Well, it seems fitting on this day that we not only celebrate Mother's Day, but we celebrate fish in Minnesota. And there are many out worshiping the fish god this morning that we turn our Bibles to a fishing scene. And Paul, before you run away, I'm going to ask you to read the text for me today to save my voice, okay? I thought I was pretty well over this crud that I've been suffering with the last couple of weeks, but it came back with a vengeance. So who would you like to read?
We're going to read in John chapter 21, beginning in verse 1 down through verse 14. Thank you. John 21, 1 to 14. After these things, Jesus manifested himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias, and he manifested himself in this way. There were together Simon, Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathaniel of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples. 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. But his disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus therefore 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. They cast therefore, and then they were not able to haul it in because of the great number of the fish.
That disciple therefore whom Jesus loves said to Peter, it is the Lord. And so 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. 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. And so when they got out upon 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 the 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. Now 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 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. Amen. Thank you, Paul. You can just start right here now, the sermon, and just work your way down this page. Well, there are probably some fishermen out there, including the governor of this state, that would like to have Jesus for a fishing guide. They didn't catch anything. But he told them where to put the net, and the net almost broke. There were so many fish.
And when they got to shore, the fire was already lit, they were about ready to eat. The message this morning is one that I think fits many of us, because it is a message for those who have experienced failure in their lives. Have you ever experienced failure? What we see here is Jesus Christ, the risen King, restoring one of his cherished friends, Peter, from a humiliating, embarrassing, and public failure. Restoring him from that to another opportunity of meaningful service.
This chapter reads a bit like an addition to the Gospel of John, something like an anticlimax, because the climax of the book comes in chapter 20, where Thomas cries out, my Lord, in my God. But there is convincing evidence within the text of chapter 21 that it was written by John as an addendum with a purpose. In the first place, John wanted to correct a rumor, a mistaken rumor that he, John, would not die until Jesus returned. He makes that clear in verses 22 and 23.
This Gospel was the last of the Gospels written, perhaps 25 years after Matthew and Luke wrote their Gospels. In about 85 AD, John was a very old man by this time, especially for those days. He wanted to correct the rumor, lest some be discouraged. Because if he died and the Lord hadn't come, and they misunderstood what Jesus had said, you can understand the problems. So he wanted to correct that.
But I believe he also wrote this chapter to explain how Peter came to be the leader of the apostolic band, despite the failures in his life, and especially that terrible failure when he denied the Lord on the night of his trial. And so this text records for us a Galilean manifestation of the risen Christ. In fact, three times, it says in verses 1 and 14, that Jesus manifested himself to his disciples. He disclosed himself to them with a purpose.
A failure in a believer's experience is not the end of life. I'm going to repeat that. Failure in a believer's experience is not the end of life. There's someone seated here this morning who feels like that your life as a Christian has come to an end because you have failed the Lord in some way. And what I want you to see in this chapter is that that is not the case.
We're going to note how the narrative unfolds to assure all of us who have failed the Lord that he comes yet again to us, to restore us. How likely Peter had already been personally restored to fellowship with the Lord. That probably occurred on the very first Easter Sunday when Jesus and Peter had a private meeting. I choke up as I think about that meeting and what Peter must have said to Jesus as they met one on one that Easter Sunday. Undoubtedly he blurted out how sorry he was.
He wept and Jesus had seen the tears three days before. And so Jesus had restored him to fellowship on that first Easter Sunday. But now something more needs to happen. He needs to be restored to his place of service. And that's what I want to talk to some of you about today. Because while you may be restored to the Lord in fellowship from your failure, you have some sense that you can't be used by God again. And I want you to know that that is not a sense that comes from God.
As chapter 21 opens we see that Peter went back to the familiar. He went back to fishing. I believe he did that in part because he lost confidence of his value to Christ. He was in fellowship with the Lord, but what could he do now? He had blown it. And so in Galilee he went fishing. I've heard preachers wail away at Peter and the other apostles because they were back in Galilee fishing. I'm not doing that. In fact they went back to Galilee because Jesus told them to go back to Galilee.
He told them that at the Last Supper. And he told them that on Easter Sunday. Go back to Galilee. So however many days later, we don't know, but they did end up back in Galilee, that three or four day journey from Jerusalem being necessary. Perhaps it was the tedium, the boredom of the stay in Galilee. Maybe it was the necessity of providing for his family because Peter had a wife and children. We sometimes forget he was a family man.
Perhaps it was out of necessity that he decided to go fishing. Now Peter knew how to fish. Peter and James, John and Andrew, they were fishermen by trade. He had grown up on the lake. They had been involved apparently in a partnership, the four of them. And it had been apparently also a prosperous business. And so he went back to fishing because he lost some larger sense of purpose due to his sense of failure.
He had regained his fellowship, but he had not yet regained a sense of mission, of meaning to his life. Like Peter and these others, I think all of us tend to gravitate toward what is comfortable, toward what is familiar to us when we don't know what else to do. I don't believe we ought to condemn Peter. At least Peter is not moping around in depression. At least Peter is not paralyzed by his sense of failure. He's doing what he can do, what he knows to do.
And then this incident happened where Jesus appeared to them. Peter and the others are in a familiar setting, and Jesus now builds on the familiar to remind Peter of his calling. In the things that took place on this morning, Jesus intentionally did things to stir up Peter's memory. Now to understand that, you're going to need to turn with me back to Luke chapter 5. Luke records for us the call of Peter and the others in this fifth chapter.
There are some who think that these are the same events and that John just sort of changes it around to make it interesting. That simply is not true. Two entirely different events. But you're going to see some interesting parallels. It came about that while the multitude were pressing around him and listening to the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret. That's another name for the same place, the Sea of Galilee.
Jesus saw two boats lying at the edge of the lake, but the fishermen had gotten out of them and were washing their nets. And he got into one of the boats, which was Simon's, and asked him to put out a little way from the land, and he sat down and began teaching the multitudes from the boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, Simon, I'm going to give you some remuneration here for letting me use your boat. He says, put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.
And Simon answered and said, Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing. But at your bidding, I will let down the nets. And when they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish and their nets began to break. And 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, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.
For amazement had seized him and all his companions because of the catch of fish which they had taken. And so also James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, Do not fear. From now on, you will be catching men. Now we learn in Matthew and I think also in Mark that he also said to them, Follow me. Now I want you to notice the situation. Keep your finger here maybe in Luke chapter 5 and go back to John and just compare.
Notice how Jesus connects these events. In the first event in Luke chapter 5, the first event chronologically, Jesus calls Peter to service. He says, Follow me, I am going to make you a fisher of men. That happened at the Sea of Galilee. Where did Jesus meet Peter? And Peter was overcome by failure and felt he had no use to the Lord any longer at the Sea of Galilee.
And if you study this, you find out that those people like Peter who lived in Capernaum actually had their fishing boats about two miles down the shore at a little place that is called Tabgha. Those of you who have been to the Holy Land probably have visited that spot. It was the harbor for the fishing industry of Capernaum. Now if you fished much, you know that you probably wouldn't want to have the fishing industry near the village, right? There would be some smell connected with it.
Capernaum was about a thousand or fifteen hundred in population. By the way, that was ten times the size of Nazareth. Nazareth was just a little old dinky place in those days. What good could come out of Nazareth? So Jesus had left Nazareth and moved to Capernaum that became headquarters. It was a big city in comparison. And the fishing industry was very prosperous in Capernaum. About two miles down the shore, there was a spring, in fact several springs, that flowed into the Sea of Galilee.
It was at those springs that they would wash their nets because the water flowed swiftly and they were able to clean the nets out as the springs came out of the hill into the Sea of Galilee. Because this is a volcanic area in the great rift valley that runs from Mount Hermon down through Israel, through the Red Sea and over into Africa, there's a lot of unusual activity that takes place there. And these springs that flow out of the hill are warm springs.
As they flow into the Sea of Galilee, they naturally attract fish, especially those fish that enjoy warmer water in the wintertime. That would not be Minnesota fish, but there are other kinds of fish in the world besides Minnesota fish. So they enjoy the warm water. They would come to the shore. It was just a natural place for these fishermen not only to take care of their nets but also to fish.
It was that very same spot where Jesus called Peter to service in Luke chapter 5 that he now meets him again after his resurrection. Notice that they're in the same company. Peter and Andrew, James and John and others in addition are there. So there's the familiarity of the same friends being together. As was customary and even necessary, they fished during the night. And they had fished all night and they caught nothing. Very unusual for professional fishermen to catch nothing.
Like before, Jesus ordered them to try again. As before, they obeyed and the nets were miraculously filled. When they got to shore, there was a fire of coals. That's not in Luke chapter 5, but you will find a charcoal fire where Peter warmed himself at the trial of Jesus, where he denied the Lord. There was a charcoal fire. There is another one here beside Galilee. Jesus broke bread with them as he had at the Last Supper.
And after some more conversation, which we didn't read this morning in John chapter 21, again Jesus says to Peter, follow me. Do you see all the similarities? You see how Jesus built on that which was familiar in order to reinstitute in Peter a sense of calling and purpose. Peter spoke, or Jesus rather spoke to Peter then, to reinstigate in him a confidence of his calling. And it seems to me he spoke in several ways. He spoke first in a parabolic experience.
In other words, this whole thing that happened was a parable, a real life parable. The parable basically was two-fold in those lessons. Number one, self-directed work is fruitless. You can work all night being a professional fisherman and come up with no fish in the prosperous Sea of Galilee. But if you obey Jesus Christ, you will have abundant blessing. Jesus had said to them, I will make you fishers. Now think of that.
You're a professional fisherman and Jesus says to them, I will make you fishers. You're going to make me a fisherman, Lord? You're a carpenter. He says, no, I will make you fishers, but I will teach you how to catch men. And so Jesus, through the very experience of what happened that morning, spoke through a real life parable to Peter, reminding him that self-directedness ends up with nothing. But if we hear Christ's command and obey it, we will enjoy his blessing.
Secondly, he spoke to Peter through a public interrogation. This is verses 15 through 17, familiar verses. He did this not to inflict pain on Peter, but to heal his pain. Three times Peter had denied his Lord. Three times now he's able to affirm his love and his commitment to Jesus publicly. And three times Jesus says to Peter, feed my sheep. What is happening here? What is Jesus trying to do to Peter? He is trying to reinstate in Peter a sense of confidence that he was still usable.
Peter felt like he had failed and he couldn't be used by God anymore. And yet three times Jesus says in the presence of these very close friends, Peter, I have confidence in you. Feed my sheep. I have something for you to do. And then he speaks to Peter through a personal announcement in verse 18. It is a prophecy regarding Peter's death. Now can you imagine what was in Peter's mind? He's saying, Lord, you're asking me to do that. How do I know whether I will fail again?
How do I know that I won't blow it again, Lord, like I did before? And by what he says in verse 18, Jesus gives to Peter assurance that even in the very end, when he will be carried to a place he would rather not go, a place of crucifixion, tradition says, that Peter would be faithful. Did Peter remember this? Yes he did. And when he wrote his second epistle as he was nearing his martyrdom, he talks about the fact that the Lord Jesus had showed him that he must soon depart.
He knew he was going to die. But Jesus here gave him assurance that he would be faithful. He may have blown it, yes, but he could be restored, he could serve the Lord, and he would be faithful. And then in verse 22 there's a powerful reminder. Because Peter turns around and he says, Lord, what about John? And Jesus said, Peter, that's really not your business. You just follow me. You just follow me.
So there's a reminder to Peter that he, Jesus, is Lord, and that he is in control of all of the events surrounding our lives, and that he has alone the right to choose our destiny. And if Peter is going to be carried out and crucified by the Lord's choice, so John would have a destiny also of the Lord's choice, and we know from history that it was to live a long life before he ultimately died. There's a powerful reminder. Peter on this occasion was completely restored.
His heart was overflowing, I believe, with a deeply felt devotion to Jesus. Within just a few weeks of this very morning, he would stand before countless thousands of people at the temple and preach to them. And the result would be that 3,000 people would be saved in that one meeting. Yes, Peter was restored to service, and he was filled with a new confidence that God could use him. What a very special friend Jesus was to Peter. John Geyer writes, what kind of friend inspires devotion like that?
He answers, a friend who prayed for Peter when he was weak, a friend who forgave Peter when he failed, a friend who healed a painful memory, a friend who loved him, a friend who believed in him, a friend like Jesus, a friend who first laid down his life for Peter. I want you to know this morning that failure in your life and experience is not the end of things. Our risen King Jesus Christ deeply desires to restore you, if you have failed, to a renewed purpose.
And he will do that through divinely arranged encounters that he might manifest himself to you. It may be the experiences of life will become like a parable, speaking to you, showing you, convincing you. It may be that someone will be sent by the Lord to talk to you directly. It may be in the word of God that he will give a personal announcement to you, or some kind of powerful reminder of what he has called you to do in life, that though you may have blown it, he still desires to use you.
If you're sitting here today and like Peter, at the beginning of the chapter, you've had a major failure in your life that has destroyed your sense of purpose or usefulness to God. This is good news. It may be that you've had a breakdown in your marriage. It may even be that you've experienced divorce. And you feel as a result of that failure in your life, you're just done, you're on the shelf, God can't use you anymore. Not according to John 21.
You may have had a moral fall, and you've done something you thought you would never do. You grew up knowing that that was wrong. You knew that you shouldn't do it. And yet you've experienced a fall morally. And you have convinced yourself, and the devil has been there to say amen, that because of that moral fall in your life, God can't use you for anything anymore, that's a lie. Perhaps it is a failure in your life, some disappointment with God. Or you've gotten angry with God.
And that anger, you just exploded at God. And because you did that, you feel that God is angry at you. And somehow you hear echoing in your mind the idea that God is so mad at you, he's going to make your life miserable. And he's never going to touch you again with blessing. That's a lie. It may be that like Peter, in some way you've denied the Lord. And that moment of test, you said, I don't even know the man. I don't know who he is. I don't know what the failure may be.
But my point today is this. Your life is not over. There where sin abounds, grace much more abounds. That God's grace is sufficient for any failure in your life. He wants to restore you to fellowship, to himself, and he wants to restore you to purpose and to meaning in life. Will you do that this morning? Will you let him restore you? Will you let him speak to your heart? And will you, like Peter, say, Lord, Lord, you know that I love you? And his words to you will be very simple.
Then follow me. And I will make you what I want you to be. Let's pray. Father, I thank you, myself, for the encouragement of this chapter. And I pray for all of my brothers and sisters who are here, but especially for those that somehow overcome by failure. And whether that failure be public or it be a very private one, they're battling today with a sense of value and usefulness to you.
For Jesus, as you came to the Sea of Galilee and restored Peter, as we stand beside Galilee in our thoughts today, restore your children who are hurting within due to their failure. Before I finish praying, I wonder if you want to say something to the Lord. Do you need to acknowledge your failure? Be restored in fellowship? Then do that. Do that so that you can hear his words to follow him. Become your love for Jesus this morning. Amen. I'm going to ask you to open your hymnal and turn to 336.
Number 336. It simply says, Jesus, I come to you out of my sorrow and my night, out of my shameful failure and my loss. Jesus, I come. And if this morning you want to come to the Lord and be restored, and you hear his voice calling you as it were beside the sea, I want to invite you to slip out from where you're going to be standing and come right here to the front and together we're going to have prayer after we have dismissed the service.
Because I want you to go out of here with your heart confident that life is not over. Jesus is the Lord who gives another opportunity and he's offering that to you today. Let's stand as we sing 336, first verse.