 That said, I'm gonna begin reading here in John chapter 21 at verse one, just verse one because I'm gonna introduce some things to you as we continue our series, really in the Gospel of Mark and all, but I'll share that with you as we begin our study. So let me begin by reading verse 21 in John, verse one in John 21. John writes, after these things, Jesus showed himself again to the disciples at the sea of Tiberius and in this way he showed himself. And so as we've been going through the Gospel of Mark, we already have come really to its conclusion and as I mentioned, I'm filling in a few events that Mark didn't record in his Gospel. It gives to us a closer look at what took place after the resurrection. You see, each of the Gospels give different insights into the things that Jesus did after his resurrection and as we have seen, Jesus didn't descend immediately after. In Acts one verses one through three, Luke wrote that he was giving an account of all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day in which he was taken up after he, through the Holy Spirit, had given commandments to the apostles whom he had chosen, to whom he also presented himself alive after his suffering by many infallible proofs being seen by them during 40 days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. So as we've been going through some of those things, we've already seen how he had appeared to two of his disciples as they were on their way to the city of, or the village of Emmaus. We've seen how he appeared to some of his men on his resurrection day. We've also seen how a week later he appeared again to his men as well as to Thomas. So today we're going to look at what happened next and that's found here in chapter 21. Now this chapter was written for at least two purposes. First it was to record the full restoration of the apostle Peter to ministry and second, and I can touch this very briefly, to correct an error that was concerning the apostle John. You see if you look at verse 20 in chapter 21 it said, Peter turned around, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following, who also had leaned on his breast at the supper and said, Lord, who is the one who betrays you? Peter seeing him said to Jesus, but Lord, what about this man? And Jesus said to him, if I will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? Then this saying went out among the brethren that this disciple would not die. Yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but if I will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? So he was actually dealing with a rumor that John would never die. So as we look at this, on the night that Jesus, rather Judas betrayed Jesus, Peter had boasted, remember that, and I'm going to lay this as a foundation, he had boasted that he would never deny the Lord Jesus Christ. In John 1337 he went so far as to say, I will lay down my life for you. Now when he said this, obviously he was completely sincere because later on when they were in the Garden of Gethsemane, Peter had drawn a sword trying to keep Jesus from being arrested. Now after Jesus had told him to put away his sword, remember that Peter forsook him and he had fled. Now later Peter and John had followed behind as Jesus was led to the home of Caiaphas and he had been taken there, as we know, to be interrogated. John had gained entrance for both of them. Peter entered the courtyard. It was there that Peter denied the Lord three times even as Jesus had said. Now Luke tells us what happened after Peter denied Jesus the third time. Now Jesus at this point had already been spit upon. He had already been beaten and he was being led past the Apostle Peter there in the courtyard. In Luke 22, 61 and 62, it says the Lord turned and looked at Peter. That word looked, I pointed out before, it means he stared intensely at him. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said to him, before the rooster crows, you'll deny me three times and Peter went out and he had wept bitterly. So as Jesus had stared deeply at him, his heart had been revealed and his heart had been pierced and in a moment, his weakness and sinfulness became crystal clear to himself. And as I've already said, that was the last time Peter saw Jesus alive before his crucifixion. So his last memories had to have been shameful, painful. He did what he swore he'd never do. He abandoned and denied him. Now Jesus had told him that Satan had asked for and obtained permission to sift him. But Jesus went on to give him a word of encouragement. Luke 22, 32, Jesus said, I prayed for you that your faith should not fail and when you have returned to me, strengthen your brethren. Now he's saying, Peter, as high priest, I have made intercession to my father on your behalf. This failure will actually make you a source of encouragement to the others. Your failure will produce empathy, understanding, humility, as well as compassion in you. So after his failure, Jesus had sent a message to him. We saw that in Mark 16, verse 7, where an angel told Mary and the other women to go tell his disciples, and Peter, that he's going before you into Galilee, there you will see him as he said to you. So at that time, Jesus was sending a personal word of comfort to the apostle. Now in Luke 24, 33, and 34, the Emmaus disciples had seen Jesus. They went and told the apostles. They told the apostles who were gathering that they had spoken to him and the apostles responded, the Lord is risen indeed and has appeared to Simon. As I mentioned, the conversation isn't revealed, but we can assume that it was at that time that Jesus was restoring him. Now I want to develop this with you by pointing out that the concept of restoration or returning to original condition, that's what it means to restore. The concept of restoration, well, restoration can be divided in at least two elements. We need to know that sin breaks fellowship with God, so restoration begins first with God. When a believer is taken in sin, the result will be a broken relationship, so in order to restore fellowship with God, we're to repent and we're to confess our sins. If I confess my sin, he is faithful in just forgiving my sin, and when that happens, I have a restoration, a restoring to a condition of relationship with God. And so, fellowship with God is a confession away. If somebody has drifted and somebody has broken fellowship through willful sin, what we do is we say, God be merciful to me. I sincerely repent. I ask for your forgiveness. And the moment I pray, my restoration relationship has been completed, I once again have access to the Lord in that beautiful and pure way because the sin has been dealt with. So restoration begins with the returning of a relationship with God, and it's immediate, but restoration to ministry is more often a process. And what we're going to see today is not simply the restoration of the Apostle Peter to relationship with God, but we're going to see some elements of what it means for him to have been restored to his ministry, and that's what we're looking at in this particular portion of scripture. So beginning at verse one, again, reading it again and looking at it, it says, after these things, Jesus showed himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias, and in this way, he showed himself. Excuse me, I have a cough for some reason. Must be contagious COVID. Shouldn't have done that. I'm sorry. Just plain. I have to take a particular medicine and it causes me to cough. And today, for some reason, it is. But let's look at this and I'll try and keep my voice down a little because that's what provokes it. This begins in the north. It's at what is called the Sea of Tiberias. Now, when you read your Bible, you're going to notice that the sea to the north, we know it better as the Sea of Galilee, but it's known by different names, including the Sea of Tiberias. It's just another name for it. Actually, it's the Lake of Tiberias. The Lake of, it's called the Lake of Genesorette. It's called the Sea of Galilee. And so what we have here is him at the Sea of Tiberias. It's the Lake. Now, why would it be called that? Well, Tiberias was a Roman emperor. There was one who was at rule named Herod the Tetrarch. His portion of authority was up in the north by the Sea of Galilee. And so what he did is he named the Sea, the Sea of Tiberias, after honoring or for honoring of this Roman emperor. So as we've seen, the men have been commanded already to go to Galilee. So that's where they are right now. They're in the north. And as we're looking at this, Peter is the main character. Now, as we look at this in verse two, Simon Peter, Thomas called the twin, also referred to as Didymus, which simply means twin. In other words, there are two of them. They're both ugly. Thomas called the twin, Nathaniel of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, which is James and John, and two others of his disciples were together. So it just points out that there are a number of these fellows together. Five of them are named as the apostles. But notice how he added to unnamed disciples. There are those who believe these two unnamed are Andrew and Philip because they're from that area, but it doesn't say. That's just a conjecture. And so John says they're all together. Verse two, most likely in Peter's home in Capernaum, we've already seen that there were events that took place in this home. And so as this is taking place, they had been all together, more than likely at Peter's home in Capernaum. And this time, Thomas is there. And so as this is taking place in verse three, Simon Peter said to them, I'm going fishing. They said to him, we are going with you also. So they went out and immediately got into the boat. And that night they caught nothing. So Simon Peter determined that he was going to go fishing, which we know was his job, his vocation. We saw that when he was introduced in Matthew 4, 18, 320. And so he, as he often does, takes lead here and he decides to go back to work. Now there are those who would ask the question, what provoked him to do this? To spend the night fishing. And so the commentators will say, had he forgotten that Jesus had commissioned him because Jesus had just breathed on them, said receive the Holy Spirit. And he had said to them, those who sins you retain, they're retained. Those who sins you remit, they are remitted. He had already given to them a kind of a commission. And yet there he is going out and he's going back to basically his old job. Was he impatient? Waiting for Jesus to show up? Did he need to go to work so that he could provide income for the family? You see, Jesus hadn't shown up yet. And it may be that he felt he needed to go to work. Now one commentator said, it could have been an evidence of a lingering sorrow. He may have needed to get his mind off of his recent failures. We don't know for sure why he went back to work or why he influenced these men to go with him. All we know is he decided to go to work and his friends followed after. And that's why in verse three, they said to him, we are going with you also. So the men are following his lead and they decided that they too would go fishing. So once again, we see the power of the apostle Peter's influence. Now leadership at its core is the ability to exert influence upon other people. That's what leadership is. You can be called the leader, but if you don't exert influence, you're not leading. Somebody once said, if you think you're a leader, turn around and see if anybody's following. Because leadership is influence. It's not just giving somebody a title. It's the influence that they wield. Every military person knows this, that if you're in the military and you have somebody who just came out of officer training, school OCS or whatever, comes out of officer training and you have somebody who's a sergeant, sergeant major or whatever, you're gonna basically listen more to the veteran, the one who has more experience. Even though the other one has rank, you're gonna listen to the person with the experience. That's what you do. And the one who has the experience has earned the credibility because of his experience, whereas the other one has yet to prove that. So influence isn't just giving somebody a title. Influence is that invisible ability to cause people to react and act in certain ways through the power, perhaps, of your personality. And it's something that produces an effect in an indirect way. It's not as if they're saying something and it's not as if they've got some bars on their shoulders, but it's really something that occurs because somebody is exerting this invisible strength and that's what Peter had. He had influence and he's using it. He's obviously an influential leader. He'd established credibility. His fellow apostles easily followed his lead. And so in verse three, it says they immediately got into the boat and noticed that night they caught nothing. Now I want to develop this because it has an aspect that I think is important and valuable. The kind of fishing they were doing is not with a fishing pole and a line and sinker and bait and like that. It's called net fishing. And it's very hard work. It's very strenuous. It's extremely difficult. And it's something that takes a long time. It has all of those elements, but in order for it to actually be effective, net fishing requires teamwork. It requires more than just a single person. A single person can take out their fishing pole and they can do that, not net fishing. Net fishing requires a team of people who can do the work together. And so net fishing gives us insight into the work of the apostles because in order for them to be able to do the job, they need to work together. It isn't an individual thing and in Christian service, it's never an individual thing. Anybody who wants to be a lone ranger Christian do their thing on their own with no accountability or relationship can eventually become a dangerous person because they're not accountable to anybody because they're not working together. They're not taking ideas from one another, putting it together, coming up with the best solution and then putting that into practice. Ministry is very much like net fishing. That's why Jesus told them you're gonna become fishers of men. You're gonna work together. You're gonna have relationship. You're gonna be synchronized. You're gonna do the same thing and it's gonna be hard. It's gonna be difficult. It'll be prolonged. It takes some skill, but it gives us the insight into the work of the apostles. They're gonna be doing the work of ministry as a team. They are gonna work together. Now when Jesus originally sent them out, two by two. Mark told us in chapter six verse seven that he called the 12 to himself began to send them out two by two. In Luke chapter 10 verse 11, verse one rather, he sent out another group called the 70 but he sent them out two by two and they were to enter the cities that he was going to. So Jesus had said, as I mentioned a moment ago, he said, you're gonna become fishers of men to be successful. You need to work together as a team and that's what they're doing. They're fishing and notice they're fishing all night but verse three says they caught nothing. This has been used as a picture of laboring in ministry with no effect. So Jesus is about to teach all of them a lesson concerning serving him, ministering together. They labored all night, they were completely exhausted and they were unsuccessful. Now it's been said that Jesus makes himself known when we are in our greatest need. In second Corinthians four verse seven, we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power maybe of God and not of us. He shows up when we need him when we're at the end of ourselves. So they're working all night. Verse four, when the morning had now come and it's dawn had now come, Jesus stood on the shore, yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. It's morning, the hope of catching fish is past. They don't see him. There are various reasons why they may not have seen him clearly, maybe still a little too dark for them to make him out. Maybe a haze of some sort doesn't say but it's morning and the hope of catching fish is past and they don't recognize him. So Jesus shows up if you will to examine their progress and he begins to speak to them. Notice verse five, he asked them a question. Children, have you any food? You've been working hard. Do you have any fruit from your labor? And their answer is honest and no, we don't have any. Now this is where it gets kind of interesting when he says it this way in verse six, he says to them cast the net on the right side of the boat and you'll find some. So they cast and now they were not able to draw it in because of the multitude of fish. Cast it on the other side of the boat. What are you talking about? And the boat's not that large. Why would I have a large amount of fish here and not over here? Again, it doesn't make much sense. But we'll look at that in just a moment a little closer. You see that had happened before. All the way back at the beginning of the ministry, when Jesus was beginning to select his apostles, it's recorded in chapter five of the book of Luke, how that Jesus was there on the shore, perhaps even the same basic shoreline that they're on right now. And Jesus sees this crowd of people beginning to gather and he turns to his apostle Peter and he says, he climbs in the boat, he's using it as his pulpit. And he says, cast off. After he finishes giving a message to these people, he said, and drop your nets. Well, you never drop your nets during the day. Why? Because it's obvious that sunlight, the fish will see the net dropping down. There's no way that they're gonna see a net and climb into it. And so Peter, being who he is, says to the Lord, and again, I'm paraphrasing, he says to the Lord, listen master, we've been fishing all night and caught nothing. In other words, your carpenter turned preacher, but my whole livelihood is based on fishing. I have all of this experience that you have none of. I'm just letting you know in a respectful way that I think you're wrong. You're asking me to do something that makes no sense. I've been doing this job for a long time. All of that's packed into that kind of thing we've been fishing all night and caught nothing. All of that is packed into this. But he goes on to say, nevertheless, at your will, and he casts off. When he does so and they drop their nets, all these fish begin to swarm into it. And you can almost see the excitement as they're beginning to draw up the net and all the fish. And then Peter stops for a second and realizes what just happened. And he turns and looks at the Lord and there's gonna be some kind of shock, amazement, even fear perhaps. When he looks at this one who just told him to do something that made no sense and yet produced such fruit. Master, depart from me, I'm a wicked man. I have realized so many things about myself including the fact that I commanded you when I should have obeyed what you commanded me. Depart from me. And that's when the Lord originally, or one of the original times that the Lord said to him, you're gonna be fishers of men. I wonder, and we'll look at this even more in a moment, but I wonder if that didn't go through the mind of the apostle, how that Jesus had said cast the net out before in the beginning of their ministry. And now he's doing it again. I'm wondering if that might have had a tremendous impact. You see, Peter was overwhelmed. So obeying him, even when not understood, results in blessings. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not into your own understanding and all your ways acknowledge him. He will direct your paths. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, not just some of it. Well, you know, I think you need to understand that I'm in this particular profession and you telling me to do this right now just does, it goes against everything I believe or know. But when you have a sense that the Lord is saying, no, this is what you need to do. That's what you do. And God shows up in amazing ways. And he does faithfully. Well, when this happens, it may have triggered something because notice verse seven, therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved, that's John, said to Peter, it's the Lord. Now, when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment, he had removed it, and he plunged into the sea. So the disciple once again recognizes Jesus before Peter does, apparently, because John said, it is the Lord, but once again the apostle Peter reveals his love for the Lord because he immediately went to him. Well, in verse eight, the other disciples came in the little boat for they were not far from land, about 200 cubits, dragging the net with fish. 200 cubits in our measurement would be a couple hundred, rather 120 yards or so offshore. It wasn't really that far. And they're towing that net that's caught all these fish behind. There are those who would say this is a picture how God blesses our labor when we cast out that net to draw people to faith in Christ. Well, in verse nine, as soon as they had come to land, they saw a fire of coals there and fish laid on it and bread. Fish and bread may have reminded them of the feeding of the 5,000 and the feeding of the 4,000. Once again, it could have triggered memories within them of how the Lord had provided in the past. The net that was filled with fish would remind them. The fish and the bread would remind them how God provides and God has done so in the past. And notice again in verse 10 how it says, Jesus said to them, bring some of the fish which you have just caught. And so Jesus provided for them but they added to what he had given them. They added to it from his increase because we always give back that which we have first received. Now as this is taking place, Simon Peter verse 11 went up and dragged the net to land full of large fish 153. And although there were so many, the net was not broken. Now it's interesting, I'm just gonna make this as an aside, how it says they were large fish. May have had small fish too, but normally what would happen is when you would draw the net there would be the good and the bad. They would throw away the bad which would have been the smaller ones and they would have kept the larger ones. The second thing, notice the number 153. Now one of our guides once pointed out that during the time of Christ that was the number of nations that the Jews believed at that time existed on planet earth, 153 nations. So this may be a picture of them evangelizing the whole world, going out into the whole world. Now Peter went up and he dragged the net to land, again full of large fish. So in his fleshly effort he was strong enough to drag a heavy net, but spiritually he had become unable to fish for even one man. And so Jesus said, verse 12, Jesus said to them, "'Come and eat breakfast,' yet none of the disciples dared ask him, "'Who are you?' knowing that it was the Lord. And Jesus then came and took the bread and gave it to them. And likewise the fish." Once again Jesus is ministering, giving an example of service. On the night that Jesus had been betrayed in John 13, Jesus had given that example when he had washed the feet of his disciples. And Jesus had said to them that the greatest in the kingdom is the servant of all. And so Jesus is continuing demonstrating greatness in the kingdom by his service. So he's making them a meal and giving them that example. Now verse 14 says to us, this is now the third time that Jesus showed himself to his disciples after he was raised from the dead. This is the third time John would be saying that was recorded in his gospel. And so here we go, verse 15. So when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "'Simon son of Jonah, 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 again a second time, "'Simon son of Jonah, do you love me?' He said to him, "'Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.' He said to him, "'Tend my sheep.' And he said to him the third time, "'Simon son of Jonah, do you love me?' And Peter was grieved because he had said to him the third time, "'Do you love me?' And he said to him, "'Lord, you know all things. You know that I love you.' And Jesus said to him, "'Feed my sheep.'" Verse 15 says they had eaten breakfast and Jesus begins to speak to him. What we're gonna be looking at as we're looking at this passage, a very important passage to look at, is the restoration of the Apostle Peter to service. I'm gonna make an assumption. I'm gonna assume that when Jesus met with him previous, we already looked at that, how the disciples knew that Christ said appeared to and spoke into and ministered to the Apostle Peter. We know that in 1 Corinthians 15, verse five, Paul makes reference to the fact that Jesus appeared to Cephas or to Peter, Simon Peter. I'm gonna make an assumption. And I think I can do so with certain precision. I think I can. That when he met with him, there was a restoration of relationship. There would have been a time that Jesus had a personal time with this one. But what we're looking at right now is a restoration to something else. See, you can fail as a Christian and immediately when you say, God forgive me a sinner, you know, the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son cleanses us from all sin. The sin that had made a fellowship separation, because you know what, and I know it that even in human relationships, should I have a discussion with my wife that that isn't proper, maybe I'm angry and I say something, that there's gonna be a break of fellowship. I know that. She's gonna have to repent and come back or else. It's gonna be that way forever. There has to be reconciliation. There has to be apology. There has to be a time of, if it was a severe or something that was hurtful, that there needs to be a time of healing, that you know, you can't just say, well I said I'm sorry, we know that. Any married person knows, well I said I'm sorry, doesn't mean that much until it's demonstrated later on over time. You said you're sorry, let's see if that's real. Now and that's not like you're trying to test and prove them, it's just that the fruit of repentance sometimes takes time to demonstrate itself. But in terms of the restoration between me and my God, that comes instantaneously when I fail and I say God be merciful to me, I'm a sinner. The blood of Christ has already purified me and God has already recognized me as being justified in him and I'm reconciling him and those things are effective immediately. But in human relationships as well as in my relationship with the Lord, sometimes it's gonna take a little while for me to understand the depth of what I've done as well as the depth of his grace and I may have as a Christian I have failed but as a minister, and this is what Peter has done, there needs to be an awareness of what has happened at a restoration for him or else he will not be effective. He needs to know that he's right with God and he has to get past the guilt of his denial. Again I mentioned to you that restoration speaks of bringing something back to its original condition and Jesus is about to restore Peter to service to him. You see there'd been a public failure. There had been a public denial and because of this there needs to be a public confession as well as an open restoration. Now he'd already spoken to Jesus as mentioned but the others are still aware of his failure and Jesus is now gonna openly restore him to serving him. Now they had a meal together, we saw that in the verses nine and 13, they sat and they ate a meal together. I can't help but wonder about that meal because I think that, and again this is something I'm assuming, I'm thinking that many of the meals because they had so many together, they walked with Christ for over three years together, they ate together numerous times. All of us know that when you're sitting at a table, maybe it's Thanksgiving, maybe a birthday, maybe a Christmas. Sometime more of your family shows up, not just your nuclear family but aunts and uncles, brothers, sisters, whatever, they show up. Many of us know that there can be an uncomfortable moment in that or maybe prolonged if there's a problem that somebody has with somebody else at the table. You know that. Sometimes you might even wanna joke about it to try and open it up so that the wound can be cleansed. You may say something silly and it doesn't always work either, does it? But you can. I wonder, and again, I wonder if at that meal, there could have been an uncomfortable silence. I wonder, they're eating their bread and their fish which would remind them again of the miracles that Jesus had performed. And I wonder if the apostle Peter, even though he's been restored to fellowship with Christ, if he feels still lacking in who he is as a man, as an apostle. Sitting there quietly, they're along the shore. There's fire, there's fish, there's Jesus, there's the apostle. There's some of the men seated around. And perhaps in a quiet moment, but the perfect moment, Jesus looks at Simon and he asks him a question. Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me more than these? Can you imagine that? How that awkwardness could be? Because even though they would have been with a tone of gentleness, sometimes it's the gentle words that tear the heart. If somebody's screaming at you, it's easy for you just to put your wall of defenses up. If somebody yells at you, you just think, shut up. Why are you yelling at me? You can do that. I know about you, maybe it pierces you, but it doesn't me. If somebody's yelling at me, my defenses go up. And I'm just looking at them and go, okay, finish your yelling. Because you know, you lost me on that one. But if they love you and they say it with kind gentleness, like when my wife has corrected me, it's different. My defenses don't go up. My heart opens up. I've heard her. There's something we need to talk about. And I listen. Because she's not accusing me. She's just asking me. And sometimes when a question is asked of you, the answer's revealing where you really are. Do you love me more than these? What is it that the apostle Peter had said? Though all forsake you and flee, I never will. I love you. The inference more than these men do. I'm Simon, the rock, Cephas. I receive revelation. Don't you remember Caesarea Philippi? How I said, now we're at the Christ, the son of the living God. And you had pronounced a blessing on me. Blessed are you, Simon, by Jonah. Flesh and blood didn't reveal this to you but my Father in heaven. I'm the one who receives divine revelation. And I am now telling you by what I know within the depth of my heart that all of these guys, if they forsake you, I never would. I love you so much I would die for you. But so said all the rest. They all had. They had all said it. We'll die for you. We'll never forsake you. It's not so much that they said we'll die. We'll never forsake you. They all agreed they would never forsake him. But he went so far as to say, I would die for you. What are you saying? Well, I'm saying that I love you enough to lay my life down for you. Now I want to develop this because when it says in verse 15, Jesus said, notice to Simon Peter. Well, he's speaking to him and he says, you love me. Well, the first thing that he's saying would cause him to remember that hat, how Jesus had given him the new name. He had asked him the question by saying Simon, son of Jonah, and I've already pointed this out, but when Jesus called him, he had given him a new name. In John 142, he had said, Simon, your new name is Cephas, which means a stone. But Jesus is now calling him Simon again, but also son of Jonah. That gives us insight. Simon Bar Jonah was what he was originally known as. I mentioned to you that the word Simon or the name means the one who hears or the one who is listening. But he is calling him Simon Bar Jonah. Now Jesus called Simon Bar Jonah. Simon Bar Jonah in Matthew 16, 17, when he blessed his confession, he said, you are Peter and upon this rock, I will build my church. He had given him the new name there. Again, he had reiterated it. So what I find interesting is that he's calling him Simon Bar Jonah instead of Peter. Now, why did he refer to him as a son of Jonah? He did so because Jonah was the prophet who tried to run away from his ministry. You're like Jonah. You're walking away. You're allowing whatever it is within you to move you from what you were called to do. You're like Jonah, the son of Jonah. You're like him, your spiritual ancestor in a sense in terms of just what it appears to be. God had called Jonah and said to Jonah, I want you to preach to Assyria. And what did Jonah do? He went the opposite direction, climbed on a boat, tried to make it to Spain, didn't make it. And so like Jonah in the past called to do something and refusing to call, Simon, remember who you are. Remember who you are and what I called you to do. Now, as he's speaking, we need to see ourselves for a moment on that shore. There's a boat, there's a net, there are fish. And that would remind him of when Jesus had first used his boat to catch fish. And it was in a similar setting that Jesus had told him how he would be used in Luke 5, 10, the second portion of the scripture. Jesus said to Simon, do not be afraid, from now on you will catch men. But also there was a fire of coals, a fire of coals. Notice verse nine, as soon as they had come to land they saw a fire of coals there and fish laid on it and bred. You may not think that's very significant but it is and I'll tell you why. In John 18 verse 18, it reads, the servants and officers who had made a fire of coals stood there for it was cold and they warmed themselves and Peter stood with them and warmed himself. Not only do you see the fish and all but you're also seeing the fire of coals. Not only are you being called Simon by Jonah the one who's running from your call but I'm also reminding you in a gentle way of what you recently did in your denial. You were at the enemy's campfire and I believe that the spirit inspired John to record those two things in his gospel so we could connect the two, the fire of coals of his denial and the fire of coals where Jesus restores him. Being at that spot reminds him of his call but it also reminds him of his failure. Jesus is reminding him of his original call that he might remind him that he's still called. And in order for him to be the man he needs to be and this is a very important point in Christianity Jesus also points out his failure. In other words, he's meeting him where he is. He confronts him but exposes him only to heal the pain and restore him because if you don't fully realize your sin you will not fully realize the depth of healing. So we asked him a question, Simon, verse 15, do you love me? Simon, do you have a copy? The word a copy is the highest form of love you find in the New Testament. There are those who say that the word a copy was actually a word that was coined for the love that God has for man. Simon, do you have a copy for me? But notice he says, yes, Lord, I know, you know that I, phileo, the word phileo is a lesser kind of word. It has less devotion attached to it. Phileo is a friendship love. It's a companion love. It's a love that is deep but it's not as deep and pure as a copy. Simon, do you have a copy for me? It's the first question. The answer is I have friendship for you, a deep and affectionate love for you like a brother loves a brother. You know I love him. I can't claim to love you more than these but I love you. And even though I denied you, I still have a deep love for you. And as he's saying that, Jesus is basically meeting him where he's at so he says, feed, feed. He wants him to take care of his lambs. Feed my lambs. Take care spiritually. Meet the spiritual needs of my babies because your love for me will be shown by your love for my little ones. And the way that you will love my lambs is by feeding them my word. Peter never forgot that because in 1 Peter 2, verses two and three, he said, as newborn babes desired the pure milk of the word that you may grow thereby if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. Take care of my babies. I think one thing and I'll make application of this in this way, one thing that we as parents, those of us who are parents and even grandparents to some degree, one of the highest calls that I have and I've had since God was gracious to bless our, us with a family, my wife and me with kids and now grandbabies is to be of the greatest influence that I can be to them. Fathers, I want to say that to you too. Those of you who are Christians, you men, feed God's lambs. Take care of his babies. The responsibility because my wife and I are a composite unit, we're together. The two became one flesh. The importance of that rests very much on my shoulders. The raising of our children in the faith of the Lord should not have an is not and has never been just placed on my wife's shoulders. The importance of bringing my children up in the faith of Jesus Christ has always been on mine. So I gave them devotions. I prayed for them, ministered to them. And when they gave us problems, which they did, it was because of their mom and I had to deal with that too. I took responsibility for all of that. It was never my wife's responsibility to give them devotions unless I was out of the country if I was somewhere else. I've said this before, I'll say it briefly. My children receive devotions every night of their life as they lived under my roof as children. There were only two nights that they didn't, Wednesday night and Sunday night. And those were nights that they were in church. And I still had a difficult time trying to keep them on the path, learning to respect them and treat them as young adults when they became that and to influence them. Take care, tenderly care for spiritually nourished Jesus said, my young ones, which could include the babies. Just yesterday my granddaughter who soon to turn nine, my Zoe, got it into her heart that she wanted something from mom, grandma, and her papa. So she asked me to write my name. I said, when she's older, she's gonna use this to forge it to get into my bank account. I know she's going to. But she said, write your favorite Bible verse for me. So I wrote my favorite Bible verse down. Write your name so I can have your autograph someday from my scrapbook of memories of my grandfather and my Grammy. So we both did. I put my favorite scripture, I signed my name. And she said, papa, please write me something that I can read someday when I'm older. So I wrote, I love you, my baby. And I'll see you in heaven. Because that's for when I go home. She's put in a way. And one day she's gonna open that up and she's gonna see Philippians 4.13. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. And a message from my pen to her heart that says, I'll see you in heaven. Which is reminding her, that's where I wanna go and that's where she'll be, right? That's what you do. Because I know, my daughter read it, I don't wanna embarrass her by being too open, but when my daughter read it, her eyes swell with tears. She knows that that's my heart for my kids. She knows that. Can your children say that about you, daddy? Can your grandchildren say that about you? Can they? If they can't, make it your aim that they can. Because that's your calling. Give them Jesus Christ. That's your calling. And so Jesus says to him, take care, tenderly, spiritually care, nourish for my babies, nourish my babies. He also goes on, I have to make it quick, I'm going long, I have to talk to the pastor about this. He said to him in verse 16, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me? He said, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him, tend my sheep. Out of love for me, nourish, protect, defend my sheep. Peter never forgot this either. First Peter 5, 2, shepherd the flock of God, which is among you, serve in his overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly, shepherd, tenderly care for the flock. Everything that we have here in this fellowship is for the benefit of you spiritually. Know that always, everything. When we had a bookstore, we first put the bookstore in, people said, oh, that's because he's selling books to make a profit, that never was true. I wanted you to know what the word of God is, make it available to you. That's what the bookstore was for. There'll always be people who misunderstand things like that and have things to say, and it's just the pettiness of the human heart, I guess. The bottom line is everything that we ought to do here is to make sure that whatever it is, whether it's even sports or whatever, that everything should lead you towards knowing Jesus better. Everything should lead you in that direction because everything in the world leads you away from him. So care for them, he said, govern them, protect them, defend them, and then the third time, he had said the same thing, do you love me, Simon, so, Son of Jonah, do you love me? But this time, he used the word phileo, and Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, do you phileo me, and he said to him, Lord, you know all things, you know that I love you. Jesus had feed my sheep. He used the word that Peter was capable of affirming, the word phileo. The fact that Jesus used the word, used the word pierced him, even grieved him, and he's saying basically, you know my weakness, I can only say yes, I love you, I love you deeply. Well, with that, you can now feed and tend my sheep because you're a broken man, you at one time were boasting how you would not ever deny me, now you understand that you can, and that brokenness has made you capable of being used by me to heal those who have broken hearts also. And it's a command, it's a command not to go fishing, it's a command to go back to minister. His sin was great, but Jesus' grace filled forgiveness is greater. Peter was broken, but now he's restored, and now he can be used. In Psalm 51, 12 and 13, restore to me the joy of your salvation, uphold me by your generous spirit, then I will teach transgresses your ways, sinners shall be converted to you. Your sin was great, but his grace is greater, Sadil. Peter, we have fellowship, now Peter, go and serve me. And at the end, tradition holds that he did faithfully until he was crucified upside down for proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ. Do you love me? Feed and tend my children and my sheep. That's what we're called to do. If you've been restored, feed a sheep. Father, we ask that you...