[John 21:1-25] 2025.10.12 Breakfast with the Risen Christ
Breakfast with the Risen Christ
John 21:1-25
Big Idea: Jesus restores his own through services and questions of love; we love him by obeying his call to be fishers of men and shepherds of his flock.
1. Jesus restores through the services of love
2. Jesus restores through questions of love
3. We love Jesus by being fishermen and shepherds
I’ve been looking forward to sharing this story at Church for a few weeks now, and I finally found the right passage for it.
About one and a half months ago, I invited the Parish Council to come to our new place for dinner.
We had everything set, and all the Parish Councillors responded.
Just a few hours before dinner, I went to do some errands, one of which was to fill the car with petrol.
That’s easy; I’ve done it many, many times.
However, for some reason, I misread the sign.
I was supposed to use diesel, but I used petrol instead.
I used the wrong fuel! If I had started the car, it could have destroyed the engine!
We’re looking at thousands of dollars of damage!
And so, I called my car insurer, and we arranged for someone to come and pumped all the petrol out.
Once the tank was empty, I could fill it up with diesel again.
Though I missed the dinner, I got to the Parish Council meeting afterwards.
For some reason, I failed to read the sign, which could have ended up being a very expensive mistake.
The Parish Council, my family, and even some of our Church members were all very kind and offered to help.
I’m really glad that they’ve shown me love and grace; it’s truly a blessing.
However, sometimes, we do make mistakes that can lead to far worse, leading to far more costly results.
An angry word in the heat of an argument, a careless and insensitive comment, or a selfish act, can be failures that break relationships and friendships, which often may take years to repair.
How do we show love and grace to people who have failed?
How does Jesus show love to people who have failed?
If you have your Bible, please open up with me to the final chapter of the gospel of John, John chapter 21, beginning from verse 1.
We’ll see three things in today’s passage:
1. Jesus restores by services of love
2. Jesus restores by questions of love
3. We love Jesus by being fishermen and shepherds
As always, let’s pray before we begin, “Father, thank you for sending Jesus to reconcile us to you. Please open the ears of our hearts as we listen to your word. We pray this in Jesus’ name, Amen.”
1. Jesus restores through the services of love.
By the final chapter of the Gospel of John, we read that Jesus died on the cross, rose from the grave, and appeared to his disciples twice already.
Last week, we read that he appeared to them in a locked room.
He appeared to them again, a week later, again in a locked room.
Thomas wasn’t here last time, and so he wasn’t convinced when the disciples said that Jesus rose from the grave.
This time, he saw Jesus with his own eyes.
He believed in Jesus called Him, “My Lord and my God”.
Imagine the joy and the laughter in that room! Jesus is alive!
What a great way to finish the story.
Jesus is alive, the disciples have seen Jesus, and the Church has been growing marvelously ever since.
That would’ve probably been how we would’ve ended the gospel.
But that wasn’t how God finished it.
Look with me at the final chapter of the gospel of John, Chapter 21, beginning from verse 1, “After this, Jesus revealed himself again to his disciples by the Sea of Tiberias. He revealed himself in this way: Simon Peter, Thomas (called “Twin”), Nathanael from Cana of Galilee, Zebedee’s sons, and two others of his disciples were together.
“I’m going fishing,” Simon Peter said to them.
“We’re coming with you,” they told him. They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.” (21:1-3)
Peter, the natural leader, takes the disciples fishing by the Sea of Tiberias, which is also known as the Lake of Galilee.
Peter and some of the disciples were fishermen before they followed Jesus.
After the risen Jesus revealed himself to them, they went back to Square One. What an anticlimax!
One of the biggest news stories over the past three days is the beginning of the ceasefire in Gaza.
Both the Palestinians and the Jews are celebrating this moment.
It’s only been hours and it might not last long, but for now, for just a brief moment, there’s joy on both sides.
Imagine a Jewish hostage who was freed or a Palestinian refugee who came out from the rubble, upon hearing about the news, went back to his cell or his crumbling building.
Haven’t they heard the good news? Didn’t they understand what’s happening? Why are they going back to their cell and tent when they should be going home?
That’s what the disciples were doing.
They heard the good news of Jesus rising from the dead from the Risen Jesus himself.
They saw him with their own eyes.
They’ve heard the good news!
Why were they going back to what they were doing?
Maybe they weren’t sure whether they had what it took to follow Jesus.
After all, Peter thought that he had what it took when he said that he would lay down his life for Jesus to follow Jesus.
He didn’t say “we will lay down our lives” but “I will lay down my life”.
He didn’t know about the rest of the guys, but he knew that he would be the loyal one, the brave one, right to the very end.
But as Jesus himself predicted, Peter would deny him.
Even though he’d seen the Risen Lord Jesus twice already, he wasn’t sure what his next step ought to be.
And so Peter, led six other disciples, did what he did best; He took them fishing.
It wasn’t casual fishing; they weren’t sitting by the dock of the bay with a rod and a sinker.
Peter was taking them fishing, fishing.
He took them on a boat, with a big net to do some serious fishing.
Despite having done this for most of his life, Peter and the disciples caught nothing.
It's at this point that Jesus revealed himself for the third time to the disciples. Verse 4-5, “When daybreak came, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not know it was Jesus. 5 “Friends,” Jesus called to them, “you don’t have any fish, do you?” “No,” they answered.
And so, Jesus told them to cast the net on the right side.
And lo and behold, they caught a lot of fish.
There was so much fish that they couldn’t haul the fish back in.
Something about this seemed very familiar.
Can you think of another time when something similar happened?
Look with me at Luke 5:4-6, “When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” “Master,” Simon replied, “we’ve worked hard all night long and caught nothing. But if you say so, I’ll let down the nets.” When they did this, they caught a great number of fish, and their nets began to tear.”
Jesus did something similar before and Peter was there.
Jesus had supernaturally helped Peter to fish before and he had supernaturally done it again.
This might have clicked a memory in John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, and so he told Peter, “It is the Lord”!
Without hesitation, Peter tied his outer clothing, jumped into the sea to get to Jesus.
The disciples who weren’t on the boat came and helped drag the boat and the net, full of fish, by the boat’s side, back to the shore.
When they got there, there was a fire with fish lying there.
Jesus had already prepared breakfast for them.
Jesus didn’t need their fish to prepare breakfast.
Even so, Jesus told them to bring the fish over.
And Peter went back to the boat and hauled the net full of fish ashore, all 153 of them.
We don’t have any photos of Peter, but I imagine him to have biceps bigger than my thighs.
Jesus took the bread and the fish and gave them their breakfast.
Again, can you think of another time when Jesus gave people fish and bread, after another demonstration of his power?
Using just five loaves of bread and two fish, Jesus fed the five thousand men, along with the women and children.
Even as they ate, you can’t help but notice that there was a little bit of awkwardness.
Look at the second half verse 12, “None of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” because they knew it was the Lord.”
They knew it was the Lord, and the Lord had caught them fishing.
They probably expected Jesus to scold or rebuke them.
After all, he taught them for three years, died on the cross, rose from the dead, appeared twice to them already, and they still didn’t get it.
They still hadn’t understood the significance of what Jesus has done.
It’s only been a short time since Jesus last saw them, weeks or maybe even days, but they had already failed by their lack of enthusiasm to serve Jesus, and their lack of drive to tell people about Jesus.
But instead of scolding them, Jesus serves them.
Jesus serves them by telling them where they will find fish. Jesus serves them by cooking breakfast for them.
And in all these loving services of Jesus, he tenderly reminds them of their history, their shared stories. Jesus has provided for them. Jesus is providing for them now. Jesus will provide again. They need to trust and follow him.
What a wonderful and kind Lord we have in Jesus.
Whether intentional or not, we fail to follow Jesus, day by day, even hour by hour.
We fail him when we don’t do what we ought to do, and when we do what we ought not to do.
We fail him when we don’t follow him, even as he’s shown clearly that he’s the reigning and risen Lord; He has every reason to scold us.
But in his tenderness and kindness, he, the King of kings, Lord of lords, restores us by services done in love.
Jesus served his disciples directly on the shore of the Lake of Galilee.
Today, God’s been sending his servants to serve us, whether by teaching his word to us, or by acts of service done to prepare Sunday’s service, or by preparing food for us. When done in faith and in the love of Jesus, Jesus has so ordained these acts so that they remind us of his love for us.
I remember meeting an older woman who sat outside of a Church I used to serve in.
I invited her to come in, but she said, ‘No, no, I’ve done too many bad things. I’m not good enough to go inside’.
I told that woman that Jesus would love to have you come in.
She needed to know that Jesus loves people who have failed, probably even more than people who thought of themselves as successful.
Those who failed him, those who have failed their families, those who have failed at school or their jobs, are the very people that Jesus wants to receive his love and healing.
These are the people whom he’s given his life to serve. Will we serve them when they come into our Church, as Jesus would have us? How does Jesus want us to serve those whom he wants to restore?
2. Jesus restores by questions of love
There was one disciple in particular who needed to be restored to Jesus; he was none other than Peter.
Look with me at verse 15, “When they had eaten breakfast, Jesus asked Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” “Yes, Lord,” he said to him, “you know that I love you.” “Feed my lambs,”
Peter, the natural leader of the disciples, famously boasted that even if everyone fell away because of Jesus, I will never fall away (Matthew 26:32).
He would be Jesus’ number one follower.
He would be more devoted to Jesus than anyone else.
He would love Jesus more than anyone else, including all the other disciples.
That’s how sure he was of himself.
No one could love Jesus more than him.
That all fell apart when he denied Jesus, not once but three times.
Many people, including the other disciples, knew about it.
And so, Jesus asks Peter, “Do you love me more than these?”
Who or what are ‘these’?
It might seem like it’s everything else.
That is, “Peter, do you love me more than these fishing nets, these things, this world?”
But here, the context seems to be about Peter’s relationship with the disciples and his relationship with Jesus.
And so who are ‘these’? I think ‘these’ are the rest of the disciples.
That is, “Peter, do you love me more than these disciples love me?”
This question has more sting for Peter.
Peter had shown that he didn’t love Jesus as much as he thought he did.
Jesus brought this painful memory back to Peter – do you still believe that you love me more than the rest of the disciples love me?
Do you still see yourself as my most loyal disciple?
One of the areas in life where loyalty is often tested is politics.
Between 2007 and 2015, Australia had six prime ministers.
That’s an average of less than one every two years.
The shortest term during that time was for less than two months!
Why so many changes?
A lot of these were due to people switching their loyalty.
Like Peter, some politicians said that they would support their leader no matter what.
The next thing you know, they either gave their support to another leader or became the leader themselves.
Should we really trust a leader whose loyalty switches so swiftly?
That sounds like the question that Jesus was asking of Peter.
Peter, the one who switched his loyalty from Jesus to himself at the fireside of a courtyard – does he really love Jesus, more than these?
Peter’s reply is a lot more subdued than before: “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
Notice that he only gave half a response.
Yes, Peter loves Jesus, but does he love Jesus more than these?
Peter doesn’t reply to that part of the question.
Jesus’ response to Peter was, “Feed my lambs.”
To love Jesus is to look after Jesus’ sheep, Jesus’ followers.
It’s feeding them with spiritual food.
Peter is to show his love for Jesus by teaching Jesus’ word to Jesus’ followers, to train them to obey Jesus’ word, and to look after their spiritual well-being in general.
That’s why churches have pastors and ministers.
Look at how Peter describes fellow elders, fellow leaders of the Church in 1 Peter chapter 5, verses 2-3, “Shepherd God’s flock among you, not overseeing out of compulsion but willingly, as God would have you; not out of greed for money but eagerly; 3 not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.”
A leader who loves Jesus is someone who teaches and trains God’s word to Jesus’ followers.
That’s how we are to love Jesus, according to Jesus.
Jesus asked Peter again, ‘Do you love me?’ And Peter said, ‘You know that I love you’. ‘Shepherd my sheep’.
Like a shepherd, Peter was to look after Jesus’ people and guard them against wolves and false teachers.
He would protect them, and lay down your life if he had to.
A third time, Jesus asked Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”
Just as Peter had disowned Jesus three times, so Jesus now restored Peter three times.
The three denials belonged in the past.
The three confessions now mark a restoration, a renewed relationship between Peter and Jesus.
Even so, Peter was sad to hear it for the third time.
Didn’t Jesus know that Peter truly loved Jesus?
And so he replied, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.”
What more could Peter say? Jesus knew everything, and he knew that Peter was telling the truth.
It’s good that the past issues have been resolved, but what about the future?
Would Peter deny Jesus again if he faced trials again?
Would he be able to stand up for Jesus, or would he deny him, just like he did before?
Listen to Jesus’ response from the end of verse 17, “Feed my sheep,”.
Jesus wanted Peter to feed his sheep.
Jesus had given this important task to Peter, and affirmed his restoration as a shepherd over Jesus’ flock.
More than that, Jesus described what kind of death Peter would one day endure.
While Peter was young and strong, he could go wherever he wanted to.
However, there will come a day when he won’t be able to go where he wants.
Instead, he would stretch out his hand, and someone else would lead him.
The language of stretching out your hands is often used to describe someone who carried the cross before they were crucified.
The cross has two beams, and those who were about to be crucified would stretch out their hands to carry the horizontal cross beam to the place where they would be crucified. There are records in the early Church (not recorded in the Bible) that says that Peter was crucified upside down.
That would be a horrible way to die.
However, as sad as it was, I suspect Peter might have breathed a sigh of relief when he heard it.
He had promised Jesus before that he would be loyal until the very end, but Peter failed.
However, Jesus is here saying that Peter would make it to the very end, that he would love Jesus until the very end.
Jesus then said these words to Peter, the very words that Peter heard from Jesus at the beginning: “Follow me.”
Again, what a loving and kind way to restore Peter the disciple!
Peter denied Jesus three times, but through his loving questions, Jesus got Peter to confess his loyalty three times.
Jesus’ three questions pierced into Peter’s heart, revealing Peter’s genuine repentance and publicly restoring Peter as one of the shepherds of Jesus’ followers.
Like Peter, when we come to Jesus in his word and he asks us questions, answer them truthfully.
Some of these questions might be hard to hear: “Who do you say I am? Have you little faith? Do you love me?”
While they were spoken originally for the people to whom Jesus was speaking, there’s a sense in which some of these questions apply to us.
Otherwise, the disciples would not have recorded these questions in the Bible.
For those of us who have failed Christ, who have failed to trust him,
who have failed to praise him publicly, who might have even denied him,
we need to come humbly before him and ask him to show us what’s in our hearts.
Our Lord knows everything.
However, out of his kindness, he asked those questions of us to show us what’s in our hearts and to confess our sins to him when necessary.
About ten years ago, I printed out three questions that Jesus asked, laminated it, and stuck it on the fridge:
“ Do you believe me? Do you love me? Will you wait for me?”
(The last one was a paraphrase.)
I think I lost the magnet when I moved.
Over the years, I would look at the fridge and imagine Jesus asking those three questions, in light of whatever situation or challenge that I was going through: “Do you believe me? Do you love me? Will you wait for me?”
These are heart-piercing questions that helped me focus back on Jesus.
They would often lead me to confess my sins and my inadequacies before Jesus.
As you read the Bible, as you hear God’s word, let Jesus’ questions pierce your heart also. Let him begin the work of restoring your relationship with him:
“Do you believe me? Do you love me? Will you wait for me?” How would you answer Jesus?
3. We love Jesus by being fishermen and shepherds
After knowing that his relationship with Jesus was restored and that Jesus himself promised that Peter would die a death that brings glory to God, Peter asked about what would happen to the disciple whom Jesus loved.
The implication might be, “I know how I would die. How about him? Would he make it to the end?”
Jesus said in verse 22,“If I want him to remain until I come,” Jesus answered, “what is that to you? As for you, follow me.”
There were people who misapplied it and said that the disciple wouldn’t die, but the author of the Gospel of John said verse 23, “So this rumor spread to the brothers and sisters that this disciple would not die. Yet Jesus did not tell him that he would not die, but, “If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you?”
In verse 24, we see that it’s this very disciple, the disciple whom Jesus loved, who wrote down the Gospel of John,
“This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down. We know that his testimony is true. And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which, if every one of them were written down, I suppose not even the world itself could contain the books that would be written.”
What he wrote was only a small sample of what Jesus did. If he recorded everything that Jesus did, the world would not have enough room for it all.
That’s the end of the Gospel of John.
We had finally finished it as a church since we’ve started back in 2019!
Who was here when we first started on the Gospel of John?
In this final chapter, we see three things that we are called to do as the Jesus’ Church, as the people of Jesus:
Firstly, we are called to be fishers of men.
Jesus went to call people to follow him, and he promised to make them fishers of men.
These disciples, though many of them were fishermen, were not called to catch fish but to fish men.
It’s not about taking them against their will but to bring them out of the sea of sin into the river of life, as it were.
For our Church, it’s about inviting people to come and see the gospel and to tell the gospel, and it’s also about us going out to tell the gospel so that people can hear the gospel.
All followers of Jesus are called to be fishers of men because we’re all called to go and make disciples of all nations.
We are fishers of men.
We are a place where people hear the gospel because we tell the gospel.
Second, we are also called to be shepherds of Jesus’ flock.
Seeing people becoming Christians is only the first step.
We want people to keep trusting Jesus, keep growing in Jesus until the very end.
You’re not saved if you said that you believe in Jesus but then deny him, refusing to obey him, with no thought of being restored to Jesus.
Just as Peter needed to be restored to Jesus, we, too, must be restored to Jesus if we’re going to grow in him.
That’s why Jesus has called people to shepherd his people, to look after his people.
Left to ourselves, we will stubbornly fall away.
But out of God’s kindness, he’s set pastors and teachers to feed us spiritual food.
This is why we are a church that tells people to believe in the gospel of Jesus.
We are also a Church where people can see the gospel in action, as they see what living out the gospel looks like in our lives.
We are a church where people believe the gospel and see the gospel.
We tell the gospel, we want people to hear the gospel, we evangelise because we’re fishers of men, and we do it because we believe the gospel.
We also want people to see the gospel in our lives.
And so, we help one another grow in our knowledge and love of Jesus because we’re Jesus’ flock and God called some from among us are to be shepherds of Jesus’ flock.
Thirdly, no matter how good we think we are at being fishers of men or shepherds of Jesus’ flock, apart from Jesus, we can do nothing, we can achieve nothing.
Just as Peter and the disciples wasted their time trying to catch fish without Jesus, even though some of them were experts at it, unless we follow Jesus’ word, we would be wasting our time.
If we haven’t seen any fruits in our ministries, if we haven’t seen any growth in ourselves, then we must ask ourselves honestly, are we doing what Jesus is telling us to do? Are we following him? Don’t ask Peter’s question, “What about him?”
Listen to Jesus’ response to Peter, “What is that to you? As for you, follow me.”
How does Jesus show love to people who have failed?
He does it by acts of service done in love.
He does it by questions of love that pierce our hearts.
He restores us so that we can love him genuinely once again.
And we love him as we become fishers of men and shepherds of his flock.
Here are three questions for us to think about this week:
Three Questions
1. When was the last time Jesus used you to serve and restore a brother or sister who was lost?
2. How would you respond if Jesus asks you, ‘Do you love me?’
3. Are there areas in your life and ministry that seem to be fruitless? How did you pray to Jesus about it?
Friends, Jesus restores his own through services and questions of love; we love him by obeying his call to be fishers of men and shepherds of his flock.
Let’s pray, “Father, thank you for restoring us to you through the mighty work of our Lord Jesus Christ. Please forgive us when we deny your rule over us, in our thoughts, word and deeds. Restore us by your Holy Spirit. Rekindle our hearts, that we may love you, truly. And please make us into a church with many fishers of men and shepherds of your flock. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”