"Lord" in John 21

I'd like you to turn, please, to John's Gospel, Chapter 21. A little word that is on my heart that may follow in line with the ministry today. Verse 1 of John 21.

After these things, Jesus showed himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias, or Galilee, and on this wise showed he himself. There were together Simon Peter and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana of Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two other of his disciples. Simon Peter saith unto him, I go fishing.

They say unto him, we also go with thee. They went forth, entered into a ship immediately, and that night they caught nothing. But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus.

Jesus said unto them, have ye children, have ye any meat? They answered him, no. And he said unto them, cast the net on the right side of the ship, and you shall find. They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes.

Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter, it is the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he girded his fisher's coat unto him, for he was naked, and had cast himself into the sea. And the other disciples came in a little ship, they were not far from land, about 200 cubits, that's about a hundred yards, dragging the net with fishes.

As soon then as they were come to the land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid thereon and bred. Jesus saith unto them, bring the fish which ye have now caught. Simon Peter went up and drew the net to land, full of great fishes, a hundred and fifty and three.

And for all there were so many, yet was not the net broken. Jesus saith unto them, come and dine. Now look down the chapter to verse 15.

So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He said unto him, feed my lambs. He said to him again a second time, Simon son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee.

He saith unto him, feed my sheep. He saith unto him the third time, Simon son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, feed my sheep.

Verse 19. This spake he, signifying by what death he should glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he saith unto him, follow me.

Then Peter turning about, seeth a disciple whom Jesus loved following, which also leaned on his breast at supper and said, Lord, which is he that betrayeth thee? And Jesus said, saith to the Lord, Peter said to the Lord, what shall this man do? Jesus saith unto him, if I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou me. Now we know God will bless what we have listened to and this further reading of his word. I want to notice in this chapter three mentions of the word Lord.

In verse seven, that may link in line with what we've been hearing. He's Lord of the harvest. He directs their service.

We've been hearing about that. Then down in verse 17, he's Lord of the heart. Again, the same one demands our affection.

And then down in verse 21, he's the Lord of our homeward journey. He determines our eternal destiny. Now I see a ministry of restoration in these words from the lips of the master.

Here's a group of disciples and Peter says, I go a fishing. I want to suggest the power of influence in the life of a believer. My brother has been reminding us of that, how we can be influenced so easily.

The power of influence. Peter had been called to leave his fishing and now he's going back again. But the trouble is there's a number of others.

They said, we also go with they. So the Lord at the end of the chapter, when they have been brought back to him, he warms their hearts. He gives them food to eat and he speaks to them.

They listen to what he has to say. He's the Lord that directs our service. Now in the early part of the chapter, this service was self-pleasing.

It was the desire of their own hearts. That's what my brother's been telling us. It's possible for me or for anyone to do what I want to do and not to consider my weak brethren.

There's a danger of any of us being detrimental in our Christian living. There are those that are watching. They observe.

You can be sure of that. What I do, even the neighbors know. You didn't go to the meeting your church last night.

Were you sick? They know what night of the week the meeting is and if you don't go, they wonder if something is wrong. Where I live in what they call a retirement community, although I haven't quite retired yet. In a couple of months it'll be 60 years since the brethren in this assembly, who are all in heaven now, commended me to the work of the Lord.

I don't know where the years have gone, but they tell me it'll be 60 years. Well, we've been trying and we're still trying, but we have no strength in ourselves. Like the Apostle Paul said, when I am weak, then am I strong.

And the moment we think that we can do anything in our own strength, in our own ability, the Lord soon lets us know. Used to be an old preacher in Ireland, Mr. Frank Knox, that I heard often as a boy. He used to say, I'm always afraid of the next meeting if God gives me real help in that particular meeting.

I may get the idea, well, I'm quite a preacher, and then the Lord will just let you go as flat as a pancake the next night. If I depend on my own abilities, we cannot, brethren, function as we've been reminded apart from God. And this book is our guide, it's our counsel, it's our counsel.

The Bible says it's our necessary food. Let me ask you, have you read anything of this book this morning before you came to the conference? My brother said you can't survive on conferences, and that's true. We can't survive on meetings.

There must be that daily, consistent assimilation of the word of God, just like the Israelites. You remember when God sent the manna, they were to gather it every morning, enough for that day. And then on the weekend, they were to gather twice as much.

And if they kept it over, it bred worms and it stank. And so God is the one that governs and directs our service. They toiled all night because they were thinking they were able to catch fish.

And then when they realized that they were helpless, the Lord appears. And he said to them, what have you caught? And they said, nothing. And he said, cast the net on the right side of the ship.

Now maybe some of my esteemed brethren can tell me if that was the right side or the left side. It just says the right side, and I take it to be where the fish were. And this time it says, God gave the increase.

Now this was service that was controlled by the Lord himself. He told them what they do, and they responded, and they were hardly able to draw for the multitude of the fish. And the Lord tells us the very number.

There's a few fishermen here that I know, and every fisherman likes to count his fish. Is that right? William would tell you that, and a few other brethren that I won't mention. The most I ever caught was 73.

In Newfoundland, one time after the conference in Lancelot, Bert Joyce and I flew up to Red Bay, and there was a brother and his son there who were commercial fishermen. They used to spend their days jigging for cod. And so Monday morning they said, well, we're going fishing, you want to go with us? And so Mr. Joyce and Mr. Ramsey and Bill Bingham and myself went with them.

And for three hours, about a half a mile offshore, we were jigging for cod. Big sinker with a treble hook on each end. And I remember we caught 73.

We counted them, and we're up till midnight cleaning fish in Phil and Bert Joyce's locker. And Mr. Ramsey had gathered a big sack of dulse, that seaweed that he liked, that he strung it up all over Bert's living room and kitchen. And then we went off at four o'clock in the morning to get the ferry back to the mainland, and he forgot his dulse.

And he was upset. And you know how he liked it. But you see, something about fishing is important to these men.

That was their livelihood. I didn't remind a few hours, but to spend a life at it, that wasn't for me. The danger is this, in anything, fishing, whatever you do, it's like Mr. George John Douglas said years ago on Scotland, he had a greenhouse, a glass house as they called it, full of tomatoes, tomatoes they called them.

And his neighbor wanted him to buy his glass house. You know what he said to him? He said, John Douglas has tomatoes, but if I buy your greenhouse, the tomatoes will have John Douglas. See the idea? Not to be overly obsessed with whatever your little outlet may be.

The Word of God is the secret of our survival in this godless world. You know, there's a real effort being made to put away every vestige of Christianity, even in our government. Just last week down in Des Moines at our courthouse session of government, they had an atheist pray to his deity, what he observed, what he knew existed, and what he enjoyed.

And he called it the Trinity. That's the age that we're living in. Attempt to take away from this book.

So the Lord help us to appreciate it. And so anyway, here they're rejoicing. The Lord says to them now, come and dine.

And they're sitting, communing with a master. My brother's been telling us about that. That's the happiest moment in your life and in my life.

Someone penned those words, those happy days I once enjoyed. How sweet, their memory still. But I have found a deeper joy that nothing else can fill.

Communion with a master is the greatest experience in the life of the believer. We would encourage young men. I've been reading this book for a long time, 70 some years.

My young brother and I, they're taking an interest in their Bibles. Some are looking at the Newbery Bible, lots of good berries in there. Right, Scott? I read the Newbery for maybe 50 years, and then when the revised version came out, I changed.

And I found most of the marginal readings are very similar to Newbery and to Darby. But it's good to understand what the scriptures say. And there's lots of helps available.

Our dear brother Olson has all kinds of good helps out there. Avail yourselves of them. Don't waste your money on the fiction of this world.

Put your money in what's valuable. I've got a few books at home, maybe about 2,000. They're not all mine.

I inherited my dad's library and my wife's grandfather's library. And some of those books are worth something. A brother showed me one not too long ago, and he said, this cost me $200.

I said, well, I got it for nothing. It was part of what I inherited. You see, books are valuable.

But there's no book more valuable than this one. And so they're communing with a master, come and dine. And then he's the same Lord of the heart, the one that's the Lord of the harvest.

He demands my affection and your affection. He says, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? You notice he calls him Simon. And he said, do you love me? If you do, feed these little lambs.

And then he said to him the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? And twice over, Peter says, Lord, you know I'm fond of you. And this time he says, feed my sheep. Little sheep, including the whole flock.

And the third time, the Lord takes Peter's word. He says, Peter, are you really fond of me? Do you mean it? He says, Lord, thou knowest all things. Thou knowest that I love thee.

And Peter is crushed and broken, and Peter's acknowledging his devotion to the master. That's what the Lord wants from me and from you. We get occupied with our service, we preachers.

We get too occupied with activity sometimes. But the Lord wants us to spend time in his presence, to listen to his word, to commune with him. God gets more pleasure from that than he does in my activity.

He says, my son, give me thy heart. And that's what he's doing here. And Peter acknowledges, Lord, you know, you know that I love you.

And then at the end of the chapter where we read, we see the Lord saying to John, John says to him, or Peter says, what shall this man do? He's lying on the breast of the master. He was so near, he could hear his breathing. He was near to his Savior.

And Peter looks at him and he says, Lord, how about him? You're leaving. What's going to happen to this man? And the Lord says, don't you be concerned about him. If it be that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou me.

In other words, you worry about number one. Don't be occupied with what others are doing. You make sure that you're enjoying that fellowship and communion with the master.

So how wondrous it is to know that this one is the one that demands our devotion and directs our service. And he determines our eternal destiny. And one day we shall be at home.

What a glorious day that will be when all the redeemed for the first time will be in heaven. Probably most of the church is there now. But when the Lord comes at that glorious moment, the whole church will be united to their head, the Lord himself.

And then we shall enter into that eternal state. Paul reminds us of that when he writes to the Ephesians. He says that in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

There always will be ages to come. On one of my visits to Ireland, I had meetings with the esteemed brother, Mr. McKelvey, and I heard him say one Sunday afternoon at a ministry meeting, God is never coming out and wringing his hands and say there's no more to unfold to his people. There'll be more and more and more and it will be eternal.

The Lord help us to appreciate something of heaven while we're down here. We can enjoy it on the way to heaven. The Lord bless his word and bless you and what will follow for his name's sake.