Good morning. Take your Bibles and turn to John chapter 21. John chapter 21. My intention is to preach two sermons from this passage with the intention or with the focus to be on verses 15 through 18. But you'll see where I'm going after I read. Let's go ahead and read John chapter 21 verses 1 through 19. This is the word of the living God. After these things, Jesus showed himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias. In this way, he showed himself. Simon Peter, Thomas, called the twin, Nathaniel of Canaan in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, those are James and John, and two others of his disciples were together. Simon Peter said to them, I'm going fishing. They said to him, we're going with you also. They went out and immediately got into the boat and that night they caught nothing. But when the morning had now come, Jesus stood on the shore, yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. And Jesus said to them, children, have you any food? They answered him, no. And he said to them, cast the net on the right side of the boat and you will find some. So they cast, and now they were not able to draw it in because of the multitude of fish. Therefore, that disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, it is the Lord. Now, when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment for he had removed it and plunged into the sea. But the other disciples came in the little boat, for they were not far from land, about 200 cubits, that's about 150 yards, dragging the net with fish. Then as soon as they had come to land, they saw a fire of coals there and fish laid on it and bread. Jesus said to them, bring some of the fish which you have just caught. Simon Peter went up and dragged the net to land full of large fish, 153. And although there were so many, the net was not broken. Jesus said to them come and eat breakfast. Yet none of the disciples dared ask him who are you knowing that it was the Lord. Jesus then came and took the bread and gave it to them and likewise the fish. This is now the third time Jesus showed himself to his disciples after he was raised from the dead. So when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon son of Jonah, do you love me more than these? He said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him, feed my lambs. He said to him again a second time, Simon son of Jonah, do you love me? He said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him, tend my sheep. He said to him the third time, Simon son of Jonah, do you love me? Peter was grieved, because he had said to him the third time, Do you love me? And he said to him, Lord, you know all things, you know that I love you. Jesus said to him, Feed my sheep. Most assuredly, I say to you, when you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you wish. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish. This he spoke, signifying by what death he would glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he said to him, follow me." Our Lord's first miracle in the book of John is turning water into wine. The other gospel accounts have different first miracles. Not important as long as we see the miracles and we believe those miracles. But what was our Lord's last miracle on earth? I think it was this one right here. The great abundance of fish after the seven went fishing and they caught nothing. Now this should have reminded them of something that happened to them before their ministry began, which is in Luke chapter five. You can make notes there. I'll just briefly describe what happened in Luke chapter five, where the disciples launch a boat out a little bit so our Lord could get into it and preach to the people. And after he got done preaching, he told them to take the boat out and catch fish. and they got a great amount of fish. And then they came to land and they were called to be pastors. They forsook their occupation. This is very similar to what had happened to them. This should have reminded them of their calling. What we're going to look at this morning is the setup or the miracle of the fish and then the restoration of Peter. And we have to ask the question, does this miracle have anything to do with Peter's restoration? And I think we do. We'll find out as we get to the end of this afternoon's message. But I think we can see from this particular passage that Jesus Christ is the sovereign Lord of land and sea. And he's going to now restore Peter eventually after this great miracle. Now, I'm going to ask you to do something. I want you to try to remember about seven truths. I'm assuming that the majority of you are Christians, so this should be pretty simple for you to do, but there are seven truths I think we need to have as we work through this passage. The first one is very obvious. This is the risen Savior, but before he was raised from the dead, he died for the sins of the elect. That's the first thing for us to keep in mind, that Jesus has already died for the sins of the elect. Secondly, that Jesus has been raised from the dead. This is the risen Savior. This is the third time that he has appeared to his disciples. He is the risen Savior. The third thing is Peter's sin of denying our Lord three times of even knowing him, even though Peter was self-confident that he would go to prison and die for our Lord. Peter's denial was met by our Lord's glance in Luke 22 in verse 61. The Lord turned and looked at Peter, then when Peter pondered it, he remembered the word of the Lord, he went out and he wept. The fourth thing I want you to remember, that Judas Iscariot betrayed our Lord to the Romans as well as to the religious leaders, and after his sin was complete, he was sorry as well. However, he committed self-murder. He killed himself. Quite a difference between he and Peter. The next thing I want you to consider is that our Lord knew of Peter's sin before he committed it. In Luke 22, our Lord says, Simon, Simon, indeed, Satan has asked for you that he may sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith should not fail, and when you have returned to me, strengthen your brethren. I'm certain that you do indeed remember that. Our Lord predicted his death. But another thing for us to consider, number six, is that our Lord did not pray to keep Peter from falling into this particular sin. He could have, but he didn't. He could have overruled Peter's sin, but he didn't. And we could assume, and I would think rightly, that Peter's fall was necessary to reveal to him his self-confidence, his heart, as well as his pride. He had to go through this in order for him to see his sin. Now was Peter a converted man when he denied our Lord three times? Yes he was. He was. But God chose to work in him both the will and to do of his good pleasure for the praise and the glory of our Lord as well as for the benefit of Peter. And then the last thing I want you to keep in mind, this is not as obvious, is that Satan desired for Peter to be destroyed. to fall away from the faith. Remember our Lord had prayed as I just quoted from Luke, as Simon is indeed desired to sift you as wheat. Satan's plan was to destroy Peter and yet his plan failed. It was going to fail. He wanted Peter to destroy himself the way that Judas Iscariot destroyed himself. And so we see here that The mercy of the Lord upon Peter was great. However, Satan's plan served the purpose of God in restoring Peter, in helping Peter see his sin. and saying that he had sinned grievously by his action of weeping. That is what we can see. So in summation, Satan's plan was to attack this fallen disciple, to have Peter view this sin as unpardonable, and that restoration was impossible. That's maybe the reason why Peter said, I'm going fishing. He may have concluded in light of the fact that he had denied our Lord three times, that he was not fit for the Christian ministry. And he says, I'm going to go fishing. Now, some of my teachers in my library are pretty tough on Peter. And they say that he should not have gone fishing because God didn't command it for him to go fishing. This is proven by his unsuccessful fishing trip. He caught nothing. Well, I think there's some things to consider, and I mildly disagree with some of my commentators. Consider this. This is a legitimate form of work, to go fishing. Also, when you consider just how idle people are, They were not idle. So they were not idle. They did a legitimate form of work. Our Lord Jesus did not reprove them for fishing. And if anything, he said, cast the net on the right side and they catch a great abundance of fish. So I think it was legitimate for them to go fishing. I want you to notice something, though. I'm going to mention Luke 5 again. They go out and they catch nothing. Our Lord tells them to drop the net, they catch a great amount of fish. That's Luke 5, okay? Now in Luke 5, it's obvious that it was something miraculous that they had experienced, that John had experienced, okay? Now we go to our particular passage, and again, we're just looking at the setup here before we get to the restoration of Peter. And John says, it is the Lord. Now, do you think John looked about 150 yards down the way and could see our Lord? Oh, that's the Lord. I don't think that's what he did. I think he saw this great abundance of fish. He remembers Luke chapter five, and he says, it's the Lord. It's the Lord that has done this, and I think that's the way that John had responded to our Lord's great miracle. He knew it was the Lord. He made an announcement to his other fishing partners. They knew it was the Lord. So these are things for us to hang on to as we go through this particular passage. I want you to notice something else, too. Thomas was there. Thomas was there. I think he learned his lesson. Initially, some of you, I'm sure, are very much aware of the fact that Thomas was not going to believe unless he put his hand in the side of our Lord. He was not there when our Lord had appeared. He had not been with the brethren. Now he's with the brethren every time. I think he learned his lesson that he's going to be with his brethren at all times. So what we're going to look at here is we're going to look at three questions, three answers, three commands. But because of time, what we're going to look at is, first of all, The question, one answer, one command, and we'll look at the other ones this afternoon. Okay, so verse 15. So when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon, Peter, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me more than these? I want you to notice it's not what our Lord said in this way. What I mean is that he did not say, Simon, I thought you said you would die for me, and yet you denied me. He didn't say that. He didn't say, where is the fulfillment of your intentions? What is wrong with you to say such things and yet to be a failure? Our Lord did not say that. Our Lord had no need to reprove Peter, for he was already humbled by his sin. when the Lord looked at him and he went out and he wept. Now there is a time and place after pride talks a good game and brethren, I'm assuming painfully we know this, when we're prideful and there is a time for that, those words to be remembered and we should repent of those words and repent of that pride. But for Peter, not now, not now. Peter was already humbled by his sin of denial. So what did our Lord say? Now I want you to notice he doesn't call him Peter, and I think this is significant in the sense that he called him Simon, son of Jonah. Simon, before you ever knew me, your name was Simon. You were the son of Jonah. You were the son of a sinner. Just by him mentioning his name could have reminded him Before he met the Lord, he was in darkness. Before he met the Lord, he was distracted by the world, and he was not taken up with the thoughts of Jesus being the Christ, the Son of the living God. A name does indeed mean something. Now some of us have got names and it means something. I was named after my grandparents. So I'm reminded of Richard, John, Horace, the son of John Horace. And I, to my regret, I remember that I've inherited some of those traits and some of those characteristics, some of those sins. Some of you may have been named after an aunt or uncle or mother or father, whatever it is. I'm saying all that to say is that before Peter, it was Simon. Before there was salvation, there was his sin. So he was greatly humbled, I think, by our Lord calling him Simon, son of Jonah. We'll leave it at that and move on. We don't want to spend all this time on a name. After all, it's just mere conjecture on my part. But one thing we can ask is, what does the question mean? Do you love me more than these? Did he mean the fish? No. He is talking about brethren. Do you love me more than these brethren? Now Simon Peter earlier, before our Lord's death, said that if all forsook Jesus, he wouldn't. He wouldn't. He elevated himself above these brethren. Now is he still above these brethren in love to Jesus Christ? It's a difficult question. Do you love me more than these? Because this man directly denied our Lord three times. I'm certain that words of condemnation may have run through his mind. Remember our Lord said, whoever denies me before men Him I will deny before my father. That has got to be in Peter's mind. And then, if you love me, keep my commandments. Love is the dominating factor here in that particular sin. Was this the unpardonable sin? what Peter did and I would say no and by way of application for us let us be very careful not to think that since we may never have denied the Lord that we must be right with God or this one man told me this one time that he was a better man than King David because he never committed murder committed adultery. and therefore he thought that he was right with God. He was a good person. We should not use the sins of God's saints as an excuse that since we never committed those particular sins we are right with God or we are good before God. You have your own sins and they are enough to condemn us. But do we repent like Peter? Do we repent like David? It's not the absence of sin that determines if someone is a Christian, but it's the absence of faith and repentance, the absence of grace. For the Christian, there is the forgiveness of sin. Peter sinned greatly against his Lord, who had given him life, had given him a new name, had taught him great truths. The Lord Jesus is only good to him. Yet Peter denied even knowing him. three times. Now, Peter needed encouragement after he had denied our Lord three times because he wept. And what was that encouragement? I think it's found in the book of Mark, chapter 16. You can turn there or just here. In chapter 16 of Mark, both Mary's and and another person named Salome had gone to the tomb and it was empty. And there is an angel there and the angel said, do not be alarmed. You see Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified. He is risen. He is not here. See the place where they laid him. Now go tell his disciples and Peter. You notice that he singled out Peter to encourage Peter to go and be with the brethren. He was not cast off. I think that's meant to be of encouragement to Peter. And from what I understand from my writers, the book of Mark was taken quite a bit from Peter as well. So here's the question to Peter, do you love me more than these? Here's an opportunity, either pride or humility, and next we'll look at his answer, Peter's answer. Now a humble man watches his words, knowing his ability to sin in a moment, right brethren? We know we can do it in a moment. Notice his brief answer. Now you go back a few days before our Lord's death and resurrection. Pride abounded. The words flowed. There is no self-control, no awareness of his own abilities. Impulsiveness and pride led to his fall. There's a proverb says in a multitude of words sin is not lacking as well as pride comes before destruction. These particular proverbs known by Peter were sadly fulfilled in Peter. Now does Peter rise above his brethren? Does he say yes Lord I love you much more than these guys do? Does he say that? He didn't say, I learned my lesson. I won't do that again. He didn't say, I just made a bad choice. I'll choose better next time. He didn't say, I was distracted, or I had a bad day, or I was tired. None of these words are present now. He simply has no excuse, but a humble response, very simple, you know that I love you. You know that I love you. He doesn't exalt himself over his fishing partners, but simply says, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. Now, looking at Peter's sin, there was not indifference to his sin. Did you notice that? He wept. And indifference to sin is not a good place to be in. And Peter is not in that place, thankfully. He knew of his sin. And so our Lord now gives him a command. gives him a command. That's found in 15b. He said, feed my lambs. That is why our Lord asked him, do you love me? Do you love me? Here's the proof, feed my lambs. Lambs here are the weak, little, small of faith believers. Jesus didn't say, if you love me, you wouldn't have denied me three times. He doesn't throw his sin back in his face. Nor did Jesus call him a hypocrite. He didn't call him a hypocrite. And remember, Judas killed himself after he came to the realization that he had sinned, but not Peter. It led to his repentance. Christ views Peter's humility, and instead of condemning him, He restores him and gives him a command, care for my little weak ones. Jesus would never turn over the care of his precious saints to an unrepentant, unsayed, unqualified man. He would never do that. Christ says, do you love me? Then feed my little ones. A minister of the gospel, an elder, must have great love for Christ, and this is proven by loving Christ's physical body, the brethren. Notice that love is the dominant factor of a minister of the gospel. How gracious our Lord is. He restores Peter and commissioned him from fishing to shepherding. people with love to Christ and love to the people of God. The first ones that he is to care for are the weak ones. Simon cared for my weak, frail people. Notice he just calls them my people, not your people, but my people, showing that Christ owns God's people. Do remember that if Peter is to be a leader in Christ's church, all of that pride had to be mortified out of him, and the only way that was going to happen with our Lord not forbidding, allowing him, he had to go and fall into sin, or it never would have been mortified out of him. And how are the little ones to be fed? You point them to Christ, is what he does. Preach the law. You have sinned against the Lord. Look to the Lord for the salvation of your souls. Look to the Lord for forgiveness of sins. That's the first thing. Point these little weak ones to Jesus Christ. When one has fallen into sin, one is weak. Do I have assurance? I may not have any assurance whatsoever. Continue to look to the Lord. Keep running back to the Lord. And then the second way to feed these little ones is obviously with the Word of God. It's got to be the Word of God, it cannot be the Word of man. That will do us no good. Now this is a boost of assurance to Peter that he is no longer disqualified, or he never was disqualified. He had fallen in his sin, he had repented, and the Lord is restoring him to lead Christ's lambs, to lead those weak ones in the faith. Here I notice that after he gets done saying, feed my lambs, Peter doesn't say anything. He doesn't say, okay, I'm going to do the best I can, or I'm going to do much better this time. He's quiet. He, Peter, is silent. He is quiet. He's learned his lesson. Now our Lord is not done with Peter yet, for he is a true shepherd of his people and knows how to deal thoroughly, especially with Peter. But we will look at that this afternoon, the second and third questions, answers, and the commands. But by way of application, I just have one point of application here, and that is the grace of humility. The grace of humility. I've been a Christian for 45 years, and my, I'm just gonna be open here, The issue of pride is still the thing that I battle with after 45 years of being a Christian. I still have to battle with that particular issue of pride. As you get older, your temptations change. When you're younger, you have youthful lust. When you get older, you have other lusts to deal with, and that's the lust of pride. It's a horrible thing. So brethren, if I've touched anything at all regarding pride, you may ask, well, what does pride look like? It's this self-confidence. I'm better than most people. I have more knowledge than other people. And what's worse is when that comes out in your speech. That's even more difficult with this issue of pride. So I just elevate to you the grace of humility. And the one to go to is the Lord Jesus Christ as he is the one who humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. So I direct your attention to our Lord. Come back in the afternoon and we'll take a look at the last two issues that our Lord will deal with. Peter, it's interesting, we'll show him about his death as well and that the command to Peter as well as to all of us, all of us is what our Lord says. He said, follow me, follow me. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we give you thanks and praise you that our Lord Jesus has gone before us and bled and died and be raised from the dead. And we thank you that though we have sinned, yet we are restored by your great power. So be merciful unto us this day that we desire to glorify you in all that we do. Help us and guide us. Seal these words to our very own souls. Any mistake made by the preacher, may the people forget that. And the things that are good and beneficial to the souls, may they remember that. Feed your people, hear our requests, We thank you for this first day of the week, this Lord's Day, and we look to you that you might continue to richly bless our day as we desire to remember the Sabbath day and to keep it holy for we pray in Jesus name. Amen.