Lord, as we prepare our own hearts to come to your word, we ask that you would bless the preaching of your word. We ask that you would use your word to speak to us, to minister to us, to strengthen us for whatever lies ahead. We thank you for this study that we've had in John. We thank you for the growth that we have seen, not only numerically, but at an individual spiritual level as we've gone through this study over the last five years. So Lord, use this time to meet us, to speak to us, to minister to us, to attend to us, that we may grow in Christ's likeness and glorify you. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Well if you have your Bibles please turn to John chapter 21 verse 18. Let me tell you this is one of the hardest sermons I've ever prepared. We've spent five years in this book and let me tell you after five years it's first of all it's hard to figure out how do you land this plane. You know, how do you do this? How do you actually conclude a study in a way that isn't just like walking off a cliff? Because that's how it can kind of feel. But no, we will be in John chapter 21 verses 18 to 25 today as we come to the final passage in our study of John's Gospel. And you know, when we started this study five years ago, I said that it should take somewhere between three and five years. And yeah, we just happened to fall on kind of a longer side of that. But you know, when we started this study, if you were here when we started this study, I mean, man, was the world not a totally different place five years ago? It was such a different place. I think, man, if I would have known what was coming, I probably would have picked a different book, maybe one of the minor prophets, or maybe even a major prophet from the Old Testament. But even through the tumultuous season that the world has gone through for the past three years and one month and a few days, God's Word has remained as relevant as ever as we have just stuck with our study in John's Gospel. In fact, there were even some passages in John's Gospel that spoke very clearly and actually very directly to the situation that we've been facing for the past three years, one month, and almost 10 days. As one example, I'll never forget the parallels that we saw between so many in the modern church over the last three years saying, you know, you need to shut down. We all need to shut down. We need to love our neighbors. And loving our neighbors looks like this and that. You know, if we really want to love our neighbors, we have to comply with all these mandates, which included not gathering, which included restricting what we do when we gather. For example, our own governor told us that we are not allowed to sing. Yeah, right. And how closely that ran. The fact that there were people in the American church who were saying we need to comply with all of this stuff. How closely that ran parallel to Judas Iscariot's argument that instead of worshiping Jesus, Mary, Lazarus's sister, should have sold her bottle of perfume so that they could give the money to the poor. And Jesus's answer was to say basically no. Worshipping Him comes before everything, including loving your neighbor. You cannot forsake the second table of the Ten Commandments, or you can't forsake the first half of the Ten Commandments in order to fulfill the second half of the Ten Commandments. It just doesn't work that way. But John's Gospel actually spoke directly to one of the obstacles that we are facing, and what a blessing that was. But coming to the end of this study today, I gotta be honest, it kind of feels like saying goodbye to a friend. That was how J.C. Ryle described coming to the end of John's gospel. It doesn't feel easy to conclude this study, but I hope and I pray that all of you have grown in your walk with the Lord as we've walked with Him through this book, which is one of the most popular and one of the most loved books of the gospel. I think we can say with good reason. But after we finish this study, we'll have studied both John's gospel and all of his epistles within the last 10 years. The only book that was written by him that we haven't studied yet is Revelation. People have asked me, are we ever gonna study Revelation? And my answer is maybe someday. I've joked with some of you that when I'm ready for you to fire me, we'll go through Revelation. But yeah, maybe we'll tackle that someday. The final passage that we come to today of John's Gospel is found in a chapter that deals with what it means to have life in His name. Those are the words, if you look up at the end of chapter 20, those are the words that ended chapter 20, and chapter 21 just flows out of those words. We've seen that it involves a life of service, unto the Lord. And so with that said, it's actually, this is a very appropriate passage to end our study with and the book with, because it deals with Christ's sovereignty till he returns. It deals with Christ's sovereignty over all of our lives and all of our deaths. And the fact that our calling unto service unto him remains from the moment that we're converted until he returns or calls us home. But one of the implications of that was demonstrated in the previous passages that we've studied, in which Peter was restored to his service unto the Lord. He had denied, if you remember, he had denied on the night of Jesus' betrayal, he had denied his master three times. And so three times, Jesus asked Peter, do you love me? And the first two times there, Peter responded by saying, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. But the third time, Peter's response included another clause. He added an additional clause there. He said, Lord, you know all things, you know that I love you. You know all things. What an interesting clause. What an important clause for Peter to grasp. What a wonderful truth for us to grasp as well. Jesus knows all things, and that doesn't include just the past and the present, as the blasphemous open theist would assert. It also includes the future. If you don't believe that God knows the future, the passage that we come to today is going to make absolutely no sense. It is necessarily implied in our text today that God does know the future. It's going to become very obvious in the text that we come to today. Friends, I don't think I need to remind you that we live in such dark and wicked times. You already know that. You don't need me to remind you of that. You don't need me to tell you that. You see the moral freefall that's going on all around you in our culture. And I suspect that we have not seen the end of it. Just yesterday I found out that the, you know, I saw an article that the UN is suggesting that all sexually related crimes be decriminalized, including pedophilia. So I do not think we've seen the end of the moral freefall. I think it's possible and in fact kind of likely that we are only starting to see the tip of this iceberg. The question that we have to wrestle with then is how are we supposed to live in a dark culture, in times like these? And the answer is very simple. The way Christians have always lived in dark times. In fact, the church was birthed in very, very dark and wicked times. That is to say, that we are to live with an awareness that Christ is sovereign over all things, including all of history, past, present, and future. That is the perspective that the church has always maintained And it has served to be very useful in dark times. We are not to recoil. We are not to become Christian chameleons who just blend in with the culture around us as we wait for things to calm down. We're to press forward as sworn enemies of sin and the devil. carrying out the final marching orders that were given by our sovereign God and King, that is, the Great Commission. As the church militant, as they call us, we know that this battle is spiritual and that the outcome is already secure. God has ordained the end from the beginning, and He is not only sovereign over history, but He knows what it will take to grow us in His likeness, including in dark times. He knows what it will take for us to serve Him and glorify Him and to shine like a city on a hill, like He has instructed us to be. But to that end, He has ordered and ordained every circumstance in our lives, from life's first cry to final breath. And we are to press on, knowing these things, until He returns or our time on earth is done. The point of this final passage that we come to today is that while the future from our perspective seems extremely uncertain, especially in times like these, here's what we need to remember. We need to remember that God is sovereign over the future, and thus the future is not uncertain. It only feels like it's uncertain. But knowing that God has secured what's going to happen, we are to press on, regardless of what may come. And knowing that whatever does come, whatever takes place in history, has been ordained by God for our good, for the good of His people, individually and collectively, and for His glory. So, Peter has acknowledged that Jesus knows all things. And now Jesus validates Peter's words by telling him prophetically how he's going to die. How Peter is going to die. Let's start with verses 18 and 19. Jesus says, truly, truly, and whenever he says that, you better listen. Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to gird yourself and walk wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will gird you and bring you where you do not wish to go. Now he said this, signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he said to him, follow me. having instructed Peter for a third time to tend his sheep, to feed his sheep. Jesus continues by telling Peter that he not only knows all things about the past and the present, but that he knows the future exhaustively as well. And since he knows the future, he gives a prophecy to Peter telling Peter the way that Peter would die. And he tells him that basically, Peter, as a youth, you were able to do whatever you wanted. You gird yourself, you took care of yourself, you managed yourself, but that's not always going to be the case. The primary point that Jesus is making here, both for Peter and for us, is that Jesus knows our past and our present, yes, but he also knows our future. How many of you guys know that when Jesus took on flesh, he didn't stop being God? And God knows all things. If God does not know all things, if God doesn't know the future, and this is where open theism becomes blasphemy, if God doesn't know the future, then He has to learn. If God has to learn, then God changes. If God changes, we can't trust His promises. His Word assures us that He does not change. And so he knows how Peter is going to die. How does he know how Peter is going to die? Because he has ordained how Peter is going to die. He has known every single one of us, friends, from Eternity past. He knows everything about us. He knows every sin that we have committed prior to coming to Him. He knows every sin that we're going to commit after we have come to Him. There is nothing, therefore, that we will face in life, either now or to come, that He has not foreknown, including death itself. Not only does he foreknow these things, but he has sovereignly ordered and ordained and decreed these things. Back in chapter 13, Peter asked Jesus, Lord, where are you going? This was on the night of Jesus' betrayal. And John tells us that Jesus answered, where I go, you cannot follow me now, but you will follow later. That's kind of a double entendre there. Jesus was going to the Father and one day Peter would go to the Father, but in a more immediate sense Jesus was going to the cross and Peter would also go to the cross. But in this moment, Peter vows allegiance, unflinching allegiance, unto death for the Lord Jesus, saying, Lord, why can I not follow you right now? I will lay down my life for you. And Jesus' response, of course, was to prophesy Peter's threefold denial of Christ. And now, he prophesies the kind of death that Peter would die. Did Peter understand what Jesus was saying here? Did he understand that Jesus was saying, you're going to be crucified like I was? I mean, we don't know for sure, but I think the answer is very likely, if not probably. Commentators note that the phrase, stretch out your hands, was widely recognized in that time to be a euphemism for crucifixion. It was a figure of speech that referred to death by crucifixion. And so in this sense, in the sense that Peter would one day die by crucifixion himself, Peter would have no choice but to go where he doesn't want to go. He will follow in Jesus's steps probably a lot more closely than he would have liked to. But history does attest to the accuracy of Jesus' prophecy here. When Nero would begin his reign over the Roman Empire, he began persecuting Christians, and Peter would be indeed put to death by crucifixion, probably between the years, somewhere between 63 and 65 AD. In the fourth century AD, a church historian named Eusebius would write a work titled simply Church History, in which he recorded not only that Peter was indeed crucified, but that he was also crucified upside down by his own special request. Now, some have argued historically that Peter did this as a means of penance, kind of to reconcile himself to God because of the threefold denial. But since the concept of penance isn't biblical at all, since Peter knew that he was reconciled and redeemed to God, I highly, highly doubt that to be true. I don't think any of the Apostles had even the remotest clue that there would be any kind of doctrine related to something called penance. And I don't think Peter did. I don't think there's any reason to believe that any of the Apostles held any view which even resembled penance. They believed that Christ's atonement for sin was sufficient. And that is more than evident in the letters that they wrote, which are contained in our New Testament canon. Others did say that Peter was crucified upside down, but perhaps because he didn't feel like he was worthy of dying in the same way that Jesus did. Okay, that's at least possible. But it's interesting to note that earlier records, keep in mind Eusebius wrote in the fourth century, but earlier records such as Clement of Rome's writings in 96 AD and Tertullian's writings in 212 AD don't mention Peter's request to be crucified upside down at all. So we don't know whether Peter was actually crucified upside down or right side up, but we do know based on every historical account that we have, that Peter was indeed crucified. Jesus' prophecy here was fulfilled, it was accurate. Peter's denials of Christ, if you think about why he did it, it was because he was afraid of death. He feared the cost following Christ. He was really just looking out for himself. But Jesus here is letting him know that he will indeed pay the cost one day for following Christ. The day would come when Peter would refuse to deny Christ, even if it meant death. Now Peter at this point, as he's talking here with Jesus, He's got a lot of life remaining. I mean, he's probably got somewhere in the neighborhood of 30, 31, 32 years of life left. And I think that in one sense, if we were in his shoes, I think it would be kind of burdensome to have the prophecy like this hanging over me for the rest of my life. Personally speaking here, I don't want to know how I'm going to die. I don't want to know when I'm going to die. And the reason I don't want to know those things is because ultimately they don't matter. They don't matter. I can't control those things. I can't change those things. God is the one who has decreed and ordained these details, and I am content to simply trust Him with them. And in the meantime, I'll keep living my life, striving to glorify God in all that I do. But in another sense, Peter's concerns are put to rest here. Think about it. If you were in Peter's shoes, think about the fear you would have of yourself, of the strength of your flesh, the way that it triumphed over him that night. He probably greatly, greatly feared his own flesh, his tendency to protect himself at all costs, even if that meant denying his Savior. To know that Christ is sovereign over life and death, friends, is a great, great comfort to every Christian. In the words of Matthew Henry, as Christ foresaw all His own sufferings, so He foresaw the sufferings of all His followers and foretold them that they must take up their cross. He knew, Jesus knew, what hardships and trials Peter would face. And he knew that the day would come when Peter would be willing to deny himself instead of denying Christ, and to die to pay the ultimate cost for following Christ. And friends, just like he knew these things about Peter, he knows them about you. He knows what hardships you'll face. He knows what trials you'll face, what afflictions. But He also knows and He also provides the grace and the strength that you need to persevere, to press on, to endure. Maybe you've wondered, if you were in the shoes of one of these people in other countries who literally lose their lives for following Jesus and refusing to renounce Him, maybe you've wondered if you would have the strength and the conviction to give your life, if that's really what it came to. You might look at yourself now and say, no way. No way would I have the strength and the grace and the conviction to stand for Christ if it meant certain death. Even if it meant great loss. But the fact is, Peter knew those fears too. He knew the fear of failing again. But Christ would supply Peter with the grace he needed, and He'll supply the grace that all of His people need in those moments as well, if or when that day comes. And in our country, it very well may. Twenty years ago, I never would have said that. 20 years ago I never would have thought that we'd see the day when you know we see the stuff happening that we see. But today I don't think we're too far away from seeing that kind of thing actually happening. We just saw a Christian school shot up a few weeks ago. Terrible travesty. You never would have thought you'd see that, but then you'd never, you never would have thought that you'd see the media and everybody turning that on the Christians and blaming them for what happened. Although this is what we see historically. Nero did the same thing as I pointed out in a previous study. But we haven't seen much persecution in the United States. We just haven't. What persecution we have seen is really pretty minor in light of what persecution has looked like historically around the world throughout this age. But with all that said, friends, whatever happens, whatever comes, you must know that Christ is sovereign over all of history, and He is sovereign over your life and your death. Whatever comes, Christ is still King. Whatever happens, Christ is still Lord. Whatever happens, you must face it knowing that following Jesus has always had some cost and that it's worth it. That following Christ is worth it, regardless of how high the cost is. If the world around us continues to grow darker, may God grant each of us the grace to remember that God has ordained not only when we would exist, but where we would live, what we'd see around us, and every other detail, and that He has ordained that we would find Him and find the strength in His sovereign authority over all things. And so may we each learn when the cup from which we drink seems bitter, May we learn to remind ourselves that it's only bitter because that is what God knew is best for us. How many of you guys know that what we want for ourselves is not always best for us? The same way that parents know that, kids, what they want is not always what's best for them. If they want all jelly beans for dinner, are you going to just give them a plate full of jelly beans every night for dinner? Of course not, because that's not what's best for them. And so, when the cup that we drink turns bitter, you need to know that the reason it's turned bitter is because God knows that it is what you need. If it wasn't what you needed, if it wasn't what was best for you, He would have prevented it from happening. And may we remember that God is too strong to lose control, too wise to make a mistake, and that He loves His people too much to leave us on our own in the times when we most need His grace, His strength, and His presence. In J.C. Ryle's words, quote, we may have to walk sometimes through rough places on our way to heaven, but surely it is a comforting, soothing reflection to say every step of my journey was foreknown by Christ. End quote. God will give you whatever grace, whatever strength that you need to serve Him and to glorify Him until your time on earth is done. Peter had previously failed to honor and to glorify Christ rightly because he so greatly feared death. But the time would come when God would give Peter the grace he needed to glorify Christ on Peter's own cross. Peter, like all of Christ's sheep, would continue to do what he had done from the very beginning. Jesus says to him, follow me, just like he said back in chapter 1, follow me. And Peter would, unto his death. And don't miss what John adds, by the way, for our benefit and for our comfort. He tells us that Jesus said this, not only to let Peter know that he knows the future, but he says specifically that this is to tell Peter by what kind of death he would glorify God. Did John need to add that part? No, he didn't. I mean, we get it. Okay, Peter's gonna die. But John wants us to see that God will be glorified in Peter's death. Do you realize that every Christian has such an opportunity to glorify Christ in their death? It's not only in our lives, but in our death as well. It's entirely possible that any one of us could be like Samson, in the sense that we glorify God more in our death than we did in our life. What a great opportunity the deathbed is for the Christian to glorify God. Think about it, the Reformers, the people who broke away from the Roman Catholic Church because they saw how the Roman Catholic Church was blaspheming God in their understanding of salvation, how they were adding works and perverting the gospel. And as a result, they were preaching the gospel faithfully and were put to death for their faithfulness. The deaths that they died by being burned alive at the stake at the order of Queen Mary, who became better known as Bloody Mary for the barbaric way that she executed the Protestant preachers. The deaths that she gave them became platforms from which they were loudly heard. more loudly than they were heard throughout their entire lives. And they were heard. They were surrounded by the masses. What a great chance to preach to the unregenerate. And they did. Roland Taylor is one who's remembered for his last words being, Good people, I have taught you nothing but God's holy word and those lessons that I have taken out of God's blessed book, the Holy Bible, and I am come hither this day to seal it with my blood. And that was written down because it was remembered. Latimer and Ridley were another two Reformers burned at the stake. Latimer was recorded as having turned to Ridley as the flame below them was lit, and saying to him, be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man. We shall this day light such a candle by God's grace in England as shall never be put out." End quote. And the list of final words that the Reformers had in their deaths, it's long, it's extensive. There are plenty of quotes. from their last words. But God was indeed perhaps more glorified in their deaths than He was throughout their lives. But this brings us to an important point about what it even means to follow Jesus. There are two dimensions to following Jesus that you'll find throughout the New Testament canon. First of all, following Jesus entails a life of ongoing growth in Christ's likeness. We call that sanctification, but it includes a growing knowledge of God, by a growing familiarity and understanding of God's Word. And secondly, it entails a willful, deliberate, daily taking up of one's cross and denying one's self. You cannot follow Jesus if you will not take up your cross and deny yourself. You've only got half the picture there if you refuse to do that. Well, let's cover the first part. First, following Jesus means being sanctified, growing in Christ's likeness, becoming increasingly like Jesus. Jesus said back in chapter eight, verses 31 and 32 of John's gospel, he said, if you continue in my word, then you are truly disciples of mine and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free. How would we know the truth? By continuing in His Word. See, the goal of being a disciple is to become more and more like the one doing the discipling. So to be a disciple of Jesus means to become more and more like Him. And how do we do that? by continuing in His Word. This is why Jesus prayed to the Father in chapter 17, verse 17, sanctify them, speaking of His people, sanctify them in the truth. Your Word is truth. And of course, what does it mean to be sanctified? It means growing in Christ's likeness, right? It means growing in personal holiness and devotion unto God. So that's the first part of what it means to follow Jesus. Let's therefore understand that following Jesus is going to mean reading your Bible, studying your Bible, hearing the Word of God preached on Sunday, memorizing texts from God's Word, knowing that His Holy Spirit indwells us and illuminates the text for us so that we might understand. And not only so that we might understand, but so that we might actually apply it to our lives. So that's the first part of what it means to follow Jesus. Secondly, this is the tough part, this is the bigger pill to swallow. Following Jesus means, and means necessarily, denying yourself and taking up your cross. Jesus said at one point in his ministry, Luke 9 23, if anyone wishes to come after me he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. He doesn't say it might be a good idea every now and then to do this. It might be a good idea on Sundays to get up a little bit early and go to church. He doesn't say that. He says they must. It's non-negotiable. They must deny himself, take up his cross daily to follow him. Friends, do you want to know why the American church hasn't been persecuted in the way that we see the church persecuted elsewhere around the world and at other times in history? Do you want to know why the American church hasn't been persecuted like that? It's because, I fear, we've just been ignored. We've just been ignored. So the question then becomes, why have we been ignored? And I suspect and I fear that the reason that we've been ignored is because far too many people who claim to be Christians have chosen comfort instead of taking up their cross. They've chosen self-fulfillment instead of self-denial. Self-denial, of course, that starts personally, at a personal level. It's going to war with the flesh, turning from sin, choosing to walk in the paths of righteousness that God has laid out in His Word. We never stop sinning on this side of glory. We get that. John tells us that the person who denies that they have sin, deceives themselves and that the truth is not in them, We are to seek God's grace and strength as we strive for holiness, but in a more ultimate, general sense, self-denial also means doing the will of Christ when it's difficult. doing the will of Christ when you would rather just be comfortable. You'd rather just do things your way. You'd rather just avoid conflict. So this might mean choosing a different career path. There are definitely career paths out there that you can't take if you're a Christian. It might mean that your kids don't participate in sporting events on Sundays that interfere with going to church, sending them the message that church is our priority because serving the Lord and worshiping the Lord is our priority. It might mean losing a friend because you're refusing to embrace and applaud their sinful lifestyle that they have taken up. And these days, it might even mean losing the relationship that you have with an aunt or an uncle or a parent. or a grandparent for that reason, for that matter, for the same reason. It might mean that you won't get the promotion at work because your boss doesn't like you because you keep sharing the gospel with him and he's sick of hearing about it. This is what it means to deny yourself. Take up your cross and follow Jesus. It's not easy. It's not what the flesh is at all inclined to do. If you're gonna answer this call to follow Jesus, your life not only doesn't belong to you anymore, but it's not about you anymore. Now, that's what we're all born with. We're all born with this idea that the world is all about us. I mean, kids, right? We get it. Parents get it. Kids are born with this instinct. And we all have it. We all have it. We carry it through life, but we know that Christ has redeemed us. And in our redemption, we are no longer ourselves. We no longer own ourselves. Christ owns us. Living a life that revolves around yourself is totally antithetical to self-denial. Taking up your cross to follow Jesus is willful. So it's not just having unavoidable circumstances, like if you're leaving here today and you get in a car accident or something like that, that's not self-denial. That's not taking up your cross. That's something that just kind of happens. It's an unavoidable circumstance in one sense. No, taking up your cross and denying yourself is willful. And so it means choosing deliberately to act in a way that will at least possibly, if not definitely, result in scorn or persecution instead of taking the easy way out. It's choosing the cross over comfort. It's not where you're avoiding persecution by blending in and just being silent. It's saying, okay, they want me to be silent, I get it, but I can't be because my Lord has given me marching orders to speak. Is it not possible that this is why the American church for the most part has been completely ignored for the last 100 years instead of being persecuted? Is it because we've taken up comfort and compliance instead of taking up our cross? Is it possible that the world hasn't persecuted us because they haven't even noticed us? Is it possible that we haven't had to die for Christ because we truly haven't been living for Christ. Of course it's possible. But friends, every single one of us has this calling to deny ourselves, to take up our cross, and to follow Jesus, to live for Him who died for us. And He is greatly glorified by that, and that is what our lives are all about. bringing glory to God. But the benefit isn't only His glory. Listen, those who choose self-denial, those who choose to take up their crosses and follow Jesus, learn very quickly that, man, it is worth it. In fact, you'll be wondering, what took me so long to do this? He is worth more than an easy life. He is worth more than a moment of comfort. An easy life eventually ends. For anybody who has an easy life, but fellowship with Christ, it never ends. Death cannot take that from our grip. Oh friends, if you could only see that Jesus, and only Jesus, is worth more than all of the things that this world has to offer combined. And so I urge you today by the authority of God Himself who gives us this charge in His Holy Word to follow Christ, to deny yourself, take up your cross, follow Jesus in all of life and death, and to glorify Him in both of those things as well. Let us ask God and rely on Him while we have breath for the grace, for the strength, for the wisdom, for the courage, for the conviction to truly take up our cross and deny ourselves and follow Jesus until death. Now, when we consider the kind of death that Peter was going to die, I think all we can say is, wow, we can be thankful that we don't all die the same kinds of deaths. The odds are good that your death won't be as painful or as difficult or as public as Peter's was. Some will die by martyrdom, sure. Some will die of old age, some of disease, whatever the case may be. Christ himself has ordained the conditions in which we will both live and die. And that's what we see in the passage that continues. Let's continue in verses 20 to 23. We are going to finish this passage today before lunch. Verses 20 to 23, Peter, turning around, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them, the one who also had leaned back on his bosom at the supper and said, Lord, who is the one who betrays you? So Peter, seeing him, said to Jesus, Lord, and what about this man? Jesus said to him, if I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me. Therefore this saying went out among the brethren, that that disciple would not die. Yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but only, if I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? Kind of a funny little explanation that John gives us there. He's like, oh wait a minute, wait a minute, don't think the wrong thing here. While history records that Peter was indeed crucified, maybe upside down, maybe right side up, we don't know, but that he did die the death of a martyr, tradition and history also tell us that John did not. Although we understand that John was so greatly persecuted that he should have died, he should have died a martyr's death had God not miraculously intervened and prevented John from dying. But Peter's inquiry about John's future is greatly rebuked, but also gently rebuked by Jesus, who says to Peter, if I want him to remain until I come, what is it to you? You follow me. John tells us that this saying gave rise to this rumor that circulated in the early church that John wasn't going to die until Jesus returned. Maybe they took up this understanding when Roman persecutors tried to martyr John, tried to take his life, but they couldn't no matter how hard they tried. So maybe that's where they got this idea is, oh, he's gonna live until Jesus comes back. But John wants to make sure that we as his readers clearly understood that the early church that was saying this completely misunderstood what Jesus was saying. Richard Phillips comments on this by writing, quote, this false report reminds us that not all traditions from the early church are true, end quote. What an interesting reminder, a good reminder for us. You know, I've often heard people or seen people ask the question, you know, what we need to be doing is going back to the early church. What did the early church believe? What did the early church do? You know, what were their practices? What were their doctrines? And while those questions can be very helpful at times, clearly they aren't always helpful, because now we're talking about fallible men. Sometimes they were downright wrong about what they believed and how they understood the Scriptures. It didn't take long for the first century church to not only experience persecution, but also to have false teachers infiltrate their ranks with teachings that were contrary to the teachings of the apostles. And so with all that said, and with all that established, while it may sometimes be helpful to examine the practices and the beliefs of the early church, the ultimate question is, what do the scriptures say? What saith the Lord? That's the real question. But John who actually did end up dying eventually by the way. John most likely died on the island of Patmos near the end of the first century. But he's making two very important points for us here. The first point is that we should understand that Christians will die in different ways. and under different conditions and circumstances, but that all of them are given so that we may glorify. The conditions that we have are given so that we may glorify God in our deaths. Maybe that's only to one person who's by your bedside. Maybe it's to a crowd of people who are coming after you. Either way, the point is that we are to glorify God in our deaths. He's given us those conditions to glorify him. But the second point that John is making for us here is that we have to worry first and foremost about our own hearts and our own walks with the Lord, with Jesus. What good is it to be concerned with your brother's walk with Christ if your concern for his walk means that you lose and stumble along your own walk with the Lord? Now that's not to say that there's not a place in the Christian life for accountability or for calling out false teachers or believers who fall into sin or error. There certainly is a place for that in the Christian life. We see Paul modeling that for us in his letters. But Christian love demands that we be involved in helping our brothers and sisters out of sin and error. Very few people deny that. The only people who are denying that are trying to hide some kind of sin in their life, quite honestly. Because how unloving and how completely selfish do you have to be to allow someone, to allow a brother or sister in Christ to remain in sin and error. And yet, what benefit? The point is, what benefit is it to your brother or sister if by calling out sin and by calling out error in their lives, you fall into your own sin and error? So let us each resolve to watch our own hearts and our own lives first and foremost. Only then can we effectively help a brother or sister come out of sin and error. A sinking person, a drowning person, can't help another person drown. They have to have something else. They have to be steadied on something. Make sure you're steadied so that you can help somebody out of sin and error. But immediately what we see here, immediately after Jesus has reiterated the charge to Peter to follow him, Peter takes his eyes off the Lord and off of himself. And he puts his eyes and his mind and his focus on John and the conditions that God has ordained for John's life. It's kind of reminiscent of when Peter walked out on water until He took his eyes off the Lord and he began to sink into the sea. And Jesus' response here is to reiterate the calling once again. What is it to you? Follow me. Don't worry about his conditions. I've got him. You just worry about you, Peter. Now of course it is beneficial for us to learn from others and for others to learn from us but it's of no benefit for us to compare ourselves to others in any way shape or form whether that's ethnically or socio-economically or what have you. There's no benefit to compare ourselves with other believers. And this is a lesson I actually learned very early on as a pastor, because when pastors get together for lunch or whatever, there's always the pressure to talk about the ways that the Lord has blessed your church numerically and how your church has been growing. Well, the problem that I ran into is that our church, when I first got here, was growing very, very slowly. And in fact, at one point, several people left. And because of that, and partly because I'm just a nonconformist, I just don't do what everybody else does, but I grew very comfortable staying out of those kinds of comparisons with other pastors and churches. Instead, to this day, what I try to do, instead of comparing myself to others, comparison breeds jealousy, and I certainly don't want that, so to this day, what I try to do is I simply pray for God to bless the faithful preaching of His Word, and for God to add to their numbers as He sees fit, but first and foremost, that He would bless the people in X church, whatever church, spiritually, that they would be grown in Christ's likeness through the faithful preaching of God's Word. That's all I care about. That's really all I care about. There's no benefit to be gained by comparing ourselves with others. The Spirit has gifted others the way that He has gifted others. And He's gifted you the way that He's gifted you, by His own sovereign choice. He gives one person a gift that causes the church to be blessed in this way. He gives another person a gift that causes the church to be blessed in a completely different way. But this is the way that God has designed the church to grow, to flourish, and to shine. by serving Him with our variety of gifts. And praise God for that. Praise God for that. Every single one of us has some kind of gift to be used in service unto the Lord. God will ensure that His church presses on, that it lives on by His grace, and His work throughout this age will continue until Christ returns, because God has ordained it to happen. Even if Western civilization continues falling into deeper and deeper darkness and wickedness, even if Western civilization completely collapses, as it very well may, No two things. Number one, God has ordained whatever comes to pass. And number two, God's plans and purposes will all come to pass. All of his promises are sure. He will preserve a people for himself. He will preserve a faithful remnant just as he always has. This book concludes. John's Gospel concludes. giving us every compelling reason we could need to faithfully follow Jesus. The first one that we've kind of already covered is that Jesus is sovereign over all of history. It doesn't matter if you believe or don't believe, He's still sovereign. What are you going to do? You're just a peasant compared to Him. So why would you not come to Him? Why would you not come to Him? He's sovereign over all of history. And so His people have nothing to fear. The unregenerate have much to fear and much to lose. All their treasure is going to be gone someday, but for those who are in Christ, we have nothing to lose, because God is sovereign over history. He's ordered all things for His glory and for the good of His people, both in our lives and in the deaths of His people around the world. The second reason to believe is that God has graciously given us multiple eyewitnesses of Jesus's ministry, which we see as we reach the closing verses of this study. Let's look at verses 24 and 25. John writes, This is the disciple who is testifying to these things and wrote these things and we know that his testimony is true. And there are also many other things which Jesus did which if they were written in detail I suppose that even the whole world itself would not contain the books that would be written. It's kind of interesting the way he writes in the first person plural at the end of verse 24. Some people think that we know this testimony, his testimony is true, might have been signed off by the other apostles, might have been signed off by other elders in his church, but the fact remains his testimony is true. This isn't a secondhand account that we have been studying for the last five years. We all know that information and details can sometimes get lost in second-hand accounts, and information and details are sure to get lost in fourth- and fifth-hand accounts. But this is not a fourth- or fifth-hand account. This is not a second-hand account. This is an eyewitness account of things that really happened. This was written by somebody who was really there. It's been scrutinized, it's been attacked from top to bottom throughout history, and it has remained standing without a single chip in its armor. In fact, as the age of archaeology came to pass about a hundred years ago, all of a sudden we had even more evidence to support the veracity of this testimony. This is legitimately an eyewitness account. And so that said, it takes more faith to disbelieve it than it does to believe it. John wants us to understand that Jesus did amazing things, more amazing things and taught more amazing lessons than all the paper in the world could possibly contain. But what we must understand is that what he has given us in his eyewitness testimony is sufficient. He's given us every reason we could possibly need to say yes Lord I will deny myself, yes Lord I will take up my cross if that's what I have to do to follow you, and it is. Third and finally, third reason to follow Jesus. He's promised that he will return. Consider what he said back in verse 22 when he spoke of his ability to keep John remaining on earth until, until what? Until he says, until he comes again. Until I come, he says. And he will come again. Our own confession tells us in its final chapter, final paragraph, which I'll just recite in modern English for the sake of sparing you the King James-ish language. It says, Christ wants us to be confidently persuaded that there will be a day of judgment, both to deter people from sin and to comfort the godly in their adversity. To accomplish this he keeps the day secret to help them be rid of fleshly security and to be constantly watchful since they do not know at what hour the Lord will come. Thus they can constantly be prepared to say, come Lord Jesus, come quickly. Amen. While the future, from our perspective, seems so tumultuous and so uncertain, God's sovereignty over the future is certain. There's no uncertainty about it. And thus friends, if you follow Jesus, You have to know that we are to press on, regardless of what may come, serving and glorifying Him for all of our days. You know, our study began five years ago with a simple question. The question I asked in that sermon, this is the 155th sermon we've had in John. Sermon number one, the point was just to ask you guys, what do you believe about Jesus? Or who do you believe Jesus is? And the reason that I remember that we started with that question is because one time when I asked that question, one of our littles was sitting in the back and he screamed out, he's God. Hallelujah, what a great answer. And I remember that question for that reason. But John has given us 21 chapters to come to the same conclusion that that child did, to understand what that child was saying in order that by believing that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God, we may have life in his name. and that we may have it until the day we die. John wrote this book with the understanding that as the Apostles Creed says, he will come again to judge the living and the dead. Whether you are living or dead is revealed by how you answer this question. Who do you believe Jesus is? I pray that you would believe on Him. That you would grow and continue to grow in your knowledge of Him. that He would daily grant you the grace to seek His face and to live for His glory as you follow Him. And I pray that the lyrics of the famous hymn would summarize your life story. No power in hell. No scheme of man could ever pluck me from his hand till he returns or calls me home here in the power of Christ I stand. The future only feels uncertain. but Christ will have His bride. So, press on. Serve Him and glorify Him in all of your life until death, because in doing so you will enjoy Him no matter what comes. Our most gracious Heavenly Father, we do thank you for these last five years that we have spent studying this book. Plumbing the depths of your word, Lord, is an endless task. We can never come to the fullest understanding. It's unimaginably deep, beyond what we could possibly grasp. But we thank you for what we have been able to glean from your word for these past five years as we've studied John's Gospel. We pray Lord that these truths would sink not only into our minds, but they would penetrate our hearts by the power of your spirit. Teach us, O Lord, to live by your word. Sanctify us, Lord, in your word. Your word is truth. Teach us, Lord, to be a people of the truth who live, who serve, and who glorify you and enjoy you forever. In Jesus' name.