Mark Medley: Well, it's not an easy time to be alive.
Mark Medley: It's true, we have more technology and we have more infrastructure than any other culture that's ever gone before us.
Mark Medley: That's true.
Mark Medley: It makes it easier, makes us more comfortable than any other civilization that's been before us, and yet all those things it seems like those things are just betraying us in some way, still feel like we're living kind of at the edge emotionally and mentally.
Mark Medley: There's like a nagging at our nerves and it seems like we just eke out an existence week by week, and the political climate and the changes in ethics in our day and international events that we are unable to control just press on us daily and it makes it really hard to navigate our lives and we feel betrayed sometimes by the powers that govern us.
Mark Medley: We feel like they don't have our best interests at heart.
Mark Medley: We feel like we're living in some kind of point in history where things are changing and we sense that changes are coming soon that will likely alter the way we know life, and pressures of belief systems that are contrary to our own are pushing us toward the very real experience of being persecuted for our beliefs, and the very truths that we live our lives by are an affront to our culture.
Mark Medley: I mean here it is Year of our Lord 64.
Mark Medley: And Rome is tightening its grip on us and our beloved Palestine, and they're trying to gain some kind of control.
Mark Medley: They feel they've lost and they're waging war to try to keep the peace.
Mark Medley: And it's not clear to us at all what the future looks like and how are we supposed to stand for what we know is true in the face of all this opposition.
Mark Medley: And we have Jesus' disciples with us, it's true, but oh, how we wish Jesus was still with us.
Mark Medley: Well, maybe this is exactly how life felt for Peter and for the Christ followers that he wrote this letter to that we're getting ready to start studying.
Mark Medley: For the next few weeks we're starting a sermon series called Grace Under Fire.
Mark Medley: It's a study of the first letter of the apostle Peter to the ones who are following Christ along with him in the first century.
Mark Medley: And you know, I think we have a lot in common with them.
Mark Medley: I think the same things that we say about our day can be said about their day, maybe even more so in their day, I don't know.
Mark Medley: Peter's letter shows us how to remain righteous, remain faithful and remain purposeful in the midst of suffering, and suffering comes in many different forms.
Mark Medley: But Peter tells us in this letter how to have the kind of true perseverance that God expects from his people.
Mark Medley: And we normally walk through these scriptures when we do a book study, expositionally, expositorily, so we go verse by verse and we see what's there.
Mark Medley: And that's what's going to happen in the next few weeks.
Mark Medley: But my job today is a little different.
Mark Medley: My job today is to introduce you to the man Simon Peter, and a little bit of background to his letter.
Mark Medley: And I want to do this by reading to you the very first words that he wrote to the churches, and I want to read to you the very last words that he wrote to the churches that we have recorded in scripture.
Mark Medley: So in 1 Peter 1, verse 2, his very first words that he wrote, after a brief introduction, he writes these words grace and peace be multiplied to you.
Mark Medley: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord, jesus Christ.
Mark Medley: According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading, kept for you in heaven, who, by God's power, are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
Mark Medley: And then, if you just flip a few pages over, in the second letter, he wrote the last verse, chapter 3, verse 18, he ends with these words but grow in the grace.
Mark Medley: Under the pressure of their day, they were suffering persecution for their faith.
Mark Medley: Peter lays before them a promise.
Mark Medley: He lays before us a promise of God's grace, of God's peace, of a new birth, of a living hope and of an unfading inheritance, and of God's power to guard us and keep us.
Mark Medley: It's good news, isn't it?
Mark Medley: And then, at the end of his life, the very last thing on his mind, to speak to the churches After this life.
Mark Medley: It was packed with wisdom and experience.
Mark Medley: These words come out of this life from a man who had triumphed bravely and failed spectacularly.
Mark Medley: Here's what he has to tell us Grow in grace.
Mark Medley: He begins with grace and he ends with grace, which may be a little bit surprising when we see the kind of man that Peter was, because he was not the most gracious of people, kind of contrary.
Mark Medley: So who was Simon Peter?
Mark Medley: Well, simon Peter comes from Capernaum, which is not near Jerusalem.
Mark Medley: It's up in Galilee of the nations.
Mark Medley: Up away, he was kind of an outsider in many ways to what was going on in Jerusalem, so he probably spoke Greek as well as Aramaic.
Mark Medley: He was given a very common name for that day Simon Simon.
Mark Medley: There were two of the 12 disciples of Jesus named Simon, and I found nine Simons in the scripture.
Mark Medley: It was a big name because he was probably named after somebody that was a hero of the Jews of his day, which gives us an idea of the kind of political climate he lived in.
Mark Medley: Simon Maccabees was one of the Maccabees clan and he was an important player in the Maccabean revolt, which was a Jewish revolt against Roman government.
Mark Medley: That happened about 200 years ago, 200 years before this letter was written, and in Simon's day for those Jews, in Simon Peter's day, this was probably the closest living memory to anything like political independence for Israel, and Simon and his friends were all hoping for that kind of independence.
Mark Medley: They represented a renewed hope for what the scripture said and what they knew Surely the day would come when God would set up a Davidic king on the throne and overthrow the power of Rome, and this was what they were hoping for.
Mark Medley: But you know, simon would find out quickly when he was following Jesus, the true Messiah, that this kingdom is going to be very different than he thought it was going to be.
Mark Medley: And we're going to see that shift in his thinking as we go through this first letter of Peter to the Christians of his day.
Mark Medley: First letter of Peter to the Christians of his day.
Mark Medley: But actually, in reality, simon's vision of political revolution was interrupted every day by his very real life problems just trying to make a living, just working with his hands to feed his family.
Mark Medley: He had lived his entire life paying taxes to a foreign nation that was oppressing his people.
Mark Medley: And Capernaum was on the Sea of Galilee, which is a small sea, really just a lake, and that lake is fed by a river called the River Jordan.
Mark Medley: And at the River Jordan there was a man named John, and John was baptizing people and he was a fiery prophet that reminded people that the Bible said someone would come in the spirit of Elijah and would make a way for the Messiah.
Mark Medley: So this caused a stir and people were gathering, flocking to John's teaching and the baptizing he was doing in the wilderness.
Mark Medley: But John declared that Jesus, this man from a little town near nowhere called Nazareth, would be the Messiah.
Mark Medley: And so from that point Simon had to look at Jesus of Nazareth in a different way.
Mark Medley: But what was Simon like?
Mark Medley: What was he really?
Mark Medley: If you read the New Testament, you will get a definitely.
Mark Medley: You will form an opinion of the man.
Mark Medley: Okay, if you read his story, because he's not the kind of guy you can be neutral on.
Mark Medley: He is one way.
Mark Medley: You love him or you wonder why he's even doing what he's doing One or the other.
Mark Medley: You wonder why he's even doing what he's doing One or the other.
Mark Medley: Some call him the greatest disciple and he is mentioned more in the New Testament than all of the other disciples combined.
Mark Medley: Throughout history.
Mark Medley: Many thought of him as the first pope.
Mark Medley: The religious scholars of his day called him ignorant and unschooled because he didn't know anything about the weightier matters of the law.
Mark Medley: He's just a fisherman and he had a fishing business with his brother Andrew on that lake of Galilee and he probably, for all you fishers out there, he probably caught this little type of fish that's native there called tilapia.
Mark Medley: It's like a tilapia, it's not like the tilapia you get from China, I'm just telling you.
Mark Medley: Actually, they began to call it St Peter's fish.
Mark Medley: That's what they call it now, st Peter's fish.
Mark Medley: So St Peter was fishing for St Peter's fish, and we know besides that he was married.
Mark Medley: We know that and we know that his wife according to Clement of Alexandria, who was an early church father Peter's wife was a partner and minister with him and she ministered with him and she ministered with him and she also was martyred with him.
Mark Medley: So they lived together and they died together.
Mark Medley: But Peter himself was larger than life.
Mark Medley: He was big in every way.
Mark Medley: He was the center of every scene.
Mark Medley: His name is the first in every list of the disciples, peter.
Mark Medley: He made really quick decisions, even if they were wrong ones.
Mark Medley: He engaged his mouth before he engaged his brain.
Mark Medley: You know anybody like that.
Mark Medley: Jay stewart holden said he was not the kind of flower that is born to blush unseen.
Mark Medley: Quick, impulsive, impetuous.
Mark Medley: He was a man who must express his feelings.
Mark Medley: He was quick on the trigger, a man who does things first and then thinks them over, sometimes, sadly, later on.
Mark Medley: Such a man will make mistakes, but he'll make other things too that are not mistakes.
Mark Medley: You know anybody like that.
Mark Medley: He never did anything halfway.
Mark Medley: So he had huge successes and he had huge failures, and he always thought he was right.
Mark Medley: In fact, he always thought he was right.
Mark Medley: Do you know anybody like that?
Mark Medley: I feel like there's some elbows going on in here and I'm not sure I feel this kind of attitude in the room here.
Mark Medley: He actually rebuked Jesus.
Mark Medley: You know that.
Mark Medley: He rebuked Jesus as if Jesus was wrong about his death.
Mark Medley: Jesus is talking about his death.
Mark Medley: And Peter said no, no, no, lord, you will never do that.
Mark Medley: And then Jesus was going to wash his feet and he said you'll never wash my feet, which is just like so audacious to look in the face of the man who raises the dead and performs miracles and say let me tell you what you're not going to do.
Mark Medley: It's like what are you even talking about?
Mark Medley: Who does this?
Mark Medley: Right?
Mark Medley: But Jesus said no, if I don't wash your feet, you don't have anything to do with me.
Mark Medley: He said okay, all right, let's do it Cold plunge all the way, give me the whole treatment, because he was one way or the other that he couldn't be in the middle, right, 100%, some direction all the time.
Mark Medley: Know anybody like that?
Mark Medley: But Peter gives us hope when we think that we're not worthy to be accepted or to be used by God, because no matter how bad you are, peter was probably worse, he was the only person in Scripture who was rebuked by every member of the Trinity.
Mark Medley: So if you haven't been rebuked by the Father, son and Spirit, you're doing better than him, okay.
Mark Medley: The Father rebuked him on the Mount of Transfiguration.
Mark Medley: The Son rebuked him when he said you'll never die.
Mark Medley: And Jesus said get behind me, satan, because you savor the things of man, not the savor.
Mark Medley: You don't savor the things of God.
Mark Medley: So when Jesus calls you the devil, that's a bad day.
Mark Medley: Yeah, he got up, he went and cut off some guy's ear and Jesus had to rebuke him for that too.
Mark Medley: It was like, from the beginning to the end, he was just doing things that had to be corrected, you know.
Mark Medley: And then the Holy Spirit corrected him, because he had a vision once and this sheet was let down from heaven with all of this food that was unclean, and this voice said rise and kill and eat.
Mark Medley: And Peter said there's no way.
Mark Medley: Ok, I don't know what I would do.
Mark Medley: I'm not sure what I would do if I had that kind of vision and a voice from heaven, from the vision, says to do something.
Mark Medley: I'm not sure.
Mark Medley: I don't think I would say Let me tell you what I'm not going to do.
Mark Medley: I don't think I would say that no, do you?
Mark Medley: Got to rise and kill and eat.
Mark Medley: And then it says the spirit told me to go with them to Cornelius and don't make any distinction between Jews and Gentiles.
Mark Medley: So the spirit rebuked him.
Mark Medley: Okay, so man, he's a man of contradictions.
Mark Medley: He has super high highs and super low lows.
Mark Medley: He had great insight.
Mark Medley: You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God, you have the words of life.
Mark Medley: And then he didn't even understand some of the parables that Jesus told.
Mark Medley: And Jesus had to say do you still not understand?
Mark Medley: It's like what is up with this guy.
Mark Medley: He had great faith to step out of the boat onto the water and then he has this doubt In the middle of his walk of faith.
Mark Medley: He has a doubt.
Mark Medley: Do you know anybody like that man?
Mark Medley: I get it.
Mark Medley: And it's interesting to me that later in his life, peter was so honest about all of this instability that he had.
Mark Medley: Because we know that a lot of these things we know about him because of the gospel of Mark, and we know that the gospel of Mark was written because Mark got his information from Peter, so it's really eyewitness accounts of Peter.
Mark Medley: So Peter is telling Mark all of these failures and all of his frailties and he's an open book.
Mark Medley: He's okay with it.
Mark Medley: At least at the end of his life he was okay with it.
Mark Medley: But here's the thing, guys.
Mark Medley: Here's the thing If you're going to follow Jesus, you got to go to school.
Mark Medley: You got to go to Jesus school.
Mark Medley: All followers of Jesus have the privilege of going through a training program designed especially for them.
Mark Medley: The purpose is to separate what is worthless from what is precious.
Mark Medley: The purpose is to separate what is worthless from what is precious and to form in them the kind of hearts that look and act like their Lord and to get them ready for their ministry.
Mark Medley: And Peter had a specific personalized curriculum in the school of Jesus.
Mark Medley: And you do too, and I do too.
Mark Medley: So what did Peter learn from Jesus' school?
Mark Medley: And it's impossible to go through everything he learned.
Mark Medley: It would be a really long sermon or a long sermon series really to do that.
Mark Medley: But I've pulled a few things out, things that Peter learned from Jesus' school.
Mark Medley: One thing he learned is that once you meet Jesus, you will never be the same.
Mark Medley: Never be the same.
Mark Medley: Strong people have to learn that they're not strong enough, that they are dependent on other people, and God has to change us from one thing into another, and often in Scripture that transformation is signified by a name change.
Mark Medley: And we see it all through Scripture, really.
Mark Medley: We see Abram to Abraham, we see Jacob to Israel, we see Saul to Paul and in this case we see Simon.
Mark Medley: And Jesus says I'm changing your name and you're going to be called Peter, which means a rock.
Mark Medley: Simon means one who listens and live up to your name, please.
Mark Medley: Peter means rock, and so this change of name is a change in destiny, and Jesus is helping Peter to see the kind of person he can become if he follows Jesus.
Mark Medley: There's a hope.
Mark Medley: There's hope for all of us guys.
Mark Medley: Now, maybe you didn't have a literal name change in your life, but maybe your life has changed so much that the people around you don't even recognize you anymore.
Mark Medley: That's the way it is with me.
Mark Medley: Amen.
Mark Medley: It's the way it is with me.
Mark Medley: I have trouble getting people to believe my testimony because I was such a mess before I was born again and Jesus changed everything.
Mark Medley: That's the way he does it.
Mark Medley: Another thing he learned in Jesus' school is you use what you're given, use what you've been given.
Mark Medley: It's a curious thing to me in Scripture that many times when God uh is preparing you to do something in the spirit, it's the same kind of thing that he prepared for you to do in the natural.
Mark Medley: You know what you're doing in the natural is.
Mark Medley: You're learning things about what you are going to be doing in the spirit, and it happened with Moses.
Mark Medley: Moses was a shepherd for 40 years before he shepherded God's people.
Mark Medley: It was sheep first and then it was people, and I don't know which one's easier.
Mark Medley: I'd like to ask him that I think I do know which one's easier.
Mark Medley: Actually, john, when he was called, do you know what John was doing when he was called?
Mark Medley: He was mending, not the baptizer, john the apostle, john the disciple, he was mending nets.
Mark Medley: Mending nets, he was taking something broken and he was fixing it.
Mark Medley: Okay, so this was something that was dysfunctional, that he was pulling back into functionality, and he did that with his gospel.
Mark Medley: The first few verses of his gospel are literally a correction of the theology of his day, because there were some things, there were errors that were happening.
Mark Medley: He was pulling it right back, and you see it also in his letters.
Mark Medley: You see him pulling us back to the things that are right.
Mark Medley: He's mending nets right, the things that are right.
Mark Medley: He's mending nets right.
Mark Medley: Well, peter, when he was called, he was casting a net, he was fishing.
Mark Medley: He's literally throwing a net out there.
Mark Medley: And so that's what he did, not only in the natural, it's what he did in the spiritual Acts, chapter two, when the Holy Spirit fell and everything was changing.
Mark Medley: What did he do?
Mark Medley: He cast a net.
Mark Medley: He got 3,000 fish, at least that day, and what he did was he took something Jesus gave him, because Jesus gave him the keys to the kingdom.
Mark Medley: And he took those keys and he stood before the Jews and he opened the door to the kingdom to those Jews and he brought them in with the message of the gospel.
Mark Medley: And then, later on, in Acts 10, when that vision came and the Holy Spirit rebuked him and he went with Cornelius and he began to realize, hey, this is different, god cares about the nations.
Mark Medley: And he goes to Cornelius and he began to realize, hey, this is different, this is, god cares about the nations.
Mark Medley: And he goes to Cornelius's house and what does he do?
Mark Medley: He casts a net and he takes those keys that Jesus gave him and he opens the door to the kingdom for the Gentiles.
Mark Medley: This is what he did, he and John.
Mark Medley: Chapter three of Acts.
Mark Medley: They're healing a crippled man and what happens?
Mark Medley: He throws a net, preaches a sermon, throws a net.
Mark Medley: He goes fishing.
Mark Medley: Serve God in your own way.
Mark Medley: Use what you've been given.
Mark Medley: That's the way you're going to be most impactful.
Mark Medley: That's what he learned.
Mark Medley: But he learned some things too after Jesus resurrected and ascended into heaven.
Mark Medley: But he learned some things too, after Jesus resurrected and ascended into heaven, and one of the things he learned was we need the power of the Holy Spirit.
Mark Medley: After being filled with the Spirit, peter became the rock that Jesus spoke about, the rock of stability.
Mark Medley: This unstable man became a pillar of stability in the early church when the Holy Spirit came upon him.
Mark Medley: Okay, and how are we going to get into what God has called us to do without being filled with the Spirit?
Mark Medley: Guys, it's so important.
Mark Medley: I know the Holy Spirit's inside of us.
Mark Medley: He lives here, but we need to be praying to be filled with him consistently, because the scripture says to be filled with the Spirit literally means to be being filled with the Spirit.
Mark Medley: Continually filled with the Spirit.
Mark Medley: I need him every day.
Mark Medley: I need the Holy Spirit to help me actually walk out Christianity, actually follow Jesus and to step into my destiny.
Mark Medley: We need to cry out for that, trust God, for that.
Mark Medley: Be filled with the Spirit.
Mark Medley: But also he learned that we need to be filled with the Scriptures.
Mark Medley: In Acts, chapter 2, peter is powerfully preaching at Pentecost and he's proclaiming the words of Jonah, or of Joel rather of Joel, not Jonah, but Joel and also the Psalms, all of these Psalms that are coming together in his mind.
Mark Medley: He's beginning to realize, wow, all of this stuff about Jesus was already foretold.
Mark Medley: And he's beginning to say these scriptures out loud to the people.
Mark Medley: Well, how could he say it?
Mark Medley: Because these scriptures out loud to the people?
Mark Medley: Well, how could he say it?
Mark Medley: Because they're in there.
Mark Medley: That's how he could say it.
Mark Medley: They're in his heart.
Mark Medley: Already this fisherman had the word of God in his heart.
Mark Medley: We need to be filled with the scriptures.
Mark Medley: He also learned that we need our brothers and sisters.
Mark Medley: Acts, chapter 1 and 2, and 3 and 4 and basically the rest of it.
Mark Medley: He was in Acts, chapter 1, he was together, all together, with the believers in one accord right, and the Holy Spirit fell upon them and they were all together the day of Pentecost and Peter stepped forward.
Mark Medley: He was with them and he stepped forward from them and he began to preach.
Mark Medley: But he was with them and he was with John in the temple when they performed the miracle.
Mark Medley: And we see that the group, the community, was together in Acts, chapter 2, and Acts, chapter 4.
Mark Medley: They had all things in common.
Mark Medley: They were continuing in fellowship and breaking in bread and prayer, the apostles teaching.
Mark Medley: They were together.
Mark Medley: So he understood we need each other.
Mark Medley: Can't do it on your own.
Mark Medley: He understood that there's joy in being persecuted for righteousness sake.
Mark Medley: Chapters 4 and 5 of Acts they were persecuted when they spoke about Jesus but they continued speaking in Jesus' name because they said we have to obey God instead of man.
Mark Medley: So they rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for the name.
Mark Medley: It's beautiful.
Mark Medley: There's joy even in suffering.
Mark Medley: And that which he learned is that which he spoke through that first letter of 1 Peter to those early church believers.
Mark Medley: He also understood the importance of the fear of the Lord.
Mark Medley: Fear of the Lord is a healthy fear.
Mark Medley: It's a wholesome dread of displeasing God and it's a wholesome understanding of his holiness and that he is sovereign Lord and we know that he's Father and we know that he's father.
Mark Medley: We know that he loves us, we know he wants to be intimate in relationship with us, but we also have to understand that he's holy and that we have to live holy and if we don't do it, things are going to fall.
Mark Medley: He learned that message because of Ananias and Sapphira and they came in and they were saying things that weren't true.
Mark Medley: They lying to the, the church, to the apostles, to the holy spirit, and the end of that was they were killed and peter had a message.
Mark Medley: Peter had a prophetic word about it and it said after that that fear, great fear, came upon the region and the believers there.
Mark Medley: And the fear of the Lord is clean and the fear of the Lord keeps us focused on what's right.
Mark Medley: The fear of the Lord is to hate what is wrong and to love what is right, and fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
Mark Medley: This is where wisdom and purity come into your life by having a fear of the Lord.
Mark Medley: It's a beautiful thing.
Mark Medley: He also learned that self-control is a part of wisdom In Acts, chapter 15, this story where the Jerusalem council were meeting because, you know, the gospel was going forward, the Gentiles were receiving it and God was doing the same thing with the Gentiles that he was doing with the Jews, and they had no grid for that.
Mark Medley: They had no understanding how this could even happen.
Mark Medley: And so they're gathering together and saying what should we even do?
Mark Medley: I mean, do they need to keep the law?
Mark Medley: These Gentiles?
Mark Medley: They don't even know what the law is.
Mark Medley: What should happen?
Mark Medley: And you know what the old Simon would have done.
Mark Medley: He would have known what to say.
Mark Medley: He would have stepped up, whether it was right or not.
Mark Medley: He would have opened his mouth, he would have said something rash and he would have I don't know, maybe caused confusion, I don't know.
Mark Medley: But you know what Peter did.
Mark Medley: He stepped back and he let all the other guys talk A lot of heavy hitters there, right, and they're all talking.
Mark Medley: He let them all talk, let them give their wisdom.
Mark Medley: And then he gave his wisdom, and it was wise, it was actual, it was actually right, it was actually correct, it was actually correct.
Mark Medley: So only after others had spoken did he step up and give his own wisdom.
Mark Medley: So he learned self-control is a part of wisdom.
Mark Medley: And he learned to overcome his prejudices and walk in the gospel consistently.
Mark Medley: Remember, he had this message that he took from that vision that was let down from heaven.
Mark Medley: He took this message to the Gentiles.
Mark Medley: He knew it was for the Gentiles In Acts, chapter 15, he was talking about that very thing.
Mark Medley: But then later the apostle Paul had to rebuke him because he had stepped back from that truth.
Mark Medley: He had actually stopped eating with Gentiles when Jewish people were around and Peter had to say.
Mark Medley: Paul had to say Peter, no, you're not doing well, you're not walking consistently in the gospel.
Mark Medley: So Peter had to learn to grow in grace.
Mark Medley: This is the big thing he learned.
Mark Medley: We never stop growing in grace.
Mark Medley: Right, his life is up and down, but there's a constant in all of our lives we're all up and down, but there's a constant.
Mark Medley: It's the grace of God, it's the gospel of Jesus.
Mark Medley: That's the constant.
Mark Medley: But he had to learn that, sometimes the hard way.
Mark Medley: Do you know anybody like that that forgets what you've learned?
Mark Medley: But I want to close with maybe the greatest lesson that I see that he learned, and it had to do with his failure actually.
Mark Medley: And it had to do with his failure actually.
Mark Medley: There were many kindnesses that Jesus showed toward Peter in his life.
Mark Medley: The name change was a kindness.
Mark Medley: Once he said Satan desires to sift you like wheat, but I've prayed for you and when you're converted, strengthen your brothers.
Mark Medley: Okay, you're not going to fall or you're not going to fall completely.
Mark Medley: I've prayed for you and you're even going to out of that, you're going to strengthen people.
Mark Medley: This was something that was a kindness of Jesus and it actually was a kindness that a special message was given to Peter.
Mark Medley: Actually, it was a kindness that a special message was given to Peter even at the resurrection, when the angel said go tell the disciples, and Peter and Peter, oh, tell Peter, especially tell Peter.
Mark Medley: This is kindness, because all the while, jesus the good shepherd was shepherding his little sheep, but what was happening is he was getting ready to graduate from Jesus' school.
Mark Medley: Another shepherd to shepherd his sheep, and so, in John, chapter 21,.
Mark Medley: You know the story, shepherd his sheep.
Mark Medley: And so in John chapter 21,.
Mark Medley: You know the story, what he learned was failure does not disqualify you from service to God.
Mark Medley: That's good news, for we're restored by the kindness of Jesus.
Mark Medley: We're restored by the kindness of Jesus.
Mark Medley: So here he is.
Mark Medley: Peter had overestimated himself.
Mark Medley: He said I'll never forsake you, lord.
Mark Medley: These other guys, I don't know about them.
Mark Medley: They're a little wimpy.
Mark Medley: I have my doubts about them, but I know me.
Mark Medley: I will never deny you.
Mark Medley: I will never deny you, lord.
Mark Medley: I will never.
Mark Medley: You can count on me.
Mark Medley: He overestimated himself.
Mark Medley: He thought he was more committed than he was.
Mark Medley: He thought he loved Jesus committed than he was.
Mark Medley: He thought he loved Jesus more than he did.
Mark Medley: He thought he loved Jesus more than the other people.
Mark Medley: He thought he could go through any temptation and come out victorious.
Mark Medley: But he was wrong.
Mark Medley: On all of those counts he was wrong.
Mark Medley: And now Peter's unsure.
Mark Medley: All of his failures are right in front of him.
Mark Medley: He's not filled with the power of the Holy Spirit yet, john 21,.
Mark Medley: He denied his Lord.
Mark Medley: And what does he do now?
Mark Medley: What do you do now when everything you built your life on is gone?
Mark Medley: What do you do?
Mark Medley: How do you go forward?
Mark Medley: I mean, what do you?
Mark Medley: Even?
Mark Medley: Everything has to change now, right.
Mark Medley: I mean, do you abandon ministry?
Mark Medley: Do you abandon your dreams?
Mark Medley: And he's shocked at his own response.
Mark Medley: He betrayed himself, he denied Jesus.
Mark Medley: He betrayed himself.
Mark Medley: He's a broken man, no confidence.
Mark Medley: And Jesus tells them to go to Galilee and wait.
Mark Medley: And they go there.
Mark Medley: But they don't wait.
Mark Medley: He goes fishing.
Mark Medley: Peter turns back to what Simon knew.
Mark Medley: Simon knew fishing.
Mark Medley: He went back to just the only thing that he felt comfortable with.
Mark Medley: He took all the others with him.
Mark Medley: They were out there fishing and it was this is so classic.
Mark Medley: They're out there fishing, they fished all night and they caught nothing which felt very familiar to him.
Mark Medley: This has happened before.
Mark Medley: And somebody's on the shore and it says if you caught anything, no, throw it on the right side.
Mark Medley: Okay, this sounds really familiar to me.
Mark Medley: And then they get a catch that they can't even haul in.
Mark Medley: This sounds, this is, this is not.
Mark Medley: I mean, it doesn't take them very long.
Mark Medley: Right, it takes them, maybe longer than it should have.
Mark Medley: But that must be Jesus over there and Peter what.
Mark Medley: He jumps in the water.
Mark Medley: He can't wait till the boat to get back.
Mark Medley: He jumps in the water and he goes and he swims to the shore and Jesus had made fish and made bread on a fire and he had a meal for him.
Mark Medley: Jesus recreated the same miracle that happened when he called Simon and now he's calling Peter back into his destiny.
Mark Medley: But Peter can't see it.
Mark Medley: He's sitting by the fire, he's warming himself because he's wet from the water and he remembers another fire that he sat by not too long ago warming himself.
Mark Medley: Not too long ago, warming himself the night Jesus was betrayed, the night he denied Jesus once and twice and a third time by lying and cursing.
Mark Medley: And surely the smoke from that fire was stinging his nostrils, just like the memory of his denial was stinging his soul.
Mark Medley: And he's sitting there by Jesus and thinking oh, here it comes, here it comes.
Mark Medley: And of all the things Jesus could say, he could have said a lot.
Mark Medley: Where's your great allegiance now, peter?
Mark Medley: Peter, I had such great hope for you.
Mark Medley: I thought you could be a leader in my movement.
Mark Medley: I poured so much into you.
Mark Medley: I feel like I just can't trust you now, going to have to put you on a program of rehabilitation before I can trust you.
Mark Medley: He didn't say any of those things.
Mark Medley: You know what he said.
Mark Medley: He said the most important thing Do you love me?
Mark Medley: Do you love me?
Mark Medley: He said Simon, simon, he used his old name, simon.
Mark Medley: Do you agapeo me, agape, agapeo?
Mark Medley: Do you love me with a high level of love?
Mark Medley: Do you love me with the most committed covenant kind of love, high level of love?
Mark Medley: You love me with the most committed covenant kind of love.
Mark Medley: And Peter said Lord, I phileo you.
Mark Medley: Phileo means brotherly love.
Mark Medley: It means you're my friend, you're my good friend.
Mark Medley: You're my good friend.
Mark Medley: Are you devoted to me, simon?
Mark Medley: Lord, you know you're my friend, simon.
Mark Medley: Are you devoted to me?
Mark Medley: Lord, you know I'm your friend.
Mark Medley: He wasn't even sure where his love was.
Mark Medley: He'd made that big boast before and he knew that didn't work out.
Mark Medley: He didn't know his own heart.
Mark Medley: Now, lord, you know I love you on this level.
Mark Medley: And the third time Jesus said Simon, do you phileo me?
Mark Medley: And it says Peter was grieved that he asked a third time.
Mark Medley: Maybe he was grieved because he used a different word.
Mark Medley: He used Peter's word.
Mark Medley: Peter, are you my friend?
Mark Medley: But I don't think it was a rebuke.
Mark Medley: I think Jesus was just coming down to his level of love, and that's beautiful because he will come down and meet you at your level of love.
Mark Medley: But then you know what he'll do.
Mark Medley: He'll say if you love me, feed my sheep.
Mark Medley: No more fishing buddy.
Mark Medley: That's in the past.
Mark Medley: I got something higher for you.
Mark Medley: He's raising the past.
Mark Medley: I got something higher for you.
Mark Medley: He's raising the bar.
Mark Medley: He's establishing him in his love.
Mark Medley: And then he's raising the bar and he's saying I have a destiny for you to walk in.
Mark Medley: Feed my sheep.
Mark Medley: And Peter did feed his sheep.
Mark Medley: And Peter fed his sheep, partly by writing the book, the little letter to the churches that we're going to be studying in the next few weeks.
Mark Medley: He wrote them to these churches that were spread out all over Asia Minor and they were suffering persecution because of their faith.
Mark Medley: And he said to these churches you can lift your vision higher, you can see a bigger picture for your suffering.
Mark Medley: You can remember the suffering of Jesus and he will not only strengthen you, he will use you to change your world.
Mark Medley: Peter was strengthening his brothers Three times.
Mark Medley: Peter denied Jesus, three times Jesus Beautiful.
Mark Medley: Shortly after, peter wrote his second letter when he was in Rome.
Mark Medley: He was put to death because of his faith and what we're told is at the time he was martyred.
Mark Medley: He told his executioners my Lord was crucified with his head up.
Mark Medley: I want you to crucify me with my head down.
Mark Medley: I'm not worthy to die the way my Lord died.
Mark Medley: I'll die for my Lord and I'll die the same kind of death, being crucified, but I want to die letting the whole world know that he's so much more worthy than me.
Mark Medley: What kind of motivation, what would motivate you to love to that end?
Mark Medley: Love all the way to give your life.
Mark Medley: What motivates that commitment?
Mark Medley: Well, it's love.
Mark Medley: That's Jesus' question to them Do you love me?
Mark Medley: Do you love me?
Mark Medley: We love him because he first loved us.
Mark Medley: And what we love we will sacrifice for.
Mark Medley: We do it all the time.
Mark Medley: You sacrifice for what you love.
Mark Medley: If you show me your calendar and show me your bank statement, I can tell you what you love because you sacrifice for it.
Mark Medley: And this is the same calling that Jesus called Peter to.
Mark Medley: That he's calling us to today.
Mark Medley: Do you love me?
Mark Medley: That's the question.
Mark Medley: Do you love me?
Mark Medley: That's the question Do you love me?
Mark Medley: And I think there are some people here today who feel like they can't be used again because they failed, and it's a lie.
Mark Medley: I mean like you have to be perfect for Jesus to use you.
Mark Medley: I mean.
Mark Medley: So then, who's he got to use?
Mark Medley: Who's he's got to work with?
Mark Medley: All he's got is frail, fallen people, right?
Mark Medley: That's all he's got.
Mark Medley: That's what he does wonders with.
Mark Medley: I think Jesus wants to give courage today.
Mark Medley: I think he wants you to hear his voice asking do you love me?
Mark Medley: And saying I'm calling you into that call that's never left your life.
Mark Medley: It's never left your life.
Mark Medley: It's something I planned before the foundation of the world.
Mark Medley: There's a call in your life, and it doesn't matter what you've done.
Mark Medley: I know what you've done.
Mark Medley: Do you love me?
Mark Medley: Let's go forward, won't you stand with me?
Mark Medley: Let me pray for you.
Mark Medley: What kind of love is this, lord?
Mark Medley: Lord, that smoke from those fires of our own failures is just stinging our own soul, lord, so many times.
Mark Medley: And we have an accuser.
Mark Medley: Lord, you know Jesus, you know you were tempted in every way, like we are yet without sin, and you're able to comfort us because of that.
Mark Medley: You understand the accuser.
Mark Medley: And we have this accuser who speaks to us and says we're not worthy, and shows us what we've done and lies to us that there's no future.
Mark Medley: What kind of love is it, lord, that you will restore completely to relationship with you and that you will fill us with power and you will send us out in this calling that you have on our lives?
Mark Medley: Lord, I pray for each of us.
Mark Medley: We're all different places.
Mark Medley: Lord, and especially Lord, I pray for those of us who are hearing the voice of the enemy saying it's over for you.
Mark Medley: It's over for you.
Mark Medley: You had a good run, did some good things, but it's over.
Mark Medley: You've gone too far and, lord, I'm asking that you would speak louder than those lies, asking that you would speak louder than those lies.
Mark Medley: The truth of your word and the call of your spirit would draw people, lord, into that place of calling and destiny in you, and I pray your blessing over them, the blessing of Peter's last words, lord, that they would grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord.
Mark Medley: Jesus Christ, if we just take a minute and just talk to the Lord, there, where you are, and just whatever it is that he's putting his finger on, whatever he's shown you today, just respond to him right there.
Mark Medley: Thank you, lord, thank you, lord.
Mark Medley: Lord, I ask you to pour your effective grace into the hearts of all of us today.
Mark Medley: Give us a vision of what we can be as we follow you.
Mark Medley: Fill us with your power, god, Fill us with your scriptures, god, god, teach us to fear you, lord, and help us to understand that we always grow in your grace.
Mark Medley: And can we honor you with the rest of our lives, lord?
Mark Medley: This is our prayer.
Mark Medley: Could we honor you with the rest of our lives, whatever door?
Mark Medley: This is our prayer.
Mark Medley: Could we honor you with the rest of our lives, whatever door you open, lord, thank you for that, father.
Mark Medley: In the name of Jesus, we pray Amen.