and turn once again in your Bibles to the Gospel of John. John Chapter 21. We'll be reading the first 11 verses. John Chapter 21. Hear now the inspired Word of God. After these things, Jesus manifested himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias, and he manifested himself in this way. Simon Peter and Thomas Calditimus, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and 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 also come with you. They went out and got into the boat, and that night they caught nothing. But when the day was now breaking, Jesus stood on the beach, yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. So Jesus said to them, children, you do not have any fish, do you? They answered him, no. And he said to them, cast the net on the right-hand side of the boat, and you will find a catch. So they cast, and when they were not able to haul it in because of the great number of fish, Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, it is the Lord. So when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put his outer garment on, for he was stripped for work and threw himself into the sea. But the other disciples came in the little boat, for they were not far from the land, but about 100 yards away, dragging the net full of fish. So when they got out on the land, they saw a charcoal fire already laid and fish placed on it and bread. Jesus said to them, bring some of the fish which you have now caught. Simon Peter went up and drew the net to land full of large fish, 153. And although there were so many, the net was not torn. Let's pray. Father, once again, as we prepare to look into your word, we ask that you would be pleased to open our eyes, our ears, and our hearts. That, Father, that we would understand what you have to say to us. and understanding it, Father, we would put it into practice in our lives, and that, Father, we might see that we would become more like Christ and that the kingdom of God would be advanced. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Please be seated. Well, having grown up here on Long Island, surrounded by water, Most of us have done a fair amount of fishing. I don't consider myself a fisherman by any stretch of the imagination. But I have gone fishing more than occasionally as the circumstances have presented itself. I also used to be an avid golfer. Notice I said avid, not good. In fact, I probably spent too much time on the golf course. But I've noticed there's at least one similarity between golfers and fishermen. They both have a propensity to, shall we say, stretch the truth. Golfers seem to have a bad memory and forget just how many strokes it took them to get to put that little ball in the hole. Very often, you say, give me a five on that. Give you a five or did you earn a five? Sometimes I feel like saying. On the other hand, fishermen can always tell you the story of just how big that one was that got away, or just how good the fishing was that many years ago. It's not like it is today. We used to catch fish. How many times have you heard that? I've often wondered if the fishermen in the ancient days had the same tendency. After all, human nature is human nature. In the text before us, we have events that if they weren't part of inspired scripture, could easily be relegated to be just another fish story. What we have is a post-resurrection miracle of Jesus Christ. Now we know from our study in John's gospel that the seven pre-resurrection miracles that are recorded in the gospel of John have special significance. And we have seen through John's eyes just what Christ intended each time he performed one of those miracles. But John has reached his conclusion, which we examined last week. And we come now to consider what I consider to be an epilogue, and a lot of other commentators would agree with that. But John has reached his conclusion. And so now, why does he have this epilogue? And what is the significance of this post-resurrection miracle? Well, first let's answer the question, what is an epilogue? Well, let me give you a description, then a distinction between the prologue and an epilogue. A prologue introduces the world described in the story or the events and the main characters, that's the very, of a prologue and we saw that John did this in chapter one and we even called it a prologue at that point. An epilogue describes events which happen after all the plots have been finished and often answers unresolved questions or maybe even describes the mood as the literature ends. Shakespeare was a master at the epilogue. In fact, let me read to you, just it's a few lines of probably one of the most famous epilogues in all of literature, not just Shakespeare. It's the epilogue to Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare concludes that, you remember, I'm presuming everybody knows the story of Romeo and Juliet. Everybody's dead. Spoiler alert. But this is how Shakespeare closes A glooming peace this morning with it brings. The sun for sorrow will not show its head. Go hence to have more talk of these sad things. Some shall be pardoned and some punished. For never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo. That's a beautiful piece of literature, is it not? The 21st chapter of John is a perfect epilogue to the Gospel of John. The atoning work of Christ is finished, but there are a few important thoughts that need to be resolved. Peter's restoration, for one, we'll look at that in a couple of weeks. There's a discussion about what the future holds for some of the disciples. And then, of course, these events, which take place by the Sea of Galilee, as the apostles decide to go fishing. Let's look at that first, fishing. At first blush, this may seem odd. In fact, some commentators criticize the apostles and say they should not have been fishing at this point. But I don't see anything particularly wrong in what they're doing. Jesus has instructed them to wait for him. And while they're waiting, Peter decides to go fishing. And remember now, this is not recreational fishing. This is commercial fishing. This was their livelihood before they met Jesus. And now they're waiting for Christ, and so Peter says, I'm going fishing. And the other disciples who were with him, they decide to go as well. And then John lists, gives us at least a partial list of who's in attendance. Five are identified, and the first two, I think, are very interesting. Simon, Peter, and Thomas, also called Didymus. Remember, he's a twin. Peter was the one, if you remember, who boasted of his loyalty and then denied Christ three times. And Thomas was the one who most recently had denied the resurrection before he saw the wounds of Jesus himself. So I find it interesting that those two should be the first two that John identifies. Both had lapses in faith. and now they're named first in the fishing incident. Then, Nathanael. Now, Nathanael is only mentioned twice in scripture, both in the Gospel of John, first time in the first chapter when we find Jesus calling Philip, who then tells Nathanael that he has found the Messiah. Now, Nathanael also has doubts. In fact, if you remember, Nathanael was the one who says, can any good thing come from Nazareth? Let me pick up some of the reading from chapter 1, verse 47, about Nathanael being called. This is after he comes now to Christ after Peter tells him. And in verse 47 of chapter 1, Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him and said of him, Behold, an Israelite indeed in whom there is no deceit. Nathanael said to him, How do you know me? Jesus answered and said to him, Before Philip called you when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. Nathanael answered him, Rabbi, you are the Son of God. You are the King of Israel. Jesus answered and said to him, because I said to you that I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than these. And he said to him, truly, truly, I say to you, you will see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. There's a connection between these words of Jesus in the prologue and now his words at the appearance by the sea. The next two people who are present are described as the sons of Zebedee, but of course we know them now. This is James and John, John being the author, the human author of this very gospel. The last two of the seven are just not named. I don't think it's unwarranted to say that they too were more than likely fishermen, because they're there and they agree to go along and fish with Peter, but they may or may not be. Now the story is rather simple, isn't it? They go out at night, they catch nothing. A disappointing evening at best, but for a fisherman, not at all unusual. In fact, my grandfather who actually came to the United States who had been working on Danish fishing vessels. And he loved to fish recreationally. And quite often, as he would leave with his fishing gear in tow and his rod over his shoulder, and somebody said, well, where are you going, Pop? Everybody called him Pop. He was Pop Jensen. Where are you going, Pop? He says, oh, I think I'm going to go out and drown some worms. But you get the idea. So these fishermen try all night. They catch nothing. Then Jesus appears on the shore. They don't know it's him as yet. And he tells them, cast the net on the other side of the boat and you will find fish. Now John doesn't tell us what the disciples were thinking or the reaction to that. He cuts right past all of that. Who knows? I mean, they very well may have been thinking about what we read this morning in Luke chapter five. This had happened once before where Jesus had told them to cast their nets on the, after a night of nothing. What is important is that they followed the instructions of Jesus. And once again, their nets are full of fish. So full that they can't even pull the net into the boat. And it's at this point that John declares it is the Lord. And that prompts the action from Peter where he puts on his outer garment, jumps into the sea, swims to shore, followed by the boat with the other disciples. And remember, John, he was the one who remained in the boat, brings it to shore with a net full of fish. Now when they reach the shore, they meet Jesus who has already started to prepare a fire and is cooking fish. Peter pulls the net onto the shore and we're told there are 153 fish, large fish. Now that's not the end of the events that morning, but that's as far as we're going to go in our study this morning. So I want to ask the next question. Why does John include this event in the gospel? There are several commentators who say this was not written by John, and some of these guys go off the wall. They look for any excuse to try to poke holes in the scripture. They say this was added after John's death by another writer, but let me just say this. If you've ever heard that, there is absolutely no contextual, no textual evidence for any of these assertions. The fact is if you see this as a part of an epilogue, it makes perfect sense and the style does follow John's style of writing as well. So let's look at the significance of these events and then why John recorded them. First, it's important to recognize this was a miracle. It was a supernatural event that was wrought at the hands of Jesus Christ. You know, fishermen are notorious for having their secret spots. I can't tell you how many times I've gone out with a friend of mine and he says, I know the perfect spot guaranteed to catch fish. And then we had to go home and order Chinese food because we had nothing. I'm sure that Peter and Andrew, James and John were no different. I'm sure that, I mean, look how long they had made a living of fishing on the Sea of Galilee. They knew the water, the weather patterns. They probably knew the certain time of the season that the fish were more available. But if you've ever gone fishing, you know that's not always a guarantee. And certainly when Jesus tells them to throw the net on the other side of the boat, he was not just giving them one of his hidden spots, just the other side of the boat. This was Jesus. supernaturally bringing those fish and putting them in that net. You know what it reminds me of? It reminds me of God directing that great fish to come by the side of the boat when Jonah was being cast over. And God had that fish hold Jonah in his belly for three days and three nights. and then to spew him out exactly on the pathway that he needed to go to get to Nineveh. Jesus Christ has power and authority over the whole entire natural world and all the creatures within it. And they do his bidding. And so this was, without a doubt, a miracle performed by Jesus Christ. And that's important. Because as we have studied in this gospel, every miracle that John has recorded has been recorded for a specific purpose. John doesn't just throw this in so we can go, oh wow, this is amazing. There's a reason this is here. Remember, there are only seven pre-resurrection miracles. And each one demonstrated a certain aspect of his power and authority. But now, His resurrection being the definitive proof that He is who He said He was. He is the Christ, the Son of the living God. No more evidence needs to be given after His resurrection. So this is not proof that He is who He said He is. That's already been concluded. So why does Jesus perform this miracle? And why does John include it in the gospel? Well, he didn't need more proof. The sign of Jonah had been given. The disciples saw the nail prints. They saw his side. This miracle is a living parable. Now, when I call it a parable, don't get the idea that this is a made-up story. These are real events. It's a living parable. It was performed to teach, to demonstrate a biblical truth to the disciples. Remember that when Jesus had called them, they had dropped their nets and followed him. We read that in Luke. And he told them that he was going to make them now what? Fishers of men. And now they're in a period of waiting for instructions from Christ, but they need to learn a few more things. They're going to be filled with the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. They're going to be sent out into the whole world, but there's a few more things that they need first. And let me suggest a few of the lessons from this text. Remember that the atonement is completed, the old is passing away, and the new is being established. So the first thing I want to look at is why does John list seven and only a few by name? In this living parable, the seven represent those who are going to do the work of making disciples, doing the work of evangelism. They are fishers of men. And so who does the work of the ministry? Well, let me sum it up this way. Normal, everyday sinners who have been converted to Jesus Christ. These men represent a cross-section of humanity. The denier. In fact, his denial was so strong that he cursed when he denied Christ. Yet look when he was restored his work for the kingdom. Thomas, the unbeliever. Remember, not a doubter, the unbeliever. He confessed Christ when he saw him. with the clearest of those words, my Lord and my God. James and John, sons of thunder. We could talk a lot about them. I think we have some sons of thunder sitting in the air this morning. And I mean that in the best possible way. But James, first to be martyred. John, Look how much scripture John pens. Some of the most important messages in scripture we get from the pen of the Apostle John. Nathanael, someone who maintains a low profile. We know very little about him. We see him when he's called, and now we see him here at the Hall of Great Fish. But we know very little. And then two unnamed disciples. I believe that John, intentionally doesn't name them, because the workers in the kingdom of God come in all shapes and sizes, and some will gain prominence. Some will have great name recognition that will endure for generations and generations. But some, you and I will never hear their names. Everyone knows Martin Luther, John Calvin, Ulrich Zwingli. Boy, you just a mere mention of those, Reformed Baptists are ready to say amen. How many of you know who Hercules Collins is? He was one of the framers of our 1689 Confession of Faith. He was from Wapping, which is a suburb of London, and was one of the signers to the 1689. We know very little about him. but as a labor in the kingdom. Just think of the thousands and millions of Christians who have labored diligently for the kingdom. Unnamed, we don't know them. Not this side of glory. I think one of the glories in the eternal state is getting to meet so many of these people and telling the stories. Tell me the old, old story. Then just the fact that Jesus uses fishing as a parable is significant. Now, of course, Jesus used many different metaphors to explain various aspects and the nature of the kingdom. So it's not, you know, you need all of these metaphors. But it seems that fish and fishing have a specific connotation in the New Covenant. Quote James Jordan, if I might. He says, none of the priests, prophets, and kings of the Old Testament were fishermen. They were all farmers or animal husbandmen. By way of contrast, none of Jesus' disciples was either a farmer or a husbandman. The most prominent of the disciples were fishermen. He says, nobody is shown eating fish in the Old Testament, but Jesus feeds the 5,000 with fish, not with beef jerky. Only James Jordan can get away with that. But we also see Jesus after his resurrection, what does he eat? A piece of fish. And then later in this chapter when he restores Peter, he says, Peter, feed my sheep. What's on the fire? Fish. So here we see the two great analogies of sheep and fish being merged. In scripture, Israel is almost always referred to as the land. When you see the words the land, immediately you should be thinking of Israel. The Gentile nations are known as the sea. Therefore, fish coming from the sea would indicate what? Gentile converts. The shift in the imagery is quite clear. The kingdom of God is now going to the whole world, not just Israel any longer. And look how this is symbolized in these events. The net was so full that they couldn't even get it into the boat. They had to pull it to shore. Now how does this line up with the Great Commission? Make disciples of all the nations. It's a little bit more symbolism here. Remember, the disciples had labored all night. And what was the result? They caught nothing. Jesus appears on the horizon. When does Jesus appear on the horizon? Just as the sun is coming up. One of the consistent themes in this gospel is that Jesus is the light of the world. Jesus appears on the shore just as the day is dawning. What a perfect symbol. As Jesus rises from the grave, a new era is dawning. The new covenant has been ratified in his blood, and then he gives them some instructions, and they listen, and their fruitless night's labor brings a net full of fish. Jesus is the light of the world. In him is no darkness at all. If you want to be fruitful, come into the light, we're told. Listen to the words of Jesus. And in keeping with that theme, we must also point out one of the most obvious, and that is, apart from me, you can do nothing. In that last great discourse of Jesus with his disciples, Jesus uses the metaphor of the vine and the branches, another one, another metaphor. And remember his words in John chapter 15, verse four. Abide in me and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. Bring that concept into the text this morning. They labored all night apart from Christ. Jesus comes on the scene and says, hey, do it my way. Just drop it on the other side. And what happens? a net load of fish, more than they could ever have imagined. The Church of Jesus Christ will bring into it so many that you might think the net might break. That's why John specifically mentions, notice, the net did not break, meaning he was surprised it didn't. That's how many fish were in it. Remember how Jesus described his church to the disciples in Caesarea Philippi? He says, the gates of hell will not prevail against it. And the promise to Abraham was that his descendants, the heirs to the promise, would be as numerous as the stars in the heavens and the sand on the shore. Now there's one more symbol in this part of the text which is very often passed over. And that is this, look at verse 11. Simon Peter went up and drew the net to the land, full of large fish, 153. And although there were so many, the net was not torn. What is the significance of the number 153? Now, some bring into the text biblical concepts that have no relevance to the teaching of these events, and that's always a danger. talk about, well, the 10 is the form of the 10 commandments, and they bring in all kinds of numbers, but it has nothing to do with the context there. Most commentators just brush this number aside and say, well, it has no significance at all. It was just a lot of fish. The problem with that is that when the Holy Spirit inspires a writer to give such a precise number, there's a reason. Now, the Bible does use round numbers, but here we have a very precise number, 153. And when we see John, who is very efficient in his words, he doesn't include extraneous material. We know that because he's already told us many other things that Christ did I haven't included in here. And what I have included is necessary. So there's a reason for it. Now I have to be honest with you, my initial research on this left me rather unsatisfied. But I did come across one interpretation that intrigues me as being the most probable. And I say that because it fits the context. The Apostle John was a very well-educated man. All the scholars, ancient scholars agree with that. His biblical writings bear it out. If you read the book of the Revelation and you see firstly his knowledge of the Old Testament and his knowledge of scripture, but he was also a very wise man and familiar with the Greek literature as well as mathematics. So, that being said, It is there that we see the use of symbols in his work in the Revelation. Remember, if you've read the Revelation, everybody's read the Revelation, everybody understands the book of the Revelation. Well, you should. We'll get there. All right. But what we see John's writing in the book of the Revelation in particular is symbols, metaphors, poetry, and apocalyptic style of writing all coming together in a beautifully constructed book of the Bible. And he wrote in such a way that the wise, and the wise having a biblical concept, should be able to understand what he's writing. Those are his words. You'll see that in a minute. So let me offer one possibility. Now, I'm not dogmatic, but let me offer it for your consideration. 153 is what they call a triangular of the number 17. What I mean by a triangular, we don't use this concept much anymore even in our engineering, but triangular means of 17 means that 17 plus 16 plus 15 plus 14, et cetera, you add all the way down to one and that comes out to 153, exactly. Now, why is that significant? Well, the numbers 7 and 10 both represent completion in the Bible. In Genesis 10, the Bible tells us that there were 70 nations, Gentile nations in the Old Covenant world, 7 times 10. In Acts 2, on the day of Pentecost, besides the disciples, the Bible lists 17 nations who were present, 7 plus 10. If you triangulate 17, that brings you to 153. The 153 fish represent that the gospel is to go to all of the Gentile nations. Again, it's a symbolic number that signifies the entirety of the Gentile nations. And again, it's a symbolic number, and we know it's not meant to specifically indicate that there's only 153 nations that the gospel is to go to, but it's like a number of perfection. Now, you might say, well, was John familiar with this type of mathematics? In the book of the Revelation, John gives us another number, 666. And look at what John says about that. Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that of a man, and his number is 666. In biblical symbolism, the number of a man is six, and here we have three sixes, but it gets even more interesting than that. Here's an interesting fact. 666 is a triangular of 36, or six times six. So John is familiar with this system as well. He understood the use of numbers. That should make some interesting conversation over lunch. I'm anticipating that this is going to be discussed for a little bit. But there's a couple of points I want to make by way of application for our church in this day from this parable. And we're not completely finished with the parable yet either. We'll be referring back to this because there's still more meat in there. We find ourselves today in times that No one would have predicted even just a few years ago. Just this week, the Supreme Court ruled against a church in Nevada who sued the governor for limiting the size of church gatherings while opening casinos to hundreds of people. The Supreme Court ruled against the church five to four with basically no comment. Even our freedom to assemble in this country, the land of the free, is on shaky ground these days. This morning, in California, they have been told not to meet, and John MacArthur has said he's meeting anyway, and the governor has said if they meet, I'm gonna cut their power. We live in perilous times. Our job is gonna get more and more difficult in the days to come. That being said, Nothing changes in our overall mission. The commission that Christ gave to us is still our mandate. And what does the text before tell us? Our first job is to advance the kingdom of God. We have been given a commission by our Lord to make disciples of all the nations. We are to spread the net and God will bring the fish into it. This is our first priority in the church. Second, that I want to emphasize is everyone has a place to labor in the kingdom of God. I am absolutely convinced that John didn't name all of those disciples who were there on purpose. Because even during the ministry of Jesus, some of the disciples go unnamed. In fact, if I were to take a quiz and ask everybody, name the 12 disciples. Most people, I think, couldn't do it, unless you happen to be a product of a classical Christian education. The fact that they're not named doesn't mean that they were unimportant or did nothing. Some people are meant to stand out and proclaim the gospel in the public arena and proclaim the mercies of Christ publicly, and they get some name recognition. Others have a very different ministry that may not get as much attention, but is equally as valid. And every Christian is called to advance the kingdom of God in some way and in some manner. And each of us must examine ourselves to see if we are doing the part that he has set before us. Remember, we were saved unto good works that he has laid before us that we should walk in that. Third, as we must always remember, that we are to do things God's way. So much secularization has come into the church on how to promote your church and advance your church and market your church. If you are working in your own strength, doing things your own way, you will have the same result that the apostles had when they went out fishing that night. They worked hard all night, But until they listened to the word of the Lord, they accomplished nothing. You know, sometimes labor in the kingdom is hard. It may even result in persecution. It may divide families. But the rewards are beyond anything we could ask or think. So let me ask you this. How many fish stories have you heard in your lifetime? Maybe you've had to live with a fisherman. And you've heard them over and over again. But let me assure you this. These events in John chapter 21 are no ordinary fish story. These events occurred on the Sea of Galilee. And they were given to us in writing to teach us about our role in the kingdom of God. So to the Christian who's here this morning, let me encourage you to stand firm. Be strong in the Lord. knowing that your labor is not in vain. And if you're here today and you're not a Christian, you've never come to that place, I would once again urge you to repent of your sin, bow the knee, call upon Jesus Christ, believe in your heart, confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and you will be saved. Let's pray. Father, once again, we bow before you. And we thank you for your word and for the way you have communicated this truth to us. We pray, Father, that you would help us to take in what John has intended for us to learn, and that, Father, that we would understand it and then apply it to our lives, that we would be about the business of advancing the kingdom of God, that, Father, that all 153 of those fish come in. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.