And now we come to what happened “after these things.” These things would terminate with the departure of the heavenly saints, when a new testimony would be sent forth to the nations, to declare His glory among the heathen, His wonders among all people. “Say among the heathen, the Lord reigneth: the world also shall be established that it shall not be moved: He shall judge the people righteously. Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad . . . before the Lord: for He cometh, for He cometh to judge the earth” (Psa. 96:10, 11, 1310Say among the heathen that the Lord reigneth: the world also shall be established that it shall not be moved: he shall judge the people righteously. 11Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof. (Psalm 96:10‑11)
13Before the Lord: for he cometh, for he cometh to judge the earth: he shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his truth. (Psalm 96:13).)
But this judgment will be preceded by the preaching of the everlasting gospel to those settled on the earth, and to every nation, and tribe, and people, and tongue, for the hour of His judgment has come, and they are summoned to fear God, and give glory to Him, the great Creator. To the Jews, the glad tidings, in connection with His coming to judge the earth, will be, “He hath remembered His mercy and His truth toward the house of Israel” (Psa. 98:33He hath remembered his mercy and his truth toward the house of Israel: all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. (Psalm 98:3)).
Verse 1. Attention is called to the manner in which He presented Himself. Peter, followed by some of the disciples, had gone a-fishing — his old occupation — but that night they took nothing. It was very different in the former scene (Luke 5), when at Jesus word he let down the net; then the net could not contain the great multitude of fishes — it broke through. Man failed again in what was committed unto him, the commission to go to the nations in Matthew 28 was never carried out; Paul alone took that up.
But we have now come to the foreshadowing of millennial actings. When morning comes, Jesus stands on the shore, and asks if they have anything to eat. At His command they cast the net on the right side of the ship, and now it is completely filled and yet does not break — the dispensation does not fail as the former one had. The gospel of the kingdom reaches the nations, the everlasting gospel awakens man everywhere, he had forgotten God the Creator. “Judgment shall return unto righteousness, and all the upright in heart shall follow it” (Psa. 194:15). Then the heavens will rejoice, and the earth be glad.
Verse 7. It was the disciple whom Jesus loved who first perceived that it was the Lord, but there was no delay in Peter, when he heard it, in springing forth to meet Him.
Verse 8. The disciples come now, dragging the net with all the fishes, but find a fire of coals and fish laid thereon. The Jewish remnant seems to be set forth here. Jesus says, “Bring of the fish which ye have now caught.” However we may seek to interpret it, there are evidently two parties represented, in the fish which they had caught, and the fish which Jesus had provided. Jesus says, “Come and dine,” and then gives them both the bread and the fish; He had told them to bring of the fish which they had caught before He invited them to dine.
This was the third time that Jesus showed Himself to the disciples after the resurrection; it is evident that these were remarkable epochs in the history of the Lord’s last communications with the disciples. The first time we have in John 20:19-23, which gives us church position, in figure, at least. The second time was His showing Himself to Thomas, who represents the Jewish remnant, who believe when they see; the third seems to present the Lord in millennial times and associations. In the beginning of the gospel, we have three days definitely marked off; the first in John 1:3535Again the next day after John stood, and two of his disciples; (John 1:35), John’s testimony, which gathers them to Christ; the second day in verse 43, Jesus own ministry; the third day, John 2, the marriage in Cana of Galilee, when the water of purification is turned into wine, this sets forth the millennial joy. Nathanael’s owning Him as Son of God and King of Israel, reminds us of Psalm 2. These titles are found there; Christ’s answer to Nathanael gives His millennial position according to Psalm 8. Psalm 2 gives us the kingly place in Israel of the Son of God; Psalm 8 the headship of the Son of Man over all things. The marriage in Cana of Galilee is, in figure, a millennial scene. The third day of John 2, and the third time of John 21, when Jesus showed Himself to His disciples, point in figure to the same time, the commencement of the millennium.
Verse 15. “When therefore they had dined, Jesus says to Simon Peter: “Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me more than these? He says to Him, Yea, Lord; Thou knowest that I am attached to Thee.” The wound needed to be thoroughly probed, but he had first been invited to dine with his divine Master, whom he had thrice denied. Let us mark the way He took to reach the conscience of His poor servant; there is no verbal reproof whatever, the matter was too deep for that. It was a question of Peter’s present relation to Jesus. The man who said, “I am ready, to go with Thee to prison and to death,” had denied Him with cursing and swearing.
First, He puts the question, “Lovest thou Me more than these?” referring to Peter’s boast; the next time He simply says, “Lovest thou Me?” but Peter always uses another word, “I am attached to Thee” — appealing for confirmation simply to Jesus knowledge of him. He could have said, in the words of the Psalm, “Thou hast searched me and known me,” “There is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, Thou knowest it altogether.” The third time, Jesus used Peter’s word, “attached” — “Simon, son of Jonas, art thou attached to Me?” Peter was grieved at the third question; but the work was done, broken to pieces, the flesh exposed, his consolation in that trying moment was, that Christ knew what was in his heart — beyond that he did not attempt to go: “Lord, Thou knowest all things; Thou knowest that I am attached to thee.”
Nothing more now of, “I am ready to follow thee to prison and to death.” How much happier for Peter to hear this from the mouth of Christ! His word at any rate could not fail, and it was about Peter himself. “But when thou shalt be old . . . another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not,” desirest not, the will broken, not in his own strength (he had proved what that was); strength would be given him from above, and in that strength he would glorify the Lord in his death. Now Christ can say, “Follow Me.” He knew all along what was in Peter’s heart, and Peter now learns far more than he had ever known. before, of the depths of the heart of Christ.
These are the deep lessons to be learned by all who seek to feed the lambs and sheep, and take care of the flock, or to follow the divine Shepherd Himself. How little Peter knew, in the day of his boasting, of the humbling path that lay before him; yet it was to be through the Lord’s dealings with him in. connection with that path, that he was to learn how to strengthen his brethren when converted: “when once thou hast returned back, confirm thy brethren.”
And mark these last expressions of His love to His people, “Feed My lambs,” “Feed My sheep”; and, “Shepherd My sheep.” Who can do that but one who seeks to follow Him in whom neither flesh nor will wrought, who had indeed no “flesh” to repress, and whose will was to do always the things that pleased the Father. We may learn from this what it is to follow Jesus, and who they are who do it.
Peter then, seeing the disciple that Jesus loved following, says, “Lord, and what of this man?” Jesus says, “If I will that he abide until I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou Me.” John’s ministry does go on (as has been remarked) “to the coming of Christ,” (and then) after that, the Antichrist in the epistle, and then the (false) “church spued out of Christ’s mouth.” It is a beautiful picture of the triumph of grace; the Lord calling him who had denied Him to the care of that which was dearest to Him upon earth; the weakest He mentions first, “My lambs.” It was now but a step to the glory of the Father’s throne, but His love for the little flock burns brightly as ever, “having loved His own . . . to the end.”
On the fleshy tablets of Peter’s heart the Holy Ghost engraved these his Master’s last thoughts and commands. They are found again in Peter’s closing testimony: “Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind . . . And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away “(1 Pet. 5:2, 42Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; (1 Peter 5:2)
4And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. (1 Peter 5:4)).