Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

When I think of significant episodes of TV shows there are three things that come to mind.

The first is the Cliffhanger, where the show ends with some major questions about the characters in a situation whose outcome is not what is expected.

Where you need to tune in at the same time and channel next week to see the outcome.

The old 1960s (I think it was in the 60s Batman would do that, What happens to Boy Wonder, will Batman be able to save from the Penguin’s dastardly schemes, tune in next week at the same bat time to the same bat channel to see what happens.

I also think of the Season Finale, where there is closure for situations and/or events that have had a thread throughout the season and the situation/event has settled, while there may seem to be something brewing leading you into next season, but overall there is a nice bow on the season.

Lastly I think of the Series Finale.

This is the hard one, because you want to leave nothing to look forward to, because the people will not be back, but you can’t ignore that if you think of the characters as real then their lives go on.

You think of series finales like Black’ish or M.A.S.H or A Different World.

They had some good things, but they always leave you wanting, should they have ended earlier, should they have ended later, should a different tact have been taken.

I think that is how some scholars look at the Book and Chapter that we are in today.

Some think that the Gospel of John really ended at John 20:30-31.

That would seem to be a good place to end and that is purpose statement for John’s Gospel.

I do not think we get full closure if we get there.

Much like a series finale we cannot close everything concerning the Gospel of John, not all of it comes to a nice bow in this book.

Things like what is the giving of the Holy spirit by Jesus when He breathes on the Apostles, how does that work itself out, what happens with the Samaritan woman at the well, How are Martha, Mary and Lazarus’ lives after Jesus brought Lazarus back after being dead for four days.

We do not get all of those answers, but there are some things that are brought to closure in this chapter, so I think it is only right to treat John 21, not as an ‘Oh by the way chapter, but to see what closure to the overall Gospel as presented by John brings.

The Setting for the Appearance

This has occured after the other events in John’s Gospel and in the Synoptic Gospels.

Jesus Appearance to Mary

Jesus Appearance to the men on the Road to Emmaus

Jesus Appearance to the disciples minus Thomas

Jesus Appearance to the disciples with Thomas

We get here of the revealing of Jesus as recorded in the Gospels.

Couple of things to note:

Notice the word ‘revealed’ and who that word is against, it is against Jesus - Jesus is the one responsible to the revealing (pulling back the cloth) and the purpose behind the revealing, these are opportunities that exist because Jesus does it, not because the disciples, the men on the road to Emmaus or Mary did anything to make it happen, or that they wished it to happen.

This is Jesus’ doing, for his reason, which we have seen throughout this series, to instruct, to encourage, to correct, to remind.

Notice also who is in attendance here.

We have a group of disciples who have made a number of missteps, not trying to say that they were mistakes per se’, although if you did say that I would not give you too much pushback.

Think of Peter who would just say things right.

Let’s make three tents, which prompts God the Father to speak about His Son (Matthew 17:1-11)

You can’t die Lord, to which Jesus responds, Get behind me satan (Matthew 16:21-23)

I will go wherever you go and die with you only to deny Jesus three times (Luke 22:54-62, Matthew 26:69-75).

Think of Thomas, whose episode we just saw, I will not believe unless I see the nail prints and his hands and place my hands there (John 20:24-29)

Think of Nathaneal, who questioned Philip about the Messiah and where He came from, Nazareth (Can anything good come from Nazareth) (John 1:43-51)

The Sons of Zebedee who outright asked for position and brought their mother into the argument.

(Matthew 20:20-28)

Then there are two other disciples names who are not mentioned.

For us (disciples today), we should remember that (1) we are not perfect and (2) we do not need to be perfect.

What we should value as disciples is the ‘want to follow’ , the ‘want’ of being discipled, the ‘want’ of knowing and being obedient to Jesus.

We will fall, we will toil, we will waste time, we will act out, we will ask for some things that wont make sense, but Jesus is still the same Jesus.

Jesus is still willing to make Himself known to those who want to know Him.

Jesus is still revealing Himself, through His Word, to all who would believe.

So don’t think that perfection makes a disciples, actually when you think of a disciple as being a learner then there is no way for a disciple to not know it all.

John goes on to tell us the circumstances around the revealing of Jesus this time.

Peter makes the declaration that he is going fishing and everyone else says they will go also.

This is not anything outrageous, this is what they knew, one of the first things we know about these men (Peter, James and John) was they were fishermen (Matthew 4:18-22).

This was probably by trade, so them getting back to some sense of normalcy after the difficult week is natural.

This may be an instance of them going back to their old life or it may not be an instance of that, John does not tell us why or the ultimate purpose, but he does tell us that they went fishing and they caught nothing.

The Appearance

After being out there all night doing the work of casting the net over and over again with no results, you may be able to sense the frustration.

On the shore some stood, again as if coming out of nowhere and no-one on the boat knew who the person was, very similar to Jesus as he stood among the disciples on two other occasions (John 20:19,26).

Then Jesus speaks to them and I like how the CSB puts it

It is almost like that person that comes up to you after you have failed at something and gives you that saying like ‘This doesn’t seem to be working, huh?’ or ‘You’re still at it, are you?’.

It is like they have some knowledge that you don’t and they could give it to you but they think you will learn more if you make a debacle of it yourselves.

Of course their answer if no, but this is where they start to connect the dots.

The person who is standing on the shore that we know as Jesus, but the disciples in the boat do not know offers them some advice, actually it is a command, to cast their net on the right side of the boat.

They listen to this ‘stranger’ and cast the net on the right side of the boat, and I like how the Scripture puts it, like immediately, now, like fish are jumping into the net to the point where they cannot haul it it in.

We John’s audience get to see what is happening here.

We get to see Jesus doing Jesus things.

You see that Jesus is still Jesus, Jesus has blessed them with great catches in the past and in that same way He is blessing them now.

Look, when Jesus was raised nothing changed, He is still God, He is still man, He can still bless, He can still deliver, He can still heal, He still knows what you are going through.

This is the same Jesus, with a resurrected body.

That Compassion that He had, He still has.

The Love that He had, He still has.

The Omniscient that He had, He still has.

The Providence that He had, He still has.

The Provision that He Provided, He still Provides.

Remember he is Lord of All.

Master of all.

He got up with All Power, All Authority.

We can count on Jesus.

It is almost like Jesus is saying this is the time that I can show the disciples that ‘Ain’t nothing changed.’

That same Jesus you walked with for three and half years is still the same Jesus that you have encountered after the resurrection and the Jesus that you will need to continue to rely upon.

The same goes for us, That Jesus that saved us, does not change on us over time, He is still the same Jesus, with the same love, care and providence that He had when we first met.

He also has the same expectations, of fruitfulness and obedience.

Jesus has not and will not change.

The Realization

I like how D.A. Carson put the actions of John and Peter in his commentary ‘The Gospel According to John’.

He noted that John was the insightful one, meaning that he would put the pieces together and thus John, the Disciple Jesus Loved, would speak to Peter as the net was filling up, like ‘Hey, that is the Lord!’

Mr. Carson said of Peter that he is the one of Action, so before the haul was brought in, before anyone else could say anything, he clothed himself and threw himself in the sea to get to Jesus.

This left the other disciples to bring the boat and the fish ashore, without him.

The Breakfast

There was a sight once the others got to shore.

There was already a fire, with fish and bread.

So Jesus had already had this prepared.

There is a charcoal fire with fish on the charcoal fire and some bread ready.

I am like OK, Lord, You already got this going, You got breakfast already, I know what you can do with fish and bread.

It is almost like being told you need to bring the hamburgers and buns to the cookout then you get there and there are already hamburgers on the grill being cooked, and you look like what did I bring these for.

This makes me think of my first missions trip to the Dominican Republic, the same place that Norma and Billy are heading and they will be on mission with some of the same people when I was there.

That has to be almost 10 years ago now.

I remember getting ready to go on the trip, and praying that I would make all this impact, thinking that I was going to make this huge change, thinking that the people in the DR had not seen anything or anyone like me before, I was young at heart, had a heart for people, could relate to them differently as a Hip Hop head.

I was going to turn the DR on its head.

Then I go there, and all the stuff that I thought that I would bring to the table was already going on.

People being loved, people being related to, people looking for different ways to meet needs and reach people and I was like Lord, wait a minute.

Why am I here?

What am I bringing?

We think sometimes that we can bring something to the Lord, like He does not have everything He needs anyway.

We think that we have something that the Lord in His work may be lacking.

The Lord has what He needs to get His plan accomplished.