By John 21:1-14
After this, Jesus revealed Himself again to His disciples by the Sea of Tiberias. He revealed Himself in this way:
Simon Peter, Thomas (called “Twin”), Nathanael from Cana of Galilee, Zebedee’s sons, and two others of His disciples were together.
“I’m going fishing,” Simon Peter said to them.
“We’re coming with you,” they told him. They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.
When daybreak came, Jesus stood on the shore. However, the disciples did not know it was Jesus.
“Men,” Jesus called to them, “you don’t have any fish, do you?”
“No,” they answered.
“Cast the net on the right side of the boat,” He told them, “and you’ll find some.” So they did, and they were unable to haul it in because of the large number of fish. Therefore the disciple, the one Jesus loved, said to Peter, “It is the Lord!”
When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he tied his outer garment around him (for he was stripped) and plunged into the sea. But since they were not far from land (about 100 yards away), the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish. When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish lying on it, and bread.
“Bring some of the fish you’ve just caught,” Jesus told them. So Simon Peter got up and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish — 153 of them. Even though there were so many, the net was not torn.
“Come and have breakfast,” Jesus told them. None of the disciples dared ask Him, “Who are You?” because they knew it was the Lord. Jesus came, took the bread, and gave it to them. He did the same with the fish.
This was now the third time Jesus appeared to the disciples after He was raised from the dead.
The Kingdom of Jesus is not just a corporate gathering together on The Lord’s Day; it is a meeting with Jesus in the midst of our every day business. The Kingdom of Jesus is also not just one big worship service where nobody has employment outside the Church building; it is being cared for by Jesus in the midst of our every day business.
There are times in our everyday business when things go well and we make it home in time for dinner. In those times we thank our King Jesus. There are other times when we work all night long with seemingly no progress made. In those times especially, we see here that Jesus still wants to meet with us.
The disciples had one such night. Some of these men had families at home waiting for their Daddy to return. These men would soon be returning back to their homes tired and empty handed. Jesus, even now, desired for them to come and be cared for by Him. For it is in these times where our King desires to fill us up with himself, that we might have grace to overflow to our families.
The King that we serve is a Servant-King We should mimic him in every way. We should learn from him how we should be a servant to our loved ones when they come home from a long days work. We should also learn from him how we should be a servant to our loved ones when we come home to a family that has put in a long days work at the homestead. We should give and receive a pleasant greeting, a warmed house and heart, and a scrumptious morsel of food.
Jesus cared for his family and so should we.
- Christianity in this light is not glamorous and sparkling. It is everyday servant-hood which Jesus calls us to, and models for us. Do you find that dying to yourself is hard in everyday acts of service?
- Remember Jesus words when he said, “come to me all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
Leading Family Devotions 