Our Lord Has Blessed Us To Follow Him Even though We Have So Many Shortcomings (John 21:15-19)
(John 21:15-19)
“So
when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon, son
of Jonah, do you love Me more than these?’ He said to Him, ‘Yes, Lord;
You know that I love You.’ He said to him, ‘Feed My lambs.’ He said to
him again a second time, ‘Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?’ He said
to Him, ‘Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.’ He said to him, ‘Tend My
sheep.’ 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.’”
A Self-evident Truth
We
have just read John 21:15-19 for today’s Scripture reading. Here in
this passage Jesus asked Peter three times, “Do you love Me?” and Peter
answered and said, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” Every time
Peter answered, the Lord told him, “Feed My lambs,” “Tend My sheep,” and
“Feed My sheep.” The Lord then said to Peter, “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 took place after the Lord was crucified
and rose from the dead.
At
that time, some people had seen the resurrected Jesus with their own
eyes, while others had only heard of it. At any rate, Peter, James, and a
number of other disciples had gone to the Sea of Tiberias to fish. It
appears that they were extremely disappointed in themselves over how
they had behaved when Jesus was crucified to death. Even though the Lord
had risen from the dead for them, they nevertheless had returned to
their past. So they worked hard all night long trying to catch fish, but
they caught nothing. Jesus, standing on the shore, asked them if they
caught any fish, and when they said no, He told them, “Cast the net on
the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” When they did as
instructed, the net was full of fish.
One
of the disciples of Jesus then said, “It is the Lord!” Hearing this,
Peter put on his outer garment that he had taken off, jumped into the
sea, and swam to the shore where the Lord was standing. When the
disciples got to the shore, they saw the Lord waiting for them, having
prepared a fire of coals, fish, and bread. But none of them asked,
“Lord, have You risen from the dead?” The resurrection was all too real.
The resurrected Lord had appeared on the shores of the Sea of Tiberias
and told them to cast the next to the other side of the boat. Even
though the disciples were all now sitting on the shore, none of them
could ask, “Lord, have You been brought back to life?” Why couldn’t they
ask this? It’s because it was all too clear to them that Jesus had
risen from the dead. It’s because this resurrected Lord was standing
right before their very eyes, having lit a fire of coals, cooked fish,
and prepared bread, and He was telling them to eat. None of them could
ask Him if He was Jesus, for the Jesus who was standing before them was
neither from a dream or a vision. Before this event transpired, the
disciple had heard twice that Jesus had risen from the dead. So, even
though they had not seen Jesus after His crucifixion and burial, they
were now seeing Him with their very own eyes, and here before them as
clear as broad daylight He had indeed risen.
Spiritually
speaking, this is akin the unquestionable validity of the gospel of the
water and the Spirit. It is so clear that the Lord has blotted out our
sins once and for all with the gospel of the water and the Spirit that
it is impossible for us to ask if this gospel is right or not. None of
us can question the gospel of the water and the Spirit because all our
sins have in fact been blotted out. The gospel of the water and the
Spirit proclaims that Jesus Christ bore our sins once and for all by
being baptized by John the Baptist. By being baptized by John the
Baptist, Jesus shouldered the sins of the world, carried them to the
Cross, shed His blood to death on the Cross, rose from the dead again,
and has thereby become our Savior. Since our Lord has blotted out our
sins once and for all like this, do we have any sins still remaining
with us? No, of course not! There is no need to even ask this question,
for it is undeniably true that the Lord has blotted out our sins with
the gospel of the water and the Spirit. That the believers in the gospel
of the water and the Spirit have no more sin is incontrovertibly true.
Despite Our Shortcomings
Appearing
before His disciples, the resurrected Lord asked Peter, “Simon, son of
Jonah, do you love Me more than these?” Peter then said, “Yes, Lord; You
know that I love You.” He was able to say this three times. Peter had
no choice but to say, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love
You.” The disciples were in fact overcome with emotion when they saw
Him. They were overwhelmed by the fact that Jesus had come looking for
them after His resurrection. When Jesus was arrested by the Roman
soldiers in the garden of Gethsemane, Peter had followed Him all the way
to the court of Pilate. But there he had denied Jesus no less than
three times. Peter did not merely claim not to know Jesus, but rather,
he denied Him ferociously no less than three times. The third time Peter
denied Jesus so ferociously, the rooster crowed. At that time, Jesus
turned around from interrogation and looked at Peter, and when Peter
caught His eye, his face fell and he ran away. Remembering what the Lord
had told him, that he would deny Him three times before the rooster
crowed, Peter fell despondent and wept bitterly.
Jesus
had never committed any sin, yet He was interrogated before Pilate, and
after receiving forty lashes less one, His body was torn and covered in
blood. They thrust a crown of thorns on Jesus’ head, spat at Him,
struck Him in His face, and nailed a poster on the Cross with the title
“The King of Jews” in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. Peter’s Teacher, His God
and His Savior, whom he had trusted in and followed was covered in
blood. Yet, Peter had denied this Jesus no less than three times. Peter
heard of the death of Jesus on the Cross. And he had also gone to His
tomb. But Jesus was not in the tomb. Peter was in so much agony, and
even though Jesus had actually risen from the dead, he was too ashamed
to appear before Him. To save the entire human race Jesus had borne all
the sins of the world by being baptized. And shouldering the sins of the
world, He was crucified and suffered all kinds of insults, cruelties,
and ultimately death. He had poured out all the life blood from His
heart and died. Was buried and by rising from the dead again He had
saved the entire human race, including Peter.
However,
while Jesus was suffering like this for salvation, Peter and the other
disciples had run away, and the most they could do was just return to
their old occupation of fishing. So the disciples were too ashamed of
themselves to say anything before the Lord. Yet, Jesus appeared before
them on the shores of the Seat of Tiberias, and He told them to eat
breakfast. Having cooked fish and prepared bread, He told them to eat.
Do You Love Me More Than These?
Jesus
said to Peter here, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me more than
these?” Peter then said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.”
Jesus asked Peter this question three times, and three times Peter
answered, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” And the Lord said to
him on all those three occasions, “Feed My lambs,” “Tend My sheep,” and
“Feed My sheep.”
You
and I are now following the righteousness of the Lord. But we must ask
the question, are we really following Him faithfully enough to satisfy
the Lord’s desire? Just as Peter had many human shortcomings, you and I
may also have such blemishes. Even we the believers in the gospel of the
water and the Spirit can lose our strength and find it hard to take
another step to follow the Lord when we struggle with our shortcomings.
That is why the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews says, “Let us lay
aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us
run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus,
the author and finisher of our faith” (Hebrews 12:1-2).
Once
15, 20, or 30 years go by since first receiving the remission of sins
into our hearts by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit,
there will be many times when we feel too ashamed of ourselves to follow
the Lord. Just as Peter and his brothers of faith had gone fishing in
the Sea of Tiberias, there will be times when you and I also fail the
Lord and feel too ashamed to follow Him. In other words, even though we
believe in the Lord, there are many times when we succumb to our
weaknesses. Although our faith ought to grow stronger with the passing
of time, but sometimes it fails to do so.
The
Apostle Paul said, “Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the
inward man is being renewed day by day” (2 Corinthians 4:16). Our faith
should then grow stronger and we ought to serve the righteousness of the
Lord better, but instead, we see ourselves seeking the desires of our
own flesh. We ought to lead our lives of faith with godliness and
boldness just as we swore we would follow the Lord when we first found
the gospel of the water and the Spirit, but we fail to do so. Although
we must trust the Lord wholeheartedly to follow Him faithfully, there
are times when we can’t do this. Sometimes we follow our Church leaders
not by faith but out of fleshly calculations, worried about what they
might say to us. And falling into the weakness of our own flesh we end
up doing what Peter did. Such things are bound to happen to us while
following the Lord.
Although
we do love the Lord but sometimes we feel so bad about ourselves that
we question if we can even follow the Lord. We know that we must follow
the Lord, the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and the life of
righteousness, for they are the Truth; however, when we look at
ourselves, we feel too ashamed. With passing of time we lose our
spiritual strength and turn into wily people. Yet outwardly we become
quite adept at how to behave ourselves in God’s Church so as to please
everyone and not offend anyone. We know the ins and outs of the Church
administration, we know what the right protocol is, we know all about
the right manners, and we even know how to curry favor from our Church
leaders. Even though we still try to follow the Lord, because of our own
shortcomings, we lose our spiritually strength and our authenticity. We
see this when we pause for a moment and look back at ourselves.
The
Lord knows all about our weaknesses and personalities. He knows all
about our fragility and our sins. He knows that even after receiving the
remission of sins, we have sinned out of our weaknesses. But despite
these inadequacies, Jesus still came looking for Peter and His other
disciples, He asked Peter whether he loved Him or not, and He told him
to feed His lambs, tend His sheep, and feed His sheep. When Jesus told
Peter to tend His sheep, He was asking him to take care of them. This
means the Lord had entrusted His sheep to Peter. Likewise, the Lord has
raised leaders for God’s Church also, and He has entrusted them with the
task of preaching the gospel of the water and the Spirit all over the
world together with their colleagues. The Lord has done so because He
knows all about us.
He Makes It Possible for Us to Follow the Lord even though We Are Weak like Peter
We
can still follow the Lord despite our weaknesses because we believe in
the gospel of the water and the Spirit. In the Bible, water refers to
the fact that Jesus bore all the sins of the world when He was baptized
by John the Baptist. We believe that Jesus took upon the sins of the
world by being baptized by John the Baptist. And we believe that Jesus,
having shouldered the sins of the world through His baptism, was
crucified to death, rose from the dead again, and has thereby saved us.
We believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that our Lord has
fulfilled. The Holy Spirit is God. Jesus, too, is God. The Father of
Jesus Christ is also God. When Jesus came to this earth incarnated in
the flesh of man, He took upon all the sins of the world by being
baptized by John the Baptist. As a result, Jesus was crucified to death
while shouldering all the sins of mankind. And rising from the dead
again, He has saved us.
We
believe in this gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit now. But, just
because we believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, does it
necessarily mean that we can always follow the Lord faithfully? No, on
our own we can’t always follow the Lord flawlessly. However, because the
Lord has saved us perfectly, we can still follow Him even though we
have many shortcomings before Him. Although you and I have many
shortcomings, we can still follow the Lord because He has saved us by
being baptized by John the Baptist to bear all our sins, dying on the
Cross, and rising from the dead again. It’s because our Lord has become
our Savior like this that we can follow Him.
Because
the Lord who has come by the gospel of the water and the Spirit has
made you and me sinless, we can now follow His righteousness. If not
then it would have been impossible for us to follow the Lord. Because
the Lord took upon your sins and mine by being baptized by John the
Baptist, bore the condemnation of our sins by dying on the Cross, and
gave us new life by rising from the dead again, we are now able to
follow the Lord. It’s because our Lord has given us everlasting life,
because He has given us the Kingdom of Heaven, because He has become our
Shepherd, and because His blessings are boundless, that you and I can
follow the Lord by believing in this Truth. Don’t you all agree? It’s
indeed true.
You
and I are able to follow our Lord and His righteousness because His
grace is in our hearts. It’s because the Lord has blotted out all our
sins perfectly with the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and because
He has made us God’s sinless children. It’s because the Lord has given
us everlasting life to live forever. It’s because He has given the
eternal Kingdom of God to us the believers the gospel of the water and
the Spirit. And it’s because He has given us the heavenly house built
with twelve precious stones. That is why we have received the Lord’s
blessings. Because we know and believe in this Truth, and because the
Lord’s grace is so abundant, we can all follow the Lord despite our
shortcomings. It’s because of this that we are following the Lord. It’s
not because we have any righteousness of our own that we are following
the Lord. Nor is it because our shortcomings have not been exposed yet
that we are following the Lord. On the contrary, we are following the
Lord even though our shortcomings have been fully exposed.
We
can still follow the Lord because His love and grace are far greater
than our sins and shortcomings. The Lord has done everything so that we
would be able to follow Him always. That is why we can follow the Lord
regardless of our shortcomings. No matter how inadequate you and I may
be on our own, we can still follow the Lord faithfully and forever.
Are You by Chance, Stagnating Spiritually Because of Your Shortcomings and Weaknesses?
I’m
sure this is true for many of you. Don’t you get disappointed at
yourself when you look at your personality and see how selfish it is?
Whenever you are asked to do something by the Church, the first thing
you do is run a cost-and-benefit calculation. Too many believers weigh
the pros and cons according to their fleshly thoughts instead of
trusting in God, and try to get out of the work if it does not serve
their interest. All of this constitutes a sin in God’s sight.
Ministering as a pastor by relying on one’s own means and wiles is also a
sin. If we fail to turn others into the people of faith and instead
turns them into the people of the flesh, then this, too, constitutes a
sin.
As
you and I carry on with our lives in this world, just how many
shortcomings do we see? Even so, you and I must still follow the
righteousness of the Lord. We can follow the Lord like this because He
loves us, and because He has become our Savior. I have spoken to you
repeatedly about the righteousness of God. The Lord has made it possible
for us to follow His righteousness, for He has given us new and
everlasting life and blessed us to enter and live in the Kingdom of
Heaven. It’s because the Lord has given us so many blessings, and
because we believe in them, that we can follow the righteousness of the
Lord. If we are to put our sins and shortcomings and the love our Lord
has given us on a scale and weigh them, our shortcomings are nothing
compared to the gifts of the Lord. But this does not mean that anyone
should sin deliberately. It’s only elementary that we ought to live
according to the will of the Lord. Because the Lord loves us, and
because He has given us so many blessings, we cannot help but follow His
righteousness.
What
about you then? Do you feel you can follow the Lord, or are you still
unsure? No matter how many shortcomings you might have, can you not
still pray to the Lord? Of course you can. No matter how inadequate you
might be, won’t the Lord answer you when you pray to Him? Of course He
will answer you. Can we then live as the instruments of righteousness or
not? We can all live as the instruments of righteousness. We can all
renew our lives every day to always shine like the rising sun. That is
the life we are destined to live as the righteous. And that is the
blessed life that God has given to you and me.
Even
though we have many shortcomings, because the Lord has no shortcomings
at all, we can still follow His righteousness. It’s because the Lord
loves us more than we love Him. You can love the Lord because the Lord
loves you more than you love Him. So it is more than possible for all of
us to follow the righteousness of the Lord. This is not because of our
own faith, but because the Lord has made it so.
The Lord Has Raised Us up as God’s Workers
Jesus
said to Peter, “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” (John
21:18). This means that the Lord raised Peter as the leader of the
Church, to head the Early Church. The Lord also raised all his
colleagues as God’s workers and little shepherds. And He entrusted them
to serve His gospel. God has done the same to you and me also today. Are
you thinking to yourself, “I am too inadequate to do God’s work. I’m
made out just to be a layperson”? But that’s not the case at all.
There
are several praises in our hymn book that were composed by our Brother
Minwoo. I do consider him as just a layman. I have not spent much time
with Brother Minwoo, nor have I spoken with him that much; I only saw
him a few times in the Church. However, when I look at the lyrics of the
hymns he composed, I can see that this brother has so much spirituality
in him. I have a heartfelt respect for him. I do not look at people
just in the outside appearance. I know who composed each and every one
of these hymns. Although I don’t share everything in my mind with you, I
can see that it is all God’s work. So I want to work with Brother
Minwoo as a co-worker. I want to work not only with Brother Minwoo, but
with all of you. We are all God’s workers. It’s not the case that some
of us are laypeople and some of us are ministers. Each and every one of
us is God’s worker. We are all ministers. We are all shepherds. Don’t
you agree? It’s just that the task entrusted to each of us is different;
all of us are God’s workers.
My
fellow believers, the Lord loves us so much that He has blotted out our
sins, made us God’s own children, and given us everlasting life. He has
given us the Kingdom of Heaven. And even at this very moment, He is
working together with us. Therefore, my fellow believers, we lack
nothing to live as God’s workers. You and I are the servants of
righteousness who are more than able to please the Lord by submitting to
His work and obeying His commandments by faith. That is who we are. Do
not be bound by yours own weaknesses, only to submit yourself to Satan’s
desires.
The
Devil attacks us by exploiting our human weaknesses. He tries to make
us stumble over our human failures, saying to us, “What can you ever do
when you are so worthless?” We are of a fundamentally different seed
from the Devil. The people of this world are of the Devil, whereas we
are of God. We can all follow the Lord by faith. All that you have to do
is just believe in what the Lord has given you and follow Him. That is
what every servant of righteousness does. The Bible says that the just
shall live by faith alone. I’m so thankful to our Lord for this.
Although
I don’t know as much compared to our Lord, I still know very well that
our ministers, our brothers and sisters, and our coworkers abroad are
struggling with their weaknesses. But such weaknesses don’t matter to
me. All that I ask is that you remember the blessings the Lord has given
you, and that you accept the will of the Lord. You will then become the
Lord’s worker. No one can carry out God’s work by themselves, but
together we can fulfill this work. We can all become the instruments of
righteousness. We can all come into the Lord and live a life that’s
pleasing to Him as the instruments of righteousness. I consider not just
Brother Minwoo as an instrument of righteousness, but all of you also. I
have no doubt that you can all become faithful workers. Do not bind
yourself in your own weaknesses. The Lord will be saddened if you do so
and say to you, “Is that all that I have given you?”
Imagine
for a moment that someone gave you a box full of sparkling diamonds.
But let’s say that you are still going around in rags. What would the
person who gave you the box of diamonds think? He will be ashamed,
thinking to himself, “Is that all that I have given him?” So would Lord
feel the same way if we were not to recognize just how much He has given
us. We have nothing to be ashamed of. We are the servants of
righteousness. We are the instruments of righteousness. There are so
many blessings we are yet to receive, both earthly and heavenly riches
that words cannot even describe them all. So let us all live by faith as
the instruments of righteousness on this earth and follow the Lord
until the day we see Him face to face.
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