Picture a quiet moment you wish you could erase from your history. A word you regret. A choice you can’t take back. A time when you told Jesus with your voice, “I love You”… but told Him with your actions, “Not right now.”
Every one of us has a chapter like that. Some of us have a whole library.
The story we explore today is not about shame. It is not even about failure. It is about the love of Jesus that restores what we thought was permanently broken. It is about how He pulls us back from the edge when we have already written ourselves out of the story.
Jesus looks at us after the worst moment of our discipleship and says, “Follow Me… again.”
This is a message for every heart that has ever wondered:
“Does Jesus still want me… after what I did?”
A JOURNEY, NOT A REPORT CARD
Faith is not a checklist. It is not a trophy case. None of us ever gets to point at a safe place in our story and say, “Look, I’ve arrived. Everybody else should be here too.”
Life with Jesus is a journey. And journeys include wrong turns, breakdown lanes, and nights spent praying we could just restart the map.
Simon Peter knows this better than we do.
He had days where he was the first one to declare Jesus as the Christ. Days where he dared to step out on water. Days where he volunteered to go to prison, even die, by his Savior’s side.
He also had a night where his love collapsed under pressure.
Jesus told the disciples that the path to victory was not a throne in Jerusalem but a cross on Calvary. Peter couldn’t accept that. Loved Him so much that losing Him felt unthinkable. He rebuked Jesus. He contradicted God.
Sometimes love can be loud and still be wrong.
Jesus looked at Peter that day and said, “Simon… the way you think love works is not how the Father loves.”
A love that wants to protect Jesus from pain
is not the same love willing to suffer with Him.
WHEN LOVE HITS THE WALL
We all eventually reach what spiritual writers call the wall.
• The place where our strength is exhausted
• Where faith feels thin
• Where our shadows surface
• Where our real love gets tested
Peter’s wall came by firelight.
The courtyard was dark. Jesus was arrested. Peter followed, but at a distance. Fear breathed down his neck. The servants and soldiers turned toward him:
“Aren’t you one of His disciples?”
“No, I don’t know Him.”
Not once. Not twice.
Three times.
Then the rooster cried out, and Peter saw Jesus looking right at him. Not with scolding. Not with fury.
With heartbreak and compassion.
That moment broke Peter.
His confidence shattered.
His love felt counterfeit.
He ran into the night wishing he could disappear into the ground.
Some of us know that ache.
We wonder if Jesus looks at us the same way.
He does.
But not how we fear.
LOVE THAT RESTORES
After the cross, after the tomb, after the resurrection… Jesus doesn’t avoid Peter. He doesn’t say, “We need some space.” He goes looking for him.
Failure did not cancel the calling.
Jesus finds Peter at the water’s edge, back to fishing like his old life had never ended. The nets are empty. His heart is too.
The Lord fills the net with fish.
Peter recognizes Him.
He throws himself into the sea to get to Jesus faster.
The same water he once sank in…
now becomes the place he swims toward a second chance.
Breakfast on the beach. Warm coals. A new beginning. Jesus does not lecture Peter about denial. He does not reopen the wounds. He asks one question…
“Peter, do you love Me?”
Not…
Do you promise to never fail again?
Do you have a solid five-year discipleship plan?
Do you feel worthy to lead?
Just…
“Do you love Me?”
Jesus repeats it. Three times. One for each denial. Not to humiliate Peter. To heal him. To rewrite the narrative. To change the last thing Peter believed about himself.
Jesus meets him right at the point of his fall and builds a future from it.
Grace has a memory… but it does not keep score.
LOVE THAT SAYS YES
When Peter says, “Lord, You know that I love You,” Jesus gives him an assignment, not a timeout.
“Feed My sheep.”
You failed Me.
I still trust you.
You denied Me.
I still want you.
You thought your love died in that courtyard.
I know your love still lives.
Redemption always includes purpose.
Forgiveness always includes mission.
You and I have to decide what we do when Jesus restores us. We can cling to the guilt or step into grace. We can keep rehearsing the fall or start following again.
Because love is not proven where we fell.
Love is proven where we get back up.
ACCEPTING OUR ACCEPTANCE
This right here is where a lot of disciples get stuck. Jesus forgives us, but we keep trying to earn our way back into His good graces. We believe in grace for other people while sentencing ourselves to lifelong probation.
Peter could have stayed on that beach thinking: “I don’t deserve to serve Jesus anymore.”
He could have let his shame become his theology.
Plenty of believers live that way. They believe: • God can forgive
• God does forgive
• God’s love is unlimited
…unless the subject is them.
Jesus is not asking Peter to love perfectly.
He is asking Peter to love honestly and courageously.
There is a remarkable shift happening: Peter discovers his love is real not because it never failed but because it got back up when Jesus called his name.
Your greatest failure does not define your love.
Your response to grace does.
LOVE THAT LOOKS LIKE JESUS
When Jesus says, “Feed My lambs… feed My sheep,” He is saying: “Peter, love others the way I just loved you.”
You denied Me. I restored you.
You ran from Me. I ran toward you.
You pulled away. I pulled you up.
The world does not need perfect Christians.
The world needs restored Christians who know how to restore others.
Your story of grace becomes someone else’s survival guide.
When you have been pulled out of the pit, you learn how to reach back in without fear.
Peter’s ministry explodes after this moment.
He becomes the one preaching bold truth,
lifting fallen believers,
opening the church to outsiders,
and writing letters soaked in hope.
Why?
Because restored love multiplies.
LOSING OUR LIVES TO FIND LOVE
Jesus told the disciples: “Whoever wants to save his life will lose it.
Whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”
That never made sense to Peter until he hit his wall.
We cling to the wrong things: pride, control, reputation, fear of rejection…
Those things feel like “life” but they choke the heart.
Real life is found in: • Loving without guarantees
• Serving without applause
• Trusting beyond logic
• Vulnerability that risks being hurt again
Self-protection is not freedom.
Self-giving is.
Love always feels risky.
Love always costs something.
Love always changes everything.
And Jesus keeps asking: “Do you love Me?”
A CALL TO LOVE AGAIN
You may be in your courtyard moment right now. You may think: “I have let Jesus down too deeply to get back up.”
But Jesus is already on the beach waiting for you. Already setting the fire. Already preparing the meal. Already rewriting the chapter.
You are not disqualified.
You are not done.
You are not defined by the lowest moment of your faith.
Your love may feel bruised.
Jesus says it is enough to begin again.
Hear the question for yourself today: “Do you love Me?”
Not: Are you over your mistakes?
Have you solved all your struggles?
Will you get it perfect from now on?
Just: “Do you love Me?”
If your answer is even a whisper of “Yes, Lord… You know,”
He smiles and says: “Then let’s get back to feeding lambs.”
Love restored.
Purpose restored.
Relationship restored.
This is the gospel.
Jesus didn’t come to make better rule-keepers.
He came to make better lovers.
And when you accept His love…
you will finally be able to give yours away.
