Broadway Christian Church



Broadway Christian Church

4-24-16

Pastor Ryan David Cochran

“Do You Believe?” Jesus’ Appearance to Peter

John 21:15-19

“I once was a sinner, but now I am a sinner saved by grace. I once was lost and abused, but now I am saved by Jesus. I once was prideful, but now I am humbled. I once was disowned by my family, but now I am found by a loving Christian family. I once was living a lie, but now I am a free man. I once was judged mental and unacceptable, but now I am kind and loving and giving. I once was in the dark, but now I am in God’s light. I once was condemned, but now I am free. I once was filled with shame, but now I am transformed by His love.”

These were some of the testimonies that were written on Easter Sunday, about five weeks ago. These are your testimonies of what you once were, but what Christ has made you and is making you into. This morning, if you didn’t have a chance to write those out, I invite you during our closing song, to take one of the blue cards and write, “I once was_____ but now I am______,” and bring it up to the cross this morning. We would love to have that. It’s been great. They have been sitting on my desk for the last month and it’s been great for me to read. I invite you to do that today if you’d like.

Would you pray with me: “Lord, we thank you for this morning and what you’ve been doing in our hearts and our minds. I pray that you would continue to speak to us now through your Word. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”

Jesus and Peter

If you know the Gospel stories, you know the character of Peter really well. You know what his character was like. He was a very bold and brash man, often the first to speak among Jesus’ disciples, which was often a word just at the right time, but was often a word not “quite” at the right time, right? We know that Peter really had a strong commitment to his Lord. On that night when the disciples were in the Upper Room and it was that night that Jesus was going to be betrayed, Jesus told His disciples, “I’m going to be arrested, I’m going to be bound, I’m going to be taken to the cross, crucified and put to death.” Do you remember what Peter said? “I’m going to go with you! I’m going to die with you.” Jesus looked at him and said, “Peter, on this night, not only will you not die for me or with me, you are going to deny me three times.”

Just a few hours later they were at the Mount of Olives and Jesus had been praying and the soldiers came to arrest them. I imagine Peter thought, “This is the moment. The Roman soldiers have come to arrest Jesus. This is the moment where I am going to prove to Jesus that I would die for him.” So he takes out a sword and standing in front of this battalion of Roman soldiers, he goes and he cuts off one of the servants’ ears. “This is my moment to show Jesus that I’m going to die for Him. Jesus says, “Peter, put away your sword. I have a suffering to go through and I will endure it.”

Just a few hours later, this same man, Peter, has been following Jesus. He has been arrested and they are in the courtyard of the high priest and there is this kind-of gateway that John and Jesus have gone into. Jesus is being questioned, spit upon and ridiculed. Peter is on the outside and he goes up to the gate and there is a servant girl there and she is about to let him in and she says, “are you one of his disciples, too?” Peter, all alone in that moment, this man who just hours before said, “Jesus, I will die with you,” has his first denial to this servant girl. “No, I don’t know him.”

Peter and the Charcoal Fire

- Failure – Repentance – Restoration -- Calling

A few minutes later, Peter and some others are standing around a charcoal fire. This is a really unique word in the Greek, it’s the word “anthrakian,” and it means charcoal fire. It’s used only two times in the whole New Testament and this is the first time. Peter and these people are standing around this charcoal fire and one of them looks at Peter and says, “Hey, aren’t you one of His followers, too?” A second time Peter says, “No, I don’t know Him.” A few minutes later, another one says, “I know—I saw you up on the Mount of Olives. You were there!” Peter says, “No, I do not know the man!” As it’s early in the morning, at that moment a rooster crowed. Jesus had said, “Peter, before a rooster crows, you will deny me three times.” At that moment a rooster crowed.

Our Scripture this morning is John Chapter 21. I would encourage you to turn to that passage with me. We have been looking at Jesus’ appearances to His disciples after His resurrection over the last few weeks. We have been seeing that Jesus meets each of His disciples right where they are. He brings to them exactly what they need in their moment of grief, fear or distress. We see that Jesus came to Mary in her grief and He comforts her. We see that Jesus came to the disciples as they are in the Upper Room with the doors locked in fear of the Jews. He comes into their fear and He calls them to mission.

Last week we saw that he came to Thomas in his doubt and makes him a man of great faith. Thomas makes a great confession of who Jesus is. Today we are going to look at Jesus’ appearance to Peter. Here, Jesus meets Peter in Peter’s failure, and He restores Him and He calls him to a good work.

At the beginning of John Chapter 21, in the first half of this story, Peter is with six of his friends. There are seven of them. It is evening and Peter says, “I am going to go fishing.” They all say, “yes, we will go with you.” So they all get on the boat and they fish all night long and John says that “even though they fished all night long, these professional fishermen—Peter, James and John—they don’t catch anything at all.” Then John says in verse 4: “Early in the morning, that time when roosters crow, Jesus is standing on the edge of the lake and he says, ‘Friends, do you have any fish?’ ‘No, we haven’t caught anything all night long.’ Jesus says, ‘throw your nets to the other side, you are going to catch a load of fish.’” So they do. They throw their nets to the other side of the boat and they catch the largest catch of fish they have ever had—153 fish. I’m not a fisherman. If you are, I don’t know if you’ve ever caught 153 fish, but that’s a lot of fish!

When it happens, Peter recognizes, “It’s the Lord.” It says that Peter throws himself into the water and goes swimming to the shore. He gets to the shore and Jesus is there preparing breakfast for them around a charcoal fire. This is the second time and last time that this word is used in the New Testament--Peter and the other disciples around this charcoal fire. Jesus meets Peter in this story in his failure. At that time of the day when the roosters crow, early in the morning, and around a charcoal fire—in that moment Jesus walks Peter through repentance, restoration and a calling to a good work.

John Chapter 21 and Our Calling

John Chapter 21, verses 15-17: “When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon, son of John, do you truly love me more than these?’ ‘Yes, Lord, he said, you know that I love you.’ Jesus said, ‘feed my lambs.’ Again, Jesus said, ‘Simon, son of John, do you truly love me,’ and he answered, ‘yes, Lord, you know that I love you.’ Jesus said, ‘take care of my sheep.’ The third time He said to him ‘Simon, son of John, do you love me?’ Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him a third time, ‘do you love me?’ He said, ‘Lord you know all things. You know that I love you.’ Jesus said, ‘Feed my sheep.’”

There is an interpretation of this story that you’ve perhaps heard before. Sometimes preachers hear things and they think they’re really neat and so we keep talking about them and they kind-of take on a bit of life of their own. For one example, we have the story of Jesus saying, “The rich will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven and that it’s more difficult for a camel to enter in through the needle’s eye than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” So there has been this thought, and it just grew, that there was a gate in Jerusalem called, “The Needle’s Eye.” That thought grew and became a part of the mythology of the church. This is not true. There is no gate called “The Needle’s Eye.”

I think that the interpretation here in this story has become a part of the evangelical mythology, and that’s that there are two different words in Greek for love—agape and phileo—and the way that Jesus uses these words in this text gets changed throughout the course of their conversation. It’s true that the Greek reads: “The first time that Jesus asks Peter, ‘Simon, son of John, do you love me?’ He says, Simon, son of John, do you agape me?’ Peter responds, ‘yes, Lord, I phileo you.’ The second time, Jesus asks again, ‘Simon, son of John, do you agape me?’ Simon Peter responds, “Yes, Lord, I phileo you.’ Then the third time Jesus then says, ‘Peter, do you phileo me?’ Peter says, ‘Yes, Lord, you know that I phileo you.’

There has been a lot of discussion about the two different words of agape and phileo, and I don’t want to get into all of it. It’s simply to say that the interpretation that is often told is that agape is this kind-of rich, divine, eternal kind of love and that phileo is a worldly or brotherly kind of love, and it might be rich and intimate but it kind-of fades away. I just want to say that in the New Testament stories, agape and phileo don’t quite have that strong of a distinction between one another. In fact, even in the Gospel of John, Jesus has said to both agape the Son, as well as to phileo the Son. God is said to agape the disciples and also to phileo the disciples. The distinction that has been made between these two words—agape and phileo—is not quite as strong as perhaps some preachers have tried to make it. In addition to that, Peter and Jesus were probably speaking in Aramaic in this conversation, so there probably wasn’t this distinction between these two different kinds of love.

The real problem that I have with this interpretation is this. What the interpretation often says is that Jesus asked Peter, “do you agape” me?” Do you have this great, high, rich, eternal love for me and Peter isn’t quite able to say, “I agape you.” He is only able to say, “No I just have this lesser kind of love for you.” It’s like Jesus says, “Peter, do you love me?” and Peter says, “No, I like you.” The problem that I have with that interpretation is that it leaves Peter in his failure. It leaves Peter in a place of not quite being able to live up to what Jesus is calling Him to and I think that that is the exact opposite of what this entire text is all about. Here, Jesus is calling Peter and inviting Him into a rich, personal relationship with Him. Peter is confirming his love for Jesus.

I read an interpretation of this passage this past week by a pastor named Jim Kerwin, and I think he is spot-on. This is, I think, a way that we can read this text in a way that we can understand. We can interpret it this way: “Peter, do you love me?” Peter responds, “Yes, Jesus, you know that I love you as my closest and most intimate friend,” which is the phileo, the brotherly kind of love. “Peter, do you love me?” “Yes, Jesus, you know that you are my closest and most intimate friend.” “Peter, am I your closest and most intimate friend?” “Yes, you know everything, Jesus, you are my closest and most intimate friend.” In this exchange between Jesus and Peter, there is this invitation into a real relationship with Jesus after Peter’s failure, and Peter confirms—he doesn’t deny that he wants to be, and that he doesn’t not live up to the kind of love that Jesus is calling Him to. He is saying, “Yes, Jesus, I love you.”

Three times Peter denied Jesus around a charcoal fire and three times Jesus invites Peter to repent from his denials and express his devotion of love to Jesus, and Peter does. “Yes, Jesus, I love you. You are my closest and most intimate friend.”

I can only imagine the grief that Peter must have gone through that Friday night after hearing the rooster crow and Saturday morning waking up and hearing the rooster crow again. I can only imagine the feeling that he must have had. We saw that painting on Easter Sunday of Peter running to the tomb and the anticipation and excitement and also the worry that that painting reflected in Peter’s eyes. “I know I denied Jesus and if He is alive, is He going to accept me? Is He going to reject me? What is He going to say to me? He knows that I denied Him.”

You know what it’s like to be at odds with someone, especially when you’re the one who knew that you did something wrong, right? Your heart and your mind are just distant from that other person. You’re not sure if your advances, your desire to express friendship to them or kindness to them, whether those are going to be welcomed at all because you know that you wronged them and the only way for that relationship to be restored is for the person that has been wronged to open their arms and to invite them back in, right? It’s only when that other person says to you, “I know that you’ve done wrong,” or when that other person is the one who ways, “I’m going to come to you,” that that relationship begins to be restored.

That’s what Jesus does here for Peter. Peter is, no doubt, uncertain about what this relationship is like and here, in this moment, around this charcoal fire in this early morning, this time when roosters crow, Jesus restores Peter’s relationship to Himself. He does it in this unique way where three times Peter is able to turn away from his denial—to repent from his denial—and to express his love to Jesus. Jesus could have said, “Peter, you are forgiven,” and it could have been done with, but, instead, Jesus, in His very kind and tender way, gives him an opportunity three times to say, “Yes, Jesus, you are my closest and my most intimate friend.” He invites Peter into this restoration. “Peter, you did wrong and you know you did wrong, so turn from your hurt and your denial and express your love for me.” He knows that Peter’s heart is broken, that it needs mending, and so He, as the Great Physician, who knows exactly how to mend Peter’s heart, goes to him and three times, invites him to express his love for Him.

In addition to restoring their relationship, we see that Jesus gives Peter a call to a good work. “Peter, feed my lambs, Peter, feed my sheep.” Peter is going to be the first pastor of the church. He will be the leader of the disciples. Here, Jesus calls him to a good work. “Peter, if you love me, then I am going to call you now to a good work.” One of the great gifts of grace that we have as followers of Jesus is that, yes, we are forgiven and invited into a relationship with Him, and then He grabs our hand and He pulls us and says, “Now, come with me and work with me in making all things good and new.” He calls us to a good work.

Ephesians says that “we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” God prepared Peter’s work far in advance to be the great early pastor of the church and God knew that Peter was going to deny Him three times. Jesus, on that night, said, “Peter, you will deny me three times.” He knew that Peter was going to deny Him and, yet, He still had this great plan that God prepared far in advance for him to do. Peter’s failure did not keep Christ from calling him to a good work.

- Failure, Repentance, Restoration, Calling are a part of everyone’s walk with Jesus

I want us to think a little bit about this in relation to our own life. I had four points there in the bulletin, but as I was thinking about it yesterday, I really want to focus on this third point, which is the one that we are really driving home today in Peter’s relationship with Jesus, and that’s that all of us are really called to this process, that when we fail to repent, to experience restoration, and to be called to a good work, just as Peter was. All of us fail. All of us fail to do as good as we ought to do. All of us fail to work as hard as we ought to work. All of us fail in our sin. All of us deny Jesus, either through our words or through our actions or in our hearts and minds. Failure is a part of our frail, human life here on this earth.

What will keep you from not being restored and not being called to a good work, is not the failure itself, but it’s how slow you are in the repentance. I think that many of us are very slow in repentance. If we are going to experience that restoration, if we are going to experience and know the calling that God has for us, we must be very quick to turn from our failure and to repent.

I love the image of Peter throwing himself into the water. Maybe you can think about that as a picture of your repentance. Peter, knowing that he has failed, but when he recognizes and sees Jesus on the shore, he throws himself into the water. It’s like he can’t get there into His presence quick enough. That’s repentance. Throwing yourself--getting to Jesus as quickly as you can in your failure. But you know how hard that is, right? You know when you’ve been in sin and how difficult it is, then, to go to Jesus and to be in His presence. You know you have disappointed Him, you have disappointed yourself and you know how difficult it is, then, to pray. What this story tells us is that the Lord has prepared a table for you. Even after your failure, the table is there ready for you to come and sit with Him, if you will repent and express your love to Him. In that moment when you turn to Him, when you go to Him as quickly as you can, you will experience a sweet restoration. “I love you, you are my child, and I have a good work for you.”

Our failures require repentance and our repentance requires meeting with Jesus. Our meetings with Jesus will result in restoration and our restoration will result in a good calling to good work.

This morning, perhaps you feel like a failure. Perhaps you feel like you are so far from the Lord. You feel like you are so far down the road that you simply can’t be used. In some ways, I would just invite you to “join the club.” So many of us feel that way. You are not alone in feeling like “my past is too hard for Christ to overcome or maybe even this past week, I’ve been places and thought things and done things and Jesus can’t use me.” Turn to Him in repentance and experience restoration and experience a calling to a good work.

If you were at the Good Friday Service last year, you may remember us looking at the story of Peter and the crow of the rooster. I just want to return to that thought as we close the sermon this morning. I spent a couple of weeks in India a few years ago. Even in New Delhi, in that very busy city, in the mornings I heard the crow of a rooster. It is a very distinct sound. If you have lived out in the country you maybe still hear it. For us, it’s not really something we hear very much and recognize it, but for Peter and his friends and companions, they would have heard a rooster crow every morning. It would have been something they would have heard all the time and it was probably a very common, everyday sound—a sound that they probably didn’t even think about when they heard it in the morning. It just kind-of became like the hum of our refrigerators. Have you ever noticed when our refrigerator stops humming, how quiet it is in the house? It’s kind-of like that. The rooster is very loud but they probably just didn’t notice it.

After that moment of his third failure, and the rooster crowed, the rooster’s crow would have been something that Peter could never not notice. For the rest of his life, Peter was going to wake up to the sound of the rooster and remember that moment of his failure. Peter heard the rooster crow on that Good Friday morning, that terrible day when Jesus was arrested and taken to the cross and beaten and spit upon and criticized and accused. Maybe Peter saw it. Maybe he went away and just couldn’t bear to watch, I don’t know. Whatever the case, we can imagine Peter’s grief. His Lord, the One in whom he had placed all his hopes, the One who he promised, “I will die with You,” he denies three times. Can you imagine what it was like for Peter to wake up on Saturday morning to a rooster crowing? When dawn arrived on Saturday, Peter heard that distinct sound and he remembered that he betrayed Jesus and there would never be a morning where he would wake up and not remember that he had betrayed his Lord.

I remember thinking about that last year and wondering, “why would God do that to Peter?” It seems almost cruel. It’s hard enough for Peter that he would deny Him three times and that he would have to live with that, but now every morning, that common, everyday, mundane sound had taken on an entirely new meaning. It was a reminder of his failure, or at least it would have been if it wasn’t for John 21--on a new morning, on a new morning, on a new morning, around a charcoal fire. Because of this story of Jesus’ tender and compassionate and gracious invitation to Peter to repent, to come and to experience restoration and to experience a call of Christ on his life, mornings and the rooster crowing took on a much different significance. While he was a Christ-denier, Christ loved him and died for him. While he failed to follow through on his promise to die for Jesus, Jesus did not fail in His promise to die for Peter. Each morning, the rooster crow would have been a reminder of his life’s greatest regret, but instead, Jesus redeemed Peter’s mornings. Waking up to each new day, the sound of the rooster crow was now a reminder of the work of Christ in his life, the sound of condemnation was transformed into the sound of grace.

You have denied him—one time, two times, three times—more times than you are willing to count, right? He asks you today, “Do you love me?” “Do you love me?” “I’m here. I have a set a table before you and we are going to eat at the food that He has set before us in just a few moments. He has set a table before you and He asks you today, “Do you love me?” This morning, can you say to Him, “Yes, Jesus, you are my closest and my most intimate friend.” In your failure, He is calling you to a quick repentance. In that quick repentance, to experience His sweet restoration and to know and experience His good call on your life. Today, will you receive what He has for you. Where are you today? Have you failed and are you in a place where you need to repent? Or are you in the process of repenting and you need to experience that kind and gentle invitation by Jesus to come and to experience His grace. Or are you in a place where you are experiencing restoration, but you are wondering, “God, what are you calling me to? Where are you in this?” Wherever it is, the Lord has a word for you today, to hear and to say “yes” to.

“Our God in Heaven, we thank you for this story of Peter’s life and we thank you that you redeemed his failure and made him a man of great leadership and influence. We thank you that you extended your grace to him and called him to a good work. I pray, today, for my brothers and sisters in Christ, wherever we are today in this, Lord, I pray that we would hear your word, that you would speak to us and that we would respond. We pray these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.”

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