John 21:11-15

 

John 21:11 (KJB)

Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land full of great fishes, an hundred and fifty and three: and for all there were so many, yet was not the net broken.

 

Great - Large

 

When they finally brought the catch up to the shore, they had not caught both small and big fishes, but these fish were very large. This type of catch would have yielded them a good amount of money because one large fish would probably have fed a family for one meal. This verse is showing us that Christ is the Lord of Creation because He had given them a catch of only large fish and no little ones. This verse is also teaching a great spiritual lesson. The number given is 153 fish. Now there would have been way more fish in the sea than that. That 153 is symbolic in two ways: 1) The first way is that it represents the entirety of the Elect of God. These 153 were large fish and were chosen to be caught in the net of the disciples. The net had not been broken which means that every fish which was caught, none were lost by means of a break in the net. (John 6:39 KJV) And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. God has made room for every believer and not one will be lost in any manner just as the fish were brought to the shore, every believer will be brought to the Golden Shore. 2) The second way this is symbolic is that the 153 represent the personal amount of believers that every Christian will reach. The 153 fishes did not exhaust the amount of fish still in the lake and was only a small part. Each Christian is given a spiritual gift to exercise so they may reach those whom the Lord has set for them to reach. So when Christians are faithful, they will reach their 153 and when all the Christians are faithful, they will all reach their 153 and added together, makes the 153 of the entirety of the body of believers as we saw in the first point.  The 153 also represents a remnant.  There was much more than 153 fishes in the Sea of Galilee just like there are many more people today in the world and only a remnant out of those billions will be saved.  So the 153 represents the entire amount of those who will be saved throughout all of history.

 

John 21:12 (KJB)

Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine. And none of the disciples durst ask him, Who art thou? knowing that it was the Lord.

 

Durst - Dare or be brave

 

The time was early in the morning and the early morning meal would have provided strength for them to continue in their daily tasks. There was definitely something different about Jesus in His resurrection body but even though they knew it was Him, they had restraint in asking any type of foolish questions. It was almost seems like they did not recognize Him even though He appeared to them already but they did know it was Jesus and He was waiting for them on the shore to feed them. The disciples no doubt had many questions to ask Jesus but not at this time.

 

John 21:13 (KJB)

Jesus then cometh, and taketh bread, and giveth them, and fish likewise.

 

Here Jesus is still taking on the form of a servant as He serves the breakfast to the disciples. Just as He washed the feet of the disciples, He now serves them their breakfast. This shows us that Jesus is always involved with his Saints, even to the most minute things.

 

John 21:14 (KJB)

This is now the third time that Jesus showed himself to his disciples, after that he was risen from the dead.

 

John now records that this is the third time that Jesus appeared to His disciples after He was resurrected. There is a total of twelve post-resurrection appearances to the disciples and to the Apostle Paul in Acts 9.

 

John 21:15 (KJB)

So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs.

 

Feed - As in grazing or pasturing

 

Jesus now begins to speak to Peter and asks him a series of three questions. Whether the three questions have to do with the fact that Peter denied the Lord three times is a good probability because Peter was outspoken and claimed he would die for the Lord and yet denied him. The Lord might be gently restoring him by a series of questions. He asks Peter if he loves Him above the other disciples? (Mat 10:37 KJV) He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Jesus was testing Peter to see if his love and dedication exceeded that of other human beings in his life and according to Matthew 10:37, that would include family. Peter responds that he knows that Jesus knows all things and He knows that Peter does love Him. Then Jesus gives Peter a command to feed His lambs. The lambs would be the young believers that were about to be saved through the ministry of the disciples. They were to be fed the word of God and the teachings of Jesus.

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