's a time to look at you in at yourself with honest appraisal.
When you have the, the color of purple is the liturgical color of the church, you know it's a season of penitence and reflection. And historically Advent has been that. It's been a season to prepare for the, for the return of Christ because He came once, it means that He'll come again. And last week we were looking at this story of Jesus, the idea of his return to me begins thinking about
the world to come. And, and so I was looking at the stories of Jesus in his resurrected body. The idea that Christ, the life that Christ inaugurates in the world continues beyond the grave. And the first thing that stuck out to me and it sticks out to me every time I look at these stories is the reality that Jesus in his resurrected body still carried the marks of the cross.
That when He's in His body that will endure forever, sitting upon a throne, the king of the city, of the, the king of all kings who will inaugurate a reign that never ends, like the Christmas texts tell us, He carries the marks of the body that walked around here, the marks of the cross. And, and it, it got me thinking that, that there are aspects of who we are becoming today
that will endure beyond the grave. That you now are becoming the person that you will be forever. And there are things you are doing. Jesus in His resurrected body comes back to friendships that He began while He was here the first time. And He commissioned them back onto work that He began
on this side of the grave. That work, those friendships continue on the next side. That means in addition to now becoming a person who will endure forever, that you are becoming someone that you will be forever. Right now you're also caught up in work and friendships that will endure beyond the grave. And this question came to me out of last week where am I spending my time? When am I spending my time in things that will endure beyond the grave?
Where am I putting myself? What work am I doing that will endure beyond the grave? And in what ways am I becoming someone that will endure beyond the grave? What are my marks of the cross? What are my friendships? What is my work? And that's what we started to write down here was some things, last week we wrote down some things about who we're becoming or work that we're doing that will endure past the grave.
And so breaking down walls and building bridges, I put coffee up there because I spend a lot of time on coffee, but I think we'll have coffee on the other side of the grave. We're not just about peace making, yearning for justice, building community, gratefulness. I think we'll still be building community. I think we'll still be learning how to be friends in the world to come. And I think that that is work we can start now and continue beyond.
So last week we were thinking about this hope that the world that's coming is being built now inside of us and around us. And we are partaking and becoming something that will endure beyond the grave. I want to look at another aspect of that world to come. And I want to go there to John 21. There's another story of Jesus on the other side of the grave. John is one of the accounts of the life of Jesus. It's in your New Testament.
So it's in the back like quarter to an eighth of your copy of the Scriptures. And it goes Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans 1 and 2 Corinthians. And we want John 21. John is the only one that records this story. And it might be because the end of this chapter has some specific information about John. Some people think that John was the disciple of Jesus of those 12.
That John was the one that lived the longest. Some people think that. You know, the church tradition tells us that each one of Jesus' 11, besides Judas who took his own life, the rest of the 11 were all martyred. But they also tell us that John was like sentenced to this island and had his eyes plucked out in persecution so that he lived the longest. And we're pretty sure that this gospel account of his time with Jesus was the last thing he wrote.
He wrote several letters which are also made it into the canon. But we're pretty sure that this account of his time with Jesus was the very last thing he wrote. And it's interesting when you put that lens on it, that the old man John remembering and writing down the stories of his time with Jesus before he leaves for the church, spread throughout Asia Minor and the Roman Empire, that he records some stories that other folks don't record.
And he, in chapter 20, starts with the resurrection of Jesus and then Jesus appearing to Mary Magdalene and then to the disciples. And he remembers that in addition to discovering the tomb, the women were the first to encounter the resurrected body of Jesus and they came back and told the disciples. And then of course the famous story about Thomas not being there. And so he was like, dude, I don't believe you until I see it. I won't believe it. That it's actually him. And so then Jesus appears to them again in the upper room and this time Thomas is there.
And then look at, right at the end of chapter 20 in John where it has verse 30. And this is really interesting. John is writing to the reader and he says, now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book. Meaning Jesus did a bunch of other stuff. He's wanting to impress upon his readers. He's writing specifically then. A lot of people think that there was a dominant theory in the first century that if John wrote around 90 AD,
there was a dominant theory happening in the world that spirit was good and flesh was bad. And there were some notions about what implications that had for the person of Jesus, whether or not he was real, whether the incarnation was real, whether he was in flesh and embodied in a person. And then this had ramifications for what happens in the resurrection. And so John's very careful to say, hey, he ate food. He said specifically to us, he was not an apparition.
Come and put your hands in the wounds and feel and see that I'm a real person. And so then he goes on. He wants, he's here to know that there is a resurrection. That there is a world to come. And so he says, look, I told you this story about us, first the women and then us and then Thomas, but Jesus did a bunch of other proofs to us. You're going to have to take my word for it. And I can't wait.
Like, I wonder what John's resurrected body looks like if he gets his eyes back in his resurrected body. If he comes back as an old man. But I love trying to imagine sitting at the feet of old John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, as he tells stories about what it was like to walk around with Jesus of Nazareth. When you read John's letters, he's always calling everyone little children
because you get the perception that he's older than everybody else. And he keeps coming back to this notion in his letters, little children, won't you just love one another? More than anyone else, any other writer in our canon, John boils the message of Jesus down to genuine, selfless love for one another. He goes as far as saying, you cannot be in relationship with Jesus and hate your brother. Those two things do not go together.
That the way of Jesus is a position of love. Anyway, so I love the idea and I want to invite you to imagine with me, old John, having just told the whole story of his memories, of his walk for three years with the man Jesus of Nazareth. And then he says, he did a bunch of other things. I don't have the time to tell you all of them right now. But then he says, but these are written in verse 31 so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, right? The Greek word for Messiah, the delivering and liberating King.
Jesus is the King, the Son of God, that by believing you may have life in his name. John is very clear that when we are able to... belief is deeper than intellectual assent because at times your brain will talk you out of something that you believe very deeply and firmly. So belief is deeper than intellectual assent.
He's inviting us to believe with our life and action, with the rhythms of how we live, that Jesus of Nazareth is the liberating King, the King of all kings, the one who sets order and provision and protection, the one who defines the scope of reality that we live in. He says, when you are able to, deeper than intellectual assent, believe with the rhythms of your life that Jesus of Nazareth is the King that defines the world that we live in,
you will have life under his reign. And I have written the story of Jesus and this story to come in order that you might enter into that sort of living. Then by believing you may have life in his name. Okay. Chapter 21. I read this... I got really... hopefully this is like kind of joyful for you right here. So they just encountered the risen Christ with the marks of the cross, right, in his hands.
They just had a meal with him. They're in Jerusalem in the upper room. How's that? Okay. I won't backtrack. Sorry if you missed it. Beverly. So they're all together after this like fulcrum point of humanity. Simon Peter, Thomas, Nathaniel, of Canaan, and Son's Esebide, and two others of his disciples were together. First three.
And Simon Peter said to them, this is who I love. I'm going fishing. What do you do after like you see the risen Christ? Sometimes you just gotta go fishing. I do not like fishing. I like... I don't understand. I mean I get the idea of it, but in reality I'm just like bored. Like super bored.
I don't... Yeah. I mean I don't know what that says about me. Probably something. But I love that these guys were fishermen remember? Especially Peter. Like that's where he met Jesus, right? And the twins. They were actually in the boat with their dad when they met Jesus, right? He calls him out the boat. And they all lived around that lake.
I love that Jesus comes to see them, resurrected body, changes the course of human history, and then they're looking around at each other, and it's not like, okay now what we do is we go sit under the tree because this world doesn't matter anymore. Right? It's not that. It's... you know what I really love? I don't know what we're doing next, but let's just go fishing for a minute.
And that that story is in your scriptures. Your sacred and holy text. This isn't like something they did on the side that's not holy enough to mention. This is the holy stuff. That the reality of the resurrected Jesus liberates you in a way. You know what man, let's just go fishing and everything else will sort itself out. Like the point of the resurrection is that you might live.
There's not like holy work that now you have to do. And then you've got to eat Jesus and his resurrected body has to eat. You're building friendships that will endure, continue to work on them, like go out. And I love that after the upper room, like the moment where Jesus reveals himself and they put their hands and the next thing they do is they go fish together in the lake. I mean that's great. Okay.
Simon Peter, they... I'm going fishing. And they said to him, okay yeah we'll go with you. That sounds great. Let's go fishing. It's so good. They went out and got to the boat and that night they caught nothing. I don't know, like I said, I'm not a fisherman. I guess you fish through the night. So they went out after they ate the meal and it takes them a while to get up to the Sea of Galilee. It's the Sea of Tiberias here.
And then they get out in a boat and they're like doing the net casting, fishing and like dragging it I think. And they go through the night and they're not catching anything, which for me would be normal, but for Peter's probably not normal. He's like supposed to catch fish. He's a professional, right? And just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore. And his disciples didn't know that it was Jesus. I think this is really cool and I can't get into the mind of Jesus.
But I imagine he's got a lot of important things happening. He is the King of all the kings, right? He's got this enfelished body that will endure forever. He's getting ready to dispatch the Holy Spirit upon people like never before. I don't know how you prepare for that, but I imagine there's some preparation work that happens. But the disciples are fishing through the night and Jesus goes down and stands on the shore to check on him.
And just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore, a side note. Really good things happen early in the morning in the story of scriptures. I don't tend to be an early morning person, but if you see early in the morning in the story of scriptures, something good is about to happen. Early in the morning the red sea drops on the Egyptians. Early in the morning Jesus goes to pray by himself on more than one occasion. Early in the morning the women go to the tomb. Whenever you see early in the morning in the story of scriptures, something good is about to happen.
So it was just that day break. Jesus comes down and stands on the sea of Galilee. And he says to them, children must not have been a cut. It must have been a normal thing because he was older than them. They could see children. If you have any fish, and they said no, thanks for pointing it out. And he said to them, okay man, cast on the other on the, cast on that on the right side of the boat and you'll find some.
So they cast it. John is kind. He's trying to get to the point here and not giving him us the play by play. I don't know if that's like a normal thing for you to get like backseat driver advice from the guy standing on the edge of the lake on how to catch the fish, right? But Jesus does that from the side and they don't know yet who he is. And so they humor him and throw on the other side. I imagine they've been fishing on both sides of the boat. It's not like they only fished on the other side. And so there's a little bit of like playfulness in Jesus here, right?
Like if he just wants to see his buddies, he's like, hey guys, I'm over here. When you get done, come on over. But he's like, he's messing with them. Resurrected Jesus. King of Kings is like playing with the guys. That's cool. Like he's having, we're all having fun here.
Isn't that great? Jesus in his resurrected body has inaugurated a reign that will never end. He's the embodiment of life that goes beyond the grave. He's undone the great evil of the world that spun into existence, the fatal flaw of humanity. He's pushed back our unwillingness to let him be God in order to create in us the capacity to let him be God. I mean, significant things of mortal consequence are happening in the moment and in eternity.
And Jesus is like playing with his buddies on the side of the lake. I want you to see that there is deep, like not holy church love, not robot love, very personal. And reciprocal love happening in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, who's ascended and become the Christ for all eternity. There is deep, personal, reciprocal love in the person of Jesus for his friends.
And you are his friends. Jesus has deep, personal, reciprocal love for you. He spun eternity into existence, rescued us with the cross so that it would not continue without us in order that he could play with us, like mess with us.
Like, can he throw your net on the other side? He doesn't even tell him who it is. Just throw your net on the other side, right? The disciple, wait, so they cast it, so they cast it. And now they were not able to haul it in because of the quantity of fish. And that disciple whom Jesus loved, therefore said to Peter, I've said this a bunch, but John never refers to himself by name when he's writing this story. He always refers to himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved. And for most of my life, I thought that arrogant dude, like there's eleven other guys, and this is the one that Jesus loved.
And it does seem like Jesus had a special relationship with John, but since I've gotten older, I've decided, I've given John some more credit that he's not being arrogant, that he is overwhelmed by the reality that Jesus loves him. And so it's become his key identity that even more than who he is, John, he is John loved by Jesus. So the disciple whom Jesus loved, they catch all these fish, and that disciple whom Jesus loved, therefore said to Peter, whoa, Peter is the Lord.
As soon as they got all these fish, he goes, Peter, that's the Lord over there. He came back. And when Simon Peter heard it that it was said, he put on his outer garment for he was stripped of the work and threw himself into the sea. And the other disciples came in the boat digging the net full of fish. Peter didn't wait, put on his jacket, ran, right, out to him. And then you go down, and when they got in the land, they saw that a charcoal fire in place with fish laid out on it and bred.
Y'all, Jesus made them breakfast. A charcoal fire, I have a charcoal grill in my backyard, you got to work on that for a minute to get it hot. And he went and got bread. It's not from Publix, he found a baker somewhere and brought some bread for them. And got it all set up. And then once he had it set up, he messed with them.
Hey guys, have you got any fish yet? Okay, cool. Why don't you try to throw your net? And then Peter comes running in and he's got it ready for them. Like a campfire breakfast with Jesus by the Sea of Galilee? That sounds fantastic. Right? Can you feel the warmth of the moment? Jesus does not have to do this. His job is done. I think he wants to.
I think he just wanted to have a little campfire breakfast with the boys. I think he loves these guys. He goes on, because he knows Peter's broke up. And let's see. They count the number of fish. John remembers how many fish they caught. And he tells you, 153. And although there were so many, the net was not torn. Coming for breakfast.
And none of them asked because they knew it was him. And this was the third time Jesus revealed to his disciples after he was raised from the dead. John is kind of making note of it for us so that he can't be disputed. And then verse 15, I think also the 153 is like, hey man, I'm not making this up. There's a specific number. And when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?
And he goes on and asks him three times, right? Hey Peter, do you love me? And Peter says, yeah man, I love you. And he says, cool, cool. Then what does he say? 10 my sheep or feed my lambs. Jesus said to him a second time, hey Simon, son of John, do you love me? Yeah, Lord, you know I love you. Cool, 10 my sheep. And instead of third time, Simon, son of John, do you love me? Peter was grieved because he had said to him, this is the third time, do you love me? And he said, Lord, do you know everything? He know that I love you. Jesus said to him, they're cool, then feed my sheep.
There's a couple things I love about this. I mean, we could speculate on why Jesus asks him three times and a lot of people have. But I love that he gives Peter the opportunity to say back to him. Though he's denied him three times, he gives him the opportunity to say so that as Peter gets old and begins to wonder and remember how much Jesus obviously loves him. And begins to wonder, does Jesus know that he doesn't have to worry,
he gives Peter the opportunity to say it back to him three times? See, I told him three times. He must know that I love him. And then he also, I love this, gives Peter some work to do. I think that's great. I love that we still get work to do. I think it's fantastic. And I want you to see with me, because this, and go to second Peter, Peter does the job.
So if you go to the right, second Peter's kind of tricky to find. So if you go to your right, it's because it's not really big. If you get to the three Johns, you've gone too far, go back to the left. You got to get through all the Paul letters and through James. So Hebrew, James, and then the Peters, the two Peters. And this is Peter tending the sheep. He gives that after Jesus ascends, they watch him ascend,
then they go back into Jerusalem and they get the Holy Spirit, and then Peter preaches that ax and thousands as if people are converted. And then he becomes kind of like one of the key leaders in that first century church, like the guy that approves where things are going, that reaches out and he's like, he and Paul are kind of working it out together, the oversight of the church. And he has this dream where now we can see that the way of Jesus is for the Gentiles, not just the Jews.
And in chapter three of second Peter, he starts to do his job. I mean, it's evidence of him doing his job that's appropriate for us in Advent. This is now the second letter that I'm writing to you beloved. In both of them, I'm stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder that you should remember the predictions of the Holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, knowing first of all that the scoffers will come in the last days, scoffing, following their own sinful desires, they will say, where is the promise of his coming?
Forever, since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation. For they deliberately overlooked this fact that the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of the water, through the water by the Word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluge with water and parish. But by the same word, the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.
But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, with the Lord, one day is a thousand years and a thousand years are as one day, he's saying, don't forget the further we get from the ascension of Jesus that our people have always said, this world is not good enough for us and another one is coming. Peter, as he continues the commission that Jesus gives him on that beach at the Sea of Galilee is reminded people, don't forget that he says, this world is not good enough
and there's another one coming, verse 9, the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some counsel onus, but he is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. He is looking for the little campfire breakfast with all the people.
And he is looking for that with you. This notion that God loves me because he wants to is real fuel for my life. The idea that the King of all kings loves me because he wants to encourages me to spend my time on the things that will endure.
It is the energy and fuel for me to become the person who will endure. And it's evidenced in little ways. I can see that God loves me sometimes in the family, in my home, in the way that the family looks at me, the way that the children look at me or the wife responds to me. I can see that God loves me in times of exploration, like just adventure.
I can see that God loves me at times in like when work returns exactly as I dreamed it would. When the outcome of my effort is exactly what I dreamed it would be, I can feel that God has affirmed my existence, loves me deeply, and encourages me to spend time on things that will endure today as we move into a time of worship. I'd love for us to put on these little strips of purple ways that we know that God loves us today.
Let me pray. Hey Lord, thank you for your honest and reciprocal love toward us. Open our eyes, ears, and hearts to your message of love to us that it would call us towards you, towards the things that endure, towards preparation for your return. We love you Lord, love us today.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.