Hello, you are listening to Second City Sermons,
a ministry of Second City Church in Midtown Harrisburg.
It's our hope that these sermons will draw you
more into the life of following God, Father,
Son and Holy Spirit. Please consider coming and
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Instagram and YouTube. We hope you enjoy this
sermon. God bless. Lord, thank you for this beautiful
passage at the end of John and thank you for
your interaction with your disciples and thank
you for how you are teaching us even this morning
through that. God, I pray that you would do that.
You'd use me, Lord, stumbling as I so often do.
Lord, use me for the blessing of our congregation
that we would be drawn more and more into the
life of Christ and reflect more and more the
beauty of the good news of what you've done in
Jesus. In his name we pray. Amen. Again, I want
to say good morning and that it's good to be
with you. We, Elise and I were away last week
at a good friend's wedding in Kentucky and we
both remarked to each other how much we love
being in the house of the Lord. We did actually
get to watch. with you last week as we were making
our way home. And I know John mentioned this
last week, but I'll just reiterate, I'm really
grateful, particularly to Tim, but to others
of you who make sound and video and stuff like
that happen here. I think sometimes those are
overlooked roles, but they're very important.
And I know many others are grateful for them.
I hope you, if you were not here last week, I
hope you heard Jed's sermon. Jed, thank you for
your sermon. It was insightful. It was sometimes
very funny. I particularly liked Juliana's response
to the question. Good job. At the beginning of
the sermon. And if you actually have not heard
it, you can find that on our podcast. You can
watch it on YouTube. I really honestly, you should
check it out. It was a blessing. Anyway, this
Easter tide apart from our Mother's Day sermon.
little deviation from our series. What we're
doing is we're looking at some of the narratives
of Jesus with his disciples after the resurrection.
And what I'm hoping that we're doing together
is we're saying, what does it mean to be a people
who live in light of the resurrected Christ?
What God has done in conquering Satan's sin and
death through the resurrection. And so we saw
in Luke chapter 24, a few weeks ago, that we're
people of the word. We receive the questioning
words of God primarily to us. I mentioned how
often it is that God questions us in the scriptures.
We often approach God like we're the ones. They're
putting him on the dock, but actually he's the
one that is questioning us so often. We receive
the given word of scripture and the broken word
of his body. And what we saw actually in this
is that in these acts of receiving the word,
the Lord actually changes our hope, right? And
he changes our despair and brings us hope. Then
we saw in John chapter 20 that the resurrected
Christ meets his disciples in the room that is
twice said to be locked. They were full of fear.
And then we have the doubting that's taking place
and Jesus meets them in their fear and their
doubt and he actually restores them and gives
them belief. And he transforms this community
and that's what we're hoping for ourselves. Okay,
so today we have a really long passage. Thankfully
Gordon did a... dramatic reading of it in a way,
and it kept you engaged. But it's a long passage,
it's all of the chapter, and you have probably
heard sermons from different snippets of this
chapter because they warrant their own sermon,
but we're going to be taking it all together.
And what I am hoping that you see is that in
light of the cross and the resurrection, we are
a re -storied people. The stories we tell about
ourselves and the stories that are rightly told
about us are actually changed in light of the
resurrection. because we are restored people
in light of what God has done in Christ, okay?
Before we get into that, I want to tell you,
I want to actually read you a little bit of a
book that Lily and James and I have been reading.
Some of you are familiar maybe with Andrew Peterson's
books, The Wingfeather Saga. It would take too
long for me to give you all of the detail that
would make this quote better. So I'm just going
to read it to you. As you might imagine though,
this story is like lots of epic stories, which
means that it has love and betrayal and envy.
And all the things that make up real human life
hurt. Vying for attention from others, putting
others down, putting yourself first. These kinds
of things. Shame and guilt. Hurt. So here is
part of the book, North or Be Eatin'. So tell
us the story, lad," said Poto, the grandfather
figure. What happened? All eyes turned to Janer.
He knew this was coming. He'd always loved Poto's
stories and dreamed of the day he would have
his own, but now that he had a story to tell,
he found the telling was difficult. So much had
happened. How could he tell it all? He was afraid
to relive parts of it and was ashamed of others.
Poto nodded to him. I know it's hard lad, but
it's yours. You'll find healing in it, like it
or not. Start at the beginning, at Raunchy's
place. What happened after I broke down the door?
Janer took a deep breath and began. He told them
all of it. He told them about his anger at Tink,
that's his brother. About the horrors of tilling
court, about the awful darkness of the overseer's
box, and the peace he found there. He told them
about Sarah Cobbler and Nurgbog and Marley. They
listened with wide eyes, they asked him questions
now and then, and more than once, Nia, that's
his mother, Nia's eyes were brimming with tears.
But what Poto had said was true. Telling the
story hurt and helped all at once. Already he
could see ways the story had changed him and
would go on changing him. Did you hear that?
Telling the story hurt and helped all at once.
My guess is you've had some of those experiences
in your life. That's what we find in part here
in John chapter 21. Restoried people, because
they have actually been restored, in what God
has done in Christ. And because they've been
restored in Christ, they're actually willing
to enter into the hurt and enter into the help.
And good stories, they have a few traits. Good
stories are honest stories, and they tell a history,
they tell of the past in an honest way. Good
stories engage with the present, and good stories
actually begin to shape the future, okay? So
that's sort of gonna be our outline here. First,
the honest past. past. Again, please keep your
Bible open, John chapter 21. Throughout this
chapter, there's a lot of echoes. The Bible does
this quite a bit. That's actually part of what
we're looking at in our Sunday school. How does
the New Testament echo, reuse the Old Testament?
But there's a lot of echoes, and some of them
are really loud, and some of them are quieter,
about the past of the disciples, and particularly
the past of Peter, the disciple Peter. So I want
us to look at a few of them. And the first echo
of the past is about fishing, okay? So our chapter,
it begins with listing some of the disciples
and that they're there by the sea of Tiberias.
Jesus is revealing himself to some of his disciples.
And Peter says, and again, Gordon read this pretty
well, I'm going fishing, okay? which seems actually
rather consistent with Peter's past. He's bold.
He's a leader. He's sort of brash. He's in the
moment living. I'm going fishing. And everybody
else goes, yeah, yeah, okay, we'll go with you.
And here's what I want you to remember is that
right there, you're actually supposed to be thinking
back on the very beginning of these disciples
call and ministry to Jesus, right from the very
beginning of. of the Gospels. These were fishermen.
Most of them are fishermen. At least Peter and
James and John the sons of Zebedee were fishermen.
You might remember actually this winter we looked
at the story of when Peter and James and John
the sons of Zebedee were called by our Lord to
follow him. Specifically, what we learn from
that is that this isn't just a hobby thing like,
hey, let's go catch some fish because it's fun
to do. This is their profession. This is what
they did for their living. And in fact, one of
the things that we noted earlier on in the year
was that the sons of Zebedee would have meant
like, you know, they left their father, it said,
in the boat, which likely means that it wasn't
just kind of, you know, their thing. It was their
family thing and their dad's thing and their
grandpa's thing. And this was, this was who they
were. So it's a lot of their identity. But here
in this story, they are not fishermen. They're
failed fishermen. They're failed fishermen. Some
of you know how depressing it can be when you
go out fishing and somebody says, hey, did you
catch any fish? Like Jesus does here in verse
five. And you say, as Gordon said, no. It's a
great way of saying it. You said it, you captured
it perfectly. Well, if you were a professional
fisherman, and your father was, and your grandfather
was, and so on, then I will tell you this, your
failure hurts all the more. Shame. No wonder
they actually just say one word. Let's not talk
about it, because that is what we do with shame.
I don't want to talk about it. No. Okay, the
second echo that we have is not the echo of fishing
and their fishermen and their names, which evoke
us back to when Jesus first called them to himself.
But actually we have this little detail, it's
maybe a quiet echo, but in the context it's a
loud echo of the charcoal fire. I love this detail
because some of you know that I am adamant that
charcoal is much better than gas and I will go
to my deathbed with that conviction. And as a
little plug, you should come to the picnic today.
Charcoal. But I will tell you this, there are
few things better than fresh -caught fish over
a live fire. That's the beautiful little detail
that we are given. But as wonderful as these
sort of sensual details are that evoke in us
memories and delight, it was actually the exact
opposite that was taking place there. For Peter,
this was not a fond memory. What had just taken
place actually, this one word, anthracia, used
two times in the New Testament. Once right here,
the other time just three chapters earlier. Just
three chapters earlier. There, though Peter had
said he would never deny Jesus, there right next
to the charcoal fire in the courtyard of the
high priest, Peter denies him three times. Which
is to say that the shame of not catching any
fish, is augmented by the sin of the rejection
of God, which is what sin is, rejecting, denying
who God is, what he's done. Let me give you a
third echo. If you look down at verse 15, if
you look down in that paragraph, what you'll
notice is that three times, Jesus addresses Simon
Peter, and he addresses him not as Simon Peter,
but look at this, okay, verse 15, Simon son of
John, verse 16, he addressed, he said to him
a second time, Simon son of John, and then actually
verse 17, Simon son of John. Okay, small little
detail. But if you remember when Peter was called
to be a disciple of Jesus. When he was first
called, he was fishing there and Jesus says,
come and I'll make you fish with men. What Jesus
said was, that's not going to be your name anymore.
Your name is going to be Cephas. And then actually
the gospel writer says, which means Peter, which
means rock. That was at the very beginning of
the story, the very beginning of the gospel.
And it's Jesus that says, this is what you're
supposed to be called. But here, Jesus three
times says, Simon son of John. By the way, actually
this is kind of interesting too. This is the
only other time, sorry, the only other time that
he has said Simon son of John is when he was
first called by Peter and when his name was changed.
That was when his dad was mentioned and now his
dad is mentioned three times in this story. He
calls him his old name, but he also names his
dad along with him. If you look at the life of
Peter and even the echoes that we had already
seen here in the fishing failure and the sin
of denying Jesus, one of the things that we actually
see is that Peter rarely is a rock -like kind
of figure. He's actually much more sand -like.
You're kind of wishy and washy and kind of being
pushed here and pushed there. Bold at one time
and cowardly at another. It's not hard to wonder
why Jesus might have mentioned his dad three
times. He's kind of evoking his family story
and actually inviting him to look back on his
own, right? I'm sure you know this. Your parents
and your primary caregiver shape you more than
anything, any person on this earth. The way your
parents care for you or do not, or the ways they
love you or they don't, or the ways they hold
you or do not hold you, shapes you more than
anything humanly speaking. Your father and your
mother are the beginning of your story. Of course,
we are not actually told much about Peter's dad,
but how odd is it? that Jesus doesn't refer to
Peter by the name that he says he's going to
be referred to. And he three times here mentions
his dad. We don't know much about this, John,
but we do know that this is true, that Jesus
and the Lord has made the world in this way that
our primary caregivers shape us. And he's inviting
him into this kind of thing. Okay, here's what
I'm saying. As Jesus restories our lives around
his resurrection, you have to be honest with
your past, which is, there's three things here.
You have to be honest with the shame of your
past, the failures. You have to be honest with
the sin of your past. You just have to be honest
with your stories, your family stories, your
life stories, the ways that you actually don't
live into the names that you're given or the
ways that other people have treated you. This
is part of being honest with your past before
the Lord. Think of this, okay, truly, Jesus invites
them to consider this in the very places where
actually it might hurt most to consider this,
right? Think about this, okay, he's inviting
them to consider their shame in the very place
where they're most proficient, which is where
we feel the most shame, right? Like I said, these
people are fishermen. They knew far more than
I did do how to catch a fish, which isn't too
hard, but. They're the most adept. They're the
most practiced. This is what they do. If there
was one place where they didn't want to feel
failure, it's the thing that they had done 10
,000 hours of, right? Become a master of. Think
of how much our life is bound up in our professions,
in our career, or how many hours we spend practicing
those things. Is it any wonder, as sad as it
sometimes is, that when we are asked, what do
you do, we don't say things like, I go to senators
games. I paint. I use charcoal to smoke my pork
butts. I play pickleball. No, nobody's saying,
what do you do? I write poetry. I'm an engineer.
I'm a teacher. I'm a pastor. In some ways, because
that's what we devote our lives to so much. That's
where we find this kind of I do identity. And
that's where we feel the most shame when we are
failures at it. Our life is bound up in the time
that we spend in these things, our parenting
and all the rest, and we feel the most shame
in those places. What is the place of greatest
sin for Peter? No doubt for him, it was his threefold
denial on the very night of our Lord's death,
right? That is the sin that I guarantee loomed
large in his heart. And Jesus calls him out on
that with some of the details that would have
brought up, that would have evoked in him the
very place, the very moment, the very person
where he said, I do not know the man. Which is
to say you cannot find resurrection healing without
looking at the things of your past that you would
most like to hide, to just forget. And of course,
while we don't know the relationship that Peter
had with his dad, we do know that our own relationships
with our parents shape us into rocks or sand.
Rocks that can withstand much that the world
throws at us or simply sifting from one thing
to the next. They're some of the most formative
interactions of our lives, which is also why
we are so reticent to engage with them. What
I'm saying is that even in this story, I know
we could have taken apart these different, we
could have had a much shorter sermons here. But
if you take them all together, what Jesus is
inviting us to do is an honest appraisal of our
past. And he's saying you cannot be a restored,
you cannot be a restored person without being
an honest person. Okay, an honest past. Next
thing I wanna say is a participatory present.
Okay, Jesus restores Peter and these other disciples
by being present with them in the resurrection.
Now, don't hear what I'm not saying. Jesus only
heals us by the cross and the resurrection. The
work of Christ is finished on the cross. But
he applies it to us in the present reality through
the work of the Holy Spirit by being present
to us. as God with us, okay? He applies it to
us in the reality of the present. Okay, a couple
of details again here, echoes, right? And the
first echo I want you to see is fish again. So
they don't catch any fish. He tells them to throw
their net on the other side, which is an echo.
which some of you may be remembering, actually,
this story in Luke chapter five, when Peter is
called to be a disciple. In Luke chapter five,
we're actually told that Jesus says, hey, y 'all
catch any fish? No, we didn't catch any fish.
He goes, go out to the deep. And there, they
actually hollowed in so much, and we know it's
a different story, because in Luke it says that
the nets broke, and here it says the nets didn't
break. Different stories, but an echo. So here's
this echo of Jesus meeting their need in the
present. And they're like, you know what? When
Jesus was present to us then, we were failing
at the thing that we should be competent in.
And yet Jesus shows up and he heals us of our
shame then and he does it now. So there's this
present echo through fish. But interestingly,
Jesus doesn't just tell them what to do. There's
another little echo here around fish. Because
what he's doing in the present is he's inviting
them to participate in what he's doing verse
9 When they got out on land they saw charcoal
fire in place with fish laid out on it and bread
So he had all the food there ready. He could
provide he could call the fish into their net
all the rest Jesus said to them bring some of
the fish that you've caught He wants them to
bring what they have caught, even though He's
made them catch it. He says, I want you participating
in what I'm doing. Think of it. The detail, actually,
of fish and bread, of course, would have been
evocative of one of the great stories of the
Gospel of John, where Jesus takes five loaves
of bread and two fish, and the disciples are
like, there's no way we can feed all these people.
And he says, let this little boy's contribution
actually be a participation in my story of caring
for others. He wants their present participation.
Jesus affirms their fishing, the place of their
shame, even though that had been his own provision.
Jesus is inviting them in the presence to be
with him. Okay, another detail. So I mentioned
three times Jesus addresses Peter Simon son of
John But then it's interesting. What does he
say to him after that? The first actually changes
right and some of you know that the word love
is different and the word sheep can be different
I think actually that there's not much to read
into that partly because the text itself tells
us Where is this verse? Yeah 17, Peter was grieved
because he said to him a third time, do you love
me? So some of you might know that love is different,
but he summarizes it with the same word. Anyway,
but what's interesting is that the first time
Jesus says, do you love me more than these? The
other two times he says, do you love me? But
the first time he says, do you love me more than
these? And I want you to think about this. How
often was Peter's sin, and actually the sin that
led to his denial, connected to him putting himself
over others. This engagement with Jesus in the
present moment, just the two of them having this
dialogue, participating with one another in the
present is naming part of what had happened in
the past. When Jesus tells Peter that he will
deny him three times, right? A few chapters earlier,
it was right after that that Peter said, though
they all fall away, Because of you, I will never
fall away. Do you love me more than these? Being
present as Jesus is naming his sin. Jesus says
that before the cock crowed, before the night
was up, Peter would deny him three times. But
here, Jesus is also attentive to the threefold
denial. And he says, just as you deny me three
times, I need to be present with you and name
each one of those and restore you each time.
Which is to say that Jesus invited Peter into
the dark places of his story the places of his
denial the places of his sin And he names each
one and he says right here in the present be
present to me Participate in my redemption right
here Restoring Restoring which being restored
only happens when we can really name and deal
and confess and receive forgiveness for our pasts.
It has to be named, it has to be addressed, it
has to be seen, it has to be named, it has to
be forgiven specifically. Verse 17 tells us that
Peter was grieved that Jesus asked him a third
time, do you love me? But here's what I want
to suggest to you, it's also in that grief that
he found healing. It's not a grief that is actually
to his detriment, it's a grief to his good. He
says, you know all things you know, I love you
Which is remarkable because he's not he's not
playing the comparison game anymore. And he's
actually not compete He's not playing the false
humility game. Well, I don't know I mean, I you
know, I said that before and I don't you know,
this is you know I'm gonna be honest. I know
I love you and you know that One more detail
Mentioned three times that Jesus addresses Peter
as Simon son of John and that he had never done
that until he actually first called him to follow
him. And I think in part, at least, that was
inviting him to consider his past story, and
partly even his family past is part of his past
story. But interestingly, this detail actually
kind of moves us into another detail that's worth
considering. Here at the end of this gospel,
Peter and Jesus, it seems like they're walking
along the edge of the Sea of Tiberius, which
is the Sea of Galilee. And John is following
them, the disciple whom Jesus loved. And Peter
goes, Lord, what about this guy? What about this
guy? What about John? And what does Jesus say?
He doesn't say, well, let me tell you all about
that guy. Instead, he says, what's that to you?
Do you have to say it that way? Seems a little
rude, but actually what he says is, you follow
me. Which is to say, so often we begin to engage
our stories and we actually get caught up in
others, right? He says, hey, Simon's son of John,
he says this three times, he says, you've got
to consider this honest reckoning with your past.
And so often when we do that, we go, how will
we start comparing with others? And I'll be honest,
this is the part I think where I felt particularly
convicted, because I often wonder what Jesus
is doing in others, how I wish he was going to
do that in me, or how my story was more like
theirs, how I grew at the same... rate, height
-wise to be honest at times, or just spiritually.
My life took different turns than it did. How
easy it is just to look at others and go, what
about this guy? What's his story going to be?
Can mine maybe be more like his? I mean, we know
that John lived to an old age. Granted, he was
imprisoned at points, but you know how this goes.
I wonder how their family is. For me as a pastor,
I wonder what that church is like. This is a
great theme in the Narnia books. I know some
of you know them well and love them. It's one
of the great themes really. One of my favorite
stories of the Narnia books is the horse and
his boy. Some of you are familiar with that book.
And near the end, one of the main characters,
a girl named Erevis, is with Aslan, the Christ
-like character, the lion there. And she asks,
Aslan about this other girl. And she says, you
know, what about her? And he says, child, I am
telling you your story, not hers. No one is told
any story but their own. No one's told any story
but their own. Jesus, of course, he's God. He
knows the transformative work happens by being
present with him in the moment. And Jesus is
present here with Peter. And in the moment, what
happens is that Peter says, wait, Jesus, let's
move on from this. I'm feeling a little uneasy
with you calling out my shame and my sin and
inviting me into looking at my past. Can't we
move on to talking about John for a little while?
And he says, no, if you would receive my restoration,
my healing, you must actually engage with you
and me. No one's told any other story but their
own. Okay, we've seen an honest past, a participatory
present. Just quickly, a cruciform future. So
if you look down with me at verses 18 and 19,
that's on the bottom of page 1078, 18. truly
truly which is the word amen by the way amen
amen i say to you when you were young you used
to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted
but when you are old you will stretch out your
hands and another will dress you and carry you
where you do not want to go verse 19 because
by the way this is an enigmatic kind of prophecy
john tells us what's going on This he said to
show by what kind of death he was to glorify
God. And after saying this, he said to him, follow
me. So John tells us that this is how Peter would
die. And the consistent story of the church is
that Peter did die, actually most likely in the
late 50s, early 60s, in Nero's persecution of
the Christians in Rome. And he died on a cross,
upside down. His hands were stretched out, and
he went to his death, which he did not want to
go to. I want you to hear this this morning.
At the end of John chapter 13—this is also another
echo, by the way—which is the story of the first
Monday Thursday, Jesus with his disciples up
in the upper room, which is the same night that
Peter betrays Jesus three times. In that chapter
at the end, we read this. Simon Peter said to
him, Lord, where are you going? Jesus answered
him, where I'm going, you cannot follow me now,
but you will follow afterward. Peter said to
him, Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will
lay down my life for you. Jesus answered him,
will you lay down your life for me? Truly, truly,
amen, amen. I say to you, the rooster will not
crow until you've denied me three times." It's
interesting. This is just a few nights before
this event, you know, the resurrected Christ
event. And he says, I'm going to go with you.
And he says, you cannot go with me, but you will.
Which is to say that Jesus told him that he can't
go with him, but he's going to after an event.
And that event is the cross, the resurrection,
but it's even more this right here, this story.
Because it's this when he says again, the last
time he said amen, amen was right there to Peter.
Now he says again, amen, amen. He says, you are
gonna follow me. You're gonna follow me and you
are going to be like me. And why? Why are you
gonna take on this cruciform, Christ -iform kind
of life? Because your story has been restored
by mine. You've been restored. I've engaged with
your life in a way, in the past and in the present,
that your future life is an imitation of mine.
That, brothers and sisters, is what we are called
to in Christ. What I've been inviting us into
is just to say, what does it mean to be a resurrection
people? What does it mean to be people of the
cross and the resurrection? What does it mean
to be the church? And part of what it means is
people that are honest with our past, our sin,
our shame, and our families, and how we don't
live up to our names and our professions and
all this kind of stuff, to be present with Jesus
and the Holy Spirit in the moment when we want
to say, what about that guy? And as we do this,
we will become like our Lord. Amen? Amen. Amen.
Lord, do this in us. for our good, for the glory
of your name, that the wonder of Jesus would
be known. In His name we pray. Amen. Thank you
for listening to Second City Sermon's podcast.
We hope this sermon has encouraged you to worship
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