We have for the last maybe 15
years or more had on our pulpit, this one and the previous one,
a verse in John 12.21. It was the incident that was
the signal to the Lord Jesus Christ that his hour of going
to the cross has come. And it says, would say Jesus we would say
Jesus To see Him, to have Him revealed
to you is life itself. These are written, all of these
things are written that we're reading, if you turn with me
to John chapter 21. These are written that you might
believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing
you might have life through His name. So here in John 21, as
Tom read earlier, we have a a physical reality of the meeting of the
Lord Jesus Christ with his apostles on the shore of Galilee. But
in that physical event, historical physical event, we have a glorious
picture of what it is for the Lord Jesus Christ to reveal himself
to people. I love what the Lord said to
Thomas after Thomas had seen him, having doubted for those
eight days. In verse 29 of the previous chapter,
Jesus said to him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast
believed. Blessed, blessed are they that
have not seen, yet have believed." We won't see the Lord Jesus Christ
physically, but we will see him through the eyes of faith. And
this is eternal life, John 17.3. This is eternal life that you
know him, and you can't know him if you haven't met him. And
this is a glorious picture and I want us to look through this
story and I want us to see what it is for the Lord Jesus Christ
to reveal himself to you. That's how this chapter begins. After these things, Jesus showed
himself. Jesus showed himself. The Lord Jesus Christ must show
himself. He must be seen, seen through
the eyes of faith. He shows himself again. And I love that, again. If he shows himself to you and
has shown himself to you, then you will long for him to show
himself again, and he will show himself again. For Peter, this
is the fourth time that he's seen him. He saw him on that
day of resurrection personally, he saw him on that same day with
the 10 when Thomas wasn't there, he saw him the following week
with the 11 when Thomas was there, and now he sees him again. It's the second time for Thomas
to see Him, for some of the others it's the third time. That's the
first point I want us to make. The Lord Jesus Christ must show
Himself for me to know Him. And the resurrected Christ is
only known by revelation. His revelation of himself. Turn with me back to Matthew
chapter 16. You might know this story well. The question that Lord Jesus
asked, who do you say that I am? Who is this son of man? Who is
the Lord Jesus Christ? And they give him some high honours. You might be Elijah, you might
be Jeremiah. They put him in some really good
company. But to put the Lord Jesus Christ
in the company of men, even the best of men, is to demean him
completely. And then he asked the great question
in verse 15, but whom say you personally that I am? What's
your personal testimony of me? And Simon Peter answered and
said, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed, this
is the words of a blessed man. This is the testimony of a blessed
man. Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonas,
for flesh and blood has not revealed this unto thee. You don't learn
about this in the schools of learning, you learn about this
because God has revealed it to you. Has not revealed it unto
thee, but my Father which is in heaven. To see the Lord Jesus Christ
by revelation is the work of God. Jesus showed himself. He takes the initiative in everything. When he's revealing himself to
people, it's he's the one that comes. He's the one that comes
to this earth. He's the one that comes to the
shore of Galilee. He's the one that comes amongst
his people. He's the one that comes and promises to be where
he gathers his people together. I love that word show. He showed himself again. To show
is to make manifest. It's to shine. It's to reveal
that which was hidden. It's to make known. Do you need him to come again?
I continually need him to come again and reveal himself to me. So this is the third time, verse
14 says, this is the third time. And then he goes on at the end
of that verse, After verse one, Jesus showed himself again to
the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias, and on this wise, in this way,
showed he himself. This is how he shows himself. We've already seen that he shows
himself by revealing himself to his people. He shows himself
again to his disciples. He's always there. Our God is
omnipresent. He's everywhere all of the time,
seeing everything that's done, a witness to every thought that's
ever thought. Our God reigns, and our God rules,
and our God is everywhere. So often we live as if he's not
there, and so often even faithful believers who are looking for
him don't see. Mary thought he was a gardener
in John chapter 20. She didn't. And then he revealed
himself by just saying a word. Mary, Mary, and then she knew. He calls his sheep by name, and
they know him. The two men on the road to Emmaus,
what a remarkable afternoon that must have been, or whether it
was morning, I don't know, but what a remarkable time. All that long
walk, kilometre after kilometre after kilometre, and the Lord
Jesus Christ was there preaching the most amazing sermon. the
most amazing sermon, he preached himself. Why shouldn't he preach
himself? What we ought to be preaching
is the most glorious being in all of the universe, exactly
what God ought to be doing. God ought to be glorifying God.
He's the most glorious being in all of the world. And they
didn't have a clue who he was. And then he revealed himself
in the breaking of bread. In this passage here, the Lord
Jesus Christ had been on the shore with a fire, standing there,
and these men had taken no notice of him. How often we need him to reveal
himself again to us. Verse two, this is how he reveals
himself in this way. There were together Simon, Peter,
and Thomas called Didymus, Nathanael of Cana and Galilee, the sons
of Zebedee, and two other disciples. There were just seven of them
this time. There was 10 the first time, 11 the second time, two
on the road to Emmaus, seven. Numbers mean a lot to John. Seven
is the number of perfection. It's the number of completeness. They were together. They were gathered together. The second thing I want us to
see about the Lord Jesus Christ revealing himself is the resurrected
Christ meets with his gathered ones at the place promised. These disciples were told, you
can go to Matthew chapter 28 and Mark 16, but he said, Be
not afraid, go and tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, and
there shall they see me. You go to Galilee. Why were they
in Galilee? God had commanded them to go
to Galilee, and they'd gone to Galilee. You'll see him as he said. You'll see him, you'll see him
where he says he will meet with you. Verse three, and Simon Peter,
so there they are, they've gone back probably to Capernaum, probably
back to where the Lord Jesus Christ met them at the first.
And Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing. And they say unto him, We also
go with thee. They went forth and entered into
a ship immediately. So there they were on the shore
with the boats, probably the same boats that they'd left all
that time beforehand. And that night they caught nothing. What was wrong with what they
were doing? I go fishing. There's absolutely
nothing wrong with fishing. There's nothing wrong with recreational
fishing. There's absolutely nothing wrong
with commercial fishing. But these disciples have been
told by the Lord that they were going to be fishers of men. Everything that begins with I
is going to put you on the wrong side of the boat and cause you
to have a night in the dark of fruitless toil. And isn't it wonderful that the
Lord makes it fruitless? They caught nothing. They toiled
all night long and caught nothing. And that's exactly what Simon
had said in Luke chapter 5. You don't have to turn there,
I'll just read some of these verses out of it. Simon says, Master, we've told
all night and taken nothing. And the Lord said to them, we'll
let your net down on for a draft. And they let them down. And they caught such a great
multitude of fishes that their net break, and they beckoned
with their partners, which were in the other ship, and they should
come and help them. And they came and they filled
both the ships so that they began to sink. And when Simon Peter
saw So he saw something in that moment. He fell down at Jesus'
knees saying, and this is what happens when people have the
Lord Jesus Christ revealed to them, depart from me for I am
a sinful man. When God reveals himself to you,
you will know that I am a sinful man, O Lord. And the Lord said to them, fear
not, for henceforth you shall catch men. And they left their
ships right there, and maybe that same ship was there these
three and a half years later. They forsook all and followed
him. The Lord will bring us back again
to the same spot where we started. I love Colossians chapter two,
verse six. It says, as you have received
Christ Jesus, the Lord, how do you receive Christ Jesus, the
Lord? As a sinner who's met a savior. So walk in him. And people say,
well, I've got to get better. You're going to have to get better
on your knees and bow to him. That's how we get better. But I just love this story. Then
they came and the Lord Jesus Christ, they caught nothing. Turn with me back to John chapter
21. They caught nothing that night. Verse four, but when the morning
was now come, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples
knew not that it was Jesus. When the Lord Jesus Christ reveals
himself to us, he'll find us in darkness and he will bring
light. The sun of righteousness will
rise with healing in his wings. The whole, Pictures of dark and
light in John's Gospel are very symbolic of this world and this
salvation. He is the light of the world.
We are darkness. Nicodemus came out of the dark
into the night of the Lord Jesus Christ. Judas left, and John
just says, and it was night. Judas left and went into the
darkness. He went into the darkness of
fellowship with the religion of darkness. He didn't go to
the bars and brothels of Jerusalem. He went to the most religious
people in that whole town. They're in the dark and when
the Lord Jesus Christ reveals himself, he'll find us in darkness
and he will bring light again. They caught nothing. all that night, all that toiling,
and achieved absolutely nothing. No, I'm fishing on the wrong
side of the boat. all night long. And they were in darkness and
one of the pictures of the darkness is that they couldn't see him
for who he was. They couldn't recognize the Lord
and he was just 90 meters away with a fire and coals to signify
that they couldn't see him and they caught nothing. They went
in their own strength and wisdom and will. You ever been there? Ever tried to do things on your
own? I do all the time. Thank God for the nothing that
we get. Thank God that he takes away
from us. The worst thing he can do to
us is to leave us to be successful in life when he's absent from
us. All that night. In the dark and
on the sea, laboring and achieving nothing, Jesus stood on the shore
and the disciples knew not that it was Jesus. What an extraordinary
thing to be in the presence and near the presence of the Lord
Jesus Christ and not know. I'm very struck by that story
in Luke chapter 2 of Mary and Joseph. They went a whole day
supposing that Jesus had been in their company. How many people
in religion suppose that Jesus is in their company? And the Lord reveals himself.
He's going to show himself to us in this way. Verse 5, Jesus saith to them,
Children, have you any meat? And they answered him, No. I'm
not much into fishing. I don't do much of it at all.
But I'm always interested. I see people fishing on wharves
and things, or on beaches, and they've got a bucket all the
time. And I always want to go over and see what's in the bucket.
And when they say no and there's nothing there, you know how it's
said, isn't it? I've toiled all night long and
there's not a single fish in my bucket. The Lord, when he meets his people. He's not asking them questions
to get information. He's drawing out of them a confession
that we've been toiling in the dark all night long, in the sea,
and we have caught nothing. Nothing is what we are, nothing
is what we do, nothing is what we achieve, nothing. If he's
going to fill us, he's going to have to make us empty. And
before he uses us, he's going to strip us of all that we think
that we have and all that we think that we can do. And when
he sends us out, he's going to show us how weak we are and the
uselessness of us. And all of our strength is in
him. Before he robes us, he will have us naked and exposed before
him. We're going to learn what John
15, what the Lord said to these apostles in John 15. Without
Him, without me, you can do nothing. What a great lesson there is
in those few simple words. Without me, you can do nothing. When the Lord Jesus Christ reveals
Himself to people, He's going to reveal us to us. And it's
not a pretty sight. But that's part of his work of
grace in us, to show us what we really are, to show us how
useless and helpless our will and our wisdom and our work and
our supposed worth is. I love verse six, and he says,
unto them. They're weary, and they're tired,
and they're exasperated, and they're frustrated. They're throwing
that net out and gathering it in and throwing it out and gathering
it in all night long, seven of them. And he says to them, cast
the net on the right side of the ship, and you shall find
They cast therefore, and now they are not able to draw for
the multitude of fishers. When the Lord Jesus Christ reveals
himself to people, he's going to reveal himself as one whose
words come to you as words of power and words obeyed. Imagine someone on a shore 100
yards away telling these professional fishermen what to do with their
net, and they obeyed. You can imagine how they must
have felt, but how wonderfully the Lord overrides their humanity. He commands and they obeyed. When He reveals Himself to us,
We will hear his word and we will hear his word as a word
of power and a word of command and a word to be obeyed. When he reveals himself to us
all his I wills and they shalls will not just be fulfilled, but
will be our delight. He commands and it's done. And
he promises and it's fulfilled. You cast a net and you shall
find. They cast, therefore, don't you
love the promises of God? You cast a net and you shall
find. And here we see the deity of
the Lord Jesus Christ. How sovereign and God-like is
our God in the most wonderful ways. This is the God who said,
let there be light. This is the God who said, let
there be a universe. This is the God who sustains
all things by the word of his power right now. And he said
to those 153 fish, you get into that net. And I don't want any fussing
and breaking that net until you get to the shore. He commanded,
and the fish obeyed. Adam was given dominion over
the fish. I've always wondered about that in Genesis. We don't
seem to have a whole lot of dominion over fish, but Adam was given
dominion over fish. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
great Adam, and he has dominion over the fish. 153 great fish
obeyed him perfectly and hopped in that net. as he revealed himself to this
way, in this way to you. And here in this story is a great
picture of what gospel fishing is. Gospel fishing throughout
the New Testament is pictured as a net that's cast into the
sea and then drawn to the shore. God's servants are never told
to bait a hook, to deceive the fish. We cast the net, God's
net, the net of God's gospel, the net of God's word, and it's
drawn to the shore with all that God had put in that net. And
all of them are drawn to shore to the feet of the Lord Jesus
Christ. That shore is a great picture
of heaven, isn't it? That gospel net goes out into
this world and it gathers all of God's elect ones and they're
all drawn to the shore. They don't get to the shore by
their own will and work. They are drawn to the shore by
the sovereign power of God. and the gospel nest not broken,
all of the elect, children of God, they are saved from the
foundation of the world. They have been saved by the work
of the Lord Jesus Christ. They must be saved and they will
be saved by gospel preaching. And they will be sustained by
the same gospel which first saved them. And they will be brought
to the shore to meet the Lord. These men are about to go out
into the ministry of declaring who the Lord Jesus Christ is.
And they need to learn this lesson. All that they ever achieve will
be through his sovereign power. and not their efforts. But because
of his sovereign power, he will cause them, he will cause them
to go out, he will cause them to leave everything behind. Everything behind and follow
him. And I love what verse 7 says,
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 fish's coat on him, for he was
naked. He was just stripped down to
his working clothes, his underclothes, and did cast himself into the
sea. Therefore that disciple whom
Jesus loved, what a great description. It is the Lord. What a great
description of one who is and has the Lord been revealed to
him. He's the one Jesus loved. He doesn't talk about his love
for the Lord Jesus, but of course he loved him. But he talks first
and foremost about the fact that God loved him. God, we love him. God's children love him because
he first loved us. When he reveals himself, his
loved ones will say, it's the Lord. When he reveals himself,
his loved ones will tell others immediately, it's the Lord. John
was the first one to see him, but Peter, as always, is the
first one to act. And Peter cast himself into the
sea. He put his fisher's coat on him.
It seems the opposite to what we do when we go swimming. And
I think there's a wonderful picture here. When people have the Lord
revealed to them and they come to Him, they will know their
need of a covering for their shame, for what they are. We need a garment, the garment
of His righteousness to come into His presence. Peter left
the ship immediately. Don't just love how Peter acts
all the time. So badly, in so many ways. And the Lord overrules it all.
So that we will learn that when we Peters behave like Peter,
we have a great God. We have a great and sovereign
and gracious God. Peter left the ship, he left
the net, he left the fish, he left his friends and he cast
himself into and onto the Lord. You leave it all. When He reveals
Himself, you leave it all and you follow Him. You leave anything
and everything that hinders you from following the Lord. This
is the work of His revelation to us. We leave everything to
have Him. You leave it all, you've got
nothing to fall back on. You leave it all behind. Nothing,
you leave it all. In salvation, we have nothing
but the blood and the wounds of the Lord Jesus Christ. Him
and him alone. When will you leave it all? When
he reveals himself to you. When you see him revealed, you've
just gotta get to him. You've got to get, nothing else
matters, just getting to him. He comes first and reveals himself
and then, like the Shulamite in the Song of Solomon, she says,
draw me and we will run after you. Not walk and dawdle, we'll
run after you. Cast all your cares upon him. Just being with Him and getting
into His presence is so, so vital for all those who have revealed.
Nothing else matters but running into the arms of His grace. The Lord Jesus Christ, when He
reveals Himself, is going to show us the emptiness of all
of our works. So let's go back and think about
these things and I pray that it might have been your experience
and might continue to be your experience. Because I love what
he said, he shows himself again. When the Lord Jesus Christ shows
himself, he will have to do the showing. It has to be a sovereign
act of God. It's always his coming to us
that matters. The resurrected Christ is known
only by revelation, and his revelation to his people is a repeated one. He showed himself again, and
he shows himself in the ways that he has done. He shows himself
in the previous chapter with his wounds. He shows them the
glory of his sacrifice on their behalf. And we'll look at more of that
after we've had a break. And the resurrected Christ meets
his gathered ones in the place promised. The resurrected Christ
meets with his gathered ones when they're not expecting to
meet him, even though they had a promise. Isn't that like us? When the Lord Jesus Christ reveals
himself to us, he will find us in darkness and he will bring
that glorious light of the gospel. When the Lord Jesus Christ reveals
himself, he will reveal us to us. He will reveal what we are,
the emptiness of all of our fishing in the dark, laboring without
Him. When He reveals Himself, His
word will come to you with power. He says, come. He says, come
unto me, not go away. Come unto me, all ye that are
weary and heavy laden, and I He will say, come. When He speaks
and He reveals Himself, His word won't be something that you debate
about and want to squabble about. His word is something that we
obey and bow to because we love the voice of He who speaks. And we love all His eye wills
and they shall. We love that he fulfills all
of his promises. We love that his word is such
a powerful word that it becomes a living reality in the lives
of his people. We come to him and there'll be
light. of the glory of the deity of
our Christ, who is God. The winds and the waves obey
him, the fish obey him. When he reveals his loved ones,
they will know that it is the Lord, not another Lord. When
he reveals himself, his other, they will know that he's the
Lord and they'll want to tell others immediately about him. And when you see him and when
he reveals himself, you've got to get to him. You've got to
get to him. You've got to get to him and
nothing else matters. Being with him, knowing him,
is vital. And we'll look at it after the
break, but when he reveals himself to us, we'll come to him knowing
that everything of my salvation is perfectly complete in him
and he's done it all. There's a fish on the fire and
bread on the coals What a sweet, sweet breakfast that might have
been if you'd been toiling all night on a boat, frustrated and
catching nothing. I'm not sure there are many sweet
conversations in the boat that night, but there are amazing
sweet conversations on the shore when you come into the presence
of the Lord Jesus Christ. My prayer is that he might reveal
himself to you and to me and to others in this way and reveal
himself again.