One of the most amazing things about God is that from the very beginning He didn’t use extraordinary people to accomplish his purpose. God used ordinary people, even troubled and broken people to accomplish his plans. There are very few people in the Bible who didn’t have some moment of colossal failure, but then after that failure came forgiveness, and then after they were forgiven, God used them. Failure, forgiveness, and then being used by God for His future seems to be the way God works in our world. Think about Abraham, when they were in Egypt instead of trusting God to protect him, Abraham lied and told the Egyptian leaders that Sarah was his sister, not his wife in order to save himself, but God forgave Abraham and then God used him to bring about a son who helped give birth to the nation of Israel. Moses failed to follow God’s word when he was leading God’s people through the wilderness, but God forgave him and then God used Moses to bring the people to the edge of the Promised Land. David failed God miserably not only when he committed adultery but when he then conspired to have a man murdered in an attempt to cover up his failure, but God forgave him and then God used David to establish the kingdom of Israel. Jonah failed to follow God, but God forgave him and then used him to help the nation of Nineveh repent and be saved.
It is good to know that our failures are not final because we all experience these moments of failure. Whether we have failed in a relationship, or in a business, or in own personal integrity and commitment to God, we all have and will experience failure, but beyond that failure comes forgiveness and with forgiveness comes the call to be at work in God’s future. This journey of failure, forgiveness and the future seems to be the story of Peter’s life. There were several times that Peter failed Jesus, but he was always forgiven and God continued to use him. This is what we see so clearly in John 21.
As the story begins here, did you notice where Peter is? He is back in his boat fishing. Jesus had called Peter to drop his nets and leave fishing behind to become a fisher of men and women. Jesus called Peter to share the good news of God’s coming kingdom and to invite people to experience the presence and the power of God. With the resurrection of Jesus, you would think Peter would see a glorious new beginning, but he doesn’t. Peter has returned to fishing, and it was totally his idea. When Peter tells the other disciples that he is going fishing, it’s like he has given up on himself and given up on God’s plan for his life, and he does this because he knows that he has failed.
That failure took place just a few weeks earlier when Peter stood in a courtyard around a charcoal fire. It was there that Peter denied not once or twice, but three times, that he was a follower of Jesus. In fact he told the people he didn’t even know Jesus. In Jesus moment of need when Peter had the opportunity to stand with him, he failed and literally ran away. For Peter, that failure was big, maybe too big to overcome, so instead of fishing for men, instead of sharing the good news of Christ’s resurrection, Peter goes back to fishing for fish. He’s casting his net into the water from his boat. What’s kind of ironic is that Peter has gone back to fishing, and yet it seems like he has even failed at that because after fishing for awhile he has caught nothing. I can just imagine Peter saying to himself, great, I can’t even catch fish anymore. I just can’t do anything right.
Do you ever feel that way? We fail in some way and then begin to question whether we can do anything right. Failure can breed that kind of negative thinking – but God makes clear to us that our failures are not final. Our failures do not get the last word, and Jesus begins to assure Peter of this by having him cast his net off the other side of the boat. When they suddenly start hauling in lots of fish, Peter is no longer a failure as a fisherman and maybe that’s exactly what he needed to help him see that there was hope for forgiveness and hope for a future not as a fisherman but as a follower of Jesus and a fisher of men and women.
After Jesus serves the disciples’ breakfast, we have this exchange between Peter and Jesus that makes clear to us that Jesus is specifically forgiving Peter for his failure that night in the courtyard. We know that this encounter with Jesus is tied into the courtyard story because of one particular word – charcoal.
It says here in John 21:9 that when the disciples got to the shore they saw a charcoal fire. Now there is only one other place in the gospel of John that the word charcoal is used and that is in John 18:17-18. Right after Peter denied being one of Jesus’ disciples it says he was standing by a charcoal fire. It is not a coincidence that here he is standing by another charcoal fire. These two scenes are supposed to be read together because around one fire Peter disowned Jesus, but now around another fire Peter will be forgiven.
Peter’s failure was not final, Jesus forgives him, and the way Jesus forgives Peter is important for us to think about. Jesus doesn’t just say to Peter, hey about what happened back in the courtyard – forget about it. Jesus forgives Peter by giving him the opportunity to reaffirm his love and commitment. For every time that Peter denied that he was a disciple of Jesus, every time he denied that he even knew Jesus, Jesus asks him, do you love me? Now Jesus already knows the answer to this, he knows that Peter loves him, so it must be for Peter’s benefit that Jesus asks the question. Maybe affirming his love helped Peter be assured of his relationship with Jesus. Maybe it was to erase any doubt in Peter’s heart and mind that he was forgiven. Maybe Jesus asked the question to just help Peter find the strength to move forward. Whatever the reason, Jesus knew that Peter was going to need this moment to help him overcome his own sense of failure, so he asks him to reaffirm his love and commitment. Peter, do you love me?
I think we need these very same moments when we can answer that very same question. Because we fail God so often, we need these moments to affirm our love and commitment to Him. Verbalizing our love for God helps us know beyond any doubt that we are forgiven and they help us know we can receive strength to move forward. That is one reason why corporate worship is so important. When we come together for worship we have the opportunity to reaffirm our love and commitment to Jesus. The songs we sing help us verbalize our love for our God and our commitment to walk with Jesus and talk with him. When we pray the Lord’s Prayer and say, our father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, we are acknowledging our love for God. When we ask for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, part of what we are saying is that we want God’s will to be done in our lives, we are recommitment ourselves to God. The Lord’s Prayer is a prayer of love and commitment and it is a prayer asking for forgiveness (forgive us our trespasses). When we gather to pray this prayer, we are reminded that God is faithful and in his love and grace, he does forgives us.
Now what’s really amazing about God isn’t that He forgives us, it’s that he is then willing to use us despite our failures. Jesus doesn’t just ask Peter if he loves him, he then says, feed my lambs, tend my sheep. Despite his failure, Jesus calls Peter to once again commitment to the work God has for him. For God, forgiveness is so complete, that he doesn’t hold our failures against us; he gives us new opportunities follow him and serve him. Abraham failed God, but God still used him. Moses failed God, David failed God, Jonah failed God, but God still used them. Peter failed God, but God was going to use him and so Jesus commissions him for a future ministry. Feed my lambs and tend my sheep is a call to watch over the church and care for the people who were going to believe in and follow Jesus.
Again, there is a lesson here for us. God doesn’t just forgive us to make us feel better and ease our guilt, God forgives us in order to lead us into the future he has for us, and God does have a future for us. Last week we heard from Jeremiah 29 that if we search for God we will find him, but God also says in Jeremiah 29, I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. God does have plans for us; God has plans for our future and for all of us that future involves at least two things, love for God and service to others.
There can be no real love for God that does not translate into service. This is what it says in 1 John 4:20-21, Those who say, I love God, and hate their brothers and sisters are liars, for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have him is this, those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also. This is the very same thing Jesus is saying to Peter on the lakeshore. If you love me, Peter, you will feed my lambs. If you love me, you will tend my sheep. If you love me then you will watch over and care for my people who are your brothers and sisters. The future God had for Peter was a future of service, and that is the same future God has for all of us.
The commandment John talks about here is given to all of us, not just some of us or most of us; it is a command for all of us, we must love our brothers and sisters, we must he willing to serve those around us. Now how we love and serve will be different, some may love through physical support and help; others may love through a ministry of prayer and encouragement. Some people may love through financial support and gifts, and some may love through great sacrifice and selflessness. We will all love and serve in different ways, but the call is the same. Reaching out in love to serve and care for others is God’s plan and purpose for our future.
I think this exchange between Peter and Jesus on the lakeshore is recorded maybe solely for our benefit, because it shows us that our failures, no matter how big they are, are not final. God’s forgiveness prevails, and God’s forgiveness is complete, and God’s forgiveness leads us to a future of love and service. So let us reaffirm our love for God, and let us recommit ourselves to a life of serving God and serving others.
It is good to know that our failures are not final because we all experience these moments of failure. Whether we have failed in a relationship, or in a business, or in own personal integrity and commitment to God, we all have and will experience failure, but beyond that failure comes forgiveness and with forgiveness comes the call to be at work in God’s future. This journey of failure, forgiveness and the future seems to be the story of Peter’s life. There were several times that Peter failed Jesus, but he was always forgiven and God continued to use him. This is what we see so clearly in John 21.
As the story begins here, did you notice where Peter is? He is back in his boat fishing. Jesus had called Peter to drop his nets and leave fishing behind to become a fisher of men and women. Jesus called Peter to share the good news of God’s coming kingdom and to invite people to experience the presence and the power of God. With the resurrection of Jesus, you would think Peter would see a glorious new beginning, but he doesn’t. Peter has returned to fishing, and it was totally his idea. When Peter tells the other disciples that he is going fishing, it’s like he has given up on himself and given up on God’s plan for his life, and he does this because he knows that he has failed.
That failure took place just a few weeks earlier when Peter stood in a courtyard around a charcoal fire. It was there that Peter denied not once or twice, but three times, that he was a follower of Jesus. In fact he told the people he didn’t even know Jesus. In Jesus moment of need when Peter had the opportunity to stand with him, he failed and literally ran away. For Peter, that failure was big, maybe too big to overcome, so instead of fishing for men, instead of sharing the good news of Christ’s resurrection, Peter goes back to fishing for fish. He’s casting his net into the water from his boat. What’s kind of ironic is that Peter has gone back to fishing, and yet it seems like he has even failed at that because after fishing for awhile he has caught nothing. I can just imagine Peter saying to himself, great, I can’t even catch fish anymore. I just can’t do anything right.
Do you ever feel that way? We fail in some way and then begin to question whether we can do anything right. Failure can breed that kind of negative thinking – but God makes clear to us that our failures are not final. Our failures do not get the last word, and Jesus begins to assure Peter of this by having him cast his net off the other side of the boat. When they suddenly start hauling in lots of fish, Peter is no longer a failure as a fisherman and maybe that’s exactly what he needed to help him see that there was hope for forgiveness and hope for a future not as a fisherman but as a follower of Jesus and a fisher of men and women.
After Jesus serves the disciples’ breakfast, we have this exchange between Peter and Jesus that makes clear to us that Jesus is specifically forgiving Peter for his failure that night in the courtyard. We know that this encounter with Jesus is tied into the courtyard story because of one particular word – charcoal.
It says here in John 21:9 that when the disciples got to the shore they saw a charcoal fire. Now there is only one other place in the gospel of John that the word charcoal is used and that is in John 18:17-18. Right after Peter denied being one of Jesus’ disciples it says he was standing by a charcoal fire. It is not a coincidence that here he is standing by another charcoal fire. These two scenes are supposed to be read together because around one fire Peter disowned Jesus, but now around another fire Peter will be forgiven.
Peter’s failure was not final, Jesus forgives him, and the way Jesus forgives Peter is important for us to think about. Jesus doesn’t just say to Peter, hey about what happened back in the courtyard – forget about it. Jesus forgives Peter by giving him the opportunity to reaffirm his love and commitment. For every time that Peter denied that he was a disciple of Jesus, every time he denied that he even knew Jesus, Jesus asks him, do you love me? Now Jesus already knows the answer to this, he knows that Peter loves him, so it must be for Peter’s benefit that Jesus asks the question. Maybe affirming his love helped Peter be assured of his relationship with Jesus. Maybe it was to erase any doubt in Peter’s heart and mind that he was forgiven. Maybe Jesus asked the question to just help Peter find the strength to move forward. Whatever the reason, Jesus knew that Peter was going to need this moment to help him overcome his own sense of failure, so he asks him to reaffirm his love and commitment. Peter, do you love me?
I think we need these very same moments when we can answer that very same question. Because we fail God so often, we need these moments to affirm our love and commitment to Him. Verbalizing our love for God helps us know beyond any doubt that we are forgiven and they help us know we can receive strength to move forward. That is one reason why corporate worship is so important. When we come together for worship we have the opportunity to reaffirm our love and commitment to Jesus. The songs we sing help us verbalize our love for our God and our commitment to walk with Jesus and talk with him. When we pray the Lord’s Prayer and say, our father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, we are acknowledging our love for God. When we ask for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, part of what we are saying is that we want God’s will to be done in our lives, we are recommitment ourselves to God. The Lord’s Prayer is a prayer of love and commitment and it is a prayer asking for forgiveness (forgive us our trespasses). When we gather to pray this prayer, we are reminded that God is faithful and in his love and grace, he does forgives us.
Now what’s really amazing about God isn’t that He forgives us, it’s that he is then willing to use us despite our failures. Jesus doesn’t just ask Peter if he loves him, he then says, feed my lambs, tend my sheep. Despite his failure, Jesus calls Peter to once again commitment to the work God has for him. For God, forgiveness is so complete, that he doesn’t hold our failures against us; he gives us new opportunities follow him and serve him. Abraham failed God, but God still used him. Moses failed God, David failed God, Jonah failed God, but God still used them. Peter failed God, but God was going to use him and so Jesus commissions him for a future ministry. Feed my lambs and tend my sheep is a call to watch over the church and care for the people who were going to believe in and follow Jesus.
Again, there is a lesson here for us. God doesn’t just forgive us to make us feel better and ease our guilt, God forgives us in order to lead us into the future he has for us, and God does have a future for us. Last week we heard from Jeremiah 29 that if we search for God we will find him, but God also says in Jeremiah 29, I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. God does have plans for us; God has plans for our future and for all of us that future involves at least two things, love for God and service to others.
There can be no real love for God that does not translate into service. This is what it says in 1 John 4:20-21, Those who say, I love God, and hate their brothers and sisters are liars, for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have him is this, those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also. This is the very same thing Jesus is saying to Peter on the lakeshore. If you love me, Peter, you will feed my lambs. If you love me, you will tend my sheep. If you love me then you will watch over and care for my people who are your brothers and sisters. The future God had for Peter was a future of service, and that is the same future God has for all of us.
The commandment John talks about here is given to all of us, not just some of us or most of us; it is a command for all of us, we must love our brothers and sisters, we must he willing to serve those around us. Now how we love and serve will be different, some may love through physical support and help; others may love through a ministry of prayer and encouragement. Some people may love through financial support and gifts, and some may love through great sacrifice and selflessness. We will all love and serve in different ways, but the call is the same. Reaching out in love to serve and care for others is God’s plan and purpose for our future.
I think this exchange between Peter and Jesus on the lakeshore is recorded maybe solely for our benefit, because it shows us that our failures, no matter how big they are, are not final. God’s forgiveness prevails, and God’s forgiveness is complete, and God’s forgiveness leads us to a future of love and service. So let us reaffirm our love for God, and let us recommit ourselves to a life of serving God and serving others.
