Pillars are Just Crutches

This is a sermon that I preached on April 5th and in an on going effort to continually improve my sermons I’ve decided to post them on my blog as a way to invite critique, because if I don’t know what can be tweeked, there will be nothing for me to work on, and no improvement.  So here it is:

We’re going to go about things a little bit differently today. I want to give you two questions to think about while I talk, if you’ve had a year anything like mine you’ve already been thinking about at least one of these questions a lot. Maybe these questions have been answered a long time ago, maybe you’ve never really given any careful consideration to them. Maybe the answer to these questions are changing. They are however, two extremely important questions, they are:

Do I love Jesus?

What does Jesus want me to do for Him?

At the end I’m going to ask whoever’s comfortable to tell us what Jesus wants you to do for Him.

Last Sunday we took a look at Peter’s betrayal of Jesus and some of the causes of that betrayal: Not understanding his good zeal versus his flesh, not understanding the predatory nature of sin, and most importantly his casual attitude to his relationship with Jesus & God even though he was warned that a testing would come, and that he would fail. He either thought that he was strong or that there would be no temptation. In the end he denied Jesus three times, the first two times were to servant-girls.

Today’s verses happen to be Jesus response to Peter’s betrayal, so even though we’re in a different book it will be helpful to remember that. So, this is the very end of John. Peter has denied Jesus the three times, Jesus has been sentenced & crucified, dead & resurrected and is now meeting the disciples for a third time.

The disciples are fishing, they see Jesus and go to him. Then they cook breakfast, which is where this scene begins.

John 21:

15 So when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You ” He said to him, “Tend My lambs.”

16 He said to him again 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, ” Shepherd My sheep.”

17 He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?” Peter was grieved because He 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 ” Jesus said to him, “Tend My sheep.

18 “Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to gird yourself and walk wherever you wished; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will gird you, and bring you where you do not wish to go.”

19 Now this He said, signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God And when He had spoken this, He said to him, “Follow Me!”

20 Peter, turning around, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them; the one who also had leaned back on His bosom at the supper and said, “Lord, who is the one who betrays You?”

21 So Peter seeing him said to Jesus, “Lord, and what about this man?”

22 Jesus said to him, “If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow Me!”

There are a couple reasons that it’s safe to assume that these verses and Peter’s denial are linked:

John 18:

17 Then the slave-girl who kept the door said to Peter, “You are not also one of this man’s disciples, are you?” He said, “I am not.”

18 Now the slaves and the officers were standing there, having made a charcoal fire, for it was cold and they were warming themselves; and Peter was also with them, standing and warming himself.

John 21

9 So when they got out on the land, they saw a charcoal fire already laid and fish placed on it, and bread.

Jesus has created the scenario over again for Peter, it’s like his second chance: a charcoal fire, a group of peers, and a question asked three times – but now the question is not out of malice, but out of love: Do you love me? The first time Jesus asks this question to Peter he adds “more than these” whether it’s referring to fishing or his peers is unclear but the meaning behind it is clear: do you love me first and foremost?

This is the first question I’ve asked you to think about: Do you love Jesus? Or does Jesus embarrass you? Do you avoid topics of faith? Do you talk about Jesus to co-workers, classmates, or friends? Do you love Jesus? A lot of Christians say they love Jesus. My guess is that most Christians like Jesus – most of his commands are optional and trusting Him is only required when everything hits the fan and it’s the only thing left to do. The time that really challenged me in this question was while I was courting my wife. I had to do some real soul searching when all of the sudden, one day in church the thought came to me, “I can’t remember the last time when I felt the same way about Jesus that I feel about my, then, fiancée”. Do you love Jesus? Or do just like him? Thanks for dieing for me now I’m going to go my own way, if you don’t mind.

1 John 5:1-3

Every person who believes that Jesus is, in fact, the Messiah, is God-begotten. If we love the One who conceives the child, we’ll surely love the child who was conceived. The reality test on whether or not we love God’s children is this: Do we love God? Do we keep his commands? The proof that we love God comes when we keep his commandments and they are not at all troublesome.

Are his commandments optional or mandatory to you? Honestly ask yourself that, maybe you believe they are mandatory but you live like they are optional. You need to be able to honestly answer these questions to proceed in your Christian walk otherwise you’re doing a lot of work to go nowhere. Do you love him?

Here’s the brutal implication of 1 John: We have this attitude in the church these days that says, “I love God, but I don’t like His church, his children, his bride!” If you don’t like God’s children you actually can not DO the answer to the next question, you may think you can and it may look like you are, but in fact your life is an irony and an hypocrisy because all Christians are the ‘church’, so while you may hate the church, your actions are done through the Church and Jesus loves and works through the His church. In the end, you hate the very thing you work to build up and the very thing that Jesus loves. Do you love Jesus?

Jesus asked Peter this question (Do you love me?) as a way to reinstate him. Peter had messed up, he knew he had and Jesus was not going to hold that over his head forever. So as a way of reinstating Peter in to the Church (so to speak) he asks him to do something, “Feed my sheep”. This is not a commandment for everyone, not everyone is a pastor or ’shepherd’ and Jesus is speaking directly to Peter. Notice as well that this is not a title – we’re so caught up in titles – Jesus gave Peter a function or role. Education and titles have no role in fullfilling the call of God in your life!

This leads to the second question I wanted you to ask yourselves, “What does Jesus want me to do for Him?” What is your calling or role in the church? Where do you fit into this story? Or are you just taking up space? So many churches let Christians just take up space but instead they should be encouraging people to fulfill the call Jesus has for them. To steal a phrase from a president (and alter it somewhat), “do not ask what Jesus can do for you, but ask what can you do for Jesus.” After Jesus had made sure that Peter loved Him he used that love as a motivation. Do you love Jesus? What does He want you to do?

It’s here that we realize that Peter’s sins did not disqualify him from serving! We’re all human, we all make mistakes and we all have a lot to learn. Our – repented – failings in the past should not come in the way of serving Jesus in the present. If anyone is an example of this, it’s Peter. He denied Jesus, and yet Jesus still wanted Peter to take a major role in the church. Don’t let the sins of your past haunt you into forsaking the calling that Christ has on your life. God is faithful and just and has forgiven you. Move on – because Jesus has.

At the same time, do not hold on to the sins of others! I worked for a Christian organization and one of the leaders decided to go to bar and he ended up getting drunk – it only happened once, and it never happened again. He confessed it to leadership and was removed from his leadership position (and rightfully so). Unfortunately, he was never reinstated into his former role. For the rest of his time with the organization that mistake hung over his head. That is not how Jesus treated his followers. Do you love Jesus? What is Jesus asking you to do? Are you doing it? What’s stopping you?

I’d like to read out the last portion of that scripture out

18 “Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to gird yourself and walk wherever you wished; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will gird you, and bring you where you do not wish to go.”

19 Now this He said, signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God And when He had spoken this, He said to him, “Follow Me!”

20 Peter, turning around, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them; the one who also had leaned back on His bosom at the supper and said, “Lord, who is the one who betrays You?”

21 So Peter seeing him said to Jesus, “Lord, and what about this man?”

22 Jesus said to him, “If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow Me!”

Peter asks Jesus, well, what about John? What are you asking him to do? And Jesus reply is quiet simple, “Follow me”. Don’t worry about what God has called others to, it’s not your concern, all you can do is be faithful with what God is calling you to do.

Like I said at the beginning, I’m going to put the question out to you. Peter answered Jesus in the presence of his peers, if anyone here wants to proclaim God’s calling on their lives I invite you to say it out loud.

Do you love him?

What is he asking you to do?