Here we are 36 weeks into our study of the book of John and we come to the end today. We turn the final page to chapter 21.

How did we get here?

John started with his statements in chapter 1 about the deity of Jesus: He is God, He is distinct in God, He is God with us, He is Messiah. John the Baptist prepared the way. Jesus turned water into wine at a wedding. He told Nicodemus that he needed to be born from above, but Nicodemus heard ‘be born again.’ Jesus connected with a Samaritan woman. Jesus healed the man at the Pool of Bethesda because he couldn't get in the water himself.

Jesus fed 5000 and taught at the Feast of Tabernacles. He valued the woman caught in adultery and affirmed that He is the Son of God, and we saw Him as the Good Shepherd. Lazarus died and Jesus raised him from the dead.

Jesus triumphantly entered Jerusalem, celebrated the last supper with His disciples, and washed the disciples’ feet. Jesus gave a new command to love as He loved. He declared His departure, promised the Holy Spirit, predicted His betrayal, and told Peter he will deny Him. Jesus prayed for everyone, for His disciples, and for us.

Jesus was betrayed and arrested, interrogated, denied by Peter, tried, sentenced, and crucified. And before the pain faded at all, the tomb was found empty. Jesus appeared to Mary. He appeared to the disciples minus Thomas, and later to the disciples with Thomas. And then, John declared his objective:

Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. (John 20:30-31)

John has used hyperlinks, repetition, themes, and intentionally placed narrative. And now today we come to the end of John’s letter.

How will he end? A moment of John (or Jesus) summarizing it all in simple, easy-to-understand verbiage? Some amazing teaching moment of Jesus caught word-for-word? Some moment where Jesus fixes everything and everyone or where Jesus shoots fire from His mouth and lasers from His eyes?

The book does end with a moment of the supernatural, but it is coupled together with the most unremarkable remarkable moment: Peter reinstated.

Before we get there, we are going to start off with a brainstorming moment. Two weeks ago as we were talking about Jesus’ resurrection, we started our conversation by asking what makes something remarkable. Today we are going to take a moment to take our conversation on remarkability to another level.

What are some remarkable things that we have become so accustomed to that they are no longer remarkable?

Now lets talk for a moment. Two people can be sitting in the same moment or scenario, looking at the same thing, seeing the same reality, perceiving the same things, taking it all in. And one is blown away by the remarkability of the moment and the other is unimpressed. How can this be?

What is happening when one person sees a moment or reality as remarkable and another person sees it as unremarkable?

Today in John 21, there is a moment of Jesus giving instruction and a huge amount of fish being caught - a miracle. But this is not the remarkable moment as John ends his Gospel. You see, the moment that John ends with is Peter being reinstated--which may not feel like a miracle.

Before we get there I want to rapid-fire some relationship with God questions at you.

I think relationship with God is a remarkable thing, but what is it? Would I know it if I saw it? Would I realize it if I had it? Would I recognize if it changed or disappeared?

What does our culture say is required in order to have a relationship with God?

What does our culture say will disqualify someone from having a relationship with God?

We’ve spent some time thinking about our perspectives and what our culture says. Zoom out for a moment and think about this as we continue our conversation: What are the actual qualifiers or disqualifiers?

Let our conversation on culture help you inform the actual. Remembering that the “actual” is something that we are building on faith, here’s one more question from culture’s perspective.

Feel this: Jesus was alive. Jesus was put to death. Now Jesus is alive again. This is pointing to the reality of John’s first objective: Jesus is the Messiah.

Now we come to the second part of the objective:

That by believing you may have life in his name. (John 20:31b)

Remember what you just talked about--cultural perspective to requirements and disqualifiers to having a relationship with God--and now pull that together with “actuality.”

How does our culture's perspective push people towards or away from John’s objective?

Before I share the text from John 21, there are two hyperlinks that need to be brought to the surface. These things were intended to be on the top of the minds of the readers, and many would have thought of these moments as they read this letter.

The first is Peter’s calling:

One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, the people were crowding around him and listening to the word of God. He saw at the water’s edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat.

When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.” Simon answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.”

When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.

When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon’s partners.

Then Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will fish for people.” So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him. (Luke 5:1-11)

We have to see the flashing lights of this as we walk into John 21:

When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” (Luke 5:8)

Feel the heart of this plea. Feel the culture behind it and the perspective that would cause it. Hold onto that.

And now the second hyperlink that is intended to be at the top of our minds, Peter's denial of Jesus:

Simon Peter and another disciple were following Jesus. Because this disciple was known to the high priest, he went with Jesus into the high priest’s courtyard, but Peter had to wait outside at the door. The other disciple, who was known to the high priest, came back, spoke to the servant girl on duty there and brought Peter in. “You aren’t one of this man’s disciples too, are you?” she asked Peter. He replied, “I am not.” It was cold, and the servants and officials stood around a fire they had made to keep warm. Peter also was standing with them, warming himself.

Meanwhile, Simon Peter was still standing there warming himself. So they asked him, “You aren’t one of his disciples too, are you?” He denied it, saying, “I am not.” One of the high priest’s servants, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, challenged him, “Didn’t I see you with him in the garden?” Again Peter denied it, and at that moment a rooster began to crow. (John 18:15-18,25-27)

Feel these things coming together. There was Peter’s feeling as he was meeting Jesus for the first time--I don’t deserve relationship with You. And presume the weight he now carried after living out his denials of Jesus--I don’t deserve relationship with You.

Holding those things close, imagining what Peter’s experience up to this point may have been like, we walk into the narrative of chapter 21.

Afterward Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Galilee. It happened this way: Simon Peter, Thomas (also known as Didymus), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. “I’m going out to fish,” Simon Peter told them, and they said, “We’ll go with you.” So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.

Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus. He called out to them, “Friends, haven’t you any fish?” “No,” they answered.

He said, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.” When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish. Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, “It is the Lord,” he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water. The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far from shore, about a hundred yards. When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread.

Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish you have just caught.” So Simon Peter climbed back into the boat and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish, 153, but even with so many the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” None of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came, took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. This was now the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead.

When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” “Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”

Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.”

The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. Very truly I tell you, 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 do not want to go.” Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, “Follow me!”

Peter turned and saw that the disciple whom Jesus loved was following them. (This was the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper and had said, “Lord, who is going to betray you?”) When Peter saw him, he asked, “Lord, what about him?”

Jesus answered, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me.” Because of this, the rumor spread among the believers that this disciple would not die. But Jesus did not say that he would not die; he only said, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you?”

This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down. We know that his testimony is true. 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. (John 21:1-25)

It’s possible to fixate on things in this story that are not really the thing to fixate on (fish!!!!!!). But I bring back John’s objective, right to the top of our perspective:

That by believing you may have life in his name. (John 20:31b)

How does this narrative build greater perspective into John’s objective?

We did it! We made it to the end of John. Today we have processed many things. We are going to end this series with a looping back to today’s insights and a looping back into the whole book of John. So let’s dive into these final questions of this series:

How does Peter’s reinstatement stand in agreement or at odds with our culture’s view of relationship with God?

How does Peter’s reinstatement stand in agreement or at odds with your view of relationship with God?

Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. (John 20:30-31)

If John’s objective is not just his responsibility, but is equally the responsibility of the reader; if living out John’s objective is not ever fully completed but is a lifelong process:

What perspectives and understandings do I need to keep building in order to walk deeper into John’s objectives?

Take It Deeper Questions

• Read John 21.
• Have you ever been kicked off the team, out of the club, fired? Did you deserve it? How did that moment shape you?
• What do you think Peter was internally dealing with as they fished all night?
• What do you think Jesus’ tone was as He was asking Peter if he loved Him?
• What qualifies someone for a relationship with God? How did Peter fulfil that requirement?
• How does this narrative inform your personal relationship with God?
• Did John achieve his objective in you? (John 20:30-31)

Bible Reading Plan

• Numbers 30
• Numbers 31
• Numbers 32
• Acts 1
• Acts 2
• Acts 3