041 - Simon, Walk With Me

You pick up your Bible and wonder, is there more here than meets the eye?

Is there something here for me? I mean, it's just words printed on paper, right? Well, it may look like just print on a page, but it's more than ink. Join us for the next half hour as we explore God's Word together, as we learn how to explore it on our own, as we ask God to meet us there in its pages.

Welcome to More Than Ink. Hey, if you're going to write a book about the life of Jesus, how would you end it? Oh, well, bang, the resurrection, the new day, sunlight, the reveal, all that kind of stuff. But what does he do? John's Gospel doesn't end that way.

It ends intimately, relationally, quietly. Yeah. Today on More Than Ink. Good morning. Good morning. Oh, we're glad you're with us. I mean, we say this all the time. We're at our dining room table. We are glad you're with us. And we're glad you're with us at our dining room table. I'm sitting across from the lovely Dorothy. Oh, thank you. And I'm sitting across from the handsome Jim.

There you go. So we are glad you're with us. We're wrapping up the book of John today. And it's a really tender, tender scene that comes up here. Again, it's one of those things that John tells us about that the other Gospel writers don't tell us about.

And it's a wonderful thing. Well, and it's a famous, famous passage. You've probably already heard dozens of sermons about this particular conversation between Jesus and Peter. And we're not going to decode any of that for you, but we are going to kind of walk through it and just kind of process it aloud together. We really haven't talked about it. As we've told you before, these conversations are not scripted. We both do our own preparation and bring our own questions and issues. And then we just respond to each other in this very honest way, like we're having a conversation. And you get to be part of that. And we hope that if you were sitting at the table with us, we'd hope you'd join in the same conversation.

That you would jump right in. Because it's just, it's a fascinating thing to sit down in an informal way and just chew on what God has put here for us and just to wonder and scratch our heads and to make observations. It's really, it's the best. Well, and that, you know, these 40 weeks that we've spent in John have been amazing to us. We have had so much fun just having this conversation. We're looking at each other's eyes and listening to each other. And it's just been, it's been encouraging and it's been refreshing and there have been fresh insights just even as we've talked about it.

So we hope that that's happening for you. Yeah. So let's jump right into it. So in John 21, we saw Jesus at the beach with the apostles.

They caught some fish and miraculous catch. And now the breakfast is over. Breakfast is over. And another conversation seems like it's kind of a private one ensues between Jesus and Peter as we close out the book. So do you want to read for us?

Yeah. John doesn't say this, but he kind of had the feeling that Jesus had said to Peter, you know, let's take a walk. Walk with me a ways. So starting in verse 15. When they'd finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? And he said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. And he said to him, feed my lambs. He said to him a second time, Simon, son of John, do you love me? And he said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him, tend my sheep. Jesus said to him a 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're old, you'll 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. Famous words again. Well, yeah, we'll stop there for a second and kind of wind back.

Probably for a long time. Yeah, very famous conversation. The three questions from Jesus to Peter and Peter's three answers, only minutely different between them. But why ask three times? I think that's the question. And again, if you're a Bible studier, you'll say, wait a second, there was another three time event in the life of Peter.

And it wasn't a pretty one. So you remember if you go back when Jesus is saying what's going to happen to him, Peter says, well, you know. In fact, in Mark 14, I looked it up, Peter goes as far as saying, even though they all fall away, I will.

Not me, no way. Which kind of gives some credence for why in the first question Jesus asked him, do you love me more than these? Like remember that day when you said you did love me more than these? So I think in a way, in a pretty direct way, Jesus is allowing Peter to unwind those three denials that he did. Because he says before the cockroach, you'll deny me three times. And what an elephant in the room it must have been between Peter and Jesus. Because in the first two appearances, up in that upper room, they don't talk about it. Yeah, I think maybe that's what was preoccupying Peter.

In the shadow or the daylight of the resurrection, all these weeks later, he still is preoccupied with his own failure. And these three questions, do you love me? And we know that John tells us specifically the third one, grieved Peter. Don't pick up in the English, and probably you know this because you heard it or studied it yourself. There are different words for love going on here, and different words for knowing going on. And Jesus' response is slightly different each time.

What is the same? Well, it's my lambs, my sheep. So there's some subtle things here that we probably need to linger on a little bit. So the first time he says, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? I find it interesting he calls them Simon and not Peter. His old name. His pre-Jesus name. And in fact, we know that Jesus gave Peter that new name before he even walked out of the boat with him.

At the very beginning of their acquaintance. So that name always marked Peter's relationship with Jesus. But here he comes back to, well, Simon, not his call. Because Cephas or Peter means stone. So he's not calling him a rock right here. He's saying, Mr. Old Peter. Well, son of John.

Son of your father. You're just the guy again. Do you love me more than these guys? And the word Jesus uses there for love is that word that we know from other scriptures. It's the agape word. It's that selfless, self-giving, other-oriented love. It's all about the others, not about me.

Right. Yeah, sacrificial. And Peter says, Lord, you know, you get it. You understand that I love you with a phileo, a brotherly affection and a comradeship.

We're in the same team here. But not quite the level of sacrificial. But Peter knows enough to know that he can't bluster his way out of this. Well, I think it would be impossible for him to claim an agape love when he still is facing his denial of Jesus. Well, when he totally deferred for self-protection.

For self-protection. Then for identifying with knowing Jesus. So he was protecting himself. He wasn't sacrificing himself for Jesus.

So the agape stuff, yeah, it's a little out of my league. So he says, yeah, I love you very warmly and dearly brotherly wise. Okay, but then, you know, Jesus' response to that.

Peter says, Lord, you know that I love you as a brother, that I love you. Not in a sacrificial way, because I haven't demonstrated that. But Jesus says to him in verse 16, so tend my sheep. Yeah.

Oh. Oh, we missed in 15, feed my lambs. Oh, feed my lambs. Sorry, I turned the page too soon. Yeah, 15 feed my lambs.

Yeah, feed my lambs, tend my sheep, feed my sheep. Right. Right. Peter's not about you. It's about me. Yeah.

And my sheep. And what a wonderful thing. I mean, you probably noticed this already is the fact that Peter's standing there kind of in the face of his denial and Jesus says, I'm giving you a gigantic responsibility. Because when people fail us, the last thing we do is give them more responsibility.

We say, well, you know, I don't know about that. You know, I lent you the keys to my car and you wrecked my car and I'm not going to lend you my keys anymore to even my more important things. But Jesus says in the face of that, of the reality of that denial, He says, I've got a gigantic responsibility for you. Now, it's interesting that you would say the keys to the car, because that sets me thinking. Jesus had told Peter halfway through the ministry, and I'll give you the keys of the kingdom, right?

And when you open, no one will shut. It's a gigantic endorsement. Well, you know, Jesus has not fired him. He's reinstituting the call.

Which is important. Because in Peter's mind, he's thinking that I blew the whole thing, didn't I? Jesus says, nope. Nope.

We're going forward. That would make Jesus a false prophet. If he said, I've called you for this purpose and you're going to do it. And then Peter denies him, but Jesus had said it would happen. Well, it didn't happen. But Jesus said, no, no, no, it's going to happen. So the plan is still on.

Even in the face of your denial. I've still called you for a purpose here in this dawning morning after your night of failure, trying to go back to the old self of who you were. Which must have, in the interim between these two events, must have just chewed Peter up. Yeah, I think that's what he was.

So this is what we're doing. And this is why the conversation is somewhat private here. Jesus didn't want to do this in front of the other apostles. Which is interesting, because his denial was very public. Yeah, very public, very public. So he, in a very tender way, he says, Peter, walk with me for a second.

Just put this to rest, just you and me. So then the second time he says, you know, do you love me? In fact, you know, Peter all three times says, you know. Right, you know. So Peter's saying, hey, you know the status of my heart.

You know, you're not doing this for you. So I'll defer to whatever you say, because you see me. So the second time, you know, do you love me? He says, well, you know that I love you.

You know that I love you. And then it's ten mai shiv. It changes slightly. The first word is feed. This one actually is shepherd.

It's from the word that means shepherd. So it's not only just feed, but everything involved with taking care of the ones that I love. So, I mean, think about this. What if you entrusted your children to someone's care, and that person had done something really wrong before, but you're still going to entrust the people you love so tenderly to them? And Jesus knows Peter's heart.

So it's not a gamble. He knows that Peter will carry this out. Because, remember when that guy came to Jesus and said, master, what's the greatest commandment? When he says, well, to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love your neighbors yourself.

Well, those neighbors aren't just neighbors, they're people that God loves. So there's a connection between loving God and loving the people that God loves, and that's exactly the connection he's making here with Peter, too. Indeed, that's what he had said back in his prayer in chapter 17 when he says, I'm sending you the way I've been sent. I came for a purpose, and I'm sending you for a purpose. So the plan is still on, although in Peter's mind he's wondering if he blew it, if he really blew it.

And Jesus says, no, the plan's still on. Well, he says, Lord, you know I love you. You know the extent to which I love you. You know I want to love you. You know this intuitively. You know me.

Right? But that third time when Jesus says, do you love me, Jesus changes his term, and he uses that phileo term. Like, okay, Peter. Yeah, the last question. Okay, Peter, you know, we've already identified that you don't love me sacrificially yet.

Okay, we can't quite get to agape. Now, do you really love me? Do you really love me as your brother, as your partner, as your... Yeah. Well, and it's nice because Jesus is saying, by saying it that way, he says, yeah, I do know the status of your heart, and I really do. But that's okay.

The plan is still on. Okay. But he calls it into question again, and Peter now is Greek, he says, Lord, you know, you know experientially all things. This is a different knowing.

You know deeply, you know me, and you have experienced my love for you in all of its many faceted failures. Yeah. And Jesus still says, feed my sheep, just like I have just fed you in the shadow of your failure.

Now you feed my sheep. Yeah. It's such a tremendous vote of confidence. Oh, it's such a grace. It is a mercy.

Such an incredible thing, yeah. And Peter, who we like to harangue because he seems to be such a routine failure. He's not really, but he sticks his foot in his mouth a lot.

He's the guy we kind of like to make fun of. And here at the end, Jesus is saying, well, I know all that, but I'm still calling you to feed my sheep. And I'm showing you how to do it. And I'm showing you how to do it, yeah. And I'm going to give you the power to do it, which we're going to see, well, we would see if we pressed on into Acts and followed through with Pentecost, and we see Peter totally transformed. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, it really raises in our application today, you know, you fail your trip, you sin, you do something that's just like, oh man, what am I thinking? Who have I become? Can God ever use me again?

Is the plan off now? Some people say, have I done so bad that I've actually messed up my salvation? Can I err so bad that God says, oh, I'm sorry, I didn't anticipate this? Well, you know, Jesus anticipated these three denials of Peter, and in the very end, in a wonderfully touching kind of emotional way, in a gentle way, he says, but dude, the process, we're still on, the program is still on. You cannot fail enough for me to change my mind about using you in this process. Well, because the power to go on is going to be because the Father and I will come and make our boat in you. Yeah. Through our Holy Spirit.

We will live in you. It works. So, yeah, so when you get to the end of 17, Peter is put back in the game when he's probably thinking he's been taken out of the game. Because remember, Jesus very boldly said, you know, if you deny me, I'll deny you in front of the Father. Right. I'm sure that's ringing in his head. He says, and he didn't deny him once, he denied him three times.

Three times. Man, I must be out of the game. I don't know what I'm doing in here anymore, you know. So here Jesus says, no, you're in the game.

Because remember, I predicted you'd do that. So come on. Right. And I told you, and actually it's Luke's gospel records this now, Satan's demanded permission to sift you all like wheat, but I have prayed for you and when you've turned, strengthen your brothers. So, you know, this is, this passage we're looking at is the actual real turning, right? Jesus kind of grabbing a hold of Peter's face and saying, now look in my eyes, let's turn. Let's make this turn.

Yeah. I really love the effect. Oh, it's so lovely. And although Jesus does not mention it, there they are walking on the seashore, probably very close to the place.

The very place. Where Jesus says, follow me and I'll make you fish as a man. And that's a prophecy, that's a prediction. And so if, you know, if Peter's thinking he's out of the game, then he'd be calling Jesus a liar and a false prophet. Right. That's right. Because Jesus said, this is what's going to happen. So the game is still on, man.

You're still in my plans. This has not changed. He's right there in that very spot where that original thing was said to him. Isn't that amazing?

That's why I think the context is just brilliant. Well and the interesting thing is they, here they were back on the beach that they knew, in the boats that they still owned. The familiar stuff. Doing what they always had done. And so the Lord Jesus meets them there on the beach, as we said last week. Full circle. Full circle.

Back to where we started from, but with a new beginning, but with the reaffirmed promise that I'll make you fishers of heaven. And the reaffirmed call, you, follow me. Yeah. Yeah.

Follow me. Again, that was said the first time. Right. And here it is again, walking the seashore. So after three years, after everything that's gone on, after all your failures, I'm still saying again, follow me. And they go, okay.

Walk in my steps. Yeah. Right. And John gives us this little editorial insight here in verse 19 after Jesus tells Peter, you know, there's gonna be a time coming when you're gonna be taken somewhere you don't wanna go, not at your own will. And John says in verse 19, he said this to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God. Yeah.

Right? Because here Peter is filled with self-doubt and self-recrimination because he stepped away from Jesus when Jesus was about to die. But here Jesus is saying, you know, you will.

You'll follow me. Yeah. Yeah.

So there was that passage where, it was in John 13, where Jesus says, you know, you can't follow me now. Right. But you will later.

But you will follow me afterwards. Yeah. Well, here we are. Here we are. Right. It's after all that's transpired, including the crucifixion, the resurrection. He's saying, follow me.

And now you're informed about what your life is gonna look like. Right. So still, what do you say?

Follow me? And they do. Yeah.

Yeah, they do. You will follow me later. Yeah. So we need to press on to the tail end of this here. Yeah. Yeah. Want me to read?

Okay. So Peter turned, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved. That's John. John.

Following them. The one who also leaned back against him during the supper, just in case you forget who we're talking about. And had said, Lord, who is it that's going to betray you? Remember that whole thing? That's John.

Okay, 21. So when Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, Lord, what about this man? And Jesus said to him, if it's my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?

You follow me. So the saying spread abroad among the brothers that this disciple was not to die. Yet Jesus didn't say to him that he was not to die, but if it's my will that he remain until I come, well, what's that to you? So this is the disciple who's bearing witness about these things. He's talking about himself and who has written these things and we know that his testimony is true.

We'll just stop there. So a nice little interchange is Peter and Jesus are walking down the beach. Peter looks over his shoulder and says, what about him? What about him? What's going to happen to him? You've told me what's going to happen to me. What about him?

What's going to happen to him? I always wondered why he asked that question. Well, do you suppose there was still a little remnant of understanding that John had this distinctly close relationship with Jesus. A different kind of a relationship. Not greater or lesser, but of a different quality perhaps, a heart quality that Peter would come to have later and was on his way there, but John seems to have had it sooner. He was closer in many respects. And Peter and John were visible buddies a lot. Well, they were partners in business before that. But you remember the two guys that ran to the tomb? Right. Peter and John.

So there was something tight about them as well. It could have just been Peter asking based on the fact of this good younger friend, you know, that's what's going to happen to me, but what about my friend John? So it's interesting that John did outlive all of the others. All of the others. Yeah.

Yeah, all of the others. And, you know, Jesus says, you know, if it's my will that he remain until I come, what's that to you? Well, in a very real sense, John did see the coming, the second coming of the Lord Jesus in the vision that he was granted when he wrote Revelation.

Yeah. So he even, he even, John was the only guy who survived through the 70 AD trashing of Jerusalem. So John went through a lot of stuff the other guys didn't. And for purposes too.

God really wanted John to do what he did as well as the right revelation. Is that true? They all were dead by 70 AD? Yep.

They were all dead by 70 AD. Yeah. Now this is all according to secular history. Yeah.

I would have to track that down. And we didn't, we didn't mention the fact according to secular history, Peter dies by being crucified in Rome. So everything about the deaths of the apostles is all according to historical, non-biblical historical accounts. But John we know was alive until probably 90 at least, maybe a little longer.

And so he was, yeah, he had the longest time to contemplate how to communicate. So his gospel was the last one written and he set out to write things that the others had perhaps not included. And after a lifetime of ministry and following in Jesus' steps, he writes his gospel.

Yeah. And it's a really, it's a good emphasis too when he says, you know, regardless of John, you follow me. And we get back to this, this independent stand we have in following Jesus. You know, you follow Jesus based on what he wants you to do for you.

It's a very unique calling for many of us. We're in different places. It's an individual call. And comparing one another to what we're doing and what we're experiencing is really sort of out of the question.

You don't do that. Because the issue is, what about you? Are you willing to follow? You follow me where I lead you. And it reminds me of that song we used to sing in Psalm 37, the steps of a man are established by the Lord and he delights in his way and if he should fall, he won't be hurled headlong because the Lord's the one who holds his hand. So the steps of a man are established by the Lord.

So in a sense, that's what Jesus is saying back to Peter right here. He says, his steps are established by me and yours are established by me. So here's the deal. You follow. You follow. That's the responsibility.

You follow. Yeah. Oh, how did we finish talking about that? This is 38 weeks we've spent, I think, talking about John's gospel. And we've only got maybe three minutes left to talk about kind of final thoughts about this gospel. Well, and John's final thought in verse 25 is, you know, there's many other things that Jesus did and were every one of them to be written down, I suppose the world itself couldn't contain the books that would be written. Right.

Yeah. And I've written chapter four at the end of chapter 20, about this much I've written. I could have told you a lot, but this much I've written so that you can believe. This is sufficient. That he's the son of God and be saved. It's why many times when people are looking into following the Lord, we always give them a book of John because we know that John is sufficient. There's enough there for you and John tells us that and so that's what we do. Yeah.

There's a sufficient minimal number here. Although we have questions about a lot of other things we'd like to know and they might be told in heaven. We don't know. Well, you know, some of those questions will be answered if you just go back and read it again. Yeah.

Yeah, that's true. And read it again with your eyes open, perhaps with a pencil in your hand and jot down things right that are still a lingering question. Read it again. I often tell people read it as often as you can. Read it as completely as you can, like whole paragraphs, whole chapters.

Read as broadly as you can, right? Compare it with what the other gospels have to say. That himself will connect the dots for you.

Really key. John's gospel fills in a lot of gaps from the other gospels, but you got to read the other gospels. But it's so very personal, right? It's a personal witness after a lifetime of this particular apostle lived longer than the others and walked with Jesus in the spirit longer than the others had the opportunity to. And what he writes is of a different flavor.

Yeah, a different flavor. And also gives a great power to what he says. I recall a mind when Peter was in ministry, he went up to Caesarea to be with Cornelius and Cornelius is interested in the gospels, whole family and himself become believers. But in the process of what Peter says to him, he says, look, we ate and we drank with him in the resurrection. So what I'm telling you about is firsthand true. And that's what John is telling us here.

It's firsthand true. Right. We walked the walk. We saw him. He raised from the dead. He is who we say he is.

We could write down so much more, but this is enough. So will you believe who he is? Will you follow?

Because that's what the emphasis in this last chapter is to us even, not just to Peter. Will you follow me? Will you follow? And the question is that you have to answer yourself is who is this Jesus who's worth changing the entire course of my life to follow him?

I'm going to just like Peter did, get up out of my boat and leave my whole previous life behind. Is he worth it? Is he really who he says he is? Because if he is who he says he is and John says, I've told you enough, then you're, you're at a junction point to make a decision. Yeah. So read it again.

Right. You know, and especially go back to the beginning now after reading the whole thing with us because John tells us at the very beginning, the word, the living word of God became flesh and dwelt among us. Something happened. He uses this amazing little word in the first chapter. Something happened and he dwelt among us so we could see his glory.

He fully declared the father who no one can see. So John made some absolutely audacious claims in the first breath of John's gospel. And now that you've read his entire gospel, are you convinced?

Where are you? Are you a follower as well based on what John has told us because he made some huge claims at the beginning. The word became flesh and dwelt among us and now you've read the 21 chapters of John's account.

Do you believe that? Well join us next week. We're going to tell you some different changes we're going to do here and we just delight in doing this and we're going into some deep water. We are so glad you've endured with us through this whole gospel. And you know, I say this often, I'm hoping that you found God in these pages because that's what God wants to do here.

He doesn't just want to inform your mind, he wants you to draw near to him as a result. So join us next week as we continue doing that on More Than Ink. More Than Ink is a production of Main Street Church of Brigham City and is solely responsible for its content. To contact us with your questions or comments, just go to our website, morethanink.org. We never know where these are going to go, do we? Yeah. Okay. We'll be right back to you.