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Sermonette: We Are Not Just Going Fishing
#1877-AMs
Mark Schindler
Given 24-May-26; 22 minutes
2026-05-24
transcript:
This morning as we observe another of God's marvelous holy days that He has given for our growth. And continuing to peel back the layers of his incredible plan to bring all men into his image and likeness, we will begin with his instructions as told to us on this particular day in Deuteronomy 16 and 16. Deuteronomy 16:16. We are all very familiar with these verses. Three times in a year all your males shall appear before the Lord your God in the place He chooses at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the feast of weeks, at the feast of Tabernacles, and they shall not appear before the Lord empty handed. Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the Lord your God, which He has given you. We're going to back down now to Deuteronomy 16:5, but as we are reading this, I want us to keep in mind what I think most of you already understand. Although most of your Bibles, as does mine, has the subheading over verses 1 through 8, Passover Reviewed, there is a very explicit dichotomy between these instructions and God's commands for keeping the Passover itself. As set before Israel and recorded in Exodus, although several commentaries will tell you that there was a change 40 years down the road, God's word gives no indication of this, and Moses in his direct relationship with God would not have dared. To be so presumptuous and careless with God's instructions about the Passover itself. We can find several differences in the ritual instructions that we see here in these verses in Deuteronomy as opposed to God's very. Precise instructions for keeping the Passover itself. We will not go into all the details of these things at this time, even though I was going to mention a couple of them. But if you want to do your own Bible study on this, there is material on our website that will help you set the record straight for you in your own mind according to God's word. But for the purposes today, I'd like to point out just one other very specific difference that will be pertinent to the offertory message this morning. Let's drop back now to verse 5. And we will read all the way to verse 12, while noting the other significant difference in verses 56, and 11 that ties into this, the point of this term. Deuteronomy 16:5. You may not sacrifice the Passover within any of your gates. This is the first thing that jumps out at us, which the Lord your God gives you, but at the place where the Lord your God chooses to make His name, abide. There you will sacrifice the Passover at twilight, at the going down of the sun, at the time you came out of Egypt. This of course is the night to be much observed. And you shall roast. That word roast is actually boiled and eat it in the place where the Lord your God chooses. And in the morning you shall turn and go to your tents. 6 days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the 7th day there shall be a sacred assembly to the Lord your God. You shall do no work on it. You shall count 7 weeks for yourself. Begin to count the 7 weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the grain. Then you shall keep the feast of weeks to the Lord your God with a tribute of a free will offering from your hand, which you shall give as the Lord your God blesses you. You shall rejoice before the Lord your God. You and your son and daughter, your maidservant, your female servant, the Levite who is within your gates, the strangers and the Fatherless and the widow who are among you at the, at the place where the Lord your God chooses to make His name abide, and you shall remember that. You were a slave in Egypt and you shall be careful to observe these statutes. God makes a distinct difference between the annual holy days and the weekly Sabbath. He marks them, the holy days, as a time that we are invited to meet with Him where He abides in his residence. This is a spiritual meeting, brethren. The weekly Sabbath is a perpetual sign that God purposely created for men. Jesus Christ specifically tells us this and as recorded in Mark 2:27. The weekly Sabbath is a weekly signpost for all men recognizing God as the Creator and the source of all things. Keeping the weekly Sabbath as God intended ensures consistency toward proper focus and alignment with God. Among other things, the weekly Sabbath as created for man gives us a very consistent pattern that God has set before us of productive work and productive rest. The emphasis remains on faithful observance, a means to maintain the relationship with Him in a lifetime of learning to live as He lives, as He tells us right there in the Sabbath commandment in our consistent weekly Sabbath cycle. In Nexus 20:8, it says, Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy. 6 days you shall labor and do all your work, but the 7th day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work. John in verse 11, it says, For in 6 days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested the 7th day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. Now mindful of this wonderful gift that God has given us of this weekly cycle of productive work and productive rest on His weekly Sabbath cycle, let's consider the important difference that God places between the weekly cycle and His annual holy days. We will eventually focus on tying this life cycle to the feast of weeks and Pentecost. We noted in Deuteronomy 16:5, 6 and 11 that God commands us that these annual holy days to be kept, keep them in the place where He abides. We should consider these days as commanded invitations to come before God not empty handed but coming with thanksgiving for all He continues to do and how well we are using the gifts He has given toward the focus of each season of holy days. Although this is in this process, we do our best to consider what kind of offering we can give that shows our gratitude within the circumstances of our physical blessings. Isaiah 66:12 really gives us the most important aspect of these offerings where God tells us, Thus says the Lord, Heaven and earth, heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house that you will build for me? And where is the place of my rest, for all those things has my hand made, and all those things exist, says the Lord. But on this one will I look on Him who is poor and of a contrite spirit and trembles at my word. As I was growing up, my mom consistently repeated a saying that she embedded in the minds of myself, my brothers, and my sisters. She kept saying, whenever you're invited to someone's house, never go with your arms just swinging by your sides. To her and then to us this was always a reminder that when someone invites you to their home you come with a thoughtfully determined gift. Sometimes it was a small token of appreciation, and other times it was something much larger, but the key here was there was an attitude of gratitude. That was thoughtfully determined. This is exactly what God expects from each of us during on His annual holy days, having been given the command, the commanded invitation to appear in the place He abides. We attach some thoughtful, thoughtfully considered monetary value to this, but more importantly, for each holy day, it is the thoughtfully determined report we bring Him of our small part within His incredible work. We come into God's presence to the place where God has set His name with our hands full. But especially on this day completing the account of to Pentecost and the feast of weeks, having spent a great deal of time considering what we have been given and what we are doing with the first fruit gifts through the singular work of Jesus Christ. I was going to have, I was going to have us turn back to Leviticus 23 and the holy day instructions at this point, but for lack of time, I just want to look to what we may have gleaned metaphorically over these last 50 days. Then I want to see an example of the Father and son's work in action. The first thing we considered was the start of this count after the resurrection when the early harvest barley sheaf was waived. I'd like us to look at this as the work that Christ is doing right now while considering David Graby's very fine sermon yesterday. The barley crop and the wheat crop were planted together sometime in the late fall. The barley crop ripens much more quickly than the wheat, and it is the sheaf of barley the priest waves at the start of the count to Pentecost. The barley crop is used mainly for animal feed. It is a coarse crop, and it crumbles easily when it's baked into bread. This is the first crop that is harvested following the resurrection. Metaphorically, we should consider Jesus Christ as the high priest, waving ourselves as this coarse first crop sheaf before the Father as He starts His work to bring the first fruits into unity. We need to consider ourselves like the early barley crop in the beginning of our calling because we are told. God calls the weak and the base of the world just like the barley crop. The first crop He is harvesting represents us very rough and not easily held together. However, metaphorically, as we go through the seven Sabbath life cycles of our own lives under Christ's care while using the gifts that were given towards a solidly united body as listed in Ephesians, we should be able to thankfully bring a pleasing report before God the Father with our hands full. Each one of us has been gifted to report an increase in our participatory work. Towards the perfection that can only come through Christ. Again, metaphorically. Perhaps the wheat crop started to be harvested on the 40th day of the Count of Pentecost just before the 6th and 7th Sabbaths. It is this wheat crop that is baked into the two loaves that have come through the whole process and are waved before the Father by the High Priest on Pentecost. Brethren, how grateful to God are we for the work that Jesus Christ is doing. To bring us from that rough barley harvest that crumbled into the matured wheat harvest. That he could could be made into the two solid loaves representing those who have been who have cheerfully submitted. To his work I hope we've been thinking along these lines over the last 50 days, but I want to begin to end with a clear example of the work of Christ with his first fruits. So please turn with me. To Luke, the 5th chapter. Luke 5 And we will be picking it up right there in verse one. Luke 5 and in verse 1. So it was the multitude pressed about him, Jesus Christ, to hear the word of God that he stood by the lake of Genesaret and saw two boats standing by the lake, but the fishermen had gone from them and were washing their nets. Then he got into one of the boats, which was Simon's, and asked him to put out a little bit from the land, and he sat down and taught the multitudes from the boat. When he had stopped speaking, he said to Simon, Launch out into the deep amid and let down your nets for a catch. But Simon answered and said to him, Master, notice Simon already calls him Master after listening to what he had to say from the boat. Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing. Nevertheless, at your word, I will let down the net. And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their net was breaking, so that they singled to their partners in the other boats to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats so that they began to sink. When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus's knees, saying, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord, for he And all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish, and they had taken, and so also were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, Do not be afraid, for now. And you will catch men. So When they had brought their boats to the land, they forsook all and followed him. Here we have Peter, whom Jesus Christ had called to make him a fisher of men. But even though he walked for 3.5 years with Jesus Christ, having forsaken everything. Once Jesus Christ was not present with them consistently, as David pointed out yesterday, we see what happened is recorded in John the 21st chapter. So please turn with me to John 21. John 21, we are going to be picking it up in verse one. After these things Jesus showed Himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberius, and in the way He showed Himself. Down in verse 3. Simon Peter said to them, I am going fishing before he sought Christ. Then they said to him, Oh, we are going along with you. They went out and immediately got into their boats, and the night they caught nothing. But when the morning had come, Jesus stood on the shore. Yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus, and Jesus said to them, children. Have you any food? They answered, no. 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. 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 garment, for he had removed it and plunged into the water. Peter had dropped the ball. And had gone back to his old ways neglecting the work that he had been given to be a fisher of men because he could not see Jesus Christ all the time. But even excitedly in the presence of the resurrected Christ, he still let the old barley man control him as we read a little bit later. So we will pick it up again in verse 15. But I want you to think of this in verse 15, not as I've always thought about it, sitting around the fire with the fish, but as Christ. Saying to Peter, Let's take a walk down the beach while thinking about the catch. In chapter verse 15. Of chapter 21 we read. So when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me more than these? And he said to him, Yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him, Feed my lambs. And he said to him again a second time, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me? He said to him, Yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him, Tend my sheep. He said to him a third time, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me? Peter was grieved because he had said this to him a 3rd time. Do you love me? And he said to him, Lord, you know all things. You know that I love you. Jesus said to him, Feed my sheep. Most assuredly, I say to you, when you were young, you were girded yourself and walked where you wished. But when you are old and will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish. This he spoke signifying. By what death he would glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he said, Follow me. Then Peter, turning around, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following. Here's the old barley loaf again. Who also had leaned on his breast at the supper and said, Lord, who is the one that betrays you? And Peter, seeing him, said to Jesus, But Lord, what about this man that's following us? Jesus said to him, If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you? You follow me. Then this saying went out among the brethren that this disciple who would not die, yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die. But I will, if I will, that he remains till I come. What is that to you? Here we see the rough and crumbly barley Peter before the ascension. Still more driven by the carnal mind. Even when alone, walking with Christ in a private conversation. But now let's turn to Acts, the 3rd chapter, and the 1st verse. And the wheat, Peter. Though not a finished product but well on his way. Through the strength and power of the resurrected Christ and ascended work Christ working with Him. We read Acts 3:1. Now Peter and John went up together to the temple at the hour of prayer, the 9th hour, and an as certain man lame from birth, from his mother's womb, was carried, who was laid daily at the gate of the temple, which is called Beautiful, to ask for alms. Those who entered the temple, who, seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, asked for alms, and fixing his eyes on him with John, Peter said, Look at us. So he gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. Then Peter said, Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. And he took him by the right hand, lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. So he, leaping up, stood and walked and entered the temple with them, walking, leaping, and praising God. And all the people saw down in verse 11. Now as the lame man who was healed on to Peter and John. All the people ran together to them in the porch, which is called Solomon's great amaze, greatly amazed. So when Peter saw it, he responded to the people, men of Israel, why do you marvel at this? Or why look so intently at us as though by our own power and goodness we have made this man walk. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified His servant Jesus down in verse 15. Whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses, and His name through faith in His name has made this man strong whom you see and know. Yes, the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. Brethren How grateful are we today considering the work of Christ in us? Are we coming before God with the offering that really pleases Him, with an attitude of gratitude, willing to give whatever we have to follow Jesus Christ, having thoughtfully considered? How we are doing in our walk with him for God's glory. Brethren, this is what the offertory message is all about. This is what God expects from us. He expects us to account for our belief in Jesus Christ and our work with the gifts He's given us.
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