143
John 21:1-14  ROWING THE BOAT AND CASTING THE NET

Introduction:

	After the resurrection of Jesus, He appeared first to
Mary Magdalene, then to the other women who had gone to the
tomb, then to the Apostle Peter and then to the two
disciples on the Emmaus Road.
	On that same day (Sunday) He made His first appearance
to the main body of disciples, the church.  Thomas was
absent.  On the next Sunday He appeared again to the church
and Thomas was present.

I.  His next appearance


	V. 1, "After these things Jesus shewed himself again to
the disciples at the sea of Tiberias..."  It was after these
things that Jesus appeared to a group of disciples at the
Sea of Tiberias in Galilee.  The Sea of Tiberias is better
known to us as the Sea of Galilee.  Herod Antipas, the Herod
who had John the Baptist beheaded, had built a city on the
western shores of this sea which he named Tiberias in honor
of the Roman Caesar who rule at that time.  This city served
Herod Antipas as the capital city of the region over which
he was appointed ruler.  The disciples, of course, were not
at that city of Tiberias, but they were at the Sea of
Tiberias.
	At an earlier appearance at Jerusalem Jesus had
instructed His disciples to meet Him at Galilee and this
must have been their purpose in coming to this area.
	This serves as a reminder that we, too, are instructed
by the Lord to meet with Him.  We are to meet Him at a
certain place every week.  We are to meet Him at church
every week.  We are instructed to not forsake the gathering
of ourselves together at the Lord's house.  We are to meet
Him every Sunday morning, every Sunday evening, every
Wednesday evening and every other time the doors of the
church are open.
	It had been on the shores of this sea that Jesus had
called out the first members of His church --- Peter and
Andrew, James and John.
	It had been on -- or at least near -- this sea that
many of His miracles had been performed.  He had calmed the
stormy waters of this sea.  He had walked on the waters of
this sea.  It was near this sea that He fed a multitude with
five loaves and two fishes.
	It had been on or near this sea that much of His
preaching and teaching had been done.
	Now many of His disciples had -- or would -- return to
Galilee and meet Him in a mountain somewhere near this sea.
In I Corinthians Paul said that over five-hundred brethren
at one time saw Him there after His resurrection.  It was
apparently in keeping with the Lord's instructions that the
brethren involved in this text were now at the Sea of
Tiberias.  They had come there to meet with Jesus.
	(V. 1), "...and on this wise shewed he himself."  He
met with them alright.  Yet apparently they were not
expecting to see Him at the time He showed up.  The
following verses describe the event.

II.  The group who were waiting for Jesus

	V. 2, "There were together Simon Peter, and Thomas
called Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the
sons of Zebedee, and two other of his disciples."  Seven of
the brethren were in this group.  Luke names three of them.
He named Simon Peter, Thomas and Nathanael.  He said also
that the sons of Zebedee were there, which would be James
and John.  He said also that there were two unnamed brethren
in the group.
	V. 3, "Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing..."
Prior to his call by Jesus to be a fisher of men, Peter had
by trade been a fisher of fish.  Apparently he had enjoyed
his trade.  He liked to fish and had missed the pleasure of
those fishing trips.  While they were waiting for the other
disciples to come and waiting also for Jesus to come seemed
to him a good time to get in a good fishing trip.
	Then, too, Simon Peter was the kind of fellow that
would get restless just sitting around waiting.  He needed
something to do while he was waiting and decided to go
fishing.  I do not see any indication that he intended to go
back to fishing as a trade.  He was there to meet Jesus.  He
just wanted to enjoy a good fishing trip.
	(V. 3), "...They say unto him, We also go with thee..."
And they did.  They did not waste any time.  They just got
right up and went fishing.  (V. 3), "...They went forth, and
entered into a ship immediately; and that night they caught
nothing."  The lake was right there and a boat was right
there handy and they got right at the job of trying to catch
fish.
	It turned out to be quite a job.  They fished all night
casting their nets.  Dry fishing nets are not extremely
heavy, but they are not light.  They have lead around the
bottom of the net to make it sink fast in the water.  Then
the net itself absorbs water and makes the net a lot heavier
than it was when it was dry.  It would seem heavier still
after casting that thing all light and they had fished all
night and caught nothing.  They were just about ready to
give it up as a bad job.  They were tired and weary and
ready to quit.

III.  The appearance of Jesus

	V. 4, "But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood
on the shore: but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus."
When morning came they could see a man standing nearby on
shore.  It was Jesus.  But they did not know that it was
Jesus.
	V. 5, "Then Jesus saith unto them, Children, have ye
any meat? they answered him, No."  Jesus asked them if they
had caught anything.  They answered, "No."  They had fished
all night and had caught nothing.  They had anticipated
having fish for breakfast, but they had caught nothing.
	V. 6, "And he said unto them, Cast the net on the right
side of the ship, and ye shall find.  They cast therefore,
and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of
fishes."  Jesus told them to cast their net on the right
side of the boat.  They did and they caught a net full of
fish.

IV.  Jesus recognized

	V.  7, "Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved saith
unto Peter, It is the Lord..."  The Apostle John was the man
who recognized Jesus and told Simon Peter.
	(V. 7), "...Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the
Lord, he girt his fisher's coat onto him, (for he was
naked,) and did cast himself into the sea."  Simon Peter put
on his outer garment and tied it tightly around him so that
it would not interfere with his swimming. Then he jumped in
or dove in and swam to the shore.
	This is another indication that Simon Peter was not a
man to sit around and wait for something to happen.  He was
a man of action.
	V. 8, "And the other disciples came in a little ship;
(for they were not far from land, but as it were two hundred
cubits,) dragging the net with fishes."  The other disciples
rowed the little boat to the shore.  They were unable to
lift the net into the boat as they would normally do.  So
they drug the net to shore behind the boat.

V.  Breakfast with Jesus

	V. 9, "As soon then as they were come to land, they saw
a fire of coals there, and fish laid thereon, and bread."
When they got to shore they found that Jesus already had a
fire going.  Bread and fish were already cooked and ready to
eat.
	V. 10, "Jesus saith unto them, Bring of the fish which
ye have now caught."  Jesus told them to get their fish out
of the water so that they would not escape out of the net
back into the sea.
	V. 11, "Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land
full of great fishes, an hundred and fifty and three: and
for all there were so many..."  They had caught one-hundred
and fifty-three fish in that one cast of the net.  And Luke
says that they were "great fishes."  That is, they were
large fish.  They really made a haul.
	(V. 11), "...yet was not the net broken."  In spite of
the large number of fish and in spite of the large size of
the fish, the net was not broken.  This, in itself, seems
miraculous to us and it must have to them.
	V. 12-13, "Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine.  And
none of the disciples durst ask him, Who are thou?  knowing
that it was the Lord.  Jesus then cometh, and taketh bread,
and giveth them, and fish likewise."  They all ate breakfast
with Jesus.  What a joyous meal it must have been!
	V. 14, "This is now the third time that Jesus shewed
himself to his disciples, after that he was risen from the
dead."  This was the third time that Jesus has appeared to a
group of His disciples since His resurrection.  On the first
two occasions He appeared to the church as a whole.

VI.  Seeing ourselves in this passage

	We, too, sometimes get tired and weary and discouraged
and frustrated.  We get tired of rowing the boat.  We get
tired of casting the net.  We get tired of catching nothing
-- or at least -- nearly nothing.
	We sometimes find it hard to wait for the Lord.  We
find it hard to wait for the Lord to manifest His presence
with us.  We find it hard to wait for the Lord's blessings.
We not only get tired of doing the work, but we get
discouraged and impatient and frustrated.  There may be
times when it is tempting to quit.  What we need to do is to
learn to wait on the Lord.
	What we also need to do is to keep on rowing the boat.
There is work to be done in order to keep the church going.
We need to keep on casting the net.  We need to keep on
doing the work that the Lord would have us to do.  We need
to keep on teaching and preaching the word of the Lord.  We
need to keep our lights shining for Jesus.  We need to keep
on witnessing to the lost and to the saved who are
unchurched.  We need to keep on keeping on until Jesus
comes.
	We need to give the Lord all the praise and glory.