The Commission

Lord, we thank you for your word.

Lord, we thank you for the stories of Jesus

and the character of Jesus,

for how deeply you love us.

Lord, I pray that as we hear from your word today,

that you would speak to us

and that you would be at work.

In Jesus' name, amen.

So I know at least a few of us here

are Marvel movie fans.

And for those of you who don't know,

the kick of superhero movies

for the last 10 years or so

are mostly put out under the brand of Marvel, right?

And so these stories are often compelling,

but they've also got,

have like achieved their own frameworks at this point

where we kind of know what's gonna happen in the movie

and there are certain key things

that they always bring up.

And one of those things

that there's often an after credits scene now.

So literally fans will sit in the theater.

And I shouldn't say fans,

I should say me too, because I do this.

And so you'll wait for five minutes

for all the credits to scroll by

so that you can see a little 30 second clip

that kind of concludes some side story

or it ties into something

that's happening in the future.

One of the most popular ones

is at the end of like the,

one of the movies

and all of the superheroes

are sitting in like this local restaurant

and they're chowing down on food

and they're in like their full outfits and everything.

And it's just like this really weird, corny scene

that just fulfills some offhanded comment

that a character made earlier in the movie,

you know, after they win the battle,

they're like, hey, you wanna go get food?

Basically.

And so John 21 is a bit like an after credits scene.

Everything is kind of wrapped up nicely in John 20

for Jesus's story.

He's resurrected.

He reappears to the disciples.

He commissions them to go out as he was sent out.

But John 21 in this chapter,

John wraps up a few loose ends, right?

What happens to Peter after he denies Jesus?

And what happens to John, the author of the book?

And as John answers these questions,

he communicates his last message to Jesus's followers,

that Jesus loves generously,

restores fully and calls uniquely.

And so we see his generous love in the first story

where they go out and fish

and Jesus provides a lot of fish for them.

And so this section is bookended in verses one and 14,

that this is of Jesus revealing himself.

So I really see the purpose of this section

is it's another testimony to Jesus's revelation

of himself after he was resurrected.

It's another piece of John's claim

that Jesus truly died and rose again.

But each of these times that Jesus appears,

he does it with a little bit of a different purpose.

And so the first time he appears to Mary, right?

Just outside of the tomb.

And he sends her to go and tell everybody else

that he's resurrected.

And then the second time he appears as proof

of his resurrected body

for most of his disciples in a room.

And then the third time,

second time to his disciples directly,

he appears for the benefit of Thomas

to really care for him,

someone who has doubted that Jesus is really rose.

And so this last time here,

Jesus seems to reveal himself

to demonstrate his ongoing love for the disciples

and his generous provision for them.

And so Peter, who is a fisherman by trade,

goes out to fish

and the other disciples go along with him.

And this is likely either to feed themselves,

maybe they're hungry,

or they could be catching extra fish

to go out the market

and try to make some money.

Now, fishing is probably a little bit different

than most of our careers here

for those who are working.

Fishing is literally like hand-to-mouth work.

And so for a lot of us working,

you know, academics or tech or business,

if we have a down day

where we're not as productive,

we don't get a tenth of our paycheck cut out

or something in that two-week period

or however your payment system works.

But with fishing, you know,

if you go out and spend an all-nighter

fishing on the lake

and you don't catch anything,

then you have made no money at that point.

It would be like if I showed up to work one day

and didn't get a lot of work done

and my manager came up and was like,

yeah, sorry, we're not paying you today.

You didn't get everything done.

Like, what? Are you serious?

So this is a devastating evening for the disciples

to spend all night out on the lake

and to catch nothing.

And so this kind of frames Jesus' appearance

and question as he comes up to them.

And so it's kind of in the morning dusk,

so they probably,

when it says the disciples didn't recognize Jesus,

it's probably legitimately,

like, they're a few hundred yards off from shore.

They probably can't quite see him in the morning haze.

And so there's this guy standing on the edge of the beach

after all night out fishing.

He's like, hey, have you caught any fish?

And the disciples are probably like,

oh my gosh, no.

And Jesus says,

oh, well, why don't you just throw the net

on the other side of the boat?

And if you don't know this is Jesus,

this sounds like, are you serious?

Like, I don't know if there's an exact phrase for it,

but there's kind of fisherman's folklore

where people have these ideas

that they're good fishermen,

but the reasons that they are

are probably not connected to reality at all.

It's just kind of,

oh, I know where the exact best fishing spot is.

Sometimes that's true

and sometimes it's just,

I caught a lot of fish there one time.

I know an older gentleman

who goes fishing regularly

and he takes another fellow with him

and the other fellow at one point

had a very poor fishing experience.

I think he caught like one fish

the whole time they were out there

and my friend caught like two dozen.

And ever since then he said,

oh, this guy, you know,

I think about the fish,

he couldn't catch a cold.

You know, it's just like,

that stigma is stuck to him at this point.

And so this feels like

that kind of fisherman's advice.

Like, oh, just, you know,

I always throw the net

on my right side of the boat.

It's going to work for you guys.

And so the disciples,

whether they're exasperated

or whether they just, you know,

all right, sure, whatever,

they throw the net on the other side.

And the results are quite different

than the typical fisherman's advice, right?

The net fills up instantly with fish.

And so John, for John,

it instantly clicks.

He says, this is the Lord.

And for Peter, as it usually doesn't,

it doesn't instantly click.

But as soon as John says it,

Peter is out of the boat

and swimming to shore,

leaving the others to drag the net

a few hundred yards into shore.

And so thankfully,

Peter's not completely rude.

And he actually,

when they get the boat in,

he comes back and helps drag the net

up to shore.

And so they sit

and they eat with Jesus

and it's just this overwhelming thing.

And in verse 12,

it's phrased a little strangely

and I want to point it out.

You know, Jesus says,

come and have breakfast.

Now, none of the disciples dared ask him,

who are you?

They knew it was the Lord.

And it feels kind of weird.

It's like, why would you think about asking

if you know it's the Lord?

Like, what's going on here?

And I think it's really an expression,

probably, of just the emotions

that they felt at that time.

Like, here is a man

who has only appeared to them

a couple times

and that they saw die, right?

And he's sitting on the beach

cooking fish.

Like, we are so used to hearing the story

that the disciples,

like, this is the first time

that they've seen Jesus

really interact with material,

not, like, phase into a room magically,

like, through a locked door.

So it's, like,

a really typical experience

and I think this is just the expression

of, oh my gosh,

like, this is the Lord.

And you kind of want to ask

because he should be dead,

but here he is.

And so I think that's the expressiveness

that's going on there.

And so I mentioned

that the purpose for this section

is another testimony

to Jesus' resurrection.

But I think that the message

of this section seems to be

that Jesus simply loves his disciples

and loves caring for them.

You know, he gives them

an overabundance of fish.

So 153 could easily be

over 1,000 pounds, right?

And yet the net is not torn

that they're catching the fish with.

And he also cares for them

and he prepares breakfast for them

after a long night of work, right?

He's already cooking the fish on the shore.

It's not necessarily the fish they caught.

He's gone out and caught some

and has prepared something

specifically for them.

And we have no real given reason.

There's no allegory.

There's no symbolism.

It's simply that Jesus loves his disciples

and cares for them.

And I think that it's much like

washing his disciples' feet earlier.

He's showing that he still serves them

and is going to provide for them

after his resurrection.

And I think it's worth highlighting

this generous provision here

because in our modern world,

I think the common word for it

is networking.

But there's a lot of aspects in life

where we're pushed to build relationships

with people so that we can get

some sort of advantage from them later.

So it's making connections

or getting to know somebody.

And often we think about,

okay, if I get to know this person,

what can I possibly get from them

in the future?

And I think that Jesus challenges

that conception.

I'm not saying that we shouldn't

do those things.

I am saying that we need to go out

and love much like Jesus did

without much benefit to ourselves.

And so when I was a staffer

at college camps,

one of my camp directors

would ask the question regularly,

when was the last time

that you did something

for someone else

when you received

absolutely no benefit for it?

Like it was of no selfish motivation.

Nothing was really returned to you.

And every time that I remember

that question,

I can't think of the last time

that I have selflessly

served somebody in that way.

And I think that Jesus

sets the example for us here

of doing this,

but he also shows us

that this is how he continues

to love us

with this provision,

this true care for us.

And so one of the ways

in this story

that Jesus goes on

to uniquely love his disciples

is by restoring Jesus

after he denied,

or by restoring Peter

after he denied Jesus three times.

And so moving into 15 through 19,

this is kind of,

this is the counter passage

to Jesus's three,

or man,

I'm going to keep saying this,

Peter's three times denying Jesus

when Jesus was at trial.

And I think that Peter's denial

of Jesus carries a special weight.

This isn't just saying,

oh, I don't believe in Jesus.

He's not, you know,

he's not real.

This is someone

who followed Jesus

for three years

and had a pre-built relationship

with him.

And they had had exchanges

and they had gone

through things together.

And then at the first sign

of real challenge

and difficulty,

he's denied him

and said,

no, I don't know this man.

It reminds me a little bit

of kind of flare-ups

that we have

in the relationships

with people that we care about.

A kind of funny

but also sort of dangerous one sometimes

is if you're arguing

with your spouse

or significant other

and you say,

oh, you remind me

of your parents.

Don't say that.

Another thing is,

you know,

I think of children

that get so upset

and just riled up

and they're like,

I hate you, mom or dad.

Or, you know,

and they just say that

and they stomp off.

And that's not like serious

in that moment,

but that's painful

to the parents.

Or, you know,

a really powerful thing

can be when a parent

expresses disappointment

in their children

in really strong terms.

You know,

unintentionally,

maybe in the heat

of the moment,

but those things

chip at the relationship

that have been built up

over all that time

and it's a swift swing.

It's, you know,

it's really taken

a chunk out of it

and it's to test

the endurance

of that relationship.

And I think that

those are all kind of

little types

of what Peter

has done with Jesus.

You know,

they've built

that relationship together

and now he's denied Jesus.

And so Jesus is working

on not just forgiving

Peter for this,

not just brushing

it under the rug,

but we'll see

that he actually

restores Peter

and we'll get into that

a little bit more

in detail.

But one of the first things

I want to talk about

with this section

is verse 15.

And there's a couple

things going on here

that I want to stop

and really examine.

First,

it seems like

the conversation

between Jesus

and Peter

probably happened

by the campfire

with all the other

disciples sitting around.

I know in verse 19

or verse 20

it talks about

Jesus is walking

down the beach

with Peter

and John's behind them.

But in verse 19

it seems to indicate

that Jesus says,

follow me

and that's when

they get up

from after breakfast

to walk down the beach.

And so this seems

kind of awkward.

Jesus is asking

these questions.

It's kind of like

you don't want to be

in the room

when a parent

is disciplining their child

or chewing them out.

That's just an awkward moment,

particularly when you're

growing up as a kid.

If your friend

is getting beat down

by their parents,

you're doing something wrong.

It's like you don't

want to be there

in that moment.

So it feels awkward to us

but I think that it fits

with the story so far.

Peter is really

one of the main characters

in John besides Jesus.

And he often seems

to be kind of set up

as the de facto leader

of the disciples.

He often speaks for them.

He's the one

that publicly spoke

for the disciples

when a bunch of people

stopped following Jesus

in John 6.

And Jesus turns

to the disciples

and said,

are you going to leave me?

And Peter's the one

that speaks up

and says,

who else would we go to?

You are the one

with the words of life.

Peter publicly chopped off

the ear of the servant

in the garden.

And Peter also publicly

denied Jesus three times.

So a lot of Peter's actions

have been in front

of these disciples already.

So it makes sense

that his restoration

would happen in front

of all of them as well.

A second kind of confusing

thing about the verse

is that there's

an undefined pronoun

that Jesus uses

in the first question.

And Jesus says,

Simon, son of John,

do you love me

more than these?

And so it's,

no one's like exactly sure

what these is,

but there's only

so many things

it could be.

And I think the two

main things are,

it could either be

the fish that he had

just caught,

or it could be

the disciples

who are sitting around him.

Once again,

the choice of the other

disciples seems kind

of awkward at first,

like playing favorites

or something.

But it probably fits

better with the story.

And so the fish,

what the fish has

going for it

is the explanation

for the pronoun

is that it's

the less awkward

of the two.

You know,

okay,

do you love me

more than the fish here?

But there seems

to be no story

and context for that.

Right?

There's never any

conflict between fishing

and following Jesus.

And in fact,

when the disciples

are called from fishing,

they always leave

to go to follow Jesus.

And Jesus just blessed

them with 153 fish.

So it seems a little weird

to come back

and ask the question

that way.

So the more awkward

explanation of the disciples

seems to sit correctly.

And I think that this is

expressing not literally,

Peter,

is there like some

quantifiable more amount

of love that you have

than the rest of the disciples?

What he's saying is,

Peter, you know,

is the passion

that you've shown for me,

is that true?

Because Peter,

as we said before,

Peter's frequently

representing the rest

of the disciples

and even does

outlandish things

above and beyond them.

A few others of them

is that when Jesus is

washing the disciples' feet,

you know,

Peter says,

okay, whoa, whoa,

don't wash my feet.

This is crazy.

And Jesus says,

no, I have to wash your feet.

And then Peter's like,

okay, fine,

but can you wash

my hands and head too?

And Jesus is like,

just calm down.

It's gonna be fine.

So Peter's like always

showing that exuberant passion.

And Peter says,

I will lay down my life

for you during the Last Supper,

which ends up not being true,

but then ends up

being true later also.

And then Peter is the one

who also barrels

into the tomb head first.

We talked about this

in our community group

a little bit last week.

That's like,

you have no idea

what's in there.

This dead body possibly

could be really bad.

And Peter just,

boom,

like straight into the tomb,

like right by where

Jesus was laying

looking for what's going on.

So I think the question here

is not that quantifiable

love question,

but is that passion

and exuberance

that you've shown,

is that there?

Do you love me?

And so Jesus and Peter

go back three times.

There's slight differences

between all the questions

and answers,

but they're almost

all identical.

And Peter gets exasperated

by the third time

the question is asked.

And that kind of makes sense.

You know,

you can say what once

if you didn't hear

what somebody said,

but like if you don't hear

them the second time,

like you don't get another chance.

You just have to pretend

you understood

what they said.

So like there's,

it feels like there's always

room for like that

clarifying question,

but the third time is like,

Lord, you know everything.

You know that I love you.

And I think that the reason

that Jesus asked him three times

is not just because symbolism

works well and you know,

you denied me three times,

so I have to ask you three times

and that's how it's going to work.

I think that there's real

restoration at work here.

The answer to the question

or the answer to Peter's answer

is not,

okay, you know,

it's not,

do you love me?

I love you.

I forgive you.

It's,

do you love me?

I love you.

Feed my sheep, right?

Jesus is doing,

Jesus is doing more

than just saying,

don't worry about it.

He's really saying,

I'm restoring Peter

back to the commission

I've given him

to the church fully

from that point of denial.

And so I really think

that each statement of denial

is replaced with a call to serve.

I think that the correct illustration here

is probably something

about restoring like old paintings

and I looked at that a little bit

when I was looking for like illustrations

but I really don't understand enough

about paintings.

So maybe some of you do,

it's like super meticulous

the work they do

to like restore a painting

to look the way it used to

but not too much

and there's like these fights about,

oh no,

they made it too bright,

that looks too much better.

Like whatever,

I don't know.

Car restoration is another thing

where you have like a vintage car

that you restore

that's drivable

so you can go and show it at shows.

The thing that I know about

is video games

so I'm gonna share that with you.

And so about 30 years ago,

you guys probably,

a lot of you remember this,

like the big TVs called CRTs,

like when we didn't have HD TVs

that were skinny

and attached to the wall

and you had to like lug them around

like this to be able to set them down

and the screen was only that big anyways.

Older video game systems

were designed to run on those TVs

and so if you find a way

to finagle a 30 year old video game system

onto an HD TV,

you're gonna find out

it doesn't look very good,

and it doesn't respond very well.

And so there's this thing

called emulation

which is careful,

tedious redesign

of both the original systems processor

and the game itself

to be able to run it

on modern TVs.

And so one of the biggest gaming companies,

Nintendo,

made a small little emulator

basically like that

and reproduced,

you know,

the exact game

as it was before.

And so it handles

absolutely beautifully

but it also acts

exactly like the game did

and so it's restored

in that sense.

And so Jimmy can actually attest to this.

He was over at our house

one afternoon.

I think we were just

like hanging out afterwards

and Jimmy,

like I showed it to Jimmy

who had grown up with this system

and he's like,

this is amazing.

He's kept being like,

okay, just one more level.

Like if we're like,

he was like,

I'm just gonna try one level up front

and then like 10 minutes later

he's like,

okay, I gotta stop for sure now.

But it works exactly like it did.

It was restored fully.

And so when we think of restoration,

we think of hard, tedious labor

to bring something back to where it was.

This is not just a brushing under the rug.

Jesus is really working on Peter here

to restore him.

And so once Jesus restores Peter

from his past mistakes,

he also gives him a future purpose

to glorify God in his death.

And so verse 18,

I mean verse 19 makes it clear

that that's what he's describing.

This is to show how he would glorify God

in his death.

Verse 18 is likely referring to crucifixion

when it says stretch out your hands

and being carried where you don't wanna go.

And this is kind of the early church.

That's the earliest records we have

is that Peter was the first one martyred

and that he was crucified.

It's also possible,

I would say likely that Peter

had probably already been martyred

by the time John had actually finished this gospel.

So he's probably describing at this point

both the prophecy and that it did happen.

And so what's interesting is that

this is a reversal of the previous experience, right?

John first lied to protect his own skin

when he was in slight danger.

But Jesus is saying,

next time that this happens,

you're going to risk your own life

and you're gonna give glory to God in doing it.

So there's a future restoration there as well.

One of the earliest instances of church martyrdom

that we have recorded

is of a bishop named Polycarp.

And he was put to trial before a proconsul

and then executed.

And the words that he uses are like,

this is what I picture like Peter standing up

before he was martyred.

And so the proconsul was insistent

and said,

take the oath and I shall release you to Polycarp.

Curse Christ.

And Polycarp said,

86 years I have served him

and he never did me any wrong.

How can I blaspheme my king who saved me?

And so that's just a reversal.

You know, Peter going from,

oh, I don't even know this man

to the example that Polycarp sets

and probably Peter said,

if we have the record,

of absolutely affirming his belief in Jesus,

even in the face of death.

So Jesus restores his past,

you know, sets his future

and then he gives him the open offer

to restoration in the present

with follow me, right?

And I think that this is probably a literally like,

hey, come on,

let's walk down the beach together,

follow me.

But John does a lot of this double meaning stuff

where it's, you know,

okay, come and follow me.

And so at this point,

oh, sorry,

follow me is kind of the way

that Jesus calls the disciples

back in John 1 originally too.

That's specifically the word he uses

when he calls Philip.

He says, you know, follow me.

So at this point,

Peter is fully back in the position

he was before denying Jesus.

And like I said before,

restoration is not trivial.

It requires extreme work.

And I think that work in this case

is the death and resurrection of Jesus,

that Jesus has died and come back to life.

To bear Peter's sin in this instance,

he can now call Peter back to restoration.

And I mean, this is really like,

this is one of the first actings

out of the gospel that we see

of direct forgiveness given to Peter.

Um, every time personally

that I wonder about whether God is,

God forgives me

or is like disappointed in me.

Um, this is the passage

that I come back to

because it's extremely clear to me

that Jesus is the one restoring here.

It's not about Peter coming back to Jesus.

It's about Jesus working to forgive him

even after he's denied Christ three times.

Um, and I hear two primary concerns

from kind of two groups of people

that might be wondering,

you know, is God disappointed in me?

Does God really forgive me?

Does he really restore me?

Um, and I think the first group

are, um, those who feel

that they've committed,

like, grievous faults.

Um, maybe they've hurt someone

in a very lasting way

or done something that was really wrong.

Um, and these people can,

you know, hear,

they might hear a Christian

who professes, like,

or confesses to, like,

small sins, like, um,

whatever it might be,

just, you know,

I struggle with pride

or, you know, I'm struggling with,

I got mad at somebody.

And they think to themselves,

oh my gosh,

what I've done is so much worse

than this.

Like, God's forgiveness

is not for me

or, like, God can't be pleased in me.

Um, and those people

never realize that Jesus

can restore people

from even the greatest of sins.

Um, the second group of people

are kind of the ones

that might be sharing about,

you know, I got angry at my neighbor

or something like that.

It's those who feel

they consistently struggle

with endlessly nagging

small faults.

And you may hear testimonies from,

they may hear testimonies

from people in the previous group

of, you know,

God bringing someone

out of drug addiction

or out of a strong belief

against Christianity

to believing in him.

And they might sit there

and think, okay,

God moves large things like that,

but he's never gonna come after me

in my small faults.

Um, these people

may never realize

that Jesus is more persistent

in his forgiveness

than we are in our wrongdoing.

Um, and the fact

that Jesus fully restores Peter

should be an encouragement

to all of us in that area.

You know, Peter has fallen

into both of these camps easily.

He's made a lot of boneheaded

small mistakes

along the way consistently.

And he's had the great mistake

of denying,

literally denying Jesus.

And keep in mind,

this isn't just some guy.

This is the man that goes on

to lead the early church, right?

And when I'm talking

about restoration,

I'm not talking about,

oh, you can now do

this little small thing.

No, Jesus fully restores him

back to the calling

that he had for him.

Um, so I think that

Jesus' restoration is powerful.

Um, I think that we often

think about restoration

as something that only happens

in heaven when things

are made right.

Um, and I think that God

is working that in each

and every one of us now.

And I would not run it past him

to, to, to work,

continue working in your life.

Ask him for these things

because he continues to restore.

Um, so I imagine this is all

kind of just swirling

through Peter's head,

um, including the statement,

wait, didn't Jesus say

I was going to die

a brutal death before?

Um, you know,

I can just kind of picture

that coming back to him

while they're walking

down the beach.

And Peter's like,

okay, but you know,

what about the guy behind me?

Like, is he going to have

to go through the same stuff

I am?

This sounds like,

you know, pretty rough

come to the end.

Um, and Jesus' answer

to Peter is pretty much,

yeah, don't worry about it.

Right?

He just is like,

you know, if he,

if it's my will

that he remain until I come,

what's that to you?

You follow me.

Um, and it appears

that John's purpose

for including this

is initially the rumors,

that rumors were spreading

that Jesus like would come back

before Peter died.

Someone took this out of context

and spread it around.

Um, and in contrast to Peter,

John was likely

the last apostle to be alive

as he was writing,

he was exiled

and writing Revelation,

uh, one of the latest books

in the New Testament.

Um, so it's possible

that people are sitting there

saying, oh my goodness,

John's still alive.

You know, you know,

in five, 10 years or so,

Jesus is going to come back

because he's pretty old

at this point, right?

We've seen in the past

that every prediction

of Jesus is coming back

that's before today

has all been wrong.

And it also gets people

really caught up in the,

oh, when's it going to happen?

Um, and so I could definitely

see John giving this statement

here to say like,

okay, calm down.

This is not what Jesus said.

You've misinterpreted this.

This is what he actually said.

He was just using me

as a possible example

of, um, Peter

to contrast Peter

not worrying about it

and just to follow after Jesus.

Um, and I think

what's significant to us

is how different

Peter and John's calling was,

right?

Even though that they both

have this main goal

to witness and glorify God.

Uh, John ends up being

the second most prolific author

of the New Testament

after Paul, right?

He provides some of the

most intimate testimony

of Jesus and the testimony

of his second coming again.

While Peter seems to be

the de facto leader

of the disciples,

as we mentioned,

but definitely goes on

to lead the church

and is at the front lines

of God's Spirit's work

in the church,

particularly when they come

to the Gentiles

and that wall finally falls.

The, it doesn't become

the Jews or God's

chosen people anymore,

but there are chosen people

from every tribe,

race, and nation.

And Peter's there for that,

right?

He's the one right there

experiencing it.

Um, as I mentioned before,

John, you know,

is called to live a long time.

Peter is called

to an early death.

Um, and something interesting

is that they both have

very different personalities.

Um, it seems like,

we don't know this for sure,

but it seems like Peter

and John were good friends

from the writing here

and the way that they,

that John describes Peter.

Um, we know the two of them

are working together,

but they are just

entirely different people.

Uh, John's usually

the first one to pick up

on something

and kind of think about it,

and Peter's usually

the first one to do something.

Um, but God is using

both of them

for the same purpose.

Uh, and I think that

there's both an encouragement

and a challenge to us there.

Uh, the encouragement

is that Jesus's call

on each of our lives

can look very different

from person to person.

So if you're looking

at somebody else next to you

in church

or someone else that you know,

um, don't measure

your spiritual success

off of whether you've

taken that same,

the exact same path

as somebody else, right?

It might look like

somebody's living

a better life than you are

or has gotten something

better than you have,

but Jesus's answer

to that is,

no, just follow me, right?

Um, and both of, uh,

I think, you know,

with this church,

you know, some of us,

we might be called

to extremes here.

Some of us may be called

to preach Christ

in countries that are

violently opposed

to Christianity.

Um, and some of us

may be called

to live long lives

and care for families

and injustices

in our own communities,

but both of these things

bring glory to God,

and God is pleased

with both of those callings.

Um, I think that the challenge

is that, you know,

in church,

where this isn't necessarily

like a friend group

that you get together

and pick,

this is, each of us

have been called

by God to himself,

and so there's gonna be

different personalities here.

There's gonna be

Peters and John

sitting in this room,

and there's gonna be

all kinds of different

personalities too,

and you're not gonna get

along with everybody

right away.

I'm gonna be honest with you,

like, it doesn't work

that way.

You know that.

There are some people

you click with right away

when you meet.

There are some people

you're like,

I just, I don't get that person.

Like, how do they

even process life?

Like, it's just totally

out of left field.

Um, and Jesus provides

the framework for this too,

right?

Yeah, my calling

is on that person's life.

You follow me, right?

Um, and I think that

this ends up being a blessing,

and, um, I see people

who, there are

different recommendations.

Should you, like,

try to be mentored

by someone who's similar to you?

Should you try to be mentored

by someone who's different than you,

whether it's in work

or in church or in life

or whatever it might be?

Um, and personally,

like, all of my best mentors

have been people

that have processed things

entirely differently

than I have.

Um, Sean processes things

entirely differently than I do,

and I've really enjoyed

sitting under him

because of that.

And I can, all the people

that I've benefited from

most in, like, work or life

that I think back to

are people that are like,

they're, you know,

I'm processing life this way

and they're processing life

this way,

and it's just such a benefit

to see all of those

different perspectives

and the different ways

that people work.

Um, and so I think

that that's,

in God bringing together

all the different people

in the church,

that's part of his design.

Um, and a lot of personalities

are meshing together,

um, for the glory of God

ultimately.

Um, so in the,

the conclusion of this chapter,

come to verses 24 and 25,

uh, it,

John kind of includes this

as affirming his identity

as the writer.

You know, in John,

in verse 24,

he says,

this is the disciple,

this is the disciple

who's bearing witness

about these things,

the disciple who,

you know,

uh, Peter and Jesus

pointed back to.

Um, and so he's kind of,

he's kind of signing the letter,

he's kind of signing the letter

at this point.

Um, and he's bearing witness

about these things,

which are the things

that Jesus has done.

And these things

that he's done

in this chapter,

you know,

he's referencing that.

And a lot of the things

he's done in this chapter

are things he's done before

where he, you know,

loves generously,

restores fully,

calls uniquely.

These are themes

we've seen run through John.

But, you know,

Jesus has done miracles.

He's spoken truths.

He's both called people

to himself

and scared them away

from himself

by the things

that he said.

Um, and, you know,

John is,

John's ultimate purpose here

is that he's clearly

claiming to provide

an eyewitness account

to the greatness

of who Jesus is.

Um, so if you're here

and you're not a Christian

or you're not sure

what you believe

or you're kind of,

you're, you know,

you're not,

you're not quite sure

where you're at.

Um, a lot of these bold claims

that John makes about Jesus

I would just encourage you

to pay attention to

because he's making

real truth claims here.

He's not just saying

this is a cool idea

that I had about this guy

I met one time.

He's literally saying,

no, this is like

an eyewitness account.

This is the equivalent

of a news story

or a video reel

because they didn't have

those things back then.

This is literally

as accurate as you can get

at this point.

And so he's saying,

you know,

Jesus is real

and he's done these things.

Um, but I hope more so

for all of us,

um, that we see the beauty

of the things

that Jesus did too.

Um, particularly in this passage.

We experience very little

of the kind of love

and forgiveness

that Jesus demonstrates

in this passage.

But you know,

if you've ever had someone

that has worked with you

to restore you

after you've been beaten down

by something in life,

or if you've ever had

a moment, big or small,

where someone has come

alongside you

and loved you unconditionally

in a way that's not beneficial

at all to themselves,

then you've,

you've seen

that these are beautiful moments.

Like you can remember

those experiences

and you appreciate them.

And those are all

little pieces

of what Jesus' love

looks like

from this passage.

And the encouragement

to us is that

those are the things

that Jesus still does

for his people today.

So, let me pray for us.

Lord, I thank you

for your love for us.

Lord, I thank you

that you still

generously provide for us.

You still restore us.

You still work in us.

That you call

each one of us here

uniquely, Lord,

to different walks of life,

but to walk together in you.

Lord, I pray that

the words of John

would just ring in our minds

and our hearts

for years to come

just after going through

John together as a church.

Lord, I pray that there

would just be some truths

implanted in us,

maybe that we don't even

realize at this point,

that we would carry with us

for the rest of our lives.

In Jesus' name, amen.