Breakfast with Jesus | Easter Sunday Message

Hey there. Thanks for listening to the Greg Laurie Podcast, a ministry supported by Harvest Partners. I'm Greg Laurie, encouraging you.

If you want to find out more about Harvest Ministries and learn more about how to become a Harvest Partner, just go to harvest.org. All right, if you have your Bible, I want you to grab it and turn to John chapter 21. John 21, and the title of my message is Breakfast with Jesus. Okay, so, what is your favorite meal of the day? I have to say, for me, it may be breakfast followed by lunch and dinner. But seriously, I love breakfast. What smells better than the smell of coffee in the morning along with some bacon and eggs? To me, eggs are the main event of breakfast. I like eggs everywhere. I like fried eggs. I like poached eggs. I like scrambled eggs. I like omelets. You know, it's a funny thing. I post all kinds of things on my social media, but I get more response to a video I take myself of my wife making me an omelet or scrambled eggs in the morning. People can never get enough of the egg videos.

I'm a little perplexed by that, but because of your response, I'll keep posting them. Now, there's other things you can have for breakfast. Some people like oatmeal. Some people like, well, they like just a cup of coffee.

That's all. Other people might have Pop-Tarts. That's what I used to eat when I was a little kid.

But in Alabama, where I just was, because we just finished the Jesus Revolution film, they have something in restaurants we don't have here in California. I'm talking about biscuits and gravy. By the way, I completely approve of biscuits and gravy, but I'm kind of glad I don't have to see that very often because it's very tempting. And I think one would gain a lot of weight eating those if you did it on a daily basis. Of course, there's French toast and there's pancakes, and the list goes on. Funny thing about my wife, she doesn't even care about breakfast.

She could go without eating it. Sometimes she forgets to eat lunch. How can you forget to eat lunch? I'm literally counting down the minutes from breakfast to lunch.

My stomach works like a clock. But regardless of if you love breakfast or lunch or dinner, let me ask you this question. If you could have breakfast with anyone, anyone from the past to present, who would you choose to have breakfast with?

Well, here's my answer. I would love to have breakfast with Jesus. And that is exactly what is happening in the text before us. Here in John 21, we see the risen Lord who had been crucified in love for dead. These disciples never thought they would see his face again, and they see him alive, and they have breakfast with him. Now, Jesus made multiple appearances after he rose. He appeared first to Mary Magdalene. She came to the tomb early in the morning only to anoint his body, never thinking she would see Christ alive again. And then a voice spoke to her, and she recognized it was the Lord, and she grabbed hold of his ankles, and he said, Mary, don't cling to me, for I have to ascend to my God and your God and to my Father and your Father. So Mary went and told the disciples that Jesus was risen. Most of them did not believe her, by the way. Then Jesus appears incognito to two disciples on the road to Emmaus. He joins them. They didn't know it was Jesus. He basically asks them, hey, guys, what's up?

What's been going on? And they said, haven't you heard the things about Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was mighty in deeds and all that he did? But he died three days ago. And Jesus says, no, tell me more.

What things? So these guys are telling Jesus about Jesus, not realizing who he is. At the end of their journey, he reveals himself as they sit down for a meal, and they say, did not our hearts burn within us while he opened to us the word of God?

Then Jesus appeared behind closed doors to the disciples. It turns out Thomas was not there. So they ran into Thomas after that, and they said, Tom, you should have been there last night. Guess who showed up at our meeting? Thomas says, Yahoo, Jesus. Thomas says, no way.

I'll believe that when I can put my hand in the wound in his side and touch the wounds in his hands. Well, they got together again, and guess who showed up again for dinner? Jesus himself. Thomas seeing the risen Lord said, my Lord and my God. Then Jesus appears to 500 people at one time.

Now he's ready to appear again. Peter and the other disciples have gone fishing, and they fished all night, and they caught nothing. Suddenly a voice calls to them from the shore. Friends, do you have any fish?

They respond, no. And that person says, why don't you throw your net on the right side of the boat? And they did that, and had so many fish, they could not contain them.

Well, that voice was coming from the risen Lord Jesus Christ. So let's revisit this beautiful and powerful post-resurrection story here in John 21, in verse 9. When they got there, that is, they got out of their boat, and they're dragging their fish to shore. When they got there, I love this statement, they found breakfast waiting for them.

Fish cooking over a charcoal fire and some bread. Jesus said, bring some of the fish you just caught. Simon Peter went aboard and dragged the net to the shore, and Jesus said, now come and have some breakfast. What an inviting scene this is. Jesus saying, come and have breakfast.

I mean, think about this. He has died on a cross. He's been beaten beyond human recognition. Yet here he is, risen, making breakfast. He says, hey, bring me some of the fish that you've caught. He even includes them in the preparation of the meal. There were wounds in the hands that was preparing that breakfast for the disciples, still bearing those marks that he took when he hung on the cross. They couldn't believe they were with Jesus again.

These disciples never thought they would see his face again, and here he was alive and well before them, serving a meal. Now their sadness turns to joy. Their fear turns to hope, and they're with the Lord again.

You know, when you lose a loved one, you miss them so deeply. You long to have conversations with them again, and here is the Lord alive, well, speaking with them, listening to them. It was just like old times, but this is why he came to this earth. This was lost on the disciples, but now they're starting to get it. He came to go to the cross to die for our sin, bear our sin, then rise again from the dead. When Jesus died on the cross, he conquered sin. When Jesus rose from the dead, he defeated death. Let me say that again. When Jesus died on the cross, he conquered sin.

When he rose from the grave, he defeated death. Oh, death. That is not a subject we like to talk about, is it?

We're uncomfortable with it. It's kind of a scary thing to discuss. The Bible even talks about those who are slaves to the fear of dying. We find ourselves wondering, is there an afterlife? What happens after this life?

I read an article in the paper about a rock star that tragically died at the age of 33. Prior to his death, he was interviewed, and he was asked this question. If you could get an answer to any question in the universe, what would he ask? And his response was, is there life after death?

The answer is, yes, there is. Life beyond the grave. I read an article just the other day with this headline, Glimpses of the Afterlife? The article goes on to say near-death experiences are not hallucinations, scientists conclude. A team of scientists across several medical disciplines, including neuroscience, critical care, psychiatry, social sciences, came up with this conclusion after careful research, there is life after death.

Oh, well my profound response to that is, duh. I've always known there was life after death, why? Not because scientists tell me, but because Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life. He that believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. You know, when I was a kid, I was terrified of death. I wasn't a Christian yet, I didn't really know if there was an afterlife, a heaven, a hell, I didn't know. So I just thought when you die, you cease to exist. And that was a terrifying thought to think of me as a living, breathing, thinking human being to no longer exist.

Well actually, that's not what happens. You live on in the afterlife. If you're a believer or not a believer, you will live on. But of course, there are two destinations. One of those is heaven and the other is hell. But now that I'm older, I'm no longer afraid of death.

Why? Because Jesus said in the book of Revelation, do not be afraid. I am the living one, I died, but look, I'm alive forever and ever. I hold the keys to death in the grave. Well I'm so glad the Lord holds the keys because if I held them, they would be lost by now.

I don't know about you, but I'm always losing my keys. But Jesus doesn't lose the keys. And what does he say? He says, don't be afraid because he's the one who lives forever and ever. Now having said that, that doesn't mean that I'm looking forward to death.

It just means that I'm prepared to die. Heard a story about a pastor that was speaking to his congregation about the topic of heaven. So he posed a question to them and he said, how many of you would like to go to heaven tonight? Everybody raised their hand, except for one little boy. The pastor thought, well maybe he didn't hear me. He said again to his flock, how many of you would love to just go to heaven?

Everyone raised their hand again, but not that little boy. So the pastor actually looks at the little guy and says, son, don't you wanna go to heaven? The little guy says, yes, I wanna go to heaven, but I thought you were getting a load up right now. Yeah, we wanna go to heaven as Christians, but we also love life that God has given us. The apostle Paul said, I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.

Nevertheless, it's important that I stay here with you. But when the day comes, if you're a follower of Jesus, you will be ready. And I'll tell you, life goes by so quickly.

I can't believe how fast my life has passed. Our generation, the boomers are now grandparents and they're entering into retirement. By the way, I've had people ask me, Greg, are you gonna retire? I answer, no, retire from what? Retire from preaching the gospel? I'm always gonna preach the gospel.

I'm always gonna teach the word of God. What am I gonna do, learn how to golf or drive around in a motor home or go fishing? I have other things to do.

I would rather go fishing for men, you see? But as my generation is getting older, we're no longer that generation that used to sing Forever Young. We've gone from acid rock to acid reflux. I mean, the Rolling Stones, they're still touring. I can't believe it. And they're still singing that song Time is Still on My Side.

Hey, have you looked at Mick Jagger and Keith Richards lately? Guys, time is no longer on your side. So time is passing so quickly. And the weird thing is I feel like a young person trapped in an old person's body.

But I do have that old person's body. You know, I was at the gym the other day and I heard a loud clang and someone had dropped the weights. And you know, when you're young, you drop weights because it's kind of a macho thing. You know, you do your set, then you drop a boom. You go ah, like that.

And then when you're old, you just drop them because it was an accident and hopefully you don't drop them on your own feet. But yes, time is passing by so quickly. We've been working on this film Jesus Revolution which is a story of my life, my wife's life. Two men that came together, Lonnie Frisbee and Chuck Smith and a spiritual awakening happened. But there's a part of the film where a young man is playing me as a little boy traveling with his mother. And boy, it was like reliving my life all over again. And here I am now, 69, looking back at a 10-year-old Greg and all that he went through. And it was a little bit like a flashback.

But look, there's nothing I can do to stop the clock or even slow it down. You can eat all the tofu and kale you want but you're still going to eventually die. I heard about a 105-year-old woman from Texas who had seven children. She worked very hard every single day. And she was asked to reveal the secret to her longevity.

You want to know what it was? She said, bacon. She's 105. She says, I eat bacon every single day. How about that?

That goes against the status quo or what we're told we should be eating to be healthy. But listen, death is scary, death is real. No one escapes it.

No one gets out if you're alive, so to speak. So I have an announcement to make this Easter of 2022. And here it is, death died when Christ rose. In fact, Easter was the day that death died because Jesus died. I as a Christian will never die. Again, coming back to the verse I already quoted, Jesus said, I'm the resurrection and I'm the life. He that believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live and whosoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Death used to be an executioner.

The resurrection makes him a gardener. You say, now Greg, I don't know, you seem delusional to me. People die every day.

What are you talking about? Oh, I know this well. People very close to me have died. My mother died, my father who adopted me died, my son died. I had the privilege to pray with all of them to make a commitment to follow Jesus Christ. And I know that one day I will die unless the Lord comes back in my lifetime, which could happen. But having said that, I wanna bring as many people to heaven with me as I possibly can.

I hope I can do that for someone watching this right now. Pay attention because I'll tell you how you can know for sure that you will go to heaven one day. That's what we're talking about this Easter. I wanna share with you four takeaway truths from the resurrection of Jesus. In other words, what Easter means to you.

Are you ready? Number one, because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, I one day will receive a new body. Let me repeat that again. Because of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, I will receive a new body. Death does not have the final say over our body. Easter has the final say. In fact, the picture of Jesus coming out of the tomb is a preview of things to come for us because one day we too will be resurrected. 1 Corinthians 15, 20 says this. The truth is Christ has been raised up, the first in a long legacy of those who are gonna leave the cemeteries.

But we have to wait our turn. Christ is first. And then those who are with him at his coming. So let's think for a moment about the resurrection body of Jesus. It was a real body that he rose in.

He was in a real body, in a real world, in a real way with a real voice. And the same will be true of you and me. God will raise us up, but we'll be radically righteous and resurrected. So number two, because of the resurrection of Jesus, our new glorified bodies will be much like his. So 1 John 3, two says, beloved, now we are the children of God.

It's not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when he is revealed, we shall be like him, for we will see him as he is. So let's think about the resurrection body of Jesus. Again, it was a physical body. He wasn't a ghost. In fact, he actually said in Luke 24, 39, I'm not a ghost, guys.

It's really me. I'm really a body. He proved it by eating fish. It's not like he was translucent and you saw the fish go down his throat or something. He was in a real body. He didn't float around. He appeared to those disciples on the Emmaus road and he walked the road like they walk the road. When he spoke to his disciples from the shore of Galilee, asking, do you have any fish? It was a real voice speaking through a real body. And in the upper room, we know that when he appeared to the disciples after his resurrection, he breathed on them the Holy Spirit.

So what do we learn? Number one, he was recognizable, including the scars from the crucifixion. Number two, he did not have the normal limitations we have now.

He could appear and disappear at will, including being in a room without using the door. And finally, he ate food. And I love that part because as I said earlier, I love to eat, as I'm sure many of you do as well. What's he doing in John 21? He's making them breakfast. Many of the significant events in the life of our Lord were over a table where they were having a meal together. He loved to be with his disciples. They talked together. They laughed together.

They cried together. They prayed together over those tables as they enjoyed meals. And then before he went to the cross, he had a final meal that we often refer to as the Last Supper with him. And so here he is alive, and he made this breakfast with his own hands. Understand, this is God. He's created the heavens and the earth.

He doesn't need to make things with his own hands. He could have just spoken, and there would have been French toast and blueberry pancakes, one of my personal favorites. But no, he says, bring me the fish that you've caught.

And he cooks the fish, and he makes the meal. Take away truth, just as Jesus ate in his glorified body. You and I will eat as well. And hopefully there'll be no weight gain. Then again, maybe when we're in heaven and heaven comes to earth, we won't think about things like that. Maybe we'll all be overweight, and that will be the glorified state. For that matter, maybe we'll all be bald.

Maybe hair is a part of the curse, I don't know. But all I know is it's gonna be great and we won't have to worry about things like that. Imagine enjoying a meal with loved ones that have preceded you to heaven. Imagine having dinner, lunch, or breakfast with the great heroes of the Bible. And then you're in heaven, and you see things in a whole different way. Sometimes the question is asked, will we recognize one another in heaven? Maybe I should respond by asking, well, do you recognize one another on earth?

I mean, I don't know. Here's the simple answer, of course you will. Do you think you're gonna know less in heaven than you know on earth? The Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians, we will know as we are known. We will know more in heaven than we know on earth, but our desire to sin will be gone. Number three, because of the resurrection of Jesus, we will no longer age or get sick or have our bodies break down. Maybe you're very young and you might say, hey, I like the way my body looks right now.

I think I look pretty good. That's great, but one day you're gonna get old. I remember when I was a little kid, I would look at old people and how long it took to cross the street, for that matter, how long it took to get out of a chair. And I thought, where do these old people even come from?

What does it deal with them? Then one day I woke up, and I was one of them, right? I was talking to my granddaughter, Stella and Lucy, a while back, and they asked the question, Papa, how old will we be when we all get to heaven? I said, wow, I don't really know the answer. Maybe we'll be 33. They said, why 33?

I said, I don't know. That was the age of Jesus when he died. And then my youngest granddaughter, of those two at least, Lucy, said, you know what? I wanna be three when I'm in heaven.

And I said, why three? She said, I just miss the old me. What a classic statement. So listen to this. Did you know that your brain starts breaking down at the age of 20? Experts tell us that we get older, as we get older, the number of nerve cells in the brain decrease. We start with 100 billion brain cells, but in our 20s, the number starts to decline. By 40, we're losing up to, listen to this, 10,000 brain cells a day. You've probably lost 5,000 brain cells already listening to me in this message. But because of the resurrection of Jesus, you'll have a new resurrection body. If you have limitations now, they'll be gone. If you're sick now, you'll be healthy then. There'll be no cancer.

Nothing like that at all. Number four, and finally, because of the resurrection of Jesus, we will have resurrected relationships. I love how when the Lord appeared after his death on the cross, he sort of picked up where he left off. On one occasion, two disciples are walking toward him and he says, Shalom. And that's just a greeting in Hebrew.

It's a statement you still hear in Israel today. Hey, Shalom, peace. It's just, hey, how's it going? So it's like, here's Jesus risen from the dead. He sees two of his disciples, and he says, hey, how's it going? Just kind of low key.

How's everything been? He just picks up where he left off and we will do the same when we are resurrected again. But listen to this, and I alluded to this earlier, but I want to touch on it again. The Bible tells us there is a day coming when people will be caught up to meet the Lord in heaven. Sometimes it's called the rapture of the church. Some would push back and say you can't find the word rapture in the Bible.

That's true. Nor can you find the word Bible in the Bible or the word Trinity in the Bible. But you can find this event that is sometimes called the rapture in the Bible. It's from the Greek word harpazo, which means to be caught up. The word rapture came from the Latin translation of the Greek word harpazo, which was rapturous.

But I don't care what you call it. Call it the rapture, call it the harpazo, call it the great escape. Here's what the Bible says in First Thessalonians four. The dead in Christ shall rise first. We which are alive and remaining shall be caught up, there's that word harpazo, caught up together with them in the moment, in the twinkling of an eye.

So this means there's a generation, and we could be that generation, that would be going about our business and in a moment that can't even really be measured in time. In the twinkling of an eye, the Bible says, we'll be hurtled into the presence of God and reunited again with our loved ones. In fact, in that statement in First Thessalonians four, Paul says, therefore, comfort one another with these words. Because contextually, he was talking about loved ones that have preceded us to heaven.

The question was being asked, will we see them again? Paul says, oh, hey, you may see them sooner than you thought. Back to John 21, and we'll wrap this message up. So here is Jesus on the shore. He's got a little charcoal fire going.

Hey, bring me the fish that you've caught. Peter walks in dripping wet. He recognizes it's Jesus. Do you think Peter had kind of a flashback?

Why? Well, remember, Peter denied the Lord three times in the glow of a fire. Now here's a fire again with our Lord sitting by it waiting for the fish to be brought to him. And then Jesus asks Simon Peter this profound question here in John 21, verse 15. After breakfast, Jesus asks Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? Yes, Lord, Peter replied, you know I love you. Then feed my lambs, Jesus said.

So what's this all about? Okay, so Jesus has already appeared to Peter. That happened after his resurrection.

The Bible doesn't give us any details about it. It simply says he appeared to Peter. So Peter's been forgiven. He's gone back to what he knew how to do best, fishing. This is not about being forgiven of his sin.

This is about being given a second chance. Peter blew it. Peter messed up. He denied Jesus three times. He even took an oath saying he never knew Christ. Jesus says, hey, do you love me more than these? Notice Jesus said more than these.

Why did he say that? Because in the upper room when Jesus revealed the fact that one of them was going to betray him, that would be Judas, but then Peter thought this would be a good opportunity to display his great faith at the expense of others and he said, though all deny you, I will never deny you. Jesus then said, loose paraphrase, hey, buddy, before the rooster has crowed twice, you'll deny three times that you ever knew me.

And that's exactly what he did. Now Jesus says, okay, Peter, do you love me more than these? Do you love me more than James and John? Do you love me more than Matthew? Peter just says, I love you. And he's not gonna say I love you more than these.

He's just saying I love you. Jesus says, feed my sheep. Maybe this Easter of 2022, I'm talking to somebody that needs a second chance, somebody who has asked Christ to come into their life, but you have stumbled and you have fallen. You've done things you know you should not have done.

You're feeling guilty. You're feeling embarrassed, but I want you to know that Jesus can forgive you and give to you another chance. And also, I know I'm talking to somebody that doesn't have this relationship with God.

Talked a lot about heaven. You wanna know how you can get to heaven for sure, for real? You need to accept God's offer of forgiveness. Jesus summed it up perfectly when he said in John 3.16, For God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Listen to this. God loves you. And God will forgive you. And God is not mad at you.

God is mad about you. And He wants you to come into a relationship with Him. I've talked a lot about eating, having breakfast with Jesus. Listen, you can have breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks with Jesus. That's another way of saying you can begin a relationship with Jesus right now. He even used that metaphor Himself when He said in Revelation 3.20, Behold, I stand at the door and I knock. If any man will hear my voice and open the door, I will come in and have a meal with him. Hey, let's just say that after this service was over, you went home and you're having a nice Easter meal with your family, and you hear a knock at the door, and let's just say you have a window in your door so you can see who's there, and it's me. I'm standing there. Hey, that's Greg.

Didn't we just see him? And he's standing at the door of our house knocking. I keep knocking, kind of hoping you'll invite me in for your Easter meal, and you look at me, and you talk to each other, and you kind of look away and ignore me.

Now, how's that gonna come off to me? Well, it's clearly a rejection. I may knock for a little while longer, another three hours. After a while, I get the message. You don't want me in your house, so I walk away. So here's Jesus knocking at the door of our life, and we ignore Him. We say, can we do this later?

Talk about this another time. Do you see that that is a rejection? To not accept Christ is to reject Christ because you are either for Him or against Him. As we close now, I want to extend an invitation before we pray. This is an invitation for you to be forgiven of all of your sin, an invitation for you to enter into this relationship with Jesus, and it's also an invitation for anybody who wants to make a recommitment to Christ because you need a second chance. Let's pray together. Father, I pray for every person here, every person that is watching.

If they do not know you yet, let this be the moment they believe, or let this be the moment they recommit themselves to you. Now, while our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed and we're praying together, if you want Jesus Christ to forgive you of your sin, if you want to know that when you die, you will go to heaven, if you want a second chance in life, pray this prayer with me. You could even pray it out loud if you like. Pray these words. Lord Jesus, I know that I'm a sinner, but I know that you're the savior who died on the cross for my sin and rose again from the dead. I turn from that sin now, and I choose to follow you from this moment forward. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. God bless you, and happy Easter. Hey everybody, thanks for listening to this podcast. To learn more about Harvest Ministries, follow this show and consider supporting it. Just go to harvest.org. And to find out how to know God personally, go to harvest.org and click on Know God.