{"id":18835,"date":"2015-07-19T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-07-19T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/ministering-to-the-whole-person\/"},"modified":"2024-09-24T08:53:32","modified_gmt":"2024-09-24T13:53:32","slug":"ministering-to-the-whole-person","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/ministering-to-the-whole-person\/","title":{"rendered":"Ministering to the Whole Person"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[88],"series_event":[434],"sermon_service_type":[472],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18835","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-john","series_event-john","sermon_service_type-main-service","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Ministering to the Whole Person","sermon_date":"20150719","sermon_month":"07","sermon_year":"2015","sermon_notes":2820,"sermon_slides":2823,"sermon_mp3":2831,"sermon_id":"71915109305","series_or_event":434,"service_type":[472],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":88,"chapter_and_verse":"21:8-14","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\r\nMinistering to the Whole Person\r\n7-19-15 John 21:8-14 Lesson 130\r\n\r\nGood morning everybody; if we could take our Bibles and open them to John chapter 21, beginning at verse 8 and the title of our message this morning is Ministering to the Whole Person. And it\u2019s here we\u2019re going to learn the depth of concern that God has for us, not just at the soul\/spiritual level, although that\u2019s the most important thing, but also at the temporal\/physical level as well. The concern that God has for us touches every area of need we could possibly consider or have, and is something that is vast and comprehensive.\r\n\r\nWe are continuing, moving into the final stretch here of our study through John\u2019s Gospel, we find ourselves in that final part of the book which is what we would call the Passion Narratives, dealing with the death of Christ, chapters 18-19. John, of course, ends on a high note as do all the Gospel writers, not just by focusing on Christ\u2019s death but also His resurrection. I remember in the Mel Gibson movie about Jesus, Passion of Christ, it was an interesting movie; one of the things that kind of bothered me though is so much of the movie is about Christ\u2019s suffering, and they saved a very small snippet for His resurrection. And what you discover is that the Bible is balanced on this subject. Yes, the sufferings of Christ are catalogues and describe for us but an equal emphasis, perhaps if not more emphasis, is on the final victory of Christ as secured by His resurrection.\r\n\r\nHis resurrection is our future resurrection and so we need to look at ourselves as victors; we are winners in the end. Your life from the human point of view may not be going exactly as you want but you are a winner in the end because of the fact that you are connected by way of faith to the ultimate victor, or winner, or overcomer, Jesus Christ. The resurrection account begins with the empty tomb, chapter 20, verses 1-10, and then what follows are about five resurrection appearances and we find ourselves there in His fourth post-resurrection appearance to the seven disciples along the Sea of Galilee.\r\n\r\nI hope you like the letter C, we have the characters, we saw those last time, verses 1-2, seven disciples are gathered there, John, the author of this book, one of the seven. And then the consternation there on the Sea of Galilee up in the north as they were out all night fishing and caught nothing. And then as the dawn begins to break we have a call, verses 4-5, where Jesus essentially, on the seashore, asks them how successful have you been? And of course the way that question is phrased in Greek it expects a negative answer. And Jesus is forcing them to articulate their humiliation\u2014we\u2019ve actually caught nothing. So Jesus gives a simple command. In fact, it\u2019s a command that\u2019s so easy it acts as an offense to pride and the pride of men, in this case fishermen, who understood the fishing business far better than a carpenter would understand it.\r\n\r\nAnd He simply says cast your nets on the other side of the boat. And we talked last time about how there was a crisis, we believe, of will; would they submit to a command that is so simple? And yet they did, and they caught a miraculous catch of fish. And then it slowly begins to dawn on them, John first, apparently the comprehension where he says, \u201cIt is the Lord.\u201d [John 21:7]\r\n\r\nAnd so we have talked about seven signs that Jesus manifested in the book of John, all revealing His identity, but this I would take as an eighth sign: Jesus even knows where the fish are, even the animal kingdom itself is in submission to, and authority to, Him.\r\n\r\nAnd we pick it up there in verses 8-9 with the coals. And notice, if you will, John 21:8, it says: \u201cBut the other disciples came in the little boat, for they were not far from the land, but about one hundred yards away, dragging the net full of fish.\u201d Apparently Peter, you remember from verse 7 last week, couldn\u2019t wait for the boat to get into the land; it was about a hundred yards away and so he just dove into the water and wanted to get to the Lord as quickly as he possibly could. John, though, was with the rest of the disciples; they came to shore in the boat, not far away. We\u2019re told here it was a little boat and this little boat was about a hundred yards or so away from the shore.\r\n\r\nIt\u2019s interesting to look at these little details that John talks about. He talks here about a \u201clittle boat.\u201d He talks here about it being \u201cone hundred yards away.\u201d What you have to understand about John\u2019s Gospel, and he tells us this at the beginning of the book and he tells us this at the end of the book. John claims to be an eyewitness to these things. John 1:14 says, \u201cAnd the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw,\u201d or beheld \u201cHis glory.\u201d John, in the end of the book, chapter 21, verse 24 says, \u201cThis is the disciple who is testifying to these things and wrote these things, and we know that his testimony is true.\u201d\r\n\r\nJohn, in 1 John 1:1, writes this, \u201cWhat was from the beginning, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life.\u201d John claims to have seen; he claims to have heard, he actually claims to have touched Jesus Christ. And if this book came to us through eyewitness testimony and is not a fanciful rendition then we would expect details to occur in the text that an eyewitness was there to observe. In fact, back in verse 2 of chapter 21 John named the seven disciples that were there on the Sea of Galilee that evening and the following morning. [John 21:2, \u201cSimon Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two others of His disciples were together.\u201d] And then in verse 7 John tells us that one of those disciples, a man named Peter, dove into the Sea of Galilee to get to the shore fast. John even throws in this little detail about, \u201cSo when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord he put his outer garment on (for he was stripped for work), and he threw himself into the sea.\u201d What a strange thing to bring up unless you were there to actually see it.\r\n\r\nEyewitness testimony\u2014probably the most powerful evidence that you could introduce in a court of law is the testimony of eyewitnesses. That\u2019s what we have through the Gospel record. We\u2019re not reading fiction, we\u2019re not reading myth, we\u2019re not reading an invented scenario; we are reading the account of somebody who was there to see the details. And, beyond that we are reading the account of somebody who went to their grace acknowledging that these things that he said about Jesus are so. It\u2019s one thing to lie; it\u2019s another thing to die for a lie. What fool would die for something that he made up? And yet John went to his grave professing these things as true. I believe John, therefore, is a very credible eyewitness to the things that he saw.\r\n\r\nYou\u2019ll notice also there, as we move into verse 9, it says this, \u201cSo when they got out on the land, they saw a charcoal fire already laid and fish placed on it, and bread.\u201d Notice this other little interesting detail, \u201ca charcoal fire.\u201d The Greek word for \u201ccharcoal fire\u201d is anthrokiav, and it is also used in John 18:18 regarding the denials of Christ by Peter. John 18:18 says this, \u201cNow the slaves and the officers were standing there, having made a charcoal fire, for it was cold and they were warming themselves, and Peter was also with them, standing and warming himself.\u201d And as we\u2019ve studied John 18 you recall in that environment was have the threefold denial by Peter of Christ.\r\n\r\nAnd what is about to take place in this chapter is the threefold restoration of Peter by Christ. We probably won\u2019t get to those verses today but we will see them beginning next week in verses 15-17. Isn\u2019t it interesting that Peter denied the Lord three times and then Jesus, in John 21 asks Peter if he loves Jesus, not once, not twice, but three times.\r\n\r\nIsn\u2019t it interesting that Peter denied Christ in the presence of witnesses and when Jesus reaffirms Peter and He asks Peter does he love Me, that whole event takes place in the presence of witnesses as well. In fact, one of those witnesses was John.\r\n\r\nIsn\u2019t it interesting that the denials in John 18 took place alongside a charcoal fire and the restoration of Peter is going to take place alongside a charcoal fire? See, we have a tendency to just jump over detail like this but you see, it\u2019s very significant because what Jesus is doing along the Sea of Galilee is He\u2019s putting the same scenario into motion, not in the exact same geographical location per se but the general scenario comes back into motion whereby Peter is going to be given an opportunity to acknowledge Christ three times in the basic general venue or arena where he denied Christ a few days ago in John 18.\r\n\r\nAnd I love the fact that Peter, when he is restored he is not just restored back into fellowship with Christ, but he is actually restored into a place of leadership. You remember that it was Peter who was given by a promise of Christ, in Matthew 16:18, the keys to the kingdom. [Matthew 16:18, \u201cI also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will now overpower it.\u201d] The keys open doors and the reason that Peter is given those keys is he is going to lead in the age of the church, the very first Jews to Christ, Acts 2; the very first Gentile to Christ, Acts 10, and Peter was a man of destiny; Peter had a calling of God on his life.\r\n\r\nAnd we have a tendency to think that because he blew it God is finished with Peter. Not so! We think that way because we do not understand the grace of God. Grace simply means unmerited favor, favor which is coming your direction which you do not deserve. We, as fallen human beings, have a difficult time understanding this concept because we deal with people and others based on merit, earning your way, job performance, evaluations, appraisals, you get one chance to mess things up in the real world and then you\u2019re done. And that\u2019s not how God works; God does not deal with people on the basis of merit, He deals with people on the basis of grace; merit coming your direction, or favor coming your direction which you cannot earn.\r\n\r\nPeter is not only going to be restored back into fellowship in this chapter, he is going to be restored back into leadership. And I bring that up because so many of us think that we have committed some sin in our past which disqualifies us ever from being used by God. And what you\u2019ll discover is that such a concept is foreign to the Scriptures. God is in the business of not just forgiving but He is in the business of restoring. Now there are those involved in a sin and they get caught in another sin, they get caught in the same sin, I\u2019m not talking about people like that. Those kinds of people are unrepentant, and typically they are upset that they got caught.\r\nI\u2019m talking about the person that genuinely is sorrowful for what he has done or not done; some big sin in the past that we think disqualifies us from the grace of God, disqualifies us from the fellowship of God, disqualifies us from ever being used by God. And I\u2019m not trying to whitewash sin and make it less than it is: sin is sin! Sin brings consequences and yet the grace of God is so wide that even sins can be forgiven and that person can be restored to a place of usability. And that\u2019s why there\u2019s significance attached to this charcoal fire; Jesus is setting the stage for this awesome lesson that Peter is going to learn about the grace of God.\r\n\r\nHow can you be an effective minister of the grace of God, which is Peter\u2019s calling, unless you have experienced the grace of God on your own? I mean, how can you tell people about the grace of God and the unmerited favor of God unless you have received that. And what I have discovered is that the people who have received the grace of God are typically the most effective advocates and spokespersons for God\u2019s grace. Peter is going to have a tremendous ministry over the next 30 years and Jesus is setting the stage properly for that ministry by allowing this fisherman to bask in and receive the grace of God.\r\n\r\nWhere did this restoration of Peter take place? It took place, the traditional sight is believed at a place called, hopefully I\u2019m pronouncing the title right, Tabgha which is on the Sea of Galilee, it\u2019s a little area there on the shoreline in between Capernaum and Gennesaret. I had a chance to visit that area last summer when I was in the land of Israel, along the Sea of Galilee. And what a touching experience it is to walk on the very seashore where Jesus extended grace to this man, the Apostle Peter.\r\n\r\nWe go into verse 10 and we move away from the coals and now we move into the count. Notice, if you will, verse 10 of John chapter 21, it says this: \u201cJesus said to them, \u2018Bring some of the fish which you have caught.\u2019\u201d So Peter dove into the water first and he, most likely arrived first, the rest of the disciples came along not much longer, a hundred yards away or so, on this little boat after this miraculous catch of fish, and Jesus says to the disciples I want you to go take \u201csome of the fish which you have caught\u201d through the miracle that I just performed and I want you to bring them to Me. And what Jesus is going to do is He\u2019s going to use that miraculous catch of fish to meet a physical need, in this case breakfast, or hunger, in the lives of the disciples.\r\n\r\nIt\u2019s very interesting to me that Jesus did not decide to meet their need by multiplying the bread and the fish as He had done in John 6. This time it\u2019s a bit different; they are the ones that had to be involved in the labor. They received this miraculous catch of fish, the Bible tells us that the nets did not break, but they are the ones, in verse 6, who cast the net. Verse 6 says and they cast, Jesus didn\u2019t do it for them, they had to do it on their own. And beyond that they were under duress or strain in the sense that \u201cthey were not able to haul it in because of the great number of fish.\u201d\r\n\r\nAnd then as you go down to verse 8 it says, \u201cBut the other disciples came in the little boat, for they were not far from the land, but about one hundred yards away,\u201d notice this verb, \u201cdragging the net full of fish.\u201d Jesus, of course, could have met their need by creating ex nihilo a miracle but He chose to work through the labor of the disciples. He involved them, not so much in the miraculous catch but in the process of casting the net, dragging the fish up in the net and bringing this boat to the shore, all things that they had to do.\r\nIn other words, Jesus decided in this instance to meet their need through a product of their own labor. And I bring this up because there are those today, and when I was in seminary I met an individual just like this, who sort of had this idea that God would provide, and he would say I need the provision of God. And I recall that one of the students went to the job board, where they advertise, employers advertise for potential employees to provide, and brought it to the attention of this student, hey, guess what, there\u2019s a job available; this job can meet your need. And the student said well, you don\u2019t understand, I want God to provide. And essentially what he was saying is God is going to somehow miraculously put money into my account, God is going to somehow miraculously cause the milkman, his truck to break down in front of my house and there\u2019s going to be too much milk so he\u2019s just going to give it to me.\r\n\r\nAnd I\u2019m not denying that God doesn\u2019t work that way at times, but you see, that\u2019s not the norm. The norm is this: God uses the product of our own labor to meet needs in our lives. This, of course, is something that Christ honored because it\u2019s a principle that God set up after humanity fell in Genesis 3. Do you recall Genesis 3:19 remember what the Lord said there? \u201cBy the sweat of your face you will eat bread, until you return to the ground, because from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you shall return.\u201d As the fall took place a new principle came into effect where man began to work for his survival by the sweat of his brow.\r\n\r\nPaul, in 2 Thessalonians 3:10 says this, \u201cfor even when we were with you, we used to give you this order: if anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat, either.\u201d That\u2019s a pretty straightforward statement, isn\u2019t it? Do you like eating? Yeah, I do Paul, in fact, that\u2019s one of the things in life I excel at is eating. He makes a simple statement; if you don\u2019t work then you do not eat.\r\n\r\n1 Timothy 5:8 says this, \u201cBut if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.\u201d Matthew 6:26 says this, \u201cLook at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?\u201d He says look at the birds themselves that God provides for. One of the interesting things about birds is they are constantly active, they sow, they reap, they are involved in constructing nests, they are involved in protecting their baby birds, and yet despite their activity God is in the business of providing for them.\r\n\r\nSee, what is the Biblical teaching on this? The Biblical teaching on this is God uses the sweat of our brow through work product of our own labor to meet the needs in our life. Ultimately we can give glory to God because He has opened the door for economic productivity and given us the health to do it. But the provision of God in no way is some kind of circumvention around the idea that we must contribute, we must labor. And to get out of it would be to simply deny the curse.\r\n\r\nWhat we have taking place today in the United States of America, what we have taking place all around the world is what I like to call the siren song of socialism. Socialism is such, and it\u2019s kissing cousin, Marxism, they are so attractive to fallen people. That\u2019s why these systems are embraced by a great many because what those systems do at the end of the day is they give man an out to the curse. You no longer have to work by the sweat of your brow to provide for yourself and for your own family, you can have somebody else do that for you. The doctrine of socialism simply says this: you work, I eat; not the biblical framework which is this idea that I eat if I work. And socialism is so appealing and it\u2019s so attractive because it gives people an escape from what God articulated in Genesis 3:19, you will work by the sweat of your brow.\r\n\r\nAnd this is why people embrace socialism, despite the fact that it fails almost everywhere it\u2019s been tried. I cannot think of a successful socialistic or Marxist country; in fact, you look across the world today, you see places like Spain, you see places like the island of Cypress, you even see places like we saw this week and last week in Greece, that are in great economic upheaval. Why are they in upheaval? Because they went down this road of the siren song of socialism. They got the majority of people to sign on to this deal because of its appeal and because of its attractiveness and because of its false promise of escaping the curse.\r\n\r\nAnd because socialism is contrary to the principles of God\u2019s Word, everywhere it\u2019s been tried it ultimately fails and ultimately collapses. And you say to yourself, well wait a minute, pastor, don\u2019t you believe there should be a safety net. The problem is when the safety net turns into a hammock and it begins to give people an escape from reality. Of course everybody is in favor of a safety net, but you see the socialistic mindset is not a safety net; the socialistic mindset is an escape. And essentially what happens with socialism is you run out of what Margaret Thatcher called \u201cOPM;\u201d OPM simply stands for other people\u2019s money. There are only so many rich people to demonize; there are only so many rich people to tax. And eventually the people receiving all of these benefits outnumber the productive members of society and that\u2019s when the system starts to go belly-up.\r\n\r\nAnd so it\u2019s interesting to me, and I didn\u2019t want to turn this into a political or economics lecture but it is interesting to me that Jesus honors this ancient principle, established in the Garden of Eden, that if a man will not work neither shall he eat. He doesn\u2019t simply provide for them; He could have if He had chosen to do that, but He involves them in the process of labor.\r\n\r\nYou\u2019ll notice, going down to verse 11, something very interesting is said there; \u201cSimon Peter went up and drew the net to land,\u201d see how Peter is involved in the activity, \u201cfull of large fish, a hundred and fifty-three; and although there were so many, the net was not torn.\u201d So the net is pulled up and they count 153 fish. And over the last 2,000 years people have speculated, what is the true secret meaning of the 153 fish. I mean, there must be some sort of hidden riddle or some sort of code in this number, 153. Here are some suggestions that have been made over the last 2,000 years. There was a man named Rupert who said the 153 are different categories in the united faith, so he said typically in a congregation you\u2019ve got a hundred married people, fifty widowed people, and three virgins, so it\u2019s talking here about a church of some kind.\r\n\r\nAnd then comes the suggestion by Grotius, who says, no, 153 represents proselytes, now a proselyte is a convert, a Gentile convert to Judaism, 153 represents the proselytes in the time of David and Solomon. The problem with that, of course is there were 600 proselytes in the time of David and Solomon. And then you have Cyril, who said no, the true meaning of this is 100 is Gentile converts. Now why 100? Because 10 times 10, (10 of course being the number of perfection), 10 times 10 equals 100 so 100 Gentile converts and in a typical church there are fewer Jewish converts to Christianity than Gentile converts so we\u2019ll just add 50 to 100 and we\u2019ll get 150 but wait, we\u2019re one shy, we need153 and so Cyril said well, 3 is the different numbers of the Trinity, so just throw that in and you\u2019ll come out to 153.\r\n\r\nJerome said there are 153 fish in the animal kingdom, and he got this from a historian of his time named Opium, and so what he is saying is this 153 fish, 153 fish different kinds of species in the fish kingdom or animal kingdom represents the calling of God on the church, after all, didn\u2019t Jesus say in Matthew 4:19, \u201cFollow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.\u201d So Jerome said this is the successful mission or ministry of the church during the church age. The problem is when you study the historian, Opium, very carefully there were not 153 fish; he said there are 157. And then you go over to a guy named Pliny and he said the number is more like 171, so that one doesn\u2019t work either.\r\n\r\nAnd then you have this solution by a gentleman by the name of Emerton and he said this relates to a prophecy about the Dead Sea given in the book of Ezekiel. So for example, in Ezekiel 47:9-10 it says this: \u201cIt will come about that every living creature which swarms in every place where the river goes, will live. And there will be very many fish, for these waters go there and the others become fresh; so everything will live where the river goes. [10] And it will come about that fisherman will stand beside it; from Engedi to Eneglaim,\u201d now Engedi there is on the Dead Sea, as is Eneglaim, and it says \u201cthere will be a place for the spreading of nets. Their fish will be according to their kinds, lie the fish of the Great Sea, very many.\u201d So there is this prophecy given about the fact that the Dead Sea is going to come back to life and is going to team with fish, and Emerton essentially believed that that is what this is talking about.\r\n\r\nNow where does the number 153 come from? You have to go into something called gematria. What is gematria? Gematria is the idea that every Hebrew letter has a number attached to it. And so you can take anybody\u2019s name and convert it into Hebrew and attach the right number to the right letter, add up the sums and everybody\u2019s name could be reduced to a single number. It\u2019s an ancient practice that\u2019s foreign to us but it was very common in the first century worlds and in the Old Testament times called gematria, and so Emerton basically said Eglam, you spell that out in Hebrew, one of the places mentioned in Ezekiel\u2019s prophecy, adds up to 153. The problem is \u201cGedi,\u201d remember this river is supposed to flow into the Dead Sea and people will pitch their tents as far Eglam and Engedi, Gedi only adds up to 17. But Emerton says this: If you add 1 + 1, + 2, + 3, + 4, + 5 right up to 17 it\u2019ll add up to 153. So that\u2019s he harmonized 17 and 153.\r\n\r\nAnd after that came along this great allegorizer named Augustine and Augustine said that\u2019s true, start with 1 and add 2, and add 3, then add 4 and keep adding up until 17 and you\u2019ll get to 153. So 17 becomes the magic number. Well, then you have another problem, what do you do with the number 17? What\u2019s the significance of 17? And Augustine said well, there\u2019s 10 commandments, and in Revelation 1:4 it mentions the seven-fold ministry of the Spirit because after all, doesn\u2019t\r\n2 Corinthians 3:6 say, \u201cfor the letter kills and the Spirit gives life?\u201d So therefore, 10 would be the Ten Commandments and 7 would be the Holy Spirit, 10+7=17, starting with one and adding 2 and then 3 right up to 17 will take you to the number 153. [Revelation 1:4, \u201cJohn to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace, from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne.\u201d] I\u2019m not even halfway through my list here.\r\n\r\nThen came another individual who said no, 7 + 10 = 17, that\u2019s true but 7 does not equal the Holy Spirit, 7 is 3 + 4. So let\u2019s divide 7 into 3 and 4, 3 being the Trinity, well where does the 4 come from? 4 comes from the 4 walls that will be around the New Jerusalem.\r\n\r\nAnd then came this other individual named Gregory and he used the same tactic, he said 1 +2 + 3 + 4 right up to 17 equals 154, but he said 17 times 3 for the Trinity equals 51; 51 takes you 1 year past 50, right? And didn\u2019t the Old Testament talk about a year of Jubilee where we would get rest, or the Jews would get rest after 50 years. And then we have to take that number, 51 and multiply it by 3, which is the Trinity and we get to the magic number 153.\r\n\r\nOther people said no, 17 is 5 + 12. So what\u2019s the significance of 5 + 12? Well, you\u2019ve got to go back to John 6 because Jesus fed the masses with how many loaves? 5, and how many baskets did they pick up after everybody was finished? 12 baskets. So this individual said this is actually talking about the miracle that He performed back in John 6.\r\n\r\nGematria, the way it functions is there\u2019s not just a Hebrew correlation, there\u2019s a Greek correlation. So you attach the right number to the right Greek letter, you add up the letters in a person\u2019s name and everybody\u2019s name could be reduced to a particular number. This, I believe, is how the world will identify the antichrist, through 666. Whoever the antichrist is, we don\u2019t know who he is, you\u2019ll be able to take his name, convert it into Greek, attach the right number to the right letter, add it all up and it will be 666. That\u2019s why one night I woke up in the middle of the night very nervous and my wife said to me, \u201cwhat\u2019s wrong?\u201d And I said to her, \u201chow do I know I\u2019m not the antichrist?\u201d So I went downstairs and I got my numerical table out and I started to do\u2026 I converted my name into Greek, I added the right number to the right letter, added it up and I was so relieved that it did not yield 666. So then I went back to sleep. Then I woke up again and I say will, how do I know Bruce Munsterman is not the antichrist? [Laughter] Because Ephesians 2 tells us that Satan is the prince and power of the what? Of the air, [more laughter] but I added it all up and fortunately Bruce was not the antichrist so I went right back to sleep.\r\n\r\nBu you see, what they\u2019re doing is they\u2019re using Greek gematria to identify the church of love, that supposedly adds up to 153 in Greek; the children of God, Cana of Galilee, in the children of God, and then Christian symbols, meaning Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior, supposedly when you convert all of these things into Greek and do gematria it adds up to 153. One more just for good measure was Bruno who said that 50 would represent the three continents where Christianity has grown, which would be Asia, Africa and Europe. Each of those represent 50, you multiply 50 times 3 we get 150, we add in 3 for the Trinity and we get to 153.\r\n\r\nThese are just some examples of speculations that have been made over 2,000 years, people trying to figure out what 153 means; is it different categories in the united faith, is it proselytes in the days of David and Solomon, is it Gentiles and Jewish converts in the church age, is it 153 species of fish, is it some sort of prophecy in Ezekiel 47 about the Dead Sea coming to life, is it the Ten Commandments and the Holy Spirit, is it the Trinity and Jerusalem\u2019s four walls, is it the Jubilee, is it the feeding of the 5,000 in John 6, is it gematria for a Christian title of some kind, or does it represent the major continents where Christianity has grown.\r\n\r\nAnd the reason I bring this up is all of these things represent what we would call allegorical interpretation. What is allegorical interpretation? You have to understand that prior to the Protestant Reformation and prior to the Reformers getting back to the centrality of the Word of God what dominated the Middle Ages was allegorical interpretation. Allegorical interpretation is the idea that you do not pay attention to what the text says, you use the language of the text to bring in some kind of special meaning or higher meaning that only the spiritual can understand, which is not self-evident in the text. So Philo, one of the great allegorists around the time of Christ said you know, Genesis 2:8-14 mentions four rivers coming out of Eden. There\u2019s the Pishon, there\u2019s the Gihon, there\u2019s the Euphrates, and then there is the Tigris and he said those, what they represent are four parts of the soul.\r\n\r\nAnd then one of my first sermons, I didn\u2019t preach this fortunately, but I heard it as an early Christian is I heard a sermon on Nehemiah 2 and Nehemiah 2 records the walls around the city of Jerusalem and it records different gates and you\u2019ll notice at the top there\u2019s something called the Fish Gate, and the pastor said we\u2019ve got to get out there and be fishers of men; we\u2019ve got to get out there and evangelize. And then he came to the Sheep Gate and he said isn\u2019t it great that Jesus is our Great Shepherd and we are the sheep. And then moving east there he got to the Water Gate and he said you know, Water is the Holy Spirit, John 7, and so what we\u2019re being told to do here is to walk under the authority of the Holy Spirit. And then he got down here to the Water Gate which I just mentioned, the Fish Gate, the Sheep Gate, now you\u2019ll notice at the bottom there\u2019s something called the Dung Gate? And I notice he never commented on that gate.\r\n\r\nBut when you study Nehemiah 2 is this talking about evangelism? No! Is it talking about Jesus as our Great Shepherd? No! Is it talking about we need to be walking under the power of the Holy Spirit? No! Those are all ideas that are allegorical; these are ideas that come from the mind and are read into the text rather than being derived from the text. And this is a great problem. Now are we against Jesus as our Shepherd? Are we against evangelism? Are we against walking under the direction of the Holy Spirit? Of course not! There are many other passages that deal with those subjects; you don\u2019t use Nehemiah 2 to teach that.\r\n\r\nThen what is the Fish Gate? What is it in Nehemiah 2? What it simply means is there was a gate where they took fish in and out of the gate, that\u2019s it. What\u2019s the Sheep Gate? There was a gate where they took sheep in and out of the gate. Well, what\u2019s the Water Gate? The Water Gate is where they took water in and out of the gate. The Dung Gate, which was never commented on, is where they took manure in and out of the gate. I mean, it was a very good sermon, it gave the liver quiver and it motivated you but at the end of the day you look at the text and you say where is he getting all of this stuff from? It\u2019s all read into the text. That\u2019s what I mean by allegorical interpretation.\r\n\r\nAnd there are a great many dangers associated with allegorizing the Scripture. One of those dangers is number 1, out of 3, the text is not being interpreted; you are not interpreting the text, you are reading ideas into the text which do not belong. Another way of saying this is spiritualizing. A little saying that has always stuck with me is this: he who spiritualizes tells spiritual lies. And there are many sermons you hear and you say great sermon, wrong passage. And this is the price of allegorizing the Scripture.\r\n\r\nOur goal in the Scripture is not to bring ideas to the text but to derive ideas from the text. It\u2019s the difference between exegesis, drawing from the text what is there coming from that Greek preposition ek, which means out of, verses eisegesis, eis from the Greek preposition into, reading ideas into the passage that simply do not belong. Another danger with allegorical interpretation is there is no way to test the interpreter. I mean, how would I test whether the allegory is accurate or not? The allegorist assures us it\u2019s accurate, but you see, another allegorist can come along and give you a totally different allegory from the same material. So there is no objective way to test the allegorist. In fact, if you are a spiritualizer and an allegorist you can never lose your job. Why is that? Because you\u2019re the only one that knows what the allegory means.\r\n\r\nAnd then a third danger with allegorical interpretation is it\u2019s a transfer of authority; the authority transfers away from the Scripture to the mind of the interpreter and that becomes a pride problem. And this is why allegorization is so popular; it allows the interpreter to be in control.\r\n\r\nSo we, as Christians, are called not to allegorize. We at Sugar Land Bible Church seek not to allegorize the Scripture because he who spiritualizes at the end of the day tells spiritual lies. You say now wait a minute, aren\u2019t there allegories in the Bible? Yes there are, but when a passage is meant to be understood allegorically it will tell you. For example, in Galatians 4:22 it says this: \u201cThis is allegorically speaking, for these women are two covenants: one proceeding from Mount Sinai bearing children who are to be slaves; she is Hagar.\u201d A whole allegory is done with Sarah and Hagar; now I know it\u2019s an allegory because the text says \u201cThis is allegorically speaking.\u201d So I know that an allegory is in play here. It\u2019s not denying that Sarah and Hagar were not literal people in history but Paul, under the inspiration of the Spirit, which he could do as an apostle, allegorized the passage.\r\n\r\nBut even when the allegory is given by Paul he tells us the interpretation of the allegory. So I am not free nilly-willy to go through the Bible and convert anything I want to into an allegory, unless the test tells me it\u2019s an allegory and then the allegory will be interpreted for us.\r\n\r\nRevelation 11:8 says this: \u201cAnd their dead bodies will be in the street of the great city,\u201d now this would be Jerusalem, \u201cwhich mystically is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified.\u201d Now I know that Jerusalem is a literal city but it\u2019s being given a spiritual application here. How do I know that? Because the word \u201cmystically\u201d tells me that. And John says you also have to understand Jerusalem not just as a literal city but having the depravity of Sodom in the last days as well as the bondage of Egypt.\r\n\r\nWhat, then, is the proper interpretation of the 153 fish, going back to John 21:11? Are you seated for this? This is going to be really heavy. When you see the number 153 fish it means 153 fish. It\u2019s not talking about the Ten Commandments, it\u2019s not talking about the fullness of the Spirit, it\u2019s not talking about any such topic, it is simply talking about 153 fish. The reason the number is given is because John is an eyewitness and would remember the exact count, as he does all of the other specific details in this chapter.\r\n\r\nAnd we move from the count, wrapping up, to the communion. Notice if you will verse 12, notice what it says, \u201cJesus said to them, \u2018Come and have breakfast.\u2019 None of the disciples ventured to question Him, \u2018Who are You?\u2019 knowing that it was the Lord.\u201d You\u2019ll notice that Jesus is going to minister to the needs of Peter spiritually later on in the passage. We\u2019ll look at those next week, verses 15-17. But even before ministering to Peter\u2019s spiritual needs He ministers to his physical needs. And that\u2019s why I entitled this message, Ministering to the Whole Person, because that\u2019s what God does. God is in the business of not just meeting our spiritual needs, as important as they are, but he is also very active and involved in meeting the physical needs of His children.\r\nIn fact, Psalm 37:25, David says this: \u201cI was young but now I am old,\u201d in other words, I\u2019ve lived a long time, and \u201cI have never seen the righteous forsaken nor their seed,\u201d which is their descendants, \u201cbegging for bread.\u201d He says I\u2019ve been at this walking with God for a long time and never in my field of observation have I ever seen, throughout my entire spiritual life, a child of God whose physical needs are not met nor their children whose physical needs are not met.\r\n\r\nJesus told us about this, didn\u2019t He, in Matthew 6:25-33, a passage I alluded to a little earlier. Jesus says this: \u201cFor this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? [26] Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they are? [27] And who of you by worrying can add a single hour\u201d or cubit \u201cto his lifespan? [28] And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, [29] yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed like these. [29] But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith! [31] Do not worry then, saying, \u2018What shall we eat?\u2019 Or \u2018What shall we drink\u2019? Or \u2018What will we wear.\u2019 [32] For the pagans eagerly seek after these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need these things. [33] But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.\u201d\r\n\r\nWe\u2019re entering a time in America where greater and greater economic stress is coming. We see it already and I\u2019m not a prophet nor the son of a prophet but as far as I see it things are not going to get better any time soon. And we need to start learning to live according to the promises of God. Your job is not your provider; God is your provider. Now He chooses, many times, to provide for us through work or jobs or employment, but if you lose your job tomorrow that doesn\u2019t stop the provision of God because the provision of God is not dependent upon an employment possibility. It\u2019s part of God\u2019s immutable character.\r\n\r\nIf He takes care of grass, if He takes care of animals and birds why wouldn\u2019t He take care of you? You\u2019re His child. You bear His image, unlike the grass and unlike the birds of the airs. And Jesus really gets to the whole point of the matter when He says, \u201cO you or little faith.\u201d The problem with us is many times we do not trust God with things of this nature. We trust Him for salvation but next month\u2019s rent and filling up the car with gas, that\u2019s different, we think. But if God already gave you the greatest gift, His Son, won\u2019t He take care of these more minor economic issues in our lives. And we need to start appropriating these promises and if we don\u2019t and we look at this the way the world does we are going to go into fear and distress and anxiety.\r\n\r\nPhilippians 4:19, Paul wrote this when he was in prison and he said, \u201cMy God will supply all of your needs according to His riches in Christ Jesus.\u201d Isn\u2019t it interesting that Paul didn\u2019t say God will provide all our greeds? He did say though that He would provide all of our needs. And this is what Jesus is doing. In the restoration of Peter, even before Jesus deals with the spiritual issue in Peter\u2019s life, he meets the man\u2019s (and the rest of these disciple\u2019s, the other six) their physical needs, having been out all night, not caught anything, no doubt in the state of hunger and in need of nourishment.\r\nWarren Wiersbe, in his commentary puts it this way: \u201cHow loving of Jesus to feed Peter before he dealt with his spiritual needs. He gave Peter an opportunity to dry off, get warm, satisfy his hunger, enjoy personal fellowship. This is a good example for us to follow as we care for God\u2019s people. Certainly the spiritual need is more important than the physical but caring for the physical can prepare the way for spiritual ministry. Our Lord does not emphasize the soul so much that He neglects the body. It\u2019s ministry to the whole person.\u201d\r\n\r\nMany times you\u2019ll hear people say well, should we preach the gospel or should we feed the masses? The answer to that is yes; we should do both, because we are in the business of ministering to the whole person. We should not meet their physical needs and never share the gospel with them; that\u2019s what the social gospel concept does. But we should use the ministry of physical needs to people as a platform to show the love of Christ whereby they will be open to the gospel.\r\n\r\nJesus, as I am standing here this afternoon speaking to you is concerned, not just about your eternity with Him, but He has equal concern over your physical wellbeing. And His concern for you does not ebb or flow like the stock market does, and like the American economy does. He is concerned for you and His provision for you is something that will be met in His timing and in His providence as we learn to walk by faith and appropriate His resources moment by moment.\r\n\r\nYou\u2019ll also notice in verse 12 he says, \u201cNone of the disciples ventured to question Him, \u2018Who are You?\u2019 knowing that it was the Lord.\u201d And of course, this is the great purpose of the great purpose of the miracles in John\u2019s Gospel; they uniquely identify Jesus as the unique Son of God so that we might believe and receive life. There are seven miracles total in John\u2019s Gospel and we just learned of another miracle here which would bring the grand total up to eight.\r\n\r\nGoing down to verse 13 and verse 14, we\u2019ll do these very quickly, it says this: \u201cJesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and the fish likewise.\u201d What we need to understand is that in the ancient world, in Greco-Roman times and in the Ancient Near East when these words were written, a meal with somebody was a sign of fellowship. We, in America, in the year 2015, have lost the concept because we\u2019re in such a hurry all the time so we drive through an establishment and we eat on the road. Sometimes we don\u2019t even sit down as a family to have family meals. But you see, the feeding and the meal was highly significant in the time of Jesus because it was a sign of fellowship.\r\n\r\nThe meal itself is the restoration of fellowship. Jesus is extending to Peter this olive branch and He\u2019s saying to him through this meal, which met his physical needs, that although you have denied Me three times I want to forgive that sin and not only restore you to leadership but I want to bring you into fellowship with Myself. There\u2019s no doubt that these disciples were already believers here. You remember what He said about them in John 15:3, \u201cYou are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.\u201d He\u2019s not getting these people saved again. What he is doing is He\u2019s bringing them back into fellowship with Himself.\r\n\r\nRevelation 3:20, a commonly misunderstood passage, says this, \u201cBehold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him, and will dine with Him, he with Me.\u201d People will falsely use this as an invitation for the unbeliever to come to Christ. In fact, that\u2019s not what the context is at all. Jesus is not knocking outside the door of the heart of the unbeliever; He is knocking on the door of His own church, the church at Laodicea. And I know He is speaking to believers here because in the prior verse, verse 19, He says, \u201cThose whom I love, I reprove and discipline,\u201d who does God discipline? He disciplines His own. These are His own people that are out of fellowship with Him and Jesus here is outside the door saying I want to come back into fellowship with you; I don\u2019t want to get you saved. What I want you to do is to come back into fellowship with Me and the analogy that He uses is dining. Did you catch that? \u201cI will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.\u201d\r\n\r\nJesus is taking wayward Peter and restoring him into fellowship, which will become clearer next week in verses 15-17. And if you\u2019ve been away from the Lord as one of His children how do you get back into fellowship with Him exactly? The answer is in John\u2019s other book, 1 John, which says this, 1 John 1:9, \u201cIf we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.\u201d 1 John 1:9 just like Revelation 3:20, is not an evangelistic passage. How do I know that? Because 1 John is written to the believer. How do I know that? Because 1 John 2:1 says, \u201cMy little children,\u201d just a few verses later, \u201cI am writing these things to you\u2026.\u201d Why, then, do you need 1 John 1:9 in your life as a Christian? Because, just like Peter and as God\u2019s people, we sin. When we sin against God, even as a Christian, it does not change our status or our position before Him. What it alters is our enjoyment of God, our intimacy with God, fellowship with God.\r\n\r\nYou may have gotten into an argument with your spouse on the way to church today, I know that these kinds of things don\u2019t happen in a holy group like this, but you might have said something unkind to your spouse. Now does that mean that the two of you aren\u2019t married? No, you\u2019re still positionally married. But what has happened because of that sin is there\u2019s friction in your relationship. The channels of communication are cut off until you humble yourself and apologize. And the moment you apologize and in a state of repentance you don\u2019t get married again, you\u2019re still husband, you\u2019re still wife, but the fellowship between the two of you which has been fractured because of sin is now restored. This is why 1 John 1:9 is such a big deal. And this is the scenario that is happening; fellowship is about to be restored, symbolized through this meal which was a real meal, meeting the physical needs of Peter but paving the way of restoration of fellowship which would take place in verses 15-17.\r\n\r\nAnd finally we wrap up with verse 14, \u201cThis is now the third time that Jesus was manifested to the disciples, after he was raised from the dead.\u201d The first manifestation of Christ after His resurrection was to the disciples without Thomas present. The second manifestation as the resurrected Christ to the disciples was His manifestation to them with Thomas present. And now He has fully disclosed Himself through this eighth sign, a third time, where He manifests Himself in a very special way to seven of the disciples one morning along the Sea of Galilee.\r\n\r\nWhat an awesome God we serve; who was concerned not with our salvation but even broken fellowship, who was concerned not just with our spiritual needs but our physical needs as well. It\u2019s possible you could be here today and have no relationship to God at all. In fact, many of these ideas we have been talking about might seem foreign to you. Your problem is you need to come into a relationship with Christ for the very first time. He wants to have a personal relationship with you and there is only one way to come to Christ into that relationship, and it is by faith alone in Christ alone, period. And this is what we call the gospel; the gospel means good news. It\u2019s good news in the sense that Jesus has done everything for us to usher us into right standing before God. We simply, not by way of works, but we simply receive what He has done as a free gift and there\u2019s only one way to receive a free gift in the mind of God and that\u2019s by faith. Faith is another way of saying reliance, dependence or confidence.\r\nThe moment you trust in Christ alone for your eternity and the safekeeping of your soul is the moment you become a Christian. It\u2019s not a matter of walking an aisle, it\u2019s not a matter of signing a card, it\u2019s not a matter of vowing to try harder, it\u2019s not a matter of joining a church, it\u2019s a moment of privacy between you and the Lord where you essentially receive, by faith, or confidence, what Jesus has done. You don\u2019t have to raise your hand to do it; you simply believe or trust the best you know how. And once that happens a person, in a nanosecond, becomes a child of God.\r\n\r\nAnd no doubt as I am speaking the Holy Spirit is active convicting people of their need to do this because Jesus in the Upper Room told us that would happen. If the Spirit of God is convicting you, if he is agitating you of your need to enter into a relationship with Him, then our exhortation to you at Sugar Land Bible Church is to respond, do not let another day pass without responding to this. Respond to the convicting ministry of the Holy Spirit, just in the privacy of your own mind, heart and thoughts, by way of faith. And if it\u2019s something you have done or if it\u2019s something you are doing as I now speak, then on the authority of the Word of God you\u2019ve changed your eternal destiny. If it\u2019s something that you need more information about and needs some questions answered, I\u2019m available after the service to talk. Shall we pray.\r\n\r\nFather, we\u2019re grateful for what You did here to this man, Peter, how you extended him grace that he does not or did not deserve and You kept extending him grace throughout his life. Help us, Lord, to really understand Your post resurrection ministry to this flock so that we might grow in our understanding of Your grace and Your bountiful provision for us at the spiritual level and the physical level; we\u2019ll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory. We lift these things up to you through Jesus Christ, and God\u2019s people said\u2026.","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t