Worship for the week beginning 1st May 2022

Time to Reflect: The witnesses

Jesus’ appearance to Jesus disciples around the sea of Tiberias; was one of the miracles that happened to them at the highest point of their despair. He showed himself to Simon Peter, Thomas Didymus or the so called in Aramaic (the Twin), Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together “. The unnamed, according to David Guzik (2018), are purposely unnamed as they represent the anonymous and hidden multitudes of faithful souls, whose names are never published in human documents, and whose deeds are never reported in human reports. We see here Luke jumps to talk of Peter, who had years of experience with fishing, faced a dilemma, a challenge. On what to do with Jesus’ instructions?

Peter found himself diverting his journey like Jonah was being sent by God to Nineveh, but finds himself ending to Tarshish, also like the Israelites who were destined for an eleven-day journey to the promised land but found themselves spending forty-years in the wilderness. In every career, there are always seasons of disappointments. Galatians 6; encourages God’s children not to tire in well-doing, but remain in faith and continue labouring in prayers.

Just like many out there who have abandoned the Lord Jesus during these unprecedented times, Peter and the rest of the disciples decided to go fishing that never yielded futile in the entire night. Jesus appeared to them at their desperate time. But talked to them as a caring parent. A caring institution, a caring Lord. We are God’s Children and God cares for your welfare as we see in John 21:5. Jesus asked them, Children, have you any food: they said NO! Jesus said to them, cast the net on the right side of the ship and ye shall find’’, Lo I am with you always”.

Jesus made a strange suggestion to his disciples. Cast the net on the right side!
There was no logical reason, fishing in the morning would be better than fishing at night.

There was no reason fishing on one side of the boat would be better than the other side.

It was not even directly a test of trust in Jesus, because they did not know it was Him until the fish were caught.

This was probably a test of their ability, which had hit the wall. The Disciples’ response with an affirmative NO was an expression of some humanness feelings and emotions.  Either expressing disappointment, anger, frustrations, limitations or helplessness.
It can be futile doing things without divine guidance. In this account, it illustrates the principle that we should never be afraid to change our method, as long as it is prayerfully reflected. “The disciples’ continuous overflow of provision of fish was a projection of Gods provision for the time that lies ahead. When we obey God and follow him, our future will not be filled with disappointments. And when disappointments come, we still trust in his promises.

As we walk toward the unknown as a circuit, we must not lose sight of the mandate.
God has called the church, no matter what the challenges. Whether it is when we witness decline and constrained resources, we have a dependable captain. And he is still in charge. We must not lose the call of our mandate of preaching his word and declaring the message of the good news and not go fishing, He also commands us today to preach the Gospel and make disciples. When we obey what he tells us, he will command signs, wonders, and miracles.  The miracle of shoals is enough evidence to encourage our faith that he is a dependable guide. As we see him commanding many fish to come the way of the disciples, swimming in large numbers to the net.  He shall command souls and resources to come into his Kingdom in overwhelming numbers.