A Lesson in Eternity

God has a general will for us all, but then He has a specific will for each of us individually. Dr. Tony Evans says God calls each of us to a unique purpose. It is your personal walk with God that reveals to you what He wants to do with you. This is the alternative broadcast featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans. Distractions are a common part of life, whether they pull us away from everyday tasks or more significant spiritual pursuits. Today, Dr. Evans highlights how our love for God, though often interrupted by sin, limitations, and circumstances, can grow stronger as we grasp the profound significance of Jesus' resurrection.

Let's join him as he begins. The Gospel of John was written so that men might believe in Jesus Christ and by believing have life in His name. So the book of John was written for eternal life. Eternal life is not merely the length of time you live. Eternal life involves the growing knowledge of God, so God gives us eternal life to give us the experience of coming to know Him. In eternity, it will be the uninterrupted knowledge of God. We ended last time with the greatest miracle of them all, and that is the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. So it's now Sunday evening, verse 19, first day of the week.

Very interesting. When the doors were shut where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, Peace be with you. Okay, did you get that?

I don't know. I hope you didn't miss that. Jesus stood in the midst of them when the doors were shut. When He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit. This was an anticipation, a prophetic anticipation of what was going to happen on the day of Pentecost, and He prepares them, He preps them, if you will, to receive the Holy Spirit, the third member of the Trinity, who would carry on the work of Christ in Christ's physical absence. With this work of the Spirit would come spiritual authority. Kingdom authority is tied to the presence and work of the Holy Spirit. He even tells them in the book of Acts, Don't do anything until the Spirit has come upon you, because then you will have power. Thomas, who's known as Didymus, verse 24, is not with them when Jesus shows up, but this is why we call him Doubting Thomas, right? Unless I see the hands, the imprint of the nails, and my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe. So eight days later, they're inside, and now Thomas is with them.

Here we go again. The doors have been shut. And he stood in their midst and said, Peace be with you. So again, he can walk through a door or a wall or whatever he walked through because it was shut, but yet he is appearing in their midst in his glorified resurrection body. And he says to Thomas, Reach here with your finger. And see my hands, reach here, your hands, put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving but believing. Now, he does a gracious thing. He helps out his unbelief. Now, what's interesting is Thomas' statement. Thomas didn't say, I'm struggling to believe.

He says, I will not believe. So he was a determined unbeliever. So this shows the grace of God in meeting him in his unbelief. Thomas makes a statement first, a very important statement, verse 28. Thomas answered and said to him, My Lord, my God.

So guess what Thomas does? He acknowledges Jesus as Jesus' deity. He calls him my God.

So unless Jesus is God, that would have been idolatry. Jesus doesn't reject it. In fact, he accepts it. He says in verse 29, Because you have seen me, you have believed. And he expresses it, My Lord, my God. Blessed are they who did not see and yet believe. God wants you to believe him before you see him work, not after you see him work.

He wants you to believe his word while you're waiting on his work. Verse 30, Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples which are not written in this book. So this is a highlight page. This is a highlight book. He doesn't show you everything Jesus did.

He just shows you some of the highlights. He comes down to the last chapter, having just concluded his statement about the resurrection. The resurrection is God's chief sign because it is what distinguishes Jesus Christ from all other so-called messiahs, and that is the resurrection. So after these things, verse 1, Jesus Christ manifests himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias, and he manifests himself in this way. So Simon and Thomas and Nathaniel and to the other disciples, they're all together, and Simon says in verse 3, I am going fishing. Now we know Simon is a fisherman.

That's his history, his background, and his business. So they went out and they get into the boat. But when the day was now breaking, Jesus stood on the beach. Yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus.

Now that could be for three reasons. One, it's still somewhat dark, so they can't fully make him out. Two, there's a distance between him standing on the shore and where they are fishing. And three, he's in his glorified state, so just as Mary didn't fully recognize him at first, there may have been this delay in recognizing him in his glorified state, although he was the same physical person, but now in a glorified body. So they do not fully recognize him on the beach.

So he's close enough for them to hear him. He says to them, Children, you do not have any fish, do you? You haven't caught anything, have you?

They say, no. He said, cast the net on the right side of the boat and you will find a catch. So they cast and then they were not able to haul it in because of the great number. Jesus had taught his disciples in the upper room, if you remember John 15, he says, without me, you can do nothing.

That was a principle he laid on them. Well, now Peter says, I'm going fishing. They say, we're going fishing too, but it wasn't working because they were catching nothing. So Jesus asked them, how y'all doing out there? And they say, we've caught nothing.

We've been out here, you know, the day is breaking. We've been out here all evening and the fish are not biting. Jesus said, cause you're fishing in the wrong spot. Put it on the right side and they got a catch that they couldn't handle. This is actually a repeat of an earlier event in Luke 5 when he first met Peter.

He first met Peter and they had caught nothing. And Jesus said, here's what I want you to do. He was hesitant, but he finally did it and he got this big catch.

So here's the principle. When you're doing what you think you know how to do, cause you got background, history, experience, money, and education, or whatever the attributes happen to be, and it is not working. How much have you caught?

How is it working out for you? It's not working. This could be a prime experience that God is offering you to see without him, you can do nothing, which means with him, you can do something.

There's a flip side of that coin. He only said without me, you can do nothing to say with me, you can do something, which he illustrates here by telling them to do something opposite to what they were doing. When God wants to show you, me or us, a deeper level of his manifestation, his illumination, his power, his demonstration, he will allow us to be failing in our own efforts. He will allow us to not be achieving what we thought we ought to be achieving. Cause when Peter said, I'm going fishing, he means I'm going to catch some fish.

Not I'm going out there all night and nothing's going to happen. This is my history, my background, my business. So when the Lord allows you to be in a situation where it's not working and you're doing what you know to do, maybe have a whole history of doing it, you have to look at the strong possibility that God is wanting you to do something different and outside of your normal way of doing it. Now he tells them, throw it in the other side of the boat. Now you remember one of the principles we tried to teach you about faith, it's acting like God is telling the truth. So it wasn't just that they could say, well, okay, I believe you.

No, they had to throw it on the other side of the boat. There was an action that had to accompany his word. So his word was throw it, but the action was they threw it, not till they acted on the word did they see the word work.

And it was a great number of fish. Dr. Evans will tell us what the disciples did next when he returns in just a moment. First though, today's lesson is the final installment in Dr. Evans' 14-part sermon series on the Gospel of John, where we've been learning of Jesus' divinity and how his love and personal sacrifice transform the lives of those who accept him.

This in-depth study of his interactions with others inspires us to reflect Christ-like love in our own relationships and encourages us to see the world from God's perspective. Contact us right away to get this complete audio series for yourself, along with Tony's encouraging book, Dry Bones Dancing, a helpful resource for revitalizing your faith. Just visit us today at tonyevans.org or call us at 1-800-800-3222, make a contribution, and let us send you the Gospel of John audio series and Dry Bones Dancing. Once again, get the details for this special offer today at tonyevans.org or by phone at 1-800-800-3222.

Let's return now for the conclusion of this message from Dr. Evans. Therefore the disciple whom Jesus loved, that's John, the writer of this book, said to Peter, It is the Lord. So when Simon Peter, Mr. Impetuous, heard that it was the Lord, he put his outer garment on, for he was stripped for work. You know, they wore kind of the towel around them while they were fishing and not the full garb, and threw himself into the sea. But the other disciples came in the little boat, for they were not far from land, but about 100 yards away. Peter couldn't wait.

Peter dove in the water. So when they had gotten out on land, they saw a charcoal fire already laid, and fish placed on it, and bread. Jesus said to them, verse 12, Come and have breakfast. None of the disciples ventured to question him, Who are you, knowing that it was the Lord. Now we come to this concluding section. So when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?

Now why would he ask him that question? Because in Luke 22, Peter said, If everybody else leaves you, I'm not going to do it. You know, if all these other guys walk out on you, I'm your ace. You can count on me. I'm your number one.

I'm going to stick by your side. He was claiming spiritual superiority over the other disciples. That is, he was saying, I'm more committed than they are.

That's when Jesus told them, before tomorrow morning, breakfast time, you're going to deny me three times. And now I want to know, are you still the most committed? Do you love me more than these?

Are you still number one? He said to him, Yes, Lord, you know I love you. Now you need to know two things about his response. You cannot see it in English, but in Greek, he uses a different word. Jesus says, Peter, do you agape me? Peter says, Yes, Lord, I phileo you.

Phileo is where we get the word Philadelphia from. Brotherly love. Brotherly love.

So if I were to translate it, but it's translated love, but it's not the self-sacrificial love of agape, it's more like, I like you. See, Peter made a self-sacrificial statement in Luke 22. If they all forsake you, I'm willing to go all the way with you. But now he says, I'm not going out on that limb again. Last time I went out on that limb, I had to mess myself up, denied you three times, cried like a baby, you know, and went back to fishing.

So I'm not jumping out there again. No, I phileo you. I love you like a brother. I like you a lot.

But I ain't putting myself out there on that agape kind of love. Jesus says to him, tend my lambs. You're not thinking as highly of yourself as you used to think. So guess what, Peter?

Now I can use you. Now you can be a shepherd. Now you can lead people because now you're not this prideful person anymore. He said to him a second time, verse 16, Simon, son of John, do you agape me? He said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I phileo you. He said, shepherd my sheep.

Okay, well, he just got a promotion from lamb to sheep. He says to him a third time, Simon, son of John, now watch this, do you phileo me? The third love is not agape.

The third love is phileo. So Jesus comes down and meets Peter where he is. He knew Peter wasn't going to jump out there again and go up. He didn't learn this lesson. And because he learned this spiritual lesson, Jesus came down and joined him. He says, I can work with you where you are because right now you're in the right place. And he said to him, Lord, you know all things.

You know that I phileo you. And Jesus said, okay, tend my sheep. This is called a ministry recall. He gets recalled back into ministry, into usefulness. This is why repentance is so important because repentance allows for restoration. Now God decides what it is, where it is, how long it is, but it opens the door for it at whatever level the Lord wants to allow it to happen. Truly, truly, I say to you, talking to Peter, when you were younger, you used to gird yourself and walk wherever you wished.

And 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. When he is restored, he gets a prophetic statement about his life. Now this, he said, signifying by what kind of death he, Peter, would glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he said to him, follow me. He says, let me repeat myself, verse 22, follow me. Don't follow John. Follow me. Therefore, this saying went out among the brethren, that the disciple would not die.

So they kind of carried this to the extreme. They said, well, he ain't gonna die. He might be here till Jesus comes.

So that's how wrong information spreads. Yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die. Only if I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? Which means you gotta pay attention to what Jesus says. That's why we believe in inerrancy. The Bible is without error and plenary verbal inspiration, which means that every word of God is inspired. Because the words can make a big difference. Paul even, when we study the book of Galatians, Paul even makes a difference between a plural and a single use of a word, the word seed. And he says that the difference between whether it's plural or single makes a big difference. So the words of God are very specifically stated. And here you have somebody taking a nuance.

They just took a little nuance and they gave a whole different interpretation. Jesus didn't say that. This is the disciple who is testifying to these things.

So it's John. And wrote these things. And we know his testimony is true.

Because we know because we were there. And I love this closing verse of the book of John. And there are 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.

Did you read that? He says what has been written about Jesus is itsy bitsy. He says if we told you everything and worked out all the details of everything, the Library of Congress couldn't handle all the books that would be written. I have maybe, I'm guessing, I have maybe 3,000 books in my library. I have built up over the many years since I was 22 years old, studying the Bible, studying theology, accumulated books and books and books and books and books and books and books.

And most of them in one way or another deal with the Word of God and Jesus in one form or another. I have been preaching for many years, and I haven't yet dented the Bible. I haven't dented it. There's so much stuff that I'm finding out, new stuff I'm discovering and nuances, and sometimes it's the same thing but with a new twist that you discover.

I haven't dented it. He says if we told you all that Jesus did, he says I don't know that the world could hold it all. So we just gave you a highlight reel. All you have is a highlight reel of Jesus Christ. But the highlight is enough.

You know, in football when they show you a highlight reel, it shows you enough that you know this player can do something. You don't have all that Jesus did, but you got enough that if you take him seriously, you know he is who he declares himself to be, the Son of God, the Son of Man, the Savior of the world Messiah, who has come to give life to those who come to him for him. Dr. Tony Evans wrapping up the final message in A Lesson in Eternity from his in-depth study of the Gospel of John. Now, as I mentioned earlier, this is your last chance to take advantage of our current special resource bundle, all 14 messages from both volumes of Tony's audio series on the Gospel of John, along with his encouraging book on revitalizing your faith called Dry Bones Dancing. They're yours with our thanks when you make a donation to help keep this listener-supported program coming your way. Just visit tonyevans.org today to make the arrangements or call our resource center at 1-800-800-3222, where team members are standing by to assist with your request.

That's 1-800-800-3222 or online at tonyevans.org. One final reminder, this weekend marks the premiere of the latest episode in Stories from the Storyteller. This family-friendly animated series follows the Evans family as their everyday experiences become lessons in biblical truth.

Let your kids watch the newest episode now or catch up on any they may have missed from seasons 1 and 2. Stories from the Storyteller. Learn more at tonyevanstv.com. That's tonyevanstv.com. On Monday, we begin a new series from Dr. Evans on the book of Acts, exploring how Jesus' followers took seriously their mission to advance God's kingdom agenda. Be sure to join us for that. .