“The Case for Christ: - Part 2: Kingdom/God: Jn 21”

The kingdom of God occupied a very central place in Jesus’ teaching and preaching.

It was the glory of God that was always pre-eminent in the content of His preaching. He showed that glory in how He treated and cared for the many but He considered the kingdom work only from the standpoint of divine kingship.

To probe to the very depth of the working of His kingdom is - of course - an impossible undertaking.

We can only know in part as we see it through the face of Jesus Christ. 

For that reason, we must understand that it is not a state of mind or condition. It is not coming through a society or group initiating an immanent earthly development.

It is not a ‘goal-oriented’ people working to get kingdom standards set up so God can take over His rightful place.

In short, if we think of the kingdom of God in this way, we are putting a hopelessly superficial interpretation on it.

No - the kingdom of God is absolutely transcendent in its origin and theocentric in nature - that is, it is thoroughly concerned with God.
 
It originates with Him: everything is lodged in Him, everything is developed in and by Him, and it is only understood on the basis of His miraculous and all-powerful action!  

It consists entirely of His own doing and it is perfectly dependent on His will to go on with His own plans to develop His own kingdom to its final consummation.

Again - I repeat - it is absolutely transcendent in its origin! And it is thoroughly theocentric in nature!

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With this theocentric mind and perspective, then, Jesus - time and time again - tried to show His disciples that the whole of their lives as stewards of His kingdom must come out from this standpoint.

When this one great ‘Nucleus’ of life is found - everything of life is put in balance; everything falls into its proper place under this theocentric perspective. 

Jesus had talked to them often about this. Much, of course, in the thinking of these men, was, perhaps, just words at the time - just concepts - mysterious ones, at that, for them!  

But - it was during His resurrection appearances that an enlarged measure of understanding was given them. 

It was during those times, as Acts 1:3 specifically states, that He spoke to them of the ‘things pertaining to the kingdom of God’.

His first appearance to the disciples as a group gave them proof of His resurrection. He was alive and had conquered death and hell - He is the victorious King!

When He appeared before them in His second and third appearances, He spoke of His Deity and showed them what
it meant to live in the reality of it.   

We turn to Jn 21, the passage we will use tonight, to see how apparent it was that He used these post-resurrection appearances to reveal to His stewards how, in the kingdom,
its transcendency and theocentric nature would go on. 

Jn 21:1: ‘And after this, Jesus let Himself be seen and revealed Himself, or ‘manifested’ or ‘showed’ Himself to the disciples - and He did it in this way.’

The voice of the verb ‘manifested’ is active. The Greek word means ‘to shine out’.

It implies that this was a manifestation of intention and purpose that Jesus had in mind when He appeared to them.

Thus, when He came here to His disciples at the Sea of Galilee, He ‘shined Himself forth’ in this way, having something very definite in mind that He wanted the disciples to know about the new Gospel economy. 

It is here He showed Himself as the God Who is God to them in every sense and Who would continue His divine activity in the development of His kingdom.

But how can His miraculous and all-powerful action be done when He is not here with them physically to advance it Himself?  

Let us examine a few things to answer this question.

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Of course, at this point, of Jn 21:1, the disciples were not fully aware of what place the resurrection took in the kingdom of God.

They had not been given a post-resurrection orientation point, or a compass, in knowing what to do and where to go next.

But - just before He went to His death, in Mt 26:32, Jesus had said to them: ‘...after I am risen again, I will go before you into Galilee.’ 

This direction was rather vague: but, very importantly, they were the words that implied that the resurrection was the starting point of God’s subsequent salvation history. 

Except for this ‘little bit of light’ of ‘going before them into Galilee’, their way after His death was really dark for them.

The entire death scene was a terrible experience. It was an offense to them, even though Peter denied it ever would be! (Mt 26:33)

It pressed them into utterly abandoning Jesus. (Mt 26:37). To add to that, was the satanic sifting of the disciple (Lu 22:31) that was yet ahead.

It all happened exactly as Jesus predicted: they were like scattered sheep that lost the shepherd. (Mt 26:31) They were like a bride without her bridegroom. (Mt 9:15)

This is why they needed this ‘orientation’ lesson given in Jn 21. It is this resurrection appearance that gave it to them - showed them how He would carry on.

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Now - let us go to Lu 17:5-10. This is a passage in which the disciples asked Jesus to ‘increase their faith’.

They definitely felt their lack and sought a further spiritual growth. That is always a good thing when we come to this place in our spiritual walk. 

So for those asking for ‘increased faith’, Jesus explained the nature of faith His servants need in this parable.

He gave them a lesson about the power of a faith that is ‘not of their own doing’ (Eph 2:8) and how it is ‘increased’, as the disciples termed it.

They assumed they had faith. We all do - is that not so?

And they assumed they needed more of it to measure up to the challenges Jesus set before them. That, too, is natural to our thinking!

But - do you know what happened?

Jesus shattered that illusion about their faith.

The problem was that the faith they had was not even comparable to the size of a mustard seed.

He told them that if they had faith the size of a mustard seed, they would be able to do an amazing thing.

If it had been even that size, it would have been able to say to a tree: ‘pull yourself up by the root and be planted in the sea, and the tree would obey.’

It was not more faith they needed! 

What they needed was to understand that the faith Jesus had in mind for the stewards in His kingdom was the faith that is the power of God putting into action what He wills to be done. 

With that faith, which, for our purposes tonight, I will term as ‘mustard-seed faith’, - with that kind of faith - the tree would obey because it was God’s will that it pull itself up by the roots and plant itself in the sea! 

That is the kind of faith that is greatest. 

Why is it the greatest?

It is because it is the least to the servant - for the servant has come to the place where he feels that he can do nothing - that he has nothing - and that he knows that nothing from nothing is nothing - and that leaves him with only one option: to let Christ act!

For - it is in that ‘nothingness’, that he has been set free to rely on Christ Who has everything, and Who acts to do what He [God] wills to have done through them! 

‘Unprofitable servants’? Oh - yes! (as you can see in v 10). 

Always - always - they would be reminded of their own insignificance and be brought back to dependence and faith by many severe, hard lessons.

But what a privilege - what an astounding privilege - to ‘bow out’ and let Jesus Christ, the Lord, act!

Jehoshaphat confirmed this rule of this kind of faith when he prayed about the enemies at his doorstep: ‘O, our God, wilt Thou not judge them? for we have no might against this great company: neither know we what to do: but our eyes are upon Thee!.’ (2 Chron 20:12)

So - to meet the demands of the kingdom like this, Christ’s stewards must know that it comes only through the grace poured out by Christ Who carries out His will by His own action through emptied vessels whose eyes are fixed on Him!

Yes - then it can be heartily and unquestionably said: ‘This is the Lord’s doing - done by Him; it is marvelous in our eyes - wonderful to see!’ (Ps 118:23)

And, ‘The Lord hath done great things - marvels - for us;
wherefore, we are glad.’ (Ps 126:3)  

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Now - let us go back to Jn 21: Since the time of His resurrection, the disciples were going about their business in an uncertainty: it is a hard time of ‘waiting’ until Jesus would reveal Himself.

Their time of ‘darkness’ was not easy as they seemed to have just waited and waited there in Galilee.

When they would see Him again was not known. They only knew He would go before them into Galilee. They knew nothing more - and they had nothing to go on. They could only trust Him and the Word He gave them.

Since nothing was taking place up to this point, Peter went about his regular trade of fishing and said to the others: ‘I go a-fishing!’ (v 3) 

Some of them decided to follow Peter’s lead so, they, too, went to the Sea of Galilee.

And, here they were to learn something of faith in the new order of the kingdom: the direction Jesus had given came with the necessary grace to wait for Him, despite the limited light they had to this point. 

They ‘caught nothing’ after fishing all night. This was unusual for these seasoned fishermen!   

It was when the ‘morning was come’ that Jesus appeared on the shore. They had come to Galilee and Jesus met them there, as He had said.

They could not fully determine who this was on the shore: their vision of Him was unclear.

He asked them: ‘Have you caught anything?’ Of course, they had to answer ‘no’.

And - again, they had nothing and they could do nothing - except to obey the voice of the command coming from the shoreline.

He told them to cast the net on the right side of the ship. ‘They cast...and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes.’

‘It is the Lord!’, Peter exclaimed. Yes! They saw Him clearly now! They knew at once it was Jesus by the glory of His action! 

The fact that they were unsuccessful and Jesus came to their rescue gave an insight into the new order of things.

It was just this. Their unsuccessful fishing expedition became a lesson to them: the effectiveness of bearing fruit in His kingdom always coincides with His revealed Word, His will, His action! It can be seen without question!

Everything from here on out would mark this order: His Word, His will, His action. All three work together! 

This is the vital connection that moves God’s kingdom onward through His powerful actions!   

Without Him, they could do nothing! He told them this earlier: ‘I am the Vine; ye are the branches. He that abideth in Me, and I in Him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: without Me, ye can do nothing!’ (Jn 15:5)

And this would be the new emphasis in their spiritual walk with the risen Lord.

Branches cut off from the parent stalk are going to wither in time and never bear fruit.

If we do not go on into this kind of faith that keeps a vital connection to the Source of life, it will bring about its own damage of uselessness.

Thus, as Jesus did here in Jn 21, so He would also direct them in moving His kingdom onward.   

They must learn the ‘divine discipline of waiting’. 

They must obey His Word and follow Him with the light He sheds. 

That bears fruitfulness of His action.   

That makes it His work - work that has originated with Him and comes on the basis of His miraculous and all-powerful activity. 

Our living Lord will show Himself in His perfect way: as the Light of that way - as the Originator of that way - as the Source of that way.

From faith to faith and from glory to glory, His stewards could carry on!

This was the starting point of the maturing of the kingdom of God following Christ’s resurrection.

It was going to move onward through His activity in such a way that the revelation of its glory is not going to be missed!

‘All Thy works shall praise Thee, O Lord; and Thy saints shall bless Thee. They shall speak of the glory of Thy kingdom and talk of Thy power; to make known to the sons of men His mighty acts and the glorious majesty of His kingdom!’ (Ps 145:10-12)

I will close here for tonight.

Let me encourage you to let the Holy Spirit continue doing His good work within each of us. May He search out the very depth of our hearts so that God’s action through us speaks out only His glory to the world!

The Lord greatly bless you this week!

Amen. Let us pray.