John 21

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Well, good morning, Saylorville! Good morning. If you brought a copy of Scripture with you this morning, you can find John chapter 21, the last chapter in the Gospel of John. This is sort of a tweener message. It’s between two series. We concluded the series on the Beatitudes, and we begin a brand new series next week.

With Vacation Bible School looming tonight and the scene up here, I thought I would try to find a sort of a niche here and really challenge all of us as we head into our summertime. Because Vacation Bible School, which starts tonight, our theme being Breaker Rock Beach, that is the unofficial beginning of summer for our church.

And speaking of the beach, how many like to be at the beach? Okay, that’s wow, most of you. And why is that? Is it because it’s relaxing, you’re decompressing, it’s refreshing, and it’s vacation, right? And that’s where I want to just give a little, a loving sort of caveat, a loving exhortation to you as we move into the summer.

When I published a book a little over a year, a couple of years ago, whatever, I had fun getting pictures. People were sending me pictures wherever they were at. Some were sending pictures by fireplaces. But pictures like that were kind of fun on the beach. But you need to know that this is not the kind of beach that we’re trying to represent here. When the beach here, you got to think Pacific Northwest, like Cannon Beach, where I was ironically in 2010, where the idea of actually of my book came.

What I noticed, or we noticed, my wife and I noticed, that a lot of people walked along the beach there at Cannon Beach, but nobody was swimming because it’s one of the most dangerous places in the world to swim because of the rip currents. They are so powerful. The rip currents in this rugged area, they’re so dangerous, they will pull you away, they will take you out, and they will pull you down. And that’s what I want to do today with you, is talk about three spiritual rip currents that you could very well be looking at this summer, during the downtime, the lazy, hazy days, so to speak.

When I think about beach scenes in the Bible, there are actually several of them. I think of Jonah. Remember Jonah, when the fish spit him back up on the beach? What he wouldn’t do in obedience, God made him do through discipline, right? That might be the most insane beach scene that comes to my mind in the Bible.

The most harrowing is, and I almost preached on it, by the way, is in Acts 27, where the Apostle Paul is on his way to Rome, and there’s a terrible storm. They’re jettisoning everything. They’re tying cables around the boat just to keep it together, and they ram it into a beach, a rocky beach, and yet, by the grace of God, all 276 souls live.

I think the most heart-wrenching scene of a beach in the Bible is also in the book of Acts, also related to the Apostle Paul, when he said goodbye to the Ephesians. In fact, and then another church a little bit later, and in both scenes, they kneel down on the beach after he spent three years with the Ephesians. He says to the elders, “I’m commending you to God, to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, give you an inheritance amongst the saints.” They’re just crying their eyes out. I can relate to this a little. When you say goodbyes are hard. Just a week ago, we said goodbye to our community group, because we’ve been with them for about three or four years, and we’re going to go off on their own, and rightly so. But it was sort of heart-wrenching, to be honest.

But the most miraculous, in my opinion at least, is this scene you’re at right here, in John 21, where the risen Lord Jesus reappears incognito, creates fire, fish, and bread, creates them on the spot, while directing six of his disciples to take their nets and move them seven and a half feet from one side of the boat to the other, drop them in, and pull out 153 fish. There’s the miracle, and I’m getting a bit ahead of myself, but all of it takes place on a beach.

The beach, figuratively speaking here, our summertime, is a place of refreshment. But it can also be a place of risk. Summer is a time of refreshment. It can also be a time of regression. If we’re not careful, like the rip currents at Cannon Beach, there are certain things in your life that can pull you away, take you out, and pull you down. I would love to see all of you avoid that this summer.

As we look at these summer months that we’re entering in earnest into, I want to encourage you, enjoy the break, but beware of the breakers. Throughout the summer, three things from this text that I’m going to take away by application, if you please.

**Beware the Temptation to Shrink Back**

So look at the first few verses here in John chapter 21, where we’re told, “After this, Jesus revealed himself,” again, this would be the third time since he rose that he appears, “to his disciples by the Sea of Tiberias,” that would be Galilee, “and he revealed himself in this way.” So it’s almost like an introduction to the whole story here.

Because if you think about it, if you know John’s gospel after chapter 21, it’s like chapter 20, rather, there’s like a bow on it. Be done. He’s risen, he’s given his commission, and there’s so many other things he could do or we could write about, but anyway, that’s the way the 20th chapter ends. It seems like that’s the way John’s gospel should end. But there is some unfinished business, and John supplies it for us here, especially in regards to Peter.

So it says in verse 2, “Simon Peter, Thomas called the twin Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, the two others of his disciples were together. Simon Peter said to them, ‘I’m going fishing.’ And they said to him, ‘We’ll join you.'” We’ll just stop there for a moment. So what do you do when Jesus is gone? Well, if you like these guys, you go back to what you were doing before. For these guys are meant to go fishing.

And you notice in verse 3, Peter says, “I’m going fishing,” and the rest of them go, “Okay, we’re going too.” I don’t know how long it had been since Jesus had seen them. Because we’re told at the end of this story, this is the third time Jesus appeared. We know the first two times were within a week of each other, resurrection day and the very next week. So we don’t know if this was a week, two weeks, three. There was 40 days that Jesus appeared bodily, resurrected after he rose from the dead. So sometime in there, we’re not told, he reappears for the third time.

And I was thinking, what were they thinking about during this time? I’m sort of postulating, were they thinking… Because Jesus did give them a commission on that resurrection Sunday, the original Easter. He said, “As the Father sent me, I’m sending you. And you’re going to get power when the Holy Spirit comes to you.” He said they may have been mulling that over. We just don’t know. What we do know is that Peter influenced them to go back to what they formerly did.

Just the other day, I was reading in 2 Chronicles, and I read about King Joash. He was a stellar king. He got tons of stuff done. He did what was right for God. He’s a cool king. I don’t see people naming their kids Joash, but he’s a great king. Except that there’s this really interesting statement made in 2 Chronicles 24, that he followed the Lord as long as Jehudiah, the high priest, was alive. He does all these great things, and then Jehudiah dies, and the whole thing unravels. His whole life unravels. The kingdom unravels. Idolatry comes back into play.

And as I read that, I thought to myself, at some point, and I’m talking specifically to those of you who are younger, and when I say younger, I don’t mean teenagers, but I do mean you, all the younger. I’m talking about you young adults who still have parents that are alive. You need to know that one of these days, your dad, who you’ve looked up to, that you love, that you admire for all the right reason, he’s going to be gone. Your mom, for the same reason, is going to be gone. Your grandpa and grandma, for the same reason, they’re off the page. Your pastor, whoever it is that you admire, that you look up to, that keeps you before God both in prayer and with exhortation, they’re going to be gone. And one of these days, you’re going to have to walk and talk and follow Jesus on your own.

I don’t want to be too hard on Peter here, about going back fishing, I mean. But I know this, despite denying Jesus three times, just before Jesus died, hence we got the three, the encounter here, “Peter, do you love me? Peter, do you love me? Peter, do you love me?” That’s probably why Jesus did this three times. Despite all of that and being in a down moment for him, he’s still leading. You notice that?

 “Hey, I’m going to go fishing.” Okay, dum-de-dum-dum. They all go. Why do I tell you that? I’ll tell you because of this. You need to beware, there are people around you, there are people that are near you right now. It doesn’t matter what their spiritual state is, they’re leaders.

I mean, many years ago, I took our two youngest sons out of the youth group, not because they were living for God, because they weren’t living for God and yet they were leaders. The beach is a place of testing. One barometer you might want to apply to yourself about shrinking back is just a real simple one, it’s a biblical one, fruit. Are you in whatever you choose to do in the lazy, hazy days of summer where all of the schedules get discombobulated, you know what I’m talking about, are you yet bearing fruit? Now here is Jesus, he appears at the shore and he asks if they’ve been fishing.

Look at verse, I’m getting ahead of myself, at the end of verse 3, look at verse 3. “Simon Peter said to them, ‘I’m going fishing,’ and they said, ‘We’ll go with you.’ They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught,” what? Nothing. Now by the way, it wasn’t strange that they were fishing by night, that’s what they did because the markets would open up in the morning, you want fresh fish. They caught nothing though, nothing, fruitless. Is that the way your life looks right now?

I remember a young man who came to Christ about 20 some years ago, I can picture where he came to Christ, he was on fire for God, winning people to Jesus, sensed the call of God in his life and then his dad showed him the money, showed him what he could become in the family business and guess what? He took it and he made lots of money and he rose in the family business and by his own testimony when he got right with God just three years ago, he was a miserable wretch for almost 20 years, miserable, and he caught nothing so to speak, spiritually speaking.

So the first caveat is beware of the temptation to shrink back.

**Beware the Distractions That Prevent You from Seeing Jesus**

Let’s go back to the text, picking it up in verse 4. As his day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore, yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, “Children, do you have any fish?” By the way, the word children there is a word for like a seven-year-old or younger. So this reminds you that Jesus was older, he was probably almost twice the age of most of the disciples, except for Peter who would have been at least 20, the rest of them were probably 15 to 18. So he could call them children. Otherwise it sounds really weird. You can’t even hang out with somebody your age saying, “Hey child,” I mean that doesn’t even make sense, does it? That’s free, it wasn’t even in my notes. So they answered him, “No.” He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.” So they cast it and now they were not able to haul it in because of the quantity of fish. The disciple whom Jesus loved, that would be John the author here, therefore said to Peter, “It’s the Lord.” When Simon heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment, for he was stripped for work and threw himself into the sea.

I laugh every time I read that. You know, he just gets so out of his mind in these moments. He’s stripped down, ready to jump in the water, he puts clothes on and dives in. Anyway, so he does. The other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish for they were not far from land, about 100 yards off. When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire in place with fish laid out on it and bread. Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you just caught.” So, Simon went aboard, hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, 153 of them. And although there were so many, the net hadn’t torn. And Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” Now none of the disciples dare ask him, “Who are you?” Isn’t that interesting? They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came and took bread, gave it to them and so with the fish. And this was the third time he’d showed up.

As your summer is upon you, beware of the rip current that threatens to pull you away, take you out and pull you under. Of the distractions that prevent you from seeing Jesus. Have you ever seen somebody acting incognito? Most of the time, they don’t want to be seen, right? I mean, just the other day, I heard of someone who had slipped into an event attempting to hide in plain sight. They really looked stupid. Is that a word I can use? Too soon.

But Jesus came incognito with a purpose. He even spoke and they did not recognize him. Do you see that? It wasn’t until the miracle, by the way, that John recognized and said, “Hey, it’s the Lord.” That’s when their eyes were open. That’s when Peter took the dive. John often describes himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved. And apparently it was mutual. But didn’t Peter love Jesus? We’ll see. One thing is for sure, he loved Jesus, but he didn’t recognize him until John had pointed it out.

I love the patriarch Jacob’s confession when he was on the run from his brother and God appeared to him and the angels on the ladder. He wakes up and says, “Surely the Lord was in this place.” And then he adds, “And I didn’t know it.” Tell me, what are your distractions that threaten to prevent you from seeing Jesus? I’m asking you like that because they’re not all the same for all of us. I mean, 153 fish, that’s not a distraction, or was it? By the way, that’s weird that John would throw that in there, right? Was this a distraction for Peter? Is there anything wrong with fishing? Not any more than work or planned activities or even vacations. And John doesn’t give us an explanation for the number of fish they hauled in. That leads to lots of speculations, some really wild ones.

I think my favorite one is from the early church father Jerome who postulated in the 400s that there were 153 known fish in the world at that time. And thus, they counted them. The idea by Jerome is this was Jesus’ way of laying them out in front of Peter and saying, “I didn’t call you to keep fishing for fish. I fished for men.” And because they’re all different, this is the worldwide gospel ministry, it’s probably a stretch but it’s pretty interesting. But did you catch in verse 12, “None dared ask, ‘Who are you?'” And yet it says, “They knew it was the Lord.” See I think that Jesus, the dynamic of Jesus when he was risen, he looked different. Not utterly, but there was something different there and yet they knew it was the Lord. Who are you? N.T. Wright, the great scholar on the resurrection says this is one of the most interesting parts of the entire gospel of John to him right here.

Here’s what I want you to hear as you move into your summer. If you love Jesus, if you genuinely love Jesus, I’m going to expand on what that means here in a moment. If you genuinely love Jesus, he will show himself to you. That’s his promise. He who has my commandments, John 14, 21, and keeps them is the one who loves me. And the one who loves me will be loved by my father. And I will love him. And I will what? Show, disclose, manifest, reveal myself to him. Have you ever read that?

Now I don’t think that means visions of Jesus. But even incognito, he’ll look different, but rest assured it’ll be him if you’re walking with Jesus. And let me tell you something, there’s nothing more thrilling than to see the clear hand of God in a moment. And that happens to those who love Jesus. And for the rest of you it might take a miracle like Peter. Oh my goodness, it is the Lord. And you dive and you go.

But speaking of love, one more thing. As we enter into the summer, there are spiritual rip currents. They’re real. They threaten to take you away, pull you away, take you away, and pull you down. And this might be the biggest one of them all.

**Beware the Delusion You Can Love Jesus Without Obeying Him**

I’m going to say that again because a number of you really need to get this one down. Beware the delusion because that’s what it is, that you can love Jesus and not obey him. Because Jesus said, “If you love me, what? Keep my commandments.” That’s the demonstration. That’s the evidence of your genuine love for Jesus.

The last section of John here is unique and it beautifully describes Peter’s restoration from the three denials that he’d had. And I think that’s the reason for the 21st chapter. Kind of forms a bridge to the book of Acts when Peter just takes over and takes the lead, right? Without it we’d be left wondering. But it’s also a challenge to you and me not to get caught in the rip current of thinking that devotion alone is all God calls us to. Mark my words from this passage. Devotion should lead to duty. If you love me, keep my commandments.

There were six disciples on the beach that day. Jesus now focuses on Peter. The play on words is both insightful and fascinating. I’ll explain it as I read. Pick it up in verse 15. When they’d finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” Now he says, “Do you love me?” That’s the word we know, agape, the highest form, the unconditional. Do you love me unconditionally more than these? And this is, I think, purposely ambiguous. We don’t know what the these are. Was he referring to the other disciples? Was he referring to the fish? Was he referring to the occupation? Maybe all the above. And basically that’s for you to decide what are the these, okay? You gotta decide what are the these that challenge you to love Jesus more than these.

But Jesus says to Simon Peter, “Do you love me, do you agape me more than these?” Peter responds. He says, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” And he does not, he can’t bring himself, he just denied him three times. He cannot bring himself to say agape. He uses the word phileo. It’s a great word. It’s an endearing word. It’s a real word. It’s a loving word. It’s a kind of love that you and I must have for one another. It’s a reciprocal kind of love. I love you because you love me. You love me because I love you. Lord, he says, “You know that I phileo you.” He just can’t bring himself to say agape. And so Jesus says, “Feed my lambs.”

Verse 16, he said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Again, do you agape? Do you love me with the highest unconditional form of love? To which Peter replies, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” He just can’t go there. “You know that I phileo you.” Again, it’s not a bad word. It’s a good word. It’s just not agape. Jesus says, “Tend my sheep.”

He said to him a third time, “Simon, son of Jonah,” this is where he says, “Do you love me? Do you phileo me?” See what Jesus did? He just went, he came in right on his level. He says, “Do you phileo me?” And that breaks Peter’s heart. It totally breaks his heart. Peter was grieved because he said to him a third time, “Do you love me?” And he said to him, “Lord, you know everything. You know that I phileo you. You know that I love you.” And Jesus said, “Feed my sheep.”

Isn’t that beautiful? Listen, how beautiful of Jesus to condescend to Peter’s level of love. And this is what he does for you and me. This is why you can love him even more, because he will condescend to your level. As much as all of us should be able to say, “I agape you, Lord,” you know in your heart of hearts there’s a struggle to that end because there are competing things distracting you, pulling you away from the living God, wanting to take you away, pull you out, drag you down. It had happened to Peter.

But if we get too caught up in the restoration of Peter, we’ll miss the intended outcome for Peter. Did you see it? We almost just ran over the top of him. Did you see it? Look what he says. He says, “Feed my lambs. Tend my sheep. Feed my sheep.” This is clearly referring to Peter’s future ministry in the church. So this is what I mean by beware the delusion that you can love Jesus without obeying him. And so Jesus is saying, “Okay, Peter, I’m coming to your level. Now come up to mine. Follow me. And feed my lambs. Tend to my sheep. Feed my sheep.”

Now, unfortunately, Peter, being Peter, rather than seeing Jesus’ words as restorative, he’s probably still smarting because he’s probably wishing, “Hey, Lord, could you just maybe sidebar with me on this one?” But he didn’t in front of all the other disciples because Peter had denied him publicly. He publicly restores Peter. Peter’s smart. And he doesn’t know what to do in the moment, and so he does something really not very smart.

Let’s pick it up in verse 20. Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved, that’d be John, the one who had leaned back against him during the supper and said, “Lord, who is it that’s going to betray you?” Peter saw him and said, “Lord, what about this man? What about John? I mean, aren’t you going to have a little conversation with him too?” And Jesus said to him, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You,” what? “Follow me.” And that is the hallmark. This is, I think, John McCarthy, this is the synchronon of loving Jesus is whether you actually obey him. You follow me.

So dear ones, as we ready to make our way to the Lord’s table, I want you to do some serious self-examination and think about your life as you head into the summer. The spiritual rip currents are very real. They threaten to pull you away, to take you out, and to pull you down. Don’t let it happen to you. And may God give you a fruitful summer with a lot of great catches.

Some of you don’t know how to follow Jesus because you don’t know him. You’ve never humbled your heart to him. You’ve never repented of your sin, believed that he died on the cross for you and rose again for you personally. That’s where it begins. That’s where some of you need to begin here this morning. You can’t love Jesus until you come to know him. You got to come to know him by being born again today. Make today the day you trust in Jesus and then become a follower of him.

For the rest of us, as we ready to partake of the Lord’s table, think about your life right now because some of you are drifting and you know it. You’re being pulled away. Some of you are bobbing. You’re bobbing in your sins. Sin is delusional. You think you’re right with God. You’re not even close to being right with God. But here’s the neat thing about Jesus, if you know him. One heartfelt confession pulls you back in and that’s where it can be. What a great time to have that happen at the Lord’s table. Amen.

Let’s pray. Our Father, we love you. We thank you for the word of God. We thank you for great stories, instructive, applicational, helpful. And I pray, Lord, as we enter into our summer, we would recognize these dangerous rip currents that threaten to pull us out, take us away, and pull us down. Deliver us from them. Keep us close to yourself. And for those who are really bobbing right now in this room or watching online, may their hearts be tender, repentant, seeking you. And then Lord, bring them back to shore. Give them a good breakfast. Help them to walk with you again. And for those who don’t know you, Lord, oh, by your Holy Spirit, speak to their hearts because you give good food, better than anything this world could ever offer. And we pray these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.