If you have your Bibles, would you turn with me, please, to John, chapter 21. We have reached the end of our study of the Gospel of John this morning. It's the last, the last chapter. Here we are in the epilogue that draws together all of the chords of ministry that have run through throughout the Gospel. And so, as we conclude, we discover that the story isn't actually over. It's still open-ended. It's as much a beginning as it is an ending. If you have a Bible, turn to John chapter 21, verse 20, to the end of the Gospel. That's printed in the bulletin if you don't have a Bible with you. Follow as I read. John chapter 21. Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them. The one who also had leaned back against him during the supper and had said, Lord, who is that? Who is it that's going to betray you? When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, Lord, what about this man? Jesus said to him, if it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me. So the saying spread among the brothers that this disciple was not to die. Yet Jesus did not say to him that he was not to die. But if it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things and who has written these things. And we know that his testimony is true. Now, there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them written? Were every one of them to be written? I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. Let us pray. Father, open our ears. Open our eyes to see the stories that have continued to be written in your people, in your church, through your work and ministry and faithfulness. Open our ears to hear the truth, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. This next year brings about my 50th high school reunion. Now, I've never been to a high school reunion. I've never had a real desire to go, but I'm waffling on this one. Where are these people now? How did their lives turn out? There's some curiosity there. And I think there are times when it's appropriate for us to look back. to consider where we've been, where the Lord has brought us, see what He has done. Sometimes it's very good to look back and see my own sin and the need to turn and repent. I need to remember. But we're just as surely in Scripture called to look forward. Because before us is the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. That's before us. But I'm afraid that most of the time I'm like Peter. In this case, where I'm more like looking around. Well, what about them? Well, what's going to happen there? Well, what about this thing over here? Rather than being content with what God wants to do with me, As we come to the passage, Jesus is calling Peter to accept the responsibility that he's giving to Him. He has restored him. Peter now knows the end of his story. He knows that he is going to remain faithful. That he's going to remain in service to his Lord. He even knows the end that he is going to ultimately endure. He's been restored in his heart. He's been restored in relationship. He's able to serve. He's been given the chance to repent, to receive forgiveness. That intimacy that he knew with Christ has been restored. And Peter did, we know, have a very close relationship with Jesus. You think of the times when it was only Peter, James, and John. You think of those situations, the transfiguration. Jesus brings Peter. When Jairus's daughter is raised from the dead, only three others would accompany him. And Peter was one of them. When in Mark 13, Jesus would speak of the end times and begin to give them a picture of what is to come. There were only a few disciples there. Peter was one of them. When Jesus would say in the garden, could you not watch with me one hour? Mark tells us that he said it to Peter. So he had that intimate relationship with Jesus. And now it's been renewed. And here's Peter at some point walking along, at some point in this conversation, Jesus gets up from that fire and from the conversation there and begins to move down the beach. And Peter is with him in that walk and in that conversation. But now his eyes, you know, in speaking, in the corner of his eye there, in his peripheral vision, there's somebody following. And he asks about him. Now some have tried to say that, you know, there's this rivalry going on between Peter and John. I don't think so. I think the reason that Peter is interested in John's future is because of the relationship, the close relationship that he had with John. All of those situations where we talk about that intimate relationship with Jesus, John was in each one of those settings and others as well. When the Spirit is poured out upon the church at Pentecost, who do we find engaged in ministry together? Acts chapter 3, Acts chapter 4, Acts chapter 8. It's Peter and John who are working closely together. If they're close, if they're friends, it's a natural question to ask. Lord, I know what you're going to do in my life. What about His? But Jesus gives him an answer, really a mild rebuke, if you will. It's as if he says to him, Peter, that's that's none of your business. I'll tell you your story, not his. Many of you, I'm sure, have read The Horse and His Boy out of the Chronicles of Narnia. Parents, if you haven't read it with your children yet, I'm not going to give anything away. But there's a conversation that takes place between Shasta and Aslan, because something has happened to someone else and Shasta would like to know, well, what about an Aslan answers child? I am telling you your story, not hers. I tell no one any story but his own. So there's that mild rebuke, if you will, but there's an emphatic, an emphatic, you follow me. It's two times in four verses that Peter is addressed, follow me. I think it should get our attention. You follow where he leads. It isn't about where someone else is going to go. It's not about what I'm going to do with them. You follow me. Your calling, your gifts, that's what we're talking about here. But in this epilogue, we see two very different personalities with very different strengths. Peter was the one who wasn't afraid to step out, to lead. He was the one who would come directly to the point. If you read the Gospels, Peter does stand out, doesn't he? Because he's the one who you hear so often. And Peter said, Lord, to whom shall we go? Peter said, see, we have left everything and followed you. Peter said, Lord, what everybody was thinking when Jesus gets up from the table takes off his robe, puts a towel around himself and now kneels down as a servant to wash everybody's feet. You know, every one of them felt embarrassed by it because that should have been any one of them doing the job. But who says, Lord, do you wash my feet? As if to say, no, I can't let you do that. It was Peter. How many examples can I give you? Lord, where are you going that I can't follow you? It was Peter who would speak out. And it could get him in trouble. John was a different man. We see it in the Gospel, so different from the others. We see it in his letters, more cerebral. He's the abstract thinker. As we've gone through John, how many times have we been driven into a deeper meaning and purpose? to understand the ends of Christ's life and ministry. What John lacks in that bold action like Peter, what he lacks in that strength or force of his personality, he fills up in faith, in insight, in an articulate expression. of the gospel and of Christ. John would grapple with the person of Christ in ways that others wouldn't pursue. And so we see in the years to come, as the church begins to move out into the world, as it is expanding and growing, as the church now has to really carefully define the person of Christ, what is the incarnation, the nature of the Trinity? Our church fathers often turn to John's gospel and his letters to find clarity in those really difficult, complex matters. So Bruce Milne, in his commentary, states it this way. The ministries of John and Peter would be different. Peter would be the shepherd, John the seer. Peter the preacher, John the penman. Peter the foundational witness, John the faithful writer. Peter would die in the agony and passion of martyrdom, John would live on to a great age and pass away in quiet serenity. I'm not quite sure that I can. I understand the contrast that he's making there, but I'm not sure being exiled is what I would call quiet serenity necessarily. But two very different lives, very different people, and yet both absolutely vital to the ongoing work of the ministry of Christ in the world. I have plans for you, Peter. Follow me. It's not the same plan, the path that I have for him. You see, every disciple lives under the same commission, don't we? John sets it before us in chapter 20, in verse 21. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you, is what Jesus said. And that, of course, applies to every disciple. But every one of us is going to take a different path. Peter is going to tend the flock, he's going to glorify God in his death. John is going to have a long life of testifying to these things of Jesus and writing them down. Both men are engaged. in the gathering and perfecting of the saints. Now, I did not make that language up, but I love it. In terms of encapsulating the ministry of the gospel, what is it? What is Christ doing in His church? He is gathering, that is, bringing out of the world those whom He calls, whom the Father has given Him, and then perfecting them, seeing them grow in their faith, in their knowledge, in their love of Christ. The language comes out of our confession of faith, and it's just so simple. In chapter 26, it talks about the church. Unto this Catholic, and that means universal, visible church, Christ has given the ministry, oracles, and ordinances of God for the gathering and perfecting of the saints. And so when this denomination was established, what language did they adopt for the nature of the church? The church which the Lord Jesus Christ has erected in this world is for the gathering and perfecting of the saints. In truth, we don't have a lot of different jobs, but they all come in different places, in different parts, in different ways, so that God uses every gift, every person, every one of His children for that So here we see Peter and John both working toward that end. We're calling people to repentance and faith. We're striving to see them ever more faithfully following after Jesus. Becoming ever more new creations in Christ. Walking more and more in that newness of life. Well, what about Peter? You follow me. What about John? It's a different story. But he will follow me. What about us? Because we are called individually to follow Jesus. If anyone would come after me, what does he say? Let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. Matthew 16, 24. And not everybody is going to take up their cross as literally as Peter would. Most of us are not called to that. But everyone who, like Peter, has been forgiven, and healed, and restored, and made new, is called to follow. You have one real job. and Jesus has given it to you. Follow me. And yet, we are all gathered together in a shared ministry as part of the church, as part of the body of Christ. We are called together to love and uphold and protect the church. It's not just a one-on-one, me and Jesus. I don't need the church, it's just me, it's just us. No, you are part of a body. A body that Jesus says is my bride, which is to be, will be presented to me pure and lovely and beautiful. And the shepherds are supposed to love that bride. The body is not Like I was trying to say, children, the body is not homogenous in the sense that we are all the same. That everyone has the same gifts, everyone has the same duties and responsibilities. Yes, ultimately we do. The gathering and the perfecting of the saints. But the beauty is we're bound together with all those different personalities, with all those different gifts and foibles and stories. Because He gives each one of us a different story. I'm telling you your story, not hers. Not His, Jesus says to Peter. Praise God, we're not all the same. We'd be boring, wouldn't we? We're not. We just watched Rachel Comes Down, and she always pulls out movies. So we watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding, which I think should really be called My Big Loud Greek Wedding, because that's what they are. And I don't know if you've seen the film or not, and I'm probably giving away something. But you have a woman who is Greek, and the goal in life is to marry Greek and produce Greek children and cook and eat. Only she falls in love with an Ian Miller, not Greek. It is a wedding, so I'm not giving anything away. Yes, they'll get married. And her father, the Greek, comes to terms with it in this way. Their name is Portokallos, and his love in life is to derive the root of every word from the Greek. So Portokallos is their name. The root of that word is portokalli, which is the word for orange, the fruit. Okay? And milar, as he pronounces it, milar. Well, the root of that word is obviously milo in Greek, which is the word for apple. So, oranges and apples don't necessarily go together well, but we are all fruit, he says. Brothers and sisters, how true it is. It's exactly what we are. The fruit of the work of Christ and the ongoing ministry of the Spirit of Christ. And so it doesn't matter if we talk about the leadership and the laity, the shepherds and the sheep. We're all being called and equipped for the works of service. So that together we're doing the work of ministry. Gathering and perfecting the saints. It demands a diversity of gifts. We cannot be the same and see that happening in the world, in the gathering, nor in the body in its purifying and growing and maturing. And so, Jesus, here in these last chapters, In this last chapter, particularly, I believe really is drawing together those those you can't call them threads necessarily. They're the they're the the rope. They're the you know, there's the they're the the twine that is bringing all this together. We need those who are going to cast the net. And of course, when he told earlier in the chapter, these are always one piece, I mean, they're so hard to break them down because it is one piece. They were supposed to cast the net. Well, throw it in on the other side. Well, you weren't fishing in the right place? No, because they were being called to faith. Trust me, cast the net. I will bring them in if you will be faithful. And we need those who have that faith to cast the net that God may draw His own to life. And then we need those whose calling is to care for and feed and tend to the sheep. And some of you have those gifts. You see the needs, you see the hurts, you're reaching out, you're ministering, you're caring for one another. We need it all. And God in His mercy has given us all those different pieces and parts so that we will do that work well. Now, out of this comes a dangerous rumor. that John takes a moment to try and deal with. Because in answering Peter, Jesus said, if it's my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? Again, you follow me. But what some in the church took that to mean and began to propagate was that Oh, John can't die. At least not before Jesus comes. They hadn't read enough of the Scriptures yet. But if you're over 40 years old, you have some pretty clear pictures of what happens when that kind of heresy begins to take root. When someone says, well, the Lord's coming back on this day. And the closer it gets, what kinds of crazy things do people do? They quit their jobs, they give up things, they sell everything off, because they just need to be out propagating, sharing the gospel, because Jesus is coming back, and none of this means anything. Or they do what Paul was writing to in 2 Thessalonians chapter 3, when he says to the elders, you need to do something about these people who are idle, who are not working, because they've decided Jesus is coming back, basically, and what's the point? We can see what kind of dangerous things people do. And John is beginning to experience, because he is an old man when he writes. And you can kind of feel the fever pitch starting to come up. Well, it can't be long now, because he's not going to last much longer. Which means Jesus has to be coming back soon. And that's what was beginning to circulate through the church. That's why John writes what he does. But we needed the witness and the testimony of the Scripture, a better understanding. Because in chapter 4 of 1 Thessalonians, we know that Jesus is going to return like a thief in the night. We aren't going to know when. We aren't going to have warning about it. So we need to be prepared. We need to follow Him now. We don't give up our responsibilities either in the kingdom or for our families or for ourselves because Jesus is coming. No, we continue to press on because we know He's coming. But we need to be careful. So how does he finish this letter, this gospel? We finally get a pretty good indication, and there have been many throughout the gospel, but a good indication of who the author is. This disciple, put it back to verse 20, the one who had leaned against Jesus, whom Peter is close by and turns to his friend to say, who's this one who's going to betray? This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things and who has written these things. And we know that his testimony is true. Now, when he speaks of these things, he's speaking of the whole gospel. He's not just affirming this last chapter. What we've been reminded of in this chapter is of the faith that is at work in those who cast the net for that gathering. And again, it's not about which side of the boat it's going to be thrown. It's about the faith that says, I'm going to spread that word. It's about the transforming power of Christ who forgives sins. Yes, Peter was forgiven and restored and equipped and called again to follow. It's about that transforming power of Christ that fills His disciples to follow Him. It's about the power of the Word of Christ, the Word of God, to bring us to a knowledge and obedience to the truth. It's affirming the whole message of revelation of Christ. in this Gospel. It's about the whole thing. The Gospel. It's the work of His disciples. for the gathering and the perfecting of the saints. And I do believe it's from the pen of John, even if he uses the royal we at the end of verse 24. You're familiar with the royal we? The easiest one to remember is the queen. We are not amused. That is the royal we. John says this is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things. And it's not an unusual use for John at all. If you read 1 John, five short chapters, 82 times, unless I missed in my counting, Eighty-two times, John uses we, and many of them in that sense. We, including himself in it. So is he talking about 21 or the whole Gospel? It's the whole Gospel. When we come to the last verse, is this hyperbole? Is it a fantasy that he's talking about, or is this the truth? Listen to this verse. Now, there are also many other things that Jesus did. He's already said back at the end of chapter 20, many other signs that Jesus did. Now, there are many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. He's stating a fact. Brothers and sisters, there's no exaggeration here. There's no, I'm so hungry I could eat a horse. It is the truth. It is the reality. He's sharing with us that yes, I've played a part here. Maybe an important part. I've written of the signs and the actions and the things that I have seen Jesus do and heard Him do. But it's just a part. Go back to the prologue. Who is He writing about? In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And what did this Word do? This Word brought into existence everything that is, for there is nothing that is not by His hand and His Word and His power. What John has written is just one small part. of what God is and has done and is doing. Now, praise God by the grace of His power and mercy and Spirit. It's enough. From it, we know the truth. We can understand the good news. We can understand sin. We can understand a forgiveness of sins through the payment and the death of Jesus Christ. There's enough. But is it everything? Does it tell us everything there is to know about God? Does it explain to us how the stars have been formed and the planets, the animals, these creatures who had life breathed into them, who bear the image of God? Do we know everything there is to know of cosmology, biology, physics, nuclear physics, medicine? I mean, the list goes on and on and on. Of course we don't. And that says nothing of what we do not know. of His divine righteousness and holiness and justice and goodness and truth. What little bit do we know of that infinite and eternal being? We know enough. But when those books are being written from now through eternity, It's no bit of hyperbole or exaggeration to see that this world cannot contain that knowledge and truth. So what's left? Do we accept this testimony or reject it? That's the only thing that's left. This God has made Himself known. He has revealed Himself by taking to the divine, eternal nature of the only Son of God, taking to Himself a human nature, our flesh, whom Peter would declare, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. He calls us to believe in, to take of the bread of life, the bread of heaven, to taste of that living water which flows through us so that we might never thirst again. He calls us to see the light of the world by which the darkness, not only in our own hearts, but in the whole world is pierced. to accept the resurrection and the life, for He Himself is the resurrection. and gives eternal life to all who believe. He's the door by which we may enter life. Indeed, He's the only door and the only way by which we will have life. He's the Good Shepherd who lays down His life for the sheep. He is the vine, the true vine, that when we are bound to Him by faith, grafted into that vine, we now have a source of life that pours through us and fills us and sends us out into the world. He bore the penalty for our rebellion and sin. He took the punishment that we deserved, the wrath that would have been poured out on us in His own death on the cross. He guaranteed the promise of life when He rose from the dead. And now He lives beyond death forever. And He lives in those who live in Him by faith, nourishing them, pouring His life into them until He comes again to receive all those whom the Father has given Him to be with Him. And we will live in revelation opened to know the power and the glory and the love and the life that continues in Him forever. Tell me, what more will you ask? Believe or deny. It's the only thing that's left. And one leads to an end. and one leads to an eternity in life. It's just beginning, brothers and sisters. Lord, open our hearts and ears. Let us hear the message of this gospel and believe, I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.