It's Not Too Late to Come Back to Jesus

Intro: Jean Valjean on the walk back to the Bishop’s home with stolen silver… Shame.

FC: We, like Valjean, allow shame to stop us from having deep relationship with God.

Question: How can we come back to Jesus? Can we come back to Jesus?

Story this morning: A man comes face to face with someone he wronged, not just anyone, but Jesus himself.

Hope for our time: That we, like Peter, would encounter Jesus in the midst of and in spite of our shame.

Pray

Bibles [English & Spanish] - turn to John 21

Setup: Gonna run through verses 1-14, spend most of our time in 15-19

Background: explain 1-14, important details –

Back in Galilee

Back to fishing

Same encounter Peter and John had with Jesus at their calling

Cooking breakfast → “Charcoal Fire”

Peter is sweating, heart-pounding, eyes-averting, sense of dread when Jesus asks if they can talk

Transition Question: What will Jesus do with Peter and his shame? Will he rebuke him? Will he “put him in his place”? What would you do to someone who wasn’t loyal to you, or to your company, someone who sinned against you or hurt you?

The first thing he does…

Jesus Restores Relationship (Verse 15)

Notice who initiates… the interaction… the conversation…

Notice what Jesus calls Peter. “Simon Son of John”

He’s bringing Peter back to where it all started

Notice what he doesn’t ask Peter

“What have you done for me lately?”

“What are your prayer and Bible reading times like?”

“How many disciples do you have in your group?”

Notice what he does ask Peter: “Do you love me?”

It’s all about Love. It always has been.

In essence, he’s saying to Peter:

“Do you remember where we first met? Do you remember where it all started? Do you remember when you were Simon son of John and I was Jesus of Nazareth? Do you remember when it was about Love?”

Like a sappy rom-com movie where the couple goes back to where they had their first date that somehow went terribly wrong but they overcame their differences and fell in love.

Do you love me?

Peter is hesitant in his response

“You know…”

I phileo you

Is his shame holding him back from a full experience of relationship with Jesus? Is yours?

Jesus then tells him “Feed my Lambs”

Jesus Restores Purpose (verses 16-17)

“Feed my lambs” “Tend my sheep” “Feed my sheep”

Love mandates action

Action doesn’t mandate Love…

Shame is holding Peter back from fulfilling the calling and vocation that Jesus has put on his life.

Jesus invites Peter back into a vocation that is really his mission in the world

The Lord is my shepherd

Jesus is the “Good Shepherd” calling sheep into his flock. They know his voice

Peter will call Jesus the “ArchiPoimen” later in his letters which means

The Overall Shepherd or the Chief Shepherd.

Jesus is the shepherd keeping watch over us, his sheep, but he’s gifting his church with undershepherds, pastors, to care for his flock.

Peter isn’t setting out on a new mission, he’s fulfilling Jesus’ mission

Not all are pastors but the rhythm of the mission is the same for us all

It’s Jesus’ mission, he’s the Good _____

He calls us to love him

He calls us to love our neighbor

Transition: Has shame left you wandering and aimless? Jesus restores your purpose. He’s the Good Lawyer, defending his people. He’s the Good Shopkeeper, welcoming the stranger. He’s the Good Nurse, healing his people. He’s the Good Educator, giving wisdom to all who ask. He’s the Good Supply Chain Manager, holding up and sustaining the balance of the whole creation day by day. He might not be calling you to be a Pastor, like Peter, but he’s inviting you into his mission and work in your vocation and calling you to LOVE him and LOVE people.

Lastly Jesus restores Hope (Verses 18-19)

Let’s get the obvious out of the way here: Jesus is telling Peter he’s going to die a pretty terrible death. That doesn’t seem like hope.

Rewind to John 13:36-38

Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus answered him, “Where I am going you cannot follow me now, but you will follow afterward.” 37 Peter said to him, “Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” 38 Jesus answered, “Will you lay down your life for me? Truly, truly, I say to you, the rooster will not crow till you have denied me three times.

Peter, a zealous man, has lost all sense of that Zeal and Passion. He’s tired. He used to be passionate about following Jesus. Do you remember a time when you felt like that? His shame is now ringing around in his ears as he remembers how he promised he’d die for Jesus, and when pressed by a little girl by a charcoal fire, he crumbled.

I would wonder if I were Peter– “What if I’m pressed again? Will I fail again? Will I deny you again, Jesus?”

Maybe your sin and your shame has you there. You’re caged in by fear of future failure, and you don’t want to try anymore.

Jesus is telling Peter – In the end, you won’t deny me.

In the end, it won’t be a little girl, it’ll be soldiers.

In the end, you won’t look away, you won’t run away you’ll face it.

In the end, I’ll be with you, and you’ll become like me.

In the end, you’ll be so firm in your faith that you, like the Good Shepherd himself, will lay down your life for the sheep.

I’d guess that while there would be a sense of dread about the actual events of his death there would be an incredible confidence knowing that he will stand firm and glorify God, becoming like Jesus in his death.

Jesus gave him an assurance, not an assurance of comfort and pleasure and happy times.

Jesus assured him that he would remain faithful until the end.

And in that, Peter would bring glory and honor to the name of Jesus.

But we, like Peter, need hope and instruction in the day to day. We need to know what to do now. Here. In this moment.

Jesus says “Follow Me.”

Your job, folks, my job, our job and followers of Jesus is simple obedience. Love Jesus, Love People. Obey. Follow Jesus where he goes.

Following sometimes yields suffering, because Jesus went into places of suffering.

Following sometimes yields humiliation, because Jesus was humiliated.

Following, for some in our world, leads to actual physical death, just as Jesus was killed.

Following always yields hope, because Jesus, the Good Shepherd leads his people into fields of Green, a New Creation to come. Eternal Life in resurrected bodies like his, with a restored relationship and restored purpose.

Your job is to follow.

Conclusion: Finish Jean Valjean story.

Bishop, face to face with the thief, backs him up. “Yes I did give him those, but he left so early he forgot these.”

Gives 2 silver candlesticks

I like to imagine them as the candlesticks of hope and purpose

Jean Valjean is so changed by this radical encounter with Grace that he puts his faith in Christ, and begins “a new story”

He begins by loving God

He loves his neighbors by caring for the poor and destitute.

He lives the rest of his life shaped by these two candlesticks

Valjean found freedom from his shame in a radical encounter with Grace

Do you feel locked in by shame?

Because of your past?

Because of your sin?

Do you feel aimless and hopeless?

Do you feel like it’s too late to come back to Jesus?

That radical encounter with Grace freed Valjean to live a life with a new meaning and a new mission, just like the encounter with Jesus freed Peter

Don’t delay. Don’t wait. Today is the day for a fresh encounter with the radical Grace of Jesus Christ.

Let’s pray