Two of the things my grandkids have learned not to say around me are:
- I’m bored
- That’s not fair
They slip and say them on occasion, and I don’t get mad, or belittle them.
But they know, it just won’t get traction with me.
In fact, they get the same response every time.
What is my response?
I’m bored!…That’s the sign of a lazy mind, I can give you something to do.
That’s not fair!…Trust me, you don’t want me to be fair.
I know, classic old guy responses…but still true.
“It’s not fair” is the one thing that modern adults seem to never grow out of.
I rarely watch NFL, it’s okay…it is boring.
But I am amused by the times when I’ve seen fans boo an obvious call against their team, then cheer a lousy call against the other team…it is fair, then it’s not fair.
What’s the common denominator? MY team…what is fair for “me”
It gets worse than that.
When adults get more than they (we deserve) and complain because someone else gets more still.
Your boss gives you a bonus, that you were not promised when you took the job…then complain when he is more generous with someone else.
When we are underserving of anything except judgment from God and cry foul when he isn’t “fair” with us.
“I’ve gone to church, given money, served others…tried to be good…and look what it got me, …I’m sick, my children don’t serve you, I’m unhappy…it’s not fair!”
Listen to what the Lord Jesus said.
“Suppose one of you had a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Would he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? Would he not rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? Would he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’ ”
Luke 17:7-10
Every year I see some of my grandkids, subtly (they think) counting the presents of their siblings or cousins versus their own.
My wife feels the need to explain…”It’s total cost not total presents!”
I never feel the need to say that to them…equal Christmas gifts are not an inalienable right, and the demand for fairness, I have to say, is kind of annoying to me.
But just so she won’t correct me later…I know her heart in this, she wants them to feel equally loved by us…and that is true and good.
And she would agree with everything I’m saying here.
She is just less of a hard head than me.
But we really don’t want God to be fair…we desperately need his undeserved grace.
Today we finish the gospel of John.
After this, Jesus revealed himself again to his disciples by the Sea of Tiberias (large lake also called Galiee). He revealed himself in this way: 2 Simon Peter, Thomas, Nathanael from Cana of Galilee, Zebedee’s sons, and two others of his disciples were together.
3 “I’m going fishing,” Simon Peter said to them. “We’re coming with you,” they told him. They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.
Some have said this passage indicates that Peter had left his calling to follow Jesus and went back to his old life of fishing.
Even though he had seen Jesus risen from the dead…they say his return fishing shows
that had walked away from his faith.
This is far-fetched…I think what it shows is that he was hungry.
Because even with a resurrected Jesus, Peter needed to eat.
Plus, he was trying to figure out what is next…when you are stressed there are things that you can do that are helpful…things that aren’t helpful.
Peter didn’t go to a bar, he went fishing.
Fishing wasn’t a bad choice for Peter at this point.
When I deployed and felt stressed, overwhelmed in the middle of one night… I didn’t go to the chapel (though I had a key) I went to the gym.
I prayed there, I felt comforted there…the smell of metal and sweat held comforting, memories for me.
I can imagine Peter fishing and being comforted by the familiar smells, and sounds.
I can imagine him thinking as he fished.
What was he thinking?
Of course, I don’t know…but I know what I would have been thinking.
I would have thinking about my recent failure and feelings of shame.
I would be thinking about what will happen now between me and Jesus?
When daybreak came, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not know it was Jesus.
Maybe it was foggy, not full light…they couldn’t quite make him out.
5 “Friends,” Jesus called to them, “you don’t have any fish, do you?”
“No,” they answered.
6 “Cast the net on the right side of the boat,” he told them, “and you’ll find some.” So they did, and they were unable to haul it in because of the large number of fish. 7 The disciple, the one Jesus loved, said to Peter, “It is the Lord!”
When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he tied his outer clothing around him (for he had taken it off) and plunged into the sea.
Here we see a reoccurring theme in John’s gospel.
John has insight (it’s the Lord)
Peter acts (jumps overboard)
Two very different personalities and two very different life callings to follow the same Lord Jesus…more on that shortly.
8 Since they were not far from land (about a hundred yards, away), the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish. 9 When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish lying on it, and bread. 10 “Bring some of the fish you’ve just caught,” Jesus told them. 11 So Simon Peter climbed up and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish—153 of them. Even though there were so many, the net was not torn.
Jesus, as we discussed last week…had a resurrected body…it could be touched, it could fish, or maybe he bought them rather than caught them…either way was he was already cooking some when they got to shore.
He had a body that catch or buy fish…and it could come and go in ways our bodies can’t.
Notice again the eyewitness details…153 to be precise, fish…for John, a fisherman hinself, this number would be important.
They were large fish, and don’t think for a moment these professional fishermen were not, out of old habit, counting…1, 2, 3…all the way to 153!
12 “Come and have breakfast,” Jesus told them. None of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” because they knew it was the Lord. 13 Jesus came, took the bread, and gave it to them. He did the same with the fish. 14 This was now the third time Jesus appeared, to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.
They know it is him, but they still can’t believe their eyes…can you blame them?
The Lord in his resurrected body is coming and going…from their plane of existence to another one.
This was some weird stuff for these guys.
They are eating fish sandwiches, staring at Jesus and their minds are blown.
And he did, what he had always done…he provided for their needs…fed them fish and bread.
He then, provides what Peter most needs…restoration, hope, and gospel purpose.
He needs to know Jesus is okay with him…that he hadn’t thrown away his chance to be used by him, to be in relationship with because of his betrayal.
15 When they had eaten breakfast, Jesus asked Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?”
“Yes, Lord,” he said to him, “you know that I love you.”
“Feed my lambs,” he told him. 16 A second time he asked him, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”
“Yes, Lord,” he said to him, “you know that I love you.”
“Shepherd my sheep,” he told him.
17 He asked him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”
Peter was grieved that he asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.”
“Feed my sheep,” Jesus said.
Jesus restores Peter by asking the same question three times, once for every betrayal.
First he asks Peter…
“Do you love me more than these?”
The “these” were the other disciples…why would he ask that?
Because Peter had been cocky and said, “Even if these guys all fall away, I never will.”
His answer here isn’t full of that hubris he just says, “Yes, Lord, you know I love you.”
“Okay, then feed my people”
If you love me, then lay down your life for them…Love for Jesus is revealed in love for others.
He asks him twice more.
The third time, John writes that Peter was grieved by the question.
How would John know that?
He may have seen it on his face, maybe he saw Peter’s tears.
I think Peter told him…later as they talked together over the years.
And don’t think they didn’t talk about these days with the resurrected Jesus a lot…over the next decades of ministry.
Imagine Peter talking with John.
“John, it broke my heart when he asked me the third time if I loved him.”
“I’m such an idiot…I had said, these other losers might betray you (sorry John) it aint gonna happen to me!”
“I was the first one to deny him.”
“I couldn’t even look at him.”
So, John writes, Peter was grieved that he asked him the third time, “Do you love me?”
Look at Peter’s final, heartbroken answer…”You know everything, you know my heart, you know I love you.”
“Yes, Peter” Jesus is saying, “I do know you love me”…”Now go feed my sheep”
Go lay down your life for me, to others.
Then, he gives him a view of his future, information that I personally would never want to know.
18 “Truly I tell you, when you were younger, you would tie your belt and walk wherever you wanted. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will tie you and carry you where you don’t want to go.” 19 He said this to indicate by what kind of death Peter would glorify God.
The way this is worded, “stretch out your hands and be tied” was a phrase sometimes used to describe crucifixion.
Peter would indeed die on a cross…legend says upside down, but the history on that is shaky.
What’s not shaky historically is that Peter would die on a cross, about thirty years after this event.
Imagine Peter living thirty more years with this prediction hanging over him.
By the time John wrote this gospel, Peter had been crucified.
John was writing, thinking of what Jesus told Peter all those years earlier.
He was thinking of how Peter had lived…and how he had died.
Listen to what Peter wrote in what was likely the last year of his life.
To the elders (older believers, church leaders) among you, I appeal as a fellow elder, a witness of Christ’s sufferings and one who also will share in the glory to be revealed: 2 Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, serving as overseers—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve; 3 not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. 4 And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.
Peter was probably around my age when he wrote this, he was a guy in his mid-sixties, he had served the church for decades.
He had taken the Lord’s restoration and challenge to heart…and these were tied together.
He was restored to relationship and to missional purpose.
Peter was looking to the Lord to see if he would forgive him…he got a question, “Do you love me”
Peter knew that Jesus knew, the answer.
What Peter wanted to know was…”Are you done with me?”
The answer to that was given three times…”Feed my sheep”
Clearly Jesus was not done with him.
After this Jesus wanted a private moment with Peter, he said “follow me”
Which was…”Peter, walk with me”…they left the larger group and went for a private, sort of, walk on the beach.
After saying this, he told him, “Follow me.” 20 So Peter turned around and saw the disciple Jesus loved following them, the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper and asked, “Lord, who is the one that’s going to betray you?” 21 When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, “Lord, what about him?” 22 “If I want him to remain until I come,” Jesus answered, “what is that to you? As for you, follow me.”
As Jesus and Peter were walking, Peter looks back and John is lurking behind them.
Seems that John had FOMO…hard to blame him, you never knew what Jesus was going to say or do.
John describes this event by taking us back to the last supper and he says the guy following them was the same one who was sitting next to Jesus at that meal.
Remember they were laying back on their elbows around a table on the floor…so John was very close to Jesus.
Peter then said to Jesus, as he looks over his shoulder…”What about him?”
“John was as close to you as me, what will it cost him to follow you?”
Peter knows the personal cost of following Jesus is going to be high…but what about him?
John was another insider, an inner circle guy…what price will he have to pay?
What does Jesus say?
Peter, that is none of your business.
“You follow me, what difference does it make what my plans are for him?”
John then gives a point of historical reference that’s outside the flow of the narrative.
23 So this rumor spread to the brothers and sisters that this disciple would not die. Yet Jesus did not tell him that he would not die, but, “If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you?”
The words of Jesus were misunderstood to mean that John would not die until after the Lord returned.
But John clarifies…this is not what Jesus said or meant.
This is important because when John was writing this gospel he was already an old man and those who thought the Lord had said that John would be alive when he returns…would be all hyped up…”John is going to die soon, get ready!”
John was probably sick of putting down this rumor, “No, that is not what Jesus said, I was literally standing right there.”
John knew that if the rumor was allowed to stand, when he died, skeptics would mock, “See, told you it was all a lie.”
“John is dead, Jesus has not returned.”
Too many people have written dumb books about when Jesus will return, and this has led to foolish choices by Christians (checking out on their lives because the end is near) and it has opened the church up to mockery by skeptics.
Paul wrote to some Christians who were overly caught up in “end times” thinking that the way to be ready for the Lord’s return is to: “Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, work with your hands, so your daily life will win the respect of non-believers”
1 Thess. 4:11.
If you believe the end is near, this is the clear biblical direction on how to live
Not to stockpile guns or build bunkers…but to keep living a faithful, normal life.
John had to put down this speculation based on a rumor over and over…here it is decades later, and that thing kept coming back to life like a zombie.
24 This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down. We know that his testimony is true. 25 And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which, if every one of them were written down, I suppose not even the world itself could contain the books that would be written.
John concludes with, “As amazing as this narrative has been, it’s just the tip of the iceberg of what Jesus did. You have no idea how great this man was and is.”
Jesus gave Peter and John the same comfort and the same calling.
John 20:21, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, I also send you.”
But how this calling will unfold in these two men’s lives will be very different in details…but not in ultimate destiny, but in details.
Peter will be crucified, probably by Nero during the great persecution of 64.
John will live another 30 years after Peter’s death and die, of natural causes, at around 90 years of age.
These are just two of the stories of Jesus’ followers that had very different trajectories.
In fact, John’s brother, James was the first disciple to die…he was beheaded by Herod about 10 years from the time of the events in this chapter (Read about it in Acts 12)
So, Peter, crucified at around 65, James beheaded in his forties, John lives to be 90…how is that fair?
Fortunately, for us, Jesus isn’t concerned with being fair…as we would define it.
John wrote so that we would believe that Jesus is the Savior and that we would have life in his name.
Through his sacrifice we have life.
There is nothing fair about God incarnate, living a sinless life, dying a substitutionary death for our sins.
We don’t want fair…but we do deserve it.
What do you have that was not given to you?
“I worked for this degree, this money.”
I deserve God’s favor, his blessing…I’ve followed him.
“For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?”1 Cor. 4:7
You were given a brain, gifting, a body, opportunity, lungs and breath, every single hour, day…is all a gift.
Clearly it is okay to ask God for different outcomes for our lives.
We can ask for blessings, for relief from suffering.
Jesus asked that if there was another way than the cross, he would prefer it.
That is our great example to ask God for relief when we suffer…but to trust God no matter the outcome.
It is okay to not be excited about every part of God’s will for our lives…There are things in my life I would prefer not to be what they are.
I’m not advocating for never feeling sad, hurt, or disappointed by your life.
That’s not real, that’s not good, that’s not possible.
At our family Christmas this year we will be glad, and we will be sad.
I’m going to talk about this to the kids on Christmas Eve, so I won’t say much now.
But being glad/sad is not bad…it is life between the Advents of Christ.
Christ has come, we are redeemed…we rejoice
Christ will return, in the meantime….we groan.
I am NOT advocating for faith that doesn’t feel pain and disappointment…but a faith that trusts God in all.
A faith that has peace in it all.
“Peace be with you”…Jesus said.
“As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
How did the Father send Jesus “I did not come to be served, but to serve and to give my life as a ransom.”
We are not going to offer our lives as ransom for the sins of others, but we are to find purpose in seeking to serve not to be served.
Our purpose is faithfulness…to what God has called us to.
There is no peace and there is no joy is scanning around for sign of unfairness…asking…”But what about them?”
“They” Jesus would say, “Are none of your business.”
There is peace, joy and purpose in faith and faithfulness.
Trust Christ, be found faithful with your stewardship, your life as God gives it.
Go back up in 1 Cor 4 a bit, what do we find?
“It is required that those who have been given a trust, be found faithful.”
1 Cor. 4:2
Faithfulness is empowered by nurturing gratitude and continually putting aside the stinking thinking that demands fairness.
When are hearts are not leashed to gratitude, they are insatiable.
How much will be enough for them?…a little more, always a little more…or a lot more.
Nurture gratitude for the gospel…for as many days as God gives you breath.
A final word as we close in on the end of this year…
Jesus will restore you if you have failed.
We are all sinners in need of a savior.
Do not hide from him in shame…come to him and be forgiven.
If you are surrounded by family this week…nurture gratitude for the gospel.
-it won’t be perfect
-it will have some glad/sad
If you are alone…nurture gratitude for the gospel.
-it will have some sad/glad
If you have regrets from this past year…nurture gratitude for the gospel.
Let me finish with Isaiah and then were we started the year, John 1:
The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.
Is 9
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning.3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. 6 There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. 9 The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.
10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. 14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Listen to this song about nurturing gratitude for the gospel, especially in the face of our own ongoing failure.
Let me read the first lines, then the last lines:
And with this Christmas wish is missed
The point I could convey
If only I could find the words to say to let You know how much You’ve touched my life
Because here is where You’re finding me, in the exact same place as New Year’s eve
And from a lack of my persistency We’re less than half as close as I want to be
And I, I celebrate the day, That You were born to die
So I could one day pray for You to save my life
Let’s pray our way through this song…begin today to nurture gratitude for the gospel.