Will You Serve Jesus?
John 21:1-19
Sermon by Rick Crandall
McClendon Baptist Church - June 7, 2009
*I grew up in a different world. Fifty years ago there was a passenger train called “The Nancy Hanks” that ran from Atlanta to Macon Georgia, and then on to Savannah. When I was in the first grade, my parents put me on that train, by myself, to go visit my grandmother in Macon.
*You may be thinking, “They were hoping you wouldn’t come back!” But I made the trip to Macon just fine, because I was on the right track. Are you on the right track today? Do you think your life is moving in the right direction? A better question is this: Does God think your life is moving in the right direction? One of the best signs is whether or not you are serving the Lord. God’s Word shows us why we should all be serving the Lord.
1. First: Serve the Lord, because His care is unlimited.
*Jesus Christ is more than able to take care of you. He can help you with His unlimited wisdom. After Jesus rose from the dead, Peter and six of the other disciples decided to go fishing. Vs. 3 tells us that they fished all night, but they caught nothing. Most of those men were professional fishermen, but they caught nothing.
*The good news in vs. 4-6 is that Jesus was close by:
4. When the morning had now come, Jesus stood on the shore; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus.
5. Then Jesus said to them, "Children, have you any food?’’ They answered Him, "No.’’
6. And He said to them, "Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.’’ So they cast, and now they were not able to draw it in because of the multitude of fish.
*We can see the Lord’s wisdom here: Jesus will always ask you the right questions. And at just the right time, He will give you the right answer.
*Darren Rogers explained, “The Lord knew where the fish were. The disciples had failed and it was time for Jesus to take over the situation. He told them where to cast the net. They obeyed, and they caught a multitude of fish. The difference between success and failure was the width of a ship! We are never far from success when we let Jesus give the orders. We are usually closer to success than we think.” (1)
*Jesus Christ can help you with His unlimited wisdom and with His unlimited wealth. We see a small example in vs. 5-11:
5. "Children, have you any food?’’ -- "No.’’
6. And He said to them, "Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.’’ So they cast, and now they were not able to draw it in because of the multitude of fish.
7. Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, "It is the Lord!’’ Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment (for he had removed it), and plunged into the sea.
8. But the other disciples came in the little boat (for they were not far from land, but about two hundred cubits), dragging the net with fish.
9. Then, as soon as they had come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid on it, and bread.
10. Jesus said to them, "Bring some of the fish which you have just caught.’’
11. Simon Peter went up and dragged the net to land, full of large fish, 153; and although there were so many, the net was not broken.
*Jesus Christ is more than able to meet your needs. When we have nothing, He is there to supply us. And He is able to give us a super-abundance in life. Jesus is able to give us so much that our nets ought to be breaking. And then He is able to keep our nets from breaking.
*You may be going through some troubles right now. But trust in the Lord, because He will surely take care of you. He has already blessed and cared for us in countless ways.
*This week I thought back to one example from my life. It was over at Emmanuel Baptist Church in the mid-90s. It was a boiling-hot summer night, and we were getting in the car to go home from church. Standing at the car door, I waved good-bye to someone, then got in and started to put on my seat belt. Just them I heard a loud shot, like a gun going off.
*I got out of the car and saw two holes in the roof. Thank the Lord they didn’t go all the way through. And they didn’t come from a gun. The circuit breaker on the pole had blown out and hit the top of my car. I found the lead and copper piece on the ground the next day, and Entergy paid for the damage. But if I had waved two seconds longer, that piece of lead would have gone through my head.
*Christian, when you get to Heaven, you are going to see that God took care of you in hundreds of ways you never knew. But even if He never did anything else, Jesus died on the cross for you! That alone ought to motivate us to serve the Lord. Serve the Lord, because His care is unlimited.
2. And because His commands are unmistakable.
*After breakfast Jesus had a conversation with Peter. This was vitally important for Peter, because he had denied the Lord 3 times just before the cross. In his guilt, Peter may have thought that his service to the Lord was over, but Jesus came to Peter with love and forgiveness. Jesus came to assure Peter that his service was still very much in need. We can listen to a part of their conversation in vs. 15-17.
*In these verses the Lord asked Peter the most important question in life: “Do you love Jesus?” -- That is: “Do you love God?” The original Greek had more than one word that we translate into the English word “love.” Here then is a good paraphrase of the Lord’s questions in vs. 15-17:
15. “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me unconditionally more than you love these men?” “Yes, Lord, You know that I love You like a friend and brother.”
16. Jesus asked him again a second time, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me with my kind of unconditional love? -- “Yes, Lord, You know that I love You like a friend and brother.”
17. Jesus said to him the third time, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me like a friend and brother?” Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, "Do you love Me?’’ And he said to Him, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You like a friend and brother.”
*Peter told the Lord that he loved Him, and so should we. The Lord certainly wants you to tell Him that you love Him. But that’s not enough. God has a job for you. This is what the Lord told Peter three times in vs. 15-17. “Simon, son of John, do you love me? Then feed my lambs. Take care of my sheep. Feed my little sheep.”
*Love is not just something to say. It’s something we are commanded to do. Jesus had a job for Peter, and Jesus has a job for you. God’s commands are clear: God calls all of His followers to serve Him by serving others. The word “serve” is found 33 times in our English New Testament. The word “servant” is found 165 times. And many of those verses apply to us.
*In Rom 14:17-18, Paul tells Christians that the kingdom of God is “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. For he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men.”
*In 1 Cor 9:19, Paul said, “Though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more” (to Christ).
*In 2 Cor 4:5, Paul said, “We do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake.”
*Then in Gal 5:13, Paul tells Christians, “You have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.”
*There are many ways that we can serve the Lord by serving each other. Many of you are serving in VBS this week, and we thank God for you! Many more can come back tonight at 6 to worship the Lord and pray for VBS. You can send cards to people. Do all kinds of simple acts of random kindness. Visit your neighbors, go to the hospital, or go see a shut-in. Walk through a neighborhood passing out Christian literature, like a couple of our deacons have been doing. Teach or help in the nursery. Make small repairs on somebody’s home. Witness to your family, friends and co-workers. Go on a mission trip to someplace near or far. Invite people to church and especially to VBS next week. The possibilities for serving the Lord are as big as the world and its 7 billion people. Keep asking the Lord, and he will show you what to do.
*But our attitudes are just as important as our actions. In Luke 22:24-27, just hours before Peter denied the Lord, hours before Jesus died on the cross for us, what were the disciples doing? Of all the things that they could have been doing and should have been doing, they were arguing with each other about who was the greatest! That night Jesus told them:
25. "The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those who exercise authority over them are called ‘benefactors.’
26. But not so among you; on the contrary, he who is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he who governs as he who serves.
27. For who is greater, he who sits at the table, or he who serves? Is it not he who sits at the table? Yet I am among you as the One who serves.”
*God commands us to serve with love, kindness and humility. Pastor James Moore gave this testimony:
*Some years ago, I went to college with a girl from Sarawak, Borneo. Her name was Annie Wong. Her grandfather had been a head-hunter. (Can you imagine that? Talk about somebody not likely to become a Christian!) But when she was in high school, Annie went one night to a youth program led by a Methodist college student.
*That night she was saved. She accepted Christ as her Savior and dedicated her life to him. But then Annie had a problem: How would she tell her parents about her new-found faith? Annie decided (at first) not to tell them in words, but rather to show them in deeds of love. Here’s how she described what happened:
-“Before Christ came into my life, I was spoiled and selfish. I was irritable and impatient. I was disrespectful to my parents. My room was a mess and my attitude was worse. But after Christ came into my life, I changed. I was kind to my parents. I cleaned up my room. I helped with the house-work. I spoke with tenderness and respect to my parents. I was loving toward everyone.
-My parents noticed and they said to me: ‘Annie, you are different! Why? What has happened to you?’
-Annie replied, ‘Yes, I am different because I have been reborn! I have Christ as my Savior. I am a Christian now and Christians always live by the law of love.’
-Then her parents said: ‘Tell us more of this religion. Tell us more of this Christ. If He can change people like that, we want to be Christians, too!’” (2)
*This is the great goal of our service to the Lord: More people saved, forgiven and living forever with the Lord in Heaven. So the Lord commands us to serve. Serve the Lord, because His commands are unmistakable.
3. And because His cause is urgent.
*The cause of Jesus Christ is crucial, urgent. There was nothing blatantly wrong with Peter and the other disciples going fishing that day. We know that because Jesus helped them fish. But the fact is that Jesus had already put a higher calling on their lives. In Matt 4:19, near the beginning of the Lord’s ministry Jesus had told them: “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
*Now the Lord didn’t want anything getting in the way of their service to Him:
-Not their jobs.
-Not what they liked to do.
-Not their past failures.
-Not their frustrations.
-Not the difficulty of the work.
*Jesus didn’t want anything getting in the way of their service to Him. And down in vs. 18-19, the Lord began to tell Peter about the ultimate cost of his service to Jesus. The Lord told Peter:
18. “Most assuredly, I say to you, when you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you wished; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish.”
19. This He spoke, signifying by what death he would glorify God. And when He had spoken this, He said to him, “Follow Me.”
*Well, Peter, you’re not getting a Cable TV show. You’re getting a cross. But it was worth it, because nothing is more urgent than the cause of Jesus Christ. And what a difference was made, because Peter was willing to serve!
-3,000 people were saved on the day of Pentecost.
-5,000 more were saved not long after.
-God used Peter to help start and lead the early church.
-God used Peter to help lead the first Gentile to Jesus.
-And God used Peter to help give us the Word of God.
*All of this happened and much more, because Peter was willing to serve the Lord. Nothing is more urgent than the cause of Jesus Christ. So please don’t think that your service doesn’t matter. Almost everywhere the need is far, far greater than the Christian people who are there to serve.
*Our daughter, Becky is the Baptist Collegiate Ministry Director in Miami for 3 schools: The University of Miami, Florida International University and Dade Community College. -- One BCM Director for over 100,000 students.
*The need for your service is urgent, -- even in a place like West Monroe, where we live in the heart of the Bible Belt.
*The great missionary Adoniram Judson sweated out Burma’s heat for 18 years without a furlough. Six years without a single person won to Jesus! Enduring torture and imprisonment, Judson admitted that he never saw a ship sail without wanting to jump on board and go home.
*When his wife’s health broke, and he put her on a homebound vessel in the knowledge he would not see her for two full years, Judson wrote these words in his diary: "If we could find some quiet resting place on earth where we could spend the rest of our days in peace. . ."
*But he broke off in mid-sentence, and steadied himself with this remarkable postscript: "Life is short. Millions of Burmese are perishing. I am almost the only person on earth who has learned enough of their language to communicate the good news of salvation. . ." (3)
*And Judson did communicate the good news of salvation to them. With every fiber of his being he served the Lord. What could possibly be more important than serving the Lord? Souls are hanging in the balance. Eternal destinies are hanging in the balance. May God help us to see the urgency of sharing the good news about Jesus Christ! May God help us to see the urgency of serving the Lord. It all comes back to Jesus, so serve the Lord.
1. Adapted from SermonCentral sermon “Breakfast on the Beach” by Darren Rogers - John 21:1-14
2. Adapted from ChristianGlobe.com sermon “A Mother’s Love” by James Moore - Mark 7:24-30
3. Regions Beyond, Vol. 37, No. 1, p. 2. - Found at Sermonillustrations.com
