How true to his word the Lord always is. He said he would meet them in Galilee and he does, not only here but on a mountain elsewhere with a vast crowd to give the great commission. The Lord is true to his word. How kind he is to come at such a time when they are nervous and apprehensive and anxious and have gone fishing. We need to be in places where Christ can deal with us. He does not appear today as he did in the resurrection appearances, but if you ever need his comfort or his touch or the work of the Spirit of Christ to move your conscience, touch your heart, remind you of duties, spur you on; if you want the touch of God, the appearance of the Lord, you had better be doing something or somewhere where he can touch you. There are Christians, they go clubbing – is the Lord likely to draw near to them there? They go to pubs – is the Lord likely to draw near to them there? They walk about with their minds day-dreaming selfish day-dreams, thinking only of number one, this offence, that offence, this or that hurt, this or that ambition. Is the Lord likely to touch when we are consumed with number one? The disciples were doing something worthwhile and innocent and clean and good. You may say, it was not spiritual, it was secular. Yes, but it was where the Lord could appear to them. So there is a lesson even in what they were doing and their availability to Christ.
Throughout the entire ministry of the apostles and throughout our ministries too it is always true that blessing is from the Lord. Every soul saved, all people who turn to him, every advance, it is by his power, it is his doing, and this is going to be reinforced in their minds. We look around today at people who believe in Christ and Calvary and love him but who have forgotten – ‘Without me ye can do nothing,’ and they are crediting their methods and their innovations and their choirs and their bands and their clever approaches and their contemporary music. They are trusting in just about everything but the Word of God and the power of the Spirit alone. It is never our skill, it is never our additions to the methods that God has given; it is of the Lord, so we need to be in prayer.
We praise and thank him. After every witness, every sermon, every Sunday school lesson, we sup with the Lord, we commune with him, we praise and thank him. We ascribe to him all the glory because it is his due, because it is his work, and because if we do not, the devil will whisper in our ear – you did that, you achieved that, and the way you did it was very special and rather wonderful. And it will go to our heads and we shall be useless. So we sup with the Lord. It is beautiful. It is about the catching of men, the work of the Gospel.