Let me beckon your Bibles to
John Chapter 21. And I like to think of this part of
our service as preparation in our minds and in our thoughts
for participating in the Lord's Supper. And I've titled this
message, Come and Dine, because they're the words The Lord Jesus
Christ uses in John chapter 21 verse 8 And the other disciples came
in a little ship, for they were not far from land, but as it
were, 200 cubits, about 90 meters, dragging the net with fishes. As soon then as they were come
to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish lay there on,
and bread. Jesus said to them, bring of
the fish which you have now caught. Simon Peter went up and drew
the net to the land full of great fishes, 153. And for all there
were so many, yet was not the net broken. Jesus saith unto
them, come and dine. And none of the disciples dared
ask him, who art thou, knowing that it was the Lord. Jesus then
cometh and taketh the bread, and giveth them, and the fish
likewise. He takes the fish and he gives
it to them. This is now the third time that
Jesus showed himself to his disciples. After that he was risen from
the dead. These are just extraordinarily
powerful pictures that speak so wonderfully of the grace and
the glory and the power. Don't you love what the psalmist
says? Come with me and magnify the Lord. These are wonderful,
wonderful pictures that just magnify the glory of the Lord
Jesus Christ. I pray that he will cause us
to come and dine, to feast, as these disciples did that amazing
morning. So let's go back and and read
this. They were not far from the land.
The disciples came in a little ship. They were just 200 cubits,
cubits about 18 inches in the old language, from your fingers
to your elbow, dragging the net with fishers. That's about 90
meters. And they were dragging this net
with 153 fishers, and they weren't little fish. It's amazing how
big these fish would have been. They would have been remarkable
fish. This catch would have been a catch that was supernatural
in so many ways. It's supernatural how they got
into the net. It's supernatural that the net
didn't break. It's supernatural that they all
perfectly obeyed the Lord and they were all brought ashore.
There might have been a ton of fish there. Imagine how big the
fish grow in that. What a remarkable sign of the
abundant provision of our Lord. Did they need 153 fish to eat? Not at all. A couple probably
would have done more. It just shows that our God abundantly
provides according to his riches which are in the Lord Jesus Christ.
You come to Him as He reveals Himself and draws you to Him,
you will find that there's an abundance. Verse 9, And as soon as they
were come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid
thereon and bred. When you come to the Lord Jesus
Christ, you will come to Him with a meal prepared and everything
ready to eat. What a breakfast that must have
been that morning. I don't know about you, I've
had some times when I've toiled all night and it's been very
unproductive. But breakfast and light in the
morning is so sweet, so special. And it's a wonderful picture,
isn't it? That when we come to the Lord Jesus Christ, everything
is prepared. When we come to him, he reveals
himself that everything about my salvation is already done. Come and dine, is what the Lord
Jesus Christ says. Not come and do, but come and
dine on what you did nothing to earn. It's all a provision
of God and a provision of grace. Come and live again on my provision,
he's saying to these disciples. You have lived upon me in the
past three and a half years. They never had to do anything. Everything was provided for them. And he's saying to us, come and
take and live on what I have provided for you. And I love
what verse 13 says in our story. Then Jesus cometh and he takes
the bread and he gives them. He takes the fish and he gives
them. That which was to sustain their
life is something that he gives to his people. Was eating ever a work for you? Was it ever a trial, eating? It's something we don't think
about at all, do we really? But every time I eat, I'm in
need of eating, and every time I eat, I think, this is just
wonderful. And often I just eat because it fills a void, but
eating what the Lord has provided causes us to feast on what the
Lord Jesus Christ has done what he has revealed himself to have
been and how he achieves his sovereign work. But I also love
how the Lord causes us to participate in his provision. In verse 10 he says, bring the
fish which you have now caught. How did they catch those fish?
by his command and by his purpose. Don't you love that the Lord
Jesus Christ says to every one of his people, well done, thou
good and faithful servant. Is there anything good about
what we've done? What's the goodness? He's all of our goodness. Where
did our faith come from? He's the author and the finisher. He's the giver of faith. He's the object of faith. He's
the giver of faith. And he's the faithful one. How
faithful is he? Faithful unto death. But such
is the glory of the revealed Christ. that he delights in the
gift of giving from his servants. He says, you come and bring your
fish. There's a wonderful book written
by John Bunyan that says, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners. This is a picture of grace abounding. Grace abounding in so many remarkable
ways. To be rescued out of darkness
and brought into light. To have all of your labours for
nothing undone by a simple word and a command, an obeyed command
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He loves for his people to be
giving, and he loves the giving that is his provision to them. I can imagine Peter when he had
to bring those fish, what sort of fish did he bring them? What
amazing fish in all of the Sea of Galilee. People have speculated for the
last 2,000 years on why there was 153 fish. I think there's
one simple reason is the fishermen count their fish all the time
and these were fishermen and they count the fish. The other
thing after reading so many different sort of commentaries on it that
just sort of confuse you and don't seem to say anything at
all, one of the things that really fascinated me is do you know
how many varieties of fish they say there 153. So when the great gospel net
is drawn to the shore, and that's a picture of all of God's children
being drawn to the Lord Jesus Christ, what's it going to be
say? Thou art worthy. To take the book and open the
seals thereof, all of the purposes of God are in your hands, the
Lord Jesus Christ. For thou wast slain and hast
redeemed us to God. This is Revelation 4 verse 9.
Redeemed us, you brought us back to God. Not only paid the price,
but he actually does the bringing of us back to him. Redeemed us
to God by their blood out of every kindred and tongue and
people and nation and has, listen to it, made us unto our God kings
and priests and we shall reign on the earth. Weary saints keep
coming back to the Lord Jesus Christ. I love what he promised
them. When Peter had made his great boast about how wonderful
and powerful he was, and how strong he was, and all of the
others, and he had to be brought low, and he was told by the Lord
that he was going to deny him, in the very next words out of
the Lord's mouth, I said, let not your heart be troubled. You
believe in God, believe also in me, in my Father's house.
are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you, I go to prepare a place for you. The going is to the
cross to prepare a place for you. And listen to what he goes
on to say, and this is what we see on the shore of Galilee,
and it's a picture of heaven's shore when the sea and the storms
and the darkness of this world is finished, and then there is
that everlasting light in heaven's glory. He says, I will come again
and receive you unto myself. That's heaven, isn't it? That
where I am, there you may be also. Peter was promised that
he was going to fail appallingly. What a lovely picture of him
when the Lord meets him again and reveals himself to him again.
He just leaves absolutely everything and in an act of glorious love
and desperation he just leaps out of that boat and leaps into
the water. And I don't know whether he walked or swam or what he
did, but he was just flailing that water away so he could get
to the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. And when he gets there,
there's the fish. The fish and the bread are on
that fire. Verse 11, Peter went up and drew
the net to the land full of great fishes, 153, and there were so
many and the net was not broken. It's a glorious picture of the
gospel, isn't it, if we think of ourselves as being caught
up in the gospel net that's thrown out into the sea, into the darkness,
into what seems like a wilderness and seems like an unruly world. where so much, so much is frustrating
and so much is difficult in the midst of so much that's amazing.
I just love the picture that if you think of those 153 fish
when they looked across at that fire, they saw that there was
one of their number roasted on the fire. And that's exactly
what the Lord Jesus Christ in his resurrected glory is doing.
He's showing him his hands. He's showing him his side. He's
saying, I went to Calvary, bearing all of your sins in my own body
on the tree. And now I've risen in resurrected
glory, and when I was raised, you were raised with me. And
it doesn't matter what storms of life all of these little sheep
and lambs go through in this world. He's going to keep coming,
drawing them back to himself. And when they get to him, they
will see again, as he reveals himself, that everything is ready. It's all been done. All of my
righteousness is in the Lord Jesus Christ. I love what Owen
said, and it's such a powerful testimony for someone who knows
that his days are very, very seriously numbered on this earth.
That there's not, and this was his words, there's not an atom
of my righteousness or my works in my standing before God. I'm
just resting everything. Like Peter did, I've left it
all behind. I've left it in the sea and I'm
resting completely on the glory and the finished work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He is all of my righteousness.
He is all of my standing before God. Come and dine. Come and dine. None of the disciples asked him,
verse 12, who art there? They knew it was the Lord. How
do they know it was the Lord because of all that he had done
and all that he had revealed? And because of the power of his
word to speak to the hearts of his people. And he comes and
he takes the bread. and he giveth them. He takes
that bread that's roasted on the fire and he gives it to them. Turn back with me to John chapter
6 and let's see what the Lord is wanting us, I trust, to see
about this bread. This was the message that the
Lord Jesus Christ preached, which was so offensive that a great
multitude of people left him. And at the end of it, he says
to his 12 disciples, he said, you can go as well if you like.
And Simon Peter in verse 68 answered and said, Lord, to whom shall
we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe
and are sure that thou art the Christ, the son of the living
God. Jesus answered them, Have I not
chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil? Here the Lord Jesus Christ speaks
of that bread that was roasted on the fire. Let's go back and
look at this. He says in verse 27, he says,
labour not for the meat which perishes, but for that meat which
endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give
you. Not that you'll work for it.
That's exactly what he's doing on the shore of Galilee. He's
giving them this bread. The Son of Man shall give unto
you, for him hath God the Father sealed. And they said, what shall
we do that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered,
and I just love this. I do love what he said. Jesus
answered, this is the work of God. This is the work of God. that you believe on him whom
he has sent. You believe on him. And they said, what sign will
you show us that we might believe? What work, what dost thou work? Our fathers did eat manna in
the desert, verse 31. As it is written, he gave them
bread from heaven to eat. Then Jesus said unto them, verily,
verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from
heaven, but my father giveth you the true bread from heaven.
For the bread of God This bread that's roasted on the fire, on
the coals, is he which cometh down from heaven and giveth life
unto the world. There is no life outside of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Believing in him is having life. He said, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. And listen to what he goes on
to speak. He speaks an amazing, preaches an amazing sermon about
the character of God Almighty. And this is the God that we are
to believe on. This is the God that we are to
believe on and have life, even if multitudes reject him. Verse 35, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. But
I said unto you that ye also have seen me, and believe not.
Listen to what he goes on to say about the glory of our God. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise
cast out. 4. I came down from heaven, not
to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And
this is the Father's will. If you want to know what God's
will is, here it is in plain and simple words from the Lord
Jesus Christ. I love how simple all of his
words are. This is the Father's will which
has sent me, that all of which he has given me I should lose
nothing, but raise it up but should raise it up again at the
last day. And this is the will of Him that
sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son, we've been talking
about the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. We see Him because
He reveals Himself to us, and He reveals His deity, He reveals
His glory. He reveals His sovereignty, He
reveals His provision, but He reveals Himself mostly in the
cross. This is the will of Him that
sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son and believeth on
Him may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the
last day. He spoke to those fish, and He
spoke to those men, and He spoke, and His will was done, and His
word was done. The Jews murmured at him. That's
exactly what goes on in religion today. They murmured at him because
he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven. And then
they said, and they looked at him through the eyes of carnal
flesh. Is not this Jesus, the son of
Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that
he saith, I came down from heaven? Jesus therefore answered and
said unto them, murmur not among yourselves. Listen to this. This is the God we're talking
about. This is the God that we see on the shore of Galilee feeding
his own. No man can come to me except
the Father which has sent me draw him. How did those fish
get to the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ? How did those disciples
get to the feet of the Lord? They were drawn by God Almighty. And I will raise him up at the
last day. It is written in the prophets,
and they shall all be taught of God. Every man, therefore,
that has heard and has learned of the Father cometh to me. When he is revealed, when God
the Father, as he said to Peter in Matthew 16, when God the Father
reveals the Lord Jesus Christ to people, they will come. They
will come. The gospel net is thrown out
into the sea and the gospel net's going to gather the fish that
God has ordained to be in that net and they'll all be brought
to that shore and when they come to that shore they will see the
Lord Jesus Christ has everything provided for them. Not that any man has seen the
Father, save he which is of God. He has seen the Father. Verily,
truly, truly. Amen, amen. I say unto you, he
that believeth on me hath everlasting life. Everlasting life is not
life that starts now and goes on forever. Everlasting life
had no beginning and has no end. And everlasting life is the life
that we're actually living in now if you have everlasting life.
I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in
the desert and are dead, but this is the bread which cometh
down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die. How did they eat that bread that
morning and live? He gave it to them. He prepared
it, He prepared the coal of fires to cook it, and He took it and
He gave it to them. I am the living bread which came
down from heaven, and if any man eat of this bread, he shall
live forever. And the bread which I will give
is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. The Jews therefore strove among
themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat?
Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except
you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you
have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last
day. For my flesh is meat indeed,
and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood dwelleth in me, and I in him, as the living Father
has sent me. And I live by the Father, so
that he that eateth me And even he shall live by me. This is the bread which came
down from heaven. Not as your fathers did eat manna
and are dead. He that eateth this bread shall
live forever. He said this in church. These
things said he in the synagogue as he taught in Capernaum. Many
therefore of his disciples, when they heard this, they said, this
is a harsh saying. This is not something that pleases
the mind and the flesh of natural man. This is offensive to us. And he said, does this offend
you? And then he said, this is where the real offense will be.
What and if you see the Son of Man ascend up to where he was
before? It is the Spirit that quickeneth. It's the Spirit that gives life.
The flesh profiteth nothing. What did those of the disciples
earn that night? Nothing. What did you catch?
Nothing. The words that I speak unto you,
they are spirit and they are life. Those words the Lord Jesus
Christ spoke to those disciples brought life out of that sea,
onto that shore, into the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. They
are spirit and they have life. But there are some of you that
believe not, for Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that
believed not and who should betray. Nothing surprises our God. And he said, therefore, said
I unto you, that no man can come unto me. No man will, no man
can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father. From that time many of his disciples,
there might have been a crowd of thousands who had seen the
remarkable miracle of the feeding of the 5,000, thousands possibly, They went back, and they walked
no more with him. Then said Jesus unto the twelve,
Will you also go away? Simon Peter answered him, Lord,
to whom shall we go? Where else can we go? It's to
a whom. It's a whom that we come to.
To whom shall we go? There's no other whom we can
go to. Thou hast the words of eternal life. And here they are.
This is what John's writing this gospel for, so that you will
believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. And that by believing,
you'll have life in his name. We believe and are sure that
thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. That's the confession of a believer. That's the confession of faith. These are written that you might
believe, not about yourself. You might believe that Jesus
is the Christ, John 20, 31, and that believing you might have
life through his name. The Lord Jesus Christ comes again
and reveals himself again and again. Blessed are they who hunger
and thirst after righteousness, because they shall be filled. This is the Gospel of the living,
resurrected Saviour. And isn't it wonderful that he
on the shore, in his resurrected glory, in his revelation of his
wonder, says to his people, come and dine. What's the qualification
for coming and dining? Believing that Jesus is the Christ,
the son of the living God. Let's pray. Heavenly Father,
we thank you. We thank you that the Lord Jesus
Christ is revealed. revealed in these glorious ways
that we've witnessed from your word this morning, Heavenly Father.
We thank you that he reveals himself and we thank you that
he reveals himself again. Heavenly Father, for those of
us who know him and love him, we long for him to be revealed
yet again. We are prone to wander, and Lord,
we feel it. We are prone to spend our nights
fishing on the wrong side of the boat by our will and our
work and our worth. And we praise you, Heavenly Father,
that on the shore, on the shore where things are secure, there
is a Savior who's finished the work and the bread and the fish
are there and our great and glorious saviour comes and takes and gives
to his own that we might live. Our Father, we pray that you
would give us a simple childlike faith that looks to your Son,
rests in Him, trusts Him, and goes out into this world. As
Peter and John said, it's the Lord and we leave everything
and we follow Him. Bless your word to the hearts
of your people, Heavenly Father. May we be enabled by your grace
to eat and drink in remembrance of him and proclaim his death
until he comes. Be merciful to us, Heavenly Father.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.