Hello and welcome to our broadcast today. We are in John chapter 21. Have your Bible ready. We're reading in John chapter 21 it says after these things Jesus showed himself again to the disciples and at the sea of Tiberias, and on this wise showed he himself. There were together Simon Peter and Thomas, called Bidamus, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two other of his disciples. Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing. They say unto him, We also go with thee. They went forth and entered into a ship. immediately, and that night they caught nothing. But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus. Then Jesus saith unto them, Children, have ye any meat? They answered him, No. And he said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find. They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes. Therefore, that disciple whom Jesus loves, saith unto Peter, it is the Lord." Interesting, these verses start out with that phrase, after these things. When John uses that phrase, he's starting a new focus. And here we see in verse number one, the first thing that happens is Jesus showed himself. Now that word means to make manifest, and it's been translated that way 19 times in the Bible. It is a different word from when he showed them his hands and his side in John chapter 20 and verse number 20. He is making himself manifest unto them. To make something manifest is to make something clear or obvious to the mind. We read here in verse 1, they are at the Sea of Tiberias, which is simply the Roman name for the Sea of Galilee. It says in verse number 2, there were together Simon, Peter, and Thomas, called Didymus. Now, those two to be together is not a usual thing that you find in the Bible. Usually it's Peter, James, and John that are named first and together. But here it's Peter and Thomas. These two are completely opposites, and it's interesting that the Lord would have their name put together here in this portion of Scripture. There's a good lesson there. We also have Nathanael. He was from that area. The sons of Zebedee, which of course are James and John, and the other two, for some reason God doesn't tell us who they are. One of the very important things about studying the Bible is to be sure to get everything within its context, and if you compare this time with Matthew chapter 28, we'll find that this is when the Lord gave them the Great Commission. In verse 3, Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing. They say unto him, We also go with thee." They went forth and entered into a ship immediately, and that night they caught nothing. Now here we have choices, choices. Peter said, I'm going fishing. The disciples, because Peter was such a leader and had such great influence on everybody, They said, We go also. Peter was very impulsive. Peter was very impatient. And he was also very influential. We need to make sure, whoever we are following, that they are supporting their direction with the Word of God. Well, we always have choices. We can make any choices we want to make, but we cannot choose the consequences. And the consequences are found here in verse number three, where it says, And that night They caught nothing. But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore. I think that is one of the greatest verses in the entire Bible. I mean, he could have just said, I've had enough of this and I'm going back. I've spent 40 days talking to these men and Peter just walks off and takes the rest of the disciples and they go fishing again. I've had enough of it, I'm going back to heaven." We don't see that. We see here that Jesus stood on the shore. What love, what grace, what amazing, amazing love of the Lord. It's hard to believe that after all those years together, three years, and then the crucifixion and the resurrection from the dead, and then Jesus had spent 40 days with them, and Jesus is talking to them. He stood on the shore, and Peter says, I've had enough of this. He's just going fishing. That is hard to believe. It's also hard to believe where it says here, Jesus stood on the shore. That word, stood, has been translated, stand still, four times. And it would seem to indicate that when they walked off, Jesus stood there all night. All night. What grace and what mercy. Well, the context of this whole story is they're supposed to be out fishing for men. The choices that they're making is, forget that, we're going back to our fishing industry. And the consequences of that, very simple, it says here, they caught nothing. Verse 5, Jesus yells out to them in the ship and says, children, have ye any meat? And they answered him, no. The word children here is a different word than he used back in John chapter 13 and 33, which was a term of endearment. Here the word children is a metaphor for childlike, immature people. Well, Jesus said in verse 6, cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find. Now they cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes, Therefore, that disciple whom Jesus loved, that's of course John, saith unto Peter, is the Lord. It's interesting that John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, is out there fishing with them. He didn't stay with Jesus that night either. The lesson here is pretty powerful. Let him that thinketh he stand, take heed, lest he fall. Well, we read in verse number 7 that when Peter heard it was the Lord that he cast himself into the sea, he wanted to be where Jesus was. Well, the other disciples came in a little ship, for they were not far from land, but as it were, about 200 cubits. dragging the net with fishes. Now that's about 350 feet offshore, which is one reason why they didn't recognize Jesus when he still was standing on the shore. Well, Peter's heading for Jesus while the other disciples are worrying about the fish. Get those fish to shore. And I think that's important. I don't think you should just let those fish go. Verse number 9 says, As soon as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid thereon, and bread. A fire of coals, huh? That's interesting. It was at a fire of coals that Peter denied Jesus three times. I think it's interesting, too, that even though there was fish and bread already there, Jesus said in verse number 10, Bring of the fish which ye have now caught. Well, verse 11, Simon Peter, oh yeah, I better go help those fellows with those fish. So Simon Peter went up and drew the net to land of great fishes, and hundred and fifty and three, for all there were so many, yet was not the net broken. Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine, come and dine. Well, the lesson here is plain, too. Come and dine. You want to get coming and dining with Jesus before you go out there into all the world and preach the gospel. Come and dine, the Master calleth. Come and dine. Well, verse 13 says, Jesus then cometh and taketh bread, and giveth them, and fish likewise. Now, this is the third time that Jesus showed himself to his disciples after that he was risen from the dead. Now, that word again is to make manifest. This is the third time that he did this. The first time is recorded back in chapter 20 in verse number 19. It says, "...then the same day at even, being the first day of the week when the doors were shut, where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. The second time is recorded in verse 26, and it says, And after eight days again, His disciples were within, and Thomas with them. Then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you. The third time here is in verse 13. Then we read, Jesus then cometh, and taketh bread, and giveth them, and fish likewise. This is now the third time that Jesus showed himself to his disciples after that he was risen from the dead. Now, in verse number 15, the focus changes completely and entirely on Peter. And he's basically saying, Peter, we need to have a discussion. There is something we need to deal with. Peter, you need to face the facts. And Peter, you need to face the future. Keep in mind that this is very public. And when he names Peter here, he calls him Simon. It's interesting that you find that Jesus said twice Thomas. When he spoke to him, we saw that in the last chapter. When he talked to Mary in John chapter 20 and verse 16, he said Mary. But when he talked to Peter here, he didn't use the name Peter. He said Simon. Oh, that was an arrow to his heart. That was the name that he had prior to having the privilege of being one of Jesus' disciples. You remember, Jesus had changed his name from Simon to Peter, and so now what is happening here is Peter has gone back to acting like his old ways, and so Jesus calls him by his old name, Simon. The first thing he said was, Simon, lovest thou me? Notice the questions he didn't ask. He didn't ask the question, why aren't you going out there fishing for men like I told you to do? Why aren't you obeying the commandments that I have given to you? Why aren't you doing this and why aren't you doing that? He didn't ask those questions. What he asked was, lovest thou me? You see, if we have the love for Jesus that we should have, all those other things will fall into place. The foundation has to be love. Peter, no, he said, Simon Peter, lovest thou me? And then he added, Simon, do you love me more than these? More than these? What is he referring to here when he talks about more than these? Well, he could have been talking about the disciples that Peter had right out said back there, you remember, when they were before the crucifixion. He said, all these men deny you. They may all deny you, but I will. never deny you, indicating that he had more love for Jesus than the disciples had. Perhaps that's it. Or maybe he's pointing to all of those fish and all that boat and that net and the fishing industry that Peter was very successful at before he came to follow the Lord. And maybe he's looking and saying, you love me more than making money out there in your fishing industry? Do you love me? The key here is not so much as more than these, but the key here is the question, lovest thou me? Now the word that Jesus used here is the word we would use for love, real love. Peter answered the question and he said, yeah, you know I am very fond of you. I have great affection for you is the word. that Peter used. Now, it's interesting that one thing about Peter is he's very, very honest. And he said, No, I can't. Why? Because God knows the heart. He knew the fact that Jesus knew his heart. And so he was honest. He said, I don't love you that much, or I wouldn't have been out there fishing last night. But I am very fond of you. I have great affection for you. You are very special to me. Interestingly enough, Jesus said, then, feed my lambs. He didn't say, well, that's not enough, Peter, you love me 100% or you don't get to do anything. He didn't do that. It's a good thing, too, or none of us would be doing anything for the Lord. What he said here was, feed my lambs. It usually gets quoted, feed my sheep. That is not what he said. He said, Feed my little lambs. Feed those children. Give them what they need. Look after the children, those kids on the Sunday school buses, those young people in the Sunday school classes. Feed my little lambs. In verse number 16, he saith unto him again the second time, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He said, Well then, feed my sheep. In verse 17, he saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? And Peter was grieved, because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things, and thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus said unto him, Feed my sheep. Interesting here, the word that Jesus used for love was the word that Peter was using. And he was saying, Oh, Peter, you're very fond of me. You have great affection for me. And he even questions that at this point. It certainly isn't very obvious by the way that you're acting. Peter, we need to face the facts, and we need to face the future. You need to straighten up your life. We've got work to do. And Peter does straighten up his life in this chapter, and from here on in, he gives his life completely to the Lord. Well, our time is gone. Be sure to tune in for another broadcast tomorrow. We'll try to make it plain, and we will try to make it simple. You.