John
Recycled Disciple: John
21.15-25
It’s a shock when a leader falls,
when a Christian leader goes astray. Even
though we try not to put vicars and
ministers and leaders on a pedestal. Even
though we realise they’re just the
same as us, made of the same flesh and blood,
sharing the same sinful humanity.
Nonetheless we expect a high standard of
conduct from someone who is in a
leadership position in God’s church and the
Bible certainly encourages us in
that.
Peter was one of the leading
apostles if not the leading apostle. He was
destined to have a key role in the
New Testament church. He was clearly chosen
by Jesus not only as a disciple but
as a leader, but Peter was a deeply flawed
man.
When he was right, he was really
right. When he was wrong, he was wrong big
time. One of the peaks of Peter’s
career, if you like, was the day at Caesarea
Philippi when he declared to Jesus
‘You are the Christ’ (Mark 8.29). But just
before we all cheer too loudly,
Peter promptly falls flat on his face and makes
one of the biggest theological
boobs of all time.
Jesus starts talking about his
death. Peter leaps in and says ‘oh no Lord that
must never happen to you’, totally
failing to realise that the forthcoming
crucifixion is to be at the very
heart of God’s plan of salvation, and he earns
the stinging rebuke: ‘Get behind me
Satan! You do not have in mind the things of
God, but the things of men.’ (Mark
8.33)
Peter got some things really right
but other things really wrong
But Peter’s really low point was on
the night that Jesus was arrested. I think
we all feel for him that night.
None of us can read the account of Peter’s
denial of Jesus without being moved
in compassion for Peter and asking ourselves
what we would have done in the same
situation.
Peter in all sincerity had said to
Jesus just before his arrest ‘I will lay my
life down for you!’ At the time he
meant it, but when the chips were down, his
courage failed him. Waiting outside
the high priest’s house while Jesus is being
questioned inside, three times
passers-by say ‘weren’t you one of his disciples,
weren’t you one of his followers?’
It would have been so easy to say ‘yes’ but
Peter didn’t. Three times he was
asked; three times he denied he even knew
Jesus.
And then the cock crowed and then
Peter remembered the words of his Lord:
‘Before the cock crows today, you
will disown me three times’ And then, Luke
tells us, Peter went outside and
wept bitterly.
We can imagine the bitterness of
those tears, the depth of that sorrow, the
extent of the shame and regret he
felt.
He’s probably not the sort of
person you want leading a caring group or a Sunday
school class let alone leading a whole
church. You can imagine the words on the
reference: ‘a bit unreliable.
Tempestuous. Unstable. Means well but a bit
unpredictable. Not good under
stress.’ I have to write many references. I
wouldn’t want to write a reference for
Peter. Would I feel able to recommend him
for a pastoral position in local
church leadership? I’m not sure I would.
Fortunately, God was not finished
with Peter. God’s purposes for Peter were to
use him again. To pick him up and
dust him down and put him back on his way, a
little wiser, much humbler, with a
whole deeper knowledge of what the Bible
calls grace the undeserved love of
God for sinners.
God was going to be restore Peter.
We say that about old buildings where we mean
getting back to the original.
Although God does not turn the clock back and rub
out the past, he can restore our
relationship with him back to what it was
before we went astray
And that’s exactly what happens
here
Soon after the resurrection the
disciples return from a fishing expedition to
find that Jesus is standing at the
lakeside cooking breakfast for them. John
takes up the story:
15 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."
16
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.
Three times the Lord Jesus asks him:
‘Peter, do you love me?’ Three times the
Lord commissions him to serve as a
shepherd of the flock.
In the Greek, the language in which
John’s Gospel is written, slightly different
words are used for the word ‘love.’
Some commentators have made much of this but
in the language Jesus and Peter
were speaking, Aramaic, the same word would have
been used throughout. Almost
certainly Jesus is asking Peter the same question
each time. Peter is hurt that Jesus
asks three times. But the reason is obvious,
three times he has denied Jesus,
three times he is asked ‘do you love me’
Two things we can say about this:
1. What Jesus wants to know most is
whether Peter loves him
He is not first and foremost
concerned about Peter’s gifts or abilities or the
skills he would bring to the job of
apostle. Nor does he want to rake up the
past. He is not looking for an
apology. He just wants to know where Peter’s
heart lies
‘Peter, do you love?’ That’s what
Jesus wants to know. If Peter loves him that’s
enough. Everything else will fall
into place
And for you? Do you love Jesus?
What’s there in your heart? What is your
essential attitude to Jesus? It’s
not your gifts or your knowledge or what you
have achieved in your career or
what you have done with your life, good or bad,
that matters most to Jesus, but do
you love him? Is that where you essential
faith and loyalty lies? If you love
him, he can use you. That’s what Peter
found.
2. Jesus wants Peter to work for
him, caring for the flock
In so doing he shows his trust in
him. To give someone a job is a way of showing
confidence in them. Any person can
be restored and used again in his service.
God believes in recycling not
replacement. God will use Peter again despite his
failures
Thank God that he is the recycling
God. He doesn’t throw people away as no use.
If they get into a mess, if they
reject him for a while, if they fall away from
him, even if they deny him
completely, he’ll have them back, he can recycle
them, he can use them again
Perhaps there is someone here today
who knows that they have denied Jesus.
Perhaps you have done it with your
lips. Perhaps your lifestyle at this
moment
is a living denial of Jesus, and
you know it. You’re sitting here in church this
morning, but you know you have
fallen into sin.
Let me say to you: come back. Come
back to the recycling God. God can use you
again. He wants to use you. It’s
never too late to come. No sin is ever so big
that God cannot say ‘I forgive you’
Perhaps you are struggling with
failure in some area of your life. That can be
hard to admit in an area like ours
where there are many high achievers, where
people set great store by success
in education and career and even in family
life. Perhaps, quite frankly, you are
staring failure in the face. Be
encouraged, Jesus doesn’t reject
you, Jesus doesn’t think less of you. Your
worth to him is not measured by
your earthly achievements but by the price he
paid for you on the cross. Jesus
loves you and can still use you in his kingdom.
Finally, for Peter there is a
warning of the cost of following him
18
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."
19 Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by
which Peter
would glorify God.
For Peter loving Jesus, caring for
his sheep was going to lead to martyrdom.
Peter really would in the end lay
down his life for his Lord in the end.
At Spring Harvest this year we
heard much about the persecuted church around the
world. We were reminded that this very day somewhere in the world a
believer
will lay down his life for his
faith. May that challenge us to live our lives
before Jesus and to count the cost.
And then having warned him, he
calls him
Then he said to him, "Follow
me!"
The tense is a continuous tense: it
means ‘keep following me’. Whether you are a
new Christian, or you’ve been a
Christian for 50 years, the message of Jesus to
you is: keep following me
All About Salvation (John 3.14-21)
COMING UP IN THIS SERMON
· Why it is possible to be saved
· How it is possible to know that you are saved
· Why some people will never be saved
Why it is possible to be saved
We take it for granted that we can
be saved. We see God a bit like the men from
the council who come to empty our
dustbins. They come and take away our rubbish
each week and we think nothing of
it. After all, its their job. In the same way
many people think it is God’s
job to forgive sins, to save people.
That is what
God is for.
But hang on, if God is God, God can
do whatever he likes. He is under no
obligation to save people at all.
He doesn’t have to do anything. He is a
totally free agent. God could look
at this world, see the mess we have made with
it, and God could decide to wash
his hands of mankind completely. In a sense you
couldn’t blame God for that.
But God didn’t do that for one very
important reason. God loved the world
When God looks at this world he
sees a mess. He sees people who have turned from
him and gone their own way. He sees
people who have followed too much the
devices and desires of their own
hearts. He sees a world that is under judgment
and deserves condemnation, but when
he looks at this world, he looks at it with
love.
That is why salvation is possible.
Because God so loves the world.
16
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that
whoever
believes in him shall not perish
but have eternal life
For the Jews that was a completely
new idea! They knew God loved Israel. They
knew God loved his own people, but
that God loved the world was a new concept
altogether.
He loved the world because he is
like that. Because he is a God of love. It is
his nature to love. The cross shows
the love of the Father. It reveals the
loving heart of God. God’s love is
not a sentimental feeling but a love that
costs. It’s a love that will let
nails be driven into his hands and a spear into
his side. It’s a love that will
take all the sin and shame and condemnation of
the world on its own shoulders.
That is what this service is all
about. That is the meaning of Holy
Communion:
that God gave his one and only Son,
that God’s son died on the cross in my place
and in your place. The message of the bread and wine is God loved
you so much
that he gave his one and only Son
for you.
God has done everything necessary
for us to be saved but what we must do is to
accept what God has given. Just as
you will need to come forward and accept into
your hands the bread of holy
communion, so we each need to come to God and
accept forgiveness and eternal, and
accept what Jesus has done for us on the
cross. We do that by believing.
It was the same in the days of
Moses. God provided a way to be saved but the
people had to take God at his word
and respond to him. They has to look to the
snake, just as we have to look to
Jesus and believe in him. What about you? Have
you believed in him? How you
received God’s salvation?
How it is possible to know that you
are saved?
Some people if you ask them are you
going to heaven will reply ‘I hope so.’
That sounds a suitably humble and
modest thing to say. To say ‘yes I know I am
going to heaven’ sounds a bit
boastful, a little bit immodest, but every true
Christian can say ‘I know I am
saved, I know I have eternal life, I know I am
going to heaven’. This sense of
assurance is one of the greatest blessings of
the Gospel
You know where you are going; you
know what the future holds; you can have real
confidence in the faith of death,
because of what God has said in his word. Look
at verse 18
18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned
If you believe in Jesus, if you put
your trust fully in him you can know in
advance the verdict of judgment
day. You can know now that you are not
condemned. It’s as if you are
studying like mad for you’re a levels whilst
you’ve got an A Level certificate on your wall already
signed and post dated.
A Christian is someone who goes
through life KNOWING that he will pass the most
important final exam of all with
flying colours, who knows now that the final
verdict on his life will be ‘not
condemned.’ He or she doesn’t have to
worry
about that or have any anxiety or
keep asking themselves ‘will I pass.’
They
know already. God gives us: the
decision of the future now.
This is possible because Jesus has
given his life for us. When we come to
believe in Jesus we receive for
ourselves all that Jesus has achieved for us.
That is why:
19 Whoever believes in him is not condemned
Why some people will never be
saved?
Have you ever wondered why people
don’t believe in the Gospel? It is such an
amazing message of forgiveness and
new life and when you are a Christian, it
seems so strange that people just
can’t see it. What keeps them from believing?
John explains as follows:
19
This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved
darkness
instead of light because their
deeds were evil.20 Everyone who does evil hates
the light, and will not come into
the light for fear that his deeds will be
exposed
Evil is attractive. Sin is
enjoyable. Living your life without reference to God
has its own particular appeal. The
sad fact is that many people prefer the
darkness to living in the light of
God’s love. Why? Because, says the Bible,
their deeds are evil
Some people know perfectly well the
truth of the gospel but they won’t
become
Christians because they don’t want
to have to change their lifestyle. They want
to be able to carry on doing those
things they enjoy but know are against the
will of God. Quite simply they know
that all that is wrong in their lives will
be shown up in the brightness of
the light of God’s love:
Everyone who does evil hates the light,
and will not come into the light for
fear that his deeds will be exposed
Sadly, ultimately, that is why some
people will never be saved. Because of their
own choice. Because of their
refusal to come into the light and their desire to
stay living in the dark.
Recent surveys show that while over
70 per cent of the population believe in
heaven, less than 20 per cent
believe in hell. Surely this is illogical. Most
people tend to think of other human
beings being like themselves a good sort and
basically OK. But the Bible sees
things rather differently:
but whoever does not believe stands
condemned already because he has not
believed in the name of God's one
and only Son.
You see it’s not just a question of
how you have lived your life. The question
is ‘have you believed in Jesus?’ If
you haven’t you stand condemned. You are
condemned already, because you have
not believed in the Son, you have not looked
to Jesus you have not accepted the
gift of salvation. You’re in the same
position as a drowning man who
refuses to grab hold of a lifebelt.
Two final questions:
God so loved the world that he gave
his only Son that whoever believes in him
shall not die but have eternal
life. Have you believed in him
If you have, what are you doing personally
to share that message with a world
that desperately needs it?
You must be born again: John 3. 1-13
The London Borough of Hackney has blown
up more tower blocks than any other
local authority in the country.
Why? Because their flats were in such a terrible
state of disrepair. They could have
spent millions on repairs: new window
frames, damp treatment, new
cladding for the walls, a coat of paint all round.
They could have done all that and
more but they would still have been left
basically with a set of badly designed buildings ill-suited to human
habitation
in the 21st century. The wise
planners of Hackney realised there was only one
realistic solution to their
problems: start all over again
God came to the same conclusion so
far as you and I were concerned. He realised
that our problems went pretty deep.
In fact that went right to the heart. A bit
of cosmetic surgery would make no
real difference - something far more radical
was needed - not so much a change
of image but a change of heart.
Not everyone sees things as clearly
as that of course and so people over the
centuries have tried all sorts of
self-help remedies to try to sort out the
problems of the human race. I was
interested on a visit to the United States to
see that the largest section in the
bookshops there was devoted to Self-Help
books. Self-improvement has become
a whole industry. You can try Feng shui, or
aromatherapy, or reflexology or
astrology or the latest ‘How to book.’
They all
claim to be the answer to all our
problems but none of them address the basic
problem of what’s wrong in human
heart
Some people put their faith in education.
Others put their faith in religion or
in politics but Jesus says ‘You must be born again’
No other solutions goes deep
enough. They attempt to patch up the human
condition with a bit of sticking
plaster here a bit of sticking plaster there.
None of them comes to the same
radical decision that Hackney’s town-planners
came to, that a complete fresh
start is needed
Or that God tells us we must have
when he says to you and me and to every human
being: ‘you must be born again.’
With you, with me, says God, we will need to
start all over again
This was precisely what Jesus had
to say to Nicodemus in our bible reading.
Nicodemus was a good upright man, a
member of the PCC and a lay reader as well
and when Jesus came to town
performing miracles, proclaiming the word, Nicodemus
thought he would pop round for a
chat with this new young preacher:
2 He came to Jesus at night and said, "Rabbi, we know
you are a
teacher who has come from God. For
no one could perform the miraculous signs you
are doing if God were not with
him."
Possibly a bit of flattery there
from Nicodemus, I don’t know. Jesus disregards
it any way and comes straight to
the point:
3
In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom
of
God unless he is born
again."
But that’s just not possible says
Nicodemus. It may be a nice idea, a fresh
start and all that, but nobody can
really be born again. A person cannot
re-enter his mother’s womb and
perform a kind of action replay of the events of
the labour ward
5
Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom
of God
unless he is born of water and the
Spirit.6 Flesh gives birth to flesh,
but the
Spirit gives birth to spirit.7 You should not be surprised at my saying,
'You
must be born again.'
Jesus, you see, is speaking about
the things of the Spirit. Nicodemus is talking
only about bodily things, about
matters of the flesh. So far as things of the
flesh are concerned, it’s perfectly
true you cannot be born again. but with
things of the Spirit it is rather
different. Spiritually, you can be born again.
Spiritually you can start your life
all over again. Spiritually you can get a
completely fresh start
It’s what happens when a person
becomes a Christian. It only happens when a
person becomes a Christian. There
is no other way it can happen. When a person
puts their trust in Jesus, turns
from their old life and turns to him, then God
the Holy Spirit enters their life
and they’re born again. They become completely
new people. 2 Corinthians 5.17 puts
it like this:
If anyone is in Christ, he is a new
creation; the old has gone, the new has come
And that is the best news in the
world. You’ve messed your life up? God can wipe
the slate clean. You’re ashamed of
your past? God can give you a new identity in
Jesus.
And it may be that this is a
message for you today. Perhaps you’ve only just
started coming to church and you’re
hearing this message for the first time
today. You can be born again, you
can start all over again, God by His Holy
Spirit can come into your life and
make you new
Or perhaps you have been coming to
Holy Trinity for some time, even many years,
but these things haven’t become
real and personal for you yet. The fact of the
matter is that you haven’t yet been
born again. To you Jesus says ‘you must be
born again’ - that is the way to
enter the kingdom of God. That is way to be
sure that you belong to God and
have a place booked in heaven in advance. Today
may be the day for you to start
afresh with God, to be born again.
olyHol
And it is of course the only way.
Jesus didn’t say you could be born again if
you feel like it or one option you
could consider would be being born again. He
said you must be born again. Trying
to lead a good life, doing good, even going
to church regularly will not deal
with these basics problems in the human heart.
Only a new heart from God will.
Without being born again we cannot
even see the kingdom of God let alone enter
it. We are spiritually blind.