Jesus Prepares Peter for his Future

Go ahead and take your Bible and turn back with me to John chapter 21. I say this very often, it should be a very familiar place in your Bible. And it won't be soon before every verse in John will be marked up for you because we're nearing the end of the chapter, which means we're nearing the end of our series in John. We've been in the book of John for quite some time and just carrying this theme of the book all along the way, Christ the Son of God, believe and live. Actually, we have one more message that we'll cover. That'll be next week, which is verse 24 and 25.

And then after I will share some pastoral thoughts concerning the book, specifically chapter 21. I'm not really sure how that'll come together, how many messages that will be. We'll just see how that works out. But this morning will be in verses 18 to 23 and then next week will be verses 24 to 25. Now we've been neck deep in this interaction between Jesus and Peter, have we not? We finished what I call the question and answer verses last Sunday when we finished up down to verse 17. I was sharing with one of the men of our church how unusual verses 15 to 17 truly are. There are three questions from Jesus to Peter.

There are three responses from Peter. And then there are three charges or commissions from Jesus to Peter. And I think it was one of the men of the church talked about how these are all the same questions, the same responses, but yet they're all different. And that's the truth of the matter. And these three verses revealed us so much. They revealed to us the key to the Christian life. And that is that we must have this agape love, this love that comes from the Spirit of God dwelling within us. These three verses reveal to us what true Bible discipleship is.

True discipleship is simply agape loving Jesus and fulfilling the commission that he has for our lives. Now that leads us to a question. What is our commission? We know that Peter had a particular commission as an apostle, a church father, but yet we are not apostles. So we know that our commission is to pour our lives into this institution called the New Testament Church. Now in our verses this morning, verses 18 to 23, we find ourselves on what I call the backside of this reinstatement, Peter's reinstatement. Jesus has been reinstating Peter in two ways, relationally and vocationally.

I believe it is safe to say that Peter is restored relationally in his relationship to the Lord. But I believe there is more work to be done in restoring Peter vocationally. I said in our Wednesday night Bible study that Peter had suffered a spiritual train derailment. I think that's the truth. I mean he is off the tracks, is he not? Jesus has put Peter back on the tracks, but Peter is still, still has some work ahead of him. He is a work in progress. Of course we don't see all of this come together until the giving of the Holy Spirit, which is just a few days away, and that is over in Acts chapter 2.

Now I want us to take a look at where we are going in verses 18 to 23. Here we are going into what I call the last phase of these events here at the seashore of Galilee. Jesus will do some reminding work in Peter. He will reteach some truth. Some of what he shares with Peter is a repeat of other teaching that he has been teaching for quite some time. That is why I said Peter is still a work in progress. He needs to hear this again. Jesus will speak about Peter's future. He will prophesy concerning Peter's life and his death. So Jesus is preparing Peter for his future.

Peter had to know the seriousness of his unique call, his unique call in discipleship, and that is why I have titled this morning's message, it's rather simple, Peter prepares, or Jesus prepares Peter for his future. Jesus prepares Peter for his future. Now you see how we will divide these verses? Simply two major truths. It is very easy to divide these verses. I think these truths just come right out of the verses. Let's go back and read the scriptures together, and then we'll start dividing the truths that are before us, the verses that are before us.

Verse 18, "Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to gird yourself and walk wherever you wished. But when you were old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will gird you and bring you to where you do not wish to go." Now this he said, signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God.

And when he had spoken this, he said to him, "Follow me." Peter, turning around, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them, the one who also leaned back on his breast at the supper and said, "Lord, who is the one who betrays you?" Peter therefore, seeing him, said to Jesus, "Lord, and what about this man?" And Jesus said to him, "If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me." This saying therefore went out among the brethren, or the brothers, that the disciple would not die. Yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but only if I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you?

Now as always, we encourage you to take notes. These truths should be easy for you to write down, and then also how we divide these truths should be easy for you to write down. We want to be good students of what the Lord gives us on a Sunday morning. So let's look at our first major truth. Notice we see a prophecy concerning Peter's death. We have before us a prophecy concerning Peter's death.

Now right away, when we observe verse 18, we see this familiar phrase, "Truly, truly." Go back and look at the verse, no matter what translation, it starts off, "Truly, truly." Now for Jesus, this "truly, truly" was a way of elevating what he is about to teach. In our church services, when someone says "Amen," we know that they are affirming what has been said, or even what has been sung. They are also elevating or emphasizing what has just been said. And that is exactly what Jesus is doing here. He is elevating what he is about to teach this man, Peter. Think about it like this.

Peter said that Jesus spoke the words of eternal life back at the end of John chapter 6. We learned that. And then also in John chapter 12, Jesus said that he would not speak words of his own, but what was given to him by the Father. So if Jesus emphasizes what he is about to say beforehand, well it should be very obvious that what he is about to say is very, very, very important, very serious. Now that being said, we need to remember who this serious teaching or instruction is for. We still have Jesus and this one-on-one time with Peter. So this is all for Peter, obviously the disciples are there participating as well.

Now there are four specifics I want us to see out of these verses. First I want us to notice the prediction. I want us to notice the prediction. Go back to verse 18, "Truly, truly," he is emphasizing, "I had a time I say to you, when you were younger, you used to guard yourself or dress yourself and walk wherever you wished. But when you were old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will guard you and bring you where you do not wish to go." Now here in this one verse, Jesus refers to Peter's past, he refers to his future, and then he refers to his death.

He tells Peter that when he was younger, he had control of his life, but one day he will have no control over his life. Now for some people this statement can be vague or mysterious. Now Jesus does not leave any of us in the dark, he goes on to leave, give us an explanation. So notice our second observation, the explanation. Look at the beginning of verse 19. "Now this," he said, "signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God." Simply Jesus explains to Peter that he will die a martyr's death.

He explains that this phrase, "stretch out your hands," and this other phrase, "bring you where you do not wish to go," this speaks to his future, his future death, his martyrdom. This prediction did come true. According to reliable church historians and church tradition, Peter was martyred by crucifixion. As a matter of fact, church tradition says that Peter requested to be crucified upside down because he did not feel worthy to be crucified like his Lord Jesus. So we have the prediction, we have the explanation of this prediction, and then the third observation, notice the command. We see this in verse 19 as well.

"Now this," he said, "signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he said to him," speaking to Peter, "follow me." Now here we have the reminder I spoke of earlier. Jesus had spent three years calling Peter to do what? To follow him, and he had done this repeatedly. Here Jesus is calling Peter to follow him again. But to me, there are two details which magnify this reminder. First, the backdrop. The backdrop. This is on the backside of all that has been taking place in John 20 and John 21. Jesus had restored Peter relationally, and now he was working on his commission or his calling his discipleship.

So this reminder is on the backside of some very serious events in Peter's life. But second, the construction of the language. Jesus follow me here in verse 19, it is in the present tense meaning that it had lifelong implications. Jesus is saying, "Follow me and keep on following me." Now remember the backdrop. Peter had just quit following Jesus, had he not? He had quit. He had gone back to his former way of life. So this is a very, very serious command, a reminder of a previous command, and this was serious for sure. But then the fourth observation, notice the motivation. Notice the motivation.

Verse 19, "Now this," he said, "signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God." Now tucked in between the explanation and the command is the motivation for the whole thing. All of these events were to glorify God. Now we must see this glorifying God from two angles. First from God's angle. These events Jesus were predicting were solely for God's glory. Peter would die a martyr's death for the glory of God. But the second angle is from Peter's death. This was the motivation for Peter. Here Peter's heart's motivation was to be for the glory of God. This was not for self-promotion.

This was not about Peter's plan for his own life and his own ministry. Peter was to be motivated to follow Christ and to obey all of his commands all for the glory of God. Period, paragraph. So in summary, what are we seeing in verse 18 and 19? Jesus prophesies. He predicts the death by which Peter would die. This was a martyr's death. Also we have another call for Peter to follow Christ. But this call to follow Christ was more weighty. It was more serious. Here Jesus is calling Peter to follow him, knowing all along that he would die that martyr's death. And why would Peter do such a thing? Why would he obey these commands?

Why would he go down this path that had clearly been lined out for him? All for the glory of God. Now I want us to see something that we may not see here in these verses. This is all a part of another big test for Peter. Think about this. This is all another giant test for Simon Peter. He would have to work tirelessly shepherding the master sheep. Remember his command? Feed my sheep, tend my lambs. He would have to do all of this while knowing that death for doing this job was waiting. Most scholars say that Simon Peter served the church, served the Lord for some 30 years before his death.

And I'm sure year after year, experience after experience, Peter had to wonder is death coming soon? I'm sure the words here echoed in his heart and in his mind. I'm sure he wondered is death coming next week or next month or even tomorrow. That was a big test for Peter. And in the past when Peter was tested many times he failed miserably. We've already studied that in a very detailed manner. Now for you and for me, what must we learn here out of these verses? Really this test here for Peter. This prophecy concerning his death. We as born again Christians and the church, we must accept Christ's commission for our lives.

For Peter, he had to surrender. He had to die to self. And he had to surrender to Christ's calling, Christ's commission, the vocation that the Lord Jesus had lined out for him. He had to surrender to the Lord's will. And see for you and me specifically we have two commissions. We have two callings, two vocations. We have an individual commissioning and a corporate commissioning. Every single one of you have a cross to bear. There is a path in life that the Lord has charted out for you. And the path for you is different than the path for me. Sometimes they're individuals. They seem to go through trial after trial after trial.

While it seems like others don't go through those same trials. Some of you have been born in certain circumstances while others have been born in completely different circumstances. But we have an individual commissioning, a path that we must walk. And we must accept that. One of the joys, heartbreaking joy, but one of the joys has been when I've seen people in the life of the church, some of you come to me and say, "Brother Chris, I embrace my trial. I embrace my suffering. I'm wanting to glorify God through these circumstances." That is embracing that individual commissioning. That is embracing the path that the Lord has lined out for you.

But what about this corporate commissioning? See we're born of God and we're called out from our life of sin and called to the church. And we are brothers and sisters in Christ. And we are part of the body of Christ, the family of God. And see we are called to live this thing called the Christian life together, but do the work of the church together. And we all have a role to play in the life of the church. We have a corporate commissioning. There's a path for this church to follow. There's a direction that the Lord wants us to go. There are things that He wants us to accomplish as a church. And He's called us all to participate in that plan.

So we have an individual commissioning and a corporate commissioning. Do we not see those right here in Peter? It's so much of Peter in all of these verses. He's all tied to His commissioning as an apostle. But we also must see our motivation. Just like Peter, we must be motivated by the glory of God. And God wants to get glory out of every circumstance in your life. Yes, even the toughest of trials. You know one of the beauties, one of the great things that I see is how the Lord has taught us that our trials are not for us. Our trials are not for us as individuals, but our trials are for the church first.

And see, when we embrace the path that the Lord has for us, if we embrace the fact that every detail of our life is ordained of God for His glory, then that motivates us to live. That motivates to go where the Lord calls us to go. To do what the Lord calls us to do. And to be who God wants us to be. But this also applies to the life of the church. Every little thing we do is for what? It's for the glory of God. It's for the glory of Christ. It's for the glory and the reputation of the church. Ultimately, for the glory of God. This just applies. And I think that the Lord has helped you see that this applies to you and to me as well.

Now let's continue on. Notice our second major truth. Our second major truth is a question concerning John's future. Here before us, we have a question and it pertains to John's future. Now all of these events have been taking place here at the seashore of Galilee. There's been a lot going on since verse 1 in chapter 21. I believe we would all agree. But with a careful reading of verse 20, it appears that Jesus is on the move. It seems that Jesus is walking with John, the Apostle John, immediately following behind Him and the rest of the disciples kind of in tow. Now a question. Is this observation important?

The fact that they seem to be moving. We will see that Jesus walking out moving and beginning to move away from that position. It does factor into what is taking place here. Now as these events are taking place, we have another question and answer with Jesus and Peter. Now the only difference here is Peter, Simon Peter, he is the one who is initiating this question and answer this time. Our first observation, I want us to notice the question. Notice this question, verse 20. And on down to verse 21, Peter turning around, he saw the disciple whom Jesus loved. That's John. Now there's some more description about John.

But verse 21, Peter therefore seeing him, he said to Jesus, Lord, and what about this man? Now in verse 21, we see Peter asks a question of Jesus. What does he say? Lord, what about this man? Now at first glance, the question can seem odd. Now I believe I have three questions here that will help us understand the question that is before us in verse 21. The first question is this. Who does this question pertain to? Who does this question pertain to? The question is asked of Jesus, but it pertains to the apostle John. Now in verse 20, John identifies himself as he always did in the gospel, and that is, he never identifies himself.

John was the disciple who loved Jesus in a unique way. We see that in John, verse 20. John was the disciple who leaned on Jesus' breast there at the Lord's Supper. And this question is about the apostle John. He's not named, but that's who the question pertains to. Second, what is Peter asking? What is Peter asking? Peter had just been told that he would die a martyr's death. Jesus had gotten up, it seems, and said, "Follow me." It seems that John had gotten to his feet to follow Jesus, and Peter spontaneously asks, and if I can put this in my own words, "Hey, Jesus, what about him? What will happen to him?

For me and my mind and heart, I can almost see Peter pointing his finger at John for all to see while asking Jesus, 'Hey, Jesus, what about him? What will happen to him?'" And then the third question that helps us here, what does this question tell us? What does this question tell us? This could be the most insightful of them all. I love how AWP helps us here. I think that this offers good insight to Peter's heart here, and I'm quoting, "Here was a believer," this is Peter, "fully restored to communion." I believe he's restored relationally, and I'm quoting, "there in the presence of Christ, bidden are called to follow him.

Yet here we find him taking his eye off Christ and turning around to look at John." AWP goes on, and I'm quoting, "Though fully restored, the old Simon still remain. Christ had told him to follow, not look around." And I think AWP is right. To me, this question represents a side glance once more to compare himself to other folks. Simply there was still some Simon Peter alive in Peter, and that is why I continually call Peter a work in progress. He is back on the train tracks from the derailment. He's on the track of discipleship, but there is still more work to be done in his calling and his sanctification. So this question is really loaded.

But the second observation, notice the correction. Go back to verse 22. Verse 21, Peter had asked the question, and then noticed this correction in verse 22. Jesus said to him, "If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me." Now, right away we see that Jesus does not answer Peter's question. He gives Peter a rebuke. I do not think it is wrong to say that Jesus is telling something like this to Peter, and I'm going to put it in my words. It's as if he is saying, "Peter, what happens to John is none of your business." I believe it is obvious that Jesus wants Peter to keep his eyes on Peter and keep his eyes on him.

This again is Jesus putting his finger on the Simon that was in Peter. And then third, the third observation, notice the reminder. I could not help but put in my notes the reminder of the command. Look at the end of verse 22. What does he say? You follow me. Here we see Jesus repeat what he had told Peter back in verse 19. Jesus had predicted or prophesied that Peter would die that martyr's death, and what does he say in verse 19? Follow me. But there is an alteration right here in verse 22. Here in verse 22 he says, "You follow me." Jesus is again telling Peter to keep his attention on his calling and his responsibility.

He was to be engrossed with following Christ, so much so that he did not have time for that side glance comparison or that side glance curiosity. And then the fourth observation. We've seen the question, we've seen the correction, we've seen the reminder. Now we see the rumor. We see the rumor. And this comes right out of verse 23. "This therefore went out among the brethren that the disciple would not die, yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die. But only if I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you?" Now here we see the evidence of sinful humanity. Even in these circumstances we have gossip.

It seems that a rumor began to circulate that this apostle John would not die until Christ comes back. And here simply Jesus debunks that rumor. Now in summary what are we seeing here in verses 20 to 23? Jesus begins to move away from all that was taking place here in the Sea of Galilee. I believe he's on the move. Peter takes his attention off of Jesus and he focuses his attention on John. At best he is curious about John's future. At worst he is comparing John to himself. For the first time during these events, Peter is the one who asks the question. In doing so, he reveals his heart.

In doing so, he reveals that he has taken his attention off of Jesus again. Jesus again shows great, great patience. He again commands Peter to simply follow him. Now for you and me, I think that out of these verses we have what I call a three-fold warning. A three-fold warning that comes from Peter and I call him exhibit A in these warnings. The first warning is this. There's always the danger of ignoring commandments that have been given to us. Isn't that what's going on with Peter?

I mean Jesus had just said follow me and he's already taking his eyes off Jesus and his heart's attention off Jesus so much so that Jesus has to say, "You, you follow me. Don't worry about someone else." See there is the danger of ignoring the commandments that are given to us. We're studying God's Word in our own personal time.

We're in our small groups on Sunday night or the Word of God is taught on a Sunday morning just like this and see the Word of God is put before us and the Holy Spirit of God comes to deal with us and we see that it applies to us but if we are not careful we can be just like Peter and we can allow our attention to go somewhere else and ignore the commandment that's been given us. The second danger is focusing on others when we need the attention. We're far more like Peter here than we know. Isn't that what Peter did? I mean he had just been reinstated relationally, had he not?

And then all of a sudden he just takes his eyes right off of Jesus and on to John and we do the very same thing. If we're not careful we can focus our attention on what others need to do. We can talk about what others need to repent of or how they need to obey. We can focus on how we need to help others set themselves straight when all along we need to be more like John. What did John do? Oh John just kept his mouth shut and he stood up and seemed to follow Jesus quicker than Peter and if we're not careful we can follow the trap of focusing on others when we need the attention.

And then the third danger is the danger of becoming prideful immediately after receiving grace. Now I wonder if that's not what's going on here in Peter's life. Some of the Bible commentators I read, they speculated that that's what's happened. Jesus had given Peter this one-on-one time. He had restored him relationally and he had taught him specifically. He had a one-on-one time with Peter and maybe, just maybe, there was a little pride that kept him and he said, "I got it. I got it all under control and what about John? That can happen to you and me.

Oh, the Lord does a work in our life and many times we can well up with pride and we can think no one has experienced what I have experienced. No, brother and sister, that can come right out of pride." Now in conclusion as we move away from these verses, I want us to see that three words are alive and well right here in these verses. Obviously they can be seen all throughout what we are examining in John 21 and some of these I have touched on, some of these I have alluded to, but they all need to be put together. But there's one new word for these events. The first word, sovereignty. Sovereignty.

We see that God is sovereignly working in Peter's life. Is he not? We have the all-knowing, all-powerful God working. Jesus was God in the flesh and Jesus knew everything that was going on with Peter. He knew his disobedience. He knew his going back. He knew he was there at the seashore of Galilee. He knew Peter better than Peter knew Peter because Jesus knows and knew all men. And so we see the sovereignty of God at work in Peter's life. But see, we need to see that God sovereignly works in our lives as born-again Christians. We are under the sovereign hand of God.

Every corner of our life, every detour of our life, every bump in the road, every trial, every difficulty, every question, every problem, every experience, every person, no matter what, it comes to us as it comes by the throne of God. I spoke at a funeral this week. One of the verses that I used, several to be specific, were out of the book of Job. What do we see in the life of Job? It was Satan who came before God and it was God who gave Satan the permission to touch Job. See, some of us need to see that the devil is God's devil. We don't have this dualism that's going on.

God is in control and we need to rest in God's sovereignty, trust in God's sovereignty, relax spiritually in God's sovereignty. And if we can get to that place, listen, cancer may come and it's okay because God's in control. We can lose our child or our spouse or our job or lose all of our possessions or money, even our own health. It's okay because God's in control. Job understood that, sovereignty. But then this familiar word, I've used it quite a bit, this word sanctification. We see that God is all about sanctifying Peter and this is so very obvious because Peter is on the forefront.

Peter is on the forefront because he was their leader and Jesus was about sanctifying their leader. And so Jesus is persevering in Peter and Peter is persevering in Jesus. He is a work in progress. This is that difficult, arduous, I mean bloody work of sanctification. I use the word bloody because there was a whole lot of Simon that had to die to make Peter. We must see that God is about sanctifying in us as well. God wants to sanctify us. God wants to change us. And see there's another word that comes along with this sanctification of Peter, this word patience. We have learned of the patience, the long suffering heart of our Lord.

He is patient with Peter and patient with Peter. We would have written Peter off a long time ago. We would have rebuked Peter. He would have said Peter I'm going to find somebody else because you just can't cut it. Our Lord was patient and we need to see that our Lord is far more patient with us than we realize we are not walking in sanctification as we should be. We have a patient Lord and see some of you need to understand this because sometimes you criticize other sanctification when you fail to see how the Lord is patient with you.

The more you grow in the Lord and the more you go through trials and the more you have ups and downs in your sanctification it will show you the Lord's patience with you and then that will help you to have patience with others. And then this third word, it was finally introduced to us this morning, this word glorification. All of this in Peter's life was for the glory of God. Everything going on here was for the glory of God. This reinstatement relationally and vocationally, this was all for the glory of God. Every little thing, every word, every reminder, every correction was for the glory of God in Peter's life.

And that had to be Peter's heartbeat. He had to embrace this calling and this road of discipleship while for the glory of God. And see for you and me we need to understand that we live our lives for the glory of God. We live our lives for the glory of God individually and that is to be fleshed out in our families and in our workplace and in our neighborhoods and in the places where we trade and every path of our life people should see the glory of God as He gets glory through everything in us.

And then as we come together as the church to do the work of the church, oh we see God get glory through the work of the church and through our corporate efforts. This is all for the glory of God. Still touching on this word glorification. On Wednesday night we kind of looked over the fence at Peter's life. We went over into Acts chapter one and chapter two and we saw how this worked if the sanctification progressed and we saw how God began to get great glory out of His life. This is an individual man but yet as an apostle and a part of the New Testament church.

We might not see it with physical eyes but by faith I believe we can see that God can get tremendous glory out of our life. See sir, ma'am, listen, God can use you in a way in which you never expected. Yes you. Why? For the glory of God. Now what are we seeing here? This is the back side of what's been going on here in the Sea of Galilee. This is the back side of this sanctifying work in Peter's life. Jesus is preparing Peter for his future. If we are disciplined enough to pick up where John leaves off and start off in Acts chapter one verse one we will see how Jesus uses Peter in a great, great way.

Really and truly everything that takes place in John 20 and John 21 really just comes to fruition. It blooms like a beautiful flower starting in Acts two, Acts one and Acts two and I would strongly encourage you to read ahead, peek over the fence and see what's going on in Peter's life when this work continues. Let's bow our heads. Let's pray over the message that's been given us and then we'll continue in our service.