Please turn with me in the Gospel of John, the last chapter of John, John chapter 21. We'll be reading together verses 18 through 25, and there is no John 22, so that means that we have come to the end of the Gospel of John by the Spirit, the account of John, of the life, death, resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so John chapter 21, we'll begin reading at verses 18, 18 down to verse 25. Remember last time we wondered and saw together the joy of Peter's restoration by the Lord Jesus and his renewed call to love Jesus, to serve Jesus, to sacrifice for Jesus. And so we pick it up at verse 18. This is the word of the Lord. Truly, truly, I say to you, Jesus speaking to Peter, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you're old, you'll stretch out your hands and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go. 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. Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them, the one who had been reclining at table close to him and had said, Lord, 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 same spread abroad 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's 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 to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. This is the word of God. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we thank you again today that we can come to the gospel of John and hear of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that you would help us today, both the one who preaches, that he would preach faithfully according to your word. And Lord, again, for all of us who hear that word, Lord, that we would have ears to hear, hearts to hear, eyes to see the glories of the truth as it is in Jesus, and that we would respond today in faith and in love and obedience to Him. And we pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. Frederick Lehman was a California businessman who lost everything, ended up working in a Pasadena packing house, packing oranges and lemons into wooden crates. In 1917, as he was a Christian, he was attending worship on a Lord's Day evening and he was so moved by the sermon that he heard on the love of God that he couldn't sleep and the next day at work he was reflecting on the love of God and words were coming to his mind in the formation of a hymn and so when he got home he wrote a couple of stanzas of a of a hymn of praise to God, but he couldn't find the third hymn or the third stanza that he wanted for this hymn until he remembered a poem that had been handed him some time ago. And this poem he took up and started to play on his piano and thought, no, this would work perfectly. And it became the third stanza of the hymn by Frederick Lehman called The Love of God. And it goes like this. Could we with ink the ocean fill, and were the skies of parchment made, were every blade of grass a quill, and every man a scribe by trade, to write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry. Nor could the scroll contain the whole, though stretched from sky to sky. The world, according to Lehman there, as he was thinking about the love of God, the world is too small to tell the whole story of the love of God in Christ. This is what John is expressing as he comes to the end of the story, his story, the gospel, the life of Jesus. We've come to the end of the gospel of John with him. And as we come to the end, we kind of come full circle. We kind of return in many ways to the beginning with a simple call to follow Jesus, even as the Apostle Peter was called to renew his love and service and willingness to sacrifice for Jesus as he's restored at the end of the book of John. So we today again hear some final words from Jesus that are meant to call us back. Mark Johnston, Bible commentator, says this, the call of Christ in the gospel is by definition one that must redirect our lives. Sin has set us going in the wrong direction. It has turned us in towards ourselves instead of out towards God. God's grace in the gospel, however, turns us in repentance away from sin and self and back towards himself through faith in Jesus Christ, his son. Even though this is a call that when heard the first time has decisive consequences, as was true for the disciples, it still rings in our ears every day and constantly summons us away from all that would distract us and pull us from God. It calls us, like Peter, to a life of undistracted discipleship to Christ. There's a call in this passage that we want to look at this morning. It's a call that first of all comes to the Apostle Peter, but just as well comes to every disciple. And it's a call that resonates in our ears and continues to resonate in our ears and echo in our ears, not just on the day that we first come to faith in Christ, but indeed as we go on with Christ day by day serving Him. So what is this call? Well, we find it here in this passage simply in these three words of the Lord Jesus to Peter, you follow Me. It's a personal command. It's a personal command. Jesus calls you. Peter, verse 28, turned after Jesus first told him to follow me. Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them, the one who'd been reclining at table close to him, and had said, Lord, who is it that's going to betray you? And when Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, Lord, what about this man? Now we've seen Peter is clearly a changed man. He has been humbled. He is no longer boasting. He has been refocused by Jesus on caring for God's people. Remember that? Tend my sheep, feed my sheep. He's been refocused. He's no longer thinking, first of all, about himself. And yet, immediately after Jesus' renewed call to service and sacrifice and focus, follow me, Peter seems to get almost immediately distracted, though his question seems natural enough. What about this man? What about John? something in the way of sacrifice. Peter learned was in store for him. He was going to be led where he did not want to go. And Peter, just naturally enough, thinks, well, what about this man, Jesus? Is there some kind of special ministry for him, maybe? Maybe some kind of special death for John? What about this man? And Jesus responds, verse 22. Jesus said to him, If it's my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me. Now perhaps the words of Jesus are a little too technical for us to fully understand. So let me see if I can translate into the vernacular somehow to express the technical Greek. None of your business. I think that's how it goes. Of no concern to you. not your focus, not your immediate concern, not where your heart and mind need to be right now. My purpose for John, live or die, remain alive till I return, not your concern. You, follow me. I'm reminded of a scene in the wonderful books by C.S. Lewis in the Chronicles of Narnia in the horse and his boy, where there's the little boy Shasta on his way to Narnia and Aslan the lion is speaking to him. Aslan the lion, of course, is the Christ figure in the Chronicles of Narnia. And Aslan is explaining to little Shasta, this former slave boy, how Aslan has been with him all the way, and Shasta has a question because he's been traveling with a girl named Erebus, and she was wounded along the way, and so Shasta says to Aslan, but what about her? Why was she wounded? And then Aslan answers this to Shasta, child, said the voice, I'm telling you your story, not hers. I tell no one any story but his own. And that's a great picture in that book. I tell no one his story, but his own. You follow me. You don't need to know the whole story of John, where he's going, how his life will end, you. Well, yes, of course, the Bible says we are to be concerned about our neighbor, we're to love our neighbor, we're to minister to our neighbor. And this is all true, but here in this passage, Jesus is saying to Peter, don't forget, first of all, your own soul. Don't forget your own calling. You follow me. Don't worry about John. The Apostle Paul reminds us of this concern that we shouldn't be so concerned, first of all, for others to the neglect of our own soul. You remember the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 9 is talking about the danger that if he would preach to others, but not care for his own soul, he would somehow be preaching to others, but himself be disqualified. That is, I want to be careful, says the Apostle Paul, that as I'm ministering to others, I don't forget to practice what I myself preach. As I am concerned about the souls of others or about the destiny of others or about the salvation of others, I must not be a Christian for others first. I must myself make sure I'm a Christian. and walking in the ways of the Lord. John Calvin said this about this interaction with Peter. He said, we have in Peter an instance of our curiosity, which is not only superfluous, that is not unnecessary, but even hurtful when we're drawn aside from our duty by looking at others. For it's almost natural to us to examine the way in which other people live instead of examining our own. We willingly deceive ourselves that other people are no better than we are, as if their indolence freed us from blame. In the person of one man, says Calvin, therefore there is a general reproof of all who look around them in every direction to see how other men act. and pay no attention to the duties which God has enjoined on themselves." So Peter, you know, maybe naturally just says, well, what about this man? But Jesus says, that's not your concern. You follow me. You. Respond to me. Our first responsibility then is not to look at others around us and what God may be doing in their life, where they may be going, where they need to repent, where God is teaching them. But first of all, we are called to first look to God and consider what he's calling us to, where he's working in us, calling us to repent, change, follow him, wherever he leads. You, first of all. It's a personal command. Jesus calls You, first of all. And John says, you know, this truth gets lost. It got lost right away, John says, because people, when they heard this, this interaction, verse 23, the saying spread abroad among the brothers that this disciple, it's John, was not to die. Yet Jesus did not say to him that he was not to die, but if it's my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? And so John says, even as Jesus is focusing in on Peter, you follow me. Everyone else started talking about, oh, well, maybe John's going to live forever. and they were immediately distracted from the call of Jesus. Augustine actually writes about this centuries later in the 4th century. Augustine was upset about the fact that there were some people asserting in his day, in the 4th century now, 5th century, they were asserting this, that the Apostle John is still living, lying asleep rather than dead in his tomb at Ephesus. Rumor had it that the earth above his tomb was manifestly in a state of constant disturbance, heaving up and down. And what it was asked could be the cause of this, if not John's continued breathing as he still waited for the Lord to come before he saw death. So this is in the fourth century now going on, that people are still Instead of thinking about the call of Jesus to follow, they're still talking about superstitiously, maybe John is still alive, and maybe he's still alive in the tomb. And John mentions that here. No, it's a personal command. It's a call to undistracted discipleship. You follow. Me. Hebrews 12, 1-3 tells us that there is a race that is marked out for us. We're to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, that we might run the race set before us, not the race set before someone else. We're called to run the race that is set before us. There's a personal call here, friends, and it's a perpetual call. We don't just look to Jesus 20 years ago, we look now. We don't just decide to follow 10 years ago, we follow now. William Hendrickson, another commentator, says this, Peter must not be so deeply interested in God's secret counsel that is regarding John. What's gonna happen to John? that he fails to pay attention to God's revealed will. You follow me. No, Peter was thinking about John. You follow me. It's a lesson, he says, which every believer in every age should take to heart. There is work to be done. There are souls to be reached. There is a task to be accomplished. Let Peter rivet all his attention upon this. You follow me. Some people are always asking questions. They're asking so many questions that their real mission in life fails to receive the proper amount of interest and energy. There are times when questions are out of order. It's been well said that a man who's been wounded by a feathered, poisoned arrow should not begin to ask, of what wood is this arrow made? Of what bird did these feathers come? Is the person who shot it dark or fair, short or tall? Let him do something. first of all, you see. Curiosity, what about John, must give way to obedience. You follow me. Curiosity must give way to calling. You follow me. Friends, this is a personal command. It is a personal call from Jesus to Peter and to every disciple. It's a personal command. You, not somebody else, you. And it's a personal command. Jesus calls you. Jesus commands you at the end of the Gospel of John. It's not only not just for others, it's for you, but it's also a command at the end of the Gospel of John to Peter and to us. You follow me. Jesus doesn't make suggestions here. He commands, and it's only those in authority who have the right to issue a command. Jesus' words to Peter are a command. We call it an imperative. Follow me. Follow me is different than I am following you. That's an indicative. It's a statement of fact. I am following. A command is an imperative. It is you follow me. And for children, there's a big difference between a child describing, I am eating Brussels sprouts, and their parents saying, eat Brussels sprouts. There's a big difference there. You feel it differently. It's a command that comes. Now here's the thing, Jesus forgives Peter, Jesus restores Peter, Jesus renews Peter, Jesus encourages Peter, just like He restores us, He renews us, He forgives us, He restores us, He cleanses us, He heals us, and then He commands us. Even as He commands Peter. As Savior and Lord, Jesus does not suggest, He commands, He does not suggest husbands love their wives. Oh, it would be a good thing. It'd be a good thing. No, the Lord doesn't do that. He commands husbands to love their wives. He does not suggest we love one another, right? In the church, in 1 John, it's not that Jesus says to the church family, you know what, it would be really good if once in a while, if you feel like it, if you express some kind of love for each other, please? No, Jesus doesn't do that. He actually commands and He says, listen, if you love Me, you love your brother. You love your brother, you show your love for Me, but love one another. That's a command. Comes with authority. He doesn't suggest that Peter follow Him. Please, come. He commands Peter, follow Me. And we always say, by what right does Jesus command you today to follow? Well, the Bible tells in Matthew 28, Jesus, after his death, after his resurrection, demonstrating that he is, in fact, the Savior, that he is the Lord, that he has conquered sin and death and hell, that he's gone to the cross for his sheep, for his people. As the good shepherd, he stands before his disciples in Matthew 28 and says, all authority Right, remember that? All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. So that's by what, right? The Bible says by his death and resurrection, Jesus has all authority. He is the Lord. He is the master of all. And so he commands Peter, you follow me. I'm reminded of a scene in the movie version of The Hobbit, when Bard the Bowman of Lake Town, he's trying to prevent the dwarves from going to the mountain where the great dragon Smaug is sitting on a hoard of treasure in the mountain, and Bard the Bowman of Lake Town says to Thorin Oakenshield, the dwarf who is the rightful heir of the king under the mountain. Bard the bowman says to him, you cannot go to that mountain. You don't have any right to go into that mountain for that treasure. And Thorin responds this way, right? I have the only right. Because he's the heir of the king of the mountain. He is the rightful heir. Right? I have the only right, he says. And Jesus, right, has, as the one who's died, as the one who has risen, as the one who has conquered, has the only right. But he does have the right to command, and to command Peter's, yours, and my allegiance because of who he is. Follow. Follow Me. Not only does Jesus have the right to command, He has the only right, He's the only Lord, He's the only Master. Jesus declares and proclaims, he dies, he rises, he accomplishes redemption, and then he commands us to respond, to believe, to repent, to obey, to submit, to follow, to serve, to love. And the Bible says that this actually, this response to Jesus, to who he is, is actually the mark of a Christian. It is the mark of a disciple. 1 John 5 goes like this, everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever's been born of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God. When we love God and obey His commandments, for this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. See? So when we hear command from the lips of Jesus, While someone who is not a Christian, someone who has an unregenerate heart, when they hear a command, they see that command as a great burden. Because there is no love in the heart for Jesus, and a command that comes to a heart that does not love Jesus receives that command, receives that law, if you will, as a great burden. And it's meant to be a burden because it's meant to drive that unregenerate non-Christian to the cross and say, I'm a sinner, I need Jesus. But for someone like Peter, who loves Jesus, he's just said, I love you, Jesus. I love you, Jesus. I love you, Jesus. A command that comes from the Savior who has died for him, who's risen for him, does not come as a burden. Oh, Jesus wants me to follow him? Oh, no. It comes, the words of his Savior who's redeemed him. who's restored him, and he responds to that command with the joy of his heart, as a sheep responds to the shepherd, come! And the sheep come. Follow, says Jesus, you follow Jesus' command. calls, Peter, Jesus calls and commands you today. You know, sometimes we think of the gospel, you know, whether it's in John's gospel or Mark's gospel or Matthew's gospel or Luke's gospel in our world today, even among the church, sometimes we get this impression that somehow the gospel and salvation, well, it'd be really nice, you know, if people would accept Christ. It'd be great. Maybe if we can just, and we'll just give it as an option for them. You may want to, maybe we might think someone's following Buddha, or someone's following Hinduism, or someone's a Mormon across the street, someone's a Jehovah's Witness, or someone professes not to believe in God at all. And sometimes as a Christian church, we think, well, the gospel is just, I'll just offer it to them as another option for them. that maybe they will be drawn to. But friends, that's not how the gospel is presented in the scripture. In Acts 4, when the apostles are going out with this gospel, it's Peter who says something like, there is no other name under heaven by which we must Be saved. In other words, there is no other name by which we must be saved. There is a command here to come to Jesus, to follow him. You, Peter, follow. You, whoever you are today, me, whoever I am today, follow. It's the risen Lord. commands you to come to him. So it's a personal command. Jesus calls you. It's a personal command. Jesus calls you. And it's a personal command. Jesus calls you. Jesus calls you. This, verse 24 says, John, this is the disciple as he wraps up the whole gospel. This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things. This is John. And who's written these things. And we know that his testimony is true. We know there's something, well, is this John talking in the royal we? We know that his testimony is true. Or maybe there were some other disciples that helped at the end of this gospel. We don't know. But here's John affirming. This is the disciple who's bearing witness. who has written these things. We know his testimony is true, verse 25. Now there are many other things Jesus did and were every one of them to be written, I suppose the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. You know, how John ends this gospel with the restoration of Peter is very important. And what that tells us is that before Peter can go out, as he does in the book of Acts, after the Holy Spirit is poured out, before Peter can go out proclaiming the gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit, Peter himself had to be renewed and restored in his relationship to Jesus. Before Peter is called to follow me, you follow me, before that happens, Jesus first restores Peter in his relationship to Jesus. Why is that? Well, because Peter's not going to be able to follow Jesus and serve Jesus and live for Jesus unless Peter, first of all, you know, again, embraces Jesus and knows Jesus and reaffirms his love for Jesus. Jesus calls him, you follow me. as we've been reminded in this gospel, in the gospel of John, that when it comes to the Christian faith, that all that we believe and all that we profess to believe, at the end of the day, always comes down to first and foremost, what do you believe about Jesus? And who, in fact, in your life and in my life, am I actually following? You know, we talk about that a lot in our culture today and in social media, right? Following and followers, having followers, being a follower. And friends, the Bible says that when it comes to Christianity, this call at the end of the gospel is all about making sure first and foremost that our whole life is about following him. Not physically, that's not what Peter's being called to, but following him in love, following him in service, following him in sacrifice, following him in commitment to his father's will, following him in obedience to his father's will, following him in his character, in his mind, in his heart, and all these things. We're called to follow the person, you see, of Jesus. This reminds us that at the end of this gospel of John, it never really has been about the amount of evidence or the lack of evidence. You know, John here at the end of the gospel again, right, says, you know, I bear witness about these things, I've written these things, and you know what, there's so many other things that Jesus did, you know, and he's speaking hyperbolically, of course, but if I were to write every wonderful thing that Jesus did, You wouldn't be able to hold it in your hand. You already got a great big Reformation study Bible maybe that weighs 20 pounds. You can barely hold that. But if I gave you everything that Jesus said and did, you'd be crushed under it and the world couldn't hold it. The things that Jesus did. You follow me. And John says, it's never been about a lack of evidence. You've seen it. Again, you've seen it, changing water into wine, paralyzed man, blind man healed, dead man Lazarus raised from the dead, 5,000 fed with bread and fish, Jesus walking on the water, Jesus himself conquering death. No lack of evidence. John says the world's too small to hold the evidence. Unbelieving world says different. In an interview given by leading evolutionist Richard Dawkins over 10 years ago now, the interviewer summed up Dawkins' view on religion. Religion offends every bone in Dawkins' rational atheist body, said this fellow. You can see why people may want to believe in something, Dawkins said. The idea of an afterlife where you can be reunited with loved ones can be immensely consoling, though not to me, said Dawkins. But to maintain such a belief in the face of all the evidence to the contrary is truly bewildering," said Dawkins. And what if, said the interviewer, by some mischance you were to find there is a God when you die? He looks at me, said the interviewer, as if I were mad. The question, said Dawkins, is so preposterous that I can hardly grace it with a hypothetical answer, he says finally. But to quote Bertrand Russell, I suspect I would say, there's not enough evidence, God. There's not enough evidence. Now friends, if we've learned anything from the Gospel of John, it's just this, that to the unbelieving heart, there will never be enough. You follow me. But to the unbelieving heart, unless it's changed, unless it is born again by the work of the Holy Spirit, it will never be enough. That shouldn't surprise us. John started his gospel by saying, the light has come into the darkness, but the darkness has not comprehended it. The light has come and Jesus has come to his own, but even his own did not receive him. Shouldn't surprise us. that when Jesus spoke to the religious leaders that he would say something like this in the gospel of John, those who thought they knew God, those who thought they were quite religious, Jesus said to them, if God were your father, you would love me for I came from God and I'm here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. Why do you not understand what I say? It's because you cannot bear to hear my word. If you were of God, Jesus said, to the religious leaders, you would love me. Jesus. It should be no surprise to people who love Bible study that in the Gospel of John, Jesus said, you search the scriptures because you think that in them you find eternal life. But these speak of me. They speak of me. You follow me. It should come as no surprise that when Jesus spoke to the Jews in John chapter 10, he said this. So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, how long will you keep us in suspense? You might be saying to yourself, you know, at the end of the gospel of John, you say, you know, 21 chapters. Why is the Bible kind of keep us in suspense? Why don't we just hear the truth about who this person, Jesus, really is? How long will you keep us in suspense? If you're the Christ, tell us plainly. And Jesus answered them, I told you. And you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name bear witness about me. This is what John's saying. I bear in witness, but you do not believe because you're not part of my flock, Jesus said. It's no surprise that some will say, if there were a God and I stood before him, I'll just say, not enough evidence, God. No, no, there's plenty of evidence. John has laid it out for us. Well, what then makes the difference? I mean, we've had all this evidence too. We've gone through this gospel. We've heard nothing but about the Lord Jesus. And this is what John has told us throughout. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. John said this, and he said, this is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it's granted him by the Father. And we read this in that same chapter. Jesus said to them, I'm the bread of life. Whoever comes to me, me, shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me, and yet you do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. Hopefully, through the Gospel of John, we have seen again and again that Jesus is the one to whom we are being constantly, again and again, called. You follow me, the person of Jesus, you see. And whoever comes to me means you, whoever includes you, whoever includes me. And Jesus says at the end of this gospel, any and all who come find hunger satisfied, thirst quenched, forgiveness, peace, life eternal, justification, sanctification, glorification, all is found in Jesus. And so friends, Jesus is the one John wants us to see that we may be drawn to him. Not first of all to a doctrine about him, not to a theory about him, not to a philosophy of life, not to a history of Israel or anything else, but to the person of Jesus. You follow Again, Jesus spoke to them saying, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. Now just think about this. John says, if it's true, as John says, that the world couldn't hold all the books that would detail the glories of Jesus, Just think how much more of Jesus' love and grace and glory we have yet to discover. F.F. Bruce, well-known Bible commentator, he said this, We beheld his glory full of grace and truth is his own testimony with which he associates his fellow disciples. And he tells his story in such a way that his readers may see that glory too. The passion and resurrection narratives form the climax of that story. It is here above all that to the believer, the divine glory shines forth. No study of this gospel could promote the purpose for which it was composed if it did not enable the reader more clearly to see that divine glory in the crucified and risen Jesus and to hail him, like Thomas, as my Lord and my God. me, because after all, all that we've done, all that we've said in this past year or more in the Gospel of John was because John said, these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in his name. You follow me. May we respond to that call of the Lord Jesus. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the gospel of John that we've been able to consider by your spirit over these past months. Lord, we thank you for the truth of who Jesus is. We thank you, Lord, for the evidence on the pages of scripture, page after page, pointing us to his glory. And yet, Lord, we confess as we come to the end, Lord, when we hear the call to follow, we know, dear God, that we only follow because of that gracious work that you do in our heart, drawing us to the Savior, that we can't follow you. We're not drawn to follow you unless you have worked in us by your Spirit to draw us with the cords of love. When we hear the voice of the shepherd, that we would follow as his sheep. And so Lord, we pray today that again, we would hear the voice of the Lord Jesus calling us to follow him, commanding us to follow him, that there is no other name given under heaven by which we must be saved. Help us, Lord, to walk in his ways. Help us to come to him today. Embrace him as our savior, our Lord, and that in embracing him, we would find life. in His name. And we pray it in Jesus' name. Amen.