The Church of Eleven22 - Peter: Testimony - Wk 4

Episode Date: February 4, 2024

God uses our tests, trials, and even terrible decisions and turns them in to a testimony for His glory. - The Church of Eleven22® is a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. Eleven22 is led by Pastor Joby Martin and based in Jacksonville, Florida, with multiple campuses throughout Jacksonville and the surrounding areas. To find out more about how God is moving at Eleven22, go to coe22.com

Amen and amen. Hey, just to catch you're new here, man. The church of 1122 is a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. That means if you fall in the all-people category, then this could be your church. No matter who you are, what you've done, or how long you've struggled with it, or whatever it is,

that God doesn't love some future version of you once you get your act together. But God loves you right now, but how about this? He loves you so much that he would never leave you in our current condition, that every single one of us, by the grace of God, we get to come just as we are, but by His grace, he doesn't leave us there, man.

He redeems us, and he puts his righteousness upon us. Amen? If you got your Bibles, we're going to be in John, Chapter 21. You need to grab a Bible. You need to go there. We're in the fourth week of the series called Testimony. We started out strong in the book of Revelation. The Bible says, and they, talking about the church,

and they will overcome by the power of the blood, by the word of your testimony. And they love not their lives, even unto death. and we talked about the power of testimony. And then for the next two weeks, we looked at two testimonies, which we're also going to do today, we looked at the testimony of the blind man in John chapter 9, and we also looked at the testimony of a crippled man named Maphibib,

eaten at the king's table. And I want to ask you a question. I don't want you to answer it out loud. You'll embarrass yourself in church. But how many of you have thought you'd be a little further along in the sanctification process than you are right now? Anybody? Like, you ever look back on your life five years ago and think the U five years ago was an idiot?

Do you ever do that? Well, I got some terrible news for you. The U five years from now is going to look back on the U right now and think you're an idiot. You see, one of the things that can be a problem as we've shared out of John 9 and out of Second Samuel with the story of the blind man and Maphibishev is the story of the blind man, his testimony is this. I used to be blind, then I met Jesus and now I can see. How many of your testimony is like, yeah, I used to be blind, and then I met Jesus, and then I could see for a while, and then I couldn't see, and then I could see out of one eye,

and then I could see again, and it went across from college, and then I need readers. Like, it's just not like I meet Jesus, and everything's up in the right. Can anybody identify with that? Or like Maphethyshev, he was the cripple that was invited to the king's table, and his testimony, Second Samuel says, and he always ate at the king's table. And how many of your testimony is? Well, I did get invited to the king's table, and every once in a while I kind of push away from the table

and I, you know, go get Taco Bell late at night. What a terrible decision that is? What am I doing? I go eat with the dead dogs. Anybody? How many of you have ever made a promise to God in church and you couldn't keep it? You ever do that one?

Like, how about the Bible reading plan that you promised that you were going to be awesome at this year the first of January? How's that working out for you? Are you crushing it every single day? How many of you have these moments of faith, man? I mean, maybe it's elder-led prayer or saturated, and I mean, you're worshiping two hands up, singing like crazy, tears flowing.

You feel like if you open your eyes real fast, you'd see the chakina glory of God. And then about four days later, you're sitting in your dorm room wondering even if he exists. Anybody ever been there? You ever have moments when you lose your temper parents, and you don't even act like there's a God? You ever open your mouth and the things that come out of your mouth betray the things that you say are most important to you? You ever bite off more than you can chew? It may promises to God about all the things you're going to do to share your faith or take the gospel to the ends of the earth, and then you can't pull it out, pull it off. You ever say things and then just totally regret it?

Anybody identify with that kind of testimony? Anybody, nobody? Okay, so it's just going to be therapy for me to. today, thank you, right? This is it. Well, I've got some really, really good news for you, man. If you've been confused and had doubts and made promises, and if your testimony is not all up and to the right, but it's like one step forward and two steps back, and sometimes you just fall flat on your face again, and you are in really, really, really good company. Today, we're going to study the testimony of the Apostle Peter. And Peter makes me feel so much.

better about my own discipleship. And I'm not trying to bust on him. I just identify with him in a really, really significant way. Now, one of the evidences that the Bible is historical and accurate is the fact that we have Peter's testimony in it. I mean, he was one of the leaders of the early church. And if you're just writing propaganda, then guess what you don't write about yourself? You don't put the truth of all your screw-ups in there.

You just talk about every single time you showed up and you were like super-futable. faith, right? Well, that's not Peter's story. Now, Peter has some pretty incredible moments of faith, and I'm sure you have too, but they're often followed by some pretty incredible moments of failure, just back to back to back. We first meet Peter in Matthew chapter four. Peter is a professional fisherman, and the Bible says this in verse 18, while walking by the sea of Galilee, he, that's Jesus, saw two brothers, Simon, that was his old name, who was called Peter, and Andrew, his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.

And then check this move of faith out. And immediately they left their nets and they followed Jesus. That's a pretty strong start, isn't it? There's no five-year plan. They don't talk about insurance. They don't talk about what the retirement plan is going to be. They don't talk about the strategy. By faith, they hear Jesus say, follow me, and by faith, Peter,

drops his nets, drops everything this world has to offer, and begins to follow him. An incredible act of faith. Well, one of the things that you need to know is that in the first century, the hope of every parent is that their little boy might grow up to be a rabbi. Everything they did in this Jewish culture, it's centered around the synagogue and around the temple. So the best and the brightest would become rabbis. And the way you became a rabbi is you had to study under a rabbi.

And so every little boy and girl, when they were in about like kindergarten, age, they would go to Hebrew school, every single one of them. They were like kindergarten, and they would walk in the very first day, and everybody was given a tablet, not like an iPad, but like a slate thing where you could write with chalk on it. And on that tablet was written a Bible verse, and it was probably the Shema, Deuteronomy 6, 4, Shema, Israel, the Lord of God, the Lord is one, and you shall love the Lord of your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.

And here's the thing, man, when these kids would get this tablet, it would be covered in honey. And unless you were like pretty rich, you may have never tasted honey in the first five or six years of your life. But on this day, you would receive this tablet with the word of God on it, and it would be covered in honey. And then the rabbi, the main teacher, would say, go ahead and eat your fill. And these little kindergartners, first graders, they would begin to lick the honey off the tablet. And think about the mess that it created. I mean, honey's getting everywhere. Honey's getting in their hair and getting on their neighbor and getting on their elbows. And they're just licking this.

They've never tasted anything like it. And they are thinking, I love school. Mind how things change. And the rabbi would say something like, just like your tongue craves the sweetness of honey, may your soul crave the word of God. And they would begin to study the word of God. And by the time they got through elementary school, they would memorize every verse of the Torah, the first five books of the Bible.

There was no YouTube to distract. So all they did, all the songs they sang, all the stories they told, it was just all about the first five books of the Bible. And then, once you got out of about, it would be like elementary school age, you know, fourth, fifth grade, that kind of thing. When you got to that point in your life, if you were the best of the best of the best, then you were invited to go on to the next level. These were like the gifted kids. You remember the gifted kids? So in Dillon, where I grew up, we didn't have enough kids for a whole class. So once a week, the gifted teacher would come in and say,

hey, would all the gifted kids please come with us? And then all these nerds would get up. They would leave. And the rest of us would be like, hey, what are we going to do? And they were like, you know, here's some crayons and a wrench. You all figure it out, all right? And so these kids were the best, the best of the best. And then they would go on to the next level.

And they would memorize the rest of the book. Old Testament from Genesis all the way to Malachi. And then upon graduation, if you were the best of the best of the best, you went into the next level, you went into like the draft class where you could apply to work for a rabbi. This would be like the Ivy League kind of kids. You know, the kids get qualified for like Harvard or Yale or Georgia, you know, places like that. But to the rest of them, to everybody else, they would come and say, hey, well done. You did a great job memorizing the Old Testament, but being a rabbi, you're just not cut out for it. You don't have what it takes.

So may you go and learn the trade of your father. It's very noble thing, but you don't have what it takes. And so when Jesus bumps into Peter and the sea of Galilee, who's he working for? He's fishing for his dad, which means this. Again, one of the highest honors you could ever have in the first century is to learn under a rabbi. It's called a Talmuddin, to be a disciple of a rabbi. and of all the people that Jesus chooses, you know who he starts with?

He doesn't go to the Ivy League in the Holy City of Jerusalem. He's out here with the blue-collar folks that didn't have what it takes. He chooses the B-team. He chooses the not good enough. He chooses the one that all the religious people overlooked. And with these people, he says, I can do my best work. And so he says to Peter, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. And by faith, Peter drops it all and begins to follow him.

incredible faith, incredible faith. And the way Luke records this is that Peter and Jesus meet each other at the Sea of Galilee. They've been fishing all night. They haven't called anything. Peter hears from Jesus, hey, let's go try this one more time. They push out in their boat, and Jesus says, hey, drop your nets down and let's catch some fish. And they catch so many fish that it takes two boats to haul them in. And then after that, he says, follow me.

And again, by faith, Peter drops it all and follows him. even after falling on his knees and confessing, depart from me, I'm sinful man, and you are a holy God. This super high moment of faith. And then right after that, same boat, same sea, same Savior. And Peter, this time finds himself in the boat with all the disciples. And they're going from one side of the sea of Galilee to the other. And the Bible says that the wind and the waves are against the boat,

and it's rocking and a storm comes. Mind you, he's a professional fisherman. He's known how to do this before. and the Bible says, though, Jesus is not afraid. Jesus is laying in the boat asleep. And so Peter and the other disciples, because of they are afraid, they wake up Jesus from his nap. Don't wake up people from their naps, please.

Amen, fellas, today when we're trying to be Christ-like and take a nap, just please leave us alone. But what they do is they're filled with fear, and so they yell out to Jesus. Jesus, do you not even care? Because we are perishing. And he gets up from his nap. I think he looks at the disciples, not the wind and the waves, and he says, peace be still.

And all creation says, yes, sir, and just calms down. So you get these moments of faith, and you get these moments of doubt. Like in John chapter 6, there's this huge miracle. Even if you're new to Bible study, you've heard about this one. It's called the feeding of the 5,000. Jesus has been teaching. 5,000 men have gathered together. So if you add some kids and a date, this is like 20,000 people.

And the disciples come to Jesus, and they're like, how do we go feed all these people? And Jesus says, why don't you figure out how to feed them? And they're like, we don't have enough. We got this one little happy meal from that kid crying over there. That's all we got. And then the Bible says that Jesus blesses the bread and the fish, and don't think like a big slot red. Think like it was like a little sardine.

It was for flavoring. You would like rub it on your bread so it didn't just taste like bread. And Jesus blesses the food, breaks it, and then hands it out to the disciples. And by faith, the disciples do what Jesus tells them, to do, they begin to hand it out. I mean, think about this. Peter, he has one twelfth of five loaves and two fishes,

and then he's looking at this enormous crowd going, this will never be enough, but he doesn't let his doubt stop him. One by one, he just begins to hand it out. And the Bible doesn't say exactly how it happened. But at some point, in the hands of the disciples, the miracle begins to happen, and they begin to realize, the more I give out, the more I've got to give out.

and eventually they got so much left over, there's 12 basketfuls. And you've got to think at this point in Peter's life, he's thinking, I have made a very wise decision. I am following the miracle-making God of the universe who's drawing 20,000 people on high attendance Sunday. This is going real good. Well, shortly after this, in John 6,

a group of people come up to Jesus and they say, hey, if you really are who you say you are, how about give us a sign? To which Jesus is like, what? I just fed 20,000 people with a little happy meal. What sign are you looking for? And they're like, no, that's not enough. We need a new sign because Moses gave the people of God bread from heaven.

He goes, oh, you want bread? I got your bread. He goes, I am the bread of life. They're like, okay, cool. Say more. Then he says, unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no part with me. And everybody's like, what do he say? Can you imagine the note takers, you know, the presbyterian?

And you're like, what did he say, eat my fish? Did he say fish? Did he say fish? He can't say flesh. We're Jewish. We can't even eat pork, much less the prophet. What's he talking about? And then everybody begins to leave.

He doubles down on it three times. Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no part with me. And what's crazy is he doesn't even explain it. He could have stepped in in in one second. You don't have to bite me on the bicep. Here's what I mean. Okay. In a couple years, I'm going to institute the Lord's Supper communion.

And it's to remind you of my broken body. and shed blood on the cross. Another way to say this is apart from the gospel, you can't know me. That's what it's going to be. And it's not going to, we're not going to be, we're not going to be cannibals. Eventually, you're just going to have this like little dried up piece of body and a little welches for the Baptist, so everybody's okay, all right?

That's all it is. Relax. He explains nothing. Everybody's leaving. The crowd is dwindling. Peter's thinking, oh, no. I have made a terrible career decision. What am I doing?

He gets a little bit too close to Jesus. Jesus asked Peter this question. Do you want to leave too? Now, I don't know if you notice, but Jesus doesn't ask arbitrary questions. Jesus knows the heart of every man. The reason he's asking Peter, do you want to leave?

It's because Peter wants to leave. He still smells like a miracle. But when God doesn't make sense, oftentimes people say, forget you. I don't know, it doesn't make sense, God, so maybe I need to do my own thing. And here's what he says. He doesn't stand on faith and say,

Jesus, I would never leave you. It's not what he says. You don't want to leave too, do you, Peter? And here's what he says. Where else am I going to go? Where else am I going to go? You're the only one that offers eternal life. Not exactly a resounding statement of faith, is it?

I've got nowhere else to go. A few chapters later, Matthew chapter 14. Peter and all the disciples fresh off of another miraculous feeding. Jesus says, hey, y'all get in the boat and your head to the other side, and I'll meet you over there, because Jesus goes up into the mountains to pray. The Bible says that the disciples have a head start,

but they didn't make it very far because the wind and the waves were pushing against them. And so they're rolling like crazy, and they're not going anywhere, like you idiots in the gym on those row machines. You know what I mean? He don't make no sense. And yet Jesus, he knows a shortcut. He's just going to walk across the lake because he's the sovereign king of the universe. He does what he wants.

So here he comes walking in the middle of the night, and they see him, they think he's a ghost, and they cry out, and they're afraid. And then Jesus says, don't be afraid, it's me. And Peter steps up. And Peter says, if it's really you, Lord, then call me to come out and walk on the water with you. Now, what would inspire Peter to say something like this? Here's why.

Because when Jesus asked Peter to be his Talmuddin, his disciple, that doesn't just mean I'm going to teach you to know the things I know. It means I'm going to teach you to become who I am. That's what discipleship is. And so Peter thinks if I'm going to follow in your footsteps and your footsteps have taken you on top of the water, then if you can do it, I can do it, you just got to invite me out. And so Jesus says, come on, big boy. And Peter, by faith, gets out of the boat. You want to talk about a moment of faith. And then in my opinion, just a little bit of conjecture, I think he does the Rick Flayer over there. Woo! Okay? Now, if you don't know who Rick Flare is, he was an evangelist in the 1900s. All right, so look that up. and everything's going awesome.

He's walking on water. You don't talk about a moment of fate? And then, in perfect Peter fashion, he takes his eyes off of Jesus. He gets focused on his circumstances. And the Bible says he gets focused on the wind and the waves. He's filled with fear. Because fear paralyzes.

And he goes from walking on water to sinking. And then he cries out, Jesus save me. And immediately Jesus reaches down, saves him back in the boat and says, you of little faith, why did you doubt? And what did Peter doubt? He didn't know Jesus. Jesus wasn't sinking. He doubted that he could do what Jesus told him he could do.

That's what he doubted. A couple chapters later, maybe Peter's highlight real. Jesus takes the boys to Cessori of Philippa. It's Sin City. It was like the Vegas of the first century. There was shady stuff there. He takes him up on a mountain. He's looking over Cessori of Philippa.

There was this pagan temple. they could see. There was child sacrifice there and temple prostitutes and all this crazy stuff. There was a big hole in the side of the mountain. They called it the portal or the gates of hell. It's where they believe the demons entered and exited this world. And then Jesus

asked this question, who do people say that I am? And they're like, I don't know, religious leader, reincarnation of Elijah maybe. And then Jesus says, but who do you say that I am? Most important question you'll ever deal with in your entire life. And so who's gonna talk first? Who's gonna talk most? Peter's like, oh, I'll say words.

and Peter says, you were the Christ, the son of the living God. And Jesus is like, winter, winter, chicken dinner, bro, you finally got one right. Well done. Goes on to say, this isn't your idea, this was a revelation from your heavenly father. And then he changes his name. He's like, I'm not going to call you Simon anymore. I'm going to call you Peter. Petra, that means the rock.

Gives him the nickname of Rocky. He says, and upon this rock, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. And you've got to know, Peter's feeling like the dude now, man. His name's Rocky. He's thinking, dun, da, da, da, da, da, da, I mean, this is it. And we know that Jesus isn't building the church on the person of Peter, but on the public declaration of the gospel that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God. He goes on to say, and I'm going to give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, Peter.

And there's some stuff you're going to bind on earth. It's going to be bound in heaven. There's going to be some stuff you loose on earth. It's going to be loosed in heaven. In other words, I'm going to use you to change people's eternities. So he's feeling like the man, rocky. Got the keys to the kingdom of heaven. And then Jesus says,

and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. And Peter's feeling like, that's right, and I'm the boss. And then Jesus says, so this is how this is going to go down, okay? The way this is going to go down is one of you is going to betray me. And I am going to be in prison, beaten, flog, crucified, dead, buried, and on the third day be resurrected from the grave. By the way, in case you're new to Bible study,

that's called the gospel. It's kind of the whole point of the whole thing. And after hearing this, the Bible says that Peter goes, Jesus, come here, can we talk for a minute? I don't know if you notice, but I'm Rocky, and I got the keys to the kingdom of heaven, and that's a terrible plan. He begins to rebuke Jesus.

And right after this moment of faith where he changes his name to the rock and puts him in charge, right after that moment, he looks at Peter as he rebukes him because of the gospel and says, get behind me, Satan. So Catholics, Peter goes from being the Pope to the devil on the same page in the Bible.

I mean, I know some of us bear some scars because, like, our parents didn't say nice words. Imagine the son of God calling you the devil. You understand? This is a low moment in his life. A couple chapters later, the next chapter, actually. Jesus is going up to spend some time with his Heavenly Father on what we call the mountain of transfiguration

and he always invites these three guys, Peter, James, and John, many people say those were his favorites, I disagree. I think these were the three that he knew that could not be trusted alone. You understand what I'm saying? I did student ministry for a minute. So I think Jesus is like, y'all stand down here, write you a worship song or something. I'm going to be with the Father. Peter James and John, get in the truck coming to me, all right? They get to the top of the mountain, and it's this high holy moment of faith again. Jesus is transfigured. His face shines like lightning, shines like the sun. The Bible says that Moses and Elijah show up on the scene. They've been dead for hundreds of years.

And what's happening is what Paul says in Romans chapter 3, when he says, no one will be declared righteous by his own works, but an alien righteousness must show up that the law and the prophets bear witness to. Moses wrote the law. Elijah was the biggest prophet, and they are bearing witness to this alien righteousness that has come from God. The Bible is being personified. Jesus, transfigured, Moses, Elijah,

you. And then Peter goes, this would probably be a good time to share my testimony. And he sticks his head in there and it goes, hey, fellas, it is good that we are here. And then, poof, everything changes. You ever have that person in a disciple group always makes it about themselves and ruins everything? That's Peter, okay? And then the Bible says that the Spirit of God shows up in the form of a cloud and God the Father says, behold my son in whom I am well pleased, listen to him. That's Hebrew for Peter, shut your mouth.

Screws it up again. A couple years later, on the night Jesus was betrayed, he caused everybody to the upper room. They all sit down. They're about to have the Lord's supper. Now, they would know it as the Passover meal. And the Bible says that Jesus,

knowing all authority in heaven and earth had been given unto him, he showed his disciples the full extent of his love. And he didn't preach, and he didn't do a miracle. He dressed himself as a servant to wash his disciples' feet. And he was going to set for them an example that we would be blessed if we do like him and serve one another. So he's washing his disciples' feet.

And then when he gets to Peter, Peter has to screw everything up. Peter is like, whoa, whoa, whoa, Lord, you're not going to wash my feet. And Jesus is like, if I don't wash your feet, you have no part with me. In other words, you're going to go to hell. And Peter's like, okay, cool. Then how about give me a whole bath?

And Jesus is like, good gracious, dude. What are you talking about? You know? Thomas is probably like, what in the name of you is he doing? Why is he all right screw everything up? He's just this lifetime of overcorrection. Don't touch me at all. Give me a bath in front of everybody.

And Jesus is like, seriously, man, can you just be quiet for a minute and not screw it all up? At the same meal. At the same meal. Jesus says, one of you will betray me. And what does Peter do? Peter says, ha, you know who's got two thumbs and would never betray you? This guy. He begins to compare himself to everybody else.

And if all of these were to leave you, guess who would never leave you? Me, I would never forsake you. I would die for you. And Jesus is like, well, that's adorable. You're not going to make it till the alarm clock before you deny me three times. and Peter fights back with Jesus. And Peter's like, you don't know who you're talking about. I got this.

By the way, you ever make promises you can't keep? You ever go to camp, get all filled up with the spirit? You ever come to saturated? Come to a Sunday service and you make promises and then before the next morning you don't fulfill them. I got really good news. You were in really, really good company. You may be saying, why are you sharing Peter's testimony?

because it's my testimony too. So being filled up with a bunch of promises, he says, I would never leave you, I would never forsake you. Jesus says, come on, boys, let's go to the Garden of Gathemite to pray. It's a big night for me. And then he gets Peter, James and John, the same three, and says, hey, won't you come a little bit further and pray? By the way, I would say this to you,

for those of you that call yourselves Christians that don't think you need a church or you don't need a brotherhood or a sisterhood, if Jesus in his time of need needed some brothers to pray with him, who in the world do you think you are that you don't need somebody? You ever thought about that?

Okay, get over yourself. And so he says to the boys are, can y'all just keep praying? Pray, pray, pray. Three times they fall asleep. He keeps coming back, waking up Peter, and he's like, come on, man, I don't ask much. Can you just, one night can you just pray for me?

The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. And then from the Garden of Gassimini, you can see over the Kidron Valley to the wall of Jesus. Jerusalem and Jesus could see Judas and the torch is coming. So he says, all right, boys, wake up. The hour is at hand. My betrayer is here.

So Peter wakes up feeling great because he's been sleeping all night. And here comes Judas. And here comes the people to arrest Jesus. And what does Peter do? Again, it's overcorrection. He pulls out his sword and the Bible says he chops off a dude's ear. You realize he wasn't going for the ear. There's no ear shot.

That's not what he's doing. He's trying to be like, Jesus, I got you, I'll fight for you, and he even screws up his swordsmanship. And then Jesus is looking at Peter like, are you even being serious right now, man? Don't you know him about my father's business? And then the Bible says he picks up the dude's ear and puts it back on his head as he looks at Peter and he's like, I can't even with you, man. Seriously? Now here's what's crazy. The guy with the ear chop, he still arrest Jesus and has never made any sense to me.

If you put my ear back on, I'm switching teams, but that's just me, okay? So then they arrest Jesus, and they take him to Caiaphas's house. He was the high priest. John 18 records it this way. And Simon, fresh off of a sword fight, a little chatterer about washing feet,

a promise that he would never leave or forsake Jesus, the next thing happens is this. In John 1815, Simon Peter followed Jesus, and so did another disciple, since that disciple was known to the high priest. He entered with Jesus into the courtyard of the high priest, but Peter stood outside the door, so the other disciple who was known to the high priest

went out and spoke to the servant girl who kept watch at the door and brought Peter in. And the servant girl at the door said to Peter, you also are not one of this man's disciples, are you? And the guy that promised he would never deny says, not me, I am not. And so the servants and the officers had made a charcoal fire, that matters, we'll come back to it.

because it was cold and they were standing and warming themselves. And Peter also was with them standing and warming himself. Now, Simon Peter was standing and warming themselves, so they said to him, you are, you also are not one of his disciples, are you? And he denied it and said, I am not. One of the servants of the high priest, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off asked, Did I see you in the garden with him?

You cut off my first cousin's ear, man. And Peter denied it. and at once the rooster crows. Matthew says that he cursed and denied it. Are you one of his? And he said, blank, no, whatever you would put in that blank. Luke says that in this moment Jesus comes out of Caiaphas' house where he had been beaten, his beard had been plucked,

and he locks eyes with Peter just as he's denying him for the third time. And the Bible says that Peter weeps bitterly. and I'm sure at this point, Peter thinks it's over. Next stop, Pilate's house. Next stop, Jesus gets the crown of thorns pushed upon his head. He gets beaten and flogged. He has to carry his cross to Galgotha, and he's crucified, dead, and buried.

And Peter thinks it's over. For three days, there's darkness. And then that glorious Sunday morning. Peter and the disciples are just hanging out. They don't know what to do. What are we going to do with our lives? We thought he was God, but you can't kill God? What are we going to do with our lives?

Nobody's going to pay us to follow the dead rabbi. What are we going to do with our lives? And then sure enough, the women show up because they had been to the tomb. They went to the tomb on that first day of the week with a bunch of spices. Do you know why? Because a group of men prepared the body, and they've got to clean up, the clean up. Can I get a witness from all the mamas? You know what I'm talking about.

And so when they get there, the stone has been rolled away. there's an angel going, why do you look for the living among the dead? Go tell the disciples and Peter that he is not here, but he is alive. Why do you have to add Peter in? Because I think Peter thinks it's over for him. So they come running back, and so Peter and John, the writer of the Gospel of John, they take off running for the tomb. John wants you to know, so I'll go ahead and let you know for his sake,

that John can outrun Peter. He says it four times in one paragraph. They get to the tomb, and they encounter Jesus. the resurrected Christ. Then a few days later, they're in the upper room, and Jesus shows up there too. And he says, as I have been sent, so I send you. But I think even though Peter knows that it's not over because Jesus is alive, I think he thinks it's over for me. Like God might have a purpose and a plan for everybody else, but I have screwed up so bad that I am too far gone.

this. You ever been there? I mean, like you believe in the whole Jesus thing and you look around, you come to this church with so many people and everybody around you is singing with their hands up and you realize and you get it. Okay, God might be doing a thing in their life, but not mine. You don't know what I've done. You ever feel like giving up? You ever feel like throwing in the towel? I think this is where Peter is in his testimony by the time where we get to John chapter 21. And after this. And the this is all the things. that I've just been talking about, but primarily the life, death, the resurrection of Jesus

and the denial that Peter has. And after this, Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples. This is important, because what we need is not more information, but we need a divine revelation from the risen Christ, amen, that's what changes everything. And after this, Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberius,

and he revealed himself in this way, Simon Peter, Thomas, called the twin, Nathaniel of Cana in Galilee, The sons of Zebedee, that's James and John, the John that's writing this, and two others of his disciples were there. I love this so much. John's older in his life when he's writing this down. So the over 50 crowd, you know what I'm talking about here. He's trying to remember and recall all the dudes that were there.

Oh, I remember. Like me and my brother and Peter and his brother and then, oh, what's his name and what's his face? They were there too. Again, this is not a fairy tale. This is not a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. This is an actual event. And Simon Peter said to them, I'm going fishing. Now why is that a big deal?

You people in the gifted class. What was he doing before he met Jesus? He was fishing for his dad. This is not a hobby. What he is saying is, I'm returning to my old way of life. Like if I were to say today to Gretchen, hey, I'm going to go play basketball. I would never say that. But if I said I'm going to play basketball, she would think I'm going to my neighbor, Sean's house.

I'm going to play with the kids. If you'll remember back in the day when the greatest basketball player of all time, Michael Jordan, and if you try to argue about this, you're dumber and you know, okay? You don't even know what you're talking about. You're so dumb, right? Amen, amen.

But when Michael Jordan, after he had that little baseball thing for a minute, when he on the news says, I'm going to play basketball. It changed every. Everybody knows he's not lacing up and just going to, like, shoot around at the Y. He's going back as a career. When this professional fisherman says,

going fishing, here's what he's saying, Jesus is done with me. I've screwed up. He may have a purpose and a plan for you, but not for me. So I've got to take over and I'm going to return to what my life used to be like. I'm just telling you, he still believes that his activity determined his identity. And I'm telling you, humans, we have a propensity to hit the default settings on our lives when we screw things up and we think we let God down. The Bible says, this is love, not that we love God, but God loved us and sent his son as the propitiation for our sin. That word propitiation means a payment that satisfies. Here's why this matters. If Jesus is the payment that fully satisfies the law and justice and holiness of God, this means he can't be dissatisfied in you.

And so Peter thinks it's over. I'm going fishing. And they said to him, we'll go with you. And they went out and got in the boat, but that night they caught nothing. It's always a bummer, right? when you go fishing, you don't catch anything? Well, maybe, a part of the reason here is maybe they would remember the words of Jesus in John 15 when he says, apart from me, you can do nothing. Listen, for those of you that have a tendency to run back to your old way of life, you're going to get exactly what the fisherman got there. You're going to get nothing. And just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore, yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus.

Verse 5, and he said to them, children? Listen, this is a shot. This is. He's going to start messing around with him because Jesus will do that to you. Amen? He doesn't call him fellas. Hey, fellas, he doesn't.

He doesn't call him gentlemen. No, no, no. This means like little boys. He's totally, he's like, hey, little guys, that's what he's doing. He's making fun of them. Children, do you have any fish? And they answered him, no.

Now, doesn't he know they don't have any fish? Is God in the habit of asking questions that are just arbitrary? No. In fact, later this year, we're going to do a sermon series based on the questions God asks. Remember the first question God asked, Adam and Eve? He goes, where are you? He knew where they were. Then he asked, did you eat of the tree I told you not to eat of?

He knows the answer too. So why is he asking? The reason he's asking is because he wants us to deal with the situation that we've got ourselves into. And listen, any time you begin to begin to eat. to feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit in your life, please understand that is not condemnation. Jesus is not on the shore yelling at them. You cut any fish? That's not what he's doing.

This is a warm invitation to return to him. This is why the Bible says it's the kindness of God that leads us to repentance. Children, do you have any fish? And they answered him, no. And he said to them, cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some. In a first century fishing boat, the left side to the right side is seven and a half feet difference. And here's the thing, they're 100 yards off. They're out in the middle.

They're not throwing a Zebko up against the lily pads, and he's like, try that spot. It's not how it works. The nets will all go down to the same place. Peter could be thinking, what's this guy talking about? There's not sides of the boat. There's just the Sea of Galilee down there. But yet, they do what Jesus tells them to do. this is a really, really big deal.

We talk about this all the time. The whole crux of this 10-10 life thing is we serve a good shepherd, and he commands us, he speaks to his sheep, and every single time we obey what he tells us to do, we're always moving towards the abundant life because we're moving towards him. Listen, the blessing is found in the obedience. Sometimes people will say, I need a breakthrough. I'm like, how about break open your Bible, start reading it, do what he tells you. you to do because the reward is found in the obedience of the good shepherd. And so he, they throw the

boat, they throw their nets, they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in because of the quantity of fish and the disciple whom Jesus loved, which is who? John, only called this in the book of John, written by, I'm just saying, nobody else has called him this but him, but it's cool. Well, you could, it is, I wish we could all see ourselves the way he sees itself, but that's a different sermon. The disciple whom Jesus loved, therefore said to Peter, it is the Lord. Why? All right, gifted kids, remember, all the way back when Jesus first encountered Peter, the thing that he started with was a miraculous catch of fish. If you keep reading in Matthew and in Luke, the next disciples that he called were James and Johns, the son of Zebedee. They were on the same seashore, and they saw this. And John realizes this, this. This is the next disciples that he called. This.

This is the Lord. You can't explain it any other way. By the way, I give this answer all the time when people say, please help me understand what's happening at the Church of 1122. And I go, I know exactly what's happening. It is the Lord. Because we're not good enough.

I mean, seriously, look who you're seated next to right now. Think about that. And yet, God would do the miraculous among us because he has just decided to breathe life into this thing. And so he says, it's the Lord. And Simon Peter. Heard that it was the Lord, and he put on his outer garment, for he was stripped for work.

He was kind of a son's out, guns out guy, you know, and so he's gotta put on his, like, you couldn't meet your boss in your tank top. That was kind of first century etiquette, so he puts his shirt back on, throws himself into the sea, and the other disciple came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish,

for they were not far from the land, but about 100 yards off. And when they got out on the land, they saw a charcoal fire in its place. Now why does this matter? The Bible talks about fire all the time. There's only two times in the Bible where it talks about a charcoal fire.

When Peter was warming himself outside of Caiaphas's house, the reason that it points out that it's a charcoal fire is that would have been very, very unique. You wouldn't, if you wanted to warm yourself, you would just get like trash and sticks and make a little fire, a little bonfire. The charcoal fire, all you green egg people, it's that kind of charcoal.

It's like really expensive and hard to find and all of that. And now what Jesus is doing is Jesus is recreating the same moment and the same smell that Peter experienced when he denied that he even knew who Jesus was. And so they all show up. And it's a charcoal fire 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 hauled the net ashore full of large fish, 153 of them. You know why the Bible says that there's 153? Because there was 153.

people make up all kind of stuff and maybe it's true, I don't believe it, but whatever. The reason, listen, people count their fish unless you're like communists, then I guess I don't know what you do, but they're going to sell these fish in the market. They know exactly how many they have. This is not a fairy tale, it's an actual event.

And although there were so many, the net was not torn, Jesus said to them, come and have breakfast. By the way, John wants you to know, this is not a ghost, this is not a vision. This is an actual, physical, bodily resurrected Christ. Now none of the disciples dared to ask him, who are you?

They knew it was the Lord, and Jesus came and he took the bread and he gave it to them, and so with the fish. This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead. And when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John,

do you love me more than these? Peter doesn't know exactly what's happening yet. And he could say, more than these what? Like, do I love you more than these disciples love you? Because he did brag at the Lord's Supper that he loved Jesus the most. I think what he's saying is, Peter, do you love me more than these boats

and these nets and these fishes and this old way of life? Because when I called you to come and follow me, I called you away from these things and you have a tendency to return back to those things. He says, do you love me more than these? And he said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you.

love you and he said to him, feed my lambs. This is very important. In America, what we would do to Peter here is either fire him or put him on a performance improvement plan. Jesus puts him in charge. Like Jesus does his best work with the failures, with the B team, with the people that just can't get it right. He's still using the least qualified and the broken in the JV. And so he says to him the second time, Simon's son of John, do you love me? And he said to him, yes Lord, you know that I love you and he said to him, tend my sheep, be a shepherd, do ministry. I'm going to put you in charge of what matters most on this planet to me, which is the people that I came and rescued and redeemed. And I'm not through with you yet. 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? And Peter goes, oh, I see what we're doing here. We're sitting around a charcoal fire and I denied you three times and now here we are again sitting around a charcoal fire and you ask me three times do I love you but here's the thing I think Peter kind of misses it there's a wound there but the reason that the great physician is getting his hand on that wound is not to hurt Peter is to heal Peter if you go to an orthopedic because you have a broken leg what's the thing he's going to grab on to he's not going to avoid it and when you see the doctor reaching towards where the pain is from you realize he's grabbing onto the wound to help not hurt. When you feel the conviction of the

spirit of God drawing you to him, it's because the Savior, the great physician, wants to get his hand on that wound, even if it's a self-inflicted wound so that he can bring healing in that place where there is hurt. That's what he's doing. So he says, all right, I get it. I see what you're doing. And he said to him, Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you. And Jesus said to him, feed my sheep. Here's what he's saying. Peter, I'm not through with you because you screwed up. I knew who you were when I called you

and I purchased you and I have demonstrated my love for you on the cross. And when I said it is finished, that counts for you. So Peter, I need to be abundantly clear that your past does not determine your future nor does it define who you are. You may think you're a failure but you're not a failure because I'm not finished with you.

That my grace is greater than any of your failure. my grace is greater than any of your sin, that there's no thing that you could do, that you could disqualify yourself, that you cannot out sin my grace that was poured out for you at the cross. And because of that, that is not freedom to sin. That is freedom from sin.

You don't have to do the things that you used to do, bro, because you're not the person that you used to be. You were bought and paid for, and you were mine, and I'm not done with you. Sometimes. Sometimes people will come to me and say, hey, listen, I know the church thing works for everybody else, but God could never forgive me.

And you think it's a really humble statement. It might be the most prideful thing you could ever say. I would like to lovingly say, who the heck do you think you are? Are your standards above the standards of a holy and righteous God who sent his son Jesus Christ to live a perfect life and to die in our place? And when the blood of Jesus was shed on the cross

for anyone who would believe, it counts to forgive you of all unrighteousness, It's not because of who you are, but because of who he is. He says, do you love me, do you love me, do you love me? He is reinstating and restoring Peter, and because Peter sinned publicly and denied in front of everybody, Jesus, by his grace, is giving him an opportunity to tell him everybody that he loves him.

And then you know what he doesn't do. He doesn't give him a pep talk. He's not like, come on, get back in the game, it's going to go awesome. No. He says this, truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted. By the way, Americans call that freedom.

But when you were old, you will stretch out your hands and another will dress you and carry you where you don't want to go. This, he said, to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God. Church history tells us that Peter was crucified upside down for being a follower of Jesus. That Peter was arrested, put on trial, that he was taken to be crucified, and all All he had to do to save his skin was do a thing that he had done at least three times before in his life. I don't know it. But on his way to the cross, he said, I am not worthy to die in the same manner that my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ died.

And the Romans were like, fine, so they turned him upside down. And what Jesus is saying is, Peter, it would be better for you to live a shorter life and die a gruesome death and have me than to live a long life and have all that's life. this world has to offer, but not have me. The reason that we follow Jesus is not just because he makes our life better. The reason we follow Jesus is because he is better than life. There is a heresy being taught in some churches called the prosperity gospel. Let me tell you the problem with the prosperity gospel. It's historically what we call the Bible. Now, he's a good dad and he wants to prosper his children, but prosperity is not cotton candy and Cadillacs. Prosperity is that we get him. We get the abundant life.

in him and that's what Peter got. So he says, do you love me three times? You know I love you. He goes, well, let me tell you how this is he going to go. You follow me, it's going to end in the cross. But it's going to be worth it. And after saying this, he said to him, follow me.

Gifted class. Remember the very first words he ever said to Peter in Mark, chapter one, and Matthew chapter five. He says, follow me. I think what happened on this day is Jesus reset up all of Peter's testimony from the first time they'd ever met him through his failure and now they're back to where they started. And he's giving him kind of a holy do-over. In Dillon, where I grew up, we had kids who come to my house and we play kickball in my backyard. And my neighbors didn't take care of their yard at all.

We just called it the thicket. And so if you kind of shanked the ball, and had a nasty slice to it and it landed in the thicket, you could just cry out, do-over, and everybody would return to where you were previous to the mistake. That's what a do-over is. Don't you wish we still had the do-over? Can you imagine?

Blue lights? Do you know why I pulled you over? Do-over. Carry on. Wouldn't that be just the best? And so what Jesus is giving him, he's giving him a holy do-over. Now, here's the thing, though. Here's where it does break down.

But what you and I need is more than a do-over. Sometimes you've heard this phrase, God's the God of second chances. You know what the problem of the second chance is? You're just going to screw up again. And again and again and again. We don't need a second chance. We need a substitute.

We don't just need a do-over. We need somebody to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves, and then we get credit for what they do. This is what Jesus is doing for Peter in this moment. See, here's the whole point. that God uses our tests and our trials and even the terrible decisions that we make and he turns them into a testimony for his glory.

And so as we close our service, I want to tell you why we do it the way we do it. This is not, when we come to church here, it's supernatural. It really is. This is not Christian karaoke in a TED talk. This is not what we're doing here. What we're trying to do is encounter

the resurrected Christ once again. It's a real thing. really, really big deal. And I've been here long enough to see, man, that God shows up in some people's lives, and he relentlessly pursues his rebellious kids. Notice, Peter's not in Jerusalem where the resurrection happened. He's all the way in Galilee, but Jesus doesn't hang out in Jerusalem for Peter to get his act right and then make his way back to the temple. Jesus pursues him right where he is, and he's doing that for you right now. And when we close this thing up every single week. You know what we're trying to do? Listen, man, I can't make you love Jesus.

What I'm trying to do is get a little charcoal fire and put some fish on it, some bread, on the shores of the sea of Galilee. And I want you to encounter the grace of Jesus Christ. I want you to once again hear these words, even if you've been following Jesus for a long, long time, I know what you've done. I wasn't surprised. But once again, I want you to hear these words fresh because of his grace. Follow me. And so when we encourage people to come down and pray, today the people that need to come and pray are those of us that need grace.

And can God get you way back there in the very last row? Of course he can, man. But there was something about Jesus didn't throw his grace 100 yards into the ocean and do it from a long ways off that he drew Peter unto himself. And when he got face to face with Jesus, he experienced.

Therefore now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. again, he heard these words, follow me. And then we're going to sing, and we sing. We're going to sing, Lord, I need you. So the whole sermon is, man, Lord, I need you. My testimony is not up and to the right. It's all over the place.

And Lord, I need you. And when we bring our tithes and offerings, we're answering the question that Jesus asked. Do you love me more than these? Yes, Lord. Here is a demonstration of my love to you in worship. That I bring you first and best because you are first and best, and I love you more than all the other things in this world.

So I'm going to pray for us. and we're going to sing and we'll bring and we're going to pray. And for anybody that is in need of the grace of Jesus Christ, I'm going to invite you to come on down front and encounter the living resurrected Savior. Would you please stand and let me pray for you? Our good and gracious Heavenly Father, God, we love you more than anything because you first loved us.

Lord, I thank you that Peter's encounter with you is the kind of encounter you want to have with every single one of us. God, I thank you that you would love us so much. that you would meet us right where we are, but your love is so powerful that we would flip our entire world upside down. Lord, I pray against the voice of the enemy that tries to condemn us and tell us,

we are unfit for use because of our own self-inflicted wounds. God, I thank you for the gift of Jesus that would come and convict us of our sin and welcome us back into that relationship. And Lord, I pray, more than anything else that we just meet with you. Lord, we need you. We need you.

We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. So, church, we're going to sing. We're going to sing about how much we need him. We're going to bring our tithes and our offerings, our first and our best as an act of worship, and we're going to pray. If you need the grace of God,

I would invite you to come, kneel before him, and pray. Let's respond. I would definitely start at 13. I think that that was a pivotal moment. every boy's life of figuring stuff out hormones are raging. And not only that, but I just come out of the closet. And at 17, I moved in with my dad. And I moved in with my dad because my mother, she labeled me too much to handle.

And I was shipped off to live with my father so that he could rule me with an iron fist. So my context for Jesus was religion. and gays go to hell. Not a lot of grace and not a lot of mercy. So, many years later, I went to work in Hinesville. I walked in, and the lady looked at me and she said, you know I love Jesus, right? I said, yes, ma'am.

I was asking for a job. She said, well, you know Jesus loves you, right? And, of course, where the Bible tells me so, the nursery rhyme, but I didn't believe it. I just needed a job. And she looked at me and she said, well, you know, there's nothing you can ever do to change it, right? And because Jesus loves you, I love you. Why don't you start work here on Wednesday?

Over the next five years, this lady introduced me to Jesus and the Holy Spirit and the Word. And I was really, really good with the goodness of God and accepting the fact that he loved me. So for about 13 years, I was really okay with it. And I would ebb and flow with my mom with Christ. Fortunately, I got an invitation from my best friend's husband to go to an all-men's disciple group. Mind you, I did not fit in in an all-men's disciple group. I walked in and a man there said, I'm glad you're here. These young men had taken their example of what their faith looked like and they had put it into action.

They didn't need to say anything or need to preach anything to me. They walked in a way where they believed that when God said it was finished, that it included me too. And I was finally able to admit one night that God had been convicting me in my sexuality. Out of my conviction, the things that my attention was turned to had began to shift. When you pursue your relationship with Christ,

you won't stay the same. I stopped having attractions and started having brothers. And out of this, I began to dig into what my identity says through, what the word of God says, not what the world told me, not what my feelings told me. And something shifted, and I began to believe what the Bible said about me,

who it says than I am. I'm called, I'm chosen, I'm a royal priesthood. You either believe that you are completely set free because Jesus hung on the cross and rose out of the tomb on the third day, or are you believing the things that you want to pick out of it that you want to believe? I just believe that every part of it was for me. When I surrendered, I did not surrender just my sexuality. I surrendered all of it.

You surrender your pain. You surrender your identity. You surrender your desires. You surrender your expectations. And it was all-encompassing. And I surrendered to the fact that I may never get married. I may be single forever. And that surrender looked like if it was just me and God, I could be okay.

I lived a long time. A long time as a gay man. 22 years weigh the majority of my life that I identified the fact that I could please a man with the fact that I could also be loved and that I was lovable. Truth is that I discovered my value lied in Christ and whenever he died for me and I accepted his love and grace that I was covered in his righteousness and everything about me shifted in that moment because I was no longer not valuable because he placed his value on me. When you speak the truth about who you are through the word of God is the bondage of the enemy begins to become unchained.

Everything that the enemy intended for evil, God intends for good. And when we begin to believe what our identity is through Christ, we take the authority in that moment from the enemy using what he wants to for evil and allowing God to use it for good so that his warification can come forth.