Proof

[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered on the 2nd Sunday after Easter, the 23rd of April, 2023, at Pilgrim Reformed Church.  Our YouTube streaming channel is: 

https://www.youtube.com/@pilgrimreformedchurch1992/streams.]

Family, today is the second Sunday after Easter and we continue celebrating the resurrection of our Lord.  Jesus has not yet ascended back into heaven.  He’s still walking the earth, still in His wounded and scarred body, being seen and witnessed by many.  Like He did with Thomas, Jesus is still offering visible proof of His defeat of death and His return to life.

Last week we looked at how Thomas finally came to believe that Jesus was indeed God.  “My Lord and my God”, he exclaimed, once Jesus appeared to him and showed His wounds.  And then Jesus blessed all those who believe without having seen, without the need of irrefutable proof.  And we are blessed, truly blessed, we believers, and of that there should be no doubt.

Today I’d like to look at one more time when Jesus appeared to His disciples, after His resurrection but before His ascension.  And this is one of those times when He hid or obscured His true identity for a while.  Remember when Mary Magdalene first saw Him Easter morning and thought Him to be the gardener?  And then in the Apostle Luke’s Gospel account, we watch as two of the disciples walk along the road to Emmaus later that day, when Jesus comes up and walks along with them.  They don’t recognize Him either, not until much later when He reveals Himself at supper before vanishing from their sight.

These people - Mary and the two disciples - had been with Jesus for quite some time, following Him around the region, walking with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, eating with Him, listening to Him teach, and yet they did not recognize Him until He was ready for them to.  And such is the case with our little story today.  But this time, it involves men who have been with Jesus from the very start.

Please listen and follow along to the eye-witness report of the Apostle John as he describes yet another appearance of Jesus to His disciples, in the 21st chapter of his Gospel account, verses 1 through 14, and I’ll be reading from the New King James Version of our Holy Bible this morning…

1 After these things Jesus showed Himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias, and in this way He showed Himself: 2 Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of His disciples were together. 3 Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.”

They said to him, “We are going with you also.” They went out and immediately got into the boat, and that night they caught nothing. 4 But when the morning had now come, Jesus stood on the shore; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. 5 Then Jesus said to them, “Children, have you any food?”

They answered Him, “No.”

6 And He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast, and now they were not able to draw it in because of the multitude of fish.

7 Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment (for he had removed it), and plunged into the sea. 8 But the other disciples came in the little boat (for they were not far from land, but about two hundred cubits), dragging the net with fish. 9 Then, as soon as they had come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid on it, and bread. 10 Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish which you have just caught.”

11 Simon Peter went up and dragged the net to land, full of large fish, one hundred and fifty-three; and although there were so many, the net was not broken. 12 Jesus said to them, “Come and eat breakfast.” Yet none of the disciples dared ask Him, “Who are You?”—knowing that it was the Lord. 13 Jesus then came and took the bread and gave it to them, and likewise the fish.

14 This is now the third time Jesus showed Himself to His disciples after He was raised from the dead.

--John 21:1-14 (NKJV)

Let us pray…  Father God, thank You for all the first-hand reports that our Bible contains of Your Son Jesus being seen alive and well after You raised Him from the dead.  Through Your will and Your power, Jesus conquered death.  And by Your promise, we too will not die the everlasting death, but will be given a new body and have life eternal with You.  Thank You, Father, for loving us this much.  Father, please forgive us if we doubt the validity of these reports, or of the people who gave them.  Show us all the times when the prophets words were proven true in the life of Jesus.  Remind us that You never failed to fulfill all Your promises, so we know You will always be true to us.  And Father, please protect us from Satan, who sows those seeds of doubt, and shield us from those who are so willing to carry out his evil works.  Please keep us strong in our faith, of one mind and one purpose in our love, worship, and service, and healthy and safe through these trying times.

Speak to us now, Father, that we might hear Your voice through Your Spirit within us and better understand the message You have for us this day.  Let us feel Your presence, Your love, as we worship You this morning.  Help us to always believe and trust in Your word.  This we pray in the precious name of Christ Jesus, our risen Lord.   Amen.

The renowned artist Paul Gustave Dore, who lived in the 1800's, lost his passport while traveling in Europe.  When he came to a border crossing, he explained his predicament to one of the guards.  Giving his name to the official, Dore hoped he would be recognized and allowed to pass.  The guard, however, said that many people attempted to cross the border by claiming to be persons they were not.

Dore insisted that he was the man he claimed to be.  "All right," said the official, "we'll give you a test, and if you pass it we'll allow you to go through."  Handing him a pencil and a sheet of paper, he told the artist to sketch several peasants standing nearby.  Dore did it so quickly and skillfully that the guard was convinced he was indeed who he claimed to be.  His work confirmed his word!

Have you ever run into a situation where your word just wasn’t good enough?  I remember when a handshake and a promise – a gentleman’s agreement – was more trustworthy than any written and signed contract.  Nowadays, even a notarized contract might not hold up in court.

We just don’t trust each other anymore, and sadly with good reason.  There are too many people out there trying to take advantage of us for their own personal gain, pretending to be something or someone they’re not.  So we all end up have to offer proof of our identity, either by showing some sort of state issued ID, or knowing the correct password, or solving some little puzzle that proves we’re a human.

Mr. Dore had to prove the truth of his word by drawing a picture.  We say we’re Christian.  What would we show if we had to prove it?

I love this morning’s Bible story.  One reason may be because I love fishing.  Of course, for me it was never a necessity, as for these men – I never needed to fish for the money it could bring in, or even to feed my family.  For me, fishing is a nice, relaxing time on or by the water, enjoying being outdoors, soaking up nature.

So here are some of Jesus’ disciples, including ones who Jesus hand-picked at the start of His ministry.  When Jesus first appeared to Mary after His resurrection, He instructed her to tell the disciples to go back to Galilee and He would come to them there.  These men had done just that.  And here they are, right there on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, apparently waiting on Jesus to appear.  I guess they got a little bored, because Peter stood up and said, “I’m going fishing”.  The rest decided to go along and they all hopped into the nearby boats and pushed off out into the sea.  Well, they fished all night…  and caught nothing.

Now that I can certainly relate to, although not catching anything is still a good day fishing for me.  For them, though, not so good.  They’d worked hard all night long, throwing out and hauling in their nets, with nothing to show for it.  When morning came, they headed back to shore.

As they approached land, they saw a figure standing there.  Maybe they were too far out to recognize Him, but I doubt it, because the “person” asked them, “Do you have anything to eat, did you catch anything?”  If He was close enough for them to hear Him, they should have been able to see who it was, even in the dawn’s light.  But we know Jesus can hide His identity when it suits His purpose.  The rather discouraged disciples replied, “No, we have no fish to eat”.

Jesus tells them to toss their net out on the right side of their boat – the starboard side for those who know their boating terms.  They’ve got to be fairly close to shore now in order to carry on this conversation.  Normally they would cast their nets out in the deeper water, not along the shore.  But as silly as it may have seemed to them, they did as they were told.  And the net was filled with so many fish that they couldn’t even pull it back into the boat!

That’s when John – the disciple whom Jesus loved – recognized just who this mystery man really was.  He shouted to Peter, “It’s the Lord!”  Peter couldn’t wait for the boat to come in.  He jumped in the water and swam to shore.  The rest of the disciples managed to drag the filled net in between the two boats.  Jesus already had a fire going with a fish cooking on it, so He told them to add some of their fish. And they all enjoyed breakfast together.

John adds that this was the third time that Jesus had showed Himself to His disciples, after He was raised from the dead.  Positive proof of life after death.

As we discussed last week, we believe without having seen, we believe without irrefutable proof.  And we are truly blessed for it.  But actually… we do have proof.  We have all these first-hand eye-witness reports.  And we can accept the validity of these reports because they have not ever been refuted by any of the witnesses.

All in all, over 500 people witnessed the risen Lord.  They saw Jesus, alive and in the flesh, after He had been crucified, executed, dead and buried.  And not one of them ever said it didn’t happen exactly as the Gospel writers said.

This is our proof.  We have been shown proof to back up our faith.  And by this proof of what Jesus had said would happen did happen, we can be assured that the other things He said would happen, that haven’t yet happened, will indeed happen, such as when He returns.

According to the Apostle Matthew, Jesus told quite a number of stories to His followers and the crowds after His final, triumphal visit to Jerusalem, after what we call Palm Sunday.  This was during the week before His arrest, trial, and execution.  He was trying to tell the people what God’s kingdom is like, using parables to get the point across in words and word-pictures the people could better relate to.

Please listen to one of these parables as recorded by Matthew in chapter 25 of his Gospel account, verses 1 through 13…

1 “Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 2 Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish. 3 Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, 4 but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. 5 But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept.

6 “And at midnight a cry was heard: ‘Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!’ 7 Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. 8 And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ 9 But the wise answered, saying, ‘No, lest there should not be enough for us and you; but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.’ 10 And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut.

11 “Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ 12 But he answered and said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.’

13 “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.”

--Matthew 25:1-13 (NKJV)

This reminds me of my days as a Boy Scout and our motto:  Be prepared.  And then there’s the US Coast Guard motto:  Semper Paratus, which translates “Always Ready”.  Five of these young ladies were prepared and ready when the bridegroom came.  The others were not, and they missed out on all the festivities.  Jesus is telling us to be prepared, always ready, because we don’t know when He will return.

We may not know when, but we can be assured that He will indeed return, some day, because He told us He will and all our witnesses vouch that He’s good at His word.  No notarized contract necessary.  His word is all we need.

Yes, we believe without having seen.  We believe that Jesus is the Christ, sent by God.  We believe He is the one true Son of God.  He is God, and of this we have no doubt.

But if we should begin to have little doubts, if the non-believers of this world beat on us enough that we begin to wonder if what we believe really is true, all we have to do is open up our Bible and start reading all the reports of the people who did see it all, right as it happened.  This is our uncontested, irrefutable, unmistakable proof that our belief is not in vain.  All that Jesus promised, all that God promised, has been or will be fulfilled.  We have all the proof we need.

In the glorious name of Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen.

Let us pray…  Almighty God, thank You for giving us the wonderful gift of faith, so that we might believe in Jesus as Your Son even though we never saw Him with our eyes or heard Him with our ears or touched Him with our hands.  And thank You for augmenting our faith with the proof of eye-witness reports, saved for us through the centuries in our Bible.  Thank You, Father, for assuring us of Your word and Your truth.  Thank You most of all for loving us this much.  Forgive us, please Father, when we displease You, when we disobey You.  Forgive us when we begin to listen to the lies Satan whispers in our ears.  Forgive us those moments of doubt.  Please, loving Father, help us remember all the reports in our Bible.  Help us hold fast to what we have been told, the proof we have been shown.  Help us share our own witness with a disbelieving world.  And help us remain strong, faithful, and true to You in all things, no matter what the world throws at us or holds out before us.

Please hear us now, Father, as we pause for just a moment to speak to You through Your Spirit within us, promising to be more obedient to Your commands, and seeking Your help to do so…

Lord Jesus, everything You ever said would happen did happen just as You said it would.  By this we know that everything You promised will be fulfilled.  Thank You, Jesus, for giving us so many word-pictures to show what we can expect when our time on this earth is finished.  Thank You for promising to return for us, to take us home with You.  Lord, please help us get through each day without ever doubting You.  Remind us of all You said, and all You did just for us.  Help us stand brave against the storm, ever toiling to serve You.  And Jesus, please heal the hurts that separate and divide us one from another.  Help us remain trusting and obedient no matter what we go through.  Help us keep our focus on the things of heaven and the needs of others rather than on anything this life might offer.  This we pray in Your blessed name, Christ Jesus our Lord and our Savior.  Amen.