inContext on John 21 "I am Going Fishing" Parts 1 & 2

#0203 - February 11, 2009 I Am Going Fishing - Part 1 John 21:1-14
[Easley:] When you and I fail again and again and again, you don't see Him kicking the rocks saying, "Would you please get it through your thick head you dummy?" He loves you like a father. He says, "Why are you working so hard? Before you're done that side, I want to show you how to do this."
[Lepine:] This is inContext with Michael Easley; I'm Bob Lepine and we're going to do a little vicarious fishing today. Are you a fisherman? You like to fish?
[Easley:] Uh, on occasion.
[Lepine:] Yeah?
[Easley:] Yeah!
[Lepine:] But it's not something -
[Easley:] Do you?
[Lepine:] - that if you had a day off you wouldn't say, "Let's go fishing?"
[Easley:] If you were taking me I would. [Laughter]
[Lepine:] [Laughing] Peter was a fisherman. That was his occupation when Jesus found him and following the resurrection, I guess he went back to his occupation thinking, I don't know what he was thinking. What do you think he was thinking?
[Easley:] It’s a wonderful glimpse into the heart and mind of this man. I think it's desperation. I think it's lost. I think he's not sure. I think he's hoping about something, but we don't know. And it's, "Well, you know, one thing I do know; let's go toss some nets in the Sea of Galilee.”
Galilee's a fun place too because the romance of the See of Galilee is still there today. There is a calming, sort of a peaceful, wonderful seashore type of environment there and for a fisherman that spent a long time on that water, that would be a wonderful thing; "Let's just go fishing."
[Lepine:] And we need to get the geography in our minds. This is eighty to ninety miles north -
[Easley:] Right.
[Lepine:] - of Jerusalem, the place where Jesus was crucified. So Peter and the twelve have gone -
[Easley:] It's a few days' walk. A few days' walk, yeah.
[Lepine:] - back home, basically.
[Easley:] But if you recall, for Christ that was His retreat, if you will. Christ liked
Bethany. He liked to spend time in the Sea of Galilee. I don't remember precisely, but I do think over a third of His life was spent in that area.
[Lepine:] Mmm hmm.
[Easley:] And He liked that. The Mount, the Sermon on the Mount, the Garrisean demoniac, walking on the water of course, when He called the disciples; it would be His Lake resort, so to speak.
[Lepine:] Well, and of course they had been in Jerusalem for the Passover, as was their custom.
[Easley:] Yep.
[Lepine:] It wasn't like that's where they lived, so Passover is over, Jesus is resurrected.
[Easley:] What do we do?
[Lepine:] We are not sure what comes next. We go back home and wait.
[Easley:] "Let's go Fish."
[Lepine:] I never thought about it I guess. Is the Upper Room in Jerusalem?
[Easley:] Sure. Sure, the Upper Room would be in the old city of Jerusalem and when you go to Israel, -
[Lepine:] [Laughs]
[Easley:] I'll be happy to take you to a place that was very likely, if not the upper room; one that looks a lot like it did in Christ's day.
[Lepine:] So if I've got the chronology right here, the disciples were in Jerusalem for the Passover, went back to Galilee, back to their hometown doing some fishing up there and ultimately what would have taken them back down to Jerusalem for Pentecost, was Pentecost. They went back down for the feast and to celebrate in Jerusalem.
[Easley:] What we know, Bob, is that this is not the first resurrection appearance. There have been three that the gospel records tell us. I don't know the precise date and time. I think you're on track that there is some travel back and forth. No doubt they fled at some point, no doubt they feared; and the trip to Galilee and Jerusalem would not be out of the ordinary for them.
[Lepine:] Mmm hmm.
[Easley:] This would be something they were well accustomed to doing. And again, this was all they knew was foot travel. So yes, I think they've had some time. In Acts chapter one verse eight, they're told to wait until the Holy Spirit comes, which coincides with Jesus' words in the Upper Room Discourse and so now they're going to be ready for the beginning of Pentecost and that of course will be radically changed from now on
because of Christ's work.
[Lepine:] Well, in this particular occurrence, in John twenty-one, we do find them fishing on the Sea of Galilee and that's where they are surprised by this particular post-resurrection appearance of Jesus. Let's look together at John twenty-one with our teacher, Michael Easley.
[Easley:] When you think about the spiritual life and you think about how you live the spiritual life, is it fair to say that on the one hand we have this sort of working hard in the spiritual life; the spiritual disciplines, doing the things we are supposed to do. On the other end of the continuum we have this sort of letting go. In fact, they used to call it Keswick theology. “Let go and let God.” Okay?
So we go from working hard in the spiritual life and it doesn't work so we go to the let go part. Or we might say we try to control; we try to get our life in control, our children in control, our marriage in control, get the church in control, then we'd be better Christians. And then of course the other extreme is the abdication of control. Not just letting go but apathetically pushing away and saying, "I don't care. I'm abdicating my control of the spiritual life."
Or there might be sort of the stoicism; the intellectual approach; the austerity approach to the Christian life. Or the spiritual "ism." You know, there's a lot of this "whoooo" stuff out there. [Laughter] And you, like me have either had an experience or talked to people about their experiences. I had a woman, bless her heart, who told me about her story one time about this long prayer she had in agony and a bird came and landed on her deck and God talked to her through the bird. And I had to bite my tongue not to burst out laughing.
I don't know what to do with those experiences, do you? Are those mystical things that we need to read and analyze and interpret, or perhaps we might want to look at it one more way. Let's talk about deism functionally or mysticism on the left. Deism being a functional relationship with God; do the right thing, obey the right thing, show up.
I used to wrestle in seminary with seminary professors and students who frankly became functional deists; meaning that you can have an experience when you come to Christ, but don't have anymore after that. [Laughter] And then of course the far left extreme is sort of this mystical type thing where is not just spiritualism or spiritism, it's this real mystical stuff. When you talk to men and women, maybe many of us have got into this, we move far away from Scripture and into a lot of ethereal kind of things.
Now, I don't want this to be an over simplification of the spiritual life, and maybe a part of this is more my stuff than yours, but I have watched in my own Christian life and many friends that this seems to be the way we do it. We are over here and working hard at it and then ugh, we sort of give up.
Now is the spiritual life in the middle? Is the balance of these extremes the middle-of-the-road? Let's look at the text to see if we can find some help. John chapter twenty-one in the first three verses, the resurrected Jesus Christ manifested Himself to the disciples. John twenty-one, the first three verses.
After these things Jesus manifested Himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberius.
Simon Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathaniel of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two others of His disciples were together.
Simon Peter said to them, "I am going fishing." They said to him, "We will also come with you." They went out and got into the boat; and that night they caught nothing.
In Matthew chapter twenty-eight verse seven, the angel had told Mary to go ahead and tell the disciples that He would later meet them in Galilee. So we take the Synoptics with John's account and some were, after the resurrection appearances, they were to go to Galilee. The text says the Sea of Tiberius, that's another name for Galilee. So we find the disciples back in that area just as Jesus had instructed them.
Now if you step back a little bit on what the poor disciples have been through; they have witnessed the triumphal entry, they have witnessed all this incredible set of miracles and powers that Jesus was working. They've seen thousands of people come out to the Sea of Galilee to hear Him teach. They thought a literal kingdom was coming and He was going to be their King and they were going to be in His court somehow.
Then they had seen this friend's betrayal. They had heard these cryptic expressions about Jesus saying that He wouldn't be with them much longer and then Judas betrays Him. And then they see Peter deny Him and they run like bugs when the lights are cut on. They're afraid. They are fearful. They are hiding in the Upper Room and Jesus shows up and meets with them a couple of times. There's great joy associated with those meetings and now that stuff is over.
Three plus years they ate, slept, drank, walked, traveled, listened, performed miracles, heard Him teach, taught others, saw people transformed, saw thousands come out and now they're terrified and hiding and they go to Galilee. This is the longest account of the risen Lord we have in any of the Gospels and so it's compelling for many reasons.
Now many people when they read this section, and scholars and Bible students alike, say that Peter is sort of resigning his commission.
"What are we going to do?"
"I don't know about you. I'm going fishing."
Well that's not hardly what Christ told him to do, we'd say. And there are many who hold that Peter resigned. I don't think so. I think he is uncertain. I think they're dispirited. I think they're numb. I think they're sort of lost; but I don't think he's resigned. In fact, Peter's declaration, "I'm going fishing" is sort of a team resolve. "We'll go with you."
You can almost see this. "Well that sounds better than nothing. Let's get in a boat and go back and do what we used to do."
And so they do. And of course if you are a fisherman or a fisherwoman, if you want to be correct these days, if you are fisherman you know that a bad day fishing is better than the best day at work, right? [Laughter]
"Let's go fishing. At least it will sort of break up the monotony."
Now the word “manifested” finds its way twice in verse one. He manifested Himself. This
is the way John said He manifested Himself. It's used nine times in the Gospel of John and nine times again in First John. It's an interesting word that John but Gospel writer and Epistle writer uses because it has the idea of a unique, unexpected appearance of something.
It’s unique in the sense that He is flesh and blood, but He's different than before He died. We looked at the chart last week of the different resurrection appearances and how they don't recognize Him; Mary of Magdala, the disciples on the road to Emmaus. The people didn't recognize Him, but then they did; so there's something different about the Christ, but He's still physical. He still flesh and blood because He's going to eat and He's going to walk and so when John wants to explain this change, he doesn't say, "Jesus came. Jesus was walking along." He uses an interesting word. He says, "He manifested Himself."
Now I think if you and I on the human level saw Him manifest Himself, we'd say, "He manifested Himself." We wouldn't quite have a way to put a word on the expression or the experience and so John uses a unique word. He says it's a unique existence of Jesus Christ when He shows up. Well Jesus is going to ask them, "Haven't you caught any fish?"
Look at verses four through six:
But when the day was now breaking, Jesus stood on the beach; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus.
So Jesus said to them, "Children, you do not have any fish, do you?" They answered Him, "No."
And He said to them, "Cast the net on the right-hand side of the boat and you will find a catch." So they cast, and they were not able to haul it in because of the great number of fish.
It's probably dark. They've been fishing all night. It's coming upon dusk and the light is just sort of crusting over the Sea of Galilee. You remember again they don't recognize Him from the distance perhaps. We have the disciples, going back in our minds to Luke chapter five where we have another story much like this one.
Now the question that Jesus asked is a number of observations. First it's framed expecting a negative answer. Do you remember my illustration of a few weeks ago when your wife says to you, "You're not going to wear that are you?"
What the expected answer? "Well of course not," you know? And that's exactly the way Jesus has framed the question.
"Haven't you caught any fish?"
"You haven't caught any fish, have you?" That would be the English equivalent. "You haven't done so well, have you?" I think their answer is sort crestfallen.
"No."
Now many of your translations, I believe, unfortunately, render the word "friends." The word is not friends. The word is children. In fact it's a diminutive term. It's “little children.”
And I think when the translators gloss over it and call it "friends" it is unfortunate because you want to see Jesus Christ here as coming on the scene as a fatherly, loving, compassionate friend of theirs. And it's sort of like the Brits would say, "Lads."
Or if you're a dad with three or four sons, and they might even be grown sons, and you would say, "Sons." There is a real endearing and graciousness in the tone of the word. "Little children." Who else uses the phrase "little children" in the New Testament? John in First John. Little children. Little children. Little children. It's caring and compassionate and rich.
Well, He instructs them to cast a net on the right-hand side of the boat. They do and the catch is so heavy that they can't, the word is draw it into the boat. They can't quite get it over the gunnel of the boat because it's too heavy. There's too much fish in the nets.
In the Luke 5:5 account, Simon tries to pull them in and the nets are breaking, remember? They almost make the boats sink, remember? So these two are two different stories. Luke 5:5 account says:
"Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but I will do as You say and let down the nets."
Maybe there was a little hint of that again; and of course if you've seen the pageant, you've seen this portrayed in one way perhaps of how that might have worked. There's enough differences in the stories that we know these are two different incidents; one early in the disciples' life and one right prior to Christ's ascension. In verses seven to nine the disciples recognize Him:
Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved [John writing about himself] said to Peter, "It is the Lord." So when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put his outer garment on (for he was stripped for work), and threw himself into the sea.
But the other disciples came in the little boat, for they were not far from the land, but about one hundred yards away, dragging the net full of fish.
So when they got out on the land, they saw a charcoal fire already laid and fish placed on it, and bread.
Now the identity of Christ is no longer obscure. They know who He is and they can see Him. This incredible catch quickly reveals to John that it's the Lord. Peter connects the dots and before we know it characteristically he's thrown himself in the water.
Now there's a little bit of a question if you read the text carefully. He's stripped for work. I don't think he's naked but I think he's down to the bare minimum of what he could have on. He's going to gird himself with something and jump into the water. Now if you've come to the edge of the water to rescue your child, you take as much off as you can before you jump in not to be encumbered by your shoes or your coat or whatever else you have, right? So why is Peter putting something on?
There are a couple of little hints in the text that are kind of fun. This is the same word only found in John thirteen where Jesus girds Himself to wash the disciples' feet. And so now we see Peter girding himself. I think Peter is sort of, if you will, working hard and sweating and so he's probably hot and smelling like fish, certainly like the lake water. And so he puts on the minimum amount of clothing when he comes out of the water to
see Christ.
John wants us to see these little connections about Jesus and girding up to serve and Peter girding himself as he goes to see his Lord, his friend and starting to put this thing together. When the disciples had followed Peter to go fishing, they don't follow him to jump in the water. It's about one hundred yards to the shore according to the text. It's a pretty good measurement.
So we have the boat, some think there are two boats, a larger fishing boat and a smaller like dingy type boat. We can't know for sure. If you go to the Sea of Galilee they will show you what they call St. Peter's boat. It's probably not the boat but the idea is that the design and the construction would be similar to the first century.
Now if you think about this, if you've been on the lakeshore the water can be very shallow for a long time on the shore before sort of drops off so the way I'm envisioning this is the boat came to a certain point and Peter dresses himself, hurls himself into the water and with a few large maybe swim strokes or steps, now he's walking up the thin shoreline to where he sees Jesus Christ on the beach.
John's narrative sort of creates a setting here of a number of things. He mentions a charcoal fire. If you've been with us in the study only one other time in the New Testament do we have the phrase charcoal fire. Do you remember where it is? It was with Peter's denial. Why does John, with an eyewitness touch, mark this little detail of charcoal fire at the denial and now he marks it again. What's about to happen?
Peter's restoration. I think we get this air. We can almost smell the smoke of the fish and a charcoal fire. First there's a charcoal fire as they're warming themselves and he bitterly denies Christ and breaks down and cries and now there's a charcoal fire with fish on it that Jesus prepares for him. Now they're about to be restored with a threefold question, "Do you love Me, Peter?" There are interesting eyewitness touches that John gives us.
In verses ten to fourteen, Jesus invites them to have some breakfast.
Jesus said to them, "Bring some of the fish which you have now caught."
Simon Peter went up and drew the net to land, full of large fish, 153; and although there were so many, the net was not torn.
Jesus said to them, "Come and have breakfast." None of the disciples ventured to question him, "Who are You?" knowing that it was the Lord.
Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and the fish likewise.
This is now the third time that Jesus was manifested [same word from verse one] to the disciples, after He was raised from the dead.
Peter either organizes the landing of the fish or he's the one who hauls it in. In fact one older commentator talks about Peter being a very large fishermen and this is one of the many little caveats that they build their case on. They envision Peter going back and sort of hauling this large catch of fish in the water.
Now, if you've ever been in the water play with your children when they're small, you can have two or three of your small children kind of hanging on you and you can still get around the water, right? Because the buoyancy displacement makes them not as heavy as if you were on land, so to speak. On land you might be able to move a step or two but
you sure can't haul them around the water, right?
So you envision Peter. They can't get over the gunnel of the ship because it's so heavy, but he can sort of man handle it in the water up to the side and then the disciples would organize the getting of all the fish out before they could slip back into the Sea of Galilee.
Why 153 fish? Well it's almost comical. I'll spare you the details but commentators write pages of what the number 153 means. These people are frustrated mathematicians I think. [Laughter] They have spiritualized allegorizations into all kinds of things in the Bible and it's almost comical to read, but unfortunately they happen to believe the stuff they write.
I am one hundred percent convinced that it means there were 153 fish. [Laughter] And if you know anything about fishing, what does any good fisherman do? You count your fish. Notice the text says large fish? No one ever says, "I caught 153 little 2 inch fish." [Laughter]
"Oh you mean your bait?"
"Yeah, my bait."
If you're a real fisherman, you've got to count them. [Laughter] In verse twelve Jesus invites them to come and have breakfast and this is a warm wonderful part of John's gospel. It's an inviting verse twelve.
"Come. Have breakfast. You've been fishing all night. You're worn out. Come. Have breakfast."
There's a charcoal fire and the smell of fish grilling on it. There are hunks of bread by the stones there maybe.
"Come. Have breakfast with Me."
Wouldn't you like to wake up and Jesus say, "Come. Have some coffee with Me? Come and rest. "
[Lepine:] I don't know that I've ever had fish for breakfast. Have you ever had fish for breakfast?
[Easley:] I have. And on a charcoal fire there's nothing better.
[Lepine:] Really?
[Easley:] Nothing better, man. A trout caught out of the upper lakes of Colorado there and you throw it on the charcoal fire. Phew.
[Lepine:] Now you made a point out of this idea of a charcoal fire. And just unpacking that, you're saying that the denial that took place around a charcoal fire is about to be reversed?
[Easley:] I think it's just a wonderful little glimpse of Scripture. The only time this word is
mentioned is where this charcoal fire is in two different situations. And that type of stuff just intrigues me to no end.
[Lepine:] [Laughs]
[Easley:] Here we have this denial and now we have this extraordinary repair of this man Peter. Again, what's more appealing and warming than a charcoal fire by a lake?
[Lepine:] Hmm.
[Easley:] We think about campfires and bonfires. There's just a natural affinity and to think that Jesus had that fire ready, and the fish are you cooking. They've been fishing and to come back to shore and see their friend there alive and resurrected.
"By the way gentlemen, breakfast is ready."
[Lepine:] Hmm. [Laughs]
[Easley:] What a great picture.
[Lepine:] It is a great picture. I think we lose, again, a sense of the idea that the disciples, these appearances by Jesus were not every day or commonplace. There was still awe and wonder at when He appeared and what He had come to tell them.
[Easley:] Yeah. And try to envision yourself coming off this boat, you know with your particular first century garb. You are wet, tired, cold and hungry and you haven't had the advantage of a thermos full of coffee and an iPod in your ear. You've been out there on the water all night. It's cold and you’re weary and you have nothing really to show for it. Then you come in and here's Jesus.
[Lepine:] And of course Peter is thinking to himself, "I've been here before. This has happened to me before."
Because back at his conversion this is how Jesus called him. He had a night where he had fished and hadn't caught anything and Jesus sends him back out in the morning and he catches a boatload of fish and he comes before Jesus and he says, "I am a sinful man."
And Jesus says, "Follow Me."
Now he's experiencing the same thing. He's having this déjà vu as Yogi Bear would say, all over again.
You know this has been a rich study that we've been in in John's Gospel. In fact we got an e-mail recently from one of our listeners who said:
"I just wanted to take a minute of your time today to say thanks for your wonderful program. I've really enjoyed the study of the Gospel of John and I recommend your show to all my Christian friends and to some non-believers as well."
We appreciate you spreading the word about inContext and we appreciate you listening.
We love hearing from you. You can drop us a line at incontext@moody.edu. That's our e-mail address. Incontext@moody.edu and we do appreciate your listening and we'd love to hear from you.
Tomorrow we will continue to look at Jesus' encounter with Peter and the other disciples on the shores of the Sea of Galilee in John chapter twenty-one. I hope you can join us back tomorrow for more inContext with Michael Easley.

#0204 - February 12, 2009 I Am Going Fishing - Part 2 John 21:1-14
[Easley:] Do you think you could live the rest of your Christian experience if you got to see the risen Jesus Christ? Could you then live the Christian life more emboldened?
“If I could just see Him do that miracle then I‟d believe Him.”
Do you think? And we think, “Aw, these guys got to see Him after the resurrection and talk to Him and eat fish with Him."
If all you ever got to live on was a physical appearance of a risen Christ, could you live the Christian life? Answer: No.
[Lepine:] This is inContext with Michael Easley; I'm Bob Lepine and it's a great observation you make here at the beginning of today's program Michael. I thought many times about Abraham who we think of as the Father of Faith and I‟ve thought, “He had God come to him, speak audibly to him and make him some promises." And you think, "Boy, if God ever did that for me, then I‟d really believe."
[Easley:] Yeah.
[Lepine:] But of course Abraham, after he had that night, had years -
[Easley:] Long vacancy. [Laughs]
[Lepine:] - of nothing.
[Easley:] Yeah.
[Lepine:] And I think to myself, “I‟d have had a lot of nights where I went „Did I dream that voice of God?‟”
[Easley:] Yeah.
[Lepine:] It really did take remarkable faith, and for the disciples here this appearance of Jesus, as miraculous as it is, and we're looking at His appearance in John twenty-one, at the end of John‟s Gospel, as miraculous and powerful as it is, is that enough to sustain your faith? How grateful I am that I have the word of God to go back to -
[Easley:] Absolutely. Absolutely.
[Lepine:] - to remind me of those things I am too quick to forget.
[Easley:] I've often counseled, "Ask God not merely for a miracle but for an immovable faith.”
[Lepine:] Mmm.
[Easley:] Because if you get a miracle, which is great, you're going to need another one.
[Lepine:] Hmm.
[Easley:] If God heals you from cancer or from chronic back pain or whatever, there will be a time in the future you're going to need another miracle, and another, and another. Not that those are bad or wrong to ask for, please don't hear me say that, but given the option, "Lord, give me an immovable faith that no matter what happens in my life, I'm going to trust You." I'd rather have that.
[Lepine:] Well, as we look at John chapter twenty-one, we see this post resurrection appearance of Jesus to His disciples, and particularly to Peter. We're going to pick where you're teaching through this passage as you read John twenty-one verse seven. Here is Michael Easley.
[Easley:] Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved [John writing about himself] said to Peter, "It is the Lord." So when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put his outer garment on (for he was stripped for work), and threw himself into the sea.
But the other disciples came in the little boat, for they were not far from the land, but about one hundred yards away, dragging the net full of fish.
So when they got out on the land, they saw a charcoal fire already laid and fish placed on it, and bread.
Now the identity of Christ is no longer obscure. They know who He is and they can see Him. This incredible catch quickly reveals to John that it's the Lord. Peter connects the dots and before we know it, characteristically, he'd thrown himself in the water.
Now there's a little bit of a question if you read the text carefully. He's stripped for work. I don't think he's naked but I think he's down to the bare minimum of what he could have on. He's going to gird himself with something and jump into the water. Now if you've come to the edge of the water to rescue your child, you take as much off as you can before you jump in not to be encumbered by your shoes or your coat or whatever else you have, right? So why is Peter putting something on?
There are a couple of little hints in the text that are kind of fun. This is the same word only found in John thirteen where Jesus girds Himself to wash the disciples' feet. And so now we see Peter girding himself. I think Peter is sort of, if you will, working hard and sweating and so he's probably hot and smelling like fish. And so he puts on a minimum amount of clothing when he comes out of the water to see Christ.
John wants us to see these little connections about Jesus and girding up to serve and Peter girding himself as he goes to see his Lord, his friend and starting to put this thing together. When the disciples had followed Peter to go fishing, they don't follow him to jump in the water. It's about one hundred yards to the shore according to the text. It's a pretty good measurement.
So we have the boat, some think there are two boats, a larger fishing boat and a smaller like dingy type boat. We can't know for sure. If you go to the Sea of Galilee, they will show you what they call St. Peter's boat. It's probably not the boat but the idea is that the design and the construction would be similar to the first century.
Now if you think about this, if you've been on the lakeshore the water can be very shallow for a long time on the shore before it sort of drops off; so the way I'm envisioning
this is the boat came to a certain point and Peter dresses himself, hurls himself into the water and with a few large maybe swim strokes or steps, now he's walking up the thin shoreline to where he sees Jesus Christ on the beach.
John's narrative sort of creates a setting here of a number of things. He mentions a charcoal fire. If you've been with us in the study only one other time in the New Testament do we have the phrase "charcoal fire." Do you remember where it is? It was with Peter's denial. Why does John, with an eyewitness touch, mark this little detail of charcoal fire at the denial and now he marks it again. What's about to happen?
Peter's restoration. I think we get this air. We can almost smell the smoke of the fish and a charcoal fire. First there's a charcoal fire as they're warming themselves and he bitterly denies Christ and breaks down and cries and now there's a charcoal fire with fish on it that Jesus prepares for him. Now they're about to be restored with a threefold question, "Do you love Me, Peter?" There are interesting eyewitness touches that John gives us.
In verses ten to fourteen Jesus invites them to have some breakfast:
Jesus said to them, "Bring some of the fish which you have now caught."
Simon Peter went up and drew the net to land, full of large fish, 153; and although there were so many, the net was not torn.
Jesus said to them, "Come and have breakfast." None of the disciples ventured to question him, "Who are You?" knowing that it was the Lord.
Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and the fish likewise.
This is now the third time that Jesus was manifested [same word from verse one] to the disciples, after He was raised from the dead.
Peter either organizes the landing of the fish or he's the one who hauls it in. In fact one older commentator talks about Peter being a very large fishermen and this is one of the many little caveats that they build their case on. They envision Peter going back and sort of hauling this large catch of fish in the water.
Now, if you've ever been in the water playing with your children when they're small, you can have two or three of your small children kind of hanging on you and you can still get around the water, right? Because the buoyancy displacement makes them not as heavy as if you were on land, so to speak. On land you might be able to move a step or two but you sure can't haul them around the water, right?
So you envision Peter. They can't get it over the gunnel of the ship because it's so heavy, but he can sort of man handle it in the water up to the side and then the disciples would organized the getting of all the fish out before they could slip back into the Sea of Galilee.
Why 153 fish? Well, it's almost comical. I'll spare you the details but commentators write pages of what the number 153 means. These people are frustrated mathematicians I think. [Laughter] They have spiritualized allegorizations into all kinds of things in the Bible and it's almost comical to read, but unfortunately they happen to believe the stuff they write.
I am one hundred percent convinced that it means there were 153 fish. [Laughter] And if you know anything about fishing, what does any good fisherman do? You count your
fish. Notice the text says large fish? No one ever says, "I caught 153 little 2 inch fish." [Laughter]
"Oh you mean your bait?"
"Yeah, my bait."
If you're a real fisherman, you've got to count them. [Laughter] In verse twelve Jesus invites them to come and have breakfast and this is a warm wonderful part of John's gospel. It's an inviting verse twelve.
"Come. Have breakfast. You've been fishing all night. You're worn out.”
There's a charcoal fire and the smell of fish grilling on it. There are hunks of bread by the stones there maybe."
"Come. Have breakfast with Me."
Wouldn't you like to wake up and Jesus say, "Come. Have some coffee with Me?”
“Come and rest. Come be with Me." He invites them over.
There is uneasiness about the text. The NASB says:
None of them ventured to question Him.
And that sort of raises the question in my mind. Some your texts say, “None of them dared ask Him.”
So we have this sort of unsettledness and I want to sort of unpack that in the lessons and take a stab at what I think John is trying to teach us.
Let's look at some lessons and some observations from our story this morning. One lesson that I learned, and I think we need to re-learn again and again from John 15:5 is apart from Christ I can do -
[Congregation:] Nothing.
[Easley:] Nothing. Zero. Zip. Nada. Zilch. Apart from Christ you can do nothing. Now, these men were professional fishermen by trade. Peter left all his fishing stuff, his boats and his nets, and he followed Christ. These men had fished for a living and they go back to do the thing are good at; fishing. And they are completely unsuccessful.
So we learn that I can‟t even do the thing I'm good at apart from Christ. I can't even do my profession, what I'm trained at and what I‟m skill at; I can't even do that thing well apart from Christ. I mean, it's one thing to be a hobbyist fisherman and not bring anything home; it's quite another to make a living from fishing and not bring anything home.
Jesus is teaching them “You can't do anything without Me, but I want to show you how to do it with My power and I want to show you how to use your professional trade, not to
catch fish, but to be fishers of men."
You'll see it in the pageant if you haven't already. The calling is to be fishers of men and the end of the story we have one more fishing sequence for them to see. Take your professional trade, if you will, and turn it for the glory of God so that God might see more people come to Christ through your trade and mine. He will use the thing that you think you're good at, which by the way you aren't, but you think you're good at and He will use that in His power to show you that He can use even you and me for His glory to have other people come to follow Him.
The hard part of this and the connection of this for me is that I believe that statement and many of you don't. Many of you really don't believe in your heart of hearts that God can use you where you are, with your trade, for His glory.
“If I had to be a pastor or missionary I'd be a full-time Christian worker. I‟d have to go share the gospel on the mall and hand out tracts. I could never do that. I couldn't be a missionary.”
You know most missionaries and pastors and the like, para-church people, if you gave them truth serum and ask them, “Why did you go into ministry?” they say, “Because I knew I'd be a rotten criminal if I didn't do something for God.”
I mean it's a lot like the old cathartic reason of why a psychologist is a psychologist, trying to figure himself out. Pastors, ministers and missionaries, we're just all sick and we're just trying to stay a little bit healthy before we die, that's all we're doing. So we devote our "life" to it.
Many of us in this room do not really believe that God would delight to use you, even in your profession and your trade, for His glory. It's a tragedy you don‟t believe that because on this side of life I long to see what you get to do that I never get to touch. You've got an incredible opportunity as you stand for Jesus Christ to be fishers of men and you cannot do it in your own flesh and in your own power, even if you're good at your profession. It's got to be Him doing it through you and through me.
John Calvin writes, "God often tests believers so that He may lead them to value His blessings more highly. If we were always prosperous in whatever we started our work, hardly anyone would ever attribute the success of his labors to God's blessings. Everyone would boast about their work and congratulate themselves.”
So even the thing you're good at, and he had some success at historically, God may not let you pull it off so that you and I always remember the ditch from which we were dug; that we really aren't that good after all, but in His power and in His Spirit we can do some things that we couldn't do any other way. That's the Christian life, isn't it?
Another related lesson to this is obedience to Christ, not luck and skill, is the essential thing. It doesn't really matter how I fear or what my experiences might be, I must be obedient to Christ. These guys had worked all night, I believe, and they had to obey Christ one more time with the nets. It's interesting that John doesn't record Peter's discussion from Luke five when Jesus first asked them.
“Lord, we worked all night. Lord, we know our trade. You know, You ask us one more
time; why not?”
Then here, that discourse is not recorded. I don't know for sure, but I don't think he said a thing. I think he pitched it.
“Let's do it again.”
Now what about this uneasiness with them? Let's come back to this little chart that we've got for a moment. If we look at the spiritual life and these layers; if we look at it as “Letting Go” on the left and "Working Hard" on the right; if we look at abdicating and controlling; spiritualism and stoicism; mysticism and deism; we see the disciples working hard with what they knew and it didn't work. Then God says, "Do it" and it works.
So how does that play in your life and mine? Well we work hard on some project, some goal, some trip, some mission or something we‟re doing and then we work hard, we work early, we work late, we work over the weekends and it's just not coming together and then we pray. [Laughter] Right?
“God if You don't help me get this thing done it‟ll never get done.”
And then somehow, by hook or by crook it gets done and we briefly say, “Thank you, Jesus."
Then Monday morning comes and we're back where we started. Right? So we sort of live the Christian life functionally in the flesh until we can't do anything else. Then we say, "God, which side of the boat?"
And then, if it works out, we might thank Him for a moment; we might not. We sort of go on with life. Now, is this a sane, reasonable way to live the Christian life? Isn't it sort of dizzying?
“Well I've got the children to train and projects to do, and the school projects, and I've got these things to do, and I've got to go on this TUI and I've got to go sell this thing and I‟ve got to…”
And we work, work, work, work. We are professionals. We know our trade. We've been doing in five, ten, twenty-six years.
“I know what I'm supposed to do.” And then, “I can't get it done. Oh, yeah, I guess I better pray about it.”
And then it comes together, maybe not the way we intended. Maybe it doesn't; maybe it does. Maybe it's really cool and we really do thank God then the next thing comes in life; the next problem with a kid, our grandkid, our marriage and we‟re all back to working in the flesh one more time, aren't we? So where are we? So is the spiritual life balanced in the middle? Somewhere between "letting go" and "working hard." Is that what it‟s supposed to do?
Let me suggest, if you could write the words “I am going fishing” down the middle. I'm going fishing. I'm going fishing. I worked hard and it didn't work. I gave up. I don't like that. I'll go fishing. It's sort of doing the thing we've always done. It's the routine with
which maybe we‟re not even all that good at it, we‟re just going to go do it. Now if that's the way you live your spiritual life let me suggest that our anxiety, our depression, our vacillation, our fear, our control, our working hard to make things work, our giving up because they don't work, all these things, could it be that we have lost the joy of the resurrection of Jesus Christ? We don't really understand that. We've lost the joy and we live life apart from the resurrection.
The reason I want to suggest this is because Peter and the apostles, the seven total there, were in that room I believe when He breathed on them, but the Holy Spirit does not permanently resided as He will Acts chapter two. They are to do some things and to wait and to go to Galilee until He comes to send His Spirit, right? And that will fulfill Pentecost. And Pentecost will be the birth of the church and the Holy Spirit will come.
Do you think you could live the rest of your Christian experience if you got to see the risen Jesus Christ? If you got to eat fish with Him? Have a cup of coffee with Him in your kitchen? Could you then live the Christian life more emboldened? I mean we read and we say, “If I was there I would never doubt Him.”
“If I could go back and tell Peter, I'd say, „Peter, don‟t deny Him. It's not a bright future, but don't deny Him anyway.‟”
“I would never run away. I would say, „Lord I'll be with You all the way. I'll go stand by Pilate with You. I'll get beat with You.‟ I would never deny Christ. If I could just see Him do that miracle, then I‟d believe Him.”
You think? And we think, “Oh these guys got to see Him after the resurrection and talk to Him and eat fish with Him."
If all you got to ever got to live on was a physical appearance of the risen Christ, could you live the Christian life? Answer: No. These seven men can't. What happens after Pentecost in chapters two, three and on in the book of Acts? Peter, the guy who ran away and denied Christ, is now telling the Council, “I cannot stop preaching Christ.”
He's beat for it and put in shackles and he's singing hymns in jail. Where did this guy come from? And he rejoices that he could suffer for Christ's sake. He writes in First Peter, “When you suffer, you suffer for Christ's sake.”
Not this Peter. Not the Peter who denied him three times. Not a Peter Johnson the water without thinking. Not that Peter tries to walk on the water and sinks. Yeah, that Peter. And what I'm trying to sort of belaboring here is that when you and I try to live the Christian life with some concoction of what it looks like, we're going to mess it up.
No other Christian life that I know has lived the Christian life perfectly except Jesus Christ. And I think part of the struggle we get with this working hard stuff and trying to make it happen and then sort of abdicating over here and not sure what to do and this ridiculous pendulum of the spiritual life has a greater presence, not of the middle of the road but that we've lost the joy of the resurrection of who Jesus Christ is and what He's done for you and me and we come and have breakfast. And we just rest. And we trust.
Not abdicating. Not giving up. Yes, the spiritual disciplines are part of it. We pray, we seek Christ, we devote time to Him, we spend time in the Word and in prayer, but as
soon as you and I try to do it in the flesh, we can work hard all we want, we can abdicate all we want, but it's a rotten way to live the Christian life.
Those men got to see the resurrected Christ but it was not sufficient for them to live the resurrection life; only until the Spirit permanently indwelt them. Now, fast forward. You and I have got it better than they did. We have more history behind us. We have more understanding of God's work. We see the Holy Spirit in their life and in ours and we of all people should live the life of Christ more boldly than any generation before.
"So great a cloud of witnesses around us. Let us press on. Let us run hard the race set before us.”
That's the kind Christ we have.
Now, one last comment. Verse five, when Jesus says, “Haven't you caught any fish?" there is no comment about their failure or judgment about their failure. He does not say,
“Yeah you didn't do it, did you? And you can't fish without Me, can you? Ha!"
And when you and I fail again and again and again, you don't see Him kicking a rock saying, “Would you please get it through your thick head you dummy?"
He loves you like a father. He says, "Why are you working so hard? Throw your net on that side. I'll show you how to do this."
Let's pray. Father, thank You for Jesus Christ. Thank You for Your Holy Spirit who transformed an uneasy Peter into a powerful preacher of the word. And I pray for the men and women in this room; that we will not lose the joy of the resurrection on the Monday nights at this life and that we will know the resurrected power of Christ through His Spirit in us to do what we cannot do in the flesh. I want to ask You, Lord, to encourage. There's a lot of men and women right now in this room who don't believe that You could use them for Your glory in their profession and I pray that You would widen their eyes to see where to throw the net. Use them to share Christ boldly. In Jesus‟ name I pray, amen.
[Lepine:] You know, you and I have both heard people make the statement through the years where they say, "You need to work or to act as if God is not involved and then pray as if He is involved."
[Easley:] [Laughs ]
[Lepine:] There is some truth to that. We don't disengage and just say, "God, You have to do it through me.”
Our actions, our work has to be engaged and at the same time, as you said in this message, and as Jesus says in the Gospels, "Apart from Me you can do nothing."
[Easley:] Nothing. It's sobering. It's disappointing perhaps for some but therein also is we work so hard at the wrong things. I mean the struggles we‟re all going to experience in life have so little to do with what we do. It's how we respond to them by faith and I think, Bob, as you get older and I hate to sound like this but I think it takes getting in your forties and your fifties when you start to let go of some of this stuff and say, “Everything
is unfolding according to God's plan. I want to live faithfully in the midst of it no matter how it works.”
[Lepine:] And you know if we‟re going to understand it and embrace it and live it out, we've got to be in God‟s Word. I'm thinking of the book that we've been offering to our listeners over the last several weeks written by Bruce Bickle and Stan Jantz. It's a Bible study guide through John's Gospel. It‟s called Encountering Christ in a Life-Changing Way.
This is a resource that can help you understand some of the things that may be hard to understand as you're reading through John‟s Gospel on your own and you need some explanation and you need somebody to kind of get you pointed in the right direction. The book Encountering Christ in a Life-Changing Way is a resource we'd like to recommend to you. You can find information about it on our website, incontextradio.org; or call us at 1-877-3CONTEXT. 877-326-6839 and ask how you can get a copy of the book Encountering Christ a Life-Changing Way by supporting the ministry of inContext on this station.
Well tomorrow we are going to spend time with a very interesting guest. He is the president of the Hudson Institute and the author of a book called America's Secular Challenge: The Rise of a New National Religion. Herbert London joins us tomorrow for our Friday interview on inContext and I hope you can join us as well tomorrow for inContext with Michael Easley.