Amen, amen. Can we pray together, Father? God, we are thankful as we get to declare that here today: that Father, we're not what the world says about us. God, we're not what our enemies say about us. We're not about what we think about ourselves, Father, that in your word you tell us these things, that we are chosen, that we are redeemed, we are saved, and we have experienced the grace of you, and we're so thankful for that.
And God, as we get to declare that and we get to open up your word to learn more about your grace and your forgiveness and your mercy, God, I pray, Lord, that as we look at this, God, that we would not leave here the same way that we walked in. God, that every single one of us would get a fresh glimpse of the grace and kindness that you have bestowed upon each one of us. And God, that that fresh glimpse of you would change us so that we can leave here more conformed into your Son's image. More like you. and Father better equipped to serve you.
God, I pray that in this place today, that if somebody's in here that doesn't know you as Savior, God, I pray that today be the day of salvation. God, I pray that before they leave here, that the convicting work of the Holy Spirit would just grab root and grab hold of their heart today so that they could understand what you have done on their behalf. And then for the rest of us, for Christians today, God, I think about if somebody's in here that knows you, but possibly they need the restoration that you can provide in their hearts today, God, I pray, Lord, that they would find that. Father, you say that when we run to you, we find grace in our time of need, and we need that this morning. God, speak to our hearts.
Bless this service. Have your will and way done. And we're going to give you the praise and honor for it because you're worthy of it all. For it's in your name we pray. And all God's children said, Amen and amen.
You guys can have a seat here today.
Well, it is so good. To see you this morning, and I'm so grateful that you are here and looking forward to a great day today. It is a full day of gospel ministry today, and we got a lot of things planned after this service. You get a little bit of time to be at home, and then we come back here for a softball game between Union Grove and the Winston-Salem Rescue Mission. And there's been some questions about that.
Everybody is invited, and so you can come if you've got nothing else going on this afternoon. We'd love to invite you to be a part of that. All the proceeds go to the rescue mission, just a little fundraiser for them. And so, come watch some good baseball this afternoon and also support them. And so, there are tickets for sale this afternoon to get in.
So, $3 for adults, $1 for kids, and concessions will be served as well. And then, we do have starting point, like Pastor David reminded us of, which is always one of my favorite things that we do as a church, getting able to connect. With new people, with people that have just been coming for a little while and wanting to take a step with our church. And so it is going to be a full day, but a good day of gospel ministry. And I'm grateful for that.
And we are excited for all that He's going to do in our midst here today.
Well, if you have your Bible, I hope that you do today. You can join me in John chapter number 21. John chapter number 21. We are continuing a series that we have been in for quite some time. It's a summer series where we are looking at different Bible characters and just slowly working through these different Bible characters over the summer.
And so we've entitled the series Sinners. Like Us. Can we all say that together? Sinners like us. And over the summer, we're going through different sinners in scripture.
And if you're like me, it's amazing how God came for a lot of dysfunctional people. He came for a lot of people with problems. He came with people, for people with flaws. He came for kind of the ones that were the outcast of society. That's the ones that Christ came for, and you see that throughout scripture.
Nobody was worthy of his grace to begin with. And so we are all sinners like us. And sometimes, when you see scripture and you kind of study scripture and you look at these different stories, you kind of think that some of these guys were like on spiritual pedestals, you know, that they were just amazing. If I had the faith like so-and-so, but when you study their life, you find that they struggled and they had flaws and they were sinners just like you and just like me. And so we looked at Abraham, who struggled with lying.
We looked at Moses, who struggled with anger. We looked at Rahab, who was a prostitute. We looked at Samson, who was a womanizer and also is very prideful. We looked at Jonah, who, when God told him what to do, he ran from God. Looked at the New Testament.
We looked at the woman at the well and how she was on her, in her, she'd been married several times and was living with the man. We looked at last week the adulterous woman, the woman that was caught in adultery. And this week, we get to look at our next sinner, and we are going to look at the life of. Peter. The life of Peter.
Now, we love to study Peter, don't we? Because Peter, we can relate to him, can't we? Peter got himself into some trouble from time to time, and he struggled with a lot of different things. Peter had what I would call an up and down spiritual journey. A very up and down spiritual walt with Christ.
Sometimes, if you look, I know Bob referenced this earlier.
Sometimes you see these high moments in his life where his faith was just so strong and he was willing to do anything for Christ. And then other times you find the complete, complete opposite. He struggled. We know stories that when Christ was walking on water, he invited the disciples to trust him, and Peter was the one who had enough faith to step out of the boat. But when he took his eyes off of Jesus, he began to sink.
We know him of that. We know that when the people came in the garden to arrest Jesus, Peter got angry. What did he do? He chopped off a guy's ear. If you've never chopped off a guy's ear, you're doing a little bit better than Peter today.
I want you to know that. And he, like, remember the story where Peter, James, and John were in the garden with Jesus, and Jesus tells them to pray. You remember that story? And Jesus goes by himself to pray, and he comes back and he finds Peter sound asleep. You ever fallen asleep in prayer meeting, right?
And so you see these stories about Peter. You have the highs, you have the lows, this very up and down. Spiritual life. And then we know that his darkest moment was the night Jesus was betrayed. If you remember, he was with Jesus in that upper room, and Jesus begins to predict that his disciples are all going to deny and betray him and leave him.
When Jesus needed them the most, they're all going to run away as closest companions. And you remember how Peter was like, not me, Lord. These guys, I can't vouch for them, but there is no way that I'm ever going to deny you. You and Jesus responds to him: He says, Peter, before the rooster crows, in other words, like before the morning, you're going to deny me three times. And then that very night, as Jesus was going through the trial and being beaten, and all the different things that came with that, we know that Peter was asked on three different occasions, Weren't you with this man?
Don't you know him? And Peter, three different times, denied even knowing. Jesus.
Well, in John chapter number 21. We find what we would call the restoration of Peter here in this text. And so, just a little bit of background about where we are in John chapter 21. This is after the resurrection.
So, Jesus had already died, he resurrected, and he'd already revealed himself a couple of different times to his disciples. And so, you remember the story: he had revealed himself, and Thomas wasn't there at first, and then all the disciples kept vouching for, yes, this is the resurrected Christ. And Thomas was like, No, I need to feel his hands, I need to see these scars. And then finally, Thomas got a chance to do that, and he saw him. And so, but there was one situation that had not been reconciled, that had not been restored up to this point here in chapter number 21, and that was Peter.
In fact, what's interesting to me is if you look just One verse up in chapter number 20. And in verse 31, you almost get the sense that the book is over. That John is almost done. I mean, look at what he says. He says, But these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life through his name.
You almost get this sense that John is done writing and it's over. It sounds from that verse like he is done, but there's one more story tucked away here in John chapter 21. What's interesting to me about this, and then we'll dive into the text, is that there's four gospels, you know, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And what's interesting is that Matthew, Mark, and Luke, those three gospels all record Peter's failure. But not his restoration.
And the one that doesn't record his failure, John. Records his restoration here in John chapter number 21. And so here we go. We're going to look at this. We're going to do quite a bit of reading today.
And so John chapter number 21, verse 1 says this. After these things, Jesus showed himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias, and on this wise showed he himself. There were together Simon Peter, And Thomas called Didymus and Nathanael of Canaan of Galilee and the sons of Zebede and two other of his disciples. We don't know who the two are, but this is funny how their names are not mentioned. I mean, you got these other guys, you got Simon Peter, Thomas, his nickname's mentioned, where Nathanael's from, you got all this, and then he tucks away that there's two disciples that we're not sure who they were.
Verse 3: Simon Peter saith unto them, I go afishing. This means he's from Davidson County. I go afishing, okay? They say unto him, we also go with thee. They went forth and entered into a ship immediately, and that night they caught nothing.
Now, many commentators, if you do some personal study on this text, they would say in verse number three that the reason why verse number three is mentioned here in John's gospel is because when Peter, he hadn't been restored back to Christ. The last interaction that we have of him with Christ was when he denied Christ. And so a lot of commentators would say that the reason verse number three is in there is, I go a fishing, means that he is going back. You know, in his moment, he's feeling like a failure. He hadn't been restored back to Christ.
He hadn't been restored back to a relationship with Christ.
So many people believe that this is him going back to his old lifestyle because he left. Fishing to follow Jesus, and now he's going back to it. And when he goes, the end of verse 3 says he caught nothing. In other words, going back to your old lifestyle will always leave you unfulfilled. Every single time, sometimes you think, hey, this Christian life is not working out the way that you want.
You're going back to something. Let me tell you this: you will always feel unfulfilled in anything besides a relationship with Jesus Christ. You will always feel unfulfilled. It will not fulfill you the way that Jesus Christ will. Verse 4, but when the morning.
Was now come. Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus. Then Jesus saith unto them, Children. Have ye any meat? They answered him, No.
And so the story is: they're kind of in the boat. It's the morning time. They're done. They fished all night long. They've caught nothing.
And then Jesus comes. He's standing on the shore calling out to them.
Now, he must be a distance away because they don't know that it's him, and so they can't tell that it's him. And so Jesus is calling out to them, and better yet, Jesus actually is yelling at them: hey, children. In other words, hey, hey, kids, do you have any meat?
Now, these guys, if you remember, before they followed Jesus, these were professional fishermen. Professional fishermen, if anybody knew how to fish. It was these guys. And i if you've ever kind of been good at something, you ever haven't been good at something and somebody comes along that ha knows nothing about what you're what you're really good at and they try to give you advice? Like It's like when I watch basketball in the house and my wife comes in and says, Hey, have they tried this?
I'm like, babe, like, this is probably not your wheelhouse to be speaking into, right? And it's like that.
Well, these guys, you know, they're probably thinking, really? Because at the time, we know the story, they didn't know it was Jesus. And so he's asking, he's like, have you caught? Anything. They answered, No.
And then in verse number six, it says And Jesus said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship. And ye shall find.
So they cast, therefore, and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes.
So Jesus tells them, cast your net on the other side. Very simple. They probably have done that through the course of the night. And so they end up doing it so much to the point that there were so many fish that jumped in this net that they could not even get them in the boat. Verse 7.
Therefore, that disciple whom Jesus loved. Saith unto Peter, It is the Lord.
Now, when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he gird his fisher's coat unto him, for he was naked, and did cast himself into the sea.
Now, this was the morning time. You got Peter here. He's kind of cleaning off. You know, they've been at sea all night long. And when John says that this is.
The Lord, this is the Christ. Peter, in this moment, you got to remember, he had not been restored back to Christ yet. His last interaction with Christ was when he denied him. He denied even knowing or being with him. And when he learned that this was Christ, that this was Jesus, he jumped.
Out Of the boat and into the sea toward Jesus. Verse 8. And the other disciples came in a little. ship, for they were not far from land, but as it were two hundred cubits, dragging the net with fishes. As soon then as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid thereon, and bread.
And Jesus saith unto them, Bring ye the fish which ye have now caught. Simon Peter went up and drew the net to land full of great fishes, 153, and for all there were so many, yet was not the net. Broken. Verse 12, Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine. And by the way, that's sometimes what Jesus might be saying to you today.
If you're in this boat like Peter, and maybe you have wronged Jesus, maybe you're living far from Jesus, or possibly you're doing some things that you're even denying Jesus in your life, and you're in need of this restoration work of what Jesus wants to do for you. Jesus might be calling from the shore, come and dime. Come and dine, just like he was doing here. And none of the disciples asked him, Who art thou? knowing that it was the It was the Lord.
Jesus then, verse 13, Jesus then cometh and taketh bread and giveth them and fish likewise. This is now the third time that Jesus showed himself to his disciples. After that, he was risen from the dead. Verse 15.
So when they had dined, this is when it gets real. Jesus saith to Simon Peter. Simon.
Son of Jonas. Lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord, Thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, then feed. Feed my lambs.
Verse 16. He saith to him again, the second time, Simon.
Son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. Then he saith unto him, Then feed my sheep. He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, Lovest thou me And here Peter was grieved. Peter's starting to get it.
Peter's starting to understand that. He denied Christ three different times, and now Jesus is asking him three different times. Peter is understanding what has happened. And in this moment, you can almost see Peter breaking down that the barriers, the guilt, the frustration, the anger, the feelings that he feels, and the emotions that he feels knowing he had wronged Jesus begin to kind of take over himself. And he being grieved, because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me.
And Peter said, Lord, thou knowest. All things. Thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed. My sheep.
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, when thou wast young, thou girdest thyself and walkest whither thou wouldst. But when thou shalt be old, don't miss this, thou shalt stretch forth thine hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldst not. This spake he, signifying by what death He should glorify God. And when he had spoken this, He saith unto him, follow me.
So there's a lot here because here, three different times. Christ asked Peter, Do you love me?
Now, just before this, Peter had been asked three different times, Do you know him? Weren't you with him? And Peter's like, Man, I don't know the man. I've never met the man. You got the wrong guy.
And now, three different times he's being asked to remind him, Do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me? And finally, Peter, being grieved in his sin, He says, Lord, you know all things. You know that I love you.
And here, what's amazing is as Jesus is restoring Peter, he actually predicts the death. Here in verse number 18 and 19, he predicts the death that Peter is going to die. Peter, you couldn't even, the night that Jesus died, you couldn't even tell people that you knew me. You were afraid. Of that.
You're afraid of the consequences. But I want you to know: because I know that you love me, I'm restoring you. back into a relationship with me so much to the point that one day You will die. The same way that Christ died. For him, he would be crucified upside down, church history tells us, for his love.
For Christ. Listen, this story in John chapter number 21. It's all about what I would call gospel restoration. It's all about gospel restoration. If you look online at what the word restoration means, dictionary.com defines restoration as this: the action of returning something to a former owner, place, or condition.
Think about it like restoring. Many of you might be involved in this, restoring a home, or restoring a car, or restoring something like that, repairing it, in other words. And what the dictionary would define the word restoration is you return or you restore something back to its original owner, place, condition. or condition.
Now, gospel reconciliation or gospel restoration is a little bit different, and you could define it this way. It is when God takes something broken and makes it brand new. When we talk about what gospel restoration looks like, it is when God takes something broken, something that's been tainted, something that's been broken, and He makes it brand new. You could say biblical restoration is really the process of receiving back more that has been lost. It's really this final state.
It's showing that the final state is greater than the original. Original condition. And so this story is all about Peter being restored back to. Back to God, being restored back to a relationship with God.
Now, let me tell you this: there's a difference between restoration. And um and uh and uh and remorse. There's a difference between the two. And I don't want you to miss this because if you think about remorse, and by the way, when you get restored back to God, there's going to be some remorse. You see this with Peter.
I mean, he was grieving. But there's a difference because when you think about Peter getting restored to Christ, you got also another disciple that once followed Christ that wasn't. And we know him to be Judas, right? And you got Judas. Why wasn't Judas restored?
Because Judas. He was remorseful. But he wasn't repentant. You see, Judas, we know that when he sold Jesus, you know, when he sold him for all that amount of money. He felt bad about it, so much to the point that that night he took the money and he threw it back into.
Back into the temple.
So, why wasn't he restored the way that Peter was restored? It's because Judas was remorseful, but Peter was. was repentant. Which brings us to the big idea of John chapter number 21. It's this.
It's that God can restore any heart. That is repentant. God can restore any heart. That is repentant. But in order for you to be restored back to God, you have to be not just remorseful, you have to be repentant.
You have to be repentant like Peter was here. And so it's almost like this: what I want you to know, and I don't know what your story is here in this place today, is you might be in here today and you need restoration. Like, there's some of you right now that are like Peter, where Peter was. That you kind of slipped in here today and you are living in sin, or perhaps you're denying or doubting God, or perhaps it's the moment that you were converted and said, I will follow you with my life, Christ, and you gave your life to Him. Maybe you have drifted since Since that day.
And today, let me tell you this: that what you need today is what Peter experienced this day in John chapter 21. You need gospel restoration in your life. God wants to restore your life. God wants to bring you back. Yeah.
God wants to. I mean, throughout Scripture, we see that this is God's work in our hearts as He wants to restore us back to Him. But the problem is. In our culture. When somebody fails.
Or when somebody struggles. Or when somebody sins, you know what our culture wants to do? We want to determine that that failure equals that that's it's final. Right? Like, God can never use that person.
God can never do anything with that person. Isn't that true? Isn't that true that when somebody struggles or somebody maybe that's why in church we're so good at putting on masks because we know that if we actually shared what we truly felt or how we truly felt that we're afraid somebody's going to judge us and then nobody's going to ever respect us, nobody's going to look to us.
Well, listen, Peter himself. Denied even being with Jesus. Lied about Jesus. And here, Jesus restored him back. Listen, some of you need to understand that today, failure doesn't have to be final in your life.
Failure doesn't have to be the end for your life. Your struggle, your flaw, whatever it is that you're struggling with, it does not have to have the last word of your life, and it didn't in Peter's life. And Peter here gets restored back to God. There's three points about restoration from John chapter 21 that I hope encourages you, because these three points are helpful for us to understand. The first one is this.
God pursues us. In our brokenness. God pursues us. In Our brokenness. Everybody say the word in.
In. God pursues you in your brokenness. Notice. That in Scripture, there's never a time where God tells us. That we have to fix ourselves up.
before he will love us. He didn't say, hey, Peter. When he got to the shore, hey, Peter, as soon as you repent, as soon as you change your life, as soon as you have proven yourself, I'm going to give you the next six months to prove yourself and to prove that you're truly repentant and all these kinds of stuff. Whatever. Jesus never tells him that.
No, Jesus actually loves him and pursues him right in the middle of his brokenness. And you know what's beautiful about our life too today? Is that exactly what Christ did for you? That's exactly what God did for you. He didn't tell you, fix up your life, then I will pursue you.
Fix up your life, then I will love you. Fix up your life, then I will demonstrate grace to you. Fix up your life, then you will experience the kindness and mercy of God. No, he says, You know what I'm gonna do in the midst of your failure? In the midst of your brokenness, in the midst of your sin, in the midst of your flaws, I am going to pursue and love you.
That's what Christ does. And when we think about gospel restoration, that's what Christ. is doing for you. I mean, for some of you, like I said, I don't know where you're at, but if you're where Peter is, let me tell you this: Christ is on the shore calling out to you. He is calling out to you and tugging at you.
and loving you and pursuing you right where you are. And here's the good news. God loves you way too much for you to stay the way you are. And that's the good news of what gospel restoration is. God loves us too much for us to stay right here in this broken state.
No, you know what He does? He restores us. What does that look like? He puts us back together. He puts the broken, fragmented pieces of your life, and he puts those things back together and restores it better than the original state even was.
That's what gospel restoration is. And what we learn about this story is that here. God's pursuing Peter right in the middle of his brokenness. But not only that, number two, God provides rest for our broken souls. Everybody say the word rest.
Rest. God provides rest. For some of you, that's what you need. We need to rest in him. And here's what I'll tell you: is that here in verse number nine.
I love this because you kind of get this sense that Christ is really trying to teach Peter something. Christ is trying to teach Peter something. And in verse number 9, he's likening what he's prepared for Peter and the disciples exactly to the night that he was crucified and what Peter. Did there's so many details in verse number nine? You see, as soon as they were come to land.
they saw a fire. And so Jesus, he put a fire together on land. Remember that when Christ, or when Peter denied Christ, Peter denied Jesus by a fire. You see the detail there, and fish were here, and bread. Let me tell you this: that when you decide to return to him.
And you run to him in your broken spirit, recognizing that he's been pursuing you in the midst of your brokenness all along. Here's what you are going to find on the other side of that: you're going to find rest for your soul. You're going to find rest for your soul. Can you imagine the emotions of what Peter was experiencing this day? Peter kind of thought, like, is he gonna die?
Without ever being restored back to Christ? Is he going to die without ever being used? For Christ? Is he going to die in the midst of his brokenness? Can you imagine what he experienced here?
The food, the fish and the bread, it's a reminder that he's sufficient for you. And that in a relationship with him, you have all of the rest that you need. You say, what does this mean? What he's saying is this: that when you come to him, knowing that he pursues you in your brokenness, what you find in a relationship with him is rest. This idea that Jesus is saying, Hey, Peter.
I know you've been toiling. I know you've been working, everything. Here's what I want: I want you to know that I love you and I've pursued you in the midst of that. Just sit. Sit by the fire.
And let me do the work for... For you. You see, that's what He does for us. He provides this rest. Come unto me, and I will give you.
Rest. You say, what does that look like? He'll give you comfort. He will give you strength. He will give you peace.
He will give you forgiveness. And He will demonstrate His grace and mercy to you. In other words, what you get here is this, is whatever your soul needs is found in Christ. Whatever your soul is longing for and looking for is found in a relationship with Christ. And so we see that God pursues us.
in our brokenness. that God provides rest. for your broken soul. And then number three, God reclaims broken people back. For his purposes.
God reclaims or restores broken people back. For his His purposes. What what's amazing here Is that in verses 15 through 18? You know, in this whole dialogue where Christ. It is talking to Peter, saying, Do you love me?
He continuously says, Go and feed my lambs.
Now, we know that he's talking about ministry. Hey, go and feed my sheep. Go and shepherd the flock of God and be a part of the church. We know that here Peter would actually be one of the leaders of the New Testament church. And what's amazing to me is that in his brokenness, in his sin, In his struggles, in the middle of his flaws.
Jesus invites him back. back into the mission of God. Jesus invites him back into the mission of God. Listen, let me just be very real with you as a pastor. People that struggle like Peter.
Most of the time, in a lot of New Testament churches, they're ostracized from ministry. They're cast aside because a guy like Peter that denied even knowing Jesus, like, he'd be the last guy that we would use in our church. He'd be the last guy allowed to serve. He'd definitely be the last guy allowed to teach. Because what we have created is that when we fail.
That in our culture, we just assume that failure is final for people. It's this really this philosophy of how we run church and how we look at the Christian experience: is that when you fail, that's why so many people come in and they can't talk about their failures. Because they know church people are going to look at them differently and they're going to change how they view them and they're never going to be used and they're never going to be able to serve and they're never going to be able to join the church and they're never going to be and it's like, wait a second, that's not what my Bible teaches. You know what my Bible teaches? What we see right here is that God loves people in the midst of their failure.
That God loves people in the midst of their sin. And if Christ is going to restore people back to it, then shame on the church for not. And that's what I see here. Is that Christ looks at Peter who is a complete failure? And Christ invites him back into the ministry.
Imagine that. In modern day church, we cancel people like this. But for Christ, he welcomes them back into the family. And here's why: is because at its core, Every person in ministry. Is a sinner.
And a failure. Just like Peter. And for you, don't ever think that God can ever use you. Here's why. It's because you're like Peter.
And if God can restore Peter back to service for him, then God can restore you. And that's what we see here. He encourages him and he shows him that the restoration of God, failure doesn't have to be final for him. And I don't know who needs to hear that, but listen for you. If you're in the midst of failure, you've screwed up your life.
And perhaps nobody in here knows what you're dealing with, but you are at a place where you're like, man, I am far from God. And that, like, nobody's going to ever accept me, nobody's ever going to love me. Let me tell you this, that Christ in the midst of your brokenness He loves you. And he pursues you. And he's willing to restore any heart that is repentant.
back to him. And you know what's amazing as we look at this story? As Peter, we know would go on to be the leader of the church. And in the New Testament, the day of Pentecost, when that day comes and the church was birthed, and the church was born. It would be Peter.
That in the midst of an angry, confused mob of people, it would be Peter, the same guy who denied Jesus the night he was being crucified. It would be Peter that would stand up and deliver a message that none of the Romans would ever want to hear. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, and thousands of people would be saved as a result. The same guy that That we learned today that cut off a dude's ear, the same guy that took his eyes off of Jesus and started to sink in the sea, the same guy who said, Man, I don't know Jesus, I don't even know who this man is. That same guy would be the leader of the church and then eventually go on to write two letters, 1 and 2 Peter.
to the church. And look at what he says at the end of 1 Peter, chapter number 5. He writes this to the church, and you can imagine. You can imagine that this story. Probably every time he wrote any word to the New Testament church, this story would probably pop into his head as he's writing.
He said this to the church, but the God of all grace, who wouldn't know that better than this guy? He says, the God of all grace. Who hath called us unto his eternal glory. By Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, which Peter did. Make you perfect.
Establish, strengthen, and settle you. And here's what's great about this verse. Is that the word perfect? If you look up that word in Greek, it's the word being complete. And when you look up the meaning of what this word literally means, You can see in a dictionary, in an Old Testament or a New Testament Greek dictionary, you would see this, that it's talking about being repaired back to its original state.
So in other words, what Peter's telling the church is this. Hey, you might have drifted. You might have been in sin. You might find yourself today broken, but let me tell you this: I know the God of all grace. Who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus.
After you have suffered a while, Wants to restore you. He wants to bring you back. into a relationship with him. You see, God can restore any heart. That is repentant.
But Jesus is waiting on you. By the shore. inviting you to come and dine with him and rest. in his forgiveness And to be restored again. And one day be used again for his honor and for his Can we pray together?
