JOHN 21:1-14 - A Graciously Prepared Meal

Introduction

HE IS RISEN!

This day, above all days on the Christian calendar, is our day to celebrate; a day to be glad and sing—this day marks the day when our Savior broke the power of death—the grave is a toothless worm, a conquered foe. And you who belong to Jesus Christ by faith will never be held by it!

Romans 8:38–39 (ESV)

38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ has purchased all of this for you, Christian—and so much more. In a sense, every faithful and true Gospel word that has ever come out of this pulpit in the 130 years of this church’s existence was purchased by Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection. And so when we gather here on Resurrection Sunday, we are drawn to the Scriptures that describe that early Sunday morning when He walked out of that tomb and left the grave bereft of its prize.

The Scriptures tell us in Acts 1:3, that Jesus spent forty days between His resurrection and His ascension to Heaven:

Acts 1:3 (ESV)

3 He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.

Just as He spent 40 days in the wilderness between His appearing before John the Baptist to the start of His public ministry, so we learn that He spent 40 days in the “wilderness” of this world between His Resurrection and His Ascension to Heaven, where he received the Kingdom that had been promised to Him:

Daniel 7:13–14 (ESV)

13 “I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. 14 And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.

Luke tells us in the opening of the Book of Acts that Jesus did two things during this 40 day period: He "presented Himself alive by many proofs”, and He “spoke about the Kingdom of God.”

But for all of those 40 days, we only have a handful of records about what He did and where He went during that time, don’t we? We have one of those events recorded for us here in our text; in the previous chapter we see that He appeared to Mary Magdalene outside His tomb (John 20:11-18), and to the disciples (apart from Thomas - vv. 19-23) and then eight days later with Thomas present (vv. 24-29.) In Luke’s Gospel we are told that He appeared on that first Sunday evening to two disciples on their way to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35). And then He appeared to His disciples and others at His ascension (Matthew 28:16-20).

All of the appearances recorded for us in the Gospels are appearances and conversations that He had with His people—think about that for a moment. I don’t know about you, but if I had been in His place, the very first thing I would have done is march straight to Caiaphas’ house and demanded his repentance! And then to every member of the Sanhedrin, then to Herod’s palace and then to the Praetorium to have a word with Pilate and the soldiers in that garrison!

But that’s not what Jesus did, is it? He did not go out to all of the people that had crucified Him as a witness to His own resurrection—that’s what He was sending His disciples to do!

Acts 1:8 (ESV)

8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Jesus called His disciples to do the work of witnessing to the resurrection of Christ—they would be the ones to confront Caiaphas and Annas (Acts 4:7), they would be the ones to declare to Jerusalem and Rome that there is a risen and reigning King to whom they owed their obedience and loyalty. Jesus was giving His children the task of

Matthew 28:19–20 (ESV)

19 [Going] and [making] disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

The only problem with that is that the disciples were exhausted! They were worn out and wrung out by the events surrounding His death; they had battled and lost fights against despair, cowardice and unbelief; they had hidden behind locked doors and argued with the women who actually saw Jesus raised from the dead.

So if you want to know what Jesus was doing for those 40 days, He was tending to His weary children. He promised that He would send His Spirit to give them power from on high, but in the meantime He was content to look after them and strengthen them and care for them. In all of His resurrection power and majesty and glory, days before He was to ascend to Heaven and receive all power and authority in heaven and earth and a kingdom that will never end, He was content to stoop down and tend to His weary, worn-out friends!

This is what I want you to see here in this account—only John records this event, and it is fitting that the man who was perhaps Jesus’ closest friend on this earth would be the one to tell it. And don’t pass by the fact that while the other Gospels end with Jesus’ ascension into glory, John ends with Jesus’ encouragement of His weary friends! So for you who are a child of God this morning and come here weary and worn out, exhausted in the midst of the race you are running, take heart from the Scriptures today as you see here that

Jesus delights to FEAST His WEARY children on His GRACE

When we read the opening verses of our text, we are immediately presented with a puzzle—look at verses 1-3 with me and let’s see what we can make of it:

John 21:1–3 (ESV)

1 After this Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias, and he revealed himself in this way. 2 Simon Peter, Thomas (called the Twin), Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together. 3 Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.” They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.

Now, you may have heard it said that these verses represent a failure of faith on the disciples’ part—they were discouraged and despairing over Jesus’ death and the turmoil of events that followed His resurrection, and so they said, “We’ll just fall back on what we know: We’ll go back to fishing for a living...”

But I think that’s pretty unfair to the disciples—after all, Jesus had given them explicit instructions to wait for Him in Galilee:

Matthew 28:10 (ESV)

10 Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.”

So there they were, at the Sea of Galilee (which John here calls by its Roman name, Tiberius). They were waiting for Jesus to come and give them their instructions, but they weren’t content to just sit around and do nothing. Matthew Henry commends them in his commentary for “redeeming time, and not being idle.” When you are waiting for God to show you what to do, do something in the meantime!

So the disciples weren’t being faithless or unbelieving when they went back to their nets and boats—but there is something unusual about their decision. Look again at who was in this group: Simon Peter, Thomas, Nathaniel, the “sons of Zebedee” (who are James and John) and two “other disciples.”

Anything about that strike you as odd? We might expect Peter and James and John to go out fishing, since that was their trade—but there is no indication that Thomas or Nathaniel ever knew anything about fishing! Matthew Henry suggests that after missing Jesus’ appearance in John 20, Thomas decided to stick close to Peter and the other apostles so that he wouldn’t miss Him again, but there seems to be something else going on here. Of the seven disciples involved in this fishing trip, only three were named: Peter, Thomas and Nathaniel.

Why only those three? What is John aiming at showing us in this account? What do these three disciples have in common? Each of them had failed Jesus in some way. Each of them had fought and lost their own battles with unbelief: Peter denied ever knowing Jesus at the point of His greatest need of friends; Thomas steadfastly refused to believe that Jesus had been resurrected unless he could stick his fingers in His wounds; when Philip told Nathaniel that the Messiah was in Galilee, Nathaniel scoffed back at him: “Yeah right! Can anything good come out of Nazareth??” (John 1:46). All three of these men were together on that boat that night, all three of

I. His children WEIGHED DOWN by their FAILURES (John 21:1-3)

They knew that Jesus was going to meet them in Galilee; they wanted to see Him; they loved Him and honored Him as their Savior and Messiah. They didn’t know when Jesus would arrive, or what He would say when He got there. But they were waiting for them, each one weighed down by their failure.

Consider Simon Peter’s shame—when his Lord needed him most,

Peter had CUT and RUN (cp. John 18:25-27)

There is no burden like the shame of denying that you belong to Jesus. This was Peter’s burden; that at the moment when his Friend needed him the most, Peter denied ever knowing Jesus:

John 18:25–27 (ESV)

25 Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. So they said to him, “You also are not one of his disciples, are you?” He denied it and said, “I am not.” 26 One of the servants of the high priest, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, asked, “Did I not see you in the garden with him?” 27 Peter again denied it, and at once a rooster crowed.

He had sworn that he would die before abandoning Jesus; he had drawn his weapon and tried to hack his way through the soldiers to get Jesus away from the Garden—Peter was the one who always stood up, who was always ready to go to the mat for His Lord. But when it came right down to the sharp end, he folded like a cheap tent, filling his mouth with curses and profanities (cp. Mark 14:71) and doing whatever he could to convince the people around him that he had nothing to do with Jesus.

Some of you know that shame, don’t you? You carry your well-worn Bible with you here this morning, you sing the psalms and hymns with all your heart, you have been waiting all week for Resurrection Sunday so that you can rejoice in Jesus’ conquering of sin and the grave. But the other day you went out of your way to convince people that you weren’t a Christian. You said what you needed to say, you laughed at whatever joke you needed to laugh at, you used whatever language you had to so that no one in that place would suspect you of being a believer.

And now you’re here. You participated with all your heart in the confession of sin and assurance of pardon earlier in the service, but you’re still weighed down by the shame because, just like Peter, you cut and ran. But Jesus has grace for you here today.

Peter toiled in that fishing boat, burdened not only with the nets and oars and ropes of his task, but bearing the weight of his failure. Next to him, Thomas the Twin, the disciple who missed Jesus’ first appearance to the disciples on Sunday evening. He had heard Jesus promise over and over again that He was going to be crucified and then rise from the dead three days later:

Luke 18:31–33 (ESV)

31 And taking the twelve, he said to them, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. 32 For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. 33 And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise.”

Peter had cut and run, and

Thomas had GIVEN IN to UNBELIEF (John 20:25)

There is no burden like the shame of having your spite and obstinate unbelief put on display for all to see. This was Thomas’ burden; even though he had heard Jesus’ promise that He would rise again from the dead the third day, he refused to believe it. And more than that, even when all of his friends told him that they had seen the Lord, he refused to believe them!

John 20:25 (ESV)

25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.”

“Thomas—Jesus really did rise from the dead! We all saw Him and talked to Him!” “No, He didn’t. You’re lying. I don’t believe you. The only way I will believe you are telling the truth is to stick my fingers into His wounds. Otherwise, I WILL NEVER BELIEVE.”

Can you imagine how those words would have burned in Thomas’ memory, how humiliating and painful it was for him to hear his own pessimistic, spiteful atheism coming out of His Lord’s own mouth?

John 20:27 (ESV)

27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.”

Some of you here today know exactly what Thomas went through—you love Jesus; you have trusted Him as your Savior and He has delivered you from the wrath of God by His blood. You’re just like Thomas, who loved Jesus so much that he was ready to go die with Him when He wanted to go back to Judea to raise Lazarus despite the Jews’ threats to kill Him (cp. John 11:16).

But when it comes right down to it, you’re an idolater, because you believe in yourself more than you believe in Him. Thomas wouldn’t believe anybody but himself—Jesus’ own promises to rise from the dead meant nothing to him, his friends word that He had done so meant nothing to him. The only thing he would believe was his own experience. And like Thomas, you hear Christ’s promises never to leave you or forsake you, His promises that everything that comes into your life is for your eternal good, that He will hear and answer when you pray, that He is faithful and can be trusted—but you won’t believe it. But Jesus has grace for you here today.

Peter was carrying the burden of having cut and run, Thomas the burden of giving in to unbelief. The third named disciple in this account is Nathaniel. His burden on this day was that

Nathaniel was from the WRONG side of the TRACKS

Now the reason I say this is because of a little detail in Verse 2 that puts his whole story in a new light. We know from John 1 that when Philip came to Nathaniel to tell him that Jesus was the Messiah, Nathaniel answered with sarcasm:

John 1:45–46 (ESV)

45 Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” 46 Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.”

Nathanael was scornfully dismissive of the notion that anything good could come from Nazareth. But his response gets cast into a whole new light here in Chapter 21—look again at Verse 2: Where was Nathanael from? Cana of Galilee! In fact, Cana is about four miles from Nazareth (about the same distance as DuBois from Falls Creek!) Nathanael wasn’t just looking down on Jesus because He was a “hick from the sticks”—when He said “Can anything good come from Nazareth?”, he was talking about himself as well! “Nobody important comes from our neck of the woods! I know the kind of people who live in Nazareth, because it’s just up the road from Cana—the same kind of people live here, and I can’t believe anyone from around here could be the Messiah!”

Some of you here know exactly what that’s like, don’t you? You love Jesus; like Nathanael you have confessed that He is The Son of God, the King of Israel (John 1:49), but you’ve never quite gotten over the thought that you don’t really belong with “church people”. That you aren’t really a part of the “respectable” crowd—yes, God saved you, but you’re not really the type He wants to represent Him. You’re not the right kind of person to be a Christian; you are always waiting for that moment when everyone around you at church will realize that you aren’t really “one of them...” But Jesus has brought you here today, and He has a feast of grace for you!

Jesus delights to feast His weary children on His grace—Peter and Thomas and Nathaniel were weighed down by their failures; in the following verses of this account we see

II His children REFRESHED by His PRESENCE (John 21:4-14)

At the end of verse 3, we see the kind of night the disciples had on the water:

John 21:3 (ESV)

3 Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.” They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.

A long and wearisome night of casting nets, letting them soak, hauling them in again, gathering them back up again, casting them out again—wet, cold and tired, with the added stress of having at least two landlubbers on board who got in the way more than they helped. And then, just as the sun was coming up, someone called to them from shore:

John 21:4–5 (ESV)

4 Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. 5 Jesus said to them, “Children, do you have any fish?” They answered him, “No.”

There was just enough light to see Someone was standing there (we learn in verse 8 they were about a hundred yards offshore), but they couldn’t make out Who it was from that distance in the dawn’s early light. He calls out, “Hey boys, catch anything?” And you can hear the frustration and annoyance in that single word, “NO...”

How different do you think their response would have been if they had known it was Jesus standing there on the shore? Because even though they didn’t know it,

Jesus was PRESENT in their FRUSTRATION (vv. 4-6)

Even when you can’t recognize Him in it; even when you think everything you’ve done has been for nothing; when you are obediently waiting on Him and redeeming the time as best you can while you wait, He sees and knows all of it! Let the sight of your Savior standing on the shore and the knowledge that He sees every so-called wasted effort, He sees every good thing you’ve tried and failed, He sees your disappointments and struggles with unbelief, and He will not abandon you to despair!

Thomas may have doubted that Jesus could be present in his toil, Peter may have felt that it was only fair for Jesus to abandon him to fruitless labor the way he abandoned Him to His enemies, Nathaniel may have figured that he wasn’t worth Jesus’ time anyway. But Jesus delighted to show them His grace—He made all their labor worth it!

John 21:6 (ESV)

6 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.

Beloved, see how Jesus delights to show you His grace in the midst of the burden of your failure! The disciples snapped at Him when He asked if they caught anything; but see how He condescends to respond with grace and favor and love for them! This is a Savior that delights in His children, and weighs them down with blessings that they never would have expected! (The Sea of Galilee to this day is the greatest producer of tilapia in the world; it’s very likely that the fish they caught were tilapia—probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 750 pounds of fish!) (https://aleteia.org/2020/04/16/what-kind-of-fish-did-the-risen-christ-feed-the-apostles/ Retrieved 3/31/2023)

Jesus feasted His weary children on His grace in the midst of their frustration—as soon as the fish came in, John realized that it was Jesus on the shore. And Peter’s reaction was very Peter-like! It was immediate and drastic:

John 21:7–8 (ESV)

7 ...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. 8 The other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, but about a hundred yards off.

And when they got to shore, they found that Jesus had already prepared for their arrival:

John 21:9 (ESV)

9 When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire in place, with fish laid out on it, and bread.

Jesus feasted them on His grace as he made all of their frustrating labor worth it, and then when they got to shore

Jesus REFRESHED them with His KINDNESS (v. 9)

Think of it—when He asked them if they had caught any fish, it wasn’t because He needed their fish in order to fulfil His purpose—He had already made provision for them! Christian, God may give you the privilege of participating in His purposes, but don’t think for a moment that you are contributing to His purposes!

Think for just a moment on the way Jesus demonstrated His kindness and affection for His weary children: He went out and caught fish for them before they had caught any, and while they were still out on the boat in the midst of their frustration, He was on shore taking the time to build a fire and then tend it until it produced the right kind of coals for broiling fish. And then He sat down on the shore—the resurrected King of Heaven and earth and everything that fills them, the One to Whom all glory and honor and authority and rule was about to be given in a few short days—the King of Kings sat His glorious, miraculous resurrection body on the beach, gutting fresh fish for His friends’ breakfast!

For you who, like Peter, think that you’ve broken your relationship with Christ because you cut and run, for you who like Thomas struggle with giving in to doubt that He will be faithful to you, for you who like Nathaniel believe that God doesn’t really want someone like you—see the kindness of your Savior to feast you on His grace!

But Christ’s joy in His friends goes even further in the next verses—He was present in their frustrating toil, He refreshed them with His kindness, and

Jesus DELIGHTED in His FELLOWSHIP with them (vv. 10-14)

I can’t back this up with a great deal of theology or cross-references, but I think one of the reasons that Peter was in such a hurry to get to the shore was because he was afraid Jesus would leave before he got there, that He wouldn’t want to see Peter because of his denials—but frankly, he went and got his clothes all wet for nothing! Jesus had been there for hours preparing breakfast for them because He delighted in them!

John 21:10 (ESV)

10 Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.”

He prepared the first helping of fish, but was planning on being there with them for a while! In fact, the remainder of this chapter—the end of the Gospel of John—seems to take place here on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. Peter’s reconciliation with Jesus in verses 15-19, their discussion of John’s future in verses 20-24, and John’s final word in verse 25:

John 21:25 (ESV)

25 Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.

But of all of the countless deeds John could have ended his Gospel account with, he chose this morning on the beach with Jesus! Matthew’s Gospel ends with Jesus’ Great Commission to disciple the nations, Mark and Luke end with the dramatic and glorious moment He ascended into Heaven to be received by His Father and granted His eternal kingship. But John ends his account of Christ’s earthly ministry with the morning they spent sitting on the beach eating a broiled fish breakfast together. The other three Gospels focus on His leaving; John ends his account with Jesus’ presence with His friends!

Beloved, if you are here this morning as a weary and worn-out follower of Christ; if you are weighed down by the memory of how you have cut and run and failed to live for Him before the world, if you have given in to unbelief that says He cannot be trusted to keep His promises, if you are telling yourself that you don’t fit in with other believers because of your background—can’t you see here how much your Risen Savior delights in you? In one of the last days of His walking this earth before His ascension, He chose to spend it making breakfast for his weary and worn-out disciples—and He promises that He will do the same for you! When you belong to Jesus by faith, there is no failure you can suffer in your Christian walk that will ever cause Him to lose His delight over you!

When you cut and run, when you give in to unbelief, when you feel that you don’t belong with other believers, His delight in you is not diminished—because the source of that delight is not in what you have done, but what He did on that Cross and what He did in coming out of that tomb! And He delights to feast you on His grace in your weariness!

Only understand—Peter and Thomas and Nathaniel were not only weary and worn down by their sin, they had repented of them. Peter wept bitterly in repentant remorse over denying Christ (Luke 22:62). Thomas repented of his unbelief and confessed Christ as His Savior (John 20:27-28). Nathanael made it clear that his faith was squarely on Jesus Christ the Messiah, the Son of God (John 1:48-49). If you are here this morning weighed down by your sin, but the prospect of Jesus standing on the shore makes you want to paddle away further instead of throwing yourself into the water to Him because you don’t want to come to terms with Him in repentance, then there is no way I can offer you the comfort and encouragement of Christ’s delight in you.

If you would rather double-down on denying Him as your Savior, if you say there is nothing that will make you believe His promises, if you say you don’t belong with God’s people because you’d rather be with people who will help you pursue your own lusts and desires, then the invitation Christ offers you is very different from the one He offered His friends on the beach that morning. If you came here just because it’s Easter Sunday and that’s what you do on Easter Sunday; if this is one of your two times in church for the year because it will help you tell yourself that you’re cool with God (and He’s cool with you), if the only reason you’re here is because it will make a family member happy, then you may not realize it but you are being feasted on the grace of Christ today as well!

Because it is by His grace that you are here today to hear this invitation: Be reconciled to Christ! He did not have to bring you here to hear this Gospel today, any more than He did not have to make breakfast for His weary disciples. But this is the kind of Savior He is—He delights to pour out His grace, He rejoices to show His kindness to those who have not deserved it. And so He has brought you here—denying, doubting, rebellious heart and all—and offered you a feast of His forgiveness for all your rebellion, a feast of cleansing for all your filthiness, a feast of love and joy for all your hatred and bitterness. He stands there, in resurrection glory, offering you a graciously prepared meal of salvation. So make this the day that you drop all of that pride that says you don’t need Him, all of the unbelief that says He won’t forgive you, all of the attitude that says you don’t want to associate with “church people”, all of the denial that says you don’t want anything to do with Him. He has prepared everything you need for your salvation, and He offers it to you freely today. So come to the feast of grace He has prepared! Come—and welcome!—to Jesus Christ!

BENEDICTION:

Ephesians 3:20–21 (ESV)

20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:

What are some reasons why you might have difficulty believing that Christ has extended His grace to you? What parts of this account are most meaningful to you when you consider Jesus’ gracious attitude towards His disciples?

Compare the last chapter of each of the Gospel accounts—how does the ending of John’s Gospel differ from the other three? How does the account with which John chooses to end his Gospel account demonstrate Jesus’ priorities in the days before His ascension?

Why didn’t Jesus go back into Jerusalem and appear before Pilate and Herod and the Sanhedrin so that they would be witnesses to His Resurrection? Read Acts 1:8. Who does this verse say would be witnesses to the Resurrection?

Consider the three disciples named in this account: Peter, Thomas and Nathanael. Which of those disciples’ burdens can you identify with the most? What does Jesus do in this account that gives you assurance of His grace toward you in those burdens?

How can you demonstrate the grace of Christ to another believer who is struggling with their failures this week? Pray that God would give you the opportunity to show His grace to someone who needs to see it!