How can we practice an ancient faith in a postmodern world? In John 21, I see how Jesus is bridging this gap between what we say and how we feel. The more pastoral side of Jesus is coming through here in the commissioning that He gives His disciples and in particular, Peter. Jesus appeals to the emotions of Peter as He gives him his calling. It wasn’t a calling that he was supposed to think about, it was something Jesus wanted him to feel.
The beginning of the modern era began with Rene Decartes’ famous saying, “I think, therefore I am”. However, it is not so for many of us today. Now, more than ever, people are saying, “I feel, therefore I am.” So, can we feel our way to God? The answer I believe is yes because His Word tells us to seek Him with all of our heart and when we do that we will find Him! Jeremiah 29:13 The more important question we need to answer is this, “How can we feel our way to God and what does that look like?”
Doing What We Know Best…v1-5
I think it is interesting to note that 7 of the 12 disciples were fisherman by trade. They were professionals and yet there is something that speaks to their vocation because it required diligence, courage and dedication which are all qualities that Jesus was looking for. Fisherman are also known to stick with it and not quit easily, but it looks pretty obvious here that they were quitting on Jesus.
Following Jesus’ death, the disciples were left floundering and went back to what they knew best – they went fishing. When we doubt, when we fear, when we lose our way, what do we do? We go back to the familiar, we go back to what we know, we go back to our natural learned tendencies. The disciples were fishing all night and had not caught one ‘stinkin’ fish! Now to add insult to injury, someone that they didn’t recognize right away told them to throw their net on the other side of the boat.
Now what is the difference between the left side of the boat and the right side? Is there is any real difference in the water?
No difference right? You better repent! If Jesus tells you there is a difference, there is a difference, no matter how crazy it seems! And then maybe we question, who is telling us to do this? Is this God? The disciples didn’t recognize Jesus at this point, but they listened.
How often do we live by calculation or by faith? Too often we get our spreadsheets out, we listen to the voice of reason as I shared last week. It is hard to listen, it is hard to follow through especially when we think “this is ridiculous, this makes no sense”. You see we are more comfortable talking about what God did then, that is a safe place, we can exegete that very well. But what about today, what is God doing in our midst, that takes courage, that takes faith.
We need to get to the place where we acknowledge the emptiness of our own nets.
Doing What You Are Told! v6-14
How many fish did they catch?
153 fish…anything significant about that – you bet. The known nations at that time in history was…you guessed it – 153!! (Wolfgang Simson shared this in his message on house churches)
Where is the right side of the boat today?
We need to listen more and more to the voice of the Lord. You know how you go into a new mall and you can’t find what you are looking for? So, you go to the information map and it shows you all the locations, but before you can really be on your way, you have to find the ‘blessed ‘you are here’ red dot. God knows where the red dot is and He will lead us to it by revelation.
Over the course of recent history, we have had some major revolutions:
First, it was the industrial rev. with the invention of the steam engine. Then, it was the breakthrough of electricity with Thomas Edison and the light bulb. In 1941, the computer was invented, in ’71, the 1st microchip was created. Now, with the internet which came in the information revolution and we are drowning in it.
Today we are living in the inspiration revolution. People are seeking guidance and they are either being inspired from above or below. World leaders are now listening to their “spiritual advisors’. The Iranian president believes Allah is speaking to him through a prophecy from ‘Humani’ who said Israel will be wiped out.
Come and Have Breakfast! v12
I love this picture of Jesus who calls out to His disciples to have breakfast with Him. We are called to connect not subscribe. Jesus wants to do life with us and in the context of that encounter we hear what we He wants to say. It is always in the context of relationship.
Maybe there’s a reason why the question, “Can you hear me now?” resonates loud and clear with us. We live in a place where relationships have been traded for inanimate objects and where technology isolates us at the same time that it promises to connect us.
Look Me In The Eyes! v15-19
Some of the deepest expressions of love between people are made with the eyes. We can say so much just by the way we look eye to eye. Jesus said that the eye is the lamp of the body or the window to the soul as the Message paraphrases it in Matthew 6:22,23
Your eyes are windows into your body. If you open your eyes wide in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a dank cellar. If you pull the blinds on your windows, what a dark life you will have!
Jesus is restoring Peter in this passage
In this conversation, Jesus challenges Peter to the level of the love he spoke of, a boastful love, a proud love, a love greater than the other disciples, agape love and in Peter’s response he holds back from speaking about a sacrificial love here. In fact, he responds with the love of a friend, phileo. He is not quick to jump to the estimation of his love anymore because he was completely humbled. Jesus in his third challenge even questions his ‘phileo’ love. The fact is that we love Him because He first loved us. If there is any love to be received and given, it is the love that He can place in our heart as we come to Him with our empty nets.
The most important thing that Peter can do for his lambs and his sheep is to love and feed on Jesus Himself. For those of you in leadership positions, the best thing you can offer those you lead is not your knowledge, but your heart. We can only feed what we’ve been fed.
There is also a distinction between lambs and sheep.
The eyes are the light into our soul and we often can see right into a person’s inner sanctum through their eyes if we take long enough time to look. Close your eyes and consider that Jesus is fixing his eyes on you. What message do you sense He would be communicating with you. What would flow out of you if you let Him connect with you in the innermost recesses of your being. Then, reflect on what you could pour into another person and what essence of God could come through you.
In Peter’s ‘look me in the eyes’ encounter with Jesus, he was challenged 3 times about His love and devotion for His Lord. Why does Jesus press the issue? The obvious answer is that he denied have anything to do with him in his three denials.
There are times when God communicates His love for us that are “transrational”. It is those times when encounter the love of God that goes beyond explanation. As Paul shared that encounter will fully be experienced in heaven, but still can know it in part now. We shouldn’t miss that. For many of us who grew up in the church, it was faith, fact, feelings…feelings were the caboose of the train, not to be trusted, put in the back seat, but more and more today, people long to feel their way to God and God is fully capable of being felt.
For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. (1 Corinthians 13:12)
John 3:8 speaks of the wind of the Spirit. It is not something that you can place your finger on. It happens unexpectedly and it can happen with strangers about whom you know practically nothing, objectively speaking. It is that subjected experience that we are all too often afraid to go to, but when it happens, it is so powerful.
Luke 24: 32They asked each other, "Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?"
What About Him or Her? V20-22
When you have an encounter with the resurrected Jesus, revel in it, be in awe of it, don’t stuff it and at the same time realize that it is special, it is unique. We don’t try to explain it away, trivialize it and at the same time do we try to normalize what we experience for everybody.
We can spend so much time trying to ‘fish’ for people using our own methods, but when Jesus is leading, there is power. I continue to learn and relearn the truth that Romans 8:14 shares that those who are lead by the Spirit are the sons of God
The Takeaway
We feel our way to God as He seeks us and we seek Him in love and listen to His voice,
The promptings of the Holy Spirit often are right in front of us. He will show you the verses, He will show you the people, He will show you the way. Jesus is still speaking today.
And this goes a whole lot better when we just get quiet.
Technology reduces everything to binary codes
Religion reduces everything to moral codes
Jesus reduced everything to a one word relational code: love
It is a grande passion, not lukewarm. Jesus is calling us into all consuming experiences of life. We are not here just for faith, but a passionate faith.
Questions For Discussion and Small Groups
1. Alright, who purposed listened for God’s voice this past week? Where did you go??
What does the left side of the boat look like for you?
How can you get to the place where you throw your net on the right side of the boat?
What could breakfast with Jesus look like in your home?
Jesus tells Peter to feed his lambs and then his sheep. What is the significance of that?
The beginning of the modern era began with Rene Decartes’ famous saying, “I think, therefore I am”. However, it is not so for many of us today. Now, more than ever, people are saying, “I feel, therefore I am.” So, can we feel our way to God? The answer I believe is yes because His Word tells us to seek Him with all of our heart and when we do that we will find Him! Jeremiah 29:13 The more important question we need to answer is this, “How can we feel our way to God and what does that look like?”
Doing What We Know Best…v1-5
I think it is interesting to note that 7 of the 12 disciples were fisherman by trade. They were professionals and yet there is something that speaks to their vocation because it required diligence, courage and dedication which are all qualities that Jesus was looking for. Fisherman are also known to stick with it and not quit easily, but it looks pretty obvious here that they were quitting on Jesus.
Following Jesus’ death, the disciples were left floundering and went back to what they knew best – they went fishing. When we doubt, when we fear, when we lose our way, what do we do? We go back to the familiar, we go back to what we know, we go back to our natural learned tendencies. The disciples were fishing all night and had not caught one ‘stinkin’ fish! Now to add insult to injury, someone that they didn’t recognize right away told them to throw their net on the other side of the boat.
Now what is the difference between the left side of the boat and the right side? Is there is any real difference in the water?
No difference right? You better repent! If Jesus tells you there is a difference, there is a difference, no matter how crazy it seems! And then maybe we question, who is telling us to do this? Is this God? The disciples didn’t recognize Jesus at this point, but they listened.
How often do we live by calculation or by faith? Too often we get our spreadsheets out, we listen to the voice of reason as I shared last week. It is hard to listen, it is hard to follow through especially when we think “this is ridiculous, this makes no sense”. You see we are more comfortable talking about what God did then, that is a safe place, we can exegete that very well. But what about today, what is God doing in our midst, that takes courage, that takes faith.
We need to get to the place where we acknowledge the emptiness of our own nets.
Doing What You Are Told! v6-14
How many fish did they catch?
153 fish…anything significant about that – you bet. The known nations at that time in history was…you guessed it – 153!! (Wolfgang Simson shared this in his message on house churches)
Where is the right side of the boat today?
We need to listen more and more to the voice of the Lord. You know how you go into a new mall and you can’t find what you are looking for? So, you go to the information map and it shows you all the locations, but before you can really be on your way, you have to find the ‘blessed ‘you are here’ red dot. God knows where the red dot is and He will lead us to it by revelation.
Over the course of recent history, we have had some major revolutions:
First, it was the industrial rev. with the invention of the steam engine. Then, it was the breakthrough of electricity with Thomas Edison and the light bulb. In 1941, the computer was invented, in ’71, the 1st microchip was created. Now, with the internet which came in the information revolution and we are drowning in it.
Today we are living in the inspiration revolution. People are seeking guidance and they are either being inspired from above or below. World leaders are now listening to their “spiritual advisors’. The Iranian president believes Allah is speaking to him through a prophecy from ‘Humani’ who said Israel will be wiped out.
Come and Have Breakfast! v12
I love this picture of Jesus who calls out to His disciples to have breakfast with Him. We are called to connect not subscribe. Jesus wants to do life with us and in the context of that encounter we hear what we He wants to say. It is always in the context of relationship.
Maybe there’s a reason why the question, “Can you hear me now?” resonates loud and clear with us. We live in a place where relationships have been traded for inanimate objects and where technology isolates us at the same time that it promises to connect us.
Look Me In The Eyes! v15-19
Some of the deepest expressions of love between people are made with the eyes. We can say so much just by the way we look eye to eye. Jesus said that the eye is the lamp of the body or the window to the soul as the Message paraphrases it in Matthew 6:22,23
Your eyes are windows into your body. If you open your eyes wide in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a dank cellar. If you pull the blinds on your windows, what a dark life you will have!
Jesus is restoring Peter in this passage
In this conversation, Jesus challenges Peter to the level of the love he spoke of, a boastful love, a proud love, a love greater than the other disciples, agape love and in Peter’s response he holds back from speaking about a sacrificial love here. In fact, he responds with the love of a friend, phileo. He is not quick to jump to the estimation of his love anymore because he was completely humbled. Jesus in his third challenge even questions his ‘phileo’ love. The fact is that we love Him because He first loved us. If there is any love to be received and given, it is the love that He can place in our heart as we come to Him with our empty nets.
The most important thing that Peter can do for his lambs and his sheep is to love and feed on Jesus Himself. For those of you in leadership positions, the best thing you can offer those you lead is not your knowledge, but your heart. We can only feed what we’ve been fed.
There is also a distinction between lambs and sheep.
The eyes are the light into our soul and we often can see right into a person’s inner sanctum through their eyes if we take long enough time to look. Close your eyes and consider that Jesus is fixing his eyes on you. What message do you sense He would be communicating with you. What would flow out of you if you let Him connect with you in the innermost recesses of your being. Then, reflect on what you could pour into another person and what essence of God could come through you.
In Peter’s ‘look me in the eyes’ encounter with Jesus, he was challenged 3 times about His love and devotion for His Lord. Why does Jesus press the issue? The obvious answer is that he denied have anything to do with him in his three denials.
There are times when God communicates His love for us that are “transrational”. It is those times when encounter the love of God that goes beyond explanation. As Paul shared that encounter will fully be experienced in heaven, but still can know it in part now. We shouldn’t miss that. For many of us who grew up in the church, it was faith, fact, feelings…feelings were the caboose of the train, not to be trusted, put in the back seat, but more and more today, people long to feel their way to God and God is fully capable of being felt.
For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. (1 Corinthians 13:12)
John 3:8 speaks of the wind of the Spirit. It is not something that you can place your finger on. It happens unexpectedly and it can happen with strangers about whom you know practically nothing, objectively speaking. It is that subjected experience that we are all too often afraid to go to, but when it happens, it is so powerful.
Luke 24: 32They asked each other, "Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?"
What About Him or Her? V20-22
When you have an encounter with the resurrected Jesus, revel in it, be in awe of it, don’t stuff it and at the same time realize that it is special, it is unique. We don’t try to explain it away, trivialize it and at the same time do we try to normalize what we experience for everybody.
We can spend so much time trying to ‘fish’ for people using our own methods, but when Jesus is leading, there is power. I continue to learn and relearn the truth that Romans 8:14 shares that those who are lead by the Spirit are the sons of God
The Takeaway
We feel our way to God as He seeks us and we seek Him in love and listen to His voice,
The promptings of the Holy Spirit often are right in front of us. He will show you the verses, He will show you the people, He will show you the way. Jesus is still speaking today.
And this goes a whole lot better when we just get quiet.
Technology reduces everything to binary codes
Religion reduces everything to moral codes
Jesus reduced everything to a one word relational code: love
It is a grande passion, not lukewarm. Jesus is calling us into all consuming experiences of life. We are not here just for faith, but a passionate faith.
Questions For Discussion and Small Groups
1. Alright, who purposed listened for God’s voice this past week? Where did you go??
What does the left side of the boat look like for you?
How can you get to the place where you throw your net on the right side of the boat?
What could breakfast with Jesus look like in your home?
Jesus tells Peter to feed his lambs and then his sheep. What is the significance of that?
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