BIBLE STUDY ON JOHN 21: 1-17
Background
REVIEW OF “THESE THINGS” (verse 1) needs to be mentioned to give BACKGROUND.
Before coming to Jerusalem, Jesus told His Disciples that:
1. He wanted to partake of the Passover with them.
2. He prophesied that he would die in Jerusalem where the chief priests and members of the Sanhedrin would take Him and kill him.
3. At the Passover meal, he instituted The Lord’s Supper or Communion.
4. When He told them that He would be taken and tried in a mock court, he said each of them would forsake Him and scatter.
5. All of them disagreed . . . especially Peter.
6. Jesus was crucified and three days later arose from the tomb.
7. Mary Magdalene was one of the first to visit the EMPTY TOMB.
8. When she saw that the stone was rolled away, she told Peter and John.
9. Peter and John came to the tomb and then left. . .leaving Magdalene alone.
10. Jesus appeared to Magdalene after Peter and John left the tomb. Later that evening, Jesus appeared unto the Disciples Easter evening in a closed room.
11. Eight days later, Jesus appeared unto His Disciples a second time.
12. Here, seven of the Disciples are now at the Sea of Tiberias or Sea of
Galilee, fishing.
Vs. 1 Jesus had told Mary Magdalene in Matthew 28: 10 to go and tell My brethren (Disciples) to go unto Galilee and there they would see Him. Why go to Galilee which was a three days journey away? Jesus was crucified in Jerusalem in the southern portion of Israel. Galilee was a province in far northern Israel. Maybe the Disciples would be safer there to conduct their ministries?
Vs. 2 Counting the Disciples present here at the Sea of Galilee comes to 7.
There were seven (7) Disciples here. It is not important where the others are located. We would only be guessing without proof.
Vs. 3 Peter tells the other Disciples that he is going to go fishing. The other Disciples decide to go fishing with him. Together, they fish all the night and catch NOTHING. Peter, often as the spokesperson for the Disciples seems to be the one responsible for all of them going fishing instead of what the Lord had commanded them to be doing. In John 20: 21, Jesus told His Disciples “as My Father hath sent me, even so send I you.” In John 20: 23, Jesus told His Disciples “Whosoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained.” Since Jesus told His Disciples that he was sending them to witness of him, they were being disobedient. They were given a job to do and here they are fishing.
Common Mistakes Made in Christian Service
CHANGE OF PLANS Verses 1-6
Although being disobedient to the Lord’s commandments is not a good trait for Christians to exercise, it is one, however, that ALL CHRISTIANS practice. Here, it is important to note the results of their night’s fishing produced NOTHING. When sunrise came, Jesus stood on the shore too far for them to recognize Him. It is not important where Jesus came from or how He got there. He is there “TOO FAR” for their eyesight to recognize Him. Jesus asked them from afar, “Have ye caught any meat?” Although Jesus knew the answer to His question, He asked them anyway. The Disciples, thinking that Jesus was a stranger on the shore, replied that they had not caught anything. Disobedience often leads to loss for God’s children (Haggai 1: 1-9). Jesus, still too far away to be recognized, calls out, “Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find. They follow His suggestion, and the results are the nets being greatly strained with the number of fish. When Jesus blesses His children, He always gives “more than they expect”. (Eph.3: 20)
#1 STAY THE COURSE; BELIEVE GOD’S PROMISES; SET EXPECTATIONS HIGH
After seeing the great catch, John tells Peter that the man standing on the shore is the Lord. “Although John, like the other Disciples, could not recognize Jesus by sight, he did recognize Jesus by the miracle that Jesus just did. Since Christ’s resurrection, John had been passionately trying to remember the Lord’s words to the Disciples and unravel their mystery.
Being embarrassed that the stranger is recognized as the Lord, Peter jumps into the water because he was “naked”. Naked here simply means that he was “underdressed” for meeting other people. Even in many of our childhoods, we remember that if were outside our homes without a shirt on and company arrived, then we would have to go inside and get a shirt on or we would not be properly dressed.
In John 10: 36-38, Jesus tells the multitude that “If I do the works of (Messiah), can you not believe that I am He, even though you cannot believe in My testimony? This statement undoubtedly had come to John’s memory as he witnessed the miracle of the great catch of fish. Again, at the tomb, John and Peter came when Mary told them about the missing stone. Peter had gone immediately into the tomb “looking for some kind of clue” as what happened. John stood on the outside “looking and thinking about what the Master had told them that He was going to do” and believed in this miracle. John realized that the clues to solving this mystery were not at the tomb but in the remembrance of the words that the Lord had spoken to them before the Cross. (John 10: 36-38).
#2 GOD’S PEOPLE SHOULD RECOGNIZE the PRESENCE OF GOD IN THEIR LIVES.
After the miraculous catch of fish, they all came in to shore bringing their fish. One can only imagine the Disciples’ mixed feelings at this time. When they got to the shore where the Lord was standing, He had a fire with coals. On the fire lay fish and bread for them to eat. It is not important where the fire, fish, and bread came from. Jesus is again showing His compassion, patience, and forgiveness for them disobeying His commandment to go and tell people about Him when He comes to them fishing instead.
#3 CHRISTIANS ARE TO BE COMPASSIONATE, PATIENT, AND FORGIVING.
Jesus simply tells them to bring some of the fish they had caught for Him to “possibly add to that already on the fire”. Why did Jesus ask the Disciples to bring of their catch of fish? Did he miscount the number of those fishing? Did He not have enough fish? In Deuteronomy 16: 16-17, God told Moses to tell the “male children of Israel” that they were to appear before Him “three times a year in the place that the Lord would choose. They were CLEARLY told “not to appear before Him EMPTY. Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the Lord thy God which he hath given thee. As the Lord so often did when performing a miracle, He utilized whatsoever the person in need had to offer in assistance to complete the miracle. Whatsoever is offered to the Lord if it is from the heart will always be sufficient.
#4 CHRISTIANS ARE NOT TO APPEAR BEFORE THE LORD EMPTY.
In amazement, Simon comes dragging his net filled but has not broken because of the enormous catch of fish. Knowing that the Lord is standing on the shore, Simon Peter may very well have been excited and appreciative to share the great catch that the Lord had given them. Jesus tells them all seven to come and eat. The food was ready. When they came, Jesus blessed the food and served them both the bread and the fish. Quietly and waiting patiently, they surely are wondering what the Lord is about to tell them.
#5 PRACTICE WHAT IS LEARNED FROM THE LORD
This appearance of Jesus to His disciples here at the Sea of Galilee was His third time since His Resurrection. Although this was the third time that Jesus had appeared unto them since His Resurrection, they seemed “not to be sure of themselves as what to do.”
Sometimes, God’s people are confused, “when they are unsure of God’s purpose and power within themselves. Is this really what God wants me to do, or do I have the faith to see this endeavor through to the end?
After they had eaten, Jesus turns to Peter and asks him, “Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me more than these? Peter answers, “Yea, Lord.” Jesus then tells Peter to feed His lambs.
Jesus repeats the question again. Peters answers again the same. This time Jesus tells Peter to feed His SHEEP.
Jesus repeats for the third time the same question. Peter is bothered by the repeation of the same question a third time and tries to be more persuasive in telling the Master that he loves Him. This time Jesus tells Peter to again feed His SHEEP.
Peter’s answers here are “EARTHSHATTERING” in that he gives the correct response to Jesus and the impact is real and legitimate from Peter’s heart. Peter could have said, “Lord, why pick on me? Why don’t you ask John, Andrew, or one of the other Disciples if they love you? They forsook You also! Scripture in (Matthew 26: 56) states that all the Disciples forsook the Lord. Why did Peter not “pass the buck” so to speak? Peter, without a doubt, remembered only his forsaking his Lord, and this was the answer that the Lord was seeking.
God’s people will grow stronger and be blessed more greatly by the Lord when they LOOK INWARD at failures RATHER THAN LOOKED OUTWARD at other people’s faults and shortcomings. Remember the commandment, Matthew 7: 1. “Judge not, lest ye be judged.”
#6 CHRISTIANS NEED ONLY INWARD VIEWPOINTS. RELATIONSHIPS WITH JESUS ARE PERSONAL.
SUMMARY.
In summary, the magnitude of Peter’s answer is most Christ-like and exemplified most assuredly why Jesus told Peter that “upon this rock I will build my church”. In the Book of Acts, of all the miracles the Disciples did, only those of Peter’s are recorded. This is not to lessen the importance or impact of the other Disciples’ miracles, however. Maybe, just maybe, the Lord was rewarding Peter’s work as He establishes his position of leadership appointed unto him by the Lord with accented emphasis. Peter would become the Rock as a preacher for the Lord that Christ foresaw, especially at Pentecost. After his three denials at Christ’s mock trial, the three visits after Christ’s Resurrection, and here along the shores of the Sea of Galilee, Peter became a different man and leader. He would tear off the proverbial rear view mirrors of his life, never looking back. He would prove his love for the Lord time and time again that he professed there at the Sea of Galilee.
Christians today have much in common with these earlier disciples. We have a great desire to commit our lives to the Lord to feed His lambs and His sheep. Yet, we too, sometimes are like Peter. We want to revert to something safe and familiar when we are afraid of failure. Apostle Paul, who wrote most of the New Testament for the Gentile people to have a door to Christ wrote, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith”. Let us Christian believers today adopt these same attributes. Let us anchor ourselves in the Word of God and put on the Whole Armor of God as Christ commanded. Through daily prayer, let us ask for a daily filling of the Holy Spirit that we may not sin against the Father and wait later for His answer regarding our lives as a testimony when we stand before Him at Judgment.
Sower's Field by L. Michael Schoonover 