Man’s Inability, Christ’s Abundance
Text: John 21:1-14
Before we start this morning, let me ask you a question – How much control do you have over the circumstances of your life? Can you make it rain? I’m not talking about those people who are doing the geo-engineering and chem trails… I’m talking about you personally. Can you make it rain? Can you control the temperature and make it hot or cold? Sunny or cloudy? Can you control the price of wheat or feed? Pakistan and India recently launched strikes on each other – can you stop war from happening over there? James 4:13-16 says, “Come now, you who say, ‘Tomorrow we will go into such and such town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit’ – yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.’ As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.”
When James said that, he wasn’t trying to be all doom and gloom… He was trying to get us to understand that we are totally unable to control most of the things in our world, or even the things around us. But God can! And so we should go to Him, and seek Him, and trust in Him.
So with that in mind, let’s go to our text – John 21… we won’t get through this entire chapter this morning, but I’m going to read it, and we’ll see how far we get. So yeah… it’s going to take me today and next Sunday at least… maybe to the end of June. But today as we go through this, what I hope we find is that we need Jesus. IN EVERYTHING, and FOR EVERYTHING. And if we have Him – we have EVERYTHING!
(READ John 21:1-25)
Now the text starts out by saying, “After this…”. AFTER WHAT? Well… after all that John has just described to us in chapter 20. So after the tomb was found empty. After Jesus revealed Himself to the disciples and again to Thomas. After Thomas’ declaration that Jesus is both Lord and God.
So after all of those things, Jesus revealed Himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias.
The Sea of Tiberias is the Sea of Galilee. Sometimes it’s called the Sea of Tiberias because that’s what the Romans called it. It’s the same thing, but different people call it different names. Think Gulf of America or Gulf of Mexico… Mt. Denali or Mt. McKinley – you pick. I think you all probably know which way I go. But anyway. It’s the Sea of Galilee and that’s where this takes place.
So Jesus reveals Himself to the disciples near the sea… and it’s not all the disciples. There are specific ones listed here. Peter, Thomas, Nathanael, James and John and two others… So 7 of His disciples were present at this meeting. The two unnamed were probably Andrew and Philip… if I had to guess. So basically it was all those disciples who were originally from that region.
And I’m going to tell you why I think this happens. In Matthew 28, Jesus had told the disciples to go meet Him at Galilee… and in verse 16 – Matthew 28:16, it says that Jesus had directed them to go to a mountain. Now back in John 21, Peter says, “I’m going fishing.”
Basically the idea here is that Peter got impatient.
I cannot tell you how many times I’ve seen this. I’ve seen it in my own life, and in the lives of other Christians. And I bet you have too. We’re trusting God for things, we’re believing God for things, and we know He is able to do that thing – whatever it is… but we want it in our time. We don’t like waiting on God to do it… We don’t even like waiting on each other to do it. And in that process we can sometimes magnify the issue.
Let me give you an example… It’s a Saturday, the husband and wife are both home. And there’s a light fixture that needs to be fixed in the bathroom, over the mirror. The wife says to her husband, “Don’t forget to fix the light in the bathroom today.” And he’s like, “Ok… I’ll get it in a minute.” And he goes back to working on the project he’s currently on, and it’s all good – OR AT LEAST IT SEEMS LIKE IT’S ALL GOOD. But a few minutes later, she notices that the light fixture isn’t fixed, and she offers a gentile reminder, “Honey don’t forget the light in the bathroom.” And he’s like, “Yeah… I’ll get it in a minute.” 20 minutes later and she again sees it isn’t done.
Now it’s like she can see nothing else. She has magnified the problem of the light fixture, and it’s all she can see. A tornado could be approaching… but the light fixture isn’t fixed… so….
And that goes for men and women. It goes for all of us. We want things to happen in our time. We zero in on things and we magnify that thing to the point where it’s all we can see.
Jesus had told them He would come to them in Galilee… but He hasn’t showed up yet, and so Peter is like, “You know what. I’m going fishing.” And 6 of the other disciples say, “We’ll go with you.”
And there’s something in that as well…
We tend to default back to what we know. When we’re in a position where we can’t do anything, but we feel something needs to be done, we default back to what we know. Even as Christians we will do this. We’re either moving forward or sliding back. You miss Church for a few Sundays in a row, you get out of the habit of daily Bible reading, or consistent prayer, and before long you find yourself farther and farther from Jesus. And the reason for that is because Jesus said, “Follow Me.”
No one says, “Follow me” and then stands still. The phrase “Follow Me” implies that He is going somewhere. He is moving. And when we stop and don’t actively follow… it may not be that we’ve turned and gone another direction… it may just be that we’ve stopped. And He’s kept walking, moving further along the path, and we look up and we go, “He where did He go?”
You see, Jesus isn’t interested in letting you stay in your default condition. He’s interested in transforming you and making you into a new creation. And that happens as we follow Him, and obey Him, and serve Him, and remain close to Him.
The pattern of the world is our default mode, and the Bible is very clear, “Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world – but rather – be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
Now I love fishing as much as the next guy… but when Jesus says, go to a mountain – the fishing has to wait.
Here’s another lesson – God clearly commands things in His Word. We can’t improve upon it. We might think “Oh church would work better if we did this or that… If we incorporated this technique or this activity, or practice. I mean, it works in the business world right?” Jesus very clearly says that HE will build His Church. He uses us to do that – HOW? Here’s how – GO! Go into all the world! The work world. The school world. The farming world. The sales world. The retired world. Go and proclaim the Good News. Why? Because the world doesn’t want to come to a Biblical church. It doesn’t want to come to a congregation where the Bible is preached and taught as true and authoritative. The world wants to go to the worldly gathering. The one that affirms their sin, and winks at their unrepentant lifestyles. And so we have to go to them. We have to share the Gospel, for IT is the power of God unto salvation.
God clearly commands things in His Word and we can’t improve on it… BUT ALSO we can’t disregard it. God says, “I will supply your needs.” But we say, “I have to forsake the assembly to provide for my needs.” God says we are to use our gifts for the building up of the church, and we say, “I will use these gifts to build myself and my name… my own little tower of Babel.”
And please understand, I don’t step on feet unless they’re in the aisle. If this doesn’t pertain to you, then don’t take it as pertaining to you. But if it does, go to God and ask Him to help you be better. That’s what I do. Daily! The older I get the more I see how far I fall short, and how desperately I need Jesus in EVERYTHING!
I think of Paul… in his early letters he says, “I’m the least of all apostles.” In his later letters he says, “I am the chief of all sinners… I’m the worst sinner their could be.”
So the disciples left the mountain and went fishing… and caught NOTHING! Hmmmm… I wonder why? These were experienced fishermen. They didn’t catch a single fish.
Sounds like a McKinley fishing trip. But that’s a whole other story.
So, verse 6, Jesus says, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat.” I’ll avoid any political commentary. They obey and they ended up catching so many fish, they couldn’t even drag the net back into the boat.
Jesus makes all the difference!
And that’s when it hits John. He says, “It is the Lord!”
Now why couldn’t they tell? Well… it was probably early in the morning. It may have been a little dark yet. The Sea of Galilee is surrounded by mountains and hills, so even when the sun comes up, there can be shadows and darkness in places… There may have also been morning fog obscuring their vision. So John realizes it, and says to Peter, “Hey that’s Jesus!” Peter, probably squints a little, and sees that it’s the Lord, and He jumps into the water and swims to shore. Peter – the guy who originated this little fishing trip has forgotten all about it, and is excited to see Jesus! So excited he pulls a Forrest Gump, and jumps off the boat and swims to shore in order to be with Jesus!
All I can say is – Thank God for Peter! He does some of the dumbest things of all the disciples, but he also does some of the most amazing things!
So here’s the application for all of us. What God commands in His Word are not suggestions. We are to obey. God’s Word is authoritative, because – it’s God’s Word. BUT ALSO… because what God’s Word commands is Good. It is good for us, and it will result in our being blessed.
And even when we do mess up, Jesus can still bless us.
Now understand what I’m saying here. I’m not saying we can be in willful sin and disobedience and expect God’s blessing. I’m saying that when our intentions are good, and we’re trying to serve the Lord but we’re unclear about how to do that, or what that looks like – Jesus can, and often does bless us in that as well. He’s a Good God. He’s a loving Lord. And His mercies are new every morning.
But the ideal, the plan, and the regulatory principle is to know the will of the Lord, and follow it. To not remain in ignorance and to not become apathetic. Because by God’s good design, everything that is healthy – grows, and comes to maturity.
The point is – we need Jesus for all of that… and for everything. Without Him, we can do nothing. Without him, we’ll just be-bop through life, never reaching maturity in our faith, never seeing the abundance that He has.
CLOSING
