good morning everyone good morning as Katherine mentioned my name is jamaa and I'm part of the clergy team here at Brompton Road um and as Archie mentioned the last few Sundays we have been looking at some of the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus to the disciples and looking at how Jesus is greater so Jesus is greater than confusion greater than fear greater than doubt and today we will be concluding our sermon series in John 21: 12-1 17 looking at how Jesus is greater than failure and the passage reads Jesus said to them come and have breakfast
none of the disciples dared ask him who are you they knew it was the Lord Jesus came took bread and gave it to them and did the same with the fish this was now the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead when they had finished eating Jesus said to Simon Peter Simon son of John do you love me more than these yes Lord he said you know that I love you Jesus said feed my Lambs again Jesus said Simon son of John do you love me he answered yes
Lord you know that I love you Jesus said take care of my sheep the third time he said to him Simon son of John do you love me Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time do you love me he said Lord you know all things you know that I love you so this passage that we've just read out of all four gospels John's gospel is the only one that records this slightly awkward interview style interaction um that takes place between Peter and Jesus on the shore and it's a really interesting passage because
in order to understand the weight of this conversation it has to be read in light of two earlier accounts recorded in the gospel so firstly John 13 when Peter vows to never leave Jesus he says even if all the others reject you Lord I never will even if I have to die for you I will never say that I don't know you and then in in John 18 we are told that Peter denies Jesus and this time it says that he called down curses from heaven and he swore to them that he did not know
this man this was a time where people lived in a shame and honor culture loyalty was everything and no real disciple would ever deny their teacher so then here we are in John 21 and we find ourselves with Jesus the teacher face to face with his disciple the one that denied him earlier in John 21 it tells us that Jesus called Peter to join him around a charcoal fire throughout the entire New Testament there are only two occasions where there is a reference made to a charcoal fire so here in John 21 and the other
time is when Peter is warming himself in the courtyard just before he denies Jesus so around that charcoal fire in that moment Jesus made Peter retrace his steps and he wasn't trying to humiliate Peter in any way but instead he was going back to the core of the issue that led to failure so firstly when we fail Jesus calls us to repentance a few weeks ago I was I was with some friends and we were just chatting you know it felt like any normal day any normal interaction but one of my friends came up to
me later that same day and he said jamaa you know earlier when we were chatting um the way you spoke to me really hurt me he said he said the way you spoke to me made me feel small and in fact it embarrassed me and if I can be honest with you guys I was so defensive you know I did that thing you know that fake apology where you go well I am so sorry that you felt that way you know we know that's not a real apology but this friend of mine was like you
know what you've done this before and and they took me back to other moments when I had int unintentionally hurt them the truth is that I was in the wrong and as I stood there full full of Pride I realized that I needed to humble myself in that moment I needed to repent so similarly Jesus made Peter cast his mind back to the night when he failed when he denied him three times and Jesus wasn't trying to put salt in the wounds you know he was trying to get to the cause of the problem the
thing about Jesus is that sometimes he will take us back to the moment of our greatest wound but he will be there with us in that place of pain of Shame of failure he can bring healing and forgiveness restoration and a testimony and the Bible defines this word restoration as the act of bringing something back to its original state God is the original and ultimate restorer he restores all people he restores marriages and families he restores friendships he restores broken hearts Nations and he even restores our soul in Joel 2:25 it says says I will
restore to you the years that the locusts have eaten you know we we throw away things that are broken and damaged because we decide that broken things have no value but God takes what is broken and mends them he makes them whole for his glory god salvages and reclaims broken things for his purpose Psalm 51 says do not cast me from your presence restore to me the joy of your salvation and sometimes we go through things in life things that we are ashamed of sin and failures that we carry with us wherever we go and
it starts to impact who we are it starts to impact the way that we behave the things that we believe the way that we live our lives maybe it's something that we've said or something that we've done and now we're just walking through life with a slight limp because of it maybe it's time for us to recognize that Jesus calls us to repentance he calls us to come face to face with our failers to come face to face with him and he does so so that he can be the one that restores us he wants
to forgive us heal us and enable us to move forward and and you may be sitting thinking yeah but jamaa you don't have a clue what I have done you don't know the things that I have said you don't know the ways that I have failed and you're right I don't have a clue I have no idea but I know how Peter failed it says that in Luke's gospel after Peter denied Jesus three times it says he turned and Jesus looked at him I don't know what you have done but is it worse than looking
into the eyes of God and saying I do not know you is it worse than coming face to face with Jesus and saying I still choose to reject you well Peter did and Jesus forgave him Jesus knows all things and he if he can forgive and restore Peter then he can forgive and restore you in verse 15 the first first time that Jesus asks Peter do you love me he answers yes Lord you know that I love you Jesus says then feed my Lambs immediately Peter is met with forgiveness in the form of commissioning it's
like a I forgive you now let's move on I forgive you now now come with me regardless of the ways that you may have failed Jesus calls you to himself to repentance and to live this life with him failure is not final the devil is a liar the master of all deception and he makes you believe that what you are going through is all that there is but don't let failures of the past determine your future for Peter it was sitting around this charcoal fire confessing the ways that he had fallen short maybe for you
it sitting with your family or your friends or or a counselor even maybe it's sitting right here in church as we prepare to receive communion later in the service that you choose to repent and to move forward with Jesus the Bible tells us that where our sin abounds his grace abounds even greater Jesus is greater than our failures secondly when we fail Jesus calls us to love him in our reading Jesus asks Peter three times do you love me not Peter do you believe me or or Peter will you go all out for the gospel
for me not Peter will you leverage a platform for me or promise me that you will never fail me again but instead Peter do you love me and it's it's worth noting that the first two times that Jesus asks Peter this question in the original Greek translation on the passage the word used for love is agape and Agape is a it's a Godly love it's it's a love that is not dependent on how lovable the recipient is it's an unconditional love completely independent of what the other person can do for you it is a love
of absolute devotion and Jesus is asking Peter is this the love that you have for me so I have a stepdaughter and she's a pre-teen right she I love her God I love her um but somewhere down the road I'm no longer cool and I don't really know when that happened so sometimes I'll be like oh I love you and her response is like uh okay of find you know and it's not quite the response that I'm looking for you know and and I wonder if that's how Jesus felt in the Greek translation it tells
us that Peter's response is not equal to Jesus's question Peter responds with a filio love and this filio love is more of a friendship like a brotherly love so according to the original Greek reading of this passage it would have actually read more like this Simon son of John do you love me yes Lord you know that I'm your friend and again Jesus says Simon son of John do you love me yes yes Lord you know that I'm your friend I think that out of remorse Peter couldn't bring himself to say yes Lord I love
you unconditionally I I love you with no strings attached I love you no matter what and and I know that there are times in my life when when I'm not able to say that well I'm not able to say Lord I love you even when I don't get my own way Lord I love you regardless of the outcome I love you even if my prayers aren't answered but the third time Jesus asks this question is even more painful for Peter this time when Jesus asks him do you love me he uses the same filio love
he in fact meets Peter where he is at he says Simon son of John are you my friend and G Peter replies Lord you know all things you know that I am your friend sometimes coming face to face with our failures hurts but Jesus meets us there he meets us where we are at and he shows us the way out of that failure he's not asking Peter whether or not he had a good reason to let him down that night or or whether or not Jesus can ever trust him again no instead he says do
you really love me are you really my friend at the core of all that we do we are reminded that this is a heart issue Jesus is asking do you love him are you his friend and when you find yourself in disappointing situations are you able to look at him and answer that question Jesus knows you fully he knows every secret he knows every thought he knows Every Act he knows every decision and he still loves you unconditionally he is your friend lastly when we fail Jesus calls us to look to the Cross to those
living in biblical days the cross of Jesus looked like absolute disaster complete failure but underneath the crucifixion was the divine plan of God to rescue all people John 3:16 Says for God so loved the world that he gave us his one and only son so that whoever believes in him will not die but have eternal life because God so loved us that he gave us the cross of Jesus the cross opens the door to forgiveness it provides atonement for sin it ends the separation between God and all Humanity the cross was a cruel form of
punishment and yet God was able to take it and to turn it around and through it demonstrate his great love for all of us this is the love of God it is the cross that we are able to have Redemption and as dark and as miserable and as doomed as some moments can feel God is still able to fulfill his perfect plan he is a God who restores and redeems he is a God who changes the narrative this is what he does he is in the business of making all things new he he is in
the business of forgiveness even the unforgivable Romans 58 says but God demonstrates his great love for us that while we were still sinners Christ died for us and I I want to end on this I don't want to pretend that when we mess up it doesn't matter that it's no big deal but what I'm saying is that Jesus has paid the price as Peter declared Lord you know all things Jesus knows every sin and he has nailed it to the Cross he has put it in the grave and he has buried it so the question
now is this do you love him and are you his friend and so if you are able please stand with me as we pray
