Lovest Thou Me? Series

Lovest Thou Me?

Introduction: The Lord Jesus Christ had told His followers to meet Him in Galilee. While they were waiting for Him, Peter decided to try fishing again. The results: not great. But there’s more to the story than empty nets.

(Full disclosure: This message is based on a sermon I preached at New Hope Baptist Church near Fulton, MO on May 4, 2025. There is a message, also based on this text, on Sermon Central called “Simon Peter: From Fisherman To Follower”, preached in 2014, but this message is not a copy and paste of that original message. This is also not an exact transcription.)

1 Working Through The Night

Text: John 21:1-8, KJV: 1 After these things Jesus shewed himself again to the disciples at the sea of Tiberias; and on this wise shewed he himself. 2 There were together Simon Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two other of his disciples. 3 Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing. They say unto him, We also go with thee. They went forth, and entered into a ship immediately; and that night they caught nothing.

4 But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore: but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus. 5 Then Jesus saith unto them, Children, have ye any meat? They answered him, No. 6 And he said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find. They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes. 7 Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter, It is the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he girt his fisher's coat unto him, (for he was naked,) and did cast himself into the sea. 8 And the other disciples came in a little ship; (for they were not far from land, but as it were two hundred cubits,) dragging the net with fishes.

How many times have we heard someone tell us, “Don’t just stand there, do something!” or, “Do something even if it’s wrong; we can fix it later”? True, there’s a time to, yeah, do something (whatever that means) but sometimes, that creates an expense that wouldn’t have happened if we had just waited and done the right thing.

And that’s exactly what happened to the eleven apostles. By this time, Jesus had already risen from the dead, had appeared a week after Resurrection Day to Thomas as well as the others, and had told them, “Head up to Galilee and I’ll meet you there (Matthew 28:10, paraphrased).”

That was it.

Just wait for Me, Jesus said, and that seems to me to be a reasonable request, if not command. After all, all they had to do was leave Jerusalem (and I don’t think any of them were any too anxious at this time to stay there!), and walk to Galilee, then meet the Lord. Easy.

Simon Peter, though, decided he’d go back to fishing, at least for one night. He said, “I’m going fishing” and six more-half of the original Twelve-joined him saying, maybe, something like “works for me” or “yeah, I’m in”. Besides Peter himself, there was Andrew, his brother; James and John, sons of Zebedee—these four had at least been fishing on the Sea of Galilee before they became followers of Jesus (Mark 1:16-20)—along with Thomas, Nathanael, and two unnamed others. There’s an old sermon I remember reading, where the preacher used this text and suggested that maybe “you and I” were the other two disciples in the boat!

Well, no matter who they were, the results were bad. Oddly enough, by the way, we’re never told how these men found a boat, the nets, and other stuff they’d need to go fishing. Anyway, off they went, hoping to catch some fish. Remember, at least four of them had been professional fishermen and, they may have thought, “we can do this, why, it’s just like old times.”

And, yes, it was like old times, just like a few years before when Simon Peter and, I guess, Andrew, too had worked all night, caught nothing, and were probably annoyed when Jesus asked them to let down the nets—in broad daylight, no less, which I understand is the worst time of the day to catch fish. I remember one of my uncles, just out of high school at the time, and one or more of his buddies loading up to catch fish, leaving, they said, before sunrise.

Like the apostles, they didn’t catch anything either! Oh well. Sometimes they bite and sometimes they don’t. Maybe the fish weren’t hungry that morning (they never said, and I didn’t ask. Discretion, you know).