A New Beginning presents a fascinating book about heaven from Pastor Greg Laurie. I began an extensive study of the topic of heaven. What is it like? What will we do there? Will we see our loved ones again?
Short answer yes, if they're Christians. But I've written about this in detail in a book called As It Is in Heaven.
So if you've had questions about heaven, and I think we all do, I think you ought to order a copy of this book, As It Is in Heaven. Get your copy at harvest.org. And Jesus drops the bombshell that one of them is going to betray him. That would be Judas. Peter sees this as a great opportunity to boast of his great love and devotion for Christ.
And he says, though all deny you, I will never deny you. Jesus said, well, since you brought it up. Before the rooster crows twice, you'll deny three times. that you know me, Peter said there's no way that will ever happen.
Well, no, it was going to happen. And Peter was about to learn that pride goes before a fall. And so, of course, that's exactly what he ended up doing. Fast forward, Christ is arrested. He's being taken now to the house of the high priest.
Caiaphas, and outside of his house, there's an open patio area where there's a big fire burning, and people are warming themselves by it. Peter is sort of following at a distance as Christ is arrested. He goes to that fire and he's standing there, and someone recognizes him and says, You were with Jesus. I mean, the first thing I would have asked if I were Peter was, Would be Are there any roosters around here? Because Jesus did say very specifically rooster crow twice You were with Jesus.
No, I never knew the guy, Peter says, rooster crows. An hour passes. He could have gotten out of there. In our past, if someone else says, No, I recognize you. You were with Jesus.
I never knew the man, rooster crows. Then he denies him a third time, the third time taking an oath. saying, in effect, I swear to God. I never knew Jesus. And at that moment, the Bible tells us Christ was led out of the house of Caiaphas, and he made momentary eye contact with Simon Peter and the glow of the fire.
Wow. What kind of expression do you think Jesus had when he looked at Peter at that moment after his third denial? Do you think he rolled his eyes like, kh? I think he looked at him with love and compassion. He knew what was coming.
He predicted it, but Peter was devastated and he went out and began to weep. bitterly because he had failed the Lord. The Lord knew he would fail.
So he was giving him another chance.
So Peter and John sprint to the tomb. And by the way, in John's gospel, he mentions he beat Peter to the tomb. That's the perk of writing your own gospel. You can be inspired by God, but you can throw in little details like that. Yeah, I beat the old dude.
He was kind of slow. Both of them come and see the same scene. It's an empty tomb. It's a tomb of a wealthy man belonging to Joseph of Armathea. Oh, there's an area cut out to lay the body in.
Jesus was wrapped in bandages, almost mummy-like, if you will. The bandages are still there, as though he's still in them, but the body is gone. John comes of the tomb, looks in. Sees the body is gone, immediately gets it, Christ is risen, and takes off. Peter comes in, chest heaving.
Looks at the same thing, and the Bible says he wondered in himself what was happening. A little skeptical. I don't know what's going on. And as he's leaving the tomb, guess who he encounters? Jesus.
They have a private conversation that we don't Know anything about. We just know that. Jesus appeared personally to Peter, and no doubt that is when Jesus extended to Peter forgiveness. But Peter probably thought, I'm all washed up. I'll never...
do anything for God again. I'm no longer an apostle. But God had other plans, and that brings us to John 21. By the way, that was the intro to the message, okay? John 21, verse 1.
Later, Jesus appeared again to the disciples. Beside the Sea of Galilee, this is how it happened. Several of the disciples were there: Simon, Peter, Thomas, nicknamed the twin. Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples, and Simon Peter, who is clearly the leader of the gang. Said, I'm going fishing and we'll come too.
They said, and they went out into the boat and they caught nothing all night. At dawn, Jesus was standing on the beach. But the disciples couldn't see who he was. He called out, boys, do you have any fish? No, they replied.
Then he said, Why don't you throw out your net on the right side of the boat and you'll get some? And they did, and they couldn't haul in the net because there were so many fish in it. We'll stop there. I love this. Have you ever just felt like you want to just put a gun fishing sign up and?
Disconnect. That's how these guys felt. They didn't know what to do. They didn't know what this next step was. And they went out fishing and they caught nothing.
Kind of a picture of their lives, really a picture of our life.
Well, when we leave Jesus out of the equation, things just don't go well, do they? You know, maybe you'll have that success, or maybe you'll have a failure, but whatever it is you have, when you have it without God, you really have nothing. Life goes so much better when we listen to him and, most importantly, do what he tells us to do. I heard the story of a lady that Was at the airport and she was waiting for her flight, and she went to one of those little cookie stores. and bought a bag of cookies.
So she had a few minutes, she sat down with a big sort of community table. There were other people sitting there, including a man across from her. She sat down. uh pull out her iPad was going to check up on our social media And as she's doing so, she reaches into her bag to get her first cookie. And much to her shock, there's a man's hand in her bag, and he's reaching for a cookie too.
She looks at him like, What are you doing? He takes the cookie out and eats it without any embarrassment. She takes her cookie and eats it. Who is this guy?
So she reaches in for a second cookie. He reaches in too. She reaches him for a third. He reaches him for a third. This happens so they get to the bottom of the bag, and there's one cookie left, and he gets it first.
He smiles, breaks it in half, and gives her half. She snatches it, eats it, walks away in a huff. How dare that man eat my cookies right in front of me? Who did he think he is? Who does he think he is?
So she. Gets her seat on the plane, she sits down and reaches into her purse and Finds her bag of cookies. See, things were not as she thought. He was not eating her cookie. She was eating his.
Yeah. And he was nice enough to share the last one with her. That's how we are with God. It's my life. It's my future.
My money. My cookies. No, Newsflash. You belong to God. If you've given your life to Jesus Christ, the Bible says you've been bought with a price.
You belong to him, and when you leave him out, things will not go the way they're supposed to go. And that's what was happening with the disciples. Have you caught any fish? Jesus asks, I love that he said boys too, because he was sort of in silhouette form, it was early. Boys, he calls.
Have he caught any fish? Boy, who's he calling boys? We're adult men out here. And then John realizes it's the Lord. And they make their way in, and they're hauling this massive net teeming with freshly caught fish.
And here's the scene they see: Jesus sitting by a fire. He's made them breakfast. I bet Jesus was a good cook, don't you think? Probably made him some bacon. No, probably no bacon.
That's not kosher, but. Fish and eggs, hopefully some eggs, I don't know. I like eggs in the morning.
So, you know, they're there and it's cooking and And here's the amazing thing. This is God incarnate. The creator of the universe in human form who has just gone to the cross, he's been crucified, he's risen again. Listen, those nail-pierced hands. was making them breakfast.
And so they come up and they sit down by the glow of the fire. It was deju vu time for Peter. Because he remembers the last time he saw Jesus in the glow of a fire, he was denying him. He would probably look up at Jesus, and Jesus would look up, and Jesus, Peter would probably look down, just embarrassed, ashamed. Not knowing what to say.
And now Jesus breaks the silence with these statements, and we go back to. uh John uh twenty one Simon son of Jonah Do you love me more than these? Yes, Peter replies, you know I love you. Then feed my lambs, Jesus told him. I want you to notice one thing.
Do you love me more than these? The old, prideful. Self-confident Peter. Who sat in the upper room, though I'll deny you, I will never deny you, would have said, Of course I love you more than these. No one loves you like I do.
The newly repentant Humbled Peter Just says, Lord, I love you. I'm not going to boast of my love at the expense of others. And Jesus says, feed my sheep. You know what that means? he was back in business again.
Jesus not only forgave him, he was recommissioning him for service. Again. And God will do the same for you. He will forgive you. And then You can start this new relationship with him again.
Just as Jesus called to the disciples from the shore, saying, Come and have breakfast. He's calling to us. to have a meal with him. The Bible uses the picture of having a meal with someone as friendship and fellowship. I don't like to eat with people I don't know.
Someone will come up to me and say, I'd like to take you out to lunch. And talk to you about a business proposition. No, thank you. Because if they pay for the meal, I'm kind of beholden to them, and I have to listen to their spiel, and that gives me indigestion.
Now, I go out and eat with people I like. I go out to eat with members of my family or friends or people I'm close to. And Jesus says, Behold, I stand at the door and I knock. And if you'll hear my voice and open the door, I will come in and eat with you, have a meal with you. The same offer to the disciples is on the table for us right now.
Hey, everybody, thanks for listening to my podcast. Before you go, I wanted to let you know about the important work we're doing here at Harvest. You know, we've had the same goal these last 50 years, which is simply this. We want to know God and we want to make Him known. And we do that in a lot of ways.
Documentary films, animation, radio, television, large-scale evangelistic events, and more. If you want to be a part of what we're doing to fulfill the great commission, you can support us with whatever you can give. At harvest.org slash donate. Again, that's harvest.org slash donate, and thanks so much.
