When Jesus Puts Your In Your Place Series

WHEN JESUS PUTS YOU IN YOUR PLACE

John 21:1-19

Most of us have been there, at some point in our lives we have stepped out of line and someone, somewhere “put us in our place”. Many of us have been on the other side of a similar situation and someone offended us or wronged us in some way and we instinctively “put them in their place”.

In John chapter 21, Jesus put Peter in his place. However, this instance didn’t play out as many would have predicted. Instead of rebuking Peter, Jesus restored and recommissioned him to service. By this point in time, the Savior has died on the Cross, been buried in Joseph’s tomb, and risen from the dead. One of the major events leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion was Peter’s denial of his Master. Three separate times this faithful Apostle and close friend of Jesus denied that he even knew Him.

Scripture tells us that when Peter heard the rooster crow, he remembered the words of Jesus when He had previously predicted his denial and in response he “went out and wept bitterly” (Matthew 26:75). After the Resurrection, we see Peter running with John to the tomb and later gathered behind closed doors with the other Disciples.

If it were not for the truths that are revealed in John 21, we would be very confused as to why Peter became the leader of the Apostles, why he was chosen to preach to the crowds on the day of Pentecost, and why he is featured so prominently in the first 12 chapters of the Book of Acts. The reason that these things happened is that one day on the shores of the Sea of Tiberias, Jesus put Peter in his proper place.

The Savior did not harshly rebuke Peter for his abandonment and denial of Him in the darkest period of His earthly life. In fact, Jesus didn’t even take this opportunity to say, “I told you so!”. Instead, Jesus gave Peter the opportunity to reaffirm his love and devotion to Him. After this, Jesus gave him some very important instructions concerning his future ministry work.

This occasion was not the first time that Jesus had met with Peter after His Resurrection. After those two followers had their encounter with Jesus on the Road to Emmaus, they returned to Jerusalem and found the Disciples gathered together and saying, “The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!” (Luke 24:34). I believe that Peter has already been personally restored to the Lord Jesus by this point, but this occasion served as a public display of Jesus’ forgiveness of and confidence in the Apostle Peter. It was beneficial for the Disciples who had seen Peter fail publicly to be restored publicly. Jesus never commands that Peter be recognized as the leader of the Apostles, but it may have been somewhat difficult for these men to defer to him and listen to him apart from some public endorsement by the Lord.

As His followers, Jesus has a way of “putting us in our place”. Like Peter, many of us have gone through periods of failure. There is great hope in the reality that if Jesus can use Peter after his public and disgraceful denial, He can use us to advance His cause in spite of our past (and even present) failures.

- I would like to examine the events that took place on the shores of the Sea of Tiberias and preach on the thought “When Jesus Puts You In Your Place”.

One of the most notable moments in the Gospels and certainly Peter’s life is the time when he stepped out of the boat in the midst of a storm and walked on the water to go to Jesus. He was in the boat because he had left all and followed his Master. He was in troubled waters because he was obedient to Jesus and went where He told him to go. He stepped out on the water and did the impossible because of his faith in the Lord. He began to sink because he took his eyes off of Jesus and when he cried out “Lord, save me!”, Jesus reached out His hand, grabbed a hold of him, and put him safely into the boat.

Peter did not know it at the moment, but that event would serve as a metaphor for his life in the days surrounding the arrest, trial, crucifixion, burial, and Resurrection of Jesus. On the evening before the Crucifixion Jesus warned the Disciples that they would “all fall away because of Me this night, for it is written, ‘I will strike down the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered.’ (Matthew 26:31). Peter professed that “Even though all may fall away because of You, I will never fall away.” (Matthew 26:33), Later, when Judas Iscariot and the Roman soldiers came to arrest Jesus, Peter boldly and defiantly took out his sword and cut of the ear of a soldier named Malchus. (John 18:10).