Believe in the Church - John 21:1-22
August 28, 2011

Some time ago, we had a brief Bible Study on the first confession used by the Christian church called the Baptist or Baptismal Confession: It was a confession that all professing Christians had to memorize and then publically recite upon Baptism in order to make clear their beliefs in the fundamentals of Christianity and their commitment to these beliefs. As time progressed and as the church continued to use this Bible-based and efficient confession (efficient in light of the lack of Bibles available to the public), this confession was renamed The Apostle's Creed, as it is suggested that the original twelve apostles of the book of Acts instituted the original Baptismal Confession. This confession goes as so:

I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
the Maker of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord:
Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost,
born of the virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, dead, and buried;
He descended into hell.
The third day He arose again from the dead;
He ascended into heaven,
and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Ghost;
the holy catholic church;
the communion of saints;
the forgiveness of sins;
the resurrection of the body;
and the life everlasting.
Amen.

Now what's interesting in this confession is that of all the elements of Scripture that the apostles desired to be understood and confessed, the "holy catholic church" reigns above things like "the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting."

Pastor Tim Keller explains that it's clear as to why it is necessary for first century Christians to confess their belief in God as the Father and Creator or as Christ, the Son of the Father -- this is a major, fundamental belief in Christianity and in life-in-general as one can struggle, doubt, and even wrestle with his or her beliefs in God; however, that fact that the Apostles Creed demands the Believer to announce their belief in the church is to suggest that as much spiritual and mental and emotional struggle there is in believing (or renouncing belief) in God, there ought to be that much invested in believing in the church.

This is quite profound -- especially in our modern times because church is certainly something that we assume we don't need to believe in as Christians; it's essential to believe in God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit but most modern Christians would suggest that belief in the church is nowhere near as important as believing in God. Yet the creed suggests that it is as important -- it suggests that as uncompromising in your belief in God is, so must your belief be in the church.

Therefore, you cannot assume that church is an option as a Christian: it is as fundamental as your confession and belief that God is your Creator or that Jesus is your savior; church is not an optional belief that is open to interpretation -- it is fundamental, it is crucial, and it is the focus of our passage here today in John 21.

(1-3) To contextualize the passage, Christ has resurrected from the grave and is now appearing to various people (in total, some 500 to 1000 people, depending on the scholar's interpretation and calculation of Acts 1:15 and 1 Corinthians 15:4-6). In our text, Jesus is appearing to Peter, Thomas the doubtful, Nathanael, John and his brother, and two other disciples. And in an eerily similar manner, these disciples set out to catch some fish, led by Peter, and come up with nothing.

(4-6) But then, the next morning, Jesus calls out to them and tells them to cast their nets out again and upon doing so, verse 6 says that "they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish." Now does this sound familiar at all? Didn't this happen before? If you're saying 'yes' in your head then you're right because Luke tells us in 5:1-11 of a story when Jesus was teaching on Peter's boat and after finishing, he tells Peter to cast his nets out and when they do, there is are so many fish that they could barely make it to shore without sinking.

But the difference between the first time this happens in Luke and the second time, here in John, is that Jesus is no longer in the boat. In Luke, Jesus is literally with them -- in the boat -- and is guiding, commanding, and helping them directly and physically; however, here in John, Jesus is some distance away -- he isn't absent from them, he's just on the shore, their ultimate location.

(a) In other words, a church is first and foremost a group of believers in Jesus Christ who are chosen by Christ to follow him -- and these believers may not be physically with Jesus right now but Jesus isn't very far away; in fact, believers in Jesus will eventually make their way to Jesus, who is waiting for them on the heavenly shores for our arrival.

(b) But more importantly, this is to say that even though Jesus is not physically with us, he is still actively and powerfully working with us, for us, and through us, in the same exact ways that he would if he was physically here.

(c) Therefore, the church is a group of believers that actively and faithfully obeys Jesus as if he were literally and physically here, with us, right now, right here, in our midst -- nothing becomes "weaker" or less significant; rather, everything remains the exact same: if there is a sense of obedience here in Scripture, there ought to be a sense of obedience here in the physical realm of our current church; if there is an aroma of love in Scripture, then there ought to be a thick aroma of love here, physically, in all reality, in our church.

And as a church that is devoted to an active, faithful, and real obedience to Christ, right here and right now, we are given an objective: for Peter, John, Nathanael, Thomas, and friends, it was to cast their nets out to catch some fish. For the church today, it is do something similar…
Now before we talk about the idea of catching fish, we need to first understand that this time period was much more symbolic than our current culture today -- we often don't celebrate symbolism in our culture and we often look down upon superstition; however, in this culture and at this time, symbolism was greatly important as it often communicated something that words or songs couldn't necessarily communicate.

For fishing in deep waters, the symbolism refers back to Genesis 1: Although our modern culture assumes this means "catching men" and evangelism, the reality of the symbolism is far more complex than just that -- in Genesis 1, we have water symbolizing two things: (1) first, it symbolizes chaos as the Spirit of God was hovering over a Hebrew word that can not only be interpreted as waters or depths but chaos and disorder; (2) secondly, we have water symbolized as a kingdom, ruled by and in submission to the kingship of the fish.

So fishing was quite a profound symbolism for taking something out of its original kingdom, composed of chaos, into something entirely different and orderly.

Therefore, the mission of this physically real church is not merely to lead people to Christ but to lead people into a different way of living -- a new kingdom, apart from chaos and infused with order and redemption: the mission of the church to lead people to itself.

In Matthew, Jesus illustrates this idea in a very famous way by telling his followers that there are like the salt of the earth and like a city on a hill: a city -- or a kingdom -- on a hill. In other words, the church is a new kingdom that is set apart from all other kingdoms and the design of this kingdom to bring people to itself while the design of other kingdoms are to destroy, to lust, to selfishly gain, to greedily desire, and to isolate and separate. In fact, the word "holy" literally means "to be set apart," thus why God calls his people a holy and chosen people or why Paul commands the church to live holy lives -- that's the mission of the church: to be a kingdom set apart from all other kingdoms and set on bringing others into itself.

Do you believe this? Do you believe that the church is the visualization of active and real obedience of faith in Christ? And do you believe that the church's mission is to bring people stuck and suffering in other kingdoms into the greatest kingdom of all? As the creed encourages, do you personally believe in the church, for what it stands, and for what it means?

Because believing in the church is just as important as believing in God as your Father and Creator and in Christ as your Savior and Redeemer -- it isn't secondary or less than, it is just as important and fundamental to your life a Christian (or your life as a non-Christian). Well, if you do believe in church as much as you believe in God and His Son Jesus, then how about the mission of the church? Do you believe in it as well, just as much? Do you believe that bringing people from other kingdoms into this kingdom while setting this kingdom apart from the others through holiness is as important as praying to God, as loving Him, and as obeying Him? Because it is…

Well, if you do, then John provides us with a few practical ways in which we can pursue to the mission of the church:

1. Verse 2 lists the people in the boat and if you remember your Bible reading at all, you'll notice that this is a very weird crowd: Nathanael is the man who said Jesus was the Son of God simply because Jesus said he saw him under a fig tree -- in other words, Nathanael is a majorly superstitious person and, in fact, Jesus rebukes his superstition and tells him that he will see even greater things than just Jesus' ability to foresee events. But you also have Thomas in the boat, who just a few verses earlier, proclaimed that he could not believe in the resurrection of Christ unless he physically touched Jesus' wounds. In other words, you have someone who is an over believer and someone who is an under-believer; you have a very superstitious individual and then you have a very skeptical individual.

In our culture, that's like having a Republican and Democrat in the same boat -- it's having two polar opposites, living and working together and in our culture, it's impossible: you will never be able to find this type of community where you have people who are in their most basic instincts polar opposites yet working together and celebrating one another -- but you will and you must find this kind of community in church.

Again, we have Peter and John -- a hot and quick-tempered man and a scholar of sorts, working together and loving one another. Why? Because that is what it looks like when the kingdom of the church begins to actively and faithfully, in all reality, play out its mission.

Are there people in this room or that have claimed their faith in Christ that you just despise, hate, or envy? If so, then it sounds like you don't fully believe in the church and what its mission is. One great example of this that Tim Keller gives is this: if a teenager and an older retiree were put in a room and forced to talk for 45 minutes, it's likely they wouldn’t have a common ground; however, if they are truly born again Christians, they can fill those 45 minutes and maybe more with commonalities in their faith… and the truth is, so can and so should you because you are part of a new kingdom that celebrates and appreciates the individual, not the difference --you were both called by Christ to graciously and lovingly follow after him.

2. Verse 5 shows Jesus calling out to his disciples and he addresses them by saying "Friends" -- however, the original word used here isn't phildephus, which is the root of the word Philadelphia and the form of love Phileo; this is not the original word for friends. Instead, this word is actually closer to the definition of "children" or "kids" and when used like Jesus uses it, it's like a slang word.

If you were English, this word would be "lads" or if you were Australian it would be "mates" and if you were from Socal it would "dudes" or "bros" et. al. It is a slang word for "friends," reserved for the closest of friends that one has and it is actually the same word used when Jesus washes his disciples' feet and says to them that he is not merely their master but their friend and Jesus explains to them that slaves don’t know the business of their master but friends do.

The second way the mission of the church is achieved is through transparent friendship -- Jesus calls his disciples friends because he was willing to bare himself open in all entirety to them and in fact, on the cross, his arms were nailed wide open as his heart, mind, and soul were completely transparent, open for all the world to see the core of who he was: the loving and faithful Son of God.

Therefore, transparent friendship is essential to seeing the mission of the church come to fruition: it is not only accepting others as the first method suggests -- it's committing to love others, as Christ loved you. This means that when your brother or sisters needs, you need to be transparent with them; I need to be open to you and you need to be open to me.

When Paul writes to the church saying things like "rejoice always in the Lord," we often read that and scholars often translate that as "I need to rejoice" or "you need to rejoice" but the literal way to translate this verse and so many verses like it is to say "you all rejoice" or "you guys or you people go rejoice."

When the writer of Hebrews in chapter 5 says do not be greedy it is actually telling a plural amount of people not to be greedy -- why? Because if I struggle with greed, I'm not going to get over it on my own: I need authentic and transparent people to help me get over it and to go through my struggles with me.

Transparent and authentic friendships is the second way to actualize the mission of the church in reality.

3. The three times questioning is an entirely different sermon but the response is critical here to understood the third mission of the church and that is "feed" -- in other words, your mission at church is not to be fed, although that can happen, but it is to feed.

Now this is striking, especially for Peter, because there is a moment in the Gospels wherein Jesus tells his disciples that they will all abandon him and that he will be handed over to the authorities and crucified. But Peter speaks up and says that even if everyone else abandons him, he will not. In other words, Peter is telling Jesus that he is better than everyone else, holier than everyone else, godlier than everyone else -- and so here, Jesus tells him that the church is not a place to be better than others, to be holier than others, or to be godlier than others; the church is a place to feed others what Christ has graciously fed you.

And Jesus also uses the word "sheep" which are stupid animals that don’t know or appreciate how their food gets to them -- they are not only the stupidest animals but the most unappreciative animals. Therefore, Christ is telling Peter to humbly feed the church without any concern or expectation of gaining something in return.

I don't come here and give up my Saturdays because I like it and don’t mind it -- I do mind and it is often very inconvenient but I do it, whether you guys fall asleep or text or do whatever it is you do during my sermons because I desire for you all to be fed, just as Christ has and continues to graciously feed me -- will you join me in this endeavor and actualize the third mission of the church?

4. And the fourth mission of the church is found in Peter's question in verse 21 -- Jesus tells Peter how he will die and pointed to John and asked Jesus how John was going to die.

Now why would Peter want to know that? Well, Peter knows that Jesus was crucified and Jesus just told Peter that he too would be crucified; however, he also knew the John was beloved in Jesus' eyes. So why ask how John will die as well? Because Peter wants to evaluate John's fate -- Peter wants to size John's fate up. Or in other words, Peter wants to pass judgment on John. But Jesus says to him that the fate and business of John is not Peter's concern because Jesus has a specific plan for John as well.

The fourth mission of the church is never, ever to pass fate-concerning or fatal judgment on one another. You can certainly judge me in the sense that I begin to smoke crack and you want to help. But you must not ever judge me as a person, in my entirety, summed up, evaluated, and written off.

I can never assume that I know you so well that I've summarized your tendencies and judged you so well and thoroughly that I just "know you" because that is not my business -- it is the Lord's business and Jesus has a very specific plan for me and for you.

In closing, let me pose one question: Why? Why do we do pursue the mission of the church? What drives us to pursue the mission of the church and to actualize the holy kingdom of the church here in our current reality?

Because verse 15: Jesus asks Peter if he loves Him more than "these" -- Jesus didn’t take Peter aside and ask him and I'm pretty sure Jesus wasn't talking about fish. Jesus is asking Peter if he loves Him more than anyone else in the world and he continues to ask this three times -- do you know why?

If I asked you, "Are you sure you know how to do this?" over and over again, it's probably because I know something about doing it that you don't. In other words, Jesus is doing more than just asking Peter whether or not he loves Him and Jesus is doing more than just making Peter feel guilty for the three times he renounced him. Jesus is telling Peter, with each instance, "Do you know how much *I* love you, Peter?" And each time he says "I do," Jesus asks again because it’s clear Peter doesn’t know… and neither do you and I.

Do you know how much Jesus loves you? You don't … Do you know how much Jesus loves you? You don’t … Do you know how much Jesus loves you? You don’t … Jesus loves you, therefore, go forth and actualize the mission of the church. Jesus loves you, therefore, go forth and accept others in order to love them, not use them. Jesus loves you, therefore, feed others with authentic friendship. Jesus loves you, therefore, resist judging and excessively place your faith in His sovereign love for you and for His church.