A Missed Point

The Backdrop

Yesterday I was preaching from John 21:1-14. I was going without notes, which used to be my typical modus operandi, but is something I hadn't attempted in a long time. For the most part I felt pretty good about how it went-until I afterward remembered that I had teased a later point in the sermon (twice!) and then neglected to make that point. Maybe there is more wisdom to taking a full manuscript to the pulpit than I accounted for.

In any case, in case you haven't followed the above link and listened to the whole sermon, the thrust of the sermon was this: In the first half of John 21, we are meant to see Jesus revealing himself to the disciples. I argued that Jesus was revealed in at least three ways, namely:

    1) Jesus has perfect knowledge

    2) Jesus is the source of true provision

    3) Jesus is Lord

The Missed Point

The case of negligence, or at least of failure to follow through, took place under point two. It might be an exaggeration to say I missed this point, because I still made the point itself, but one of the things I wanted to draw attention to is something we find in verse two, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee. Why are we told the location of Nathanael's origin here? I think it is meant to draw our mind back to chapter two of John's gospel, where Jesus performs his first miracle. The location? Cana.

There, as in John 21, we find Jesus providing. In chapter two, this provision is done without public fanfare; no one but the servants drawing water, and the disciples who witness, know what is going on. Likewise, the disciples in chapter 21 are alone on the lake. There is no crowd, no one to give high fives and public praise. Just a group of men with a need that Jesus is willing to provide for.

In chapter 21, the provision is of a hot breakfast on the seashore for a tired crew. It's the provision of a multitude of fish where they had been able to find nothing on their own. It's Jesus stepping in and providing for the needs of these men. In chapter two, the provision is of some 150 gallons of the best wine. At the end of the feast, when anyone else would be bringing out the cheap stuff (see v10). In both cases, the provision is more than abundant. 

The Take Home

Jesus is not just capable of providing for the needs of the people in Cana, or Jerusalem, or small town Iowa, or a seashore in Galilee, or Beijing, or wherever his people may be found. He is able and willing to do far more abundantly than we can even ask or think (Ephesians 3:20). Do you trust him to be that powerful and that good?