the sons of Zebedee, and two other of his disciples.
Simon Peter saith unto them, "I go fishing."
They say unto him, "We also go with thee."
They went forth and entered into a ship immediately,
and that night they caught nothing.
But when the morning was now come,
Jesus stood on the shore,
but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus.
Then Jesus saith unto them, "Children, have ye any meat?"
They answered him, "No."
And he said unto them, "Cast the net on the right side
of this ship, and ye shall find."
They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it
for the multitude of fishes.
Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter,
"It is the Lord."
Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord,
he girt his fisher's coat unto him, for he was naked,
and did cast himself into the sea.
And other disciples came in a little ship,
for they were not far from land,
but as it were two hundred cubits,
dragging the net with fishes.
As soon as they were come to land,
they saw a fire of coal there,
and fish laid thereon and bread.
Jesus saith unto them, "Bring of the fish
which ye have not caught."
Simon Peter went up and drew the net to land,
full of great fishes, and a hundred and fifty and three,
for all there were so many, yet was not the net broken.
Jesus saith unto them, "Come and dine."
And none other disciples durst ask him,
"Who art thou?" knowing that it was the Lord.
Jesus then cometh and taketh bread
and giveth them and fish likewise.
This is now the third time that Jesus showed himself
to his disciples after that he was risen from the dead.
So when they had dined, Jesus said to Simon Peter,
"Simon, son of Joses, Jonas,
lovest thou me more than these?"
He saith unto him, "Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee."
He saith unto him, "Feed my lambs."
He saith unto him again the second time,
"Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me."
He saith unto him, "Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee."
He saith unto him, "Feed my sheep."
He saith unto him the third time,
"Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me."
Peter was grieved because he said unto him
the third time, "Lovest thou me?"
And he said unto him, "Lord, thou knowest all things.
Thou now knowest that I love thee."
Jesus saith unto him, "Feed my sheep."
"Verily, verily, I say unto thee, when thou was young,
thou girdest thyself, and walkest with it thou wouldest.
Thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shalt gird thee,
and carry thee with it thou wouldest not."
This make he signifying by what death he should glorify God.
When he hath spoken this, he saith unto him, "Follow me."
And Peter turning about, seeth a disciple whom Jesus loved following, which also leaned
on his breast at supper, and said, "Lord, which is he that betrayeth thee?"
Peter seeing him saith unto Jesus, "Lord, and what shall this man do?"
Jesus saith unto him, "If thou wilt that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?
Follow thou me."
And so went this saying abroad among the brethren, that that disciple should not die, yet Jesus
said, "Not unto him he shall not die, but if I wilt that he tarry till I come, what
is that to thee?"
This is the disciple which testifies to these things and wrote these things, and we know
that his testimony is true.
There are also many other things which Jesus said, to which they should be written, everyone,
I suppose even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written.
Amen.
Father God, we thank you, dear Lord, for the book of John.
Thank you for this wonderful Bible you have left us, and we thank you for this wonderful
church you've given us.
Thank you for our pastor, God, and we ask that you please bless him as he preaches your
word.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
Okay.
Tonight we conclude the book of John.
We're in John chapter 21, and John chapter 21 concludes in a very unorthodox way in
the sense that it doesn't really conclude the way the previous gospels finish off.
Typically, the other gospels finish off with a commission to go and preach the gospel,
to go and reach people, but this seems to leave off on a very personal note between
Jesus Christ and the Apostle Peter, and we're going to learn some lessons from this particular
story here.
Look at verse number one, first and foremost.
It says, "After these things, Jesus showed himself again to the disciples at the Sea
of Tiberias, and on this wise showed he himself.
There were together Simon Peter and Thomas Carl Didymus and Nathanael Canaan of Galilee
and the sons of Zebedee and two other of his disciples."
Simon Peter says unto them, "I go a fishing."
They say unto him, "We also go with thee."
They went forth and entered into a ship immediately and that night they caught nothing.
Now the first thing I want you to notice here is the fact that they've already seen the
resurrected Christ.
They've already seen him come in the midst, they saw him, and in fact Thomas, who is called
Didymus, reached hither his hands into his hands and into his side, confirmed that this
is the resurrected Christ.
All of these disciples that are being mentioned here in John chapter 21 essentially have viewed
Christ already in his resurrected form, yet despite this, you have them going fishing.
You don't have them going out to preach the gospel.
You don't have them getting serious about the things of God.
They're seeing the signs and the wonders, the most miraculous sign of all, which is
the resurrection, yet despite that, what do we have?
They go fishing instead, right?
And you kind of think to yourself, like, what's going on?
Why is it that the disciples, after the resurrection, aren't getting serious about the things of
God?
Why are they just kind of going about their own business, going fishing?
Why is that, even though they clearly see the signs?
Well, this kind of shows you that miracles and signs don't really provoke people into
doing that, which is right.
Obviously, there's instances where it can cause people to be open to the message of
God and the Gospels, but in general, we have one of the greatest miracles, which is the
resurrection, and yet the disciples, the three here, they actually go, or seven here, they
actually end up going fishing instead of getting serious about the things of God.
Now, why are they doing this?
Well, I would probably speculate that the reason why they're not necessarily getting
serious and going out there and preaching the Gospel is because of the fact that they
have a misconstrued conception of the timeline, because if you remember, earlier in the book
we explained the fact that the disciples, they knew about the resurrection, they know
about the kingdom of God, but they don't necessarily know how it fits chronologically when Jesus
Christ came.
So when the Bible talks about the fact that they didn't really know about the resurrection,
it doesn't necessarily mean that they didn't believe in it, they just didn't necessarily
know where it would fall on the timeline.
Now how do we know that?
Well, because in the book of Acts, in Acts chapter 1, you have Jesus Christ once again
commissioning his disciples to go and preach the Gospel in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria,
and the innermost parts of the world, and what is one of the first things that they
ask him?
"Hey, are you going to set up your kingdom now?"
This is showing us that the disciples, along with many of the Jews in Israel, were actually
looking for a physical kingdom to be set up, right?
And you know, you can understand why they would want this.
The Old Testament talked about it multiple times.
You know, the book of Isaiah, for example, spent lots of chapters, Isaiah spent many,
many sermons talking about the kingdom of God, talking about the fact that a kingdom
was going to be set up.
We obviously know that that's referring to the millennial reign.
But the reason we know this is because we have both Old and New Testament.
Whereas the disciples, they only had the Old Testament to work off of.
And so they thought when Jesus Christ came in the first century AD, he was going to establish
his kingdom.
Now, they were partially correct though, because he was coming to establish a kingdom, but
it was a spiritual kingdom first, which is why he's saying, "Preach the kingdom of God.
The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you."
It was a spiritual kingdom.
The message of salvation was being proclaimed, and obviously through the message of salvation,
when people would believe in it, they would eventually be included into that physical
kingdom in that millennial reign.
And so in the book of Acts, you have the disciples still thinking that that physical kingdom
was going to be set up.
And what does Jesus say?
"It is not for you to know the times and seasons."
You know, he's basically saying, "I haven't given you power to understand this.
I have given you power to go and preach the gospel to every creature."
So the gospel of the kingdom is still going to be preached, and it's still being preached
today.
And that kingdom is not yet revealed yet, that physical kingdom, until way later in
the future.
We have that in End Times Bible Prophecy.
The point that I'm making here is that potentially Peter and these six other disciples are kind
of being lax, they're being apathetic because of the fact that even though Christ resurrected,
there's still no physical kingdom.
They're still under the Roman rule.
They're not necessarily people of earthly authority, so to speak.
So they're kind of backslidden right now.
And it says here that Simon Peter in verse number three says, "I go fishing."
Now what's the irony about this?
Well, where did Jesus find Peter in the beginning?
Fishing, right?
Obviously someone brings, his brother brings Peter to Jesus, but later on we still have
him fishing.
John is fishing.
This is what their trade was.
This is their occupation.
And then of course, Jesus Christ tells them in Matthew chapter four to follow him and
he'll make them fishers of men.
Obviously he's saying, Hey, you're really zealous.
This is your occupation fishing for literal fish.
But if you follow me, you're going to be fishing for souls.
You're going to be preaching the gospel and reaching many people for Christ.
And they did throughout those three and a half years of ministry with Jesus, the disciples
saw a lot of people saved.
They got a lot of people saved.
They got a lot of quote unquote fishes into the net, right?
But then of course they're backsliding.
Here they kind of lose vision, they become apathetic.
And even though they've seen the resurrected Christ, nothing has really changed in their
perspective, right?
The world is still the same.
They're still being persecuted.
They're still being ruled over by the Romans, right?
The Pharisees are still in control of the Jews.
So as far as physically concerned on the earth, they don't really have any other authority.
So they don't really see any change.
So Peter just basically says, well, I'm going fishing and translation.
I'm just going back to the world, going back to doing the things that I used to do, right?
And this was his occupation.
Now I want you to notice that Peter obviously has a lot of influence, right?
Because he says, I go fishing and what does the rest of the disciples say?
We go with you.
You know, we also go like, let's go and let that be a lesson to you and to me that when
you decide to backslide and go into the world, you never go alone, right?
You always take someone with you.
You become discouraged.
You become disillusioned.
You become depressed.
You feel like you need to get out of church.
You become apathetic towards the things of God.
And you may think to yourself, I'm not really hurting anybody except for myself.
I'm the one who's going out into the world.
I'm the one who's backslidden.
I'm not really affecting anybody else.
Wrong.
When you go a fishing, guess what?
You take other people with you as well, right?
And you know, Peter, though he put his foot in his mouth many a times, he was an individual
who did have influence over the disciples.
I mean, if you remember prior to the crucifixion, you know, when they were in Gethsemane, the
Garden of Gethsemane, he fell asleep, right?
And the other disciples did so as well.
And when Jesus Christ came back, you know, who did he rebuke?
Peter.
He got on Peter.
Why?
Because he's essentially the leader of the disciples.
Prior to that, when Peter is telling Jesus that he would, he'd be willing to die with
him, to go to prison with him, when he makes those outlandish statements of just like,
man, I'm down to the bitter end and I'm going to go to prison with you, I'm willing to die
with you.
One people, one thing that people seem to forget is that the Bible tells us is that
the other disciples said likewise.
So Peter wasn't the only one who made those statements.
He made the statements and the other disciples repeated what he said.
Why?
Because he had influence over them.
He required them obviously to be committed, but in like manner because he was so influential
when he backslid, the other disciples backslid as well, okay?
So we see here in verse number three, Simon Peter say unto him, I go a fishing.
They say unto him, we also go with thee.
They went forth and entered into his ship immediately.
And I want you to notice this and that night they caught nothing.
Now what does that tell us?
When you backslide, you get nothing.
You may think, oh man, I'm going to go into the world, I'm going to get, I'm going to
get jobs.
I'm going to get rich.
I'm going to finally invest a bunch of time that I used to invest into the ministry and
to make it more money.
You get nothing.
And you know what?
Even if you make a couple of bucks, even if you make some semblance of wealth at the
end of the day, you're bankrupt spiritually.
You get nothing spiritually because of it.
And may that be a reminder to you not to buy into the deception of Satan, that you'll
be happy and better off leaving church, sacrificing services, sacrificing the service of God and
the Bible because there's something waiting for you out there.
No, you get nothing.
And look folks, these are experts.
Peter was an expert at fishing.
Bro knew how to catch fish, right?
All these guys knew how to catch fish.
How is it that they just come back empty handed?
I'll tell you how, because God didn't allow them to prosper.
You know what?
If you decide to backslide and get out of church and you say, "Oh, you're just trying
to scare people into not getting out of church," yeah, I am, absolutely, you know?
And if you decide to backslide, get out of church, thinking you're going to be successful
in the world, you know, it's very likely that God will impede your success.
He will not allow you to prosper in the world because you're a child of God, right?
At the moment of salvation, you become a child of God, and the Bible tells us in Hebrews
chapter 12, "Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth,"
right?
The Bible also tells us in Hebrews chapter 10 that if any man draw back, "My soul shall
have no pleasure in him."
God isn't pleased with the Christian who draws back from his service, from faithfulness
to church, from reading the scriptures, and living a life that's pleasing unto the Lord.
And so the alternative, yeah, is to go out into the world, is to get involved in sin,
and even if you don't get involved in sin when you go into the world and you just go
a fishing, just mark it down, you're not going to catch any fish.
It's just not going to happen, okay?
God will not allow you to succeed.
How do we know that?
Because the Bible tells us in John chapter 15 that you only succeed when you're abiding
in the vine, right?
"For without me ye can do nothing."
If we want to do anything of eternal significance or of any prosperity, we have to make sure
that we are abiding in the vine.
And abiding in the vine of course means serving God, being in the house of God, living a life
that's pleasing unto him, living out the Christian life, walking in the spirit, right?
So we see here that they go forth, they enter into a ship immediately and that night they
catch nothing.
Now if you remember in the book of Luke, for example, they also catch nothing when they're
fishing and then Jesus tells him to cast the net on the other side.
And it's at that point that they do capture a lot of fish and Peter falls down before
the Lord and is just like, "Depart from me for I am a sinful man."
And it's kind of showing us that, you know, the way we can succeed in the world, so to
speak, in our occupation or other areas in our life is by having God with us, right?
Like sometimes people think, "Well, in order for me to succeed in these areas, I need to
sacrifice the things of God in order to invest more time in doing these things," whereas
it's actually the other way around.
If you actually do those things while you're in church, while you're reading the Bible,
while you're winning souls to Christ, God ends up making up the difference and allowing
you to prosper in those areas as well, okay?
So earlier, they weren't catching fish because they weren't listening to God to cast it
on the other man.
He cast it, he catches a bunch of fish.
Then they start serving God, they're backslidden now, they're going fishing, they catch nothing.
He says in verse four, "But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore, but
the disciples knew not that it was Jesus."
Now, before I move on here, this is kind of showing us here, as I mentioned in the beginning,
that even though they saw the resurrected Christ, they still weren't getting right
with God.
And this kind of shows us that, at the end of the day, it doesn't matter if our circumstances
change or not.
Circumstances can change, but you're still the same person, though.
You will serve God based on conviction, not necessarily based upon circumstances and happenings.
And obviously, this kind of goes forward.
The people are like, "Well, if I just saw God, I would believe."
No, you wouldn't.
People are like, "If He just appeared to me right now and showed Himself that He is
God."
No, you wouldn't.
You wouldn't believe, because faith cometh by hearing, hearing by the Word of God.
These are things you have to believe by faith, right?
But in like manner, believers, in order for them to become committed, in order for them
to serve God, they don't necessarily need signs and miracles in order to do so.
Really, what they need to do is just obedience.
They need obedience, because here we have the disciples, essentially witnessing one
of the greatest miracles in all of history, the resurrected Christ, after being dead for
three days and three nights, and yet they're going fishing.
The point that I'm making here is that don't look for circumstances to change just for
you to get serious about the things of God.
Right?
Like, "Well, I'll get serious as soon as this changes in my life, as soon as I find
the right spouse, as soon as I get the right job, as soon as I get a promotion, as soon
as this happens, then I'll get serious about the things of God."
Quite frankly, if you were to have those things, you wouldn't get serious about the
things of God.
That's just a fact.
And despite those as being miracles and supernatural occurrences, it's not going to change who
you are.
Who you are is who you are, you understand?
And so you say, "Well, should we not pray for miracles, pray for God to ..." No, of
course we should, in order to reinforce our faith, because God wants us to increase our
faith in Him by praying.
But what I'm saying is you shouldn't put conditions upon God, is what I'm saying.
"Well, if you do this, then I'll do this."
No, you won't.
You are who you are, my friends.
You are the Christian that you are, and in order for you to improve as a Christian, you
have to be a person of conviction.
You have to be like a Daniel who purposes in his heart not to defile himself with the
king's meat, regardless of what's in the bank or not, right?
It's just like, "Well, I'm always going to be in church no matter what happens, even
if I'm broke, even if I'm going through a hard time, I'm always going to be reading
my Bible.
Even if everyone turns against me, I'm still going to go soul winning and preach the gospel
and serve God no matter what happens because my circumstances don't determine what I believe.
This is why it's important folks to become people of conviction.
Make sure you embed within yourself what you actually believe because that's eventually
going to be revealed when you go through a hard time.
We find out who people really are when people go through a hard time.
They end up exposing themselves for who they really are during a hard time.
We see what kind of convictions you really have, what is your priority, what's really
important to you when you're going through a hard time.
And we should never put conditions upon the Lord to say, well, if you do this in my life,
then I'll start getting serious about this.
And obviously there's instances where he does answer those prayers because he has the foreknowledge
that maybe you would.
The point that I'm making is that we should not place conditions upon serving God.
We should just serve God because it's the right thing to do.
Obviously there are major blessings that come with it and so forth.
As we have here, the disciples have witnessed a great miracle, a supernatural occurrence,
yet they're going fishing.
What are you guys doing?
And keep in mind, I do believe that during this time they still have apostolic capabilities.
They still have powers, so to speak, right?
They're still able to cast out devils and do these supernatural miracles, but yet they
can't seem to catch fish.
Why?
Because God isn't with them because they're backslidden.
They are reverting to their old ways.
He says in verse number five, "Then Jesus said unto them, 'Children, have ye any meat?'
They answered him, 'No.'"
Now one thing I've noticed is that when people are backslidden, they're really short with
you.
Like, how's it going?
Good.
Great.
You know?
You say, "Well, I answered that and I am right with God."
That's just because you're just rude or something.
You know?
I don't know.
I don't know what to tell you, you know?
But you know, I've noticed that when people are just super backslidden, they're just,
you know, they're backslidden in heart.
They're typically very short with you, you know?
They're just very, you know, not aggressive, but just kind of like, like the disciples.
Did you, did you catch anything?
No.
I'm just picturing Peter, he's just like, did you catch anything?
No.
It's one of those like, don't ask because you obviously see that we don't have any fish
here on the boat.
No.
Obviously big surprise, right?
Of course you didn't catch anything.
And you know, obviously I'm reading this and I'm thinking to myself, man, Jesus is patient
with his disciples.
He's just patient.
He's already showed himself resurrected.
They've already spent time with him.
This is after the road to Emmaus two, by the way, right?
Where he expounds into them and all the scriptures, the things concerning himself.
That's already, that's like those events have already taken place.
And yet they're just kind of, you know, fishing and that's it.
He's obviously being very patient with them.
Look at verse six, it says, and he said unto them, cast the net on the, on the right side
of the ship and you shall find they cast therefore.
And now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes.
So he repeats the same occurrence that we see earlier in the gospels where he tells
Peter to cast the net on the other side.
And this is kind of showing us that, you know, and again, in order for us to succeed, even
in the world, it requires obedience to the words of Christ, right?
It requires obedience to his word, even if it doesn't make sense.
So he says, cast the net on the other side.
They end up catching so many fish that they couldn't even draw it because of the multitude
of fishes that were there.
He says in verse seven, therefore that disciple whom Jesus loves, say them to Peter, it is
the Lord.
So John has the discernment to recognize, oh, this is Jesus because he remembers those
events in previous times in the gospels when this has happened.
So, you know, obviously this is implying that when they're on the ship, they didn't really
know if it was Jesus or not.
They see him on the shore, but they couldn't really tell if it was him.
Now what is the spiritual significance of that?
When people get away from the Lord, they have a hard time really deciphering who Jesus is
sometimes, right?
They can't really describe to you who Jesus is.
They can't really, they're not really good at preaching the gospel.
They can't really talk about biblical things because they're so far away from him.
And you know, in order for us to talk about the Lord, to describe the Lord, we have to
know him through his word.
But you know, the further you get away from the Bible, the less you know the Lord.
It doesn't mean the less you're saved because you can't lose your salvation.
It just means you don't really know the Lord a whole lot.
And obviously, you know, you see this a lot on social media where people who claim to
be Christians just say just crazy outlandish things and you know it's either one of two
things either just not saved or they're just so far removed from the Bible that they just
say stupid stuff.
And I've talked to people online and they give the right gospel answer, they give the
right plan of salvation, the right testimony, but they just say stupid stuff.
And it's just an indicator to me that they're so far removed from the Bible.
And look, my job as a pastor is to exhort you to close the gap between you and the Bible.
Meaning try to encourage you, challenge you to read the Bible every single day, to develop
a relationship with the word of God so that you're not far removed from it.
Why?
Because you need your mind to be renewed and reformed and washed.
You need your mind to be changed.
You need your mind to be cleansed through the word of God.
And look, folks, the further you get away from the Bible, the further you get away from
Bible preaching, the more screwed up your thinking becomes.
There's people out there, folks, that were in church listening to preaching, reading
the Bible, standing for the right doctrines, having the right convictions that are now
justifying sin.
How does that happen?
I'll tell you how.
The gap between them and the Bible increased.
Understand?
And look, folks, the more distance you create between you and the Bible, the more distance
you shorten between you and the flesh.
So the further you get away from the Bible, you know where you get closer to is the flesh
and the fleshly mind.
You become a carnal Christian, you become a carnal individual, and you no longer keep
under your body and bring it into subjection.
The old man kind of takes over.
It doesn't mean that the new man just goes away, but obviously if you're not feeding
the spirit and you're feeding the flesh, you're just going to be a weak fleshly Christian
and it's going to show in the way that you talk, the way that you live.
That's how things work and quite frankly, you won't be able to recognize the truth when
you see it.
You understand?
Because your heart becomes hardened.
So it's interesting, you know, they're away from the Lord, like the Lord's in the distance.
They hear him talking, but they can't really decipher that it's him.
It's not until John recognizes, like, it's the Lord.
It's just like, yeah, he's been around this whole time.
How do you not hear when he's talking to you?
But you know, Christians are the same way.
How do you think Christians get offended at preaching?
I'll tell you why, because they're so far removed from the Bible.
They come to church, they hear literal scriptures being read, biblical concepts being put forth,
and what do they do?
They get offended.
They get up and walk out, right?
They get up and walk out, they criticize the preaching of God's word.
I don't question their salvation, I'm just saying you're far removed from the Bible.
It's like you came to church to hear the preaching of God's word and you get offended.
What were you expecting to come to hear at church?
You should expect to hear the Bible.
But when you're far, when the distance is great between you and the word of God, yeah,
that's going to offend you because the Bible says great peace have they which love thy
law and nothing shall offend them.
When you're close to the Bible, the Bible doesn't offend.
It feeds.
Right?
You listen to the Bible and you think that's true.
Amen.
And even if the Bible is contradicting you, even if it's ripping your face, even if it's
getting on you, you know, the spirit bears witness and says, this is, this is the stuff
right here.
This is what I need to hear.
That's what I need to fix.
But a Christian who's far removed from the Bible.
The Bible's on shore and they're on a boat far away.
They can't determine what is true and what is not.
And you know, sometimes we need a John to tell us, Hey, that's the truth.
Hey, that's the Lord.
Right.
They need someone to sit next to them in church and say, I know you're offended, but this
is what the Bible actually says.
This is the truth.
Okay.
So John obviously is, I believe that's who it's referring to because he's so modest here.
You know, it says the disciple, that disciple knew not, or excuse me, in verse number, where
are we at?
Verse number three, four, five, where are we at here?
Seven.
Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved, saith unto Peter, it is the Lord.
So he had enough discernment to recognize like, Oh, this is Jesus, right?
This is the Lord.
It goes on to say, now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he gird his fisher's
coat unto him for he was naked and did cast himself into the sea.
Now a couple of things I want to mention in this regard.
The further you get away from God, the less clothing you wear.
The heck are you doing naked fishing, bro?
Like what are you doing?
I read this like as a brand new Christian, I'm like, was this guy fishing in the nude?
Peter, you're wild, bro.
Right?
Isn't that crazy?
Like why is he naked?
And I don't think it's, I don't think it's, you know, saying like, well, it's not really
naked.
You know, he must have had something.
No, it says he's naked.
Naked means nude.
Right?
Got no clothing on.
And you know, John, what are you doing fishing with the guy who's naked?
But this is how people behave when they're backslidden.
Yeah, maybe John's not naked, but he's fishing with people who are, though.
And you know when Christians backslide, you fall into either one of these categories.
When you backslide, you either start taking clothes off or you start hanging around with
people who take their clothes off.
Right?
And look, folks, I know this by experience, not because I backslid and that's happened
to me or anything like that.
I'm saying by looking at the testimony of others, you know, I can see when someone
who's backslidden in her heart, when the clothes become more immodest, right?
Become more carnivorous, show more flesh, more cleavage, more, you know, body parts.
Why is that?
It's because of the fact that they're becoming backslidden in her heart.
I mean, we see here, Peter is literally waving the Lord and this dude is straight nude,
fishing nude.
It's like, bro, no wonder you're not catching any fish.
No fish wanted to go near you.
And namely, this is mainly for the women.
Let me just say that.
Women are very much guilty of this.
Dudes aren't really guilty of this.
They don't go, I mean, obviously Peter was, but he's an extreme case.
But I've noticed this, women, when they get away from God, they become more immodest.
Start wearing tighter clothing, showing more flesh, more cleavage, more thigh, more leg.
That is common, my friends.
And to the point where they, when they fully get out of church, then they just look like
a whore.
You know?
You say, how do you know?
Because they're not ashamed.
And then they're posting it on Instagram on their story, looking all whore-ish.
Amen?
Why?
Because there's so much distance between them and the Lord.
Notice that when he finally realizes it's the Lord, what does he do?
He's like, oh, got to cover up.
And it's almost symbolic of him putting on the new man.
Is it not?
That Fisher's coat is like him putting on the new man.
You know, the nakedness really in the Bible is symbolic of the flesh.
I mean, it's literally called the flesh, right?
He's showing the flesh in a physical and spiritual sense, is it not?
He's being a fleshly, like Peter's literally being a fleshly Christian right there because
he's naked.
Whereas, when he finally recognizes that he's in the presence of God, then he puts on his
Fisher's coat.
He puts on the new man.
So what does that tell us?
You know, it helps us to realize that when we recognize we're in God's presence, which
is at all times, what do we do?
We put on the new man because we recognize the Lord is watching, right?
The difference is that Peter is just like, God's always there, you know?
You're just not recognizing that he's there.
You're not really thinking upon the fact that God is there watching.
I mean, think of Joseph in the Old Testament.
He's in a foreign land.
He's away from his parents.
Yet when he's tempted to sin, he says, how can I do this great sin?
How can I do this great thing and sin against God?
He didn't even say, obviously he didn't want to offend Potiphar.
Obviously he didn't want to dishonor his parents, but most of all, he didn't want to dishonor
God.
So he recognizes that though he's in Egypt, he's still in the presence of God.
What is that an example of?
That's an example of Joseph putting on his fisher's coat.
So Peter here, he's naked because the further you get away from Jesus, the more bachelorette
you become, the less clothing you put on.
But also we see that he puts on his fisher's coat and it says in verse eight, "And the
other disciple came in a little ship," oh wait, let me finish off here.
So it says in verse seven, "Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord.
He gird his fisher's coat unto him, for he was naked, and cast himself into the sea."
Now this is what I like about Peter, okay?
Like I really like John because John was like, "Hey, it's the Lord."
And then you look at Peter, don't look at Peter, but you know Peter's like over here
naked.
But what does Peter do?
He's all in.
He jumps right in.
John comes in a little boat, you know?
He takes his time to get to the shore.
Peter on the other hand is just like, "Forget the boat, I'm just going to swim to the Lord."
So it kind of shows you the different personalities within with John and Peter.
John kind of takes his time.
Yeah, he outran Peter, but he didn't go into the sepulcher.
Peter went into the sepulcher.
Yeah, he's the one who recognized that it was the Lord on the shore, but he wasn't the
one who was like trying to get to the Lord as fast as possible.
He didn't have that same rapidity that he had when he was going to the sepulcher, right?
Whereas Peter actually jumped right in.
Now obviously both of these are acceptable.
You have Christians that when they get right with God, it takes them a little while to
kind of get warmed up to the things of God, right?
They come in the little ship.
And we don't want to discourage that because at least John came.
You know, he got in the little ship and you know, he wasn't very far away from land in
verse eight.
It says he was about 200 cubits and he's dragging the net of fishes.
You know, he's taking his time, but at least he went.
Peter, on the other hand, he's just like, forget the fish, forget the boat.
I'm just going to jump right in and go right in.
And I think in our church, we have both of these groups and I think both are great.
The point is just get to the Lord, get right with God, swim to the Lord, right?
And you know, if you got to take your little boat and take your time and add a couple of
services here and there and start adding soul winning and adding chapters to your Bible
reading and you're, you know, you're just kind of, you're just trotting along, growing
in grace.
I'm all for it as long as you get to the shore though.
What I'm not for is you staying in the boat.
What I'm not for is you not making your way to shore.
What I'm not for is you not progressing in the things of God, right?
And I think in our type of church we just can't.
People have a hard time being in a church like this and not progressing or regressing
because everyone is exhorting one another to go to shore, whether in the boat or just
jump right in.
And by the way, don't discourage people when they jump into the water after they gird on
their fisher's coat, right?
We want them to be all in for the things of God.
Don't discourage anybody from going on the mission field, from going to Belize, going
soul winning, if someone's a brand new Christian and they tell you, "Hey, I preached the gospel
for the first time."
Yeah, it might have been lacking a couple of pieces of verses or whatever, but don't
discourage that person.
Rejoice with that person that they actually had the boldness to go out and preach the
gospel.
I'd rather have someone just jump right in and go in the right direction than stay in
the boat.
Because even though Peter is swimming to shore, he's going in the right direction.
He's going to shore.
We need both, my friends.
Don't discourage the person who's taking their time, but also don't discourage the person
who just jumps right in.
I feel like in our church, we do have a lot of people who just jump right in after they
gird on their fisher's coat.
And by the way, once he put on his fisher's coat is when he jumped in.
Just like when you put on the new man, you just jump right in.
Start serving God, pleasing the Lord, reading your Bible, obeying Bible preaching, gaining
the right convictions.
And I love this.
When I see a brand new Christian come to church, and they just start immediately making changes,
I think it's great.
I'm not like, whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down there.
Why don't you get yourself a boat first, you know, just, you know, just pace yourself
a little bit.
Hey, if they want to go sewing on the first day, do it.
If they want to read a couple chapters of the Bible, do it.
If they want to just start off going to three verses, three verses, three services a week,
do it.
Look, folks, I remember when I first got saved, I was kind of like a Peter, I just
jumped in.
But quite frankly, I didn't know what churches were all about.
So I just thought like there's just morning services.
So I would just go to the morning preaching.
And then obviously in old IAP churches, they have Sunday school class.
We don't have that because there's enough content in the preaching and the service to
feed people.
We don't need Sunday school classes, give like a 20 minute sermonette or whatever.
And so I would go to services and then someone said, "Hey, you need to go to Sunday school
class."
I was like, "All right."
So I just went to Sunday school class.
I was like, "I guess more preaching."
So I would go to Sunday school class first, then I would go to Sunday morning service,
and then I'd go home.
And then the next week I would go to the service and someone said, "Why don't you come Sunday
night?"
I'm like, "Sunday night for what?"
They're like, "For church."
I was like, "You guys have church on Sunday night?"
They're like, "Yeah.
Church starts at this time."
I'm like, "Oh, wow.
Okay.
I'll come back Sunday night."
So I would come back Sunday night, and then I started coming Sunday morning, Sunday night,
and they're like, "Why don't you come back on Thursday?"
I'm like, "Thursday for what?"
They're like, "We have church on Thursday?"
I'm like, "You have church on Thursday too?"
They're just like, "Yeah, we do a Bible study," and I'm like, "Oh, okay, I'll be there."
So then I went to the Thursday night Bible study.
And then when I started going there, and then they're just like, "Why don't you come on
Tuesday?"
I'm like, "Dang, you guys have another service on Tuesday?"
And they're like, "No, we have soul-winning on Tuesday."
I'm like, "What's soul-winning?"
They're like, "It's when we go out and preach the gospel."
"You guys go out and preach the gospel?"
They're like, "Yeah, why don't you come on?"
I'm like, "All right, I'll go to that too."
I was there whenever the church doors were open, but I just didn't know about all the
structures of churches and how many services they have or whatever.
I was kind of like that Peter who put on the fisher's coat and jumped right in.
But I'm sure there's people, of course there's people who don't do that, but you know what?
A year in, now they're doing all the stuff.
They're reading the Bible.
They are going to all three services.
They are preaching the gospel.
They pace themselves.
Look, folks, as long as you get to shore, and as long as you choose to just get out
of the boat, okay?
So we have this dynamic here between Peter and John where one jumps in the water, the
other one rows there.
It says in verse number nine, "And as soon as they," excuse me, "as soon then as they
were come to the land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish lay thereon and bred.
Jesus sayeth unto him, 'Bring up the fish which ye have now caught.'
Simon Peter went up and drew the net to land full of great fishes, and hundred and fifty
and three, and for all there were so many, yet was not the net broken."
By the way, you know, why did Jesus count the fish?
It's not like the numbers really matter, why did he say a hundred and fifty, three, four?
I mean, does that really matter?
Yeah, it matters, especially when he says three thousand souls in Acts, it matters.
Okay, five thousand, it matters to the Lord how many souls there are, right?
I say that because someone on Sunday didn't really like the fact that we count salvations
in our church, you know.
And then when Brother Hernandez approached this woman, this loud mouth, you know, he
told her like, "Hey, are you 100% sure if you die today you go to heaven?"
She's just like, "I'm not answering that."
And she's just like, "Okay," she's like, "I'm God's favorite, you know, and I'm not going
to be counted with you."
And I'm thinking to myself, "Yeah, we wouldn't count you because you're probably not saved.
We only count saved people in our church."
But she came in only to criticize our church and this is what she does.
She makes her rounds to churches and criticizes them.
But it seems as though the Lord is very much interested in numbers as noted by the fact
that he counts how many fish they caught, 153, okay.
It says in verse 12, Jesus saith unto them, come and dine and none of the disciples just
asked him, who art thou, knowing that it was the Lord.
Now there's some symbolic representation being mentioned here, is there not?
We see here that Jesus invites the disciples to come and dine with him and this is essentially
referring to the fact that he wants to fellowship with them and particularly he wants to fellowship
with Peter.
And why is that?
Because Peter forsook him.
When did he forsook him?
When he fell under persecution.
And there is a major tie between fellowshiping with God and suffering.
Like sometimes people are like I just want to have a close relationship with Jesus.
You ready to suffer?
Because the apostle Paul said that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and
most people just stop there.
But it says and the fellowship of his suffering.
So one of the greatest ways for you to have fellowship with the Lord is by suffering and
in fact he literally calls it the fellowship of his suffering.
And although he has a physical meal here of fish and bread, really what it's symbolic
representing is like come fellowship with me, be willing to suffer.
Now how do we know that?
Because later on he tells him how he's going to die.
So he's kind of inviting Peter to suffer with him.
And obviously we see later on in the book of Acts that he's beaten up.
He is persecuted.
He does suffer, but it seems to indicate towards the latter end of John chapter 21 that he
actually is crucified.
And historically people say that Peter was crucified upside down.
Obviously can we verify that?
We don't know beyond a shadow of a doubt, the John 21 seems to indicate that he, someone
else is going to gird him.
He's going to be crucified.
He's going to die for the Lord.
And so that would fit the narrative here that he went and dined with the Lord, so to speak.
He had fellowship with the Lord.
So he has the fish, the bread, and he tells his disciples, come and dine.
And it says, none of the disciples just ask him, who art thou?
Knowing that it was the Lord, Jesus then cometh and taketh bread and giveth them and fish
likewise.
This is now the third time that Jesus showed himself to his disciples.
After that, he was risen from the dead.
And this is important because again, Peter forsook the Lord.
He denied the Lord three times at a moment of persecution, right?
And go to Revelation chapter three, if you would, Revelation chapter three, Revelation
chapter three.
No, we're not talking about the synagogue of Satan.
You're hoping that the letters that are written to the seven churches, which are in Asia,
is Jesus assessing these churches, right?
And he's kind of giving a report card of the churches.
A lot of them passed.
Some of them didn't.
A lot of them had good attributes about themselves.
Some of them had a lot of things to work on.
And it's like Jesus going to each church saying, "This is your strengths.
These are your weaknesses.
Work on this, or I'm going to remove your candlestick.
Work on this, or I'm going to destroy you."
I mean, he's praising some, he's threatening others, because these are his churches.
And at the end of his assessment of these churches, I want you to notice what he says
in chapter three in verse 19.
This is at the end when he's talking to the church at Laodicea.
Actually, let's go back a little bit.
Go to verse number 16.
He says, "So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee
out of my mouth."
By the way, this does not mean you could lose your salvation.
A lot of people who believe you could lose your salvation will use this, which I don't
even know how you use this verse to teach you could lose your salvation.
How is that the equivalent to being spewed out of your mouth?
Like, it just doesn't make sense.
What does this mean when he says, "I will spew thee out of my mouth"?
It means you make him sick.
Lukewarm Christians make God sick to the point where he just wants to spit you out.
Okay?
He says in verse 17, "Because thou sayest, I am rich and increased with goods and have
need of nothing, and knowest not that thou are wretched, miserable, poor, blind," and
I want you to notice this, "and naked."
Isn't that interesting?
So spiritually Laodicea was naked, not physically.
They're naked.
Why?
Because they're fleshly.
And by the way, when Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, wasn't there a disciple
who fled naked as well?
He left his garment and he fled naked.
Why?
Because he was fearful.
And fear is the sin of the flesh.
So he fled naked, he fled in the flesh, so to speak, right?
Well, this church, Laodicea, is a lukewarm church.
They have all the resources, but they don't realize how blind they are.
And it's not that they're blind because they're not saved, they're blind, they cannot see
afar off because they're not adding virtue to their faith, right?
He says that they're wretched, miserable, poor, poor in faith, blind and naked.
Now, what is the remedy?
I need you to take this discipleship course, you know, make sure you do this and here's
your five-step program.
No, actually, he says in verse 18, "I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire
that thou mayest be rich and white raiment that thou mayest be clothed and that the shame
of thy nakedness do not appear and anoint thine eyes with I salve that thou mayest see."
What is he saying?
When he says, "buy of me gold tried in the fire," he's like, "here's my counsel to you,
go through some hardships, experience hardships in your life, experience affliction."
And why does he say buy?
Because you got to pay a price in order to get gold.
If you want to be honored by the Lord at the judgment seat of Christ with gold, silver,
precious stones, it's going to require for you to suffer a little bit.
You're going to have to pay the price.
And no, suffering doesn't mean put Christian on your bio.
That's not suffering.
He says, "this is what I counsel you to do, buy me gold tried in the fire."
He says, "so you can be rich."
Rich where?
At the judgment seat of Christ.
Rich in faith.
Why Raymond?
Why?
Because when you walk in the spirit, you're clothed upon with the new man.
He says, "that thy shame of thy nakedness, the fleshliness, do not appear, and anoint
thine eyes with eyes south that thou mayest see."
In other words, have a biblical perspective.
Instead of being blind because you're not adding to your faith virtue to virtue knowledge
and all those virtues that we see in 1 Peter, he's saying here, you should cleanse your
eyes so you can actually see the truth and esteem that which is most important to God.
He says in verse 19, "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten, be zealous therefore
and repent."
What does it mean to chasten?
He whoops them.
If I love you, he says, you're going to get whooped.
And he says, I want you to be zealous and repent.
And sometimes that's what we need as Christians is to be zealous about repenting, wanting
to get right with God at any given time, right?
And you know, it doesn't need to be all these theatrics either.
You don't need to throw your hands in the air and, oh God, you know, sometimes it's
just you in your car saying, "Lord, forgive me, I repented this, sorry, I want to get
right."
And then you just move on with your life.
Zealous means like the consistency in repenting, that your heart moves you to get right with
the Lord.
Now I want you to notice verse 20.
This is still in context of what I'm talking about in John 21.
He says in verse 20, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock.
If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come into him and will what?
Sop with him and he with me."
Now a lot of times Christians will apply this to salvation, like, "Oh, Jesus is knocking
at the door of your heart to get saved.
He wants to come into your heart and you could accept him into your heart."
That's all beautiful and everything, but that's not what this is talking about.
He just got finished talking to the seven churches which are in Asia.
And what is he doing?
He's knocking at the doors of those churches.
And what is he asking?
To come in and to sup with them.
What does he want?
He wants those churches to suffer.
Not because he's being malicious, but because he wants to have fellowship with them.
And in order for Jesus to have fellowship with the church, it has to suffer.
The people within that church have to suffer.
You know, it's not about, "Well, I was just reading the Bible and it's just, I had this
dream."
And it, you know, you just have these emotional feelings.
I'm not saying that's not going to happen every once in a while.
Hopefully it only happens every once in a while.
You know, you're obviously, there's going to be instances where you get emotional about
reading the Bible, but let me just be real honest with you.
The real fellowship is when you suffer.
And anybody in this room who has suffered afflictions and has gone through trials and tribulations
knows exactly what I'm talking about.
Here's the thing, when you fellowship with the Lord, it's great, but it's just like,
man, if you really want to fellowship with the Lord, it's often when you're down in the
dumps, when you're depressed, when you're in affliction.
That's when you actually feel closest to the Lord, believe it or not, because he's nigh
unto them who are of a contrite heart, right?
A broken heart and a broken spirit.
He's close to people like that.
That's the fellowship.
And I'll be honest with you.
Let me just be really transparent.
I'm like, I don't want to suffer.
I'm going to be honest with you.
Who does?
I don't think anybody is just like, yeah, let's do it.
Let's suffer.
We know we're supposed to, and we look forward to the fellowship, but the suffering part
is hard.
It's like dying, right?
We look forward to heaven, but it's just the dying part.
We look forward to going to heaven.
It's just the transportation, how we get there that we're not really looking.
But you know what?
Jesus is knocking at the door.
So this concept that we see in Revelation chapter three is the same concept that John
is communicating in John chapter 21.
Go back to John 21, he says come and dine.
How do we dine with the Lord?
By suffering affliction when it comes to you and enduring and still serving God.
Because what does Jesus want from Peter?
He wants him to suffer but not outside of the will of God.
He wants him to suffer and still be in the will of God.
He wants him to suffer afflictions and persecutions while he's serving God.
He wants him to cry while he's serving God and not quit.
And you know what?
You're going to have plenty of opportunities to do that.
If you stay faithful to church, all the will of God in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
You're going to suffer some 2026 is filled with afflictions and tribulations for you.
You have an appointment with affliction.
You have an appointment with tribulation.
Oh, let me admonish you.
Don't quit on the Lord when it comes upon you.
Why?
Because when that affliction comes to you, it's the Lord just knocking at the door, wants
you to open.
He wants to sup with you.
He's saying, come and dine.
I'm in dine, right?
Look at verse 15.
So when they had dined, Jesus sayeth unto Simon Peter, Simon son of Jonas, lovest thou
me more than these.
He sayeth unto him, yea Lord thou knowest that I love thee.
He sayeth unto him, feed my lambs.
He sayeth to him again the second time, Simon son of Jonas, lovest thou me?
He sayeth unto him, yea Lord thou knowest that I love thee.
He sayeth unto him, feed my sheep.
He sayeth unto him the third time, Simon son of Jonas, lovest thou me?
Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, lovest thou me?
And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee.
Jesus sayeth unto him, feed my sheep.
Now, you don't have to get poetic about this.
Well, in the original language, there's two words that are being used here for love and
he means, it's just love, bro, okay?
He's not trying to be enigmatic about this.
He's not trying to be, he's just reminding Peter, obviously Peter denied the Lord how
many times?
Three times.
And he's just kind of reinforcing this to him like, hey, do you love me?
He's like, yeah, well then feed my sheep.
In other words, you say you love me, but you're out here fishing though, instead of actually
feeding the flock of God.
And obviously he ends up carrying that same concept into first Peter, right?
When he's admonishing the elders, he says, feed the flock of God, which are among you.
Is it something that he learned from the Lord?
So he's saying, if you want to fellowship with me, come and die and suffer.
But also if you love me, you'll feed my sheep, you'll feed my lambs.
You know what this shows me?
It shows me that it's very important in the eyes of God for God's people to be fed doctrine.
So if you ever find a church that doesn't teach doctrine, that pastor doesn't love
the sheep.
That's basically what it means.
If you find a church that's doing a Ted Talk that is preaching two verses out of the Bible
and just the rest are stories, illustrations, graphics on the screen, it's possibly a church
that has a pastor that doesn't love you.
Why?
Because if you love me, you'll feed my sheep, you'll offer food for the sheep.
God is concerned with his flock getting fed and there's no perfect meal.
But as long as it has the contents of the Bible, you're good to go, right?
As long as you're teaching the congregation of God spiritual truths and you're feeding
it to them, God is pleased with that.
This is a message for you future pastors, those of you who want to be pastors.
You better be ready to feed the flock of God, feed the sheep of God, feed them the
word of God.
Why?
Because that's how God views whether you love him or not.
For us, it's like, if you love me, then do make sure you are preaching the word of God.
You're not ashamed of the Bible.
You're feeding his flock that he's left you in charge of.
Just feed my sheep, feed my lambs.
Verse 18, "Verily, verily I say to thee, when thou was young, thou girdest thyself
and walkest whither thou wouldest.
But when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee
and carry thee, whither thou wouldest not."
This is indicating, obviously according to verse 19, it's talking about the death that
he should die.
It's possibly indicating that he's going to be girt, he's going to be stretched forth,
implying that he's possibly going to be crucified.
That's how he's going to die.
"This spake he signifying by what death he should glorify God.
And when he hath spoken this, he saith unto him, Follow me."
Of course, earlier in his ministry, he said that to the disciples, "Follow me and I'll
make you fishers of men."
Here he's telling them, "Follow me and you need to feed my sheep."
Verse 20, "Then Peter turning about, seeth a disciple whom Jesus loved following, which
also leaned on his breast at supper and said, 'Lord, which is he that betrayeth thee?'
Peter seeing him, saith to Jesus, 'Lord, and what shall this man do?'"
Now, this is an important thing to note, and this is kind of like Peter's weakness here.
It's like the Lord is instructing him.
He's given him instructions specifically for him, and he's just like, "Well, what about
him?"
This is like, "What about him, bro?
That's not your business.
Focus on you."
And you know, it's important for us as Christians to focus on our spiritual walk.
Obviously, we want everyone to succeed, but don't compare yourself with others.
Well, what about so-and-so?
What about them?
Go down, follow me.
Your obedience should not be determined based upon other people's obedience or lack thereof.
And you know what?
You newer Christians need to grow up and recognize that the people you look up to in this church
might not even pan out.
And if they don't pan out, what is that to thee?
Follow the Lord.
That's an important message.
And God forbid that one of the leaders or people who've been in our church for a long
period of time ever get out of the ways of the Lord.
But if it were to happen, what is that to thee?
Why would you stop serving God because of that?
Why would that cause you to stop feeding the flock of God, stop going to church, stop obeying
the Bible?
Follow the Lord.
Who are you following?
I mean, the Apostle Paul said, "Follow me as I follow Christ," meaning that once he
stopped following Christ, you could stop following Paul.
And look, we love leaders.
There's certain mentors that we have that we love and admire, but folks, once they deviate
from the ways of the Lord, once they backslide, you need to keep following the Lord, no matter
what.
And this is important, folks, because a lot of people have this Peter mentality of like,
"No matter what happens, I'm always going to be there till death or whatever."
Well, take heed, lest ye fall.
And you know, I remember just in times past where I had people that I looked up to, mentors
of mine, people who were spiritual leaders of mine, who I admired, who had far more greater
spiritual character than I ever had.
They knew the Bible, they read the Bible, they were people of discipline, men of character
and virtue and godliness, and I wanted to be like them, but something happened, and
they got out of the way, they got out of the church, they got out of the ways of the Lord.
And you know what other people followed, too?
They couldn't believe it.
It caused them to stumble.
I mean, I've known Christians who, you know, some pastor fell or something, got involved
in sin, and then that just derailed them spiritually as well.
How can I continue?
Well, who are you following?
Now look, folks, if some mentor of mine gets involved in sin, will I be brokenhearted over
it?
Of course.
That would devastate me.
I'd be sad.
But you know what?
Life does go on, though.
And I would keep, like, it wouldn't stop me from reading the Bible the very next day.
I'm not saying I would be cold-hearted about it.
I'm not saying, like, I'd be like, "Well, that sucks," and just keep reading the Bible.
Like, I would be genuinely sad about it, but I'm not reading the Bible because people around
me are right with God.
I'm reading the Bible because I want to be right with God.
My spiritual success is not based upon someone else's success or lack thereof.
You need to build convictions that no matter who's in the ministry, who's serving God,
who the person that you admire, the person that you esteem as being a spiritual giant,
whether they fail or not, should not determine whether you stay in the ministry or not, whether
you keep serving God or not.
Look, leaders aren't perfect, my friends.
Leaders make mistakes.
I'm not talking about false prophets.
If you're esteeming a false prophet, you need a new hero.
You need to start looking up to people who are actually saved, who are righteous individuals,
not wicked individuals.
But you know what?
Even righteous people make mistakes, and all of a sudden, if someone makes a mistake, it's
just like, "I just can't believe my hero did that."
What do you mean?
He's a sinner like everyone else.
What are you talking about?
People make mistakes all the time.
You think you're not going to make a mistake?
It's like, "I just can't believe this whatever happened."
Then obviously you don't read the Bible.
You are the person I was referring to in the beginning of the sermon that you're far removed
from the Bible because people make mistakes.
And you know, leaders are going to make, I'm going to make mistakes.
Now, Lord willing, I'll never make a mistake that like disqualifies me from being a pastor.
But if that ever happens, you should just keep serving God.
But you know what?
If there's some pastor out there that you admire that makes a mistake or does something
that you don't approve of, you should keep serving God.
Why would you get out of church for that?
The most nonsensical foolish thing to do would be to stop coming to this church, stop reading
the Bible, stop serving God because your favorite pastor just did something that you don't agree
with or whatever.
You're just so devastated.
What are you going to do?
Be a non-denomer or something?
What?
What are you going to do?
Well, I just don't like.
So what?
Grow up.
You served the Lord Jesus Christ.
Or at least I think you do.
Look, folks, I've already determined no matter what happens, I'm going to keep serving God.
Okay?
If one of my leaders or people that I look up to falls short of my quote unquote standard,
that doesn't affect me at all because as for me in my house, we shall serve the Lord.
I just don't know how I'm going to continue.
Well, that very statement shows us how shallow your Christianity really is then.
How shallow you are as a Christian if it takes that little to derail you as a Christian.
And I say that because, you know, maybe some of you are really attached to your leader
in our church.
Maybe you're really attached to me.
Maybe you're really attached to someone in our church.
You know, God forbid if something were to happen to them, you better keep serving God
no matter what.
And again, I hope that never happens, but I have to say stuff like that in case it ever
does.
Brother Hernandez just goes out into the world, you know, becomes a soccer star.
He follows his dream.
He forsakes the Lord.
You know, you, Brother Jose, you better keep serving God.
You know, those of you who love Brother Hernandez, you better keep serving God.
You better just be like, well, that sucks, man.
I'll be praying for him.
But you know, I'm going to keep serving God because it doesn't, other people don't really
determine whether I stay in church or not because you know what?
The Lord hasn't changed.
The Lord will never let me down.
The Lord is always there.
He's not leaving.
He can't be a soccer star.
You're good.
He's a star for the Lord.
Amen.
But no real talk.
He will never be a soccer star.
So you don't have to worry about that.
Just kidding.
Don't be like Peter.
Oh, man.
What will this man do?
Verse 22.
Jesus saves unto him.
If I will, did he tear you till I come?
What is that to thee?
Follow thou me.
Say, mind your business.
Who cares?
If he keeps them alive to the second coming of Christ, what should that matter to you?
You should just follow the Lord.
Then went this saying abroad among the brethren that the disciple should not die.
Yet Jesus said, "Nah unto him.
He shall not die.
But I will that he tear you till I come."
What is that to thee?
So it's basically saying like, oh man, he's saying that John's not going to die.
Because the same ended up going abroad to like, I think, you know, John's going to stay
alive.
But he's like, he didn't say he wasn't going to die.
He just said, if I will that I tarry till I come, what is that to thee?
But they were overly literal about this and just assumed like, oh, this means he's not
going to die.
He goes on to say in verse 24, this is the disciple which testifies of these things and
wrote these things.
And we know that his testimony is true.
Now verse 24 is an indicator that John did not finish the book of John.
He wrote the majority of the book of John, but it's likely that chapter 21, at least
the latter end of chapter 21 was written by someone else.
Because of the fact that the writer is stating, we know that his testimony is true.
And yes, there's instances where John refers to himself here as that disciple, but not
in this particular context, right?
We know that his testimony is true.
This is obviously someone testifying of John's testimony, okay?
He says, "And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they should be
written to everyone, I suppose even that the world itself could not contain the books that
should be written."
Amen.
Now, one last thing that I want to mention is it doesn't really matter if John wrote
this or not.
You know why?
Because God wrote it.
And yeah, we esteem earthly authors, but no, not really, not as much, because at the
end of the day, all scripture is given by inspiration of God.
So just as we may admire a pastor for preaching the word of God, at the end of the day, what
do we esteem the most?
The word that's being preached.
We esteem the authors, but you know what we esteem more, what was penned down because
God preserved it, he inspired it, you understand?
And so we see here that it finishes off in a very unorthodox way in a sense that it doesn't
coincide with the way Matthew, Mark and Luke finished off, but it finishes off with a great
lesson, does it not?
That at the end of the day, it doesn't matter who's serving God, you need to keep serving
God, Peter, you know, and dine with the Lord.
And hopefully, you know, I don't know if this is a foreshadowing of some sufferings that
we're going to have in 2026, but it might be.
Jesus might be knocking at your door, wanting you to dine with him.
Make sure you open.
Amen.
Let's pray.
Father, we thank you so much for your word.
Thank you for the book of John.
What a great book.
And thank you for reinforcing us in our beliefs and in our doctrines.
Help us as your people, Lord, not to be arrogant and prideful and to think that we would never
deny you.
Lord, we know that we are but flesh and within us there dwelleth no good thing, Lord.
And I pray that, Lord, when it comes to the point where we are suffering affliction, may
we predetermine, Lord, that we will not defile ourselves, Lord, that we will keep serving
you no matter what.
And I pray that each and every day those convictions are reinforced as we walk with you, as we
read the Bible, as we pray.
So when the evil day comes, we are able to stand in the evil day having done all to stand.
And I pray that, Lord, when you knock on our doors that we would readily open in fellowship
with you.
We thank you, pray these things in Jesus name, amen.