The Transforming Effect of Loving Christ

well all week we have examined the glories of our Lord Jesus Christ then they marvelous experience hasn't it just rich fellowship conversation praise instruction we feel like we've been lifted to the heavenlies we've seen his majesty his glory we have had our own Mount of Transfiguration event and like the Apostles we have fallen before him in humble amazement and like the disciples on the mountain we don't want it to end can't we just stay and live in that tent we've already got a tent I think what I'm trying to say is we have been being sanctified this week because sanctification occurs as a ministry of the Holy Spirit when we gaze at the glory of Christ 2nd Corinthians 3:18 were moved from one level of glory to the next to gaze at the glory of Christ is a transforming experience not too long ago I completed preaching through the Gospel of John for a hundred and sixteen weeks I prepared hour upon hour day upon day and preached maybe a tenth of what was in my heart at the end of each week of study I lived for 116 weeks in the Gospel of John in the glory of Christ somebody said to me when I finished the Gospel of John but don't you feel good that it's over I said no I really feel sad that it's over day after day I saw his glory and I can't count how many messages this week came from the Gospel of John John records his marvelous words his miraculous works culminating in his death in his bodily resurrection followed by his appearances and John brings his gospel to it's great climax open your Bible to the twentieth chapter verses 30 and 31 John sums it all up by saying therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples in fact there were so many that in the last verse of John he actually says the world couldn't contain the books that could be written on everything he did many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples which are not written in this book but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing you may have life in his name the Gospel of John is to provide evidence for the deity and Messiahship of Jesus Christ evidence that leads you to believe and have eternal life that's the high point of the Gospel of John that's the pinnacle the hare punked as the Germans would say and when I hit that verse I thought that should be the end that should be the end but it isn't from the heights of that elevated summation of the evidential and evangelistic purposes of the Gospel of John from that elevated glorious revelation of the risen Christ we come to chapter 21 and it's like being dropped off a cliff and landing with a thud it's a crashing descent in fact the contrast is so jolting that some have suggested John didn't even write it and to make it worse we want we run right smack into again what pain can we just end with Christ why do we have to go back to Peter this is a very disappointing narrative at first do we really need this can't we just go flying into the book of Acts and into the Ascension and to the day of Pentecost and see that Peter why do we need this one there's an answer to that it's because with all the glory that has come through to the end of chapter 20 eventually that glory ends up in clay pots this is for us this has to be part of the story when Luke wrote his gospel and then began to write the book of Acts in Acts chapter 1 and verse 1 he said this he was writing in the gospel about all that Jesus do you know the next word began to do and to teach as our Lord ascended and the Spirit came the work was handed over to the clay pots we talked about on Tuesday weak and ugly and breakable and marred and replaceable we have been to the mountain we have seen the majestic glory we have seen it by a more sure word Peter said then even his own experience at the Mount of figuration a more sure word inspired by the holy spirit and written down we too have been eyewitnesses to his glory and now the deposit rests with us we are to carry the glorious gospel forward even in our frailty and our weakness Peter did enough things to lose his ordination papers if he had presented his testimony as an application to the Masters seminary he likely would have been rejected occasionally speaks for the devil and when it gets tough he denies and denies and denies that he ever knows the Lord and then swears oh that's great stuff for a minister the thud takes place in the first three words of verse 1 after these things Jesus manifested himself again to the disciples at the sea of Tiberias and he manifested himself in this way Simon Peter and Thomas called didymus the twin and Nathanael of Cana and Galilee and the sons of Zebedee would be James and John two other disciples Philip and Andrew what you've got here is all the people who were in the fishing business these are all a Galilean fishermen and you can throw in Thomas pretty startling here Simon Peter said to them I'm going fishing you say well you know everybody in the ministry needs recreation no this is not about grabbing a rod in a hook on a sunny day and enjoying recreation the Lord had told them Matthew 28:16 go to Galilee to a mountain that I tell you and wait for me there for further orders I'll be there you wait I'll give the Commission and you'll know what's next in a predictable impulsive disappointing move Peter decides to go back to his former career and he is a leader and like a bunch of rubber ducks all the rest of the fishermen go after him I'm going fishing in the original there's a finality in that statement this is not recreation the is going back to his old life how do we know that they went out bursary says they got into the boat not a boat and certainly not standing on the shore throwing a hook in the water they went back to the boat definite article they were back in their own area and they went back to their own boat Peters boat perhaps this is a boat big enough for all of them this is not a recreational boat this is a fishing boat and they took nets and you don't use nets for recreational fishing and in verse seven it says Peter stripped down to a loin cloth he went back to work verse eight says they were a hundred yards out they weren't just wanting to enjoy a nibble or two why does Peter do this why does he say I'm going back to fishing hasn't he seen the risen Christ yes yes why is he going back to fishing I think the answer is pretty simple he had absolutely no confidence in himself he was a proven failure one minute he could be serving the Lord in the next minute the devil he could say I'll follow you even to death and then when all he had to do is confess Christ he would deny him and deny him and deny him and deny him two irrelevant people in the dark he had overestimated his wisdom pompous way bragged about his strength he had underestimated the power of temptation he openly declared that he could handle any severe threat and never waver in his loyalty to Jesus that foolish boast him boasting led him to blatant betrayal at that part of the story we don't know if he's any different than Judas full of self-doubt sense of serious overwhelming weakness a history of failure lack of trust in himself inadequate I can't do this I can't do this ministry but I can fish let's go back to fishing verse four but when the day was now breaking Jesus stood on the beach yet the disciples didn't know it was Jesus so jesus said to them children you do not have any fish do you that is irritating even if it's Jesus that is you really don't need to punctuate that and they said no this wasn't the first time this happened this had happened earlier in Luke 5 and you remember on that occasion when Peter realized it was the Lord what was his response Lord go a way for I am a sinful man theory was a game is again the same sinful man in the presence of the same son of God and when the Lord said you don't have any fish do you he was saying this you can't fish any more I control the fish you can't catch fish I called you to catch men Sean oh no no no no that was just a coincidence you know they were in a bad spot I was just a coincidence really look at verse 6 he said to them cast a net on the right-hand side of the boat and you'll find a catch so they cast and then they were not able to haul it in because of the great number of fish there were no fish in the area and when the Lord said to them try the right side of the boat you know your instinct would be to say what is he crazy do you think we fished off one side of the boat stays in one spot what are you talking about but the authority and his voice caused them to do what they did even though at this point they didn't know who it was so they cast a net at the right side of the boat he said you'll find a catch they cast they weren't even a halt the catch in because of the great number of fish therefore the disciple whom Jesus loved namely John said to Peter it is the Lord this is the final miracle in the Gospel of John when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord he put on his outer garment for he was stripped for the work and threw himself into the sea this is so Peter just so totally out of control and impulsive he doesn't help the guys who are trying to haul in this massive amount of fish these dives in the water while he's thrown himself into the sea the other disciples came in the little boat big enough to hold all of him not far from land about a hundred yards dragging the net full of fish I couldn't get it in the boat so they're working like crazy to get the fish to the shore finally got to the land and verse 9 saw a charcoal fire already laid and fish placed on it and bread Jesus had made breakfast you know how Jesus makes breakfast breakfast and Jesus said bring some of the fish which you have now caught we'll add that Simon Peter would up and through the land and a net to land full of large fish 153 I love the number it's an eyewitness account of a number they counted them and it's an indication this is a real miracle and although there were so many the net was not torn just kind of a modest miracle massive catch without tearing the net now that Peter and the others no they can't fish anymore that's the lesson you can't fish I control the fish you can't fish for fish when Matthew 4:19 you've been called to fish for men and then the Lord does an amazing thing he moves for the restoration of Peter and the others jesus said to them in verse 12 come and have breakfast none of the disciples ventured to question him who are you knowing that it was the Lord Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them and the fish likewise this was now the third time Jesus was manifested to the disciples after he was raised from the dead I don't know what the conversation was like but it must have been intense it must have been some apologies sorry Lord we just didn't trust ourselves and you weren't here and we didn't know what we were waiting for and you know we all ran we all ran we all scattered we all fled when you arrested and and the only one who showed up at the cross was the one who leaned on your breasts and that was John and the rest of us never showed up and and you know we're all guilty of defecting and we're all weak and we're all useless and and we just thought well we know how to do that and we'll we'll just go do that that that's familiar to us then the Lord starts a restoration you might have thought that he would he would have found a replacement group right I mean come on three years death burial resurrection he's alive they've seen him and they're still acting like this this is time for the Lord to hit the reset this is this is restoration redux now are you surprised that the Lord would restart these reluctant weak disciples here's the good news this is all he's got to work with there's a bunch of clay pots with unclean lips this is Isaiah all over again so how does Jesus here's the question how does Jesus disciple a disciple you all are involved in discipleship how does Jesus disciple a disciple how does Jesus restore a disobedient disciple how does Jesus do biblical counseling how does Jesus Shepherd a wayward sheep how does he pasture them how does he lead them to sanctification and obedience how does he recover them for usefulness it must be a long and very complex process it's going to take months if not years how does he do it how does Jesus disciple a disobedient disciple you ready he asks him one question three times do you love me I hear a lot about counseling biblical counseling discipleship I've seen complexity that looks like the back side of a Persian rug I've read books endless books paradigms of sanctification how did Jesus disciple a disobedient weak vacillating disciple do you love me shocking for its simplicity there's no ambiguity in that right there's no ambiguity there's no mystery do you love me I was a little guy grew up in a pastor's family and I was writing a kind of a after word for a book that somebody wrote it was wonderful and I agreed to write an afterword plus it'd be a little bit of personal reminiscing my own kind of spiritual history in I was thinking back about when I was a little kid and teenager young man and all I can remember was that everybody said you need to believe in Jesus Christ you need to believe in Jesus Christ that was how it was you you need to believe in Jesus Christ I was taught that from a child in the home in Sunday school you need to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as I got a little older people began to say you need to serve the Lord you need to serve the Lord you need to do something it wasn't really Sibley qualified or defined you just needed to serve the Lord that was that was what you did and and then a little later the emphasis was you you need to witness for the Lord so you need to believe the Lord and and you need to serve the Lord and you need to witness for the Lord so I'm in high school and and I'm believing and I'm serving and sometimes I'm going down to Central LA in the middle of the park in the middle of the city and I'm trying to witness for the Lord but I'm not really not really experiencing any sanctifying power in my life and finally I was told when I got into college that if I wanted power in my life I needed to be filled with the Holy Spirit and somebody gave me a little booklet on it Campus Crusade I need to be filled with the Holy Spirit and then it was always described as you know being being continually kept filled with the holy spirit and that was a passive kind of instruction so okay I'm here think I'm open go ahead fill me hi he was exposed to a lot of higher life deeper life Kazik let go let God shifted me into a passive mode waiting for something to happen to me which left me struggling for sanctification I don't think I really understood even when I came here in 1969 I began to understand when I came across second Corinthians 3:18 as you gaze at his glory you're changed into his image by the Holy Spirit that's not passive that's aggressively active and I began to realize that my sanctification was dependent not on creating a vacuum which the Holy Spirit would fill but on the relentless pursuit of the knowledge of the glory of Christ I said there's only one way to do that I got to go to the Gospels and so for eight or nine years atop Matthew 8 9 or 10 years that taught Lou several years of taught mark John all I wanted to do was gaze at the glory of Christ I went to Hebrews the taught Hebrews and went to revelation taught revelation few years later taught it all over again went to Roman's taught Romans few years later taught Romans over again when I finished the New Testament I did a whole series on finding Christ in the Old Testament I just couldn't let go of Christ I don't know what you've been taught I don't know what you've been told about sanctification but I will tell you this the clear word of Scripture is that your sanctification is directly related to your pursuit of the knowledge of Christ in all his glory it's not passive let the word of Christ dwell in you richly the the word the revelation concerning Christ let it dwell in you richly and then I got to the end of John's Gospel the first time through and I saw this and I I was just amazed at the simplicity of what our Lord said to recover and restore the most critical disciple of the bunch for the early church he only asked him one question do you love me have you seen enough and heard enough to love me I'd always known I needed to believe in him and serve Him and witness for him I don't think I ever thought about loving him but then I should have because what is the first and Great Commandment love the Lord your God with all your heart soul mind strength Deuteronomy 6 Matthew 22:37 to love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind that's the first and Great Commandment and God has come to us in Christ that applies to Christ what does God want from me on behalf of Christ he wants me to love him with all my heart soul mind and strength that's the Christian life it's all tied to loving the Lord Jesus with all your faculties 1st Corinthians 16:22 says that anybody who doesn't love the Lord is anathema damned if you're damned for not loving the Lord then the opposite of that is being given eternal life which is defined as loving the Lord the motive for all your sanctification and the motive for all your service is this simple do you love me so let's look at the conversation when they had finished breakfast jesus said to Simon Peter Simon he always called him by his old name when he was acting like his old self Simon son of John do you love me do you love me always the question for a disobedient believer go right to the heart do you love me more than these you mean more than these other disciples and that wouldn't work they were as guilty as he was they all defected they all went back to fishing they were equally disobedient no do you love me more than these boats and nets and corks and weights and anchors and trappings of your former life do you love me more than the stuff that made up your life which is like saying if any man will come after me let him what deny himself you've got to let go of everything that made up your life he uses the word Agha Paulo the highest noblest love of the will do you love me more than these things do you love me more than anything in this world Matthew 10:37 he said he who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me if you love your own life the life that you have created more than me you're not worthy of me he's saying do you love me enough to deny yourself john calvin said no man will steadily persevere in the discharge of ministry unless love for Christ reigns in his heart look we haven't set this we cup to focus on Christ just for the sake of information about him but for the sake of what I'm saying to you tonight that you might love him in a greater way than you've ever loved him before I think Peter must have been very sorrowful he said to him verse 15 yes Lord you know that I love you but he changed the word he didn't use alcohol or the highest noblest love of the will he dropped it down a notch he said I love you in a useful arrow which simply means a warm affection I like you a lot well why did he do that because he was exposed he was guilty he was broken he was humbled he would have been a fool to say I love you at the highest noblest level he couldn't say that he says Lord you know you know that I like you a lot say that's a sad admission well isn't it kind of sad to have to depend on omniscience I mean it isn't even obvious you've got a call on a bomb nisshin's he didn't say Lord you've seen my life isn't it obvious no he said I have to call on you're obnoxious and you know that I have deep affection for you let me tell you something I think that moment was a moment of blessing I think it's a blessing when the Lord knows everything and he knows that we love him even when it's not obvious I'll say it another way I'm glad that the Lord knows the things I desperately want him No and that is such a blessing to me I'm okay if he knows the things I really don't want him to know I need him to know I love him because sometimes it's not obvious he knows I love him truly I don't love him as I should my love isn't everything it should be but it's real that's what Peter's saying amazingly I mean this is amazing the Lord says to him boskie my lambs Shepherd my lambs this is his ordination you're accepted really after all the ridiculous things that Peter has done and here's just previous to this another evidence of his impulsive disobedience he puts him right back in the ministry feed my lambs I would just tell you to look at the look at the pronoun here personal pronoun they're mine and I'm turning over to you with far less than perfect love the Lord deserves and desires with love lower in quality then the Lord receives from all those who are around him in heaven Peter is restored to the ministry with a love that isn't even visible to anyone except the Lord in His omniscience feed my lambs my little ones young tender weak vulnerable prone to wander prone to stray I'm putting them in your hands you know what I think about that I think about John 17 where our Lord and praying to his father says I'm going to the cross father i guarded them now when go to the cross I'm giving them to you to keep when he couldn't care for them he turned them over to his father and nothing could ever take them out of his father's hand but here's the wonder of wonders he turned them over to Peter my little lambs said to him a second time in verse 16 Simon son of John or Jonas do you love me ocupado he said to him yes Lord you know that I love you and he said okay boy my know Shepherd my sheep third time he said to him the third time Simon son of John do you love me and this time he dropped down to Peter's word and he questioned even the lower-level love that Peter thought he could get away with do you really have strong affection for me this really hurt this probes into Peter's heart this is a spiritual biopsy cuts some of Peters soul open and Peter was grieved lapell to have a pain a deep pain or grief in the heart not because it was the third time he needed three times after all he had denied the Lord three times it wasn't because it was the third time it was because the third time the Lord questioned the love that he thought he could get by with and again he calls on omniscience he said to him Lord you know all things you know that I love you Jesus said to him tend my sheep it's a lot like Isaiah isn't it Lord you don't want me I'm a man with unclean lips Isaiah 6 and then in the vision you hear the Lord who will go for us there's nobody in the vision but Isaiah this is not a rhetorical question I don't think he said here am i Lord send me I'm a dirty mouth man send me probably said Lord you could send me Lord said go you're my man it's always clay pots isn't it with all our flaws and all our failures all he asks out of us is that in his omniscience he knows our love is not perfect but it's real it's real I didn't know what it was to love the Lord as a young man because I didn't know enough about him to grow that love shepherding is merely an extension of sanctifying love into serving love you say well I'm a weak guy struggling failing sometimes an unclean lips experience lack of self confidence I'm unworthy do you love me do you love me we've tried this week to elevate Christ to increase your love now this love has a cost verse 18 okay Peter you love me truly truly I say to you 25 times in the Gospel of John we have that little formula meaning something very important this is a verbal call to attention truly truly I say to you when you were younger you used to gird yourself but on your own clothes walk wherever you wish did what you wanted but when you grow old you will stretch out your hands what in the world does that mean it's a euphemism for crucifixion when you're old you're gonna stretch out your hands and someone else will gird you and bring you where you do not wish to go how do you know it's his crucifixion because the next statement is he said this signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God history tells us he was crucified deny yourself and then what take up your cross this is a living illustration of Luke 9:23 Peter you will be arrested and you will be executed by crucifixion you will be a martyr welcome back into the ministry remember when I told you if they hated me they will hate you say Oh Lord give the guy a break what are you telling them that for Wow you do want to live your whole life thinking around every corner is your crucifixion why did you tell him that I think it was the best news Peter ever heard in his life what yeah because what a told Peter is this the next time you face death for me you will not deny me I think he lived in the triumph of that promise that's the best news he ever heard that steeled him for the future and then on the day of pentecost he was given the fullness of the spirit and he was dynamite right down to being crucified and when he was to be crucified he didn't think he was worthy to be crucified his Lord so he has to be crucified upside down can you imagine him saying I'm not going to fail again when it happens I'm not going to fail again I'm not going to fail he had no confidence in himself he had no history of faithfulness in the face of danger he was a disaster the promise that he would face death triumphantly and die was the best news he could have ever heard this is like Luke 14:26 if any man comes after me and doesn't hate his own life he can't be my disciple do you love me do you love me enough to deny yourself do you love me enough to take up a cross if that's what I ask do you love me that much there's one other component this is love that not only demands a sacrifice but it demands obedience look at verse 19 again and when he had spoken this he said to him follow me again that those are the three components of Luke 9:23 deny yourself take up your cross follow me that's what it means to be a disciple he says follow me love that sacrifices in the face of death his love that obeys in life but like everything else with Peter everything is hard everything verse 20 the Lord says follow me next statement Peter turning around give me a break this is impossible give moved down one notch to Andrew if somebody else are you kidding me he turns around he can't take one step following and he saw the disciple whom Jesus loved John never calls himself by his name why would he when he can call himself the disciple whom Jesus loved he turns around and he sees John the one who not only his disciple whom Jesus loved but who also leaned back on his bosom at the supper and said Lord who is the one who betrays you John just he can't get over the fact of the privileges that have been given him to be next to Jesus the Messiah the son of God so Peter turns around sees John and he says Lord verse 21 what about him I mean this is remediation beyond comprehension and then you have one really one of the funniest statements and Jesus didn't say a lot of funny things but this is funny he says if I want him to remain until I come what is that to you if if he lives to the Second Coming it's none of your business that's called hyperbole that's not only hyperbole that's sarcasm that is dripping sarcasm I mean and that's what you say when you finally become so exasperated with your kids that you resort to dripping hyperbolic sarcasm my dad used to say to me you will never amount to a hill of beans my dad was not into elevating self-image amounting to a hill of beans had nothing to do with what I was doing I wasn't working with beans or anything like that and it was just a hyperbolic sarcastic way to get a frustrated point across about my lack of quality behavior what about him I'm gonna die right I'm gonna die what about him I'm telling you Peter is a constant project this is a project so you're all worried about people you have to disciple in your church have a sympathy here right it's irrelevant Jesus says it is irrelevant if I want him to live till the second coming and so of course the rumor went out you know what I heard John is gonna live till the second coming we call that the grace vine the saying went out among the Brethren verse 23 that the disciple would not die yet Jesus didn't say to him that he wouldn't die only that if I want him to remain until I come what is that to you irrelevant well they became buddies didn't they Peter and John from max2 to 11 John didn't say anything Peter did all his preaching you say well maybe John didn't have anything to say oh yeah he did when they finally opened his mouth Gospel of John first John 2nd John 3rd John the book of Revelation so he was holding it in so this is this is emphatic the statement that our Lord gives in the original you follow me you verse 22 you follow me forget about anybody else again this is this is Luke 9:23 deny yourself face death follow me John did die thirty years after Peter by the end of the first century most likely on the island of Patmos thirty years really after both Peter and Paul were martyred so the Gospel of John the glory of God shining in the face of Jesus Christ rich exalted theological profound presenting the Son of God as the I am demonstrating his glorious deity by words and works leading to the massive glorious conclusion of chapter 20 verse 30 and 31 many other signs Jesus performed in the presence of the disciples which are not written in this book but these have been written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God end up believing you might have life in his name that glorious conclusion is where the gospel reaches its zenith that's kind of where we are tonight you've gone to the heights with Christ tomorrow you're going to back go back with a thud we tumble from the end of chapter 20 from the pristine heights of glory down to the difficulty of putting this glory in earthen vessels that's us and all the Lord asks is this do you what love me I'll accept less than a perfect love but not less than a real love the benediction at the end of Ephesians grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ with in corruptable love that's not the nature of the that's not the elevation of the love that's the nature of the love it's a real love it's an incorruptible love if you love me do you love me do you love me do you love me go feed my lambs go feed my sheep deny yourself love me they're willing to die if that's in the plan out of love for me live obediently and that is in the plan loving me Peter learned his lessons turn to 1st Peter 5 and that's where we'll wrap up 1st Peter 5 now Peter's gonna talk to us as a faithful Shepherd I'm glad he finally got here aren't you Peter writes therefore I exhort the elders among you that's us as your fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed Shepherd the flock of God among you you know he's doing he's repeating exactly what Jesus said to him three times exercising oversight not under compulsion but voluntarily according to the will of God not four sarted gain but with eagerness not yet as lording it over those allotted to your charge but proving to be examples to the flock and when the chief Shepherd appears you will receive the unfading crown of glory peter has gone from being a disciple who needed to be discipled to becoming our teacher our inspired teacher telling us to Shepherd the flock of God because as we read earlier though you have not seen him you what love him I love how Peter closes his letter greet one another with a kiss of love peace be to you all who are in Christ our Father we come to you tonight with such gratitude thankfulness we we don't deserve to be in this ministry you started with saying it's a mercy it's a mercy and we fall so short and yet if we love you not with a perfect love but with an incorruptible love that's enough to come down from the heights of the glories of Christ that we've seen all week long and it's all been deposited in us clay pots the glory of God shining in the face of Jesus Christ in a clay pot such a paradox but then of course the explanation for our ministry can never be us can only be you we love you we want to love you more increase our love may we may we never ever ever stop searching to find your glory everywhere it is revealed so that we by the work of the Holy Spirit can be changed into your image from one level of glory and move toward that highest of all commands to love you our Lord with all our heart soul mind and strength that's our prayer we ask these things for your glory alone amen let's stand him 407 it is well with my soul 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Channel: Grace to You

Views: 338,040

Rating: 4.7999558 out of 5

Keywords: John MacArthur, Bible, Preaching, Christianity, Expository, Exposition, Sermon, Jesus, Christ

Id: YsN153FaL4o

Length: 64min 25sec (3865 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 07 2018