Jesus Come Back to Peter by Rev. Andrew Carter dated 6.8.17

This sermon is based on Matthew Chapter 26:31-35 and John Chapter 21:1-19

In John 21:10-19 the passage described where Simon Peter and the other disciples when out to fish and caught nothing.  We do not know why Peter and the others went back fishing.  Rev. Andrew suspected that may be Peter felt ashamed that he has failed Jesus.  He was commissioned as “fisher of men”.  Some commentator said that by going back to fishing, Peter was falling away from following Jesus.  Prior to this scene many things had happened and perhaps the disciples did not know what else to do.

In Matthew 26:31-35 Jesus predicted that Peter will denied Him three times.  Peter claimed he was different from the others and he will never disown Jesus even if he had to die.

In John 26 the disciples caught no fish, but when Jesus told them to throw their net to the right side, they caught 153 fishes.

In Luke 5:1-11, where Jesus called His first disciples, the scenario was similar.  They caught no fish, but Jesus told them to put their net in a deeper end and they caught so many fishes that the net was about to break.  This was the occasion Jesus commissioned Peter to be “fisher of man”.

From these two scenarios, we can see how Peter and the disciples failed.  When Jesus appeared in the scenes, they were successful in catching the fishes.

Rev. Andrew postulated that Peter must have felt like a failure and he did not want to see the Lord again.  He denied Jesus three times before.  He returned to secular work that was fishing.  He was falling away from following Jesus.

But Jesus was not giving up on Peter, He “came back to Peter” and re-commissioned him.  In John 21:15-17 Jesus asked Peter three times whether he loves Jesus.  Peter replied three times he did. Commentators said this was because Peter denied Jesus three times before.

After this re-commissioning we can see how bold Peter was in preaching and sharing the Word with others.

Application

What did the narratives told us of Jesus? What kind of man was Jesus?

Jesus restored us from our failures, even big failures.  When we messed up, no matter how big, Jesus gives us many chances to come back to Him.  Just like Jesus re-engineered the situations for Peter and re-commissioned him for greater works.  Jesus can use our failures to turn into successes.  Failures are part of growing up.  When we failed, Jesus does not forget us He helps us to come back.  During Pentecost, Peter became a bold man.

What about you and I? Have we lost our ways?  May be we have broken our promises to follow Jesus all the way and now we seek “cheap ways” to satisfy ourselves.  May be we are weighted down by failures like Peter?  If we are far away from Jesus, we need to come back.  We need to repent. We may be in the fire place of failures, let us come back to the fire place of restoration.

Jesus loves us and want us to come back to Him.