hopefully everybody's got a Bible and you're all turned to the right place let's begin with a word of prayer as we get into this father as we finish out this incredible gospel account we are just um excited today to see what you're going to say to us and how you're going to minister to our hearts and we pray that you would fill us with insight and understanding and uh and wisdom from the word so Lord give us spiritual ears and eyes that we might hear and see what you would have us Lord to take hold
of from this passage and and we just really pray that you would nourish our hearts through the scriptures we believe God that that is your desire and we ask you to do that we thank you for the opportunity to come together as the body of Christ to worship you to Fellowship together and to dig into the word so be with us as we do in Jesus name amen amen chapter 21 of John Begins by saying after this Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of tiberious interestingly enough John is the only gospel
writer that refers to the Sea of Galilee as the sea of Tiberius and it went by all kinds of different names because whoever kind of happened to be in charge whoever conquered the area would name the cities and name the the bodies of water and that's why they changed so much uh over the years but um it verse one Ends by simply saying and he revealed himself in this way and then John's going to go on to explain and I'll pause here for just a moment to remind you that Jesus revealed himself to his disciples
post Resurrection over a period of 40 days and there were a approximately 10 days or so uh between the final appearance and the falling of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost for the empowering of the Believers we'll get in into that as we begin our study in the book of Acts here very soon but um Matthew tells us that this was one of uh a few appearances of Jesus in the area or the region of Galilee and it goes on to say in verse two that Simon Peter Thomas called the twin Nathaniel of canaa and Galilee
the sons of Zebedee and that of course would be James and John and two others of his disciples unnamed were together so there were seven of them who were kind of just hanging out there in the uh region of Galilee near the sea and we're told in verse three that Simon Peter said to them I am going fishing I love Peter and they said to him okay we'll go to so you know Peter was a fisherman James and John were fisherman in fact they were Partners together and um so they're going to go fishing which
is kind of weird because they're Apostles uh Jesus has already appeared to them they've received the Holy Spirit and they're now born again and they're just kind of hanging out and deciding to go fishing and if you're thinking to yourself This is a great time for God to make a point about life and Ministry and stuff like that you would be right because we are told at the end of verse three that they went out and got into the boat but that night they caught nothing in other words they uh they fished all night long
and didn't catch anything now does that ring any kind of a bell in your mind of of something maybe that you've read before in the gospels and if it does uh that's because it it happened almost like this before and we're going to take a look at that in just a moment but we're told here in verse four that just as day was breaking Jesus stood on the shore yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus and Jesus said to them children or that that Greek word means young men it could be translated
guys you Lads or something like that he says do you have any fish and I love their long response no they've been fishing all night long and they've gotten nothing so he's like no you didn't no fish so he said to them cast the net on the right side of the boat and you will find some that's a strange thing to hear you got you got experienced fishermen in the boat here they've been fishing all night you got to know they they've cast the net on both sides of the boat all night long they've been
casting it there and casting it over and bringing it in nothing nothing and this stranger on the shore says on the right side do it on the right side and they're proba you got to wonder if they're looking at each other going right side we've been doing this all night long but something there's a there's something going on here and I think they already recognize something special is going on so they cast it and now they were able to they were not able to haul it in because of the quantity of fish all right let's
let's stop here for just a moment this entire scene is reminiscent because it did happen very similar to this uh during Jesus's public Ministry and it's all recorded for us in the Book of Luke I'll put it on the screen so you can see it from Luke Chapter 5 it says on one occasion while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God he was standing by the lake of Ganer and that is yet another name for the Sea of Galilee and he saw two boats by the lake but the fisherman
had gone out of them and they were washing their Nets getting into one of the boats which was Simon's and that's Simon Peter he asked him to put out a little from the land and he sat down and taught the people from the boat it kind of made a very natural Amphitheater where his word could make its way to the crowd it goes on and says and when he had finished speaking he said to Simon put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch and Simon answered Master we toiled all night
and took nothing but your word I will let down the Nets and when they had done this they enclosed a large number of fish and their Nets were breaking they signaled to their Partners in the other boat that's James and John to come and help them and they came and filled both the boats uh so they began to sink but when Simon Peter saw it he fell down at Jesus's knees saying depart from me for I am a sinful man oh Lord for he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of
fish that they had taken and so also were James and John sons of Zebedee who were partners with Simon and Jesus said to simono not be afraid from now on you will be catching men and when they had brought their boats to land they left everything and followed him it's a great passage isn't it and uh we see the the the the power of the Lord being manifest after a night of fruitless toil something that we're also seeing here in John chapter 21 but there's some significant things here in this last slide from Luke Chapter
5 that we need to notice and that is the statement that Jesus says to Peter particularly and to the others but to Peter specifically he says don't worry you're going to be catching men from now on in other words your days of hauling in stinky fish are over and now you're going to be casting your nets as it were and bringing in men and this speaks of evangelism and bringing people to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and that sort of thing and that's and that's so this is this is kind of a commission if
you will that's being given to Peter at this time and you'll notice Peter's response at the end of that passage along with James and John it says they brought their boats they landed their boats onto the shore and they followed him they left it says they left everything and they followed him and so they've been following him throughout the course of his public Ministry and it it it it came to this violent Crescendo where he was H arrested and put on trial and crucified and now but they've they've seen him alive and yet they're kind
of going back to what they knew before let's go fishing you want to go fishing I'm going to go fishing okay let's go fishing and of course all night long they're fishing in the boat and and nothing didn't pull up anything until Jesus appeared on the screen uh on the scene rather and and uh told them what to do so isn't it interesting in both situations they labored all night without success and then suddenly at the at the command of God there's great great fruitfulness and you have to wonder what's going through their minds when
Jesus calls out from Shore and says hey put your net on the other side of the boat as if he knows you know this guy is even a fisherman but so he tells them to cast their Nets on the other side and they bring in so many fish that they can't even begin to hardly haul them all in and you got to wonder what they're thinking right now what's going through their minds the similarity to this to the earlier situation and then I'm sure it's not lost on them that they've been laboring all night long
with nothing and now at the command of God everything and perhaps a statement is going through their mind similar to what we studied back in chapter 15 let me show you on the screen John 15 where Jesus said abide in me and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine neither neither can you and he said unless you abide in me I am the vine you are the branches whoever abides in me and I in him he it is that bears much fruit and then this is
the important part too for apart from me you can do nothing and I think this was the perfect time to reinforce that reality he had told them now he's going to show them that apart from him they can do nothing and and if you're going to go back to your old ways if you're going to go back to what you knew before just understand this it's not going to work it's not going to be fruitful you know I don't know how many of you in this room here can relate to that whole idea of getting
saved coming to Christ and then just kind of being at loose ends at some point not really knowing what to do with your life and so you kind of you just tend to naturally go back to what you knew before and this is what I used to do and I and I remember doing that sort of a you know before I came to Christ I lived for a very for very simple things you know life was very simple before I knew Jesus really it was like work make money buy fun things have fun with fun
things give myself pleasure be happy that was it it was pretty simple it was a pretty simple way to live but it was all about living for me and then of course I met met Jesus as my savior and he began to rearrange my thinking to a degree and I began to realize my life is not my own but it rather belongs to him and it is for his purpose and the rest of my life needs to be lived for him and the only real joy that I'm really going to ever get out of life
from this point forward is when I live for him and serve him and do for him but then we forget and then we kind of get at loose ends and we're kind of like I don't know things just kind of get weird and it's kind of like I'm going to go back and do what I used to do and we realize that it's an utter exercise of futility to go back and try to live the old life because now you realize you've been born for something else or you should I say you've been born again
for something else than just being happy and see that's all the world has back before I knew Jesus that was it that was the only goal there was to be happy to please myself but then I met the Savior who gave his life for me and I realized that the only joy I'm ever going to have now going forward is to live my life to please him and that's where real Joy is going to come from real happiness that doesn't go away and every time I have tried to fall back into what I knew before
it was a night of fruitless fishing and you can do that you know we can all do that we can all go back fishing in the world you know see if we can catch something fun or catch something enjoyable and maybe things are going to be good but we've been ruined because our lives now belong to him and our joy and our purpose is to serve him to live for him so verse seven goes on and it tells us that that disciple whom Jesus loved and again John's referring to himself here therefore said to Peter
it's the Lord and when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord he put on his outer garment for he was stripped for work and that doesn't mean he was naked it just means that as a typical Fisher they would take off their outer garment and so that they had more freedom of movement while they were working with the Nets and so forth and that's what Peter had done so he put his outer garment back on and he dove into the water it says he threw himself into the sea this is so Peter you know
the Peter we've come to know the impulsive spontaneous even Reckless Peter you know he just dives into the water and starts making his way for the shore and the other deciples uh who had half a brain just stayed in the boat I'm just kidding poor Peter dragging the net full of fish and you know there part of me this like I love that about Peter it's like it's the Lord boom I got to have him and he's just he's just got to get there but it says they were dragging the net full of fish for
they were not far from the land about 100 yards off so they're about the distance of a football field and when they got out on land they saw a charcoal fire in place with fish laid out on it and bread and Jesus said to them bring some of the fish that you've just caught so Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore full of uh large fish 153 of them and aren't you glad we were told there were 153 why do I need to know that what difference would it have made if there were
152 I know you're not catching here what's interesting about this I I was reading I thought well that's significant there's 100 why did why would John tell there's 153 fish I kind of looked into it and I started you know reading some commentaries and stuff like that it was just you'd probably be shocked to hear how many explanations people have that they have advanced over the years to explain why there were 153 fish and all of them are the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard in my life they are absolutely stupid and it know I
I I have to confess I I don't know what entices people to try to throw a dart at a Target they can't see and is too far away to hit and to think I'm going to get a bullseye and yet we just keep trying to you know make explanations for things that we don't know like why were there 153 fish it's crazy I I I won't Bore You by sharing some of the uh answers to why there were I think you know why I think there were 153 fish cuz that's how many they caught that's
the kind of Brilliance you hear here at Calvary Chapel Ontario right now right here so there you go anyway John adds at the end of verse 11 and although there were so many the net was not torn now that is significant because John was John was a fisherman and he knew how many fish a particular net could hold without beginning to rip and it was a fairly common thing if they were having a good catch that afterward they would have to go and mend their Nets but John is saying to you from the experience of
a fisherman that this was a miracle and that further underscores this whole idea that Jesus is not just giving a display of power for the sake of showing off he's making a point here about fruitfulness in the kingdom when we follow his directives when we follow the command of the Lord Lord when we don't just go off and do our own thing go our own way I'm going to I'm going to go fishing no when we follow the lord there is going to be a supernatural work of Grace that that that attends that work you
know and that's the important thing to remember now as we get to verse 15 and following we get to what I believe is the primary reason for this particular appearance of our Lord and I'm going to read these verses completely from 15 to 19 so follow along with me here it says when they had finished breakfast Jesus said to Simon Peter Simon son of John do you love me more than these he said to him yes Lord you know that I love you he said to him feed my Lambs he said to him a second
time Simon son of John do you love me he said to him yes Lord you know that I love you he said to him 10 my sheep he said to him the third time Simon son of John do you love me Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time do you love me and he said to him Lord you know everything you know that I love you Jesus said to him feed my sheep I want you to stop with me there for a moment this is commonly referred to as the restoration of
Peter and you can recognize what's kind of going on here and the reason that this is necessary it's all because Peter denied the Lord three times on the night that Jesus was arrested and of course Jesus foretold that denial and it's important that Peter now after that denial be restored so that he's able to move on we'll talk about that in just a moment and the the reason it's so important is because of an earlier statement that Jesus had made about denying him and I want to put it on the screen for you it's from
Matthew 10:33 and it goes like this whoever denies me before men I also will deny before my father who is in heaven now that's a very sobering statement Jesus is the one who made it that's why it's in quotations there but the question that we need to ask this morning as it relates to this statement and what Peter did is this is Jesus saying here in Matthew one denial and it's over well obviously not because we know that Peter denied the Lord not once but three times and then went on to become a very important
person in the establishing of the church in the first century and and yet I find there are a good many Believers today who operate on this very principle of one sin and you're done really truly now that may sound crazy to you and for some of you it may sound very familiar and and and I have to say I was a little surprised when I heard it but I I have learned that it is not a small amount of Christians who operate on this very idea who take verses like this that we just read from
Matthew chap 10 if anyone denies me before men I will deny him before the father they read that and they interpret it at as you say one thing that could vaguely be interpreted as a denial of the Lord one thing that's all it takes you're done there's no chance for you there's no hope for you you are unsavable you are on your way to hell and there is no possibility of anything else what a horrible way to live amen you know well what those Christians fail to understand is that that sort of an interpretation has
nothing to do with what is revealed to us in the Bible the Bible does not give us a princip Le of one and you're done in fact quite the opposite and that's one of the reasons why the Apostle John went on in his first letter to write this on the screen from 1 John Chapter 2 my dear children I write this to you so that you will not sin but if anybody does sin we have one who speaks to the father in our defense Jesus Christ the righteous one he is the atoning sacrifice for our
sins you'll notice I quoted that out of the NIV I just like it better I like the wording it means the same thing in all the other translations but what John is saying here is listen I'm writing this letter so that you would be filled with truth and wisdom and Grace and power and that you would not give into the Temptations of sin but when you do and I know that you will because we are fallible and we will sin I want you to know this I want you to know that we have an advocate
with the father and it is none other than Jesus Christ he is the righteous one and he will make a defense before the father for you regarding that sin because he gave his life to pay for your sin on the cross and that is a constant reminder and a Perpetual work of forgiveness that is ours through Jesus Christ do you get it it is not one and done and that is not to give this information in any way to give you a freedom to sin it's like oh no big deal I can sin because there's
forgiveness no this is freedom to move on this is freedom from sin from this that the the the the ability of sin to lock you in to failure mode that you can never ever break free from and that's why Jesus made this special appearance to Peter because there was a very real possibility that Peter would be locked in Failure mode for the rest of his life and just think that all that was left for him was just to go fishing and Jesus needed Peter to know that we can move on there is forgiveness there is
restoration and there is a recommissioning that is going to take place here in these words that is going to send Peter out with a renewed sense of purpose even in the midst of his failure and brothers and sisters in Jesus I want you to know the same thing I want you to know that for those of you who have failed and I know that means all of you because that's life we live in a fallen world we have a sinful nature that still rears its ugly head and from time to time we give into it
I want you to know there is forgiveness there is restoration and there is a future of ministry fruitful ministry as we follow the lord these are such important things to remember now Peter denied the Lord three times and so three times Jesus Jus gives Peter an opportunity to speak of his devotion and now his love for his savior but I have to tell you that the English translation of these verses leaves a little something out and if if you look at the original language you realize that there's something significant going on here in this conversation
between Jesus and Peter because the first two times that Jesus asks Peter Peter do you love me he uses the word Agapi and you know what that word probably means it's unconditional love the actual word in the text is agapao but it's just a variation of the word agape and so Jesus is essentially asking Peter do you love me unconditionally now that's a very tough question coming from Jesus to Peter in light of the fact that he failed so miserably to show that love not very many days before when he did denied the Lord three
times but Jesus says to him do you love me unconditionally and Peter's response in your English Bible is yes Lord you know that I love you however if you see the in the original language you will see that Peter is using a word that is not Agape it's a lesser form of love it's the Greek word fileo and so fileo is Brotherly Love friendship love better um buddies David and Jonathan in the Old Testament they loved each other that was fileo love so essentially Jesus is saying Peter do you love me unconditionally and Peter said
Lord I love you as a friend and you know that and a third time Jesus poses the question to him Peter do you love me and again in the English it's just translated love but this time Jesus steps down his under his uh word to fileo he says to Peter Peter do you love me as a friend and that's why we're told that Peter was grieved you know when I think about Peter's response when he says I love you as a friend I think to myself well that's the new Peter talking because you see the
old Peter he would have just shot his mouth off he had a way of doing that he had a way of elevating and and and inflating his his expressions of Devotion to the Lord even on the night that Jesus was betrayed when Jesus said you all going you're all going to fall away tonight on account of me it was Peter that said no not me not me Lord I will stand with you I will go to my death with you tonight if need be I will stand he was always that kind of a way he
was always very inflated as it related to himself always very elevated interesting isn't it that that's not the Peter we're hearing anymore why because this is the Peter who is operating in the shadow of a great failure and he has now come to terms with himself and this elevated inflated sort of a ego that went along with Peter is no longer front and center in his life and when Jesus says to him do you love me unconditionally Peter is essentially saying you know better you know what I did you know what I'm capable of as
confident as I used to be that I was the one who could love you above all the rest I now see myself as I really am and if I'm going to be honest I'm going to say Lord I love you as a friend and there there in lies the reality and Peter is now the more guarded and the more cautious Peter when speaking of himself but even in that tender place of realizing who he really is Jesus doesn't berate him or speak down to him or put him down in any way he recommission him verse
15 feed my Lambs verse 16 tend my sheep verse 17 feed my sheep in other words Peter the failure is behind you Ministry is ahead of you I want you to put this aside now yes you failed but that failure brought you face to face with who you really are and now I can use you because you see my power is made perfect in weakness you saw yourself is strong I had to show you that you're actually weak and now I can use you so feed my Lambs tend my sheep feed my sheep Peter you're
ready even in the face of this failure I want you to know you can move on and you know that's such an important thing for Christians to hear I find Christians are not at a loss when it comes to confessing their sin they're anxious to repent of their sin and turn away from it but the one area where there where they struggle deeply is in Moving On In other words recovering realizing that even in the midst of this failure of mine there's a future there's Ministry there's fruitful Ministry but you see that's what Jesus was
showing Peter that day when you go out on your own in your old way you're going to come up empty when you follow my command and follow the leading of the Lord there is going to be fruit that is going to absolutely blow you away it is going to be Supernatural fruit and it's going to be fruit that will last yes Peter even you who failed so terribly feed my sheep sheep it really is a beautiful beautiful thing and in verse 19 we end oh I'm sorry I actually um skipped ahead um Verse 18 this
is where Jesus uh adds this as kind of a way of looking at the days ahead for Peter he says truly truly I say to you when you were young you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted but when you are old you will stretch out your hands and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go and then John gives us this parenthetical explanation of what Jesus said to Peter he says this he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God you know
the Bible doesn't talk to us about the death of Peter but church history does church history tells us that Peter ended up in Rome and there he was crucified upside down and lit on fire for the cause of Christ but Jesus told him when you are old you will stretch out your hands and the hands of Peter were stretched out on a cross where he too was put to death for the Lord and the Lord told him and then after saying that he ended by saying look at the end of verse 19 follow me follow
me guys do you do you get the implications here he just got done telling him that following him although there's going to be great fruit Supernatural fruit in following me there's also going to be hardship and difficulty and at the end of your days Peter you're going to be led by the hand in a in a direction that you don't want to go now follow me wow blows me away I am so glad that when I got saved the Lord did didn't show me all the things that I would go through as a Christian because
I don't know if I would have followed him if I had have gotten a preview you know when I was a young believer and I'm saying young as far as walking with the Lord I was about 24 25 years old and I was going through a particularly hard time just after coming to the Lord and I remember saying to my pastor I said to him to face I said if this is what being a Christian is I don't want it that's what I told him he's laughed at me bless his heart but um that's the
way and I think other Christians kind of feel that way you get a little kind of you know Taste of of you know this isn't going to be all you know fun and games and and and so forth but Jesus says nevertheless follow me how many of you if Jesus Jesus gave you or had given you a preview of life to come in Christ would have still said yeah I'm going for it I'm following you Lord I think a lot of us would have maybe had given us a moment's pause huh I wonder if I
really want to do this is this what it means follow me follow me boy what what what powerful powerful words especially when you know that trouble sometimes may come as a result now just having heard this verse 20 tells us Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved and again that's John following them the one who had also had leaned back against him during the supper and had said Lord who is it who's going to betray you when Peter saw him he said to jesuslord what about this man Jesus said to him if it
is my will that he remain alive until I come what is that to you you follow me so the saying spread abroad among the brothers that this disciple was not to die yet Jesus did not say to him that he was not to die but rather if it is my will that he remain until I come what is that to you well this is an interesting kind of an interchange going on here isn't it so Peter just receives this news you know that uh in he in the the end of his days he's going to
be taken where he doesn't want to go and life isn't going to be very fun but follow me and turns around looks at John he goes what about him what about John I know he is he teacher's pet or what and I love how Jesus says Hey listen and I'm going to paraphrase now here's what Jesus says to Peter what's that to you what business is that of yours what I do in John's life and other words there's an important principle here that we need to L lay hold of and that is don't compare yourself
with somebody else's life but and yet we do it all the time the Bible tells us that he who Compares himself with others is not wise and yet we do we think oh Lord if my life was just like theirs then I'd be happy I just like if I could just be like them and we don't even know what's going on in their lives behind the scenes some people can put on a very very positive facade and there can be great heartache and pain under the surface but be that as it may it's just dumb
to compare yourself with other people and that's what Jesus is telling Peter he said what business is it of yours if I say if I want him to stay alive until I come again and and so John tells us that people ran with that comment and they started going did you hear that Jesus said g John's never going to die he told him that and so John even and I love I'm so glad that John debunked it he goes yeah you know that's not what Jesus said he didn't say I wasn't going to die he
just said if if I want him to stay alive until I come what's that to you if I do anything in his life what is that to you right again we have this Freedom you know I've been talking about this here this freedom to interject our ideas you know I think this is what Jesus meant what he said that you know I I made I made somebody mad this last week somebody wrote me a note and said oh I forget what it was even all about it was kind of like you know Pastor Paul do
you think in Revelation that this could mean such and such and such and such and such and such and I wrote him back and I just said you know I don't know that would be all conjecture and so I'm not even going to go there and he wrote me back and said that's really disappointing I was like yeah I guess but you know what I'm just I I don't believe in interjecting you know or or or taking a statement and just going what do you think it means because it's just going to get weird and
that's exactly what's going on here okay John ends this gospel account in the last two verses by saying uh he kind of comes out of the closet he says this is the disciple he's saying that's me who is bearing witness about these things who has written these things and we know that his testimony is true and then he says now there are also many other things that Jesus did were every one of them to be written I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written you might think to yourself
well now wait a minute here we've got a digital world now we can hold all kind we can hold Terra quads of information today so I don't know I kind of tend to agree with John you know why because Jesus is still working he's still doing he's still changing lives he's still transforming Hearts he's still saving marriages he's still healing bodies he's still doing doing and if all of those doings were written down yeah I I agree I don't think the world could contain all the books let me end with a statement Jesus made way
back in John chapter 5 on the screen it says my father is working until now and I am working Jesus is still working and he's working in your life too and he wants you to know that we we tend to kind of sometimes think about you know the good old days in the Bible boy you know wouldn't it have been great to live back in those good old days back when God did things you know we're living in this day and age now where God doesn't do anything anymore we're just sitting around waiting for the
trumpet come Lord Jesus boy wouldn't it have been great to believe in those days when he was doing things no he's still doing things Jesus is my father is still working to this day and I am working and I'm working in your life and in your heart and in your family amen let's stand together we're going to close in prayer if if you need some prayer for whatever is going on in your life right now or maybe you're praying for somebody else we'd love to pray with you we'll have some folks up here uh to
pray with you so father we thank you so much your word you're so faithful to speak to us through your word you're so faithful Lord to speak and to to to minister to us through your Holy Spirit to nourish our hearts and to encourage us and and Lord I I thank you for the Perpetual forgiveness that is ours in Jesus Christ and even though we have failed there's a future and a hope and a Ministry that is ours as we walk in obedience to the spirit Lord we want to see that we want to see
fruitful Ministry in the days ahead we want to see the Nets full to the point of almost breaking we want to see that kind of fruitfulness Lord bring it about in our day let our eyes see it and we will give glory to your name we thank you we praise you we worship you in the name of your son Jesus Christ and all God's people said together amen God bless you have a good rest of your Sunday
