Intro So what do you do after you see Jesus come back from the grave? For the newly minted Apostles, 7 of the 11 go fishing. For, after all, we know that at least 4 of them were fishermen. That’s what professional fishermen do, fish. And so they went fishing.
Main Body So there are the seven, laboring through the night to catch some fish. But their nets came up empty every time they hauled them in. In the morning, as the sun began to gleam, Jesus stood on the beach and called out to them, “You don't have any fish, do you?” “No.” “Cast the net on the right side of the boat and you’ll get some.” So they did, and they couldn’t haul up the net because of the large catch! Sound familiar? Of course; the last time Jesus did that was when He called them to be His disciples. John realizes that and blurts out to Peter, “It’s the Lord!” Not to hesitate, impetuous Peter grabs his clothes, dives in the water, and swims to shore. The other disciples row the boat, dragging the net filled with fish. When they pull up to shore, they see a charcoal fire with some fish cooking on it, and some bread. Jesus is there, ready to serve up some breakfast. “Bring some of those fish you’ve just caught,” He says. John reports that they caught 153 fish that morning. And the net wasn’t even broken. Cast your nets the Lord’s way and the catch is what it should be, even if it seems odd, 153-fish odd. That morning, Jesus was the Host. It’s a feast of bread and fish. Does this sound a little familiar as well? What other time did Jesus offer up a feast of bread and fish? When He fed 4,000 in the wilderness, and at another time, 5,000. That morning, Jesus took the bread and gave it to them, and so also the fish. Does that sound a little bit familiar? It recollects what Jesus did in the upper room on the night when He was betrayed, and on the Emmaus road, and all the other times He took bread, broke it, and gave it to His disciples. That’s how Jesus likes to reveal Himself--at a meal, in the breaking of the bread. So what are we to make of all this? For starters, when Jesus appeared to the seven, it assured them--and us!--once more of His resurrection. It’s the same Jesus the disciples knew and loved. Like the wounds He showed to Thomas, the miraculous catch of fish confirms that the same Jesus who hung on a cross and died is alive and well. His tomb is empty, His body is risen, and it’s the same Jesus. Jesus is, indeed, risen! May this truth always be leaping on the tip of your tongue. May it be alive in your heart like Jesus who busted out of the empty tomb. For Jesus IS risen from the dead! He’s not a specter, a vision, or a ghost. No, He’s real flesh and blood, this real Jesus. And that makes all the difference. Well, what else? This miracle on the shore of the Sea of Galilee teaches that we are to cling to Christ, the One who is the Word. Apart from Christ, we are fruitless branches severed from the Vine. Without Christ, we flip-flop and flounder, not having the Word who gives us His eternal Life. Apart from Christ, all our work is worthless, and all our efforts are in vain. We can labor long hours, well into wee hours of the night. We can plan programs and carry them out with business-like efficiency. We can have meetings and committees, and run a finely honed church machine. But that can only bring us, at best, the trappings of worldly success. Without the Word of Jesus, without His flesh-and-blood presence in His Supper, without Baptism, without the absolution of our sins, our nets will come up empty every time. Why? Because Jesus commanded His Apostles--and so also His Church--to give out and keep faith alive through such ways. Why? Because that’s what God the Holy Spirit uses to cause the Church to eternally grow, no matter of what our statistics may show. Jesus told His disciples that He would make them “fishers of men.” In today’s Gospel reading, He taught them something about fishing. “You cast your nets when, where, and how I tell you. Then you’ll catch what I want you to catch.” And the Apostles followed Him. They cherished the Word and obeyed Him. The Church that refuses to obey Christ will fail. For Jesus says, “Apart from me, you can do nothing” (John 15:5). The Church that hears Christ’s Word, and cherishes and obeys it, can look forward to bursting nets when our Lord appears on the Last Day. But today, the Church is often like a fishermen lured by the latest gimmick to swell his catch. And sadly, the Church often falls prey to such temptation, letting the world--instead of Christ--drive the Church. When that happens, the Church begins to trust in means and measures other than the proclaimed Word, Baptism, Absolution, and the Lord’s Supper to fill the net. And when that happens, we fill the vacuum emptied of God’s ways with the ways of the world. That’s when a church thinks that catchy video clips and bands that entertain the people will haul in the humungous catch. But God’s written Word says such ways are contrary to His will. Hebrews 12:28 says, “Since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful and worship God in reverence and fear in a way that pleases Him.” Yes, what happens here in God’s presence is to be done with “reverence” and, yes, even in the “fear” of God. When we do the opposite, it shows that we really don’t believe the Holy Spirit turns unbelievers into believers. It shows that we only give lip service to the truth that the Holy Spirit “calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth, and keeps her with Jesus Christ in the one true faith” (Small Catechism). Why, if the Holy Spirit is such a slacker, it’s up to us to do His job, right? Repent! Turn back to the Way of Christ! The Apostles learned something about numbers that day. They had no idea how many fish they would catch after they let down their nets. Until Jesus showed up and spoke His Word, they caught nothing. But with Him, they caught 153 fish. What a strange number. 12 would’ve have been a good, churchly number. 70 would have been a good, symbolic number. Or how about 144,000--that’s a whopper of a biblical number! But 153? Well, it’s enough fish to make the point, but not so many to break the net. There are big congregations in the Church. And there are small ones. There are young ones and old ones. And there’s everything in between. And then there’s Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church. And the Lord gives us what we can care for, as many as our net will hold without breaking, as many as we can safely haul in. But that doesn’t mean we sit on our butts and not lower the nets, that we don’t faithfully do what God calls us to do as Church. Heaven forbid! That would be letting our laziness lead us into sin! But it does mean that we are to be content with God’s catch for us. It means we won’t complain about being too big or too small. No, we are to be grateful to God for those whom He has hauled into His Church. And here’s another truth our Lord wants us to eat today. How can any Christian not see the hints of the Lord’s Supper in our Gospel reading? Not that it IS the Lord’s Supper, for bread and fish are not the Lord’s Supper. But it does point in that direction, just as every meal should cause us to think about how Jesus eternally feeds us in His Supper. The risen Christ met His disciples in a meal. He had table fellowship with them. He fed them. And He does the same with us in His Supper. Delving even deeper, the disciples came because Jesus called them through the water to a meal prepared for them in His presence. What Jesus did for the seven, He does for us at every Divine Service. Jesus calls us away from our work. Jesus calls us from our struggles to eke out a living, to survive, from our frustrations and failings. He calls us through the water of Baptism to meet Him in His Supper. Here, in the presence of the risen Christ, with our struggles and our successes, with our empty nets and overflowing nets, we are brought to shore and gathered to find their fuller, richer meaning in His death and resurrection. Here, we offer back to God the fruits of our labor, what He has put into our nets to begin with. Here, Jesus meets us in the power of His death-destroying life. And here, He prepares a meal for us, feeds us, forgives us, frees us, and communes with us. Wow, who would’ve thought that a church service would have so much in it? Conclusion Yes, Jesus keeps popping up all over the place. He met His Apostles in a locked room on Easter evening. He met the seven when they were in a boat on the Sea of Galilee. Later, Jesus showed Himself to Saul on the road to Damascus. Later, Jesus showed Himself to John on the island of Patmos to give him the last book of the Bible to write. And of course, Jesus still meets us, here and now: in the water of Baptism, in His Word of forgiveness, in the preached Word, and in His Supper. Who’d have thought that Jesus would still be all over the place? But what else should we expect from Jesus? For didn’t He say He is with us always? And He is. So come now and have true fellowship with Jesus in His Supper. For “Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed. Alleluia!” Amen. -- Rich Futrell, Pastor Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church, Kimberling City, MO Where we are to receive and confess the faith of the Church (in and with the Augsburg Confession): The faith once delivered to the saints, the faith of Christ Jesus, His Word of the Gospel, His full forgiveness of sins, His flesh and blood given and poured out for us, and His gracious gift of life for body, soul, and spirit. ___________________________________________________________________ 'CAT 41 Sermons & Devotions' consists of works that are, unless otherwise noted, the copyrighted property of the various authors; posting of such gives members of this list implied consent for redistribution _with_attribution_ unless otherwise specified by the author (as long as no charge is made for the work and it is not made part of a compilation), as well as for quoting or use in a congregational setting _with_or_without_attribution_. 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