Sermon Central
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Hooked On Jesus
Contributed by Betty Johnson on Sep 6, 2008 (message contributor)
Summary: This is a sermon preached the week of Vacation Bible School that had the theme "Hooked on Jesus."
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Hooked on Jesus
John 21: 1-22
A pastor woke up one Sunday morning ready to preach one of the best sermons he felt like he had ever prepared....then he noticed what a beautiful day it was outside and he started to get a bit ambivalent about ....
- what a great day it would be to go fishing
- bright idea - assistant Pastor
- called - “Do you have an old sermon in your files that you could preach this morning?”
- being the great associate that he was “YES”
- so the pastor went off.... fishing
- caught biggest bass
- again - caught the biggest rainbow trout
- angel sitting on the shores of heaven watching
- God - he’s looking might proud of himself - look at him there.....
- God: I’ve got things under control - “Who’s he going to tell.”
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Little Eddie came several minutes late to Sunday School, and the teacher asked why he was late. He said, “I wanted to go fishing, but my dad wouldn’t let me, so we argued, and that’s why I’m late.” The teacher said, “Good for your father! Did he explain to you WHY you needed to come to church instead of going fishing on a Sunday morning?” “Yes ma’am,” replied the boy. “He said there weren’t enough worms for both of us.”
Pray: Lord, whether we’re here because we want to be or not, change our hearts. Teach us what we need to hear today - guide us by your Holy Spirit and may everything we think and say be honoring to you. Amen.
* * * *
You’d have done it yourself. Jesus was dead and gone. He had told them before he died to go north and so they had. Now here they were, by the sea of Galilee, their home turf. They were waiting for Jesus to appear to them again. He had appeared already, twice, but with his cruel death burning in their minds, did they really yet believe that Jesus was alive? Did they really assume that he would appear to them again? Why had he told them to go north? It was back to their old stomping ground - back beside the lake. And yet Jesus told them to go there and wait for Him.
What would you have done? Here they are waiting for something to happen that may or may not happen and finally the tension gets to be too much. Maybe they’re sitting around by the lake, stringing a few nets just to pass the time, talking, and laughing together to cover up their obvious sorrow.
Then Peter, impulsive Peter, - he can’t stand it anymore. That old urge of doing what he knew he could do, gripped him. “Well, I’m going fishing,” he says, and the others come right along - “We’ll go with you.”
Now notice, the disciples were in the will of God when they made their way back from Judea to Galilee. But they were restless. They weren’t sure of the meaning of Christ’s appearances, they weren’t sure of their place in evangelizing and carrying on the work of Christ in the world. So they go fishing. They go back to their old occupation.
Now there’s nothing wrong with fishing, but it does seem that going fishing at this particular time, when they should have been waiting for the manifestation of the Lord, implies the activity of the flesh.
It’s so much easier to go fishing than to give yourself to prayer and patience!
They wanted to get up - they wanted to do something!
- aren’t we like that - we just have to do something - I know I do - when God says wait - it’s just about all I can do to WAIT! - especially if I have failed - I want to do something to “make it better”
-Remember Peter? He had failed his Lord miserably. In his greatest hour of need, he cursed and denied even knowing that Master. Now here he was, back on the shores of Galilee where Jesus had first called him to be a “fisher of men.” Peter probably thought, as the memory of the denial around the campfire at Jesus’ trial burned in his mind, “There’s not much chance of me being a ‘fisher of men’ now.. It might have been different if I had proved true when that girl asked me if I knew Jesus. Oh, and I can’t get the sound of the wretched rooster crowing out of my head. So much for being called Peter, So much for being “the Rock.” I can hardly expect Jesus to trust me now, so I’d better get back to what I can do.”
Is that what it’s like for you? When you make a mistake. When you fail the Lord. When you sin and then you ask forgiveness but you still feel horrible inside. Do you go back to what you know.
