The Greatest Lessons Ever Done R902

We all could use some encouragement, and we'll find it together today through the Bible-based preaching of Dr. Don Wilton on The Encouraging Word. Today we'll be heading to John chapter 21 about the greatest lesson ever learned. As we study the Word together, we are so excited to get connected with you, to pray with you and for you, both online at www.tewonline.org and this phone number.

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That's www.tewonline.org. Now today's message with Dr. Don Wilton. I'm going to ask you to take your Bible and turn with me to John's Gospel and chapter 21. Now we always open the Bible and I always remind us that I have nothing to say.

We have nothing to say outside of God's Word, but I do want to impress on you. Today, most particularly, you're going to need your Bibles. I want to speak to you today on the greatest lessons ever learned. The greatest lessons ever learned.

Now that's quite a bold statement to make, is it not? The greatest lessons ever learned. And I want to remind you of something today because it's very important before I read this passage. The very fundamental issue involved in whether or not you've become a Christian is the fact that you believe that God has raised Jesus from the dead. Bible, in fact, tells us that there are two things that you must do.

Number one, confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, which means that you've come to the point in your life where you accept that God sent Jesus Christ and that He is none other than the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's what separates the Christian faith from all other religions. Number two, that you're willing to believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead. Well, after Jesus came forth from the tomb, He appeared to over 500 people.

Something rather remarkable happened. I know this is a long passage, but I've got to read it to you. John chapter 21. Afterward, Jesus appeared again to His disciples by the Sea of Tiberius. It happened this way. Simon Peter, Thomas, Nathanael from Canaan, Galilee, the sons of Zebedee and two other disciples were together.

I'm going fishing. Peter told them and they said, well, we'll just go with you. So together they went out and got into the boat.

But that night, they caught nothing. Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was the Lord Jesus. He called out to them, hey, friends, have you caught any fish?

No, they answered. He said to them, we'll throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some. When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish. Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, it's the Lord. And as soon as Simon Peter heard him say, it's the Lord, he wrapped his outer garment around him because he had taken it off and he jumped into the water. The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish for they were not far from shore, about 100 yards. When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it and some bread. Jesus said to them, bring some of the fish you have just caught. Simon Peter climbed aboard and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish, 153 of them.

But even with so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, gentlemen, come and have breakfast with me. None of the disciples dared to ask him, who are you? They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, did the same with the fish.

This was now the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead. When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonah, do you truly love me more than these? Yes, Lord, he said, you know that I love you. Jesus said, well, then feed my lambs. Again, Jesus said, Simon, son of John, do you truly love me? He answered, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. Jesus said, well, take care of my sheep. The third time he said to him, Simon, son of John, do you love me? Now Peter was hurt now because Jesus asked him a third time, do you love me?

He said, Lord, you know all things and you of all people, you know that I love you. Jesus said, well, then feed my sheep. I'll tell you the truth, Peter. When you were younger, you dressed yourself and went wherever you wanted to go.

But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will dress you and will lead you where you do not want to go. Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to Peter, Peter, follow me. Peter turned and he saw the disciple whom Jesus loved was following them. This was the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the Last Supper and had said, Lord, who is going to betray you? When Peter saw him, he asked, Lord, what about him? Jesus answered, if I want him to remain alive until I return, what business is that of yours?

You must follow me. Because of this, the rumour spread among the brothers that this disciple would not die. But Jesus did not say that he would not die. He only said, if I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? This is the disciple who testified to these things and who wrote them down. We know that his testimony is true. Jesus did many other things as well.

If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would have to be written. I want to speak to you today on the greatest lessons ever learned. I'm going to ask a somewhat silly question. As you look back on your life from your perspective today, is there anything in your life, any stupidity, any mistake, any event, any sin in your life that you can look back on? That now from your perspective, you know, you're able to say, boy, did I learn a lesson from that. When I was about 16 years of age, I had a terrible motorbike accident and I remember it. I guess I'm going to remember it for the rest of my life. My dad was in our early service at eight o'clock.

He was sitting there watching me and listening as I was sharing this because he was involved in it. And I'll never forget his face when he finally arrived. I hit a car at a terrible speed and fortunately, being a young whippersnapper, the people told me that the only reason that I survived was that I hit him right behind the front wheel, head on. Never touched a brake or changed a gear. It happened so quickly and my motorbike concertinaed. The back wheel said hello to the front wheel and vice versa.

The only thing they could use was the back reflector. And have you ever seen Superman live, folks? I became Superman. I took off.

That thing bucked me off like a bucking horse. I went right over the front windshield of the car, got badly hurt. But the thing that I remember, the lesson that I learned was I wasn't wearing the crash helmet. Fortunately, I didn't come down on my head. I learned a big lesson.

I've never forgotten it. Every time I've got onto a motorbike, I try to make certain. As much as I love riding motorbikes without a helmet on, I try to make certain and then I also know that motorbikes are deadly. Every day you open the newspaper, someone else being killed on a motorcycle.

I know that. But I learned a lesson. Now in my adulthood, I look back. I learned a lesson about safety and caution. My dad used to tell me, son, don't forget that everybody else on the road is going to make a mistake.

Drive with your head on your shoulders. Well, here was this incredible event. The most dramatic event in all the world had taken place and Jesus appeared. And folks, I'm going to say to you today that there are some of the greatest lessons that our Saviour gave to those who believe in His name.

By the way, I want to say this very clearly. These are lessons learned by believers, by those who know Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour. When the Lord Jesus appeared to the disciples, He was teaching them something. He was teaching them the absolute truths of the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

He was trying to impress upon them the things that would be written upon their hearts that would guide them and mold them and make them and motivate them. I'd like to share some of these with you, the greatest lessons ever learned. Number one, Jesus is not dead.

That's lesson number one. Jesus is not dead. By the way, if you ever read the Bible and all of a sudden you read a verse or two, you say, you know, I didn't even know that was there.

Happens to me all the time. That's why I read the last couple of verses. Even the Bible says if we could put down all the things that Jesus did, there wouldn't be enough books that could contain all the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus. And our Saviour from the time He arrived on this earth was about the Father's business. He talked and He practiced and He gave and He demonstrated and He showed them and He taught them about Himself, demonstrating that He was indeed the Christ, the Son of the living God. But we know that in John, chapter 17, just moments before He walked down across the Kidron Valley, just moments before Judas would betray Him, just moments before He would be taken and beaten and bruised.

And keel-hauled to the cross as our sacrifice for sin. Just moments before that He stopped and He turned to the Father which is in heaven. And He said, I have completed the work that you've given to Me. And I want to be glorified by you with the same glory that I had with you from before the world existed. Because I am God and I was in the beginning with God. And the completion of all that I came to do on mission for God was not only to come but to dine across and then to be raised up and then to ascend to be seated at the right hand of the Father, making intercession for all those for whom Christ died. And when Jesus appeared right here on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, He was giving to these disciples the greatest lesson that they would ever learn.

Here it is. I'm alive, gentlemen. Any questions? All the skeptics have gathered from sea to shining sea today in the United States of America. The skeptics are gathering here and there and everywhere. The debate is on. Every newscast is now focusing on the authenticity of this thing called our Christian faith and the reality of who we are in the Lord Jesus Christ. And the bottom line of every debate of every skeptic and every philosophical point of view lies in one fact. It's a question. Is God really who He says He is? Come on. You Christians are out of touch.

You don't really believe this. God is but a figment of the imagination. He's a toy to play with. He's someone to pull out of a box on a Sunday morning.

You stroke Him and you dust Him off and put Him back again when you leave church on Sundays. But I'm here to tell you today, my friends, that when Jesus appeared to these disciples, He gave to them the greatest lesson that could ever be given. Jesus is not dead. You see, folks, He wasn't speaking to unbelievers. He was speaking to a group of believers. You say to me, you mean to tell me that believers doubt whether He's alive? Folks, I have.

Haven't you? Thomas did. Jesus appeared to Thomas and Thomas said, I don't believe you.

I mean, evidently these disciples were having a problem actually believing that the same Jesus would rise from the dead. They went back to fishing. They went back about their business. They went back to minding their business.

They weren't about the Father's business. They had laid their instruments down. They had given up. They turned their back. They walked away.

They were hiding for their lives. And Jesus appeared and said, I'm going to give to you the greatest demonstration of the greatest lesson you'll ever learn. Jesus is not dead.

Lesson number two, friends are friends forever. Oh, I love this passage here in verse five of chapter 21. Jesus appeared on the seashore and He cried out, friends, have you caught anything? By the way, I tried to see whether that was just some kind of man-made addition to Scriptures.

It's not. You see, the Bible tells us, my friends, that when you give your heart and life to Jesus, you become a friend of God. And by the way, if you want a real theological definition of being a friend of God, it means that when you give your heart and life to Jesus, you're born again of the Spirit of the living God. Your life becomes inextricably bound into the life of Christ Himself. And He declares you to be His friend. And no matter what you've done and no matter where you've been and no matter what business you've returned to and no matter what hurt and pain you've gone through, the Bible teaches that once you're saved, you're always saved. Once you're a friend of God, you're always a friend of God.

It would have been so easy for Jesus to turn up on the shore of the Sea of Galilee and look over there and say, Hey, fisherman, hey, you men out there, you messed up. You denied me. You've turned your back on me. You've stopped believing in me. You've laid down the instruments of the work that I've called you to do.

You no longer are part of me. No, He didn't. He looked at them with compassion in His face and He said, Friends.

It kind of reminds me of the prodigal son. It was a man who was very much part of his father's house and determined one day that he wanted to take everything he had and go his own way. He laid it all down. He walked out the door, turned his back on his father's house. He left the fold. Not only did he do that, but he went back. Woods in time and in his spiritual being, he went and he began to sow his wild oats and he began to waste the very thing that God had given to him. Ended up in a pig pen, didn't he? But he came to his senses. And when he stood up in that pig pen and he turned around, he said, I'm going back.

He looked and right there on the seashore, standing in the doorway of the father's house was the father himself with his arms outstretched that said, My son, you've always been my son. You never ever stopped being my son. Come on back home.

Follow me. Your bed's made, son. Here's your remote control. You want something?

The refrigerator's full. Come on home, son. Jesus stood on that seashore, gave them the greatest lesson I think anybody could ever learn. And that is friends of God are friends forever.

Such great truth that brings confidence in our life, understanding God's eternal love for us. We'll be back with more of today's message in just a moment with Dr. Wilton Wilts. We remind you we're here for you connecting on our phone line at 866-899-WORD. That's 866-899-9673 or online as well at TEWonline.org. That's TEWonline.org. So much discussion about The Grace for the Widow, a powerful book by Joyce Rogers. That's the widow of Adrian Rogers, powerful pulpitiers who with Jesus is now was a great friend of Dr. Wilton. That book is available on our website at TEWonline.org.

I hope you'll check it out. Now let's get back to today's study, The Greatest Lesson Ever Learned with Dr. Don Wilton. But there's a third greatest lesson ever learned here. Our job is to fish.

Did you get that? Lesson number three. Our job, your and mine, is to fish. Verse three, verse five, the Bible tells us these men went fishing.

By the way, we could talk a lot about that today. But they went fishing. Jesus said to them, I'm gonna make you fishers of men. Oh yeah, they had laid this down.

They were wallowing in their self-pity and despair. Jesus hadn't changed his mind. We're gonna discover that in just a moment. And what he was teaching them was, listen, your act of fishing is exactly what you need to do, but for men. Our job is to fish. Now I love to fish. Wish I could fish a lot more.

I tell you, I've stood there in that boat with them many times. If our job is to fish, if Jesus said, I'm gonna make you fishers of men, the single most important thing we fishermen need to do is to make sure we've got the right equipment. I know it was primitive. They didn't have all the instruments to be able to design things like we do today. It was intricate. Can you imagine them putting together those nets back in Jesus' day? The time that went into it, the effort. Listen, folks, their fishing required the very best of everything that they did.

They had to sharpen their tools. When you go fishing, if God has called us to fish, when He said in the Great Commission, go into all the world, He was telling us to go fishing. And if you go fishing, you need to make sure you've got the right rod, the right reel, the right strand. You need to have the right bait, the right hook.

You need to be in the right place. You need to make sure you don't cast your line over the rocks. You need to make certain that you read the elements and know where the wind's blowing. You need to know what you're fishing for and how you're fishing.

You need to be able to understand the personality of the fish that you're trying to catch. Folks, I always ask the Lord, Lord, would you allow me to be a good fisherman? Would you allow me to have the right instruments in my hands and in my soul, in my being? Lord, would you help me to be absolutely tireless in my preparation? Would you help me to tie the knot correctly so that the hook is set in place properly? Would you help me to sacrifice?

Would you make me willing to sit up all night? You see, folks, my responsibility today is your responsibility is to stand here right now, I'm fishing. We're in God's boat. We have God's Word.

All I'm doing today is simply casting a net. You see, friends, it brings us just logically to the fourth of the greatest lessons. If our job is to fish, His job is to catch. In John chapter 17 and verse 6, Jesus made the statement just moments before the cross. He said, Father, I have revealed your name to the men that you gave me from out of this world because He is creator.

He made you and He made me. I pray every day as I stand and proclaim the Word of God that God would give to me the right perspective, that He would remind me that the success of a spiritual fishing expedition is not determined by the number of fish that are caught. The success, if there is such a thing of a worship service, is not measured by the number of people who walk down this aisle, that God would deliver us as a people all across America because churches today have filled up with casualties of modern day evangelism, where there is a great confusion that has taken place between the one who is instructed to fish and the only one who can catch the fish. Oh, my friends, there are churches in every walk of life across these United States of America that have people who have come within the fold who know nothing about Jesus Christ because they never responded to the voice of God. I want you to know, according to the Word of God, Jesus stood there and He said, have you caught anything?

No, we fished all night. He said, good for you. Why don't you cast your net on the other side? Why did He say that? Because He knows what lies beneath. You and I don't. We do not have the power to save anybody. We don't know the heart of man. God does. In John's Gospel chapter 16, Jesus told His disciples, He said, it is my Spirit who is God that has the only authority to convict you of your sin, to convict you of righteousness, the holiness of God and to convict you of the pending judgment for it is appointed unto man once to die and after that the judgment. And I believe with all of my heart that these disciples were learning the greatest lessons that one could ever learn. Just look at it. Jesus is not dead.

Friends are friends forever. Our job is to fish. His job is to catch. But number five, sin humbles you. Sin humbles you. Well, if you pick up there at verse 15 with me and go through that rather extraordinary discourse between the Lord Jesus and Peter. Now folks, just imagine Peter for a moment if you please. He must have been so embarrassed, don't you think?

I would have been. I mean, here was Peter, you know, he had denied the Lord Jesus. This is the same guy, oh no, you're the Christ, the Son of the living God.

You know that I love you. Jesus came up there. I'll tell you, Peter must have lost his car keys at least 10 times.

I mean, he must have been looking around didn't know where to put his face. And Jesus looked at him and said, so Peter, ratchet mouth, big talker. Jesus wasn't questioning his salvation. He said to him, do you really love me?

Uh-huh. You really love me? Jesus said, of course you do. But the love with which Peter responded was an incomplete love. The love that Jesus was demanding was a complete love, a full love, a total love, a committed love. Peter was saying, well, you know, I love you, sort of. I love you when it suits me.

He said, no, I want you to love me when it doesn't suit you. You see folks, the lesson that is going on here is that sin humbles you. We talk about sin negatively and of course, what is their positive about sin?

But let's talk about it positively for just a moment. I really believe in the life of a believer like Peter that Jesus was giving him the greatest lesson. He was saying to him, listen, Peter, you sinned against me, you denied me. And I'll tell you what, good is coming out of it. It's humbled you. It's put you where you need to be because pride comes before a fall.

Peter, don't you turn into someone who points fingers at everybody because you've got three pointing straight back at you. You've been listening to Dr. Don Wilton and when God speaks and challenges us to lay down our pride, the good news is he's ready to empower us, not only to do that, but to pick up the joy of following him in complete and total assurance. Before we get away, would you take a moment to give your most special closing thoughts from our pastor, Dr. Don Wilton. Are you ready to give your heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ? Why don't you pray this prayer with me right now? Dear God, I know that I'm a sinner and I know that Jesus died for me on the cross. Today, I repent of my sin and by faith, I receive you into my heart. In Jesus' name. I welcome you today into the family of God.

This is exciting news. As Dr. Don was praying a while ago, you have given your life to Jesus Christ or rededicated your life to Christ. Oh, how we want to walk in these next steps with you to encourage you.

Dr. Wilton has some free resources he wants to put in your hands, but you need to call and let us know at 866-899-WORD. That's 866-899-9673. We'd love to walk with you in this brand new journey of life together. I want to thank you for all of you who literally are helping us share the Word of God every day.

We call you encouragers. Our nation is in crisis. Our world is in crisis. Time is short for us to reach those around us with the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Will you join us in our endeavor to reach just one more? We need your support. Become an encourager today. Call us at 866-899-WORD to request an encourager brochure today. The Encouraging Word is a viewer and listener supported ministry.

Thank you for listening today. It's been a great time in John 21 today, but tomorrow we're headed to the book of Acts chapter 1. I hope you'll join us.

Bring a friend between now and then. Let's stay connected online at TEWONLINE.ORG. Be sure and sign up for the daily encouraging word email from Dr. Don Wilton at TEWONLINE.ORG. The Encouraging Word