The post-resurrection appearances John 21:1-12
Three men were sitting on a park bench one day, when a faith healer asked if any of them had any physical problems. Well, the first guy said, ‘I’ve suffered from back pain ever since I was in the war. Is there any way you can do for me?" The man reached over and touched his back and he immediately felt relief for the first time in years. The second guy wore very thick glasses and he had a hard time reading and so he asked if he could do anything about his poor eyesight. He removed the man’s glasses and threw them in the trash can. And as soon as they hit the bottom of the can, the man’s eyes cleared up and he could see everything as clear as a bell. Then the faith healer turned to the third guy and said, “And what can I do for you?” But he put his hands out and said, “Please, don’t touch me! I’m on a disability pension." He must have been a Cape Bretoner.
As we come to chapter 21, we need understand everything that’s gone on before this or we’ll have no idea why John wrote this chapter. As we began our study way back in chapter one, you’ll remember that I took eight weeks to teach that one chapter, so we could understand why John was writing this book and then I explained that his sole purpose for writing was to show us who Jesus is. And then all the rest of the book gives us the evidence we need to believe this.
Last week I finished chapter 20 and we saw that John ended the chapter by saying, “And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: but these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through His name.” And as far as John was concerned that seemed to be the end of everything he had to say, but the Holy Spirit had a little bit more that He wanted John to write and that’s why we have this chapter.
So, today we’ll look at the first half of this chapter and see the particular problems that these disciples had and I think we can all relate to these guys because even though they’re always portrayed by artists as holy men with halos around their heads, I think they were all just like you and me. And sometimes, believe it or not, they were even worse.
The word disciple is found 264 times in the Gospels and the book of Acts but it’s never found in the Epistles. The word has the basic meaning of "a pupil, an apprentice or an adherent." And the fact that the meaning of the word disciple is never explained in the New Testament indicates that it was a very common term among the early readers. For those who worked in the foundry, if someone were to talk about someone whose job was to ‘shake out’ you’d know exactly what they were talking about but someone else might not have a clue what you were talking about.
You see, the word disciple used to describe learners who associated themselves with a teacher, philosopher, or rabbi and the assumption was that the pupil would become like his teacher. And the idea behind it was, the greater the student’s submission to his master, then the greater his transformation and the more likely he would become his master’s successor. And the master’s ultimate expectation was that each of his disciples would be proficient in his teaching.
In the New Testament we find followers of various teachers who are called disciples. The Pharisees claimed to be disciples of Moses because they were students and followers of the law that came from him and then they had their disciples. And then there were those who followed the teachings of John the Baptist and they were called his disciples but the most common use of the word disciple in the New Testament described Jesus’ followers and especially the twelve who were later chosen to be His apostles.
John MacArthur said, “It is apparent that not every disciple was necessarily a true Christian because we see in John 6 where several of His disciples were said to have fallen away and so the term ‘disciple’ is sometimes used in Scripture in a general sense, to describe those who, like Judas, only outwardly followed Jesus.”
I think the greatest problem in the Christian church today is the assumption that spiritual growth just happens and that if people get saved then all we have to do is let them learn by themselves but Jesus said we are to make disciples. Now, I was very fortunate because when I was first saved the man who led me to the Lord spent countless hours teaching and encouraging me the word of God and as a result of his input in my life, within two years I was teaching a Bible study.
One of the things he taught me was to memorize scripture. And the two years I was saved I memorized ten chapters of scripture that I could quote word perfect. And I believe God used that to rebuild my mind after several years of drug use. But listen, that was his idea of discipleship. He got me into the word and got the word into me.
I saw a paper somewhere described five misconceptions of discipleship and I thought they were worth repeating. The first one is, many believe that discipleship takes place when people attend church programs. Well, the truth is, a lot of good teaching takes place during church and Sunday school but it doesn’t always answer our specific questions and the messages are not always targeted to the special needs of new believers. And then the second misconception is that discipleship just happens. But listen, everyone needs personal instruction about scripture because left to ourselves we can all come up with some pretty far out ideas and we all need someone who we can ask questions about the faith. And then the third misconception is that discipleship is only for new Christians. In fact, discipleship is a process that should be happening either to us or through us. And then the fourth misconception is that discipleship is a program. And while there are a lot of good materials we can use to disciple others the bottom line is we are teaching others to live like Jesus. And then fifth misconception is that discipleship is only for certain parts of our lives, but the fact is, Jesus wants us to learn from His word everything from our parenting skills to the way we handle finances. True discipleship will help all of us understand how to live our lives so we can please and honor the Lord.
When Sally and I were first married we had a couple of friends who were both new in the Lord and she and I would go over to their house one evening every week and teach them the Bible. Now, this guy has a Christian radio show on a station out of New York City and who knows how many people he’s reached for the Lord. You see, discipleship always pays off both in the individual’s growth as well as church growth.
I heard a story about a commercial airline pilot who on one flight had made a particularly bad landing. The wheels of the big jet hit the runway with a jarring thud. Afterward, the airline had a policy, which required the pilot to stand at the door while the passengers got off the plane. He was to give each of them a smile and say, “Thanks for flying with us today.” And in light of his bad landing, he had a hard time looking people in the eye because he thought that someone would make a smart comment, but no one said anything.
Finally, everyone had gotten off except for one little old lady who was walking with a cane. And as she approached the pilot she said, “Sonny, mind if I ask you a question?” “Why no Ma’am, what is it?” said the pilot. She asked, “Did we land or were we shot down?”
Well, in this passage I think the disciples may have felt a little like they’d been shot down. And their problem was, since they couldn’t see any reason for living in the future, they tried to find a successful way to deal with their past.
And so, we see that they’re all gathered at the Sea of Tiberius, which is just another name for the Sea of Galilee and I don’t think we’re stretching it too far to say that they probably had no business being there because when Jesus had appeared to them in Jerusalem it says in Matthew 28:16, “Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them.” In other words, Jesus had told them, I’m going to meet you in Galilee on a specific mountain, now I want you to go there and wait for Me.” And I’m not sure how long it was, some think it might have been a week or two but as this chapter opens we find them down by the sea. You see, they went up the mountain and waited but when Jesus didn’t show up when they expected Him to, they all got antsy and got up and left.
Now, it seems like a strange thing to do but maybe they thought, well, there’s got to be something better we can do besides just sitting here or maybe they thought Jesus had changed His mind or that they had got the message wrong. For whatever reason, they all left. And what it comes down to is, these guys were not only impatient when it came to waiting but I also think some discouragement had sunk in as well. After all, most of them had disappeared after Jesus’ arrest and I’m sure that the more they thought about it, they didn’t feel like they deserved to be part of what He was about any more.
And since they didn’t want to hang around the mountain, they decided to do what they had always done and so they all went fishing. In other words, they went back to doing what they had all been doing before Jesus came.
And so, with that in mind, look at verse 2 where it says they were all together and then it names them. There was Simon Peter and Thomas, Nathaniel and the sons of Zebedee, (that’s John and James) and there were two other unnamed disciples. A few commentators thought these might be Andrew and Philip. And all of these men had been fisherman who had all come from the same area. As a matter of fact, the only one who wasn’t one of the originals was Thomas and I think it’s safe to say that Thomas had learned his lesson about being absent and now he wanted to stick with the others just in case something else happened.
So, it seems like they were all hanging around waiting to see what was going to happen next when Peter decided he had waited long enough and in verse 3, he said, “I go fishing.” And what he was saying wasn’t, I’m going out to catch a few fish for lunch but I’m going back to doing what I was doing before Jesus came.
And these weren’t the first believers who had a problem with waiting for God. Remember back in Genesis when Abraham was told by God that he was going to have a son and when he waited for what he considered to be long enough he decided to make it happen himself and the son that was born became the father of all the Arab nations. So, we could say that Abraham who was the first Jew really gave the rest of the Jews something to think about when it came to rushing ahead of the will of God.
I think patience is one of the toughest lessons that any of us will ever learn. In Galatians 5 we have the fruit of the Spirit and the word that’s translated "patience" actually means, "takes a long time to come to a boil” which in the area of emotion means, “It takes a long time to get angry." This tells us that patience is the ability to face difficult people and trying situations without either reacting in anger or running away. So, having a patient attitude is the Christian way of thinking about and responding to the difficult circumstances in our lives. As believers, we have to endure and wait patiently, because we believe that our difficulties always result in our good and God’s glory. And ultimately, as we learn to wait upon God, we’ll learn to trust Him more and more as we seek His will and in the end we’ll give Him the glory He deserves. And I think, as we look as these disciples, we see that they’re a lot like ourselves, and that we like them always need to learn patience. The problem is, most of us say, “I need patience Lord and I need it right now.”
In verse 3 it says, “They went forth and entered into a ship immediately.” And it’s interesting to see that in the Greek, the definite article is there and this means they went into ‘the’ ship and that means it was ‘the’ one that belonged to someone specific. And most commentators believe they all got into Peter’s ship and that tells us they were all just going right back to the jobs they had before Jesus came into their lives.
I think Peter was the first backslider here and as he was going back to his old life we see that no one backslides alone but the backslider always influences others. Parents influence children, children influence their friends and friends influence their families as well.
And since Peter was Mr. Personality everybody responded by saying, “We also go with thee.” And you notice that no one prayed about it and there was no discussion about whether or not they should do this but everyone just went. It’s almost like they were all thinking the same thing but since Peter said it out loud that made them feel like it was the right thing to do. And so they all went fishing but no one caught anything. And I’m sure they wondered why they didn’t catch anything but the text says that God kept all the fish on the other side of the boat.
You see, Peter disobeyed a simple instruction to go sit on a hill and wait but because his priorities got messed up and rather than wait he became more concerned about being productive. And I think there’s a lesson for all of us here. The disciples weren’t supposed to be fishing; they were supposed to be waiting and because they weren’t supposed to be fishing, it shouldn’t surprise us to read that "they caught nothing." Listen, they weren’t just out of the will of God but they were acting contrary to His will.
You can imagine the frustration of seasoned fisherman who had spent an entire night on the sea and couldn’t catch a cold. I remember going fishing with Sally’s uncle Stan one day and we had been out on the lake for about an hour and neither of us even got a bite. And then Stan said, “There’s no fish in this lake, we’re just wasting our time.” And as soon as he said that he got a bite and he fought with this fish for quite a while and when he finally hauled it in, it was a great big pike. He was so excited he kept telling me the best way to fish and the right kind of bait to use and everything else I needed to know so I could learn to be a successful fisherman like him. You see, his attitude was affected by the fish.
And Jesus had told His disciples that He wanted them to fish, but He didn’t want them to fish for fish but He wanted them to fish for men. And now, He was going to have to come and re-commission them all over again because they had gone right back to where they were the first time He found them.
All right, now watch verse 4. “When the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore: but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus.” This tells us, they were close enough to recognize Him except that after the resurrection people only recognized Jesus when He revealed Himself. You remember we saw that with Mary when she had been in the garden and she thought Jesus was the gardener until He said her name or in the book of Luke when the two believers had walked and talked with Jesus but didn’t recognize Him on the Emmaus road until He revealed Himself as He broke bread with them. The fact was, nobody recognized Jesus until He wanted then to.
And then in verse 5 it says, “Then Jesus saith unto them, children, have ye any meat? They answered Him, no.” And it’s like He’s asking them, what have you got for all your work? I think His question is funny, because He knows that they didn’t catch anything and He also knows how much everyone hates to admit that the fish are smarter than they are.
And when they said "no" this can mean different things. Sometimes "no" means, "No, will you help?" Sometimes "no" means, "No, and I am really frustrated!" And then sometimes “no” means, "No and I’m really ticked off!" And I think the disciples’ "no" meant all three. Or then again, maybe He was asking, "Is all your effort producing anything? Or, is this useless fishing giving you the joy you were looking for?” You see, after you’ve come to know the Lord and He sends you to do something there’s no way you can go back to what you were doing before. I mean, once we’ve been called out from the world there’s no way we can go back and enjoy ourselves the same way we did before.
And it’s interesting to see that He called them ‘children’ because when he said, “children” it was more like saying, “Hey, you over there.” It’s like He’s speaking to strangers. You see, “children” in this context was a word of distance. And the word He uses shows that they were far from Him spiritually.
You see, if they had been obedient they would have been still on the mountain and He would have been with them and they would have been experiencing both His fellowship and His joy but now because of their disobedience all they had was a boat full of nothing and a bad attitude. And sin always does that to us. In John 14:21, Jesus said, “He that hath My commandments and keeps them, he it is that loves Me and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father and I will love him and manifest Myself to Him.” And the promise is, if you’re really obedient, you’ll experience fellowship with God and all the blessings that go with it and if you’re not than you’re on your own.
It may seem like a strange thing to say but I’ll say it anyway. We don’t always sense the presence of God in that we’re absolutely conscious of His presence all the time but when we’ve offended Him or when we’ve offended someone else we certainly sense His absence. In other words, we are more conscious of the absence of the Lord than we are His presence. Now, is that anybody else’s experience or am I all alone on this one?
You see, there have been times when I’ve offended either Christians or non-Christians and I had to go to them and ask their forgiveness because God had showed me how I had offended not only them but Him as well. And it was a conscious absence of His presence that made me aware of what I’d done.
So, Jesus yells from the shore, “Did you catch anything and it’s interesting that the original text actually says, “You don’t have anything to eat, do you?” And it’s like Jesus is pointing out the obvious and they respond by saying, “No.” And it’s like God had told every fish in the sea to stay away from them and that way He could show them that apart from Him they could do nothing. And when they said ‘no’ Jesus was actually confronting them with their failure.
And then in verse 6 it says, “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.”
Some of the commentators say that this was a natural occurrence and that as He stood on the shore, Jesus could see what the disciples in the boat couldn’t see and that this wasn’t actually a miracle as much as it was a natural phenomenon. And I know what they’re saying because we used to stand on the shore down in Cape Breton during what was known as the capelin season. A capelin is a small fish like a smelt but they’re much more colorful. They only came about every two or three years but when they do, they’re so plentiful, you could scoop them out of the water with a bushel basket. And as you stood on the shore you could tell where they were because they swim close to the surface and very close together. It looks like an oil slick with Pollock jumping around eating them. So, it’s possible to see fish from the shore but there was a difference in this setting. You see, Jesus summoned these fish to be on one side of the boat and fish, unlike people, obey the Lord!
Now, this is the second time the carpenter told the fisherman where the fish were. The first time was when Jesus had used their boat for a pulpit to preach to the people on shore and He told them to throw out the net and very reluctantly they did and they could hardly handle the large catch of fish. And I’m sure that when they realized it was Jesus telling them how to fish again they were twice as embarrassed as they were the first time.
And there’s an important lesson for all of us here. Before God supplies what we need, He makes sure we learn the lesson that what we really need comes from Him and not from any other source. And before He gives us what we need, He makes sure we’re aware of what we really need.
So, He says to them, “You’re not catching anything, are you?” And they say no. And that’s exactly what He wants to hear from all of us. He wants us to realize that without Him we are nothing and we can do nothing. And it’s not that He’s trying to make us feel bad but He wants us to see ourselves as we really are.
Now, look at verse 6 and see how their obedience produces success. It says, “He said unto them, ‘cast the net on the right side of the boat and ye shall find.’” And I’m sure that if any of us had been in that boat we would have mumbled under our breath, “Yeah, right, we’ve been fishing on the wrong side of the boat all night long.” And yet, for some strange reason, they didn’t argue. It says, “They cast therefore and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fish.” And it seems like all the fish that Jesus had been keeping away all night long were fighting to get into that net. And when they hauled it in, there were so many fish that seven guys could hardly even handle it.
Listen, their night of failure wasn’t without its lessons and benefits because we can always do worse than fail and one thing worse than failure is to be success that ends in pride.
God was telling them, “You can do your own thing and you’ll never get anywhere but if you listen to Me, you’ll know what true success is all about. And the problem we have when we hear the word success is that we assume that God is going to give us more cash and stuff than we’ll ever know what to do with but look what happens here. They got more than they could handle and in the end they walked away and followed Jesus. In other words, everything they’ve ever wanted became absolutely meaningless to them.
I think Jesus was showing them that true success isn’t the amount of fish you catch but true success is obedience to the will of God because obedience always brings His blessings and His blessings always amount to more than stuff. God said to Abraham in Genesis 22:18, “Abraham, indeed in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed” and why would they be blessed? The last half of the verse says, “because you have obeyed Me.” The first book in the Bible says blessing comes from being obedient to the word of God and the God of the word. And then in the last book in Revelation 22:7 says, “Blessed is he that keepeth the words of the prophecy of this book.” So, from the beginning of the Bible to the end, the principle is always the same, if you obey, you get God’s blessings and if you disobey, you close the doors of everything He wants to give you. And that always has been and always will be God’s pattern.
So, as they pulled in these nets they got the biggest catch they’d ever seen and what we see here is a combination of God’s provision and man’s obedience. And the interesting thing here is, God could’ve had all the fish in the lake just jump in the boat, right? And it would have been a phenomenal miracle. But He told the disciples to put the nets in the water at a certain point and when they were obedient He blessed their efforts. Why did He do that? He wants us to be part of what He’s doing.
It’s like when Gideon’s army were gathered around the Midianites, Gideon said, the battle cry was, “The sword of the Lord and of Gideon.” And it’s interesting that they threw the “and of Gideon” in because when you’ve got the sword of the Lord, then who needs Gideon?” But someone had to wave the lamp and break the pitcher. You see, God wanted to do a miracle for Gideon but He wanted his obedience and He also wanted to do the same thing for the disciples.
And when you think about it, these men had fished all their lives up to this point and this was the greatest catch they had ever seen. This was the Olympians Gold medal or the runner’s four minute mile or the hunter’s big buck. I mean, this was a kind of achievement that very few people find in life. And yet, it was a sign to them more than anything else. It was Jesus way of saying, fish? I can give you all the fish you want, anytime I want to, but there are a lot more important things than fish.
So, they did have everything they wanted and now we’re going to see how Jesus gave them everything they really needed. Look in verse 7-8, “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. 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.”
John knew what was going on as soon as he saw all those fish in the net and he said, “I know who’s doing this. It’s the Lord.” And then once again, we see Peter’s impulsive nature as he puts on his coat and jumps in the water. It’s wasn’t like he was naked but he had been stripped to his underwear which was like a long T-shirt and when he knew that Jesus was there he put his coat back on out of respect for Him.
And at this point, you’ve got to remember who Peter is. Peter was the one who said that Jesus shouldn’t die. Peter was the one who refused to have Jesus wash his feet. Peter was the one who promised that he’d never deny Jesus only to do it 3 times after Jesus was arrested. And here, we see that Peter failed again by leaving the mountain where he was to wait and not only went fishing but took everyone else with him.
And how does Jesus respond to Peter? He simply meets him and the rest of the disciples with breakfast and graciously serves them bread and fish.
Verse 9 says, “As soon then as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid thereon, and bread. Jesus saith unto them, bring of the fish which ye have now caught. Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land full of great fishes, an hundred and fifty and three: and for all there were so many, yet was not the net broken. Jesus saith unto them, come and dine.” And here we see fellowship is being restored because Jesus not only made breakfast but He also provided the fish and the bread and I think He was telling them again that their God was able to supply all their needs.
We also notice here that John says there were exactly 153 fish in the net and most commentators think John has a specific reason for telling us this. And the problem is, no one seems to know what exactly the reason is. And some of the guesses as to what this number means are amazing. One man said the number probably indicated that 153 A.D. was going to be a very important year but the problem with that was that no one has ever been able to find out anything unusual about that year. Another suggested that the number 100 stood for the Gentiles, the largest number, 50 stood for the Jews because they were only half as important or half as many and the 3 stands for the Trinity and all this made no sense, whatsoever. And then another obviously mathematically-minded commentator added the numbers from 1 through 17 and found they added up to 153 but he failed to say what the significance was. Augustine took this a step further and said, “Ten signifies the 10 commandments and so relates to the law, while seven is the number of gifts of the spirit, so the total number of fish relates to the fulfillment of the law through the spirit.” A man by the name of Jeremiahome, who was an early church father who said that among the Greeks it was widely regarded that there were 153 different kinds of fish in the sea and that was an interesting fact but modern science has discovered that the figure is well over 29,000. So, if the figure 153 is significant, then no one knows why.
And so, in verse 12, “Jesus saith unto them, “Come and dine.” And dining was the idea of sitting down and enjoying a time of fellowship with your meal. And none of the disciples dared ask Him, ‘Who art Thou?’ knowing that it was the Lord. Jesus then cometh, and taketh bread, and giveth them, and fish likewise.” And then verse 14 says, “This is now the third time that Jesus shewed himself to His disciples, after that He was risen from the dead.”
Now, I think it’s easy for us to say, “these men should have known better” but the fact was, they really didn’t have a clue as to what was going on. I mean, they didn’t understand the resurrection let alone the great commission which hadn’t even been given at this point. So, some of their behavior actually makes more sense when we realize how little they understood about what was going on. And now, it seems like this miracle reaffirmed their calling to be ‘fishers of men’ and it got them back on track again.
And then Jesus invites the disciples to bring the fish they’ve caught. And this suggests that God works with us as He gives us the privilege to be co-laborers with him. It’s interesting to see that there was human labor involved in almost all the miracles of Jesus. You see, He does what only He can do and then He expects us to do what we can do. I mean, God could easily just do everything Himself but He gives us the privilege of being co-workers with him.
And He does this in the area of evangelism. If we invite a neighbor or even one of their children to church God might convert them. And when history comes to an end and we are all gathered in heaven we might find that this was the greatest thing we’ve ever done.
Well, in this account I see two great lessons for all of us. The first is that Jesus cares about our physical needs. Here, He was risen from the dead and yet He was still concerned about the disciples who He knew were hungry and He provided them with breakfast. He’s concerned about our physical needs.
And then the second lesson I see here is that Jesus also cares about their spiritual needs. I say this because Jesus refuses to desert the very men who have continually deserted Him. And He does the same with us. There are times when we couldn’t care less about going to church and hearing the word and then there are times when we’ve been slack when it comes to the matter of prayer as well, but listen, God always gives us the opportunity to start over with a clean slate. He always allows us to turn around and come back to Him again.
As Max Lucado says, “We have that type of a Father, a God who is at his best when we are at our worst; a heavenly Father whose grace is strongest when our devotion is weakest.”
If we are going to allow the Lord use us to bring people into his kingdom, then we need to depend more on Jesus and less on modern marketing techniques to get the job done. Cleverly designed lures and baits, and even electronic fish finders can be used to catch fish, but they have no place in the Savior’s kingdom because He told his disciples, “I will make you fisher of men.” But listen, they have to be willing to be used.
