The Miracle of Not Catching Fish

I was born in Greenville back in 1979, a long time ago. I don’t think the hospital is there anymore. Well, I know it’s not, but I grew up here a couple of years, moved to Florida through a divorce and my family and then came back when I was a sophomore in high school, graduated Greenville High School, got saved at 23. I went to Tabernacle the year after your pastor graduated.

We actually met over here on Point Set Highway at the Pete’s Restaurant. Our pastors introduced us to one another. I went by my old house today. I used to live right over behind Ennery Career Center. Who knows where that is? I lived at 107 Mistletoe Drive for 12 years before we moved to Pennsylvania. I went by there and looked at it today and they ripped out all my landscaping that I put in and it looks totally different.

Anyway, that’s what people do, isn’t it? They change it. Why did you need to know that? You didn’t. I just wanted to, I just, I’ve known of this church a long time. Pastor Craig taught me a couple of classes in Bible College. I’ve known your pastor, like I said, went to Cambodia, visited him there. Thank you for sending him. Thank you for supporting him. And then now he’s your pastor.

It’s a full circle and it’s a blessing and I’m thankful for it. So I count on your pastor for a lot of things. Call him and talk to him and love him and the Lord and appreciate him and his family greatly. John 21, I have been looking at the study of disciples at my church on Sunday mornings since the beginning of January and I’m not going to preach all that to you.

Aren’t you thankful for that? Amen. But since Resurrection Sunday, I’ve been looking at post-resurrection appearances of Christ to the disciples. And one of the biggest things that the disciples needed after the resurrection, they needed a boost of confidence. Their world was shattered when Jesus died and they didn’t know how to react when Jesus appeared to them. And even when he did, I don’t think they just, it took them a little while to understand what their purpose and how they were going to minister and the things that they were going to do in life.

And sometimes that happens. Things don’t happen the way that we want them to happen. And then all of a sudden we’re looking at it and we’re kind of like, we’re kind of blaming God, looking at God and saying, this didn’t work out the way that I thought it was going to work out. And then we have to learn God’s plan and we have to look at God’s Word and we have to listen closely for God’s, you know, His Word to us so that we can understand the path that we need to get on so that we can be as good of Christians as we can be.

Who here wants to be as good of a Christian as you can be? I mean, I think everybody would raise their hand. There’s really no other answer. But as I looked at these believers and their struggles, I mean, they have a resurrected Savior, but they’re struggling. They’re having some hard times. They need to grow. And again, I think like Paul said, you know, I know whom I have believed and I think they know who they believe, but I think they’re struggling with being persuaded and following Him.

Again, I think they came, I think they understood that Jesus was going to come. He was going to relieve them of all the burden and all the oppression of Rome and all the everything that Jesus was doing for them up to the point of His death. They saw Him as a great benefit to them physically. And now things are different. And now they’ve got to think about what’s happening here.

Why is this not working out the way that we thought it was? And so could I just say that maybe somebody here tonight or maybe in the future you may have this, but you know, don’t feel alone in your struggle when you’re struggling with what you believe and how you’re following Christ. We want you to follow Christ as close as you can. We want you to be hand in hand with Jesus.

We want you to be right there, but sometimes it doesn’t feel like we are. Sometimes we feel like we’re struggling. And so for three years, these men, they walked with the Lord and they were in ministry with Him and now things are different. And so we can be slow at believing. Remember the two disciples on the road to Emmaus? He said, oh, slow of heart. Oh, fools.

Slow of heart to believe. These were two disciples that they knew that Jesus had risen from the dead. They had heard about that, but they needed some confidence booster. And I don’t know if they really believed yet until Jesus proved to them sitting at their table that that’s exactly what was going to happen. What about Peter? He said, you know, I’m going to go with you all the way.

And then what did he do? He denied him three times and then no doubt felt shame. No doubt felt shame to the point where Jesus tells the message from the angel is go tell the disciples and Peter, right? Go tell the disciples and Peter that he’s risen. This is what the angel told the women there right after Jesus is risen from the dead. So if you would just look in John 20, John 20, this is the day of the resurrection.

And in John 20 verse 19, the Bible says here at the same day at evening, being the first day of the week when the doors were shut, where the disciples were assembled for the fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. Why do you say that? Because their life was turmoil. They were living in chaos. And the first thing that the Lord said to them was peace.

Why? Because that’s what they needed. That’s what they needed. They needed they needed things to settle down. They needed they needed the Lord’s peace. He had already told them back in and was it John 14, 27 peace I give unto thee. Not as the world giveth give I unto thee, but he’s going to give them what kind of peace he’s going to give them. He’s going to give them the godly peace that they need.

Peace that passeth all understanding. But yet they’re struggling. And so we see here as he comes down, he shows them as his hands and his side. Yet in verse 24, we find out that Thomas, one of the twelve called Didymus was not with them when Jesus came. And we know Thomas famous expression there in verse 25. He said, except I shall see, you know, except I shall put my finger in the print of his nail and thrust my hand to his side, I will not believe.

That’s a strong statement, isn’t it? But then if you would look at verse number 26, after eight days again, his disciples were within. Where are they? It’s a week later. They’re back in church. They’re back in the house. Jesus is going to come and appear to them again. But notice the same thing. You remember the verse I just quoted to you about Peter and Peter, the disciples and Peter?

Notice what it says in verse 26. After eight days again, his disciples were within and Thomas. You say, what’s the big deal there? Well, back with Peter, Peter had denied the Lord and he certainly wasn’t following him. And so what’s the Lord do? The Lord says, hey, what is a disciple? A disciple is a follower. But when you deny the Lord, guess what? You’re not doing very well.

You’re not following. And so the Lord calls Peter out by name to go tell the disciples and Peter. What did Peter need? Peter needed restoration. Peter needed confidence in who the Lord was. What does Thomas need? Thomas says, I mean, of his own free will, he says, I will not believe. So what’s the Bible say? The Bible says that eight days again, his disciples were within and Thomas.

Is Thomas not a disciple? He is, isn’t he? But the Lord’s, the Holy Spirit’s kind of calling out these individuals. Why? They need help. They need help. And I think every one of us here tonight, I think we need help. I think everyone of us here, if we were honest, we probably would all say we could be closer to the Lord than we are. Thomas doesn’t need to really reach his hand and his finger into the side.

He says that famous declaration, verse 28, my Lord and my God. So we know that Jesus sent a word. He gave them comfort. He gave them help that they needed. And then in the end of chapter 20, there were many other signs that truly Jesus did in the presence of the disciples, which were not written in this book. But these are written. The things that John gave us are written.

Why? That you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you might have life through his name. Maybe the key verse of John. I think many would say that that is possibly the key verse of John. So here are the disciples. They have been sitting in this upper room. They’ve been sitting in this house wherever they’re assembling together because of the fear of the Jews.

And the first thing that Jesus said, Jesus had told them right before he died, when I rise again, I will meet you in Galilee. And here a week after Jesus has risen from the dead, where are they? They are still in Jerusalem. Is that a disobedient disciple? Yes. Why? Because they’re not where Jesus told them to go to. Why? Because fear is ruling their heart. And when we allow something other than the Lord to rule our heart, we are going to bow down to that thing.

And so here they are. They’re not where they’re supposed to be. We could go into the verses on that, but I’ll hope that you’re with me there. And if not, I hope that I can say something that will catch you up here. So as we think about these disciples, now we come into John 21. All right. Now, where are they? They are at the Sea of Tiberias.

Where is that? That’s the Sea of Galilee. Now they’re back home, if you will. Most of the disciples are from the northern area there, northern part of Israel. And notice verse 3. What is Peter? Before I even hit that, who would want to go fishing with Thomas? I don’t know if you even understand. You would. Why not? Who likes going fishing with a doubter? We’re going to go out tonight.

We’re not going to catch a thing. Now maybe that’s not Thomas now. Maybe he’s finally said, my Lord, my God, he can do anything. But nonetheless, he’s with them. Notice there’s seven disciples that are mentioned. We don’t have their names, but there’s seven mentioned in verse number 2. Peter, Simon Peter, Thomas, Nathaniel, the sons of Zebedee. That’s James and John. And then we don’t know who the other two.

How many disciples are there? Eleven. Right? Eleven men minus Judas Iscariot. Where are the others? I have no idea. Why are they not there? I don’t know. Maybe they’re doing something good. Maybe they’re in worse shape than these fellows. I don’t know. Just something to think about. But here’s what I want you to do. Aren’t we glad that Jesus is willing? So go with me back to Jerusalem.

Aren’t we glad that Jesus is long suffering and willing to come wherever we are to help us out? He could have went to Galilee and waited for them, but he didn’t. What did he do? He first went to Jerusalem and met them where they were. And now here it is some time later. The disciples finally make it to Galilee. And what does Peter say? I go a-phishing.

And then what are the others that are with him? What do they say? We also go with thee. So the first point tonight that I just want to bring to your attention is that these seven disciples, where the others were, again, we don’t know, made a decision to go phishing. And what we need to be careful about is that when we speak up and say we’re going to do something, we need to also recognize that if it’s not something that’s godly, if it’s not something that’s right, we very well may influence others to do what we’re not supposed to do or what they’re not supposed to do.

Notice in your Bible, notice the progression of verse 3, I go a-phishing. They say unto him, we also go with thee. You see that? One said I’m going phishing and before you know it, six more get involved. So whatever we do in our Christian life, we need to be careful where we go, what we do, and how we do it because we could influence six others to do something they shouldn’t be doing.

These disciples needed to grow. They needed some time to put their faith into practice and the Lord’s about to do that. And by the way, the Bible says that in Proverbs 16, a man’s heart deviseth his way, but the Lord directeth his steps. The Bible says in Romans 11.3, oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. And you know these verses in Isaiah that his thoughts are not our thoughts, right?

His ways are not our ways. But in the carnal man, there is a way which seemeth right, but the end thereof are the ways of what? Death. So sometimes we make our own paths. Sometimes we do what we want to do. And I think that’s what Peter does here. He says I go a-phishing. He didn’t go phishing because the Lord told him to go phishing. He went phishing because it’s just what he wanted to do.

So we see their decision to go phishing. By the way, evil communications, corrupt good manners. Proverbs 1, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not. Proverbs 13.20, he that walketh with wise men shall be wise, but companions of fools shall be destroyed. We must be careful. If we yoke up with someone who’s not doing the right thing, we will go in the wrong direction and we will be unequally yoked.

We’ve got to be careful. But notice with me, just jump down a little bit, verse 3. Notice the result of their phishing. The end of verse 3. That night they caught nothing. We see the result of their phishing. I can only imagine that that was frustrating. Catching nothing, I think the point of going phishing is to catch something. It’s not to cast the net out and pull it back in.

The point of phishing is not to throw the bait out, not to cast the rod or the reel or the line out, I guess that’s what you say. It’s to catch something, right? You’re going phishing to catch fish. And what did they catch? They caught something. Nothing. They caught nothing. And so we see not only the result of going phishing was frustration, but we see maybe the reason for going phishing.

Why? Why did they go phishing? Maybe it was familiarity. I really don’t know. I don’t know why they went phishing. They just did. Maybe it was to hang out there until Jesus came to where they were. Maybe it was Peter drifting back to his old ways. Maybe Peter was going back to where his buddies were, back to his father’s business, back to work because maybe he saw no future in ministry.

People often return to what feels comfortable. We really don’t know why Peter went phishing, but he did. And it brings us to this lesson, this story, this example that Jesus gives us here in John 21. We see their pursuit failed. They caught nothing. And we see that their performance was, could we say fruitless? Could we say fishless or fruitless? Had nothing. Nothing. Might I remind you these were expert fishermen?

I’m not a fisherman. It doesn’t interest me. Anybody here like to fish? I mean like you love to fish. This is not something that I like doing, but I would say this. These men grew up, their dads owned a fishing company. They grew up around the water. When spring break came and Christmas break came for these guys, they probably had to go work for free for dad.

Fix the nets, clean the nets, push the boat out, clean the mud out, count the fish, chop the head off the fish, get the fish to the market, do the grunt work. But here they are, back at it, not amateurs, commercial fishermen, but they are fishless. Can I ask you, does anybody beside me think it is an amazing event that they caught nothing? Expert, commercial, seven of them.

Of course it doesn’t say Simon Peter caught nothing, it says they caught nothing. Seven men all night fishing, not one minnow, not one shrimp, not even not a keeper. They caught nothing, nada, zilch. One preacher said they caught nothing if that’s a zero with the rim knocked off of it. Nothing. That leads to frustration. Fishing all night I would say also leads to fatigue, wouldn’t you? Notice verse number four, but when the morning was now come, here they are, they’re still out there.

The sun’s coming up. They fished all night long. And these master fishermen were mastered. They caught nothing. They labored, they worked, they threw the net, they dropped the net, they pulled the net, they checked the net probably for holes. Why are we not catching anything? They probably accused the other of doing it the wrong way. I told you not to throw the net over there. Stop doing it the wrong way.

If you keep doing this, you know how we are. If you keep doing it this way, we’re not going to catch anything. Come on man, stop. This is the worst night of fishing we’ve ever had. It’s your fault. Stop splashing in the water. Stop doing, you know, it’s a bunch of men. You can see how probably frustrated, fatigued, tired. Maybe they even changed their method. We need to start dragging the net or we need to start using the different nets or I told you there was something wrong with this boat.

I told you there was something wrong with these nets. So they cast the net and they cast the net and they cast the net and they pull the net and they pull the net all night long. I imagine that confusion may have set in, finger pointing may have begun, anger levels may have risen, perfect ingredients for carnal problems. Can I remind you that these men had experience fishing?

They had the education, no doubt of where the good spots were. Can I also remind you that they had the energy to stay out all night long? It wasn’t a lack of any of these things. Everything they did failed. They had the boats, they had the nets, they had the people, they had the labor, everything they needed. Can I also remind you that those zero results can happen in your life and my life when we do things without Christ?

Without Christ you can do nothing. Without Christ, without Christ human effort will produce emptiness. Whether they sinned or not I don’t know, but I do see something. They didn’t have Jesus with them. I do not see them praying, Lord help us catch a good group of fish. They’re not having Bible study out on the water. They just fished all night and they caught nothing. I think this is, in my opinion, it’s very similar to them toiling and rowing and not getting anywhere all night in Mark chapter 6.

The same empty results, empty nets, not even one fish. Why? What’s going on? What is happening in their life, in the process of all this? Why? What is happening? They weren’t going home with a fish story, they were going home with a fishless story. You walk in, what did you guys catch? Nothing. How was it last night? Terrible. You mean you didn’t catch anything. What did you guys do all night?

Did you sleep on the boat? They caught nothing. We see not only the decision to go fishing, I go fishing, we also go with thee. They went forth and that night they caught nothing. But I also see the director of the fish. Look at verse number 6. This is Jesus speaking to them. He said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship and ye shall find.

So was them not catching fish? Was it just bad luck? I don’t really believe in luck. Not like that. I think there’s something bigger going on. In fact, could I maybe entertain this idea to you? I think it was a miracle that they caught nothing. I think there was divine interruption in their lives. God said, no, I’m not going to bless this. I’m going to keep that school of fish away from those nets.

Did you see the word that Jesus said? What did he say? Cast the net on the right side of the ship. Are you kidding me? And notice what it says. They cast therefore and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes. The problem wasn’t the water. The problem wasn’t there was no fish. The problem was where they were dropping the net. You’re telling me that I don’t know how wide their boat was.

Let’s just say it’s as wide as this platform from stair to stair. 10, 12 feet. You’re telling me the difference in casting the net right there and right there means catching no fish and catching so many that we can’t get them in the boat? And I would answer you, yes. And can I also just kind of point out that there are a lot of Christians that are attempting to do things for the Lord, but they’re doing it just a little bit off.

They don’t have the blessing of the Lord on it. The director of the fish tells them where to drop the net. And he says to, I think what he means is a literal word here, the right side of the ship. But could we just maybe make the assumption that all night they had been dropping it on the wrong side of the ship? 10, 12 feet, 8 feet, whatever the width of the boat is, all night long caught nothing.

Moved to the side that Jesus says and they catch a multitude of fish. Just absolutely amazing. If we’ll obey the word of Christ, what it can do for our lives. You know, most miracles involve receiving something, but I think this miracle involved them receiving nothing. And again, I think it was a divine intervention, a divine interruption, maybe we could call it the miracle of not catching fish.

God kept them from success because they were trying to do it without Him. Sometimes the Lord will keep us from things that can be harmful or dangerous if we’re successful at it because He has another purpose for our life. Do you remember in Matthew 4.19 when they were called by Christ? What did He tell them? Follow me and I will make you fishers. Is that the end of the verse?

What is it? What does it say? Of men. What are they doing dropping their nets in the water? They’re fishing for the wrong thing, aren’t they? Christ didn’t tell them to go fish for fish. She told them to go fish for men. Look at John chapter 20 and verse number 21. They then said to Jesus unto them, Peace be unto you, as my Father has sent me, even so send I you.

What did He send them to do? Not to go out to the lake and drop the nets for fish. He’s asking them to go be witnesses and He’s given them a commission there. Let me hasten. They were fishing for fish and I believe Jesus was fishing for them. Look back at John 21 verse number 4, but when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore.

Notice what Jesus is doing. They have an abundance of fish in verse number 6, but in verse number 4, they don’t even know that it’s Jesus that’s standing on the shore. Verse number 5, Jesus saith unto them, again, they don’t know this is Jesus. He says, Children, have ye any meat? They answered him, No. He said to them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship and ye shall find they cast therefore.

We see that Jesus is standing there, again, not recognizing Him. I don’t believe that Jesus is frantic. I don’t believe that Jesus is fearful, but I believe that Jesus is also fishing. But He’s not fishing for fish. Jesus is fishing for men and those men are in that boat and they caught nothing all night. So we see not only His appearance, but He also addresses them. What does He say to them?

Children, have ye any meat? What is a child? Are these children? These are grown men. Why does He call them children? Because they still are. They’re the children of God because they’ve put their faith in Jesus. But I also want you to think about this. A child truly, I think a good definition of the word child will be someone who’s dependent upon another. And right here they’ve not been very dependent upon Him up to this point.

When they cast the net on the other side, now they’re doing what they’re supposed to be doing. We remember that they denied Him, they forsook Him, they fled. But here Jesus doesn’t forsake them. He calls them children. They’ve been cast in the wrong place. They’ve been casting with the wrong dependence. They’ve been casting in the wrong direction and all they simply did, they listened to one word that Christ said, one statement, cast the net on the right side of the ship and ye shall find.

And they did it. You know the Bible says in Proverbs 3, 5 and 6, trust in the Lord with all thine heart. Lean not unto thine own understanding and all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall do what? Direct thy paths. But if He’s going to direct our paths, you know what we need to be doing? We need to be listening for the directions. What does John 10 say?

My sheep hear my voice and they follow me. They’re doing it and when they did it they were successful. Thank God for that. So it amazes me how desperate they were by the way. Let me just make this point real quick. How many of you would think that professional fishermen would listen to someone standing on a shore? Can I point out just a little extra thing? Maybe you ladies could help me with this.

How many men like to listen to instruction when they have failed? Quiet. That’s okay. Maybe it’ll take you a little while to think about it. It’s a miracle isn’t it? These expert men listen to someone who’s standing on the shore who they don’t know is an expert. Now Jesus is an expert but they don’t know it’s Jesus. Verse number 7, look at what it says, therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved, that will be John, saith unto Peter, it is the Lord.

How does he know it’s the Lord? He didn’t recognize His voice or he would have said as soon as he heard Jesus say children have you any meat, he would have said hey it’s Jesus, we need to cast the net on the right side because that’s what He said to do. No they did it by faith. They did it by obedience. They trust and obeyed. And then what does it say?

It says John says it is the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord he gird about his fisher’s coat unto him for he was naked and he cast himself from the sea. And the other disciple came in a little ship for they were not far from land but as it were 200 cubits dragging the net with fishes. And as soon as they were come to land they saw a fire of coals there and fish laid there on and bred.

Jesus saith unto them bring of the fish which ye have now caught. Simon Peter went up and drew the net to land full of great fishes and hundred and fifty and three for all there were so many yet was not the net broken. Jesus saith unto them come and dine and none of the disciples durst ask him who art thou knowing that it was the Lord. It just amazes me.

They didn’t say is it you Jesus? They just John I think recognized the hand of the Lord in helping them. And he recognized God’s word was working in real life. I think Jesus did this. I think he kept them from catching fish and then I think he did a miracle in helping them catch the fish. Do you agree with that? I think Jesus did this to get them back on track.

In conclusion sometimes the Lord will let us come up empty in life so that he can speak to us. Wants us to listen. What is a disciple? It’s a listener, a learner, a follower. Sometimes God allows us to fail, get frustrated, be fruitless so we can get our attention so that we would rely on him. Our success will only come when we are obedient to him. How many of you would like to see folks get saved?

You just read off a number of people. How many true Christian wants to see other people get saved? How many of you are thankful that you are saved tonight? That didn’t happen by mistake. There is a lot of work that went into that. Not only the Lord’s work but there were Christians who prayed for you. There were people who witnessed you. There were pastors who trained and Sunday School teachers who prayed and taught.

All kinds of stuff went into that. All kinds of Christians who served alongside other Christians to try to strive together for the faith of the gospel to get you in church and get you to a place where you could understand the will of the Lord to be saved. So we see the accomplishment. What is the accomplishment? The accomplishment is they caught the fish. But the greater accomplishment is they listened to the words of Christ.

And they came in and they fellowshiped with him. They sat down at the fire and they ate fish with him. And now he is going to go on and he is going to say some other words to them through the end of John. We don’t have time to look at it tonight. But can I just say kind of in closing that if we are going to be successful we must submit to his word.

If we are going to be successful we must be obedient to the Lord and then continue in fellowship with him. They can’t turn again and start trying to go fishing without the Lord. They need the Lord. And I think that’s what the Lord is showing them. We not only need to submit to the words of Christ but we need to depend on Christ. Why? Because ministry without Christ becomes machinery.

And then we must remember that he loves us and we must remind ourselves that we are to love him. George Mueller said this, the Christian life is not sustained by your strength, your discipline or your ability to hold yourself together. It is sustained by Christ. Many begin the race looking to themselves, trusting their feelings, consistency or spiritual performance but peace is found when the eyes of faith are fixed on Jesus alone.

He is not a distant savior who abandons his sheep in weakness. He is a faithful high priest who keeps, preserves and intercedes for his people even when they tremble. The same Christ who called you is the Christ who will carry you and the same hand that saved you will not let you go. Mueller said we should walk with him daily, look to him constantly and expect help from him boldly.

Not because we are strong but because he is steadfast. He closed by saying be assured if you walk with him and look to him and expect help from him he will never ever fail you. You know that is what we need from Christ. We need his help. But I also believe that sometimes God allows us to come up fruitless so that maybe we will be opening our ears to hear the next direction the Lord has for us.

Maybe that direction for you is going soul winning downtown this coming Saturday or being here Sunday night to fold those letters and stick them in those envelopes and pray over them as you send them out to these neighborhoods that you can’t get to. Maybe where you have been fishing is the wrong place. Maybe you need to cast the net on the right side and stop casting on the wrong side.

There is no doubt that the only way we are going to see America change, it is not with politics that is not working very good. The only way we are going to see America change is through the gospel of Jesus Christ. My life 23 years old I got saved at Wren Memorial Baptist Church right over there on Poinsett Highway right off of it. God radically transformed my life.

Never been the same since. Not perfect but I sure am glad that I know that I know that I know that Christ is my Savior. Are you glad for that tonight? Amen.