okay I want to talk to you first of all
about GPS great Global Positioning
System okay and this has transformed the
lives of many even Dale could get from
Jersey village to here without getting
lost due to GPS now maybe maybe some of
you here think wouldn't it be great to
have a Bible GPS you know something that
will enable us to find our way around
the Bible so we don't get stuck and
waylaid in Leviticus but also to enable
us to actually understand what the
passage meant to God's people back then
so we can understand its significance
for us today in other words so we can
walk in the ways of the Lord and no
doubt that's one of the reasons why
you're here at the Biblical Literacy
class so that you can read the Bible in
a literate way which is not the same as
reading it literally so a literate
reading means that you will take into
account the type of literature you're
looking at
you'll also think about the literary
conventions of the time the use of
exaggeration hyperbole the use of
symbolic numbers especially in the book
of Revelation how the passage would have
been understood in the past so we may
understand it aright in the present now
someone has said the Bible was written
for us but not to us
now without approach in mind this
morning I want us to leap forward to the
end of John's Gospel to what is referred
to as the epilogue in chapter 21 in
order to discover some of the hidden
gems which are meant to strengthen our
confidence in the inspiration and
reliability of Scripture as well as to
encourage us in our mission to the world
now very early on in the life of the
Christian movement it was bedeviled by a
radical sect and one group was known as
the Gnostic's and that comes from
Greek word gnosis meaning knowledge
because these guys thought they had
inside knowledge of God's mind and not
surprisingly they developed esoteric
strange ways of reading the Bible some
of which involve special codes to
discern the deeper hidden meaning of
Scripture and they also concocted their
own scriptures such as the so called
Gospel of Philip and of course in recent
years Dan Brown has made a mint with his
Da Vinci Code however just because there
were crackpot ideas of reading the Bible
involving codes and symbols doesn't mean
there were not widely recognized
legitimate ways of writing which
involved numbers and symbols and they're
designed to convey the truth of God
which you can find elsewhere in the
biblical text and one such device was
common among the Jews and later
Christians was that of gematria so let
me explain when I was a young boy I was
greatly influenced by the Man From Uncle
show on TV and as aspiring Napoleon
Solo my friends and I used to make code
and send them to each other in class now
they were fairly simple a1 b2 not
exactly in megamode but that was all we
could manage now the Jews did something
similar Hebrew letters were also numbers
the first nine letters being one to nine
the next nine being 10 to 90 and then
the last five being 100 to 400 so coding
with words with numbers is called
gematria now one of the most well known
examples of this is found right at the
beginning of Matthew's Gospel in his
genealogy now generally recognized this
is a sort of artificial construction of
the division of the three generations
and two fourteen and so that is to make
a very important point
which is underscored right in verse 17
at the end of chapter 1 where we're told
that there were fourteen generations in
all from Abraham to David 14 from David
to the exile in Babylon and 14 from the
exile to the Christ so what's special
about the number fourteen
well the name David in Hebrew is made up
of three Hebrew radicals Dalet Vav
Dalet Dalet was given the numerical
value four Vav six add together four
plus six plus four you come to the grand
total of 14 so by arranging Jesus family
tree in three blocks of 14 the very
pattern declares that Jesus is David's
greater son the Messiah you see now we
find the same kind of thing operating at
the end of John's Gospel in John's gospel
so let's take the beginning and the end
the prologue the epilogue now people
have disputed as to whether the epilogue
was originally to John's Gospel you
can understand why you may think a more
natural and obvious ending would have
been chapter 20 verse 30 Jesus performed
many other signs of the presence of the
disciples which are not recorded in this
book but these are written that you may
believe that Jesus is the Messiah the
son of God and that by believing you
will have life in his name
now that is great that is a punchy
evangelistic ending to a great
evangelistic gospel that would have made
Billy Graham proud and what is more we
may think that a gospel which begins
with the portrayal of the Lord Jesus
Christ in such lofty terms the logos
the one who was with God one who was God
the one who has enjoyed this intimate
relationship with a father the one and
only
- then wind up with this account of a
fishing trip and the rehabilitation of
Peter that seems an anti-climax doesn't
it and furthermore to end with the
reflection that there would be that
needed more libraries in the world to
accommodate all the books that could be
written about Jesus would be again seem
a bit of an anti-climax
but what if John was doing at the end of
his gospel what Matthew was doing at the
beginning of his highlighting the
identity and significance of Jesus but
in a subtle way that's a game changer
and this is where gematria comes in the
prologue contains four hundred and
ninety-six syllables the epilogue
contains four hundred ninety-six words
in the Greek and this is led Professor
Richard Borka to conclude that this is
more than a coincidence only to true
because four hundred ninety six is the
numerical value for only-begotten mono
genus which formed the climax of the
prologue in verse eighteen no one has
seen the father
but the only begotten monogenes being
in the bosom of the Father has made him
known so this is equivalent to Matthew's
genealogy and the number fourteen which
presents in code form gematria that
Jesus is the Christ so by the same means
John underscores the uniqueness and
supremacy of the son Adam monogenes
and of course that increases our
likelihood that the person who wrote the
end of the gospel also wrote the
beginning and vice versa
now for centuries scholars and
theologians have pondered the
significance of the large number of fish
caught and more to the point the precise
number specified
chapter 21 verse 11 so Simon Peter
climbed back into the boat and dragged
the net ashore it was full of large fish
153 why not just say we caught a lot of
fish that day now some argue this may be
no more than John wanting to
substantiate his credentials as an
eyewitness very much in line with what
he says in John 19 one of the soldiers
pierced Jesus side with a spear bringing
a sudden flow of a blood and water the
man who saw it has given testimony and
his testimony is true after all someone
had to count the fish they weren't
weighed as we may do today and perhaps
John drew the short straw and he is the
one who had to do this smelly task is
that it I was there I know it happened
well in part now you'll not be surprised
to hear that down the centuries there be
some very interesting interpretations of
the meaning of the number of the great
fish mentioned for first the catch of
fish tells us of the salvation of
humanity according to this view humanity
cannot be saved without keeping the Ten
Commandments but in account of the fall
we can't even keep the commandments
without the help of grace and the seven
gifts of the Holy Spirit and more to the
point number seven signifies holiness
because God blessed the seventh day made
it holy ten plus seven equals seventeen
and if all the numbers from 1 to 17 were
added together which they equal 153 the
17th triangular number hence the 153
fish signify that all the
are to be saved by God's gift of grace
and by following the Ten Commandments
now that was put forward by St.
Augustine in the fifth century we then
move on to St. Cyril who was born in
Thessalonica in the ninth century now he
pointed out that 153 consists of 100 the
great number of Gentiles to be saved
plus 50 the smaller number of Jews plus
3 the Trinity who saved them all
and others have followed
Cyril in this way and suggested things
like hundred are the married lay
faithful 50 the many faithful who commit
themselves later to countenance in life
either as living as widows or living
with their spouse in a brother-sister
relationship and then the three the
precious few who live lives to celibacy
as virgins equals again 153 so that's
talking about the whole church now I
want to say if you believe that you
believe anything all right but it was
taken seriously
now Saint Jerome in the fourth century
took hold of the common belief of the
time that there were 153 species of fish
in the whole world
hence the disciples caught 153 fish
signifying that people of every class
and any time would be saved as the
gospel is proclaimed people with what
with fish it was a fishing for man but
perhaps the most amusing is this one
they explanation that fishermen tend to
exaggerate ok you know it was that big
but he got away ok and but this view
says well look John wants us to know
that this was no exaggeration and he
understood the more he could provide the
more details the more he would be
believed I could give you lots of other
examples
which are very creative or to which is a
very English way of understating it
saying they're off the wall now this has
led some like Professor Raymond Brown in
his commentary on John simply to raise
the flag in surrender he says one cannot
deny that some of these interpretations
they're not mutually exclusive are
possible but they all encounter the same
objection we have no evidence that any
such complicated understanding of 153
would have been intelligible to John's
readers well I don't think we need to
throw up our hands in surrender just yet
the question is how do we sift through
the various competing interpretations in
order to engage in a literate reading of
the passage one which is true to the
original intentions of both the divine
and the human author and would make
sense to John's readers let me give you
three principles to avoid crazy readings
first the claim must fit the data of the
text that might sound like stating the
blindingly obvious but it is not so
obvious because people have come out
with all sorts of weird interpretations
of the Bible the Trinity and the virgins
are not there in John 21 okay
our task is to get the meaning from the
text secondly the meaning must have been
possible for the author and the readers
and this is what Raymond Brown was is
really getting out
we believe that Scripture is
god-breathed we also believe is a
product of human authorship the Bible is
human they're infallible and divine
which is why it's infallible but we've
got to go with the way the original
writers and readers would have
understood it
look at the literary conventions of the
day even though they may seem strange to
us the third principle is this any
so-called deep meaning of Scripture must
cohere be in line with the surface
meaning of the Bible now this is the
principle which is linked to the belief
that God has chosen to communicate to us
Calvin uses a lovely illustration he
talks of God listening to us like we would
talk to a little toddler or or a child
we used their kind of language to
communicate well God does the same with
us
he uses the conventionally accepted
means of writing of the time to connect
with us so God wants to communicate he
does so clearly it doesn't play tricks
on us and Keyser's with these esoteric
codes and hidden meanings okay with
those three principles in mind what are
we to make of the 153 fish well thinking
of these suggestions of Augustine Cyril
and Jerome we have to ask is there any
evidence that for John and his readers
153 was a symbolic number that it did
represent all the people in the
world it seems there is someone said
here we sharply reminded that why
scripture is close to us in that we hear
God speaking to us through it by his
Spirit giving testimony to his Son at
another level the Bible you've got
to read the Bible by going on a
cross-cultural journey since we think of
numbers in quite a different way from
that of the first century people now
we've already seen that the numbers were
significant when it comes to Gematria
now here's the thing 153 is the
numerical value of the Hebrew for Sons
of God
now that should ring bells with us and
our mind should go back to the beginning
of John's Gospel and God's great purpose
for sending his Son into the world
chapter 1 verse 11 he came to that which
was his own but his own did not receive
him yet to all who did receive him to
those who believed in his name he gave
them the right to become children of God
Caiaphas is pretty much the same thing
in chapter 11 now that means that what
we have here in this miraculous catch is
not only the miracle that it is a big
number but that it is this number in
other words the evangelistic intention
of God set out in the prologue is
reinforced in the epilogue by way of
gematria so as the gospel is proclaimed
God will bring in all his children into
his kingdom those who believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ however the
significance that this is a large number
shouldn't be overlooked either now there
are not many large numbers in the
mention of the New Testament this is one
of them Acts 27:37 is another where Luke
mentions that 276 people were saved from
the shipwreck
and the other of course which intrigues
you all is 666 and the number of the
beast in Revelation 13 thing is they're
all trying triangular numbers so they
may see a little bit more about triangle
in numbers now we're familiar with
square numbers four times four 16 we
recognize a square number the Asia
ancient world had another sophisticated
method of counting triangular numbers
the sum of successive integers
triangular numbers were more
important in a world where you where you
primarily count using physical objects
rather than our world where numbers are
more abstract in fact the word in the
New Testament for to calculate psephizo
are derived from the word for pebble
psephos why what you would have used
pebbles to count so as Justin
rightly noted 153 is the triangle of 17
so then you ask what is the significance
of 17 and this is where we turn to
another passage in the Bible which helps
us to understand in Acts chapter 2 and
verse 9 Luke provides a list of the
regions where residents were in
Jerusalem at Pentecost
you know Parthian Medes Elamites and so
on and we're told that they heard the
disciples declaring the wonders of God
in their own language now taking the
Jews and proselytes the those who got
converted to Judaism has two groups Ben
Witherington points out that we come to
the number 17
and given that in Jewish thought 10 is
the number of perfect order 7 is the
number of perfection maybe Luke is
making the claim that the Gospel message
at the very beginning went out to people
from all over the known world now Luke
is certainly interested in numbers
Martin Menkin has shown that in Peter's
pentecost sermon it is divided into two
halves of 444 syllables each the total
888 and that is the gematria value of
Jesus name in the Greek
so maybe the all the nations connection
is also here in John chapter 21 and the
great catch of fish the ten seven
forming the triangle number of seventeen
which makes 153 the complete and perfect
number of those to be saved those to be
caught by the gospel did you see so
Augustine's conclusion may have been
right but for all the wrong reasons the
gospel is to go out to all the nations
Jesus said early on in John chapter 10
that he came to lay down his life for
his sheep some of which were not of the
Jewish fold they will hear his voice and
there would be brought to him under one
flock under one shepherd so there's a
universality of the gospel is to go out
to all people and the particularity to
it is for his sheep they're the ones who
are going to be drawn in but being
biblically literate also means reading a
passage not only in terms of its
immediate setting but also in the wider
context of the entire Bible what's
called the canonical context so this ask
is there any other part of the Bible
which might lie behind John's account
which backs up this interpretation that
this is a symbol of reaching out to the
nations of the world there's at least
one Ezekiel chapter 47 1 to 12 the man
brought me back to the entrance of the
temple and I saw water coming out from
under the threshold of the temple
towards the east and then when I arrived
there I saw a great number of trees on
each side of the river he said to me the
water flows towards the eastern region
and goes down into
Arabah where it enters the Dead Sea when
it empties into the sea the salty water
there becomes fresh swarms of living
creatures will live wherever the water
flows there will be large numbers of
fish because this water flows there and
makes the salt water fresh so where the
water flows everything will live now
this links in with Jerome's thoughts
that the gospel is for all sorts of
people all types who will be saved again
givers in their giving as a good example
of someone who was right in
understanding the passage even if it got
the reasons wrong
so in Ezekiel 47 we see the baptismal
waters flowing from the overturned
bronzy of the temple and they flow out
to the boundaries of the land remember
how Jesus claimed to be the source of
such living water flowing water back in
John chapter 7 anyone who is thirsty may
come to me anyone who believes in me
come and drink for the scriptures
declare rivers of living water will flow
from his heart and when he said living
water flowing water he was speaking of
the Spirit who would be given to
everyone believing in him now in Ezekiel
47 verse 9 we're told that very many
fish will live in the formerly Dead Sea
as a result of these living waters in
verse 10 we read and he will come about
that fishermen will stand beside it from
En-Gedi
to En-Eglaim there will be a place for
spreading of nets their fish will be
according to their kinds like the fish
of the great Mediterranean Sea very many
now the Dead Sea is the boundary of the
new land after the Jews came back from
exile and therefore it was the place of
contact with the Gentiles and this means
that the fishers are the Gentile nations
the fact that the sea is formerly dead
and is now brought to life may indicate
the hope for influence of restored
Israel over the nations before Christ
comes and pointing to the great
influence of the kingdom after Pentecost
now here's the interesting thing we've
got another example of gematria you see
if we subtract N from En-Gedi and En-Eglaim
because n simply means spring
then the following emerges Gedi equals
17 Eglin equals 153 and again this is
too close to be a coincidence and once
again we have already seen the number 17
yet as mentioned first it's relative 153
connecting to the evangelization of the
Gentiles symbolized by fishing now of
course the story of the fishing
expedition in John should trigger in our
minds another time involving Peter and
the disciples who were fishing and had a
similar result Luke chapter 5 you
remember the story after a disastrous
night of failing to catch anything Jesus
told them to cast their nets and what
happened they got a bumper harvest of
fish and Jesus then said from now on you
will be fishers of men now Jesus Avada
think simply said there because they
were fishermen that's part
but also because behind that statement
is Ezekiel 47 God is the great fishers
Fisher of man even back then now I'm
sure the early disciples would have made
that connection as well but let me bring
it together and just mention three
things now these passages while on the
one hand are familiar on the other hand
are less familiar this strange we're not
used to reading literature which uses
devices like gematria but once we
recognize how early authors and readers
would have operated it helps us to
appreciate the meaning of the text more
fully so keep on coming to the Biblical
Literacy class okay and Mark hasn't paid
me to say that secondly there's a very
good case to be made that the number 153
is both real and symbolic I do believe
that under the amazing sovereignty of
God 153 precisely fish were caught that
day and countered God in His omnipotence
orchestrated it to be like that to
convey the truth made elsewhere in
Scripture Matthew 28 symbolically
Ezekiel 47 that the gospel of Jesus
Christ is for the whole world is that
amazing and similar than number 17 which
is connected to Pentecost and the event
linked to Luke 5 not only is the
Commission to make disciples of all
nations that's what we got to do it also
strengthens our confidence that the
exact number of God's people will be
drawn in not one will be missing as
Jesus said now it was this doctrine
what's called the doctrine of election
which enabled the Apostle Paul to
persevere in
Corinth Acts 18 one night the Lord spoke
to Paul in a vision do not be afraid
keep on speaking do not be silent why I
am with you because I have many people
in this city what did he do he kept on
fishing fishing for Christ so points for
home just let me mention a few this
episode of the catch of 153 fish is of
peace with one of the main themes of
John's Gospel captured in the words of
Jesus in John 12 as for me if I am
lifted up from the earth I will draw all
people to myself all kinds of people
will mission is part of the heartbeat of
guards so perhaps this week you want to
commit yourself afresh to the Great
Commission by resolving to pray and
support some overseas missionary
endeavor and if you're looking for
someone to support don't mind saying
this because he's my boy my son Philip
and his little family two little girls
are due to go to Vietnam for life to
fish for Jesus now they're gonna need an
awful lot of support I can tell you so
if you're interested I have these little
cards and on the back it tells you how
you can support them so do come and see
me afterwards the disciples they're
fishing in a home waters Sea of Galilee
Jesus said that the gospel begins in
Jerusalem and then to the rest of the
world here's a question who can you pray
for and witness to this week near a home
cast-a-net wide and then thirdly we've
seen the value of illiterate reading of
the scriptures so commit yourself this
week to going deeper into god's word
with the illuminating power of the holy
spirit to mine all the treasures it
contains and I think I've managed to do
it within the time
let's pray let's pray Lord again we we
are in or have the glory of your word
and your sheer power and wisdom that's
something that was written hundreds and
hundreds of years before the coming of
Christ in Ezekiel could be enacted there
in the Sea of Galilee with those 153
fish but this is not just to amazes but
Lord to stir us and to movers to worship
of you but also to reach out to other
people with the gospel of Christ and we
pray dear Lord that it will please you
that you would use us you would use
others that many many many many more
from different backgrounds different
cultures different nationalities will be
caught for Jesus and that will be
exalted and as he is exalted he will
draw all men to himself for your
namesake amen
 
