Follow Me

WELCOME:

SCRIPTURE READING:

Nehemiah 9:5–8 “Arise, bless the Lord your God forever and ever! O may Your glorious name be blessed And exalted above all blessing and praise! “You alone are the Lord. You have made the heavens, The heaven of heavens with all their host, The earth and all that is on it, The seas and all that is in them. You give life to all of them And the heavenly host bows down before You. “You are the Lord God, Who chose Abram And brought him out from Ur of the Chaldees, And gave him the name Abraham. “You found his heart faithful before You, And made a covenant with him To give him the land of the Canaanite, Of the Hittite and the Amorite, Of the Perizzite, the Jebusite and the Girgashite— To give it to his descendants. And You have fulfilled Your promise, For You are righteous.”

LET US STAND AND WORSHIP!

“The Goodness of God”

Words and Music by Hillsong’

PRAYER OF PRAISE FOR WHO GOD IS

Lord, thank you for your constancy. For never turning Your back on us, for never getting frustrated with us, for forgiving our sins, for allowing us to be part of Your plan. We ask that You would look down upon this gathering of people and fill our hearts with great joy today as we focus on You. Amen!

“What a beautiful Name”

Words and Music by Hillsong

“What a beautiful Name”

Words and Music by Hillsong

PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION TO OPEN OUR HEARTS

Lord, give us ears to hear Your voice and eyes to see Your glory. Would you this morning illuminate Your Word and make it known to us? Help us no to make application to others peoples’ lives, but to apply every Word to our own lives. Amen

SERMON

INTRODUCTION:

We come to the end of John’s gospel today and I have mixed emotions. Leading up to this point was exciting because I made it to the end. And for me it is a great accomplishment to preach through a book of the Bible.

But I was reminded as I prepared this last sermon, that it may be years before I set out to preach through it again. So that is difficult. I have learned much from this book, I have been blessed by it tremendously, and I hope it has blessed you as well.

The book ends in much the same way it began. In first chapter of John, we meet Jesus and he is calling men to follow Him. Jesus comes to them, and tells them, “Follow ME”. At the book ends the same way with a final call to “Follow Jesus”.

So this last section, of this last chapter is a chapter about discipleship. It is a story of Peter and Jesus that also becomes our story when we set out to follow Jesus.

Failure

Confession

Restoration

Commission

Destiny

So let’s look at the final 11 verses as we bring “The Gospel According to John” to a close.

~PASTORAL PRAYER~

1) Jesus Deals with Peter’s Failure by forcing him to confront it

John 21:15–17 NASB95

So 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, “Tend My lambs.” He said to him again 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, “Shepherd 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 all things; You know that I love You.” Jesus said to him, “Tend My sheep.

Explanation:

Set the scene:

The disciples had been out fishing all night. When day breaks, they see a stranger on the beach, who leads them to catch 153 fish, they realize its Jesus, rush to the bank, and join him around the charcoal fire. He serves them fish, and bread, and it is a warm scene of fellowship and joy just like they had before the crucifixion.

And then things get personal and uncomfortable with Peter. While they’re sitting around that fire, Jesus looks over at Peter, and asks him three times if he loves him. And by the third time, Peter is cut to the heart, and can only say what he knows to be true, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love you”

The last time we heard from Peter was when he denied Jesus 3 times in that courtyard. And the Bible says after that rooster crowd, he wept bitterly because it was a serious, terrible thing he did to Jesus.

And I can only imagine Peter kinda hoping they could just sweep that one under the rug. Let’s just forget that ever happened, and in fact never bring it up again. And move on. I don’t want to think about it. I don’t want to hear about it. I wish it had never happened.

But that’s not the way Lord works, and that’s not the way real relationships are healed. When we sin against the Lord and when we sin against others, those things must be addressed before restoration can eve take place.

Notice what Jesus does here: Jesus begins by asking Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?”

The “these” Jesus is referring to are the other disciples. He’s not asking Peter if Peter loves Jesus more than Peter loves the other disciples, but if Peter loves Jesus more than the other disciples love Jesus.

That seems strange until we remember what Peter had said about His commitment to Jesus:

“Even though all may fall away because of You, I will never fall away.” (Matt. 26:33).

Peter is saying his commitment to Jesus is superior to the other disciples.

And in John 13:37, Peter told Jesus, “I will lay down my life for You” again expressing his willingness to even die for Jesus.

But it’s not just that, but how many times did Peter deny Jesus? 3 times.

How many times does Jesus ask Peter if he loves him? 3 times

And when Peter denied Jesus, it was around a charcoal fire (John 18)

Here in John 21, when Jesus asks Peter if he really loves Him, it is around a charcoal fire (v 9).

Now what is Jesus doing? Trying to pour salt on Peter’s wound?

No, he is bringing to the surface Peter’s sin, and forcing him to confront it so that it can be dealt with and put away.

Thats the way we must learn to deal with our failures! Its not by ignoring them!

Its not by pretending that they did not happen!

Its not by pushing them down deep in our hearts so that they just somehow disappear!

No we deal with them by confessing them and moving away from them.

Is that what Peter does? Absolutely! Instead of Peter doing what Peter did before and saying yes Lord, I love you more than all of these, didn’t you see I was the first one out of the boat? Didn’t you see the excitement of my face when John said, “It is the Lord?” Don’t you remember in the garden I was the one who drew out my sword top protect You?!

That was prideful Peter, self-confident Peter, now we see a humble Peter. Not: “yes, Lord I love you more than these, but Lord, you know all things…and I really believe I love you, but I’d rather trust what you know of me, as I should have done when you said, before the rooster crows you’ll deny me 3 times”.

Application:

You as a follower of Jesus Christ are going to fail to some degree. Its a given!

But if we do not face those failures, and have sorrow over those failures, we will never be freed from those sins

2 Corinthians 7:10 “For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death.”

What we do not have enough of in the Christian life is confronting our sin, admitting our sin, facing our sin and failures and being cut tot he heart over our sin!

2) Our love for Jesus must move beyond words

Each time, Peter responds to Jesus saying, “Yes Lord, You know that I love You.” Jesus would say to him, “tend my Lambs” or feed My sheep

Now we know from this gospel, that sheep are a metaphor for the people of God. And we also know that the true Shepherd is the lord Jesus Himself.

But here, He is commissioning Peter to step into that shepherding role and love the people of God by feeding them and Shepherding them.

That is, if you truly love me, then this is how you can demonstrate your love for Me. Not just in words like before, but with action. By caring for the people of God the way Jesus did.

Here is the point: the Love Jesus required would have to be more than mere words.

Today I think Jesus would say the same thing to the all those in the church today: If you truly love love Me, then demonstrate it in your actions.

When this church first began, it was at my house. And one Sunday morning, I was going over my sermon and I got a call from my neighbor whose son did HVAC work, and I was in need of some work done. And the neighbor was going to wake the son up right then and send him over to assess the situation. Now I tried to delay it until at least after church, but he was determined to help e right then.

So his son comes over and I tell him about the issue, and had a moment to witness to that son. And Im not sure what all was said, but this young man told me that he loved God very much. And I asked him, how do you love God? And he couldn’t answer me. He wanted to say he felt some way about God, but thats not real love.

So I took him outside in that little chapel, and I showed him that to love God is about what we do, not what we say

Let me give you a few of those verses:

1 John 2:5 “but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him:”

1 John 3:14 “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren”

1 John 3:18 “Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.”

1 John 4:20 “If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.”

Jesus is saying to peter, if you truly love Me, then tend My Lambs, Shepherd Me sheep, and Tend My Sheep.

In others words, do not just say you love Me, but show Me that you love Me.

And I think church, likely all of us would be quick to say that we love God, but is there tangible evidence of that in our lives by what we do?

How do we demonstrate our love to Jesus? In what ways do we love Him?

3) The Call to Follow Jesus

John 21:18–19 NASB95

“Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to gird yourself and walk wherever you wished; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will gird you, and bring you where you do not wish to go.” Now this He said, signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God. And when He had spoken this, He said to him, “Follow Me!”

Explanation:

Jesus moves from loving Him to following Him.

“When you were younger, you used to gird yourself and walk wherever you wished”

Peter’s life before following Jesus consisted of his own will and his own desires, but now it must be different.

Before Jesus, he was able to go and do whatever it was that he wanted. His life belonged to himself. His dreams, his ambitions, his occupation, whatever he wanted he could do.

If Peter wanted to fish for a living, he could. If he wanted to be the man in charge, the man leading the band, the man who would cut off another’s ear, then he could do whatever he wanted..

That’s the way life is for us all…when we are young. Before we come into a relationship with Jesus.

There is this big world in front of us with all sorts of opportunities and exciting things and there is nothing restricting us from any of it

“but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will gird you, and bring you where you do not wish to go.”

Can you see the contrast Jesus is making in Peter’s life? Peter when he was younger was a Peter who did not know Jesus and did whatever he wished! But this new life Jesus has called him into, those choices are no longer his. In fact he will be taken places “he does not wish to go”.

Why? Because the call to follow Jesus is also the willingness to no longer lead ourselves. We forfeit that right to say where we will live, what our occupation will be, who we will marry, how we will raise our kids, what church we will choose to attend, what we will do with our free time, what we will do with our money and any other rights we may have.

Following Jesus is saying to Jesus, “ok I am giving up all the rights to my own life and handing them over to you Jesus”. I will no longer be the sovereign leader of my life, but YOU take those rights and lead me!

And I want us to know church that until we do this, until we submit to Jesus in this kind of way we are never truly following Him. We have not submitted to His lordship over our lives. We have not died to ourselves. We are clinging to the control and it must be yielded up to Jesus if we are going to follow Jesus.

Now to what degree are we to have this kind of submission??

Notice what Jesus says, “you will stretch out your hands and someone else will gird you, and bring you where you do not wish to go. Now this He said, signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God”

The word (stretch out) is a reference to crucifixion. And the evidence from church history tells us that Peter was crucified upside down.

So if Peter follows Jesus, then what he can expect in his future is to be carried places he does not want to go, and in the same way he watched Jesus be crucified and die, so he too will be crucified and die.

To what extreme should we expect in our lives then if we wish to follow Jesus?

It is no less than everything in our life and quite possibly even to our death as well. This may sound extreme to you, but I assure Jesus Himself said to expect no less.

Matthew 16:24–25 “Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”

Shouldn’t we hold up our lives to this graphic picture of following Jesus and see if we align with this?

If this is what it looks like to follow, then shouldn’t we seriously look at our lives, at our dreams, at our choices and determine whether they are aligned with the desires of Jesus or our own desires?

No matter when we set out to follow Jesus, if we have there will always be a change in direction.

4) Our destiny

There’s one more thing about this following Jesus, it does not allow us to compare ourselves lives to others

John 21:20–22 NASB95

Peter, turning around, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them; the one who also had leaned back on His bosom at the supper and said, “Lord, who is the one who betrays You?” So Peter seeing him said to Jesus, “Lord, and what about this man?” Jesus said to him, “If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow Me!”

Peter undoubtedly hears what Jesus is saying, he hears the reference to being stretched out, death, and be taken where he does not want to go, and turns around to John, and says what about him? What is his destiny? Will he be taken places that he does not want to go? Will he be stretched out like me? What about him?

In other words, if this is my future, what do you have for John? Is He going to be gird and carried where he does not wish? Is he going to hang upon the cross too?

Am I being treated unfairly? Is he going to have a better life than me?

Or maybe a more modern question for Jesus: why do I have to go through this when I don’t see other people in the church dealing with these problems?

Why do they get to live this fancy life that seems to be full of success?

Why do I have to serve in the church so much and those others seem to do nothing but come and sit and consume?

I think the words to Peter are also Jesus’ words to us: “You follow Me!”

Disciples are not called to compare God’s plan for their life to God’s plan for another’s life.

Each person is unique and has been called to a specific path in this life and they have been gifted in ways to be used by God for that life.

Discipleship is personal. It cannot be viewed in light of another’s life, but is completely and totally personal between each follower and God’s will for them. Each call to discipleship has been tailor-made to that individual according to God’s wisdom and plans.

When I was pastoring my first church, I had a guy from the KBC who had come down to help us in the area of evangelism. And we got to know him pretty well, and he said to me, you would be a great church planter. Because we were entrepreneurs and were an;e to sustain ourselves, and for some other reasons as well. But I never put much thought into it, we were at a church and I had plans there and wanted to see God move.

But later on God did call us to plant this church, and as exciting as it was in the beginning, it got hard real quick. There was a huge financial strain on my family. There was a huge strain on my marriage. And there were times when I did not know if we would make it out of it.

And it was so easy to look around at other pastors, with their churches, and large congregations, and enough support to take care of their families, and people in the church who served and say, “Lord why can’t we have it like that?” “Why can’t that be us?”

And I went back to those words from that mentor years before who told me, y’all would be perfect for planting a church.

God knows what he’s doing. He has given each of us everything that we need to carry out His will, on the path that He has chosen for us!

It may be financial hardship

It may be a difficult marriage

It may be wayward children

It may be that we serve more than others in the church

It may be a call to singleness

But what we must not do is look at others and compare our lives to theirs and say, “what about them?”

TO FOLLOW JESUS IS TO ACCEPT ANY PATH IN LIFE THAT JESUS WOULD PLACE US ON

John 21:23–25 NASB95

Therefore this saying went out among the brethren that that disciple would not die; yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but only, “If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you?” This is the disciple who is testifying to these things and wrote these things, and we know that his testimony is true. And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written.

And we know that his testimony is true.

The gospel of John is this man’s personal testimony of what he saw and heard and touched, and now has handed it to us.

And it is true, and trustworthy, with your lives. The Jesus John tells us about is the Jesus who lives today, who walked upon this earth, who gave His life so that we may have life, and who invites us to come and follow Him.

~PRAYER~

COMMUNION

Communion is such a fitting celebration to the close of this great book for a season. I just want us to think about that very last verse that we read: “and there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose the that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written”

We can only think and imagine of all that the things that the Son of God did while He was upon this earth, from the miracles, the healings, overriding the laws of nature again and again, and the life changing truths He brought to us.

And some believe this is a statement of hyperbole…and it very well may be…but what does ring true about this statement is the depth of God’s riches and mercy. The life Jesus gives to us is worth far more than the sacrifices we make in this world. And above all of that is the giving of His life, the shedding of His blood, and the grace that would provide an atonement for our sins.

That’s what Jesus wanted us to remember the most! That’s why He gave us communion, to remember His body, and His blood, and that without those two things, there would be no hope…

~PRAYER~

Remember

Invite those to take a piece of bread

PRAY

Say: “and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” (1 Corinthians 11:24, NASB95)

Eat the bread

Invite those to come receive a cup

PRAY

Say: “In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” (1 Corinthians 11:25, NASB95)

Drink the cup

CLOSING SONG?