Father, as we prepare our own hearts to come to your Word, we recognize, Lord, how hungry we are for your Word and how desperately we need it, how lost we would be without your Word. What else could guide us in the darkness but your Word? Lord, You know that we are in a dark place, so we thank You for the light that we find in Your Word that instructs us, that sanctifies us, that feeds us and nourishes us. We pray that the Good Shepherd would feed us today as we study Your Word. For those of us with small faith, we pray that it would be strengthened and grown. For those of us with great faith, may we nevertheless see our total lack of sufficiency and yet the total sufficiency of Christ our Lord. Use this time now to grow us in His likeness. It's in His name we pray. Amen. Well, if you have your Bibles, please turn to John chapter 21. We'll be looking at John chapter 21, verses one to 14 today. That's right, we're gonna be covering 14 verses, if you can believe it. I think that might be the most we've ever covered in John. I could be wrong, but that's a pretty big portion of text for, you know, considering that like when we were in John chapter 17, I think verse one, we had two sermons just on verse one. But today, yeah, we're gonna be covering 14 verses, some very important verses. And one of the things that you'll want to remember when we come to this text is that when our text was written, when the Bible was written, there were no paragraph breaks. There were no chapter breaks. There weren't even any punctuation marks. It just read straight through in the original Greek. And it's very easy for us, whenever we're reading the Bible, to stop at the end of a chapter. And to think that the next chapter, well, it just kind of starts anew, without any context. And I think what you're gonna see today, what I've seen as I've been studying this text, is that chapter 21 is actually a very vivid illustration of what we saw at the end of chapter 20. Now you've probably read it, you've probably heard it a million times now. What is the chief end of man? The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. That is the purpose for which God created man in the beginning. It's the purpose that we all fell away from and lost the ability to pursue and to fulfill when Adam fell into sin. But it is the purpose that God, by His grace, has restored to us in Christ Jesus. It's my desire that every single one of you would know that this is your chief end, that this is your purpose in life. And to that end, my prayer is that every single one of you would know and be known by Jesus. that you would not only have saving faith in Him, but that your faith would grow, and that your faith would mature and strengthen and produce a harvest of good fruit unto the Lord. One of my favorite verses, one of the first verses that I memorized in Scripture was Ephesians 2, verse 10. For we are His workmanship, created for good works in Christ. That's kind of a summary of the first answer to the Westminster Catechism question. What is the chief end of man? We are his workmanship, created for good works in Christ, which he prepared beforehand for us to walk in. If you have believed in Jesus, you need to know that God has made every single provision necessary for you to fulfill this very purpose. That is to say that He has graciously blessed you with and provided everything that you need. Everything that is necessary for you to glorify Him and to enjoy Him forever. Now, when I say forever, I don't mean that you have to wait until you get to glory someday and you enter into eternity. No, I mean forever starting now, starting the moment that you believe. For the Christian, forever starts on this side of glory. It starts here and now as we come to saving faith in Christ. And God has graciously provided all that you need. He has chiefly provided Christ to vicariously atone for your sins. If you have believed this, as John has been trying to persuade you to do, as I have been trying to persuade you to do, if you have believed this, if you've believed in Jesus, God has imputed Christ's perfect righteousness to you, cleansing you of all sin. He took your sin and He, in exchange, imputed it to Christ on the cross so that your sin would be justly punished and yet you would be declared both innocent and just in God's sight through Christ's work. That's the first thing that He provided for you. Secondly, He has provided for you the Holy Spirit, who was sent by Christ and the Father to dwell within you, to convict you, to guide you, and one of the things that we'll be focusing on today, to gift you. to give you some type of spiritual gift. That is to say that the Holy Spirit has given you, He has equipped every single one of you, if you have believed in Christ, with some spiritual gift to use in service unto the Lord. Now listen carefully to what Paul wrote to the Corinthians about this. He said in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit, and there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things and all persons. But to each one, to each one, is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. Verse 11, he says, But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually, just as He wills. If you are in Christ, you're one of those each ones. Every single one of you has a spiritual gift to use for God's glory and for serving your church family. Paul described my role, my position as a pastor in his letter to the Ephesians, writing that God gave some as pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints, that's you, for the work of service. to the building up of the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. It's from Ephesians chapter 4 verses 11 to 13. One of my favorite passages because it's really the church's mission statement. So the pastor's job is to equip you as the congregation for works, for the works of ministry. We are all in ministry together. This is not just Toby Logsdon's church. This is our church. We are all in ministry together. And every single one of us has been gifted to serve in some capacity. Now, with all this established, one of the things that I hope you see is that salvation is not just a one-time decision thing where you come forward and say a prayer, and bam, you're set for life. You can just keep going on with your life, living your life for yourself according to your own wisdom and your own strength and for your own purposes. That is not Christianity. That is not what saving faith results in. You have been saved. equipped for the purpose of service unto the Lord. Now some people have wondered why John even included chapter 21 of his gospel testimony. And we've seen that the gospel of John really reached its pinnacle, its climax, in the verses that we covered last week, the verses that concluded chapter 20, where John urged us, as his reading audience, to see that the signs that he has recorded for us in his book were all pointing and urging us to do, and that is to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing in Him, how did the chapter end? You may have life in His name. Now remember, again, when this was written, there were no chapter breaks and so when this was originally written when you read this the way it was it was written it just keeps going there's a whole nother chapter after that not that John intended necessarily to have a chapter there but he just continued after saying that after saying the whole purpose of him writing this book Now I would like to propose that John gave us chapter 21. He just kept writing in order to show us what it means to have life in His name. Remember those three words, in His name. What does that mean? We've seen it before in our study. The phrase, in His name, essentially means that our purposes are to align with His purposes. Our will is to align with His will. That's what it means to be in His name, right? I mean, we saw that, for example, when Jesus said that we'll receive whatever we ask for in His name. He wasn't saying that if you ask for a Lamborghini, it's going to show up on your doorstep tomorrow. What he was saying was that if you ask for something that is within his will and within his purposes for you, it will be given. So let's understand that once we believe, we are to have this life in His name that John tells us about, which means that our lives, our entire lives, are supposed to be aligning with His will and His purposes. And what is His purpose for you? That you would glorify Him and that you would enjoy Him forever. and that your spiritual gifts would be used as a means unto that end. We are His workmanship, created for good works in Christ. That's why we were created. We were created for good works in Christ, which He prepared beforehand for us to walk in. And chapter 21 of John's Gospel is an illustration of this. Chapter 21 is actually deeply, deeply symbolic, and it gives us some very vivid, lively, very memorable imagery of what life in His name is supposed to look like. And there are some really, really important lessons for us in this chapter. Lessons that teach us much about service unto the Lord. So the point of the text that we come to today, again, we'll be looking at v. 1-14 of chapter 21. And the point of this text that we come to is that you have been saved to have life in Jesus' name, serving the Lord and His people in His ways, both for His glory and for your enjoyment. Now before he was crucified, Jesus said to his disciples back in Mark chapter 14 verse 28, he said, but after I have been raised, I will go ahead of you to Galilee. So of course, prior to the crucifixion, we know that the disciples really had no idea what Jesus was talking about. They had no idea what this meant. They failed to understand time and time and time again that Jesus must be crucified. And if they failed to understand that, they of course also failed to understand that he would be raised again from the grave. But after the resurrection, they began to gradually start to understand things. And as they began to understand things, they apparently remembered this direction, that Jesus would go ahead of them to Galilee. And so the chapter opens with several of the disciples back home in the region of Galilee, which was actually where Jesus had preached and done miracles for three years. This was actually the region, the exact region, maybe the exact same spot that Jesus had first called Peter, James, and John to leave their fishing nets behind but to follow him and he would teach them to become fishers of men. So chapter 21 begins with them being right back where their journey began. Let's look at verses 1 to 3. John just keeps on going right after saying and believing that you may have life in his name at the end of chapter 20 continuing into chapter 21 saying 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 called Didymus 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. Now John's book is almost broken up into sections that begin with these exact same words, after these things. After what things in this case? In other words, he's actually kind of prompting us to remember the context, right? In the previous chapter, we saw that Jesus rose from the grave, that he sent Mary Magdalene to go and tell the disciples that he had risen again, just as he said he would. And then we saw Jesus appear twice to the disciples and his other followers. Once on the evening of the day of the resurrection, and once when Jesus appeared to them again a week later. again on the Lord's Day, that time for the purpose of bringing Thomas out of his unbelief and into saving faith. Now if you look down just for a second at verse 14, you'll see that this was actually the third time that Jesus appeared to his disciples. And so, I don't know, it's possible. Perhaps we can interpret that to mean that it was, you know, seven days later, that it was the very next Lord's Day after his last appearance, his second appearance, although we can't be exactly sure. All we know for sure is that this appearance that we're going to read about in this passage took place between his resurrection and his ascension into heaven. John tells us that those who were present included seven of the disciples. We don't know where the other four were, but John lists seven disciples who were there. Simon Peter, Thomas, called Didymus, or twin, Thomas the twin, Nathanael, the sons of Zebedee, that's James and John, and two other disciples whose names aren't given to us for whatever reason. But even the fact that seven of them are gathered there together on the Sea of Galilee, even the fact that seven are unified, should give us a reason to rejoice. Jesus' arrest, His trial, and His crucifixion had brought about the fulfillment of the prophecy from Zechariah chapter 13 verse 7, which said, strike the shepherd that the sheep may be scattered. which is exactly what happened when Jesus was arrested, right? The sheep all scattered, the disciples all went their own ways looking out for themselves and just trying to save their own skin, right? But what has brought them back together? What's brought them back together is the grace of God revealed in the resurrection of Christ. The last time Peter was mentioned by name, he was investigating the empty tomb after the resurrection. And the last time that Peter actually spoke, the last time he was quoted as saying anything, he was denying his Lord. Three times. But here's what we should see. And remember, his previous failures have been forgiven now. He's reconciled with Christ. He still seems to have a position of influence among the disciples. And that, by the way, should remind us that the Lord has only ever used under shepherds who are entirely imperfect. Many of us as shepherds, under shepherds of the great chief shepherd, many of us have had times of severe spiritual failure in our lives. If you listen to the podcast put out by Church and Family Life this past week in which I gave my testimony, you know that my life certainly attests to the fact that God only appoints very, very imperfect under shepherds. And Peter was also imperfect. His life attested to that fact too. But the Lord gifted him, equipped him, and used him greatly nevertheless. Peter, like every other faithful pastor or under-shepherd in the history of the church, had been cleansed of his sins through Christ's vicarious atoning death. And so it's easy to understand why this chapter is actually a favorite for anyone who has experienced spiritual failure, which is all of us, by the way, only to have those failures washed away and forgiven by the Lord. Because we really do see that in this chapter. We see the change that Peter has undergone before this passage is done. Now, as a leader among the disciples, it's not surprising that when Peter says, alright guys, grab the nets, I'm going fishing, they just chime in by saying, okay, we're coming with you. That's just kind of the way Peter is. Peter's a natural leader. He's kind of the alpha male of the bunch, to use a secular term. But they were in the region in anticipation of Jesus meeting them there. But when they hadn't seen him since the night in which he had rescued Thomas from his unbelief, they decided to just do what they were familiar with. They decided to do what they had always done, and what they knew how to do very well. They went fishing. Very likely, again, in the exact same location, the exact same spot that Jesus had first met and called them to follow Him and become fishers of men. Now one of the things that we should understand in John's Gospel is that like in many other parts of the Bible, the sea is actually very, very symbolic. And it's symbolic of something very specific. The sea is symbolic for the chaos and the danger and the tumultuous nature of living in the world. That's part of the significance of Jesus walking on the water or the significance of Jesus calming the storms on the sea. I don't think it's necessarily significant that they spent all night fishing. The darkness isn't necessarily symbolic of anything here. It wouldn't have been very uncommon for a fisherman to start fishing at night, because when you let the nets down, the secret is you don't want the fish to see it. And they don't see it that well at night, so it makes sense to start at night, whereas in the daytime they would see the nets much more clearly. But what is significant here also is the fact that they caught nothing all night. What's interesting is the time of year. It's springtime and if you've ever gone fishing, if you're much of a fisherman, you know they should have caught something. because spring is like the best time to fish. Any fisherman knows that the spring months are the best times for fishing because fish are either coming out of hibernation or they are spawning, they are hungry because life is proliferating again and that gives them food. The time in which you're most likely to have empty nets is like the middle of summer when everybody else has gone fishing and everybody else has fished a lake out, right? So let's understand that the empty nets are very significant. and that it's not normal. They're probably empty so that we can all, and so that they can all, learn a spiritual lesson from this. And this brings us to the first principle of service unto the Lord that we can gather from this passage, and that's this, that apart from Christ you can do absolutely nothing. Apart from Christ, you can do nothing of significance in service to the Lord. In fact, you might even say that this is perhaps, for apart from me, this is words back in John 15, 5, where he said, for apart from me, you can do nothing. You think he meant it? Yeah, he's reminding them of it now. Commenting on this passage, A.W. Pink says this, he says, quote, most of the commentators consider that the disciples were fully justified in acting as they did on this occasion, but the Lord had not given them orders to fish for any but men. It seems to us, therefore, that they were acting according to the promptings of nature, end quote. Now, I agree with A.W. Pink on most things, on the majority of things, But I'm not entirely sure that I'd go as far as he does here. I'm not entirely sure that I'd go so far as to say that they were necessarily acting in disobedience or that they were sinning by going fishing for food. But what is evident as this passage unfolds, and based on what we've already seen, is that these men, these disciples, were laboring in the flesh. That is to say that they were laboring according to their own understanding, their own wisdom, their own strength, and their own skill. But what a blessed, what a blessed thing it is. to realize our own lack, indeed our own complete and utter lack of sufficiency in service unto the Lord. It's so easy for us to lose sight of that when we're serving. It's so easy, maybe even natural, I suppose, to serve the Lord according to your own understanding, your own wisdom, your own strength, your own skill. In fact, I would go so far as to argue This can be proven by simply looking at how pragmatic so many churches are in our day and age. Now if you're not familiar with pragmatism, pragmatism is the idea that whatever works the best is the way we should go. It's the idea that whatever works, whatever means most effectively and efficiently gives us the results that we seek, those are the means that we should use toward that end. And when you apply this philosophy to service unto the Lord, when you apply this philosophy to the church you end up seeing absolute atrocities being committed in the church in the name of filling seats. You'll hear secular songs with barely coherent kind of esoteric religious undertones being sung as worship songs because that's what appeals to and that's what therefore draws people in. As if singing songs of worship is all about you. It's not. Or you'll see churches promoting programs and preaching sermons that'll just make you feel good about yourself. As if the sermon is supposed to be about you. It's not. Josh Bice from G3 Ministries notes this in an article on the way that pragmatism destroys the church. He writes this, he says quote, pragmatism like a cancer eats away the life of biblical truth within the church. The ministry philosophy of pragmatism, like a wicked slave master, demands success at the sacrifice of biblical theology. Pragmatism invades the fabric of the entire church. It impacts the style of music, the philosophy of discipleship, and the methods of evangelism. In many ways, modern pragmatism serves the same goal as ancient Roman Catholicism. It leads people away from the Word of God. End quote. See the thing about pragmatism is that it necessarily implies that God's ways aren't necessarily the best or the most efficient ways of achieving the results that we desire. and thus methods and programs and ideologies aren't evaluated based on God's Word, but on our own ambitions being filled. It completely overlooks the fact that God has told us how to worship Him, and that His Word tells us how greatly offended He is when we serve Him in a way that He has not instructed. I learned very early on when I became a pastor here that it would be really easy to grow a big church. If we were to bring a monkey in here and put him on a trapeze, I guarantee you we'd fill this place up every week. But that might be the goal that we desire, right? Filling the place up. But that wouldn't be a means to that end that God would be pleased with. See, we're a church that affirms the Second London Baptist Confession of Faith, the 1689 Confession, which says this in Chapter 16, Paragraph 1. It says, "...good works are only such as God has commanded in His Holy Word, and not such as without the warrant thereof are devised by men out of blind zeal or upon any pretense of good intentions." And you're wondering, okay Shakespeare, what did you just say? Let me put it in modern English for you. It's basically saying that the only works that are good and pleasing and acceptable unto God are those that He has explicitly instructed us to do in His Word. And while there's something to be said about having good intentions, good intentions never justify disobedience. Just ask Nadab and Abihu, who were consumed for offering strange fire. God is not interested in our creativity, in being faithful to what He has called us to do. He's interested in our faithfulness. Richard Phillips writes this, he says, quote, just as Peter labored through the night in his own strength to find his nets empty in the morning, our widespread self-reliance and emphasis on worldly methods has left the church in the West spiritually poor and empty-netted, end quote. And so friends, let me say it again, what a blessed thing it is to serve the Lord with an ongoing awareness of our total insufficiency, of our complete inadequacy. And not only that, but conversely also to have an ongoing awareness of Christ's all sufficiency. Christ is sufficient. We are not. Christ is adequate. We are not. We must abide in Him. Because apart from Him, we can do Stated negatively, don't serve the Lord without an ongoing awareness of your complete insufficiency in Christ's all-sufficiency. Stated positively, serve the Lord with an ongoing, constant awareness of your complete insufficiency and Christ's all-encompassing sufficiency. That's the first principle that we gain from this passage as it applies to our service unto the Lord. The second lesson that we glean from this passage at hand is that those who serve the Lord in obedience to his word will be blessed with Christ's abundant power and provision. Those who serve the Lord in obedience to his word will be blessed with Christ's abundant power and provision. We see this play out in the verses that follow. Let's continue looking at verses 4 to 8. John says, 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 of the boat and you will find a catch. So they cast, and then they were not able to haul it in because of the great number of fish. Therefore, the 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. Now one of the things that is immediately apparent as we look at this passage is that the disciples were not expecting Jesus to show up. Maybe they should have been. I think they probably should have been. After all, He had told them that He would go ahead of them to the region of Galilee. But this might help explain why they don't recognize Him. They weren't expecting Him. But the fact that they were about 100 yards from the shore probably didn't help either. But don't miss the fact that Jesus knows how empty their nets are. He doesn't ask them, hey, have you caught anything? He says, you haven't caught anything, have you? He knows. Don't miss the fact that he knows how empty their nets are before they even have to say a word to him. Maybe he knows that their nets are empty because he knows that they've been working according to their own understanding, their own wisdom, their own strength, their own skill, rather than his. Maybe he knows the nets are empty because he is God and he is sovereign over every molecule in the universe, including the molecules that the fish consist of. More likely it's, Both. But He knows. He knows. When He took on flesh, He did not stop being God. The Son does not change. He's always the same. He did not lay aside any of His deity. He restrained His deity. But he did not lay it aside. He was still the second person of the Trinity, even when he took on human flesh. And as such, he was aware of everything in all places at all times. So he knows they don't have any fish. Since he is sovereign over everything, and since he ordains everything that comes to pass, he has also ordained that they would not have any fish at this point. But not realizing that it was Jesus, they decided, okay, like any fisherman would, I haven't caught anything, oh, some advice to change locations, what a great idea. They give his advice a shot, and they cast their nets on the other side of the boat. And what a change. They go from having empty nets to nets that are so full that they are too heavy for these grown men to haul into the boat. Now, we're not talking about just small fish here. We're talking about so many big fish that seven men can't lift all of them. In contrast to the insufficiency of the disciples, here we see a picture of the all-sufficiency of Christ. When our efforts leave us with nothing but empty nets, we should remember the Lord knows how to fill them, and they'll be filled in His way and in His time. I was having lunch this past week with a local church planter in our area and he was voicing some of the frustrations that every church planter goes through. And I reminded him that it's more important to be faithful to the Lord than to take shortcuts. It's more important to be faithful to the Lord and to do things His way than it is to have seeming success by worldly understandings of success by doing things our way. And he knew that to be true. He thanked me for the reminder and I told him of how when I first came to this church, we had a few weeks here where like only six people showed up. And instead of getting discouraged, which I was very tempted to do at the time, instead it brought me to the point where I was forced to realize why I do what I do, why I'm here, and who I'm really serving. I'm ultimately only serving the Lord here. And so all that mattered Even if there were six people that showed up, even if there were two people that showed up, all that mattered was that I was ministering and preaching in a way that he had prescribed and that was pleasing unto him. Now, what do you think would have happened with the disciples if they would have just said, thanks for the advice, but no thanks? Do you think the fish would have eventually found their way five feet away to the other side of the boat into their nets? No, they wouldn't have. And thus we're reminded that in our service unto the Lord, our success is only as great as our obedience to him. Let me say that again, that's a really important principle. Our success is only as great as our obedient faithfulness unto him. Those who serve the Lord in obedience to His commands, in obedience to His word, will be blessed with Christ's abundant power and provision. The point in our text is not where the fish were. It's not where they cast their nets. That's not the point. The point is how were they caught. And that was by acting in accordance with Christ's instruction. Let me ask you this, friends. Do you believe that Christ is able to grant success to those who serve him obediently? I mean, do you really believe it? Do you believe it enough to act on it? True success in serving the Lord isn't due to anything about us. It's not to be done in our strength or our wisdom or what have you. True success in ministry can only be attributed to Christ's power and provision. And that's true for someone who serves by cleaning up the church after service, as it is for somebody who preaches every week, as it is for somebody who reads the scripture every week, as it is for mom and dad when they're doing the most important job in the world throughout the week, discipling their kids. Do things God's way, by His power, and for His glory. He's not glorified by our creativity. He's glorified by our obedience to doing things his way. And so as their nets are filled beyond their ability to handle on their own, they suddenly realize who it was that was standing on the shore. John says it's the Lord. How did he recognize Jesus? It wasn't because of his voice, it wasn't because of his appearance, he was kind of too far away for them to really recognize, but by the fact that by following his instruction they were blessed beyond their wildest dreams. They were successful way beyond what they had hoped to catch on that day. And so Peter upon John telling him who it is and realizing for himself, oh wait, that is the Lord. Suddenly the fish are the last thing on Peter's mind. He forgets the fish completely. They're suddenly just not even relevant to him at all. And he abandons them. Now you might be asking, what kind of a fisherman would do that? What kind of a fisherman says, forget the fish, I'm swimming to shore. A fisherman whose heart belongs to Jesus. A fisherman whose greatest treasure is Jesus. If our feet go where our heart leads us, and they do, We see that Peter's heart belongs first and foremost to the Lord. The Lord Jesus is his greatest treasure, not fish. That wasn't always the case, but it is now. And this gives us a third principle for service, and that's this. Make personal fellowship with Christ a priority in your life. Keep yourself constantly, continually eager for fellowship with Jesus among all the other earthly things that are striving for your attention. It's not that the fish are bad things, right? Fish are good. They're a gift from God, right? But could they have become an idol for Peter? Absolutely, if you've ever known a fisherman. Oh yes, it could be an idol, absolutely. Anything can be an idol. Anything that we give a higher place to in our hearts is a violation of the first commandment. Anything that we love more than we love God, is idolatry and that's where we're loving the gifts more than we love the giver whose hand provides every good gift. Now as a side note Peter shows us something else and that is don't let previous failures get in the way of your fellowship with the Lord. Don't let that cause you to hesitate in going to him. Peter doesn't. Peter had famously failed the Lord but his fellowship with Christ had been restored when the Lord first appeared to him on the day of his resurrection which we learn in Luke chapter 24 verse 35. But Peter jumping into the water to swim to shore, fully clothed, and just forgetting all about the fish. It's a bit comical, but how can you not love it, right? But it reminds us that we must regularly examine ourselves to ensure that fellowship with Christ is indeed our highest priority in life, keeping ourselves continually eager for fellowship with Christ, treasuring Him above anything and everything else in life. May we be a people who are quick to recognize that the source of our success in serving the Lord is the Lord. When He puts anything in our nets, or when He fills our nets, we too should be quick to give thanks and praise to Him, saying, as John does here, it is the Lord. Oh, your church is growing. It's the Lord. I'm just preaching. I'm not doing anything fancy. When our kids grow to love the Lord and devotion for the Lord, grow in their devotion for the Lord, let us declare there, it is the Lord. I can't make my kids believe. It's the Lord. When our friends and our family members say to us, thanks to you I've believed or I've grown in my love for Jesus, let us also be quick to say, it is the Lord. It's not me. I can't do these things. But Jesus can. Let's continue verses 9 to 14. John continues saying, 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. Jesus said to them, come and have breakfast. None of the disciples ventured to question him, who are you? Knowing that it was the Lord. Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them and the fish likewise. This is now the third time that Jesus was manifested to the disciples after he was raised from the dead. Now, well, it's great that they caught so many fish. By the way, I don't think there's any significance in the number. It's just that that's what fishermen do. They count every fish. They want to know exactly how many there are. So it just kind of adds to the credibility of the story. He's just doing what fishermen do. They count the fish. And while it was great to catch so many fish, the fact is that Jesus already had some fish cooked and ready with some bread for the disciples when they reached the shore. What a beautiful reminder of the fact that Jesus loved and cared for His disciples and He knew their needs and He provided for their needs. A.W. Pink notes that this is a picture given to us to illustrate the joyous, satisfying refreshment that we will all experience in Christ's presence. when our toilsome, often frustrating, often draining work in the tumultuous seas of this life have ended and we have safely landed on the shores of glory in heaven. This brings us to the fourth and final principle that we can glean from this passage about service unto the Lord. That the service we render to the Lord in accordance with His instructions and achieved by His power and for His glory will be received by Him at the end of the age. Let's not miss the fact that the nets don't break, even though they probably should have. But the nets don't break. And so not a single one of the fish that were caught was lost. Think there's any significance in that? Friends, the day is coming. And you've got to live your life in light of this. You've got to know this. The day is coming when all of our works will be presented unto the Lord. And they will be tested as by fire. Paul writes this to the Corinthians. 1 Corinthians 3, verses 11-15. He says this, he says, No man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man's work will become evident, for the day will show it, because it is to be revealed with fire. And the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work. If any man's work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. And so just as the nets that the disciples had caught the fish in were dragged to shore, they were hauled to shore, and each fish was counted before the Lord, so also will all the gospel service and works that we do be laid out before the Lord. And what was not done according to His instruction will be consumed with fire. It will be burned up. And that much will be lost. It will all be for nothing. Do you realize what that means? It means that any good things that we accomplish in our service that's done according to our own understanding, our own power, our own strength, our own skill, is going to end up being nothing but a pile of ashes before the Lord one day. Absolutely worthless. To glorify God, We must first believe God. And if we believe God, if we truly believe God, then we will act in obedience to God. And only what we do in obedience to God will please and glorify Him. Friends, life in His name. Life in His name. Life that's lived by His instructions. Life that's lived for His purposes. Life that's lived for His glory. It won't always be easy. I guarantee you that much. It won't always be easy, but it will be rewarding. And it will be filled with joy because nothing, nothing gives the Christian greater satisfaction, greater pleasure, greater enjoyment than knowing that he has both pleased and truly glorified God in his service. Now years earlier, years before this incident that we read of here in chapter 21, Peter had a very similar experience with Jesus with a very different response from Peter. At one point very early on in his ministry Jesus had been preaching beside the water And the people who were gathering to hear him became so great that Jesus called Peter to take him out on the water in his boat where Jesus could preach without being crowded by all the masses of people who were showing up. And after Jesus was done teaching and preaching to the crowds of people, Jesus turns to Peter and he instructs him. He says this in Luke 5, verse 4. He says, put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch. And Luke continues by telling us, Simon Peter answered and said, Master, We worked hard all night and caught nothing. But I will do as you say and let down the nets. When they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish and their nets began to break. So they signaled to their partners in the other boat for them to come and help them. And they came and filled both of the boats so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus' feet saying, Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man. The nets did break in that case. They should have broken in this case, I think. But upon realizing who this was in his boat, upon realizing that this man Jesus, who had blessed him with so many fish that his nets were literally bursting, was God incarnate, Peter begs Jesus. He falls down at his feet and he begs Jesus to just leave him because of what a wretch of a sinner Peter knew that he was. He didn't deserve to be in the presence of God Almighty. And he realized that he was. And all he could say was, get away from me. But now, here in chapter 21, instead of begging Jesus to leave, Peter swims fully clothed to shore to be in Jesus' presence. Almost the exact same circumstances, but Peter's response was so different. Why do you think that is? It's because Peter had come to know the greatness of God's grace for wretched sinners like himself. And he understood that the death and the resurrection of Christ proved the greatness of God's grace. To this day, Jesus still calls fallen sinners, frail sinners, ruined, wretched sinners to come to Him in faith that they may receive the blessings of His presence, power, and abundant provision. Friends, if Jesus could offer forgiveness to the disciple who abandoned Him, and not only abandoned Him, but publicly denied Him, then He can offer forgiveness to you as well, regardless of where you've been or what you've done. The purpose of your existence is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. And God has provided everything that's necessary for you to do that. The way to do that is to come to Christ, to believe on Christ, that you may have life in His name, that your life would be a life of service unto Him, as a testimony of His grace, of His power, of His blessing. you have been saved for a reason you have been saved for a purpose you have life in Jesus's name so that you may serve the Lord and his people in his ways by his grace in his power both for his glory and for your enjoyment so that when you reach heaven's shore one day You too may hear the words, well done, good and faithful servant. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You for how sufficient Your Word is. And we recognize, Lord, that our own wisdom, our own understanding of life and the best way to do this or that is completely inadequate. But we thank you that you have given us your word, which teaches us how to not only glorify you, but to enjoy you forever. And so we pray, Lord, that you would help us to identify areas in which we are gifted for service. And we pray that you would teach us to enjoy serving you and serving your people for the glory of Christ. We pray that you would help us, Lord, be a testimony in this dark world, a light in this world, that draws people to yourself. Teach us to live our lives faithfully. Teach us to share the gospel faithfully, knowing that only Christ can fill our nets, and that we'd rather have empty nets than disobey him. May he be glorified by our service. And we ask that you would help us to enjoy him. forever. In His name we pray, Amen.