Submitted by Pastor Richard Boettner, Rock Port Baptist Church

For this week’s article I will summarize some teaching from Scripture that I have been sharing at the Rock Port Baptist Church for the past few weeks. In John 20 and 21 Jesus appears to his disciples to validate His claim of rising from the dead, and Mary Magdalene’s testimony that “I have seen the Lord.”

Three appearances of Jesus are recorded in these chapters. First, Jesus appears with the disciples who are locked down in a house, because of their fear of the Jews. The second appearance occurs a week later in the same house since Thomas is not present during the first appearance.

In both events Jesus brings peace, not fear, and allows the disciples to experience His powerful presence. He even breathes on them in the second appearance and so that they might “receive the Holy Spirit.”

The third appearance occurs as Simon Peter leads some of the disciples to go fishing on the Sea of Tiberias. These veteran fishermen, however, come up with nothing after fishing all night. As Jesus appears, He commands them to put down their nets again, and this time they come up with a large catch, the net is full, and the total count is 153 fish!

A few principles from these appearances encourage me to keep on fishing as I journey in life, both with work and with spiritual development to experience God in my ordinary life events:

1) Handle fear with the peace of Jesus, and receive His presence in your life.

2) Let Jesus into the locked down places of your heart and life, where there has been pain and confusion.

3) Be willing to change when you receive nothing, and see what God can do. It will be different and even greater than the normal things you are used to doing.

4) Along the way, keep inviting others to believe in Jesus. This is why John wrote His gospel, and what God wants from each of us today. “Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” (John 20:30-31)

I pray as we have shared this article together that you might also feel welcome to share any experience with Jesus from your life at this time. Please contact me at rpbaptistchurch@gmail.com with any questions or comments.