- John
- <
- 21
- >

21
Jesus’s followers saw him at the lake
1 Later on, Jesus showed himself to his followers at Lake Tiberias. And this is what happened. 2 Some of Jesus’s followers were together. They were Peter, and Thomas (whose other name was the Twin), and Nathaniel (a man from Cana in Galilee), and James and John (the 2 sons of Zebedee), and 2 other followers. 3 And Peter said to the others, “I’m going to go fishing.”
And they said, “We’ll come with you.” So they went down to the water with their net, and they went out on a boat to catch some fish. They worked all night, but they didn’t catch anything.*Luke 5:5
4 Early in the morning, just before the sun came up, they saw a man standing on the land. It was Jesus, but they didn’t know that it was him.
5 He called out to them, “Friends, have you got any fish?”
They said, “No. Nothing.”
6 Jesus said, “Throw your net over the other side of the boat, the right-hand side. You will get fish there.”
So they did what he said. They threw their net over the right-hand side of the boat, and it caught lots of fish. They tried to pull the net back into the boat, but they couldn’t do it, because all the fish in it made it too heavy.*Luke 5:6 7 Then the follower that Jesus liked a lot, said to Peter, “That man on the land is our leader Jesus.”
As soon as Peter heard that the man was Jesus, he put his coat back on. (You see, he took it off before, so that he could work better.) Then he jumped into the water to go to Jesus. 8 The boat wasn’t far from the land, only about 100 metres, so the other followers stayed in the boat, and took it to the land. They dragged the net full of fish behind them. 9 After they got out of the boat, they saw a fire with fish cooking in the coals. And there was bread too.
10 Jesus said to them, “Bring some of those fish that you just caught.”
11 So Peter went back to the boat, and he pulled the net full of fish up to the land. There were 153 big fish in the net, but it didn’t break.
12 Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.”
They all knew that he was their leader Jesus, but none of them were brave enough to ask, “Are you really Jesus?”
13 Then Jesus picked up some bread and gave it to them to eat. And he gave them some fish too.
14 This was the 3rd time, after Jesus came alive again, that he showed himself to his followers.
Jesus told Peter to look after his people
15 After they finished eating, Jesus talked to Peter, whose other name was Simon. He said, “Simon, son of John, do you love me, more than these other followers love me?”
Peter said, “Yes, sir, you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “All right, you have to take care of my people properly, just like a shepherd takes his young sheep to good grass for them to eat.”
16 Then Jesus asked him again, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”
Peter said, “Yes, sir, you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “All right, you have to take care of my people properly, just like a shepherd looks after his sheep.”
17 After that, Jesus asked him again, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”
Then Peter got a bit upset because Jesus asked him 3 times, “Do you love me?” So Peter said, “Sir, you know everything, and you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “All right, you have to look after my people properly, just like a shepherd takes his sheep to good grass for them to eat. 18 Listen Peter, I’m telling you straight. When you were a young man, you tied your own rope belt around you, and you went wherever you wanted to go. But after you get old, you will hold out your hands, and somebody else will tie a rope around you, and he will take you to a place where you don’t want to go.” 19 Jesus said that to tell Peter how Peter will die, and when Peter dies like that, he will show that God is really great.
Then Jesus told Peter, “Keep on following me.”
20 Then Peter turned around and saw the follower that Jesus liked a lot. He was walking behind them at the lake. (Remember, at their last dinner together before Jesus died, this man leaned close to Jesus, and asked him, “Who is going to turn against you?”*John 13:25) 21 At the lake, Peter looked at that follower, then he asked Jesus, “Sir, what about this man?”
22 Jesus said, “Don’t worry about him. Maybe I want him to stay alive until I come back again, but you don’t have to worry about that. You just follow me.” 23 When Jesus’s followers heard what Jesus said, they thought that he said that this man was not going to die. But Jesus didn’t say that he wouldn’t die. He said, “Maybe I want him to stay alive until I come back again, but you don’t have to worry about that.”
The last words of this book
24 That follower, the one Jesus was talking about, he is the one that wrote this book. He saw all those things happen, and we know that he wrote the true story about Jesus.
25 Jesus did a lot of other things too, but I can’t put them all in this book. You know, if somebody tried to write about all those things, the world is not big enough to hold all the books that they would make.

- John
- <
- 21
- >

*21:3 Luke 5:5

*21:6 Luke 5:6

*21:20 John 13:25

© 2026 Wycliffe Bible Translators Australia