Okay, Bibles turn to John 21, if you will, John chapter 21. We're coming to the last chapter of our lengthy study of the gospel of John. Every chapter, every verse serves the purpose of letting us know that we are to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and the last two verses of the previous chapter in chapter 20 says that Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples which are not written in this book, but these are written so that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in his name. And I trust that you believe that this morning. Verse one of chapter 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. And 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. And 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 100 yards off. When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire in place with fish laid out on it and bread. And Jesus said to them, bring some of the fish that you have just caught. So Simon Peter went aboard, hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, 153 of them. And although there were so many, the net was not torn. And 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. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your holy word. And we do pray in these moments, Lord, that you will help us now, that we might be clear, stay in your word, honor the Lord Jesus. Oh God, we pray that your spirit would move in our hearts and draw us closer to you. Save the lost who are here today. I pray, oh God, your will be done. In every heart we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Well, these final two chapters of John is about the resurrection of Jesus, his appearance to his disciples. It begins with Mary Magdalene. She was the first one to see the risen Christ and some of the other women, and then also his disciples. Here we know that the disciples saw Jesus two occasions. You remember Thomas was one of them. He missed out on one of those, but on the second one he was there. So what we're looking here in this chapter is the third appearance of Jesus. We see that. Verse 14 tells us that it's the third time that Jesus appears. And it says there in verse 14 that Jesus was revealed. We see that word revealed. It's also used in verse one two times. It says that Jesus revealed himself again there in verse one. And it says in verse one, he revealed himself in this way. So this third appearance is packed with some purpose. The purpose is this, it's to get the disciples back on track. get them back on track. They're detoured. They're in the where they shouldn't be. And the question is, what are they to do? They're so excited to see the risen Lord. They saw him and they were so excited about that. And they know that Jesus spoke, he's going to ascend back to the father. He spends 40 days before he goes back to the heavenly father. Now, the disciples, They can't go back to the way things were. And if you think about it, when you meet the Lord Jesus, and you meet him for who he is, the risen Christ, you can't go back to the way things are. Things have changed now. And so the whole purpose of this section that we're looking at is, what are they to do? What are they going to do? And here it is, the Lord gets them back on track for what God has called them to do. There's three parts we will look at in this verses 1-14. Verses 1-3 is the disobedient disciples. Verses 1-3 and then verses 4-8 is the merciful master. And then the last part of it, verses 9-14 is the restored relationship. Well, let's begin there in verse one. It says there, Jesus reveals himself there by the, by the sea of Tiberias. And now we know that as the sea of Galilee or Luke five, the lake of Neseret. It's a huge lake there, about 12 miles long, seven miles wide, surrounded by mountains on the north, west, and the east. And so very, very popular place there for the ministry of the Lord Jesus. Jesus said he would reveal himself there in Galilee. Now here we have the disciples. If you count there in verse one, there are seven disciples. The other four, we don't know exactly where they're at, but they're not here. But we do have Simon Peter, we have Thomas, the twin. There is Nathanael, he's also called Bartholomew in other places. The sons of Zebedee, that's James and John. And then two other disciples, and most commentators think it might be Andrew and Philip. So that leaves Simon the zealot, it leaves Judas, or Jude, they call him Thaddeus, and James the son of Ephaus, and also Matthew the tax collector. So here they are, by the sea of Tiberias, or the Sea of Galilee there. Now notice in verse three, Simon Peter said to them, I am going fishing. And they said, Well, we're going with you. So they drop what they're doing, they're all going fishing for the night. And so there they are all night, and it says there, they went out, they got in the boat, and probably it's Peter's boat. He's got his own boat there. And all night, they caught nothing. Now, it's been a long time since I've been fishing. But when I see that word, they caught nothing, I know how they feel. It's something awful when you go back and you've been there for the purpose of getting fish and there's nothing there, or I'm missing something. I did hear about the story about Jim. He got up bright and early one weekend. He headed for the local river. He fished all day long, but didn't catch a thing. Well, on the way home, he stopped at the fish market. Hey, he said, I want to buy three of the largest bass that you've got. That's what he said to the owner of the fish market. Well, the owner, he started to bag up the fish. And Jim said, oh, wait a minute. I want you to throw them to me. Well, he says, why do you want me to do that for? He says, because I want to tell my wife I caught three fish today. Well, that's what pride would have to do, I guess. I don't know. But here in our text, we see some fishermen. Peter's one of them, James and John. They are experienced fishermen. They've been doing this all their life. Here they're out there, but they're coming up with empty nets. They caught nothing. And there is a reason for this. That's what we're gonna look at here. The thing is, they're not where they should be. Disobedient disciples. Let me give you some information on that. Jesus, first of all, told them before he was even crucified that he was going to show up in Galilee after his resurrection. Matthew 28 verse 16 tells us that the disciples were supposed to be in the mountain that Jesus had directed them. Matthew 28 verse 16. In the mountain, not just a mountain, but there was a particular mountain where they were to be. And maybe they got there, I don't know. But somehow or another, they wind up not in the mountain, but they're out there on the lake. That's not where Jesus said for them to be. They're out there on the lake, and Peter said, I'm going fishing. And so we know this, that when he said that, I'm going fishing. Peter was not talking about taking a leisure trip, a little brief vacation. There's nothing wrong with getting your fishing rod and your tackle box and go for a vacation and take a leisure time of fishing. Nothing wrong with that. And probably wouldn't be wrong for Peter to do that. But what is said right here, Peter is saying, I'm going back to my old business. I'm going back to my fishing business. And they said, well, we will too. And so they were disobedient. Now I want to point out something that Jesus predicted. I back up to John chapter 16 and verse 32, Jesus spoke of this. And here's what he said before Jesus was crucified. He said this, behold, the hour is coming. Indeed, it has come when you, talking to the disciples, you will be scattered each to his own home and will leave me alone. Now, The translators added the word home. You will go back to your own home, literally is you're going back to your own business. The same Greek word is used when Paul spoke about in 1 Thessalonians chapter, 1 Thessalonians chapter four, verse 11, that you are to attend to your own business. So what he's saying is, Peter said, you're going back to your own business. Not just your house and your property, but you're going back to your whole way of life. That's what Peter decided to do. Here's the thing about being disobedient. It has consequences. It has consequences. Number one, it influences other people. Because the other disciple says, well, if you're going, we'll go with you. And so it influenced them others. It's kind of like I was at the park the other day, saw some ducks out there on the lake there in Crockett Lake. And you got a lead duck out there leading all the others. Then it came to land, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, they're all following this one duck. Well, Peter was like that lead duck. All the disciples were following him. That's the consequences of disobedience. There's always somebody that will follow in your footsteps. Romans chapter 14 verse 7 says, none of us lives to himself or dies to himself. There's a second consequence. being where you shouldn't be, doing what you shouldn't do, always results in empty outcomes. They had empty nets. Well, the Lord Jesus is gonna help them get back on track. And he's very merciful now, because when we begin to look here in verse four, notice what it says, just as the day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore. Now the Psalms didn't know it was Jesus. But he said to them, children, some say men, or some say it's sort of like a common expression like, hey guys, got any fish? Well, that's not unusual because some people out there fishing, yeah, you got a lot of fish, you're not going to take them. Somebody else might want those fish. They're probably ready to purchase those fish that you've been out there all night catching. Hey guys, you have any fish? And I could just see all of them in unison saying, no. The water carries the voice real easy. No. Okay. Why am I putting your net there on the right side of the boat? You're going to find something there. Now, there is something about Jesus speaking in that way. His voice was so authoritative and so commanding and so believable. Well, that's what they did. They cast it there, it says in verse six. and they were not able to haul it in because of the quantity of fish. Jesus was standing there on the shore. That in itself was an act of mercy. Jesus could have hollered out, hey, what are you doing out there, you thick-headed disciples? You're supposed to be up on the mountain. What are you doing out there? Who told you to go out there? Where's Peter at? None of that. Jesus is so loving, so compassionate, so merciful in his talk with them. You have any fish? No. Hey, put it on the right side. It kind of reminds us of another episode. Do you remember? Three years prior to this, my uncle read it a while ago. In Luke chapter 5, they were out there trying to catch fish all night. They didn't catch anything. And Jesus, he was teaching in the boat of Peter. And then he got through teaching. He says, push the boat out. Let's go out and find you some fish. Master, we toiled all night long. We took nothing. But at your word, I will throw out the net. and they caught so many fish, their nets were breaking. And they had a second boat out there, and both boats were so loaded down with fish, the boats began to sink. And here's what Jesus said to all these disciples, because Peter was really struck by that. He said, Lord, depart from me, I'm a sinful man. He said, fear not, from now on, you will be catching men. You're going to catch people for the glory of God. You see, it seemed like they may have, should have, saw something similar right here. Right side of the boat. And somebody asked, why did Jesus tell them to put the net on the right side? Why not on the left? Why not on the bow or the stern? Why the right side? Because any other side would be the wrong side. You put it on the right side. That's what Jesus said. That's what they did. And they caught some fish. Well, so much fish. Now, the disciple whom Jesus loved in verse seven, hey, Peter, it's the Lord. It's the Lord. What did Peter do? Immediately, Peter grabbed his tunic, his shirt, so to speak, because he, He was out there working and but now he grabbed his shirt and he jumped in. What'd he grab his shirt for? He's not coming back. He jumped into the water. I kind of see him as doing a little swan dive into the water. Swimming as fast as he can to shore to see Jesus. Verse 8. Now the other disciples, they were dragging the net full of fish. They were not far from the land. They're about a hundred yards off. The Lord is merciful, isn't he? A hundred yards off. How far? That's a length of a football field. Peter's swimming. I don't know how to swim that far. He swam the distance. I believe he got there before the other disciples did with a boat dragging all those fish. Now, John, who writes the gospel, does not talk about what was said between Peter And Jesus, when they first met, when he got on the shore, it's not for us to know. Really, it's none of our business. But I can imagine Peter saying, oh Lord, I am so sorry that I denied you, that I was so disobedient. Yes, I should have been on the mountain. I believe there was some conversation there. We can only imagine. But here, the Bible says they were not far from the land. I got to think about some verses in the Bible about that. One is Psalms 34, 18. The Lord is near the brokenhearted. The Lord's not that far away. Sometimes you think the Lord is millions of miles away. No, he's not. He's right there. He is near the brokenhearted. And I also got to thinking about another verse in Romans chapter 10 and verses 8 through 10. It says there, who shall ascend into heaven and bring Christ down or descend into the abyss and bring Christ up? No, the word is near you. That is the word of faith that we proclaim. If you confess with your mouth, that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. I still think about that time when I came to Christ. I didn't know what was going to happen. For me, God was like a hundred miles away. I mean, how is he going to find me? But I was confronted with the gospel. I was confronted with John 3 16. You know, and the word of faith was right there. The Lord is near those who are brokenhearted. There he is. It's not far from the land. Merciful master. And here they are pulling that big net of fish. They're dragging it. But actually Jesus on the shore, Jesus is dragging his own come to shore. He's bringing his disciples to the shore, but he's got something for them. Now the Bible says there in verse four again, just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore. That's a good lesson for us, isn't it? You may have spent the whole night in darkness of disobedience. A long time. But now it's a new day. A new day. And Jesus is staying there on your shore. And he's inviting you to come. Calling us back. Because we're like Peter. We're like these disciples. We're prone to wander. We're prone to get out of his will. but he's calling us back. So in verse nine, we see a restored relationship here. When they got on land, they saw a charcoal fire in place and fish laid out on it and bred. A charcoal fire. I believe when Peter got there he saw, I could probably see the smoke in the distance, but when he got there he saw that charcoal fire. I believe he couldn't help but remember another charcoal fire. When he denied the Lord he was around a charcoal fire warming himself. He denied that he ever knew the Lord. But here's another charcoal fire. He's not denying the Lord. He's confessing the Lord. He is worshiping the Lord. He's getting his relationship restored, his fellowship restored. And I believe he's warming by the fire because you swim a hundred yards. What are you doing to swim that far? He's drenched. He's soaked. He's cold. He's by the fire. And I know this is not in here. I can't help but think, you think Jesus maybe just went ahead and just dried his clothes, instant dryer. You say, well, preacher, you don't see that. No, I don't see that. But I do see this. I do see this. And you can't take this away from me. It's the last verse of this whole book right here. There are many other things that Jesus did. I like that one. If you were to write down everything that he did, the world couldn't hold the books that could be written. And then I also see verse 30 in chapter 20. Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the Psalms, which are not written in this book. Not everything was written down. Who gave you an imagination? I didn't come up with it. God gave you an imagination. You ever just sit and imagine heaven? What's there for you to enjoy? And I just enjoy imagining that Jesus just went, ooh, ooh, I'm dry. He's by the fire. Jesus had some fish laid out. Bread, fresh baked bread. Can you just smell it? Oh yeah. Jesus already had fish there. This is not fish from their boat. The fish ain't got there yet. Jesus already had fish. He had bread. Fish, bread, fish sandwich. How did the fish get there? How'd the bread get there? Let me give you a hint. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. God said, let there be light, and there was what? Light. Jesus said, let there be fish, and there's what? Fish. Boy, I'm just enjoying this. Jesus is not tooting his horn right here. I don't believe he just, boom, he just created fish out of nowhere. He created bread out of nowhere, just like you multiply the fish, multiply the bread. Jesus can do anything he wants to do. He's teaching these disciples. Peter, I have you back out there to fish. I know you said preach. I know you said go in all the world and proclaim the gospel, but who's going to put fish on the table? And Jesus is just showing them right there. Don't you remember what I said to you, Peter? Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Well, Jesus had some fish. This whole illustration is about Not catching fish, it's catching people for the glory of God. Catching people for the kingdom of God. Jesus already had some fish. I can imagine they got there and where did that fish come from? Where did that bread come from? Here's the thing about it. There are some people who are saved. Let me rephrase that because I'm fixing mess up right here. Everybody is saved by the grace of God. But you know what I mean. There are some people who are in the kingdom of God, they're saved by the grace of God, and you say, who prayed for them? Who talked to them? What made them turn around? All I know, there are some people, and you know some of them, maybe you think of some people like that, heaven came down, all of a sudden, they loved Jesus. They're going the wrong way. No one's talked to them as far as you know. No one's prayed for them as far as you know. No one's put a gospel track in their hand. They've not been in anybody's church, but heaven came down. Jesus got some fish. But then the second thing Jesus said, verse 10, bring some of the fish that You have just called. Now notice that word, you, you, you have called. I thought Jesus called him. No, you have called him. There are some people, and God uses his people, the church, as means to get the gospel out. He uses Sun Tzu teachers, he uses godly parents and godly grandparents and missionaries and preachers and witnesses for Christ. We are the means by which people hear the gospel. We pray for them. Like Paul says, my highest desire and prayer to God is that Israel might be saved. He prayed for lost people. And so God says, you caught them. You helped bring them to Jesus. You are the reason why they believe in the Lord. I used you. I used your influence. You threw the net out. The Holy Spirit did the job. Now, when you go on a fishing trip, you've been out there all day, and you're coming back home, home folks say, there's a couple questions they ask. How many did you catch? Well, we got the number here in verse 11. When the Lord said, bring those fish that you caught, Peter got on board. He hauled the net short. At first, the other disciples said, they have a hard time doing that. Peter must have been a strong guy. He got the whole bunch. He brought it all on board. 153 of them. How many were they? 153. 153. John writes this gospel but the Lord wants him to put down specifically how many fish were in that net. There was 153. Now I've heard people say, well God's not interested in numbers. Yes he is. Every number represents a soul that come to know the Lord Jesus. 153. I read a story Jesus tells about one guy had 100 sheep. He left the 99, one took off. He left the 99 and went after the one. Yeah, the Lord counts sheep. He's interested in numbers. In fact, when Peter preached on the day of Pentecost, there was 3,000 saved. Somebody wrote the number down. God's interested in numbers. God even had a book in the Bible named Numbers. Well, we're not interested in numbers at our church. We should be. Somebody's missing. Should we be concerned when someone's missing? How about someone who decides to go on the lake and not on the mountain, like here? Should we find out? What about the preacher? The preacher didn't show up. Well, I hope somebody comes to look for me. I might be on the side of the road. Patty might have done something to me. I don't know. So there were 153. So the first question is, how many did you catch? 153. How big were they? You don't want to bring those little small ones, are you? Well, look at verse 11 again. They were full of large fish. They were full of large fish. Listen, every soul that is saved is huge in God's eyes. It's a big catch. I heard somebody tell a story. He was in prison for many years, and he was a drug addict, and he was a murderer, and all by the grace of God, God turned around, God changed his heart. Oh, the big catch right there. Hey, what about the little child? Never known him to go do all the things that you've heard people do, but they still follow Jesus. That's a big catch too. How about these people in third world countries that come to know Jesus as Lord and Savior? That's a big catch. I remember VBS many years ago, this little boy, his name is Phillip. He wanted to talk to me and I don't know, he may be in like sixth grade, something like that. And he said, I'd like to talk to you. I said, yeah, sure, I'd be glad to talk with you. What it was, he was under conviction. And he surrendered his life to the Lord Jesus. I remember because we went outside and outside was some of the boys were out there playing some softball and I remember that little boy went out there and he told all the other boys, guess what? What? I'm a Christian now. And I remember his response so clear. This guy on first base, about ready to catch one. He turned his head. So? So, hey, there's more rejoicing in heaven. Amen? That was a big catch. They're all large. Verse 11, it says this, and there were so many, the net was not torn. What does that mean? I don't know. I do know Luke 5, their nets were breaking in Luke 5, maybe it was They're trying to do it on their own, but here the net did not break. The Lord will strengthen our nets. The Lord will empower our nets. The Lord will bless us and use what gifts he gives us and what tools he gives us and our efforts and our nets won't break because God's there. It's God doing it. We depend on the power of the Holy Spirit. Now look at verse 12. King James says, there in verse 12, Jesus said to them, come and dine. I like that word, come and dine. Come and have breakfast. Now, nobody dared to ask him, oh, who are you? No, they knew who it was. They knew who it was. It was the Lord. And verse 12, he says, come and have breakfast. Verse 13, Jesus came. Here's what he did. Verse 13, he came and he took the bread. He gave it to them. And so with the fish. Now around our house, you know, we get all the family together and the food's already prepared. Come and get it. Well, if you don't come and get it, it's your own fault. These disciples are not getting up, okay, I'm going to get me a fish and some bread. No, Jesus, He went to them individually. He gave them fish individually. He gave them bread individually. Jesus is in the role of serving. Serving them. Why is that? because he loves them. He's restored the relationship, restored the sweet fellowship is there. God is going to use these disciples to preach the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. These men? Yeah. And God doesn't have a plan B. This is the plan. Now they are weak. They're prone to wonder, prone to go astray, but God's going to use them. And so God's going to use us too. With all our faults, our shortcomings. And you may be thinking this morning, you know what? I just feel like a failure. I feel like I have failed the Lord. I feel like I'm just so insignificant. Well, here's the good news. Jesus is standing on your shore, and he's calling out to you. He's pursuing a relationship with you, but we don't have much time. Are we going to do what God's called us to do? Let's pray. Hello, this is Pastor Chris Gowan. Thank you for listening, and we hope the message was helpful. If you want to reach out to us through sermon audio, you can email, call, or even write us using our contact information that's given on this website. We'd be delighted to help you in your walk with Christ. May our blessed Lord enrich you and yours with his amazing grace and abounding love. Goodbye.