The End of the Beginning - Part 1

John 21.

Give me a moment just to find it.

I'm reading the ESV version.

After this, Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples

by the Sea of Tiberias, and he revealed himself in this way.

Simon Peter, Thomas, called the twin, Nathaniel of Cana in Galilee,

the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together.

Simon Peter said to them, I'm going fishing.

They said to him, we will go with you.

They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.

Just as 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?

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.

That disciple whom Jesus loved therefore said to Peter, it is the Lord.

When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment,

for he was stripped for work, and threw himself into the sea.

The other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish,

for they were not far from the land, but about a hundred 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 have just caught.

So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore,

full of large fish, 153 of them.

And although there were so many, the net was not torn.

Jesus said to them, come and have breakfast.

Now none of the disciples dared ask him, who are you?

They knew it was the Lord.

Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them,

and so with the fish.

This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples

after he was raised from the dead.

When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter,

Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?

He said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you.

He said to him, feed my lambs.

He said to him a second time, Simon, son of John, do you love me?

He said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you.

He said to him, tend my sheep.

He said to him the third time, Simon, son of John, do you love me?

Peter was grieved because he had said to him the third time,

do you love me?

And he said to him, Lord, you know everything.

You know that I love you.

Jesus said to him, feed my sheep.

Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young,

you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted.

But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands

and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.

This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.

And after saying this, he said to him, follow me.

Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them.

The one who had been reclining at table close to him and had said,

Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?

When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, Lord, what about this man?

Jesus said to him, if it is my will that he remain until I come,

what is that to you?

You follow me.

So the saying spread abroad among the brothers that this disciple was not to die.

Yet Jesus did not say to him that he was not to die.

But if it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?

This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things and who has written these things.

And we know that his testimony is true.

Now, there are also many other things that Jesus did.

Were every one of them to be written,

I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.

So,

sorry everyone.

I was working between two computers there and two screens.

So,

I just needed to,

I thought I was going to be unmuted from the center.

Sorry about that.

Okay,

I was just saying to Rachel that I was really glad she played that song because it's also a favorite of mine.

Many of the time I've sat on top of a hill.

We have a big storm rolling in and that's the song that comes to mind.

This morning we're going to look at the first part of John chapter 21.

John 21 · chapter mention

We decided to break it into two parts.

There's just a fair bit in it.

So,

we're just mainly concentrating on the first 14 verses today.

They say it's impossible to improve on perfection.

Well,

John seems to have achieved perfection in his biography of the life of Jesus.

He has carefully and thoughtfully led us through the three-year story of Jesus.

He's presented detailed evidence of what Jesus claimed about himself and the miraculous things that Jesus did to back up his claims.

John shocked us with the terrible injustice and tragedy of Jesus' crucifixion, his death and his burial.

Then he confronts us with the outrageous proposition that Jesus come back from the dead.

He describes incidents where individuals and groups actually meet the resurrected Lord, the resurrected Jesus,

and we're prompted to say,

I or we have seen the Lord.

And finally,

Thomas,

the ultimate skeptic,

as we saw last week,

is compelled by the sheer will of hard evidence to respond to Jesus in words of worship,

my Lord and my God.

And with that,

John's superbly worded conclusion seems to bring us to a point of perfection.

The conclusion,

verse 30,

20,

30 and 31 seems to be perfection itself.

Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples,

which are not written in this book.

But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ,

the Son of God,

and that by believing,

you may have life in his name.

What more could be added?

What more could be gained?

His case has been perfectly presented.

Yet,

we have chapter 21.

John.

And chapter 21,

therefore,

presents a bit of a textural challenge,

which we need to address first up.

And basically,

the question is,

how does chapter 21 fit into John's biography?

At first glance,

it seemed so,

it seems so ordinary compared to chapter 20.

And that's led some to conclude that chapter 21 is a much later addition by someone other than John.

But that seems unlikely because no manuscripts of John's gospel have been found without chapter 21.

And the style and the vocabulary of chapter 21 fit easily with the rest of the gospel.

And verse 24 and 25 don't have to be problematic.

It appears quite simply that John has a bunch of people behind the scenes whom he chooses to leave unnamed,

but who are qualified particularly both to authenticate John as an eyewitness of everything written in his biography,

and also to authenticate him as a competent historian and writer who has carefully and fairly selected from a vast quantity of material

as he presents his case for Christ beyond reasonable doubt.

So it's far more accurate to think of chapter 24 as the epilogue,

just as chapter 1 is the prologue.

And together,

the opening and closing chapters become massive bookends,

highlighting the two great pillars of the gospel,

the incarnation and the resurrection of Jesus.

And many times in this series,

I've suggested that John's biography is presented like a courtroom trial.

And I've sent through with the email,

the bulletin email this week,

a summary diagram.

So you could check out the detail of that.

The prologue is the opening statement for the prosecution in terms of a courtroom trial.

And that's where he makes clear what he intends to argue.

And then chapters 22 through to 20 is the hard evidence to back up his claims.

And finally,

at chapter 21 is the epilogue,

his closing statement,

which pulls the whole case together practically.

And the bookends themselves are tied together with a very significant word for John,

the word revealed,

which means manifested in the Greek,

which means to show something as it really is.

If you look back to John chapter one,

verse 31,

John the Baptist was very much aware that his purpose was simply that Jesus would be manifested.

John chapter one,

verse 31,

John says,

I myself did not know him,

but for this purpose,

I came baptizing with water that he might be revealed or manifested to Israel.

So John's biography begins with him,

with Jesus manifested as the pre-incarnate,

pre-existent word of God,

the creator and sustainer of everything in this world,

the one who shows and displays God's glory like no other.

He's manifested as God's Messiah,

God's King and Savior,

taking on flesh or humanness to bring salvation to our world,

to bring new relationship with God and build a new community of true Israelites,

people who would gladly worship,

honor,

and obey the Lord.

So the biography begins as a supernatural,

miraculous,

incredible story.

And John's biography concludes with the post-resurrection Jesus manifesting himself.

Look at chapter 21,

verse one,

twice in this verse,

that word used.

After this,

Jesus manifested himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias.

And he manifested himself in this way.

And again,

verse 14,

this was now the third time that Jesus was manifested to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.

High emphasis.

What's happening here?

Why the emphasis?

Well,

I think it goes something like this.

Having demonstrated his love for and commitment to saving his people in his death,

he now wants his saved people to be totally committed to him as the resurrection man,

properly understanding the significance of his resurrection,

and living with resurrection delight and purpose.

In other words,

Jesus wants his people to understand that the resurrection changes everything,

not just for Jesus,

but for them.

And here in these verses,

Jesus continues to manifest as truly and completely God.

In the story here,

he just turns up where he wants.

He's concerned with the physical needs of those he loves.

And it's interesting that this fishing story is not presented like other miracles in John's record.

This is just really Jesus being Jesus,

providing for his people from his limitless power and his endless compassion.

Here,

in these verses,

Jesus,

as God's King and Savior,

initiates fellowship with his own,

another familiar phrase from John's gospel,

his own who have believed and received life.

Interestingly,

these guys were off fishing.

They weren't seeking Jesus,

but he pursued them,

determined to bring them to full understanding of his glory,

as the resurrection man,

and bring them to full engagement in resurrection life.

And here,

as I've said before,

Jesus manifests himself as truly and completely human.

There's real emphasis in the chapter 20 and 21 on the real bodily resurrection of Jesus.

He's not hallucination.

He's not some disembodied spirit,

hovering.

He continues to be completely human after his resurrection.

A real body,

real puncture marks,

real hunger for a real breakfast of bread and grilled fish,

real conversation,

in a moment,

a real moment of time.

Now again,

the question is,

why such emphasis on bodily,

physical resurrection?

Well,

very simply,

it's because it's essential to salvation.

So it goes something like this.

One obvious consequence of sin was physical death.

When Jesus fully paid the penalty for sin in his death,

the consequence no longer applied.

Hence,

coming back from death in bodily resurrection.

And even more amazing,

what we see here in chapter 21 is that the resurrection man will take flesh with him forever into heaven.

That is just mind boggling.

And it provides great hope,

confidence,

and reassurance for us.

Jesus is our trailblazer.

What he gets,

we get.

That is bodily resurrection,

to be with the Lord in heaven forever.

So,

as John's biography of Jesus begins,

so it ends.

A supernatural,

miraculous,

incredible story.

Friends,

Arthur Pink writes,

and we'll be looking at this in the breakout groups,

Arthur Pink writes this,

we cannot make too much of the death of Christ,

but we can make too little of his resurrection.

Our hearts and minds cannot meditate too frequently on the cross,

but in pondering the sufferings of the Savior,

let us not forget the glories which followed.

Calvary does not exhaust the gospel message.

End of quotation.

Chapter 21 shows that Jesus has more to teach,

and his disciples have more to learn.

So,

in the remaining time,

let's look at what the teaching focus of these first 14 verses is.

The teaching focus is that fellowship is the goal of salvation.

Now,

the incident begins with seven disciples,

all fishermen by trade,

but now bonded at another level in their common experience of the resurrection man,

Jesus.

All now believed that he was alive.

But apart from this,

it appears that they have no sense,

no new sense of identity and purpose in life as a consequence of Jesus' resurrection.

So we find them here in this story,

they simply went back to what was familiar,

fishing.

Now,

it's really important to note here that evidence was super important for their belief to that particular point.

They all believed that Jesus had come back from the dead.

But here's the problem.

They needed a deeper work in their hearts to see the implication of Jesus' resurrection.

In a previous encounter that Dave took us through last week in chapter 20, verse 21,

Jesus,

when he turned up in the middle and said,

peace be with you.

Now,

that word peace is also the word for rest.

And the word for rest was a feature of Genesis 1,

the end point in God's creation.

And rest was the enjoyment of relationship between God and his image bearers in the context of whole of life worship,

glad obedience and delight in God.

Sin stole rest away,

stole that peace or rest,

leaving God's people at odds with God,

leaving God's people restless as they search for meaning and purpose and satisfaction in places and things other than God.

And here in this story,

after the resurrection,

we see Jesus demonstrating what it looks like to belong to resurrection,

resurrection man's new community.

Jesus is committed to pursuing them

so that they might have full enjoyment of new life in relationship with him.

That he might,

they might enjoy rest

and know God's rest.

Here in these verses,

we see Jesus providing his hungry,

tired,

defeated disciples with breakfast.

And in this action,

reminding them

that he is both the source of their life

and the provider of their every need.

Now,

you remember,

Jesus had taught them visually months earlier,

as part of his ministry through the feeding of the 5,000.

He had taught them that very lesson,

that he was the source of the life

and the provider of their every need.

Only two weeks earlier,

he had reinforced that same lesson

as they ate and drank together on the night he was killed.

You remember,

that whole section was about their hearts being deeply troubled.

They were confused.

But fellowship with Jesus

assured them

that everything was going to plan

according to King Jesus.

It gave them hope of true life

beyond his death.

Jesus shows

that believing

in him,

and he shows it here,

that believing in him

as the resurrection man

means living

under his lordship

at every point in life,

recognizing that daily needs

are his ongoing concern.

And it's quite interesting

the interchanging

between Jesus and the disciples

at the end of the fishing trip.

Tired and dejected

after a long night

without catching a single fish.

Remember,

this is their competence

as fishermen

being exposed now.

Jesus asked them a question.

It was a very colloquial,

friendly question.

Hey guys,

catch any fish?

And his question

immediately forces them

to admit their inability

to provide for themselves.

Then he commands them

to let their net down

on the other side of the boat.

His command

asked them

to trust his ability

and competence

for the basics of life.

And then,

of course,

we know the consequence

of obedience and trust

was huge blessing

in that miraculous catch of fish.

And that leaves,

verse 12,

that leaves the disciples

once again

with their heads spinning.

They know dearly well

it's Jesus.

Just as they're coming

to terms with Jesus

as the resurrection man,

suddenly there's a new challenge,

a new challenge

to engage personally

with Jesus,

to live under his lordship

at every point

to be in fellowship

with him

as the ultimate purpose

of his death

and resurrection.

And finally,

in these verses,

I think here we see

Jesus confirming

his key promise

of his ministry,

which was that

his own will come to him,

believe in him,

and receive abundant life.

The life of unimaginably

huge blessing,

which they saw

before their very eyes

in a very limited way,

153 large fish.

Now,

how does that come out?

Well,

I actually believe

that John

names this group

in these first verses

very deliberately

and it's part of his point.

Now,

the fact that

Nathaniel's mentioned here

immediately throws us

back to chapter one.

That's the only other time

that Nathaniel is mentioned

in the whole biography.

Now,

there's two unnamed

disciples here

and if we assume

for a moment

that they are

Andrew and Philip,

then what we have

is a very significant

group of disciples

taking us right back

to the start

of Jesus' ministry.

In fact,

all those first invited

into fellowship

with Jesus

at the start

of his ministry

are here now

with the resurrection man,

Jesus.

Not only that,

but it includes Peter

who denied

and abandoned Jesus

and Thomas

who just outright

refused to believe

initially.

And here's the point.

Jesus is demonstrating here,

manifesting himself

as truly God,

truly Savior,

truly King.

None have been lost

as he promised.

For all their failure,

for all their lack

of understanding,

they had been brought

to belief

and now

we're experiencing

peace,

rest,

and fellowship

with the Lord Jesus.

Friends,

as I wrap up

my time here,

the resurrection man

is incredibly

strong

in terms of evidence.

The resurrection man

is proof,

proof of so many things.

Firstly,

he's proof

that the gospel

is real

and that it works

to change people.

Why?

Because Jesus

perseveres

and changes

people's hearts

and renews

their desires

and ability

to love

and serve him

through the Holy Spirit

within them.

We're seeing this process

happening

in these particular

disciples.

Jesus has more

to teach

and they've got

more to learn.

And guess what?

Verse 12 again,

the more they learn,

the more their categories

have to change

because Jesus

is just bigger

than they could ever imagine.

His grace

is bigger

than they could ever have thought.

The gospel

is also about

grace

creating a new community

of fellowship

and worship.

So here's the rub

for you and me

very, very practically.

It's never enough

simply to believe

that Jesus

rose from the dead.

It's never enough

simply to believe

those basic facts

that come out

of the hard evidence.

It's true

but it's never enough.

You need to respond

and pursue fellowship

with the resurrection man,

Jesus,

living every aspect

of life

under his lordship.

See,

it's not a proper

gospel response

to focus

on your forgiveness,

true as that might be,

through the death

of Jesus.

Without also focusing

on what it looks like

and what it means

to live

authentically

in the resurrection

community.

Drawn into fellowship

with Jesus,

drawn into worship

of him

in every part

of your day,

every day

of your life.

And of course,

here's where we push up

against our sinful hearts

again.

Because our sinful hearts

would push us

to make Jesus' death

a sort of personal

get out of jail

free insurance policy.

I can relax now.

My sins are all forgiven.

I'm bound for heaven.

And we can take

that line

on Jesus' death

while quietly

wanting to maintain

our own autonomy.

Quietly refusing

to live

under his lordship.

In other words,

we just want

enough of Jesus

to make us

uncomfortable.

That's right.

We just want

enough of Jesus

that leaves us

being comfortable.

We don't want

Jesus to make us

uncomfortable

as he claims

every aspect

of our lives

under his lordship.

So,

in a very real way,

chapter 21

is the end

of the beginning.

true gospel response

means

new resurrection

community.

It means

new community

identification.

It means

fellowship

or living

under the lordship

of Christ.

Next week,

we'll see

something more

of how

chapter 21

is also

the beginning

of the end

in verses 15

through to 23.

And that

we'll see then

how the resurrection

man shapes

his resurrection

community

for mission.

Because

fellowship

with the lord

Jesus

is never

something

that can

be contained.

Resurrection

man

is

incomparable.

Resurrection

man

is unstoppable.

His mission

continues

to provide

fellowship

in the four

corners of our

world.

God

so tune

in next

week

for verses

15 to 23.

In the meantime,

just join with me

as I pray now.

Lord,

we thank you

for the complexity

of the written

record which we

have,

which is

John's gospel.

We thank you,

Lord,

for questions

arise

that cause us

to dig

into it

and think

deeply about it.

We thank you,

Lord,

for the fact

that Jesus

has

much to teach

us

and we have

much to learn.

We pray,

Lord,

that we might

be willing

to learn.

We pray,

Lord,

that we might

not have

half a gospel

or a truncated

gospel,

a gospel,

Lord,

that we

mould to

our own

suitability.

Help us,

Lord,

not to think

of Jesus

as the one

who forgives

our sins

without also

being the Lord

who claims

our allegiance

and our loyalty

to him

at every point

in life.

Help us,

Lord,

to look this

week

and reflect

again

on which

parts of our

lives

we want to

keep under

our own

Lordship

and which

parts of life

therefore we

need to hand

over to the

Lordship of

Jesus.

And I pray

you might help

us do that

in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Thank you very much.