A Spiritual Recall

I'd like you to turn your Bibles to our passage this morning, which can be found in the book of John.

John chapter 21.

John 21 · chapter mention

Starting at verses 1.

And I'm actually going to read the first four verses and then jump down to verses 14.

And I'll read the scripture here before introducing and welcoming our guest speaker this morning.

John chapter 21, starting at verses 1.

John 21 · chapter mention

After this, Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias, and then he revealed himself in this way.

Simon Peter, Thomas called the twin Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together.

Simon Peter said to them, I am 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.

And then skipping down to verse 14, this was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.

Well, this morning it's my privilege to introduce and welcome one of our elders, a friend and uh longtime uh member on the worship team, uh, someone who I've enjoyed his friendship and enjoyed uh his faith in God and his knowledge of scriptures.

Uh would you please help me in welcoming our elder and guest speaker this morning, Lowell Nelson?

Welcome, Low.

Thanks for sharing God's word this morning.

Hopefully there's a picture that will pop up.

There it is.

One of the things that my wife and I enjoy doing is motorcycling.

And that's a picture of my Goldwing here, the orange one, with uh Cindy sitting on it.

If you've followed the news this year, it just seems like there's been lots and lots of recalls.

And I went and just kind of looked to see how many there had been, and I counted 293 recalls so far this year, and then I quit.

So there's even more than that.

One of the things that was recalled was my gold wing.

Now, it was just the gold wing, not Cindy sitting on the gold wing.

She's perfect in every way.

It was just the gold wing.

And I've never seen a recall notice like this before.

It said, in effect, that there is a problem with the motorcycle, but we don't know how to fix it.

So don't do anything.

And it goes on to say that if the bike starts on fire, you know you've got a problem.

We come to our passage here in John 21, and Peter is in a place where he needs a spiritual recall.

If you like to take notes, there's an insert in there in your bulletin.

On the back of that is some background, and as many of you know, Peter boasted that he would never deny Christ, and shortly after making that boast, he actually denied him three times.

And I imagine that Peter here at this time is dealing with guilt.

He has not been reconciled yet back to Jesus.

And this says, as Pat read in verse 14, is the third time that they've met together with the Lord.

So he's still before this dealing with that guilt.

If you look at one of the passages, it says that after he had denied him the third time and realized what he had done, he had left weeping bitterly.

And so he's dealing with that.

Now, one of the instructions that Jesus had given to them several times, in fact, after the crucifixion, is that they were to leave Jerusalem, go up to Galilee, which is the home of many of the disciples.

And as we come to the opening verses, that's where they're at.

It's called Lake Tiberius here, but that's the same as the Sea of Galilee.

And they've gone home.

And Peter makes this proclamation that he's going to go fishing.

And again, I think he went, because he's dealing with guilt, looking at his failure as a disciple, that he was going to go back to his job.

Peter is a fisherman.

So when he said, I'm going fishing, he wasn't going to cast out a line and hope something hit, but rather he was going back to his job.

And worse yet, six disciples tagged along with.

And this is an amazing fish story that we're going to look at this morning.

So let's read through.

So our first, if you're looking at our outline, the first M there is a mission.

So Peter has gone on a mission, I think, to soothe a hurting soul.

He's going back to his job, and he may be thinking, I failed a disciple, at least I can be successful in my job.

And what happens?

They fish all night and catch nothing.

Now, I play the bass guitar back here, and if I've not played that guitar within a couple times every other week, my fingers get soft, and when I play, it hurts.

Now imagine these disciples, Peter, James, and John, who are partners, haven't been fishing for three years, and now they go out and they're casting their nets out and dragging them back in and casting them out.

They've done this all night long and they've caught nothing.

And their hands, I'm sure, are just raw.

Their muscles are sore, they're tired, they're hungry.

And at that moment, Jesus makes an appearance there to meet the needs of Peter.

And this is just an absolutely wonderful story.

So verse 5.

He called out to them, little boys, haven't you any fish?

Now, this is kind of a little jab.

I mean, you don't usually use this term for grown men, and yet he does.

He uses this, and it could also be meaning immature ones.

But little boys is maybe your best interpretation here.

Haven't you any fish?

So a little jab.

Now Peter could have dropped the hammer, or excuse me, Jesus could have dropped the hammer on Peter at this point.

He could have said something to the effect he would have had to identify himself.

Hey Peter, this is the Lord.

What are you doing out here on the lake?

I told you to wait for me.

And it's bad enough that you didn't wait for me.

You dragged six of your disciples with.

What are you thinking about?

You've denied me three times, and now you've done this?

What's the matter with you?

What were you thinking?

Serves you right for not catching any fish.

Why in the world did I choose you as a disciple?

You could have said that, couldn't you?

We call that indignant righteousness, right?

But he didn't.

He gives them a little jab.

And I imagine that the disciples talked about this, going, who is this?

Now you don't know who it is yet.

Who is this?

Call those little boys.

And the answer to Jesus, no.

We don't have any fish.

And he says, throw your net on the right side of the boat, and you will catch some fish.

John doesn't tell us what the conversation is, but I imagine again that there was a conversation amongst the seven disciples on the boat, going, Man, we've fished all night, we've cast on the right side, on the left side, we've not caught any fish.

Why should we do this again?

And some of them may have said, let's forget about this guy.

Others may have said, and maybe this is what went out, they maybe said, if we do it, maybe he'll go away.

Whoever this person is, he'll just leave us alone and we can go on with our lives.

So I think they throw the net over on the right side, not expecting anything to happen, and bam, the net is immediately full of fish.

Let's read on.

When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish that were caught.

Then the disciple, whom Jesus loved, said to Peter, It's the Lord.

And as soon as Simon Peter heard him say, It's the Lord, he wrapped his outer garment around him, for he had taken it off, and he jumped into the water.

And the other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far from the shore, about a hundred yards.

And when they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals, there were fish on it, and some bread.

Now the next point was three miracles.

There's three miracles that have taken place now in this part in following.

The first being the miraculous catch.

All the fish.

The second is that the net didn't break and it should have broken.

And in fact, we'll say that here in a moment.

Now, John, if you study John, he's usually the guy that gets it.

Okay, Peter's the guy who reacts.

And we see that taking place here.

John gets it.

He leans over and says to Peter, it's the Lord.

And Peter reacts.

Grabs his jacket, hops in the water, don't know if he's swimming or wading or whatever.

He's heading to the shore and abandons the ship to the other six who come following behind him, dragging the fish behind.

Now, as they get to shore, they see fish burning on some coals and bread.

And as they land, verse 10, Jesus says to them, Bring some of the fish you have just caught.

Now Simon reacts.

Simon Peter climbed aboard and dragged the net ashore.

It was full of large fish, a hundred and fifty-three.

But even with so many, the net was not torn.

And Jesus said to them, Come and have breakfast.

And this is the third miracle, the breakfast.

Jesus had already provided the fish and the bread for them to eat as they came ashore.

Now notice, as we come to the third point, the meal, I would have expected them to be rejoicing, patting Jesus on the back, going, hey, good job, way to go, man.

Give me a high five.

You're great, let's do this again tomorrow.

But notice, none of the disciples dared to ask him, Who are you?

They knew it was the Lord.

Seems like this is a quiet meal that they're having.

And Jesus came and took bread and he gave it to them.

He served them as he had in the past.

This now was then the third time.

We now have Peter ready for his spiritual recall.

And rather than jumping right in as we so often do, and oftentimes damage a hurting brother or sister, Peter had taken care of his two other needs.

He'd taken care of or worked on the emotional needs that Peter had.

He'd gone out hoping to soothe himself with a successful fishing trip and had failed, and the Lord stepped in and provided abundantly for that need.

He could have allowed him to catch five or ten fish instead.

It was 153.

He gave them a tremendous successful fishing trip.

And obviously they had been fishing all night, so they're tired and they're hungry, and he fed them.

So he took care of Peter's physical need.

And now he steps in and is going to take care of Peter's spiritual need.

So let's look at our next section, which I've called Mending the Relationship.

Verse 15.

When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you truly love me more than these?

Yes, Lord, he said, you know that I love you.

Now let's take a look at this couple of verses here.

After the meal, obviously, Jesus pointed or grabbed or said something to Peter to get him to come with them and they go for a walk.

And we'll see this later that they go for this walk.

And look at how he addresses him.

First of all, he addresses him by his formal name, not by Peter, but by Simon, son of John.

And then he asks if he truly loves him.

And as many of you may know, Jesus used a word that talks about unconditional love, the highest love, all-encompassing love, is the word that he used.

It's kind of like, do you love me this much?

And Peter replies with a different word for love.

He says, Lord, you know that I love you, but he uses a word that's often used for friendship.

So Peter responds, yeah, I love you this much.

And the other thing here is that he points to something.

And if John had taken out his iPhone or something and recorded this, we'd know what that was.

As it is, we don't know what these things are.

Now, be careful here.

Just about everybody says that it's the disciples.

So he pointed to the other six disciples.

And that's probably the answer you want to go with.

I, however, think it's the fish.

I think the fish fits better into the context.

If you go back, remember when they got on shore, Jesus asked them to bring them some fish.

Peter goes and he grabs the whole lot of them.

Well, why did Jesus ask that?

Remember in verse 9, the fish and bread were already baking on the fire.

So if they were already baking, why did he want some fish?

I think that this was the example that he wanted to use as he asked Peter if he loved him more than these things.

In other words, Peter, do you love me more than your job?

Oh that kind of hurts.

Now, when they had the difference in terms for love, Jesus just lets that go and he says to him, feed my lambs.

And we have part one of the mission.

In verses one through four, we kind of see the a mission, the job that Peter had gone back to.

Here we see the mission.

Step one, part one.

There's three parts to this.

And that is to feed my lambs.

And he doesn't identify those.

It's part of the new thing that's going to rise in just a few months called the church.

I want you to feed my lambs who are part of this new thing called the church.

Now Peter doesn't know this yet, but that's what it will be.

Verse 16.

Again, Jesus said, Simon, son of John, do you truly love me?

And he answered, Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.

Now, almost the same thing in this second query, other than there is no more than these, he just says, Do you love me?

He again uses the big word, do you love me this much?

And Peter again replies, Yes, I love you this much.

And again, Jesus makes no comment on that, but simply gives him his other assignment, number two, shepherd my sheep.

Shepherd my sheep, a broader term than feeding the lambs in a different group here, but again, I believe part of the church that he will be leading and ministering to in just a few months or weeks.

Now look at this next verse, verse 17 real carefully.

The third time he said to him, Simon, son of John, do you love me?

And this time he uses the word that Peter used.

Do you love me this much, Peter?

Peter responds first in mourning that Jesus had asked him the third time, and then he gives his confession.

He said, Lord, you know everything.

You know everything.

You know by experience that I love you this much.

Here comes.

Jesus has now got the answer that he wanted.

He's broken through Peter's attitude.

And Peter confesses, or I've denied you three times.

I failed you.

How can I say I have this much love for you when you know by experience that I failed you?

And Jesus simply says, feed my sheep.

The third call to ministry that he gives to Peter.

Then he moves into what I've called a message of encouragement right away.

Verse 18, I tell you the truth.

When you were younger, you dressed yourself and went where you wanted.

But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.

How is this a message of encouragement?

If this is encouragement, I'd rather stay discouraged.

But look what he's saying.

He's saying, in effect, Peter, you're never going to deny me again.

You're going to stay faithful for the rest of your life.

Things are going to get tough.

In fact, those who heard this recognize this as a message of crucifixion.

Peter, you're even going to die for me.

But you're not going to fail me again.

You're going to stay true.

I think this is amazing.

I just stand in awe of this section.

Verse 19, Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God.

Here again we see John gets it.

John gets it.

What is ministry about?

What's it for?

It's taking care of the things that Jesus has placed in our charge.

And the end result will be glory to God.

God will be glorified.

Well, how is that possible?

What is the means by which that can happen?

And Jesus simply says, follow me.

And in fact, later on in verse 22, he says, You must follow me.

The power to accomplish this.

In fact, he's saying, Peter, you failed me because you've done this in your own power.

The way to succeed is to follow me.

Don't do it in your power, you do it in my power.

Does Peter get it?

Not right now.

He's gonna get it later, but right now we have the misdirection.

Classic, classic human response.

Peter saw the cost.

Not the glory, Peter saw the cost.

Not such a good message.

So he misdirects.

What about John?

Jesus says, I don't care about John.

This isn't about John, this is about you.

You know, what if John lives till I return?

And that brought then the final point.

And that is the misunderstanding.

That led to a misunderstanding.

Verse 23, because of this, the rumor spread amongst the brothers that this disciple would not die, but Jesus did not say that he would not die.

He only said, If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you?

Don't compare.

Which is another reason I don't think that when Jesus way back when asked him, Do you love me more than these?

that he was referring to the disciples.

Because he says here, don't compare.

So if these was the disciples, it's kind of well, compare yourself to the disciples, and then here he says, Don't compare yourself to John.

So I think the fish is again a better answer.

Well, where do we go with this?

Let me summarize this.

So Peter went from seeking self-worth and value, which he thought would be accomplished by a successful fishing trip, which would result to him in a measure of self-esteem to that of shepherding the church, accomplished by following Christ, resulting in God being glorified.

We've made a huge journey transition in the life of Peter.

He went from fishing to following.

Well, how does that apply to us today?

I've just got a couple of minutes here.

Let me talk about some things.

What is your amission?

Okay, I can't fill that in for you.

It might be your job, it might be leisure, it might be power, prestige, might be good grades in school, it might be fitting in at school.

And how does that relate to the mission?

The mission, guys heading your homes, leading your homes, women managing your households under the care of your husbands.

Rather than trying to excel in sports or grades or whatever, it's ministering to your classmates or your sportsmates around you.

And rather than fitting in, it's standing out.

You know, so you have to do that.

My a mission is this, but my the mission is this.

And then how are you balancing those two?

We live in a world where we have a mission, but we also have the mission.

And how do we balance that out?

Secondly, how are we spending our time as we're waiting?

These disciples were waiting for Jesus to appear to them.

He had told them that.

Go to Galilee and I'll meet you there.

And they were waiting.

How are we spending our time as we wait for the Lord's return as well?

Are we occupied with other things or are we occupied with the important things?

Think too of how Jesus handled this situation.

So often when we see a hurting brother or sister, we jump in, we try to fix the problem when maybe we can fix some other things first.

And rather than destroy, we can build up.

What about the cost?

Do you look at the cost?

Do you see the cost of your ministry, or do you see the glory that it will result?

And not for you, but the glory for God.

And it's much easier for John, who was watching this, to say, oh, this is for the glory of God, than for Peter, who is getting the finger pointed at him, to say, oh yeah, I see it's the glory of God.

He saw the cost.

Natural human tendency.

Well, I gotta do this.

Maybe there's someone here this morning.

You may not even know why you're here.

Maybe you were dragged here by your parents, by your spouse, by a friend, and you really have no interest in coming here at all.

And you have gone away.

You have left the ministry.

You have either been hurt or you're angry at God or whatever the situation is.

And you may even be saying, man, Peter just denied him.

I've done much worse than that.

My whole life has been an act of rebellion against God.

And you're wondering, can I ever come back?

And the answer is yes.

No matter what you've done, it does not matter.

The answer is yes, you can come back.

Some maybe another person here who's never had a relationship.

And you don't fully understand what that is and what it means.

And you would like to know that.

And if either of those situations is you, I would love to encourage you to pray with you.

We don't do this very often in this church.

But in a couple minutes, Pat is going to come and lead us in a closing song.

And I'm just going to go sit over here.

And if someone would like to talk, I want to listen.

I want to encourage you.

I want to pray for you.

And after the service, or as we're singing the last song, got a whole bench that's empty there.

Come on up and talk to me.

I'd love to do that.

Let's close here in a word of prayer.

There's an old song that I used to sing growing up.

And it goes like this: Does Jesus care when my heart is pained too deeply for mirth and song?

All the burdens press and the cares distress, and the way grows weary and long.

And then the chorus goes, Oh yes, he cares.

I know he cares.

His heart is touched by my grief.

On the days are weary, the long nights dreary, I know my Savior cares.

Gracious Father, we thank you that you love us and you care for us.

You're reaching out to us no matter where we are, whether we're walking closely with you, confident in our ministry, seeking that you be glorified in our actions, or whether we've wandered far away.

Father, you care for us, you love us, and you want to restore that relationship and grow that relationship and enhance it.

So, Father, work in our hearts through your spirit.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Thank you, Lol.