[00:00:14] Welcome to this edition of Back to Basics with Pastor Brian Brodersen. Many of us, I think we live, you know, we live our lives where we're kind of like we're running on empty. And we just, we keep going, we keep going, and man, but the tank is just, it's so low. It's just, any moment, we're going to be on the side of the road, completely shut down.
[00:00:38] But as I meet with Jesus, as I just take the time to be with Him, He meets with us. Today on Back to Basics, Pastor Brian continues his study in the Gospel of John. Join us as Pastor Brian concludes his teaching on John chapter 21 verses 1 through 14 in a message titled Breakfast with Jesus.
[00:01:13] Now here's Pastor Brian. Put your hand in my side and do not be unbelieving, but believing. And Thomas says, Oh, my Lord and my God. And Jesus says, Thomas, you believe me because you've seen, but blessed are those who have not seen and yet believed. That, of course, is all of us. That's everybody from that point forward.
[00:01:36] So Jesus, I think in some ways, is probably preparing them for that. Now, the whole experience of this great catch of fish that they have on this particular morning, this would take them back when something similar had happened. And that's a time that we read about from Luke chapter 5.
[00:02:03] So this would take them all back in their minds to that time. And what happened, what particular thing happened on that day beside this miraculous catch of fish? Remember, as we read there, this is where Peter has a glimpse of who Jesus actually is at this point.
[00:02:31] Now, at this point, they understood that Jesus was from God. They, in some ways, thought he was probably the Messiah, but they didn't really know. And yet, as we read in Luke chapter 5, when the miracle of these fish takes place, Peter has this sudden understanding that Jesus is the Lord,
[00:02:58] that he's God, that he's the creator of all things. He's the God of Israel. Peter, suddenly, that flashes on his mind. And what does Peter say? He says, depart from me, Lord. I'm a sinful person. And what does Jesus say to him? He says, do not be afraid. Do not be afraid. From this point forward, you will catch people. You've been a fisher of fish.
[00:03:27] From this point forward, you will catch people. So all of that's in the past. Now, fast forward to where we're at right now. Peter is once again undoubtedly radically aware of his failure. Peter, before he says, depart from me, Lord, I'm a sinful person.
[00:03:56] What do you think is going through the mind of Peter now? So think about this. Peter has denied Jesus. We mentioned that. He swore with an oath, I do not know him. Before Jesus went to the cross, the very last moment, Peter and Jesus, their eyes locked together after Peter had denied Jesus. Jesus had told him in advance he would. But their eyes locked, and it says that Peter went out and he wept convulsively.
[00:04:26] So here is a person who has had this emotional crushing because of his own failure. Now, Peter, there's no reason to think that Peter wasn't there during the two times that Jesus appeared to them before. But it's clear that Jesus never addressed Peter on a personal level.
[00:04:50] Jesus never talked about, by the way, Peter, let's talk about what happened that night. That's not happened yet. That is coming. That's what this is leading up to. So what I want you to do is think about, think about how Peter would be feeling right now at this very moment. He would be feeling undoubtedly the weight of his failure.
[00:05:19] Now, remember, as we read the story here, remember, Peter was the one who said, hey, I'm going to go fishing. And they said, OK, we'll go with you. Now, why did Peter go fishing? Did he go fishing because he was bored and he just thought this would be a good thing to do because we we are fishermen? And did he go fishing because I guess maybe this is what the future holds for me? There was a moment where it seemed like I had a different trajectory for my life. God's calling.
[00:05:49] But I've probably blown that. That's probably not going to happen now because of my own failure. We don't know what was going on in the mind of Peter. But we know that Peter was the one who initiated that they go fishing. And maybe it was because he felt like he needed to just simply go back to what he was doing before because he couldn't see how he could move ahead having done what he did,
[00:06:15] having failed to the degree that he failed. But what's happening here is that all of these little incidental things that John is telling us about, these are all preparation for the event that's going to come where Jesus reinstates Peter publicly. Peter denied Jesus three times publicly.
[00:06:44] Jesus, as we will see, he is going to give Peter the opportunity to reaffirm his commitment to him. And he's going to do it three times. And so all of this is really what's stirring here at this point. And so as we look at the story, what can we take away from the story for ourselves?
[00:07:13] The first thing I think that we should take away is that the mission, the calling, the plan hasn't changed regardless of your failure. Peter, the time lapse, the obstacles twist and turns that you didn't foresee.
[00:07:38] You see, the most easy thing to think would be that because of Peter's failure, everything's changed. Yeah, Peter, this is what you were going to do. But because this is what you did or didn't do, that's all changed. And the deal's off. You're no longer going to fish for people, Peter.
[00:08:06] You're going to have to go back to fishing for fish. But that is not what Jesus says to him. And we need to know this because like Peter, we fail in life. Even as Christians, we fail. And when we fail, we are tempted immediately to think that the deal's off.
[00:08:35] Well, I messed that up. There can't be any future blessing that's going to come because, man, I've just totally screwed things up. You could understand how Peter would think that. But that is not the case. And so whether it's through failure on our part, whether it's through sin on our part,
[00:09:00] or whether it's just simply that I heard God speak and he said this to me, but, man, that was so long ago and I don't know what's happened. Where did that promise go? Or, you know, I thought God was saying this, but then this obstacle came up and then this twist in the road and I don't even know anymore. We can find ourselves in places like that. But here's the word. The call remains.
[00:09:29] The call remains. Jesus is in the business of restoration. That's what he does. That's his mission is to restore. And he even restores his own people as we see with Peter. So that's the first thing. Secondly, and I really love this.
[00:09:56] When I look at this passage, I see this. That we should expect Jesus to show up unannounced when we least expect him with fresh grace and guidance for your life and ministry. You know, this is like, this is a beautiful thing about knowing Christ and following him.
[00:10:23] He just never ceases to surprise us with his grace and his goodness. And at times when it's just completely unexpected. And I am sure that the last thing that these guys thought on this night before, when they went out onto the sea to fish and were discouraged in the morning because they hadn't caught anything, I don't think any of them were thinking, you know, I bet Jesus is going to show up and sort this out.
[00:10:52] They were not thinking that. And when this voice is calling out to them from the beach, you know, who is this person? And it's not until he says something familiar that they recognize. But I've seen this so many times in life where the Lord, he just steps into things and he does things that you don't expect. And he often does it when you least expect it. And sometimes he does it in times when you think,
[00:11:20] well, God's absolutely not going to show up now because, again, look at the mess we've made of everything. But he does. I just picked up a book this week because I heard an interview with a man who wrote the book. And the man's name is Os Guinness. And I have read many of his books and enjoy them. But he wrote this book on, the book is called Transcendence. And the premise of the book is he's telling a number of stories about people
[00:11:48] who have had these sort of random, they seemed like these random transcendent experiences that were really this kind of thing right here, that were really God showing up in unexpected times and places. And through God showing up, this has brought them to their life of faith in Jesus. The most well-known person for us would be somebody like C.S. Lewis. Everybody know the name C.S. Lewis? How many of you know who C.S. Lewis is?
[00:12:18] So C.S. Lewis was, you know, if you ever saw the Chronicles of Narnia, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, he's the author of all that. But what a lot of people don't know is that C.S. Lewis was not only a famous literary professor at Oxford and Cambridge, but he was an adamant atheist and very much an opponent to Christianity. He wrote his story in a book called Surprised by Joy.
[00:12:46] And Surprised by Joy, the reason why he called his book Surprised by Joy, because he traces throughout his life, even beginning in childhood, these moments, these unexplainable moments of what he called joy. He didn't really have a better name for it. But it was just these moments where suddenly everything just... And he didn't...
[00:13:15] It wasn't like there was a God element to it necessarily. There was just this thing like an overwhelming feeling that he described as joy, that would just, in a flash, it would just come upon him and then it would leave. And it would happen periodically throughout his life. But eventually, it became clear that these little glimmers of joy were God's intervention into his life
[00:13:44] that would finally bring him to the place of bowing his knee before Jesus Christ. But the reason why I just love these kinds of stories, because it's this type of thing here. God just shows up. And Jesus, in what he does here, he's showing us that, that we can expect the unexpected.
[00:14:14] We should live with the expectation that unannounced, when we least think that there would be something like this to happen, that that's when it does so often happen. And he comes, as he does here, with fresh grace and guidance for your ministry. N.T. Wright, in his little commentary on John's gospel, he said this. Let me read it to you.
[00:14:44] It's real short. He said, stand in your mind's eye with the disciples in the boat. What projects have you been laboring over and getting nowhere? You know, what things are there that you, you know, you thought God was doing or you believed God was doing, but it doesn't seem like anything's happening. Or again, maybe there's a failure component that you think, well, maybe it's gone now. He said this.
[00:15:12] He said, watch for the dawn. Watch for the figure on the shore. Listen for his voice and then do whatever he tells you. I love that. Just watch and listen and do because the Lord will show up. He will come in those unexpected times. And then thirdly,
[00:15:41] come have breakfast. Jesus is inviting them to meet with him. And this is a standing invitation that goes out to me and you today. Jesus is inviting us. Come have breakfast. In other words, come and spend time with me.
[00:16:09] Now, it is entirely possible. And it's often the case that Christian people, whether they are just regular Christian people who attend church and live Christian lives but aren't, say, in ministry in the sense of vocationally, but it happens with all categories of Christian people
[00:16:37] that we easily get caught up in the mechanics or just the religious part of things, the duty, that sort of thing, that we can go a long time in our lives just doing that stuff without ever actually connecting with Jesus himself, without ever expecting that I'm going to open my Bible and spend time here because God's going to speak to me
[00:17:06] and God's going to show himself to me and God's going to give me direction and things like that. But this is what he does. And the invitation that he gave them to come and have breakfast with him is an invitation that he extends to each of us today. In other words, Jesus would say to us, would you just take some time with me? With me. Now, I have to confess
[00:17:35] that I do not have breakfast with Jesus as often as I should. I have breakfast with oftentimes unpleasant people because during my breakfast, I'm scrolling through Twitter and I'm just reading all of the junk that is there in my feed and by the time breakfast is over,
[00:18:05] I'm like, I'm mad at the world. I'm just fed up and sick of everything. And then I got to go out and deal with the day. But how much better if I just said, I'm going to have breakfast with Jesus this morning. I'm going to spend time with him. And I'm going to do that with an expectation. Because I think many of us, I think we live, you know, we live our lives where we're kind of like
[00:18:34] the old Jackson Brown song, we're running on empty. And, you know, we just, we just, we keep going, we keep going, and man, but the tank is just, it's so low. It's just, any moment, we're going to be on the side of the road, completely shut down. But as I meet with Jesus, as I just take the time to be with him, he meets with us. Think about that.
[00:19:04] God himself meets with people. This is what he wants to do. This is what he came to do. This is what he died to do. He died to bring us into a relationship with him that is intimate and personal. When you look back at the beginning of time and the very first people that God created, he created them to be in a relationship.
[00:19:33] And that relationship was broken through sin, but Jesus came to mend that so we could have that kind of experience that they had where we walked with him and we talked with him and we experienced his presence. And so that is the invitation. Do not neglect this amazing opportunity.
[00:20:01] There's so much to know about God and how many of God's people ever take the time to really get to know him? How often are we just content with the surface level knowledge? Take advantage of the opportunity. And the final thing is that we don't go back.
[00:20:30] We go forward. Peter, whatever he was doing, was he just assuming that he ought to go back to what he did before because there was no future. We don't know for sure. Maybe he did. But I know there are some people today who would think that about themselves. Some people would think that because of failure. Other people think that because of sin. They think that, oh, there's something better out there. I'm going to go back to that.
[00:21:00] Don't go back because you'll find when you get back, there's nothing really there. You thought there was, but no, there's not. Don't go back. Go forward. And Peter, Peter doesn't go back. Peter does go forward. And then he writes later on in life, he writes these two letters. And in the second letter, he talks to us about how to go forward.
[00:21:29] And so I want to close today by reading to you from 2 Peter 1. and just listen to what Peter says. This is the way forward. He says this, His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. So everything we need for a godly life comes to us through what?
[00:21:59] Through our knowledge of Him. As we get to know Him, we discover that everything we need is in Him. And then he says this, For this very reason, because this is the case, make every effort to add to your faith goodness and to goodness knowledge and to knowledge self-control and to self-control perseverance and to perseverance godliness and to godliness
[00:22:28] mutual affection and to mutual affection love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble
[00:22:57] and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. See, Peter is telling us, let's keep moving forward. You have faith. That's the foundational thing. Now add to your faith. Keep going. Keep growing. And Peter was one who did that. Peter was one who knew that by experience. Peter was one who thought at a certain point,
[00:23:26] maybe I can't go forward because of my failure. But Jesus said, no, I forgive you and you can go forward. And so let's do that.
[00:23:42] For the month of August, Back to Basics Radio is offering a book titled The Powers of Darkness and the People of God
[00:24:12] by Pastor Brian with all the chaos, unrest, and uncertainty in our world. Behind it all is the unseen realm where a spiritual battle is being waged. And this spiritual battle not only affects the world collectively, but even our lives individually. This month's book, The Powers of Darkness and the People of God by Pastor Brian will give you an understanding of the battle that is raging behind the scenes. You will understand the enemy who is waging war against you, his tactics, and how you can be equipped to emerge victorious.
[00:24:41] As people of God, we must be aware of the spiritual battle we're all involved in, the sophisticated ways in which we're constantly being attacked, and the provision for victory we have in Jesus. If you want to be equipped for the spiritual battle we're engaged in, or to be able to help others become equipped, we encourage you to call us right now at 1-800-733-6443 or visit us online at backtobasicsradio.com to order The Powers of Darkness
[00:25:10] and the People of God by Pastor Brian. And when you give a gift to Back to Basics, we'll send you this book as our way to say thank you. We do appreciate your generous support of this ministry. We'd also like to remind you that all of our other resources are waiting for you at backtobasicsradio.com or by calling our request line at 1-800-733-6443. That's 1-800-733-6443. Our desire is to encourage you
[00:25:38] in your daily walk with God. We'll continue next time with more valuable insights from Pastor Brian as we study together in the Gospel of John. Back to Basics is the preaching and teaching ministry of Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, California.
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