Knowing Who You Are - 9

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Please make your donation today at vision.org.au. Welcome to Turning Point Weekend Edition. You are a one-of-a-kind creation with a unique role to fill in God's story of salvation. Today, Dr. David Jeremiah shares how that truth is illustrated in the life of Peter. To introduce today's eye-opening message, Knowing Who You Are, here's David.

And thank you for joining us for the Weekend Edition of Turning Point. One of the most important things is self-identity. Knowing who you are, knowing how special you are before God, and knowing that God has a special plan for you that only you can fulfill.

We're going to unpack all of that on the Weekend Edition of Turning Point, starting right now. One of the serious challenges in life is the challenge of identity. Who am I? How am I defined?

When people see me, who do they see? How can I discover my real self so that I am set free to be the person I was created to be? So we watch Peter now as he's been walking through all of this stuff that has been happening in his life. We have watched him grow through the sorrow he has created. Three times he confessed to the Lord. Three times he promised to the Lord. Three times he denied the Lord.

Three times he's restored by the Lord. And all through this process, there's a churning going on in Peter's heart as he's trying to figure out what is this all about. But the Lord has one more instruction for Peter before he's finished with the training program. And in this moment, he's going to show Peter once and for all who he is and what he is to do. Peter is going to hear from the Lord these two words, Follow me. Say that out loud.

Follow me. Peter had started following years before and he'd become so sure of himself that he had boasted that prison nor death would separate him from following the Lord. But now all of that's gone. His pride has been destroyed. He's made such a failure out of so much of his life. He's cursed and he's denied. And now all of that is behind him.

His cursing and denial. His unfaithfulness has all been buried in the grave of Jesus, covered by the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Peter has been forgiven. He's been restored.

He's been recommissioned. And Peter is ready to begin again. And there's one last little interchange between him and the Lord, which is so very important for us to understand. The loving words of the Lord Jesus to Peter in this section of Scripture will help him face the future with courage and strength.

He's about to discover his own voice. He's about to realize who he is and what God is asking him to do. And I want to ask you this question as we begin this message together. Do you know who you are? Do you know what God wants from you? As we examine Peter's life, will you be willing to ask yourselves some of the same questions that the Lord asked him and review where you are in your walk with the Lord as well?

Question number one, where have you been? In verse 18 of the 21st chapter we read, Most assuredly, I say to you, Peter, when you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you wished. Looking back over Peter's life, the Lord Jesus makes a pretty interesting comment. He says, Peter, when you were young, you were always ready to go anywhere and do anything at a moment's notice. You'd throw on your coat at a moment's notice and you'd take off your coat for any task at hand. Peter, you were just the normal average young person who was characterized by impulse and independence.

Do you remember those days, some of you who are as old as I am, when anything was just kind of the spur of the moment? Let's go get something to eat. Let's go to the ballgame.

Let's go bowling. And then you just jump up and did it. And the Lord said, Peter, when you were younger, you were impulsive, you were independent, you did whatever you wanted. Alexander McLaren, one of the great preachers of another generation, says that self-reliance is a gift to the young. We all fancy in our early days that we are going to be the ones who make the difference. We're going to build the towers that go to heaven. We are here now and we will show you older people how this is supposed to be done. And past generations have failed, but ours will not. Some of us older folks kind of smile at that because we've been there and done that and we've watched some generations do that.

So full of our brashness. Our Lord's words to Peter were meant to cause him to look back over his shoulder and remember the carefree lifestyle that he had. He had done as he pleased. Sometimes he was right, sometimes he was wrong, and it usually didn't make a whole lot of difference to Peter in those days.

It didn't matter to him which way he went. He was all full of his autonomy and he took it to the max. And there's a sweet kind of bliss about all of this. When we are young and we haven't yet fought the battles of life, we haven't experienced the difficulties that take the edges off of us and make us stronger inside.

We somehow feel we're going to sail right through life and everything's going to be just as carefree as it is right now. Such was Peter's early experience as a fisherman. He did what he wanted to do and when he wanted to go fishing, he just said, I'm going fishing, jumped up and went. But the Lord said, Peter, the youth and the carefree days that are in your past will one day be radically changed. And in the same verse, he gets Peter's eyes off of his youth and he asks him, not where have you been, but where are you going? And in the same verse he says, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish.

And this he spoke signifying by what death he would glorify God. What Jesus is saying to Peter is, Peter, when you were young, you did what you wanted to do, but one day someone's going to gird you up and take you someplace you don't want to go. Peter, one day you're going to be crucified.

You're going to die the death of crucifixion. In his proud self-confidence, one time Peter had said to the Lord, Lord, I'm ready to go with you to prison and I'm even ready to go with you to death. And you remember what Jesus said to him?

Think back now. Jesus said, Peter, you can't follow me there now, but you will follow me there one day. And if you read the book of Acts in the 12th chapter, he followed Jesus to prison. And what we learn from this passage of Scripture is, he actually followed Jesus to death.

For read what it says in the text. It says Jesus spoke this to signify by what death Peter would glorify God. Did you know how Peter died? You won't find this in the Scripture, but in the secular writings of the period of time, a man by the name of Eusebius writes these words. He said, Peter at last, having come to Rome, was crucified head downward, for so he himself had asked to suffer. According to tradition, Peter was crucified upside down because he did not consider himself worthy to be crucified in the same manner as his Lord. Peter's life beginning so carefree, without any thought, the life that denied the Lord is ultimately at the end going to be characterized by a life that glorifies the Lord through a death very similar to the Lord's death.

But it's the in between that's so important. How did Peter get from where he was as a young person in his carefree, almost irreverent life to the place where at the end of his life he's willing to lay down his own life to honor the God and the Lord who had so called him? And that leads us to the third question. Not where have you been or where are you going, but what are you doing?

What are you doing now? In John chapter 21 in verse 19 we read, And when he had spoken this, he said to Peter, Follow me. What is the key to getting from the carefree youth to the godly age? It is these two words, follow me. Peter had followed his family into the fishing business, but one day he was asked to leave that fishing business and he began to follow the Lord. The Lord is issuing to him the same challenge. Now he is being called again by his Lord. After his failure and his forgiveness, the word of the Lord comes to Peter the second time and our Lord's words are follow me, and they must have brought back to Peter the memory because if you go back to Luke 5, those are the very same words Jesus used when he called Peter in the first place.

He said, Follow me and I'll make you fish your men. Now Peter's at the end of his life and Jesus is saying to Peter, Follow me. It is this call that had dominated Peter's life. Between these two calls of following are all the ups and downs of Peter's experience. All of the progress and the backsliding, all the lights and the shadows which go to make up humanity are on display in Peter's impulsive life. Did you know Peter was always first whether he was right or wrong?

Have you ever noticed that? Always first. He was first to give an answer at Caesarea Philippi. He was first to talk on the Mount of Transfiguration. Although John in his youth beats Peter to the empty tomb, Peter is the first one to walk into the empty tomb.

Peter's the first one to jump out of the boat when he thinks Jesus is on the shore. He denies first when his relationship with the Lord poses a personal threat. Peter's always first. Does that tell you something about how he's wired? It doesn't make any difference whether he's right or wrong.

He just wants to be first. And Jesus is probably the only one who would have ever put up with Peter. After the denial, we would have all written him off, wouldn't we? But Jesus forgave him, and Jesus restored him. Did you know that there are three ways in which he says to us today, follow me? First of all, he says to us, follow me in salvation, as he did to Peter back when he was fishing.

Follow me. It's a wonderful journey to follow the Lord. But he says to us in another way to follow him, and that is to follow him in service.

He said to Peter, follow me, and I will make you to become a fisher of men. And Almighty God is calling some of us today to follow the Lord in service. Oh, we followed him in our salvation, but then we've just sort of gotten inside the door of salvation, and we've gone dormant. And he's calling us now out of that passivity of our life, and he's saying, you followed me in salvation.

I want to ask you now to follow me in service. And then one day, we will all, if we're Christians, we'll follow him to the Father's house, won't we? And the Bible says that where he is, we are going to be someday, too.

Paul praised it. The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. We'll follow him one day into the Father's house. So here is Peter, and the Lord is speaking to him. He says, Peter, I told you to follow me once, and you got lost.

We had to do some repair work to get you back on the road. Now, here is my instruction to you again. Follow me. Where have you been? Where are you going? What are you doing? Here's the fourth question.

What is your purpose? Now, here is one of the most amusing episodes in Peter's life. Up to this point, if you didn't know what was coming, you would say, you know, the Lord has finally gotten Peter straightened out. He's finally gotten Peter going in the right direction, and he understands what it's all about.

Watch what happens. Then Peter, turning around, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved. Who is that class? This is John. He's talking about John. He's describing John. Peter, seeing him, said to Jesus, but Lord, what about this man? And Jesus said to him, Peter, if I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you?

Follow me. Here are three principles that emerge from this last point that I hope you won't miss. First of all, God has a comprehensive purpose for your life, for your life. It's not somebody else's life.

It's your life. What is that to you, said Jesus? You follow me. Although the Lord's will is not seen by everybody, the Lord's will is sovereign over everybody, and Peter needed to review that principle. When the Lord said, follow me, apparently Peter began to do just that until he turned around and he saw his good friend, John, and he turned to Jesus and he said, well, Lord, what about John?

Peter did not need to have his attention diverted to the Lord's will for somebody else. He was having a hard enough time dealing with the Lord's will for him. Peter had a history of starting to follow and then getting off track. Back in Luke 5, when the Lord called him, Peter started to follow, and then he got his eyes on himself and he said, Lord, depart from me, for I am a sinful man. And when he was walking on the water when Jesus told him to come to him as he was walking on the water, remember what happened there? He was doing great as long as he kept his eyes focused on Jesus, but then he looked around at the waves and he began to sink like a rock. Peter was a good starter, but he didn't always stay focused. Have you ever been around people like that?

They get started real good, but it doesn't take much to get them off track. And this time Peter heard John walking behind him and he lost his focus again and he said, Lord, what shall this man do? And Jesus answers with a rebuke, and he says it, and I want to say it the way I think Jesus said it. I think Jesus said, Peter, what is that to you? What is that to you?

You follow me. And I think the Lord's frustration may have been born out of all of the effort he'd put into Peter to get him up to this point and it looks like he's there. He's got himself figured out.

He knows who he is, but before he can really get far down the road, he gets his eyes on somebody else. And the Lord has to come back and rebuke him. These are strong words from the Lord. They are meant to convey to Peter the importance of his own personal obedience.

There's no time to worry about God's will for someone else when his will for us is still unrealized. This is a lesson that every believer in every age needs to take to heart. Friends, it is especially necessary for those of us who are in the occupational ministry how easy it is for us, no matter who we are, what we're doing, to look around and see that someone else is doing something that seems to be more successful or more exotic or more well-received or more recognized.

And we get our eyes off on them and we can almost hear the words of the Lord in the back of our minds saying, Jeremiah, what is that to you? You just follow me. You do what I want you to do. I haven't called you to do what someone else has done. I've called you to do what I want you to do.

And if you don't do what I want you to do, who's going to do that? Friends, I want to tell you something. This is one of the real issues in Christianity today, that we have lost the sense of the importance of our own personal identity with the Lord. He's gifted every one of us uniquely.

He's called us uniquely. He wants us to be his disciple and our eyes are to be on him. When we stay focused on him, we won't get caught up in all of this other stuff that complicates so much of our walk with the Lord. Now, it's interesting to me that I think Peter finally, finally got it. For later on, he wrote a letter called 1 Peter. I just found this little verse in 1 Peter that I was intrigued by. 1 Peter 4.15, he writes these words, But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as a busybody in other people's matters. So I think Peter finally got it.

I think he finally figured it out. He finally realized what God was trying to teach him. How many of you know it would be such a great thing if we could learn not to be a busybody in other people's matters and just stay focused on the Lord? God has a comprehensive purpose for your life, but number two, God has a creative plan for your life. He says, If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you?

You follow me. Now, if you read the rest of the passage, you realize that some of the people who heard this thought Jesus was saying that John was going to live until Jesus came back. And Jesus straightens this out in the text.

I love this. This is one place where Jesus corrects a misunderstanding about what he said. Jesus said, I didn't mean that he's going to live until I come back.

What I meant was, if I want him to live until I come back, then I can do that. What is that to you, Peter? That's all he was saying. A little bit of sarcasm there, if you want to know the truth. The Lord used sarcasm. Can you believe it? Peter, if I want John to live until I come back again, what do you care?

Just follow me. Interestingly enough, there was a little bit of truth in that because John's the one who did see the Lord come back again, didn't he? He wrote about it in the book of Revelation.

He didn't see it in actuality. He saw it in prophecy, and it is true that he's the one who saw the Lord come back. Chinese evangelist Watchman Nee has written a book on this passage of Scripture, and I've forgotten it until I ran across it again. The book actually has the title of this passage. The title of it is What Shall This Man Do?

written by Watchman Nee, who was very popular many years ago. I don't want to go back through and give you the distilled version of his book, but simply to say that in the book, what he did was he distinguished the difference between Peter, Paul, and John. He pointed out that God had a different plan for all three of these very famous apostles. Peter was an evangelist. The first time he ever preached the gospel, 3,000 people got saved, and later on 5,000 men were converted. He didn't have the gift that Peter had for evangelism, but you know what Paul did? Paul was a builder. He was an encourager.

He was a teacher. Paul would go in where the evangelism had been preached, and Paul would teach. Oh, he did evangelism, but Paul primarily was the teacher. That's why we have all of the theology of Paul in the New Testament. Almost all the New Testament was written by theologian Paul. Paul wasn't Peter.

He didn't win 3,000 people at one time. Peter wasn't Paul. He didn't teach like Paul did. And then there was John. You know what John did? Watchman Nee says John was the mender of nets. What he did was he came back and he fixed things that were broken. He was always taking something that needed to be reworked and putting it back together. He was the lover. He was the peacemaker.

All of them were different. And Watchman Nee says the question that was asked by the Lord to Peter is the question that he asks us. You're not Peter. You're not Paul. You're not John.

You're you. What is it to you that God has called someone else to do something else? Your job is to follow him. Oh, if we could get that, folks, it would simplify our walk with the Lord so much, just to know that what we have to do is follow him.

God has a comprehensive purpose for your life and a creative plan for your life, but thirdly, God has a clear priority for your life. And I want to end this message by trying to help us all understand what this means. What is that to you? You follow me.

Follow me. Gandhi was asked one time by a very close friend this question. He said if you admire Christ so much, why don't you become a Christian? And Gandhi said if I can ever find a Christian that follows Christ, I will.

What an indictment upon all of us. Did you know that we can be, quote, unquote, Christians and still not be Christ followers? Did you know that today being a Christian just means you're not a Jew or a Muslim?

That's all it means, right? What are you? I'm a Christian. If you see the forms they ask you to fill out, what is your religion?

You're not supposed to ask that, but sometimes they do, and they give you two or three choices. Christianity and then a few other religions that are around the world. And people think, well, if I'm not one of those, I must be one of these. And so Christianity becomes not what you believe, but what you don't believe. In his book Following Christ, Joe Stowell writes, although we may hear a multiplicity of voices from both within and outside the church, if we're Christ followers, we only listen to one voice. It is the voice of Christ who simply said, follow me, no conditions, no negotiations, no particulars, no contractual exceptions, just follow. It was the first thing and the last thing that Jesus said to Peter, and it is the beginning and end of what it means to be a Christian, and everything in between is measured by it.

Are you following him? Are you a Christ follower? If your Christianity is dull and boring, if it is a burden and not a blessing, then probably you are involved in a project instead of a person.

Probably you're involved in a system instead of a savior, and probably you're involved with rules instead of a relationship, because Christianity isn't any of those things. Christianity is not a religious thing. Christianity is not a host of rituals and philosophies or the best choice among all the possible lifestyles. Authentic followers do not live for liturgy. Following is not celebration.

It is not contemporary or traditional. Following is not jubilant dance or compelling drama. It is not preaching. It is not praising. It's not obeying. It's not conforming.

Here it is. It's Christ and Christ alone. We are prone to embrace the forms. When people ask you, who are you? Do you say, I'm a Baptist? Well, it's okay to admit that, depending on the circumstances. But what you ought to say before you say any of that is, I'm a follower of Christ. I'll tell you what.

That'll open up some conversations if you'll use that answer. We are prone always to embrace the forms and the functions as though they were the essence. But they are only the expressions. The essence is Christ. The essence is Jesus. So these words of Jesus to Peter, follow me, are a reminder that Christianity is Christ, not just believing in Christ in some abstract way, but believing in him to the point of turning our back on everything else so that we might follow him. That's what it means to be a Christ follower.

Today in our world of pluralism, it's almost become acceptable to be a Christian along with a lot of other things. But I want to say to you, men and women today, when you follow Christ, you turn your back on everything else. Following Christ is an exclusive walk.

You follow him and you turn your back on all else. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who suffered for his faith, said an abstract Christology, a doctrinal system, a general religious knowledge on the subject of grace or on the forgiveness of sins makes discipleship worthless. And Christianity without the living Christ is inevitably Christianity without discipleship, and Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ. In other words, if you're not following Christ, you're probably not a Christian. Now that doesn't mean you have to be a rip-roaring preacher or evangelist or whatever.

It just means that you got your eyes on the Lord and you're trying to find out where he's going so you can follow him and be obedient. Are you following him? Are you a Christ follower? I'm not asking you today if you're religious. There are so many religious people who don't know anything about following Christ. I want to tell you something.

This is the most liberating truth you will ever hear. It's not about all of the stuff that often gets talked about when we talk about church and religion and all of that. It's just about following Jesus.

Are you following him? When people ask you who you are, do you say, I'm a Christian, that's okay. But I want to ask you to start saying this. When people ask you who you are, you say, I'm a Christ follower. It will catch you up short at first, and it will stop you to think, am I really? Am I really a Christ follower?

And then you will start to make some adjustments in your life. So let me ask you this question. I'm going to ask it out loud. Who are you? And I want you to respond. I am a Christ follower. Who are you? I am a Christ follower. You don't sound very convinced.

Okay, let me try it one more time. Who are you? I am a Christ follower. And I pray that you are.

And I want to say to you that if you haven't started following him, this is the greatest day you will ever have. I don't want to call you to a church membership that might come down the road. I don't want to call you to a denomination.

I don't want to call you to some creed or some practice or set of rules or legalism or catechism. Here's what I want to do. I want to call you to follow Christ.

Are you willing to turn away from all of the emptiness of your life, all the things that you thought were meaningful and say, I've tried it all, and I'm sick of it, and it's meaningless. And I want to start following Christ. Will you decide today to follow him? Some of you need to follow him in baptism. You're Christians already, but you have never been baptized. You say you're a Christ follower. He was baptized. You need to follow Christ in baptism.

Some of you are Christians and you were baptized, but you're just pew sitters. You don't do anything to serve the Lord. Jesus said, follow me and I will make you to become a fisher of men or a feeder of the sheep or a tender of the flock. So what are you doing to serve the Lord? Follow him. Every day get up and say, Lord, I don't know where I'm going, but you do, and I'm hanging on for dear life.

Let's go. It will be the greatest adventure you ever had in your life. You will never turn back. You will always say, what was I doing before I started to follow Jesus? He cries out for you to come and walk behind him today, and he says, take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for my burden is light.

My yoke is easy when you follow him. We hope you enjoyed today's Turning Point weekend edition with Dr David Jeremiah. You can hear this and other programs and get more information about our ministry by downloading the free Turning Point mobile app for your smartphone or tablet or by visiting our website at davidjeremiah.org forward slash radio. That's davidjeremiah.org slash radio. You can also view Turning Point television on free to air channel 72 Sunday mornings at 8 and on ACC TV Sundays at 6.30 a.m. and Friday afternoons at 1. We invite you to join us again next weekend as Dr David Jeremiah shares another powerful message from God's word right here on Turning Point weekend edition. Thanks for taking time to listen to this audio on demand from Vision Christian Media. To find out more about us, go to vision.org.au