You know, Easter is a busy time for pastors. I had twelve continuous days of events, including three services on Palm Sunday, three services on Easter Sunday, two nights preaching revival at Andy’s churches, four Bible studies, a Seder dinner, a Good Friday service – and two egg hunts and a clothing giveaway. And so, I took a day off last week and slept in.
Audio Sermon Podcast
The events of the first Easter week were also stressful for the disciples. So after the Resurrection, after Jesus appeared to the disciples and then the next week appeared again to the disciples, this time with Thomas, a group of the disciples, led by Peter, decided to go fishing on the Sea of Galilee – the Sea of Tiberius as it was also called.
The events of the first Easter week were also stressful for the disciples. So after the Resurrection, after Jesus appeared to the disciples and then the next week appeared again to the disciples, this time with Thomas, a group of the disciples, led by Peter, decided to go fishing on the Sea of Galilee – the Sea of Tiberius as it was also called.
Revelation 5:11-14; Psalm 30; John 21:1-19 Audio Gospel
The group that went fishing that day were Peter, James and John, Thomas, Nathaniel and a couple others – likely Peter’s brother Andrew and we’re not sure of the other. Seven altogether. Seven, the biblical number of completion.
They went out that night on the lake, throwing their nets into the waters. It was the custom at the time to fish at night, because it was cooler, they could sell their catch to people at the dock in the early morning, and the fish were probably attracted to their lights. And besides, the disciples needed to think and process everything they’d been through.
It had been about a couple of years since they had gone fishing, for Jesus liked to travel and in most of Israel, there weren’t suitable waters for net fishing. They had walked up and down the land, as far as Jerusalem and Bethlehem in the south and north to Sidon in modern day Lebanon. They had walked up Mt Hermon in the northeast, and down to near the Dead Sea in the south, and made the 3000 foot climb to Jerusalem.
They had met with crowds of thousands of people, fed them at least twice, debated with Pharisees about the Law of Moses, Sadducees who loved the Temple almost as much as God, and met with Roman soldiers and Greeks who were seeking wisdom. Their leader had been arrested, and they had run for safety after boasting about sticking with Him always – and they had seen Him die – and they had seen Him alive again. And so they were exhausted and needed time to think and process and rest in the quiet of the cool lake air at night. And possibly because of this, they caught nothing that night.
The day dawned hot and muggy. Several of the disciples stripped down to nothing, there being no problem with this at that time and place, a hundred yards from shore.
In the gray of the morning, they saw a man walking on the shore as the new day brightened and the fog lifted. The man yelled to them, “Men, you don’t have any fish, do you?” “No,” they answered, for it had been a disappointing night.
“Cast the net on the right side of the boat,” He told them, “and you’ll find some.” So they did, and they were unable to haul it in because of the large number of fish.
The disciple John remembered that day three years before when Jesus asked to borrow Simon Peter’s boat as a floating platform form which to preach to the people. Afterwards, Jesus suggested Peter move the boat out into the deeper water and let down the nets. Peter pointed out that they’d worked hard all night and hadn’t caught anything, but because the teacher had said to do it, he let down the nets. And they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break, requiring help from another boat. It was at that time that Peter, James, and John all chose to follow Jesus.
Remembering this event from three years ago, looking at the situation around, John, the disciple, the one Jesus loved, said this morning to Peter, “It is the Lord!”
When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he tied his robe around him and dove into the sea, swimming like crazy for the shore. But since they were not far from land (about 100 yards away), the other disciples just came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish. When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish lying on it, and bread.
“Bring some of the fish you’ve just caught,” Jesus told them. So Simon Peter got up and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish—153 of them. Even though there were so many, the net was not torn.
Many people have speculated on the reason that John was so specific about the number of fish they caught that day. Someone thought it represented the number of nations. If so, it had to be at a specific time, for the number of nations keeps changing. Others have developed convoluted mathematical ideas, such as 153 being the sum of the first 17 integers which represents the 7 gifts of the Spirit plus the Ten commandments. Others have pointed out that in the Greek, like Roman numerals, the letters have numerical values, and found several words or phrases that add up to 153. But the most convincing argument for me is that in II Chronicles 2:17, Solomon conducted a census of foreigners and found that there were a hundred and fifty three thousand foreigners in the land of Israel, which may indicate that these new fishers of men could expect a harvest of the foreigners.
“Come and have breakfast,” Jesus told them. None of the disciples dared ask Him, “Who are You?” because they knew it was the Lord.
Once again, we see that Jesus doesn’t look exactly the same as He did before. There is something that is different about Him, but they are sure that this man on the seashore is Jesus.
Jesus came, took the bread, and gave it to them. He did the same with the fish. This was now the third time Jesus appeared to the disciples after He was raised from the dead.
When they had eaten breakfast, Jesus asked Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?” Jesus was pointing to the fish, and he used the Greek word agape, one of the four words in Greek that we translate as love. Agape means a self-sacrificing love, a love which is always embracing God’s preferences. The root of the word agape is "prefer".
“Yes, Lord,” he said to Him, “You know that I love You.” But here Peter’s love is the Greek word philo, which means “affectionate friendship” or “brotherly love”. In essence, Peter says, "You know that I love You as a brother."
“Feed My lambs,” He told him.
A second time He asked him, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?”
“Yes, Lord,” he said to Him, “You know that I love You.”
“Shepherd My sheep,” He told him. Essentially the same exchange – Jesus asks Peter to agape Him and Peter says he philos Jesus. "Will you self-sacrifice?" "I love you as a brother."
He asked him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?” This time, Jesus backs off a bit. He asks Peter if he philos him – does he have brotherly love for Him?
Peter was grieved that He asked him the third time, “Do you love Me?” Peter is upset because he knows that the three questions correspond to the three times Peter denied knowing Jesus on the night He was betrayed. Three denials; three questions.
He said, “Lord, You know everything! You know that I love You.” Peter responds with his assurance of brotherly love.
“Feed My sheep,” Jesus said. And just like that, Peter knows that he is back in the good graces of the Lord, that the Lord trusts him, Peter, with leadership of Jesus’ continuing mission. And it is the same with us when we mess up. Jesus is ready to welcome us back into the mission.
Jesus continues, though, with a prophecy about Peter’s old age:
“I assure you: When you were young, you would tie your belt and walk wherever you wanted. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will tie you and carry you where you don’t want to go.” He said this to signify by what kind of death he would glorify God. After saying this, He told him, “Follow Me!”
“Follow Me.“ Hmm.
There is much more in this exchange than meets the eye. This is not just the story of Jesus and Peter; It is the story of all believers. For we must look to Peter as an example of how each of us encounter Jesus and ultimately the demands that Jesus puts on us.
First, Jesus gets our attention and we recognize Jesus as holy and perhaps even as God, as Peter recognized Jesus was holy with the first large catch of fish. Before Peter met Jesus, there was nothing more important in Peter’s life than his daily fish catch, for this determined his income. He worked hard – yet Jesus had led Peter to his largest catch of fish ever, and that got Peter’s attention, so he began to the follow Jesus.
All along throughout the three year ministry of Jesus, Peter is the outspoken one, the one who is ready to have the extreme, radical faith before the others. Are you like Peter?
The group that went fishing that day were Peter, James and John, Thomas, Nathaniel and a couple others – likely Peter’s brother Andrew and we’re not sure of the other. Seven altogether. Seven, the biblical number of completion.
They went out that night on the lake, throwing their nets into the waters. It was the custom at the time to fish at night, because it was cooler, they could sell their catch to people at the dock in the early morning, and the fish were probably attracted to their lights. And besides, the disciples needed to think and process everything they’d been through.
It had been about a couple of years since they had gone fishing, for Jesus liked to travel and in most of Israel, there weren’t suitable waters for net fishing. They had walked up and down the land, as far as Jerusalem and Bethlehem in the south and north to Sidon in modern day Lebanon. They had walked up Mt Hermon in the northeast, and down to near the Dead Sea in the south, and made the 3000 foot climb to Jerusalem.
They had met with crowds of thousands of people, fed them at least twice, debated with Pharisees about the Law of Moses, Sadducees who loved the Temple almost as much as God, and met with Roman soldiers and Greeks who were seeking wisdom. Their leader had been arrested, and they had run for safety after boasting about sticking with Him always – and they had seen Him die – and they had seen Him alive again. And so they were exhausted and needed time to think and process and rest in the quiet of the cool lake air at night. And possibly because of this, they caught nothing that night.
The day dawned hot and muggy. Several of the disciples stripped down to nothing, there being no problem with this at that time and place, a hundred yards from shore.
In the gray of the morning, they saw a man walking on the shore as the new day brightened and the fog lifted. The man yelled to them, “Men, you don’t have any fish, do you?” “No,” they answered, for it had been a disappointing night.
“Cast the net on the right side of the boat,” He told them, “and you’ll find some.” So they did, and they were unable to haul it in because of the large number of fish.
The disciple John remembered that day three years before when Jesus asked to borrow Simon Peter’s boat as a floating platform form which to preach to the people. Afterwards, Jesus suggested Peter move the boat out into the deeper water and let down the nets. Peter pointed out that they’d worked hard all night and hadn’t caught anything, but because the teacher had said to do it, he let down the nets. And they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break, requiring help from another boat. It was at that time that Peter, James, and John all chose to follow Jesus.
Remembering this event from three years ago, looking at the situation around, John, the disciple, the one Jesus loved, said this morning to Peter, “It is the Lord!”
When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he tied his robe around him and dove into the sea, swimming like crazy for the shore. But since they were not far from land (about 100 yards away), the other disciples just came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish. When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish lying on it, and bread.
“Bring some of the fish you’ve just caught,” Jesus told them. So Simon Peter got up and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish—153 of them. Even though there were so many, the net was not torn.
Many people have speculated on the reason that John was so specific about the number of fish they caught that day. Someone thought it represented the number of nations. If so, it had to be at a specific time, for the number of nations keeps changing. Others have developed convoluted mathematical ideas, such as 153 being the sum of the first 17 integers which represents the 7 gifts of the Spirit plus the Ten commandments. Others have pointed out that in the Greek, like Roman numerals, the letters have numerical values, and found several words or phrases that add up to 153. But the most convincing argument for me is that in II Chronicles 2:17, Solomon conducted a census of foreigners and found that there were a hundred and fifty three thousand foreigners in the land of Israel, which may indicate that these new fishers of men could expect a harvest of the foreigners.
“Come and have breakfast,” Jesus told them. None of the disciples dared ask Him, “Who are You?” because they knew it was the Lord.
Once again, we see that Jesus doesn’t look exactly the same as He did before. There is something that is different about Him, but they are sure that this man on the seashore is Jesus.
Jesus came, took the bread, and gave it to them. He did the same with the fish. This was now the third time Jesus appeared to the disciples after He was raised from the dead.
When they had eaten breakfast, Jesus asked Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?” Jesus was pointing to the fish, and he used the Greek word agape, one of the four words in Greek that we translate as love. Agape means a self-sacrificing love, a love which is always embracing God’s preferences. The root of the word agape is "prefer".
“Yes, Lord,” he said to Him, “You know that I love You.” But here Peter’s love is the Greek word philo, which means “affectionate friendship” or “brotherly love”. In essence, Peter says, "You know that I love You as a brother."
“Feed My lambs,” He told him.
A second time He asked him, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?”
“Yes, Lord,” he said to Him, “You know that I love You.”
“Shepherd My sheep,” He told him. Essentially the same exchange – Jesus asks Peter to agape Him and Peter says he philos Jesus. "Will you self-sacrifice?" "I love you as a brother."
He asked him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?” This time, Jesus backs off a bit. He asks Peter if he philos him – does he have brotherly love for Him?
Peter was grieved that He asked him the third time, “Do you love Me?” Peter is upset because he knows that the three questions correspond to the three times Peter denied knowing Jesus on the night He was betrayed. Three denials; three questions.
He said, “Lord, You know everything! You know that I love You.” Peter responds with his assurance of brotherly love.
“Feed My sheep,” Jesus said. And just like that, Peter knows that he is back in the good graces of the Lord, that the Lord trusts him, Peter, with leadership of Jesus’ continuing mission. And it is the same with us when we mess up. Jesus is ready to welcome us back into the mission.
Jesus continues, though, with a prophecy about Peter’s old age:
“I assure you: When you were young, you would tie your belt and walk wherever you wanted. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will tie you and carry you where you don’t want to go.” He said this to signify by what kind of death he would glorify God. After saying this, He told him, “Follow Me!”
“Follow Me.“ Hmm.
There is much more in this exchange than meets the eye. This is not just the story of Jesus and Peter; It is the story of all believers. For we must look to Peter as an example of how each of us encounter Jesus and ultimately the demands that Jesus puts on us.
First, Jesus gets our attention and we recognize Jesus as holy and perhaps even as God, as Peter recognized Jesus was holy with the first large catch of fish. Before Peter met Jesus, there was nothing more important in Peter’s life than his daily fish catch, for this determined his income. He worked hard – yet Jesus had led Peter to his largest catch of fish ever, and that got Peter’s attention, so he began to the follow Jesus.
All along throughout the three year ministry of Jesus, Peter is the outspoken one, the one who is ready to have the extreme, radical faith before the others. Are you like Peter?
It is Peter who first says that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God. It is Peter who is ready to put Jesus as high as Moses and Elijah on top of the mountain of Transfiguration. At the last supper, it is Peter who boasts that he will never deny Jesus – and it is Peter who does indeed deny Him when the soldiers come for Jesus that night to keep Peter from being identified as a follower of Jesus. It is Peter who weeps bitterly over his own actions. And it is Peter who races to the tomb and puts his head first in the tomb to see that the body is missing. And now, it is Peter who Jesus forgives, and, not only forgives Peter, gives Peter an important duty in the kingdom, to do what Jesus wants, to feed the young Christian lambs, to take care of the flock of Christians, to feed the adult sheep.
Perhaps you are like Peter – daring to see the Son of God where others merely see a great teacher? Are you ready to lift Jesus’ name up with the greats of history? Are you the one who boasts that you will never deny Jesus – yet you fail to mention His name to your family, friends, and neighbors when given the chance? Do you have regrets over the times you don’t speak of Jesus when you could have?
Are you always ready to find the next miracle, to look for the next miracle of Jesus? And are you the one who understands the love of Christ when Christ forgives you of the things you’ve done that you are not proud of? Are you the one to whom Jesus is even now speaking, saying that there are baby Christians out there who need you to feed them with mentoring, by leading them through the Bible, by teaching them how to read Scripture, by praying with them in addition to praying for them?
Try this. Write down 12 names of people you don’t think are regular, believing Christians, or who need to be shepherded along to grow their young faith. Pray for and about these 12 people daily. Make a point to speak to them monthly, or better yet, speak to them once a week. Praise God to them and tell them a bit more of what you’ve already learned about Jesus. Treat them as though you were the leader of their Sunday School class, even though most of them may never have entered a church. And see what happens.
Feed His lambs. Shepherd His sheep. Feed His sheep. And Follow Jesus.
Church tradition tells us that Peter quickly became the spiritual leader of the Jesus movement. After a couple of decades in Jerusalem, he may have traveled to Babylon and back. Later, he traveled to Rome. When Peter was an old man, living in Rome, tradition tells us that Nero chose to blame the Christians for the great fire in Rome, and so Peter became one of those Nero had killed. Tradition tells us that Peter, humble, asked to be crucified upside down because he was not worthy to have the same death as Christ. And this is what happened.
Now it’s your turn. Jesus is calling you. Feed His lambs. Shepherd His sheep. Feed His sheep. And Follow Jesus.
Perhaps you are like Peter – daring to see the Son of God where others merely see a great teacher? Are you ready to lift Jesus’ name up with the greats of history? Are you the one who boasts that you will never deny Jesus – yet you fail to mention His name to your family, friends, and neighbors when given the chance? Do you have regrets over the times you don’t speak of Jesus when you could have?
Are you always ready to find the next miracle, to look for the next miracle of Jesus? And are you the one who understands the love of Christ when Christ forgives you of the things you’ve done that you are not proud of? Are you the one to whom Jesus is even now speaking, saying that there are baby Christians out there who need you to feed them with mentoring, by leading them through the Bible, by teaching them how to read Scripture, by praying with them in addition to praying for them?
Try this. Write down 12 names of people you don’t think are regular, believing Christians, or who need to be shepherded along to grow their young faith. Pray for and about these 12 people daily. Make a point to speak to them monthly, or better yet, speak to them once a week. Praise God to them and tell them a bit more of what you’ve already learned about Jesus. Treat them as though you were the leader of their Sunday School class, even though most of them may never have entered a church. And see what happens.
Feed His lambs. Shepherd His sheep. Feed His sheep. And Follow Jesus.
Church tradition tells us that Peter quickly became the spiritual leader of the Jesus movement. After a couple of decades in Jerusalem, he may have traveled to Babylon and back. Later, he traveled to Rome. When Peter was an old man, living in Rome, tradition tells us that Nero chose to blame the Christians for the great fire in Rome, and so Peter became one of those Nero had killed. Tradition tells us that Peter, humble, asked to be crucified upside down because he was not worthy to have the same death as Christ. And this is what happened.
Now it’s your turn. Jesus is calling you. Feed His lambs. Shepherd His sheep. Feed His sheep. And Follow Jesus.
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