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Last updated 3pm Sunday 19 July 2026 (BAF).
Sunday 19 July 2026
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John 21:1-14
Breakfast with Jesus
John 21 continues John’s account of Jesus’ resurrection appearances: ‘This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead’ (21:14) The first two (referring to John’s account) occasions are:
1. His appearance on the ‘first day of the week’ in a locked room when Thomas was absent
2. His appearance ‘eight days later’ (20:26) again, in a locked room when Thomas was present.
However, the location of this third appearance has changed: ‘After this Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias’ (Galilee) (21:1). Before his death Jesus had told his disciples: ‘But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee’ (Mark 14:28) At the tomb the angel of the Lord had instructed the women: ‘Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him’ (Matthew 28:7) Following the eight day celebration of the Feast of Unleavened Bread in Jerusalem, at least seven of the disciples returned to Galilee to wait as Jesus had told them to do.
Jesus sent these disciples home, back to where everything had started. He sent them to wait in a place that was familiar, a place where they could actively await Jesus’ arrival. And so, we find them fishing! This was likely out of necessity, providing an income to pay their way until Jesus arrived.
For many of the disciples this was the place where they first encountered Jesus and where he had called them, ‘to follow me, and I will make you fishers of men’ (Matthew 4:19)
Chapter 21 has two main sections:
1. The disciples having breakfast with Jesus on the shore of Galilee
2. The restoration of Peter (and the futures of both John and Peter)
Chapter 21:1-14:
· Opens with John introducing 7 disciples gathered at Galilee (21:1-2)
· Peter deciding to go fishing and the others joining him (21:3)
· A long fruitless night’s fishing – ‘but that night they caught nothing’ (21:3)
· An early morning conversation with a stranger – ‘the disciples did not know it was Jesus’ (21:4-6)
· An enquiry as to their catch – ‘Children [as in ‘fellows’], do you have any fish?’ (21:5)
· An admission that there were no fish (21:5)
· A suggestion to ‘cast the net on the right side of the boat’ (21:6)
· An enormous catch of fish – 153 large fish, ‘they were unable to haul it because of the quantity of fish’ (21:6), ‘though there were so many, the net was torn’ (21:11)
· A sudden realisation – ‘it is the Lord’ (21:7)
· Peter goes for a paddle – ‘When Simon Peter heard it was the Lord he put on his outer garment, and threw himself into the sea’ (21:7)
· A charcoal fire, fish (Jesus had no need of their fish!) and bread for breakfast on the beach with Jesus.
This is a great deal more than John painting an idyllic post resurrection scene! Remember when John is writing his gospel (towards the end of his life) and why he is writing his gospel (that we might know and believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God). So, our question needs to be why does John tell this story?
Considering the details recorded by John, 2 key themes in the gospel (and the Bible as a whole) standout:
· The sea – regularly represents the chaos of the world
· Galilee – was well known for its large Gentile presence
We also observe a significant contrast in the story:
· The disciples fishing without Jesus – despite all their wisdom, skills and experience of fishing in the Galilee they catch nothing all night
· The disciples fishing when Jesus is present – Jesus (though they did not know at this point it was Jesus, but we do) instructs them to, ‘cast the net on the right side of the boat’ (21:6)
And finally, the timing of this encounter: Jesus has been preparing his disciples to continue his ministry in the power of the Holy Spirit, and is now some way through the 40 days he will spend with them before he ascends to the right hand of the Father, after which the Holy Spirit will be sent to empower the disciples to bear witness to Christ before all people (including Gentiles) in a chaotic world
Jesus’ question: ‘Children, do you have any fish?’ (21:5). Jesus knew they had not caught any fish; this was the moment he had always planned to meet his disciples in Galilee! It is not asked to shame them, rather to extract the confession that their self-reliant approach had not worked!
John’s point is to communicate Jesus’ purpose in this resurrection appearance, a point repeated regularly in Scripture from the very beginning of the Bible; ‘Christ [and only Christ] has the power to grant success to those who minister in obedience to his word’ (Phillips)
This post resurrection appearance relates to the call of the church to be Christ’s witnesses, and the point Jesus wishes to make to the disciples and to us is the same point God made to Israel before they entered the Promised Land: ‘This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success’ (Joshua 1:8)
Here we have the only definition for success in the Bible. Jesus on the shore, ‘tells his servants that success in their ministry is due not to their eloquence, their power of persuasion, or their anything, but due alone to his sovereign drawing power … Our Lord’s objective was to show the disciples that the secret to success was to work at his command and to act with implicit obedience to his word’ (AW Pink).
Incredibly straight forward, yet we so often do well intended work for the Lord in our own strength – which as with the disciples must be acknowledged and confessed, why? The answer is repeatedly given in the Bible from very near the beginning, we have a wrong view of God, we do not trust that his Word is simply has the power to grant our every need, it is the best option, without any close competition!
In both our personal and corporate lives, we, ‘must therefore prayerfully rely on Christ’s leading and blessing and must involve a careful resolve to obey God’s Word in everything’ (Phillips)
How? Our lives and the life of the church must be:
· Word saturated – hearing the heart of God upon which his commands are founded
· Prayer dominated – to surrender our wisdom, skills, and experiences to the Lord and to recognise our total dependence on the one who created and loves us best
The communion table is the place where we are clearly reminded of our tendency to seek to serve the Lord in our own strength, and the inevitable failure when we do so, however well intended. It is here at the Lord’s table that we are confronted with the reality of our sin against God and our utter inability to make amends for our sin, revealed in the symbols of bread and wine that reveal that only through Christ’s saving work on the cross can we be forgiven and draw into the presence of our Loving Father in heaven…
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