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37-41 Two Charcoal Fires Rehab:Master Galley - Plain Truth Ministries

37-41 Two Charcoal Fires Rehab:Master Galley - Plain Truth Ministries

37-41 Two Charcoal Fires Rehab:Master Galley - Plain Truth Ministries

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to him, “We will go with you.” Theywent out and got into the boat, butthat night they caught nothing.Peter returned to his trade—fishing.He still may not have consideredhimself to be worthy ofdiscipleship. He went back to hisformer life, almost as if nothinghad happened to change his life.My heart is cheered—though Isay this with hesitation—thatPeter’s colleagues went with himon the boat. I see Peter’s friends accompanyingtheir troubled friendout of love and concern. Thomas,Nathaniel, James, John, and twoothers heard Peter say, “I’m goingfishing.” Peter did not invite themalong. He was going whether theyjoined him or not. But they didnot let Peter go alone. This to mehints at both their concern forPeter’s spiritual well-being andtheir desire to support him.Fishermen fished by night onthe Sea, and they stripped down todo it. After a full night’s work—work that I hope was therapeuticfor Peter and his friends—Johnspecifically records that theycaught nothing. This harkens backto the Lord’s original call on Peter’slife. He is not supposed to be fishingfor fish anymore, but to befishing for people.Matthew 4:18-19: As he walkedby the Sea of Galilee, he saw twobrothers, Simon, who is called Peter,and Andrew his brother, casting a netinto the sea—for they were fishermen.Modern psychoanalysisand other therapieshelp people heal frompast wounds byreturning them to thosewounds to face them;Jesus did the same forPeter by literallyreturning him to acharcoal fire.And he said to them, “Follow me, andI will make you fish for people.”That they caught no fish seems asubtle reminder that Peter’s call todiscipleship, his call to fish forpeople instead of fish, was still intact,at least from the Lord’s end.Peter may no longer have believedhimself to be a disciple, to be worthyof discipleship, but the emptynets may have been a divine message:Going back to fishing for fishis just not going to work, Peter.John’s gospel alone (chapter 21)tells this story of an additional resurrectionappearance to seven fishermenon the shore of the Sea ofGalilee. The sun rose, and the menin the boat saw “a man” on thebeach. He asked the question thatAround the first charcoal fire at Annas’ home,Peter denied Jesus three times. Around the secondcharcoal fire on the beach, Jesus asked Peter if heloved him three times, and told Peter to feed hisflock three times. Certainly the second charcoalfire was no accidenttorments all fishermen: Did youcatch anything? “No,” they said.“Put your nets out on the rightside of the boat and you will,” saidthe man.An Earlier Fishing TripJohn 21 reminds us of a previousevent recorded in Luke 5, whenJesus was finished teaching acrowd on the shore while sitting inPeter’s boat. On that occasion Jesustold Peter to launch out into deepwater and put down his nets. Itwas the middle of the day, thewrong time to fish. And deep wateris not the best place on the Sea ofGalilee for a catch. So Peter complainedabout these absurd fishinginstructions given to him, a masterfisherman, by a construction workerfrom land-locked Nazareth. ButPeter did it anyway, and theycaught so many fish that the netsbegan to break and the boat beganto sink. Peter’s response is most interesting.Luke 5:8: But when Simon Petersaw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees,saying, “Go away from me, Lord, for Iam a sinful man!”Even then, Peter saw himself asunworthy. Later on, given his threedenials, how much more unworthyPeter must have felt, regardlessof Jesus’ resurrection appearances!Back to John 21, Peter and theboys did as “the man” on thebeach instructed, and they took ina haul of 153 fish (verse 11), yetthis time the net surprisingly didnot break.Matthew 13:47: “Again, the kingdomof heaven is like a net that wasthrown into the sea and caught fish ofevery kind….”“The disciple whom Jesus loved”(John 21:7), whom we presume tobe John, had to tell Peter the obvious.“The man” on the beach wasthe risen Lord. Was Peter just dim,or does grief dull one’s perceptions?In either case, Peter couldnot wait for the boat to bring himashore. Showing that he still hadpassion for Jesus, he threw on hisclothes, dove in, and swam for it.The Second <strong>Charcoal</strong> FireWhat did Peter see as he emergedfrom the cold water? There on thebeach was Jesus and a charcoal fire.Was he yet again too dim or grief-40 THE PLAIN TRUTH

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