John Chapter 21:1-6

They're doing it their way. Jesus says, make a change, and they don't go, you know, Jesus, what do you know about fishing?

I mean, at this point, they don't even know it's Jesus. It's just some stranger on the shore saying, throw your net on the other side of the boat. The difference was three feet, and it made all the difference. So they cast this, and then what happens? A multitude of fish. What had they been looking for? Fish. What did Jesus get them?

Fish. Jesus has what you're looking for. It may take some faith.

It may take some risk. But Jesus has what you're looking for. If you're looking for peace, Jesus offers you peace. If you're looking for forgiveness, He will give you that.

But so many of us continue to look in the wrong direction. Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David McGee. David is a senior pastor of The Bridge in Kernersville, North Carolina. Are you looking for meaning, purpose, joy, peace, forgiveness, and more?

Well, all of those things come together in one package deal. His name is Jesus Christ. Today, Pastor David talks about how you can have a part in Jesus and all that He offers, as Pastor David continues teaching in the Gospel of John, chapter 21, with his message, Fishers of Man. In chapter 21, we find ourselves with the resurrection of Jesus. Jesus appears to the disciples. And then this chapter kind of wraps the whole thing up, if you will. So John, chapter 21, verse 1, says, After these things, Jesus showed Himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias.

And in this way, He showed Himself. Now, the Sea of Tiberias was also called the Sea of Galilee. The Sea of Galilee is where 18 of the 33 miracles were performed. At least five of the disciples were from the Sea of Galilee. So this is familiar ground to them. This is their familiar stomping grounds, if you will. Now, verse 2, Simon Peter, Thomas, called the twin, Nathanael of Canine Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, who were James and John, and two others of his disciples were together.

So you've got seven of them together. Simon Peter said to them, I am going fishing. And they said to him, We are going with you also. They went out and immediately got into the boat, and that night they caught nothing.

Now, part of the miracle, I guess, is that they actually recorded they caught nothing, and they told them they caught nothing. But in reading some of the commentaries, it was interesting because some of the guys, some of the commentaries I read said, Oh, they were fishing. That's just, that's hunky dory. That's great, you know.

Is it? Now, I have nothing against fishing. When John David was young, I took him several times just so we could sit and talk, you know, and it was kind of interesting. We went, I guess we went about three times, and we didn't catch anything. I don't know if there was fish in the lake or not, but, you know, but, so, and he was asking, the third time he's like, Okay, so there's a hook, and there's this thing on the hook, and so how do they know the thing's on the hook? And I said, Well, they either see it or smell it, and, you know, and he sat there, and he got real quiet for a little while, and he said, Dad, are you sure people catch fish like this? He was convinced there was a flaw in the plan somewhere. So I've got nothing against fishing, but that's not what they were supposed to be doing.

See, if you dig in the Scripture, you'll find an interesting verse. Matthew 28, 16, it says, Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. They were supposed to be in a mountain.

Where were they? They were at the beach. Now, again, I've got nothing against the beach.

I love the beach. I've lived there off and on, but that's not where they were supposed to be, and they weren't supposed to be fishing. They had gotten caught up, and so it's a question of being obedient to what the Lord has said, and notice Peter. Peter's a leader. Peter says, Well, I'm going fishing, and the other guys go, Okay, we'll all go fishing.

I understand something, too. You know, the church at large, and this church more particularly, always needs people to be leaders. Now, perhaps you're sitting there, and you go, Well, I'm not really a leader.

Well, you have some leadership capabilities, and let me encourage you to help develop that because leading people is a skill that you can develop, and leading a household or just leading your own life or leading people to the Lord are skills that you need to be developing. So here they are, and what had Jesus told them about fishing? Well, some of you probably remember what He had said. One place He said it. He said it in every gospel, so we didn't miss it. Mark chapter one, verse 16 says, And as He walked by the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew His brother casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. Then Jesus said to them, Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.

And they immediately left their nets and followed Him. And I love the way that says, And I will make you become fishers of men. It doesn't say you're gonna have to attend a conference or a seminar to help become a fisher of men. Jesus said, You know what?

You follow Me, and watch what'll happen. As you follow Me, you will become a fisher of men. Now, were they fishing for men out there?

Well, I'm thinking not. They were fishing for fish, and Jesus said, You know what? That's not the focus of your life anymore.

Your main focus is to be what I've called you to do. And so I think in part they were looking back, which is not good for somebody that's following Jesus. You can ask Lot's wife. Or either that or they were unwilling to change, which also wasn't a good thing. You could ask Judas about that.

But they needed to change, and they needed to quit looking back. The life lesson here, God wants to divinely interrupt our lives. God wants to divinely interrupt our lives. See, when you come to Jesus, everything begins to change.

Not just a little bit. Everything begins to change. Everything is supposed to begin to change. I don't know where we got this notion that once you're a Christian, you come to church for an hour, hour and a half, two hours, and then that's it. You've paid your debt. You've done your time.

That whole thing is really not biblical Christianity. If that's your spiritual engagement, then I need to challenge you this morning. Maybe you remember when you were in school and you missed a day. And what you would do when you missed that day is you probably remember you would get a note from home. Later maybe you figured out that you could write like Mom. But in those early days, you would have a note from home and you would come to school and you'd say, see, here's, you know, I got my excuse.

This was an excused absence, right? I'm concerned that some of us treat Christianity like that. We ask the Lord to forgive us of our sins and we get this note that says, you are forgiven, sign Jesus, and you think, okay, good, I'm done.

No, no, no, no. It's much more than that. See, if you think that it's all about just getting your sins forgiven and that being it, oh, man, there's so much more to it than that.

There is so much more. Certainly it starts there, but see, when you come to Jesus, again, everything changes. God wants to be part of your life, not just on Sunday morning, but every day of the week. And the question is, is He? Or has this become your form of Christianity?

And if it has, you know what, I'll be honest, I want to wake you out of that slumber. I don't want you thinking that that's Christianity. See, you go from it's all about me to it's all about Jesus. You go from I want to be served to I want to serve. You go from I'm looking for sin to I'm trying to avoid sin. You go from I have to serve to I get to serve.

All that is supposed to change. Romans 12 one puts it this way. And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice, the kind He will accept. When you think of what He has done for you, is this too much to ask? That's a challenging scripture, isn't it?

It's not, Paul's not talking about, well, you know, as long as you do your hour and a half or two hours a week, you know, you're good. Now, again, you know, I'm glad you're here. I thank you for being here. I appreciate you being here, but God wants to be more to you than just a Sunday morning experience. I want you to have a living, vibrant, contagious, active faith, because I'm really unsure of any other kind, to be honest.

I'm not sure there is another kind. See, Peter's life was changing, but look what Peter was doing. Peter was clinging to what he knew. He used to be a fisherman.

What are we going to do? Well, I don't know, let's go fishing. Jesus had more planned for him, much more, as we see how Peter impacted the church and impacted the world to the point that most people in the world today know who Peter is. And it wasn't because he kept going fishing.

It was because he began to pour his life out for God. Now, look what they call nothing, not a thing. See, when you cling to what you're familiar with, expect the same results. But if you're willing to risk things, when you're willing to step out in faith, God will reward that. Now, that's what he wants to do in our lives. And yes, I understand. We all want to cling to the old things.

You know, it seems like the older you get, the more your habits are just, you know, well, I'll do this, and I'll do that, and I'll do this. God wants you following him, and that probably means a radical departure for a lot of people in here. We'll be right back with more from David Magee on Cross the Bridge. Right now, here's a word from associate pastor D.A.

Brown. We want to take just a minute to pray for a few cities in our listening audience, specifically Gallup, New Mexico, and Las Cruces, Portales, Roswell, Tularosa, and Binghamton, New York, and Oswego. God, we thank you for these listening in these cities right now. We pray that you would pour your spirit out on them, Lord, that they would have faith to trust you and what you're wanting to do in their life. We pray if there's people, Father, who have yet to put their trust in you, that today would be the day, that they would say yes to the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ for them. Lord, we pray for those in leadership positions, that you would anoint them, that you would give them wisdom and discernment, Lord, that they would look to your Bible for answers and form their conclusions accordingly. Lord, we pray that you would pour your spirit out on these cities. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.

Thank you, brother. And now, let's get back to David McGee as he continues teaching verse by verse. Verse 4. But when the morning had now come, Jesus stood on the shore, yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Now, I find it interesting that five, maybe even seven of these guys, were fishermen. It was their living. That's what they did. These weren't some, you know, weekend warrior kind of fishermen. This is what these guys did day in, day out.

And I like what one commentary said. This was the failure of the experts. They were expert fishermen.

They caught nothing. Verse 5. Then Jesus said to them, Children, have you any food?

And they answered him, No. Notice what he calls them. Children.

I think that's sweet. I think that's, I think that's really sweet of Jesus to call them children, because God's keeping in mind, they're doing something they're not supposed to be doing. They're supposed to be up on the mountain meeting Jesus.

And they're down here fishing. And so, but Jesus, you know, Jesus doesn't stand on the shore and go, Hey, you bunch of backsliders, what are you doing out there? You bunch of ex-disciples, you bunch of artists formerly known as the apostles. No, he doesn't do any of that. You know, he calls them children. Children.

I like that. And he asked them, Do you have any food? Did you catch anything? Again, there's a miracle in here that they just say, No. You know, they don't say, Well, we've had a lot of nibbles, we've had a lot of bites, and we had one in the net, and he got away, but you know. They said, No.

What an embarrassing question. They've been out there. They're professional fishermen. They say, No, I haven't caught anything. Why did he ask them that? I mean, did Jesus not know that they hadn't caught anything? No, Jesus knew. He wanted them to realize they hadn't caught anything.

Why? Because they were doing it their own way. And Jesus kind of is saying, Hey, how's your way going?

Well, not very well. See, this is the thing, and the Lord wants to teach us to do things in a new way. And some of us, we need to realize that there's parts of our lives that just aren't working. They're not functioning well.

And probably because we're doing it our way. And the nets keep coming up empty. And the Lord would say to you this morning, What have you got? What have you caught? I don't have anything. Is that your plan? You're going to keep doing it that same way?

Understand, I believe that we will, each and every one of us, be asked this question when we get to heaven. What'd you catch? I didn't catch anything. Well, did you try to catch anything? No, I just sat back and criticized those who were catching things.

Or, oh yeah, Lord, you know what? I played a part. Man, we saw people coming to Jesus every week.

It was awesome. Which will it be? See, God wants us to realize that our way won't work and that we're dependent upon Him. Because when we try to do things our way, it doesn't work.

Don't be shocked by that. I'm shocked when you try to do something your own way and it works. I'm also shocked when I do something God's way and it fails. Because I have to ask myself, okay, God, what were you trying to teach me?

Here's the thing, guys. God can give us spiritual goals, but with no human effort, we won't get there. With all the human effort in the world, we cannot accomplish spiritual goals if God doesn't empower us to do that. See, that's what's so significant about somebody getting saved and somebody following the Lord and somebody getting baptized is because those things don't happen in the natural. I don't have the power to convert somebody.

So what we see week after week is a very special supernatural thing. But when God gives us spiritual goals and we combine them with human effort, there's nothing that can't be done. There is nothing that can't be done. The life lesson here, Jesus said, without me, you can do nothing and with me, there is nothing you can't do. Obviously, there's some things that you can accomplish, but nothing of real spiritual significance or of lasting importance. And here's the thing, when you place self at the center of your life and you may have the forgiveness of your sins, but self still rules your life, well, it's like you're at this phase of your Christian walk.

Yeah, see, I'm forgiven. But God's not really God in your life. You've got self at the center. That's not what God desires for you. See, you won't find what you want and you won't find what you need when you do that. Jesus told us that. We may overuse the word destiny at times, but you will never fulfill your God-given destiny while self is at the center of your life.

It won't happen. And God loves you so much that when he's at the center of your life is the only time you find that joy and that peace and that love at its strongest place. I know you won't find true satisfaction just in your workplace or in beer commercials or surfing online.

You're not gonna find true satisfaction there. And I've seen people that were, man, they were scared to death to start serving here. And I watch what happens in their lives and I see their face and they say things like, you know what, man, I was in there and I was working with the kids and the God of the universe used me to speak to them and I've never experienced anything like that. Bingo.

That's a win. We've been created by God to join with him in this adventure to serve one another and through his power, heal a beat-up, broken world. God wants us to trade selfishness for sacrifice and the mundane for meaning and religious ritual for reality. That's what God wants to do in our lives. And yet some of us still wanna be spectators.

Christianity is not a spectator sport. Verse six. And he said to them, cast the net on the right side of the boat and you will find some. So they cast and now they were not able to draw it in because of the multitude of fish.

This is interesting. They're doing it their way. Jesus says, make a change and they don't go, you know, Jesus, what do you know about fishing? I mean, at this point, they don't even know it's Jesus. It's just some stranger on the shore saying, throw your net on the other side of the boat. And perhaps even when I just talked about serving just now, you're like, oh, I don't know what that means.

The difference was three feet and it made all the difference. So they cast this and then what happens? A multitude of fish. What had they been looking for? Fish. What did Jesus give them?

Fish. Jesus has what you're looking for. It may take some faith, it may take some risk, but Jesus has what you're looking for. If you're looking for peace, Jesus offers you peace. If you're looking for joy, he offers you joy. If you're looking for forgiveness, he will give you that.

But so many of us continue to look in the wrong direction. Jesus can give you those things in ways that you could never imagine, beyond what you're able to think. Some of us, even as I say that, you're like, well, what do you mean Jesus has what I'm looking for?

I feel strongly enough about it, it's the next life lesson. Jesus has what you're looking for. Now, some of you, even as I say that, some of you may be going, well, what do you mean Jesus has what I'm looking for? Making Jesus a shopkeeper.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Here's the deal, guys. The things that we really want, meaning in life, love, joy, peace, the assurance of forgiveness, a cause to live for something bigger than ourselves and these things, you find it in Jesus. You don't find it in yourself. And again, while your life revolves around yourself, even if you have your sins forgiven, you're not gonna see those things.

When you begin to live this radical, revolutionary adventure for God, you're gonna see these things. And many of us have looked for these things in a self-centered lifestyle. We've looked for these things chasing whatever, a big house or lots of finances or nice cars and all those things. I got nothing against those things, but when they become the center of your life, man, you're being too cheaply satisfied and chances are you aren't satisfied.

What will it take? Hey, Jesus, and sometimes we don't even know what we're looking for. We think we know what we're looking for. But some of us had to find, we had to actually find what we weren't looking for so we could figure out that we needed to go look for what we weren't looking for. That was real clear, wasn't it? I think y'all knew it, but it's the next life lesson.

No, I'm kidding. I think that's clear, though, because in my instance, being involved in secular music and corporate stuff and thinking, okay, this is what I want, and I came close to that to realize that's not it. That's not it. And some of you may be at that place of disillusionment. Maybe you thought at some point your job was gonna bring you this intense satisfaction and now you're going, you know what?

I don't think it's going to. Maybe you're looking to family life to bring that and you're realizing it's not gonna bring it. Maybe you're looking to your spouse to bring it and you're going, no, that's not it either.

You know why? Because God loves you so much. He wants you to find it at one place that's unchanging, unshifting, solid as a rock. And that's Him.

And He loves you so much that you won't find it in these other things in life. And notice, Jesus didn't say, well, you need to go to the other end of the lake because that's what we often think, isn't it? Well, I gotta make these huge changes. You know, God asked us to take steps. That's what He asked us to do. I mean, how hard was it for the disciples to just throw the net on the other side of the boat?

Wasn't hard at all. And that's what Jesus, Jesus says, look, if you do this, then I'll do that. If you do this, then I'll do that. And so some of you are probably closer than you realize. And again, you can find true peace and joy and satisfaction in Jesus. But you have to follow Him. And it starts with asking Him to forgive you of your sins.

And how simple is that? He doesn't say, now, look, this is what you gotta do. You gotta do this, that, and the other. And after you do those things for 12 years, then you can begin to follow Me and ask for forgiveness of your sins.

I'm so glad He doesn't do that. He just come to me, ask. And look how we built fences around that, hadn't we?

Well, you can't just ask. You gotta do this, you gotta do that, and you gotta do it like this, and you gotta do it like that. And again, how did we take the greatest message that humanity has ever heard and turn it into something twisted that no longer appeals to people? I understand, I don't water down the gospel. If you don't ask the Lord to forgive you of your sins, your sins will never be forgiven.

And your forgiveness is only available through the atoning death of Jesus on the cross. I'm not watering it down. But I do wanna keep it simple because we tend to make it overly complicated. We're not gonna make it complicated because it was not meant to be complicated.

It was meant to be straightforward. So Jesus has what we're looking for and will follow Him and discover the reality of Jesus in our lives. Verse seven, therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, it is the Lord.

Oh, I love that. And when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment for he had removed it and plunged into the sea. I love Peter, man. Peter is just that all or none gung ho guy, isn't he?

And granted, he didn't always get it right, but man, he got it right very often. And look what God did with his life. Friend, do you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven?

You can know right now. I want to lead you in a short, simple prayer, simply telling God you're sorry and asking Him to help you to live for Him. Please pray this prayer with me out loud right now. Dear Jesus, I believe you died for me that I could be forgiven. And I believe you were raised from the dead that I could have a new life. And I've done wrong things. I have sinned, and I'm sorry. Please forgive me of all those things.

Please give me the power to live for you all of my days. In Jesus' name, amen. Friend, if you prayed that prayer, according to the Bible, you've been forgiven. You've been born again.

Jesus said He would not turn anybody away who comes to Him, and He came for those people who knew they needed forgiveness, those who were sick, not the righteous. So congratulations, friend. This is the greatest decision that you will ever make. God bless you. If you prayed that prayer with David for the first time, we'd love to hear from you. You can visit crossthebridge.com to receive our First Steps package with helpful resources to help you begin your walk with Christ.

Or you can write to Cross the Bridge at P.O. Box 12515, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 27117, and share how God is working in your life. This message tells us that the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. But it does cost for us to come and bring that message to you and to others in your neighborhood through radio, through the internet, and through the mobile technologies that God has gifted us to be able to use. So if you'd like to support this ministry, please go to crossthebridge.com, click on the donate button, and ask God how much He would have you give, either on a one-time basis or a continuing basis each month to help ensure that the teaching of God's Word continues to go out through Cross the Bridge.

Thank you so much. Well, D.A., before we go, what are some ways that we can bless our listeners? Each day you can wake up with encouragement from Pastor David through the Word of God with his email devotional, life lessons to consider, a daily reading plan, and a thought to meditate on throughout your day from the heart of David McGee. Those are terrific, and it's easy and it's free. So, folks, sign up today at crossthebridge.com. Thanks again for listening, and join us next time as David McGee continues teaching verse by verse in the Gospel of John.