John 21:24 • We are Bearing Witness
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(This transcript was prepared using software tools and has not been reviewed for complete accuracy.)
Let me ask that you would look in your bibles this morning at John chapter 21, John chapter 21, as we will be considering verses 15 to the end of the chapter.
In your Grace bibles, that's page 908.
And let me ask that we stand as we look at God's Word together.
John 21.
You recognize, of course, it is that launch time of year as we consider graduates and all that we're doing to give you a great sendoff into career and future, parties, meals, honors.
>>> Anybody get a new car yet?
It.
[Laughter]
>>> All the things that we hope will send you out with encouragement and enthusiasm for what God is calling you to do.
You recognize, I think perhaps, that this last portion of the book of John is also a launch chapter.
Just think of it: Last section of the last chapter of the last gospel of the last apostle, preparing God's people to do His work for centuries to come.
If you were writing the last section of the last chapter of the last gospel, what would you write to launch God's people into faithfulness for centuries to come?
Let's see what John does.
John 21 verse 15, "When they had 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 by what kind of death he was going 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 had been reclining at the table close to him and 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 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 going 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 also many other things that Jesus did.
Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written."
Let's pray together.
>>> Father, thank You for bringing us to this step where we have even an apostle reminding us of the greatness and the glory of the works of Christ.
But the way they're expressed that are meant to dive deep into our hearts and send us into Your mission is to remind us how great is Your love for us through Christ and how what motivates us and sends us into Your works purposes is a profound and deep love for You because of the great grace that has been shown us.
Would You open our hearts again to this grace?
That having received it, we might be fountains of that grace for the glory of Jesus in whose name we pray.
Amen.
>>> Please be seated.
In France in World War I, to entertain the troops, Gene Tunney, a prizefighter from the United States, did various expedition bouts and ended up breaking both his hands.
As the doctors examined him, as his manager talked to him later, they said, "You'll have to give up fighting forever.
With two broken hands, the fact that you have been a power puncher as a fighter means that now your hands will be brittle and you can never fight again.
You must leave the sport.
You must do something different."
Tunney did not want to listen to that, and so he changed his style entirely.
The one who had been the great power puncher instead became a scientific boxer, learning to weave and to jab and letting his technique take over so that ultimately he got a chance at the world championship fighting a mountain of a man known as Jack Dempsey.
It was, even to this day, the most attended boxing match in American history, long before TV, long before events such as we can host them: over a hundred thousand people showing up to watch Tunney and Dempsey fight.
It was an amazing fight.
And some of you may know the outcome.
Despite the infamous long count, Tunney won the fight.
And people said that in itself was a miracle, because Dempsey, even to this day, is looked at as perhaps the most powerful puncher of all time.
If Tunney had simply stood in the ring and tried to exchange punches with Dempsey, he would have surely lost.
Dempsey was simply too powerful.
Instead, it was the technique.
It was the science of boxing that won the day for Tunney.
And later when he was interviewed, he was asked, "How did you win?"
His response, "If my hands had not been broken, I could not have won.
If I had not been broken, I could not have achieved."
It's not so far from the gospel that we recognize that unless we have been broken, we cannot be in God's hands what He intends for us to achieve.
It's not a message I think that we particularly are ready or inclined to speak this time of year.
We want to commend smarts and savvy and ability.
As I think about my own children, I think: What do I want for them?
I want success.
And I want ease.
And I want accomplishment.
I instinctively don't add brokenness to my list of the first things that I want for them.
So why is it so high on God's list?
That brokenness is necessary to be an instrument of the glory of Jesus in the hands of God.
Perhaps we see as we examine this last section of the last chapter of the last apostle and see how brokenness becomes an instrument in the hands of God.
The brokenness is first revealed in the questions of Jesus.
You know verse 15.
"When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, 'Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?'"
The likely source of the question is Peter's own statements at the Last Supper.
Do you remember at that Last Supper before His crucifixion?
Jesus actually said to His disciples, "You will all leave Me."
And Simon Peter said, "Not I, Lord.
Though everyone else abandon You, I will not leave You."
Translation: I love you more than they.
And now Jesus, after the resurrection, says to Peter, "Peter, do you love Me more than these?"
And Peter is ready with the answer, "'Yes, Lord; you know I do.'"
Did he speak too fast?
Was it too unthinking?
Was it too flippant?
For whatever reason, the Lord asked again.
"'Peter, do you love me?'"
What must be going through Peter's mind now?
Did He not hear me?
Did I mumble?
Is He not accepting what I'm saying?
After all, I have just said, "Lord, You know.
The one I have declared to be my Lord, King, Creator of the universe: He's asking me again, do I love Him?
And I know that He knows.
Wh--, why is He asking me again?
Could He possibly be thinking of how I have failed Him in the past?"
And so we don't know the way in which Peter answers.
We don't have the rhythm of it.
We don't have the volume of it.
But surely he's a bit more considered this time.
"'Yes, Lord; you know I love you.'"
And then to his horror, Jesus asks again.
"'Simon, son of John, do you love me?'"
[Chuckles]
He uses his full name.
That can't be good.
[Laughter]
It's like when your mom, you know: John Franklin McPherson.
You--, whatever comes next is not going to be good.
[Laughter]
But it's not good we know because we get the first commentary from John as he now says what's going on inside of Peter.
Do you remember verse 17?
"He said to him the third time, 'Simon, son of John, do you love me?'
Peter was grieved because he said to him the som--, the third time, 'Do you love me?'"
The one who has betrayed three times now hears Jesus asking three times, "Do you love me?"
Surely now it is clear in Peter's mind what Jesus is thinking of.
And so Peter is grieved.
The word actually is not just that which is talking about the brokenness of Peter being revealed, but it is now rending his heart.
This is the same language the apostle Paul uses when he talks about how our sin grieves the Holy Spirit: that there is this rending of hurt that God who gave His Son for us, that our sin would now trample upon His blood, that there is this grief to the Holy Spirit.
And it is the same word that's being described for Peter as he now says, "My Lord, who knows everything, is asking me again do I really love Him?
I've told Him twice, and He's not received it.
Oh, Lord, do you not really believe that I love You?"
And then the awful words that accompany it: "Because I know that You know everything."
What must be in Peter's mind?
You remember the event.
They are now sitting by a charcoal fire where the breakfast has been served, but the last charcoal fire was the one beside which Peter denied Jesus three times.
And the third time, remember, when he said, "I do not know Him," he swore.
And just as he swore, we are told in the gospel of Luke, Jesus looked at him.
And now this same Jesus says, "'Peter, do you love me?'
'Oh, Lord, you know everything: what I have done, my failures, my weakness, my betrayal.
But surely you know this too: I love you.'"
It is a brokenness that we fear may be a part of us at times, because not a single one of us in this room can look back over our lives and say there are not the moments in which we know the denial was there too; when we were called upon to stand firm, to stand forward, to speak too, and we did not do so because some fear, some sin, some weakness in us kept us from that.
And we know the Savior is still saying to us, "Do you love Me?"
And our hearts say, "Lord, I know I've failed, but I do love You."
And in response to this third affirmation of Peter, we get not only the brokenness revealed but the brokenness repaired.
The brokenness repaired is first evident in Christ simply coming to serve Peter and the others.
I mean, I know it goes by so quickly: verse 15, "When they had finished breakfast."
Do you remember who prepared the breakfast?
It was Jesus.
And you have to say: There's more significance here than it's simply fillet a fish early in the morning, right?
It's the King of the universe who has suffered upon a cross and has died, has now died to those who have abandoned Him, including the one who has denied Him, and the sin does not make Him go away.
Instead, this Jesus keeps coming and keeps serving despite the sin.
And that in itself is a marvel as you say: Here is grace beginning to repair the brokenness that was so evident by Christ just indicating by His presence His own care.
Some of you may know the difficult movie "Traffic," which describes a federal judge who's been made the drug czar of the United States who's supposed to organize all the nation's efforts to combat in young people in the nation and across borders the drug traffic.
Only to discover after he's been made the drug czar that his daughter at a prep school because of the taunting and the jeering of her friends has begun to experiment with drugs.
And she's of the character, she's of the person that the experimentation has become an addiction.
And now the one who is responsible for stopping drugs across the whole country cannot stop it in his own daughter.
At first, he only knows embarrassment and anger and rage.
But as the addiction begins to take over her life and the way she begins to take it is by taking in men for a price, he begins to search for her.
He begins to search in the streets, and he descends to her hell to find her.
And finally finds her and kicks the latest customer out of her room and then holds her.
She is such glassy eyed stupor she does not even recognize him.
But he bends over her and holds her and weeps for her: "You are mine, and I have come for you.
And I have taken everything I have to serve you because of my love for you in your brokenness."
And it is what Christ has done here: to recognize the brokenness that cannot be denied.
And what cannot be denied is He comes anyway.
That his sin does not tu--, that our sin does not turn Him away.
And beyond the serving is something even more amazing: the calling.
Did you catch it?
I only read portions of the verse as we were going through.
Not only verse 15 does He say, "'Yes, Lord, you know I love you.'"
But then Jesus responds, saying what?
Feed my.
"'Feed my lambs.'"
Verse 16 at the ends, "Jesus said to him again, 'Tend my sheep.'"
The next verse, "'Feed my sheep.'"
There is this calling now that Jesus has for this broken Peter, this one who has betrayed and denied Him in so many ways.
And you can almost hear the echoes as sitting by the charcoal fire again what must be echoing in Peter's mind is, "I do not know Him!"
"Feed my sheep."
"I do not know Him!"
"You tend my sheep."
"I swear I do not know Him!"
"Feed my sheep."
And what has happened is this wonderful affirmation of my still willingness to use you despite your betrayal of me.
My sin does not only deny me the service of my Savior: It does not deny the calling of my Savior.
Sometimes we think that because we have brokenness and weakness and sin in our lives there is no way that God could use us.
But the reality is that God is taking the most broken, the most corrupt here in so many ways having walked with Jesus, and He's saying, "You become the instrument of My glory.
And actually the brokenness of you equips you to be the instrument of My grace to others."
Did some of you see the news this past week that somebody has found in the depths of the Caribbean the Santa Marie, Columbus' ship?
And as I read that news, I couldn't help but thinking of the archaeological discoveries that have happened over and over again about biblical times: how in that era what people transported good with, sometimes just common goods like oil or grain but also treasures, gems and coins, was in what were called amphora bottles.
These kind of clay and ceramic large jars.
You've seen them.
In which they would pour in whatever was needed to be carefully kept.
And how even now as they come across shipwrecks in the Middle East what you see is you see these amphora bottles just strewn over the ocean floor.
But because of the effects of the ocean, you can no longer tell by the markings on the outside of the bottles what's inside.
You don't know if there's treasure inside unless the jar has been cracked.
It's the brokenness of the vessel that reveals the glory inside.
It's just what the apostle Paul told us, right?
That God has put the treasure of the gospel in jars of, what?
In jars of clay, that the surpassing power of the gospel would be obvious from Him and not from us.
We think that because we have sinned, because we have failed, we are incapable of being used by God.
And, yet, it is not our perfections that proclaim His grace.
It is our willingness to acknowledge our need of grace, our brokenness, that becomes the message the world needs to hear.
I in my brokenness am willing to say, "He claimed me.
He came for me.
He served me.
He made me right, not by my work but by His."
I know that's, that's the message that we claim in our mouths, but sometimes we struggle.
I, Kathy and I having been here the year plus a little bit know if I were just to take the time and I were to walk down the aisles and just talk to you honestly, you would say to me, "I do not understand how God could use someone as weak and broken and cracked as the person next to me."
[Laughter]
Is that what you'd think?
No, where the gospel is at work is you have this question: Can God use me?
The reality is, the reason that God can use the person next to you as well as you is He has poured His glory into earthen jars: that it is our very brokenness that is allowing God to say, "I have a grace greater than that."
If our perfections were all that were on display, we would have no hope for the world.
Our lives would actually contradict the gospel.
It is the fact that we in our brokenness say, "God has loved me and sent His Son for me," that becomes the glory of our proclamation.
Our brokenness is actually what enables the power of God to be on display.
He has claimed us despite us.
And you have to say if God is not only repairing these broken vessels, how is He actually preparing them for that glorious message?
In a number of ways that are important to remember.
First by reminding those of us who are jars of clay that if we are to be those broken people used by God, it will require our all.
Verse 18 is a difficult verse in John 21.
Jesus, speaking to Peter, says, "'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.'"
The first century church would have recognized the words.
These are the words of crucifixion: "You will stretch out your hands when you are old, and you will be dressed for death and you will be carried to where you do not want to go to suffering."
The same Peter who has denied is being told that his end will be remarkably difficult and awful.
And, yet, as awful as those words are, I wonder if you perceive the grace that is implicit.
When you are old: What has Jesus just said to this young fisherman?
"When you are old," He is saying you will what?
You'll get old.
You've got years ahead of you.
And what that means is until God calls you home, you are an immortal being.
And that's not just a word for Peter; that's a word for each of us here: that until God Himself would call us home, we are immortal beings.
No one can thwart the purposes of God in our lives until He Himself has chosen it.
And what that means is we can leave everything on the table: that God is calling for our all and it may require sacrifice; it may require difficulty.
But the God of all creation is the one calling and therefore we can give our all to Him, knowing that He has prepared.
And for Peter, it must even be special in this way: Peter, you will stretch out your hands; you will be crucified because of your testimony for Me.
And I wonder if what Peter is thinking is, "Lord, does that mean that I won't flinch then?
Because the last time that I was called to courage, I failed You.
But You are telling me the time will come when I will be able to speak and face the suffering and still be Your representative."
I mean, surely as much as he dreads the end, he must covet the opportunity.
I have the opportunity here, Lord, to stand for You again.
And it's true for us.
I mean, listen, if you are a faithful believer, if you walk with the Lord, there--, I can just in mentioning it make you think of the moments in which you have failed to say or do all that you knew was necessary for the salvation of those near and dear to you.
And we want to check ourselves out and say, "I've failed the Lord so badly, I'm totally worthless to Him."
But, listen, that happened to Peter.
And still the Lord was saying, "But there will be a time that I call you again and you need not flinch again.
The opportunity will come again."
And that reality makes us willing to say, "And if God is preserving me until the time that He calls me home, I am immortal till then.
I can leave it all on the table, do whatever is required."
I think of those of you who are graduating here, and I think, "What it--, what's it mean to you to know that you can give your all to His purposes?"
I don't know if you know it, but there are a lot of people older than you in this room who look back to their teen years and say, "That was when I was most committed.
That's when I was most devoted."
And here is your own opportunity to say here, here's the opportunity to build a foundation of faith, because I don't know what trials are ahead.
I don't know what temptations are ahead.
But I know this is the time to run the race hard after Christ.
And to say He who has loved me despite my sin, my failing, my weakness, has come for me and saved me.
And He's going to secure me till He calls me home.
I can leave it all on the table for Him.
But you won't if you begin only to compare your life to others.
Well, why do I have to do this and not others?
There is one more crack before we leave the life of Peter.
Remember?
Verse 20, after Jesus had said, "'Follow me,'" Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them, the one who had been reclining at table close to him and had said, 'Lord, who is going to betray you?'
When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, 'Lord, what about this man?'"
[Chuckles]
Why do I have to have the garbage tonight?
[Chuckles]
Why does he get to sit next to the window?
You know.
I mean, it's kind of this adolescent discussion of, you know, why do I get, why do they get?
It may sound adolescent: It's some of the hardest questions we wrestle with in life.
Why do I have to face this and it doesn't seem like they do or he does?
I look at my own kids.
I look at sons raised in the same house, ate the same food, same mom, same dad, same education.
And I look at one doing very well in business, one whose career is struggling.
One who after nine years of trying we can tell you now is expecting a child, the other after eleven years of trying is now talking about trying to adopt.
Why are our lives so different?
I don't know.
I will say to you: Run your race.
Don't worry about their race.
Run your race.
God has called you to a place and a time and a purpose.
And He has said to you, "Until I call you home, you're immortal.
Give yourself fully to My purposes, because what you give will not be in vain.
And don't worry that that person goes faster, that person gets more, or that person has e--."
Listen, life is long.
And the trials you face today may well be the triumphs of tomorrow.
I don't know.
I do know that God says, "Run your race.
You follow Me."
And expect to be used for the glory of God regardless of what you face.
Why would you do that?
Why would you face the hard things regardless of what is coming?
Well, that's why Jesus asked the question: "Do you love Me?
Do you?
Do you?"
Because the reality is there is no greater human motivation than love.
Fear is not stronger.
Guilt is not stronger.
Gain is not stronger.
The most powerful human motivation is love.
And what God has done for you and for everyone in this room is He has said, "Do you recognize that when you were broken, I came for you?
And when there was nothing in you that deserved it, I poured out My blood for you," so that when we would say, "Should I serve Him?" the answer of our hearts would be: Yes, because I love Him and because He has shown His love for me.
Some of you know: We have three older kids and then kind of our caboose daughter came along eight years after the last and.
As she was getting into her end of high school years, I would sometimes say to Kathy, "I'm just old and tired."
[Laughter]
And my wife, always caring and concerned, would always say, "We can't stop pouring ourselves into this daughter.
The fact that her older siblings are gone, we have to stay energized and animated for this daughter.
We have to keep caring for her."
And so in those last couple years of high school when life is so busy and she would be so busy, one of the things that I would do is I would get up early in the morning and when she was getting up to go to those, all of those early morning school activities and I would fix her breakfast: cereal.
[Laughter]
And I would think to myself: What's my calling as the dad of this 17 and 18-year-old child?
And I would think, even as I was filling up her cereal bowl with milk, I would think, "This is my calling.
My calling is to fill up her heart with love for Christ."
Because this is what I know: There are trials and there are temptations ahead for her.
But if her heart is full of love for Jesus, she cannot be more committed or safe or strong.
If her heart is full of love for Christ, she is ready for whatever Satan and the world throw at her.
If her heart is full of love for Christ, that is her highest priority, her greatest joy, her greatest strength is in her love for Christ.
And the reason that these people in this church pray for you and love you and tell you the gospel of a God who would send His Son for the broken is we know there will be times in your life that you feel broken.
And you know that when you are, Jesus still comes.
Your sin doesn't drive Him away.
And He keeps a calling upon your life: Let others see that My grace is greater than your brokenness.
Tell them that I love you and I will love them too.
And a love for Christ will give you strength for Him wherever He calls you to go.
>>> Father, I pray for these young people and thank You for them.
Would You so work in their hearts and in their lives that the sin is not what preoccupies their thoughts; the weakness is not what preoccupies their thoughts but the grace of God that's greater than both?
That they would recognize the beauty of the gospel is that they can tell friend and family: When I was broken, Christ gave Himself for me; and when I'm broken still, He doesn't run away from me but still comes and cares and watches over.
And may their testimony and the testimony of others in this church be such that we not claiming our perfection but our brokenness may be instruments of the grace of Jesus for all that You put in our lives.
Grant us this measure of the gospel we pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.