“He
said to him the third time, "Simon, son of Jonah, 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 all things; You know that I
love You." Jesus said to him, "Feed My sheep. Most assuredly, I say
to you, when you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you wished;
but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird
you and carry you where you do not wish." This He spoke, signifying by what death he
would glorify God. And when He had spoken this, He
said to him, "Follow Me." John
21:17-19
also John Mark - Acts 12: 25(began), 13:13
(departed) , 2 Timothy 4:11(useful again)
Messed up, sinned, letdown,
failure, abomination, denial, defeated, disappointment . . . whatever you call
it our lives are full of sin, and it causes us to do things which we know are
against the desired will of God for our lives.
When we walk down the road of sin, especially as Christians, it is easy
for Satan to convince us that we are no longer useful to the kingdom of God. However if we look at scripture we will
quickly see that is not the case.
Perhaps the most
pointed case could be that of Peter, the apostle. In the verses above we see his denial of the
Lord, and then his restoration. We all can identify with how Peter must have
felt in the weeks between his denials and when he was restored at the Sea of Galilee. Peter had spent almost 3 years following
Jesus, and often expressed his desire to follow Him, even to death. Then when the situation arose, he denied his
Lord not once, but three times. Peter
went from thinking he was the #1 follower of Jesus, to a complete failure; as
Luke tells us, weeping bitterly. The beginning of John chapter 21 tells us that
Peter returned to his homeland and “went fishing.” Once Jesus shows him that he is restored, at
Pentecost Peter preached and 3000 were added to the church. He can do the same with us, even as messed up
as we are.
For clarity, this
does not mean we are to continue in sin, but that if we fall into sin, that we
must repent, then return to the work appointed to us by God. God chooses us in our weakness to show his
power, not ours. The Old Testament shows
how he used drunks, murderers, liars, depressed, and unconfident people. He still uses the weak of the world to
condemn the strong. We are a church of
weak sinners redeemed into the unstoppable church of God. There are 15,000 unchurched people in Hart Co.,
in His strength, let’s go and reach as many of them as we can!