Life of Bearing Fruit Following the Word of Jesus Christ (Jn. 21:1-14)
Let us bless and greet one another, “Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.” May your confession be fulfilled through the Word of God. The title of today’s message is, “Life of Bearing Fruit Following the Word of Jesus Christ.” Last week, God gave us the Word, “The Witness that has Faith in the Word of Jesus Christ,” and there’s an answer I received throughout the week through that Word. I realized that our walk of faith is not about the problem or the circumstance or the situation, it is only about faith in the Word about Jesus Christ, and that God will carry out my life according to His Word. These are the answers I was able to confirm and receive throughout the week.
1. Jesus appeared
1) Sea of Tiberias (Jn. 21:1)
In today’s Bible passage, Jesus Christ shows Himself to His disciples for the third time, after resurrecting, and the place where He appears to the disciples is the Sea of Galilee, or in other words, the Sea of Tiberias. The reason it is called both the Sea of Galilee and the Sea of Tiberius is because it is named after the Roman emperor Tiberius. The emperor of Rome used the Sea of Galilee to take all of the fish, and after salting it, exported it in order to make great wealth for the nation, so this is a special place that was renamed by the Roman emperor. So, it was a designated location where the Roman emperor would buy a lot of fish from the sea for a very low price, and then export it to make a great profit for the empire.
(1) Place with the disciples (Jn. 21:2)
During that time, about seven disciples, even though Jesus Christ appeared to His disciples after resurrecting, gathered at the Sea of Galilee.
(2) Went out to fish (Jn. 21:3)
While the disciples are there, Simon Peter says, “I’m going to go out to fish,” and many of the disciples follow him to go fishing. If Jesus does not reveal Himself to us, we have no choice but to live according to our nature. What is our natural instinct? It is to live, following what we need to do to live, to eat, and to survive. So, even though Jesus appeared to His disciples twice already, they do not know what they must do or why He revealed Himself.
(3) Caught nothing (Jn. 21:4)
However, when they got into the boat, they were not able to catch anything throughout the night. These people have been fishermen for multiple generations in their family, and they are experts who make their entire livelihood based on fishing. Fishermen do not just fish randomly; they know exactly where different types of fish are in the different levels of the water, and which fish go to which currents underwater. However, it says here in the Bible that they were not able to catch anything that night.
You and I have to confirm through the Word of God why this happens to us. In the past, before the disciples met Jesus Christ, they used their specialization and expertise to make money from fishing, and then after they met Jesus, they hadn’t gone fishing again. Now, after meeting Jesus, they go back to fishing again, but even though they tried to fish all night long, they caught nothing. So, why do these things happen? Some people think, “I thought once I believed in Jesus Christ, I’d be more blessed, but why is this happening? If anything, before I believed in Jesus, I actually lived better than I do now.” There are many believers who don’t know the answer to that question. They think, “Should I just stop believing in Jesus? My life was better before I believed in Jesus.” There are some people who are conflicted, “Oh, maybe I should try going to another church. Maybe my business is not working because of the church I’m going to,” that is a completely religious life.
May you receive the answer to that question through God’s Word. After you accept Jesus Christ, there is nothing that works according to your desires, but you’re under a misconception. “Oh, in the past, I could do that. Why is it that, in the past, I could do this, but it’s not happening anymore?” It is because you do not know something. I hope you will receive the answer to your question today. When I first believed in Jesus Christ, I was able to evangelize a little better, but the more I believe, the more evangelism does not take place. If anything, I’ve become a pastor and things are even more difficult, so though I use myself as an example, this also applies to you. You must receive the answer, because if you don’t come to this answer, you will make your next generation live a life without answers, too. Then there are people who have such a stubborn will, and they just shove forward their stubborn will.
2) Early in the morning (Jn. 21:4)
(1 Jesus stood on the shore (Jn. 21:4)
(2) Disciples did not realize (Jn. 21:4)
(3) Haven’t you any fish? (Jn. 21:5)
Jesus finally asked the disciples, “Have you caught nothing?” They responded, “No.” We have to have something, but we don’t have anything. We fished all night long and we still have nothing, then what can change that? Jesus reveals His Word.
3) Jesus’ Word
(1) Throw your net on the right side of the boat (Jn. 21:6)
“Throw your net on the right side of the boat.” Then do you think the entire night, they only cast their net on the left side of the boat? The boat is quite small, so you can throw it to the left and to the right by sitting in the same place. But we’re so used to our habits, our way of life and way of thinking without the Christ. Even though we believe in Jesus Christ, we are still living our lives with the knowledge and experiences we received from the world. That does not change. Until the Word of Jesus Christ comes inside of us, that will never change because it was already done and the world is giving us that knowledge continuously, but when Jesus Christ says, “Cast your net on the right side of the boat and you will catch fish,” this was the Word of Jesus. Then, I have to make the decision: will I act on what He said or will I not?
When the Word of Jesus Christ really goes into our intellect, our emotions, and our will, that is when we make our decision. No matter how much God gives me His Word, if I don’t agree with it with my intellect, my emotions, and my will, then I cannot act upon God’s Word even if He gives it to me. Then, I keep living a life of nothing, and I will actually be worse off than a nonbeliever. At least with nonbelievers, they try their best and sometimes they win and sometimes they don’t, but for believers, it will never work out, because after we believe in Jesus Christ, I am no longer myself; I now belong to Jesus and now, I’m bound to move according to Jesus’ Word.
(2) You will find some (Jn. 21:6)
(3) When they did, they were unable to haul because of the large number of fish (Jn. 21:6)
When they did cast their net on the right side, they were not able to haul the net in because of the large number of fish. So, all night long, they were casting their nets and couldn’t catch a single fish, but when Jesus gave His Word and they followed after His Word, they caught so many fish they couldn’t lift the net up. This was the work of the Word of God being fulfilled to the point where their net is overflowing, over the brim. When Jesus Christ gives us something, He doesn’t give us scarcity. The Lord has always given us blessings in abundance. But if you live your life with your own diligence and hard work, you’ll barely be making it. Because you’re a child of God, He’ll at least allow you to maintain that lifestyle, but we’re not only talking about the way to eat and make a living; it’s the same for evangelism and missions, why? Because the Master of all of creation is Jesus Christ.
2. Way of life of a Christian
Then what is the way of life that a Christian should have?
1) Life following Jesus’s Word
The Word of Jesus Christ must be established in me. Today, you’re listening to the Word, but if it’s not taking root inside of you, then it’s nothing. The seed of the Word must be planted into the field of my heart. If that Word is only planted into my thoughts, into my brain, then I’ll think about it momentarily and then forget it later, but that seed must be planted or established in my spirit. Then, what we have to do is pray so that the Word is established in our spirit. The central core of worship is that God is the Word, and during worship, He gives us His Word. Why does our walk of faith fail, or why do we not receive answers? It is because when we worship, the Word of God is not taking place inside of me.
(1) Grape vine (Jn. 15:5)
Then, how do we live our lives? I live based on what I’ve experienced, then what’s going to happen? Nothing. “Oh, I don’t think ‘nothing’ is going to happen.” If you are a saved child of God, then without a doubt, it will be “nothing.” If you’re a nonbeliever, if you’re not a child of God, your life will have its ups and downs, but in John 15:5, someone asked Jesus, “How can we bear fruit?” Jesus said, “I am the Vine and you are the branches.” This means that the branches can only have fruit if they remain attached to the vine. But there are some times when a branch is connected to the vine, but they’re not getting the nutrients from the vine. Jesus Christ is living inside of us right now, but for some reason, our intellect, our emotions, and our will do not align with Him. So yes, maybe we did receive salvation, but our lives do not have any fruit.
(2) Remain in me, as I also remain in you (Jn. 15:3)
That’s why, in John 15:3, Jesus says, “Remain in me as I also remain in you.” What does this mean?
(3) If you remain in me and my words remain in you (Jn. 15:7)
He says, “When you remain in Me and My Words remain in you,” so now, the Holy Spirit of the Lord remains in me. We have received salvation, and the life of blessing of being saved is revealed when I remain in His Word. “Then, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you.” Am I receiving answers from God? If I’m not receiving answers from heaven, it means that I am broken. What is broken? My state of faith is broken. “Oh, but I’ve been a believer for such a long time,” no, you haven’t; you’ve only gone to church for a long time. No matter what kind of methods you use, nothing will work. When we receive the grace to have the Word of Jesus Christ established inside of us, that is when the problems of addictions, mental illnesses, and other problems will be solved. “I have this continuous problem or habit that keeps on appearing, what should I do?” If you just stay within yourself, then of course, it will keep on repeating.
“Remain in Me, and if My Words remain in you, then you will bear [much] fruit.” In the Old Testament, God told the Israelites to march around the walls of Jericho seven times, and they did it because they believed in Him. If they didn’t believe in God, they wouldn’t have done it, and because they believed, God broke down Jericho. There was a general named Namaan, who had leprosy or some kind of skin disease, and he went to a priest in Israel who told him to bathe in the Jordan River and to come back. The General was very offended because he was a very powerful general from a very powerful nation, “How dare this person tell me to go here or go here and do this or that?” Just because you reach the rank of general does not mean you can solve your problems, because yes, the way he presents himself, he is a general, but inside of him, he does not have the Word of God, and in reality, he’s falling deeper and deeper into suffering, but people keep on trying to package themselves. “I’m so smart, I graduated from XYZ, and this is the kind of job that I have,” but that’s not really you. That’s your job, but inside you, it’s different.
(4) Apart from me you can do nothing (Jn. 15:5)
The inside “you” does not have God. Inside the General Namaan, there was no God, and that was the beginning of all problems and crises, but just because on the outside he was packaged with his general uniform and stars, doesn’t change that fact. Inside of the church, we don’t look at people based on their jobs because everybody’s internal state is the same. We are all diseased, why? When the Word of God is not established inside of us, that is a disease. I’ll explain later on how we are diseased. We must know who we are. If we don’t know who we are, then we start bragging about, “This is how I used to live in the past, and this is how powerful my family was,” but that’s all lies.
After General Namaan did bathe in the Jordan River, his skin disease was healed. For us, when we act upon the Word of God, when we do what the Word tells us to do, then we receive answers, but doing the Word of God is not something that we can just do. We are only able to actually do the Word of God and follow it when the Word is established in our intellect, in our emotions, and our will. You must stake your life on worship today; otherwise, you will not change. God tells us we must worship because the core of worship is, during worship, “I will give My Word into your heart.” Then, when that Word hits my heart, I will bear fruit 30, 60, 100 times.
2) Jesus’s way of life
(1) The Son can do nothing by himself (Jn. 5:19)
When Jesus was on earth as a human, how did He live His life? John 5:19 says that, “Even the Son can do nothing by Himself.” Even Jesus Christ, He came to this earth as a human and said He cannot do this Himself.
(2) Act according to the Father’s will (Jn. 5:30)
John 5:30, Jesus Christ says He desires to carry out His Father’s will. He says, “I myself can do nothing, but I seek the will of God,” and when that becomes your will, that is when we can actually move, then that Word will be revealed in my life visibly.
3) Way of life after the fruit of the tree of good and evil
Now after the incident of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, how did the way of living of people change? The fact that we were created in the image of God means that we were created so that God Himself would live within us and reveal Himself through us. Jesus Christ is the image of God and He came as a human, and through Jesus Christ, God the Father revealed His Word, His will, and His plan.
(1) Formed a sense of independent self
So, even though God created us as such tremendously blessed creatures, Satan deceived us into thinking, “You can live on your own, independently, separated from God.” Then, if somebody has that ego thinking, “I can live my life on my own,” do you think that ego is really that person? The real “me”, the real “ego” is the one that is found inside of Christ, but what is the mistake we keep making? “I can live on my own without the Word of God; I can live my life,” that is actually the lies of Satan we are deceived by; it is the wrong ego, it is not the real “me.” That “me” has no choice but to face curses and disasters. That is an ego that has no choice but to be enslaved by Satan and brought into curses and disasters.
This individualism ideology is the ideology of Satan who tries to separate people from God, so that people reject being united with God. People reject the fact that Christ is their head and the members of the church are their body. Then, that individual might receive salvation, but their life has no fruit. One by one, in the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, He called each disciple, but how do they mature so that they can bear fruit? That is what God does through the church. If you’re not able to understand this, then your faith will not grow or mature. Jesus called all of His disciples, one by one, just as Jesus gave us salvation, one by one, and later, when Jesus finds His disciples, He creates a table and then calls them to eat. Later on, in the age of the church, Christ is the head and the church is the body, and through this church, God does His work. You must know this Word well.
(2) Reject unity with God
Because of this individualism, people reject being united with God and they reject being united with other members. Without a doubt, the members of the early church devoted to one another, they broke bread, they shared fellowship, they devoted to the apostle’s teaching, which means they were constantly giving back and forth with one another. However, when there is somebody who is an independent thinker, then they think their thoughts are higher than the will of God. Then they don’t even ask about the will of God; they follow their own thoughts. God has His own desire, but they follow their desires, then that person is actually being deceived by the devil. But they think it is a good thing. They don’t even realize that Satan is holding onto them. So, they live their entire lives like this but it results in nothing because they are deceived.
What is “repentance?” It is turning away from that. If you don’t turn away from this, what’s the point of apologizing? Even nonbelievers will feel remorse. Even nonbelievers can apologize for stealing something. I’m not telling you to steal, but what I’m saying is, what is true repentance? It means that you have to go back to the life of Christ. If you don’t go back to the life of Christ, there is no repentance. Of course, I’m not telling you to just be completely remorseless about the bad things you do; you do have to apologize and repent, otherwise you’ll never change. Until the Word of God is established inside of us, people can never change. This is the way that humans so stubbornly go down the path of destruction after the incident of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
(3) Life fulfilling my thoughts, will, desires
3. The Lord’s ministry at the table
1) Fire of burning coals (Jn. 21:9)
(1) Fish and bread on the fire (Jn. 21:10)
(2) Bring some of the fish you have just caught (Jn. 21:10)
(3) 153 large fish, but the net was not torn (Jn. 21:11)
One of the disciples says, “It is the Lord!” So Simon Peter jumps out of the boat and swims towards Him, and the other disciples are meeting Him too. While they are going to Jesus ashore, in Jn. 21:11 it says, the net was full of large fish, 153 of them, but even with so many, the net was not torn. Catching all of those fish was not what the disciples did, this is something that happened to the disciples as a fulfillment of Jesus’ Word. What’s important here in this verse, it says that, “Even so, the net did not rip.” Yes, sometimes we might be able to catch 153 big fish on our own, and if the net is torn, then we have nothing left. It means that God is holding onto the net with His Word so it doesn’t tear, even with 153 big fish in it, so of course, nonbelievers cannot compete with us. It’s just that we are being trampled by nonbelievers as we go outside of Jesus’ words.
Do you know why? Because for the children of God, God will absolutely only work according to the Word of God; He will never work outside of His Word, so if the Word of God is not actually established inside of you, you will be a slave to nonbelievers, and we must relay this to our posterity. You need to turn away from that path. That’s how we gain true repentance. Turn away from the path you are going. “But they’re so nice,” but they’re still following their own stubbornness. They say, “I don’t have anything to repent about.” Nonbelievers live like that, too. You need to turn back, turn around to the Word of God. If you don’t turn back to face the Word of God, then you’ll keep going down the path of failure. “What did they say about me?” Who cares? What is the Lord telling you? That’s what’s important. But if people don’t have that Word of God, they follow the circumstances or what that person said about me; they have no Truth.
By the grace of God, when the Word of God goes into you, that’s a relief. No matter how stubborn you are, God will make it. He will follow you until the very end until you completely give up on your own will and realize that God is True. God is not striking you to punish you at all; He just wants you to realize that the Word of God is True. In the Old Testament, God did use to punish those people, but now, everything has been finished; no curses and disasters for us anymore, but He will use difficulties to make us completely surrender and to confess that the Word of God is True. Even the fish, the Lord says, “Cast your net on the right side,” and they got all of the fish He prepared, and then this fire of charcoals was also prepared by the Lord, and the disciples just brought it, but the Lord did everything. .
2) Jesus
(1) Come and have breakfast
(2) The disciples knew it was the Lord
Finally, the disciples were before the Lord and they didn’t know why they were catching the fish before. They didn’t know that Jesus was the One Who was standing on the shore, so they just followed the words of a stranger, and it worked, but then Jesus said, “Come and have breakfast,” and the disciples knew it was the Lord. Same thing with the two disciples who were walking on the way to Emmaus; the Lord was walking next to them, but they didn’t recognize Him, and when the Lord was interpreting and explaining the Word of God to them, their hearts were burning with passion. They still didn’t know it was the Lord, but when they got to the location, they sat down at the table and started eating. That’s how important eating is, that’s when they realized it was the Lord.
For us, where is our Lord? He is inside of us through His Word. After we finish this worship, when the members of the church are eating lunch together, and they forum about the Word of God, the Lord is with you, there. We share the Word of God together, we share this food together, that is where the Lord is with us, together. So, yes it is important to listen to the Word of God, but after the message is over, it’s important for you to talk about the Word of God with other members of the church, that is where the Lord is. Then, do you think Jesus Christ would say, “Come, let us have breakfast,” because He has nothing better to do? But ever since the Early Church, they broke bread, they shared fellowship, they prayed for one another, they shared the Word of God with each other. That is the Church since the Early Church.
(3) Gave bread and fish (Jn. 21:13)
Then, Jesus Christ gives His disciples the bread and fish. The only thing the disciples did in this whole situation was to listen to and to follow the words of Jesus Christ; everything else was done by the Lord. So, this all happened before Jesus’ ascension.
What is Jesus telling to the churches now, after the ascension? Col. 3:11 says that Christ is all. You must understand this for you to understand the gospel. If you don’t say, “I agree, that is correct,” then you are actually living a religious life. Christ Himself is all, he is everything, but if you are trying to hold onto something that comes out of Christ as your goal, that’s religion. If you ask a Buddhist monk and a Christian for their prayer topics, they’re almost exactly the same, so everybody is just living a religious life. “Help my job, help my family, help my kids, help me get a job, help me get a new house,” don’t you think everybody just prays for the same things? So, if you write down your prayer topics and take out, “In the name of Jesus Christ,” our prayer topics and a Buddhist’s prayer topics are the exact same.
That is not believing in Jesus Christ, everyone. That is you, trying to get what you want, borrowing the name of Jesus Christ to get it. That is why we suffer from religious living. Then, we say, “I’ve gone to church for so long, I’ve done so much,” but you haven’t believed; you just go to church. There’s an old fable about a goose that laid golden eggs. When someone sees that goose laying golden eggs, they start to think, “I bet inside of this goose’s stomach, there is a tremendous amount of gold,” so they split the goose’s stomach and the goose died. Then after that, of course, there’s no more golden eggs, but that’s how we live our walk of faith. That’s what you call “stupid.” I don’t know where that person might have gone to school or graduated from, but they don’t have the wisdom from God. If they just treat the goose preciously, then they would keep getting on the golden eggs, but they don’t care about the goose, they only care about the gold, so they end up killing the goose.
3) Christ (Col. 3:11)
(1) Is all
Our goal in our faith has to be Jesus alone, but instead, we’re holding onto the things that come from Jesus as our goal, that’s why our walk of faith is not working out, and there are no answers. Christ is all. Then, you have to hold onto Christ to receive all.
(2) Is in all
It says, “Christ is in all,” what does that mean? This means that Christ is in all of creation. In today’s Bible passage, Christ is present in the 153 fish they caught. How is Christ there?
(3) Sustaining all things by his powerful word (Heb. 1:3)
Heb. 1:3 says that Christ is sustaining all of creation with His Word, what does that mean? It means all of creation is bound to move according to the words of Christ, isn’t that right?
Conclusion
1. Life trusting the Christ’s Word
Then, how should we live our walk of faith? We can know the answer then.
2. Move all things by the works of the Holy Spirit
What does the Holy Spirit do? The Holy Spirit works very actively and powerfully. Matthew 12:28 says that when the Holy Spirit works, then evil spirits that make us prioritize our physical things and the things that I want, the things of this world greater than the things of Jesus Christ, the evil spirits will be cast out, all of those thoughts will go away, and God’s Kingdom will be established. So, when you pray, the Holy Spirit of God works, transcending time and space, and the works take place according to the Word of God.
3. Life fulfilling Christ’s kingdom
That’s what happened in Genesis 1:2, when the world was filled with emptiness, darkness, and formlessness, the Word of God came upon it and everything fell into order, ultimately to do what? God is working all things to establish the Kingdom of Christ. The Kingdom of Christ must be established inside of me so that everything is structured according to the Word of God. The Kingdom of God must be established upon the church within the structure of the Word of God to break down the Kingdom of Satan. In the world, there are people who are bound to receive the gospel and salvation, but they are tormented and enslaved by Satan right now, so you must establish the Kingdom of God upon them and bring them in. That’s the reason we work and study and everything. Then, anybody can live a life of answers, and when you receive answers, you have joy. What people talk about? That doesn’t give you answers. If I follow after that, then I will keep not having answers. The Word of Christ, the Kingdom of Christ, the work of the Holy Spirit, the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Christ is raised up wherever the church goes. May you be used for that work.
Message Prayer
Let us pray holding onto the Word that we have received.
Offering Prayer and Newcomer Blessing
God, we thank You. We thank You for calling us who were living without Your Word and without Your grace into the grace of living within Your Word. We pray that You will bless us so that Your Word may be established and align in faith with our intellect, emotions, and will, to see the Word of God fulfilled in our lives. We believe You will work with the filling of the Holy Spirit so that the Kingdom of God and the church are raised up inside the world that does not have Your Word.
We have returned your materials as offering. We pray that everywhere this Word is spread, souls may be saved and the abundant blessings of the Word being fulfilled will take place. God, we pray You will work with the same blessing upon our future generations. We pray that the works of Christ will work upon all those who are diseased, who are suffering or who are sick, that You will heal them and restore them with Your Word. May You raise them up as witnesses of faith in Your Word. In Jesus Christ’s name we pray, amen.
Announcements
1. Online zoom early morning prayer (Mon.-Fri. 5:30, Sat. 6AM) – Raise the bartizan of prayer
2. Today 12:30PM session.
3. LA College Retreat on 3rd week of June, North America College Retreat on 4th week
4. 6/23-26 Navajo and Sedona Mission Camp
5. 7/3-5 LA Children’s Retreat
6. Offering can be given to the church venmo: @Antiochmissionchurch
Benediction
Now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the unending love of God, and the indwelling, guidance, fellowship, and working of the Holy Spirit, be upon the heads of all the people of God, the people of all nations, and the remnants who desire to hold onto only the Word of the covenant of Christ and live for the Kingdom of God, upon their studies and works and in everything they do, be with them from now until forevermore always, amen.