The Road to Restoration // John 21

I like sports for a lot of reasons, but one of the biggest ones is, where else are you gonna see such primal displays of raw emotion from grown adults, right? Like in our civilized culture, it doesn't happen anywhere else. Think about it, like if you were at the office this week and you make a big sale, you're not allowed to jump out of your chair and scream, "Let's go!" Right, meanwhile, go your colleagues, yeah. Goofy hand signals, bah, bah. If you watch NBA, you know what I'm doing. Everybody else is like, "What is this guy doing up here?" You can't do this at the office, but you can do this if you hit a game winner and everybody loves it, right? If you put the team on your back and architect a dramatic comeback, you can do this and everybody loves it. Even people who don't care about sports, they love to witness a comeback. Like you should have seen my house during the last three minutes of the Florida, Texas Tech game during March Madness last month. I'm the Gator fan, okay, for those of you who don't know. And at this point in the game, there's three minutes left. We're down nine, ESPN has given us a 4% chance of winning. You see how they've been doing this? Like live, at that moment, we have a 4% chance.

We're gonna lose the game. And I'm a sad person. I'm not screaming, I'm not mad, I'm sad, but also don't talk to me. My sweet wife, she's like, "You need a hug?" She says this, and I said, "Babe, don't touch me, right?" This is where I'm at, this is what's happening. I'm thinking about how I'm gonna move on with my life and then it starts happening. Tommy Hauge, Walter Clayton Jr., there's stroke and threes and I'm losing it and my wife, she couldn't care less truly, but she's losing it too because it's the comeback. Everybody loves the comeback. We even make movies about the great comebacks, right? They're super popular. Miracle on ice, Rudy, Rocky, cool runnings. And so today, we are going to talk about another great comeback story, the comeback of the Apostle Peter. If you have your Bibles, go ahead and turn to type two, John 21, that's where we'll be today. This is where Peter makes this comeback and Peter's comeback story is amazing because he goes on this journey from absolute failure to the leader of the early church after Christ's sins. But before we get to his comeback in John 21, we gotta talk about what did he come back from? What was he restored from? So there's a scene a few days before our text today,

a very famous scene. It's the Last Supper, right? Jesus is having his last dinner with his 12 closest friends and is there a meal more packed with meaning and all of history than this Last Supper? First of all, it's a big holiday dinner, right? This is like Christmas dinner for the Jews, it's Passover dinner. And Jesus is doing surprising and historical things all throughout the evening. Like it's at this dinner that Jesus institutes communion, which ends up being a pretty big deal for the next 2000 years, right? It's at that dinner that he washes his disciples' feet. It's at this dinner that he dips his bread in a cup and hands it to his friend Judas, at which point Satan enters into Judas who runs out and sets in motion his betrayal to death, right? Like what a meal to be at this holiday dinner. And then after dinner, Jesus does something else surprising. He looks at his friends and he says, "All you guys are about to leave me. "You're about to fall away from me." But Peter, he's bold, he's the leader of the 12. He's also apparently a little bit arrogant because he's like, not me, Lord. Like no way, I will never leave you. And Jesus is like Peter, you're not seeing yourself correctly. Actually tonight, you're gonna deny that you even know me three times.

Peter's like, no Lord, like I'm ready to die for you. I'll die for you. It's like Peter, don't oversell man, right? He's not even asking you to do that, right? But then in the next scene, Jesus does ask Peter to do something in the garden. You guys remember this? A little bit easier than die. Hey, stay awake, can you watch and pray for me? Peter can't even do that, right? Peter has good plans, but he has no power. It's so human, right? It's so relatable. Good plans, no power. You ever felt like that? I mean, this is basically what New Year's resolutions are, right? Good plans, no power. It's like a weight loss goal, some new clothes, a gym membership. It's going good for a week of January. Second week, it's like, forgot how good Papa John's stuff crust tastes, right? And then here we are in Maine. It's like you still have a new clothes and they kinda work 'cause there's an elastic waistband. Good plans, no power. But sometimes it's a little bit more serious than that, right? Maybe it's like you meant your vows to your core on your wedding day before God and all the witnesses, but then a few years later,

it's like, didn't realize how uninteresting you'd find your spouse anyways. What Peter does is so relatable, so human, so sinful. And then three times, just like Jesus said, it's like Jesus never met the guy, right? And then the third time, I actually want to read this to us from Luke's gospel, it says this, as he's doing it the third time. And the Lord turned and looked at Peter and Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how he had said to him before the rooster crows today, "You will deny me three times." It's like Jesus is across the way, across the courtyard, and he sees him do it the third time. They see each other, painful. And then he went out and wept bitterly. And so Peter runs out and he starts balling. His whole world falls apart between dinner and bedtime. He's totally ashamed, he's totally confused. Peter fails big time. And now the stage is set for an epic comeback, right? Because we know that in the end, Peter is the one that leads the early church after Christ's sins. It's like his shame and weakness are traded for purpose and power. How does that happen? This is what we're talking about today. We're gonna see the road map to restoration, how he architects the comeback.

He does five things. And this is very helpful to any of us who might feel down and out because we can do the same things to architect our own personal comeback. And let me also, let me just say that this sermon isn't just for like giant sinners, the sermons for all of us. Actually, let me edit that. This sermon is just for giant sinners and therefore the sermon is for all of us. And if you don't see yourself as a giant sinner, we're gonna talk about that in a minute, okay? So now the stage is set. Let's start reading. Chapter 21 verse one says this. After this, she just revealed himself again to the disciples by the sea of Tiberius. So now he's alive and he's revealing himself again. He's already done it. And he revealed himself in this way. Simon Peter, Thomas called the twin, Nathaniel of Kana and Galilee, the son of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together. All right, that was the first step. You're like, what? I missed it, right? Engaged community. After you fail, you need to continue

to engage your Christian community. Like what's Peter doing? Let's fill in the timeline just a little bit more. Sunday morning, when the women run back from the empty tune, they run to their community group. And who's there? Who showed up with all his shame and confusion? Who still showed up? Peter, right? And now here we are a couple days later and he's doing life with his Christian brothers, right? The temptation after a failure is to withdraw from community. And I know why we do this. Withdrawal, it feels like a retreat to safety, but it's actually a retreat from safety. Withdrawal after a failure can lead to absolute ruin. How do I know this? Well, that actually plays out with another one of Jesus' friends. This guy, Judas, he failed pretty big time too, but he didn't show up to community group on Sunday morning. He goes out with the profit he made by some real estate and hangs himself, right? He withdrew into his own destruction. And this is the temptation. And some of you guys, I mean, you might be tempted to do this. You might be doing this right now withdrawing into your own destruction.

Like you think you're going into self-protection mode, which are actually going into self-destruction mode. You think you need, oh, I need a new community group. No, you need to keep showing up and you need to start opening up. Like I've seen the countervision of this play out too many times. It's something like, man, recently, unfortunately, married couple in a community group, only one's showing up for a little season. And then that one isn't showing up as much in the next season, and then a crisis text goes out. I think my marriage has fallen apart. It's like the retreat is not protective, it's destructive. So if you're doing this, stop doing this, don't do this. Like you at least need to show up and look sad so that somebody asks you what's going on. It might feel embarrassing to do that, but it's definitely more embarrassing long term to have your life blow up, right? So step one, if you're gonna make a comeback, is to engage your Christian community. Peter's doing this. What else? Keep reading. Verse three, Simon Peter said to them, "I'm going fishing." They said to him, "We will go with you." So we see here, Peter's kind of a natural leader, right? "I'm going fishing."

His guys were like, "Yeah, we'll come with you, Peter." They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore. Yet the disciples didn't know that it was Jesus, and Jesus said to them, "Children, do you have any fish?" They answered him, "No." And he said to them, "Well, then cast the net "on the right side of the boat and you'll find some." So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in because of the quantity of fish. And then the disciples recognized that this is Jesus, right? And Peter, classic Peter, he jumps in the water and he swims to Jesus on the shore, and then the other guys row in and they have a seafood breakfast And then we're gonna skip down to verse 14. So much going on in this chapter. Verse 14, it says this was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead. And then we're gonna camp out in 15 for a while, okay? When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?" Peter said to him, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you." The second thing that we see Peter do here, and this is the second step, if you're gonna make a comeback, is stop lying. Start being honest. You gotta be honest about where you're at.

Okay, how is Peter doing this? Well, let's remember a couple days ago at the Last Supper, Peter was not being honest with himself, right? He's like, "Jesus, I'm ready to die for you." He was radically overstating his devotion to Christ. And Jesus is like, "No, Peter, you're not being honest "with yourself." And now here we are a couple days later, and he's deciding to see himself with a bit more sober judgment. It's not clear actually in the English in verse 15 that he's doing this, but the Greek actually unlocks it for us. So this is so interesting, check this out. In the English, there's only one word translated for love here, right? Love, Jesus, do you love me? And Peter's like, "Yes, Lord, I love you." But in the Greek, we have a couple options. And when Jesus asks the question, he says, "Peter, do you agape me?" Which is in the Greek, the highest form of love. This is unending, unbreaking, covenantal devotion and affection. It would be natural for Peter to say, "Yes, Lord, I agape you." But that's not what he says. He says, "Yes, Lord, you know that I fillet you." That's a lower level of love. That's good friend love.

Peter's saying, "Yes, Lord, I'm definitely committed "to you right now, but who knows down the road?" So this is very interesting. And he goes out of his way to do that, right? He goes out of his way to do that. This is interesting. Because, well, you can take this a couple of different ways. You could take this as a sign of Peter's lack of devotion to Christ. I don't know, maybe you should. But I think we should give Peter a little bit more credit than that here. I take this as a sign of his newfound humility and honesty. 'Cause a few days ago, he was just caught radically overstating, not being honest with himself. And now here we are, a couple days later, after he embarrassed himself. And he's like, "Jesus, honestly, I'm trying to love you, "but clearly, I'm not great at it, right? "He's been a little bit more self-aware, "and a little bit more honest with himself." And this is step two. God has stopped lying to yourself. Oh my goodness, I could preach a whole sermon just on this point because people lie all the time. All the time. And we lie to three groups of people. We lie to ourselves, we lie to other people, and we lie to God. Let's start with ourselves.

Hard to be honest with yourself, right? Like, how many of you guys can relate to this? Step on a scale for the first time in a couple months. Kinda like, don't really like the numbers, step off. I can't be right. Do it again, right? Same number. Like, what the heck? Where's the reset button, right? You gotta recalibrate this bad boy. That's gotta be it. Empty your pockets, go to the bathroom, do it again. Look, a scale's fine, it's telling you the truth, but it's hard to be honest with yourself, right? Hey, look, it's not great to lie to yourself about your weight, but it's worse to lie to yourself about your character, and unfortunately, that's actually a lot easier to do. Why is that so easy to do? Well, a couple reasons. First of all, so obvious. People don't like feeling terrible about themselves, right? Obviously, obviously, it's more fun to feel like an awesome person than an awful person. And so people lie to themselves about how great they are. But the second reason is it's actually hard to know the truth about your own character. Like, it's hard to know your own motives sometimes. And furthermore, sometimes you have multiple motives for any given action.

For example, like, maybe you wanna watch a show on Netflix to end your day. You have a couple motives, a couple reasons for doing that. You find the plot very interesting and imaginative. Great motive. You wanna relax, that's a fine motive. You'd like to stumble upon scenes of good looking naked people, and this particular show affords you that opportunity. Terrible motive, that's a terrible motive. Like, it would be helpful, though, kind of painful if you could step on a character scale after your late night Netflix, and that scale said back to you. You watch that in order to see the sex scene. That's what you were trying to do. Or after your ladies' night, if you could step on a character scale that said back to you, you told them that story about your husband to get them to hate him and love you. Kind of feel sorry for you. That's why you said that. Now, look, the character scale, it doesn't exist fortunately or unfortunately, I'm not sure. And therefore, people have a terrible time And I understand why we do this. It helps us cope, but it's really not helpful in the least. Why isn't it helpful? Well, here's why.

Because to the extent you lie to yourself, you leave reality. Truth is simply that which corresponds to reality and lying is a departure from reality, right? You go to this alternate universe, this place that isn't real. And this is how it goes. I mean, for people introspective enough to know what's happening, this is what's happening. It's like they evaluate themselves and they're like, "Ugh, I don't like real me. Real me is terrible. I like fake me better." A lot of times people don't know that this is happening, but under the hood, this is what's happening. And then it starts to get really problematic because once you decide you like fake me better, you start to think, "I bet other people are gonna like fake me better too." And then you take the jump and you start lying to the second category, other people. It's like fake you isn't just in your head. Fake you shows up to the office. Fake you shows up on the first date. Fake you shows up to coffee with your friends. It's like we're desperate to be liked, desperate to impress so we lie. And we do this in so many different ways. Oh my goodness, so many different ways.

We embellish answers and interview questions to land a job, right? It's as simple as we edit our stories from our day to remove some of our shameful actions and then edit them a little bit more to like add in some elements of heroism. And then it works. They like you. You impress them, but problem, it's fake you. And fake you can't have real relationships. It's obvious what is profound, right? To the extent that it's fake you, that person can't have a real relationship. In real you is still here, unaccepted and unaffirmed. And now it's worse because real you is unknown and growing more desperate to be accepted. It's a terrible cycle. So gotta stop lying to ourselves. We gotta stop lying to other people. But most of all, we need to stop lying to God. Lying to God. This is why self-righteous people exist. A self-righteous person is simply a person who lies to God about how great he is, about his own character. I mean, you get people who think preposterous things, like God must be pretty pleased to have a guy like me on his team, like I'm better than the other guys. This is Peter, the Last Supper, right? Jesus, even if they all fall away, I never will.

Self-righteous person isn't being honest with himself, not being honest with God about his own character. This isn't for all of you, but for some of you, like some of you guys are doing this and you need to stop doing this. Like you think you're doing great and you're doing terrible. You feel good about yourself because you have more socially acceptable sins, but your sins are just on the privacy of your iPhone's screen or like in a darker place. That's your heart. You're nice to her face, but in here, you kind of despise her. You wish terrible things on her. Can't even admit that to yourself. We've already talked about why. But the truth is that if you could step on the character scale, you would turn out to be worse than you thought. It's kind of depressing, but that's just the truth. And he's holier than you can imagine. Look, I realize I've probably already offended some of you and I'm just gonna go ahead and go all the way. Hang with me, okay? Hang with me because good news is coming, but bad news first, I'm being serious. Some of you guys, you need to realize your loss before you can get found. Like some of you guys, you need to go and think in general about it for a while this week.

You need to come to terms with your own depravity. You need to get introduced to real you. You need to get overwhelmed by real you. You need to admit to yourself all the terrible motives you have for all the socially acceptable things you do. I know what you're thinking. Path sounds terrible. I don't wanna do that. Also, why did you just get so mean all of a sudden? But here in my heart, look, I'm not trying to be mean. I promise, I promise, I'm not trying to be mean. I'm not trying to hurt, I'm trying to help. How is this helpful? Here's how. Look at me, guys, this is so important. So important. It's gonna be better for you to be overwhelmed by your own depravity this week than it will be to be surprised by it on Judgment Day. And then right there, when you're completely overwhelmed and you're like, oh my goodness, I'm in trouble. I'm in trouble right there. You need to take the third step and make in the comeback. You need to meet with Jesus privately. Meet with Jesus privately. It's not clear as you read right through John, but when you piece together the rest of scripture, it becomes clear. 1 Corinthians 15 says that Jesus appeared first to Peter and then to the 12th.

So he's already had a private meeting with Peter and the Bible doesn't say a lot about what happened in this private meeting between real Peter and the risen Jesus, but I would imagine that there was a receiving of the gospel. Probably something like this. Peter's sitting there awfully surprised that Jesus is alive, awfully ashamed of himself, and she's just saying, "Peter, I know. "I saw you across the courtyard and I know." But I knew before I called you three years ago, I knew you were gonna do that. It's like, yeah, you failed to die with me, but I didn't fail to die for you. And your failure, it can stay buried in my grave if you take it. This is the gospel, it's so surprising. It's not if you're a good boy for a while and perform, it's no, no, no, no, no, it can stay buried in my grave if you'll take it. It's a gift. I'm gonna slow down here 'cause this is it. For some of you guys, this is it. You didn't know it, but this is why you came this morning. This is the gospel. I just spent a minute speaking pretty directly with self-righteous people. I'm gonna take another minute to speak a little bit more gently with those of us who are painfully aware we've done something scandalous.

I don't know what it was. Could have been a million different things and a room this size, it is a million different things. Deep things, real things. Oh my goodness. It's the pregnancy you decided to end 15 years ago, never told anybody about it. Never really met with Jesus about it. Not for real, it's just down there. It's the young lady you slept with in college after she was too drunk to know what was going on. Never talk about it, haven't thought about it a long time, pretty upset with me for bringing up right now, but never really met with Jesus about it. Not for real, not real you. Here's the question, why not, why not? Well, I think the answer is, and this is deep, and it's too real for some of us to admit to ourselves, but I think it's the truth. I think you think that he actually hates you for it. Like you don't think he'll love you. You think in that private meeting between real you and the risen king, it's gonna be an absolute tongue lashing, or worse. So it's like, lock it up, lock it away, perform and put time and good works between your past and your present, but deep down, you know that he knows and it's not working. Look guys, for so many of us, this is the hardest thing to do in Christianity, to believe that he actually loves real you.

God fake you, not the one who shows up smiling and singing. Real you, but if you're ever gonna make a comeback, you need to meet with Jesus privately about those things, and you need to hear him say, some of you guys, you need to hear me say this, you need to hear somebody say this. I know, it's okay, it's okay. I know, but I've always known. 2,000 years ago, before you existed, I knew, and I put it on my back, and I died in your place. But I'm alive again, and that failure, it can stay buried if you'll take it. You can't earn it, just take it, it's a gift. Look guys, we're on the same boat. Self-righteous people, scandalous sinner, not one of us are going to heaven based on our goodness. Only person doing that is Jesus, and we're only going if he takes us with him. It does not depend on our lousy character. My lousy character, Peter's lousy character, your lousy character, it depends upon his grace. You don't earn it, you take it. And if you do, for real, the comeback is on. It's completely inevitable at that point. Like, your love for him will start to grow, proportionate to the forgiveness you've received. Your needs align and press other people, that starts to fade away. Let me explain what this looks like. It's kind of hard, but I'll try.

So I had the opportunity to worship with some of our brothers at the Forsyth County prison a couple months back. It's an incredible experience. The worship in there was unbelievable. It was unbelievable. I mean, I don't mean the lighting was amazing or the sound system, it wasn't. I mean, the joy in that room, the love for God in that room, the spirit of worship, I mean, many beautiful sanctuaries across the world today will not achieve what was achieved in that room. How did that happen? How did they achieve that? Well, here's how. For those guys, fake me didn't show up to worship. Real me showed up. I think we're trying to impress anybody. They're not coming in there in a nice car. They all walk in there in the same green prison clothes. All of them, they're like, "Who am I kidding? "I'm in prison, man." They're not trying to impress each other. Their situation's made it impossible to lie to themselves anymore. And then they go to an amazing savior and they're like, "Look, if you could love me, "this version of me, real me, the one in prison, "that would be the best thing ever."

And they've heard him say, "I do." They've experienced great forgiveness and they have proportionately great love and joy. And if you were in the room, you could feel it. You could feel it. For some of you guys, the problem with your public joy is that your public image is just still kind of too clean. It's like, it's just, it's fake you, right? Okay, I'm gonna make an extreme statement. I realize it's extreme. And then I'm gonna walk it back, but fall I'm here, okay? For some of you guys, you would act so much more free. Not be so much more free. You're already free, but you would act so much more free. If all of your sins were just broadcast all over social media tonight, just out there. Fall I'm here, don't do this. That's not safe, don't do that, okay? But think about, think about Peter. Think about Peter. Peter's greatest failure. You know, absolutely pulling the seed out from underneath his best friend, Jesus Christ, and literally leaving him to die is recorded in all four of the gospels. Not like two of them, or three of them, all four. I mean, Peter, that dude's got to fire his agent, right? All four gospels? That's some bad PR. He wants to be a church leader.

How's he gonna get a book deal for first and second Peter now, right? But seriously, like you would not be able to broadcast your failure as widely as Peter has broadcast his failure. As some of you guys, you don't need to tell everybody, but you haven't told a soul, and you're carrying the shame around your neck like an anchor and just walking through life with it, right? You need to tell somebody, a good Christian friend. You need to tell somebody, I know why we don't. I know why we don't. It's like, oh, if they know, they'll reject me. No, that's a lie. A real Christian will not, right? They will not. If they've really experienced the grace of God, they love another Christian's comeback story. They resonate with it. It's their story, right? Or maybe we're afraid we'll be disqualified for future ministry or leadership. I don't know, is Peter disqualified? What about that other giant sinner, that guy Paul? No, quite the opposite, right? Look, I won't belabor the point any more than already have. I'm just saying that sometimes when we're afraid of getting found out, we are afraid of the very thing that could give us a ton of freedom. So Peter's come to realize and accept this,

and he's not self-righteous anymore. He is self-aware, and he's Savior dependent. His affections are feeble, like we talked about. They're feeble, but they're for Jesus. He's in a vulnerable state, and it's so surprising. It's in this vulnerable state that Jesus tells me to take the next step. Let's read it. Verse 17, so he does this thing three times, and the third time, he said to him the third time, Simon, son of John, do you love me? Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, do you love me? And he said to him, Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you. Jesus said to him, feed my sheep. Step four, feed my sheep. So part of Peter's healing is gonna be helping other people. This is what a disciple is, right? A disciple is someone who follows Jesus and helps others find and follow Jesus. Jesus says, feed my sheep. So interesting. He doesn't say, hey Peter, you know what? You failed big time, sit on the bench for five years, and then if you're a good boy, I'll give you some super low-level job to do. No, it's, hey Peter, you failed big time, but I've forgiven you big time, it's done. It's time to move on.

'Cause I'm about to leave and you need to take care of my people. Jesus says, feed my sheep, feed my sheep. Okay, what does this mean exactly? First of all, who are the sheep? The sheep are Christians. It's actually the easy answer. The sheep are Christians, that's who the sheep are, right? Okay, what is the food? The food is the word of God. When the word of God is believed and gets into a Christian, he is nourished by it and he grows up spiritually. That's what we're talking about here. Okay, another question. Which sheep is God calling Peter to? Actually, better question. What sheep is he calling you to? Or what sheep is he calling me to? Any given person? Well, that's a little bit harder and I can't answer it for everybody. Everybody has a unique answer to that question, but I think it's helpful as we think about that for ourselves to think about a couple of categories. The first category is your family. It's actually an easy answer if you're a parent. Which sheep, if you're a parent, it's those kids. Those are the sheep that God gave you. There's nobody else, it's you. It's like own it, own it.

for their spiritual nourishment, right? So the first category is your family. The second category is your church family. We have a big old family sheep here at Two Cities, do we not? And feeding them means a lot of different things and we all have a role to play, but I kinda wanna give us a framework for how we think about this at Two Cities. We'll start at the middle and we'll kinda move out a little bit. So the primary way we think about this is through the teaching ministry of this church. Primarily this, the Sunday sermons, we're painstaking at our approach to the Sunday sermons. Pastor Kyle leads it, praise the Lord, praise the Lord. He spends all week in the kitchen, so to speak, preparing a meal to put on the table for us every weekend. And can I just say, I'm gonna take off my elder hat and put on my friend of Pastor Kyle hat for a second, okay? Actually, you know, I want my elder hat on too. I got two hats on, elder friend of Pastor Kyle, okay. How do you guys have any idea how hard it is to do what Kyle does every weekend? He is pouring his life into feeding you the word of God. Is he perfect at it? Almost. No, no, he's pretty good at it, right? And I know so many of you guys, you know this and you appreciate him so much.

It's like okay to tell him that, by the way, like you could tell him that, that would encourage him, right? But sometimes guys, you hear my heart in this, this is for like one percent of you. Kyle would never say this, I'm gonna say it, okay? Sometimes I'll hear a comment. It's like, ugh, that was a little offensive. Did that offend you? Oh, not me, but like this other group over here, okay. Let's keep our meal analogy. That was a little spicy this week, a little salty, and I'm just like, kindly, you do it, right? You work all week to put a meal on the table for 3,500 people that hits all of their flavor palettes exactly correctly and is compassionate, but also convictional and super relevant, but super faithful to the text and hits the older folks and the younger folks. It's like, it's kind of hard to do, right? So just hear my heart in this, guys. I'm not saying there's not room for feedback. There is, there's also a lot of room for encouragement too. The pastor Kyle is pouring his entire life. It's his life's work to feed you the word of God. Pray for him and encourage him wherever you can, right? So the first way we think about it at our church is the teaching ministry. And then the second way we think about feeding the sheep is through smaller meals that we have throughout the week, our community groups, right? Across the city and homes, throughout our city,

we have these smaller meals where the community group leaders are thinking about like, is the nourishment getting into the sheep? Like, are they growing up spiritually? You might be like, well, I thought you said I had a role to play. I'm not the lead pastor. I'm not a community group leader. What's my role? As we go out from there, there's a lot more. And I don't have time to talk about all of it. There's a lot of sheep in our kids' ministry over there. I don't know if you've noticed. There's some over there. We've got some in our youth ministry, our college ministry. I'm just saying, go own something. Who? I don't know. Pray, guess, go. Go take personal responsibility for somebody else's spiritual nourishment. I mean, a lot of us have benefited from decades of somebody else doing this for us, right? grandma's prayer is invested into us. She took responsibility. Mom and dad's godly parenting fed into us. You're a youth pastor. You're current community group leader and pastors. It might be time for you to take personal responsibility for somebody else's spiritual nourishment. That's part of the process.

If you're going to make a comeback, right? Feed my sheep. What else? Verse 18, truly, truly, I say to you. When you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted. But when you were old, here we go. You will stretch out your hands and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go. Yikes. This, he said, to show about what kind of death he was to glorify God. Intense, okay? Jesus is so intense. This is very interesting because a few days ago, Peter was like, I'm ready to die for you. Jesus is like, nah, you're not ready for that. And now here we are a few days later and Jesus is like, actually, you know what, Peter? One day you will die for me. So this is obviously discouraging, right? But I think it's actually encouraging as well for a couple of reasons. First of all, I don't know if you noticed, but it says, when you are old, this will happen. So Peter's a guy, he's probably in his late 20s, plus minus, in this conversation. And he gets an indication that he's probably got a while. So that's, I guess that could be encouraging, right?

But more seriously, and more importantly, Jesus is prophesying here 'Cause a few days ago, his faith couldn't stay awake for Jesus. And one day, his faith will come back to the point where it will give the ultimate sacrifice for Jesus. His love for Christ will one day come back and surpass his love for his own life. How's that gonna happen? Let's keep reading. This he said, verse 19 again, this he said to show about what kind of death he was to glorify God. And after saying this, he said to him, follow me. There it is, that's the last step. Step five, follow me. Last step, if you're gonna make a comeback. What's interesting about this one, it was also the first step. Remember that, our first sermon in the series? First thing Jesus ever said to Peter, follow me. Well, here it is, it's the last thing. That's because this is a continual step. You gotta do this one every day, follow me. And it's interesting. Jesus doesn't say, hey, Peter, I'm about to leave, so follow this map. No, it's still follow me, not a map. It's not follow that path, it's follow this person. So often we get worked up, don't we, about the path? It's like, which job, what college, which girl,

what's the path? It's a fine question, but it's not the best question. Who's the person? That's the better question. Listen guys, if I could just speak personally for a second, I kinda have no idea how I've ended up where I am in life. Well, I hope I haven't like ended up, like I'm about to die or something, right? Truly, I don't know the path that I took to get to this moment right here. The path doesn't really make sense to me. I don't do a lot of trying to map out my life. I used to try a little bit, it wasn't going great, so I kind of stopped doing that. What seems to me to be a more biblical and frankly, less maddening approach is to just be resolved to follow Jesus every day, to just be resolved to follow Him each day, whatever I know that that means. So I had an experience about 10 years ago that really affected how I think about this. My wife and I, we were at the Summit Church and had a guest preacher come into town, a guy by the name of David Platt. I guess when you hear the summit, you get David Platt to come in when your pastor's out of town. Sorry guys. (congregation laughing) We're working on it, okay?

We'll get there one of these days, maybe. I don't know. Anyway, David Platt comes in and if you don't know who he is, he's awesome, but he's pretty intense guy. He's pretty intense. And I remember that sermon absolutely wrecking me. Like I wasn't sure I was a real Christian after that sermon. I'm serious, man. Like that sermon was some version of, if the gospel's actually true, how have you not already sold all your stuff and moved overseas to take it to the nations? I'm sure he didn't say it exactly like that, but that's what I felt. 25 year old me, that's what I heard. And I was having a hard time after that sermon. I was like, I don't know if I'll do anything for Jesus, honestly. And I was talking to my wife that Sunday afternoon, having a hard time. And she was just like, I think you just need to go on a walk and talk with God about it. Maybe I was being a little bit insufferable. She's trying to get rid of me. I don't know. Anyways, that's what I did. It was good advice. I remember walking around our apartment in Medan, just trying to be real me, talk with the Lord about it.

Like God, if I want you to ask me to do something super hard, I don't know if I'll do it. I love you. I'm trying to love you, real me, right? And he met me there, he's so kind. He's like, son, I'm not asking you to do all that right now. I will ask you to do harder things later, but not today. Today, just follow me today. Just do what you know that that means today. Like keep seeking me daily in the world today. Keep loving your wife. Keep leading your community group. And I'll keep changing you. And then one of these days you'll be ready. Ready for what? I don't know. That's the point. I don't know. Like 25 year old me had no idea that one of the things he was going to get me ready for was preaching to you guys this weekend. But here we are. 25 year old me was not ready to preach to you guys this weekend. But here we are. How did I get ready? I don't know. Like I don't know the path that I took. This is my point. The path that doesn't even make sense to me.

Guys, look, I'm just a normal person. I'm going back to work at my bank job this week. Actually, I'm not. I'm taking next week off to be completely honest to you guys. (audience laughing) But. I don't know the path that I took to get here. But hear me, hear me, this is it. I don't know the path, but I do know the person. Like I know who I follow. I know who I follow. And don't care, I don't wanna be a hero, guys. I'm not trying to be here on my own story. I've never done it perfectly one day in my life. Here's what I'm trying to say. This is what I'm trying to say. If real you and real me are just resolved to follow the risen king every day, at a church our size a decade from now, you wouldn't believe it if he told you. Like the kingdom of God is gonna come down. How could it not? How could it not? I wonder what he's gonna do for you. Do through you. I wonder what he's gonna write into your comeback story. Like some of you guys, you're completely discouraged about someone far from God and close to you. And you're gonna baptize him next year.

It's gonna be awesome. Some of you guys are wrapped up in so much shame that you struggle to show up at community group. And you're gonna be free of that one day. You're gonna be leading a group. It's gonna be awesome. Some of you guys are anonymous Christians at the office. It's been like that for a decade. A decade from now, you're gonna be the absolute aroma of Christ in that place. Some of you guys are gonna change your schools. Some of you guys are going to the nations. You're not ready today, but you will be. How's it gonna happen? Follow him today. Just be resolved to follow him today. Those comeback stories from the deaths of sin that used to bind me and you up to the heights of kingdom impact and adventure that he's gonna call us into. It's gonna be fun to watch. Just go ahead and bow your heads and close your eyes. Here's how I wanna end. I just wanna set up for a minute a private meeting between real you and the risen king. And there's two types of meetings they need to be had. The first one is some of you guys just need to receive his grace. Real you needs to do it. You know the thing that you haven't talked to them about

that you need to talk to them about. You know the motives you thought about him 20 minutes ago. You're just gonna talk to them about it. Real you, you need to hear him say, I still love you. Some you need to receive his grace and others of you, if nothing's coming to mind, I just want you to remember his grace. Not receive it, but remember it. Just sit here and remember all the times and all of the things that he has saved you out of and thank him for it. We're gonna do that for a minute and then I'm gonna pray. So go ahead, just real you, risen king. (silence) (silence) (silence) (silence) (silence) (silence) (silence) (silence) (silence) Merciful savior, risen king, we just receive your grace. We just receive it, we just cling to it, we just hold onto it. None of us doing it in a small way, all of us doing it in a huge way. Great forgiveness. Help our resolve to follow you today.

Lord, we're gonna stand and we're gonna sing now and we're gonna sing like people who have experienced great forgiveness. Like our brothers at the Forsyth County Prison, we're gonna sing like people who have experienced great forgiveness. Would you all stand, let's worship him together? (music) (silence) (silence) (silence)