4/25/21 John 21:1-19 “Feed My Sheep”

23 Apr 4/25/21 John 21:1-19 “Feed My Sheep”

4/25/21   John 21:1-19      “Feed My Sheep”

One of the things that I really miss about being a full-time pastor is working with the young people.  Oh, I miss just about everything about being a pastor but working with the younger set was always fun and a challenge.  They had a way of keeping me on my toes like no one else.  I remember when I started in 2006, I had never worked with kids or teens or even young adults.  Sharon, on the other hand, had worked with teens here whole life.  Therefore, I usually went to her for advice.  She might tell you that I didn’t follow that advice very much but I would disagree a little.  Whatever I did, right or wrong, it seemed to work.  I have to believe that there is a whole bunch of young Christian adults out there because I tried to show them the way to Jesus.  Anyway, I was and still am very proud of these people.  They were the only ones in the two churches who could make me feel young again.  Hopefully, today these people are out there, going forward with the knowledge and assurance that Jesus Christ is with them every step of the way.  That is also what I hope and pray about for each person listening or watching today.  I think that each of you can make a huge difference in the world.  I chose today’s Scripture reading because of this thought.  I want the young people watching today to know that they are just as important as everyone else.  You can all go into the world and make a difference.  Let us study Peter for a moment today.

I want to begin with a story from Barry Robinson.  He talks about a problem that everyone, whether young or old, has to struggle with at some time in their lives.  In other words, everyone listening struggles with this or will in the future.  One day there was an old pastor, somewhat like me, who stood up in church to testify about his faith.  He said, “I am a lay pastor for a small not-growing church.  I am not ordained or seminary trained.  I was asked to leave both seminaries I tried to attend.  I am divorced and remarried.  I am totally capable of being a jerk with my family and friends.  I am insecure and arrogant.  I make promises I cannot keep and I am inconsistent.

My walk with Jesus is a stuttering, stumbling attempt to follow Him.  At times His presence is so real that tears stream down my face and then without warning, I can’t find Him.  Some days my faith is strong and immovable and others it is weak, helpless and pathetic.  I have been a Christian for 45 years; I know the vocabulary of faith and have given advice on matters of faith.  But I am still a mess.  I am far from being able to say with Paul, “Copy me.”  I am still struggling with my faith and I am a bona fide failure.”

Here is a man who has been a pastor all his life and he is struggling just like everyone else.  One thing that people forget is that pastors are people like everyone else.  In our reading today, we find one of the most devout Christians who ever lived struggling with his faith.  Peter has problems like everyone and the Catholic Church considers him to be their first Pope.  This is the same Peter who has just denied Jesus three times right after he vowed to stay with him through thick or thin.  This is the guy who has been with Jesus from the beginning of the ministry.  Can you imagine how he feels?

I would guess that he has been devastated.  Here we have his best friend dying and Peter swearing to be with Him and yet he left at the first chance he got.  He knows that he really betrayed Jesus this time.  Even though he has seen Him and knows that He is indeed alive, he has to feel lower than a snake’s belly over what he did.  He is feeling extreme guilt.

Have you ever betrayed someone?  Has someone else ever counted on you for something and you let them down?  I know that this has happened to everyone here today on some scale and that includes me.  Sometimes we forget.  Sometimes we have to do something else.  Sometimes we just don’t want to do it.  No matter what the excuse we give for letting someone down, we will end up feeling bad about it.

So how do we know that he is feeling so much shame?  We read about it.  Jesus is on the shore and they do not realize who He is yet.  He asks them if they have caught any fish.  They tell him no.  So, He tells them to cast their nets on the other side of the boat.  These guys are no fools.  They have been with Jesus for three years but in their lives before Jesus they had been fishermen.  They know how to fish.  They had been professional fishermen.  They had been out all night and they had nothing to show for it.  Then some guy from shore tells them to fish on the other side of the boat.  It sounds crazy but they tried it and sure enough they caught 153 large fish.

Right away, John knows that Jesus is the man on the shore.  He tells Peter, “It is the Lord!”  Now we come to the part where we know how badly Peter has been feeling.  He has been out all-night fishing and has caught nothing.  He is tired.  He is probably cold.  He is all of these things and he still jumps into the lake to get quickly to the shore where Jesus is.  Peter will stop at nothing to try to get back into the good graces of Jesus.  No experienced fisherman would ever do something like this.

Let me say this in terms we understand a little better.  How many of you have a dog or have had a dog?  You know what happens when you get after a dog for being naughty.  He will slink around and slink around until you finally make up with him.  Then he will jump around joyously because the dog’s master has made up with him even after he has made a mistake.  This is kind of what Peter is doing.  He will do anything to get back into the good graces of Jesus.

This is just like the story of the old pastor that I just told you.  Some of you are feeling a bit on the unworthy side.  I have noticed this as I have been visiting when you feel like you shouldn’t be in the presence of Jesus because of what you have done or what you have said or what you have been thinking.  Well, the old pastor in our story felt this way.  I feel this way.  Everybody here feels this way.  Peter felt this way.  So, I would say that you are in pretty good company.  We all sin and fall short of the glory of God, all of us.

This is not a good thing if we don’t know what to do with this guilt.  There is a solution and I have told you many times what it is.  You have to take it to Jesus and give it to Him.  He doesn’t hold a grudge.  He wants you to take it to him so that He can forget about it.  This is what is so wonderful about this plan.  Jesus doesn’t remember the sins you committed last week as long as you confessed them to him.  How do we know this?  Let’s look at our passage again.

The disciples come ashore with all these fish and Jesus makes them breakfast.  For your information, no one really knows why there was 153 fish or why it was important enough to mention.  Once again, we have Jesus slipping into the role of the servant and tending to the needs of the men He loves the most.  He is the risen God.  He has been showing Himself to be more of a spiritual being since his resurrection.  He has been just appearing from thin air in the places where He is needed the most.  Today, these men are hungry so what does He do?  He feeds them.

This is one thing that we have given away in our modern world.  We don’t like to feed our neighbors.  We have set it up so that our government takes care of the needy in this country.  Did you know that 150 years ago the churches took care of all cases that would now be considered welfare?  Even when I was a kid, people took care of their neighbors who needed help.  This doesn’t happen today.  We have found a way to keep our hands clean so we don’t have to dirty them by ministering to the people who don’t have as much as we do.  It is called our welfare system and it is broken just like almost all government programs.

Hopefully our young people will get a chance to fix some of these things.  I know that your hearts are in the right place.  I know that you want to reach out to others.  Today I am telling you that it is ok to be the first one to reach out.  It is ok to put your arms around someone who is in deep distress.  It is ok to keep on coming to church when all your friends don’t.  If you keep on doing all of these right things, then you will find that Jesus is on the shore making you breakfast.  He will fill you with all you need if you will just follow Him.  You all know that this isn’t too hard.  All you have to do is love the Lord with all your heart, soul and strength and then love you neighbor as yourself.  The blessings you will get in return for this will be beyond your imagination.

But we aren’t done yet.  They have all eaten and rested a little when Jesus asks Peter three times if he loves Him.  Peter gets a little exasperated as he keeps telling Jesus that he knows he loves him.  What Peter doesn’t realize here is that Jesus is giving him the directions for his life and ministry.  First of all, he tells him to feed my lambs.  We all know that lambs are baby sheep.  They are young.  They have a lot to learn.  Someone has to teach them.

Many of you people watching this today are young or younger and I want you to be set apart.  I want you to be holy.  Think about that for a minute.  You are young and you will still learn a lot about following Jesus.  But you are also old enough to begin teaching the younger people around you.  You can even teach older people who don’t know Christ.  There are younger people in Sunday school and who come up for children’s time that need you.  Don’t be afraid to volunteer to help teach Sunday school.  Don’t be afraid to volunteer for anything in your local church. They need you and I know that each of you can do this.  You have the talent and you have the love of Jesus Christ in you.  Don’t be afraid.

The next thing Jesus says is to take care of my sheep.  Many of you are probably not that familiar with sheep.  They need constant care and supervision.  We used to raise them when I was a kid and you wouldn’t believe the trouble they would get into.

We are the exact same way.  If we are left unattended and on our own, we will soon get ourselves into trouble.  And the evil that is lurking out there today, the evil that is looking for you, is far worse than it has ever been in our history.  Satan wants you.  So, you need to take care of each other.  When one of you gets into trouble or faces some temptation, it is up to the rest of us to come to the rescue.  You are all old enough to help others who are having a hard time.  The best way to help other believers is to be always ready.  You can always be ready if you continue to come to church.  Satan will work in others to tell you that this isn’t necessary but don’t listen.  Continue to read your Bibles.  I can’t even begin to tell you how important this is.  And continue to pray as we have talked about many times.  There is never any reason or excuse that allows you to quit any of these things.  If you get yourself into the habit of just doing these three things, I will guarantee that God will bless you richly.

Then Jesus says to feed my sheep.  Jesus is telling Peter that he not only has to tend the sheep but he must feed them also, like the lambs.  The younger people today may not realize it but you are perfectly capable of teaching old people like me.  You have taught me many things over the past few years.  You have taught me new ways to love and to care.  Don’t let any of us older folks tell you that you can’t do something for Christ.  You can and you should and you will.  This may seem a little brash but I think that many of you could take over for me.  I have that much confidence in you, all of you.  Look what He did for me.  I used to think that I could never talk in front of people.  Wow!  The great thing about this is that Jesus has even more confidence in you than I can ever have, whatever He has in mind for your future.

It is time for the people of the church to take a huge step.  I ask that you take it in confidence.  Take it boldly.  Take this step with Jesus Christ holding your hand.  Don’t worry about failure.  I guarantee that you will fail.  We all fail.  Peter failed.  But Jesus will forget about your failures if you keep coming to Him.  Hopefully, you know a lot of Christian people.  Jesus has put them in your life so that they will help you.  Jesus loves you so much that He has put the world before you.  Grab a hold of His hand and let Him lead you into a life of blessings.  His love has never failed in the past and it will never fail in your future.  I praise the Lord for the day all of you first came into my life and the day He first came into my life.  And thank you Jesus for first loving us.  Let’s pray.