Jesus Appears by the Sea of Galilee - Jesus Restores Peter part 1

Well go ahead and take your Bible and turn back with me to John chapter 21. John chapter 21, we are back in our study through the gospel of John. We took a break last Lord's day. We celebrated Easter. We honored the resurrection our Lord by examining our hope in the resurrection as seen and taught in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. It might have surprised some of you that chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians is the most extensive portion of scripture concerning the resurrection.

Now for me as a pastor, for me preaching as a preaching pastor skimming over verses 1 to 23, I really just felt like a rock that was skipped over the surface of a deep and wide body of water. It was really hard for me to just skim through those verses because I want to divide these verses verse by verse, sometimes phrase by phrase, even word by word. But we took those verses and I believe we exalted the resurrection last Lord's day. Now as your pastor I challenge you to go back and listen to that message if you've missed it.

I challenge you to study what the Lord is saying in 1 Corinthians 15 and if you do so I believe you'll have a firm fix on the gospel. We see the gospel at the beginning of the chapter. I believe you'll have a firm fix on the necessity of Christ's resurrection and the resurrection of the believer and you will have a firm hope, a very firm hope in our resurrection which is to come. Of course this pertains to the Christian. Now this morning we find ourselves back in this concluding chapter of John's gospel. We're just moving along in chapter 21 and we're really a little over halfway through the chapter.

Now when we finished up verses 1 to 14 I talked to you about the importance of grouping scripture properly. This helps us understand what's before us. I said numerous times that verses 1 to 14 cover one event. That was Jesus revealing himself to his disciples there at the Sea of Galilee. That's why I've carried that title, Jesus appears by the Sea of Galilee all through these verses. Continuing with the idea of grouping scripture I want us to see that verses 15 to 24 they all pertain to one man and that is Peter.

Although the disciples are a part of what is taking place here starting in verse 15, Peter is most definitely, if I can use this language, the main character. Now what I mean by main character, he's the main character besides Jesus. We know that Jesus is always the main character in his word. Now we know that after the resurrection Jesus was about revealing himself to his people. Now that was the God-sidedness of this work. But on the other side, the man-sided part of the work, we have the work in the people of God. I've said all along we have two parallel narratives.

We're seeing their conditions, we're seeing their reactions, and we're seeing how they are reacting to the risen Lord. Now when I say that Peter was the main character in these verses, what do I mean by that? We must see what is taking place here. Jesus is working to restore Peter. Peter needed a great restoration work in his life. Peter had gone back to his old way of life in a grand way and a grand fashion. And before going back to fishing, back at the arrest and the crucifixion of Jesus, Peter had fallen in spectacular fashion. And this had all been done in a very public way for all to see.

And here we will see Jesus begin to publicly restore Peter to his proper place. And of course this speaks to a great sanctifying work in Peter as a man and the man that God wants him to be. Now this type of information that I'm giving you sets us up for where we are going in the message. That is the purpose of a proper introduction when we're preaching and teaching. But I want to give us some more information. I want to give us some context that will help set the stage.

And this information will set the stage not just for this message, this morning's message, but the upcoming message which will take us, really the messages that will take us to verse 24. So in context we need to see the setting. We need to see the setting of all that is going on here. Jesus and his disciples were still there at the Sea of Galilee. Some translations say the Sea of Tiberias. They had finished the breakfast which Jesus had served them. We see that in verse 12 and verse 13 and verse 15. The miracle of the great catch was completed. The breakfast had been served by Jesus. The breakfast had been eaten.

And they are still there on the seashore. So that's the setting. And then we need to notice a transition. There's a great transition here. Look back with me at verse 12. Jesus said come and have breakfast. And then verse 13, Jesus came and He took the bread and He gave it to them and the fish. He literally served them breakfast. And then in verse 14, we see that this is the third time that Jesus had manifested His disciples Himself to the disciples. This is John's way of showing us this transition. But bigger than the breakfast, Jesus had performed this great miracle right before their eyes.

This manifestation that we see spoken of in verse 14. They had participated in the miracle. If you think about it, they'd really been active agents within this miraculous work. And verse 14 signals this transition from those events. It is as if John is pausing and showing us that the disciples were looking at all that had taken place with this miracle. John says that the miracle was this third manifestation of Jesus to His disciples. But in verse 15, we see a change. We see a transition, a natural transition. But we also need to notice the direction of these upcoming verses. Right away, we should see the direction.

Look at the beginning of verse 15. So when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon or Simon Peter. Notice the direction. Jesus begins to address Peter. Starting in verse 15, it is plain to see that Jesus turns His full attention specifically to one man and that was Peter. No other disciple is mentioned until verse 20. And really that was because Peter brought John into this situation. Jesus immediately turns His attention right back to Peter again. So the direction of all of these verses is to Peter. Now this leads us to the title of the message. Again I'm still carrying that first part of the title.

And that is Jesus appears by the Sea of Galilee. Then we are seeing Jesus restores Peter. Jesus restores Peter. Now we could title these verses Jesus reveals Himself or manifests Himself to Peter. But I don't think that's enough because the heart of everything that is going on here is this restoration of this disciple, this man Peter. Now you see what we will examine. Really just one verse because one verse sets us up to cover next week the remaining verses which go on over to verse 17. And we are going to look at Jesus questions Peter's love there in verse 15. We are going to look at Peter responding to Jesus' love.

And then Jesus is charged to Peter again right there in verse 15. As always we encourage you to take notes because we want to be faithful students to what the Lord gives us. Now let's go back to our verses and let's look at the verse that's before us. And then I want us to look at a couple of these other verses that I mentioned earlier. Verse 12, Jesus says come have breakfast. Of course they knew that it was the Lord by then. And then verse 13, He served them breakfast. And then again this pause, John is reflecting. This is the third manifestation. The third manifestation to the disciples after He was raised.

And then this transition, this direction to Peter. So when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon son of John do you truly love me more than these? And He, this is Simon Peter, He said to him yes Lord, you know that I love you. And He said to him tend or feed my lambs. So let's start off with a message. I want us to notice our first major truth in our outline and that is Jesus questions Peter's love for him. Jesus questions Peter's love. What do we see right there in the middle of verse 15? Simon son of John, do you love me more than these? Here we see this new direction in Jesus' interaction with His disciples.

As I said earlier, Jesus begins to get personal. He gets real personal right away with Peter. He begins to get specific. We will see Jesus be very specific and personal all the way through the rest of chapter 21. And it would be good for you to write down two words, personal and specific. Personal and specific. This will help us see how Jesus is relating to Peter. Now the three ways I want to examine this question because that's what we have here. Jesus questioning Peter's love and this will help us see how personal and specific Jesus was with Peter. Notice first, this is a serious question. This is a serious question.

Now we see this by how Jesus addresses Peter. He says Simon son of John. Now one of the Bible commentators around across this week, he called this a solemn address. I call it a serious address. And truthfully, this is very, very loaded here, this address. Notice that Jesus does not call Peter, does not call him Peter, but He calls him Simon. Now this is odd if we know our Bibles. Back in John chapter 1, verse 42, Jesus publicly changed Simon's name from Simon to Peter or Cephas. Now Cephas is the Cyric translation while Peter was the Greek translation. And in that day they talked and spoke in Greek and the original scriptures were written.

The New Testament scriptures were written in Greek. Now both of these names, whether it's Cyric or Greek, they have the same meaning. This name Peter, it means a small stone or a piece of a larger stone. Now this name change was to symbolize Simon's new character in his new relationship with Christ. Simon was to become Peter, a rock of a man, strong in character and strong in action. He would become bold for Christ, bold for the gospel, and bold in the work of the New Testament church. This new name spoke to his personality and character traits in Christ Jesus.

This spoke of his personality traits, but also his spiritual giftedness which could only come from God. But John does not use the normal name Jesus used for Peter. All throughout John's gospel, Jesus calls him Simon Peter. And here he used his old, if I can use this language, pre-Christ or pre-salvation name. Jesus did this a few other times with Peter in Matthew 17, 25 and Mark 14, 37 and again in Luke 12, 31. And we will circle back around as to the reason why he uses this pre-salvation name which was Simon. But this is a serious question. This second observation, notice this is a directed question. This is a directed question.

"Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?" Now after the serious or solemn tone of the question is set, Jesus gets to the question, do you love me more than these? Again, this is very loaded. And we must see that this question is directed at the object of Peter's love. Let's look back at the verse. Do you love me more than these? Now this leads us to a debate among Bible students, Bible scholars, Bible commentators. There are some that believe that Jesus was asking Peter if he loved him more than the other disciples or more than the other disciples did.

But there are some who think that Jesus was asking Peter if he loved him more than the fishing that he had gone back to. Jesus going back would have been represented by the fishing gear, the boats, the nets that were all around them. They were still close to that boat that they had fished in all night. They would have been able to see the nets still lying there on the seashore. They were still in their fishing clothes and they still smelled of fish. Now my position is that Jesus is asking Peter if he loved him more than the fishing that he had gone back to.

I believe this conclusion is correct because the purpose of this revelation is Jesus redirecting Peter back to his calling and purpose in life. Remember the disciples? They were going fishing, not as a hobby, not to kill time. They were going back to their former way of life. They were going back to their pre-Christ, pre-salvation life. So this question was directed, aimed at, Peter's going back. He had led the way as this great leader and Jesus is directing the question straight at him and again those two words, this is very personal and this is very, very specific.

And then the third observation again, we're still examining Jesus questioning Peter. This is a sacrificial question. This is a sacrificial question. "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?" Now to see the sacrificial nature of the question, we need to understand this little word, love, here in verse 15. Go back and look. "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?" It would be good for you to circle this word, love, or underline it in your Bible. Now to get to what Jesus is doing here, we must compare the original Greek language with our English.

In that day, the Greek language that they spoke and the Greek language that John wrote in, the Greek language had three words for love. They had eros or eros love. This spoke of a physical or sensual or sexual love. And then they had phileo love. They spoke of a brotherly love, a love that we would have with neighbors and friends and associates. And then they had this word agape love. This was a sacrificial love, a love of the will. And in our English, we have one word, love, and it covers this wide range of meaning. Well, if you look at the original language here in verse 15, Jesus asked Peter if he agape loved him. Go back to the verse.

"Simon Peter," or "Simon, son of John," "do you agape love me?" It might even be good for you to write the word agape out there in the margin of your Bible. "Do you agape love me?" Again, this was a sacrificial love. This was the highest love, which speaks of a total commitment. And the greatest example of this agape love is none other than Jesus. He loved the Father with a total commitment. He was sacrificial first for His love for the Father, His obedience to the Father's will, and even sacrificial for mankind. Jesus was and is the best and greatest example of this agape love.

So Jesus is asking Peter if he loved him with a sacrificial love, a love that can only come from God, a love that involves a total commitment of the will which he had seen in Jesus. So in summary, notice what we are seeing here. Oh, I say it again. This is loaded. This is a lot. The wagon is really loaded here. This immediately sets the tone by using Peter's pre-Christ or pre-salvation name. Just with the use of that name, it seems that Jesus is saying, "Peter, you are not acting like the Peter that I have formed you to be.

You are acting like your old self." And then Jesus cranks it up another notch by directing His question at Peter's problem. He had gone back. He had gone back to his old way of life. And this going back had always been in Peter's heart all along. He just didn't know it was there. It had been hidden until these circumstances revealed that. Then Jesus cranks it up another notch by asking Peter if he possessed this sacrificial, total commitment love that he had seen in his Lord. Peter had declared that he agape loved Jesus many, many times. He says to Peter, "Do you agape love me more than all of this?

More than the life that I saved you from?" I have said several times this is loaded. Peter would have felt the weight of a ton. I mean a ton of conviction. He would have been gripped by remorse. He would have been gripped by shame. He would have been totally, totally embarrassed because he was exposed for who he was. Notice with 10 or 11 words. And we will see that this does lead ultimately to repentance and restoration and ultimately to a great work of sanctification. Now what can we learn here just out of this question and how we've examined this question?

We need to see that in our Christian life we will be called to examine what type of love we possess for Jesus. Oh yes, trials come, circumstances come. There's a whole myriad of experiences that come in our life that examine us and test us. Oh, I've said this many times. I'll say it throughout the years. A test is not for the Lord to see what we're going to do. I think about Abraham. Remember that great Old Testament figure, the father of the faith in many ways. What did God call Abraham to do? He said Abraham, take your son, your what and only son, and you take him and you sacrifice him to me. Now did God know what Abraham was going to do?

Sure. But Abraham didn't know what Abraham was going to do. A test is always for the individual. And Peter has gone through this great test of circumstances and it has revealed what is in his heart. And see, we will go through circumstances and we will be called to examine what type of love we have. And we need the Holy Spirit to address us according to who we are and who we truly have been. Isn't that what the Lord Jesus did? He said, Simon, do you love me more than these? I mean, he was very personal, very specific, and very much to the point.

And we need the Holy Spirit to address us and with a simple question, reveal to us who we truly love and who we truly are and truly who we have been. And we need the Holy Spirit at times to question the object or objects of our love. Peter had to see that he really loved his old self more than he knew. He really had an affinity to that boat and those nets and the old life which he said he had left. There was a love that was buried down deep in the recesses of his heart and the circumstances brought it out. And we need the Holy Spirit to question and reveal the object or objects of our love.

And we need the Holy Spirit to force us into an examination of our love for Christ. That's the beauty of the work of the Holy Spirit, folks. And as a brother and sister in Christ, it's the Spirit of God who comes and asks us this question and makes us examine, do we have a phileo love or an agape love? Let's continue on. I want us to notice our second major truth, and that is Peter responds to Jesus. Peter, he responds to Jesus. Go back to the verse. The question, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? Peter responds, Simon responds. He said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you.

Now as I said earlier, Jesus is getting very real and personal with Peter. After examining the question Jesus posed to Peter, I think that it is very obvious that Jesus got very, very personal. You might not have seen that, but now you do. To the surprise of some, we will see that Peter answers in like manner. Peter is very specific and personal in his response to Jesus. Peter does not beat around the bush, nor does he avoid Jesus in his questioning. Peter is honest. And honest would be a good word for you to write down here in your notes. Peter was honest. Honest with himself and honest with what the Lord had revealed and honest with Jesus.

Now there are three ways we can examine Peter's response to Jesus. And I believe this will help us see his honesty and his heart in this situation. First notice, Peter affirms his lordship. He affirms his lordship. He said to him, yes, Lord. Now all of the translations that we study, the New American or English Standard or the King James, uses the same word, Lord. Now this is very familiar to how Thomas responded to Jesus back in John 20, chapter 20, verse 28. What did Thomas say after he had this personal revelation of Jesus? He said, my Lord. And Peter is affirming Jesus' lordship. Peter is affirming his lordship over his own life.

So right away we see that Peter affirms the lordship of Christ. That is who he is to Peter. He's Lord. Then second notice, Peter appeals to Jesus' omniscience. He appeals to Peter's or Jesus' omniscience. If I can put this in my language, Peter simply says, Lord, Lord, you know all things. You are God. And you know the condition of my heart even when I do not. See, he understands his omniscience. One observation that will help us here is this word, you. In the original language, it is in the emphatic. If I can place an emphasis here, let's go back to the verse. He said, yes, Lord, you. You know that I love you.

This emphasis that Peter has emphasizes that Peter truly believes that Jesus knows the condition of his heart. What is he saying? Lord, you know all things. And you know the condition of my heart even when I do not. And then third, the third observation, Peter's honest answer. Peter's honest answer. What does he say? Yes, Lord, you know, you know that I love you. Now at first glance, this can seem to be a word game. And that's not what we have. But again, we need to look at Peter's answer in the original language. Again, this word, love. It would be good for you to underline that word. That is in Peter's response.

Now this word here in the original, it is not the word agape that Peter uses. We have this word here that Peter uses. It is the word filetio, a filetio love. Now a question, what is the difference? Filetio love is this brotherly love. It is this love between friends and neighbors and associates. It is not this sacrificial love. It is not the love of a total sacrifice of the will. So we see that Peter gives an honest answer. He cannot say that he loves Jesus with this agape love. He is true to what he is seeing coming out of his heart and life. So in summary, notice what we're seeing in Peter's response. Peter is humble. Peter is honest.

Peter is very personal and specific as well. And again, I'm putting this in my language. He says to Jesus, "Lord, you know all things and you know the condition of my heart even when I do not. And Lord, these circumstances show me that I filetio love you." Peter lowers the standard. Oh, Peter lowers the standard that was set earlier by Jesus. See, Peter is honest. He is humble. He is breaking down under the very personal and convicting question of Jesus. He is being forced to see what is in his heart and life and look, circumstances are proving what he is right in front of his very own eyes.

He lowers the standard set by Jesus because to do otherwise, he knew it would be a lie. Now an application, a question. Do we here as brothers and sisters in Christ, those who would claim Christ as our Lord, do we affirm his lordship over us and his omniscience over us as well? Listen, that takes honesty and that takes humility. What did Peter say? "Lord, you know all things and you know me." He was honest and do we affirm his lordship over our lives? Or do we beat around the bush and procrastinate and dodge the truth of the matter?

Are you this honest with the Holy Spirit or do you avoid and hide and procrastinate and even lie when the Spirit of God reveals to you who you are? Yes, you can do that. You can hide. You were hidden for a long time behind self, had he not? You can procrastinate. We can even lie when the Spirit of God shows us who we are and we can avoid it. See our proper response to the Holy Spirit proves who we are. You hear me folks? Our response to the Holy Spirit and how he works in his life, listen, it proves who we are.

And when the Word of God is taught and brothers and sisters speak into your life and there is a work of God in the life of his people in the church, listen, the Holy Spirit of God proves who you are and you must examine how you respond. You know one of the saddest things about pastoring is when you see people come into the life of the church, they profess Christ, they get onto the Word of God and they get onto the teaching of the Scriptures and they come to this place of examination and they say, "No, I don't like what's being put before me." And what they do, they hide, they procrastinate, they lie and then they ultimately walk out the door.

That's heartbreaking. And, "Oh, I urge you, don't be like the one that would turn their nose up at the truth of God's Word, the work of the church, God's people all around you." Listen, humble yourself, be honest and accept Christ's Lordship no matter what he may do and say. You've got to respond to Jesus just like Peter did. Now, I want to pause here before I progress and finish the verse, which is right here in front of us, just a few words. I want us to take a few steps back. I want us to see what we're dealing with. Occasionally, I'll do that.

I'll stop with word by word, phrase by phrase and I just say, "All right, let's get big picture and let's look at this man Peter." We know he was one of the disciples called of God in Luke chapter 5. I believe that's where he was born again and he was a true follower of Christ and he was designated as one of the apostles. But notice some details about this Peter. This is the same Peter who professed that Jesus was in fact the Son of God. Look, the great question was who Jesus was and Jesus turned that question that the crowds have been asking right on them and what did he say? What did the crowd say but what do you say?

And listen, this was not a Sunday school answer. This was revealed by God to Peter and what did he say? To the Christ, the Son of the living God. Peter was with James and John there on the mountain of transfiguration. What a glorious event. There were only three people who saw Christ Jesus transfigured there on the mountain. He was the disciple who walked on the water. Remember Jesus was walking on the water in the midst of that storm and Peter had enough faith to say, "Lord, let me walk on the water." And he was the only one that stepped out of the boat and walked on the water.

But Peter had declared, he made all of these declarations and he said, "Lord, I'll never fall away. I'll never fall away right when Jesus is declaring that some of you, you're going to fall away." This Peter, he boldly professed that he would die with Jesus. Seems like he tried to make good on those declarations because of Jesus' arrest there in the garden. He boldly took out a sword to defend his Lord. But notice what's taking place here as we study quickly the progression of Peter's life. Peter had refused to accept that Jesus would die on the cross. That's why he rebuked him.

He said, "Lord, you'll never die." A dying Messiah was not his Messiah. And when that time came, Peter denied Jesus three times just exactly like Jesus said he would. He refused the denials. Peter digressed further. He did not obey Jesus and wait there in Galilee. He went back to his old life. He went from acting like Peter to acting like Simon. And in the absence of his Lord and in the quagmire of his sin and total failure, Peter took his hands off the plow. Not one boat. And he went back to his old life. And that is just where Jesus is meeting Peter.

Right by the boat, right by the nets, right there on the seashore of the Sea of Galilee, which remember in Luke 5, that's where he met the Lord. Now, with all of that said, big picture. Let's look back at verse 15 and continue with this interaction. Jesus says, "Simon, Simon, you're acting like the old Simon, son of John. Do you agape love me more than these, more than all that's before you?" Peter is honest. He says to him, "Yes, Lord, you know that I filet all of you." Jesus says to him, "Then tend or feed my lambs." Here Jesus moves straight to restoring Peter. Jesus does not acknowledge Peter's below standard love for a disciple.

He doesn't. Peter was honest, but it seems that Jesus sidesteps Peter's love problem for now, and Jesus moves toward this work of restoration, putting Peter back where he needed to be. Now there are two quick observations that I want us to examine here. This is part of this charge to Peter. First notice the charge to tend. What does he say? He says, "10 my lambs." Now the New American Standard uses the word "10." The English Standard, which many of you have in the King James, it uses the word "feed." Now in their day, this term was used of a shepherd as he cared for his sheep. This was a common vocation of their day.

Now this spoke of the shepherd putting the sheep in a good pasture for what? To feed. To feed the sheep. Now specifically, this is in the present tense. This would speak to the continuous action of tending and feeding the sheep. So Jesus is calling Peter to leave his nets again. To leave the boat again. And to do the work of the shepherd. This has a familiar ring. If we remember what Jesus told Peter back in Luke 5, Jesus called him to leave his nets and become what? A fisher of men. Here Jesus is calling him back to his life's purpose. He is giving him a charge to ten and to feed and to feed and to ten and to feed and to ten.

He is to be a shepherd. But the second observation, notice the charge is to ten or feed his sheep. Isn't that what he said? Ten my lambs. Here we see the object of this care. It was the sheep of Jesus. All the translation used the word "my." This is a personal pronoun that denotes possession. Again, if I can put this in my language, Jesus is saying, "I have sheep that belong to me. They're mine. Now you go and you tend them. You go and you feed them. You do as a shepherd would do, putting the sheep in good posture. You go and take care of my sheep by feeding and tending for them." So in summary, notice what we're seeing here in this charge.

Jesus is reminding Peter of his calling. This was a calling that Jesus had given him back in Luke chapter 5. This was a calling that Peter had lived for three plus years. He is using a shepherding metaphor to illustrate this calling, just like he used a fishing metaphor back in Luke 5. He was to tend to and to feed God's people. Just like a shepherd would make sure sheep had good posture and feed in that sheep, Peter was to do the same for God's people. Now an application here, I want to talk to you about our calling. See, we all as born-again Christians, we have a calling. Now none of us are called to live the call of Peter.

No, we do not believe in apostolic succession. So there was only one Peter. He was one of the apostles and he had a unique role. If you study the progression of the life of the New Testament church, he was the preeminent leader early and then Paul kind of came behind as the preeminent leader. So what do we see here? We see a charge, Jesus charging him to live up to his calling. Now simplistically, what was that calling? First and foremost, he was to walk in obedience to Christ. I mean what is he saying? Just walk with me. Obey me. Obey my word.

He's saying, "Peter, you should have stayed in Galilee and done everything that I told you to do." So first he was to walk with Christ. And then second, he was to be true to his work in kingdom work. He was to be that great apostle that went out and the New Testament church was birthed through him and other men. But see, it's different for each one. The calling that Thomas had was different than Peter. The calling that Paul had was different than Peter. But they all had a calling in kingdom work. Now what about for you and me? What is our calling? What is our charge if I can use that language?

Oh, as born-again Christian, we are to walk with God. We're to walk in obedience to God. We're to be obedient to God's word. We're to pray and walk with the Lord and fellowship with the Lord. We just should know our God. Oh, but the second side of the coin is we're to be involved in kingdom work. Now I go back to Peter. What was his role? He was a church father. Through Peter and other men, the Lord birthed the New Testament church. But see, for kingdom work for us is we're to plug our lives into the church, the ecclesia, called out ones. We don't just come sit on the pew. We don't just come write a check for a tithe. No.

We unite with a fellowship of believers to grow with brothers and sisters, to be instructed by the elders and preachers and teachers in the life of the church, to even have older elder oversight in our life, and to engage in the work of the church. Now think about Peter. How ludicrous was it for Peter to be there on the Sea of Galilee? I mean just ludicrous that he has nets in his hands and he's standing in a boat when the living Lord God had called him to leave all that. Crazy. But you know there are people who claim the name of Christ and they don't walk with Christ and they are not plugging their lives into the work of the local church.

And that's just as crazy. It's unbiblical, it's unchristian, and God has nothing to do with it. So our charge is to walk with our Lord and be neck deep. No, we are to drown into the work of the church. That's kingdom work. And oh it's sad in our day and time there are so many people. They have all types of "kingdom work" disjointed and outside of the local church. Now is all of that bad? No. If you're involved in "kingdom work" outside of the church and pulls you out of the church, well then it is wrong. I've known guys that had all these extracurricular ministries. I've known ministers, so-called ministers.

They might have some kind of a bass fishing for Jesus club or just you name it. And oh they're dedicated to that but they can't be dedicated to the church. That's unbiblical. There's nothing wrong with that. But if it's over and above the work of the local church then it is wrong. Now in conclusion, I want us to notice the progression in Jesus revealing Himself to these disciples. You know in my study this week I take notes in various ways and I just kind of made me a little graph here. It's kind of scribbling but just put it in my mind well. Notice how Christ is working.

After the resurrection in John's Gospel, first Jesus reveals Himself to Mary. The other Gospels tell us it was Mary and other women. Now Mary and the other women were important, yes. They had a role. Love the Lord. The Lord loved them. But if I can use this language it just ascends. Because second He reveals Himself to His disciples. Now He reveals Himself there at the empty tomb. We know that. But He begins to reveal Himself there in the upper room in a very personal and unique way. Two times there in the upper room.

So we have Mary and the women and then it ascends because we have the disciples, His chosen ones, those who have been designated as church fathers. And then third we have Peter. And really it ascends even in a greater way. And here we begin to see this very personal work in Peter. Now a question. Why does Jesus get so personal with Peter? Why this one-on-one time starting in verse 15? Oh folks, you have to see He was their leader. He was their leader. You go into the book of Acts. You see that He was the preeminent leader of the church. The others were leaders as well. But He had a unique role among those disciples.

And He had publicly led them during the earthly ministry of Jesus. And He had publicly fallen away by denying Christ. And oh, He had led these men to go back, back to their former way of life. You know one thing I thought about this week. If you go back and look at their vocations, these men who were in the boat were fishermen previously other than Thomas. Now we know that Thomas was the absentee, pessimistic, eor disciple before Jesus met Him right where He was. But somehow, someway, Thomas got into a boat and he wasn't even a fisherman. This speaks to Peter's unique ability to lead these men.

So if I can use this ascending order, He reveals Himself to Mary and the women. And oh, it just gets better. He reveals Himself to those disciples, those chosen ones. And then He reveals Himself to His man, Peter the leader, the unique one. And here we see special care and special love for their leader. This was a special correction for God's men. He was called and He was corrected. And they were all called and corrected according to their need. So what are we seeing this morning? The title of the message. Jesus appears by the Sea of Galilee. This starts in chapter 21, verse 1. We still have them right there by the Sea of Galilee.

That's the setting. But Jesus restores Peter. And this is just the beginning of the work. And we will see this work progress as we divide the rest of the verses. Not just in verses 15 to 17, but also the remaining verses of the chapter. Let's pray over what's been put before us. God's Word that has been read, the message that has been delivered. And then after we pray, we will take up our offering in worship as well.