John 21:1-14 * April 17, 2005 * Easter 4 * Seminarian Brett Naumann

 

John 21:1-14 1 Afterward Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Tiberias. It happened this way: 2 Simon Peter, Thomas (called Didymus), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. 3 “I’m going out to fish,” Simon Peter told them, and they said, “We’ll go with you.” So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. 4 Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus. 5 He called out to them, “Friends, haven’t you any fish?” “No,” they answered. 6 He said, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.” When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish. 7 Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, “It is the Lord,” he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water. 8 The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far from shore, about a hundred yards. 9 When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread. 10 Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish you have just caught.” 11 Simon Peter climbed aboard and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish, 153, but even with so many the net was not torn. 12 Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” None of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. 13 Jesus came, took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. 14 This was now the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead.

 

Our text for today starts out by depicting a scene that is quite easy for many of us to picture.  Imagine the scene… You want to go fishing, so you ask a bunch of your buddies to go with you.  You have just been out all night long on your favorite lake fishing for some walleye.  As you are coming in across the misty lake someone from shore shouts out: “You catching anything?”  Due to your fishing prowess, you are forced to shout back, “no.” Then that someone from shore shouts out: “Well if you stop right there and drop your line in the water, you will catch something.” So far nothing too out of the ordinary is there? As I am sure that there probably wasn’t too much out of the ordinary for those disciples that morning either.  However what happened next must have just shocked and amazed them.  When they dropped their line, what was caught was so heavy that they couldn’t even bring it into the boat.  They finally realized that wasn’t just anyone shouting from shore. No! It is the Lord! Today we are going to see our Savior Jesus, the Good Shepherd, standing on the shore.  We are going to see him supply those disciples on that day and supply us with everything that one might need.  You see, it isn’t just anyone standing there. It is the Good Shepherd! And what does the shepherd do?  He provides for his sheep. It is the Lord! Providing food for the body, and providing hope for the soul.

 

This event recorded in the book of John was now “the third time that Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead.”  This appearance took place in Galilee where Jesus performed the miracle of the catch of many fish.

 

After Christ’s appearances to his assembled disciples in Jerusalem, some of them went to their homes in Galilee.  Seven of the disciples came together there to engage in their former occupation as fishermen.  I would think that they probably found themselves just wondering what to do after their savior rose from the dead.  Logically, they would resort to something that they knew how to do.  So they went out fishing at night, the best time to go fishing and caught nothing.  And now as they are on there way in someone who they didn’t recognize calls out from shore and asks them if they caught anything.  They respond that they didn’t.  And so this stranger from shore tells them to just drop there lines right there.  There must have been some authority in his voice to cause them to do this.  After all, that would be like you hearing from someone on shore that you should toss your line out on a bright sunny day on a clear lake on a shallow sandy flat to throw your jig and leach down for walleye.  For some reason they did listen to that voice from shore.

 

But this brings to mind the question: why didn’t the disciples recognize Jesus?  I think that answer is pretty logical as well.  Perhaps it was due to the misty morning light.  Maybe it was due to the distance between the boat and shore. Or Maybe Jesus just simply didn’t want them to recognize him just yet.

 

Nonetheless, they did what he suggested and they caught 153 fish.  The disciples just did what he said, and he blessed them tremendously. Keep in mind the fact that fishing was their livelihood.  Many of us just go out fishing because we enjoy it.  They needed to catch fish to put the money on the table. If you were a fishing guide and went for a long stretch of not catching any fish, how long do you think people would keep booking you as a guide?  You need to catch the fish. Here the disciples found that after an entire night of fishing they found themselves empty handed.  They probably were not all that thrilled at this point. 

 

Yet when they did what he said, they didn’t go home empty handed. They caught 153 large fish.  This was no small number.  The author must have been so impressed by this point that he even records the specific number of fish that they pulled out of the net.  Keep in mind, the boat that they were traveling in was not large.  While we might think of a huge commercial fishing liner, these boats were probably much more like 16’ rowboats.  This was a huge catch.  They probably made a bunch of money out of it.  Why? Because they listened to what Jesus said.   They also got a breakfast out of it. Here we see that Jesus even thought of their physical needs.  They were probably hungry after an entire night of fishing. 

 

Often when we go through our lives and try to do things our way, we sometimes come up empty handed.  When we look to ourselves to get out of jams, we only run into problems.  While a lot of non Christian religions may tell you that you need to do something to get to heaven, Try looking to yourself to get into heaven and see what you come up with.  God demands that we be totally perfect.  There is only one way to get to heaven, and that is to lead a perfect life.  Look to yourself and you are going to find yourself coming up short. 

 

But you see, when we do get our priorities in order and realize that “It is the Lord!” He provides for us. He provides for our bodies. While all of our clothing may not be, Tommy Hilfiger, Abercrombie and Fitch, or Armani Suits, he does provide us with the necessities—earthly necessities, you know, stuff.  How often have we found ourselves going to our closets and not being able to find any clothing at all to cover ourselves with?

 

And this is not just limited to clothing either.  How often are we unable to eat anything because of a total lack of money? We may find ourselves feasting on Ramen noodles instead of a nice filet at a great restaurant, but he still provides.  He provides for our bodies.

 

It is the Lord! He provides us with food for our bodies.  But that isn’t all.  He also provides us with hope for our soul.  What did John say? It is the Lord!  Notice in the NIV there is an exclamation point.  The original Greek doesn’t have those. But I think that you can imagine the joy that this disciple, the one that Jesus loved, would have been happy to see his leader and Savior again.

 

During the 40 days between the resurrection and the ascension Jesus’ appearances are different than they were before Good Friday.  He just seems to show up on the scene and then leave again.  John probably treasured every moment that he had with his risen savior. These appearances brought him joy and gave him confidence.

 

What did Peter do? Once again, we see Peter as the person who needs to engage his brain before he acts.   What does he do?  He is so excited at Jesus’ presence that he jumps into the water and swims into shore to see his savior. He couldn’t wait for the boat to get to shore, he had to get there as fast as possible.

 

Why did this whole event have to happen? The risen and glorified Christ appears in order to strengthen faith.  There must still have been those who doubted like Thomas. This must have given a tremendous amount of joy to his disciples for them to get the chance to see Jesus once again.  That wasn’t all.  He had to appear to lend evidence to the fact that he had risen from the dead.  He was alive.  He is risen, he is risen indeed! We see him as he appeared to Mary Magdalene. We see him, as he appeared to his disciples two times once without Thomas and once with him present. 1 Cor 15 tells us that he appeared to Peter, the 12, after that he appeared to more than 500 at a single time, then he appeared to James and then all the apostles, and then last of all in a special way to Paul.  Because of all this evidence, we can now be certain that (1 Cor 15:20) “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead.”

 

This fact gave the disciples joy, but it also gives us joy. We know that the story didn’t end on Good Friday.  Jesus didn’t just die. He rose from the dead.  And because he lives we too shall live.  We have a hope. We have a rock solid hope that because he lives we too shall live. 

 

While the scene on that morning may start out as being something that can be somewhat familiar to us, we realize that it isn’t just anyone standing on that shore.  It is the Good Shepherd providing for his ship.  It is the LORD!  We see that Lord providing for us. He is providing food for the body, and providing hope for the soul.