Disappointment

Let’s read John 21:1-12.

¹ After this Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias, and he revealed himself in this way. ² Simon Peter, Thomas (called the Twin), Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together. ³ Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.” They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. ⁴ Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. ⁵ Jesus said to them, “Children, do you have any fish?” They answered him, “No.” ⁶ He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, because of the quantity of fish. ⁷ That disciple whom Jesus loved therefore said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment, for he was stripped for work, and threw himself into the sea. ⁸ The other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, but about a hundred yards off. ⁹ When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire in place, with fish laid out on it, and bread. ¹⁰ Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.” ¹¹ So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, 153 of them. And although there were so many, the net was not torn. ¹²Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” Now none of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. (John 21:1-12, ESV)

Father, we just thank you for a new Sunday, a new day where your mercies are new. We pray, Lord Jesus, that you would touch us the way you touched Peter on this particular day.

We understand that apart from you, we can do nothing. And so, Lord, we need a fresh encounter, a fresh meeting, a touch from you today. Thank you, Lord. We avail ourselves to you. We surrender in your presence. In Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.

Are you disappointed with life? Are you disappointed with life? Are you disappointed with your marriage? Are you disappointed with your family? Are you disappointed with your job or your present set of circumstances? Are you disappointed with yourself?

Your inconsistency, your self-centeredness, your lovelessness, your impatience, your personality flaws, your lack of discipline, lack of maturity, lack of spirituality. Are you disappointed with God?

Ultimately, the other side of disappointment is hope. When hope runs out, disappointment sets in. As a fan from Philadelphia, I have a lot of reason to hope this year of all years. The Phillies have the best record in baseball. They’re poised for another World Series run. The Eagles look great. The Sixers got Paul George. All the Philly sports teams are looking great.

Also, as a Cal Bears football fan, they are 3-0. Cal won against UC Davis, not that impressive. They beat Auburn on the road, which is very impressive, probably the best win they have had in five plus years. They beat San Diego State yesterday, so they’re 3-0.

As Cal fans, we have a lot of hope when they’re doing well in the beginning of the season. But we also brace ourselves for almost a certain disappointment that is going to come, but maybe not this year.

When we were all young, weren’t we all full of hope? Weren’t we all full of hope?

As singles, we put a lot of hope in a future spouse, a dream job, or what kind of person we would become in society.

As a married person, we put a lot of hope in marriage and in our kids.

Before we met Jesus, we had a lot of hope in ourselves that we would become somebody in this world and everybody would know our name.

And maybe it changed a bit when we became a Christian. But after meeting Jesus, we had a lot of hope in ourselves that with Christ’s help, we would impact the world.

As we get older and we encounter some disappointments, that bright light of hope that we had in our youth seems to flicker. And the ultimate disappointment is when God disappoints us. And often that leads to people walking away from the Lord.

It says in Hebrews 13:5 that God will never leave us nor forsake us. So who is the one doing the leaving? Obviously, it’s us. When we’re disappointed, we tend to walk away from God.

If it’s a disappointment with life, with ourselves, ultimately it always points back to God. Jesus, I followed you all these years. Why is my life turning out like this? Isn’t that the underlying script that makes us walk away from Jesus?

Peter’s story is a story of deep, deep disappointment, and he was ready to throw in the towel and walk away from him. But God is a God of all hope. And that God met Jesus, I mean, met Peter again and restored hope in him again.

And may that same God of hope meet us today.

John 21. Preachers normally focus on the second half of the chapter, and it’s a past chapter that pastors love to preach at ordinations or anyone going into ministry or elder being appointed. There is that type of focus on feeding of the sheep that John 21 is highlighted, the second half.

But I want to focus on the first half, which to me is the most fundamental part of the chapter.

John 13:33.

³³ Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going you cannot come.’ (John 13:33, ESV)

And then Simon Peter hears this. And in verse 37, he responds.

³⁷ Peter said to him, “Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” (John 13:37, ESV)

That’s Peter with a lot of hope in himself. A lot of hope in himself.

So he met Jesus. He put aside his net. He hears the words, you’re no longer going to be catching fish. you’re going to be catching men. And that Peter, who responds like this, has a lot of hope in himself.

And we see that Peter remaining the same Peter throughout the gospels. And we see it again in chapter 18, while Jesus is being arrested.

¹⁰ Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant and cut off his right ear. (The servant’s name was Malchus.) (John 18:10, ESV)

And so Peter was not lying. This Peter, who had a lot of hope in himself, was ready in this moment to die with Jesus and to go down fighting for Jesus.

And then we all know the story in the same chapter. When Jesus is arrested, Peter is warming himself by the fire. And three times he is asked, aren’t you one of his disciples? And each time Peter says, I do not know the man. He denies Jesus. Three times the rooster crows.

And this Peter, who had so much hope in himself, is undone, and he leaves the scene weeping.

And so we pick up the story in John 21:1.

¹ After this Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias, and he revealed himself in this way. (John 21:1, ESV)

And so this is already multiple times that Jesus has appeared to disciples. And Jesus can show up in a room full of people, but unless he shows up and meets you, it makes no difference. Jesus can be right here in the center of this place, but unless you meet him personally, it makes no difference.

Because Peter, as a group, as a member of the group with the disciples, he saw the resurrected Jesus multiple times. It made no difference. Peter was still hopeless, still disappointed.

John 21. Jesus was coming to meet Peter in particular. There’s a world of difference. Jesus showing up at a meeting versus Jesus showing up to meet you personally and meet me.

² Simon Peter, Thomas (called the Twin), Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together. ³ Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.” They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. (John 21:2-3, ESV)

When a fisherman who was called by Jesus says, I’m going to go back fishing, that is a sign of depression. That’s a sign that he’s ready to throw in the towel. And as Peter has some good friends, they see the depression, they see the disappointment. They see the vacant look in Peter’s eye when he says this. And they say, as a good friend, let me go with you. Let me go with you.

And if you have friends like this who can see the depression, who see the difficulty, see the hopelessness setting in, and they notice it, and they say, let me be with you. Let me go with you. You are a blessed man or woman if you have such people in your life.

And they went out that night. Again, they caught nothing. And I say again, because this is not the first time that Peter, James, and John find themselves in a boat fishing all night and caught nothing. It’s reminiscent of Luke 5.

The first time Peter, James, and John met Jesus, they fished all night and caught nothing. There’s a massive haul of fish in Luke 5. Peter responds, master, we toiled all night and took nothing. But after he witnesses the miracle that Jesus had performed, he says, depart from me, for I am a sinful man.

This is the very first encounter with Jesus. And Jesus says, you’re no longer going to catch fish. you’re going to catch men. And Peter might be thinking, where’s my time? You said this to me. Well, I don’t see the fish.

And then Jesus died. He resurrected. But I’m a failure. I haven’t seen the fish. I haven’t seen men being caught. I deny Jesus. How can I even face him again? The disappointment is so deep.

⁴ Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. ⁵ Jesus said to them, “Children, do you have any fish?” They answered him, “No.” ⁶ He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, because of the quantity of fish. (John 21:4-6, ESV)

It’s a small boat. We’re not talking about a large boat. And Jesus says, just move it from the left to the right. It’s not a clever strategy. But just the fact that Jesus said it and Peter listened, that’s all it took. And again the miracle happened.

We have to wait for the words of Jesus. Instead of spinning our wheels, wishing or striving and trying to do it our way, we have to wait for the strategy from Jesus.

And to us, it might not make sense. It’s like, it’s barely, it’s like seems the same thing. I was on the left side of the boat, a few feet to the right. I’m going to put the, the pole in and that’s going to make a difference.

And that makes all the difference because Jesus said it. We have to wait for the strategy from the Lord and the timing from the Lord, the word of the Lord, we have to wait. Otherwise, we’re just striving and we will work really hard for many years and we’ll catch nothing.

Peter had no idea that Pentecost was just a few weeks away, and the Spirit would be poured out, and he would catch 3,000 men, women, and children that day. The fulfillment of that prophecy that Peter heard years prior would finally start to come to pass.

But on this day, Peter had no clue. But he listened anyway because Jesus said it, and he experienced the same miracle again. It was a recommissioning, a rebirth of hope. And maybe that’s what we all need.

Remember how you felt prior to the first time you met Jesus? Weren’t we disappointed with life? Weren’t we disappointed with ourselves? We didn’t know the Lord. So that’s disappointment. That’s not on the table, but because we are disappointed with whatever circumstances we had in life.

As we evaluated ourselves and the problems we had externally or internally, we were disappointed and utterly humbled. And then we met Jesus. The only difference now that we’ve been walking with Jesus for some years is we have to add the third disappointment of disappointment with God.

And that’s something we have to be honest about because we’ve been following Jesus, and so it makes sense.

Before we met Jesus, our lives didn’t make sense. It was frustrating, it was meaningless, hopeless. We understand that before we met Christ. But after we meet Jesus and there’s still disappointment, how do we go forward?

We close the door to the world. There’s no hope in this world. Maybe we’re still wrestling. Is there hope? Do I still put hope in myself? Maybe that’s where we have to still dig a little deeper.

Do we still think we can do it on our own with our own strategy, cleverness, commitment, and discipline? Do we still have hope in ourselves that with just me, I can still do something for Jesus?

And if we have evaluated those two things, we’ve lost hope in this world. We’ve lost hope in ourselves. The last one is still, could there be a disappointment? The only one to turn to at that point is to God.

Peter reached that level. I’ve been following. I was his closest disciple. I was ready to die for him. I gave it all. I left my fishing. I left my family. I was all in, and I pulled out a sword. I’m ready to defend Jesus. And then now I’m going back to fishing. It’s not working. Christian life is not working.

It’s a deep disappointment that the only person we can turn to at this point, if it’s not the world, it’s not ourselves, then the disappointment goes to God. And the only solution, as we see in John 21, is, you gotta meet Jesus again. We have to meet Jesus again.

It’s not enough that we met him years ago and began our journey. If there’s any disappointment with God, that means we haven’t met Jesus in a long while. We have to meet Jesus again.

⁹ When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire in place, with fish laid out on it, and bread. ¹⁰ Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.” ¹¹ So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, 153 of them. And although there were so many, the net was not torn. ¹² Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” Now none of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. (John 21:9-12, ESV)

I so appreciate Jesus that he is not like man. He is not like me. If one of your closest disciples betrayed you and failed you and turned his back on you, wouldn’t you want to let him have it? Wouldn’t you want to lecture him? Wouldn’t you want. Want him to feel really bad that he left you? But Jesus does none of it.

He doesn’t lecture Peter for being a failure of a leader. He just says, let’s have some food. Let’s spend some time.

So if you’re disappointed with your life, marriage, family, job, your set of circumstances, or if you’re disappointed with yourself, your inconsistency, your lack of maturity, lack of love, lack of spirituality, ultimately, don’t all our disappointments definitely at some point fall upon God?

If that’s the case with you, let’s bring it all to Jesus. Let’s bring it all to Jesus. He is the only answer.

One by one, let’s end this service bringing all our disappointments to Jesus one by one. Let’s ask the God of hope to meet us again. We need a fresh touch from him. That’s the only answer. And let’s have our hope in him restored.

Peter’s hope was restored, and nothing changed in the moment. But his hope was restored, and later his life would change as we read in the book of Acts. But first we need our hope in Jesus restored. And the only way to have our hope restored is you have to meet him.

Okay, let’s pray.

Father, we understand that before we met Jesus, we had no hope. And no matter what we tried, it was at a dead end, or we tried and achieved something, but it didn’t satisfy. Even if we achieved things in this world, it did not quench our hunger and our thirst. And so we closed the door to this world.

We also understand before we met Christ, we had hope in ourselves that we could do something. We could be somebody. But the longer we live life, we see it’s not true.

We’re not consistent. We lack spirituality and discipline. We lack love. We’re self-centered. There is no hope. As we look inward, there is no hope.

Lord, this makes sense to us before we met Christ. But many of us, we’ve been walking with you for quite some time, and we’re wondering, why are we still disappointed?

Lord, we’re sorry that our disappointment has turned to you. you’ve never left nor forsaken us. But, Lord, we’ve abandoned Christ in our disappointment. We’ve blamed you for all the disappointments, when a lot of times it’s our fault.

Forgive us, Lord. We so understand Peter in John 21. We so understand him. The longer we live life, we find ourselves in Peter’s shoes. He is disappointed with himself. He is disappointed with you. His life has not turned out the way he had expected after he followed you. All of his expectations that he had after meeting you have been dashed and demolished and ruined.

And so, Lord, he’s going back to fishing. We so understand Peter on this when we read him the first half of John 21.

Some of us today, we find ourselves in that same chapter, and we have nowhere to turn. Lord, you have the words of eternal life. We ask you to meet us.

We open our hearts wide to you. We have nowhere else to go. We don’t know how to do the Christian life. We don’t know how to do church. We don’t know how to be a loving spouse, a loving parent, a loving friend. We need you, Lord Jesus. We have no hope in ourselves anymore. No hope in this world.

May the God of all hope in Christ meet us today. Restore our hope so that we can live by faith in the unseen and not by sight.

We pray, as we partake in the Lord’s Supper, representing your body that was broken and your blood shed. Minister to us. Meet us, Lord. That’s all we need. That’s all we ask for. Please meet us, Lord, and restore hope in us.

Thank you, Lord. In Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.