June 4, 2023 / When God's Ways Seem Anything But Perfect

Welcome to Walk in the Truth podcast.

This season of messages takes us through some of the great comeback stories in the Bible.

Pastor John Metter of Cross City Church will show us how God can take any situation in

any life and bring hope and victory out of hardship.

These messages will inspire you to trust God in your own challenging seasons.

Thank you so much for joining us this morning.

It's a great day to worship the Lord and we've had a great time worshiping him today.

If you have your Bibles, please take them and turn to the Gospel of John today, John

John 21 · chapter mention

chapter 21.

John chapter 21.

John 21 · chapter mention

Today we're going to focus on the dilemma, the problem of when God's ways seem anything

but perfect.

I'm going to let that title sink in with you for just a few moments.

I just asked the question, how many times in life have you stopped and looked around

and thought to yourself, you know, I know God is the perfect God and I know he loves

me and I know he's got great plans for my life, but right now it seems like God's ways

are anything but perfect in how things are working out.

Anybody ever have that happen to you?

Raise your hand if you've experienced that.

That'd be most of us in the room at some point have stopped and asked that question, God,

why if you're a perfect God and if you can do all the things that we know you can do,

why are things not working out very well?

And there are times when God's ways seem anything but perfect.

Just like Peter denying Christ, which is who we're going to be talking about today, the

man Peter, the disciple that we know so well, we sometimes find ourselves in that same place.

We may not be denying Christ outwardly, but we look around us and see that things aren't

going well and sometimes we get so disappointed and so disillusioned and discouraged, we take

a step back from following God.

We may stop praying.

We may stop opening our Bibles.

We may stop looking to God for help because help doesn't seem to be coming and change

doesn't seem to be happening.

And we know he's perfect.

We know God is God and we know we're not, but at the same time, that'd be some of the

promises we thought we were getting from God aren't working out.

Some of the hopes that we've placed in him is not going well.

We could actually become cynical with God when maybe the marriage that we have dedicated

to God or the family that we dedicated to God is not bearing fruit, not doing well.

Maybe the help that we have and we've asked God to help us where it's being compromised

in some way and we're wondering, God, are you there?

Because if God can do everything, if God loves us, if all those things are true, then it

seems simple to us that a loving God who loves us, who's able to do whatever he wants to

do, could want to help us a little bit.

And yet when we don't see it, we become discouraged and disillusioned just like Peter was.

We may not deny Christ outwardly or verbally, but inside we have disengaged with Christ.

And you can identify with this guy today, this man named Peter, the apostle Peter.

When you think of the apostle Peter, you think of the preeminent among the disciples and

the apostles.

He's always the first one to talk.

He's always included in all the small circle conversations that Jesus has with the disciples.

I mean, Peter is bold and courageous.

We all want to be like Peter on his good days, right?

There are some bad days that Peter has.

We can identify with him even in that.

John 21 is one of those passages where Peter is at the lowest he can be in life.

I want you to stand with me as we read God's word today, John chapter 21, beginning of

John 21 · chapter mention

verse one.

We'll read just three or four verses of John 21, and then we will pause and look at Luke

22 in just a few moments where Peter denied Christ and come back to chapter 21 a little

later on.

After these things, the Bible says in verse one, after these things, Jesus revealed himself

again to the disciples at the sea of Tiberias.

And he revealed himself in this way.

Simon Peter, Thomas, he was called Didymus, Nathaniel of Cana in Galilee, the sons of

Zebedee and two others of his disciples were together.

Simon Peter said to them, I am going fishing.

Now you need to know this is not an ordinary fishing trip.

This is not a weekend at the lake.

Peter is saying, I've done all I can do.

I'm over this.

I'm going back to fishing.

Now Peter's influence was noticeable.

The Bible says after Peter said, I'm going fishing, they said to him, we are also coming

with you.

And they went out and got into the boat.

And that night, predictably, they caught nothing.

Would you bow with me in prayer?

Father, thank you so much for real life examples of real people in the Bible.

And thank you for the details of our lives so that we can identify and connect with them

in so many ways.

Lord, I pray that you will help us today as we look at the life of Peter and how you specifically

brought him back from disillusionment.

I ask all this in Jesus' name, in all God's people said.

Amen.

Please be seated if you would.

Now go with me on this roller coaster ride with Peter for just a few moments and just

think about all the highs and lows.

Peter really was on a roller coaster ride.

He was the boldest follower of Jesus at the same time.

He would open his mouth at uncharacteristic and inappropriate times.

I mean it was Peter that rebuked Jesus.

And Jesus had to turn around and say, get thee behind me, Satan.

I mean it's one thing to be in part of the inner circle of Jesus' disciples.

Another thing altogether for Jesus to say about you, get you behind me, Satan.

So that's a low, right?

There's a high and there's lows.

Peter was really involved in almost everything Jesus did, all the miracles, all the great

statements that Jesus made.

But at the most important moment of Jesus' life, at the moment of his sacrifice when

exactly hanging on the cross, Peter denies Christ.

He said, I don't know the man.

Now I want you to read one of four accounts of Peter's denial, this one in Luke chapter

Luke 22 · chapter mention

22.

Luke gives us, I think, the most piercing look at what happens that day as Jesus is

being crucified and Peter is watching.

Luke 22 verse 54.

Luke 22:54

Now they arrested him and led him away and brought him to the house of the high priest.

But Peter was following at a distance.

After they kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter

was sitting among them and a slave woman seeing him as he sat in the firelight and staring

at him said, this man was with him as well.

But he denied it, saying, I do not know him, woman.

And a little later another person saw him and said, but you are one of them.

But Peter said, man, I am not.

And after about an hour had passed, some other man began to insist, saying, certainly this

man was also with him for he too is a Galilean.

But Peter said, man, I do not know what you're talking about.

And some of the other accounts of Peter's denial of Christ, there is an emphatic reference

to the language he's using.

Most of us would say Peter is cussing and he's doing everything he can to distance himself

from Jesus.

And so he says in verse 60, I do not know what you're talking about.

And immediately while he was still speaking, a rooster crowed.

Now look at verse 61.

And then the Lord turned and looked at Peter.

I want to pause for just a moment.

I want you to feel this.

It's one thing to deny Christ and thinking that you're far from him, that he's not saying

what you're doing.

It's another thing for Jesus to actually have seen this happen.

Luke's the only one that records this part of it.

The Lord turned and looked at Peter.

And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had told him before he rooster crows

today, you will deny me three times.

And he went out and he wept bitterly.

You know, it's interesting that the Bible includes in all four gospels different details

about Peter's denial.

It's almost as though each of the gospel writers wants us to know there are times in our lives

where we may have done that like Peter and still be restored like Peter.

Now I love the hope that's in this passage.

I love the hope as much as I like the value that's in this passage because all of us know

we can be in valleys and it's helpful to know that we can be in hope too.

But think about Peter for just a few moments.

Peter is disappointed with the whole picture of what Jesus has been doing.

He's at the lowest point in his life.

Now at the point of his denial, Jesus is heading to the cross and the disciples have scattered

and all of a sudden the hopes and dreams and the thoughts of what Peter thought was going

to work out for Jesus is not working out.

And now he's doing the unthinkable while Jesus is being crucified, he's publicly denying

Christ.

And I just want to kind of pause for a moment and say life is sometimes not working out

like we thought it would work out.

My wife and I want you to know with moments of transparency that we have felt those times

too.

A number of years ago my mom and dad were living in Phoenix, Arizona.

Dad was a pastor for many years and they'd always lived apart and distant from where

we were.

We were living in a DFW area, I was pastoring in Irving, Texas and my mom had battled cancer

several times and to come back each time and she was relatively healthy and they made the

decision to retire from the ministry in Phoenix and move near us.

And so as the preparations were made for her to move near us, we knew that it was going

to be a great time, something my mom had prayed for for a long time.

This godly woman who knew the Lord, served the Lord in so many ways, just wanted to be

back with her children and her grandchildren and to know them well.

And we had high hopes because my mom was an incredible woman and we wanted all of our

children to know her really well, not just at a distance.

But even when she got off the plane when they moved here, we could see something was not

right with mom.

Within a week she was in the hospital, within two weeks she was dead because the cancer

had come back with a vengeance.

I can remember watching my mom pass away and I can remember some of the words she said,

disappointment that had to end when all she wanted was just to be around us.

And I can remember we were disappointed and confused.

God, why would you allow all this to happen, these faithful servants of yours who love

you, who just want to be with their family, why would you let her die two weeks after

she returned?

I remember one night as Kim and I were grappling with this, I got home from work and Kim said,

I threw that little block away.

She had a little block, a wooden block that she would keep up on the sink in front of

her in the kitchen.

And on that block of wood was inscribed the verse Psalm 1830 which says, ask for God,

his way is perfect.

We love that verse.

We've always had that verse in front of us.

And she looked at me and she said, I threw the block away.

And I thought, oh my.

Because at that moment we were struggling with the very idea that God was perfect and

was allowing things that were very imperfect in our eyes to unfold.

It was hard.

And that's how I know how Peter felt when he denied Christ.

And when things were not working out the way he had envisioned them working out, it was

a hard time in our lives.

It was a hard time in his life.

And now when we read the verses about Peter, here we have Peter after the resurrection

appearances of Christ, he's already appeared to him twice.

After Jesus has risen from the dead, all these things have happened that should be positive

but Peter is not looking at them as being positive.

He's still struggling even though he knows Jesus died for him.

Even though he knows Jesus rose from the dead.

Even though Jesus is still intending to meet with them at Pentecost and he has all that

ahead of him but he's still, he's uncomfortable with how it's all folding.

And he says literally, I'm going back to fishing.

I'm going back to fishing.

What I'm comfortable with is not this.

What I'm comfortable with is fishing.

I'm going back to fishing.

And these disciples went with him.

So there they are.

They're out there fishing off the Sea of Tiberias off the coast, off the Sea of Galilee in Tiberias

region and they've caught nothing.

Been fishing all night and they've caught nothing.

Not many fishermen in the room by the way.

You have very many fishermen in the room.

Most of us don't fish with a net.

We fish with a fishing pole but we know what it's like and how frustrating it is to not

catch anything but they've not caught anything.

Now the story is set up so that these disciples are going to see Jesus in the light like they've

never seen him before.

In one sense of the word, they've never seen him do this but in another sense of the word,

he's going to remind them of what he's done before.

So I want you to take your Bibles and open them back up to John 21 and I want to read

the full story beginning in verse 4.

But when the day was now breaking, Jesus stood on the beach yet the disciples did not know

that it was Jesus.

So Jesus said to them, children, you do not have any fish to eat, do you?

And they answered to him, no.

And he said to them, cast the net on the right hand side of the boat and you will find the

fish.

So they cast it and they were not able to haul it in because of the great quantity of

fish.

Therefore, the disciple whom Jesus loved, this would be John who always refers to himself

as that, said to Peter, it is the Lord.

So when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment for he was

stripped for work and he threw himself into the sea.

But the other disciples came in the little boat for they were not far from the land but

about 200 kibits away, dragging the net full of fish.

So when they got out on the land, they saw the charcoal fire already made and fish placed

on it and bread.

And Jesus said to them, bring some of the fish which you have now caught.

So Simon Peter went up and hauled the net to land full of large fish, 153.

And although there were so many, the net was not torn.

Now people ask the question about 153.

If you were a fisherman, you would understand you count your fish, you count them, 153.

Not a fish story.

Jesus said to them, come and have breakfast.

None of the disciples ventured to inquire of him, who are you, knowing that it was the

Lord.

Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them and the fish likewise.

This was now the third time that Jesus revealed himself to the disciples after he was raised

from the dead.

Now when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon son of Jonah, do

you love me more than these?

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

He said to him, tend my lambs.

He said to him again, the second time, Simon son of Jonah, do you love me?

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

He said to him, shepherd my sheep.

He said to him the third time, Simon son of John, do you love me?

Peter was hurt because he'd said to him the third time, do you love me?

And he said to him, Lord, you know all things.

You know that I love you.

Jesus said to him, feed or tend my sheep.

Verse 18, truly, truly I say to you, when you were younger, you used to put on your

belt and walk wherever you wanted, but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands

and someone else will put your belt on you and bring you to where you do not wanna go.

Now he said this indicating by what kind of death he would glorify God.

And when he had said this, he turned to him and said, follow me.

I want you to get the full thrust of the story.

It's a long passage.

And I want you to see what Jesus does for Peter.

Because what Jesus does for Peter at this moment is everything.

And what Jesus does for Peter, he can do for you.

And I want you to know that if you're disillusioned or disappointed in God, I want you to know

today if there are things about what God is doing and how God's ways are working out in

their life that you just don't understand, that you don't fathom, that you don't like,

that causes you to shrink away from God, then today you need to let Jesus do for you what

he did for Peter in this passage in John chapter 21.

John 21 · chapter mention

That's been my prayer.

So what does Jesus do for Peter that he can do for you?

Jesus can help you first of all remember your identity.

Remember who you are.

When Jesus comes up to the seashore and sees the disciples fishing and catching nothing,

he says to them in verse five, children, you do not have any fish, do you?

Now remember they've gone back to the boats, not for a week into fishing, but they've gone

back to being fishermen.

And because they've gone back to being fishermen, it's really important that they are successful

on this particular fishing trip because they basically have said, we followed Jesus for

three years, it's not working out, we don't know what the future holds, we're going back

to fishing again.

And when they don't catch anything and they see this man standing on the seashore, what

he says to them is really, really important.

And what he says to them is the word children, children, you do not have any fish, do you?

And most men standing on the side of the seashore calling out to a bunch of burly fishermen

are not going to use the word children.

They're going to say, hey guys, have you caught anything?

Some of us might even say, I see you guys out there, have you caught anything?

And you faithful disciples, I hope you do, but you deny it or I hope he doesn't catch

any.

I mean, Jesus could have done anything at that particular moment because there are a

group of disciples that have remained relatively faithful if absent while Jesus was being crucified,

but Peter was present and yet denying Christ.

But he didn't say any of those things.

Jesus says children, he wants them to remember how he brought them into his family, how he

included them in everything that he did.

He basically is saying, hey, let's go, you're one of ours, you're one of us, I want you

to come with me.

You know, the Bible goes to great lengths to tell us who we are once we come to faith

in Jesus.

You know that, don't you?

And the word children or child of God or a son or a daughter of God, that's all through

the Bible.

In John chapter one, verse 12, scripture says, but as many as received him, to them he gave

the right to become the children of God, even to those who believe in his name.

If you believe in the name of Jesus Christ, if you've given your life to him as Lord and

Savior, you've been given the right to be called the children of God.

That's a big deal.

In John chapter 13, verse 33, Jesus is teaching his disciples about love and he says, little

John 13:33

children, I am with you a little while longer.

He calls them children again.

Paul, the great theologian, when he was writing to the church at Roman chapter eight, he said,

the spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are the children of God and if children

errors also errors of God and fathom errors with Jesus Christ.

Children, if you are a follower of Jesus Christ today, let me remind you of what your identity

is.

You are sons and daughters of God.

You are children of God.

Even if you've messed up, even if you've denied Christ, even if you've blown it because Jesus

is calling Peter and the group children.

Jesus is going to help remind them of their identity and it's a pretty big deal.

At the same time, Jesus is reminding us and Peter of his identity.

I assure you, Satan is working overtime to make you forget it as fast as he can.

He wants you to forget that you're a child of God.

He wants you to forget that you've been forgiven.

He wants you to forget that God has a plan for your life.

He wants you to focus on the disappointment and the disillusionment and completely forget

that you are still connected to Jesus by faith in him.

So it's important for us to keep our minds on who we really are.

In essence, Jesus was saying to Peter, you're not the denier, you're the rock.

Don't you remember?

You're not the outcast, you're family.

You're not who you say you are.

You're who I say you are.

Lauren Daigle had a song a few years ago that's still really popular called You Say.

More of the lines of that song is a great reminder for us today.

The only thing that matters now is everything you think of me, referring to God.

In you I find my worth.

In you I find my identity.

Man, that's so important for us today in this world where we're blown to and fro by all

kinds of thoughts and doctrine.

In one of the most memorable preaching moments of my life, I was in the nation of India preaching

to 21,000 people, but 20,000 women and 1,000 men.

I don't know how it worked out like that.

We advertised and 20,000 women showed up and 1,000 men showed up.

It was a huge place out in an open field with chairs, set up in chairs.

And normally when you preach in India, on this side are the women and on this side are

the men.

But in this particular case, there were so few men that women were on both sides of the

rows and the men were way back at the back.

Now remember I got up to preach and I had a certain passage that I prepared to preach

and the Holy Spirit just nudged my heart and moved me to another passage during the worship

time.

And that passage happened to be the woman who needed healing and when Jesus healed her,

he said to her, daughter, your faith has made you well.

Now when you preach in India, you have an interpreter, a translator, and you preach

for about a sentence or two and then he preaches for a sentence or two.

You preach for a sentence or two and he preaches four or five sentences, something like that.

So I had to think as I was preaching.

I said something and then while he interpreted, I was thinking through the congregation.

And when I got to the passage where Jesus healed her and called her daughter and he

translated that for them, immediately I saw that the women in the front few rows were

starting to cry, to weep, and some of them wail.

And before long it kind of moved backwards like that and there were all kinds of women

weeping and crying.

And I took a couple of steps back from the pulpit and I brought the translator over and

said, what are they doing?

He said, you called them daughter.

And when you told them that they were daughters of the king, that they were daughters of God,

they had never been called that.

They've been disowned in every way you can be disowned and that meant the world to them

that God would call them daughters, that Jesus would call them daughters.

I almost could not even stop preaching again.

When I gave the invitation, thousands of women came to faith in Christ because they realized

there they had an identity they couldn't find anywhere else on the planet.

Your identity is so incredibly important and Peter needed to be reminded of his identity.

Children have you caught any fish?

You haven't, have you?

And Jesus helps us remember our identity when we allow him to do that.

You are his children.

Now as an earthly father, I can't imagine a scenario in which I will disown my children.

And if that's true, then the heavenly father will never disown you if you are truly a child

of God.

You need to remember your identity.

The second thing that Peter has happened to him that Jesus actually brings him to and

that he can help us with too is to refresh your faith, to refresh your faith.

In verse six, if you look at this text, it says, and he said to them, cast the net on

the right side so they cast.

Now I'll take a step back here for a moment and say that when Peter was denying Christ,

I really believe that with the boldness of Peter's life that he was denying Christ at

that moment because of fear.

He was afraid of what would happen to him, that what was happening to Jesus would happen

to him.

Even though when Jesus said, you'll deny me three times before the rooster crows, Peter

said, not I, Lord, not me.

In fact, I will die before I deny you.

Now that they're in the moment and now that Jesus is bloody and that on the cross and

since he's seen everything that Jesus has gone through with the scourging and the mocking

and all the things that were taking place, Peter is no longer bold.

In fact, Peter is fearful and he's doubting.

He's wondering maybe this is all wrong.

You know, we're afraid of so much today.

I was reading the other day about the fears that people say they have and a top 10 fears

list appeared in my search and they were top 10 fears that Christians have today.

I fear being out of control or I fear trusting God but it not working out or I fear what

people will say if I follow Jesus completely with my life.

I fear I won't enjoy life if I obey God in this matter or that or I fear something tragic

will happen to me that I can't deal with.

Someone said I fear I won't finish well, that my future is still up in the air.

Someone said I fear that I won't be able to handle temptation that I have in front of

me or I fear that these people will be disappointed when they find out who I really am.

One said I fear I will fail and God will not forgive me.

We all have fears.

We all have doubts.

You can add to this list many, many items in your own life that you are afraid of or

that you doubt because of them.

And all these fears could have been Peter's fears as well.

It's very, very common.

And I would just say to you that we are afraid of so many things in life that we have no

real reason to be afraid of.

But the only way that we can get beyond our fears is to learn to trust again.

To learn to trust the one that we stopped trusting at some point.

To learn to have faith in God the way we once did and that's what Jesus is doing with Peter.

At some point Peter has believed Christ, trusted Christ, followed Christ, obeyed Christ, but

now he's not doing that.

And what Jesus is doing here is giving him small steps of obedience to take.

And if Peter will take these small steps of obedience, he'll see how that Christ can be

trusted.

Cast your net on the other side.

Such a small thing.

Such a small thing.

I would imagine the fishermen being the professional fishermen they were thought who is this guy

on the seashore because they haven't recognized Jesus yet, but at the same time they know

they're great fishermen, right?

They've been doing this their whole lives.

They've been fishing all night and there's no fish.

They're not biting.

They're not getting in the net.

There's no way that they're going to do this unless they're willing to trust somebody who

knows something more than they do.

So they cast the net on the other side.

I love this moment in the story because Jesus is constantly reminding us that he can be

trusted with our lives, but we only learn this when we trust him enough to obey him.

And the only way you really grow in your faith is to do it, is to live it out, is to say,

okay, I don't know how this will work out.

I don't know why casting the net on the right hand side of the boat is going to work out

any better than casting it out on the left side of the boat, but I'm going to try what

the stranger says on the seashore.

I'm going to throw it in the right side of the boat.

I just remind you that even before we get to that moment where they know it's Jesus,

that Jesus does know life better than we do.

He does know marriage better than we do.

He does know your job better than you do.

He does know the future better than you do.

He does know your friendships better than you do.

He knows church better than you do.

He knows community better than you do.

He knows everything better than you do.

He even knows fishing better than those guys did.

Jesus knows everything better.

And to refresh your faith,

you have to learn to trust him with steps,

small steps maybe, but steps nonetheless.

It's at this moment in the story, it's so amazing to me,

in this encounter, the disciples hear Jesus,

even though it hasn't dawned on them that it is Jesus,

but they hear him saying, casting that on the other side,

and they actually do it.

The stranger to them is saying, try fishing this way.

So they cast again and they get 153 large fish,

and they struggle to get them all in.

It's not just 153 fish, it's 153 large fish.

It's a great fishing moment, but it's even bigger,

it's a bigger faith moment.

It's a faith moment.

I know what you want, you wanna know,

what is the significance of 153 fish?

And I've done the study and I'll tell you definitively,

I know exactly what 153 means in this passage.

I've done a lot of reading and I'll tell you

that some people believe this is an apocalyptic passage.

This has to do with the passage of time

and helps us know when Christ will come back.

I don't believe that.

Others say that because numbers are denoted

for each Hebrew letter,

that 153 stands for something significant.

One particular commentator said,

well, 153 is the same number that was used

to define how many people built the temple,

except it was 153,000, so they're the same thing,

153,000, 153 fish.

I don't believe that either,

but I do know what this stands for.

This is 153 reasons to trust Christ again.

That's all it is.

It's 153 reasons to trust Christ

instead of trusting theirself.

I mean, they've been trusting themselves all night long.

They've been doing it their way all night long

and when Jesus says, throw the net on the other side

and they do it, it's a great, great faith moment.

It's just 153 more reasons to believe Jesus

for everything he tells you to do

and it's just this precise moment,

this very, very second, this very moment

when they catch all these fish

that John turns to Peter and says,

it is the Lord, it's the Lord.

That guy on the seashore, that's Jesus.

This is a pretty important moment

and of course, what happens is incredible,

but John is simply saying,

this is the one that called us this way.

He helped us find fish back when we first were called.

He's the one that called you to walk on the water, Peter.

He's the one that raised the dead and healed the sick.

That's that one, that's who he is, it's the Lord.

And when he said, it is the Lord,

that's when Peter began to do everything

in the sense of coming to Jesus.

He jumped out of the boat.

He smelled the charcoal fire

that was there on the side of the seashore,

the same kind of fire as was burning during his denial.

He's getting the fish out of the boat.

Incredible rush of memories that Peter is having

about why Peter had first trusted Christ in the first place

and why he was struggling.

It's an important moment of faith.

I don't know if you've ever been at those moments of faith,

but it's a moment where you say,

I need to trust him again.

Can I trust him again?

Sometimes you have to get back up in the saddle

and ride the horse again after you've fallen off of it.

Ron Dunn made an amazing statement

after being down in the deepest part of his life.

He'd lost a son to suicide, taken some time off,

came back to the church he'd pastored

and made this statement.

He said, I've been to the bottom and it's solid down there.

And God will meet you there.

Tim Keller, who passed away last week, made this statement.

Jesus will always exceed our expectations.

He will be more than what we can ask for

or even imagine every time,

but you have to be patient for him to bring that about.

And Peter's at this point of refreshing his faith

and renewing all the confidence

that he's had in Jesus before.

We have to refresh our faith.

And then number three, Jesus will help you renew your love.

You notice in verse 15, Jesus said to Simon Peter,

do you love me more than these?

These were the threefold questions that were asked by Jesus

to Peter.

And before we get to those questions,

I wanna point out that Jesus has been very intentional

with everything he's doing in this text

with powerful reminders about all the things

that they've seen already before

and they're just being reminded of them again.

For example, he issued the call to cast nets again,

just like he did before he called them in Luke chapter five.

They'd been fishing all night.

They came to the side of the seashore.

They weren't yet disciples,

but Jesus said, go back out and cast again.

Oh, we've been fishing all night.

No, go back out and do it again.

And they go do it again.

This time the nets break.

There's so many fish, the nets break

and they come back to the seashore.

And Jesus, Peter rather gets on his knees

and says, Lord, depart from me for I'm a sinful man.

For the first time in his life,

he's convicted that someone greater than him

is standing in front of him.

And this event in John 24 is reminder of their original call.

He feeds them breakfast.

He's giving them bread and fish,

just like he fed the multitudes with and the miracle.

They saw that and they felt it again.

He stands before them alive again.

This is the third time he stood before them alive

and that he's reminded them again, I am alive.

Even the charcoal fire is reminder

that when Peter denied Christ,

it was in front of a charcoal fire,

a vivid reminder of Peter's denial.

So Jesus is asking all these leading questions

and arranging all these things to remind them

of why he believed and how he can renew his love.

In essence, Jesus is moving to this point

that will show that love and grace is present for Peter

when he's ready to come back to Jesus.

Do you remember this significant conversation

that Jesus had with Peter when he said,

you need to forgive your enemies?

Peter said, how many times should I forgive them?

Seven?

And Jesus said, I say to you not seven, but seven times 70.

You should forgive them seven times 70.

If Jesus told Peter to forgive them seven times 70 times,

what do you think Jesus is prepared to do for Peter?

He's prepared to forgive him.

He's prepared to restore him.

God has enough grace to forgive us.

God has enough grace to restore us

no matter how far away we are from God.

We probably sometimes think we're far, far from God,

but far to you is not far to God.

The Bible says in Romans chapter five, verse 20,

where sin increased, grace abounds all the more.

That's a theological truth about the God we worship.

His grace is enough.

And all this is leading to the question

where Jesus asked Peter, do you love me more than these?

Do you love me more than your friends?

Do you love me more than your boats in your former career?

Do you love me more than the 153 fish?

You love me more than anything and anyone?

Countless messages have been preached

about these three questions and the three answers,

utilizing every nuance of the language.

We could break it down and write a whole book about it.

But in essence, what Jesus is actually doing for Peter

is asking this question.

Can you learn to love me again?

Because I've never stopped loving you.

Not only did Jesus never stop loving Peter,

Jesus demonstrated the ultimate sacrifice

of laying his life on the cross for Peter.

Surely Peter knows Jesus loves him.

Though he's saying, do you love me?

And these questions brought Peter back to the realization

that he truly loved Jesus

and was willing to follow him again.

Whether he understood or not, did you know this?

Did you know that you don't have to understand God's ways

in order to love God?

You don't have to know how the outcome is going to happen.

You don't have to know what it's gonna look like in the end.

You don't have to know how long you'll be on earth

or how you'll die or all the circumstances of your future.

You don't have to know those things in order to love God.

You don't have to understand the past in order to love God.

All these things that have happened

and you can't reconcile in your mind that you say,

God, I'm struggling with you because I don't understand why.

You don't have to understand those.

You can still love Jesus even when nothing makes sense.

And that's what Jesus is asking Peter to do.

Do you love me?

Lord, you know I love you.

I love you more than 10 my lambs,

shepherd my sheep, ten my sheep.

He says, Peter, I not only want you to follow me again,

but I want you to love and lead others who follow me.

I'm restoring you to everything you ever had

as a leader and as a follower.

Let me ask you a very plain question.

Do you think Peter wept that day?

The Bible says when he denied Jesus,

he went out and wept bitterly.

So I know he was capable of crying, capable of tears.

I think Peter is weeping at this moment.

I can't believe you love me even though I have left you.

But basically Jesus' love is big enough

to cover it for both of us.

So I know this.

If you've been disillusioned and disappointed,

if you've been far from God in some way,

if you've distanced yourself from Jesus

because of all the things that have happened in your life,

can you look back one more time

and can you see if it's in you to come back to him

and to love him once again?

Peter, do you love me?

Peter, do you love me?

Peter, do you love me?

You can put your name in that sentence.

You know, about a year after

Kim threw that little block of wood away,

she went out and bought another block.

It was very crafty, very artistic.

It was a blank piece of wood.

And she took a paintbrush and wrote the verse on it.

You can guess what the verse is.

Psalm 1830, as for God, his way is perfect.

We remembered who we were.

We'd learned to trust again, we'd learned to love again,

and we realized we didn't have to understand everything

in order to say, as for God, his way is perfect.

I don't know if my mind is able to comprehend

what perfection is.

I don't know if yours is either.

But as for God, his way is perfect.

And that's what Peter did that day.

He did.

I included verse 19 in the reading of the text

because at the end of it all,

Jesus calls us back to the beginning.

He said once more, follow me.

Follow me.

Let's get started again.

Follow me.

You know the rest of the story.

They did start following Jesus again.

They did leave those boats behind.

They did go and wait for the Holy Spirit to come.

They did become the leaders of the New Testament church.

They did continue to love Jesus even until the death.

So my question to you today is this.

Will you come back today

to remembering who you are?

Can you come back today to trusting him one more time?

Can you come back today to loving him again?

I wanna do something a little unusual.

I want you to bow your head,

close your eyes for just a moment.

And in this room over these next few moments,

I just want you to personalize the life of Peter

in the text that I've shared with you today.

And if you've been disappointed and disillusioned

with things the way Peter may have been,

and you need to come back to remember who you are,

come back to trusting again, come back to loving again.

Would you just stand wherever you are?

I'm just gonna pray for you.

You're not gonna be asked to come forward

or anything like that, but would you just stand?

And let me just spend a moment praying for you today.

Stand up and just do it in anonymity.

Nobody needs to be looking around.

Just stand up and let me pray for you.

I'm gonna pray for you today, wherever you are.

People are standing up all over the room.

Don't be afraid to do it.

There's something about acting on a message

that makes it different.

We walk away in a different way.

And before I pray, those standing,

if you'll just keep standing before I pray,

I'm just gonna give you these invitations.

There may be those in the room today,

included those that are standing,

that may need to stop by the decision station

and talk to someone about a decision for Christ.

Maybe you need to put your trust in Him for the first time.

Or maybe talk to someone about the current crisis of faith

you're experiencing right now.

That's my first invitation.

The second one is if you're a guest,

I'd love to invite you to our guest reception room

outside the center exit doors across the hallway.

Love to meet you for just a moment,

tell you about our church.

The third invitation is bring somebody with you next week.

It's such an important series.

But for now, I wanna pray.

Would you bow with me?

Father, in Jesus' name,

there are those standing across this room

who have said by their standing,

I need to remember who I am.

I need to learn to trust again.

I need to learn to love again.

And Father, I don't know what's happened around them

and inside their mind or thoughts or body or circumstances,

don't need to know those things, but Lord, I know.

Sometimes life is so difficult.

Sometimes ups and downs are so hard.

Sometimes the lows are so low.

And Father, right now, I pray that you would give

each of these individuals a reminder,

a gentle but powerful, unforgettable reminder

that they are your children.

They are the children of God through Christ.

And Father, I pray that you draw them close to yourself.

Just do that by the power of your Holy Spirit.

And Father, remind them again that you have always loved them.

Never stop loving them.

And Father, I pray that you would help them trust again,

even the simplest things, even the small little commands

you give us, all add up when we trust you once,

we can trust you again, help them do that,

and then help them renew their love for you.

Even though things aren't making sense,

you're still Jesus, you're still Lord.

And Lord, you've loved us with an everlasting life.

Thank you so much.

So Father, today, I pray that you'll bring about

a great victory over these things in these lives,

and I ask this in Jesus' name, amen.

Now, you may all stand, you may all be dismissed.

God bless you today.

Thank you for being here.