Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 1238 | ‘Duck Dynasty’ Announces the Arrival of Two New Babies

Episode Date: December 31, 2025

The “Duck Dynasty" family shares joyful news as two new babies are welcomed into the next generation! The guys dive into to legacy, responsibility, and how moments of new life often prompt deeper reflection on faith and purpose. Jase and the guys explore Peter’s restoration after failure, focusing on how Jesus meets people where they are and calls them forward rather than leaving them in guilt. They tie new beginnings to the hope of resurrection and the grace that keeps God’s family growing. In this episode: Matthew 28, verses 18–20; Mark 16, verses 15–19; Luke 24, verses 36–49; John 2, verses 1–11; John 10, verses 1–18; John 13, verses 36–38; John 20, verses 30–31; John 21, verses 1–23; Acts 1, verses 6–11; Acts 10, verses 9–48; 1 Corinthians 15, verses 12–20; Galatians 2, verses 11–14; Hebrews 11, verses 35–40; 1 Peter 5, verses 1–4; Deuteronomy 29, verse 29 Chapters: 00:00-06:47 The meaning of faith “incarnate” 06:48-14:16 Will there be marriage in Heaven? 14:17-23:58 Jump OUT of the boat!! 23:59-32:40 Three types of love 32:41-39:55 Peter lives his own foretold death 39:56-46:10 Thank God for unanswered prayers 46:11-54:06 At the end of the day, Jesus gives rest — Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? Welcome back to Unashamed. For you, it's been one day, for us it's been two minutes because we're jumping right back in. But I do want to give congratulations. I just received a text that John Gobwin, our good friend and Paula, from our Duck Call Room podcast, our grandparents. Their daughter, Johan, just had twin, twin girls this morning. everybody's healthy and doing well, so we're excited about that. You know, Johanna had some issues getting pregnant and had some problems, so there was a little bit of fear and prayer this morning, but everything's good. So God be praised. Slightly larger than a crappie.

Yeah, four and six pounds. In the large mouth bass arena as far as size, because there's two of them. Yeah, that's right. I'm only saying that because that's probably how he's going to describe them because he's now a, guide a fishing guide yeah that's what he wants well my oldest daughter jays was anna who now takes care of mom she she turns 40 this year i can't believe it i have a child about to be 40 years old that she she weighed one pound and 15 ounces and i remember dad saying the first time dad went visited her he looked at her and course she was 12 inches long so i mean we're talking less than

two pounds so this is like a cropy you know speaking of fish and dad looked there he said Al, I caught fish bigger than her just yesterday. And I said, I know, Dad. I said, you know, and it was so funny because we were so young. And we were new, I was a new Christian. You know, I'd just come back to the Lord. And Lisa and I were, you know, fairly newly married within two years. And so it was almost like we were so faithful.

I didn't even fear probably as much as I would now. I was just thinking she'd be fine. And she was a business. Yeah. And what a wonderful human reflecting God's image she turned out to be. to be. He's awesome. I told mom and dad both that back before dad crossed over.

I said, you all remember when that one right there, we were in their room? And I said, Dad, do you remember when she was that little skint squirrel, is what she looked like in the hospital? He said, yep. And I said, did you ever think she'd be almost 40 and taking care of you and mom? He said, God is good. Yeah. That's what he said.

Yeah, she kind of became Phil's favorite, you know, just in the last month of his life. Well, she's the oldest, too, so because it makes sense. She's the oldest of her. It's okay to play favorite. favorites from time to time. It is. Especially when you got somebody taking care of your folks, which is good. All right. We have to get to John 21 because this is the last venture for John in the last podcast. So we're into the last, well, I wouldn't say it was the last appearance. It's the last one in John, but probably chronologically. Obviously, there's one more when Jesus leaves,

which I would call the last appearance, which is the Great Commission, Matthew 28, Mark 16, where he gives them the charge, and then he literally flies away, and then you pick it up in Acts 1. Luke is who wrote the book of Luke as well. I mean, he probably wasn't flying. He just... We just left here. Yeah. I mean, he was in the air.

He was levitating. He was levitating. Maybe he disappeared. Yeah. That's why some of the... Well, he got to some point where they were looking, and then it said they couldn't see him. Well, it said a cloud hid him from their sight. Right.

But the reason... Could have been a local. playfully pushing back is because he was no longer bound by space or time. Right. Which is how he's sitting at a table eating with two guys, and then it said their eyes were open, they saw him, they recognized him, and then he disappeared. What does that mean? Well, how did he get in the room when the doors were locked? Exactly. So, I want to say that because there's a lot of bad theology out there that starts trying to attach him to space and time. And so, because we use those words.

Well, when he comes back, which is so interesting. I think a better word would be when he appears. Which is so interesting, Jay's because I just had this conversation. There's a lady, a wonderful lady, that sits with mom now for, she's kind of the regular during the day. And so we were talking yesterday, and we've always had a lot of conversations because she's there. And so you're always talking with mom and talking with her. And so somehow this came up about what we're going to be like. I guess we were probably talking about dad and maybe mom, you know,

like post-resurrection. And then the lady, she said, well, the only thing we know is we won't have a physical body. And I was like, oh, do we know that? I said, why do we know that? So I asked her, then she starts telling him. And so I said, well, you know, and then I just kind of subtly went into a little Bible study with her, you know. We did read the Luke 24 last time where he, out of Jesus's lip, said, look at my hands and my feet. a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.

He's not a ghost. Zach, give us about five big words that nobody's ever heard of to put an exclamation point on that. Can you take that whole thing and lump it into five words we've never heard of? Five words you've never heard of. Probably not, but I do think it's a, I mean, it is a key distinction of the Christian faith is not just that Christ incarnated, which he did. There's one in the form of a baby. Incarnate.

In flesh. In flesh. Well, think about the word incarnate. Think about the word carnivore. A carnivore diet. What does that mean? Meat, flesh, right? If I'm a carnivore, then I'm a meat eater.

And so Christ came and put himself in meat. And he did. He was in a human body. And so whatever the body that was raised imperishable, it still was a body of flesh. and blood, our flesh and bones, as the scripture says. And, yeah, it's kind of an interesting question because he's thinking, where is that body? Where is his body right now?

I don't have a really great understanding of that. But, well, I would say he's here. We're the body of Christ. And that's true. That's true. But he's also someplace as well. Well, it's kind of when you go back to John 2 and the wedding. and you realize

you read that story again when he changed the water to the wine but then it says what is the exact phrase? He revealed his glory to the disciples. In 211, this is the first of his miraculous sign

Jesus performed at Canaan and Galilee. He thus revealed his glory and his disciples put their faith in him. Yeah. So you see where I'm going? He's looking for a bride. Because in Christ, or female.

Right. We're the bride, body of Christ. But he still has a body. I was just using that playfully. But it also showed that, remember when he changed the watered wine, he gave him the best. He improved on all the little wines out there. And that was kind of what we talked about last time about what he does. But it's hard to put that into words because it's better than you can imagine.

I mean, you think about Paul's prayer. He can do more than we can imagine. Which is interesting, because even the little glimpses you got from things he said, remember when they tried to trap in that time when they were like, you know, if you were married seven times and, you know, then you're in the resurrection, who will you be married to? Like they had a real theological point. He was like, oh, you're ignorant of the scriptures.

Yeah, what's what he says. You don't know other scriptures, and we talked about that on the last podcast, or the power of God. Exactly. So, and he also said in that story, to God, all are alive. Right, which is to the point you just made about male and female, that's why he said there won't be any marriage like you know marriage on earth for the purposes we're married on earth.

But he didn't say you wouldn't be brother and sister and one and have all the blessings of resurrection. Because a lot of people are like, that's a bummer for them. And Lisa really struggled with this early because she was like, well, I want to be married to you. I said, well, babe. Oh, yeah. You understand?

We're like, brother. We're going to be best friends through eternity. Like, don't worry about that. It's way deeper. It's way deeper. I've said that in so many discussions. You know, we've done that numerous house churches and Bible talks. And you start talking about what the afterlife is going to be like.

And I just usually wind up saying, I think we need to think bigger. Yeah, it's bigger. We need to use our imagination. And look, I think the reason for that is if we could wrap the essence of God in our, little brain, he really wouldn't be God. I mean, you can't conceive who he is. We just relate. That's why he became a human. Yeah. Which is. So, Zach, I got a question. What is your, what's the ESV? Is that what you're using? ESV? Yeah. What is the ESV verse of John 21? Read that verse. He called out to them. John 215 says Jesus said to them, children, do you have any fish?

They answered him, no. So that word, I want you to read that because the ESV is, that's a much better translation. The NIV says, friends. But he actually calls them children. And I looked up the word, and it's not like, it's a lot like a negative thing. It's like an affectionate term. But it would be like if we were to say, like when I say, when we, Zach, when we do the Hillsdale,

I refer to John, Luke, and Christian as the kids. I say, well, now you kids are at the adult table. Well, I'm not demeaning them. They're just young, but they're part of our discussion. Well, that's sort of what he does here. It's almost playful, but I never recognize it until I looked up the word.

Well, it makes more sense now when you go back to Chapter 20 in the conversation with Mary, when he said, you know, don't hold on to me for I have not yet returned to the father. Right. Go instead to my brothers. and tell them, I am returning to my father and your father. Right, right.

His language changed post-resurrection with them. That's exactly right. And this word signifies that much better, and I wanted to bring that out. Which gives more evidence about the forever family, a phrase we've used and talking about God getting his family back, which is what happened. So that was one thing I would have mentioned. Two was another thing in the kind of the throwbacks. You remember Thomas is here.

and Nathaniel, and I thought it was interesting that those two guys wound up in this little fishing party because they're normally weren't fishermen. I mean, they had different backgrounds. Remember Nathaniel even had kind of a royalty background to him. It was very structured in the Jewish hierarchy. But it's interesting, both of them were skeptics, I would say more than everybody else,

based on the little interaction we have from the Book of John, Nathaniel and Thomas. And yet they were here for this moment with Peter. And again, accidents don't happen in biblical narrative. So there was a reason why this little party was together. Well, and I think they had just kind of returned to where they started. And it's kind of like when someone dies, usually there's about a week or two where everybody's around each other, you know, all the parties involved. And you just have this weird occurrence, which, by the way, when we were doing our Christmas with our,

my oldest son the other night, and my daughter asked for us to go around and say what our favorite moment of the year was. All my kids said that, you know, when my dad died, us just being together for those, I don't know, it went on for 10 days probably, and they wouldn't leave. And, but it was just starting in that room. Right.

And all the things, from tears to laughter to just sharing where do we move forward, how we continue the legacy. I was just kind of surprised by, they said it was the greatest memory of the year. Yeah. And in a morbid moment, but to us, it kind of goes back to that passage. Well, he's not really dead. I mean, we'll see him again. And we've got a job to do. It kind of ignited a fire.

Well, and I know, I felt it too. in the moment from the moment dad crossed over to those days leading after, because we were planning and working and talking, we were planning his celebration service and all these different things. But I felt that patriarch passing

moment. And then I also noticed, I told you this, because I noticed it in Reed especially, but I noticed like the older grandchildren stepping up, and we talked about Anna on this podcast, I watched them sort of take on new roles within the family. And it's interesting,

how that works. It's just, and we're kind of even getting to see that living legacy of transition that happens even here, while we're here. And so we start to realize that. But that doesn't happen sometimes until the patriarch matriarch step over. And it shows itself in different ways. You know, my son, he pointed to his wife, and one of his favorite memories was that she's just been ignited with a love for studying the Bible. Yeah. She's like, He's like, she quickly went past me in a blaze of glory. And we benefited from that on this podcast. Oh, yeah.

And it developed a friendship with me and her, which, you know, because she picks my brain and we have multiple Bible studies all the time. But through that, we became deeper friends. And it's just been awesome. So, yeah, that's a good lead in into where we're getting with Peter because there's a lot of good stuff here. So I want to mention a couple of things. I just flipped back over to Luke 5 because as I was reading it last time on the podcast,

I just kind of, you and I jumped in with some comments. But there were some similarities and yet some differences. One, and I'm in Luke 5 in verse 4, he says, put out in the deep water and let down the nets for a catch. So this is, Jesus is in the boat, or Jesus is on the bank, and they're out there in the boat. They've been fishing all night. Same story. But in the first thing he says, put out in deeper, water and I thought it was interesting just from a fishing standpoint you know he's telling him you're

fishing in the wrong spot you just move out there where they they's had this miraculous catch but in this case when he comes back he just says well you're just on the wrong side yeah just throw right there I mean it's not even like you know you're we've been fishing on the left side say why don't you try the right side so to me like he gets to it even quicker like let me just show you and don't you think suddenly he's equating him being the son of god I made these fish and I mean that's just his mind N.T. Wright made that point. It's not like he was giving them a, because you as a person who knows the river, you might see somebody

fish and they're not doing it the right way and you may say, hey, boys, you probably need to try this bait or whatever. But this is a guy that can just create those fish or just move them. Whatever. Or move them into the... It's not a better fishing technique here. No, no, this is like the guy that makes stuff. This is like, do what I'm telling you, and it's a guaranteed massive Catch. So Simon answers in the first narrative, Master, which is interesting, he calls him Master,

because he just met him. We weren't hard all night, haven't caught anything, which to me is him kind of saying, hey, we do this. But because you say so, I'll let down the nest. Well, compare that now to the forwarded version where he doesn't even say anything. He just jumps out of the boat. I mean, like, as soon as it happens, do I'm saying? You're seeing the now evolution of who you,

Jesus is, you know, in the moment. And it was an emotional response. He's back, but you got to remember, he feels really guilty about what has transpired. And I'm sure once the adrenaline rush wore off, he's staring at that fire as they're eating breakfast, which then kind of leads to this hard conversation due to the translation from Greek. and I mean, Jesus was speaking Aramaic, which we won't go down that rabbit hole, but you can look

it up and figure out. Yeah, and I have a cup of the Greek word. Let me mention one more, and then we'll go back and read that last segment. And you've mentioned this before, Jay's. So they signer their partners in the, oh, so when they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. This is the

first story again. So the nets are breaking with the large number. And we know now in the new creation, The nest didn't break. Nets didn't break, which is resurrection. That's why you can't just stop the story of Jesus at the cross. Can't do it.

That's right. Can't do it. The resurrection, Paul echoed that 1st Corinthians 15. If Christ hadn't been raised, this is futile. Yeah. And we're still in our sins. I mean, that's the quote he says. So, and the last thing I want to mention about it is Peter's response is, go away from me, Lord, I'm a sinful man.

remember when the moment hits him in that first moment, he's like he realizes the bigness of it. He's like, I'm not worthy, like, to even be with you. And then Jesus tells him, oh, you're going to be a fissure of men. Convicted, but not completely transformed here. Yeah, because the process has to work itself out. So I do want to mention that because Zach and I just did a study for Hillsdale on King David. and Zach, you remember one of the things from that study, and I just want to bring that up in this Peter context,

when there's a fall, in other words, when you do something as a man who has the Spirit of Christ, you know, or Spirit of God, which David did, with just a terrible mistake he made that then led to a lot of other mistakes that then wrecked his whole family. I mean, like, they were never the same again. It was just the kingdom got ripped apart.

It was terrible. and we tell the story on the other podcast. Don't you find it fascinating that, like, us as followers of Jesus, and I mean just as a whole, people tend to gravitate toward admit you're a sinner, which is what happened in League 5. Right. But you don't hear many sermons on jump out of the boat.

That's right. I mean, I think that's a problem. It is a problem. There's a time to get excited about the resurrection and get out of your comfort. Well, and I've told you before, like one of the other gospels, I think it's Luke that mentions what happens in the same time setting with Judas, who betrayed Jesus in a different way, but still had a fall and a betrayal. But then he doesn't wait around, and he goes and kills himself.

Yeah. Because he sees no way out of his fall. Which really shows you that just remorse is not enough. It's not enough. And that's my point. The point is to trust God enough. to trust Christ enough to have a moment like we're about to read.

I mean, this is the moment for all of us. So I just, the way to the fall, and I speak that because there's a lot of people out there because I get notes from me all the time. You're like, you know, I just, man, I've made such a mess of things. I grew up, I knew the right things, and then my life went a direction that was terrible,

and I'm not sure I can come back. And you're just like, oh, there's always a way back. We tend to want to wallow in our brokenness. Exactly. Instead of just saying, jump out of the boat, right? Well, and I think that's what we, talked about many times here that it's not just what you're saved from, it's what you're saved to do. And I think you see these illustrations with Mary Thomas and Peter with that exact

thought. Right. So let me read the last section, because what this is, interestingly enough, is another callback to John 10 when Jesus said, I'm the good shepherd, and my sheep know me, and I know my she, and so that whole context. And then Peter's going to write about this later in 1st Peter 5. He calls himself an elder or shepherd who follows the chief shepherd, is what he calls Jesus. Well, and just even in John Tim, where he said, I come that you may have life and life more abundantly. Yeah. We're really...

That's that restoration plus again. Exactly. All right, here we go. Verse 15. So remember the setting, they've, you know, they've... You know, they've, he's the miraculous catch. They get the fish up to the shore. He says, yeah, bring a few extra over.

We'll cook those up to. So they have breakfast. And they're not going to ask because he looks different, but that's the setting. Well, why don't you, when you read this, if you can do this off memory, I can help if you want. Because we have one English word. Yeah, I got it in my nose. For love. But why don't you read it?

Yeah, the way it's written. Well, yeah, when it gets to the Greek. Because it seems confusing when you read this, do you love me? Right. Because we, as humans, we're like, I love fish. I love my wife. And you're like, well, I hope you love your wife more than fish. We don't have another word for that.

Yeah, right. So. The Greek said at least four words for love. And Agape is one. Which is the best one. Yeah. Because it's like a sacrificial love. I'm giving it all.

Right. I mean. Philea. Philadelphia, brotherly love. Friendship. Well, of a friendship type love. You had Eros, which is a sensual, you know, even sexual love, that one. And then I think the other one is Theos, which is another form.

But you don't see that in the text. But those three are in the text. So, yeah, I'll read that when I'm reading this. So when they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, and by the way, you're going to see this later. in the reading that John is following. So I'm assuming this is a conversation

they're having sort of walking away from the others because later he's going to look back and John's kind of been following along behind them. So this is kind of a private conversation between Jesus and Peter, but John is privy to it because he's walking nearby. So when they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon and Peter

and they're kind of walking along the shore. Just imagine this moment. Simon, son of John, and it is interesting, He went back to his Jewish name there as well, Simon. Do you truly agape me? That's the word he asked him, more than these. So this self-sacrificial love.

So that's his question. Do you agape me? And look, he compares it even to the rest. He said, do you really agape me more? Yes, Lord, he says, you know that I filet you. Or like we're friends. We're friends. Yeah.

I love you, which is not bad. No, but it's different. It's different. It's a different answer. And then Jesus says, feed my lambs. So again, Jesus says, so now the second time. But he still, look, focus on, I got a job for you. Yeah.

I think that's really incredible. Right. Because we're like, oh, you've got to get fixed. Right. And he's like, do you love me? Yeah. Self-sacrifice a lot. Are you all in?

Are you all in? Well, you know, I'm your friend, which is good. It's good. He's like, well, I can use you. And it's honest, right. Yeah, it's honest. And Jesus says the second time, Simon, Samo John, do you truly agape me? He's asked him the same question again.

So it makes more sense now why he's asked him three times. And he answered, yes, Lord, you know that I filet you. So he says the same thing again. We're friends. And I do, I want to say this. This conversation started when he said, do you truly love me more than these? because that takes you back to when he said, Peter, out of his mouth, if everyone falls away, not me, I'll die with you.

And in John 13, when Jesus was talking about his death, Peter said, Lord, where are you going? This is 13, 36. Where I'm going, you cannot follow now, but you will later. Peter asked, Lord, why can't I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you. Jesus answered, will you really lay down your life for me? And the other time in Matthew, he's like, if all of them fall away, not me.

So we're back to not only the three times of denial, which obviously this is a tie-in to what Peter denied that night, but also I call back to, oh, so you love me more than the, you said you would lay down your life. Did you really mean it? That's what he said. It made me think of a question, because we have a weird moment here where Peter has done something, he said he would never do. So the things I've said that I'll never do, they're bad. You know, I'm never going to, you know, I would never murder someone. I mean, the list is probably pretty short.

But what happens if you do it? And now you're standing before the creator. of the universe in human form. Yeah. That would be a difficult conversation because your own record, and Jesus is bringing it up when he said, do you truly love me more than these? Because that statement he made, if they all fall away, not me. That's right.

Well, until you did, and not only did you do it, you did it three times. So I just wanted to bring that up. And we're on number two. And so Jesus says again, so he's asking him, do you unconditionally, you know, sacrificefully love me? you know I'm your friend. Then Jesus says the second time, take care of my sheep,

which is a little different. Feed my lambs, take care of my sheep. Still a shepherding, so you're going to be a shepherd. It's always telling him. The third time, he says to him, Simon, son of John,

do you agape me? No, I think he... Do you filet me? Yeah, he says, do you love me like, friend? Right, so Jesus changed. Do you really... It kind of goes...

That's why I wanted to read John 13. He's like, are you really my friend do you really love me like a friend which which is a good reminder of when you said oh if everybody leaves not me so he switched his word to to what peter's answer twice and and look at peter's response peter was hurt because john asked him the third time do you fillet me and he said lord you know all things you know that i fillet you so he says the same thing all three times. Peter does. But Jesus changed his, the third time.

Which was okay. And a lot of preachers make a point here about, you know, God comes to where you are. Because that's where they get it from right here because it's like, that'll work. It's a process. I'm going to use you. And then. But I love it that the idea is you're right, Joe, that like Peter's still got so much ahead of him to do that he's going to be amazing doing.

but he always carries his flaws with him. Zach, you brought this out before. He battled prejudice and racism into the church because he wasn't crazy about the Gentiles being a part of the... I mean, there are always issues with people. And it hits home because, Al, we live in a family that make outlandish statements and embellishments, and we say things we're not going to do,

like, and then we wind up doing them, and then we deceive. And, I mean, it's my... We're in a family. full of people who get on a rant. And you're like, wait, what? That's why the whole cancel culture thing scared me to death. I was like, man, I, ooh, because what have I said? What have you got me on camera?

Why not I make a mistake? I'm much more, I'm a much bigger fan of what I call forgiveness culture, which is what Jesus brought. I want to be in the forgiveness culture business. Well, because the idea, if you canceled somebody every time they said something and outlandish and had to go back on it, right? We'd all be... Well, that's why we've done so many episodes.

Look, if you're... All you got to do to hear me say something stupid is just give it a minute, and I'm sure I will do that. But... We have so much content out there. Yeah, I mean, you just get some kind of AI bot and just find the... I mean, you can mine it out of just this podcast. Well, you could probably...

That's fair to say. A really studios person could probably go back to when we first started this podcast six years ago. We studied the book of John. listen to it. Gristad was still with us then too. And then compare it to what we said this time, we probably, I would think we improved. I don't want to embellish since we're in this moment.

But I would say at least a dozen times, somebody somewhere came up to me and said, look, one time you said this and I just really have a problem with that, and I was like, well, I got good news for you. And they're like, what? I was like, I changed my thoughts on that years ago. I was like, why don't you fast forward and get to the current episode? I got a problem with that, too.

That's what people say something about Martin Luther or something. I said, which version? I mean, like, which version do you have the issue with? But what's interesting about this, look, Peter's situation of a very flawed individual, by the way, very flawed. Even post-resurrection, Peter, you know, was flawed because in the book of Galatians, as you mentioned, he got to the altercation with Paul. Paul said he was not acting in line with the truth of the gospel. Paul said I straight up confronting him right to his face.

I rebuked him straight to his face. So you see that. And also, Zach, Acts 10, remember how resistant he was when he got this vision from Christ about going to see Cornelius. He didn't want to do it. Like three times he's like, I'm not eating this stuff. You know, he's like, wait a minute. That's why Paul says, imitate me as I imitate Christ.

So in the areas of my life that I'm imitating Christ, yeah, Yeah, do what I'm doing. In the areas that I'm not, like, don't imitate me. But look at the, look at how Christ, look at how God picks the winners to, like, bring forth the kingdom. It's never who you think it is, right? I mean, David was not a great, I mean, you read this, we went to the, doing the Hillsdale Friday episodes, and we're, we just got through with David. And so I can't, by the way, you guys should definitely sign up for that if you're not signed up for it. It was a great, a great study we're going to be doing the same.

But David was not a great man either, but he was a man after God's on heart. But this was the guy who murdered Uriah. He had a horrible affair with Bashiba. I mean, there was a lot of things that David did wrong. But yet he was the one that God chose. He was the king that God chose. The Eternal Covenant came to his life. It's a good analogy, too, and with that thought of doing something you said you'd never do.

and how God still is there. I mean, his love is so much more than we can wrap our head around, which you just see that in Peter, but don't think yourself more highly than you ought. We all struggle with that and making outlandish statements out of immaturity, and this conversation shows you that there's hope for everyone. So let me read the rest of it.

So the third time, there's a hurt there, because I think Peter also realizes, I'm sure, that Jesus asked him three times for a reason because that's how many times he denied him. But then he says, the third time, feed my sheep. So in other words, it was feed my lambs, take care of my sheep, feed my sheep. Every answer was the same. You're going to be a shepherd. I tell you the truth.

Now, here's a direct prophecy for Peter himself from the Lord. I tell you the truth, when you were younger, you dressed yourself and went where you wanted. but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go. And it says here, John gives us the parenthetical thought, Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. So that's another reason why I think it's a later addition, because at this point, John knows how Peter died when he wrote this.

And I think that makes this full circle. when Peter did say he would lay down his life, he actually did at some point. And tradition has it that he was crucified upside down. At his own request. At his own request. Well, and historians say, I know there's a couple, I can look it up, but that even Peter's wife was martyred, thrown to wild beasts in front of him. And he said, let me find who said that.

but and he told her his last words were remember the Lord but I just thought I mean this guy think about you because you have two different historians that say that about Peter's wife I know that for a fact but think about how far he would mature where you're watching your wife die and then you're dying for the Lord you went from denying him to not only having to watch your wife die, which I can't imagine, and then you die, and you say, well, what's the point? The resurrection became real to him. That was not a factor. He would rather die and watch his wife die than deny again.

So what happened here? And I would argue the Holy Spirit in dwelling him also helped him as he matured. But the point of this is God uses you, and he's immediately. wanting you to go on the offense. I mean, he uses... The resurrection happened, too. I mean, I mean, there was a clear, distinctive moment for Peter.

You know, was he complete after the... I love that story because it actually shows the whole concept of the not yet now. That Peter, after the resurrection, was transformed in a very powerful way for what you just said, Jason. I mean, he went to his death. This is the guy denying Christ three times, ends up going to his death, which is prophesied here in this text, that you're going to, someone's going to lead you where you don't want to go.

You're going to die for the cause. You will be a martyr. And so when we emphasize a lot about the kingdom being here, which the kingdom is here, it's all throughout scripture, cannot deny it. That's a really good thing. But it is not fully consummated yet. So yes, there will be pain. Yes, there will be martyrs.

Yes, there will be people like Peter who go to their death. And this flies in the face of what's called the prosperity gospel. that teaches basically if you just love God, he's going to give you health, wealth, and prosperity. Peter didn't experience that. Peter experienced a horrible death on a cross, but he still will be made whole with us. Hebrews chapter 11 talks about this, that together will all be consummated together when the second coming happens. And so it gives that tension. There is a tension in the kingdom. It's here, but yet, man, we're longing for that resurrection. We are desperately longing for it.

And the last time we studied John, we went straight to Acts, and we were able to see in those first eight chapters of Acts just how transformed Peter really was. Go ahead, Judge. Well, I was just going to say those two historians that cited Peter's wife was Clement of Alexandria in 200 AD. And then you see Sebius, which quoted Clement about it. But I just want to throw that out there. And that was very close to, that was only 100 years after it happened. So 150. So let me finish up this text.

So for the second time now, when Jesus tells us to Peter, he says to him, follow me. So this is, remember, that's exactly what he told him back in Luke 5. And now he tells him the same thing. And think about the verses that says, you know, you want to follow me, bring your cross. Right. You got to carry your, deny yourself, bring your cross. Well, Peter, he literally did that. And that art, again, to those you out there listening that have had this experience,

And I had it too, so I can relate to it, where you lost your way and then you came back. And Jesus said the same thing. He said the first time to you, follow me. And so you can't have those prodigal wanderings and come home. And so that's what Peter does here. So Peter, so here's interesting. He says, follow me. And he's just told him how he's going to die.

You know, this is pretty ominous. So Peter turns, and now this is where we kind of imagine walking along the shore. And he saw that the disciple whom Jesus loved, again, we assume John was following them. And then John even says here, I just like the way third persons himself, this was the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper and said, Lord, who is going to betray you?

So John gives a little insider who that guy is. When Peter saw him, he said, Lord, what about him? Which I think as an interesting response in this moment that he just has, when he asked Jesus directly, what about his fate? Like, in other words, you just told me, Well, it's going to happen to me.

What about him? Now, I don't know if that's, I don't know what. I don't know if that was like, was he worried about John? Because, you know, we assume here that John was a lot younger, even than everybody else. That's the assumption by most scholars. Well, it's Peter being Peter despite this. I'm trying to be like, stand up for him. But it sounds like he's like one more time.

I think Jesus's response was, yep, you still got a long way to go. Which I think you're right, because it's sort of a rebuke. Here's what Jesus said. If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me. But look, lost in all this is these questions that have come up in John 21. Which I want to talk about that. Well, the first one was about do you have any fish?

And, of course, then the Lord provided. But just think about that question. Maybe a reason. You don't have any fish. And then the do you love me three times? Do you agape, agape for the, yeah. Not only do we have him given a profound question, you have it three times. And then you have this one.

Look, if I won't. And I think this gets so practical to us because it answers that question about life itself. Things happen and they're unexplainable. And he basically answered that right here saying, hey, if I want him to stay alive longer, what's that to you? What's that got to do with you? You remember when we were in school of preaching days, and I think it's, is it Deerami 2929? There was a verse that says the secret things of the Lord. And that was, when we were in school, that was always the one that was put to us by the instructors.

Like, look, when you can't explain something. Well, that's what they said, because I ask more questions. But the what's it to you is a nice way of saying, none of your business. That's right. And I've said this many times. In serious context, I've said this many times. the Lord works things out through people in different ways for different reasons. And so it's very difficult when you start putting yourself in the position of God

and figuring out why that person is experiencing this and why that family is going through that. When we try to do that, we find out how limited we are in about five seconds. Al, you know how many times I've been in Bible studies, and every time I'm sharing Jesus, and then they're telling me how bad life is or bad things that have happened. and I got this from this verse, I say, what's I got to do with you right now? Yeah, that's it.

How are you reading this story of Jesus in your life and God being a reality? Right. Then they bring up other things. I have the same question. What's I got to do with you? Right. Which it angers them usually.

Right. Because they've built a wall in not surrendering to God, and they've justified it because there's a lot of bad things that are happening that you know nothing about or why it's happening. So it's a fact. Because what you're ultimately wanting is you're wanting to be in charge and have your own sovereignty in the matter.

But then you get, the problem is you don't have the vision to have that kind of sovereignty. And there was a philosopher who actually wrote about this. And he said that he was at a high school football game and his wife. And he ran into his high school flame. His name was Garth Brooks. And he had a famous song called Sometimes I Thank God for Unanswered Prayer. So he didn't know. At the time, he's in high school, he's like, I want this.

I mean, and he's thinking, this is the one I want. She's the one. It doesn't work out. He's devastated. Then all these years later, he runs into that same woman at the high school football game. And he's like, whoa, she wasn't quite the woman I remembered in my dreams. I can tell the times it changed her. You know, or changes or whatever.

He's looking at her thinking, well, I'm glad I didn't end up with her. and I ended up with the one that he was with. I have to admit, I've had that same, I didn't know there was a song out there about it because I'm not a country music person, but I will say that I have looked at some of my past relationships of my younger days and thought, who, I chose wisely.

You're like, I got out of that one by the skin on my teeth. Thank you, Lord, for the unanswered prayer. I wasn't really praying about it back then, but I have said, man, I chose wisely. But you don't know that when you're in it, and the thing that you think you want the most when you're, you know, 16 years old. When you're 40 years old, you're like, ooh, I was an idiot back then. I didn't know what I wanted. And so God has that hindsight all the

time. He doesn't have imperfect vision for anything. So he, when, when he's orchestrating the world and the way the world is unfolding, like for us to claim the right to have that kind of sovereignty over our own world and our own lives is actually stupidity on our part, because it's like, well, you're so finite. Your vantage point is so limited. You don't really have a lot of information. Yeah. You have very little information when you think about it.

Like we hold very, very little information. Yeah, we have to mature, which is a big maturity point. Well, another wise man said that, you know, your 15-year-old self says, you know, I'm a look back when he was a kid. Yeah. Like little kid and said, well, I was an idiot. You know, 25. You look back at 15 and said, I was an idiot. idiot, 35.

You look, 25, say I was 8 at 45. When you get to 55, you say everybody else is idiots. Yeah. Exactly. But the further you go, you keep looking back, and the point is, is that now think about how, the

only thing that gives you that perspective is experience and knowledge. But when you start thinking about your experience and your knowledge, no matter how old you are, compare that to an infinitely, a knowledgeable being who is everywhere at the same time and he's outside of time. Then it becomes like, wait a second.

He's been throughout all of history. He knows every moment. He's ordained every moment. He started thinking of it like that. Then you're like, well, man, I feel like stupid up against him. So let me read this last thing because I think there's a subtle thing that I know the three of us believe, but that a lot of people don't, when he said, if I want him to remain alive until I return,

what is that to you? And so John makes a direct point, and then I think he makes an indirect point at the same time because he says, because of Jesus saying that to Peter, the rumor spread among the brothers that this disciple would not die. Now, he's talking about himself, but Jesus did not say that he would not die.

He only said, if I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? Because then he says, this is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down. We know that his testimony is true. So he's talking about himself. That's where we get the idea the whole time because of that verse. And he's also, we know that he had the revelation, and we quote revelation a lot on this

podcast, that was to John, that he would see very much later in life. See, John was the only one that we know of that was past the Jerusalem being destroyed in 80s, 70. almost everybody else that we know of was martyed before that point. Yeah, and we're based on a lot of that on history and books. And we don't know for sure. But our thought is that when Jesus kept talking about that, just like he did remember back when in Luke 24 and Matthew, when he kept talking about coming back on judgment and Judaism

and the destruction of the temple, all those things that we looked at, that was going to happen in 80-70. We think that was a major happening. And if you want to call it a return, I mean, that's the way Jesus used that language. He did. You know, son of man.

People disagree. They disagree, but we think that's the clue right there as to what he's talking about. So just to make that mention. And then let me read the last verse. Jesus did many other things as well. And I love this statement. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written,

which is a way to end this book. Yeah, it's pretty amazing. You're like, wait, what? If everything that he did was written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written. Which is it really interesting. Remember the known world was a lot smaller than than it is now. But I just love the hyperbole that John uses of how big this story is.

Could you imagine if we did have all those books and people say they want them? I'm like, I don't know because... It's all we can do with the one book. Well, there's more arguments over this one book than any other book on the planet. Even just breaking the down. Which is why I think, though, suddenly that point is a point that I make all over the place, which is on the last podcast when we were talking about that Sabbath and the rest. And I'm like, look, I got a rabbit hole coming about the use of the symbolic seven and all this.

At the end of the day, Jesus said, you know, come to me. and I will give you rest. And I think he put this, that sentence in there, to depict, this is about a person. We get so hung up on the letters, and we argue about the letters and the Bible. And I hear these people all the time who almost have exalted the Bible itself,

the letters written, more than the creator. It's like they miss the creator who wrote this. And I don't think that's a good thing. What's that text, Zach, you always mention? Is it John 7 where Jesus told the Pharisees that you diligently search the scriptures? Oh, that's John 5? John 5, yeah. Oh, wow.

I've used that verse in more argument. I try not to argue anymore as I'm older my faith. Is that true, Zay? No. Hey, last podcast, in between the podcast, we had an argument that I tried. tried to stop the entire time. I was like, I'm not arguing. We had an argument the whole morning,

and we did two podcasts in between the argument. But I was trying to say, hey, I'm not arguing that. You're missing my point. That was the argument. I think, hey, I think he's got better. I really do. He's gotten a lot of time.

But to your point, that's that scripture, that one verse, that is the confirmation that we're talking about. Well, why don't we need more books? He's like, this is, put your faith in this guy. Yeah. When we read that, I think the theme, which is why we think the first book ended in John 20, this is the theme. I love it when Maddie puts the time right. She's saying.

But I want to read this because I don't want to miss the theme, which I think really is in John 20 and 20 and 21, when he said, Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples. Well, that goes in with this statement. There were way more things that happened that he didn't write down. But these things were written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. We don't need more books. And I think that's his point.

So it's been a great study. Our next podcast, we have some special guest on. And one of those podcasts in the New Year, we're hoping to do a little bit of an overview to help us transition into. to first, second, third, John, which is where we're going next. Oh, I can't wait. It's going to be really good. So, happy new year. Thanks for listening to the Unashamed podcast.

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