Title: The Kingdom’s net has been cast!
Text: John 21:1-14
Facebook live: The Kingdom’s net has been cast!
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.
Life easily slips into a routine. It seems endless – waking, working, eating, and drinking. Listening, and talking. We do what we do, day after day. Each day, feeling much like the previous one, and for the disciples too, the routine continued.
Left to the routine of life that continued for them after Jesus’ death and resurrection, it must have seemed like ordinary business to get into their boat and go back to fishing.
Out into the deep they launch the boat to begin the familiar task.
Fisherman go fishing but they didn't catch anything.
Not a single fish.
Wow, not a pleasant outcome for fishermen.
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.”
They were probably thinking:
We toiled all night and took nothing.
Then into the ordinary circumstances of their life, Jesus came, just as day was breaking. He's the same Lord today, doing extraordinary things in our ordinary lives - and causing the kingdom that has been cast to come into our lives too.
Jesus shows how extraordinary he is by taking interest in all that we do.
The disciples didn't have to be in the temple, or in the holy city of Jerusalem, or doing religious things for Jesus to take interest in them.
They were doing what they normally do.
The disciples were far from the pillars of the religious life. In the times of their normal lives Jesus had called them to follow him, and for 3 years of Jesus’ earthly ministry they had walked, talked, followed and lived with Jesus as he taught them the blessings of the Kingdom.
But now, after all that had happened, they were back to life as usual.
It is sometimes hard for us to realize that Jesus is interested in our lives wherever we are.
We're usually conscious of God’s presence when we're in church.
We're nearly as conscious of his presence when we take trips, and pray for safe travel or need to have tests done at the hospital. But Jesus often seems far removed from our activities and the things that we do, whether at work or play.
Whether we're hunting in the woods or playing golf, sitting and reading, or doing work around our homes or watching the game.
We thing little of him.
Jesus says he's always with us, and it didn’t matter to Jesus that the disciples were not engaged in formal worship and probably not even in religious discussions.
They had work to do. They needed it to survive. The scriptures remind us that if you don’t work you don’t eat.
Jesus was interested in everything about his children and wanted to know how they were doing.
5 Jesus said to them, “Children, do you have any fish?” They answered him, “No.”
Jesus is interested in your activities, and he wants to know how you are doing too.
What's happening in your life? Is there any successes or failures that he can be part off or help you overcome the trials?
There have been times when we've had to say Lord. I haven't been doing very well.
We've come to a point of feeling completely abandoned at times by God. We may not like the circumstances were in, but at times that's where we find ourselves - and sometimes Christ needs to be there too.
He needs to shoulder our problems to help us. Through those difficult times he takes interest because he's a wonderful and extraordinary Lord who wants to know how our ordinary lives are going.
He wants to be part of your life and mine.
The disciple's greatest need was to be sustained in their relationship with God – good or bad.
They needed the assurance that their slowness to believe everything Jesus had told them as well as the cowardly behavior they showed at the time of his death would not cut them away from God mercy, grace and love.
They needed forgiveness. They needed Jesus's death and resurrection to comfort and guarantee them that and his resurrection and peace were real.
And that that he did was for them.
Christ’s peace was real.
The disciple’s relationship with God would be sustained by the means of his forgiveness.
No doubt about it. Jesus was their savior, and their God.
We need that same hope, forgiveness, and relationship with God as well.
We need a sustained relationship with Jesus., knowing that our sins are forgiven and that Jesus is with us always. But also, we need to live in that relationship with Jesus daily - good, bad or simple and boring as it may be.
Our forgiveness of sins was sealed for us in baptism, and it is continually part of who we are.
Though sinners in this life, God reminds us by his Spirit, that Christ has redeemed us by his death and resurrection and that in Christ we have peace with God.
God's blessing is continuously given to us in the gospel. By the forgiveness of sins, we have the favor of God on account of Christ and that great comfort is ours because we have a great relationship with our loving God.
A second basic need is to keep us sustained in this life physically.
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.
Jesus provides abundantly for the disciples though tired and hungry after a long night's work. Our blessed Lord Jesus even prepared a meal for them.
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.
The fire was going with fish and bread nearby.
It wasn't a fancy meal but it met their need.
What a blessed Lord he is.
He provides not only spiritual but physical food. And he sustains our faith and our bodies because we are his beloved children.
Some of you who are older can remember those difficult times in life.
My former boss, Ben, used to always tell me about growing up in the depression and how, even as a successful businessman, he would still drive by a gas station to save a few cents a gallon.
It's just part of who we are.
Do not take what we're blessed with for granted.
God also tells us through the apostle Paul, in Philippines 4:19.
19 And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
So how do we respond to God’s provision?
While we serve honor and obey him, we keep him close to our hearts.
As we continue to live our daily lives. We gather together to hear his word and to receive his gifts, especially in the blessing of the supper, where he sustains our faith and continues to bless us.
We give him all the credit that is, due to him, the one who has come to live, suffer, die and rise again just for us.
As the disciples say, “It is the. Lord.”
We notice all his activity in our lives.
We pray that he will continue sustaining blessings.
He's blessed me and I know he's blessed you far beyond our deserving.
He's crowned all our efforts with his grace.
Life does not consist in success and at times things don't go right, we fail and fall short. And it's my prayer, as it is I know yours, that we would turn to him and ask his blessing of his comfort guidance and peace.
Jesus is intimately involved in our ordinary lives.
Where he continues to sustain you and me as his beloved children, so that we always look to him for our sustenance in time of need.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit!
Amen
Modified Concordia Pulpit Rev. Henry Eggold c 1976
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