John 21 - Sheep Feed
Jesus expects His sheep to be fed. Our feed is His Word.
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John 21 (ESV)
1 After this Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias, and he revealed himself in this way.
2 Simon Peter,
Thomas (called the Twin),
Nathanael of Cana in Galilee,
the sons of Zebedee,
and two others of his disciples were together.
3 Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.”
They said to him, “We will go with you.”
They went out and got into the boat,
but that night they caught nothing.
4 Just as day was breaking,
Jesus
stood on the shore;
yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus.
5 Jesus said to them, “Children, do you have any fish?”
They answered him, “No.”
6 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.
7 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.
8 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.
9 When they got out on land,
they saw a charcoal fire in place,
with fish laid out on it,
and bread.
10 Jesus said to them,
“Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.”
11 So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore,
full of large fish,
153 of them.
And although there were so many, the net was not torn.
12 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.
13 Jesus came
and took the bread
and gave it to them,
and so with the fish.
14 This was now the third time
that Jesus was revealed to the disciples
after he was raised from the dead.
15 When they had finished breakfast,
Jesus said to Simon Peter,
“Simon, son of John,
do you love me more than these?”
He said to him,
“Yes, Lord;
you know that I love you.”
He said to him, “Feed my lambs.”
16 He said to him a second time,
“Simon, son of John,
do you love me?”
He said to him,
“Yes, Lord;
you know that I love you.”
He said to him, “Tend my sheep.”
17 He said to him the third time,
“Simon, son of John,
do you love me?”
Peter was grieved
because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?”
and he said to him,
“Lord,
you know everything;
you know that I love you.”
Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.
18 Truly, truly, I say to you,
when you were young,
you used to dress yourself
and walk wherever you wanted,
but when you are old,
you will stretch out your hands,
and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.”
19 (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.)
And after saying this he said to him, “Follow me.”
20 Peter turned
and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them,
the one
who also had leaned back against him during the supper
and had said, “Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?”
21 When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus,
“Lord, what about this man?”
22 Jesus said to him,
“If it is my will that he remain until I come,
what is that to you?
You follow me!”
23 So the saying spread abroad
among the brothers
that this disciple was not to die;
yet Jesus did not say to him that he was not to die,
but, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?”
24 This is the disciple
who is bearing witness about these things,
and who has written these things,
and we know that his testimony is true.
25 Now there are also many other things that Jesus did.
Were every one of them to be written,
I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.
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Previous DIG DEEPER posts on John
John 21 Summary
It seems like the end of chapter 20 is a natural ending point for John's gospel, but here we are today in chapter 21. This gospel started with a poetic prologue. Chapter 21 is sometimes referred to as John's epilogue.
NOT JUST SITTING BY THE DOCK IN THE BAY: Fishing is a great way for people to relax and enjoy God's creation. But relaxing is not what Peter had in mind when he informed the other disciples he was going to go fishing. Rather, it's as if Peter was going back to being a commercial fisherman once again now that he had disqualified himself as a disciple by denying Jesus. That's what makes Jesus' reinstatement of Peter so remarkable at the end of this passage.
SEQUEL TEASER: Good movies often end with a development that sets the stage for a sequel movie to follow. All of the gospels end this way as well, but all do it in a slightly different fashion. John uses Jesus' conversation with Peter to foreshadow what would come next in the drama of God's redemptive plan: Peter, the rock upon which the church would be built, was tasked with the church's primary occupation: feeding Jesus' sheep. We'll see Peter step up into this role in the sequel to the Gospels, the book of Acts, as he boldly proclaims God's Word to a world hungry for the good news.
MIXED METAPHORS: Since most of the disciples were fishermen, Jesus used a fishing metaphor when He called them to Him, that they would be fishers of men. Now Jesus is taking the fisherman Peter and commissioning him to be a shepherd, which is a metaphor for God's relationship with His people that runs throughout the entire Bible.
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