Well, good morning, church family.
This is Pastor Sam checking in with you from vacation.
My family and I very much look forward to being back with you next Sunday worshiping
together.
But until then, let me introduce to you a very special guest.
Ed Upton is the Senior Director of the Church Ambassador Network of Texas.
He is an elder at Redemption City Church in Fort Worth.
He's also served as Vice President at Southwestern Seminary in Fort Worth.
He has served on the staff of the Executive Committee of our Southern Baptist Convention.
He has served on the staff of two of our largest SBC churches, Cross Church in Arkansas
under Pastor Ronnie Floyd, as well as Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas.
Ed pastored in a smaller town, Neosho, Missouri.
He holds his Master of Divinity and Doctor of Ministry degrees from Southern Seminary in
Louisville, Kentucky.
Ed is a man of the church.
He's a man of God, and he's one of my closest friends on this earth, one of my favorite people.
I believe his family is here with him today.
I hope he's a blessing to y'all.
I know he will be.
Please welcome my friend, Ed Upton.
What a sweet boy.
How we doing?
We good?
He's a liar.
He was not filming that on vacation.
That was in his office.
So we're going to talk to him about that when he gets home, okay?
My goodness gracious.
Are we good?
I need to know, before we start, I need to know how responsive y'all are, because I got
some questions about the sermon, and I want y'all to, will y'all speak back to me if I
ask you questions?
This is yes.
Okay, cool.
All right.
Just making sure.
It's a privilege to be here.
I bring you greetings from Fort Worth.
I bring you greetings from Redemption City Church, which is a church plant that Sam and
Holly helped us plant a few years ago in Fort Worth.
And that we still, we consider First Baptist Henry at a great partner with us in the gospel
work that's going on all across North Texas.
I have known Sam for a few years.
Like he said, we worked together.
And Sam and Holly, I think Eleanor and I would tell you, are some of our closest friends.
And so it is an honor to be here with you.
I like to think that everything good that Sam knows about the church, I taught him.
All the bad, I'm sure he learned somewhere else.
But it wasn't for me.
So you're going to find that out today, hopefully.
So grab your Bibles.
Turn with me to John chapter number 21.
So if you brought a copy, it's a paper Bible.
I've got a paper Bible.
If you got it on your phone, you're not going to bother me if you get your phone out.
John, you're going to bother me if you're scrolling on Facebook, but you're not going
to bother me if you get your phone out and look at scripture.
John chapter number 21 is where we're going to be today.
And while you're turning there, I want to tell you a story.
You guys like stories?
I'll tell you a little bit of a story.
The year 1514, so going way back.
In the year 1514, a middle class farming family in southern Scotland named Knox welcomed a
new baby into their family, a little boy that they named John.
John Knox grew up and when it was time to go off to college, although his family wasn't
super well off, they scraped up the money and they sent him to the University of St.
Andrews.
Sometime after his graduation from the University of St. Andrews, Knox was introduced to a preacher
by the name of George Weissart.
Weissart was, in fact, instrumental in Knox's conversion to Christ.
Knox began preaching after Weissart was martyred by the local cardinal in Scotland.
In fact, when Mary I, first came to power, she was known as Bloody Mary, you might have heard
of her in history.
Knox fled to Geneva where he studied under a man named John Calvin.
After the death of Mary in 1558, amidst a renewed Protestant insurgency in Scotland,
Knox returned to Edinburgh in 1559 and began preaching, despite a price that was thrown at
his head.
Throughout the years following, God used John Knox to see hundreds, even thousands of Scots
professed faith in Christ, Knox was known throughout Scotland as a man who feared God more than
he feared anything or anyone else.
He was known also as a man of prayer.
Another Mary, Mary Queen of Scots, who came to power later in John's life, is reported to
have said that she fears the prayers of John Knox more than all the assembled armies of Europe.
One of John Knox's more famous prayers that he prayed was simply this, God, give me Scotland
or I die.
He was known for that, God, give me Scotland or I die.
And God granted his request.
God used John Knox.
He used his insatiable desire for his country to rejuvenate the preachers in Scotland and
to start God's churches throughout the nations, thus in turn reforming the church in Scotland.
Through God's providence, John's legacy includes some 750,000 believers in Scotland, over 3 million
in the United States, and countless more worldwide, all starting with someone who simply had the
desire to see his country come to Christ.
Praying the prayer, God, give me Scotland or I die.
I think that John's life and his prayer carries implications for us today as we look at John
chapter 21.
And so what I want to do is I'm going to read the passage.
I'm a big believer.
Let's read the whole passage we're going to look at together.
Then we're going to come back and let's kind of chop it up and walk through it as we go.
Good?
Yes?
All right.
So John 21, starting in verse number one, and I'm going to read.
I think it's on the screens, but I don't have the clicker.
So if it's not, just follow along in the Bible.
We've all got Bibles, right?
John 21, verse one.
After this, Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias, and he
revealed himself in this way.
Simon Peter, Thomas called the twin, Nathaniel of Canaan and Galilee, the sons of Zebedee,
and two others of his disciples were together.
Simon Peter said to them, I'm going fishing.
They said to him, we will go with you.
And they went out and got into the boat.
But that night they caught nothing.
Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore, yet the disciples did not know that
it was Jesus.
Jesus said to them, children, do you have any fish?
And they answered him, no.
He said to them, cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.
So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in because of the quantity
of fish.
That disciple whom Jesus loved therefore said to Peter, it is the Lord.
When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment, for he was stripped
for work, and threw himself into the sea.
The other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far
from the land, but about a hundred yards off.
When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire in place with fish laid out on it and bread.
Jesus said to them, bring some of the fish that you have just caught.
So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore full of large fish, 153 of them.
And although there were many, the net was not torn.
Jesus then said to them, come and have breakfast.
Now none of the disciples dared ask him, who are you?
They knew it was the Lord.
Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and so with the fish.
This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised
from the dead.
Verse 15.
When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you
love me more than these?
And he said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you.
He said to him, feed my lambs.
He said to him a second time, Simon, son of John, do you love me?
He said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you.
He said to him, tend my sheep.
Verse 17.
He said to him the third time, Simon, son of John, do you love me?
And Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, do you love me?
And he said to him, Lord, you know everything.
You know that I love you.
Jesus said to him, feed my sheep.
Would you pray with me this morning as we get started?
Father, we declare to you this morning that there is none like you.
There is none greater than you in the heavens or on the earth.
And so, Father, it is with that attitude that we come before you this morning,
and we ask very humbly that you would speak to us, that you would teach us.
Father, we pray that you would use this time to deepen our affections for your word,
to deepen our affections for you.
It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
All right, so John 21, right?
I want to give you some background on kind of what we're looking at in John 21,
and we're going to work through it together. You with me?
So as we get into John 21, right before we come to these men,
they're gathered by the Sea of Tiberias.
We kind of see in the chapters leading up to this the death and the resurrection of Jesus,
as well as him appearing to the disciples a couple of times.
You with me, right?
The most recent being in the chapter before this,
you see Jesus appear to Thomas, right?
Doubting Thomas.
You can, you know, put your fingers, see my wounds, put your fingers in my wounds,
and you can see that I'm real and that I'm really here.
So if you keep in mind that there's only about 40 days between the resurrection of Christ
and his ascension into heaven, which is what we see in Acts chapter 1,
you've got to believe that these guys who are gathered here by the Sea of Tiberias
are probably a little shell-shocked over the events of the last month, right?
Just a little bit shell-shocked over what's going on.
I mean, they've spent the last three years of their lives living with Jesus every day.
They gave up everything they had.
They followed him.
When he first called these men, you remember,
Jesus instructed them to leave everything behind,
their families, their livelihoods, everything, and follow him.
In fact, you see Matthew and Mark in the Gospels,
you see in Matthew and Mark, excuse me, in the Gospels,
two of the disciples leave their father, right?
They left everything.
James and John left their father to go be with Jesus,
three years with Jesus, spent watching him heal the sick and raise the dead
and comfort and encourage people,
preach to the masses about the glory of God,
all culminating in his murder at the hands of the Jews and the Romans.
Okay, so I've got to believe there's some shell-shockedness going on here.
Their heads are no doubt spinning at the events of the last 40 days.
But truthfully, if we're looking at kind of the life of these men
and what they've been through the last three years,
this should not have been a surprise to them, right?
We know that Jesus had been talking to them about his death for a while.
In Mark chapter 14, you see Jesus tell the disciples,
you will all fall away for it is written,
I will strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered.
But after I am raised up, he says, I will go before you to Galilee.
Then in Mark chapter 16, verse 7,
the angel at the tomb instructs Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James,
to go tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee.
There you will see him just as he told you.
So he's telling them that he was going to meet them in Galilee.
He's giving them instruction about what is coming
and what they are to do when it happens.
So when we get into John chapter 21,
it really should be of no surprise that we see these men gathered by the Sea of Tiberias
or more commonly known as the Sea of Galilee.
What is surprising here, though,
about this entire episode that you see in John 21
is the picture that's being painted for us here by John.
There is some surprise at what's going on within John 21
and within the picture that we are seeing.
So if you look back with me to John 21, verses 1 and 2,
I want to take a moment and we're going to walk through the passage
and we want to make some notes along the way as we go
concerning this specific picture.
There's an illustration, there's some imagery here
that John wants to make sure that we don't miss.
This verbiage that John uses to give us a very vivid picture
of what is happening with these guys.
And as we look at this, I want you to remember something else
as we walk through this passage for the next few minutes.
And this is the statement.
Words mean things.
Okay?
Words mean things.
Words that you say, words that you don't say,
words that you see in Scripture.
Words mean things.
And many times, a singular word can make the difference
when you're reading Scripture between us making up our own mind
about whatever we're interpreting going on here
versus how the Scripture was intended to be understood.
And so I want to take note of the very specific language
that John is using here to describe this scene
because I think it helps us get a clearer picture
of this little interchange that we see take place
between John and Peter.
So John 21, verses 1 and 2.
After this, look back with me.
After this, Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples
by the Sea of Tiberias.
He revealed himself in this way.
Simon Peter, Thomas called the twin,
Nathaniel of Canaan, Galilee, the sons of Zebedee,
and two others of his disciples were together.
So here's what we have.
Peter, six other guys are together.
Maybe experiencing a little bit of trepidation
over what they'd seen the last few weeks.
They decide to go fishing.
So the first kind of two words of this passage
set the stage for what we're going to see.
It says, after this, well, after what?
After the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.
After he's appeared to the guys a few times.
But here in particular,
it's after the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
The disciples had returned to Galilee from Jerusalem
as instructed by Jesus.
And Jesus appears to them by the Sea of Tiberias.
And so here's where we begin to see this specific language
that will give us kind of this mental illustration
of the scene taking place.
John names when this is taking place.
He gives you specifically when this is taking place.
And he gives you names, right?
He names names of who is there.
Okay?
And so we may mention this earlier.
Sea of Tiberias is also known as the Sea of Galilee.
If you look back at John 6,
you would see this is not the first time
that John has called the Sea of Galilee
the Sea of Tiberias.
So we see they're here,
where so much of the time that Jesus had spent.
Anybody ever been to Israel?
The Sea of Galilee is,
I mean, if you ever get to go,
the Sea of Galilee was my favorite spot
because it hasn't changed in thousands of years.
It's the same as it was when Jesus walked on it.
And this is where so much of Jesus' ministry
had taken place,
so much time that he spent with them.
And it's important to note also,
this is their home.
Okay?
This is where these guys are from.
It's their home.
And so if you've ever been,
it's awesome.
You should go.
So Jesus reveals himself in this way.
And then John tells us specifically who's there.
Simon Peter,
Thomas called the Twin,
who we refer to as Doubting Thomas.
Read about it in the previous chapter.
Nathaniel of Canaan and Galilee,
the sons of Zebedee,
who were James and John.
You remember the name that they were given,
the sons of thunder?
If you ever want to call me,
I want to be a son of thunder.
Okay?
I think it's a great name.
Call me.
I want to be a son of thunder.
And then two others of his disciples
who are nameless in John 21
that John tells us.
So you've got this picture in your mind.
They're by the sea.
There's seven of them together.
They're hanging out.
They're back home.
And I want to,
as you move into verse three,
you see this phrase,
Peter tells them,
I am going fishing,
right?
And they say to him,
we will go with you.
Now,
I want to take a second
and I want to ask you to think with me
as we kind of move forward.
What does this phrase,
I am going fishing here mean?
Okay?
What does the phrase mean
when Peter says,
I am going fishing
and they said,
we will go with you?
Is this the guys out fishing,
blowing off some steam?
Or is there something else
taking place here
that we need to notice
and that we need to know about?
Well,
as we keep reading,
John answers this question
as we move through the story.
Verse three,
they went out into the boat that night
and they caught nothing.
So notice the specificity
that John uses.
How many fish did they catch?
None,
right?
They caught nothing.
There was no fish.
There was nothing going on.
Verse number four
sets the scene
for where this particular,
the time this particular scene
is happening.
So when did this happen?
Verse number four,
what time of day?
Right?
In the morning time.
So just as day was breaking,
so verse four,
just as day was breaking,
early in the morning,
notice the specificity
that John uses,
just as day was breaking,
Jesus stood on the shore,
yet the disciples
did not know
that it was Jesus.
Jesus said to them,
do you have any fish?
They said no.
And he said,
cast the net where?
Keep working through.
On the right side of the boat.
This is oddly specific,
right?
This is oddly specific
for what you would normally
see in scripture.
Okay,
on the right side of the boat,
that's great.
And you will find some.
So they cast it
and the scripture says
they were not able
to haul it in
because of the quantity of fish.
Then verse number seven,
you see John
names another disciple.
He names himself,
right?
That disciple whom Jesus loved,
that's John,
the disciple whom Jesus loved
therefore said to Peter,
it is the Lord.
So when Simon Peter
heard that it was Lord,
he put on his outer garment
for he was stripped for work
and threw himself
into the sea.
And there in verse number seven
is where I think we get
our first really clear glimpse
at what is actually taking place
in this picture
that John is painting for us.
He begins to answer
the question that we asked earlier
of what does it mean
when Peter says,
I am going fishing.
John isn't really hiding
the fact here
that Peter is working,
right?
Peter's gone fishing.
He's gone back to work.
In fact,
if you remember
back in Matthew chapter number four,
when Jesus first crosses paths
with Andrew and Peter,
they were fishing,
right?
Jesus said to them,
put down your nets
and follow me.
And what does he say?
I will make you fishers of men.
Okay?
So Peter then,
after all this had gone on,
spent three years with Jesus,
the last 30 or 40 days
trying to figure out
what in the world
is happening with my life,
Peter leads these men
back to fishing
on the Sea of Galilee.
And just to make sure
that we know exactly
what John was telling us,
he continues chapter 21
in this specific imagery,
verse number eight.
The disciples came in the boat,
dragging the net full of fish,
for they were not far
from the land.
How far were they
from the land?
About 100 yards,
right?
They got out on land,
they saw what kind
of a fire in place?
A charcoal fire in place
with fish laid out on it
and bread.
So Jesus said to them,
bring some of the fish
that you have just caught.
So Simon Peter went aboard,
hauled the net ashore,
full of large fish.
How many fish?
Okay,
what?
Okay,
so let's have a conversation.
All right?
So you gotta think to yourself,
153 fish.
Are there fishermen in the room?
Anybody like to fish?
Man,
we love to fish.
If you'll,
I'll be out in the lobby
after it's over,
I'll show you a picture
of a fish my son caught
two nights ago
at this little pond.
It was great.
I mean,
it's,
you know,
we're getting to the point
in our fishing careers
where they don't want to fish
for bluegill anymore.
They want to fish
for largemouth bass
and catfish,
right?
Because you,
like,
we were talking about
this last year.
We were out at this place
over in Jacksboro fishing
and they were just
catching bluegill like crazy,
right?
And I'm just out there
fishing for bass,
you know,
and my sons are like,
don't you want to catch fish?
And I was like,
well,
sure,
but I don't want to catch
bluegill.
I want to catch big fish,
right?
And so,
just get this in your mind
if you're a fisherman.
Are there lakes to fish around here?
I'm sure there are,
right?
Texas,
okay?
Is there good fishing around here?
I need to know this.
This is good to know.
Okay,
good.
All right.
Anybody here have a boat?
Let's just keep going down this.
No?
Okay.
So,
those of you that fish,
okay,
you need to get this picture
in your mind.
They haul this net ashore
full of fish
and it says 153 of them.
Now,
when you throw a net
out into the water,
it kind of goes down.
Anybody ever,
you guys net fish?
Nobody really net fishes anymore,
right?
So,
if you ever watch the video,
they throw the net out
and they kind of cast this wide net
and it goes,
sinks down
and then they pull it up
and it pulls in like everything,
right?
It's not just large fish,
it's everything.
You're going to have,
you know,
if you're fishing on,
you know,
you're fishing at a lake
in Fort Worth,
you're going to get bluegill
and you're going to get bass
and you're going to get
probably carp
and you're going to get,
you know,
just different kinds of,
who knows,
right?
All this kind of fish,
minnows and whatnot.
And so,
they're pulling it ashore
and in the passage,
it says that they couldn't
put it on the boat
so really what they did
was they hauled it ashore.
When I was a kid,
we used to go carp fishing.
You all have carp here?
We used to go carp fishing.
I grew up in Arkansas.
We didn't eat the carp
but we caught them
because they're fun to catch,
right?
They're huge
and they would fight
and I remember
when I was a kid,
I caught one
and I couldn't reel it in
and so I turned around
and put the pole
over my shoulder
and just walked up the bank,
right?
And just pulled the carp
up on the bank.
That's the idea.
So they pull the net up
and they're kind of
dragging it up on the net
and then when you let the net go,
if you've got a net full of fish
and you just let it go
on the bank,
what's going to happen
to the fish?
They're just scattered,
right?
They're all,
they're flopping around,
they're all over the place.
So there's this imagery
that John wants us to see here
that is going on
of this, right?
It's kind of chaotic.
There's fish everywhere.
Obviously,
they counted the fish,
right?
Oddly specific,
153 large fish
that you see,
okay?
So this is
kind of this scene
with all this
kind of fish everywhere.
I mean,
that would be the definition
of slaying them,
right guys?
If you go fishing
and you catch 153 fish
in one setting
and you don't invite me
the next time you go,
I'm going to be angry
with all of you,
okay?
And I'm going to talk about you
at Redemption City Church
and we're just going to have
a bad time in Fort Worth,
okay?
That is a lot of fish.
There's something to be said here,
though,
about what's going on,
right?
And John kind of alluded to it
a minute ago.
They're not just going fishing,
are they?
They went back to work.
That's what these guys did.
They fished for a living.
They literally,
they took their ball
and they went home,
right?
Occasionally,
my boys will be playing Xbox
and one of them rage quits,
right?
You know what I mean
when I say rage quits?
Like,
they'll be losing,
like,
you know,
in a baseball game,
15 to nothing
and they're just like,
I'm done,
I quit.
Or like,
when I was growing up,
I would do that to Monopoly.
I would just rage quit,
right?
I'm out.
I don't want to,
I'm losing,
I don't want to do this anymore.
That's what these guys did.
They took their ball
and they just went,
I mean,
they'd had enough.
Jesus had been murdered.
Peter cut the ear off of a dude.
He denied Christ three times.
And what's kind of crazy here
is that we know
this is now the third time,
right?
In verse 14
that Jesus had appeared
to the disciples
after he was raised from the dead.
We had already talked about the fact
that Jesus told them what to do
after all this happened.
He told them he would meet them in Galilee,
but I just have to wonder
if these guys weren't at their wit's end.
And they just throw their hands up in the air
and they say,
I'm out.
It's too much.
It's too hard.
Jesus,
I know that you said
you would meet us in Galilee.
I know that you told us
who would be fishers of men.
I know that we spent
the last three years
of our lives watching you
and learning from you
and being discipled from you,
but bro,
I'm out.
Life is too hard.
I have bills to pay.
I got to make money
so I can live.
I'm tired of other people
making fun of me.
I've got Roman soldiers
looking to kill me.
I'm just tired.
And I think to myself,
my goodness,
have I not been there
in my own life?
Right?
My goodness,
has my life not turned out
the way that I had planned it out
15 years ago?
Am I the only one in the room?
I didn't think so.
Life is hard.
It is.
I think it's hard
to help us remember
from time to time
that this is not
where we belong,
right?
But it's hard.
It's not easy.
You know,
I had a pretty great life
in Arkansas.
I really did.
It's hard.
Following Christ
is not supposed
to necessarily be easy.
Back to our verses
for the day.
Go to verse 15.
It says,
When they had finished breakfast,
Jesus said to Simon Peter,
Simon, son of John,
do you love me
more than these?
Simon, son of John,
do you love me
more than these?
And I want to stop there
just a moment.
I'm going to go back
to something I said
at the very beginning
of our time
because so often
when we're looking
at a passage of Scripture
or studying a passage
of Scripture,
just one word
can make the difference
in whether or not
we understand a passage
correctly or not.
And here today,
I want to submit to you
that that one word
I want to look at
is the word these.
You see it there?
When they had finished breakfast,
Jesus said to Simon Peter,
Simon, son of John,
do you love me
more than these?
And I want to stop there
and I want to stop there
We've already answered
one question today.
These guys had quit
what they were doing,
they packed up
and they went home.
But the real question
here in the passage
that we need to answer
is what is Jesus
talking about
when he asked Peter
if he loves him
more than these?
Now,
there are a couple
possibilities
that he could be
talking about
and my whole life
I kind of thought
as I was reading
this passage
and studying it
that he was talking
about the other disciples
that were around the fire.
Right?
They had all gathered up,
there's this fire,
the charcoal fire
with fish and bread on it
and they were all together,
it was breakfast time,
they were probably eating,
there's all these fish
all over the shore
and my whole life
I thought,
man,
is Jesus saying,
you know,
Peter,
do you love me
more than your friends?
Right?
Do you love me
more than these?
Do you love me
more than your friends?
Until a few years ago
I was in a doctoral seminar
in Louisville, Kentucky
and someone interjected
another thought.
So think about this
with me for a moment.
Why would John
be so specific
about the events
of the evening
and the events
of the early morning
only to flip the script
on what he was talking about
all of a sudden
in verse 15
and all of a sudden
not be as specific
as he was being earlier.
The previous 14 verses
that we looked at
have all been about
how these men went fishing,
caught nothing,
saw Jesus,
caught a ton of fish,
laid them out on the beach
to count,
and now are sitting around,
maybe standing around
a fire eating breakfast,
the whole story
revolving around fishing.
And I just wonder
if Peter didn't look,
if Jesus didn't look at Peter
and say something
like this, right?
Remember that maybe
they're sitting around
the fire,
maybe Peter and Jesus
were walking together
and maybe Jesus
puts his arm around Peter
and he says,
hey Simon.
And that right there
would have caused
Peter to pause.
By calling him Simon,
Jesus goes back
to using his old name.
You notice that?
He goes back
to using his old name.
This must have been
terribly defeating
for Peter.
Jesus had already
changed his name
to Cephas,
which means stone or rock,
right?
And now,
in the midst of all of this,
Jesus is going back
to his old name?
Hear me church,
never,
when you are working
and trying to heal
a guilty conscience,
should you minimize
the seriousness
of the offense
or conceal the source
of the old sin nature
that we all have.
Jesus didn't do that
with Peter either.
Hey Peter,
the Simon is still in you.
The Simon is still there.
You have to fight
against that.
Right?
Jesus didn't do that.
His first word to Peter,
Jesus calls him out.
Simon,
son of John,
do you love me
more than these?
And I just wonder
if he said that.
He said,
hey Simon,
do you love me
more than these?
And maybe gesture
down at the fish.
All these fish,
153 large fish
on the shore.
And Jesus says,
hey man,
do you love me
more than you love fish?
Now,
why would Jesus
ask Peter this question?
I have to believe
a look of realization
came over Peter's face
when Peter concludes
that Jesus is asking
Peter this question
because,
bro,
you sure did go back home
really quick.
It's been 40 days,
man.
40 days.
We spent all this time
together
and you just went home.
Jesus says to Peter,
do you love me
more than these?
I submit to you
that the these,
they're the fish
that he's talking about.
Peter says,
yes Lord,
you know that I love you.
Jesus says to him,
feed my lambs.
Verse 16,
he said to him
a second time,
Simon,
son of John,
do you love me?
He said to him,
yes Lord,
do you know that I love you?
He said to him,
tend my sheep.
Says it a third time
in verse 17,
right?
Simon,
son of John,
do you love me?
But this time,
Peter's reaction
is different,
isn't it?
What does the scripture
say Peter is this time?
He's grieved.
I think if Jesus
was talking about his friends,
I think that's
a harder conversation.
I think,
man,
are you really willing
to give up your friends?
Are you really willing
to die for me?
Are you really willing
to give up,
you know,
your relationships
for me?
I think that's
a harder conversation.
If you're asking me
if I love you
more than I love fish,
I'm upset.
It's fish,
man.
I'm upset.
I'm bothered by that.
And obviously,
Peter is bothered by that.
It says,
Peter was heartbroken.
Peter was grieved
because he said to them
this third time,
do you love me?
Peter responds to him.
He says,
Lord,
you know everything.
You know that I love you.
Jesus said to him,
feed my sheep.
And I have to wonder
here in this moment
if Peter didn't realize
that he had allowed
what was comfortable
to him,
what he knew,
to completely sidetrack him
from what God
had called him to do,
which was to be
fishers of men,
right?
You remember.
Come follow me,
I'll make you
fishers of men.
But then I think to myself,
it's so easy to do that,
isn't it?
It's so easy in my life
to get so sidetracked
with what I know
God is telling me to do
or what I know
God has called me to do
that I just completely
lose sight of what
I'm supposed to be doing.
I'm focused here,
I'm focused here.
You don't understand.
God,
I've got a family
to take care of.
You don't understand
I've got mouths to feed
and my kids are getting bigger
and they eat more than I do
and I don't really know
what's going on with my life
and things are getting
more expensive
and gas is,
I don't know,
three or four dollars a gallon
and I'm just,
I don't know what to do,
right?
Insurance is going up.
It's crazy.
I've got all this stuff
going on
and it's so easy
in the hardness
of the life
that we live
to get completely sidetracked
from what God's calling us to do.
Interestingly here though
in this passage,
Jesus goes a step further
as if he hasn't gone far enough.
He tells Peter
to feed his sheep,
right?
You see that three times
Jesus said,
feed my sheep,
starting in verse number 15.
What's the significance
of this question?
Well,
it may be that Jesus
is restoring Peter,
right?
Peter denied him three times,
Jesus asked him three times,
feed my sheep,
or you know,
do you love me?
It may be some restoration,
but there may be
another reason here.
When Jesus first called,
we talked about this already,
when Jesus first called Peter
as a disciple,
he was fishing.
Jesus said he would make him
a fisher of men.
Here though,
I want us to notice
that Jesus doesn't tell Peter
to go fishing,
does he?
Jesus changes Peter's profession.
It's not,
come follow me
and I will make you
fishers of men.
Jesus changes Peter's profession
from fisherman
to shepherd,
right?
You are a shepherd now.
You are never to go back.
You are never to be this way.
You are never to be this person again.
You're done.
You will always be a shepherd.
He changes his whole profession.
Where you were a fisher,
now you are a shepherd.
And that's what I want you to do.
It's this only move forward.
That's what Jesus said.
Only move forward.
Forget what's in the past.
Right?
In fact,
you see the Apostle Paul
say the very same thing
a few years later
in his letter
to the Philippian Christians.
Brothers,
I do not consider
that I have made it my own,
but one thing I do,
forgetting what lies behind
and straining forward
to what lies ahead,
I press on toward the goal
for the prize
of the upward call
of God in Christ Jesus.
Move forward.
Pay attention
to the calling
on your life.
Listen to me this morning
first about his church,
Henrietta, Texas.
In the same way
that Jesus called Peter
from a life of fishing
to a life of shepherding the sheep,
in the same way
that Jesus called Paul
from a life
as an unbelieving Pharisee
and persecutor of Christians
to a life
as a missionary,
preacher,
pastor,
and apologist,
in the same way
that he called
those two men,
Jesus has called
each of us
to live our life
not for ourself,
but to live our lives
for the kingdom of God.
He has called us
out of darkness
into light.
He has called us
to share the good news
of Christ's death,
burial,
and resurrection
with a lost world
that desperately needs
that information,
that desperately needs
the saving power
that is found
in the blood of Jesus Christ,
and the question
you need to ask yourself today
is simply this.
What's keeping you
from doing just that?
I am positive
that there are people
all over Henrietta, Texas
that need to know
who Jesus is.
I'm positive.
I'm positive
there are people
all over Clay County
who need to know
who Jesus Christ is.
I'm positive
that there are people
all over Wichita Falls
who need to know
who Jesus is.
What's keeping us
from sharing the gospel?
What's keeping us
from going on mission?
What's holding us back?
Or maybe a better question
is what's your fish?
Maybe it's not actual fish.
What's your fish?
I know what mine is.
Mine's comfort.
I don't...
I just want peace
and quiet and comfort.
But that can turn
really, really bad
for me really, really quickly.
Right?
What's your fish?
What is it?
What is keeping you
from doing
what God has called you?
What's keeping you
from walking next door
and sharing the gospel
with your neighbor
who you know
desperately needs
the message
of Christ on the cross?
What's keeping you
from going to the school
and loving on teachers
and loving on students?
What's keeping you
from going out
into Clay County
and sharing the gospel
with people
all over this county
who needs to know
the beauty
and the grace
and the mercy
that is found
in the blood
of Jesus Christ?
What's your fish?
I was reminded
the other day,
continually reminded really,
of how easy it is
to fake this life.
There's so many
other things going on,
so many other things
that are vying
for our attention,
for our thoughts.
What's your fish?
And if the question
that I would ask
for you to ask yourself
is what's your fish,
the question that I would
posit to you today
out of John 21
is how's your heart?
How's your heart?
How's your relationship
with Christ?
What does that look like?
Do you have a relationship
with Christ?
I'm not asking you
if you were saved
30 years ago.
I'm asking you,
how's your relationship
with Christ today?
How are you doing
walking with Christ?
How are you doing
in that?
How are you doing
in living in the calling
that God has given to you?
I guarantee you
that God wants to do
a work here in Henrietta.
Matter of fact,
if you look back
over the history
of your church,
you've done it before.
Continuing to do it now.
Look at the people
in the room.
God wants to do
a work here in Henrietta
through this body of believers.
Are we really
going to allow something
with zero eternal significance
to get in the way of that?
And I'm not asking
that question to myself.
You're just,
you're here for a personal
counseling session,
so you're hearing
a personal counseling session
that I'm having with myself.
Back to our story
about John Knox
for a moment from earlier.
I just wonder
what would happen
if the rallying cry
of this body of believers
became give us Henrietta
or kill us.
One or the other.
God, give me Henrietta
or I'd die.
God, give me Clay County
or I'd die.
I wonder what,
I wonder what this place
would look like,
this whole area
would look like
a year from now.
God, give us Henrietta
or kill us.
So here's what I want to do.
I want you to bow your heads.
I want you to close your eyes
with me for the next few
moments together.
And I want to just
ask you some questions, okay?
I want to,
I don't really know
how y'all normally
do an invitation,
so I'm going to let you
just sit.
I think the band's
going to come back up
and sing and play
here in just a second,
but I want you to sit,
I want you to ask
some questions
and I want you
to take an inventory.
And here's my encouragement
to you with your heads
bowed and your eyes closed.
Here's my encouragement
to you this morning.
It's easier to lie
to yourself
than it is to anybody else.
Okay?
It's easier to justify
to yourself
than it is to anybody else.
So don't do that.
Okay?
So don't do that.
Take an inventory.
And the first question
that I want you to answer
is how's your relationship
with Christ today?
How's your relationship
with Christ today?
Okay?
Do you have a relationship
with Christ?
If you don't,
I would love the opportunity
to talk with you
in the lobby
after the service is over.
Greg would too.
And the other deacons here
I'm sure would be out there
as well.
Would love to talk
with you about it.
Please,
I beg of you,
do not rest
on that you walked
an aisle 30 years ago.
How's your relationship
with Christ today?
Second question.
From the passage
we read today,
what's your fish?
What is it
that you're allowing
to keep you from doing
what God has called
you to do?
Y'all,
I am Peter.
I am.
I let things get in the way.
I let things dominate me
that shouldn't dominate me.
I have to continually
ask myself,
continually take
this inventory
of what are the things
that I'm allowing
in my life
to get in the way
of what I know
God's called me to do.
What is that for you?
What would it be like
if the rallying cry
of First Baptist Church
Henrietta, Texas
was simply,
God, give us Henrietta
or we die.
Father, I pray
your blessing
over this church.
Father, I pray
your blessing
over them
as they
go out
and they reach
their community
for you.
Father, I pray
that you would
give them
vigor,
that you would
give them boldness
as they go.
Father, I pray
that you would
encourage them
along the way.
Father, I pray
that this area
would become known
throughout Texas,
throughout America,
throughout the world
as a place of revival,
as a place of awakening.
Father, I'm so
encouraged by
everything that Sam
says about
this great group
of people.
I'm so encouraged.
I'm so encouraged
of how they love
Sam and Holly.
I'm so encouraged
of how they love
their city.
Father, bless them.
Father, give us
Henrietta
or we die.
Amen.