Well, finally, some of you must be thinking, we come to the end of the Gospel of John. And I must say, personally, along with others who have thoroughly studied this book, that it is very likely the most profound book I have ever preached through.
And that’s because it’s all about the most profound subject that could ever be studied—the most extraordinary, amazing and greatest man who ever lived, Jesus Christ. Here is a man who, ethically, lived the greatest life ever lived, hands down, who is the greatest personification of love we could ever imagine, who spoke the greatest wisdom ever spoken, who repeatedly demonstrated an omniscience beyond our comprehension and who repeatedly did astounding miracles, not just daily, but moment-by-moment, sometimes thousands of times a day—any one of which had any other man done one of them would have been the greatest and most amazing accomplishment of a life-time. But though they were so incredible for the rest of us, they were the norm for Jesus Christ.
And the questions this book answers are these: Who was this man, Jesus? What was He all about? And what difference should it make in our lives?
And the answers are the Son of God, the man who was God. That He came to seek reconciliation with mankind and save us from our sins, as well as to reveal what God was really like. And the difference He should make is that we should believe in Him, love Him and follow Him.
And it’s those final two answers which form the topic of our message this morning, “If you really love Jesus, then what? If you really love Jesus, what, ultimately, will that look like? What, ultimately, will that involve? How will you show it? And yet another question that we ought to ask ourselves, “Do I really love Jesus?”
And that brings us back to John 21 this morning and that scene on the Sea of Galilee when seven of the disciples went fishing for a night and caught nothing. Then, in the dim light of dawn an apparent stranger shouts from the shore about 100 yards away from their boat and advises them to let down their nets on the right side of the boat, and suddenly they’ve got such a huge load of large fish they can’t pull them into the boat. And the Apostle John, the writer of our Gospel account, recognizes that the stranger is Jesus.
What ensues is a breakfast prepared by Jesus for the disciples. All of this is after Jesus’ resurrection. And following the breakfast Jesus has a serious talk with Peter, a talk in which Jesus restores Peter to his position of leadership and ministry within and to the group of the other disciples. As you’ll remember, Peter had sworn that no matter if every other disciple abandoned Jesus in his trials, Peter would not, even if it meant his own death, and thereby had declared on the very night of Jesus’ arrest that He loved Jesus more than any of the other disciples. And then Peter had proceeded to fail in an even greater way than any of the other disciples and denied even knowing Jesus on three occasions that night.
And so Jesus had asked Peter after the supper three times if he loved Him. The first time He had asked if Peter loved him more than these—referring to the other disciples. Peter had answered, yes, he loved Him, with a lesser word for love, indicating he only had a great affection for him, and he refused to compare his love with that of the other disciples. Finally, Jesus had indicated he now accepted Peter’s humbler confession of love by using the word phileo, for the lesser kind of love Peter offered, rather than agapao, for the kind of love Jesus had offered Peter. And on each occasion after Peter’s confession of having a great affection for Jesus, Jesus had said, Feed My Sheep, Tend My Lambs, feed My Sheep. In other words, he had indicated, that if Peter really loved Him, that love would not merely be a sentimental love, a love consisting only of feelings, or a verbal profession of love, but if he really loved Jesus, that love must be an active love, it must be a love accompanied by action, and the action of spiritually teaching and caring for those whom Jesus loved, namely, His sheep, that is other believers.
And that brings us to our text for this morning. Verse 18: Jesus then says to Peter, “Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to gird yourself and walk wherever you wished; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will gird you and bring you where you do not wish to go.” And our eyewitness the Apostle John in verse 19 clarifies precisely what Jesus meant here in verse 19: Now this He said, signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God.”
And then Jesus went further. “And when He had spoken this, He said to him, “Follow Me.”
Now what we’ve got to know here is that this conversation with Peter represents Jesus, and thus God’s concern, for each and every one of us here. This conversation did not occur just for the benefit of Peter. A conversation very much like this is the kind of conversation that Jesus really has with each one of us here who believe in Him this morning. And it would be good if you could imagine that Jesus is speaking this conversation to you.
And His question for you is this: Do you love Him? Do you really love Him? And then, if you do, you will follow Him, and you will do His will; you will care about those He cares about, and you will follow Him the rest of your days, no matter the consequence to you.
As you imagine Jesus speaking to you, you’ve got to know He’s dead serious about this matter. He has addressed Peter formally, as Simon Son of John, to get his attention, to indicate this is a very important and serious issue to Him. He has used, in verse 18, that formula that indicates He’s speaking an important truth, “Truly, Truly.” Now what is uniquely intended for Peter’s ears is the prediction of what will come to pass at the end of his life if He does what Jesus wants him to do for the rest of His life—minister to the sheep of Jesus’ pasture—teach and shepherd God’s people. For if He does this, Jesus wants Him to soberly count the cost in advance. And that cost will involve doing the very thing that Peter had only a few weeks earlier failed to do that He had said He would do—He would give His life as a martyr for Jesus Christ.
And in those cultures in which crucifixion was a common means of execution, the phrase “stretch out your hands” was often used in association with crucifixion. Jesus said that it would occur in Peter’s old age. He would not gird or dress Himself, rather others would gird or dress Him and take Him where He did not wish to go—to a cross like the one Jesus had been crucified to glorify God there just like Jesus had glorified God Himself just a couple weeks earlier. And despite that excruciating and ignominious end to his life, Jesus then gives the command, “Follow Me.” In other words, no matter the ultimate cost or the consequence, even to the point of losing his life, Jesus’ will, God’s will, for Peter, and by extension, for each and every one of us here, was to Follow Him.
And that’s Jesus first concern for you this morning. It’s as though He’s sitting next to you and it’s your time to hear this question from the lips of the One who died for you, who gave His life on the cross to save you for your sins. And He is in effect asking you,
If you really love Me, follow me for the rest of your life—regardless of the consequences.
If you really love Jesus, follow Him for the rest of your life—regardless!
And you see this course of questioning that Jesus has brought you into by means of His Holy Word and His Holy Spirit is totally in keeping with what the Gospels and Scripture reveal about God, and His concerns for us, what He wants for us. He wants us to love Him just like He loves us. That’s why the greatest command of the Law is to Love God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength. God wants us to love Him more than anything and everything else, more than anybody and anything else, more than life itself. And what Jesus is saying here is that this kind of love that He wants us to have for him, and He deserves, is not merely sentimental sort of love, it is not merely a feeling, but it will be demonstrated by the most self-sacrificing kinds of actions, perhaps even to the point of giving our life on a cross just like Jesus Himself gave His life for us. Now for some of you, like me, that will involve feeding His sheep and shepherding His sheep. For others it will involve active service on behalf of those sheep, though you may not be teacher or a pastor, you will care about and serve those whom Jesus died for their spiritual benefit. You will not just go to church, and sit and soak in God’s Word, but you will do it, because you love Jesus. And if you do not do it, you do not love Jesus. And you will do it even if it means the loss of your very own life.
And this makes perfect sense with regard to what Jesus said in this very Gospel, in John 14:21: “He who has my commandments and keep them is the one who loves Me, and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father and I will love him and will disclose Myself to Him.”
Did you catch that, if you have his commandment, if you have His Word, and you follow His word, then if you love Him, you will do His Word, you will obey His commandment, and then you will be loved especially by the Father, and Jesus will love you and Jesus will manifest Himself to you, He will show Himself to you, you will be the object of His special care.
So, this morning, Jesus is asking you, do you love Me? Do you Me regardless of whatever consequence it might bring? Do you love me by actively serving Me and My people? How are you showing that you love Me? Because if you’re not showing it, if you’re not serving My people on a regular basis, then you don’t love Me. So, if you love Me, it’s high time you started showing it. It’s high time that you start sacrificing for Me and My people as I gave My life for you, by serving Me through serving them, even if it means giving your life to me.
Now some of you are going to be tempted to say, even as I am, well, I’ll love you if, or I’ll love you when. In other words, our willingness to love and therefore serve Jesus and His people is conditioned upon Him doing something more for you or giving you something in this life more than you already have, or having a preferred outcome to life.
Well, I want to ask you, what more are you going to demand of Jesus than what He has already given. He has given His life for you. He has paid for your sins when He died for you on the cross. He took Hell from His Father so you wouldn’t have to. He has forgiven your sins and given you eternal life. And that isn’t enough for you?
No, the attitude that “I’ll love for you if you do such and such for me” or “I’ll love you when you have done such and such for me,” is not good enough. It’s an insult to Jesus. And remember, you’re dealing with God here, and this Jesus who loves you, He sets the terms, not you. Again, Jesus who has loves you more than you know, loved you more than life itself, asks, Do you love me? And then he says, follow Me, actively serve me for the rest of your life, regardless of the cost?” Don’t just come and sit, but start actively serving if you love Me. And He’s awaiting your answer this morning.
But Peter must have felt restless as He was confronted by Jesus with this command that early morning. He knew that Jesus was right, too, that Jesus deserved what He was asking, not only because Peter had offered that very thing weeks earlier, but has miserably failed, but more than that, because Jesus had proved His love to Peter and the rest of the disciples who were watching that exchange that morning. Despite all this, Peter is not entirely at peace with the question. He wants to say yes, but there’s something bugging him. In his case, Jesus has described precisely the kind of death by which he would die if he followed Jesus. And so Peter abruptly turns around—the Greek here in verse 20 indicates there was an abrupt movement at this point on Peter’s part like that characteristic of a restless young man. Apparently, Peter and Jesus are by this time walking side by side, and the other disciples, or at least John, the eyewitness to this conversation, are following. And so, Peter turns around at this critical point in the conversation and verse 20 says he “saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them, the one who also had leaned back on His (Jesus’) bosom at the supper and said, ‘Lord, who is the one who betrays you?' So, Peter seeing Him said to Jesus, “Lord, and what about this man?"
Now it is clear that this unnamed disciple was none other than the Apostle John himself, the writer of this Gospel, our eyewitness. John and Peter have become really good friends by this point. We seem them together when the news of Jesus’ disappearance comes via Mary Magdalene; they run to the tomb together. And the two of them had been part of that inner circle of three that Jesus often took aside for Himself, which had included John’s brother James. And more than that, we see them walking together in the temple in the Acts 2 when another major miracle took place in early church history. And of course, they had just spent the night fishing together before this encounter with Jesus. And John is apparently closely following Jesus and Peter as they have this discussion. And I think what’s going on here, knowing myself and our human nature, is that we don’t want to be the only one who has to go through hard times. We want God to distribute both His blessing and the trials on an equal basis. We’re like children who are busy cleaning up the house and each gets a separate set of jobs. But no one wants to clean the toilet. And so the one who has to clean the toilet complains about why the others get the better jobs, the easier jobs, the cleaner jobs. And so, Billie says of Susie, why doesn’t she have to clean the toilets? Why can’t you let me vacuum the carpet? Why do I get the hard job, and the excruciating end? What’s going to happen to John, for instance? If I’m going to have to experience this, I don’t want to be alone in it. I don’t want the hardest job.
And isn’t that just like us—comparing our lot in life to others. Envying and coveting the blessings God has given to others and grumbling quietly within ourselves about why we haven’t been blessed in the fashion they have, or why we have to experience certain kinds of sufferings when they haven’t had to. Well, I’ll tell you what, that’s just like Jim Wallace. You better believe it. And I suspect a number of you might suffer from the same comparisionitis that I have. And you want to accuse God of being unfair, unjust. Yes, you said you wanted God’s will at one time, but you didn’t expect it to be like this. You wanted God’s will, but you wanted God’s will to be your will. What you were really thinking is that God would be all about pleasing you, rather than you pleasing Him, no matter what. And so now you want to renege on the deal. Yeah, you were willing to follow Him, as long as everybody got his blessing and trials equally. But you didn’t want to on the raw end of that deal, did you.
This is just exactly, I think, what was going on with Peter here. He didn’t want to get the raw end of the “Following Jesus” deal. And so he, at this point, just like restless young man, abruptly turns around as he’s talking to God in the flesh and says, “Lord, and what about this man?’
And Jesus, very appropriately, stops that kind of thinking and comparison in its tracks in verse 22: Jesus said to Him, and to you, if you’re thinking this way, and to me, because I do think this, “If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you. You follow Me!”
And the You in that last sentence is emphatic, being mentioned first in the Greek. “You, Peter, follow Me.
In other words, this morning, Jesus is saying to you, “If you really love me, Follow Me, without comparison to others, and without complaint. Am I not worthy? Have I not given my life for you, regardless of what others have done? So, you must love and follow and actively serve me, regardless of what my will is for others. That is none of your business. You, keep your eyes on Me, and follow Me. If you keep your on others, you will find yourself not following Me.
And the Lord has said as much to me, knowing what a temptation and sin this would in my life, for He once said. “Do not look to the right or the left but keep your eyes on me.” That has turned out to be the greatest challenge of my life and ministry. But it is absolutely essential for both me and you to keep our eyes on Jesus, and Jesus alone, if we would love Him and show it for the rest of our lives by following Him.
Do you really love Me? If you do, you will follow Him without comparison or complaint.
Now what you have to know here is our eyewitness John writes this account years after Jesus’ prediction of Peter’s death on a cross was fulfilled. According to historical tradition, Peter died at the hands of the ruthless Emperor Nero in Rome in about A.D. 64, and yes, by crucifixion, and he chose to be crucified upside down, according to that tradition. for he did not see himself as worthy of being crucified as His Lord had been.
As John writes this account, it is now 90 to 95 A.D., 25 to 30 years later. John has outlived all the apostles at this point, and the rumor has spread that the Lord Jesus said John would live until Jesus returned. John takes this opportunity to clarify precisely what Jesus, in verse 23, noting the presence of the big word “if” as in “If I want Him to remain until I come, what is that to you.”
And then John, along with those who knew Him in the first century, testifies to the absolute verity, the absolute truthfulness of all that He had written in this book. Verse 24: “This is the disciple who is testifying to these things and wrote these things, and we testify that his testimony is true.”
And we need to pause for a moment here and consider what John says. He was an eyewitness to all these events, all of these intimate conversations between Jesus and his disciples, even these most critical moments of intimate conversation and confrontation between Jesus and Peter. He was there, he was in the middle of these conversations, and he was. in part, the subject of these very conversations. That’s what he’s indicating earlier in verse 20, that as Peter sought to find out who it was who was going to betray Jesus at the Last Supper, Peter asked the question through, of all people, this very Apostle John, who was closest to Jesus at that Last Supper, who was at His very bosom, who quietly and secretly asked Jesus who it was and got the answer that indicated that it was indeed, Judas Iscariot.
And now even in this most fateful conversation between Jesus and Peter that restored Peter to ministry, John was there, right there, to hear what was said, and not only that, found himself to be in the middle of the conversation. In other words, what we have here, is not merely an eyewitness account of Jesus Christ and all He said and did, but the eyewitness account of one who had a front row seat on the 50 yard line, at center court, who not only saw it all and heard it all, but was in the middle of it himself. This is the Gospel truth, this is the absolute truth about the greatest one who has ever lived, and how he relates to each and every one of us, for how he related to Peter, and the questions he asked are very questions he asks of you to this day. This is indeed the story of the One about whom John the ultimate eyewitness could say, “And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written of all the incredible deeds, the miraculous works and words of wisdom from Jesus Christ.
And this furnishes us with the final reason why, if you love Jesus, you shall follow Him all of your days. It’s because as John testifies, it’s because Jesus is truly your Creator, your God, and your Savior.
There are three questions which the Gospel of John indicates Jesus asks every one of us who is here, this morning. The first is this: Do you believe in Me? We find this question asked of Martha in John 11:26, when Jesus had said, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me will live and will never die. He asked Martha, and you, “Do you believe this.” This is the question that determines your salvation.
And He has asked effectively through this Gospel, and especially in John 21, two more questions. First do you love Me? And then, Will you follow Me. And it’s your answer to these two questions which will determine your reward for eternity.
So, what’s your answer, this morning? Do you believe in Jesus? He died for your sin so you could live forever. Believe in him and you have eternal life (John 6:47). Do you love Jesus? He deserves your love because he Has given His life for you. And then finally, will you follow Jesus? Will you actively serve Him and His people, and not just please yourself, for the rest of your life, come what may? What’s your answer? Jesus longs to hear it.
And He does deserve an answer.
Let’s pray.
