Sermon Tone Analysis

There is a situation that all of us who follow Christ will face eventually, if we haven’t already.

At some point in our walk with Jesus, we will decide to listen to our pride instead of listening to Christ, and we will get off track and fail to do what he has called us to do.

There will come a time when we go for a week and realize we haven’t spent any time with him or barely even thought of him.

There may be a time when we sin in a way that has more visible consequences—something that damages a relationship with someone else or impacts us in a bigger way.

What do we do when we realized we have failed?

As we look at John 21 together this morning, we are going to what happened to Peter after he failed.

Peter’s one of Jesus’s closest disciples, and yet, when Jesus was arrested, Peter denied three times that he even knew Jesus.

We saw that back in chapter 18.

Jesus went on to be crucified and rise from the dead, and he has appeared to the disciples, but there hasn’t been any mention of what happened with Peter that night.

Let’s set the scene a bit and fill in some of the gaps John doesn’t explain.

Remember, John wrote his gospel last, so he knew you already had the other three and didn’t need him to give you all the details that they contained.

When we line up John’s account with what we find in the other gospels, we see that at some point, Jesus told the disciples to go back to a mountain in Galilee and wait for him there.

We don’t know the exact passage of time, but judging by where we find Peter and the others, it seems like the are in Galilee and waiting for Jesus when we pick up in verse 1.

Also, John had already said in 6:1 that the Sea of Galilee was also known as the Sea of Tiberius.

So, then, we find the disciples back in their home region of Galilee, and they are back near the same waters that at least Peter, Andrew, James, and John had been fishing when Jesus first called them.

They are there, and they are waiting on Jesus.

Now, let’s pick up with the account we have in front of us.

Start in 21:1-3...

We need to be careful here, because the Bible doesn’t tell us exactly why Peter and the guys went fishing that day.

He may have been bored and tired of waiting for Jesus, he may have become disillusioned with the whole thing, or it may have just been something they did in the downtime while they waited for Jesus to meet them on the mountain.

We don’t know whether it was right or wrong for them to do this, so we have to be careful when we go to assign meaning to it.

Whatever their motive, it sure wasn’t a great night.

At least three of these men had been professional fishermen when Jesus called them to follow him.

Don’t think of a professional bass fisherman here—think more like Wicked Tuna or someone else who tries to catch lots of fish to sell.

Now, a few years later, they are out all night and can’t catch a single thing.

Whether or not they were frustrated when they started, I can only imagine they were pretty unhappy at this point.

Keep in mind what has happened with Peter—remember, he denied Jesus three times before his crucifixion.

Although he was one of the first into the tomb and was there when Jesus appeared to the rest of the disciples, it seems like there would have to be a tinge of shame in the back of his mind at least.

He had abandoned Jesus at the worst possible moment.

Now, not only that, he can’t even catch a fish anymore.

This moment, with its combination of Peter’s failure and the disciples’ frustration with fishing sets the stage for a beautiful moment of restoration.

When we fail like Peter did, we need to begin by...

1) Remember God’s faithfulness.

Pick up in verses 4-6...

Is there anyone in here who actually likes it when someone tells you how to do your job?

I mean, think about it…you are exhausted, been fishing all night, with nothing to show for it, and suddenly, some jerk from the bank starts yelling at you.

The CSB translates the first part of verse 5 as “Friends”, but more accurately, the term is “Children,” and it was often used between a leader and his followers.

One commentator says it could be rendered as something like “my boys”.

Not only does he point out that they don’t have any fish, he starts telling them what to do! Look at verse 6.

They didn’t know it was Jesus at this point, but they did it anyway.

Immediately, they pulled in such a great haul of fish that they couldn’t pull the nets back into the boat.

In that moment, something clicked.

You see, this had happened before.

In Luke 5, we read about the day Jesus called Peter to follow him.

Jesus borrowed Peter’s boat, and they went out into the lake a little ways so he could sit in the boat and address the crowd on the shore.

Then, we see this:

After that moment, Jesus told Peter that he wouldn’t be fishing for fish anymore.

Rather, he was going to be joining Jesus in throwing out the net of the gospel message and seeing God draw people into his kingdom as a fisher of people.

Here is Peter, having failed Jesus some time before and now a failure at fishing.

Yet, in the midst of his failure, he sees the faithfulness of God again.

Look at what unfolds in verses 7-14

Peter puts on his proper attire, dives in, and swims to Jesus as soon as he recognizes him.

There, they meet Jesus on the beach and find he has already prepared breakfast for them.

There are these incredible eyewitness details that John includes, even the exact number of the fish (153).

In spite of Peter’s failure, Jesus was still faithful.

He knew they would fish all night and catch nothing, and he knew he would be able to call them back to the start by providing the catch in the same way he did when he called them.

He even provided them with a warm breakfast after a long, difficult night.

It reminds me of Elijah, one of the great prophets of the Old Testament.

He had seen God work in an incredibly miraculous way, but a wicked queen threatened to kill him.

Elijah ran away scared, sat down under a tree, and wished he would die.

Exhausted, he laid down and slept.

The angel of the Lord, who is likely Jesus, woke him up, and next to where he slept, he found a loaf of bread and a jug of water.

He slept again, and the angel repeated this same thing before he sent him on the next phase of his journey.

Isn’t it interesting to see that one of the ways God demonstrates his faithfulness to his people is fixing them something to eat?

Doesn’t that seem like such a small thing?

Yet it is the very way God chose to strengthen Elijah, and it is part of the process of restoring Peter.

When we fail, it is easy to forget the faithfulness of God, especially when we are caught up in the consequences of our actions.

We get caught in our own heads and can’t see a way out.

Can I challenge you this morning that, when you fail, remember God’s faithfulness in all the details of your life.

We sang the song “Goodness of God” last week.

Let your heart echo the chorus, which says:

And all my life You have been faithful

And all my life You have been so, so good

With every breath that I am able

Oh, I will sing of the goodness of God

In spite of your failure, look back at the times you know God has used his word to comfort or challenge you.

Think about the times when he has made you uniquely aware of his presence as you are praying.

Remember the times he has encouraged you through an unexpected call from a friend or a gift you didn’t think you would receive.

By the way, a great way to be ready to remember his faithfulness is to write these things down as they occur!

When you see God move in your life in a unique way, write it down so you can go back and remember all he has done.

Maybe you are just starting out in your walk with Christ or your failure seems so overwhelming that you can’t think of anything God has done for you.

Let me point you back to the greatest way God has demonstrated his faithfulness:

God loved you so much that he would die for you!

He has been faithful to love you by taking your sins, even the one you are wrestling with right now, and die on the cross to pay the penalty for that and be raised from the dead to offer you life!

When you and I fail, we have to get back on track by remembering the faithfulness of God.

That’s what Jesus was doing in working through their rough night of fishing.

It isn’t the end, though.

For Peter and for us, there is more that needs to happen to get us back on track.

We must also...

2) Rest in his restoration.

The breakfast was certainly a beautiful symbol of God’s faithfulness.

However, there was a painful point there as well.

Look back at verse 9 - “They saw a charcoal fire there...”

This is more than just a helpful detail.

You see, there is only one other time this word is used in the entire New Testament:

You see, the last time Peter was next to a charcoal fire with Jesus nearby, he had failed him miserably.

Researchers say that scent may be the strongest sense tied to memory [1], so the smell of that fire may have triggered the painful memory of his denial.

Isn’t it interesting how Jesus is taking Peter back through the memory of his calling and the memory of his denial as a part of the restoration process?

At some point, Jesus and Peter begin a conversation.

In an incredibly tender way, Jesus begins to restore Peter back into a right relationship with himself.