Revealed

I was thinking about this weekend. This is what normal people think about, not just religious geeks, but I was thinking about Resurrection. We’re doing this whole series on the Resurrection and about every year I spend some time after Easter Sunday talking about the further Resurrection accounts, whatever book we are in at the time, and so I just started thinking about Resurrection.

I thought we’d take a step back today and think a little bit more deeply about Resurrection and understand how that undergirds what we’re talking about here. Now we say Resurrection in the church, and it’s one of those church words that obviously now they use it sometimes today, like if you had a proposal in your workplace and it was dead, but then somehow you came at it with another angle, it would then, and then it was accepted, we say that proposal was resurrected. So it can be used in everyday life.

The, I was looking at the the Greek for, in John 20 verse 9 that we read a couple weeks ago, it said the most beloved disciples said he outran Peter, that was first most important part, and the second part was that he believed, and the third part was it said he did not understand yet from Scripture that the Messiah was to rise again on the third day. So I went and looked at that Greek for rise again. It’s not Resurrection because Resurrection has Latin roots.

I don’t know if you’re already asleep from me talking about this, but it was it was fun for me to do this. This is how I enjoy my weekends. It has Latin roots and the Latin roots speak to it in a broader way, but in the in the lexicon for John 20 verse 9, the verse rise, the word rise is an anistomy.

Anistomy means rise. That’s not an anistomy. I’ll get there.

Anistomy means rise, but I love the first definition of it. It says to cause to rise. Oh, I’m preaching too early in the sermon.

I had a friend in one of my preaching classes that would say to people you need to you need to take off before you fly. Go slow. But I love this because it says to rise up, to cause to rise up, not just to rise up, but to cause to rise up.

And then you go to the Latin and of course in English we understand that when we say resurrection, the RE is re, so it means what? Again, do it again. And then this is this is something I did not know, but Stuart McLean said that surrection, that’s a word we don’t use very often, but if it’s re resurrection, surrection is typically used as a term in geology. It means upheaval.

Basically, it could describe some of the mountains when tectonic forces caused to erupt from the earth. Upheaval, coming up from the earth, breaking through the ground, to a mountain. That’s pretty cool.

Now the other word we use a lot with surrection is the word insurrection. Insurrection is a political or military uprising against a government that is in power. Generally, they are violent in nature.

Resurrection has the components of surrection, blasting out of the ground, and insurrection, where there is a component of violence with resurrection. We think that Jesus went down to Sheol and and just shook Sheol’s hand and said, Hey, I’m gonna rise up. You got any problem with that? You know, if you do, we can talk through this.

That is not what happened. It was violent. Paul said, Oh death, where is your sting? It is violent, like when Jesus said in the kingdom will come with violence, meaning there has to be a fight through death and sin and resurrection.

That violence that comes in insurrection to destroy the powers that are upon this earth is all tied to who Jesus is and what Jesus did in the resurrection and praise God what Jesus will do on the day of resurrection when we will be all called to meet him. That was just a side note. I didn’t I didn’t mean to have that as part of my sermon until like today when I was like, man, I really want to dig into resurrection.

Nonetheless, what I’m trying to say is resurrection isn’t just a word in passing. Resurrection is one of the most powerful things that the world has ever experienced. On that note, as we think about resurrection, we are going to spend the next several weeks.

Now we’re in John 21. He has, I’m, this is all the same account of the appearance of Jesus, but we’re going to break it into four different parts, which means I reserve the right to go back and talk about verses we already went over, but I didn’t dig into. So today we’re going to talk about revealed, what it means to be revealed, and then in the subsequent weeks we’re going to talk about the net.

How can you talk about a net for 20 minutes? It’s going to happen. Just wait and see. Now everybody’s going, man, I got to be there for that.

The grace, the power of grace, and follow me. All that connects together in this whole section. Will you stand as you are able for the reading of the gospel of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

After this, Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias, and he revealed himself in this way. Simon Peter, Thomas called the twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and the two others of his disciples were together. Simon Peter said to them, I am going fishing.

They said to him, we will go with you. They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore, yet the disciples did not know it was Jesus.

Jesus said to them, children, do you have any fish? They answered him, no. He said to them, cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some. So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in because of the quantity of fish.

That disciple whom Jesus loved therefore said to Peter, it is the Lord. Then Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord. He put on his outer garment, for he was stripped.

For work, he threw him, stripped for work, and he threw himself in the sea. The other disciple came, disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they will not far, for they were not far from the land, but out about a hundred yards off. The Word of God, for the people of God.

Thanks be to God. Amen. You may be seated.

One of the things I love talking about in the book of John is the imagery, or the signs, or the what he’s trying to say that is not actually, you have to read it a few times to pick it up, or even better, you have to be open to the Holy Spirit, to hear the Holy Spirit talking, not just with the words, but with the undergirding of what he says. There are several things throughout this passage where there are, where there’s lessons directly spoken and acted out by Jesus, and then there’s other things where John doesn’t tell us explicitly, but he, but he tells us nonetheless. The first one is, well, let’s look at revealed.

It said after Jesus revealed himself again, to the Apostles, and then it said he revealed himself this way, and then in verse 15, which we’re not to yet, or 14, it says this was now the third time Jesus was revealed to the disciples. And he’s telling us that, and then he goes into the story that’s saying Peter and seven total disciples, the other two, the other five must have been, or yeah, four, because they didn’t have Mattias yet, they must have been doing their own thing, and Peter, you know, after each resurrection, it said Jesus came on Easter morning, and then on Easter evening that we read about last week, and then over those 40 days, there were days where he wasn’t there. So I picture the disciples just sitting around, waiting for Jesus to come, and of course, what does Peter know to say? I’m bored.

I’m going fishing. Who’s in? There. Bruce is in.

So, Jesus took Bruce and the crew to the Sea of Galilee, and they caught a five-pound carp. That’s the inside story. And he went back, you see what happened is, we all have things that we do, and we have gifts that Jesus gives us.

Peter was a fisherman, and when he became a disciple of Jesus, he was called to be a fisherman. We’ll go into that in a few weeks, but, so Peter, knowing what he was good at, went back out to do what he was good at, or what he knew he could kind of have fun with. Some people have fun with fishing, some people don’t, don’t want to wait, impatience.

You must have patience. Fisherman, a little bit. Same thing with golf, you know, Peter and the disciples could have been golfing too.

Some similarities there. So, they went out there, and they’re doing whatever they’re doing in their daily life, and who shows up? Jesus. Now, here’s the symbolism.

What they do when they go fishing is, they go out at night. They don’t use poles, but they use nets. We’ll go into detail about nets next week.

But, they use those nets, and cast them out, and pull them in, and they try to find a, what do you call a whole group of fish? School. I don’t know what you said, buddy. They find a whole school of fish.

So, it says these words. Now, pick this up, what John was saying. He said, they went out, and they caught nothing all night long.

Two layers of symbolism. They were doing what they wanted to do for fun, or what they didn’t know what else to do without Jesus showing up, and revealing himself. So, it says they caught nothing.

Connected to, if Peter’s supposed to be a fisher of people, while he was there, they caught nothing. He was doing what he did, and they wanted to catch these fish, but Jesus wanted them to catch other fish of people. Symbolism is, it was dark.

In the darkness, they caught nothing. They didn’t know they didn’t have the guidance. They didn’t understand that it wasn’t just about the fish, and eating the fish.

It was about catching people. The darkness said they still didn’t have the full understanding of who Jesus was. Now, when we look at darkness, there are three things.

Why is Jesus kept from our recognition? There are three things I’ve seen in the resurrection accounts, and in the Bible, of what might have kept them from recognizing Jesus, and what keeps us. One is lack of expectation. Another thing I was reflecting on this weekend is worship.

Just going over our stuff, and looking at our the mission statement of the Global Methodist Church, the first thing is to worship, how? Passionately! Say it with confidence, and you’ll be right. Worship passionately, and I thought, man, if that is one of the main things we do, we have some work to do. How is it passionate? So, because we have some work to do, I have some homework for you.

The president shouldn’t roll her eyes at me. We have some homework. What I want you to do is email or text me what part of worship is most exciting for you.

Don’t name the top ten things that are most exciting to you. Pick what part of it really brings you into the presence of God. Name one.

There’s probably more than one, but let me know one thing that brings you into the presence of God, and what part of worship we have very many different parts. Passionately. What does that have to do with fishing? I can’t remember anymore.

But the worship, will you call? I want to see nods. Will you text me or email me? Let me know what you love, because we’re gonna work on some of that as we go this year. That night they caught nothing.

So, if we look at darkness, the first one is if we don’t have expectations. Now, I know where we are. When we come to worship, do you expect to see Jesus? Do you expect the power of the Holy Spirit to show up? Do you expect that God is going to do something awesome? That God is going to do something transformative, so when we go out of here, we carry something with us.

We carry a peace that passes all understanding. We carry a strength that only comes from supernatural power. We carry the Messiah himself in our heart, in the person of the Holy Spirit.

If we come into church without that lack of expectation, sometimes it’s just hard to see Jesus. It’s almost like you’re sitting down and saying, surprise me. But we don’t need to be surprised for God to show up.

At any point in our lives, whether it’s fishing, whether it’s worshiping, whether it’s working, that God will show up, that we expect, that we go in, even if it’s an arduous time in your life, even if it’s an arduous time in the season of your work, that we expect God to show up. We expect Jesus to stand at the water and give us the guidance we need. Mary had a lack of expectation.

She went to the tomb expecting to find a dead body, and my favorite words are in Luke, where the angels say, why are you looking for the living among the dead? That we’re not looking for a dead Jesus in a tomb. We’re looking for a Jesus who is alive and who is changing lives today. We have a lack of expectation because we think, well, this, I, no one can change this.

It is hardwired. It is who I am. It is what I, but when Jesus comes in, we expect that Jesus is going to change everything.

Mary, looking for the dead, was not expecting a live Jesus, so she didn’t see when Jesus revealed himself to her. She thought he was the gardener. Expectation is huge.

Now, she also had a bit of this part, and that is emotional distress. We might not see that Jesus is revealing himself to us when we have emotional distress. Remember, Cleopas? Cleopas is a very important disciple.

Everybody named a child after Cleopas, right? Because he’s such a big name in the Bible. He shows up in the resurrection account of the road to Emmaus, Cleopas and the other disciple. I mean, who is the other disciple if Cleopas is the one named? But anyway, they were talking to Jesus the whole time.

They didn’t expect him, but it said in the beginning they were in shock and in grief and in pain. And Jesus said, what’s wrong? And they said, have you not heard the things that have been going on in Jerusalem and these areas that the one we thought was the Messiah they took away from us. They were emotionally distraught.

Now, sometimes our emotions, whether it’s fear, whether it’s anxiety, whether it’s pain, whether it’s grief, whether it’s distress, those are real things that come up in our lives, but they can mask us from Jesus who is trying to reveal himself to us and leave us in darkness still. And the other one I see here, which we mentioned earlier, is lack of biblical understanding. Now, there is a world of Christianity, Christianity, that tells you you don’t have to have biblical understanding to be a follower of Jesus, but if you don’t have biblical understanding, you’re walking in the darkness.

I’m sorry to break it to you, but we need to read the Bible. We need to try to understand the Bible. John said very clearly, remember, although he outran Peter, he believed that Jesus wasn’t there, but he had a lack of biblical understanding, so he did not know that the Savior was supposed to rise on the third day.

They eventually knew that because they read up and the Holy Spirit entered their hearts. But those three things help us and they’re enablers that keep us in the darkness, keep us away from the… If there’s darkness, then there’s also got to be, this is the gospel, there is light, and those things keep us from the light and recognizing, and in the light we see clearly. In the light we see Jesus clearly.

When we look at the Greek word reveal, which that is the other Greek word, the other word in there that I had, it is simply phanerao, phanerao. It’s interesting how they put the omicron and the omega next to each other in Greek. That’s like a short O and a long O. Phan, phaneramo, phaneramo, means to make actual or visible, to show oneself, to manifest, to become known.

Jesus revealed himself. They got to see with their own eyes and touch with their own hands the resurrected Jesus, and they recognized him, and he revealed himself, and I love how it says this, just as day was breaking, just as the Sun was coming up, the Son of Man was standing on the side of the sea. See the difference? Light is breaking, Jesus is there, they see him, they don’t recognize him because it’s dark, and then the one whom Jesus loved here, John points out that he recognized Jesus before Peter.

There’s a little thing going on with the Son of Thunder and Peter on who’s the best disciple, and he said, and it says this, and Peter, when he heard it, was the Lord put on his outer garment because he was stripped, and the reason he was stripped, he was ready for work on the sea. It was like wearing a swimming suit, but it was just his undergarments underneath. They didn’t really, you know, Kohl’s wasn’t open that weekend, so he didn’t get a new swimming suit, and so he had that on, and the symbolism there is that Peter tried to cover himself.

We’re gonna get into why Peter tried to cover himself, not just because he was embarrassed about his body, because Jesus sees us completely. Jesus sees right through the facades we put in our lives, that the clothing, the masks, everything. He sees into the depths of our soul, just like when he turned and looked at Peter after he denied him three times.

So Jesus sees in our soul, so Peter was stripped before the Lord, tried to cover himself up one more time before he let Jesus fully into his heart. So, how is Jesus revealed in everyday life? This is when the light comes, when the light bulb comes off in our head, when the light comes into our heart, when the light comes into our life. How do we make that transition? How do we, where do we see God revealed in the world? Let’s start generally.

Romans 1, 19 and 20 says we see God revealed in nature, in creation. When we’re outside, when we see what God is doing, when we look around and we see how much bigger it is than we are, how can you say, well, we did everything ourselves. I have full power in my life.

How can you look at the vastness of creation, the stars at the night, the mountains that surrected out of the land and not think there’s something bigger going on here? Or how could you think that could just spontaneously happen? That just does not happen all the time. If you look at physics, if you look at biology, if you look at geology, it’s not like something doesn’t come out of nothing. There has to be a creator.

By nature, we have to open, when we see in very nature God reveals himself, so every single day we can see the revelation of God in Jesus Christ through creation, which is a magnificent thing because the Creator is bigger than that. Next is in blessings. Proverbs 16 20, let me just read that because we can see in 16 20, it says, whoever gives thought to the word will discover good and blessed is he who trusts in the Lord.

Some people are really good with that, realizing in a blessing in something good. Some people will say, well, I had some good luck. Others will say, well, I made that happen because I tried really hard, and others will say, man, I saw God in that blessing today, and all I could do was drop to my knees and say, thank you, Jesus.

God reveals himself in nature, in blessing, and this is other ways in which God reveals himself throughout Scripture is through four things. It’s also how we can hear God, but Jesus reveals himself in many… Oh, yeah, this week I discovered a new fashion statement. Oh, that’s on camera.

Whoops. Oh good. She’s got the picture up.

You see, it started out as thinking over the weekend I would get some glasses, and we would do this and look at the solar eclipse. Which means the Sun was getting eclipsed by the moon. A lunar eclipse can be a different way, but the solar eclipse, and I thought over the weekend, yeah, I can get the glasses, and we can do this.

It’ll be like having a science project. It’ll be great, and then some of you saw this on Facebook, I think, and then Holly emailed me on Monday morning and said, hey, this is what you should do. You should go get some glasses, and you can look at this for a science project, and I said, yeah.

I was planning on doing it, so I got… After I got that email, I found a list from KCTV5 of places where you should get glasses, and then places that were not approved that were selling glasses. Could you imagine what those things would do to you? And I started calling down the list, and I heard, we’re sold out. We’re sold out.

We’re sold out, and I was like, hmm, this isn’t as easy as I thought it was going to be, so I had a couple places I called, and I didn’t get an answer, and I finally went to Hy-Vee, and they said, we’re sold out, and I was like, man, I don’t know if I have anything else on the list, and he said, but we’re supposed to get some more in 30 minutes, and so I went back to my car, and I started calling other places, and then it was kind of fun. They had all me, like, chasing rabbits everywhere. Well, we don’t have it, but I heard this place has it.

Well, we don’t have it, but this place has it. We don’t have it, but this place is getting them here.