[This sermon was prepared to be preached at the Emma Anderson Memorial Chapel in Topsail Beach, North Carolina. It’s a sermon on the Gospel text appointed for May 4, the Third Sunday of Easter. Congregations without pastors, tapped-out pastors, Bible study leaders, and others are invited to use it as they will. God bless you.]
John 21:1-19
Our Bible lesson is part of the epilogue of John’s gospel. After telling us about Jesus’ ministry, death, and resurrection, John comes to today’s lesson. The rest of John’s book poses questions like, “Who are you, [Jesus]?” (John 8:25) Or, “How can someone be born when they are old?” (John 3:4)
Today’s lesson implicitly asks (and answers) a different question, “Now what?” After the Holy Spirit has given me the gift of saving faith enabling me to acknowledge Jesus as “my Lord and my God,” living in the certainty that one day the risen Jesus will raise me from the dead, now what? How do I live my daily life?
The opening of today’s Gospel lesson finds seven of Jesus’ disciples hanging out together. They’re at loose ends. They’re not sure what they should be doing. Then, Peter announces, “I’m going out to fish…” (John 21:3) The other disciples, even the ones who weren’t formerly fishermen, say, “We’ll go with you.” (John 21:3)
So, the disciples spend a night fishing and catch nothing, complete futility. (Maybe some of you who fish can identify with them.) This is what happens when we try to do anything in our own power. Early in the morning, someone calls the disciples from the shore: “Friends [actually, in the Greek in which John wrote, the word is Children], haven’t you any fish?” (John 21:5) Jesus, Who they still haven’t recognized, tells the disciples to throw their net over the side of the boat. Like trusting children, they do it. The net becomes so heavy with fish they can’t haul it in.
John is the first to recognize the man on the shore as the risen Jesus. When Peter hears John say, “It is the Lord,” he throws himself into the water to meet Jesus. You may remember that the book of Luke tells us that when Peter first met Jesus, Jesus gave him a miraculous catch of fish. Peter’s reaction then was to tell Jesus, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” (Luke 5:8) Peter felt unworthy to be in the presence of the holy. Of course, Peter wasn’t worthy to be in God’s presence. Nobody is worthy of being in God’s presence. But after this second miraculous catch, no less a sinner than he was on the day he first met, Peter literally jumps at the chance to be with Jesus again! Why?
Here we see the difference between life under the Law, the life Peter lived before he encountered the gracious Savior Jesus, and life under the Gospel through which Jesus sets sinners like Peter and you and me free for life with God, now and forever! A life lived under the Law is one in which we think that we must be or even can be good enough or work hard enough to gain God’s favor and forgiveness. God’s Law is good because it describes the life of righteousness. It shows us that idolatry, disrespect for God and parents, adultery, gossip, hatred and murder, covetousness and theft, all these common sins of which we all are guilty whether by thought, word, or deed from infancy, all these sins, separate us from God. Each one individually is punishable by condemnation, death, and hell. The Law of God shows us that everyone stands guilty and worthy of hell. No one can perfectly obey God’s Law. As a friend of mine, a layperson, said a few years ago: “The job of God’s Law is to obliterate any confidence that you might have in anything outside of Jesus Christ.” God's Law is meant to drive us to despair over our sin AND to the foot of Jesus’ cross, to the only One Who can set us free from the debt for sin we owe our Maker!
In our Bible lesson, shortly after Easter Sunday, Peter understands that despite his sins, he lives life under the gracious Gospel of Jesus Christ. That’s why in his excitement, he jumps into the water and swims to Jesus. As Christians, we still sin. (If you think you don’t, we may need to talk after the service today.) But we know that Jesus is the Friend of sinners! And we know that it’s because we remain sinners even when we have saving faith in Jesus that He calls us to daily acknowledge our sin and trust that Christ covers our sin with His grace, overcomes our death with His resurrection. “If anyone would come after me,” Jesus tells us in Luke’s gospel, “let him deny himself and take up his cross daily [that means, admit our sin] and follow me [that means, trust in Jesus!].” (Luke 9:23)
Peter experiences both the Law and the Gospel when he comes into Jesus’ presence on the shore. There, Jesus has lit a charcoal fire. The only other time we encounter a charcoal fire in the whole Bible is in John 18:18, where Peter warms himself by a fire set by Roman soldiers in the place where Peter denied knowing Jesus three times. As Peter sees the burning coals, he no doubt remembers how he had abandoned the Lord on the night of Jesus’ trial. He must sense the condemnation of God for his sin. He understands the infinite distance between the holy God of creation and himself, a born sinner just like you and me.
Peter doesn’t run away though. Peter already knows that Jesus Christ died and rose to bridge the distance between God and him, the distance between God, on the one hand, and you and me, on the other. Peter knows that Jesus has forgiven him. Jesus then, in a reversal of Peter’s three denials of his Lord, underscores His forgiveness and His sending of Peter, when, three times, He asks: “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” “Feed my lambs.” “Take care of my sheep.” “Feed my sheep.” (John 21:15-17) “Peter, sinner by birth and inclination and saint by God’s grace,” Jesus was saying, “share the forgiveness you have received through Christ alone.”
Friends in Christ, Jesus has died and risen for you. That's an accomplished fact. So, now what? How should you live each day? Here’s how: By turning to Jesus each day…running to him like Peter, repenting for sin and trusting in Him for life and forgiveness, confident that you live not under the condemnation of God’s Law, but under His gospel. In Christ, you are God’s dear child!
In Jesus Christ, every sinful thing about you–from the condition of sin into which you were born to the sins you’ve committed this morning, ALL OF YOUR SIN, is completely and totally forgiven. You can trust in Jesus for that. Now, live knowing that, through Jesus, you belong to God today and for eternity. As Jesus told His grieving friend Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.” If, by the power of God’s Word at work in your life, you believe in Jesus, you can know that all of this is true–true for you–and that nothing will ever separate you from God. Amen