Would you turn with me in your
Bibles to John 21? While you're turning there, this
evening, we're going to observe the Lord's Table together, and
I'm going to preach on that passage of Scripture where it says, David
danced before the ark. And I want to preach on David
dancing, and he said leaping and playing before the ark of
God. I've entitled this message, Jesus
shows himself again. Let's begin in verse one, and
I want to read these first fourteen verses of this chapter. After these things. Jesus showed himself again. To the disciples. At the Sea
of Tiberias. And on this wise shewed he himself. There were together Simon Peter,
and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathanael of Canaan, Galilee,
and the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples.
Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing. They say unto him, We also go
with thee, They went forth and entered into a ship immediately.
And that night they caught nothing. But when the morning was now
come, Jesus stood on the shore. But the disciples knew not that
it was Jesus. Then Jesus saith unto them, Children,
have you any meat? They answered him, No. And he saith unto them, Cast
the net on the right side of the ship, and you shall find. They cast therefore, and now
they were not able to draw it up 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 girt his fisher's coat unto him, for he
was naked, and did cast himself into the sea. And the other disciples
came in a little ship, for they were not far from the land, but
as it were two hundred cubits, dragging the net with fishes. As soon then as they were come
to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid thereon,
and bread. Jesus saith unto them, Bring
of the fish which you have now caught. Simon Peter went up,
and drew the net to land full of great fishes, and hundred,
and fifty, and three. 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 dareth
ask him, who art thou knowing that it was the Lord? Jesus then cometh, and taketh
bread, and giveth them, and fish likewise, This is now the third
time that Jesus showed himself to his disciples after he was
risen from the dead. Jesus shows himself again. Now, the Lord had already shown
himself to his disciples after his resurrection. Look in chapter
20, verse 15. Verse 15, Jesus saith unto her,
Woman, why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou? She, supposing
him to be a gardener, she didn't recognize him, saith unto him,
Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid
him, and I'll take him away. Jesus saith unto her, Mary. He showed himself to her. Look in verse 26 of the same
chapter. 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. Now he had already shown himself
to his disciples, and here he shows himself again. The word show means manifest. to shine, to make known. Now this I know. I cannot see
him unless he shows himself to me. I can't do it. He must make himself known, and
we are in continual need of him to show himself, to manifest
himself, to reveal himself to us again. You hope you've seen him before
with the eye of faith, and you desire to see him again. Sirs, we would see Jesus. I pray that God will take this
message and use it to show to us Christ again. Now here's how he did it. After
these things, Jesus showed himself again to his disciples at the
Sea of Tiberias. And on this wise showed he himself. And if he shows you or me himself
again, this is how he will do it. There were together Simon
Peter and Thomas called Didymus and Nathanael of Canaan, Galilee
and the sons of Zebedee and two others of his disciples, seven
in all. Simon Peter saith unto them,
I go Now, the fact that this was self-prompted
tells us it was wrong. Anything that begins with an
I is always wrong. You believe that? Anything that
begins with us is always wrong. And what Simon was saying was,
I'm going back to be a fisherman. I'm going back to my livelihood.
Now, I know some people say, no, he just said he's going fishing.
Now, the Lord had called him to be fishers of men. We read
that in Luke chapter five, and he was saying, well, I'm going
back to being a fisherman. I don't know what else to do.
And how did he get himself in that state? I don't know. The
same way you get and I get myself in that state. He said, I go
fishing. This had been their livelihood,
and he was forgetting about being a fisher of men and going back
to being a fisher of fish. And the other Disciples followed
suit will go with you and it was nighttime They that night
they caught nothing now. I don't know much about fishing
but from what I understand the best time to fish is at night
and We can see why they were fishing at night. That's when
you're going to get the biggest fish But there's typical significance
to the fact that they had entered night. They had entered darkness
in their experience. And you know they were in darkness
because they couldn't recognize the Lord. Remember, he was only
100 yards away. And there wasn't any reason why
they couldn't recognize him except for the fact that they couldn't
see. They were in darkness. And that night, they caught Nothing. Some have said this is what happens
when we attempt to do anything without his command. Remember,
he said, I go fishing. They were going on their own.
And that night they caught nothing. Now, when a believer goes in
this direction, walking in this darkness, what benefit did they
get? What do you catch? How are you
benefited? Absolutely nothing. That night
they caught nothing. Verse 4, But when the morning
was now come, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples
knew not that it was Jesus. The Lord Jesus stands on the
shore, and they do not recognize him. They did not know it was
him, and when we get ourselves into the state that the disciples
got themselves into, I go, I this, I that, we lose our ability to
discern and to recognize it's him. And you know, that scares
me. These are the disciples, and they knew not that it was
the Lord Jesus Christ. They couldn't recognize him.
They couldn't see him. They were in the dark. Verse five. Now remember, they
don't know who this is standing on the shore. Then Jesus saith
unto them, Children, have you any meat? Did you get anything
out of this? They answered him, No. Do you get anything out of this
that can benefit you, anything for your nourishment, anything
for your good in this walking and going fishing? The answer is no. Nothing came
out of this pursuit but weariness and frustration and failure. That's it. No benefit came to
us from this. And you know, they didn't realize
this, but they were actually making a confession. Did you
get anything out of this at all? No, we didn't. Absolutely nothing. Verse 6, And he said unto them, cast the net on the right side
of the ship, and you shall find. They cast therefore, and now
they were not able to draw it, for the multitude of fishes."
They've been fishing on the wrong side. He said, cast it on the
right side, and you'll draw a great multitude. And as a matter of
fact, we know as we go on reading this passage of Scripture, they
brought in 153 great fishes. Now, I don't know what constitutes
a great fish, but it's not some two-pounder. I mean, we're talking
about 10, 20-pound fish. Anywhere between 1,500 and 3,000
pounds of fish they were bringing in. And they've never had a haul
like this. Now, we see the deity of the
Lord Jesus Christ here. They cast the net in, and the
Lord says, fish, get in the net. And they got in the net. That's
what happens. We see the deity of Christ. They
couldn't even bring it up. And I see something. I love this
kind of net. I'm not a fisherman. I just don't
get that much into it. I know some of you do. But you
know, in gospel fishing, Preaching the gospel is compared to fishing.
Throwing a net in the sea. It's not like fishing with bait.
We don't use bait. This is supernatural fishing. If you've got to use bait, you're
trying to deceive the fish. And that's not what we're doing
in preaching the gospel. We're not trying to deceive anybody
and try to get them to do something. No, we throw out the net and
God causes the fish to come into the net. That's gospel preaching. That's God doing his work. They
threw the net over on the right side and they bring up 153 fish. Huge catch. And for all that,
the scripture says the net was not broken. Now, you remember
in Luke chapter 5 when they did this similar thing, the net break. It couldn't hold them. But this
time, and I think this has some reference to do with gospel fishing,
the net doesn't break. All of the elect will be saved.
Not one will fall through the cracks. what power there is in
gospel fishing. Now, they bring up this great
multitude of fish. Verse 7, Therefore, that disciple
whom Jesus loved. I love that description of John. He describes himself not as the
one who loved Jesus. You don't really kind bugs me
a little bit, when people talk about it, they say, oh, they
love the Lord. My hope is His love of me. That disciple that Jesus loved,
interestingly, he was the first one to recognize the Lord. All of a sudden, he says to Peter,
it's the Lord. Maybe his mind was brought back
to that passage of Scripture we read in Luke chapter 5. I
don't know why, altogether, why they couldn't recognize the Lord,
but they couldn't. But now, all of a sudden, they
do. They recognize the Lord. And this I know, the only way
you and I will recognize the Lord is if He shows Himself to
us. Lord, show Yourself to me. Reveal Yourself to me. Don't
leave me to myself. I won't recognize You. I won't
see You. I need Him to make Himself known. Now, he makes himself known to
John, and John says, I love to think it's the Lord. He knew
it's the Lord. Now, while John was the first
one to recognize who was the first one to act. Peter, Peter, let's go and read
verse seven. Therefore, that disciple whom
Jesus loves saith unto Peter, it's the Lord. Now, when Simon
Peter heard that it was the Lord. He'd guard his fishers coat unto
him, for he was naked and did cast himself into the sea. Now,
have you thought about how strange that is? Usually, if we're going
to cast ourselves into the sea, we don't put clothes on, we take
them off. You know, I've always thought,
what is the point behind this odd detail? Because it is odd.
I mean, when Peter knows it's the Lord, he was naked. He puts
a coat on and he casts himself into the sea. Yes, I know. When the Lord makes himself known,
we see once again in power our need of a covering, our need
of a garment, our need of His righteousness. We see that. And when we're in this darkness,
we become self-righteous and proud and arrogant and unneeding. And when He makes Himself known
to us, the first thing we need is this covering, this garment
of righteousness. That is the significance, because
that is, you've got to admit, that's not something we would
ever think of, putting on a coat on and then jumping into the
sea. There's so much allegory in this passage of Scripture.
There's so much typical truth. Christ showing himself to us
again. And when he does, when Peter
saw he was the Lord, he put on that fisher's coat, he put on
that garment that he didn't have on, and he left the security
of the boat, and he cast himself down into the sea. swimming toward
the Lord Jesus Christ. And this I know, whenever you
see Him, you've got to get to Him. You've got to. I mean, it's
an absolute necessity. If you can do without it, you've
never seen Him. But if you ever see who He is,
you will find that you have to get to Him. I love impetuous
Peter. I mean, he puts on his coat and
he throws himself into the sea going toward the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 8, And the other disciples
came in a little ship, for they were not far from the land, but
as it were, 200 cubits, 100 yards, dragging the net with fishes. And as soon as they were come
to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid thereon
and bread. Now, they come to a meal already
prepared. When they get to the Lord Jesus
Christ, what they find is a meal that had already been prepared
that they had nothing to do with. Now, some have suggested that
this was another miracle of our Lord, that He miraculously, He
just, this was fish that had not been there before, and He
created these, He created the fire of coals, and the fish,
and the bran, and there they were waiting. That may be the
case, I don't know, but the point is, they came to a meal that
was already prepared. And when He shows Himself, we
see that every aspect of salvation is something that He has already
prepared. Come and dine. It's all ready. Already prepared. Already completed. And think of the coal fires,
the fish and the bread. Two things are mentioned. The
coal fires, fish and bread. Well, salvation has two aspects. Christ's work for me and Christ's
work in me. And it all comes to me because
he roasted under the wrath of God. And I am given this fish
and bread, the work of Christ for me, the work of Christ in
me. They come and find this meal
already prepared. Verse 10. Then Jesus saith unto them, Bring
the fish which you have now caught. Now this is amazing. He gave
them this fish miraculously, yet he says, bring of the fish
which you have now caught. Now this speaks of the privilege
of giving. He gave them the fish, and he
says, you take the fish that you've caught, and bring it to
me." Now, the gospel is knowing the Lord Jesus Christ. It's loving
Him. It's having a relationship with
Him. It's resting in Him. He's my Lord. He's my Savior.
He's my all in all. And He says, you take of the
fish that you've now caught and bring it. Now, here's the point.
Giving. What does love do? What's the
first thing that comes to your mind? Love gives. Bring the fish that you've now
caught. It's a privilege. Now, understand this. If in my giving, it's a sacrifice. And I need
it for other things. If that's my attitude, don't
give. Don't give. You know, the Lord doesn't need
my money. He's got a lot of money. He doesn't
need anything that comes from you. If your attitude is that
of, or my attitude is that of, well, it's a sacrifice. Don't
give. Giving is a privilege. It's a blessing of grace. And that's the only attitude
there can be in giving. He said, bring up the fish. Do
you reckon Peter tried to pick out the smallest fish out of
the 153? You know he didn't do that. What
a privilege that the Lord gives to us and allows us to give. Now, give sacrificially. But if you
look at it as a sacrifice, don't give it. Don't give it. That's not the attitude of giving.
It's a privilege. The privilege of His grace. He
says, bring of the fish which you have now caught. Verse 11. Simon Peter went up and drew
the net to land full of great fishes, and hundred, and fifty,
and three. And for all there were so many,
yet was not the net broken. Now the fish are brought to the
land. Verse 12, Jesus saith unto them,
Come and dive. And none of the disciples dared
ask him who art thou, knowing that it was the Lord. Now, when
the Lord makes himself known, when he shows himself again,
when he makes himself known, the message to us is not go and
do, it's come. Come and dine. Come and break your fast. Now,
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ doesn't exclude anyone. Do you hear me? The gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ does not exclude anyone. We're already excluded. We're already excluded by nature,
what we are, we're already excluded. The gospel of Christ does not
exclude anyone. The Spirit and the bride say,
come, come to the Lord Jesus Christ. There's nothing excluding
you. Now, when we talk about the gospel, what I mean by that,
when I talk about what the Bible means, I'm not, it's not some
generic term. I'm talking about the gospel
of God. I'm talking about the gospel
where he's in control. I'm talking about the gospel
where he elected people. and passed by others. I'm talking
about the gospel where Christ died only for the elect and accomplished
their salvation. I'm talking about the gospel
that says God's grace is irresistible and invincible and no one can
resist it. That's the gospel I'm talking
about. That's the only gospel I know. The gospel of sovereign grace. The work of the Father in election.
The work of the Son in redemption. And the work of the Holy Spirit
in regeneration. This is the gospel. Now that
gospel doesn't exclude anyone. It doesn't keep people away.
It doesn't exclude people who would have otherwise been saved
if it weren't for that. No, we're all excluded. We're
all under sin. We've forfeited our rights to
God's blessing. The gospel doesn't exclude people
and keep them from being saved. It includes people that just
come and die. Now, listen to me. Let me talk
just election. God chose. Who would be saved
before time began? That's just the fact. Do you
need him to choose you? This is about need. Do you need
him to select you and you know you won't come unless he first
comes to you? Do you need God's electing grace? Then come and dine. Come and
dine. There's nothing holding you back.
The fact that Christ died for the elect and only for the elect
and accomplished their salvation. And everybody that he died for
must be saved. It's a divine necessity. The
very justice of God demands it. That's what the Bible teaches. That's the truth. Somebody says,
I don't agree with that. Well, then you're wrong. That's what
the Bible teaches. Now, do you need that? Do you need a successful redemption? Do you need to rely only on the
fact that what Christ did is enough for you? Do you need that?
I do. I need that. Come and dine. This is for you. What about invincible
grace, the irresistible grace of the Holy Spirit, where the
new birth is God, the Holy Spirit coming in invincible and irresistible
grace and giving life, saying live and you live. Do you need
that? I need irresistible, invincible
grace because I know I will resist it unless God is pleased to overcome
my resistance. I need irresistible grace. Do
you need it? Come and die. You know, the only
people that object to sovereign grace in any form are people
who don't need sovereign grace. That's it. I mean, that's the
bottom line. If you don't need what I'm talking
about, you may object or you may think it's not necessary
to preach and all that kind of stuff. But only if you need what
I'm talking about. Come and dine. The Spirit and
the bride say, come, come to the Lord Jesus Christ right now,
just as you are. This is for you. Come and dine. There's nothing holding you back. Now, look what it says next. Jesus saith unto them, Come and
dine. And at that point, none of the
disciples dared to ask him, Who are you? Knowing, being absolutely
assured that this is the Lord. Amen. Now, when the Lord makes
himself known to me, I know it's the Lord. It's not the word of
man. When I hear the gospel and the
power of the Holy Spirit, I know it's the Lord. It's not the word
of man. It's not man's opinion or man's doctrine. It's the Lord. And whenever the Lord makes himself
known to you, when he shows himself to you again, and you know that
you need to hear from him again, you know it's the Lord. Nothing less than that. It's
the Lord. Verse 13, Jesus then cometh,
and taketh bread, and giveth them, and fish likewise. Now,
I love this. He said, come and dine. Come and dine. But they didn't
come. And he comes to them, and gives
them fish and bread. You know, if all I hear is come
to Christ, that's a good thing to hear, but I won't come until
He comes to me. He says come and dine, but it's
pointed out that He came to them and gave them fish and gave them
bread. He gives all that I need. In coming, He comes, and I come
to Him when He comes to me. I don't come to Him and then
He comes to me. He comes to me, and I come to Him. And He gives
me what I need. He gives me the fish and the
bread. Verse 14, This is now the third
time that Jesus showed himself to his disciples after that he
was risen from the dead. Now, they saw him and then they
lost the ability to recognize him. And he showed himself again
and they saw him again. And this is the third time after
his resurrection from the dead. Now, I love to think about his
resurrection. When he was raised from the dead,
that meant I was saved. Outside of my experience, when
he was raised from the dead, everybody he represented was
raised from the dead. Everybody he represented was
accepted. He was delivered for our offenses
and raised again for our justification. Romans 8, who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
is he that can condemn? It's Christ the God, yea, rather
that's risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who
also maketh intercession for us. Now, this is his resurrection,
his resurrection accomplished by salvation. By his resurrection,
God is satisfied with me. God looks at Todd and Ivor. As
simple as I am in myself, he doesn't see any sin because of
the resurrection of Christ. And the reason he doesn't see
any sin is because there's nothing there. It's not that he just
overlooks it. There is none there. Christ put
away my sin. When he was raised from the dead,
God said, I'm satisfied with him. I'm satisfied with everybody
he died for. Now, my salvation was accomplished
outside of my experience by the resurrection of the Lord from
the dead. But I need him to show himself to me again and again
and again. I need him to shine himself to
me, to make himself known. Because if he doesn't, I won't
recognize him. And this is just as essential
to my salvation. You know, the gospel is It's
not just one aspect, it's everything. There's the death of Christ,
there's election, there's resurrection, there's revelation. All these
things are aspects of the gospel which we all need. I need him
to show himself to me again and again and again. And he does. Jesus showed himself again. Let's pray.