Preaching - John 21 / Acts 9

Last weekend, I snuck south of the border to join with the lovely people at St Cuthbert's Church, Halsall. They are a Church of England parish in the Diocese of Liverpool. I've been working alongside them for a few months as they seek to reconnect more meaningfully with the local community. Part of my work was to support a major community engagement weekend alongside a Community Survey, the outcomes from which will lead to a new mission plan for the church in that area. More on what all that means in a future post but for now, I say a big thank you to the Parish Sustainability Lead for the Diocese, Warren Hartley, for commissioning me to do this work after we met on a Church Commerce webinar.

As part of the weekend, their amazing Rector, Rev Susan Salt, afforded me the privilege of sharing the Bible Message in the Sunday morning service. This was a big difference from the previous Sunday with the Apostolic Church in Edinburgh, as now I would stand in the pulpit of this historic church, parts of which date back to the 14th Century.

The Sunday morning congregation at St Cuthbert's Church, Halsall (Photo: CommunityDan)

Their service is liturgical, meaning most of the service is scripted, and the Bible readings follow the pattern of the Lectionary. This doesn't always lead to flexibility, however, the readings landed very nicely for our weekend theme of Growing Together, and Rev Susan has a wonderful way of leading the service to keep it as inclusive and accessible as possible, while respecting the traditions that many enjoy.

CommunityDan preaching from the pulpit in St Cuthbert's Church, Halsall (Photo: Warren Hartley)

The Gospel Reading was John 21:1-14 and the other reading came from Acts 9:36-43. One speaks of a miraculous catch of fish leading to a breakfast encounter with the risen Jesus, and the other speaks of a miracle performed by Peter. Seemingly disconnected readings however, as my sermon went on to say, the Acts reading couldn't have happened without the John 21 experience. Want to know more about my thinking here? Well below is the audio and text transcript of the message. It's a shorter one this time to comply with the request from the church - just 14 minutes! But we still managed to squeeze in a lot in the time allowed. So please have a listen or a read, and if you have questions about this or how I could help your church, then please do get in touch.

Message Transcription:

Our Gospel reading today was from John 21. Let's just put this in a little bit of context, shall we? So, this takes place after Jesus has appeared in that locked room to the disciples. And then again when Thomas was present a week later. Before in chapter 20, you could be forgiven for reading that through and thinking that's a conclusion to the gospel. It kind of signs off very abruptly at the end of chapter 20 and some have questioned in time the source of this chapter 21 that we have today. But based on the language, and we'll come to some of that shortly, it is widely accepted that John the author added this final story later before the gospel's, final form was complete.

Why? Well quite possibly, because of the important moments that it records as we see in this reading and in the other half of the chapter that follows. The restoration of Peter. It's first hinted at in this passage, and the next parts which you can read for yourselves is when Jesus asked Peter three times, do you love me? Echoing Peter's, three denials before the crucifixion.

And this moment is really important for the church to understand, especially when we move into the book of Acts, we read the account of Pentecost in Acts 2 and the chapters that follow up to where we are today in Acts 9, because here in Acts 9, Peter is suddenly front and centre. Without what happens in John 21, we might just read the Acts passage and wonder, hang on a minute, how did Peter get here? This chapter then ties the story beautifully together.

So let's have a little bit of a delve into John 21 first of all. So as we said, Jesus has appeared to Mary outside the tomb, to the disciples in the room, and a week later to Thomas. That week in between just amazes me as to what conversations would have gone with the awkwardness of Thomas. But that's another sermon. Here we are in chapter 21 and at least seven disciples are together again, they're named in the passage. We don't know exactly where they are or even where the others are. But these seven specifically are mentioned. What we do get a sense of though is the sense of confusion and disorientation amongst the group. Think about what they've been through. They've seen Jesus, the person they believed was their Saviour, they've seen him die. They've been through all those emotions. Then He rose again and appeared to them - Hope was restored. And then he went away again. No wonder, they're very unsure what to do next. What had Jesus said? Why didn't we listen properly? Those and many other questions will have been ringing in their minds.

So what does Peter do? He goes fishing. It's what he knew before. And so because he felt he needed to do something, he returns to what he knows best, or at least what he thinks he knows best. Now, I have a great affinity to Peter, I think in some ways. Peter was always all in. Jump first and think later. I won't ask for a show of hands, if anyone can relate to that as well. Let's look quickly in Matthew 16. Peter, who was then still Simon or Simon Peter, boldly declared Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of the Living, God. Jesus calls him blessed, renames him Peter, and says, you are the rock on which Jesus would now build his church. An amazing high for Peter, he'd gone all in. And then just a few verses later, as Jesus is teaching them about what's to come, including his death, Peter says, no Lord, never. That will never happen to you. Which brings the response from Jesus - get behind me, Satan, you are a stumbling block to me. What a turnaround for Peter. There were other incidents, he walked on water and then he literally was all in again because he sank. He promised never to disown Jesus, and then he denied him three times. His journey is full of highs and lows.

And now, as Peter reverts to type and goes back to fishing, he thinks he's doing the right thing, but as usual, God has other ideas. Despite the Sea of Galilee being full of fish, these expert fishermen catch nothing. And remember all seven of them had gone. Peter decided he was going to go first, the others followed. And this included the ones listed in our reading as the sons of Zebedee. Now, if you're not familiar, that's James and John, the author of this gospel. Now, John refers to himself and his brother, in this way, as the son of Zebedee. Now, quite a lot through the Gospel of John, he will refer to himself as the disciple Jesus loved. But here he has gone back to where he started even in his description of himself as the son of Zebedee.

For some reason, all these fishermen together as they'd gone back to their original starting point, they had lost the knack of catching fish. And then this stranger appears on the shoreline. And, cheekily asks, haven't you any fish? Part of me imagines the response of no was maybe a little bit longer than that, but that's what we have recorded for us now. But then they listen to this apparent stranger and follow his advice. They put their nets on the other side and suddenly they catch more fish than they are physically able to haul in. Verse 7 of our chapter gives us a wonderful picture of the journey to restoration, and it comes in this language that is used here. Now, as I said, John referred to himself as disciple Jesus loved, he'd gone back to being the son of Zebedee. Then here, he returns to saying the disciple that Jesus loved and then he uses Peter's given name from Jesus and says it is the Lord. And then in the next bit, he goes back to calling him Simon Peter because Simon has reverted to type and just jumped into the water and gone to race into shore. As impetuous as ever, leaving all his pals to haul in the fish and bring the boat in, even though they were just a hundred yards from the shore. Peter is all over the place here and John in his use of language, switching from Peter to Simon Peter really wants us to see that. But it's all leading to this wonderful conversation hat happens in the next verses. Peter's full restoration by Jesus over breakfast and I encourage you to read that for yourselves in your own devotions.

Fast forward then 3 years to our Acts 9 reading. Here we have Peter in full ministry mode. He is travelling around the country. He's preaching. He is healing. He's bringing thousands into a knowledge of Jesus. He is full of the Holy Spirit. Just before today's reading, he's been in Lydda where he's healed a paralysed, man. And then nearby, just about seven or eight miles down the road in Joppa, we read of Tabitha, or Dorcas in Greek, who sadly falls ill and dies The Believers know Peter's just up the road and they say, Peter, we need you, please come here and he does, and after prayer Tabitha is miraculously raised to life. And as a result, many more believe in the Lord.

The timing here is really important because at the start of Acts 9, in readings you've had in previous weeks, you we have the conversion of Saul to be Paul. And Paul was then brought down to Jerusalem, just up the road from where this miracle we're reading about is happening, and Peter and Paul here are being prepared in parallel for the mission of the church to reach Jews and Gentiles. The call to reach everyone with the gospel. If you want to read on later on into Acts 10, Peter receives a vision that leads him to share the gospel with a Roman Centurion and his family, opening the door wide to the gospel for the Gentiles. But none of that happens without our John 21 moment. Without Peter's restoration, would he have had the confidence, the clarity, the call to lead like this?

I think that this is a huge encouragement for us. Certainly an encouragement for me and I hope for you as well. Most of us can probably relate to a faith journey that has some ups and downs shall we say? We may not have gone as far as publicly denying Jesus like Peter did, but I'm sure we can all testify to times of drifting, of doubt, of maybe stepping back into old habits. But our reading from the gospel today, shows us that Jesus meets us there in our confusion, in our ordinary routines, even in our failures. We've just sung in our hymn, "perverse and foolish oft I strayed but yet in love he sought me. And on his shoulder gently laid and home rejoicing brought me." What a wonderful picture of a Lord that restores us, that re-calls us, and reminds us of who we are. Simply we can't have our version of an Acts 9 experience of serving God so fully, without the challenge of the John 21 experience. And what a fitting reminder for us this weekend as we are focused on growing together. The disciples had this strong bond, even John and Peter, despite John's regular digs throughout his gospel about Peter, they really needed each other. And so, do we. We are not just a church in this community. We are part of the community. And people need to be reminded of that, that we are one, and maybe even ourselves need to be reminded of that.

The sadly murdered MP Jo Cox once said "we are far more united and have far more in common with each other, than things that divide us." And that can be true of this village, of the region, of our nation. And the church should be - must be - leading the way in living that truth. Every single person in our community is made in the image of God. Just some don't realise it yet. And it's our job not to lecture them in that, but to walk alongside them, to love them, to help them see who they are and who Jesus can be to them.

The Catholic church is celebrating their new Pope - Pope Leo - and on Thursday, in his acceptance message, he said "together, we must try to find out how to be a church that builds bridges, establishes dialogue, and is open to receiving everybody." Amen to that I say.

We don't have to preach to thousands. We don't have to perform miracles like Peter. But we can make a difference in one life. We can live out the gospel with simple acts of kindness, with faithful words, with persistent love. Because people need to know that they are loved, they are valuable, they are precious, they are talented, gifted, capable, powerful, wise, and redeemed by God.

And if you feel you struggle to know what to say to people, just along by the hymnbooks are these little resource cards. Don't expect you to see it from there. It pulls out into a big thing like this. This is a great resource. A child in my daughter's playground said, what's that maths sum you've got there, because it's got a heart, a times, a cross. So this simply says, and all the work's done for you with words on the back, God loves me. I have sinned. Jesus died for me. And now I need to decide to live for God. These are a brilliant. There's a lovely prayer on there that people can be walked through. So if you feel you don't have the confidence, grab one of those, they're in the boxes at the back. Grab a handful if you wish and share them with friends this week.

So, as we build on the excitement of this growing together weekend but we don't want to leave things here. This needs to lead forward to something. So who can you walk alongside? Who can you encourage, help, or bless? Whose life could be just a little bit different because you showed up? Let us truly be a community that grows together. In Faith. In love. In Christ. Amen.