APR 27 2025 | 50 Days: Road to Pentecost S1E1 | Breakfast with Jesus

Sea Change Church · APR 27 2025 | 50 Days: Road to Pentecost S1E1 - Breakfast with Jesus
John 21:1-14
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in because of the quantity of fish. That disciple whom Jesus loved, therefore, said to Peter, It is the Lord. When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment, for he was stripped for work, and threw himself into the sea. The other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, but about a hundred yards off.

When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire in place, with fish laid out on it, and bread. Jesus said to them, Bring some of the fish that you have just caught. So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, one hundred fifty-three of them. And although there were so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, Come and have breakfast.

Now none of the disciples dared ask him, Who are you? They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and so with the fish. This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead. This is the word of the Lord. This is the word of the Lord. Well, good morning. I'm discovering these videos along with you.

It's always the first time I see them if I'm starting a new one. So nice work, Jeff. That was sweet, dude. Let's go. My name is Harry. I'm the family pastor on staff, and it's good to be with you on this Youth and Family Sunday. And as you can tell that we are starting a brand new series called 50 Days Road to Pentecost. And what we're going to be doing is focusing on the 50 days between Resurrection Sunday, Easter Sunday, which we just had last week, and Pentecost.

We're actually a week off in our own calendar, but that's okay. And so we're going to be focusing in the scripture on that portion of the text. And today we find ourselves in John chapter 21. And a couple things about John 21. There's a small amount of controversy over John 21, and that is because in John chapter 20, at the end of John chapter 20, if you read it, it sounds kind of like John has wrapped up his gospel.

At the end of John 20, he says that he had written these things, and the purpose of his gospel is that we might believe in the things that Jesus has done, and by believing we may have life in his name. And you're like, wow, John, that's beautiful. Tied a bow on it. That's great. And then he's like, and! And he tells another story. And so some people have said like, oh, well, did this come later?

You know, why John 21? It seemed like John ended it. Is this really written by John? Did this get added in later? And I want to tell you, there's no good biblical evidence, scholarly evidence, to say that this is not the disciple John, that this came any later. There is a lot of historical evidence that one of the things that preachers of the gospel, presenters of the word, are terrible at is accurately telling you when they're going to end, when they're going to stop talking.

I don't know how many of you have been in a sermon, and it felt like, oh, man, the pastor wrapped it up real nice. Good. We're about to go to lunch. Great point, pastor. And you're almost out the door. And he's like, and! For my seventh point. And you're like, oh, we're going to lunch. And so we've done that throughout history. Paul preached, if you know, in the book of Acts, he preached for an hour, and someone fell asleep and fell out a window.

So if you feel like you're having a hard time here, let's go. Buck up, man. It's going to be okay. No, this is why churches are on the bottom floor, so no one falls out of windows when I talk. And the other thing about this story that I think is really helpful and really interesting is it actually acts as a bookend between the first call of Jesus' disciples and this last few moments with them in his ministry on earth.

If you think back to Luke chapter 5, this is a parallel between Luke 5 and John 21. When Jesus calls his first disciples in Luke 5, it happens on the Sea of Galilee. It's on the same sea. We actually included a map for you, so you can see that these are actually very similar places where Gennesaret is in Luke chapter 5, if you can see that tiny map.

You have Gennesaret there, and then you have Tiberias in John 21, but it's all same Sea of Galilee. So in Luke 5, Jesus shows up on the shore, and he preaches, and he tells Peter and the other disciples to let down their nets for a catch. And they say to him, look, we've been fishing all night, and we have caught nothing, and if you say so, like, we'll do it.

But this isn't even, like, the right time to fish. We kind of know how fishing works. We're professional fishermen. But fine. We'll let down our nets for a catch. They do. And if you remember Luke 5, they catch a miraculous amount of fish, so many fish that the nets start to break. And Jesus, or Peter, falls in front of Jesus to his knees and says, get away from me.

I am a sinful man. So we need that story in our head as we go into John chapter 21 because now this is some of Jesus' last moments, and it's a parallel story. It's a full circle moment as he closes his incarnate earthly ministry with his disciples. So he shows up on the shore. They once again go fishing, and let's jump into our text. So let's read verses 1 through 4 again together.

It says, It says, A couple things are notable. First, this is the only scene in the entire New Testament, as far as a fishing story goes, a fishing or them being on a boat where the disciple Thomas is specifically mentioned. It's the only scene where they're on a boat fishing and Thomas is mentioned. And I think that's kind of interesting because if you remember, if you were here Easter Sunday, Pastor Adam spoke about the story of Thomas.

And if you remember, Thomas was not with the disciples when the risen Jesus showed up, right? He missed Jesus. And then, therefore, he said, I'm not going to believe that he resurrected from the dead until I see him, until I put my hands in his wounds, right? And then Jesus appears to him, as Pastor Adam spoke about last week. And now, all of a sudden, he's mentioned in this story, and it kind of feels like he's not a fisherman.

It feels like Thomas is like, I'm not missing out again, right? If you're going to the beach, I'm going to the beach. You're going on the water, I'm going on the water. Like, Thomas is not going to miss out. And it's a good thing because Jesus shows up. And now they go fishing. And again, think Luke chapter 5. They fish all night and catch nothing.

And we should note that even in this post-resurrection era, the disciples are not yet experiencing convenient, easy Christ-following. They still have a lot of mystery. They often don't even know where Jesus is. They still struggle and have hardship and go out on the sea and have this cold, long night of failure to catch any fish. And then Christ arrives on the shore.

And notice the words of the text. It says this exactly. It says, just as the day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore. A major motif in the book of John is Jesus as the light of the world. And once again in our passage, as Christ arrives, so does the day. See, Christ tends to bring a new day with him wherever he goes. And maybe you're here and you're like the disciples and you've been experiencing hardship.

Or maybe you've been just working really hard and you're exhausted. And you keep experiencing failure or loss. Or you've been burdened by your own sin. My encouragement to you today is to look to Jesus. Because he brings a new day with him. If you need hope. If you need forgiveness. If you need a fresh start. Jesus brings in a new day. So he shows up on the shore.

And it says they do not yet recognize him. They don't know it's him. And let's keep reading in a five. Let's go to five through eight in our passage. Jesus said to them, children, do you have any fish? They answered him, no. He said to them, cast the net on the right side of the boat. And you will find some. So they cast it. And now they were not able to haul it in because of the quantity of fish.

That disciple whom Jesus loved, therefore said to Peter, it is the Lord. When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment. For he was stripped for work and threw himself into the sea. The other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish. For they were not far off from the land, but about a hundred yards off.

My son Jude, he's about a year and eight months old. And he is, this is like your monthly Jude update at this point, I think. So here you go. Monthly Jude update. He's so cute. And he's about a year, eight months old. And he is like classic boy. I mean, just stereotypical boy. He loves trucks and dinosaurs and sharks and cars. Like he's just stereotypical boy.

And I think his most masculine trait is that if you ask him a question and he does not know the answer, he will make one up. And that has got to be, I mean, he is a masculine toddler, right? That is like, and I'm so proud. I'm really proud. I know this because I drill him on his animal noises, right? He's an expert at animal noises. So I like to drill him.

What's the cow say? What's the cat say? What's the dog say? But every once in a while I throw him a curve ball. I'm like, what's the aardvark say? And he's like, I literally did this on Saturday. And he goes, cha-cha. I'm like, really? And then he'll double down. I'll come back to him later. I'm like, aardvark. What's the aardvark say? And he'll go, cha-cha.

Like I told you, daddy. Like it's cha-cha. And I'm like, all right. All right, son. You're making it up. I'm proud. I'm proud. Good work. And it kind of feels like in our story, the disciples don't know this is Jesus. And it kind of feels like the person on the beach is just making up answers. Like this is a strange, we put ourselves there in this moment.

It feels like we're just making up answers. He yells out. Remember, this is 100 yards away from where the disciples are. He's on the shore. He yells 100 yards, football field away. And he goes, did you catch any fish? And they yell back, no. And then he goes, try the right side. Like try the other, you're fishing on the left, try the right. As if hundreds of fish were just hiding seven and a half feet away.

That's how large the fisherman's boat would have been. Seven and a half feet. Like just a school of fish all night, just eight feet away. Like it's ridiculous. This has got to sound like the worst fishing advice in all of human history. You're like, what are you doing? What are we? If you grew up surfing, let's bring it to our culture. Because how many of you here surf?

Any surfers here? Yeah, there you go. I don't surf, but a lot of surfers in here. And if you're on the beach and you are surfing and you go out to catch some waves, which is what surfing is. And you go and you're just having a terrible session and you can't catch a single wave. But you're stubborn and you don't have a job. So you just stay out there for six hours.

You're just out there six to eight hours trying to get a single wave. And you don't, right? And then somebody like me shows up on the beach who knows nothing about surfing. And they're like, hey, you catch any waves? And you're like, no. And I'm like, well, paddle out further. Go a little to the right. The waves are to the, seven feet to the right, you'll find waves.

You're like, I'm going to drown this guy. Like I've been surfing for six hours. And surfers, you probably would drown the guy because surfing culture is kind of mean. I'm not going to lie. You guys are kind of mean people. I'm just kidding. I know a lot of surfers in the church. I was bullied by surfers immediately when I moved to La Jolla in seventh grade.

Like immediately bullied and kicked off the beach at Wind & Sea. And I was like, oh, welcome. So I'm fine. I'm processing. It's a you problem, not a me problem. Anyways, so it feels like Jesus is making things up. And they don't recognize him. But for some reason, they decide to listen to him. They're like, you know, we'll just listen to him. And maybe they had a hunch.

Maybe they've just experienced enough weird stuff in the last three years that they're like, all right. And so they throw their nets and they catch this miraculous amount of fish. 153 fish is an incredible amount of fish. And why the number 153? Here's the answer. I don't know. And I won't make it up, though my son would be proud. I don't know. I did look into theories for you.

And there are three to four like leading theories. And they're not very good, to be honest. And so I didn't want to share them. They don't hold water. Get it? Because it's a fishing boat joke. Guys, I'll be here for a few more hours. Anyways. And so, yet, they don't recognize Jesus. But as soon as they start getting fish in their nets, John's like, well, it's the Lord.

It's the Lord. Think about that. The disciple Jesus loved. The disciple closest to Jesus who would have sat next to him at the last supper. His closest disciple. The disciple Jesus loved based on his own account, right? That disciple who would have known, already seen the risen Jesus. He doesn't recognize his voice. He doesn't recognize him by sight from 100 yards away.

He only recognizes him as soon as he starts getting fish in his nets. It's not the audible voice of Jesus nor the visible sight of him. John recognizes Jesus by what Jesus does. He has this growing familiarity with who Jesus is and what he does. He's spent time with him. He's had experience with him. He knows him. And sometimes you and I want this audible voice from God.

We want God to just tell us audibly, I am the Lord. And like, guide us, right? We want this audible guidance from God. But if you spend time with him, if you learn his word, if you learn his ways, if you study what he's done throughout history, if you pay attention and are aware in what he's been doing in your life, you will begin to recognize him by the familiar ways in which he moves in your life.

So we don't need an audible voice. We need an attentive spirit. A spirit that is present and aware to how God is moving in our life. Which, at the end of your notes, I listed our practical takeaways, and this falls under number two. And I said this for practical takeaways. Minimize distractions and maximize attentiveness. It is easy to miss Jesus on the shore if we live frantic and preoccupied lives.

And then notice this. John says to Peter, it's the Lord. How does Peter respond? He throws himself into the water and swims a hundred yards. Just full Michael Phelps, right? Just going for Jesus, doing every stroke, doing whatever he can to get to Jesus. Tell him I'm not a swimmer. And he gets there. And notice the difference between Luke chapter 5.

What happens in Luke 5? That Jesus does a very similar miracle. And Peter falls to his knees and says, get away from me. I'm a sinful man. And then later he proves he was right. When he publicly denies Jesus three times. And yet in John 21, on the same Sea of Galilee, Jesus does the same type of miracle. And Peter has a different response. He doesn't say, get away from me.

I'm a sinful man. He throws himself into the water. He does whatever he can to be near Jesus. This is transformational. Something has changed in Peter in the last three years. And if you're here and you're new to Jesus, it's common. And when you're thinking about Jesus, you're thinking about God. To initially be leery of the idea of a righteous God.

Of a holy God. And we can easily have a similar response to Peter to say, oh, I'm too broken for that. I'm not good enough for that. But if you can put that aside and you follow Jesus anyway, just like Peter followed Jesus, you will discover what Peter discovered. Which is that it was never actually about you measuring up. It's always just been about drawing near to him.

Regardless of what you carry. Our sin should motivate us to get closer to Jesus because he's the healer. He's the forgiver. Not to run from him. The reality of our sin should steer us toward Christ. Not away from him. And here's the lie the devil likes to tell. It's very subtle. Here's the lie he tells. He says to you, you are broken. You are sinful.

You have harmed others. You should run from God. That's what the devil likes to lie about. Here's the truth of God. Here's what God says to you. You are broken. You are sinful. You have harmed others. You should run to God. You should run to me. You should return to me. For I am gentle and humble in heart. And eager to forgive. And eager to transform. And eager to love.

And eager to make dead things come alive. Run to me. Return to me. That's the truth of God. So with that, they get to the shore. Peter's swimming to the shore. And let's pick back up in our text. Let's go to verses 9 through 14. It says, It says, Sometimes I feel like Jesus just does stuff for style points. You know, like he already has his own fish.

Like these are professional fishermen who have fished all night. Caught nothing. Jesus shows up. Gives them terrible fishing advice. They catch a boatload of fish because of it. Get to the shore. And he's already got his own fish. Like it's just, it's like, he doesn't even need the miracle fish. He's already got his own fish. And maybe the point is, is Jesus already has everything you need.

And you're out toiling and stressing and anxious. Just trying to get what you think you need. When Jesus already has it on the shore. And he's just calling you in to be with him. To just have breakfast with him. That's, that's the heart of Christ. And he, he's provided for these fishermen in a massive way with this catch. This is an amazing catch of fish.

This would have fed them immediately. It would have provided for their families. They could go to the market, sell it, right? This is, this is amazing. It's a lot of, would have been worth a lot. And yet the whole rest of this chapter doesn't focus on the fish. It just focused on them being with Jesus. Breakfast with Jesus. Talking to Jesus. We have no record of what happened to this miraculous catch of fish.

The primary focus is Jesus because Jesus is the best thing happening in this story. And this is also a shift from Luke chapter 5. Because if you read Luke chapter 5, it says that everyone was astonished at the catch. They catch this amazing amount of fish in Luke chapter 5. And they're like, wow, look at that. They're astonished at this incredible miracle.

Like, look, we can't believe it. The same type of miracle happens, yet even more miraculous. Because now the nets are holding. The nets broke in Luke 5. Now the nets are holding. So it's like Jesus is holding this all together. It's the same type of miraculous miracle. And their response is, it's Jesus. Look, it's Jesus. In Luke 5, it's, oh my gosh, look at this fish in John 21.

It's him. It's Jesus. The shift in the attention is on him. And eventually following Jesus becomes less about how he blesses you or what he can do for you. And it becomes more about being with him. Just being with him. What captures the heart of the disciples in this moment is not a big catch. It's breakfast with Christ. It's being with him. And not saying they didn't care at all.

They obviously did care. And eventually, right, someone counted the fish. There's someone in the back at some point going, one fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish. And it's a stupid joke, but I don't know. I was committed to telling it. And Jesus is the best thing happening in this story. And I'm convinced that our true reward in heaven, it's not mansions.

It's not riches. It's not streets of gold. It's being with Jesus. It's being with him. Heaven is a person, not a place. It's about being with him. As we sang, he is our portion and he is our prize, drawn to redemption by the grace in his eyes. It's all about being with him. And so the truest definition of heaven is the fullness of the presence of Jesus.

It's the union of God and man. And sometimes we've either watered it down or misunderstood it as this place I go to if I'm a good boy or girl. And I believe the right set of things and I say the right set of things and so I go to a good place. But the biblical picture of heaven is a wedding. It's us being in union with Jesus, with God, as he is the bride or we are the bride and he is the groom.

Which is why I put in your notes the primary prize of heaven is not a place, it's a person. He is what makes heaven heavenly. It's Jesus. And that's really, that's the main point of this message. Is that our whole Christian living is about being with Jesus now and into eternity. He is our portion. Which by the way, this is what Jesus taught. This is what Jesus said.

Words of Jesus, John 14, 3. He says this to his disciples. He says, if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and I will take you to myself that where I am you may be also. What matters? Being with Jesus. That I got to be where he is. John 17, 3. Also, words of Jesus. He says this. Now this is eternal life. This is heaven. This is eternal life.

That they know you. That they know you. The only true God and Jesus Christ whom you've sent. This is what it's about. The Christian life is a constant building to the union of God and man which is the crescendo of heaven. It's all about being with him. One of my favorite authors, his name is Eric Metaxas. I'm reading one of his books. It's a biography on Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

And I don't want to brag but it's like 600 pages. Pretty thick book. And I feel good. I feel good carrying it around. Do you know what I mean? I feel like, look, if you sit next to me in a Starbucks and you're scrolling Instagram and I'm reading my 600 page Bonhoeffer book, I'm going to feel like I'm better than you. I'm just going to feel that way.

I'm not saying that's true. I'm just saying these are things I'm working through, guys. And now one of the things that he says, that Eric Metaxas says that I think is, he says, this is what the Christian life is not. Here's what it's not. Here's what he says. Living the Christian life does not mean we must become dead-eyed zealots whose sole purpose is to avoid committing sins and who limit our activities to the merely religious, making our own pinched personal piety the goal of our self-obsessed existence.

So if this whole thing isn't actually about my own personal piety, my own sin management, or even about the number of religious activities I attend, then what's it about? I'll answer that. Being with Jesus. Knowing him. Loving him. Being loved by him. Doing as he did in the world as he teaches us to follow him, to know him. It's about being with Jesus.

And the sooner we can shift our focus from ourselves to Jesus, the sooner we will discover the true joy of Christian living. It's about being with him wherever that leads. And that might lead to a miraculous catch of fish. And for Peter, it might lead to a cross. But we go and follow him as he leads because it's about being with him. Finally, last couple things.

Or maybe not. I don't know. I'm a preacher. Who knows? Last couple things. We'll see. Last few things as we close. It says this. It says this is the third appearance. This is the third appearance of Jesus to his disciples after he resurrected. And the Gospel of John is really unique because it counts the miracles of Jesus. If you read it through, right?

It counts his miracles. It'll tell you it's the first, second, third miracle. It counts them. And it also counts his appearances. It counts his appearances. But then if you get to the end of John 21, John says, well, this actually isn't all of the appearances or the miracles because there's not a library or book in the world that could contain everything he did.

And you're like, well, why number it, John? You know? Like, what are we doing? But John has purposes for that. But I think for us today, what I want us to see is that Jesus did not allow this to be a one-time appearance thing after he resurrects. He did not allow this to be a one-time experience for his disciples where they start to wonder over time, like, did that really happen?

Like, did he really show up? Did we really see that? Like, were we dreaming? Like, did that actually happen? No, Jesus continues to show up for them, to solidify to them, yes, I've resurrected. Yes, I've beat death. He solidifies for them so that they can go into the rest of antiquity and build the church and go face persecution and go continue to build up.

And we are here because of their testimony that they are certain and positive that, yes, we saw him. We saw him. He multiplied the fish and he appeared multiple times. And we are here because of that testimony and because of our own continual experience with Jesus. This is not a blind faith. And if you follow Jesus in this life, by God's grace, he will continue to reveal himself to you.

This is not a one-time transactional experience where you have this one-time experience with Jesus and then you go to heaven and it's all good. That's great. But this is more relational than it is transactional. It's not a one-time experience. He will continue to show up for you. He will continue to be there for you because he desires relationship with you.

And that doesn't mean, like the disciples here, that you're not going to have long, cold, dark, hard nights of the soul. You will. But don't lose hope. And pay attention. Because often he's right there on the shore bringing a new day. Ready to make all things new. Amen? Amen. I'll invite the worship team back up as we're going to close in some worship.

And as we close, you'll see in your notes there's some practical takeaways. I included three here for you. And I'll just read these briefly. Practical number one. Do not allow your sin to be a barrier to Jesus. Use it to propel you towards him. Use it to go towards him. Two. Minimize distractions. Maximize attentiveness. It's easy to miss Jesus on the shore if we live frantic and preoccupied lives.

And number three. Prioritize spending time with Jesus. What this whole message is about. And there's a variety of spiritual practices and rhythms that can be helpful tools for this. Which is worship. Scripture. Fasting. Feasting. Solitude. Fellowship. Sabbath. There's all these practices available that are tools for you to go meet with Jesus. This is not your one day a week where you meet with Jesus.

Go use all the tools that have been around for all of Christian history. To just engage and meet and have breakfast with Jesus. One of the ways we've responded for him throughout history is through worship. So let's worship him together. I'll invite you to stand. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. �� You are my portion You're my portion You're my portion You're my portion You are my portion You're my portion When I lay down my life You're my portion You're my portion You're my portion You're my portion When I lay down my life You're my portion You're my portion And know how He loves us so Oh, how He loves us How He loves us so Oh, how He loves us so Oh, how He loves us How He loves us so As we close, if you want prayer, I'll invite the prayer team to come forward.

We'd love to pray for you at this church. So if you want prayer, come receive prayer. If you have questions, we got a next steps table in the back. We'd love to answer any questions you have. With that, let's extend your hands and I'll bless you today. Father God, you are our portion. And we just receive you now, Lord. Lord, I pray we would let you just love us this week.

That we would be attentive. That we would slow down. And we would receive the love that you have for us. That we would engage with you in new and deeper and greater ways. That our hearts might be transformed as we know you and follow you in this life. Meet us, Jesus, by your Spirit. Transform us by your Spirit. Let us know you and be like you. You're the King.

And we live and we long to be in the presence of the King. We pray.