#5 (THE "INVITATION FROM GOD"
SERIES)
"COME AND DINE!"
TEXT: John
21:1-23
INTRO: Have you
ever had a rough day or even a rough week -- and you have failed miserably on
the job or even at home? You come
home and feel tired and weak; you are not exactly good company. At such times you get a phone call and a
friend invites you to a meal to relax and refresh yourself it can be so
wonderful!
This is what the Lord does
in this invitation ... it is just after the crucifixion of Jesus, the guys are
kind of discouraged and some like Peter have horrible feelings of failure they
haven't fully dealt with yet. They
have pulled back spiritually, with feelings of personal failure, and even a
group failure, and shattered dreams and
expectations.
Peter denied Jesus 3
times, the rest ran away from the cross except John, Judas committed suicide,
nothing worked out like they had expected.
No great kingdom came. They
are discouraged, weak, feel like failures, and they are probably fostering anger
and doubts.
In the midst of this Jesus
appears and offers an invitation: "Come and dine"
(KJV)
PROP.
SENT: The Bible teaches us that Jesus
offers us a place of refreshing when we have failed or are fearful, His love is
so great for us that He seeks to renew us, all we have to do is accept the
invitation!
I. DRIFTING AND FAILING 21:1-5
A. Frustrated 21:1-3
1. We are introduced to a rag tag
group of 7 guys who are totally discouraged and feeling
aimless.
a. Their hopes and dreams are dashed,
they are uncertain as to what has recently happened to
them.
b. They couldn't come up with answers
for all the horrible things that had taken place, and even if they did have any
ideas they were dealing with their own feelings of failure and running away from
Jesus, lots of guilt here!
2. This becomes evident in Peter's
statement in verse 3 "I'm going out to
fish!"
a. It is stated sort of matter of
fact, like there is nothing else to do – or nothing else he wants to
do!
b. An expanded version of this verse
expresses it this way: "I'm going off,
breaking my former connections (kingdom work stuff), to do my former fishing
business."
c. He was turning back to his old
occupation, trying to forget the years spent working for the
d. The rest of the guys agree to go
along to fish with him, they had nothing better to do
either!
3. Together they go and experience even more
failure! They catch nothing
all night!
a. Things were not at all like they
expected them to be in the
b. Their level of trust in what they
believed was in serious disrepair!
ILLUS: THEY WERE
LIKE THE OLD MAN WHO WAS CELEBRATING HIS 75 BIRTHDAY AND AN AVIATION ENTHUSIAST
WANTED TO GET HIM TO FLY IN A PLANE FOR THE FIRST TIME BY OFFERING TO TAKE HIM
UP IN THE AIR IN HIS PLANE. THE OLD
MAN HAD LIVED HIS WHOLE IN LIFE IN WEST VIRGINIA AND DIDN'T TRUST IN MODERN
CONTRAPTIONS. HOWEVER, SURPRISINGLY
ENOUGH THE OLD MAN ACCEPTED THE INVITATION. WHEN THE FLIGHT WAS OVER HIS FRIEND
ASKED HIM, "WELL, WERE YOU SCARED?"
HE ANSWERED, "NOOOO, BUT I NEVER DID PUT MY FULL WEIGHT DOWN ON THE FLOOR
OF THAT PLANE JUST TO BE SURE!" HE
WAS WILLING TO BE ON BOARD, BUT NOT NECESSARILY TRUST FULLY, ALTHOUGH IT REALLY
DIDN'T MATTER HOW HE THOUGHT HE WAS DOING! – SOURCE UNKNOWN
B. Failure!
21:4-5
1. Though they were in a defeated
attitude Jesus sees their need and comes to meet
them!
a. The Lord knows when we have failed,
and He is concerned about how we are doing!
b. They needed restoration, so Jesus
makes an appearance to minister to them!
2. Their present failure to catch fish
however only added to their sense of previous failure so that they didn't even
notice it was Jesus, they weren't even looking anymore for the
Lord!
a. They couldn't even see Jesus when
He was standing right in front of them!
They were only looking at their own sense of failure and
disappointments!
ILLUS: WHEN
LIONARDO DA VINCI HAD FINISHED PAINTING "THE LAST SUPPER" HE INVITED A FRIEND TO
VIEW IT. HIS FRIEND TOOK A LOOK AT
THE PAINTING AND THE "OOHS AND AHS" RESULTED. THE FRIEND WAS SO ENAMORED BY THE CUP IN
THE PAINTING THAT HE SEEMED TO BE OBLIVIOUS TO ANYTHING ELSE IN THE
PAINTING. LEONARDO NOTICED THIS AND
SUDDENLY GRABBED HIS PAINT BRUSH AND DIPPED IT INTO A GLOB OF PAINT AND QUICKLY
REACHED OVER AND IN ONE STROKE BLOTTED THE CUP OUT TO THE ASTONISHIMENT AND
REBUKE OF HIS FRIEND! TO HIS FRIEND
LEONARDO THEN EXCLAIMED, "FOOL, LOOK AT THE MASTER'S FACE!"... NOT THE CUP! IT WAS ONLY JESUS HE WAS SUPPOSED TO
TAKE CAREFUL NOTICE OF. HIS FRIEND
HAD MISSED THIS, SO THE CUP WOULD HAVE TO GO. ANYTHING ELSE THAT DREW ATTENTION AWAY
FROM JESUS FIRST WOULD NOT DO!
– SOURCE
UNKNOWN
b. They were too focused on their own
failures and loss of dreams to even notice it was Jesus who had come to refresh
them!
3. Failure
can hold us in a grip that can distort our whole perspective about God and
others ... even ourselves!
a. Jesus wasn't through with them;
thank God He doesn't just cast us away every time we
fail!
b. They needed a visit from the Lord
even when they didn't recognize it was the
Lord!
c. They were just drifting and failing
-- it was time to get them back on course!
II. DINING AND FELLOWSHIP 21:6-14
A. Favored!
21:6-9
1. In their minds they must have
assumed they had lost favor with Jesus, so it was back to their previous
occupation!
2. However, Jesus loves us more
than we give Him credit for, it is hard to lose the favor of
God!
3. Rather than send a storm to sink their ship
and drown them for the way they had abandoned Him during the crucifixion He
instead sits down and prepares for them a relaxing refreshing meal, a time of
fellowship with just them!
a. Jesus
loves these guys and nothing was more important than restoring them! And, this is true with us
too!
ILLUS: A MAN IN
NEW JERSEY HAD A DIFFICULT RELATIONSHIP WITH HIS NEIGHBOR. HE HAD CHICKENS THAT HE LET RUN LOOSE
AND THEY OFTEN GOT INTO HIS NEIGHBOR'S YARD AND GARDEN AND MADE A MESS OF
THINGS. HE HAD CLIPPED THEIR WINGS
SO THEY COULDN'T FLY BUT THEY STILL MANAGED TO GET AROUND. ONE DAY HE CAME HOME AND FOUND SEVERAL
DEAD CHICKENS STREWN AROUND ON HIS YARD ... AND DISCOVERED THAT HIS ANGRY
NEIGHBOR HAD COME INTO HIS YARD AND KILLED SEVERAL TO MAKE HIS POINT! AT ONCE HE DECIDED TO GET REVENGE ON HIS
NEIGHBOR, OR TO SUE HIM OR SOMETHING.
AS HE WENT TO HIS NEIGHBOR'S YARD HOWEVER HE FOUND HIM IN HIS GARDEN
CHASING ONE OF CHICKENS WHICH HAD DAMAGED SEVERAL PLANTS, SUDDENLY COMPASSION
FOR HIS NEIGHBOR HIT HIS HEART AND INSTEAD OF MAKING AN ENEMY OUT OF HIM HE
DECIDED TO TRY ANOTHER ROUTE. HE
WENT UP TO HIS NEIGHBOR AND BEGAN TO APOLOGIZE AND MADE AN OFFER TO PAY THE MAN
6 TIMES THE DAMAGE FOR ALL THAT HIS CHICKENS HAD DONE. THIS SO CAUGHT THE NEIGHBOR OFF GUARD
THAT HE LOOKED CONFOUNDED BY THIS OFFER.
HE WENT ON TO STATE THAT HE WOULD RATHER PAY HIM A GREAT DEAL OF MONEY
FOR THE MESS HIS CHICKENS MADE THAN TO LOSE THE GOODWILL OF A NEIGHBOR AND
FRIEND, IMMEDIATELY THE ANGER IN HIS NEIGHBOR SUBSIDED AND HE SAID, "I AM A
GREAT FOOL, THE DAMAGE IS NOT THAT GREAT, I NEED ALSO TO ASK YOUR FORGIVENESS
FOR MY ANGRY OUTBURST AND KILLING YOUR HENS.” A SOFT ANSWER TURNETH AWAY WRATH! – SOURCE
UNKNOWN
b. Notice Jesus' greeting to
them: "Friends, haven't
you any fish?" (Note: in the Greek this question was put by Jesus in
a way that He already knew the answer:
"Friends, you haven't caught any fish, have
you?"
c. Jesus addresses them as friends, He loves them and has
come to restore them!
4. Jesus gives them a familiar
incident to open their eyes to who He was, He asks them to cast their nets on
the "right" side of the boat (the starboard
side).
a. As they obey Jesus they suddenly
find a huge catch of fish!
b. Funny, but this had happened before
in their lives when they had listened to Jesus – yes -- it must be
Him!
5. This opened up John's eyes first
and he is the first to recognize that this was no ordinary man on shore, it had
to be Jesus!
a. He turns and tells Peter
this...
b. And Peter turns and puts on his
clothes and jumps into the water!
c. Peter does not walk on water this
time, he swims with his clothes on! It was considered a sacred thing to greet
another person; this could not be done without being properly
dressed!
6. Peter drops everything to get to
Jesus, a new flash of hope of renewed desire to be right with Jesus bursts in
his soul again!
a. On shore Jesus has already prepared
a hot meal, a warm setting, and an opportunity for
fellowship!
b. Jesus needs nothing, but He desires their
fellowship!
B. Fellowship
21:10-14
1. Jesus invites them to bring some of
the fish they had just caught, although He didn't need them -- perhaps He felt
they needed to feel they could contribute something
too!
a. Jesus is concerned about their way
of seeing themselves, they saw only their failure, their defeat, He would now
change this.
b. Like us, so many times when we fail
it is hard to come close again to the Lord because we are overwhelmed by our
failure!
ILLUS: ONE DAY A
MAN WAS ASKED TO SPEAK TO A COMPANY OF BUSINESS MEN ABOUT THE DEPRESSION. HE TACKED UP A LARGE SHEET OF WHITE
PAPER AND MADE A BLACK SPOT ON THE PAPER WITH HIS PENCIL. THEN TURNING TO THE CLASS HE ASKED,
"WHAT DO YOU SEE?" ONE MAN REPLIED
THAT HE SAW A "BLACK SPOT."
EVERYONE ELSE IN THE CLASS LOOKED HARD, BUT THEY ALL ADMITTED TO THE SAME
THING, THEY ONLY SAW A BLACK SPOT!
WITH CALM AND DELIBERATE EMPHASIS THE MAN TEACHING THEN SAID, "YES, THERE
IS A LITTLE BLACK SPOT, BUT NONE OF YOU SAW THE BIG WHITE SHEET OF PAPER! THAT'S MY SPEECH, NOW YOU CAN ALL GO
HOME! THIS IS WHAT THEY HAD DONE
TOO ... THEY SAW ONLY THEIR BLACK SPOT OF FAILURE, JESUS SAW THE WHOLE SHEET AND
HE HAD COME TO REMOVE THE BLACK SPOT!
– SOURCE
UNKNOWN
2. We do this all the time, we miss
the bigger picture for the smaller failures that consume our
minds!
3. Jesus invites them to “come and
dine!” To come and sit
and break their fast, or to have breakfast with Him -- to enjoy fellowship with
God!
a. What a statement: God still wants
fellowship with us even when we fail Him!
b. He hands them bread and meat ...
much the same way He had always done!
c. He desired to heal their hurt and
restore their mission and thinking, and especially their relationship to
Him!
d. He was concerned about
them!
4. Jesus knew where to find them, how
to get to them, how to heal them, how to encourage
them!
III. DEDICATION AND FRIENDSHIP 21:15-23
A. Feeding
21:15-19a
1. Jesus is not only interested in
them as a group, He also knew one of them needed some personal attention ...
Peter!
a. Jesus begins with Peter by asking
an odd and interesting question: "Simon, son of
John, do you truly love me more than
these?"
(1. This must have grabbed Peter's attention,
first, because Jesus doesn't call him “Peter,” but calls him by his old name “Simon!”
(2. Second, it was Peter who had earlier
claimed a superior love for Jesus than the other disciples, (see Mark
(3. This was the point of Peter beginning to
fail, and this is where Jesus would start to bring
healing!
b. The point of all this was to deal
with Peter's failure, not by ignoring it, but by dealing directly with
it!
2. Peter is quick to respond that yes
indeed He loves the Lord, for which Jesus then adds, "FEED my
lambs."
a. Jesus responds by letting Peter know He
wants him back in ministry, serving!
b. The call here was to "feed"
the lambs ... in other words, give good food to the new born babes, the work of
the Shepherd!
3. Jesus again asks a second time
about Peter's love and again Peter, being grieved, says of course he loves the
Lord!
a. Peter was now hurt that Jesus
questioned him twice, Jesus wanted to get Peter to deal with his feelings and
affirm his love an equal amount of times for the number of times he had denied
Jesus, to heal each one of Peter's earlier denials, this was
#2!
b. Jesus adds, "Take care of my
sheep"… a reference to the older sheep in a fold, using the term "tend"
or “take
care” ... meaning to guide and even discipline ... again the work of
a Shepherd!
4. A third time Jesus questions him
about his love and the final denial is dealt with by a third affirmation by
Peter. Jesus adds this time "feed my
sheep," now including the entire fold, young and old and all
between!
a. This was the work of ministry;
Jesus had not given up on Peter!
b. The call to the cross was for Peter
as well, and it is not going to be an easy cross to bear. It would take deep love for the Lord to
endure the cross he would have to bear!
c. Being a follower of Jesus is not an
easy task, it is not just another thing to do, and it is not a cheap
cross!
ILLUS: A MAN WHO
HAD PREACHED IN MEXICO ON THE STREETS RELATES HOW ONE DAY WHEN AN UNUSUAL THING
HAPPENED WHEN HE ATTEMPTED TO PREACH.
EVERY DAY HE NORMALLY WAS ABUSED BADLY WHILE HE ATTEMPTED TO PREACH JESUS
ON THE STREETS, MANY TIMES BEING STONED BY THOSE WHO HEARD HIM! HOWEVER, HE NOTICED THAT ON CERTAIN
RELIGIOUS DAYS OR FESTIVALS PEDDLERS WOULD GO UP AND DOWN THE STREETS YELLING,
"CHEAP CROSSES, CHEAP CROSSES! WHO
WILL BUY A CHEAP CROSS?" THEY
DIDN'T MIND BUYING A CHEAP CROSS TO CELEBRATE FOR ONE DAY SOMETHING ABOUT GOD.
THIS DIDN'T TAKE LOVE, JUST A DESIRE FOR SOMETHING DIFFERENT THAT DAY, BUT TO
PAY A HIGH PRICE WAS DIFFERENT, ONLY THOSE WHO TRULY LOVE CAN DO THAT! – SOURCE
UNKNOWN
5. Jesus was both healing old wounds
in Peter and also letting him know that ministry needed deep
love!
a. Only Peter's deep love for Jesus
could keep their friendship strong enough for Peter to make it in
ministry.
b. This nice fellowship on the
lakeshore was intended as more than just a time of friendship, it was also
preparation and dedication to a job yet to be
done!
B. Following
21:19b-23
1. Peter is doing well until now, he
comes upon an old habit -- looking at others!
a. Jesus' last word to Peter mirrors
the first words He spoke to Peter:
“FOLLOW
ME!”
b. Peter however turns and looks at
John and asks what is going to happen to John!
c. Jesus has to remind Peter to quit
worrying about John and to worry about Peter!
2. Again Jesus adds, "you must follow
me!" … get your eyes off of what I am doing with John and keep them
on me!
a. If Peter didn't, ministry would
become impossible, he would be too prone to being either smug or disappointed
with God if he kept his eyes on what God was doing with others and compared
himself to them!
b. This has always been the downfall
and struggle with many Christians ... we are suppose to be following Jesus and
not others!
ILLUS: A BUNCH OF
BOYS ONE DAY DECIDED TO BET WHO AMONG THEM COULD MAKE THE STRAIGHTEST PATH
ACROSS A SNOWY FIELD THAT NOBODY HAD WALKED IN YET. AS THEY EACH SET OUT THEY DISCOVERED
THAT ONLY ONE OF THEM HAD SUCCEEDED IN MAKING A PERFECTLY STRAIGHT LINE, ALL THE
OTHERS HAD ZIGZAGGED ALL OVER THE PLACE.
WHEN HIS FRIENDS ASKED H0W HE DID IT HE SAID, "I FOUND A DISTANT GOAL AND
KEPT MY EYES FIXED ON IT, WHILE YOU GUYS ALL KEPT LOOKING AT EACH OTHER OR YOUR
OWN FEET AND SO WENT ALL OVER!"
– SOURCE
UNKNOWN
3. Now they were all restored to
fellowship, Peter's failures had been healed, new direction given, the right
focus was in place, and the work of God took
off!
4. All because a bunch of discouraged
guys accepted an invitation from God to "COME AND
DINE!"
a. Do you need to accept God's
invitation to renew your fellowship?
b. Have you been refreshed by God's
provisions?
c. Do you have clear insight into what
He is calling you to do? IF NOT ...
“COME AND
DINE!”
CONCLUSION: This invitation by Jesus was
to a group of disheartened and failing disciples! Jesus, knowing their need for restoration
and encouragement reaches out to them and invites them to "COME AND
DINE," to enjoy His fellowship and His provisions. This invitation is for the weary and the
struggling disciple, for the one who is struggling with failures and can’t get
past them. For those who come, they
will find fellowship with God and healing!
“COME
AND
DINE!”