Peter, The Disciple - "Follow Me" - John Reilly

I hate good evening everybody good to be here with you good to share with you the ER this evening you know I've shared with you a couple different times that I started my ministry off in a parachurch organization called young life served with them for about seven years and it was during those seven years when I served with them that a few of my friends who were pastors really began to encourage me to begin preaching and so while this is my first time here at North Way it's not my first preaching rodeo per se if there is such a thing as a preaching rodeo it'd be interesting to go to so I'm excited you know but it's been about four years since I've been able to preach and so that gave me two months to prepare I'm not even joking can you imagine what it's like to try to boil that down to half an hour sermon so tonight we're going to go for about two hours so I hope you all get coffee you laugh but I'll see you at 7:30 all right I trimmed it down from five hours so we'll see how it goes well today we're closing up this series on Peter as Peter learned to become a disciple a follower of Jesus but you know Peter wasn't his name you probably know that right his name was Simon Peter was a nickname that Jesus gave to him on the first day that they met in the first chapter of John Jesus looks at Peter and he says so you're Simon the son of John you'll be known as Kapus which is air make for rock or petrus greek for rock and Jesus gave him this nickname and what a cool name who wouldn't want to be known as the rock right that's an awesome name but Peter he had no idea what it would cost him to take ownership over this name and the power that was behind it and as we've been looking at Peter especially if you've been going through some of the devotionals that we've been printing here for this series as we've gone along Peter is anything but a rock right he's impulsive he's arrogant he's just running around all the time doing crazy stuff he jumps out of boats all the time it's like a weird hobby that he has right he's always missing the point of whatever Jesus is saying he leaps and then he thinks that's kind of how he operates he thinks second and draws his sword first right and he's probably a bad swordsman because he cut off mal kazeer who cuts off an ear when you're trying to defend somebody who's probably aiming for his head right it's just a bad swordsman and he's probably just all mixed up inside because he doesn't know what's going on one commentator calls him the Charlie Brown of the Bible he just can't ever get his foot on the ball and I love Peter because I feel like he's just like me and he's probably just like you too so what we're going to do today we're going to settle in John 21 if you want to turn there and your Bibles or get your youversion app ready John 21 is this pivotal moment for Peter if you simply leave Peter at the end of John 20 then it all falls apart he's kind of in a questionable light if you stop at John 20 than the Peter of denial and the Peter of Pentecost don't seem like the same guy it shows that 21 is this pivotal moment in his life and if you look at the life before or his life before John 21 he's weak he's everything that I just listed but after John 21 he is a force to be reckoned with the same guy that is fearful of a little girl when she says are you a follower of Jesus is now the same guy that stands in front of tens of thousands of people and delivers perhaps the most important sermon ever so John 21 is a pivotal moment for this man so let's dive in and see what happened to him he learns the power of restoration is what he does verse 1 after this Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the sea of Tiberias that's the Sea of Galilee and he revealed himself in this way Simon Peter Thomas called the twin Nathanael of Cana in Galilee the sons of Zebedee and two others of his disciples were together Simon Peter said to them I'm going fishing and they said we will go with you they went out and got into the boat but that night they caught nothing just as day was breaking Jesus stood on the shore yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus and Jesus said to them children do you have any fish and they see answered him no and he said to them cast the net on the right side of the boat and you'll find some so they cast it and now they were not able to haul it in because of the quantity of fish now a few commentators will really dig into Peter here and they'll say that he's failing even more because he's given up after all it's he that he has experienced over the past three years he's going back to his old life he's going back to his old ways he's going fishing but here's the thing I don't think that's necessarily true I think the Peter he's a fisherman right it's what he does it's how he's skilled maybe he's just going out with his boys to get some food maybe he's just providing for his family we know that Peter had a wife he had a family maybe he's just kind of in that mode but whatever his motivation was his fishing trip was still a failure right he caught nothing and it was a failure not because he went fishing but it's because he's still trying to do stuff under his own power that's why Peter failed and the text says that night they caught nothing John is really intentional with the way he uses words in his gospel and that word nothing would ring a bell to some of his readers in John 15 Jesus uses it when he says I am the vine you are the branches whoever abides in me and I in him he it is that bears much fruit for apart from me you can do nothing that's the word Giudice in Greek it literally means nothing nothing not at all nothing I'm sure these men were just drained they were drained emotionally from watching their their friend and their leader their Savior being crucified on a cross they're probably drained spiritually trying to wrap their mind around the fact that he came back to life and what the resurrection meant in their life and now here they are drained physically after working all night professional fishermen having not caught one fish these guys are drained they are stripped down to nothing but here's the thing nothing is where God works best it's where he seems to show up and do some of his greatest things in fact if you turn to your Bible on the very first page you see that God begins to create out of nothing and so right at this moment of failure right at this moment of nothing for Peter and for the other disciples Jesus shows up on shore he says children do you have any fish now uses this really endearing term here he's saying boys how are you doing how are you doing on your own now notice that he he doesn't come to these guys in a prayer meeting although he values those things and he doesn't come to them in a Bible study although he values those things - where does he show up he shows up at the end of a hard day's work when they just feel drained now this should give us some encouragement for those of us who have gone through life and been at one point another just drained by life just drained and you feel like you're nothing but God is not simply encased in the walls of whatever church we decide to attend on Sundays he is willing and able to meet us daily and just call out to us how are you doing especially if we're trying to do it on our own see Jesus is revealing himself to a boatload of failures like literally a boat load get it a boat load of failures right you got it and despite having hauled no fish zero fish all night long he tells them to throw their net on the right side of the boat and it says in their obedience that they the cast it and now they were not able to haul it in because of the quantity of fish and something clicks for John C John's always the one to kind of realize the reality of what's happening and Peter's always the one to dive in headfirst once John realizes it this is what it says you see the difference here between Simon Peter and the rest of the disciples it says in verse seven when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord he put on his outer garment for he was stripped for work and he threw himself into the sea the other disciples came in the boat dragging the net full of fish for they were not far from the land but about a hundred yards off and when they got out on land they saw a charcoal fire with fish laid out on it and bread and Jesus said to them bring some of the fish that you have just caught so Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore full of large fish 153 of them and although there were so many the net was not torn now a couple things to catch here Peter failure as he was he wanted nothing more than to be with his Lord right he's like a little kid or like when you come home and your dog just can't stand it needs at the door right he just bouncing off everything Peter you know most of us when we decide to go swimming we take clothes off Peter puts more on right most of us would have stayed in the boat it says the Peter he didn't jump in the water he threw himself into the sea you could just see this guy spastically going all over the place he is so excited to be with his Savior and then ii remember in verse 6 where it says there are so many fish that the disciples could not haul it into the boat look who hauls it in all by his big self Peter right he's competing in like the weirdest triathlon known to man get dressed swim drag fish around he's just busy he's running all over this beach doing things but I'm sure in the back of his mind he's probably thinking about that night right the night of his denial the night where his resolve collapsed and he's probably using this busyness to kind of avoid that elephant in the room now we know here that verse 14 it tells us that this is the third time that he and Jesus have been in the same area since Easter and they haven't had that awkward conversation Peters avoiding Jesus like crazy but Jesus won't avoid Peter because he loves them too much and so verse 12 it says that Jesus said to them come and have breakfast now none of the disciples dared to ask him who are you they knew it was the Lord and Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them and so with the fish so notice how Peters restoration begins it's communion Jesus is gathering these men together in community drawing them to himself over a meal and this is where Peters restoration begins as Jesus restores Peters identity verse 15 it says when they had finished breakfast jesus said to Simon Peter Simon son of John do you love me more than these and he said to him yes Lord you know that I love you and he said to him feed my lambs now a few things to notice here first how does Jesus address him does he call him Peter he calls him by his given name right this is the parental equivalent of having your full name yelled across the house I knew when I was a little kid if I heard John Christopher Reilly I had to find a really good hiding spot and really fast that's what's about to happen here anytime you see Jesus call Peter by this name a lesson is coming his way and second Jesus never asks a question that he doesn't already know the answer to so why did he ask this what wasn't for his benefit it was for Peters you see Peter needed to slow down he needed to calm down and think about what happened that night in the courtyard he needed to think do I love Jesus or was I simply fascinated by him did I just hang in there before the the good times the miracles the healings what was it all about and then third Jesus says do you love me more than these now this would have rang a bell to Peter Peter knew why he was asking him this you see in mark 14 Peter made a pretty big claim he told Jesus that even if everybody else left him he wouldn't even if he had to die yet we remember when a little girl asked him if he knew Jesus he denied it and so he says yes Lord you know that I love you now notice that Peter doesn't appeal to his own strength or ability here he says Lord you know and so a second time Jesus says Simon son of John do you love me and he said yes Lord you know that I love you and he said to him tend my sheep you see with each question Jesus is driving home a point he's asking Peter about his motivation for following him our motivation for following Jesus will rarely come to the surface during good times but it will always come to the surface in moments of trial and so this question must be asked in everything that we do if you want to serve here you want to serve on the hospitality team that's great we love having people there in family matters that's fantastic going on one of our short-term mission trips that's amazing as well but what this teaches us is that our motivation for this must be our love for him it can't be anything else and so we have to stop we have to slow down get rid of that busyness and ask ourselves why we were in this the third time he says Simon son of John do you love me it's getting a little redundant right Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time do you love me and he said to him Lord you know everything you know that I love you and Jesus said to him feed my sheep see with each question of devotion a week with each admonition to care for others Jesus was stripping Simon he was stripping him of his impulsiveness of his pride of his old self of his false expectations of leadership and of all of his idols he was digging into Peters motive and it's in this moment you can begin to see Peter the failure become Peter the rock I think this is a desire that that all of us have right and these moments of of weakness or failure we've all had them I've had them you've had them in these moments we want nothing more than for Jesus to come into our lives and just speak to us and in His grace move us from a place of failure to a place of rock or a place of weakness into what he knows that his grace can make us but in order to see this we have to stop having these or we have to stop blocking these conversations with God we have to stop allowing our busyness to get in our way you see Peter had to understand the depth of his sin before he could fully understand the depth of God's grace author Tim Keller he puts it this way it's a great quote he says we're more wicked than we ever dared believe but more loved and accepted in Christ than we ever dared hoped at the very same time this creates a radical new dynamic for personal growth it means the more you see your own flaws and sins the more precious electrifying and amazing God's grace appears to you but on the other hand the more aware you are of God's grace and acceptance in Christ the more you are able to drop your denials and self defenses and admit the true dimensions and character of your sin so Peter had to understand the depth of that sin in order to in order to fully understand the depth of God's grace before Peter but could become the rock God had to break him he had to strip him down Oswald Sanders an author he says that God cannot use a man unless he hurts him deeply and even though Peter was hurt here by this third question Jesus was not doing this to be mean he was doing it with a pastoral heart he didn't want their last interaction to be three moments of denial he wanted it to be three proclamations of love and see out of the seven men here Peters betrayal Peter cinn was the greatest he had reached rock bottom he was nothing but remember that nothing is where God seems to work best right now this is something that Peter had to learn the hard way though and when he penned his first pastoral letter and first Peter 5 he says this and he knew what he was talking about humble yourselves therefore under the of God so at the proper time he may exalt you you see Peter came to realize that he is not a rock because of his great qualities because of his great leadership skills or his wonderful personality all that Peter was now was gone stripped away in humility Peter is a rock not because he's a rock at all he's realizing that he is a rock because the one who he is following is a rock Peter is beginning to understand the truth that what Paul said to the church in Galatia in chapter 2 he says I have been crucified with Christ it's no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me so for all of us who feel like at one time or another we have been failures in God's eyes this should give us incredible hope because notice that it took Peters greatest failure in life to realize this one truth that sometimes our greatest failures are God's breeding grounds for his greatest success stories so not only does Peter restore or Jesus restore Peters identity but he also reframes Peters purpose in his mission see with each question of Peters love Jesus gives Peter and admonition to care for others he says feed my lambs 10 my sheep feed my sheep Jesus is giving Peter a chance to now move his Christianity from his head through his heart and into his hands because love always has to have a demonstration doesn't it I mean think about this in the context of marriage think about in the context of parenting or in friendship love that's proclaimed without some sort of demonstration added on to it isn't love at all but it's interesting to know what Jesus doesn't say in this moment he says do you love me well then make sure that you pray or do you love me they'll make sure that you go to church every week or make sure that you're reading your Bible every morning or make sure that you're seeking out social justice now all those things are highly encouraged but what Jesus is communicating here is a foundation idea that all those other things are built upon see when we want to feed as lambs we'll be praying will be trained praying to try to figure out which side of the boat to cast that net and to how to feed them when we care for them we'll be searching the scriptures to figure out how to nourish them if we want to care for the flock then obviously we'll be together in community here in this church and if we want to care for his lambs we'll be seeking out social justice for the orphans for the widows for the downtrodden but I want to point out one thing here notice that Peters restoration doesn't come from new information it comes from a reminder of the basics Jesus is sharing the same message that he's always shared remember in Matthew 24 he's he's talking with some guys about the Old Testament the law and the prophets and he says that you know you can combine those things and come up with two things the entire Old Testament down to two things what are they love God love others so Jesus is saying do you love me then love others it's not a new truth that restores Peter it's a reminder of the basics it's a simple pattern that's repeated throughout all of Scripture Jesus has given his disciples to missions so far he says I want you to be fishers of men when they first met and now he's saying shepherds of the flock and these two things are so others centered that we can't deny that simply saying we love Jesus is enough if we're going to be his disciples and follow him that love has to have an expression it has to be cast outward on to others because remember the Jesus didn't say follow me and I will save your soul he said follow me and I will enable you to rescue others author NT Wright he sums it up this way he says Christians should be found serving the world with arms outstretched holding simultaneously to the pain of the world and to the love of God now I know I know this is intimidating if maybe you've never done it before right makes you nervous makes you feel a little vulnerable thinking about sharing your faith outside of your own little circle let me just point this out that if you go through the Gospels one of Jesus's primary ways of evangelist I'm in discipleship is having a meal with somebody it's a place to start so let's do a little survey who here has ever eaten food raise your hand all right okay now I'm just gonna go ahead and point out that those who you didn't raise your hand in church you just lied I was going to put that out we'll catch you at the door I was kidding no but I mean he so he did this over a meal so think about the ways you could do it go out to eat with people right have a meal with folks share your life with them cook a meal for your your neighbors your friends your enemies right you can't cook by cookbook no excuses go online you don't want to do that buy some hot pockets become a master of the microwave doesn't matter you can do it share a meal with people that's one way to start but food is not your thing just find something else find another way where you can take that love that you profess for Christ and cast it outwards on to others so not only does Jesus restore Peters identity and reframe his purpose in his mission but he also reminds Peter that there's a cost to this in verse 18 it says truly truly I say to you when you were young you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted but when you were old when you are old you will stretch out your hands and another will dress you and carry you where you don't want to go this he said to show by what kind of death he was going to glorify God and after saying this he said to him follow me Jesus begins this by saying truly truly or or some translations will say amen amen and any time you see this at the beginning of the sentence something true and trustworthy is about to follow a Peter the last time that he heard this from Jesus was the night that Jesus said you're going to betray me and all that had come true so far so Peter knew what was coming next was going to be true he says you'll stretch out your hands and another will dress you and carry you where you don't want to go now John as he sometimes does he gives us a bit of an explanation of what he's talking about here he explains the Peter is going to die for this and how so he says that he'll be led where he doesn't want to go in his arms his hands will be stretched out it's the cross he's telling Peter that he's going to go to the cross just like he did now why after this inspirational little interaction that they've had does Peter or does Jesus give Peter this depressing forecast well I think it's in there for Peter and for us to remind us that following Jesus is not always easy to truly be his disciple and follow him is not always easy consider this list you've probably heard this list before John the Baptist one of the first followers of Jesus head cut off it's not easy to recover from right it's kind of a done deal the Apostle Paul tortured many times head cut off there's a pattern right Peters right-hand man mark the one who penned the Gospel of Mark was tied to a horse and drug through the streets until he died Thomas the disciple he wanted to touch the wounds of Jesus was himself speared like his Lord for taking the gospel to India the Apostle John one of the only apostles to actually die of old age but not before being boiled alive in oil and surviving and then being exiled to a prison Island Patmos where he wrote the book of Revelation and the Peter himself crucified as history tells us upside down because as he and his wife were being led to the cross his only plea was that he was not worthy to be crucified like his Lord so he has to be done upside down Jesus is saying Peter you're going to make it through this this is going to be tough but it's going to be worth it and I would never lead you anywhere where I have not gone myself so even though it's tough follow me love me and love others you know the teaching team told me that I would get to preach today I was pretty excited I really enjoy it it's been a while I can say it's been about four years or so and the connection with this story is not lost on me you see as much as I loved my years in young life I always knew that I wanted to be a pastor I knew that's where God was calling me and so about seven years ago we started looking at churches all over the East Coast trying to find a good fit in a good church home for us we landed at a church here in Pittsburgh in the North Hills where I served as the youth and young adult pastor at about a year and a half into my time or so I started to see all kinds of red flags with my job my style of ministry didn't really match up with the other pastors and my method of doing things was drastically different than the last youth guy before I knew it I was having meeting after meeting with elders with other pastors with with parents about the state of the youth ministry in that church rumors began to spread in my ability to lead was questioned everything I did was scrutinized I was continually on the defense for every move that I made I felt attacked like never before I felt like my family had turned on me most of all I just felt like nobody was on my side so after many Restless sleepless nights and stressful days I walked into my senior pastors office with my resignation in my hand feeling like a failure hanging my head in shame and John the failure went fishing not literally I went back to my old job I went back into graphic design working in advertising but I was broken I was stripped down I was crushed and so about a few months after that my wife and I walked through those doors and my goal was just to visit my friend Doug who happened to be youth pastor at the same time as me my other goal was to hide in these seats as best as possible I felt small I was no longer the man that had ten years of ministry on my resume I was a failure and I was carrying that name and so hiding in the seats didn't really work out well for me says the man on the stage right worst hide-and-seeker ever we see North ways mission you've heard us say before is to free people to follow Jesus and I love to tell you guys that because it's not simply a mission that I communicate because it's part of my job I communicate it because I lived it through the the teaching through worship through being in Fault in small groups in and serving here in this church Jesus restored me right here so this is my story as well I found my true identity and my brokenness and my my true mission in serving and caring and loving for you guys and then watching you turn around and do it for others but here's the thing I would have never experienced that restoration I would have never walked into this church that I loved had I not been broken and stripped down to nothing and something that can only be realized in hindsight is that sometimes our greatest failures are God's breeding grounds for his greatest success stories so John 21 is this pivotal moment for Peter but it's pivotal for us as well John uses the final page of his gospel to do something amazing he shows us what kind of people God uses he uses broken and bent people who have carried around the nickname failure he uses them to do amazing things he uses us to be ambassadors of his good news to a world that's in desperate need of it but he requires us to have a few things humble and repentant heart a desire to love him and to love others so here's my question for you Peter had to have that tough conversation what tough conversation are you avoiding right now with God do you love him then how are you showing it let's pray father as we come to an end of this series on Peter I'm just so thankful that you've placed men and women in your scriptures men and women who have failed miserably it gives us encouragement to know that when we trip and fall we are not alone but it also gives us encouragement knowing that that you don't leave us there that you meet us sometimes at our lowest points so father I pray that if anyone is in this room today that needs restoration that you would draw them to yourself and draw them to this community to experience the love and grace that you offer so father thank you for restoration thank you for second chances amen you

Channel: North Way Christian Community

Views: 31,728

Rating: 4.7982197 out of 5

Keywords: Peter The Disciple, Peter The Apostle, North Way, North Way Christian Community, John Reilly, Follow Me, Christianity (Religion), Saint Peter (Founding Figure)

Id: cRQqlVNUtIw

Length: 31min 59sec (1919 seconds)

Published: Thu May 23 2013