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Book: John
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John 21:1
I. "After these things Jesus shewed Himself again to the disciples."
A. In chapter 20 John tells us of the two appearances of Jesus to
His disciples coming one week apart.
1. He had shown himself to individuals, but this is the
third time to the disciples as a group.
2. How long after the last appearance recorded in chapter
20 we do not know. We do know that for a period of 40
days He was manifesting Himself to them on various
occasions and in various places.
a. He had instructed them to go up to the Galilee
region and He would meet them there.
Matt. 28:7
b. Matthew tells us that Jesus told them to meet
Him on a certain mountain in the Galilee, and
He appeared to them there.
c. The appearance recorded here is not given to
us in any chronological order so we do not
know if it happened before He met them on the
mountain, or after.
d. We do know that they returned to Jerusalem
possibly for the feast of Pentecost, and about
ten days before the feast, Jesus appeared for
the last time prior to His ascension.
e. It was then that they were instructed to wait
in Jerusalem for the baptism of the Holy
Spirit.
f. It would seem that they then for the most part
remained in Jerusalem, and there was the
headquarters of the early church.
g. I find it interesting that there is no mention
of any continued work in the Galilee region.
The book of Acts is strangely silent. This is
not to say that it did not happen, only there
is no record. Perhaps it is because of the
curse that Jesus put on many of the cities in
that region for their unbelief. Capernaum,
Chorazin, Bethsaida were all singled out for
His woes for the coming judgment.
II. This is how He showed Himself.
A. Seven of the eleven disciples were together at the sea and
they are named.
1. Simon Peter. His given name was Simon which is the
Greek for the Hebrew Shemeon. He was named Petros by
Jesus after His confession that Jesus was the Christ
the Son of the living God. Petros is little stone in
contrast to Petra which is massive rock.
2. Thomas called Didymus or twin.
3. Nathanael of Cana of Galilee. The one that was
witnessed to by Philip, and brought to Jesus.
4. The Sons of Zebedee which would be James and John.
5. Two unnamed disciples.
B. Simon Peter saith unto them, "I'm going fishing."
1. Perhaps this was before Jesus appeared to them on the
mountain.
2. It may be that they had waited for a few days for
Jesus to show up, and Simon Peter is getting a little
antsy.
3. Whether or not this is said as sort of a finality,
like I'm giving up on this discipleship thing, and
going back to my old means of livelihood, or just as
a suggestion to pass the time, "Let's go fishing."
kind of a suggestion is not given to us to know only
to speculate.
a. We see however the leadership characteristics
that are innate in Peter for immediately the
other 6 said, "We'll go with you."
b. Could it be that Peter was turning His back
on the call of Jesus to leave his nets and
become a fisher of men?
c. The ensuing discussion with Jesus might cause
one to be inclined toward that opinion.
B. "And that night they caught nothing."
1. When God has called you to leave the nets and follow
Him, you cannot really hope to have much success in
other endeavors.
2. There is nothing more exciting that fishing when and
where they are biting.
3. There is nothing more boring than fishing when they
are not biting.
4. Maybe my wife is right and I fit the wiggly willie
profile, but I can't stand to just sit with a line in
the water waiting for the fish to come and take my
bait. I can handle fly fishing, or plug fishing, or
trolling.
5. It was still early spring, and out on the sea at night
can get chilly.
C. "When the morning had now come, Jesus was standing on the
shore, but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus."
1. He called to them, "Children do you have any meat?"
or "Did you catch anything?" This is such a typical
question to ask a fisherman.
2. Now Jesus knew that they had not caught anything, He
was just giving them a chance to confess their
failure.
3. He had told them that apart from Him, they could do
nothing. They were trying to do something apart from
Him.
4. He asked the question not for His information, but to
give them an opportunity to confess their failure.
5. The Lord wants us to confess our sins. This gives to
Him the opportunity to then deal with them.
D. They answered, "No."
1. He now told them to cast the nets on the right side of
the ship and they would find.
2. Many times the distance from failure to success is
very close.
3. Many times the only difference between failure and
success is directed service and non directed service.
a. On his own Peter said, "I'm going fishing."
With all his experience, knowledge and skill,
he caught nothing.
b. Now Jesus is directing his activities. Jesus
is guiding his service.
c. What a difference it makes. The difference
between total failure, and complete success.
d. Notice how confident Jesus is of their
success, "And you shall find."
4. They followed His instructions and immediately the net
was full of large fish, so much so that they were
unable to pull the net into the ship because of the
number of fish.
a. This is a fisherman's dream. Big fish, plenty
of them.
b. John the man quick of perception, immediately
said, "It is the Lord."
c. He realized that this kind of dramatic change
from failure to success could only be
attributable to one person, and that was
Jesus.
d. Perhaps this took him back to the time when
they were first attracted to Jesus. Jesus had
borrowed Peter's boat the morning after a
fruitless night of fishing. After Jesus had
addressed the multitude, he told Peter to cast
out into the deep and let down his nets for a
draft. Peter accommodatingly said, "We have
fished all night and have caught nothing,
nevertheless at your word we will do it.
e. As Peters ship began to sink with the numbers
of fish, he called out to James and John on the
shore to come out in their ship and join him in
the great haul of fish.
f. It was de ja vue.
5. Here again John rightly described himself as that
disciple whom Jesus loved.
a. The truth is, Jesus loves all of His disciples.
b. The problem is, not all of His disciples
realize this.
6. "Now when Spmon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he
girt his fisher's coat unto him, for he was naked, and
did casth himself into the sea."
a. Here again true to form impeteous Peter cannot
wait to get into the row boat to get to Jesus
but grabs his coat and dives in and swims to
shore to meet Jesus.
b. I love this impulsive guy.
c. I love those men who are ready and anxious to
launch out on any endeavor for Jesus.
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