tonight to John chapter 21. Read the first 14 verses in this
chapter. John chapter 21. After these things, Jesus showed
himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias, and on
this wise showed he himself. There were together Simon Peter
and Thomas, called Didymus, and Nathan, or Nathaniel, of Cana
in 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 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 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.
Therefore, that disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter,
it is the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard that
it was the Lord, he gird 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 land, but as
it were 200 cubits, dragging the net with fishes. And soon
then, as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals there,
and fish laid thereon and bred. 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 durst
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 that, he was risen from
the dead. You notice in verse 14, the last
verse that I read, John says, this is now the third time that
Jesus showed himself to his disciples. After that, he was risen from
the dead. This means the third time that
he appeared to his disciples as a group. The first time, on
the day of his resurrection, with Thomas not present. The
second time, the following Lord's Day, with Thomas present. We looked at that last time.
And now this time by the Lake of Tiberias. This was not on
the Lord's Day. This was a day during the week. There's a message in that also,
isn't there? When we come together, On the
Lord's day, where two or three are gathered together, He's in
our midst. But that doesn't mean He's not
with us the other six days of the week, because His promise
is, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. There was only
seven of the 12, seven of the group this time, who were present,
but John tells us it was the third time. The third time, that
he showed himself alive by many infallible proofs to the group
of disciples. I have a few lessons to which
I want to call our attention tonight. But first, I want to
point this truth out to us. If you will keep your places
here, but turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 15, this great chapter
that the Apostle Paul wrote to the church at Corinth. Have you
ever considered how blessed we are that there were problems
in the early churches, problems that needed to be addressed so
that we have this teaching? And no doubt there were some
who were already denying the resurrection. So the apostle,
when he writes to the church at Corinth, he devotes a large
space of the letter to the matter of the resurrection. And he tells
us in no uncertain terms, if there is no resurrection, then
we are all still in our sins. We are lost. The chapter begins,
doesn't it, telling us the gospel. The gospel that Paul preached
to them, the gospel by which we are saved, that Christ died
for our sins according to the scriptures, was buried, and rose
again the third day according to the scriptures. That's the
gospel that we preach. And it is important, I point
this out, I'm sure, every time, but those words, according to
the scriptures. He died according to the scriptures. In other words, the Old Testament.
What did the Old Testament tell about a sacrifice, about a death? Well, he died according to the
scriptures. Someone said, when you read the
Old Testament, you cannot fail to see that someone's looking
out the window. And that someone, you find out,
is God. And also you find out it's man. Someone is looking out the window
in the Old Testament. And that someone is the God-man,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And everything that he did was
predicted, prophesied, typified, pictured, shadowed forth in the
Scriptures. If you translate the Scriptures
to a person You have Christ. And if you translate Christ to
the Scriptures, you have the Bible, the Word of God. You can't
separate the written Word, which reveals the living Word. Here in 1 Corinthians chapter
15, which speaks to us of the resurrection. What a blessed
hope we have of the resurrection. But notice in verse 44, Paul says, concerning the body
of a saved person, it is sown, that is his body, when buried
in the ground, it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual
body. A spiritual body. How do we explain
that? A spiritual body. This is the body that our Lord
had, His resurrected body. This is the kind of body, a spiritual
body, that all of us, all of God's children, will one day
receive in that resurrection morn. If you look still in that
same chapter, 1 Corinthians 15 down to verse 50, Now this I say, brethren, that
flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. It just cannot. Flesh and blood cannot inherit
the kingdom of God. Neither doth corruption inherit
incorruption. Behold, I show you a mystery.
We shall not all sleep. There's going to be believers
alive when the Lord comes again. Not all believers will sleep.
And don't you like the way The Bible consistently, the New Testament,
speaks of the death of a believer as sleep. Asleep. Nobody's afraid to go home tonight
and go to sleep, are we? And that's the way a child of
God should look at death. Nothing to fear. Why? Because
Christ has taken the sting out of death, which was sin. Behold, I show you a mystery.
We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. Those who
are alive when the Lord comes again, they will be changed. Those who sleep in Christ, their
bodies will be raised. In a moment, in the twinkling
of an eye, at the last trump, for the trumpet shall sound and
the dead shall be raised incorruptible. That's that spiritual body, incorruptible. It's sown in corruption. It's
raised in incorruption. And we shall be changed, for
this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal
must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall
have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on
immortality, that is, never dying, immortality, then shall be brought
to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. Can a spiritual body have flesh
and bones? It doesn't say flesh and blood,
does it? Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. And
yet the Lord Jesus Christ said to his disciples, handle me and
see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones. How can it be a spiritual body
and have flesh and bones? I don't know. To me, that's a
mystery. To me, that's a miracle. But
I don't worry about it. I don't spend much time thinking
about it. It's enough for me to read in
2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 1. For we know that if our earthly
house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building
of God. and house not made with hands,
eternal in the heavens. It is a spiritual body, and yes,
we do have flesh and bones. Our Lord asked, do you have any
meat? And they said, well, fish and
honeycomb. And he said, give it to me. And
he took it and ate. The spiritual body doesn't need
food to be sustained. And yet we have that ability
to eat. I can't explain that. I'm just
thankful I'm looking forward to it. The body in which I live now,
as your body, it's growing old and wearing out. That's true
of all of us here tonight. And I'm happy, aren't you, to
know, as the psalmist said, my times are in thy hands. My times are in thy hands. You think of the various times
before the foundation of the world, when he chose his people. My times are in your hands. The time that we were born in
this world, the very second that was ordained of God. The time
when the Lord had mercy upon us and called us out of darkness
into His marvelous light. That was His time. And the time
when we leave this world will be His time. My times are in
His hands. Well, let's go back to our text,
and let me point out five things to us from this passage of Scripture. First, the list of the seven
apostles. I said the apostles are here
now as a group, but there's only seven. There's only seven in
this passage. But you notice the list of the
apostles in verse 2. There were together Simon Peter
and Thomas, called Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee,
and the two sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples.
Now, the list of our Lord's apostles is given to us in Matthew, Mark,
and Luke. And where the 12 apostles are
listed, Simon Peter is always listed first. Thomas is never
listed second. He's never listed second except
in this place, in this list. And I cannot help but think that
Thomas, after he was absent when the risen Lord appeared the first
time to his disciples, and he missed out on that, that he was
going to make sure that didn't happen again. He was going to
be with the disciples. You might say, well, that's reading
a lot into that. I agree. I agree. But I found
out that I'm in good company, because Matthew Henry, he made
this comment, and I quote, here were seven together to attest
this, on which some observed that the Roman law required seven
witnesses to a testament. And now he went on. Thomas was
one of them and is named next to Peter as if, I said I'm in
good company, as if he now kept closer to the meetings of the
apostles than ever. Simon Peter and Thomas called
Didymus. Have you ever wondered how the
Lord used the other apostles like Thomas? Have you ever thought
about that? You know, the inspired history
that we have of the early church is the book of Acts. And mainly
the only two apostles that are dealt with to any extent is first
Peter. James, of course, was martyred.
The apostle James, that's recorded. Then Peter. And then the last
part of the Book of Acts concerns the Apostle Paul. But what about
Thomas and Bartholomew and all of the other, Matthew, all of
the other apostles of the Lord? Now, tradition, and I know it
is not to be relied on. I'm not preaching tradition.
By the grace of God, I'm preaching the word of God, but this is
according to tradition, and I'm telling you it's tradition. Tradition tells us that all of
the apostles except John, the last of the apostles to die,
and that's one reason most people believe he was the youngest of
the apostles. The last of the apostles to die,
but all of the others, they all suffered martyrdom. That's what
tradition tells us. And concerning Thomas, it is
believed that he took the gospel into Persia, or what is today
Iran, and some say he went even farther east, taking the gospel
into India, and that he was martyred there by a lance. A lance caused his death. Look with me in Ephesians 2 just
a moment. We'll come back here. Ephesians
chapter 2 and verse 8. I said, have you ever wondered,
have you ever thought about the history of these other apostles?
I know this history tells us that in the early days, the pagan
idolatrous temples were emptied through the preaching of the
gospel. And those temples that had been dedicated to all the
false gods that man had made up, that many of them turned
into temples where the true gospel was preached and God was worshipped. It's hard for us, I know, in
our day and and seeing the way things are in the true church
of the Lord Jesus Christ to fully comprehend and appreciate this. But my friends, there have been
times in the history of the church when many, yea, thousands of
people have heard the gospel and believed and worshipped the
Lord. There have been times like that.
And the early days was one of those times. Have you ever thought
that these apostles, they went everywhere preaching the gospel
and God was with them, the scripture says, working with signs and
miracles as they went out preaching the gospel. I thought of this verse in Ephesians
chapter 2 and verse 8, I'm sorry, verse 7. that in the ages to come, he,
that is God, might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness
toward us through Christ Jesus. The ages to come, that is eternity. It'll never be just empty. In
the ages to come, God is going to be showing us, that is His
people, the exceeding riches of His grace and His kindness
toward us. And you here tonight, I don't
know, maybe God is going to show you by history how He worked
everything to bring you to the place when He called you. You see, God will even raise
up a king and put down a kingdom. A kingdom. Raise up a kingdom
and put down a kingdom. All to accomplish His purpose
and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began. Throughout eternity, he's going
to be showing us the exceeding riches of his grace. And I thought
maybe in showing us how these other apostles, how they were
used, how they went forth preaching the gospel, where they went,
and how the grace of God worked under their ministry. Well, that's
the first thing, the list of the seven apostles, Thomas, He's
listed second. And as Matthew Henry said, as
if, as if, he now kept closer to the meeting of the apostles
than ever. He did not want to miss out on
another visit from the Lord. Second, their return to fishing
in verse three. Simon Peter saith unto them,
I go a fishing. Now I believe it's fair to say,
even though only Simon and Thomas and Nathanael are mentioned by
name, it's fair to say that four of these seven were fishermen. They were fishermen when the
Lord Jesus called them. Look back to Matthew chapter
four, where we have the history of this. Simon, Andrew, James, and John. They were fishermen. Matthew
chapter four, beginning in verse 18. And Jesus, walking by the
Sea of Galilee, saw two brethren. And that Sea of Tiberias is the
Sea of Galilee. Just a different name, but the
same sea. He saw two brethren, Simon called
Peter and Andrew, his brother, casting a net into the sea, for
they were fishers. And he saith unto them, Follow
me, and I will make you fishers of men. And they straightway
left their nets and followed him. And going on from thence,
he saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John
his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets.
And he called them, and they, immediately left the ship and
their father and followed him. Some find fault. Some men have
found fault with these disciples for now going fishing as if they
had left the ministry. Well, I don't believe we should
find fault with them. Fishing was and is an honest
calling. And how else were they to be
maintained? How else were they to be maintained?
When the Lord was with them, and they were walking with Him,
I should say, we know that there were women who ministered unto
their needs. But now the Lord, He's gone. As far as His bodily presence,
He's not with them. And none of them were rich. None
of them were rich. You remember, even after Pentecost,
Peter and John were going up to the temple. to pray. And there was a gate there called
Beautiful. And there was a lame man who
was taken there to beg. And he approached Peter and John
with his words. And Peter said, silver and gold
have I none. Have I none. What he did have
as an apostle was the power to tell that man, rise up and walk. I love that history, don't you?
He didn't just get up and walk, my friends. He got up and started
running, jumping, leaping. Oh, my. Can you imagine what
it would be like if you were lame? And the Lord healed you. But these men were not rich.
And this, the Lord didn't rebuke them when He appears to them
now. He doesn't rebuke them. In fact,
He worked a miracle. He worked a miracle. He said,
do you have any meat? They had nothing. They'd worked
all night. That reminds us to a previous
time when He had spoken to them. The Lord said, well, cast your
net on the right side. Someone said they'd been fishing
on the wrong side. No. No, it wasn't that one side the
fish were over there and they weren't on the other side. It's
when the Lord said, cast your net on the right side, he worked
a miracle in bringing all those fish into that net. He didn't
rebuke them. Paul later wrote, by inspiration,
even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel
should live of the gospel. But actually they were not preaching
the gospel at this time. They were waiting, as the Lord
had told them, to wait for the promise of the Father. And so
with this miracle of fish that they took, they could sell those
fish, no doubt they did, And that money could be used to sustain
them as they go back. See, they're in Galilee. As they
go back to Jerusalem, because it was in Jerusalem that the
Holy Spirit was going to come upon them on the day of Pentecost. You read about that temple in
the book of Ezekiel. And that water flowed from under
the door. It flowed out. It flowed in every
direction. What is that but a picture of
God the Holy Spirit that came upon the apostles on the day
of Pentecost and then they went everywhere preaching. Here's
a third thing I want to mention. The Lord standing on the shore,
verse 4, but when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on
the shore, but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus. Two
truths I want us to take from this. The first thing is the
Lord Jesus saw them. He saw them. He saw them and
he knew them, but the disciples knew not that it was the Lord. Look with me to Mark's gospel
just a moment. Mark chapter six. The Lord saw
them. Mark chapter six and verse 45,
the scripture says, And straightway he constrained his disciples
to get into the ship. Now this, of course, was earlier.
And to go to the other side before unto Bethsaida, while he sent
away the people. And when he had sent them away,
he departed into a mountain to pray. Now get the picture. There
where the Lord told them, they're in the ship. They're going or
at least attempting to go to where the Lord told them to go. He dismisses the multitude, the
crowd. He goes up on the mountain. When
even was come, the ship was in the midst of the sea, and he
alone on the land, and he saw them. They couldn't see him.
They couldn't see him. He saw them toiling and rowing,
for the wind was contrary unto them. And about the fourth watch
of the night he cometh unto them walking upon the sea, and would
have passed them by. Where the Lord constrained them
to be, they did not see him, his eye
was upon them. And no matter what trial, what
temptation, God has ordained for you to experience day by
day, year by year, as you go through this life, know that
His eye is always upon you. Even when you cannot see Him,
He sees you. Just like the sun in the sky,
isn't it? Sometimes the clouds cover it. It's still there. It's still
there, still shining. The second thing, the Lord brought
them all safely to shore. Think of the ship like his church,
if you will, in the world, tossed by the winds and waves, but they
are his children. The first word he said unto them
is children. Children. Look, let me read this verse
from, you know it, Hebrews 2, verses 9 through 13. But we see Jesus, who was made
a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned
with glory and honor, that he by the grace of God should taste
death for every man, became him for whom are all things, and
by whom are all things, and bringing many sons unto glory, to make
the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For
both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all
of one, for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren,
saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren. In the midst
of the church will I sing praise unto thee. And again, I will
put my trust in him. And again, behold, I and the
children which God hath given me." Children. They couldn't
make him out. He saw them. but he brought all
of them to shore safely. He will, as his children's surety,
bring us all to heaven's shore. Now fourth thing, the different
temperaments, verse seven. Now I've pointed this out two
times already, so I only want to say this, Peter, as we have
seen, has a temperament much different from these other disciples. And as soon as he heard John
tell him, that's the Lord, without any hesitation, he cast himself
into the sea. The other disciples, they came
in a little ship. Now think of this. He may have made a bigger splash,
but it doesn't appear that he got to shore before the others.
And yes, God's people, we have different temperaments. And Peter,
as I said, he may have made a bigger splash when he cast himself into
the water, But he didn't get to the shore any sooner. He didn't
get to the Lord any sooner, as far as the scriptures tell us,
than the other disciples. And the fact it says that he
was naked, it doesn't mean that he didn't have any clothes on.
He had no doubt taken his robe off, and we've seen men I remember,
especially in Yucatan that we're working, uh, Mayeros working
out and they would strip down to just what we would call our
sharks, but they were big sharks. They were not briefs or anything
like that because it was just easier to work. It's hot. Uh,
the robes that Peter and these men had no doubt would, would
hinder them and cast. Have you ever cast a net and
casting a net? So it doesn't mean that he had
no clothes on at all, but it means that he was in his clothes
as a man in that work would dress. But when he heard that it was
the Lord, he grabbed his Fisher's coat, put it on and cast himself
into the sea. Here's the last thing. The Lord
Jesus ministered to his disciples, verse 13. Jesus then cometh and
taketh bread and giveth them and fish likewise. Can you imagine
that? The Lord Jesus Christ, he took
some bread, the fish, and he gave it out to them, ministered
unto them. One day, after we are told that
these same disciples had disputed among themselves who should be
the greatest, who should be the greatest. You
see, pride, pride is a sin that, as Augustine said, would grow
on a dunghill. No one is exempt. And these disciples,
they were deciding, disputing, which one of us is going to be
the greatest? You know what the Lord said to
them? For even the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto,
but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. That answers the question, what
the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished in his death. He ransomed many. He ratified the everlasting covenant. He finished the work which the
Father had given him to do. He came not to be ministered
unto, but to minister. If our Lord came to minister,
surely that should be our work, to minister to one another. Let
me ask you to turn to one other place in Luke chapter 12. The fact that he served these
disciples, ministered to them, giving them bread and fish. Let's notice what he said here
in Luke chapter 12, beginning with verse 35. Let your loins be girded about
and your lights burning, and ye yourselves like unto men that
wait for their Lord, when he will return from the wedding,
that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. Blessed are those servants whom
the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching. Now watch this. Verily I say unto you, that he
shall gird himself and make them to sit down to meet and will
come forth and serve them. He came not to be ministered
unto, but to minister. God help us to be more like Christ. You see, that's our job, that's
our work, that's our place. Not to be ministered unto. but
to minister in his name to others. We're going to sing a verse of
a hymn, and then we'll be dismissed.