Back In | The Gospel of John | Myles Holmes

If you have your Bibles, you can take them and open them to John chapter 21.

John 21 · chapter mention

If you don't have a copy of God's word with you this morning, you're gonna need one.

So you can flag down one of our ushers who are making their way down to the uh end of the aisle.

I'm just getting a little distracted because I'm noticing we got our buffest ushers on this morning, I think.

And so maybe they can just like football throw the foot the Bible to you or something.

I don't know how that'll work.

If you don't have a copy of God's word, you can keep that.

That is our gift to you.

We would be so served if you would take that home and read it.

We're in John chapter 21 this morning, and we've been working through the Gospel of John for a year and a half now.

John 21 · chapter mention

And so my heart is saddened because this is the last chapter.

And I left silence there just to make sure nobody cheered and was, you know, super excited.

I trust your heart is in the same spot.

God has been doing so much, so much as we've worked through the Gospel of John.

And this morning I want to start our time together with maybe a bit of a deep question.

I hope you've had some coffee this morning to consider this, but but to ask you, does your life actually matter?

Not in a vague philosophical sense, but personally, do you have a sense that your life is part of something meaningful, something that actually, in the grand scheme of not only maybe even our life, but eternity, actually matters?

And of course, as we think about this through a Christian lens, we can get even more specific.

Do you have a sense that what you are doing actually matters to God?

That your work aligns with the work that God wants to do in the universe?

Maybe we can zoom this down even more and get even more concrete.

How much do you matter to this church?

How valuable is your input to the life of redemption church?

Now, again, not in a sense of are you valued, you're valued, not in a sense of are you loved?

You know that you're loved.

I mean, does your life actually have a place in what God is doing here?

And I think as you assess that question, some of you, of course, praise the Lord, would answer I think I do.

I'm serving, I'm involved, I'm I'm consistently here, but but you know, you press that answer a bit deeper, and you can start to feel like it sort of all rests on your shoulders.

Like if you don't show up, if you don't hold it all together, things might start to fall apart.

Perhaps for others of you, as you begin to think about this question, you with all honesty have to say it really doesn't feel like I have a part in what God is doing, certainly not in this, maybe even in my family, certainly not in this church, certainly not in this world, but I mean definitely not in eternity.

You look around, you see people who, well, it's I'm sure God's using them.

I'm sure God's using their commitment, I'm sure God's using their usefulness, their time, their talents, their treasures, but but you look at your own life and and you wonder, maybe even started to assume it without realizing that that's not for you.

That you're just around.

You're included, but not essential.

You're loved, but not really useful.

You ever feel like that?

Maybe as you press a little deeper on thinking about the reality of this question, how useful am I in in what God is doing, some things start to surface even inside of you, some things that you've done.

Memories of failures that you've had, patterns of sin that you've been unable to shake.

Big moments in your life where you knew what you were supposed to do, but you didn't do it.

Maybe little repeated moments where you knew what you were supposed to do but didn't do it.

And you're here and we've sung the songs about God's forgiveness and the cross and the resurrection and the victory, and yes, of course, God forgives.

We put on our Sunday morning smile, everything's okay, right?

Right?

But functionally in our hearts, how often is what we feel so far away from what we believe?

Until we come up to a place in life where certainly we're showing up to church, but without an expectation that God will do anything either in us or through us, participate, maybe not with this expectation that God's gonna do anything grand in us.

And loved one, we can just hit the pause button right now and just ask ourselves this question: When was the last time that you had the sense, this sense that the resurrection power of Jesus Christ was gonna surge through your life for the impact of other people?

Because that's the promise of Easter, isn't it?

All throughout scripture, isn't that the isn't that the reminder that we have been seated with Christ and the same power that resurrected him from the grave through the Holy Spirit is in us?

Isn't that what Jesus says that if you come and drink of him who is the living water, you will become a river of living water flowing out of your heart to the blessing of lives around you and loved one.

I mean, we might believe that that's true.

Have you felt it?

Have you expected it?

Maybe underneath all your life is this conclusion, if things had just gone differently, if I just made better choices, if I if I if I was just maybe a different kind of person, I would have more meaning and purpose, but now we're just here.

And if that's you this morning, John 21 meets you.

If you ever feel like a failure, if you ever feel like the task that God is calling you and compelling you to is too great for you.

I want you to know, Jesus meets you in John 21.

And I need this right now.

I mean, I need this in this very moment.

I needed this this week to be met by Jesus here in John 21, because by the time we get to this chapter, Peter has failed Jesus in the worst possible way.

Three times publicly, not only publicly in front of the people that were there.

I mean, this has been recorded in scripture so that we've talked about it this past weekend.

Three times Peter has denied Jesus Christ.

And now in John 21, instead of him stepping forward into the forgiveness that Christ has won for him, he retreats back, back into a fishing boat.

And the question is, what does Jesus do with someone like that?

What does Jesus do with someone who believes but has failed and is now stepped back?

John 21 gives us a clear answer.

I want you to see this.

This is what I want you to take away this morning.

Jesus restores you from your failure and gives you a place in what he is doing.

Jesus restores you from failure and gives you a place in what he is doing, which means this you may feel on the outside, you may feel like your life has lost purpose.

Jesus has a different plan.

And here in John 21, he is opening up the blueprint of how he takes failures, those who look at themselves and say, I just don't have enough.

And if that's you, I mean this message is for you.

And if that's not you, I just want you to know the next 40 minutes is going to be a big waste of time for you.

Jesus is laying out the blueprint.

Here's how I take people from failure to restoration to having a place in what I am doing in the world.

Let's read it together in John 21.

As we do, would you stand with me as we honor the Lord and the word that he has given to us?

Words written here by the Apostle John, but breathed out by God.

After this, Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias, and he revealed himself in this way.

Simon Peter, Thomas, called the twin, Nathaniel of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together.

Simon Peter said to them, I'm going fishing.

They said to him, We will go with you.

They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.

Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore.

Yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus.

Jesus said to them, Children, do you have any fish?

They answered him, No.

He said to them, Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.

So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in because of the quantity of the fish.

The disciple, whom Jesus loved, therefore said to Peter, It is the Lord.

When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment, for he was stripped for work, and threw himself into the sea.

The other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, but about a hundred yards off.

When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fireplace with fish laid out on it and bread.

Jesus said to them, Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.

So Simon, Peter, went aboard and hauled the net ashore full of large fish, a hundred and fifty-three of them.

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

Jesus said to them, Come and have breakfast.

Now none of the disciples dared ask him, Who are you?

They knew it was the Lord.

Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and so with the fish.

This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.

When they finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon, Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?

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

He said to him, Feed my lambs.

He said to him a second time, Simon, son of John, do you love me?

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

He said to him, Tend my sheep.

He said to him 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 he said to him, Lord, you know everything.

You know that I love you.

Jesus said to him, Feed my sheep.

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 he said to show what by what kind of death he was to glorify God.

And after saying this, he said to him, Follow me.

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 is going to betray you?

When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, Lord, what about this man?

Jesus said to him, If this, 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 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?

This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things, and who has written these things, and we know that his testimony is true.

Now there are many other things that Jesus did.

Were every one of them to be written, I suppose the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.

This is the word of the Lord.

You can grab your seat.

Notice where Jesus is in John 21.

Notice that there's not it's not a story of the disciples going looking for the risen Jesus.

Jesus comes to them.

Very significant here that the disciples are not praying, they're not seeking Jesus, they're not even moving toward Jesus.

They are retreating back to their old lifestyle, to what was comfortable.

They're just fishing.

Back to what they know.

Peter was told just a few years ago by Jesus himself that he would be a fisher of men.

That though he was a fisher, a fish, presumably, but I know by experience you can fish and still be a fisherman and not catch fish, right?

Amen, fishermen, right?

Peter told him he would have much deeper significance.

He would be a fisher of men, fishing for the eternal lives of souls, yet here he is, fishing again.

And it is in that exact moment that Jesus shows up.

Jesus doesn't need their recognition.

Jesus doesn't need their response.

Jesus doesn't need them to do anything right.

He is on the shore.

He is making breakfast.

First thing I want you to see this morning that you are more pursued than you think.

You're more pursued than you think.

We tend to believe the opposite, don't we?

We tend to believe that our life moves in one direction.

When I get serious, Jesus, then Jesus is gonna meet me.

When I clean things up, I gotta get this, you know, little one little habit out of my life.

But when I do that, then Jesus is gonna come.

Jesus will respond to me when I take a step closer to him.

That is not what happens here in John 21.

Look at verse 3 with me.

Simon Peter said to them, I am going fishing.

They said to him, We will go with you.

They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.

All night.

Experienced fishermen doing exactly what they know how to do, coming up empty-handed.

I don't know what was more miraculous.

The fact that the uh at least 153 fish were there, or the fact that while those fish were there, here are the disciples catching nothing.

They come up empty.

It is the fulfillment of what Jesus had said to them in John 15, verse 5.

John 15:5

He said, Apart from me, you can do nothing.

You and I hear that.

As soon as we hear that, we limit it.

We hear, apart from me, well, that person in your life isn't gonna be saved.

We hear, apart from me, well, that supernatural thing is not gonna happen.

Jesus presses it here for the disciples much farther.

Apart from him, you can't even do the things that you can do.

Do you believe that, loved one?

That apart from Jesus, you can't even do the things that you can do.

You can be in the boat, you can cast the net, you can put in all the effort, you still come up empty.

What is John pressing into our lives here?

Life on your own terms produces nothing apart from God.

And sometimes the best thing that can happen is that the things in life that used to produce satisfaction for us, that used to produce life for us, that used to produce joy for us, the places we used to fish and actually catch fish, meaning, substance, they they dry up.

They become supernaturally empty, and we're brought to the emptiness of ourselves and reminded of this reality.

Life on your own terms produces nothing from apart from God.

It is like running on a treadmill.

It doesn't matter how hard you run, it doesn't matter how slow you walk, you can be exhausting, exhausted, you're sweating, you're working, but you're not actually going anywhere.

Does life ever feel like that?

You're busy, you're doing the things that you should be doing, you're putting in the work.

You're coming up empty.

In those moments we often assume, uh, if I just fish harder, if I just try harder, if I just be better, I can fix this.

Jesus is here to say this about your life.

Turn the treadmill up to whatever you want.

You still will go nowhere.

Apart from me, you can do nothing.

Not apart from me, you can do some things.

Apart from me, Jesus says, you can't even do the things that you can do.

What the disciples need here is not to fish harder, not to fish longer.

Notice what the disciples need is to be pursued by Jesus.

They need Jesus on the shore.

And that is exactly what God does for his children in verse 4.

Look down at the text with me.

Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore, yet his disciples did not know that it was Jesus.

It is incredible that in the middle of their failure, as they retreat away from the calling that God has given to their lives, Jesus is already present.

They don't recognize him, but he is already there.

And he speaks to them in verse 5.

Jesus said to them, Children, do you have any fish?

And they answered him, No.

Love, when you look in the text here and see the compassion and love of Jesus for you and your guilt and your failure and your shame.

You're not doing what you're supposed to be doing right now, but I'm gonna still call you a child.

You're still my child.

Well when I believe it's a question that the Holy Spirit through the word presses into you right now.

Do you have any fish?

You say, no, I hate fishing.

I don't have any fish.

I don't know.

Can you apply it to your life?

Are you getting from your life the things that you are working for that you that you long for?

Is your life producing the reward that you are after?

Is the juice worth the squeeze?

Of all the time that you're putting in, and of all the effort that you're putting in.

Children, do you have any fish?

Do you have any fish?

Is it working?

Or are you feeling empty?

And if there's some honesty here, if there's some some recognition that, hey, this way that I'm living is just not working, Jesus.

And so I'm here.

Listen, I got nothing here.

Jesus wants to continue the conversation.

If listen, if the response here is, no, I don't have any fish, but I can get some, okay?

This is gonna be a big week.

This is gonna be a big year for fishing, okay?

I can do it, Jesus.

Just wait on the shore.

You can stay in the boat as long as you want.

Jesus is on the shore.

He is calling, he is calling.

Do you have any fish?

They answered, no.

And in verse six, Jesus shows the solution to those who, in honesty, can look at their life and saying, Listen, apart from Jesus, the juice isn't worth the screes, I'm not producing the reward I'm looking for in life.

Verse 6, he said to them, Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.

So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in because of the quantity of the fish.

Notice the absurdity.

You don't have to fish for very long.

You know what you can do is find someone who loves fishing and suggest next time they say they didn't catch anything, suggest, hey, just cast on the other side of the boat.

Okay?

You will deeply offend that fisherman.

And it'll be really funny for you, not so much for them.

You don't need to know much about fishing to know that it's not the it's not just a it's not a practical solution, it is a miraculous solution.

Notice the sequence here.

They fail.

Jesus speaks.

Everything changes.

They did nothing to try harder.

It's not like they were casting the net farther.

They listened to Jesus.

Now, this is where we need to be confronted with the text with complete and utter honesty.

Where are you this morning?

I cannot help but to think that many of us are with the disciples in the boat in verse three.

We're working, we're doing our thing, but we're doing it without any real dependence on Jesus.

And when we're confronted with the things that we can't handle in life, that family member's sick, that family member's wayward, I lost my job, I'm standing before this mountain that obviously I can't climb, then we'll come to Jesus.

But as we do the things that we can handle, and as a, you know, people in Newmarket are very, they're kind of, they're the people who can handle things, right?

Trying to encourage you here, right?

You can handle it.

And the more you live like that, the less you recognize your utter need for God.

The more you believe that you can do the things that you can do without Jesus, the less you look to the shore for him.

We're living our life without any real dependence on Jesus.

Let me ask you then.

Let's do some diagnostic work here and let's check our own life and ask ourselves, how dependent have we been on Jesus?

When was the last time you made a decision and really sought the Lord for it?

I mean in real prayer, real dependence.

What about in your parenting?

When was the last time that you pleaded with God for your children?

Not trusting in the success of your parenting ability, but trusting in the Lord who holds every heart in his hand?

What about in your work?

Have you come to believe that work is something that, I mean, you handle this on your own.

You figured this out over the years, you've learned how to do it, and so you can show up and you can put on the performance.

What about your spiritual life?

You read the Bible, but but are you listening?

You pray, but it but is your life dependent on prayer?

Or has all of these things just become a performance instead of a relationship that you walk in?

You're in the boat, you're casting the net, you're doing what you know how to do, but you are doing it without any real dependence on Jesus.

And when it doesn't work, when there's no fruit or joy or a real sense of the of life with God, we don't ask, where's Jesus in all this?

We say, Well, I better just try harder.

Or I better switch up my routines, I better, I just need more discipline.

This text, loved one, is showing you something different.

It's showing you a different way.

Because look at verse seven.

The disciple whom Jesus loved, therefore said to Peter, it is the Lord.

Now they see on the shore, it's Jesus.

It's the Lord.

And it clicks, and look what Peter does in verse 7.

This is amazing.

When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment, for he was stripped for work and threw himself into the sea.

Picture this for a moment.

It's so helpful for us to get into our imaginations as we understand what's happening in Scripture.

Peter has been working on the boat and he's not fully dressed.

Don't picture it too hard.

He realizes it's Jesus, and instead of taking something off to swim, he puts something on to swim.

Then he jumps in.

That's not how swimming works.

You want to swim fast, do I have to get into the science?

I think we understand.

This is the point.

Peter's not thinking about swimming, he's thinking about nothing other than Jesus.

He's not thinking about the fish in the boat.

The moment he realizes who's on shore, he's not, there's nothing that's keeping him in that boat.

He doesn't wait, he doesn't sit and try to get everything right first.

He jumps into the water and he swims to Jesus.

And he knows he didn't doesn't have everything all together.

And the failure of his three denials is fresh on his mind.

But he knows this one thing.

He needs to get to Jesus, that Jesus is a friend of sinners.

And loved one, when you look at Jesus, is that the Jesus you see?

Are you willing to go to Jesus like that?

I mean, not needing to clean yourself up first, not needing to put yourself together, not needing to behave a certain way.

Jesus is like the father who receives their children as they come.

You know, one of my kids, unnamed, but if you know my kids, you probably will know who it is, ran to me and I grabbed their gigantic puffy cheeks and they were sticky.

And I thought in that moment, when was the last time we had something sticky?

And I could not remember when the last time we had something sticky was.

And yet in that moment, I did ask my child to clean up their face, to wipe off their face, but I did not reject them.

I mean, I will still hug a sticky-faced child that is still my child, and Jesus still looks to you despite your failure, despite your shortcoming, despite the sin, the shame, the guilt.

And he says, This is my child.

This is my child.

And we'll get them cleaned up.

I mean, sanctification is coming, perfection is coming for this child, but this is still my child.

That's Jesus.

And Jesus is calling this morning.

Jesus is calling the version of you that is here right now.

Look then at verse 9 with me.

When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire with fish laid on it and bread.

As they come to the shore, Jesus has a fire going.

He's already got fish laid out on it.

Notice that it is after that that Jesus asks about their fish in verse 10.

Bring some of the fish that you have caught.

And the disciples had caught a lot of fish, 153 fish.

Very specific number, a very detailed number.

And over the years, many theologians have looked into this number to try to discern its significance.

Some say that 153 was the number of known species of fish in the ancient world.

Others say it was the number of nations.

Some have done mathematical gymnastics trying to unlock the mystery of 153.

It is a triangular number, which I didn't know what that meant until I Googled it this week.

That's when the sum of one through 17, adding all those numbers up together, is 153.

It's a triangular number.

But what does that mean?

10 plus 7, 10 is law, 7 is grace.

Theologians have looked into this number and tried to discern what it means.

I can tell you exactly what it means this morning.

It means when they counted the fish, there was 153 there.

But notice something, it is a lot of fish.

That's what John wants you to see.

They had trouble hauling the net and it was so heavy.

But when they come to Jesus, he already has fish.

Count up all your fish.

Oh, 153?

That's cute.

I created them all.

And I already have fish here cooking for you.

Which means Jesus does not need you to bring your best.

Jesus does not need your righteousness.

As though He needs some righteousness for you that he doesn't have of his own.

Jesus was moving towards the disciples the whole time.

Jesus is moving towards you this morning.

And he's already closer than you think.

The emptiness that you have this morning and the frustration and the failure, he's not standing at a distance waiting for you to fix it.

He is calling you this morning.

You are more pursued than you think.

Did you hear him calling?

You see Jesus calling people who have retreated from their calling, calling those who have failed.

Well, the disciples then meet Jesus, and the question becomes what does Jesus do with failed people?

Here they are on the beach.

It's breakfast.

We're serving up fish.

Aren't you glad that the times have changed?

I mean, I just don't want fish, that's all I'm saying.

You guys are looking at me like I'm crazy.

Did you eat fish for breakfast this morning?

I don't know what's going on here anymore.

It's a very real question.

What does Jesus do with failed people?

Listen, you come to Jesus, you know he knows your deepest, darkest thoughts.

Those things you would never tell another person.

He knows your deepest moments of shame.

And as he knows those things, your greatest inadequacies, what does he do with that?

That's where the story goes next.

And I want you to see that Jesus does not only pursue Peter and the disciples, he addresses Peter and he brings him close and he restores him.

He restores him.

And that's what I want you to see, secondly, you are more restored than you know.

You are more restored than you know.

Look at verse 15.

When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon, Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?

You notice where Jesus goes?

Straight to love.

Straight past the behavior.

This is not Peter, why did you deny me?

And what are you going to do differently next time?

Straight past the behavior to the heart.

Peter, do you love me?

What you love is the greatest shaping force of your life.

You will always move toward what you love.

You will always sacrifice for the things that you love.

You will organize your lives around the things that you love.

This is a principle of human nature, isn't it?

I mean, there's there's a couple ways that you can prove it.

You can be a person who just hates texting, you never text back.

Anyone here like that?

You know, you I mean, maybe I'm the only one who's who's ever like that.

But you ever see people in a new relationship?

I mean, it doesn't matter if they're not a person who texts back when that, you know, girl or boy texts them within milliseconds, they've got the phone in their hand, they're texting back.

You ever talk to a person?

They don't like getting up early.

But oh man, when they're going, when they're going fishing, when they're doing their hobby, when the game is on, when they have to get up early and it's not for work and it's not for school, then it's a lot easier, isn't it?

Well, why is that?

Because the things that we love are the greatest moving force of our lives.

Your love is then the steering wheel of your life.

That is why two people can hear the same truth and respond differently.

One moves towards Christ, the other one shrugs.

Why?

Because the deepest issue is not always what you know.

Jesus pinpoints the deepest issue here, it is what you love.

It is why then Jesus asked Peter this question.

Peter's problem was not merely that he denied Jesus.

Peter's problem, like ours, was that in the moment of stress and pressure, and in the moment of his hopes being dashed, something else became more precious.

For Peter, it was self-preservation.

It was approval, it was the fear of man.

It's always how sin works.

Do you know that?

Sin always is a choice of what we want most.

Sin is always the direction of the moving force of love going to what it wants.

It's what makes the reality of sin so horrible.

It's never just that you were forced into a corner and couldn't choose otherwise.

It's that behind the behavior is a heart that ultimately does not love God, that is saying, I want this more than I want God.

Jesus then comes to restore Peter at the deepest possible level.

He does not say, Hey, Peter, here's five steps to never deny me again.

He gets to the heart.

Do you love Jesus?

It's why I'm convinced, you know, as a pastor, to get very pragmatic for you with you for a second.

I'm convinced that the most important thing that we can do as a church is grow in our love for Jesus.

I mean, we got all sorts of problems, don't we?

Don't look at anyone as we say that, but we got all sorts of problems.

So many issues in the life of our church, so many things that need practical pastoring, finances, marriage, children, practical sin help, I mean, specific sins that we struggle with, specific situations that we're in, specific wisdom that we need for our life.

And if every week I just came up and I said, hey, listen, here's five steps to deal with your finances, and here's five ways for you to be a better parent, and here's three ways for you to be a better spouse.

I mean, we could spend all of eternity and take an issue every week and never really get to the bottom of the list of the problems that we have.

But then what happens when a church becomes obsessed with asking this question?

Is Jesus lovable?

Is he lovely?

Is he worth loving?

Can I love him anymore?

What happens as we get behind the behavior to the very heart that drives all things is a is that a life is inflamed with a passion for Jesus Christ and then a devotion to him.

It's the principle Jesus gets at here.

If love is reordered, obedience can follow.

If Christ becomes precious again, everything else begins to move in place.

And so what should be happening right now on the inside, what the Holy Spirit should be doing right now on the inside is sort of bringing to mind the reality of the sin that you have committed, the shame that there's that is in your life, the reality of your shortcoming, and this reminder that the reason why we are sinners is because we love other things more than we love God.

And of course, then we are guilty.

We're guilty.

But Christ is here to restore us.

And in our guilt, when we have loved other things more than Him, He does not push away from us, He presses close to us.

And this is where so many of us need restoration today.

So many of us want change, but we look on the outside.

I'll change if my my schedule changes up, then I'll be I'll truly be changed.

If I change my habits, then I'll be more useful.

Jesus is going deeper.

He looks inside, he looks at your love.

What has become more precious to you than Jesus Christ?

He looks at all those things and he turns to you and asks this question, do you love me?

Very clearly, Jesus asked Peter this question three times.

It's getting awkward by the end.

Peter is feeling incredibly uncomfortable in verse 17.

He's even grieved by the question, Do you love me?

He's asked three times because he had denied Jesus three times.

As many times as he would say, I do not know him, he would say to Jesus, I love you.

Notice also that Jesus has taken Peter to the deepest wound of his failure.

It was by a charcoal fire that Peter denied Jesus.

Here it's at a charcoal fire that he's forgiven.

You have anything like that in your life?

A sight of something, a smell of something that brings up old wounds.

Can I tell you one of mine?

I mean, maybe a bit humorously in hopes that I can ruin it for you as well.

I hate the smell of vinegar.

If I'm eating with you and you put vinegar on your fries, I will leave the place, okay?

I can't do it.

Because when I was younger, probably too old, but younger, I had lice.

And one of the prescriptions was vinegar.

And I sat over my laundry tub and I put vinegar in my hair trying to get rid of this lice.

And I still can't smell vinegar.

It's an old wound.

It's brought up in me very often.

I hate it.

And here, Jesus brings Peter to the vinegar of his soul, to the deepest wound he had experienced.

Loved one, Jesus will do that with you.

He desires you to come with him, come to him in the deepest honesty of your failure.

It's why he's called a savior.

Because there is something that you need saving from, but when he meets you, he will meet you in your deepest wound.

And when God is doing significant work in your life, it will often feel like someone is putting their finger into an open wound.

Notice here, Jesus does not do this to Peter to humiliate him.

He brings him to a charcoal fire to bring healing.

Jesus is not rubbing Peter's face in the past.

He's walking Peter back through the wound to restore what was broken.

Do you know that, loved one?

Do you know that healing in your life will require you to visit the places of pain?

That there will be no freedom in your life apart from honesty, that there will be no peace in your life apart from confession.

This is how Jesus deals with us in our failure.

He's unwilling to pretend it never happened.

He's unwilling to excuse it.

He's unwilling to minimize it.

But neither is he willing to cast you off.

He will not cast you off.

He will meet you in the place of your deepest wound, in the place of the greatest need for healing.

Jesus will meet you.

I know exactly what the enemy wants with Peter right now.

The enemy would want Peter to stay a fisher.

Peter, that's who you are.

You've always been a fisher.

Jesus says to Peter, that's not the end of your story.

As real as your denial was, it does not have to be final.

And loved one, the same is true for you this morning.

As real as your failure is, we don't have to overlook the fact that we have shortcomings.

Jesus looks to you and he says, it does not have to be final.

Because the risen Jesus is not only powerful enough to conquer death, he is tender enough to restore people who failed him.

Do you know this loved one?

What power does failure have over your life?

What power does failure have over your life?

Failure can wound you.

Failure can humble you.

Failure can have real consequences.

I mean, if we're just doing math and we look at the amount of people, even pastors who have morally failed, people who have dropped the ball in such significant ways, the reality is that in a room even of this size, there will be some great failures in life.

There will be some failures.

Great moral collapses.

And the failures that we experience they can wound, they can humble, they can have consequences.

But for the one who comes to Jesus, you know, loved one, that failure cannot have the last word.

If Jesus was resurrected from the grave, the failure you experience in life cannot have the last word when you bring it to Jesus.

It doesn't for Peter.

So notice then, after every time Jesus says, Peter, do you love me?

Jesus commissions him, Peter, feed my lambs, tend my sheep, feed my sheep.

Notice then what Jesus does in his forgiveness.

He restores us, he entrusts us then to ministry.

He entrusts us to the work that he is doing.

The man who is now publicly failed will be given responsibility.

He will become then the foundation of the church.

And it's what Jesus does for us.

Jesus restores a life, he not only erases the past and forgives sin, he gives that life fresh purpose.

You know that, loved one?

You are restored to Jesus, not then to be sidelined.

Jesus does not say, hey, listen, here, here's a jersey, but you're gonna be the water boy.

Here's the jersey, but you're gonna be sitting on the bench.

Jesus has saved you and given you a specific purpose.

I love the way that this chapter ends.

Peter turns around, and John apparently is very curious because as Jesus and Peter have sort of walked away from the fire to have this conversation.

I don't know if John was hiding in the bushes behind and following along and trying to get a, you know, what's what's going on in this conversation?

Peter turns around in verse 20 and he sees John, the disciple whom Jesus loved.

He says in verse 21, what about this man?

Jesus, you got this calling for my life.

You're calling me to feed the sheep.

You're saying that I'm gonna die doing this.

What about this man?

And what does Jesus do?

He ignores the question and he looks at Peter.

He says, You follow me.

I want to use your life.

And Jesus is looking at you this morning.

And he's saying, This sermon isn't for another person.

I've given them their gifts, I've given them their ministry, you follow me.

Loved when you've been given spiritual gifts by the Holy Spirit.

You are unique.

The Bible says that the church is the body of Christ, each member making up the whole.

So that the hand cannot say to the foot, I don't need you.

Everybody is needed.

You have been uniquely given purpose, gifting, ability in this church.

Jesus has called you and He has called you to exactly what he calls Peter to, to stay focused on the assignment.

The call is personal.

Peter had an assignment.

John had an assignment.

You have an assignment.

It's a place to serve.

A life to steward.

A witness to bear.

People that only you have influence in, that only you can witness to.

What does that mean for us?

Means you can stop comparing.

Here's what God's doing in other people.

He would never do that in me.

God has a specific ministry for you.

It means you can stop being distracted by what God is doing for somebody else.

The Lord is not calling you to another person's life.

The Lord has forgiven you.

And he's calling you to follow him in the life he sovereignly gave to you.

Love one, that's the hope of John 21.

Jesus is unwilling to discard Peter because of his failure.

He restores him, he recommissions him, and he calls him forward.

And he does the same for you this morning.

It is the glory that Jesus wants from your life.

You bear a weakness that nobody else bears.

So that your life may obtain for God a glory that no other life can.

Christ is pursuing you.

He is calling you.

And he is restoring.

Oh when don't stay in the boat.

Don't stay in the boat.

Look to Jesus.

Hear his voice.

And like Peter, and like John.

Follow him.

Your failure is not final.

Christ is not finished with you.

Christ is restoring us from failure and giving us a place in what he is doing.

And we can praise his name.

Let's pray together.

Father, we thank you that there is no one here unless we are overwhelmingly blind who is not aware of their shortcoming, of their weakness, of their many failures, who cannot resonate with Peter who dropped the ball.

Lord, we've all done it.

God, we thank you for who Jesus is.

God, I pray for a supernatural vision.

Right now, that as we have been on in the boat, like the disciples, seeking to find meaning, seeking to find satisfaction, seeking to find life where none can be found, coming up empty again and again.

God, that we would look to the shore and see Jesus Christ who calls us to come and forgives us and restores us, calling us to follow Him.

God, we cannot help but to be overwhelmed by your goodness and how much we undeserve, how undeserving of this we are.

And so, God, in this time we we respond to you to declare, God, how good of a God you are that you would not only forgive us, but restore us, restore purpose in our life, meaning, usefulness, God.

Give you all the praise, and we respond to you now.

In the name of your son.

Amen.

You stand with me and worship.