Back in the Boat (John 21:1-14)
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jeremy_1_06-25-2026_083229: [00:00:00] Welcome to another episode of Rebuilding Faith. These are 10-minute Bible messages for people with questions and doubts.
Today, we are in the penultimate episode of our study through the Gospel of John. We're gonna wrap things up next week, but we're looking at multiple endings here of the Gospel of John because last week we ended chapter 20, and it has a nice ending there, and it feels like the book wraps up, and yet you have a whole nother chapter that keeps going post-resurrection with Jesus.
And unlike other Gospels like the Gospel of Mark, there's not a ton of debate on whether chapter 21 was added later. Most people think this was in the original. This was written by John. And so we have just a very long ending that kinda ends multiple times. So you can end it on chapter 20 and that feels good, or you keep reading through chapter 21, and we're gonna look at that today and then next week.
And so we're gonna see what John [00:01:00] wanted to add to his ending to make sure he wrapped up as he tells this story of Jesus. This is John twenty-one verse one. " Later, Jesus appeared again to the disciples beside the Sea of Galilee. This is how it happened. Several of the disciples were there: Simon Peter; Thomas, nicknamed the Twin; Nathaniel from Cana in Galilee; the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples.
Simon Peter said, 'I'm going fishing.' 'We'll all come too,' they said. So they all went out into the boat, but they caught nothing all night." Now, as I read this part, I have just a simple question, and I don't know the answer to this, but I think it's a question worth asking. The question is, when was the last time Peter went fishing?
I mean, this is something that these guys came from, but when was the last time that they had gone out fishing like this? I suspect it was probably [00:02:00] before they met Jesus. Like, they haven't been doing this regularly since they have followed him, which means they are reverting back to the way they used to be, to the way things used to be, to the life that they knew before Jesus.
The impression that we get is almost like the last three years were a waste. They were not a stepping stone to something else. They were this blip on the map, and now they've figured out, yeah, we're gonna have to go back. Have to go back and do those old things we used to do. Anyone who has deconstructed their faith knows this feeling, where you're trying to move forward, but you don't know where you're going.
Things don't make sense the way they used to, and so maybe you go back. You start reverting back to the things that used to work, the things that used to make you feel like the world made sense, like God made sense, and you try to go back to those things. [00:03:00] And I think that's what we're seeing with the disciples here.
Verse four: " At dawn, Jesus was standing on the beach, but the disciples couldn't see who he was. He called out, 'Fellows, have you caught any fish?' 'No,' they replied. And then he said, 'Throw out your net on the right-hand side of the boat and you'll get some.'" So they did, and they couldn't haul in the net because there were so many fish in it.
Then the disciple that Jesus loved said to Peter, "It's the Lord." When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his tunic, for he had stripped for work, jumped into the water, and headed to shore. The others stayed with the boat and pulled the loaded net to the shore, for they were only about 100 yards from the shore.
Now the way that Jesus addresses them here is translated [00:04:00] differently depending on which version you're reading out of. The NLT uses the word fellows, which I just think sounds, like, British, I guess. It doesn't quite fit to me as I picture the scene. Fellows, you know, hey, what's going on there? Most translations would use the word children, and that's probably more accurate to what Jesus said here.
Like, children. It's this very endearing term here, but it's still a bit of a unique term 'cause you got this random guy on the beach addressing them as children. In addition, he's telling them how to do their job better than they can do it. So not only is there this children word being used that, again, communicates a parent to child dynamic, but then he tells them how to fish.
Like, this is not something Jesus should be an expert in. They should be the experts in it, and yet Jesus is teaching them how to do what they used to do better than they can do it. [00:05:00] And then some part of this exchange is the tipping point for John. Now he refers to himself as the disciple that Jesus loved here.
That's the way he kinda codes it for himself, but he's the one, at least the way he tells the story, that is the first to realize, oh, this is Jesus. And so he tells the story where he is the one explaining to Peter, "Hey, it's Him. It's the Lord. It's Jesus." And when Peter gets this news, it's, like, game on for Peter.
Peter immediately jumps in- But I wonder, does Peter think he can walk on water again to get to Jesus? And you may go, "Well, why would Peter think that he can perpetually walk on water?" Because Peter puts his tunic on before he jumps overboard. Now, most of the time, if you knew you had to jump into the water, if you were in a boat, you would take your coat off, and then you would jump in.
Like, that's the way most of us would do that. Peter does the opposite, which just makes me wonder if Peter [00:06:00] thought, "Hey, I'm gonna be able to walk on water to Jesus. He's gonna bring me to Him." But that doesn't work. And so Peter is in the water, and then again, John's like, "We're only about 100 yards from the shore.
We weren't far. He could have just waited." And yet this is classic Peter, has to get to Jesus. Verse nine, " When they got there, they found breakfast waiting for them, fish cooking over a charcoal fire and some bread. 'Bring some of the fish you've just caught,' Jesus said. So Simon Peter went aboard and dragged the net to the shore.
There were 153 large fish, and yet the net hadn't torn. 'Now come and have some breakfast,' Jesus said. None of the disciples dared to ask Him, 'Who are you?' They knew it was the Lord. And then Jesus served them the bread and the fish. This was the third time Jesus had appeared to His disciples since He had been raised from the dead."
We looked at the [00:07:00] first two last week. So the resurrected Jesus Made breakfast for them. I just love this detail so much. The resurrected Jesus, who has defied death, who has just done the remarkable, the supernatural, is on the beach making them breakfast. He even cooked some of the fish they just caught.
And I love that John points out how many fish there were, and it's very specific. There's 153. There's some bizarre, unique, specific details in this story. But notice that evidently the resurrected Jesus doesn't quite look the same, right? They know it's Jesus, but not intuitively, like not obviously, and there's even some talk about like, well, they didn't acknowledge it as Jesus, but they knew it was Jesus.
So there's something going on here, Mary thought Jesus was the [00:08:00] gardener. And even when Jesus had previously showed up to them, he's having to show them the wounds in his body almost to indicate, "Yeah, it's me. I'm the same guy." Now, next week, we're going to close the series out looking at Jesus restoring Peter, and it's a beautiful way to wrap up this story.
But before that happens, Peter is just back in a boat, right? Before he has this great exchange with Jesus, he's back in a boat. Three years of following Jesus, and his first move after the resurrection is to go fishing, to go back. It's not because he's rebelling against this call or this new life, but he doesn't know what else to do.
He doesn't know how to move forward, so he goes back to what he knows. We tend to think that backsliding is proof that the growth wasn't real. [00:09:00] If you go to old patterns or old coping mechanisms of old versions of yourself, it must mean that nothing had changed. But Jesus doesn't show up on the beach to scold them for being in a boat.
He shows up, and he starts cooking breakfast. See, reverting isn't the same as losing ground. Peter going fishing doesn't erase the years of the miracles and the resurrection and the friendship with Jesus. It just means he's human, and we go back to what we know when we don't know what comes next.
So maybe today you aren't failing. Maybe you're just in the boat waiting for someone to call to you with your next step. So don't be surprised if you find breakfast waiting for you on the shore. I'll see you next week on Rebuilding Faith.
