Please turn now in your Bibles to John 21. We approach the end of the Gospel of John. This has been a great study. But this morning I'd like to read the first 14 verses. A great picture of Jesus. Jesus as he came to us in human form and then in resurrected form. Here he comes to his disciples at the Sea of Galilee. So let's stand together and hear from John 21 verses 1 through 14. After these things, Jesus showed himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias, and in this way he showed himself. Simon Peter, Thomas called the twin, Nathanael of Cana and Galilee, the sons of Zebedee and two others of his disciples were together. Simon Peter said to them, I am going fishing. They said to him, we are going with you also. And they went out and immediately got into the boat, and that night they caught nothing. But when the morning had now come, Jesus stood on the shore, and yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Then Jesus said to them, children, have you any food? And they answered him, no. 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. Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, it is the Lord. Now when Simon heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment, for he had removed it, and plunged into the sea. But the other disciples came in the little boat, for they were not far from land, but about 200 cubits, dragging the net with fish. Then as soon as they had come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid on it and bred. And Jesus said to them, Bring some of the fish which you have just caught. 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 said to them, come and eat breakfast. Yet none of the disciples dared ask him, who are you? Knowing that it was the Lord. Jesus then came and took the bread and gave it to them and likewise the fish. This is now the third time Jesus showed himself to his disciples after he was raised from the dead. Amen. Please be seated, brothers and sisters. It was the third time Jesus showed himself to his disciples, and this is the way he showed himself to them. Those words are critical. I'm going to start on those words because, you know, this is what happened. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Isn't that beautiful? The Word, the Word. Okay, what about the Word? The Word created the world and all of us. All the galaxies, all the fish in the sea, all the birds in the air, and beagles. The Word created everything and then the Word became flesh and hung out with us. Come on, let that sink in for a moment. The Creator became flesh and sat down and had dinner with us. This is mind-boggling, isn't it? What would it be like for God to live with us? You ever wondered that? What is God like? That's a good question, isn't it? What would it be like to live with God, to walk with God, to hear from God? Well, this is what happened. This is why these passages relating to the experiences of the disciples with Jesus are the most marvelous reading in all of the universe. Throw away all your other books. That's it. Honey, that's it. All 14,000. My wife's going to go, yeah, finally. This is the story, isn't it? What other story would you want to read? Just step back and look at this, taste and see what God is doing here. How did Jesus show himself to his disciples? You notice those words there. In this way he showed himself. Isn't that good? In this way he showed himself. This is how he did it. This is what he looked like. This is what he did. This is the situation he came into. Examine the text. This is important. This is Jesus walking amongst his people, walking with his people. So the big question relating to this passage is this. Why 153 fish? Big fish. I googled it. I wanted to know why. Why is it 153? Oh, there are many interesting, fanciful explanations. There are a lot of them. But there was one that was missing, and I think it was the one that was right. It's the one I didn't find. Here, the first thing you do with the Word of God is this. Keep it simple. Keep it straightforward. I'm big on that. When it comes to any kind of theology or reading the Word, start first with the clear, the obvious. Don't go to the fanciful. Don't get into the allegorical so quickly. Guys, don't overcomplicate this. John was a fisherman. This is what fishermen do. They count their fish. And they usually tell you that they were big fish. He was a fisherman. This is what fishermen do. Do any of you fish? How many fish did you catch last time? That's the first thing you say, isn't it? The kids come home and say, Mom, I got eight fish. They were big. And they usually get bigger as the years go by. John was a fisherman. And here's the point, guys, and this is what impresses me, encourages me, strengthens me in the truth of God. It really happened. They went on a fishing trip. They got 153 fish in their net, and they were big. The point is it really happened. Let's be careful not to push everything into allegory. It tends to detract from reality. When you run into allegory so quickly, you forget that this happened. This is what happened. Jesus came in 33 A.D. He went fishing with his disciples. He wasn't in the boat. He just hung out on the shore. That was all he needed to do. But Jesus comes into the real world. That's my first point. So you want to write that down if you want to. Jesus comes into the real world. It's an ordinary day. Guys going fishing. Do guys go fishing? Yeah, guys go fishing. And these men went fishing partly because they worked the fishing business. And so this was their work. And here's the point, spectacular things take place in ordinary life. And let's remember this, that God does things in the ordinary. And let's pay attention to the good things and the big things that God does in ordinary life. Extraordinary things happen when Jesus shows up in ordinary life. I'll never forget a moment in ordinary life for me. It's good for a pastor to be in the corporate world, work for a living. understand the difficulties and challenges and the challenges of people and projects and problems and things like that. And I remember the most serious problem we ever encountered in the business that I worked, was the automotive business, a number of years ago. This brother here understands, who was with me during those years. And the most extraordinary thing in the world happened, where God, by His grace, gave me an insight That was important. And I attribute all the good gifts to God. He gave me an insight on a critical moment, on a critical issue that would have bankrupted the company that I was working with. And I was so thankful that by God's grace, I had the statistical solution popped into my mind. And the solution saved seven lives and a major recall that probably would have resulted in the bankruptcy of the company. So, the point is that God is in the ordinary. Pray for God to give you the insight that you need in your day-to-day work. Jesus shows up in your day-to-day work. It's not just what the missionary is doing in Mexico. It's not just what the pastor is doing on a Sunday morning, guys. It's what we're all doing. God is in the ordinary. He's in your workplace. He is there. To this day, I'll never forget God showing up, God giving me an insight, God saving a company, certainly saving my job because I was the quality manager at the time. But God is in the ordinary. Jesus shows up, big things happen. Now, the Christian life is also taking place in the regular, ordinary world. It's not a fantasy. It's not merely a spiritual existence. It's a day-to-day experience. And don't negate that or don't minimize it in your life. Now, what happens in our interpretation of Scripture is sometimes the devil shows up and creates what I would call multiple veils over the Word. And he does it immediately. As soon as the first century showed up, Gnostics were there. And by the fifth century, the Neoplatonists were there. In the 19th century, the Romancists were there. And we see this sometimes slipping into hymnody and such. But what happens is, The Word of God gets reduced to a level of a fairy tale with a moral lesson to it. That's what happened to modernism in America. But it came out of the Enlightenment, came out of the romanticism of the day, in which these worldviews are foisted upon us, and then we begin to interpret the Word of God by these romanticist type of worldviews, or the postmodern worldview, the relativistic worldview, whatever it is. But we've been imposed upon by this demonic worldview. And then we begin to interpret the Word of God as if the Word of God is covered by veils. Imagine for a moment that you veil God's Word with three or four veils, and then you try to read through the veils to understand what God's Word is saying. Well, that's the kind of thing that happens. It's demonic. And we see this again and again, the neo-orthodoxy of Karl Barth, the romanticism and sentimentalized Christianity of the 19th century. But we receive the bare truth of God's Word, the simple truth of God's Word. That's what we need this morning. We open God's Word. You read God's Word in the morning, you open God's Word, and don't allow for the veils, don't allow for it. What is God's Word saying? This is part of my prayer as I approach God's Word in my personal devotion. I want to see the basic truth. I want to see the plain truth of what is happening here. So what is happening here in this story? Jesus is the Son of God. He's come to the earth. He's made breakfast for His disciples at the shore of the Sea of Galilee sometime around AD 33. That's what happened. And that's basic to our faith. That's basic to our life. Your life is real. Your sin is real. Your salvation is real because Jesus is real. And He came and He shed real blood for your real sins. And thanks be to God, it was a historical event that happened in history, and we receive our salvation. Our salvation is rooted in history, the historical event of Jesus coming, walking with us, dying on the cross for our sins, and rising again on the third day, and appearing to his disciples by the Sea of Galilee, roughly in AD 33. All right, so that's the first thing I want you to take away, is that Jesus shows up in real life. Okay, that's the first point. Second point. Second point. Jesus addresses the immediate need. So what was the immediate need? Guys on a fishing trip, fished all night, no fish. What's the immediate need? No fish. They need fish, and they're hungry. Isn't that good? You have a need? We have an immediate need. You have an immediate need right now? Ask Jesus to provide for that need. Jesus is never too big for the small things of life. He's never too big to hear your small petitions. In fact, one of the things I have learned in my Christian life is this. Pray small prayers. Sometimes we pray, Lord, I want you to save all 487 of my relatives. Now. It's a big prayer. It's okay. I think it's okay to pray big prayers. But pray for the immediate thing. You're going to visit Frank. You want an open conversation. Here's a prayer I prayed. Lord, give me 90 seconds with Frank, talking about the things that really matter. And you know, it's interesting, oftentimes the Lord says, well, now wait a minute, we're not gonna talk about 47 right now, we're talking about the next conversation you have with that relative. You know, small prayers, immediate prayers, the immediate need. Pray for the immediate need. And brothers and sisters, I've seen God answer those prayers so many times. It blows my mind. In fact, sometimes it's more encouraging. to receive the answer to a small and specific prayer than it is if he were to answer some major prayer request relating to some major aspect of his kingdom. Why? Because it's personal, and it's in your life, and it's a specific need in the moment. Okay, so, Jesus addresses the immediate need. That's the second point. Third point, he comes to his disciples, and he calls them children. He says, children, have you any food? He's concerned for their immediate needs, but He also is approaching them as children. Oh, brothers and sisters, this is also very, very basic. This is the kingdom of Jesus. The kingdom of Jesus is a humble kingdom. There are no adults in the kingdom of God, with the exception of Jesus. But the rest of us, we're kids. And sometimes I think we don't humble ourselves enough. We don't acknowledge ourselves to be needy enough. We don't have that two-year-old mentality enough. What do two-year-olds see? Ankles and knees, mostly, of other people. What do two-year-olds need? Everything. They need everything. That's us. So Jesus refers to his disciples as children. Children, have you any food? He calls to them. Thirdly, or I guess we're on fourth now. Fourthly, Jesus is still serving his disciples, and this time he's serving them breakfast. Here he is in his exalted state. I think this is instructive to us, because you know, he's already risen from the dead. He's about to ascend to the Father, yet he's still cooking breakfast. This is instructive to us. Brothers, the leaders among us must be the lowliest in terms of serving. And I know this hasn't completely sunk in to myself, but this is where I want to be. This is the advancement in my Christian life I want to get to. The point where I am serving as my master served, that serving is a constant with me. The servant is not above his master. Fifthly, the Lord Jesus is never too big for the small things of life. But, I already said that, but I'm gonna add to that. Though Jesus is never too big for the small things of life, Jesus still does things big. 153 fish. That's really big. Everybody say, that's really big. That's really big. So what did Peter and John learn here? As they see something of the grace of God, the mercy of God, here's what they learned. If you take Jesus on a fishing trip with you, there are no limits. Forget the limits. When Jesus comes in the boat with us, it's like, who cares about the limits? So if you bring Jesus with you, he will do it big. He does it big. This is an insight into Jesus. And again, I come back to Mark chapter eight, one of my favorite passages in all of scripture because it is so relevant to the day-to-day exercise that goes on in our lives. There they are in the middle of the Sea of Galilee, rowing across the Sea of Galilee, and somebody says, all right, who forgot the bread? Somebody forgot the lunch. Who did that? Did what, Peter? I had told you. We had talked about it. It's on your day planner, man. How many times does this happen in our families, guys? You know, you left the office keys in the dresser at home. What? You didn't let the dog out this morning on the way to church? It was your response. You forgot again. This is about 90% of our lives, I think, in Christian families. The conversation reduces to faithlessness, anxiety, and irritation over the details of life. And it's at this point that Jesus turns to his disciples. What does he say in Mark 8? He gives them his catechisms. And again, friends, you've got to get these two down first before you move on to what is the chief end of man. This is basic. Jesus says, all right. We fed the 5,000 with five loaves. How many baskets did we take? We fed the 4,000 with seven loaves, and how many baskets did we take up? This is his catechism. This addresses 98% of your family life. What is he saying here? What he's saying is, we fed 5,000 people with five loaves, and we took up 12 basketfuls. seven basketfuls for the 4,000. Hello? And you're concerned about lunch. Who am I? Can't you see him in this boat in the middle of the Sea of Galilee turning to his disciples and saying, 12 baskets, seven baskets, one of Joah's bulldozers to move it into the village. Do you know who I am? I am here in the boat with you. I made 60 tons of food yesterday. And I'm in the boat here with you. Me. Hello? Who am I? And what did I do yesterday? You see, brothers and sisters, Jesus wants us to remember how many baskets He took up. And of course, the wine at Cana was sufficient for a crowd of 3,000. What's the message? The message is that there is no ending to the grace of God. When Jesus shows up, his grace will bowl you over. Sufficiency is not an issue. Provision is not in question. So get rid of your 94% of these conversations. What, you forgot the lunch? What, you forgot the keys? What, the dog is gonna die in his cage? And the end will be horrible. Jesus comes back to us again and again and he's saying, do you know who I am? He always does things big. There's no ending to what God can do. Okay, sixthly, there is a wisdom and a care in the blessing. We see that in verses six through eight. And Jesus said to them, cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some. And so they cast, and now they were not able to draw it in because of the multitude of the fish. 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. plunged into the sea but the other disciples came in the little boat for they were not far from land about 200 cubits dragging the net with the fish and Simon Peter verse 11 went up and dragged the net to land full of fish 153 and although there were so many the net was not broken okay now did you get that there were too many fish for the boat but not so many that they lost any That's critical. Here's the point. The point is, there's a wisdom and a care about the blessing that Jesus brings. There were too many fish for the boat, but the net did not break. That is, what I'm saying is, Jesus calibrates his blessings. He tunes his blessings in to the appropriate situation. He understands the the tensile force that the net can take. And he's sure that the 153 fish that he has provided for these men would not break the net. Thus God gives us blessings and the capacity to receive blessings and to steward our blessings. He gives us the new wine and he fits it out with new wine skins. There are 10 million applications to that point. But I'm going to move on to the seventh and final point of the sermon, and that is the spiritual application. Note, I don't say that this is the spiritual teaching of the passage. I think what we already talked about is sufficient. I think we could all walk away from this message this morning and say, Hallelujah! Our God is big! Jesus does it big! 153 fish coming down on me right now! we can just walk away and receive that. But let me close with a spiritual application from the prophet Ezekiel, chapters 40 on through 47. I'm not gonna have a chance to go through the whole book of Ezekiel, but the first 35 chapters of Ezekiel, the prophet speaks to the destruction of Judah in some of the most nightmarish language that you could use. It's just horribly, devastating language that Ezekiel brings against the people of Judah, describing the desperation of their moral situation and the chastising hand of God upon them. We get something of an impression of how God looks at our sins in chapters 1 through 35. It's horrible. It's just, you know, right down to some of the most despicable types of pictures you could producing your mind. These are the pictures that God uses to describe sin, our sin, in chapters 1 through 35. He gets on to the destruction of Ammon, Moab, Edom, Philistia, Tyrenside, and Egypt, and so on it goes. So after this language where God brings this horribly devastating language to describe our horrible sins, He follows up with the most beautiful language as all the prophets do, describing the new day, the new day to come, the day of redemption that God would bring to His people. And that starts in Ezekiel 36, where God will sprinkle the people with clean water. It could be a baptism, but whatever, it's at least a cleaning, it's a sprinkling of the people with God's clean water, and then the Spirit will pour out upon the people. write His laws on their hearts, and so forth. And then, chapters 40 onwards, we get this picture of the new temple of God that is to come, the church of Jesus Christ is to be built, and out of the temple comes what? Comes a little trickle. So you get this little tiny trickle that comes out of the church, out of the temple of God, and this little trickle begins to become a creek, and then it turns into a river, and it flows, and it flows, and it's bigger, and it's wider, and deeper, and wider. into a river that cannot be crossed. So this is the picture of the new covenant outpouring of the Holy Spirit of God on Pentecost, whether the Pentecost happened in Jerusalem, in Korea, in Scotland, or right here in Elbert County. This is the picture of what God does. Again, He does it big. That's the picture here. His redemption comes and it flows. And it's going to be big, and it's going to do great things. And what does it produce? Look at verses 6 through 10. Son of man, have you not seen this? And then he brought me, that is Ezekiel, returned me to the bank of the river. And when I returned there, along the bank of the river, were very many trees on one side and the other. And then he said to me, this water flows towards the eastern region, goes down to the valley and enters the sea. When it reaches the sea, the waters are healed. And it shall be that every living thing that moves wherever the rivers go will live. And there will be a very great multitude of fish because these waters go. Therefore, they will be healed and everything will live wherever the water goes. It shall be that fishermen will stand by it from En-Gedi to En-Glaim. They will be places for spreading their nets. Their fish will be of the same kinds as the fish of the great sea, exceedingly many." This water is going to run out like a river into the great oceans. and the great oceans themselves are gonna be cleansed, which probably means that there's gonna be the saltiness of the oceans are gonna be taken away, and the oceans themselves become fresh waters. That's what I'm guessing is the imagery conveyed here in Ezekiel 47. So really, this is big stuff. This is the water that's flowing out of the church and running into the world, all around the world, flowing into the earth, and then covering the whole earth with the life of God. And the key verse is there in verse nine. Everything will live wherever the river goes. Okay, I want you to underline that if you're the type of person to underline stuff in your Bible. You would want to underline that. That is the line to underline in the book of Ezekiel. Everything will live wherever the river goes. Isn't that beautiful? Somebody say that's beautiful. That is beautiful. Everything will live wherever the river goes. Now I believe that John 21 is a fulfillment of Ezekiel 47. Now you say, how is that? Here's why. What appears out of the waters that flow out of the temple of God in Ezekiel 47? What is it that just sort of appears? Fish. Fish appears out of nowhere. Fish! Now, what is fish? Life. Living fish. They didn't capture 153 dead fish. This is...this is critical. They captured 153 live fish, which I believe were created, ex nihilo, right there and then. That is, I do not believe that Jesus encouraged all the fish from the various parts of the Sea of Galilee to form into a little band of fish and charge over to the other side of the boat. I don't believe that. I believe that the fish was life. then Jesus created right there and then. If He could create dead fish out of the two fish and five loaves, do you think He could create live fish? This makes sense, I believe. And don't minimize the glory of life, the beauty of life. If you don't understand it, get a copy of Neil's recent book on animals. Guys, here, I thought of this this morning. I've tried to create comparisons here to help you. Have you ever seen a dead dog? Just think of this, one of our dogs running by us. We have great affection for our dogs in our home. And I had this vision of this dog dead. I'm sorry, honey, I did. Not run over, just old age. But see, now put, have you ever seen a dead dog? Or a dead deer? Put the dead dog, this beautiful pet, that's very close to our hearts in my family's life, put this lifeless, maggot-consumed carcass of a body of a dog next to a puppy. What's the difference? Life, brothers and sisters, life, it's beautiful. Is there anything more beautiful than life? And the evolutionists have no concept how life was created. Well, they do, they just suppress it. But they don't, they can't put the proteins and the amino acids together and do whatever. And so, when the evolutionists and atheists are asked, well, how did life come here to Earth? The answer is almost always, there were little green men from outer space. that came here. It doesn't answer the question how life appeared. This beautiful creation called life. Come on, look at your hands for a moment. Move your hands around a little bit. I mean, that's impressive. I was an engineer, mechanical engineer. We did a little robotic from time to time. Guys, I could never design something that could do this and emote and relate to me and to the other engineers in the team. I've never designed anything quite like that. Life, my friends, Jesus is the source of life. He created the fish that swarmed in the nets of Peter and John. Beautiful, so beautiful, yes, amen, little one, amen. So the fish are not a picture of people to be caught. That's important. Some of you would say, yeah, it's about fishing, catching fish for some men, and we're gonna go out and catch 153 souls. That's not what this is about. This is about Jesus creating life. This is about Jesus putting live fish into the net. This is a picture of the life that's generated by the river that flows out of Christ into the valley of dry bones. Another analogy used by Ezekiel, I believe these were the analogies that were most important to him and to the prophecies given. The valley of dry bones. Picturing the spiritual death of God's people, Israel, but also us as well in our natural state, the valley of dry bones. Can these bones live was the question asked. What was the answer? You know, Lord. It's a better way to say it. When God's asking you a question, you just turn it back on Him and you say, you've got this one figured out, Lord. But humanly speaking, when we come upon a valley of dry bones, they're dead. This is deadness. And, you know, as we come across a relative that doesn't know Jesus, and you have waxed so eloquent, and you've brought out the most amazing apologetics to this relative, and they're just lying there dead. The femur's over there, the skull is over there. There is no life. There is no spiritual life in this person. And yet, out of the valley of dry bones comes life. This is beautiful, friends. This is the vision of the kingdom of God on earth. This is it. We're here. We made it. John 21. God creates life out of nothing to a world that is dead in trespasses and sins. Dead in the lusts of the flesh. Fulfilling the desires of the flesh and the mind. To this world comes life. The man that won't look at a Proverbs 7 woman on foxnews.com. Why won't he look at that woman on foxnews.com? Because he's been de-sexed? No! Because he has new life in him, and that's a miracle of God! That's what we're talking about here. Now again, some of us may say, well, now wait a minute, that's a different kind of a miracle than what Jesus did in creating a life in these fish. But friends, it's the ultimate miracle. It is the ultimate miracle. Think about it. A man who won't lust after a woman. Think about it. That's a miracle. That's a miracle of God. This is what we're talking about. I'm trying to put some flesh and bones on this picture of what Christ has come to do in the river that's going and flowing and life is appearing everywhere it goes. There's grasses popping up all around that little church in Mexico in the mountains that is starting to preach the gospel on Sunday mornings. There's going to be life that springs up around that little church. The grass is going to look greener. But really it's the grass growing in the lives of dead people. People who were once dead, now alive. To a world where there's no spiritual interest comes people meeting daily in the temple to hear the Apostle's Doctrine, the words of eternal life. There's a hunger and a thirst for the Word of God. People staying up till midnight studying the book of Hebrews. 10,000 times more impressive than dead fish created on the mountains or the live fish created down the lake. Way more impressive. Wow, people are alive to the word of God. People are listening to it. People are responding to it. People wanting to hear more of it. That's life. Life is extraordinary as the creation of 20 live elk in this building out of nothing. That's the only illustration I could think of because we don't have a lake anywhere, so most of you don't even know what fish are. So I thought, okay, the illustration is Jesus comes in here, creates 20 live elk. Boom. So that Jim and all the rest of you can shoot one in the building. No, you got to go outside to shoot them. The live elk, more impressive than dead elk, but the live people of God in the building, more impressive than the elk themselves. Those who were once cannibals in Tahiti, in the New Hebrides and elsewhere now praising Jesus and giving up their own lives in service for Jesus, that's life. Those that were drunkards now drunk with the Holy Spirit of God. They can't get enough of love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, flowing and flowing. They're satisfied by the waters of life that flow out of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's life! That's life, brothers and sisters! To a world that's paralyzed in bitterness, unforgiveness, strife, joylessness, criticism, judgmentalism. Has anybody ever worked in the secular workplace? Just out of curiosity, anybody ever work in a secular workplace? The world is filled with this. This is the world. You think sometimes churches can't get along. Hey, I worked in the corporate world. It's a disaster. Right? I mean, boy, the gossip, the slander, the strife, you can barely keep them employed by paying them. and promising an employee of the month award if they just won't keep their big mouth shut long enough, or whatever. It's hard to function in a world that's paralyzed in bitterness and unforgiveness and criticism and judgmentalism and strife and gossip and such, but then that world is transformed in the church of Christ, where we're feasting on the love of God, rejoicing in sinners' repenting, See, that's life. That's animate life. That's amazing. To a world dead to the life of God, the power of God, the glory of God. Now there's a river flowing. There's life, there's praise, there's worship. God is real. These words are real. Some of you can hardly wait to just jump up and sing one more song of praise after this message, because these words mean something to you. You're seeing a vision of Jesus you're seeing a vision of the glory of God the salvation of God has come it's here and you're seeing it and you want to dance and you want to say amen and say hallelujah see reading the Word of God it's just not empty words now there are times my wife and I were talking about this where we are glazed over as a what reading the Word I've had those time I know I know I know what it's like to be dead I sort of revisit deadness on occasion you know, or just...I don't know if any of you have felt a little dead in your personal devotional life for a while, you know? Have you...maybe you're in that state right now, where it just...you're just kind of veiled over. It's just not really penetrating. There's not a lot of joy out of the Word of God. There's not really...that's encouragement. You're just not encouraged. The Word's just not encouraging you. Friends, that's not the life of Jesus. That's why we pray for the life of Jesus to surge through our spiritual veins. so that we would experience this aliveness, that we're the most alive to reality, the most alive to God's redemption, the most alive to the possibility of resurrection, the most alive to a future glory of eternal life. We're just alive to these truths, and our hearts leap, and we have some joy in our hearts and hope and anticipation. Friends, there's nothing more alive in all the world than that. That's living. Amen? That's living. That's ultimate living. You want to live? You live with the truths of God and the hope of salvation surging through your being. It is the life of God in us. This is so big. This is really big. Don't just pass by it. the sheer miraculousness of every tinge of life and sense of, wow, this is true, and this is truly amazing. That's life. That's amazing. That itself is the most amazing miracle of all. Back to Ezekiel 47. Everything will live wherever the river goes. Everything will live wherever the river goes. Now, here's the question. Where does the river go? Wherever you go. Everybody say, wherever you go. That's where the river goes. And so wherever you go, brother, sister, saint of the living God, son, daughter of the Lord Jesus Christ, Wherever you go, you're taking life with you. Spreading life all around. John 7, 38, of course, same thing here. Whoever believes in me, as the scriptures have said, out of his heart will flow the rivers of living water. So wherever Christians go, there are going to be life. The fish will come alive. The family will blossom. Marriages will improve. Demons and witchcraft will run away back into the sewers. And you know what? We have seen that in Elbert County. My daughter was talking to an old-timer down here at a harvest last year. You know what he told her? He said, this place used to be dark, but the lights are on. And I agree, we've been here for 25 years. I think in the last 5 years, something has happened in Elbert County. I'm getting the chills just thinking about it. You know what? That county commissioner meeting, I was there a couple months ago. That's a completely different place than it used to be. Jesus has come. The life of Jesus is flowing. All of the Bible studies you all are doing in the coffee shops, sisters. The brothers coming together, the pastors coming together. Five years now, we've been coming together and praying over these coffee shops, these restaurants. We've been doing the prayers together in different contexts. I think the Christmas choir is just as important. You guys, the rivers are flowing. What's neat about a small county is you can begin to notice it. It's a little bit harder to notice it in downtown Denver. It's a little bigger. We appreciate what our brothers and sisters are doing downtown too. Praise God for that. But friends, I'm telling you that wherever the river goes, there is life and there will be life. It's a beautiful thing. So flow, river, flow. Get out there on the streets. I know you're all going out to Christmas carols this afternoon to hand out 2,000 cookies to the whole area. Just let the life flow. Let the cookies flow and all the love of Jesus and all the praises of Jesus. Just get it out there. Let the rivers flow. It's gonna take life somewhere. And there's gonna be more life in Elbert County because of what you do this afternoon. We are not here to escape the world. We are not huddled in our houses, afraid of the world. No way ever, ever, ever. The rivers are flowing through our communities. And by God's grace, perfect love will cast out all fear. And God gives us that spirit of love and power and a sound mind to flow through our corporations and flow into our neighborhoods. You're gonna see the lights on. You're gonna see life. It will happen. Let me close with two applications briefly. Number one, there is human responsibility involved in fishing. They had to go fishing. They had to mend their nets. They had to hang out all night. They waited a long time. When Jesus came, they got a whole bunch of fish. When Jesus comes, you'll know it. There'll be 153 fish and they're gonna be big. So when his life begins to blossom in all of our work, in our ministry and such, we're gonna see the work of Jesus eventually come. Now, go fishing, sign up for the grind, fish and wait for Jesus, and don't be discouraged. Here's my last point. Maybe you've fished all night long. Maybe you've fished till four in the morning. Five in the morning, six in the morning, you fished a long time and you haven't seen many lasting conversions. There's just very little, if any, real spiritual action going on. And what you thought was a revival, the times when you, I got a revival, I got a reformation, I'm starting out with all this amazing fruit and such, and then you pull the nuts up and it's seaweed. And you're a little disappointed. And so you're a little discouraged. That there are points at which maybe there wasn't an immediate response to the Word. Cults flourish. We just ran into one yesterday. A lot of rah-rah, a lot of sepulcher, whitewashing. A lot of high-end white paint purchased from Home Depot to get those tombs nice and covered, but no real transformation. That's all over the place. Weird doctrines attract so many. Head religion prevails, little heart religion sometimes. Solid biblical churches sometimes empty out. The few churches left are filled with petty arguments and general discouraging spirit. See, these are the kinds of things that happen on the fishing trip. You know, we encourage you brothers who are involved, all of you. You know, sometimes we're a little discouraged. You know, the fishing trip wasn't going as well as we thought. But continue to fish and wait. And when Jesus comes, friends, I believe he's coming soon. And when He comes, in fact, He might be right there. In fact, is that Him over there on the edge of the lake? I believe that is Him. When He comes, there will be 153 fish, and they will be big. And you will be surprised. Be willing to be surprised. Surprised in the mundane. Surprised in the grind. Surprised in days of humbling. Your greatest setbacks turn into the greatest kingdom advances. The first shall be last, and the last shall be first. God is into surprises, and when He surprises us, we are delighted, and we rejoice as those who are bringing back the spoil. Amen. Let's pray. Father, we glory in the work of Jesus. We are willing to wait for the work of Jesus. We're excited for the work of Christ that he's already accomplished. Father, every sign of life around us, we praise you for it. We thank you for what you're doing here in this county. Father, we thank you so much for the life of Christ that flows like a river here in this country and all over the world into the oceans and purifying the oceans and beginning to have an impact upon communities and political states and all the rest. We give Jesus the glory for this great life that has come. He has brought life to this dead world, and we delight in this. Father, take away all of our possessions. Take away everything we own. But Father, to see resurrections of souls, Which is to see those who are lost in sin, sunk in sin, in chains to their sin, released and enjoying the redemption of Jesus Christ is the greatest blessing. And to see sinners repent, God, nothing better. Nothing better. all the life of Christ flowing out of him. We praise you for it. We thank you. God, we thank you for every bit of life that flows through us, and we just pray now for more. Bring revival, bring reformation, bring regeneration to our families, our friends, our neighbors, those we mentioned at the beginning of the service. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. What a joy. that even the trees of the field are celebrating for the redemption that Jesus has brought. And you do know that's because his redemption is going to extend to all of the material creation as well. All of it will be redeemed in the end, and the trees are pretty excited about that. Amen. Well, I'd like to introduce the Lord's Supper this morning with John 6 because this fits directly in to the life that flows out of Christ who is our head. And this ties into the Lord's Supper as well. So I wanted to read this passage from John 6, 47. Very controversial. It was controversial for the Jews, they rejected Christ, and controversial for many today who don't really want to come to grips with what this passage is saying. So again, I'd encourage you to listen carefully to John 6, 47. It ties in very closely to what we're doing here at the table. Most assuredly, I say to you, this is Jesus speaking to the Jews, emphatically, most assuredly I say to you, he who believes in me has everlasting life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I shall give is my flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world. The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, how can this man give us his flesh to eat? Then Jesus said to him, most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day for my flesh is food indeed and my blood is drink indeed he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him now in his ministry Jesus didn't have much to say about his atonement He didn't say he was going to die on the cross for our sins very often. I think he might have mentioned it to his disciples. But here he presents himself as this atoning sacrifice. And as we, by faith, partake of Jesus, we partake of his sacrifice, which turns into his life in us. Now here's the plain teaching of this text. Number one, Jesus came to bring life. That's number one. It is probably the most important lesson in all of the Gospels. He came to bring life, not just living fesh, but life for us. Abundant life, eternal life, spiritual life. Jesus came to bring life. That's number one. Number two, Jesus had to take real body and real blood upon himself in order that we would have life. He had to have real flesh. Everybody grab your flesh. He had to have real flesh. He had to have real blood. Don't cut yourself. But he had to have real blood, like we have real flesh and blood, in order that we would have this life. That's number two. Number three, you must eat the flesh of Jesus and drink his blood if you will have his life flowing through you. That's very clear here. In fact, Jesus said, most assuredly, I say to you, emphatically, you absolutely must drink his blood. You absolutely must eat his flesh if you will have life in you. You say, that's pretty intense. Yeah, that's really intense. That's about as intense as it gets. And it got so intense, guess what happened? People left him. Number four, faith is absolutely essential if the life of Christ comes through you and into you. It comes by faith. Now, how Jesus, by His Spirit, administers this, we don't know. But at the very least, brothers and sisters, you need to say, I need the body and the blood of Jesus in me. You need to think that. You need to say, I am so desperate. I am such a sinner. I am so dead. I need the life of Christ so much that I invite the blood of Jesus and the body of Jesus into me. You say, that's really intense. That is really intense. But again, the question is, how much do you need Jesus? Are you throwing yourself upon the altar where Jesus died? you embracing the blood of Jesus? Are you getting it, at least at the very least, on your shirt? Now Jesus said it has to do more than get on your shirt. It has to...you have to eat it and drink it. Again, there's mystery here. There's mystery here. Life flows from Jesus, life flows from the physical human Jesus, and it comes by faith first and foremost. And in the sacrament, this is one of the channels, we call it the means of grace, by which we come into close communion with the body and the blood of Jesus. That's why this is called the communion of the body and the blood of Jesus. And so at this at this sacrament, we come into close contact through the sacrament. We come into close contact with the body and blood of Jesus that must be administered to us by the spirit of God. So there's two things needed for effectual communion with the body and blood of Jesus. Faith on our part, believing in Jesus, believing that we need his body and blood. We need to sacrifice for our sins. We got to believe this stuff. And number two, we need the Holy Spirit of God to administer it to us. So what does all this mean? I know there are some kids listening going, this sounds kind of complicated. Well, children, what this means, basically, is we need Jesus. We are so sinful that we absolutely need His body and His blood as our very life, as our very spiritual life. And we need His blood also to cleanse us from sin. So we need Jesus. Also, this is a very holy and a very important time in the worship service. This is intense. This is a very serious time. That's why there was discipline that was needed in Corinth because there were some people committing fornication, sexual sin, in the congregation. And people were dying because they were eating with that man who was participating in this sexual sin on apparently a regular basis. So it's very, very dangerous to come into the service if you have a hardness of heart. You're not confessing your sins, you're not walking in the light, and...and you're not repenting of your sin. So this is a very holy and very important time in the service. It's a very relational time, because Jesus said, you've got to abide in Me. that you abide in me by eating my flesh and drinking my blood so in this communion this this enables our abiding in Jesus so this is probably the most relational time with Jesus we experience in our Christian lives I said probably I'm not sure it is but it's up there So this is a heavily relational time because we're coming into koinonia. It's communion, it's the word koinonia. It's a relational intimacy with Jesus Christ at this service. So it's a relational time, it's a holy time, and as the Holy Spirit helps us, it is a life-giving time for the body of the church. A holy time, a relational time, and a life-giving time. for the body of Christ. Amen. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we come here to the table humbled that we should come so close, that we should be invited into, that we would partake of the body and the blood of Christ, that we would come into such close communion administered by your spirit, but close communion with the risen Christ in his body and his blood. Father, we do not understand this. And that's okay for us, Father, because we are just children here. But we do pray that you would feed us with the spiritual life of Christ. We just desire, I do, and I know that my brothers and sisters as well, we desire a fuller life, a more spiritual life. and more than anything else, the love of Christ in us, flowing through us in this supernatural way. Father, make 154 fish in us today, just one more than what was created there at the Sea of Galilee. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.