The Church of Eleven22 - Easter 2017: Follow Me

Episode Date: April 16, 2017

When Jesus says “follow me,” He isn’t offering a second chance at life. He is offering a NEW LIFE… HIS LIFE.

Amen and amen and amen. How are we doing, church? Doing all right? Are you looking good? I know I am. Let's get that out of the way, all right? Hey, if you got your Bibles, grab them and go to John Chapter 21. That's where we're going to be.

I'll meet you there in about 12 minutes. John Chapter 21 is where we're going to be studying today. I just want to welcome everybody to our Easter service here at 1122, whether you come here all the time or you're a guest. Man, we're so glad that you're here. We are a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus. Christ so if you fall in the all people category then we are a church for you and I want to ask you this question do you want to believe I mean do you want to believe that if the tomb is empty

anything is possible do you want to believe that your past doesn't have to define you do you want to believe that God is not in love with some future version of you once you get your act together but God could actually love you right now do you want to believe that God is for you and not against you. Now, I'm going to be honest if you're like, no, not really. I'm just here because Nana said I couldn't have fried chicken if I don't go to church. Well, God bless your chicken, all right? I got nothing for you.

If that too, if you don't want to believe, God's going to have to do a supernatural work to soften your heart. But if you want to believe, I mean, if you want to believe that it's not over for you, that God could actually have a purpose and a plan, not for all the super Christians sitting around you, but he could actually have a purpose and a plan for you. then you're in the right place. And even if this is the only service you go to all year long, I've got good news, you pick the best one to be at of all the services. Because it is true.

If the tomb is empty, then anything, anything, even for you, anything is possible. And so before we get to John 21 and we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, we got to get it in context a little bit. Because if you don't know your story in context of his story or history, then it won't make a whole bunch of sense. So I decided we'll just start in the beginning. In the beginning, God. Created everything.

He just spoke it into existence, everything that is. And then in Genesis chapter 21, the Bible says that God says, let us make man in our image and likeness. And so if you're new to Bible study, you're saying, well, who is he talking to? Well, the reality is, is that God is one God in three persons, and this is incredibly important to understand. You see, there's one God, and yet God is in three persons, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, which means this, that God was perfectly satisfied with God's self.

1 John chapter 4 tells us that God is love, which means that God was in a perfect love relationship with himself. And what that lets us know is that God has no needs that needed to be met by us. It's not like God was walking around heaven one day going, What am I going to do with all this space and time? Oh, I know. I will create children that will sing me songs on the weekend and then disobey them all week long. That's a great idea.

That is not what he needed or wanted to do. But you see, God is both the subject and object of God's love for God's self, that God was completely satisfied in and of himself. And God's love for God's self spills out into this thing that we call creation. And he decides for his own glory to demonstrate and declare his own glory. He speaks it all into existence. And then, and then he creates one being to bear his image. And while he spoke everything into existence, when he came to create man,

he didn't just speak man, but the Bible says that he gathers together the dust of the ground. That word in Hebrew is Adam. You can see where Adam gets his name. The brother's name means dirt. And so he scoops up a bunch of dirt, and he makes what the Bible says is the form of a man. He's the shell of a man. And it's not until God breath of life into his nostrils that he becomes a living being. That word in Hebrew for breath and spirit are the same word.

It's the word ruach. And it was not like a Steph Curry three-pointer from back here. That's not what he did. He got nostril to nostril with the very first human being and breathed the spirit of God of the breath of life into Adam. And Adam, the very first human being, opens his eyes and he is face to face. with the Almighty Creator and he is in a perfect perfect relationship with the Father and this is what every single one of us were created for the reason some of you are frustrated and you feel like something's missing is because you've never come face to face with your Almighty Creator God and that's what you were put on this earth for and so then God says for the very first time something's not good he says it's not good for man to be alone right ladies why a man left alone he'll burn the whole garden down he needs help and so puts him to sleep, boom.

He gets a wife, and Adam and Eve are in this perfect relationship with God, where they walk around the garden and hang out with him by day. And it goes exceedingly well for almost the page in my Bible. And then Adam and Eve both sin. They choose their way over God's way, which really is the root of all sin. And now sin has entered this perfect creation, and the whole thing is twisted, and the whole thing is broken. And they run and they hide and they make fig leaves for themselves.

It's the very first religion. we don't need you, God. By our own works, we'll cover over our sin and shame. And then God comes walking through the cool of the day, and he calls out to them, and he finds them. He says, what have you done? And then he curses them. He curses the man.

He curses the woman, and he curses the creation itself, and he's going to kick him out of the garden. And the reason that he's going to kick him out of the garden is because the truth of God is that God demands perfection. And because he is holy, and because he is righteous, and because he is just, he will not put up with anything less than perfect. And so he curses the man and the woman and all of creation.

And in the curse of the woman, he says this. He says, Eve, I will put enmity between your offspring and this enemy, this snake, this serpent, this deceiver. And one day one will come from you a single Jewish male. And this enemy will bruise his heel. But this boy of yours will crush his head. And then they are banished from the guard. of Eden. And God looks at their fig leaf covering that they've made. He said that won't work. And so he makes for them garments of skin, which means for the first time in human history that animal blood is shed

for the covering over of sin. You see, it is a picture of the gospel. When God says to Eve that one day a serpent crusher is coming from you. It was the proto-evangalion, the very first gospel. And so then you fast forward and God makes a covenant with Abraham and then he kind of institutes it with Moses. And so God saves or rescues his people out of slavery from Egypt and then Moses goes up on top of Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments. But before he received the law of God, God makes this declaration, I will be your God and you will be my people. You see, even in the Old Testament, identity preceded activity.

And then he laid out the Ten Commandments and not just the Ten Commandments. There's like 600 and something commandments. and the mountain was shaking and word gets out among the people if we break even one of these commandments we will die and if we get close enough to the presence of God in our unholy state he will burn us up and we will be dead

why because God demands perfection and Moses comes down with the ten commandments and the people look at these commandments and they see the commandments the holy law of God as both a map and a mirror it's a map to say this is what it looks like to be holy for he is holy and it's also a mirror for us to hold up and go oh, Houston, we got a problem.

Because I can't do this. I need help. And so because God knew that we are by nature and nurture law breakers from deep down within us, then he sets up the sacrificial system in Leviticus chapter 16. I know you're fully aware of Leviticus 16. You all read it all week in preparation for Holy Week, but let me just remind you. Here's what he does. He sets up this sacrificial.

atoning system. It's called the Day of Atonement. It starts out in the tabernacle. Eventually, they're going to end up in the temple. And the nation of Israel, one day a year, they all gather together in Jerusalem what the temple is, and they confess their sins out loud as a nation to the high priest. You've got to be careful who you're standing with if you're confessing your sins, okay? And so they do that, and then the high priest transfers the sin of the people to the head of a goat, called a scapegoat. And then he would take that goat out to the edge of the town, he would release it out into the desert and the people would watch their sins travel away from them as far as the east is from the west. Then he would take this other animal, a perfect spotless lamb. He would take it into the Holy Holies, the middle room inside the temple that represented the very presence of God.

He would shed the blood of this lamb and sprinkle it over the ark of the covenant. It was a box that held the laws of God, the broken laws of God. And the blood of the lamb would cover over the sins of the Jewish people for one year. And they did it year after year after year. And then the whole rest of the entire Old Testament, all of the prophets, the major prophets, the minor prophets, all the Psalms, all the wisdom literature, was all about one thing. A day is coming when God will send the serpent crusher and he will show up on the sea. And then about 2,000 years later, these shepherds are hanging out in a field one night. And an angel breaks through, a choir of angels.

And they say to the shepherds, be not afraid. The reason is because the shepherds are doing shepherd stuff and that's shady stuff, trust me. And they're freaking out. Uh-oh, we're busted. And the angels show up and they say, for unto you this day is born a savior for all people in the city of David. To which the shepherds thought, are you sure it's not just another lamb for the Jewish people for one year? And then about 30 years after that, there's this guy named John the Baptist, this crazy guy. weird facial hair spent a lot of time in the woods and he yelled at people a lot you can make a good living doing that and so that's what he did he's in the jordan river he's just screaming at people repent repent repent repent prepare ye the way of the lord and then one day out of nowhere he points at his first cousin jesus and he says behold the lamb of god who comes to take away the sin of the world again not another lamb of god that here's the covered over the sin of the jewish people for one year but the lamb of god who comes to take away the sin of the whole of the

whole world. The serpent crusher is on the scene. And then people are like, are you sure? He's from Nazareth. Can anything good come from Nazareth? It would be like around here. If somebody amazing popped up and you'd be like, well, I thought they were from Palacca. How does that work? Okay? Same thing. And then Jesus makes his way into the Jordan. The heavens crack open. God Almighty speaks out loud and says, behold my son in whom I am well pleased. And then for three more years, Jesus does ministry. People ask and wonder, why did Jesus come? What was the point? Well, the point of Jesus

was not to show up just to teach stuff. Although he taught stuff. He taught us what God was like. He taught us things like, hey, listen, disciples, when you pray, this is how you should start. Our father who are in heaven. And the disciples like, whoa, whoa, whoa, there rabbi, don't you mean sovereign creator? And he's like, yeah, he is that, but what you're going to understand is that he is a good, good dad.

but he did not come just to teach us things about God, how to love God, and how to love each other. He came and he lived the perfect life, and that was a big deal. But if you ask Jesus himself, he says that the primary reason he came, this is John 12, like verses 27 and 28, he says, the purpose for which I came was to glorify the father. That he came for you, it just wasn't about you. And the way that he would glorify the father is that he would do for us what we could not do for ourselves, that he came to be the serpent crusher, that he came to be the Lamb of God that would take away the sin of the entire world so that every single human who would believe in him could be

back to what Adam and Eve experienced, a face-to-face relationship with the Almighty God of the universe. And so he proclaimed that everywhere he went. And then one night he was arrested. he was tried he was in prison he was beaten they took a crown of thorns they pressed it down on his head they punched him in the face they pulled his hair they spit on him and they mocked him and they nailed him to a cross and they hung him up in a public square for everyone to see to shame him and the first words that roll out of his mouth are this father forgive them so they know not what they do

He said seven things on the cross, seven things. And one of the last things that he says, while he is on the cross, he pushes up on his nail-pierced feet, and he says, it is finished. The three most important words ever uttered in all of the cosmos. And you ask, what's finished? What is finished? Here's what's finished. The servant crusher has come to do what he came to do, that the sacrificial system fully and finally has been satisfied, that Jesus is the atoning saccharacterial. for our sin, that the wrath that we deserve because the truth of God is that he demands perfection.

And then on the cross, when Jesus says, it is finished. We see the grace of God. The truth of God is he demands perfection, and the grace of God is that he supplies it in the person and work of Jesus Christ. And Jesus, on the cross, endures fully the wrath of God that you and I deserve. We know this because when he is in the Garden of Gassimini and he's praying, Father, if there be any other way, in other words, if Oprah's right and there's a bunch of different ways to you, God, can we take one of her paths and I don't have to go die for it? If we can just be good enough or I can just pray enough or I can, you know, just do enough nice things, if one of those ways work, God, let's choose one of those. Nevertheless, not my will, but your will be done. And when he said, let this cup pass from me, he was talking about the cup of the ruck. of God. You see, God is holy and God is just. And because he is holy and because he is right

and because he is just, he will not overlook sin. Sin must be paid for it. And in the Garden of Gassimony, Jesus knew either I pay for their sins or they have to pay for their sins. And he says, not my will, but your will be done. And on the cross, the wrath of God was poured out upon his son. It would be like the wrath of God was a hundred-foot tidal wave bearing down to judge sinners like me and like you. And there we stand absolutely helpless. But in the way is Jesus on the cross with his arms stretched out like a grand canyon of salvation. And the wrath of God hit him with everything that God had. And he took the cup of the wrath of God and he drank it and he drank it and he drank it and he drank the very last sip and he slammed it down and says

it is finished that's how he glorified god and then you know what the disciples did you know the ones we name our children after in schools after and churches after you know what the the heroes of the Christian faith that got this whole thing started you know what they did they ran they hid and they doubted that's what they did which is really good news for us here's why um even if you don't necessarily consider yourself a Christ follower, or you used to and then you're out of it, or you were really into it, and then you had an English class in college,

and they asked you one question, and your head exploded. And you're like, listen, I want to follow, but I just don't know. I mean, what about this? And what about that? I've got all kind of doubts. I mean, I kind of want to follow after Jesus, but what about T-Rex? I mean, how do you do that, all right?

If you got a lot of doubts, I got really good news. You could make a really great disciple. Because do you know what the earliest disciples doubted? The resurrection. It's the point of the entire thing. They run and they hide. And then Jesus is resurrected from the grave. He comes out of the grave in Jerusalem and in Galilee

to over 500 people for over a month. And the reason he did this is to prove once and for all he is who he says he is. And that your sin debt is paid in full. It is finished. He conquered sin and debt. And he didn't just like magically run. rise up like an angel or something.

This was not some kind of mythical or ethereal thing. He actually physically came out of the grave. And a whole bunch of people saw him die on a Friday and walk around on a Sunday. And if that is true, it demands, it demands a decision. And you see, what begins to happen is this. Today, thousands of years later, the one thing no one can deny is that something happens. I mean, something happened. That there was a group of these scared men and then some event happened and then boom,

you fast forward 2,000 years and a couple of billion people will gather together all over the world to celebrate this event. So what in the world happened? Well, guys like me believe that it happened just like the Bible says that Jesus was dead and on the third day he was resurrected from the grave. But then there's other people that come along and go, nah, maybe that didn't happen. and they have to come up with other theories to try to explain what happened because the one thing we can't deny is that something happened. And so you get things like the swoon theory. This is the theory.

Many generations ago, people came up with the swoon theory, and the swoon theory goes something like this. When Jesus was on the cross, he was a real man, he was a real teacher. But when he was on the cross, he didn't die, he just sort of swooned. He got really, he got like a coma. Even though the Romans were experts at killing people, and they killed millions of people, they got it wrong with this Jewish carpenter. And he went into a coma.

So they took Jesus' comatose body and they put him in the grave. And three days in this cool, damp grave, he woke up on the third day, feeling like he stayed in a holiday in express, just feeling awesome. And he kicked the stone out of the way and he put the Jackie Chan on the Roman guards and then he just jogged seven miles to Emmaus and had a conversation there. There's an option. Honestly, if you believe that, you have more faith than I do because that's crazy. And I don't think if the disciples saw beat up Jesus that they would somehow

nursing back to health and then walk around the rest of the world and say, no, no, no, he's alive, he's alive. So then there was another theory that came up about a generation ago. It was called group hallucination. I think the people were hallucinating on something that came up with this one, but, you know, I'm biased. And here's what the group hallucination is, is that all the people, they were so emotionally distraught

that hundreds of people had the same hallucination at the same time. And then psychologists come along, you go, no, group hallucination is not a real thing. Here's what group hallucination is. Group hallucination is the Bulldog Spring game next week. That's what it is. Because people like me will see that evidence and we'll go, this could be our year.

No, it's probably not. All right, that's group hallucination. Meanwhile, if Rome wants to shut this whole thing down, all they got to do, bring out dead Jesus. You just hang dead Jesus in the center square of Jerusalem and this whole thing is over. And how in the world do we explain the explosion of Christian?

Christianity. And how in the world would you explain that every single one of the apostles died as a martyr? Now listen, crazy people die for crazy beliefs all the time. But who dies for a lie? You see, 11 of the 12, Judas took care of himself. So the remaining 11 disciples, every single one of them died, separate from one another. And they never, they never backed off of their story. And their story was, we hung out with a man who used to be dead. And then he wasn't dead anymore. And again, people will die for all kind of things, but these men would not die for a lie. And what they said is they didn't say because this is what we believe. But did you know that Christianity is not based on belief? It's not founded on faith.

It's founded on an event that the Almighty Son of God died on a cross, paid for our sin. And how do we know it's true? Because three days later, the tomb is empty. And if that's true, you've got to do something with that. I mean, you've got to do something with it. And so in John chapter 21, we're going to study one of those resurrection events, one of those encounters where my favorite disciple encounters the resurrected Jesus, and here's what cool.

It changes his life forever. We're going to look at the life of Peter. Peter's my favorite disciple, and here's why. When I read about the life of Peter, it makes me feel better about my own walk with Jesus. He is the most jacked up guy in the whole Bible, and Jesus doesn't fire him. He puts him in charge of the entire indebt. John chapter 21 says this.

It says after this, and that this there are two other appearances of Jesus. You see, the disciples are afraid, they're hidden in the upper room, and Thomas is not with them, and then all of a sudden the doors are locked and they're singing kumbaya or whatever they were doing at that point. And then Jesus just shows up, just out of nowhere, through the locked door. And he says, do not be afraid. Peace be with you. Why? They weren't feeling very peaceful when the guy they saw dead on Fridays now just standing in the room with him. And he goes, see, I'm here.

Check out my hands, check out my feet, all right? It's really me. Well, Thomas wasn't there. He was like at Starbucks getting a, you know, caramel macchiato for John because he's kind of a sissy. And so Thomas shows up and they were like, bro, you ain't going to believe it. Jesus was just here. And Thomas was like, whatever, man. This isn't word for word.

This is just kind of how it happened, all right? And Thomas is like, no, man, I got to know. I got to know. He's kind of a skeptic. Jesus is going to have to prove himself. I need to see him and I need to put my fingers in the holes in the, his hands and put my hand up under his side where he was stabbed. And then you know what happens?

Jesus shows up out of nowhere. Okay, Thomas. And here's the cool thing. He does not rebuke him for his doubts. He doesn't. He just proves himself. And so Jesus was like, all right, bro, do it. Here, you want to put your fingers in there?

To which I think Thomas is like, no, man, I was just saying. I didn't mean like, actually, I got you. All right, he bows down. You're my Lord and my God. And then Thomas gets called what? What's Thomas' nickname for the rest of his life? Doubting Thomas. What a bummer for Thomas. Like we're going to bump into Thomas in heaven, be like, you're doubting Thomas?

He's like, really? For all of eternity? Do you know that Thomas took the gospel to India and was run through with a spear? How come I can't be brave Thomas? He's like, shut up, doubting Thomas. He's like, seriously? Peter, why don't we call him sinking Peter? You know what I'm saying? I mean, why? Bummer, this one time he doubts. Hey, some of you have doubts and you need proof. I dare you. I mean, I'm being serious. dare you to pray to Jesus today and ask him to prove himself to you? As long as you'll promise to keep your eyes open for that moment when he does, which could be in the next 30 minutes or so. And so after this, after Jesus proves himself to Thomas, it says Jesus revealed himself again

to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberius. Tabirius is the town. The sea is actually called the Sea of Galilee. And he revealed himself in this way, Simon Peter, Thomas called the twins, same guy. Nathaniel of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedo. that's James and John, and two others of his disciples were together, and Simon Peter said to them, I'm going fishing, and they said to him, we will go with you. Praise God. How many of you love to fish? Just to be honest. All right, if you love to fish, raise your hand. Raise that. I don't be embarrassed

this. It's a church. It might be the only time you raise your hand the whole service. All right. Any of you got a boat? If you got a boat, raise your hand. I mean, raise it high, man. Raise it high. Okay, come on, seriously. I see that hand. All right, this doesn't have anything to do with the service. This is just me seeing who I need to get to know. Okay, so. So when these guys go, fishing, it's not a hobby. They're not like, well, they killed the rabbi, what do you want to do? I hear the fisher bite and let's go try that. No. You see, when they see Jesus the first time, they're in Jerusalem and now they're in Galilee. That's where Peter grew up. He's going back to his old hometown and it's going back to his old lifestyle, the ways he used to do

things. Here's what I know about our services, our church, in all of our locations with the thousands of people that will be here this weekend. There's a whole bunch of you, and at one time in the past, you used to follow Jesus. You were doing Jesus stuff with Jesus people, doing the kind of things that you thought people that follow Jesus do. And then somehow you look up today and you're back in your old lifestyle. You're back where you used to be and you're kind of looking around and you think, how in the world did I get here? Maybe you feel like the Lord let you down or he didn't behave or you had some kind of question or I'm not sure what happened. But you look around and you go, oh man, how did I get here? Maybe you're just prone to wonder, Lord, I feel it prone to leave the God I

love. This is what Paul's, I mean, this is what Peter's doing. I got good news for you. Do you know what Jesus doesn't do? Jesus does not wait in Jerusalem for Peter to get his act together and then make his way all the way back to the Holy City, but he's going to meet Peter right where he is because he's not in love with some future version of him. He loves the Peter that's right now. And so there's Peter on a boat with six of his buddies and they're fishing. It says they went out and they got into the boat and that night they caught nothing. Big bummer. Verse four, and just as day was breaking, Jesus, this is the resurrected Christ, he stood on the shore, yet the disciples didn't know that it was Jesus.

Verse five, and Jesus said to them, children, this is how you know Jesus is about to jack with them. These are grown men, and he goes, kiddos. So sometimes Jesus just jacks with you. Can I get a witness? All right? And so, he says, children, do you have any fish? Now, listen, Jesus knows everything, all right?

But he's still just messing around. out with them. Do you have any fish? They're like, no. Hey husbands, don't you hate it like when you go fishing? And your wife got like a list of chores for you to do at the house, and you probably should have done that like the Bible says. But instead of listening to Jesus, you're going to try to be like Jesus and go fishing, and so you go. And then when you get home and she comes out in the driveway and she's like, honey, did you catch anything? And you think, a woman, this is what you just think. You don't say this because you want to stay married again

that week. And so you're like, you know I ain't catch nothing? Because if I had to catch them, I'd text you. It'd be on my Instagram, maybe on my Facebook. You'd be on my Facebook. You'd get pictures of like, the fish would look all big. I'd text you, come on. Get the grease going. We're going to have a fish fry. Right? You can't get anything, drip, drip, drip.

So that's kind of what he's doing. He's just messing with him. No. And so he says to him, so cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some. These are professional fishermen. They got to be thinking, excuse me, sir, do you realize under the water here there's no sides of the boat? It's just all the Sea of Galilee. You know what I'm saying?

And so we have fished it all night. but for whatever reason they throw it on the other side of the boat it says they cast it and now they were not able to haul it in because the quantity of fish verse seven and that disciple whom jesus loved anybody know who that is that's john and he's only called the disciple that jesus loves in what book john written by john you got to be kidding me i can't wait to meet him in heaven be like all right so you're the one that he loved okay all right thomas is like get him pastor All right, so John, therefore, says to Peter, it is the Lord. And 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. And the other disciples, they came in the boat, they drug the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, about 100 yards off. And when they got out on the land, they saw a charcoal fire. Underlined that, that's going to be imported in a minute. They saw a charcoal fire in place with fish laid out on it and bread, and Jesus said to them, bring some of the fish that you have just caught. And so Simon Peter went aboard and he hauled the net ashore full of large fish,

153 of them. Do you know why the Bible records that there's 153 fish? You can find about a million articles on this kind of stuff. I read one article that said, in Greek, if you take the name of God and you assign a numerical value to every letter like A is 1, B is 2, then the name of God adds up to 153. That's cool. I don't think it's true, but that's neat.

Another one I heard, I like this one, said that in the first century they believe there was 153 species of fish in the Sea of Galilee. Therefore, the gospel is like a movement for all people. I think that's neat. But do you know why? Let me tell you why. They list 153 fish. Because they called 153 fish. That's it.

You ever go fishing and not catch them? No. When you get a mess of fish, you go one or three, blah, you count them up. And you see, this is not a fairy tale. This is not a long time ago in a galaxy far away. This is an actual event. Some fishermen went fishing and they called some. fish and they count them because it matters. Do you know at all of our services last year,

at all of our campuses, do you know we had 154 people surrendered their life to the Lordship of Jesus? That's amazing. You know how we know? Because we counted them because it matters. Now I was kind of praying. One of them would wait until next week, so it'd be 153, but that's not, I can't control that. Sovereignty of God, all right? So whatever. So they catch 153 of them, and although there were so many, the net was not torn, and Jesus said, come and have breakfast. You know how I know that Jesus is a country boy? Because he's eating like fish and grits for breakfast. Can I get a witness? All right.

Now, one of the disciples, none of the disciples dared to ask him, Who are you? Because they knew it was the Lord. And Jesus came, and he took the bread, and he gave it to him. And so with the fish. And this was now the third time Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead. And listen, he was not a ghost.

It's not like, as he was eating, the trout was just falling all over the place. I'm like, Jesus, you're dropping your trout. and he's like, well, I'm a ghost. I can't really hold it down good. That is not what's happening. And I don't know if you, I've never been dead and come back three days later. Apparently it makes a brother hungry because the man needs to eat. This is a physical bodily resurrection. Not a fable, not a story.

And here's what is important. It's because of things like this that Jesus does not fit in the good moral teacher category. This is what our world wants to do with him. Just say he is one among many good religious teachers. The problem with that is that Jesus proclaimed, he prophesied that he would be dead and on the third day be resurrected, and that the reason that he was going to do it is to pay for sin, and the reason that he was going to do that is because he was the one that had been sinned against because he was God. A good moral teacher does not claim to be God, because if he is not, he is neither good nor moral. The only way he could claim to be God is if he actually is.

Here's why this matters to you. If the tomb is empty, you've got to do something about that. What are you going to do about it? I mean, you can reject him or you can follow him, but you cannot just stay in neutral. C.S. Lewis says that humanity is like an egg. It can never continue to be an egg forever. It will either rot or it will be transformed into a bird.

Those are the only two options. Folks, those are our only two options. That either Jesus is who he says he is and you should bow down and follow him, or you should reject him as a crazy man or a liar. And so when they finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? And I think Peter's like, more than these, what, fish, more than these disciples?

I'm just going to go with yes. Yes, Lord, you know that I love you. And he says to him, feed my lambs. And he said to him a second time, Simon, son of John, do you love me? And he said to him, yes, Lord, do you know that I love you? And he said to him, ten my sheep. And then he said to him a third time, Simon, son of John, do you love me? And Peter was grieved because he said to him a third time, do you love me?

See, just in case you're new to Bible study, just sometime earlier on the night that Jesus was arrested, Peter had denied Jesus three times. Right after the last supper, right after Peter made the boldest claim in the world, Jesus is sitting around the table and he's like, listen, there's some of you among me and you're going to deny me tonight. And Peter's like, not me, dog. Not me. I would die for you.

I would go to prison for you. Let them try it. I would do anything for you, Jesus. And then Jesus is like, yep, you're the one I'm talking about. He's like, no way. Jesus is like, look, man, before the alarm clock goes off, you're going to deny me three times. Sure enough, when Jesus is arrested, Peter's kind of following him around, goes to Caiaphas's house, and the Bible says that he's warming himself.

Check this out by a charcoal fire. And a man says, hey, you're one of his. is right he's like no I don't know him and then the second time somebody says no no no your accent you got a galilee you got a country accent and so it's kind of betraying you I bet you followed him he's like no I'm telling you I don't know him and then a servant girl which in the first century means she has no authority over anybody she can't even get him in trouble she goes I recognize you you're one of his and then the Bible says that Peter cusses he's like no I don't know him it doesn't say what it says I have some guesses he curses and says no I don't know him and in that moment the rooster

Crows, boom, they're bringing Jesus out of Caiaphas's house. They lock eyeballs, and Peter realizes that he has let the Lord down. The Bible says that he weeps bitterly. And now, here he is again with the resurrected Jesus sitting by a charcoal fire. And I think Peter's like, okay, Jesus, I get what you're doing here. I denied you by the fire, and here we are by the fire again. And so three times, he says, do you love me? Do you love me?

Do you love me? And so here's how Peter answers. He says, Lord, you know everything and you know that I love you. And so Jesus says, feed my sheep. Basically, he says, I'm not done with you, Peter. Let me tell you why this is good news for all of us, because we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Do you know what Peter has to think in that moment

where he locks eyeballs with Jesus? And he promised Jesus that he was not going to deny him, and then he did exactly what he promised himself he would never do. You ever been there? I'm telling you, Peter's thinking, I'm done. I've screwed up too bad. I'm rejected, I'm condemned. I am unfit for use.

And yet Jesus meets him right where he is. And for every sin, Jesus has grace. You see, where there is sin, I'm telling you, grace abounds. Here's what this means for you and me. No matter what you've done, no matter who you've done it with, no matter what you're planning on doing now. no matter how many times you screw this thing up, whether it's sort of like, oops, I didn't mean to do this,

or you scheduled it on your calendar to sin against the Almighty God. The grace of God is exponentially bigger than any of our sin. I mean, make no doubt about it, folks. I am a great sinner, but praise God, I serve a greater Savior. The cross is bigger than all of my sin, and at the cross, it is finished. And so here's Peter. I mean, again, folks, he thinks he's done. He thinks he's the lowest of the low.

And then Jesus says this, and after saying this, do you love me, do you love me, do you love me? He says to Peter, follow me. So what's he going to say? He's going to give him an invitation. Peter's in the lowest point of his life. Are you kidding me? And again, he thinks there's no way.

So he says, Jesus, you know that I love you. You know that I love you. And so Jesus says, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk where you wanted. And when you're old, you'll stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go. And this, he said, to show by what kind of death, he was to glorify God. Do you know what he's saying? And then he follows it up with this. So follow me.

Here's what he's saying. He's saying, Peter, I'm going to give you an invitation to follow me. And if you do this, if you follow after me, let me tell you what I'm not saying. I am not saying that if you obey God, that he will give you health and wealth and happiness. I am not saying that if you follow me, then I will make your life better. In fact, he's saying the exact opposite of that. You see, the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ is not follow after God, and he will hook you up with cash and prizes,

that he will make everything in your life go right. And that stuff gets peddled on Christian TV all the time. Historically, the problem with that, we call it the Bible. every single one of the disciples, the followers of Jesus Christ, literally took up their cross and followed after Jesus. You see, he's saying, look here, Peter, if you follow me, listen, if you don't follow me, fish as much as you want.

But if you follow me, some other people are going to dress you, and they're going to lead you a place that you don't want to go. You're going to stretch out your hands and you're going to die. Church history tells us that Peter was crucified. Crucified. He was given an opportunity to deny Jesus. not in front of a servant girl, but in front of a judge. And the judge said, just deny Jesus, and you can do whatever you want.

And he said, there's no way. There's no way. And so on the way to his crucifixion, he said, I don't deserve to die the way my Lord and Savior died. And the Roman said, fine, we'll just turn you upside down. And he died upside down on a cross. And Jesus is saying, in this invitation, don't follow me because I make your life better,

but you follow me because I am better than life. That Jesus is not a means to an end. You don't follow after God because he hooks you up with cash. prizes or a good marriage or health, wealth, and happiness. If that's the case, health, wealth, and happiness are actually your God, and you were trying to use God to be your servant. You see, it doesn't work that way. The prize of the gospel is that face-to-face relationship with Jesus, regardless of what

happens here on earth. See, one of the greatest benefits that I get as a pastor is often, you're going to think this is weird. Sometimes I get to sit with people in the final minute. and sometimes seconds of their life. Sitting in a hospital bed, sitting with hospice, with some people that love Jesus. And let me tell you what they don't talk about.

They don't talk a lot about their career, their possessions, their titles. They just don't. It just doesn't come up. They talk about two relationships. Relationship with God, relationship with other people. Funny enough, that's the first and greatest commandment. About four years ago, four and a half,

a man this guy named Bob, 11-22. He would, I mean, he's a stud, honestly. This retired guy was successful in everything, owned everything, sold it all, had everything. I mean, he was awesome. Beautiful family, beautiful homes, beautiful everything. He came on a men's encounter trip. That's a hunting trip we do in the name of Jesus around here. And here's why, because those things just didn't satisfy him.

And he grew up in a tradition, a religious tradition that said, God is good, you're bad, try harder. And he tried, he really tried. He tried to be good enough. He tried to figure it all out. and no matter how much he was seeking God, he just could not reconcile himself with God, and he was just worried and afraid, and he was just scared he wasn't doing it right.

And we would talk, and he'd come listen to sermons here and stuff, and then he was diagnosed with cancer. And it terrified him. And at first the treatment started, and he was responding well to it, and then it just turned on a dime, and his health went down, down, down. And I went to visit him in the hospital multiple times.

and somehow in that walk with cancer he surrendered his life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and I'm sitting in his hospital room days before he passed away and I'm knee to knee with him and eyeball to eyeball with him and he'd lost I don't know 50 pounds he was freezing cold he had this little hat on he's shivering and now he is talking about heaven not as an abstract theological concept

but a current reality for this brother and he looks at me with tears just streaming down his face And again, he's earned everything this world has to offer. And he says to me these words, I would rather die with cancer and Jesus than to live a long, comfortable life without either. You see, Jesus is more than enough. You tell me anything this world has to offer

that can satisfy you like that. And Jesus looks at Peter and says, it would be better for you to live a shorter life that ends in a brutal death than have me than to live a long comfortable life to milk this world for everything it has to offer. offer and to miss me because then you'll miss all eternity. And then he says these words to him.

With that in mind, follow me. Follow me. You want to take a wild guess at the very verse two words that Jesus ever spoke to Peter were? Let's follow me. It's recorded in Mark, chapter one. Mark 1, 16 and 17. This ought to blow your mind.

He says this. This is talking about Jesus. Jesus was passing along the Sea of Galilee. You know where they're sitting right now? We'll see of Galilee. Passing along the Sea of Galilee, Jesus saw Simon, that was Peter's name before Jesus changed it to Peter. He saw Simon and Andrew, the brother of Simon, casting a net into the sea. For they were fishermen.

And Jesus said to them, follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men. And see, I think Peter, in one of the lowest moments of his life, he's sitting there and he's like, okay, I see what you're doing? We're sitting here by the charcoal fire because I denied you by the charcoal fire, and your grace is more than enough to cover over my sin. and here we are by the Sea of Galilee. This is where we met. I just finished fishing, and the first time I met you had finished fishing, and the first time you ever looked at me,

the words that came out of your mouth were this, follow me. And basically what Jesus is doing in one of Peter's lowest points of his life, he's like, hey man, you just want to start over? You're going to try this whole thing again? You can't do anything about your past except learn from it and be forgiven of it. But how about right now for the rest of your days?

We just start over. Anybody need to start over? you see the theological term for this according to like first graders it's do-over remember the do-over what a brilliant concept that children taught us in my house we had the kickball yard and dillon and so a bunch of kids would come over and we played kickball and we had a home run fence and the bases in our yard it was a great deal but sometimes if it booted off the right side of your foot and went to the neighbors like thicket that they called their backyard it screwed up the whole game so we would just yell do-over and then you would just go back as if you never kicked it out of back

pounds. Can you imagine if we got a do-over as an adult, right? Tax weekend was this weekend, take your IRS for them, just write, do you over and send that puppy in? Wouldn't it be awesome? Or the cop pulls you over, do you know I pulled you over? Do-over, on your way. All right, it'd be great. Now, here's the thing. Some of you think, well, look, the Lord would never give me a do-over. Well, if you say that, then you don't know Peter. Peter's like the most jacked-up guy in the whole Bible. He screwed up everything. He really is. He messed. If you can mess up, if you can mess. it up. Peter messed it up. Now, he did some awesome stuff. His highs were highs,

but his lows were just the worst. Like, for instance, you know Peter walked on water? The Bible says that the disciples are in the boat and the storm comes and Jesus is walking on water and they see him. They're like, ah, it's a ghost. And then Peter's like, no, I'm asking my dog, Jesus. Jesus. This is not word for word. This is just kind of the Reader's Digest version. If that's really you, tell me to come out of you. And Jesus was like, come on, big boy. Peter's like, boop, he's on the water. Walking.

If I got a chance to walk on water, I'm doing the Rick Flair. Woo! That's what I would do, all right? And then he messes up the miracle. Takes his eyes off the Savior, puts it on his circumstances, and boom, gets to drop. And Jesus says, you have little faith. Or there's another time where Peter gets invited to be a part of the small group that gets to go up on the mountain of transfiguration.

The mountain of transfiguration is the place where Jesus in his earthly life demonstrates the glory of God to show everybody that he's fully God. And a bunch of commentators say the reason that Peter, James, and John get to go up on that mountain with him is because they were like in the inner circle because they were his favorite. I disagree. I did youth ministry for like 15 years. I know how this thing works. I think what happened is Jesus looks at the disciples.

He's just like, hey, I've got to go do a thing up on the Mountain of Transfiguration. You stay here by the fire. Please do not get in trouble. Don't burn anything down. I'll be back in a couple days. Peter, James, John, come with me. That's how it works. They get up on the mountain of Transfiguration.

He shows them his glory. The Bible says that his face is bright like lightning. Elijah and Moses show up. They've been dead a minute. They're having this conversation wrapped up in this storm cloud that represents the glory and sovereignty of God. And guess who opens his mouth? Peter sticks his head in and goes,

it is very good that we are here. And the Bible says, God is itchy. He says, man, shut up while my boy's talking. And the cloud goes away. He jacks up the mountain of transfiguration. That Jesus sends Peter to prepare the Passover meal. He goes up in the upper room to prepare the last supper, the first last supper. He gets it all ready, and then the disciples in Jesus come in,

and then Jesus, knowing that all authority in heaven and earth have been put under him, he rises up from the table to show his disciples the full extent of his love. He dresses himself as a servant. He begins to wash his disciples' feet, this beautiful moment. Then he gets to Peter, and what happens? Peter begins to argue with him. Ah, man, you can't wash my feet. And Jesus says, if I don't wash your feet, you have no part with me.

Oh, well, they bathe my whole body. Hold on, psycho. This is dinner. weird. He jacks up communion. You ever go over to somebody's house and like the husband and wife are fighting? And you're like, this is awkward. That was the last supper. He's praying in the garden. Again, he's like, y'all stay here. No, Peter James John, you guys come with me. You're not, I can't leave you alone. And so he's like, well, you guys just pray for me in the garden? Jesus is over there sweating, drops of blood praying. Peter can't stay awake. Jesus comes back,

wakes him up. I'm like, oh man, I'm going to give my life for you. You can give me a minute and pray. Falls asleep. Falls asleep. But then. Then. when the guards show up, then who rises up to be the hero? Peter's like, I got this, pulls out a sword, and shwing, cuts a dude's ear off. His ear. Not only is he a failure at prayer, he's a failure at swordsmanship. And I think he's probably thinking pretty good for himself. Hey, I've told y'all tried to get my dog.

Jesus picks up the guy's ears. This is in the Bible. You should read your Bible. He picks up the guy's ear, and in my mind, he looks at Peter and is like, seriously. And then puts the guy's ear back on his head. What's Peter? My bad. It's why the soar.

My favorite one of all is they're incessary of Philippi. And Jesus says, who do people say that I am? They answer. And then he goes, who do you say that I am? And who's going to talk first and who's going to talk most? Peter. If you talk enough, eventually you get one right and he nails it. He says, you are the Christ, the son of the living God.

And Jesus is like, Peter, you nailed it. That wasn't your idea. That came from the Heavenly Father. And your new name is going to be the rock. Petra in Greek means rock. And upon this, rock upon the public profession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

Peter's feeling like a boss. That's right, rock. Why don't y'all call me rocky? He's feeling it. And then Jesus lays out the gospel with the church. It's going to be built on. He says, I'm going to be arrested. I'm going to be tried.

I'll be crucified three days later. I'm going to come up out of the grave. And the Bible says that Peter rebukes Jesus. Jesus Christ, get over here. That's what he says. He's like, you ain't going to die on my watch. And so you know what Jesus says to him? He says, get behind me, Satan.

You know how much counseling it takes to wipe off the effects of the son of God calling you the devil? Kind of a screw up. And what does Jesus do with him in this moment? He goes, hey, why don't we just start over? Follow me. Now, here's the deal. Maybe you've heard the phrase like, God's the God of second chances. I know what you mean, but it doesn't.

doesn't mean what you think it means. Because you and I don't need a second chance. We need a substitute. And so here's the point. When Jesus says, follow me, he isn't offering a second chance at life. He's offering a new life. He's offering his life.

That's different. That's different than just you've got another chance to try again. You see, I've got a seven-year-old daughter, Reagan Capri. If I were to give her a calculus exam, guess what? She would get an F. Why? Because she's seven, and she's a Martin. So she would get an F.

And if I said, in my grace and mercy, I'm going to give you another chance at this calculus exam. Guess what would happen? She would get an F again. What she would need is somebody to take the test for her. What Jesus is saying here when he says, the resurrected Christ looks at Peter who has screwed up over and over and over and over. Essentially what he's saying is God made him who was without sin to be sin for us, that we would be made, His righteousness.

He says, Peter, follow me. And I'm not giving you just a second chance of life. I'm going to give you a new life. I'm going to give you my life. And here's what Peter does. Peter takes him up on his invitation. He takes him up on his invitation. You see, post-resurrection Christians like us know this,

that anybody that surrenders their life to the Lordship of Christ, God does not just, he doesn't just forgive them, but he also gives us his righteousness. He plants his own spirit inside. of us, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the Son himself, lives in us. So now it's not just us trying to do better, but it's God Almighty doing in us and for us what we could never do on our own behalf. And do you know how I know that Peter took this invitation to follow him? Because from this moment on, everything changes. He goes from the scared little coward that he couldn't even,

couldn't even admit that he was a Jesus follower, to the day of Pentecost. He stands up on the southern steps outside of Jerusalem. And he preaches the very first Christian. sermon and the essence of his sermon is this is that the truth of God is that God demands perfection and the grace of God is that he supplies it in the person and work of Jesus and 3,000 people get saved and then they arrest him and now he's standing before men that have the power to kill him and they say look bro we'll let you go but you got to quit with all this Jesus stuff and he goes man you decide to do what's right in your own eyes but as for me I cannot stop talking about what I I have seen and heard. Not talk about what I believe, but talk about what I have seen and heard.

And it takes him all the way to the end of his life where he would not deny Jesus because Jesus, Jesus was more than anything this world had to offer. So my question is this. Who needs a fresh start? Who needs a do-over? Who needs to hear the words of Jesus say, follow me? And when he says follow me, it's not, all right, we're going to start over and you get to try harder again. That is not the message of the gospel. Who needs a new life? Who needs the life of Jesus? It is as simple as ABC. That you admit, I'm a sinner. I need help. That you be, that you believe that when Jesus died on the cross somehow that counted for me. Then when he said, it is finished. It counted for me. And the C is to confess, all right, God, I give up. You are the boss of me. I surrender my life to you.

I answer the invitation to follow after you. Here's the way C.S. Lewis says it in his book, mere Christianity. He says, give me all of you. I don't want so much of your time and so much of your talents and money and so much of your work. I want you, all of you. I have not come to torment or frustrate the natural man or woman, but to kill it, no half measures will do. I don't want to only prune a branch here and a branch there. Rather, I want the whole tree out.

Hand it over to me, the whole outfit, all of your desires and all of your wants and wishes and dreams, turn them all over to me. Give yourself to me and I will make of you a new self in my image. Give me yourself and in exchange I will give you myself. My will shall become your will and my heart shall become your heart and your life becomes his life. and you can be back in that relationship that you were created for. Face to face with your Heavenly Father. If you will just admit it, I'm not a mistakeer in need of a life coach.

I'm a sinner in need of a savior. If you believe that when Jesus died on the cross, goodness, accounted for me. And you confess, all right, I'm in. I'm in. I'll follow you. That's the way it happened for me. I was a teenager at a camp that my football coach made me go to.

and the counselors reenacted the crucifixion of Jesus like in bed sheets and stuff they acted all the whole thing and man listen I heard that story of the crucifixion and resurrection every year of my life because I too used to just go to church on Easter and look what happened to me so be

careful and I'm sitting there and I see it and my coach says for God so love the world that he gave his only begotten son and anybody here that submits to their sinner believes in Jesus and confess him as Lord that you be saved And I knew in that moment it was not like a church story.

It was an actual event. And that Jesus came on a rescue mission for somebody like me. And so it was a Baptist camp, so we had to sing just as I am about 17 times. And on about the 17th verse, man, I was sitting on the stool. I'd wrap my feet around the legs of the stool and I sat on my hands. I was like, I ain't getting in front of all these people, man. And then somehow the Holy Spirit, like a tractor beam, grabbed onto my heart and pulled me down to talk to my coach. And I said, all right, I give up.

I surrender. And that's the night I began to follow Jesus. And my testimony is this, he is better than life. So how about you? The same invitation that Peter received on the Sea of Galilee 2,000 years ago is available to you because the same power that rolled that stone away is available right here at every campus and every location. Would you please close your eyes?

Would you bow your head? Not because that's some kind of super spiritual position, just to block out the distractions. and would you just deal with this? What are you going to do about Jesus? And if you were here today, and you would say for the very first time, for whatever reason, it finally makes sense. This is not just a church story, this is an actual event. And for the first time you have heard the invitation of your Savior say, follow me.

And you are ready to admit that you need help, that you believe that when Jesus died on the cross, it counted for you, and you are ready to surrender your life to the Lordship of Christ. to confess him as Lord. Would you just tell him? Just tell him, just pray it. If you pray that prayer, just raise your hand. Say, Father, here I am. I am ready to follow after you.

Our good and gracious Heavenly Father, God, I love you and I praise you because you love us first. God, I thank you that you sit your only begotten son on a rescue mission for us. And Jesus died for us, but thank you, God. It was not about us. It was about your glory. And God, I thank you that even in our services right now

that you would save men and women, students, that they would receive the invitation to follow you and that we all as a church could celebrate because that's what grace has done for us. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.