John 21. John 21. Again, let me tell you how much
I appreciate your hospitality and your hard work and your labor,
your generosity, your love that you express to me and these others. And I'll go home and brag on
you. I'll go home and brag on you.
But I'm anxious to go home, get back in my own study on Tuesday
morning, and go back to whatever is normal for me. But I want to bring a message
this morning. I've titled it, Jesus Showed
Himself. Look here in chapter 21 and verse
1. John 21, verse 1. After these things, Jesus showed
himself again to his disciples at the Sea of Tiberias, and on
this wise he showed himself. So he showed himself. Showed
himself again, it says. There were together Simon Peter
and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathanael of Canaan, Galilee,
and the sons of Zebedee, and two other of his disciples. Simon
Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing. They say unto him, we'll just
go with you. They went forth and entered into
a ship immediately, and that night they caught nothing. For
when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore, but
disciples knew not that it was Jesus. Then our Lord said unto them,
Children, have ye any meat? They answered him, No. 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.
Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter,
It is the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard that
it was the Lord, he girded his fisher's coat unto him, for he
was naked, and did cast himself into the sea. And to the other
disciple came in a little ship, for they were not far from land,
but as it were two hundred cubits, dragging the net with fishes.
As soon as they were come to the land, they saw a fire of
coals and fish laid there on in bread. And our Lord said unto
them, Bring in the fish which you have now caught. Simon Peter
went up drew the net to land full of great fishes 153 and
for all there for all there were so many yet was not the net broken
Jesus saith unto them come and dine come and dine the master
calleth come and dine We all sing that song here. We sang
that song the master calleth come and dine He said come and dine is what
I say this morning come and dine Come on, so I set a table here
this morning you come and dine And none of the disciples durst
ask him again, Who art thou? knowing that it was the Lord.
Jesus then cometh, and taketh bread, and giveth him, and fish
likewise. This is now the third time that
Jesus showed himself to his disciples after that he was risen from
the dead. I know that's a lot of scriptures
to read, but I'm going to deal with all of them if I can. But
it says that our Lord showed himself or revealed himself after
this wise or in this manner. After the resurrection of our
Lord Jesus Christ, the only people who ever saw him was his only
disciples, only his disciples. No one else ever saw him. He
had spent over three years on earth. Multitudes saw him. Multitudes heard him speak. Multitudes
saw his miracles. And he was crucified, and he
rose again from the dead, and he lived on earth for 40 days
before he ascended back to glory. But the only people who ever
saw him after his resurrection were his disciples, and only
then, when he revealed himself to them. There's not one instance
in the Scriptures where they... Our Lord Jesus walked seven miles
with two men on the road, And they didn't have a clue who he
was. They said, are thou a stranger in Jerusalem and you don't know
what's happened? What happened? They began to
tell him what happened. And he was the one that was there
that it happened to. And you know, so only disciples
saw Him after the Lord Jesus Christ revealed Himself. And
it says there in verse 14 here, it says this is now the third
time that Jesus showed Himself to His disciples after that He
has risen from the dead. Now look over here with me in
chapter 20. Just a moment. In verse 11. Only disciples ever saw Him in
His resurrection body. And that's why the Lord says,
you know, He said, I'm going to go away, but you'll see me in
a little while. He said, the world will never see me again.
But you will. You'll see me. And it's only
the Lord's people that see. He's the only one He reveals
Himself to. And if He ever reveals Himself to you, He's going to
reveal Himself to you because you're one of His. The world
ain't never going to see it. They say, I don't see it that
way. Well, of course you don't see it that way. You won't see
it until the Lord gives you eyes. We got these lights in here.
And the gospel is a light. And if you were sitting in here
and you were blind this morning and actually could not see, you
wouldn't see these lights. But if God gave you eyes and
done the miracle of giving you eyesight, you'd see the lights
like everybody else. The problem is not in the lights. The problem
is in the people who don't have no eyes. And look what our Master
said here. Now this is where He shows Himself
to Mary. It says here in verse 11. Mary's at the tomb of the
Lord Jesus Christ. But Mary stood without at the
sepulcher weeping. And as she wept, she stood down
and looked into the grave. She's standing there crying,
just tears just flowing. She stood down and she looked
into a grave. Looked into a grave. We left
many a person in a grave. And they always tell you, you
all go home until we get the grave covered up. And I've covered up several graves
in my lifetime helping folks at home. We have a graveyard
in our community and my wife and I already got our names on
one. Got our names stuck down there. Donnie Bell and Mary Bell.
This is where we're going to be when we're over here. Covered
up many of them. And here, you know, and so she
stands looking in the tomb, and she sees two angels sitting there,
and one at the head and the other at the feet with the body of
the Lord and laying, and they said unto her, Woman, why are you
crying? Why are you weeping so? Oh, listen, this causes us to
weep, because they've taken away my Lord, and I don't know where
they've laid Him. I want Christ wherever I can get Him in whatever
condition." That's what she's saying. And when she had said
thus, she turned herself back and saw Jesus standing, and knew
not that it was Jesus. And the Lord said unto her, Woman,
why weepest thou? Who are you looking for? She's
supposing Him to be the gardener. and saith unto him, Sir, if you
have borne him hence, tell me where you have laid him, and
I will take him away." She didn't see him, Chris. Now, sometimes
we weep, and our eyes get so full of tears that we can't see
him either. All we see is the sorrow and the tears. But watch
this. Our Lord said, Mary! Mary! Oh, bless His name. My sheep,
hear my voice. Calls them by name. Mary? She said, Our dear Bramley. Oh,
my master. Oh, that's the way it is. We
don't see Him until He calls us His name. And oh, He will
call His name. And oh, beloved, would you Would
you see the glory of God in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ
this morning? Would you see God's blessed glory,
God's blessed grace, God's blessed love, God's blessed wisdom, God's
blessed power in the person of His Son this morning? Well, I
pray that He'll do what He done for these disciples, reveal Himself
to you. How was it, He says, after He
showed Himself on this wise, in this way? Well, which way
did he show himself to them here in this particular chapter? Well,
the time that he revealed himself to them or came to them and showed
himself was after a night of failure. Look there in verse
3, John 21. Simon Peter saith unto them the
time was was after a night of failure Simon Peter said of them
I go a-fishing They son Tim will also go with you They went forth
and entered into a ship of media and what's this and that night
they caught nothing? They caught nothing Now when
Simon Peter said I go a-fishing it's not like me and you say
well, let's go fishing this afternoon It's not the same difference
No, no, but Simon Peter said, I'm going to go fishing. That's
what he did for a living. And what he's saying, Lord Jesus,
what he's saying is, I'm going to go back to my old ways. I'm
going to go back to making a living. Christ is crucified. I'm going
to go back to fishing. I'm going to go back to what
I did before. Is that not a failure? Then this is not like Jonah.
This is going back to his old ways. He wasn't living by faith. Peter takes the lead and he always
does. That was his nature. He always
was speaking when he should have been listening. He's always doing
when he should have been waiting. But that's just his nature. That's
the way I am. You know he was impetuous. He is always a leader. He always took the lead. No,
he was wrong a lot of times. He just took himself out there. And that was seven fellas went
with him. So if you're ever going to turn
around, you're not going to turn around by yourself. People ain't got
sense enough to go back fishing by themselves. They always got
to take a bunch with them. But that's why Simon Peter 7
went with it. And our Lord called these men
to be fishers of men. But they give in to the reasoning
of nature. And that's what these fellas said, well, we'll just
go with you. We'll just go with you. We ain't got nothing else
to do. You know, we ain't going to go
preaching tomorrow. We're not going to do anything
spiritual. We're not going to go to the synagogue. We're not
going... No, we'll just go fishing. We'll go back to making a living.
And that night they went laboring. And I'll tell you something,
when you're in the night, you've got to labor at dark. We're children
of light. We're not children of the darkness.
And these fellows are acting like men of nature instead of
those that God had called. And here, beloved, and our Lord
didn't appear to them during the night. He left them there.
You want to do things in the dark? You want to do things in
the night? You want to do things by yourself? You think you want
to go back to the old way? You want to go back to leaning
to your own understanding? He said, have at it. And He left
them to themselves. And what does it say? They caught
nothing. Huh? They had to learn by experience
what I, Lord, had already told them, that without me, you can
do nothing. Without me, you absolutely can
do zip, zero, not another. It's not without me you can do
99%. It's not without me you can try. It's not without me I'll help
you. He didn't say, without me I'll give you a shove in the
right direction. He said, without me you can do nothing. You all know what nothing is?
I'm going to show you what nothing is. I'm going to give you a little
illustration. Can you all see that? What is that? Is there any value to them? Now is there any value to them? That's all of us until Christ.
A room full of zeros, Christ's the only one who puts any value
to us. Ain't that right? And that's what he says, without
me you can do nothing. You say, I'm not a zero. And
you'll have Christ either. He only saves nobody. That's what He says. Without
Me, you can do nothing. Without Him, everything is a
failure. It's bound to fail. It's already
failed. Oh, Beloved, don't attempt a
moment without our blessed Redeemer. I didn't know we sang that song,
I need Thee, I need Thee, precious Jesus, I need Thee every hour,
every hour I need You. Well, an old fellow in our congregation,
he's gone now. And Beloved, he'd always say,
a moment? I don't need just a moment or every hour. I need you every
moment, every minute of every day. I need you. I've got to
have you. And don't attempt a moment without Him. Oh, we need Him. Now how many, how many who are
going to think their life has been a success? They'll point
to what they've accomplished. They'll point to what they've
done. They'll point to where they've been. They'll point to
their bank accounts. They'll point to their houses.
And they'll point to their cars. And they'll point to the success
of their children. And then it's all said and done,
they'll be a failure! A failure. But, look, big doors hang on
little hinges. Look there in verse 4. But, But, when everything was a failure,
when they caught nothing, when everybody had fallen all impetuous,
impulsive, Simon Peter, the morning was now coming. Let me tell you something. Whenever Christ comes, it's always
the morning. Darkness may endure for a night,
but joy cometh in the morning." And beloved, our Lord, look what
it says. When the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the
shore. Huh? He was in the season, but
the disciples knew not that it was Jesus. He was there, but
His disciples didn't know who He was. What a sad, sad state
of heart not to recognize the Master. What a sad state of heart. Do you ever get frightened, you
know, when you go to a few services and you don't feel the Lord's
presence? Oh, you don't feel His presence? You don't get affected
by the preaching? And look over here at John 20.19.
Look what it says. Oh, He was on the shore. The
morning was now come. Everything was a failure. They
caught nothing. And look what it says. Here's the way these
fellows were. In verse 19 of John 20. Then
the same day at evening, being the first day of the week when
the disciples were shut, doors were shut where the disciples
were assembled. Watch this. For what reason did they have
the doors shut? My reason were they all gathered
together. They didn't gather together to talk about Christ.
They didn't gather together to preach, and didn't pray, or exhort
one another. They gathered together as a symbol
for fear of the Jews. For fear of the Jews. And that's
why these fellas were stuck. Here they was. But our Lord Jesus
Christ, when they had failed miserably, when you and I had
failed miserably, He always brings the morning with Him. Mary, when
her heart was immersed in sorrow, when she was occupied with death,
she didn't recognize the Savior. And these men returned to their
worldly calling, occupied with their bodily needs, their physical
needs, and they didn't recognize the Savior. But here's the manner
in which He showed Himself, all this wise. And you know our Lord,
let me tell you something. Like I said the other night,
our Lord Jesus Christ always makes Himself known in a way
that you cannot doubt for a second that it's not Him. If He makes
Himself known and He reals Himself, you cannot doubt for a second
that it's not Him. You cannot doubt for a minute
that He's not the one talking, that He's not the one doing it.
And He showed Himself on this wise. And, oh beloved, the first
thing He does is He leads them to confess their failure. He
says in verse 5, Then He saith unto them, Children, have you
got any meat? No, we ain't got nothing. They
got their meat. No! No, we ain't got anything. Oh, we've taken nothing. You
reckon our Lord didn't know that? Oh, we've taken nothing. We failed. He knew they had taken nothing.
He knew they had failed. And, oh, beloved, our Lord Jesus
said, Adam, where art thou? And Adam fell in the garden and
went over. This is how depraved human nature
is. This is how depraved, how blind, how desperately wicked
men's hearts are. And that if God don't come to
where you are, you'll stay there. Adam actually thought he could
cover his nakedness with a fig leaf and could hide himself from
God in a bush. And oh man, people actually think
they can hide from God. But let me tell you the safest
place to hide from God, and I've said this many, if you want to
hide from God, buy you a Bible, get a cross, hang it around your
neck, and go join a Baptist church someplace where they don't know
God, don't know Christ, and God will never bother you. That's the truth. If you want
to be confronted with Christ, you go someplace where they're
preaching the gospel. God doesn't ask questions for
information. God does not ask questions because
He wants to know something. No, He knows everything. He asks
questions for us, so we'll know the answer. Adam, where are you?
Adam said, I'm here. I'm over here. I'm afraid of
you. I'm ashamed. And that's why he says to these
fellows, have you taken anything? He's going to cause you to confess
that without Him, you're nothing. Without Him, you can do nothing.
And they're going to confess it. And beloved, the reason he
asks questions is to reveal things to our own hearts. And there
was no use for these fellows to pretend. And well, we just
had a bad night. We didn't use the right bait.
We went to the wrong fishing hole. No, there was no use pretending
they had something. And beware, beloved, beware of
misrepresenting and exaggeration. And oh, beware of doing that.
Oh, that's why the Lord said, they said, have you taken anything?
No, we ain't caught nothing. And beloved, without Him, we
will have nothing, catch nothing, do nothing. And those disciples
in the sea, they're like you and I in this world. Nothing. Can do nothing. Christ is on
the shore. It's like Christ in glory. And
blessed be His name while we're here, He's there and He still
yet speaks to us and still makes Himself known to us. Then not
only did He make them confess their failure. Can you confess
your failures this morning? Can you really confess that you're
nothing? Can you do that? Watch what happens
now. Then he says unto them, he tries
their faith, cast your net on the right side of the ship and
you shall find it. Oh my, is it this the sovereign
of the sea? Here they don't know who this
is. Cast your net on the right side. Cast your net on wherever
the Lord tells you to cast your net. It's always going to be
the right side. Isn't this the God-man who knows
all, sees all, has all power? Cast your net on the right, not
on the back, not on the front. Don't move your boat, stay right
where you are, and just do what I tell you. And this is the only
miracle recorded after our Lord's resurrection. And you see these
men had fished all their lives. They toiled all night and caught
nothing. But they heard a voice. A voice
of certainty. A voice of authority. A voice
with power. Touch your neck, or we're on
the right side. That's what happens. And now,
they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fish. Oh, my soul. Oh, caught nothing,
and now they can't carry all that they've caught. Doesn't
the Lord always do exceedingly abundantly what we can think
or ask? I can think awful big. But He
gives me bigger than what I can take. I can ask for an awful
lot, but He always gives me more than what I ask for. Always has. No wonder, beloved, He creates
the world out of nothing, and He can cause fish to be where
there ain't no fish. He can cause people to catch
something, and He brings something out of nothing here. These fellas
had nothing, and now they got something. And they obeyed His Word. And
the result is, look what happens when they obeyed His Word. Look
what happens. Therefore, in verse 7, it says,
After they were not able to draw up for the multitude of fish,
they cast that forward, done what He said. Therefore, that
disciple whom Jesus... Every time you hear John's name
mentioned, it's always that way. That disciple whom Jesus loved,
saith unto Peter. Watch this. It's the Lord! Now
they know. Ain't nobody else can do this.
Nobody else can tell us to cast a net on the right side. We fished
all night, taking nothing. Now, now, this is the Lord. Who else can do this? Who else
can cause this to happen? This is the Lord. This can only
be our blessed Master. He's the only one who can take
our failure and turn it around. He takes the weak to confound
the mighty. Here's these men and all their
weakness. You know, when Simon Peter denied
the Lord three times, and people say, how in the world can that
be? Ah, listen, here's a man in all of his... You're going
to make him an apostle? You're going to use him to open
the doors to the Jews and the doors to the Gentiles? You're
going to give him the keys? You're going to say he's the
rock? And he denied you three times? He said, I'll take the
weak. To confound the mighty. No, He takes the foolish. To
confound the wise. Here are these fellows, these
are ignorant and unlearned fishermen. They don't know nothing. They
ain't been to school. They ain't been to seminary.
They ain't been to Bible college. They don't know very little.
He said, Oh, I'll take the foolish. And I'll confound the lies. And when we fell miserably, absolutely
miserably, that's when the Lord Jesus would show Himself. This
sinner, you're just like this. You're just like this. You're
just like these fellows out on the sea. You're laboring for
nothing. You're laboring for naught. You're laboring for nothing.
Look what it said here in John 20. John 20.30. Believe Him.
Believe His Word. John 20 and verse 30. And many
other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of His disciples
which are not written in this book. But these are written,
watch this, that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the
Son of God, and that believing, you might have life through His
name. And oh my, that's quit laboring
for nothing. Just rest. Just stop. Lay back
and repose your soul. Now watch what happens now. They
said, it's the Lord. Now in verse 7, down to... Now
when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, somebody... John
said, it's the Lord! Simon Peter said, what? He's
out there fishing, he's naked. He's naked. Grabbed his coat
around him. And this is the same one who
denied the Lord Jesus Christ three times. And he couldn't
wait for the most to get to land. I'm going to get to my master.
If that's the Lord, I'm getting there just as quick as I can.
He threw his coat around him, and away he went. He couldn't
wait for the wrestling fellas. Oh, listen. That's the way, you
know, no matter what we do, we as believers, no matter what
we do, how bad we fail. How weak we become. We can do
nothing. And we always do this. We keep
coming to our Master. We came when we were lost. We
came when we needed Him. We came as helpless, hopeless
sinners. And we come now. To whom? Coming. We constantly come into Christ.
And all he jumped in. He went fishing. He said, you
fellas take care of the fish. I'm going to the Lord. You fellas,
you all bring them fish in. I don't care about fish anymore.
Fish is the last thing on my mind. I want to get to my master.
Oh my, he's like that Samaritan woman. When she realized it was
the Lord Jesus, she threw her water pot away and she said,
running into town, she said, come see a man that told me all
things ever I did. You'll leave the fish and the
water pots. And oh, look what he does now. And they came in,
you know, and they got up there and looked down at verse 9. He's
going to reveal Himself as the One who provides for them and
sustains them and keeps them. Makes them fruitful. You know,
He makes you fruitful. Them fellas can't catch nothing.
He's the One who makes you fruitful. And look what it says there in
verse 9, As soon as they were come to land, they saw a fire
close thereon. You reckon our Lord has some
matches with Him? There's a fire there. And there's
fish there. And there's bread there. Now,
our Lord's not a fisherman. Our Lord's not a baker. But there's a fire, and there's
fish, and there's bread. How in the world did that happen? Where did that come from? Where
are the fish, and the bread, and the fire? All they've got to do is cast
their net on the right side, and they've got more fish than
they want to do with. He come walking in the water in the middle
of the night. He told the storm to peace be still. He told the
bed man, I say unto thee, yea, I say unto thee, live. He told
Zacchaeus to come out of the tree, and Zacchaeus skinned his
elbows coming out of that tree. That's what I'm telling you,
when our Lord Jesus Christ, He gives us food when we don't know
anything and done nothing but fail. When we get there, the
fire's already there. The food's there. The bread's
there. And the same thing He fed the
multitude with is the same thing He fed them with. Bread and fish. Oh, He knew they were hungry.
He knew they were cold. And He's the Shepherd of the
sheep. He said, The Lord's my Shepherd. I shall not want. You
cold? I've got a fire. You hungry? I've got some food. You're naked,
I'll clothe you. Oh, my. Oh, he's the shepherd
of the sheep. He's watching out for them. Then
look what he has. He has fellowship with them.
In verse 12, it says this, Jesus saith unto him, Come and dine. Come and dine. And watch this
now. I want you to see this. And none of them, the disciples,
durst ask him who art thou, knowing that it was the Lord. Now watch
this. Then Jesus coming. Jesus then
coming. And He takes the bread. He takes
the bread. And He gives it to them. He don't
say help yourself. He don't say sit down here and
help yourself. No, He took the bread and He gave it to them.
And then what does it say? And then he took the fish and
he gave it to them. He didn't say take it for yourself.
He gave it to them. And that's the way everything
we get, he's going to have to take and give it to us. He's going
to have to take and give it to us. And all beloved, they didn't
ask who else could act this way, would act this way. Who else
would fill our nets? Who else would feed us when we're
hungry? And our Lord has a way of giving that makes Himself
known. The law demands, but grace gives, and He gives it to us.
Then let me show you this lastly, down in verse 20. And when He
reveals Himself, the only thing that matters after that is His
will is to be done, and He is to be followed along. Now you
know our Lord asked Simon Peter, do you love Me? And you know
the story where He asked him three times. Told him how he's
going to die. Then they're sitting around and
they're doing And John, whom Jesus loved, was talking to the
master. He was leaning on his breast,
sitting there talking with him. Then Peter turned and about,
seeth that disciple whom Jesus loved following, which leaned
down on his breast to supper, said, Lord, which is he that
betrays thee? They wanted to know which one
of them betrayed him and caused him to be crucified. They caused
him to come out and get him that night in Gethsemane. And Peter
seeing him, and John's the one that asked him, Lord, who is
he that betrayeth thee? And Peter seeing him saith to Jesus, and
Lord, what shall this man do? This man that betrayed you, what
shall he do? What's going to become of him? Look what our
Lord saith. Jesus saith unto him, If I will
that he tarry till I come, what business of that's to your? What's
that to you? Follow me. No, whatever I will,
that's all that matters. The only thing that matters to
you is to follow me. Oh my, what God's going to do
to somebody else is none of our business. What's He going to
do with me? That's the only thing that matters.
Follow me, Peter. Don't worry about that fellow
that betrayed me. Don't you betray me. Don't you betray me. Then with
this saying abroad among the brethren, that that disciple
should not die. Yet Jesus did not say unto him,
he'll die, but if I will that eternity that I come, what's
that to you? And that's what we concern ourselves with so
many times. What somebody else is going to do. What God's going
to do to somebody else. It don't make any difference. Follow Him.
Everybody else go fishing, you follow Him. You keep your eyes
on Him. Who else you going to look to?
Now let me ask you, have you caught anything in life?
Or is your life a failure? Are you really a failure? I know
that there's a lot of you all here that you confess faith in
Christ, and I know there are no doubt many of you are believers.
But can you say that Christ is all I need, Christ is all I want,
Christ is all I desire. Everything else is nothing compared
to that. Can you say that in your heart?
God help you to do it. Thank you, preacher.