John 21 Jack D. Terry, Jr.

Dr. Terry recounts how he met his wife Barbara at a youth revival. He fell in love with her at first sight and proposed to her four weeks later. However, her father initially refused their marriage and they had to wait a year before getting married. They have been happily married for 68 years. The speaker then goes on to discuss the book of John and how Jesus forgave Peter and commissioned him to feed my sheep, be the leader of my church. He talks about the eyewitness sightings of Jesus after his resurrection and the importance of the Holy Spirit in the early church. The chapter ends with the disciples, not knowing what to do, going fishing and waiting for Jesus in Galilee. I want you to know, I met Barbara in a youth revival, Jim, at First Baptist Church Terrell. I was making my living doing music youth revivals for the student department in Texas here, Dr. Howard, and they sent me to First Baptist Church Terrell, and on the first day that I was there, in the choir was this beautiful, raven-haired young lady that I fell in love with the first time I saw her. And I went back to the hotel that night, and I told my buddy, I said, I'm going to marry that lady. I don't even know what her name is, but I'm going to marry her. And he was a wrestler. He was from Kentucky, and he was an Olympic wrestler, little bitty guy, but he was a lightweight Olympic wrestler. He literally picked me up and threw me across two beds and said, if that happens, it'll be a miracle. And so, that's where I met Barbara. Pardon? So, yeah, the miracle happened. So I met her in 54. I proposed four weeks later in Houston, because I was in two revival meetings in Houston the next two weeks, and she was coming down to Houston, her brother was living in Houston, and she was taking her mother and father to Houston for a two-week vacation. Guess who was down in Houston? And so, we saw each other just about every day in Houston, and at the end of the Houston experience, I asked her to marry me, and offered her an engagement ring. And to my utter, wonderful amazement, she said yes. But her father said no. He literally did. He literally did. He literally did. He said, Jack, I like you a lot, but I'm not going to let you all get married for at least another year to see if you two are really in love with each other. So we waited from 1954, June, to 1955, July. We waited a year and a month, and a year and a month after we met, I married that lady. Now, I was doing 16 gym, 16 revival meetings that summer in a 12-week period. I was doing 16 revival meetings. There were two revival meetings when I started school, and I was in two before I got through. And we literally were married on a Tuesday night, on July the 5th. And the reason we married on Tuesday night is all of my groomsmen were doing revivals on both ends, and they couldn't get there during the weekend. So they had to come, like I did, on a weeknight. So we married on Tuesday night, July the 5th. We came to Fort Worth for three days, Jim, for a honeymoon to go see the seminary. Now, if you want to talk about an exhilarating honeymoon, we ate at a restaurant over there called Mexican Inn. I mean, you know, it was a big deal. And then I moved her to Quitman, Texas, where this friend of ours yesterday passed away, where I was also Minister of Education, Music, and Youth during the year, and we had a little house there. And I took her there, and then left for two-week revival meetings. So I had two-week revivals after I married her. So she was a widow for two weeks after I married her, and she stayed with her mom and dad while I went on these two. Then when I came back, we moved to Quitman. So we have been married now for, it'll be 68 years on Tuesday. And so 1955 till now, and I want to tell you something. She has been the star joy of my life. She is the sweetest person I've ever met in my life. She is right down the middle. You don't ever have to guess what she's thinking, because she'll tell you what she's thinking. And there is, she is totally transparent. There is no ifs and buts about it. It's either this way or the highway. And she's very persistent. I'll tell you what, she is German. Her mother was named Allie Alberta Osburnie. You can't get more German than that, folks, you know. And her grandfather was Mann Osburnie. So she is solid German. And if you've never met a German or understand a German, when they say yes, they don't mean perhaps. They mean yes. Okay. So, sweetheart, for 68 years, I've loved you. And thank you for marrying me and trusting me. Her father thought I was going to take her to the mission field. And when I took her to Baytown, Texas, and our first church, Central Baptist Church, Baytown, he thought we were on the mission field. And an interesting story I'll take a minute to tell you. They moved us in a temporary house until they could get our parsonage painted in Baytown. And the temporary house's front porch looked into the restrooms of a bar, because it was a temporary house. We were just going to be there. We didn't even pack boxes. We just lived on boxes. Would you believe that her father and mother came down to see that? And would you believe her father said, you're going back home with me. You're not going to live looking into the restroom of a bar. And so finally, I took granddaddy over to the house that they were painting for us and showed him. I said, pops, here's where we're going to live in the next two weeks. Give us time to paint it. Okay. I'll trust you for two weeks. And sure enough, we moved in our house in two weeks and everything was fine. Okay. Thank you all. Tuesday is the big day. I'm looking. I mean, Wednesday is the big day. Wednesday, the fifth. And I'm looking forward to it. So God bless you, sweetheart. I love you. And thank you for loving me. And thank you all for loving both of us. We appreciate it. Now to the book of John. We're going to we're going to finish the book of John today. Maybe. Okay. Maybe if we don't finish it, you all read the end. Okay. Let me let me tell you something. Let me share something with you. Brother Jimmy's done such a great job in sharing with us about the book of John. It appears in Chapter 20, when you get to the last two verses, that the book of John is over. I mean, it looks like it's just closed and truly Jesus did many other signs. John 20:30 other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are written in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and believing you may have life through his name period end of book. No, here's Chapter 21. And I always say this is the chapter that would not have been the chapter had John not had a reason for writing the chapter. And John writes a 21st chapter. And he writes this chapter. He says himself for one purpose. And that purpose is perfectly explained in this chapter with what John does. John had a feeling that the other now hold your second. You have to remember, John wrote in the 90s, 90, 90 to 94, whereas the Gospels, all three of them were written before 70. So John wrote 20 years after the Gospels were written. And also all of Paul's epistles were written before the end of 68. So John wrote after all of the epistles were written. And so John's writing after everything has already been written. All of these books have been all of these letters have been taken to all the churches. The churches have read these letters. John has read these letters. And John had read them so carefully that he added this, what some theologians call a postscript to the book, like like a postscript. And he did it for a purpose. He said he wanted to supplement and if possible, to correct some kind of something that is unnecessarily going on that doesn't need to go on. And what he had discovered was at the end of each of the three Gospels, Peter had been left as the denier. And it was never cleaned up. Nobody ever said anything about whether or not Peter had confessed. Nobody said anything about whether or not Jesus had accepted him again. They all knew that he became the great preacher on the day of Pentecost. And yet it seemed like from the Gospels, if you read the Gospels, it ends up with Peter being a criminal, having denied the Lord three times. And that's how all the Gospels leave him. If you go back and read the Gospels, you'll find that they're that way. They do not exonerate Peter at all. And John felt like somewhere the church needs to understand that Jesus not only forgave Peter, but he also commissioned him. And his commissioning was to feed my sheep, be the leader of my church, feed my lambs. And that's what you're going to find in this chapter. Now, also, what happens here is this chapter is one of several chapters in each of the Gospels, the Book of Acts and the Book of First Corinthians that talks about the eyewitness sightings of Jesus Christ. Each one of these Gospels, including John, including this chapter, this chapter will be one of them, including the chapter in the first chapter of the Book of Acts and including the 15th chapter in the Book of First Corinthians, all of which identify that for 40 days after the resurrection, the resurrection was on Sunday. And you remember, 50 days further will be what Pentecost. And there's a period of 40 days. And you say, well, where do you get the 40 days, Jack? Well, the Book of Acts says to whom he also presented himself alive after his suffering by many infallible proofs being seen by them during 40 days. Hello, says that in the third verse of the Book of Acts. So we know that after the resurrection, when Jesus appeared to his disciples in the upper room without Thomas on the day of resurrection, appeared to them eight days later on the first day of the week. And I love the way Brother Jimmy talked about the first day of the week, the Lord's day. And you'll notice that everything that's happening of any real note is on the first day of the week. The first day of the week is not Monday, folks. The first day of the week is Sunday. And everything you'll notice is happening on Sunday. And so as it begins to happen on Sunday, each of these, actually, you're going to have seven Sabbaths between resurrection and Pentecost. You're going to have 49 days, seven Sabbaths. And in the sixth week, you're going to find out that Jesus does something on Thursday that's kind of interesting, and I'll share that with you in a few moments. Because in this particular chapter and these other chapters, Jesus is seen over a 40-day period by a lot of people. I mean, it's no secret that his body was not stolen away and hidden somewhere. I mean, it is not a fact that he's not here anymore. The fact is that he is here in a resurrected body, and as Brother Jimmy said last week, he could walk into a room and not even open the door. And as he did last week in the chapter, he walked in the room and he said, Oh, hey, hi guys, how you doing? And they were all scared to death. And he said, Look, here's my hands. Here's my side. Come touch me. Give me something to eat. I'm hungry. A spirit doesn't eat. A spirit's not hungry. I'm hungry. Give me something to eat. I've got a body. Come touch me. So all of that's happening. And John now, in this chapter, wants to exonerate Peter. And ladies and gentlemen, he does. And I'm going to share with you how he does it. Now, we have to understand that Jesus being seen by all of these people over a 40-day period, if you go to the book of Matthew and you go to the 28th chapter, you have that great Matthew 28:19-20. Can anybody tell me what Matthew 28:19-20 is? The Great Commission. And it says this, Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to a mountain which Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw him, okay, Matthew is giving an eye-sighting of Jesus. And Jesus told them, as you will see in the book of John in a few minutes, I want you to go to Galilee. I will meet you there, and I will meet you on a mountain. And that's why in chapter 21, Peter and six of the other apostles are up in Galilee. Jesus told them to go up there, and he told them. Now, it just so happened that Paul, in the 15th chapter of 1st Corinthians, says, And he was seen by over 500 people at one time. That was this mountain. That was this Matthew 28, 19, 20. That was a big crowd up on that mountain. And Jesus saw, they saw Jesus in the flesh. Now, if you go to the book of Mark, in Mark he says, So after that, in Mark 16:19, the Lord had spoken to them. He was received up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. And in chapter, in Mark 16:14, it says, Afterward, he appeared to the eleven as they sat at table, and he rebuked their unbelief. Watch that word. Every time Jesus appears to the disciples, he tells them, Guys, you're not believing. He rebukes them for their unbelief. And brother Jimmy said this last week so eloquently. They were the first people to believe, the last people to believe. Everybody else was being saved. Everybody else was being believed. Here comes the dumb disciples. They haven't figured it out yet. And Jesus keeps telling them, Oh, slow in heart, oh, unbelievers, you do not believe. And here he says it right here. After he appeared to the eleven as they sat at table, he rebuked them for their unbelief and the hardness of their heart. They were the ones who were not believing. The very people who walked with him, talked with him, ate with him, slept with him, saw the miracles, saw all of the wonderful things he did. They were the last ones to believe that he had resurrected from the dead. Can you believe that? That's hard for me to believe. But they didn't. And so you go to the book, you go to the book of Luke. And in the book of Luke, you've got another experience of somebody seeing them. And it says there were two men on the day of resurrection, and they were walking up to a city called Emmaus, remember, chapter 24, book of Luke. And these two guys walking up to Emmaus, all of a sudden, a third person appeared, started walking with them. And he started talking to them. Do you remember the experience? I'm not going to go into all that, we don't have time. And after that, they went back to the city after Jesus talked to them and actually said, I am he. And he disappeared. They go back and they go to the upper room where the disciples are hiding out like a bunch of cowards. And they go up to the upper room. And now, as they said these things to Jesus, himself stood there. Now, what happened was these guys who were walking with him and they, Emmaus, went back to Jerusalem, went to the upper room. They went upstairs where the others were hiding. And they were telling them, do you know what happened to us today? We were walking to Emmaus and all of a sudden Jesus appeared. Oh, come on, you're crazy. No, he did. And they started telling them about what happened. And in verse 36 of Luke 24 says, Now, as they said these things, as these Emmaus men were telling the disciples what was happening, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them. And he said, Peace be to you. Hello, and verse 38 says, And he said to them, Why are you troubled? And why do you doubt? Why do doubts arise in your heart? Still tell them you're a bunch of unbelievers. Behold, my hands, behold my feet, that it is I myself handle me and see for a spirit does not have flesh and bones, and you see, I have both. Then he says, I'm going to prove it to you. You got anything to eat? I'm hungry. And they gave him a piece of broiled fish and he took it and ate it in his presence. I mean, you know, a spook doesn't eat. And after which, in the latter part, it says, And he led them out as far as Bethany, the house of figs. And while he was there, Bethany, in verse 31 of chapter 24, Book of Luke, And it came to pass, while he blessed them, that he was departed from them and carried up into heaven in a cloud. So if you go to the book of first Corinthians, you find a great chapter where Paul tells us about all of these sightings. And he tells us about the fact that after he was buried and rose again in verse four of first Corinthians 15, he says that he was seen by Peter and then by the twelve in verse six. After that, he was seen by over 500 brethren at once, of whom the greater part of them are still alive, but some had died. And after that, he was seen by James, his half-brother, who later became the pastor of the church in Jerusalem. And then by all of the apostles again, he kept showing himself to the apostles. They were still doing what? Not believing. And so he kept showing himself. Then last of all, Paul says, He was, I was, he was seen by me on the road to Damascus. So Paul gives all of these sightings. So all of this is happening. And all of this has happened in these 40 days. Because on the 40th day, the book of Acts says that Jesus met them on the Mount of Olives near the city of Bethany. And he was there with them. And he gave them the great commission again. And that's when he said, You will go into all the world, into Jerusalem, into Judea, into Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth. And he gave it. And while he was still talking, all of a sudden, he started rising into the heavens and a great cloud took him. And these men were there. And all of a sudden, two men in white raiment appeared, Acts 1, verse 2 and following. And they said to them, You men of Galilee, why do you stand gawking into heaven? Don't you know that the same Jesus whom you have seen taken away will return again the same way? Have you figured out 1 Thessalonians 4.13 yet? And the Lord himself shall descend from heaven in a cloud. This Jesus who is taken away from you will return the same way. And what do we call that? The snatching up. We call that the rapture. The way Jesus went, he's going to come back. Don't you know that he's going to come back the same way? Now, go into Jerusalem and do what he told you to do. Pray for 10 days. And at the end of 10 days, you go into the city where he tells you to go. And on that day, something is going to happen. Now, ladies and gentlemen, because all of these 40 days and because of all of the three years of Jesus' ministry, nobody yet had the Holy Spirit in their lives. That came at Pentecost. And all of these people were just trying to figure out what was going on, many of them not believing what was happening, and many of them not trusting what Jesus was saying. And yet it was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit entered all of them. And from that point, the church came alive and went forward. Okay, all of that said, to talk about chapter 21. It appears that John has written us a postscript. First one, chapter 20, after these things, oh, after what things? After the crucifixion, after the burial, after the resurrection, after the two sightings in Jerusalem, after the eyewitness sightings around, after all of these things, Jesus showed himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias, and in this way he showed himself. So Jesus told them, go up to Galilee, I'm going to meet you up there. Now the Sea of Tiberias is the Sea of Galilee, the Sea of Gennesaret, all three of the same sea, that little teacup sea that's up there, that all of these men did fishing in. And all of these men were fishermen, Peter, James, John, Nathanael, all the rest of them, so they were all fishermen, and so he said, you go to Galilee, and you wait there until I show up. And so they went to Galilee. Now I put a little question in on page two, and the little question was, what do you do when you don't know what to do? What do you do when you don't know what to do? Peter said, I'm going fishing. That sounds like Eddie Fisher, amen? I mean, when Eddie doesn't know what to do, what does he do, Terry? He goes fishing, all right? So, you know, I titled this particular part, and I've already finished my introduction, okay, now we're in the Word. What do you do when you don't know what to do? And they see, the disciples had not received the Holy Spirit, and they knew what Jesus had done. They had the Spirit of Him in them, but they had not had the day of Pentecost yet, and they were not fully charged with the Holy Spirit, and so they were trying as best as they could, under the leadership that they had from the Savior himself, to do what he wanted them to do. So he said, you meet me in Galilee, and I will meet you there, in Galilee. And so, what they did, when they didn't know what to do, they did what Jesus had told them to do, and hoping that they'd get some kind of instruction. And so it says, they were on the Sea of Tiberias, the Sea of Gennesaret, the Sea of Galilee, and here's who was there, Simon Peter, Thomas, called Didymus, the twin, Nathanael of Cana, in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, James and John, and two others of his disciples were there together. And they were on the Sea of Galilee. It was beginning to become night. Now, these fishermen always fished at night. That appeared to be the best time when they could catch fish on the Sea of Galilee, and so that's when Simon Peter said to them, I'm going fishing. When you don't know what to do, when you don't know what to do, you do what you know what to do. And Peter said, I'm going fishing. And so he gets into a boat, and the others said, okay, if you're going fishing, we're going with you. And immediately it says that they went out into a boat, went out into the Sea of Galilee, they started fishing, they fished all night and caught nothing. I mean, they toiled all night long, caught not one single fish. So near the morning, Jesus stood on the shore. Now, Brother Jimmy and Carol Ann and Barbara and I and many of you have been on the Sea of Galilee in the early morning. In fact, it was one of my favorite activities to get up early when we were near the Sea of Galilee and up in Galilee in our hotels, either in Tiberias or somewhere else. And early morning, go out and look at the sea because there's always a fog and a kind of denseness on the sea. In fact, early in the morning, you can't even see across the six or seven miles. It's just foggy and dense and you can kind of see figures out there, but you can't make anything out. So I understand what they're doing. Jesus is standing on the seashore and he's looking out at them and he sees them fishing and he says, hey, folks, have you caught any food? A fish? Have you caught any fish? And the scripture says in six, they said to him, they said, no, sir, no. We've caught nothing. And Jesus said to them, throw your net on the right side of the boat. What? On the wrong side of the boat. These fishermen told Jesus on another occasion, sir, evidently you don't know anything about fishing. Evidently, sir, you haven't fished up here on this lake. You remember when Jesus told them the other time when they caught nothing, he said, throw your nets on the right side of the boat. And they said, hey, guy, who are you? You know anything about this lake? We've been fishing this lake ever since we were beehive to a grasshopper. And we always throw our nets on the left side. He said, I know. That's why I'm telling you to throw them on the right side, OK? We don't think you're going to catch anything, sir, but if you say so, we'll throw them on the right on the right and throw them on the right side. What happened? He said they got so many fish, the nets started breaking. Oh, look here, he said, hey, throw your nets on the right side of the boat and you'll find some. And now it begins to ruminate and it starts going back to when he talked to the two sons of Zebedee and he said, throw your nets on the right side. And so they did. Therefore, the disciples whom Jesus, whom Jesus loves, said to Peter, John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, the writer of this book, said to Peter, Peter, it's the Lord. We can't see him yet, but it's him. Look what he just told. You remember what he told John and James and me? You remember what he told us? Hey, he just said the same thing. Throw your nets on the right side. And we did. All of a sudden the nets just got full of fish and Peter, who was the blunderbuss, didn't wait for them to get back to shore, said Peter got his outer garment that he'd taken off to fish all night, put it on and jumped into the sea and started swimming towards shore. And he left these guys pulling the boat. He's swimming, they're pulling. And so he gets over there. But the other disciples came in the little boat for they were about, they were not far from land, about 200 cubits, dragging the fish with them. First time. Then as soon as they had come to land, they saw, hang on, a fire of coals. Hmm. That's interesting. On which Jesus was cooking fish and bread. I told you when I did the chapter on the garden, the garden of the high priest, when Peter was invited to come in by John and the little girl at the gate said, you look like one of his, you're dressed like a Galilee. I am not. Then he goes over to this coal. He goes over to this big fire. And in that chapter it says, and he warmed himself over a fire of coals. Now this, and I said, we said to you all early on, the Jews never burned wood. They could not afford to burn wood because wood was too precious to them. So they always burned what we call anthracite coal anthracite coal burns very hot, smokes very little, but has a tremendously pugna odor. And when you get around anthracite coal burning, you will have no trouble knowing that it's anthracite. It has a tremendously pugna odor. And Peter was standing in the garden over this fire of anthracite coal in the Greek. It's called anthracion in English. It's all anthracite, same kind of word. And Peter's warming himself. And one of the guys near the fire says, I saw you out there with him in the garden. And Peter said, you did not. I was not with him. And then about that time, another guy walks up and says, you cut my cousin's ear off. Now the little girl was no problem. The soldier by the fire who said, I saw you in the garden was a little bit of a problem. But the one who said you cut my cousin's ear off was a big problem. Because you see an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth was still in progress. In other words, that guy who was the cousin of Malchus, if he had wanted to, according to the scripture in the Old Testament, he could have cut off Peter's ear, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. And Peter said, I was not incursed, remember? Now Peter gets to the shore and Jesus has this little fire of coals going. And the pugna is there. And it begins to kind of flow up into Peter's nostrils. And I'm sure that the Holy Spirit now working in Peter's mind begins to look back to the garden of the high priest. Because here's what it says. I said, and bring some fish, we'll cook some more. Peter went and helped them bring the fish in. There were so many in the net, it started breaking. And he said, come on, let's sit down and eat breakfast. And all of them thought they knew who he was. This is so confusing to me. And Brother Jimmy said it so many times, these disciples did not believe. And they thought they knew who he was, but they were fearful of asking him, are you really him? They were kind of fearful about that. And so they didn't ask him, but they thought it was him. Then Jesus took the bread, gave it to them, and likewise the fish. Now, this is now the third time, watch this, this is now the third time Jesus has presented himself to his disciples since he was raised from the dead. Jerusalem two times, in the upper room, now here at the Sea of Tiberias. And he has been being seen by lots of other people, up to over 500 at one time, as Paul tells us. Now, they're sitting down and eating, and Jesus starts what happens in my chapter on my page three. He starts talking to Peter. Now, let me help you understand, I don't want to bore you with it, but I want you to help you understand a little bit of Greek language. As I tell my friends, I know a little Greek and I know a little Hebrew. The Greek has a restaurant in Dallas and the Hebrew has a delicatessen here, I know both of them. So I know a little Greek and I know a little Hebrew, okay? Now, in Greek, in classical Greek, there are four words for the word we say love. In Koine Greek, there are three, only two of which they use in the New Testament. Now, in classical Greek, you have the first word, agapao, which I put in the paper says the highest form of love, God's love for all mankind, if you want an idea of what it is, John 3.16, for God so loved the world. In fact, in John 3.16, it's agapao, and it means God's kind of love. Then there's a second kind of love, it's called storge. This word is not used in the Koine Greek, our Greek New Testament, Brother Jimmy's Greek New Testament does not have storge in it. Storge is the Greek word that means husband, wife, family, children, loved ones, people that you love. Storge means familiar love, family members are our love for one another, like I have and Barbara has storge love for all of you, okay? We have storge love for all of you. Now, the next one is phileo, and phileo is a word that talks about love as friendship, so part of our love for you also is phileo. It's storge because we love you as a family, but it's also we love you as friends, and phileo also means I can say, I love my car. You see, you can use that word with an object. So if I tell you I love my car in Greek, I'm not going to use agapao, I'm not going to use storge, I'm going to use phileo, because I love my car as an object, got it? So that was the way, as I told you, you can't make a mistake in Greek. If you say the word, they'll know what you're talking, and then there's another one from which we get the word erotica, and that's eros, and the eros is not used in the New Testament. In fact, the only two that are used in the New Testament are phileo and agapao. Storge is not used, and eros is not used in the New Testament. Okay, in Koine Greek, all right, so that's the three words. Now, Jesus is going to use the first and the second. He's going to use the God love, and he's going to use the friendship love. Not going to use the husband, wife, family, brother, sister. He's going to use God's love, he's going to use friend love. So here's what happens. He says to Simon Peter, when they had eaten, Simon, now watch these next words and mark them. Son of Jonah. Wait a minute. His name was Peter. Why did Jesus call him Simon? And now, I just kind of wrote in here for you to play with. I said, Peter, actually, although Jesus called him the rock, at this particular time was a muddy mess. He was no rock. He had his feet more in the mud than he had it on the rocks. And so Jesus does not use the word rock. Do you love me? He says, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me? So Peter is identifying a fact that Peter is not the personality of the rock, which he thinks, and which Jesus named him, he was. So he says to him, Simon, son of Jonah, do you agapas me more than these? Now, what does that mean? He uses the word, he uses a form of agapao. Do you love, do you have a God love for me more than these? And I'm sure he kind of makes an expression like that. More than these. Okay. Many, many people think the word these means the boats, the fish, the nets, the equipment, the Sea of Galilee, the opportunity of being a fisherman, that it means all of these. It's exactly right. It does not mean that at all. Because these is not an adverb. It is a noun. Do you love me more than these? And it's a noun form. These mean these other disciples. It's in a masculine form. It is not in a form that identifies a boat or a net or a boat or a fish or anything. It identifies a person. And Jesus says, Simon, do you love me more than these other disciples love me? You said you didn't. You boasted about you did. You said that you were the strongest one. You said you love me more than everything. Simon, do you love me more than these other disciples love me? James and John and Nathanael and Denimus and these other two guys, do you love me more than these men love me? If you do, now here comes the commission, feed my lambs, feed my lambs. Peter says, Lord, I phileo you. I love you like a friend. Jesus said, Simon, I love you like God. Simon says, I love you like a friend. Jesus is wanting Simon to tell him that he agapassu'd him, that he loved him like God loves him. But Simon says, I love you like a friend. And then he says, feed my lambs. And then he says to him a second time, coal's burning, smell coming, garden remembers, says Simon, do you agapao me? Do you agapass me? To which Simon goes once again to phileo, I love you like a friend. And now, Peter, Jesus changes the word that he tells him what to do. He changes his commission. In the first one, he said, you feed my lambs. In this one, he changes the word just a little bit that you don't see in English, but you do see in the original. And he says, you shepherd my sheep. The first one, he said, you just feed them. In the second one here, he says shepherd them. Two different meanings from feeding and shepherd. Any person could go out and feed sheep. In fact, you remember when Jesus says that the hirelings, when the animals come, will run off and do what? Leave the sheep? Because all of the hirelings, all the hirelings do is feed the sheep. They don't protect them. They just feed them. They just say, you know, just got to be sure they get something to eat. And now Jesus changes the word that he used in the first question, and he changes it to the word shepherd, which means I not only want you to feed them, I want you to protect them. I want you to guard them. I want you to care for them. I want you to see to it that they get the very best they need. I want you to desperately be their savior. I want you to keep them. Shepherd my sheep. Last time he said, feed my lambs. And Peter said, Lord, I love you like a friend. Well, maybe we can take another run at it. And Jesus says a third. Now, understand, every time Jesus answers Peter, he is commissioning him. Feed my lambs. Shepherd my sheep. In other words, Jesus, John, is proving to the world that Jesus is forgiving Peter, which the other gospels did not do. Got it. And some say that's the reason why John wrote chapter 21, to exonerate Peter, to make Peter the great preacher and the great fisherman that he was. And so he comes out of the third time, you know, by this time, I probably would have stepped over and slapped a little daylight side of him. Wouldn't you? Wouldn't you want to step across fire and slap the daylight side of him? Anyway, Jesus says, Simon, son of Jonah, do you watch, felice me? Whoa. Every other time he said, Simon, do you agapos me? Do you have a love God for me, Simon? This time he says, Simon, do you even like me as a friend? Are you just my friend, Simon? Do you felice me? Feed my sheep. Simon comes apart. Simon comes apart. And he says, when he comes apart, Lord, you know, I love you. You know, I love you. Jesus said, OK, Simon, but Simon used the word for that. Jesus said, Simon, if you're not going to love me, I'm going to come down to your level. I love you like a friend, Simon. If you love me like a friend and that's all you can muster, I'll take it. Now, folks, that's how much Jesus loves us. He'll take us with whatever we give him. If it's a little bit, if it's some or if it's all, Jesus loves it and will take it. Not just a part, the song says, nor half of my heart, I will give all to thee. Jesus was expecting a capsa. Peter said, Lord, you know everything. You know, I love you. And Jesus didn't know Peter loved him. How many times during the three years that Peter demonstrated he loved him, Peter even drew a sword in the garden to fight for him. But old Peter still had the ugly side of his life that he couldn't get rid of. And so now you think, well, it's OK, OK, Lord, I got it. I love you. You know, I love you. You know, I feel I owe you. And Jesus said, OK, Simon, for the third time, your commission, feed my sheep. And Jesus said to him, most assuredly, I say to you, Simon, when you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you wished. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands and another will guard you and carry you where you do not want or wish. Jesus just finished telling Peter how he was going to die. This is Jesus' obituary to Peter. Now watch what he said. I tried to explain it to you on chapter four, on page four. I may not have done a very good job, but as you read it, you'll understand. Jesus said to Peter, Peter, you're the kind of guy that always did what you wanted to do. Aren't you all glad we're not that way? See, I think we're the same way, folks. I mean, I love that deer back there so much. And she said, Jack, you always do what you want to do. Well, I do. I'm hard-headed Irishman. And yet I try to do what she wants me to do. I try hard. Don't I, Marvin? I try hard. I try hard. But, you know, I'm kind of that way. Oh, don't smile, Mike. You are, too. That bear down? He's hard-headed, too, right? I mean, you know, he said, Peter, when you got, when you were young, you dressed the way you wanted to dress. Man, if you wanted to show out, you showed out. It's okay. It's good. Oh, and by the way, when you were younger, if you wanted to go somewhere, you didn't ask anybody if you could go. You just went. Okay. He said, that's fine. That was your younger life. Now, Peter, it's going to change. In the future, there's going to be a time when you're not going to be able to dress yourself at all. Other people are going to dress you. Dungeon. Prison. You're not going to go and get your clothes out of the closet. If you have any clothes, somebody else is going to give you the clothes. Somebody else is going to dress you. Oh, and Simon, also, you used to go wherever you wanted to go, but in the future, and here's where Jesus tells him about his death, because the word that you see here identified as, as, as where you wish another will guard you and carry you where you do not wish is a word which says they're going to kill you. It's a word about his death. So they're going to carry you where you don't want to go. And when they get you there, they're going to kill you. Simon, I want you to know it's coming. Now you fast forward into about the second, third century. And there were two historians, one by the name of Tertullian and another by the name of Oregon, origin, whichever way you want to call him. And both of these men reported something on Simon Peter. One of them said that in this particular verse in chapter 21, that what, what he was talking about was that he was talking about the fact that Peter was going to be murdered by the Roman empire and the best way the Roman empire had of murdering people was crucifying them. And so he mentioned Tertullian mentions the fact that the Roman empire is going to kill Peter origin comes later. And origin tells us that Peter did die from crucifixion, but origin is the one who tells us that when they got ready, when they carried him to the place, which was the last part of this verse where they were going to kill him, they started to get him ready to crucify him. And Peter said, I do not, I am not worthy to be crucified with my head up like my Lord. If you're going to crucify me, I want you to crucify me with my head down. And origin tells us that Peter was crucified upside down with his head down. And that was the fulfillment of verse 18 to Simon Peter. He did die. He did die of crucifixion. And according to this historian, he died with his head pointing down. Now everything's fine. Peter accepts this and they're getting ready to leave because Jesus is now going to the mountain in Galilee, where he can meet with these 500 people and give them the great commission. I mean, this is all part of the 40 days it's going on. And so Jesus gets up and he starts to leave the beach and John, whom Jesus loved, you know how much John loved Jesus, John pops up and he goes with Jesus and Jesus stops him and says, uh, verse 19 says, signifying by the death, he would glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he said, follow me. So he said, you're going to glorify God, glorify your memory and crucifixion mean to die. When they said that Jesus was going to be glorified, it meant that he was going to die. And so now he's telling Peter, Peter, you're going to die. You're going to be glorified as I Christ was upside down on a cross. And now he says, follow me. And he gets up and starts leaving. John starts going. And Peter looks up now. Problem child again, Peter, like me, oftentimes cannot keep our mouth shut. We just talk. We need to be listening. And when he sees John and he sees him following Jesus, he says, Jesus, you just told me what was going to happen to me. What's going to happen to this guy? That's what he asked. That's what he asked. He said, then Peter turning around, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following also who had leaned on his breast at the supper and said, Lord, who is the one who betrays you? Peter seeing him said, Jesus, but Lord, what about this man? Curiosity killed the cat, folks. Peter wants to know what's going to happen to John. He knows he's going to die. He's going to glorify God on a cross. But what are you going to do with this guy? Jesus says to him in verse 22, if I will, that John remain till I come, what is that to you? Follow me, shut up and follow me. In other words, what he said was, Peter, your curiosity is going to kill you. You are not asking something that's any of your business. It's not your business what I'm going to do with John. It's my business. So, Peter, what I told you to do is what I want you to do. I want you to follow me, okay? And then saying he went out among the brethren, that is the disciples who would not die, yet Jesus did not say that he would not die, but he did say, if I will that he remain till I come, what business of that is yours? You have no business there. You see, folks, Peter was responsible for Peter. Jesus was responsible for both of them. And Peter had no business worrying about what was going to happen to John. And so Jesus has to correct the problem child again and get him straight going one more time. Verse 25, and we close. There are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books. In fact, he says, my gospel is not complete. It's not everything Jesus did. I wish that I could have done everything that Jesus, I wish I could have written everything that Jesus did. I wrote everything I could remember. The Holy Spirit through me wrote everything I could remember. But there are some things that probably I did not remember. And if it was written down, the entire world could not hold the books that were, but I will read you a passage. How wonderful my last, the last line on page four, how wonderful it would be if we knew everything Jesus did and spoke, wouldn't that be wonderful? Remember how wonderful it is that we know, we do know what we know. Think about that. We don't know everything he did, but praise God, he let us know what we needed to know. And we are blessed because we know what we need to know. The blessed Holy Spirit inspired men to recall and recount all that was necessary for us to know and to do. Don't be curious like Simon Peter. You've got enough to do for yourself. Don't worry about me. Don't worry about Brother Jimmy. Don't worry about other people. You have enough in your own plate as a Christian to do, and you need to do what you know to do. Amen? And that's the end of the book of John. Great postscript, Peter exonerated, although he acts like an idiot at the end, he is exonerated. He is commissioned three times, and he really comes to prominence on the day of Pentecost when he preaches the Pentecostal sermon. And he becomes the great fisherman, Simon Peter. Amen? Let's pray. Sovereign God, your word is so precious to us. It's so easy to understand when you really want to. And thank you, Father, for the life of Simon Peter, the rock. Like we oftentimes, we had mud for feet. Oftentimes we stand like a rock. When you're so much like him, it's a shame. And yet, Father, you loved him with God love, and you love us with that same love. Because you said, for God so loved the world that he gave the only one of a kind, that any of us who believe on him would never perish, but have everlasting life. Father, we thank you for the promise of everlasting life by believing on the holy and righteous name of Jesus Christ, the Lord. Thank you for the book of John. Thank you for Brother Jimmy. Thank you for him helping us understand. Thank you for helping me. And may we be blessed as we look to the book of Romans, as we look to see what Paul was saying to the church in Rome. Father, bless us this week. Give us a wonderful day of independence. And yet, Father, at the same time, the same God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time in the Americas, and the same God that gave us eternal life, gave us eternal liberty at the same time in the Christian faith. And so we thank you, Father, that we not only have life and liberty in this wonderful country we call America, but we also have life and liberty in the eternal kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, Jesus, our Redeemer. And we thank you for that. In Jesus' name, amen. Go be blessed.