From what John wrote at the end of chapter 20 many scholars wonder
about chapter 21. John seems to end his account in chapter 20, but then
picks it up again in chapter 21 with some additional thoughts. The writing
style in the Greek appears to be somewhat different than that of the
writing style in the first 20 chapters. This gives way to the thought that
someone else wrote chapter 21, or at least penned it as John dictated it.
Nevertheless most scholars do believe that chapter 21 is from the lips of
John, if not in his own hand writing.
John tells us that Jesus meets some disciples at the Sea of Tiberius,
that is the Sea of Galilee, quite a distance from Jerusalem. This raises a
major question in my mind. It is clear that Jesus was alive on earth for
40 days after His resurrection. We know this from Acts. 1:1-4.
It is also clear that the apostles, and disciples in general did not
stay in Jerusalem for all of these 40 days because of what John says here.
It also appears evident that when Jesus met the ten apostles without
Thomas, and then with Thomas, it was in Jerusalem. The question is this.
When did the disciples go back to Galilee?
One thing is clear. Jesus and the disciples did meet up in Galilee
as Jesus wanted, but just when is not clearly stated. There are two
occasions that we know of where Jesus met the disciples in Galilee. One is
here in John 21 and the other is in Matt. 28 at the time of what we call
the Great Commission.
The contents of chapter 21 must have been important enough for John
to include after he had already ended his account. Chapter 21 shows us the
special calling of Peter to ministry.
One other thing to note is John tells us that this event was the
third time Jesus met up with the disciples after the resurrection. I
believe the disciples John had in mind were the Eleven. Jesus met them
behind locked doors on the first day of the resurrection and then eight
days later. This was the third time. We cannot include the meeting of
Jesus with the two men on the road to road to Emmaus, and the women at the
tomb, or Peter on his own. If we included those times, this would not be
the third meeting.
In verse 3 Peter says to the other six disciples that he is going
fishing. Many sermons have been written about this event, trying to
suggest that these men had given up on Jesus and were going back to their
previous occupation and was leaving the gospel behind. But we really don’t
know that for sure. The text doesn’t say this, or doesn’t really give
that impression This is only an assumption. This fishing expedition might
have just been a one time event in the minds of these men because they
were hungry and nothing more.
They went fishing at night, which would have been the best time to
catch fish but for some reason they caught nothing. Why expert fishermen
would catch no fish all night might be a mystery, or it might be planned
by Jesus.
In verse 4 John notes that Jesus was standing on the shore but the
disciples did not recognize Him, maybe because He was too far away and it
was dark. Or maybe because this was a post resurrection appearance they
did not recognize Jesus, as others didn’t. In verse 9 John says they
weren’t far from shore – 100 yards. That might be far enough for them
not to recognize Jesus.
In verse 5 Jesus ask, "haven’t you any fish?" I believe
Jesus knew they didn’t have fish, suggesting it was His plan all along
for them to not have success that night.
They answered Jesus’ question by saying no. Then Jesus tells them
to put out their nets on the right side of the boat, that is right in
relation to left, not right in relation to wrong. They caught so many fish
that their nets could hardly contain them.
In verse 7 John tells us that at that moment the disciple who Jesus
loved, which was himself, figured out it was Jesus standing on the shore.
Once Peter heard this was Jesus on shore, he immediately put his
outer clothes on, jumped into the water and ran towards Jesus, leaving the
others to pull in the boat and net. Once again, this is typical Peter.
We note from verse 10 that they had caught 153 fish. I wonder who
actually did the counting. Maybe John. I can’t see Peter taking the time
to count.
When they arrived on shore, Jesus already had a fire going with some
fish already being cooked, along with some bread. Did Jesus catch these
fish, or did He miraculously make them appear?
Jesus fed these men both bread and fish for breakfast. Some feel
that Jesus was teaching them a lesson here. They spent all night working
for nothing, and in one brief moment of time Jesus tells them to fish on
the other side of their boat and they catch 153 fish. Jesus had already
made them breakfast. The lesson some feel that is taught here is that if
Jesus calls you to do something, He will look after you. You may work hard
with your own human effort, but human effort does not work in the Kingdom
of God as Paul so clearly puts it in his letter to the Galatians.
John ends this section by saying that this was the "third
time" Jesus met up with the disciples after his resurrection.
Many preachers have suggested over the years that these seven
disciples went fishing because they were disillusioned and depressed, and
felt like giving up and gong back to their old occupation. But the text
doesn’t say this. Such thinking is only speculation and I’m not
convinced that this is the case. These men could have simply been hungry
and that is why they went fishing.
Those who believe these men were going back to their old occupation
because of their dissolution thus interprets what Jesus says to Peter in
verse 15 in this light.
Jesus asks Peter, "do you love me more than these"? The
word "these" in the understanding of those I’ve just mentioned
refers to the boat, the nets, and the fish. They say that Jesus is asking
Peter, "do you love me more than you love your fishing career"?
At the moment I don’t believe that the "these" is
referring to the fishing industry, but rather to the other six men
present. I think Jesus is asking, "do you love me Peter more than
these other men love me". Peter, more than the others most likely
claimed great love for Jesus. We see this when he tells Jesus that though
everyone else forsakes Jesus, he certainly won’t. (Matt. 26:33 and Mark
14:29)
Of course Peter’s answer to Jesus is "yes, you know that I
love you".
In response Jesus says, "feed my sheep".
I believe this event was a public call of Peter to lead or pastor
his brothers. We thus see Peter taking the lead in the affairs of the
early church. Was he the first pope as the Catholics claim? I don’t
believe Peter was a pope in the sense the Catholics use the word. I don’t
believe in apostolic succession, meaning, Peter was the first pope and all
other popes comes through Peter’s spiritual lineage.
We need to look closely at certain words in the dialogue between
Jesus and Peter. We first look at the word "love". Jesus asks
Peter, "do you love me…". There are two main Greek words that
is translated into our English word love. One is Agape, which in its
simplest form is the love that God shows us. The other Greek word that is
translated as "love" is "phileo". "Phileo"
is an affectionate love, a love between people.
The first two times when Jesus asks Peter if he loves Him, Jesus
uses the word "agape", that is, "do you love me with a
Godly love"? The last time Jesus uses the word "phileo",
meaning, "do you love me as a brother with your heart’s
affections"?
Why would Jesus use both words? The first commandment of all time is
to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and body. We are
to love God, and Jesus too, with all we have, every type of love, both
phileo and agape. This may be interpreted as "agape".
It is interesting to note that even though Jesus asks Peter the
first two times, "do you agape " me, and the third time,
"do you phileo me", all three times Peter responds by saying,
"I phileo you". What could this mean? It might mean that Peter
didn’t really understand agape. He only understood phileo. Peter could
love Jesus with a human affectionate love, but God’s love was somewhat
unknown to Peter.
In response to Peter telling Jesus that he loved Him, Jesus had
three responses. The first time Jesus said, ‘feed my lambs". The
second time He said, "take care of my sheep". The third time He
said, "feed my sheep". One might not notice the difference upon
a quick reading, but there is.
First of all Jesus uses the word "lamb" the first time and
the word "sheep" the second and third time. Lambs are young
sheep. Peter is to feed and take care of both the young and old in the
faith. These words could suggest that Jesus thought of the early disciples
as young in the faith.
Also note that in the first response Jesus says to "feed …"
The Greek word translated as "feed" is "books". It
simply means "to feed". In the second response Jesus uses the
word "poinmain", which is a broader word, meaning to care for.
"Poimain" is translated in the New Testament as "shepherd
or pastor". Jesus is telling Peter to pastor His sheep, or to
shepherd His sheep, or to care for His sheep.
Feeding is part of shepherding. Thus the job of a pastor is to both
feed and care for, not just to feed. Pastors feed from God’s Word,
something that seems to be slipping out of the job description of pastors
these days.
In verse 17 Peter is hurt by Jesus asking him three times the same
question. Peter tells Jesus that He knows all things, and He should know
that he loves Him. Yes, Jesus does know all things, and this is the point.
He knows that Peter’s answer suggests that he doesn’t quite understand
what kind of love He is speaking of and thus needs to ask him three times.
Three years earlier Jesus called Peter away from a fishing career
and now at this point he tells Peter what He is calling him to. Jesus is
calling Peter from being a fisherman to being a shepherd of sheep, but
these sheep are not animals, they are people. These sheep are the
disciples of Jesus. We’ve heard preachers say that Peter was called from
being a fisher of fish to a fisher of men, but really he was called from
being a fisher of fish to a shepherd of sheep. Peter was no longer any
kind of fisherman.
Jesus calls these sheep "my sheep". This is very
important. Peter, and every other pastor cares for Jesus’ sheep. The
sheep don’t belong to the pastor. A pastor should never say, "my
people, or my sheep". Sad to say, I‘ve heard the phrase "my
people" over and over again in my life. Such thinking is not
Scriptural. All believers belong to Jesus, and pastors only care for Jesus’
people.
Now in verse 18 Jesus speaks a personal prophecy to Peter. He says,
"when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you
wanted; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands and someone
else will dress you and lead you where you don’t want to go". Jesus
is saying that Peter will live a relatively long life for those days.
When Peter was younger, that is, younger than he now is, he could
dress himself and go wherever he wanted. But there’d come a time in his
old age where someone else would dress him and lead him where he did not
want to go. This prophecy if left as it is would apply to anyone, but
Jesus said more. He tells Peter that this prophecy signifies just how
Peter would die. These words meant more than Peter needing help in his old
age.
History tells us that Peter was crucified upside down by Nero in
Rome. It was Peter’s request to be hung on a cross upside down because
he did not feel worthy enough to die as his Lord died, although Peter was
exceedingly grateful to die for his Lord. To him, and to others at the
time, dying for Jesus was the crown of life. Dying for Jesus was a
privilege. So Peter lived around 31 years after Jesus spoke these words to
him. He most likely died in 64 AD.
Note the words "glorify God" in reference to Peter’s
death. Once again, we see that dying for Jesus was another way that these
men glorified God. We often think of many things that we can do to bring
glory to God, but we don’t often think that our death can glorify God,
but it can, even in these days of little or no persecution. The funeral of
a Christian is a prime opportunity to proclaim the gospel of Jesus.
Jesus then simply says to Peter, "follow me", words that
Jesus had said before to Peter, but this time they meant more. Peter was
now being called as a pastor. For a brief moment in time Peter denied
Jesus. Jesus is now telling Peter once again to follow Him, and follow Him
right up to his death that Jesus just spoke about. This time Peter never
fells back. He belonged to his Lord and no one else.
In this time of great revelation and most likely a spiritual
experience for Peter, Peter’s humanness shines through. Jesus had just
called Peter to a new ministry and told him how he’d die and then Peter
turns around and sees John following them, and so Peter asks Jesus how
John would die.
In verse 22 Jesus replies by saying, "if I want him to remain
alive until I return, what is that to you? You follow me". Jesus was
basically telling Peter to mind his own business. Jesus had just spoken to
Peter about his personal future. The future of John was not his concern.
Peter needed to follow Jesus no matter what happened to John.
Jesus often speaks to us, through the Scripture and through the Holy
Spirit. He speaks to us, but so often we want to apply words spoken to us
to others as well. But others aren’t necessarily our concern. Our
concern is that if Jesus speaks a word to us, we need to follow Him in
that word and not get side tracked by bringing others Into the picture.
Because of Peter’s curiosity concerning John, a rumor got started
and was spread around that John wasn’t going to die. He’d stay alive
to the return of Jesus. So John had to clear this up to his readers. He
tells us that Jesus didn’t say the he wouldn’t die. Jesus simply said,
If I wanted him to remain until I return" – a big difference.
When we get our eyes off Jesus and on to others, and what we think
they should or should not be doing, we often find ourselves causing
problems as Peter did back then. Jesus and Peter had a one on one personal
experience by the shore of the Sea of Galilee, and Peter wanted to bring
John into this experience. This was not Jesus’ intention. Jesus calls us
to do many things in our lives, but He may or may not call our friends to
do the same.
John in verse 24 closes his account for the second time, similar to
the way he did at the end of chapter 20. He doesn’t call himself by name
as has been the case all along. He says, "this is the disciple who
testifies to these things … we know his testimony is true". He then
closes by saying that "Jesus did many other things". John says
that Jesus did many other things that he "supposes" that there
wouldn’t be enough room in the whole world to store the books. I don’t
believe John is saying that there isn’t enough room in the world to
store the books because I think there would be. He’s using a figure of
speech as we often do. John is simply saying that Jesus did so much that
it is impossible for him to write it all down. Maybe in today’s world of
computers it would be possible, but John did not have a computer.
John was the last of the Twelve to die. He died around 95 to 100 AD,
most likely in Ephesus where he was an elder. It is uncertain just how
John died, but it is thought that he died of old age.