Most of us know what it’s like to mean every word of a commitment to God and then watch ourselves fail it just the same. Peter, the disciple who promised to die for Jesus and then denied him three times, knew that feeling better than anyone. John 21 is for all of us who find ourselves in that failed committer camp.
The following study questions are AI generated and may contain errors.
Peter struggled to move from good intentions to actually living them out—much like the “chicken and egg” problem with the Grafton Ferry. What are some areas in your own life where you have good intentions but find it difficult to follow through, and what “missing component” do you think is needed to bridge that gap?
The pastor compares Peter to the Cosmos 482 space probe—both had the right components but failed to launch properly. In what ways might Christians today be “orbiting” rather than truly launching into the work God has called them to do, and where do you see yourself in that picture?
Jesus asks Peter three times “Do you love me?” directly mirroring Peter’s three denials. What is the significance of this restoration, and how does it change the way you think about failure and God’s willingness to redeem and recommission you?
The sermon contrasts relying on our own strength (like Peter’s bold but hollow promises) with being empowered by God. Using the classic car analogy, discuss the difference between God merely “polishing” us on the outside versus fully restoring us inside and out. What would that kind of deep restoration look like in your own life, and what might be preventing it?
The pastor emphasizes that God’s restoration of Peter wasn’t just enough for him to “get by”—it empowered him for great and costly work. How does this vision of restoration differ from how you typically think about God’s forgiveness and healing, and what would change if you truly believed God wanted to fully equip you—not just someone else—for his purposes?
This transcript has been automatically generated and may contain errors.
Does anyone else like to go on the ferry over to Illinois? Anyone a fan of the ferry? I’m a ferry fan, and I’ve been a fan of the different ferries forever. How many more of those can I do? I’m going to get myself in trouble here.
So, I love the Golden Eagle Ferry, I love the Brussels Ferry, the Grafton Ferry. They all have their own charms, and you get to see different parts of the rivers of our area, and you end up over in Grafton. Maybe you stop over in Calhoun County during the summer and get some of those delicious peaches. Oh, they’re so good.
Who knows, maybe you have a tradition in your family at some point that you took the ferry for Mother’s Day or Mother’s Day week and made a thing of that because it’s a wonderful thing to do. Going back to when I was little, my grandparents and I, my mom would often venture over some day to go see what was over there, maybe get some produce, whatever it might be, whatever the occasion might have been. So, I love the ferry, and usually we would go during the week, so for the most part during its existence, we didn’t take the Grafton Ferry, because for most of the time it’s existed, with a few slight exceptions, it’s not been able to run during the week.
Well, I was listening to an interesting interview this week with the mayor of Grafton, who is leading an effort to make the Grafton Ferry seven days a week, and they have a problem. The city, which is in the process, I believe, I don’t think they’ve completed it yet, but in the process of purchasing the ferry boat, would like to have it run seven days a week. They also have surveyed commuters that either commute from Illinois to Missouri, or Missouri to Illinois, and the consensus is they would like to have another option to get between the opposite sides of the river during the week.
But here’s the problem. If you’re a commuter, you can’t plan how you’re going to get to work based on the idea that maybe the ferry will be running today, but maybe it won’t. You need to know you can get there. So, they find other ways. And if you’re the city of Grafton, you can’t operate a ferry having it go back and forth and spending all that money on fuel if you don’t know if anyone’s actually going to take it. And so, it’s been a chicken and egg kind of thing, trying to figure out how do we get this off the ground, and they’re working on that, apparently. It sounds like it’s going to happen.
But I was thinking about this. They have a problem, which is that on both ends, there are good intentions there. I would like to take the ferry, the people are saying, the city’s saying, we’d like to provide you with the ferry, but to actually get them to come together and make it work, that’s so much harder. It’s so much harder in life as we’re trying to do good.
Even if we’re reading God’s word and we’re trying to follow it and we say, okay, I’m going to live a life that’s following Jesus, it’s awfully hard to take those good intentions and get anywhere with them. In fact, it’s impossible without God’s strength, just as they need another component to make that ferry process work. We need another component.
As we’ve been looking at stories of redeemed saints, of those who, for various reasons, would look like they were better abandoned by God, but God redeems, we’re turning tonight to the story of Peter. And as you think about Peter, Peter had a lot of good intentions. And if you’re like me and a lot of times you feel like you have those good intentions, but they don’t work out, then Peter is our man. He’s a man there to really connect with, but also to have hope with.
Let’s pray tonight that we see that hope. Would you join me in prayer?
Father, we do thank you for your good and amazing word. Lord, what a joy it is that we can come before it and find hope in it, that you redeem us even when we feel irredeemable. Lord, would you guide us tonight as we look at your word to see its truth and have it applied to our hearts. We ask in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Let’s go ahead and look at John chapter 21, going to verse seven to start. It says, “That disciple whom Jesus loved therefore said to Peter, ‘It is the Lord.’ When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment, for he was stripped for work, and threw himself into the sea.”
Now, let’s set the scene here. This is after the resurrection. The disciples, they’re still trying to figure out what in the world they’re supposed to do. You know, we followed Jesus around. Now, we can’t follow Jesus around. What are we supposed to do? And being fishermen by trade, they say, well, maybe we should do some fishing. At least we know how to do that.
So there they are. And in the ancient Near East, if you’re fishing, you’d often take out your outer garments, be mostly stripped down so it was easier to manipulate in the boat and get the fish and so on. And so, that’s the scene. There they are. They’ve been trying to fish.
And the disciple whom Jesus loved, that’s John, that’s how the gospel of John refers to John, refers to himself in the gospel. He realizes first, wait, the man out there speaking to us from the shore, telling us how to fish, that’s Jesus. And he says it to Peter.
Now, this is Peter who often has good intentions, Peter who’s made all kinds of bold claims, Peter who has done what? He’s denied Jesus three times. At the darkest moment in Jesus’ life, what has Peter done? He’s denied him. That’s the Peter whom we’re talking about here.
And Peter hears this and what does he do? He throws on his outer garment, jumps into the lake because he doesn’t want to wait long enough to row the boat back. He just wants to get to Jesus. He runs across, clearly in shallow water, or maybe he’s swimming a little bit there, but in any case, he takes off and he gets to Jesus.
Now, I think sometimes when I’ve read this, I’ve sort of thought this is Peter’s first glimpse at the risen Lord, that Jesus has been resurrected and here’s his first glimpse. But if we actually look at the different gospel stories, it appears that probably this is not the first glimpse of the risen Lord. If we actually look at the different gospel stories, it appears that probably this is not the first time that Peter has seen Jesus since the resurrection.
So Peter has seen Jesus. Peter’s just excited to see Jesus again. It’s not like, wow, I can’t believe he’s really resurrected. I heard the stories. No, Peter says, I know he’s resurrected. I’ve sat at a table and had a dinner with him, but he’s there right now. I want to go see him. I want to go see him.
Peter’s not just being exuberant here. He’s not trying to show off at this point. Peter just wants to be with Jesus. And I think that’s the thing that we need to understand about Peter. Peter has never had a problem wanting to be with Jesus. Peter has never had a problem with being excited when he’s with Jesus.
Let’s take a little flashback. Jesus doubts about what’s going to happen to them during the discussion they have in the upper room before Jesus is crucified. Just a little before that, Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, where are you going?” And Jesus answered him, “Where I am going, you cannot follow me now, but you will follow afterward.”
And Peter said to him, “Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” Jesus answered, “Will you lay down your life for me? Truly, truly, I say to you, the rooster will not crow till you have denied me three times.”
So there were a lot of doubts and problems going on in that upper room that last supper. They’re talking and Jesus is instructing them and Thomas is wondering what in the world is going to happen and it doesn’t seem like it’s going to work. We looked at that last week.
And Peter, Peter’s Peter. “Don’t worry, Lord, wherever you’re going, I’ll go because I’ll die for you.” And Jesus says, “Well, Peter, not quite. Not quite, not yet.”
You see, Peter had a lot of what you’d want in a disciple. He was eager to learn from Jesus. He was eager to be around Jesus. Let’s just say it, Peter truly loved Jesus. This is not about whether he loved Jesus or not. I think sometimes we think, well, he didn’t really mean it. He was just showing up. No, I think Peter really loved Jesus, but Peter has a problem trying to get from intention to living out that intention.
There’s an issue there.
Did any of you follow the news headlines over the last few weeks about the Cosmos 482 space probe? One of the earliest failed space probes, it was launched, I believe, in 1970, maybe 72. Anyway, it was launched in the early 70s by the Russians and it was going to go to Venus.
Only it never left Earth orbit. You see, it was supposed to go up into what they call the parking orbit. It was going to go up and launch and it got up there, wonderful, great. It ejected the parts of the craft that were used to get up there. But somehow there was a malfunction in the timing of the next phase where it launches out of Earth orbit and heads off to Venus. It didn’t work. It didn’t launch at the right time.
And so for the last 50 or so years, it’s just been rotating around the Earth. A few parts came down and disintegrated over time. But the part that was left, what was the part that was supposed to be pushed off of the final rocket and into the atmosphere of Venus and be able to withstand entering a planet’s atmosphere so it didn’t burn up?
But it was finally losing its orbit. And so they knew it was going to come down. And so one of the big questions was, when will it come down exactly and what will happen when it comes down? Because it may not disintegrate on the way down. It may actually hit something.
You think about that. It spent 50 years in space and it was still solid enough that if it hit just right, it could leave quite literally an impact. Because it was still doing part of what it was designed to do but it wasn’t able to do what it was really designed to do.
And I thought about that space probe and I was thinking about Peter and I thought, you know, Peter oftentimes is like that space probe because he has a lot of what you want in a disciple. He’s eager. He’s ready to launch. He’s ready to go do stuff. But he tries and then he gets it wrong, right?
When push comes to shove, it’s time to launch off and declare who Jesus is even when people are ready to kill you. And Mr. I’ll Die For You says, who’s Jesus? We’ve all had those times where our physical abilities fail us.
I’ve been reminded of that this past few months as my back has gotten in the way of a whole lot of things I was intending to do and many of you have done so much to help with that. Thank you for how you have. But we’ve all had those times where something doesn’t quite fire right in our bodies and suddenly, you know, we have the best of intentions, but it doesn’t quite work, right?
We have the same problem spiritually, only it’s easier to ignore. We think we have it all down. Peter probably had a time where maybe he’d broken a bone or he’d been ill or whatever it might have been, some moment where he couldn’t do something physically, but when he’s thinking about his commitment to Jesus, he doesn’t think about, well, sometimes I’m not able to pull things off.
He thinks, but I love Jesus, I’m committed to Jesus, I am going to do what Jesus called me to do. This is easy. And a lot of times when we’re at those spiritual mountaintops, we’ve just read a passage and it feels like God’s speaking to us in it. I think, well, now I’m ready to go do what I can do.
But then we find our spiritual back goes out. Find our spiritual ankle is sprained. Our spiritual elbow has tennis elbow. And we can’t quite do it. But Jesus doesn’t leave us there. He doesn’t leave Peter there.
Take a look at verse 15. When they had finished breakfast, so this is after they’ve all arrived on shore, Peter, of course, gets there first, but they all get there. When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me?”
He said to him, “Do you love me? You’re Simon, son of John. Do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my sheep.”
He said to him a third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said to him, “Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you.” And Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.”
Notice here that Peter has dropped totally over the top, boasting. The man who said, well, don’t worry, Jesus, I’m your right-hand man. I will die for you. I will do anything. Jesus starts him off, Simon Peter. “You’ve said all kinds of great things about me. I will do anything for you.”
You’ve said all kinds of great things about me. Do you love me more than those others around us? Peter says, “Jesus, I love you.” There’s a turning point in Peter’s life, I believe. He’s no longer focused on proving that he’s somehow better than the others and willing that up. He’s only going to speak to what he can say, which is that, yes, I love you, Lord.
And then Jesus asks him again. Peter affirms again. He doesn’t go any stronger. He doesn’t amplify it. He doesn’t try to call down an oath upon himself like he did when he was denying Jesus. He just says, yes, Lord, I love you.
Then we get to the third time. Three denials. Jesus asks him for three affirmations. And I think Peter here absolutely, totally knows exactly what Jesus is doing here. Because we’re told on the third one, he’s grieved. And I think in that moment is that third question comes up. Peter, what’s going on in his mind is he’s replaying that night. And he remembers exactly how he called down an oath from heaven upon himself saying, “I don’t know that man.”
And he wonders what’s next. It’s now the moment that Jesus says, “Well, you had your shot, Peter. You might still say you love me, but we know how it really is. So go back to fishing.”
It’s interesting, much has been made over the years. And if you’ve heard sermons preached on this passage, you have probably heard much made on the language being used here that’s translated into our English words. I don’t want to spend a lot of time on that because it probably isn’t as significant as we’ve often made it.
There are two different words for love used here and you’ve probably heard people mention that. And they can mean slightly different things, but also the Gospel of John freely uses them both interchangeably. And so how much is being emphasized here? It’s a little hard to say. I don’t think that’s the main point.
I think the main point is simply that Jesus is having a conversation like we often do. We don’t always, if we want to say something multiple times to really confirm with someone, we don’t always say exactly the same way. We might even change it up a little bit for the very purpose of making sure someone hears what we’re saying.
I think that’s probably more like it. But there is a word change here that doesn’t get nearly as much attention, but it’s really interesting. Because Peter changes the word he uses to say you know.
We don’t talk about that one, but I think it really provides a bit of a glimpse into how Peter is thinking. The first two times he responds to Jesus, he uses a word typically confined to speaking of intellectually knowing something. I have acquired this information.
Jesus asked Peter, do you love me? And Peter said, in other words, you can look it up on the Wikipedia page. It says Simon Peter, disciple of Jesus, he loves Jesus. Third time, as Peter is grieving and processing what’s going on here, he switches to a word that’s more all-encompassing about the experience.
I think what Peter’s saying there is something like, Jesus, you know I mess up a whole lot, but you know that I keep wanting to be with you. I keep following you. I believe that you are the Son of God. I believe what I’ve said. I’m a klutz.
But you know everything. Said to him the third time, Simon, son of John, do you love me? Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, do you love me? And he said to him, Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you.
Jesus said to him, feed my sheep. Jesus knows that Peter loves him. Peter’s right. Peter’s problem isn’t that he has failed to love Jesus. Peter’s problem is that he’s loved Jesus, but loved his own strength, too. Loved his own abilities, too. Thought that he could prove that he could love Jesus, love Jesus even more maybe than everyone else by doing so with his own ability.
And what did his own ability bring him? His own ability brought him fear that caused him to deny the very thing that he believed most.
Peter’s launching into that orbit, heading towards the nations, off space probe out there, going off to Venus. And he’s all ready and he’s all bolded. And he’s all ready and he’s all bolded in his human strength. There are times where he could fight the most fierce army for Jesus, but boy, in that moment when he’s facing those Roman soldiers, it’s like, oh boy.
And he misfires. He’s just still orbiting Earth, just going around and around until someday he’ll just die in this crash. And if we love Jesus, but we’re not really trusting in him for strength, we can be an awful lot like that. We can do an awful lot of damage just like Cosmos 482 could have.
Thankfully it came down a few days ago and thankfully it came down, crashing into the Indian Ocean. But they were actively watching it as it started to descend because they didn’t know. And if it just happened to hit in a land mass, it was thought it might hit somewhere in Europe, it could have fallen in the middle of the city and actually killed people because there wouldn’t be a lot of warning.
And it was designed to have an impact into a solid rock and survive so it could send back data. It could have been very, very destructive. We might say in God’s providence it didn’t happen, right? It crashed into the ocean.
Peter could have been very destructive if he’d continued on that course and decided to double down. “I didn’t know that man,” but I know these fools that say they knew him and turned into the greatest opponent of the church. He could have done that.
But here as he’s talking to Jesus over breakfast, he says, “Yeah, you know, I’ve tried all that bravado. I’ve tried to prove everything. I can’t. But you know me, Jesus.” And he’ll ask Jesus to realign it and launch it.
Verse 18. Jesus says to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.”
This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God. And after this, he said to him, “Follow me.” Notice how Jesus picks back up on their conversation from the last supper. Back then, Peter says, “I’ll follow you. I’ll die for you.” And Jesus said, “You’re not ready for that, Peter. You’re not going to do that. You’re going to actually do the opposite.”
And a lot of times when we see people, when we see people burn out, we see people fail. And then they say, “No, I’ll really do it.” What do we do? You say, “Well, I already know you can’t.”
See, the difference with Peter, though, is that Peter realized he couldn’t. And so as he’s talking to Jesus and just saying, “You know, here I am. I’m not going to say I love you more than everyone else. I’m not going to talk about how I’d die for you. I’m just going to say I love you because I’ll probably commit to doing something and I’ll just blow it even worse.
You’re going to see me just, if I say it again, I’ll probably deny you too. I’m just going to say, I love you. If I say it again, I’ll probably deny you 10 times and I don’t want to do that, Jesus. All I know is I love you.”
Jesus says, “Now you have it.” And so what does he say? He says, “You will follow me. And you know what? You’re not only going to follow me in life, you’re going to follow me all the way to death.”
Someday when you’re old, someone’s going to stretch out your arms and we’re told explicitly there, John tells us what that’s about. It’s telling how Peter’s going to die and we know from tradition how this goes. That Peter died on a cross and he was crucified. And as the tradition goes, that’s not scripture, but I believe it is accurate that Peter actually asked to be crucified upside down because he wasn’t worthy even to die as Jesus did.
It’s a different man. This is not the man who thought he had everything right. This is the man who knows the only one who does have everything right. But because he was operating now in his strength, he was willing to even die for him.
First Peter 5:2, Peter’s instructing those who will come after him. He says, “Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly as God would have you, not for shameful gain, but eagerly.”
I think it’s important to note there. We’ve heard a lot about Peter this week. This was not planned this way. This series had been planned for a lot longer than we had any idea when the next papal conclave would happen. But it might seem like it, right? Here you are, you’re talking about Peter, and Peter’s speaking to successors, and here we are, and there’s just been this conclave, and how does that all fit?
I don’t want to take us off track too long other than to say this. Note what Peter says here. He’s not speaking to a successor. He’s speaking to everyone as he’s instructing. He’s saying, “You who follow Jesus, this is your commission. This is what you’re being sent to do.”
And so as we’re talking about Peter here and we’re learning more about Peter, it’s not about what one particular person, especially holy and can live up to. Peter’s an example for all of us. And certainly here I would say, just as we talked about a little bit on social media, some of us in the church, I think it would be very good if we as Christians, we’re Protestants so we’re not under the Pope, but we should be praying for him because here’s a man who says he believes in Jesus.
And I’ve listened to some of his sermons now, and he’s talking about the gospel of Jesus, and we should pray that God protects him and uses him to powerfully speak the gospel just as we do for anyone given a position of prominence to speak the truth of Jesus.
But I make the distinction I do because I think it’s also important for us to understand that this isn’t a commission handed out to someone else. If you’re here right now, God has a calling for you, and just as he took Peter and redeemed him and used him, he’s offering the same thing to you and to me.
He doesn’t restore most of us just sort of enough to get by and then to restore certain people to go and do the work. That’s not how it works. Every one of us has been called to proclaim his gospel.
I believe it was the first time this year that our neighbors down the street, JJ’s, had a car show. They had it yesterday. They do all kinds of classic car shows, and they’ll fill up a couple parking lots and have all these beautiful cars. And one of the notable things if you go to a classic car show is what?
Well, there are a lot of really beautiful cars. Someone has probably taken cars that weren’t maybe always that beautiful because they’re old and spent a lot of blood, sweat, and tears to polish them up and make them look great. That’s part of it.
And sometimes I think maybe that’s the most that we hope for that God’s going to do for us. He’ll polish us up and we can sit in church and people say, “Oh, there’s someone who Jesus loves.” But you know, if you’re really going to have the great car at the car show, you’re going to do more than polish up the outside. You’re going to fix up the inside too, the interior and the engine, right?
You want a car that when people say, “Hey, can we hear it rev up?” You can say, “Oh yeah,” and it revs up, right? My cousin goes to some of those car shows and I think he may have actually been there yesterday. And he lives down the same street that I’m off of, a few blocks away, but I can hear him at times because his car does rev up.
And sometimes on a summer night, you just hear this car go tearing down the street, and I have no doubt who it is. I know exactly who it is. And if there are big rubber marks on the road the next day, I know who’s been there because his car looks immaculate on the outside, but it’s also actually been mechanically fixed up.
And here’s the thing that Jesus is doing with Peter. He doesn’t just restore Peter and say, “Okay, Peter, you can be a disciple again, but don’t go do anything because you might mess it up.” He doesn’t say, “Okay, Peter, you can do some things, but we know if you come under pressure, you’ll just mess up.”
What does Jesus do? He says, “Peter, you’re right, I do know you. I know you exactly. I know you better than you know yourself. And you know what, Peter? You’re going to do exactly what you thought you could do on your own, but you’re going to do it because I’m going to empower you to do it.”
And he takes Peter and he fixes up his engine. And he makes sure he’s ready to race.
If you’ve been damaged, if you’ve failed, if you’ve pledged to fight the good fight for Jesus and go and do, and you can look back and see all the times you didn’t, that doesn’t mean God’s done with you.
And if you’ve not tried to even start the engine, you just sort of sit on the sidelines of the car show and say, “I don’t know if I even want to go into it because Jesus never would want to fix me up.”
This message is for you as well, because here’s what God does. He doesn’t look at us and say, “Oh, you’ve been damaged, no thanks,” or, “Oh, you’ve been damaged, I’ll try to make it so you’re sort of acceptable on the corner or on the margin of the car show,” or one of those cars where you take all the guts out of it and you cut it in half and stick it in a sandwich shop or something. That’s not what he does with us.
What he says to Peter is, “Go through this process with me, I want to repair you.” What he says to each of us is, “I want to repair you. Let me repair you.” You can’t do it any more than a classic car can repair itself. But I will.
God doesn’t leave us as junkers. And God doesn’t fix us partway. God restores us so that we can race in his power. That’s what he did for Peter. And that’s what he’ll do for each and every one of us as we turn and we trust in him.
Would you pray with me, please?
Lord, we all have the dings and dents of life, some of them inflicted by others and an awful lot of them, more than we’d like to admit, inflicted by ourselves. We think we can manage. We think we can steer the car and we ram into a wall.
Lord, would you take us broken and battered as we are and repair us? Would you restore us inside and out? Not just restore us so we can sit and think about how others are empowered, but Lord, would you empower each and every one of us that we would go and do the work that you’ve called us to do?
And Lord, what we failed at even, the things that we hesitate to do because we know that we tried and we failed, Lord, would you help us to realize that’s because we failed? Help us to instead trust in you and be used wherever you would call us because your strength will not fail.
Pray this in Jesus’ precious name, Amen.
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