John 21:1-6 - "The Morning Mourning Ends"

John 21:1-6

Outline

Intro: Epilogue

Closing loose ends

Looking forward; prepare the audience for what’s coming next

The disciples weren’t abandoning

Some says they were running away

Called to wait - They live life

Just like many of us. Obedience looks like living life as usual where you are planted

Not everyone is called to big ministries in all seasons of life. There are seasons of life where you just live.. You are called to live a Christian life where God has placed you.

Maybe as a faithful Christian father, mother to your children, as a faithful, loving Christian friend, coworker.

So this is fitting for most of us; being faithful is to live a Christian witness where God places us

The night is dark and the dawn is distant

Why they don’t go back?

This is not recreational fishing.. More is at stake...

How long have you been fishing and say this is enough...

John uses night to express spiritual darkness

They are good at it (supposedly). Imagine. Blister. how many times...

I would bet that we know how it feels like..

You try and try and try and try And the only thing you are accumulating is disappointment

You give your all, but get nothing in return; Your run out of strength as you run out of time

Every attempt returns empty; The clock is ticking but the finish line isn’t even in sight

climb a mountain only to find another one behind it.

Not fishing maybe

But broken relationship that you have been trying hard to fix or to build.. maybe it’s your wife; your husband, your children, but it’s just not working

Maybe you are trying to find a job, a new job, don’t remember anymore how many you applied. Every email response people ask

Maybe you have been trying to have a child

You just want things to work. Catch a break a little.

It is a long dark night

I don’t know if they remember.. recently there was a moment of great darkness too...

The three Gospels recorded.. When Jesus died on the cross the earth became dark

At the time it is more than celestial phenomena, it is a spiritual one

The drama of crucifixion. Death, Evil, in the form of religious evil represented by the Jewish temple, governmental evil represented by rome, social evil represented by the crowd shouting crucify Him, spiritual evil rolled into one.

That day, evil employed all the ammunition, trickery, deception, wretchedness, wickedness, everything he has in his power to murder the Son of God and it seemed to have succeeded.

The Prince of Peace hung naked on the Roman cross a grotesque trophy of the devil himself. it screams in boastful despicable arrogance that your the best heavens could offer, your God, the only hope of humanity is dead. Behold, the mutilated abused body of your savior. And there is nothing anyone could do about it. Nature grieved; They sky turns black; darkest than a thousand midnights.

Psalm 30:1-5

Oohhh morning comes indeed. f

You know when Joseph said you meant evil for God made it for good Genesis 50:20

See that morning Jesus..

His coming back to life means the death of death. but it is a display, His living body with wound is a trophy showing..

The worst.. and the best met.. best the evil could do.. its vile and viscious schemes, not only that it was defeated, but God made it for good.. to save many people alive.

Let’s get back to the dark long night of which the disciples have perhaps almost given up

Morning too has come

And the risen Lord stood on the shore. You know where its gonna go don’t you

If the Lord did not rise again. That shore remains empty and the disciples would go home exhausted, defeated, and empty handed

But our Lord came back. Hold your excitement… we know the ending but the disciples didn’t.. did not know that it was Jesus!

Fish… 153 fishes on a small

As I pondered this.. why did Jesus have to wait? Why not just come sooner, or just let the disicples get some fish?! More days that they caught - most days they caught fish..

Remember the epilogue? Foreboding of what’s to come?

Jesus is letting them experience this a second time! Because this experience forebodes what’s to come. That night they were fishermen, but they will after this become the fisher of men

There will be dark nights, difficult time in their ministries, and during those nights, they have to employ everything that they have been equipped with.. The boat, the net properly maintained, the muscles, the skills.. they will have to obey even when it is hard.

When the night is the darkest.. you can’t tell the time of when the morning is going to come

The encouragement is that all you do; everything that you give is not going to be in vain

Because they will eventually bear fruit.. The fish, 153 of them, none of them lost were the image of people from all nations brought to Christ. The work of the disciples result in me, and Indonesian American preaching the Gospel of Christ in San Jose 2000 years later

But the reminder in all of this is that.. it is all only possible because of the guidance and the work and the power of Christ. It is not their wit. Nor their experience, but it is Christ in them. Christ who gathers the fish. Doesn’t matter left side or right side. Without Christ they are nothing.

They need this memory as they enter some of the greatest challenges and victories that the will soon face as they enter into ministry. And the reminder here morning will come. You will bear fruit, because I will make you bear fruit.

So close with what it means for us.

Some of you are in the middle of the night.. you know.. You wonder when is it gonna end.. Is morning ever going to come..?

The resurrection of Christ.

The worst the fallen world can unleash upon us.. It is not going to be in vain because this broken world filled with sin, pain, hurt, disappointments.. this world has been defeated.

And God is able not only just to make your suffering end. Suicide gets you that. But better

He can make your suffering meant for good. Your current suffering. Your current patience endurance. Your midnight prayers and silent tear. Yous exhaustion.

Suffering won’t just end, it won’t be in vain…

2 Cor 4:16-18

My encouragement to you is to hang in there. None of your tears, sweat, blood will be shed in vain. Morning is coming. Christ is never late.

None of the disciples even imagined that night they would come home with record catch that they will still be talking about it decades later. 3-4 decades after the event. You could imagine old John saying… let me tell you of that when we caught nothing but came home with yet-to-be-defeated record catch of lake Tiberias. 153 fish. It was not us. It was Jesus.

Same like you too. Years down the road you will be speaking and sharing of the darknest nights you had to walk through. And the abundance of fruit and harvest that is produced out of it when the morning comes. And you will say it was not us. It was Jesus.

Psalm 30

Ideas

Disciples were not hobby fishermen. They were experts

Night fire torch to see the shoal of fish

Everything has meaning; we do not always know what they are, exactly

Disciples were not hobby fishermen. They were experts

Night fire torch to see the shoal of fish

Our confidence will not be in our own strength but in the sovereignty of Christ

Our comfort will not be in our morality but in the mercy of Christ

Our concern will not be for our own priorities but for the people of Christ

Our commitment will not be to our own comfort but to the cross of Christ

Chapter 21 like an epilogue

They were about to be commissioned; but this lesson will be important...

Apart from Jesus they could do nothing (John 15:5)

In our daily life. Work for a living, Jesus is active too. You will need this experience when God calls you to something…

Ministry, no fruit

Wife,

Husband, wanting to provide

Students, struggling

Again, Jesus shows his power as he allows us to realize our failure in the areas that we think we are so good at.. God needs to teach us, prepare us with humility

They will do powerful things

YOU will do powerful things

Teach your children stuffs that won’t bear fruit years later

Wisdom from a stranger

I once caught 153 fishes. But it wasn’t me!

Everlasting night

Weeping may endure for the night but joy comes in the morning

Blisters tired...

Peter tried to walk lol

This is the things that they are good at! but fail big time

Peter’s redemption

The cross as a sign from the Romans/evil that we get to do whatever we want with you and you can’t do anything about it. The cross is the best effort of all that is evil the ignorance of the.. the rejection of the…

Evil has been completely, utterly defeated

The suffering we experience in this fallen world

Galatians 1:4

Ephesians 6:12

Fellowship in the Lord… when we are tired we go back to Jesus and the cross and remind ourselves again of what it has accomplished. Go to the cross, and rest a little in the ever caring ever providing embrace of our Lord

Raising a good son

Verse-Verse

21 After these things Jesus showed Himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias, and in this way He showed Himself: 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.”

“after these things” is generic - then

They said to him, “We are going with you also.” They went out and immediately got into the boat, and that night they caught nothing.

4 But when the morning had now come, Jesus stood on the shore; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. 5 Then Jesus said to them, “Children, have you any food?” They answered Him, “No.” 6 And He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast, and now they were not able to draw it in because of the multitude of fish.

7 Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment (for he had removed it), and plunged into the sea.

8 But the other disciples came in the little boat (for they were not far from land, but about two hundred cubits), dragging the net with fish.

9 Then, as soon as they had come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid on it, and bread. 10 Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish which you have just caught.”

11 Simon Peter went up and dragged the net to land, full of large fish, one hundred and fifty-three; and although there were so many, the net was not broken.

12 Jesus said to them, “Come and eat breakfast.” Yet none of the disciples dared ask Him, “Who are You?”—knowing that it was the Lord.

13 Jesus then came and took the bread and gave it to them, and likewise the fish.

14 This is now the third time Jesus showed Himself to His disciples after He was raised from the dead.

Quotes/Sources

Guzik:

It is important to remember that they went to Galilee because Jesus told them to (Matthew 28:7, 28:10).

This was probably a test of their ability to find the guidance of God in small and unsuspected ways – such as a stranger calling out fishing instructions from the shore

the resurrected Jesus was still a humble servant. He took the trouble to prepare a fire and cook the food for His disciples.

Spurgeon:

“The disciples were waiting for Jesus to appear, so we should not conclude that Peter abandoned his mission in order to return to the profession of fishing… ” (Sproul)

“There is not a hint of “aimlessness” or “desperation” in the text. That a one-time fisherman should tell his friends one evening, “I’m going fishing” does not imply “I’m finished with preaching the kingdom of God, and I’m going back to my old job.” (Murray)

“To be a fisherman, a man must expect disappointments; he must often cast in the net and bring up nothing but weeds. The minister of Christ must reckon upon being disappointed; and he must not be weary in well-doing for all his disappointments, but must in faith continue in prayer and labor, expecting that at the end he shall receive his reward.”

“It is a miracle, certainly, but yet neither the fisherman, nor his boat, nor his fishing tackle are ignored; they are all used and all employed. Let us learn that in the saving of souls God worketh by means; that so long as the present economy of grace shall stand, God will be pleased by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.”

“Perhaps, if they had not fished at night, Christ would not, have given them fish in the day time. He does not often come to bless idlers; he acts sovereignly, as I have said, but he generally gives his blessing to those churches that do the most for him.”

“They ate the bread and fish that morning, I doubt not, in silent self- humiliation. Peter looked with tears in his eyes at that fire of coals, remembering how he stood and warmed himself when he denied his Master. Thomas stood there, wondering that he should have dared to ask such proofs of a fact most clear. All of them felt that they could shrink into nothing in his divine presence, since they had behaved so ill.”

Evangelical Commentary on the Bible:

Rivalry motif between Peter and John

PNTC:

As in the days before his crucifixion, Jesus is still ahead of the disciples, providing for their needs and serving them—a lesson the church must learn again and again.

Afterwards (meta tauta, as in 3:22) establishes sequence but no chronological details.

It might be tempting to suppose that these seven disciples represent, through the symbolism of the number, all of Jesus’ followers. But since John does not habitually utilize this number, nor even in this instance mention the number—the reader must do the addition—we cannot be certain.

Moreover by this time Peter himself had seen the risen Lord (Lk. 24:34; 1 Cor. 15:5), a point confirmed by the fact that Peter so quickly threw himself into the water and swam for shore as soon as the identity of the man of the shore was pointed out. This does not read like the action of someone who is running away.

But as Marshall points out, the amount of ‘common dialogue’ is greatly over-estimated. It amounts to no more than the command to let down their nets. If the disciples are not expecting Jesus to appear, and do not recognize the man on the shore, it is hard to see how Jesus’ exhortation to throw the net on the starboard side greatly differs from advice contemporary sports fishermen have to endure (and occasionally appreciate): ‘Try casting over there. You often catch them over there!’ (If there are some contemporary sports fishermen who have not yet experienced this delight, I recommend they take my children with them on their next trip.)

It was almost as if the disciples were reluctant to come, even as they were eager to be with him. Jesus must spell out the invitation: Come and have breakfast (aristēsate, here used, as classically, for the first meal of the day, as v. 4 requires; more commonly in the New Testament for a later meal—e.g. Lk. 11:37–38; 14:12

Perhaps it is the lack of imaginative historical reconstruction on our part that makes us hesitate to see the compelling power of this interpretation. Our creeds make the resurrection of Jesus Christ so central that it requires considerable mental effort to put ourselves in the places of the first disciples. The evidence of ch. 20 is here presupposed. The disciples had been granted the strongest possible reasons for believing in Jesus’ resurrection, and indeed did so: they knew it was the Lord. But whether because they could see Jesus was not simply resuscitated (like Lazarus), but appeared with new powers, or because they were still grappling with the strangeness of a crucified and resurrected Messiah, or because despite the irrefutable power of the evidence presented to them resurrection itself seemed strange, they felt considerable unease—yet suppressed their question because they knew the one before them could only be Jesus.

NT Wright

Jesus suffers the full consequences of evil, evil from political, social, cultural, personal, moral, religious, and spiritual angles all rolled into one, evil in the downward spisral hurtling towards the pit of destructionand despir