Title: Can God Use Me?
Text: John 21:15-19
Introduction: Annie Armstrong
It is said that Annie Armstrong never tired of serving God and serving people. In 1893 because of her belief in the powerful hand of God to change lives and our world she wrote over 18,000 letters many by hand. She was the driving force in founding the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, and she is the namesake of our Easter offering. How was she able to make such an impact? She believed the word of God. She believed in the Power of God. She realized her responsibility before God. (Billy Ricks. Sermon Central.)
Question: Can God use me if I can never accomplish what Annie Armstrong and Lottie Moon accomplished?
Quote: God writes with a pen that never blots, speaks with a tongue that never slips, and acts with a hand that never fails. (Source unknown. Quoted in Pulpit Helps, July, 1991)
Question: Can God use me, considering how great He is and how small I am?
Illustration: We Have Been Saved From Our Sinful Past
Two brothers were convicted of stealing sheep. For their crime they were each branded on the forehead with the letters "ST," for "sheep thief."
One brother immediately ran away from the area and attempted to build a new life in another country. Even there, people asked him about the "ST" burned into his forehead. He continued his wanderings and finally, unable to bear the burden, he committed suicide.
The other brother took a different approach. He said to himself, "I can’t run away from the fact that I stole sheep. But that’s the past. I can stay here and win back my self-respect and the respect of my neighbors." The years passed and he built a reputation for integrity.
One day a stranger saw the brother, now an old man, with the letters "ST" branded on his forehead. He asked a resident of the town what the letters stood for. The townsman replied, "It happened a long time ago. I’ve forgotten the particulars, but I think the letters are an abbreviation for Saint." (Christian Cheong. Sermon Central.)
Question: Can God use me, considering how sinful my past is?
We may consider ourselves too inadequate, too prone to failure, or just too sinful to serve an almighty, all powerful, and holy God. Isaiah said, “Woe is me” when he was confronted with the presence of the Lord, yet he declared, “Here am I, send me.” When face to face with the glorified Christ in the Revelation, John fell at his feet as a dead man, yet he wrote the Book of Revelation as the Lord directed him.
The point is it’s too easy for us to sit back and think that God cannot use us because we don’t have certain abilities or opportunities that other people have. It’s too easy to think that God is so great He couldn’t possibly need me to do something for Him. And it’s much too easy to believe that God can’t use me because of the sins of my past. This is the point I want to focus on today. This is a lie of the devil, as we can see by studying the life of the Apostle Peter. Here we will find that, in spite of our sin, God wants to use us and equips us to be fit for the Master’s service.
I. CONSIDER THE PRIORITY OF YOUR LOVE (EVALUATE IT).
“Do you love Me more than THESE?”
Note: “THESE” could refer to the fish.
A. More Than Fish (Career)? (John 21:1-3a)
1. Peter had seen the empty tomb. (John 20:1-7)
2. He saw the risen Lord at His appearance to the 10 disciples (except Thomas). (John 20:19-25)
3. He saw Him again 8 days later when He appeared to the 11 (with Thomas). (John 20:26-31)
4. Still, he decided to go back to his previous career.
a. Feelings of guilt?
b. Feelings of inadequacy?
c. Experiencing doubt?
B. More Than Friends?
Note: “THESE” could refer to the other disciples. (Matthew 26:33)
C. More Than Family? (Luke 14:26)
Note: The “hatred” called for here is actually a lesser love. Jesus was calling His disciples to cultivate such a devotion to Him that their attachment to everything else – including their own lives – would seem like hatred by comparison. (John MacArthur, “The MacArthur Study Bible,” note on Luke 14:26, p. 1544.)
II. CONSIDER THE PROOF OF YOUR LOVE (AUTHENTICATE IT).
Feed My Sheep…
Note: The word “feed” conveys the idea of being devoted to the Lord’s service as an undershepherd who cares for His flock. (1 Peter 5:1-4)
A. Where Peter Began.
1. A simple fisherman who did not know Jesus. (Matthew 4:18-20)
2. A confident disciple who confessed Christ. (Matthew 16:13-16; John 6:66-69)
B. Where Peter Was.
1. A courageous disciple who defended Christ. (John 18:10-11)
2. A cowardly disciple who denied Christ. (Matthew 26:69-75; Mark 14:66-72; Luke 22:54-62; John 18:13-18,25-27)
3. A confused disciple who is disillusioned with Christ. (John 21:17)
Note: Jesus is both restoring and affirming Peter, making him fit for service.
· There is a sense of what Jesus is accomplishing in Peter that is not revealed in our English translations of this passage.
· The English word “love” is used to translate two different Greek words, “agapao” and “phileo.”
· When Jesus asked Peter if he loved Him, He used a word that signifies total commitment (agapao).
o It signifies a supreme, unquestioning, perfect love.
o “Agapao” is the love that God has for His Son, and for us.
o It is a love that is extended even if it is not returned.
o It is the love that never fails (1 Corinthians 13:8).
· Peter responded with a word for love that signified his love for Jesus (phileo), but not necessarily his total commitment.
o It is a word from which we get our English connotation of “brotherly love.” (Philadelphia).
o It denotes warmth and affection for, but not necessarily an unquestioning commitment to someone.
o It is the love of friendship and brotherhood.
· In reality, the two words are often interchangeable in the Greek, prompting many scholars to conclude that no particular meaning is attached to the use of the two words.
· However, in terms of interpretation, when two synonyms are placed in close proximity in context, a difference in meaning, however slight, is emphasized.
· Keeping the differences in meaning in mind, the conversation went like this:
JESUS: Peter, do you love me supremely?
PETER: Yes, Lord, You know I’m Your friend.
JESUS: Peter, do you love me supremely?
PETER: Yes, Lord, You know I’m Your friend.
JESUS: Peter, are you My friend?
PETER: (grieved) Lord, You know everything, and You know I’m Your friend!
· Loose translation:
JESUS: Peter, will you commit yourself to Me totally?
PETER: Lord, I want to commit myself to you, but You know how I’ve failed in the past. So the only thing I can commit to is that I’ll be your friend.
JESUS: Peter, will you follow Me without question, giving your life for My sake if necessary.
PETER: Lord, I will serve You with all my heart, and I’ll be Your friend.
JESUS: Peter, are you My friend?
PETER: Lord, You know everything, so there’s no use lying about it. You want me to love you supremely, and I don’t know if I can do that. I don’t know that I’ll ever get past the fact that I denied You when You needed Me the most. With every fiber of my being I want to commit to you totally, but I can’t. All I can give You is friendship.
· Notice what is taking place in the restoration process – Jesus reveals to Peter what He ultimately wants.
· But when Peter is unable to achieve the level of commitment the Lord wants, Jesus simply affirms Peter where he is.
· Peter is not being disobedient, for he is giving all he has.
· But in revealing what death Peter would die, He also reveals the fact that even though Peter cannot affirm supreme love now, he will later come to the place where he can make that commitment.
C. Where Peter Finished.
1. The penitent hero. (Matthew 26:74-75)
2. The Pentecostal herald. (Acts 2:14)
3. The precarious hypocrite. (Galatians 2:11-13)
4. The paradigm of holiness. (1 Peter 4:17-19)
Note: What brought Peter to the place of total commitment? Perhaps this well-known poem will shed light on the issue for us.
“The Touch of the Master’s Hand”
Twas battered and scarred, and the auctioneer
Thought it scarcely worth his while
To waste much time on the old violin,
But held it up with a smile.
“What am I bidden, good folks,” he cried,
“Who’ll start bidding for me?
A dollar, a dollar now two, only two
Two dollars and who’ll make it three?”
“Three dollars, once, three dollars, twice,
Going for three” but no
From the room far back a gray haired man
Came forward and picked up the bow;
Then wiping the dust from the old violin,
And tightening up all the strings,
He played a melody pure and sweet,
As sweet as the angels sing.
The music ceased, and the auctioneer,
With a voice that was quiet and low,
Said: “What am I bid for the old violin?”
And he held it up with the bow,
“A thousand dollars and who’ll make it two?
Two thousand, and who’ll make it three?
Three thousand once, and three thousand twice
And going, and gone,” said he.
The people cheered, but some of them cried,
“We do not quite understand
What changed its worth?” The man replied,
“The touch of the master’s hand.”
And many a man with life out of tune,
And battered and torn with sin,
Is auctioned cheap to a thoughtless crowd,
Much like the old violin.
A mess of pottage, a glass of wine,
A game and he travels on,
He’s going once, and he’s going twice,
He is going, and almost gone.
But the Master comes, and the foolish crowd,
Never can quite understand
The worth of a soul, and the change that’s wrought
By the touch of the Master’s hand. (Myra Brooks Welch)
Note: The life that Jesus touches will never be the same.
III. CONSIDER THE PERFECTION OF YOUR LOVE (EXPEND IT).
A. Peter’s Death Predicted. (John 21:18-19)
B. Peter’s Death Anticipated. (2 Peter 1:12-15)
C. Peter’s Death Realized.
1. Believed to be martyred in Rome in A.D. 64.
2. He was crucified, requesting to suffer this horrible death upside down because he did not feel worthy to suffer as the Lord had suffered.
3. There is also an account that tells of having to witness his wife’s crucifixion before his own.
Note: I can envision Peter approaching Jesus in heaven, looking Him straight in the eye, and saying, “Lord, I love You!”
Conclusion: Forgiven and Forgotten
In “A Forgiving God in an Unforgiving World,” Ron Lee Davis retells the true story of a priest in the Philippines, a much-loved man of God who carried the burden of a secret sin he had committed many years before. He had repented but still had no peace, no sense of God’s forgiveness.
In his parish was a woman who deeply loved God and who claimed to have visions in which she spoke with Christ and he with her. The priest, however, was skeptical. To test her he said, "The next time you speak with Christ, I want you to ask him what sin your priest committed while he was in seminary." The woman agreed.
A few days later the priest asked, "Well, did Christ visit you in your dreams?"
"Yes, he did," she replied.
"And did you ask him what sin I committed in seminary?"
"Yes."
"Well, what did he say?"
"He said, ’I don’t remember.’"
What God forgives, he forgets. (David H. Bolton, Anaheim, California. Leadership, Vol. 6, no. 3.)
God has not only forgiven our sins, He has forgotten them as well. “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us,” wrote the Psalmist David. So let’s go out and serve Him to the best of our abilities.
