WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.219 The reading this morning is from John chapter 21, beginning at verse 15. 00:00:07.299 --> 00:00:14.359 When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? 00:00:15.179 --> 00:00:18.320 He said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. 00:00:18.820 --> 00:00:21.460 He said to him, feed my lambs. 00:00:22.440 --> 00:00:26.600 He said to him a second time, Simon, son of John, do you love me? 00:00:27.360 --> 00:00:30.400 He said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. 00:00:31.040 --> 00:00:33.460 He said to him, tend my sheep. 00:00:34.359 --> 00:00:38.780 He said to him the third time, Simon, son of John, do you love me? 00:00:39.660 --> 00:00:44.299 Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, do you love me? 00:00:44.299 --> 00:00:46.560 And he said to him, Lord, you know everything. 00:00:47.140 --> 00:00:48.260 You know that I love you. 00:00:49.200 --> 00:00:51.680 Jesus said to him, feed my sheep. 00:00:51.679 --> 00:00:58.840 Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted. 00:00:59.420 --> 00:01:05.760 But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go. 00:01:06.780 --> 00:01:10.280 This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God. 00:01:11.140 --> 00:01:14.379 And after saying this, he said to him, follow me. 00:01:14.379 --> 00:01:21.199 We are looking at encounters with Jesus Christ on Sunday mornings this summer. 00:01:22.439 --> 00:01:25.399 David and I have both gravitated to the gospel of John. 00:01:27.060 --> 00:01:33.840 John's gospel is powerful, punchy, very full, very well crafted, very pregnant with meaning every single sentence. 00:01:34.859 --> 00:01:38.780 And here Jesus has this specific encounter with Peter. 00:01:38.780 --> 00:01:46.719 And I think that one of the reasons we probably both have chosen John over and over again is because of how much in John's gospel, 00:01:46.900 --> 00:01:52.060 with every encounter Jesus has with somebody, it's very easy to see ourselves in it. 00:01:52.620 --> 00:01:58.420 And with Peter, boy, it is easy to see yourself when you come to this encounter with Peter. 00:01:58.560 --> 00:02:03.719 We feel, I think, I feel, we feel, I hope, a real kinship with Peter in this story. 00:02:03.719 --> 00:02:10.800 Why? Last week David looked at the woman at the well, Samaritan woman, had never met Jesus before. 00:02:11.500 --> 00:02:14.340 Jesus encounters her and there's an immediate transformation. 00:02:14.840 --> 00:02:17.280 You know, she did not know Jesus and then she knows him. 00:02:17.639 --> 00:02:24.979 She finds satisfaction in him, the Messiah, and her greatest groom in a way she had never found in other relationships. 00:02:26.579 --> 00:02:27.860 That's a type of encounter. 00:02:28.719 --> 00:02:30.000 Peter's a very different type of encounter. 00:02:30.000 --> 00:02:38.560 Peter is a long-time follower of Jesus and Peter was a leader, one of the main leaders amongst the apostles. 00:02:39.439 --> 00:02:43.539 And Peter said to Jesus on the night he was betrayed, 00:02:44.120 --> 00:02:46.539 No matter what, I will never leave your side. 00:02:47.020 --> 00:02:49.240 I will die if I have to to stick with you. 00:02:50.199 --> 00:02:54.000 And he failed very miserably. 00:02:54.539 --> 00:02:57.840 And I think we can come and resonate with Peter so much. 00:02:57.840 --> 00:03:06.740 Eugene Peterson, a late pastor in the States, he wrote a pretty famous book that pretty much every minister at some point in their lives has to read, 00:03:07.099 --> 00:03:09.900 called The Long Obedience in the Same Direction. 00:03:09.960 --> 00:03:11.460 A Long Obedience in the Same Direction. 00:03:11.939 --> 00:03:18.140 And he took that phrase, long obedience in the same direction, actually from Friedrich Nietzsche, the atheist philosopher, 00:03:18.139 --> 00:03:31.000 in the 19th century, who used that language to say that anybody that wants to become a great artist or a great scientist or really transform in virtue has to walk the long obedience in the same direction. 00:03:31.559 --> 00:03:42.759 So that's the idea that really any path towards something great or deep change comes from little slow drip faithfulness across long, long periods of time. 00:03:42.759 --> 00:03:48.000 So most, Eugene Peterson said, look, most of the Christian life is not mountain peaks, not at all. 00:03:48.399 --> 00:03:57.479 It is mostly valleys, mostly sad, a lot of sad, a lot of suffering, a lot of hard, and it's slow drip faithfulness over long periods of time. 00:03:57.479 --> 00:04:10.839 And I think we can come today and identify with Peter because what happens when an apostle, a follower, a disciple, on the long obedience in the same direction, 00:04:11.439 --> 00:04:19.599 utterly breaks and spectacularly fails and finds that long obedience absolutely crashing. 00:04:20.980 --> 00:04:22.620 And that's exactly what happened to Peter. 00:04:22.620 --> 00:04:30.199 Peter is a man who found himself crossing a line that he said that he would never cross. 00:04:30.780 --> 00:04:35.939 It is a man who found himself becoming something that he thought he was incapable of. 00:04:36.639 --> 00:04:38.480 And it absolutely shocked him. 00:04:39.439 --> 00:04:42.000 And that's where he is when Jesus encounters him here. 00:04:43.740 --> 00:04:45.959 And we can find ourselves. 00:04:45.959 --> 00:04:54.519 And the question here is, what does Jesus do with such a spectacular failure such as him, such as me, such as us? 00:04:55.239 --> 00:04:56.479 Let's think about that. 00:04:57.319 --> 00:04:58.500 Let's see, first, the failure. 00:04:59.659 --> 00:05:00.779 Secondly, the surgeon. 00:05:01.560 --> 00:05:03.000 And finally, the healer. 00:05:03.979 --> 00:05:06.679 So first, a look at the failure here. 00:05:06.959 --> 00:05:07.939 What happened in the story? 00:05:08.919 --> 00:05:09.560 Here's what happened. 00:05:10.159 --> 00:05:11.659 Here we are, verse 15. 00:05:11.859 --> 00:05:13.719 They've just finished breakfast on the beach. 00:05:13.839 --> 00:05:15.419 We looked at this passage a couple weeks ago. 00:05:16.080 --> 00:05:17.720 And Jesus has risen from the dead. 00:05:18.259 --> 00:05:20.500 This is his third post-resurrection appearance. 00:05:21.319 --> 00:05:24.560 And he's having breakfast on the beach with these disciples who had been fishing. 00:05:24.780 --> 00:05:26.860 And then he turns and he singles out Peter. 00:05:28.200 --> 00:05:33.379 Now, the reason for singling Peter out is because on the night Jesus was betrayed, 00:05:33.860 --> 00:05:38.020 in the upper room, Peter opened his mouth. 00:05:39.000 --> 00:05:39.439 Oh, Peter. 00:05:39.439 --> 00:05:44.259 And Jesus said, I'm going somewhere that you cannot follow me. 00:05:44.339 --> 00:05:46.459 And Peter said, where are you going? 00:05:47.019 --> 00:05:49.860 And Jesus said, I'm going somewhere you cannot come. 00:05:50.439 --> 00:05:56.199 And Peter said, Jesus, wherever you go, I will go, no matter what, even if it's to death. 00:05:56.199 --> 00:06:03.939 And he looked around, Peter looked around the room and he said, even if all these guys, if they forsake you, I would never. 00:06:05.139 --> 00:06:07.339 And Jesus turned and said to him, you're very famous. 00:06:07.459 --> 00:06:08.439 You know this story probably. 00:06:08.439 --> 00:06:16.279 Jesus said, before the rooster crows at dawn, you will betray me, you will deny me three times. 00:06:16.779 --> 00:06:23.399 And in chapter 18, Peter followed Jesus from Garden of Gethsemane to the high priest's courtyard. 00:06:23.399 --> 00:06:28.779 And a young girl asked him, aren't you his disciple? 00:06:28.879 --> 00:06:29.339 He said, no. 00:06:29.439 --> 00:06:32.439 And then a group of people asked him, aren't you his disciple? 00:06:32.579 --> 00:06:33.079 He said, no. 00:06:33.679 --> 00:06:38.000 And then a man said, I saw you in the Garden of Gethsemane with him, defending him. 00:06:38.179 --> 00:06:39.659 And he said, that was not me. 00:06:40.419 --> 00:06:42.199 And then John tells us the rooster crows. 00:06:43.259 --> 00:06:47.459 Now, Peter was very afraid in that moment. 00:06:48.079 --> 00:06:48.500 He was afraid. 00:06:48.719 --> 00:06:49.579 He was, what was he doing? 00:06:49.639 --> 00:06:51.439 He was saving his own skin is what he was doing. 00:06:51.439 --> 00:06:52.839 And he was a coward. 00:06:53.439 --> 00:06:54.199 And he was a liar. 00:06:55.339 --> 00:07:00.360 And, you know, he found himself in a situation where people can find themselves in situations 00:07:00.360 --> 00:07:04.439 where you are so afraid you will do anything to protect yourself. 00:07:04.740 --> 00:07:06.819 And that's exactly what happens in this situation. 00:07:08.060 --> 00:07:15.620 And when you do something like what Peter did, abandoning the Messiah on the night of his death, 00:07:15.980 --> 00:07:18.740 when he had promised he would stick with him, when you do something like that, 00:07:18.740 --> 00:07:22.740 there's a sense in which I think existentially you lose yourself. 00:07:23.540 --> 00:07:29.220 And you come out of a sin like that, a trespass like that, a crossing the line in a moment like that. 00:07:29.300 --> 00:07:31.079 And you say, who am I? 00:07:31.740 --> 00:07:35.100 I never thought I was capable of that. 00:07:35.100 --> 00:07:42.200 And it creates a devastating wound, a wound that Peter was definitely sitting with. 00:07:42.560 --> 00:07:43.680 I mean, he had gone back to fishing. 00:07:44.240 --> 00:07:49.660 He was hiding because of this wound that had been created deep down in his soul that thought, 00:07:49.980 --> 00:07:51.320 I cannot come back from this. 00:07:52.660 --> 00:07:54.680 And what does Jesus do? 00:07:54.820 --> 00:07:57.240 It's surprising here what Jesus does. 00:07:57.460 --> 00:07:58.860 It's not what you would expect. 00:07:58.860 --> 00:08:03.319 In verse 15, Jesus isolates Peter. 00:08:03.460 --> 00:08:04.340 He talks to Peter. 00:08:04.520 --> 00:08:05.300 He singles him out. 00:08:06.100 --> 00:08:11.199 And let me just mention three little details that are really important to know how Jesus is dealing with them. 00:08:11.620 --> 00:08:17.660 One, I mentioned this two weeks ago, but there's only two places in John's gospel that talk about a charcoal fire. 00:08:18.379 --> 00:08:25.420 The first is in John 18, when Peter all three times denies Jesus around a charcoal fire. 00:08:25.420 --> 00:08:31.600 John tells us at the end of the third denial, and there was a charcoal fire where they were warming themselves. 00:08:32.920 --> 00:08:38.580 Jesus in chapter 21, verse 9, sets a charcoal fire for this breakfast. 00:08:39.940 --> 00:08:44.639 In other words, he's recreating the context of Peter's denial. 00:08:45.519 --> 00:08:48.460 And then the second detail you've got to see here to know what's going on is, 00:08:48.759 --> 00:08:52.860 remember three times Peter denied Jesus' existence knowing him. 00:08:52.860 --> 00:08:55.480 And what does Jesus come and do? 00:08:55.560 --> 00:08:58.580 He says to Peter three times, do you love me? 00:08:59.159 --> 00:09:00.000 Do you love me? 00:09:00.419 --> 00:09:01.180 Do you love me? 00:09:01.620 --> 00:09:04.060 In other words, he's reset the context of the denial. 00:09:04.360 --> 00:09:08.779 Now he's asking one question for every denial that Peter offered. 00:09:09.779 --> 00:09:13.860 And then lastly, some commentators will come and say, this is probably private. 00:09:14.759 --> 00:09:17.940 So it's probably that Peter was pulled away from the group. 00:09:18.019 --> 00:09:19.220 I don't think that's the case. 00:09:19.220 --> 00:09:22.480 It says that when they had finished breakfast, he talked to Peter. 00:09:22.840 --> 00:09:23.200 Why? 00:09:23.399 --> 00:09:29.800 Because back in chapter 13, they were in the upper room around a meal, all the disciples, 00:09:30.060 --> 00:09:30.240 right? 00:09:30.420 --> 00:09:31.340 And what did Peter do? 00:09:31.519 --> 00:09:33.160 Jesus said, you can't go where I'm going. 00:09:33.240 --> 00:09:40.460 And Peter said, Jesus, even if all these guys forsake you, even if all these guys mess up, 00:09:40.660 --> 00:09:41.560 I would never. 00:09:42.460 --> 00:09:44.759 And you see, here they are around a meal. 00:09:45.180 --> 00:09:45.899 It's not private. 00:09:45.899 --> 00:09:46.519 It's public. 00:09:47.019 --> 00:09:50.480 All of the disciples there, again, it's a public reckoning. 00:09:51.179 --> 00:09:52.139 And what is Jesus doing here? 00:09:52.199 --> 00:10:02.019 He is making Peter do something very difficult, and that's to stare in the face of the very 00:10:02.019 --> 00:10:03.259 evil that he had committed. 00:10:04.340 --> 00:10:05.959 That's what Jesus is doing. 00:10:05.960 --> 00:10:12.600 And Jesus is asking him to do something very hard, and that's that Jesus is holding up 00:10:12.600 --> 00:10:18.480 a mirror in front of Peter and saying, look into the abyss of the rebellion. 00:10:18.680 --> 00:10:22.800 Look into the abyss of the denials that you said you would never do, that you said you were 00:10:22.800 --> 00:10:23.600 not capable of. 00:10:24.120 --> 00:10:25.379 That's what he's asking him to do. 00:10:26.360 --> 00:10:28.540 And I think you could describe this. 00:10:28.800 --> 00:10:31.400 Here's what I meant by surprising how Jesus handles it. 00:10:31.780 --> 00:10:34.580 This is a, we might call it a tender severity. 00:10:34.580 --> 00:10:37.480 This is a gentle devastation. 00:10:38.060 --> 00:10:41.720 This is a loving wound that Jesus is inflicting. 00:10:41.860 --> 00:10:45.820 He's pressing right where Peter hurts the most, where this wound is. 00:10:46.460 --> 00:10:50.100 And he teaches us something here, and that's this. 00:10:50.120 --> 00:10:51.540 And this is really what this passage is about. 00:10:51.820 --> 00:10:54.100 This passage is ultimately about the nature of repentance. 00:10:54.100 --> 00:11:02.420 And the first thing we learn here is that repentance begins when we stop looking outside of the mirror 00:11:02.420 --> 00:11:05.200 to the sides at everything else for an excuse. 00:11:06.139 --> 00:11:11.200 And Jesus holds the mirror up in front of us and says, you've got to be willing to look right 00:11:11.200 --> 00:11:18.960 at yourself and right at the wound, right at the sin, right at the trespass, right at the boundary 00:11:18.960 --> 00:11:24.660 that you crossed, and know what it really is, and really stare at it in the face. 00:11:24.720 --> 00:11:27.460 And so he's asking you today something very difficult. 00:11:27.639 --> 00:11:34.120 He's asking you today to go back to the place, to that place, that moment, that word, that 00:11:34.120 --> 00:11:40.040 relationship, that addiction, that lifestyle, that moment in your life where you think, 00:11:40.139 --> 00:11:42.120 that still makes my stomach turn to think about it. 00:11:42.120 --> 00:11:43.639 That's what he's asking here. 00:11:43.840 --> 00:11:48.620 And those moments may be for some of us where we say, I did not know I was capable of that. 00:11:49.200 --> 00:11:50.580 And it really shocks you. 00:11:50.799 --> 00:11:54.440 And it could be exactly what Peter's problem was. 00:11:54.500 --> 00:11:59.899 It could be that you look back and say, that moment for me was an explicit denial of Jesus. 00:12:00.659 --> 00:12:04.039 There was a moment in my life where someone asked me, do you know him? 00:12:04.220 --> 00:12:05.659 And I said, no. 00:12:05.659 --> 00:12:12.500 But no matter what it is, no matter if you think, you know, I'm not really a person that's ever 00:12:12.500 --> 00:12:16.600 actually crossed that threshold and become what I thought I was not capable of. 00:12:16.719 --> 00:12:18.259 I can't really think of anything like that. 00:12:18.959 --> 00:12:24.519 Listen, on the authority of God's word, the Bible says we have all denied him. 00:12:25.620 --> 00:12:30.079 Implicitly, explicitly, in small ways, in big ways, in thousands of moments. 00:12:30.759 --> 00:12:34.379 Sins of omission, sins of commission, we've all crossed that line, the Bible teaches, 00:12:34.379 --> 00:12:35.259 over and over again. 00:12:36.120 --> 00:12:39.639 And I think no matter if you're a Christian today or not a Christian, you can come and 00:12:39.639 --> 00:12:43.039 say, look, I at least am willing to admit I know I'm a failure. 00:12:43.220 --> 00:12:44.179 I know I'm a moral failure. 00:12:45.000 --> 00:12:47.419 I know when I stare in the mirror that that is who I am. 00:12:47.480 --> 00:12:48.279 That is me. 00:12:50.360 --> 00:12:57.259 Robert Louis Stevenson, great Edinburgh author, he wrote a number of really fun books, Treasure 00:12:57.259 --> 00:13:01.919 Island especially, but one of the more famous books, not quite as fun, is The Curious Case 00:13:01.919 --> 00:13:03.620 of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. 00:13:04.500 --> 00:13:09.699 And I've mentioned this several times here, but it's such a classic illustration, and it's 00:13:09.699 --> 00:13:11.659 Edinburgh-based, so it will keep coming. 00:13:11.799 --> 00:13:12.139 Don't worry. 00:13:14.419 --> 00:13:21.360 In this story, Dr. Jekyll, this great doctor, physician, scientist, he thinks that he can 00:13:21.360 --> 00:13:26.799 separate his dark side from his light side, his moral side from his evil side, through 00:13:26.799 --> 00:13:28.459 education and medicine, science. 00:13:28.959 --> 00:13:34.219 And so he tries it, and he tries to create basically medicine that pulls away his evil 00:13:34.219 --> 00:13:36.399 and only leaves the light. 00:13:37.019 --> 00:13:42.419 And what actually happens is that he finds that the more he tries this, the more the evil side 00:13:42.419 --> 00:13:44.159 becomes the thing that takes over. 00:13:44.599 --> 00:13:46.000 And it goes out of control. 00:13:46.139 --> 00:13:49.179 Mr. Hyde is Edward Hyde, you know, is his evil persona. 00:13:49.620 --> 00:13:52.740 And eventually, Edward Hyde dominates Dr. Jekyll. 00:13:52.740 --> 00:13:55.460 And Edward murders somebody. 00:13:56.019 --> 00:14:01.379 And this is what Robert Louis Stevenson writes through the mouth of Dr. Jekyll at the end of 00:14:01.379 --> 00:14:01.680 the book. 00:14:02.080 --> 00:14:02.460 He said, 00:14:02.720 --> 00:14:05.220 My potion did not create something foreign in me. 00:14:05.919 --> 00:14:08.240 It just revealed what was already there. 00:14:08.779 --> 00:14:14.320 With every day and from both sides of my intelligence, the moral and the intellectual, I drew steadily 00:14:14.320 --> 00:14:19.500 nearer to the truth that man is not truly one, but truly two. 00:14:20.259 --> 00:14:21.940 And then he says this later on. 00:14:21.940 --> 00:14:24.620 I was confident of my goodness, my moral control. 00:14:24.940 --> 00:14:29.280 I was shocked to discover my capacity for evil was where? 00:14:29.400 --> 00:14:32.860 He said, always in me, not outside of me. 00:14:34.200 --> 00:14:39.240 Jekyll, he writes, Jekyll, he said, I thought I knew myself until I tried to get rid of my 00:14:39.240 --> 00:14:39.860 moral problem. 00:14:40.220 --> 00:14:42.080 And it did nothing but expose the truth. 00:14:43.480 --> 00:14:47.400 Another familiar illustration for St. C's people who have been around a little while. 00:14:47.399 --> 00:14:57.000 Well, in 1961, at the trial of Adolf Eichmann, the man who really orchestrated so much of 00:14:57.000 --> 00:15:03.220 the Holocaust, a Jewish man named Yehiel de Noor was called to testify. 00:15:03.220 --> 00:15:06.759 And Yehiel was known by a pen name at the time. 00:15:06.820 --> 00:15:07.460 He had written some books. 00:15:07.680 --> 00:15:10.779 His pen name was Kaseknik 135633. 00:15:11.740 --> 00:15:15.399 Kaseknik is a Yiddish term for concentration camper. 00:15:16.399 --> 00:15:21.160 135633, the tattooed number that he received when he was at Auschwitz under Eichmann. 00:15:21.159 --> 00:15:27.279 And he testified, and right after the testimony, Yehiel de Noor collapsed. 00:15:28.419 --> 00:15:35.019 And years later, 1983, he was on an American news show called 60 Minutes that I used to watch 00:15:35.019 --> 00:15:35.539 growing up. 00:15:35.679 --> 00:15:40.879 And Mike Wallace was interviewing him, and he said to Yehiel, he said, what happened to 00:15:40.879 --> 00:15:41.919 you when you collapsed? 00:15:42.559 --> 00:15:44.059 Were you overcome by hatred? 00:15:44.879 --> 00:15:46.059 Were you overcome by fear? 00:15:46.279 --> 00:15:48.459 Was it the horrid memories of Auschwitz? 00:15:48.460 --> 00:15:53.000 And Yehiel de Noor, really, he absolutely shocked the world. 00:15:53.200 --> 00:15:54.100 This was live television. 00:15:54.400 --> 00:15:57.160 He shocked the world because he said, no, it was none of these. 00:15:57.740 --> 00:16:04.700 All at once, I realized Eichmann was not the godlike army officer who had sent so many to 00:16:04.700 --> 00:16:05.019 their deaths. 00:16:05.100 --> 00:16:06.960 I looked at him, and I thought, that is no god. 00:16:08.580 --> 00:16:14.660 And instead, he says this, this Eichmann I saw was an ordinary man, and I was afraid. 00:16:14.660 --> 00:16:17.100 I collapsed because I was afraid about myself. 00:16:17.500 --> 00:16:18.000 That's what he said. 00:16:19.420 --> 00:16:22.840 And he said, I saw that I am capable of doing this. 00:16:22.980 --> 00:16:24.360 I am exactly like he. 00:16:25.139 --> 00:16:28.920 And he went on to say, if I was put in the right circumstance, what would I do? 00:16:30.200 --> 00:16:32.759 And you see, Yehiel, he was a reader of the Old Testament. 00:16:32.960 --> 00:16:35.180 He understood the heart is desperately wicked. 00:16:35.500 --> 00:16:36.519 Who can understand it? 00:16:37.480 --> 00:16:41.400 And he understood that if, he understood what the Bible teaches, and that's the real issue 00:16:41.400 --> 00:16:44.400 is not what we do on the outside, but it's actually far deeper. 00:16:44.399 --> 00:16:45.899 It's the motivation of the heart. 00:16:46.399 --> 00:16:48.699 And he said, I know what my heart is like. 00:16:48.779 --> 00:16:50.019 I know what it's capable of. 00:16:50.399 --> 00:16:51.860 And Peter had shocked himself. 00:16:52.860 --> 00:16:59.199 In Mark 3, sorry, in Mark's account, I should say, Mark 14, when the betrayal happens, the 00:16:59.199 --> 00:17:03.840 denial happens, it says that upon the third denial, Peter cursed himself. 00:17:04.599 --> 00:17:05.079 He knew. 00:17:05.079 --> 00:17:06.759 He knew what he had done. 00:17:07.240 --> 00:17:09.899 And he knew that his heart was deceitfully wicked. 00:17:11.019 --> 00:17:14.879 Look, when we're afraid, when you're afraid, you'll do anything to protect yourself. 00:17:14.960 --> 00:17:17.799 When you're embarrassed, you'll do anything to get out of the shame. 00:17:17.799 --> 00:17:22.639 You know, when you're angry, the heart can do anything to get revenge. 00:17:23.319 --> 00:17:25.579 And that is what Peter had to look in the mirror at. 00:17:25.940 --> 00:17:32.139 Repentance, repentance begins with staring at ourselves in God's presence and really knowing 00:17:32.139 --> 00:17:32.639 who we are. 00:17:33.319 --> 00:17:38.559 Now, that's the longest point, and thankfully not the last point, because we do not want to 00:17:38.559 --> 00:17:39.000 stop there. 00:17:39.480 --> 00:17:41.500 Secondly, Jesus, the surgeon. 00:17:42.539 --> 00:17:43.279 Very brief. 00:17:43.279 --> 00:17:48.339 I had surgery a few years ago, actually right before Heather and I and family moved back 00:17:48.339 --> 00:17:49.899 to St. Columbus from the States. 00:17:50.519 --> 00:17:52.119 And many of you have had surgery. 00:17:52.940 --> 00:17:55.359 It was a more significant surgery than I thought it was going to be. 00:17:55.539 --> 00:17:58.139 You know, they tell you on the Vance, it's a small thing. 00:17:58.619 --> 00:18:03.740 And then when you get it, you realize that's not the way I interpreted it on the backside. 00:18:03.920 --> 00:18:08.599 But one of the things I know a great surgeon does, and I had a great surgeon, and many of 00:18:08.599 --> 00:18:13.099 you have been through this, is that great surgeon brings you and puts you on the bed 00:18:13.099 --> 00:18:17.779 and says, all right, I've got to evaluate and really see where I'm going to cut. 00:18:19.259 --> 00:18:24.799 And so in the pre-op, he says, well, I'm going to press on your internal organs, you know, 00:18:24.839 --> 00:18:27.740 and you tell me when it really hurts. 00:18:28.679 --> 00:18:30.559 And then they say, is that okay? 00:18:31.139 --> 00:18:31.379 Right? 00:18:31.419 --> 00:18:33.899 And you say, is that a real question? 00:18:34.179 --> 00:18:34.980 Do I have a choice? 00:18:35.219 --> 00:18:36.659 I don't think that that's a real question. 00:18:36.660 --> 00:18:39.500 But, you know, the surgeon does that. 00:18:39.580 --> 00:18:41.080 He presses and he finds it. 00:18:41.600 --> 00:18:43.500 And I remember saying, that's it. 00:18:43.960 --> 00:18:44.440 That's it. 00:18:45.040 --> 00:18:46.300 That's what needs cutting out of me. 00:18:47.080 --> 00:18:53.740 And what does Jesus Christ do with failures like Peter, like me, like you, like every single 00:18:53.740 --> 00:18:54.620 person here today? 00:18:55.180 --> 00:18:56.660 Jesus Christ is a surgeon. 00:18:57.820 --> 00:18:59.040 That's the main thing we see him here. 00:18:59.100 --> 00:19:02.940 Now, let me just briefly show you that, walk you through the steps of what Jesus does. 00:19:02.940 --> 00:19:06.920 He says to Peter, Peter, do you love me? 00:19:07.420 --> 00:19:08.080 Three times. 00:19:09.460 --> 00:19:16.019 Peter, in other words, first, Jesus does not come and say, Peter, let me list for you the 00:19:16.019 --> 00:19:16.820 sins you have committed. 00:19:17.559 --> 00:19:18.539 You are a liar. 00:19:19.259 --> 00:19:20.120 You are a coward. 00:19:20.640 --> 00:19:21.640 You are treacherous. 00:19:22.340 --> 00:19:24.620 Now, say the Lord's Prayer ten times. 00:19:25.759 --> 00:19:31.620 And if you really mean it, then maybe in three years of some really good apprenticeship, we 00:19:31.620 --> 00:19:32.240 can bring you back. 00:19:33.680 --> 00:19:39.460 He doesn't, he doesn't, see, Jesus sets up the context of the denial, making Peter stare 00:19:39.460 --> 00:19:41.400 straight at it, but he never mentions it. 00:19:42.220 --> 00:19:42.820 Not one time. 00:19:43.440 --> 00:19:45.539 He never mentions a single sin that Peter committed. 00:19:46.200 --> 00:19:48.259 And instead, he does something far more important. 00:19:48.440 --> 00:19:51.000 And this is really what the Bible does over and over again. 00:19:51.059 --> 00:19:54.500 And this is the big difference in Christianity and every world religion. 00:19:54.759 --> 00:19:59.539 This is what Christianity really wants to come and say to us today, what Jesus comes. 00:19:59.980 --> 00:20:00.720 And this is what he does. 00:20:00.779 --> 00:20:02.480 He says, do you love me? 00:20:02.480 --> 00:20:03.519 Why does he ask that? 00:20:03.779 --> 00:20:11.140 Because remember, in the upper room, Peter had said, Lord, even though all these guys might 00:20:11.140 --> 00:20:12.759 leave you, I would never. 00:20:13.960 --> 00:20:16.420 Now, what is the implied rest of the question? 00:20:16.640 --> 00:20:19.519 Do you love me, Peter, more than these? 00:20:20.380 --> 00:20:21.299 That's the implication. 00:20:22.500 --> 00:20:25.079 But he doesn't, Jesus doesn't say it, but he wants Peter to remember it. 00:20:25.079 --> 00:20:26.500 Peter, do you love me? 00:20:26.859 --> 00:20:28.159 Will you love me? 00:20:28.199 --> 00:20:32.199 Because you said you would love me more than all of them, all the way to the end. 00:20:32.899 --> 00:20:34.859 And Jesus just comes back and says, do you love me? 00:20:35.000 --> 00:20:39.299 And he wants Peter to feel the surgery that is going down right now. 00:20:39.299 --> 00:20:41.259 And what is the type of surgery? 00:20:41.339 --> 00:20:46.720 See, one type of surgery would be where Jesus gets there and he finds that tumor and he cuts 00:20:46.720 --> 00:20:49.000 off the corner that says liar. 00:20:49.180 --> 00:20:51.579 And he cuts off the other corner that says coward. 00:20:51.819 --> 00:20:54.519 And he cuts off a section of the middle that says treacherous. 00:20:55.240 --> 00:20:59.079 But if he did that, if he only came and said, this is what you did wrong and this is what 00:20:59.079 --> 00:21:00.000 you need to do to fix it. 00:21:00.000 --> 00:21:03.180 Half the tumor would still be there, the bottom half. 00:21:04.039 --> 00:21:05.500 And he does what the Bible does. 00:21:05.680 --> 00:21:06.940 He goes far deeper than that. 00:21:07.200 --> 00:21:08.180 What is Peter's real issue? 00:21:08.359 --> 00:21:09.680 It is not that he lied. 00:21:09.819 --> 00:21:11.339 It is not that he was treacherous. 00:21:11.420 --> 00:21:11.940 And he was. 00:21:12.279 --> 00:21:14.099 His real issue is not his cowardice. 00:21:14.160 --> 00:21:14.940 What is his real issue? 00:21:15.299 --> 00:21:21.839 His real issue is that he said, I will follow you because I am better than them. 00:21:22.660 --> 00:21:23.500 That's the real issue. 00:21:24.160 --> 00:21:27.200 You see, the real issue was pride and it was competition. 00:21:27.200 --> 00:21:34.180 And in other words, what Jesus is doing here is reminding him way below the issue of your 00:21:34.180 --> 00:21:35.960 lying, your treachery. 00:21:36.100 --> 00:21:38.680 We've got to deal with the fact that you are prideful. 00:21:40.200 --> 00:21:48.380 And in other words, Peter, you have used me, Jesus, to create, to play God for yourself. 00:21:48.920 --> 00:21:51.860 You've followed me in order to be better than other people. 00:21:53.380 --> 00:21:56.380 And Jesus is saying, you've got an idol down at the bottom of your soul. 00:21:56.380 --> 00:21:58.100 And that's what led you to betray me. 00:21:58.940 --> 00:22:00.420 It's not that you lied. 00:22:00.640 --> 00:22:02.000 It's not just that you're a coward. 00:22:02.340 --> 00:22:07.600 It's that you've got such a pride problem that you thought you were great and you were 00:22:07.600 --> 00:22:08.240 playing God. 00:22:08.340 --> 00:22:12.640 And Jesus is coming and saying to every single one of us today, when he asked, do you love 00:22:12.640 --> 00:22:12.900 me? 00:22:13.320 --> 00:22:15.780 The question is to go far deeper. 00:22:16.080 --> 00:22:16.560 Repentance. 00:22:17.080 --> 00:22:20.400 Repentance is first staring at the mirror and facing the truth. 00:22:20.400 --> 00:22:22.019 But secondly, repentance. 00:22:24.120 --> 00:22:26.460 Repentance is exactly what Peter feels here. 00:22:26.960 --> 00:22:33.759 When Jesus cuts to the bottom of that tumor, pride, the idol that's really there, and he 00:22:33.759 --> 00:22:34.680 says, do you love me? 00:22:35.100 --> 00:22:38.160 Peter says, Lord, I think you've got to hear it in this tone. 00:22:38.340 --> 00:22:40.320 Lord, you know I love you. 00:22:41.360 --> 00:22:46.759 In other words, Peter, the first time, brought his confidence in his competitive spirit. 00:22:46.759 --> 00:22:49.759 In other words, at the other room, he said, do you love me, Peter? 00:22:50.180 --> 00:22:50.720 Oh, yeah. 00:22:51.440 --> 00:22:52.099 I love you. 00:22:52.119 --> 00:22:53.400 I love you way more than these guys do. 00:22:54.220 --> 00:22:56.119 In other words, his God was his pride. 00:22:57.500 --> 00:22:59.259 Now he comes and says, do you love me? 00:22:59.420 --> 00:23:00.599 And Peter has nothing. 00:23:01.579 --> 00:23:02.400 He's lost it. 00:23:02.519 --> 00:23:03.500 He gave it away. 00:23:03.680 --> 00:23:04.400 He denied Jesus. 00:23:04.920 --> 00:23:12.759 Now all he brings to the table is weakness and his sin, whereby he says, I love you. 00:23:13.259 --> 00:23:14.259 I don't know what else to say. 00:23:14.319 --> 00:23:14.940 I've got nothing. 00:23:14.940 --> 00:23:20.200 You see, the second step in repentance is staring at the truth of who you are and then 00:23:20.200 --> 00:23:23.519 saying, I've got nothing to bring here but my sin. 00:23:23.820 --> 00:23:24.799 I've got pride at the bottom. 00:23:25.240 --> 00:23:30.400 And again, you know, whether you can come today and think, I know that moment that I 00:23:30.400 --> 00:23:32.660 became the person I never thought I was capable of. 00:23:33.259 --> 00:23:35.640 And many of us here maybe can't say that. 00:23:35.779 --> 00:23:36.700 We can't think of that. 00:23:36.740 --> 00:23:37.519 That doesn't come to mind. 00:23:37.519 --> 00:23:44.379 And this, this, the Bible says every single sin, every single denial, every act of disobedience 00:23:44.379 --> 00:23:46.839 is saying, I'm the master of my life. 00:23:47.680 --> 00:23:49.759 My rebellion is based on my pride. 00:23:50.879 --> 00:23:54.539 See, it's drawing out the truth that's at the, every one of the bottom of every one of 00:23:54.539 --> 00:23:54.940 our hearts. 00:23:54.940 --> 00:24:02.779 And so as we turn finally to finish, Peter, in the third time when Jesus asked, do you 00:24:02.779 --> 00:24:03.100 love me? 00:24:03.140 --> 00:24:03.640 Do you love me? 00:24:03.700 --> 00:24:04.200 Do you love me? 00:24:04.320 --> 00:24:06.779 It says in verse 17, Peter was grieved. 00:24:07.779 --> 00:24:11.960 And some people have come and said, you know, he was angry because Jesus kept saying, do 00:24:11.960 --> 00:24:12.639 you love me? 00:24:12.940 --> 00:24:14.599 And Peter was thinking, you don't believe me? 00:24:15.779 --> 00:24:17.480 But that's not the word here in Greek. 00:24:17.559 --> 00:24:18.579 It says he was grieved. 00:24:18.639 --> 00:24:21.519 In other words, he was absolutely cut to the heart. 00:24:21.779 --> 00:24:28.779 And what this is saying is that that step in repentance is a step of godly sorrow of saying, 00:24:28.859 --> 00:24:30.119 I bring nothing but my sin. 00:24:30.299 --> 00:24:32.960 I only have godly sorrow and godly sorrow. 00:24:32.960 --> 00:24:39.720 So what happened with Peter here is the difference in self-pity, self-pity and real repentance. 00:24:39.880 --> 00:24:40.799 And the difference is this. 00:24:41.259 --> 00:24:44.579 It's when you, it's when you do something, it's when you struggle, it's when you feel 00:24:44.579 --> 00:24:45.279 guilt and shame. 00:24:45.420 --> 00:24:48.799 And you say on the one hand, I'm sorry for what's happened. 00:24:49.000 --> 00:24:51.860 I'm sorry for my reputation being hurt. 00:24:51.960 --> 00:24:55.640 I'm sorry for what this is going to cost me in public. 00:24:55.759 --> 00:24:58.100 I'm sorry for losing my job, losing that relationship. 00:24:58.440 --> 00:24:59.380 That's self-pity. 00:24:59.759 --> 00:25:00.420 That's not repentance. 00:25:00.420 --> 00:25:03.680 And this is a, friends, this is a matter of salvation. 00:25:05.200 --> 00:25:09.640 Real repentance is godly sorrow that says, it's not about what it cost me, it's about 00:25:09.640 --> 00:25:10.300 what it cost him. 00:25:11.380 --> 00:25:13.600 And that's the grief that Peter's walking through. 00:25:13.680 --> 00:25:14.519 That's godly sorrow. 00:25:14.720 --> 00:25:17.039 So lastly, the healer, very brief. 00:25:18.460 --> 00:25:25.620 In Mark 14, remember the third time Peter denied Jesus, Peter cursed himself. 00:25:25.619 --> 00:25:29.119 In Luke 22, I haven't mentioned this yet, I want to close with this. 00:25:29.199 --> 00:25:35.119 In Luke 22, it says something, something extraordinary. 00:25:36.099 --> 00:25:42.199 It says in Luke 22 that when Peter denied Jesus the third time, Peter, Jesus stepped out of the 00:25:42.199 --> 00:25:43.059 high priest's courtroom. 00:25:43.939 --> 00:25:46.579 And it says that Jesus looked at him. 00:25:46.579 --> 00:25:49.339 And then the rooster crowed. 00:25:50.119 --> 00:25:51.139 What was that look? 00:25:52.240 --> 00:25:53.099 That look. 00:25:54.859 --> 00:25:58.699 Was it like the look that, you know, we parents give to our kids in church? 00:25:59.819 --> 00:26:02.799 Or they're disturbing everybody or whatever. 00:26:02.919 --> 00:26:05.339 And we, you know, give that very disappointed face. 00:26:06.779 --> 00:26:08.500 You know, pick yourself up. 00:26:08.799 --> 00:26:09.159 Do better. 00:26:09.639 --> 00:26:11.199 What was the look that Jesus gives here? 00:26:12.200 --> 00:26:14.460 When you come back to John 21, I think we can figure it out. 00:26:14.860 --> 00:26:16.980 He said to him three times, do you love me? 00:26:17.019 --> 00:26:17.539 Do you love me? 00:26:17.580 --> 00:26:18.100 Do you love me? 00:26:18.120 --> 00:26:21.819 And he said, so go and feed my sheep, tend my lambs, feed my sheep. 00:26:22.160 --> 00:26:23.480 And we'll come back to that next week. 00:26:23.559 --> 00:26:24.840 But what was Jesus saying? 00:26:24.900 --> 00:26:27.580 He was saying, Peter, you are my disciple. 00:26:28.580 --> 00:26:29.319 Do you love me? 00:26:30.420 --> 00:26:30.819 I do. 00:26:30.980 --> 00:26:31.720 Feed my lambs. 00:26:31.880 --> 00:26:32.880 You already have a job. 00:26:33.240 --> 00:26:34.680 You are already my follower. 00:26:35.680 --> 00:26:38.620 You have not come outside my kingdom. 00:26:38.620 --> 00:26:39.660 You have not exited. 00:26:39.660 --> 00:26:41.300 You're already here. 00:26:41.400 --> 00:26:42.220 You're already in. 00:26:42.500 --> 00:26:49.040 In other words, what Jesus was doing is he was asking Peter to respond to forgiveness that had already been accomplished. 00:26:49.960 --> 00:26:54.860 He was asking Peter to simply recognize grace that had already been given. 00:26:56.540 --> 00:26:58.480 And when, well, you think about that. 00:26:58.600 --> 00:27:06.120 Look, Hebrews says, Hebrews says, for the joy set before him, he took on the shame of the cross. 00:27:06.119 --> 00:27:11.659 Jesus, for the joy in front of his eyes, he took the shame of the cross. 00:27:12.759 --> 00:27:15.719 Think of this moment, this existential, the existential weight of this moment. 00:27:15.839 --> 00:27:19.739 Here it is where Peter has just denied knowing him. 00:27:20.099 --> 00:27:25.399 And Jesus walks out now accused, now condemned, beaten for the first time. 00:27:25.539 --> 00:27:27.279 And he looks up and he looks at Peter. 00:27:27.279 --> 00:27:31.660 And you see that, what was that look? 00:27:32.559 --> 00:27:33.500 What was that look? 00:27:33.539 --> 00:27:36.639 That look was not the look of the disappointed parrot. 00:27:36.799 --> 00:27:38.599 It was that I can sometimes give. 00:27:38.700 --> 00:27:45.740 It was the look that says something more like, I loved you. 00:27:45.879 --> 00:27:46.819 I loved you in that moment. 00:27:46.879 --> 00:27:48.240 I loved you at your very worst. 00:27:49.359 --> 00:27:51.599 I loved you right in that moment at your very worst. 00:27:51.720 --> 00:27:52.519 That's what I was doing. 00:27:52.680 --> 00:27:54.139 That's why you could never come with me. 00:27:54.140 --> 00:27:56.220 Because I was saving you. 00:27:56.340 --> 00:27:59.600 I was accomplishing the grace that you needed for breakfast at the beach. 00:28:01.080 --> 00:28:08.800 And repentance, friends, finally, repentance is staring at the mirror that Jesus holds up, 00:28:09.360 --> 00:28:13.540 having real godly sorrows, saying what my sin cost him, 00:28:14.300 --> 00:28:19.640 and looking and saying, I am the one that Jesus looked at when he walked out of the courtroom. 00:28:20.380 --> 00:28:21.080 That was me. 00:28:21.460 --> 00:28:22.060 I'm Peter. 00:28:22.059 --> 00:28:23.759 He looked at me. 00:28:24.519 --> 00:28:28.579 And he came to you and he said to you, come and have breakfast with me. 00:28:28.639 --> 00:28:29.299 Do you love me? 00:28:29.500 --> 00:28:30.799 You're my follower now. 00:28:30.919 --> 00:28:31.359 You're forgiven. 00:28:31.480 --> 00:28:31.940 You're redeemed. 00:28:32.559 --> 00:28:33.319 Live out of that. 00:28:34.079 --> 00:28:34.759 You're healed. 00:28:35.000 --> 00:28:37.839 Jesus the surgeon becomes Jesus the healer in this moment. 00:28:38.539 --> 00:28:39.899 Now I want to ask you the final word. 00:28:40.700 --> 00:28:41.419 Have you repented? 00:28:42.859 --> 00:28:43.579 Have you repented? 00:28:43.579 --> 00:28:50.099 You will know that you have experienced repentance in this way. 00:28:50.439 --> 00:28:56.539 When you sin, when you cross that line, when you become the person you never thought you might be, 00:28:57.379 --> 00:28:58.259 have you repented? 00:28:58.319 --> 00:28:58.879 Here's how you'll know. 00:28:58.980 --> 00:29:06.159 When you do that, do you want to run to Jesus and sit at his feet, sit around the charcoal fire, 00:29:06.160 --> 00:29:07.400 or do you want to run away? 00:29:08.580 --> 00:29:09.240 That's how you know. 00:29:09.980 --> 00:29:10.680 Real repentance. 00:29:11.320 --> 00:29:16.360 When you've experienced real repentance, you know that it's toward the Messiah, the Savior, 00:29:16.440 --> 00:29:19.540 the one who looked at you and said, it was my joy to die for you. 00:29:19.539 --> 00:29:22.159 Now follow me. 00:29:23.000 --> 00:29:24.440 Feed my sheep to my lambs. 00:29:24.779 --> 00:29:27.440 Go and get out there and be done with your guilt. 00:29:27.519 --> 00:29:28.940 Be done with your shame forever. 00:29:29.119 --> 00:29:30.200 You can say today, I'm healed. 00:29:30.299 --> 00:29:30.720 I'm restored. 00:29:30.799 --> 00:29:31.220 I'm free. 00:29:32.599 --> 00:29:35.720 I won't be held down anymore like Peter was. 00:29:35.779 --> 00:29:37.399 The wound, Jesus cut it out. 00:29:37.480 --> 00:29:38.000 He's healed it. 00:29:39.420 --> 00:29:40.119 Let us pray. 00:29:41.039 --> 00:29:44.240 Father, we all need real repentance. 00:29:44.440 --> 00:29:46.799 Every single person here, every single person in our city, 00:29:46.799 --> 00:29:50.799 whether we're Christians today or not, we need repentance. 00:29:51.180 --> 00:29:56.940 And so teach us, Lord, and help us to see the truth of ourselves through this encounter, 00:29:57.099 --> 00:30:04.119 this Peter, the treacherous coward, but boy, forgiven, healed, redeemed, restored. 00:30:04.299 --> 00:30:04.720 That's us. 00:30:04.819 --> 00:30:05.399 We want it. 00:30:05.440 --> 00:30:05.940 We need it. 00:30:06.619 --> 00:30:10.799 Meet with us now as we sing a hymn in that light, His mercy is more. 00:30:11.599 --> 00:30:12.819 And we pray this in Jesus' name. 00:30:12.960 --> 00:30:13.159 Amen.