Rev. David Holwick Easter Sunrise
First Baptist Church 6:00 a.m.
Ledgewood, New Jersey
March 23, 2008
John 21:1-12
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(have fire pit and roasting fish)
I. Traditions tend to over-simplify Bible events.
A. Christmas is a good example.
1) Household Nativity displays have the barn and animals,
shepherds and sheep, three Wisemen and camels.
2) All of them are lumped together at the same time.
B. Easter week is also simplified.
1) Typical schedule:
a) Palms the previous Sunday.
b) Communion on Thursday.
c) Cross procession on Friday.
d) Resurrection on Sunday morning.
e) Then you go home and have ham and an Easter Egg hunt.
2) Easter was a little more complex than this.
a) The resurrected Jesus appeared to people over a 40-day
period.
b) Men and women, large and small groups, and individuals.
c) Happened in Jerusalem, and far away in Galilee.
3) This morning we celebrate one of the far-away events.
II. Jesus had told them to meet him in Galilee.
A. They went there, but with low expectations.
1) Fishing seemed to have a greater hold on their interest.
a) (You know Easter is really early when no one is fishing
in the pond below us!)
2) They would have been better off in bed - they caught nothing.
B. Early in the morning, someone joined them.
1) They did not recognize him.
2) He asks them if they have caught any fish.
a) They must have been embarrassed - he wasn't expecting
a "yes" answer.
b) Josiah and I are lousy fishermen too.
3) Jesus offers them some advice.
a) They followed it and got 153 fish.
b) They couldn't even haul it in, it was so heavy.
1> What is the significance of the number 153?
2> People come up with lots of fanciful theories,
but I just think it means "a whole lot of fish!"
c) The disciples now figured it was Jesus.
1> He has that kind of impact on fishing.
C. They fellowshipped with bread and fish over a fire.
1) In several of the resurrection appearances, Jesus eats
with his friends.
2) It is almost like a communion experience.
III. Second sunrises are important.
A. Only a select few were blessed to see Jesus on the first day.
1) Most people saw him in later events.
2) Hundreds saw him this way.
B. We can only experience Jesus in a spiritual sense.
1) We cannot go back in time, but he can come to us.
a) The resurrected Jesus came to Paul in a vision.
1> It's the day of Paul's conversion, years after Easter.
2> He appeared to him several times after this, too.
b) Jesus can come to us through God's Word, the Bible.
2) John says those who believe without seeing are blessed.
John 20:29 --
"Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have
believed;
blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
IV. People are experiencing Jesus even today.
You probably saw the catch on TV.
Or maybe you saw it on the cover of Sports Illustrated.
Local newspapers made a big deal of it, too.
The grab made by New York Giants wide receiver David Tyree may be
the greatest catch in Super Bowl history.
It certainly was a pivotal moment in the Giants' victory over the
New England Patriots.
But it was not the most pivotal moment in young David Tyree's life.
That would be when Tyree found himself behind bars in a jail cell.
Tyree told the New York Times, "What looked to be the lowest point
in my life ended up being the greatest thing that ever happened
to me."
Tyree had had an inauspicious start in football.
He was a second-round draft pick.
He had some bad habits, too.
Tyree drank until he passed out, smoked pot from an early age,
and continued doing these things in his football career.
He chased a lot of women, too.
In 2004 he was fined $10,000 being late to a team meeting.
Tyree's solution was to sell some marijuana to raise the money.
Apparently he wasn't very good at it, because he was arrested.
That is when his wife issued an ultimatum: "her lifestyle or
his."
He began reading a Bible he spotted on her bed.
A month after his arrest, Tyree went to church and listened to a
woman singing with joy.
He realized he had none.
He hung his head and sobbed.
"I had no joy. I had no peace," said Tyree.
"My life was in disarray."
Now committed to Christ, Tyree's story is "bigger than his Super
Bowl catch," he says.
"It is about destiny and purpose."
He has given up the booze, drugs and women.
He is more concerned with "changing lives," which he and his wife
do through a ministry that counsels teens.
#35161
V. Has Jesus appeared to you yet?
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SOURCE FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
#35161 "Caught: Where Transformation Can Lead," by Mark Earley,
BreakPoint Commentary, March 7, 2008. Illustration also draws
upon an article by Mike White, "David Tyree: From Being Jailed
for Drug Possession to Super Bowl Hero," February 20, 2008;
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/605317/david_tyree~
_from_being_jailed_for_drug.html
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