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John 21:18-25
18 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.” 19 (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, “Follow me.”
20 Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them, the one who also had leaned back against him during the supper and had said, “Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?” 21 When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, “Lord, what about this man?” 22 Jesus said to him, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!” 23 So the saying spread abroad among the brothers1 that this disciple was not to die; yet Jesus did not say to him that he was not to die, but, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?”
24 This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things, and who has written these things, and we know that his testimony is true.
25 Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.
(ESV)
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
I invite you to open your Bibles to John, chapter 21. John 21. So after more than a year and a half in this gospel, we finally come to an end this morning. We continue Jesus's conversation with Peter, and we'll begin reading in verse 18. Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted.
Joel Brooks:But when you are old, 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 saying this, he said to him, follow me. Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them, the one who had been reclining at table close to him and had said, Lord, who is it that is going to betray you? When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, Lord, what about this man?
Joel Brooks:Jesus said to him, if it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me. So the saying spread among the brothers that this disciple was not to die. Yet Jesus did not say to him that he was not to die, but if it was if it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things and who has written these things, and we know that his testimony is true.
Joel Brooks:Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Pray with me.
Joel Brooks:Our father, we ask that you, through your spirit, would open up this word to us, open up our hearts and our minds to receive what you would have for us this morning. Lord, may lives be changed. May we hear clearly your calling for us to follow you. I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But, Lord, may your words remain, and may they change us.
Joel Brooks:We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. This past week, I've received a number of emails from certain organizations telling me how I can grow our church. I've received other emails telling me that I need to, sign up for a course in order to seize our momentum. I've received emails and Facebook advertisements telling me what I need to do to increase our giving as a church, to get a better offering.
Joel Brooks:I've received lots of emails telling me how I can make church more exciting, in particular how it can make make my preaching more exciting. Actually, it's the word dynamic. Everything always says dynamic. Become a dynamic preacher. Become a dynamic pastor.
Joel Brooks:I'm not sure which of you is putting my name on those email addresses, but but I I get the point. I get it. And of course with every person or organization telling me how I can be more successful, there's this more subtle underlying message that I'm not doing enough. Joel, you're you're not reaching your potential, you're not doing everything you're supposed to be doing. I'm not measuring up to all the others and their dynamic preaching.
Joel Brooks:I'm really not sure that a week has gone by in the last 2, 3, 4 years in which I haven't been told by somebody what I need to be doing. What I need to be doing. I read books, and and the authors are telling me all that I need to be doing. I go to conferences, and speakers get up there and tell me everything I'm supposed to be doing, or I'll hear great lectures telling me about what they are doing in their church and all of the amazing things that they're doing. And and as they're talking about how their church is just doing phenomenal, all I can think is, I I would just like running water.
Joel Brooks:Like, I mean, really, I I I want bathrooms. I I just wanna be able to, like, go through a week and and not be exhausted. Do do you feel those kind of pressures? Everybody telling you what you should be doing? Everyone explicitly telling you or maybe just implicitly telling you all that you should be doing?
Joel Brooks:You know, you get on whatever social media you like to get on, and you see what everybody else is doing or wants you to think they're doing, And you you feel this pressure this pressure, I I need to I I need to be traveling like that. Why don't my dinners look like that? I I I I need my dinners to look like that. I need to redecorate like this. I didn't even know I needed a new couch till now, but I need I need a new couch.
Joel Brooks:And you you begin feeling this pressure of everything that you should be doing, but but on top of that, you think, I gotta do it better than them. Everyone compares their lives to other people. Everybody wants to see how they how they measure up. Where do I stand with the people who are around me? Now this comparison is perfectly natural, everyone does this, but but when I say natural, I don't mean like this is a good natural, it's a sin nature natural.
Joel Brooks:It's a result of our fallen condition that we look sideways and we feel like we need to compare ourselves with one another. I heard someone preach fairly recently, and, man, this pastor, he was he was lights out phenomenal. The message was just extraordinary. It was powerful. It was insightful, yet it was relevant.
Joel Brooks:Afterwards, I I went up to him and I just I just wanted him to know, like, you you preached a a stellar message. I really appreciate that. And, he said, hey. Thank you. He was very gracious.
Joel Brooks:He goes, it's so good to hear that. I mean, this is my 4th sermon I've had to preach in 4 days, and honestly, I didn't even really have time to prepare for this. I had to just get up and just say whatever, so I'm glad somebody got something out of it. And and when he said that, I remember walking in, I just thought, wow. Wow.
Joel Brooks:I really hate that man. Like, I mean, I I I loathed him. Like, I I I can't do that. I can't just, you know, just whip up something and put it out there and it's like the best thing ever. And and and and I just I was envious.
Joel Brooks:And I hated that he could just do that, and he was he was so much more gifted and he didn't even have notes. And so then you you start having your little pity party and you're thinking, well, why can't I be like, you know, Tim Keller? You know, just read, you know, 3 or 400 books a year, retain it all, know how to dissect culture perfectly? Why why can't I be like a John Piper who can say more in 2 sentences than I can say in 2 hours? And you just feel like, I should be doing this.
Joel Brooks:I should be doing this. Do do you ever have those struggles? I I would call that it's it's the self inflicted pain of comparison. It's the pain you bring upon yourself for this, and you're not alone. Peter did the same thing.
Joel Brooks:In the text we just read, Jesus had already had a very painful conversation with with Peter, but it was going to get worse. After asking Peter three times if Peter actually loved him, he he then apparently said, Peter, let's go on a walk to get away from everybody. And when they were on their walk, Jesus told Peter some pretty bad news. Look at verse 18, it says, truly, truly. The last time Jesus said truly, truly was when he told Peter he was gonna betray him or he was gonna deny him.
Joel Brooks:Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you were old, you will stretch out your hands and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go. Now Peter can read between the lines. He knows what Jesus is saying. Jesus is saying you're going to be crucified. You're gonna be crucified.
Joel Brooks:And so Peter, upon hearing this news that he's about to suffer a horrible death in the future, he does what every one of us in this room would have done. It's a very natural question. He goes, okay, but what about Him? What about him? Apparently at this time, John had been following at a distance and and when Peter sees that John is following him and he just hears that he's going to suffer a horrible, painful, excruciating death, he just has to ask, okay, If that's gonna happen to me, what's gonna happen to him?
Joel Brooks:And Jesus responds to Peter with some some dismissive and very blunt words. He says, what is that to you? Or in other words, Peter, that's none of your business. None of your business. You follow me.
Joel Brooks:I will do with John whatever I want to do with John. What does that have to do with you? And Jesus is saying here that His calling on each individual is different, And it's not for us to go around comparing how He calls each one of us to follow Him, But it's so hard. I want you all to do a little thought experiment with me, all right? Just a little thought experiment, on a basis in Luke chapter 18, it's a famous conversation Jesus has with a very wealthy man.
Joel Brooks:This wealthy man, he comes up to Jesus and he asks this, he says, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said, you know the commandments. Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, honor your father and mother, do not bear false witness, and the man said, okay. All of these things I've kept since I was a boy. Jesus, he then said, well, there's one thing you still lack.
Joel Brooks:Sell all that you have and give it to the poor, and then you come and follow me. And then we read that the man went away very sad because he had a lot of wealth. Now this is where I want you to to do your little thought experiment. Alright? We know right after this in chapter 19, Jesus goes and He interacts with Zacchaeus.
Joel Brooks:And I want you to imagine that this this rich man decided to secretly follow Jesus as he went to the next town, and he sees Jesus go and call out Zaccheus from the tree and say, Zaccheus, you come down. I'm going to your house today. And he goes to his house and he has dinner with Zacchaeus. And I want you to imagine that this this wealthy man, he he secretly goes and he's just hiding underneath the window and he's just kind of listening in on the conversation. And he's heard about Zacchaeus.
Joel Brooks:Zacchaeus was a horrible human being, he was a swindler. Zacchaeus lied and cheated his way into wealth. And so this rich man's waiting for Jesus just to bring down the hammer. Like, he's just waiting for you know how we're giddy when we see the hammer being brought down on somebody else? This this wealthy guy, he had to just be giddy just just waiting for, here it comes.
Joel Brooks:Here it comes. Bring it, Jesus. And he doesn't hear it. He's listening in and and and Jesus doesn't doesn't say those things to Zacchaeus, you need to sell everything. Zacchaeus, he he volunteers something.
Joel Brooks:He goes, lord, if I've cheated people, I'm gonna I'm gonna sell some of my things and I'm gonna give it back to the poor if there's anybody I've cheated. But Zacchaeus still left a very wealthy man. And Jesus, in response to whatever Zacchaeus says, goes, salvation has come to this house. How do you think that rich man would have felt? How do you think?
Joel Brooks:You know exactly what he would be thinking because you would be thinking the same thing. That is so unfair. That's that's that's so unfair. How can Jesus do that? Why does he expect me to give away all of my money to make all of these sacrifices?
Joel Brooks:And Zacchaeus says, I have to do that, and I got my wealth through righteous means. He swindled himself into this wealth. Righteous means. He swindled himself into this wealth. He'd been angry.
Joel Brooks:You would have been angry. Let's then suppose that he barges in that door and he says, Jesus, Jesus, why are you doing this? And he he tells Jesus everything he's thinking. What do you think at that moment Jesus would have told him? What is that to you?
Joel Brooks:You follow me. What business is it of yours, how I treat this man and the life I call him to? You know what I've demanded of you, You follow me. Follow me with the life I've given you, not through this man's life. It's an important thing for us to learn as Christians that we have to follow Jesus with the life he has given us, not through somebody else's life.
Joel Brooks:And this is hard to do. If I were to ask one of my kids, just one of them, to clean up the dishes after dinner. You know what I immediately get? Why just me? What about my sisters?
Joel Brooks:If we decide we're gonna take one of our children on a mission trip maybe to go to Haiti, you know what we hear from the other 2? Well, why does she get to go? And why why do we have to stay here? It's the it's the first thing is we look sideways. We compare ourselves to one another, and a child just doesn't understand why we ask certain things of just one of our children or why we give certain things to just one of our children.
Joel Brooks:They can't comprehend what we have in mind and what we are trying to do as parents for them. They just think this is unfair. This is totally unfair. Don't think that you ever outgrow this. You know you don't.
Joel Brooks:You ever had these thoughts? Jesus, why did you allow my best friend to get married, yet I'm single? What why? What's the deal? I mean following you would actually be a whole lot easier if I didn't have to do it alone.
Joel Brooks:If I had somebody to bounce ideas off of and take care of me, I'd be a lot less anxious person, lord. Jesus, why did you give that person a better job than me? I mean, we had the same resume, we we had the same skills, and yet and yet they got the job. You know, I could be so much more generous if you had just given that job to me. Jesus, why was I raised in the family I was raised in?
Joel Brooks:If I'd grown up in a healthy family, a supportive and encouraging family, not one that just just shot me down all of the time, Just think of the difference it would have made in my life. Think of think of the the things I could have done and boldly done for you if I had that in my temperament. Some of you might be thinking, Lord, why why did you call me to live in this poor neighborhood? Why did you call me to live in this place that has all of this crime, the one that has the the terrible school systems, has no jobs. When when I look at my other Christian brothers and sisters and they get to live in those places and follow you, Just doesn't seem right.
Joel Brooks:And of course all third world Christians look at American Christians and ask the same thing. If this is you, hear Jesus say these words, what is it to you how I decide to use other people and what their calling looks like? Follow me with the life I have given you, not someone else's. My calling to every person looks different. So what if I've called you to a life of singleness, and I've called them to marriage?
Joel Brooks:So what if I've called them to to be wealthy, and I've called you to be poor, them to a good neighborhood, you to live in a bad neighborhood. What is that to you? Follow me. Paul, he tells the Corinthians in 1st Corinthians 12, says there are a variety of gifts, but the same spirit. There are varieties of service, but the same Lord.
Joel Brooks:There are varieties of activities, but it is the same god who empowers them all and everyone. And then it goes on to say this, all of these are empowered by the one and same spirit who apportions to each one individually as he wills. Your gifting came from Jesus, so quit comparing it to other people. Your superiority or your inferiority means nothing to God in relation to another person. The spirit, He gives and He calls each of us differently according to God's will.
Joel Brooks:Now, I have found for me personally that a good indicator of whether or not I am trying to follow the Lord in the life that he has given me versus following the Lord in the life through the life of somebody else is by whether or not I feel like I am burning out. Am I burning out? Let me explain. I've I've heard burnout defined in a number of different ways. I've I've heard that a person burns out when they're doing too much for too long.
Joel Brooks:You do too much and you do too long, you burn out, and that's an okay definition. But I've seen people being able to do a whole lot for a long time and not burnout. They might be fatigued, they might be emotionally drained, but I don't think you reach total burnout just from doing too much for too long. This is how I think burnout happens. Burnout results when one repeatedly tries to give what one does not possess, when one repeatedly tries to give what one does not possess, when you repeatedly try to follow Jesus by acting like you have someone else's gifting, someone else's resources, not your own.
Joel Brooks:When you try to follow somebody else, some follow the Lord Jesus through someone else's life and not your own. And I would even say that the flip side of this the flip side of this is bitterness and jealousy comes when you expect other people to follow Jesus through your life. You make these sacrifices? Well, they're supposed to make these sacrifices because that's how you follow Jesus, and when you see that they're not, you become bitter or you become jealous at the life that they have. Jesus bids each one of us to follow him.
Joel Brooks:It's gonna look different for each one of us. But make no mistake, it's gonna be hard for every one of us. It's gonna be hard for every one of us. It's just gonna look different. Both both our calling and the calling of others is going to be painful.
Joel Brooks:They're gonna be costly. Peter here, he's gonna die a horrible death on the cross. That's what following Jesus will look like for him. For John, it's going to mean that he is the one apostle who doesn't die a martyr's death. He's the only one.
Joel Brooks:Yet he's gonna be ex exiled to the island of Patmos, and he is going to suffer there. Both of their callings will involve suffering, for Jesus said, if any man wishes to come out come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. It's just that everybody's crosses look a little different. This morning, I want every one of you to hear Jesus say to you these two simple words, follow me. Follow me.
Joel Brooks:Did you know those were the first words Jesus said to Peter? His very first words to him were, follow me, 3 years earlier. Now his last words to Peter are, follow me. But do you think Peter heard those words the same? Even remotely the same?
Joel Brooks:Peter had no idea what following Jesus would entail when he first left his nets and to go follow him. He had no idea. But now he knows what lies ahead, and he's willing to go on this journey. Jesus tells Peter, if you're gonna follow me, this is what it's gonna look like. You're gonna be led where you don't want.
Joel Brooks:You're gonna be your hands are gonna be stretched out. He saw Mount Crucifixion there. Peter understands this. He gets it. The question is this: Why do you think Jesus told Peter this?
Joel Brooks:I mean, why why tell Peter after He restores him, hey, just so you know, you're gonna die a horrible, painful death. I mean would you like to be told how you will die? I mean really, would you like to know right now this is how you're going to die? And and when you think of all the other things Jesus could have told Peter, if you wanted to encourage him, Hey, Peter, I know you're kinda beat down, but let me tell you all of the successes that you will have. You are literally gonna preach to 1,000 and thousands upon thousands of people are gonna come to know me through your words.
Joel Brooks:I'm gonna do so many miracles through you that people are gonna line up on the streets just so your shadow falls on them. And if it falls on them, they will be healed. I've not done that with anybody. But Jesus doesn't go there. He doesn't tell him, and, yes, once again, Peter, you will be the rock on which I'm gonna build the entire church.
Joel Brooks:Count on it. That would have been an encouragement, don't you think, to hear those things? That's what the that's the millennial encouragement. Alright? You're a wonderful person, you you can conquer the world, but but Peter really was going to.
Joel Brooks:But instead, Jesus goes a a different way of encouraging Peter, you're going to die a horrible death. It's not the route I would have gone. Perhaps this was a comfort to Peter though, maybe it was, for him to know that Jesus was once again going to entrust him with the task that he had dropped earlier. He was gonna once again get the chance to confess who Jesus is. He was gonna once again get the chance to die for him.
Joel Brooks:So maybe that would have been a comfort to him. Or perhaps this, Jesus knows that for people like Peter, people like us, people who are prone to look sideways all the time and compare lives to others and see how we measure up. And for people like us, when tragedy and suffering hits us and not someone else, we assume it's because God doesn't love us. He doesn't love us as much as he loves others. He hasn't really forgiven us.
Joel Brooks:He hasn't really restored us. And this could be Jesus's way of telling Peter, hey, you're gonna suffer, but it's not because I don't love you. It's not because I am punishing you. It's not because you have failed me in the past. It's because this is how I have chosen for you to glorify me.
Joel Brooks:Take comfort in this. So regardless of why Jesus decided to tell this to Peter, Peter would have been comforted. And he'd been comforted because of the person who said it because the person who said it to him literally had been crucified, had died and had come out the other side. And he is telling Peter, yes, I'm calling you to a cross, but I will take you through it. And life is on the other end of this.
Joel Brooks:And we need to hear this as a church. No matter what suffering happens, no matter what comes our way, Jesus has gone through the ultimate suffering and has come out the other side. Life awaits us in Jesus. And when we come to that point of suffering or when we come to that point of our death, we can remember that Jesus is there actually with us, walking through that with us. Lo, I am with you always even to the end of the age.
Joel Brooks:These are both painful and comforting words to us. So no matter what lies ahead, he, Jesus's call for you, just you to follow him with the life that he has given you, not with the life he's given someone else. Pray with me. Lord, for those here who are not following you, may they hear your voice clearly calling you to yourself. And Jesus, may we stop comparing, stop trying to measure ourselves up with other people's giftings, other people's gifts, trying to figure out why one person has wealth and another doesn't, why one person is so eloquent and somebody else stumbles on their words.
Joel Brooks:For others, some things that are so easy or so hard for us, we will quit comparing and we will simply just walk in obedience to you, in whatever life you call us. And Jesus, you're with us as we do that. Thank you. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.