TEXT: JOHN 21:15-19
TITLE: “ANOTHER CHANCE”
INTRODUCTION: A. I read about a fellow who definitely needs another chance in the employment scene.
This fellow described his plight this way:
1. My first job was working in an orange-juice factory, but I got canned because I
couldn’t concentrate.
2. Then I worked in the woods as a lumberjack, but I just couldn’t hack it, so they
gave me the axe.
3. After that, I tried to be a tailor but I just wasn’t suited for it; mainly because it was
a sew-sew job
4. Next, I tried working in a muffler factory but that was exhausting.
5. I wanted to be a barber but I just couldn’t cut it.
6. Then I tried to be a chef – I figured it would add a little spice to my life.
7. Finally, I attempted to be a deli-worker but any way I sliced it I just couldn’t cut
the mustard.
8. My best job was being a musician but eventually I found I wasn’t noteworthy.
9. I studied a long time to be a doctor but I didn’t have any patients.
10. My next job was in a shoe factory. I tried it but I just didn’t fit in.
11. I became a professional fisherman but discovered that I couldn’t live on my net
income.
12. I managed to get a good job working for a pool maintenance company but the
work was just too draining.
13. Then I got a job at the zoo feeding giraffes but I was fired because I wasn’t up to it
14. So then I got a job in a health club but they said I wasn’t fit for the position.
15. Next, I found being an electrician interesting but the work was too shocking
16. After many years of trying to find steady work, I finally got a job as a historian –
until I realized there was no future in it.
17. My last job was working at a gourmet coffee shop but I had to quit because it was
always the same old grind.
--He concluded his story by saying: You got any ideas? I’m open for suggestions.
Maybe you have something that WORKS – because I don’t!
B. Have you ever been in a position where you needed another chance?
--I’m sure that if we’ll answer honestly, we’d all have to admit to being in that
position many times
1. The apostle Peter was in that kind of position
--during the arrest and trial of Jesus, Peter denied that He even knew Jesus three
different times
2. Isn’t it great that we serve a God who specializes in second chances?
--and third chances, fourth chances, fifth chances, etc.
3. Peter would later write about God’s patience – about God being the God of second
chances in 2 Pet. 3:9 – “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promises, as some
understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish; but
everyone to come to repentance.”
C. In the 21st chapter of John, it starts out with an appearance of Jesus to the disciples
after He was resurrected.
1. It was actually His third post-resurrection appearance
2. This appearance was especially important to Peter
--Why so? What had Peter done?
a. After already experiencing two encounters with the risen Christ, Peter’s gone
back to his old life of fishing along with Thomas, Nathanael, James, John, and
two other disciples.
--they’d been fishing all night and had caught nothing
b. Someone from the shore yells, “Fish on the other side of the boat!”
--They did and had an overload in their nets
c. John says, “Hey! What a coincidence! This happened once before when Jesus
said the same …. Hey, Pete! It’s Jesus!”
d. Peter says, “What are you talking about?”
--John says, “It’s the Lord, Peter.”
e. Impetuous Peter jumps in the water and swims ashore while the others bring
the boats in.
f. When they all get there, Jesus has breakfast ready
--I can guarantee with certainty that there were no women present at this event.
A woman would have said, “Ew! Fish … for breakfast?!?”
3. Now the stage is set for our scripture passage this morning
a. It’s a most revealing conversation between Jesus and Peter
b. Most commentators call this passage “the redemption of Peter” because Peter
gets another chance
c. Listen closely as we read it together
--As people in need of second chances, let’s hear what Jesus says to Peter in
these verses. There are some definite lessons we need to learn.
D. John 21:15-19 – “When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon
son of John, do you truly love me more than these?’ ‘Yes, Lord,’ he said, ‘you know
that I love you.’ Jesus said, ‘Feed my lambs.’ Again Jesus said, ‘Simon son of John,
do you truly love me?’ He answered, ‘Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.’ Jesus
said, ‘Take care of my sheep.’ The third time he said to him, ‘Simon son of John, do
you love me?’ Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, ‘Do you love
me?’ He said, ‘Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said,
‘Feed my sheep. I tell you the truth, when you were younger you dressed yourself and
went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and
someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.’ Jesus said
this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to
him, ‘Follow me!’”
I. THE FIRST LESSON: LOVE DEEPLY
A. Jesus’ question to Peter: “Do you love me?”
--have to have a little Greek language lesson here (please forgive me!)
1. Two primary Greek words in the New Testament translated as this word “love”
--philos and agape
2. Both words are used in our passage this morning
B. Take a closer look at the dialogue between Jesus and Peter with those words in mind:
1. Vs. 15, Jesus says, “Do you agape me more than these?”
--agape (we’ll get to that in just a moment)
a. “more than these” – Jesus is referring to the other apostles
1). Mk. 14:29, Peter said, “Even if all fall away, I shall not.”
2). However, at Jesus’ trial, what did Peter do?
b. Where do we find Peter and the other disciples when this event takes place?
--Peter’s gone back to his old life – fishing
2. Jesus asks, “Do you agape me…?”
--Peter answers, “You can see that I philos you.”
3. Again in vs. 15, Jesus asks “Do you agape me…?”
--Again, Peter responds, “You know that I philos you…”
C. What’s the difference?
1. Philos is a word that signifies “friendship”
a. It’s a love that exists because you receive something from the person on the other end of the
relationship
b. The relationship deteriorates when you stop receiving what you perceive is in your best interest
--Friendships come and go
2. Agape is a love that exists for the benefit of the other person
--it’s a mature love; a sacrificial love
a. J.B. Phillips’ paraphrase of 1 Cor. 13:4-8a – “The love of which I speak is slow to lose patience – it
looks for a way of being constructive. It is not possessive: it is neither anxious to impress nor does it
cherish inflated ideas of its own importance. Love has good manners and does not pursue selfish
advantage. It is not touchy. It does not keep account of evil or gloat over the wickedness of other
people. On the contrary, it is glad with all good men when truth prevails. Love never fails…”
b. When we read Jn. 3:16, it says, For God so agaped the world that he gave his one and only Son that
whoever would believe on him would have eternal life.”
c. Agape is a love that lasts forever.
--It doesn’t waver or falter
d. What Jesus was literally asking Peter was, “Do you love me the way I love you? Unselfishly,
faithfully, and eternally?”
D. Hear this conversation again:
1. Jesus: “Peter do you really love me?”
2. Peter responds: “Jesus, you know I’m your friend.”
--Peter is really saying, “Jesus, I like you a lot but I’m not sure about anything else. I’ll follow you as
long as things are going well.”
3. How many of us are like that with God?
a. Let it seem like a few things are going wrong in our lives and our faith wavers and our commitment
fails.
b. Someone: “Many people only want to date Jesus. They don’t want to marry Him.”
c. Wilbur Rees expressed it this way:
I’d like to buy $3.00 worth of God, please. Not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep, but
just enough to equal a warm cup of milk or a snooze in the sunshine. I don’t want enough of Him to
make me love a black man or pick beets with a migrant. I want ecstasy, not transformation; I want
the warmth of the womb, not a new birth. I want a pound of the eternal in a paper sack. I would
like to buy $3.00 worth of God, please.”
d. As followers of Jesus, we’re called to love deeply
II. SERVE OBLIGINGLY
A. Jesus says to Peter, “If you really love me, it will show itself in service to those I care about.”
1. Jesus talks about the feeding of sheep and lambs
--three different Greek words used here for sheep and lambs:
a. v. 15 – “feed my lambs”
1). Baby sheep
2). Greek literally says, “Give these little ones suitable food”
b. v. 16 – “take care of my sheep”
--literally “tend or shepherd my young sheep”
1). Same word used in the New Testament in the admonition to the elders to “shepherd the flock”
2). It’s a phrase that refers to general supervision, care, guidance, and protection
c. v. 18 – “feed my sheep”
1). literally “give my older sheep suitable pasture
2). One commentator said that this was supplying all the needs of mature members who “often
have no knowledge of what their own needs are, or worse, suppose that they know when in fact
they do not.”
B. Jesus is saying to Peter: “If you love me or even just claim a close friendship to me, you must do
whatever is needed to meet the spiritual and physical needs of all age groups.”
1. The New Testament church was known for meeting the spiritual and physical needs of those around
them
a. It was their reputation for serving needs that brought rapid expansion of the gospel in the Roman
Empire even under extreme persecution
b. People saw a true concern in the hearts of the early Christians and responded in a way that said, “I
want to be a part of that.”
2. If we’re going to claim to be a New Testament church, then we have to do what is necessary to meet
needs
--Even if we personally don’t like the program or the method, Jesus says, “If it meets a need then do
it!”
3. You might not like it very much but I have to say something this morning that if I didn’t say, God
would hold me responsible
a. We do a pretty good job of taking care of our seasoned citizen population but we’re not doing too
well with the middle and younger-aged groups
b. Put yourself in Jesus’ place – He ministered to people of all ages when He was on earth and died
for the sins of both the young and the old
-- What if you owned a flock of sheep and put people in charge of taking care of them. One day,
you’re walking through the field and all you see are the mature sheep. Very few baby lambs;
about the same number of adolescent and middle-aged lambs. Wouldn’t you want to know what
happened to the other sheep?
I imagine that you would call together the ones whom you left responsible for all the sheep.
What if they said something like this: “These older lambs don’t like the same type of grass that
the younger ones do. So we focused on the older lambs and now most of the middle-aged lambs
and the baby lambs have either wandered off or found another pasture. It sure does make things
easier on us.”
C. Serving obligingly is not an easy task
1. It involves a commitment and dedication to accomplish what is supposed to be done
2. In 1964, during a conflict between Malaysia and Indonesia, a group of Gurkhas from Nepal were
asked if they would be willing to jump from transport planes into combat against the Indonesians.
The Gurkhas usually agreed to anything but on this day they rejected the plan.
The next day, one of their officers came to the British and said that they had talked it over and
would jump under certain conditions. “What are they?” the British asked them. The Gurkhas said
that they would jump if the land was marshy or reasonably soft because they were inexperienced in
falling. The British said that they would be jumping into jungle so everything would be all right.
They asked the Gurkhas if there was anything else? They said they wanted the plan to fly as
slowly as possible and that they wouldn’t jump from any higher than a hundred feet.
One of the British officers pointed out that they always fly as slow as possible when dropping
troops but that jumping from 100 feet would be impossible since the parachutes wouldn’t open in
time from that height. The Gurkha officer, said, “Oh, that’s all right then. We’ll jump with
parachutes anywhere. You didn’t mention parachutes before.”
a. The seven last words of a church are usually, “We’ve never done it that way before.”
b. A New Testament church says, “We’ve never done it that way before but as long as it doesn’t
compromise the message, we’re willing and committed to try.”
c. Serving obligingly sometimes involves doing things you really don’t want to do but you know is
necessary in order to do what Christ wants accomplished so you do it anyway
III. FOLLOW FAITHFULLY
A. Jesus makes a comment concerning Peter’s death
1. It’s a comment regarding Peter’s growth and maturity in following Christ
2. What Jesus was saying was this: “Peter right know, your love for me is immature but you will grow
to love me enough that you’re willing to die for the sake of providing what’s needed for the flock.
Peter, that’s the same reason I went to the cross – to provide what was needed to saw men and
women from their sins.”
a. Jesus was trying to get across to Peter something very important: If you’ll just faithfully follow
follow my footsteps, you’ll grow from a selfish immature spiritual adolescent into a spiritually
mature saint. You’ll even do things you’ll wish you didn’t have to do.
b. That’s the mark of faithfulness: doing what you really don’t want to do because it’s what the Father
wants done
--In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed that the cup of the cross might pass from him but he
was willing to do whatever God’s will wanted.
B. Church tradition has it that Peter did stretch out his arms and die
1. He was crucified for shepherding the flock because of his love for Jesus and serving obligingly and
faithfully following all the way to a cross
2. Tradition tells us that Peter refused to be crucified face up and requested to be crucified upside down
because he wasn’t worthy of the honor as his Lord and Savior was.
3. Faithfulness and unfaithfulness are all based in choice
--It’s the answer to the very important question: “Am I going to do what Christ wants me to do or am
I going to do what I feel like doing?”
CONCLUSION: A. This morning, we’ve seen Jesus giving Peter a “second chance”
--How about you? Do you need another chance today?
B. I have friends who love to play a computer game known as Flight Simulator
1. In most versions of this game, you can choose a prop plane or a Lear jet, and you can
choose out of 180 different airports from around the country where you’d like to take
off from or attempt to land at.
2. It takes quite a lot of time and quite a lot of crashes to acquire the skill necessary to
avoid crashing the plane and landing safely.
--You can crash into the Empire State Building in New York City, The Sears Tower in
Chicago, of the Space Needle in Seattle. Your plane can break apart in mid-air over
Dallas breaking the sound barrier. You can nose dive into Lake Michigan at 500
miles an hour.
3. The best thing about Flight Simulator, or just about any other computer game for that
matter, is that no matter what happens, you can start all over again.
--Whenever you crash and burn, fall aprt, or splash into the ocean, the game always
puts you back together and places back on the runway ready to take off again.
C. God’s grace is a lot like a computer game in that respect
1. We can always depend on it, no matter what shape we’re in, to make us whole again –
despite our failure and bad decisions.
2. 1 Pet. 5:10 – “And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ,
after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong,
firm, and steadfast.”
