John 21:22 Jesus said to him, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!”

Good morning, Grace Church. It is a providential gift from God that we are at a point in John’s Gospel that allows us to lock in on Jesus’ call to follow Him as we prepare to celebrate His coming.

To that end, I wonder how many of you realized that the call to “Follow Me” is one of the very first (1:39, 43) and last (21:22) things Jesus said in John’s Gospel. I don’t want to make more of that than I should, but I also don’t want to make less of it.

To make too much of it would be to assume that’s all there is to John’s Gospel. But to make too little of it would be to miss the fact that in a very real way, John did mean for us to read everything in between as unpacking what Jesus meant by “Follow Me”. And in a very real way, that’s at the heart of the rest of the Gospels along with the rest of the Bible as well. Not to make too much of it though.

And in that way, as I mentioned in the last two sermons, following Jesus is one way to describe the essence of the Christian life. To be a non-Christian is to have rejected the call to follow Jesus and to be a Christian is to have accepted it.

But what exactly does that mean? Answering that question is the heart of this sermon. That is, the main focus of this sermon is unpacking Jesus’ words to Peter, “You follow me!”. Once again, therefore, the big idea of this passage is that following Jesus is the primary call on all of our lives. And the main takeaway, therefore, is to learn what it means to follow Jesus and to do so in faith.

Before I pray, let me encourage you to consider all of this carefully as we move closer and closer to Christmas. As I hope to help you see, the significance of Christmas—it’s meaning, purpose, and aim; the reason it’s worth celebrating—is tied up in Jesus’ simple words, “Follow Me.” If Christmas is worth celebrating, it’s because we’ve already decided to follow Jesus.

Once again, one way to talk about the heart of the Christian life, about what it means to be a Christian, is in terms of following Jesus.

This idea first began to crystalize in my mind many years ago when, as a newer pastor, I was wrestling through how to tell others what the Bible says about what it really means to be a Christian and to live as Jesus intends.

Many people, when they think of Christianity, think of all kinds of things like belief in God and Jesus and the cross and forgiveness and going to church and reading the Bible and pastors and saying prayers and following rule

s and Christmas and Easter and going to heaven. However, as I hope to help you see, while each of these things do have a place in Christianity, they can only be properly understood under the umbrella of following Jesus.

The first thing I want to do in the way of explaining and defending this idea is to help you see that Jesus’ first call on the lives of His first followers was, “Follow me”. For example…

Jesus calling Simon and Andrew – Matthew 4:18-19 While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. 19 And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

Jesus calling Matthew – Matthew 9:9 (Mark 2:14; Luke 5:27) As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him.

Jesus calling Phillip – John 1:43 The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, ” Follow me.”

Jesus calling an anonymous “disciple” – Matthew 8:21-22 (Mark 1:17) Another of the disciples said to him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” 22 And Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.”

Jesus calling anyone – Matthew 16:24 (Mark 8:34) … “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

Jesus calling a young man – Matthew 19:16-21 (Mark 10:21, Luke 18:22) And behold, a man came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” … 21 Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”

Jesus calling another anonymous man – Luke 9:59 To another he said, “Follow me.”

I wonder if you’ve ever considered how prevalent that call really is. For some reason, we don’t often talk like that when we talk about living out the Christian life, so it might be a bit of a surprise to find out that Jesus’ initial invitation to people was never to ask Him into their heart or pray the “sinner’s prayer”. It was simply, “follow Me.”

More than just the initial call, though, “Follow Me” was Jesus’ continued call. That is, for Jesus, it not only defined the beginning of the Christian life, but it also defined the continued Christian life.

Matthew 10:37-38 (Luke 9:23) Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

John 10:27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

John 12:26 If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also.

After years of following Jesus, Jesus’ call to Peter remained the same – John 21:19 [Jesus] said to [Peter], “Follow me.” And again in v.22, our passage for today “You follow me!”

To be sure, Jesus called His followers to repent (Matthew 4:17), believe (Mark 5:36), have faith (Mark 11:22), love (Matthew 22:36-39), glorify God (1 Corinthians 10:31), etc. However, these, and all the other callings that Jesus issued are contained in the two simple words, “Follow Me.”

Indeed, Jesus main call on the lives of His first followers—from beginning to end—was, “Follow me”.

I hope it’s easy to see that during Jesus’ earthly ministry, His main call to everyone, from beginning to end, was “Follow Me.” But how about today? How does that relate to us now? The rest of this sermon is meant to help you see two things: (1) The essence of Christianity is still a call to follow Jesus and (2) How to respond.

This means, once again, that Jesus did not then, and does not today, merely or primarily call people to believe that there is a God or pray a certain prayer or to come to church a certain number of times each week or to read a certain number of verses in our Bibles each day or to stop doing bad things or even to believe certain true things.

Instead, He primarily calls us to follow Him with all that we have and all that we are; to follow Him wherever He leads and whatever it costs; to follow Him by becoming like Him in His life and in His death; to be reconciled to the Father by following Him; to inherit eternal life by following Him.

During Jesus’ time on earth, the call was literal. He was actually calling people to live and minister with Him. It was more than that, but it wasn’t less than that. But what does it mean today? And how do we begin?

While we believe the Bible teaches that the essence of Christianity—beginning to end—is following Jesus, we also believe that the Bible talks about this as a sort of two-part journey: (1) Following Jesus to the cross and (2) Following Jesus from the cross to eternal life.

Let’s begin at the beginning. If you hear the call to follow Jesus and want to respond, what does that mean? Where do you start? Likewise, if you want your neighbor or friend or kid to follow Jesus, where do they begin? There are not multiple answers to this question. There are not several starting points. Everyone, always, begins in the same place.

The primary call on all our lives is to follow Jesus and this call, for everyone, always begins at the cross. If we are to follow Jesus, we must begin by meeting Him at the cross. And the road to the cross begins with an understanding of who God is.

In the most fundamental sense, God is infinitely glorious; that He is supremely and unendingly and inexhaustibly beautiful, majestic, powerful, praiseworthy, splendid, fierce, mighty, wise, and good! The Bible is filled with passages that speak to this.

Nehemiah 9:5-6 “Stand up and bless the LORD your God from everlasting to everlasting. Blessed be your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise. 6 “You are the LORD, you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and you preserve all of them; and the host of heaven worships you.

Romans 11:33-36 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! 34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” 35 “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” 36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

Psalm 29:1-10 Ascribe to the LORD, O heavenly beings, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength. 2 Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness. 3 The voice of the LORD is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the LORD, over many waters. 4 The voice of the LORD is powerful; the voice of the LORD is full of majesty. 5 The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars; the LORD breaks the cedars of Lebanon. 6 He makes Lebanon to skip like a calf, and Sirion like a young wild ox. 7 The voice of the LORD flashes forth flames of fire. 8 The voice of the LORD shakes the wilderness; the LORD shakes the wilderness of Kadesh. 9 The voice of the LORD makes the deer give birth and strips the forests bare, and in his temple all cry, “Glory!” 10 The LORD sits enthroned over the flood; the LORD sits enthroned as king forever.

Sunsets, mountains, and newborn babies, along with certain paintings, books, musical compositions, and roller coasters are glorious (they are not ordinary, plain, common, dull, etc.), but their glory (and the glory of all created things) is contingent (meaning, it is wholly dependent on something else [God] for any glory that it has) and finite (meaning, it has not always existed and, at some point, will cease to exist).

God’s glory, however, is original and infinite.

Following Jesus starts with believing in this God, this infinitely glorious God, and not one of our own creation.

Many people throughout history have gone to great lengths in seeking out purpose and meaning for their lives. Practices such as pilgrimages, meditation, medication, education, religion, aestheticism, service, prayer, and numerous other things have been used by countless men and women as means to discover a sense of personal or universal significance.

Because God alone is God, however, He alone has the right to assign our purpose. The second aspect of following Jesus to the cross means accepting the purpose God has assigned us: To glorify God. God is infinitely glorious and He made us for His infinite glory.

We see this idea in passages like Isaiah 43:1-7 and 1 Corinthians 10:31.

Isaiah 43:1-7 But now thus says the LORD, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. 3 … I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. …. 5 Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you. 6 I will say to the north, Give up, and to the south, Do not withhold; bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth, 7 everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.”

1 Corinthians 10:31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

That we were created by God for His glory means that it is not up to us to go out and determine whether or not our lives have purpose or meaning. It means that it is not up to us to go out and determine what that purpose and meaning is. It means that every fiber of our being must be directed at the glory of God.

Practically, we do so by delighting in God (Psalm 37:4), obeying God (1 John 5:3), reflecting God’s glory to others (Mark 16:15), fighting against sin (1 Corinthians 6:18-20), trusting God (Psalm 4:5), loving God with everything that we have (Matthew 22:37), eating and drinking with gratitude (1 Corinthians 10:31), etc.

In short, you and I follow Jesus and live for the glory of God when we see God for who He truly is and respond as He has called us to.

The next step in following Jesus to the cross is in coming to realize that everyone has sinned and failed to live for the glory of God.

It doesn’t take tremendous insight to recognize the fact that there is a great deal of injustice and immorality in this world. All around us marriages are falling apart because of the unfaithfulness or indifference of a spouse, families are being torn apart because of addiction, government corruption is assumed, corporate greed seems insatiable, and even churches are filled with strife because of gossip, pride, a lack of self-control, and other more “respectable” sins. It’s easy to see that we are imperfect and that we live among imperfect people.

Sin, however, runs deeper than mere imperfection. Sin, in its most basic sense, is rebelling against God by failing to live for God’s glory in any way. This means that every time we fail to recognize the glory of God and respond to it as we should, we are sinning (Romans 14:23).

Romans 3:10-17 As it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” 13 “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” 14 “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” 15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 in their paths are ruin and misery, 17 and the way of peace they have not known.”

A bit later, in that same passage (Romans 3:23) Paul continues, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” By that, Paul meant that every one of us has inherited sin from our parents and that every one of us has made sinful choices. That is, we are all sinful by nature and choice.

Truly, none of us have done that which we were created to do. That is, every one of us has sinned by failing to glorify God as we should. We have exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator (Romans 1:25).

To be a Christian is to follow Jesus. And to follow Jesus is to believe that God is infinitely glorious, that we were made for His glory, and that we have all fallen short of God’s glory.

All of that forces us to consider the consequences of our sin. What difference does it make that we’ve fallen short of the glory of God?

Simply, the straightforward and unambiguous teaching of the Bible is that sin kills.

We see this for the first time in the very beginning of the Bible when God told Adam and Eve that if they sinned they would “surely die” (Genesis 2:17). The Bible never waivers on this. Millenia later, the Apostle Paul declared, “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).

The death spoken of in Genesis and Romans is both physical and spiritual—body and soul. And when those two things are combined, fullness of death—hell—is the just end.

Rightly understood, the Biblical teaching on hell is rather shocking. The claim that all (young and old, cute and ugly, talented and useless, black and white, smart and dumb, religious and secular, male and female alike) have sinned and thus deserve hell is a very serious claim, with very serious implications.

Not to state too obvious a point, but this is really bad news. In fact, it’s far worse than you or I could ever imagine.

Hell is where God pours out His holy and righteous wrath on sinners. You know that you are being punished, you know that you deserve it, and you know that it will last forever. No one describes this better than Jonathan Edwards:

It is EVERLASTING wrath. It would be dreadful to suffer this fierceness and wrath of Almighty God one moment; but you must suffer it to all eternity. There will be no end to this exquisite horrible misery. When you look forward, you shall see a long for ever, a boundless duration before you, which will swallow up your thoughts, and amaze your soul; and you will absolutely despair of ever having any deliverance, any end, any mitigation, any rest at all. You will know certainly that you must wear out long ages, millions of millions of ages, in wrestling and conflicting with this almighty merciless vengeance; and then when you have so done, when so many ages have actually been spent by you in this manner, you will know that all is but a point to what remains. So that your punishment will indeed be infinite. Oh, who can express what the state of a soul in such circumstances is.

Hell is real and it is awful and it is eternal and it is the wage that God has assigned to sin. Please cry out to God, Grace, begging Him to grant you the ability to recognize the absolutely horrible reality of hell. Please call on God to grant you the ability to believe the Word of God regarding hell. And please ask God to help you understand that following Jesus to the cross means coming to accept the Biblical teaching on the wages of sin and the reality of hell.

Following Jesus to the cross means believing that there is a God who is infinitely glorious, that God created us for His glory, that we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and that the wages for our sin is death.

These things help us understand and appreciate the cross of Jesus because they provide a stark and startling contrast between what we deserve and what we are offered. In other words, if we don’t have a clear sense of the glory of God, the wickedness of our hearts, and the consequences for our sin, then we will not be able to grasp, much less delight in, the sacrificial death of Jesus.

Grace, Jesus came as a baby at Christmas to die as a man on a cross. We read of the crucifixion in John 19.

So they took Jesus, 17 and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. 18 There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them… 28 After this, Jesus… said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

What a horrific act for anyone to endure. But Jesus wasn’t just anyone. He was the perfect, sinless Son of God. The Christ God promised to send. Truly God and truly man.

We are sinners deserving death, but God sent Jesus to die in our place.

2 Corinthians 5:21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

1 Peter 3:18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit.

1 John 4:10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Romans 5:8 … while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

In order to show His love, uphold His justice, forgive sinners, and display His glory, God sent His Son, Jesus, to pay the wages of sin with His death.

Jesus was uniquely able to die for the sins of others because He was uniquely sinless and uniquely both human and divine. Conceived by the Spirit, Jesus did not have a sinful nature (Matthew 1:18-23). And having lived a perfect (or sinless) life, Jesus did not earn the wages of sin for himself (Hebrews 4:15). For those reasons, He had no death penalty of his own. Further, being fully man he was able to pay for the sins of man (Romans 5:15). And being fully God he was able to pay for all the sins of man (John 1:1). Again, what a glorious thing is the cross and the Son of God who died on it in our place.

Simply put, the cross of Jesus combines the love and the justice of God to bring about the forgiveness of sinners in a way that put His glory on display like never before. Following Jesus means believing this by God’s grace.

So far we’ve traveled quite a path on our way to following Jesus to the cross. We began by standing in awe at the nature of God (infinitely glorious), moved on to consider the purpose of mankind (to glorify God), grieved together as we discussed the problem of all mankind (sin), mourned together because of the wages of sin (death), and then paused to marvel at God’s solution to our sin problem (the cross of Christ).

The primary question in front of us at this point is how we gain access to all that Jesus accomplished on the cross. What does following Jesus look like at this point? What does He require of us to benefit from His sacrifice?

Ephesians 2:1-9 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins…4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ … 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

In short, the forgiveness of sins and the everlasting life bought by Jesus’ death is a free gift of God for all who trust (or place their faith in) in Jesus. That is, we are saved by hoping in what Jesus already did for us.

This means that God does not save us based on our own merit or performance. God does not determine who goes to heaven by our “religious deeds” or how we measure up against anyone or anything else. He does not forgive us and grant us eternal life because we’ve cleaned ourselves up enough or worked hard enough. Instead, God saves, as an undeserved gift, those who put their hope entirely in Jesus—confessing our sin and believing in His name. Following Jesus means accepting this amazing Grace.

The immediate result of trusting in Jesus is the forgiveness of our sins and reconciliation with God. The ultimate end, which comes when we die or Christ returns, is eternal life. But what does that mean?

Hell is where God pours out His holy and righteous wrath on sinners. You know that you are being punished, you know that you deserve it, and you know that it will last forever. Heaven, on the other hand, is where God pours out his holy and righteous blessing on those who trust in Jesus. You know that you are being blessed, you know that you don’t deserve it, and you know that it will last forever. Indeed, heaven is every bit as awesome as hell is awful.

Let us again listen to the words of Jonathan Edwards whose description of heaven is perhaps unequaled as well.

They shall know that God and Christ shall be forever with them as their God and portion, and that his love shall be continued and fully manifested forever… And they shall know that they themselves shall ever live to love God, and love the saints, and to enjoy their love in all its fullness and sweetness forever. They shall be in no fear of any end to this happiness, or of any abatement from its fullness and blessedness, or that they shall ever be weary of its exercises and expressions, or cloyed with its enjoyments, or that the beloved objects shall ever grow old or disagreeable, so that their love shall at last die away. All in heaven shall flourish in immortal youth and freshness. Age will not there diminish anyone’s beauty or vigor; and their love shall abide in everyone’s heart, as a living spring perpetually springing up in the soul, or as a flame that never dies away. And the holy pleasure of this love shall be as a river that is forever flowing clear and full, and increasing continually … Everything in the heavenly world shall contribute to the joy of the saints, and every joy of heaven shall be eternal. No night shall settle down with its darkness upon the brightness of their everlasting day.

Breathtaking isn’t it?! Heaven is the great hope of, and promise to, everyone who trusts in Jesus. Heaven is the place where believers are forever in the presence of almighty, infinitely glorious God. In heaven we are able to see Jesus face-to-face. In heaven God pours out all His strength to bless His children. Heaven will be a never-ending, ever-increasing discovery of the glory of God and the joy that is found in it. In heaven, there will be no darkness, for God is its light (Revelation 21:25). In heaven there will be no more sickness or sadness, for God will wipe it all away (Revelation 21:4). In heaven there will be no more unmet needs or desires, for God will fully and eternally satisfy us. Heaven will be beautiful beyond our imagination. In heaven our fellowship with all the saints and with the Father, Son and Spirit will be eternally uninterrupted. Heaven will be a place of complete satisfaction and joy. Heaven truly is every bit as awesome as hell is awful.

Grace-enabled belief in these things, trusting in them with all you are, is the beginning of following Jesus. It is what it means to follow Him to the cross. It is what it means to be a Christian and is the start of the Christian life.

Our purpose in life is to glorify God by following Jesus. Following Jesus begins at the cross and ends in eternal life. But one of the most important questions we need to ask is: What happens in the meantime—in the time between first believing in the gospel and going to heaven? The answer is, once again, following Jesus.

Once, by the grace of God, we’ve followed Jesus to the cross in faith, the rest of our time on earth is spent continuing to follow Jesus in faith, by the grace of God. But what does that mean?

To really answer that question would take another sermon altogether. In short, it means growing to love what Jesus loves, hate what He hates, think what He thinks, feel what He feels, and do what He says.

It does not mean having everything figured out, being perfect, or never messing up. Following Jesus from the cross means being in the Holy Spirit initiated and led process of becoming more like Jesus. We are forgiven based on Jesus’ righteousness (following Him to the cross) so that He can begin filling us with a righteousness of our own (following Him from the cross).

But what does that mean? The best way I know how to summarize the answer to that question is this: Following Jesus from the cross to eternal life means being transformed by the Holy Spirit to the point that we are increasingly:

Because we’re born into sin, we’re born with all kinds of distorted understandings of who God is, who we are, and what God wants from us. Following Jesus from the cross begins with asking God to change that, to help you begin to rightly understand God and His Word. To this end, Jesus prayed, “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth”.

The very nature of being made in God’s image means we love and worship. We can’t not. At the same time, because sin corrupts, we’re born loving and worshiping wrong things in wrong ways. Following Jesus means having both rightly tuned to God by the Spirit and the Word of God.

The other side of the coin of following Jesus by loving God with all we have is receiving His love and turning that back on everyone we meet. That’s why the second greatest commandment (according to Jesus) is to “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Following Jesus from the cross means growing in Christ-like love for others.

Fourth (of seven), in following Jesus we become a part of His people, His family, and in a sense, His body. This is why the Apostle Paul wrote, “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it” (1 Corinthians 12:27). One of the primary ways we follow Jesus in loving people, therefore, is by using our God-given gifts to build them up in faith and allowing them to use theirs to build us up.

Next, and with a good deal of overlap, following Jesus means being transformed from the inside out. Before following Jesus, our hearts were set only on the flesh; on worldly desires. In following Jesus, though, the Holy Spirit begins to bear a new kind of fruit in our hearts; the fruits of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).

Sixth, following Jesus means having our priorities flip-turned-upside-down. For Christ-followers the first are last and the greatest are servants of all. With increasing gladness, we increasingly look to bless others in Jesus’ name and endure whatever suffering and persecution comes because of it.

Finally, and connected to all of this, whether we know it or not, we are all completely dependent on God. Following Jesus does not mean becoming dependent on God, therefore, but finally recognizing that we have always been, so that we can live consistently with that reality. That’s why Jesus declared in an unqualified way, “Apart from me you can do nothing.” And that’s why we pray and fast regularly.

The primary call on all of our lives is to follow Jesus. There are two key aspects to Jesus’ call. The first aspect, or starting point, of following Jesus is following Him to the cross. This means receiving and believing the gospel—the good news that Jesus died to save us. And again, the second aspect of following Jesus is living the new life that Jesus purchased for us at the cross from now until eternal life is ours. This means trusting in God while fighting with all that we have in the strength He gives to become more like Jesus.

In conclusion, I want to offer a brief thought as a challenge and as an encouragement. For much of my life I could not articulate any of the points of the gospel (what it means to follow Jesus to the cross) or describe with any clarity a biblically acceptable response to the gospel (what it means to follow Jesus from the cross). I had vague concepts of both, but nothing approaching a firm grasp on the whole. I (mostly without thinking) lived my life on my terms and for my own purposes. While I did not knowingly disbelieve any of the tenants of the gospel, I certainly did not accept any of them either. I was not trusting in Jesus for the forgiveness of my sins and yet I always believed that I would go to heaven when I died.

I mean this little biographical sketch to challenge the notion that feeling safe about your eternity has anything to do with where you’re going to spend your eternity. I’d guess that most people in hell were surprised to find themselves there.

And I mean this as an encouragement because if God can capture the heart and mind and soul of a selfish, prideful, wretched, sinner like me, after two decades of ignorance and defiance, He can save anyone. It is not too late to follow Jesus to the cross and be saved. That’s why Jesus came at Christmas. That’s why John wrote his Gospel—”that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” And if you will follow Jesus to the cross in this way, He will keep you following Him forever. He will make you like Him and He will bring you to be with Him in eternal life.

John 21:20-23 Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them, the one who also had leaned back against him during the supper and had said, “Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?” 21 When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, “Lord, what about this man?” 22 Jesus said to him, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!” 23 So the saying spread abroad among the brothers that this disciple was not to die; yet Jesus did not say to him that he was not to die, but, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?”

Two of the harder aspects of my job are starting and finishing preaching through a book of the Bible. Starting is hard because it takes an exceptional amount of work and thought and prayer to get my head around the whole of the book—which is a prerequisite to handing any of it well. And finishing is hard in a way that is similar to having a child graduate and move out—it’s hard to overstate the emotional, spiritual, and chronological investment it takes to make it through an entire book (especially one like John). If anything, it’s an underestimate to say that I’ve spent well over 1000 hours of my life in John’s Gospel since I began. That’s over 40 full days of feeling the weight of being responsible to rightly preach the Word of God to the people of God.

At the exact same time, however, spending thousands of hours preparing to and preaching through whole books of the Bible is by far one of the most rewarding aspects of being a pastor as well. What a gift it is to be able to sit in the very words of God, day after day, year after year, experiencing God’s presence and grace through them, being continually reshaped by them, and then sharing them with a people I love. I do wish there were some way you all could experience the same thing.

With that, as you can tell, we’re almost done in John and it’s now official that I’ll be preaching through Ecclesiastes next. I’d encourage you all to begin reading through Ecclesiastes over and over. As you do, I’d also encourage you all to pray through it, asking God to help you understand it, in order that you might be duly transformed by it. One more thing…make a list of everything that stands out—questions, observations, encouragements, etc—and teach your kids to do that as well.

And with that, let’s go back to John for one of our last times.

In chapter 19, John records Jesus’ crucifixion. In chapter 20, John tells of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead and His resurrection appearances to many of His followers. Throughout chapter 21, John continued recounting Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances, interactions, and teaching. In the first 14 verses of 21 (which Pastor Colin preached on two weeks ago), Jesus found several of His disciples at the tail end of an unsuccessful all-night fishing trip. In two remarkable acts, Jesus miraculously filled their nets with fish and kindly provided a beach-breakfast for His exhausted friends.

At some point during the course of the early morning meal, Jesus pulled Peter aside in order to restore and recommission him. Jesus restored Peter from his three-times denial of Jesus and recommissioned him to provide pastoral/shepherding care for Jesus’ followers.

In our passage, Jesus and Peter were still talking, but this time Peter noticed someone listening in. In the course of this ongoing dialogue, we find four clarifications (who was following them, what was he doing, what difference did it make to Peter, and—back on the subject of death—when would the following man die). In the clarifications we find a number of important applications for us as well.

In all of that, we’ll see that the big idea of this passage is that following Jesus is the primary call on all of our lives. The main takeaway, therefore, is to follow Jesus.

As I mentioned, the bulk of the passage answers questions that are asked (or at least implied) in the passage. That is, Peter wonders about and Jesus clarifies four different things.

As we dive in, I can’t help but to wonder how many times have you may have wished you could get Jesus to clarify things for you in real-time like this.

Jesus, I’m not sure how to help this person. What do I do?

Jesus, how do I honor you with this diagnosis or ailment or disability or loss or difficulty?

Jesus, why is it so hard for me to know what to do with myself? And when I do know what to do, why is it so hard to stay on task? Would you help me?

Jesus, I’m having trouble understanding what your Word means. I’m trying, but I just can’t seem to figure it out. How do I live it out faithfully when I’m not sure if I have it right?

Jesus, my kids are out of control or money is tight or my marriage is hard or it’s hard not being married or my job is oppressive or I’m lonely or …

On one hand, of course, we don’t have the same exact experience as Peter did in this moment. On the other and more important hand, however, we have something better (Jesus told us this explicitly—John 15:26). We have the Spirit in us and the completed Bible. Along those lines, one of the most important biblical truths you can learn is that the Word and Spirit of God are living and active (Hebrews 4:12). That means we really are talking to Jesus when we pray and He really is talking to us when we read His word.

In other words, in this passage, in His willingness to answer Peter’s questions and explain things to him, we have a remarkable example of Jesus’ kindness and patience on display. But equally significant is the fact that you and I have even greater access to Jesus’ kindness and patience today. Talk to Jesus, therefore, in prayer, knowing that He hears you even more fully than any person in this room can. And read His Word, therefore, knowing that in it, He is speaking to you with more insight and intimacy than anyone in this room can.

With that, the first (kind and patient) clarification is found in v.20. It’s not clear exactly where Jesus and Peter were in relation to the other disciples as they talked, but it is clear that someone had crept up towards them while they did.

20 Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them, the one who also had leaned back against him during the supper and had said, “Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?”

The key to this clarification concerns John’s descriptions of himself. As both the narrator/interpreter of the story and a participant in it, John presents himself both anonymously and intimately present. Never once did he mention himself by name while he consistently described himself at the center of the main events of Jesus’ life and ministry. John wanted to be simultaneously non-distracting from the story and clear on the fact that he was eminently qualified to tell the story. Both show up in his choice of monikers.

His main self-designation is “the beloved disciple” or “the disciple whom Jesus loved” (13:23, 19:26, 20:2, 21:7, 20). In this passage and the next, he added two more descriptions to even further enhance his anonymity and qualification.

In v.20, he highlights not only that he is (familiarly) “the disciple whom Jesus loved,” but also that he is the “one who also had leaned back against [Jesus] during the supper and had said, ‘Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?’” John described himself as the one who was privileged to sit nearest to Jesus, to lean on Him, and to have His ear.

In a similar manner, as we’ll see in v.24, he said of himself, “This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things, and who has written these things, and we know that his testimony is true.” He was the one witnessed the things he’d written about from such an inside perspective that “we know that his testimony is true.”

Again, in writing his Gospel, John determined to remain anonymous throughout the entire Gospel, while simultaneously revealing that there was, perhaps, no one more qualified to tell and interpret this story of Jesus.

Who did Peter see when he turned around during his walk with Jesus? He saw John, the author of this Gospel. Why is that significant? It’s significant in that it meant that John was constantly nearby as an eye/earwitness to the things he wrote about. Why was he so close? Because he was loved and trusted by Jesus. Why does that matter? It matters because it means we can trust that what he wrote was true and that it was written for the glory of Jesus.

In coming to recognize all of this from Jesus’ first clarification, from v.20, we are able to better recognize and receive John’s Gospel as the remarkable gift from God that it is. It is no small kindness that Jesus allowed John to walk so near Him, in such love, so that He might record and interpret the most important benefits in all history for our benefit.

Are you rightly grateful? Do you rightly thank God for this? Do you read it as you should—eagerly, confidently, transformationally, obediently—consistent with what it is—the account of a man inspired by the Holy Spirit to write of things he personally witnessed at the side of the Son of God who loved him dearly?

The Gospel of John is an awesome gift from God to us. John’s first clarification—a description of himself—helps us to see that more clearly than ever.

The second main clarification is found in the next verse.

21 When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, “Lord, what about this man?”

There are two things I’d like to point out from this. The first concerns the relationship between Peter and John. In a way that is fairly unique from the other Gospels, John consistently paints himself and Peter as the two disciples closest to Jesus. They had (and would continue to have, as we’re about to see) different roles to play in furthering Jesus’ ministry. Likewise, John reveals that they had different personalities and gifts. And yet, once again, both men were constantly in Jesus’ inner-most circle; friends with Jesus and friends with each other.

There is very little that is sweeter than a good friend who helps spur you on in life and ministry. My first taste of this came as a new believer in college. As virtually everyone around me was partying and seeking other forms of worldly pleasure, my friends and roommates continually challenged me to go with them to share the gospel with other kids in the dorms, to go to prayer gatherings, to fight sin, and to spend time each day in God’s Word.

Dozens (hundreds?) of my classmates heard the gospel because my friends encouraged me to share it, I learned to experience and express my dependance on God through hours of corporate prayer at the prompting of my friends, I found and fought sin I didn’t even know was sin as a result of the exhortation of a few brothers in Christ, and I read through the Bible for the first time, slowly learning to understand it because I had good friends who patiently and persistently walked alongside me as an infant in the faith.

Likewise, fast forward 30 years (almost exactly), I was talking with Pastor Colin earlier in the week about this exact thing. My fellow elders (John, Matt, Mark, and Lord-willing Colin) are some of my best friends. And yet, our friendship is not very tied to that which makes up most friendships—shared hobbies or worldly interests. In a number of ways, the four (now five) of us couldn’t be a more different in personality and earthly pursuits. Matt is a musician in a way none of the rest of us are. Mark is a mechanic of grass and machine. I don’t think any of the rest of us have much of a clue about those things. John is a techy to the point that none of us even know what he does for a living or understand a single one of his t-shirts. We’re all still getting to know Colin, but he’s already brought more style to our preaching rotation than the rest of us combined.

In spite of all these differences, differences of a sort that generally keep guys like us from being good friends, we have a friendship that is much deeper than every other kind. That’s because it is based on something infinitely deeper—our mutual love for Jesus and His mutual call on our lives to feed His sheep (you all). We are better friends through a shared faith and engagement in shepherding ministry than we could ever be with those who merely share our recreational interests.

There is a unique joy and strength in good friendships. John and Peter seemed to share one.

The second thing I want you to see here flows from the first. Given their close relationship, their prominence in Jesus’ earthly ministry, that which Jesus had just revealed to Peter concerning His future, and the fact that Peter just spotted John following behind them, it was entirely natural for Peter to wonder about Jesus’ plan for John.

Peter had been specifically charged to provide an ongoing pastoral, shepherding role for Jesus’ followers. What’s more, he had been specifically promised that it would end in his own crucifixion. But what about John, Peter wondered? What were the particulars of his ministry and how would it end?

There’s a chance Peter’s question contained some lingering thoughts of comparison (implied somewhat in Jesus’ reply) (Would John’s ministry be superior to his? Would his death be more pleasant or noble?), but more than likely, he was mainly curious concerning the fate of his friend and close partner in ministry. Again, that’s part of the very definition of a good friendship—you care about Jesus’ plans for your friends.

Ask the Lord to burden you to pursue good friendships even if it’s easier to sit at home or find mere hobby-friends. Ask God to use you to forge friendships that are rooted in a shared belief in the gospel and a shared longing to share it with the world. Ask the Lord to help you love your friends well by caring as much about their faith as your own. Ask God to help you find more joy in a friendship with someone who has nothing other than the gospel in common with you than with someone who has everything else in common.

That fact that this is already happening here is one of my great joys. Let’s grow in that, Grace. Let’s intentionally cultivate good friendships, rooted in the gospel here.

The second clarification, Peter’s wondering about John’s fate, helps us to see these things.

The third clarification in this passage is found, once again, in the very next verse, v.22. In it, Jesus clarified the most important aspects of Peter’s question (“What about this man?”).

22 Jesus said to him, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!”

As I just said, Jesus’ reply might imply at least a hint of a misguided heart behind Peter’s question—that Peter was asking for more selfish/comparison reasons. If so, it’s a good lesson for us concerning the often-slow process of our sanctification. We might wish that God would instantly take away our sinful tendencies, but He has better, slower plans than that.

While that might be a part of this, much more significant is the fact that in it, Jesus revealed the heart of both what the Christian life isn’t and is.

Regarding what the Christian life isn’t, Jesus’ point was simple: Peter, along with every other follower of Jesus, was given a unique mission and fate for God’s glory and his good. That’s all he needed to worry about. We glorify God, not by doing what others do or by getting the same results as others, but by being faithful to God’s charge to us, by trusting in God’s promises to us, and by celebrating whatever fruit God has determined to bear through us.

We are not held accountable to someone else’s calling, according to someone else’s gifts, or in comparison to someone else’s results.

Therefore, Peter could only rightly worry about what Jesus had for John once he was first content with what Jesus had for him. Therefore, Jesus said, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?”

Regarding what the Christian life is, instead of worrying about others, Jesus said, “You follow me!”

What would you say if someone were to ask you: What is the very essence of being a Christian? Or: All the way at the bottom, what does it mean to be a Christian? Or: What is the Christian life in simplest terms?

The answer, I believe according to Jesus’ words (here and throughout the Gospels), is following Jesus. I’ll come back to this next week in detail, but for now see clearly the simple fact that before Peter could be rightly concerned for John, his ministry, his fate, or anything else, he needed to fix his eyes entirely on Jesus and determine to walk with Him no matter what happened to John or anyone else.

Jesus’ main response to Peter’s question about John was that everything and everyone else takes a back seat to following Me. There are no higher claims on your life, Peter. There are no higher pursuits. There are no greater concerns. Nothing else can come first in your mind or heart. There is not a single thing—no family need, no health concern, no leisure or vocational pursuit, no relationship, no act of service, no friendship, no nothing—that trumps the call to follow Me.

This is one way to understand many of the problems in the Church today—people claiming to be Christians who spend most of their time going to places Jesus never went and for reasons He never shared.

In this vein, there are many who believe themselves to be following Jesus while affirming sexual deviancy, attempting to redefine marriage, promoting abortion, and redefining the Church’s mission—things Jesus never condoned and repeatedly condemned. They tend to use the right terms (like justice, love, compassion, care for the vulnerable, etc.), but with definitions entirely contrary to Jesus’. The things they do to “follow Jesus” are actually going in the exact opposite direction to Jesus.

At the same time, and on the opposite end, there are many others, claiming to follow Jesus, invent new rules to bind people’s consciences, add to God’s Word things that are not there, live in ways that are entirely separated from and antagonistic toward those who are different from them, and speak a lot about a certain kind of sin while tolerating a different kind. They too often use the right words with the wrong meaning.

Both groups, and many in between, are willing to follow Jesus on certain parts of His path, but only on their terms. Both groups like the idea of following Jesus, but according to their own definitions. Both groups like doing things in Jesus’ name, but only after remaking Jesus in their own image.

Jesus, whether as a rebuke or merely a simple warning, addressed the entire spectrum of those who claim to be following Him, but really aren’t. Even if Peter’s concern for John was rightly motivated, Jesus made sure it was rightly ordered as well.

May we learn from this. May we take careful stock of whether or not we really are following Jesus in the ways we claim to be. Does His word really teach what we believe? Are our feelings about the sins of others, our corrective words, our methods of ministry, our _ really the result of following Jesus or of trying to get Jesus to follow us?

Finally, interestingly, John clarified a misinterpretation of Jesus’ answer to Peter’s question. Evidently, John or Peter repeated what Jesus said (in v.22) to others and they wrongly took it to mean that John would not die until Jesus’ second coming. Again, John corrected that faulty interpretation in v.23.

23 So the saying spread abroad among the brothers that this disciple was not to die; yet Jesus did not say to him that he was not to die, but, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?”

Peter was going to be persecuted to the point of crucifixion at some point before Jesus’ return. When Peter asked Jesus about John, as we just saw, Jesus said, in effect, “You don’t need to worry about it. Even if his end is the exact opposite of yours, trust me that it is for My glory and his good—just as your end is for you.

It was a hypothetical situation, not Jesus’ actual declaration of John’s fate. And yet, as we’re prone to do, those who later heard the report of this conversation wrongly interpreted it to mean that John would remain until Jesus came back.

John included this in his Gospel to dispel the idea which, evidently, persisted some thirty years later.

At the same time, as I said, he also included it to dispel the heart that produced the idea which persists in us today. That is, we too are frustratingly drawn to misinterpret the Word of God. Sometimes we do so knowingly, intentionally, and for our own purposes and sometimes we do so unknowingly, genuinely longing to honor Jesus, but failing to do so nevertheless. Either way, the consequences can be anything from frustrating to deadly.

Getting God’s Word wrong is frustrating when it causes us to live disordered lives.

For instance, genuinely believing Jesus taught that obedience to God always leads to financial gain and physical health is very frustrating when we lose our job or get sick.

Similarly, genuinely believing Jesus taught that well-meaning parenting always produces good, godly kids is very frustrating when it turns out that despite our good intentions, our kids wander.

Genuinely believing Jesus taught that God always answers the prayers of the faithful as they are prayed is very frustrating to those who do not get what they asked for.

And genuinely believing Jesus taught that you deserve to be happy in every moment of your marriage is genuinely frustrating with the sinner you married sins.

I’ve heard each of those things attributed to Jesus and from very frustrated people who don’t know what to do about their circumstances. Each of these situations involves someone who wrongly believes they rightly know the will of God. That’s hard to watch.

As bad as that is, getting Jesus’ words wrong can have consequences far worse than frustrating, they can also be deadly.

For instance, genuinely believing that Jesus accepts everyone on their terms, or that we can work our way into God’s favor, or that genuinely believing any of those things means that you are still stuck in your sin and that you’re going to hell when you die. That’s as deadly as it gets.

The forth and final clarification is that confidence in one’s understanding is not always correlated to the rightness of one’s understanding and that can be really frustrating, even eternally fatal.

In our passage, in the course of an ongoing conversation between Jesus and Peter, we saw four clarifications.

In John’s first clarification—a description of himself as anonymous and yet one of the closest, most beloved of Jesus followers—helps us to see that the Gospel of John is an awesome gift from God to us.

The second clarification, Peter’s wondering about John’s fate as an expression of his friendship with John, helps us to see the goodness of gospel-rooted friendships.

The third clarification helps us to see right to the very heart of what Christianity isn’t (anything before Jesus) and what it is (a grace-driven life characterized by following Jesus).

And the fourth thing John clarifies is that confidence in one’s understanding is not always correlated to the rightness of one’s understanding and that can be really frustrating, even eternally fatal.

In all of that, we’ll see that the big idea of this passage is that following Jesus is the primary call on all of our lives. The main takeaway, therefore, is to follow Jesus.

Next week we’ll do a deep dive into the nature of what it really means to follow Jesus.

John 21:15-19 When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, 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.” 16 He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.” 17 He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. 18 Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” 19 (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, “Follow me.”

I have three quick introductory notes I’d like to share.

First, I want to thank Colin for his sermon last week. It was a good reminder of the humanity and kindness of Jesus. It will be a real joy and blessing to have him here as our shepherd in the coming weeks.

Second, I want to thank Matt for his Ebenezer message. The twin ideas of murmuring being the opposite of thanksgiving and it being a good indication that something is wrong in our hearts has come up over and over in both my own mind and in conversation with others. It was simultaneously convicting and encouraging.

And third, let me encourage you to really embrace the advent season. To keep our eyes on the glory of the coming of God into the world as a man, means continually swimming against a stiff cultural current. Every day we are bombarded by ads, attitudes, shows, and traditions that seek to profit from the generic, largely secular “Christmas spirit,” rather than point us to the glories of the incarnation. And that’s only the things outside of us. Inside we are bombarded with selfishness, laziness, worldliness, and idolatry.

Jesus’ birth is something truly worth celebrating, more than almost anything else in our lives. But doing so (for all the reasons I just mentioned and more) requires intentionality, purpose, determination, and above all, God’s help.

We want to help with all of that. Practically, you’ll notice several “Advent Activities” mentioned in News and Notes and around the church. I encourage you to prioritize them as a means of tuning your heart. What’s more, we have the devotionals (and samples of more) on the back table. Take one and gather your family and friends around it each day. And, of course, by God’s design, each worship service is one of the most significant means of incarnation-appreciation grace available.

With that, we’re about to get back into John’s Gospel and Jesus’ continued revelation of His resurrected, glorified self to His disciples. The big idea of this passage is Jesus’ loving and gracious restoration and recommissioning of Peter. Jesus’ love for Peter led to His forgiveness of Peter, to Peter’s love for Jesus, and to Peter’s glad willingness to shepherd Jesus’ flock. The main takeaway for us is to receive Jesus’ love, to love Jesus above all, and to follow Jesus in loving ministry.

Let’s pray for this sermon and those yet to come in John (probably three more after this week) to be faithful to the text, life-giving, and Christmas-celebration-fuel to all who hear.

Jesus opens His restoration and recommissioning of Peter with a question that seems fairly simple on the surface, “Simon [Peter], son of John, do you love me more than these?” Before we come to the meaning of “these,” we need to begin with the fact that there ought to be no clarification which would change the answer. In other words, no matter what Jesus meant by “these” when asking Peter, “Do you love me more than these,” the answer ought to have been a resounding, emphatic, unhesitating, unwavering, unqualified, YES!

And so it is for us, Grace. When we are confronted with the question, “Do you love Jesus more than___,” we must not let the question finish before yelling, “Yes. Whatever it is, YES.”

It is what God requires, “What does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul” (Deuteronomy 10:12).

It is the greatest commandment, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37).

It is because Jesus is the greatest treasure, “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field (Matthew 13:44).

It is possible because God first set His love upon us, “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19).

Above all, God set His love upon us by sending His Son to save us, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

Because of these things, in a very real way, it must not matter what Jesus meant by “these”.

Do you love Jesus more than your stuff? Yes!

19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust[a] destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal” (Matthew 6:19-20).

Do you love Jesus more than your family and even your own life? Yes!

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26).

Ask the Lord to be gracious to you, Grace. Ask Him to fill you with ever-increasing love for Him, for setting your love upon Him is what you were made for. He is what you were made for. Our very nature is such that to love something higher than Jesus is to be perpetually unsatisfied. Our very nature is such that to love Jesus above all is the one and only place of true life and joy and peace and rest.

Do you love Jesus more than anything and everything? By the grace of God, more and more each day!

You may remember that in Pastor Colin’s sermon last week, he pointed out that Jesus cooked breakfast for several of the disciples after they’d spent the night fishing. John set the context for our passage by explaining that it picks up where that one left off, stating, “When they had finished breakfast…”.

More than likely, then, this is not a scene in which Jesus and Peter were off by themselves. More than likely, the disciples mentioned in 21:1-14 are still within earshot.

With that in mind, “Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?’”.

There are several possible things Jesus could have meant by “these.” The most likely, by most accounts, is that Jesus was asking Peter if he loved Him more than the rest of the disciples loved Him. “Peter, is your love for Me greater than their love for me?”

On the surface, it’s an odd question. But something important was happening here. Peter had denied Jesus after repeatedly making claims of a unique and superior devotion. Peter consistently spoke up first when it came to matters of obedience and commitment. Up to this point, Peter seemed to believe that his love for Jesus was greater than “these.”

For instance…

After a particularly difficult teaching, many who had been following Jesus turned back. Jesus asked the disciples if they were going to turn back too. It was Peter who replied, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (John 6:68).

When Jesus went to wash the feet of His disciples, Peter stood up among the disciples and said to Him, “You shall never wash my feet” (John 13:8). And when Jesus rebuked him for his obstinance, Peter instantly recanted, saying, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” (John 13:9).

When Jesus told the disciples that He was going away (to be crucified) and that they couldn’t follow, Peter again stood up among the disciples and said, “Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you” (John 13:37).

At Jesus’ arrest, it was Peter who “drew [his sword] and struck the high priest’s servant and cut off his right ear” (John 18:10).

And most clearly of all, although John doesn’t record it, the other three Gospels all tell of Peter’s reply to Jesus insisting that after His crucifixion His followers will fall away. To that accusation, Peter cried out, “Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away” (Matthew 26:33).

The point of all of this is the simple fact that Jesus seemed to be revealing to Peter that his love and devotion was not meant to be measured in comparison to the other disciples. The pride that led Peter to have done so previously was the same pride that led to his denials. By His question, Jesus was trying to root that out of Peter.

Peter’s love and devotion to Jesus was meant to be fully given to Jesus because Jesus was worthy, not because of how it stacked up against the others. (We get another version of this in the next passage when Peter asks about other disciples and Jesus rebuked him, commanding him to worry about his own faithfulness.)

In other words, Jesus was in effect asking Peter, “Did your triple denial of me humble you at all? Are you done with these comparison games? Are you ready to follow me in humble, loving, obedience regardless of what anyone else does? It doesn’t matter how much you love me in comparison to these. What matters is that you love me with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength.”

This idea is strengthened by the fact that Jesus only asked if Peter loved Him “more than these” one time (of the three). And it is further strengthened by the fact that each time Peter answered the question not by comparing his love to the others, but by simply saying, “Yes, Lord’ you know that I love you [not ‘more than these’]”.

Grace, learn from this—on both ends. Let none of us feel superior to others because God has been pleased to grant us (from our perspective) a greater measure of love or spiritual maturity. Instead, let us be filled with gratitude whenever we find any growing devotion in us, for every ounce of it comes from the grace of God alone. Let our maturity humble us, not fill us with pride.

Likewise, on the other end, don’t be envious of the spiritual maturity of others. God will not accept you on the basis of your maturity, much less on the basis of how your spiritual maturity measures up against someone else. You will be acceptable to God because you are united to Jesus in faith or not at all. You are accepted by God based on your trust in the merit of Jesus or you aren’t accepted; for no matter how your merit compares to others, it still falls infinitely short of the holiness God requires.

It is good to long to grow in your faith and to strive for it. It is even good to celebrate a greater measure of faith in others and to seek to imitate it. But all of that in a spirit of contentment in the measure of grace God chooses to give you and in glad trust in His perfect provision in Christ.

Regarding the form of Jesus’ questions (and Peter’s replies), a good deal has been made about the changes in vocabulary—both in Jesus’ and in Peter’s.

Initially, Jesus asked Peter, 15 …“Simon, son of John, 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.”

And then, immediately after, 16 He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.”

And again immediately after Jesus asked for a third and final time, 17 “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.

There are a few things to note from the three forms the Q&A took.

First, it’s not obvious in our English translations, but in the original, Jesus and Peter used different words for love in the first two exchanges. Jesus asked, “Do you love me,” using the Greek word “agapas”. Peter responded by saying that he did in fact love Jesus, but instead of “agapas,” he used the word “phileo”. The third time Jesus asked, however, the word Jesus used for “love” switched to match the word Peter used each time.

Some have suggested that Jesus was calling for a higher kind of love from Peter (agape; often referred to as divine love), but Peter was only willing to give a lesser kind of love (phileo; often referred to as brotherly love—like Philadelphia) and that Jesus showed His kindness and patience by accepting what Peter offered.

Almost certainly, we are not meant to read that into the text for the simple reason that both words are used interchangeably throughout the entire Gospel. John simply doesn’t use agape for divine love and phileo for brotherly love. He uses both words for both meanings.

For instance, both words are used to refer to the disciple whom Jesus loved. Both words are used to refer to the Father’s love for the Son. And both words are used for Jesus’ love for Lazarus.

The main point of this aspect of Jesus’ questioning and Peter’s response is that as Peter had denied Jesus three times, Jesus asked him to reaffirm his love for Jesus three times. Rightly understood, it was a loving gesture of restoration.

A second thing to note concerns Jesus’ changing vocabulary in the response He called for from Peter after each profession of love. The first time Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.” The second time He said, “Tend my sheep” (“tend” instead of “feed” and “sheep” instead of “lambs.”) And the third time it was different yet again, “Feed my sheep,” merging his first two instructions.

By changing His word choices, Jesus was probably stylistically highlighting a small amount of the scope of Peter’s charge (more on that in the next section). Lambs, younger sheep, possibly refers to younger believers while sheep refers to more mature Christians. And feeding possibly refers to providing spiritual nourishment while tending points to a broader, overall care.

Again, the main point, however, as we’ll consider in the next section, is simply that Jesus intended the primary expression of Peter’s humble love for Jesus to be a shepherding ministry among Jesus’ followers.

Finally, third, Peter qualified his answer to Jesus question in two important ways. All three times he did so with the phrase, “You know” (adding “everything”—“you know everything”—to the third) and once with an expression of grief.

15 …“Simon… do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.”

16 “Simon… do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.”

17 “Simon… do you love me?” … and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.”

In each of these responses, Peter rooted his answer in his certain knowledge that Jesus wasn’t on a fact-finding mission. Peter knew that Jesus knew the status of Peter’s devotion even better than Peter himself did.

Jesus’ questions were, once again, for Peter’s benefit, not Jesus’. This exchange was Jesus’ way of letting Peter know he was forgiven. Jesus asked Peter the same basic question three times, corresponding to Peter’s three denials. It’s as if with each subsequent question, Jesus was releasing Peter from each subsequent denial.

The other aspect of this was Peter’s grief. Again, in v.17, we read, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”. This time, for the first time, John tells us that “Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” We don’t know for sure the source of Peter’s grief. We hope that it was because he truly recognized the sinful weight of having denied Jesus not once, not twice, but three times. With each repetition of Jesus’ question, it’s possible that this reality hit home even harder.

This too is a lesson for us, Grace. Sin ought to grieve us. The most dangerous place in the world to be is in the place of indifference to rebellion against God. It is our job as followers of Jesus to call sin, sin wherever it is found. It is the highest form of a lack of love to allow someone to unknowingly walk in sin.

At the same time, the grace of God in Jesus ought to overwhelm us. The safest place to be in the world to be is in the cross-bought grace of God. Our job as followers of Jesus, therefore, is not merely to call sin, sin. It is also to announce the good news that every sin can be forgiven by grace, through faith in Jesus.

If Peter’s heart was rightly tuned, each of Jesus’ questions ought to have simultaneously increased his grief and his gratitude; his conviction and his comfort; his depth of remorse and his height of joy in his restoration.

And that leads straight to the next point, the heart of Jesus’ charge.

As I mentioned earlier, this whole exchange was meant to restore and recommission Peter. The restoring took the form of canceling out the three denials with three affirmations of love. And the recommissioning took the form of charging Peter to care for Jesus’ followers by carrying on the shepherding care that God had provided from the beginning.

As we’ve said many times at Grace, love is never a merely emotional experience or a stand-alone affection. It is always a fondness for someone (family, friend, neighbor, and enemy alike) that works itself out in practically seeking the best for that person.

The heart of Jesus’ charge was that Peter’s love for Jesus was meant to work itself out in walking alongside of other Christians, helping them grow as followers of Jesus—which is what is best for everyone.

To feed the lambs and sheep was to make sure they had the sustenance they needed to grow (the example, commands, and good news of Jesus). To tend them was a broader charge to watch out for their overall well-being.

This is a helpful definition of ministry and it is one we are all still meant to give ourselves to. This charge will play itself out a bit differently in all of us (based on our gifts and context), but it will play itself out in all of us. To love Jesus is to help other Christians grow in their faith.

It can be so easy to just give ourself to doing “Christian things” apart from any real sense of how they fit into anything. Jesus’ charge to Peter is a helpful plumb line. You must give yourself to ministry and your ministry must be measured off of the charge to tend to Jesus’ sheep.

So, Grace, are you intentionally, actively, and consistently engaged in helping others grow in their faith? If not, talk to your DG leader about how you can begin today. Hear Jesus’ words to Peter as the charge they are to you to engage in ministry as an essential aspect of your faith in Jesus.

Also, those of you who do a lot of “Christians stuff”, are you confident that your “Christian stuff” is properly aimed? Hear Jesus’ words to Peter as the refinement they are to you to make sure your ministry is defined by God’s word and not your own sense of things.

Having received the great news of his restoration and recommissioning, Peter was given a sobering bit of information.

18 Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.”

What in the world does that mean? John explained the meaning of Jesus’ words in the next verse.

19 (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.)

The short version is that Peter would eventually (after some thirty years of faithfully tending to Jesus’ sheep) be killed by crucifixion (it had already happened by the time John wrote these lines in his Gospel). That’s what the expression “you will stretch out your hands” (on a cross) meant in that culture.

Jesus was letting Peter know that however hard things had been and would be in the near future (as he fed and tended Jesus’ sheep), they were going to be the result of Peter’s choices. He got to decide where he was going to go and what he was going to do in Jesus’ name right then.

There would come a time, however, in which that choice would no longer be his. There would come a day in which others would determine his fate. It would be by God’s providence (as these two verses are meant to make clear), but it would not be Peter’s decision.

That’s kind of interesting, isn’t it? Jesus let Peter know (albeit cryptically) what his death was going to be like (crucifixion) and why (to glorify God).

If you could know the details of your death (how, when, where, why), would you want to? Likewise, have you ever thought about how you’d like to die?

I imagine that most people wouldn’t want to know the details, but if they had to, the hope is that it would consist of peacefully going to sleep at a ripe old age, without pain and with full mental faculties, with loved ones all around, after a life well-lived, with all affairs in order, and unexpectedly not waking up.

Whether he wanted to know or not, Jesus told Peter some of the details of his death. But contrary to what most people would want, Peter’s death would be miserable from every human perspective.

But here’s the thing, Grace: More than the details of your death, it is the result that matters. Are you able to truthfully say, that you rather die a prolonged, miserable death in which God’s glory is maximized in it than a comfortable, peaceful death that doesn’t point in any significant way to the truthfulness of God’s promises?

The longing of our hearts must be (with the Spirit’s help) that whether we eat or drink or die, we would do it to the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31). Let this Advent season be a reminder to fight for this kind of perspective and love for Jesus.

Finally, in what looks to be almost an afterthought, John notes that “…after saying this he [Jesus] said to him [Peter], ‘Follow me.’”

That idea will continue into the next section, and we’ll examine it more closely there. For now, however, I want you to notice that Jesus’ first and last words to Peter were “Follow Me.” The heart of Christian ministry is tending to Jesus’ sheep and the heart of the whole of the Christian life is a response to Jesus’ call, “Follow Me.”

Is that how you understand the nature of your faith in Jesus and the calling on your life? It’s different language than we usually use. But the different terminology can serve as a good check to see if we’re simply going through the motions or if we really do love Jesus and express it as He commands.

Asking someone (or yourself), “Are you following Jesus in every aspect of your life?” just sounds different (more to the heart of the matter) than, “Are you a Christian?”.

Likewise, asking, “Have you given yourself to tending to Jesus’ sheep?” hits different than asking, “Are you involved in ministry?”.

Consider these things, Grace.

In conclusion, once again, the big idea of this passage is Jesus’ loving and gracious restoration and recommissioning of Peter. And the main takeaway for us is to receive Jesus’ love, to love Jesus above all, and to follow Jesus in loving ministry to His people.

As Advent begins, and as we turn now to taking part in the Lord’s Supper, may we use both to cultivate a growing love for Jesus, the Son of God in the flesh, born of the Virgin Mary, truly God and truly Man, who lived a perfect life and suffered a sacrificial death to secure the reconciliation and commissioning of all who would receive Him in faith.

John 21:1–14 After this Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias, and he revealed himself in this way. 2 Simon Peter, Thomas (called the Twin), Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together. 3 Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.” They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.

4 Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. 5 Jesus said to them, “Children, do you have any fish?” They answered him, “No.” 6 He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, because of the quantity of fish. 7 That disciple whom Jesus loved therefore said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment, for he was stripped for work, and threw himself into the sea. 8 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.

9 When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire in place, with fish laid out on it, and bread. 10 Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.” 11 So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, 153 of them. And although there were so many, the net was not torn. 12 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. 13 Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and so with the fish. 14 This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.

My name is Colin Rueter, honored to be one of the pastors here at Grace Church. We are continuing our walk through the Gospel of John this morning, so please turn in your bibles to John 21.

Have any of you told a story and, as you are coming to the end, remember an additional piece to that story and you say something like, “Oh, wait! There’s one more thing!” Here, it seems that John was closing his gospel account, with the closing remarks in John 20, vs 30 and 31, with the purpose of his writings. I hope you all were helped last week as Pastor Dave walked through the recounting of the story and the amazing reality for those who believe: Life in Jesus’ name.

As John writes about the many things Jesus did, he admits that there were many other things Jesus did that are not written in the book. After he does this, he continues by sharing one more account of the Risen King to His disciples. This is an intimate and important interaction with 7 of His followers… . His friends. In John 15, Jesus says this to His disciples:

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another.”

It is this point that I think we need the reminder: Jesus is our friend who interacts with us, shows us compassion, and with whom we will sit with in eternity soon. Jesus is King, yes. He sits upon the throne in heaven, with the earth as His footstool, yes. In addition, He is present, He sees you, His grace sufficient because if you believe in Jesus – trust in Him alone – you are His and He cares for His own, none can snatch you from His hand, and there is no condemnation for those in Jesus.

The beauty of this friendship is vital to our theology. We rightly exalt the Lord; we praise Jesus as Holy King and Savior… . but we miss the vital truth that we have been brought into a relationship with Him – to worship Him, yes – but also to be close to Him and be known by Him. From this, we show the watching world what a relationship with Jesus is: showing grace to one another like He has to us. Right now, as Jesus’ friends, we are to love one another.

The main point of this passage is: Jesus cares for His people as a true friend and King, with compassion, grace, and fellowship.

We are breaking this text up into three parts

It is important to remember that they went to Galilee because Jesus told them to (Matthew 28:7, 28:10, 28:16). This event in John 21 happens before the Great Commission at the end of Matthew 28.

They had spent three years together and so it makes sense that they remain in the relationships that have been built over that course of time, through the events they have navigated, with support for one another in the mysterious place they are in. Jesus is risen, we were told to wait for Him in Galilee… but what now? Uncertainty now, unlike the coming Day of Pentecost where they receive purpose and power. Such is the life of a follow of Christ. Living with one another, in and out of mysteries of life, trusting and growing in our trust of Jesus and the power of the Spirit. So, in verse 2, we find seven disciples together: Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee (James & John), and two others of His disciples. We don’t know who the two other disciples are, assumptions can be made, but I don’t think the point of remaining unnamed is to create a game of “who are they?” Jesus had many disciples, He had 11 close ones (plus one who betrayed), 3 of whom He was closest with, but there are two who remained unknown by us, yet mentioned by John because they are known by Jesus. One commentator said this: “They may represent the anonymous and hidden multitudes of faithful souls, whose names are never published in human documents, whose deeds are never reported in human reports. To these Jesus manifested Himself as surely as to the others who are named.”

Maybe you will never be known in world history as a follower of Jesus, maybe only known by this family at Grace, but rejoice that your King knows you and sees you. These disciples gathered makes me think of the phrase: Birds of a feather flock together – not just in prayer meetings or worship services, but as we will see, doing life. This is key, friends. We gather on Sundays, yes, vital. But the work of the Church is more than one day a week, more than prayer meetings and Sunday worship. We should hang out with one another – on a beach, in a garage, in our living rooms. It is why connecting with your DG (discipleship group) is so important for the sake of being shepherded and being a blessing to others. If you don’t see one another besides Sundays, there is no way you can love one another the way Christ loves you. So, Peter and the others were hanging out, maybe at the beach discussing what has occurred over the last days. Peter, as the sun sets, decides he is going fishing and the others said, “Sounds good, we’ll go with you!”

Their reasons for fishing are unknown, John does not say. We can theorize: they were hungry, they were thinking they could earn some money since the time of charity for the ministry had ceased since the cross, maybe simply out of boredom. I DON’T think it was a sinful response, they were not rejecting a command of Jesus, they weren’t straying from where they should have gone, like Jonah. These were friends who, wile waiting for Jesus, did a familiar activity in fellowship and that would bring God glory. So, don’t justify sin, but also, see the freedom in Christ to fish, knit, write poetry, cook/grill/smoke meat, throw the baseball around with friends/kids… for the glory of God, even while you may be waiting for Him and His direction for you.

So, night comes, they shove the boat out into the sea and fish in the pale moonlight. One of John’s favorite themes is light and darkness. Darkness representing worldliness and the absence of God’s presence, while light represents righteousness and God’s presence. This should cause you to look at verse 3 a little differently: “They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.” In other words, they went fishing by themselves, at night, and Jesus is nowhere to be found. But light is coming.

Awake all night, hungry, living in mystery, and the disciples head back to shore empty-handed. Here is where Jesus meets them. This is glorious.

I say King here because Jesus is in control here, as He always is, ruling with grace and love. Jesus meets them in a common place, the sea, where they had been before. The previous resurrection appearances in John’s Gospel were each unexpected. This occurrence also seemed to be unexpected; the disciples did not know that it was Jesus (vs 4). It’s wonderful to think that Jesus showed up at their place of leisure and in the time of disappointment in their efforts. He was interested in all their life, not just when they attended religious service. The risen Redeemer and Ruler was showing His disciples His interest and power in the commonplaces of their lives. Jesus just doesn’t care about when we pray or sing to Him… but cares deeply about every aspect of our lives: changing diapers, vacuuming, completing the spreadsheet at work for your weekly report, playing Uno for the 800th time with your kids… Jesus is there.

Jesus asks them a question, to which He knows the answer: “Children, do you have any fish?” He made them express an unsuccessful night of fishing in their answer of “no.” They express no excuses and complaining, but tell truth.

His choice word, translated ‘children,’ shows the care and nature that He felt towards them. The Greek word is often used to describe the immature Christian, not in a demeaning way, but with compassion towards those who need care and direction.

So, they have replied with a simple answer, saddened, and weary I am sure, though I hear that fishermen should expect disappointment.

Jesus shows compassion and works a miracle for His friends. He tells them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” Jesus made a strange suggestion to His disciples. There was no logical reason why fishing in the morning light would be better than fishing at night. There was no reason why fishing on one side of the boat would be better than the other side. It wasn’t even directly a test of trust in Jesus, because they did not know it was Him until the fish were caught. This was probably a test of their ability to find the guidance of God in small and unsuspected ways – such as a stranger calling out fishing instructions from the shore.

This account illustrates the principle that we should never be afraid to change our methods or thinking, if it is at the direction of Jesus through principles in His word.

So, they follow the direction and were not able to haul in the net because of the quantity of the fish. The disciples did as the Man on the shore asked and were successful beyond expectation. There is no need to seek symbolic meanings for the right and left side. The difference is not between right and left, but between working with and without Divine guidance.

This outstanding catch at sea may have reminded the disciples of what happened to them earlier in their following Jesus. In Luke 5, we see a contrast with this account in John 21.

John 21:1-7 “On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, 2 and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. 3 Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. 4 And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” 5 And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” 6 And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. 7 They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink.”

Peter responds to Jesus in the account in Luke before acting, but in John, they simply act on the direction. In Luke, the nets break and boats sink, but in John the net does not break and the boat is safe. In Luke, Jesus tells them they will be fishers of men, they dropped their nets and followed Him. In John, they haven’t quite figured out the “fishing for men” thing.

Love what one theologian says about this passage: “Christ’s presence, if he would but come among us in the fullness of his strength, would do so much more for us than anything that we have ever seen yet that we should be as much astounded by the increase as the apostles were by the two great draughts of fishes. Christ had but to will it, and the fish came swimming in shoals to the net, and he has but to will it, and souls will be converted by millions to himself and his gospel… Perhaps, if they had not fished at night, Christ would not, have given them fish in the day time. He does not often come to bless idlers; he acts sovereignly, as I have said, but he generally gives his blessing to those churches that do the most for him.”

Before we move onto our last section, I want us to notice the response of two disciples, John and Peter. John is the first to recognize that this is Jesus – “It is the Lord!” John reached the tomb before Peter (John 20:4) and recognized the fact of Jesus’ resurrection before Peter (John 20:8). Here John also recognized the identity of the stranger on the shore before Peter did. John knew that anything this wonderful had to come from Jesus.

But Peter is first in devotion. He threw on his outer garment and threw himself into the water to reach Jesus as soon as possible. The boat couldn’t move quickly enough for Peter, and he didn’t want John to be first again. Perhaps – perhaps – Peter thought he might walk on the water to the shore. We are to love God with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength… even throwing ourselves into the sea to get to our Friend and Savior. Devote yourself to Him, Grace.

Jesus serves them. When the disciples came to shore – including a wet Peter – they noticed that the resurrected Jesus was still a humble servant. He took the trouble to prepare a fire and cook food for His disciples. He already has a fish on the coals and bread nearby. The disciples brought in the net of fish only to add to what Jesus already has prepared. Jesus tells them to bring some of the fish they caught to add to, not create, the breakfast.

In vs 11: So, Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, 153 of them. And although there were many, the net was not torn. John is so gracious to point out that Peter, alone, hauled the net to ashore, which probably weighed close to 300 pounds fish/wet net, attributing Peter’s strength. Maybe John felt bad about being a faster runner than Peter.

The observation of the exact number of fish and the fact that the net did not break reflect both an eyewitness account and a true fisherman’s perspective. Peter never landed a haul of fish without counting them, and John, a fisherman as well, would never forget the number of his largest takes.

Through the centuries there have been many attempts to explain why the number was 153. truth is that all we know for certain is that 153 represents the number of fish in the net. The many allegorical interpretations of the number warn us against creating hidden meanings in the Biblical text that are not there nor meant to be created.

Jesus welcomes them to “Come and have breakfast.” We should note the servant nature of Jesus, even in His resurrection. He prepared breakfast for His disciples, still serving and setting an example for us.

It is important to note the many invitations of Jesus in the Gospels. For our King invites us to Himself with abounding grace, loving care, and a gentle spirit: Come and see (John 1:39); Come and learn (Matthew 11:28-29); Come and rest (Mark 6:31); Come and dine (John 21:12); Come and inherit (Matthew 25:34-36).

So, then we see in vs. 12: Now none of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord; they knew it was Jesus.

The verb “ask” could be rendered into a questioning, interrogating, proving it was Him. This is another indication that there was something unusual about the appearance of Jesus after His resurrection. Possibly it was a result of the beatings He endured at the cross, the scars of which remained still on His body after the resurrection. There was no need to question if this was Jesus – each man felt convinced it was Jesus.

This is the crux of John’s gospel – do you believe, are you convinced, that Jesus is the Son of God, the Redeemer, God Incarnate, the Messiah, and King of all creation? Then come.

This Jesus, who called them friends, serves them fish and bread with great joy.

Continuing in vs 14: Jesus was really with them in fellowship, raised from the dead. This the third time Jesus has appeared to them in John’s gospel, there is not doubt that Jesus is alive, Jesus defeated death, and Jesus is near to those who are His.

Let me close with what may be a familiar phrase for some of you: “Christianity is not a religion, it’s a relationship.” Which may have truth in it, but I have come to dislike these pithy statements trying to simplify complex ideas and understandings.

Some think Christianity is you doing all the righteous things you hate and avoiding all the wicked things you love to go to Heaven. That’s a lost man with religion alone, as Pastor Dave said last week: “They are an unbelieving believer.” Christianity is about a person whose heart has been changed by the Holy Spirit to see and treasure Jesus; they have new affections, all grounded in the Living God.

To be a Christian is to have a set of beliefs, commands that we follow with great joy, and this is built upon the person of Jesus Christ, the Living Son of God. We love Him because He loved us first.

Maybe you have questions of about this Christian faith. Maybe you grew up in the church, but this is the first you have been presented with a gracious, loving, kind, and relational God. Maybe you think questions about the faith, church, and Jesus are not allowed… let’s chat after service, connect with one of the other elders, connect with the person who invited you.

My invitation is simply that of Jesus: “Come and see, come and rest, come and find life in Jesus.”

So, as we have walked through this passage, before I close – there’s just one more thing I need to mention!

As the disciples left that beach, then heard the Great Commission and watched Jesus ascend, they were to wait for the Spirit. When the Spirit came, they now had specific purposes for the glory of Christ… and they worked out those purposes as friends with one another and friends with their Savior. In Acts, we see their fellowship, breaking bread together, and prayer. We see them doing life together and worshipping together. We see Jesus building the Church with the same compassion, power, and grace He showed those disciples on the beach with bread and fish. Jesus invites you to sit with Him, the Bread of Life, the feast on His word, rest in His presence, and rejoice in His provision. Today, Jesus continues that mission, building His Church, providing for His friends, and showing mercy and grace in our times of need. He does all this through those who sit around you this morning. Someday soon, we will be sitting on a beach with Jesus, face-to-face, maybe eating some fish and bread in glory… what a Savior, what a friend.

John 20:30-31 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

I thought for quite a while about how to handle this passage. One option was to lump it in with either the previous or subsequent passages. It’s only a small handful of words and it covers topics that I’ve hit on many, many times throughout our time in John’s Gospel. I’ve come back to this purpose statement over and over. Another option was to simply mention it and then come back to it when we get to its twin (21:25).

The more I thought about it, however, the more I became convinced that I needed to preach on it, by itself, now. I became convinced for two main reasons. First, we’ve been in a heavier/weightier portion of John’s Gospel for a long time. Week after week, the tone of the text was dark, treacherous, frustrating, somber, urgent, grievous. Even in John’s description of Jesus’ resurrection, there wasn’t much joy. It was mostly filled with confusion, doubt, and sadness. Relatedly, the second reason I became convinced it is a good idea to preach these two verses now is because they are absolutely bursting with glory; subtle glory, embedded glory, but awesome, divine glory nonetheless.

Combined, we’ll get a significant change of tone and a chance to drink deeply of the glory of Jesus and rejoice in its implications for us. In this, my prayer is that the weary saints among us will gain strength, unbelievers will see that Jesus is the greatest treasure, bored kids will be amazed, fearful believers will find courage, and the joy of the joyful will be amplified and released into the world.

With that, if you have ever felt like you were drinking out of a wide-open firehose during my preaching, today might make that feel like a trickle. We’ve spent most of our time in John going a mile deep and an inch wide. This morning we’re going to go an inch deep and a mile wide. Grab a sermon outline and buckle up.

The big idea of this passage is that John explicitly states the reason he wrote his Gospel: To describe Jesus’ signs, in order to convince his readers of Jesus’ nature, in order that we might receive life by believing in Jesus. Let me say that one more time in a more accurate way. John wrote his Gospel to describe Jesus’ (miraculous, never-before-seen, from-God) signs, in order to convince his readers of Jesus’ (awesome, unequaled, infinitely glorious, incalculably gracious) nature, in order that we might receive (abundant, eternal, full, resurrection) life by believing (in His name as an act of God’s sovereign grace). The main takeaways are to consider Jesus’ signs, believe in Him and have life, and share all of that with others that they too might believe and have life.

Our passage opens with a curious line. John wrote, “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book…”. Several questions immediately came to mind when I first read this. Why leave out most of the signs? What kind of signs did John record and what kind did he leave out? If there were many others that he didn’t even bother writing down, what does that say about the ones he chose to include?

As I pointed out in the beginning of our time in John’s Gospel, in the most basic sense, there are two main sections to John. They’ve often been referred to as “The Book of Signs” (1-11) and “The Book of Glory” (12-21). The first section got its name from the prominent way in which John recorded seven of Jesus’ (many) signs.

The key to this is that when John wrote, “Now Jesus did many other signs…which are not written in this book…” that’s in contrast to the seven he did record. We’ve already considered them all in detail as we came to them in the Gospel, but there’s something powerful about reconsidering them all at once. As I mentioned, there’s strengthening, treasuring, amazing, courage-building, joy-amplifying glory in them.

Jesus first sign, which John makes sure to explicitly name as His first sign (2:11), was in miraculously turning the water in a half dozen stone water jars into the best wine (2:10) at a friend’s wedding. John concludes his retelling with these words, “This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him” (2:11).

Be amazed, Grace, the disciples were still figuring this out. They were still pretty confused. Their belief was still tenuous. But we have the benefit of the indwelling Spirit, John’s inspiration and insight, and the rest of the Bible to help us see what this means: Jesus is uniquely and awesomely glorious and we ought to believe in Him because of that.

Jesus’ second sign is found in chapter 4. There he heals the terminally ill son of an official in Capernaum. All by itself that is, of course, miraculous. But the fact that Jesus healed him with only a word, without even going to the boy is more glorious still.

Again, John concludes by noting that the official, “believed, and all his household” (4:53).

The third sign is recorded just a few verses later in chapter 5. Jesus traveled from Galilee (the place where he met with the official) to Jerusalem (about 80 miles). While there He found a “multitude of invalids” (5:2) who were waiting around a pool, superstitiously believed to possess healing powers. The desperate belief was that the first person to get into the pool after it was “stirred up” (probably some kind of bubbling spring) would be healed (5:7).

One of the men by the pool, John wrote, had been an invalid for thirty-eight years (5:5). Jesus walked right up to him and asked him if he wanted to be healed. In essence, the man said, “Of course, but everyone else always beats me to the pool, so what hope do I have?”

At this, Jesus simply said, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk,” and the man did so immediately (5:11). Thirty-eight years of false hope overcome with eight monosyllabic words. What glory—strengthening, treasuring, amazing, courage-building, joy-amplifying glory!

Just one chapter later we find the fourth sign. Because large crowds had witnessed Jesus’ earlier signs, they were eager to be near to Jesus. Because of this, Jesus went up on the mountain on the side of the sea of Tiberias and looked down at the “large crowd [that] was coming toward Him” (6:5).

Curiously, He “tested” Philip by asking him, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” (6:5). Philip was understandably confused. And in his confusion, all he could think to do was to mention a boy with five loaves of bread and two fish. How ridiculous, right? Why even bother reporting such a thing considering the fact that there were possibly upwards of 15,000 people there (6:10)?

Undeterred, Jesus commanded His disciples to “Have the people sit down” (6:9). In Gideon-like fashion, Jesus drew attention to the fact that He was about to do the impossible. In a way that would leave no doubt, He took the five loaves and two fish, gave thanks for them, and then fed the entire crowd with them until every single person “had eaten their fill” (6:12) with twelve baskets of leftovers to spare (6:13).

And again, John concluded by commenting on the response of the people, “When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, ‘This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!’” (6:14). What glory!

In the very next passage John wrote of Jesus’ fifth sign, walking on water. Amazed and tired, Jesus disciples went down the mountain to the Sea of Tiberias, and “started across the sea to Capernaum” (6:16-16), in the dark (6:17), without Jesus (6:17), into strong wind and rough water (6:18), and rowed several miles (6:19), before becoming frightened (6:19), not at the dark or the storm, but at Jesus walking on the water toward them (6:19)!

Who is this Man? What is this sign? What does it mean? What is this glory?!

As he’s done with each sign, John again described the reaction of those who witnessed it. After Jesus spoke words of comfort to them, “Then they were glad to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going [which sounds an awful lot like another sign]” (6:21).

Sixth, in chapter nine, John wrote of Jesus healing a man who had been blind from birth. In typical fashion, Jesus healed the man in the least likely way imaginable. He did so yet again in order to leave no doubt about the miraculous nature of the healing and to magnify His glory. How did He do it? With spit-made mud, of course! “He spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man’s eyes with the mud 7 and said to him, ‘Go, wash in the pool of Siloam’…So he went and washed and came back seeing” (9:6-7).

What’s more, even more mysteriously and miraculously is the fact that in some way, the man’s lifetime of blindness was ordained by God so “that the works of God might be displayed in him” (9:3). John reports that the man’s neighbors were confused (9:8-12), his parents were defensive and afraid (9:18-23), the Pharisees were obstinate and angry (9:13-34), and he was converted and filled with worship (9:38). Glorious signs!

Finally, and most miraculously yet, Jesus’ seventh sign is found in chapter 11, at the end of The Book of Signs.

In a city called Bethany, Jesus had three dear, beloved friends; two sisters and a brother, Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. Lazarus became deathly ill and his sisters sent word to Jesus who believed He could help.

Again, in order to leave no doubt as to the miraculous, glorious, never-before-seen glory of Jesus’ work, Jesus did two things. First, He waited two extra days before going to visit Lazarus, so that Lazarus would have been dead four days by the time He got there (11:6, 17). And second, of Lazarus’s sickness and death, Jesus explicitly said to His disciples, “It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it” (11:4) and “For your sake I am glad that I was not there [before Lazarus died], so that you may believe” (11:15).

When Jesus did, finally arrive at Lazarus’s tomb, He commanded it to be opened (11:39) and “lifted up his eyes [, prayed to the Father,] and said, “Lazarus, come out” (11:41-43). And the dead man obeyed!

As a result, “Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him” (11:45), but the chief priests and Pharisees “made plans to put him to death.” (11:52).

My uncle had a saying that he’d use regularly when I was growing up. When he was impressed with a guy, he’d say something like, “Bill has forgotten more about cars (or construction or hunting or engines or whatever) than I’ll ever know. His point was that what made a man praiseworthy was not only that what you knew about him was beyond your ability, but more significantly that he knew a lot more than you even knew he knew.

This is that. Jesus’ “seven signs” are beyond anything any of us have ever seen (individually, and all-the-more collectively). The thought of Him having done many others that John didn’t even have space to write down ought to take our breath away.

Weary saints, find strength. Unbelievers, tremble at this glory. Bored kids, be amazed. Fearful believers, find courage. Joyful Christian, get turbo charged.

But why did John record the few signs he did? We find the answer in the next clause.

30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written so that you may believe…

You may remember that there are two main categories of “belief” in John’s Gospel. Distinguishing between the two is absolutely critical. Everything is at stake in the chasm between believing and BELIEVING. Or, as we’ve come to describe it, between “unbelieving belief” and “true belief”.

Unbelieving believers absolutely believe things about God. Some are true and some are not. Unbelieving believers believe they believe. Unbelieving believers are almost always genuinely unaware of any disbelief in themselves. The defining characteristic of unbelieving believers, though, is that there is at least some aspect of God’s nature or will that they would reject if they understood it. At its core, then, unbelieving believers don’t actually believe in the One True God as God commands, but in a god of their own making and on their own terms.

Unbelieving believers are all over John’s Gospel. Perhaps, the clearest example is found at the end of chapter 6. After describing the nature of true belief in some of His most explicit terms yet, “When many of his disciples heard it, they said, ‘This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?’” (6:60).

In reply, Jesus acknowledged that “there are some of you [His “disciples” who until that moment certainly believed they believed] who do not believe” (6:64). And as a result, “After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him” (6:66).

The key for us to see here is that unbelieving belief is useless. In fact, it’s worse than useless, because the unbelieving believer, believes they believe, so they don’t know that they don’t believe, so they can’t truly believe. It’s like the person with a terminal disease who refuses to go to the doctor because they believe they are healthy. Not only are they sick, but they believe a lie that prevents them from getting the help they need to get well.

John did not record the glorious, miraculous signs of Jesus in order that his readers might become unbelieving believers. He recorded them so that they might truly believe.

Just as there is a defining characteristic of unbelieving belief, there is also a defining characteristic of true belief (two, actually). True belief is a gift from God and it is all-of-life defining. Again, we can look to the end of John six for a straight-forward explanation of what we see taught and modeled throughout the entire Gospel.

When Jesus clarified the nature of what it meant to follow Him, to believe in Him, the unbelieving believers “turned back,” but the true believers remained. Jesus asked the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” 68 Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, 69 and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God’” (6:68-69).

In that, Peter, on behalf of the rest of Jesus’ true followers, described the heart of true belief: Belief that knows Jesus is life, all of life, eternal life. He is the Holy One of God. There is no aspect of a person’s being, thoughts, feelings or actions untouched or unsurrendered with that kind of belief, with true belief in Jesus. True believers are always learning more about God’s nature and will. Likewise, true believers will struggle to love and live out some aspects of their belief. And yet, at every new revelation and in every struggle, the true believer cries out, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life!”

The question becomes, then, where does that kind of belief come from? Jesus answered plainly, “It is the Spirit who gives life [true belief]; the flesh is no help at all.” True belief is not something we can muster on our own. It is a gift of the Spirit of God. But who can receive such a gift. This too Jesus answered plainly, “…no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.” True belief is a gift of the Spirit for those granted to Jesus by the Father.

That’s a lot to take in, of course, but the Word of God is plain. John wrote his Gospel, recording the miraculous signs of Jesus so that we might truly believe in Jesus according to the sovereign grace of God. And in that is glory in the highest!

All of that leaves us with yet another question. What, specifically, were Jesus’ signs supposed to help John’s readers believe? Again, answering that question was the point of John’s next clause.

30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God…

John wrote his Gospel so that his readers might hear of Jesus’ miraculous signs and from them believe the good news that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. Almost certainly, in this context, John was using those two titles (“Christ” and “Son of God”) synonymously. His aim was that his readers would believe in Jesus for who He really is.

The Christ is the Greek (NT) word for the (OT) Messiah. In the OT, it was used to describe prophets, priests, and kings. Various men were anointed by God to fill those roles. In the NT, it is revealed that Jesus is The Prophet, The Priest, and The King. He is The Anointed one of God that all others pointed to. Jesus was uniquely able to fil this role because He is the eternally begotten Son of God.

To accomplish all that God determined the Christ would accomplish, the Christ must be truly God and truly man. John recorded Jesus’ signs in order that with God’s help, the world might see and believe that Jesus is the Christ, the only Son of God, that God promised to send. That is what true believers believe.

And by believing this, weary saints find strength, unbelievers tremble at this glory, bored kids are amazed, fearful believers find courage, and joyful Christian get turbo charged.

And that leaves the thoughtful reader with one final question: How does truly believing that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, because of the many miraculous signs He performed, help weary saints find strength, unbelievers tremble at this glory, bored kids be amazed, fearful believers find courage, and joyful Christians get turbo charged? Let’s look to the final clause of our passage for John’s answer.

30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God…

This key passage in John’s Gospel comes together in the simple phrase, “life in his name.” But what kind of life is found in Jesus’ name that would accomplish the things I suggested it can accomplish? For our final and largest dose of glory, consider with me the many ways in which John’s Gospel describes the nature of the life that comes by believing that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, as a result of considering His miraculous signs.

Grace, the life offered to those who believe in Jesus has not one, or two, or three, or five, or even ten, but fifteen facets named by John. Each one highlights some unique aspect of God’s grace in Christ. Be amazed.

In the very beginning of John’s Gospel we find that Jesus’ life is light life, “In him was life, and the life was the light of men” (1:4).

We see the same thing in chapter 8(:12), “Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.’”

The life that comes to us through believing is never in the darkness, but always in the light.

Curiously, the life that is in Jesus’ name is also drinkable life. We see this kind of life in 4:14.

4:14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

And again in 6:53, “So Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.’”

As the last verse indicates, life in Jesus is not only drinkable, it is also edible. This idea is all over John 6 and is a part of Jesus’ teaching that cause many unbelieving believers to turn away and reveal their lack of true belief.

6:27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you.

6:51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.

The life that belongs to true believers is death-passing life. That is, one of the sweetest aspects of life in Christ is that it comes to those who are currently dead in sin.

5:24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

Jesus’ life is resurrection life.

5:28-29 …an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice 29 and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life…

11:25 Jesus said…“I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live…”

Life in Jesus’ name is a gift from the Father and given by Jesus.

5:21 For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will.

Similarly, it is life that is given by Jesus and that comes through Jesus. He alone was able to win this life for those who would believe in Him.

5:40 you refuse to come to me that you may have life.

14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

And in our passage for this morning we read, “by believing you may have life in his name” (20:31).

The kind of life John wrote about is a gift from the Father, it is through the Son, and it is from the Sprit.

6:63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.

It is life that comes by believing a message, the good news, that comes to us in words.

6:68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life…

It is no small amount of life. It is abundant life.

10:10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

It is a life won through sacrifice. It was not free or cheap. Jesus gave His life to win this life for all who would believe.

10:11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

Truly, as Jesus proved, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (15:13).

It is secure life. It cannot be taken from those who truly believe.

10:28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.

It is a life that flows from and into obedience to the commandments of God.

12:50 And I know that his commandment is eternal life.

At its heart, the life that comes to those who believe is knowing, fellowshipping with, delighting in God.

17:3 And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

More than anything else, though, John describes the kind of life promised in v.31 as eternal life. It is everlasting. It never ends.

3:16 God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

3:36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life…

5:24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life.

6:40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

6:47 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.

10:28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish…

12:25 Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

Grace, once again, the life Jesus came to bring is so awesome that John can only explain it by describing its many facets. No one (or ten) descriptions are sufficient. It is life of the purest and highest and richest and deepest and most significant kind. It is the fullest life.

To understand the life Jesus came to bring is to be willing to give everything to get it. And yet, it is not something we deserve, can earn, or can purchase on our own. As John makes plain in our passage, it is ours to be received as a gift of God, by believing in Jesus. And the rightness of and evidence for such belief is found in the many signs Jesus performed in the presence of many witnesses.

At the same time, to understand the life Jesus came to bring is to receive it in gladness and to share it with the world. It is too good to keep to ourselves. Share this good news, Grace. Do not keep it to yourself. Doing so is the surest sign that you do not have it yourself.

I mentioned early on in the sermon that John is divided into two main sections, The Book of Signs (1-11) and

The Book of Glory (12-21). As awesome as the things I’ve already shared are, I saved one of the most remarkable aspects of this passage for now. In 20:30-31, our passage, John merges the two sections by drawing our attention to the fact that the greatest sign of all is also the greatest glory of all. The Books of Signs and Glory are brought together in the fact that Jesus’ resurrection is His greatest sign and His greatest glory. Above all, we ought to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and be confident in the life He promised, because everything Jesus said and did was proven beyond a shadow of a doubt by His resurrection.

Consider Jesus’ signs, therefore, Grace Church. Consider all of them, but especially the sign of the empty tomb. See this strengthening, treasuring, amazing, courage-building, joy-producing glory in Jesus, believe in Him, and gain life in Him. And then run to share all of that with others that they too might believe and have life.

John 20:24-29 Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.”

26 Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” 28 Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

Last Sunday, in vs.19-23, we saw that Jesus’ disciples were huddled together, behind locked doors, afraid the Jews would do to them what they did to Jesus. But we also saw Jesus appear before them, commend peace to them, and commission them to continue on in His ministry.

We learn from the opening lines of our passage for this morning that Thomas was not with them at the time. John doesn’t tell us why Thomas wasn’t there, only that he wasn’t. The significance of that is quickly revealed—eight days later, the disciples were still afraid and Thomas still didn’t believe that Jesus had raised from the dead. That was about to change, however, as Jesus appeared yet again to the disciples who were huddled together behind locked doors yet again. This time, Thomas was there.

In this exchange, we’ll catch another glimpse of Jesus’ unmatched power and determination for His followers to know His unparalleled peace. In addition, we’ll catch a new glimpse of Jesus’ kindness and the kind of faith that sees it.

The big ideas of this passage are that the risen Lord is patient with His people and faith is His gift to us. The main takeaway is to identify the promises of God and fight in the Spirit’s power to believe them because Jesus has risen from the dead.

One more thing before I pray… As I mentioned in the beginning of the service, this is Orphan Sunday and our prayer is that Grace Church would continue to be a place that champions the cause of the fatherless. Therefore, although this sermon isn’t explicitly about Orphan Sunday, I’ll conclude by (1) talking about what obedience to God’s charge to care for orphans looks like and (2) rooting it in belief that has not seen. That is, I’ll wrap up this sermon by helping you to see that the kind of orphan care we’re advocating for on Orphan Sunday is rooted in the kind of faith Jesus commends in v.29.

Here’s an uncomfortable question: What’s the most obnoxious you’ve ever been? Looking back, what have you done that you can now see was absolutely insufferable? I’m fairly confident my family would tell you that a few of my top ten would involve watching MSU sports. Before DVR was a thing (and probably before a decent amount of sanctification—with a decent amount still to go), I was often hard to be around in anything other than an absolute blowout.

What we usually need most when we’re acting like that is for someone to tell us the truth and then be patient with us. I’m not sure that “obnoxious” or “insufferable” are the right words for Thomas’s behavior, but I am sure that he was not acting rightly and that truth and patience were what He needed most. Graciously, those things are exactly what Jesus extended to him and the rest of the disciples. The disciples were still afraid and Thomas still doubted, but Jesus patiently revealed the truth to them all.

As I said earlier, for reasons we’re not told, Thomas was not with the other ten disciples when Jesus first appeared to them after His resurrection. That much is made explicit in v.24.

24 Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came [the first time, vs.19–23].

Can you imagine going out to pick up some milk and bread and coming back to find out that you’d missed Jesus?

“Hey guys, I’m back. Did I miss anything while I was out?”

“Well…”

That’s a funny way to say it, but it is the gist of what happened to Thomas. So, when he came back…

25 …the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord…”

We probably expect Thomas to be a bit bummed that he’d missed Jesus, but ecstatic overall that Jesus had indeed risen from the dead. We have to assume that between John and Mary there was at least some discussion concerning His resurrection. Jesus’ appearance to the whole group must have been more than enough to convince Thomas that Jesus had in fact risen from the dead, right?

Well, as you know, that’s not what happened. Thomas still refused to believe. In fact, he was adamant—maybe even obstinate—in his unbelief.

25 … he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.”

Just as we don’t know why Thomas wasn’t with the other disciples when Jesus first appeared, we don’t know why he was so skeptical or why he didn’t believe the testimony of his friends. There is no evidence of doubt or skepticism from Thomas prior to this this (11:16; 14:5). There’s no textual explanation for why he was so committed to resurrection agnosticism.

Before moving on, let me ask… where are you like this, Grace? Are any of you saying to God, “I will never believe in you at all unless _____”? Unless you heal my mom or cure my cancer or stop my spouse from hurting me or save my child or, like Thomas, let me see you in person.

More than likely, for most of the people in this room, I imagine the skepticism is a bit more subtle. I’m guessing it’s more of a silent, implicit, I will never believe your word in this area unless _____. I will never trust you with all of my money unless I have enough of it or I will never trust you with sending my kids as missionaries unless you assure me that they will not get hurt or I will never trust you with foster care or adoption unless you guarantee that it won’t mess up my plan for comfort.

Seeds of Thomas’s doubt are in all of us. It is right, therefore, for all of us to use his skepticism as a magnifying glass into our own hearts; to look through Thomas into the pockets of unbelief in our own lives—in order that we might weed out every remaining pocket of unbelief.

The disciples’ fear and Thomas’s skepticism were palpable, but the heart of this passage is that rather than turn His back on any of them or simply leave Thomas in his unwarranted doubt, Jesus was graciously patient with them. In fact, Jesus appeared to the disciples again, seemingly, primarily for “Doubting Thomas’s” benefit. Look at v.26.

26 Eight days later…

That is, eight days after Jesus originally met with the disciples in the locked room; eight days after Jesus had commended peace to them and commissioned them; eight days after the ten had revealed these things to Thomas who missed it…

… [Jesus’] disciples were inside again…

They were not out, on their mission as they ought to have been. They were, once again, in spite of Jesus’ miraculous appearing, reassurance, and charge, huddled together.

…[This time, however,] Thomas was with them…

John doesn’t tell us what they were doing “inside”, but He does let us know that this time Thomas was gathered with the others.

…Although the doors were locked [again]…

Not only were they not yet heeding Jesus’ commission to them, to go out as the Father had sent Him out, but they also had not yet received Jesus’ peace. It seems that the fear of the Jews was still the dominant driver of their actions.

As I’ve said a few times already Grace Church, reading this passage rightly means being simultaneously convicted by the fact that the same obstinance and fear lives in us, and encouraged by the fact that Jesus has been lovingly extending this exact same grace to His fearful followers from the beginning.

I can’t help but wonder how different our lives would be if we could learn the lesson the disciples were struggling to learn here. That is, I can’t help but wonder how different things would be if we were not driven by any fear outside of God alone. What would our lives look like if we really walked in the peace that true belief in Jesus brings? And on this Sunday, I wonder how many more families would participate in foster care and how many orphans would be adopted through the people of Grace Church if we truly believed God’s promises.

I know it’s good to wonder those things because Jesus, once again in parallel with Jesus’ previous encounter with the huddled, afraid disciples…

…came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.”

Jesus’ resurrection meant that peace was theirs to be received. Nothing more needed to be done for Jesus’ followers to know it in the deepest recesses of their being.

It is like the poor person who has been told they have inherited a fortune, but does not yet really believe it. All of the money is already theirs and immediately available for them to use as they see fit, but they haven’t quite gotten their minds around it yet.

If the disciples were to simply believe what was already true, they would have been able to instantly let go of their fear and walk in the spiritual tranquility that Jesus purchased for them. Jesus knew this and commended it to them once again.

In case it isn’t already clear to you, Grace, that’s the case for every one of us, right now, as well. If you are a Christian, the exact same, perfect, understanding-surpassing peace () that Jesus called on the disciples to walk in is just as available and effective for us today as it was for them back then; maybe even more so since we already have the Spirit dwelling in us. Nothing more needs to be done for it to be ours. Jesus accomplished everything for us. We need simply to believe what’s already true.

But what about Thomas’s demands? He made it clear that he would not believe in Jesus’ resurrection if Jesus wouldn’t allow him to see and touch His crucifixion scars. Would Thomas relent in Jesus’ glorified presence? Would Jesus indulge Thomas’s faithless demands?

To be clear, as Paul stated explicitly in his letter to the Romans, God did not owe Thomas, nor does He owe any of us anything more than we’ve already been given.

Romans 1:19-20 …what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse…

God has revealed to everyone, everywhere, everything we need to see that He is God, that we have sinned against Him, and that we need, but don’t deserve His mercy.

Often times, therefore, God in His justice, does not give us what we demand. He is does not respond to our threats or our stubbornness. He is not moved by our ultimatums. And yet, as long as we draw breath, for both those who struggle to believe in Jesus at all, as well as those who struggle to believe in certain promises of Jesus, He is always patient with us. And sometimes, sometimes, that patience does take the form of honoring our “demands.”

This was one of those sometimes.

27 [Jesus] said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.”

It would have been entirely right for Jesus to rebuke Thomas for his pride and doubt. Instead, however, it was grace, upon grace, upon grace. Mercy, upon mercy, upon mercy. Kindness, upon kindness, upon kindness. Love, upon love, upon love. Humility, upon humility, upon humility. Patience, upon patience, upon patience.

As I said, Jesus does not always respond to our demands like this. But sometimes He does. And best of all, either way, our confidence is in the fact that it is universally for His greatest glory and our greatest good.

Grace, God’s kindness is always upon you if your hope is in Jesus. The particular form of His kindness changes continually, but the fact of it doesn’t. Believe that and know the unique and perfect peace Jesus purchased completely in His death and resurrection.

I mentioned at the outset that there are two big ideas in the text and sermon. The first big idea is that Jesus is patient. We just saw that in the way He responded to Thomas. The second big idea addresses the question of what we do with His patience. Jesus was patient with Thomas. How would Thomas respond to His patience?

Many years ago, I saw a Christian comedy sketch. In it the comedian talked about a time in his life in which he was convicted for not sharing his faith. He was afraid to evangelize. And so he prayed and asked God to put an unmistakable opportunity right in front of him.

In that way, he was like Thomas. Thomas said, “I will not believe in the resurrection unless…”. The Christian comedian said, “I will not share my faith with someone unless…”

Just like Thomas, God was under no obligation to meet this man’s demands. He already had all that he needed to evangelize and demanding more of God was not right.

Nevertheless, just like with Thomas, although under no obligation, God obliged.

The man sat down on a bus, still thinking about his prayer and how God might answer it and a bit afraid that He would, when a disheveled man sat right next to him when the bus wasn’t crowded at all. After a few moments of the comedian trying to figure out how to get away from the guy, the guy turned to the comedian and said, “My life is a mess. I need God. Can you tell me about God?”

Again like Thomas, God did exactly what the comedian said he needed. So what would he do? The punchline is that the comedian, recognizing his own faithlessness and folly, acknowledged that his first and deepest impulse was not to be amazed by God’s clear answer to his prayer, but to ask God, “If this is really from you, please turn this man into an armadillo so I can know for sure.”

The point I want to drive home as you consider that story, is one I’ve already made: Whatever we think we need in addition to what we already have is a lie. The commedian got exactly what he asked for and his response was to ask for just one more thing. Our problem is never what we don’t have, it’s always failing to believe what we’ve already got in Jesus.

The Israelites did that in the wilderness. They wanted food, so God gave them manna. No sooner did He give them that, than they decided what they really needed was meat to go with it.

If Jesus is not enough—His person and promises—then nothing will be. Unless we settle on this, apart from the Spirit’s conviction, every act of obedience we require something of God to perform will only lead to another demand for God to perform something more.

So again, what would Thomas do? Jesus gave him exactly what he asked for, how would he respond? Would he do what the comedian did (and we often do) and ask for something else, or would that truly be enough?

28 Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”

Thomas believed! Jesus was patient and kind and Thomas believed. Indeed, in this he is a model for what true conversion and belief looks like. In that moment Thomas had eyes to see and what he saw was that which has always been true: Jesus is Lord and God. He was echoing the first words of John’s Gospel and the words of everyone who truly believes, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God.”

There’s just one more thing I want to highlight from this passage. It concerns the nature of Thomas’s belief. What was it and where did it come from? Jesus addresses that in v.29.

Thomas made a demand of Jesus before he would believe. Jesus graciously obliged. And true to his word, Thomas believed. But again, what kind of belief did Thomas have and where did it come from?

29 Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

In these few words Jesus made a subtle but important distinction that helps answer our question. Jesus spoke of (1) a kind of faith that honors Him and blesses the one who has it more and (2) a kind of faith that honors Him and blesses the one who has it less.

The kind that honors and blesses less is the kind that demands to see. And the kind that honors and blesses more is the kind that makes no such demands.

In Thomas we see the kinds that honors and blesses less. In Matthew 8 we see the kind that honors and blesses more.

Matthew 8:5-10 When [Jesus] had entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to him, appealing to him, 6 “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly.” 7 And he said to him, “I will come and heal him.” 8 But the centurion replied, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed… 10 When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith.

I hope the distinction between the two “kinds of belief” is easy to see in our passage and in Matthew 8. The kind of belief the centurion had simply trusted Jesus. He believed in Jesus such that he needed no further evidence or proof. That kind of faith caused Jesus to “marvel”. Jesus praised that kind of faith.

Thomas believed, and that was good, but in a way that revealed the self-attesting truthfulness of fact that God is most glorified in us when our hope is most fully in Him.

In all of this, the key is that the kind of belief that comes from sight and the kind that believes without seeing alike are always a gift from Jesus. We are commanded to work at it (Philippians 2:12), strive for it (Philippians 1:27), press on in it (Philippians 3:12), but any and every measure of genuine faith is always a gift from Jesus.

It is a gift when we first hear the gospel and believe. And every subsequent decision we make in faith is a gift as well. Again, the Apostle Paul says it well, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8-9).

The big ideas of this passage are that the risen Lord is patient with His people and faith is His gift to us. The main takeaway is to identify the promises of God and fight in the Spirit’s power to believe them because Jesus has risen from the dead.

To help you put all of this into action, we’ve done two things. First, we’ve put together a list of God’s promises (thanks to Michael) for you to fight in the Spirit’s power to believe in light of the resurrection. They’re on the back table. Please take a copy home. Please consider them carefully, pray over them, memorize them, and fight continually to live in light of them in everything and always.

And second, as I promised at the beginning, I want to close with a more explicitly Orphan Sunday application. In conclusion, then, let me say three quick things connecting the kind of faith Jesus marveled at and a right response to orphan care.

To help you put all of this into action, we’ve done two things. First, we’ve put together a list of God’s promises (thanks to Michael) for you to fight in the Spirit’s power to believe in light of the resurrection. They’re on the back table. Please take a copy home. Please consider them carefully, pray over them, memorize them, and fight continually to live in light of them in everything and always.

And second, as I promised at the beginning, I want to close with a more explicitly Orphan Sunday application. In conclusion, then, let me say three quick things connecting the kind of faith Jesus marveled at and a right response to orphan care.

God’s heart for the orphan.

Deuteronomy 10:18 [God] executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing.

Deuteronomy 27:19 “‘Cursed be anyone who perverts the justice due to the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

Psalm 10:14, 17-18 [God has] been the helper of the fatherless… O LORD, you hear the desire of the afflicted; you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear 18 to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed…

Psalm 68:4-5 Sing to God, sing praises to his name; lift up a song to him who rides through the deserts; his name is the LORD; exult before him! 5 Father of the fatherless … in his holy habitation.

God’s commands for His people concerning the orphan.

Deuteronomy 22:3 Thus says the Lord: Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place.

Isaiah 1:17 … learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless…

The relationship between orphan care and the good news accomplished in Jesus’ resurrection.

Ephesians 1:5-6 In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.

Orphan care is near the pinnacle of the kind of faith that has not seen. Almost every aspect of caring for the fatherless involves living by faith and not sight. How do I find a child to care for? Will they receive my love? Will they bring challenging behaviors into our home that wouldn’t otherwise be there? How will it effect my other kids? Will there be interaction with biological family? Is our family at the right place for foster care? Will this end in adoption? Will we have the resources we need?

We simply cannot know the answers to those questions on the front end, so if we are to engage in orphan care as God does and commands, it will be because we are blessed with the kind of faith that has not seen, yet believes.

Finally, then, here are a few ways to develop the kind of belief that has not seen and yet believes, and to live it out for the cause of the fatherless.

John 20:19-23 On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” 20 When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. 21 Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” 22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”

Good morning, Grace. Happy November and happy end of daylight savings time day. There’s no better day to consider John 20:19-23.

What we have here is yet another remarkable passage describing the immediate aftermath of Jesus’ resurrection. From it, I want to highlight seven “realities” presented in these five verses. That is, in this passage we find John describing real historical events, real fear in the disciples, real power in Jesus, real responsibility, peace, and a real Helper for the disciples, and real forgiveness for the world. As I said…remarkable!

In all these things we’ll see that our charge from Jesus is great and costly, but our help and reward are greater still. And as a result, the main takeaway is to boldly share the good news of Jesus with the world in the power of the Holy Spirit.

You may have noticed that, for undisclosed reasons, John has made it a point of emphasis to help his readers keep track of the timeline of events since just before Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. For instance, John tells his readers that…

12:1 Jesus entered Bethany “six days before the Passover”.

12:12 Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem took place, “the next day” (Sunday) after entering Bethany.

13:2 Jesus predicted Judas’s betrayal on Thursday, “during [the Passover] Supper”.

18:28 Jesus was led before Pilate in the “early morning” on Friday.

19:14 Jesus was delivered over to be crucified on the “day of Preparation of the Passover… [at] about the sixth hour” (Friday at around noon).

20:1 The tomb was empty “on the first day” (Sunday morning) “while it was still dark.”

And our passage for this morning opens with yet another time-marked event. Jesus visited His disciples “On the evening of that day, the first day of the week” (19). That is, John explicitly tells his readers that the events of vs.19-23 took place on the Sunday night of His resurrection day.

At the very least, John’s attention to chronological detail tells us that John knew he was writing about events that really happened, at real times, in real places, and among real people.

That might seem to you and me to go without saying, it might not seem like a big deal to us, but John knew, and wanted his readers to know, that he was not writing about things that were merely allegorical or symbolic or spiritual. He knew and wanted his readers to know that he was writing in genuinely historical terms about the most profound physical and spiritual truths the world has ever known.

This is critical because our sin and separation from God are such that they require more than an allegorical, symbolic, or spiritual solution. They require an actual, physical, offspring of Eve to fulfill the requirements of God that every other offspring of Eve was unable to do.

It is true that “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Joel 2:32; Romans 10:13). But there is no saving grace through faith in a mythological Jesus. “Calling on the name of the Lord” means something specific.

It means believing in the God-man who really did willingly go to Jerusalem on the Sunday of Passover week, in order to offer Himself as the One True and Final Passover Lamb on Friday, to rise from the dead in victory, once for all, on Sunday morning before light, and go to visit His followers in His resurrected, glorified state on Sunday evening.

I don’t mean to suggest that people need to know the specific days and times mentioned by John to be saved by Jesus. But I do mean to say that no one is saved apart from believing that Jesus is who the Bible says He is and did what the Bible said He did.

The specific details of the opening words of our passage serve as a reminder of the reality that John was writing about real people and real events, connected to a real salvation accomplished by a really resurrected Christ.

The second reality I want to help you see is that the disciples were really afraid.

I’ve shared this before, but on the very first mission trip I ever went on, I was detained in a police station in a Middle Eastern country for handing out Bibles on a college campus. I was there for over an hour, but as far as I can tell, I was never in any real danger. No one was formally arrested. They didn’t even take our Bibles. And certainly no one was murdered. Nevertheless, after a short while, I found that fear was creeping in; a fear that lasted on some level for some days even after the event.

I relay that only to highlight the fact that with even the most benign experience of persecution, or even the most basic imagination, it shouldn’t be hard for any of us to understand the fear of the disciples.

But what, specifically, were they afraid of? John tells us that they were afraid “of the Jews” (19). In fact, he tells us that they were so afraid of the Jews that they had huddled together behind locked doors.

For John, “the Jews” (as you know if you’ve been with us throughout our time in the Gospel) usually (as in this case) refers to the Jewish leaders. They were in charge of the Temple and the synagogues and by implication, many aspects of the ordinary lives of ordinary Jewish people. They had significant religious, political, economic, and social power. As such, they could greatly influence the families, jobs, standing, and overall wellbeing of virtually every fellow Jew.

Their authority was designed by God to be a blessing to His people. They were supposed to be shepherd-guides to their countryman. They were to explain God’s laws, model obedience, and help everyone to obey. They were meant to be a critical cog in Israel’s flourishing and a key component to Israel’s witness to the nations of the unique and sovereign grace of God.

Instead, however, “the Jews” often lorded their authority over the people. Instead of using their power to bless others, they used it to bless themselves; to make themselves feel significant and comfortable. They did so by heaping additional, oppressive laws on others and by focusing on the letter of the law over and above its spirit.

The pinnacle of their misuse of their God-given power and authority had just occurred three days earlier in their orchestration of Jesus’ crucifixion. They had conspired together with the Roman authorities to unjustly put Jesus to death; the very man they claimed to be preparing the people of Israel for (the Christ God promised to send).

In other words, the disciples were afraid because they’d just seen the full weight of the wrath of “the Jews” come down on Jesus. If they could do that to the same man who had healed the sick, walked on water, fed 5000, turned water into wine, and raised people from the dead, how much easier could they do that to them?

From every human perspective, their fear was justified and so they huddled together behind locked doors in fear.

I want to go a bit out of order in order to help you feel the full weight of what the disciples in the locked room felt, and with it the full weight of what Jesus promised them. That is, I’d like to take a look at v.21 before coming back to where we left off in v.19.

As we just saw, the disciples were scared of the Jews on account of what they did to Jesus. In v.21 Jesus raised the stakes even higher, saying to them, “As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”

There are two parts to that charge. Let’s quickly look at each.

The first part concerned the manner in which Jesus was sent. So, how did the Father send Jesus?

Jesus was sent into the world by His Father (3:17) to “do His will (6:38-39; 8:29), to speak His words (3:34; 8:28; 12:49; 14:24; 17:8), to perform His works (4:34; 5:36; 9:4), and to win salvation for all who believe (3:16-17)” (Kruse, TNTC, 375). Jesus did this in perfect obedience to the Father (5:19-30; 8:29) and in His obedience He did accomplish the salvation of the world. But, as we’ve seen, His obedience was accompanied by nearly continual, severe persecution, culminating in His public and horrific murder.

If this was all Jesus said, if this were the only part of His message to His followers, we would have an awesome picture of obedience and the costly, but efficacious grace of God. We would have a praiseworthy description of our Savior’s perfect surrender to His Father’s will in the Spirit’s power, bringing about the salvation of the world. Far from adding to the disciples’ fear, it would remind them of the rightness of their faith in Him.

It is all those things for sure, but that’s not the only part. There’s more. There’s another part to what Jesus said. “As the Father has sent me…even so I am sending you.”

The second part is the scary, the intimidating part. Jesus was sending His disciples as He had been sent.

If Jesus was sending them incognito, or to an entirely new region away from the murderous Jews, or in some other manner than the one which got Jesus persecuted, arrested, mocked, tortured, and killed, then it would be different. But Jesus didn’t send the disciples in some other way. He sent them “as the Father sent [Him].”

In other words, Jesus charged His followers to do the will of the Father, to speak His words, to perform His works, and (as we’ll see even more clearly in v.23), to offer salvation to the world, in the power of the Spirit. They were to obey God and proclaim the good news of Jesus, no matter the cost. Even if it cost them their comfort and lives, as it did Jesus, they were being sent as the Father sent Jesus.

The disciples were afraid that the Jews would come after them just because they’d been associated with Jesus in His life. And now Jesus was charging them to go out and preach the same good news of the Kingdom of God that got Him alienated, threatened, rejected, betrayed, and killed.

If they were afraid already, being sent out among the wolves by themselves would only add to their fear, right?

Grace, as I said in the beginning, our charge from Jesus is great indeed. But the thing I hope to help you see throughout the rest of this sermon is that the real fear of the Jews in light of Jesus’ charge was for the disciples in our passage just like Mary’s weeping at the death of Jesus.

As we saw last week, if what Mary believed about Jesus had been true, her tears would have been right. But Mary was wrong, which meant that her tears were misguided as well.

In the same way, if what the disciples believed to be true about their circumstances was true (that “the Jews” had defeated Jesus and would soon, easily defeat them as well), then their fear and cowering would have made sense. But, just like Mary, the disciples were wrong and, therefore, so was their fear.

The Jews had not defeated Jesus. Jesus willingly handed Himself over to them. Far from securing His defeat, their treachery was merely a tool in Jesus’ redeeming hand. He was not crushed by their putting Him to death, He gained perfect and eternal victory over death through it.

In other words, as Jesus was about to reveal to those huddled in the locked room, Jesus’ power was infinitely greater than anything “the Jews” could even imagine, let alone anything they actually possessed. To be among Jesus’ sheep, therefore, was to always be in the most secure place possible. Not even death could defeat Jesus and He promised the same for His followers.

That’s a part I left out. As the Father sent Jesus meant not only persecution and death for obedience. It also meant resurrection life. Jesus was sending His followers out in a way that would be dangerous, but also in a way that would certainly end in eternal life!

This is a critical lesson for us. Trusting Jesus means heeding His words to the “ruler of the synagogue, ‘Do not fear, only believe’” (Mark 5:36). It is true, as we sing, that Jesus’ promises to all who believe are such that we ought to always “Be still and remember the worst that can come, but shortens our journey and hastens us home…Though trouble and anguish increase all the more, they cannot compare to the glory in store. Come joy or come sorrow, whatever befalls, the light of the Savior will outshine them all.”

And so, we too are sent as the Father sent Jesus, to do the will of the Father, to speak His words, to perform His works, and to offer salvation to the world, in the power of the Spirit. We too are to obey God and proclaim the good news of Jesus, no matter the cost. Even if it costs us our lives, as it did Jesus.

May we live in faith, in the Spirit’s power, in increasing measure because of what we see here in these real events.

Real events in history, real fear in the disciples, and real responsibility for the disciples. That’s a lot. They knew that they had hope of a resurrection, and that’s a really big deal, but what about in this life? How would they—and how will we—possibly remain faithful in such a high calling in the face of such opposition?

In answer to those questions, we find the final four “realities” in our passage: The real power, peace, and Helper of Jesus, along with the offer of real forgiveness for the world. That’s a lot of help on the way to sharing in Jesus’ resurrection.

The first and main reason the disciples need not have feared, and the reason we need not fear today, is because Jesus’ power surpasses all the rest.

The greatest example of all, of course, was Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. And yet we have an example of the same power that raised Jesus at work in our passage.

John made sure to note the detail that the disciples were hiding out in a room with “the doors being locked” (we’ll see the same thing in v.26). In addition to testifying to the fear of the disciples, it also testified to the power of Jesus. Locked doors might have been able to keep “the Jews” out, but they couldn’t even slow Jesus down.

…the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them…

The disciples were going to be hunted by the Jews as they obeyed Jesus’ commission, but their mission, their lives, and their eternal lives alike were all in the hands of the One who had real, total power over death and… door locks.

You need to play in a best ball golf tournament, but your partner is Scottie Scheffler.

You need to build a house, but Norm Abram is your contractor.

You need to write a symphony, but Bach will help the entire time.

You need to paint a beautiful painting, but Rembrandt will be holding your brush.

You need to fight a war, but the world’s greatest generals are on your side.

You need to share the gospel with a hostile world, but the resurrection power of Jesus is with you always.

Our charge from Jesus is great and costly, but our help is greater still.

The first help we saw was the reality of Jesus’ unmatched power. The second help is the reality of the peace Jesus gives.

Again, our passage opens by noting that the disciples were in hiding because they were afraid of facing the wrath of the Jews. Jesus knew that, of course, and so the first words He spoke to them were, “Peace be with you” (19).

Do you remember Isaiah 53:5? “He was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.”

Of all the words Jesus could have said, “Peace be with you,” must have had a special kind of sweetness. When combined with the very marks of peace promised by the prophet, the scars on His hands and side, “Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.” Jesus’ first peace blessing for His disciples was received as they saw the cost of His obedience.

But that wasn’t all. We also need to remember that Jesus immediately upped the cost. He gave them peace and then immediately “threatened” that peace by charging them to go out among those who would seek their harm.

The disciples were afraid as they imagined the Jews’ animosity toward them. And then they found genuine relief as Jesus presented Himself and His wounds of faithfulness to them. And then there must have been a renewed sense of fear as He commissioned them to go back out into the world.

Therefore, for a second time, in anticipation of a rekindled fear, Jesus reiterated His blessing, “peace be with you” (21).

He knew what they were feeling and why. He knew what awaited them. And He knew they were afraid and confused and restless because of it. But He also knew what they needed most in that moment—the peace of God. And so He blessed them with it.

The third help Jesus offered to his fearful disciples was another promise of the Holy Spirit.

They were afraid, they would be more afraid. It was hard and it would get harder. But Jesus real power, peace, and Spirit would be with them as they took the gospel into the world. We see this in v.22.

22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

There are a few things to note from this verse. First, it’s received a lot of attention from biblical scholars over the years (along with the next verse). Many interpretations have been offered. I’ll share with you in a minute the one that I think is by far the most likely.

A second thing to note is that the words, “on them,” are not in the original. Literally, John wrote, “And when He had said this, He breathed [no ‘on them’] and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.” In other words, the nature of Jesus’ breathing is probably more explicitly symbolic that it sounds in our ESV.

And a third thing to note is that the disciples’ actions from this point until the day of Pentecost look nothing like their actions after Pentecost. That’s significant because one of the most common interpretations of this passage is that this is John’s version of Pentecost. This fact alone seems to me to eliminate that possibility.

These things combined help us to see that in this gesture (“He beathed”) and charge (“Receive the Holy Spirit”), Jesus was almost certainly reminding His disciples of the promise He’d already made to send the Helper, the Holy Spirit (John 14:26; 16:8-14).

In v.22, Jesus charged His followers to receive the Spirit gladly when He came (at Pentecost). For the Spirit’s work was to give Jesus’ fearful followers all the wisdom, remembrance, strength, conviction, glory, and peace they needed to obey as Jesus commanded.

In this interesting exchange, Jesus was acknowledging the fear of the disciples and promising even more help for their time of need. And so it is for us, Grace. We too have the Holy Spirit in us if our hope is in Jesus. And the Holy Spirit’s work in us is the same—wisdom, remembrance, strength, conviction, glory, and peace—for all who obey Jesus’ commission. Share the gospel! But as you do, do not rely on your own wisdom or strength, but on the Spirit who gives truth and power.

Finally, let’s consider v.23.

23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”

On the surface, it sounds like Jesus was giving His disciples the ability to forgive the sins of others and to keep others from having their sins forgiven. That is, of course, not what this means.

It is similar to what Jesus said to Peter in Matthew 16:19, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

In both Matthew 16 and v.23 of our passage, Jesus’ promise was to work (binding and loosing, forgiving and withholding) through the work of His followers. There are three textual clues that help us know this.

First, the context (of v.23) is Jesus’ sending of His disciples as He’d been sent by the Father (to do the will of the Father, to speak His words, to perform His works, and to offer salvation to the world, in the power of the Spirit). In other words, the promise of v.23 is connected to the Spirit’s help of v.22 and Jesus’ commissioning of v.21.

Second, while, interestingly, this is the only time the forgiveness of sins is explicitly mentioned in John’s Gospel, there are a number of other examples of sins being unforgiven (8:24; 9:41; 15:22, 24; 16:8-9; 19:11). The key is that each time unforgiveness is mentioned, it is in connection to unbelief in Jesus. Unforgiveness always flows from unbelief (and forgiveness from belief).

Third, to get a little technical, the verb tense in the two key clauses (“they are forgiven” and “it is withheld”) is a “divine” perfect, passive. That indicates that it is God working (to forgive or withhold forgiveness) through the work of the disciples. Again, this is the same in the church discipline passages of Matthew 16 (and 18).

In light of these three things, one commentator concludes, “This supports the view that the way in which the disciples forgive sins and retain sins is by preaching the good news and declaring the effects of believing it (forgiveness) and rejecting it (no forgiveness)” (Kruse, TNTC, 377).

In other words, Jesus taught in v.23 that when the disciples preach the gospel, they offer God’s forgiveness. And when they withhold the gospel (refuse to proclaim it), they withhold God’s forgiveness.

All of this means that the fourth and final help, and the seventh and final reality of this passage is the promise of an effective ministry. As Jesus’ followers obeyed His commission, in light of Jesus’ power, in Jesus’ peace, and with Jesus’ promised Spirit, God would rescue His elect out of the world through their ministry.

And again, this is the case for you and me today. We give ourselves to proclaiming the good news of Jesus to the world. We do it. We share the truth in love. We take risks. We press on and persevere. We take courage. And God uses all of that to forgive His people; even as He uses our silence to withhold forgiveness.

God is sovereign over all things and He has sovereignly chosen to use our obedience (or disobedience) to our commission to forgive (or withhold forgiveness) the world of sin. What a promise. What responsibility. What grace. What help.

In this passage we find John describing real historical events, real fear in the disciples, real power in Jesus, real responsibility, peace, and a real Helper for His followers, and real forgiveness for the world through our ministry.

In all these things we see that our charge is great and costly, but our help and reward are greater still. And as a result, the main takeaway is to boldly share the good news of Jesus with the world in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Interestingly, one of the ways we do this is by taking Communion together, for when we do, we proclaim the Lord’s death until He returns (1 Corinthians 11:26).

John 20:11-18 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb. 12 And she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. 13 They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” 14 Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher). 17 Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ” 18 Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”—and that he had said these things to her.

There are two things that continue to stand out to me in John’s account of Jesus’ death and resurrection. The first is the lack of doctrine in it. The Gospel of John as a whole contains a good deal of doctrine, but that faucet short of shuts off during the most doctrinally significant part of the whole story. More than once, John pointed out that certain events surrounding Jesus’ death and resurrection were the fulfillment of the Scripture, but he does not explain why any of this matters; he doesn’t tell us what any of this means. For the most part, John just tells us what happened with very little commentary on its significance.

The second thing that continues to stand out is the confusion and uncertainty of Jesus’ followers. No one seems to understand what happened or what to do. They seem continually confounded and a bit chaotic. In our passage, Mary talks to angels unaware. She even talks to the resurrected Jesus and confuses Him for a gardener.

Combined, these two things might conspire to keep us from seeing the unparalleled glory and grace bursting forth into all creation at Jesus’ resurrection. If this is all we had, we’d probably be left with our eyes wide in amazement, but also scratching our heads in confusion at its significance instead of being filled with awe and wonder and conviction and repentance and worship as we ought. In other words, without even more help from God, we’d almost certainly look a lot like Mary at the beginning of this passage.

But once again, Grace, let us thank God that we do have more help from God. We do have the rest of John and the rest of the Bible to interpret and explain the doctrinal significance of these things for us. We do have the Spirit of God dwelling in us as Jesus’ promised.

As we continue to make our way through to the end of John, then, let us do so carefully (making sure to understand John’s Gospel as he wrote it), biblically (making sure to understand how John fits into the rest of the Bible), practically (making sure to live in light of the truths John taught), and prayerfully (making sure to lean not on our own understanding and strength, but on that which God so richly provides in His Son and Spirit).

This sermon has three main parts. We’ll consider what Mary expected, what she found, and what she did. In so doing, we’ll see that there are three big ideas in this passage. First, because God’s ways are higher than our ways, what we expect from God and what we get are not always connected. Second, the ability to see things (especially spiritual things) as they truly are is always a gift from God. And third, Jesus is risen from the dead! The main takeaways for us are to pray and trust—pray for spiritual eyes and trust God’s invisible promises.

Mary returned to Jesus’ empty tomb (after being the one to first find it empty and then going to get Peter and John). She still had no idea why Jesus’ body was missing. But she still loved and trusted in Jesus and so she “stood weeping outside the tomb” (11).

All she could imagine was tragedy. All she could imagine was that someone had added to her already overwhelming burden (of seeing Jesus crucified) by stealing the body of Jesus with bad intentions.

I said this last week, but I believe it’s worth repeating: We must learn from the fact that Mary was weeping unnecessarily. Her grief was real and it would have been appropriate if what she believed to be true were true. But what she believed to be true, as she was about to find out in spectacular fashion, was not true.

Godliness means being on guard for this at all times on two levels. First, it means constantly reminding ourselves that we rarely know as much as we think we do. On our very, very best days our perspective is staggeringly limited, but we are constantly tempted to think and act otherwise. And second, it means knowing that the promises of God stand above every trial, no matter how bitter. Even if we are right in our perspective on a hardship, Jesus’ resurrection means that we need never despair.

Stuck in the midst of misguided expectations, resulting from a misguided perspective, Mary cried outside of Jesus’ tomb. The way John reports the story, it seems that for the first time, in the midst of her weeping, it occurred to Mary that she had never actually looked into the tomb. The impression we’re given is that when she first got there, she was so surprised to see the stone removed that she ran away before giving the grave an even cursory inspection. Naturally, then, “as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb” (11).

Keep in mind what we were just told about the contents of the tomb. Remember that John and Peter had just inspected it and found it empty of everything but Jesus’ burial clothes and face covering. Of course, therefore, we expect Mary to find the same thing when she looked in. How could it be otherwise?

I don’t want to push what I’m about to say too far, but I do think there’s something worth mentioning here, before considering what Mary actually found. It is a dangerous thing to presume to know God’s grace-distribution schedule. It is pure hubris to believe God’s ways are our ways or that we know the mind of God.

The grace God had for Peter and John on Sunday morning was not (as we’re about to find out) what God had for Peter and John later that day. The grace God had for Mary during her first visit to the tomb was not (as we’re about to find out) what He had for her on her second. Likewise, the grace God had Peter and John was not (again, as we’re about to find out) what He had for Mary.

There was no earthly reason for Mary to expect anything other than what John and Peter saw or what she found the first time she was there, but God is not bound by earthly reasoning.

Practically, this is what I mean: Obey God expectantly, Grace. Obey God expecting amazing grace in your quiet times even if you’ve received ordinary grace in the previous one hundred quiet times. Evangelize expecting God to save your friend even if you’ve had a hard time discerning God’s grace at all the previous ten times. Come to Sunday morning worship expecting God to stir your heart and convict you of sin even if you were distracted and things were ordinary last week. Come to DG expecting God to unify and grant sweet fellowship even if that hasn’t been your experience lately. Expect God to unite your family and establish generational faithfulness through family worship even if it has seemed like none of your kids hear a word.

As we’re about to see in Mary’s experience, our perspective on God’s past grace is not a reliable indicator of God’s future grace. We are called to obey in simple, childlike faith, not because we know what the specific outcome will be from our obedience, but because we trust God’s Word and God’s promises no matter what things look like from our limited perspective.

It’s not clear exactly what Mary expected, but it is clear that it was only more bad news.

What, then, did Mary find when she looked into the tomb through tear-filled eyes? She found angels and then she found the resurrected Jesus Himself! Be amazed, Grace.

Instead of seeing Jesus’ folded grave clothes and nothing else like Peter and John did…

12 … she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet.

We don’t know for sure the amount of time between when John and Peter went into the tomb and when Mary looked in, but even if we did, the presence of the angels cannot be explained by anything other than the sovereign, miraculous grace of God. God intended Mary to have this unique encounter in a way that was reserved for her at this specific moment in time.

What Mary expected and what she found were two very different things. Once again, don’t miss the significance of this, Grace. Be humble and obey expectantly.

So what did the angels do?

13 They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?”

The angels, messengers from God, knew why Mary was weeping. They had been sent precisely because she was weeping at a time in which she ought to have been rejoicing. Why, then, did they ask a question that they already knew the answer to? They asked her in order to help her see what they saw; to learn what they knew. They asked her in order to help her recalibrate her expectations to better line up with reality.

We might expect Mary to be shocked or amazed or even scared. Instead, seemingly without any awareness that she was in the presence of heavenly beings…

She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.”

Mary just couldn’t get off the track she was on. And in that is a critical lesson that I hope will become even clearer if I end up preaching through Ecclesiastes next: It is the default human tendency to process reality as if everything were “under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9). That is, we’re all prone to what the Puritans called “functional atheism.” We often act as if the “laws of nature” alone govern our universe rather than the God from whose nature all reality proceeds.

That’s what Mary was doing here. Angels in white, sent from God, were talking to her and Jesus (as we’ll see in the next verse) was standing behind her, but she was still thinking only in terms of under-the-sun, earthly explanations for Jesus’ missing body. Despite the unparalleled glory surrounding her, nothing but what could be explained with worldly logic crossed her mind.

It is easy for us to scoff at Mary, isn’t it…or at least to raise an eyebrow at her cluelessness? It is easy for us to marvel at her thick-headedness and lack of spiritual perspective. It’s easy to wonder how she could possibly have missed seeing what was right in front of her. But we’re missing a significant measure of grace in this passage if we don’t quickly recognize that we are every bit as scoff-worthy, thick-headed, and spiritually blind.

How many times have you prayed for some hardship to end only to find out later that God was using the hardship to do a far greater work than whatever you asked for or imagined? How many times have you missed the mighty work of God in your life? How many times have you thought only in terms of what you could understand? How many times have you acted as if God were not with you in a time of need?

Grace, God is real and always, always, always working in a billion invisible ways at all times for His glory and our good. That’s why we pray. That’s why we place our trust in God’s promises. That’s why we live by faith and not sight. Believing that is what makes us fundamentally different from agnostics, atheists, and unbelieving believers. Living by faith in God’s Word and His invisible promises is infinitely safer and better than living by trust in our senses and interpretations.

Angels asked Mary why she was crying and, oblivious to the reality around her, she explained that it was because Jesus’ body was missing and she had no idea who took it or where they put it or why they did it.

All by itself, that’s a pretty big whiff. All by itself, it’s easy to see that Mary missed something astounding. But, as you know, Mary wasn’t only missing the presence of angels in her midst. The angels weren’t all by themselves.

For reasons we aren’t told, having finished answering the angels’ question, Mary decided to turn around. And when she did, she…

14 saw Jesus standing…

Woah! She’d missed the angels, but there’s no ways she could miss Jesus, right?! He was the very reason she was there. She was weeping at the tomb because she was mourning for Jesus, the very man standing in front of her. Nothing but joy and wonder and gratitude and amazement could be her response, right?

14 … but she did not know that it was Jesus.

She did not know it was Jesus?! How can that be? How is that possible? It’s one thing to miss an angel, but it’s something entirely different to miss Jesus, isn’t it?

Unphased by her failure to recognize Him…

15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? …

Did you notice that Jesus initially addressed her just as the angels did? He addressed her in with the generic term, “woman.” And did you notice that He also repeated the angels’ question, “Why are you weeping?” Also like the angels, Jesus knew full well who she was and why she was crying.

Jesus, however, added a new line of questioning …

15 Jesus said to her…”Whom are you seeking?” …

With this question, Jesus got even more to the point. The question, “Why are you weeping,” was simply meant to get Mary to acknowledge the true source of her sorrow—her mistaken belief that Jesus was dead and His body stolen. The question, “Whom are you seeking,” was meant to correct the mistake.

Mary was sad because of Jesus’ “absence,” but this question from Jesus was meant to reveal His presence. If His absence was the cause of her tears, His presence ought to have been the cause of her laughter, if only she had eyes to see.

Angels asked her why she was crying and she missed it. Now Jesus asked her why she was crying. Would she fare any better? She would not at, at least not at first.

15 … Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.”

Do you see, once again, what Mary’s spiritual blindness meant? Her Lord, the object of her affection and devotion, her greatest treasure, was right there. The very thing she most wanted, without even imagining it to be a possibility, was hers already. And yet, her highest hope in that moment was that someone would tell her where Jesus’ dead body was so she could properly tend to it. She couldn’t even think to ask for more than a corpse.

If ever the famous C.S. Lewis quote has an incarnation, it’s here.

We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.

That is us continually, Grace. Learn from Mary.

Again, Mary completely missed it, but Jesus’ next words changed everything though…

16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher).

A few moments ago, I asked you to consider how it was that Mary could have failed to recognize angels as angels and now Jesus as Jesus. I’ll come back that in a minute. For now, however, I want to highlight the simple fact that the only difference John reveals is that in this instance Jesus called Mary by name. No longer was she “woman.” Now she was “Mary.”

Jesus’ words from chapter 10(:27) must ring in our ears, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” John doesn’t tell us why hearing her name from Jesus enabled Mary to recognize Jesus, but it’s clear that it did.

As has been the case over and over and over, reading John well means seeing two things at the same time. It means seeing the crazy blindness of even Jesus’ closest followers. Mary had spent most of the past three years of her life following Jesus and yet she could not recognize Him standing in front of her and talking to her. That’s a startling kind of spiritual far-sightedness.

But the second thing a careful reader of John will see is that the difference between those who see and those who don’t is not merit or courage or righteousness or strength or even devotion. It is the grace of God. Jesus’ grace called Mary in the first place. Jesus’ grace enabled Mary to trust Him in His life. And it is now Jesus’ grace that allowed Mary to recognize Him in His resurrected, glorified state.

This is one of the most important biblical principles you can grasp in relation to evangelism and spiritual growth. We are all born spiritually blind and, therefore, to be converted, to initially come to faith in Jesus, requires God to give you sight. The reason the entire world does not honor God as God is because of the blinding effect of sin. Just like countless men and women throughout John’s Gospel could stand in front of Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God, and completely miss it, to the point that instead of surrendering themselves to Him as Lord and Savior, they crucified Him, so too do countless men and women today. If you want to see a non-Christian family member or friend trust in Jesus, pray for them to be given eyes to see what’s already right in front of them; God’s holiness, their sinfulness, Jesus’ loving sacrifice, and gracious faith offered—the gospel.

Similarly, just like Mary, who believed in and loved Jesus, but lacked eyes to see in this moment, every ounce of spiritual growth in Christians is tied to our ability to see things as they truly are. To be saved is to be given spiritual eyes to see for the first time. To be sanctified is to be given clarified vision.

The Apostle Paul says it like this in his prayer for the Ephesian Christians (1:16-19), “I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, 18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe…”.

We see a physical example of this spiritual truth in Mark 8(:22-25), “22 And they came to Bethsaida. And some people brought to him a blind man and begged him to touch him. 23 And he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village, and when he had spit on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, ‘Do you see anything?’ 24 And he looked up and said, ‘I see people, but they look like trees, walking.’ 25 Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again; and he opened his eyes, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.”

If you want to grow in your faith, to mature in Jesus, to be sanctified, your greatest need is to see with spiritual clarity, and so we ask God for greater spiritual vision. Jesus granted this to Mary. He will grant it to you. He has promised to grant it in increasing measure to all who trust in Jesus.

More than anything else, Grace, pray for grace. Pray for ever-widening eyes and ever-clarifying vision to see that which is entirely invisible to fallen mankind apart from God’s grace. Pray for spiritual eyes to see for yourself and your brothers and sisters in Christ that we might grow in love, worship, and obedience. Pray for the eyes of the hearts of your unbelieving family, friends, and neighbors to be enlightened that they might turn to Jesus in faith. Every time Christians see more clearly or unbelievers see at all, it is because the Spirit of God is pleased to work through the Word of God; every. single. time.

Mary expected to find an empty tomb and a missing body. Instead, she found a pair of angels and the resurrected Jesus Himself. Initially, she didn’t have eyes to see any of that, but the seeing-grace of God came upon her as Jesus spoke her name. What, then, did she do? She did two things. She tried to cling to Jesus and then she obeyed Him.

Now that her eyes were opened, Mary, relieved, must have run towards Jesus in joy and relief. That’s what anyone with eyes to see does. To see Jesus is to treasure and trust Jesus. One of the most significant marks of genuine salvation is sight that leads to the desire to cling to Jesus.

And yet, for reasons that are not clear (even though Jesus sort of explained it), Jesus stopped her short, saying…

17 … “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father…”

As I said, it’s not obvious why Jesus’ future ascension would prevent Mary from clinging to Him now. Others would touch Him soon. One possible explanation is that Jesus was warning Mary not to cling to Him as if His physical presence was her greatest need. He was about to leave again permanently (in Mary’s lifetime anyway), but it was going to be better for her since the Spirit would always be with/in her (). Regardless of Jesus’ specific meaning, the main point stands that Jesus held Mary back from clinging to Him in a way she desired.

Grace, know two things here. First, your greatest longing ought to cling to Jesus. The defining characteristic of the eternal life Jesus came to bring is that in it, He will be our greatest treasure. And second, once again, like Mary, we will not experience it in fullness until God’s sanctifying work on us is complete. In the meantime, we long to long for Jesus and give thanks to God for every inch He is pleased to move us in that direction through ever-clearing spiritual vision.

Jesus stopped Mary from clinging to Him, but that is not to say that He had nothing for her. He told her instead to go and announce the good news of His resurrection and coming ascension into glory.

17 … but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ “

What did Mary do in response to her recently clarified sight? She did the two things that everyone who can see clearly does. She tried to cling to Jesus and she obeyed Jesus.

18 Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”—and that he had said these things to her.

As we’ve seen many times in this Gospel, irony is one of the most significant tools John used to highlight the unmatched glory of the events he wrote about. We have another example here. It was in the most significant symbol of death—a tomb—that Jesus revealed His resurrected life. In the grave Jesus defeated the grave. Oh death, where is your sting?!

And in that, more clearly than ever, we can see the three big ideas of this passage: What we expect from God and what we get are not always connected, the ability to see things as they truly are is always a gift from God, and Jesus is risen from the dead! Therefore, let us be a people who are marked by ever—growing trust and prayer. Trust in God’s invisible promises and prayer for the grace of God to give us eyes to see.

John 20:1-11 Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. 2 So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” 3 So Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going toward the tomb. 4 Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there, 7 and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself. 8 Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; 9 for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead. 10 Then the disciples went back to their homes. 11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb.

John 19 covered the beating, interrogation, crucifixion, death, and burial of Jesus. All of that took place on Friday. None of the Gospels say a word about Saturday. John 20 picks up on Sunday morning, before dawn. On the third day that Jesus had been in the grave His followers were faced with the same question as they were on the first: What does it look like to live by faith in Jesus when He is dead? And even more specifically, what does it look like to live by faith in Jesus now that He’s been “dead” for three days and His body is missing? In this passage, we get to see Mary Magdalene’s answer to the first part of that question before everything gets turned upside down yet again for the second.

In other words, John 20 opens with the reader wondering along with the disciples, what’s next? Quickly, the question becomes, where is Jesus?! And in all of it we see great confusion, excitement, sadness, and wonder. It is a passage filled with emotion. It is a passage that forces us to consider carefully the empty tomb and all that it means.

The big idea of this passage is that in spite of all the OT promises and all of Jesus’ teaching, none of Jesus’ followers imagined Jesus’ resurrection as the explanation for the empty tomb. The main takeaways for us are to study the Word of God carefully and be humble.

There are five main parts to this sermon. First, we’ll revisit the main question confronting Jesus’ followers, this time through Mary Magdaline. Second, we’ll consider the confusion of Jesus’ followers when they encountered the empty tomb. Third, we’ll, briefly address the nature of John’s new belief. Fourth, we’ll look at some of the key OT passages on the resurrection. And fifth, we’ll consider the final response of Peter, John, and Mary Magdaline to the empty tomb.

First, the main question…The last time we were in John’s Gospel, we were confronted with the question of what faithfulness looks like in a time of significant trial and mystery. We saw one expression of simple devotion in the response of two of Jesus’ formerly secret disciples, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. Apart from any specific command, these two men determined to express their continued trust in Jesus by giving Him a royal burial.

At the start of our passage Jesus’ disciples were still faced with that same, inevitable question, this time with two more days added. It was now Mary Magdalene’s turn to answer it.

We don’t know a lot about Mary Magdalene. We know that she was one of Jesus’ earliest followers (Luke 8), that she believed in and followed Jesus after He cast seven demons from her (Luke 8:1-2), and that she was with Jesus at His death (Matthew 27:56) and at His burial (Matthew 27:61). There’s no evidence in the Bible that she ever waivered in her devotion to Jesus. On the contrary, every indication is that she was one of Jesus’ most faithful followers.

And yet, like the rest of the disciples, she was left wondering what it meant to have faith in Jesus now that He had been crucified, died, and was buried. Like the rest, she too was without any direct command to obey. Nevertheless, in another act of simple devotion, on the third day, before dawn, Mary Magdalene decided to go to the tomb in which Jesus was buried (v.1).

John doesn’t tell us why she went there, but Mark does.

Mark 16:1 When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him.

We learn from the other Gospels that Mary wasn’t sure exactly how she was going to accomplish her aim with the stone and Roman guards blocking the entrance to the tomb. All we know is that she too wanted to honor Jesus even in His death and that burden led her to His grave to anoint Jesus very early on Sunday morning.

Again, just like last time, that puts the same question before each of us? What do you do when you don’t know what to do to honor God?

What do you do when you’ve prayed all the prayers but your spouse or kids just won’t walk in godliness? What do you say to the neighbor you’ve shared the gospel with many times, but still doesn’t believe? How do you honor God when you’ve done everything prescribed by God’s Word and the person you love is still suffers from some debilitating ailment? What does it mean to walk in faith when a child who once professed faith in Jesus, now lives a life of animosity toward God despite your prayers and pleas? What does godliness look like when you want to be married but no spouse has yet come your way?

What does it look like to live by faith when you want to believe in Jesus but don’t, when you don’t know how to decide what to do after graduation, when you’ve tried everything you can to bring healing to a broken relationship, when can’t get pregnant, when your house won’t sell or can’t find one to buy, when the appetite for a sickening sin won’t die, or when you lost your job and there are no prospects in sight?

The answer is that you set your hope on God, turn your eyes to the Scriptures, and act in simple devotion. You consider God’s Word and pray the next prayer or have the next conversation or remind yourself of the next promise of God. That’s what Mary Magdaline did in seeking to anoint Jesus’ body as an act of simple devotion.

Second, while Mary wasn’t sure what to expect when she got there, she definitely didn’t expect what she found.

1 Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.

She found, in the dark of the early morning hours, the entrance to Jesus’ tomb wide open. This was entirely out of place. The tomb was guarded (Matthew 27:62-66 tells us) and it would have come unsealed by Pilate himself or at the pain of death.

What could this mean?! Had Pilate authorized this? Was there a conspiracy among the guards? Had someone slipped past the guards unnoticed? There could be no other explanations, could there?!

Rather than investigate herself, Mary went running back to the other disciples, to Simon Peter and the disciple whom Jesus loved (John, the Gospel writer). She said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him” (2). Mary didn’t know who “they” were, but the only thing she could conceive was that someone (whether lawfully or otherwise) had taken Jesus’ body against every custom.

On the one hand, Mary Magdalene’s confusion was understandable. Everything was moving and swirling and overwhelming. And yet, more than simply misjudging between two possibilities (Jesus body had been taken and He had risen from the dead), only one option even occurred to Mary. She never even considered the possibility of resurrection.

We are right to wonder where this level of confusion came from? How was it possible that she was so misguided, so confused, so far from even considering the thing that actually happened?

John doesn’t tell us what he and Peter were thinking when Mary Magdalene first told them of the empty tomb, but neither does he tell us that either of them corrected Mary, pointing her to the resurrection.

Again, how could they, Jesus’ closest followers, the ones who had seen and heard Him more than anyone else, have so completely misread the situation? John tells us that it came from the fact that “as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead” (v.9).

We’ll come back to that in a few moments, but it’s right to let that sink in a bit. John’s basic claim is that “the Scripture” taught Jesus’ resurrection and Mary, Peter, and John all missed it.

The big idea of this passage is that in spite of all the OT promises and all of Jesus’ teaching, none of Jesus’ followers imagined Jesus’ resurrection as the explanation for the empty tomb. And, therefore, the main takeaways for us are to study the Word of God carefully and be humble.

I don’t believe that it’s even a slight exaggeration to say that there’s a way in which virtually all our non-physical struggles in life (and even many physical ones) come from a failure to properly understand God’s Word and live it out in humility.

What I mean is that, given God’s promises, particularly the promise to be at work for good in every single circumstance for those who love Him, truly understanding God’s Word really does allow us to count every hardship as “pure joy” (James 1:2).

When we understand and believe God’s promises for us in Jesus, we really will have our hearts and minds guarded in such a way that allows us to live in a kind of fearless and unending peace that surpasses all understanding (Philippians 4:7).

In the simplest terms, consider Mary’s great grief in v.11. Had she properly understood the Scripture in that moment, far from crying tears of lament, she would have been rejoicing (which she would soon do). Our lives are constantly like that as well.

That is not to say, of course, that there is no place for sadness or grief or anger. It is to say, however, that those things, properly rooted in the Scripture, will never compare to the eternal weight of glory promised by God for all who believe (2 Corinthians 4:17).

There’s one more thing I want to point out here. There is a danger in finding too much comfort in the fact that others share the same shortcomings as we do (that we suffer needlessly at times because we do not yet understand the Scripture), but there is also grace to be found there. It is significant that we are still dealing with many of the same struggles that Jesus’ followers have struggled with since the beginning. Sin does what sin does. Even in Christians, it blinds, deceives, corrupts, confuses, and misleads.

God’s sanctifying work in our souls will continue until we die or Jesus returns. Therefore, humbly, we study God’s Word, asking God’s Spirit to guide us into all truth according to the promise of God (16:13).

Third, clearly, Jesus’ closest followers were still figuring things out. With no evidence that they suspected Jesus had risen from the dead…

3 …Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going toward the tomb. 4 Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.

John, the author of this Gospel, as you know, was almost certainly “the other disciple,” “the one whom Jesus loved”. Not only was he the one whom Jesus loved, but he was also the one who beat Peter in the only NT footrace. And not only was he loved by Jesus and faster than Peter, but both of those things are forever preserved in the Word of God.

I have no idea what that means if it means anything beyond the obvious, and you probably wouldn’t believe some of the attempts serious scholars have made at interpreting the “spiritual meaning” of v.4, but I laugh every time I read it. I doubt that there’s supposed to be humor here, but I can’t help imagining myself telling the story exactly like this—Dave, Jesus’ favorite disciple, and Jack were running to meet Jesus and Dave won.

Whatever else all of this might mean, the main point is that John and Peter were able to confirm the empty tomb that Mary Magdalene reported.

Once there, John…

5 …stooping to look in, saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in.

Quick on John’s heels, but with less restraint,

6 …Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there, 7 and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself.

Once again, many elaborate but (to me at least) unconvincing suggestions have been made concerning the meaning of the description of the state of Jesus’ burial clothes. What all agree on, however, is that rightly interpreted, they leave absolutely no doubt about the fact that Jesus left death behind entirely. Jesus not only rose from the dead, He gained complete victory over death. One who can never die again has no need of burial clothes.

John (“the other disciple”) eventually entered the tomb as well and, curiously,

8 Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed

This is strange, isn’t it? (Not that John repeated the fact that he beat Peter in the race, but that) the passage says that John “saw and believed.” John already believed in Jesus, didn’t he? Isn’t that why he followed Him for years? Isn’t that why he was at the tomb in that moment? If so, what did it mean that “he saw and believed”.

The answer is that in that moment John saw the empty tomb and the burial clothes and gained some measure of understanding and belief that Jesus had risen from the dead. We know from the very next verse (“for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead.”), from what he did in response (v.10), and even more from Luke 24 (more in the final point) that there was a much greater level of understanding yet to come. Nevertheless, John tells us that he believed in Jesus’ resurrection on some level at this moment.

That too ought to be a tempered encouragement to us, Grace Church. The Christian life, no matter how humbly we seek to understand and live out God’s Word, is always marked by growing belief. Often our belief grows imperceptibly and sometimes, as with John here, it grows in a significant leap. Sometimes, as one pastor says it, the Holy Spirit can cause our belief to grow so much that it almost feels like we weren’t even saved before.

When I first got married and got into ministry and became a parent, I certainly believed that there would be significant highs and lows. Twenty-five years into those things, having experienced previously unimaginable highs and lows, I really believe that. More than likely, by fifty years, should the Lord allow Gerri and I to live that long, I will believe in an entirely greater way. That’s just how God has determined to work belief in His people. It’s curious, but it’s inevitable. It’s “inefficient,” but it’s glorious. And so, we believe and we continue to humbly pray that God would help us with our unbelief (Mark 9:24).

All of that brings us to the fourth part of the sermon and to a point I said I’d come back to. In v.9, John wrote, “for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead.”

In other words, whatever John came to believe concerning the resurrection in v.8, it was still not rooted in the OT Scripture. Perhaps he simply remembered some of what Jesus said about His resurrection and began putting pieces together. Whatever it was, there was still a veil over his eyes concerning the OT promises.

What Scripture was John referring to when he wrote this (with the benefit of hindsight)?

Before I get there, I want to further drive home the point that the NT authors understood the OT to promise a resurrection for believers in general and for the Christ/Messiah in particular.

In Matthew 22 Jesus confronted a group of Sadducees concerning the resurrection. They didn’t believe in it, but knowing that Jesus did, they tried to trap Him with a hypothetical/theological resurrection dilemma. Jesus explained that their entire understanding of the resurrection was “mistaken, because you know neither the Scriptures [the OT] nor the power of God” (22:29).

Jesus corrected the Sadducees misunderstanding of the reality and nature of the resurrection by pointing them back to the OT. In other words, Jesus taught that the OT taught the resurrection.

The Apostle Paul taught the same thing in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, “Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures…”.

And that was John’s point in our passage for today as well. The disciples didn’t understand the empty tomb, because they didn’t understand the resurrection, because they didn’t understand the OT (v.9).

But again, where do the Scriptures speak of resurrection or a resurrected Messiah? In many places. Consider quickly the following small handful of examples…

Isaiah 25:8 He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.

Isaiah 26:19 Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy! For your dew is a dew of light, and the earth will give birth to the dead.

Psalm 49:15 But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol, for he will receive me.

Psalm 71:20 You who have made me see many troubles and calamities will revive me again; from the depths of the earth you will bring me up again.

Daniel 12:1-2 …your people shall be delivered, everyone whose name shall be found written in the book. 2 And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

Psalm 16:10 For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption.

Isaiah 53:10-11 …it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. 11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.

There are a number of other passages that speak of a resurrection from the dead for God’s people (Job 19:25–27; Psalm 73:23–28; Isaiah 25:8; 26:19; Ezekiel 37:1–14; Hosea 13:14; etc.), but the simple point that John was making is that the disciples whiffed on the meaning of the empty tomb because they hadn’t read their Bibles very well. Eventually, however, with Jesus’ help (Luke 24), His followers would come to recognize these things for what they were, promises of and proof that Jesus was indeed the resurrected Christ.

Finally, fifth, the tomb was empty, John believed in some greater way, and so the disciples…what? What did they do in light of the empty grave and some measure of increased belief? What was their response to this unexpected twist?

Whatever you imagined the answer to be, it probably wasn’t what we find in vs.10-11.

10 Then the disciples went back to their homes. 11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb.

John and Peter went home and Mary stayed and cried. That’s it?!

Our natural tendency is to scratch our heads and wonder at their obtuseness. How could that be their response? Just about anything else makes more sense, doesn’t it? John explains what he had just come to understand and believe. The three send out a search party, talk to Pilate or the Jews, proclaim the good news with reckless abandon, or call the other disciples together to pray and come up with a plan. Again, just about anything makes more sense than go home or stay and cry, right?

One more time we find a picture of ourselves in this. How many times have you experienced the unmistakable hand of God in your life, been moved by it to worship, and then gone home to take a nap or fallen back into your routine within days if not hours if not minutes?

How many of you spent how much time praying for our pastor of discipleship? How many of you rejoiced with us at the first-time unanimous decision to call Collin (remember singing the doxology together)? How many of you then went home and fell asleep on the couch to a football game you didn’t care about or got to some project around the house?

Andrew and I talked about this a bit. He prayed for so long for Lilly to be born healthy and happy. She was. He praised God. And now he marvels at how quickly she became “normal”.

I think of praying together for Alice Saari, the building purchase, the salvation of our kids, etc., seeing God’s miraculous faithfulness in those things, praising Him, and then going to get pizza.

I think of God miraculously leading Israel out of Egypt through devastating plagues and the parting of a sea. Abraham’s offspring praised God and then in a matter of days were grumbling again. I think of Moses on the mountain, covered in clouds and glory, shaking with the voice of God and the Israelites impatiently forging a golden calf.

And on and on.

This is how we are and this is how we will be until we die or Jesus returns. By God’s grace, this quick forgetfulness will decrease, but traces of it will always remain in this life.

We are John, Peter, and Mary. We are forgetful and confused and inconsistent.

And all of that is exactly why Jesus had to die and rise again. He is our only, but certain hope. The whole point of John 20 is that Jesus’ followers could not act faithfully on their own and so Jesus had to act faithfully in their place. The tomb was empty precisely because His followers were too dense to know why the tomb was empty.

More than just human nature, though, Luke explains that there was a deeper need that kept Jesus’ followers from responding as they ought. They needed Jesus’ help, not just to redeem them from their unbelief, but to even see it in the first place.

Interestingly, as I’ve mentioned a few times already (with a promised explanation), Luke reports that it wasn’t until the resurrected Jesus opened the eyes of His followers that they actually understood.

Luke 24:25-27 And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

Luke 24:31-34 And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. … 32 They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?” 33 And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. And they found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, 34 saying, “The Lord has risen indeed…

Just as Jesus’ followers were confused concerning the nature of His Christness, they were confused about the nature of His death and resurrection. But Jesus did not leave them in that state of confusion. He explained it all to them and then they believed, “The Lord has risen indeed!”.

Again, in this short passage we see that although John had some kind of understanding of Jesus’ resurrection, it was limited and apparently unique (none of the rest of Jesus’ followers understood). And that in spite of the facts that the OT promised resurrection generally and the resurrection of the Messiah specifically and Jesus Himself promised His resurrection. Altogether, this helps us see the need to study God’s Word, with God’s help, and walk humbly before Him, often in simple devotion in times of mystery and suffering. The gospel is such good news that as we do so in faith in Jesus, God will receive our simple devotion as the righteousness of Christ. Glory to God alone!

So where is Jesus? You’ll have to come back next week to find out.

Psalm 116 I love the Lord, because he has heard
        my voice and my pleas for mercy.
2 Because he inclined his ear to me,
        therefore I will call on him as long as I live.
3 The snares of death encompassed me;
        the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me;
        I suffered distress and anguish.
4 Then I called on the name of the Lord:
        “O Lord, I pray, deliver my soul!”
5 Gracious is the Lord, and righteous;
        our God is merciful.
6 The Lord preserves the simple;
        when I was brought low, he saved me.
7 Return, O my soul, to your rest;
        for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.
8 For you have delivered my soul from death,
        my eyes from tears,
        my feet from stumbling;
9 I will walk before the Lord
        in the land of the living.
10 I believed, even when I spoke:
        “I am greatly afflicted”;
11 I said in my alarm,
        “All mankind are liars.”
12 What shall I render to the Lord
        for all his benefits to me?
13 I will lift up the cup of salvation
        and call on the name of the Lord,
14 I will pay my vows to the Lord
        in the presence of all his people.
15 Precious in the sight of the Lord
        is the death of his saints.
16 O Lord, I am your servant;
        I am your servant, the son of your maidservant.
        You have loosed my bonds.
17 I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving
        and call on the name of the Lord.
18 I will pay my vows to the Lord
        in the presence of all his people,
19 in the courts of the house of the Lord,
        in your midst, O Jerusalem.
Praise the Lord!

“Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.” You are going to die. You don’t know when. Will it be in the early morning or late at night? You don’t know how. Will it be peacefully in your sleep? Will it be at the end of a long and painful bout with cancer? At some point in time, that 15 ounce muscle that is steadily pumping life-giving blood throughout your body 100,000 times a day and 35 million times a year will beat one last time. Your skin will turn cold. Your body will become rigid. It will return to the dust from which it came.

How about your funeral? Have you considered what you would want that to look like? I think about it fairly often especially when we gather in this room on Sunday mornings to worship. The tongue that I sing with and the hands that lift up in praise to God will one day be in a casket in the front of this room. I have thought about what Scripture will be read and what songs will be sung. When Johanna and I were married, we sang In Christ Alone at our service. It seems fitting to have that sung at my funeral. No guilt in life, no fear in death/ This is the power of Christ in me/ From life’s first cry to final breath/ Jesus commands my destiny/ no power of hell, no scheme of man/ Can ever pluck me from His hand/ Till he returns or calls me home/ Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand. I picture Pastor Dave preaching, if he isn’t dead before me. I picture my two favorite chapters of the Bible being read; Romans 8 and Hebrews 11. And I picture the song Beautiful Eulogy being played as my casket is rolled out of the room. So this is my hope and my prayer/ The air that I’ll breathe in eternity with lungs that never fail me/ It if pleases my Lord, and only by your grace/ Use my life ’til its poured out for Your sake/ Until then I’ll remain where You have me/ With joy when I feel unhappy/ And a peace that surpasses all my understanding/ My life is in the hands of your love everlasting/ And when it is my time to go/ Go ahead and take me home/ I know I’ll be with you/ I know I’ll be with you

The reality of your death is not new information to you this morning. Although it may be uncomfortable or awkward information that you choose not to bring to the forefront of your thinking very often. Here in America, we live in a world where we have the luxury of not having to consider death very often. Modern medicine can be quick to heal things that would have killed us 150 years ago. We don’t have bombs raining down on us. How many actual dead bodies have you seen in your lifetime? We live in a relatively sanitized and sterile country compared to other countries or at other points of history. I had 3 days on the job as a brand new cop when I did CPR for the first time on a man. The heart attack had come upon him suddenly and unexpectedly, as he was in the bathroom, getting ready to start his day, just like any other day. I can remember his wife’s screams and tears. I can remember having death staring me down in a way I had never seen before. Just a few minutes ago this man was brushing his teeth and now his soul was in eternity.

Psalm 116 is here to help you face the reality of the deep sorrows in life and your imminent rendezvous with death. Psalm 116 is here to help remind God’s servants and saints that their sufferings are known to Him, and that their death is held as precious to Him. In times of distress and moments of death, God’s servants and saints cry out to him in prayer, find rest in his benefits, trust in his words, and praise him for his salvation. What depths of splendid glory and sweet comfort and practical help are waiting for your discovery in this psalm, if God will grant you eyes to see and ears to hear it.

The point of this psalm, and the other 149 psalms in this book is to help you have proper, God-exalting feelings that have their roots in powerful, God-revealed truths, for walking in the path of God-glorifying obedience. Your feelings (emotions, affections) are powerful motivators to obey God, if they are grounded in the rock-solid foundation of God’s truth that we find in the Bible. Emotions and affections are scattered throughout the book of Psalms and this whole book is here to help you know what good emotions you should have and identify what wrong emotions you shouldn’t have…and what your response should be with those good or bad emotions.

Our disposition and bent at Grace Church is to be thinkers. We like to think. Our bent is towards thinking, reading and discussing. That is good and right, but it should not stop there. Our right thinking should be the stove top of which our emotions come to a boil. Right thinking ought to fuel right affections. “Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you (Psalm 73:25).” “In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore (Psalm 16:11).” In Psalm 116 we see the emotions of love and anguish, distress and praise, thanksgiving and desperation. God-exalting feelings have their roots in powerful, God-revealed truths. That’s our aim as God’s servants and saints. All the sermons preached here, all the books we read, every Berea; is meant to help you think rightly, feel deeply, and obey more consistently, until your last breath, for the glory of God.

Psalm 116 is a psalm of thanksgiving. The writer is not merely saying thank you to God as an act of words coming out his mouth, but is expressing a deep thankfulness from the heart that flows from grateful praise for what God has done. There are various categories of songs in the book of Psalms (songs of praise, royal songs about the king, communal complaint songs, individual complaint songs), but this is one of thanksgiving. This type of song can also be found also in Psalm 18, 30, 32, 34, 92, 118 and 138.

Verse 3 lays out the situation the writer of this psalm is in. “The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me; I suffered distress and anguish.” We see two descriptions of the situation he is in. First, it is like a snare. He is caught in a near death experience like an animal caught in a trap that can’t escape. If you’ve ever seen some kind of animal caught in a trap, you know the frantic desperation they have. Death will close in on them if they do not escape, yet they don’t have the ability to escape. Secondly, the pain of Sheol has a tightening grip on him. Sheol is the poetic name for death. Depending on the context of the verse and chapter, it can either refer to eternal separation from the presence of God, or it can refer to experiencing death and going to the grave (which is the use of it in this verse). This is not a light trial he is going through. He is on the brink of death, the situation is consuming him completely, and it has a strangle hold on his soul, to the point that he is suffering great distress and anguish.

Having served as an elder in this church for a decade, I know from experience that usually at least one person or one family is in a situation like this. Sometimes many are in this kind of a situation. I have been in situations like this. A situation where the distress and anguish feel so heavy, that life is squeezed out of you and death feels like it is wrapping its cold grip tighter and tighter. On any given Sunday, as you stand here and sing, look around you and take that reality in. The life of the godly is not one of looking put together on a Sunday morning and having all your spiritual ducks in a row. If you are experiencing distress and anguish, know that many others in this church are as well. You are not alone. Your suffering may be unique or look different from others, yet the feelings of distress and anguish are still there.

That’s the situation, but how does this Psalm start? Look at verse 1. “I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy.” He starts with expressing his love for the Lord (the personal name for God almighty). This is the starting point. This is the home page, the orientation, the disposition of his heart. Love for his Lord. His affection, his desire is stirred up within him because he knows the Lord has heard his pleading for mercy.

This is the mark of a desperate man, caught in the trap of death, pleading with almighty God for mercy and deliverance. His love (an affection, a desire) for God is rooted in the truth that God hears him. Just as you enjoy the shade of a tree on a blistering hot, humid day; or embrace the soothing warmth of a crackling fire on a cold, winter night; or quench the thirst of your dry, sticky throat with ice cold water; so is this man desiring God through his prayers for deliverance.

What specifically is the root of his love for the Lord in the act of prayer? It is the fact that God really hears him. God listens to him. If you are in an emergency situation, and you need help, what good is the cell phone to call 911 if you don’t have any signal or have a dead battery? The dispatcher can’t hear your emergency. Help won’t be able to come. Take comfort in the reality that God hears your prayers! Right now you are one of nearly 8 billion people on this planet, and God can hear you. God who heard this man’s desperate prayer thousands of years ago in the middle east somewhere is the same God who hears our prayers this very morning in Minnesota. He hears his people’s cry for help. God’s servants have his ear. He always hears them. Whatever time in history they have been in and wherever in the world they were, God hears them.

So call on Him. Call on Him as long as there is breath in your lungs. Call on Him when times are good and when times are bad. Children just starting out in life- call on Him. Seniors who will be nearing death soon- call on Him. Call on Him as long as you live. Call on Him even as he takes the last breaths of air from your lungs. The storehouse of his graciousness and righteousness and mercy await for your cry.

Notice in verse 4 that he asks the Lord to deliver his soul. “O Lord, I pray, deliver my soul!” In your suffering and anguish, there is more going on than just physical pain. You are more than merely a physical body. You have something eternal and immaterial. He wants his soul to be delivered. He recognizes that there is more going on in his situation than just physical suffering or mental suffering. He knows that his soul may be tempted to find rest in something other than God because of his suffering. He may be tempted to forget God.

God may choose to deliver you from your trials in this life or he may choose to deliver you from the trial in your death. We can see in Hebrews 11 that some saints in Scripture were delivered from the sword and some were delivered into eternity by the sword. God may choose to heal you from the cancer in this life or he may choose to heal you by taking your life through the cancer. Go to God in your trials with desperate, dependent prayer that cries out, “I love you Lord, because you hear me!” The greatest need for your soul is not to be delivered from your trial but to have your soul desperately dependent on Him and trusting in him no matter what happens to you.

Look at verse 7. “Return, O my soul, to your rest; for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.” A couple of weeks ago Johanna and I celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary by going to Duluth and staying at the same bed and breakfast we had stayed at on our honeymoon. This old, beautiful house was built in 1903, and has a large banister staircase that stares right at you as you enter the front door. We recreated a picture of us sitting on that banister, exactly like the one we took back in 2006. I looked at these two pictures side-by-side. In the one picture, there were two, 24 year-olds that had just said their wedding vows, happy to start a new life together. In the other picture, there are now two, 42 year-olds, with some new wrinkles showing on their faces, having lived through the joys and sorrows of life together. I saw these two pictures as book ends to 18 years of life lived. I wondered what I would say to that 24 year-old Kyle, if I could somehow go back in time. What wisdom would I share about how to walk along the path when the snares of death and pangs of Sheol try to wrap their cords around him? I would say verses 5 through 9 to the 24 year-old Kyle Puelston.

First, notice carefully two things that are happening in verse 7. The psalmist is reminding himself (his soul) of what is true. He has climbed up into the pulpit of his own soul and is preaching to himself. He is telling his soul to find rest in God. This was just revolutionary to me when I understood it for the first time years ago. Do not passively listen to your brain telling you that life is too hard, or that God doesn’t care about you and what is happening to you, or that your life is unfair. Don’t do that. Instead talk to yourself like the psalmists do! Say, “Soul! Yes, life is hard. Yes, I feel like my trials have me on the brink of death. But God is holding out rest for my soul. He has dealt bountifully with me even as I am suffering here.” Take the sermons you hear preached here on Sunday mornings and preach them again to your souls on Monday night or Thursday afternoon or Saturday night. Memorize a chapter of the Bible that you can anchor your soul too. I have preached Hebrews 11 and Romans 8 to my soul thousands of times. Take the lyrics of the songs we sing, put them on a playlist and let them preach to your soul. Songs like Christ our Glory can ring the bell of truth in your soul when the pain of Sheol takes hold. Our rest is in heaven, our rest is not here/ Then why should we tremble when trials draw near?/ Be still and remember the worst that can come/ But shortens our journey and hastens us home.

What we learn from verse 7 is that we can find rest for our soul in the bounty of how God has dealt with us in distress and in moments of death. The next question is, how has God done this? Please, tell me specifically song writer, how does God give rest to the soul and bountifully deal with his servants and saints when they are going through Sheol. The psalmist doesn’t leave this answer vague. He gets specific. I hope what is about to be unpacked quickly here in verses 5, 6, 8, 9 and 10 washes over you with profound thankfulness and praise to God. I hope it stirs surging love in you, towards God for who he is for his people.

First, look at verse 5. He says that God is three things. “Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; our God is merciful.” He is gracious, He is righteous and He is merciful. God’s graciousness is the kindness of his stooping down from heaven and showing favor to His inferior people. Righteousness is the right conduct and character which God has and shows in dispensing justice. He is reliably faithful. Mercy is the display of his tender affection. When the psalmist calls on the name of God in prayer, this is a description of what God will be for Him. Who God is and what he does is all that we need in life and in death. His grace and righteousness and mercy are there for His people to meditate on, to pray for, and to delight in.

Next, look at verse 6. “The Lord preserves the simple.” This word means naive and untrained. That is what I think of when I look at 24 year-old Kyle Puelston sitting on that staircase in 2006. Very naive. Very untrained. Needing to learn to discern wisdom from foolishness. God does not look to preserve those who have a certain amount of intellect. Kids, you do not need to have straight A’s on your report card for God to hear your prayers. In your foolishness and at the lowest and hardest times in your life, when you are completely undone, God will still keep you if you belong to Him. The whole Bible is filled with stories of men and women like this. As Hebrews 11 says, time would fail us to hear all the stories of Noah and Abraham and Sarah and Moses and Gideon and Barak and Sampson and Jepthah and the list could go on. A list of simple and low people that God dealt bountifully with.

Next, look at verse 8. “For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling.” While God can and does deliver from death, this verse doesn’t necessarily mean deliverance from physical death. We will see in verse 15 that death is on the table as an option, and we know that we will all die. The death in this verse could also be the death of dreams and plans you had for your life. When I sat on those steps for that picture in 2006, there were ideas and goals I had for how I wanted the path of my life to go. Since that time, tears have accumulated and my feet have stumbled on unexpected circumstances. I have seen dreams die and plans fail. I am sure that many of you could say the same thing. Yet God delivers. He brings us through these deaths with his grace and mercy, working righteousness on our behalf.

Finally, because of God’s bountiful dealing with the psalmist, look at his resolve in verse 9. “I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.” What is this land of the living? It is the arena of life. It is the life you are living and the lives we are living together. He is saying, “As long as I have breath, I’m walking with God.” There is no alternative route. There is nowhere else I’m walking to. Death and Sheol seek to wrap their icy grip around his soul. He stumbles and cries. Yet…yet the eyes of his soul are fixed on God’s graciousness, mercy and righteousness.

He could give in to simplistic, foolish thinking at this point. Life is too hard. Death and Sheol have too tight a grip on me. I’m done with trying to walk with God. This is too much. This is too painful. Instead, he is preaching to himself with resolve saying that as long as he has breath, he will walk in the grace and mercy and righteousness of God. He is choosing the opposite of death. He is choosing life in the midst of deathly circumstances. Like a mountain climber who has his eyes set on summiting a mountain. Maybe the climber took the wrong route up and now the climb is harder than he expected. Maybe his backpack strap broke and now he’s feeling extra weight tug at his shoulders. Maybe biting, bitter wind has kicked up and is stinging his face. Yet, his eyes are fixed on that summit, where he can see brilliant gleams of light reflecting off the snow-capped peak. He continues to take the next step, drawing strength and vigor and action from the glory of what his eyes are fixed on and where he wants to eventually be.

We will come back and end at verses 10 and 11. For now, skip to verse 12 and see what the writer asks in light of what he has said. “What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me?” What do we do in response to all that God has done for us? How should we think about paying back God for all his grace, mercy and righteousness that he’s bountifully poured out on us? Can we even pay him back for hearing our cry for help?

In verses 14 and 18 he says that he will pay his vows to the Lord, and in verse 17 he says he will offer to God the sacrifice of thanksgiving. As Christians today, in our church gatherings under the new covenant brought in through Jesus, we practice singing, prayer, preaching, communion and baptism as expressions of obedience and worship to God. In the Old Testament, God’s people would have understood this psalm under the system of offering animals upon the altar in the temple. When verse 17 refers to the sacrifice of thanksgiving, this could be a reference to Leviticus 7:11-12. That passage explains how the peace offering was to be performed. The peace offering would be offered as an expression of thanksgiving to God, after the completion of a vow made to God, or out freewill. It was a voluntary sacrifice. This was the only sacrifice where the Israelite making the offering could directly participate in the offering, and the only one in which they would eat some of the animal offered to God. This offering was an expression of thanksgiving to God for all his benefits shown to his people.

However, in the Hebrew language, the word thanksgiving does not exist. While we think of thanksgiving as a way to express gratitude, the word has a deeper meaning as it is used in verse 17. It is used to express gratitude, but it goes deeper than that. It also means to confess or declare or to proclaim. It isn’t just expressing gratitude. It is declaring praise and worship to God. You can’t repay God for all his benefits. He’s not like a mortgage payment where you slowly pay him back. When the psalmist says that he’s paying his vows to the Lord and offering a sacrifice of thanksgiving, these are expressions of love and praise and worship for God. This is the overflow of a heart satisfied in the grace and mercy and righteousness of God.

What shall we render to the Lord for all his benefits? We lift up the cup of our salvation, calling on Him, (verse 13) asking God to fill it with more of his bounty. More of his grace and mercy and righteousness.

The Jewish people used to sing this psalm after their Passover meal. Picture Jesus, at the passover meal with his disciples, on the verge of his crucifixion, singing Psalm 116. He had just held up the cup of wine, telling them that this is the blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. He was about to be the sacrifice for the eternal deliverance of his people over death, sin and hell. The Israelites could partake in the sacrifice of thanksgiving by eating a part of the animal, as way to thank and praise God for all his benefits, and this was a pointer to the greater sacrifice that was to be made by Jesus. Today, we drink the cup at communion as an expression of thanks and praise to Jesus for pouring out his blood for us. What shall we render to the Lord for all his benefits? We lift up the cup of our salvation purchased through Jesus Christ who poured out his blood for us. His death is our life.

This is the type of life set before us in Psalm 116. This song writer calls himself a servant of God in verse 16 and a saint of God in verse 15. That is how he views himself and sees his life. A servant (obedient to the master) and saint (faithful to the master). The life of the servant and saint that pours his life out in love and praise to God, and cries out in prayer to God, and takes joy in the grace and mercy and righteousness of God; that life, and that death, is what is precious to God. God finds value in that life and prizes that type of life. The trials may kill you. You may never find complete relief from the sorrow of this life, yet God has provided something better for you. That which is better is the reward of him saying that your life is of value to Him, and he is not wasting one second of it.

There is one final thing I want you to see in this section. Verses 18 and 19 show that your life and death as servant and saint is not to be done in isolation. This is a community project and not lone ranger Christianity. This type of life is done in the presence of all his people and in the courts of the house of the Lord. That is why Sunday morning worship and midweek Discipleship Groups should not be optional for you as people of Grace Church! We draw strength from one another and share in one another’s suffering and rejoicing and learn from one another as we grow in our love for God.

Now, let’s return to verses 10 and 11 and end here. “I believed, even when I spoke: ‘I am greatly afflicted’; I said in my alarm, ‘All mankind are liars.’” The psalmist is saying here, “God, I’m really in a bad spot in my life right now. I’m struggling to believe that you are good and that you are doing something good right now. Yet, I will believe. Where else can I go? Nothing mankind can promise me will ever be able to fully satisfy. It is all a lie. Only you hold the truth, and I will hold on to you in faith.”

Paul quotes Psalm 116:10 in 2 Corinthians 4:13. “Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, ‘I believed, and so I spoke,’ we also believe, and so we also speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving to the glory of God.”

Christians are people who believe what has been written in this book. Faith is the way in which we hold on to the truths of Psalm 116 and 2 Corinthians 4. The heart that trusts in this book is the heart that says, even though I am afflicted, I’m not crushed. Even though I am perplexed at what God is doing, I will not be driven to despair. Even if I am persecuted, I know I am not forsaken. Even if am struck down, I am not destroyed. Why? Because Jesus bought me through his sacrificial death. The cup of his blood was poured out at the cross, so the cup of my salvation can be lifted up in love and worship. Oh, I hope that shoots through your soul with utter amazement and joy and worship to Jesus Christ. I hope that helps you sing your guts out in a few moments when we sing again.

Christians are people that do not have to lose heart. This light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. Each day that our bodies are wasting away from the decay of living in a sin-stained, sin-soaked world, our souls are being renewed day by day. The best is yet to come.

Unbeliever, my question to you is, would have you this Jesus who was poured out for your sake? Would you have this Jesus who offered himself freely and completely at the cross, so that you could be totally and thoroughly his. Would you have this Jesus who offers you a way for your sin and rebellion against a holy, righteous God to be forgiven. Receive him as your Savior. Repent. Trust. Plead with him to give you the gift of faith in Him. Believe in Him.

We all are going to die should Christ not return first. Your heart will pump one last time. Your lungs will fill with air one last time. The hope for the life of the woman and the man, whose faith is in Jesus, who love and worship God, who live and die as servants and saints; the guaranteed hope that you have is that because Jesus rose from the dead, you too will be raised from the dead. And you will be brought into the presence of Jesus forever in the new heavens and the new earth. Tears will be wiped away. All the plans that you had for your life which have fallen into pieces, will be restored to you in ways you can’t even begin to imagine now. And together, people from every tribe, tongue and nation will join in worship together at the marriage supper of the Lamb. We will eat. We will drink. We will sing. We will be filled with perfect joy, basking in the glory of God which will take an eternity for us to fully grasp.

I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy. Praise the Lord!