Notice at the end of verse 4,
the disciples knew not that it was the Lord. Verse 12, none of the disciples
durst ask him who he was, knowing that it was the Lord. Verse 4 said, but when the morning
was now come. And so the title of our thoughts
for a few minutes is manna, mercy in the morning, mercy in the
morning. In the early light, the disciples
are treated to breakfast, as we read here, fish and bread,
cooked on coals of fire, there by the seashore. This is one
setting I don't have a problem picturing in my mind. I'm sure
I can't picture it perfectly, exactly as it was, but I can
picture it. It was, in one sense, the story
of all history. Men in need and the Son of God willing and
prepared to meet that need. That's the story of history. And so I just want to not be
long this morning. I want to just mention eight
things I've, I've jotted down here, simple things from God's
word, valuable things for our hearts from this passage of scripture. Number one, the sorrow these
men felt. It is after the resurrection
and The Lord appeared numerous times
in the previous chapter. But he's not with them all the
time now. He's not in their company day and night as he was for three
and a half years. In that time, he had controlled
every situation. Every conversation. And now that
the disciples are, in a sense, at a loss. They're very sorrowful
that he's not with them. All of us know something about
such sorrow. It's sorrowful and it's fearful. I can imagine these disciples
were thinking, what do we do now? Where do we go from here? Simon Peter spoke up and said,
I'm going fishing. And the rest of them said, well,
we'll go with you. I've heard many condemn Peter
for going fishing right here, and I guess you have at this
point. Well, what was he supposed to do? Sit and do nothing? Here's the truth. This fishing
trip was as certainly ordained of God as was the sun to get
up this morning. Peter just did what he knew.
That's what we all do. But there's sorrow. in the disciples'
hearts, just going on to do what they know to do. There's a measure of loneliness.
They're together as a group, but there's individual personal
heart loneliness. And so it is with you and I.
We live in a world full of people. Most of you associate with different
people every day. Most of you have lots of relationships
with people. But at the same time, in the
secrecy of your own heart, there is a personal loneliness when
the Lord Jesus is not Real to you. He's always real, but I
said real to you. Manifested. In our hearts, loneliness,
sorrow. So that's the first thing that
I read in this passage concerning the condition of their hearts
as to why it kind of went this way. God ordered it to go this
way, but Peter don't know anything else to do. He goes fishing. The others have nothing else
to do and they say, we'll go with you. They did what they
knew. The second thing that we read
about in this passage that I'll mention is their failure, their
failure. We read that they toiled all
night and caught nothing. Imagine the feeling on top of
the sorrow of heart, loneliness, after an entire night of laboring
to do what they well knew how to do with no success at all. They toil, they worked at it,
and they caught not a few, But nothing, nothing. Failure, failure. Failure is hard when it's dumped
on top of an already existing sorrow. Peter's thinking, maybe I can
do something to just, you know, feel better. in all this. Well, a man like Simon Peter
that had fished all his life and he went out and went all
night and caught absolutely nothing, that didn't make it better. Failure. Failure. I'll be the first to confess
I've felt my share of that. The third thing is the presence
of the Lord who finally come to something
positive. The presence of the Lord Jesus
come morning. These fellows look and there's
someone standing on the shore waiting to converse with them. Well, that's understandable. If the boat is loaded with fish
and the one standing on shore is hoping for a handout, but the one standing on shore
knew that the boat wasn't loaded with fish. He knew that the boat
was empty, not a single fish, but he was standing there anyway. He knows when your boat's empty. He'll be standing there anyway. Our Lord does not stand near
the successful. They are bold to declare that
they don't need His help. But He stands near the empty
boat. He stands near those who have failed. Now the men in the boat, they
don't know that he knows what a failure they are. They figured if he knew he wouldn't
be there. That's exactly why he is there. We look at everything
backwards, don't we? His presence. And then the fourth thing would
be the blindness, the blindness on the part of these disciples. They knew not that it was Jesus. He's the last one they thought
would be there at this early morning hour at this place. They had not a clue it was him. Let me ask you this morning,
do you have a clue that it's Him standing near you
in your blindness day and night? There's so much that you don't
know and so much that you can't do. And it's Him standing there. And so oftentimes, rather than
acknowledging His presence and His mercy to us and His ministering
to us and His helping us, so often we just say, well, I finally
figured it out. What to do? No, you didn't figure
it out. There was a guiding hand. There
was one in love, standing on the shore. And in our helplessness
and our unbeliefs, he's there for us. And he stands with full
knowledge of our failure. He stands well aware of our inability
to provide him breakfast. He's come to provide us breakfast. He is our Joseph in the book
of Genesis. He holds the keys to all the corn cribs, all the food supply. He said in Mark 10, I came not
to be ministered unto, but to minister. I didn't come for what you can
do for me. I'm here for what I can do for
you. I said we get everything backwards.
The thrust, the thrust of religion today is what we can do for the
Lord. Oh, how he needs us. But if he
needs you, he's bad off. He said, I came not to be ministered
unto, but to minister. It's not me that's in trouble.
It's you. He's our savior. We're not his. He's well aware of what's going
on. Number five, the initiative. Notice in this passage we've
read, he speaks to them before they speak to him. They don't have a clue that they
need him. Though they have nothing. They don't figure he, he has
to kind of, he can help us. standing here. Isn't that the way we are? Speak
to somebody that you think can help you. They didn't speak to him, though
they were helpless and had nothing. That's depravity, by the way. By nature, men Look at God's
Christ and look at the gospel and say, that's not what we need.
He's not who we need, but he is. He is. He stands on the shore
and he speaks first. He speaks first. He is not the gentleman. that
Armenian religion makes him out to be. He does knock gently and helplessly
on your heart's door, as they say. The doorknob is not just on your
side, as they say. He does not stand on the shore
to see if you'll speak to him. You won't. Such a failure. Such a fool. You won't. But he takes the initiative. I hear men contradict this every
time I try to listen to somebody I don't know preach. The Apostle Paul on the road
to Damascus. Was the Lord up there? Oh, please,
Mr. Saul of Tarsus, please listen. If I could just get his attention. No. He got his attention. And he wasn't saying, if you
would only ask me first. He wouldn't. God takes the initiative. If you're his child this morning,
it's because he took the initiative to come to where you are and
break your heart and show you your helpless, hopeless condition
and lifted you out. I'm so sick of this stuff. I
decided to accept Jesus. You don't find that term in the
Bible. Accept Jesus. You do find this. As many as
received him. There's a difference in accepting
and receiving. Accepting would be something
active. That I can cause God to do for
me. No, no. But when you receive, you're
just on the receiving end. You're the recipient. Accept Jesus. He's not the one
needs accepted. We are. And Ephesians 1.6 says that we
are accepted. We're made accepted in him. Not made acceptable. Waiting
on you to add your two cents worth, but no made accepted. What Christ did for you is sufficient. Believe it. Rest in it. 1 Peter 3, 18, I believe it is. Christ died the just, that's
him, for the unjust, that's you and I, that he might bring us
to God. Did he do it? He did it. He did it. He did it. All right. The initiative. is God's Christ
spake first. Number six, the affection he
showed. Christ does not say. Hey, you,
hey, you guys. I'll turn the boat. No. He does not even say, hey, sirs,
good morning. No. No. He uses that most unexpected
and affectionate word, children. Children? There wasn't but one
that could talk to them like that. They weren't children. They were
men. They weren't children in the sense that we talk about
children. They were men. Children? He's the everlasting Father,
Isaiah said. And he addresses them as children,
knowing their helplessness. To care for themselves, he calls
them children. Brethren, what manner of love
the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called the
children of God. He knows we can't look out for
ourselves. With the affection that only
a loving parent can give, he calls them children. And then
number seven, the compassion. The question, he says, ask, have
you any meat? You would think, well, now that
seems to be a lack of compassion. He is rather humiliating. He
is rather humiliating these veteran fishermen who have toiled all
night and have not one fish to show for it. But they don't know
that he don't know. They don't know that he knows
they don't have any. So he's asking them, have you
any meat? Have you caught anything? There
seems to be no compassion in it. But as we've often said,
our Lord did not ask questions to get answers. He knows all
the answers. And by the way, if you'll read
the four gospels, the Lord Jesus asked lots of questions, but
he never asked questions to get the answer. He knows the answer.
But he asked questions to get confessions. He knew they had no fish. but
they must confess it. And it's a question that demands
a yes or no answer. He didn't say, did you have any
luck or how well did you do? Had he
asked those questions, they could have said not too well. It was a bad night. We never did as well as we expected. But the question was structured,
demanding a yes or no answer about all of his questions are. And they answered it, no, we don't have any We didn't catch
a single fish. So what is termed humiliation
to us is really compassion from him in that he brings us to the
end of ourselves. He brings us to confess. Somebody has a problem and you
say, well, now, can you handle this? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. But now when the Lord speaks
to your heart, you better not lie to him. When he says, when
he says to you, brother Darryl, tomorrow's Monday, can you handle
it? You better say to the Lord, no Lord, I can't handle it. I need you. I need you. And that's what we all better
do. Confess, confess. And so these old boys did. No,
don't have any faith. We struck out entirely. We are without question helpless
and hopeless if left to ourselves. It's been a long, hard night.
And not only are we no better off than when we started last
night, we're worse off. We're now cold and tired and
hungry. And what you and I need today
on this first Sunday of the year is what these disciples experienced. Mercy in the morning. Mercy in the morning. And this is the last thing. The
mercy in the morning resulted in manna in the morning. The Lord Jesus did not come at
dawn. Daylight dependent on them. He came to minister to their
need. Breakfast is ready. It's not overcooked. And it's not undercooked. Right on time. And may I say to you, breakfast
is right on time. They never missed it. You haven't
missed it. We have the idea. Well, maybe
the Lord could have done something about this earlier. He do something about it now. Breakfast is ready. And he never said to him, wait
a few minutes, boys, he said to him, Come and dine. Come and dine. And while you sit listening to
my voice right now, if it's in your heart to whisper
to him for help about anything, whether it's about your own heart's
condition before him, or whether it's about some problem, some
friend, Some loved one, family member. You don't have to wait for anything
or anyone. You can just whisper it to him
right now, this moment, any moment. He's standing on the shore. You don't know what to do. The
boat's empty. The night's over. The time is gone. You don't fish
in that country in the daytime, just at night. We've missed it. It's gone. And we have nothing
to eat. And you confess to Christ. I
have no fish in the boat. And he says, I do. Come and dine. Come and dine. Oh, that the Lord
would put the message of this passage in our hearts this morning. Let's bow.