The Resurrected and Revealed Savior
John 21:1-14
April 4, 2021, Resurrection Day
What is your source of discouragement today? What is keeping you awake and night and occupying your thoughts when you have quiet moments during the day, or even when you are in conversation with friends? What is enticing you to not just buy more Tums, but buy stock in Tums because of the quantity of your purchases? What is provoking you to anxiousness? Or discouragement? Or grief? Or fear? Or anger?
While the circumstances change from generation to generation, everyone has difficulty. When I was in seminary a chapel speaker one day said something like, “every chair in your sanctuary is filled with a hurting or broken heart.” That might be overstated. But I don’t think so. In this life there is suffering, there are trials, and there are unanticipated and unplanned changes that radically alter our lives.
It’s always been that way, since the day Adam and Eve unwisely and rebelliously took a bite of the fruit God had forbidden them to eat. Our reality is trials, unwanted change, sorrow, loss, death, difficulty. And we are largely as powerless against those things as we are at roping a 747 to keep it from taking off on a flight.
So what will you say to that? Where is hope? Our hope is simply this: “He has risen. He is not here.” On this day, we have one message. On every day — any day — we have one message that will give hope and confidence in life — Christ is risen from the grave and that has made all the difference. “Christ has risen” doesn’t just mean that we have hope for the future (eternity in Heaven); “Christ has risen” means we have hope today and confidence today and strength and transformation today.
That is the reality that we find in the story of Jesus’ third post-resurrection appearance to the disciples in John 21:1-14. That account teaches us:
The circumstances of life can tempt us to despair;
the reality of Christ’s resurrection gives us every kind of hope.
In this passage, we see two contrasting realities of life that demonstrate the provision and power of Christ:
- The Dispirited Disciples’ Despair (vv. 1-5)
- The Resurrected Savior’s Provision (vv. 6-14)
Download the rest of this sermon on John 21:1-14.
The audio will be posted on the GBC website by tomorrow.
Words of Grace 