The Miracle of a Second Chance

Reading the word of God from John chapter 21, the first 17 verses, and then 19 through 22. After these things, Jesus showed himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias, and in this manner showed he himself. There were together Simon Peter and Thomas, called the twin, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples.

Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing. They say unto him, we also go with thee. They went forth and entered into a boat immediately.

And that night they caught nothing. But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus. Then Jesus saith unto them, Children, have ye any food? They answered him, No.

And he said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and ye shall find. They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fish. Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved said unto Peter, It is the Lord.

Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he girt his fisher's coat unto him, for he was naked, and had cast himself into the sea. And the other disciples came in a little boat, for they were not far from the land, but as it were two hundred cubits, dragging the net with fish. As soon then as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid on it and bred.

Jesus saith unto them, Bring of the fish which ye have now caught. Simon Peter went up and drew the net to land full of great fish, a hundred and fifty and three. And although there were so many, yet was not the net broken.

Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine. And none of the disciples dared ask him, Who art thou, knowing that it was the Lord. Jesus then cometh, and taketh bread, and giveth them, and fish likewise.

This is now the third time that Jesus showed himself to his disciples, after he was risen from the dead. So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonah, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto them, Feed my lambs.

He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonah, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep. He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonah, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things.

Thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep. Verse 19.

And when he had spoken this, he saith unto him, Follow me. Then Peter, turning about, seeth a disciple whom Jesus loved following, who also leaned on his breast at supper, and said, Lord, who is he that betrayeth thee? Peter, seeing him, saith to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do? Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou me. A great lesson in discipleship.

A lesson I think we need today. When Simon Peter denied his Lord, his sin affected two areas of his spiritual life. His fellowship and his discipleship.

Now, his sin did not affect his sonship. The Lord Jesus Christ still dealt with Peter as a child of God. Nowhere do the gospel writers tell us that Peter lost his sonship because he sinned, but he did lose his fellowship and his discipleship.

And these had to be restored. Many times we have read from Psalm 23, He restoreth my soul. Well, Peter experienced that in this experience of John chapter 21.

Privately, the Lord Jesus Christ met with Peter and restored the fellowship. You'll recall on that Easter morning, the angels said to the women, Go tell his disciples and Peter. Now, I think that extra phrase has two meanings to it.

Number one, Peter has somewhat lost his discipleship. Number two, don't let him get discouraged. Go tell his disciples and Peter.

And that Easter afternoon, the Lord Jesus Christ met with Peter personally and privately. When the Lord is restoring our fellowship, he doesn't hang the dirty wash out in public. But discipleship is quite something else.

Discipleship means living for the Lord. That's public. Discipleship means learning from the Lord, walking with him, listening to him, serving him.

And this is public. Consequently, the Lord had to deal with this matter of discipleship in the fellowship of the other disciples. And so here in John chapter 21, we have the Lord Jesus Christ restoring Peter to his place of discipleship.

I'm glad that he did this. I'm glad Peter let him do it. It's a tremendous encouragement to us.

If anyone here today has gotten out of fellowship with the Lord or your discipleship has failed, you're not walking with him, you're not serving him, then notice what the Lord Jesus Christ does in John chapter 21 as he restores the apostle Peter to his discipleship. I think that too many times we Christians undervalue what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. I grant you the word disciples not used often after the four gospels, but the idea is still there, walking with the Lord, listening to the Lord, living with the Lord, serving the Lord, making progress day by day as we follow him.

You see, the Lord Jesus Christ restored the apostle Peter to the privileges of discipleship. And there are four of them. And I would say to you today that Jesus Christ wants you and me to enjoy the privileges of discipleship, not just sonship, I know I'm going to heaven, but discipleship, heaven has come to me, and I'm walking with the Lord and following him.

Now, what are these privileges? What privileges did the Lord restore to Peter when he restored his discipleship? First, the privilege of serving Christ effectively. We find this in verses one through six. If ever you have a picture of ineffective service, it's right here.

They were waiting for Jesus. The Lord Jesus had said, now look, I'll meet you in Galilee. Matthew tells us that the Lord appointed a mountain where he would meet them in Galilee.

And so they're waiting and they're waiting. I don't know about you, but in my life, it's harder to wait than it is to work. I confess to you, there are times I even get impatient in my automobile waiting for the light to change.

I'm so important and I have so much to do. The Lord says, sit there, the light's broken, you're going to wait a little while. And they're waiting.

And while they're waiting, Peter says, I'm going fishing. And the other men say, we're going with you. Now, it's interesting to read all of the Bible commentaries on this and discover they're divided right down the middle.

There are those who say Peter was right in going fishing. Why waste your time? Go out and catch some fish. There are those who say, no, Peter was wrong in going fishing.

God didn't give them any orders and he should have waited. I'm inclined to believe that Peter and the other disciples were wrong. They should have just waited and been where the Lord wanted them to be when he was going to come to them.

But be that as it may, you certainly have here a picture of ineffective service. They had everything going for them. They had the equipment, nets and boats.

They had the experience. Four of those men were experienced fishermen. They had the enthusiasm.

Let's go fishing. We'll go with you. That's always the tragedy when some servant of God gets out of the will of God.

He always drags somebody else with him. I've seen this happen in churches where one of God's children will say, I'm going to do this. And he drags somebody else with him.

Then you've got a problem. But notice what happens. They fished all night and caught nothing.

Paint this picture in your mind. Darkness. Disappointment.

Defeat. Empty stomachs. Empty nets.

It's a picture of what happens when you and I try to serve the Lord without his guidance. Jesus Christ appears on the shore and they don't even recognize him. He calls out and says, man, have you caught anything? That's a bad question to ask fishermen.

And they just answer, no. The least said the better. Cast the net on the right side of the ship.

Travelers in Palestine tell us that people on the shore can sometimes look out into the lake and actually see the schools of fish. In fact, some fishermen used to have guides posted on the shore and they would signal where they could tell where the fish were. Sometimes you could see more from the shore than you could from the boat.

That's not what happened here. The Lord was performing a miracle. And the difference between success and failure was the width of the ship.

You know, sometimes you and I are closer to success than we think we are. And the Lord Jesus Christ just has to give us the orders. And they obeyed him.

And they caught a great catch of fish. And then John says, it is the Lord. You see, Jesus was preparing the apostle Peter and the rest of the disciples for the kind of fishing they were going to do in the book of Acts.

You see, John 21, you turn the page. Acts chapter 1, they're waiting. And this time they don't go out fishing.

Acts chapter 2, they go fishing and catch 3,000 fish. Acts chapter 4, 2,000 more. By the time it gets to Acts chapter 6, the disciples are so busy taking care of converts and sorting out the fish, they have to get help.

The Lord is preparing them. See, one of the beautiful privileges of being his disciple is serving Christ effectively. I fear a lot of Christians are doing what these people did.

There's enthusiasm. There is equipment. There's expertise.

There's experience. But there's no blessing. And they learned that morning that Jesus, when he said, without me ye can do nothing, he meant just that.

Without me ye can do nothing. Ah, but I've been fishing all my life. Without me ye can do nothing.

The best nets we could get. Without me ye can do nothing. One of the privileges of being a disciple is the privilege of serving Christ effectively.

And Peter learned that lesson that morning. Without me ye can do nothing. There's a second privilege of being a disciple.

It's found in verses 4 through 7. The privilege of knowing Christ intimately. Now it's one thing to serve the Lord. It's quite something else to know the Lord.

And here is Peter pulling in the net. And John, not Peter, John says, it is the Lord. You see, John was the one who used to snuggle right next to the Lord's heart.

This may bother some of you men, but I don't see a thing effeminate or weak about that. I see strength in it. John was a man's man.

There was nothing about the Apostle John that was weak. And John wanted to be close to the Lord Jesus. Love has its eyes open.

And when they caught this great host of fish, John says, it is the Lord. Peter didn't know that. Peter should have known it.

When they caught this great host of fish, Peter's mind should have began clicking. And Peter should have said, hey, I had a day like this once before. Did you ever go through that experience that the psychologists call déjà vu? You've had that experience.

We've been through this before. He had been through this before in Luke chapter 5. He'd fished all night and caught nothing. And Jesus showed up on the shore and got in the boat and said, launch out into the deep.

And he let down his nets and caught a great host of fish. Peter should have remembered that. But he didn't.

And John says, it's the Lord. You see, the Lord has those who are far from him. And the Lord has those who are close to him.

There was a great multitude of people around the Lord Jesus during his ministry. Then there was an inner circle of those who followed him. And then there was the inner circle of the apostles.

And then there was the inner circle of the apostles, Peter, James, and John. And one purpose for an apostle is to get to know Jesus better. Not just serve him more effectively, but get to know him more intimately.

And that morning, Peter didn't know the Lord. You see, he had sinned against the Lord. And he had lost his discipleship.

And now Jesus comes on the shore, the stranger on the shore. And Peter doesn't recognize him. You see, one of the evidences that we're not really walking as close to the Lord as we should is we don't recognize him when he shows up.

We don't see him in the Word like we ought to see him. We don't see him in the lives of others as we ought to. We don't see him in the hymn book the way we ought to.

We don't see him in circumstances the way we ought to. And you know, the Lord Jesus wants us to get to know him more intimately. Peter knew him as Savior, but that's not enough.

Peter needed to know him as Lord and as friend and as the one whom he could love from the very depths of his heart. Which raises the question just now, are you and I getting to know the Lord Jesus Christ more intimately? Through the Word of God and through prayer and through worship and through fellowship with God's people, are we getting to know him more intimately? Paul had been saved thirty years when he wrote that, I may know him. Know him.

When John was on the Isle of Patmos, he knew a lot about the Lord Jesus, but then the heavens were opened and he learned things he'd never known before. Oh, that I may know him. That's the privilege of discipleship.

If I speak to someone right now who's no longer walking with the Lord, you've turned your back on him, look what you're missing. The privilege of serving Christ effectively and helping to catch the fish and the privilege of knowing Christ intimately. But this leads to a third privilege.

In verses 9 through 17, there is the privilege of loving Christ more deeply. Now these go together. As we serve the Lord more effectively, we get to know the Lord more intimately.

It's not the people who sit in the grandstands and applaud who get to know the Lord. It's those who are down in the boat fishing. It's those who are out in the battlefield fighting.

It's those who are out in the yard, the farmyard throwing out the seed. And you know, as we get to know the Lord more intimately, we come to love the Lord much more deeply. And this is the thing that Jesus talked to Peter about.

He said, Peter, I just blessed your hands. You threw out the net and you caught the fish, but now, Peter, I want to deal with your heart. I've opened up your eyes.

You've seen me, but now I want to deal with your heart. Peter, do you really love me more than these? You see, you've got to remember that Peter had boasted this way. Peter had said, Though all else forsake you, I will not forsake you.

I will go with you to prison and to death. It's a dangerous thing when you compare your love for Christ with the love that others have for Christ. And Peter, as it were, put himself up on a pedestal and said, Lord, the rest of this crowd may not love you, but I love you.

And Jesus says to him, Peter, do you really? This whole circumstance was set up that Peter might come to the place of a broken heart. Look at it now. They'd fished all night and caught nothing.

And then Jesus appears and says, cast the net. They cast the net, they caught the fish. That's what happened when Peter was called in Luke chapter 5. And Peter had fallen down at Jesus' feet and said, Lord, depart from me.

And Peter heard Jesus say, Oh, no, I'm not going to depart from you. You're going to follow me and I'm going to make you fishers of men. That was his call.

When Peter got on the shore, there he saw bread and fish, the usual breakfast for a fisherman, bread and fish. And that bread and those fish reminded him of something. Back in John chapter 6, he had taken bread and fish and he'd helped to feed 5,000 people.

And then Jesus had preached a sermon and the crowd got up and left him. And Jesus turned to his disciples and said, Will you also go away? And Peter spoke up and said, To whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life, and we believe and are sure that thou art the Christ. You see, this circumstance not only reminded Peter of his call, but it reminded Peter of his confession.

Peter, remember when you confessed that I was the Christ? And then he saw a fire of coals, the only other place in the New Testament where you'll find those words is in John chapter 18. And Peter came and stood by a fire of coals and that was where he denied the Lord. And so my Savior calls Peter and the other apostles to a fire of coals.

That was an awfully quiet breakfast. Nobody was saying anything. Conviction was deep.

Shame was real. And how tenderly the Lord Jesus deals with us. Now, if you and I had been doing this, we would have said, Peter, let's get things straightened out, then you can eat.

Have you parents ever said to your children, unless you take care of this, you can't have dinner? Our Lord didn't do that. He said, Come and dine. Back at the beginning of John's gospel, Jesus said, Come and see.

Now he says, Come and dine. And he feeds Peter bread and fish. And then after he feeds him, he talks to his heart.

You know, the Lord does this. I'm glad that when I have strayed away, the Lord doesn't come with a pickaxe and a crowbar and dynamite. He comes with bread and fish.

And he feeds me and shows me what I've been missing. And then he says, Now let's talk about your heart. Once again, the scholars are divided over these Greek words.

You Greek students know that there are two different words used here for love. There's the word phileo, Philadelphia, brotherly love. Phileo, which means a fondness for.

And then there is agapao, which means a deep, sacrificial love. If you'll read the Gospel of John carefully, you'll find these two words are used interchangeably. But I think here the Lord is trying to make a point.

He's saying, Peter, do you really have a sacrificial love for me? Were you willing to lay down your life for me? Peter says, Lord, you know that I have a fondness for you. Jesus uses agapao and Peter uses phileo in this Greek text. And so Jesus tries again and says, Peter, do you have this agapao love for me? And he says, Lord, you know that I have a fondness for you.

And so then Jesus uses Peter's word. Well, Peter, you have a fondness for me. He said, Lord, you know everything.

Oh, my dear friends, we have to grow in our love for the Lord, don't we? Not just have a fondness for him, a friendship for him, but get to the point where we are really willing to lay down our lives for him. That's easy to talk about and easy to sing about, but so difficult to practice. He said, Peter, the day is going to come they're going to put you on a cross and carry you out and you're going to die.

And that happened. One of the privileges of discipleship is the privilege of loving Christ more deeply. Do we do this? We want to serve him more effectively.

We want to know him more intimately. We want to love him more deeply. But it doesn't stop there.

In verses 18 through 21, there's a fourth privilege of discipleship. Our Lord says, Peter, you got away from me. Peter, you have had your fellowship restored.

Now I want to restore you to your discipleship. I want you to serve me effectively. There's a fellow named Cornelius who's going to need you.

And, Peter, I want you to serve me effectively. I want you to know me intimately. I want you to love me deeply.

And, Peter, I want you to follow me obediently. I want you to follow me and keep your eye upon me. And that's why he says to him in verse 19, follow me.

He restored his discipleship. The same thing he said back in Luke 5. Follow me, I'll make you fishers of men. He says it again.

Aren't you glad our God gives us another chance? I'm glad that Jesus didn't say to Peter, you're through. I've given three years to you. I died for you, but you're through.

He doesn't say that. Men say that. But God doesn't say that.

God said, Abraham, you really fouled things up in Egypt, but get out. I'll give you another chance. Jacob, boy, have you made a mess of things.

But go back to Bethel. Let's start all over again. Jonah, woo, you have really disobeyed me.

But the word of the Lord came a second time to Jonah. Peter, you've disgraced me and yourself. You've disobeyed me.

But follow me. I want you to follow me obediently. You see how Jesus has dealt with all of the inner man? I want you to know me intimately.

That's the mind. I want you to love me deeply. That's the heart.

I want you to follow me obediently. That's the will. He gave him a brand new commission.

He said, Peter, up until now, all you've been doing is catching fish. I don't want you to stop doing that. But I want you also to start taking care of the sheep.

You see, the Lord uses two different pictures of people here. When we go out to win souls, we're catching dead fish and giving them life. But when we take care of God's people, we aren't taking care of fish.

We're taking care of sheep. That's why he says to him, feed my sheep. Shepherd my sheep.

Feed my lambs. Care for my people. When you read 1 Peter, you find him doing this.

In chapter 5, he talks about the Lord Jesus as the shepherd. He talks to the elders of the church as the overseers and the shepherds. He says, Peter, I want you to obey me and follow me.

Let's go. He gives him a brand new call and a brand new commission. When Peter got up and started to walk and follow Jesus, he had no idea where he was going.

He didn't have to know. As long as he was close to the shepherd, that's all that counts. Peter was going to walk right into chapter 1 of Acts and help him elect a new apostle.

He's going to walk right into chapter 2 of Acts. The Holy Spirit is going to come in power. Three thousand are going to be saved.

He's going to keep on walking, following the Lord, and winning multitudes and shepherding the flock. But from the very beginning, he had the same old problem. He got distracted.

As he's walking, following the Lord, he hears footsteps behind him. He does something a disciple must never do. He got his eyes off the Lord.

It's the third time now that Peter's gotten his eyes off the Lord. In Luke 5, when he had this great catch of fish, he got his eyes off the Lord on himself and said, Depart from me. I'm a sinful man.

And Jesus said, Get your eyes off yourself, Peter. Follow me. In Matthew 18, when he was walking on the water, he got his eyes off the Lord and started looking at circumstances.

We've all done that. And he began to sink. Now he gets his eyes off the Lord and starts looking at other Christians.

A disciple cannot follow the Lord while he's watching other Christians. These three distractions cause a great deal of trouble. Look at yourself.

You'll get discouraged. Look at circumstances. You'll start to sink.

Look at other Christians. You get critical, proud. We have a lot of this going on today.

The chief indoor sport of many saints is people watching. And they have binoculars with Bible verses on them. And they're always watching some preacher or some evangelist or some saint.

Find out what they're doing. And I feel like saying to these people what Jesus said. What is that to thee? Keep your eyes on the Lord.

You know, I have enough to do to keep myself following the Lord without trying to straighten everybody else out. Now, I do have a shepherding responsibility. And I do try to fulfill it.

But you know what I'm talking about. That critical spirit. Lord, what's this man going to do? What's that to you? Follow me.

During Mr. Moody's ministry, there were always people who were critical of Mr. Moody. We've forgotten those people. Mr. Moody is still remembered.

What is that to thee? Follow thou me. And he had the privilege of following Christ obediently. Do you see what you miss when you aren't walking with the Lord? Oh, to me, it would be a tragedy.

If Peter had not been restored to his discipleship, he would have missed serving Christ effectively. He that doeth the will of God abideth forever. He would have missed knowing Christ more intimately.

He would have missed loving Christ more deeply. He would have missed following Christ more obediently. And I wouldn't have been talking about Peter today.

But maybe we aren't talking about Peter. Maybe we're talking about you or me. Perhaps there's someone here today who needs to come to the Lord Jesus and say, Lord, I used to follow you.

I used to be one of your disciples. I was getting to know you and serving you and loving you. And then I got away, but I want to come back.

Will he have you back? Of course. Does he want you back? Yes. Will he forgive? Yes.

Will he restore? Of course. Perhaps someone here today says, I never started. I've never come to trust the Lord Jesus.

But if this is what salvation is all about, being forgiven, and then serving him and knowing him and loving him and following him, that sounds like excitement. Where does this trail end? It ends in glory. There came a time when they crucified Peter and his body was laid to rest and his soul went home to heaven.

His discipleship was over. Oh, my friend, if you've never trusted Jesus Christ, come to trust him. If you have trusted him and strayed away, come back to him, because the life of a disciple is a privileged life, and you're missing so much without him.

Thank you, Father, for the joy and the blessing and the privilege of discipleship. I pray for any here today who have never entered into this beautiful life, who have never trusted Christ, that today they will come and trust him. For those who have strayed, oh, Lord, bring them back today.

May they find at your feet the satisfaction and the forgiveness and the new beginning that only you can give. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.