The Last Net

Dear Father. As we bow our heads here we need Jesus. We pray

that you'll guide us, keep us, hold us, Father, and we

deny you in life. May we come home in Jesus' name. Amen Nabel

Sabio Azadi once wrote that when fishermen cannot go to sea, they prepare nets.

It's a fact of life that we cast our net of our own making

into a sea that is dark and cold. We make our nets in hope

to catch something in the darkness that is full of life. We cast our

nets in hope that what we catch will change our lives, because it's special,

it's large, it's significant, it's that big fish we wanted to catch,

the big something. Life is a twisted twelve tail of mended nets and

dark seas. Universally, we hope to catch something in that dark sea that

is greater than ourselves, something that is deep and meaningful and warm, something

good that will never go away in life, something that goes to the end

of life. But we must admit in our sanest moments that our nets are

full of holes, and they break and they tear, and so our fishing

expedition is always flawed. In life, Friend, you can spend all your

life mending a net that is full of holes. Or you can take the

net that's imperfect and you can throw it into the deep and you can see

what God will give you in life. Nets by nature are full of holes,

and yet you can use that net full of holes to catch something in

life. Peter started his career as a fisherman, mending his net by sea

and catching fish. In that net he mented all the time. In fact,

he mended it as he was on the shore. Then he would try

to catch sea. And that's the paradox of a fisherman mending nets catching fish.

How many of you appreciate Older John Dom's sermon last week on Luke five,

very profoundly illuminating about the importance of Jesus' call and commitment and obedience.

In Luke five, Jesus got into Peter's boat to teach the people on the

shore how god men's lives. So he began to preach the gospel right there

in the boat. And when Jesus got in the boat, that's that first

day Peter's whole life was changed. And guess why Peter's whole life was changed,

Because Christ got in the boat it's a good thing to let Jesus into

your boat. Jesus told Peter to take that leaky old boat and go out

into the deep in the light of the full day. Now, you can't

catch fish in full daylight. The best time on the Sea of Tiberius is

to catch him at night along the shorelight. To go into the deep,

to do it in the height of the sunlight. It's not when you can

catch the fish. Fish hang out on the shore. Peter protested that Peter

obeyed and his net was instantly full of fish. That's how Peter started his

journey. The miracle to fish became the miracle in Peter's life. When his

net was full, Peter left his net full of fish to follow Jesus for

three and a half years. Peter used that old fishing boat to cart Jesus

around the Sea of Galilee so Jesus could teach him how to catch men in

a gospel net, Peter had a tremendous time, a life changing time,

full of fun with Jesus in the boat. Now at the funeral, Jim,

the funeral that was here yesterday sticks in my mind the most is how

your mother Monica was laugh her way through life, and I picked up on

that. They say you have that gift right. Jim lost her mother recently.

The funeral was yesterday. How many of your prayers are with her today?

Raise it high. We're with you and your family going through that.

But you know, Peter was a laughing kind of person, happy, buoyant,

extroverted, and he spent that time with Christ. It was buddy kind

of time, me and Jesus doing fun things together. The thrill of going

with Christ to be a fisher of men. Jesus ministry was successful at first

when you read the Testament, it was working. But in the end of

his three and a half years that those large groups turned on Jesus. They

became hostile. They didn't like what he was saying. Christ was claiming to

be God, and they rejected him for that claim. In John five he

said, well, are you guys gonna leave? Two? And Peter said,

where would we go? You have the words of life? In John

six sixty eight, excuse me, he said, Peter answered, Lord,

whom do we should we go? You have the words of eternal life.

He told the rabbis before Abraham was I am that's Yahweh Elahim, Almighty God

in the Old Testament. That's why in Isaiah he could call himself the Prince

of He can be called by the Holy Spirit, the Prince of Peace,

the Everlasting Father, because I and my Father are one. In the Gospel

of John, if you've seen me, you have seen the Father. This

is why in one John chapter one, Jesus could say that I mean,

John could say without apology of Christ, the eternal life that was with the

Father was manifested to us. Christ is not someone who comes online in the

universe. Christ is someone who is the eternal life that was always with the

Father. Thus he can reveal the Father God with us. And so Simon

Peter said, whom shall we go? You have the words of life now

Matthew sixteen sixteen. Peter confessed that Jesus was the Christ. He said,

who to men say that I am? Of course, in Judaism they knew

that the Son of God was equal to God, because in John five,

eighteen nineteen they accused Christ of blasphemy, because when you claim to be the

son of God, you make yourself equal with God. They had figured that

out. They didn't know the whole truth, but they figured out two pieces

of it, and so Jesus said, who to men, say that I

am? And Peter confessed in Matthew sixteen sixteen, says you are the Christ,

the son of the Living God, and Peter left him. Peter confessed

him, and then just shortly after Peter wanted to tell the son of God

how to order his life not to die on a cross, and Christ that

get behind me. And so Peter had his ups and downs. But the

fact is Peter left Jesus just like those big crowds did when the pressure was

on. When he was put in the mix of trying to figure things out,

he turned his back on Christ. Peter helped Jesus die by denying him

as he pushed him over the plank, Peter's plank. Peter ended his career

as a fisher of men by joining the Judas Club and the mob that sent

Jesus out to die so he could save his own skin from a Roman cross.

That's how Peter's career with Jesus came to an end. In Matthew twenty

six seventy four we are informed that Peter cursed Jesus. One of the gospels

would indicate a curse unto death. He swore at Jesus to deny him.

It was not just I don't know him. I don't know him, and

and the end was awful. We have done the same thing in our lives.

Don't kid yourself and our bad attempts to mend our own nets when they

are torn by storms and rocks and time and sins. We have denied who

Jesus is. He had confessed that Christ is the the living God, and

then he denied him When he was under the pressure of the cross. Peter

promised Jesus that he wouldn't deny him at all. He says, they can

all leave you, but I won't. I'm superstar disciple. I'm the one

disciple you can depend on. I will not let you down. But at

the end of John thirteen, Jesus told Peter that he would deny him three

times. Immediately, Jesus spoke the Lord's promise in John fourteen one to three.

But let not your hearts be troubled. You believe in me, God

believe also and me. You can't have one without the other. In my

father's house are many rooms. If I would not have told you, I

go to prepare a place for you, and so on. The Lord's promise

was first and foremost with Peter, then for us, because Peter was in

the denying business and didn't even know it. It is good for us to

take to heart the Lord's promise, dear heart, because we have because we

and our own being have denied who Jesus is. We have denied him in

our contact. We have denied him in our short sight of thinking. We

fail to grasp that God sent God in Jesus to save us. The wound

of God hangs on the cross, and like Peter, sometime in our life

we've let him down. Because we've heard others. We've sinned against God,

and thus we've lost our way. All we, like sheep, have gone

astray. We've turned every man to his own way, and the Lord has

laid on him the iniquity of soul, and the Hebrew God has caused a

meet in him all of our iniquity. On the resurrection morning, Jesus appeared

to Simon Peter in secret meeting before he appeared to the other eleven disciples.

We know absolutely nothing about that meeting, but we do know it happened because

of one Corinthians fifteen to five. It says it did. And we do

know that Peter didn't kill himself like Judas did shortly after he betrayed Jesus.

Judas went out to deny Jesus and he hung himself. Peter could have done

the same thing, because it was just a bad a thing. Jesus restored

Peter in private on Sunday morning, no one there, no one there to

figure it out, just the two of them. Peter's at risk of doing

the same thing as Judas and Jesus knew it. But that doesn't mean just

because Christ met him that was all fixed, that his life was put back

together. Peter had blown it so bad. He was the once coffin disciple

who had walked on water, who had confessed Jesus as the Christ who had

denied him shortly after. Peter was a broken man, who was a has

been had kind of man. He had started out of success. He ended

a failure. And what does Christ do with failures who deny him curse him

to death? What does he do with Peter Peter's life net? We all

have a life net. His life net was broken and torn, and the

hole that was him was too big to mend. The mess that was his

life was so badly torn he couldn't mend the holes in his life anymore,

and he knew it. That's where Peter was, and that is why Peter

went back to the sea to fish again. In John twenty one, he

picked up his old net. He started out on the sea to catch fish

again. He went back to where he was before he met Jesus to kind

of pick up his life and end it that way. Peter thought his life

had come full circle and that his ministry was over with failure. Friends,

there are times in life when we have to meet Jesus again. We have

to learn the lesson that Jesus is the light of a new day, that

Jesus is the one who can mend the holes in their life, that there

is a hope and a shoreline for abroad tomorrow. This is the context for

the story that ends the Gospel of John and John twenty one, verse one.

Take your bibles, opened them to John twenty one, verse one.

After this, Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the sea of Tiberius.

And he revealed himself in this way. Simon Peter Thomas called the twin

Nathaniel of Canaan Galilee, the sons of Zebedee. It's James and John,

the two others of his disciples were together, and Simon Peter said to them,

notice that Peter is the one who initiates the movement. He said to

them, I am going fishing now for the youth of our church next week,

for the last time this year, I am going fishing with you,

okay, nine o'clock in the parking lot right here. I'm going to have

some food and stuff, and this is the last time I'm going to be

able to pull it off this year. But you come and we're going to

do our best. If for some reason it's raining, we're going Toledo's.

Is that fair enough? All right? You with me? Okay. If

we get a bad day and it doesn't work, we're gonna go out and

do something. Now, I don't have a car to take all these kids,

so your parents need to bring your kids, okay, and you also

need your help watching them. We're not going all day, just part of

the day. So Simon Peter said them, I'm going fishing. I'm telling

you I'm doing the same next week, And they said to him, we

will go with you. How many of you will go with me. Now,

kids, raise your hand, and some children there. If you scattered

there, there's hope for the rest of you. Work the crowds. Okay

now, So they went out and got in the boat. But that night

they caught nothing. Have you ever been fishing? You catch nothing? Now,

come on, honesty, raise your hand all right now? That makes

you not want to go fishing. Who wants to go fishing? Catch nothing?

Now? If you can't put up with the days when you catch nothing,

you won't be good enough to catch something one day. Now, that

is the best time for fishing on the Sea of Galilee. But that night

they caught nothing the time Jesus. This time Jesus was not in the boat

as before, And so we learn a lesson. When Jesus is not in

the boat, how much can you catch nothing? Christ has to show up

if you want to catch the right something in your life. Life is a

big nothing without Jesus in the boat. Now, in the night of their

big nothing, they saw something rather someone on the shore at the break of

day, And that's the drama in John twenty one, look a verse four.

Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the beach. If the

disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Think about this and John one,

Jesus is the true light that overcomes the darkness of your night. And

John ate, Jesus is the light of the world that saves and forgives and

restores. In John nine, Jesus opens a blind man's eyes who had been

born that way. We are all born that way. And Christ opens blind

eyes. And so the light was dawning a new shore, and Jesus was

standing there. They couldn't recognize him, but he was there. They couldn't

see that it was Jesus. But I guarantee you that Jesus could see them

in the night. You may not be able to see Jesus in your life

because it's dark. You may be going through things that are overwhelming your life.

But dear heart, Christ sees you. Right now. Christ is there.

Jesus sees So get through that night into the light. Look to the

shoreline, trace the form of Christ. Verse five, Jesus said of them

children, have you any fish? They answered him no. 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 for the quantity of fish. When Jesus is not in

the equation of your life, it is easy to fish on the wrong side

of the boat and never tried the other side. To never do it God's

way, just your way. When things are going wrong in your life and

you are catching nothing in life, and it seems like it's a failure,

and you wonder why it matters. Friend, quit casting your net on the

wrong side of the boat. Cast your net on the right side of the

boat. And what makes it right. The only thing that makes it the

right side of the boat here is Jesus said, do it the command of

Christ. The word of Christ becomes the right side of the boat. And

when they obeyed Jesus, suddenly the net was full of fish, so many

fish that they couldn't haul them in. In verse seven, Peter said,

it is the Lord. Now you can tell the Lord by good fish miracle.

I remember when I took my boys to the Trinity hole up there in

Savage River, and we would have bad days fishing. It dawned on me

I should teach my children that Jesus is the second atom, that just like

their baptized the name of the Father's Son, the Holy Spirit. We should

pray in the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit for

fish and ask the second Atom to give us fish. And I remember standing

there as we were trying to catch fish, say, oh, Dad,

we can't catch any fish. This doesn't work. You know, maybe we

should do something else. And I remember one day, just bowing my head

with my boys, I said, let's throw it. Let's hold our hands

on the fishing rod. Let's cast the line into the hole that we've caught

no fish in it, and let's pray and bow our heads. And I

said, Father God, thank you for loving us, Thank you for sending

the Holy Spirit to us. The Spirit himself intercedes, the Bible says,

and Father God, thinking that Jesus is the second Atom, the ruler of

the universe. Two in the name of Jesus and the name of the Father,

the Son and the Holy Spirit, we called it the Trinity Hall.

I said, please give us a fish. Opened my eyes and the rod

went. They said, Dad, the name of the Father, the Son

and the Holy Spirit. And that became the Trinity Hall. If I ever

taken any of you the Savage River, I will show you our Trinity hole

where the name of the Father's son and the Holy Spirit affected my boys so

dramatically. The Lord Jesus loves answering prayers for children. He cares about their

faith, cares about their faith, casting in on the right side of the

But it's not that men say what God says. In verse seven, Peter

says, it is the Lord. When he said Lord, Peter meant yahweh

Lord who made the fish in the sea. And Peter knew that Christ is

the Lord. He confessed to him as the son of the Living God.

And now he knew it because no one can do that unless he is the

Lord. And John one to three. John says all things were made through

him. The entire universe, time and space came in existence through Jesus.

He's the bride and morning Star. He precedes the dawn of time because he's

an eternal being. That's why John says he is the eternal life that was

with the Father. Hebrews one three makes it very clear two to three that

he created the eons, the fabric of time space itself, and so Christ

is not an ordinary person. He is a preexistent person, the eternal life

with the Father. Why am I saying this, friends, don't expect a

miracle to change life in your heart from anyone less than the Lord God Almighty

in the person of his son, because no one else can change our hearts.

No one else can give us a new life. It takes the Living

Lord to change our lives. Peter was stripped naked in that boat with the

others as they fished at night and caught nothing. And so what happens When

Peter realized it was the he put his clothes on. He jumped into the

sea. Peter baptized himself to get to Jesus. Now some people say,

well I need to be baptized, and someone will baptize you. Peter baptized

himself. He jumped into the sea to get to Jesus. Have you ever

tried to swim with all your clothes on the sea? Anybody here done that.

I've done it. I've been a scuba diver. I had a full

set of clothes, jeans and other things. Scuba diving, it's very hard

to move in the sea. You'll drown if you don't have a life for

server vest if you're trying to fish or not, excuse me, swim if

you have all your clothes on, so he put his clothes on. He

jumped into the sea. He baptized himself. In the text, he swam

one hundred yards in the sea to get to Jesus a football field. He

beat the boats. He left the disciples behind to bring the fish in the

net as they dragged them to the shore. With Peter seeking Jesus in his

water log closed, he outswammed the boat to get to the Lord. We

baptized people in their clothes like Peter, who swam to Jesus and his clothes

friend. Baptism means you swim to Jesus to be forgiven in your life,

and Jesus is there to do it. You can leave that tangled net far

behind you and swim to Jesus who's waiting for you on the shore with something

special. You can leave the night of failure to go to the morning the

break of dawn on the shore where Jesus is at when you are baptized.

And John twenty one nine, it says when they got out on land,

they saw a charcoal fire there with fish lying on it and bread. When

I was in Marshall Islands for Pathfinder Clubs, we didn't have a seven to

eleven or a grocery store. And I must confess to you. The kid

said, Pastor Mike, when we go for a pathfinder camp out, we

got to catch our fish in a net. He said really, he said,

yeah, we don't have Also, when we get in our boat,

we don't have enough room to bring all this food, so we're gonna live

off of coconuts and fish. I was like twenty one twenty two, and

they had this Fijian pathfinder leader who had a net and he would actually run

along the coastline. We'd throw rocks in it, and they chased the fish

into the net. And part of the trick was to make sure the fish

fish didn't get out of the net. So the way they caught the fish

was they would bite the fish in the head so the fish would die and

they would have the fish to eat. I said, man, this is

awful wait to fish, said pat mister Davis saw this is how we catch

fish. I never will forget. When they brought me one of those little

fish they caught in the net, they said, mister davisaw are you happy

we went out here fishing as pathfinders? I said absolutely. They said,

good we have a gift for you. And they hand me this little fish,

twitching and wiggley. They said, this is breakfast. He said really,

He said yeah, we'll prove it. And they took it and go.

They ate it. That's the Marshall Islands. That's not America. And

they were looking at me and I'm telling you, I don't want to freak

you out here, but I ate that fish owls horrible. Oh, mister

Davis, We're just so glad you came out here to be with us.

Oh mind, Now, Jesus had the fish cooking there. Let's not demonize

that. It is what it is now. In the Cooin, a Greek

language of John's day, the text reads in the singular, a single fish

and a single piece of bread is what was there on the fire, And

there were coals of fire. Peter finds Jesus on the shore. When Peter

finds the one fish and the one bread on the coals of fire, not

a bunch of fish. Now, in the early Christian Church, a fish

was a symbol of Christ and the Christian faith. The letters in Greek represent

Jesus in fact ikthus, which is the first letter is Jesus. Christ is

Jesus key for Christ, FDA for that Us, which means God. They

knew Jesus was God. And I've seen these inscriptions that date all the way

back to the first century, the Oopsalon representing Weos's son, and the Sigma

Soter savior. This picture of a fish, and they represented as a wheel

too in Ephesus, and I have archaeological pictures of that that took with my

own camera. They knew who Jesus was, and so the fit Jesus is

the big fish, but he's also the living bread, the big bread,

and so one piece of bread, one fish on the altar, kind of

fire. That's what Peter sees. In the chiastic structure of the Gospel John.

This verse matches on the other side John one nine. The next day,

John saw Jesus coming toward them and said, behold the Lamb of God,

who takes away the sin of the world. That piece of fish and

that piece of bread, one each represented the one who would go to the

altar and die for us. And Peter was facing the reality of Jesus there

on the shore. The Lamb of God went to the altars, the big

fish and the living bread that is broken and roasted for us. Peter and

the other saw the one big fish that represents Jesus, the one big piece

of bread that represents Jesus, and ever after Ecthus, the Greek word for

fish represents Christ in the early Christian Church, and they saw it on the

altar. Friends, you can't start over in your life unless you eat the

food that comes from the fires of the altar. We need the cross of

Christ and really understanding it, the food that is Jesus, the big fish

on the fire, the food that is Jesus, the bread of life on

the fire, roasted for our sins. That's what Peter is realizing here.

In verse ten, Jesus said, bring some of those fish that you caught.

Now think about it. At this point, Simon Peter gets back into

the boat. He'd swam from the boat to Jesus, and now he gets

back into the boat to bring those fish to Jesus. What happens when we

encounter the cross we have failed. What happens when we let the Lord down

in our life. The boat represents the church and the fish represent people that

are caught for Christ. He got back into the church, back into the

faith. He's restored to start bringing people to Jesus again, because when you

face the forgiveness of the cross, you are healed in your life. Friends,

you can't bring the fish that are people to Jesus unless you obey the

Lord and you jump into the sea to be baptized, and you come to

the altar to feed on the one fish that is Jesus, the one bread

that is Jesus, and you come back to the boat that is the church,

and you start working to bring fish to Jesus. Now they counted those

fish. How many of you know how many fish did they catch that day?

Do you know? One hundred and fifty three? Excellent, thank you,

James, one hundred pfty three fish. Now you know why one hundred

and pfty three fish were caught? Would you like to know why? Okay,

mathematicians, this is for you. The early Gnostics, which are counterfeit

Christians of the first century who diminished who Jesus was. They were into numerology

ga matria, which is the numerical values of letters in an alphabet. But

more than that, they were into shapes and numbers. Now, if you

take a dot and you put two dots under it to keep it a triangle,

you got to put three under the two, so all sides are equal

right, then four under the three, And if you do this, you

go down and eventually you reach the number one hundred and fifty three. It's

called a Pathagaay number that produces the visualization of a triangle. A triangle gives

us the visualization of a mountain. Thus it represents the kingdom of God.

A mountain is a kingdom. So the one hundred and fifty three represents this

huge Pythagorean triangle number, that is the kingdom catch. They caught the fish

out of the Sea of Tiberius, the sea of the Roman Empire, and

it became the kingdom catch, a prophecy of the future. And this miracle

pointed forward to what Peter would do and the disciples would do, as they

caught fish for Jesus. Now, in verse eleven, John records that even

though there was such a large number of fish one hundred and fifty three,

the net was not torn. That's unlike the miracle and Luke five with five

six. At the beginning of Peter's journey, the nets begin to break and

Jesus performed the first miracle. At this time, they did not break there

was no tear in the net inside his heart. Peter's net was broken,

his life was full of holes. This time the net did not break.

How do you put your life back together when your net is broken, When

your life is torn, there's no way to mend it. You're wounded to

hurt beyond belief because you have denied your Lord. You've misrepresented him to others

three times. You've cursed him with swearing. How do you become a disciple?

How do you win people to Christ? After you did that? Peter

saw that his net was not broken or torn. This time. He understood,

dear heart, that it's possible that when you come to Jesus the second

time, you no longer need to be broken and torn, because you've learned

the lesson of His discipline in your life. Look at John twenty one twelve,

and 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. And Jesus came, took the bread and gave it to them,

and so with the fish. This was now the third time that Jesus

was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead. When Jesus

reveals himself to you and life, friend, it's sometimes easy to forget that

he did it the first time. So he does it again and again until

you finally realize that Jesus is there in your life, whether you recognize him

or not. Christ is there in the night, and we are told in

the spirit of Prophecy that Jesus' eye was watching the shoreline, watching them as

they were fishing and failing. He was there. They couldn't see Jesus,

but Jesus could see them. That's the better deal in life. Look at

verse thirteen. It reads, Jesus came and took the bread and gave it

to them, so with the fish. The words for bread and fish are

singular in this verse. Also, he didn't give them a bunch of fish.

He didn't give them a bunch of bread. He gave them one fish

and one bread. They passed it around. It represented Christ. You see,

leaders in the church can't win. People can't bring fish out of the

sea in the boats unless they're feeding on Christ in their life. I mean,

forget this idea that just learning a bunch of stuff qualifies us. We

are qualified by relationship with Christ. The one fish the one bread. They

passed it around. In the Greek text, they brought the big fish to

Jesus and all the fish to the shore, but they fed on the one

fish and the one bread that was on the fire, the altar fire.

To bring people to Jesus, you have to feed on the one That's why

holy community is important for us. We're having it next week here. Please

show up. The big fish and the big bread is here. At this

point, the story focuses straight on Peter. Look at verse fifteen. When

they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter. Simon said of John,

do you love me more than these? Ouch? He said to him,

yes, Lord, you know that I love you. Then he said

to Peter, feed my lambs. Peter had claimed that he would never leave

Jesus even if the others did. John didn't deny Jesus, and John didn't

leave Jesus. Peter, do you love me more than John and the others?

They may have left me except for John, but they didn't deny me.

And the Greek Jesus asked Peter if he has a god, They god

like selfless love for him, and Peter says in the Greek language that I

love you with friendly inferior flatto kind of but good buddy love. That's all

I have. Jesus said, feed my lambs. Friends, if you want

to grow in your life from superficial fondness of Jesus. You know a lot

of the Christian culture today. I just want to see Jesus as a good

buddy, a good friend. If you want to grow in your life from

a superficial fondness of Jesus to a deep god like love for Jesus, share

the word of God with someone else who doesn't know. That's why he said,

feed my lambs. That's how you get started moving in the right direction.

Verse sixteen. Notice this a second time, he said him. Simon

said to Peter, do you love me? And he said to him,

yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him,

tend my sheep. It's a little different. Jesus says it again without

any comparison to anyone else like he did the first time. In the statement,

doesn't say more than these, He says, do you love me?

Of course? He says, do you love me with god like selfless kind

of a gope love period or at all? And Peter says, I love

you with friendly kind of inferior filato buddy love in the Greek. That's all

Jesus says this time, shepherd my sheep. Boy, This is getting intense.

If you want to grow in your life with the superficial fondness of Jesus,

and that's where we start in life. Friends, start shepherding people in

your life, caring for them, the church, doing something, and you'll

come to love Jesus. Look at verse seventeen. Now it gets fascinating.

He said to him the third time, Simon's son of John, do you

love me? Peter was grieved because he said it to him the third time

do you love me? And he said to him, Lord, you know

everything, you know that I love you. Jesus said to him, feed

my sheep. This time, Jesus doesn't use the agappe godlike kind of love

that he used in the first two times when he asked Peter, do you

love me? This time he says to Peter, do you love me with

that inferior falato Greek friendly kind of buddy love that you just confessed to me

the first two times? In other words, do you love me at all?

Peter do you love me at all? Are you sure you love me

even with that friendly buddy kind of love that you've just confessed in that far

inferior to what I want in your life kind of love? Do you even

have that? Peter? That's what he's asking. And there are times,

friends in life, when we have failed the Lord, like Peter, and

we learn if we love the Lord of all, about what we do after

that failure. When you really assessed your love for Jesus and you find that

it is wanting, what do you do then in your life? How do

you put it back together? Jesus had told Peter to feed his sheep the

first time. The second time Jesus told Peter to shepherd the sheep. The

third time Jesus says, again, feed my sheep. Friend, don't underestimate

the supernatural power of the Word of God in your life for your good and

others when you share it. When you take the Bible incomplete, though your

understandings are flawed, though your theology may be, and you give Jesus and

you give them the one big fish, the one big bread, the big

deal of the Bible is Jesus, not some fancy nuance of theology. You

can impress on someone when you give Christ as he is, as the living

word of God who died on the altar, to people watch it change their

lives and your life. Peter got back into the boat as he came back

into the church, and he caught fish for Jesus. You say you can't

catch fish beings. I superstar whacking away at God's end time. Church.

You need to be in the boat. Do you really love me at all?

Friends? We need to feed on Jesus and share what we learn from

Jesus with others to take care of them, not for our sakes only,

but for the good of those that God brings into our life. The love

you need for Jesus will only grow if and when you are sharing the word

of God loving kindness with other human beings. Peter deny Jesus three times,

and he confess this third time that Lord, you know everything. You know

everything. You can't do that unless you're God. You know you know that

I only love you with friendly kind of philetto buddy love. That's it.

At this point, the text indicates by context that Peter is walking with Jesus

on the shoreline. When your life is incomplete, and you just don't have

all the answers, and you realize you aren't much of a believer. Start

walking with Jesus. He's walking on the shoreline. Because John is walking just

behind them. We know what happened. He was a little snoop listening in

to the conversation. Thank goodness, he wrote it into the Gospel of John.

John heard Jesus tell Peter that one day he would stretch out his arms

and die just like Jesus diding the cross. It's exactly how Peter died,

upside down though, because he says, I am not worthy to be crucified

as was my Lord. Peter started walking with Jesus on that Sea of Tiberius

again, as he left the net all over again for the last time.

It became the last net. Peter would spend the rest of his life living

for others, sharing the Word of God with others. And Peter finally figured

out that he didn't need to figure out for himself how much he loved Jesus.

He didn't need to really figure it out. He just needed to live

for Jesus. Friend, when you lose yourself for others, as you begin

to walk with Jesus on the shore of a vast Roman sea, a secular

sea full of people that need him. Just you and Jesus talking it out

in your life. That is when his love gets its hook into your heart

and life. If you need Jesus, you really do. If you need

Jesus to be your buddy, he will start that way with you. He'll

start there, but that is not where he will leave you. Just before

Peter died, he attained that a got a kind of godlike, selfless love

in his life because he laid down his life for others. He wrote about

it with a personal understanding. First, Peter Foura, take your bibles.

Open it first, Peter Foura, it's worth open your bible for this verse.

Peter doesn't have long to live. He'll write these two epistles and he

will die be crucified by Nero. He said, above all, hold unfailing

your love, the word he uses for love here as a god bade godlike,

selfless kind of love. Above all, hold unfailing love, the kind

Jesus one to see in his life for one another. Since a God ba

god like, selfless kind of love is the next word covers a multitude of

sins. So when we get to the point in life, we're not living

for ourselves, We're living for others. The word of God matters in our

life for the good of others. Friends, you may have messed up like

Peter did. You may have denied people as bad as Peter did, But

do you realize that that kind of love covers a multitude of those sins.

Because God will look at the love in your heart and he'll see Jesus in

your heart. When he sees Jesus in your heart, you're not guilty anymore.

You're justified by faith. And when you believe that you have been forgiven

by breaking your net, breaking other peoples, to tearing up life. When

you accept that God, like a God, be kind of love that only

comes from Jesus, Friend, that is the magic moment. When you come

to love God for real, right then and there, this selfless kind of

a Godey love fixes the mess you've made of your life in hurting others.

This kind of selfless love covers a multitude of sins. A Goday love is

the last net because Christ love catches us in the great Kingdom catch of God.

Friend, let Jesus Christ Love catch you believe it that God sent Jesus

in this world to love you, to die for you, to forgive you,

and to make your life a meaningful life so you could live for other

people. And may it be so. And when Jesus comes, may you

be in the big net that is the kingdom. Catch God, bless you.

Let's stand their Father, God. When we sin against you, Sometimes

we sin against you because we, frankly don't accept who you are. And

Jesus, sometimes we sin against you because we don't accept who you are either.

And the Bible says the Holy Spirit himself is grieved, the Holy Self

Spirit himself our great second advocate and counselor, because we don't receive him as

he is. Father, I pray you would help us, help us in

our night to look to Jesus. Thank you that Jesus came to reveal the

Father and to die for our sins. And thank you Father that there is

salvation on the shore that finds him. And here he's there. It's bless

everyone here, Lord, bless them with Christ in them their lives. Give

us a love for others because you loved us in Christ first. In Jesus'

name, Amen,