By Jared Warner
Willow Creek Friends Church
May 4, 2025
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John 21:1–19 (ESV)
1 After this Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias, and he revealed himself in this way. 2 Simon Peter, Thomas (called the Twin), Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together. 3 Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.” They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. 4 Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. 5 Jesus said to them, “Children, do you have any fish?” They answered him, “No.” 6 He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, because of the quantity of fish. 7 That disciple whom Jesus loved therefore said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment, for he was stripped for work, and threw himself into the sea. 8 The other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, but about a hundred yards off. 9 When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire in place, with fish laid out on it, and bread. 10 Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.” 11 So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, 153 of them. And although there were so many, the net was not torn. 12 Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” Now none of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. 13 Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and so with the fish. 14 This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead. 15 When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” 16 He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.” 17 He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. 18 Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” 19 (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, “Follow me.”
The past couple of Sundays we have celebrated the Resurrection. We considered the confusion that this seemed to have caused. The struggle that the disciples faced as they tried to come to an understanding as to what this meant. I want us to really wrestle with this confusion. I want us to understand how we feel when we enter a situation where our past experience and our human knowledge do not quite prepare us for what we currently face. I want us to understand this so that when we face these challenging situations we can meet them without fear, but hope.
The Resurrection is confusing. It is unnatural. Miraculous. We cannot explain it logically. If someone accepts it fully without some hesitation, I as a pastor, would question if that person has understood it, or if it has just become something we say. This is the reason we celebrate a season of Easter and not merely a day. Jesus did not just raise from the grave, pop in to say hi and then proceed to the right hand of God the Father. He instead spend time with the disciples. He appeared to them multiple times in various locations, and in most cases he broke bread with them.
Have we ever stopped to think why there were forty days between the Resurrection and the Ascension?
It takes approximately forty days for you to develop a new routine. During the season of Lent, many traditions spend forty days fasting or abstaining from various things. The church throughout history used this time to encourage their people to deepen their spiritual discipline. If you are attempting to break a bad habit that first month is the hardest. If you are trying commit to a more healthy lifestyle, that first month will present the largest challenge. But once that month is over things change. The new routine becomes more natural and less of a burden. This does not mean we are now completely free from the bondage of addiction, or that we will never again be tempted by sweets, it simply means that we have a greater opportunity to make a lasting change.
Jesus fasted for forty days in the desert. Jesus spent forty days after His resurrection teaching the disciples. Forty days. Today we are on the third Sunday of Easter. We are two weeks into something new. New life and new hope.
Jesus had come to meet with the disciples on two occasions. He shared air with them, he showed them the wounds left by the nails and the spear. A week later Thomas the one disciple that was not there that first day, that disciple that said he could not believe unless he saw and put his own fingers into the wounds, was met by Jesus. Jesus called out to him and said put your hand here and feel, and on that day Thomas the skeptic became Thomas the confessor, for he was the first disciple to call Jesus by his full nature, My Lord and My God.
The passover feast is now over. They traveled to Jerusalem to celebrate as was the custom. They celebrated the meal, they spent the week praising the God that gave them a chance, and now the celebration is over and they returned to their homes, in Galilee. They return to their regular life.
As I think about this passage today I am reminded of all the times I went to church camp, or to youth yearly meeting, or the Campus Crusade winter conferences that I attended throughout my early years of faith. I remember how excited I was at the event, and then I unpack the suitcase and sit on the old familiar furniture. Almost immediately one of my siblings would do or say something that would set me off, and in an instant all the righteous energy I had at the conference left and I once again became the punk kid I had always been. In an instant I had fallen. I had confessed and rededicated my life to God and now within hours I had fallen again.
Things were different though. Things changed, and although I wanted to lash out something would stop me, I would remember things I had just learned and would take pull back before damage was done. Slowly I began to change, slowly I became something different. It is rarely fast. I am not saying that it is never fast, but rarely. It takes time to develop a new habit.
The disciples are home now. They had faced a traumatic event as they watched their closest friend and teacher die at the hands of the very people they had once respected and held in high regard. They had sat in fear that they too would face the injustice of the world’s powers as the huddled together in the upper room. They sat together in that room where Jesus had washed their feet and shared a meal. He had asked them do you understand what I have done for you? And they did not understand but they were shocked and perplexed by the activity. Then they met Jesus again three days after they had buried him. They ate with him, and they knew that he was there physically.
Now they are home.
And Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.”
There is much that has been said about this statement. Some say that Peter was a fisherman by trade and throughout Jesus’s ministry Peter and the other fishermen would need to go out to fish regularly to maintain their livelihood. Other scholars have looked at this statement and have said that Peter was falling into apostasy. That he was turning his back on his faith and returning back to his old life and lifestyle. This too makes sense. Others say that Peter was bored and he enjoyed fishing, there are people among us that can probably relate to this and I can honestly say that each of these ideas have merit. I think that each of them are true.
“I am going fishing.” Peter says, and the others say, “We will go with you.”
Not all of these men were fishermen. Of the people mentioned only three we know for sure were fishermen by trade. We do not know what Thomas or Nathaniel did prior to their time spent with Jesus, and we are not even told the names of the other two. But they all go out to the boat and they fish. Why did they go?
I think they went because they wanted to remember. They had spent three years walking around Roman Palestine with Jesus. They had sat on these boats with him as they crossed the sea to minister. They had adventures, shared stories, argued, and laughed. They had shared life together on these boats and they wanted to remember. They each knew that things had changed. The life they had for the past three years, was not going to continue in the way it had previously. Jesus had risen from the grave, he had talked with them and had ate with them but he did not remain with them. He comes and he goes. Life is changing. How will they continue on? Will they continue?
All night they fish and they caught nothing. This is my story when I go fishing, lucky for my family we are not relying on my ability to fish to put food on the table. They caught nothing.
Imagine for a moment if you were on that boat. It is as if you had been in that position before. There was likely laughter and possibly tears each time they would cast the nets in the water and pull them back empty. Stories would be told. And they would remember.
Then as the day was breaking they see a figure on the shore, and that figure cries out to them, “Children, do you have any fish?” As I studied this week, I noticed that many commentaries focused word we translate to be children. It is only used in this manner three times in the New Testament, here in John 21, then in one of John’s letters, and once in Hebrews speaking of Moses as the princess of Egypt took him as her own. There is love and concern in the voice of this figure. And there is a hint of deja vu. They answer him, John says here. They answer in unison. I imagine that they were probably laughing as they answer because the intimacy of the cry and similarity of their first call to follow Jesus was probably in their minds.
That figure then says, “Cast the net on the right side fo the boat, and you will find some.”
We probably miss the absurdity of this statement because we do not think about it. You would not throw a net off the right side of the boat. To throw the net off the right side of the boat you would be have to do one of two things. Either you would have to stand facing the wrong direct on the boat and then start rowing in reverse to bring the net in, or you would have to throw the net with your left hand. It makes complete sense to me as someone that would be more comfortable throwing left handed, but in a culture where left handed people were not as accepted. We do not often think of these things because We are not fishermen by trade, and when we fish we use a rod and reel. But they are not fishing like us. For us the right side or left side does not matter, but when you are throwing a large net out into the water as far as you can and then rowing a boat forward to draw the net closed it changes everything. For the fish to be on the right side, they would have been right next to the boat. They could just reach in with their bare hands and grab them. It is absurd.
And it is just the thing that they had heard before. Without any hesitation they cast it, and begin the process of drawing the net back in. Almost immediately they realize that the net has resistance, too much resistance. The are unable to haul it in for fear of breaking the net. The disciple whom Jesus loved, or John, says to Peter, “It is the Lord!”
This is no longer a memory but a reality. They have been here before, they know what is happening. Peter, on of the only experienced fishermen on the boat, grabs his shirt and dives over the edge and begins to swim to shore, and the others probably shake their heads as they begin to slowly row the boat to the shore dragging the net behind them.
When they get to shore, they see a fire burning and there are fish and bread cooking, and Jesus tells them to bring some of the fish they had caught. John then tells us how many fish they caught, 153. Historically theologians have tried to make sense of this number. What does it represent? It is interesting what some of them come up with. Augustine says it is seven, the number of the spirit, times seven the number of disciples present, plus the one who spoke to them, and this is done three times to make 150 plus the trinity. This is one of the doctors of the church, which show us something important. Even the smartest of us can get caught in the weeds and not see. There are eight people present, there are some fish on the fire plus 153 more. If Jesus was cooking seven fish, one for each of the disciples to eat while the fresh catch was cooking, there are twenty fish for each person. More than enough.
That is the point. There is more than enough. They have all that they need and more. The disciples had been at this place many times before. They had watched as Jesus took five loaves and two fish and fed five thousand with twelve baskets left over. They had watched him feed four thousand. They had seen a net filled to bursting. They had walked three years with this man and as far as we know they did not lack the basic needs once. There were a few times where Martha thought she needed help in the kitchen, and the religious leaders got upset when the disciples pulled heads off of the stalks of wheat to eat the grain, but they were not in lack. God provided what they would need to accomplish the ministry they were called to join.
They remembered. They went home, they returned to the life they had known before. They were getting themselves prepared to start over again. The teacher they had followed was no longer in a position to lead them any more, what will they do now? Throw the net on the right side, instead of the left. Or as Paul would later say, through our weakness he is our strength.
After they had finished their breakfast. After they had eaten their fill. Maybe they each at twenty fish, I do not know we are not told if they took any home or not, but I think they are probably stretching out by the fire getting ready to take a nap after an impromptu feast. Jesus turns his attention to Peter. “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?”
More than these? This is a pronoun that can mean the person or thing comparatively near at hand to the conversation. Some think Jesus is referring to the six other disciples that were on the boat. Others think Jesus was indicating the fish that had just been consumed or were still cooking over the flames. We are not told exactly what Jesus was referring to, but the implications remain the same. Do you love Jesus more than the people around you? Do you love Jesus more than the things around you? Do you love Jesus more than these? Personally I think Jesus is referring to the fish because there is a different pronoun that could have been used to indicate if Jesus was asking about people instead of things. So I would prefer that we not compare ourselves to other but instead look at our own personal devotion. Do we love Jesus more than fish?
Peter answers, “Yes, Lord you know that I love you.” And Jesus encourages him to “Feed my lambs.”
Jesus asks the question a second time, “Do you love me?” Peter again answers, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” And Jesus encourages him, “Tend my sheep.”
For a third time Jesus asks, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter is now grieved because he is asked the same question three times, and he answers, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” and Jesus encourages him for a third time, “Feed my sheep.”
Feed, tend, feed are each imperative, or commanding verbs. Feed means to provide nourishment, or to take the animal to a place where they can obtain food. Tend is a bit different, this is means to shepherd. But both allude to the work of a shepherd, but focus on different aspects of what a shepherd does. Feeding focuses on nutrition, where tend focuses on the physical care.
Jesus is telling Peter to provide nourishment for the lambs. Lambs are, if you did not know, immature sheep, or babies. Where the second use of the word feed is attached to sheep, which is one that is mature. When we feed babies we do not provide the same food as you would something mature. The needs are different. Paul would later teach in his epistles that when we were babies we ate milk but now we need solid food.
Jesus is telling us that we need to be aware of who we are speaking to, where they are in the spectrum of faith. The immature have different needs than those that have a deeper understanding. The way you speak to the students needs to be different. The message or the stuff of value that can bring life is the same, but the methods or the approach should be adapted to who we are with. What I say from the pulpit is a bit different than what I will share in the student bible study, because each maturity level will understand things differently. It is different but important. We cannot neglect the lambs because they are the church. And we cannot neglect the sheep because they are the church.
Feeding comes through our teaching, our conversations. The tending comes from living with the sheep. Consider the sheep as an animal instead of a metaphor, for a moment. Sheep are by nature nervous animals. They do not trust those that they do not know. When a shepherd was with the sheep in ancient times, they would often not bath so that they would smell like the sheep. They would integrate themselves into the herd, walking with them, talking to them, sleeping in the same place they slept. If we then apply that same principle to people, we need to be with the people, where they are.
This might be a bit jarring at first. We often teach that we should put on a different life, put on Christ. But we need to remember that Jesus put on humanity. He being God for a little while became a little lower than the angels, and took on human flesh. He became God with us. He lived among the sheep. He looked similar, smelled similar, the walked with us and carefully encourages to move toward the still waters and the green pastures. He tends. Nurses our wounds. Delivers us from the entities within this world that seek to do harm to us. He goes out to find the one while leaving the ninety-nine. To adequately tend the sheep, we need to be with them. Build trust and a relationship. The sheep, or the people within our community need to know that we are working for their good, not their harm.
Today is my birthday and I am now forty-six years old. Half of my life I have spent as a minister. Twenty-five years ago I heard a message on the radio while I was sitting in my dad’s pickup eating lunch between my working hours and my last semester of college classes. I listened to this message just a couple of months after I returned home from Ukraine after spending two months there teaching English classes. The pastor on the radio gave a great sermon, at least I assume that he did since he was on the radio, but I did not hear anything he said after he read the scripture. All I heard that day was, “Jared do you love me more than wheat, than corn, than sorghum?” And I sat there with a ham sandwich stopped halfway to my open mouth. And I was challenged that day to answer a question I was attempting to avoid. Would I be willing to go?
I was a quiet, nerdy farm kid. I rarely spoke and would only speak in public if there was no way to avoid it. How would I be a pastor? I had just returned from the most enlightening experience I have ever had in Ukraine, the righteous energy was slowly flowing and at that moment when I was getting back to normal, Jesus was telling me to throw the net to my weak side. Could I do it? Not everyone is called to be a pastor, some are called to minister in different ways. Will you open you home to host gatherings? Will you run your business to give opportunity to people instead of profit? Will you listen to someone as they struggle with their faith? Will you visit the one in the hospital? Or stand up for the ones that are facing injustice? Will we feed and tend the flock we have been given whoever and wherever they may be?
Peter and the others went home from Jerusalem after they had seen the risen Lord, and they were faced with a new reality. How will we live after everything we once knew has been turned upside down? They went out to the boats, that place of comfort, and while they were there, they remembered. And from that place Jesus calls out to them. “Dear ones, have you found what you are looking for?” No they call out. And Jesus tells them to try it his way, and when they do they realize that they have all that they need.
Do you love your job more than Christ? Will it give you what you really seek? Do you love your spouse more than Christ? With they give you what you really seek? Will your children, or you hobbies provide the hope you need? In some ways yes, but only if those things are done in the love of Christ. The things of this world will only give us what we need if we first love God, embrace the holy spirit, and live the love of Christ with others. Let us now go and feed the Sheep.
Previous Messages:
The Mind of Christ
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church March 29, 2026 Click here to Join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili Query 3: Do you attend regularly the services of your church and participate in them actively? Do you prayerfully endeavor to minister, under the guidance of the Holy…
Walk as Children of Light
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church March 15, 2026 Click here to join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili Ephesians 5:8–14 (ESV) 8 for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit…
Your Kingdom Come
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church February 22, 2026 Click here to Join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili Romans 5:12–19 (ESV) 12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all…
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