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Date: 1.4.18
Text: John 21
Title: Do you love me?
Place: Swansea/Charlestown AM
File: Easter Sunday 2018
Preacher: Stephen Taylor
Slide 1
Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, is the second richest man in the world just behind Jeff Bezos the founder and CEO of Amazon. Gates is the face of the personal computer Slide 2revolution which has dramatically changed the way the world operates. In recent years he has stepped down from his day to day role at Microsoft and instead works full time on his foundation which does some quite amazing things around the world. But every now and then Gates appears for an interview or a conference or a key note address where people hang off his every word and want his opinion on the future of the planet.
Slide 3
In a similar way after Jesus death, Jesus appears a number of times before he goes back to heaven. In fact each of the gospels document incidents where Jesus appears to his disciples and then disappears again presumably to go back to heaven. And at each appearance there is a message, an important message given to the disciples. A message that has implications for the future of the world.
The apostle John when he is writing his gospel doesn’t choose to document all of Jesus appearances. But each one he does mention is vitally important. At the beginning of John 20 the disciples find Jesus tomb empty. Now that would have been shocking news. Where has he gone? What have others done to him now? What should we do next? Their world had already been rocked by Jesus death, now it is as if their very foundations were crumbling.
Slide 4
And then in John 20:11, Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene. Why are you crying? Who is it that you looking for, he asks gently. And she grabs hold of him, holds on to him and as if she didn’t want to let go of him, every again. This appearance of Jesus proves the bodily resurrection of Jesus. He really is alive. He has come back from the dead. He must be God or at least from God. And so she runs back and tells the others the good news.
Slide 5
Then that very evening, Jesus appears to his disciples through the locked doors. He gives them peace but he also has an important message for them. You can’t stay as you are, you can’t continue as you were, I am sending you into the world. But you will not be on your own. I am giving you the Holy Spirit and He will empower you in the tasks I will give you.
Slide 6
But Thomas one of the twelve wasn’t there at that time and so a week later, Jesus appears again. This time he appears to erase Thomas’ doubts and to take away the disciples fears. You don’t have to see to believe Thomas for many of the people you will go to who will never see me physically and yet will believe. Instead when you believe you will see.
Do you get what Jesus is doing? Each appearance is to equip his followers as they go into God’s world armed with God’s word. But in chapter 21 John includes one last appearance of Jesus. Because Jesus has one last important message for his disciples before he finally goes back to the Father and they go into all the earth. And it’s all about failure
Slide 7
- Failure (verses 1-17)
“Afterward Jesus appeared again to his disciples,by the Sea of Galilee.It happened this way
2Simon Peter, Thomas, Nathanaelfrom Cana in Galilee,the sons of Zebedee,and two other disciples were together.3“I’m going out to fish,” Simon Peter told them and they said, “We’ll go with you.” So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing”.
They caught nothing. Simon Peter and the disciples, the fishermen turned followers of Jesus, had returned to their boats and nets and were about to go home empty handed. Now the question is should they be out fishing anyway? Hadn’t Jesus called them from their fishing boats to become fishers of men? But hadn’t he also told them to go to Galilee and await further instructions there and weren’t they in Galilee and what better thing to do to bide the time than to fish?
Now I’m not sure the passage is clear as to whether they were doing the wrong thing in fishing or not but what it does make clear is that their fishing was fruitless. Coming on the back of the disciples running away from Jesus, Peter disowning Jesus three time, the doubts and fears that they have had even since the resurrection, we do get the picture of failure.
Slide 8
Verse 3 says they were fishing at night. A good time to fish for sure but night has been used throughout the gospel as the opposite of doing things in the light. And then we see that Jesus appears to these fisherman he doesn’t say, “What are you no hopers doing now?” Instead he recreates the initial call of the disciples.
Slide 9
Remember in Luke 5, the fishermen are in their boats and they hadn’t caught anything and then Jesus tells them to cast their nets one more time? Well Jesus does something similar here. “Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus.5He called out to them,“Friends, haven’t you any fish?”“No,” they answered.6He said,“Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.”When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish”.
Jesus is reminding them of their initial call. They were to leave their boats. They were to become fishers of men. They were to follow Jesus. And Jesus death and resurrection doesn’t change that call it only gives them more urgency in taking up that call. So friends there is nothing wrong with being a fisherman, unless that’s not what God has planned for you to do
Slide 10
But Jesus wants to remind Peter of something else. So after they do throw their nets in over the side and they do pull in a whole stack of big ones, Peter jumps into the sea, swims over to Jesus and he finds himself beside a fire of burning coals. What would that remind him of? The fire of burning coals in the courtyard outside the chief priests home when Jesus was being tried. It would remind him of the time Peter let Jesus down on the last night of his life.
Slide 11
But Jesus hasn’t finished with the flashbacks yet. For “when they had finished eating, Jesus
said to Simon Peter,“Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?”And he asks Peter the same question three times!Jesus brings Peter back to his mammoth failure where
three times in a row he denied Jesus. Three times he said he didn’t even know. Three times.
Do you see what Jesus is doing in this appearance? He has to deal with Peter’s failure. Peter
had impulsively said just a couple of weeks ago, even if everyone else runs away I will not deny you. And the disciples did run away and yet Peter had still denied Jesus. Had this failure disqualified Peter from leadership? Could this denial ever be forgiven?
Slide 12
No it doesn’t disqualify Peter and yes he can be forgiven. Because here Jesus is forgiving Peter’s failure and recommissioning him as the rock of the Church. And aren’t we glad this passage is in the Scriptures because aren’t we like Peter? Haven’t we failed Jesus? Denied him? Let him down? Returned to our own way of life? Ignored the fishing trip he wants us to be a part of, fishing for men? Aren’t we glad to see here that Jesus gives us a second chance, a third chance, a millionth chance? Aren’t we relieved that God is a God of the second chance? Where failure is not fatal. But just the door that opens up on forgiveness.
Slide 13
Malcom Muggeridge, the English author once said that “failure is the most creative phenomenon of life” and that is true. If we did not fail we would never make any progress. Failure demands that we look at what went wrong. Failure opens us up to new ideas and failure brings us face to face with our weaknesses and our inadequacies so that God’s strength can be made perfect in our weakness.
It is our failure that creates in us a poverty of spirit. It is our failures that helps us to long for the coming of the Kingdom of God. It is our failures that gives us more humility. It is our failures that helps us to marvel even more at Christ’s mercy and grace and forgiveness.
Slide 14
You probably don’t know the story of Mingdao Wang, one of the most renowned Christian figures in China. In 1951 many Christians were arrested and fear dominated the Christian community as one prominent Christian after another was identified, arrested and punished. Wang as a prominent pastor was an obvious target. He was arrested after preaching his last sermon on August 7th 1955, and the church was closed and sealed a week later. The world was shocked with his arrest, but was more stunned by his admission.
When Wang was released from prison on Sept 30th, 53 days later, he read a statement of public confession: “I am a person guilty of anti-revolutionary deeds. I am obliged to the patient education of the government which made me realize my own mistakes, and yet the government dealt with me genuinely and has delivered me from the gulf of crime.”
But after his release, Wang battled himself. He was heard to go about saying, “I am Peter”. Later, he informed the authorities that his statement had been made under duress and in no way represented his own true convictions. He went to prison for over 20 years and when released sent this message to his supporters, “Very many thanks to all brothers & sisters in the Lord who have been praying for me. Please tell friends all over the world that during the
twenty two years in prison, I have sometimes been like Peter but never like Judas.”
Slide 15
Friends I am Peter. You are Peter. And yet here we see Jesus appears to Peter and deals with his failure and gives him the task of feeding. Let’s look at Jesus instructions to Peter.
Slide 16
- Feeding (verses 15-7)
15When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter,“Simon son of John, do you love
me more than these?” “Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.” Jesus said,“Feed my
lambs.”Jesus zeroes in on the most important issue of all. “Peter do you love me?” Peter a couple of weeks ago you said that even if everyone else lets me down, you would remain firm. The question is do you still feel that way? Do you still love me? Even more than these?
“Yes Jesus you know that I love you”. So Jesus asks Peter a second time & then a third time in a slightly different way. Do you love me Peter? Do you really love me? You see the priority for leadership is love. The priority of leading in Christ’s Church is to love Jesus Christ. Nothing is more important than loving God. God wants us to be doers but before we do we need to be. Be lovers of God. Lovers of Christ.
Slide 17
This is how author Roy Hession puts it “To concentrate on service and activity for God may often thwart our attaining of the true goal, God himself. At first sight it seems heroic to fling our lives away in the service of God and of others. Service seems to unselfish, whereas concentrating on our walk with God seems selfish & selfcentred but it is the very reverse. The things that God is most concerned about are our coldness of heart toward himself & our proud, unbroken natures… We need to leave our lustings for ever-larger spheres of Christian service & concentrate on seeing God for ourselves & finding the deep answer for life in him.”
Slide 18
Friends do you love Jesus? Do you love him more than others? Would you love him if everyone else didn’t love him? That is the primary question. That’s the priority above all priorities. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength. That’s the number goal in our life. And why wouldn’t we want to love someone like Jesus? Who dies for us. Who appears and takes away our doubts and fears. Who gives us His Spirit. And who takes away our failure.
Do you love me? You know that I love you Jesus. Well feed my lambs, Peter. Take care of my sheep, Peter. Feed my sheep, Peter. Peter is given a ministry. To continue the work of the good shepherd Jesus. Jesus had just fed Peter physically with bread and fish. Jesus for the last three years had fed him spiritually with parable and teaching and miracle and personal example. Peter was now to do to others what Jesus had done for him.
He was to feed the lambs. Make sure the young onesthe weak ones got the diet of God’s word that they needed to grow up stronger and more mature. He was take care of the sheep, especially those who need protection from others or from themselves or were weak and needed special attention. He was to feed the sheep. It was not just the young and weak that needed feeding, it was also the strong. Peter was to leave fishing for feeding.
As Jesus appears to Peter it is like he is saying that from now on the first priority is that you
are fed and fed well. The priority must be on Jesus teaching, the apostles teaching, on God’s teaching. Friends we must be well fed. We must be a part of a Church that will feed us well. We must come week by week rain hail or shine to be fed well. And we must not just rely on the diet that others give us but we must chew over God’s word day by day getting from it the sustenance we need.
But once we have been fed we need to need to make it a priority that other sheep are also fed. Some of us will be pastors and others teachers but all must encourage each other in the word, rebuke one another when we are going against the word and point people to the
green grass of Scripture which will make them strong and healthy in Christ.
It is true that we must have as our top priority to love God. But we can’t honestly say we love him unless we are also serving him and his sheep. And by serving I don’t mean you hold a position, an elder, a kid’s church teacher, an Impact helper. I mean we are actually doing something, feeding, serving, leading, taking care of one another. And if we are doing those things that will also mean that we will be following
Slide 19
- Following (verses 18-24)
“Jesus said,“Feed my sheep.18Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.”19Jesus said this to indicate the kind of deathby which Peter would glorify God.Then he said to him,“Follow me!”
The chief duty of Peter as a leader of Jesus’ church was to follow Jesus. So often we look for leaders who are charismatic, successful, personable and we will follow them anywhere. But we need to look for leaders who are already following Jesus. Peter is to be such a leader.
For Jesus predicts that he will follow Jesus even until death. That the cost of his discipleship will be high, very high. Yes while he was young he would be able to go where ever he wanted to. But in the end he will taken by the hand and will be lead to his death. The witness of the early church was that Peter died by crucifixion, at the hands of Nero. And that when Peter went to die he specifically asked to be crucified upside down becausehe wanted his death to be different to Jesus.
Slide 20
For some people following Jesus will mean death. In fact in the last 100 years more Christians have lost their life because of Jesus than in the last 19 centuries combined. Jesus was to say earlier in his life to all his disciples “If anyone would come after me, let himdeny himself andtake up his cross and follow me.25Forwhoever would save his lifewill lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
Slide 21
But following Jesus does not necessarily mean dying for Jesus. Peter turns to his best friend John and says to Jesus what about him? If I’m going to die will he have to die as well?Peter, Jesus says, that’s none of your business. For some will follow and die and others will follow and live. Some will follow and speak and others will follow and write. Jesus makes it plain that He is the Lord, and that his will for one disciple is not necessarily the same as for another. Our job is not to look at each other and compare our lot with them, but to follow