thinking about tonight's sermon. Paul said, the world's been crucified to me, and I to the world. And then in Philippians he says, I count it all dung. But those of you who come back tonight, make sure and tell Thomas what the sermon's about. All right, John chapter 21. John chapter, y'all caught that, didn't you? Thomas, you know, Thomas, yeah, okay, all right. I didn't know if anybody was listening or not. John 21, we're almost done with this book. I'm kind of stalling a little bit. I may preach one more sermon out of this text, but this morning we'll do 1 through 14. We may revisit one word. Next week we may not. 21, 1 through 14, the revelation of Christ. It reads this way in the ESV. After this, Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias, and he revealed himself in this way. Simon Peter, Thomas called the twin, Nathanael of Canaan in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together. That'd be seven. Simon Peter said to them, I am going fishing. They said to him, we will go with you. They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore. Yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, children, do you have any fish? A redneck translation, have you caught anything? They answered him, no. He said to them, cast your net on the right side of the boat and you'll find some. So they cast it and now they were not able to haul it in because of the quantity of fish. That disciple whom Jesus loved therefore said to Peter, it is the Lord. Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord. He put on his outer garment for he was stripped for work. He threw himself into the sea and the other disciples, they came in the boat dragging the net full of fish for they were not far from the land, about 100 yards off. When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire in place with fish laid out on it and bread. Jesus said to them, bring some of the fish that you have just caught. So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, 153 of them. And although there were so many, the net was not torn. And Jesus said to them, Come, let the word ring in your ear. Jesus said to them, come, have breakfast. Now, none of the disciples dared ask him, who are you? They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came, took the bread and gave it to them. And so, with the fish, this was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead. Father in heaven, I ask that you just bless the preaching of your Word today, and you would apply it to each individual heart for your own divine purposes, and that you would do a work with each one of us, giving us a better view of Christ, causing us to love Him more, and causing us to respond rightly to the invitation that is continually given, even from this pulpit, to come, to come, to come to Christ. Oh, that we would respond to the invitation. Even as Christians, we would never stop coming to Christ. Lord, help us in this endeavor. For without You, it's assured, we can do nothing. We pray these things by Your Spirit, in Christ's name. Amen. All right, note the word inclusio. It's a word we use for bookends. You can look on my shelf in my office. You have a bookend here and a bookend here. You've got books in the middle. You've got a label underneath. It tells you what's in between the bookends. Here we have bookends. You have manifestation, manifestation, or ESV, revealed and revealed. Christ is revealed in verse 1. Christ is revealed in verse 14. And in between these two revelations, if you will, is everything that He did in this revealing or manifesting of Himself to His disciples. All right, I'm thinking about invitations a bit, and I'm not sure that the word come is the main point of the text, but I am emphasizing it this morning. So think about the word, or the idea of inviting. I am aware that the invitation does generate different responses. based on several factors. One, who's doing the inviting. Number two, maybe what you're being invited to. Number three, what your interest is in what the invitation is about. All I mean by that is, if you were to invite me to a NFL football game, I don't really care who it is, but even if it's Pittsburgh against Dallas here at the stadium, if you were to invite me to a Pittsburgh-Dallas-Cowboy football game on a Sunday, I'd be offended. And I can tell you right now, I'm not going. I'd be offended that you actually thought that I might give up the Lord's Day for some sporting event. That would offend me, and I would be like, I can't believe the audacity you would invite me to such a thing on such a time when it's the Lord's Day, which is far superior to NFL. On the other hand, I've had invitations that have just overwhelmed me with joy. I still remember the day that Jeff Noblek called me and invited me to come and preach their evangelistic services at their church. I was just overwhelmed with joy. that someone like Jeff Naba would consider me to go and preach in his church. I thought it was a mistake at first. I was just so humbled by the whole event. I was so happy I started inviting you. Ronnie came and Travis came. I went out there with him. We had a blast. The invitation was responded with great joy. One invitation might be offensive. Another invitation might be filled with joy. Reminds me of the Bible, does it not? It says, go out and invite all these people because the feast is ready. It's the invitation given to the world. He gives this invitation and the text says, they did not pay attention to the invitation. We had no interest in your banquet. And so that's the way they responded. And so then he says, look, go out into the highways and the byways and just invite all of those people in order that it may be full. Now, those in the highways and the byways, they had a different response than the first people who were invited. You say, Pastor, why are you telling me all that? So I'm giving you an invitation this morning to come to Christ. And I don't know if you're happy about that. I don't know if you're offended about that. But the invitation hasn't changed. The king of the universe is still saying, Come unless you think that it's only an invitation for those who are lost to become saved I remind you the invitation in my text is to his disciples and it is a theological point We need to grapple with I need to come to Christ every day And there's Christ in all my boneheaded decisions and all my failures and all my stupidity and every morning I wake up and I still find Christ saying Randall come Come, come, answer lies with me, the Lord Jesus says. And so it's this application that is ongoing for the Christian. So my thesis is short and simple. The manifestation of Christ is sufficient for the entirety of the Christian life. Christ, revelation of himself, is enough. Or it's not. It is or it isn't. You want to say it is, but is it? If it is, why is so much time spent pursuing other things to satisfy your flesh? If Christ is sufficient, why are you looking at so many other options? It's a good question. All right, number one, indelible. The word indelible is not in my text. I'm well aware of that, but it is important to understand Christ manifesting himself, or if you want to use the word reveal, Christ revealing himself. The reason I'm saying the point is indelible is because the revelation of Christ to his disciples left a mark on them that they can't erase. The revelation of Christ to these disciples so impacts them that it can never be gotten over. I want you to try to gravitate in your own personal walk that this would be real of you. that you can think about the time of conversion. You can think about the time when you first believed Christ. I want you to go back there in your mind to that moment of faith. Did it leave an indelible mark on you that come hell or high water, no matter what happens in your life, you look back and you say, but Christ has made a mark on my life and that is enough. Indelible, I give you Webster's definition. He says that indelible means something that cannot be removed, washed away, or erased. If you want some synonyms, the list is long, I'll give you a few synonyms for indelible. Permanent, fixed, deep-seated, deep-rooted, unforgettable. All of these words, these synonyms, indelible, is what happened to these seven disciples and the others at the other two appearances. They are so impacted with the revelation of Christ, they cannot get over it. If you were to ask the Apostle John at a later date about this manifestation of Christ, I think this is what he would say in response. He would say something like this. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our own eyes, which we looked upon and we have touched with our hands concerning the word of life, the life that was manifested, and we have seen it, and we testify and proclaim to you eternal life, which was in the Father and was made manifest to us. I think that's what he would say, 1 John 1. That's what he said. Why? This indelible mark of the revelation of Christ to his disciples is of such magnitude, I would say to you, that the darkness of death cannot remove it. Even if I'm to be martyred, I will not deny Christ. This has left a mark on me. You can crucify me, you can burn me, you can starve me to death, you can do whatever you want to do to me, but the darkness of death will not remove this mark. I have seen the Lord. I would say to you that the pain of persecution can't take this mark away. I've been whipped five times, Paul says, by 40 lashes minus one by the Jews. I've been stoned. I've been shipwrecked. I've been hungry. I've been without food. I've been without drink. I've been thirsty. I've been all of these things. All of this has happened to me, but I'm not moving. I have seen the Lord. Nothing about the pain of persecution is going to cause me to retract this mark that's been left on my heart. I would also say that the hatred of humanity cannot take away this mark. Let the world curse. Let the world mock us. Let the world do all that they want to do, but in the midst of all the hatred, I say to them, yeah, you hated my Savior first. It's obvious you hate me because I'm with Him. Can't take this. Look, I've seen the Lord is what the disciples say. Bring whatever you got, but I'm with Him. It's an indelible mark left upon the Christian. I just have to ask you, is this mark on you? It doesn't mean you're an apostle. You're certainly not an apostle. You certainly don't have to be a pastor. You just have to be Christian. Just be a Christian woman. Just be a Christian man. Just be a Christian boy or girl. And in all of whatever goes on in this life, you're so radically convinced that Jesus is alive because you've read it in the word of God and you've believed it by faith that you will not recant. indelible, because He's been revealed. The Greek word here, phanerao, is to call us to become visible, revealed, exposed publicly. It's not a private matter, it's a public exposure. Now, there are a lot of appearances of Christ. Our text will eventually say in verse 14, this is his third appearance to his disciples. But there's a lot more than three after the resurrection. So I just want to give you a quick list just to remind you of the multiple testimony. So in, I think my count's up to 10 or 12, I forgot, but he appears to Mary Magdalene, we know that. He appears to numerous women, we know that from the Gospels. He appears to Simon. He appears to the disciples without Thomas. He appears to the disciples with Thomas. He appears to the seven here at the Sea of Tiberias. By the way, Sea of Tiberias is the same thing. It's another word for the Sea of Galilee. That's the third time here for them. Then he appears later to the disciples on the mountain in Galilee where Jesus made a great claim and he also gave them the Great Commission. And then you move into Corinthians and you find that he appears to over 500 people at the same time. You also find in that passage that he appears to James, the Lord's brother. You also find that he appears to the 11 on Mount Olivet near Jerusalem in Acts chapter 1 verses 4 through 11, and then you have him appearing to the Apostle Paul when he was on the way to Damascus in chapter 9, and then he repeats that appearance a couple more times in the book of Acts as validation for his apostleship that he has seen the Lord. A lot of appearances here. You say, well, what's the important implications of all these manifestations of the post-resurrection of Christ? Okay, well, at least we know this. We're not dealing with a phantom. We're not dealing with a phantom here. We're not dealing with a ghost. It's not some goofy Catholic mysticism of an apparition in a screen door window or something. It's not that. It's not a hallucination. Hey, look, they're not on LSD here. It's not that. It can't be that. They're not drunk. It's not some weird vision or somebody went and had a dream because they took some bad medicine. It is none of that because we can see Him with our eyes and we can touch Him and we can handle Him and we can hear Him. This is a bodily resurrection in a real life appearance in time and in history and it's undeniable even by those who hated Him the most. They cannot put to silence the reality that Christ is alive. These things are what led to a foundation for the birth of the early church in which men just like us, humanity just like us, who are fearful, afraid, and hiding can stand publicly against the world and preach Christ. This thing happens because this indelible mark has been laid upon them. He has a sudden appearance here, he has a sudden appearance there. You say, what is the difference of these appearances? After the resurrection, he's not dwelling with them and walking with them as he did before. We're in transition. Jesus is about to go home. But before he goes, he leaves an indelible mark that will be enough for the birth of the church. going to establish a foundation for these disciples and it is such a mark that it will enable them to be martyrs for Christ. It's no light matter. American evangelicalism, I believe in Jesus, okay, you're saved and we go home. These guys are willing to die for what they believe. An indelible mark has been placed upon them. Now, I know enough to know that a lot of ink is spilt about Peter going fishing. I know that. I'm not going to do much with it. So if you're unhappy, then just be unhappy. But I'm not going to pursue this because I don't think it's the main point of the passage. But we're in a point of transition. Christ is crucified. Christ is resurrected. Christ has appeared to them three times. There's a great commission. But yet we haven't had Pentecost. We're in between resurrection and Pentecost. Halfway understand yourself in their shoes. Exactly what are you supposed to do right now at this juncture in your life? I saw Jesus resurrected. Is he staying? Is he going? What's going on? I'm trying to map all this out, and at the same time, there's not a Walmart down the street, and there's not an Albertsons down the street, and the only way I know how to get food to eat is to fish, and I know how to fish. So, they go fishing because that's how you get food. It's not in the refrigerator or in the deep freeze in the kitchen. So, let's go fishing. Now, I know you can make that a case of them not having faith and all of that, but do whatever with you may. They went fishing. That much we know. But there's something going on with this fishing endeavor. We'll get there. Here's one of the things that stands out to me about the Gospel of John. It's a point you can ponder upon. I know we could make too much of it or too little of it, but we've got to say something. There's something going on with John when he says something about it being dark or it being night. You can't escape that. It's in the book. But it seems like in each case, it has something to do at some level with spiritual misunderstanding. Whatever's going on here when John uses dark, somebody isn't understanding spiritual truth. So I think through that and go back to John chapter 3. Nicodemus came to him at night. He had misunderstandings. He asked Jesus. He has this conversation. You go through this whole John chapter 3. Things get cleared up in this gospel presentation. They affect Nicodemus. I'm just pointing out that the issue of coming at night, there was a spiritual misunderstanding in the heart of Nicodemus. Then I think about John chapter 9. In John chapter 9, Jesus says, You must work when it's day. Things are clear and you got time right now because there's coming a time or a night when you can't do any work. They understand, the disciples didn't understand the necessity of working right now. You say, how could they not understand? I don't know, how do you not understand? How many of you evangelized this week? How many of you passed out of track this week? How many of you went on a mission trip this week? How many of you served a neighbor this week? How many of you called a brother and encouraged him in the Lord this week? You say, well, I was busy this week. You only get one shot. This is your time. There's a night coming when you can't do any more Christian service. You better do it now. It was a spiritual misunderstanding. And that's why Jesus said that in John chapter nine. And also in John chapter 11. He reveals to us that working in the daytime, there's stability, but if you try to do things in spiritual misunderstanding in the darkness, you'll fall down and hurt yourself. He says, but if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles because the light is not in him. Then you have in John 13, you have Judas. He went out, and John makes the text clear. He says, he went out. And it was night. You talk about a spiritual confusion. He misunderstood who Christ was and lost his own soul. So after receiving the morsel of bread, immediately he went out and it was night. You say, where did we switch to night? I thought we were fishing. We are fishing. They're fishing at night. They're fishing while it's dark. They fished all night. That's why we're talking about night. There is a spiritual misunderstanding. What do we do? Where do we go? How do we function? I don't know, but we gotta eat. And they're out there all night, and they're laboring, they're working hard, and they got no fish. What's going on here theologically? I don't know if I'm right or not, but I know this is true. It is an absolute impossibility for you or for me to accomplish anything, no matter how good we are at it, without Christ. Look in your Bible, John chapter 15. I know it's been a while since we preached through there, but just look at one verse. John 15, verse 5. Jesus says, I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit. For apart from me, for apart from me, for apart from me, you can do nothing. And here they are, fishing all night without Christ as the captain of their endeavor. And the best fishermen of the day caught nothing. D.A. Carson said it this way, quote, they are coming to grips with the resurrection, but they still have not learned the profound truth that apart from Christ, they can do nothing. Well, it begs the question, does it not, for each one of us? How much, honestly, before God, you don't have to answer me, but before God, how much effort do you waste every week attempting to do things in your own strength? How much time do you spend doing that which you're good at, which you know how to do, and you never ever talk to Christ, you never seek Christ, and you never ask for Christ's directions, and then how many of you show up on Sunday tired, wore out, exhausted, anxious, stressed, overwhelmed, and you're like, I don't know what's going on. I go to church and I don't get nothing out of it. Maybe, just maybe, you haven't been seeking the Lord. Because if you would seek Him, there'd be fruit. But if you spend your whole life working in your own effort, even in trying to live Christianity on your own, you will be bankrupt. I've plateaued. I'm not producing no fruit. Nothing's happening in my life. I wonder why you haven't walked with Jesus all week. And also, there's an implication, at least in my mind here, about this fishing endeavor, that the catching of men in future ministry is impossible without Christ. Well, that's the indelible mark. In case you get tired in the sermon and fall asleep, each point gets shorter, so that will help you maybe. Number two, incredible. It is an incredible thing. Again, incredible is not in my text either, but this is incredible to me, this text. As we look at four through eight, days breaking. Just get the picture. You're out there on the boat all night, days breaking, sun's coming up. There's a guy standing over on the shore. Our text tells us it's Jesus. Disciples don't know it's Jesus. It's 100 yards away. There's some guy standing over there. And we get this irritating question for fishermen, have you caught anything? In the Greek text, it's worded with the Greek words, implies the negative answer. You hadn't caught anything, have you? Right, that's the question. And then they're forced to say no. Every fisherman understands this. Have you caught anything? Well, not yet, not yet. No, I didn't ask you when. Have you caught anything? Well, I just got here. Well, I just tied my bait on. Everything in the world except to say, no, I haven't caught anything. Nobody likes to admit that. But here they are being forced to say no. Think about this picture. My text says in verse 4 that they didn't know it was Jesus. Right? But then he says, cast your net. Why do these fishermen who fished all night and caught nothing listen to the random command of a guy on the bank to cast the net on the other side when they've done that all night and caught nothing? Why do they do it? You could write a commentary on this and all the hoopla they go through, but I think it's something like this. You're out there fishing in your boat and you ain't caught nothing. And then Jack's over there in his boat and he says, hey, you caught anything? And you're like, no, I ain't caught nothing. He says, did you cast by that tree? No. And you just cast because you like to catch fish. I'll take a command from anybody if it'll net me a fish. I think that's all there is to it. And so they cast their net. But when the result comes, they know something else is going on here. Now we caught 153 fish in one cast of the net. John says, that must be the Lord. Peter's done. He's out of the boat. If that's the Lord, I'm going to go and be with him. You think about this picture, these defeated fishermen after not long of fishing, they've caught nothing. I don't know, I think they're men just like us. I think they're tired, I think they're grumpy, and I think that they're unsuccessful and it irritates them. There's a stranger on the shore asking them this question, and they don't want to answer, but they have to answer no, we haven't caught a thing. Now, I'm going to take a little side road, so if you want to follow along, it's a real short road, but it's a road I'm taking because I know what preachers do with the next section on whether or not Peter loves Jesus or not. So, I just say this now in preparation for another sermon, but preachers, you get on the internet and listen to this stuff, but they make this huge sermon about John using three different words for love. I mean, they go to task on three different words for love, and everybody thinks it's a wonderful sermon. I had a pastor friend preach it, and he didn't make a big deal about the three words about love, and he got in trouble for not making a big deal about it. Here I am this morning telling you, why don't they make a big deal about the text we're in? You say, well, what's the big deal about the text we're in? He uses three different words for fish. Am I supposed to come up with something with that? Or maybe it's just the way John writes. It just irks me as a person who studies Greek. The preachers always say, Agapao means divine love. Really now? Because it says in another text, Demas Agapao loved the present world. Did he have a divine love for the world? Anyways, enough of that. I'm just preparing you. I'm not making a big deal about the three different uses of love in the next text. All right, moving on. The stranger shouts fishing instructions. To obey is to catch. To disobey is to be hungry. Well, the scene is enough for John. That's the Lord. He just knows. Peter jumps out of the boat when he finds this. And I just want to make note of this. I don't want to make a big deal about it. W.A. Criswell preaches a whole sermon on the strength and the manhood of Peter. But he hauls in the net by himself 153 fish. So as I think about A man, being strong, working hard. Not these sissy little guys that sit behind desks and punch buttons on a computer all day. I'm talking about guys with calluses on their hands. Guys that know how to sweat when they work. People that know how to split wood and build and work. I mean, you know, manhood. We can still use that term here, manhood. People bear a load, work all day from the morning till the evening, put in a full day's work, earn their paycheck, manhood. Does anybody know what I'm talking about? There are still a few out there. Peter was one of those. I think about the strength of Peter pulling in this net, and I can't ever get the picture out of my mind. I know it's just a picture, but it's a picture I saw nonetheless. I went to focus on the family. I was preaching a revival meeting out at some church, and a lady in the church was a employee there. I go to focus on the family and go to their whole ministry thing. She takes me around, but you can't go on the third floor unless you have clearance. If you go there, you'll never get on the third floor, but she had clearance. We go up on the third floor and you go down this little circle thing, if you will, and there's all of the disciples painted pictures. And then there's one of the Lord Jesus, and there's a description under each one of them. And they're all very, very meticulous. And so I'm looking at them, reading them, and I'm going through them, and I get to Peter. And I'm just dumbfounded. Here's Peter holding this net, and he's got these bulging muscles. He looks like a guy who's been working out in the gym. It's like all of the features were a man who's worked hard. This is kind of the picture I have of Peter. He's not a wimp. He's not a coward. He's not a sissy boy. He don't have a yellow streak running down his back. He might say a lot of dumb things, and he might open his mouth before he puts his brain in gear, but he's all man. This is Peter, hauling the net ashore. Now, you say, what in the world are you saying with this man on the shore? What are you trying to communicate to us? If you will obey what Jesus says, there will be things that will be revealed to you. And let's say this to you, good questions have the ability to reveal deep truths. Have you caught any fish? It's revealing something. What's it revealing? You haven't caught anything because you're not fishing with Christ. You're not with him, so you did nothing. You say, how does that work? I don't know. Have you engaged anyone with the gospel this week? That pulls out a spiritual truth. You're like, in your heart, you're like, no, I never engage anybody with the gospel. Why not? What's going on in your heart? Have you prayed for your church this week? Have you prayed for your pastor this week? Have you prayed for a brother or sister this week? Well, I always pray. But did you pray? It's exposing something deeper. The question draws it out. We ask these questions, we get uneasy. Did you tithe today? Did you give to the Lord today? Are you preparing to go on a mission trip? Are you justifying your lack of missions? What's going on? Questions draw that out and it brings you before God, before His tribunal to give an answer. Have you caught anything? Nope. Hadn't even tried. At least these men have put forth effort, but they're learning a valuable lesson. Effort without Christ is wasted. Yeah, let's go ahead. Look, here's the deal. People like you and like me will put a lot of effort into a lot of things. Do you know how many miles and how many hundreds of thousands of dollars that parents spend on cars to take their kids to ball practice? Do you understand how much money is spent to make sure little Johnny can do some little event hobby? Do you understand that at the Texas whoever they played ballgame, softball game, I watch girls softball sometimes, didn't know for the playoffs that the parents showed up four hours before the game in order that they could get a good seat and they sat there for four hours waiting for the game to start, then watched the whole game and so then this thing for 10 hours just to see their little girl throw a big fat ball and hit it with a bat, they put that much effort and then they come into church and the pastor says, anybody got the memory verse? I ain't got time. I don't want to put no effort forward. Hey, I don't want to do anything. At least these guys put effort. Put some effort and ask the Lord to help you. And be made aware, one more time, of the sovereignty of Christ. Christ told every fish in the sea not to get in the net all night. And then he said, I want you 153 to gather in this circle that's smaller than the net Peter's going to throw in the water. And the fish did exactly what he said. You don't believe that? You can ask Jonah when you get to heaven. He knows that fish do what God say. So indelible and incredible, and lastly, there is an invitation. And I do invite every Christian to come and every non-Christian to come. Verses 9 through 14, they see this fire, they see the fish, they see the bread. They haul the fish in, 153 of them. The net's not torn, verse 12, Jesus said to them, if you get nothing else out of the sermon today, just take one word with you, come. From the lips of the King of glory, come. Come and have breakfast. Come and have breakfast. Joy when people respond. Yeah, my whole office was redone. I invited the whole church. Come, have a cup of coffee with me. I'm still waiting for the first person to come. But boy, when somebody comes to have a cup of coffee, just to have a cup of coffee, I'll be happy. Jesus says, come, and when someone comes, all of heaven rejoices. All of heaven sings praises. He's happy when people respond to his invitation. He don't have to invite you. He doesn't need you. He doesn't need anything you have to offer. He has everything. He owns it all. He controls it all. He's sovereign over every maverick molecule that is out there. There is none. And he says to the pauper, he says to the king, he says to the white man, the black man, the brown man, the yellow man, the blue man, if you believe in Smurfs, he says to them all, come. Come. Come. You got no excuse for going to hell. It's not like he didn't send out an invitation. He says come. Everything's prepared. All the food is cooked. Everything's laid out. Where he got the fish, I know not. Where he got the bread, I know not. I just know that it's all prepared and that the King has set the table. The Greek word is douta, which is different than erkomai. It's a specific word. It's an interjection. It's an exclamation. It's come. This word is used in particular cases, and we say it like this, like the woman at the well. You remember her? She'd go down there, gets this water thing, all of that. Here's what she says. Here's what the woman at the well says when she meets Christ. She goes back into town, and she says, come. Come meet a man. Come meet this man. It has nothing to do with me. I just want you to meet the one that I have met. He says to the disciples in Matthew 4, come ye after me. Come ye after me. Come. I'll make you fishers of men. Matthew 22 is the wedding feast I referred to. Again, he sent other servants saying, tell those who are invited, I've prepared my dinner. My oxen, my fat calves have been slaughtered. Everything is ready. All you have to do is come. What do you have to bring? Nothing. What do I have to prepare? Nothing. Everything is done. Everything's ready. Just sit down and eat with Christ. Just come. Everything that you need, He has it. I don't know whether you believe this or not. Everything you need He has. You don't need psychotropic drugs. You don't need alcohol. You don't need cigarettes. You don't need sexual immorality on the internet. You don't need any of that junk. Come to Christ. Everything your soul needs is ready and He gives and He gives and He gives and He gives and you'll never be without. for those of you in the room who are exhausted, burning the candle at both ends, working two jobs, take the kids here, take the kids there, do this thing, do that thing, all these millions of things that you're trying to balance and Jesus is standing before you this morning and he says, come to me. all who labor and are heavy laden. You want a promise? I will give you rest. I just need to get away. I just need to get away. I just need a break. Oh, good. Go to Christ. I just need some relief. Go to Christ. People say, I need a rest, and they skip church. What does that mean? I need a rest? That's why I'm here! And then on Judgment Day, here's what the sheep will hear. The king says to those on the right, Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. No one's asking who Jesus is at this point. They know. don't miss it, Jesus post-resurrection is serving them. He washed their feet and now he's feeding them. Always the same mercy and service by the King for the pauper. He's appeared three times, our last verse says, John 20, John 20, and here in John 21, three specific appearances to these disciples. He's given the invitation. He secured all provisions. He meets our deepest need. You, me, we must respond to the invitation. So how do you respond? I go to a Reformed Baptist church and they don't even play 15 invitation hymns and have blue lights and smoke for me to come forward for. Just come to Christ. How do you come to Christ? Prayer, His Word, seek Him, call upon Him, come to Christ. I'll say to you this morning in conclusion, very short conclusion, but I'll say this. Unbelief, those of you in the room that are still maybe in the state of unbelief, it's not a matter of a lack of evidence. That's not it. Unbelief is not the result of external inconsistencies. That's not it. The reason you don't believe is because you've got a hard heart, and you've got a lot of pride and arrogance, and you don't want to submit to Christ. The appearances of the resurrected Lord are beyond doubt from believers and unbelievers. You can't disprove the resurrection. The command is clear. Repent and believe Christ. Come. That's the command. Dear Christian, I say to you as well as to me, obey the words of the Lord Jesus and keep coming. Don't misunderstand. I don't know how people do this, but some people could take a message like this and say, well, the preacher's just trying to get me to come to church. No, you're commanded to come to church. I'm trying to get you to come to the Lord on Monday. and Tuesday, and Wednesday, and Thursday. I'm trying to get you to come on all those other days, and if you would come on all those other days, the church issue wouldn't be an issue anyway. He provides for you. Think about Christ. He provides for you. He serves you good food. He cares for your soul. You should daily walk by His side and His company. in the sweetest of company." Now you can say whatever you want to say about a preacher in spandex riding a bicycle. I really don't care. I'm way beyond all that. I can tell you this, I say to people all the time, I have no friends, I just ride by myself. But it's not true. I just say that because I'm carnal. The truth is, the best days of my life are riding with Christ. I'm just praying and looking at creation and being reminded of the goodness of my Savior. There is no friend better than Christ. Come to Him. Jeff, if you'll lead us in our final song, please.