What a great Sunday for a first Sunday in Friendswood! Last Sunday was wonderful and I thoroughly enjoyed worship and the opportunity to share a message. My message stemmed from my experience being a new church start pastor and the struggle with reaching out outside the walls of the church. I think it was a fun and challenging message for myself and for those who heard it. I hope you will enjoy it as well.
The internet can be a great resource for studying scripture, but it can also be a confusing place to maneuver. Here are a number of resources that I have either used or have looked into using. As with anything on the internet, some of them are top notch and others need to be used with an understanding that not everything on the internet is produced through quality research. All of these, however, have certain resources that I believe are helpful in personal study as well as in preparing lessons for group study.
If anyone is looking for some free toilet paper, we have plenty at the house hanging from out trees – come and get it! Last night, the youth group at Friendswood United Methodist Church payed us a little visit to welcome us to the church by TP’ing our house. They did a great job and seemed to have a fun time with it. We retaliated with a couple cans of silly string, but that’s no match to over 100 rolls of toilet paper. They did help clean up most of it, but there is still a lot in the trees. It was a lot of fun and made us feel very welcomed. So welcomed, in fact, that there is no need for this to ever happen again!!
John 21:1-14 John 21:1 Later Jesus appeared again to the disciples beside the Sea of Galilee. This is how it happened. 2 Several of the disciples were there– Simon Peter, Thomas (nicknamed the Twin), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples. 3 Simon Peter said, “I’m going fishing.” “We’ll come, too,” they all said. So they went out in the boat, but they caught nothing all night. 4 At dawn the disciples saw Jesus standing on the beach, but they couldn’t see who he was. 5 He called out, “Friends, have you caught any fish?” “No,” they replied. 6 Then he said, “Throw out your net on the right-hand side of the boat, and you’ll get plenty of fish!” So they did, and they couldn’t draw in the net because there were so many fish in it. 7 Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his tunic (for he had stripped for work), jumped into the water, and swam ashore. 8 The others stayed with the boat and pulled the loaded net to the shore, for they were only out about three hundred feet. 9 When they got there, they saw that a charcoal fire was burning and fish were frying over it, and there was bread. 10 “Bring some of the fish you’ve just caught,” Jesus said. 11 So Simon Peter went aboard and dragged the net to the shore. There were 153 large fish, and yet the net hadn’t torn. 12 “Now come and have some breakfast!” Jesus said. And no one dared ask him if he really was the Lord because they were sure of it. 13 Then Jesus served them the bread and the fish. 14 This was the third time Jesus had appeared to his disciples since he had been raised from the dead.
I can imagine the disciples sitting around the sea of Galilee, thinking about all that Jesus had taught there and skipping rocks across the water. They were bored, and what’s better to do when you’re bored than to go fishing. Peter started it and all the disciples jumped aboard. They fished all night and caught nothing. (Sounds like one of my fishing trips!) And in the morning, a voice from the shore suggested they throw into the deeper water. When they saw the miraculous catch, they knew it was Jesus. Peter jumps in, coat and all, and swims to be with Jesus. And when everyone gets there, they share breakfast together.
So, what does this teach us? That Jesus isn’t finished with us yet. Easter isn’t the end, but the beginning of a life of grace. When we experience Christ we are called to more than our regular lives. When we experience the power of the resurrection, we cannot just go back to our old lives and our old ways. Jesus wants more from us. And we should want more as well. We should want to be with Jesus. Peter wanted to be with Him so much that he leapt out of the boat! We should long to be with Jesus because He longs to be with us. He wants us to share fellowship with Him. Easter shouldn’t just be one moment of celebration, but a lifetime of commitment to Christ. Christ came to give us new life, and we should live that new life in fellowship with Christ.