A Voice Still Calls Series

A Voice Still Calls

Series: A Journey with Jesus (through the Gospel of John)

Brad Bailey – May 15, 2011

If you didn’t hear the news… this month, Godrej and Boyce, the last company in the world to produce typewriters, finally shut down its production plant. They’re located in Bombay (Mumbai) India…and still have an inventory of a few hundred machines—mostly in Arabic—if you need to buy one. This marks an end of an era for a piece of equipment that dominated the office communication scene… now left behind in the new era of computers. The manager of Godrej and Boyce said, "We are not getting many orders now." [1]

I can’t help but feeling a little for these typewriters. On the one hand… they had a great run… they were depended upon for capturing and communicating so much of the past century…but their time has passed.

> As we continue in our series ‘A Journey with Jesus through the Gospel of John’… I think that gives us a sense of where we find Jesus’ first disciples. Maybe they thought they were done with… God had drawn them into what was certainly the most meaningful work they could have ever imagined being part of… but now it was over.

Now if you’ve been following through this journey, you know that we are near the end of John’s testimony… Jesus has risen and already appeared to them. So we may think all their loss has changed. But while the resurrection of Christ certainly declares more than they had ever imagined about Jesus… what about them? He had appeared to them now twice… greeting them with peace… and revealing he had risen just as he said. But as for what was to be of their lives… nothing seemed the same. He had only told them one thing… go and wait in Galilee.

That is where we pick up.

John 21:1-14 (NIV)

Afterward Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Tiberias. It happened this way: 2 Simon Peter, Thomas (called Didymus), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. 3 "I'm going out to fish," Simon Peter told them, and they said, "We'll go with you." So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. 4 Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus. 5 He called out to them, "Friends, haven't you any fish?" "No," they answered. 6 He said, "Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some." When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish. 7 Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, "It is the Lord!" As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, "It is the Lord," he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water. 8 The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far from shore, about a hundred yards. 9 When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread. 10 Jesus said to them, "Bring some of the fish you have just caught." 11 Simon Peter climbed aboard and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish, 153, but even with so many the net was not torn. 12 Jesus said to them, "Come and have breakfast." None of the disciples dared ask him, "Who are you?" They knew it was the Lord. 13 Jesus came, took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. 14 This was now the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead.

[Several parts of the sections below describing the events have been drawn from Richard Tow.]

[Waiting in Galilee as instructed but nothing happening]

The story begins with the disciples obediently waiting for the Lord in Galilee.

Even before his death Jesus had said to the disciples in the upper room (Matt. 26:32) “But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee.” That’s directive was confirmed by the angels who appeared to the women at Jesus’ tomb in Matthew 28. In verse 7 they told the women, “Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.” Later, in verse 10 Jesus himself told these ladies to tell the disciples to go to Galilee. The Customs of the Passover Feast forbade their instant compliance with that command. And the Lord accommodated that even appearing to the group twice in Jerusalem [2] as recorded in John 20.