A rather intriguing and controversial news item hit the news stands and the media in the last week. A mega-church pastor in Atlanta got into trouble with the law. That’s not particularly unusual, but the reason for the trouble with this pastor was.
Pastor Creflo Dollar of the 30,000-member World Changers church in Atlanta was having a discussion, apparently, with his 15-year-old daughter at about 1 a.m. a week ago Friday when things got emotional. There was a disagreement about the matter of attending a party, and then, apparently, the 15-year-old became not only rebellious, but disrespectful. According to the 15-year- old, and her 19-year-old sister, Pastor Dollar then not only got emotional, but he got physical. There are conflicting accounts about exactly what happened, conflicting between the daughters’ accounts and the pastor’s accounts, but what happened for sure was that the 15-year-old called police and they arrested Dollar for assault and cruelty to children.
The controversial issue with regard to this story is not only a matter of what actually happened, but not knowing who, for sure, who you sympathize with. I was a little surprised on Wednesday night when we discussed this story among the deacons and the deaconesses that all of us were quite sympathetic with the dad and the pastor. And what we all, all five of us who were there Wednesday night, admitted is that we have, at one time or another, been parents to teenagers. We all know just how hard it can be to keep your cool and to not find yourself losing it when a teenager becomes not only rebellious, but disrespectful.
What this story reveals is just how difficult things can get even for Christians in the heat of any challenging moment—whether it’s a matter of attempting to assert your authority over a rebellious and difficult child, or in the course of an ugly argument with a spouse, or even in a case when you are called upon to stand up for the Lord Jesus Christ, and due to fear, or peer pressure, or both, you fail miserably.
And such, of course, was the case with all the disciples with respect to Jesus and His crucifixion. All of them had claimed that they would rather die than abandon Jesus in His most difficult moment. But on the very night they made this incredible commitment to Christ, they all failed at the moment of His arrest, fleeing for their lives. But the disciple who made the loudest and most assertive claim to faithfulness, who stated in John 13:37 and Matthew 26:33 that even if all the other disciples deserted Jesus, He would not, was Peter, who was clearly the leader among the 12. He had not only contradicted His Lord’s predictions about what He would do but had pridefully claimed that His love for the Lord was far greater than that of any of the other disciples.
And so there had to be a bit of a guilty, uncomfortable feeling for all the disciples when they saw Jesus again, but especially for Peter. For he had not only abandoned Jesus in His time of deepest need, but he had failed more miserably than all the rest in that he had specifically denied even knowing Jesus three times on the very night of Christ’s arrest.
So, Peter’s failures point us to a question. What if, in the heat of a moment, perhaps when you were caught off-guard, you blew it? And you blew it big time. And you know it. What do you do when you blow it and you know it? How do you relate to Jesus, and more than that how will He relate to you in response?
And from this story which is found only in the Gospel of John there is great encouragement for us this morning, because what it tells us is this: When you blow It and you know it, show it, and Jesus will forgive, accept, restore and bless you.
Now Peter’s leadership among the disciples is demonstrated not only by his initiative in spiritual matters, but after Jesus’ resurrection, with regard to his preferred recreation, which had also been his occupation—fishing. Apparently, he and the 11 remaining disciples were in Galilee awaiting their appointed meeting with the resurrected Jesus at the mountain he had told them to go to. The disciples had arrived in Galilee, and they apparently had some free time. So, Peter announced he was going fishing. Fishing, back then, was apparently more often a night-time activity, at least with respect to the low elevation lake, the Sea of Galilee, or the Sea of Tiberius as it is called here. And six other disciples decide to join him, most notably John, Peter’s best buddy by this time, a fisherman by trade as well, and the eyewitness writer of this account.
And as had happened in a previous fishing trip recorded in Luke 5, the disciples fished all night and caught absolutely nothing. Yes, I’ve had a number of those experiences, fishing all day and coming up empty-handed. That can be discouraging enough, but imagine missing a whole night’s sleep, to boot! Dawn is breaking and the fishing boat is about 100 yards, or a football field’s length from shore, and a stranger appears on the shore. At least, for all the seven disciples know, it’s a stranger. Either due to the lack of light or the distance, or the Lord sovereign will, the disciples don’t recognize the resurrected Jesus . . . after all they’re not expecting to see him at the lake, but on a mountain. And this stranger calls out, and in effect, asks, “Boys, how’s fishin’? Finding what He already knew, that it had been worthless, He then advises them, “Throw your net out on the right side of the boat and you find a catch.” And I guess they had nothing to lose, so they followed the stranger’s direction, threw out the net, and boy, was that stranger right! Remember, there are seven grown young men in this boat, and the net is so full of large fish, lunkers, trophies all of them, that they cannot begin to get the net into the boat.
It’s at this point, John, being the most spiritually perceptive of the disciples at this point, figures something out. He realizes this is strangely reminiscent of Jesus. This is just the sort of thing the Lord would do, had done and now was doing again. And so not because he recognized Jesus’ appearance or voice, He figures out that it was the Lord, the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ on the shore. And so, he says to his bosom fishing buddy, Peter, “It is the Lord.”
And Peter, now realizing John’s right, gets up, and instead of taking off his clothes, puts them on. He had been stripped for work, or for fishing. And he puts on his upper garment, apparently to be presentable to Jesus, and in his typically impetuous manner, jumps in the lake and swims to shore, so eager is he to see Jesus.
And I find it interesting that once he’s there, and the other six disciples finally arrive dragging this huge net-full of fish, Jesus encourages Peter to go over and help the others pull this net into shore. And I think it’s because He wants Peter to see, enjoy and admire the huge catch of fish that the Lord has blessed them with. And admire they did, and I want you to know this is exactly what a fisherman does when he catches a lunker. When I catch a huge trout. I’ve got to weigh them, and measure them, and pose with them, and take pictures of them. It’s a time of celebration. And that’s exactly the kind of thing that was going on here—you know they took the time to do this—it’s evident from the fact that they counted the lunkers they had caught. And what not just one lunker, but 153 of them! That took time to count. You better believe they were excited at what the Lord Jesus had blessed them with. It was incredible and this no doubt left them in awe once again, a preparation for the spiritual harvest they would enjoy on the Day of Pentecost and beyond in the Book of Acts.
And notice this blessing came upon them while there was still this unresolved issue of their abandonment of Jesus just a few weeks earlier in His time of deepest need. All this happened for Peter after he had denied even knowing Jesus on the night of Jesus’ betrayal. And so, even when things weren’t right, exactly, between Peter and his fellow disciples and the Lord, the Lord blessed them abundantly with 153 lunkers and a net that miraculously was still intact. Yes, Jesus was saying something about the harvest they would reap if they followed Him and His directions.
But more than that, He’s saying something to all of us when we have blown it and we know it.
Jesus is not done with the blessing. As the disciples gather with him for breakfast that early morning, He has placed fish and a bread-cake on a charcoal fire. He has prepared breakfast a group of tired and hungry disciples.
And you know what we see here? We see that even when you blow it, Jesus eagerly seeks to bless and restore you. Even when you blow it, Jesus eagerly and lovingly seeks to bless you and restore you. This is how Jesus approaches us in our failures, not with condemnation and judgment, but with gentleness, loving care and blessing. He continues to demonstrate his love for us, even when we’ve blown it and we know it. And He comes to us with this kind of love seeking to restore our fellowship with Him completely by being kind to us.
Do you remember that verse in Romans 2 about how the kindness of God leads us to repentance? Jesus epitomizes that here. And that’s exactly how Jesus seeks us out at first, with mercy and gentleness and continued kindness and love hoping to melt our hearts in repentance and love for him, and to restore our relationship with Him completely. He wants to forgive; He wants an intimate relationship with you to continue, even when you have failed miserably.
So, I don’t you how you’ve failed Jesus, but whatever it is that you think is between you and Him, He wants it taken out of the way. His love for you is so great and faithful that He seeks you out with blessing, rather than condemnations, or rants, or demonstrations of anger. After all, if Jesus died for unrepentant sinners to show His love for them, how much more will He seek to show His love for you who believe in Him, love Him, and even though you blow it, you really want to please Him if you can. Right!? And
He wants you to please Him as well! He shows this by not condemning and rejecting us, but by love and blessing and acceptance! Wow, what a God! What a Savior! How worthy He is of our love, and our repentance!
Having so thoughtfully, lovingly and thoroughly blessed the disciples, the time comes for a moment of serious conversation, with Peter in particular, who was no doubt painfully aware of his tremendous failures, wondering if he would ever be fully accepted and trusted by Jesus again.
So, as breakfast concludes, Jesus addresses Peter. He does so rather uncharacteristically in one sense. He does not call Peter, “Peter,” but rather calls him by the name he previously had before Jesus had renamed him Peter. Jesus repeatedly does so with respect to Peter when Peter has acted in a fashion that was reminiscent of the old Peter, or Simon. But more than that He calls Peter, “Simon, Son of John.” Why such a formal address here? I suspect it’s to demonstrate the seriousness of what’s to follow. It’s kind of like when your Mom or Dad began to address by your full legal, given name, rather than your nickname. They might say, Richard David, instead Rich, or they might, William James instead of Billy. Elizabeth Anne rather than Beth. They want your attention. The matter is serious. We’ve got to discuss it now.
And in verse 15 Jesus asks Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these.”
Now being a person who loves fishing, I used to always think whenever I read this that Jesus was referring to the fish. Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these fish and fishing?” Made sense to me since I love fishing and it can be a rival at times to obedience to the Lord. But what really makes sense here is that this is a reference to what had happened during the Lord’s Supper on the night He was betrayed. Remember, Peter had claimed to love Jesus more than all the other disciples. In Matthew 26:33, Peter had very specifically boasted, “Even though all may fall away because of You, I will never fall away.” Peter had very specifically claimed to love Jesus more than any of the other disciples and then had proceeded to fail in a more colossal way, and repeatedly, than any of the other disciples. A pride that brought about a boastful comparison had been evident then, and a self-confidence, a confidence in the flesh that proved to be totally unwarranted.
Now there’s yet another detail in Jesus’ question that needs to be noted here. He uses the verb agapao here for love. This is the word which in the New Testament is used to describe God and Christ’s tangible, self-sacrificing and unconditional love for us in John 3:16 and Romans 5:8.
When Peter replies, he answers: “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” Here’s where a knowledge of the original language is very helpful. First, Peter does not use the same word for love that Jesus does here. It’s a lesser word for love, phileo, which speaks of a brotherly affection, rather than the self-sacrificing greater love of Christ. In other words, Peter is admitting that yes, he loves Jesus, but not with that self-sacrificing kind of love that characterized Jesus Himself. After all, that had become obvious when Peter refused to potentially sacrifice Himself in refusing to identify with the Lord Jesus. Peter, clearly, had been humbled.
And also note the lack of comparison to the other disciples’ love for Jesus. What’s missing from this positive reply is the claim that He loves Jesus and is more devoted to Jesus than the other 10. Again, He had failed to live up to this prideful boast, His confidence in hismelf had been appropriately shattered, and so he loved Jesus, but not as much as he had claimed, and not as much as Jesus loved him, and certainly not more than the other disciples.
So, Jesus, seeing this prideful comparison had ceased, asks Peter again, in verse 16, Simon, son of John, do you agape love me? . In other words, let’s just make sure here that Peter’s use of that lesser word for love, that brotherly love of phileo, rather than agape, is not accidental, or incidental. Let’s make it clear for all to see, and all of us to read, that Peter is deliberately indicating that He loves Jesus less than the ideal self-sacrificing love and that he is specifically humbling himself even with regard to this boast. And Peter’s reply confirms this. “Yes, he says, you know that I phileo love, (“I don’t apparently agape love you, as I’ve shown, and I will claim no longer to love you more than I have actually shown.”)
And, so, Jesus asks the question a third time. Jesus will ask this question three times, corresponding precisely to Peter’s three denials of Jesus. But his question has now changed. You can’t see it in the English, but I can in the Greek. Jesus changes his question in a show of acceptance for the kind of love that the now humbled Peter’s claim is not willing to exceed. Jesus asks, Peter, do you phileo Me? And by so doing Jesus indicates that this lesser kind of love, for the moment, will be enough—He accepts what Peter can and will do on the basis of this love, rather than boasting of a higher love which Peter clearly has previously failed at. And Peter this time is grieved that Jesus would ask again. And He emphasizes now his recognition that He does not know better than Jesus, which is what He had claimed at the Lord’s Supper, but the Lord Jesus knows all things; and that He knows that Peter just phileos Him.
You know when we blow it, it’s a very humbling thing. We see ourselves in all of our abject spiritual poverty at that point. We see ourselves accurately, perhaps, for the first time. And what we see here is that when you blow it and you know it, then it’s time to show it by humbly repenting before Jesus and others.
And when you do, Jesus accepts and forgives both you and your sin and restores you.
And that’s what’s indicated not only by Jesus’ use of phileo in accepting the kind of love Peter was now willing to offer, but also by the charge He gives after each of Peter’s answers.
Verse 15: Jesus’ reply is “Tend My Sheep.” Literally, it means to feed Jesus little lambs. Obviously, Jesus is speaking of the sheep of His pasture, believers that Peter along with the other disciples would be now responsible to feed the Word of God. Peter is being fully accepted, forgiven and even restored to the status he had before his great sins. He is being assured that Jesus will trust Him with the level of love that He is now humbly admitting to, and if he so phileos Jesus, then the result should be a return to that great responsibility and privilege of ministering to Jesus by feeding Jesus’ flock.
And the second reply is like the first. Shepherd My Sheep. Guide them, lead them, by example. Jesus is entrusting to Peter the greatest of all responsibilities and privileges, and that is to care for the very people He loved so much that He died for them.
And finally, the confidence that Jesus shows in Peter is affirmed all the more with a repetition of “Tend My Sheep” after Peter’s final phileo reply.
And thus was Peter restored completely to the position, responsibility and privilege of being a great apostle of Jesus. He had been blessed, despite his great failures, and now He is not only completely forgiven, but He is also completely restored to the ministry that the Lord Jesus would give to Him, as a leader among the apostles and a leader in the proclamation of the Gospel to the Jews and even eventually the Gentiles.
What do you think all this meant to those other six disciples who were at breakfast with Peter and Jesus? What it meant to them was what it meant to Peter. In other words, if Jesus could bless and accept and forgive and restore Peter, with his grand proclamation of his unique devotion to Jesus contradicted by His repeated colossal failures, then Jesus would do the same for and had already done the same for each of them with respect to their own abandonment of Jesus.
And what is it supposed to mean to you? No matter how great your failure, no matter how great your sin; no matter how public and shameful and embarrassing it was, no matter how much of a denial of Jesus it may have been, when you blow it and you know it, if you then you show it, Jesus eagerly blesses, forgives, accepts and restores you just as He did for Peter.
The story began as a fishing trip for Peter and His friends. And it ended up being a fishing trip for Peter and his friends. Only in the end, Jesus was the fisherman, and Peter, and his fellow disciples were the fish. And the Master Fishermen, the lover of their souls and ours, did not fail. But He Himself caught seven big ones for the Kingdom, and one of the biggest, if not the biggest was Peter, who would stand among the 12 on the Day of Pentecost as the leader of leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ and would proclaim the Gospel on behalf of the Lord Jesus so that thousands would come to Christ on the birth day of the Church of Jesus Christ.
This morning. Have you blown it? Do you know it? Is that sin ever before you? Do you wonder if you’ll ever live it down? The truth of the matter is that Jesus loves you as much as He ever loved you, even when He died for you. And \He is so eager and so willing to bless, and forgive, and accept and restore you, that He comes to you with love and blessing in abundance. And when you’ve blown it and you know it, if you show it, the one other thing you’ve got to know is that Jesus will bless, forgive, accept and restore you as well!
Let’s pray.
