The Gospel of John - Outline Part 49 - Fishers of Men

TITLE

John 21:1-14 – c

EXPLANATION

Some time later, the disciples were together once again at the Sea of Galilee.  They went fishing during the night, but caught nothing.  In the morning, Jesus was on the shore.  They did not yet realize it was Him.  He asked if they had caught any fish.  Upon hearing their negative reply, He suggested that they cast their nets again, on the right side of the boat, and they would find fish.  Immediately, their nets were filled with such a huge quantity of fish that they could not pull it in.  Yet, in spite of the immense weight, their net was not torn.

John realized that it was Jesus on the beach, and he said so to the others.  Peter leaped into the sea and swam to shore while the others came along behind.  Jesus had a breakfast of fish and bread over a fire waiting for them.

APPLICATION

Jesus had one final lesson for all of His disciples.  He had already told them that He was sending them out as witnesses, just as the Father had sent Him as a witness.  Their witness would result in the saving of many souls and the birth of the Christian church.  As Jesus had told some of them when He first called them, at the beginning of His ministry, He intended to make them fishers, not of fish, but of men.  However, He wanted these men to clearly understand that it was only through His authority that any succcess would be had by them.  They could spend all their efforts, laboring to the point of exhaustion.  But, unless Jesus granted His power to the circumstance, it would end in failure.

This is such a difficult lesson for us to learn.  It is so seductive to work with one’s own strength and abilities.  In fact, this is so alluring and so indoctrinated into our self-centered frame of mind that we often do not even think about the fact that we are doing precisely what these disciples spent an entire night working on.  They exhausted themselves to find fish, to no avail.  How often do we expend our efforts in ministry or evangelism, in a similarly pointless fashion, because we have not taken what we are doing before the Lord?  God willing, and through the example found here in John, we will refrain from such in the future.