Boat Stories
Dear Church Family,
f you were with us Sunday, you know we brought our Boat Stories series to a close — and fittingly, it ended right back where it started, with Peter and a boat.
We looked at John 21:1-19, the story of Jesus meeting Peter on the shore of the Sea of Galilee after the resurrection. Peter had already seen the risen Jesus — more than once — and yet we find him doing something surprising: going back to fishing. Back to the old life, the old identity, the thing that felt safe and familiar after failure.
A few things we sat with together:
Jesus doesn't wait for Peter to fix himself first. He's already got a fire going and breakfast cooking before Peter even brings in the catch — and it's the same kind of fire, the same Greek word, as the one Peter was warming himself at the night he denied Jesus three times. That's not a coincidence. Jesus stages this restoration at the exact place Peter's worst moment happened.
Three times Jesus asks, "Do you love me?" — matching the three times Peter denied him. But he doesn't just forgive Peter in that moment, he commissions him: "Feed my sheep." Restoration comes with a future, not just a pardon.
The last time Peter hauled in a catch this size, back in Luke 5, the net began to tear. This time, it holds. Even in the middle of a story about failure, there was something worth noticing — real growth had happened in him too.
Here's where we landed: this story won't let you believe you have to clean up the pattern before you're welcome back at the fire. Grace shows up before we are cleaned up. Failure is never final — Jesus keeps inviting us to follow him again and again. And that's really what this whole series has shown us, from the storm to the sinking to the shore: Jesus meets us exactly where we are, with exactly what we need.
-Pastor Aaron Perry