Chapter 21: Resurrection Life & Restoration Life

Talk about going from ultimate high to ultimate low. Jesus has been resurrected, they got to see Him and He gave them their calling “As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you…” (20:21). And what do they do? They look at each other and go back to what they know “I’m going out to fish,” Simon Peter told them, and they said, “We’ll go with you.” WHAT?!~ Jesus was not with them and so they went back to what was comfortable and familiar. The worst place to be in life is outside of God’s will. Maybe that’s why these experienced fisherman didn’t catch anything all night.!?~

Jesus had something bigger for them – so he shows up and asks “Friends, haven’t you any fish?” They don’t recognize it’s Jesus (go figure), but frustrated tell Him “no” but then go with His suggestion and suddenly have the biggest catch of fish ever! Yeah, this will make you recognize it’s Jesus!

So they meet on the beach and have what I call “The Last Breakfast.” The had caught 153 large fish and ate together with Jesus. Totally cool that God records the number of fish they caught. Maybe it’s because He wants them to understand that He came to make them “fishers of men” and that every “fish” is significant to God!~ This is truly resurrection living. Jesus is wanting them to see that His calling on someone’s life goes far beyond their occupation!

The book of John concludes with an incredible scene of restoration. Peter denied knowing Jesus three times and once he realized it he was devastated. If Peter was at all like you and me, he probably felt continual guilt about it. And because Jesus offers true forgiveness, even of the guilt of our sin, He takes time to love & restore Peter. Three times Jesus asks Peter “Do you love me?” – correlating, I believe, to the three times he denied His Lord. To no one else does Jesus tell to take care of His little ones. What a great honor for Peter!

Now – ya’ gotta love what happens next! Jesus then predicts the kind of death Peter will die, so Peter looks around, sees John and says “Lord, what about him?” LOL!~ – I’d have probably asked the same thing! Jesus basically says He’s in charge of how John goes – you just live for Me!

The Gospel of John, which has had 20:31 as it’s theme, now concludes with this: “Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.”

SO WHAT?!
*What is your current occupation? Full-time student? Engineer? Accountant? Coder? Regardless of your occupation in life, if you are a believer, your higher calling is to Know Jesus & Make Him Known! Occupation is natural living. Representing Jesus is the abundant, supernatural, resurrection life that God calls all those who are His! Let’s live it!

*A while back we had a guest preacher who challenged us one Sunday to write down the names of people we wanted to see come to Christ and to pray for them. I was in charge of gathering those names and making prayer lists of them. I counted them twice to make sure but guess how many we had? Yep – 153 “fish” whom we committed to pray for! Numbers DO matter to God!