John, chapter 21. John, chapter 21. It begins with three words. Verse
1, John 21, says, After these things, after our Lord was crucified,
after He was buried, after He rose again. after he had appeared to Mary
Magdalene, after he had appeared to the
women and to the disciples on the road
to Emmaus, after he appeared to these disciples, after he had appeared on two
occasions to all of the disciples, one time when Thomas was not
present one time when he was present. After these things,
it says, Jesus showed himself again to the disciples at the
Sea of Tiberias. And on this wise showed he himself. He appeared to these seven disciples. We're going to see in a moment
there were seven of them. And these appearances of our
Lord are not just appearances to prove he arose. I know they
do prove that Christ arose. But that's not the main reason
for our Lord appearing again and again and again to his disciples
and to his people. These appearances, first of all,
show that his redemptive work, his redemptive work is confirmed
and approved by the Father. It says in Acts 17, I'll not
trust my memory, I'll turn and read it, God hath appointed a
day in which he'll judge the world in righteousness by that
man whom he hath ordained. whereof he hath given assurance
unto all men in that he raised him from the dead." Christ is
the Savior, the Redeemer, the only Redeemer. And his redemptive
work is approved and accepted and confirmed by the Father and
revealed by the resurrection from the dead. That's the reason
he kept appearing. Even these disciples, and even those at inner circle,
doubted him, denied him, and deserted him. All men forsook
him. But even though they did, he
shows by his continual appearance to them that he still loved them. This is important. He still loved
them. You know, when he arose from
the grave and the women, he appeared to the women after the resurrection,
he said to them, the disciples had not seen the resurrected
Lord, but the women saw him first. And he said to them, you go tell
my disciples, and be sure you tell Peter. Remember, he may
have known Stuart and Peter. Go tell my disciples and Peter. Peter's denial and all the rest
of them, their doubting and deserting him, needed encouragement. And he kept appearing to them,
showing that his love had not changed. Then again, they were
going out to preach. He was going to leave them and
go back to the Father, send them another comforter. But he met
with them continually in his resurrected body, in his glorified
body, showed himself to them to encourage them, to preach
the word, to assure them of his presence with them, and to warn
them of the trials and difficulties that are ahead, and to encourage
them that they would one day be with him where he was. That's
why he kept appearing to them. Well, let's read on. Verse 2
says, they were together Simon Decathlon, Simon Peter, Thomas
called Didymus, Nathanael of Canaan in Galilee, the sons of
Zebedee, that's James and John, two of them, and two other disciples. These men were to gather somewhere
in a room near to the Sea of Galilee. Simon Peter said to
them, and it just seems like he frequently was the spokesman
and the leader. And many times he led them right,
many times he led them wrong, but he was an impulsive man.
And he wasn't a man given to wait. The Lord told him to wait,
to tarry, you know, go tell my disciples to go ahead and I'll
meet them. I'll meet them in a certain place.
But Peter, being an impulsive man and a man of action and not
given to waiting, decided that he'd go fishing. Verse 3, Peter
said to them, I go a fishing. And they said unto him, we also
go with thee. Now, they were fishermen by trade. And he says, I'm going back to
my boats. Evidently, they still owned their
boats, their boats and their nets and their fishing equipment. This statement by Peter has a
lot more in it than recreation. He's not like, you fellas go
fishing for recreation, take off from your work. He's going
back to work. That's what he's indicating.
I'm going fishing. Going back to the nets, back
to the boats. And, you know, it's not hard
for us to get folks to follow us in our foolishness. They said
unto him, We also go with thee. And they went forth, and they
entered into the ship immediately. And that night they caught nothing. They fished all night and caught
nothing. You know, our Lord is sovereign
over the fish of the sea. It looked like these fellows,
as skilled as they were in fishing, they'd been fishing all their
lives. This was their, it wasn't their hobby, this was their perfection.
He said to them one time, follow me, I'll make you fishers of
men. But they toiled all night, all night, and caught nothing
with nets. They were fishing with, they
weren't throwing a minnow out there looking for a bite. They
were fishing with nets, huge nets, and caught nothing. And
I'll tell you, our Lord is sovereign over the fish of the sea. You
remember when the disciples wanted to pay taxes and he told them
to go and and bring out one fish, and that fish had a coin in his
mouth. Our Lord sobbed over the fish of the sea. Verse 4 says,
But when the morning was now come, fished all night, and the
morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore. But the disciples
knew not that it was Jesus. And Jesus said to them, Children,
have you any meat? Have you caught anything? And
they answered, No. He asked them, have you caught
anything? He knew they hadn't caught anything.
He wasn't asking for information. I've told you again and again,
when you come up on a question in the Scriptures asked by God,
asked by Christ, asked by our Lord, it's not for information. Adam, where art thou? Cain, where's
your brother? Bartimaeus, what would you that
I should do to you? Have you caught any fish? He's
not asking for information, but for their own confession and
observation to some things. And here's the two things that
he's going to show them. Their return to fishing was a
failure. He's showing them this right
here. Without me, you can do nothing. That's exactly what
he's showing them. Have you caught anything? Observe,
you haven't caught anything. Their return to fishing was a
failure, and he's indicating to them, without me you can do
nothing. Secondly, he's about to show
them that he can supply their needs, and will supply their
needs. He's going to feed them in a
moment. He has a meal prepared for them. You haven't caught
anything, you're a total failure at what you're doing, because
you're doing it without me. And without me, you can do nothing.
And I want you to understand that I can supply your need,
and I will supply your need. And verse 6, He said unto them,
Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and you'll find. And so they cast therefore, and
now they were not able to draw it. for the multitude of the
fish, it tells us later 153 fish went that way. You know, skilled, experienced
fishermen do not usually obey the voice of strangers on the
shore. But I'm thinking two or three things here. Number one,
I think they heard the authority in that voice. He spake like
no man ever spake, authority in that voice. on the right side. Secondly, I think they remember
another incident back in Luke chapter 4. You remember when
they had fished all night and caught nothing, and they were
washing their nets, and he told them to cast their boat a little
farther out in the water and cast their net, and that was
coming back to them. And thirdly, we're going to see
in a moment, some of them, I think, suspected who it was, who it
was. And they couldn't draw it in
for the multitude of fish. Now look at verse 7. Therefore
that disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, who is this? This is John. One thing you'll
learn about the Apostle John in his book that God led him
to write, he never reversed himself by name. A very humble, humble
man. But he always refers to himself
in this way, that disciple whom Jesus loved. That disciple who
leaned on his breast at the Lord's table. That's the way he referred
to himself. And that John turned to Peter
and said, it's the Lord. It's the Lord. Now let's learn
something right here. Modern day preachers, at least
the ones that Surround me in Ashlam." And most of them who
are doing the writing now would have said, it's Jesus. These disciples never, ever called
Him Jesus. They called Him Lord. You look
back now at verse 5, Then Jesus said unto them, and Jesus was
on the shore. That's the words identifying
who was there. It wasn't God the Father who
was on the show. It wasn't God the Holy Spirit
who was on the show. It was Jesus who was on the show.
See, when he's referring to his manhood and humanity, the Bible
calls him Jesus. Jesus said this. Jesus said that.
If it says the Lord said this, there may be a debate. Did the
Father say it? Did the Holy Spirit say it? Jesus said it. But when
the disciples spoke of their Lord, they never called Him Jesus. They called Him Lord. They said,
the Lord said this, the Lord did that, the Lord appeared to
me. John looked over there, they
were a hundred yards out, that's how far they were, a hundred
yards from shore, two hundred cubits, the length of a football
field. And John, that voice, and when
those fish started coming from that net, he said, it's the Lord! And I got two books in the mail
this week. You got, and I just thumbed through
them and all the way through, Jesus did this and Jesus did
that, and I just laid them aside. I will not read them. I will just, will not read. There's
something in a name. He said, you call me Lord and
you say well, so I am. And I'll tell you this, there's
something in how men use a name. And how men refer to the Lord
usually reveals what they think of Him. That's exactly what they
think of Him. And you say, you're splitting
hairs. No, sir. No, I'm not either. I'm just
saying where there's respect and worship and fear and reverence
and all, there's a declaration of Him. How men refer to Christ. It's the Lord. It's the Lord. It's the Lord. Now, when Simon
Peter heard that it was the Lord, he girt his fisherman's coat
about him, for he was naked. He had on a loincloth. Men wore
robes and fisherman's coats and things like that. He had on a
loincloth, but it was hot, hard work. They'd been out there fishing
on that and using those huge, heavy nets. He was stripped to
the waist to a loincloth. He was hot, tired, weary, hungry,
frustrated. But when he saw it was the Lord,
he cast his fisherman's coat about him and cast himself into
the sea. A hundred yards out, he was going
to get to him. Why did he do that? He realized
it was his Lord. His Lord whom he had denied,
his Lord whom he had doubted, and his Lord whom he was disobeying
at this very time. That's exactly what it is. It's
the Lord. It's the Lord. And he was anxious
to get back in the fellowship. He was anxious to get back in
his good graces. He had no business being out
here. He's supposed to be with the disciples waiting for the
Lord to come to them and give them instructions and so forth.
He was told to wait. He went fishing. He went back to his nets and
back to his boats and he was embarrassed. He was ashamed.
He's guilty. But he did what a loving disciple
will do. He ran to the Lord. He let him out there. He wanted
to be the first one in. say, probably explain. Maybe
he's going to come in and say, what's my fault? It's those fellas.
I don't know. But he wanted to get to the Lord.
So he just dived into the water and started swimming 100 yards. And it says over here in verse
8, and the other disciples, they came in the little ship. See,
I told you he was impulsive. He just left the ship out there.
left those fish, they were still in the water, you know, 153 fish,
that's a lot of fish, in a net. And the other disciples, they
were not far from land, 200 cubits, or cubits, 18 inches, dragging
the net with it. They didn't get them into the
boat, they drug the net in behind the boat. Verse 9 says, and as soon as
they would come to land, listen to this, they came to land, they
saw a fire, of coals there and fish laid on the fire and bread. I remember these men are cold
and weary and tired and hungry and they came in and our Lord
had prepared for them a fire around which to sit and there
on the fire on the grill was fish and there was bread Everything
they needed. This is a picture of our redemption.
He calls them out of the depths. He calls them to Himself. And
all they bring in is their emptiness. Their emptiness. They brought
their weariness all night, their failure, no fish, no provision,
their hunger, their weariness, their tiredness, their shame,
their embarrassment, and here they come. to our Lord, and He
has everything ready for them. That's our Lord. The banquet
of mercy is served up by one host, our Lord, who planned it,
who prepared it, who invites the guests, and I'll show you
in a minute, and feeds them. Isn't that a beautiful picture?
The lesson for us who preach, too. These are His disciples. You who teach and preach and
elders and so forth and all, whatever we have, we serve the
Lord. He will provide. God will provide. He will provide. Here they are out there trying
to rustle up a little food and He has it already. He will provide. But here's something I note very
carefully. Get the picture. Now here, they bring the boat
to shore and they all run over there and here they look and
there the Lord is. has the fire and the coals and
the fish all ready cooked. Wouldn't you love to eat some
fish he cooked? Woo! And some bread that he prepared. I guess we do, don't we, himself? But they all stood around gawking,
I'm sure, and embarrassed and saying nothing, you know, and
then he spoke up. He said in verse 10, bring of
the fish that you've caught. Does he need more fish? No, I
guarantee he doesn't need any more fish. I read some of these
commentaries and they said, add your fish to mine. Come on now.
No, I'll tell you why he said that. Our Lord doesn't need their
fish to add to his meal. But before they were to sit down
and eat and talk, they're going to be there a long time. They're
going to eat, refresh themselves, visit, talk, There's some fish
and nets back there that need to be cared for. They hadn't even brought the
fish to land. They were out there in the water,
in the nets, and the boats were sitting there. They'd been dragging
them in. The master does not condone waste. He does not condone careless
workmanship, and he doesn't condone laziness. He said, before we
eat and fellowship and talk, you got some work to do. We didn't
catch those fish to show off. We caught those fish to distribute
to people. And we're not going to waste
them. Get about your business now, you know. We don't just
throw everything down and go sing, oh how I love Jesus. We
got things to do. You men got things to do. You
women got things to do. God does not condone laziness.
He, if a man won't work, don't let him eat. That's what Scripture
says. Take care of your work. Take care of your business. Take
care of your family. Don't neglect them. take care
of them. And then Simon Peter went, he
went with them, and they drew the net to land full of fish,
great fish, big fish, 153 of them. And for all there were
so many, yet the net wasn't broken. That's a miracle, the miracle
of catching them. The fact that that many fish,
great fish, didn't break that net. But they got them in. It took a while. It took a while,
but it had to be done. The Lord's not in a hurry. Take care of the business. Say,
I'm going to preach. Well, just take your time. Wait
till you get something to preach. Don't run ahead of the Lord.
You've got some work to do. You've got some preparation.
You've got some things that need to be taken care of. Take care
of them. And then in verse 12, our Lord
said, Come and dine. Come and dine. The banquet of
mercy is prepared by the Lord. Blessed by the Lord. And He called
them. He calls us to come and dine. He calls us. He calls us to the
meal. And what's this now? He had it
all prepared. He had it all prepared. And none of the disciples doth
ask him who art thou, knowing that it was the Lord. And Jesus
then cometh, and taketh bread, and gave it to them, and the
fifth. He served them. Our Lord taught His disciples
this, you know, about washing their feet. In the family of God, He said,
if I, your master, have washed your feet, shouldn't you do the
same? He said, I didn't come to be
ministered until I came to minister. And here the Lord prepared the
meal, cooked the meal, sat them down and served them, gave them
fish, put it in their hands, And that's a picture of salvation.
We don't earn it. We don't merit it. We don't cooperate
with it. He has salvation and he gives
it. It's all given. It's a grace, the gift of God.
He even gives us the appetite for it, for his bread. And he's
the bread. He has to give it. But what we're seeing here is
a beautiful picture of our Lord's humility, condescension, serving
his disciples. Don't be hesitant to take the
meanest of tasks, the simplest of tasks. Not looking for recognition or
praise or being served ourselves. There
are people who are givers and there are people who are takers.
And grace is a giver. giving, gives of himself. I'm
not just talking about money, I'm talking about service, and
labor, and love, and prayer, and compassion, and giving. Our Lord served them. He let
me serve Him. And He gave it to them. Verse
14, now this is the third time that Jesus showed Himself to
His disciples after He'd risen from the dead. So after they'd
dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou
me more than these? And Peter saith unto him, Yea,
Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He said unto him, Feed
my lambs. Now, they had finished eating.
It says here, when they had dined, there's some serious matters
to be talked about. There's some things to resolve.
There's some things to settle. But our Lord's patient. Our Lord's
long-suffering with us and with His disciples. Their need had
been met. They had been refreshed. It had
been a time of relaxation and fellowship. And now He singles
out Peter. Singles out Peter. And the setting
was similar to one with which Peter was very, very well acquainted,
sitting by a fire before a bunch of witnesses. Just a short time
ago, he denied his Lord. It's very similar, very similar,
around the fire. And he said, Peter, look at the
question, lovest thou me more than these? I don't think there's
any debate about that. who these are more than these."
He's not talking about the other disciples. That's the very thing
he had condemned. The disciples said, when you
come into the kingdom, let one sit on your right hand and one
on your left. He condemned that feeling. I'll tell you what he
did. I'd really believe this. He pointed
to those boats. He pointed to those boats. It
had been Peter's life. Those fish, those nets, and those
boats. You love me more than these? And Peter said, Lord, Lord, yea,
Lord, you know I love you. Well, the Lord said, if you love
me, feed my lambs, feed the newborn, feed the weak, feed the little
children, feed the frail, feed the weakling. If you love me,
feed my lambs. You want to serve me, feed my
lambs. Well, a second question. Verse
16, he said to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas,
lovest thou me? He left off more than these. You love me? And Peter said,
yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He said unto him,
then feed my sheep, all of my sheep, the sheep of Israel, sheep
among the Gentiles, my sheep, wherever you find them now, Peter.
Feed my lambs, the weak ones, the little ones, the tender ones,
the newborn. Feed my sheep, wherever you find them. Feed my sheep." Peter replied the same way. He
said, Lord, Thou knowest, Thou knowest that I love Thee, but
feed my sheep. Verse 17. Then he said to him
the third time, and this is when that memory, that remembrance,
That awful denial. You know, the Lord had said to
him, you'll deny me three times, Peter. So he said to him the
third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? And Peter was
grieved because he said to him the third time, do you love me? Do you love me? But my friends,
this is a vital issue. Notice our Lord not saying, Peter,
do you love the doctrines of grace? He didn't say, Peter, do you
love the church? Do you love my sheep? Do you love the law?
Do you love the scriptures? Do you love me? That's what he
keeps asking, do you love me? This is the vital issue. Here's
where life begins. If any man love not our Lord
Jesus Christ, let him be accursed. This is where life begins, loving
Christ. This is what motivates our activities. Anything motivated
by anything other than love for Christ is not accepted. God won't
have it. This is what motivates spiritual
activities with which God is well pleased. Do it for Christ's
sake. This is what keeps men active
and faithful and persevering all their lives till death comes. It's loving Christ. You can love this building and
leave it, but you can't love Christ and leave Him. You can
love this fellowship and leave it, but you can't love Christ
and leave His fellowship. You can love religious activities
and quit, but you can't love Him and not feed His sheep. Your labor and preachers love
to preach. I know a lot of them just love
to preach. But they don't preach anything. Why? They don't love
Christ. If you love Christ, you talk about Him. You think about
Him. You study about Him. You want
to make Him known. If you love Him, that's what
keeps people faithful, loving Christ. This is the greatest
grace. Now about it, faith, hope, and
love. The greatest of these is love. And I may have the gift
of tongues and gift of a lot of things, and have not love,
it profiteth me nothing. And here he says to him the third
time, Peter said, well, Lord, you know everything. You know
I love you. And he said, well, feed my sheep. And I'll tell you why I keep
repeating this. Feed my lambs, feed my sheep, feed my sheep,
feed my sheep. How do you feed them? Just exactly
what I'm doing right now. Verse by verse in this one. This
is the children's bread. This is the children's bread.
This is how you feed God's sheep. Preach the Word. Teach the Word.
You get there and you study and you find out what the Word is
saying. God tell me what it's saying. Let me check with all
these You've got to find out and then come and feed them.
You women take your recipes and look at them. My wife last night
sitting in the chair there was looking. I said, what are you
doing? She said, I'm studying some recipes. I want to make certain
things, you know. Why, for her family. I want to
make something. Already the meal over there is
prepared. The meal. Why, I love to feed my people. Feed my sheep. It's so vital.
And here's what he's saying. Now, Peter, the work is laborious.
The opposition is great. The reproach is real. The reproach
of this world against the gospel is real. And the returns in this earth
are not great. And so only a real love for Christ
is going to keep a man faithful. That's it. That's the only thing. When the work is so laborious
And the opposition is so great, and the things that just agitate
and antagonize are just too big, too much, and there's just one
thing that will keep you preaching this gospel. It's not love for
people either, because you can get fed up with yourself and
them too. It's love for Him. That's it. Even my Srini keeps
saying that. Well, in verse 18, I've got to
give you this. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Peter, when you
were young, you dressed yourself, you went where you had freedom
to go where you pleased. Our Lord is going to tell Peter
how he is going to die now. See verse 19, this spake he signifying
by what death Peter would glorify God. And so he said, when you
were young, verse 18, you girded yourself, you walked where you
pleased, but when you When you get old, you're going to get
old, Peter. You're going to feed my sheep
and labor, and you're going to get old. And then you're going
to stretch forth your hands, and another shall gird and clothe
you and carry you whithersoever whither you would not." He said,
Peter, you're going to preach the gospel and feed my sheep
and live to be an old man, but then you're going to be bound
as a prisoner. and you're going to stretch forth your hands on
a cross. Peter was crucified. You're going to stretch forth
your hands and they're going to take you to a cruel death
where you would not, it's not that Peter refused to die for
his Lord, his flesh rebelled against it. Your flesh is not
going to want to go to the cross. If God told me I was going to
be crucified, die a horrible death. I believe I'd submit to
it, but I wouldn't look forward to it. And that's what he's talking
about. And this he spake signifying
by what death he would glorify God. And when he had spoken this,
he said, follow me. Follow me. That's the title of
this message, follow me. Follow my example. You know,
you said one time you'd follow me to death, Peter. Remember
when Peter said that in John 13? Well, I'd follow you to death. Christ said, where I go, you
can't come. He said, why can't I follow you? I'd die for you.
All right. He said, now, that's come time
to put yourself where your mouth is. Follow me. Follow my example. Follow my command. Feed my sheep.
And follow me, no one else. No one else. Don't you follow
anybody else except as they follow me. Well, I want you to watch
this next verse. Bless his heart. I get a lot
of encouragement out of him. Don't you? Listen to it. I mean
with the solemnity of this moment, with the charge of his Master. Peter turned around and seeth
the disciple whom Jesus loved. That was John. See, he's talking
about himself. Following. which also leaned on his breast
at supper. And he said, Lord, Lord, which is he that betrayeth
thee?" You know, he was the one at the supper that asked that.
Peter, seeing him, verse 21, said to the Jesus, Lord, what's
this man going to do? You know, was Peter really curious
about what John was going to do? You think he was really concerned
about John's activities. Was he concerned about John's
future? Do you think he was really concerned
about John's future? Or was he thinking this way?
I'm inclined to believe he's thinking this way. Am I the only
one that's going to feed the sheep? Am I the only one that's going
to be a prisoner? Am I the only one that's going
to get crucified? Shouldn't John and these other
fellows have to do this too? You see, the Lord singled him
out. He's talking, Peter, he said, you, do you love me? You,
do you love me? You, do you? Feed my sheep. And
Peter looks over and says, what's he going to do? What's he going
to do? You know, evidently, our Lord's
conversation with Peter had not registered fully. And verse 22, And Jesus said
unto him, If I will, let he tarry till I come back to this earth."
Peter, what is that to you? What is that to you? Follow thou
me. What are you getting to with
Paul? I'll tell you what he's saying. The body of Christ is made up
of many members. And the goal and purpose of this
church or that church or any church or the Lord's The Church
of the Firstborn and every member is to glorify Christ, preach
His Word, and serve His people. It's like Joshua said, I don't
know what others are going to do, but it's for me and my house. We're going to serve the Lord. And the gifts each member has
and the work each member does and the place each member serves
And the suffering each member endures is according to the Lord's
will for that own personal individual. And let us be about our Father's
business, us personally occupied with our own calling, our own
duties, our own responsibility, using our own gifts, and not
be concerned about how or where or when He's pleased to use anyone
else. Peter, If it's my will that John
never die, it's my will that you die the
way that I've decreed. But if it's my will that John
never die, that is not your concern whatsoever. You follow me. You follow me. There must be
no envy and jealousy and pride and self-seeking among his servants.
It is you follow me." Well, the saying went abroad, verse 23,
that that disciple would not die. But Jesus didn't say he
would not die. He said, if I will that he tarry
till I come, what is that to thee? This is the disciple which
testifieth of these things and wrote these things, still no
name. And we know his testimony is true. And there are also many
things, other things which Jesus did, which if they should be
written, every one, I suppose that even the world itself would
not contain the books that should be written. And I'll say about this chapter,
Amen. Amen.