Archive for the ‘miraculous’ tag
April 18, 2010: A Miraculous Catch of Fish
The text for this lesson is John 21:1–14
Key Points
Discussion Points
1. Read Romans 6:3–5. Why is every day a perfect one for reflecting on Jesus’ resurrection?
2. Luke 5 tells how Jesus calls His first disciples, including Simon Peter. He says to him, “From now on you will be catching men” (Luke 5:10). How had Peter’s catching men progressed in the days and months prior to today’s lesson? When does Peter’s job as a fisher of men really begin?
3. What did the sign in John 2:11 accomplish? According to 1 John 4:9, how was the love of God revealed (manifested) to the world?
4. Simon Peter and six other disciples were together in Galilee. John 21:3 records Peter suggesting that the group go fishing. The best time to fish was at night, which explains why they went out when they did. What possible reasons could have motivated the disciples to go fishing so soon after Jesus’ resurrection?
5. After a night of fruitless fishing, the disciples surely were frustrated. They did not know Jesus standing on the shore. He said, “Little children, you do not have any fish, do you?” What do you think it means that Jesus called them little children? How does this event reinforce what the disciples had learned from Jesus in Matthew 6:8?
6. Peter’s response to Jesus was zealous, as we see in his plunge into the water. He was an emotional person, prone to follow his instincts, which were often wrong. The other disciples lagged behind, dragging in the net. On shore, Jesus already had a charcoal fire lit, with fish and bread prepared. Yet strangely, Jesus told them to bring some of the catch, and Peter went out and dragged it in himself. John notes that the net was not torn, and there were 153 large fish. The details in this story seem puzzling, but Jesus never revealed Himself without revealing more fully who He is for His disciples and for the Church. Peter, as the representative of the apostles, had dragged the fish ashore, and there were an abundance of large fish. In light of the saying from Luke 5 that Peter would be catching men, what might these fish have symbolized?
7. After Jesus invited the disciples to breakfast, none of them dared ask who He was since “They knew it was the Lord.” Then He took the bread and fish and gave it to them. Compare this passage with Luke 24:30–31, 35 and John 6:11. What do we learn about one of the ways Jesus revealed Himself to the disciples? How does this point to one of the ways He reveals Himself to us today?
8. In last week’s lesson, we learned that Jesus gave His Holy Spirit to the apostles so that they could forgive and retain sins. In which places do many people seek to find the Holy Spirit revealed today? Where have Lutherans always confessed—based on the sure Word of God—that the Holy Spirit is revealed among us? See John 6:63 and 3:5.
9. One of the Bible passages we are studying today is 1 Peter 2:24, which says that Christ “Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed.” This reminds us we are saved only by the wounds of Jesus. John paints a beautiful picture of this in John 19:34 and 1 John 5:6–8. What does this picture depict?
