The Lord is risen. Please turn to John 21.
After this Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias, and he revealed himself in this way. Simon Peter, Thomas (called the Twin), Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together. Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.” They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.
Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, “Children, do you have any fish?” They answered him, “No.” He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, because of the quantity of fish. That disciple whom Jesus loved therefore said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment, for he was stripped for work, and threw himself into the sea. The other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, but about a hundred yards off.
When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire in place, with fish laid out on it, and bread. Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.” So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, 153 of them. And although there were so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” Now none of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and so with the fish. This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.
Our passage is intended to be a window into Jesus’ character. Two times in v.1 the Gospel writer John says that in this event Jesus revealed Himself. He repeats that word, revealed, in v. 14. The claim that Jesus here, now, is showing who he really is bookends this story. The disciples after a frustrating night on this early morning learn something new or afresh about Jesus – His character, His mission, His methods.
What do we learn about Jesus?
Jesus finds people where they are.
Seven men in a boat, fishing, likely more than a little frustrated after a night of fishing with no success. These men were disciples of Jesus, having spent the last 2-3 years following him, hearing him teach. But recent events had been disorienting to say the least.
Lately arrived to Jerusalem where they knew they weren’t wanted. Experiencing there the shock of grief after their Master was executed by the state. Then days later he begins meeting them again – but not his ghost. Jesus in the flesh! What is going on!?
And Jesus hadn’t wasted any time – the same day he exited the tomb he tells the disciples he is sending them out on a mission in the power of God’s Spirit – a mission that will begin renewing the earth through the forgiveness of sins.
A full half-month, indeed!
So, with all this over the past couple weeks, we understand Peter saying, ‘I’m going fishing.’ And the other six saying, ‘yeah, sounds good.’ This has all been a bit much. Back to the familiar, says Peter the fisherman. Let’s make some money.
As day was breaking (v.4) – John the writer loves these kinds of phrases that say what is literally true but also point to the whole vibe of the moment. As day was breaking Jesus stood on the shore. A fresh start that would change the whole situation: Jesus had come to meet them.
But what is Jesus doing here? This wasn’t the Temple or any religious structure. The scene contains none of the sacred trappings we might expect: not a candle to be seen, no choirs hovering. Just, Jesus stood on the shore. And he’s asking them about fish, which is also what they were thinking about. Jesus meeting people where they are – physically and mentally.
Remember this passage specifically shows us who Jesus is. What is revealed about Jesus here is that he is a seeker. And he finds people where they are…not anywhere else!
He finds people in sleepless nights, and they look over on their bookshelf and there’s a Bible. He’ll show up at work, through some Christian colleague who is turning the conversation to the deeper, eternal things. You’re on the way somewhere…you’re watching YouTube and a sermon pops up (I’ve heard that one a lot this past year)… You’re stirred up by some big public event and know that for you a new day is breaking …You’re mending nets…you’re at your desk…you’re tending sheep…
A child is born…. a child won’t sleep… a child is in trouble… Yes, often the Lord shows up in situations connected to our children.
I’ve told this story before but it’s been a while. Whittaker Chambers was an American journalist in the 1930s… a member of the Communist party. In the book “Witness,” he describes the scene when his faith in the Communist party began to be shaken and his atheism starts falling apart:
I date my break [from the Party] from a very casual happening. I was sitting in our apartment on St Paul Street in Baltimore… My daughter was in her high chair. I was watching her eat. She was the most miraculous thing that had ever happened in my life. I liked to watch her even when she smeared porridge on her face or dropped it meditatively on the floor. My eye came to rest on the delicate convolutions of her ear – those intricate, perfect ears. The thought passed through my mind: ‘No, those ears were not created by any chance coming together of atoms in nature (the Communist view). They could have been created only by immense design.’ The thought was involuntary and unwanted. I crowded it out of my mind. But I never wholly forgot it or the occasion. I had to crowd it out of my mind. If I had completed it, I should have to say: Design presupposes God. I did not then know that, at that moment, the finger of God was first laid upon my forehead.
In short, you weren’t looking for Jesus but he has found you.
At this point in my understanding, I don’t know if Jesus comes looking for everyone. However, what I am convinced of is that whenever we’ve encountered Jesus it’s always him who has found us, he’s always the one starting the conversations.
Jesus shows up with words, including instructions.
In our passage Jesus is shown to be a speaker – He raises questions, directs, invites. So, the followers of Jesus are defined by those who are listening to him and receiving his instruction.
Before they know who He is, Jesus calls out from the bank in v.5. The ESV translates the Greek word “paidion” as “children,” but in scenes like this it probably should be heard less formally: Jesus says something like, “How’s it going out there boys? Caught anything?”
You don’t have to be a sensitive reader to hear the tone of the men’s response: “No.” Curt, probably a little angry. Leave us alone. Mind your own business. We don’t need an armchair fisherman.
But Jesus isn’t rebuffed. Try starboard, He says.
Why hadn’t they let down their net on that side? For some reason (and I’m not a Galilean fisherman) they thought it wouldn’t work; or it had never occurred to them.
Why did he tell them to put the net on the right side? Follow me closely here: because He knew there were a lot of fish there. Sure enough, they pulled up 153 of them.
You’ve noticed that in our passage Jesus is directing these fishermen in…catching fish! You might want to say, Jesus, leave the fishing to the fishermen. We’ll hear what you have to say about angels, and candle-lighting, and sweet comfort. But the practical stuff we’ll figure out.
But the Creator of everything and Risen-from-the-dead Lord won’t be left out of any part of life!
Along these lines of listening to Jesus’ word, our passage reminds us of an important and practical fact: the Resurrected Lord words often tells you to change. He’ll give directions different from what you’re doing, different from what you would ever think to do, different from what perhaps you feel like doing.
I apologize for saying something so simple: Christians are those who listen to Jesus. My sheep hear my voice. So, be a Christian. Follow the instructions of the Risen Lord. Even when, in the moment, those instructions seem to be missing the point, slowing down progress, restrictive, unpopular in wider society –
Which brings us to the next thing this passage highlights about Jesus, and it’s also simple: Listening to Jesus expands life.
This story in which John intends for us to mine a lot of truth about who Jesus is has the 7 men going from 0 to 153 fish after Jesus gets involved.
Bible readers throughout the centuries have wrestled with this detail of 153 fish, and all kinds of fanciful interpretations have come out. For example, Augustine added the biblical number for commandments – 10 to the biblical number for Gospel – 7. 17. 17 is a triangular number. If on the top of the triangle you place one dot, next level, two, on down to 17, and then add up the dots – guess what number you have – 153!
That’s seems a bit of a stretch. Here’s what’s more likely: John is writing this about 40-60 years after the events of that morning. He’s a fisherman. Which means he tells stories about fish. For years around campfires he’s been telling the story of an extraordinary catch one early morning. And we counted them… there were 153. Of course, when he’s writing this Gospel, he’s going to include the number here!
A couple other details we should not run past. These fish were large. The net that carried them was not torn.
The Resurrected Lord is living. That to mean not simply that he’s alive but that just like that net was straining with squirming fish so Jesus Himself contains abundant life. He’s using all his brain. Blessing is on him. So, of course, situations improve, gain clarity when he gets involved.
Jesus comes into a family, speaking. And when that family listens to him relationships that had big glops of dishonesty, anger, co-dependency… become even-keeled, realistic, cheerful.
Someone’s in a situation in which as far back as he can remember he’s been bound by lust… he begins taking Jesus’ instructions seriously. Years later he’s waking up next to his wife with whom he’s been faithful 41 years. And getting ready for a day with the grandkids.
Jesus takes someone who has been posing as someone deep, but deep down she’s really shallow… who can’t lift her thoughts to anything permanent and can’t get beyond orienting her life around fun and looks and feels – – and after years of his wise, committed shepherding that woman now has layers of goodness, genuine love, discernment.
I challenge you to show me someone who is following Jesus who hasn’t experienced some important expansion.
Here is the truth beneath the surface that explains why listening to Jesus has to improve you: Jesus brings you back to God, who is the source of life. Jesus is the Logos – the original Word that wrote code into the creation. Jesus is the Son of Man – the Perfect Image Bearer who forever set the standard for being human.
Another simple statement: Before we listened to Jesus, we are, in the final analysis, unproductive. But connected to the word of Jesus who connects us to God we go from being characterized by falling short to being joint heirs, one day rulers with Jesus over the earth.
Finally, Jesus invites his followers to a meal.
Come and have breakfast. Remember this story reveals Jesus, gets to the heart of what he’s about. What is Jesus like, what is his heart? He’s a host who loves to provide. What is it to make Jesus your Lord and Savior? You’re invited to his meal.
Jesus called himself the Vine, which means he considers himself a great networker, bringing people together. Jesus’ people are people in deepening relationships, wherein we rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. And one thing those deepening relationships entail is consuming food together.
Eating food together – that’s meaningful stuff. Why do Christians often eat food together? Without trying to be, meals are symbolic of mutual trust, committed friendship – – which explains why Jesus spoke of his betrayal as being double-crossed by someone with whom I ate bread. People eating food with one other are saying…at least…I promise I haven’t poisoned the food. You can trust me. And, I want you to experience the same thing I am… Meals take time – and over the food we tell stories and make jokes and otherwise let out our personality. Meals taste good, at least they’re supposed to, and so that’s a way of showing honor. There’s joy! Fun!
Christians eat together. If I were to ask for a raise of hands of those who since last Easter have eaten with folks who are non-family members simply because they are fellow Christians – – hands would go up all over the place.
By the way, here’s an easy way to tell you if your Christianity isn’t the real thing: if you’re not occasionally eating with fellow Christians. Because that fact implies, you’re not invested in the life of the church, in the mission of the church. And whatever you want to call that, it’s not Christianity.
Jesus invites his follower to a lifetime of eating together, but one meal they’re eating together is the sacred meal, the one commemorating his last supper before dying when he held up some bread and said this is my body and then poured out wine and says this is the blood of my body, the blood of the new covenant.
Jesus calls us to a meal in which we fellowship with him by particularly remembering his death and – as it were – taking his broken body and poured out blood into ourselves. I realize this sounds, and is, mysterious. Well, that’s what you get in a life with Jesus. Days, months, years of living next to a mystery. But also embracing it. As we draw closer to our death not only learning to face it with courage… but deliberately doing so in connection to Jesus’ death through the meal he gave us.
Christ’s disciple are people who eat and drink his crucifixion. Who think that his broken body is food necessary for our survival. The world’s survival.
In conclusion, what to do with all this? First, assume that you are here because Jesus has shown up in your life. A little reflection will show that you’re not here by accident or simply at your own initiative. So, be grateful to God for the arrival of Jesus, the dawning of a new day.
Second, listen to what Jesus says. I’m going to give you three specific instructions. Go home and start reading the books of Luke and Acts. Read the booklet entitled “the Christian Gospel” that we’ll be giving out. And attend our four-week discussion called Christianity 101 starting this Tuesday at 6:30.
If you have heard Jesus, find him to be credible, find what he’s saying to be important – get baptized being joined to His body. You might think that baptism isn’t important, unnecessary, but then just as Jesus said ‘put the nets on the right side,’ so he says ‘get baptized.’ Trust the One who creates and who has gone down into death and come back again.
If you’ve been publicly baptized before but haven’t been obeying the Lord, publicly before the church renew your baptismal confession and vows of following Jesus.
And then, connected to the Jesus and His body, begin a lifetime of learning together to do all that Christ commands, learning and working and communicating together. Occasionally eating meals together, including especially the Meal of Communion. This is the way of eternal life.
This is the table of our Lord Jesus Christ. If you’re a Christian, a follower of Christ baptized into the Triune name, accountable to a local church and its leadership, a local church that is teaching the bible truth– even if that’s not this church, you’re invited to the Lord’s supper.
If those things aren’t yet true of you, you’re not allowed to this supper. Please remain in your seats and consider asking God for faith in Jesus Christ. And I’d love to talk to you later about all these things.
A good summary of the bible truth that unites Christians at this table is an ancient confession called the Nicene Creed. If this creed we’re about to confess is what you believe, you’re invited to this supper. Let’s read the Nicene Creed found on the back of our bulletin:
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