Discover Jesus Series Pt. 20 - Pastor Greg Addison - April 27, 2025

Ministering to the heart of Western Arkansas's River Valley for over 165 years, welcome to Chapter and First, the Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.

You'll find sermons and teachings from Pastor Greg, our ministry staff, and guest speakers.

Thank you for listening.

It is the only thing that matters.

And praise the Lord, we serve a risen Savior.

He did conquer death and sin.

And life eternal is ours through Jesus.

Last week we had an incredible week celebrating the resurrection.

But here's the question I want to ask you today.

We're going to be drawing a conclusion to our Discover Jesus series today.

And I want to ask you this question: what does it matter to us as individuals that Jesus rose from the dead?

What does it mean to us after we have captured that truth?

We've trusted in him as our Savior and believed in his resurrection.

We've discovered that to be true.

Now what does that matter?

How does that change life?

Where do we go from here because that has occurred?

That's the question that we're going to look at today, and it really is the important question.

If we're going to boil this whole thing down and spend this whole journey discovering who Jesus is, today I think you're going to see who he is, who he has been since his resurrection, and how he is building us towards eternity.

Here's what I want to talk to you about today.

Turn with me in your Bibles to John 21.

And I want you to see that Jesus is always faithful to continue his work in the lives of his people.

The resurrection is true.

It is a theological fact.

It is a historical fact.

In Scripture, we see so much in the New Testament where we are looking back to the resurrection.

And in passages like in 1 Corinthians, when it in chapter 15, when it unpacks the resurrection, it talks about in theological terms and it talks about it in impact terms.

We read how many witnesses saw Jesus after he was alive to prove the historical fact there were eyewitnesses to his resurrection.

We have these theological macro discussions.

We have these apologetic discussions, and those are good, and we need those, and those are important because they help us prove that fact.

But when push comes to shove in an individual life, the question is, what does the resurrection mean in your life?

How does it impact you as a person?

What does it mean for the trajectory of your life to walk with a resurrected Savior?

This is one of the most incredible passages of Scripture.

I every time I read it, I'm just drawn to it.

It is an incredibly profound passage of Scripture because we move from the macro of the resurrection to consider what it means in the life of an individual.

Here in John chapter 21, we find Jesus has already been resurrected.

John 21 · chapter mention

That victory has already occurred.

He's already appeared to his disciples a couple of times.

And now we find them trying to determine what they're going to do with this information.

The Bible says in John 21, verse 1, after this, Jesus revealed himself again to his disciples by the Sea of Tiberias, or the Sea of Galilee.

John 21:1

It's just another name for that.

Now, I want you to catch that right there.

He revealed himself to his disciples again.

So we get this story and this setting with them already knowing and have seen the resurrected Jesus.

So here's what happens.

He revealed himself in this way.

Simon Peter, Thomas called the twin, Nathaniel from Cain of Galilee, Zebedee's sons, that's James and John, John who's writing this historical description.

And two of his other disciples were together.

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

Now, just think about this for a minute.

Jesus has conquered death and sin.

You have seen every promise that he ever made come true.

He is alive.

You have worked your way through that thought process.

He is alive.

And you're thinking, what am I going to do?

I'm going fishing.

And I don't think this was a good thing either.

I mean, there's a lot of ways that you talk about going fishing.

My dad was a fisherman.

That was what he loved to do.

He was a chemist by uh training and by education and by his profession.

He called himself, he referred to himself as a scientist.

He worked for a pharmaceutical company and he had a very high-level executive job.

He was um he was a uh leader of the quality control over all their manufacturing in the United Sports, United States, Puerto Rico, and Canada.

He had a high-level job, a lot of stress.

And sometimes, now my dad loved fishing.

When he, when we were born, and I'm the oldest of three and siblings, my dad did everything.

He hunted, he fished, he played softball with the guys, he did all that stuff.

And then when we started growing, he just shaved everything off and invested in being a parent.

He taught our uh baseball teams when we were in little league, and he did all that kind of stuff, but he held on to fishing.

It was the one thing that he loved.

And I would come home, I could always tell what my dad's mood was.

Sometimes he'd be in the garage and he'd be playing with his boat and he'd be fiddling with his gear, and one of the best parts about fishing is the gear.

Amen.

We love the gear, right?

Every trip to Bass Pro Shop, he came out with a sack.

I mean, it was like his garage looked like an extension of the local Bass Pro Shop in Memphis.

I mean, it was amazing.

I could always tell his mood, though, because I'd come home and he'd be playing with his gear and all that, and I'd say, What you doing?

And he'd say, I'm going fishing.

I'm going fishing.

Sometimes I'd come home and it was silent at dinner, and everybody kind of knew, ooh, dad had a bad day.

Do not poke the bear.

It was generally my brother, the middle child, who would do that.

And you're like, Wayne, no.

And you'd hear Dad after supper, I'm going to fishing.

Because he had to get away.

You know?

And I think Peter said, I'm just going to fishing.

And he just headed out.

The Bible says the guy's with him, we're coming with you.

They didn't know what to do.

They had not yet determined or processed what the resurrection meant.

I'm sure Peter is still dealing with some of the emotional fallout of having denied Jesus.

And even though Jesus has appeared to him at this point and seen him, and we don't know what exchange they may have had, you can imagine we all deal with failures and struggles, and you know that that just did not easily go away from him.

And so he may be dealing with that.

They may be dealing with, we're still afraid.

I mean, we're only a week out or whatever it was from Jesus having died on the cross, and they're looking for us, and they're spreading rumors about whether Jesus was resurrected or we stole his body, and are they gonna come resurrect us?

And they got all this going on, and they're trying to process all of this, and Peter can't get his mind around it.

I'm just going fishing.

And well, we're coming with you.

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

Now, isn't that Murphy's Law?

You're frustrated, you know what to do, you revert back to what you know.

You know, he was professionally a fisherman, he'd been trained by his father, it was a family business to go fishing, and he goes out fishing, and he's frustrated anyway, and they fish all night and they get nothing.

Well, that's just the way life works, isn't it?

And then the Bible says, when daybreak came, Jesus stood on the shore.

However, the disciples did not know it was him.

They did not recognize him or whatever.

Men, Jesus called out to them.

You don't have any fish, do you?

That's not really a great greeting when you've been skunked all night long.

You know what I'm saying?

No, they answered.

Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you'll find some.

When you're on the golf course, you do not coach a guy's golf swing after he's sliced.

And when you're in the bass boat, you don't tell the guy that he's casting in the wrong place.

You just don't do those two things.

And here's Jesus telling these professional fishermen what to do.

And they don't even know who he is yet.

But for whatever reason, through frustration, exhaustion, the Bible says so they did.

And they caught so many fish, they were unable to haul it in.

Therefore, the disciple that the one that Jesus loved, that's John's reference for himself.

John leans over to Peter and says, It's the Lord.

When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he grabbed his outer garment.

Now they'd been working hard all night, so he's liking shorts and a t-shirt, the equivalent of that.

So he grabs his outer coat and all of that.

And the Bible says he plunged into the sea.

And since they were not far from land, about a hundred yards away, the other disciples, they came in the boat.

So he's trying to swim and work his way in.

They're bringing the boat in.

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

Jesus has built a fire and he's beginning to cook dinner.

Bring some of the fish you've caught, Jesus told them.

So Peter got up and hauled the net ashore full of large fish, a hundred and fifty-three of them.

Now, this fish is basically what we'd call a tilapia today.

There are a couple of different types of fish in the Sea of Galilee, but it basically is one form of tilapia.

They're average about two to four pounds of fish.

So what's happened is they've caught, if you just multiply that by three, there's over 450 pounds of fish that they've just caught using these big industrial nets.

It's an incredible haul.

Even though there were so many, the net was not torn.

Come and have breakfast, Jesus told them.

Now we just got this hall out there.

Now what are we going to do with all these fish?

But Jesus says, You guys come sit down and have breakfast.

None of the disciples dared ask him, Who are you?

Because now they had determined it was Jesus and they knew it was him.

Jesus came and he took the bread and he gave it to them, and then he did the same with the fish.

Now this was the third time Jesus appeared to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.

When they had eaten breakfast, Jesus asked Simon Peter, now right there in front of everybody, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?

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

Feed my lambs, he told him.

A second time, he asked Simon, son of John, do you love me?

Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.

Shepherd my sheep, he told him.

Jesus asked Peter a third time, Simon, son of John, do you love me?

Peter was grieved that he asked the third time.

Now imagine that.

He's denied Jesus three times.

He's had to deal with the fallout of that.

He has the guilt of that.

He has the depth in his heart where he knows he's failed Jesus that he loves.

Jesus has proven who he is because he's risen from the dead.

And here he is.

Peter knows that Jesus knows his heart as much as anybody else ever would.

I mean, Jesus has corrected him, he's talked to him, he's affirmed to him, he had this moment, and Jesus told him what would happen, and it happened even when Peter didn't see it in himself.

And so Peter knows that Jesus knows what's in his heart.

And this is the third time he's asked him the same question.

Right there in front of everybody.

And he's like, How can I prove to Jesus how much I grieve over that failure and how much I love him?

Peter was grieved that Jesus asked him the third time, Do you love me?

He said, Lord, you know everything.

And you know that I love you.

Feed my sheep, Jesus said.

I assure you, when you were young, you would tie your belt and walk wherever you wanted.

But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will tie you and carry you where you don't want to go.

In other words, you're going to be arrested and face consequences.

He said this to signify what kind of death he would glorify God.

By what kind of death he would glorify God.

After saying this, he told Peter, You follow me.

In other words, you follow me anyway.

Now to truly understand this story, we need to unpack this whole journey that Peter has been through.

I want to remind you, early on, when we started in the life of Jesus and we started in his calling to ministry, we spent some time looking at the calling of Peter and Andrew and James and John, John who's writing this particular letter.

And we saw how he called them while they were fishing, and he specifically gave the description of their ministry that he would train them to do.

I am going to make you fishers of men.

And we talked about as a church how that connected the dots that we are in the business of fishing.

He called them to ministry and to evangelism in their professional setting, and he related the evangelism he was calling them to, to fishing for men, in the context where they understood that.

This is our profession, this is our business, this is our purpose in being.

And so now you see this incredibly parallel moment where he begins their calling and ministry and journeying with him using this illustration of you're going to go reach people, I'm going to make you fishers of men and calling them while they're fishing.

And now you get a parallel moment where Jesus goes through the same exercise again.

And I'm going to call you to be fishers of men.

You also have this interim moment that we referenced a minute ago that's described in another scripture where Peter fails Jesus at the fire.

Remember that in this moment Jesus is preparing his disciples for, and he goes to the cross.

And you don't have to turn to this next passage.

Peter jumps on Jesus and he says, That's not going to happen to you.

And Peter says, That's just not going to happen.

And Jesus corrects him.

And then Peter says, Listen, I'll follow you to death.

And Jesus says, No.

And here's what he says on that scripture.

Will you pull that up for me?

In Luke 22, Simon, Simon, look out.

Satan has asked to sift you like wheat.

But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail.

And you, when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.

Lord, he told them, I'm ready to go with you, both to prison and to death.

Peter is responding out of that passion.

There is pride there, but I also know it's passion.

He believes in Jesus and he's with it.

And then Jesus tells him, I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow today until you deny me three times that you know me.

So here's you have this moment.

They are called in the context of fishing to be fishers of men, in a context where all of their professional life and training would help them understand the depth of that calling.

In this moment of key moment here, when when they Jesus asked them to stand with him, Peter fails.

But Jesus tells him specifically, Peter, I know you're going to fail, brother, but listen to me.

I've already prayed for you.

I've already here before you went through this, and I'm going to walk you through this, and I'm going to pray you through this.

And there is a moment where your faith will come back.

And when your faith has been restored, I'm going to ask you to strengthen your brothers in this journey.

And now we find ourselves in John 21.

And here you have this reiteration of their calling.

Here's the big idea that I want you to see.

When you put these stories together and you see the trajectory and the arc of what Jesus is doing in his followers, you see that he has a singular purpose, and that is salvation.

He came to accomplish salvation, and he trained his followers to not just be saved, but to lead others in the journey of finding Jesus as their savior and being saved.

And he never wavers from that purpose.

He is headed to the cross to accomplish salvation, but he brings Peter and all those men along.

You're going to follow in this, and I'm going to pass the baton.

And as we saw a couple of weeks ago, in the same setting where he told Peter, You're going to fail, but I'm going to build your faith and you're going to come back.

And so even through the struggles that they have in trying to process all of this, Jesus never backs away from his purpose.

He tells Peter when this struggle is over, you will not lose your faith, and I will use it in your life to equip the men that are going to walk with you in this journey of being fishers of men.

And then when they are trying to process the resurrection and what it means, Jesus comes back in a specific, intentional, and powerful way.

He recalls them to be fishers of men in exactly the same way that he called them at the beginning.

There is no hesitation, there is no change, there is no variance in Jesus.

He has one purpose, and that is for people to be saved, and those who have been saved to bring others to salvation in Christ.

And when you put these stories together and you say, What do I do with the resurrected Jesus?

It is not go fishing, it is to go fishing.

Jesus never wavers from that purpose.

And if we're going to truly discover who Jesus is, they are struggling with With what's happened with the crucifixion and resurrection.

But Jesus is like the victory is ours.

Now go and tell people.

When you see this and unpack it, here are some truths I want you to see this morning.

But here's what I'd like for you to do.

I've put these up on the screen just to make it easy for you to remember.

And then we'll post these on social media again this week as a reminder.

But here's what I want you to do.

I want you to grab a hold of these four truths.

As I said, this is a story about a man and a group of men.

This is a story about someone who is answering the question: what does the resurrection of Jesus mean for me?

What does it mean in my life?

And so here's an opportunity for us to see that God has given us this individual experience, how a person is processing this that helps us understand how we as individuals can process it.

And what I'd love for you to do this week, just a few moments in your quiet time this week, take these questions out and say, if that's what happened in Peter's life, how does that translate to my individual life?

Spend a little time and think about what this truth means for you.

If you've never accepted Christ as your Savior, here's how the Bible says, and we have a lot of people watch online on television, they're searching, and it's so exciting to hear how people are searching and they're coming to Jesus and they're learning these things.

And if you've never accepted Christ as your Savior, listen, we hope that you see in this message, Jesus is so focused on you being saved, it is the singular purpose of why he came and did everything that he did.

The Bible tells us how that decision works.

In the book of Romans, the Bible says that whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

And then he tells us how to do that.

He says, if you will confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God has what?

Raised him from the dead.

Exactly.

The resurrection means that we have salvation available to us.

And you come and take your life, everything you've been, you are, and you ever will be.

You give it all to him.

That's what it means to confess him as Lord.

And you believe in your heart that this is a historical vent, that Jesus lived a sinless life.

He died on the cross for us.

He rose again.

He conquered death and sin.

And the effect of that is when I repent of my sin and I give my life to Jesus and I call him Lord and trust in that, there's a spiritual exchange that occurs, and my sinful life goes to him.

He pays the price for my sin.

He takes my judgment.

It is applied as a substitute on the cross.

He gives me his righteousness.

I gave my life to Jesus when I was a nine and a half-year-old boy.

And he looks down out of heaven at us through the righteousness of Jesus that is applied to us because of what Jesus did on the cross.

Not something that we deserve.

We confess our sins to come to Jesus.

We confess that we're under judgment and we're not going to be saved.

But Jesus paid the price for that.

And when I give my life to him, he pays the price for my sin.

That's why he said on the cross it is finished.

And now he gives me his righteousness, and I live in that resurrection, clean, purity, power, saved, new person.

But there is a purpose in my life in light of that resurrection.

And that's what you see Jesus reminding his followers.

And so the first thing you see is Peter was called to fish for men.

That calling did not change.

In fact, Jesus specifically chose a moment before he went to heaven, and he called his closest followers together, and he said, I am recalling you in literally the exact same way that I called you the first time, so you do not ever forget that I have called you to fish for men.

I mean, he even goes through the whole, waited till they didn't catch fish, hollers at them to throw it out the other way, catch all this bounty of fish, this whole thing, Jesus orchestrates.

In fact, he slows this moment down and he has them eat fish with them in their mind thinking, there's a whole net full of fish.

We caught all this fish, and Jesus saying, You are fishers of men.

He takes every sensory thing, every moment that he can, and he recalls them to the same mission for which they were called.

Listen, if anything doesn't tell us, there's nothing that can tell us more clearly about our purpose than this story.

There is no higher calling or purpose than us telling people about Jesus.

It is the sole reason for our being.

Paul said to Timothy when he wrote him a letter, one of his two letters, he said, Listen, Timothy, I was the chief of all sinners, but I want you to know, I want you to take this to the bank.

This is a statement worthy of all acceptance.

Jesus Christ died for sinners.

And then he said, I'm the chief sinner.

I, Paul, am the chief sinner, but I want you to know Jesus saved me so that others would know his grace and that he saves.

Paul literally said the purpose for which he was saved was to be an example to others to show them they could be saved too.

There is no question, Jesus does not hesitate.

And when you put together the trajectory of this, it lets us know that our sole purpose in being is fishing for men.

When you sit down this week and you pray through that, let me just get you to think about this.

How are you participating in the fishing?

It's not a heavy thing, this is an exciting thing if you think about it.

We'll look at that in just a moment.

But this is really an opportunity we have to be a part of this.

That's why I think when Peter and those guys in both of these settings catch fish, Jesus doesn't hold back.

And it is a massive haul.

It is an incredible moment for these guys.

They understand the value of a haul of fish that great, and that's the setting in which he tells them, you will be fishers of men.

Remember, Jesus told them, greater works than I do, you will do, and he is affirming that in every way he can, and he is calling them, and he is trying to reaffirm the excitement and the passion and the opportunity of getting to preach and share the gospel that Jesus saves.

And it's an opportunity for us and for you.

Second thing I want you to see is Jesus sticks with Peter before through and after his failure.

Jesus called him knowing he would fail.

He carried him through the failure.

He told him beforehand, I'm gonna, I've already prayed for you, Peter.

I know what's happening, and I know you're gonna fail, but I don't care.

You're my guy, and I love you, and I've prayed you through this, and I'm even going to turn this around and make you stronger and a better leader when this happens.

And then after it's over, think about this.

Those guys knew Peter failed.

I mean, they were sitting at dinner before the cross when Jesus said, Peter, you are going to deny me three times.

I guarantee you they knew what happened.

Now it's interesting to me that even after that, they're still following Peter.

I'm going fishing.

Well, we're coming too.

That's the kind of leader that Jesus saw in him.

It's the kind of potential that he had built and created in him as the first leader of the church.

And so Jesus knows that you're gonna fail.

He knows that we're gonna struggle.

He knows that we're not gonna bat a thousand.

He knows that things aren't always gonna go right.

But this is such an encouraging story here because what you understand is Jesus doesn't give up on you.

His grace, you can never outrun his grace.

There is never a moment where he has walked away and taken his hands from you.

Peter failed in as public a way as you possibly can.

And Jesus stepped back into his life and he says, Listen, Peter, you're still my guy.

I still love you.

I still have a plan for you.

I am still going to use you, Peter.

Do you love me?

Yes.

Then feed my sheep.

Do you love me?

Yes.

Then shepherd the sheep.

Do what I've called you to do.

Be that fisher of men that I've called you to be.

Peter, do you love me?

Yes, Lord, you know everything that's in my heart.

It's breaking over how I failed you.

And I love you that you're still talking to me.

Then, Peter, I'm still going to use you, feed my sheep, son.

Peter, you're gonna die for this journey.

Peter, they're gonna carry you away and you're gonna give your life for this purpose, but you follow me, and now you are prepared.

You failed once before because of fear, but now you have faith, and now you know I've restored you, and now you know I'm your leader, and now you know you are my guy, Peter, and I'm going to use you regardless of what comes.

You follow me.

And we know the story.

In just a short time later, Peter steps forward, he preaches on the day of Pentecost, and thousands of people begin to get saved, and the church is born, and Peter leads out, knowing one day that Jesus had told him he would die for his faith.

And many of the men sitting around that fire, they understood when we follow Jesus and we walk beside Peter, we're gonna die for our faith too.

When Jesus called Saul, he told him the same thing.

The Bible says that when he met him on the road to Damascus and he saved him and he gave his life to him and he went aside to understand what was happening and to meet with the Lord, God sent someone to mentor and disciple him as a new believer.

And the guy said, I don't want to go meet that guy.

That guy's been persecuting the church.

And Jesus says, No, he is to this mentor.

He has been saved, and you need to go meet with him because I have told him what he would suffer for the sake of the church, and you need to encourage him and build his faithfulness because despite what he faces, he is going to build the church, and I'm going to use him.

Man, it's important for us to understand.

Jesus has you, he has got you.

He knows what your struggles are, he knows what your fears are.

He wants to walk with you, he wants to equip those.

And if you mess up, you know what he does?

Hey, this is a good lesson.

Let's learn from this.

Hey, this is an opportunity for us to get better.

It's an opportunity for you to see how much I love you when I free you and I forgive you and I cling you and I use this for your good.

And it turns around into an opportunity for to be saved.

Listen, you should, in your time this week, talk to Jesus about this restoration and realize that he loves you the way he loved Peter.

And he wants to use you.

That's what the resurrection means in our lives.

Jesus reinforces his call and purpose to fish.

I mean, he you cannot overstate enough what this means that he chose this way to speak to these men again and call them to fish.

Jesus appeared in all kinds of ways.

He appeared one time, he just appeared in the room, didn't even use the front door.

He just showed up in the room.

He appeared to one of the ladies outside of the tomb and showed them who he was.

He appears in the book of Acts in chapter one in front of all these people, and then right there in front of them, he ascends into the heavens, the Bible says.

Did you see that?

In all the ways that Jesus could appear, in all the ways that he can make a statement, he shows up in exactly the same way.

On purpose to reaffirm the same thing.

Pastor, why are we starting a campus?

Because we're called to fish.

We're called to fish.

Pastor, why are we doing this?

Pastor, why are we doing that?

Because we're fishing.

We're fishing.

Because Jesus has told us repeatedly we're here to fish.

Finally, Jesus, I love this part right here.

He restores Peter right there in front of the other guys.

Now, why?

Think about that for a minute.

Again, Jesus is not making up stuff on the fly.

Jesus knows exactly what he's doing.

Jesus is always on purpose.

And he knows he's called them all to go fishing.

And he knows that they know they've been in fear because of this whole journey.

They were hiding before Jesus showed himself as resurrected.

They know they're probably going to pay consequences for this too.

They know that they've had times they've failed.

Peter like blurted out stuff, but I'd be like number nine disciple back at the end of the table.

And I'm thinking it, and Peter says it, and I'm thinking, praise the Lord, Peter said it.

What is he going to say?

I wanted to know, but I didn't have enough courage to say it.

Peter said it, but they all got the same questions.

And here Jesus has made Peter this leader, and when he came to this point of failure, he told Peter, What do you tell him?

I've prayed for you.

Your faith will be restored, and then you use this lesson to strengthen your brothers.

And then Jesus, right there in front of those brothers, restores Peter.

He doesn't restore Peter back in a back room.

He doesn't talk to Peter somewhere off where nobody hears and he's just encouraging or whatever.

Peter failed right there in front of everybody, but Jesus had called him to be the leader and to lead these men and to encourage them.

And he knew that these men had the same fears that Peter had, and they would have failures just like Peter had one.

And he told Peter, You failed first, but son, I'm going to use you to help these other guys through these moments.

And so right there in front of all of them, he restores Peter to that leadership so that now when they struggle, they know they can go to Peter because they've seen Jesus turn the failure into victory.

They've seen Peter preach with boldness and passion, not limited by a struggle or a failure or a doubt or some other thing.

He stands out at the temple and he preaches on the day of Pentecost.

And you go read that sermon.

He points at that crowd and he says, You rotten people lied about Jesus and hung him on a cross.

I mean, he calls them out as clearly as you can call him out.

And then he says, And he rose from the dead and repent and give your life to Jesus.

Jesus saw that in Peter's life.

And he wanted those guys to grow from that strength.

And so he reaffirms Peter so that conversation can go.

Peter, man, I got to talk to you.

Man, I blew it.

Peter laughs and says, Man, I know where that is.

I've been there, done that, and got that t-shirt.

Hey, you remember when we were sitting around the fire?

You remember Jesus had said, strengthen your brothers, and you remember he said, Y'all go out and feed the sheep.

Y'all go out and do what I've called you.

Y'all go out and fish.

You remember when he said that?

Yeah, Peter, I remember I was sitting there.

I was with you.

Well, Jesus is still with us.

He let me go through that so your faith would be strengthened.

Brother, he has got the same plan for you.

Listen, if anybody knows that Jesus is greater than our failures, it's me.

I'm with you.

And another evangelist is born.

Another missionary is born.

Another soul winner goes out to share the gospel.

Because Jesus knows we need each other in this journey.

Let me ask you to think about two questions this week.

Who are you strengthening?

And who is strengthening you?

One of the reasons we love ministry teams, one of the reasons we love our Sunday school groups and the involvement there.

It's because that's where you encourage someone and someone encourages you.

And when we're together, we are better.

We are stronger, and we are better fishermen.

I want to encourage you this week to know that Jesus loves you and he's in this with you.

And you are his.

Walk that journey with him.

I want you to bow your heads as we close this morning.

And I want to ask you the question I mentioned in the middle, have you ever trusted Christ as your Savior?

Have you ever given him your life?

Have you ever made that confession that he is Lord, repented of your sin, and said, Lord, I believe Jesus, I believe you rose again just for me.

You died and rose again so I could be saved.

Have you ever given your life to Christ?

If you never have, we're going to invite you this morning to give your life to Christ.

Whether you're watching on television or online, whether you're here in this room, we want you to give your life to Jesus.

Listen, our whole purpose, all of this this morning, was to share Jesus with you so you could be saved.

We are fishing because through the love of Jesus, we love you.

And we want you to know how much He loves you that He died and rose again just for you.

If you've never accepted Christ as your Savior in a moment, I'm going to pray.

God's people are going to stand and sing.

We'll have pastors at the head of our aisles.

I'm going to invite you to come and give your life to Christ.

If you're watching online or you're watching on television, right there where you are, don't wait for us.

Right there where you are, pray and give your life to Christ.

He sees every bit of your heart and he knows if you want to call out to him.

And then call us, let us know, email us, write, come to the church, whatever.

We're here to help you.

But give your life to Christ because he gave his life for you.

If you're already saved, I hope this has been an encouragement to you.

I hope it's a blessing to see the extent to which Jesus went to take care of Peter and equip Peter and encourage Peter and even use him to encourage others.

And I want to encourage you to take some time and meet with Jesus this week.

If you're wondering what decision you make right now, listen, the invitation is not just for people to get saved, it is for all of us to respond to what God is calling us in our lives and hearts.

You know what he's telling you.

The Holy Spirit is clear.

Respond to him this morning.

Make a commitment to spend time with him this week.

Lord, we thank you for these incredible pictures in Scripture.

You knew exactly what our questions are.

You know exactly what we need.

And you lay them out so beautifully as you've done in this moment.

We thank you for the openness we see in the life and heart of Peter and how it really helps us to relate in our journey to what you can and want to do in our lives.

And I pray this morning that you'll use it in the lives of people as you wrote it to be used.

It is in your name we pray, and all God's people said.

We pray this message has been a blessing to you and helped to strengthen your walk with Jesus.

Please know we want to minister to you and pray for you.

Send an email to contact us at fsfbc.org and let us pray for you and help you in any way we can.

Thank you for listening to Chapter and First, the Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.