Shine - John 21:1-25

Join us for the last Catalyst of the year as Sam Parker wraps up the book of John, going over John 21:1-25. 

Transcript

Good evening. Good to see everybody tonight. It's hard to thank, man. We're at our last catty. You two are special. You've got the whole front row all to yourselves. Yeah. Well, hey, it's awesome to be back in Haven or tonight. We haven't been here since. I think pretty much the beginning of the school year. They did all this construction, new carpet and everything. I'm pretty sure they did it just for CCF, right? Yeah. That's what I'm going to believe, so nice of the university to do that for us. So yeah, it's good to end the school year kind of where we started off the school year. First thing tonight, here's something I'd like to do. If you're a CCF officer, would you stand up? Hold on, hold on. You guys are way intuitive. I know you're like, oh, here's where we clap, not yet. So officers stand up. Yes. If you are an RA in the men's house or the women's house, would you stand up? Cool. Nice. We also have a few house officers in the men's house. There's three of you stand up. Women's house. They don't have any house officers, right? Oh, oh, yes, yes, then, sorry. Man, Blue Allen. All right. And then if you are part of the worship team, worship team stand up, that includes tech team in the back. If you led or helped lead a small group, would you stand up as well? Awesome. CCF, these, these are your colleagues who this past year, spent countless hours preparing lessons, planning events, making sure they went off well, making sure two resident houses didn't fall apart, and much, much more. And so, as we ended the school year, I think it's worth just giving them a round of applause. [ Applause ] Sincerely, thank you to each of you. You guys make this ministry multiply as it does, and so thank you for all that you guys do. Also, just raise your hand if this is your last caddy. And full of you, yeah, yeah. It's hard to think that some of you guys won't be joining us as we start in the fall. Sad face. We feel like there's always new family members coming in, which is great, but then there's those of you that have to move on, and so. But we're excited for where you guys are going, but maybe every now and then, you guys could just pop into our all on a Thursday night and join us, right? Nobody else would know you, but at least us ministers would. Also, if you're not -- raise your hand. If you're going to be around and we're all up for the summer, anybody? Some of you. All right, we do something called summer caddy. On Thursday, it starts in June. We cook food. We eat said food, and then we do a Bible study, and we do that at the women's house. And so, feel free. We'll be sending information out about that as we get a little bit closer. We're going to be studying the triune third part of the Godhead, Holy Spirit. We're going to be talking about pictures of the Holy Spirit in scripture. And so, if you can join us for that, that'd be great. All right, any other -- I think that was all that I was wanting to go through. So, cool. Turn to John 21. John 21. We have finally reached the last chapter. Maybe some of you thought we were never going to get here. The end of the Gospel of John. But as we're going to see tonight, it's not really the end. It's kind of just the beginning. It feels like just a few weeks ago we were here reading through John 1. I was kind of laying out, okay, here's what the study through this Gospel is going to look like. And in that opening scene of John 1, we saw where John tells us that the light shines in the darkness. The light shines in the darkness. And that's where we got our theme, shine, obviously. And that also that the word took on flesh and became known. Became known. Visible, disclosed. The word took on flesh and is now being revealed in the world. And that's what we've looked at this whole year is that light being made known in the world. And as we've gone through, if we thank all the way back to John chapter 3, we're reminded that the darkness hates the light. Why? Because the light exposes the truth. And the light exposes the darkness and all that is in the darkness. And the truth of the light exposes the truth, right? And when the light shines, which is revealing Jesus Christ, the light also illuminates things that maybe we don't want illuminated. Not only things that I have done, but things that I've thought, intentions of my heart. But Jesus, as we've gone through this Gospel, we see that He was coming into the darkness, not to curse, not to condemn the darkness, but to call out to the darkness. That those who are His, He would beckon and they would come out of the darkness. And we saw that beautifully in John 8/12. When Jesus said, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. Wonderful verse, good verse to memorize. The light shines in the darkness. So as we've been going through this, have you found yourself? Even through the school year leaning into that light? So you found yourself kind of, maybe it's getting a little uncomfortable. Going to back away from that light. I opened up that first night talking about a pencil light of a sun ray coming in through your curtains and your in bed, right? And you're not wanting to get up in that ray of light is just blinding. You're like, ah, got to get rid of that light because it's piercing the darkness. And maybe we want to just pull the covers over our head, right? And get away from that. But do we want to get away from the light that shines? I don't think that's you guys. You're here tonight, right? That tells me that you want to be here. You want to be leaning in coming into that light and enjoying that light. My personal desire is that each student, you know, it's consistently coming here, it's going to consistently have Jesus Christ in front that you see Him and you want to be closer to Him. You want to grow in your understanding of who He is and what He did and what He said. His words, his works, his worth. Those things right there, man, when I think of those three things, I say, "Man, God, I'm leaning in. I want more of that." So who's my movie lovers here tonight? To be more clear, who loves going to theaters to watch movies? Yeah, like it doesn't really maybe matter what's playing. It's just like the whole theater experience. And any of you such die hard that like you pay that subscription fees and you can go regardless, anybody. You don't have to admit it, that's fine. So yeah, we love a good story, don't we? We love a good story. A plot that develops well. Characters that we can start to really like connect with. May good, hopefully, triumphing over evil. I don't know how Hollywood doesn't kick out at least a few better movies than they do. Like if you just have those basic ingredients, I'll give you my money. You just produce a decent movie and we'll come watch it, right? But the sad reality is sometimes a movie is just awful, right? So you're at the theater, you're with your friends. The popcorn has all been eaten. The candy is gone or somewhere on the floor. And it's just miserable. You're like, this movie is never going to end. You can't go anywhere because you're with your friends. And so you just have to endure and wait. And eternity, when are those ending credits going to come? Oh, I think it's, I think it's ending. Oh no, it started a whole new scene. Good Lord, this thing's never going to end, right? It's just painful. But then on the flip side, the cool thing is when there's a really good movie. Unfortunately, rare, I'll be it. But you're just captivated, right? You're pulled in, you're hoping the story doesn't end. You know, it's going to have to at some point. But the characters are real. Their story is real. And you find yourself just being pulled in to their world. Even though it's on the screen. The story, maybe it builds towards a climactic end. Maybe it's a fight scene. Maybe it's just a conclusive finish to the plot. But it's like, oh, okay, man, they tied that in great together, right? Almost never, at least with, you know, the good movies does it just boom, end right there. I mean, the plot is kind of finished. But then it always seems to transition to this end to scene. Life kind of comes back to a little bit of normalcy. It might be a new normal. But the characters are maybe just kind of going back through everyday life. And it's a wonderful place where just some meaningful things can be tied off. And usually what it does is just leaves you feeling like, you know what? The story continues. Now, maybe if you keep your fingers crossed, sequel, I don't know. Maybe they're going to make another movie. But even if they don't indicate that, maybe it just leaves it open-ended. So that we, as the observers, can just maybe even imagine. Think about dwell upon, oh, maybe this was where the story was going to go. I think that's what we see as we come to our last chapter of John. Obviously, this is gospel truth. It's not a movie that was written by some movie writers. There's a difference between fact and fiction, right? We don't mix the two up. But this is the feel that we get in this last chapter. He finished John 20, as we saw last week. The drama of the empty tomb, the followers of Jesus, they're all running around as if Jesus didn't tell them exactly this was going to happen. But they're still running around all crazy and it's almost comedic how they're doing this. But then John ends it with some concluding remarks. And you would think, okay, well, maybe this is just where the gospel of John actually ended. But we get this last scene and it's a beauty. Life is kind of back to normal. You'll see as we read it, but things are definitely different. So let's read the entire chapter to begin with here. 21 verse 1. After this, Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the sea of Tiberius and revealed himself in this way. Simon Peter, Thomas called the twin, Nathaniel of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee and two others of his disciples were together. Simon Peter said to them, I'm going fishing. They said to him, we will go with you. They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore, yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, children, do you have any fish? They answered him, no. He said to them, cast the net on the right side of the boat and you will find some. So they cast it and now they were not able to haul it in because of the quantity of fish. That disciple whom Jesus loved, therefore, said to Peter, it is the Lord. When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord he put on his outer garment for he was stripped for work and threw himself into the sea. The other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish for they were not far from the land, but about a hundred yards off. When they got out on the land, they saw a charcoal fire in place with fish laid out on it and bred. Jesus said to them, bring some of the fish that you have just caught. So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore full of large fish, 153 of them. Although there were so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, come and have breakfast. Now, none of the disciples dared ask him, who are you? They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them and so with the fish. This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead. When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? He said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him, feed my lambs. He said to him a second time, Simon, son of Jonah, son of John, do you love me? He said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him, feed my sheep, tend my sheep. He said to him the third time, Simon, son of John, do you love me? Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, do you love me? And he said to him, Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you. Jesus said to him, feed my sheep. Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted. But when you were old, you will stretch out your hands and another will dress you and carry you where you did not want to go. This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God. And after saying this, he said to him, follow me. Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them, the one whom also had leaned back against him during the supper and said, Lord, who is it that is going to betray you? When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, Lord, what about this man? Jesus said to him, if it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me. So the saying spread, I'm brought among the brothers that this disciple was not to die. Yeah, Jesus did not say that he was not to die, but if it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things and who has written these things and we know that his testimony is true. Now there are also many other things that Jesus did where every one of them to be written, I suppose the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. Father, we thank you for this beautiful gospel. We thank you for the disciple whom you cared for and loved and poured into so that even thousands of years later, we read his words and we see you clearly. Lord, may your word do what it ought to, to enlighten our hearts and souls, to see you better, to see ourselves better and to love you more. We ask it in your wonderful name, amen. So at the beginning of this chapter, where are these five disciples? John writes by the sea of Tiberius, that was what they would also call the Sea of Galilee. And so they had returned back to the area of Galilee, which if you remember was about 30 miles north of Jerusalem. We actually have in Matthew 28, 10, if you're wondering, well, I did they go back to Galilee. Jesus, after he had rose from the dead, he tells them, go to Galilee and I will see you there. So we don't know how, for how long that they've been in Galilee. Obviously, you're looking at five to seven days travel, probably to get there, depending on which route you took. And we know this that from the day of Jesus's resurrection, and then even there was several days there afterwards where they stayed, but from that until the day of Pentecost, what we read about in Acts 2 when they're all back in Jerusalem, that's about 50 days. In fact, it's exactly 50 days. And so we know that they were in Jerusalem at that time, but this would have been in that interim time. And they've returned to their homeland, most of the disciples were from up in that area. And they're just hanging out, waiting on Jesus. When's it going to come? We did what he said. We're here. He can, he can just appear wherever we thought he might be a little bit quicker, right? But they're waiting. And so Peter says, you know what, boys, I'm going fishing. John doesn't reveal his motivations, but we do know Peter, don't we? I think it's some combination of, you know, I got to do something. I just can't sit around anymore. I don't know what to do. But there is one thing I do know how to do. I've done it a few times. Let's, let's go fishing, guys. They had been fishermen by trade. And so they returned to what they had been doing before Jesus had come along. Did they have some questions, some wondering about needing or just, okay, Jesus did his thing. And yes, he rose from the dead. But we got to do something. Do we go back to our old profession? And everyone goes along with Peter. And they go out in the middle of the night, which was actually customary. You would go, take your nets out in the wee hours long before daybreak, but middle of the night, and you would fish until it became daylight. And so they go out as was customary that cast on nets till the early morning hours. What began with probably some prospect of success, which seems to sum up every time I go fishing personally. I can speak with some knowledge to this. What begins with this prospect of success just turns into a miserable trip in the boat, right? They're out there for hours. Fishermen by trade. And they got nothing. Failure. This is frustrating. You know it's got to be frustrating for these guys. I've been on those fishing trips, not with nets, but the end result was still the same. So, question, quick reflection for us. When we don't see Jesus, what do we do? It's not that we've not had wonderful experiences in prayer, or seeing an incredible miracle, or a wonderful worships, or we're just captivated. But there are those times in life, right? Or we're just not really seeing Jesus. What do we do? You assume him to be elsewhere, taking care of business, but not present with you. When his promises might be fresh on your mind, but his presence is not felt, do you return to old ways? I'll just kind of go back to doing what I knew how to do beforehand. So, for these disciples, it wasn't necessarily wrong that they go fishing. But I think it's right for us to wonder if they maybe lost a little sight of what they're calling us. If you'll flip with me or read along up on screen, Luke chapter 5, verse 11, verse 1, I'm sorry, Luke 5, verse 1. This is at the beginning of Jesus' ministry. Luke records this. So on one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Guinness Surid. And he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets, getting into one of the boats, which was Simon's, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, put out into the deep and let your nets, let, let down your nets for a catch. Simon answered, Master, we toil at all night and took nothing. Sound familiar? But at your word, I will let down the nets. And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish and their nets were breaking. They signaled to their partners in the other boats to come and help them and they came and filled both the boats so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, depart from me for I'm a sinful man, O Lord, for he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken. And so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, do not be afraid. From now on, you will be catching men. And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him. Jesus had told them, back here in Luke 5, you're going to be fishers of men now. Simon, you're going to have a new name. You're going to be called Peter. You're going to have a new identity, a new profession. You're not going to be fishers of fish, but fishers of men. How will they do this? He gave a simple answer, follow me, and I'll show you how. So here we are back in John 21. Where are the men? They're again in an empty boat. And that empty boat is empty nets and empty men. At least that's probably how they were feeling. But this figure appears on the shore. Children, he calls out, which is kind of interesting because they were grown men, right? He says, children, have you any fish? And they had to answer again with the same sad answer. No, no fish. We are indeed fishermen. We have, yes, indeed fished all night as is customary and we've got nothing. I petition you tonight that there is no better way to approach Jesus than with empty hands. There's no better way to approach him than with empty hands. So what does he say to them? Pretty funny. He's like, well, hey, take your nets and throw them over on the other side of the boat. Then you'll catch some fish. It's almost like a slap in the face. Like the fishermen are you kidding me? Like is there a dividing line underneath the boat? All the fish are like, aha, we're over here. You're never going to think of casting over here. But they do. And lo and behold, floundering, flopping fish, straining at the nets. The men, not probably expecting much of anything, suddenly realizing, oh, my goodness, there's resistance here. I end pulling on those nets, starting to bark orders to one another of all of a sudden we've got a load of fish unbelievable. And while all of that is going on, one very perceptive astute fisherman says, you know what? I remember something like this happening before. And he leans over. This is John. He leans over to Peter. He says, that's Jesus. Boom, Peter's like, oh, my gosh, yeah, it is. And typical Peter, right? He leaps before he looks. He just takes his stuff, wraps it around, ties his belt off, and it says he just jumps into the sea. We don't know what the depth of water was. There's probably some amount of swimming waiting, whatever you call it when you're just trying to move quickly through water, right? And he sees Jesus, and he says, I've got to get to him. I'll tell you this, the quicker you run to Jesus, the less you have to slodge through. We all have something we've got to get through, right? To get to Jesus. But the quicker we do it, the less we've got to get through. When he beckons you, where will you be? And when he returns one day, what will he find you doing? I stay with Jesus. Peter had lived with his guilt ever since the cross, denying Jesus three times in a very public way. All of the followers, probably all the disciples, they would have known what had happened. He knew what had happened, and how often do we respond to Jesus? We see Peter actually out of this intense guilt, seem to want to go above and beyond. I'm going to prove to Jesus, even if it means me trying to run across the water, how much I love him. Jesus, in light of how I have failed you, I have a great desire to show you now my love and devotion. We can know that we've failed. But I want to show him how much, and you see that in the story here. He bails off, he's like, I'm sorry, fellas, I'm going to Jesus, and the other disciples, they finally get to shore, you know, poor other disciples. They're stuck behind trying to deal with all the load while Peter runs on ahead, and then John says, eventually they get to shore, about a hundred yards off of the shore. And when they get there, what do they find? Well, they find Jesus, a wet Peter, and a fire, charcoal fire, with fish and bread prepared. It's a wonderful first person perspective that John provides us of just incredible details of this story, you know that he had told this story so many times over his life. But it says, Jesus instructs them, go get some of the fish that you have caught. Funny that it says you have caught, because it's actually who helped them catch it. But he says, go get some of the fish that you caught, right? But John tells us that Peter, Peter's the one that runs back to the boat, and brings the entire load, not some of the fish, the entire load to shore himself. He's just trying so hard, isn't he? God, I'm going to show you how much I know I failed, but I'm going to go above and beyond. This time, I'll show you how closely I'll follow your commands, how gladly I'll serve you. Back off, boys, I got this load. I think this sets up well what we see transpire as this conversation goes on. They eat, no one seems to be too chatty. They just seem to be eating and observing Jesus, waiting, maybe having a fearful awe, just waiting for him to speak. I think these next few verses that we look at are as meaningful as almost any other passage of Scripture for a follower of Christ. Jesus says to Peter, "Here, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?" The obvious question is, what did he mean by these? John doesn't specify, did it mean that do you love me more than these boats and fish, this profession that you seem to maybe be tempted to return to? Did he mean, "Do you love me more than these other disciples?" You guys love one another, but am I of greater love to you than them? Or perhaps he's saying, "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these disciples?" Love me because Peter made some very bold statements prior to Jesus as crucifixionally said, "Well, if everybody else leaves, I'm going to die for Jesus." We don't know exactly what Jesus was referring to. We aren't told that, but in the end, it doesn't matter, does it? More importantly is that after Peter responds, Jesus, two more times, asks him, "Again, do you love me?" Some have argued over the Greek word that gets used, agape, filet, there seems to be some, Jesus is using at first the word agape, and then Peter responds with filet, agape can be translated as more like deep adoration and love. Filet can be like a high respect or having a great admiration rather than adoration. Some have argued that John was using, for stylistic purposes, the two different versions, just so it didn't sound monotonous. Both can be interchanged at different times in Scripture, and so I tend to think that John in his stylistic way of writing, as he does in other places, just uses different Greek words just to change it up a little bit. The point being, though, Peter is grieved. He's broken that as he's now with Jesus, Jesus is questioning his love. Furthermore, if you remember, Jesus had given Peter a new name, said, "You're no longer going to be Simon, I'm going to call you Peter." But if you noticed every time that Jesus asked Peter this question, he asked him in his formal name. He said, "Simon, son of John, not Peter, but Simon, son of John." Almost like there's a little bit of a distance between the two. Now, I don't think in any way this is Jesus' rejection of Peter or keeping him at arm's length. What we actually see here happening is that Jesus is reinstating Peter, but he is questioning Peter as well. Not questioning as if he doesn't believe him, but Jesus has every right to examine our confession. As the good shepherd, he doesn't question to condemn, he questions to confirm. In other words, Jesus questioned Peter as he did not so that he could hear Peter say, "I love you," but so Peter could hear Peter say, "Jesus, I love you." But having to repeat it three times actually kind of makes Peter miserable. He finally confesses what? After the third time, like, "Lord, you know everything." Because you know everything, you know that I love you. And to this, for the third time, Jesus says, "Then take care of my sheep." Jesus accomplishes so much with so little, so few words here. In just this short little exchange, he affirms Peter, although Peter may not exactly feel it right now, but he affirms Peter, he reignites a fire that maybe has dwindled, and he gives him a fresh reminder of what Peter is to do. This man, if you love the shepherd, then care for the sheep. Do you love Jesus? Do you love Jesus? In case you're just listening and not actually taking a moment to think it over, let me ask again, do you love Jesus? Do you love Jesus more than anything else? I tell you today, it's only after we've emptied our hands of all other things that Jesus begins to put back into our hands what is best. Now, sometimes what he puts back in our hands is exactly what we gave to him, but he's touched it. And if Jesus has touched it, it has new life. And it reminds us that he is the steward who has given me these things, and now with a new life, a new outlook on life, I'm going to use it for him. Just because we come to him with nothing doesn't mean that we leave with nothing. So for Peter, his calling is now clear. His livelihood is to be caring for God's people, and we see him do that wonderfully. When John is pinning these words, this is long after Peter has died, along with many of the other apostles also. And so even at this point, John is writing about a testimony of a wonderful saint who's loved God's sheep. But for John, it's going to be different, right? That's a lesson that we learned from this. Peter turns around as they're having this exchange and he looks at John and he says, "Well, what about this one?" And Jesus says, "Well, don't worry about him. The plan I have for him is going to be different than you, but you follow me." From Luke 5 to John 21, the words don't change. Jesus says, "What? Follow me." So the story ends with, really, here in John 21, a new beginning. We're left with a reminder that the gospel story, it doesn't end, that it's still happening today. I would venture to guess that any one of us in this room can put ourself in Peter's shoes here in this chapter. Each of you have likely found yourself broken, questioning your devotion and love for Jesus. Whether it be because of sin or denial or just mixed affections. Jesus stands at the shore, beckoning you. And where does he call you to himself? All who call upon the Lord, he hears. He can't not hear. Isn't that awesome? He knows his people. Therefore, we can read Hebrews 4-14 with a great confidence. These last verses will look at Hebrews 4-14-16. Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way just as we are, yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. We can jump overboard like Peter. We can run to Jesus, even if we run from Him. As long as we're drawing a breath, we can run to Him. His light has shown in our hearts. Now we are the light of the world. We're the light of the world. His light alive in us, and so what are we called to do? Let your light shine. Like I said, the story doesn't end guys. We are now in the story. You, me, all of us that are children of God. He says the story is not done. Go out into the world and let your light shine before men. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for again just the time that we can be in your word. Lord, may it have again its right effect on us that warms us to you that does not cause us to want to run from you, but to be with you. Lord, we thank you for your Holy Spirit that you have given us as a deposit and a guarantee of our inheritance with you and that you are coming back for us one day. Help us in this time period when we are waiting for you or not to go back to old ways but to continue to wait upon you to be found by you when you return as stewards of what you have given us doing your work. We pray for each one of these young men and women or that as they are trying to find their calling in life, Lord, and as they lean upon you that you will bless them and guide them as I know that you will. Lord, we love you and we ask all these sayings in your name. Amen. sing with us again.