Then They Knew

I knew it! I knew it! I knew it! Or if you are like me, you say (in rapid succession) IknowIknowIknow!

I say that all the time when something blows up in my face that I knew would blow up in my face, but I thought I could handle it. Like assembling Christmas toys the night before or eeking one more trip on a bad tire. Pazzowi! on the I-15.

For wiser heads, your “I knew it!” moments are moments of vindication, like when you read a murder mystery novel and, having fingered the culprit a few chapters earlier, come to the climax—you were right! Or when a daughter comes home with an engagement ring, a son comes home with his fiancée for the first time, and you knew if from that first date they had this day would come.

Blow up in your face or blessed assurance. You judge what the disciples discovered after Jesus appeared to them in Galilee and

Then They Knew.

1.He is alive.

2.His powerful Word was true.

After Jesus rose from the dead, he did not stay with his disciples 24/7. He appeared to them at various times. For example, John gives us the third time (in his Gospel) that Jesus appears to most of the disciples. It came about this way.

The disciples had gone to Galilee as the Easter angels had instructed them. Old habits die hard. Most of the group had been fishermen. “I’m going out to fish,” Simon Peter told them. “We’ll go out with you.” So off they went in their boat, working all night, throwing the nets out, hauling them in. “That night they caught nothing.” Just like old times!

As the dawn breaks, there’s some fool on the shore. “Friends, haven’t you any fish?” Couldn’t he wait for the fish market to open? “No,” they answered, none too happy about it. “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.”

Well, what kind of stupid advice was that? Like they weren’t casting their nets on either side of the boat? And a guy from shore giving them directions on fishing is like a fan in the left field bleachers calling a put-out at home base instead of the ump calling the runner safe. But they obeyed the stranger’s words—God only knows why.

“When they did they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish.” Then one of them knew—John says to Peter, “It is the Lord!” And Peter, Peter quickly puts on his robe and jumps into the water—swimming to shore to be with Jesus. It was only about 300 feet to swim. The other disciples don’t even try to pull the net in, because they can’t! It’s too full of fish! They decide to limp into shore, dragging the flapping, fighting fish behind them, with three sets of hands holding on to the hem of the net for dear life.

And they get to shore. And Jesus has breakfast ready—fish and bread cooking on the red-hot coals. But he tells them, “Bring some of the fish you have just caught,” and who but Peter clambers into the beached boat, walking to the back, grabbing the net and, with a rush of adrenaline, hauls the whole net onto the shore! Not even a grunt or a groan! And not a tear in the net for that many fish in it—153! They counted them afterwards, compared notes and counted them again—153 lunkers, big fish that would fetch a great price at the market.

“Come and have breakfast,” And as each of them took some of the fish from his hand and the bread that he was passing out to them, not a one of them asked who the stranger was, because they knew it, they all knew it, then they knew it was Jesus.

What do we know because of this story? Why was it so important that John just had to put it into his Gospel?

The first thing, and this better never be overlooked--otherwise we may end up like those sophomoric agnostics who can’t really say whether Jesus existed at all, much less rose from the dead—the first thing the story teaches us is that Jesus is alive. He bodily rose from the dead. We worship a living God, not a dead one.

He talks to the disciples, interacting with them. Your imagination can only tell you what you already know. Jesus on the shore is not the disciples’ imagination, because he tells them to do something they would not do--throw your net on the other side of the boat when you had caught nothing all night.

He moves things around. He has the fire going with fish and bread already on it. He eats the food in front of their eyes--no big thing. And the food stays in his body, because he is not a ghost, he is a living, breathing, human being. And he gives them the food and, as they take it from his hand, they can touch his fingers, touch his hand, the sleeve of his robe brushes against their forearms.

He is alive. This was no vision, this was not their imagination toying with them. This was no dream. He is alive. And the fish and bread hit the spot, too.

Which is just what you would expect from Jesus. Always there with exactly what is needed right when it is needed. Like the feeding of the 5,000, 5,000 hungry followers who had paid so much attention to Jesus’ teaching and his healings that day that they forgot about getting some food into themselves until it was going to be too late for some of them, and Jesus fed them all with five pitas and two small fish—a little boy’s lunch. Or like when that demon-possessed man threatened to cut Jesus’ first sermon in Capernaum short and Jesus, instead of being unnerved by the heckler, cast the demon out, proving his authority even over evil spirits, but even more, helping that poor victim who had been long oppressed by that evil spirit. Or like when they had been joking and laughing as they were coming into the narrow gates of Nain and they ran smack into a funeral procession, the only son of a poor, widowed woman, and Jesus turns around, makes them put the bier on the ground and brings the young man to life again! If you needed a knife, Jesus wouldn’t get you 10,000 spoons. After working hard all night fishing, the men were famished and Jesus’ breakfast hit the spot.

And it jarred their memory. This is how it had all began. On this lake. In a boat. Fishing all night, catching nothing. When Jesus had sat in Peter’s boat, teaching the people and then he turns to Peter and tells him to put out his boat for a catch of fish. “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and have caught nothing, yet because you say so, we’ll go fishing.” And the net was so full of fish almost as soon as it hit the water it started to rip as he and Andrew were hauling it in and they had to get John and James to come out in their boat to help and even at that, both boats were so loaded with fish that they were almost sinking. Peter’s first reaction was to tell Jesus to find a better man to befriend, because he was just a sinful fisherman. And Jesus had told him, “Don’t be afraid, from now on you will catch men.”

And what he said came back to them, and what he had told them, they knew, they just knew, they would be fishers of men. His powerful Word was true.

He is alive. They knew it. Thanks to their candid and honest eyewitness testimony recorded in Gospel stories like this, we know it. Jesus is alive.

But it would be tragic to stop there. It would be like a couple getting married and focusing so much on the wedding day, that when the next day dawned, they’d say, “Now what?” and have not a clue on what to do for the rest of their lives.

Now what? Go back to those powerful words of Jesus. Why did he appear in this way to his disciples? Wasn’t it to hammer a second point home to them, a point that they could see and smell, a point they could touch and taste? Jesus wanted them to spread the Good News. As they ate that fish, they knew all of Jesus’ words were true and they were just going to have to make room for them in their hearts for the rest of their lives.

Now what? Some of you will have children graduating from high school soon. Others have just had children being confirmed—15 confirmands, the most ever in this congregation’s history. Some will have children graduating from our preschool and kindergarten in just a few weeks. And most of those people have been coming pretty regularly, I won’t say always, but pretty regularly, to church. Now what? Is church just good for your kids? Is church just good for the little ones? Or is the Good News of Jesus good for you, too, whether you are in your 30s, 40s, 50s or—how do we put it on our worshiper register cards? 60+. For you to stop coming to church now that the kids are out of the house or graduated from some level or other would be like the disciples in our story today thinking, “Hmm, Jesus is alive after all. Well, I’ve kind of put that part of my life behind me.”

No, they knew that the message Jesus had given them, the mission he had given them, no matter how many twists and turns the story had taken, that message was still good and their mission was still a go. They were going to be fishers of men with a message that would transform the world.

And so are you. And so am I. We have shown that message applied to us because we saw to it that our children received that Christian training as much as we were able to give them while they were still under our roofs. That message still applies to us, to hear that Good News for ourselves, to spread that Good News to others, whether it’s helping out at church in the worship service as an usher, greeter or nursery staffer, whether it’s showing God’s love to members who need it, or helping to keep the church looking great, or bragging up our Lord and Savior as we invite people to come to our church with us.

All of us, at one time, were without a church home, whether because of a move or because we had become deservedly alienated from a church which didn’t hear Jesus’ message and follow his mission. We joined this church. We attended this church. As firmly as we believe the Lord Jesus still lives, so we firmly believe the Lord Jesus still has a mission for us.

Can I steal a little thunder from next week’s sermon? Next week we are going to observe “Walking Together Sunday.” Pastor Matt is going to preach on how Jesus’ life and work makes us one in the faith. And that oneness extends to brothers and sisters in the faith that we have never met in your life and probably will never meet until the life to come. Because of their following the mission the living Jesus set before them, this church is a reality. The start-up manpower came from them. The start-up money came from them. Times are not as good in the homeland of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod as they have been. Smalltown, Michisconta, the backbone of our synod, is dying because there’s no work for the next generation and our churches which used to feed our synod their sons and daughters and dollars are on life support themselves. Some churches have gotten lazy and don’t hit the streets to share the message of Jesus with others. Some, even some leaders, have missed opportunities, relied on old excuses and have set our church back at least a decade in doing what should be done. And here you and I are, sharing a spiritual breakfast with our risen Savior. Will you and I settle back and think, “Well, Jesus is risen, I hope somebody spreads the news”? Or will we embrace that mission with all our hearts? Jesus is risen! Believe the Good News. Celebrate that Good News on Sundays. And spread that Word, knowing that this church of ours will rise and fall, not because of the efforts and grandiose plans of far-away leaders in a far-away land, but this Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod of ours will rise or fall because of the efforts made by the faithful in Green Valley Evangelical Lutheran Church and in countless congregations of like-minded believers.

Then They Knew.

1.He is alive.

2.His powerful Word was true.

IknowIknowIknow! It doesn’t have to always blow up in our faces. Jesus wants me to tell others about him. I knew it! I knew it! I knew it! Jesus wants me to keep coming to church to keep my faith strong. Well, now that we know these things, we will be blessed by doing them.

Rev. Don Pieper is a minister in the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod. He has devoted his life to

sharing the Gospel of Christ to all of Gods people. For more information about the Green Valley

Evangelical Lutheran Church visit us at

www.gvelc.com or call

702-454-8979 .

Ask for Pastor Don or Pastor Matt.