Peter Restored
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2022 · 22 May 2022
This evening we’re going to finish our study of this incredibly gospel. So it’s with some sadness that we come to the end of the gospel of John, but it’s going to be a helpful consummation as we look at the final section. That final section of John 21 is focused right at Peter. He had acted disobediently; and because he was a leader, he led the other apostles into disobedience.
They were supposed to be in a mountain waiting for the Lord, but Peter decided that he was going to go back to fishing. He had denied the Lord on three separate occasions. He felt inadequate and guilty. He also was a man who didn’t have a lot of patience. He had not yet, along with the apostles, received the Holy Spirit. They were doubtful of their own power, to sustain a ministry.
The Lord had rebuked him so many times; the others were unsure about the future even though they had seen the risen Christ for the third time in John 21. So we are grateful for verses 15 and following, because this is the restoration, the recalling of Peter, and the reassignment of the ministry that God had given him through Christ at the very beginning of the ministry of our Lord.
In Matthew 4:19 Jesus met these fishermen, including Peter; and told them to drop their nets, leave it all behind and He would make them fishers of men. They all dropped everything, and followed Him. This is three years later, and Peter has led his friends back to fishing. That’s not the Lord’s plan for them. Peter is the leader; he needs to be restored, and behind him will come the others.
By the time we get here, even though Peter has seen the risen Christ, he is really a broken man. The disciples have not yet received the Holy Spirit, so they don’t have the power, and they know their own impotence. It’s easy to go back to fishing, which this group had been engaged in, with the exception of Thomas. But the Lord is going to call them back into significant ministry.
For every believer, there is the necessity of a call to love, a call to sacrifice, and a call to obey. That is the meaning of discipleship. What comes out of those three things are easily articulated, love, sacrifice, and obedience. But following Christ is not easy. To love that way is not easy, to sacrifice that way is not easy, and to obey that way is also not easy. Salvation is not cheap, it costs everything.
Jesus said, “If you want to follow Me, you must deny yourself, and take up your cross.” The cost will be your life, and maybe your death. What is the compelling desire that is going to cause me or you or anybody else to sacrifice my life for Christ, to spend my life obeying Him? Well, that’s where we begin. The motive is love. That is the only power that can motivate this kind of devotion.
People who love greatly give up things. Love is a powerful motivation. It is love that makes people sacrifice everything to live with one person the rest of their life. It is love that is so powerful it can destroy a family. It can destroy a marriage. It can destroy a life. It can lead to alcoholism, drugs, suicide and murder. Some have such great love that they will give their lives for their nation.
And as far as Christians are concerned, according to 2 Corinthians 5:14, it is the love that we have for the Lord that controls us. It is that love that controls us. Some translations of 2 Corinthians 5:14 say: constrains us, motivates us. Really you follow the things you love; whatever they are, even objects that you love, experiences that you love, as well as people that you love.
What do we hear in the Old Testament is our responsibility. It is reiterated in Matthew 22:37 by our Lord, “You are to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.” That in itself sums up the law of God. You can condense them into the first half of the Decalogue, which relates to how we treat God. That is how you are to live a life of love for God.
The second part of that great command is, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” That fulfills the second half of the Decalogue and all the other laws that God gave that deal with human relationships. Love is the driving power in life and in the kingdom as well. Deuteronomy 6:6 says, “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart.’ That’s what you teach your children.
Our Lord makes it clear in John 14:15. He says to the disciples and to all of us, “If you love Me, you’ll keep My commandments.” Verse 21, “He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and disclose Myself to him.” Verse 28, “If you loved Me, you would have rejoice because I go to the Father.”
John makes a major point of this when he writes his epistles. His epistles are about loving God and loving brothers. Love is the power of obedience. Love is the power of duty. Love is the power of service. Love is the power of sacrifice. Love is the power of worship. Love is the power of fellowship. So you see that in verses 15 to 17, and our Lord’s dialogue with the apostle Peter.
He’s going to have to have weeks of therapy to get him where he needs to be.” No. The Lord asks him one question three times: “Do you love Me?” You will follow what you love. You will serve what you love. You will sacrifice for what you love, who you love. So to understand the commitment our Lord explains it here with Peter, is that a Christian lives a life compelled by love for Christ.
We have come down off this incredible high of these post resurrection appearances, and now we’re down with the stumbling and bumbling people. But you have to understand that the glory of Christ is going to be placed in the hands of these stumbling people; that this treasure is in earthen vessels. And so we need to learn that God is depending on us to proclaim His glory to everyone.
In John 13:33 Jesus was talking about the fact that He was going to be leaving, “Little children, I’m with you a little while longer. A new commandment I give you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you. By this all men will know that you’re My disciples.” That is not only the essence of our relationship with God, it’s the essence of our relationship with each other.
So Peter needed to be restored. This is a public restoration, because he’s not alone here. In verse 2 you have a list of the other disciples who were with him: Thomas, Nathanael, James and John, Philip and Andrew most likely. And our Lord has prepared breakfast for them after a miraculous catch of fish, and it’s now time to set the standard for discipleship and He’s going to start with Peter.
Verse 15, “So when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?’ He said to Him, ‘Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.’ And He said to him, ‘Feed My lambs.’ Peter is loved because he is like us. He has all the failures that we are so familiar with in our own lives. He overestimates himself and underestimates temptation.
John always refers to him as Simon Peter, which kind of gives us the whole picture before and after. “But Jesus says to him, ‘Simon, son of John.’” That was his name before he met the Lord, and the Lord had given him another name. “You used to be Simon, now you’re Peter.” But Peter had fallen so far that the Lord is using his old name, because he is acting like his old self.
Verse 16, “He said to him again a second time, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me? Petrus said, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He said, “Tend My sheep.” Verse 17, “He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?” Peter was hurt because He said for the third time, “Do you love Me?” And he said to Him, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.” Jesus said, “Feed My sheep.”
Peter didn’t want to be pointed out, he would like to have blended into the group. But the Lord calls him out, and three times asked him if he loves Him, one for each occasion of denial. For each time that he denied Him, he gets an opportunity to be restored. And here is the restoration, it’s simply, “Simon, son of Jonas, do you love Me?” That’s always the question for a disobedient believer.
When you act disobediently, you’re declaring love for something other than Christ. So He says, “Do you love Me more than these?” These what, these men? No, He means the nets, boats and fish. “Do you love Me more than these things that go with your former life? Are you prepared to abandon your chosen career? Are you willing to give it all up? Do you love Me enough to do that?”
And the word Jesus uses is agape. That’s that high love which is the noblest, purest love of the will. It is love in its fullest sense, love in its deepest sense, love in its greatest sense, love in its purest form – divine love. “Do you really love Me, Peter, at the highest level?” And that is the key to commitment. John Calvin said, “No man will persevere in the ministry unless the love of Christ reigns in his heart.”
Peter replies, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” But he changed the word. Jesus used the word agape, Peter used the word phileó, he dropped down a notch. Phileó is a kind of brotherly love. Peter couldn’t say, “You know that I love You at the highest level of love.” He dared not claim agape, but he did claim phileó. But even with that, he has to lean on Christ’ omniscience.
In a broken and a contrite spirit he refuses to acknowledge the love at the level our Lord put it. But he says, “I have a great affection for You. It’s not what it should be, but it’s real.” Jesus said to him, “feed My lambs.” Amazing. With a less than perfect love, with a less than ideal love, with a less than noble love, with a less than elevated love, the Lord accepts him and says, “Feed My lambs.”
And that personal pronoun is very important, because whoever we shepherd doesn’t belong to us. This is a calling that Peter reminds all of us about in 1 Peter 5 when he writes and he says, “We are all under-shepherds and Christ is the Chief Shepherd.” No congregation belongs to a pastor. No Sunday school class belongs to a teacher. No believers in a family belong to the parents.
That’s what pastoral ministry is. It’s not about how you handle a culture, it’s how you handle His sheep. “If you love Me, then give your life to shepherding My lambs, the most vulnerable, and the weakest.” The Lord has to use those of us who have an inferior love. First Thessalonians 4:10 says, “But you need to excel even more.” We’re told that our love should abound.
Secondly, a committed life is characterized by sacrifice for Christ. And that’s what Peter hears in verse 18, “Most assuredly, I say to you, 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 gird you and carry you where you do not wish.” Christ says, “In the future, you’re going to be taken prisoner.
When He says, “you’re going to stretch out your hands,” that is a euphemism for crucifixion. Verse 19 says it: “Now this He said, signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God.” And tradition gives us, that when it came time for him to be crucified, he didn’t feel he was worthy to be crucified as the Lord was, so he asked to be crucified upside-down.
He lived the rest of his life with a newfound confidence that overcame his self-doubt, because he had been such a failure at the trial of Christ. This put power into his life and hope into his heart. This really added confidence to him and boldness. This is a great gift to this man: “You’re going to be arrested, crucified. You’re going to die, but in it, you’re going to glorify God.”
The end of verse 19, “When Jesus had spoken the words about Peter’s death, He said this to him, ‘Follow Me!!’” In a wonderful gesture, the Lord turned and started walking away, and Peter’s following Him, at least for two steps, because in verse 20 says, “Then Peter, turning around, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following, who also had leaned on His breast at the supper, and said, “Lord, who is the one who betrays You?”
He sees John, who asked the question, “Lord, who’s the one at the table who’s going to betray You?” Verse 21, “Peter seeing John said to Jesus, ‘But Lord, what about him?” Verse 22, it’s sarcasm, “If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow Me!” Our Lord wants our focus, “Follow Me! Don’t compare yourself with somebody else. You just follow Me wherever that leads.”
Verse 23, “Then this saying went out among the brethren that this disciple would not die. Yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but, “If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you?” That’s gossip for you; they never get it right. And, John didn’t live till the second coming, he died on the Isle of Patmos at the end of the first century in exile.
Verse 24, “This is the disciple who testifies of these things, and wrote these things; and we know that his testimony is true.” John says, “I’m the one who wrote all of this and it’s the truth.” Verse 25, “And 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 that would be written. Amen.” Let us pray.