The Resurrection and Second Chances

INTRODUCTION

BEYOND FORGIVENESS?

I don’t know what the worst thing you have ever done is.

But you know.

And it is likely that some of you think that God cannot forgive you of whatever that is.

Some of you may come to church every Sunday with a secret fear that you have done something the Lord will not pardon.

Some of you may avoid church on most Sundays because you have come to believe that Jesus won’t save YOU.

For all of you who know you are a sinner this morning...

You know you are fallen...

You know you are in need of forgiveness...

You feel like a failure...

I want to tell you about the worst thing that one man ever did.

And then we will spend the rest of our morning seeing how the Lord Jesus Christ dealt with that man.

And it will tell us something of how the risen Savior will deal with us.

PETER’S FALL

Before we get to our passage this morning, let me set it up.

The Apostle Peter was a leader within the group of Jesus’ 12 disciples.

He was one of three in Jesus’ inner-inner circle—Peter, James and John.

Peter never had a problem being the first to speak or the first to take action.

He was the guy who told Jesus that he would never let Jesus suffer.

He was the guy who said he was unworthy to have Jesus wash his feet.

Then when Jesus told him that he must let him or they would have “share” with one another, Peter was the guy who said, “WASH MY WHOLE BODY!”

He was the guy who tried to lop off the heads of one of the guards who came to arrest Jesus.

He was bold. He was brash. He was brilliant. He was a blue collar guy.

And that means he is the last one of the disciples that you would expect to deny Christ three times when Jesus could have used a friend the most.

Jesus had warned Peter that this would happen. Peter said this:

Matthew 26:33–35 ESV

Peter answered him, “Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away.” Jesus said to him, “Truly, I tell you, this very night, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.” Peter said to him, “Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you!” And all the disciples said the same.

And yet, what Jesus said would take place did take place.

After Jesus was arrested and his disciples were scattered, bold Peter shrunk back in fear and denied His Lord.

Matthew 26:69–75 ESV

Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard. And a servant girl came up to him and said, “You also were with Jesus the Galilean.” But he denied it before them all, saying, “I do not know what you mean.” And when he went out to the entrance, another servant girl saw him, and she said to the bystanders, “This man was with Jesus of Nazareth.” And again he denied it with an oath: “I do not know the man.” After a little while the bystanders came up and said to Peter, “Certainly you too are one of them, for your accent betrays you.” Then he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, “I do not know the man.” And immediately the rooster crowed. And Peter remembered the saying of Jesus, “Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.” And he went out and wept bitterly.

I don’t know Peter. I can’t wait to meet him one day in glory.

He is my New Testament hero.

But even though I don’t know him, it is hard to imagine he ever committed a worse sin than this.

As Christ was being taken to His place of death, Peter was only concerned with saving his own skin.

He turned his back on the Son of God in the most crucial of moments.

And he did all of this after hearing Jesus teach people:

Matthew 10:33 ESV

but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.

How dreadfully fearful and shameful Peter must have been.

But His Lord died.

And then—as we have sung about all morning—his Lord resurrected from the grave.

And then, the resurrected Christ sat with Peter and six other disciples and He talked with Peter about his sin.

Many of you need that this morning.

You need to talk to Jesus about your sin.

Maybe you are fearful of who you will find Him to be when you come to Him in your shame.

Hear the heart of the risen Christ this morning and be fearful no longer.

Let’s read our passage and see Peter’s restoration.

TEXT—these are the very words of God

John 21:15–19 ESV

When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.” He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, “Follow me.”

OUTLINE

1. Christ has abundant pardon for our failures.

2. Christ has incredible purpose for the forgiven.

3. Christ has an invitation provided for the fallen.

CHRIST HAS ABUNDANT PARDON FOR OUR FAILURES

We start with that first point this morning:

1. Christ has abundant pardon for our failures.

After Christ resurrected, He spent forty days showing Himself to His disciples and His followers, before He ascended to heaven.

Most scholars think this conversation with Peter is happening just a few days after the Resurrection—a couple of weeks at the most.

Right before this scene we have read, the risen Christ performed a miracle and made it so the disciples caught a load of fish.

And Jesus took the fish and some bread and he provided breakfast for His guys.

And as they are eating, it is time for Jesus to address his denying disciple.

It is time for Jesus and Peter to talk about Peter’s sin.

Jesus asks Peter three questions in this text:

Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?

He is asking, “Peter—do you love me more than these other six guys love Me?”

It might seem like a strange question to ask Peter, but let’s understand what Jesus is getting at.

He is not saying, “Peter—you need to love me more than these other guys do or I can’t forgive you?”

Instead, He is emphasizing to Simon Peter that disciples of Christ should always be striving to have an all-excelling, all-surpassing, all-encompassing love for Christ.

A superior love and devotion that comes from the heart.

Peter says, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.”

Simon, son of John, do you love me?

This is a straightforward question.

It is a repeat of the first question.

Peter says, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.”

Same answer.

And then the one that really pierced Peter:

Simon, son of John, do you love me?

This one caused Peter to grieve.

And I believe the reason for this is that Peter realizes the three questions match up to his three denials.

Three times he turned his back on his Brother and Master—Jesus.

Three times his Brother and Master asks him searching questions about his devotion and his love.

The grief Peter feels is the grief of his sin.

He feared man over God and it left him in a place where he was denying that he belonged to Jesus.

GOD AND MAN (AND SIN)

Now before we get to Peter’s response, we have to ask ourselves— “Why did Peter do this?”

And furthermore, why do any of us do wrong things that hurt God?

Why are our lives filled with so many spiritual failings and so much outright disobedience toward God?

Well the answer is sin.

And you must understand that you are not a sinful because you sin. You sin BECAUSE you are a sinful.

Things were not always this way.

When God created the world it was good and the first two people He placed in the world—Adam and Eve—were not sinful and they did not sin.

They had the capacity to sin, but they had not sinned.

God gave them one law—do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil or you will surely die

But they were deceived by Satan into eating from that tree.

And just as God said—their sin brought death.

Death entered into the world.

And you might wonder, well what does that do with me?

Well, unfortunately for us, Adam was our representative before God.

And we call came from his lineage.

So when our father and representative Adam fell, we all fell with him.

Romans 5:12 ESV

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—

So what this means is that from birth, we are not good. We are not neutral.

We are born from the lineage of Adam, as sinners who are separated from God, and we show that from the earliest of ages in our selfishness, greed and deception.

(If you don’t think kids are like that you haven’t been around them enough!)

And so when we sin, we are actually doing what comes very natural to us.

That is because, BY NATURE, we are enemies with God, not friends.

This is why Peter sinned.

This is why I sin.

This is why you sin.

This is why Mussolini sinned.

This is why your sweet grandmother sinned.

This means humanity is in a very dangerous spot with God.

God is a Judge. A perfect Judge.

He will bring every wrong to justice.

He is a Judge with a perfect, eternal, moral Law—the 10 Commandments—and He will judge us by them.

And unless you are perfect—which you aren’t—you are guilty before Him.

And if you break the eternal law of an eternal God, it demands eternal punishment.

Therefore, we are in danger of experiencing Hell forever because we have broken the Law of the Holy Judge of the Universe.

Should we leave this world unforgiven, it shall be a dire event.

JI Packer

CHRIST

But here is the thing about the Holy Judge of the universe.

He is loving. He is slow to anger. He is compassionate.

And His arm is not shortened that it cannot save sinners from Hell.

And so God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, into the world for this purpose.

1 Timothy 1:15 ESV

The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.

Jesus lived a perfect life.

He never sinned.

He racked up a moral bank account with God that is rich with perfection.

And yet He died like a sinner. And He died as a Substitute.

We deserve eternal death and Hell.

Christ deserves eternal honor and glory.

And yet—He died as if He deserved eternal Hell and He did it for us.

Thomas Watson said that Hell is so hopeless, that it is like you laying underneath a mountain of sand that is crushing you.

And imagine that every 1000 years, one small bird comes and only takes away one grain.

That is how hopeless it is—but worse because the sand never runs out.

Well, with Watson’s illustration in mind, understand this about what happened at the Cross—Jesus laid under that crushing mountain of the sand of God’s wrath for you.

He received death, so that you could have life.

And then, in the most glorious of events, the thing happened that we are all here for today.

Jesus—the 2nd Person of the Trinity, Adonai over the Universe, the King of the Ages, the Suffering Servant, the Bishop of Souls and the Savior of the people of God, resurrected from the grave.

He wrestled death and won in a match that was not particularly close.

And this resurrection from the tomb proved a couple things about our Lord Jesus Christ:

A) He is who He says He is. He is the God-Man who can lay down His life and take it up again.

He is Christ the Victor, who conquers over our sin and grave.

B) He did what He said He would do. He said He would give His life as a ransom for many, and He did.

And we know His sacrifice is accepted by the Father because the Father raised Him up.

RESPONSE

Now, this is where we ask—What does this have to do with Peter on the beach with Jesus? And furthermore, what does this have to do with me?

Well, we’ve how Peter responds to Jesus’ questions in order:

Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.

Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.

Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.

In each case, it is a love-based response from Peter.

Lord—you KNOW that I LOVE You.

So that is one part of the response—LOVE, but it isn’t Peter’s only response.

In v. 17, we see that he is grieved as the 3rd question is asked.

It is similar to the way he wept bitterly after his third denial, when He wept bitterly.

Matthew 26:75 ESV

And Peter remembered the saying of Jesus, “Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.” And he went out and wept bitterly.

This is what our response must be when we have sinned.

On one hand, we must love Christ.

We see Peter declaring that.

On the other hand, we must hate our sin and grieve it.

We see Peter doing that as well.

See—When God sent Jesus Christ, His only Son, He provided a way for you to be forgiven.

But in order for us be forgiven, we must repent of our sin.

To repent of sin is to turn away from loving it.

It is to see it for the evil it is and to grieve that it came into your life and caused God and others hurt.

And as we repent, and we turn away from the sin that we grieve and we turn to Christ in faith.

We trust in His death and His resurrection to save us from the Hell we deserve.

As we trust in Him, it is a faith rooted in love.

He first loved us and we are responding by hating our sin, turning to Him and loving Him.

THIS IS HOW FORGIVENESS WORKS

Now, some of you hear this Good News—that you can be saved from sin and Hell, if you turn away from sin, and you turn to Christ in faith...

...and you say, “Not me dude.”

You are absolutely convinced that your worst moments are too much for God to forgive.

Your heart is too rotten for God to redeem.

Your life is too messed up for Jesus to save.

You think you are beyond forgiveness.

Whatever it is that you have done, that you think is unforgivable, should be held up to the light of John 21.

Did you betray the Son of God on the night of his arrest?

Did you deny His claim on your life because you were afraid of a few people?

And did you do it all after you swore you never would do these things?

The answer is no.

Whatever sin you have committed—however monumental it might be—it is not unforgivable.

If Peter can be forgiven, you can be forgiven.

And let me remind you of why Peter AND you CAN be forgiven by God.

Because the God who is the Judge already punished His Son for your sins.

And His Son rose from the tomb to prove He had paid for those sins.

And so the reason we know that you and a guy like Peter and a guy like me can be forgiven is because Jesus died and rose.

He paid for the sin.

He has proven He paid for the sin and that God accepted the sacrifice on our behalf.

And with your sins paid for, you can be forgiven if you come to Jesus.

Turn your back on sin and believe.

Like Peter, you will receive an abundant pardon for Christ.

You will be declared forgiven in the here and now.

And because you belong to Jesus by faith and you love Him, you will be fit for heaven.

Jesus took your sin and you get His perfection.

God looks upon you as if you have never sinned, once you have been forgiven.

So if you are here today and you are like, “I have failed too much” or “I have failed too big,” —well you are exactly who Jesus came to forgive.

CHRIST HAS INCREDIBLE PURPOSE FOR THE FORGIVEN

2. Christ has incredible purpose for the forgiven.

To see our second point, just look at what Jesus calls Peter to do after Peter declares his devotion and love for Christ.

There are three commissions:

“Feed my lambs.”

“Tend my sheep.”

“Feed my sheep.”

All three commissions mean the same thing:

“Peter—shepherd, lead and pastor my people.”

Peter was to lead and govern the church and care for the souls in it.

And indeed he would walk in obedience to these words.

If you read the book of Acts, you see Peter leading the church in Jerusalem—the epicenter of Christianity—for the first half of the story.

And if you read Peter’s pastoral letters, as an older man, he is calling on others to do the very thing that Christ commissioned him to do:

1 Peter 5:2 ESV

shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly;

HIS WORKMANSHIP

This is the way God works.

He doesn’t just forgive you—He gives you purpose in His Kingdom.

You can see this in a passage of Scripture that is very important to our church.

In Ephesians 2, the Apostle Paul explains HOW we are saved.

Ephesians 2:8–9 ESV

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

This is what we just talked about. This is the Good News of the Gospel of Christ.

He died and rose to save you.

You didn’t do the work.

You are pardoned because HE provided.

And then, Paul says in in v. 10—which is the verse we use at Seaford Baptist to explain who we are.

If verses 8-9 show us HOW God saved, verse 10 shows us WHY.

Ephesians 2:10 ESV

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

It is like when each of my kids are born. I wondered what great things may be in store for their lives.

The difference with God is He is not wondering about what we will do with our forgiven lives.

He knows. He has already planned it out.

We just must be obedient to walk in the good works He has prepared for us.

See, God purchases His children with His Son’s blood, but He doesn’t stop there.

He purposes His children for His Son’s Kingdom.

My mom became a Christian at Red Lane Baptist on Easter Sunday 1999. She had her own moment on the beach with Jesus where she was forgiven.

Since then, she has:

Served as a church administrator for about 2 decades

She went to India to tell people about Christ.

She helped lead six or seven mission trips to Norfolk with a team of over 100 people.

She is currently a part of a team planting a church in my home county.

Those are just a few of the good works she has walked in since being forgiven.

She didn’t know that devoting herself to Jesus would result in all that, but God did.

He planned it all out. He saved her. Forgave her.

And He says, “Walk in my purposes, my child. You are my handiwork. The world around you will know it.”

Do you know one of the worst parts of sin?

It makes you feel like you have no purpose in life.

It leaves you banged up, beaten down, addicted and agitated.

It leaves you feeling like you won’t ever amount to anything.

Repent of your sins and give your life to Jesus.

You will be amazed as what He will do with your forgiven life.

NOT A LIFE OF EASE

But with all of that said, let me be clear.

The Bible is not overselling you this morning.

It is not trying to say, “Repent of your sin and be forgiven and love Christ and your life will be easy.”

Just look at what Jesus says will become of Peter in v. 18.

John 21:18 ESV

Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.”

When Jesus said this, He was referring to the way Peter would end up dying for his faith in Christ.

Church history tells us that Peter died much like his Lord—crucified.

However, they say he asked for it to be upside down because he was not worthy to die like His Master.

Once you are forgiven, God calls you to all sorts of things.

Some of them are pain-free and full of joy.

Some of them are painful and joy becomes a thing you are fighting for.

Sometimes you are Peter preaching at Pentecost and 3000 people become Christians.

Sometimes you are Peter being crucified upside down.

Jesus wasn’t calling Peter to a rosy life, but a redeemed life.

A life of purpose that would have its pleasures and pains.

But would we rather suffer for the eternal name and glory of Christ or suffer in our miserable sins that will take us to Hell?

If we are going to be in pain, let it be in service of Christ and not our addictions and our harmful habits.

If We are going to hurt, let us hurt for the cause of seeing other souls forgiven—not because of our self-harming sin.

And this is part of faith.

It is not only to say, “I trust You to save me from my sins.”

It is also to say, “I trust You to serve Your purposes and Your plan with my life.”

It is to say to Jesus, “You have paid for my sins. I belong to You—and I will follow You wherever You lead me.”

This brings us to the final point this morning...

CHRIST HAS AN INVITATION PROVIDED FOR THE FALLEN

3. Christ has an invitation provided for the fallen.

Peter had fell.

Maybe you have fell this morning.

Some of you were raised in the church and you have spent some years denying Christ in this world.

We have our excuses: “I believe in God but I don’t need to go to church to do it.”

“I love Jesus, I just don’t like His church.”

“God knows my heart.”

Those are not only unbiblical responses—they are sinful.

On some level, they all ignore God’s commands and make excuses for living life for ourselves.

We should not follow our hearts. We should not follow our own desires.

If we do, we will find ourselves following them to Hell.

Instead, we must receive the invitation of Christ.

Look at verse 19:

“And after saying this he said to him, “Follow me.”

This was the original invitation Jesus issues to Peter and it is STILL the invitation He is extending to him.

And This is the invitation of Christ to the fallen sinner:

FOLLOW ME.

I don’t care if you are here and you are not a Christian—you must respond to the Cross and Resurrection of Christ by following Him.

You must repent, believe in Him and follow Him.

The following proves we really believe in Him and trust Him.

It proves that we are no longer following the world and ourselves.

If you are here and you would claim to be a Christian, but you haven’t been walking with Jesus for a while now...

You must repent, believe in Him and follow Him.

And how you respond to this invitation will determine whether or not you know forgiveness and eternal life.

UNFORGIVABLE SIN

See, we started this morning talking about how some people think they are too bad. Unforgivable.

But in truth, there is only one unforgivable sin.

Luke 12:10 ESV

And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.

Let me explain what Jesus meant very briefly:

The Holy Spirit draws people in to believe in Christ.

Maybe even now you feel the Spirit speaking to you, telling you that what the Bible says is true and that you should give your life to Jesus.

The only way to commit an unforgivable sin is to harden your heart against the Spirit and against Christ and His message of salvation.

To reject the Spirit’s convicting work in your heart...

To refuse to repent and believe despite the clear evidence from the Cross and Resurrection that Christ and His Gospel are true...

And to harden your heart to the point that you die in unbelief and stand before God as His enemy.

This is the unforgivable sin.

To harden your heart. To not believe.

To NOT follow Jesus.

FORGIVABLE SINS

Don’t do that. Don’t commit that unforgivable sin of hard-hearted unbelief.

Instead, respond to the invitation of Christ and follow Him.

If blasphemy of the Spirit through hardened unbelief is the only unforgivable sin, it means the rest are forgivable.

Your failures.

Your addictions.

Your worst private moments.

Your secret sins.

Your public sins.

The big ones and the smaller ones and everything in between.

It means that whatever it is that makes you think you are unforgivable in the eyes of God is actually not unforgivable.

It means that when you think that you are out of second chances with God, and third chances and fourth chances, Jesus is there saying, “Follow Me.”

So then, the question this Easter is not , “Can you be forgiven?”

The question is “Will you be forgiven?”

Jesus holds out His invitation to receive His love and follow Him to you this morning.

Will you receive it?

Will you be forgiven because you repent of sin and trust in Christ?

Will you follow Jesus today?