Let's open our Bibles to John
chapter 21. John chapter 21. Last Wednesday night, we were
reminded of our Lord's last miracle before the cross in the restoring
of Malchus' ear. And there's one more miracle. It took place after the resurrection
and before our Lord's ascension. And it's found here in John chapter
21. It's the second time that the
Lord has performed this miracle. The first time is when he first
called these fishermen to the ministry of the gospel. and he
told them that he would make them fishers of men. And they
left their nets and left everything with their father Zebedee and
they went and followed Christ for over three years. Now, our Lord's going to perform
another miracle of a miraculous catch of fish And I've titled
this message, When the Lord Shows Himself. When the Lord Shows
Himself. Tom has led us in a couple of
wonderful hymns where we've been reminded of our need for the
Lord to reveal himself to our hearts. The Lord has never showed himself
to anybody other than his people. And when he shows himself, he
reveals himself to their hearts by his spirit, through his word. And so every time we gather together
for worship and open God's word, we're hoping that as the bread
of life is broken, you remember those disciples on the road to
Emmaus in Luke 24, when the Lord In the breaking of bread, the
scripture says their eyes were opened and they knew who the
Lord was. And that's always the way the
Lord shows himself. In the breaking of bread, our
eyes are opened. Notice in John chapter 21 at
verse 1, After these things, Jesus showed
himself again to the disciples at the sea of Tiberias. This miracle concludes in verse
14. Notice what our Lord tells us
there. This is now the third time that
Jesus showed himself to the disciples after that he was risen from
the dead. This is the third time our Lord
was crucified, as you know, on Passover as our Passover lamb. He shed his blood. put it on
the doorpost of his church, if you will, and the father saw
the blood and the father said, I pass by you. God almighty was
satisfied with the shed blood of Christ for the atoning sacrifice
for the sins of his people. And now 50 years, 50 days, I'm
sorry, after the Passover is the celebration of Pentecost. In the Old Testament, it was
the Feast of Weeks, and it was a recognition of the giving of
the law. And so, between Passover and
Pentecost, you have 50 days. About 40 of those days, our Lord
appeared multiple times to his disciples to instruct them. And
then on the celebration of Pentecost, the law of the Spirit came to
the hearts of God's people and they no longer needed those Old
Testament types and shadows, they no longer required the threats
of the law. They had the law of grace, they
had the law of the spirit, they had the law of love written in
their hearts. And that happened at Pentecost. When our Lord ascended back into
glory from the Mount of Olives in Acts chapter 1, It was about
a week to 10 days from that ascension to Pentecost when they were hiding
out in the upper room. And so even with all the appearances
that our Lord made to them and all the instructions that he
gave them, it wasn't until after the filling of the spirit on
the day of Pentecost and the law of grace written on their
hearts that they had the boldness and the understanding to be able
to preach without fear. And they did. Right on the day
of Pentecost, Peter stood up and preached the gospel and not
the least bit afraid of what might happen. This miracle and the previous
two times that the Lord showed himself to the disciples teaches
us something about what happens in the heart when the Lord is
pleased to show himself. We can't force the hand of God
and we can't climb the ladder to heaven. We are dependent upon
him to come down, to rend the heavens as Isaiah said, to descend
to where we are and to speak to our hearts. And so we're always,
we're always crying, Lord, show yourself to me. Show yourself. I need to get my eyes off myself. I need to get my eyes off of
my circumstances. I need to see Jesus as we just
sang. Whenever the Lord shows himself,
he always and only shows himself to sinners in need of a savior. The first time that the Lord
showed himself is recorded for us just a page back in John chapter
20. After Mary Magdalene came back
from the tomb and reported to the disciples that the Lord had
risen, in verse 19, We read, then the same day, the same day,
they didn't believe Mary. They thought she was just an
emotional woman that had maybe feelings and visions. I don't
know what they thought, but they weren't sure about her report. Then the same day at evening,
being the first day of the week, When the doors were shut, where
the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus
and stood in the midst and saith unto them, peace be unto you. And when he had said so, he showed
unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples Glad,
that's the same word that's translated rejoice most times in the New
Testament. They were beside themselves when
the Lord came and appeared to them and showed them his scars. In verse 21, then said Jesus
to them again, peace be unto you. Their emotions I'm sure at this
time were so mixed and confused between rejoicing and not believing
and wondering what all was happening. The Lord spoke twice to them,
peace be unto you. When the Lord shows himself to
a sinner, he reminds us that we have peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ, that he is the Prince of Peace, and that
he has made peace for us by his shed blood, which is what his
wounds reminded those disciples of. He was wounded for our transgressions. When we get to heaven, we'll
have no memory of our sin. We'll have no memory of the events
of this life. But the scripture does tell us
that when we look on Christ, that we will see him as a lamb
slain before the foundation of the world. I believe what that
means is that we will see his wounds in the same way that the
disciples saw his wounds and what we'll understand from those
wounds is that that's the reason we're there. That's the reason
we're there. Whatever may have happened in
this world and in this life, we were redeemed and we have
peace with God by those wounds that the Lord Jesus reveals. And when he had said this, he
breathed on them and saith unto them, receive ye the Holy Ghost. He's giving them a measure of
the Spirit of God. not like what will be given to
them at Pentecost, but I believe what the Lord's telling us here
is that when the Lord shows himself, he blesses his words by his spirit. It's the spirit of God that must
give us understanding to the word of God. And if the Lord doesn't give
us his spirit, we'll just read words and not really understand
them. And so when he said, peace be
unto you and showed them his wounds, at the same time, he
gave them the Holy Spirit to be able to understand what it
was he was saying to them. The Lord never has. He didn't
during those 40 days. And he hasn't since showed himself
to anyone but his people. He's not interested. You know,
I mean, you think about the way the Pharisees treated the Lord.
I wanna be respectful about this,
but here's one of the things, one of the differences. If it
had been me, I'd have showed up at the next meeting of the
Sanhedrin. If it had been me, I'd have showed
up to Pilate and put them all in their place. But he has no
need to do that. We have a need to justify ourselves
and prove ourselves to men. Our Lord has no need for that.
He shows himself to his children, to his people. And what a blessing
it is to us that he would do that. And I think the importance
of showing his wounds is to speak peace to their hearts about the
forgiveness of their sin. He reveals himself as our atoning
sacrifice. He reveals himself as our substitute. He reveals himself as the one
who bore our sins in his body on the tree and put them away
completely by the sacrifice of himself. He buried them in the
depths of the sea. He remembers them no more. There's
where we have peace. Peace comes from knowing that
we have an advocate with the Father. We have a sin bearer. We have a substitute. We have
one who satisfied God's justice by the shedding of His blood.
And we can have peace with God through our Prince of Peace and
by our Prince of Peace. Reminded of what our Lord prayed
in the Garden of Gethsemane when he said, Father, if there be
any way this cup can pass from me, let it be. Nevertheless,
not my will, but thy will be done. There was no other way.
There was no other way. The only way that sin could be
put away were by the wounds that the Lord Jesus received in his
body and by the shedding of his sinless blood as a covering for
our sin. When the Lord reveals himself,
he never reveals himself as one who tries to save or one who
wants to save. He reveals himself as one who
has saved. People who think that they know
the Lord, but they profess the Lord that they know as one who's
making an offer of salvation or wanting to save sinners or
trying to save sinners. He's not revealed himself to
them. He's not showed himself to them. When he shows himself
to his children, He shows himself as a successful savior who has
satisfied all that God requires for their salvation. That's the
only way they can have peace. If their hope of salvation is
dependent upon something that they have to add to what he did,
what peace is there in that? How can we possibly find comfort
and peace in a message of salvation that requires something from
us? We would never know if we did it right. We'd never know
if we did enough. We'd never know if we were sincere
enough or dedicated enough or proper enough in what we did. The peace that we have, peace
I say unto you. Twice the Lord said that and
then he showed him his wounds. Here we have a picture of how
the Lord still shows himself. And this is where the revelation
that he makes of himself begins. It begins with us being sinful
and with him being a successful savior. Now, we just read in
John 21 that this was the third time that the Lord showed himself.
And we just read about the first time. The second time we find
beginning in verse 26 of John chapter 20. And after eight days
again, we don't know how long the Lord stayed with the disciples.
I was thinking, our Lord is so perfectly Wise, you know, we
often, I often talk too much in trying to convince someone
of something or instruct someone in something. Our Lord knew exactly
how many words to speak and then leave it alone and give them
time. Give them time to think about
it. And now they've got, whatever else he may have said to them
other than revealing his wounds and saying, peace be unto you,
we don't know. Perhaps he left right after that.
And now he's gone for eight days. And he comes back in verse 26. And after eight days again, his
disciples were within and Thomas with them. Then came Jesus. the doors being shut and stood
in the midst and said, peace be unto you. They're still conflicted. They're still confused. They're
still afraid. And they need the Lord to speak
a word of comfort. And he always does. What a blessing
it is when he speaks peace to our hearts. Peace is better than
understanding. It's what the Lord tells us. It exceeds understanding. And we get so conflicted and
so confused and so afraid because we don't understand things. These
disciples didn't understand what was happening, but they didn't
need to understand. What they needed was a word from
God that assured them of their peace with God and of the hope
of having the peace of God in the midst of their troubles.
Verse 27, then saith he to Thomas, reach thither thy finger and
behold my hands and reach thither thy hand and thrust it into my
side and be not faithless but believing. We're often reminded by this
story of what we miss when we're not where we ought to be. I'm sure I've made reference
to this passage before, I've heard it from other preachers.
And it's true, it's an encouragement to be where the Lord promised
to be. The Lord told them that you go
back into Jerusalem and you wait. and the Holy Ghost to come upon
you. He didn't tell him to scatter. He told him, you just wait there. And Thomas wasn't there. And
he missed out on the blessing of having the Lord reveal himself.
But I want us to see something different than that tonight.
Rather than to see a rebuke toward Thomas for not being there and
a rebuke toward Thomas for not believing the testimony of the
other disciples. I want us to see Thomas as us. Thomas's name means twin. And I believe what the Lord's
showing us here is his mercy to not leave any of his children
behind. You know, our soldiers, when
they go to war, have an oath to not leave any man behind. And yet, from what I understand,
there's over 2,600 missing in action in Vietnam. and their bodies never recovered.
A lot of men were left behind. Why? Well, because they didn't
have the wherewithal to fulfill their oath. They didn't have
the wherewithal to fulfill their vow, their commitment to make
sure that all the men were brought out. Our Lord made an oath. He made a covenant. to his heavenly
father to not leave one behind and he didn't lose a single one.
And here's what Thomas is reminding us of. Whatever Thomas was doing
that he shouldn't have been doing, whatever unbelief is in Thomas's
heart, Thomas represents me. I've got a twin living in me. And he often, like Thomas, doubts. He often, like Thomas, doesn't
believe. He often, like Thomas, is not
where he ought to be. But here's our Lord's mercy. He came back to the same place,
under the same circumstances, doors shut. This time Thomas
is there. He knew Thomas was going to be
there. This is our Lord's, yeah, he
was rebuking Thomas. And he goes on to say, Thomas,
it's good that you believe because you've seen, but blessed are
those who have not seen and yet do believe. He's talking about
us. We haven't seen the physical
body of Christ, the resurrected body of Christ. We haven't touched
it. We haven't sat and ate with him
and talked with him. This isn't what it means for
the Lord to show himself. He shows himself through the
eye of faith. He shows himself by his spirit
and by his word to our hearts. And the Lord said, we're blessed
because we believe based on the testimony of those who did see. But what a comfort, what a comfort
to know that when the Lord shows himself, he comes back and he
recovers all the doubting Thomases and he makes a special visit
to the weakest of sheep. Whenever a wild animal attacks a flock,
it always goes for the weak and the lame. And surely that's true with a
lion attacking flock of sheep." And yet what did David say? David
said, I went and took that sheep out of the mouth of the lion. I took him out of the mouth of
the lion. Thomas is in the mouth of the lion. All the other disciples had an
experience that Thomas didn't have. And eight days later, he's
still insistent that they're wrong and he's right. He was
in the mouth of a lion. And the Lord came like young
David as the shepherd of his sheep. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not be in want of anything.
He's going to deliver me from the mouth of that lion. What mercy. What love, what grace
the Lord shows whenever he shows himself. He shows himself only
to sinners, only those of his that are his. He shows himself
as a successful savior. He shows himself in mercy and
in love and in compassion to doubting Thomases. Let's go back to our text in
John 21. After these things, Jesus showed
himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias. And on
this wise showed he himself, you know, that's the same as
the Sea of Galilee, same as the Sea of Gennesaret. Gennesaret
was its early name. And then Galilee was, the surrounding
area, Tiberius was named after a Roman Caesar, Tiberius Caesar. And John only uses this word
Tiberius and three times he refers to the Sea of Galilee, calls
it Tiberius. I believe it reminds us of the
world in which we're in. We live in this world that is
pagan. And notice in verse two, there were
together Simon Peter and Thomas called Didymus and Nathanael
of Cana of Galilee and the sons of Zebedee, James and John. So we have Peter, Thomas, Nathanael,
James, and John. Peter's the ringleader. Let's
not miss the importance of the influence that we have on one
another. Whenever we do whatever we do, there's people
watching. There's people listening. We're
not. We are responsible for the influence
that we have on other people. Peter here, he's gonna say to
Thomas, Nathanael, James, and John. The five of them, that
makes up five of the 11 disciples left. That's almost half of all
the disciples. And what's he say to them? I
go fishing. I'm done with this. We're not gonna be used of God. We're still so confused about
what's going on. He was going back to his old
profession. That's why the Lord in this same
chapter is going to say to Peter, Peter, Simon, son of Jonah, lovest
thou me more than these? He wasn't saying, do you love
me more than these other disciples love me? He was saying, do you
love me more than the sea of Tiberias, more than the nets,
more than the profession, more than this world and all the comforts
that this world has to give? That's what Peter was going back
to. And he was leading these other
disciples to follow him. And Simon Peter, verse three,
saith unto them, I go a fishing. And they say unto him, we also
go with thee. And they went forth and entered
into a ship immediately. And that night they caught nothing. They worked. These were professional
fishermen. They knew what they were doing.
And oftentimes fishing is better at night. And they toiled all
night long. I wait for you, Psalm 130, as
they that wait for the morning, yea, they that wait for the morning.
All night in the darkness of night, they worked and they worked
and they worked. and they accomplish nothing. Can you relate? You know, we
often quote that passage, they that are after the flesh do mind
the things of the flesh but they that are after the spirit, things
of the spirit. And we apply that to the unbeliever who's looking
to fleshly means for the hope of their salvation. They're looking
for either the works of their hands or they're looking for
the commitments of their heart or they're looking to something
and they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh.
But we're fleshly men and much of what we do is minding the
things of the flesh, is it not? Do we not mind the things of
the flesh a lot? I do, we have fleshly needs. We've got jobs and homes and
children and worldly interest and concerns and we engage in
these things and yet... And those fleshly
activities do produce things that are necessary. In this world, work is a good
thing, it's a necessary thing. And it's a productive thing.
But here's the picture. All the things of Tiberius, all
the things of the flesh, all the things of this world can
never meet the need of my heart for the Lord to make himself
known, for the Lord to visit with me, for the Lord to show
himself, as we read. For the Lord to show himself,
all my works of the flesh are of no avail. They that are after
the Spirit do mind the things of the Spirit. That which is
of the flesh is flesh. The flesh profiteth nothing.
Not when it comes to the Lord revealing himself, not when it
comes to knowing God, not when it comes to having peace with
God, the flesh profiteth nothing. Now the flesh profits a lot of
things in this world, but it profiteth nothing to the soul. It is the spirit that gives life.
The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are
life. Oh Lord, that's what I need.
That's what I need. How many nights, how much of
my efforts? When I first started looking
at this story and this miracle, I wanted to introduce it by saying,
you know, I'm going to preach to myself tonight and if you
all want to listen in, please do and hopefully you get something
out of it. Because I have found myself toiling all night long. I find myself producing nothing
but wood, hay, and stubble. And here these men work, they
say, we're going to go back to fishing. They went back to that
which they were familiar with. They worked all night long in
the dark of night and they caught nothing. And when the morning
was now come, look at verse four. When the morning was now come,
the Lord will let us struggle in our trials and troubles and
tribulations all night long. Wait for the Lord. Wait for the
morning. Wait for the morning, the sun
will rise. The morning star will come. The
light of the gospel. We wait upon the Lord, he will
renew our strength and we will mount up with wings as eagles
and we will run and not be weary and walk and not faint. This
is faith waiting on God. Waiting on God. They wait till
the morning. And in the morning, what happens?
Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples knew not that it
was Jesus. He hadn't spoken to them yet.
He hadn't showed himself to them yet. He's standing on the shore. The scripture tells us in this
story that they were about 200 cubits out into the water, which
is about a hundred yards. Now I don't know exactly where
they were, if the water was deep there or if they could touch
the bottom, I don't know, but they're about 100 yards offshore.
So he hollers out to them, and Jesus saith unto them, Children,
children, now look that word up. It's a small child, it's
a baby, it's not a grown child, it's not a child, it's an infant. Now these are men. They hear the voice of this man
on the seashore and he refers to them as little children. And they're not offended. Children? You have any meat? No. They didn't say, who is this
calling us children? And when the Lord shows himself
to you and to me, that's what he calls us, children. And we're not offended. No, not
at all. Yes, Lord, that's what I am. All I can do is cry and mess
myself and I can't feed myself. I can't dress myself. I can't
walk. I can't do anything. Lord, I'm just a little child.
Do you have any meat? You've been working, you've been
trying, you've been trying to manipulate your circumstances
and make things happen. Have you produced anything? No. No, I haven't. All my labor has
been in vain. Matter of fact, Lord, I think
I've I think I've complicated things. I think in my effort
to make something happen, I've actually made things worse. Children,
you got any meat? Meat for your soul. No. No, we don't. And he said unto
them, cast the net on the right side of the ship. Don't miss
that. It was Malchus's right ear that
was cut off and restored. When the Lord separates the goats
from the sheep, the scripture says he's going to put the sheep
on his right hand. The Lord Jesus Christ is seated
at the right hand of the majesty on high. We could come up with
a dozen more examples, but the point is that right, the right
side is mercy and grace and love and blessing. The blessings of
God are always on the right side. And the curses and judgments
of God are on the left. And so the Lord tells them, cast
your net on the right side. Notice the disciples were in
a boat. The boat often in the New Testament refers to the church. The blessings of the gospel are
always in and through the gathering of God's people in the church. In today's religious world, there's
a lot of what they call para-church organizations. I don't find any... any place for that in scripture. Parachurch organizations, missionary
organizations and educational organizations and things that
don't have any direct tie to a local assembly. God always
works through his church. The blessings of God are in his
church and from his church. Now notice the disciples are
not fishing. Don Williams and I like to go fishing together
sometimes and we use hooks and bait and lures and we're trying
to trick this animal that's got a pea-sized brain. We're trying
to outsmart him and we don't. We can't outsmart the fish. But we're trying to trick him.
And that's the way religion works. So they use lots of different
baits and lures with hooks hidden in them. But we don't fish like
that. The church doesn't fish like
that. It casts the net. And God puts in the net the fish
that he has chosen. In this case, it's gonna be 153. Somebody asked me recently, what's
the significance of 153? I'm sure that there's probably
some way to connect that exact number to something else in scripture,
but I'm not gonna go there. The significance for us is that
the Lord knows the number of fish that he has in the sea. And every single one of them.
Not 152, not 154, 153. Every single one of them will
be in that net. They're gonna get in that net.
We're not trying to trick people. We're just throwing the net of
the gospel. We're not aiming at certain individuals trying
to get them to do something. when the Lord shows himself.
What a blessing it is when the gospel is preached and one brother
says, you know, the Lord really dealt with me on this particular
part of it. And another one has a different
part and a different way. And that's the Holy Spirit, the
Lord showing himself through one message and speaking to every
individual in different ways. You know, they say that a picture
tells a thousand words. But actually it's the other way
around. A word tells a thousand pictures. And that's the way God's word
is. It's exceedingly broad. And when God's word is spoken,
he applies it to his children in different ways to speak to
the needs that they have. So the net is being cast by the
disciples from the boat into the sea on the right side of
the boat, and 153 fish are caught. Cast the net on the right side,
verse six, and you shall find, and they cast there for it, and
now they were not able to draw for the multitude of fishes.
Therefore, that disciple whom Jesus loved, I've already started
preparing a message from that for this Sunday. I'm so looking
forward to it. The disciples whom Jesus loved. John's identifying himself. And
the only thing that John needed to know about himself is that
the Lord loved him. Yeah, how much time and effort
We spend trying to figure ourselves out. You know, just navel-gazing. You know, we got bent over and
we're all looking, you know, trying to figure out who we are
and why we are and what we do. John's only interest was that
the Lord loved him. That's all I need to know about
myself is that the Lord loves me. And John identifies himself
several times as the one whom Jesus loved. And John said to Peter, it's
the Lord. Now, when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he
girt his fisher's coat unto him for he was naked. I assume that
means he had some fishing shorts or something on, he wasn't dressed.
And he puts his coat on. It's kind of odd. Usually when
you get in the water you take your clothes off and you keep
your clothes down to a minimum. Here he puts his coat on. I think
we have here a picture of our righteousness in Christ. You
know, we were naked. We were naked. The Lord showed
himself. He has spoken peace to our hearts. He's revealed his wounds. And
he said, peace be unto you. And we come to him. Yeah, Blind
Bartimaeus had to throw off his dirty coat, but here we come
to him in his righteousness, dressed in his righteousness. He cast himself into the sea.
I love the way the Holy Spirit inspired John to write that.
We cast ourselves. The way of the Lord is through
the seas and there's turbulence in this world and when we get
to the book of Revelation we find that in heaven there is
no more sea. There's no more sea, there's
no more separation, there's no more trials and troubles. And
here, dressed in the righteousness of Christ, we're able to cast
ourselves into the turbulence into the sea of this world. Cast all your care upon him for
he cares for you. Peter is just unreserved here. He just throws himself into the
sea. And the other disciples came in a little ship for they
were not far from the land, but about 200 cubits dragging the
net with fishes As soon as they were come to land, they saw a
fire of coals. Now the last time a fire of coals
is used in that phrase was when Peter stood that night that our
Lord was tried by a fire of coals. When that servant girl accused
him of of being one of the Lord's disciples. And now Peter finds
himself again standing wet, probably cold, with the Lord at a fire
of coals. And the significance of what
the Lord's going to do in asking Peter three times, do you love
me? Is to show Peter the forgiveness and mercy of
the three denials that he had made of Christ. Standing in the
warmth of that fire and the Lord had on the fire fish and bread. He wasn't dependent upon the
fish that the disciples caught in order for them to be able
to eat. He already had fish and bread on the fire prepared for
them. Whatever the Lord enables us
to do in the fishing of men through the church, engaging in the ministry
of the gospel, he doesn't need us. We're but unprofitable servants. Heard a man say recently, you
know, I gave up everything to be able to do this. Yeah, I can
give up anything. You know, just unprofitable servant. What can we look to to say, well,
we've sacrificed this and we've sacrificed that. No, we haven't
sacrificed anything. Lord doesn't need me. He's got
153 fish out there. He's going to get every one of
them, one way or the other. And if he doesn't use my audible
voice, he'll use someone else's. The fish and the bread were already
on the fire when they got there. He did not need their fish to
feed them. Verse 12, Jesus said unto them,
come and dine. Come and dine. When the Lord
shows himself, he sits his people down and he feeds them from his
word, the bread of life. That's himself. He feeds them
with himself and they're filled. Whatever other problems they
have, they're able to feast on Christ. He showed himself. Tom, let's close service. What are we gonna sing? 31, 31 in the spiral hymnal, let's stand
together.