Follow Me

Father, we come now to study your word.

All of us have minds.

Some of us have really, really, really great minds.

Some of us just may be average minds or even below average.

But, Father, we ask that your Holy Spirit would help us to use our mind and our will

and our imagination and our heart to the very best of our ability to attend to your word.

And at the same time, Father, we ask that your Holy Spirit would humble us

so that we know that unless your Holy Spirit draws your word to our hearts,

our minds cannot truly grip your word.

So, Father, pour your Holy Spirit upon us and make your word alive to us at the very center of who we are.

And we ask this in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen.

Please be seated.

Every one of us know people who suck all of the oxygen out of the room.

You know the type of person I mean.

They have to be the center of attention.

They have to have their needs being met.

If the conversation starts to focus somewhere else, they get very, very uncomfortable

and they do something to try to bring the attention and the conversation back to themselves.

They just literally suck all of the oxygen out of relationships and out of the room.

And I'm not just talking about two-year-olds.

I'm talking about people who are vastly older than two.

And we all know people like that.

In fact, some of us might be that person without realizing it.

It's one of those things that our few remaining friends or our family just don't have the courage to tell us.

But we just, the people who just suck everything, all of the oxygen, all of the energy out of the room.

It's funny because on one level when we meet people like this, we tend not to like them.

Where we like them at first maybe because they're, I don't know, very witty, very charming,

seem to have lots of excellent qualities.

But once we spend some time with them and the fact that there's never any type of reciprocal thing going on,

they're just sucking all of the energy, all of the oxygen into themselves,

the room is empty, they're just sucking it, we tend not to like them.

But, you know, it's funny that our culture is a bit confused about this

because at the heart of a lot of our cultural advice, at a lot of the heart of our movies,

we actually encourage that behavior.

Without realizing that we both encourage the behavior,

yet when we actually meet people who suck all the oxygen out of life, we don't like them.

And by that I mean, I wrote a little blog this week and it sort of talks about this a little bit.

But if you think about it, much in our culture is taken up with what I call the three A's.

And that is with this quest for autonomy, a quest for authenticity, and a quest for affirmation.

And these three things are very, very closely connected.

Autonomy is this idea that at the end of the day, it has to be true for me, it has to be right for me.

I'm the only one who can know what's true for me.

I'm the only one who can know what's right for me.

In a sense, how dare you tell me what's right for me?

Like, how dare you do that?

Like, if we were at a party in a room and somebody was trying to tell somebody else what's right and what's true,

and you just, you know, everybody in the room, even if they weren't pointing their fingers,

you'd sense that they're pointing their fingers.

And it's a very, very funny thing.

We would say, how dare you point your finger at them while we're pointing our finger at them?

But we don't sort of realize that.

But it's a very, very common type of advice.

Only the individual, only I know what can be true, what is important, what is valuable, what is right, what is wrong for me.

And I need to be able to, in a sense, to live that and have that acknowledged.

And the thing which goes along often with autonomy is this quest for authenticity.

It's a very similar type of thing.

It's the idea that I'm the only one who can understand what I need to accomplish,

what's going to fulfill me, which is going to give my life meaning.

I'm the only one who knows that.

I'm the only one who can figure that out.

And how dare you try to impose your vision of happiness, your vision of the good life on me?

When I'm in coffee shops, I hear counseling advice between friends around this all of the time.

Like people saying, how on earth can your husband or how on earth can your sister or how on earth can your mother

or how on earth can your father be telling you you have to do these things?

Doesn't he know that that's not right for him to be doing those things that you need to make?

You need to have time for yourself.

You need to make space for yourself.

You have to put limits on what he or she is doing.

And you need to just grasp that only you can.

Like it's constant advice.

How many movies are based around this idea of you have maybe two friends?

And one of them, really, what they would love to do is they don't want to live under their father's rule

or their mother's influence or their wife or their husband or their circle or their coach.

You know, these people maybe want them to become a doctor or want them to become an engineer.

But in your own heart of hearts, you'd rather be a dancer or a poet or some type of an artist.

And then in the course of the movie, the person doesn't grasp their autonomy and their authenticity

and they bow to their father's rules or their coach's rules or expectations and they become that doctor.

And in the movie, or they become that lawyer or whatever, accountant.

And in the movie, the person's really good friend.

They're not rejoicing with them.

They're sad.

Why?

Because the person wasn't doing what was authentic to them.

And the movie will move and progress to the point that finally the person has the courage to leave law

or leave medicine or whatever it is to embrace dance or poetry or art or whatever it is

that really is going to make them authentic.

It's the constant advice and desire of our culture.

And often with all of this goes the third A, which can be called acclaim or applause or approval.

So, you know, once again, the same thing.

If I, you know, I'm sitting my own, I understand what's right.

I understand what's wrong for me.

And I understand what I need to do so that I will be the real me that I was meant to be.

The me that's really at the heart of my feelings and my sense of myself.

And only I have that proper sense of myself.

And I need to pursue it.

And you need to approve of it.

Like if you don't, how dare you not give me approval?

How dare you not applaud that?

How dare you not?

And in our culture, everybody would be with the person saying,

how dare you not give me that acclaim, that approval, that applause that I deserve

because I am pursuing authenticity and I am the captain of my own ship and my own soul

and I am doing that.

And you have to give me, must give me the acclaim and applause that I deserve.

The affirmation.

You see, it's a very, very funny thing.

That's the, sort of actually, by the way, the three things, the autonomy, authenticity,

and acclaim, applause, approval.

It's almost like the Trinity in Christian thought.

The three of them are separate, but they're one.

And they go in here with each other and all three of them have to be present, really,

for a person to really be a well-functioning Canadian.

But the problem is, if you think about it, that a person who really lives that

ends up having to be a person who sucks all the oxygen out of the room.

Because it's very funny in the type of advice that is found in so much counseling,

so much self-help books, that it's found in Hollywood, that's found in academia,

that's found just whether it's a Tim Hortons or a Starbucks or some other type of place

or not a coffee place at all, McDonald's or Subway or a high-end hipster place.

All of that advice is very similar.

But if you follow it, then how is it that, well, how is it that you relate to other people

in a good way?

If it's, in a sense, I'm the center and it's all about me and your life and your needs

and your autonomy and your authenticity and your need for applause,

it's very hard for those two things to fit in our culture.

Well, the text that we're going to look at today has some really interesting things to say about this dilemma.

And part of the thing which is also very interesting, not this dilemma,

just this whole cultural move of autonomy and authenticity and affirmation

and the problems with them.

And the text is easily misread and misunderstood, but it has very powerful wisdom to speak into this.

So it would be a great help with me if you could turn in your Bibles to John 15, verse 21.

John 15:21

There are Bibles up there at the front now.

The text will be up here as well, but it's really good just to have something in your hand that you can follow along.

So John chapter 15, sorry, John chapter 21, beginning at the 15th verse.

John 15 · chapter mention John 21 · chapter mention

And many people are a bit confused by this text, especially if you're reading it as a new Christian or as an outsider.

It almost seems as if Jesus is trying to suck the oxygen out of the room.

I could easily imagine lots of people, if they were there, saying to Peter that Jesus is being out of line

in what he's asking Peter to do, that Peter needs to grasp his own autonomy, his own authenticity.

And so our culture helps us to not understand this and misread it.

So let's look at it.

John chapter 21, verse 15.

John 21:15

And what's happening here, the book of John is now coming to the end.

John is a very peculiar type of biography, but it is a biography about Jesus.

And what makes it peculiar is that an inordinate, far too much time compared to a modern biography

is spent with the last little bit of Jesus's life.

But that's because John understands that the last bit is so unbelievably important.

And John has shared how Jesus is condemned by the religious and political and cultural elites,

and he's sentenced to an unjust death, how he dies by crucifixion,

how his death is guaranteed by Rome, how he's put in a tomb,

how then the tomb is found empty with the grave clothes there.

And then John lays out a series of appearances, resurrection appearances,

where Jesus appears alive to people.

And this is the end part of a third time when he's appeared to all of the disciples.

And just before we start reading this on verse 15, if you have your Bibles,

just look up a tiny little bit to, it's not going to be able to be on the screen.

If you just put up a little bit to verse, I can't find it right now.

Oh yeah, verse 9.

What's just gone on before that is that Jesus is, as I said,

he's made a nice breakfast for them of fresh fish and fresh bread.

He's cooking it over in verse 9, a charcoal fire with fish laid out on it and bread.

And now we're going to go to verse 15.

And the charcoal fire is very interesting because there's only one other place in all of the Gospels

where a charcoal fire is mentioned.

And that's the very night when Peter, when Jesus has been captured,

and Peter's going to deny Jesus three times around a charcoal fire.

And many of us know that, you know, we might think that we've gotten over something.

We might think that we've forgiven somebody.

Or we might think that we've gotten over feeling embarrassed or ashamed about something.

But then all of a sudden we're somewhere and it comes back to us all of a sudden with great power.

Something triggers a memory of what had gone on in the past.

And one of the most powerful triggers is smell.

And so the very distinctive smell of a charcoal fire,

you just have to wonder as Peter gets out of the water and comes to see Jesus,

and that charcoal fire is there.

And the last time Peter maybe was around a charcoal fire was when he was denying Jesus three times.

And here he is now, that smell in his nostrils.

Everybody would know about the fact that Peter denied Jesus three times.

And now after breakfast, the story continues, verse 15.

When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter,

Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?

Jesus said to Peter,

Verse 17, Jesus says to Peter the third time,

Simon, son of John, do you love me?

Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time,

Do you love me?

And Peter said to Jesus, Lord, you know everything.

You know that I love you.

And Jesus said to him, feed my sheep.

And just sort of pause there for a second.

Now, just before we get into sort of the big thing which is going on here,

sometimes pastors will talk about the significance that two different words for love were being used in this text.

Jesus uses the word agape, and Peter responds with the word philia.

And then the final time, Jesus finally switches the words.

And sometimes pastors will go out a long time talking about the significance of that.

There's probably no significance in the difference of the language.

You know, in the early centuries of the Christian church,

there was a lot, most people who, if they read, they read Greek.

And in the first four or five centuries, when people were still basically, were Greek speakers,

none of the original people who knew Greek, I mean, Greek was their native tongue,

none of the commentators on this text except origin, one person,

made a distinction between the two words, not one.

They just saw it as a stylistic difference that didn't have any substantive context.

So it's not as if Jesus is saying two times with this one word,

and Peter's not giving him the right answer,

and then finally, you know, Jesus switches and Peter gives the same answer.

It's nothing like that's going on in the text.

It's a very, very simple thing.

The English has captured it very well.

Do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me?

And Peter says every time, you know that I love you, you know that I love you,

you know that I love you.

And every time, Jesus gives him a particular commission

to feed, in a sense, the young and the vulnerable,

to pastor people or be a shepherd to people,

and then to feed people who are more mature and more developed Christians.

The same, the English has captured it very well.

But here's the thing that's going on, which is very, very interesting.

If you found out that every time I met with one of my interns,

or if every time I met with the council, I began with it saying,

do you guys love me?

You'd all think that that was weird.

In fact, you'd say, why is George so needy?

Like, why is it that he has to ask his interns every time he meets with them,

do you guys love me? I hope you love me.

Sounds like it's sort of needy.

Or is Jesus actually doing something like what I described,

trying to suck all the oxygen up out of the room,

that he wants to make sure that Peter's given him all of the love,

because he's the center.

He has to be getting all of the attention.

That's what's going on here in the text.

Is Jesus needy?

Is Peter, in fact, not doing the right thing?

As I said earlier, should Peter have been saying,

listen, Jesus, it's so nice to see you,

but I have my own autonomy project.

I have my own authenticity project,

and I need some affirmation and acclaim as well.

I need you to tell me that you love me.

I need you to tell me doing really well.

Is that what's going on in the text?

One of the things which is so interesting about this text

is that it brings up at least three problems

with autonomy and authenticity and acclimation.

It brings up at least three types of problems.

One is it really brings to the fore

how if you see somebody wanting to get all of the attention,

all the oxygen,

that type of advice that we give people just so casually

that you have to be autonomous,

you have to be authentic,

you have to have affirmation,

it always ends up creating somebody

who is the center of attention,

and we don't like it.

We end up seeing them as being needy

and not, in a sense,

an admirable person,

but somebody that we feel almost pity for.

Just like, as I said,

if you found out that every time I met with my interns,

I asked them if they loved me.

If every time I met with counsel,

I asked them if they loved me.

If I made efforts to always be the center at all times,

you would start to not think more of me,

but less of me.

And the second thing which is going on in this text,

which is very, very interesting,

is that the very word love is used.

Because, you see,

one of the problems that we have in relationships nowadays

is if you have two people...

See, on one hand,

what we really want is love.

I was having a coffee the other day

at a local coffee place,

and the way they had organized the tips there,

it's a regular feature of that place,

is they always have two cups,

and you can put the tips in one of the two cups.

It's sort of like a little bit of a game.

Like one time it might be dogs,

and the other cup says cats.

So if you're going to give them a tip,

you put in whether you like dogs more than cats

or cats more than dogs.

And the other day,

the other day I was there,

and one of them was Lord of the Rings,

the other one was Star Wars.

But there was this time I was there getting coffee,

and the tip choice was between

Captain America and Iron Man.

And so I looked inside

to see how the vote was going,

and I couldn't believe it,

that Captain America had all of the tips,

and Iron Man didn't have a single tip put in the jar.

And I said to the baristas,

I said, that's just so surprising

that all the tips are going to Captain America,

and none of them are going to Iron Man.

And one of the two baristas said to me,

well, that's no surprise,

because Captain America is way better than Iron Man.

Now, I have to confess,

just given that Starbucks and baristas

and their culture and everything like that,

and these particular ones,

I would have thought they all were voting for Iron Man,

because Iron Man is filled with irony

and sort of rebellious against authority

and all of these things,

all of these sort of very Canadian types of virtues.

And I said to that,

well, I would have thought you guys

were all like Iron Man people.

And one of them instantly said,

no, no, like I'm a Captain America person,

because I mean, amongst other things,

Iron Man is arrogant.

And then this barista,

she actually put her hands,

she said she loves Captain America,

she actually put her hands around like this,

it's not only,

is he like a good guy,

but he does things for the love of a girl,

for the love of a woman.

And she put her arms on her chest like that

when she said it.

And it's so funny,

because I,

you know,

from the outside,

I wouldn't,

this is just me getting confused about things,

but,

like I can sometimes forget that,

you know,

beneath all the postures

and all the hardness

and all the edginess

that can go on in the world,

the fact of the matter is,

is that most of us,

what we really desire

is deep love relationships

with other people.

That's what we desire.

It's a common,

common human desire.

The problem is,

if we're getting all of this advice

about how we have to have autonomy,

that only I know

what's going to make me happy,

only I know what's right and wrong,

and only I know

that what's going to fulfill my desires

and what's going to,

what's going to actually make me be the me

that I was really meant to be

and I need to pursue it

and you need to,

and you need to applaud me.

If I'm saying this

and I'm trying to live this,

and at the same time

I want to be in a love relationship

with this other person

and she's saying

the exact same things

and how on earth

is marriage going to work?

Like, it's just going to cause

constant friction.

It's just going to mean

that it's constantly short term

because both want to have autonomy,

both want to have authenticity,

both want to have applause,

and nothing in that worldview

suggests reciprocity

or the importance

of serving the other person

or loving the other person.

So in a very, very interesting way,

this text,

where the language

is the language of love,

highlights part of the whole problem

with what's going on

in our culture

and the third way

that it really highlights the problem

is what's going on with Peter,

not what's going on with Jesus,

but what's going on with Peter.

You see, this is the hard part.

At a very, very, very, very significant,

in a very, very significant way,

in a very, very significant moment,

Peter was a public failure.

Not just a private failure,

but a public failure.

He denied his friend

and master in public.

He made claims and boasts

that he, everybody else,

all the other disciples,

they could all fall away,

they could all have their problems,

they would all be weak,

but he would be strong,

he would not bend,

he would not be broken,

he would stay with Jesus

and defend Jesus

right to the very end,

and after he makes

all these public promises,

he fails completely.

And it'd be hard not to imagine

that it means

that he loses face

and that he feels guilt

and that he feels some shame.

But how would you counsel Peter,

if you're a good Canadian,

how to be his own authentic self

within that?

See, that's the whole problem

with seeking to be authentic

and seeking to be autonomous.

It doesn't help us

when we go through things

in our lives

which are just really broken.

It doesn't help us

when we go through things

that cause us shame.

It doesn't help us

when we do things that,

you know,

it doesn't matter

what people tell us about,

but we actually feel

significant guilt about.

And if it's part of who we are

is a mixture of shame

and guilt

and failure

and desires

and strength

and maybe anger

at the situation

that's caused us guilt

or maybe a wish

that we could somehow repair it,

the fact of the matter is

is that our inner life

is very, very confused

and all full of bits and pieces.

And to think that somehow or another

out of all of this brokenness

and all of the shame

and all of the guilt

that we can somehow form

an identity out of that,

well, how does that actually

make any sense?

And how does it actually deal

with the real guilt

that we feel

and the real shame

that we feel?

And so much of what passes

for wisdom in the world

doesn't actually deal

with the significant shame

or guilt that we feel

or the broken relationships

and the regrets that we feel.

Even lots of the current advice

around things like mindfulness

and stuff,

it's really just a type of a way

to give ourselves a pass

and to numb

the deep feelings

that we have.

And I guess what I'm just

trying to say is

if you're just thinking

of Peter there,

Peter is a mass of emotions.

He's really happy

that Jesus is alive.

He's excited.

He's pumped.

At the same time,

he feels shame.

He feels guilt.

He feels uncomfortable.

And almost all of the advice

that the Canadian culture goes

implies that somehow

or another human beings

are just this simple,

singular thing

that we can build

an identity on

and don't come to grips

with the deep complexity

and brokenness

and strength

that makes up

real human beings.

And so the advice

of autonomy

and authenticity

is inherently unstable

because it doesn't deal

with what's really

going on in a person.

So if you could put up

the first point.

Jesus does not suck

all of the oxygen

out of your life.

He is pure oxygen

and eternal life

so that you can live

whole and free.

Jesus does not suck

all of the oxygen

out of your life.

In fact,

he is pure oxygen

and eternal life

so that you can live

whole and free.

You see,

that's what's going on here

in this particular text.

This is happening

after Jesus has died

on the cross.

And what that means,

and he's risen from the dead,

and at the very,

very center of the gospel,

time and time

and time and time again

is this simple idea

that God

in the person

of his son

has given

his life

for yours.

The way we human beings

keep being pulled

to try to live

is to try to be

self-centered

and be selfish.

That in a sense,

it's my,

you know,

you have to sacrifice

your life

for me.

You have to sacrifice

your life for me.

And in a sense,

lots of Canadian advice

is all centered around that.

You need to give me

the applause.

You need to give me

the approval.

You need to give me

the acclaim.

You need to give

your life

for mine.

What people often want

nowadays in marriage

is they want to find

a soul friend.

And what they often

really mean by a soul friend

is really what they mean

as a person

who as we change

and go through

the different stages

and phases of our life

that you will always

give me

your approval,

your acclaim,

your,

you will always

give that to me.

But that's not a recipe

for a marriage

or a relationship

or a friendship

that's going to be

enduring

or last,

which is really

what we want.

And what we see

in the person of Jesus

is that God,

the light

that made all things

came and took on flesh

and he gave,

in a sense,

his lightness

to take upon himself

our darkness.

The life

that has created

all things

takes on flesh

and he takes upon himself

our death

and illness

and gives us

his life.

The love

that has created

all things

comes and takes

on flesh

and he takes

upon himself

our hatred

and indifference

and gives us,

in a sense,

a way to be connected

to love.

Jesus describes himself

as the bread

of life.

He describes himself

as the light

of the world.

He describes himself

as the one

by whom,

when you have faith,

springs of living water

will well up

from within you

when you drink

of him

and partake

of him

when you are

connected to him.

He is the source

of life

and light

and love

and to be connected

to him

is not

our love for him,

our desire

and affection

and moving

towards him

is never going

to suck all the oxygen

out of my life.

It will actually

begin to give me

oxygen

that I might be whole

and I might be free.

And if you could put up

the second point,

Jesus is also

dealing here

with another

very, very common

problem

which is that

we cut off

people who hurt us

and we never want

to see them again.

Or if we begin

to have a friend

that seems to be

very, very filled

with shame

and very, very filled

with need,

often what we do

is we want to shoot

them, we want to

just have nothing

to do with them,

we cut them off.

And so Peter

has publicly fallen

and he has

this shame

and the guilt

that he doesn't

entirely know

what to do with.

And Jesus

walks right

towards it.

Jesus always

walks towards

your sin

and your shame

to save

and restore you.

Jesus always

walks towards

your sin

and your shame

to save

and restore you.

I mean,

that's what the

whole gospel

is all about.

It's all about

God with us.

That God,

the Son of God

sets aside

his glory

and divine splendor

and he becomes

flesh.

God comes

and is with us

in the midst

of our sin,

in the midst

of our shame,

in the midst

of our death,

in the midst

of our illness,

in the midst

of our hatred,

in the midst

of our indifference,

in the midst

of our strengths,

in the midst

of our glories,

in the midst

of all of the things,

all of the complicated

mess that makes

human beings,

Jesus comes

and lives

among us.

And then

that path

continues

because when

Jesus dies

on the cross,

if you might

remember in the story,

it's very clear

just before Jesus

is captured

by a mere mention

of who he is,

all of the soldiers

fall down

and it helps us

to remember

that when Jesus

is on the cross,

what is holding

him on the cross

is not the nails,

is not the threat

of soldiers,

is not the condemnation,

but it's love

that holds him

on the cross.

And as he dies

upon the cross,

he is taking

into himself

our darkness,

our death,

and our hatred.

He takes that

all upon himself.

He walks

towards our sin

and shame

not only to live

amongst us

but to also bear it.

And then

by bearing it,

he defeats it

for us.

But once we

are his,

like to be a Christian

is to understand

that every single

thing that

every single thing

that I have ever

done that is wrong,

all that which

causes me shame,

all of that

was laid upon him.

And he died

for me.

He died

in my place.

and his

life

and love,

his light

and love

and life

is given

to me.

He takes

my darkness,

my death,

my hatred

and indifference.

He takes that

and he gives me

life and love

and light.

Amen.

And all

that would be

against me

is borne by him

and all

that I need

to stand

in God's

presence

is given

to me.

And so

when Jesus

is talking

to Peter,

Jesus isn't

saying,

by the way,

what you did

doesn't matter.

It matters.

But what he's

doing is he's

giving Peter

an opportunity

to be restored

because Jesus

has already

paid

for Peter's

failure.

He's already

dealt with it.

But you know

what it's like.

It's hard

to be really

gripped by the

gospel and

understand that

my sin and

my shame

has been dealt

with by Jesus.

And so even

though when I

put my faith

and trust in

Jesus,

I am his

forever because

it's his

righteousness

and his

sin bearing

that makes

me right

with God.

But he

wants me

to start

to become

more like

him in my

daily life.

And so

Jesus will

always walk

towards your

sin and

he always

will walk

towards your

shame.

That's what

discipleship is.

He'll always

walk towards

it because

he already

knows about

it and he's

paid for it

and he walks

towards it

and he walks

towards it

so you can

begin to be

gripped by the

gospel and

understand that

the price has

already been

paid.

And you can

be gripped by

the gospel to

understand that

all Jesus wants

to do is always

to restore

you, to

restore you, to

restore you.

He doesn't

shoot the

wounded.

He saves and

restores.

And that's what

Jesus is doing

here with Peter

for every one

of his denials.

Every one of

his denials.

Jesus gives

him a commission.

Now if this

was just where

the gospel ended

it would be

really, really

good.

But Peter,

John wants to

deal with a

couple of

final things

that Jesus

does which

really matter

because he

talks about

the significance

of dark

times in our

life and

of death.

And so if we

just would

continue reading

on, if you

could put the

text back up

on the screen,

let's continue

reading at

verse 18.

Peter is now,

I mean Jesus

is still speaking

to Peter and

he says,

truly, truly I

say to you

when you were

young, you

used to dress

yourself and

walk wherever

you wanted.

But when you

are old, you

will stretch

out your

hands and

another will

dress you and

carry you where

you do not

want to go.

This Jesus

said to show

by what kind

of death

Peter was to

glorify God.

And after

saying this,

he said to

Peter, follow

me.

And just sort

of pause before

I read the

next little bit.

I, when I

read the

commentaries and

I talk about

the original

language, at

the level of

the original

language,

it's obvious

to all of

the people who

know the

original language

that Jesus

is referring to

Peter being

crucified, that

that's how

Peter's going

to die.

The English

can't capture

it.

I'm just

telling you

what smarter,

wiser people

who know

Greek know.

And so

Jesus has

revealed to

Peter that

how he's going

to die will

be by

crucifixion.

he will be

captured by

the Roman

authorities and

he will be

condemned and

he will die a

death of

crucifixion.

It's a very

hard thing that

Jesus shares

with Peter.

And

let's just

see what

happens after

this.

So Peter,

verse 20,

Peter turned

and saw the

disciple whom

Jesus loved

following them,

the one who

also had leaned

back against

him during the

supper and had

said,

Lord,

who is it

that's going

to betray

you?

When Peter

saw him,

he said to

Jesus,

Lord,

what about

this man?

It's very

natural,

right?

I can well

imagine if I

was walking

along with

Matt and

Jesus showed

up and

said,

by the way,

George,

I want you

to know that

you're going

to die a

terrible,

painful,

horrible

death.

It would

be very

natural for

me to say,

what about

Matt?

And that's

what Peter

does.

He says,

what about

John?

And Jesus

said to him,

verse 22,

if it is my

will that he

remain until I

come,

what is that

to you?

You follow

me.

So the

saying spread

abroad among

the brothers and

sisters that

this disciple

was not to

die,

yet Jesus

did not

say to him

that he

was not

to die.

But if

it is my

will that he

remain until

I come,

what is that

to you?

basically what

Jesus says

is I

will sometimes

reveal things

to you about

what's going

to be happening

in your

life.

And the

main thing

is that even

if I reveal

them to you,

you follow

me.

I'm not

going to

reveal to

you necessarily

things that

are going

on in other

people's

life.

I'm

speaking to

you,

you follow

me.

You follow

me.

And he

doesn't satisfy

our curiosity

necessarily about

what happens

to others.

The other

thing that's

interesting

here is

that twice

Jesus says

very clearly

that he's

going to

come a

second time

which is

an important

doctrine for

us as

Christians to

understand.

And then

Peter,

John wraps

it up,

verse 24,

this is the

disciple who's

bearing witness

about these

things and

who has

written these

things and

we know that

his testimony

is true.

So John

is saying,

listen,

this is an

eyewitness

biography.

I've given

you names of

lots of other

people who are

also eyewitnesses.

You can check

it out with

him and I

want you to

know everything I

say is true.

Verse 25,

now there are

also many

other things

that Jesus

did where

every one of

them to be

written,

I suppose,

that the

world itself

could not

contain the

books that

would be

written.

If you could

put up the

third point,

that would be

very helpful.

Just to wrap

it up,

a Christian

is an

ordinary

person who

trusts Jesus

as their

Savior and

follows him

as their

Lord.

As John's

Gospel comes

to an end,

it's very,

very interesting.

If you go

back and read

John's Gospel

again,

you'll see

the very,

very first

words Jesus

says.

The very

first words

that Jesus

is recorded

as saying

is a

question.

What are

you seeking?

See,

every human

being is

seeking

something all

the time,

seeking meaning,

seeking love,

seeking food,

seeking prosperity,

seeking fame,

seeking success,

and Jesus,

the very first

words of Jesus

are,

what are you

seeking?

And the people

give the answer

and he says,

come and see,

come and see.

And that's what

John's done with

the whole book.

He begins

by saying

to each

one of you,

you're coming

to Jesus,

the first thing

you have to

ask yourself

as you're

trying to

understand Jesus

is,

what are you

seeking?

Like,

know yourself.

And then

Jesus says,

well,

come and see,

and that's

how John

organizes the

Gospel,

around the

miracles,

around the

I am

statements,

about the

trial,

about the

death,

about the

empty tomb,

about the

resurrection,

and then the

final words

are a very,

very similar

thing.

If the first

thing is,

listen,

figure out what

you're seeking,

but come and see,

from me.

And then the

very final words

of Jesus are,

follow me,

follow me.

And a

Christian is an

ordinary person

who wants to

follow Jesus,

because he trusts

him as his

Savior and wants

to follow him

as Lord.

You can't have

him as your

Savior without

having him as

your Lord,

and it makes

no sense to

have him as

your Lord if

he isn't your

Savior, but

that's what a

Christian is.

Next point,

please.

When you

follow Jesus,

even your

suffering and

death can

bring glory

to God.

When you

follow Jesus,

even your

suffering and

death can

bring glory

to God.

This would

be a whole

sermon in

and of

itself.

In the

eyes of the

world,

suffering and

death can

bring nobody

glory and

nobody any

type of

significance.

And in a

world where

there are

suicide

bombers,

the whole

idea of

death glorifying

God can

be very,

very,

very frightening.

But,

you know,

Muhammad died

as a result

of poisoning

of one of

the family

members of

his hundreds

and thousands

of victims.

And Jesus

dies on the

cross because

he loves you.

God's

and Jesus

is not

pardoning

suicide

bombers.

It's a

completely

and radically

opposite

different

religion.

Jesus is

saying that

even in your

suffering and

death, there

is a way to

suffer and

die when you

are following

Jesus that

can bring

God glory.

God's

and

if you

could put

up the

final point,

Jesus is

speaking to

you this

morning as

Savior and

Lord.

He is the

Savior and

Lord and

he is saying

to every

single one of

you,

follow me.

Follow me.

I can't say

follow me.

I don't want

you to follow

me.

Only follow

me if I'm

following Jesus

because we

need to

follow Jesus.

And this

invitation is

given to

every person

who is here

this morning.

That's how

the gospel

basically ends.

Follow me.

Every one of

us will go

through the

valley of

the shadow

of death.

And unless

Jesus comes

before we

die, we

will all

die.

But when

we follow

Jesus, he

will lead us

in the valley

of the shadow

of death.

He will lead

us right into

death and

beyond, which

is the new

heaven and

the new

earth.

We can

follow him

in success.

We can

follow him

in failure.

We can

follow him

when we are

ashamed.

We can

follow him

when we

have sinned.

We can

follow him

when times

are hard

and when

times are

good.

We can

follow him.

He wants

to be our

savior and

he wants

to be our

Lord.

He wants

you and

me to

follow him.

Please

stand.

Let's just

bow our heads

in prayer.

Father, we

thank you

for Jesus.

We thank

you, Father,

that when we

come to

Jesus, we

are coming

to a person

who knows

everything there

is to know

about us,

that he

knows every

sin, every

shame, everything

which is really

good about us,

everything which

is whole,

everything which

is broken.

We thank you

that when we

come to Jesus,

he knew us in

the womb,

he knew us as

babies, that he

knows even our

future, what will

happen in the days

and weeks and

months or years

ahead.

We thank you,

Father, that

when we come

to Jesus, he

knows every

mask, every

thought, everything

there is to know

about us, he

knew and he

knows.

And still he

loves us and

still he died

for us.

And still when

we put our

faith and trust

in him, he

accepted us in

all of who we

are with nothing

left over.

and we thank

you that he

died for all

that makes us

us without

anything left

over.

And that he

has paid for

all that makes

us us with

nothing left

over.

And that he

has covered us

with his

righteousness in

all that is

with us with

nothing left

over.

And we ask,

Father, that you

would grip us

with this deep

truth of the

deep knowledge

and love of

Jesus for us,

that he is

water, he is

oxygen, he is

life, he is

love, he is

light that makes

us whole and

free.

And Father, help

us to follow

Jesus.

And all God's

people said,

Amen.