The final thing we need to look at are Christ's commands. Peter is now restored, and Jesus gives him two instructions. The first is to feed or take care of Jesus’ sheep. Three times he tells Peter to do this. You find it in verses 15, 16, and 17. This repetition clearly shows that this is important, both here in this story and also in the entire scope of the gospel. Feed my sheep. What does that mean? Well, it's stressing the importance of teaching, because feeding the sheep means to teach God's people from the Bible. That's what feeding is. We feed upon Jesus Christ as we study his Word, and we are fed as that Word is taught to us.
The second thing to notice are these various words for love that Jesus uses. He asks the question three times. In verse 15 he asks Peter, “Simon son of John, do you truly love me more than these?” Then in verse 16, he asks it in nearly the same wording, “Simon son of John, do you truly love me?” And the third time, he asks Peter yet again, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Now, the first two times he uses the word agapao, and the third time has the verb phileo.
Imagine you are Peter. You are there in the upper room with all the disciples gathered around, and Jesus had just demonstrated his love for them by washing their feet and had said that they were to love one another. You had just said "I will lay down my life for you," and then Jesus said that to you, "Will you really lay down your life for me? I tell you the truth, before the rooster crows you'll disown me three times." What would you be thinking and how would you be feeling?
The second lesson is that if we are directed by Christ, we are fruitful. When Jesus tells them to throw their net on the other side, that is what they do, and the result is that they draw in all these fish, 153 of them. It's interesting that we have the exact number. It may simply be evidence of an eyewitness who was there. John of course was there, and he wrote this Gospel. It says at the end that he was a witness to these things. Another idea may also be that in the rabbinic literature there are statements that suggest that there are 153 nations. If that's the case, then you have a picture of evangelism, because that's what fishing always represents in the Gospels, as the disciples, by the direction of Jesus Christ, literally go out to all the peoples of all the nations of the world.
Here in John 21 we come to Peter. Now this, of course, is not the first time he has appeared in this Gospel, but here in this chapter we have the most important incident involving Peter that the Apostle John records. I suppose a few words about this chapter are in order as we begin, because it does seem a strange chapter. To anybody who's made his or her way through the Gospel to this point, it seems to be something just tacked on. Now that is not what is really happening. It does belong here. The problem really is that we sense that we've reached a great climax at the end of chapter 20, in verse 28, when Thomas says to Jesus, “My Lord and my God.” That's what it's all been leading to.
