FIRST, OBEY.

Last week, my pastor was preaching on John Chapter 21, and talking about how some of the disciples had decided to go fishing and what a bad night they had and how Jesus told them to try one more time... you probably know the story. Anyway, I don't know how many times I've read this and heard the story over the years, but this time I noticed something I haven't noticed before.

Like I said, the disciples had been having a bad night of fishing. Why were they fishing? Well, possibly two reasons: first was commerce. Their world had been turned upside down. Jesus had died, and although they saw that He had been resurrected, they didn't know what was next. So what did they do? They went back to what they knew— fishing. Second may have been food. People have to eat, right? Well, they were not going to eat or make money this night.

They weren't catching anything. Then, Jesus calls out to them and tells them where to cast their net. Although they don't expect it to work, they do it anyway. Sure enough, they catch a huge amount of fish.

Here's what I've missed: When they came onto shore, what was Jesus doing? He was cooking fish! You see, the fish they caught wasn't needed for provision- Jesus already had the provision. Jesus could have said, "Hey! don't worry about having a bad night of fishing. I've got plenty of fish here.". He could have, but He didn't. He was ready to feed them from what He had, but He wanted them to obey. After they obeyed, Jesus shared what He already had ready for them.