He is risen! I hope you all had a wonderful Easter. Mine began at 6:00 am, when i woke up to go to Tenth Pres., located in the old city section of Philadelphia. There was supposed to be a sunrise service in rittenhouse square. However, the brass players said that it would be too cold, so the service was held inside. The sermon was fantastic. It was about the 21st chapter of John’s Gospel. To paraphrase the sermon, the 20th chapter of John is a chapter that essentially validates christianity (referring to the empty tomb), and the 21st chapter is a story about fishing. Why is it that John ended his Gospel rather anticlimatically? Well, there’s something to be said about the 21st chapter and the great commission. But there’s another something that i found quite poignant: as soon as Peter identified the man on the shore as Jesus, he dropped everything and dove into the water to be with Him. The sermon’s application was that too often we are so “wrapped up” with all the hubbub of church programs that we forget the joy of simply being in, and with, Jesus. What a sight it must have been. I can see Peter on an old boat with a net in his hands, and then he realizes that Jesus is talking to him. I can see his smile reach his ears as he drops everything and dives off the boat, to swim to his Jesus.
There’s something else you may be interested to know. In the Apostle’s Creed it is written “He descended into Hell.” That gave me a lot of turmoil a while ago, until i found Calvin’s commentary on that very phrase. here is the link: http://reformed.org/master/index.html?mainframe=/documents/Christ_in_hell/index.html
Run and jump off the boat. sDg.
