The document discusses an event from John 21:7-8 where the disciple whom Jesus loved recognizes Him on the shore, prompting Peter to jump into the water to reach Jesus. It explores themes of recognition, faith, and the nature of Jesus's presence, emphasizing how love allows for the recognition of Christ amidst life's challenges. The narrative highlights the need for a connection with Jesus and illustrates the varied responses among His disciples.

1. JESUS WAS SURPRISINGHIS DISCIPLES
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
John 21:7-8 7
Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to
Peter, "It is the LORD!" As soon as Simon Peter heard him
say, "It is the LORD," he wrapped his outer garment
around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the
water. 8
The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the
net full of fish, for they were not far from shore, about a
hundred yards.
BIBLEHUB RESOURCES
Pulpit Commentary Homiletics
The Cry Of Joyful Recognition
John 21:7
J.R. ThomsonFirst uttered by John when he discerned the form of his
beloved Masterupon the beach of the Galilaeanlake, this exclamationhas
passedinto the hearts and the lips of all Christian people, who, amidst the
various scenes oflife, have recognizedtheir Savior's presence, andhave ever
been wont to acknowledgewith reverentialfaith, "It is the Lord!" The
circumstances in which the words were uttered, as well as the words
themselves, are full of instruction, suggestion, and comfort.
I. How JESUS COMES TO BE HIDDEN. Others, beside the twelve, have for
a time failed to recognize the Son of God.
1. It may be through human misapprehension. Many there are who never
really see and know Jesus. Theymisunderstand his characterand purposes,
his dispositionwith reference to themselves;and consequentlythey remain
altogetherestrangedfrom him.
2. It may be through human unbelief. Men may, and do, deliberately draw a
veil betweenthemselves and Christ. Their sins, their unspirituality, are a

2. complete barrier to their really knowing him; they are without the
receptiveness andsympathy which are necessaryin order to such knowledge.
3. It may be through human perplexity and despondency. In the case ofthe
disciples this seems to have been the explanation of their failure to perceive at
once that the form upon the shore was that of their Lord. Their minds were
preoccupiedwith their own distress, uncertainty, and troubles. And thus they
were for a while blind to that very presence which alone could bring them
relief and blessing.
II. HOW JESUS COMES TO BE RECOGNIZED. He was hidden for a short
seasonfrom the eyes even of his own attachedfriends; but the hiding was not
for long. Nor will he fail to make his nearness andhis grace knownto those
who are prepared to receive the revelation. This he does:
1. By the voice of Divine authority in which he speaks. There was commandin
the tones of Jesus whenhe bade the fishers let down their net. He never speaks
- howevergraciouslyand with howevermuch of encouragementand kindly
invitation - save in a manner divinely authoritative. And the true disciples
recognize that royal tone.
2. By the language ofsympathy and love which he uses. As Jesus pitied the
poor fishermen who had toiled all night in vain; as he addressedthem as his
children, and showedcommiseration;so does he ever appeal to the tenderest
feelings of human hearts, awakening the response which love gives to love.
3. By the provision which he makes for the needs of his own. There is a
practicalaspectin the spiritual ministry of the Savior. He provided breakfast
for the disciples;how could he have given them a homelier welcome? Thus
does he give his flesh for the life of the world. His Deity is recognizedin his
devotion and sacrifice. Theywho once see whathe has done for man cannever
doubt who he is.
III. How THE RECOGNIZED JESUS IS GREETED. Withthe cry, "It is the
Lord!" This is:
1. The cry of faith, on discovering in him the Truth of God. The long-looked-
for vision breaks upon the soul. He who has been desired draws near.
2. The cry of obedience, as his will is felt to be authoritatively binding. He
speaks the language of command; and the obedient soldier adopts the wish as
law, and does the bidding of his Captain; for "it is the Lord!"
3. The cry of submission and resignation, as his hand is discernedin the
chastisements oflife. Let a man say, "It is fate!" or, "It is fortune!" and how

3. can he submit with profit? But let him say, "It is the Lord!" and he will add,
"Let him do as seemethgood in his sight."
4. The cry of witness, as Christ's presence is proclaimed to all around. It is the
mission of the Church to all the world, to direct attention to the world's Savior
and Lord.
IV. HOW THE RECOGNIZEDJESUS REWARDSHIS FAITHFUL
DISCIPLES.
1. With his societyand friendship.
2. With his liberality and bounty, by which all their spiritual wants are
supplied.
3. With his power and benediction upon the life and work of eachone who
acknowledgesandserves him.
4. With the final vision of his face. They who have seenhim by faith on earth
shall see him as he is above. Blessed, rapturous, shall be the recognition, when
the disciple shall open his eyes in heaven, and shall exclaim, "It is the Lord!" -
T.
Biblical Illustrator
Therefore that disciple whom Jesus lovedsaid unto Peter, It is the Lord.
John 21:7
Variety in unity
A. F. Barfield.I. LOVE RECOGNIZING JESUS. Johnwas distinguished for
his clearand far-reaching vision. Peterwas the embodiment of zeal, John of
love.
1. Love canrecognize where mere earnestness fails. You did not hear anything
as you satin your friend's house, and you were rather surprised when she
broke off her sentence with "Excuse me" and hurriedly left the room — the
fact was the mother had heard the cry of her child. You would have been

4. earnestenough in doing goodto the little one; but only the mother's ear could
hear its voice. And so in the case before us: let Peter but get half an idea that
Jesus is standing on the shore, and nothing will keephim in the boat; but
Peter, with all his earnestness, wouldperhaps have never said, "It is the
Lord."
2. Love communicates good. Johncould not keepthe goodtidings to himself.
Whether in temporal or spiritual blessings, love invites others to share.
II. IMPETUOSITYAND ZEAL ENDEAVOURING TO HOLD
COMMUNION WITH JESUS.
1. Consistencyofcharacter. The same Peterwho once before walkedupon the
sea — who said, "Though all men forsake Thee yetwill not I" — who ran into
the sepulchre, and compelled John to follow, casts himself into the sea to go to
Jesus.
2. Naturalness. Hadany one else but Peterattempted this, it would have
appearedawkwardand ungraceful; had he refrained from rushing off to
Jesus we should have felt that it was not like Peter. We believe in
individuality. It would be better for the Church and the world if men would
be themselves.
III. THE WISDOM OF CAREFULNESS. The other disciples took care of the
fishes and came to land by the boat, and they were right; for —
1. They were preserving what Jesus had given them.
2. They were showing that they appreciatedHis blessings.
IV. VARIETY IN UNITY. That little ship containedthe infant Church, yet in
that Church you find various types of character. There is the loving John, the
go-aheadPeter, and the quiet, careful people who take care of the necessaries
of life. And so in the Church. We need men who can stand upon the watch
towerand point to Christ; we need others full of fire; and the plodding men
who never do anything out of the way, but nevertheless do a greatdeal of
necessarywork. Thus —
1. God distributes His gifts in various ways and infinite variety.
2. We should beware of jealousy.
3. We ought not to judge eachother. As Matthew Henry says, "Some are
useful as the Church's eyes, some as the Church's hands, and others as the
Church's feet; but all are for the goodof the body."
(A. F. Barfield.)
It is the Lord

5. A. Maclaren, D. D.It seems very strange that these disciples had not, at an
earlier period, discoveredChrist, inasmuch as it was so manifestly a repetition
of that former event by which they had become "fishers of men." We are apt
to suppose that when once againthey embarked on the lake it must have been
with many a thought of Him. Yonder — perhaps we fancy them thinking — is
where we saw Him coming out of the mountains, when He walkedon the
water; yonder is where He made them all sit down whilst we bore the bread to
them: there is the very spot where we were mending our nets when He came
up to us and calledus to Himself — and now it is all over. "We trusted that it
had been He who should have redeemedIsrael." But there does not seemto
have been any such sentimental remembrance. John takes pains to show them
as plain, rough men, busy about their night's work, and thinking a greatdeal
more of their want of success,than about old associations. Thenthrough the
darkness He comes, and speaks as once before, andrepeats the old miracle,
and their eyes are all holden excepting the eyes of him who loved, and he first
says, "It is the Lord."
I. THEY ONLY SEE ARIGHT WHO SEE CHRIST IN EVERYTHING.
1. No man will understand the world aright, who cannotsay about all
creation, "It is the Lord."(1) If we would pierce to the deepestfoundations of
all Being, we cannotstop until we getdown to the living powerof Christ, by
whom all things were made, and whose will is the sustaining principle which
keeps it from decay.(2)What did Christ work His miracles for? Not solelyas
proof of His Messiahship, but that for once He would unveil to us the true
Author of all things, and the true Foundation of all being. Christ's miracles
interrupted the order of the world in so far as they struck out the intervening
means by which the creative and sustaining word of God acts in nature. We
are then to take all these signs and wonders as a revelation of the real state of
things, and to see in them tokens that into every corner of the universe His
loving hand reaches,and His sustaining power goes forth. Into what province
of nature did He not go? He claimed to be the Lord of life by the side of the
boy's bier at the gate of Nain, &c. He assertedfor Himself authority over all
the powers and functions of our bodily life, when He gave eyes to the blind,
&c. He showedthat He was Lord over the fowl of the air, the fish of the sea,
&c. And He assertedHis dominion over inanimate nature when the fig-tree
withered, and the winds and waves sunk into silence. He let us get a glimpse
into the dark regions of His rule over the unseen, when "with authority He
commanded the unclean spirits, and they came out."(3)All these things He
did, in order that we, walking in this fair world, should be delivered from the
temptation of thinking that it is separatedfrom or independent of Him. Let

6. "It is the Lord" be on our lips, and nature will then be indeed to us the open
secretwhich "The Lord will show to them that fear Him."
2. The same convictionis the only one to explain or make tolerable the
circumstances ofour earthly condition. Either our life is the subject of a mere
chaotic chance;or else it is put into the mill of an iron destiny, which goes
grinding on, regardless ofwhat it grinds up; or else, there is the will which is
love, and the love which is Christ! I understand not how a man can front the
future knowing all his vulnerable points and all the ways by which disaster
may come down upon him, and retain his sanity, excepthe believes that all is
ruled, not merely by a Godwho may be as unsympathizing as He is
omnipotent, but by His elder Brother, the Sonof God. But the riddle of
Providence is solved, and the discipline of Providence is being accomplished,
when we have graspedthis conviction — All events do serve me, for all
circumstances come from His will and pleasure, which is love; and
everywhere where I go — be it in the darkness of disasteror in the sunshine of
prosperity — I shall see standing before me that familiar and beloved shape,
and shall be able to say, "It is the Lord." That is the faith to live by, and to die
by; and without it life is a mockeryand a misery.
3. This same convictionshould guide us in all our thoughts about the history
and destinies of mankind and of Christ's Church. The Incarnation and the
Crucifixion are the pivot round which all the events of the ages revolve. "They
that went before and they that came after," when He entered into the holy city
were a symbol of history. All the generations that went before Him, though
they knew it not, were preparing His way; and all the generations that come
after, though they know it not, are swelling His triumph. The tangled webof
human history is only then intelligible when that is taken as its clue, "From
Him are all things, and to Him are all things," and when all is finished, it will
be found that all things have tended to His glory who is King of kings and
Lord of lords.
4. Such a convictionliving and working in our hearts would change for us the
whole aspectof life. See Christ in everything, and be blessed;or miss Him,
and be miserable. It is a waste, wearyworld, unless it be filled with signs of
His presence. If you want your days to be true, happy, manly, and Godlike, it
will only be when they all have flowing through them this conviction, "It is the
Lord."
II. ONLY THEY WHO LOVE SEE CHRIST. John, the apostle of love knew
Him first.

7. 1. In religious matters, love is the foundation of knowledge. There is no wayof
knowing a person exceptlove. A man cannot argue his way into knowing
Christ. Man's natural capacity within its own limits is strong and good;but in
the regionof acquaintance with God and Christ, the wisdom of this world is
foolishness. "He that loveth not knowethnot God, for God is love."
2. Love will trace Him everywhere, as dearfriends detecteachother in little
marks which are meaningless to others. Love's quick eye pierces through
disguises impenetrable to a colderscrutiny. Love has in it a longing for His
presence which makes us eagerand quick to mark the slightestsign that He is
near, as the footstepof some dear one is heard by the sharp ear of affection
long before any sound breaks the silence to those around. Love leads to
likeness to the Lord, and that likeness makes the clearervision of the Lord
possible. "It is the Lord" is written large and plain on all things, but like the
greatletters on a map, they are so obvious and fill so wide a space, that they
are not seen. They who love Him know Him, and they who know Him love
Him.
3. And is it not a blessedthing that this glorious prerogative does not depend
on what belongs to few men only, but on what may belong to all?
4. But we cannotlove by commandment. The only way is to see the lovely. The
disciple who loved Jesus was "the disciple whom Jesus loved." Generalize
that, and it teaches us that —
III. THEY LOVE WHO KNOW THAT CHRIST LOVES THEM. Our love
can never be anything else than the echo to His voice of tenderness, than the
reflectedlight upon our hearts of the full glory of His affection. "We love
Him, because He first loved us." The fountain that rises in my heart can only
spring up heavenward, because the water of it floweddown into my heart
from the higher level. Oh, then, look to Christ, that you may love Him! Think
of that Saviour who has died for us, and lives for us! Do not ask yourselves, to
begin with, the question, Do I love Him or do I not? If a man is cold, let him
go to the fire and warm himself. If he is dark let him stand in the sunshine,
and he will be light. If his heart is all cloggedwith sin and selfishness, lethim
get under the influence of the love of Christ, and look awayfrom himself and
his ownfeelings, towards that Saviour whose love shed abroad is the sole
means of kindling ours.
(A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Now when Simon Peterheard that... he girt his fisher's coatunto him.
Peter's reverence

8. W. H. Van Doren, D. D., S. S. Times.forthe Lord is indicated by the careful
observation, even in such a moment of excited feeling, of the petty proprieties
of clothing.
(W. H. Van Doren, D. D.)And did casthimself into the sea. —
I. REGARDLESSOF PERSONALCOMFORT.
II. ABANDONING HUMAN COMPANIONSHIPS.
III. DESPISING TEMPORALGAIN.
IV. EAGERLY SEEKING JESUS.
(S. S. Times.)
COMMENTARIES
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(7)Therefore thatdisciple whom
Jesus lovedsaith unto Peter.—Comp. Introduction, p 375. The traits of
characterwhich have before met us are exactly preservedhere. John, true to
the life of contemplation, is first to trace in the present draught of fishes an
analogywith the earlier one, and to discern that the Masterwho spoke then is
present now. Peter, true to the life of action, is first to rush into that Master’s
presence whenhe is told that it is the Lord.
He girt his fisher’s coatunto him (for he was naked).—Thatis, as the words in
the originalclearly imply, he put on, and girded round his body the garment
which workmen customarily used. This seems to have been a kind of linen
frock worn over the shirt, and the Talmud has adopted the Greek word here
used to express it. The word occurs nowhere else in the New Testament, and
the rendering “fisher’s coat” probably gives a correctidea of what is meant.
The common usage ofthe Greek and Hebrew words answering to the English
word “naked,” makes it probable that St. Peterwas wearing some under-
garment, and that reverence for the Lord, into whose presence he is about to
go, led him to add to this the outer frock. (Comp. Acts 19:12.)
MacLaren's Expositions John- Luke
FEAR AND FAITH
‘IT IS THE LORD!’

9. John 21:7.
It seems a very strange thing that these disciples had not, at an earlier period
of this incident, discoveredthe presence ofChrist, inasmuch as the whole was
so manifestly a repetition of that former event by which the commencementof
their ministry had been signalised, whenHe calledthem to become ‘fishers of
men.’ We are apt to suppose that when once again they embarked on the lake,
and went back to their old trade, it must have been with many a thought of
Him busy at their hearts. Yonder-perhaps we fancy them thinking-is the very
point where we saw Him coming out of the shadows ofthe mountains, that
night when He walkedon the water;yonder is the little patch of grass where
He made them all sit down whilst we bore the bread to them: there is the very
spot where we were mending our nets when He came up to us and calledus to
Himself; and now it is all over. We have loved and lostHim; He has been with
us, and has left us. ‘We trusted that it had been He who should have redeemed
Israel,’and the Cross has ended it all! So, we are apt to think, they must have
spoken;but there does not seemto have been about them any such
sentimental remembrance. John takes pains in this narrative, I think, to show
them to us as plain, rough men, busy about their night’s work, and thinking a
greatdeal more of their want of successin fishing, than about the old
associationswhich we are apt to put into their minds. Then through the
darkness He comes, as they had seenHim come once before, when they know
Him not; and He speaks to them as He had spokenbefore, and they do not
detectHis voice yet; and He repeats the old miracle, and their eyes are all
holden, excepting the eyes of him who loved, and he first says, ‘It is the Lord!’
Now, besides all the other features of this incident by which it becomes the
revelation of the Lord’s presence with His Church, and the exhibition of the
work of the Church during all the course of the world’s history, it contains
valuable lessons onother points, such as these which I shall try to bring before
you.
Now and always, as in that morning twilight on the Galilean lake, Christ
comes to men. Everywhere He is present, everywhere revealing Himself. Now,
as then, our eyes are ‘holden’ by our own fault, so that we recognise notthe
merciful Presence whichis all around us. Now, as then, it is they who are
nearestto Christ by love who see Him first. Now, as then, they who are
nearestto Him by love, are so because He loves them, and because they know
and believe the love which He has to them. I find, then, in this part of the story
three thoughts,-First, they only see aright who see Christ in everything.

10. Secondly, they only see Christ who love Him. Lastly, they only love Him who
know that He loves them,
I. First then, they only see aright who see Christ in everything.
This word of John’s, ‘It is the Lord!’-ought to be the conviction with the light
of which we go out to the examination of all events, and to the considerationof
all the circumstances ofour daily life. We believe that unto Christ is given ‘all
powerin heavenand upon earth.’ We believe that to Him belongs creative
power-that ‘without Him was not anything made which was made.’ We
believe that from Him came all life at first. In Him life was, as in its deep
source. He is the Fountain of life. We believe that as no being comes into
existence without His creative power, so none continues to exist without His
sustaining energy. We believe that He allots to all men their natural
characters andtheir circumstances. We believe that the history of the world is
but the history of His influence, and that the centre of the whole universe is
the cross ofCalvary. In the light of such convictions, I take it, every man that
calls himself a Christian ought to go out to meet life and to study all events.
Let me try, then, to put before you, very briefly, one or two of the provinces in
which we are to take this conviction as the keynote to all our knowledge.
No man will understand the world aright, to begin with, who cannot sayabout
all creation, ‘It is the Lord!’ Nature is but the veil of the invisible and
ascendedLord: and if we would pierce to the deepestfoundations of all being,
we cannot stop until we get down to the living power of Christ our Saviour
and the Creatorof the world, by whom all things were made, and whose will
pouring out into this greatuniverse, is the sustaining principle and the true
force which keeps it from nothingness and from quick decay.
Why, what did Christ work all His miracles upon earth for? Not solelyto give
us a testimony that the Father had sentHim; not solelyto make us listen to
His words as a Teachersentfrom God; not solelyas proof of His
Messiahship,-butbesides all these purposes there was surely this other, that
for once He would unveil to us the true Author of all things, and the true
Foundation of all being. Christ’s miracles interrupted the order of the world,
because they made visible to men for once the true and constantOrderer of
the order. They interrupted the order in so far as they struck out the
intervening links by which the creative and sustaining word of God acts in
nature, and suspended each event directly from the firm staple of His will.
They revealedthe eternalOrderer of that order in that they showedthe

11. Incarnate Word wielding the forces ofnature, which He has done from of old
and still does. We are then to take all these signs and wonders that He
wrought, as a perennial revelation of the real state of things with regard to
this natural world, and to see in them all, signs and tokens that into every
corner and far-off regionof the universe His loving hand reaches, and His
sustaining powergoes forth. Into what province of nature did He not go? He
claimed to be the Lord of life by the side of the boy’s bier at the gate of Nain,
in the chamber of the daughter of Jairus, by the grave of Lazarus. He asserted
for Himself authority over all the powers and functions of our bodily life,
when He gave eyes to the blind, hearing to the deaf, feet to the lame. He
showedthat He was Lord over the fowlof the air, the beasts of the earth, the
fish of the sea. And He assertedHis dominion over inanimate nature, when
the fig-tree, cursed by Him, withered awayto its roots, and the winds and
waves sunk into silence at His gentle voice. He let us get a glimpse into the
dark regions of His rule overthe unseen, when ‘with authority He
commanded the unclean spirits, and they came out.’ And all these things He
did, in order that we, walking in this fair world, encompassedby the glories of
this wonderful universe, should be delivered from the temptation of thinking
that it is separatedfrom Him, or independent of His creative and sustaining
power; and in order that we should feel that the continuance of all which
surrounds us, the glories of heaven and the loveliness of earth, are as truly
owing to the constantintervention of His present will, and the interposition
beneath them of His sustaining hand, as when first, by the ‘Word of God’ who
‘was with God and who was God,’speaking forth His fiat, there came light
and beauty out of darkness and chaos.
O Christian men! we shall never understand the Christian thought about
God’s universe, until we are able to say, Preservationis a continual creation;
and beneath all the ordinary workings ofNature, as we faithlesslycall it, and
the apparently dead play of secondarycauses, there are welling forth, and
energising, the living love and the blessedpower of Christ, the Maker, and
Monarch, and Sustainerof all. ‘It is the Lord!’ is the highest teaching of all
science. The mystery of the universe, and the meaning of God’s world, are
shrouded in hopeless obscurity, until we learn to feelthat all laws suppose a
Lawgiver, and that all working involves a divine energy;and that beneath all
which appears there lies for ever rising up through it and giving it its life and
power, the one true living Being, the Father in heaven, the Son by whom He
works, and the Holy Ghostthe Spirit. Darkness lies on Nature, except to those
who in

12. ‘the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean, and the living air,
And the blue sky,’
see that Form which these disciples saw in the morning twilight. Let ‘It is the
Lord!’ be the word on our lips as we gaze on them all, and nature will then be
indeed to us the open secret, the secretof the Lord which ‘He will show to
them that fear Him.’
Then again, the same convictionis the only one that is adequate either to
explain or to make tolerable the circumstances ofour earthly condition. To
most men-ah! to all of us in our faithless times-the events that befall ourselves,
seemto be one of two things equally horrible, the play of a blind Chance, or
the work of an iron Fate. I know not which of these two ghastly thoughts
about the circumstances oflife is the more depressing, ruining all our energy,
depriving us of all our joy, and dragging us down with its weight. But
brethren, and friends, there are but these three ways for it-either our life is
the subjectof a mere chaotic chance;or else it is put into the mill of an iron
destiny, which goes grinding on and crushing with its remorselesswheels,
regardless ofwhat it grinds up; or else, through it all, in it all, beneath it and
above it all, there is the Will which is Love, and the Love which is Christ!
Which of these thoughts is the one that commends itself to your own hearts
and consciences, andwhich is the one under which you would fain live if you
could? I understand not how a man can front the awful possibilities of a
future on earth, knowing all the points at which he is vulnerable, and all the
ways by which disastermay come down upon him, and retain his sanity,
unless he believes that all is ruled, not merely by a Godfar above him, who
may be as unsympathising as He is omnipotent, but by his Elder Brother, the
Son of God, who showedHis heart by all His dealings with us here below, and
who loves as tenderly, and sympathises as closelywith us as ever He did when
on earth He gatheredthe wearyand the sick around Him. Is it not a thing,
men and women, worth having, to have this for the settledconviction of your
hearts, that Christ is moving all the pulses of your life, and that nothing falls
out without the intervention of His presence and the powerof His will
working through it? Do you not think such a belief would nerve you for
difficulty, would lift you buoyantly over trials and depressions, and would set
you upon a vantage ground high above all the petty annoyances oflife? Tell
me, is there any other place where a man can plant his foot and say, ‘Now I

13. am on a rock and I care not what comes’? The riddle of Providence is solved,
and the discipline of Providence is being accomplishedwhen we have grasped
this conviction-All events do serve me, for all circumstances come fromHis
will and pleasure, which is love; and everywhere I go-be it in the darkness of
disasteror in the sunshine of prosperity-I shall see standing before me that
familiar and beloved Shape, and shall be able to say, ‘It is the Lord!’ Friends
and brethren, that is the faith to live by, that is the faith to die by; and without
it life is a mockeryand a misery.
Once more this same conviction, ‘It is the Lord! should guide us in all our
thoughts about the history and destinies of mankind and of Christ’s Church.
The Cross is the centre of the world’s history, the incarnation and the
crucifixion of our Lord are the pivot round which all the events of the ages
revolve. ‘The testimony of Jesus was the spirit of prophecy,’ and the growing
powerof Jesus is the spirit of history, and in every book that calls itself the
history of a nation, unless there be written, whether literally or in spirit, this
for its motto, ‘It is the Lord!’ all will be shallow and incomplete.
‘They that went before and they that came after,’ when He entered into the
holy city in His brief moment of acceptanceandpomp, surrounded Him with
hosannas and jubilant gladness. It is a deep and true symbol of the whole
history of the world. All the generations thatwent before Him, though they
knew it not, were preparing the way of the Lord, and heralding the advent of
Him who was ‘the desire of all nations’ and ‘the light of men’; and all the
generations that come after, though they know it not, are swelling the pomp of
His triumph and hastening the time of His crowning and dominion. ‘It is the
Lord!’ is the secretof all national existence. It is the secretof all the events of
the world. The tangled web of human history is only then intelligible when
that is takenas its clue, ‘From Him are all things, and to Him are all things.’
The oceanfrom which the stream of history flows, and that into which it
empties itself, are one. He beganit, He sustains it. ‘The help that is done upon
earth He doeth it Himself,’ and when all is finished, it will be found that all
things have indeed come from Christ, been sustained and directed by Christ,
and have tended to the glory and exaltation of that Redeemer, who is King of
kings and Lord of lords, Makerof the worlds, and before whose throne are
for evergathered for service, whetherthey know it or not, the forces ofthe
Gentiles, the riches of the nations, the events of history, the fates and destinies
of every man.
I need not dwell upon the wayin which such a conviction as this, my friends,

14. living and working in our hearts, would change for us the whole aspectof life,
and make everything bright and beautiful, blessedand calm, strengthening us
for all which we might have to do, nerving us for duty, and sustaining us
againstevery trial, leading us on, triumphant and glad, through regions all
sparkling with tokens of His presence and signs of His love, unto His throne at
last, to lay down our praises and our crowns before Him. Only let me leave
with you this one word of earnestentreaty, that you will lay to heart the
solemn alternative-eithersee Christ in everything, and be blessed;or miss
Him, and be miserable. Oh! it is a waste, wearyworld, unless it is filled with
signs of His presence. It is a dreary seventy years, brother, of pilgrimage and
strife, unless, as you travel along the road, you see the marks that He who
went before you has left by the wayside for your guidance and your
sustenance. If you want your days to be true, noble, holy, happy, manly, and
Godlike, believe us, it is only when they all have flowing through them this
conviction, ‘It is the Lord!’ that they all become so.
II. Then, secondly, only they who love, see Christ.
John, the Apostle of Love, knew Him first. In religious matters, love is the
foundation of knowledge. There is no way of knowing a Personexceptlove.
The knowledge ofGod and the knowledge ofChrist are not to be won by the
exercise ofthe understanding. A man cannot argue his way into knowing
Christ. No skill in drawing inferences will avail him there. The treasures of
wisdom-earthly wisdom-are all powerlessin that region. Man’s understanding
and natural capacity-let it keepitself within its own limits and region, and it
is strong and good; but in the region of acquaintance with God and Christ, the
wisdom of this world is foolishness, and man’s understanding is not the organ
by which he can know Christ. Oh no! there is a better way than that: ‘He that
loveth not knowethnot God, for God is love.’ As it is, in feebler measure, with
regard to our personalacquaintance with one another, where it is not so much
the powerof the understanding, or the quickness of the perception, or the
talent and genius of a man, that make the foundation of his knowledge ofhis
friend, as the force of his sympathy and the depth of his affection;so-with the
necessarymodification arising from the transference from earthly
acquaintances to the greatFriend and Lover of our souls in heaven-so is it
with regard to our knowledge ofChrist. Love will trace Him everywhere, as
dear friends candetect eachother in little marks which are meaningless to
others. Love’s quick eye pierces through disguises impenetrable to a colder
scrutiny. Love has in it a longing for His presence whichmakes us eagerand
quick to mark the lightest sign that He for whom it longs is near, as the

15. footstepof some dear one is heard by the sharp earof affectionlong before
any sound breaks the silence to those around. Love leads to likeness to the
Lord, and that likeness makes the clearervision of the Lord possible. Love to
Him strips from our eyes the film that self and sin, sense and custom, have
drawn overthem. It is these which hide Him from us. It is because men are so
indifferent to, so forgetful of, their best Friend that they fail to behold Him, ‘It
is the Lord!’ is written large and plain on all things, but like the greatletters
on a map, they are so obvious and fill so wide a space, that they are not seen.
They who love Him know Him, and they who know Him love Him. The true
eye-salve for our blinded eyes is applied when we have turned with our hearts
to Christ. The simple might of faithful love opens them to behold a more
glorious vision than the mountain ‘full of chariots of fire,’ which once flamed
before the prophet’s servant of old-even the august and ever-presentform of
the Lord of life, the Lord of history, the Lord of providence. When they who
love Jesus turn to see ‘the Voice that speaks withthem,’ they ever behold the
Son of Man in His glory; and where others see but the dim beach and a
mysterious stranger, it is to their lips that the glad cry first comes, ‘It is the
Lord!’
And is it not a blessedthing, brethren! that thus this high and glorious
prerogative of recognising the marks of Christ’s presence everywhere, of
going through life gladdenedby the assurance ofHis nearness, does not
depend on what belongs to few men only, but on what may belong to all?
When we saythat ‘not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not
many noble, are called’-whenwe saythat love is the means of knowledge-we
are but in other words saying that the way is open to all, and that no
characteristicsbelonging to classes, no powers that must obviously always
belong to but a handful, are necessaryfor the full apprehensionof the power
and blessednessofChrist’s Gospel. The freeness and the fullness of that divine
message, the glorious truth that it is for all men, and is offered to all, are
couchedin that grand principle, Love that thou mayest know; love, and thou
art filled with the fullness of God, Not for the handful, not for the elite of the
world; not for the few, but for the many; not for the wise, but for all; not for
classes, but for humanity-for all that are weak, andsinful, and needy, and
foolish, and darkenedHe comes, who only needs that the heart that looks
should love, and then it shall behold!
But if that were the whole that I have to say, I should have said but little to the
purpose. It very little avails to tell men to love. We cannot love to order, or
because we think it duty. There is but one way of loving, and that is to see the

16. lovely. The disciple who loved Jesus was ‘the disciple whom Jesus loved.’
Generalise that, and it teaches us this, that
III. They love who know that Christ loves them.
His divine and eternal mercy is the foundation of the whole. Our love,
brethren, can never be any thing else than our echo to His voice of tenderness
than the reflectedlight upon our hearts of the full glory of His affection. No
man loveth God except the man who has first learned that God loves him. ‘We
love Him, because He first loved us.’ And when we say, ‘Love Christ,’ if we
could not go on to say, ‘Nay, rather let Christ’s love come down upon you’-we
had said worse than nothing. The fountain that rises in my heart can only
spring up heavenward, because the water of it has floweddown into my heart
from the higher level. All love must descendfirst, before it can ascend. We
have, then, no Gospelto preach, if we have only this to preach, ‘Love, and
thou art saved.’But we have a Gospelthat is worth the preaching, when we
can come to men who have no love in their hearts, and say, ‘Brethren! listen to
this-you have to bring nothing, you are called upon to originate no affection;
you have nothing to do but simply to receive the everlasting love of God in
Christ His Son, which was without us, which beganbefore us, which flows
forth independent of us, which is uncheckedby all our sins, which triumphs
over all our transgressions, andwhich will make us-loveless,selfish, hardened,
sinful men-soft, and tender, and full of divine affection, by the communication
of its ownself.
Oh, then, look to Christ, that you may love Him! Think, brethren, of that full,
and free, and boundless mercy which, from eternity, has been pouring itself
out in floods of grace and loving-kindness over all creatures. Think of that
everlasting love which presided at the foundation of the earth, and has
sustainedit ever since. Think of that Saviour who has died for us, and lives for
us. Think of Christ, the heart of God, and the fullness of the Father’s mercy;
and do not think of yourselves at all. Do not ask yourselves, to begin with, the
question, Do I love Him or do I not? You will never love by that means. If a
man is cold, let him go to the fire and warm himself. If he is dark, let him
stand in the sunshine, and he will be light. If his heart is all cloggedand
clotted with sin and selfishness, lethim get under the influence of the love of
Christ, and look awayfrom himself and his own feelings, towards that
Saviour whose love shed abroad is the sole means of kindling ours. You have
to go down deeperthan your feelings, your affections, your desires, your
character. There you will find no resting-place, no consolation, no power. Dig

17. down to the living Rock, Christ and His infinite love to you, and let it be the
strong foundation, built into which you and your love may become living
stones, a holy temple, partaking of the firmness and nature of that on which it
rests. They that love do so because they know that Christ loves them; and they
that love see Him everywhere;and they that see Him everywhere are blessed
for evermore. And let no man here torture himself, or limit the fullness of this
messagethat we preach, by questionings whether Christ loves Him or not. Are
you a man? are you sinful? have you brokenGod’s law? do you need a
Saviour? Then put awayall these questions, and believe that Christ’s personal
love is streaming out for the whole world, and that there is a share for you if
you like to take it and be blessed!
There is one last thought arising from the whole subject before us, that may
be worth mention before I close. Did you ever notice how this whole incident
might be turned, by a symbolical application, to the hour of death, and the
vision which may meet us when we come thither? It admits of the application,
and perhaps was intended to receive the application, of such a symbolic
reference. The morning is dawning, the grey of night going away, the lake is
still; and yonder, standing on the shore, in the uncertain light, there is one dim
Figure, and one disciple catches a sightof Him, and another casts himself into
the water, and they find ‘a fire of coals, and fish laid thereon, and bread,’ and
Christ gathers them around His table, and they all know that ‘It is the Lord!’
It is what the death of the Christian man, who has gone through life
recognising Christeverywhere, may well become:-the morning breaking, and
the finished work, and the Figure standing on the quiet beach, so that the last
plunge into the cold flood that yet separates us, will not be taken with
trembling reluctance;but, drawn to Him by the love beaming out of His face,
and upheld by the power of His beckoning presence, we shallstruggle through
the latestwave that parts us, and scarcelyfeelits chill, nor know that we have
crossedit; till falling blessedat His feet, we see, by the nearerand clearer
vision of His face, that this is indeed heaven. And looking back upon ‘the sea
that brought us thither,’ we shall behold its waters flashing in the light of that
everlasting morning, and hear them breaking in music upon the eternal shore.
And then, brethren, when all the wearynight-watchers on the stormy oceanof
life are gatheredtogetheraround Him who watchedwith them from His
throne on the bordering mountains of eternity, where the day shines for ever-
then He will seatthem at His table in His kingdom, and none will need to ask,
‘Who art Thou?’ or ‘Where am I?’ for all shall know that ‘It is the Lord!’ and
the full, perfect, unchangeable vision of His blessedface will be heaven!

18. BensonCommentaryHYPERLINK "/context/john/21-7.htm"John21:7-8.
Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved— Seeing such astonishing success
after their preceding fruitless toil and disappointment; saith unto Peter, It is
the Lord — Who has, on this occasion, renewedthat miracle which he
wrought in thy ship some years ago, when he first called us to attend him.
Now when Peterheard, and saw, that it was the Lord, he girt his fisher’s coat
unto him — Or upper garment, as επενδυτης properly signifies, reverencing
the presence ofthe Lord. For he was naked — Or rather, was stripped of it;
for the word γυμνος, here used, does not always, like the English word naked,
signify having no clothes on, or being totally uncovered, but not having all the
clothes usually worn. In this sense the word seems to be used Acts 19:16, and
in severalpassagesofthe Old Testament. And did casthimself into the sea —
To swim to him immediately. The love of Christ draws men through fire and
water. And the other disciples — Making the bestof their way; came in a little
ship — That is, in their small fishing vessel;dragging the net with fishes —
Which doubtless considerablyimpeded their progress.
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary21:1-14 Christmakes himself known
to his people, usually in his ordinances; but sometimes by his Spirit he visits
them when employed in their business. It is goodfor the disciples of Christ to
be togetherin common conversation, and common business. The hour for
their entering upon action was not come. They would help to maintain
themselves, and not be burdensome to any. Christ's time of making himself
known to his people, is when they are most at a loss. He knows the temporal
wants of his people, and has promised them not only grace sufficient, but food
convenient. Divine Providence extends itself to things most minute, and those
are happy who acknowledge Godin all their ways. Those who are humble,
diligent, and patient, though their labours may be crossed, shallbe crowned;
they sometimes live to see their affairs take a happy turn, after many
struggles. And there is nothing lost by observing Christ's orders;it is casting
the net on the right side of the ship. Jesus manifests himself to his people by
doing that for them which none else can do, and things which they lookednot
for. He would take care that those who left all for him, should not want any
goodthing. And latter favours are to bring to mind former favours, that eaten
bread may not be forgotten. He whom Jesus loved was the first that said, It is
the Lord. John had cleavedmost closelyto his Masterin his sufferings, and
knew him soonest. Peterwas the most zealous, and reachedChrist the first.
How variously God dispenses his gifts, and what difference there may be
betweensome believers and others in the way of their honouring Christ, yet
they all may be acceptedofhim! Others continue in the ship, drag the net, and

19. bring the fish to shore, and such persons ought not to be blamed as worldly;
for they, in their places, are as truly serving Christ as the others. The Lord
Jesus had provision ready for them. We need not be curious in inquiring
whence this came;but we may be comforted at Christ's care for his disciples.
Although there were so many, and such greatfishes, yet they lost none, nor
damagedtheir net. The net of the gospelhas enclosedmultitudes, yet it is as
strong as ever to bring souls to God.
Barnes'Notes on the BibleTherefore that disciple whom Jesus loved - John,
John 13:23.
It is the Lord - He was convinced, perhaps, by the apparent miracle, and by
looking more attentively on the personof one who had been the means of such
unexpected and remarkable success.
His fisher's coat - His upper or outer garment or tunic, in distinction from the
inner garment or tunic which was worn next the skin. In the case ofPeterit
may have been made of coarse materials suchas fishermen commonly wore,
or such as Peterusually wore when he was engagedin this employment. Such
garments are common with men of this occupation. This outer garment he
probably had laid aside.
He was naked - He was undressed, with nothing on but the undergarment or
tunic. The word does not require us to suppose a greaterdegree ofnakedness
than this. See the Mark 14:51 note; also 1 Samuel 19:24 note.
Did casthimself into the sea - With characteristic ardor, desirous of meeting
againhis Lord, and showing his affectionfor him.
Jamieson-Fausset-BrownBible Commentary7-11. that disciple whom Jesus
loved, said, It is the Lord—again having the advantage of his brother in
quickness of recognition(see on [1927]Joh20:8), to be followedby an alacrity
in Peterall his own.
he was naked—his vest only on, worn next the body.
casthimself into the sea—the shallow part, not more than a hundred yards
from the water's edge (Joh21:8), not meaning therefore to swim, but to get
soonerto Jesus than in the full boat which they could hardly draw to shore.
Matthew Poole's Commentary There is a greatdispute amongstcritical
writers what this
fisher’s coatwas;whether a loose coat, orthe garment next his skin, or a
fisherman’s slop. It is a point not worth the disputing: it was some garment

20. that might modestly cover him when he came to Jesus, and yet not hinder him
in his swimming.
Gill's Exposition of the Entire BibleTherefore that disciple whom Jesus
loved,.... Which was John the Evangelistand Apostle, the writer of this
Gospel:
saith unto Peter, it is the Lord; which two disciples were very intimate with
eachother, and communicated their thoughts freely to one another. John
knew that it was the Lord, either by some specialrevelation, or from the
multitude of fishes which were taken, and which showeda divine hand and
powerto be concerned. So faithful ministers of the Gospelknow when Christ
is with them, by his powerattending their ministrations to the conversionof
souls. The Cambridge copy of Beza's reads, "ourLord"; as do the Syriac,
Persic, and Ethiopic versions;and it is reasonable to think, John speaking to a
fellow disciple, who had equal interest in him with himself, might so say.
Now when Simon heard that it was the Lord; faith came by hearing, he was
immediately convinced, and thoroughly satisfied, having receivedthe hint
upon a reflection on the surprising capture of the fishes, that it must be the
Lord:
he girt his fisher's coatunto him. The Greek word here used, is manifestly the
of the Hebrews;and which, the Jewishwriters say (b), was a strait garment,
which a man put on next his flesh to dry up the sweat;and a very proper one
for Peter, who had been toiling all night, and very fit for him to swim in; and,
by what follows, appears to be put on him next his flesh: for he was naked;for
to suppose him entirely naked, whilst fishing, being only in company with
men, and those parts of nature having a covering, which always require one,
was not at all indecent and unbecoming:
and did casthimself into the sea;the Syriac adds, "that he might come to
Christ"; and the Persic, "and he came to Christ"; showing his greatlove and
eagerness to be with him; and, as fearless ofdanger, risks all to be with
Christ; his love being such, that many waters could not quench, nor floods
drown.
(b) Maimon. & Bartenora in Misn. Sabbat, c. 10. sect. 3.
Geneva Study BibleTherefore that disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter,
It is the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he girt his
fisher's {a} coat unto him, (for he was naked,)and did casthimself into the
sea.
(a) It was a linen garment which prevented him from swimming freely.

21. EXEGETICAL(ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)
Meyer's NT CommentaryHYPERLINK "/john/21-7.htm"John21:7. Πάλιν τὰ
ἰδιώματα τῶνοἰκείωνἐπιδείκνυνται τρόπωνοἱ μαθηταὶ Πέτρος καὶ Ἰωάννης.
Ὁ μὲν γὰρθερμότερος, ὁ δὲ ὑψηλότερος ἦν· καὶ ὁ μὲν ὀξύτερος ἦν, ὁ δὲ
διορατικώτερος. Διὰ τοῦτο ὁ μὲν Ἰωάννης πρῶτως ἐπέγνω τὸν Ἰησοῦν· ὁ δὲ
Πέτρος πρῶτος ἦλθε πρὸς αὐτόν, Chrysostom. Comp. John 20:3 ff.
τὸν ἐπενδύτην διεζώσατο]He had laid aside the ἐπενδύτης, and was in so far
naked, which, however, does not prevent his having on the shirt, χιτωνίσκος,
according to the well-knownusage of γυμνός,[280]nudus, and ‫רַע‬‫םּו‬ (see
Perizonius, ad Ael. V. H. vi. 11;Cuper. Obss. i. 7, p. 39, Interpp. zu Jes. xxx.
2; Grotius in loc). In order, however, not to appearunbecomingly in his mere
shirt before Jesus, he girded around him the ἐπενδύτης, i.e. he drew it on, so
that he gatheredit togetherby means of a girdle on his body. Hengstenberg
says incorrectly: he had the ἘΠΕΝΔΎΤ. on, and only girded himself in the
same (accus. ofcloserdefinition), in order to be able to swim the better. The
middle with accus. ofa garment always denotes to gird oneselftherewith
(Lucian, Somm. 6, de conscrib. hist. 3). Comp. περιζώννυσθαι, Revelation
1:13. The ἐπενδύτης is not equivalent to χιτών(Fischer, Kuinoel,
Bretschneider), but an overwrap, an overcoat. Any garment drawn over may
be so called(see the LXX. in Schleusner, Thes. II. p. 436;Soph, fragm. in
Pollux, vii. 45; Dind. 391, comp. ἘΠΈΝΔΥΜΑ in Plut. Alex. 32); it was,
however, according to Nonnus and Theophylact, in the case offishermen, and
according to the Talmud, which has even appropriated to itself the word
ylbissop) gnihtolc fo elcitra nenil a ,yllareneg nemkrow fo esac eht ni,‫אטונדתא‬
a short frock or blouse)which, according to the Talmud, was worn, provided
with pockets, overthe shirt (according to Theophylact, also over other articles
of clothing). See especiallyDrusius in loc. According to Euth. Zigabenus, it
reachedto the knees, andwas without sleeves.
γυμνός]He had, in point of fact, no other clothing on except the mere shirt
(comp. Dem. 583. 21 : γυμνὸν ἐν τῷ χιτωνίσκῳ);for preciselyδιὰ τὴν
γύμνωσιν (Theodoret, Heracleus)he quickly put on the ἐπενδύτης, which had
been laid aside during his work.
He reachedthe land swimming, not walking on the water(Grotius and several
others), which is an imported addition. The ἔβαλεν ἑαυτόνgraphically
represents the rapid self-decision.

22. [280]This also in opposition to Godet, according to whom Peter was quite
naked. This would have been disgracefulevenamongst barbarians. See
Krüger on Thuc. i. 6. 4.
Expositor's Greek TestamentHYPERLINK"/john/21-7.htm"John21:7. This
sudden change of fortune John at once tracedto its only possible source, Ὁ
Κύριός ἐστι. “Vita quieta citius observatres divinas quam activa.” Bengel.
Σίμων οὖν … θάλασσαν. The different temperaments of the two Apostles as
here exhibited have constantly been remarkedupon; as by Euthymius, “John
had the keenerinsight; Peterthe greaterardour”. Peterτὸν ἐπενδύτην
διεζώσατο. Some writers identify the ἐπενδύτης with the inner garment or
χίτων, others suppose it was the outer garment or ἱμάτιον. And the reason
assigned, ἦνγὰρ γυμνός, they say, is that he had only the χίτων. That one who
was thus half-dressedmight be calledγυμνός is well known (see Aristoph.,
Clouds, 480); but it was not the outer garment round which the belt was girt,
but the inner. And besides, Petermust often have appearedbefore Jesus in
their boat expeditions without his upper garment. And to put on his Tallith
when about to plunge into the sea was out of the question. He was rowing,
then, with as little on as possible, probably only a subligaculum or loin-cloth,
and now picks up his ἐπενδύτης, a garment worn by fishers (Theophylact),
and girds it on, and casts himself into the sea.
Cambridge Bible for Schools andColleges7. Thereforethat disciple] The
characteristicsofthe two Apostles are againmost delicately yet clearly given
(comp. John 20:2-9). S. John is the first to apprehend; S. Peterthe first to act
[9].
Now when Simon Peterheard] Simon Petertherefore having heard.
fisher’s coat]The Greek word(ependutes) occurs here only. It was his upper
garment, which he gatheredround him “with instinctive reverence for the
presence ofhis Master” (Westcott). ‘Naked’neednot mean more than
‘stripped’ of the upper garment. “No one but an eye-witness wouldhave
thought of the touch in John 21:7, which exactly inverts the natural actionof
one about to swim, and yet is quite accountedfor by the circumstances.” S. p.
267.
casthimself] with his habitual impulsiveness.
Bengel's GnomenHYPERLINK"/john/21-7.htm"John21:7. Λέγει, saith) A
quiet life more quickly observes Divine things, than an active life: and yet this
latter furnishes an opportunity of doing so, and does not fail to produce fruit

23. in the case ofsaints.—ἐπενδύτην)Suidas explains ἐπενδύτης as τὸ ἐσώτατον
ἱμάτιον, the inmost garment. But the LXX. render by the word ἐπενδύτης,
.(knar fo snosrep yb nrow tnemrag reppu gnol eht) ‫—מעיל‬διεζώσατο, girton
himself) Peter[did so, because he]reverencedthe presence ofthe Lord,
whereas he had been previously engagedwith his fellow-disciples in a more
familiar manner.—γυμνὸς)He had script off (whilst fishing with his fellow-
disciples)τὸν ἐπενδύτην.[401]—ἜΒΑΛΕΝἙΑΥΤῸΝ ΕἸς ΤῊΝ
ΘΆΛΑΣΣΑΝ, he casthimself into the sea)being likely to reach the Lord
soonerby swimming than by ship. Comp. Matthew 14:28, “Petersaid, Lord, if
it be Thou, bid me come unto Thee on the water.”[402]The love of Jesus
draws one through fires and waves.
[401]Wahl Clav. New Testamentmakes it the upper tunic, somewhat
approaching to the pallium or toga, and put on betweenthe shirt and the
outer garments, and therefore different from the shirt or chemise, χιτώνισκος
or ὑποδύτης. Th. ἐπὶ and ἐνδύω.—E. and T.
[402]Archbishop Whately, in a MS. note kindly furnished to me, observes,
that “εἰς, with the Accusative, probably means on, upon, not into. Had Peter
been going to wade or swim, he would not have grit on his coat, but rather
thrown it off (unless, as Beng. suggests, from reverence to the Lord). He
received, probably, an intimation, that he should now perform the miracle in
which his faith had formerly failed”—viz. walking ON the water.—E. andT.
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 7. - Therefore, as a distinct consequence ofthe vivid
reminiscence of the past; with sudden intuition given to him by the event, and
a fresh realization of the identity of the risen Lord with the MasterJesus, that
disciple therefore whom Jesus loved - who must have been either one of the
sons of Zebedee or one of the two unnamed disciples. The latter supposition is
inapposite from the intimacy betweenPeter and John, which the synoptic
narrative, and references in the Acts and Galatians it., have recorded;that
disciple and no other, the one so often referred to, one of the seven, saith unto
Peter, It is the Lord. Had he not again and again done wondrous things of
power, wisdom, and love on this very spot, in these very waters? So John
comes intuitively and with true insight to the sacredtruth and reality, and his
conduct is againcontrastedwonderfully with the energetic and impulsive
Peter(John 20:5, 6). The same relative characteristicsofthe two apostles have
been preserved throughout the fivefold narrative. Such a contrastso delicately
and persistently sustainedlends certainty to the objective reality. Accordingly
Simon Peter, when he heard, It is the Lord - for the words flashed conviction

24. into him - hurried at once to put his new idea to practicalproof. The word of
John satisfiedhim, and, not seeing for himself what John saw with mental eye,
he acceptedthe joyful news, and was the first to spring into the sea, and, with
his usual energy, to casthimself at his Master's feet. He girt his coatabout
him (for he was naked). The word γυνός does not mean perfectly nude. A man
who had simply the χιτών or tunic upon him was practicallythus regarded.
The word γυμνός occurs in Isaiah20:2; 1 Samuel19:24; Job 24:10 in the same
sense. The proper name for the tunic, or garment next the skin, was ὑποδύτης,
and that which was put over the tunic was ἐπενδύτης and ἐπένδυμα (Meyer
and Wettstein, in loc.). The Talmud has Aramaized the word, calling it ‫אתדגפא‬
(ependetha), and used it for the workman's frock or blouse, often without
sleeves, andfastenedwith a girdle. Dr. Salmond truly says that this reference
to an actwhich to ordinary men would have suggesteda different
arrangementof dress, reveals the eye-witness. Hengstenbergsuggeststhat
Petersimply girded his upper garment for the purpose of swimming more
easily;but, as Luthardt observes, with this ἐπενδύτης alreadyupon him, he
would not have been "naked" And he casthimself into the sea, intending,
whatevermight be the fate of the laden net, to be the first to greetand
worship the Lord. Of the reception he met with John says nothing: he knew
nothing. The Lord had some specialinstruction for him a little later. It is not
in harmony with the words, as Gerhard supposed, that Peter walked
triumphantly upon the waters. Nota hint of it occurs. The hundred yards
were rapidly covered, either by swimming or wading to the shore meanwhile.
Vincent's Word StudiesFisher's coat (ἐπενδύτην)
An upper garment or blouse. Only here in the New Testament. In the
Septuagint, 1 Samuel 18:4, the robe which Jonathangave to David. 2 Samuel
13:18, the royal virgin garment of Tamar. The kindred verb, ἐπενδύομαι,
occurs twice (2 Corinthians 5:2, 2 Corinthians 5:4), meaning "to be clothed
upon," with the house which is from heaven,
Naked
Not absolutely, but clothedmerely in his undergarment or shirt.
PRECEPT AUSTIN RESOURCES

25. Visits From The Lord BY SPURGEON
“Therefore, thatdisciple whom Jesus lovedsaid unto Peter, It is the
Lord. Now when Simon Peterheard that it was the Lord, he put on his
outer garment (for he was naked), and plunged into the sea. But the
other disciples came in the little boat; for they were not far from land
(about two hundred cubits), dragging the net with fishes.”
John 21:7, 8
UNTIL our Lord should pour out the Spirit upon His Apostles, they had to
wait. It was expedient for them that He should go awayand ascendinto His
Glory. Then when He had receivedgifts for men and had distributed those
gifts, they would be able to go forth in the powerof the Spirit, preaching the
Gospel. Until then they must wait, and they must not be idle. Therefore they
returned to their ordinary trades and once againthe little boat plowedthe
familiar waves of the sea of Tiberias. There they had many old associations
brought up before them. And there, moreover, on the memorable night of
which we are now to speak, theylearned a lessonwhich would be instructive
to them throughout the whole course of their fishing for men! Their condition
and position were very much like our own. We, as a Christian Church, are
engagedin the greatsoul-fishery, seeking by any means to bring some to
Christ. Out on the dark waters of the Dead Sea ofSin we seek to bring the
souls of men, not to destroy them, but that Christ may save them! This is to be
theChurch’s perpetual work. She must never ceasefrom it. Forthis purpose is
she kept in the world and if she does not answerthis purpose, she is faulty
before her Lord.
Just now we are much in the condition of these Apostles. There is upon some
of our spirits a dissatisfactionwith the success thatwe have had of late–infact,
a dissatisfactionwith all the success thateither we or the Christian Church
generallyhave had for years past. We cannot quite say, with the Apostles, that
we have caught nothing. Glory be to God, there are thousands of souls that
have been won to Christ in this house, and in many other places where Christ
is preached! But compared with the great mass of mankind–comparedwith
the world that “lies in the WickedOne–we might almostsay, "We have
caught nothing.” Relatively, it comes to very, very, very little–and the Gospel-
fishery does not grow, today, as it did at the time of Pentecost, oras it has
done at other seasons whenGodhas granted revival and refreshing from His
Presence.We are, therefore, like the disciples–we are engagedin the fishing,
but we are not satisfiedwith the results! Now we know what they, perhaps, at
the time forgot–thatthere is only one thing that can change the aspectof

26. affairs, and that is for Jesus to appear in our midst and speak to us, giving us
the word of direction and, also, Himself acting as the attractive powerto the
souls of men, that they may come to the Gospelnet! I may go round to all our
agencies, if Jesus is absent, and ask them, “Whatis your success?”The
Sunday schoolwill have to say, “We have takennothing.” The Evangelists at
the streetcorners will have to say, “We have takennothing.” The young men
sent forth from the college to preachwill have to return the same sorrowful
answer!And alas, for us who stand here and preach to this congregation, we,
too, shall have to say, if the Masteris not with us, “We have toiled all night,
but we have takennothing.”
Oh, sorrowful accountto have to render to God and our fellow men! Yet such
it must be. But if Jesus shallcome, how changedit all shall be! Then shall the
preacherbecome wise!He shall know where and how to castthe net! He shall
selectthose topics that shall stir the soul–thatshall fire the heart! And then,
Jesus being present, men shall be as willing to receive the Gospelas the
preacheris to preachit! It shall be as much the will of the fish to getinto the
net, as it is of the fishermen to castthe net! Oh, may the Mastercome to us! I
believe He has come. I think I see Him. Some of my Brothers and Sisters tell
me they already perceive it. He has never been entirely absent from us, but we
need Him to speak a mighty word, a majestic word–a word that shall compel,
by sweetconstraints of Grace, tens of thousands of souls to come to Him and
live!
Now tonight my one subject is to the Church here, and to God’s people
elsewhere,who are in the same state of hope and anxiety. I want to speak
about Jesus Christ’s coming. The all-importance of it you all feel. You all, I
trust, as workers for Christ, desire it. Now, Beloved, letus notice, first, when
Jesus comes–
1. WHO WAS THE FIRST TO SEE HIM.
The first to see Jesus was John. He said, “It is the Lord.” The other disciples
perceivedHim by-and-by. We know they did, for it is written, “Knowing that
He was the Lord”–but the first to see Him was John. What do we gather from
this?
Why, first, that the brightest eyes in the Church are the eyes of those who love
most. They perceive Christ first whohave most affectionfor Him! If He is
gone, these are the first to sigh. If He returns, these are the first to rejoice with
unspeakable joy. Knowledge is said to open the eyes, but as for me, the dust of
many learned tomes has often beclouded them. It is thought that men of
educationwill be the first to perceive the Savior, but it was not so in the

27. Savior’s day, for these things were hidden from the wise and prudent–but
they were revealedunto babes! Let love be your education. Grow in love. To
love is better than to know, for a man may know, and only eat of the Tree of
Knowledge of Goodand Evil–and perish by it–but he that loves, obeys, and he
shall eat of the Tree of Life and dwell in the midst of the Paradise of God!
BlessedJohn!Your head had been on the Savior’s bosom and, therefore, your
eyes were like the eagle’s. No angel, one would think, could see as well as
Milton’s angel, Uriel, that dwelt in the midst of the sun. He was familiar with
the light. He dwelt in the full blaze of the orb of day–in the very midst of it!
And, “He that dwells in love dwells in God.” And “God is Light,” so he who
dwells in the Light of God sees allthings. “Blessedare the pure in heart, for
they shall see God.” The heart that is purified with the celestialflame of
Divine Love is the heart that can see God!
But note that in the text John does not describe himself as loving Christ. Much
more humbly and instructively does he put it. “Thatdisciple who loved Jesus
said unto Peter, It is the Lord!” No, that is my misreading of it! It is, “That
disciple whom Jesus loved.” Oh, yes, and that is the waythat Grace in the
heart always teaches us to read it! It is not so much that we love Him, as that
He loved, and still loves us! Superabundant love in the heart of the Man,
Christ Jesus, towards thatchoice and chosenspirit had made John a loving
disciple. He had not loved so much if Christ had not loved more. He would
have told you if you had questioned him about his love, as Peter did–“The
Lord who knows all, knows that I love Him.” But if you had spokenabout
Christ’s love to him, ah, then his face would have brightened, his eyes would
have flashed with delight and he would have said, “He loves me. Ah, and I
have had many a sweetwordfrom Him. And my head has often been healed
of all its aches whenI have laid it down upon His breast.” He would have
ascribedit all to Christ’s love and had little to say of his own! So, Brothers
and Sisters, if the love of God is shed abroad in your hearts, you will be quick
to see the same. It will not be so much your love as His love that makes you
quick of the eye. Then will your eyes become like the eyes of the spouse in the
song, “As the eyes of doves by the rivers of water, washedwith milk and fitly
set.” Now the dove, no doubt, can see its home from a very, very long way. Let
the pigeonloose and it flies to its dove-cote atonce. Ah, those whose eyes
Christ has “washedwith milk and fitly set” cansee their Lord afar off, and
they fly to Him with swift and clipping wings–norare they satisfiedtill they
roostonce more at His feet or on His bosom.
Thus, then, those that are quick to see the Saviorare those who love Him–
better still, those whom He loves much.

28. Now note that even John appears to have perceivedthe Presence ofChrist
very much through His work. As soonasthe fishes were takenin the net, then
John said, “It is the Lord.” And, Brothers and Sisters, if we want to be
assuredof the Master’s Presencein the Church, it must be by the results! I
am ashamedof some Christians who are afraid of anything like a holy
excitement, or a gracious revival. If there are two or three added to the
Church in a year, they say, “This is the finger of God,” but if there are many,
then straightwaythey begin to question! Now I think this is not reasonable,
for surely when there are greatfishes, a hundred and fifty and three, then we
may say, “It is the Lord.” We may be pretty sure when there are so many
brought that God is at work there, and we may perceive the Presenceof
Christ. I was noticing the other day some statistics that have been given of
certain revivals in different districts of the United States. It has been said that
those gatheredin during a period of revival are usually an injury to the
Church, and more frequently backslide than any other–but taking a range of
some eight years in certainchurches, it was found that of those persons added
during seasons ofrefreshing from God, the percentage who afterwards
backslidwas much less than–scarcely, indeed, one half–the percentage of
backsliderin those churches which had not experiencedrevival, but had only
grown at the slow plodding rate which some of our “sound” Brothers and
Sisters so greatly admire! It was found that insteadof being worse material,
they were better material–and that these stoodthe fire even better than any
other. This I know–thatI would like to run the risk–I would like to run the
blessedrisk of seeing thousands coming forward to profess their faith in
Christ! ‘Tis true, we will have some, no doubt, that will turn out to be
hypocrites, but I would not refuse some chaff if I could getten times as much
wheat! Who will give up a gold mine because there is quartz in it? Who is it
that will shut up a coalpit because there happen to be some slates amidst the
coal? No, blessedMaster, come!and let us have the net full to bursting if You
will–and then we shall say–“Itis the Lord!” His great works revealHim even
to the eyes of love!
Note, further, that the man who first discoveredthat Christ was present did
not long keepthe secret, but, turninground to his neighbor in the boat, he
whispered to him, “It is the Lord.” Ah, and this is a lessonto us. If any of you
that are the King’s favorites and have close fellowshipwith Him, should
perceive that He is in the Church, oh, tell it to us, for we are of your mind! We
count the King’s Company to be the most grand blessing out of Heaven!
Whisper to some of us, for we shall be so rejoicedto hearthe blessednews!
But John did not tell all of them. He told it to Peter, for Peterwas very near to

29. him. I think John had been partly the means of Peter’s falling. I think so. You
notice how John tells us and no one else does–thathe was a kinsman to one
who kept the door and he took Peterin? And I fancy that he used to smite
himself about that, and say, “I ought not to have run the risk of taking Peter
there. I ought not to have put him where he would have those questions
asked.” And he seems always to stick hard and fastto Peterand to be with
him, because though he, of course, had none of Peter’s sin, he felt that
somehow, accidentallyorunwittingly, he had led Peterinto the place where he
sinned–and so he loved him very much and he gave him the first intimation of
the goodnews. Saidhe to him, “Brother Peter, it is the Lord.” Oh, if you
perceive the Lord, tonight–if you geta goodword from His lips–have not you
some Belovedone that you can tell–one, perhaps, that has been a backslider
and is now returning to the Lord with broken bones? Oh, tell him! Tell him!
Tell him at once, “The Lord is here amidst us. Our Belovedstands and shows
His wounds and His pierced hands. Look, my Brother! Look to Him and
rejoice with me!” Ah, but you may also tell it to whomeveryou will, for this is
a piece of goodnews that nobody need ever keepsecret!Tellit! Tell it
whereveryou have the opportunity–that Jesus Christ is visiting His Church!
Bid poor sinners come and look to Him whom they have pierced, and live!
When you have told it to some, tell it to many more and bid them
communicate the blessedtidings that Jesus, mighty to save, still waits to
receive sinners and to blot out their transgressions–
“Tellit unto sinners–tell–
Jesus Christ cansave from Hell,”
and is present, revealing Himself to His Church and doing wonders in the
congregation!
Thus much upon those who first see Him. Now a few words upon–
II. THOSE WHO FIRST GET AT JESUS CHRIST.
Peter–quick, hot, impulsive–no soonerhears that it is the Lord than he
buckles on his coat, plunges into the sea, and swims to shore to reachhis
Master!They were not all Peters–itwas a mercy they were not. But there was
one Peterand it was mercy that there was. Nobodymay blame Peter. Nobody
may blame those who did not follow Peter. They were quite as right who
stayed in the boat as Peterwas, who swamto the shore! But I know that
whereverJesus Christ is truly present, there will be some bold noble spirits
that will make a dash to get at Him. They love Him–they will be among the
first to reachHim–to enjoy His Presence.Yet if any of them feelmoved
tonight to do some deed of enthusiasm, let me take them by the hand a

30. moment. Peterwould reach his Master, but he first girds on his coat. There is
reverence in Peter, though there is haste and enthusiasm. He will not come
before Christ all in a carelessmanner–unclothed. He has too much respectfor
His Master. O Soul, if you would serve the Lord, serve Him with holy fear, for
though He is very near to you, He is God–and you are man. Take offyour
shoes whenyou would serve Him, for the place where youstand is holy
ground! Be not rash in your worship, nor in your vows, nor in your actions!
Gird yourself and then serve Him.
But that once done, Petercommits himself boldly to the waves!Sink or swim,
he will be at his Master’s side and so he strikes out right gallantly for the
shore. Nothing can stophim. He impetuously gets through the breakers and
the surf, and is at his Master’s feet!Oh, how I wish there were some Peters in
this congregation, true lovers of Christ, who, feeling that Christ is come
among us, would say, “Forthe love I bear His name, I will be one of the first
to serve Him! Here I wrap myself in the garment of zeal. It shall be my cloak
and from this day I will give up all for Christ. I will serve Him beyond all
others if I can, and if any can exceedme, it shall be my lack of powerthat
makes me second, but not my lack of will!” It would not do for me to say who
Peteris, nor to suggestto a man who is not Peter that he should act as Peter
would, but I have noticed that every so often in the Church there will rise up
men and womenwho will say, “We will consecrate ourselvesunto the Lord.”
Sometimes they do it by going forth into the mission field. Perhaps I have a
young Peter here who, like Careyof old, and Marshman, and that band of
heroes, may feel in his soulthe fire burning and say, “I must, and I will preach
Christ in the regions beyond.” Possibly, however, it may be at home that the
same gifts and Graces maybe exercised, andI have one here, perhaps, who
says–oh, I would I had many hundreds who are saying–“Godhelping us, we
will enter upon something which, though it is apparently beyond our strength,
and rather venturesome, yet shall be done! We will plunge into the sea to
reachour Master. We will brave anything so that we may getto Him!”
Ah, there are those who will always repress anything like Divine enthusiasm
and yet, mark you, the brightest ages of the Church have been those in which
men consecratedto God have risen above the dictates of common prudence
and have dared for Christ what others of a coolertemperament could have
not dared! Oh, may the Mastersend the sacredfire into this congregation!I
shall never rest content until I have going out of this Church many who count
not their lives dear to them to preach the Gospelamong the heathen! I wonder
how it is this has not broken out among us before? Is it my ministry that is
faulty in this respect? It may be so. Then will I cry to Heaven to be taught

31. better. But at Hermansberg, under PastorHarms, the whole village seemedto
be moved with a desire to carry Christ’s Gospelto Africa–and they emigrated
in shiploads to become missionaries there!Of course, many said that Harms
was infatuated. Blessedinfatuation! May it fall upon many of Christ’s
ministers! The Moravian Church in years gone by had scarcelya member
who was not a missionary. When they joined the Church, they gave
themselves up to the Church and to Christ. Oh, when shall we come to this–if
not all of us, yet, at any rate, the Peters who shall throw themselves into the
sea that they may get to their Master? Knowing that it is the Lord who is in
their midst, they shall be able to do venturesome deeds, brave deeds, for the
glory of His name!
But I will not dwell on that, but just mention next how the rest came to Christ.
We have seenwho first saw Him. Afterwards they all saw Him. We have seen
who first reachedHim. Afterwards they all reachedHim and I think the
seconddid no worse than the first. For how came the rest of the disciples? In a
little boat–I suppose in their fishing vessel, dragging the net after them. I feel
that to be my particular department and suppose the lot of most of my dear
Brothers here. We are tied to this Church, and we have the net. And though I
would gladly enter often into fellowship with Christ by a bold dash, somehow
or other I generally have to drag a net after me! I want to commune with
Christ, but I have about a thousand souls that I have to preachto on the
coming Sabbath. I want to rejoice in the Lord with unspeakable joy, but often
get cumbered with much serving. There is this poor soul in trouble, and that
poor heart who needs consolation. Well, well, if the Masterbids us drag the
net, we won’t leave it, but keepa hold of it and if we come a little more slowly,
nevertheless, if we are doing His bidding, our slow pace shall be as acceptedas
Peter’s swimming! And many of you, dear Friends, would be very wrong if
you were to give up your common callings. You are like the fishermen with
the net–you have to drag it. If you should say, “I will give myself up to Christ.
I will row to shore. I shall renounce my business. I shall leave all my earthly
callings”–Ithink, unless I was quite certain you were a Peter, I would say,
“Brother, go back! Drag the net. It must be brought to shore. There are your
children. Oh, what a care they need and how wrong you would be if you
neglectedthem!”
I remember a man, whose children were most neglected, who used to
frequently go out preaching in the country villages. I know that once or twice
he was spokento about it, but he never mended matters. While he would be
preaching, his children would be in the streets!He lived to see them grow up
reprobates–andthe sin was at his door. Stick to Christ! Drag your net and

32. bring your family after you. Let this be your vehement desire–thatyour
children shall be brought to Him! Or you have servants, or a little district in
some place in London. Don’t run awayfrom your work! A Brother wrote to
me some time ago telling me how much distressedhe was in his mind. He said
he thought he should never be happy till he got out of business. I said, “Don’t
run awayfrom Satan. Fight the devil where you are! Tell the devil you will
grapple with him where you are, and you mean to beat him right there.” Oh,
if God in His Providence has made you a servant, very well–beatthe devil as a
servant! And if you are a tradesman, don’t say, “I cannotkeepthis trade and
honor God.” Do not let it be said that our God is the God of the hills and not
the Godof the valleys, and that it is only certain people in certainplaces who
can honor Him! No, in every place you canhonor your Master!Keep to your
net. Drag it to Christ, however. Oh, what a drag it will be, sometimes, to bring
it Christ’s way!–all the business and all the work you have to do–to do all for
Christ! Yet this is true religion–to sanctify not only the vessels ofthe altar, but
the pots and the bells that are upon the horses–to make everything holiness
unto the Lord! God grant us Grace to do this! May He send us here and there
a Peterand, at the same time, may He keepthe bulk of you, while steadfastin
your callings and diligent in business, to be “fervent in spirit, serving the
Lord.” Oh, blessedChurch that shall thus unanimously be drifting towards
Christ and be heartily seeking afterfellowshipwith the dearRedeemer–some
impetuously, all industriously–and all successfully!
Now this leads me a little farther on. Supposing we should reachthe Savior, as
I trust we may, eachman after His ownorder–
III. WHAT WILL BE THE RESULT OF COMING TO CHRIST?
Three results. The first will be refreshment. He will say to us, “Come and
dine.” Ah, how well fed are those whomChrist feeds! When we go up to the
House of Prayerand look to the pulpit, we are disappointed. But if we go and
look to the hills from where comes our help, we are never disappointed! What
can the pastor do unless the superior Shepherd shall give us the daily food? I
might well say to hungry souls, as the King of Israelsaid to the womanin
Samaria, when she spoke oftheir having eatenher child in famine, and asked
the king to help her–“Woman, if the Lord does not help you, how shall I help
you?” And so might we all, with the most anxious desire to do good, yet reply,
“If the Lord does not help you, how can we help you?” No, Brothers and
Sisters, it is not in the powerof ordinances, any more than of ministers, to
feed souls!There is nothing in the bread and wine of the Communion Table
that can spiritually nourish us. There you have bread–no more–wine–no
more. It is only when, through these, you get to Jesus–whenyou passthrough

33. the doorwayof the outward and get into the inward, into the spiritual–it is
only then that your souls are entertained! And once getthere, His banqueting
table is better than that of Ahasuerus! There is no such feastas that which
Jesus gives–of“fatthings full of marrow, of wines on the lees, well refined.”
By your enjoyments in the past, my Brothers and Sisters–bythose ravishing
moments when your souls have burned within you with intense delight–ask
Him to come to you again! BeseechHim to favor you tonight with this
refreshment. And mark you, that prayer need not be a selfishone, for all the
strength that is gained in communion with Christ will afterwards be spent in
the service ofChrist!
But again. When the disciples had all come to our Lord, and had dined, the
next thing was examination. It was addressedto Peter especially–butit must
have been a lessonto all the restof them–“Do you love Me?” The very first
question that we should ask ourselves concerning our Christianity is this, “Do
you love Me?” The secondis, “Do you love Me?” The third is, “Do you love
Me?” Answerthat, and all is answered!The old oratorsaid that the first
essentialofeloquence was delivery or action. The secondwas delivery. The
third was delivery. So we will say that the first essentialofa truly healthy
Christianity is to love Christ! And the secondis to love Christ! And the third
is to love Christ! Our Lord would not talk of commonplace things at that time.
He selecteda vital topic, and this is always vital–“Do you love Me? Do you
love Me? Do you love Me?” BelovedBrothers and Sisters, I hope you will
always be sound in the faith but then that is little comparatively to what it is
to be sound in loving Christ! I trust, Brothers and Sisters, you will always be
holy in life–but that can only be as you love Him in the heart. Out of the heart
the life proceeds!He is the fountain–our actions are but the streams. Do, then,
pass the question round among you, “Do you love Me?” I desire to put it to
myself. I beg you to put it to yourselves. Pause a moment. Do you love Christ?
What say you? With a true love? With a love that is such as He demands, that
is above the love of mother or of child? “Do you love Me? You are coming to
My Table, you are baptized–you are a member of the Church–but do you love
Me?” Is it so? I trust you can reply, “Lord, You know all things: You know
that I love You.”–
“Yes, I love You and adore–
Oh, for Grace to love You more!”
Well, then, lastly, after coming to the Savior, who had given them refreshment
and causedthem to examine themselves, the next thing was that it ensured for
them commissions of servicepreparesitfor the blessing. A number of sailors
wreckedona desert island are thirsting for water, but suppose a shower

34. comes at once–itwill be a wastedblessing!They must be so thirsty that they
are led to put up an apparatus for catching the waterwhen it comes–
otherwise the watercomes too soonand is lost! I love to see a Church in such
state of agony for God’s Grace that it has, as it were, the reservoirs ready to
hold the Grace whenit cones!“Theythat pass through the Valley of Baca
make it a well.” They “make it a well.” The waterdoes not rise in the well.
“The rain also fills the pools.” Yet they dig the wells to hold the rain–and the
rain comes. Rememberthat notable incident when Israeland Judah were
engagedagainstthe King of Edom! The Prophet said, as he took his harp and
beganto play by Inspiration, “Make this valley full of ditches!” And they
wondered why–but they dug the trenches and made the troughs all along the
valley. By-and-by, the watercame and filled the valley, and the host was
refreshed! We need to make this valley full of ditches. We need, as a Church,
to be ready and waiting for the blessing!
You see, Christ prepared Peterand all the Apostles by saying to them, “Feed
My lambs. FeedMy sheep. Shepherd My flock.” And He says to you, tonight,
“Are you refreshedby My Presence?Have you examined yourself and seen
that you love Me? Now, then, gird up your loins and prepare for the service of
the Church.” I want, Brothers and Sisters, to see among us men and women
who are looking after Christ’s sheep and lambs! I hope it is not so everywhere,
but I met the other day with a goodBrother who has attended for a long time
this Tabernacle, to whom nobody has ever spokenyet, as he told me. I do not
know where he sits–atleast, I half think I do, but I shall not tell you, because
then somebody or other would find out who he was. But I will suppose he sits
anywhere you like, all around you, and your own consciencesshalljudge. Now
ought it to be so? Ought a person to come here Sunday after Sunday, and no
one ever give him a brotherly salutation, or say a word concerning his soul?
Oh, that you were looking out in the neighborhoods where you live, and in the
part of this building where you sit, for opportunities of doing good!I know
that there are persons who are longing to be spokento, and they wonderwhy
you do not speak to them! They are Christ’s lambs and they need carrying in
some kindly bosom. Oh, Look after them and help them! You do not know
how half a word said in Christ’s name during your journeying about your
business may be life from the dead! As it is said by Herbert, “a verse may
strike him whom a sermonflies.” So a little word from you may be effectual
where the most earnestpublic ministry might fail!
Oh, Beloved, the Lord is not slack!We are slack!If we have not a blessing, we
are straitenedsomewhere, but it cannot be in Him! We are straitened in our
own hearts and sympathies. What is that memorable text of the Prophet,

35. “Bring you all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be meat in My
house; and prove Me now herewith, says the Lord of Hosts, if I will not pour
you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” We are
not to saythat we are proving the Lord to give us a blessing because we pray.
The testHe puts us to is bringing the tithes into the storehouse–thatis to say,
what is God’s due! Am I giving less of my substance than I ought to give? Am
I giving less of my time than I ought to give? Am I giving less ofmy talent
than I ought to give? If I withhold anything that is really God’s tithe, I am not
proving God! But when we are all giving and doing to our utmost, then we
prove God and we shall see whether He will not open the windows of Heaven
and pour us out a blessing such as we shall not have room enough to receive!
I charge you, my Beloved–youwho have been the flock of my care these many
years–rememberthe history that Godhas given us during these 17 years. We
were very few when we began, but there was a living seedamong us, and there
was mighty prayer–and a blessing came. “Byterrible things in righteousness”
God answeredus! But the answerdid come. What PrayerMeetings we had at
Park Street! How often we sat down and wept under the Divine Influence!
Thank God, the Holy Spirit overshadowedus! What ardor there was among
you, then, and how many souls were brought to Christ! Since then He has led
us on from strength to strength. He has never failed us! Neveris this place
empty or deserted. Crowds still come to listen to the Word of God! Oh, shall
we not have a blessing as we had it before? I trust we may. And we shall if you
are all, to the full measure of your obligations, engagedin the service of your
blessedMasterand seeking strengthfrom on high! By the hands that were
nailed for you–by the feet that were pierced for you–by the head that was
crownedwith thorns for you–by the heart that poured out blood and water
for you–by the Christ who died for you–I implore and beseechyou, lay
yourselves out upon the altar of God, and say, “Henceforth, for us to live is
Christ. Christ is all. We desire to say continually, ‘The Lord be magnified.’”
Oh, that some here who know little enough about this might desire to know it!
PoorSoul, if you desire Christ, Christ desires you! And if you will have Him
tonight, you shall have Him! If you believe that Jesus is Christ, and have put
your trust in Him as your Savior, you are saved! Look to Him now! God help
you to do it, for Christ’s sake!Amen.
John 21:1-14 3-21-10 Déjà vu!

36. I. INTRO:A. I saw a lady hitch-hiking on the 15 freewayon-ramp with a sign
that simply read, North! 1. In Jn.21 the disciples aren’t sure where to
turn...they just head “north”.
B. So many Christians think that once they have “repented of their sin,
believed on Christ, & have the assurance oftheir salvation...that’s it!” 1.
Wrong! That’s just the beginning. 2. Paul said it this way, we were “createdin
Christ Jesus forgoodworks, which God prepared beforehand that we should
walk in them.” a) Oh, so though we were not savedby our goodworks;we
have been savedfor goodworks!Yep! b) Our keynote/centraltheme in this
chapter is service!3. Also the very important matter of Jesus restoring Peter
(next week).
C. Ever say, “now what?” - maybe you’ve experienceda lull in business;or
job pressures have you in knots;you feel trapped in a relationship; or you
start day dreaming of the days gone by. 1. Peter& the boys are probably
asking, “now what?” - Is Rome coming after us? Jesus said, “if the world
persecutes Me, expectit to persecute you!”
D. Our scene opens on the Sea of Galilee (a.k.a. Lake ofGennesaret/fromOT
Kinneret(harp shape), Sea of Tiberias). [682’below sea level; 13miles long x
8m. wide] 1. Show: a few pic’s of Galilee in the very area were talking about
this morning.
II. FISHERMEN ON THE SEA! (1-3) A. FAILURE! (1-3) B. (1-3) It was
absolutely not wrong for them to go back to Galilee. How do I know? Jesus
told them to meet them there! - Mt.28:10 ThenJesus said to them, “Do not be
afraid. Go and tell My brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see Me.”
1. So Galilee was the rendezvous point!
1
C. Ok, they were in the right place, but why did they take up their old work
again? 1. Maybe thought they’d never see Him again. Maybe thought they’d
glorify them best with what they knew. Maybe they were impatient. Maybe
they heard the fishing was good? Maybe they were being diligent till He
came? Maybe they gave up on Him meeting them, so they went back to their
old work.
2. I don’t think it was sinful...just negligent (or careless, irresponsible,
thoughtless?)a) Before they met Jesus, they had a vocation. Now they had
more than that; they had a calling. - But they were turning a deafear to that
calling. b) They were disillusioned, confused, maybe even feeling sorry for
themselves. (1) Ever been there? - Are you standing on a similar shore right
now? (2) Maybe you’re casting nets in some quiet cove, awayfrom the

37. mainstream God has calledyou to? (a) If so, maybe you need a visit from
Jesus this morning! :)
D. What we do know is that they were unsuccessful...asallwork must be, that
is done apart from Christ & His command. 1. “Apart from Me you can do
nothing!” Jn.15:5 2. How futile our lives can be when Christ is left out! a) Are
your nets coming up empty? - Are you burning the midnight oil & getting
nothing but burned out? Maybe the Lord is calling you from the shore. If so,
take a minute to listen. He might leadyou to the catchof a lifetime!1
E. Adoniram Judson said, “The motto of every missionary, whether preacher,
printer, or schoolmaster, oughtto be Devotedfor life.”
III. FISHERMEN ON THE SHORE!(4-14)A. COMMISSION & PROMISE
OF BLESSING!(4-6a)B. The Masterwas watching, & His inquiry was
followedby His commission& promise of blessing.
C. FAITHFULNESS!(6b-8) D. Obedience was honored by immediate results,
& the disciples recognizedwho was the source of their success![Title: Déjà vu
(French, literally ‘already seen’)]
2
1 Chuck Swindoll; The Lamb of God ; pg.102
E. (6b-8) When Jesus takescharge, failure is turned into success;& the diff
was only 7 ½’. 1. You never know how close you are to victory, so admit your
failure (have you nay food? NO!) & obey what He tells you to do (so they cast
their net on the other side). a) He never fails!
F. (4-7) Jesus stands on the shore in the morning haze to comfort the hearts of
discouragedworkers,telling them where to casttheir net & revealing the
certainty of His help!
G. (7) Did the miraculous catchof fish remind Peter of his call to service? 1.
ReadLk.5:1-11 2. What are the similarities? - Both were on the shore of
Galilee;both in the same area of the shoreline;both took place in the early
morning; both hone in on Peter’s response;both were because ofJesus’word
they let down there net; both fished all night & gotskunk’d. 3. What are the
differences? - 2nd time right side (not just out into the deep); 1sttime Jesus
told them to launch out & let down their nets (2nd time, they decided to go out
on their own); 1sttime Peter’s response “departfrom me” (2nd time Peter
swamto him) 4. So both at the beg & end of Peter’s calling, He is calledto
Follow Jesus!a) Follow Me - run along behind Me, that is all. Follow in my
steps. Leave your old life behind. Remain completelysurrendered. (1) It’s

38. being draggedout of your life of security & draggedinto a life of insecurity.
Yet, really fully secure as you trust in Him!
H. The Lord, so sensitive, stagesthe entire scene just for Peter. 1. What do
you do when you’ve failed a friend? You go to him. 2. He throws himself into
the water& swims the fastest100-yardfreestyle that would make Michael
Phelps proud,...in order to reachthe Savior!
I. A FORECASTOF OUR FUTURE! (9-14)J. Maybe this provides a
beautiful picture of our future after our death?2 1. The plunge into the cold
dividing water. The welcome onthe other shore. The discoverythat Christ
had expected& prepared. The feastw/the Lord Himself as He girds Himself
to minister.
3
2 F.B.Meyer:Bible Commentary; pg.478
K. Jesus now invites all 7 to breakfast& personallyserves them. 1. Not much
has changedfrom His earthly ministry to His heavenly one.
L. Maybe this is what Jesus meant in His parable in Lk.12:37 Blessedare
those servants whom the master, when he comes, will find watching.
Assuredly, I say to you that he will gird himself and have them sit down to eat,
and will come and serve them. 1. Maybe this was a precursor to the marriage
supper of the Lamb? Rev.19:9
M. (9) Wet & shivering, Peter reaches the shore. His eyes look down to the
warm charcoalfire. Did the fire of coals remind Peterof his denials? (18:18)
1. Maybe now he’s tentative & uncertain. He doesn’t sayanything. Jesus
breaks the ice in vs.10,12(esp.15where he seems to take Pete aside for
complete restoration).
N. Fish Fry - Maybe the Catholics have something here regarding Fish during
Lent? :)
O. (11) So why 153? 1. There have been all kinds of allegoricalandsymbolic
interpretations. a) The ancients believed there were 153 kinds of fish, thus
representing the gospelto include all persons, & that the net of the kingdom
would be strong enough to hold all w/o breaking. b) I’ve also heard the letters
of 1 of the names of God added up = 153. 2. But probably John mentioned the
number as a matter of historicaldetail. With a group of men fishing, the
common procedure would be for them to count the fish they caught and then
divide them equally among the fishermen.
P. (12) Come & dine! (kjv) 1. It’s an invitation to holy nearness to Jesus. a)
Invited to the same table; same meat; sit side by side our Savior; maybe even

39. lean our head on his chest. b) It’s being brought into His banqueting-house &
gives us a vision of true union with Jesus. 2. It’s also an invitation to enjoy
fellowship with the saints. a) Christians will differ on a variety of points, but
we all have 1 spiritual appetite. b) And if we cannot all feel alike, we can all
feed alike on The Bread of Life sentdown from heaven. c) At the table of
fellowship with Jesus we are one bread & one cup!
4
Q. Saint, no matter how far you’ve drifted, Jesus is always there on the shore,
waiting for you to return. Waiting with a comforting fire, warm food, & an
affirming arm to put around your shoulder!3
R. Remember, they momentarily ignoredtheir calling. 1. Jesus doesn’tcall
everyone awayfrom their vocation!2. But to be involved in a vocationwithout
a calling is to settle for a life of empty nets! [Remember your calling, in the
midst of your vocation!!!] 3. Don’t just head North…Head for your calling!
S. When Julius Caesarlanded on the shores of Britain with his Roman
legions, he took a bold and decisive step to ensure the success ofhis military
venture. Ordering his men to march to the edge of the Cliffs of Dover, he
commanded them to look down at the waterbelow. To their amazement, they
saw every ship in which they had crossedthe channel engulfed in flames.
Caesarhaddeliberately cut off any possibility of retreat. Now that his soldiers
were unable to return to the continent, there was nothing left for them to do
but to advance and conquer! And that is exactly what they did. 1. Prayer:
Lord, help us to burn our boats of securitybehind us. May we advance into
our world & conquer this world, not with our sword, but with our love.
ALAN CARR
John 21:1-19
A TENDER MOMENT
Intro: There was a certain man who had been faithful in worshiping with other believers for
many years. Then he became lax and stopped coming to the services. The pastor was burdened
for his spiritual welfare, so one day he called in his home. The man invited him in and offered
him a chair by the fire. The Pastor mentioned to the man how much missed seeing him in the
worship services. The man replied that he was saved and saw no need to go to church. He felt
that he could worship just fine at home.

40. For several long moments they sat in silence and watched the burning embers. Then, taking the
tongs, the pastor removed a hot coal and laid it by itself on the hearthstone. As it began to cool,
its red glow soon faded. The man, who had been expecting a verbal rebuke, quickly caught the
message. He was at church for the next service!
This is a fact of life that I have become very familiar with over these last 21 years. There have
been many occasions when I have failed the Lord and I seen the flame of love and devotion burn
very low within my heart and life. When those times came around, I had to come before the
Lord, confessing my sins and failures and seeking forgiveness and restoration. Each time I have
come to Him for cleansing, I have found Him to be a faithful Friend to those who have fallen by
the wayside.
Today, I would like to speak directly to those who aren’t as close to the Lord today as you should
be. Maybe the things of God aren’t as sweet as they used to be. Maybe there isn’t a hot, burning
love for the Lord, His house, His Word and His people like there used to be. Maybe even your
church attendance has become a thing of drudgery and toil. My duty today is to tell you that it
does not have to stay way! Jesus Christ is still the Friend of the fallen today.
In our text, we are told about a face to face encounter between the risen Lord Jesus and Simon
Peter. It was Peter, you will remember, who denied the Lord 3 times. As we look into how the
Lord handled Peter, I want you to know that He can and will do the same for you if you will
respond in the correct manner. Its tough being out of the Lord’s will, but it is possible to make
things right again! With that in mind, let’s take a few minutes to consider together A Tender
Moment.
I.
THE PURPOSE OF THIS TENDER MOMENT
A. To Confront Peter’s Failure - Matt. 26:69-75 (Ill. Before we can see how the Lord restored
this fallen preacher, we must first understand what happened to Peter and how he came to be
fallen in the first place.)
1. The Place Of His Failure - Peter was in the wrong place altogether. In the beginning, Peter had
made his boast that he would never forsake the Lord, Luke 22:33-34. Yet, when the time came
and Jesus was arrested, Peter, like all the others forsook Jesus and fled, Matt. 26:56. However
verse 58 tells us that Peter decided to follow the Lord and see what happened, but that he
followed Jesus “afar off.” When Peter found himself surrounded by the Lord’s enemies, it
became hard for him to stand by his earlier boast. Now, he takes the low road and denies that he
even know the Lord Jesus, v. 69-74.
(Ill. Essentially, all backsliding begins in the same manner! Instead of staying as close to the
Lord as we should, we begin to follow Him “afar off.” It may begin as simply missing a few
services here and there. Maybe you just stop praying like you should. Maybe the Bible isn’t
opened and read as frequently as it ought to be. Wherever and however it begins, it will
eventually lead to the same place. It will eventually lead you into a backslidden and cold
condition! Peter’s problem was that he found himself in the wrong place with the wrong people!
Dear friends, being just a clear as I can be with you, some of you are in the wrong place also!
You aren’t as close to the Lord as you used to be. You need to rekindle that old flame and make
things right with Him. Being in the wrong place is dangerous! Just ask David -
2 Sam. 11:1-17.)

41. 2. The Pain Of His Failure - When Peter denied the Lord that night, the Bible tells us that he
went out and “wept bitterly.” Peter was miserable in his new condition. He knew that he had
wronged the Lord. He knew that he had violated something very precious and sacred. He was a
miserable man!
(Ill. So it is with every child of God who decides to walk away from the will of God. You will
soon realize that sin brings with it pain, suffering and misery, Pro. 13:15. Gone will be the peace
of God and the sense of God’s presence. Gone will be His power and that joy in the soul that is
worth more than gold.
Sin is a thief and a robber! It steals youth and beauty. It destroys innocence and effectiveness.
Sin has the ability to make you into a very miserable person! Ill. The Prodigal Son - Luke 15:11-
17. Was he happy in the pig pen when the friends and the money were gone? No! His primary
thought was of how much better off he had been back in the Father’s house. Sin will make you
miserable, and if it doesn’t, then you probably aren’t saved, Heb. 12:8!)
(Ill. God loves you so much that He will allow you to sin if you choose to; but, He loves you too
much to allow you to enjoy it!)
3. The Price Of His Failure - After Peter sinned, he felt a definite loss of fellowship, peace and
joy. He knew that things were different.
(Ill. I am speaking primarily to those who claim to know Jesus as the personal Savior today. You
need to know that when you decide to walk a different way than the Lord intends, your decision
carries with it a very high price tag. If you are saved, then you can expect to lose much when you
walk away from the Lord. You can never lose your salvation, but you will feel like you have.
You can most certainly lose your fellowship with the Lord. There will be the loss of peace, joy
and contentment. There will be the loss of blessings and rewards. Sin is a cruel taskmaster and it
will beat you silly. By the way, if you persist in your sin and rebel against the Lord’s efforts to
call you home, then there is a sin unto death for the child of God, 1 John 5:16, Ill. 1 Cor. 5:5.)
B. To Confront Peter’s Foolishness – His foolishness is revealed in:
1. His Choices - After the resurrection, Peter must have assumed that his ministry was over. He
had denied the Lord and so he decided to return to the old way of life. I am sure that he might
have tried to justify it by saying, “Well, I have a family to support.” Whatever the motivation,
Peter had been called to forsake all those things and to follow Jesus, Matt. 4:19. The Lord’s call
had been a call to come and be a fisher of men!
(Ill. People who are out of God’s will always make the wrong choices! They always base the
decisions on fleshly motives rather than spiritual ones. They have lost the ability to hear the
voice of the Spirit. He is your moral compass and failing to hear Him will cause you to wander
off course! There may be some here today who have started to go back to the old life. You may
even be able to justify it to some degree, at least to your own satisfaction. But, you need to know
today that if you are not following the Lord and loving Him like you should, like Peter, you too
are backslidden and out of God’s will! That may sound harsh, but those are just the facts!)
(Ill. Your spiritual condition shows on you! It shows in the priority you place on the things of
God. Don’t think for a minute that you are fooling anyone. No one, that is, but yourself!)
2. His Companions - When Peter went back to the old life, he took others with him. These other
Disciples weren’t as sold out to the Lord as they should have been either! If they had been, they

42. would have been waiting for their marching orders. After all, Jesus had told them to go into
Galilee and wait for Him,
Matt. 28:10.
(Ill. Have you noticed that sin loves company? When a person backslides, they usually aren’t
content to go it all alone and they will try to drag others down with them. You see it in families
all the time! One will get cold on the Lord and before long everyone in the family is out of God’s
will.
What a shame it is when we feel the need to drag others into the same foolish pit into which we
have placed our self! What’s equally sad is the fact that there always seems to be those who are
willing to follow the wayward child of God! Why are things this way? Because we like to
surround ourselves with people who are on about the same level as we are. If we are right with
God, we want to be around others who are right with God. If we are out of God’s will, we feel
rebuked by the lives of those who are living for the Lord and seek out those who are like we are.
Sadly, we will often try to reproduce our spiritual temperature in the lives of those who are close
to us. This is merely an effort to make self more comfortable.)
3. The Consequences - Peter and his cronies fished all the night long and did not catch a single
fish! Most of these men had been professional fishermen before they met the Lord and this must
have been a devastating thing to have to deal with. They toiled and labored all the night and
produced nothing of value!
(Ill. This is just the way it works for those who are out in sin. No matter what they try to
accomplish in their own strength, it always comes to naught! The Prodigal Son found this out as
he sat in the pig pen and watched the hogs eat those husks. He couldn’t even fill his own belly
through self effort! I would like to remind every person in this room today that you are totally
dependent on Jesus Christ for everything, John 15:5. You can produce nothing of lasting value in
your own effort! Some might argue that they have been living a slack Christian life and that they
are still thriving and prospering materially and physically. May I remind you that both of those
things are temporary and will soon pass away? In the final analysis, all that lasts are those things
you do through Jesus,
1 Cor. 3:11-15. Many Christians will see their entire lives go up in flames before their very eyes!
What will happen when you face Jesus?)
II. V. 4-17 THE PROVISION OF THIS TENDER MOMENT
(Ill. Even though Peter had wandered into sin, he still hadn’t gone so far that the Lord had
stopped loving him! Peter still had a Friend in a very high place. That Friend made all the
difference for Peter and He will for you also.)
A. V. 4-7 Jesus Found Peter - After the sin, after the return to the old life, after a long night of
failure, Jesus stepped onto the scene and in a few minutes turned everything around and made
things like they ought to be. What made the difference? There was a change in Peter. Notice
three things that changed when Jesus came by:
1. V. 5 Peter was forced to admit his failure - This is the first step in coming back home. There
must be an acknowledgment of sin and wrong doing, 1 John 1:9. (Ill. The Prodigal recognized
this also - Luke 15:18.)

43. 2. V. 6 Peter started to obey Jesus again - He stopped doing things Peter’s way and started doing
them the Lord’s way. This brought success where there had been only failure!
3. V. 7 Peter has a renewed desire to be near the Lord - He wasn’t willing to wait for a more
convenient time but went to meet the Lord immediately. (Ill. This was also true of the Prodigal
Son - Luke 15:20a)
(Ill. If you are one of those who have wandered away from the Father’s house and are presently
walking in the far country, then you need to know that you still have a Friend in Jesus. He hasn’t
forgotten you. He hasn’t forsaken you. He still loves you as much right now as He ever has. He
just wants you to come to the place Peter came to. He wants you to be willing to confess your
sins, begin again to follow Him and just love Him like you ought to. By the way, no matter
where you run, the Lord will find you. He will not let you get away. He has too much invested in
your life. Why not come home right now before things really get tough? Why not repent while
there is still time to serve the Lord this side of the grave?)
B. V. 9-14 Jesus Fed Peter - When Peter, and the other Disciples, reached the shore; they found
that Jesus had a fire prepared with fish already cooking. They found there, with the Savior, all
the things they needed after being out on that boat all night long. They found food, warmth and
fellowship. They found a Savior who loved them and who had all the provisions in place that
they needed. Everything they lacked out on that boat, they found when they came to Jesus!
(Ill. Dear friends, some of you have toiled and labored since you have been away from the Lord.
You’re miserable, there is no peace and no joy in your life and you need to get right with the
Lord. Let me encourage you today to come back to Jesus. When you do, you will find that He
still loves you and that He has all the things you lacked while you were away from Him.
This is illustrated very clearly in the parable of The Prodigal Son. When that boy, who had
squandered the family fortune, disgraced the family name and allowed himself to wallow in the
depths of sin, came home, he found a father who had everything waiting for him that he had
lacked in the far country. He found:
1. V. 20
A Waiting Father
2. V. 20
Compassion
3. V. 20
Love
4. V. 20
Forgiveness
5. V. 22
Cleansing
6. V. 22
Total Restoration
7. V. 23
Food For His Hungry Soul

44. I am here to tell you today that if you will return to the Father today, you find all this and more
waiting on you in the Lord Jesus. He loves you and desires to have close fellowship with you.
Why not come home today and find out for yourself that there is a Friend for the fallen.
C. V. 15-17 Jesus Freed Peter - In these verses, we find the Lord Jesus re-commissioning Simon
Peter for service. I am sure that Peter felt that his work and ministry was forever gone, but Jesus
came to call him back into the fight! This was a time of unique fellowship and restoration
between Jesus and Simon Peter. In these few verses, Jesus freed Peter from the bondage of his
sin and failure and set him back about the business of serving the Lord and His church.
(Ill. The same will be true for every backslidden child of God who returns to the Father’s house
today. Not only will He forgive your sins, but He can restore you to a place of service for His
glory. He will put you back on the battle field. He longs to meet with you today and to put you
back into that place of service. You still have a Friend in Jesus regardless of how far you have
fallen!)
IV. V. 18-19 THE PROMISE OF THIS TENDER MOMENT
(Ill. What would the future hold for this restored man of God? These verses tell us the answer to
that question. Notice:
A. V. 18-19a The Promise Of Sacrifice - Peter would eventually give his life for the Lord who
had saved him and who had restored Him. Peter’s call was literally to follow Jesus unto the
death. Tradition states that Peter was eventually put to death by crucifixion and that at his own
request; he was crucified upside down because he did not feel worthy to die like his Lord.
(Ill. If you decide to come home today and make a renewed commitment to the Lord Jesus, you
need to know that this thing is serious! God expects you to be serious about your decision and He
expects you to follow Him in a sacrificial lifestyle that places His will above your own. That is
the only formula for true success in the Christian life!)
B. V. 19b The Promise Of Service - Peter is told that his life, from this moment forward, is to
glorify the Lord! He is no longer to live for self, but in everything, he is to live for the glory of
God.
(Ill. God’s plan is the same for every born again child of God! His will is that you and I live lives
that are pleasing in His sight and that bring glory and honor to His wonderful Name, 1 Cor.
10:31. There are no doubt many who need to come today and repent of living for self, make a
change and get up to live for Jesus!)
C. V. 19c The Promise Of Surrender - The last things Jesus does is to give Peter this command, “
Follow Me!” The last call is the same as the first. When Jesus found Peter and called him the
first time, this was His command, Matt. 4:19. When he re-commissions Peter, He issues the same
call. This tells us that the Lord hasn’t changed His mind about Peter, or about Peter’s duty before
the Lord.
(Ill. Regardless of how deep you may have fallen into sin, please know today that the Lord hasn’t
changed His mind about you! You might want to repent and come home to Him, but feel that if
you do you will be some kind of second class saint. That is just not true! God gives the same
command to you today that He gave to Peter then, “Follow me!” All Jesus wants from you is a
surrendered life; one that is lived for the glory of God; one that exalts Him and one that is lived

45. in His will and service. He simply wants you to follow Him!) (Ill. Jonah – God is the God is the
second-chance!)
Conc: I would like to bring this message to a close by asking, “What does your future hold for
you?” Does it hold chastisement, misery and difficulty? Or, does it hold joy, peace, blessing and
glory for the Lord? The answer all depends on what you do right now.
Some of you, like Peter, may be toiling while Jesus stands calling out to you today. Please
understand that you do not have to remain at a distance from Him today. If this message has
found you lost and on your way to Hell, then I invite you to come to Jesus right now. He loves
you and wants to save your soul. I know I have preached primarily to saved people, and what
they will face if they do not repent is bad. But, dear lost friend, if you do not come to Jesus, you
are eternally lost and are headed to Hell with no hope. Forever lost, forever doomed and forever
damned. Do not let that happen to you. If this message found you backslidden, then I invite you
to come back to the Father’s House right now. He stands ready to receive, to forgive and to
restore, if you will only come back home.
I have delivered the message as it was delivered to me. Now, the final decision is yours. What
will it be? Tough or tender, you decide!
STEVEN COLE
Serving Christ Effectively (John 21:1-14)
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46. September 27, 2015
My desire for this church is that everyone who comes would know Jesus Christ as Savior and
Lord and that each of you would grow in the character qualities and skills that will make you
effective as you serve the Lord. This church will be healthy only to the extent that every person
walks closely with Christ and serves Him as a member of His body, the church. As Paul says
(Eph. 4:11-16), the job of pastors and teachers is to equip the saints for the work of service (or
ministry), so that when every part works together, the whole body will build itself up in love. So,
the pastors equip, but the saints do the work of the ministry. That means that we’re all in the
ministry! There is no spiritual gift of “bench-warmer”!
This means that the body will only fulfill its purpose when each individual part is working
properly. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve compared my body to an old car. When you drive an old car,
certain parts stop working. If it’s not too serious, you can keep driving the car, but it isn’t as
functional as it used to be. Well, I’ve noticed that certain parts of my body don’t work so well
anymore! When that happens, my body is hindered from doing everything that it’s supposed to
do. And when certain parts of the body of Christ don’t work properly, the church is hindered in
its mission.
I’m concerned that some parts of this church body aren’t working. They aren’t serving the Lord.
They may be official members of this church, but they aren’t doing anything to help the body be
healthy. They usually attend services, but that’s about it. They hear about opportunities to serve,
but they don’t respond. They’re broken parts of the body!
Other parts are serving in ministries of helps. That’s good, because ministries of helps are vital
for the body to function. We need faithful ushers, people to help out at socials, and people to
help keep our facilities and equipment in good shape. If these types of ministries don’t get done,
the church will not function well.
But beyond these helping ministries, Scripture is clear that every believer should be serving in
ministries that impact others spiritually. Scripture commands us to “admonish one another”
(Rom. 15:14) and “bear one another’s burdens” (Gal. 6:2). Paul exhorted Timothy (2 Tim. 2:2),
“The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to
faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” That command doesn’t just apply to pastors
or those in “full-time” ministry, but to every believer. We all have a responsibility to make
disciples of others (Matt. 28:19).
Spiritual ministry involves imparting what you have received from Christ to others. This may
include sharing the gospel with those who do not know Him. It also includes helping newer
believers get grounded in their faith. If the Lord has helped you to grow in Him, you should be
helping younger believers to do the same. If Christ has helped you overcome temptation or work
through conflict in your marriage, He wants you to link up with others whom you can help.
Christ didn’t save you so that you can be an isolated Christian, but so that you can be in
relationship with other members of the body to help them grow in Him.
Here’s the convicting question: Are you doing that? In whose life are you having a spiritual
impact? You may say, “I’m too busy to do that!” Seriously? You may need to rearrange your
priorities. Christ saved you so that as a member of His body, the church, you can help in the
cause of making disciples for His kingdom. But to do that assumes that you are walking closely
with Christ. You can’t impart what you do not possess.

47. By this point you may be asking, “What does all this have to do with our text, which is the story
of a bunch of guys going fishing?” The theme of John 21 is service for Christ. It follows John 20,
where the disciples come to full faith in the risen Christ. The question then is, “What do you do
with that faith?” You serve Him! Merrill Tenney (John: The Gospel of Belief [Eerdmans], p.
287) explains, “The purpose of the Epilogue is to show how the belief which the disciples had
achieved should be applied.” It shows that service in dependence on the risen Savior is always
fruitful and will always have His presence and support.
Seven of the disciples were in Galilee waiting for Christ to meet them after His resurrection, as
He had directed them to do (Matt. 28:7; Mark 14:28; 16:7). We aren’t told where the other four
were. At Peter’s initiative, they decided to go fishing. Some say that they were wrong to do this.
Others say that they were right, working to support themselves. Dr. Tenney (ibid., p. 289) says
that they weren’t sinning, but they were exposing themselves to danger: “They might forget …
the life of which Jesus had spoken, and they needed to be recalled to it.” Leon Morris (The
Gospel According to John [Eerdmans], p 862) observes: “The general impression left is that of
men without a purpose.” D. A. Carson (The Gospel According to John [Eerdmans/Apollos], p.
669) concurs: “This fishing expedition and the dialogue that ensues do not read like the lives of
men on a Spirit-empowered mission.” This incident would have reminded them of the earlier
miraculous catch of fish, after which Jesus called them to be fishers of men. And this story is
followed by Jesus deliberately restoring Peter to ministry. So the theme is:
Our faith in the risen Lord should lead to effective service for Him.
Note how John introduces this incident (John 21:1): “After these things Jesus manifested
Himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias [Galilee], and He manifested Himself in this
way.” By repetition, John wants us to know that this story was a manifestation or revealing of the
risen Lord. But it was a manifestation with a purpose: to call the disciples (and us) back to the
purpose for which He saved us. He wants His followers to be fishers of men. And, as the story of
Peter’s restoration shows, He wants us engaged in tending His lambs. In other words, He wants
us serving Him in spiritual ministries by making disciples. This story reveals five qualifications
that we must have to serve Christ effectively:
1. To serve Christ effectively, you must have trusted in Him
as your risen Savior and Lord.
The foundation for chapter 21 is chapter 20, where Thomas and the other disciples came to full
faith in the risen Lord. I include this point because invariably there are people in evangelical
churches who come regularly and even serve in some capacity, but they have never been born
again. They would profess that they believe in Jesus, but they never have trusted in Him
personally to forgive their sins and give them eternal life. Often these folks are “good” people,
but that’s the problem—good people don’t need a Savior. If you’re swimming laps at the pool,
you don’t need the lifeguard to jump in and save you. You’re doing just fine by yourself. But if
you’re drowning, you desperately need that lifeguard!
The Bible teaches that we’re all worse than drowning—we’re spiritually dead! In God’s sight, no
one is righteous; no one does good (Rom. 3:10-18). Romans 3:23 sums up, “For all have sinned
and fall short of the glory of God.” But Romans 6:23 gives the good news: “For the wages of sin
is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” If you will come to
Christ as a guilty sinner and trust in His death on the cross for you, He forgives all your sins and

48. gives you eternal life as a free gift! So the first point that you must understand is that good
people can’t serve Christ; only forgiven sinners can serve Him. Make sure that you have put your
trust in Him alone to save you from your sins.
But, maybe you have trusted in Him, but you feel inadequate to serve Him. The next point is for
you:
2. To serve Christ effectively, realize your insufficiency and
Christ’s all-sufficiency.
The disciples were experienced professional fishermen, but we read (John 21:3b-5), “… that
night they caught nothing. But when the day was now breaking, Jesus stood on the beach; yet the
disciples did not know that it was Jesus. So Jesus said to them, ‘Children, you do not have any
fish, do you?’ They answered Him, ‘No.’” Their one-word answer may reflect their frustration:
“No.” Whenever you read that Jesus asked a question, you need to understand that He wasn’t
looking for information. He knew that they had not caught anything, but He wanted them to
recognize and acknowledge their insufficiency.
Andreas Kostenberger (John [Baker], p. 590) observes, “Remarkably, the disciples never catch a
fish in any of the Gospels without Jesus’ help.” Jesus wanted to remind the disciples of what He
said in the upper room in the context of bearing fruit for His kingdom (John 15:5), “Apart from
Me you can do nothing.” In the Greek text, “nothing” means “nothing”!
The fact is, we only trust in Christ to the extent that we recognize our own insufficiency, as well
as His all-sufficiency. The apostle Paul reflected this when he was talking about the serious
responsibility of preaching the gospel and he asked rhetorically (2 Cor. 2:16), “And who is
adequate for these things?” But then a few verses later he elaborates (2 Cor. 3:5), “Not that we
are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is
from God ….”
But there are two dangers to avoid. When you feel your own inadequacy (and I feel it every time
I prepare or deliver a sermon or whenever I have an opportunity to talk to someone about Christ),
the first danger is that you will be paralyzed and do nothing. Moses fell into that danger when
the Lord called him to deliver Israel from slavery in Egypt (Exod. 4:1-17; see, also, Gideon,
Judges 6:11-16). But note that here the Lord didn’t tell the disciples, “Stand back!” while He
made all the fish jump into the boat without any effort on their part. They had to cast their nets as
He told them to do and use their strength to haul the catch to the shore. The lesson is: Use what
the Lord has given you to serve Him. Don’t let a sense of inadequacy immobilize you. If He
wants you to tell someone about Him, He won’t use you like a ventriloquist uses a dummy!
You’ve got to trust Him and then open your mouth and talk!
The second danger is that you will get some training and then fall into the trap of thinking that
your training or experience makes you adequate in yourself. Peter and the other disciples could
have thought, “We’re professional fishermen! You don’t need to tell us where to cast our nets!
We know what we’re doing!” But they would have missed experiencing the Lord’s miraculous
power. I believe that it’s helpful to get trained in how to share your faith, or if you’re called to
preach, to be trained in how to do it. I keep reading books in both of those areas to help me learn
and grow. But techniques or methods are never adequate substitutes for trusting in the Lord. So
get all the training and expertise in whatever the Lord has called you to do, but never trust in it.
Rely on Him through faith and prayer.

49. 3. To serve Christ effectively, obey His commands.
Granted, the disciples did not yet know that it was the Lord. John doesn’t explain why these
tired, seasoned fishermen would have obeyed some stranger giving advice from the shore. But
his point in telling the story is to show that if you do what Jesus commands, He will give the
blessing. Also, I’m sure that their experience reminded them of that night on the front end of
Jesus’ ministry, when He told Peter to put out into the deep water and let down their nets for a
catch. But Peter protested (Luke 5:5), “Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but
I will do as You say and let down the nets.” When Peter obeyed, the Lord almost sank their boat
with the miraculous catch of fish.
It was on that occasion that Jesus told Peter (Luke 5:10), “Do not fear, from now on you will be
catching men.” This post-resurrection repetition of the miracle would have refreshed their
memories of that first catch of fish and reminded them that people, not fish, was now to be their
focus. In that first miraculous catch, Jesus was in the boat with the disciples, picturing His
presence with them when He came into this world. Now, He is on the shore, picturing Him in
heaven as He directs and provides as they fish for men. But on both occasions, the abundant
catch came when they obeyed the simple command of Jesus.
Think of the excuses that they could have used: “Are you kidding me? We’ve been out here
working all night. Don’t you think that we’ve already tried casting the net on the right side of the
boat? It didn’t work! Besides, we’re professional fishermen. We know our business. This just
wasn’t a good night.” But if they had made up excuses, they would have missed the catch that
the Lord wanted to bless them with.
If you make up excuses for why you can’t serve the Lord, you’ll never see Him work in a mighty
way. J. C. Ryle commented (Expository Thoughts on the Gospels [Baker], p. 437), “Our Lord’s
object was to show the disciples that the secret of success was to work at His command, and to
act with implicit obedience to His word.” The Lord blesses our obedience, not our excuses.
Many years ago, I was shopping for a winter coat at a mall in Southern California. I paid for the
coat and walked out into the mall when I got a very strong impression from the Lord, “I want
you to go back into the store and tell that salesman about Me.” I almost never get such
impressions! So at first I shrugged it off and started to walk away. But the impression didn’t go
away: “Go back and talk to that salesman about Me!” I went and sat down on a bench outside the
store and prayed about it. It seemed crazy. He was helping another customer. He would think
that I was really weird! After I ran through all of my excuses, I realized that if I walked away
without going back in there and talking to that salesman, I would be disobedient.
So, I prayed and went in and said, “When you’re through helping those people, I need to talk to
you.” He thought that something must be wrong with the coat he had sold me. But I said, “No,
the coat is fine. But I’m a Christian, a follower of Jesus, and I had a strong sense that He wanted
me to talk to you about Him.” His eyes got big and he said, “Really?” He went on to tell me that
he had made a decision to follow Christ a few months before, but he had fallen away. My taking
just a few minutes to talk to him in obedience to the Lord impressed him to get right with the
Lord and go back to church. God blesses our obedience, not our excuses! And when God blesses,
don’t take the credit yourself, but acknowledge, as John does here (John 7:7), “It is the Lord.”
So to serve Christ effectively, put your trust in Him as the risen Savior. Realize your
insufficiency and His all-sufficiency. Obey His commands.

50. 4. To serve Christ effectively, be eager for fellowship with
Christ.
The disciple whom Jesus loved (John) first recognized the Lord, but it was Peter who couldn’t
wait for them to row to shore, but jumped in the water to get to Jesus. It’s significant that Peter
did this in spite of his recent failure in denying the Lord. The Lord had met privately with Peter
on resurrection day (Luke 24:35) to restore him in his relationship with Him. But sometimes we
allow previous failures to keep us from wanting to be with the Lord, even after He has assured us
of forgiveness. We think that we need to do penance or feel guilty for a while before we come
back to Him. But grace means that we must accept His forgiveness freely. Grace doesn’t lead us
to sin more, but to sin less. A person who has experienced God’s grace will have an impact on
others. A guilty person or one prone toward legalism, will not be effective serving Christ.
Also, Peter’s eagerness to be with the Lord is significant in light of his present companions. He
had boasted before them that he would follow Christ, even if they did not. But then he failed
miserably, denying Jesus before a servant girl. When Peter jumped into the water, his friends
could have thought, “What a hypocrite!” But Peter didn’t care what they thought. He just wanted
to be with the risen Lord.
Sometimes your friends or your family will try to dampen your enthusiasm for the Lord because
it makes them look bad. Graciously, politely ignore them! Get up early and spend time with the
Lord because you want to be with Him. When He invites you to come and have breakfast (John
21:12), don’t miss the opportunity!
John’s comment (John 21:12), “None of the disciples ventured to question Him, ‘Who are You?’
knowing that it was the Lord,” sounds a bit strange. D. A. Carson (ibid., p. 674) explains that we
need to put ourselves back into their situation. They have already seen several proofs that Jesus
was risen, including the appearance to Thomas in chapter 20, so they knew “that it was the
Lord.” But even so, after Jesus’ resurrection, He appeared and disappeared suddenly. They had
last seen Him in Jerusalem, but now here He was in Galilee. Where had He gotten the fish that
were on the fire or the firewood? It all seemed strange and made them feel a bit uneasy. But in
spite of their uneasiness, no one dared to ask, “Who are You?” because they knew it was the
Lord.
Jesus’ invitation to the disciples to come and have breakfast is similar to His invitation to the
lukewarm church of Laodicea (Rev. 3:20), “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone
hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with
Me.” It’s His standing invitation to all of His people: “Come, dine with Me.” Fellowship with the
Lord is necessary if you want to serve Him effectively.
5. To serve Christ effectively, first let Him minister to you.
Jesus already had some fish prepared on the charcoal fire, but then He took some of the fish that
He had just provided for them, cooked them, and served them breakfast. By the way, although
some commentators come up with some fanciful allegorical significance to the 153 fish they
caught, it’s probably just an eyewitness account that shows that John wasn’t making up this
story. Like all fishermen, they counted the fish.
Peter didn’t protest having Jesus serve him breakfast, as he had done when Jesus took the
servant’s role and washed the disciples’ feet. But the point here is, have breakfast with Jesus and

51. let Him minister to you before you try to serve Him. Ministry occurs when you’re full of Jesus
and spill Him over onto others. So let Him fill you by eating what He has provided in His Word
and then you’ll have the strength and resources to minister to others.
Conclusion
I come back to my earlier question: Are you being used to impact others spiritually? I’m not
asking whether you’re busy in serving the Lord. Rather, is the Lord using you to tell the good
news of salvation and to help others grow in Him? To be effective, first make sure that you have
trusted in Him as your Savior and Lord. Then recognize your insufficiency to serve Him, but
trust in His all-sufficiency. Obey His commands. Be eager for fellowship with Him. Let Him
first minister to you. Then, make it your purpose by His grace to impact those around you by
spilling your full cup of Jesus onto them. Begin with your family. Pray that your children will
come to genuine faith and seek to lead them there. Pray for opportunities in the neighborhood,
your workplace, or at church to be God’s channel for spiritual blessing to this needy world.
Application Questions
1. This story is a manifestation of Jesus John 21:1). What qualities of His are manifested
here?
2. What is the biblical basis for saying that every Christian must have not only a ministry of
helps, but also a spiritual ministry in the lives of others?
3. How can you know whether your sense of insufficiency stems from not being gifted in
that area or from not trusting God?
4. Why is “dining with Jesus” the foundation for serving Him? What happens when we let
this slide?
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2015, All Rights Reserved
FISHING WHERE THE FISH ARE
Dr. W. A. Criswell
John 21:3b-6
5-18-69 10:50 a.m.
On the radio and on television, you are sharing the services of the First Baptist Church in Dallas.
This is the pastor bringing the message entitled Fishing Where the Fish Are, not where they are
not. On Tuesday night, we are having a meeting – and one of the most significant ones – we are
having a meeting of some of the men of our church. And we are organizing a Fisherman’s Club,
and we are putting together in one circle the manpower of our church, all of which is dedicated
to a very definite and precisely defined end. We are going to try to do what a church ought to do
and what Jesus commissioned us to do. We are going fishing.
Now these several sermons are built around the theme of "Fish, Fishing, and Fisherman" – and
the message today, Fishing Where the Fish Are. In the addendum to the Gospel of John, the

52. Fourth Gospel, the sainted apostle wrote an addition after he had finished it. And it is a tribute to
Simon Peter – we haven’t time to speak of that – but in that incident that the apostle describes,
there are seven of those disciples who are in Galilee waiting for the appointed rendezvous with
the risen Lord.
And while they are waiting, they go fishing; toiled all night long, fished all night long, and
caught nothing [John 21:3]. Now that is the way the fishermen do when I am along. They don’t
catch anything. Now either they’re lying to me or I’m a Jonah, because they say, "Now before
you were here," or, "After you’re gone, why, we catch all kinds of fish," but they don’t do it
when I’m with them. I think they’re lying, that’s what I think. Well, that’s what happened here,
they didn’t catch anything. All night long they fished and caught nothing. Now in the gray mist
of the morning, a shadowy figure on the shore. It was Jesus, raised from the dead; of course they
could not recognize Him [John 21:4]. And He lifted up His voice and He said, "Have you caught
anything? Children have you any meat? Have you caught any fish?" And they replied, "No!
[John 2:5]. Not even a minnow, no! We haven’t caught anything." And Jesus said unto them,
"The reason is, you are not fishing where the fish are. Now take up your net and put your net
down where the fish are." So they lifted up the net and put it on the right side of the boat where
the fish were and they caught such a multitude of fishes they were not able to draw it in [John
21:6].
How do you like that? That’s good, and it has an incomparable message for us because that’s
what we do; we fish where there are no fish. And we don’t do it singly, or incidentally, or
adventitiously, or accidentally; we do it on purpose! And it is the program of our church. We fish
where there are no fish. For example, our Sunday school classes, we fish there; and there in most
of our classes they have not a single unsaved soul enrolled in it, nor do they have any unsaved
souls present. So if you fish there, you’re not going to catch any fish.
And how much more is that true with the organized life of our church? For they are made up of
members, purposely so. Our Training Union, there are no fish there; they’re training in church
membership. Our Woman’s Missionary Union, there’s no fish there; they are all members of the
church. Our Men of the Church, there are no fish there. We fish where there are no fish, and not
only that but the same thing is true with our church services. We fish here; and there’s no fish to
be caught.
An organization, one of those statistically minded ones, took a survey of all the churches. And
they found that on any given ordinary Sunday, in the entire day, there are not as many as five
who attend church who are not saved. And when you fish in church, you are fishing where there
are no fish! Well, does that point out and emphasize the spiritual bankruptcy of the congregation
of the Lord? No, not at all, for you can read that Book from side to side and front to back and
you’ll never find in that Book where God or the Holy Spirit or the Lord Jesus, any of Them, said
that we were to depend upon the lost coming to church and preaching sermons to them and they
get saved. It just isn’t in there.
But what the Lord said constantly was this: that we were to go out where the lost were; we are to
fish where the fish are. Well, then why do we do it here at the church? Well, we got a reason for
it: it’s convenient here, it’s easy here, it’s salubrious here, it’s felicitous here, it is happily
arranged here. Why, look at all these pretty things we have in the embellishment of our church.
We’ve got pews to sit on that have cushions, and we have carpets on the floor, and we have
stained-glass windows that are pretty, and we have a fine beautiful and acceptable service. And
we like to fish here because it’s convenient and easy.

53. It’s like that fellow. There came a big rain, came a big rain and there was a mud puddle in his
front yard, and he got his rod and his tackle; he got his fishing gear. He set his rocker on the
porch, and while he sat in the rocker on the porch, he was fishing in that mud puddle in his front
yard. And somebody came along and said, "Man, don’t you know there are no fish there? What
you a-doin’?" He said, "I know there’re no fish here, but it’s such a convenient place." That’s the
way we are.
Now, this gives me opportunity to point up and to point out the difference between Jesus’ way
and our way. First, about fishing. Here’s the way we fish. We build a big fishing edifice, and
then we stand up behind a P.A. system or with a microphone and we lift up our voices, and we
say, "All of you fishes out there, come up and get caught, all of you! You bass swimming over
there, you crappie swimming over there, and you mudcats down here on the bottom of the lake
or the stream, come up here and get caught!" That’s the way we fish. But what the Lord said
was, "Launch out into the deep, and let your nets down for a draught" [Luke 5:4]. Or as in my
text, "Quit fishing where there aren’t any fish." Pick up that net and let it down where the fish are
[John 21:6]. That’s Jesus’ way!
All right, let’s look at Him again. Here’s the way we do about the sheep. We build on the edge of
the wilderness a nice salubrious fold. And we put on the side of that fold a big sign, and the sign
reads, "All of you lost sheep out there in the wilderness, if one of you happens to stray by and
come into the fold, we’ll preach a sermon to you and hope you get saved." That’s the way we do
it. But Jesus said that the shepherd left the ninety and nine, and went out into the wilderness and
searched for the sheep that was lost until He found it [Luke 15:4]. Now here again, the way we
do is we try three times and then drop them from the roll, but Jesus said seek the lost sheep in the
wilderness until you find it.
All right, again: here’s the way we sow the field; we take a stance behind a pulpit desk or in a
Sunday school class, and we say, "All you fields out there, come up and get sown! I’ve got a
patch over there I want to sow in barley, and this one in wheat, and this one in maize, and this
one in cattle corn. Now all you fields out there, you come up and get sown." That’s the way we
do it. But Jesus said, "A sower went forth to sow" [Matthew 13:3b]. And out there in the fields
He planted the word of God. That’s the way we are in Zion. We love the comfort and the ease of
Zion and we hibernate in it and like it. We are pleased with it, we are comfortable in it, and here
we are, and here we sit [Amos 6:1, 4-6].
But Jesus said our ministry was to be in the highways, and the hedges, and the byways, and the
streets, and the lanes of the city [Luke 14:23]. Here’s the way we would have done it. We would
have gone down on the road toward Gaza, and at a prominent bend in the road, there would we
have erected an impressive edifice. Then, if a prominent Ethiopian eunuch treasurer of the nation
were to come by, why, he might come in, and we’d preach a sermon to him and hope he’d get
saved. "But the Holy Spirit said to deacon Philip, ‘Go near, and join thyself to this chariot’"
[Acts 8:29]. What a difference.
Take just once again, the harvest. Here’s the way we do it. On such and such day, we’re going to
preach the gospel, and on such and such day we’re going to have a series of protracted meetings.
Now, all of you saints come around the pastor, and we’re going to get down on our knees and
we’re going to pray; "O Lord, Lord, Lord, send us a mighty harvest. O Lord, Lord, grant us a
great ingathering. Amen." That’s the way we do it.

54. Now here’s what the Lord said to do. "Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that He will send
forth laborers into His harvest" [Matthew 9:38]. Don’t need to worry about the ingathering, don’t
need to worry about the harvest; if you have laborers out there, if you have witnesses out there, if
you have reapers out there, if you have harvesters out there, God will give us a harvest! What we
need to pray for is that God will send forth us: laborers, harvesters, reapers.
Now, you can already see the great fundamental principle that lies back of what I read in that
blessed Book. We are to take the message out, witnessing, testifying, inviting, proclaiming. For
three hundred years there were no church houses, and yet the time in Christian history that the
church was the most dynamically regnant and powerful, in its course of two thousand years, was
in those first three centuries, when they had no church house at all. They were out where the
people are: this is the method of Christ, the way He taught, the way He practiced, and it was the
method followed by the disciples.
And so effective is that method that Satan has attempted to impede it and to thwart it, and to
hinder it through all of the centuries since. What Satan does is to try to contain the gospel. He
puts it in four walls and tries to keep it there. Or he puts it behind monastic walls, high barriers,
and tries to hide it there. But the message of Christ is to be taken out, and the method of God is
to expose Jesus! I mean all of Him. Now you look at the method of God as He sent His Son into
the world. Now you watch the method of God.
You have four evangelistic stories of the Lord Jesus, the four evangelists, the four Gospels:
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. They’ll speak of the life of our Lord, then when they come to
the Passion week, there they expatiate. They’ll briefly identify here and summarize there, but
here they take time. It’s the great week of our atonement, our salvation, and here’s the way they
do it.
It begins on Palm Sunday, Palm Sunday, and on that Sunday the Lord is publicly, openly
presented to the whole world. This is the great consummation of prophetic history, and the
people are shouting, even the little children are. "Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is He that
cometh in the name of the Lord. Blessed is the Son of David! Glory to God" [Matthew 21:9].
And the whole city and the whole earth is moved with the coming of the Messiah. That’s the way
it starts. Then when He is tried, He is tried before the high priest, then He is tried before the
Sanhedrin, then He is tried openly and publicly before the Roman procurator Pontius Pilate
[Matthew 26:57-68, 27:1-2, 11:26]. Then He is crucified in some hidden spot, clandestinely,
secretively, furtively, in the night, in the dark, no!
He is crucified openly and publicly out beyond the city walls [John 19:20]. Jesus was not
crucified in a cathedral between two golden candelabras, but on a hill just outside the main gate.
Not between two candlesticks but between two thieves [Matthew 27:38] and in a place so open
and so public that it took three languages [John 19:19-20] for the passers-by to know why He
was condemned and executed. That’s the way the Lord ordained that the Son of God, the
Messiah, the Christ, when He came into the world should be openly exposed to the whole
creation, where men and angels can look upon Him.
And that is the purpose of God in our history today, except we repudiate it. We deny our own
heritage and refuse to follow our own Book. Yet how full of strength and how full of dynamic
power when a people will do that: expose the Lord. Take Him out, let the people look at Him, let
the people see Him, let them hear Him, look at Jesus, expose Him!

55. In my reading, somewhere – I read so much I can’t remember sometimes – but in my reading
somewhere, I read about a church that was renovated. It may have been in the war and the thing
was bombed, or it may have been old, old, old. That’s my feeling in remembrance, that it was in
disrepair. And they were repairing the church. Now it was the kind of a church that had statues of
Jesus in it. So in repairing the building, they took the statue of the Lord Jesus and sat it out there
on the sidewalk in front of the church, in the middle of a downtown busy city.
And the story that I read about it said that that statue of Christ on the sidewalk, for the few days
it was there, attracted more attention, and more conversation, and more thoughtful looking, and
reverential gazing than all of the years it had been there inside of that cathedral. For people
walking down the sidewalk looked at the statue of the Lord, and they stopped and reverently
gazed at the likeness of the Lord. And they spoke of it and pointed to it, and there were
thousands who saw it who had never known it was inside of the four walls; exposing the Lord
Jesus.
Some time ago, we had a presidential election here in the United States of America. And one of
those candidates had a lot of heavy hair, and talked with a certain brogue, and had a certain
stance and look. Now, there is an axiom in politics, "Don’t overexpose your candidate," because
if you do, you’ll likely to lose. Don’t overexpose your candidate. So in that election, they turned
a camera on that bushy-headed candidate – he was a young man and a nice looking fellow.
And as they did so and as they watched it, one of the network executives said, "You can’t
overexpose that guy!" And they took that as a cue. "You can’t overexpose that guy." And he won
the presidency of the United States of America for one reason only, and that was a TV camera
exposed him, and his opponent just withered beneath the glare of those television cameras.
I am saying to you: you can’t overexpose the Lord Jesus Christ; you can’t do it. Take Him
anywhere, present Him anywhere, talk about Him anywhere, lift Him up anywhere, exalt Him
anywhere, preach about Him anywhere, sing about Him anywhere, write about Him anywhere.
You can’t overexpose the Lord Jesus. He measures up in any circle: academic, scientific,
theological, anthropological, sociological, psychiatrical, psychological. Any way you name Him,
He will stand higher than the heavens are high. He is the incomparable, unapproachable, unlike
One.
The blessed, blessed Lord Jesus; you can’t preach about Him too much, or talk about Him too
much, or love Him too much, or exalt Him too much, or worship Him too much. You can’t
overexpose the Lord Jesus. And that is our one assignment. Why, the preacher who stands up in
the pulpit to defend the gospel, to apologize for the Book is wasting his time. All Jesus needs and
all the Book needs is exposing; just deliver its message, proclaim its word. It needs no apology.
It needs no defense.
I feel like Charles Hadden Spurgeon, speaking about the Book and about the Lord of the Book.
He said, "Needs no apology, needs no defense. It’s like a lion, just loose him and he will defend
himself." I feel that way about the Lord and the message of the Bible. No apology, no defense,
much less from puny, made of the ground and dust and ashes, such as I. Just proclaim it, just say
it, just lift Him up, just expose Him. Let the whole world gaze upon the matchless and
incomparable Son of God! That’s what we’re assigned to do.
Now, in the little moment that remains, I want to take one little leaf out of doing that. Did you
ever wonder as you come down here to church, we do things here in church that nobody else
does? And I like that. I’d hate to be a girl that wanted a dress and the same dress that all the other

56. girls were wearing; I’d like to have a little different kind of a dress if I were a girl. I just believe I
would. If I had the money I’d go to Christian Dior and have him make one just for me, so that
nobody in the world had one just like it. That’s what I’d like.
Well, we do some things here in this church that nobody else does, just little old idiosyncrasies,
and here’s one of them. When we hold up our hands to greet the folks that God has given us, I
say, "All of you with the pastor who are happy to welcome, hold up your hand high and say,
‘Amen.’" Well, nobody on the earth does that but we. So, would you like to know where that
came from? Well, I want to tell you; I want to tell you. Long time ago, before we had a television
service, when we just had a radio service, long time ago one of my fishermen in the church, one
of the men, went knocking at the door and behold he stumbled upon a blind couple. And he
visited with them, and he found out that every Lord’s Day that blind couple listened to the pastor
on the radio, and they expressed the desire to come to church. So this fellow member of our dear
church came to me and said, "Pastor, there is a blind couple that I have found, visiting, knocking
at the door, and they want to come to church. Would it be all right for them to come?" I said,
"Why, we’d just be delighted." "Oh, but pastor, wait now, wait. Each one has a seeing-eye dog,
and if the couple comes to church, they must bring the two dogs with them. Now do you want
two dogs in the church along with the blind couple?"
"Well," I said, "Yes, but just to be sure, I’ll take it to the congregation." So I brought it here to
the congregation, and I told them about that blind couple and their two seeing-eye dogs. And I
said, "All of you who would be in favor of welcoming the two blind people and their two dogs,
would you hold up your hands." And all of our people held up their hands. It was unanimous; we
never have a negative vote in this church as we say. Well, it was unanimous. It was unanimous.
So they came to church, and they sat over there in that little area and their seeing-eye dogs by
their sides.
You don’t come to this church and God not do something to you. You’d have to be a stone
image; you’d have to be a brass monkey if you come to this church and you don’t feel something
happen on the inside of you. You’ve either got to respond or you have to quit, one or the other.
Well, they came and sat down over there with their dogs. And as they came and the days passed,
God spoke to their hearts, and on a Sunday morning, down the aisle they came. And they told me
they’d found the Lord, and they wanted to be received as candidates for baptism here in this dear
church. Well, I was so glad, I was so glad.
And when I presented them, like I’d been doing all the years of my life, I said, "All of you that
are happy to receive these two blind people, would you hold up your hand?" So everybody held
up his hand. Then one of the deacons – he was seated right down there – one of the deacons said,
"Pastor, they can’t see us hold up our hands. Why don’t you say, ‘All of us who are happy to
receive this blind couple say, ‘Amen.’" "Well," I said, "wonderful! All of you dear people that
are happy to receive this blind couple, will you say, ‘Amen’?"
And we just shook – we had chandeliers in this old church – and we just shook those old
chandeliers like that. "Amen!" We were so delighted to have them. Well, the days continued, and
I want you to know, you never saw such faithful folks coming to church in your life, always over
there in that corner. And you never saw such lovely, faithful, reverential dogs in your life, over
there in that corner, right over there in that corner. And bless you, I want you to know that upon
a day one of my fine members came to me and said, "Pastor, I have been a-watching that blind
couple and how faithful they are, but I also have been watching those two dogs. I’ve never seen
such faithful dogs, such reverent well behaved dogs. And," he said, "pastor, if you don’t mind, at

57. the next session of our church on Sunday morning, I’m going to make a motion that we take
those two dogs also into the membership of our church."
That’s the Lord; that’s the Lord. Why, I, you, anybody who’s ever witnessed to Jesus could stand
up all over this place and take a leaf out of your life, how God has given you a trophy. Fishing,
fishing where the fish are, out there where the folks are. Our problem is not the not-church-going
sinner, our problem is the not-going-church. I’m not saying you’re going to catch all the fish. I
don’t suppose any fisherman ever thought that he did. However many he caught, that were that
many more in the lake, that many more in the river, and however these seamen fare, there are
that many fish left in the sea. The Lord told us that Himself in the parable of the sower:
Some fell by the wayside and the birds ate it up.
Some fell on stony ground.
Some fell amid thorns that choked it.
But some fell on fertile, plowed ground and bore a hundredfold increase to God.
[Matthew 13:4-5a, 7-8]
I don’t say that when we go out, we’re going to win them all. No, because we’re not. But I do
say this: if you sow the seed, some of it will grow. If you go fishing, some of them, you’ll catch.
And if you testify to the grace of the Lord Jesus and knock at the door, fishing where the fish are,
God will give you some. And that’s our mandate [Matthew 28:19-20], our assignment, and
blessed and happy is the pastor, and the staff,
and the deacons, and the teachers, and the church leaders, and the membership that fulfills God’s
will for us – testifying, witnessing, inviting, loving, praying, bringing to the blessed, blessed
Jesus. Now may the Holy Spirit sanctify and hallow the testimony of this hour.
In a moment, we shall stand to sing, and while we sing that appeal, a family you, will you come
and stand by me. A couple you, or one somebody you. "Pastor, today I give my heart to the
blessed Jesus, and here I am. Here I come." Or, "Pastor, we’re putting our lives in this church.
This is my wife, these are our children; all of us are coming today." Or just you, as God shall
make the appeal, shall press the appeal; while we sing this song, won’t you come? Make the
decision now; do it now. And in a moment when we stand, stand up coming, and God bless you
in the way, while we stand and while we sing.
John - Luke
FEAR AND FAITH
‘IT IS THE LORD!’
John 21:7.
It seems a very strange thing that these disciples had not, at an earlier period of this incident,
discovered the presence of Christ, inasmuch as the whole was so manifestly a repetition of that
former event by which the commencement of their ministry had been signalised, when He called
them to become ‘fishers of men.’ We are apt to suppose that when once again they embarked on

58. the lake, and went back to their old trade, it must have been with many a thought of Him busy at
their hearts. Yonder-perhaps we fancy them thinking-is the very point where we saw Him
coming out of the shadows of the mountains, that night when He walked on the water; yonder is
the little patch of grass where He made them all sit down whilst we bore the bread to them: there
is the very spot where we were mending our nets when He came up to us and called us to
Himself; and now it is all over. We have loved and lost Him; He has been with us, and has left
us. ‘We trusted that it had been He who should have redeemed Israel,’ and the Cross has ended it
all! So, we are apt to think, they must have spoken; but there does not seem to have been about
them any such sentimental remembrance. John takes pains in this narrative, I think, to show them
to us as plain, rough men, busy about their night’s work, and thinking a great deal more of their
want of success in fishing, than about the old associations which we are apt to put into their
minds. Then through the darkness He comes, as they had seen Him come once before, when they
know Him not; and He speaks to them as He had spoken before, and they do not detect His voice
yet; and He repeats the old miracle, and their eyes are all holden, excepting the eyes of him who
loved, and he first says, ‘It is the Lord!’ Now, besides all the other features of this incident by
which it becomes the revelation of the Lord’s presence with His Church, and the exhibition of
the work of the Church during all the course of the world’s history, it contains valuable lessons
on other points, such as these which I shall try to bring before you.
Now and always, as in that morning twilight on the Galilean lake, Christ comes to men.
Everywhere He is present, everywhere revealing Himself. Now, as then, our eyes are ‘holden’ by
our own fault, so that we recognise not the merciful Presence which is all around us. Now, as
then, it is they who are nearest to Christ by love who see Him first. Now, as then, they who are
nearest to Him by love, are so because He loves them, and because they know and believe the
love which He has to them. I find, then, in this part of the story three thoughts,-First, they only
see aright who see Christ in everything. Secondly, they only see Christ who love Him. Lastly,
they only love Him who know that He loves them,
I. First then, they only see aright who see Christ in everything.
This word of John’s, ‘It is the Lord!’-ought to be the conviction with the light of which we go
out to the examination of all events, and to the consideration of all the circumstances of our daily
life. We believe that unto Christ is given ‘all power in heaven and upon earth.’ We believe that to
Him belongs creative power-that ‘without Him was not anything made which was made.’ We
believe that from Him came all life at first. In Him life was, as in its deep source. He is the
Fountain of life. We believe that as no being comes into existence without His creative power, so
none continues to exist without His sustaining energy. We believe that He allots to all men their
natural characters and their circumstances. We believe that the history of the world is but the
history of His influence, and that the centre of the whole universe is the cross of Calvary. In the
light of such convictions, I take it, every man that calls himself a Christian ought to go out to
meet life and to study all events. Let me try, then, to put before you, very briefly, one or two of
the provinces in which we are to take this conviction as the keynote to all our knowledge.
No man will understand the world aright, to begin with, who cannot say about all creation, ‘It is
the Lord!’ Nature is but the veil of the invisible and ascended Lord: and if we would pierce to the
deepest foundations of all being, we cannot stop until we get down to the living power of Christ
our Saviour and the Creator of the world, by whom all things were made, and whose will pouring
out into this great universe, is the sustaining principle and the true force which keeps it from
nothingness and from quick decay.

59. Why, what did Christ work all His miracles upon earth for? Not solely to give us a testimony that
the Father had sent Him; not solely to make us listen to His words as a Teacher sent from God;
not solely as proof of His Messiahship,-but besides all these purposes there was surely this other,
that for once He would unveil to us the true Author of all things, and the true Foundation of all
being. Christ’s miracles interrupted the order of the world, because they made visible to men for
once the true and constant Orderer of the order. They interrupted the order in so far as they
struck out the intervening links by which the creative and sustaining word of God acts in nature,
and suspended each event directly from the firm staple of His will. They revealed the eternal
Orderer of that order in that they showed the Incarnate Word wielding the forces of nature,
which He has done from of old and still does. We are then to take all these signs and wonders
that He wrought, as a perennial revelation of the real state of things with regard to this natural
world, and to see in them all, signs and tokens that into every corner and far-off region of the
universe His loving hand reaches, and His sustaining power goes forth. Into what province of
nature did He not go? He claimed to be the Lord of life by the side of the boy’s bier at the gate of
Nain, in the chamber of the daughter of Jairus, by the grave of Lazarus. He asserted for Himself
authority over all the powers and functions of our bodily life, when He gave eyes to the blind,
hearing to the deaf, feet to the lame. He showed that He was Lord over the fowl of the air, the
beasts of the earth, the fish of the sea. And He asserted His dominion over inanimate nature,
when the fig-tree, cursed by Him, withered away to its roots, and the winds and waves sunk into
silence at His gentle voice. He let us get a glimpse into the dark regions of His rule over the
unseen, when ‘with authority He commanded the unclean spirits, and they came out.’ And all
these things He did, in order that we, walking in this fair world, encompassed by the glories of
this wonderful universe, should be delivered from the temptation of thinking that it is separated
from Him, or independent of His creative and sustaining power; and in order that we should feel
that the continuance of all which surrounds us, the glories of heaven and the loveliness of earth,
are as truly owing to the constant intervention of His present will, and the interposition beneath
them of His sustaining hand, as when first, by the ‘Word of God’ who ‘was with God and who
was God,’ speaking forth His fiat, there came light and beauty out of darkness and chaos.
O Christian men! we shall never understand the Christian thought about God’s universe, until we
are able to say, Preservation is a continual creation; and beneath all the ordinary workings of
Nature, as we faithlessly call it, and the apparently dead play of secondary causes, there are
welling forth, and energising, the living love and the blessed power of Christ, the Maker, and
Monarch, and Sustainer of all. ‘It is the Lord!’ is the highest teaching of all science. The mystery
of the universe, and the meaning of God’s world, are shrouded in hopeless obscurity, until we
learn to feel that all laws suppose a Lawgiver, and that all working involves a divine energy; and
that beneath all which appears there lies for ever rising up through it and giving it its life and
power, the one true living Being, the Father in heaven, the Son by whom He works, and the Holy
Ghost the Spirit. Darkness lies on Nature, except to those who in
‘the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean, and the living air,
And the blue sky,’
see that Form which these disciples saw in the morning twilight. Let ‘It is the Lord!’ be the word
on our lips as we gaze on them all, and nature will then be indeed to us the open secret, the secret
of the Lord which ‘He will show to them that fear Him.’

60. Then again, the same conviction is the only one that is adequate either to explain or to make
tolerable the circumstances of our earthly condition. To most men-ah! to all of us in our faithless
times-the events that befall ourselves, seem to be one of two things equally horrible, the play of a
blind Chance, or the work of an iron Fate. I know not which of these two ghastly thoughts about
the circumstances of life is the more depressing, ruining all our energy, depriving us of all our
joy, and dragging us down with its weight. But brethren, and friends, there are but these three
ways for it-either our life is the subject of a mere chaotic chance; or else it is put into the mill of
an iron destiny, which goes grinding on and crushing with its remorseless wheels, regardless of
what it grinds up; or else, through it all, in it all, beneath it and above it all, there is the Will
which is Love, and the Love which is Christ! Which of these thoughts is the one that commends
itself to your own hearts and consciences, and which is the one under which you would fain live
if you could? I understand not how a man can front the awful possibilities of a future on earth,
knowing all the points at which he is vulnerable, and all the ways by which disaster may come
down upon him, and retain his sanity, unless he believes that all is ruled, not merely by a God far
above him, who may be as unsympathising as He is omnipotent, but by his Elder Brother, the
Son of God, who showed His heart by all His dealings with us here below, and who loves as
tenderly, and sympathises as closely with us as ever He did when on earth He gathered the weary
and the sick around Him. Is it not a thing, men and women, worth having, to have this for the
settled conviction of your hearts, that Christ is moving all the pulses of your life, and that
nothing falls out without the intervention of His presence and the power of His will working
through it? Do you not think such a belief would nerve you for difficulty, would lift you
buoyantly over trials and depressions, and would set you upon a vantage ground high above all
the petty annoyances of life? Tell me, is there any other place where a man can plant his foot and
say, ‘Now I am on a rock and I care not what comes’? The riddle of Providence is solved, and
the discipline of Providence is being accomplished when we have grasped this conviction-All
events do serve me, for all circumstances come from His will and pleasure, which is love; and
everywhere I go-be it in the darkness of disaster or in the sunshine of prosperity-I shall see
standing before me that familiar and beloved Shape, and shall be able to say, ‘It is the Lord!’
Friends and brethren, that is the faith to live by, that is the faith to die by; and without it life is a
mockery and a misery.
Once more this same conviction, ‘It is the Lord! should guide us in all our thoughts about the
history and destinies of mankind and of Christ’s Church. The Cross is the centre of the world’s
history, the incarnation and the crucifixion of our Lord are the pivot round which all the events
of the ages revolve. ‘The testimony of Jesus was the spirit of prophecy,’ and the growing power
of Jesus is the spirit of history, and in every book that calls itself the history of a nation, unless
there be written, whether literally or in spirit, this for its motto, ‘It is the Lord!’ all will be
shallow and incomplete.
‘They that went before and they that came after,’ when He entered into the holy city in His brief
moment of acceptance and pomp, surrounded Him with hosannas and jubilant gladness. It is a
deep and true symbol of the whole history of the world. All the generations that went before
Him, though they knew it not, were preparing the way of the Lord, and heralding the advent of
Him who was ‘the desire of all nations’ and ‘the light of men’; and all the generations that come
after, though they know it not, are swelling the pomp of His triumph and hastening the time of
His crowning and dominion. ‘It is the Lord!’ is the secret of all national existence. It is the secret
of all the events of the world. The tangled web of human history is only then intelligible when
that is taken as its clue, ‘From Him are all things, and to Him are all things.’ The ocean from

61. which the stream of history flows, and that into which it empties itself, are one. He began it, He
sustains it. ‘The help that is done upon earth He doeth it Himself,’ and when all is finished, it
will be found that all things have indeed come from Christ, been sustained and directed by
Christ, and have tended to the glory and exaltation of that Redeemer, who is King of kings and
Lord of lords, Maker of the worlds, and before whose throne are for ever gathered for service,
whether they know it or not, the forces of the Gentiles, the riches of the nations, the events of
history, the fates and destinies of every man.
I need not dwell upon the way in which such a conviction as this, my friends, living and working
in our hearts, would change for us the whole aspect of life, and make everything bright and
beautiful, blessed and calm, strengthening us for all which we might have to do, nerving us for
duty, and sustaining us against every trial, leading us on, triumphant and glad, through regions
all sparkling with tokens of His presence and signs of His love, unto His throne at last, to lay
down our praises and our crowns before Him. Only let me leave with you this one word of
earnest entreaty, that you will lay to heart the solemn alternative-either see Christ in everything,
and be blessed; or miss Him, and be miserable. Oh! it is a waste, weary world, unless it is filled
with signs of His presence. It is a dreary seventy years, brother, of pilgrimage and strife, unless,
as you travel along the road, you see the marks that He who went before you has left by the
wayside for your guidance and your sustenance. If you want your days to be true, noble, holy,
happy, manly, and Godlike, believe us, it is only when they all have flowing through them this
conviction, ‘It is the Lord!’ that they all become so.
II. Then, secondly, only they who love, see Christ.
John, the Apostle of Love, knew Him first. In religious matters, love is the foundation of
knowledge. There is no way of knowing a Person except love. The knowledge of God and the
knowledge of Christ are not to be won by the exercise of the understanding. A man cannot argue
his way into knowing Christ. No skill in drawing inferences will avail him there. The treasures of
wisdom-earthly wisdom-are all powerless in that region. Man’s understanding and natural
capacity- let it keep itself within its own limits and region, and it is strong and good; but in the
region of acquaintance with God and Christ, the wisdom of this world is foolishness, and man’s
understanding is not the organ by which he can know Christ. Oh no! there is a better way than
that: ‘He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love.’ As it is, in feebler measure, with
regard to our personal acquaintance with one another, where it is not so much the power of the
understanding, or the quickness of the perception, or the talent and genius of a man, that make
the foundation of his knowledge of his friend, as the force of his sympathy and the depth of his
affection; so-with the necessary modification arising from the transference from earthly
acquaintances to the great Friend and Lover of our souls in heaven-so is it with regard to our
knowledge of Christ. Love will trace Him everywhere, as dear friends can detect each other in
little marks which are meaningless to others. Love’s quick eye pierces through disguises
impenetrable to a colder scrutiny. Love has in it a longing for His presence which makes us eager
and quick to mark the lightest sign that He for whom it longs is near, as the footstep of some dear
one is heard by the sharp ear of affection long before any sound breaks the silence to those
around. Love leads to likeness to the Lord, and that likeness makes the clearer vision of the Lord
possible. Love to Him strips from our eyes the film that self and sin, sense and custom, have
drawn over them. It is these which hide Him from us. It is because men are so indifferent to, so
forgetful of, their best Friend that they fail to behold Him, ‘It is the Lord!’ is written large and
plain on all things, but like the great letters on a map, they are so obvious and fill so wide a

62. space, that they are not seen. They who love Him know Him, and they who know Him love Him.
The true eye-salve for our blinded eyes is applied when we have turned with our hearts to Christ.
The simple might of faithful love opens them to behold a more glorious vision than the mountain
‘full of chariots of fire,’ which once flamed before the prophet’s servant of old-even the august
and ever-present form of the Lord of life, the Lord of history, the Lord of providence. When they
who love Jesus turn to see ‘the Voice that speaks with them,’ they ever behold the Son of Man in
His glory; and where others see but the dim beach and a mysterious stranger, it is to their lips
that the glad cry first comes, ‘It is the Lord!’
And is it not a blessed thing, brethren! that thus this high and glorious prerogative of recognising
the marks of Christ’s presence everywhere, of going through life gladdened by the assurance of
His nearness, does not depend on what belongs to few men only, but on what may belong to all?
When we say that ‘not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are
called’-when we say that love is the means of knowledge-we are but in other words saying that
the way is open to all, and that no characteristics belonging to classes, no powers that must
obviously always belong to but a handful, are necessary for the full apprehension of the power
and blessedness of Christ’s Gospel. The freeness and the fullness of that divine message, the
glorious truth that it is for all men, and is offered to all, are couched in that grand principle, Love
that thou mayest know; love, and thou art filled with the fullness of God, Not for the handful, not
for the elite of the world; not for the few, but for the many; not for the wise, but for all; not for
classes, but for humanity-for all that are weak, and sinful, and needy, and foolish, and darkened
He comes, who only needs that the heart that looks should love, and then it shall behold!
But if that were the whole that I have to say, I should have said but little to the purpose. It very
little avails to tell men to love. We cannot love to order, or because we think it duty. There is but
one way of loving, and that is to see the lovely. The disciple who loved Jesus was ‘the disciple
whom Jesus loved.’ Generalise that, and it teaches us this, that
III. They love who know that Christ loves them.
His divine and eternal mercy is the foundation of the whole. Our love, brethren, can never be any
thing else than our echo to His voice of tenderness than the reflected light upon our hearts of the
full glory of His affection. No man loveth God except the man who has first learned that God
loves him. ‘We love Him, because He first loved us.’ And when we say, ‘Love Christ,’ if we
could not go on to say, ‘Nay, rather let Christ’s love come down upon you’-we had said worse
than nothing. The fountain that rises in my heart can only spring up heavenward, because the
water of it has flowed down into my heart from the higher level. All love must descend first,
before it can ascend. We have, then, no Gospel to preach, if we have only this to preach, ‘Love,
and thou art saved.’ But we have a Gospel that is worth the preaching, when we can come to men
who have no love in their hearts, and say, ‘Brethren! listen to this-you have to bring nothing, you
are called upon to originate no affection; you have nothing to do but simply to receive the
everlasting love of God in Christ His Son, which was without us, which began before us, which
flows forth independent of us, which is unchecked by all our sins, which triumphs over all our
transgressions, and which will make us-loveless, selfish, hardened, sinful men-soft, and tender,
and full of divine affection, by the communication of its own self.
Oh, then, look to Christ, that you may love Him! Think, brethren, of that full, and free, and
boundless mercy which, from eternity, has been pouring itself out in floods of grace and loving-
kindness over all creatures. Think of that everlasting love which presided at the foundation of the
earth, and has sustained it ever since. Think of that Saviour who has died for us, and lives for us.

63. Think of Christ, the heart of God, and the fullness of the Father’s mercy; and do not think of
yourselves at all. Do not ask yourselves, to begin with, the question, Do I love Him or do I not?
You will never love by that means. If a man is cold, let him go to the fire and warm himself. If
he is dark, let him stand in the sunshine, and he will be light. If his heart is all clogged and
clotted with sin and selfishness, let him get under the influence of the love of Christ, and look
away from himself and his own feelings, towards that Saviour whose love shed abroad is the sole
means of kindling ours. You have to go down deeper than your feelings, your affections, your
desires, your character. There you will find no resting-place, no consolation, no power. Dig
down to the living Rock, Christ and His infinite love to you, and let it be the strong foundation,
built into which you and your love may become living stones, a holy temple, partaking of the
firmness and nature of that on which it rests. They that love do so because they know that Christ
loves them; and they that love see Him everywhere; and they that see Him everywhere are
blessed for evermore. And let no man here torture himself, or limit the fullness of this message
that we preach, by questionings whether Christ loves Him or not. Are you a man? are you sinful?
have you broken God’s law? do you need a Saviour? Then put away all these questions, and
believe that Christ’s personal love is streaming out for the whole world, and that there is a share
for you if you like to take it and be blessed!
There is one last thought arising from the whole subject before us, that may be worth mention
before I close. Did you ever notice how this whole incident might be turned, by a symbolical
application, to the hour of death, and the vision which may meet us when we come thither? It
admits of the application, and perhaps was intended to receive the application, of such a
symbolic reference. The morning is dawning, the grey of night going away, the lake is still; and
yonder, standing on the shore, in the uncertain light, there is one dim Figure, and one disciple
catches a sight of Him, and another casts himself into the water, and they find ‘a fire of coals,
and fish laid thereon, and bread,’ and Christ gathers them around His table, and they all know
that ‘It is the Lord!’ It is what the death of the Christian man, who has gone through life
recognising Christ everywhere, may well become:-the morning breaking, and the finished work,
and the Figure standing on the quiet beach, so that the last plunge into the cold flood that yet
separates us, will not be taken with trembling reluctance; but, drawn to Him by the love beaming
out of His face, and upheld by the power of His beckoning presence, we shall struggle through
the latest wave that parts us, and scarcely feel its chill, nor know that we have crossed it; till
falling blessed at His feet, we see, by the nearer and clearer vision of His face, that this is indeed
heaven. And looking back upon ‘the sea that brought us thither,’ we shall behold its waters
flashing in the light of that everlasting morning, and hear them breaking in music upon the
eternal shore. And then, brethren, when all the weary night-watchers on the stormy ocean of life
are gathered together around Him who watched with them from His throne on the bordering
mountains of eternity, where the day shines for ever-then He will seat them at His table in His
kingdom, and none will need to ask, ‘Who art Thou?’ or ‘Where am I?’ for all shall know that ‘It
is the Lord!’ and the full, perfect, unchangeable vision of His blessed face will be heaven!
A. MACLAREN
F. B. MEYER

64. LOVE'S REVELATIONS!
"That disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter: It is the Lord."-- Jn 21:7.
LOVE WILL See most quickly. James was there, full of practical commonsense; Thomas also,
who doubted, but afterwards believed; Peter, who wanted to die with Him, but afterwards denied
Him; and the rest of them; but it was John whom Jesus loved, and who afterwards became the
Apostle of Love, that first recognised the Master, whether by the intonation of His Voice, or the
thoughtfulness of His inquiry, or the readiness of His help, does not appear. The intuitions of
love are as sure as they are swift. Whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be
tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish. None of these things will
help as much when we come to that last hour. But Love will never fail, and those who have
loved will see most quickly, most certainly, most satisfyingly.
It is Love that unites us, and we believe that Jesus is as eager for the hour to come when we shall
be with Him where He is, as we are to get there. Do you not believe that the friend who has come
to the landing-stage to greet you, after a long voyage, is even more eager than you are to see that
breadth of water dwindle from miles to furlongs and furlongs to yards? Do you think that Peter
thought the water cold, when he plunged in, or that he would spoil his fisher's coat? Will not the
chill of the river be forgotten when at last we see Jesus just beyond?
In that fair morning we shall recognise and help each other. The disciple whom Jesus loved said
unto Peter, "It is the Lord," and gave him the preference! Surely John would have been excused
by all the rest, if he had immediately cast himself into the sea and had met Jesus first! But no! He
knew how Peter had suffered, how he longed for the chance to do something to obliterate the
past, how he would prize the few extra moments of private fellowship; and so he said, "It is the
Lord," knowing full well what an effect would be produced on his impulsive friend.
That probably is the etiquette of Heaven! We sometimes suppose that there will be such a throng
there, that we shall not be able to get near the Lord. But the greatest saints will always be the
humblest and the kindest. They will come to the outer ranks, where some of us may have to
stand, and say, "Come, take my place!" John will say to Peter, "It is the Lord."
RICH CATHERS
John 21:1-11
Sunday Morning Bible Study
April 20, 1997
Introduction
Jesus has risen from the dead!

65. He's appeared to Mary and the women, the disciples on the road to Emmaus,
and twice to the group of disciples in the upper room.
Thoseappearances all tookplace in Jerusalem.
Yet Matthew records that Jesus had instructed the disciples to meet Him up
north in Galilee, where He'd spend some more time with them. (Mat.28:7)
:1-11 Gone Fishin'
:1 Jesus showed himself again to the disciples at the sea of
Tiberias
the sea of Tiberias
This is one of the many names for the "sea of Galilee".
It’s also known as Gennesaret, or Chinnereth.
Though it's called a "sea", it's really a large fresh water lake, 5 miles
wide (at it's widest) by 12 miles long)
This is the area in the northern part of Israel where Jesus did most of His
ministry before His crucifixion.
It was here in Galilee, that Jesus first met Peter, James and John, as they
were fishing.
Mat 4:18-22 And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren,
Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for
they were fishers. {19} And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make
you fishers of men. {20} And they straightway left their nets, and followed
him. {21} And going on from thence, he saw other two brethren, James the
son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father,
mending their nets; and he called them. {22} And they immediately left the
ship and their father, and followed him.
It would be here in Galilee, a little later that Jesus would reiterate His desire for
them to reach the world with the gospel:
(Mat 28:19-20 KJV) Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: {20} Teaching them
to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you
alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
:2 There were together Simon Peter … and the sons of
Zebedee, and two other of his disciples.
The sons of Zebedee - these were James and his younger brother John, the
writer of the gospel.

66. two other of his disciples - It could be that these two are Phillip and Andrew,
but it could also be that they are two disciples that weren't part of the inner
twelve.
I am a little curious where the other disciples are, this is no more than seven of
the eleven remaining disciples.
Maybe the other guys just didn't like fishing?
:3 Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing.
Was this all that bad?
Some have said that Peter is just trying to make a living … maybe …
:3 They went forth, and entered into a ship immediately;
ship - a typical Galilean fishing boatwas about 15 feet long.
:3 and that night they caught nothing.
The children’s song says, "they fished all night and they caught no fishes …"
Now when some guys go fishing, they don’tcare if they catch anything or not.
All they care about is getting away and tossing a line in.
But these guys are professional fishermen.
They don’t go fishing for the fun of it.
This is what they do for a living.
After all, these guys don’tuse fishing poles, they use NETS!
And they’re frustrated!
Lesson:
The frustration of ignoring Jesus’commands.
What was the last thing Jesus had told the guys to do?
When He had appeared to them in the upper room …
John 20:21 Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my
Father hath sent me, even so send I you.
Three years ago Jesus said He would make them fishers of men.
During the time that Jesus was with the disciples, He was
constantly preparing them for the day that they would go out and
preach the gospel.
And just a few days ago, He had told them to get going.

67. And so they got going … but going back to their fishing boats.
And they're catching nothing.
It's extremely frustrating when you're not doing what you know the Lord
wants you to do.
It might be something as simple as getting up early enough in the
morning to spend time in the Word.
And when you don't, the day is extremely tough!
It might be something as important as sharing the gospelwith
someone you ought to.
Illustration
Jonah said "no" to God, and ran as far from Nineveh as he
could go.
He ended up frustrated, in the belly of a whale.
Instead of catching fish, the fish caught Jonah!
Have you been ignoring something Jesus has been telling you to do?
Is there any wonder you're frustrated about it?
:4 But when the morning was now come,
morning - proia - early, at day break; the sun is just beginning to come up, and
it's still a little dark.
:4 but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus.
It could be that it was just too dark to recognize the man on the beach.
But it could be as we’ve mentioned before, that Jesus is using His "disguise-o-
matic" function of His resurrection body. (John 20:14; Luke 24:16,31)
:5 Then Jesus saith unto them, Children, have ye any meat?
Children - paidion - a young child, not just the simple word for "child" (pais),
but the "diminutive" form, or, a "little child".
Don’t be thinking that Jesus is somehow making fun of the disciples or
looking down on them by calling them "children".
John himself uses this word in writing to the believers that he cares so much
about:
1Jo 2:18 Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that
antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we
know that it is the last time.

68. This isn't humiliation, it's tenderness.
Meat - something to eat; probably referring to fish.
Note:The way Jesus phrases this in the Greek, He is kind of expecting a "no"
from the disciples.
It's like He was saying, "You probably don'thave anything to eat, do you?"
:5 They answered him, No.
Not only has it been a rough night without any fish, but now this guy on the
beach has to remind them of what a waste of time the night has been.
:6 And he said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of
the ship, and ye shall find.
Important insight ( ): This tells us that Peter and his friends must have been
casting their nets on the left side, and hence were left-handed fishermen! 
(just kidding … joke?!?)
So here’s these professional fishermen that have been out all night on their boat.
All night long they’ve tossed their nets out, dragged them back in, and
tossed them out again.
And all night long, they've caught nothing but water.
And now this guy has the nerve to say that all they need to do is toss the nets
on the right side of the ship?
Lesson:
The answermay not be far away.
Some of us struggle with things for a long time.
Yet the answer might be just around the corner.
With just a word from the Lord.
:6 They cast therefore
Actually, this is sounding kind of familiar to the guys about now.
This has happened to them before, hasn't it?
There was this other time when some guy told them to cast their nets on the
other side of the boat, and hey, it worked then!
:6 they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes.

69. Literally, "they didn’t have the strength to pull in the net" because of the
"plethora of fishes" in the net.
:7 that disciple whom Jesus loved
John’s way of referring to himself.
:7 It is the Lord.
Something has struck a chord in John's mind.
It was something that had happened three years ago …
Luke 5:1-11 And it came to pass, that, as the people pressed upon him to hear
the word of God, he stood by the lake of Gennesaret, {2} And saw two ships
standing by the lake: but the fishermen were gone out of them, and were
washing their nets. {3} And he entered into one of the ships, which was Simon’s,
and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land. And he sat down,
and taught the people out of the ship. {4} Now when he had left speaking, he said
unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught. {5}
And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and
have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net. {6} And when
they had this done, they enclosed a great multitude of fishes: and their net brake.
{7} And they beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other ship, that they
should come and help them. And they came, and filled both the ships, so that
they began to sink. {8} When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees,
saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord. {9} For he was
astonished, and all that were with him, at the draught of the fishes which they
had taken: {10} And so was also James, and John, the sons of Zebedee, which
were partners with Simon. And Jesus said unto Simon, Fear not; from henceforth
thou shalt catch men. {11} And when they had brought their ships to land, they
forsook all, and followed him.
John gets to thinking, and he realizes who this personon shore is.
It’s Jesus.
The only difference is …
Three years ago Jesus was in their boat.
Now He’s back on the beach.
Lesson:
Where is Jesus in your life now?
Is He in your boat?
Or is He back on the beach somewhere, having to shout orders to
you?

70. Is there sometime in your life when you were closer to Jesus than
you are now?
It’s not necessarily wrong for fishermen to be out in a boat fishing.
After all, they have to make a living.
The apostle Paul made tents for a living, to supporthimself.
But the problem is that they left Jesus behind, they didn't take
Jesus to work with them.
:7 he girt his fisher’s coat unto him, (for he was naked,)
fisher’s coat - more literally, an "outer garment".
he was naked - gumnos- without clothing; or only wearing undergarments.
Peter has been working hard all night, working only in his shorts.
:7 did cast himself into the sea.
Peter isn’t going to stay away from Jesus any more than he has to.
The last time that Peter had been instructed in fishing by Jesus, he responded
with,
(Luke 5:8 KJV) When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying,
Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.
But now, Peter knows better, and he can't wait to get to Jesus.
Lesson:
What steps do you need to take to getcloserto Jesus?
Peter wasn't afraid to get a little wet.
He wasn't afraid to leave behind what was probably the biggest catch
in his entire career as a fisherman.
Is it time that you "dive in" to serving the Lord?
:8 And the other disciples came in a little ship;
It’s nice of Peter to be so enthusiastic about Jesus, but did he have to leave them
with all the equipment and the fish?
a little ship - perhaps another little boat used with a larger one to handle the
nets, or perhaps the same boat.
:8 two hundred cubits
two hundred cubits - about a hundred yards (a cubit = 1 ½ feet)

71. :9 As soon then as they were come to land, they saw a fire of
coals there
Jesus had things all prepared for them.
:9 and fish laid thereon, and bread.
Sounds like "fish tacos".
By the way, where did Jesus get the fish and bread?
It was a miracle.
Fish - opsarion - fish, small fish
This is not the typical word for "fish" which is ichthus, the word that was
used in verse 6.
The only other passagein the New Testament that this word for "fish" is
used, was back in John 6, when Jesus was challenging the disciples to feed
the five thousand people, and Andrew returned with his report:
Joh 6:9 There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small
fishes: but what are they among so many?
With those two small fish, and a few loaves of bread, Jesus was able to feed
five thousand people.
That was a time when Jesus demonstrated something very similar, that
if He was involved, it wouldn't take much to feed a multitude of
people.
As the disciples come dragging themselves up the beach, I can't help but
wonder if they are somehow reminded about that other time when Jesus
provided such a huge meal with the same two ingredients, fish and bread.
:10 Jesus saith unto them, Bring of the fish which ye have
now caught.
Jesus now uses the same word as in verse 9, "small fish".
It's kind of like Jesus is saying, "bring up the little fishies you just caught
…"
:11 Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land
I find it fascinating that back in verse 6, seven fishermen were not able to draw
in the net because of the numbers of fish, yet now at Jesus' command, Peter
himself is able to pull the net onto land.

72. :11 full of great fishes, an hundred and fifty and three
great - (megas) - ("mega") great in physical size
fishes - ichthus is used here (not "fishies").
an hundred and fifty and three -
What's the significance of the number 153?
I don'tknow.
Other than the fact that the disciples were so blown away by the
number of fish, that they actually stopped to count them.
Pay attention here - John is trying to tell us how the guys were blown away
with 153 "mega-fish", but Jesus just called them a bunch of "fishies".
Lesson:
We serve a GREAT GOD!
Jeremiah writes,
(Jer 32:17 KJV) Ah Lord GOD! behold, thou hast made the heaven and
the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is
nothing too hard for thee:
What seems too big for us, is small for Him!
I think we often have a perspective problem.
We tend to look at life from our own perspective, but God would
rather that we look at life from His perspective.
Illustration
Many of the Israelites might have thought that David could have
never fought Goliath, because Goliath was so much bigger than
David.
But David tended to look at things from God's perspective, and
God is WAY BIGGER than Goliath!
:11 and for all there were so many, yet was not the net
broken
broken - schizo - (schism) to cleave, to tear; to split into factions
It could be that John is simply mentioning this as a fisherman himself, that they
were amazed that their nets were able hold so many fish.

73. After all, they most likely were the ones who made their nets, and they knew
how much they could hold.
It would be like catching a 100 pound sturgeon on 15 pound test line.
Lesson:
When Jesus does the work, there can't be "too many".
Our church
Frankly, at times I get worried that our church is growing too fast,
or too big.
I remember when we started that many of us talked about how nice
it was to be in a small church, where you can get to know
everybody and not feel lost in the crowd.
I've wondered at times just how good it is for a church to get
really, really big.
But I think that as long as Jesus is calling the shots, as long as
Jesus is directing the work, as long as the growth is coming from
Jesus, then we don'thave to worry about the nets breaking.
Our lives
As long as Jesus is calling the shots, the nets will hold.
Sometimes we think our personal lives can only hold so many
"fish".
We can tend to limit ourselves in what we can do.
But if Jesus is leading us, He can do an incredible amount through
us.
At Jesus' command, Peter could bring in the net by himself.
Paul said,
(Phil 4:13 KJV) I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
Gone Fishing
Sermon by Ralph Kelley on Jun 29, 2014
John 21:1-17
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"Gone Fishing"
John 21:1-18
Rev. Bruce Goettsche.... February 1, 1998
When I find myself worn out by the press of life I often retreat to a familiar place. I seek a place
where I feel safe and comfortable. The first place is bed . . . there's nothing quite like taking a
nap to refresh someone. (I'm sure that's the reason some of you sleep in church!) Sometimes I
like to curl up with a good book, or ramble through a bookstore or visit a computer store. At
times, I enjoy sitting down and watching a program on TV or putting the headphones on and
listening to music. This is where I go when I need to "clear my head."
But other people have different kinds of things they do to find peace and refreshment. Some go
to the gym. Others go for a walk. Some play golf, or work out in the shop. Still others like to go
camping and others enjoy fishing. We all have, and need, these havens of rest. It is usually in
these special places that we regain our perspective and are renewed and refreshed.
In our Biblical account in John 21 we see the disciples in need of a haven of rest. We aren't told
how long it has been since they last saw the Lord but we are led to believe it has been several
days, at least. During this time their heads must have been spinning. Perhaps due to all the things
that had been happening they found it difficult to quiet their mind enough to sleep. They knew
the Lord wanted them to go into the world with the gospel . . . but they didn't really know what
they meant or how to start. They needed to "get away" for a little while. Their solution . . . a
good night of fishing.
I suspect it was a long night. Though certainly the peace of being out on the lake was helpful . . .
they weren't catching any fish! It had happened before but it was never a pleasant experience.
Good fishermen (and these were "professional fishermen") are supposed to bring home fish! It
was in this very circumstance that God taught his disciples (then and now) some important
truths.
God's Wisdom is Superior
As these men row toward shore Jesus calls to them. He asks the dreaded question, "Friends,
haven't you any fish?" I suppose it was the equivalent of asking, "Did you catch anything?" The
text says they answered with a simple "No". Wouldn't you like to know the tone of voice that

75. accompanied that "No"? Was there a hint of exhaustion? An edge of irritation? A trace of
embarrassment? Did they shout, whisper, or speak in a normal tone? We don't know.
What we do know is that Jesus responds to their "No" by telling them to "Throw your net on the
right side of the boat and you will find some." The text tells us that they did not recognize the
Lord. The amazing thing to me is that they actually did what the man on the shore suggested.
One would think experienced fishermen would be resent advice from a bystander (kind of like
how men resist asking for navigational help). They had labored all night. They had the nets in
and perhaps had begun cleaning them. I can hear the grumbles. I wouldn't have been surprised if
they had ignored the stranger all together and wrote him off as one who "didn't know what He
was talking about." But, they did what He told them to do.
And were they ever rewarded for their trust! As soon as they drop their nets into the water the
fish seem to be jumping in. We are told that the net was so full they couldn't haul the net into the
boat. In verse 11 we read, "It was full of large fish, 153." These were not the kind of fish you
throw back. . . they were keepers!
It seems odd that John would take pains to tell us that there were 153 fish. It may have simply
been that he was a typical fisherman and eager to tell of their magnificent catch. (It is somewhat
like what happens in deer season. It is not enough to say one "got" a deer . . .they have to report
how many "points" the deer had.) There are all kinds of theories as to the significance of the 153
fish . . . but the end result is that we don't know if there is ANY significance.
His wisdom is superior to our areas of expertise
I had an interesting experience with this message. I was in my office here at the church and I was
struggling with the message. I had some points but things weren't fitting together. I tried coming
up with points that kind of sounded like they went together. I consulted the scholars. I racked my
brain for some good illustrations. Then something I wrote made me realize that the one thing I
hadn't tried was simply being quiet before the Lord. Duh!
Guess what? I turned off the lights and just talked to the Father and I saw what I hadn't seen
before. I saw that there was a message for me in this fish story. The message was simple . . . even
at my best, I still need His guidance.
We want to be self-sufficient. We feel this compulsion to "make it on our own". It's almost as if
the Lord is saying to us . . ."why are you making this so difficult?" Whatever your area of
"expertise" is probably the place where you are most likely to rely more on yourself than on the
Lord. This story reminds us that such practice is a mistake. The best of our wisdom does not
come close to the wisdom of God.
His wisdom is superior in times of distress
We have all had times in our life when we just "didn't know what to do"
• when people criticize unjustly
• when we feel spiritually dry
• when people make unreasonable demands
• when the workload is more than we can bear
• when we feel poor physically
• when everything seems to be going wrong.

76. At these times we are tempted to retreat to our own little corner and lick our wounds. We feel
that our efforts to be faithful have been met with bane rather than blessing. The last thing we
want to hear is the Savior saying, "Don't give up", "Try again", "Keep doing what is right".
"Throw the net on the right side of the boat." But that is what He tells us. You can't go wrong by
following the directions.
The Lord gives us many directions that seem silly.
• Do you really think we're going to catch fish after catching nothing all night?
• can a person really be sexually pure in this day and age?
• how can you compete in business when everyone seems to be engaging in deceptive
practices?
• how do you tithe of your income when there are so many expenses?
• how can I forgive after they have wounded me so deeply?
• how can I rejoice in the Lord, when my heart is in pieces?
We must learn this lesson about God's wisdom because there will be times when we must do
what He tells us . . . not because it makes sense or is popular; but just because we trust His
wisdom.
The Old Testament is filled with stories of men called to do strange things: Noah built a boat;
Abraham went up on Mount Moriah to sacrifice his son; Moses talked to Pharoah; Gideon went
to war with a rag-tag army of 300; Hosea re-married his unfaithful wife; a poor woman collected
empty jars to give to Elijah; Ezekiel did all kinds of weird stuff; Jeremiah testified of God's
faithfulness as he walked among the ruins of Jerusalem; Daniel prayed even when it meant
facing the lions. The stories could go on and on. But in each case these people did what God said
even though they didn't understand . . . and they proved His wisdom.
His Wisdom is Superior for Reaching the Lost
Who would have thought of sending fishermen out with the gospel message? You would have
thought scholars and orators would have been a better choice. But you would have been wrong.
God took the simple of the world and used them to show the wonders of His love. He made them
the "fishers of men".
His command is simple: "go into all the world and preach the gospel." It's not complicated. We
are to share what we know, with the people we come in contact with, using the resources and
abilities we have been given.
God did not need entertainers, production numbers, popular music, big buildings, satellites,
million dollar budgets, fancy programs, political action groups, weekend seminars. He just
needed people who were willing to do what He said. I wonder if the shallowness of today's
commitment isn't the result of our attempting to convert people by our gimmicks rather than by
the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit. The aforementioned things may have a place . . . but
they aren't necessary and sometimes are a barrier to the gospel.
God's wisdom is Superior to our wisdom and the wisdom of the world in which we live. But
that's not all we learn.

77. God's Provision is Sufficient
The Lord provided for the needs of the disciples. In fact, He provided abundantly for them. John
was so impressed by the Lord's provision that he tells us the exact number of fish. That's almost
twenty fish per man!
His provision is sufficient for our daily needs
We spend so much of our lives running after stuff yet Jesus makes this promise:
Matthew 6:25-33 ""Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat
or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food,
and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or
reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much
more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? "And
why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor
or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of
these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow
is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not
worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For
the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you
as well."
It's a good question. Why do we worry so much about stuff that God has promised to provide for
us?
I spend a good portion of my life fretting about paying bills. The rest of the time I seem to be
feeling deprived at not having some trinket which someone else has. How foolish. God has
promised to take care of me. And do you know what . . . any time I HAD to depend on Him . .
.surprise! He was more than able to meet the challenge.
His provision is sufficient for the times of crisis
Who of us has not gone through a time where we knew we could not get through it unless God
helped us. And when you are on the other side of the crisis you realized that God did indeed give
us what we needed: strength, friends, patience, faith. If only we could remember those times
when we were in the crisis.
His provision is sufficient for our salvation
Millions work feverishly in their lives hoping to earn what God has provided as a gift. They walk
around loaded with guilt to show how sorry they are. They spend their lives working to prove
their goodness. And when all is said and done . . . they still fall short. And deep down they know
it.
Jesus did what we could not do for ourselves . . . He gave His life as a payment for our sin. He
credited His righteousness to our account. God has done what was necessary . . . what we must
do is rest in it.

78. God's Love is Practical
The thing that jumps out at me from this passage from the first time I read it was this . . . Jesus
made the disciples breakfast! He knew they were tired and hungry so he fed them. I find this
somewhat astounding . . . and that's the problem.
We have an image of God that makes Him somewhat detached from our day to day world. We
know God is concerned about the big things of our lives but we seem to think He shouldn't be
"bothered" with the little things. If someone raised their hand during our prayer time and said "I'd
like prayer because I'm going into surgery", we'd think that was a noble request. If someone
stood up and said "I'd like prayer because I can't seem to find my keys" . . . we'd roll our eyes
and think the person was some kind of fanatical kook. That's why we need this lesson.
The Lord Cares About the Little Things
The great thing about this account is that it shows us that the disciples' hunger mattered to our
Lord. He cares when we are tired, frustrated, alone. He cares when we have heart problems and
when we have a sinus headache. He cares when we are petrified because we are being mugged
and when we are frightened to stand up and give a speech. He cares when we win a war and
when we get a good grade on a quiz. He cares when we feel a sense of despair in our life and
when we are bored. God cares about every aspect of our lives. Most of us are guilty of shutting
God out of the majority of our lives.
At a time of crisis people often find out how many people really care about them. You appreciate
all the people who come to help. However, the people you consider your best friends are the ones
who are not only there in the crisis . . . they are there in all the other times as well. The Lord
wants to have a close relationship with us. A close relationship is not a "Crisis Centered"
relationship. It is one nurtured through everyday happenings of life. Think about it, what kind of
a marriage would you have if you were only together in the times of crisis?
God cares about the little things. I bet there is a problem in your life that you have been
struggling with and you haven't even thought to talk to God about it. He's waiting, friend.
The Little Things of Life is where Faith Grows
We believe God doesn't care about the little things so it is a small step to concluding that the
little things don't matter. However, we couldn't be further from the truth. It's easier to be faithful
in a crisis because we feel we don't have any other choice. It's in the day to day existence that the
true nature of our faith comes to light. God cares about,
• who you are when no one is looking
• what responses you consider when someone cuts you off on the road
• what you do when you don't like someone
• whether you misrepresent the truth to get what you want
• how you respond when you are angry
• what you choose to do when you can "get away with it"
• how you treat your spouse and children in private
• how you respond to juicy gossip

79. Yes, the Lord made the boys breakfast. I think He did it to show them that He wanted to be their
true friend and their constant companion. He wanted them to know that He was not just
concerned about their "work", He was concerned about them.
Conclusion
Do you understand that this message is really not about you . . . it's about Him? His Wisdom is
Superior, His Provision is Sufficient, His Love is Practical and all-encompassing. I think these
are some of the things He wanted to boys to learn. And these are things we need to remember,
• When we are tempted to trust our own talents, resources and gimmicks
• When we are tempted to worry and fret
• When we are tempted to shut Him out from our daily living
Friends, the Lord who knew where the fish were . . . the Lord who met the needs of the disciples
. . . the Lord who made breakfast for the fisherman...knows where you are and what you need
too.
• He knows what you are going through
• He knows what you need to survive
• He knows what you need to grow
• He knows what you need to learn
• He knows what is really important in life
• He knows the way home
He waits for you, you know. He wants to help. He longs to guide you. He wants to be a real
companion and friend. All you need to do is come to Him. He'll take care of the rest.
So, the next time you need to get away, you'd do well to take a trip . . .a mental trip, to the Sea of
Galilee and remember the day the boys went fishing.
Bruce
Rev. David Holwick Easter Sunrise
First Baptist Church 6:00 a.m.
Ledgewood, New Jersey
March 23, 2008
John 21:1-12
THE SECOND SUNRISE
(have fire pit and roasting fish)
I. Traditions tend to over-simplify Bible events.

80. A. Christmas is a good example.
1) Household Nativity displays have the barn and animals,
shepherds and sheep, three Wisemen and camels.
2) All of them are lumped together at the same time.
B. Easter week is also simplified.
1) Typical schedule:
a) Palms the previous Sunday.
b) Communion on Thursday.
c) Cross procession on Friday.
d) Resurrection on Sunday morning.
e) Then you go home and have ham and an Easter Egg hunt.
2) Easter was a little more complex than this.
a) The resurrected Jesus appeared to people over a 40-day
period.
b) Men and women, large and small groups, and individuals.
c) Happened in Jerusalem, and far away in Galilee.
3) This morning we celebrate one of the far-away events.
II. Jesus had told them to meet him in Galilee.
A. They went there, but with low expectations.
1) Fishing seemed to have a greater hold on their interest.
a) (You know Easter is really early when no one is fishing
in the pond below us!)
2) They would have been better off in bed - they caught nothing.
B. Early in the morning, someone joined them.
1) They did not recognize him.
2) He asks them if they have caught any fish.
a) They must have been embarrassed - he wasn't expecting
a "yes" answer.
b) Josiah and I are lousy fishermen too.
3) Jesus offers them some advice.
a) They followed it and got 153 fish.
b) They couldn't even haul it in, it was so heavy.
1> What is the significance of the number 153?
2> People come up with lots of fanciful theories,

81. but I just think it means "a whole lot of fish!"
c) The disciples now figured it was Jesus.
1> He has that kind of impact on fishing.
C. They fellowshipped with bread and fish over a fire.
1) In several of the resurrection appearances, Jesus eats
with his friends.
2) It is almost like a communion experience.
III. Second sunrises are important.
A. Only a select few were blessed to see Jesus on the first day.
1) Most people saw him in later events.
2) Hundreds saw him this way.
B. We can only experience Jesus in a spiritual sense.
1) We cannot go back in time, but he can come to us.
a) The resurrected Jesus came to Paul in a vision.
1> It's the day of Paul's conversion, years after Easter.
2> He appeared to him several times after this, too.
b) Jesus can come to us through God's Word, the Bible.
2) John says those who believe without seeing are blessed.
John 20:29 --
"Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have
believed;
blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
IV. People are experiencing Jesus even today.
You probably saw the catch on TV.
Or maybe you saw it on the cover of Sports Illustrated.
Local newspapers made a big deal of it, too.
The grab made by New York Giants wide receiver David Tyree may be
the greatest catch in Super Bowl history.
It certainly was a pivotal moment in the Giants' victory over the
New England Patriots.
But it was not the most pivotal moment in young David Tyree's life.
That would be when Tyree found himself behind bars in a jail cell.
Tyree told the New York Times, "What looked to be the lowest point
in my life ended up being the greatest thing that ever happened

82. to me."
Tyree had had an inauspicious start in football.
He was a second-round draft pick.
He had some bad habits, too.
Tyree drank until he passed out, smoked pot from an early age,
and continued doing these things in his football career.
He chased a lot of women, too.
In 2004 he was fined $10,000 being late to a team meeting.
Tyree's solution was to sell some marijuana to raise the money.
Apparently he wasn't very good at it, because he was arrested.
That is when his wife issued an ultimatum: "her lifestyle or
his."
He began reading a Bible he spotted on her bed.
A month after his arrest, Tyree went to church and listened to a
woman singing with joy.
He realized he had none.
He hung his head and sobbed.
"I had no joy. I had no peace," said Tyree.
"My life was in disarray."
Now committed to Christ, Tyree's story is "bigger than his Super
Bowl catch," he says.
"It is about destiny and purpose."
He has given up the booze, drugs and women.
He is more concerned with "changing lives," which he and his wife
do through a ministry that counsels teens.
#35161
V. Has Jesus appeared to you yet?
=====================================================================
====
SOURCE FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
#35161 "Caught: Where Transformation Can Lead," by Mark Earley,
BreakPoint Commentary, March 7, 2008. Illustration also draws
upon an article by Mike White, "David Tyree: From Being Jailed
for Drug Possession to Super Bowl Hero," February 20, 2008;
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/605317/david_tyree~

83. _from_being_jailed_for_drug.html
This and 30,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be
downloaded, absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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====
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Created with the Freeware Edition of HelpNDoc: Easy CHM and documentation editor
DAVID LEGGE
Now our Scripture reading this morning is taken from John's gospel 21, as I've already said we
continue - this is our seventh study in this 'Back to Basics' series. You remember we started off,
it must have been somewhere back in September, looking at 'The Morning Watch', the
responsibility that each child of God has, and the privilege to meet with God in the morning, to
read God's word and to pray, but supremely to have fellowship and communion with the Lord.
We looked at the subject of 'Temptation', the subject of 'The Fruit of the Spirit', the subject of
'The Fullness of the Spirit', and a couple of other subjects as well, and we will look at several
others in the future weeks. We'll be looking, perhaps, at 'Baptism', 'The Lord's Table', 'Discipline'
of various kinds, whether it be our daily discipline of fellowship with the Lord, or discipline of
dress, or discipline of language and so on - we'll look at all those things in the weeks that lie
ahead, and even the keeping, perhaps, of the Lord's day as a special day in the week. So, God
willing, in the future days we'll be looking at those things.
Love ought to be the motivation of everything that we are, and everything that we do for Christ...
This morning we're beginning what I think will transpire to be two studies over two weeks on the
subject of 'Love'. This morning we're looking at specifically 'Love for the Lord'. Verse 1: "After
these things Jesus shewed himself again to the disciples at the sea of Tiberias; and on this wise
shewed he himself. There were together Simon Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and
Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two other of his disciples. Simon
Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing". Now we have to understand that that was an expression of
his despair, not only of the fact that his dreams had been shattered, and though the Lord Jesus
was now risen from the dead, don't forget Peter's mighty failure - perhaps the greatest failure that
we read of within the Scriptures: his betrayal of the Lord Jesus Christ on the eve of the
crucifixion. "They say unto him, We also go with thee", because remember that it wasn't just
Peter who forsook Him, but it says all the disciples forsook Him - the only one that we find
around the cross was John the Beloved. "We also go with thee. They went forth, and entered into
a ship immediately; and that night they caught nothing. But when the morning was now come,
Jesus stood on the shore: but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus. Then Jesus saith unto
them, Children, have ye any meat? They answered him, No. And he said unto them, Cast the net
on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find. They cast therefore, and now they were not able to

84. draw it for the multitude of fishes. Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter, It
is the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he girt his fisher's coat unto him,
(for he was naked,) and did cast himself into the sea. And the other disciples came in a little
ship; (for they were not far from land, but as it were two hundred cubits,) dragging the net with
fishes. As soon then as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid
thereon, and bread. Jesus saith unto them, Bring of the fish which ye have now caught. Simon
Peter went up, and drew the net to land full of great fishes, an hundred and fifty and three: and
for all there were so many, yet was not the net broken. Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine.
And none of the disciples durst ask him, Who art thou? knowing that it was the Lord. Jesus then
cometh, and taketh bread, and giveth them, and fish likewise. This is now the third time that
Jesus shewed himself to his disciples, after that he was risen from the dead. So when they had
dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith
unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs. He saith
to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord;
thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep. He saith unto him the third
time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third
time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I
love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep", we end our reading at verse 17.
William Shakespeare expressed what he thought was the essence of true love in his Sonnet 116
which reads, you may be familiar with the words:
'...Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken...
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom'.
None has matched the beauty of Paul's inspired definition of love found in 1 Corinthians 13...
But none has matched the beauty of Paul's inspired definition of love found in 1 Corinthians 13.
If you turn to it you find these words: 'Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels,
and have not love, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the
gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so
that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my
goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth
me nothing. Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not
puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh
no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all
things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth', and at the end we read, 'And
now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love'.
Now I'm sure you've heard the expression: 'Love makes the world go round' - I'm not sure if
that's true or not, it certainly helps the world go round a little bit better, but that ought to be true
as a statement to the Christian. It ought to be love that makes our world go round. Love ought to

85. be the motivation of everything that we are, and everything that we do for Christ, because Paul
has defined love as being, if you like, the foundation and the chief motivation of the Christian
experience - so much that he says: 'Without love, we are nothing, and our Christian testimony is
nothing'. Now let the import of that statement not run off your back like water off a duck's back,
let it not miss you and hit the wall, but take it firmly between the eyes: that it doesn't matter, Paul
says, what your devotion to God is - even if your devotion goes to such an extent that you're
willing to give your body to be burned in martyrdom, if you don't do that in the expression and
motivation of love you're nothing, and that means nothing. No matter what your service is to
others, you give everything that you have, sell it and give to the poor, if it's not an expression of
an act of Christian, agape, divine love it means nothing to God, and really means nothing to men.
Love is everything, and if you don't have love as a Christian you are nothing!
Now we saw in our study on 'Fruit' several weeks ago in this series that love basically
undergirded all the fruit of the Spirit. It certainly was the first fruit of the Spirit that is mentioned
in Galatians 5:22 and 23, 'love' and then we go on to read about 'joy, peace, long-suffering,
gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance', but you remember that we defined all those
other fruit of the Spirit as just being different expressions of love. Love undergirds all the other
fruit, they're all different expressions and manifestations of it telling us that the Christian life is
to be a life of love. Our peace is to be love resting in Christ, our prayer is to be love keeping a
tryst and an appointment with the Son of God, our sympathy is to be love tenderly feeling for
others, our enthusiasm ought to be love working in our heart, our hope ought to be love's
expectation. In the future our patience ought to be love waiting upon God; our faithfulness ought
to be love standing firm, sticking fast for Christ; our humility ought to be love submitting to His
will, and even at times the will of others; our modesty as Christians ought to be love keeping
ourselves out of the way, and pushing Christ to the fore. Our soul winning ought to be love
pleading with others; our sanctification, our holiness ought to be love in action as, practically, we
live out the love of Christ to others. The fruit of love is because the root of our Christian faith is
love, because God is love!
Not only is it the beginning of our Christian life, it ought to be the source and continual
motivation of our Christian life - love!
Isn't that what John tells us in 1 John 4 in two places? Therefore love is our life's origin, John
3:16: 'For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son'. The reason why we are
Christians is because God loves, God is love, and He expressed that love - Romans 5:8 - 'When
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us', and that is how we have come to know that love in an
intimate way. It is the origin of our Christian life, but not only is it the beginning of our Christian
life, it ought to be the source and continual motivation of our Christian life - love! First
Corinthians 13 and verse 4 onwards expresses what that love ought to be. You'll remember that
when we looked at the fruit of the Spirit I asked you to replace the word 'love' or 'charity' in
chapter 13 of 1 Corinthians with the word 'Jesus', to show that all we have in this chapter is an
expression of the character of Christ. Paul is telling us that we as Christians ought to be living
the life of Christ before other people. Then I asked, you remember, not to substitute 'Jesus' for
the word 'love', but to put your own name, and to ask the question: does your own name fit into
that chapter? Do you express such a love, the love of Christ to others? That is what the Spirit
wants to make every single child of God, into the likeness of the Lord Jesus. He wants to
reproduce the life of Christ in us, that it might be seen before others; the life of God in Christ in
these weak clay vessels. If we are truly living with the personality and the characteristics of

86. Christ in us, we will be manifesting love continually because Christ is our life, and He is love.
Romans says that the love of God is to be shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, the very
life of God in us.
Now that has happened at salvation, that is the origin of our salvation - the love of God being
manifest to us, the Holy Spirit of love being planted in us. But do you know something? That
isn't where it ends: we have a responsibility in our everyday pilgrimage of the Christian life to
continue to dwell upon that love of Christ, and draw upon the source, the motivation for our
continuance in the faith. That's why Jude says that we are to build up ourselves in our faith,
praying in the Holy Ghost, keeping yourselves in the love of God. So we have a responsibility to
keep drawing of the source of God's love - so I'm asking you right away today: how is your love
life? I'm talking about your love life to the Lord, your expression of love to others that we'll look
at specifically next week, how is it? Because God's word is saying there's nothing more
important than this, because love is the lubricant of the Christian life. Love, if you like, is the oil
that makes the cogs go round. A lot of people get into problems in their Christian experience and
backslide and dry up spiritually, because the motivation for their Christian life is not love to the
Lord and not love to others. They serve Christ out of duty, or they follow a list of rules and
regulations and laws, and they can't keep going on their own steam of self-righteousness - or
maybe they operate on fear, they fear God in some kind of terrifying way, or they fear a
denomination or religious system or code. My friend, the motivation and source of your
Christian experience ought to be love! You ought to have started with love, you ought to be
continuing with love, it ought to be the motivation and the source of everything you are as a
Christian - and if it is not, you will fail!
Now let's move on, because basically there are four loves that the Christian will encounter and
have to face up to one way or another in his life. They are really, in my thinking at least, two
pairs of loves that are pulling in two different directions. Two of them pull us away from God,
and two of them pull us towards God - but also, in their own right, they, each four them, pull in
different directions. Let me explain what I mean: the first two pull us away from God - loves that
we will experience in our life. The first that pulls us away from God is a love that pulls us in a
downward direction, it is a love for sin. The second love that will pull us away from God is the
love that pulls us in an inward direction, and that is a love for self. The third love is a love that
pulls us toward God, and that pulls us in an upward direction to the Lord. Then the fourth love
that, God willing, we will look at next week, is a love that pulls us toward God in an outward
direction, expressing it to others. We'll look specifically, God willing, next week at the love that
we have to others - the love to the Lord's people, and the love to the lost.
Basically there are four loves that the Christian will encounter and have to face up to one way or
another in his life...
This morning I want us to look at these first three. Let's look at the first pair which express love
that draws us away from God, and the first is a downward love - a love for sin. Now although
we're converted, and of course we have to remember that, and I'm trusting that I'm speaking to
most people this morning who are Christians. You may think: 'Well, this isn't a problem for me
any more, I don't love sin', but the fact of the matter is - as we learnt when we looked at the study
on 'Temptation' - you, even though you're saved, still have an old nature. That old nature loves
sin. Now, when you get saved, God gives you a new nature, and that loves the things of God -
righteousness and holiness. But you don't get rid of your old nature, and it just depends on which
nature you feed, as to which will have the preeminence and dominate in your life. So if you're a

87. Christian, and you feed the old sinful nature with sin and temptation, it's no surprise that you're
defeated in the Christian life. The only way to have victory is to feed the new nature with
righteousness.
Now, because we still have our old nature, the more we feed it the more we will love sin. But
alternatively, the more we love Christ, the less we will love our sin. This is elementary, but so
many Christians fail to grasp it early in their Christian life: true love for Christ will mean a
hatred for all types of sin. The whole book of 1 John, the little epistle almost at the end of the
Bible, is on this theme: that you cannot say that you love God if you're living a life of sin. You
can't serve God and money, you can't serve God and sin, you can only serve God exclusively and
love God exclusively. Martin Lloyd Jones, the great preacher who has now gone to be with the
Lord, said: 'If you claim to love Christ, and yet are living an unholy life, there is only one thing
to say about you: you're a barefaced liar'. Those are strong words, aren't they? But John said
those words: 'If we continue in sin, and say that we love God, we make ourselves a liar and the
truth is not in us'. You can't sin and love God, you can't love sin and live a life of love with God,
because love is expressed in one word: obedience. We spent a whole week looking at
'Obedience', but the Lord Jesus tells us this: 'If you love me', He said to His disciples, 'You will
keep my commandments'. Listen: if you love Christ, you will have put aside the love for sin, that
love that pulls you downward and away from God.
We must move on, for the second love that pulls us away from God is an inward love, the love of
self. You have to realise that not only do we love sin, but we are created as human beings that we
must love something or other. If we don't express that love toward God, we will inevitably
express it toward something else - usually ourselves. So you either love sin or yourself, and the
Lord Jesus expressed this in Luke chapter 14, where He told His disciples that if they were going
to follow Him they would have to hate father and mother, husband and wife, children for His
sake; they would have to deny themselves, take up the cross, and follow Him, or they could not
be His disciples. Now you might say: 'Well, that's a very negative statement', but it's not! What
the Lord Jesus is saying is: 'If you really want to love people the way you ought to love people,
you have to give me your exclusive and best love, the priority in your life'. C.S. Lewis put it like
this: 'When I love God more than I love my earthly dearest, then I shall love my earthly dearest
more than I do now'. Christ first, and then you will experience and express the very love of
Christ to others! But you cannot love yourself and love the Lord! You've heard the expression in
the cowboy movies, 'This town is not big enough for the both of us'. Well, our hearts are not big
enough for self and the Saviour, for sin and the Saviour. His love will not share a place with
anything else in our hearts. He yearns after exclusivity, priority in everything that we are.
Pulling us away from God is this downward love of sin, pulling us away from God is this inward
love of self, but pulling us toward God ought to be this upward love to the Lord...
Pulling us away from God is this downward love of sin, pulling us away from God is this inward
love of self, but this is the one I want to dwell on this morning: pulling us toward God ought to
be this upward love to the Lord. The greatest and best thing that can be said of any man or
woman is that he loved the Lord. Augustine, that great saint of God, said: 'I would hate my own
soul if I did not find it loving God'. The great people of this world in the church of Jesus Christ
and Christian history were simply those who loved God more than other people. They had a
passion and a love and a zeal for God, and I honestly believe when I look into my own heart and
I look into the church at large in the West, that we have no greater need today than to fall in love
with Jesus all over again. Could the Lord not say to us, as He did to the church at Ephesus in the

88. book of the Revelation: 'Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy
first love'. Have you left your first love? Is there another place in your heart that has preeminence
over His place?
I think that the greatest dramatic question about our love for the Lord is found in John 21 that we
read together this morning, if you will look at it for a moment. The backdrop of this dramatic
scene is the early morning Sea of Tiberius. The stage is a rocky beach set with a glowing fire.
The characters present, if you read in verses 1 and 2, are Jesus, the apostle Peter and six other
disciples. Now to understand this scene fully you've got to appreciate the sense of failure that
gripped Peter's life at this time. His soul is anguished and troubled, he feels that he has
completely let down the Lord Jesus, and he has backslidden into a place of no return. You
remember the eve of the crucifixion, he denied the Lord Jesus three times, and the final denial
was a sleazy, shameful cursing and swearing as he said: 'I do not know this man that you're
talking about!'. What made it more painful for Peter was that when he said that, he didn't see the
Master coming out of an inner chamber - he never realised until the last moment that the Saviour
saw it all and heard it all! We read in the Scriptures that their eyes met, and the meeting of their
eyes must have been electric, it must have been like a dagger going into the soul of Peter. Behind
them was the echo of the cock growing in the dawn's darkness, and there was a cry from Peter's
heart: 'I have failed Him, after everything that I said I would do for Him, I have denied Him!'.
Jesus' crystal clear, x-ray, piercing eyes looked into Peter's heart, and weighed him, and found
him wanting. The Bible says Peter went out into the night and he wept bitterly. Irrevocably he
had failed Christ!
Well, the scene that we have in John 21, as the morning mists are rising from the lake, we find
some of the same characters. We find Peter, we find the Lord Jesus, and just like the night of
betrayal at the eve of the crucifixion they're standing face-to-face. The smoke of another fire is
wafting into the air - can you imagine how Peter must have felt? The Bible doesn't tell us, but
perhaps his heart, I'm sure, was racing, his stomach was churning, his face perhaps was blushing
- and it wasn't the heat of the fire. His eyes were welling up as he thought of the similar scene not
so long ago when he had let the Lord down so badly. What do you think he felt like? How do
you think he even looked? There is silence, he is speechless. Then Jesus breaks the silence first
with a piercing surgical question: 'Simon, son of Jonas, do you love me more than these?'.
Have you left your first love? Is there another place in your heart that has preeminence over His
place?
Now great speculation has been made what the 'these' were. Was it the boats? His fishing trade
that he had gone back to? Was it the fish that they had drawn? Was He talking about his friends,
or his family? Or was He talking about was his love greater than the love of the other disciples?
Whatever it was, the Lord was asking him to make a comparison of his love for Christ to his love
for other things. I think it probably was the love of the other disciples. He calls him 'Simon', He
doesn't give him his divine title that the Lord had give him, 'Peter', which means 'stone', or
something that is rock-like, hard, immovable. That was simply calculated to cut him to the bone -
Peter who, all through his life, had this personality and characteristic of making himself look
unmoveable, the hard big 'rock' fisherman would not be shaken: 'I'll go for You anywhere, Lord.
You'll never wash my feet! I'll stand up for You'. You remember him with the sword in the
garden, and then in the Upper Room, what was it he said? 'Even if all fall away on account of
You', in other words, 'Even if the rest of these boys, these disciples, fail You and betray You, I

89. will never!'. Jesus is piercing him, using this old name: 'Simon, who is not such a hard rock and
stone now, do you really love me more than these?'.
He answered by saying, if you look at it: 'Yes, Lord; You know' - and I give you the Greek
rendering - 'You know the affection I have toward You'. Jesus used the word 'agape', which
means 'divine love', the greatest love of all. Peter couldn't bring himself to use that word, and he
just replied with the word 'filio': 'Yes, Lord; You know that I have an affection for You'. What
agony Peter must have felt, that he couldn't bring himself, as Christ unblinkingly looks through
His eyes, past the smoke into Peter's eyes of failure, and the question hangs in the air: 'Do you
love me?' - and all that Peter can say is: 'I have an affection for You'! The word 'filio' is a word
that means 'love', or 'friendship', or 'deep affection'. The reply that the Lord gave him was: 'Well,
if you have that love, tend my lambs'. In other words, 'If you have what you claim then you may
serve me'.
But then there's a second surgical question that He says: 'Simon, do you love Me?'. He leaves out
the comparisons now, He's not saying: 'Do you love me more than these, or this person?', but
He's just asking the simple question, dropping all comparisons of others: 'Do you really love me?
Do you agape-love me?'. Not just a 'filio' love, but an 'agape' love. He's saying: 'This is the
bottom line: do you love me with this love?'. Peter says: 'Yes, Lord; You know again, I have an
affection for You, I have a filio for You'. Now that was not a bad answer, or a wrong answer,
because Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 16: if anyone does not have a friendship love, a filio, for
the Lord, a curse be upon him. We all have to have an affectionate love for the Lord. So the Lord
said: 'Shepherd my sheep' to him.
Then there's a third question, which literally was this from the Lord to Peter: 'Do do you have a
filio for me?'. He had asked twice: 'Do you have an agape love for me? Do you have an agape
love for me?', and the third time, after Peter has replied twice 'I have an affection for You', the
Lord says - if you like - 'Peter, do you even have an affection for me? Do you even have that
much?'.
What the Lord Jesus was doing was performing spiritual surgery on Peter's heart...
Well, how do you think Peter felt? The first question challenged Peter's stone-likeness and
superiority of his love. The second question was asking whether he had an agape love at all. The
third even challenged Peter's humble claim to a less exalted affectionate love. Peter, the Bible
says, was grieved, literally pained - but out of his pain he answered: 'Lord, You know all things,
You know that I have a friendship love for You'. He cast himself on the omniscience of the Lord.
You see Peter did love Jesus, but at this moment do you know what had happened to Peter? He
had been stripped of all his illusions, all his self-righteousness had been taken from him and been
demolished as he stands before the holy Christ of God. What the Lord Jesus was doing was
performing spiritual surgery on Peter's heart. You remember at the last fire that they stood eye-
to-eye at, there were three questions that were followed by three denials. Now over this fire that
Christ had carefully laid, there were three questions, but now there are three confessions, and
three commissions from the Lord Jesus Christ as Peter is restored in the love of God.
Deuteronomy 6 tells us: 'Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love
the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might'. The
Pharisees who debated so much over the laws, which were the ones that were important to keep
and which weren't, came and asked the Lord Jesus in Matthew 22: 'What is the greatest
commandment?'. He replied: 'To love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your

90. soul, and with all your mind; and to love your neighbour as yourself'. My friend, what we're
saying today is: it's possible to be the best preacher in the world, the best Christian writer in the
world, the best thinker, the best communicator, the best songster, and not love Christ! You can
do it all without loving Him! One of the greatest exercises any of us could do today is just
imagine yourself alone along the shore with Christ. There you face Him, silhouetted behind Him
is the shore and sea of eternity, and He's looking at you with His loving, piercing, all-knowing
eyes - and He says: 'David, do you love me?'. You have to answer honestly, because He knows
all things, as Peter said. You must answer like Peter, because you can't be helped unless you're
honest before Him and confess your need.
How are you living your Christian life? Is it through duty, is it through law, is it through fear? Or
is it through love? Do you love the Lord Jesus? The love that God wants expressed to the Lord
Jesus from you is His own love, the love that He had for the Son from before the world began.
Not just an affection, and that's good, but it's His own love reciprocated back to Him by the Holy
Spirit in our hearts. As Madam Guyon put it in her poem:
'I love my God,
But with no love of mine
For I have none to give;
I love Thee, Lord,
But all that love is Thine,
For by Thy life I live.
I am as nothing, and rejoice to be
Emptied and lost and swallowed up in Thee'.
How do you love the Lord today? J.C. Ryle said this: 'Of all the things that will surprise us in the
resurrection morning, this I believe will surprise us most: that we did not love Christ more before
we died'. Who of us this morning cannot sing:
'Lord, it is my chief complaint
That my love is weak and faint'.
A man or a woman's spiritual health is directly proportionate to their love for the Lord Jesus...
A man or a woman's spiritual health is directly proportionate to their love for the Lord Jesus. If
you're struggling in your Christian experience today, could it be that your motivation is
something other than love, whatever it may be? You just don't love the Lord enough. We're all
guilty of that. A man on one occasion was a tyrant as a husband, and he insisted on his wife
doing absolutely everything for him. He made her rise early in the morning and prepare his
breakfast. He was very demanding with regard to her care of the house. He required a strict
accounting of all the money that was spent on groceries and clothes for the children. Then he
died, and later the woman married another man who was the complete opposite: loving, tender,
unselfish. One day she was going through the effects of her first husband, and she found a list of
all the things that he had required her to do - and to her amazement, she realised that she was
doing all the same things for her second husband, yet he didn't make her do them, she did them
because she loved him.
Romans 7 verse 1 tells us: 'Ye know, brethren, that the law hath dominion over a man as long as
he liveth? For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as
he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then if, while
her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her

91. husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to
another man. Wherefore, my brethren', the illustration of marriage, the death and ability to marry
another husband, is how we have become dead to rules and laws by the body of Christ and by
His death, 'that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we
should bring forth fruit unto God. For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which
were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. But now we are
delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness
of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter'.
Love ought to be our life in Christ. Philip Brooks put it like this: 'Duty makes us do things well,
but love makes us do them beautifully'. Saint Augustine was asked the question on one occasion:
'What is the secret of the Christian life? What is a code that we can live our lives by?', and he
simply said this: 'Love God, and do as you like'. That is not licence, for if you love God you will
not love sin, if you love God you will not love self, you will love the Lord of all your heart. The
first advice that I can give you if you want to love Christ more, is to spend some time with Him,
and you will grow to love Him, you will grow to be like Him, and you will cry from your heart:
'Abba Father, dearest Father I love you, I love you, I love you'. F.W. Faber said:
'O Jesus, Jesus, dearest Lord
Forgive me if I say,
For very love, Thy sacred name
A thousand times a day'.
Do you love Him like that? Next week, God willing, we'll look at the fourth love towards God,
the outward love, the love of others, the love for the Lord's people and the love for the lost.
Father, teach us to love Thee, and to love Thy Son, and to love the Godhead, three-in-one. To
Thy glory we pray, Amen.
Don't miss part 8 of “Back To Basics”: 'Love For Others'
------------------------Back to Top
Transcribed by:
Preach The Word.
February 2005
www.preachtheword.com
This sermon was delivered at The Iron Hall Assembly in Belfast, Northern Ireland, by Pastor
David Legge. It was transcribed from the seventh recording in his 'Back To Basics' series,
entitled "Love For The Lord" - Transcribed by Preach The Word.
All material by David Legge is copyrighted. However, these materials may be freely copied and
distributed unaltered for the purpose of study and teaching, so long as they are made available to
others free of charge, and this copyright is included. This does not include hosting or
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92. Lessons At The Lake
By Terry Trivette
Bible Book: John 21 : 1-8
Subject: Faith; Trust; Jesus, Power of
Series: That's A Good Question
Introduction
The most important lessons in life are not learned in a classroom. For instance, they teach you
addition in elementary school, but a bounced check will teach you more about math. They teach
you biology in middle school, but you will truly appreciate life the first time you hold your new-
born child. In high school you took world history, but it’s not until your life is full of memories
that you truly appreciate the past. In college they study business, but a broom teaches you more
about work than a desk and a book. The most important lessons in life are not learned in a
classroom.
In the closing chapter of John’s gospel, we find the greatest Teacher of all giving a lesson on the
shore line of the sea of Tiberias. It was a lesson taught using a long, wasted night, and a
miraculous morning. John’s gospel seems to close at the end of chapter 2However, John felt it
necessary to pick up his quill again, and leave us with one final story. The chapter opens by
saying, “After these things Jesus shewed himself again to the disciples at the sea of Tiberias…"
The word that John used, translated as “shewed”, is an interesting word. The word indicates
more than just being seen. It is the same word that is found in John 2:11, where it says, “This
beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory; and his
disciples believed on him (emphasis added).” The idea behind the word in John 21 is that on that
morning by the lake, the Lord Jesus showed His disciples some things about Himself as much as
He showed them Himself.
In this text, Jesus teaches His disciples, both then and now, some important lessons about living
for Him. For those who wish to serve the Lord Jesus with their lives, these lessons at the lake are
of great importance. Jesus asks His disciples in verse 5, “Children, have ye any meat?” That’s a
good question, and it is one from which we can learn some important truths.
Notice with me three lessons that we draw from this text that speak to us about our life and
service for Jesus. First of all, we learn that:
I. APART FROM JESUS WE ARE POWERLESS
Josephus, a Jewish historian, says that in the first century there was a thriving fishing business
going on at the sea of Tiberias, also known as the Sea of Galilee. The fishing was so good, that
Josephus records that there were 230 boats working the lake at one time.[i]
Understanding there were plenty of fish in the lake, it is surprising when we read in verse 3, that
a group of professional fisherman spent an entire night on the lake, and caught nothing. The
reality is that there empty nets were a part of a lesson the Lord Jesus was going to teach them the
next morning. Their inability to catch any fish spoke to them about a deeper weakness in their
lives.

93. In John 15:5, Jesus said to His disciples, “…without me ye can do nothing.” Their empty nets
served to remind them that they were powerless apart from the help of Jesus. One the hardest,
and yet most important lessons for the believer to learn is the lesson of our own weakness.
Notice a couple of things that apart from Jesus, we are powerless to do. First of all, apart from
Jesus, we cannot:
A. Discern the way
This particular incident in Scripture falls during a unique time in the life of the disciples. Jesus
had risen from the dead, and had appeared to them on a couple of occasions, that are recorded in
John 20. Very soon, He would be ascending back into heaven, and the Holy Spirit would be
coming down at Pentecost. In John 21, the disciples are in a sort of limbo, waiting to find out
what Jesus was going to do with them.
In Matthew 26:32, Jesus told his followers, “But after I am risen again, I will go before you into
Galilee.” Following those instructions, Peter and the others left the business of Jerusalem for the
familiar haunts of Galilee. While they were there waiting, Peter apparently got bored, or possibly
even frustrated and said in verse 3, “I go a fishing.” Now it is important to note that for Peter,
fishing was not recreation, it was a vocation.
Peter had been a professional fisherman before the Lord called Him to be a disciple. One writer
translates Peter’s statement in verse 3 as, “I’m going off…to my former fishing business.”[ii]
Frustrated, impatient, and perhaps a little doubtful of the future, Peter made a decision to go back
to the life he had known before the Lord. At the time, it seemed like the way to go, because the
others said, “We also go with thee.”
How often is it that though we haven’t talked to the Lord, and we haven’t asked His will, we still
think we know the best way to go, and we make decisions that prove to be the wrong ones? Can
you hear Thomas at about 3 AM, after catching nothing? “Great idea Peter, ‘Let’s all go
fishing!?’…” The failed fishermen remind us that apart from Jesus, we can’t discern the best
moves to make in life.
We are powerless without His direction. Notice not only that apart from Jesus we are powerless
to discern the way, but notice also further that apart from Jesus, we also cannot:
B. Do the work
Look again at verse John says, “…They went forth, and entered into a ship immediately; and that
night they caught nothing.” These were professional fisherman, and yet each time they drew in
their nets, they came up empty. I don’t believe their failed fishing excursion was an accident. I
believe Jesus was just as involved in their empty nets as He was in their full ones the next
morning.
An old writer named Geoffrey King says, “Unless I am utterly mistaken, the first miracle was
that Jesus Christ all night long deliberately kept every fish in Galilee out of their nets.”[iii]
The next morning, Jesus appears on the shore, and He calls out to the fishing party, “Boys, did
you catch any fish?” The truth is; He knew very well that they had caught nothing.They
answered back with a simple, blunt, “No.” That was all He needed to hear. His point had been
made.
Throughout your Christian life, one of the things that Jesus will constantly try to teach you is that
apart from Him, you cannot do the work you are called to do. You will fail - utterly and
completely fail, apart from Him. You can’t be the parent you’re called to be apart from Jesus.

94. Independent of Jesus, you can’t be the spouse you’re supposed to be. You cannot be the
employee, neighbor, church member, friend, or person God has called you to be apart from
Jesus. Without Him, you are powerless to do the work that life requires.
On the last weekend of January, a severe ice storm hit the upper portions of the Southeastern
United States. Kentucky was hit the hardest, with over 700,000 people losing power, and 24
deaths. As of Friday, there were still 150,000 residents of Kentucky without any electricity. One
article described the scene as “Katrina in Kentucky”, saying that, “…these residents have been
reduced to a Third-world style subsistence living.”[iv]
Having no electrical power makes life inconvenient and hard. In John 21, we are reminded that
having no spiritual power makes life impossible.
Notice another lesson that was taught at the lake that morning. Notice not only that apart from
Jesus we are powerless, but notice also secondly that:
II. AIDED BY JESUS WE ARE PRODUCTIVE
Year’s ago, as a fairly new preacher, I preached a sermon from this text, and I don’t remember
much of anything about the sermon (which is probably a good thing), but I do remember the title.
I entitled the message, “How Business Picks Up When Jesus Shows Up.”
The sermon may not have been much to listen to, but the title is still fitting. John tells us in verse
6, that Jesus said to the weary band of fishermen, “Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and
ye shall find…” They obeyed, and the Bible says, “…they were not able to draw it for the
multitude of fishes.”
What had been a futile fishing trip turned into a fruitful haul of fish after Jesus got involved in
the labor. Again, is there not a lesson here for the disciple of Jesus?
The lesson is that while we can do nothing without the Lord Jesus, there is essentially nothing we
cannot do when He is helping us. Notice a couple of ways we can be productive, through our
Lord’s help. First of all:
A. We must respond to His instruction
Imagine the scene in your mind. Jesus is standing on the shore, calling out to a boat on the water.
He says, “If you will move your nets over to the other side of the boat, you will find some fish.”
The idea of switching sides of the boat sounds a little silly. If the fish were swimming on the
right, would they not be swimming on the left as well? Nevertheless, the disciples had nothing to
lose. Their fishing methods hadn’t done so well. Obeying the word from the shore, the disciples
found that the Master did in fact know what was going on under the surface of the water. He
could see what they could not. Oh, how vital it is that you and I respond to the Word of Christ! If
you want to see His blessings on your life, then respond to His instruction, and obey His Word!
I recently read the biography of one of my favorite authors, J. Sidlow Baxter. Baxter was an
unusually gifted preacher and writer, who viewed the Word of God with a unique a reverence.
Baxter lived to be almost 97 years-old, and one of the chapters in the book dealt with his diet.
Baxter tried to eat what he called a “biblical diet”, staying away from foods that were prohibited
in the Old Testament. The Biographer says of him, “J. Sidlow Baxter lived by the Bible. He lived
by its spiritual laws…For him the Bible was a handbook on all aspects of life and how to live
that life more abundantly.”[v]
While we may not eat Baxter’s “biblical diet”, like him, we too should live by the Bible.

95. Responding to the instructions our Lord gives us through the pages of His word is the key to
being productive in your spiritual life.
If we are to draw from the aid of Christ, we must not only respond to His instruction, but notice
also that:
B. We must rely on His influence
Hours had been spent pulling that net across the bottom of that Galilean lake, and not a single
fish had been caught. Suddenly, one final throw fills the net to capacity. John says that the net
was so full they could not even pull it back into the boat. In verse 11, we are told the total catch
from that one cast was 153 fish. They went from no fish, to over 150 with just one cast. Now
surely you can see that this is no coincidence. Jesus was trying to teach His disciples that their
efforts are not what is truly important. It is the influence of Christ upon their work that makes all
the difference.
Likewise, we must remember that while we are called to serve the Lord with all of our hearts,
and with all of our lives, it is not our efforts and energies that bring about the eternal and
abundant results. It is the anointing, enabling power of Christ, and His influence upon and
through us that fills the nets, and makes the work successful.
Someone has described the church or the believer that operates without the influence of Christ’s
power as someone who goes around “beating on trees with bare axe handles.” That is a pretty
good analogy. While we must cast the net, the fish respond to the Master of the Sea. He draws
them in. He is the power behind the work. We may assist, but the credit goes to Him.
Without Him, nothing is possible. With Him, nothing is impossible. Notice a third and final
lesson we learn from this meeting at the lake. Notice not only that apart from Jesus we are
powerless, and aided by Jesus we are productive, but notice also finally that:
III. AWARE OF JESUS WE ARE PASSIONATE
Look at the text again, and notice what happened when the net filled up. In verse 7 we read,
“Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter, It is the Lord. Now when Simon
Peter heard that it was the Lord, he girt his fisher's coat unto him, (for he was naked,) and did
cast himself into the sea.”
For the record, Peter was not literally naked. He was not wearing his outer robe. The ESV says
that “he was stripped for work.”
What I love about this scene is that when the disciples became aware that their Lord was near,
the whole feel of the story changes. Their passion and fervor bleed through the text and you can
almost feel their excitement. The lesson we draw from this is that when we become aware of the
presence and work of Jesus in our lives, it fills us with a holy passion that brings joy and
excitement to all that we do.
Too many people drudge their way through their Christian experience, like religious zombies.
They obey the Word of God, and they try to live right, but there is no zeal, and no passion about
what they do. For those people, this last lesson at the lake is the most important.
Notice a couple of things about becoming aware of Jesus, and the passion it will bring. Notice
first of all that:

96. A. His activity in us is exciting
While Peter was certainly excited about the fish, he dove into the water and swam to shore
because he was even more excited about the One who was behind the miraculous catch of fish. It
had been a while since these men had seen Jesus. They were excited to be in His presence again,
and to witness His work in and through their lives.
If you are a Christian, everyday of your life, the Holy Spirit of God is inside of you working to
bring about the will of God in and through you. While that may not sound all that exciting to
you, it should!
One of my favorite quotes comes from Augustine, who said, “Thou fool; dost thou not know that
thou art carrying God around with thee?” Too often we forget the wonder of carrying God
around with us.
We get accustomed to the rustling of His Spirit within us, and we take for granted the fact that
the risen Savior actually lives within our hearts and works through our lives.
Not too long ago, I was praying earnestly about a particular matter in my life. I really wanted the
Lord to give me permission to do something. One morning I woke up, and I knew as clearly as I
possibly could that God had told me, “No”. The Spirit of God stirred me, and I knew that what I
wanted to do was not the will of God. Now I would like to tell you that I just said, “O.K., Lord,
your will be done,” but the truth is that I pouted and sulked for a few days because I didn’t get
my way.
I was talking to an older preacher, whom I love and respect, and he said to me, “Hey, don’t be
upset. Just be glad God is still speaking to you.” At the time, I didn’t catch that. However, since
then, I have realized what He meant. Even though God had said “no”, the fact that He would
even communicate His will to me, and take the time to speak to me is in itself exciting and
wonderful.
Don’t ever lose the wonder of God working in and through your life. When you open your eyes
to the activity of Jesus, it will ignite a passion in your life.
Notice not only that His activity in us is exciting, but notice also that:
B. His proximity to us is encouraging
For some days now, the disciples were not sure where Jesus was. While they knew He was alive,
they didn’t see Him for some period of time.
Part of Peter’s exuberance is because he realized that Jesus was close by. John says in verse 8
that, “…they were not far from land…” That meant that they were not far from Jesus.
I believe our Lord was teaching His disciples that even when they cannot see Him, He is still in
close proximity to them. He was saying, “I am going away, but I will never be far from you.”
Hebrews 13:5 reminds us of His promise, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” No matter
where you are, He is closer than you think.
If we would live each day, aware of His proximity to us, it would bring encouragement and
energy to all that we did. Our work for Him would be strengthened by the thought that He was
near.
Jacqueline was an elderly woman whose life had been given to caring for her daughter who was
bound to a wheelchair. When her daughter died, Jacqueline’s life became lonely and

97. meaningless. Sitting down with her Bible, she came across Philippians 4:5, and the words, “The
Lord is near…”
Jacqueline thought to herself, “If that is true, I should be more aware of it.” Over the next few
days and weeks, Jacqueline to speak to Lord, as if He were in the room with her, and with her as
she ate, and slept, and went about every aspect of her day. It was not long until Jacqueline’s
loneliness left, and she lived every day aware that the Lord is near.
What would it do for you if you just realized that in every moment, in every movement of your
life, the Lord Jesus is closer than you could imagine? I believe it would bring a new passion to
your walk with the Lord.
Pastor Allistair Begg’s daily radio program, called Truth for Life, always closes with the line,
“Where the learning is for living.”
The greatest lessons we can learn are the ones that affect how we live. On a lake outside of
Galilee, 2,000 years ago, the Lord Jesus used a long night and a miraculous morning to teach His
disciples some important lessons for living.
Those lessons are timeless, and they speak to us today. Our Lord, through His Word, says to you
and me, “Apart from me, you are powerless. Aided by me, you are productive. Aware of me, and
you will become passionate.”
Have you learned these lessons? Do you need to hear them again? May the Spirit of God write
these truths upon our hearts, and may we leave this place seeking His presence and power upon
our lives.
[i] Sea of Galilee, Wikipedia Article, accessed 2/7/09,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_of_Galilee
[ii] Wuest, Kenneth, The New Testament – An Expanded Translation, (Eerdmans, Grand Rapids,
MI, 1961), p. 265
[iii] King, Geoffrey R., The Forty Days, (Henry E. Walter Ltd., London, 1948), p. 95
[iv] Taylor, Jeff, Katrina in Kentucky, 2/6/09, Reasononline, accessed 2/7/09,
http://reason.com/news/show/131528.html
[v] Johnson, E.A., J. Sidlow Baxter – Awake My Heart, (Baker Books, Grand Rapids, MI, 2005),
p. 195-196
PHIL NEWTON
"It is the Lord!"
John 21:1-14
November 9, 1997
Some of the best insights into the Christian faith come through the vehicle of narrative
passages. Such is the case of our text which helps us to understand the issue of divine
revelation. Our text mentions three times Jesus "manifesting Himself" to the disciples. The
word is common in John's writings and conveys the idea of 'making visible,' or 'making

98. known'. Our context helps us to understand John's usage in this passage. For he addresses
the appearances of Jesus Christ after the resurrection. John records Christ's manifestations
on resurrection day, then the manifestation to Thomas with the disciples a week later. Now
he records a "third time," that is, a third day in which Christ manifest Himself during the
period between His resurrection and ascension. The manifestation was a divine self-
disclosure made to the disciples, but as far as we know, not made to any others.
We must see the significance of this in terms of our own relationship to Christ. These
disciples could not see Christ unless He made Himself known to them. For instance, Luke
records that on Resurrection day, Jesus came alongside two disciples on the road to
Emmaus, discussing all of the things that were happening in regard to Him. They did not
know who He was even though they were His disciples, until their eyes were opened.
We can think of our own lives in which perhaps for years we read the Word of God and
heard it preached and taught, yet did not have a clear comprehension of Jesus Christ in His
saving offices. Then it seemed as if the lights were turned on! What had been merely an
academic understanding of Christ became a living, dynamic relationship. What happened to
bring this about? Through the Word of God coming alive to us by the Holy Spirit, Christ
revealed Himself to us so that we responded in saving faith to this revelation.
Some would suggest that by the solitary means of human reason, they can know the living
God. We do have reasoning powers, which Dr. James Petigru Boyce describes as, "that
power in man, which enables him to have mental perceptions, to exercise thought, and
reflection, to know facts, to inquire into their mutual relations, and to deduce, logically, the
conclusions which may be drawn from them" [Abstract of Systematic Theology, 46]. The
problem is that apart from revelation, the human reasoning powers are limited to the
natural realm. In other words, the human ability to reason can contemplate all sorts of
matters in this world, but does not have the capacity to understand the saving work of God
through Christ--a supernatural work in its origin and effect. Reasoning powers are
important. But for the salvation of a sinner it is necessary to have more than mere reason.
A man who is dead in his trespasses and sins, separated from God, and a stranger to the
promises of God cannot understand the great mystery of the gospel without God's gracious
revelation through the Word by the Holy Spirit.
Revelation is actually God's gift to us in a special, significant way so that we might trust
Jesus Christ for our eternal salvation. Again I quote Dr. Boyce who states, "By revelation,
we mean the knowledge which God conveys by direct supernatural instruction, pre-
eminently that given in the book known as the Bible" [47]. Revelation involves the Bible and
God Himself. The Bible is the Word of God, the written record of the revelation of God to
man. But a man can read this written revelation with no effect until the Holy Spirit illumines
him to see its truth and to understand its divine Author.
This is where we come back to our text. Though the disciples saw Jesus and heard His
voice, they did not know it was Him except through revelation [Luke 24 and John 20 both
give good examples of this]. It is God making Himself known through His own self -
disclosure; in the case of our text through a visible manifestation, while in our cases,
through the Word of God.
The revelation of Christ is necessary for faith and perseverance. When He reveals Himself
we cannot remain neutral or passive about the demands of the gospel and the reality of t he
Christian faith.
Why is revelation important?
I. The necessity of revelation
We have already seen some of the need for revelation, but I believe it is important to
underscore this further. If we are left to depend simply upon our ability to reason, then with

99. the downward bent of our natures and the constant influence of the world, we can be sure
that we will not reason our way to God. If this was possible, then Paul would never have
made such a strong statement as that of Romans 10:17: "So faith comes from hearing, and
hearing by the word of Christ." Faith depends upon divine revelation winging its way
through the truth of God's Word to the mind. Yes, our reasoning powers do engage
themselves at this point, but now the basis for response is not in the lig ht of nature or the
light of the human mind, but in the revelation of God.
In terms of our salvation, I believe this is vital for two reasons.
1. To understand ourselves
First, to understand ourselves and our need for the gospel of Christ, we must have
revelation from God. Man will live in self-sufficiency until he is confronted by his own
insufficiency before a holy God.
We see this illustrated in the simplicity of the story offered in our text. Seven of the
disciples decided to go fishing, all following Peter's lead. These men were for the most part
professional fishermen. They understood the right places in the Sea of Galilee to catch fish,
as well as the right time to find the fish. John comments, "They went out, and got into
the boat; and that night they caught nothing." Commercial fishermen, like these men,
were not accustomed to catching nothing. Now I would not be surprised by this comment if
it was made of me!...but certainly not of men who had spent their lives on this body of
water catching fish.
Then the question comes to them by the Lord Jesus. "Children, you do not have any
fish, do you?" This was phrased in such a way as to expect a "no" answer. They gave an
honest reply, which seems to be an unusual thing for fishermen. "They answered Him,
"No"." They had to admit that with all of their skills and experience, they had caught
nothing. They had gone at the best time to catch fish in that area, night time, and they
knew how to do it being professionals. Now they had to admit their lack of sufficiency in
doing the job. No exaggerations, no stretching the truth, no excuses, just honesty in their
failure was found in their answer.
I wonder if you have been so honest before the Lord? How many people labor earnestly in
trying to bring about their own salvation, thinking that they will surely accomplish it? They
go through all sorts of ordeals to justify themselves. When confronted with the question,
"Are you saved yet?," they make excuses or ignore the question or convince themselves
instead of coming to terms with their own personal insufficiency. Before the disciples could
know that the Lord stood on the shore awaiting them, they had to admit their own
deficiency in their labors.
As the Word of God is proclaimed, particularly those passages that have reference to the
Law of God or some aspect of God's character, we discover the truth about our own spiritual
condition. We find that we are bankrupt, helpless, and desperate before God as sinners. It is
only at this point that we desire to flee to Christ and find an eternal refuge for our souls.
2. To understand the Lord
When you have been with someone day and night for over three years, it seems that you
would know the outline of their form and recognize the tone of their voice. Yet for the
disciples, though they had been with Christ, until He manifested Himself to them, they did
not know that the Lord stood on the beach. The same was true of Mary in the garden of the
tomb on Resurrection day, as well as true of the two disciples on t he Emmaus Road.
John brings this out in his first epistle. "What was from the beginning, what we have heard,
what we have seen with our eyes, what we beheld and our hands handled, concerning the
Word of Life--and the life was manifested, and we have seen and bear witness and
proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us" (I

100. John 1:1-2). You will notice how John speaks of such personal terms as seeing, beholding,
and handling, but with the emphasis on the divine self-disclosure: "and the life was
manifested...and was manifested to us." Others saw Christ but did not know Him. Others
touched Him but received no saving grace from His hand. John understood that Jesus "was
manifested" to him, that is, by God's grace, Jesus Christ was made known to John for who
He is and for what He has done for sinners.
Do you really know who Jesus Christ is? Do you understand that He is very God of very
God, the Creator of the universe, the Savior of sinners, the Redeemer of God's elect, the
Sovereign over all creation, the Judge of humanity? Do you understand that Jesus Christ
became a man, lived a sinless life, died a bloody, atoning death in vicarious fashion so that
He alone is the only way to God and eternal life? If we can hear these t hings yet be passive
about them, then Jesus has never been truly manifested to us. If we can repeat them but
they have not gripped our heart with a consciousness that God Himself has come to us to
save us from our sins, then Jesus has never been truly manifested to us.
II. The process of revelation
While seeing the necessity of revelation, we must also give consideration to the process by
which Jesus Christ reveals Himself to us. Again we find it illustrated for us in this simple
narrative.
1. Seeing yet not seeing
The whole idea of revelation implies that there is something which you do not see or do not
know. We sometimes hear this word used in reference to issues related to legal matters.
Some aspect of evidence that had been unknown or some testimony affecting a court case
that had not been heard is considered to be "a revelation" which affects the outcome of
legal decisions.
Our text shows the case of the disciples seeing Jesus yet not seeing Him. They saw with
their eyes as Jesus called to them from the beach, but "the disciples did not know that
it was Jesus." We find this to be the case with multitudes across our nation. So many see
the testimony of Christians, hear the preaching of God's Word, witness the wonderful
mercies of God, but they really do not see Jesus Christ. Nothing is wrong with their physical
sight or their hearing, but something is desperately wrong with the eyes of their hearts.
They are, as Paul expressed it, "being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the
life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart"
(Eph. 4:18). In a companion passage, Paul explains both the condition of seeing yet not
seeing and the revelation that comes to us in the gospel of Jesus Christ:
For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various
lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one
another. But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind
appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in
righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and
renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ
our Savior, that being justified by His grace we might be made heirs according to the
hope of eternal life (Titus 3:3-7).
The term I would focus upon is found in the third verse, where he states that God's
kindness and love "appeared." This word is akin to the same term which John uses to
describe the manifestation of Christ to the disciples (cf. John 21:1,14). Paul's testimony is
not that God's kindness and love for mankind appeared to all men in a general fashion,
rather it is something that was significant, special, personal to him. He became conscious of
the greatness of God's love and mercy to sinners through Jesus Christ. The condition of the
heart is one of being foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to lusts, etc., then at a point

101. in time this revelation of God and His saving mercies through Christ came to him. He saw
yet he did not see until the revelation of the grace of God to him.
2. Hearing and obeying
We find the Lord speaking to the disciples, giving instruction on their fishing. "Cast the net
on the right-hand side of the boat, and you will find a catch." We do not find them
recoiling at the suggestion of this Stranger who tells them where to cast their nets. They
heard and responded. Pride did not affect them as you might expect from men who had
been fishing all night and had only empty fish baskets to show for it. They heard and
obeyed. "They cast therefore, and then they were not able to haul it in because of
the great number of fish. That disciple therefore whom Jesus loved said to Peter,
"It is the Lord"." They heard, they obeyed, and then they knew it was the Lord.
I do want to be careful in the use of a narrative passage in trying to read more into it than
is implied. But I do believe that given John's emphasis on Jesus manifesting Himself to the
disciples in this text, we cannot simply slide over this as though it was another nice story. It
is revelation taking place, showing us the very way that we too receive revelation.
Revelation does not come from our initiative but from the Lord's sovereign prerogatives.
C.H. Spurgeon stated in one of his sermons on this passage,
There is absolute sovereignty about the work of Christ in the kingdom of his
grace....We have to fall back upon the sovereignty of God, and say, "God wills it, and
therefore it is." He will have us know that sovereignty is his divine prerogative....He
exercises his power, not according to our will, but according to his own will; we must
never forget that [MTP, vol. 55, 257].
Do we not find ourselves cast upon the mercy of our great God in this whole matter of
salvation? If we are about the business of simply trying to talk someone into a decision for
Christ, then we do not need God's revealing work. But if salvation is truly a work of God, not
merely a decision, then we must have God's gracious revelation of Himself to sinners in the
work of our evangelism. God must reveal truth to the heart or we can see nothing of eternal
value take place.
This should be a warning to those of you who are careless in hearing the proclamation of
God's Word. If God indeed uses His Word to reveal Himself to us, then you dare not ignore
what is being proclaimed in the pulpit, taught in the classroom, or presented to you in
private settings! Your whole eternity rests in your response to God's revelation in the
gospel. Have you truly heard the gospel of Christ? Has it struck fire in your heart, bringing
you to conviction of your sin, and convincing you of the merits of Christ alone for your
salvation? If you have so heard, then surely you must obey. As the disciples heard the
simple word to cast their nets on the right side of the boat and they obeyed, how much
more should you who have heard the only word that is able to save your souls--the gospel
of Christ--obey with a glad heart? See Jesus Christ as He is revealed in the gospel, then
turn from your sin and cast yourself upon Him alone in faith.
3. Receiving and experiencing
John adds that something wonderful took place when the disciples heard and obeyed. They
cast their net "and they were not able to haul it in because of the great number of
fish." Jesus told them where to cast--and they did. He also assured them of a catch--and
they found that His word was sure. They heard, obeyed, and received His sure promise in
abundance. They had no idea that when they cast their net on the right side of the boat that
they would receive such a large amount of fish. Later John recounts that the fish were large
and numbered 153, yet the net was not torn.
We have for us such a beautiful picture here of the believer hearing the word of Christ,
responding to that word, and then receiving more than he imagined. You have heard the

102. gospel over and over. Perhaps you think that it is nothing more than joining some type of
movement or deciding to become a religious person. My friend, I want you to see that when
you receive Jesus Christ in all of His saving work you receive more than you can imagine!
You experience the reality of a relationship with the living God through Christ. The Holy
Spirit indwells you. Your standing with God is now made sure, so that you have access to
the throne of God through the righteousness of Christ. You have the strength and grace
necessary to live out the demands of the gospel. You have the glad assurance of an eternity
in the glorious presence of the Triune God!
Has Jesus Christ been revealed to you as the only Savior of sinners and the Lord of life? Do
you know Him as your own Prophet, Priest, and King? Having received Him by faith, do you
know the wondrous fullness of life in Christ?
III. The fruit of revelation
There is no neutrality with divine revelation. When the supernatural power of the gospel of
Christ operates in you there will be the certainty of fruit being borne.
1. Perceiving divine reality
We find that when Christ was revealed to John and Peter, there are two different responses,
both expressing their personalities and the wonderful reality of knowing the living Christ. I
think that this is a good example to us of how all of us are different and sometime we
express our devotion to Christ in different ways, yet it is still devotion from the heart.
George Hutcheson, the 17th century Scottish pastor, said of this truth: "In the church of
Christ, and even among disciples and apostles, there is great variety of tempers, and
dispositions, and endowments; every one hath not alike perfection in the same degree, nor
is it to be expected that all will be alike, though all may be sincere and approved; for here
John is most eminent in discerning Christ, Peter is most forward in zeal, and yet all do
willingly come to Christ" [John, Geneva Commentary Series, 430].
We find John confessing Christ. "That disciple therefore whom Jesus loved said to
Peter, "It is the Lord"." The confession is simple and brief, but one that is full of
assurance. John may not have been able to identify Jesus with his eyes, but he saw the
abundance of fish in the net and knew that this had to come about by the Lord. Sometime
we see God's face, other times we see God's hands, but we see Him just the same. When
we do, our response should be to confess Him for Who He is: "It is the Lord!" Have you
confessed Him as your Lord?
We find Peter demonstrating his affection for Christ. None of the disciples could match Peter
for his zeal. Here was the one who had been so disappointed by his behavior in denying
Christ, but now his love burned fresh. "And so when Simon Peter heard that it was the
Lord, he put his outer garment on (for he was stripped for work), and threw
himself into the sea." Peter's desire was to get to Christ as quickly as possible, to be near
the Lord, to enjoy His presence. A true love for Christ always leads to Christ. When Peter
perceived the revelation of Christ, he immediately sought after him. We would have thought
this a strange thing to do, casting himself into the sea to swim to Christ when the little boat
was not that far from shore. But great love for Christ produces great zeal for Him. I wonder,
do you have that kind of heart that longs for the Lord, that delights to be in His presence,
that even casts care to the wind to express your deepest love for Jesus Christ?
2. Divine provision
When the disciples came to shore they found that Jesus had already prepared breakfast for
them. "And so when they got out upon the land, they saw a charcoal fire already
laid, and fish placed on it, and bread. Jesus said to them, "Bring some of the fish
which you have now caught"....Jesus said to them, "Come and have breakfast"."
We see the wonderful truth of Christ's provisions for us in this simple story. They had fished

103. all night and it was now daylight, time for breakfast. They had nothing with them on the
boat. They had nothing prepared on the shore. They had the need; Christ had the supply.
This is true for us in our salvation. We have the need and He alone has the supply through
His own righteousness on our behalf. Why do you continue starving in your sin? Come to
Jesus Christ and be filled!
This truth also has continuing application in our daily needs. We who have come to Christ
belong to Him. As we have entrusted our souls to Him for all eternity, then He has taken on
the responsibility of supplying our needs. Sometime living in a land of plenty, as we do and
having so many things, as we do, can dull our senses from the reality that all of our needs
are supplied in Jesus Christ. We often fill ourselves on that which does not satisfy so that we
fail to understand that all who are in Christ must find their deepest satisfactions for daily life
in Him. The strength to live for Him is found by realizing we are a branch abiding in the
Vine. The solace for our anxious moments is found in knowing that He works all things
together for good to those who love Him and those called according to His purpose. In times
of fear and persecution, we find joy in knowing that nothing can separate us from the love
of God in Christ Jesus.
Even in our labors, we discover that because we are in Him, our Lord provides for us.
"Bring some of the fish which you have now caught," our Lord told the disciples. They
had nothing, until He told them where to cast. All they had caught was dependent upon
Jesus Christ. Yet, they had actually caught the fish. He provided; they labored. Their
satisfaction was in knowing that their service and labor was accomplished due to the
provision of Jesus Christ. Some find themselves getting despondent or overwhelmed by the
labors they face. See that Christ Jesus is your provider, even in the midst of your service.
All that you do in terms of service, you do through His provision. He allows you the privilege
of entering into a work by His good hand.
3. Assurance
The disciples did not wonder if this scene was a dream or a vision. "None of the disciples
ventured to question Him, "Who are You?" knowing that it was the Lord." With His
revelation comes the assurance of His presence and work. Perhaps this is the same idea
that Paul had in mind when speaking of the witness of the Holy Sp irit. "The Spirit Himself
bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God" (Rom. 8:16). The revealing work
of the Spirit gives us the assurance that we truly belong to the Lord. When He reveals
Himself there is no question that it is the Lord.
The surest way to deal with doubts in our salvation is to know that clear revelation of Christ
to us in the gospel. The more we grasp that in the gospel Christ Himself has come to us, the
more confident we will be in our salvation. Let us flee to the Word of God when assailed
with doubts. Let us plead for Christ to show Himself to us through His Word so that we
might know that we are His and He is ours.
Conclusion
Has Jesus Christ revealed Himself to you in the gospel? My friend, I appeal to you to hear
the word of the Lord. Then do as John did and confess, "It is the Lord!" Or as Peter, flee to
Him for the sheer delight of being accepted in His wonderful presence.
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A. PINK
Christ by the Sea of Tiberias
John 21:1-14
The following is an Analysis of our present passage:—
1. Christ’s third appearing to the apostles, verses 1, 14.
2. The seven on the sea, verses 2, 3.
3. Their dulness and emptiness, verses 4, 5.
4. The miracle of the fishes, verse 6.
5. John’s recognition and Peter’s response, verse 7.
6. The landing of the six, verses 8, 9.
7. Christ’s welcome, verses 10-13.
The opening verses of this Gospel are in the nature of a Prologue, so the closing chapter is more
or less an Epilogue. In the former, the Holy Spirit has set forth what Christ was before He came
forth from the Father; in the latter He has shown, in mystical guise, how He now rules the world
after His return to the Father. "The prologue is intended to exhibit the external life of Christ as it
preceded His manifestation in the world; the epilogue appears to have for its scope, to exhibit
His spiritual sway in the world as it would continue after He had left it" (Lange). All here has a
profound significance. The disciples are on the sea; the Lord, no longer with them, directs from
the shore, manifesting His power by working with them in their seemingly lonesome toil, and
exhibiting His love in providing food for them. Then the charge is left to "feed his sheep." His
final word was a reference to His coming again.
The varied details of chapter 21 supply a most instructive and marvelously complete lesson on
service. In the previous chapter we have seen the Savior establishing the hearts of the apostles by
His word of "Peace," endowing them with the Holy Spirit, and then commissioning them to
proclaim remission of sins. Here we have, in symbolic form, the apostles engaged in active
ministry. The order is most suggestive. What we receive from the Lord Jesus is to be used for the
good of others. Freely we have received, freely we are now to give. The key to the practical
significance of the scene here portrayed lies in the almost identical circumstances when the
apostles received their first ministerial call—Luke 5.
The chapter as a whole falls into seven parts as we analyze it from the viewpoint of its teaching
on service. First, we see men serving in the energy of the flesh (John 21:2, 3). Peter says, "I go a

105. fishing." He had received no call from God to do so. His action illustrates self-will, and the
response of the other six men acting under human leadership. Second, we are shown the
barrenness of such efforts (John 21:3-5). They toiled all night, but caught nothing, and when the
Lord asked if they had any meat, they had to answer, No. Third, the Lord now directs their
energies, telling them where to work (John 21:6): the result was that the net was filled with
fishes. Fourth, we learn of the Lord’s gracious provision for His servants (John 21:12, 13): He
had provided for them, and invites them to eat. Fifth, we are taught what is the only acceptable
motive for service—love to Christ (John 21:15, 17). Sixth, the Lord makes known how that He
appoints the time and manner of the death of those of His servants who die (John 21:18, 19).
Seventh, the Lord concludes by leaving with them the prospect of His return; not for death, but
for Himself they should look (John 21:20, 24).
The miracle in John 21 stands alone: it is the only recorded one which Christ wrought after His
resurrection, and most fittingly is it the last narrated in this Gospel. Its striking resemblance to
the first miracle which some of these disciples had witnessed (Luke 5:1-11) must have brought to
their remembrance the very similar circumstances under which they had been called by Christ to
leave their occupation as fishermen and become fishers of men. Thus they would be led to
interpret this present "sign" by the past one, and see in it a renewed summons to their work of
catching men, and a renewed assurance that their labor in the Lord would not be in vain. Suitably
was it the last miracle which they witnessed at the hands of their Master, for it supplied a symbol
which would continually animate them to and in their service for Him. It was designed to assure
them that just as He had prospered their efforts while He was with them in the flesh, so they
could count on His guidance, power, and blessing when He was absent from them.
This final miracle of the Savior was performed in Galilee, so also was His first (i.e., the turning
of the water into wine), and it seems clear that the Holy Spirit would have us use the law of
comparison and contrast again. The author of "The Companion Bible" has called attention to
quite a number of striking correspondences between the two miracles: we mention a few, leaving
the interested reader to work out the others for himself. In both miracles there is a striking
background: in the one we have the confession of Nathanael (John 1:49); in the other, the
confession of Thomas (John 20:28). The first miracle was on "the third day" (John 2:1); the latter
was "the third time" the Lord showed Himself to the apostles (John 21:14). The one was
occasioned by them having "no wine" (John 2:3); the other, by them having no fish (John 21:3,
5). In both the Lord uttered a command: "Fill the waterpots" (John 2:7); "Cast the net" (John
21:6). In both Christ furnished a bountiful supply: the water pots were "filled to the brim (John
2:7); the net full of great fishes (John 21:11). In both a number is mentioned: "six waterpots"
(John 2:6); "one hundred and fifty and three fishes" (John 21:11). In both Christ manifested His
Deity (John 2:11; 21:12, 14). How much we lose by not carefully comparing scripture with
scripture!
"After these things Jesus showed himself again to the disciples at the sea of Tiber, as; and on this
wise showed he" (John 21:1). "After these things" always marks off a distinct section in John’s
writings. The earlier appearances of the risen Savior were in view of the then condition and need
of the apostles to establish their faith and assure their hearts. But here, what the Lord did and
said, had a prophetic significance, anticipating and picturing His future relations to them.
"Jesus showed himself," not presenting Himself, but manifested His presence, power, and glory.
It was not simply that the disciples saw him, but that he revealed Himself. "His body after the
resurrection was only visible by a distinct act of His will. From that time the disciples did not, as

106. before, see Jesus, but He appeared unto them. It is not for nothing that the language is changed.
Henceforth, He was to be recognized not by the flesh, but by the spirit; not by human faculties,
but by Divine perceptions: His disciples were to walk by faith, and not by sight" (Chrysostom).
When we are told in Acts 1:3 that the Lord Jesus was "seen of them forty days," it does not mean
that the Lord was corporeally present with them throughout this period, nor that He was seen by
them each day. He was visible and invisible, appeared in one form or another, according to His
own pleasure.
"At the sea of Tiberias." In John 6:1 we read, "The sea of Galilee, which is the sea of Tiberias,"
the latter being its Roman name. In Matthew 28:10 we learn that the risen Savior had said to the
women at the sepulcher, "Go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see
me." This, then, explains the presence of the seven disciples here in Galilee. Where the other
four were, and why they had not yet arrived, we do not know. But it seems clear that these seven
had no business there at the sea, for Matthew 28:16 distinctly says, "The eleven disciples went
away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them." It looks very much as
though Peter was restless, and while waiting the coming of the other apostles he said, "I go a
fishing"—to the last we see his energetic nature at work. Others have suggested that the reason
they went a fishing was in order that they might obtain food for a meal, and possibly this did
supply an additional motive—cf. John 21:12.
"There were together Simon Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana in
Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two other of his disciples" (John 21:2). Peter being
mentioned first intimates that the enumeration here is the order of grace. "Thomas" occupying
the second place in the list is a further indication of this. The removal of his doubts had restored
the Eleven to unity of faith, and prepared them for mutual fellowship again. "There were
together Simon Peter and Thomas," which is a beautiful contrast from John 20:24—"But
Thomas was not with them!" Thomas is named next to Peter, as if he now kept closer to the
meetings of the apostles than ever. "It is well if losses by our neglect make us more careful
afterwards not to let opportunities slip" (Matthew Henry). Of "Nathanael" we read elsewhere
only in John 1:45-51: probably he is the "Bartholomew" of Matthew 10:3. Next come the "sons
of Zebedee," emphasizing their fishermen-character. This is the only place where John does not
refer to himself as "the disciple whom Jesus loved": the absence of this expression here being in
full accord with the fact that it is the order of grace which is before us. Who the other two
disciples were we are not told.
"Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing. They say unto him, We also go with thee. They
went forth and entered into a ship immediately; and that night they caught nothing" (John 21:3).
That Peter is here seen taking the lead is in full accord with what we read elsewhere of his
impulsive and impetuous nature. Most of the commentators consider that the disciples were fully
justified in acting as they did on this occasion. But the Lord had not given them orders to fish for
any but men. It seems to us, therefore, that they were acting according to the promptings of
nature. The fact that it was night-time also suggests that they were not walking as children of
light. Nor did the Lord appear to them during that night: they were left to themselves! The
further fact that they "caught nothing" is at least a warning hint that servants of the Lord cannot
count on His blessing when they choose the time and place of their labors, and when they run,
unsent. These beloved disciples had to be taught in their own experience, as we all have to be,
the truth which the Lord had enunciated just before His death—"Without me, ye can do nothing"
(John 15:5); not, a little, but nothing! The further fact that we are told, "They went forth, and

107. entered into a ship immediately" as soon as Peter had said, "I go a fishing," instead of first
looking to God for guidance, or weighing what Peter had said, supplies further evidence that the
whole company was acting in the energy of the flesh—a solemn warning for each of God’s
servants to wait on the Lord for their instructions instead of taking them from a human leader!
"But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore: but the disciples knew not that
it was Jesus" (John 21:4). The "But" here adds further confirmation to what we have said above
on John 21:3. That these disciples now failed to recognize the Savior indicates that their spiritual
faculties were not then in exercise. It seems evident that they were not expecting Him. And how
often He draws near to us and we know it not! And how often our acting in the energy of the
flesh and following the example of human leaders is the cause of this! In the Greek, the dosing
words of this verse are identical with those found at the end of John 20:14: "and [Mary] knew
not that it was Jesus." She was immersed in sorrow, occupied with death, and she recognized not
the Savior. These men had returned to their worldly calling, and were occupied with their bodily
needs and recognized Him not. Surely these things are written for our learning!
"Then Jesus saith unto them, Children, have ye any meat? They answered him, No" (John 21:5).
Our Lord’s form of address here is also searchingly suggestive. He did not use the term of
endearment employed in John 13:33, "Little children," but employed the more general form of
salutation, which the margin renders "Sirs." He spoke not according to the intimacies of love, but
as from a distance—a further hint from the Spirit as to how we are to interpret John 21:2, 3. But
why did He ask: "Have ye any meat?" He knew, of course, that they had none; what, then, was
the purpose of His enquiry? Was it not designed to draw from them a confession of their failure,
ere He met their need? And is not this ever His way with His own? Before He furnishes the
abundant supply, we must first be made conscious of our emptiness. Before He gives strength,
we must be made to feel our weakness. Slow, painfully slow, are we to learn this lesson; and
slower still to own our nothingness and take the place of helplessness before the Mighty One.
The disciples on the sea picture us, here in this world; the Savior on the shore (whither we are
bound) Christ in Heaven. How blessed, then, to behold Him occupied with us below, and
speaking to us from "the shore!" It was not the disciples who addressed the Lord, but He who
spoke to them!
"And He said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find" (John 21:6).
How this evidences the Deity of the One here speaking to these disciples! He knew on which
side of the ship the net should be cast. But more, did it not show them, and us, that He is
sovereign of the sea? These men had fished all their lives, yet had they toiled throughout that
night and taken nothing. But here was the Lord telling them to cast their net but once, and
assuring them they should find. Was it not He, by His invisible power, that drew the fishes into
their net! And what a striking line is this picture of Christian service. How He tells the servants
that success in their ministry is due not to their eloquence, their power of persuasion, or their any
thing, but due alone to His sovereign drawing-power. A most blessed foreshadowment did the
Savior here give the apostles of the Divine blessing which should rest upon their labors for Him.
In full and striking accord with this was the fact that the Lord bade them "Cast the net on the
right side of the ship"—cf. Matthew 25:34: "Then shall the king say unto them on his right hand,
Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the
world!"
"They cast, therefore, and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes" (John
21:6). This is very striking. The Lord was a hundred yards away from them (John 21:8), yet they

108. heard plainly what He said. Again: He was, so far as their recognition of Him at the moment, an
entire stranger to them. Moreover, notwithstanding the fact that they had fished all night and
caught nothing, and had already drawn up the net into the boat, as being useless to prolong their
efforts; nevertheless, they now promptly cast it into the sea again. How strikingly this
demonstrated once more the power of the Word—in making them hear His voice, in overcoming
whatever scruples they may have had, in moving their hearts to prompt obedience. Verily, "all
power in heaven and in earth" is His. In the abundant intake the disciples were taught that in
"keeping his commandments there is great reward" (Ps. 19:11). And what a lesson for those who
seek to serve: His it is to issue orders, ours to obey—unmurmuringly, unquestioningly, promptly.
"Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter, It is the Lord" (John 21:7). This is in
perfect keeping with what we read elsewhere about John—the most devoted of the apostles, he
possessed the most spiritual discernment. He was the one who leaned on the Master’s breast at
the supper, and to whom the Lord communicated the secret of the betrayer’s identity (John
13:23-26). He was the one that was nearest to the cross, and to whose care the Savior committed
His mother (John 19:26, 27). He it was who was the first of the Eleven to perceive that the Lord
had risen from the dead (John 20:8). So here, he was the first of the seven to identify the One on
the shore. How perfectly harmonious are the Scriptures! "The tenderest love has the first and
surest instincts of the object beloved" (Stier). And what a lesson is here again for the Lord’s
servants: when He grants success to our labors, when the Gospel-net in our hands gathers fishes,
let us not forget to own "It is the Lord!" To how much more may and should this principle be
applied. As we admire the beauties of nature, as we observe the orderliness of her laws, as we
receive countless mercies and blessings every day, let us say "It is the Lord!" So, too, when our
plans go awry, when disappointment, affliction, persecution comes our way, still let us own "It is
the Lord!" It is not blind chance which rules our lives, but the One who died for us on the cross.
"Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he girt his fisher’s coat unto him (for he was
naked) and did cast himself into the sea" (John 21:7). This was in full keeping with Peter’s
character: if John was the first to recognize Christ, Peter was the first to act! Nor do we believe
that it was mere impulsiveness which prompted him—his collectedness in first girding himself
with the outer garment makes decisively against such a superficial conclusion. Peter, too, was
devoted to Christ, deeply so, and it was love which here made him impatient to reach Christ.
Peter’s action makes us recall that night on the stormy sea when the Savior walked on the waves
toward the ship in which the disciples were. Peter it was, then, who said unto the Lord, "Bid me
come unto thee on the water" (Matthew 14:28), for he could not wait for his Beloved to reach
him. Beautiful it is now to observe that there was no reserve about Peter. In the interval between
Matthew 14 and John 21, he had basely denied his Master; but in the interval, too, and after the
denial, he had heard His "Peace be unto you," and, plainly, this reassuring word had been
treasured up in his heart. Observe that Peter left the net full of fishes for Christ, like the
Samaritan woman who left her waterpot. The "girding" of himself evidences the deep reverence
in which he held the Savior!
"And the other disciples came in a little ship (for they were not far from the land, but as it were
two hundred cubits) dragging the net with fishes" (John 21:8). Love does not act uniformly; it
expresses itself differently, through various temperaments. John did not jump out of the ship,
though he was equally devoted as Peter, nor did the other five. The six remained in the skiff or
punt which usually accompanied the large fishing vessels, so as to draw the net full of fishes
safely to land; illustrating the fact that faithful evangelists will not desert those who have been

109. saved under their preaching, but will labor with them, care for them, and do all in their power to
ensure their safely reaching the shore. The parenthetical remark seems to be brought in here to
emphasize the miraculous character of this catch of fish, and to teach us that sometimes converts
to Christ will be found in the most unlikely places—the net was cast close in to the shore!
"As soon then as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid thereon, and
bread" (John 21:9). This is most blessed. It illustrates once more the precious truth that Jesus
Christ is "the same yesterday, and to-day and forever." Even in His resurrection-glory He was
not unmindful of their physical needs. Ever thoughtful, ever compassionate for His own, the
Savior here showed His toiling disciples that He cared for their bodies as well as their souls: "For
he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust" (Ps. 103:14). We doubt not that this
provision of His was miraculously produced: the fire, the fish on it, and the bread by its side,
were the creations of Him who has but to will a thing and it is done. It is surely significant that
the food which Christ here provided for the disciples was of the same variety as that with which
He had fed the hungry multitude close by the same sea. The fish and the bread would doubtless
recall the earlier miracle to the minds of the apostles.
"They saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid thereon, and bread." What is the deeper significance
of this? First, it tells us of the Lord’s care for His servants, and is the concrete pledge that He will
supply all their need. Second, the Lord has left us an example to follow: if the Son of God
condescended to spread this table for His children after their night of toil, let us not think it
beneath us to take loving forethought whenever we have the opportunity of ministering to the
physical comfort of His servants: even a cup of water given in His name will yet be rewarded.
Third, it signifies that in the midst of laboring for others, our own souls need warming and
feeding—a lesson which many a servant of God has failed to heed. Fourth, the fact that there
were fish already on the fire before the disciples drew their full net to land, intimates that the
Lord is not restricted to the labors of His servants, but that He can and does save souls altogether
apart from human instrumentality—another thing we need to take to heart these days when man
is so much magnified. Finally, does not this gracious provision of Christ forecast the refreshment
and satisfaction which will be ours when our toiling on the troublous sea of this world shall be
ended, and we are safely landed on the Heavenly shore!
"Jesus saith unto them, Bring of the fish which ye have now caught" (John 21:10). "In this verse
our Lord calls on the disciples to bring proof that, in casting the net at His command, they had
not labored in vain. It was the second word that He spake to them, we must remember, on this
occasion. The first saying was, ‘Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find.’ The
second saying was, ‘Bring of the fish which ye have now caught,’ with a strong emphasis on the
word ‘now.’ I believe our Lord’s object was to show the disciples that the secret of success was
to work at His command, and to act with implicit obedience to His word. It is as though He had
said, ‘Draw up the net, and see for yourselves how profitable it is to do what I tell you.’ Fish for
food they did not want now, for it was provided for them. Proof of the power of Christ’s
blessing, and the importance of working under Him was the lesson to be taught, and as they drew
up the net they would learn it" (Bishop Ryle). This also is in full accord with the fact that the
practical teaching of this chapter is instruction upon service.
"Bring of the fish which ye have now caught." Is there not also a spiritual hint in this verse? The
"fish" symbolize the souls which the Lord enables His servants to gather in. In bidding them
bring of the fish to Him, He intimated they would have fellowship together, not only in laboring,
but also in enjoying the fruits of it! It reminds us of His words in John 4:36: "He that reapeth

110. receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth
may rejoice together." The Lord delights in sharing His joy with us. Beautifully is this brought
out again in Luke 15:6: "When he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbors,
saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost." How marvelous
the grace which here said to the disciples: "Bring of the fish which ye have now caught?
"Simon Peter went up and drew the net to land full of great fishes, an hundred and fifty and
three; and for all there were so many, yet was not the net broken" (John 21:11). Peter drew the
net to land: how remarkable is this in view of what is said in John 21:6: "They were not able to
draw it for the multitude of fishes." Surely this points another important lesson in connection
with service. What six men had been unable to do in their own strength, one man now did when
he went to his work from the feet of Christ! Peter was weaker than gossamer thread when he
followed his Lord afar off; but in His presence, a sevenfold power came upon him! A similar
example is found in Judges 6:14: "The Lord looked upon him [Gideon] and said, Go in this thy
might." The place of strength is still at the feet of the Savior, and strength will be imparted
exactly in proportion as we are in conscious fellowship with Him and drawing from His infinite
fullness. "He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.
Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fail; but they that wait
upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall
run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint" (Isa. 40:29-31). How much each of us
need to heed that word, "Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine
heart; wait, I say, on the Lord" (Ps. 27:14). How lamentable, and how humbling, that we are so
slow to avail ourselves of the unfailing strength which is to be found in Him; found for the
feeblest who will wait on Him in simple faith and earnest entreaty.
"Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land full of great fishes, an hundred and fifty and
three; and for all there were so many, yet was not the net broken." There are two details here
upon which the ingenuity of many have been freely exercised: the number of the fish, and the not
breaking of the net. There is little room to doubt that Peter would recall the miraculous draught
of fishes on a former occasion, when the net did break (Luke 5). On that occasion the miracle
was followed by the Lord saying unto Simon, "From henceforth thou shalt catch men." There it
is the work of the evangelist which is in view, and therefore there is no numbering, tot it is
impossible for him to count up those who are saved under his Gospel message. Following this
second miraculous draught, the Lord said unto Simon, "Feed my sheep." Here it is the work of
the pastor or teacher which is in view, and hence there is numbering, for he ought to be able to
determine which are sheep and which are goats. In the former the net breaks, for though many
profess to believe the Gospel, yet few really do so to the saving of their souls. In the latter, the
net breaks not, for none of the elect (the "right" side of the ship) shall perish. As for the spiritual
meaning of the numbering of the fish here, observe that they were not counted till the end, not in
John 21:6, but in John 21:11; not while in the ship, but after "the land" is reached! Not till we
come to Heaven shall we know the number of God’s elect!
"Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine" (John 21:12). How beautifully this evidenced the fact
that He was still the same loving, gracious, condescending One as in the days of His humiliation!
The disciples were not kept at a distance. They were invited to draw near, and partake of the
provision which His own compassion had supplied. So He still says to the one who responds to
His knocking, "I will come in to him and sup with him, and he with me" (Rev. 3:20). Here for

111. the last time we hear His blessed and familiar "Come." "Come" not "Go." He did not send them
away, but invited them to Himself.
"And none of the disciples durst ask him, Who art thou? knowing that it was the Lord" (John
21:12). "This statement is by no means to be understood as implying any doubt, but on the
contrary a full persuasion that it was Christ Himself. Yet may we infer from it the change which
had passed upon Him, and the awe which possessed them, after His resurrection. He was the
same, and yet not the same. There was so much of His former appearance as to preclude
doubtfulness; there was so much of change as to prevent all curious and carnal questioning. They
sat down to the meal in silence, wondering at, while at the same time they well knew, Him Who
was thus their Host" (Mr. G. Brown). It was reverence for Him which suppressed their inquiries.
"Jesus then cometh, and taketh bread, and giveth them, and fish likewise" (John 21:13). As
Master of the feast, as Head of the family he now dispensed His mercies. But we may observe
that no longer does the Lord give thanks before meat with His guests, as formerly He did (John
6:11). Then, it was as the perfect Man, the Servant ministering, that He gave thanks to God, with
and for and before them all, for what God had given them: but now, as God, He Himself gives,
and requires them to recognize Him as the Lord. There, it was His humanity which was the more
prominent; here, His Deity. Yet how unspeakably blessed to observe that this One who is now
"crowned with glory and honor" was still their Minister, caring for them! Not only was this the
emblem of that spiritual fellowship which it is our unspeakable privilege to enjoy with Christ
even now, but also the pledge of the future relations which will exist. Even in a coming day "He
will ‘gird’ Himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them"
(Luke 12:37). He will yet give us to "eat of the tree of life" (Rev. 2:7), and of the "hidden
manna" (Rev. 2:17).
"This is now the third time that Jesus showed himself to his disciples, after that he was risen
from the dead" (John 21:14). This does not mean that the Lord made but three appearances in all,
but the third that John was led to record: the other two he mentions, are found in chapter 20. It
should be remembered that during the "forty days" of Acts 1, which intervened between His
resurrection and ascension, Christ did not consort with His disciples as before, but only showed
Himself to them occasionally.
It is deeply interesting to compare the record found in Luke 5 of the earlier miraculous draught
of fishes; there are a number of comparisons and contrasts. Both took place at the sea of Galilee;
both were preceded by a night of fruitless toil; both evidenced the supernatural power of Christ;
both were followed by a commission to Peter. But in the former, the Lord was in the ship; here,
on the shore: in the one the net broke, in the other it did not: the one was at the beginning of
Christ’s public ministry; the latter, after His resurrection: in the former, Peter’s commission was
to fish for "men"; in the latter, to feed Christ’s "sheep"; in the one the number of fishes is not
given; in the latter it is.
The following questions are to aid the student on our final section:—
1. Why after "they had dined" did Christ speak, verse 15?
2. Why did Christ ask Peter verse 15?
3. What is the difference between Peter’s three commissions, verses 15, 16, 17?
4. What is meant by grieved, verse 17?
5. Why did Peter turn around, verse 20?

112. 6. What should Christ’s rebuke teach us, verse 22?
7. What is the force of verse 25?
The Resurrection Picnic John 21:1-14
This entry was posted in John (Rayburn) on August 12, 2001 by Rev. Dr. Robert S. Rayburn.
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John 21:1-14
Text Comment
v.1 The NIV’s “appeared again” is literally “he revealed himself again.” Jesus did not spend the
entire 40 days between his resurrection and his ascension in the presence of his disciples. He was
with them from time to time only and when he came, it seems John intends for us to understand,
it was another revelation of himself to them. As we will read in v. 14 this will be his third time
with them. Easter Sunday itself; the next Sunday when Thomas was present, and now here by the
lake. He is preparing them for the time when he will not be with them physically at all and telling
them and showing them what they need to know about him for life and for service when he has
departed to heaven.
The Sea of Tiberias is the Sea of Galilee. That John referred to it that way is one argument that
John wrote his Gospel later in the first century, when that name for the lake was more common.
v.3 Remember, on the day of his resurrection, Jesus had instructed his disciples to go to Galilee.
And, as they waited they still had to eat. So they went fishing. Life goes on, in other words!
v.4 It is hard to know whether the Lord was not recognized because of the distance or because it
was still quite dark or mist interfered with clear vision on the one hand, or, on the other, because
this was another instance, such as in Luke 24 and the disciples on the Road to Emmaus, when the
disciples were prevented from recognizing the Lord for the sake of some revelation of himself
that he intended to make.
v.5 The NIV’s “friends” is the Greek paidia, often rendered “children” but which also can mean
“fellows” or “guys.”
v.6 Remember, now, the disciples do not yet know that it is the Lord. But, then, as one
commentator puts it, what fisherman has not had to endure the advice of others as to where he
should cast his line or throw his net. Whether from resignation or in hope they cast their nets
once more.
v.8 The fact that the narrator’s perspective remains with the boat is an eyewitness touch. John
himself, of course, was in the boat, initially some 100 yards offshore.
v.12 This is very interesting. They knew it was the Lord, they wished to confirm it, but they
dared not do so. We now, 2000 years after the fact, take the resurrection so much for granted,
that it is hard for us to put ourselves back into that moment psychologically. They were still
reeling and they were still confused and they were still nonplussed and, probably, they were still

113. somewhat afraid in the presence of such a supernatural reality as a dead man come back to life.
You would be too!
v.13 Here he does not seem to be proving that he is a human being as when he ate the fish before
them Easter Sunday night. There is no mention here of his eating only of his providing food for
them.
v.14 The same word again as in v. 1. This forms an inclusio and tells us that what we have in vv.
1-14 is a revelation of Jesus Christ to us.
We could very well imagine the Gospel of John having concluded at the end of chapter 20.
Indeed, skeptical scholars have long argued that the 21st chapter is a later addition to the Gospel.
But, in fact, there are many good reasons for believing that the 21st chapter forms an important
part of John’s account. And among those reasons is the great subject of this paragraph, namely,
the assurance that, even after his ascension, Jesus Christ would be with his disciples and with his
church to provide for them and to empower them for the work to which he had called them. He
would be with them even after he had left them for heaven. The provision for their needs and for
the success of their labors would continue. As they make their way as his messengers, his
witnesses into the world – remember, he has already spoken of that in 20:21 – as the Father sent
me, so I am sending you – he will be with them to bless them and keep them and help them. Is
this not what every Christian needs to believe and what every Christian struggles to believe? And
is this not the great confession of the Christian church in the world: that her Savior is still with
her and that she is not alone, not abandoned, not working and serving in her own strength.
But, is this the message of this chapter? Most agree that it is. The Lord provided a great catch of
fish, at the very time they were discouraged with their failure to catch anything. Jesus had done
the same for them several years before. Now, after the resurrection, he did for them again what
he had done before.
What is more, he laid a fire and fed them breakfast. Interestingly, he was already cooking fish on
the fire when they pulled the boat to shore. That is, they didn’t eat only some of the 153 fish that
they had caught as a result of his advice yelled to them from the shore. The Lord met their needs
and did so with a supernatural, a miraculous touch – he had the complete knowledge of their
situation that they did not have. They had failed to catch anything, but he knew precisely where
the fish were to be found. What is more, the Lord’s provision is perfect. It isn’t just fish, it is
large fish that he provides. “More than we ask or think,” is how Paul described the Lord’s
continuing provision for his people. All of this is a wonderful picture to us of how the Lord is
both able and willing to provide for us no matter what the circumstances of our lives may be, no
matter how discouraged we may find ourselves, no matter how much we may seemed to have
failed.
But there is something else here. I suspect the number of fish caught jumped out at you. It does
jump out. It makes us think. Usually the Bible doesn’t give us numbers like that, so precise.
153…it is an odd number. We are led to think and rightly that the precision is of some
importance. Otherwise John would simply have said “many fish” or “ about 150 fish.” On the
first occasion that the Lord gave his disciples a great catch of fish there is no specific mention of
the number of fish caught. But here we get the exact number.
To be sure, there are a number of commentators who argue that we have nothing here besides the
report of precisely how many fish were caught. Many of our evangelical commentators assume
that we have nothing more than John’s personal recollection of the number. They think of it

114. primarily as evidence of an eyewitness. The Gospel was written by someone who was there and
remembered how many fish were caught. To be sure, we have no doubt that the number of fish
that were caught was 153 and that John knew that because he had been there that morning and
had helped drag the nets to shore and had seen the fish being counted, if he did not count them
himself. And it isn’t at all difficult to imagine fishermen, so impressed, so amazed by what had
happened, wanting to know precisely how many fish there were – large as they were – and
counting them. But, it is hard to believe, frankly, that the number is not significant, and harder to
believe that when one begins to examine that number.
Now, we begin by reminding ourselves that the ancients were more attuned to symbols than we
are. The Bible is full of them, of course. John wrote the Revelation, remember, which confuses
us in large part because it is so symbol-laden. C.S. Lewis reminds us that “Symbols are the
natural speech of the soul, a language older and more universal than words.” [Studies in
Medieval and Renaissance Literature, 137] And among the symbols often used in ancient
literature and to which ancient cultures were attuned more than we are, were numbers. Symbolic
numbers, as you know, are everywhere in the Bible. And John uses them elsewhere: think, for
example, of 666 or 1,000 years of Rev. 20.
153 is the triangular number of 17. The ancients thought about things like this. Augustine
himself points out the fact that 153 is the triangular number of 17. That means that it is the sum
of all the numbers from 1 to 17 and it can be represented in the form of a triangle. Imagine 17
dots in a line across the bottom. In the next line above it 16 dots. In the line above that 15 dots.
And so on until there is one dot at the top. The dots thus arranged form a triangle. Hence 153 is
the triangular number of 17.
Well, so what? Augustine thought that 17 was significant because it amounted to 7 (standing for
the seven-fold spirit of God), taken from Rev. 1:4, and 10 (standing for the 10 commandments).
That explanation doesn’t seem likely or contextually significant. There is no connection between
Augustine’s explanation of 17 and what happened that morning by the lake. It does indicate, of
course, that Augustine assumed that the specific number 153 was surely symbolic of something.
Now, hold that 17 in mind.
In Ezekiel 47, in one of the prophet’s beautiful predictions of the age of salvation, he describes a
river that flowed out from underneath the temple in Jerusalem down to the Dead Sea. When it
entered the Sea the salt waters of that Dead Sea became fresh and, and this is where it becomes
interesting for our purposes, Ezekiel makes a point of saying that large numbers of fish will be
there, thriving in the clean and clear water. “Fisherman will stand along the shore; from En Gedi
to En Eglaim there will be places for spreading nets.” [47:1-10]
Here fish are an image of the bounty of the age of salvation. The Lord, of course, as we
remember, even more explicitly, spoke of the advancement of the kingdom of God as like a net
gathering a great catch of fish. And he told his disciples that they would be fishers of men. That
is how he pictured their calling: to fish for men. Now, what is particularly interesting is the
places named in Ezekiel’s prophecy of the age of salvation: En Gedi and En Eglaim. En is
Hebrew for Spring. So we have two springs of fresh water where great fish will be caught on the
shore of the Sea because of the life giving water flowing into it from the temple of God.
Now, as you may know, Hebrew often expressed numbers by letters. It did not have the Arabic
numbers that we use today and, though it had words for each number, it also expressed numbers
by letters. Each letter of the alphabet had a numerical value. Having no numbers the letters had

115. to do double duty, as it were. The first nine letters of the Hebrew alphabet are the numbers 1-9.
The next nine letters are the numbers 10, 20, 30, and so on up to 90. The last four letters of the
alphabet are the numbers 100 to 400. The system of expressing of numbers by letters is known as
gematria. This numerical system leaves its mark on the Bible from time to time. In a famous
example, after nine chapters of introduction, Proverbs 10:1 begins the proverbs per se with the
title: “The Proverbs of Solomon.” The numerical value of the letters in Solomon’s name is 375.
From Proverbs 10:1 to 22:16, where the proverbs of Solomon end, we have precisely 375
proverbs.
Well, according to this Hebrew gematria, the numerical value of Gedi, as in En Gedi, or the
Spring Gedi, is 17. The numerical value of Eglaim, as in En Eglaim, or the Spring Eglaim is 153.
In other words, the symbolic number ties together great themes in the Bible that are being
summed up in this revelation that the Lord makes of himself to his disciples. The Lord’s
disciples will be fishers of men. The gospel is going to the world and the nations of the world
will hear and believe. The net will draw in a great catch of fish. As Jesus said in another place in
this same Gospel, out of the bellies of his disciples would flow rivers of living water. The
followers of the Lord would become a means of God’s grace and salvation to the world. Over
and again in the Bible and in the Gospel the people of the world are pictured being drawn up in
the Gospel’s net.
Interestingly, even a number of commentators who are doubtful that we should invest so much
significance in the number 153, agree that the large number of fish caught is clearly a symbol of
a great harvest, not of fish, but of people. The Gospel net will never break, there will be no limit
to the number that are caught in it.
The objection that is raised to seeing 153 as a symbol of the great harvest of the Gospel and the
nations of the world that will be saved through the witness of the disciples, is that the symbolism
depends upon the Hebrew language and John’s readers did not know Hebrew. Indeed, in this
Gospel, Hebrew terms that his readers might not understand are regularly translated. Even very
simple terms such as rabbi and Messiah are translated for John’s Gentile or, at least, Greek
speaking readers.
I confess not to be very much impressed by this objection. Fact is the NT is laden with symbols,
the meaning of which must be gathered from a close study of the OT. John’s Book of Revelation
is but one example. There is a great deal in the Bible. It is thick with meaning and application.
Every text is thick. It was written so that it would continue to yield its treasures to its avid
readers thousands of years later. It continues to repay careful reading and close study these
thousands of years later. There was that in the Bible that was difficult to understand even for its
first readers, as we know from Peter. And, as we learned last week in Dr. Rogland’s Sunday
School class, there is that in the Bible’s teaching, such as its teaching about the future in 2 Thess.
2, that would be much simpler for us if we had the teaching that Paul had given and to which he
makes reference but which he did not include in his biblical letters. Such a number as 153 could
easily have been explained to the people who read John in the first place. And for the rest, it is
something to figure out and then to rejoice over when the symbol is understood. As Augustine
said in his day, “just as there are shallows in the Scripture where a lamb may wade, so there are
depths in Scripture where an elephant may swim.” And as Bernard of Clairvaux put it, himself an
ardent student of the Bible, “what is difficult to understand, [should be for a Christian] delightful
to inquire into.”

116. Fact is, John seems to indicate to us by the attention he pays to that number that it was no
accident that they caught precisely 153 fish and that it is a matter of some consequence that we
know there were 153 fish caught. He begs us to ask what is significant about that number and
about that great catch of fish. And the entire Bible helps us answer that question. And, once we
have answered it, the answer, got with some difficulty as it was, seems the more precious and
important to us.
You and I have cast our nets in vain many times, have we not? Have we not become discouraged
that our witness has not born more fruit than it has. How many times have we had good hopes of
someone that we were talking to, that we were cultivating for salvation’s sake, only to have those
hopes dashed by his or her eventual disinterest. And, on a larger scale, how easy it is to be
discouraged in our day as the cause of the kingdom of God seems to be faring so poorly in our
part of the world and, indeed, in many parts of the world, in this day and time.
But then we have this immortal picture of things before us here in John’s 21st and last chapter.
The disciples weary after a night without success, ready to call it quits in their frustration. And
then comes the Lord who knew precisely where they were and precisely where the fish were and,
in a moment, everything is different. The net is bulging, so heavy that they cannot lift it into the
boat and have to drag it to shore. And, then, they sit down on the lakeshore, a warm fire in the
middle of the circle, broiled fish for breakfast. “Lord, what a morning!” And all of that was a
revelation of Jesus Christ! A revelation of his presence with his disciples, of his commitment to
helping them fulfill their calling.
I say this to you, as an aside, but a very important one. I say this to you as your pastor. There are
those of you who are struggling in different ways, I know. Great and heavy burdens weigh down
your life. But, may I suggest to you that one important impression of our text is that if you want
the nearness of the Lord and his power and his provision in your life, if you want to sit down
with him by a campfire and feel that all is well with the world, then you have to be fishing, you
have to be up and about the work he has called all of us to. It is to the fishermen that he comes to
show himself. It is to those who are seeking the lost that he reveals his great power and to whom
he gives the time of refreshment that he gave to these seven men that morning by the lake.
We can become so preoccupied with our own private woes that we forget the dying world around
us. We wish the Lord would come and help us. We need a breakfast with him by the lake. Well,
brothers and sisters, there is no better way to get such a breakfast than to go fishing. Make it your
business, no matter what your circumstances may be, to be seeking to win the lost around you,
and the Lord will draw near to show himself to you and help you. I promise this to you in his
name. “He who loses his life for my sake,” Jesus said, “shall find it.”
But, I thought to myself as I worked on this sermon, what stories could be told just by the
members of this congregation, of how the Lord found us in our frustration and our defeat and
drew near and helped us and showed himself to us and lifted us up. It would be wonderful
enough that at all times and in all places I knew that the Lord was present, that he knew every
circumstance of my life better than I knew it myself, and that he would, at just the right time,
draw near to help me. But how much more wonderful must it be to know that he is just as present
with all of you and with every Christian in the world as he is with me.
As Walter Marshall, the author of the great Puritan work on sanctification, put it. “Though Christ
be in heaven and we on earth, yet He can join our souls and bodies to His at such a distance

117. without any substantial change in either, by the same infinite Spirit dwelling in Him and in us.”
[Cited by Whyte, The Spiritual Life, 55]
While the Lord was with them, before he ascended to heaven, he told his disciples, Matthew tells
us at the very end of his Gospel, that they were to go to all the world and make disciples of all
the nations and, that as they went, he would be with them always, even to the end of the age.
Well, he told them that. And then one day in Galilee he showed them that! They were to fish and
he would direct them to the catch. They were to work, sometimes through the night with nothing
to show for it, but he would provide the picnic in the morning.
You go fishing and keep at your fishing. And all the while you are fishing, you keep an eye out
for someone walking along the shore. He will know you are there, and he will be there, even if
you cannot see him until the morning!
THE POWER OF CHRIST’S PRESENCENO. 3146
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, MAY 27, 1909, DELIVERED
BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE,
NEWINGTON, ON LORD’S-DAYEVENING, FEBRUARY2, 1873.
“Therefore that disciple whom Jesus lovedsaid to Peter, It is the Lord.” John
21:7.
I AM going to speak, onthis occasion, to my brothers and sisters who are
workers for Christ. When our Lord met His apostles by the lake and provided
for them that memorable meal, He did not think it out of place to say to Peter,
“FeedMy lambs; feedMy sheep.” These practicalexhortations were regarded
by Him as quite in keeping with holy fellowshipand so, though we are coming
to the communion table at the close ofthis service, I feel that I am only right
in speaking upon practicalmatters to you, my fellow laborers and fellow
soldiers in the work and warfare of Christ. And I pray that God will, through
me, speak to all here who love our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. You know
that we read in the gospels according to Luke and John, of two miraculous
catchof fishes. [See Sermon #443, Volume 8—THE TWO DRAUGHTS OF
FISHES—Read/downloadthe entire sermon, free of charge, at
http://www.spurgeongems.org.]The one that is recordedin this chapter from
which our text is takenwas, in severalrespects, similarto that which was

118. workedat an earlier period of our Lord’s history. Before He calledHis
apostles, He workedthe miracle of giving them a greathaul of fish after they
had toiled all the night and had takennothing. And then, after He had died
upon the cross and risen from the grave, He repeatedthe miracle in almost
identical fashion. I think there was a greatlessonwhich our Savior intended
His disciples to learn from that repetition. The miracle was a picture—and He
wanted them to look upon it and catchthe idea it was meant to convey—and
as they had probably not all caught it the first time, He held the picture up
before them again, that they might have another opportunity of learning the
lessonwhich He had intended it to teachthem. You notice that in both
instances they had toiled—they had toiled all the night—but they had toiled in
vain. The night was the best seasonfor fishing, as it still is. They had toiled in
the place where they had often caught fish before, for they were experienced
fishermen, apt at their craft. Yet after using all the means that had been
successfulat other times, they were unsuccessful, forthey had takennothing.
They had toiled perseveringly, too, for it was not only at night that they had
toiled, but all the night. From the time when they pushed forth from the shore,
in the moonlight, until the morning star warnedthem of the dawning of the
new day, they had toiled. Yet they had takennothing. This teaches us that we
may work for Christ and try to win souls for Him—and do that work at the
best time, in the best way and even persevere in doing it—and yet be
unsuccessful. We must be unsuccessfulif, like the disciples, we are laboring
without the Master’s presence. In both instances, the turning point was when
the Mastercame. On the first occasion, He borrowed Peter’s boatand
preacheda sermon from it to the crowd upon the shore. And then He saidto
Peter, “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a draught.” In the
secondcase,He bade the disciples, “castthe net on the right side of the ship.”
But in both instances it was the appearance ofJesus that filled the net and
filled it so miraculously that the despairing toilers of the night realized that
someone who was more than man had spokento them—and they fell down to
worship Him as divine. So wheneverJesus comes to His workers, however
unsuccessfulthey may have been, they are sure to succeedwhen He is there!
Yes, and to succeedbeyond their own expectations—justas the disciples were
surprised that by the same hands which all night had takennothing, 153 great
fishes should be taken—andout of the same nets which were empty all the
night, (save here and there a piece of tangled weedto mock their hopes), there
should come so many greatfishes upon which they and others might be
feastedto their full! The apostles couldnot do anything without their Lord
and neither can we—so the main point for us to remember is that we

119. 2 The Powerof Christ’s PresenceSermon#3146
2 Tell someone todayhow much you love Jesus Christ. Volume 55
need Jesus Christ to come into our midst—and this point I shall try to drive
home with all my might, praying God the Holy Spirit to stir up the hearts of
His people so that they may have a greatlonging to be useful in the winning of
souls and realize that this can only be achievedby those who enjoy true
fellowship with Christ! I. I want, first, to show THE DISSIMILARITY AND
THE SIMILARITY OF OUR POSITION TO THAT OF THE APOSTLES
UPON THIS OCCASION. First, there was a dissimilarity in which the
advantage is altogetheron our side. The apostle Peterand his brethren had
been fishing unsuccessfully, but they had not been commanded to fish. They
may or may not have been right in fishing at that time, but at any rate, they
were doing it on their own account. Petersaid, “I am going fishing.” It was his
own work, done entirely in accordancewith his own will—Christ had not
bidden him go fishing. But in our case, brothers and sisters in Christ, we have
our Lord’s commission, “Go you into all the world and preachthe gospelto
every creature.” We have receivedthis divine commission, so that when we
preach the gospel, we are not fishing as amateurs or self-sentvolunteers, but
as those who are sent by the MostHigh to do His bidding. When He
commissions anyone, there is a sort of implied guarantee that He will give him
success. At any rate, He will not send His servant upon a fool’s errand, but by
some means or other, He who gives the authority will be sure to give the
powerthat is needed to go with it. “Wisdom is justified of all her children.”
You, dear brothers and sisters, in trying to serve God, eachof you in your
proper sphere, have done what you were sent to do, for Jesus has said to you
as He said to His disciples, “As My Fatherhas sent Me, even so send I you.”
Remember that passagealmostatthe end of the revelation, “Let him that
hears, say, Come.” Having heard the gospel, you have tried to say, “Come,” to
the people and you have not gone beyond your commissionin doing so, for
you were commanded to do it! Every believer is a priest— under the Christian
dispensationthere is no other priesthood save that of our Lord Jesus Christ
and that which is common to every believer in Him. So when you, having
believed on Him, have gone to speak of Him to others, you have only exercised
that royal priesthood which is rightly yours, for He “has made us kings and
priests unto God.” So, first, the apostles went fishing without having any
commissionto fish and, therefore, they were unsuccessful. But we have an
advantage over them because in the gospelfishery, every true child of God
who casts the net is commissionedby his Masterto do so! The disciples also
had not their Masterwith them. All the night when they were casting the net

120. and drawing it in, and finding nothing in it, they were by themselves. But that
is not the case with us. As a church we cansay that we have had the Master’s
presence with us these many years. Oftentimes in our assemblies we have been
as sure of His presence as we can everbe sure of anything! Our hearts have
been rejoiced, purified and sanctified by gazing upon Him by faith. There
have been prayer meetings in which I hope all of us have felt bowed down and
humbled like Peterwas when the Masterwas in his boat. And there have been
times of solemn rejoicing over converted sinners in which the Lord Jesus has
been manifestly in our midst! His promise, “Lo, I am with you always even
unto the end of the world,” has been most graciouslyfulfilled in our
experience and we, therefore, bless the Savior that we have not to wait for
Him to come to us, for He has long been with us and has never left us! These
many years the simple preaching of Jesus Christ and Him crucified has filled
this house of prayer as it is tonight. People know that there is nothing to be
heard here but the old, old story “of the crucified Savior, yet let the weather
be as rigorous as it may, still will the crowds come to hear the word of the
Lord—and in this we do rejoice and evermore will rejoice!In this respect,
also, we have the advantage over the fishermen on the Sea of Galilee. And so
we have in another point—because the Masterwas not with them, they caught
nothing—but it cannotbe saidof us that we have taken nothing. I do not
know that it would be right for us to try to compute how many souls have
professedto have found the Saviorduring the years in which we have worked
together, but I believe, brothers, we may saythis to the glory of God and to
the honor of the simple gospelthat we have preached—the number who have
joined this church, alone, canonly be spokenof by thousands. And if we were
to speak of tens of thousands, yes, and many tens of thousands who here and
elsewhere have found the Savior under the word preachedby us, we would
not exaggerate in the least. We put the crownupon the head of our Master,
but what joy we feelthat it has been so! Suppose that He had left us? Vain
would it have been for us to preachthe word, even with earnestness, for
earnestness, alone, willnot convert souls. There must be the presence ofJesus
to bless men—and it has
Sermon #3146 The PowerofChrist’s Presence3
Volume 55 Tell someone todayhow much you love Jesus Christ. 3
been with us, year after year, evenunto this day, glory be to His holy name!
[The years referred to number approximately 20.] In these points, then, our
case is dissimilar to that of the apostles when they were toiling all the night
and had takennothing. But we are preciselylike the apostles in certain other

121. points, the first of which is that we would have takennothing if the Master
had not helped us. No child would have come from the Sunday schoolto say,
“I love the Saviorand wish to confess my faith in Him and to unite with the
church here.” No young womanwould have come out of that large and
blessedBible class if the Lord had not put the right words into the lips of the
sisterwho speaks forHim there. No young man would have been converted in
our seniorclassesif the Spirit of God had not gone with the conductors. And
from this pulpit no word of life would have been spokenif it had not been first
given to us by God and then sent home to the hearts of our hearers by the
Holy Spirit. We would have “takennothing” without our Lord! And even
now, brothers and sisters, our successis wonderfully like the nonsuccess ofthe
apostles, forwe have scarcelytakenanything in comparisonwith what still
needs to be taken!Even when we speak of tens of thousands converted, what
are they in comparisonwith the millions all around us in this vast city? When
God gives us an increase ofa hundred or a 120 in a month, we are glad and
thankful, but large as those numbers are, what are they compared with the
perishing myriads of London alone? Why should we not have 3,000 converts
in a day as on the day of Pentecost?Why is it that our churches are not
multiplied till they coverthis city in every part? Why does not the old church
of Christ, (for such we are), the old catholic and apostolic church of Christ,
come more to the front instead of lingering in the background? It is because
we have not yet the fullness of the Master’s poweras we must have it— and
desire to have it to the praise of His glory! Christ’s presence, if He would but
come among us in the fullness of His strength, would do so much more for us
than anything that we have everseen—thatwe would be as much astounded
by the increase as the apostles were by the two great catchof fishes! Christ
had but to will it and the fish came swimming in shoals to the net—and He has
but to will it and souls will be convertedby millions to Himself and His gospel!
He had but to give His disciples the directions to where to castthe net and the
same net that had been empty would become full. And He has but to teach His
ministers how to preach, and touch their lips with a burning coaloff the altar
to fire them with a Pentecostalenthusiasm—andthey would speak in a wayin
which as yet they have never spokenand with a powerthey have never yet
experienced!Such days are promised and they will surely come. We are not
straitened in God. We are straitenedin ourselves. If we have not those
glorious days of ingathering, it is because some sin of ours still keeps the
Master’s gloryfrom us. Oh, let us turn to Him and may He graciouslyturn to
us!— “Let our mutual love be fervent, Make us prevalent in prayers! Let
eachone esteemedYour servant Shun the world’s bewitching snares, Lord,
revive us, All our help must come from You!” II. Now, secondly, I have to

122. speak upon THE MEANS WHICH WE ARE TO USE SO AS TO GAIN OUR
MASTER’S PRESENCE.I have tried to show you that all our successmust
come from Him and all that He gives us must be ascribed to Him. So how can
we secure His presence?We have it in a measure—how canwe have it more
fully? Well, let us always remember that He comes just where He wills to
come. There is absolute sovereigntyabout the work of Christ in the kingdom
of His grace. As the wind blows where it wishes, so does the Spirit of God
work whereverHe pleases. Ido not think that we canalways accountfor the
greatsuccessofone preacherand the non-success ofanother by anything that
we can see. We have to fall back upon the sovereigntyof God and say, “God
wills it and, therefore, it is.” He will have us know that sovereigntyis His
divine prerogative. He has the keyof David—He opens and no man shuts. He
shuts and no man opens. If He wills it, the rain shall descendsteadily to make
fat the fields. But if He wills it, He can restrain the dew of heavenuntil the
most fertile church shall become barren as the mountains of Gilboa! He
exercises His powernot according to our will, but according to His own will—
we must never forgetthat.
4 The Powerof Christ’s PresenceSermon#3146
4 Tell someone todayhow much you love Jesus Christ. Volume 55
At the same time, what course should we take in order to secure His
presence? Ireply, first, that we had better go on with our work for Him. If we
want Christ to bless us and we are doing work for Him, we had better keepon
steadily doing it. These disciples of His had been fishing all night. Perhaps if
they had not fished at night Christ would not have given them fish in the
daytime. He does not often come to bless idlers—He acts sovereignly, as I have
said, but He generallygives His blessing to those churches that do the most for
Him. I have always found that an earnestgospelministry and a prayerfully
united church will have God’s blessing when others will not have it. Go on,
Sunday schoolteachers,go on, tract distributors! Go on, evangelists—goon,
all of you who are laboring for Christ—keep, eachone, to his own service and
even if it has been night with you and you have takennothing, still keepon at
your toil! Probably the best wayto bring the Masterto you is to labor for Him
with all your might. Sometimes, however, it will be necessaryfor us to wash
or mend our nets. In the miracle recorded by Luke, we find that the
fishermen, after toiling all night, were washing their nets—and either on that
occasion, oron a similar one, some of them were mending their nets. Every
church needs to do that and every church member, every Christian worker
needs to do that. The preacherwill do wellto adopt another style—to study
more diligently and to make himself more proficient in the knowledge ofthe

123. word. Sunday schoolteachers mustmore carefully study the lessons fortheir
classesandgo to their scholars betterprepared for their work. Your nets will
often need washing and mending if you are to be fishers of men—and all of
you will be more likely to get the Master’s blessing if you pay more attention
to the means you are using for doing goodin His service!Christ does not want
slovenly work, nor is He likely to bless those who think that any kind of
service will do for Him. I have heard of a preacher who thought that whatever
came first into his head was goodenough for his people. On one occasion, he
informed one of his officers, atthe end of his sermon, that he had never
thought of it before he entered the pulpit. And the goodelder replied, “I
thought so while listening to you. I thought that if you had consideredit
beforehand, you would never have said what you did.” We all need to wash
and mend our nets—I mean that we all need to do Christ’s work in the best
possible way—and that is the way in which we are most likely to be privileged
with His presence. On that first occasion, the fishermen had been listening to
Christ’s words, for they had, at His request, turned their boat into a pulpit in
which He satdown and taught the people who stoodon the shore. Was there
any connectionbetweenthat incident and the greathaul of fish? I think there
was and that if they had not granted Christ’s request, and listened to His
sermon, He would not have blessedthem with that multitude of fish. At all
events, I know that a workerwill always be all the better for waiting a while
and sitting as a learnerat Christ’s feet—reading the word for Himself, or
listening to the truth as it is preachedby some God sent minister. The message
may strike a keynote in your heart which shall so influence your whole life
that, henceforth, you shall be in a different condition and more likely to be
blessedof the MostHigh. Do you ask, “Whatis there that will bring Christ to
a church and keep Him there?” I reply, in a word, prayer. There is no force in
nature that is equal to the powerof prayer! The law of gravitation holds the
planets in their orbits and links the sun to all the spheres that circle round
him, but prayer has before now made gravitation, itself, cease to exert its
energy! “Sun, stand you still upon Gibeon,” saidJoshua—who had first
spokento the Lord about the matter—“andyou, moon, in the valley of
Ajalon”— and sun and moon stoodstill! We speak that which, to many
nowadays, only causes ridicule, but to our minds it seems ridiculous to doubt
that God listens to the voice of men. When men are made in the image of
God—twice made and so made His children—surely their believing prayers
shall move the heart of their heavenly Father! You remember what Christ
said to His disciples, in His Sermon on the Mount? “If you, then, being evil,
know how to give goodgifts unto your children, how much more shall your
Father which is in heaven give goodthings to them that ask Him?” Of course

124. He will listen to the voices of those whom He so dearly loves!You know,
beloved, that there is powerin prayer. When believers meet togetherand
unitedly cry, “Lord, revive Your work. Put more powerinto the ministry.
Make the hearts of Your people to be more full of love and zeal. Save the
ungodly. Awakenthe unconcerned!”—It will be done. It is not with us merely
a matter of hope that earnestprayer will bring blessing to the church and to
the world—it is a matter of fact it must be so! The laws of nature may be
suspended, but laws that appertain to God’s own characterfor truth and
faithfulness cannot be suspended. He would not be God if He did not answer
prayer! His own promises bind Him to do so. O you that doubt Him, try
Sermon #3146 The PowerofChrist’s Presence5
Volume 55 Tell someone todayhow much you love Jesus Christ. 5
Him! If any of you question the powerof prayer, see whathas already been
done by it. As for you who are the servants of the living God and who have
access to His mercy seat, you have but to ask and to receive—youhave but to
seek and to find—you have but to knock and the door shall be openedto you!
Brothers and sisters in Christ, join one another in praying Christ to come into
our midst! Do pray for a blessing, pray mightily for it—and rest not day nor
night till that blessing comes! We must, however, add to prayer the waiting
for that blessing that we seek. AfterChrist had ascendedto heaven, His
disciples went to an upper room and waited there till the Holy Spirit was
given to them on the day of Pentecost. Theydid not sit there thinking that
perhaps the promised blessing might come, or might not come, but there they
waited till they heard the “sound from heavenas of a rushing mighty wind”
and the “cloventongues, like as of fire, sat upon eachof them.” So let us come
togetherin our assemblies expecting the blessing which the Lord has
promised, for the blessing will certainly come if we believingly expect it.
“Open your mouth wide,” says God, “and I will fill it!” Oh, for the capacityto
believe God, for assuredlyGod will never dishonor our faith! And then, to
our expectation, we must add the opening of our own hearts to receive the
blessing. We want the Saviorto bless us and He says, “Behold, I stand at the
door, and knock:if any man hears My voice and opens the door, I will come
in to him and will sup with him, and he with Me.” He is ready to bless you,
beloved—are you ready to be blessedby Him? O you that love Him, fling wide
the doors of your heart and ask Him to come in! He has bought you with His
heart’s blood—will you not give Him your heart’s bestlove? He is Himself
your beloved, your husband, your all in all, so treat Him not as a stranger. Let
Him not stand and knock any longer, but open wide the door and bid Him

125. come in! Is it your will, dear brothers and sisters, to receive Him? Do you
really want Him? Do you long for more of Him? You will have to be very
prayerful and very careful if He does come to you, for He is a jealous lover—
and when He dwells in the heart, He looks with severe eyes upon anything
contrary to His will that is done by His own dear ones—justas a king will
tolerate in a strangerwhat he would not endure from a courtier. I am afraid
we sometimes pray for sanctificationand do not really wish for it—and I am
also afraid that we sometimes ask fora greatblessing and do not really wish
for it. Do you believe that Christ can come to us and bless us? Are you living
as if you expectedHim to come to you? If so, when He comes you will be
overawedby the majesty of His presence—andyou will saywith John, “It is
the Lord.” As we hear of blessing in the Sunday school, we shall say, “It is the
Lord.” As we hear of the work of grace in the Bible classes, we shallsay, “It is
the Lord.” And at every church meeting, as we hear the stories ofthose who
have been brought to believe in Jesus, we shall say, “It is the Lord,” for no one
else could have workedso blesseda work in our midst! I wish I knew how to
put this subject before you so that every believing heart would be affectedby
it to the highest possible degree—butI do not—and therefore, as we are
coming to the communion table, I will try to use the sacredfeastto stir up you
who are serving Christ to pray for more of His presence. Youhave here
before you the memorials of His love to you. He gave His body to be broken
for you, His heart to be pierced for you. Has Christ done all this for you and
will you not do much for Him? You are saved, your sins are covered, you are
His dear child—then will you not spend and be spent for Him? If the Master
were to come and stand here tonight instead of me—and show you His pierced
hands and feet and then were to call you, His ownpeople, up, one by one and
put such questions as these to you, (I will give you the questions directly)—I
wonder how you would feel? You would come up these stairs dazzled with His
beauty and overwhelmed with His love as He gazedupon you! And then He
would say to eachone of you, “My blood bought one, what are you doing for
Me? Are you feeding My sheep? Are you feeding My lambs?” I think I see you
blush and hear you reply, “My dear Master, I have been with some of Your
lambs this afternoon.” “But did you really feed them?” “I spent a happy hour
with them.” “Wellbut did you feed them?” “I endeavoredto do so, good
Master, but I am ashamedto say that I did not feedthem as I should have
done.” “But did you feedthem as My lambs, and as I would have fed them?
Did you love them? Did you speak affectionatelyto them? Did you tell them
about Me? Did you try to bring them to Me? Did you pray over them? Did
you send them awayfeeling that their teacherlonged that they should all
know the Savior?” Well, the Masteris not here in bodily presence and I will

126. not put such questions to you, but I would like you to put them to yourselves
and to think that you hear the Masterputting them to you, even as of
6 The Powerof Christ’s PresenceSermon#3146
6 Tell someone todayhow much you love Jesus Christ. Volume 55
old He said, “Simon, son of Jonas, do you love Me?” I think I hear Him call
up some brother and say to Him, “You who are redeemed by My precious
blood, what have you done for Me?” I think I see you blush as He says to you
again, “What have you done for Me?” At lastyou say, “I am a member of the
church.” “But what have you done for Me?” “I sometimes put something into
the offering box.” “But what have you done for Me?” He shows His hands,
lays bare His side and says, “I suffered this for you—what have you done for
Me?” I fear that there are some members of this church who would not like to
be put to such a test as that! And for my own part, I would desire to sayto the
Master, “Give me a few more years in which to serve You better and give me
more grace that I may be more diligent in the service that You have allottedto
me.” And I pray you, beloved brothers and sisters in Christ, if you feel that
you must present the same prayer, make this your solemnresolution that, by
His Spirit’s help, you will lay yourselves out—body, soul and spirit—for His
dear sake. But, alas, there are some of you who do not love Him at all! Some
of you to whom the Christ of God is quite a stranger. Oh, that your hearts
were changed!For remember that He will sooncome in His glory and all His
holy angels with Him! And you who will not now kiss the silver scepterof
mercy that He holds out to you in the preaching of the gospel, must then feel
the weightof that iron rod of justice with which He will break the ungodly
and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessels!Be wise, therefore, and trust
the Saviornow! The Lord grant that you may do so and then, having trusted
Him for yourself, may you serve Him with all your heart and soul as long as
you live on this earth—and then go to join that greatmultitude which no man
can number of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues who stand
before the throne of God and before the Lamb—forever ascribing their
salvationto His grace! Have you ever heard the story of the poor man, in
deep distress of mind, who one night dreamed a dream? He found himself
outside the gates of heavenand he sat down and wept, for he longedto enter.
Presentlyhe heard sweetmusic and saw a company of people approaching
with palm branches in their hands. He askedwho they were and one of them
said that they were the noble army of martyrs coming to take their thrones.
Then he wept much and said, “I cannot enter with you.” While he sat
mourning, he heard the trumpet sound, again, and another company came
along singing, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain.” He said to them, “Who

127. are you?” They replied, “We are the goodlyfellowship of the prophets and
apostles.”And he wept again, for he said, “I cannot enter with you.” Presently
another company came, chanting the praises of the grace of God. And he said,
“Who are you?” They answered, “We are the preachers ofthe word, and the
deacons and elders of the church.” Again he said, “I cannot enter with you.”
He sat down and wept till, by and by, he saw a largercompany coming,
marching like an exceedinglygreatarmy, and singing sweetlyas they came. In
the very front rank was the woman that was a sinner, with her rich voice
leading the song. And near her was the thief who, at the last, had prayed,
“Lord, remember me.” They came along right jubilantly and he askedthem,
“Who are you?” And they answered, “We are the company of greatsinners,
savedby greatmercy.” At once he said, “I can go in with you!” And,
brothers and sisters, that is the company to which you and I belong! And
when we enter heaven, they will welcome us just as heartily as they did the
martyrs, the prophets and the apostles!Jesus Christ came into the world to
save sinners—andwhen sinners repent, there is joy in the presence of the
angels of God, and joy in the heart of God, Himself, because they have sought
His pardoning mercy! If any of you are not saved, it is not because there is any
lack of mercy in the heart of God! If you perish, it is not for want of an open
door setbefore you! So come in while you may!
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON:JOHN 21.
Verse 1. After these things Jesus showedHimself again to the disciples at the
sea of Tiberias;and on this wise showedHe Himself. May every one of you,
my fellow disciples, realize that Jesus is showing Himself to you! He is only to
be seenin His own light. He must show Himself to us, or else we shall never
see Him. 2. There were togetherSimon Peter, and Thomas calledDidymus,
and Nathanaelof Cana in Galilee and the sons of Zebedee, and two other of
His disciples. He had told them to go into Galilee and gave them the promise,
“There shall you see Me.” So now they were by the Galileanlake. They were
keeping
Sermon #3146 The PowerofChrist’s Presence7
Volume 55 Tell someone todayhow much you love Jesus Christ. 7
their appointment with Christ and as He always keeps His appointment with
His people, He was there to meet them as He had promised. 3. Simon Peter

128. said unto them, I am going fishing. They said unto him, We will go with you.
Their Masterhad told them to wait, but they could not wait. Surely when they
were in Galilee by His command, they might have trusted Him to supply their
needs, but their faith was slack, so Petersaid, “Iam going fishing,” and the
others were much of the same mind—waiting had become weary work, as it
often does with our faint hearts—so theysaid, “We will go with you.” 3. They
went forth, and enteredimmediately into a ship; and that night they caught
nothing. As is generallythe case with us in our will-work and will-worship.
When we are not guided of God, but go entirely according to our own mind
and will it will be thus with us, also. Menattempt some business speculation
without asking guidance of God and they make a miserable failure of it, so
that it might be written of them as of the disciples, “Thatnight they caught
nothing.” 4. But when the morning was now come, Jesus stoodon the shore:
but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus. Theywere thinking of fishing, so
they saw boats, nets and the sea. If they had been thinking of Jesus, they
would have lookedfor Him—and when He came, they would have known
Him. 5. Then Jesus saidunto them, Children, have you any meat? “Have you
anything to eat?” 5. They answeredHim, No. But that was not His fault. 6.
And He said unto them, Castthe net on the right side of the ship, and you
shall find. They casttherefore, and now they were not able to draw it in for
the multitude of fishes. He testified His presence by crowning their exertions
with His blessing. And soonthey had a greatcatchof great fishes—a great
contrastto their night of fruitless toil. 7, 8. Therefore that disciple whom
Jesus lovedsaid unto Peter, It is the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard that
it was the Lord, he girt his fisher’s coatunto him, (for he was naked), and did
casthimself into the sea. And the other disciples came in the little ship, (for
they were not far from land, but as it were two hundred cubits), dragging the
net with fishes. We often come very slowly to Christ because we will drag that
net with fishes. We have such a deal of care, anxiety, and trouble when we
need not have any at all—and so we come slowly, “dragging the net with
fishes.” 9. As soon, then, as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals
there, and fish laid thereon, and bread. Why did they want to go fishing on
their own account? Christ had all that they neededready for them—there was
the fire and there were the fish cooking on it, ready for their breakfast. It was
the Lord Jesus Christ’s business to provide for them and He did so. 10, 11.
Jesus saidunto them, Bring of the fish which you have now caught. Simon
Peterwent up and drew the net to land full of greatfishes, an hundred and
fifty and three and for all there were so many, yet the net was not broken.
And there lay those 153 big fishes on the beach. Christ had no need of them
but perhaps He condescendedto use some of them for that morning meal, as

129. He said to Peter, “Bring of the fish which you have now caught.” 12. Jesus
said unto them, Come and dine. [See Sermon #2072,Volume 35—
BREAKFAST WITH JESUS—Read/downloadthe entire sermon, free of
charge, at http://www.spurgeongems.org.]Or, “Come and break your fast
after your long night’s toil.” How they must have opened their eyes to see the
fish ready cookedforthem to eat! 12. And none of the disciples dared ask
Him, Who are You? knowing that it was the Lord. “It was the Lord”—“the
Lord” who had askedthem if they had any food, “the Lord” who had filled
the net which had previously been empty, “the Lord” who had given them His
own fish from His own fire that they might have breakfastwith Him! O good
Master, if we have been toiling all week and have caughtnothing, call us now
to come and eat of that which You have, Yourself, prepared! 13-15. Jesus
then came and took bread, and gave them some, and fish likewise. This is now
the third time that Jesus showedHimself to His disciples after that He was
risen from the dead. So when they had dined, Jesus saidto Simon Peter,
Simon, son of Jonas, Do you love Me more than these? “More than this lot of
fish, these boats, these nets? You gave them all up for Me once, but now you
have takento them again—do you really love Me better than your fishing and
your fish?” 15. He said unto Him, Yes, Lord; You know that I love You. He
said unto him, FeedMy lambs. [See Sermon #1684,Volume 28—“FEEDMY
LAMBS”—A SUNDAY SCHOOL SERMON—Read/downloadthe
8 The Powerof Christ’s PresenceSermon#3146
8 Tell someone todayhow much you love Jesus Christ. Volume 55
entire sermon, free of charge, at http://www.spurgeongems.org.]“Do notgo
after fish any more, but attend to My business—‘feedMy lambs.’ The proof of
your greaterlove to Me than to all worldly things will be found in your doing
of the work which I have committed to your charge.” 16. He said to him
againthe secondtime, Simon, son of Jonas, Do you love Me? [See Sermons
#117, Volume 3—DO YOU LOVE ME? And #1281,Volume 22—“DO YOU
LOVE ME?”—Read/downloadthe entire sermons, free of charge, at
http://www.spurgeongems.org.]He said unto Him, Yes, Lord; You know that
I love You. He said unto him, FeedMy sheep. “Quit the sea. I am giving you
no more business there— come now and be a pastorto My blood bought
sheep.” 17. He said unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, Do you love
Me? Peterwas grieved because He said unto him the third time, Do you love
Me? And he said unto Him, Lord, You know all things; You know that I love
You. [See Sermon#2669, Volume 46—COMFORTFROM CHRIST’S
OMNISCIENCE—Read/downloadthe entire sermon, free of charge, at
http://www.spurgeongems.org.]Thrice he had denied his Lord, so thrice he

130. must be questioned concerning his love to the Lord whom he said he did not
even know. And then for the third time he was recommissionedby his Lord.
17-19. Jesussaidunto him, FeedMy sheep. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
When you were young, you gird yourself, and walkedwhere you willed: but
when you shall be old, you shall stretch forth your hands, and another shall
gird you, and carry you where you would not. This spoke He, signifying by
what death he should glorify God. And When He had spokenthis, He said
unto him, Follow Me. Peter’s death was to glorify God, so he might well be
content, painful though it was to be. 20, 21. Then Peter, turning about, saw
the disciple whom Jesus loved[See Sermon #1539,Volume 26—“THE
DISCIPLE WHOM JESUS LOVED”—Read/downloadthe entire sermon,
free of charge, at http://www.spurgeongems.org.]following;which also leaned
on His breast at supper, and said, Lord, which is he that betrays you? Peter
seeing him said to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do? Our Lord never
answeredsucha foolish, inquisitive question as this! And therefore— 22.
Jesus saidunto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to you? You
follow Me. That is how Christ would answerany similar questions that we
might put to Him. We need not concernourselves so much about what is to
happen to others until we have made our own calling and electionsure. “What
is that to you? You follow Me.” 23. Then went this saying abroad among the
brethren, that that disciple should not die: yet Jesus saidnot unto him, He
shall not die; but, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to you? This is
only one of many instances in which Christ’s words have been twistedand
made to mean something quite different from what He intended. 24, 25. This
is the disciple who testifies of these things, and wrote these things: and we
know that his testimony is true. And there are also many other things which
Jesus did, the which, if they should be written, every one, I suppose that even
the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen.
Adapted from The C. H. SpurgeonCollection, Version1.0, Ages Software.
EPILOGUE:JESUS APPEARS TO SEVEN DISCIPLES
John Chapter Twenty-One

131. John 21:1-14 (HCSB): 1 After this, Jesus revealedHimself againto His
disciples by the Sea of Tiberias. He revealed Himself in this way: 2 Simon
Peter, Thomas (called“Twin”), Nathanaelfrom Cana of Galilee, Zebedee’s
sons, and two others of His disciples were together. 3 “I’m going fishing,”
Simon Petersaid to them. “We’re coming with you,” they told him. They went
out and got into the boat, but that night they caughtnothing. 4 When
daybreak came, Jesus stoodon the shore. However, the disciples did not know
it was Jesus. 5 “Men,” Jesuscalledto them, “you don’t have any fish, do
you?” “No,” they answered. 6 “Castthe 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 ofthe large number of fish. 7 Therefore the disciple, the one Jesus
loved, said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peterheard that it was the
Lord, he tied his outer garment around him (for he was stripped) and plunged
into the sea. 8 But since they were not far from land (about 100 yards away),
the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish. 9 When they
got out on land, they saw a charcoalfire there, with fish lying on it, and bread.
10 “Bring some of the fish you’ve just caught,” Jesus told them. 11 So Simon
Petergot up and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish—153 of them. Even
though there were so many, the net was not torn. 12 “Come and have
breakfast,” Jesus toldthem. None of the disciples dared ask Him, “Who are
You?” because theyknew it was the Lord. 13 Jesus came, took the bread, and
gave it to them. He did the same with the fish. 14 This was now the third time
Jesus appearedto the disciples after He was raisedfrom the dead.
“The Methodistmissionary to India, Bishop Thoburn was walking down the
streetwhen a large featherof an eagle drifted to the ground. He searchedthe
sky for the eagle, but there was no eagle. Turning the feather over and over in
his hands, he recalledthat pens made out of such feathers had written historic
documents.
Village Church of WheatonJohn 21:1-14 April 5, 2009
©2009 Ronand Betty Teed 2
“He then took a sharp knife and slicedacross the heavy end of the feather. It
wrote so beautifully he decided on the spur of the moment to write a letter to
his sisterin Boston. He wrote of something which was in his mind for a long
time. He told of how mistreated and neglectedthe girls and women of India
were and that he felt Godwould hold us responsible if we did nothing about it.

132. “Then he added: “You are a schoolteacher. Although you are excellent, there
are thousands of others in America who could take your place. Why don’t you
come over here and start a schoolfor the girls and women who come to my
compound to church?
“She read it to the Women’s MissionarySocietyof the church. Spontaneously
the members responded. They told Thoburn’s sisterif she would go, they
would finance the whole project. Thus startedthe first Christian schoolfor
girls in India. Today it is a huge institution.”1
Could it be that Jesus was showing the apostles to whom He was about to
entrust His Church that if they obeyed Him they would become such
successfulfishers of men that their nets would be filled to overflowing, and
that the catch would be beyond any expectationthey could have had. We
think so. We believe that Jesus is sending the same message to all believers
today. But the essentialingredient here is submission to the commands of the
Master. Are you willing to do that. Perhaps a little better understanding of
this chapter will help you to make a total commitment. We hope so.
Another major purpose of this chapter was to convince the Apostle Peteras
well as his fellow apostles that he had been forgiven by Jesus for denying Him
at the time of Jesus’arrestand that Peter was once againheld in the highest
trust by Jesus and would play a major role in the establishmentof Christ‘s
Church. Peterknew He had failed His Lord in His hour of need and Peter
may very well have thought that his days as a trusted apostle were over. But
Jesus showedPeterno less love after his failure than before. We wish you
could get the full understanding here. Have you ever felt that you have messed
up so badly in life, that your sin has been so greatthat you could never be
fully forgiven and given another chance. Thatis nothing but a lie from Satan.
The Word of God has told us that if we confess our sins He is faithful and just
to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 john 1:9).
It does not matter who the sinner is, or what the
1 Tan, Paul Lee:Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations : A Treasuryof
Illustrations, Anecdotes, Facts andQuotations for Pastors,Teachers and
Christian Workers. GarlandTX : Bible Communications, 1996, c1979.

133. Village Church of WheatonJohn 21:1-14 April 5, 2009
©2009 Ronand Betty Teed 3
sins were, when the person comes to Godconfessing it and asking forgiveness,
he/she can be totally confident that they will receive totaland unqualified
forgiveness. Communion with God is fully restored.
Jesus surely decided to deal with Peterin this public way so that the others
might know that Peter had regained Jesus’trust and confidence completely.
In fact, in order to demonstrate this trust, Jesus commissionedPeterto feed
the sheepand lambs of His flock. Now that is trust!
Now let us take that closerlook.
John 21:1-2 (HCSB): 1 After this, Jesus revealedHimself againto His
disciples by the Sea of Tiberius (Sea of Galilee).2 He revealedHimself in this
way: 2 Simon Peter, Thomas (called “Twin”), Nathanaelfrom Cana of
Galilee, Zebedee’s sons, andtwo others of His disciples were together.
Imagine yourself an apostle in this situation. You had seenthe risen Lord on a
couple of previous occasions.Now you had obeyed His command to go to
Galilee where He would meet you. But you were quite uncertain what the
future would hold. You felt restless. After all, this business about rising from
the dead and having a glorified body fit for Heaven must have still been an
overwhelming experience to these apostles. If you will remember when Christ
went up on the mountain and was transfigured in His resurrectedglory before
Peter, James, and John, He radiated a brilliant light.
Matthew 17:2 (NASB): 2 And He was transfigured before them; and His face
shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as light.
Would Jesus’appearancehave been similar to that at the Transfigurationas
He appeared to His disciples after His resurrection. Thatclaim might be
debatable to some. Some would say no because whenJesus appearedto the
two men on the road to Emmaus nothing was said about Jesus glowing like
the sun (Luke 24:13 ff.). But if we look closer, verse 16 says:“But their eyes

134. were prevented from recognizing Him.” Even in the passage we are studying,
you would think the apostles wouldnotice if the person calling to them from
the shore was surrounded by a brilliant light. So it may be here too that Jesus
prevented them from seeing His full glory. But then we remember when Jesus
appearedto Paul on the DamascusRoad, Paulwas blinded by the brilliant
light.
Well, even though we would all like a concrete answerhere, we do not believe
there is anything in Scripture that will answerthis question one way or the
other, but we do know one thing for certain, and that is that Jesus atthis point
was noticeablydifferent than any other human being on earth if for no other
reasonthan He was able to appear and disappear at will out of thin air. Such
powers would suggestthat He no longerwalkedwhereverHe was going. All
He had to do was say“Appear with the disciples in a room
2 Parenthesesmine.
Village Church of WheatonJohn 21:1-14 April 5, 2009
©2009 Ronand Betty Teed 4
in Jerusalem,” and He would be there. Then He could say, “Appear on the
shore at the Sea of Galilee,” andinstantly He would be there. So there can be
little if any doubt that the disciples had been introduced here to the world of
the supernatural and they did not really understand what it was all going to
come to.
William Hendriksen, BakerNew TestamentCommentary – Exposition of the
GospelAccording to John, (Grand Rapids, MI: BakerAcademic, 1953),
WORDsearchCROSSe-book,476-478.
The Sea of Galilee is very much a part of Jesus’ministry. It is a familiar place
to most of these men. Jesus had askedthem to go up into Galilee where He
would meet them. So we find them here waiting for Jesus. Theymay have
waited and waited for Jesus to come. Peterwould be the one to become
impatient, and after pacing back and forth and after looking up and down the
shore, he would be the one to say, I’m going fishing." And six others joined
him.3

135. J. Vernon McGee,Thru The Bible with J. Vernon McGee,(Nashville, TN:
Thomas Nelson, 1983), WORDsearchCROSSe-book,Under: "Chapter21".
John 21:3-5 HCSB:3 “I’m going fishing,” Simon Petersaid to them. “We’re
coming with you,” they told him. They went out and got into the boat, but that
night they caught nothing. 4 When daybreak came, Jesus stoodonthe shore.
However, the disciples did not know it was Jesus. 5 “Men,” Jesuscalledto
them, “you don’t have any fish, do you?” “No,” they answered.
They fished all night and caught nothing. These men fished all night, and they
caught nothing. They had been restless before, and now they are restless and
frustrated. It is a joy to fish when you catchfish and frustrating when you do
not. They all knew how to fish because that is the way they made their living.
Therefore as professionalfishermenthey must have really been frustrated
after fishing all night and not catching a thing. But there can be little doubt
that their run of bad luck that night had been carefully planned by Jesus for a
very specific purpose. Now as the sun came up and morning was breaking,
there was Jesus standing on the shore. It is very possible that in the early
morning light it was not possible for them to recognize who was standing on
the shore. If you have ever been on a body of waterat sunrise, you know that
the sun can create a glare reflecting off the surface of the water. This may
have also impaired their ability to distinguish clearlythe figure on the shore.
So at this point the apostles do not know that this is Jesus, and Jesus calledout
to them,
3 J. Vernon McGee,Thru The Bible with J. Vernon McGee,(Nashville, TN:
Thomas Nelson, 1983), WORDsearchCROSSe-book,Under: "Chapter21".
Village Church of WheatonJohn 21:1-14 April 5, 2009
©2009 Ronand Betty Teed 5
“You don’t have any fish do you?” They must have been somewhat
embarrassed. Here they are professionalfishermenand they have to admit to
some strangerthat they did not catcha single fish. But they must have
thought it strange how this stranger knew they did not have any fish. They
were a hundred yards offshore and it was in that early morning light. How
could He tell they had not caughtanything?

136. John 21:6-7 HCSB:6 “Castthe 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 ofthe large number of fish. 7 Therefore the disciple, the one Jesus
loved, said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peterheard that it was the
Lord, he tied his outer garment around him (for he was stripped) and plunged
into the sea.
While they might have been contemplating that question, Jesus, who was still
unknown to the disciples told them to throw out their net on the right side of
the boat and they would catchsome fish. So what did they have to lose? They
had not caught anything by their own efforts so they threw the net out on the
right side of the boat, and guess whathappened? Immediately there were so
many fish in the net that it was a struggle to haul it in. Under ordinary
circumstances the net would have ripped apart because ofthe heavy load, but
of course this was not a normal circumstance. Jesushad a messageHe wanted
to make indelibly clearin the minds of these men.
Suddenly, John recognized Jesus and said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” Now we
know that Peterwas a pretty impulsive guy, and when he heard that it was
Jesus standing on the shore he grabbed the first piece of clothing he could get
his hands on to coverhim and jumped into the water. He could not wait to get
to Jesus. Now I do not know for certainif it was the custom of fishermen at
that time to fish in the nude, but I suppose it is possible. The other possibility
is that Petercould have been stripped down to a very basic covering while he
was fishing and needed to put something else on to make himself somewhat
presentable to Jesus. Thatfact simply does not have any impact on the
meaning of this text.
John 21:8 HCSB: 8 But since they were not far from land (about 100 yards
away), the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish.
Now perhaps the lessonJesus meantfor them to understand may have begun
taking place. As they climbed out of the boat they may have begun putting two
and two together. They had been out fishing all night and could not
accomplishanything at all under their own self-reliance. ThenJesus shows up
and tells them what to do, they obey, and experience what was probably the
single biggestcatchof their lives. They probably were beginning to

137. understand that if they obeyed Jesus, theywould be able to catchmany
unbelievers and under the powerof the Holy Spirit bring them into the boat,
the Kingdom of God. If they tried to do it under their own powerthey would
fail miserably. That truth is the same
Village Church of WheatonJohn 21:1-14 April 5, 2009
©2009 Ronand Betty Teed 6
today as it was that day on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. We are never far
from successwhenwe permit Jesus to give the orders, when we are obedient
to His Word and remain in His will, and we are usually closerto successthan
we realize. We are indeed "fishers of men" (Matthew 4:19), and there are
"fish" all around us. If we obey His directions, we will catchthe fish. That is
the promise Jesus wantedto instill in these men and that is the promise He
wants to instill in us.
“Earlier, Mary recognizedJesus whenhe calledher name, and the disciples
recognizedhim through his wounds. Now he is recognizedthrough the
abundance that comes through obedience to his word.”4
John 21:9-14 HCSB: 9 When they got out on land, they saw a charcoalfire
there, with fish lying on it, and bread. 10 “Bring some of the fish you’ve just
caught,” Jesus told them. 11 So Simon Peter gotup and hauled the net
ashore, full of large fish—153 of them. Even though there were so many, the
net was not torn. 12 “Come and have breakfast,” Jesus toldthem. None of the
disciples dared ask Him, “Who are You?” because they knew it was the Lord.
13 Jesus came, took the bread, and gave it to them. He did the same with the
fish. 14 This was now the third time Jesus appearedto the disciples after He
was raisedfrom the dead.
Now let us pause for a moment to see what is actually going on here. Here is
the risen Christ, the God of Heaven, and he has prepared a shore breakfast
for His apostles. It never seems to fail that we find Jesus in the role of a
servant. And how generous and loving it was to feed Peterbefore He dealt
with Peter’s spiritual needs. He gave Peterthe opportunity to dry off, get
warm, satisfy his hunger, and enjoy some fellowship. This is a goodexample
for us to follow as we care for God's people. Do you love to serve others or do
you love to be served? One whom is walking in fellowshipwith Christ delights
to obey and delights to serve. Certainly the spiritual is more important than

138. the physical, but caring for the physical canprepare the way for spiritual
ministry. Jesus does not so emphasize "the soul" that He neglects the body.5
A goodargument canbe presentedfor the idea that here in verse 9 we should
translate a fish and a bread-cake insteadof the indefinite "fish and bread,"
which must be admitted is also a possible interpretation. Verse 13 seems to
indicate that there was only one breadcake (note the definite article) and only
one fish. Besides, the striking similarity between John 21:13 and John 6:11,
the story of feeding 5,000 withfive loaves and two fish, seems to imply that in
both caseswe are dealing with a miracle of multiplication. Jesus was a
4 RodneyA. Whitacre, The IVP New TestamentCommentary Series – John,
ed. Grant R. Osborne (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1999),
WORDsearchCROSSe-book,491-492. 5 WarrenW. Wiersbe, The Bible
Exposition Commentary – New Testament, Volume 1, (Colorado Springs, CO:
Victor, 2001), WORDsearchCROSSe-book,397.
Village Church of WheatonJohn 21:1-14 April 5, 2009
©2009 Ronand Betty Teed 7
supernatural being as well as a human being. He did not have to concern
Himself with portion control. You can probably recalla number of other
stories in the Bible where God and Jesus just kept providing more and more
from a very meagersource.
So then why did Jesus find it necessaryto ask them to bring some of the fish
they just caught? Well, we think it is because He wantedthem to see first
hand the size of the fish they caughtand just what an incredible catchit was.
Jesus did not need the fish because He could not provide enough for
everyone’s breakfast. He wanted them to see, feel, and smell the reality of this
miracle that had occurred so that they would never forget it.
There is actuallyanother miracle described in John 21:11, and that is that
Jesus prevented the net from tearing under this extremely heavy load which
would have torn under normal circumstances.
Jesus then invites them to have breakfastand by this time no one needed to
ask Him who He was because they all knew He was the Lord.
http://www.villagechurchofwheaton.org/docs/sermon2009-04-05.pdf