The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 4: Do Over

Episode Date: August 9, 2020

You are never too far gone for the gospel to redeem, renew and restore you.

Well, amen and amen. How are we doing, church? Everybody good? You look good. Hey, way to make it through the storm to get here. Welcome all of our campuses. I don't know what the weather's like all over Jacksonville, but here close to the beach, man. Lightning, I think, struck the parking lot a minute ago.

And so I'm proud that you are here. You have endured a lot. Speaking of enduring a lot, for those of you going back to school this week, God bless you. And for those of you that got pushed back a few weeks, God bless your mom. and dad. Amen? Can I get it hearty? Amen. Hey, so we are in the fourth and final week of this series, loudmouth lessons from the life of Peter, and we are going to be in John chapter 21. John chapter 21. I want to ask you this question. Have you ever screwed up majorly? And I mean like really, really big deal. I'm talking about like, have you ever just lied and got caught for it?

or had an affair, or got drunk again in front of people that you promised you would never do that again, or your porn addiction was found out, or you slandered a friend and then it made it back to them and you completely got busted. Or you were spending money and you told your husband or wives that you weren't, but you got that credit card on the side and it's kind of hard to tell how much is on it, You know what I mean? And so you were using this credit card to pay out that credit card, and you thought nobody knew about it, but then it came up. And you lied about it, and then you got busted for that.

Or maybe you lost it at work, and you've been sharing your faith because you love Jesus and you got a love 22 sticker, but you just straight up cuss somebody out at the little water cooler. Or maybe it wasn't somebody at work. Maybe it was your kid. You lost it on your kid in front of all your other kids, and they think, Mama's going crazy because you are going crazy, because they make you crazy. Or maybe to try to calm down the anxiety, you're taking some pills.

but they don't have your name on the prescription. You ever screwed up? I mean really royally screwed up. Now get that in your mind. Now, those of you, some of you're your first time guest, you're leaning over to the person you brought you in there, you're like, you said he was funny. This is not funny at all, okay?

This is what we're going to talk about in our time together. I mean, that kind of screw up. And imagine if you, before you did that major screw up, imagine if you publicly declared that you would never do that very thing again. I mean, your friends, your family, your colleagues, you said, nope, not me. I'm not drinking it again. I'm not smoking it again. I'm not touching it again.

I'm not going there again. I'm never talking to her. Whatever the thing is that you were most embarrassed about in your entire life. You promised a group of people that that was over. You weren't going to do that again. Get that in your mind. Imagine doing that. And then imagine after you screwed up that the person that you admire the most wanted to talk

about that thing in front of the very people that you promised that you would never do that thing. This is what we're talking about. This is the context of John chapter 21. You see, it starts out, the first two words are just after this, but the this is a lot. There's a lot going on. You see, the this is at the very first communion service, when Jesus is there with Peter and James and John and all the...

the disciples, and Jesus looks around the table, and he says, there's going to be somebody that's going to deny me, going to betray me. And Peter steps up, and he's like, well, I'll tell you who it ain't going to be. It ain't going to be this guy. Because I don't care if all these other fools leave you and betray you, Jesus, I never would. And then Jesus was like, actually, before the alarm clock goes off tomorrow, Peter, I'm talking about you. And Peter rebukes him.

He's like, no way. You got your facts wrong. Jesus, I would die for you. And then, and then it looks like he's going to do the right thing by doing the wrong thing, really. Later on that night, when Jesus gets arrested, Peter pulls out his sword and chops one of the dude's ear off. And I think he's probably feeling pretty great about himself in that moment. Actually, he's like, see, Jesus told you, I got you. And then Jesus picks up the guy's ear and I think looks at him and is like, are you even being serious right now? And like Mr. Potato Head, puts the guy's ear back on his head.

You know what's something crazy about the Bible? And the guy still arrest him. That don't make sense to me. Anyway, they take Jesus off to Caiaphas' house to be tried, and Peter kind of sneaks along behind him and gets into the courtyard of Caiapus, and he's warming himself by this fire. It's a charcoal fire that's going to show up in John chapter 21. And three times he's asked, do you know him? And multiple times he's asked by a teenage.

girl, and her testimony wasn't even valid in a Hebrew court. And three times he does exactly what he promised he would never do. And on the third time when he says, the Bible says he curses. I don't blank knowing. You fill in the blank. He was a fisherman. You ever been with fisherman? And then the Bible says that after the rooster crows for the last time that Peter wept

bitterly. realizes, oh no, oh no. And then Jesus, crucified, dead buried on the third day, resurrected from the grave. Peter shows up to the tomb, trailing behind John, shows up to the tomb. He sees that the tomb is empty. He goes back, huddled together with the other disciples because they're afraid. And a part of the reason they're afraid is because if Rome is going to come after their leader, then as goes, the leader probably goes to followers, they're all scared. They're next. And then they began to give a report to the other disciples, and they're like, look, the tomb is empty. The tomb is empty. Seriously, we saw him. The ladies, Mary and some of the girls, they said they saw him. And Thomas is like, I didn't see him.

And unless I can touch the holes in his hand and put my hand in his side where he was stabbed, I'm not going to believe. And then what happens? Jesus just walks through the wall. Boom, what's up, Tom? You had questions? Here. You want to touch it? To which I think he was like, no, I was, that's hyperbole. I don't actually want to stick my hand in you. That's gross. You are my Lord.

He bows down. And then after this, that's the this. At this point, Peter has just kind of observed from afar that Jesus is who he says he is. He's resurrected from the grave. But it says after this, Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberius, which is the Sea of Galilee. And he revealed himself in this way. Simon Peter, Thomas called the twin, Nathaniel of Cana and Galilee, the sons of Zebedee and two others of his disciples, which just, this makes me laugh.

Okay, John's writing this down, he's like, I can't remember, you know, oh, what's his face and that's his name? You know, those two gods. He doesn't even imagine getting left out of the Bible, you know? I mean, seriously, he's like, he got Simon Peter first and last name. You got Thomas and his nickname. You got where Nathaniel's from, like you're introducing him to speak at a conference, and you got the sons of Zebedee. even list our two names, but it's two of the other guys. They're there too. They were together, verse three. And Simon Peter said to them, I'm going fishing. Praise God. And they said to him,

we will go with you. Now, when you read this, especially living here in Jacksonville, by the way, anybody fish, anybody like to fish? If you like the fish, raise your hand. Come on, raise them high, praise God, all right? If you have a boat, would you just raise your hand? Just testify? All right, I see that hand. I see that hand. All right. Good. Just make a note. All right. So when he's saying he's going fishing, he ain't going fishing like we go fishing. We go fishing because it's a hobby, it's, you know, fun, that kind of thing. I think what's happening here is that what Peter and a bunch of the disciples are doing

as they are returning to their old way of life, which is a dangerous temptation when you don't understand God's plan and what he's doing. You see, at this point, Jesus has not given them the great thing. Great Commission, and he was dead, buried, resurrected. That's awesome. But now what are we going to do with our lives? I mean, we thought Jesus was going to come in, kick Rome out of Israel, and the Jewish people were going to take their rightful place, and we were going to be a superpower again.

We had hitched our wagons to being senior VPs of Jesus Incorporated, but now you were dead and you're back, but you're just kind of like popping in and out of rooms without using the door. and catching people on the road to Amas, and like, what are we going to do with our lives? People are not going to pay us to be followers of the dead rabbi anymore. So, God, what do we do? And so he returns to his old lifestyle, or sometimes we'll have a temptation to return that old lifestyle if you think you are disqualified from what God has called you to do. And maybe, just maybe, when Peter uttered the last time, I don't even know him, when he denied

Jesus. Maybe in that moment when the rooster crowed and he began to weep bitterly, a part of what he was weeping over is, maybe I am done. I mean, I can't be a fisher of men anymore. How can I be a fisher of men when I don't even have the guts to claim that I know him in front of people that are directly asking me? So if that's over, if I've disqualified myself, then maybe I'll just go back to my old lifestyle. And then, listen, when you sin, not if, but when you sin, please, please, don't follow that one sin with a string of more sins and more mistakes. Man, we see it at church over and over and over and over, where defeat and hopelessness begins to be the loudest voices that you hear. And though it's not the voice of the Heavenly Father. He does not speak in the

of condemnation. And so some people, man, like you were walking with the Lord for a while, and then something happened, and now you're going back to that old relationship, and you know every time you go back to it, it does not go good for you. Or you go back to the bottle, or you go back to that crowd. And I'm telling you, if you return to those old ways of living, then you will wake up in the morning empty-handed. They went out.

They got into the boat. but that night they caught nothing. If you return to your old lifestyle, I promise you, you'll catch the same thing. Nothing. There's nothing good there. And by the way, you don't have to go there. You don't have to go there. You don't have to do the things you used to do because in Christ you're not the person you used to be.

The old you is dead. The new you is Christ in you. And just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore. Yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus, verse 5, and Jesus said to them, children, do you have any fish? I think Jesus is about to jack around with the disciples. I mean, first of all, he calls these grown fishermen children. Hey, kids, do you have any fish?

And they answered, no. Husbands, don't you hate it when you probably had chores to do at the house, but instead of doing your chores, you just went fishing. You know, we're supposed to serve our wives like Christ served the church, but sometimes we want to be like Jesus and actually go get on the boat. you understand what I'm saying, right? You ever go out there and you fish you all day, and then when you get home,

your wife knows the answer to the question before she ask it, but like Jesus himself, she says, did you catch anything? And you're like, woman, this is what you say in your mind because you want to stay married. You're like, woman, you know how to catch anything? If I'd have caught anything, I'd text you. It'd be on Instagram all close up here, you know,

just living my best life, catching fish. I'd text you, get fire up to fry, daddy, baby. We're going to have a fish fry today. You know the answer. is doing. He knows all things. He knows the answer. And I think he's messing with him. Children. Now, one thing to pay attention to, the last time Jesus sees the disciples, they're back in Jerusalem hanging out. And Jesus is not waiting in Jerusalem for Peter to get his act together and come back to Jerusalem when himself all cleaned up and ready to be a disciple again.

But Jesus is in hot pursuit of Peter, even when Peter is running hard away from Jesus. us, that God loves us so much that he relentlessly pursues his rebellious kids all the time. And on the run, he goes after him. And then he says to him, verse six, cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some. All right. I don't know how much you fish. But if I'm in the boat, I'm like, okay, dude, listen to me. Again, they don't know this is Jesus.

I wouldn't call Jesus dude if I knew it was him. But if I didn't know it was him, I'd be like, look, dude, listen. You know there's not like a right side. side of the boat under the water? There's not like sides under there. You understand? And so we have fished in this water all night long, and they are professional fishermen. And a lot of historians say that the rudder that you would like steer the boat with was not mostly in the back. Usually it was on the right side of the boat and they would fish out of the left. And so there's some pretty significant obstacles to do what Jesus is saying, but they decide to do it anyway. I don't know why,

but they do. But maybe you should take note of this. If you keep doing what you've been doing, you're going to keep getting what you've been getting. If you keep doing what you've been doing, you're going to keep getting what you've been getting. Some of you in your dating life, you keep running the same play over and over and over and over. and over and wonder why you keep getting the same results over and over and over and over. It's because you meet some idiot at a Jacks Beach bar and you'd be like, maybe this one will work.

Did the last nine work? It don't work, I'm just promising you. Okay? You're trying to swipe, come on, man. Come on. Your life is perfectly set up to achieve the results that you were currently getting. So if you like them, keep banging your head against that wall.

And I'm not just talking about dating, This is your financial life, your relationships. The reason you struggle with anxiety is you keep dealing with it the same way, the same way, the same way. Why not give Jesus's way a try? The author of life knows how best to live life, I promise. And so ultimately, in our lives when we find ourselves in a boat looking for fish and we fish all night and we come up empty-handed and we hear from Jesus, hey, how about try it my way? even if it doesn't make sense to you at first, please just understand. Your way ain't working anyway.

Why not give his way a try? Because ultimately what this means is that you can't be your own Savior, nor can you be anyone else's Savior. Now what we're going to find out here in just a second is there is great reward and obedience. There is great reward and obedience. In John chapter 15, Jesus says, hey, you want abide in me? Then abide in my word. obey my commandments, and you will stay close to me, you will abide in me, and apart from me,

you can do nothing. And so here's what they do. So they cast it. And now they were not able to haul it in because of the quantity of the fish. Listen, Jesus' way always works better. Now, I want to be clear about something, okay? Don't get this confused. We don't follow Jesus because he makes a life better.

we follow Jesus because he is better than life. However, I promise you, if you follow after Jesus, most everything gets better. It just does. That we don't serve him to be blessed. We serve him because he is the blessing, but I'm just telling you, if you quit going to work drunk, work will be better.

I promise. If you only spend money on things you can afford, your finances will go better, I promise. If you choose forgiveness over bitterness, it's better. His ways are better. They are, they are, they are. But the ultimate best in that blessing is that we get him. So they throw the nets over.

They're hauling to me in verse 7. And that disciple whom Jesus loved, which is John, only called that in the book of John. written by John. Let's be clear about that. And the disciple, whom Jesus loved, therefore said to Peter, it is the Lord. Now, I think part of the reason John says this is this is not the first time this has happened. If you go back to Luke Chapter 5, Jesus shows up on the seashore, and there is

Peter and Andrew and the sons of Zebedee, James and John. They're all there. And Jesus is like, hey, I got a sermon, and there's a lot of people here, can I borrow you boat and he hops in the boat and he pulls out a little bit so he could kind of set up this amphitheater situation and he preaches and then to bless them he goes all right let's go out in deep which he don't really fish for the fish out in the deep you usually fish for him around the edge which one time jp. asked me this he said daddy how come everybody in a boat wants to fish on the edge but everybody on the bridge wants to fish in the middle you ever noticed that it's crazy isn't it all right anyway so they go out in the deep and they say throw your nets over on the right

side they do it and they catch a ton of fish and and peter realizes that this is jesus and on his face and says, depart from me because I'm a sinner. So now you've got another miraculous catch of fish. And so John says, it is the Lord. This smells a lot like Jesus. And when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment for he was stripped for work. He's like Elder Rusty.

Do you all know Elder Rusty? Elder Rusty's always looking for an opportunity to take his shirt off. He's 64 years old, but he looks like a Greek God. I'm telling you, this man is unbelievable. and he will, the sons out, guns out, that's Elder Rusty right there. Okay, so he's just a great disciple, that's what he told me. All right, so he was stripped of work, and he threw himself into the sea. So John says, I think it's Jesus, and then Peter throws his shirt on him, boom, he is swimming

to Jesus. Now, why is Peter so anxious to see Jesus? Think about this. You can't read by details like this in the Bible. You've got to use your spirit-infused imagination and say, what is going on in the mind of Peter that the moment he sees Jesus, he's like, I've got to be there. I don't know.

Could it be because he feels super guilty? And he wants to go make things right, maybe? Could it be? He just loves him so much, and he's like, hey, forget fishing, I want to go be over there with Jesus. Maybe he's just still in all the resurrection. This is the third time he has seen him

and he just wants to be near him. Or here's what I think. This is just me. It's total speculation. Maybe he thinks it's a race. again against John. You see in John chapter 20 the Apostle John makes it abundantly clear three times that Peter and John when they heard from Mary that Jesus that the tomb was empty that they left the tomb and they ran towards the tomb and John through on

three separate occasions wants all of the church for all of history until Jesus returned to know that John could outrun him to the tomb. He literally talks about it three times. So maybe Peter's thinking this is more of like a triathlon thing and now they're in the swimming portion and the moment he sees him, boom, he's going to beat John to Jesus. That's what I think, okay? Now, it says the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, but about 100 yards off. All right, this has nothing to do in my sermon, but a one-off for leadership. Here's a leadership lesson, by the way. If you're a boss, if you're a CEO, if you're a president, if you lead people, be careful that in your excitement, that in your

and passion for your vision, you don't get so far ahead of your people that you're out there doing your thing and you leave your crew to do all the heavy lifting. This is a bit of what he does here. So he takes off. He swims to shore. And when they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire in place. Now, here's why this matters. What Jesus is going to do here in just a minute is he is setting a scene for Peter. The Bible says that, that Peter was warming himself by a charcoal fire at Caiaphas's palace when he denied Jesus three times. And it would be weird to warm yourself by a charcoal fire. This is the kind of fire that you would have like in a green egg.

Anybody got a green egg, okay? Raise your hand, all right, praise God, I see that hand. How about a green egg and a boat? All right, I'm trying to figure out who I need. All right, anyway, sorry. You see, usually if you were gonna build a fire to warm yourself by you would build a wood fire, not a charcoal fire, right?

Those bricks of charcoal that you gotta get, you know what, Publix for your green egg, they're way more expensive than just some sticks and stuff. This is a very specific kind of fire. And Jesus is setting the stage here. He's kind of recreating this situation. When they got on the land, 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 what the spiritual significance of 153 is? Nothing. Now, you can write a whole book and sell it in the Bible bookstore and people gobble this stuff up. Man, I've seen all kind of

theories and stuff, but here's the significance. Have you ever been fishing and not counted them? No, man. You count fish when you bring those things in. And the reason that I think there are details like this in the Bible is because this is an actual historical. historical event. John was there. He remembers five out of the seven guys' names that went fishing with him. He remembers it was 100 yards off the boat was from the shore. He remembers there's 153 fish. This is not a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. This is not a myth. This is an event. And so Peter goes and he grabs the 153 fish and any good fisherman wants you to know, they are large fish. These ain't a little baby fish. These are large fish. And although there were

so many the net was not torn. Now, notice what Peter's doing here. Peter dives out of the boat, swims to Jesus, see how much I love you? When Jesus is like, hey man, get some more fish for breakfast, who's the one that runs back and gets 153? The Bible says he's dragging him by himself. He must be swole. He's dragging him things here. Are you proud of me now, Jesus? Peter is a lot like a lot of us have a real hard time understanding that the gospel of Jesus Christ is not just the invitation into a relationship, but it's also the thing that sustains our relationship.

Like the gospel frees us from performing and pretending. It seems to me that Peter, over and over and over, especially, you ever do this right after you screw up? I mean, you screw up, man. I mean, you just sin. You just sin. and you're convicted by the Spirit of God, like that good kind of guilt that leads to repentance.

But what you try to do then is you try to prove yourself. Like you show up to church like twice in a row, two weeks in a row. You decide to sing the songs instead of just look at us doing it. You come to the author and be like, you got me now? Put a little extra tithe in there. What do you think about that? You see, all of this is a misunderstanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ. You see, a works-based righteousness is, look at me, Jesus.

Look at all my fish. by the way. How many fish did he catch? See, they all came from Jesus too. A workspace righteousness says, look at me, God, I'm working so hard for you. Aren't you proud of me? But the gospel is an invitation to a breakfast that has already been prepared on your behalf. And not after you've gotten it right, right in the midst of when you've screwed it up the most. And so he goes and he drags the fish in 153 of them, although there were so many the net was not torn. Verse 12. And Jesus said to them, breakfast. Now none of the disciples dared 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. By the way, I think it's important that Jesus is eating fish and bread here. Here's why. Ghosts don't eat fish and bread. It's not like Jesus, is just there in some kind of appearance, and he's picking up the fish, and he's eating it like the cookie monster, and it's just all going everywhere. No, no, no, no.

It was a literal, physical, bodily resurrection. And I've never been dead, Barry, crucified, and resurrected, but apparently it makes a brother hungry because he wants to eat, okay? But this is very important. This is not a vision. This is not something that they all just made up in their minds,

that Jesus was physically, literally, bodily resurrected, and think about this, there are a lot of people that will die for things that they believe in. But who would die for a lie? And every one of the disciples, every one of the disciples was martyred, not for what they thought they believed in, but they were martyred for what they saw and heard and experienced.

and which one of them would lay down their lives for something that they just made up. The answer is none of them. Why? Because they sat down on the shore of the Sea of Galilee and they ate fish and bread with the resurrected Jesus. And when they had finished breakfast, Jesus says to Simon Peter,

he's going to have this conversation with Simon Peter. Now, I have looked all through the scriptures. Now where does it say that Jesus said, hey, bro, how about come over here and let's have a private conversation? So this conversation is happening with everybody there sitting around him. So apparently everybody can hear this. And he says, Simon, one of the things that hit me is he doesn't call him Peter.

He doesn't call him the nickname that he changed his name to. He's going to talk to him and address him in the same place and with the same name that he did the very first time he met him. And he says, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? and I bet Peter's thinking, these what? These what? Like more than these fish? It's pretty good fish. Maybe you're saying, do you love me more than like these fish and these boats and these nets?

In other words, Peter, do you love me enough to finally walk away from that old lifestyle? And I say, I love you more than the safety and security of returning to that old job because it's got a steady paycheck. I mean, I know I didn't do good that last night, but I know how to do this. and I'm not sure what to do if I keep following you. Do you love me more than what this world has to offer, and are you willing to leave it behind? That's a question you may want to ask yourself. When you walk in your house, when you walk in your job,

when you pull in your neighborhood, just maybe Jesus would ask you this. Do you love me more than these? I think I quote this too much right now, but get over it. So Rich Mullen's song, The Stuff of Earth competes for the allegiance that I owe only to the giver of all good things. It is crazy how we can fall in love with fish and boats and nets and whatever it is in our life that brings us that kind of comfort.

And Jesus says, do you love me more than this stuff? Now it could be, do you love me more than these? You mean like these other disciples? Is that what you mean? And I think it may be that because I think what Jesus is doing here is reminding Peter of the promise that he made. Remember, the promise that he made is, I don't care of all these fools. on you, I would never. And then Jesus is like, do you love me more than these? You see, because John, John was at the crucifixion. I mean, he wrote it in his book. He wants everybody to know.

But I didn't see you there, Peter. But remember, you promised, you promised that you would love me and never forsake me. Do you love me more than these? And so Peter says to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. And he said, feed my lambs. Now the Bible does not say, how much time is taken between each one of these questions. I have no idea. Verse 16, and he said to him a second time, Simon, son of John, do you love me? And he said, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. And he says, tend my sheep. No comparison on this one. And then, verse 17. And he said to him a third time, Simon, son of John, do you love me? And Peter was grieved because he had said to him a third time, do you love me? Okay, listen, Peter's a little slow on the uptake.

which is good news for most of us here. If there's some things that you feel like God has to say to you three times to begin to get it through our thick skull, I've got really good news. You can make a great disciple. If you don't catch it on the first time or even the second time, but God seems to give you that same message over and over and over, I've got really good news.

You can make a great disciple. But at first, I think Peter misreads this whole deal here. I think he's like, all right, all right, Jesus, I get it. Okay, I get it. Charcoal fire. I was asked three times, do I know you? And after promising I would never leave you, I would never forsake you, I denied you three times. And now, Jesus, you're going to ask me three times in front of all my friends, in front of all the other disciples.

If I know you, okay, I get it. I've failed you three times. But what is happening here, this is very, very important. But Jesus is not condemning. He is convicting and allowing confession. It is the kindness of God that brings us to repentance, and his kindness is that he would convict us of our sin, not turn us over to our own desires.

Romans chapter 1 says that would be the wrath of God if he gave us everything that we wanted. And ultimately what he is saying here is, listen Peter, you cannot out-send me at the cross. At the cross, I took on all of your sin, all of your denial. And if you think your sin is big, you're right, but my grace for you is bigger. Peter, you were a great sinner, but I have good news. I am a greater Savior. Now listen, sometimes people will take these words of mine and twist them into some kind of free license to do whatever you want. If you think you can do whatever you want, then you don't know

what Jesus' Lord means. It is the confession of the Christian faith, that I am not the boss of me, you are the boss of me. And so when Jesus forgives us of our sin and sets us free to be free, that is not free to sin. That means we are free from sin, that we don't have to be shackled that those kind of chains anymore. And ultimately, what Jesus is saying to Peter here is, you are never too far gone. No matter what you've done, who you've done it with, how many times you did it, how many times you promise you never would, no matter what that thing is, you are never to be too far gone to be redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ. And I've had people say to me, God can never forgive me. I would say to you, with as much compassion as I can muster up in

my heart for you, who do you think you are? I mean, who do you think you are? You think your sin is greater than the gospel of Jesus Christ? Then you just don't know how big his love for us. is. I'm not saying what you did wasn't bad. It's probably worse than you think. I'm just saying the grace of God poured out for you is infinitely bigger than we even have the capacity to understand. And look what Jesus is going to do here. See, Jesus is not into cancel culture. He is into restoration. There are some things that need to be canceled. Like abortion on demand and the industry of pornography. But with Jesus, if you had the abortion and you were in the porn movie, Jesus would not cancel you. He would cancel your sin and restore you and bring you into the family of God.

And those things would never define you again. That's what the grace of Jesus does. And so, Peter, again, he's still a little bit confused. He's grieved. When he hears, all right, you ask me three times, do you love me? And he said, Lord, you know everything and you know that I love you. And Jesus said to him, feed my sheep. Another aside. Everybody listening. Do you love Jesus? Do you love Jesus? And if your answer is, yeah, I love you. Then let me ask you, then what are you doing to feed his sheep? Because what a lot of Christians are, no, no, no, no. I come and get fed. Well, what Jesus says here, I don't think this is just particular to Peter, I think it's particular to any follower of Jesus Christ. If you love him, if you love the shepherd, then our calling is to be a part of feeding and tending to the sheep and

lambs, feeding and tending to the people of God. So let me ask you, what are you doing? Leading a disciple group? You're in a disciple group? You know, some of you're like, I don't need to go to disciple group. I know everything. Okay, then boy, do we need you in disciple groups to teach all these people, these pagans that don't know their Bible as good as you do. So why don't you join one and share all of your incredible theological insights that you have with the rest of us, okay? And then there's some of you. And by son, I mean dozens and dozens and dozens. And maybe God is calling you like he called Peter to come and be fissures of men.

And that means vocationally. If you think, here's what happens, man. I talked to a bunch of y'all. You got called in college. and then something happened and you didn't obey that call and so you started making cash and prizes that it's hard to walk away from

but every time this comes up in church there's this thing once again and you know that you return to that old fishing habit and what you ought to be doing is pursuing full-time vocational ministry. So if that's you, man, we have a school of ministry right here at 1122. We have apprenticeships, we have internships, we, if you will just say

hey, I think that's me, then if you will just let us know, I think we're going to put a website up here. Yeah, if you go to COE22.com slash apprenticeship, if you'll just take that first step, then we, we will help you take those steps and what it means to fulfill God's call in your life to feed the sheep of God. And so, Peter says, Lord, you know everything, you know that I love you, and Jesus says to him, feed my sheep. And then Jesus says, verse 18. truly truly i say to you when you were young you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted but when you were old you will stretch out your hands and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go peter you used to run your own life and then you surrendered your life to me

and peter it would be better for you from this day forward to follow me and lead a shorter life and be brutally executed in my name than it would be to live a comfortable life without me. And then in parentheses, John's going to write commentary to the scripture and say, this he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God. Church history tells us that later in his life, Peter was crucified upside down. And after saying this, he said to him. Now, if you didn't know the Bible, what did you think is coming next?

Peter, I'm so disappointed, didn't you? You're going to deny me three times? That's all I did for you. I died on the cross for you. I came back on the third day. I even warned you. Watch yourself. Don't deny me.

You think maybe he gave me a little pep talk. Peter, do you know what the bare minimum is to be my follower? Do you know what the bare minimum? Like, if this is the minimum, and this is you're going to hell, and this is you're going to heaven. Do you know what it means? to cross over that. Do you know what it costs to follow me? Do you know what it takes to be my disciple? It takes everything. What if you gave him that talk? Do you think that's coming?

Because when we screw up, this is how we come to church sometimes. That's not what he does. No, he doesn't give him the pep talk. He gives him grace. He's going to say two words to him. Follow me. Now here's why this is grace. These are the very first. words that Jesus ever spoke to Peter in the book of Matthew chapter four on the sea of Galilee right after Peter had been fishing all night. That's the first time they ever met. What Jesus is doing is not just recreating that moment where Peter sinned and denied him three times. Jesus now has also gone out of his way, out of the tomb all the way to the sea of Galilee to meet him in the place where he met him for the very first time and he is going to give him

That same invitation, the very first words that he ever spoke to him. What if what Jesus is doing here with Peter is saying this, hey man, why don't we just start this whole thing over? Why don't we just start this whole thing over? So that denial, that doesn't have to define you for the rest of your life. That my gospel, my grace, my call in your life could be the defining thing in your life. Now the theological terminology from a first grader, that's called a do-over. You know what a do-over is? Something doesn't go your way in a game.

You just yell, do-over, right? You play in checkers, you mess up. My kids are called do-over, and you just put everything back as it was, which would be quite a blessing as an adult, would it not? Like, I know our taxes got extended when that stuff's due. Can you imagine just writing do-over on your form, sending that puppy in? You get pulled over by the police? Do you know I pulled you over?

I'm going to call do-over. Carry on. It would be great, right? But, theologically, the do-over concept breaks down because here's why. Okay, maybe you've heard this before. God is a God of second chances.

I know what you mean. It's just wrong. Okay? Because what you and I need is not a second chance. We need a substitute. Because guess what happens if you've got a second chance at life?

Just be a double failure. It's just true. I mean, in a third chance and a fourth chance, you would just continue to make the same mistakes over and over. Anybody, win me here? Anybody looking back going, who good thing you gave me another shot because I'm nailing it now.

No, no, no, no. We don't need a second chance. We need a substitute. We need somebody to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. The example I always love to use is this. If I gave Reagan Capri, my 10-year-old, if I gave her a calculus exam, how do you think she would do? She's 10.

She would do not good. Why? Because she's 10, and she's a Martin. So when I got that thing back, but honey, you failed, but because of my grace, I'm going to allow you to take it again. You would just continue to fail. She needs someone, a calculus expert, to take the exam for her. In the exam of life, you can keep trying, or you can take the substitute who has lived and died on our behalf that whoever would put our faith in him that we get credit for his perfect life. and so Peter doesn't just get like another chance he gets a new life and from this moment on from this moment on

and in fact he still screws up a little bit in the next couple of verses after Jesus says follow me I mean you have this incredible meeting with Jesus the resurrected Christ he's sin three times Jesus has Peter do you love me do let me do love me you know I do you know I do follow me let's start this thing over Peter fresh start you're doesn't define you, I define you. And then what Peter does, immediately after you can read it for yourself, he looks around and sees John. He's like, what about that guy? To which, can you imagine Jesus being like, are you kidding me?

Quit comparing yourself. If I want to leave him alive until I return, what's that matter to you? And then he says it again. He gets another do-over in about two seconds. Okay, you just screw it again. Let's start this over, okay? Every time he screw up, his grace just keeps pouring on him and pouring on him and pouring on him. And then again, he says, all right, just follow me.

And from here, from here, Peter's life's changed. It's transformed forever. He's not perfect, but it's changed. He is transformed from a cowardly denier that can't even admit that he knows who Jesus is to a bold proclaimer of the gospel of Jesus Christ. In Acts chapter 2, the Spirit of God comes upon him, and the people that have the ability to kill him are standing in front of him, and he says to them, the author of life showed up on the planet to save us and you crucified him,

repent and be baptized. And that day, 3,000 people come to Christ. A couple days later, he and one of the other disciples are heading up to the temple and this guy's asking for money. And he's like, I'm in ministry. I ain't got no money, but what I have, I give to you in the name of Jesus, stand up and walk. And the brother pops up and goes to church, and then a bunch of people start freaking out about it. So they arrest him and they take him before the people that, had Jesus killed, and they say, look, you can heal people. Everybody loves a good healing,

but you got to stop with the Jesus talk. And this guy, Peter, the same guy that's chopping off ears, the same guy that's denying he knows Jesus, the same guy that's sinking and falling in the water. Now he says, in Acts chapter 4 verse 20, he says, you decide what's right in your eyes, but I can't stop help. I can't help stop talking about what I have seen and heard. And what he had seen and heard was a resurrected Jesus. And so what happened to this guy is he has breakfast with Jesus, the resurrected Christ, he's filled with the Holy Spirit, and now everything changes. He leads the church in Jerusalem for about 30 years. And then this ordinary, uneducated fisherman writes 1st Peter and 2nd Peter in the back of our Bibles. He writes things like this, beloved.

it. Do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you as though something strange were happening to you, but rejoice insofar as you share Christ's suffering that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you were insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed because the spirit of glory and of God rest upon you. But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evil door or as a meddler. Yet if any one, suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. And he also writes, since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me. What happened to this man? He met the resurrected Christ and he was filled with

the Spirit of God. Later, he goes to Rome. He's arrested. He's being taken to the cross and He says, church history tells us that he says, I am not worthy to die the way my Lord died. And they said, that's fine. So they crucified him upside down. And 30 years later or so, he eventually made good on his promise that said, I would lay my life down for you, Jesus. What happened to this man? This man, the loudmouth, that got himself in trouble all the time, that said all kind of stuff, that did all kind of stuff, that you think could define his life. His life was not defined by that.

His life was defined by his encounter with the resurrected Jesus and the indwelling Holy Spirit. You see, here's the point. And I need you to hear this. Whether you've been walking with Jesus for a real long time or you've never put your faith in him, here's the point. You are never too far gone for the gospel

to redeem and renew and restore you. You are never too far gone. No matter what you've done or how many times you've done it or what your struggle is that you cannot outrun the grace of Jesus Christ. And so what is God calling you to do? For some of you,

what he's calling you to do is to repent and to turn back from him. Quit trying to show off by hauling in the fish and swim into him. Quit trying to do that. You have been invited to a breakfast that is already prepared for you.

And for some of you, you need to go back to that thing that he called you to do and be faithful, be faithful to feed his sheep. For some of you, that is. That's it. Turn it all in, man. Put in your pink slip, show up to our school of ministry. And one day you're going to be working full time in the church. Or maybe it's to start that ministry that he called you a long time ago to do whatever it is, whatever it is, I dare you to just take a step in that direction.

Because ultimately, ultimately, what we want to say when Jesus looks at us and says, do you love me? is that we answer. You know all things. You know that I love you. And you don't have to prove it by the way you live, but when the love of God pours over you, that is how we are then able to love him back. That when we see him on the cross,

the one who knew no sin, who God made to be sin, on our behalf, that whoever would put our faith in him, that we would be transformed, we would be made into the righteousness of God, that we would be so overwhelmed by the love of the Father towards us, that our response with all of our lives is, I want to love you back.

I want to love you back. So what does that look like for you? I could give you a list of options. Here's the good news. I promise you, if you'll lean in, the Spirit of God will preach this sermon to your heart, and you should just do what he says. you should just throw your nets on the right side. You've been doing the same thing over and over and over your way.

It's not working, right? You want difference results? Then try the author of life's advice and do things his way. Put your faith in him, love him, and then act like it with all of your life. Let me pray. Our good and gracious Heavenly Father, Lord, we love you more than anything. And the only way we can do that, the only way we can answer, the question you asked Peter, do you love me,

is that we can love you because you first loved us. Because this is love that we didn't come after you. You came after us. And you sent your son, Jesus Christ, as a propitiation for our sin, the payment that satisfies. So if our faith is in Him, then God, your payment is fully satisfied. Therefore, you could never be dissatisfied in us. So, God, would you give us the ability to see us the way you see us?

Would you continuously allow the gospel invitation to that breakfast already prepared to fuel us to be free from sin? And God, would you allow the power of the gospel to free us to say yes to whatever that call is in our life to feed your sheep to tend to your flock? And God, I thank you that we can love you because you loved us first. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Church, would you please stand? We are going to sing a song. that Michael wrote for us on our album and the words of it are rooted in what we were talking about

tonight that if you'll lean in man there's a million things in this world trying to tear us apart from Jesus but if you know him then the spirit of God in you want you to want to love him and through the gospel of Jesus Christ we can and so So a part of the way we respond to the gospel is we pray. Man, if you walked in here with shame or guilt, then pick your head up. Nobody walks into God's kingdom with a limp. No way, man, because Jesus has set us free to be more than conquerors. That thing that you're ashamed of was fully paid for at the cross.

It is finished. So you come to him in prayer with boldness. With the boldness of the righteousness of Christ, that is how boldness. we get to address our father on his throne. So we invite you to pray. And we invite you to bring, bring your ties and offerings, your first and best. It's just a declaration with a thing in our world that tries to distract us from what we love most with the shiny things of this world that we say every single week, first, God, first. I want to put you first and trust you for everything else.

And we're going to sing. So as you're ready, join your voices together. And let's make much of him.