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[0:00] Right, it's great. It's great to be back and it's great to be able to talk to you about the subject that I've got this morning. I'll tell you for why because it's really, really fundamental to my Christian life.

[0:13] It's about Peter being restored. And I want to let you in to a guilty secret. There you go. You will know my heart now.

[0:25] I absolutely love programs where things are renovated. I am obsessed by renovation programs. And my favourite is the one on the top there. It's called Hometown American Programme.

[0:38] And this is Ben and Erin and they're a young couple and they live in the deep south of America in a place called Laurel. And they renovate homes because Laurel was one of those towns that was going to be, you know, it was dying.

[0:54] It was dying. And they renovate homes so that people will have a good life there. And they're building, rebuilding their town one home at a time.

[1:04] Because they want to make sure that their town survives for generations to come. And that people not only like to live there, but that they thrive in their environment.

[1:15] So they've not only renovated homes, but they've renovated businesses and other things as well. Because they want people to thrive. So there's lots of other programs of this ilk.

[1:27] There's things like Fixer Upper, that's Chip and Joanna Gaines. And they do the same thing. They live in Texas. They're very Texan. And they put their heart and their love into broken down homes and they make them beautiful and loved.

[1:44] And then to complete my Holy Trinity of Fixer programs, there's Fixer to Fabulous. Dave and Jenny, just like Chip and Joanna, they're Christians. And I actually think that the other two might be as well.

[1:58] But Dave and Jenny certainly are. He's an ordained minister. And they renovate homes in their hometown of Bentonville in Arkansas. And not only do they do the same as everybody else, but they've got a berry farm.

[2:10] And they give the money to charities and things like that. But if you just think that my love is for American programs, well, let me put you straight. Wheeler Dealers is one of my favorites.

[2:22] Again, Mike Brewer and Elvis Priestley, his mechanic, long-suffering. They get wrecks of cars, which most of the time would have been, you know, sort of sent to the scrap heap.

[2:37] And they do them up. And it ensures that just one more car doesn't end up on the scrap heap. And finally, of course, there's the best program in the world, in my humble opinion.

[2:49] And it's the Repair Shop. I'm sure a lot of us watch the Repair Shop. It's a wonderful program. It's absolutely brilliant where old and battered treasures come.

[3:01] And they're brought back to life, to the delight and the tears of their owners. And I sit there and I grizzle all the way through the program. Because it does, it just hits my heart about how important these little things are to people.

[3:16] And I just love that program because it's about getting something that's broken and renovating it, making it new or putting it back to how it was.

[3:29] And it's about people seeing potential in things. And, you know, some of these things have been discarded. Some of these things have been neglected.

[3:39] But it's about somebody seeing that potential, that real potential in something or someone. And I love to see the before and after and the delight in the faces of the people who will benefit from the hard work.

[3:56] But also, the people who do these renovation programs are also really happy because they've done it, because they've made something beautiful. Because there is something very satisfying in seeing something restored to its glory.

[4:11] Well, with that in mind today, we're going to think about the time when Jesus looked deep into Peter's life. And he saw the pain and the anguish in Peter within his dear friend.

[4:27] And then Jesus went on, through asking some very pertinent questions, he went on to restore and redeem and forgive and rescue Peter.

[4:42] Which was a life that still had so much more to give. So, to pick up the story, as some of you know, Jesus has miraculously risen from the dead.

[4:55] And he's been seen several times by his disciples. And there's no doubt that this is Jesus. This is their rabbi. This is the guy they've been following.

[5:06] This is the guy who walked with them and taught them and told them what was going to happen. This is Jesus. This is the one. This is the one they knew was dead. But this is the one whose predictions came true.

[5:20] This is the one who said, I'm going to die. But in three days I'll be raised to life. And that's what we celebrated last week. As well as the wonderful baptisms, we celebrated the fact that Jesus is alive.

[5:34] So, these are some of the accounts after Jesus' resurrection. We heard last week, Matt spoke about Mary going to the tomb and discovering Jesus was alive.

[5:46] And she had a conversation with the resurrected Jesus. And then she ran off to tell the disciples, if you remember, what she'd seen. And then the disciples rushed to the tomb.

[5:57] But they didn't see him. But Mary was changed by this event, by meeting with the resurrected Jesus. Mary had a new boldness.

[6:08] Mary had a new purpose. It was all true. Everything Jesus had said was true. And then a bit later on, Jesus appeared on the road to Emmaus with his disciples.

[6:20] They didn't recognise him as they walked along and talked with him. They didn't recognise who he was. But then, after a while, their eyes were opened and they thought, our hearts were burning inside us.

[6:35] This was Jesus, resurrected. And then, Jesus appeared to the disciples in a locked room. First time, Thomas was absent.

[6:46] And was fed up going, I don't think I believe it. I didn't see it. And Thomas wasn't there when Jesus appeared to the disciples in the locked room.

[6:57] And then, eight days later, he did see, Thomas did see Jesus. Because Jesus appeared again to his disciples. And this time, Thomas was with them.

[7:10] He told the disciples to wait in Jerusalem, where they would be clothed from on high. And we'll be thinking about that in a few weeks' time. And according to Matthew's Gospel, the disciples met with Jesus on a mountain in Galilee.

[7:26] And this was a turning point in the disciples' life. Because he told them to go out and make disciples. He told them to go out into the world. He gave them the Great Commission.

[7:38] And to change the world. That's what he was saying to them. Change the world. Go out. Tell people what you've seen. Tell people what you know. Tell people who I am.

[7:48] It will change the world. Show my love to the world. That's what Jesus was saying to his disciples. So today, we are thinking of the time when Jesus met the disciples by the Sea of Galilee.

[8:08] Afterwards, Jesus appeared again to his disciples by the Sea of Galilee. It happened this way. Simon Peter, Thomas, also known as Didymus, Nathanael from Cana in Galilee.

[8:21] The sons of Zebedee and two other disciples were together. I'm going out to fish, Simon Peter told them. And they said, We'll go with you.

[8:33] So they went out and got into the boat. But that night, they caught nothing. Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore.

[8:50] But the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus. He called out to them, Friends, haven't you any fish? No, they answered.

[9:01] He said, Throw your net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some. When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish.

[9:13] Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, It is the Lord. As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, It is the Lord, he wrapped his outer garment round him, for he had taken it off, and jumped into the water.

[9:29] The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far from shore, about a hundred meters. When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there, with fish on it and some bread.

[9:47] Jesus said to them, Bring some of the fish you have just caught. So Simon Peter climbed back into the boat and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish, a hundred and fifty-three, but even with so many the net was not torn.

[10:08] Jesus said to them, Come and have breakfast. None of the disciples dared ask him, Who are you? They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came, took the bread, and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish.

[10:24] This was now the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples, after he was raised from the dead. When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?

[10:42] Yes, Lord, he said. You know that I love you. Jesus said, Feed my lambs. Again Jesus said, Simon, son of John, do you love me?

[10:55] 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?

[11:11] 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.

[11:24] Jesus said, Feed my sheep. So, as we saw in the clip, Jesus is waiting for his disciples.

[11:36] He's standing there waiting for them, where they're at. They'd gone out fishing. They were probably fed up. Oh, let's go fishing. That's what they knew. They knew what to do. They'd gone out, and they'd caught nothing.

[11:48] This is not a good day. Caught nothing. Nothing to eat. No money. We won't be able to sell any fish. And then they see this man who says, Friends, haven't you got any fish?

[12:02] No. You know, no. We haven't got any fish. So, he says, Put your nets out again. Does this sound familiar? Does this sound familiar?

[12:13] This had happened three years ago. And many things had happened since that day, three years ago. I wonder if John's déjà vu experience, thinking, I've heard that before.

[12:27] We've caught nothing. Put your nets out again. I wonder if that brought back a flood of memories to the disciples. Because what they did was what the man told them to do.

[12:40] What they did was they threw the nets out. But did Jesus reenact this scene purposely to refocus their minds back to the time when they first believed that he was the one?

[12:54] Is that why Jesus did it? I don't know. But it certainly got their attention, didn't it? Because they threw their nets over, and they caught so many fish, just like they had three years ago.

[13:07] And Jesus, again, was the one who told them to do it, and they did. These dispirited people must have seen and heard something and thought about something and did what Jesus told them to do.

[13:23] And they caught so many fish. They caught so many fish. 153. I'm not going into why it was 153. That's for another time. But it's then that John recognises that it's Jesus.

[13:38] And then Peter catches up with it and thinks, yeah, so he gets quickly dressed and jumps into the water and wades in. I mean, isn't that just a Peter thing? Isn't that just something you could see him doing?

[13:50] Because there's Jesus on the shore. And then Peter rushes out of the boat, leaving all his friends, leaving the fish, leaving everything behind to get to Jesus.

[14:03] He must have been so excited. And what is Jesus there? What is he greeting his disciples with? He greets them with fish and bread, with something to eat.

[14:18] He knows they would have been hungry. He fed them physically, literally fed them. He called them friends and he fed them.

[14:29] There was no hint of, why are you here? Why aren't you in Jerusalem like I told you to be? Why have you done this? Why have you done that? Nothing. He waits for them.

[14:40] He calls them. He welcomes them. Friends. And then he gives them something to eat. And not only have they got something to eat that he's cooked, but they have got fish in abundance.

[14:53] I mean, so many fish in abundance. But isn't that just how God is with us? That's what I was thinking of. Isn't that just what God does to us?

[15:05] He patiently waits for us. He feeds us. He feeds us physically and spiritually. And then when he does, it's with abundance.

[15:16] So much. I mean, in the first story, the nets were breaking. In this story, 153 fish. It's an abundance of what God is giving us.

[15:29] He meets us where we're at. Just like he met the disciples where they were at. What they were doing. He met them there and then.

[15:40] And waited for them. Just loving acceptance. And meeting them in their place of bewilderment and need. Whatever they are, wherever they are.

[15:53] Whatever their state of mind, Jesus comes to them in love. So once their bellies are full, I mean, in the video, it showed all the disciples listening. And obviously, some disciples did because it was recorded what Jesus said to Peter.

[16:07] But can you imagine, you know, being out all night fishing and then this happened and then you had something to eat. So I should imagine a few of them had a bit of a snooze. But Jesus sat down and he talked to Peter.

[16:21] He spoke to Peter. And he asked him three questions. Like we've just heard. Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?

[16:34] So Simon would have looked round at the disciples and said, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. Then the great shepherd said, feed my lambs.

[16:44] Again, Jesus said, Simon, son of John, do you love me? And he answered, yes, Lord, you know I love you. And then the shepherd said, take care of my sheep.

[17:00] And thirdly, third time he said to him, Simon, son of John, do you love me? Now, Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, do you love me? He said, Lord, you know all things.

[17:12] You know I love you. And Jesus said, feed my sheep. The great shepherd said, feed my lambs. Take care of my sheep.

[17:23] Feed my sheep. Now, there's a couple of interesting points to ponder on that, on that conversation. John's gospel was written, although they spoke to each other in Aramaic at the time, John's gospel was written in Greek.

[17:37] And there are two words that John records Jesus using for love when he asks Peter the questions, do you love me? And the two words are agapeo and phileo.

[17:49] So that's the Greek and there's the English version with it. And the first two times Jesus uses agapeo, the meaning of the word means to be fond of, to dearly love, love.

[18:04] And also a wider, more embracing kind of love as a matter of principle, of duty and propriety. Now, when I read that definition, I thought of Queen Elizabeth II, that kind of love that was a more embracing, a wider love, that's a matter of principle, duty and propriety.

[18:26] And some of you might know, you know, other people that love in that way as we do ourselves. The third time it's written as phileo, to be a friend of, to be fond of, fond of an individual or an object, to have affection for, to have a personal attachment to.

[18:48] You know, like I was saying at the beginning with the repair shop, the memories that go with those things that are broken are often, that's the attachment to them. And it's not the article that they're particularly attached to, but it's the memory that goes with them and the feeling that goes with them.

[19:05] And that's the phileo type of love. It's a matter of sentiment or feeling. Now, John must have thought it was important to focus on these two meanings of love.

[19:16] Otherwise, why would he use both? I believe it's to show us the complete, the all-embracing, all-encompassing, the total absorbing love of Jesus.

[19:29] And that's what Jesus wants from Peter. That's why he wants to impress on Peter how important it is to love wholeheartedly and completely.

[19:42] And as it's been said many times before, in the questions and in the responses, Peter knows that he's rescued, redeemed, restored and forgiven.

[19:57] What does he have to be rescued, redeemed, restored and forgiven for? Well, just as three times he told Jesus he loved him, he also denied Jesus three times before his death.

[20:10] He told the people he didn't know who they were, who he was. He told people that he wasn't one of Jesus' followers. He denied Jesus three times. And Jesus has given him the opportunity now to come back to him and to be restored, to be forgiven, to forgive himself as well.

[20:33] And that's important. Whatever happened in the past, Jesus has made a way for the future. Whatever happened in the past, Jesus has made a way for the future.

[20:46] And just as it was for Peter, so it is for you and for me. Whatever's happened in the past, Jesus makes a way for the future. Peter could move forward knowing that he was forgiven.

[21:01] And he's got the opportunity to let the mistakes of the past go and to move into a new future. And for Peter, it was as a leader, commissioned by Jesus and knowing his all-sustaining love.

[21:20] So I'm going to finish with this thought for you today. Because Jesus offers that opportunity to every one of us, to all of us.

[21:32] For those of you who've heard my story about how I became a Christian as an adult, it was Billy Graham saying, there is nothing in your life that you can't be forgiven for in Jesus.

[21:45] And that changed my life. When Jesus met with Peter, that conversation, the Good Shepherd was saying, this is what, do you love me?

[21:59] This is what I want you to do. That changed Peter's life. Peter was rescued and redeemed and restored and forgiven. And so are we.

[22:10] Every single one of us. It doesn't matter what you've done in the past. We've all made mistakes in the past. And isn't it funny how many times they keep coming back to remind us about the mistakes we've made.

[22:26] We can leave those behind. We can ask for Jesus's forgiveness. We can leave that behind. And we can move forward. Because it matters not to Jesus how much you feel you've let him down.

[22:39] All that matters to Jesus is that he has your heart. That's what he wants. There is a lovely cartoon of somebody holding up a heart saying, this is all I've got.

[22:52] And Jesus leaning down saying, that's all I want. That's all he wants. He wants our heart and our trust. Can you trust Jesus with your heart and your life?

[23:03] Now as Peter knew that great love, so can we. But we have to be willing to let go. Let go of those things that keep reminding you of the failures of the past.

[23:17] Just let them go. Just like Peter had to. Just imagine Jesus saying, do you love me? You know I love you, Lord. Do you love me?

[23:28] You know I love you, Lord. Do you love me? You know I love you, Lord. That's what you have to do. And then hear what Jesus says to you. Because to Peter, the great shepherd, was talking about feeding sheep, loving sheep, looking after.

[23:45] He was the shepherd. He was the shepherd, the good shepherd. And he was passing that on to Peter. Whatever's happened in your past should not hold you back.

[23:59] You can let it go. But you have to trust him. With your heart and your life. So when Jesus asks the question, do you love me?

[24:14] Then trust him and listen to him and respond to him. Amen. We're just going to have a couple of moments now just to let that sit with you.

[24:26] I just want you to just sit quietly for a couple of moments. It won't be too long because I know sitting quietly doesn't fit with everybody. But just listen to that voice saying let go of the past.

[24:42] Let go of all that. Do you love me? Thank you.

[25:17] Thank you for every heart here and every heart that will listen to this talk. And I pray, Lord, that we will all listen to you and respond when you ask, do you love me?

[25:31] I pray that we will be able to let go of the past and move on into a bright, beautiful future with you, knowing your love.

[25:42] Knowing that we are rescued and redeemed, restored and forgiven. Amen.