Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:24] Speaker B: Hello, I'm Josh.
[00:00:25] Speaker A: And I'm Gabriel.
[00:00:26] Speaker B: And today on reading the Gospel, we are studying Peter called again. This is found in John, chapter 21, verses 15 through 23. Follow along with us.
[00:00:42] Speaker A: When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than this?
He said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you.
And Jesus said to him, feed my lambs.
Jesus said to him the second time, simon, son of John, do you love me?
He said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you.
And Jesus said to him, tend my sheep.
And Jesus 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 Jesus, lord, you know everything.
You know that I love you. Jesus said to him, feed my sheep.
Truly, truly, I say to you, when you are 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.
This Jesus said, to show by what kind of death Peter was to glorify God.
And after saying this, Jesus said to Peter, follow me.
[00:02:05] Speaker B: Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them, the one who had also leaned back against him and during the supper and said, lord, who is it that's going to betray you? When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, lord, what about this man? Jesus said to him, if it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?
You follow me.
So the 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 till I come, what is that to you?
So this event has been talked about a lot. It's a very common event in the Bible.
Peter had denied Jesus three times.
It was public, people knew about this, and Jesus forgave him.
But now this is Jesus public reinstating of Peter.
This isn't Jesus elevating Peter above the other disciples or giving him more authority than the other disciples.
This is Jesus reinstating him into the service that he had originally called him to do. Am I right on that?
[00:03:26] Speaker A: Oh, absolutely, yes.
[00:03:29] Speaker B: This first question, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?
What is these?
[00:03:39] Speaker A: The construction of the Greek sentence might refer either to other disciples.
The question would be, do you, Peter, love me more than you love these people, your friends, your.
Your colleagues, for you know, many years.
Another meaning of these can be the boat and the fishing gear.
Because in the previous event, we saw that Peter, somehow on the way to that mountain in Galilee, he stopped by and reverted to his previous trade, previous occupation.
And when Jesus Christ called Peter the first time, he left everything behind.
And now Jesus found him again with the same old tray, the same old gear, the same old habits.
And Jesus says, have you indeed left everything behind?
Do you love me more than the boat and the fishing gear? Than your old life?
[00:04:49] Speaker B: Yeah, I like that application. Because like you said, Jesus called him the very first time, and then he goes out and he's fishing again. And so Jesus does that miracle we talked about where in Luke 5, he brings in all the fish.
And so now we find this coming back around to this again.
[00:05:08] Speaker A: And look, we might not be loving fishing, but we all love something.
And in other words, we all have to leave something behind.
When Jesus Christ calls us, it can be simple gadgets, it can be a dream.
It can be sometimes a trade or a career.
It can be friendships and sometimes even family. All of us have to leave something because when Jesus Christ calls us, we have to leave everything behind and follow him.
[00:05:44] Speaker B: I would clarify that a little bit more, because Jesus might use fishing for you to win people to him, but we need to be willing to surrender this all to him. We need to be willing to give everything up and have Jesus in control of everything.
So leaving it behind might not be no longer doing something, it might be doing it in a different way, doing it in a purpose that points to Jesus.
[00:06:14] Speaker A: Yeah, I should have clarified that not everyone is called by Jesus Christ who left their trade or occupation. No, the majority of us, in fact.
God is using our trade, our skills, our social network to reach other people, Right?
[00:06:34] Speaker B: Yeah. And even, even our hobbies, God can use our hobbies.
When I was in getting my masters, I went out and I pray every time I went mountain bike riding that God would use me. And the trails I was riding, no one would ride.
And as I'm riding there, eventually I meet someone out there riding and it turned into a Bible study. And then he invited his friends and it was a group Bible study all out of this. And. And you know, I've turned many of my hobbies into ministries by praying that God will use them. So God can use a lot, but we need to be willing to walk away from anything if God asks us to.
So Jesus asked Peter three times, do you love me?
And Peter responds, the last time, he's very grieved Because I think it hit.
This is. You know, I denied him three times, and Jesus had to ask me again three times.
But Jesus doesn't punish Peter.
He's not trying to humiliate him or. Or hurt him.
He's trying to call Peter.
And then he. He finishes this conversation with Peter by sharing with Peter how he's going to die.
[00:08:06] Speaker A: And it's very interesting that Jesus kind of prepares the way for that and by asking Peter three times.
And the third time, Peter was kind of sad, even grieved. Says here he says, lord, you know everything.
Before that he said, you know that I love you. This time he says, you'll know absolutely everything.
And maybe that's everything he had in mind. Three times he denied that night that he knew Jesus Christ.
So when Peter was able to humble himself, that is when he was ready to know more about his future, about his ministry, and, of course, about his death.
[00:08:57] Speaker B: Yeah. And even knowing that Jesus is like, even if you know that this is how it's going to end, will you follow me?
[00:09:06] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:09:07] Speaker B: And he gets up and he leaves, and Peter follows him practically.
[00:09:10] Speaker A: Peter said, it is worth following Jesus Christ, even if you know the end from the beginning.
[00:09:18] Speaker B: And, you know, so many times we think, well, if I know the end, I'll be ready to follow Jesus.
But this is kind of the opposite.
This is how it's going to happen. Are you sure you still want to follow me? And Peter says, yes. Then we have this other interaction with John.
Now, John is the author of the Book of John, obviously, and he calls himself the disciple who Jesus loves.
And so I love this interaction because as Jesus is walking with Peter, Peter turns around and sees John following him.
And he's like, what about that man back there?
I imagine a little competition between them.
[00:10:02] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. In other words, Peter said, lord, you made me, you know, confess these three times. You reconciled me. You helped me, you know, humble my ego.
Of course, I know now more about my future. How about him? Yeah.
[00:10:19] Speaker B: What's going to happen to him should he do this? And Jesus is like, what does it matter to you?
[00:10:27] Speaker A: I really like this statement of Jesus Christ. Yeah. Our discipleship is a personal, individual relationship with Christ.
Of course, we encourage people to go to church to worship together.
Corporate or group worship has its own meaning.
But our relationship with God is individual.
[00:10:50] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:10:50] Speaker A: We receive Christ individually.
We walk with him on a one, on one basis in the day of judgment, as in that old gospel song says, it's me, it's me, O Lord, I am accountable. It's not My mother, nor my father, nor my uncle or aunt or so it is me.
I would be accountable before God. So I like to emphasize, not because we preach the gospel from America, that is very individualistic society, but this is in the Gospel which was preached by Jesus christ more than 2000 years ago.
It doesn't matter what someone else is doing. You follow me?
[00:11:38] Speaker B: Yeah. And I think it's also important know you might be struggling with sickness.
And so you're praying that God will heal this sickness and God will give you relief and freedom. And then someone, your friend is praying the exact same prayer because they have the exact same sickness. And God heals them, but he doesn't heal you.
And you might think, well, is their faith stronger? Did they deserve? You know what? What are they doing that I'm not doing doing? And the answer is God deals with each one of us differently.
[00:12:14] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:12:14] Speaker B: And what is it to me that if God chooses to cure an incurable disease from someone else, whereas I have to deal with it until the end, does it take away God's love for me? Does it take away any justice or anything? No. God. God is able to do what he wishes to do and what he wills to do.
And we need to be aware that just because God treated one person one way doesn't mean he's going to treat another person that same way.
[00:12:49] Speaker A: And we have to learn from this story, especially verse 23, that based on misreading the answer of Jesus Christ, the saying spread among the brothers that this disciple, that is John, was not to die.
But Jesus Christ didn't say that.
So this is why you have to be very careful how we read the gospel. Yeah. How we hear the words of Jesus Christ, sometimes we read in them what we would like to happen to us.
[00:13:21] Speaker B: Yeah.
So God desires good for us.
[00:13:25] Speaker A: Amen.
[00:13:26] Speaker B: And God has an ultimate plan that is to save us. He's doing a work in us. And that work might take a path that we don't expect, but Philippians 1:6 says God is faithful that he will complete that work in us when Jesus Christ comes.
[00:13:46] Speaker A: Yeah. The good work that he started in us.
[00:13:49] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:13:49] Speaker A: He will complete it.
[00:13:51] Speaker B: And so let us continue to come to God and. And surrender to him and follow him, no matter what he calls us to do. Father God, I'm so thankful that you work with us individually that I don't need to do what you've called Gabriel to do and that he doesn't need to do what you've called me to do.
And Father, I pray that we're content with the process that you put us through in creating in us a clean heart and removing sin from our lives and helping us to serve others.
I pray that we will follow you wherever you lead, no matter the outcome, and that we will be ready on that day. When Jesus comes, please come and dwell in our hearts today, tomorrow, and always. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
[00:14:36] Speaker A: Amen.
