John 21:1-14

John 21:1-14 … The Gospel of John began with a prologue of 18 verses that introduced the eternal Christ who is the Word that was with God in the beginning and who was God, and who became flesh and lived among us (John 1:14). The prologue told us that in knowing Christ, we’d have the full revelation of God the Father (John 1:18). But now, after reading that full revelation (the twenty preceding chapters of John), what remains to be said? That’s what we have in the Epilogue or last words of the Gospel of John here in chapter 21. We’ll see right away that its primary focus is an additional revelation of the risen Christ. You see that emphasized in 21:1 – “Jesus appeared again to his disciples … It happened this way …”

It’s interesting that a number of the disciples are going fishing. Jesus had told them to await empowerment of the Holy Spirit (Luke 24:49), but evidently some of them weren’t content to sit around without some kind of work, and so they went fishing.  Early the next morning brought a great surprise, first recognized by the Apostle John: the risen Jesus was on the shore! After giving them instruction on how to catch fish, they came ashore and Jesus served a meal, just as He had done in the upper room at the Passover. All this is introductory to the conversations with Peter and John that follow, but it’s important enough to be mentioned by Peter in a later sermon in Acts 10:41. The risen Christ, showing Himself to His disciples, is a vital part of their testimony.