Mikhael, Boushra: Week Of Meetings-2006-05 ~ Post Resurrection Appearances

And we have no one who is worthy, uh, of our love and devotion but himself. To this end, Father, we pray that God bless our meditations on him and make him so real to our hearts. Uh, for this we ask in his precious name. Amen. So far, beloved, we have been, uh, witnessing the blessed Savior, uh, showing himself to the, his followers, uh, in different capacities, in different places. In, in the first time we saw him, uh, uh, appearing to Mary Magdalene at the sepulcher, and uh, in, in this we saw how, uh, this new relationship he, he has established, uh, with his, uh, New Testament individual believers as personified in, in the person of Mary, the one who sought him because of love. And then again, when he were, were to appear to Peter, though we have no details in the Word of God about it, uh, he had, he'd appear to him as the advocate, the one who is advocating our case before the Father when we sin, as Peter did when he denied his Lord. On the road to Emmaus, uh, to his disciples, he appeared as the great shepherd of the sheep who is caring for those ones who were distraught and, uh, and were disappointed and were leaving Jerusalem behind. And then he taught them the lesson about how he ought to first suffer and then enter into his glory. When he went into the upper room that night, we had a record of him showing himself to the disciples as the one who was dead and now is alive forevermore, the very same one. And he offered himself to their sight and to their touch, and he shared a meal with them. And then again, as John, uh, describes the latter part of this meeting, he empowered the church to go out with the gospel to the nations, uh, when he gave them that commission. And then when he appeared, uh, the, uh, last time we were thinking of him, he appeared to one who was in doubt, that was Thomas. Uh, and the lesson there we learn is, is that the, the church has only a spiritual sight to perceive the presence of our Lord, uh, with her, and therefore this is the sight that we need to culture, uh, exercising as we walk with him and as we meet around his name. Now, when we come to this appearance in the, in the, in John twenty one, uh, he now, uh, is in Galilee instead of Jerusalem. Uh, it is at the Lake, uh, Tiberias here that he appears. The Lake Tiberias is another Roman name which was given to the Sea of Galilee, and that was not very well received by the Jews. They were not very happy about their beloved, uh, Sea of Galilee given the name of the Roman empi- emperor of the time, Emperor Tiberius. But there is a significance to that because the change of the name of the sea, as we will see, will indicate to us, uh, what the sea stands for here. Um, the image that we have before us here is Christ, uh, in the mid of middle of his people or with his people in all life's work. Uh, we are all recruited to work for him. Uh, our work is not physical, but our work that's spiritual, uh, to the intent of spreading the gospel and sharing him with others. And he is there with us, with his people in this situation. Um, the the reason basically is this, that those disciples, uh, learned the hard way that without his presence, their efforts are fruitless, you see, and the, and we will see this as we go through our study. Now, the setting is in Galilee instead of Jerusalem. So far, the appearances of our Lord have been in Jerusalem and in areas around Jerusalem, but this time he appears to the disciples in Galilee. This is significant because the book of John, uh, unlike the other three gospels, uh, speaks a lot about the Lord's work in, in Judea and in Jerusalem. Uh, the other gospels, uh, present most of his miracles which he did in Galilee. Uh, so Galilee is very significant. He had said to the women when he rose from the dead to go and say to his disciples, I will go before you to Galilee, uh, and and therefore you will see him there. So the order was given. The last time we saw the disciples, they were in the upper room in Jerusalem, and now they all have gone to Galilee in anticipation of the Lord showing himself there, there to them. Now, Galilee is is is a a, is is a place that is so familiar to, to us from reading the Gospels, because it is a place where the Savior, um, has tilled the waters by his voice when he said, peace be still. It's a place where the multitudes gather to him to hear his, his, uh, his words, uh, and uh, it's a place where a fair bit of his, uh, uh, miracles took place. The scene that we have with us tonight, uh, seems to be, uh, similar to what happened in the book of Luke chapter five. You remember in the book of Luke chapter five, the disciples have not been really joined to the Lord. They're still fishing on the sea, and that night they caught nothing. Uh, and the Lord used the boat to preach to the multitudes, and then after he finished preaching, he asked them to, to drive a little further down into the deep and cast the net. And Peter at the time said to him, Lord, we have worked all night, we didn't find any, but at your word, am I, I am going to, to, uh, let the net down. And of course, at the time they had lots of fish, and the nets were breaking down, and this, the boats were sinking from the weight of the fish. And at that very time, Peter said to the Lord, depart from me. I am a sinner. I am a sinful man, Lord. I am not worthy that you would be in my boat. So there are some similarities between this story and the story that we have before us, but there are definitely some differences. In Luke chapter five, both the Lord and the disciples were in on the, on the, in the boat on the water. Here we have the disciples in the water, on the, on the boat, and the Savior is on the, on the shore. And this is significant for our study as we go through it. There the Lord was in the days of his flesh, before he went to the cross. Here we have him victorious over death, having tasted death by the grace of God for every man, and rose again, uh, from the dead. There, the, the order was to, uh, let the nets down, and, and they ended up with a lot of fish, and the nets broke. Here, the nets were, were still intact, and so on. So there are certain differences. Peter, who at the time asked the Lord to depart from him, this time he wasted no time to find the Lord because he was, as you see, he did not wait for the boat to come to the shore. He swam back to, to the shore, as we know. Now, the sea as a, as a symbol in the, in the, in the, in the Bible speaks of, uh, the nations of the world versus the dry land, which speaks of the, uh, nation of Israel. So here is the Sea of Galilee, which, which, which name was changed to Tiberius to emphasize the fact that, uh, at the time the Romans were really controlling that country. And the, and the apostles are toiling in the sea, and this, of course, symbolic image of the apostles reaching out with the gospel to the different nations, you see. Uh, but there was a lesson for them to learn, and, and the lesson was taught to them the hard way, as I said earlier. Uh, they were very professional men who knew the Sea of Galilee very well. They were not amateur fishers. They they made a living as fishermen, and yet they spent the night and they caught, the word of God is very clear, it says, and they they caught nothing. It was a fruitless effort. But the Lord, uh, who is, uh, now risen from the dead with all the power given unto him, he's now trying to teach them this lesson, that he is the one who can give them any success in, in their efforts in serving him. And this is a lesson we need to understand, beloved. We cannot do the work of the Lord in our own effort. The Lord has to empower us and give us the, the, the strength to do it. Now, the sequence of events is like this. There's a period of time, obviously, between his last appearance in the upper room and this appearance at, at Lake Tiberias, a period of silence, and perhaps the d- the disciples, uh, felt, uh, sort of, uh, left alone and unused and, uh, nothing to do, and perhaps, if I may use this word carefully, they were bored, uh, and and and went all the way to Galilee, nothing to do. They sat around for a while, and then, uh, of course, they, they knew that the promise was there for him to meet them there, and then the idea came to, to Peter's mind, why not go some fishing? Go do some fishing, you see? And, and, and therefore Peter suggested this, that they go back again to that old trade. Now, a lot of Bible, um, commentators find difficulty with this, with with Peter's decision, thinking that he should not have gone back to that old trade, and perhaps that's correct. Perhaps that's that's right, uh, and and they blame him for misleading his other brothers when when he said, I will go fishing, and they said, we will go, we will all go with you. Uh, but be this as it may, there was some kind of, of uh, of harmony and of, of agreement among them to do things together. And yet, if we think of this as a mistake, going back to the old trade again, yet the Lord in his grace and in his, and in his uh glory is able to correct that, and out of this difficult experience that they had that night, bring about a very interesting and a very edifying, uh, lesson, uh, where they, whereby they were all blessed. So, uh, I like the, the word, I like how the, these verses are worded here before us. It says they immediately went into a boat, and that night they caught nothing. And you can imagine that probably was an a long night, uh, their efforts were use- were were were fruitless. Uh, they may have been a little cold and possibly hungry and tired. And I suppose for professional, uh, fishermen, they were frustrated in a s- in a sense because they caught nothing. But then, once again, I love the word of God. I love to see how, uh, the Holy Spirit words it, because it says, they caught nothing, but when the morning was come, Jesus stood on the shore. There's always a morning that follows a long, fruitless night, and that morning is characterized by this. The Lord Jesus is on the shore. You see, uh, we we we may be on troubled water, uh, unable to to do anything. In our own effort, we don't achieve anything, but the night will will give place to a morning, and that morning would have the Blessed Lord standing on the shore on solid ground, waiting for his disciples. And and you may be go throwing, you may be going through one of those nights, whether it be sickness or bereavement or unemployment or, uh, some kind of frustration o- of of one kind or the other in your life. And all you have to do is to wait on him, because certainly and surely, as the day follows the night, the morning is coming, and he will be there standing on the shore. And once again, as it is the case in a lot of the appearances of the Blessed Savior after his resurrection, the disciples knew not that it was Jesus. Now suppose people try to find explanations for this. Um, uh, people would say, well, it was early dawn, and there's a mist coming out of the water, and perhaps the sun is not up yet, and well, these are all explanations which are very valid and and very possible. But as I, as we said before, it was his way of revealing himself at his own will and whenever he himself, uh, thinks it is, it's it's a proper time for him. So they did not know him. He was about a hundred yards away, uh, as we see by the measurement mentioned here. The other thing that happened is Jesus says unto them, children, have ye any food? They answered no. So even his voice was not recognized, you see? Uh, we remember that his voice was recognized by Mary at the grave, and and that he, uh, was seen or recognized by the disciples in Emmaus when he broke the bread. Uh, but here, uh, neither his voice nor his sight far away, uh, was revealing to the disciples. But then his, the miracle gave him. The miracle gave him away because he says to them, uh, cast the net on the right side of the boat and you shall find. They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fish. So it is through his work, through his action, that he would be recognized. Now, beloved, let me ask you a question. Who of the tw- of the eleven— who of the seven who were there, because they were seven, who of the seven would recognize the Lord? The one who's closest to him? The, the, the, the disciple whom Jesus loved, because John was that one who was near to the Savior, nearer probably than the others. He, he's the one who, uh, at the Last Supper, uh, leaned on his breast and asked, who is it that betrays thee? This is the one who trusted in the love of the Lord Jesus rather than trust in himself, you see? And that contrasts him clearly with Peter. Peter was a great man. He was very sincere. He wanted to serve the Lord. But Peter's problem, as we mentioned a couple of nights ago, was that he trusted in himself and in his own strength. I will go to death for thee. Well, Peter, before the cock crows twice, you're going to deny me three times, and that happened. But here is the one who, instead of trusting his own love for the Lord, he trusted the Lord's love for him. This is a lesson for us to, to, to, to, to learn, beloved, that we will not depend on how much we can do for the Lord, but trust him, uh, for everything. So, therefore, the disciple whom Jesus loved said unto Peter, it's the Lord. It's the Lord. He ha- hasn't recognized him because of his sight or his voice, but it w- he recognized him right away. No one else could do this. No one else could, uh, bring in the whole school of fish that went into their net after a night of not fishing anything. It is the Lord. It is the one who's got the authority over the, over creation. And therefore, as soon as the sign was given and the net was full, Peter just did not waste any time. He jumped into the water and swam back to the shore. Now, what happened when they came to the shore? We realized, beloved, that the Savior, over and above his visit with his disciples that morning, he was going to talk specially to Peter, um, and the rest of the chapter, which we'll not be able to touch on tonight, has to do with how he restores Peter to become his faithful servant. And therefore, it's rather interesting that when the disciples came, uh, onto the shore, as soon as they came, uh, to the land, they saw a fire of coals and fish laid on it and bread. Now, when did Peter see the la- when did the w- did the the the Bible say about Peter last time was seen with coals of fire? It was at the high priest's house when he warmed himself up with the servants outside, when he denied his savior. Perhaps he, he got the message or the hint that it is the Lord here. Now here is the meal, beloved, that no man prepared. It was the Lord himself who prepared. He was the host. We were thinking about that this mo- this this morning. He thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. So here he is. The bread and the fish were there coming out of the hand of the Lord himself, of the Creator himself. And, uh, it shows us the, the care that he had in his heart for his own. Uh, the the thing that these disciples needed most was some warmth for their bodies. They probably were shivering all night from, from being on, on the sea. Uh, I- I'm pretty sure that Peter was, uh, was shivering too because he swam through the water. And then some food because they were hungry. And this one who cares so much for the sheep was ready for them with that. This story brings to my mind something that happened in the Old Testament. One day, a man called Elijah, who fled from the face of Jezebel under the threat on his life, went into the wilderness and and slept under a juniper tree. And when he woke up, he found an angel who had wakened him up and offered him something to eat. There was a a cup of water and a cake. He slept again and woke up again, and the same thing happened. Who prepared this for him? It's the angel of the Lord. It's, it's God himself who cared for his people. And here, the blessed Lord is caring for his people once again. He's caring for them, uh, once again. Come and dine, he said. Come and have breakfast. Come and have breakfast. What must have this been, uh, to the seven disciples? The Word of God says here that none of them asked him who he is because they knew it was the Lord. Um, they they they realized in themselves that this is something that no one else, uh, can do. Now, what lessons, what lessons can we learn from this? Let me suggest to you, beloved, that the Lord cares for every little detail in our lives. Uh, he cares and he takes care of that, and and therefore he, uh, he's always with us. Uh, the verse that I thought would would fit into this, into this, uh, lesson today comes to us from John, uh, chapter fourteen and verse eighteen, in the upper room, when the Savior said to them, I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you. I will not leave you comfortless or orphans. I will come to you. And he's there, for thou art with me, thy, uh, rod and thy staff, they, they comfort me. So the Savior here is teaching the lesson, uh, and this lesson is applicable to us today. We may be tossed by the waves on a restless sea, and we need to look for him on solid ground when the morning comes. We may feel that we are left alone, and uh, the night is long, and our efforts are fruitless. Let me talk especially for those of you who are involved in the lo- who are involved, uh, on in on a daily basis in the work of the Lord. Uh, quite often we work so hard here, say for example, in in the Park of the Palms, you're you're you're involved in s- some kind of responsibility, and things seem to be not just bringing any fruit, and and and the night is so long and and and everything is so tiresome, and you cannot see any obvious results to your labor. But be sure that he knows, and be sure that when the morning comes, when the morning comes, and we're, we're tired and exhausted, uh, we will hear his voice. Next one, please. His voice will come over to us, uh, over the, the storm. And, um, no matter what the circumstances around us are, what we need to do is to pursue whatever work he's given us to do now. Um, our work may, may seem boring and mundane, and uh, uh, if you add to this, it is, it is even fruitless. So, but, but the, but the, the, the, the question is, or the, the responsibility I and you have is to wait on him until the morning breaks and his, his voice will come to us. He is never nearer at one time that than another. You see, he's always near, but my problem, my difficulty is my perception of his nearness changes because I'm not walking as close to him as I ought to, and therefore his nearness is, is a, is, is granted, but it is my perception of how much I perceive, uh, his nearness to be, and and he's always there. So, next, we must work, pursue our duties, whatever our calling is for him, uh, until we get further orders. You see, those disciples, uh, when they saw him, uh, twice in the very first week after his resurrection, I don't know how, how soon after that he appeared to them at the, at the lake. They had no fresh orders, you know, they, they he was, he was telling to them, as the Father has sent me, so send I you. There's no fresh orders. And yet, what he expected of them is to just continue, uh, to pursue the calling and the duties for now until further orders, uh, come. Even though, as I said earlier, even though our work may seem, uh, rather mundane and and and not exciting, and nothing lofty is happening, and we're living in a valley most of the time. And you know, I'm I'm sharing this with those who are working particularly here, uh, because, uh, being involved in in a in a in a camp, uh, is very much similar to that, to myself, and we often, we're, we're tagging along, and, and no results are obvious, and uh, there are financial difficulties, there is uh, there is uh difficulties with staffing the place, and so on. But this should not in any way discourage us. We should really continue to pursue until new orders come. Um, we should realize that perhaps this is God's method of dealing with us, that, uh, no higher calling will come soon. And, uh, as, as, uh, as, uh, John the Baptist said of the blessed Lord Jesus, he said, he must increase and I must decrease. I think this is a good principle in the life of a servant of God, child of God, uh, to always make sure that we are not promoting ourselves, and that the one we're promoting is our blessed Lord. So even if, uh, his glory would mean that I am less appreciated, that that should be our attitude, you know, he must increase and I and I must decrease. The order may come at last. The order may come at last, and uh, and uh, even when we do not recognize, um, who gave the order as they were there in the, in the boat, and that unknown, unrecognized figure on, on the shore said to them, just cast the net on the right hand side. One would have said, who is he who's telling us that? Well, they didn't say that. They were wise enough, though they were weary of toiling, they were wise enough to heed the order and to let down the uh, the uh, the net on the right side of the boat. So happy are we when we obey even when the order comes and we don't recognize who's giving the order. Because quite often, as I said, our perception is not as clear or as, uh, keen as it ought to be. In summary, beloved, this lesson for us is that we may have to toil all night, gathering souls for Christ may seem like a long and a fruitless effort, and sometimes we feel like giving up. But we need to wait. As we said, we need to work, continue working. We need to obey when the order comes, and uh, then the morning will break and the shadows will flee. But you know, beloved, there's coming a morning which will never be followed by night when he comes for us. The time will come when there will be no storms, no perils, no sea, actually. The sea will, will not be there, and our savior will be there ready to welcome us, uh, to the shore. Meanwhile, we need to continue laboring and working, uh, for him. Now, this is the lesson that we learn from, uh, this particular, uh, passage, insofar as how the Lord is with us in all, uh, of life's work, and how our attitude should be in regards to what happens as we keep laboring and toiling for him. Now, as we said, uh, earlier in our studies, every time there was an appearance, uh, there was a setting, and uh, there was a need, and how the Savior met the need of these people. And here was obviously the need of those exhausted and tired disciples, and how he graciously met them with a meal and warmth and and words of encouragement, as we see later on. But we also said that in every setting there was a dispensational application. So in the case of Mary, it was the Lord dealing with an individual New Testament believer. Uh, in the case of the, uh, of, of Peter, as we repeatedly said that, he was the advocate. In the case of the disciples on the Emmaus Road, he was the shepherd, the, uh, great shepherd of the sheep. Uh, with Thomas, it was his dealing at a future time in, uh, in, um, in bringing Israel back, uh, through the tribulation. Here, uh, we have a millennial image of how the king himself, with his servants in the millennium, uh, his servants at the time will be, uh, the, uh, pious remnant of Israel who have believed in him and who have refused to, uh, believe in the, in the, uh, uh, beast at the time, and therefore will be admitted into the millennial kingdom of the Lord, and they are given the task of spreading the gospel, uh, among the nations. So, as we can see here, uh, uh, the, the, the Sea of Tiberias speaks to us of the nation, especially if we name it by this Roman name of it. Uh, the church has been established, as we have seen the scene in the upper room. Uh, Thomas was restored to the Lord, as Israel will be rest- uh, will be restored at one time, and the kingdom will follow. And therefore, uh, the work here that the, uh, disciples are given is symbolic in a sense, or uh, uh, prophetic of a future when they will be spreading the gospel, uh, of the kingdom. So I would like to have continued with this, uh, any further, but we cannot tonight. Uh, but reminder again, beloved, that these revelations of our blessed Savior were all fragmentary, uh, separate from each other, different places, different people, different problems, but when you put them all together, you get a perfect revelation of the risen Christ. Uh, there is some more to speak of, like his appearance to Paul and uh, uh, in on the, on the road to Damascus and so on. Uh, but we, we, we, that's all the time that we are afforded, and I trust that you will continue, uh, studying, uh, these, uh, lovely passages. His, his talk to, to Peter tonight, uh, later on in the chapter was very, very edifying and significant, but, uh, as I say, we don't have the time to do it. Our Heavenly Father, we thank and praise thee again for our Savior, our Lord Jesus. We thank thee that he's, uh, still willing to receive those who come to him by faith and accept his sacrifice on the cross on their behalf. And Father, we thank thee for the time we had spent around him, remembering him as our risen Lord. And we ask indeed that, uh, what we have heard would indeed work in our hearts, uh, to, to make us, uh, better servants of the king, waiting patiently for his coming, waiting patiently for his orders, waiting patiently until the night of his absence will give way to the morning of his coming to take us to be with him. Accept our thanks, we lift them up to thee in his precious name. Amen. We'll, uh, this time sing perhaps a couple of verses of our hymn. We have time for that. Three hundred and, uh, we'll sing verse number one and number five— uh, four. and four. Oh, how sweet the glorious message simple faith may claim. three hundred and two.