John 21:1-25: Follow Me

John 21:1-25: Follow Me

Please turn with me in your Bibles to John 21. If you’re using one of the Story Bibles we provide, that’s on page 752. We’ve been going through the Gospel of John passage by passage ever since December of 2016—so almost a year and a half now. And this morning, we come to the final passage in John’s Gospel. John chapter 21. You may remember from the past few weeks that Jesus has been appearing to his disciples at various times and in various places. And in the first fourteen verses of this chapter, he appears to them again. A few of the disciples are out fishing, and Jesus appears and tells them to put their net in on the right side of the boat. So they do and end up catching more fish than they know what to do with. The size of this catch was clearly miraculous. So as soon as that happens, they recognize Jesus for who he is and go as fast as they can to meet him on the shore and have breakfast with him. 

But in the midst of their breakfast festivities and all of the rejoicing that was probably going on, Jesus takes Peter aside and has a pretty heavy conversation with him. And this was one of those conversations that just had to happen. You see, back when Jesus was arrested, Peter had denied being a follower Jesus three times. He had messed up pretty badly. So this is the conversation Jesus has with him in light of those three denials. So let me read verses 15-25 of John 21. John 21:15-25: 15 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.” 16 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.” 17 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. 18 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.” 19 (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.” 20 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?” 21 When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, “Lord, what about this man?” 22 Jesus said to him, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!” 23 So the saying spread abroad among the brothers that this disciple was not to die; yet Jesus did not say to him that he was not to die, but, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?” 24 This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things, and who has written these things, and we know that his testimony is true. 25 Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. 

When I was in high school, I had a friend named Scott whose dad told him something one time that I found very memorable. His dad said, “Scott, don’t let school get in the way of your education.” Now that might seem like a rather unusual thing for a parent to say to their child since parents usually want to do everything they can do encourage their children to do well in school. But Scott’s family owned a farm. And it was a rather large and successful farm where they did a lot of work with cattle breeding and genetics and things like that. So when Scott’s dad told him not to let school get in the way of his education, he simply meant that there were a lot of lessons about the family business that Scott wasn’t going to learn in a classroom. These lessons could only be learned through on-the-job experience.And likewise, there are a lot of lessons related to Christian discipleship that can only be learned in the context of real-life situations. It would be great if we could just read a theology book and instantly be transformed into a godly person who loves Jesus and trusts Jesus and imitates Jesus perfectly. But of course, that’s not really the way it works. There are a lot of lessons we can only learn as we experience various things—usually things that are difficult. And there are two such lessons we see Peter learning in this text as he interacts with Jesus. And we’ll spend the rest of our time looking at these. First, the lesson of humility. And second, the lesson of obedience. 

The Lesson of Humility

So first, let’s look at the lesson of humility. Peter was a lot like many Christians who are younger in the faith in that he was full of self-confidence. Before Jesus was arrested, Matthew 26:33 records Peter boasting of how devoted he was to Jesus. Peter says, “Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away.” Jesus then responds, “Truly, I tell you, this very night, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times,” to which Peter boldly answers, “Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you!” So Peter’s pretty confident in his ability to remain faithful, isn’t he? But then, as I mentioned earlier, when the time comes for Peter to back that up with action, he chokes and denies his affiliation with Jesus not just once but three times. So Peter falls, and he falls hard. I would venture to guess that was probably the lowest point of his Christian life. And you’ll notice that in our main text, Jesus asks Peter three times whether he truly loves him. Why three times? Well, Peter had denied Jesus three times and so Jesus was giving him an opportunity to reaffirm his love three times also. And as we see in verse 17, when Jesus asks Peter the third time, “Do you love me?”, Peter is grieved. He’s grieved, number one, that Jesus has to keep on asking him about his love.  And number two, Peter’s grieved as he remembers how he failed Jesus when it really counted. 

But that grief Peter felt was actually a very good thing. It was necessary for Peter to feel that grief because that was the only way he could be stripped of his self-confidence and broken of his pride. Jesus was teaching Peter a lesson in humility. And guess what? Peter’s not the only one who needs that lesson. We all do.  Even if our pride isn’t quite as obvious as Peter’s pride was, don’t think it’s not there. It definitely is, usually beneath the surface. And so, God graciously helps us learn humility just like he helped Peter learn humility. And he almost always does it through suffering. God uses suffering to break us of our pride and teach us to rely solely on him. Listen to what Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 1:8-9. He says, “8 For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. 9 Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.” So why did Paul experience the trials he experienced? To teach him to rely not on himself but on God. And that’s not a fun lesson to learn, but it’s necessary. Because you and I are kind of like a baseball glove. When you purchase a new baseball glove at the store, it’s not really usable in its new condition. I mean, it looks nice, but you can’t really do much with it because it’s too stiff. So, what do you have to do? You have to break it in, right? Maybe you pound it with a mallet and oil it and use a string to tie up the glove around a ball. I’ve even heard of some people putting it in the oven or the microwave, although I’m really not sure that’s a good idea. But one way or another, you have to break in a baseball glove before you can use it. Otherwise, it’s just too stiff. It’s too resistant to the movements of your hand. And just like a baseball glove only becomes usable when it’s “broken,” so to speak, we only become usable when we’re broken. You see, before God humbles us and we’re still functioning in a proud state of mind, we have a tendency to want to do things our way, through our power, and for our glory. That’s how we naturally are—just like that stiff glove. So God has break us in. He has to break down our pride so that we do things his way, through his power, and for his glory. And that happens through suffering. There’s just no way around it. That’s why the theologian A. W. Tozer once wrote, “It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until he has hurt him deeply.” Think about that. “It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until he has hurt him deeply.” Tozer then calls that process of God humbling us “graduate-level grace.” That’s what suffering is: graduate-level grace. God is graciously giving us a graduate-level education of sorts, teaching us to look to him and be confident in him rather than in ourselves. Because it’s not our grand abilities that make us useful to God. It’s our brokenness and our weakness. That’s why we need the lesson of humility.

The Lesson of Obedience

Then not only do we need the lesson of humility, we also need the lesson of obedience. That’s the second lesson we see Jesus teaching Peter in our main text. The lesson of obedience. Look what Jesus says to Peter after each of the three times Peter declares his love for Jesus. In verse 15, after Peter says, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you,” Jesus says, “Feed my lambs.” Then in verse 16, after Peter again declares his love for Jesus, Jesus tells him, “Tend my sheep.” Then yet again, in verse 17, after Peter declares his love a third time, Jesus responds, “Feed my sheep.” So each time, Jesus tells Peter to prove his love by actually doing something—specifically by caring for the “sheep” of Jesus, which is simply a reference to Christians and perhaps people who are on their way to becoming Christians. Jesus is calling Peter to a leadership position in the church. That was a key part of what obedience would look like for Peter. So the point Jesus is making is that if Peter truly loves him, that love will manifest itself in obedience. It’s really the same point Jesus was making back in John 14:15, where he told his disciples, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” Notice Jesus doesn’t phrase that as a command. He phrases it simply as a statement of reality. The reality is that if you love Jesus, you will keep his commands. Your talk will manifest itself in action. 

And I think most people seem to understand that when it comes to other relationships in our lives. Imagine the scenario that’s not all that uncommon where a girlfriend and boyfriend are living together. That’s a biblical scenario, but it’s a common one nonetheless. And let’s imagine that the boyfriend is a little on the lazy side. In fact, he’s all the way on the lazy side. And he’s basically freeloading off of his girlfriend. She’s the one who has a job, does the shopping, and takes care of the home. A lot of times, there’s also a child in the picture whom the girlfriend is also taking care of. And the boyfriend…well…he likes to play video games. So not surprisingly, the girlfriend often gets frustrated at him and they fight a lot and the girlfriend regularly comes this close to kicking him out. Because, functionally, he’s worthless. He’s pathetic. He won’t work, he won’t help, and every time the girlfriend suggests marriage, he won’t even entertain the thought of a commitment like that. But of course, whenever he’s about to get kicked out, he’s very skillful at pleading his case. He assures her over and over, “Baby, I love you. You know I love you. I love you to the moon and back.” And of course, from the outside looking in, we understand that when he says that, it’s just hot air. It’s nonsense. And we know it’s nonsense because nothing in his actions says, “I love you.” It’s only his mouth saying that. 

And it’s the same way with loving God. If we really love God, that love is going to manifest itself in action—in obedience. A lot of times, many professing Christians act like they can pick and choose which parts of the Bible they want to obey. As long as they obey commands A, B, and C, they think they can neglect command D—because, in their minds, surely God is understanding enough to give them a few freebies. Kind of like a police officer will let you go 5 miles an hour over the speed limit without pulling you over, they think God takes that approach also. As long as they’re obeying the Bible in a lot of areas, it’s okay if they neglect a couple of other areas. But that’s not what Jesus says. He says, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments,” which means all of his commandments. This is a very rigorous obedience we’re talking about. 

And to give you a sense of just how rigorous it is, look what Jesus says to Peter back in our main text, John 21, in verses 18-19. Right after Jesus tells Peter for the third time to “feed my sheep,” he states, 18 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.” 19 (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.”  So basically, Peter’s obedience would one day lead to his martyrdom. As he was faithful in feeding Jesus’ sheep, Peter would one day become a martyr. So sometimes, obedience to Jesus requires significant sacrifice. If you were here last week, you probably remember me telling the story of Perpetua, that young woman back in the second century who had an infant child. When the Roman governor arrested her for being a Christian and threatened her with death if she didn’t renounce her beliefs, Perpetua chose death. And even in our own community, I think of the Nepali family I heard about that converted to Christianity and was immediately disowned by the rest of the family. So following Jesus may very well require significant sacrifice. But that’s simply part of the package. When Jesus says that love for him manifests itself in obedience, he doesn’t set limits on that obedience. 

And yet, to shift gears for a moment, we also have to remember that this obedience isn’t a legalistic obedience. It’s rigorous, yes, but not legalistic. Don’t get those two confused. Notice, both in John 14 and in our main text of John 21, obedience grows out of our love for the Lord. We obey him because we love him. We don’t obey in order to his earn Jesus’ love or earn salvation. Rather, through our obedience, we’re simply responding to the love and salvation we’ve already received. You see, the Bible tells us that, apart from Jesus, we stood condemned before God. We had rebelled against our Creator and therefore deserved nothing but judgment for all eternity. And the most frightening part was that there was nothing we could do about it. We were utterly powerless to rescue ourselves. But God saw our wretched condition, and in an act of extraordinary mercy, sent his own Son Jesus to come to this earth and save us. And the way Jesus did that was by dying on the cross. His death paid for our sin. Because justice had to be satisfied. Sin had to be punished. But Jesus endured the full force of that punishment in our place on the cross. That’s how much he cares for us. That’s how much he loves us. It’s been said that that measure of love is how much it gives, and Jesus gave everything. Then he resurrected from the dead to prove that everything he taught was true and to make that same resurrection victory available to us. We simply have to turn away from our sins and put our trust in Jesus alone for rescue.

And having done that, as we think about God’s love for us and really begin to grasp the immensity of that love, we naturally desire to respond in kind. God’s loved us, so we naturally want to love him back. Again, we’re not earning anything. We’re simply expressing our gratitude. So is that the motivation behind your obedience? Are you being carried along by your love for the Lord? Whatever you do, please don’t leave here this morning thinking that you need to step up your obedience simply by gritting your teeth and trying harder. The only thing you’ll end up doing is becoming a modern-day Pharisee and modifying a few external behaviors. Instead, simply allow yourself to be captivated by Jesus and by the love Jesus has shown you. 

Conclusion 

So those are the two lessons Jesus taught Peter—the lesson of humility and the lesson of obedience. And those are lessons that all of us have to learn and then keep on learning for the rest of our lives. Because on this side of heaven, we never arrive. We never get to the point where we no longer have anything to learn about humility or obedience or any other lesson for that matter. So let me encourage you never to let yourself become content with where you are. One time, I heard a story about Albert Einstein having a conversation with a college student. And the college student didn’t realize who he was speaking with, so he asked Einstein what he did. Einstein replied, “I’m a student of physics.” “Oh physics,” the college student answered, “I learned physics last semester.” So as you can see, the task of learning physics can be viewed in two very different ways. In contrast to the college student who was happy passing a class, Einstein saw himself lifelong student. And that’s what Jesus calls us to be also—never satisfied with where we are but continually learning and growing. That’s why, in Colossians 1:10, Paul prays that the church will be continually “increasing in the knowledge of God.” And 2 Peter 3:18 exhorts readers to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” So never let yourself get to a point where you’re not growing as a Christian. Every time you open the Bible—and hopefully you are regularly opening the Bible—you should be asking God to show you areas of your life where you need to grow and change. You also may have noticed that on the bottom of your bulletin, on the page for message notes, there’s a box with the heading “how I need to grow and change.” That’s what we should be asking ourselves. That’s what normal, healthy Christianity looks like. You don’t want to be like that car that sits in somebody’s garage for months or even years without ever being driven. Or if you’re from the kinds of places where I grew up, the car is probably in the yard. Either way, we understand, it’s bad for a car to just sit around. It deteriorates quickly if you leave it sitting around for too long. It needs to be driven. So just ask yourself that simple question whenever you read the Bible: “How do I need to grow and change?” And then be on the lookout for what the Holy Spirit shows you through the biblical text.