You Can Always Come Home: John 21:1-19-3/27/16

I hope the joy of Easter is in your hearts and in your smiles. It is time to celebrate! Lent is over, the dark night of the crucifixion has passed. Death has been defeated and OUR SAVIOR LIVES!!!

If He lives then we too who put our trust in Him also will live. Here in this story today we see that resurrection joy when Jesus forgives and restores one of the disciples and best friends, Peter.

Peter and the other disciples saw Jesus after He had been raised from the dead. Yet Peter wanted to go back to something familiar, back to business as usual. Maybe there was a time in your life where you felt like Peter, when you knew Jesus but walked away for awhile and wanted to go back to business as usual. Maybe you were thinking God could not possibly love you after what you have done.

Dear friends, if you think that then Jesus has some wonderful news to share with you today. He loves you, and you can always come home. So let us go back to Peter and see what kind of business he is trying to do.

He tries to go fishing and he catches….nothing. Then, this man tells the disciples to cast their nets on the other side of the boat, and when they listened, they pulled in a huge catch! Then they recognize the stranger on the shore…It is Jesus! They wanted to go back to business as usual, but God had a greater purpose in store for them. You may want to return too, but God has a greater purpose in store for you as well!

This story is a living parable: the disciples were told that if they followed Jesus, they would be fishers of men. Then in this story, they listened to Jesus even when they don’t know it is Him, and they catch fish.

Jesus is showing them what He is showing us: Follow His instructions and we too can catch people with the Gospel. If we trust and obey, then just as God drew the fish into these nets, He will use us to draw people to come to Jesus!

Once they recognize it is Jesus who is there, Peter gets excited and jumps off the boat and into the water, and swims to Jesus. Jesus has actually made them breakfast.

And this is where we wonder as Peter walks toward Jesus on the shore, “What is he going to say to Peter? What would He say to us?” Maybe we have wondered what Jesus would say to us if we came back to Him, would He be mad, scornful, angry.

Maybe Peter remembered Judas and what happened to him, and in a way Peter’s choice is a choice we all must make.

Will we be like Judas and think God could never forgive us and just give up? Or will be listen to the words of Jesus in Mark 16:4-7. Go get my disciples and Peter! Jesus is saying, I know Peter is feeling horrible right now, but go get my friend, I am not done with Him yet!

Jesus did not give up on Peter. And He will never give up on you either. He is not done with you or me. We still have a purpose.

You can always come back to Jesus and find forgiveness and a home, for Romans 8 says, “Now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”.

So what happens to Peter in this one final encounter with Jesus? Well the moment has come, but Jesus is not there to finger-point, and there is no anger, no judging. Instead Jesus asks Peter a question, and it is the most important question of Peter’s life.

See, Jesus wasn’t going to leave Peter go back to the life he once knew, because it is too important of a question. He won’t let us go either because it is too important of a question…”Do you love me?”

Jesus wants us to say yes so He can say “then follow Me, follow Me and find life”. Even after all the highs and lows of Peter, and just when he thinks, “how can god love me, after all the mess I have made?” Jesus answers…”follow me”.

“Peter, I have forgiven you, follow me!” Jesus gives us that same offer. The offer to forgive our sins and then invites us to follow Him.

Today is a day to celebrate joyfully. Because Jesus lives, we are free from sin, free to live, freed from the chains that once bound us. We are forgiven, restored, put back together, and healed. Now he says to all of us, “Follow Me” No matter who you are, what you’ve done, how far gone you feel, you can always come home. Jesus is offering forgiveness and says to you and I…
Follow Me.

And to top it off, Matthew West’s wonderful song, “Grace Wins”

John 13:1-17; Mark 14:22-25-”When You’re Here, You’re Family”

A simple meal, water, bread and cup. These right here are more than mere elements. They are reminders of God’s grace. They are part of the holy chords that bind us together.

Before we get into the meat of this message, we have to begin with the most glorious and exciting truth of all…It is no on less than Jesus Himself who invites us into this supper when we partake of it. We should never view Lovefeast as something we have to do, but as a holy act that we get to do.

We should view it as a blessing of being a Christian, for each time we eat and drink, we are making God a promise. That promise is an answer to His promise that He has already made to us, to never leave us nor forsake us. We, in turn, promise Him, “Lord we will always strive to trust in You, and in your death on the cross as the only way in which we are saved and redeemed”.

Now let us begin, and I broke this into 3 parts.

Pt. I-The meal. Jesus and His disciples at a meal, they had fellowship with one another, just as Christ calls us here to have holy, encouraging fellowship with one another.

The meal reminds us both of God’s love, and also that we are a part of His family. We are brothers and sisters in the Lord. By His grace, we are made a family, adopted sons and daughters of the King! If you are ever feeling low about yourself, remember you are a child of the KING OF KINGS! That is a great privilege.

We are a holy nation, a family of priests. Remember we are all ministers, and as servants, it brings us to part II.

Pt. II Feetwashing. Jesus washes the disciples feet. This was no glamorous task, and it was reserved only for the lowliest servants. Jesus, God-in-the-flesh, loves us so much He is willing to act like a servant to show it, so we therefore do this to follow His example out of love for Him and one another.

Our God is not afraid to get his hands dirty, and He says to us, “You cannot be afraid to get your hands dirty either.” We focus on the physical act of washing feet, but I see something deeper here too. God is showing us we cannot be afraid of one another’s dirtiness. It is part of loving your neighbor, scars and all.

None of us are perfect, and yet God still loves us 🙂 We also ought to love one another.

We all have true friends, friends that are beyond just acquaintances. They are the special ones who have seen us at our best and worst, let us laugh and cry. They are the friends we are not afraid to show our scars and brokenness, because they have proven to us they will not leave us.

We have a friend like that in Jesus, and He calls us to be that kind of friend to one another in the church, to walk with each other through the good and bad of life.

Feetwashing also reminds us of our baptism. Every time we wash, we encourage one another to stay faithful, strong, and keep following Jesus.

See what Peter says here? “Lord are you going to wash my feet?” Basically Peter is saying “God I do not want you near the dirtiest part of my body”. We are like Peter. We give God some parts, but the dirtiest parts that are shameful, we hold back.

We say, “God you really don’t want to touch this stuff” And God answers, “Yes I do, I want all of you, your brokenness, mess, shame, all of it”, because if we do not trust Him to heal us, forgive our sins, restore our life. If we do not trust Him to handle our brokenness and dirtiness, then we do not have a place with Him.

Jesus says to Peter what He says to all of us, “I want your dirtiness so I can cleanse you because I love you”

Finally, Pt III-The Bread and Cup-People today want a faith they can experience, a faith they in which they can engage their senses.

God makes Himself known to us by the ear when we hear His Word preached. He makes himself known to us by the eye, when we ready the Bible ourselves.

Yet, here is a symbol of God’s presence in our lives. We touch it, we taste it. Preaching reveals the truth of God in speech. Bread and cup reveals the truth of God in symbol. Bread and cup are heavenly symbols. They present Christ to us, who’s body was broken and blood was shed for us.

Jesus gave His life so we could have freedom from sin’s icy cold grasp. And now He invites us to this same table as well. To Eat and Find Life! Jesus is extending the table to us as imperfect and broken humanity, and saying “Come friends, feed upon the bread of life”

When we eat the bread and drink the cup, that is our “yes” to God’s offer of grace. The bread and cup reminds us of new life, beginning now and lasting through eternity. Fellowship with the meal, rededication with the feetwashing, unity with God in the Bread and Cup.

Matt. 13:33-35-3/13/15

This parable is similar to the one we looked at last week and you could draw the same lesson from it. God’s kingdom starts small, grows big, and invites people.

So let us dig here and see what Jesus is getting at. So we got dough here and we got yeast. Yeast turns bread dough into something it wasn’t before. In other words, it transforms it. It changes it from flour to human food.

It is similar in our lives as Christians, both individually and as a body, the church. See dough does not naturally have yeast contained within it, the yeast has to be added to the flour. It has to be put in.

None of us were sinless before we came to Christ, yet when we put our trust in Jesus, a divine trade happens. God takes our sins and our brokenness, and then gives life, peace, righteousness, and holiness. Remember the story with the King and the new robes He gave to His subjects?

God takes away our old life and gives us eternal life. He gives us all we need to live holy lives, and it is our responsibility every day to say “Jesus work through me today”

Just like the yeast is gifted to the dough to make it what it was meant to be, God’s amazing grace is gifted to us to make us who we were meant to be…mirror images of His Son.

Although the yeast looks like a minor ingredient, it works its way through the whole loaf.

This speaks to us on two levels. The dough goes through a transformation. Likewise, when we accept Christ, we are a new creation. The old is gone and the new has come.

When we make Him our King and our Savior, Lord and Master, He gives us a new heart that seeks to obey Him.

So if we have a new heart that wants to obey God? Why do we still sin? Well, God’s grace is like the yeast. It is working its way through you, perfecting you day by day. Remember, you and I are God’s masterpieces, and just like the best of artists, God wants to take His time, one step at a time.

Pray, “Lord, make me more like you”. Be patient, and have joy that His work in you is not done yet :).

So, with God’s grace working as leaven in the bread of our lives as individual believers, what does it mean as a group?

This is the main thrust of the parable: the leaven may not start very big, but it grows bigger, gets into everything, and you can’t stop it.

Likewise, the Kingdom of God did not start very big, but it grew bigger and bigger into everything and you cannot stop it.

And it did not just become another social club, but instead, an entirely new way of living and thinking and looking at the world.

This world is the dough, and we as Christians are to be the yeast, the leaven. We are to be the Kingdom of God that exercises influence, that brings about change.

Let me wrap this up with some encouragement. The Gospel of Jesus Christ changed the world in the way that we view everything today.

Where slavery was once accepted as necessary and normal, the Gospel changed minds about that. Where sexual immorality is celebrated, the Gospel shows a way to holiness. Where poverty is a problem, the Gospel challenges the world to do something about it.

Gladiator games were once the pinnacle of entertainment, until God used the church to stop it. Women and children were once seen as helpless and property, then god used believers to remind them that they had worth and value.

Hunger, sickness, even war, the gospel speaks to all these things, and when the world tries to silence us, it is up to us to ask God to give us the courage to continue to be Christ’s body in the world…as agents of reconciliation, bringing holiness, healing, and hope.

In short,

As individuals-We are the dough and Christ’s grace is the leaven, the yeast, which works its way into every area of our lives, transforming us into being more like Christ every day. It is our responsibility to not harden ourselves, but to make time and allow the Holy Spirit to mold us, through prayer, Bible reading, service, and more.

As a church-We are to be the yeast in the dough that is the world. Acting as Jesus’ hands and feet and heart to show the world what the kingdom of God is truly like, in our workplaces, in our homes, everywhere.

Matt 13:31-32-Big Things Come In Small Packages 3/6/16

A mustard seed. An ordinary item in our everyday world and yet used to teach us extraordinary truths.

Often we read in Scripture the stories about God using people, and we think “man, I wish God would use me the way He used so and so”

What we forget is that these people in the Bible, they were just ordinary people like you and me. They had shortcomings and flaws yet God still used them. In fact, God has a history of using the most unlikely of characters to get the job done.

I believe He does this to show us two deep facts. 1) No matter what it takes all things are possible with God. And second, 2) No matter your past mistakes, never think God can’t use you. He will

He uses us in big ways and small ways and always to His glory, so with that as an introduction, let’s take a look at this parables.

I think the mustard seed is meant to show us who really deserves all the credit for using us to build His kingdom.

Remember David and Goliath? David did not stand a chance, but with God all things are possible, and I believe God used David to show David and his people and all of us that “it is not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit” that these impossible tasks are accomplished.

The mustard seed was the smallest seed a farmer used, yet it grew into a pretty big shrub (from 4-15 feet high!) and it got so big, birds would perch in it. So what does this have to do with the Kingdom of God?

Like the mustard seed, the Kingdom was not all that impressive when it first arrived. Why not try to spread this kingdom in some other, more powerful way?

Yet God does not operate like us. He chooses the foolish things of this world to shame the wise. The mustard seed was small, just like the Kingdom of God started out small. But the seed grew and produced great results, and it was just being faithful as a tree. Likewise the Kingdom of God started out small, yet because those disciples were faithful to the king, in the end it grew and grew and produced us!

So what is the deal with the birds? Well to Jesus’ audience (who were mostly Jews) thought the kingdom of God was only meant for them, not for Gentiles. Gentiles to their minds were the enemy, the Romans. Gentiles to them, were the heathens who didn’t bother to worship God.

-Could the Gentiles really be included in God’s kingdom too? Well, if one looks back at the Old Testament in Ezekiel 17:23; 31:6 and Daniel 4:21, that is exactly what God’s plan was all along.

Jew and Gentile, all perching in one tree, all in one kingdom, all calling on one King for salvation.

All of us know groups of people in our lives who maybe we don’t know well, or don’t even like, and we may be tempted to think, “Can the Kingdom of God really be open for them too?” If they come to Jesus and submit to Him, then yes it is! And we can celebrate the miracle of someone being saved.

We don’t have to be always perfect, we just need to always point to the one who is perfect.

See Kudzu plants, like mustard shrubs, grow pretty wiled and cannot be contained. You cut Kudzu, it grows back, and nothing can stop it. It is the same with the Kingdom of God. Try to cut it back, it keeps growing, and nothing can stop it!

Remember this: For the first 300 years after Jesus and the first disciples walked this early, the church was powerless and up against the biggest empire of the day: The Roman Empire. Yet how did it survive?

3 ways.

-1) Outhought-They knew the Bible and their faith for why they believed what they believed

-2) Outloved-They showed that faith in their actions to others

-3) Outlasted-They were determined to never give up no matter what

So when you think that Christianity is losing ground in the world today, take heart, people are still coming to faith in Jesus, and we still have a mission to do.

Remember the Kudzu plant, remember the kingdom of God cannot be stopped, and remember these truths about this parable.

–The Kingdom of God starts small but His mighty power grows it big and deep.

-All Things are possible with God.

-It may attract people we expect, and we say AMEN, and it may attract people we don’t expect, and we still say AMEN

-God can use any of us to do anything, so let us not be discouraged.

-The kingdom of God can never be stopped.

-Out-think (know the Word), out-love (show charity), and outlast (never give up)