Gospel of John Made Easy
Chapter 21
Vs.1, 2 After all of these things happened Jesus showed himself to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberas. There was Simon Peter, Thomas (the twin) Nathaniel, James and John the sons of Zebedee, and 2 other disciples. (One of them being John who wrote this book.)
Vs. 3 Peter said that he was going to go fishing. So some of the others decided to go with him. Many of these men had been fishermen before. Now that Jesus was alive again, they only saw him a couple of times—–they had no teacher to follow any more—–so they decided to go back to the work they did before.
They fished all night but they did not catch any fish.
Vs. 4 It was now morning. Jesus has come and is standing on the shore. The disciples do not know the man on shore was Jesus.
Vs. 5 Jesus called to them, “Do you have any fish?” They said, “No”.
Vs. 6 Jesus told them to throw the nets on the right side of the boat—-and they would find fish. They threw the net on the right side and so many fish were in the net they could not pull it up.
Vs. 7 “The disciple that Jesus loved” (John) said, “It is the Lord!”. When Peter heard that it was Jesus He jumped into the water and swam to shore.
The other men stayed with the boat and dragged the net along with the fish in it.
Vs.8 Jesus had made a small fire on the shore. He had fish on the fire and there was bread. Jesus told them to bring up the fish that they had caught.
Vs. 11 There were 153 fish. And the net did not rip—-even with all the fish!
(These men were experienced fishermen, but they had not caught any fish all night. Jesus came, and in a few minutes they had so many fish they could not pull in the net and the net did not break.)
Vs. 12 Jesus told them to come and eat.
Vs. 13 Jesus gave them fish and bread.
Vs. 14 This is the third time the disciples have seen Jesus since he came alive.
Vs. 15 After they had eaten, Jesus said to Peter—“Do you love me?” Peter said, “Yes”
Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.” Jesus said this to Peter 3 times. The last time Peter was feeling bad about Jesus asking him so many times. He said, Lord you know I love you. (Maybe Jesus was remembering that Peter had said he did not know Jesus 3 times—-before—-when Jesus had been taken to be questioned.) Maybe Jesus was giving Peter 3 times to say he loved Jesus.
Vs. 18 Jesus said to Peter, “When you were young you dressed yourself and went wherever you wanted to go but when you are old someone else will help you dress you and will lead you around.”
Vs. 19 Jesus said this to tell Peter what his future would be like. (We know from church history—-that Peter went around preaching much —– in the very end—-he was crucified on a cross—–but Peter said he was not worthy to be crucified like Jesus—-so he asked to be crucified upside down.)
Vs. 20-22 Peter then saw John. He wondered what would happen to John. But Jesus did not want to tell Peter. So he said to Peter—–“What business is it of yours? If I want him to live until I come again, what does it matter to you? You, follow me.”
Jesus told Peter to follow him and to feed his sheep. Jesus means that Peter is not to go back to fishing. Peter is to be a teacher like Jesus and he is to go around teaching and preaching “feeding” the sheep or believers and helping others to become believers.
Jesus wants all of the disciples to do this. They all are to “feed the sheep”. And that is what all of the disciples do.
All of us as believers have the same calling or responsibility. We are to tell others, teach others, etc. helping others to become believers, or to continue to believe and walk in faith.
Vs. 23 Because of what Jesus said to Peter some of the disciples thought that Jesus was saying that John would not die—and would live until Jesus came again. But John is explaining—-that is not what Jesus said. He was saying it was not Peter’s business to know what would be John’s future.
(We know from church history, that John lived a long time. He died a natural death.
All of the other disciples were killed for preaching the gospel. John was taken to an island and held there as a prisoner. On this island, he saw a vision of the future and he wrote the book of Revelation.)
Vs. 24-25 John says in these verses, that all the things he has written about that he personally knew to be true. He was a witness to these things. He wrote down some of the things he saw—–but if all the things Jesus did and said were to be written— He supposed -there would be so many books the world could not hold all the books.