The Restoration of Peter

Introduction

Illustration: Shoes

God has made us all different, right? No two of us are exactly alike. Even if some of us have a lot in common we all have different stories and different strengths, and so on. Jesus of course knows this. He’s the one who made us this way. So when He interacts with people He treats them like the individuals that they are. I believe our passage this morning is a great example of that. Today is the final message in our series Believe and Live: The Gospel According to John. We’ll be looking at the final chapter of John’s Gospel, John 21.

John 21:1–25 CSB

After this, Jesus revealed himself again to his disciples by the Sea of Tiberias. He revealed himself in this way: Simon Peter, Thomas (called “Twin”), Nathanael from Cana of Galilee, Zebedee’s sons, and two others of his disciples were together. “I’m going fishing,” Simon Peter said to them. “We’re coming with you,” they told him. They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. When daybreak came, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not know it was Jesus. “Friends,” Jesus called to them, “you don’t have any fish, do you?” “No,” they answered. “Cast the net on the right side of the boat,” he told them, “and you’ll find some.” So they did, and they were unable to haul it in because of the large number of fish. The disciple, the one Jesus loved, said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he tied his outer clothing around him (for he had taken it off) and plunged into the sea. Since they were not far from land (about a hundred yards away), the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish. When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish lying on it, and bread. “Bring some of the fish you’ve just caught,” Jesus told them. So Simon Peter climbed up and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish—153 of them. Even though there were so many, the net was not torn. “Come and have breakfast,” Jesus told them. None of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” because they knew it was the Lord. Jesus came, took the bread, and gave it to them. He did the same with the fish. This was now the third time Jesus appeared to the disciples after he was raised from the dead. When they had eaten breakfast, Jesus asked Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” “Yes, Lord,” he said to him, “you know that I love you.” “Feed my lambs,” he told him. A second time he asked him, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” “Yes, Lord,” he said to him, “you know that I love you.” “Shepherd my sheep,” he told him. He asked him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved that he asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” “Feed my sheep,” Jesus said. “Truly I tell you, when you were younger, you would tie your belt and walk wherever you wanted. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will tie you and carry you where you don’t want to go.” He said this to indicate by what kind of death Peter would glorify God. After saying this, he told him, “Follow me.” So Peter turned around and saw the disciple Jesus loved following them, the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper and asked, “Lord, who is the one that’s going to betray you?” When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, “Lord, what about him?” “If I want him to remain until I come,” Jesus answered, “what is that to you? As for you, follow me.” So this rumor spread to the brothers and sisters that this disciple would not die. Yet Jesus did not tell him that he would not die, but, “If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you?” This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down. We know that his testimony is true. And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which, if every one of them were written down, I suppose not even the world itself could contain the books that would be written.

When we look at this passage the major theme I see is that Jesus is treating His disciples as individuals. We’ll be looking at three different ways Jesus does this in our passage this morning. First, when Jesus comes to them on the beach He treats them warmly and calls them His friends, showing the warmth He has for His disciples. Secondly we see that Peter’s restoration is intensely personal to Peter and I believe Jesus does the same for all of us. Thirdly we will look at how Jesus tells Peter to focus on His own journey and calling instead of comparing to others, a call that Jesus still has for all of us today.

I Call You Friends

Illustration: So I went to University for five years, and I spen all five years living on campus. So I was constantly surrounded by my close friends, an experience I still look on with fondness. One thing I vividly remember is just how many inside jokes we developed over the years, to the point where if you sat at our table in the dining hall for a meal, you wouldn’t understand half of what we said, like we were speaking a different language. This isn’t just my assumption, we had people tell us so.

Here’s some food for thought. Jesus spent about three or four years doing ministry with the same 12 guys. Do you think He had any inside jokes with them? He certainly would have spent enough time with them if my experience at college is any indication. As far as I know they didn’t take a summer break from ministry.

I would argue that our passage this morning contains something like an inside joke from Jesus. Now interestingly enough, this story is a callback to a story that John doesn’t even record in his own gospel, but to the calling of Peter as it’s written in Luke 5:1-11

Luke 5:1–11 CSB

As the crowd was pressing in on Jesus to hear God’s word, he was standing by Lake Gennesaret. He saw two boats at the edge of the lake; the fishermen had left them and were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, which belonged to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from the land. Then he sat down and was teaching the crowds from the boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” “Master,” Simon replied, “we’ve worked hard all night long and caught nothing. But if you say so, I’ll let down the nets.” When they did this, they caught a great number of fish, and their nets began to tear. So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them; they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink. When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’s knees and said, “Go away from me, because I’m a sinful man, Lord!” For he and all those with him were amazed at the catch of fish they had taken, and so were James and John, Zebedee’s sons, who were Simon’s partners. “Don’t be afraid,” Jesus told Simon. “From now on you will be catching people.” Then they brought the boats to land, left everything, and followed him.

Now with that in mind, let’s re-read the first fourteen verses of our passage for today.

John 21:1–14 CSB

After this, Jesus revealed himself again to his disciples by the Sea of Tiberias. He revealed himself in this way: Simon Peter, Thomas (called “Twin”), Nathanael from Cana of Galilee, Zebedee’s sons, and two others of his disciples were together. “I’m going fishing,” Simon Peter said to them. “We’re coming with you,” they told him. They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. When daybreak came, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not know it was Jesus. “Friends,” Jesus called to them, “you don’t have any fish, do you?” “No,” they answered. “Cast the net on the right side of the boat,” he told them, “and you’ll find some.” So they did, and they were unable to haul it in because of the large number of fish. The disciple, the one Jesus loved, said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he tied his outer clothing around him (for he had taken it off) and plunged into the sea. Since they were not far from land (about a hundred yards away), the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish. When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish lying on it, and bread. “Bring some of the fish you’ve just caught,” Jesus told them. So Simon Peter climbed up and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish—153 of them. Even though there were so many, the net was not torn. “Come and have breakfast,” Jesus told them. None of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” because they knew it was the Lord. Jesus came, took the bread, and gave it to them. He did the same with the fish. This was now the third time Jesus appeared to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.

Can you feel the humour? The way He calls out to them, ‘friends, you haven’t caught any fish have you?’ And then the way He does a callback to His first miracle when He called Peter. These are not just the actions of our Lord, they’re the actions of a friend. Remember, Jesus said to them in the upper room that He no longer calls them servants but calls them friends. To Mary He refers to the disciples as His brothers.

The point is we don’t serve a faraway God in a temple somewhere. We serve a God who is everywhere and knows and loves us as His children, yes, but also His friends. Can you picture yourself sitting around the fire eating fish with Jesus? Doesn’t that remind you of times sitting around the fire with friends in family? Doesn’t it just warm your heart?

We serve that same Jesus today friends. He is with us now in Spirit, but He is still our friend. Following Christ shouldn’t feel like following a set of rules. It should feel like a friendship that you’re growing every day. So how do you build a friendship? You talk to each other, you spend time with each other, you share experiences together. For us that means praying and reading our Bibles and doing God’s work. That’s how we build our friendship with Jesus. Not because it’s an obligation, but because we love Him. That’s why Jesus said that if we love Him we would obey His commands, because obedience isn’t about earning our salvation, but about responding to our salvation with love.

Personal Restoration

Illustration: We’ve probably all received a lot of cards over the course of our lives. Birthday cards, Christmas cards, get well cards. There’s a lot of occassions to give them out. I like it when someone doesn’t just sign their name, but gives a personal message. It makes it more meaningful, right? The general message printed in the card is probably also good, but it shows a level of care and attention if someone thinks of something to write just for your from their own heart.

I think there’s a meaningful parallel here with our relationship with God. There are a lot of general truths that we believe from Scripture about God and Jesus and how they feel about us. Powerful things, like that we are children of God. We are fearfully and wonderfully made. That Jesus died for us. That we get to live forever. Yet there is something special about our own individual story with Jesus. How we came to know Him, how He changed our lives, and how He restored what was broken in us.

Our passage this morning is not a theological explanation of how forgiveness and restoration play out in any disciple’s lives. We listen in on a moment of intensely personal reconciliation between Jesus and Peter. Let’s take a look at verses 15 to 19.

John 21:15–19 CSB

When they had eaten breakfast, Jesus asked Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” “Yes, Lord,” he said to him, “you know that I love you.” “Feed my lambs,” he told him. A second time he asked him, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” “Yes, Lord,” he said to him, “you know that I love you.” “Shepherd my sheep,” he told him. He asked him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved that he asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” “Feed my sheep,” Jesus said. “Truly I tell you, when you were younger, you would tie your belt and walk wherever you wanted. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will tie you and carry you where you don’t want to go.” He said this to indicate by what kind of death Peter would glorify God. After saying this, he told him, “Follow me.”

To fully understand how personal this moment is, we need to flash back to what happened before the crucifixion. In the upper room Jesus told the disciples that they would all abandon them. Our friend impulsive Peter insisted he would never betray Jesus, that he would lay down his life for Jesus. On that note Jesus told Peter that before the night was out Peter would deny Jesus three times. And that’s what happened. Beside a fire with Jesus standing facing judgment nearby Peter denied knowing Him three times.

This was a big deal. A failure that left Peter broken and in tears. Jesus sits beside Him here by another fire. And He asks Peter if Peter loves Him. How many times does Jesus ask? Three times. One for every time Peter denied Him. The restoration matches the failure. He reinstates Peter as a leader who will shepherd His sheep. Not only that, but He then promises Peter that when He is old He will die a martyr’s death. Exactly what brash Peter had said He would do. So Jesus promises Him that he will one day make good on his promise.

I submit to you that just the same as Jesus also calls us friends, He also has a personal touch in all of our redemption stories. No two people are exactly alike. That doesn’t mean the theology of how we’re saved changes, but that Jesus knows you and knows all that you’ve done and has a plan for how to restore you in particular. Remember Romans 8:28

Romans 8:28 CSB

We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.

That means that our past, our suffering, our failures, they are all going to be used for good in the end.

There’s no real “go and do this” for this point, it’s more of a perspective shift. If you’ve asked for forgiveness for the sins and struggles they are forgiven. So you should no longer think of them as something weighing on you or holding you back, but as the canvas that God can use to paint a masterpiece.

Following Jesus

Illustration: A lot of how we feel about our lives depends on what we’re comparing ourselves to. If you spend your time thinking about those who have it harder than you, you can feel really good about yourself. If you spend your time thinking about people who have it better than you, you can start to feel bad for yourself. This is part of the reason that improperly used social media can be harmful to our souls, because we show only the best of ourselves there for everyone else to see. So it can be easy to see only the best in everyone else while we’re all too aware of the flaws and failures in our own lives.

So is the answer then to focus more on the people who have it worse than us to remind us how good we have it? Or is there another option that we should consider? Is there a better way to live our lives that gives us a more accurate picture of who we are and how we ought to live? Let’s take a look at some of the last verses of our passage, focusing in on Jesus’ prophecy about Peter’s future.

John 21:18–22 CSB

“Truly I tell you, when you were younger, you would tie your belt and walk wherever you wanted. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will tie you and carry you where you don’t want to go.” He said this to indicate by what kind of death Peter would glorify God. After saying this, he told him, “Follow me.” So Peter turned around and saw the disciple Jesus loved following them, the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper and asked, “Lord, who is the one that’s going to betray you?” When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, “Lord, what about him?” “If I want him to remain until I come,” Jesus answered, “what is that to you? As for you, follow me.”

Now at first blush this seems like pretty bad news. Jesus told Peter He’s going to die a violent death. Tradition tells us that Peter was crucified. That gives a whole other dimension to Jesus saying “follow me” after the prophecy. IN other words, do as I did even to the point of death. Remember though that Peter declared that he would die for Jesus, and that the Bible tells us that suffering for Jesus’ name is an honor, and the eternal life and joy that waits for Peter will make it more than worth it.

Yet in that moment Peter gets distracted for a moment. He starts playing the comparison game. Peter was the leader of the disciples, it’s hard to doubt it, but John was also a member of the inner circle of Jesus. And He calls Himself the one Jesus loved. So Peter gives in to the temptation to ask about John’s future. What is Jesus reply? Basically, “that’s none of your business” but in nicer words. “what is that to you? As for you, follow me.”

You see Jesus has a calling on all of our lives. Paul talks about us being a body with different parts, and in other places says that we each have different gifts. Our lives are all unique and God has a purpose for each of us. But it can be tempting to play the comparison game instead. To compare ourselves to other people and try to see how we match up with them.

My friends the only time we should be considering other people is when we’re considering how to love them. Our greatest concern is what Jesus has asked us to do. When it comes to what everyone else is doing may I be so bold as to say that Jesus would probably say the same thing to us that He said to Peter. “What is that to you? As for you, follow me.”

That’s our number one priority. Follow Jesus. It’s the first and greatest thing on our to do list. And when we’re dedicated to doing what God has called us to do, than suddenly it doesn’t matter as much what everyone else is doing. So my call to all of us this morning is to go to God in prayer and seek out His will for your life, and stop playing the comparison game. So instead of asking, ‘What about them?’ let’s ask, ‘How can I follow Jesus today?’ That’s the question that matters.

Conclusion

And that my friends is how the gospel according to John ends. With a very personal look into Jesus and His disciples, and why should this be surprising from John, who calls himself the disciple who Jesus loved? We learned from this passage that Jesus loves us as friends, and we should treat Him as a friend in return. We learn that everyone’s redemption story is personal and tailored to our own loves because Jesus knows us all personally. And we learn that our priority should be to follow Jesus rather than comparing ourselves to others.

A quick caution here at the end. Just because our journeys are all unique doesn’t mean we ignore other people entirely. We have a calling to preach the gospel and to love others. The point is just that we are all unique children of God with our own stories and our own giftings and our own calling from God. Your life is your own, and God made it for you alone. Live it the way He would have you live it, not the way someone else would.

Let’s pray.