In Jason Dohm's sermon 'A Breakfast Hosted by the Risen Jesus,' he reflects on John 21:1-14, where Jesus appears to his disciples at the Sea of Tiberias and performs a miracle by filling their nets with fish after a night of fruitless labor. This event is paralleled with a similar miracle in Luke 5, emphasizing the power and providence of Jesus. Dohm highlights the significance of Jesus serving his disciples breakfast, demonstrating his ongoing role as a providing friend and emphasizing the importance of fellowship. He explores Peter's different reactions to Jesus in Luke 5 and John 21, attributing it to a deeper understanding of Jesus' forgiving nature. The sermon concludes with applications for modern believers, encouraging them to recognize Jesus' provision, the importance of various gifts within the church, and the power of faith and obedience in fulfilling the Great Commission.

Our sermon text for today is John chapter 21 verses 1 through 14. After these things, Jesus showed himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias, and in this way he showed himself. 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 am going fishing. They said to him, we are going with you also.

They went out and immediately got into the boat, and that night they caught nothing. But when the morning had now come, Jesus stood on the shore, yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Then Jesus said to them, Children, have you any food? They answered him, No. And he said to them, Cast the net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.

So they cast and now they were not able to draw it in because of the multitude of fish. Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, it is the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment, for he had removed it and plunged into the sea. But the other disciples came in the little boat, for they were not far from land, about 200 cubits, dragging the net with fish. Then as they had come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid on it and bred.

Jesus said to them, Bring some of the fish which you have just caught. Simon Peter said, went up and dragged the net to the land full of large fish, 153. And although there were so many, the net was not broken. Jesus said to them, come and eat breakfast. Yet none of the disciples dared ask him, who are you, knowing that it was the Lord.

Jesus then came and took the bread and gave it to them and likewise the fish. This is now the third time Jesus showed himself to his disciples after he was raised from the dead. Let's pray. Lord God we pray that you will bless the preaching of the word. You will put your words into Mr.

Noam's mouth. Let him bring the message that we need to hear. Lord let your spirit fall on us. Let us receive this message. We ask this in Jesus' name.

Amen. The title of the sermon this morning is A Breakfast Hosted by the Risen Jesus. This is because it's sort of a title summary of what's in the text. After a long night of fishless fishing, catching nothing, Jesus comes and there's a great catch. He actually serves them a hot breakfast.

Last week John, our Gospel writer, gave us his purpose. He doesn't leave us guessing. He tells us exactly why he has related many miracles witnessed together by many eye witnesses. It's so that we would believe, it's so that we would have a written record of the signs of the Messiah. God not only promised to send a Savior, but He told mankind, all of mankind, how we would know when it was actually His Messiah who had been sent and not just another one who rose up and claimed to be someone.

God told us what those signs or marks would be and Jesus has fulfilled those. So John gave us the marks of the Messiah so that we might believe that Jesus is the Savior and is the Son of God and that believing we would have life in His name. Today we have the third post-resurrection appearance of Jesus to his disciples. So let's come to the text and come asking for help. God, I am so grateful for This picture of Jesus set before us in the text, a picture of great power, but also of tender friendship and fellowship with your people.

God, we together confess that we need both of these pictures. We need to know that Jesus Christ can move mountains. His arms are never too short, he always does what he pleases, but we need to know that we're more than cheap labor in the kingdom, that You actually have a tender affection for us. And you desire fellowship with us. I pray that we would see both of these things with clarity as I preach.

I pray it in Jesus' name, Amen. Let's begin by looking at John chapter 21 verses 1 through 3. We'll isolate those three verses and then just keep moving through the text as we normally do. Hopefully your finger is still there. John 21 verses 1 through 3.

Follow along as I read. After these things, Jesus showed himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias. And in this way he showed himself. Simon Peter, Thomas, called the twin, Nathaniel of Canaan and Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples of his disciples were together. Simon Peter said to them, I'm going fishing.

They said to him, we are going with you also. They went out and immediately got into the boat and that night they caught nothing. In these verses, Peter and six other disciples go fishing. So if you're taking notes on the handout by filling in blanks, go fishing. Fills in the blanks.

Peter and six other disciples go fishing. Scripture gives us some data points. Data point number one, if you just look back up the page to chapter 20, verse 26, that verse begins, after eight days. So that's sort of the starting point marker of when this could have taken place. What was at the end of chapter 20 happened eight days after the resurrection and this is after that.

So we know it was at least day nine or so after the resurrection. And then in Acts chapter one verse three, Luke, the writer of Acts says that Jesus was seen during 40 days. So we're somewhere in between eight days after the resurrection and 40 days after the resurrection when he ascended into heaven we don't know more than that. But we are within that window of time. So that's the data point number one.

Between day eight and forty somewhere. Number two, in Matthew twenty-eight, Jesus having just been raised from the dead, this is resurrection day, Matthew 28, Jesus appears to women and he says to them in Matthew 28 verse 10, Go and tell my brethren to go to Galilee and there they will see me." So Jesus appears to women and through the women he sends the message to his disciples, You are to go before me into Galilee and I will meet with you. You will see me there in Galilee. So This is where we find them in our text. They're in Galilee.

Why are they in Galilee and not still in Jerusalem? Well, most of them are from Galilee, but the real reason is Jesus told them to go before Him into Galilee, that they would see Him there. Now we're in the period of time between the resurrection on the one hand, the resurrection has happened, and The ascension and the subsequent outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the other hand. So the resurrection has happened, the ascension has not happened, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit has not happened. We're in that period of time.

Listen to what Carson says. He's actually quoting another commentator who I didn't recognize, but anyway, this is in D.A. Carson's commentary, he quotes this, Even though Jesus be crucified and risen from the dead, the disciples must still eat. True? Jesus is risen from the dead.

Hooray! We still got to eat. And so we find them fishing. This is not recreational fishing. This is not we have time in our hands until Jesus appears.

These are our men. At least Peter has a household. We don't know specifically about the other disciples. But Peter isn't a hobby fisherman. Peter is a vocational fisherman, at least until Jesus called him into full-time discipleship.

So we're in this period of time where the Holy Spirit hasn't been sent to empower them to thrust them into the world for gospel preaching purposes and they have to eat. So they are fishing but the sense here is that they are fishing professionally. They are not out with a rod and reel to catch fish at a time. They're out with big nets. We find that they catch 153 big fish at one time and there's no doubt in my mind that their intent was to catch as many fish as they could and sell the fish that they caught.

This is a part of their life especially for them not knowing exactly what is next. John gives us a list. Peter, Thomas, Nathaniel who we were introduced to in John chapter 1 but haven't seen specifically since. He's just been one of the disciples. Many commentators think he's Bartholomew.

I'm not here to make that case or argue against that case. But there just is so many commentators think that Nathaniel, another name that he went by, is Bartholomew. And that's how he shows up on the other list of disciples. The sons of Zebedee, no names given. In the other gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke all make it clear that the sons of Zebedee are James and John.

We're not even given those names, which is very consistent with how John deals with himself in the gospel of John. He never says, John said this, John did this, he never calls himself by name. He says, the disciple that Jesus loved. In reflecting on this, because we keep bumping up to this, John won't call himself John, he calls himself the disciple that Jesus loved. In fact, he will do it in this text.

As I keep bumping into this and keep reflecting on this, I think this has to do with John's insistence on minimizing John, minimizing himself, is not the exploits of John. The Gospel of John is not about the exploits of John. It is about the exploits of Jesus the Christ, the Son of God. It is about making much of Jesus and not much of himself. Even though we laugh about a self-designation of John as the disciple whom Jesus loved.

Even that is not about John saying, I'm so lovable. It is about Jesus' disposition towards John. I'm sort of forming that as we go through this opinion. I don't insist on it, but it seems to me that John makes much of Jesus and makes very little of himself. So having him say, the sons of Zebedee, without saying, me and my brother James, is entirely consistent with how we see John handle himself in the rest of the book of John.

And then there are two other unnamed disciples. So three by name, Peter, Thomas, Nathaniel. Two that you can get to the names by taking information from the other gospels, the sons of Zebedee, or James and John, and then two, that you'll never this side of heaven know the names of to other unnamed disciples. They're near the Sea of Tiberias. This is what the Romans would have called or renamed the Sea of Galilee.

They renamed it after one of their emperors, the emperor Tiberius. But it's most frequently in the gospels called the Sea of Galilee and occasionally called the Lake of Gennesaret. It actually is a large freshwater lake. Peter says I'm going fishing, the other six say We're going with you. They fish all night.

They don't catch a thing. This is where we should bring in an unmistakably similar passage, which is Luke chapter 5. So Turn back to Luke chapter 5. Almost this exact same set of circumstances has already happened only more than three years earlier in the life of Jesus and his disciples. So we should look at that because they are so, so, so, so similar.

It's almost like you are reading the same passage over again here in John 21 in many ways. In Luke chapter 4, I'm just giving you the context for what we're about to read in Luke chapter 5. In Luke chapter 4, Jesus does have interaction with disciples. He's ministering in Galilee. He's rejected in Nazareth.

In fact, they're about to push him over a cliff, but he somehow just walks through the crowd. It's one of the things that Jesus can do that you can't do. He heals Peter's mother-in-law in Luke chapter 4. So clearly there's a level of relationship between Peter and Jesus and he's been healing and Luke chapter 4 ends with Jesus preaching widely in Galilee this region in which Jesus grew up. So that brings us to Luke chapter 5.

So hopefully you're with me at Luke chapter 5. Follow along as I read 1 through 11. So it was as the multitude pressed about him to hear the word of God, that he stood by the lake of Gennesaret, or the sea of Tiberias, or the sea of Galilee, and saw two boats standing by the lake, but the fishermen had gone from them and were washing their nets. Then he got into one of the boats, which was Simon's, and asked him to put out a little from the land. He sat down and taught the multitudes from the boat.

When he had stopped speaking, he said to Simon, launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch. Simon answered and said to him, Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing. Nevertheless, at your word, I will let down the net." When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish and their net was breaking, so they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats so that they began to sink. And Simon Peter saw it.

He fell down at Jesus' knees saying, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish which they had taken. And so also were James and John the sons of Zebedee who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, Do not be afraid, from now on you will catch men. So when they had brought their boats to land, they forsook all and followed him.

Observations about Luke chapter 5. The backdrop is the same in John chapter 21. They're at the Sea of Tiberias or the Sea of Galilee or Lake Gennesaret. In Luke chapter 5, they are at least on the same lake. To me it seems very likely they are in the exact location where Peter had his fishing business.

I certainly don't and can't insist on that, but to me that seems like a likelihood. In any event, it's clear from both texts that they're at the Sea of Galilee and they've labored all night and they haven't caught a thing in both places, Luke 5 and John 21, our text. In both, Jesus gives an instruction of seeming futility. Seeming futility. In Luke chapter 5, Peter says, we fished all night, we didn't catch anything, but since you say so, I'll put down the nets and immediately there's an enormous catch of fish.

You see exactly the same thing. In our text there is an instruction of seeming futility. Put the nets out on the right side of the boat and they do it and there's a massive catch. Here in Luke chapter 5 where I just read says that they were astonished. In other words, it wasn't lost on them that this wasn't just good fishing luck.

Peter says, depart from me Lord, I'm a sinful man. A man like me has no business being in the presence of someone like you who can do the things that we just saw with our own eyes. This here in Luke chapter 5 was the beginning of fully devoted discipleship of Peter, James, and John. So of the seven mentioned in our text in Luke 21, at least three, my guess is more, but I can at least prove that three who were there in Luke chapter 5 are there. Peter, James, and John are in both texts and saw these remarkably, remarkably, remarkably similar set of circumstances.

Now back to John 21 and the next section. So follow along as I read John 21, 4-8. But when the morning had now come, Jesus stood on the shore, yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Then Jesus said to them, Children, have you any food? They answered him, No.

Then he said to them, Cast the net on the right side of the boat and you will find some. So they cast and now they were not able to draw it in because of the multitude of fish. Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, it is the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord. He put on his outer garment, for he had removed it, and plunged into the sea.

But the other disciples came in the little boat, for they were not far from land, but about two hundred cubits, dragging the net with fish." In this section, Jesus appears to and converses with the fishermen. So if you're taking notes by filling in blanks on the handout, appears and converses, fills in the blank. Jesus appears too and converses with the pleasantly surprised fisherman. The word rendered morning in New King James is more properly rendered daybreak. In other words, in the Greek word that's being translated here, it means early morning right as the day is dawning.

So there's nothing particularly wrong with morning. But it adds information that we need to know that it's actually daybreak that is being spoken of here. So while there is precedent for Jesus disguising his identity after his resurrection and then revealing himself at just the right time. It is daybreak and he's a hundred yards away from the boats. So to me there's no necessity to believe that that's what he's doing.

He's hiding his identity and he'll reveal himself at just the right time. They're 100 yards out and it's at daybreak and they shouldn't be expected to recognize that it was Jesus by sight. Jesus calls out, Children, have you any food? Of Jesus calling them children, many of the commentators note that while there's nothing wrong with children as a translation here, the closest sense of it that we would get in our language in the way that they would have used that Greek term then, the closest that we have is LADS. So we don't use LADS, the British use LADS, but I think we're familiar enough with the use of it that we get a sense of it.

It's a term of familiarity, right? LADS would be a familiar term, but not of equality. You don't call people lads that are your peer. It's a warm term an older person might use with the younger. So This is a term that Jesus is using.

It's a warm term, it's a familiar term, but not one that you'd use with your peer. An older person might use it with the younger. Jesus isn't older, but He is the Lord. Now, Does Jesus know the answer to the question? Children, have you any food?

Of course He knows the answer to the question. In fact, why didn't they catch any fish? Because Fish were withheld from their nets. I don't want you to come to this text, because we're used to thinking this way. So we think this way in events that happened in the life of Jesus, that we think Jesus is reacting to what happened.

Jesus is determining in advance what happened that night. They didn't catch fish because Jesus as God withheld fish from their nets because he was setting something up. Jesus knew the answer to the question. In fact, He is the reason why they don't have any food, why they didn't catch any fish. Then What is he doing?

He is accentuating their awareness of their current situation. We fished all night and we didn't catch anything, which is why we have to answer this question. No, we don't have any food. He's throwing a flood light on their current circumstances and setting up the instruction He is about to give. He is about to tell them, throw the nets on the right side of the boat and He is leading them into the giving of that instruction.

Jesus gives the instruction at the beginning of verse 6, cast the net on the right side of the boat and you will find some. No, we didn't catch anything last night. No, we don't have any food. Oh, throw the net on the right side of the boat and you'll find some. You'll find some fish, you'll find some food.

At this point, having been given the instruction, after fishing all night, nothing, and then someone gives you an instruction, cast the nets now, cast the nets here. The thoughts of at least Peter, James, and John who were there in the events of Luke chapter five have to be engaged in the memory of those events. We have been here before. And that effect is on steroids when they follow the instructions and immediately catch the mother lode. So that's what happened in Luke chapter 5.

Someone gave a seemingly futile, pointless instruction. How many times did they cast the nets over the course of hours and nothing and now someone says cast them one more time. But they cast them and then They catch the mother load of fish. John puts two and two together. Two plus two equals working all night with no fish, but we get an instruction to cast the nets one more time, equals that's Jesus.

John connects the dots and he says to Peter it is the Lord and Expositors Bible commentary says this it was not that he had better eyesight, but the that he had keener insight amen It's not oh Now the Sun lights a little better, and I can see I'm the first to see that it's Jesus no he's saying two plus two equals four fishing all night but getting the instruction from this man and then catching the mother lode instantly means that this this is Jesus. Now in Luke chapter 5 when the same circumstances played out Peter said, remember what he said, depart from me for I am a sinful man." But now, more than three years later, he moves immediately towards the Lord. This is fascinating to me. They catch the mother load in Luke chapter 5, and Peter's reaction is, get away from me. A person like me has no business being near a person like you.

But now more than three years later, even after Peter just, within the last few weeks, denied the Lord three times, Peter is trying to close the gap, the physical gap between him and Jesus. He bailed out of this boat. He jumped out of this boat to get near Jesus fast. Now, my speculation based on my own opinion is that this is because Peter knows Peter better and Peter knows Jesus better. Peter knows more about himself, but Peter also knows that Jesus knows all about him and that he receives sinners.

To me, this is my own speculation and my own opinion. I don't insist on it, but it seems to me like Peter knows the gentle, tender-heartedness of Jesus toward sinners, and that accounts for the radically different reactions between Luke chapter 5 and John chapter 21. Peter doesn't undress to jump in the water, he dresses to jump into the water. Two things to say. One, there is a level of dress that would be fine for manual labor with the guys, which is not fine for presenting yourself before the Lord Jesus.

There's an unmistakable sense of that. Working fishing in the boat with the guys is fine for this level of dress, but this is not how you would present yourself before the Lord. Two, I subscribe to J.C. Ryle's explanation, though I don't insist on it, because you can't prove it from the text. You can, the text I think hints at it.

Which is based on a word choice which is somewhat lost in translation. So, So follow along with me here. The Greek word rendered boat in three and six. Look in verse three. They went out and immediately got into the boat.

We're going fishing with you two. We go out immediately and get into the boat, the Greek word behind boat there, and then behind the word boat in verse 6, cast the net on the right side of the boat, same Greek word in 3 and 6. It's a different Greek word than what is used in verse eight, but the other disciples came in the little boat. So that's not the Greek word for little with the Greek word that's already been used twice. That is actually a different Greek word and our translators have translated that one Greek word as little boat.

So different words are being used here. John the Gospel writer uses different words, quotes Jesus as using a different word here. So, Ryle says, which makes sense to me, that there are two boats here that with larger fishing vessels you often had a little skiff even on board. We know about this today. Larger boats today often have what we call lifeboats or skiffs so that if you want to get into very shallow water, you have a way to do that with you.

You're fishing, you need a large boat for large-scale fishing, but you may need to get in shallow water so you carry a skiff on board. And so if that is the case, then Peter can actually come out of the boat in waist deep water and wade to shore. It's not a swim to shore, so the putting on of a garment is not difficult to explain. So anyway, the first is true. The level of dress appropriate for fishing with the guys is a different dress code than you would present yourself.

I don't think that's a hard argument to make. The second, take with a grain of along. Now verses 9 through 14. Then as soon as they had come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid on it and bread. Jesus said to them, bring some of the fish which you have just caught.

Simon Peter went up and dragged the net to land full of large fish, 153. And although there were so many, the net was not broken. Jesus said to them, come and eat breakfast. Yet none of the disciples dared to ask him, who are you Lord, knowing that it was the Lord. Jesus then came and took the bread and gave it to them and likewise the fish.

This is now the third time Jesus showed himself to his disciples after he was raised from the dead. These verses, Jesus provides a hot breakfast. Hot and breakfast fill the blanks, if you're taking notes that way. Everyone makes it to shore. What do they find?

A fire with fish cooking on it and also bread. Matthew Henry says this. We need not be curious in inquiring whence this fire and fish and bread came, any more than whence the meat came which the ravens brought to Elijah. Matthew Henry takes us back to the Old Testament account of Elijah being supernaturally fed by ravens. God actually sent ravens with meat.

He sent birds with food to bring it to Elijah. Matthew Henry says, if you don't ask where that food came from, you don't need to ask where this food came from. I think he's right. The last thing we need to do is to be thinking of the post-resurrection Jesus gathering firewood, taking the pains to start the fire, catching the fish or acquiring the fish, preparing the fish, cooking the fish. None of that is necessary for a post resurrection Jesus who appears wherever He wants to, whenever He wants to.

Jesus tells them to bring some of the fish they had caught. The implication is they would be adding some of their catch to what he has already prepared, although none of that even appears in the text again. So Peter, Mr. Action, drags this net full of 153 large fish up to shore. They're big fish and they count 153, but the net doesn't break.

Now I don't want you to miss this. Have you ever read mythology? You ever read mythology? You ever study that in high school or college where you read these religious stories of the pagan Greeks or the pagan Romans. It reads nothing like this.

You do not find 153 fish. This reads like an eyewitness account. Like 1, 2, 3, 17, 18, 19, 150, 151, 152, 153, not 150, they're not round numbers, this reads like an account of an eyewitness. The saying, a fish is a big fish is a relative term, but just suppose that the average is a pound. A pound to me sounds maybe like a little light for what you would describe as a big fish, but it's a good round number.

If the average is a pound, you've got 153 pounds of fish, that is a lot of weight to be dragging up on shore and to have the net not broken. I think the unmistakable point here is that the natural way of things has been suspended. The natural way of things for catching fish, locating fish, the natural way that nets behave when you have 153 pounds or whatever in weight dragged up on shore, you would have nets mended. If you look at fishermen and the accounts of fishing in the Bible, it almost always comes with the mending of the nets. Not necessary here because the natural way of things is not what's happening.

Jesus is here. Verse 12, Jesus invites the disciples to a hot breakfast. Now just stop for a minute and think. You've been out all night fishing. You ever been out all night fishing?

Towards morning, I mean unless it is the dead of summer, which it isn't here, towards morning. It's chilly and you're hungry and now they are brought into a hot breakfast. Come and eat breakfast, says Jesus. You can believe those were welcome words for these men who had fished all night, not caught a thing, to be greeted with a hot breakfast. Jesus, very God of very God, that's how the creeds speak of the deity, the Godhood of Jesus.

They're reaching for words to make sure that you get that Jesus is fully God in every way, that his humanity doesn't compromise his Godhood. So they say, very God of very God. It's not just God, they want to make sure that nothing is compromised by being joined with humanity. Jesus, very God of very God, did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. And now, even after his substitutionary death and after his resurrection, he has been glorified, He is still serving and treating his disciples as friends and bringing them into fellowship with himself.

I think we have such an ingrained mentality that is so hard to shake that Jesus is all business all the time and He's got work for us to do and We need to be busy about it every second of every day. There is a sense in which we should strive to push forward the borders of the Kingdom of Heaven. Yes and Amen. Yet that image of Jesus is not the image of Jesus that we get in the Gospel accounts. He is the friend of sinners.

He is certainly the friend of his disciples. He draws them into fellowship and friendship with himself. Do you remember, I think it was John chapter 13 where he says, where he says, I call you friends now. I call you my friends. Now we get this curious half verse about a question that wasn't asked.

I can't think of another place in Scripture where we're told what wasn't asked. It's sort of a curious way to put it. What question wasn't asked. Who are you? It isn't asked because they know it is the Lord.

They don't dare to ask because of the things that have just happened. And yet we continue to see that there are things about Jesus after the resurrection that make him not exactly the same as Jesus before the resurrection. We keep bumping into indications that post-resurrection Jesus is post-resurrection Jesus. He is different in ways that the Gospel writers can't convey to us. How could you ask that question after the events which have just unfolded?

Certainly he must be Jesus and certainly he is Jesus and as the account will continue next week, it can be no one but Jesus. Again, it is not someone similar to Jesus just saying, I am the resurrected Jesus. It is Jesus continuing to do the remarkable signs that always set him apart from the others. So it's not just your eyes telling you this is the resurrected Jesus, or even your eyes casting doubt on whether this is the resurrected Jesus. Jesus is doing the things that have always set him apart in the Gospel accounts from everyone else or from anyone who would rise up in history to make claims.

Finally, Jesus takes the bread and fish and gives it to them. Now, just like these events have to have them remembering back to the events of Luke chapter 5, I think being given bread and fish particularly in this spot on the shore of Galilee has to have them remembering back to the events of John chapter 6 where he took five barley loaves and two fish and fed five thousand people. Here they are on the shore and Jesus is giving them bread and fish. In verse 14, John tells us this is the third time Jesus showed himself to his disciples after he was raised from the dead. This is one of the many infallible proofs in Acts 1 verse 3.

Luke the writer of Acts says that he appeared to them over 40 days giving them many infallible proofs. This is just one of many infallible proofs. Another day, another miracle. Applications. Let me give you four.

Number one, Jesus is still the providing friend of his disciples. Who's cooking breakfast? Jesus is cooking and providing the breakfast. Even though the disciples ought to be the servants, really. I mean, if you were going to establish a pecking order and assign someone to the cooking of breakfast, I think you would assign the disciples, Jesus has actually assigned himself the task of providing breakfast.

Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He is still today the providing friend of his disciples. Jesus doesn't need you for cheap labor. Jesus doesn't want an all business relationship with you if you've repented of your sins. Here's my question for you.

Is there a place in your walk for Jesus serving up hot breakfast? Is there a place in your experience of the faith in Jesus serving up hot breakfast. Or in your mind, is it so? It's all business. He is worthy of our labor.

Just don't translate that into thinking that Jesus needs our labor. It's a privilege to be brought into co-laboring with Him in the things that He's given us to do. I don't want a bad mouth obedience. I hope you know I'm not doing that. But I'm saying for Jesus it's about more than just the labor that we put into his kingdom.

There's a place in Jesus' thoughts towards us for Him serving up a hot breakfast so there should be a place in our sense of things and walk with the Lord for that. Jesus is interested in fellowship. And he is happy to be on the giving side, not needing anything we can offer. Jesus is still the providing friend of his disciples. You can be the friend of the king.

The king has friends. Saying that Jesus is my friend shouldn't equate to Jesus is my peer, chum, buddy. He calls us lads or children. It's a warm term but it's not the term of peers and that's right. He is our friend.

Number two. This is the literal fulfillment of John 15 verse 5. Our text today is the very literal fulfillment of John 15 5. Without me you can do nothing. It doesn't mean that they shouldn't have been out there fishing.

It doesn't mean that God doesn't work through means. In other words, He has established fishing as a way that people get their provision. God established that. But That's not the same thing as a guarantee that you catch fish. You might fish all night and get nothing.

Jesus might not send a single fish into your nets. Without him you can do nothing. It is simply ours to obey the Lord Jesus without any guarantees. That's what they did when they went out fishing that night. They went out in obedience to a law that if you don't work, you don't eat, without a guarantee.

It was simply theirs to do their duty. And they did, they didn't catch a thing. Sometimes that happens. Here's the point that I'm trying to drive home. That this literal fulfillment of without me you can do nothing, Jesus didn't send anything into the nets.

And then he sent a flood of fish into the nets. It has a particular application. The Great Commission makes us fishers of men. I don't know the degree to which Jesus intended them to make the connection between Luke chapter 5 when they caught the multitude of fish and it ends with him saying from now on you will fish for men and here in John 21 where they are on the verge of receiving the Holy Spirit and being sent into the world to do most of the fishing they did in their lives for men. But in either case the application stands.

Without Jesus we can do nothing. Jesus has made us fishers of men and he fills the net. It's ours to simply obey. He's commanded us to take the gospel to the nations we obey. How many converts are there going to be in Turkey?

How many converts are there going to be in Youngsville? We have no idea. That's not our business. Our business is to obey, believing and knowing in our heart of hearts that He can fill the net to bursting full. Hoping!

It's not a silly hope founded on nothing. It is a real hope that the God who does all that he pleases, and has commanded us to go, is able to fill those nets. You might work for weeks, months, maybe years at a time, not a fish, and then it all happens at once. That's because he controls it. He determines it.

Number three. Thought experiment. We're going to conduct a thought experiment here. A church with all Peters. Oh, I don't want to be an elder in that church.

Don't let me be an elder in that church. A church of all people who jump out of the boat. What happens to the boats? What happens to the fish? Thought experiment.

Second thought experiment. A church with no Peters. You know what? I don't want to be an elder in that church either. Here's what J.C.

Ryle says, Zeal for Christ deserves respect even when it leads a man into hasty action. Enthusiasm is better than indifference. Enthusiasm is better than indifference. A church without any Peters is so lacking. Church with all Peters is so lacking.

The point I think that plays itself out in our text is God in His wisdom gives a diversity of gifts and even personalities to the church and we need them all and you better not be despising the other guy wishing that everybody in the church was just like you. That is so unwise. That is so typical of our thought patterns. If only everyone was just like me this would be a better church. Faults.

Faults. Be a way worse church. God is wise. He does all things well. Alright, number four.

This text reminds us that the men who turned the world upside down were fishermen. Not recreational fishermen, vocational fishermen. They didn't have the right education, They didn't have a bunch of means. They actually needed to go fish after Jesus, who was the locust of their support for three years. They probably needed to go fishing, my guess is.

Financially, it was good for them to have a big catch of fish. I bet they sold those 153 fish. That's what I think happened to those fish. Why does that matter? Well, you have a pastor who's never been to seminary.

We don't have a lot of money. We're a little church. Who cares? God fills the net. Our calling is just to be faithful.

Our calling is just to obey the Lord with our eye on God who is able to fill the nets to bursting. The men who turn the world upside down will be fishing. Praise God. God does that so that we don't try to steal the credit. God, I Thank you for your word.

Thank you for the Gospel of John. How many ways we've benefited. Pray that these wouldn't be lessons lost, but they'd be lessons that turn over and over and over again in our minds. We retain. Pray in Jesus name, Amen.