Forgiven (John 21.1-19)

A rich businessman got chatting to a fisherman who was looking at the sea and smoking his pipe. “I have a business proposition to make”, he said. “You have the skill, I have the financial muscle. If you sign a contract with us, we will pay you £100,000. You just have to return a certain quota of fish.”

The fisherman said “Why would I want that?”

“You could earn more money and buy a better boat so you could go deeper and catch more fish.”

The fisherman said, “Then what would I do?”

“Well”, says the businessman, “You could purchase stronger modern nylon nets, catch even more fish, make even more money.”

The fisherman puffed on his pipe, turned to the man and said, “Then what would I do?”

The businessman replied, “Just think. You could sit down and enjoy life...”

The fisherman looked at him again. “What do you think I’m doing now?”

Fishermen seem to come in two models. Some are prone to exaggeration; they come home showing with two hands how big their catch was. Others are prone to swearing; they come home cold, wet, empty-handed and grumbling about dwindling fish stocks.

And it seems likely that Simon Peter and his mates were from the second group. As I never tire of saying, not one of Jesus’ four fisherman disciples is on record in any Gospel for ever catching even one fish without Jesus having to perform a miracle for it to happen.

Here the catch comes in at 153. Saint Jerome had a theory that in those days, there were 153 known species of fish. So he said it’s a symbol of the evangelisation of the world, where all nations will be reached - and the net, which is the church, will never be torn.

Or could it be that human nature requires that fishermen measure their catch? Could it be that they just counted the fish in their unusually gorging net and really did find 153 of them?

We’re starting a series today about the great salvation we have in Christ. We’re going to be looking at many of the Bible metaphors associated with salvation; we are redeemed, born again, assured, filled, justified, reconciled and, today, totally forgiven.

But I want to say this right at the start: this is one of those black and white things. There are no shades of “salvation.”

On the Titanic, either you were saved or you perished. It’s the same with spiritual salvation in the Bible. You’re either you’re saved - or you’re not.

Let me ask a direct question. Do you know if you are saved?

If you cannot clearly and definitely reply “yes” to that question, I would strongly encourage you to sign up for the Alpha course today.

I think you will look back on that as one of the best decisions you ever made because I think it will really help you think through questions like this and have real assurance in your faith.

But Alpha is not only for people who are unsure about the word “saved” and I’ll come to that later.

The first facet of salvation we’re looking at is forgiveness and this passage is all about how Jesus forgives, how he restores a messed up life.

Remember that every disciple in this boat had deserted Jesus, all except John, who stayed with him at the cross. All the others ran away.

Peter was the worst of the lot. He had even called down curses on himself, swearing he didn’t know Jesus.

Peter did that while warming himself by a charcoal fire. Jesus is now standing on the shore (v9) by a... charcoal fire. There are only two references to a charcoal fire in the entire New Testament; when Peter denied Jesus and here.

Jesus did that deliberately. He loves to wipe the slate clean and give people a new start.

The word usually used in the New Testament for forgiveness literally means “to let go.” Like when standing on a jetty holding a tether to a boat, you let go and the boat floats away… God let’s go of the all the past, he lets go of all our failures, all our mistakes and he lets the whole lot float off and away until it’s beyond the horizon and visible no more.

Do you ever feel you’ve let the Lord down? That you’ve been ashamed of him? I do. But when we are truly sorry, there is always more mercy than judgment. Peter wept bitterly after denying his Lord. And God delights to restore the broken hearted.

Here is Jesus after the resurrection. He has conquered both death and the grave. He has disarmed the rulers and authorities of Satan’s kingdom and made a public display of them.

He could have appeared before his disciples with great pomp and ceremony, accompanied by tens of thousands of angels, all singing of his glory and triumph.

He could have come with lightning, thunder, earthquakes, the splitting of mountains, an almighty display of his awesomeness filling the sky.

But the eternal king of kings chose to reveal himself on a remote beach, frying pan in hand, bending over a smoky fire, cooking breakfast for his lads.

What an amazing picture of forgiveness! It’s about friendship, about fellowship, about eating together.

Freshly griddled fish, lightly smoked over an authentic charcoal fire and oven fresh pitta bread, early in the morning straight from the bakers. Probably served with a side salad and a sprig of dew-soaked Galilee parsley to garnish! Taste and see that the Lord is good!

One of the strongest arguments that the resurrection of Jesus actually happened, is what the four gospels say about how the disciples responded to it.

If it had been a made up story, I’m sure the gospels would say that the disciples merrily believed and all lived happily ever after.

But independent records show that they didn’t live happily ever after; all but one were hunted down and killed. Only John, the one who wrote down the words of this passage, died of old age.

Furthermore, each of the four gospels gives a consistent description of 11 disciples who couldn’t quite believe it; they wavered from indecision to astonishment to perplexity to hesitating faith and finally, at last, almost despite themselves, to conviction.

So when John writes in verse 12, ‘None of the disciples dared ask him “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord,’ it rings true. They are a bit overawed. They don’t dare say what they think. That’s how we might react.

In January 2000 I took my gran’s funeral. She died in her nineties with a sharp wit, extraordinary memory and inexplicable devotion to the very undeserving Southend United Football Club. She died just six days before the new Millennium.

I guess if I had come downstairs one morning, in mid-January, and found her cooking a full English, I would have been deeply uneasy too.

He is perhaps about 100 metres away, obscured perhaps by a morning mist and by the smoke from the charcoal fire. Three years ago, he had told them to push the boat out to deeper waters and they had caught so many fish the nets tore and the boats nearly sank. Who is this man on the shore, strangely familiar? Could it really be the Lord?

And isn’t this how it is for us so often? We want to believe. We can almost see it all at times but what we can’t see as clearly as we’d like and we have to accept it by faith.

In some ways, God is real and alive to us. In other ways, there is mystery. We still have our questions. It doesn’t all add up, all the time.

That’s why I would like everyone to sign up for Alpha. I think it would be a wonderful thing to do together as a church.

Because we all have questions. And Alpha is a safe and affirming environment to ask and grow together.

I have run about 25 Alpha courses in my life and every one has been great fun and really spiritually enriching. Every time I have come away having learned something new – and eaten well too!

Once, a little boy was asked at school what he thought faith is. He thought about it and said, “Faith is trying to believe what you know isn’t true!”

No, that’s not faith. That’s self-delusion. No one expects you to knowingly delude yourself.

Faith, for us, is keeping on believing what we’re almost sure is true, sometimes more so than others.

Verse 7. After the miraculous catch, John sees says, “It’s the Lord.”

Then Peter hears John and, in his excitement, he dresses up to jump into the water.

John confesses it with his mouth, Peter believes it with his heart. The mist has gone.

So, in conclusion, let’s take encouragement from these verses. If you ever feel you’ve gone off the rails one time too many, this promise is for you; when anyone turns to Jesus he brings full forgiveness.

Let’s respond as John did as we recognise his presence among us in our worship. “It is the Lord.”

“No more we doubt thee, glorious prince of life. Life is nought without thee, aid us in our strife.”

Sermon preached at Saint Mary's Long Newton, 7th April 2013