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Christ is risen. He has risen indeed. Hallelujah. In the name of Jesus. Amen.
Dear Saints, last week we heard from John chapter 20, the very end, where John says why he’s written all of these things down. He says, there’s many other things that Jesus did that were not written in this book, but these were written so that you would believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and by believing have life in his name. Now, you think that that sounds, at least to me, like the end of the gospel, like all this is here so that you would believe. But then John gives us even more in John Chapter 21, the last event that John is going to record that we heard this morning.
And we should especially then know that John is saying, look, Jesus did lots and lots and lots of things. If they were all written down, the world would be filled with books. Right? But these specific things are written down so that you would know Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God, and that knowing that, believing that, you would have eternal life in His name. And then we have this story that we heard this morning, so that this is specifically given to us so that we would believe in Jesus and have life in His name.
That’s what I want to think about this morning, how this visit of Jesus on the Sea of Galilee is for us. And specifically, I want to think about this, that there are three miracles that occur this morning and that each of those miracles is also for us, for you and for me, that we would believe in Christ and have eternal life in His name. The setting is, they’re in Galilee, somewhere at the Sea of Galilee. There’s seven disciples there. We know that there’s 11 surviving disciples. Judas is dead and buried. But for whatever reason, this morning, this night, I suppose, there’s seven of them who are going fishing. Peter, in fact, says, I’m going fishing, and… and it’s Thomas and James and John and a couple of the other disciples, they say, yeah, we’re going to go with you. And so they go fishing and they’re fishing all night.
Now, what are we supposed to make of this fishing? I mean, that’s maybe the first moment that we can stop and pause and say what’s going on here. The different commentaries actually have a lot of different things to say about it. Some say that this is an indication of despair, that they don’t think that this whole preaching the kingdom of God is going to work out. This whole being fishers of men is going to come to anything, and so they go back to their old being fishers of fish, back to their original undergrad degrees or whatever, you know.
Now, a lot of the commentators would disagree with that, and they’d say, no, no, they were just waiting for instruction. They didn’t yet have instructions from Jesus about what to do, so they’re waiting there for instructions, and fishing is fine. It’s a good work. They knew what to do. Maybe they were hungry, so they go fishing. Here’s the point that I want to make sure that we don’t miss, is that even though Jesus had called them previously from being fishermen to being fishers of men, they were not yet going about that work. Right. They were not yet preaching. They were not yet teaching the kingdom of God. They were not yet calling people to repentance and baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That will not happen until the Holy Spirit comes.
If you want to get a glimpse of the Church of God and of the Holy Ministry without the power of the Holy Spirit, this is it. Let’s just go fishing and catch nothing. That’s just, it’s what it is. They won’t do that until, well, 50 days after Easter when the Holy Spirit comes. That’s at least we can learn that. That the ministry of God’s Word and His Church and His Kingdom comes only by the Word and Spirit. And apart from that, there’s nothing.
Well, they’re fishing all night. And they catch nothing, so they’re kind of rolling back to the shore. And in that early morning light, they see in the midst, well, maybe they don’t even see. They hear a voice come from the mist and the shore who cries out and says, children, have you caught anything? And they respond, no. This is one of those times when I wish, you know, we had an audio recording of how it would have sounded. What that no would have been like would tell us a lot. No, or maybe probably, no. No. All night we were, caught nothing.
So then the voice from the shadow says, throw the net on the right side of the boat. And I wonder if the disciples look at each other. Like, no, wait, we’ve heard this before. All right, they throw the net over. And immediately, I think even as John probably feels the tension on the net, knowing that they’ve caught something, he realizes that’s not just some guy walking on the shore. That’s Jesus. He says to the other disciples, he says, it’s the Lord.
And immediately when he says that Peter grabs his jacket and jumps over the, onto the, into the water and swims ashore, while the other guys are left, you know, hauling the fish in. And they come to the shore and they find Jesus standing there. So beautiful. Now, this is the second, this miracle of the catch of fish is the second time that Jesus has done that particular miracle. And we want to, I think, pay attention to the difference. In fact, I think the blessing for us is going to be in paying attention to the differences. Right.
Remember the first time it was about a year, a year and a half into the ministry of Jesus. He had called the disciples, but they were kind of part-time disciples, and he’s going to find them fishing, and he’s going to call them into full-time ministry. He finds them there, and Peter’s there mending the nets, and so he says to Peter, he gets in his boat, and he says, push off from the shore, and Jesus is lecturing there from the boat, and then he says to Peter, when the sermon is over, go out into the deep and throw in the net. The net is so full of fish that he has to call out James and John and the others. They bring out a second boat. Both boats are full of fish, and they start to sink.
And what does Peter do at that moment? You remember? He falls on his face, and he cries out to Jesus. Depart from me, Lord, because I’m an unclean man. Now, I just want us to see the difference in how Peter reacts to that first miraculous catch of fish, to how he reacts to this second miraculous catch of fish. Now, this, after the resurrection, they throw the net out and they catch the fish, it’s the Lord. And Peter doesn’t say, depart from me, Lord. In fact, Peter can’t wait to get to Jesus. He puts on his jacket and he jumps overboard and swims ashore to get to him.
Now, just think of those two reactions: one of fear, one of despair, one of recognizing his own sin, and the other of longing and hope and desire to be with the Lord Jesus. This is probably the two different reactions that happen whenever Jesus performs a miracle. It’s probably the same thing, the two different reactions that happen whenever the Lord shows up in his word. It’s probably the same thing that happens when the Lord does his weekly miracle for us of putting his body and his blood here on the altar for us to eat and to drink.
That this miracle and the presence of God can show us our own sinfulness and can cause us to despair, to just run for it, Lord, I’m unworthy. But that’s not what Jesus wants. Jesus comes not to condemn, not to destroy, not to cast us off, but to draw us near and to forgive and to be gracious to us. He comes with mercy. He comes with kindness.
So it should be. I think what should happen is that when the words of institution are spoken in the liturgy, you can be John and you can lean over to the person next to you and say, it’s the Lord. And then, you know, all the guys that have taken off their jackets for the sermon, put them back on, and they run up to the altar. Okay, so let’s not do that, but I think that’s how our heart should be. That when you hear the news, okay, think about this. When you hear the news, the Lord is here. Do you want to run and hide like Adam and Eve in the garden, like Peter on the boat? Or is your heart like Peter now that just wants to, can’t wait? To be with him, to be near him, knowing that he is full of mercy and kindness.
That’s what the Lord wants. He wants to draw you to himself. He wants you to know that he is kind and loving and gentle, lowly of heart, that he casts off none who come to him. He, in fact, comes near to us, precisely for this reason, to love and forgive us. So that we see in this second miracle of the great catch of fish how the Lord Jesus is drawing us to himself.
The second miracle happens when they get to shore. Now, I don’t know if this is officially a miracle. In fact, it’s probably an anti-miracle, the opposite of a miracle. But if you’ll let me do it, for this sermon, I’ll call the second miracle that happens is this breakfast that Jesus cooks. Now, you say to yourself, how in the world can cooking fish and bread on some charcoal be a miracle? But I think here’s how it works in the text for us. Remember that when Jesus did miracles in his life before his death, it was to show his divinity. When he turns water into wine, when he walks on the water, when he calms the sea, when he heals the sick, when he casts out demons, when he raises the dead, all the people could see this miracle and say, truly this is the Son of God.
We see that this is a man, but he is much more than a man, that he’s God in the flesh. I think this breakfast works the same way, but the opposite. In other words, after the resurrection, there’s no question that something special is going on with Jesus. But this miracle, when Jesus sits down to make breakfast, he’s saying, I am still a man. I’m still making a fire. I’m still getting fish and roasting them. I’m even making toast. That he’s taking care of these things that are according to his human nature. He’s proving to us, even after the resurrection, that he is still flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone and blood of our blood, that he still has that same human nature with which he is able to sympathize with you and with me in all of our weaknesses.
Now, this is important because Jesus is different after the resurrection. John tells us that this is the third time that he’s appeared to his disciples as a group. It is, according to our accounting of the narrative, it’s the seventh appearance of Jesus between his resurrection and his ascension. And it’s the seven of 11. That’s what the Bible tells us 11 times that Jesus appeared to people. And each one of those appearances is really unique. It’s just, it’s not how Jesus was before he was raised from the dead. He’s walking through rock tombs. He sort of shows up in the middle of a room that’s locked, and he’s just, he’s there in the midst of them, and then he’s gone again. The same thing happens when he goes on the road to Emmaus with those two disciples and he goes into the room and he blesses and they recognize him, and then he disappears again. Jesus is just, he’s with them in a different way.
Now, I think part of that, if you’ll, I can’t, I can ever, every Easter, when I’m reading all the Easter stories, I just, I can’t escape this thought that Jesus after the resurrection is simply, uh, he’s, he’s playful. And I think it goes in this stark contrast to how the disciples are, who at best are wondering, at worse are mourning and doubtful and full of fears. And Jesus is, as he interacts with them, is… They’re just, they’re not, remember on the way to Emmaus, he hides himself from them. He just, he won’t show them who he is so that they can learn about him from what he’s teaching from the scriptures. And then it even says, he pretends like he’s going to walk past them. So there’s this kind of this game of hide and go seek that Jesus is playing on the road to Emmaus. It’s really beautiful.
Or then when he goes the next day on this week after Easter and he’s showing Thomas his hands in his side, it just reminds me of the boys who are showing each other their different scars. Look at this one, when I fell off the bike. Or even this morning when he has this breakfast for the disciples. He has them haul in all these fish, and then they haul them ashore, and the breakfast is already there. The best I can think of, it’s like if I told the vicar, hey, go get some donuts for Bible class, and then when he was off at H.E.B., I got out the donuts I already had. Jesus has breakfast there already for them. There’s this kind of, it’s, it’s, Jesus has this lighthearted joyfulness, which is this indication that he’s just, he’s past the reach of death. He’s past the grasp of the tomb. He’s past the sorrow. He’s past the suffering. He’s past the grave. It’s all behind him. It’s now only light and life and glory. And he knows it. And he’s so full of this joy. But the disciples are, they’re not there yet. They’re still waiting for that courage and for that lighthearted freedom. And it’ll come with the Holy Spirit.
And so as Jesus is interacting with them, he has to show them that he is, well, he’s not a ghost, that he’s not a phantom, that he’s real, and he does it by cooking breakfast. Now, here’s, I think, the benefit for us. We are tempted, at least I’ll say, that I am tempted to think that Jesus now, risen from the dead and living and reigning with the Father and the Holy Spirit and ruling all of the cosmos by his divine power probably doesn’t have time to worry about what I’m having for breakfast. But he does. Even the smallest part of your human life, he tells you this already, that he knows even the numbers of the hairs on your head, that he cares about all of it, the big stuff and the very, very small stuff. He roasts fish. He toasts bread for breakfast. He feeds the disciples. He does this so that you know that that human nature, which he had from the womb of Mary and which was nailed to the cross and laid in the tomb, he still has. So that he is able to sympathize with you as a high priest over the house of God. That’s wonderful.
And then the third miracle for us to consider is the restoration of Peter. So after breakfast, Jesus is going to look at Peter and ask him three questions. Now, I have to imagine that Jesus, when he’s making breakfast and he prepares this charcoal fire, knows exactly what he’s doing. And here, at least in my imagination, is how it went down. That Peter’s still kind of shivering from jumping in the water in the morning and he, and he’s cold. They have breakfast and they’re still trying to figure out what’s going on with Jesus. And so Peter kind of leans in and he leans over the fire to warm himself up and, at least in my imagination, he flashes back to the last time that he was warming himself over a charcoal fire outside the house of the high priest when the servant girl said to him, aren’t you one of his disciples? And Peter denied the Lord three times. I don’t know him. I tell you, I don’t know the man. And he swore an oath. I don’t know him. And three times he denied Jesus. And the rooster crowed. And Jesus now looks as he’s being led from one place to another. And Peter and Jesus lock eyes and he weeps and he runs out, mourning the fact that he’s rejected the Lord Jesus, even on the same night that he said, even if all of these forsake you, I’ll die with you. I won’t do it.
So now Peter, here’s how I think it happened on this morning, some weeks after the resurrection, and they’re there, and they’ve eaten the fish and the toast. And now Peter’s warming himself, and he looks at the coals and he remembers, oh, I denied Jesus. Three times I denied him. And I think he must look up at Jesus, and they look at each other in the eyes again. And now Jesus begins this miracle of restoration by asking Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? I think that these refers to the disciples. I think, you know, remember how Peter said, these are going to forsake you, but I won’t. And so Jesus is saying, do you love me more than these? Yes. And Peter now, he is the opposite of prideful and bold and boasting. He’s incredibly humble. He says, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. Feed my sheep.
And then again, to Peter, Jesus says, Simon, son of John, do you love me? In other words, I’m asking you now, not if you love me more than these. I’m just asking if you even love me. And Simon, Peter says, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. Tend my lambs. And then a third time, Jesus says to him, Simon, son of John, do you love me? The text tells us that Jesus was distressed, or, sorry, that Peter was distressed. I wonder at this distress. It could be, okay, it could be that Peter is distressed because Jesus is asking him three times the same question. It could be, though, that Jesus is actually asking him an even different question. It’s hard to see it in the English because we just have one word for love in English. We just, we say love. Greek has a handful of different words, and they show up in this text.
So Storgay, as an example, is the kind of familial affection. That’s not here in the text, but there’s two different words for love that are here. The word phileo, which means brotherly love or friendly affection, and the word agape, which is the kind of normal word for love. It’s a deep and enduring love. It can be for good things or bad things. And when Jesus is asking, if you could read it in the Greek, it would go like this. The first time Jesus says to Peter, Peter, do you agape me? And Peter responds and says, yes, Lord, you know that I phileo you. Now, probably, even the original language that they spoke, Aramaic would have just had one word for love. And so it’s the Holy Spirit bringing out in the gospel of John even this little kind of nuance in the question.
Because the second time Jesus asked the same question, Peter, do you agape me? And Peter says, yes, Lord, you know that I phileo you. But now the third time, Jesus says, Peter, do you phileo me? And this is when Peter is distressed. Do you even have a friendly affection for me? But Peter here, and this is the humility of repentance and faith that shows up as love for God, he simply opens up his heart. Well, even before that, he knows that Jesus is the one who can read our own hearts. He can read our own intentions and our own thoughts and our own minds. And so Peter says to Jesus, Lord, you know everything, so you must know that I phileo you. That I’m not going to be so bold to make these promises that I made before. That got me in a lot of trouble. But you know, you know that I love you. And Jesus says to him a third time, feed my sheep.
Yeah. And I think it must be at that third time when Jesus gives him this command to feed his sheep that Peter realizes what the Lord is doing, that his threefold denial has now been replaced with his threefold confession. And Peter’s back. He’s back in the office. He’s back as a disciple who’s going to be a fisher of men. The Lord has restored him. In fact, so restored as Peter that the Lord then tells him how he’s going to die. Okay. He says, when you were young, you got to dress yourself and go where you want, but when you get old, they’re going to dress you and take you where you don’t want to go, namely to be crucified on an upside-down cross. But follow me, Peter’s back.
Now, this miracle of Peter’s restoration, I think, has two benefits, two brief benefits that I want to talk about for us, and we’ll finish with this idea. Here’s the first. And I think it’s in the little word that, for me, is the most comforting word in the entire text. It’s the word my. Do you notice how Jesus says to Peter, feed my sheep, tend my lambs, feed my sheep? So that Jesus looks at us and he does not, I mean, it’s true that we’re fish that are caught, but we’re more, we’re lambs that are gathered in. And the Lord Jesus looks at you and me as his own. And he wants to make sure that you have everything that you need. So he restores Peter so that you will have the Word of God. The Lord will see to it that you are taken care of and that the Word of God is preached to each and every one of us so that we know His kindness and His love.
That’s the first comfort, that he will not leave us or forsake us, but we’ll have the word. And here’s the second comfort, and it’s just in the restoration of Peter, the plain old restoration of Peter, that it doesn’t matter how far you’ve wandered, it doesn’t matter what you’ve done, it doesn’t matter how much you’ve rejected Jesus or denied, like Peter, three times. I don’t know who you’re talking about. The Lord will have you back. He wants you back.
I was thinking about this this morning because we have Peter on all of our stained glass windows a number of times. And normally, when we have Peter on the stained glass window, he shows up with the symbol of the keys. So you can see it. If you look at the picture of Jesus by the crown and go to the left, you see the almond with the two keys. Well, these are the 12 apostles, and normally the symbol is how they died, but the keys are Peter because Jesus says to him, I give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. In fact, if you’re coming up for the Lord’s supper and you’re coming up the stairs, you can look at the very back of the door. top, back, left window up there, and it also has two keys with a chain that’s being broken. The same thing, the keys of the heaven that set us free from the forgiveness of sins.
But there’s another window that’s backed by Zelda, and that’s another Peter window that’s of the rooster. And there Peter is pictured with the rooster who crowed when he denied him three times. And here’s what I wonder. I wonder if we could have Peter here and we could ask him how he wanted us to paint him in the windows. What he would say. He’d say, Peter, we’re going to put you up in the windows. He’d say, well, I don’t know about that, but okay. We have two options. We’re going to paint you with keys or we’re going to paint you with a rooster. Which would you prefer?
And here’s, you know what I think Peter would say? I think Peter would say, paint the rooster. Paint the rooster. Because I am a sinner. I am a sinner. And my only hope in life and in death is the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. My only hope to stand before God is not on the things that I’ve done, the sermons that I’ve preached, the epistles that I’ve written, the missionary journeys that I’ve been on, the time that I spent with Jesus. None of these things will help me on the judgment day. I am the one that denied Christ three times but was brought back by His mercy and forgiven all of my sin.
And dear saints, this is also our own boast, not in ourselves, but in all that Christ has done for us. So in this miracle of the catch of fish and the miracle of the breakfast and the miracle of the restoration of Peter, the Lord gives us his word by which we also believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and by believing we also have life in his name. May God grant it for Christ’s sake.
Christ has risen. He has risen indeed. Hallelujah. The peace of God which passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.