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[0:00] And we got to the last two verses, verse 30, 31.

[0:10] We'll start right there. And before we do that, let's just bow together and seek the Lord this morning. Father in heaven, we are humbled to be able to come before you, to be able to sit before you with your holy words before us.

[0:30] And God, this book is higher than any one of us, all of us put together. It's so holy. It's so pure. It's a reflection of your nature and of your person. And even in its historical content and of the days past, its recording of those events and its purity and accuracy.

[0:49] There's so much in there that, Father, we need your help to relate these things to our lives here today. We believe that they're applicable. We believe that they have value.

[1:00] But we need your Holy Spirit to open our eyes that we may behold wondrous things out of this holy book. Would you please do a work in our hearts this morning and just bless each one that has come and feed them something from your scriptures that can help them be more like you and please you.

[1:17] We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. All right. So we just got through this part about Thomas and the disciples, noticing that Thomas wasn't the only one that was a doubter.

[1:28] But they all did not believe when they heard the word. And so Christ put out two categories in verse 29. The ones that had seen and believed, which were all those disciples.

[1:39] They had all seen and therefore they believed. And then he says the blessing is on the ones that have not seen yet have believed. And Peter told us that that's us whom having not seen ye love and ye believed.

[1:53] Now John admitted, we read these verses last week in 1 John chapter 1. John admitted that he said, I saw him. My hands have handled him. And I saw with my eyes and so forth.

[2:04] And so he's in the category of somebody who saw and then believed. But you and I get the blessing. And there's a few things I think are associated with that. We mentioned the rejoicing was in some of those scriptures.

[2:16] And I mentioned peace. And who knows how far that goes of what's built into exercising faith. It's something that God expects from us. It's the life he's given us is to walk by faith.

[2:29] And so there's even in his resurrection, in his upbraiding his disciples, there's this mention of a blessing for those who will believe without having sight.

[2:40] So now verse 30, John says, Many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book.

[2:51] If you really look back at John's book, you quickly, if you compare it to the others, you can quickly see that John didn't spend his time with the signs. He didn't spend his time discussing and bringing to light all of these miraculous things and the healings.

[3:07] He mentions a handful. And some of them he mentions that nobody else mentions. But that was absolutely not his goal is to just tell us of all the wonderful things and the notable things that caught everybody's attention and caused them to follow him and believe on him.

[3:24] Many things he truly did. Matthew mentioned some, Mark, Luke maybe. And there's probably so many others that nobody touched on. As a matter of fact, there's cases, many cases, where it's just this blanket statement that he healed all their diseases or sicknesses and diseases among them.

[3:41] We have no real concept of how long of a day that was or how many individuals came before him. It's just kind of a blanket. John says many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples.

[3:54] Stating that I, one of his disciples, in his presence, I saw so much more than I'm telling you. I'm just giving you a drop of the bucket of what he did. Now if we went through his epistle, we could pull out certain, in John chapter 5, the impotent man that couldn't make it to the water, Christ healed him and he believed on him.

[4:15] And of course, we're going to see this again. That was John's purpose for even putting that story in there because the man believed on him. John gives us certain of these one-on-one interactions that no one else does.

[4:27] For instance, Nicodemus in chapter 3, a one-on-one with a man, a ruler of the Jews. A one-on-one with a woman of Samaria in chapter 4 that no one else would even talk to.

[4:37] The disciples are shocked that he's talking to her. And there he is, one-on-one with her. One-on-one with the impotent man. He has, after these drop their stones in chapter 8, the woman taken in adultery, he has a little one-on-one with that woman that was guilty of adultery, taken in the very act.

[4:55] And he speaks to her. And he has a one-on-one with a blind man in chapter 9 and he heals him and he believes on him as a result. And that stuff is in John. John has a different perspective than the other disciples.

[5:07] Look back at chapter 10 and while we're considering this thought about these signs, many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples.

[5:19] These signs were visual indicators that this man, this human being in front of them was truly the Christ, that he was the Messiah.

[5:30] John chapter 10, I'm going to, I'll just, I'll start in verse 30. This is where kind of things get out of hand. He says, I and my Father are one.

[5:43] And that just blew it up. The Jews took up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, many good works have I showed you from my Father. For which of those works do you stone me?

[5:55] The Jews answered him saying, for a good work we stoned thee not, but for blasphemy. Now, let's just back up and say, where did the good works come from then?

[6:07] They're going to ignore the good works because they can't answer them. At one point they say, you did that through Beelzebub. You got a devil in you, that's why you're doing these good works.

[6:18] But in this case, they just ignore the fact that there was good works that he's doing. We can't deny it, but we're not going to focus on those good works, which is proof that he's the Christ.

[6:29] We're going to say, we don't like your speech. And they say in verse 33, because that thou being a man makest thyself God. And now Christ says, well, that's not a problem.

[6:40] Your Bible says you could say that too if you wanted to. In verse 34, Jesus answered them, it's not written in your law. I said, ye are gods. If he called them gods unto whom the word of God came and the scripture cannot be broken, say ye of him who the Father has sanctified and sent into the world, thou blasphemest?

[6:56] Because I said, I am the Son of God. Plainer words, you guys could claim to be the Son of God in that sense from the scripture. Ye are gods. If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not.

[7:08] Verse 38, but if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works that ye may know and believe that the Father is in me and I in him.

[7:20] And now they want to kill him again. So in John chapter 20, it says many other signs truly did Jesus. Those are signs that are to be indicators and evidences of his authentic Messiahship.

[7:35] That he, in fact, is the one that should come. And John doesn't spend a lot of time in this epistle using those signs as evidence. It's sprinkled throughout, no doubt.

[7:47] But he does some other things. Look at verse 31 now. But these are written. Now I said many other signs. This isn't quite the close of his epistle yet. So either he's referring to his entirety of what he's written so far or maybe just to the chapter 20 of itself.

[8:04] For instance, chapter 20, we have the resurrection from the dead, which was the sign of the prophet Jonas, the only one that was going to be given to that wicked and adulterous generation.

[8:15] That sign exists in this chapter as well as in verse 19, he appears with closed doors, just appears in the midst of his disciples. And then he did a second time, which is mentioned in verse 26.

[8:29] After eight days again, his disciples were therein, Thomas with them. Then came Jesus, doors being shut, stood in the midst. And so at the end of that chapter, with that happening, he says many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which there is appearing just in thin air in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in the book, but these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life through his name.

[9:00] Now, when he says that ye might have life through his name, there's no question this is talking about something spiritual, because anybody that's reading what's written has life.

[9:12] You have life here today, but not the kind of life that you can get by believing that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. There's another life that's offered in Jesus Christ.

[9:24] He doesn't call it eternal life here. He doesn't call it everlasting life. But flip back a few chapters. Let's just look at a couple of these. Look back at chapter 3. This is probably the most popular in the world.

[9:36] But he references a birth in chapter 1, being born of God. In chapter 1, I mean, John introduces this gospel talking about life, that Christ created all things, but then says in him was life.

[9:54] And then in chapter 1, he talks about being born of God in verse 12 and 13. But then chapter 3, this is the famous one here, verse 15, That whosoever believeth in him, that's what he's talking about in 20, Whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

[10:14] So that's the life that you get when you believe on Jesus Christ. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

[10:28] And then there's another word he associates with this, one that we have really latched on to, verse 17. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.

[10:40] That's the word we like to use, saved. It's taking the place of everlasting life in verses 16 and eternal life in verse 15.

[10:52] He might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. So you can have eternal life if you believe in Jesus Christ, or you'll be condemned if you don't believe in him.

[11:09] Not a complicated thing, is it? We get that. I trust you get that. It's pretty simple to see it from the scripture. Man kind of makes it a little bit tricky by saying, well, Jesus is the Savior, but you have to do this in order to keep your eternal life that he'll offer you.

[11:25] Man has trouble just exercising faith. That's really the bottom line. Man has trouble believing the word of God as it stands, and he wants to add to it.

[11:36] So believe that Jesus... Look at chapter 5. This is another powerful one. Chapter 5 and verse 24. John wants you to believe that Jesus is the Christ, and believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, you can have life through his name.

[11:55] Verse 24. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation. That was mentioned in chapter 3, because he believed on the Son.

[12:08] But instead, he's passed from death unto life. Obviously not physical life, because we all have that. But being passed to eternal life.

[12:21] And look at chapter 10. Let's catch one more on this. Chapter 10. And when you get eternal life, this is a verse you can couple with that. It just builds throughout the book.

[12:33] Look. Not only do you pass from death unto eternal life, and not only do you get out of the condemnation that you're under, but you also get eternal life that can't be taken away.

[12:49] Verse 28. And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish. That's why John said in chapter 3, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believed him should not perish.

[13:05] Does that mean die physically? Well, we're not talking about physical life. We're not talking about physical death. Perish is talking about eternity there. Talking about a man's soul. They shall never perish.

[13:16] Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. And that's coming full circle back to where we just were. And there's much more, but let's go back to chapter 20. These are written that ye might believe.

[13:27] So I made the point to show you this at the very beginning of this study, going back a good while, that John's angle is to convert the believer. I'm sorry, convert the reader.

[13:38] To make them a believer in Jesus Christ. And the stories that he tells, the individual one-on-ones that he brings out, is to get the reader to become that individual.

[13:49] To see that Jesus is the Christ. And to believe on him. And to have life through his name. So if you're a ruler of the Jews, if you're a man of power and position, like Nicodemus, you need to believe on Jesus Christ.

[14:03] If you're an outcast like the Samaritan woman that nobody talks to and nobody has fellowship with, you need to believe on Jesus Christ. If you're that impotent man that's just pathetic in this world and has no man that can help you, you need to believe on Jesus Christ.

[14:18] If you're a blind man, and you need people to take you and pay for everything for you, and you need Jesus Christ. Every single individual in this world, John's trying to reach them and show them that they need to believe on Jesus Christ.

[14:30] His angle is to convert the reader. It's not to show that Jesus is the king of the Jews. It's not to show like Matthew's gospel, that he's the kingdom of heaven's at hand.

[14:42] That doesn't show up in these 21 chapters one time. But it's all over Matthew. John has a different angle. And he's very clear about it too. I'm not going to take you through this.

[14:53] If you studied all four gospel writers, you can kind of pull out and start to kind of build a little what their angle is or what their point of view is, how they're expressing or introducing the Lord Jesus Christ.

[15:07] Matthew's strongly Jewish. It begins with the book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. I mean, he is king, the kingly line. He is the Jewish king, the Messiah.

[15:19] And that's this whole gospel. Luke, he's writing to a man named Theophilus and says, I was there the whole time. Other people have written. I'm going to write because I saw it all and I have perfect understanding of this whole thing.

[15:31] And I'm going to write and expound all of this to you. And he does it in Luke. And then he does it again in the book of Acts. And that's his angle. That's it's the purpose of his writing to a man. John, John takes Jesus Christ so high, takes him all the way to the throne to eternity and says, in the beginning was the word.

[15:50] And then he shows that the word became flesh and that the word is drawing men unto him to believe on him. And he was lifted up that all men might believe and be saved. John's gospel is written to convert the reader.

[16:05] All right. So finishing there in chapter 20, that you might have life through his name. Some people get a little twisted. They get ultra literal with the word of God or at least they jump on a verse or they jump on a phrase and then begin a doctrine from a phrase.

[16:20] Oh, did you see it says name? And neither is there salvation through any other. None other name under heaven. Give them a moment where I'm going to say. And so they jump on the name and say, you have to believe on the name. Did you believe on the name?

[16:32] And they'll start this kind of twisted lingo because they found a phrase and a verse. And I don't hope you ever hear that stuff or get tied down with it. But you have to be careful when somebody just pulls a verse and it starts a doctrine because it's easy to do.

[16:47] And you can go back to John 1. I'm telling you, this is like a teaching by some and it's pathetic. But they overemphasize the thought of the name. And then when they do that, they don't know if it should be the name of Jesus or if it should be a Hebrew name.

[17:02] Is it Yahweh? Is it Yeshua? Is it Jehovah? And then they get stuck and they try to nail it down on one. And then they have their own little doctrine that everybody needs to be praying in that name and talking in that name because it shows up in the Bible here and there.

[17:16] A little bit obscure way to teach a doctrine. Not really trying to get on that, so let's move on. Chapter 21. After these things, Jesus showed himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias.

[17:29] So this is the third time and John mentions that, verse 14, this is the third time that he showed himself to his disciples. And interestingly, God or Jesus Christ here does things in threes because there's some threes that show up here in this passage with Simon Peter seeming to connect back to some threes of earlier in his life.

[17:53] But nevertheless, he shows himself to his disciples at the Sea of Tiberias. Where in the world is the Sea of Tiberias? I'll look back at chapter 6. John chapter 6.

[18:09] And John has already conditioned the reader to know exactly what he's talking about. From chapter 1 moving through, you already know this. He's already informed you where the Sea of Tiberias is.

[18:21] Chapter 6, verse 1. After these things, Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee. Which is the Sea of Tiberias. Just has another name. Not to be confused, there's two other names.

[18:35] Luke calls it in one place, Gennesaret. And I think another place in John, we mentioned back when we were in chapter 6, Chinnereth is another name given to that sea.

[18:46] So there's nothing to be confused about because John has already told us what that is moving through this gospel. So he's up there in Galilee, up in the northern region of Israel. And on this wise showed he himself.

[18:58] Verse 2. There were together Simon Peter and Thomas called Didymus and Nathaniel of Cana in Galilee. Look at that guy showing up out of nowhere. Nathaniel. Do you remember him?

[19:09] At all? Do you remember where he showed up first? We studied him in this book. It's been a long time. But the last time we read Nathaniel's name, I believe it was chapter 1. The very first time the disciples are saying, come and see, come and see.

[19:22] And he goes and sees Nathaniel. And he says, you're an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile. And Nathaniel's like, how do you know me? And he said, I saw you before I met you.

[19:34] You were under a fig tree. I saw you. And he's like, what? And right away Nathaniel says, thou art the son of God, the king of Israel. He recognized him and he believed on him.

[19:46] And Christ said, you believe because of that? You're going to see greater things than these. And indeed he did. So Nathaniel stuck with him the whole time. You don't get to see him, windows and glimpses of him, but there he is.

[19:57] All the way to the end, after the resurrection, with the disciples. So there's Simon Peter, Thomas, Nathaniel of Canaan and Galilee. And the two sons of Zebedee, that's James and John, and then two other unnamed of his disciples, making a total of seven men.

[20:14] Verse 3, Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing. So they're up there by the Sea of Galilee. This is their stomping grounds. They were fishermen by trade.

[20:25] Peter was. So was James and John. So three out of the seven, we know for a fact, were commercial fishermen. And there they are looking at that water. It is just calling them.

[20:37] And there's a ship close by. They say unto him, We also go with thee. They went forth and entered into a ship. Notice the next word. Immediately. Just no second thoughts.

[20:49] You can see just, I'm reading into that saying, they wanted to be on that boat. They've been looking at that boat. Three of them at least been eyeing that boat up a long time. And there's the water.

[21:00] There's the boat. We're not doing anything. The Lord is not, we haven't seen him since we were back down there in Jerusalem. And now we're up here in Galilee. We don't know where he's at.

[21:11] He did tell, I don't know if you remember this, but he told, is it in this chapter? Peter? No, it's in the other gospels where he says, Tell my disciples, Go ahead before me into Galilee.

[21:26] I'm going to meet you there. So they're just hanging out up there waiting. And there's a boat. There's water. The fish aren't going to catch themselves.

[21:38] We've got to go. So Peter says, I go fishing immediately. They're just, Yep, we're with you. One thing you see here about Peter is that Peter's a leader. Nobody else is talking about doing it.

[21:49] They might be thinking about doing it. But when Peter says, I don't know about you. I don't care what you're going to do. I'm going fishing. He just, they're all following. Peter is a leader.

[22:00] The other six are followers. It doesn't mean that they're weak men. It just, that's just the nature. And you'll see that in any group. That God just has given certain people personalities and instincts of leadership and others instincts of following and being that second person or the back seat, taking the back seat and being fine with it.

[22:21] There's nothing wrong with that. God does that. And you can't have too many chiefs, right? Or you got a problem. So Peter here is a leader. And it's just who he is. And so they follow him immediately.

[22:32] And of course it says that night they caught nothing. So I don't know how they're feeling and thinking, but I can imagine having gone out and fished at nighttime and fished hours at a time and caught, just totally got skunked.

[22:46] It's kind of a demoralizing feeling. It's like you're just wore out, even though if you were catching fish, you'd be using more energy, but your energy level is way up. Your adrenaline's up.

[22:56] You're excited. You're happy. They're bored. It's dead. It's all night of just toiling and pulling the nets in and out and nothing happening. It's just, it is.

[23:08] It's just, it lays you flat. You're just empty and zapped. And that's the feeling. It's got to be how these seven men felt after toiling all night, catching nothing.

[23:19] When the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus. Now there's no reason to say that he was appearing in a different form or hiding himself because it says in verse 8 that they were 200 cubits away from the land.

[23:35] So you're talking a football field away, 100 yards, seeing across to the shore. They don't necessarily recognize him and see that it was exactly him. So verse 5, Jesus saith unto them, he's got to be calling out loudly, children, have ye any meat?

[23:53] They answered him, no. Now that's a common thing for, I mean, I was at the beach the other week and these guys were fishing and I'm walking by like, did you catch anything?

[24:04] Did you catch anything? Did you get any bites? It's just a common thing to ask a fisherman is, have you caught anything? And Christ asked them, did you catch anything? And they say, no. So verse 6, he said unto them, cast the net on the right side of the ship and ye shall find.

[24:21] Now what's not written here is what they said one to another because it didn't yet, it didn't yet come to the light that it's the Lord until the fish are in the net. And so you don't know how they're like, what in the world, or arguing, or forget this, or who's this guy think he is, or just, you know, you don't know what these men, seven men in a boat, are saying to one to another.

[24:41] But it says, they cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes. Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved, that would be John, saith unto Peter, it is the Lord.

[24:55] Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he girded his fishers coat unto him, for he was naked, and had cast himself into the sea. Peter's not only a leader, he's also a peculiar guy.

[25:07] You can say that he just wanted to get to the Lord as fast as he could. And that's possibly what he was doing. Another time when this happened, Peter said, depart from me, for I'm a sinful man.

[25:18] He said that to the Lord Jesus. So there's, he's a peculiar guy, a little quirky maybe, but he gets his clothes on, and he gets into the water, and he's going to arrive on shore, soaking wet a little bit.

[25:32] The other disciples came in a little boat. So there's other disciples on shore. There's seven of them that get into the boat. It seems there was others on shore that did not.

[25:43] The other disciples came in a little ship, for they were not far from land, but as it were 200 cubits, dragging the net with fishes. As soon as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid thereon, and bread.

[25:59] Jesus saith unto them, Bring of the fish which ye have now caught. There's already fish on the fire of coals. There's already bread there to eat. And now he calls them to bring the fish that they've caught.

[26:12] Simon Peter went up and drew the net to land full of great fishes, and 150 and three. And for all there were so many, yet was not the net broken. Isn't it interesting?

[26:23] All the details that are not in the text, but he tells you how many fish were in the net, and that it wasn't broken. It's just interesting how the Bible's written and those things that God retained in the text for us.

[26:34] It's just giving it a little more of its veracity that you can trust it. He gives you the exact number of fishes. It wasn't just some bogus thing. And it's a greater detail because some people come to the text and just want to extract some philosophical ideas that's being taught.

[26:50] But no, this is a literal story that took place. It's not just some Aesop's fable where you try to learn something neat for life from it. It's a real story. So he throws in a number to show you this really happened, and that's exactly how many fish he caught, and John stands by it.

[27:06] Remember earlier one thing he said in chapter 19, verse 30, And he that saw it bear record, and his record is true, and he knoweth that he saith true, that he might believe.

[27:17] So John stands by his word. Okay, so there's the number of fishes, and it seems like the net's not broken, implying this was miraculous as well, to have that much weight in that thing, and it's just a wild night.

[27:32] Now, let's for a moment get into the mind of the fisherman, or of Simon Peter, because he's about to have this interaction with the Lord Jesus, as you know it's coming up here.

[27:46] Peter spent all night fishing. Peter just before that said, I go fishing. So I don't want to imply too much there and say that, oh, he's going back to his old lifestyle, and he's forsaking the ministry.

[27:57] I don't want to put that on there. You can kind of in picture say that. But nevertheless, he goes out, fishes that night. There's not necessarily anything wrong with that. He doesn't catch anything.

[28:08] There's nothing to be drawn out from his efforts, because Christ has already said, be followers of me, I'll make you fishers of men, and they forsook those nets and boats.

[28:20] And so Peter does go, and he's enjoying himself, but it's not really bringing any fulfillment, and there's nothing in that life. And then he puts that net in the other side, and my goodness, you can imagine the energy level in that boat went through the roof.

[28:38] If you've ever laid into a big fish, or a friend of yours did, it just gets exciting fast. And for seven men to be in a boat, and they can't draw this net in, I'm telling you, every ounce of them, every fiber of them, the adrenaline is flowing.

[28:53] They're shouting out. They're hooping and hollering. They're like, I can't believe you. They're just excited. They're up here in excitement. And then they come to shore, and Christ says in verse 12, He saith unto them, Come and dine.

[29:09] None of the disciples durst ask him, Who art thou, knowing that it was the Lord. Jesus then cometh, and taketh bread, giveth them, and fish likewise. Now this is the third time Jesus showed himself to his disciples after he was risen from the dead.

[29:20] And now it's time for Peter. So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these?

[29:32] He saith unto him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs. Now some people speculate that perhaps Jesus is talking about the disciples and saying, Simon, do you love me more than the other disciples love me?

[29:47] And I think, personally, I think that's a foolish question. I don't see Jesus asking that. Do you love me more than these other men love me? That doesn't seem like the Lord Jesus Christ at all. It seems more plausible that with these fish laying on the ground, 150 and three of them, and the excitement that he just felt, the adrenaline rush, he just jumps into the water.

[30:11] The guy is on a high. He got that feeling. He got that taste back in his mouth. He just, oh, the tug in the net. I don't know if you understand this, but there's, it just calls to a man that's a commercial fisherman.

[30:27] Whatever that is that he found fulfillment in, in this life, he felt it again. And now the Lord says, do you love me more than these? Because he just felt that rush.

[30:38] It was all over him from head to toe. And now he's seated beside the Lord. He says, you know I love you, was his answer. You know I love you. Thou knowest that I love thee. So then he gives him a command, feed my lambs.

[30:52] He didn't say, go catch fish. Verse 16, he saith unto him again, the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee.

[31:05] He saith unto him, feed my sheep. Saith unto him, the third time, the third time. This is the third time he showed up to his disciples. You might remember that Peter denied him three times by a fire where there in verse number nine, there's a fire of coals there and Peter's soaking wet and he's probably sitting close to it warming himself like he was a little while back.

[31:29] And he says to him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, lovest thou me?

[31:41] And he saith unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, feed my sheep. I wonder if Jesus Christ came in here this morning and just said, hey, so and so, brother so and so, sister so and so, do you love me?

[31:59] Does he do that to you? Does he ever remind you of Calvary? Does he ever check your heart like that? Does he ever just say, do you love me? And you'd say, well, yes, Lord, you know I love you.

[32:14] Of course I love you. And then sometimes he does it a second time. He's not done with you. You're not getting off with just saying, yeah, it's all good because he comes back, he wants more because he wants something from your life.

[32:30] Ultimately, he wants you to follow him and not go chasing other things and chasing the thrill that you once chased. And so he comes again and then he comes again until you get it.

[32:43] And in verse 18, he's got some heavy words for Peter. After he commissions him to feed his sheep, he says, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, when thou wast young, thou girdest thyself and walkest whither thou wouldest.

[33:01] He did whatever you want. When thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thine hands like Jesus Christ did on the cross and another shall gird thee and carry thee whither thou wouldest not.

[33:14] What's he telling him? He's telling him you're going to die. In verse 19, this spake he signifying by what death he should glorify God. Now that's a poetic way of saying that.

[33:28] If I had to tell you something like that and give you news like that, I wouldn't have the ability to frame it that way. If you read it again, it's a beautiful thing. It gives you one side and then gives you another side.

[33:40] When you're young, you did this. When you're old, this is what's going to happen. It's going to be the opposite. You could do whatever you wanted, but they're going to take you someplace you didn't want to go. You don't want to go. And it's just the words of Christ.

[33:52] It's the words of the King James Bible framing it in such a way that it's just a glorious version of speech that we're somewhat unfamiliar with. And once again, the Bible is higher than you and I.

[34:04] It's holier than us and it doesn't need to be dumbed down no matter what anybody says. So he says, this is the death that you glorify God. When he had spoken this, he saith unto him two words, follow me.

[34:18] It's not the first time he said that to Peter, but here it is after the death, burial, resurrection, after meeting him a second, or the third time after the thing. Now it's the same commission repeated, follow me.

[34:34] Then Peter, look at this, turning about. in just a snap of the fingers, Peter gets his eyes off of Jesus Christ.

[34:45] He's getting up to leave. He says, follow me. And just that quickly, he turns his head to look at somebody else and to get distracted by what they're doing and then to bring it up, what's going on here?

[34:59] Notice the words, then Peter, turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved following, whom also leaned on his breast at supper and said, Lord, is it he that betrayeth thee? Or which is he that betrayeth thee?

[35:10] Peter, seeth him, saith to Jesus, Lord, what shall this man do? Now Christ snaps back at him here. He literally does. He says, Jesus saith unto him, if I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?

[35:24] And now the repeat, follow thou me. He's eyeball to eyeball, stern in his face to the man who he just had this interaction with, with, you know that I love you, feed my lambs, feed my sheep, follow me.

[35:41] And now he's like, but what about him? But what's this brother going to do? Well, what about that brother? What about that sister? What about this? Christ is like, put the blinders on, son.

[35:52] I'm talking to you. And when I talk to you, you look at me and you answer me and you follow me and you follow my leading. You don't worry about what I tell other people to do.

[36:03] You follow what I tell you to do. And shame on Peter, but in Peter is a bit of Toby and a bit of you that just turns about.

[36:15] So quickly turns about when the Lord speaks. You know, one of this, this is going to tie into something later on today, but it's on my mind, so I'll say it, is one of the things when the Lord pricks your heart in a church service, when he pricks your heart about something and you know exactly what that is and what you should do about it, and the Lord's like, you should go forward and deal with that right here, right now, tonight.

[36:37] You know what you do? You turn about. You're just like, if I take a step, somebody's going to see me.

[36:49] Somebody's going to think about me. Instead of God saying, follow me. I called you up here. Come forward. That's your flesh. Turning about, worried about others.

[37:01] And so there's Peter and he needs to be rebuked and it's just so fast, so quickly that he gets distracted to take his eyes off of following Christ. He just said, follow me.

[37:12] And Peter turning about. It's that fast. And then the Lord says, follow thou me. Now verse 23, we're getting to the end here. Then went this saying abroad among the brethren, that that disciple should not die, referring to John.

[37:28] Yet Jesus said not unto him, he shall not die. But if I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? So John has to set the record straight because typical brethren take a little phrase and run with it or they're looking for something that's not there in the words of Jesus.

[37:45] That's pretty common of the brethren. So John has to set the record saying that's not what he said. That's not the application here. So don't go, this saying went abroad.

[37:55] It said among the brethren, they spread this word that John's not going to die. John's never going to die. And he says he didn't say that. So be careful what you do with the word of God.

[38:08] Verse 24, this is the disciple which testifieth these things and wrote these things. and we know that his testimony is true. And to close this thing a so fitting and strong conclusion.

[38:21] And there are also many other things which Jesus did the which if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written.

[38:34] Amen. Amen. So two things here. One is the just overwhelming truth of the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ that John would say such a thing that it's just to step into a relationship with Jesus Christ, you can't put it to words, you can't write it all out, you can't take it all in at one time ever.

[39:04] There's so much in Jesus Christ and John expressed that from his relationship with him and his time with him saying, I can't even tell you how good he is and how amazing he is and all that he's done.

[39:16] And that's the kind of relationship you ought to have if you have one with a walk with Christ that ought to be like, where do I begin talking about what he's done and who he is?

[39:27] And then I said there was two things and I forget what the second one was. Oh, this. God didn't give us all of those other things.

[39:41] He gave us these things and he did it on purpose so when you come to the Bible you don't have to go looking for what else is out there. What other gospels are written? What other books are written that we can get more insight on because it's not here?

[39:55] God gave us what we need in this book. 21 chapters in John, enough said. It covered enough material. You don't have to go somewhere else to believe on Jesus Christ.

[40:07] You don't have to go somewhere else to agree and believe that what was written is true and that what he did is blowing everybody's mind and you don't need it. You don't need anything else. And so you can rest confident and assured the word of God has everything you need.

[40:21] Now that's the close of the book. Before we close the lesson this morning and wrap it up and walk away from John, I showed you the purpose very clearly from the beginning all the way through to convert the reader, to believe on Jesus Christ.

[40:36] Nobody else writes like John writes. The theme of this gospel is not the love of God. It's not love of Jesus. It's believe on the Son of God. It's a very popular book for winning souls, for pointing somebody to everlasting life through faith.

[40:51] John has such a unique perspective. He's so close to Jesus Christ, nobody else is. So he writes differently. He gives a different insight into his person, into his words, into his holiness, into his eternal nature.

[41:08] John tells us things about Christ nobody else does. Things that, it's all about that trinity. I know we hit these so many times where the Father's in him and like those things John tells us. Nobody else tells us that stuff because John saw him.

[41:21] Differently. He got in. He understood some things. He had close fellowship with Christ so he could see him as the eternal and almighty Son of God and the Creator.

[41:34] And then John feels compelled to declare to the world that we need to believe on him. No matter who you are, where you're from, and what's your past, adultery, foreigner, outsider, no matter who you are, you need to come to Christ and believe on him and receive eternal life.

[41:54] And so John gives us such a great thing. I told you at the beginning of this study, it was not my intention to get some deep dive and to cover all the darkest things we can pull out of the Bible, but rather to keep it on the surface and just to give you those needed, necessary elements of the person of Christ, a relationship with Christ, believing on Christ, and John, he nails that stuff.

[42:19] Man, he nails it. So we'll close with that and we'll see where we go from here for our next time we get together. I've got a few thoughts, so I've been just praying about that lately and seeing what we might do if we tackle another book or tackle a subject, but God willing, we'll know by next Sunday.

[42:36]  So let's be dismissed here, take ten minutes, enjoy some fellowship, and then we'll come back at the top of the hour. Thank you. Thank you.