Jesus Cares About Your Place and Your People.

Well, welcome again to New Culture. I'm so glad that you guys are here this afternoon. It's getting dark now and it feels like evening. I'm so glad that you're here joining us today. If we haven't met yet, my name's Abbie Sawczak. I'm the pastor here and would love to get to know you.

We are in this series on the table where we are talking about different times that we read stories in scripture where Jesus sat around the table with people. So if you have your Bibles with you today, we are going to be reading in John chapter 21.

When I was about 21 years old, I'm going to tell you guys a story that I'm not really proud of because it plays into some gender stereotypes that I don't want to be affiliated with, but this is what happened. My wonderful sister-in-law is one of our worship leaders back here, Elena. So I'm going to loop her into this today.

Elena and I had the joy of being roommates together in Minneapolis just months before she married my older brother Nathan. We have such fond memories. I swear we just ate rice and spinach that summer, you know, broke, coming out of college, all those good times. One moment my brother Nathan came over when we had plans. We asked him, can you help us? We need to get this lamp out of the room. We were struggling to carry this lamp down to the dumpster.

He said, what's wrong with the lamp? We said, yeah, we're going to have to find a new one. The lighting in here is awful and our lamp broke. He asked, what do you mean it broke? We said, I don't know. It's just not working. It's broken. He asked, okay, well did you change the light bulb? I said, oh my gosh, we never thought of that.

We changed the light bulb and in fact the lamp was not broken. It just needed a new light bulb. But it was one of those moments where we were doing our best and just plugging it in and unplugging it and trying a different outlet. We thought, it's broken. It's done. We have to take it to the trash. But we just needed a fresh set of eyes to come in and say, maybe there's something more to this story. So shout out to Nathan for coming and helping us save the lamp and giving us a little bit of strategy on how to fix it and make it work.

Today we're reading a story of Jesus and his disciples. They're fishing and they're not catching anything. They're at this point where they're about to give up. But then all of a sudden Jesus comes in and things start to change.

John 21: Jesus meets the disciples

Let's turn to John chapter 21. I'm going to read a good chunk of scripture, so bear with me:

Afterward, Jesus appeared again to his disciples by the Sea of Tiberias. It happened this way. Simon Peter, Thomas, Nathaniel from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. I'm going out to fish, Simon Peter told them. And they said, we'll go with you. So they went out and got into the boat but that night they caught nothing. Early in the morning Jesus stood on the shore but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus. He called out to them, Friends, haven't you any fish? No, they answered. He said, Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some. When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish. Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, It is the Lord. As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, It is the Lord, he wrapped his outer garment around him for he had taken it off and jumped into the water. The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish for they were not far from the shore, about a hundred yards. When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it and some bread. Jesus said to them, Bring some of the fish you have just caught. Simon Peter climbed aboard and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish, 153. But even with so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, Come and have breakfast. 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 did the same with the fish. This was now the third time Jesus had appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead.

John 21

So Jesus has now died on the cross, paid the price for our sins, been raised back to life. He has appeared to the women. He has appeared to his disciples. He has appeared to Thomas, where we have the story of Thomas having questions and doubting Jesus. And now he's again appearing to his disciples in this moment.

The one thing that I want us to walk away with today is this idea: God cares about your place and the people in it. God cares about your place and the people in it. And now what? Keep walking, keep worshiping, and listen for what's next.

As we've been in this table series, we've been talking about meals that Jesus had. In one of the meals he's having here, he's going to catch the food and then fry it up in a pan and they're going to have breakfast together. But what I love is that these stories have to do with work and with our assignments and the things that Jesus has placed in front of us to participate and partner with him.

I love that both of these things have in common that they're just everyday things and everyday moments that take place. Sometimes when we're praying for these big moves of God and asking him to do big crazy things in our lives, we forget that more times than not in scripture, he was showing up in the everyday mundane moments that nobody was expecting him to be in. And this is what's taking place here.

When Jesus originally called some of the disciples, they were fishing and they were fishermen. He said, come follow me and I will make you fishers of men. It's significant here that after Jesus died and the disciples didn't know what was happening next, they went back to fishing. They went back to what they knew.

There's a lot of debate from different theologians, authors, and pastors about whether this was them reverting back to their past in a negative way or whether this was a good thing. But I think in a way it was just this: we're going to go with what we know to do.

Why does Christ meet them in Galilee? One thing we see is that Jesus told them to wait for him in Galilee. So they weren't just there by chance, but they were waiting for him. There are different scriptures that talk about Galilee. We read Isaiah chapter 9 a lot of times around Christmas because it has the scriptures where it says, for us a child is born, to us a son is given. But I want to read a little bit earlier there:

Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past, he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Nephetali, but in the future he will honor Galilee of the Gentiles by the way of the sea along the Jordan. The people walking in darkness have seen a great light and those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned.

Isaiah 9:1-2

This prophetic word in the Old Testament was talking about Jesus coming. It starts with mentioning this place of Galilee. This was a significant place. Every single place that we show up in that we enter into has a story. When you enter into your classroom, when you enter into your workplace, when you enter into a grocery store, you are entering into a story. You're entering into a place.

When every single one of us, whether you were born in Madison or moved here two weeks ago or two months ago, when we moved to Madison, we enter into a city, a culture, a people, a place. Some of it is good. Some of it is bad. There's stories of fruitfulness and miracles in this city. There's stories of pain and distress. There's history that we walk into, that we are born into. Our place is significant.

Isaiah 9 is mentioning this place of Galilee and prophesying that this is going to be a place of significance. And this is where Jesus spent so much of his time with his disciples. And it continues to say in Isaiah 9: the people walking in darkness have seen a great light and those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned. A light has dawned. It's telling us that this place that was seen as darkness, there's hope. A light is coming and a light has dawned.

Jesus showed up not only in the place he told them to wait for him, but in their workplace. Jesus showed up in their workplace. In their moments of waiting for what was next, they continued to work and do what they knew. This is why I tend to lean on that thought: I don't know that it was laziness, that they thought, well, Jesus left us, so we don't know what to do, we're just going back to work.

But I think that it was intentional, active waiting on their end, saying: here's what we know to do. We know to fish. We know to work. And so we're going to go back to work and we're going to wait for Jesus to show up in that moment.

Work, place, and active waiting

For each and every one of us, we've been talking about this the past couple of weeks: this idea that we are all called to go and make disciples. We share that call when we say yes to following Jesus. We say yes to joining him in his mission. However, each and every one of us at different points of our life are going to have specific assignments and things that God is asking us to do to fulfill that call.

If we were to go around today and share all the different places that we work or the things that you're studying for, we'll start to see the beauty and the diversity of the places that God has placed us to represent him. Our work matters to God. Our assignments are significant to him. The places that we are going to be matter.

I think Jesus recognized this and I think it's significant that he showed up in their place of work. But what I love about this is that he showed up and then he empowered them. He showed up in their place of work and empowered them to accomplish everything that they were trying to do and better. But before he entered the scene, they couldn't catch any fish. These were trained fishermen. So this wouldn't make sense. They couldn't do it.

Then Jesus enters the scene and gives them this strategy. He says, no, do it on the other side of the boat. He had a specific instruction for them within their assignment of how to get to where he wanted them to go. And after that, what do you see? The overflow. The miracle happens when they were obedient to the specific instruction that Jesus gave them in their assigned place of work.

We constantly have to be reminded that as a church, church is not a place that we come to. But church, we are a people. We are a people that are sent out in the same way that God sent Jesus to come and be the Savior of the world. Jesus then empowered us and sends us to continue his mission to save and seek the lost and reconcile them back into relationship with him.

I love Isaiah 65:22. There's just one phrase in this passage that says: God's people will long enjoy the work of their hands. They will long enjoy the work of their hands. Work and partnering with Jesus is a gift. It matters to God. We all share this call and have these assignments to help fulfill the call. Our call is to be with Jesus, to become like him, to do what he did, to be people of worship and prayer, to be disciples who go and make disciples, to intercede and pray for renewal, to serve our city. We share all of this.

But what I love is to go back again to the disciples. In their moments of moving forward, they were intentional and active in their waiting. I have this toy car up with me today. I was thinking, if I was a cool pastor and could ride a unicycle or something I would do that. I don't know why I had that thought. But I can't, so I just brought this to show you something.

When you talk about active waiting and the importance of active waiting, and not just sitting still, but the significance that the disciples went back in their moments of waiting to do what they know and to work and to worship through their work and be obedient to their assignment until Jesus told them the instructions for what's next.

If you think of any sort of thing with wheels or anything that moves, and if I'm just going to sit here with a car and I want to change directions, if the wheels aren't moving, it's going to be a lot harder to do that. But if a car is already moving, if wheels are already going, it's that much easier to change directions and steer it.

The disciples were already going. They were already working. They were already moving. And so when Jesus said, hey, you're already out on the boat, you're already working, you're already moving, you already have the nets ready to go. So now when I give you the specific instruction that is going to produce this miracle and accomplish this goal, you're already ready and prepared to do it. And it can happen that much faster.

There are things that we can do now. If you're in a place where you think, I don't really know my assignment, or I don't really know what God is asking me to do. I don't really know what it looks like for me to be the hands and feet of Jesus or to love people or I'm just lost on that. Continue to actively wait on the Lord. Be present in your place of work. Worship through your work. Be faithful to what you know and God will guide you and direct you and give you those specific steps and assignments all along the way.

This miracle of the catch of fish shows that Jesus is with them in all places. It shows that their obedience to the specific assignment and the steps that he was asking them, the strategy he was giving them, was everything. When they landed, they saw a fire burning with coals with fish on it and some bread. Jesus said to them, bring some of the fish you have just caught. Simon Peter climbed back and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish, 153. But even with so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, come and have breakfast. None of the disciples dared ask him, who are you? They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came, took the bread, gave it to them, and did the same with the fish.

There are a couple things about this part that really stand out to me. One, I love the fact that Jesus is feeding them, right? Okay, as you work, as you do the miraculous, and now you're literally getting to see the miracles flow through your hands, I'm going to continue to feed you and sustain you. And at the end of it all, I still just want to be with you. At the end of it all, I still just want to sit down and have breakfast with you.

That was still significant to him: to have that time of relationship. Yeah, we just did this awesome thing. You just had to pull in all these fish and it probably took a lot of strength and a lot of work. And now like, let's just chill. Let's rest. Let's have breakfast together.

We see those rhythms that Jesus has in place for us of work and of rest and of enjoying community. But there's something significant about this number 153. This is what I love about scripture. There are so many little things. You can just read it and think, oh, Jesus is in Galilee again. But when you start to study the significance of the place and what's happening, it gets really fun. The same with this number. There's a couple different thoughts about why this number is mentioned. This number, numbers aren't always mentioned. Sometimes it's like they caught a bunch of fish. But it doesn't just say a large catch. It says 153 fish were caught.

One Catholic priest and theologian theorized that this idea of 153 fishes caught represented all the different species of fish that would have existed at that time. This has been confirmed by other theologians and people like Augustine have also gone back and studied and been like, at that time, this could have represented all the different species of fish.

Now why is this significant? Well, I think it could be a sign. Because Jesus was someone that was so intentional, even about the place and the details and everything in between, to show God's heart for humanity. He didn't just come for one type of person, but he came for all people. He's intentional to show that to us time and time again: I want all people to be a part of my family and in relationship with me.

Through obedience, we truly find everything that we need. And as we continue to feed and pour out into other people, Jesus will continue to feed us and support us and strengthen us and pour into us. In the miracle that we talked about a few weeks ago of the feeding of the 5,000, we see that Jesus was starting to let his disciples touch the miracle. He said, I want it to flow through your hands. It's a reminder that he wants us to be a part of it all. When we give, it will be given to us.

I'm always cautious when I say this because when we think of giving, sometimes we think when we give, it's going to be given to us in the same way we gave. And I don't think that's always true. That's not something we see directly said in scripture. But as we give, we see that Jesus will continue to feed us and sustain us. But it might not be like, oh, because you gave, you're going to get fish. It might be something else that God gives you that you didn't even know you needed.

That's important for us as we follow Jesus. As we look to say, okay, God, what else are you asking me to surrender? Then let him grow your imagination for what it looks like for him to come and fill you and feed you and sustain you again.

Christ crucified and hope

We share this call to be with Jesus, to keep him at the center. As a result of us doing that and centering our lives around Jesus, naturally, because his heart was for people, our heart too should be for people. It should be for the people around us to know Jesus, to experience the transformation that he has to offer, and to walk in that healing and in that relationship with him.

In 1 Corinthians 2:2, Paul writes: I have decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

Paul was a brilliant man. He was an intellect. He had all these words and could have spent his life writing some of the most profound theology books and philosophy books. But instead he wrote a few small letters to the early church. He could have been one of the leading thinkers that people still talk about. And I mean, we do within the church, but he took that time and energy and devoted it to these few small letters.

Paul did not focus his life and ambition on just a few different things or on one thing, but he was able to recognize that he didn't want anything else to be known than his call to be like Jesus and Jesus crucified. He kept that at the center.

I think that's significant for us to recognize: at the end of the day, we're going to have a million opportunities for us to use our gifts in many different ways. But not one of those opportunities or assignments or things should ever be our goal. Rather our goal should continue to be to give God glory through being with Jesus, becoming like him and making disciples and fulfilling the mission of Christ like he invited us to do. It should all come back to giving God glory. That should remain and be what we center our lives around, knowing that at different times and different seasons, it's going to look different.

Paul didn't make just one part of one of his assignments his main goal or what he centered his life around. Instead, it was always Christ and Christ crucified. We are continuing to be part of this story. We get to continue the work that Jesus started here on earth. When he gave the Great Commission later to his disciples to make disciples of all nations, he follows that and ends that by saying, surely I will be with you always. And that is our hope. That is our promise.

I want to read some more in Isaiah chapter 9. I read the first few verses, but this entire passage is so beautiful, giving us this hope. Although we are entering into a story, right now we are in a moment in history where if you turn on the news or social media, you see all the darkness, all the corruption, all the things that are happening. And it can be hard to say, well, how do we have hope on this side of eternity? How do we have hope when there's so much evil, wars, terrorist attacks, and all of this going on?

The people walking in darkness have seen a great light. Those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned. You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy. They rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest, as men when dividing the plunder. For as in the day of Midian's defeat, you have shattered the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor. Every warrior's boot used in battle and every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning, will be fuel for the fire. For to us, a child is born. To us, a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace, there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.

Isaiah 9:2-7

It will be accomplished. We have hope that Jesus came to bring and wants to continue to bring through each and every one of us. It is no mistake that God has placed you where he's placed you. You each have a unique assignment to help fulfill this call that we have to bring righteousness and peace and justice and hope to the people around us.

We have this invitation to be people that pay attention to our place. We pay attention. We worship through the way that we work. We don't just see our job as something that we show up to, but we see our job as something that can be significant to the kingdom of bringing hope and justice and mercy and peace to the world around us.

We can have this hope that Jesus didn't come to leave anybody out, but he was intentional to say like every single type of fish, I want that. And that represents every single type of person that walks this earth. I want relationship with them. And he lived that way. The other significant thing about that number is that there are 153 accounts of Jesus interacting with people directly in scripture. He's once again showing us that he wants those personal interactions with every single person. He touched those who were known to be contagious. He sat with the scandalous and let them come close to him. He counted out no one from relationship with him.

And so we can follow his example with confidence. We can live from this place that we are so blessed to know Jesus and so we can be sent by him and have confidence that we have a call and assignment. That you today have a role and responsibility. We can be led by our love for Jesus and live from that place today.

Our call to live for Jesus, to be like him, to die to ourselves daily, that's pretty clear in scripture. Now your assignment may change, but you will always have a role and responsibility to continue the work that Jesus started with the hope that even though there's darkness around us, there will be light. Those that are now living in the land of the shadow of death, there is a light that is coming and we get to have the honor in some situations to help be that light.

I shared this in our alpha course this morning that I had a really emotional moment this week. We have been working with Neighborhood House to help collect winter wear for kids and families. I happened to be stopping in there for something totally different and I got to see the coat rack that we brought over there a couple weeks ago filled with coats.

This little boy walked in and he was so excited asking, do you have hats and do you have gloves? It just hit me. I left and came to our work from the Living Room and walked in. I was just like, I can't stop crying because I was so overwhelmed. God loves this little boy so much that he wants him to be warm this winter. His love is so deep and caring and intentional for us that he doesn't leave us alone. He gives us a strategy of continuing to bring that hope and care and love to the world. That strategy is all of us. It's about being surrendered to his Holy Spirit and the specific instructions that he's giving us to say: are you listening to what I want to do?

Because when Jesus walks in the room, he changes things. Then he empowers us through his Holy Spirit. He says, now, when you walk into that room, I want you to change things. I want you to leave it different. I want you to love people in that deep and intentional way where they know, I love you so much that I want you to be warm and fed and cared for.

So like the disciples, let us be people that don't just wear ourselves out trying to do things our own way in our own strength. Let's be people that are in tune to the Holy Spirit, that are listening to God's voice, that are reading scripture so we know how to hear God's voice, that are paying attention to the specific instructions and assignments that he has for us.

Because the empowerment that he wants to give us, it's worth waiting for. It is worth waiting for so that we can let his love flow through us. There is a plan and there is a purpose. Jesus wants to reveal to us.

Holy Spirit, we thank you for this word and we welcome you in this space. God, we surrender these next few moments to you. Would you come? Give us fresh vision. Would you help us have a new imagination for what you want to do? Would you help us to hear your voice if we're asking you for specific things? Would you help us be present with you? Would you come and empower us? Would you change us so we can continue to move from this place and worship you and live for you and walk closer to you? Walk closer, God, to the person that you are creating us to be every single day. We love you, Lord. We welcome you in this place, God.