Easter Archives - Tomme Stevenson

March 19, 2024March 14, 2024

Peter Went Fishing

Peter went fishing. Sometimes, that is the best thing to do.

John 21:3, "Simon Peter said, "I'm going fishing." "We'll come, too," they all said.  So they went out in the boat."

I listened to a sermon last Easter, and this verse stood out. I thought, how human of Peter. It is interesting what we do to clarify our thinking; we gravitate to our comfort zone.

After Christ’s Crucifixion, He appeared to the disciples in the upper room to receive the holy spirit. Even though the disciples, Peter included, saw Jesus alive and touched the scars, it didn’t seem real. The disciples were heartbroken and disillusioned. They thought they had followed the savior of the world only to see Him crucified. How would a dead man, resurrected or not, free them from Roman rule? They didn’t know what was next. They knew Christ was the beginning of something great but didn’t understand what that was.

John 6:15, "Then Jesus, realizing that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, withdrew again to the hillside by himself."

Peter did what we all do: gravitate back to what we know. We find busy work to occupy our time until we figure out what’s next.

HOW DOES GOD USE THESE MOMENTS

Interestingly, this passage brought back two memories for Peter: good and not-so-good. First, the good: Peter first met Jesus when he was fishing. He had fished all night, not caught anything, and Jesus asked him to throw his net again. Jesus’ request of Peter was precisely what happened the second time when Peter went fishing after the Crucifixion. The second memory is Jesus cooking fish over a charcoal fire on the beach. Peter might have remembered the last time he smelled a charcoal fire; he denied Christ three times.

I firmly believe God does not waste energy; everything has a purpose. When Peter was at his lowest point, God returned two essential images. The first was the joy of meeting Jesus and his immediate dedication to Him. This image had to lift his spirits. The second was the image of his weakness. It was a backward glimpse of what the world would be like if Peter didn’t believe. It brought back all of the pain he felt when that rooster crowed.

I can’t speak for Peter, but for me, it would have reinforced why I have to hold on to the goodness of Christ’s promise and run from my weaknesses. It would be both a push and a pull: push away from doubt, pull closer to faith.

WHAT TO DO WHEN LIFE DOESN’T SEEM FAIR

James 1:3, "knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance."

“No matter what storm you face, you need to know that God loves you. He has not abandoned you.” – Franklin Graham.

We tend to go fishing. We want to break away from the uncertainty and draw close to something we know and understand. That is OK for a time, but it doesn’t produce results like Peter. It is nothing more than a temporary holding place to regroup.

Like Peter, we need to be reminded of the past. We need to remind ourselves of the great things God has done for us and through us. The glory of the past leads us toward the future. We also need to be reminded of what it is like to deny Christ. As dark as the world can seem, it is nothing compared to separation from Christ. To live without hope has to be the darkness within darkness.

Romans 8:35, "Who will separate us from the love of Christ?  Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?"

HAPPY ENDINGS

Christ built His church on the rock named Peter. If you are willing, He will raise you out of the malaise of your life. He will use all you have gone through to create an even brighter future than you could have imagined.

Matthew 16:18, "And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it."

God may not create a worldwide revival through you, but what He will build through you, the gates of Hades, will not overcome it. The power you have at your disposal is incredible; we sometimes lose that. When things don’t go as we think they should, we forget the redeeming power of Christ’s resurrection.

Whenever you feel the darkness closing in, remember Peter. You and Peter have a lot in common.

John 16:33, "These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace.  In the world, you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world."

April 19, 2022April 18, 2022

Is God With Us?

Matthew 20:17-19, “Now Jesus was going up to Jerusalem. On the way, he took the Twelve aside and said to them, “We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to life!”

I hate stories about myself. I like to live in the shadows. When I’m in a position where I must “perform,” I get not just uneasy but irritated. I hate getting awards; I love achieving them, just not getting them. My social anxiety is paradoxical because I have run large organizations with hundreds of people. I’m fine when I can talk about a subject that does not include me. I don’t like the spotlight on me.

Today I’m going to suck it up and talk about myself. I think there is something in this story that might brighten your Easter. At Easter, we say, “He has Risen.” The response is, “He has Risen indeed.” But do we believe God is with us, or do we go along? Is God tangible?

Luke 24:6-7, “He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.”

THE STORY

Over forty years ago, I was rising in my career and healthy. I ran ten miles every day. I later was informed that I ran every day because I had an addiction to endorphin, not because I had a fixation on my health. Stress filled my life. Because I had never experienced sustained success in my life, I thought stress was just part of the job. So, I ran to be sane. The endorphin kept me on an even keel so that I could cope. Although I must add that I still exercise and believe in exercise, I’m no longer addicted to it.

It was spring, so I wanted to step up my daily routine, but I had an odd problem. After about four or five miles, my vision would collapse into a small hole in the center of my eyesight; it’s called myopia. I would walk a couple of hundred yards, myopia would go away, and I would start running again. I felt great. There were no other symptoms. All I needed was a shot or a pill to make it go away, and I could increase my workouts. I had a friend, Charles, a doctor; he was a cardiologist. I didn’t have a regular doctor because I didn’t seem to need one, so I got an appointment with Charles. Here is where the story takes a twist. After just a few minutes in the examination room, Charles calls one of his partners in; they talk cryptically and then ask, “What are you doing this afternoon?”.

THE TWIST

I’ll try to make this less boring by getting to the part you want to hear as fast as possible. I spent a week in the hospital as they ran an encyclopedia of tests. The results were that they knew I had a severe problem but couldn’t isolate it. So, they demanded that I quit all forms of exercise until they knew what was causing the problem. This is the place in the story where I learned about endorphin addiction and withdrawal.

Months went by, and the problem progressed. I was sitting on the couch watching TV one night, and myopia struck. These episodes were becoming more frequent. I was instructed to call Charles every time I had one. Charles said stop what you are doing and come to his office a 7:30 in the morning before it opens. I told him that I couldn’t do less short of stopping breathing. It was the first time I was concerned; up to this point, I was mainly perturbed. It was an inconvenience in my life. So, I went to bed.

MY MOMENT

This night I was to understand what it meant to have Christ be with me, not figuratively but literally. At around two o’clock in the morning, I woke to see myself lying in bed. I was above the bed, looking down at myself, sleeping. It wasn’t a dream; I was hovering above myself. I slowly slid down the wall until I was back on the bed, eyes wide open, terrified.

Isaiah 41:10. “‘Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely, I will help you, surely, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’”

A thousand thoughts were racing through my brain. Everything I thought had significant risk. Then, all of a sudden, Christ reached down. His message was clear and concise, go to the emergency room across the street from Charles’s office and wait. I was calm and relaxed. It was only a couple of miles away, and there was no traffic in the early morning. I went inside and took a seat. I told the nurse that I was waiting for a doctor’s appointment across the street. I had this odd dialog inside my head, part prayer and part discussion; we talked about my future. The nurse interrupted this discussion to say either you’re in or out; this isn’t a waiting room. I guess I’m in was my reply.

1 Corinthians 15:20-21, “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man.”

My heart stopped four times in the emergency room before Charles arrived. I apologized for getting him out of bed, and then the lights went out. The next thing I saw was a masked man looking down at me, saying it would be alright. God smiled and said, “I told you so.”

GOD IS TANGIBLE

I could have died that night at home alone, but God had other plans. It was His presence that calmed my soul and gave me clarity. It was His plan for my life that pulled me through. Christ was a presence as real as Charles.

Easter isn’t a feel-good story. Instead, it is the culmination of eons of compassion, love, and caring. If we don’t experience His presence in our lives, it is because we don’t believe He is truly with us. Christ paid an enormous price so that we could have a deep, personal relationship with Him. He is there in the room with you now. He will not desert you or grow tired of you.

Romans 10:9, “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

HE HAS RISEN INDEED

March 30, 2021March 29, 2021

A God too Small to Love Me?

John 15:13, “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.”

Have you ever said, “That’s unforgivable.”? Do you believe that there are certain behaviors you should not forgive? Do you have trouble letting go when someone has treated you poorly? We all tend to worship a God created in our image. For most of us, this is not intentional; we can’t imagine anything different or more significant than our experiences.

We try to squeeze God into a mold of our making. We try to define Him through our logic. We view Him as a better, more benevolent and kinder version of ourselves.

What if God was bigger than you can imagine? What if you could not describe God in human terms? What if that God was passionately in love with you?

This Easter, think about this verse, especially the last word; Friends. I am a friend of Christ. He did not die out of obligation or some misplaced sense of altruism; He died for me because I am His friend. We are not strangers in a world far away; we are brethren.

John 15:15, “No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.”

God chose us before the foundation of the world; that is incredible. We need to grasp the intentionality of God’s grace. To God, we are not just a member of a herd called the human race; we were chosen from the very beginning and are considered holy and blameless before Him.

Ephesians 1:4, “just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love.”

WHO IS GOD?

Adam Clark, British Methodist theologian and biblical scholar in the early 1800’s described God this way:

God: The eternal, independent, and self-existent Being: the Being whose purposes and actions spring from himself, without foreign motive or influence: he who is absolute in dominion; the most pure, the most simple, and most spiritual of all essences; infinitely benevolent, beneficent, true, and holy: the cause of all being, the upholder of all things; infinitely happy, because infinitely perfect; and eternally self-sufficient, needing nothing that he has made: illimitable in his immensity, inconceivable in his mode of existence, and indescribable in his essence; known fully only to himself, because an infinite mind can be fully apprehended only by itself. In a word, a Being who, from his infinite wisdom, cannot err or be deceived; and who, from his infinite goodness, can do nothing but what is eternally just, right, and kind.

In J.D. Greear’s book Not God Enough, he talks about God as the author of a universe comprised of three septillions (that’s right, septillion, three and twenty-four zeros) stars. His creation was not about cobbling together a few things; although that would be amazing in and of itself, He spoke them into existence. No flour, no eggs, and no yeast; just a word, and it was so.

Hebrews 11:3, “By faith we understand that the worlds (don’t overlook the plural) were set in order at God’s command, so that the visible has its origin in the invisible.”

In Exodus, God told Moses, “I AM.” God knew there was no human equivalent to His existence. There was nothing to compare God with other than Himself. This is the God, who let His son die a horrible death, not just for generic humanity, but for me, and you, specifically.

“A God small enough to be understood is not big enough to be worshiped” – Evelyn Underhill.

WHO AM I?

But can a God this immense care about a person so small? Can a God so powerful that He can speak the universe into existence have time for me? We are called His children, and as such, heirs with Christ. In looking at our insignificancy compared to God, we must also consider our significance because of Him.

John 1:12, “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,”

Romans 8:17, “And if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ…”

We are a chosen race, royal priesthood, and a holy nation. No matter what you have done with your life up to this point, you can start this very day to reap your heritage rewards.

1 Peter 2:9, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”

God, through His grace, had made us sufficient in ALL things at ALL times. All of the power He displayed through creation is available to you through His grace.

2 Corinthians 9:8, “And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.”

He has provided you with the means of living in a fallen world if you chose to take advantage of what He offers.

1 Corinthians 10:13, “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”

Who are you that a mighty God would care? He will rejoice over you with gladness and exult over you with loud singing. You are the object of His creation that you might glorify Him and thus be blessed through Him.

Zephaniah 3:17, “The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.”

AND YET

This Easter, remember why. God’s desire to fill your life with joy and peace is so strong that He would stop at nothing to assure it. The original sin separated us from the life God wants for us; don’t let your sin perpetuate that travesty. Our joy and peace can only be made complete through Christ. There is no joy or peace outside of God’s goodness.

Romans 15:13, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

Our God in His absolute dominion cannot fail us. He is infinitely benevolent, forgiving our sins if we follow Him. Our God is eternally self-sufficient in that He does not needs us, which makes His wanting us more magnificent. Do not worship your self-image; worship the one true God of infinite goodness, that can do nothing but what is eternally just, right, and kind.

1 Corinthians 2:9, “But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”