Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Well, I'm going to have you turn in your Bibles to the Gospel of John.
[00:00:05] And we are at the conclusion of this series on the Gospel of John. I don't know how many sermons, I don't know, 38, nine or 40. Somewhere in that zone. And you have patiently endured walking through the Gospel of John with me. But it's been an exciting journey, at least it has been for me.
[00:00:25] So today I want to speak on how to move forward after a time of failure. And I think in all of our lives, if we're truly honest, we've had moments where we've disappointed our Lord. We've all have sinned and fall short of God's glory. But I'm glad today that God doesn't just say, oh, forget it, you've messed up, you're gone.
[00:00:46] That's the way the world operates. Hey, you didn't perform, you're out of here, right? You're not doing your job, you're fired. That's the kind of world mentality. But what is the true measure of success? Well, it depends. While we often think of terms of popularity or financial prosperity or maybe status or achievement, God has a total different measurement. And I think it's important to understand what God determines is success.
[00:01:15] Have we been obedient to what God has asked each one of us to do according to where he has placed us, according to our abilities, our gifts, our temperament? And Erwin Lutzer in his book the Backdoor to Success explains, often the doorway, this is not advancing here for some reason.
[00:01:38] Often the doorway to success is enter through the hallway of failure.
[00:01:43] Our sins actually are a forcible reminder of our need for God's grace. How many realize that our weaknesses make us appreciate God's strength?
[00:01:53] And an understanding of our frailty is the basis for a dynamic relationship with God? You say, well, why is that? Because until you and I recognize our great need, we'll continue to rely on ourselves rather than really trust God. And I think it's when there's disappointment, when there's heartache, when there's failure, those are the things that make us realize our great need for God.
[00:02:20] You know, it was an overly self confident Peter who boasted in the upper room that fateful night that though everybody else would fail Jesus, in Jesus darkest hour, all the other guys are going to let you down, Jesus. I'll be there for you. And we know the story. Peter was certainly confident. But as you continue to read the story, you realize that Peter denied Jesus three times and this literally shattered Peter as a result so he was now a broken person. And, you know, when you have an experience like that, it forever changes you as an individual.
[00:03:02] Now, how could God, out of that failure, ever entrust Peter to be responsible, to be one of the key leaders in the early church? That's the amazing thing. Why would God, after you and I mess up that God would say, I'm going to forgive you and I'm going to give you a new opportunity. I'm going to restore you. And that's what we're going to look at today. You know, the question simply is, how can you and I move forward after a time of failure in our lives? And we're going to all experience those things. In John 21, we see this tremendous restoration of Peter as he's manifesting himself after his resurrection to six other disciples besides Peter. And it's a powerful reminder, number one, of their initial calling to follow him, where Jesus promises that I'm going to make you guys fishers of men. And Jesus is now going to begin to reinstate them into their ministry. And I think that's important. So in order to move forward in our lives, I think we need to understand what undermines our lives. How many think that might be a wise thing? First of all, we need to take a look at ourselves and go, what's holding me here and how can I move forward? How many would like to move forward in your life? You know, I think we all would. And so we're going to look at how Jesus now begins to do that. And then the other thing that really struck me as I was going through this passage was how God focuses in on each one of us individually. It's so beautiful. And that all of us in this room are different. We all have different temperaments, we all have different abilities, we all have different experiences. And God wants to use each one of us in a unique way based on who we are and what God has in his mind, determined for our lives. And so I get excited thinking about the amazing potential. I'm looking across this room. I'm going, look at all this potential, God. Look at all the great things that you want to accomplish through each one of our lives. And that can really get a person excited. At least it does me. I get all excited about all the great things that you're going to accomplish by God's grace in your life. So let's take a look. I think here we see two movements in the chapter, but I'm going to call them steps that bring home these truths not only to the followers, those early followers, but also to you and me today in the 21st century. And so I think the first step in moving forward after failure is having a revelation and an encounter with the risen Lord.
[00:05:41] Everyone, every believer, every person actually has to have an encounter with God. I would even say all the people growing up in the church, all the kids growing up in the church, they can be taught Christianity. Sometimes I think there's a lot of people that have an intellectual understanding of Christianity but never had an encounter with the resurrected Lord. We all need that encounter, folks. We all need to experience a revelation, a new birth, a regeneration in our lives, a new nature that's formed within us. That has to occur to each and every individual person. You know, you don't just, I'm not a Christian because I grew up in a Christian home. That's not how it works. Every one of us have to have our own personal encounter with Christ. So real failure in life occurs when we're trusting in anyone or anything other than God. That's where failure occurs, and it will occur.
[00:06:35] I don't care how successful you are, because, you know, God, you know, puts all the gifts inside of us, and we can use all of that amazing abilities within us for the wrong things. And you know what that's like? That's like, you know, putting your life and leaning the ladder up against the wrong wall. And we're climbing towards a stairway that we think lead leading to success. And when we get to the top, we realize we leaned our ladder against the wrong wall.
[00:07:02] I don't want you to do that. I want you to lean your ladder up against the right wall. I want you to be successful in the eyes of God. That's the most important level of success. And that's what we all want to aim towards. So Jesus really had invested a lot in these 12 people. How many?
[00:07:22] I look at them and I say, these are just ordinary people. And that gives me a lot of hope. Jesus picks ordinary people. As a matter of fact, Paul says, not many wise, not many noble are called from among you. Jesus many times takes the weak and foolish things of this world and he chooses them. And he does that so that the wise scratch their head. The strong go, I don't get it. How can God use this person? But God does do that, and he likes to do that because then he gets the credit and not us. So God is going to choose very ordinary people most of the time. And if you don't think you're an ordinary person, that's fine. Maybe you're the exception. That's great. God can use you, too. But for the rest of us that are ordinary, God wants to work in our lives, so what does it take? You know, Here they were, the great test in the garden of Gethsemane. They all got an F on the report card. They all failed in the garden. They all ran away. Peter denied them three times. It wasn't a great scene.
[00:08:22] But now there's an even greater test looming before them.
[00:08:26] What are they going to do with the gospel? And I think it's a great test that looms before us. What are we going to do with Jesus? What are we going to do in our lives? Is it about, you know, I have Jesus in my life, but I live my life the way I want to, or is it really, you know, I'm really connecting with Jesus and I'm trying to determine what he wants me to do, and I'm trying to do that. I'm living out his will. I think often we're lured and seduced by the success things that society tells us about, but we fail to see the costs and the losses that are involved. It usually takes disappointment and failure and shattered dreams to help us realize that we're chasing the wrong vision and what life is really all about. And so, like these early followers, we need this amazing encounter with Jesus at a point of pain in our life. How many here can honestly say, I've met Jesus at a point of pain in my life?
[00:09:24] Okay, that's okay. It's a great place to meet him. Because I believe that when you meet Jesus at a point of pain, he changes us in a very marvelous way. We're never the same again. I'm going to tell you that right now. You'll never be the same again. Now in John's gospel, Jesus is appearing now for the third time to these disciples. It's by the Sea of Galilee. They're out fishing. It's a moment. I would say it's eerily familiar to them because you have to remember something. It was at this very lake while they were fishing that Jesus said, come, follow me. I'm going to make you fishers of men. So I think what's happening here, it's almost like a duplication of the initial calling. Now we're getting a recalling, and that's what Jesus is about to do. So let's pick up the story afterwards. Jesus appeared again to his disciples by the Sea of Galilee. It happened this way. Simon Peter, Thomas, also known as Ditmus, Nathaniel from Canaan and Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, that's James and John. John, the author of the book, and two other disciples were together. I'm going to go fishing, Peter says to them, and we'll go with you. So they went out and got into the boat. But that night they caught nothing. Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore. But the disciples did not realize it was Jesus. Now, why didn't they realize it was Jesus? Maybe it was the weather. Maybe it was still a bit dawn. They couldn't see clearly. Maybe a little fog had rolled in. I don't know. They could hear his voice, but it must have had enough of a distance. It says later on, they're about 100 yards away. I think there was a number of things that were keeping them from really seeing who it really was. Maybe there was a lack of expectation. Jesus had mentioned to, sorry, the angels that told the women that Jesus was going to meet him in Galilee. But that probably slipped their mind because he had already showed up twice in the upper room. Who knows? But they weren't expecting Jesus. They were busy fishing.
[00:11:27] So Jesus calls out to them in an informal manner. He says, friends, have you any fish? No, they answered, throw your net on the right side of the boat and you'll find some. And when they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish. Now, it's interesting, this word for friends in the niv. It's a word that's normally translated children.
[00:11:53] But he didn't. I think the NIV has a better idea of the context because a lot of times meaning is shaped by the context of the passage you're looking at.
[00:12:04] Now, if we were to translate. If I was going to translate this text, I'd probably say, hey, guys. It was kind of that informal little, you know, hey, guys, have you caught anything? In other words? Or are you catching anything? It was the idea that maybe you guys are struggling with catching something.
[00:12:23] And their answer was simply, no, haven't caught a thing. And then Jesus says to them, why don't you throw your net on the right side of the boat? Now, they didn't know it was Jesus in the earlier story when they were having problems catching fish and Jesus told them to throw the net on the other side. They knew it was Jesus, they obeyed Jesus and they had that miraculous catch of fish here. They don't know anything. They don't know that this is Jesus. But, you know, some of you guys go out fishing. Every once in a while you got strangers and you're all fishing and you're not catching anything. And somebody else might say to you, hey, why don't you try this lure? Why don't you take this. Here's a better spot over here. You know what I'm talking about? Maybe out of that kind of a camaraderie relationship of mutual fishermen, he just says, hey, throw the net on the other side. And they did. And all of a sudden, bang. That net is at the straining point. It doesn't break like in the earlier story, but. Or the boat's not near sinking. But we know that there was a large haul of fish here. It was so large they couldn't bring it in. They were having a hard time dragging it to shore.
[00:13:34] Then the disciples, it says, whom Jesus loved, says it's the Lord.
[00:13:42] Now, I think this is a very important thing that's happening. I don't think it's because John recognized Jesus. I think it's the kind of thing that how many get the idea that John's personality as such, he's kind of a thinker, you know, when he gets to the tomb, he doesn't go in. He kind of stands outside. He's looking at the grave clothes, and he's thinking to himself, he must have risen from the dead. He's that kind of a thinker now. He's immediately. He's struck with the idea in his mind that, hey, this reminds me, it's got to be Jesus. You know, he did this before on us. This is Jesus. And the moment he says it's the Lord, Simon Peter hears him say, it's the Lord wraps his outer garment around him, for he had taken it off probably at the top part of his tunic, and he jumps into the water. And that tells me a lot about Peter. You know, while John's thinking about things, Peter's acting on things. They're just a different personality. And I'm going to come back to that point a little later on. I think we have this contrast between these two different personalities. I think we see a little bit of the impulsive nature of Peter, right? He's the guy that cuts off the servants here. He's the guy that runs past John into the tomb. Now he's the guy that jumps in the water. He's the guy that jumps out of the boat and starts walking on water. How many know Peter gets things done because he's not thinking about it all the time. He's just doing.
[00:15:02] But every once in a while, while you're doing, you're making mistakes, too. He probably makes more mistakes than most people. But at Least he gets things done. That's kind of Peter's nature and Peter is a leader and Jesus knows that.
[00:15:14] So we can see here that Peter is not reticent to be with Jesus. He is kind of excited. And that suggests to me that Jesus had already reached out to Peter and had already restored Peter into fellowship. So this story is not about restoring Peter into relationship, it is about restoring Peter into ministry. I think those are two different things. See, we see here in Mark's Gospel when the women had come to the tomb, it says, go tell his disciples and Peter and he's going to go ahead of you into Galilee and there you will see him, just as I told you. Now we know that Jesus had appeared to Peter because Paul in his letter to the Corinthians wrote out this chronology of this post resurrection appearances of Christ. And it says and he was buried, raised from the dead on the third day according to the scriptures. In that he appeared to Cephas, which is another name for Peter, and then to the 12. So it seems like Peter had a personal one on one visit with Jesus before he even showed up and talked to the other disciples. It seems that's the way Paul seems to be describing it here in the book of Corinthians. So this meeting in Galilee, as I said, was to restore Peter to a role of leadership in the church. Now let's continue on John chapter 21. Here it says the other disciples followed in the boat towing the net full of fish. For they were not far from shore, about 100 yards. And when they had landed they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it and some bread. I want to pause and just point out something. When was the last time we heard about burning coals?
[00:16:55] Well, that was back when Jesus was arrested. He was at Annas house. Peter was there and he was cold and he was warming his hands where there were some burning coals. You got to pick up on these clues that John's laying down for us. He's basically giving us some verbal clues of what's going on here. So now they see this little fire going and there's fish on it and there's some bread. And then Jesus says to them, here, come on, have breakfast. None of the disciples dared ask him, who are you? Because they knew it was the Lord, so they didn't say that. So what does this mean to us? I don't know. Maybe his post resurrection experiences. It's not so much that they didn't recognize his appearance, but what they were dealing with is the fact that he was back from the dead. How many know that's kind of a hard thing to process? Does anybody relate to that? How many think that you might have a little process issues when you had somebody who you saw crucified is now walking around talking to you and eating with you? It's kind of like, I'm still processing that you're here, Jesus. It's really messing with their heads. I'm sure it was.
[00:18:06] Then they went on here and he said, Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them and he did the same with the fish. This was now the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples in John's gospel after he was raised from the dead. Now, FF Bruce sees in this provision a sign or a parable of something far more significant than providing a breakfast meal. As a matter of fact, he said the disciples haul of fish is a parable of their missionary activity in the time that lies ahead. But this activity with this pastoral sequel, Jesus is going to talk to Peter about taking on a pastoral role will be attended by success only as they follow the directions of their risen Lord.
[00:18:55] What Bruce is basically saying is when you listen to Jesus, you have certain results happen when you do your own thing, you don't have the same results. How many say that's probably true? I say it this way, Jesus is only obligated to fulfill his will, not ours.
[00:19:14] Isn't that true? A lot of times we get frustrated because we lay out a plan and then it doesn't happen and we're all mad at God. I'm going forget that. Why don't we just say, God, your will be done. I'm just going to embrace your plan. And I think we're going to get further ahead in life if we just flow with God's plan and we will be more effective, more joyful, more peace filled, more content. And we'll probably be more effective by doing his will. God's going to take you on a journey that's going to exceed what you anticipate. That's the beautiful part. Now this catch a fish had happened earlier. I've already pointed that out. And in that earlier experience, Peter came unglued. And I want us to look at it in Luke chapter five. Here it said, master, this is Simon before he was called Peter. Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I'm going to let down the nets. Then the next verse says, when they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish. That their nets began to break. When Simon Peter saw this, he fel at Jesus feet and said, go away from me, Lord. I am a sinful man. Now, I want you to notice in Luke's rendition, he calls him Simon. Later on he calls him Simon Peter. There he puts the names together. But I think it's important because in a moment here, Jesus is going to talk to Peter, but he's not going to call him Peter. He's going to call him Simon. And I believe that what he's doing is he's taking Peter back. And I think this experience of what's happening on the Sea of Galilee is taking Peter back. He's taking him back to this moment when he was first introduced to Jesus and came to a deep recognition of his deep sinfulness. Now, how many know you cannot move forward in life until you address sin in your life?
[00:21:12] Step one, you have to be able to acknowledge that I'm a sinner. We have to come to that place. And you know, most of these recovery programs, if you study them, the first step in any recovery program is an acknowledgement of the problem. And if you're in denial and you don't acknowledge you have a problem, you never get healthy, you never move forward. The first step in moving forward is to admit, here's my problem and acknowledge it and label it and say it. But I'm not going to live in this problem. I'm going to acknowledge it before God. I'm going to confess this sin in my life. Because then God can not only forgive me, but cleanse me and then revive and restore my life and move me forward. And that's what we really want in our lives. You know, we can sit down here and throw rocks at people, we can condemn people, we can be uptight about issues, we can be shamed, we can be guilty, we can be heaping all kinds of junk on ourselves. We can camp in our sin, we can camp in our failure, we can camp in our shame, but it's not going to move us forward. But the moment we finally say, yes, I've sinned against God, you know, now I can move forward. I can ask God to forgive me and God can restore me and God can renew me and God can revive me and God can recommission me. These are all things God wants to do in our lives.
[00:22:42] Well, Roland Tasker explains how Jesus words are challenging Peter's past self confidence in himself and the failure that resulted from looking to himself rather than fully trusting Jesus. He said three times, he's addressing Peter as Simon, son of Jonah and Jesus would seem to be deliberately avoiding the name which he himself had said one day would be his, which is Peter. Not yet had Peter proven himself worthy of the designation man of the Rock. But before, as I said, we can move forward, we have to acknowledge our absolute need of Jesus, not only to forgive us, but to empower us so that we could become all that God designed us to be. And that leads me to my only other point, the second step. This is so simple, right? One, admit I got a problem. Label it for what it is. Don't pretend it's not there. It is. Don't camp there. Don't live in failure. Stop making excuses for failure. Let's just say it what it is and move on. The next one is the restoration and recommissioning of Peter and the disciples. It's in this interchange between Jesus and Peter that I'm sure John was walking behind them. He was listening in on the conversation. And if he wasn't, then Peter told all of these disciples the conversation. So after breakfast, Peter and Jesus are having a one on one interesting conversation. So the restoration. And here we see the commissioning of repentant believers. Now, I have to admit something. I had to change my thinking on this passage. I've spoken on this passage before. I've never preached this sermon, but I've spoken on this little passage before. And I had to change my understanding of the text because I did a little more deep dive research is incredible. It can actually change the way you see a passage. This is what I'm going to tell you. Now. There's a number of Greek synonyms or interchangeable words in the Greek language, which has often caused a measure of interesting ideas being forwarded even by other scholars. But you know what? I don't think that that's exactly what the passage is about. And I'll explain to you what I mean. And some of you have probably heard this.
[00:24:58] First of all, before we get there, let me just say this. FF Bruce explains that though some interpreters make major distinctions, thereby forcing ideas into the text that are not really there, the significant idea is, I think, far more plainly seen. And this is FF Bruce, he says, stylistically, this interchange between the Lord and his disciples, go back there. Is interesting because of the use of synonyms. And I just say it, the words that mean the same, okay, two words for love are used. You've probably heard this, Simon, do you love me? And the word there. Initially Jesus says, simon, do you agape me? That's the Greek, do you love Me. And then Peter says, lord, you know that I love you. But he doesn't use agape. He uses filial. And usually we get the word Philadelphia from filial. It's a brotherly kind of love. And typically agape typically means more of a divine, loftier kind of love. Okay, so then there's two words in this text for tending the flock, and then two for the flock itself and two for the word no.
[00:26:01] But this interplay of synonyms is really the feature of the writer's Greek. In other words, they were probably talking in Aramaic.
[00:26:10] Yeah, it's written in Greek by John, because that's the language of the day. And the New Testament was written in Greek, but there was not this deep interchange of meaning of the Greek language involved. So in writing the book, John is changing words that are the same idea just so that it's not monotonous. How many have ever read something and somebody is repeating the same word over and over again? It's monotonous. And so basically what FF Bruce is saying, he's not trying to give you a special meaning because he's using these two words. And this is the reason why the verb agapio in itself does not necessarily imply a loftier love. It does so when the context makes it clear. Like this, on the other hand. And he'll give you an example. Remember the story where Paul says, demas has forsaken me and he's loved this present age or world more.
[00:27:06] Now loving the world, he uses the word agapio.
[00:27:11] Now, if that's the divine kind of love, I don't think Demas is divinely loving this world. That's not what it means. So you have to interpret a word based on its context.
[00:27:24] Everybody following what I'm saying. You know, when we go to a concordance, and sometimes Christians do this, we look up the Greek word or the Hebrew word, and then we try to pull. You know, there's seven or eight meanings. You don't come into a text and then impose one of your pet things there into the text to make it say that what you do is like an all language. When you're reading something, the words are meant to be understood within the context of what it's being used as. You follow what I'm saying by that? Does everybody follow what I just tried to explain to you? Did I lose anybody here? You can talk to me later. It just means that words mean what they should mean. And you can tell the meaning of those words based on the paragraph or the sentence or the structure of the words. And so there's not this play on words that sometimes we, we preachers like to bring out, even myself included. So I got corrected in this, and I thought, okay, so what is it really all about then? Well, loan nida in their Greek English lexicon affirm that what's transpiring in the conversation between Jesus and Peter is allowing Peter to come to terms with his recent denials and allowing Jesus to renew Peter's commission and affirmation for his future role in church. And so this is what they say, for example, in its usage in John, chapter 21, verses 15 to 17, we're going to get there. There seems to reflect simply a rhetorical alternation designed to avoid undue repetition. I've already said that this is another Greek scholar who actually writes a dictionary, Greek dictionary, he says. There is, however, one significant clue to possible meaningful differences in at least some context, namely that the fact that people are never commanded to love one another with filial or brotherly kind of love. In the New Testament, we're commanded to love each other agapio. We're to have a loftier love. Okay, does this make any sense to you? In other words, what God is commanding us as Christians is that we're to love people with God's kind of love. It's an unconditional love that's really profound. So, you know, before you're a Christian, you can actually love people in a brotherly sort of way. It's a filial type of love. But what God is asking of us as believers, he says, I want you to love people like I do.
[00:29:46] How many go, wow, I don't know if I can do that, you know? And so we were praying about it this morning, and one of our brothers in our prayer group says, pastor, this is what I get from this, is simply that if I love God with all of my heart and I give all my love to him, maybe I'm empty now. God gives his love into me, which is an agapio kind of love, and then I can start loving people like God loves them. This is a very loving person. So I said, well, it could be. I'm not going to dispute that point, but that was an interesting insight. All I'm trying to say is God is requiring of us, asking of us that we would love people like he does. How many think that's pretty profound? That's pretty challenging, to be honest with you, boy, I got to love my enemies like that. God. Yep. Do I have to love my spouse like that? God. Yep. You know, I'm just throwing it out there.
[00:30:34] You knew I was going to start meddling somewhere down the line here, right? I'll just explain things.
[00:30:39] So when they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? Now, what's he mean, more than these? You know, you could say, well, more than fishing. No, it's not what it's about. I think he's pointing back to Peter in the upper room, going, I'm going to love you, even though I'm going to stick it by you. I'm never going to, you know, I'm going to be there for you and everyone else is going to mess up. Do you love me more than the other disciples, Peter?
[00:31:09] Nope.
[00:31:11] See, get away from comparisons.
[00:31:15] You don't know how people are loving.
[00:31:18] Do you love me more than these? He said, yes, Lord. He said, I know. Okay. Yes, Lord. He said, you know that I love you. But he doesn't say more than these. He just says, you know that I love you. And then Jesus says something very important. He says, well, then, feed my lambs. Okay, here's. I'm going to make a statement here. You and I can tell God we love them till the cows come home, but real love evidenced when you and I do what he's asking us to do.
[00:31:49] So love is always revealed by obeying what God is saying. If I told God I love him, God says, if you really love me, Paul, take care of my people. Paul, if you really love me, study my word and you can feed my people. See, I'm hearing what Peter's hearing. I'm hearing God say to me, listen, if you really love me, I want you to do what I'm asking you to do.
[00:32:14] I think this is powerful stuff. This is what he's telling Peter.
[00:32:20] It would seem to me, as I've said, that he's speaking about the situation that befell Peter in the upper room, that he failed in the garden. But as we know, Peter's courage failed him in the courtyard. And Carson die. Carson says, do you love me more than these other disciples do? See, I'm in agreement with Carson's rendition of this, which of course assumes that they're still present. We need to move the advance, the slide. This is. Okay, there you go. This makes sense. No, this is not working. I've been letting her do it all along.
[00:32:57] Peter has always been able to advance the strongest personal boast.
[00:33:03] Do you love me more than these other disciples? Sorry. On the night Jesus was betrayed, while Others were growing quiet. Peter would insist, I'm going to lay down my life for you.
[00:33:15] He didn't say, we will lay down our life for you. He didn't say it that way. He said, I'm going to do it. Forget these guys.
[00:33:22] Then he goes on to say, it was Peter was the one who slashed Malchus. But physical courage was not enough that night. And it was Peter, also spirit willing, but flesh weak, who publicly disowned the Lord. Whatever potential for future service he had therefore depended upon not only on forgiveness from Jesus, and therefore depended not only on forgiveness from Jesus, but also he needed to be reinstated among the disciples. So, you know, it's one thing to know God has forgiven me, but it's another thing for people to forgive me. How many know that's another step? And I think that's an important step and that's why I think Jesus was doing this while there were other disciples around. Jesus was showing the other disciples, I've forgiven Peter and I'm reinstating him. Just like I've forgiven you guys and I'm reinstating you guys. They were all being reinstated by Jesus.
[00:34:19] How true this is, I think of a fallen believer though we can be assured that when a person repents, God forgives them, it's often more of a struggle for other believers to be forgiving and gracious. And yet there's more at stake. Is this a genuine repentance leading to real change? See, Gerald Bochart says it this way. It's almost as though the evangelist is affirming the well known concept that for a person to become right with God and gain a sense of release from the past, sense of rebellion, that that person should face the reality of where the deviation or sin occurred. In other words, we have to acknowledge that was a sin. You can't pretend, oh, that was a slip up. I didn't mean to do that. We are really good today in our society. When we make a mistake, we just go, well, I didn't intend it that way. We don't take ownership of our sin and when we don't do that, we can't be forgiven. We need to understand, we need to take ownership. And that's what he's talking about here.
[00:35:21] The issue of denying the Lord became a significant problem in the early church during times of persecution. How many think that would be true? Because some people are willing to die for their faith and other people said, no, I don't.
[00:35:33] They denied Christ and therefore they continued living. Now how do you treat those people when they come back and say man, I made a major mistake, I'm wrong.
[00:35:42] Do you know the church was really intensely divided over this issue.
[00:35:47] I don't know if you know anything about the don Autistic schism in the Church in North Africa in the 4th century but Augustine, there was a whole tension going on and the Donatists were the people were the hardliners who having gone through persecution and people had lost their lives and then other people denied Christ and then they wanted back in the church. The Donatists would say no, you're never going to be a believer. And so Augustine and other church fathers said no, no, that's not right, yes they sinned, but you know what, we have to restore these people. And so the church was divided. Isn't that interesting? And so this is what he's talking about. Hardliners are often not willing to accept those who deny their Lord while others may have tended to accept such deviance too easily.
[00:36:33] That can happen where we just oh it doesn't matter. You see, I would say all the truth takers are saying don't let him in and all the mercy givers are saying no big deal. And I think it is a big deal but I don't think we can just stay on one side or the other. This pericope of the questioning of Peter must have served as a model of a media position, a middle ground willing to reestablish deviance but not without testing their commitment. You can see that Jesus is testing Peter's commitment. The three times Peter's denying Jesus, Jesus is challenging him three times, do you love me, Peter boy? The third time around, do you know why Peter got wounded by that? Because it reminded him that he had denied Jesus three times. And Jesus is making him affirm him three times. Wow.
[00:37:22] Let's take a look in the next verse here it says again Jesus said, simon son of John, do you love me? He answered, yes Lord, you know I love you. Jesus said, take care of my sheep.
[00:37:36] The third time he said to him, simon son of John, do you love me? Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, do you love me? And he said, lord, you know all these things. You know that I love you. Jesus said, feed my sheep. So why was Peter hurt? Well I think it's a reminder of his three denials. Gerald Bouchard explains this wounding of Peter says why then was Peter grieved?
[00:37:59] Does not just catch the pathos or the emotion of the statement.
[00:38:04] It was hardly because of the change in the Greek verbs. Besides that Argument would hardly be viable in the original conversation had it been in Aramaic. That's what I'm talking about, you know, saying agape and phileo. That's not what the point is about. That's not why, you know, because Jesus now in the third time he says he uses the word phileo, the same word that Peter does. No, they're talking in Aramaic, they're not talking in Greek. Okay, so we've already dealt with that. He says a mere glance at the text tells the reader the reason Peter experienced a major undoing of his self assertiveness. Because Jesus asked him the third time about his love. The third time did it. Okay, how many catch on? You know, sometimes you have to stay with it. You're dealing with a problem. And sometimes we let off the gas. We don't really address it. And so the person really never addresses it. Jesus didn't let off, he said it. The third time Peter came unglued. Peter started. It's really hitting him now with real impact.
[00:39:10] Look what I did to Jesus.
[00:39:13] And now he's broken, he's hurt, it's intense. This is an intense moment. How many of you know that if you're doing physical surgery, you're causing pain and if you're doing spiritual surgery, you're causing pain.
[00:39:28] Jesus is the great physician and he will do spiritual surgery on our souls and there will be moments in our life it will cause us pain. But it's not that he's not wanting. He's doing it in a loving way because he wants to bring healing and restoration into our lives. That's what we need to understand. Imagine again the scene as the evangelist framed it. A charcoal fire. The three questions about Peter's relationship to Jesus. It hardly takes a genius to relate this event to that one of the denial. Facing up to oneself is a very traumatic experience.
[00:40:04] Think of, you know, Butchart quotes that one text from Isaiah. Do you know what that text is? That was when Isaiah the prophet was in the presence of God and he said, I saw the Lord high and lifted up and he became undone.
[00:40:17] Have you ever had an undone moment before God? I have. It's very painful.
[00:40:24] You're broken. You know what I think is lacking sometimes in our lives is the spirit of brokenness.
[00:40:31] We're not undone. We're not undone by sin. We're very flippant with our sin. We just say, oh forgive me and move on. Listen, a little undoneness would probably do a lot towards us not doing it Again, a little more seriousness of addressing the pain that we cause the heart of God would probably change us a lot more than just, well, you know, I just go through, I'm sorry, but we don't really mean it.
[00:40:58] You know, I think that's one of the reasons why people have a hard time forgiving today. Because people are so flippant about I'm sorry, but do they really mean it? Because when you're really sorry, it should lead to a change of behavior and not just a bunch of words.
[00:41:13] Did Peter learn from this experience? Well, maybe not immediately, but as the following verses seem to indicate. But ultimately, if the first letter of Peter is any indication, there seems to be little doubt that this experience seared itself into the consciousness of this well meaning disciple. Because in his first letter there's an instructive message for the leaders of his missionary churches. In the three responses of Jesus to Peter's assertion of love towards Jesus, where Jesus says feed and then tend and then basically commissioning him to a pastoral responsibility. Then in his epistle, Peter in turn told the leaders of the church to then pastor.
[00:42:01] The flock of God. And leadership in the Christian church should not be a matter of obligation or oughtness, but of a willing desire. It should likewise not be from a goal of achieving personal gain, but a sense of calling to serve others. And it should not be because one wishes to dominate others, but because one is willing to model the way of Christ in serving God's flock. Seeking power and personal aggrandizement should not be any part of the goals among Jesus disciples. In other words, we're not in it for what we can get out of it. That's not what it should be about.
[00:42:40] We're in it for what we can give to it. And we can only give what God gives us.
[00:42:46] And I'm not going to just say that for pastoral leaders. I'm going to say that for each of us that we're in it for what we can give to it. You know, if you come to church and you go, it's not about you, the church, whatever we're doing here, meeting my needs, I've come to bring something to it, it changes your whole paradigm of what you're going to receive from it.
[00:43:09] A lot of people say, well, I don't get anything from it. My question is, what are you bringing to it?
[00:43:18] The more you invest and bring something to it, the more you get out of it. It's the way it works in life. Then the necessity of our love for God and lasting fruitfulness in our lives. You know. Roland Tasker explains the Necessity of love as the key motivation in serving, he says, for Christian love must express itself in service, even for the least of Christ's brethren. But without love for Christ, that service can never be rendered.
[00:43:50] Such love alone enables the disciple to keep Christ's commandments and to remain loyal to him, even though, as it will be in the case with Peter, he may discover as life goes on, that love does not make life easy, but that duties become more exacting and personal freedom becomes more restricted with advancing years. And even though his discipleship may lead him, as it led Simon Peter, to imprisonment and death, in the case of Peter, following Jesus would mean a life of continuous care for Christ's sheep, culminating in a martyrdom that would redound to God's glory. Let me very truly goes on here to say, I tell you, when you were younger, you dressed yourself and went where you wanted. But when you're old, you'll stretch out your hands and someone else will dress you up and lead you where you do not want to go. And Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. And then he said to him, follow me.
[00:44:49] Here we have a description of the kind of death that Peter would die. And we know he was crucified. He was treated as a criminal, and he was killed like Jesus. But now we see a different path that God calls each of us towards. In verse 20, Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved was following him. This was the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper and said, lord, who's going to betray you? When Peter saw him, he said, lord, what about him? Jesus answered, if I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me. And because of this, the rumor spread among the brethren or the believers that this disciple would not die. But Jesus did not say he would not die. He only said, if I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You know what I notice here? Two different paths.
[00:45:38] Peter is called to a certain ministry. Peter is a certain personality. Peter has certain gifts. Peter's life path is different. Peter's earthly life is shorter. Peter's earthly life ends in martyrdom. John is the only one that doesn't get martyred. He outlives all of these disciples. So what happens with John? John's life is far more sedated in many ways, but he's more of the thinker, the teacher. And look what happens. He lives 30 years past all of this. And during those first 30 years, you know what starts happening in the church? All kinds of crazy ideas. How many know it doesn't take long before you have heresy coming up left, right and center. And then John writes his gospel, he writes his epistles, and what is he warning against? False teaching.
[00:46:26] See, he has a totally different gift, totally different temperament. What does that mean to you and to me? It means that we're all different. So what God requires of different people is different based upon who they are, their temperaments, their gifts, what God intends for you and I to do. So we can't just copy each other. And you know, we shouldn't even be comparing ourselves with each other because God's not asking us to do the same thing. And even if we do similar things, we have different abilities and gifts and experiences, so we shouldn't even compare with others doing that stuff.
[00:47:02] As Tasker writes for the beloved disciple, on the other hand, following Jesus will mean something different. His service will be less dramatic and not so obviously heroic.
[00:47:14] So let me close. Jesus desires to restore our lives and commission us to service. Do you know every one of us is designed by God to fulfill something.
[00:47:27] It's the way it is. And you know what? Here's the issue we have to answer. Do I love him?
[00:47:34] Jesus is going to ask the question this morning to you as an individual, do you love me?
[00:47:39] And if you love me, this is what I want you to do. And it always comes out to, I want you to obey me. I want you to do this for me. And if we love Jesus, we'll say, absolutely, Lord, you know, hey, I want you to go wash the toilet. Fine, happy to do it for you. I'm washing the toilet. I'm washing the dishes, I'm teaching nursery, you know, whatever it is that's just in the church building. But you know, whatever it is God's asking us to do, visit my neighbor, care for an orphan, we could just go on and on. We could just talk at length about all the different ways you and I can manifest our love for God. But I'm going to have a stand as we close in prayer. And just as I think about this, I guess my thought goes to this idea.
[00:48:29] Maybe you're here today and you say, you know what? I'm at a low point, I'm at a failure point.
[00:48:35] I need to be restored.
[00:48:38] You know what? Acknowledge your sin, ask God to forgive you.
[00:48:43] And then, you know, get back up and say, lord, thank you for forgiving me.
[00:48:50] And now what you want me to do, I'll be happy to do it.
[00:48:56] I'll be happy to do it. You know, I love that verse. It said about Jesus in the book of Hebrews, I delight to do your will.
[00:49:03] Is that your desire? I want to do the will of the Father.
[00:49:07] I want to express my love to God. And how I do that is by how I treat other people.
[00:49:13] You know, it's easy to say, well, I love God, but he's invisible and he's in heaven. He's not too much, you know. But sometimes loving God means dealing with difficult people.
[00:49:23] Sometimes loving God means doing a difficult task. Sometimes loving God means, you know, I'm not doing what I want, I'm doing what he wants, but finding a joy in it. Not to do it out of obligation, but out of cheerfulness and delight that we do these things. Yeah, there's moments of great joy when you're serving, and there's moments of great difficulty and heartache in it. That's just the nature of it. It's the nature of it in raising children. It's the nature of it in anything you do.
[00:50:00] But maybe you're here today and you say, you know, pastor, I need God to forgive me. That's where we're going to start. Anybody here today just. Let's just bow our heads for a moment. Anybody here say, you know, I need God's forgiveness today? That's you. Just raise your hand. I'm going to pray for those that need forgiveness. Okay? How many here say, you know what? It's beautiful. Now let's put our hands down. How many here say, you know what? I just want to serve. I want to express my love to Jesus by obediently serving him the way he designed me to be. That's you. I've got my hand up. That's how I want to live. I just want to do it the way he's designed me to do it. I want to be faithful to the very end, you know.
[00:50:42] When do you stop doing it? When Jesus tells you to. How's that? So how do you know when that happens? When you're probably physically and mentally unable to do it, that's when you know, maybe I shouldn't be doing it. I just can't do it anymore.
[00:50:57] As long as you got the strength and the energy and the opportunity, I take it as green light. God wants to change directions. He can do that. It's very simple for God. So, Lord, I pray today that you would now bring forgiveness into the hearts of those that have confessed their need for it. I pray today that you would strengthen the others, Lord, that are saying, lord, I want to do your will, and I want to do it with cheerfulness, with delight.
[00:51:26] I want to enjoy serving you. When I look at what I'm doing, instead of seeing it as drudgery or difficulty, help me to have a different attitude and help me to see that I'm doing it for you. And yes, it may be difficult moments, but I'm enjoying loving you. And I do that by loving the people that you're bringing into my life. And I thank you for that. In Jesus name, amen. God bless you as you leave today.
