Jesus' prayer for Peter's faith to not fail, even after his denial, is the foundation for his restoration. The sermon traces Peter's restoration through four steps: Jesus' prayer for him, the angels' specific message to Peter on resurrection morning, Jesus' private appearance to Peter, and the post-resurrection encounter by the Sea of Galilee. This final encounter, marked by Jesus' patient preparation of breakfast and the miraculous catch of fish, leads to Jesus' threefold questioning of Peter's love and his subsequent commission to 'Feed my sheep.' Peter's own writings in his epistles reflect this restoration, emphasizing hope through Christ's resurrection, enduring trials, and humbly shepherding God's flock with Christ's personal care.
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Very quickly, the first step in Peter's restoration, as our Lord said that he had prayed for him, that his faith would not fail. So I want to read from John chapter twenty-one, beginning at verse one. It tells a rather lengthy section, but it won't hurt us to review what happened. It's a beautiful picture. So John chapter twenty-one, beginning with verse one. After this, Jesus rebuked himself again for the disciples by the the theodide priest, and rebuked himself in this way. Simon Peter Thomas called the twins, the Samuel of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together. Sam and Peter said to them, I'm going fishing.
They said to him, he'll go with you. They went out and got into the boat, but that night they passed nothing. Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the beach, yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, children, Are you any fish?" They answered him, No. He said, Then cast the net on the right side of the boat, and he will find some. So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in for the quantity of fish. That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, It's the Lord. When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his clothes where he stood for work and sprang into the sea.
But the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, but about a hundred yards off. When they got out on the land, they saw a charcoal fire there with fish lying on it and bread. Jesus said to them, Bring some of the fish that you have just caught. So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, a hundred and fifty-three of them. And although there were so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, Come and have breakfast. Now none of the disciples dared ask him, Who are you? They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and so was the fish. This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.
When they finished the lectures, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Canon, son of John, then will I be more than thee? He said to him, Yes, Lord. You know that I love you." He said to him, Feed my land. A second time he said to him, Sainim, son of John, do you love me? He said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him, send my sheep. He said to him the third time, Sainim, son of John, do you love me? Peter agreed because he said to him the third time, do you love me?
He said, with the Lord, you know everything, you know that I love you. Jesus said to him, feed my sheep. Let's pray for this Peter, who is service, and courage in several steps. The first of those he touched on this morning, before he ever fell, before he ever denied the Lord three times, and the quarter out of the high priest, our Lord Jesus had prayed for him that his faith was not fair. Let me repeat that point tonight. Jesus did not pray that he would not fall, he prayed that his faith would not fail. And the idea of his faith not failed is the very point for which Satan wanted to sit these disciples. Remember our Lord had said in Luke's Gospel to those men, Satan has desired or he is the man that there hand you, that he may sit you as we.
But I have prayed for you, Peter, that your faith may not fail. and they were put into the sifting sieve of Satan. And what Satan wanted to do is what he always wants to do with God's people, and that's destroy their confidence in God. And as I trace the work of Satan through Scripture, I'm convinced that his work is not primarily in the moral realm. Murder, adultery, theft, all the rest of it, we are perfectly capable of taking care of ourselves and we do a good job of it.
Those things the Scripture say come from the flesh, they come from my own heart. Satan has more important things to do than to entice us to commit murder or anything else. Where he works is in the spiritual realm of our relationship with God. to destroy our confidence in the living God. That's where he works. He has all sorts of ways of doing it. Some of you may have felt his pressure as in the case of Job, where God permitted Satan to acquit Job. And the whole idea that Satan was working on was to get Job to curse God.
to give up his confidence in God or God. And Satan destroyed all of Job's wealth, took it all away from him, destroyed his family, and finally destroyed his health. And in those circumstances, Satan was trying to get Job to give up on God. Does it pay to serve God when this happens to you? Satan was hoping Job would say, no, it isn't worth it. And it's true as God.
And some of you may have felt that attack of Satan. You give up on God because of your circumstances. I think Paul felt the same thing. After the Corinthians, he mentions that thorn in the flesh. This is a Robert Anderson says it's a terrible translation. You can't imagine Paul talking about a thorn. But of course, you need to think of those long Near Eastern thorns. Maybe it's something to fuss about. The idea of the word is a state. And one of the cruel methods of execution in the Near East, practiced quite a bit by the ancient Assyrians and by other people after them, was to put a sharpened stake in the ground, at the point it ended up. And then you just took a live victim, one of the captives of the city, that you were trying to defeat.
Then you just took that live in the lagoon and killed him alive on that stake and watched him rise until he died. And Tell talks about the stake, not a thorn, but a stake. It could be thorn, but I rather think Mr. Robert Anderson is the idea that Paul felt himself entailed on a stake. That's what it is. And in those circumstances, which he called a messenger of Satan, and a messenger delivers a message, and Satan was trying to get a message through to Paul in those circumstances. And the message would be the same that he was trying to get through the show, quit.
It's not worth it. After all you've given up for Jesus Christ, after all you've endured for Jesus Christ, this is what you get out of it, like a man entailed on a stake. Give up. In those same circumstances, God was trying to get a message through the Paul. My grace is sufficient for you. My strength is made perfect in weakness. And there was Paul in those circumstances listening to two messages. What Satan was trying to do was to get him to give up. In Peter's case, Satan was using his sin, his denial of the Lord, the terrible shame that went with it, to give up his confidence in Jesus Christ.
Whereas I see in his scriptures what Satan is always trying to do to make us give up our confidence in our Lord Jesus. And in those circumstances our Lord says to Peter, I have prayed for you that your faith failed us, that you won't give up. The fact that you have sinned is no reason for thinking Jesus Christ is true with you, or that you ought to be true with me. I'll let you in on a little secret that you may not have picked up this week.
Our Lord Jesus saved sinners. And the only kind of servants our Lord Jesus has are sinners. And if committing sin is the reason to give up on him or for his giving up on us, then not one of us is going to make it. But that's the message Satan tries to get through to us. You've grown it, everything's finished, it's through. But the first step in Peter's restoration, with our Lord's prayer for him, I have prayed for you that you may say, or not. The second step in Peter's restoration occurred in the resurrection morning.
In fact, early in the morning when those angels said to the women who came to the tomb, Go tell his disciples, and Peter. Now why do you think they said, go tell his disciples, and Peter? Well, put yourself in Peter's shoes. In the hour of our Lord Jesus' need, you have denied three signs with oaths and curses. Oh, by the way, let me deliver Peter from a false tribe. There are some who feel that Peter acted like an immature, angry sailor. No, oath and curses do not mean that. They mean something worse than that.
Peter was not foul mouthed that night that he denied the Lord. He took a solemn oath before God that what he said was true, and that's a whole lot worse than the language that comes out of a drunken tailor's mouth. He took a solemn oath and evoke God's curse on him if he were not sent in the truth. I do not know him. Now if you had done that, Would you count yourself a disciple of the man you had denied? And when a message came from those angels, through the women, to the disciples of our Lord Jesus, if you were Peter, would you count yourself as a recipient of that message?
You were Peter. And so the Lord made sure that the angels said to those women, Tell my disciples, And Peter, don't leave him out. Say, put yourself in the place of the disciples. You know how self-righteous we are and how hard we are and our brothers? Suppose you were one of those, that's the way who hadn't denied the Lord. You hear the story that's around of what Peter has done in the courtyard of the high priest. How would you feel about Peter? Boy, at least he didn't do that. That leaves ten of us, doesn't it? To prevent that, our Lord gets the word to these men.
I need to include Peter. What that must have meant to Peter when the word came back to the Lord's room last morning, tell my disciples, and don't you say anything about Peter. How thoughtful our Lord is. How thoughtful. Go tell my disciples and Jesus. I've just spent about eight weeks meeting twice a week with a man from India who is a Hindu, and we've been preparing Hinduism for Christianity. And as we get discussed Hinduism, this is just as an attempt to remove yourself from the mundane of everyday existence, enjoying yourself without any emotions, whatever to the great all in all.
I can't tell you how refreshing it is to deal with a real God who comes down into ordinary kitchen that every day lives. So tell my disciples in peace. In the third step in Peter's restoration, you learn in First Corinthians chapter fifteen, when Paul is listing the witnesses to the fact that Jesus Christ was alive, not dead, that he had been raised from the dead, he appeared also under Peter. I wish I knew what took place between the two of them when our Lord had that private audience with Peter after his resurrection. But that was the third step in Peter's restoration.
The fourth step is here in John chapter twenty-one. And I want to look at that in some detail. The circumstances we've already read. Seven of them had gone out fishing. And remember Peter was a professional fisherman. They had gone out that night. And they had, as they had before, fished all night, hadn't caught a fish. Now here they come back to the shore at dawn. In the first place these men are tired. They were not their fly casting all night. And I watched those fishing swallows, those up and down the coast of Carolina, just offshore.
And I watched those nests go over. but those nets were hauled in by a diesel engine. When these fishermen threw those nets over, they did it by hand. And when they pulled them in, they pulled them in by hand. And then they had been light enough when they were thrown over the first time dry, but they came in dripping wet. And that went on all night. Over the side of the boat, haul it in. Over the side of the boat, haul it in. Over the side of the boat, haul it in. All night long, they were dead tired. besides which they were thoroughly discouraged. They hadn't caught a thing. For me this in South Carolina years ago, I used to go fishing once in a while with a man who had that for his hobby.
I was almost going to say his vocation rather than his avocation, but it was supposed to be his avocation. I sometimes thought it was his vocation. And of course he always came back with loads of reports of what he had caught, except when I went with him. And no experienced fisherman likes to come back with an empty trail. You should have heard the excuses, the last of which is that I was living. But anyhow, here are these experienced fishermen.
They've worked all night, and all they've got are wet nets to show for it. And they're coming into shore empty-handed and thoroughly discouraged. And if you've been out working all night, you sure are hungry, aren't you? Now they're coming into shore, tired, discouraged, hungry. And our Lord has business to do with Peter. How are you going to handle it? Well, if one of us were handling it, and you see that boat telling you, hey, Peter, on the side, Peter. Our Lord, our Lord didn't do anything like that.
Not at all. He knew the condition Peter was in. And so while there was still a fishing regard. And I don't know how he got the fish or where he got the bread. But he took time to build a fire. and let it burn down the hot cold. The bread was not going to be smoked bread, and they weren't going to have smoked fish for breakfast. It took time. Imagine this. This is the resurrected Lord now. You talk about being a servant. Here he is in resurrection. Carefully doing that fire, letting it burn down so there's nothing but hot cold, no smoke, hot cold, And he's got the fish, all cleaned, laid out over the fire, hot bread, and it's all ready for them when they come in.
He's got something else for them. As they're coming into the story, he says, Have you got anything? What is his mission? If there's anything you don't want to ask a fisherman who's coming back empty-handed, Did you catch anything? But he says, did you catch anything? And then say, no. And they're not sure who this man is on the shore. And they don't know anything about the breakfast waiting for them. But he says to them, put the net down on the right side of the boat. And they put it down. And they get a great cast of fish. And God's mind begins to work. three and a half years before.
They had been on this same sea of shallows, and they had been told to let down the net when they had caught nothing the night before. And they got such a big cat that it began to swamp the boat. Wait a minute, wait a minute. Do you know who that is on the shore? That's the Lord. If you read the Resurrection account, the accounts of the encounters of the disciples with our Lord after His resurrection, there is very often a hesitancy about their identification of Him. It's not quite the same as it was before His death and resurrection.
And if you look at the Resurrection account, there are such tremendous changes in our Lord's whole physical constitution that it must have affected his appearance to some degree. And they're not so ready with the identification that this is their beloved Jesus their Lord in Christ. But there were certain characteristics about him of attitudes and actions that never changed. Do you remember the two on the way to O'M? They didn't know who he was until he sat down at a table with them and acting as the host.
And I really don't think it was because they saw the nails, prints, and his hands. He acted as host and he gave thanks and broke the bread. And each of us has a characteristic way of doing things, doesn't he? And I think it's the way he did it and the way that he prayed. No two of us prayed exactly alike, and let's look at it and imitate each other. No two of us prayed exactly alike. And there was something about the way he did it that suddenly they realized who he was. And there was something about what our Lord told them to do that clicked in their minds with what had happened three and a half years before.
when he had called Peter and James and John to be disciples. That's when that miraculous draft first occurred. Here it is again. There's only one person we've ever known that could do something like that. That's got to be the Lord. Now that tells me something about recognition. I remember when I began to see this several years ago when I I went to a certain city in North Carolina as a priest where I, and I hadn't been there for fifteen years. Maybe more than that. And one thing astonishing was how much those people had aged in fifteen years. Of course, I'm sure they were thinking the same thing.
But some people would come up to me after the service and say, you don't know me, do you? And I would look at the face and I would say, no, I don't. And then they would start to talk or they would give a certain gesture. Oh, yeah, I know who you are. I know who you are. The future had changed in fifteen or forty years, but not the characteristics of speech and gesture, not the mannerisms. And I recognize them not by the way they look, but by the expressions of their personality. You asked me, will we recognize each other in heaven? Well, as one brother said, I don't hope, I don't expect to be more stupid than I am now.
I recognize you. Now I expect to recognize you there. But the recognition of our Lord I did it the same way. It's the characteristic of the nature of the man. And that's how they knew who he was. It's got to be the Lord. No one else is just like that. It's got to be the Lord. I shall know him. by the prince of the nail on his hand? No, indeed. No, indeed. I don't think so as to recognize him. No, indeed. You ever had anybody else that loved you the way he does? You ever had anybody else that has done for you what he has done for you?
You ever had anybody else who was as characteristically forgiving and kind and helpful as he is, and you're going to need male prince to recognize him? No, you won't. No, you won't. You're not going to need those. That isn't how they recognize him, and that's not going to be how we recognize him. Oh, of course, you're not going to need that. There's only going to be one there in the center. Of course, I realize that. But you're not going to need male prince to know who he is. Not a new one. But move in that. What had he done for us? They had been out all night and caught nothing.
Now what had he done? Given them far more than they would have caught if they had been catching fish all night. They had to bring the net through the water. that they dropped the boat into the shore. They couldn't get it into the boat. That's how heavy it was. Fifty-three fish. The only significant I know are the numbers that Seth tells me somebody counted them. And they couldn't get that many into the boat. And they thus carried it through the water. He rewarded them. He took away that discouragement.
That despair. before ever he taught the sheep. Hungry? Let's have some breakfast. And while you fellas are eating the first course that I've already prepared, bring some of those fish over and I'll get the second course on. You're going to have seconds. And that's what he did. While they were eating the first round, they eat all the cooking, it's going to be a second round for them. Isn't that cherry blue she got him? When he said the multitude, what do you read? They were all filled. Right? Sure. So you're getting seconds for breakfast. Now, can you think of anything more delightful as being alongside a lake shore early in the morning, and as you come ashore, here is the smell of breakfast cooking.
And all you have to do is sit down there beside that lovely sea with the water laughing at your feet, and be served breakfast. and be served by the risen Lord. How would you feel at that point? Huh? You just caught one of the biggest chances you've ever had in your life. Your stomach is full with good food. You couldn't eat another bite. You're relaxed. You're feeling good. Right? Then the Lord taught you to keep it from not until. Now ladies, when you take the family car out and you come back nine at the tender, or you get on to Gainesville and there's a fifty dollar hat in the window you just couldn't resist.
Well, I know you couldn't resist it, but let's say you did, you couldn't resist it when you come home. And the old ogre is sitting in the living room waiting for you. You leave that hat box in the trunk of the car locked. And don't you say a word about that vendor. You come in the house and you fix him a good meal. Now don't fix all your favorite dishes or he's going to get suspicious. But fix him a good meal. And when he is content and he's sitting back in the easy chair and he's telling you what a wonderful cook you are, then you tell him you have something you want to talk to him about.
That's how to do it. Sure. Now I know there's going to be some questions tomorrow when you start cooking supper for your husband, but anyhow. But when you're dealing with more serious questions than that, brethren, when a brother has fallen into sin you're going to restore him. That's the way the Lord did it. You don't go barging in with the accusation of his sins. I've discovered one thing in my own family, especially with my teenage kids.
When we're blocking horns, the way I saw that is I say, I want to say, hey, let's go have one together. And we'll go out, and there's not a word about the conflict between us. And we'll sit down and have a good lunch. It may bust the budget for the week, but we'll sit down and have a good lunch just before it. And then we're satisfied and feeling good. Then we get into the car and take a drive and start talking. And that's how our Lord ended here. How carefully, how graciously, how understandingly He worked with this man.
What a failure. What a failure. He didn't puss you on us like an angry bull in the town of John. How carefully he laid the groundwork for the talk of Peter. And then he took Peter off by himself. And I know it doesn't say that, but it's obvious that he did, because after he was through, Peter turned around and saw John following and said, what shall this man do? Now there's no way John could be following them unless they were walking. And our Lord took Peter away from the rest of the disciples and started to walk along the lakeshore with him. Isn't that a lovely setting to talk to me about restoration deserves?
I can almost see them arm in arm going along the lakeshore. Just the two of them. Now that does not mean he is not going to bring up the issue. But in that kind of a setting, it will be forthright and face to face. No. Peter, do you love me more than you? Isn't that what Peter had really said that night in Gethsemane? They all may forsake you. I'll never. I love you more than they do.
Peter? Do you love me more than you need? No comparison now. Lord, you know that I love you. Now, I'm not going to play on those two words for love. I mean, sometimes there's too many differences made between them because there's too many passages in the New Testament where they're obviously phenomenal. So I'm not going to play on those two words. Three times our Lord questions Peter. Do you love me? And let Peter search his own heart for that threefold denial in the high priest's courtyard. And at last Peter can't stand it any longer.
Lord, you know all things. You know that I love you. Do you see the effect of our Lord's prayer that his faith would not fail? Do you hear what Peter is saying? You know everything. And you know that I love you. Oh, I like that. I like that. Suppose our Lord had seen only the denial. Will you know that Peter loved me? No. But Peter says you know everything. You know more than what I did in the courtyard of the high priest.
What confidence in the Lord? He doesn't zero in on our sins to make clues of everything else. And I think that's what John means when he writes in that first epistle. If our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts than those all things. And when we are condemning ourselves, what are we zeroing in on? The sin that we committed, And everything else is blotted out. The only thing we can see is what we've done. God's vision is never that restricted.
He sees all things. And he knows that Peter's denial was the exception, not the rule of Peter's life. God is not that narrow-minded, nor is his vision that narrow. He sees the whole direction of our life. He knows where our heart truly is. And he understands what Paul is talking about in Romans seven. The evil that I would not, that I do.
But God sees that I would not. Deep down in my heart, no, Lord, I would never sin against you. But sometimes I am weak in the conflict and give in. But it's the evil that I would not. And he sees that. And he sees far more than Peter's denied. And Peter is confident of it. And our Lord's prayer has an answer that his faith fail not. I know the kind of Savior you are. And I know that you can see past my denial.
I know that you can see that I really love you. Now, Peter's restoration is complete. One more step. Each time when our Lord questions Jesus, he says, Ten my lands or feed my sheep. Do you see what our Lord is doing? He trusts Peter. The most valuable thing that Jesus Christ has on earth is putting into the care of Peter. He takes care of mercy.
Would you do that with a man like Peter? Or you would if you were the Lord, because he knows all things. What a restoration. Take care of my shoes. Our Lord trusted me. Now, lastly, I want to see just a little bit of how all this worked out. And we don't have time to read much in Peter's first epistle. But I want you to look at some passages. And by the way, perhaps tonight or some other time, you would like to read through first Peter, which I take to be an old man's reminiscency. Read through First Peter and write of what has happened to us.
And let's look at some expressions in First Peter chapter one and maybe we'll have time just to jump over to chapter five and take one or two expressions to. Here's Peter writing in verse three. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. By his great mercy we have been born anew to a living hope. through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. That could be translated to a life of hope. How, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Just suppose Jesus Christ had never been raised from the dead.
And the last time Peter had ever seen Jesus, the one who he really loved, was in Pilate's presence of the palace of the high priest, when having denied Jesus three times, now the Lord lives on him, and that's the last time Jesus would ever see him. I think if I were Peter, I'd be through this life. What gave him a life of hope? The resurrection of Jesus Christ. That risen Christ who met him would restore him. That's the one who filled his light, not with his care, but with hope. He longed.
He talks about an inheritance in verse four, which is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading. Trust in heaven for you, who by God's power are kept through faith. For a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Peter, I have prayed for you. that your faith shall not, kept by the power of God through faith. You and Peter didn't know what he was writing about. Now, we're going to have to go a little further down. And he talks about the trial of faith in verse six. Or did he know what the trial of faith was in those long hours when Jesus Christ was still in the tomb?
Do you think he didn't know what the trial of faith was? much more precious than that of gold. Look at verse eight. Without having seen him, we love him. What do you think Peter's response was, in those hours when the body of Christ was still in his room? Did he love that Savior? After those three and a half years, how could he do anything else? Without having seen him, we loved him. And though we do not see him now, we believe in him, and rejoice with unutterable and exalted joy."
Where do you get that? The resurrected Christ. Now there are a number of passages that touch me deeply in this epistle that I think about people who talked about suffering for Christ's sake. Counting it happy if you are persecuted for Christ. That must have sung him bitterly as he wrote it, as he thought back in his own failure to suffer for Christ that night in the high priest's courtyard. But he writes that. But I want to come over to chapter five. Verse one. So I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as of the taper and the glory that is to be revealed. Ten, the flock of God, says Enoch, shall.
not by some strength but willingly, not for shameful gain but eagerly, not as domineering over those, and if you think Peter could ever domineer again, they all but not I. You think he could ever do that again? No. Not as domineering over those in your charge, but the example to the flock. And when the chief shepherd is manifested, you will obtain the undating crown of glory. Verse six, humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that in due time he may exalt you, cast all your anxieties on him, for he cares about you.
Do you think after that incident, those incidents of the resurrection, care that Jesus Christ took in reaching this man, that Peter could ever doubt that he cared about him? Or, as a paraphrase has it, you are him, personal concern. And Peter could never doubt that. He was the Lord's personal concern. And so are you. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, for being such a gentle, yet truthful shepherd, Being righteously, yet so graciously, we bless you and praise you tonight.
And like Peter, we rejoice because your resurrection has filled our life with hope.