Jesus Revealed (John 21:1-14)

This is Jesus' third appearance or revelation to his disciples.

You know, last week we covered his appearance to his disciples minus Thomas, where they needed to see his scars.

And then he appeared to his disciples, including Thomas, where Thomas needed to touch his scars.

So this is the next appearance or revelation.

We're going to look into why I'm using the word revelation here this morning.

But as we do that, if you're able, would you please stand for the reading of God's word?

John 21, starting in verse 1.

It says, After this, Jesus revealed himself again to his disciples by the sea of Tiberias.

He revealed himself in this way.

Simon Peter, Thomas, called twin, Nathaniel from Canna of Galilee, Zebedee's sons, and two others of his disciples were together.

I'm going fishing, Peter said to them.

We're coming with you, they told him.

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

When daybreak came, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not know it was Jesus.

Friends, Jesus called to them, You don't have any fish, do you?

No, they answered, Cast the net on the right side of the boat, he told them, and you'll find some.

So they did, and they were unable to haul it in because of the large number of fish.

The disciples, the one the disciple, the one Jesus loved, said to Peter, It is the Lord.

When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he tied his outer clothing around him, for he had taken it off and plunged into the sea.

Since they were not far from land, about a hundred yards away, the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish.

When they got out on the land, they saw a charcoal fire there with fish lying on it and bread.

Bring some of the fish you've just caught, Jesus told them.

So Simon Peter climbed up and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, a hundred and fifty-three of them.

Even though there were so many, the net was not torn.

Come and have breakfast, Jesus told them.

None of the disciples dared ask him, Who are you?

Because they knew it was the Lord.

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

He did the same with the fish.

This was now the third time Jesus appeared to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.

Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you so much for your word.

We thank you for the book of John.

Lord, here in this last chapter, just thinking of all of the things that you've taught us and that you've walked us through as a church as we've gone through all of these Sundays going through your word here in John.

Lord, I pray that as we go through this passage here this morning, that you would reveal yourself to us just like you revealed yourself to your disciples.

That we would have eager hearts to learn and to understand and to be changed by your word.

So would you do that work in each and every one of us here this morning?

May we come with open hands, with open hearts, open ears, and open eyes for all of the things that you want to show us and all of the ways that you want to make us more like Jesus through this passage we pray.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

You may be seated.

So today is gonna be a little bit different.

We are in this section of John that is very much a narrative.

And, you know, I tend to try and not look too deep into narratives, you know, while teaching at least.

And when I do, I try to let you know.

I try to give you a heads up that, you know, when it's just my opinion as opposed to being fact.

But today, I think John actually gives us permission to dig in a little bit deeper.

I think we're supposed to do that.

John's gonna tell us here in verse 1, Jesus revealed himself in this way.

Meaning everything that's after that statement is how Jesus revealed himself to his disciples.

You know, it's in a way the disciples would know that it was him.

Even though they didn't visually recognize him at first, and maybe even when they're on shore.

Um, verse 12 says the disciples didn't dare ask him who he was, but they knew it was the Lord.

And they knew by what he did, not necessarily by what they saw.

So those are some of the things that we're gonna be looking at and digging into here this morning.

So let's start with verse 1.

It says, After this, Jesus revealed himself again to his disciples by the sea of Tiberias.

He revealed himself in this way, colon.

So this means everything after this, as I just said, is going to be how he revealed himself all the way through verse 13, I think it is.

So this is where they are, geographically, this is the Sea of Galilee, the Sea of Tiberias.

So Jesus is back in northern Israel, and that's the region that he and a number of his disciples are from.

We have a map here.

So this is it up here.

The Lake of Tiberias or the Sea of Galilee is way up here in northern Israel.

Jerusalem uh is way down here where the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus took place.

So they're back up in northern Israel where Jesus grew up, and a lot of his disciples grew up.

And Jesus had told them in Jerusalem to go to Galilee.

So they're being obedient to do so, to get up there to Galilee, and they're waiting.

They're waiting for further instruction.

As far as we know, that's all Jesus told them.

Get to Galilee, I'm gonna meet you up there.

I'm gonna go before you actually.

So Jesus had not given them the great commission yet to go and to make disciples.

Pentecost had not taken place yet, where the Holy Spirit would permanently dwell in them and empower them to go and make disciples.

So they're waiting.

And notice the end of verse one.

He revealed himself in this way.

This word revealed that we see right here, it's very important.

And I want to put the definition up because it means to make manifest or visible or known what has been hidden or unknown.

You know, in chapter 20, Jesus revealed himself to the disciples by showing his scars.

To Thomas by allowing him to actually put his fingers in his scars.

And this time it's by repeating some things that he had done in the past.

He's jogging their memory through remembrance of his faithfulness.

And we see at the very beginning of Acts 1.3 that he did this quite a bit in between his resurrection and his ascension.

It says, after he had suffered, he also presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.

So this morning is one of those instances where he's going to provide convincing proof of who he is as the risen Lord to his disciples.

Now look at verse 2 with me.

Simon Peter, Thomas, called twin, Nathaniel from Canna of Galilee, Zebedee's sons, John our author, is one of those sons, and two others of his disciples were together.

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

So if you haven't noticed yet, Peter is a doer.

He doesn't like waiting around, it seems like.

They know every nook and cranny of the Sea of Galilee.

They probably know every weather pattern, every good place to fish, every bad place to fish and avoid, where the deep water is, where the shallow water is, where it's windy or maybe protected from the wind.

They are in familiar, comfortable waters right now.

And using all of their own knowledge and experience, they toiled all the way through the night and they caught nothing.

Simply meaning that he was gonna help bring people into God's kingdom.

And Jesus had been teaching his disciples how to do this for three years, how to become fishers of men.

And Jesus showed them through example over and over and over.

And as we look through the Gospels, we just see that Jesus' dependence upon God the Father in his ministry of being fishers of men.

I think now Jesus is showing them that without depending upon God, without depending upon Jesus being God, that their future fishing endeavors were gonna be fruitless.

You know, think of these disciples.

They've been with the master fisher of men for about three years now.

And if anyone's going to be called an expert on Jesus, an expert on Jesus' ministry after his ascension, it's gonna be these guys.

I think this lesson for them is to stay on their knees and seek the Lord with all of their heart, even when they may feel like, I know what to do, I've got this, I've done this before.

I saw how Jesus has done it.

I think Jesus is teaching them do not rest on that.

You need to stay on your knees, you need to be as dependent upon the Father as I have been upon the Father in his ministry.

Look at verse 4.

When daybreak came, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not know it was Jesus.

He hasn't revealed himself yet to them.

We know from Jesus' other encounters after his resurrection that he's not immediately recognizable, but he is recognizable at the same time.

You know, I think of Mary not knowing that it was him.

She thought he was the gardener until he said her name.

I think of the road to Emmaus and those two guys and just not recognizing him at first, but then like, oh, this is this is Jesus.

So let's look at how Jesus chooses to reveal himself this time.

What's that first word in verse 5?

Friends.

How does Jesus start this revelation?

By saying friends.

You know, this word here is a term of endearment.

Some translations say lads or children, fellows or boys.

You'll see that in different translations.

I think the closest thing that we have in modern English would be like an adult male saying, Me and the boys are going fishing.

There's a lot more, you know, you don't think of little boys, right?

You think of friends.

I think that's probably the closest thing that we have to this phrase in English, which makes a lot of sense because in John 15, Jesus tells his disciples, No one has greater love than this to lay down his life for his friends.

And two verses later, Jesus says, I have called you friends because I have made known to you everything I have heard from the Father.

I love seeing Jesus call out friends here to these disciples.

Mainly because his disciples haven't exactly been faithful, have they?

They've abandoned him and scattered in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Peter has denied him.

Jesus found them hiding from the Romans after the resurrection.

They've been faithful to go to the Sea of Galilee, but that's the first obedience that we've really seen from them in a while.

But he still calls them friends.

I don't think Jesus is holding a grudge here, right?

I want you to imagine yourself in this scenario that I'm gonna paint right now.

Put yourself in this position.

So imagine that you have the opportunity to become friends with somebody.

And before choosing to be friends with them, you somehow know that in one year, they're gonna sin against you.

And you know this ahead of time somehow.

Imagine whatever you want there.

And you know this before you ever become friends with them.

But you know before you become friends with them that you're gonna be able to look past that in one year and that their friendship is gonna be worth it, even though you know that they're gonna sin against you.

Now, if you know that ahead of time and you still choose to befriend that person, will you be surprised when they sin against you?

I don't think so.

If you know it's coming, will you hold it against them when they do sin against you?

I don't think so.

I don't think I would.

You know, I think that because if you get into that relationship and you know this ahead of time, you've counted the cost before you befriended that person, didn't you?

It's still gonna hurt, but you knew it was coming.

And you'd probably be glad when it's over that that sin is now behind you both, so that now you can both move forward in your relationship.

Think about that now in terms of our relationship with Jesus.

He desired each and every one of us to be in a relationship with him.

And if you're not following Jesus, he desires to be in a relationship with you currently, knowing full well how we will struggle with sin and knowing full well all of our sin even before we commit it.

And he still desired us to not only follow him, but be his friends and brothers and sisters through adoption into the family of God.

I think if nothing else, this just shows us God's love and how much he desires each and every one of us.

And how that that has nothing to do with our own performance, with our own works.

Romans 5, 6 through 8 says, For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.

For rarely will somebody die for a just person, though for a good person, perhaps someone might even dare to die.

But God proves his own love for us, and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

You know, I hate it when I hear people say that they think God is disappointed in them, or God is disappointed with them for whatever reason.

Because I think it's impossible for God to be disappointed with us.

I truly believe this.

Because he knows the beginning from the end.

He's omniscient.

You can't be disappointed when you know something's going to happen.

You know, Jesus shows in all his post-resurrection encounters with his disciples that he's not holding their abandonment of him against them.

He just shouted out, friends, to these disciples.

He's probably glad that it's behind them, and now he can move forward with them into this next phase of their relationship and move forward with them and all that he has for them after they had done all this.

Look at verse 5 again.

Friends, Jesus called out to them.

You don't have any fish, do you?

Notice how Jesus asks this question.

You don't have any fish, do you?

It's in the negative.

You know, I looked at seven different Bible translations of verse five, and they all said very different things in verse five because the Greek to the English is very tough on this one.

A literal word-for-word Greek translation would say, No, you have some meat.

And I don't think Jesus talked like a caveman.

But there's a couple, the I think the important thing is to know it's in the negative.

Another translation says, Haven't you any fish?

So here's Jesus seeing them toil for fish without his direction, catch absolutely nothing.

And he basically calls out, this is my translation.

Boys, you didn't catch anything, did you?

Now look at their response in verse 5.

No, they answered.

So here's Jesus' direction in verse 6.

Cast the net on the right side of the boat, he told them, and you'll find some.

Remember, this is how Jesus revealed himself to them.

So I think immediately this should start to at least jog their memory at this point.

This should make us as well jog our memory about when Jesus called Peter.

There's a ton of parallels between those two stories.

So I actually want to read you a good chunk of Luke 5 so that we can compare and contrast what we're seeing and about to see here and what we see in Luke 5 when Jesus calls Peter.

So I'm just going to read it to you.

You can take a listen.

This is Luke 5, 4 through 11.

When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, Put out into deep water and let down your nets for a catch.

Master, Simon replied, We've worked hard all night long and caught nothing.

But if you say so, I'll let down the nets.

When they did this, they caught a great number of fish, and their nets began to tear.

So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them.

They came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.

When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus' knees and said, Go away from me, because I'm a sinful man, Lord.

For he and all those with him were amazed at the catch of fish they had taken.

And so were James and John, Zebedee's sons, who were Simon's partners.

Don't be afraid, Jesus told Simon.

From now on you will be catching people.

Then they brought the boats to land, left everything, and followed him.

So let's compare these two events.

They both take place on the Sea of Galilee.

Jesus, a carpenter by trade, is instructing commercial fishermen on how to fish, and both times, after an unsuccessful night of fishing, these take place, both times he instructs them to do something completely unconventional that doesn't make sense to the professionals, and each time ends with wildly successful results after listening to Jesus' instruction.

The one noticeable difference in these two stories is the first time at Peter's calling the nets start to break open.

At this one, the nets hold together, which we're going to be talking about here in a little bit.

Look at the second half of verse 6.

So they did, cast the net on the right side of the boat.

And they were unable to haul it in because of the large number of fish.

The width estimated of these fishing boats at this time was that it was about seven to eight feet wide.

So think about what Jesus tells these professional fishermen.

Throw your net eight feet that way.

After not catching anything all night, which is the optimal time to fish.

And they go from not catching anything all night to 153 large fish all at once.

Warren Wearsby has a quote I want to read to you.

He says, The difference between success and failure was the width of the ship.

We're never far from success when we permit Jesus to give the orders.

I think this is a lesson for them, for these disciples in the boat.

The difference in toiling and work on their own, and then when they work under Jesus' direction.

Jesus is training his disciples to be fishers of men.

And like Ben mentioned last week, the Lord calls us to cast the net.

But the results are up to him.

We just need to be obedient to do what he's telling us to.

It's our job to tell people about the good news of Jesus, of all that Jesus has done.

But it's up to Jesus to produce the results.

And it's when we throw the net out at his direction that the harvest will be plentiful.

It's obeying the voice of the Holy Spirit inside of us to speak at his prodding, to cast the net in the direction that he tells us to, and then to trust God for the results.

So I have a question for all of you.

Did the disciples have anything to do with the results of them casting their net?

Zero, right?

They threw it into waters that they could not see into, but they threw it at Jesus' direction.

It had nothing to do with their expertise or with their experience.

And the catch, it says, was plentiful.

And John starts, you know, John's in the boat, he's an eyewitness here, our author of this book.

He starts to put two and two together.

Remember, he was there in Luke chapter 5, Peter's calling.

Luke 5 · chapter mention

And I think John's sitting there thinking, I've seen this before.

And John's a perceptive guy.

When he got to the tomb first, he stopped and he looked in and he was kind of taking things in.

Peter just zoomed by him into the tomb, got into the tomb, and then he started looking around.

And that's not dissimilar to what we see here in verse 7.

Look at verse 7.

It says, the disciple, the one Jesus loves, that's John, said to Peter, It is the Lord.

When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he tied his outer clothing around him, for he had taken it off, and plunged into the sea.

That is so Peter, isn't it?

He's the doer.

He's not afraid to get out of the boat.

You know, he already proved that once when he tried to walk on water, as we just sang about this morning.

So he ties his outer garment.

This would be like a cloak that they would take off while they were working so that they could have a little more range of motion.

He ties that around him.

He jumps in to either swim or maybe wade back to shore.

I just want to point out John and Peter are such different guys.

But God uses them both in such different ways.

They have very different giftings, but one's not better than the other.

But God uses both of those giftings that He's given them, their personalities and how He's created them for different purposes.

And I think it's just a beautiful picture of how God weaves together the body of Christ with all of the differences, but working together.

Look at verse 8.

Since they were not far from land, about a hundred yards away, the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish.

So do you remember when John told the story of him and Peter racing to the tomb and he made sure to let everybody know for the next 2,000 years that he won in that foot race?

Do you remember that?

I have to wonder if this is John ribbing Peter a little bit.

You know, Peter jumped in, but we were in a boat and we weren't that far away from shore, so we just, you know, I don't know, probably not.

Seems like they have that relationship though.

Look at verse 9.

When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire there with fish lying on it and bread.

Jesus was waiting for them and still caring for their needs.

Enough to care about fire and a breakfast to be ready for them.

They had to be hungry.

They were working all night long, fishing.

Peter had to be cold.

He's soaking wet.

And Jesus has a fire and breakfast ready for them.

Jesus is still serving his disciples after his resurrection.

I just love this picture of God taking care of his disciples' physical needs.

And he's continuing to reveal himself to them, I think, with the menu that he has here as well.

You know, in the past, Jesus multiplied the loaves and the fishes twice already.

You know, in John chapter 6, after the 5,000 that Jesus fed, that's when Jesus told them that he is the bread of life.

John 6 · chapter mention

Which scared off a lot of followers at that time.

That was a hard teaching and they didn't want to hear it.

And if you remember, this is when Peter declared that Jesus is the Messiah.

He says, the Holy One of God.

It seems Jesus is jogging some memories in more than one way right now with his disciples.

Look at verse 10.

Bring some of the fish you've just caught, Jesus told them.

So Simon Peter climbed up and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, 153 of them.

Jesus wants to add to what he's already cooking.

And it's not because he doesn't know how to multiply fish.

He's quite good at that.

He has some experience with that.

I think this is a picture of how Jesus doesn't need us, how God doesn't need us, but he invites us to participate in the work of his kingdom and the building of his kingdom.

Jesus could have had the exact right amount of fish on the coals right when they got to shore.

But he is inviting them to participate.

He's inviting Peter to participate in this.

He will soon invite his disciples to go and make more disciples of every nation and not only cast their net, but play a part in hauling it in as well.

Discipleship.

Look at the second half of verse 11.

Even though there were so many, the net was not torn.

In Luke, Peter's calling, it tore.

Here it does not.

And John takes the time to mention this detail.

I think this is a lesson that ties back to John chapter 6.

John 6 · chapter mention

It's been a while since we've been there.

Where when Jesus catches fish, he doesn't lose any.

Instead, he seals them with the Holy Spirit.

So I want to read you a little bit of John chapter 6.

John 6 · chapter mention

It's verse 35 through 39.

When Jesus says, I am the bread of life.

Jesus told them.

But as I told you, you've seen me, and yet you do not believe.

Everyone the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will never cast out.

For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.

This is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose none of those he has given me, but should raise them up on the last day.

And what does the bread of life say next in our passage this morning?

Look at verse twelve.

Come and have breakfast, Jesus told them.

None of the disciples dared ask him, Who are you?

Because they knew it was the Lord.

Jesus in his resurrected body, you know, he apparently doesn't look like he did in the previous 30 years or so.

So how do they know it's him?

It's by the way in which he revealed himself to them.

Reminders from the last three years, which I think is exactly what he's doing in verse 13.

Look at it.

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

He did the same with the fish.

This is the role of the host.

The host would do this in this time.

He's hosting his disciples here.

And to host and break bread with somebody in this time in this Jewish culture was an affirmation of acceptance and friendship.

I would imagine this is bringing back a flood of memories for these disciples.

Probably back to the Last Supper, back to when he multiplied the bread and the fish for the 4,000 and the 5,000.

They had seen Jesus care not only for their spiritual needs, but their physical needs as well in this time.

And there's something interesting here, I think, in verse 13, at the Last Supper and at the feeding of the four and the 5,000, on all of those occasions, it says that he took bread, blessed it, and gave it to them.

Here he took bread and gave it to them.

So in Jesus' humble earthly body, he gives thanks.

In his divine resurrected, eternal body, he doesn't.

I'm not going to draw any conclusions from that, but it's interesting to think about, isn't it?

It's the only time we see that happening.

Look at verse 14.

This was now the third time Jesus appeared to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.

Now, appeared here is the same word, different tense, that was used in verse 1 for revealed.

The term that we defined.

So this does not mean that it was the third time that they physically saw them with their eyes after the resurrection.

It means it was the third time that Jesus made manifest or visible or known what had been hidden or unknown to his disciples.

So interesting, isn't it?

Third time that Jesus revealed himself to be the Son of God, the resurrected Savior to his disciples.

So we need to ask here this morning, what does Jesus want to make known to us here today?

To his disciples here today through this third revelation that he had with his disciples.

One, I think we need to recognize how much he desires us.

So much so that he pursues us and patiently reveals himself to us.

He patiently worked with them through their doubt as he showed himself to be Lord to them.

He desires us.

I think the second thing, he loves us without condition.

He knew our failure and our shortcoming before he ever called us into this relationship with him.

He counted the cost.

And for him, counting the cost meant the cross.

He counted the cost, and he looked at all of us and he said, You are totally worth it.

Jesus wanted us as his own, wants us as his own, and died for us, and now calls us friends.

Now calls us brothers and sisters into the family of God.

I think the third thing we take away from this, we need to be done with trying to do things on our own.

We can labor through the night on our own experience, on our own expertise, but without the direction of the Lord, without dependence upon him, we labor in vain.

And the fourth thing that we can take away, he revealed himself to his disciples by reminding them of his past faithfulness.

And this is something we can participate in whenever we want to.

You know, to his confused disciples whose lives seemed upside down, who really didn't know what to do next, he reminded them of who he is and his faithfulness.

You know, if we find ourselves in that situation as well, we need to remind ourselves of his past faithfulness and how he is taking care of each and every one of us.

Especially if he feels distant or if he feels silent, or maybe we start to doubt some things in any way.

We need to remind ourselves of all he's done and trust what he has for our future because he loves us that much.

We need to constantly remember in every season of life that he will never leave us or forsake us.

For how rich your word is.

Never fully comprehend, I don't think, why you desire us in the first place.

Lord, but help us to be thankful that you desire us at all.

And not just that, but you desire us so much that you sent your one and only Son to die on the cross for us.

So that we can be forgiven of our sins.

Lord, and the fact that you knew all of our sins before we even commit them.

And you still desire us.

We thank you so much for that love that we can't comprehend.

Lord, help us to love you more.

Not out of duty, but just because we appreciate you so much.

We understand who you are, and that we truly and passionately desire you with all of our heart.

Continue to show us how to walk on a daily basis.

Continue to lead us by your Holy Spirit, we pray.

Lord, prod us and show us when to cast the net, when to haul it in, when to be obedient, when to wait, when to go.

Just all of those things.

May we be so in tune with your Holy Spirit, leading and directing and guiding us, Lord, that we just have a ready yes at the tip of our tongue, daily, moment by moment, we pray.

In Jesus' name, amen.