John 21: 3 Lessons From a Fishing Trip

John 21:1–14 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. 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.” 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. 7 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. 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. 9 When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire in place, with fish laid out on it, and bread. 10 Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.” 11 So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, 153 of them. And although there were so many, the net was not torn. 12 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. 13 Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and so with the fish. 14 This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.

So, here are the disciples by the shore of the sea of Galilee.

Life had changed pretty drastically for them in just a short amount of time.

Their Lord had been arrested, tortured, killed

But then, the empty grave! He was alive again!

But things were still different.

Jesus is kind of here and there.

You’d see Him and then you wouldn’t.

And he’s not traveling around with his band of 12 any more.

I wonder if the disciples, while being overjoyed that Jesus was alive, were feeling a little bit restless, and wondering what is next.

According to Matthew, Jesus told them to meet him in Galilee, so they make the 3-day journey back to their home area.

So, there are 7 of them hanging out together: Peter, Thomas, Nathanael, James and John, and two others

And Peter makes the suggestion one day to go fishing:

We don’t know why. The Bible doesn’t tell us, and we can speculate, but it’s not the point of the story. What happens as a result of this fishing trip is important though

They get their fishing gear together and as night falls, they go out in the boat, hoping for some luck

But, it’s one of those nights, and the fish just aren’t cooperating

The night creeps by.

The grey dawn is starting to spread across the eastern sky, Suddenly, they hear a voice calling to them

“Children, do you have any fish?”

They turn and see in the dim light the figure of a man on the shore

Well, it’s been a long, unlucky night, and doubtless they are tired, and a little grouchy.

One word answer: NO

Well, cast your net on the right side of the boat. I think you’ll find some there

Now, look, these guys are experienced fishermen. And their boat isn’t very big. Why would there be fish on the right side if there aren’t any on the left side. Fish aren’t that organized are they?

But amazingly, they DO it!

Why? Because I think something is already stirring inside of their hearts.

Something in this man’s voice.

His authority.

That command: Hadn’t they heard it somewhere before?

They obey

and Immediately, the nets are so full that they aren’t able to haul it in because of all the fish

Yes, THAT’S why this all seems so familiar. It’s when Jesus pushed out a little way from the shore in Peter’s boat and told him to let his nets out one more time

And they had a haul just like this one!

John was there when that happened and he put’s the pieces together first.

“It’s the LORD!”

John: has Spiritual discernment

“It’s the Lord!”

John is the first to recognize and proclaim the work of the Lord

What about you and me?

How well do we recognize the work of Jesus in our hearts and in our lives

How well are we able to identify when He is at work in our lives…the fingerprints that He leaves

Even when he is working in a way that seems so…unexplainable and strange

Like “Throw your nets on the right”

That’s not logical and explainable. But it’s the way that He works many times.

Maybe thats sort of what Jesus was talking about when He said to Nicodemus: John 3:8 “8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.””

You can’t predict where the wind is blowing, its direction. You don’t know where it is coming or where it is going

You only hear its sound and see its effects.

We like things to be pretty predictable in our lives. We like things to be logical so that we can understand and make sense of what is going on in our lives

But Jesus doesn’t often work like that. And so it’s possible that when He works in our lives, we miss it

He might tell us to let our nets down on the right side of the boat when we’ve spent all night fishing on the left side

He might tell us to go back to Iowa and serve the local church when you’ve spent all night trying to fly airplanes

He might move you to Oregon after you’ve spend all night working as a farmer in Iowa

Does that mean that what you’ve spent all night doing was wrong?

Not necessarily.

But it DOES mean that Jesus sometimes has some different ideas about how His kingdom work is going to get done

Ideas which don’t really make sense to us

And when He speaks up, the question is, do we recognize the voice of our master?

And are we quick to obey?

John was. He recognized the voice of his master and that command, and as crazy as it seemed, they obeyed, and the blessing was immense

Look at the response of Peter

Peter: eager for reconciliation

Grabbed his cloak and jumped into the sea

Can we just cast our mind back to what happened just a short time before this?

Peter had fallen hard.

After declaring enthusiastically that he would NEVER deny His Lord, that’s precisely what he did

Can you imagine the pain and the shame that he felt? Can you imagine the shame that most of this group felt?

We are told that everyone forsook Jesus and fled when they soldiers came to arrest him

But Peter, especially fell hard.

And to make it worse, when Jesus appeared to the disciples, those first two times, Jesus didn’t even say anything to Peter about what had happened

Do you remember as a kid when you did something really bad and your mom would say, “Just wait till your dad gets home. We will deal with it then”

Man does that day drag by. You dread what’s coming, but at the same time, you just want it to be over with.

And then dad comes home, and you know mom has told him about what happened, but he doesn’t DO anything!

That’s worse than the actual punishment!

It’s bee how many days since Jesus arose from the dead, and nothing has been said.

Can you imagine the conflicting emotions in Peter’s heart?

He’s probably wondering, “can our relationship be back to the way it was? Does Jesus even know what I did to him?” I’m so ashamed and embarrassed.

But then John exclaims, “It’s the Lord!”

And Peter does not hesitate one second. He grabs his coat and dives into the sea and swims to shore.

This is opposite of what you would think that he would do. Because it’s opposite of what we often do as people

What is our response when things aren’t right between us and someone else?

We hide, right?

Remember what Adam and Eve did when they goofed up big time. They hid.

Husbands, when you have done something to disappoint your wife, even if she doesn’t know specifically about it, what do you try to do?

You hide, right?

Your relationship feels broken and damaged

When things aren’t right between you and a brother at church, what is your first instinct? To avoid?

When it comes time for communion, and things aren’t right in your relationships, what do you do? Are you eager to come and commune with Jesus and with your church family?

You know, Peter could have done that. He could have stayed in the boat, cowering in shame with his head covered, dreading what Jesus would say when he got back to shore

But he doesn’t do that. He stands up, grabs his coat and gets to Jesus as fast as he possibly can! He can’t wait to get to Jesus!

Why? Because He knows Jesus. He knows the love of His master. He would rather bear his heart to Jesus and confess His shame than to be apart from Him any longer

John doesn’t tell us what happens between the time that Peter got to shore and the boats got there, but I think we can guess, that maybe what was said between them was for Peter and Jesus only

Peter was eager for reconciliation.

What about you and me? When things aren’t right between you and Jesus, how eager are you to run to Him, to swim to Him?

Do you trust in His love and grace that much, that you can bare your heart to Him

When things aren’t right between you and a brother or sister, how eager are you to run to that person? Do we trust each other enough to say, “I’m sorry for any way that I have hurt you, and I need you to forgive me.

This is really hard, but as hard and difficult as this, I would rather things be right between us then anything else in the world?

Jesus: overwhelming grace

All the disciples make it to shore, and they find a little charcoal blaze

Apparently Jesus has been doing some fishing of his own because he already has fish on it along with some bread

And He invites them to eat with Him.

We have talked about this often, but please don’t miss the significance of Jesus invitation: “Come and have breakfast”

Don’t miss the significance of Jesus taking the bread, handing it out, and distributing the fish

When I read this passage, I think of my Zimbawean friend who said to me, “In my country when you want to be friends with someone, you say ‘Will you eat/share my food with me?’ So, I ask you, ‘Will you share my food with me?’

I think of the 70 elders going up on Mount Sinai and eating and drinking in the presence of the LORD God

I think of Jesus eating the Passover meal with his disciples

It is the invitation to fellowship, to friendship, to a convenant relationship with him

It is the declaration of His grace and friendship. When He invites you to come and eat with Him, He is inviting you into friendship, relationship, covenant.

When we come together for communion, to break the bread and drink the cup in remembrance of our Lord’s death, he is inviting you to come and eat with Him. He is inviting you into friendship with Him

Too often, I think we don’t come to communion because we aren’t happy about something at church,

Or maybe we have some difficulty with relationships.

And on the basis of those things we, think that

Maybe we aren’t “ready” for communion

Maybe we aren’t welcome to take communion

We are concerned that we will eat and drink unworthily, as 1 Corintians 11 says

Now, I’m not downplaying those things. But I want us to understand that communion is an invitation from Jesus into friendship with Him.

He told His disciples “Do this in remembrance of me”

When you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are proclaiming my death. You are proclaiming my sacrifice

So, while relationships are very important, I believe that we have to understand first and foremost that when Jesus said “do this in remembrance of me”, He was inviting us to accept His invitation to friendship and fellowship

It was an invitation to accept the offer of peace that God was extending through Jesus toward those whom He loves: you and me

Think about these disciples. They were men who doubtless were uncertain about their relationship with Jesus

We know that John stuck around by the cross as Jesus died, but the others, where were they?

Peter denied. The others all ran away

We know that Peter was filled with regret. But could it be that the others were feeling shamed and guilty as well? I think so

I don’t know how that all played into their relationships with each other, but I’m sure it made for some interesting dynamics.

Nathaniel gets on Peter’s case for denying that he knew Jesus

James is chastising Thomas for doubting that Jesus was alive

It’s possible that the relationships between these guys were a mess

But Jesus....

But Jesus still invited them to come and eat with Him.

And not one of them said, “Nope, things aren’t quite right yet, so I can’t eat with you.”

They all sat down and ate.

Out of the deep and matchless grace of Jesus, their relationship and friendship with Him was restored.

And I would dare to believe that out of a restored relationship with Jesus, their relationships with each other were strengthened and restored as well

Jesus still isn’t quite done with Peter as we will see in the following verses

He still has some work to do with Peter, as He does with all of us

But what challenged you this morning?

Are you like John—quick to recognize the voice and the work of your master, even when He works in the most unusual of ways?

Are you like Peter—refusing to wallow in self-pity and regret over past failures, and eager for reconciliation with your Lord and with your brothers and sisters, seeking out forgiveness and restoration

What about Jesus? Have you experienced His matchless grace and forgiveness? Inviting you back into fellowship when you have failed?