Forgiveness and God's Plan
Knowing Jesus • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Call to Worship
Call to Worship
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
Sermon
Sermon
This morning, we’re going to be talking a little bit about the disciple Peter. If you’ll recall from several weeks ago, it was Peter who made the claim that Jesus was the Christ, and he sort of got it right and he sort of didn’t because up until Jesus’s death, Peter still thought Jesus would be a victorious military leader. Then on Good Friday we were reminded of when Peter, along with the other disciples had supper with Jesus, and Peter said that he would never betray Jesus, but that same night before the rooster crowed Peter had denied Jesus three times.
Imagine the guilt and shame he must have felt, knowing that he had betrayed his best friend while he was dying on the cross. That your teacher who has taken care of and provided for you time after time, you just denounced like they meant nothing to you. How guilty would he have felt?! Imagine his inner dialgoue, Jesus had called him to be the rock upon which the church would be built, and he couldn’t even be faithful to Jesus, when Jesus was right in front of him. Imagine how much he must have loathed himself over the next few days as Jesus is in the tomb....
And then when he hears the women say that there’s no body in the tomb, imagine the mix of joy and panic as he runs hoping that Jesus is alive, recalling what Jesus had taught them, wondering if Jesus would now cast him out, wondering if He would say Peter you’re not good enough for this, you denied me, get out of my sights I have no use for you. And when Peter finds the empty tomb and the linens lying there, and he knows that Jesus is alive, he must have been so anxious the rest of that day wondering where he stood with Jesus until that night Jesus appears to him and most of the other disciples. (John 20:19-23)
But this passage doesn’t record Jesus talking to Peter directly, and so Peter’s relieved that Jesus is alive, but this panic, wondering where do I stand with Jesus it’s still likely eating him up inside. And a week goes by, and Jesus appears to them again (John 20:24-29) and Peter’s there as Jesus interacts with the disciple Thomas and forgives Thomas of his doubt, but still Jesus hasn’t dealt with Peter yet. And it seems likely that Peter would be just on the edge of his seat, wondering, “do I approach Him about it, how do I bring it up, what do I even say or do, I feel so guilty, He needs to know how sorry I am, why hasn’t He brought it up yet....” And again, like the first appearance, Jesus leaves and things still aren’t resolved.
Have you ever felt like that? You know that you really hurt someone, and you just feel like its eating you up inside and you don’t know what to do about it? Like do you approach them about it, do you just let it be and hope they forget?… I remember this one time in particular, where me my sister who’s closest in age to me, got into a massive fight, we were driving to the city together and we just fought the entire way up, and I said some things, that even today, several years later I still really regret, and I remember dropping her off, and driving myself back to the valley and just having it eat me up inside, knowing how awful what I had just said was, and I remember just feeling awful about it the rest of the weekend while she was in the city, and when she got back, I remember how awkward it was to see each other, to know we both needed to apologize, but also not knowing how to approach it, and so for a number of weeks, months even, it became something that we just wouldn’t talk about, and whenever we would try to it would just turn to fighting again, and to be honest it probably took us over a year to resolve things. And even though Peter’s story isn’t exactly the same, I can really relate to him in that, wanting to resolve things, not knowing how to, and just waiting with a pit in your stomach until things get fixed.
Let’s keep going with Peter, so this is how he’s feeling he’s just waiting and waiting wondering what’s going to happen next, and so he and some of the other disciples start to head back home, remember they had travelled for several days from Galilee to Jerusalem, and so they head back home to Galilee. And Peter decided he’s going to go fishing, if you recall, before Jesus called him, Peter was a fisherman, and so he’s like you know what I’m waiting and I don’t know what to do, so I’m just going to do the one thing that I feel I know to do, and he, and some of the other disciples, some of whom had also been fishermen decide to go fishing again.
Scholars don’t all agree why they decided to go back to Galilee and go fishing. Some suggest that they were there waiting for Jesus, there is one time recorded where before His death, Jesus told them that he would appear in Galilee after He was resurrected. So it’s possible that they were there waiting for Him. Other people have suggested that Peter had just admitted defeat, he felt like he couldn’t possibly be a disciple again after he had betrayed Jesus, and so he goes back to his old job. Maybe he feels like he’s done fishing for men, feels like Jesus doesn’t need him for that anymore, he should just go back to the only thing he knows how to do… I’m not sure which of these it is, I think likely somewhere in the middle, and Peter’s just waiting to see Jesus again to make things right, but he also doesn’t know what to do, he’s done, he’s tired and he just wants to feel adequate at something again.
And so they go fishing. Let’s read this passage:
After this Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias, 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 am going fishing.” They said to him, “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. Jesus said to them, “Children, do you have any fish?” They answered him, “No.” He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, because of the quantity of fish. That disciple whom Jesus loved therefore said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment, for he was stripped for work, and 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.
When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire in place, with fish laid out on it, and bread. 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. Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” Now none of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and so with the fish. This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.
When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.” He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” 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.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, “Follow me.”
Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them, the one who also had leaned back against him during the supper and had said, “Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?” When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, “Lord, what about this man?” Jesus said to him, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!”
Wow! I love this because it’s so rich with parallels from Peter’s life, it’s such a satisfying conclusion to the stories of the gospels, and really just is the perfect bookend of Peter’s relationship with Jesus
Let’s take a look at some of the parallels. First, Peter and the others are fishing on the sea of Tiberias, which is the same sea as the sea of Galilee, so already we’re going back to where everything began when Jesus called the disciples the first time. And what are they doing? They’re trying to fish, but they aren’t catching anything, just like the first time, and then Jesus, who they don’t recognize, asks them if they’ve caught anything, and again they’ve spent the entire night not catching any fish, but when Jesus tells them to cast on the other side, instantly there’s loads of fish. And Peter and John both realize, that it must be Jesus. They were both there when Jesus did this the first time, and now the second time, Jesus is doing the exact same thing at the exact same place, and Peter’s so excited to meet Jesus he just launches himself into the sea and swims as fast as he can to meet Jesus. He’s done waiting to fix this, He just needs to see Jesus. And once they get to the shore Jesus feeds them with bread and fish, the same elements as the feeding of the 5000, and the disciples understand that He’s still providing for them. And then Jesus and Peter finally have this conversation that’s been eating Peter up, and Jesus phrases it in away that makes it very clear that this conversation is a direct parallel of Peter’s denials.
Now, it’s really interesting to see what Jesus is asking Peter in this conversation, and how Peter is responding. And unfortunately, in English we only really have one word for love, and so we don’t really get a good sense of what they are actually saying, because the gospel of John was originally written in Greek, and in Greek there are two words for love at play here, agape and phileo. Agape meaning unconditional love with no bounds, and phileo being the kind of love between two friends when you really, really care about each other. So here’s how the passage might be read if we could see what they’re both saying in terms of the two different loves.
John 21:15-17 “When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you unconditionally love me more than anything else?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I really care about you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you uncondtionally love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I really care about you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.” He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you really care about me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you care about me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I really care about you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.”
See when we put it in that light, both of them are having a really hard conversation. Both are wrestling with the pain of what Peter had done. Jesus asks Peter, who had clearly not unconditionally loved Him, do you unconditionally love me? And Peter wanting so badly to say yes, recognizes that he really hasn’t loved Jesus faithfully and uncondtionally, and his response is Jesus, I so passionately care about you, but he recognizes that he is not able of unconditionally loving Jesus.
And that’s the hard truth that we all have to deal with, on our own we are not capable of doing nearly anything. Peter recognized this, none of us can love perfectly on our own, none of us can do anything on our own, Peter was a trained fisherman, and had been for years, but he could not catch a single fish without Jesus’s help. And how often do we need to be reminded of this?! We can’t do anything without Him. I saw a video the other day on facebook, and it was a lady sharing how she had heard someone ask “do I need Jesus to go to heaven?” and her response was “honey, you need Jesus to go to walmart!” I thought that was kind of funny, but it’s also true… we need Jesus’s help and power for everything Jesus previously said it himself.
John 15:5 “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.”
Peter got this, even though it was hard. And it was hard, because often times we want people to forgive and forget… to say, you know what forget about it, it’s all good. But that’s not what Jesus did, it’s as if Jesus’s words plunged a knife right into Peter’s heart, but not maliciously, Jesus’s words were like the knife of a surgeon, it was necessary for Jesus to tear that wound open so that He could show Peter forgiveness, so that He could redeem Peter, restore Peter, and reconcile Peter back to Himself. When Jesus forgives someone it doesn’t stop there.
I heard a pastor say one time, when we make a really big mistake it’s easy for us to feel like that’s the end of our story, we’re done. But that’s not the way Jesus looks at it, Jesus doesn’t see the end of the story, He sees the end of a chapter, and He flips the page over and starts writing the next one.
It’s the same thing with Peter, Jesus forgives Peter and He shows Peter that He still has a plan for Him. Remember when Jesus told Peter that He would be the rock upon which the church, that’s still the plan, Jesus tells Peter to feed His sheep. And He’s not talking about barnyard animals, He’s talking about the church. Jesus’s plan for Peter didn’t end with Peter’s mistake, and Jesus shows Him this by asking Peter to feed His sheep. But Jesus also explains something else to Peter. He says this:
Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.”
Jesus here is telling Peter how Peter will die, and similar to Jesus, Peter will be crucified, people will bind his hands and lead him to a cross, they will strip his robes off like they did Jesus and ultimately he will die very similarly to Jesus. Which seems like a really harsh thing for Jesus to say right after this conversation, and yet it’s filled with hope for Peter. It shows that Jesus knows that Peter loves Him, He knows that Peter really will be faithful now, and Jesus trusts Him to be faithful. And Jesus finishes their conversation with a very simple instruction: “follow me”.
And as Peter is thinking all of these things over, He sees John walking by and Peter asks Jesus, is John also going to follow you unto death like I will, and Jesus’s response is (and I like the way the KJV puts it): “what is that to thee? follow thou me.”
I think we can learn a lot from that short answer… often we’re too concerned with other things, our own emotions cloud us from focusing on Jesus, our worries about other people and what they’re doing, our concerns about what Jesus has planned for others, and trying to compare what it is they’re doing to what we’re doing, and at the end of the day, Jesus gives us the same response: ‘what is [any of that] to thee? follow thou me’.
I think from Peter’s conversation with Jesus we can learn three really clear things.
First, there is forgiveness for every sin we could ever do, 1 John 1:9, says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Jesus is always faithful to forgive sins, no matter how many times we mess up, or make mistakes, if we turn to Him, faithfully He will forgive us. His forgiveness was enough for the worst mistake that Peter ever made, and it will be enough for the worst ones we ever make too.
Second, we need Jesus all the time. Peter couldn’t even fish, something He had been doing for years, without Jesus, but with Jesus he caught much more than he ever could have on his own. Without Jesus’s help and strength Peter knew he was not storng enough to love unconditionally, but just like Jesus predicted, church history tells us that Peter was faithful to Jesus even to the point of death, and that he ultimately died on behalf of the gospel. Like Peter, we cannot do anything on our own, it’s like that girl said, we even need Jesus to go to walmart, I know that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but it’s true like Jesus said “apart from me you can do nothing.” But the apostle Paul said, Philippians 4:13 “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” With Jesus we are able to do incredibly hard things, to love unconditionally, and to be faithful even when we’re faced with the certainty of death.
Third, when Jesus forgives He doesn’t just forget, He redeems, restores, and He brings reconciliation, His knife is that of a surgeon and facing our mistakes can be painful, but it’s not the end. Jesus had a brand new chapter waiting for Peter, and that’s something that we’ll continue to talk about over the next few weeks. Jesus has a brand new chapter waiting for each of us, once we have been forgiven of our sins Jesus also gives us a new mission, Jesus did use Peter to build the church, and He has plans to do the same for each of us. The prophet Jeremiah said this: Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Jesus’s plans don’t stop at our mistakes, they are far greater than any good or bad thing that we could ever do, and He calls us to be apart of His amazing work.
And that’s the message from Jesus and Peter’s conversation: Jesus forgives us, we need Him in our lives, and He has a plan for us even beyond our mistakes. What a good saviour He is!
Let’s Pray.
Benediction
Benediction
Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.