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April 18, 2010
“Recalled!”
John 21: 1 - 19
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Today is the third Sunday of Easter or Eastertide of the year 2010. This will be our last look at the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus for a while. Next Sunday will be youth Sunday, and the Seniors in our Youth Group will be selecting Scriptures and presenting brief homilies on them. The following Sunday will be a communion Sunday and we will not be looking at a post resurrection appearance of Jesus.
Anyway, today we are looking at the appearance of the resurrected Jesus to seven of his apostles on the shore of the sea of Galilee. John always liked to refer to this body of water by its Roman name, the Sea of Tiberius, but it is the sea of Galilee just the same.
As the narrative begins, we find Peter, Thomas, Nathanael, James, John, and two others gathered on the shore of the sea of Galilee. They had returned to Galilee to meet the resurrected Jesus there as they had been directed. John informs us that this would be the third time Jesus had appeared to his Apostles after his resurrection. He had written about two appearances to them in Jerusalem: the first afternoon of the day of his resurrection and the second in that same room one week later. But we also know that Peter had met the resurrected Jesus one other time before he appeared to the rest of the apostels. Thomas had met the resurrected Jesus only once before this time.
On this occasion, we don’t know if they were waiting for Jesus at the shore of the Sea of Galilee but it seems likely. As evening came on and Jesus did not arrive, Peter decided to go fishing. He and two of the others had been professional fishermen before they became full time followers of Jesus. A boat was nearby, so Peter and the others used it and its nets and other equipment to fish all night.
See, ladies, it is biblical that when men are near water and have nothing else to do, they fish.
But in this instance I think we have more going on than the propensity of men near water to fish. I think Peter and maybe some of the others were beginning to think about what life would be like for them from then on. Peter, Andrew, James and John had been fishermen until Jesus had called them to follow him full time. The rest of the men in that boat had been involved in other full time professions before they followed Jesus for about three years.
But now Jesus was not with them full-time. During those 40 days before his ascension Jesus just visited them occasionally. So what were they to do now? For three years they had been supported by the money well to do women had given to Jesus. With no full-time Jesus, how would they live? Peter’s idea to go fishing may have been a part of a larger but as yet indefinite plan to resume his fishing career.
So they went fishing and as sometimes happens, they caught nothing. As the sun came up, there was an unidentifiable person on the shore, about a hundred yards off, and he yelled to them, “Children, you have no fish, have you?” They responded in the negative and the person on the shore shouted “Cast the net to the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” They did, and they did. The net was so full of large fish that they could not haul it into the boat, they would have to row or sail the boat to shore and drag the net from the water onto the shore.
But before they did that I think John remembered a similar event. About 3 years before, he and Peter had been fishing all night on this same lake and had caught nothing. In the morning, Jesus had come along and climbed into the boat and preached to the crowed that had followed him. Then he had told them to let down the nets, and they caught so many fish that they almost sunk the boats. I think John remembered that event and compared it with what had just happened. If John had been Yogi Berra he would have said “its déjà vu all over again!” but instead he said “That is the Lord!”
Peter obviously agreed because he left the fish and the boat and jumped in the lake and swam and waded to Jesus. Jesus had a fire with some bread and fish on it and he asked them to add some of their fish to them. Jesus served them breakfast. By now, they all knew that the stranger on the shore was Jesus.
In repeating the miracle of the great catch of fish Jesus was recalling them to serve him. He was about to make that very clear to Peter, but before I talk about that, I want you to notice that in both cases of the miraculous catches of fish, they had fished all night and caught nothing. Sometimes frustrating and fruitless labors are preludes to a miracle or something great. Sometimes the long dry spell leads to an oasis or a delightful rain. Thomas Edison made many inventions because of his stubbornness and his optimism. After trying a few hundred things that failed he felt he was closing in on the answer. After all, he knew hundreds of things that didn’t work, he only need to find the one thing that did.
When you labor on for nothing, remember, in similar circumstances that was the prelude for a wonderful work of Jesus.
After breakfast, Jesus said to Peter, in front of the other 6, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? This question is not specific in the English or the Greek.
Who or what are the “these” Jesus is referring to? The fish and the boats and the lake? Was Jesus asking Peter if he loved his old way of life more than he loved Jesus? That is a good thing to ask ourselves as we go through life acquiring skills and wealth and property and experiences. Do we love Jesus more than we love these things?
Or were the “these” the other apostles who were gathered there. I think that is more likely, but if so, was he asking Peter if Peter loved Him more than Peter loved those six men?
You know, it is a really special thing to be a part of a church in which the members love and care for each other. But sometimes when that happens, it is a little too easy to be closer to our friends in church than we are to God. If you notice that tensions with or emotional distance from other church members affects your relationship with God, maybe you are closer to those friends and church members than you are to God. Your relationship with God should come first.
I think Jesus may have been asking these two questions of Jesus but I think his main concern was to ask Peter if Peter loved Jesus more than he thought the other apostles loved Jesus. Because on the night before Jesus was killed that was what Peter thought. He had told Jesus that even if all others would abandon Jesus, he would not. So I think Jesus was asking Peter if he still thought he loved Jesus more than others did.
Peter answered a part of the question. He said, Yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He did not answer the part of the question about the “more than these”.
Jesus replied “Feed my lambs”, meaning, “If you love me, your task is to feed my lambs”. Jesus asked the same question two more times. In the Greek there are two different words used for love in this passage, but scholars are not sure if in this case it makes any substantial difference, especially since this conversation originally took place in Aramaic, not Greek.
The second and third times Jesus asked the question he left off the “more than these” He just asked if Peter loved him. The second time Peter affirmed his love for Jesus, Jesus responded with “Tend my sheep”. The third time Peter was hurt because Jesus kept asking. And the third time, Jesus responded by saying. Feed my sheep.
Then Jesus said to Peter “Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.” John then added an editorial comment “He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.”
Now what is this all about, the three-fold question and the reference to Peter’s death? Let’s think about that for a few minutes. When Jesus asked these questions on that morning, Jesus and Peter were standing near a fire. A few weeks before, on the night before Jesus was killed, in the small hours of the morning, Peter had stood warming himself by a fire and had denied three times that he knew Jesus. He had disgraced himself and his faith in Jesus. Now by a fire on a morning, Jesus asked Peter to proclaim his love for Jesus 3 times. Peter was being recalled.
We know a lot about recalls. They happen when some automobile or other product is found to be faulty. The automobile manufacturer has been in the news with a major recall lately. Some news reporters have informed us that many other items are recalled and the list grows weekly. That made me feel much better!
But the products we buy are not the only things that need to be recalled. Sometimes we are found to be faulty. Sometimes we betray or abandon our faith and our savior. Sometimes we need to reaffirm our faith in Jesus. But please notice that what Jesus asked was not if Peter believed in Jesus. He asked if Peter loved him. Do you love Jesus, or is he just your ticket out of hell?
Do you really love the son of God who died to give you eternal life. If so, in this passage you are told what to do. Feed or tend those who are Jesus’ sheep and lambs. Care for those whom Jesus loves. Watch out for them. See that they get all that they need in the way of spirtual help and material help. Pray for them. Help them. Comfort them. Encourage them.
After Jesus recalled Peter he reassured him that he would eventually live up to his promise to die for Jesus.
But when he was recalled, Jesus asked Peter to tend or feed his sheep or lambs. Those of us who proclaim to love Jesus have been given the same command. If we love Him, we are to care for those who are His.
This morning, after Worship, we are having our Mission Fair. Representatives of the Missions we support will be here or have sent materials describing their work. So after Worship this morning you will be able to see how our missionaries and we by our support of their work have been taking care of Christ’s sheep and lambs.
Pastor David Horner
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906
Posted by faithpres at 01:46 PM | Comments (0)
April 11, 2010
“Lies, Doubts, and Orders”
Matthew 28: 11 - 20
Sunday, April 11, 2010
The events related to Easter cannot be limited to only one Sunday each year. According to the church’s liturgical calendar Easter is a season that lasts for 5 Sundays. That works well for me because it might take me that long to eat all of my Easter Candy.
So today, as we worship on the second Sunday of Easter or Eastertide as it used to be called, we are still looking at events that happened shortly after the resurrection of Jesus.
You might have noticed that our scripture passage from Matthew is comprised of two paragraphs. These paragraphs describe separate events that occurred on different days. The first event occurred shortly after the resurrection on Easter morning.
According to the gospel of Matthew, there were Roman Soldiers guarding the tomb of Jesus at the request of the chief priests. The priests were concerned that Jesus’ followers might steal the body and claim that he had raised from the dead as he said he would.
I have always found this fact to be ironically funny. The chief priests, who were enemies of Jesus, understood His message and claims better than Jesus’ apostles. They had refused to hear His predictions about his death and resurrection and when He was killed, none of them were expecting His resurrection. None of them seem to have remembered that Jesus had predicted his resurrection until the angels reminded the women at the tomb.
Likewise, sometimes people who are strangers to the church have a clearer understanding of the claims of Christ than some of us who have been Christians for years. Sometimes it is good for us to listen for outside voices, as long as we check their messages with what is clearly revealed in the Scriptures.
Anyway, the Chief Priests had been granted a group of Roman Soldiers to guard the tomb of Jesus. Matthew informs us that at dawn on Easter, An earthquake occurred and an angel descended from heaven, rolled back the stone covering the opening of the tomb and sat on the stone. I like to think that the angel’s sitting on the stone was kind of a challenge to the guards, a nonverbal way of saying “what are you going to do about it?”
The response of the soldiers was to faint. They had either regained consciousness and left the scene before the women arrived, or they were still unconscious while the women arrived and had their conversation with the angels.
It is at this point that our passage begins. While the women were going to inform the apostles that Jesus had risen, the guards went to the chief priests to tell them about the angel and the empty tomb. The women went joyfully. The guards went in dread.
The guards were in big trouble at this point. In the Roman Army those who failed to successfully guard a prisoner or edifice were executed. These guards had failed to keep the body of Jesus in that tomb. They had failed to carry out the orders of the priests, so they reported to the Priests first. And then their day began to improve considerably. The priests determined to construct a cover-up and they were willing to pay the soldiers to say that instead of fainting at the sight of an angel, they had fallen asleep. Admitting that they had fallen asleep was normally a sure fire path to execution for a Roman Soldier, but the priests told them that they would intervene on their behalf with the governor. So the soldiers went away greatly relieved. They had thought they would be killed, now there was a good chance they would survive and they had been given some money. The Greek words here mean “large money”
But, aside from the relief and pleasure of the guards, what we have here is the beginning of a lie about the resurrection of Jesus – the lie being that it never happened.
That lie is still being told. The assumption of many in the world is that Jesus was just a man and therefore could not have risen from the dead. Some in the church even doubt the physical resurrection of the dead. But in Palestine, it was accepted that the tomb was empty. Tertullian, writing towards the end of the second century related that Pilate informed Tiberius about the resurrection of Jesus and that Tiberius tried to get the Roman Senate to pass a decree enrolling Jesus in the list of the Roman Gods. All sorts of lies and misunderstandings about Jesus persist in our own times.
The second paragraph of our passage describes an event, maybe more than one event that occurred days after the resurrection in Galilee. Jesus occasionally visited with his apostles and others during the 40 days between his resurrection and his ascension.
I have always been intrigued with verse 17 of this chapter of Matthew. It says, speaking of the 11 Apostles: “When they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted.” After the resurrection of Jesus, after he had appeared to them in the upper room late on the day of his resurrection, After or while they were worshipping him, which by the way was a first for them, some of them still doubted. Isn’t that surprising?
Well, maybe not. That is the nature of our being fallen human beings and being called to believe in God. We have our doubts. They can come at any time. They sometimes come when we are in crisis. But the fact that some of the apostles had doubts about Jesus and perhaps about his resurrection did not make them non-Christians, nor did it keep them from being apostles, because they still believed. And they went on to serve the Lord in mighty ways in spite of their doubts.
The remainder of this passage, which is the remainder of the gospel of Matthew, gives us Matthew’s version of what we have come to know as “the great commission”. In this account, Jesus begins by saying “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” That, by the way is one of the things we sometimes doubt. If Jesus has all authority down here, then why do such horrible things happen? I won’t say I don’t know because I do have some theories, but that will have to be the subject some other time.
But after stating his authority, he gave them a command which is very interesting. He said, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Now there is a lot of noteworthy material in this commission or command. Some of the things that are commonly commented on are the fact that the good news about Jesus is to be taken out to all nations. We of course have the opportunity to demonstrate the love of Christ to many nations because of the international community that is within 2 miles of our church.
This passage also is one of the rare mentions of the Trinity in the gospels. Believers are to be baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I will be talking more about these 3 partners within God later this Spring.
There is also the mention here that Christians are to be taught to obey all that Jesus has commanded. We are not saved because of our obedience, but we are to be obedient if we are Christains.
But there are 2 other things in these verses that I want you to notice.
First of all please notice what the apostles were to make of the people of the nations: Disciples. In the Greek it means students. We are to be students of Christ, ever-learning from Him and about Him and his ways. Christians should never stop reading and studying the bible. We are to be students of Christ.
Then I want you to notice that Jesus said he would be with them always, to the end of the age. The Greek words translated always here mean all days, as long as there are days. The Greek words for the end of the age mean the end of this age, in other words, until Christ returns.
Now the 11 apostles would all be dead within 70 years. So what did Christ mean by ending his commission or command with these phrases? He meant that this command was not only for the apostles and the first generation of Christians, it was for all generations of Christians who would live on earth. In our time this commission or commandment is for us. We are to take the good news of Jesus to all people and peoples and make them students of Jesus.
We are to do this as the apostles did in a world where there were lies circulating about Jesus and even when they had their doubts. In the midst of lies and doubts we are to follow the command of Jesus and tell others about Him.
Pastor David Horner
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906
Posted by faithpres at 03:42 PM | Comments (0)
April 04, 2010
“They Had Made Preparations”
Luke 23: 55 - 24: 12
Easter Sunday, April 4, 2010
On the day Jesus was killed, his body was buried by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. Those two men prepared his body for burial as well as they could given the time they had. The body of Jesus was taken down from the cross in the late afternoon. The Sabbath started at sunset which would be about 6:00 PM at that time of year. So Joseph and Nicodemus did not have much time to prepare the spices and gum-resins and the strips of cloth and wrap them around the body. They had to close the tomb by sunset.
Their work was observed by some women who loved Jesus and had followed him to Jerusalem from Galilee. In the little time they had before sunset, they had purchased more spices and resins and started to mix them. It was their plan to return to the tomb and do a better job of preparing Jesus body right after the Sabbath. The Sabbath ended at sundown on Saturday night. They would not go to the tomb at night, so they planned to arrive at the tomb at dawn on Sunday.
So, before the sun rose on Sunday, they got up and started their journey to the tomb. They were prepared to apply their spices to the body of Jesus and maybe they would wrap more strips of cloth around his body.
But the body was not there. When they arrived at the tomb the stone door had been rolled away, the tomb was open and empty. The body of Jesus was gone.
Suddenly they were joined by angels who announced to them that Jesus had risen. The words of the angels have been recorded by Luke and are worth remembering. They said “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.”
Luke wrote that the women then remembered Jesus having said that. Then they went to the Apostles and others who followed Jesus and told them that he had arisen as he had said he would. But no one believed them. Luke tells us that those who heard them thought it was an Idle Tale. The Greek words here mean Nonsense.
Peter did not believe it either and he went to the tomb to see what it was all about. He saw the empty tomb and was amazed or puzzled, but he did not believe that Jesus had risen until Jesus appeared to him later that day.
But in the midst of all this, I can’t help but wonder what happened to the spices and resins that had been prepared for Jesus body. Other minds have focused on the grand events of that day. My strange mind wonders about what happened to the spices and gum resins. Were they left at the tomb? Or were they taken home by the women and used for something else?
When the women had started out for the tomb that morning they probably thought they were well prepared for what they would be doing that day. But all of the spices and resins they had prepared were made irrelevant by the fact that Jesus had risen from the dead. They forgot all about the spices and seem to have spent the rest of the day telling people that Jesus wasn’t dead any more.
What happened to those women along with the words Paul the apostle wrote in our first reading makes me wonder about the preparations we are making in our lives. As we spend our lives and spend our resources and involve ourselves in various activities and behave in certain ways, are we preparing for the eternal life that Jesus has given to us by his death and resurrection or are we preparing for death?
In that passage of Romans that was our first reading, Paul was writing to a group of Christians who were still engaging in sinful behavior and sinful lifestyles and thinking that since Christ died for their sins they could continue to sin and continue to be forgiven.
But Paul wrote that Jesus died and rose to deliver them from death in all its forms, even the sinfulness that made them deserving of death in the first place. According to Paul, when Christ rose from the dead, so did all who would believe in him. We are guaranteed eternal life, and we are to be living by the standards of that eternal life as we complete our earthly lives.
So as we think about those Godly, believing ladies who dearly loved Jesus on that first Easter, as we think about their preparations for death on the day that life and immortality was revealed, I want you to think about what you are preparing for. How are you living your life? How are you using the resources of your life and your possessions? Are you investing them in your eternal life, or are you investing them in ways that they will perish or be left behind? Are you investing in the things of the kingdom of heaven or the things of this life?
On that first Easter, when Jesus rose from the dead, you were given a gift. You were given the gift of a resurrection and eternal life. How are you preparing yourself for that life?
Pastor David Horner
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906
Posted by faithpres at 03:29 PM | Comments (0)
April 01, 2010
“Treachery”
Luke 22: 1- 40
Maundy Thursday, April 1, 2010
It was the Fourth of July, sort of. Actually it was the Passover, which is the Jewish equivalent to our Independence Day. It was and still is an annual celebration among Jews. It is not celebrated with fireworks and hamburgers and ice cream, but it is celebrated with a meal. A big and unique meal.
Some of the foods served in the meal are symbolic of and reminders of certain things that happened when Moses led Israel out of Egypt. The main course is a Lamb, which is a reminder that back in Egypt, the Jewish families killed lambs and smeared the blood on the frames of the doors to their houses, so the angel of death would not enter and kill all of their firstborn males.
About 1500 years after the Exodus from Egypt, the Jews were still observing the Passover meal. The night before his death, Jesus gathered with his Apostles in an upstairs room in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover meal.
This was one of the most important meals Jesus ate. As he sat at the head of the table and officiated during the meal, he turned it into something else: A memorial of his upcoming death. He did not use the more exotic elements of the Passover meal for his new meal. He used two of the most simple and ordinary parts of the meal, some of the bread and some of the wine. The bread would have been unleavened because leavened bread was forbidden during Passover. Unleavened Bread or Matzo is a lot like a saltine cracker.
Jesus took that bread and then the wine that accompanied the dessert course of the Passover meal and made them symbols of his death. The bread became a symbol for his flesh that would soon be hanging on the cross. As Jesus gave them the bread he said “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” As the Jews had been annually eating the Passover meal in remembrance and celebration of the Exodus from Egypt, so now the followers of Jesus were to eat bread together to remember and celebrate the death of Jesus.
The wine became a symbol for his blood that would soon seep from holes in his hands and feet and from the wounds on his back that had been torn open by the whip. Perhaps a little blood would also seep from the wound in his side, inflicted after his death. As he gave them that cup of wine on the night before his death, he said “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood”.
The Passover meal had reminded the Jews of a covenant God had made with them so they could escape the deaths of their firstborn males. The blood of the Passover lambs was smeared on their doors and God had stated that the angel of Death would not enter those homes. The cup of wine or grape juice has now become a reminder to all Christians that through the death of Jesus, we have escaped from eternal death and we will have everlasting life.
But all was not well in that room at that meal. Treacherous persons were there. Luke wrote that sometime shortly before the day of the Last Supper, Judas had made an agreement with the Chief Priests and the Temple Police to betray Jesus and turn him over to them at an opportune time. We are also told that he did this partly because Satan entered into him. That does not mean that Judas was not responsible for his actions, but it does mean that Satan was involved. When Jesus offered the bread and the wine to his Apostles, there was one there who had made a deal with the devil.
Jesus knew this and announced that one of them would betray him. Well, that shocked the apostles and they discussed this for a little while but that topic of conversation seems to have been too depressing so they shifted to one of their favorite topics; which one of them was the greatest. Jesus told them once again that He who was their master came to serve them. If they were to be leaders in His kingdom they would have to serve each other and many others beyond that room
Luke also wrote that Judas was not the only one present through whom Satan was working. Jesus said to Peter; “Simon, Simon, Listen! Satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your own faith may not fail; And you, when once you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”
Peter did not seem to mind too much the implication that the others in the room would fail Jesus. What he was upset about was the implication that he himself would disappoint Jesus and need to turn back to Jesus. Peter tried to protest to Jesus that he would stand by Him no matter what, even if it meant going to prison or being killed. Jesus then told Peter that before he heard a rooster crow before the next dawn, Peter would have already denied that he even knew Jesus not once, not twice, but three times.
The supper that Jesus celebrated with his apostles was of momentous importance. For them it portrayed his soon coming death. Because the Lord’s Supper came from the Passover meal, it also set Jesus forth as the new Passover Lamb, the one who caused God to Pass Over our deserved sentence of eternal death.
But I want you to remember that on that momentous occasion, Jesus was surrounded by people who had allowed Satan to have some influence in their lives. Only one would betray Jesus to his enemies, but another one would deny that he knew him and the others would all flee to save their lives.
I am not certain, but I would be willing to bet that there is some treachery in this room tonight. Some of us have allowed Satan to have some power over us. Some of us might not stand up for Jesus when we should. Some of us will be disappointed in ourselves and in some of the rest of us.
And when you are, Please remember what Jesus said to Peter. He told Him that He was praying for them. Jesus still prays for us, that we will remain true to Him and that we will return to him when we deny him.
And remember that Jesus instructed Peter to strengthen his brothers. We are not to judge the failings of our brothers or our selves, we are rather to gently call back and strengthen each other.
The Lords Supper is a supper for sinners, for those who have let Jesus down. In it we find His encouragement and his forgiveness. In it we find the strength to encourage and strengthen each other. Let us eat and be built up in Jesus.
Pastor David Horner
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906
Posted by faithpres at 03:47 PM | Comments (0)