“Because I live, ye shall live also!”
John 14:19

Life is like electricity - it needs a generator. Money, fame, drink, drugs, fashion, and permissiveness generate nothing. They say money spells happiness. Well that is just bad spelling. The most important things in life aren't things. A mansion adorned with the most expensive treasures on earth creates no life. The paintings, the sculptures and statues don't come alive or impart life. Hollywood creates illusions only.    

What is life?
The scientific definition is "the power to grow, to reproduce and to respond to circumstances."  But we need another element. Being biological creatures is not all God planned. D. H. Lawrence has a humorous quip about water.
"Water is "H two 0," two parts hydrogen, oxygen one. But there is a third thing that makes it water. And nobody knows what it is."

What makes life “Life?” There is a fourth thing and science doesn't know what it is. It is not our biological existence, nor pleasure, nor work. The architecture of culture produces only frozen beauty. Jesus Christ must enter. Then the trappings become the temple of life.

Now all that is true, but let's turn the page over. There are times when even Christians feel as if the Resurrection life has all gone.

Circumstances can bring anyone such loss, that we feel we have come to the end. Illness, a business failure, bereavement, the loss of a loved wife, husband or child, losing your job, or when a friend betrays you, your highest hopes crash and are fragmented. Disappointment, disillusionment, distress. Worst of all is when you feel you have failed yourself; let yourself and everybody else down. If somebody talks about Christ being alive, it can be just theology.

Sometimes we look for some other comfort. I've known Christians despair and give up. They don't go to church any more. They want to avoid people, shut themselves away. That's depression. Maybe they feel guilty, ashamed, or they are bitter and want to show it. They give up trying, and give up believing. Well, that is like an animal, that slinks away to die.

The world offers it comforts. We cling to anything when the storm threatens to swallow us up. The common philosophies are no lifebelt. People say "It could have been worse", or "It's a long lane that has no turning."
Now if you turn to the Psalms which so often describe distress and utter anguish, you will find only one comfort ever mentioned - God.  "Hope thou only in God" (Psalm 55:24).  They never use expressions that we use "It could have been worse", "Other people have bigger troubles". "Perhaps it will never happen". "Worrying does no good".  You know all the worldly-wise sayings and maxims. The writers of the Psalms knew something far stronger to lean upon - the arm of God. "You are my comfort in my distress." (Psalm 119:50). That is the answer.

The doctor or valium tablets, the psychologist, the counsellor, - we have something far more potent and effective: Faith in God. That does generate life. "Thou art a very present help in the time of trouble." (Psalm 46:2). The Lord is my rock, my refuge, my high tower. There are 150 Psalms in the Book of Psalms, but you will never find any philosophy of comfort in any of them. They have only one resource - the Lord, His presence and unfailing and comprehensive care.  

Well, I say all that. But, let us turn the pages back now to the disciples of Jesus. If people ever were like the walking dead, it was the followers of Jesus when He was taken down from the Cross. I spoke about people wanting to run away and die in some quiet corner. Well the disciples shut themselves away when Jesus died. They had no prayers and no services. They felt they were finished. We could never imagine what it was like for them to see the dead body laid in the cold tomb. He had been so powerful in life, now he was a corpse.

They felt betrayed. They felt they had betrayed Him - they had all run away at the critical moment. Their entire future had been vested in Jesus. They had great expectations - it was no ordinary future. It was full of greatness, a throne and privilege and power. It was more than that. Jesus Himself - their leader, their friend. They knew they shared the greatest privilege any men ever had in being the followers of Jesus. He was incomparable. He was a Prince indeed, unmatched in wisdom, wrapping them around with a strange powerful kind of love. That was a loss greater than the future prospects of authority. They had lost Him, and without Him they were lost. They were babes in a den of beasts.

That was them. It isn't you, BUT ... but you may feel just as forsaken, just as broken on the wheel of life. Things have gone wrong. Existence has become hollow, or like a burst balloon.

Well, what in the end did the disciples do? Some of them anyway? They could cut their losses and decide to go back to square one and start again. They could do it - had they the will? It turns out they did. Peter said, "I'm going fishing." That used to be their life before Jesus interrupted it. So Peter got seven of them together and re-formed Zebedee & Sons, fish merchants, and was it the Simon Peter Corporation Limited? Peter the managing director. For Peter reaction was always action.

Well, in such circumstances, action is usually wise. Psychologically, for once, Peter's instinct was right. At least it seemed right, but at the end of the night is looked all wrong. No fish! Courage was rewarded with discouragement. Seven of them, and they did not catch a sprat all night. What was the use of anything?  Why try?  Dejected, frustrated, baffled, they began the trip back home with empty nets and emptier hearts. Now what?  

That was their lowest point. Then came a voice, calling across the waters. It was anonymous. "Cast your net again," They had cast their nets a hundred times, and who was this standing on dry land to tell them their business? "Try again!" I don't know why they did. However, weary and despondent, they did it - perhaps just to show whoever was calling that they knew nothing about fishing. It was useless.

Then the shock - 153 great fishes. What a fisherman's story! They counted them later to tell it.

Now, it was one thing to end the night with such a catch, but they did better - far better. In the boat, with all the activity and excitement, something was hammering in the memory of John. All this had happened before. Three years before, at the beginning when they first met Jesus, He had given them a record catch. That was it! John knew! He said, "It is the Lord."

Peter wanted no other word - action again. He was soon out of the boat and wading neck deep to the beach. And there He was: Jesus - alive. They had tried and failed, but then He stepped in. Christ wanted them to try, not give up. He even waited till they failed. Then he took over, joined their effort, made Himself their managing director, and success followed. They were back in business.  

But, Jesus had greater things in mind for them. These men had to be sorted out, their emotional storms calmed, and their lost life recovered. I think maybe they did not even like facing Jesus. They were failures, they had let Him down, run away when He was arrested. They felt horrible - full of regrets and self-reproach; especially Peter. If there was one thing Peter wanted to do, it was to explain to Jesus, and now was the chance. He couldn't get to Jesus quick enough.  Jesus was expecting that - He knew what was in Peter's mind and heart; the shame, and despondency.  

So Jesus took Peter in hand - so skillfully, so easily and gently, and yet so effectively. Not a word of reproach. He didn't say, "Why did you curse and swear and deny Me?" He touched the very heart of Peter and said, "Do you love Me?" Peter gasped. That was the crux of the whole situation.

That is the test of us all - love - the love test. We can make a thousand excuses for our behavior and failure, and try to justify our wrongs. But, when it is examined it comes down just to that - love, failed love, or no love. That sums up the biggest atheist in the world, whoever that may be. No man who loved what was right, and good, ever hated Christ. Bile, bitterness and prejudice is never love.  

Jesus said, "Do you love me more than these?" (John 21:15). More than what?  More than anything there was around - the fish, the boat, the sea, the other disciples - all that! He was simply asking Peter what motivated him. What was his drive? The love of fishing, friends, and work? Why did he do what he did?

The love of Christ is the supreme motive. It has produced more good in this world than all the evil the devil has prompted. That's the Christian thing - the Bible thing. "Whatever you do, do it the name of Jesus." Work for love, for the love of Christ, keep shop for Him, do business for Him, marry for Him, have a family for Him. That gives life substance, reality, meaning, and eternal purpose. Life does not begin at 40, but at any age when we begin with Christ. That's the way the disciples came alive again.

If you are down -  Make an effort to get up and Jesus will help you up. If you feel life is empty - begin to put something back into it, and Jesus will fill it. Jesus left them then. He had gone, but they were alive. Because He lived, they lived. The Resurrection one had resurrected them. Re-assurances flooded them. They left their fishing boats but embarked on life's greatest adventure, to turn the whole globe towards the Sun of righteousness. They never looked back, but always onward over horizons and the ten thousand dawns like this dawn - with Jesus.

There's life in the life of Jesus, if you live in it day by day.
Always look to Jesus all along the way.