By Rev Charles Seet

Preached at / Published Life BPC 8am service, 2000-08-13

Text: John 21

I. The Causes and Effects of Uncertainty in Relationships

Whenever problems come into any relationship there is usually an accompanying sense of uncertainty about that relationship. This is true of our human relationships with friends, neighbours and between husbands and wives or parents and children. A child realizes that he has offended his mother, and he is afraid to face her. The mother comes to him and he grins sheepishly at her, uncertain about what she doing to do to him now. Will she just give him a gentle rebuke, or will she give him the chastisement he deserves?

When we have offended someone we love, whether wittingly or unwittingly, we are bound to feel bad about it - that we have disappointed that person or betrayed that person's confidence in us. And we wonder if he will really forgive us, receive us and love us as he did before. And until someone takes the initiative to restore that relationship, our fellowship suffers from this uneasy sense of uncertainty.

The same thing applies to our relationship with the Lord. There may be times when you let the Lord down. You did something you should never have done. Perhaps in an unguarded moment you were tempted and fell into sin, or failed to live up to His expectations. And you regret what you have done, but somehow, instead of seeking immediate restoration to fellowship with the Lord, you imagine that the Lord will not forgive you, and so you run away from Him instead, and continue to dwell in uncertainty, and allow yourself to drift away from Him. And now, you look back with a sense of regret, longing and wishing that the initial warmth of the intimate fellowship you enjoyed with the Lord could have continued.

If this describes your present relationship with the Lord, take heart. The Lord does not want you to carry on with life like this. He wants intimate fellowship to be restored. If you have been a Christian for some time, and find that your relationship with God has now grown cold and stale, and that He does not seem to be as near to you and as real in your life as He used to be, then listen to this: The Lord wants you to restore you. 

There are many verses of Scripture where He states this desire. To the Christians at Ephesus He said, 'Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works.' (Rev 2:4,5) To the church of Laodicea, the Lord said, 'As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.' (Rev 3:19,20)

And now we will look into God's Word to learn from how the Lord restored one who had loved Him, and yet failed Him - the apostle Peter.

II. Dealing with Uncertainty in Our Relationship with God

The passage that we read awhile ago from John 21 describes some things that happened to the disciples of Jesus Christ, and especially to Simon Peter, the chief of the disciples, during the time between Christ's resurrection and ascension. According to v.14 this was the third post-resurrection appearance of Christ in which He appeared to a group of disciples together.

This appearance came quite unexpectedly to a group of seven disciples more than 8 days after Jesus had resurrected. It began with Peter's plans to go fishing in the Sea of Galilee, which is also known as the Sea of Tiberias. Now the question that this passage raises is, 'Why did Simon Peter suddenly decide to go fishing?' No reasons are given in the passage itself. But perhaps the answer lies in the fact that fishing was what Simon Peter did to earn a living, before he followed Christ to become a fulltime disciple of His.

Together with some other disciples Simon Peter was a fisherman before Christ called Him. Together with them he had forsaken his fishing boat, his nets - everything! This is recorded in Luke 5:11. In fact Peter Himself said to Jesus in Luke 18:28 'Lo, we have left all, and followed thee.'

But now, we see something different happening. Peter was going back to his original job of fishing, and this seemed to influence six other disciples to go with him. Did they have nothing better to? Some Bible interpreters suggest that these disciples were occupying themselves in some gainful employment, while waiting for further instructions from the Lord, so that they could support themselves and not become a burden to anyone. While that interpretation is possible, I would like to suggest that what they were doing here was outside of God's will. This can be seen from what they did later on, between the ascension and Pentecost - they did not go fishing then, but spent their time well in prayer and preparation for service. And I believe that the circumstances of the Lord's appearance to them in this passage also shows us that they should have been praying and preparing themselves for service rather than going fishing.

And so we want to find out what caused Simon Peter to do this. I would like to suggest that it has to do with what he did when His master, the Lord Jesus, was being tried by the High Priest. He denied Jesus three times! While the Lord was being interrogated at the house of Caiaphas the high priest, Peter was outside the house sitting, together with some other people. Then a young girl recognized Peter and said, 'You were also with Jesus!' All eyes now turned upon Peter. And he immediately said to her 'I don't know what you are talking about.' Peter then moved to the porch of the house and another person there recognized him and exposed him to everyone there 'This man was also with Jesus!' Peter reacted by taking an oath that he did not know Jesus. Those who were there doubted this because his Galilean accent betrayed him. And now Peter was even cursing and swearing that he did not know Jesus at all. At that point he heard a cock crowing and Jesus who was deep in the house, turned to look at him. Then Peter remembered what Jesus had said to him earlier - John 13:38 'The cock shall not crow, till thou hast denied me thrice.' When he realized what he had done, he rushed out and wept bitterly.

This event must have cut a very deep wound in Peter's heart. How could he have had failed in his loyalty to Christ? How could he, of all people, who was the chief of the disciples, have committed the terrible sin by denying His Lord three times? Perhaps he now felt unworthy to be considered as a disciple of Christ. That may be the reason why he now decided to return to his previous job as a fisherman. 

He might have thought that His calling must be considered questionable, and that the Lord would not want him to serve Him any more. And since he was now disqualified, he might as well go back to fishing. But the Lord Jesus did not let leave him to carry out his plans. He came and restored Peter in a wonderful way. Let us see what happened here. 

The disciples spent the whole night casting their nets into the waters, but did not catch a single fish. What a disappointing night it was for them! When morning light came, they heard someone calling out to them from the shore, 'Children, have ye any meat?' They did not know it was Jesus. Perhaps they thought it was just someone who was interested in buying fresh fish from them for breakfast, if they had any fish he could buy from them. But when they shouted back to him that they had none, this mysterious stranger now asked them to cast their nets on the other side of their ship, and when they did so, their nets were so full of fish that they could not pull them up!

It seemed as if more than 150 of the biggest fishes in the Sea of Galilee suddenly zoomed to the very spot where the disciples had cast their nets and pack themselves into the nets until no more fish could get in. It would be any fisherman's dream to see this happening to him! For these fishermen disciples that exciting moment was also an enlightening moment. It enabled John to recognize that their kind stranger who had helped them was the Lord Jesus Christ. And Peter who was obviously overwhelmed by the impact of this miracle immediately put on his coat and swam as fast as he could to the shore to see Jesus.

A. Remembering God's Irrecovable Call to Us (vv.6,7)

The significant thing about this miracle is that it had happened before. In today's terms we would say that the disciples had a feeling of deja vous. About 3 years before this, they had spent a whole night of futile fishing (Luke 5:1-11). And just like what happened here, early the next morning Christ had told them to cast their nets down into the waters. And the result was also the same: they pulled up such a great haul of fish that their nets were breaking and their boats were sinking. So overwhelmed was Peter by this amazing miracle that according to v.8 he fell at the feet of Jesus and said, 'Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.' And Jesus said to him, 'Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men.'

And thus this repeated miracle probably reminded Peter of this important personal call he had received from Jesus - when the Lord called him to forsake his fishing business in order to serve Him. The Lord had called him to be a fisher of men. From that point onward he was no longer to catch fish but men. So what was he doing now, going back to catching fish? The Lord had not changed Peter's calling. As far as Jesus was concerned, Simon Peter was still called to be His disciple, and he should be faithful to that calling. According to Romans 11:29 'the gifts and calling of God are without repentance'

Dearly beloved, please remember that God has called you out of darkness and into His marvelous light. That calling is irrevocable. Nothing can change it. And even though you may sometimes fail to live up to your calling, that does not mean you can go back to your old life and to the world when you fail. As God's redeemed people you are called to live in newness of life. You are called to live for Christ and with Christ. Whatever setbacks you experience in life must not stop you from pursuing this high calling of God in Christ Jesus. In Philippians 3:13,14 we are told to forget those things which are behind and just keep reaching for those things which are before. Thus we have seen the first step to take to deal with uncertainty - Remember the irrevocable call which God has given to us.

B. Renewing God's Intimate Fellowship With Us (vv. 9-13)

Let us continue now in the study of our text to find out how else Peter's uncertainty was dealt with. According to v.9, when Peter and the disciples reached the shore they saw Jesus preparing breakfast for them. He was roasting some fish and bread on a fire. Some of them may be wondering where Jesus had obtained the fish and bread for them. But this is not the point. The point is that Jesus wanted to have warm intimate fellowship with His disciples. He obviously wanted to spend time with them in close fellowship, and what better opportunity is there for fellowship, than the sharing of a meal together with them.

We all know that one of the best ways to promote fellowship among ourselves is to share a meal together. Whether it is our catechumen's lunch or a fellowship group barbecue, or our choir having breakfast together at Beulah House after the 8 am service, or NBCs having a picnic or seafood at a hawker center, The Scriptures tell us that after Jesus returns, believers will have the unique privilege of feasting at His table at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.

But we do not have to wait until that feast comes in order to sup with Jesus. We can sup with Him right now in a spiritual sense. In Rev 3:20, the Lord said, 'if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me.' After this message, we will be partaking of the Lord's Supper. This is in a sense a representation of the intimate fellowship that we enjoy with the Lord. Let us remember these words and partake of the Lord's Supper meaningfully.

There are some other interesting points we can note about the disciples' meal with Jesus. In v.10 Jesus told them to bring of the fish which they had caught, and Peter immediately went to bring the net with fishes in. Why did Jesus want their fish? I would like to suggest that it is so that the disciples could have a share in contributing toward the meal. Jesus had provided them some fish and bread and now the disciples would have the privilege of providing some of their own fish for their meal together with Him.

This gives us an analogy of our spiritual fellowship with the Lord, that we should enjoy in our daily Quiet Time, or in the worship service here on Sundays. He provides us with His life-giving Word and the refreshing ministry of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. And we respond to Him with sincere prayer and worship. We offer up sacrifices of praise and service to Him. We sing with grace in our hearts to the Lord. Thus, the pleasure derived from fellowship is mutual. We enjoy having fellowship with God, and He enjoys having fellowship with us.

And that, dearly beloved, is another step for dealing with feelings of uncertainty in our relationship with God. Come back to the enjoyment of intimate fellowship with God. If you have wandered afar off from this fellowship then hear the words of Jesus in v.12 'Come and Dine!' When you dine with Jesus and enjoy personal fellowship, all feelings of uncertainty will melt away. He speaks, and the words that He feeds you with assures you that He still loves you and cares for your needs. Such was the wonderful assurance that Simon Peter probably received when he sat there on the sea shore with the Lord, receiving the freshly toasted bread and roasted fish from Him.

And now as Peter sat there eating and drying himself and his wet clothes at the fire of coals mentioned in v.9, he may have recalled with sadness another fire where he had warmed himself before. According to Luke's account, on that fateful night when Peter denied the Lord, He was warming himself together with others by a fire at the high priest's house.

Perhaps Jesus may even have kindled that fire for that very purpose, because what He said to Peter after the breakfast meal indicates that He intended to remind Peter for his three denials. That was the unresolved matter that still stood between them, and as long as that remained unresolved, Peter would never be completely free from uncertainty. When we have failed the Lord, we must properly face that failure and not try to sweep it under the carpet, so to speak. So Jesus brought Peter face to face with the matter by asking him three times if he truly loved Him.

This provided Simon Peter with the opportunity to confess his love to Christ in the presence of the rest of the disciples. The first time, Jesus asked him, 'Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me more than these?' The phrase more than these, refer to the rest of the disciples. Thus, Jesus was asking Peter if he loved Him more than the other disciples did. In reply Peter only said, 'Yea Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee.' Having already seen his real self revealed in his denials, Peter was no longer bold to say 'Yes, Lord I love you more than these.'

In the second and third questions Jesus left out the phrase 'more than these' and just asked him 'Simon son of Jonas, lovest thou Me?' And this time, it would be much easier for Peter to say 'Yes' to that since no comparison of love is made. But Jesus asked him the same question again and this time He used a different word for love. It was the word for a love that was not as strong as the one mentioned in the first two questions. And this is why Peter was grieved about it. He realized that His love for Jesus was not all that it should it be. How he must have longed to be able to love the Lord with a perfect love, with a love that would hold nothing back from Him, not even his own life.

Dearly beloved, if the Lord were assess your love for Him today, what kind of love would it be found to be? I think we would all have to say with Peter, 'Lord, Thou knowest the kind of love I have for Thee. Help me Lord to love Thee more, with the Love that Thou should be loved.'

But all uncertainty about our love for Him will be removed when we willingly respond to whatever He says to us. And this is the last step we must consider this morning about dealing with uncertainty. We have already seen how should deal with it by being assured of the Lord's irrevocable calling, and by being motivated to enjoy intimate fellowship with Him. After we have availed ourselves of the benefits of these two steps, any remaining uncertainty now has to do with ourselves. I know that the Lord really loves Me now, but how can I be certain that I really do love Him?

C. Responding to God's Imposing Commands For Us

The answer is by looking at how we respond to God's commandments. Do we respond with unqualified obedience? If we do, then our profession of love for the Lord is a true profession. If we do not have obedience, all our professions of love are empty. It is obedience that counts, not words. Obedience without love is theoretically possible, but love without obedience is impossible. In this passage the Lord gave some commandments to Peter. First of all - Feed my lambs (v.15), and Feed my sheep (vv.16,17). Then in v.19 He said, 'Follow Me' and again in v.22 'Follow thou Me'

There are two qualities about obedience brought out in these verses. First of all, it should be self-denying. In v.18 Jesus revealed to Peter how he would die if he obeyed Christ faithfully - He would have to submit himself to dying an awful death. There is a tradition that Peter was crucified just like Jesus. The only difference was that he was crucified upside down. The other quality of obedience is that it should be unconditional. In v.20,21, Peter asked the Lord about John's future - would this disciple have to die the same way that Peter would die? And the reply of Jesus was: 'What is that to thee?' Our obedience to God should not be affected in the least bit by what God does for others. Whether or not others receive greater blessings from the Lord, our obedience to Him should be the same. Therefore if John were to have the privilege of escaping death, should Peter be less willing to die for Christ?

Dearly beloved, our obedience should be unconditional. It is not good enough to obey God only under certain conditions, and when those conditions are not present, we are not keen on obeying God. Let us search our hearts this morning as we partake the Lord's Supper to see if we really do love the Lord with an obedience that is unconditional and self-denying. Let us understand that this is the love you owe Him for all that He has done for you.

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