SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/11/2017
6:34 AM
My Worship Time Focus: “PT-3 “Divine
Power and Success”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: John 21:6-14
Message of the
verses: “6 And He said to them,
"Cast the net on the right-hand side of the boat and you will find a
catch." So they cast, and then they were not able to haul it in because of
the great number of fish. 7 Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved said to
Peter, "It is the Lord." So when Simon Peter heard that it was the
Lord, he put his outer garment on (for he was stripped for work), and threw
himself into the sea. 8 But the other disciples came in the little boat, for
they were not far from the land, but about one hundred yards away, dragging the
net full of fish. 9 So when they got out on the land, they saw a charcoal fire
already laid and fish placed on it, and bread. 10 Jesus said to them,
"Bring some of the fish which you have now caught." 11 Simon Peter
went up and drew the net to land, full of large fish, a hundred and
fifty-three; and although there were so many, the net was not torn. 12 Jesus said
to them, "Come and have breakfast." None of the disciples ventured to
question Him, "Who are You?" knowing that it was the Lord. 13 Jesus
came and took the bread and gave it to them, and the fish likewise. 14 This is
now the third time that Jesus was manifested to the disciples, after He was
raised from the dead.”
We want to begin by looking at verse 10, and this verse
our Lord said that the disciples were to bring some of the fish that they had
caught. As I was thinking about this
verse this morning it made me think of people that we bring to the Lord through
our witnessing to them the truth of the Gospel.
We learned at the beginning of this section that Jesus told the
disciples to cast their net on the “right side of the boat and you will get a catch.” We stated that perhaps He was saying to them
that they were fishing on the wrong side of the boat, and spiritually speaking
that is what they were doing, and now after the catch is made through a miracle
of our Lord He tells them to bring some of that miraculous catch with
them. When we lead a person to the Lord
it is a miracle from the Lord as He uses us to tell others of the truth of the
gospel, He does it just like it was Him who told the disciples where to fish,
and it is His sheep or in this case fish that we catch, but only through His
miracle. Now as mentioned the number of
fish that was caught has, as far as I know no spiritual value. MacArthur writes “It is unsurprising that
someone counted them, either as part of dividing them up amongst the fishermen
in preparation for sale, or because on of the men was so dumbfounded by the
size of the catch that he said something like: ‘Can you believe it? I wonder
how many there are?’”
I think that it was another miracle that the net did not
break with that many fish in it. John
surely has an attention for detail as he tells this story and others in his
gospel. MacArthur adds “That the Lord
provided far more fish than they could eat at one meal is further evidence of
His provision for them. The disciples
could have preserved and eaten the fish over the next several days, or sold
them and lived off the proceeds.”
Jesus then invites them to have breakfast, which was an
invitation to once again have fellowship with Him. They were probably feeling guilty over going
back to the business of fishing. None of
the disciples questioned as to whether or not the was the Lord, as they knew
from an earlier experience that we mentioned in our last SD that this was
indeed the resurrected Lord.
We see in verse 13 that Jesus had to bring the bread and
fish and serve it to them. Perhaps they
were too ashamed to eat at this time. I
have to believe that some of them were thinking about the Lord’s supper that
they had recently had with the Lord where He served them similarly at that
time. This truly shows the love and mercy of our gracious Lord. John then mentions that “this was the third
time that Jesus was manifested to the disciples, after He was raised from the
dead.”
MacArthur concludes this second to last chapter in his
commentary: “The point at the historical
moment this event happened and the primary sense of te event was to overcome
the disciples’ fear of failure and weakness that was causing them to drift back
into their old ways. What our Lord did
here settled forever in the minds of the apostles that they were called to
serve the Lord Jesus Christ for the rest of their lives.
“The Lord, as always, uses weak and sinful people to
advance His kingdom because there are no other kinds of people.”
Spiritual meaning for
my life today: To think that our
Lord can use me to advance His kingdom is rather overwhelming to me for
sure.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
I have been thinking and praying as to
what book the Lord wants me to begin to study once we get through this last
section of John’s Gospel. It is my wish
that we study the book of Acts as this is a book that I have desired to study
for some time now. I will leave it in
the Lord’s hands and if He has something else for me to study then that will be
the direction I will go in, but for now it is the book of Acts.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “His eyes were dim” (Genesis
27:1).
Today’s Bible
question: “Whom did Paul persecute?”
Answer in our next SD.
6/11/2017 7:10 AM
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