John 21:1-17

International Children’s Bible

Jesus Appears to Seven Followers

21 Later, Jesus showed himself to his followers by Lake Galilee.^[a] This is how it happened: ²Some of the followers were together. They were Simon Peter, Thomas (called Didymus), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the two sons of Zebedee, and two other followers. ³Simon Peter said, “I am going out to fish.”

The other followers said, “We will go with you.” So they went out and got into the boat. They fished that night but caught nothing.

⁴Early the next morning Jesus stood on the shore. But the followers did not know that it was Jesus. ⁵Then he said to them, “Friends, have you caught any fish?”

They answered, “No.”

⁶He said, “Throw your net into the water on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they did this. They caught so many fish that they could not pull the net back into the boat.

⁷The follower whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Peter heard him say this, he wrapped his coat around himself. (Peter had taken his clothes off.) Then he jumped into the water. ⁸The other followers went to shore in the boat, dragging the net full of fish. They were not very far from shore, only about 100 yards. ⁹When the followers stepped out of the boat and onto the shore, they saw a fire of hot coals. There were fish on the fire, and there was bread.

¹⁰Then Jesus said, “Bring some of the fish that you caught.”

¹¹Simon Peter went into the boat and pulled the net to the shore. It was full of big fish. There were 153. Even though there were so many, the net did not tear. ¹²Jesus said to them, “Come and eat.” None of the followers dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. ¹³Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them. He also gave them the fish.

¹⁴This was now the third time Jesus showed himself to his followers after he was raised from death.