Scripture: John 21

Contributor: Jesse Barrett 3-5-17

In the last couple of weeks that I have been with you, I have had the opportunity to share a little about myself and what I do at a part-time level in prison ministry.  My last two sermons were on knowing God’s will followed by a brief discussion on purpose.  

I hope those two sermons caught your attention because I really wanted you to be focused on your journey with God, even though they were watered down with stuff about me.  

Church I know some of you are hurting.  I know some of you are tired.  I can imagine that some of you are wondering about what God’s will is, or what His purpose is, in your current life circumstances.

As we begin this morning, I would like to briefly recap where we left off together.  

In trying to define what God’s will for our life is, I would like for you to see His will as the big picture.  Imagine if you will the sun, it shines over large areas of the earth, and so it is with God’s will.  It covers your entire life, your past, and how you live in the future.  

It also covers every other person’s life, their past, and their future.  For we are all commanded do to His will.

God’s will is that you begin the process of sanctification.  That you bear fruit and so prove to be His disciple.  

God’s will is that you follow Him, wherever He takes you, believing He has what is best for you in mind, even if the road is hard, even if He chooses to strip away at your life, or take you into a battle you do not want to fight.  

His will is that we look like and act like Christ, I’d like for us to consider Isaiah 53 as we think about that.

“2 he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.

3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.

5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.

God’s will for us was that we would remember the sacrifice of Jesus Christ as we walk in newness of life.  That newness, does not mean an easy path.  Sometimes it is a hard climb.  Life can be hard, but that doesn’t mean we stop looking like of acting like Christ.  

We will have our days when we are not be desirable to look at, we may be rejected by men, we may be acquainted with sorrows and with grief.  We may get pierced, poked, and prodded.  

We may be asked to go into a situation that we have no earthly pleasure in.  We may have to bear the griefs of others, with many sleepless nights.  But, as Christ entered into hardship willingly, as Christ bore fruit in His life, and as Christ was willing to pay the price, so we must be willing to as well.

It gives me great comfort in knowing that Christ understands how I feel because he went through it as well.

The Great book of Ecclesiastes, with all of it’s wisdom and advice closes with just one brief statement to summarize the entire Book:

Ecclesiastes 12:13 “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.”

That is a great verse on knowing God’s will.  Trust God, give him authority in your life, and keep His commands - like love your neighbor as yourself.

So then as we move into knowing what God’s purpose for our life is, this is where we get specific.  If the sun represented God’s will, shining over thousands of miles of the earth, God’s purpose would be more like a flashlight, illuminating only a small place, your life, what you are called to do.

In Isaiah 53, Christ’s call, His purpose, was to die on calvary.  He and no one else could do that.

So as we think about God’s will and God’s purpose, we come to a point of decision.  We have to process why we do what we do.  We have to begin thinking about what we value.

For what we value determines our actions.  What scripture points to why Christ died for us? What was it that God valued? How about John 3:16?
John 3:16 “For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son so that anyone who believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

I entitled today’s message “Coming to grips with why.”  And for today’s message, I want to explore this topic of values with you because many people act according to what they value, and yet they have never thought about what they value.

Some people are living unbalanced lives by placing value on too many things and others do not make an attempt to value much at all.

I heard a story about this problem one time...
A story about a store that sold new husbands… it had opened in New York City.  Women were invited in to choose a husband of their liking.  Among the instructions at the entrance is a description of how the store operates.

You may visit the store ONLY ONCE! There are six floors and the attributes of the men increase as the shopper ascends the flights.

There is, however, a catch: you may choose any man from a particular floor, or you may choose to go up a floor, but you cannot go back down except to exit the building.
So, a woman goes to the Husband Store to find a husband.

On the first floor the sign on the door reads: Floor 1: These men have jobs.

She proceeds to the second floor.

The second floor sign reads: Floor 2: These men have jobs and love kids.

She decides to go up another floor.

The third floor sign reads: Floor 3: These men have jobs, love kids and are extremely good looking.

"Wow," she thinks, but feels compelled to keep going.

She goes to the fourth floor and the sign reads: Floor 4: These men have jobs, love kids, are drop-dead gorgeous and help with the housework.

"Oh, mercy me!" she exclaims. "I can hardly stand it."
Still, she goes to the fifth floor and the sign reads: Floor 5: These men have jobs, love kids, are drop-dead gorgeous, help with the housework and have a strong romantic personality.

She is so tempted to stay, but she goes to the sixth floor and the sign reads:

Floor 6: You are visitor number 31 million, 456 thousand, and 12 to this floor. There are no men on this floor. This floor exists solely as proof that women are impossible to please. Thank you for shopping at the Husband Store.

Meanwhile, across the street, a new Wives Store has recently opened.
The first floor has wives that love romance.

The second floor has wives that love romance and have money.

And the third through sixth floors have never been visited.....


The point of that story is just a silly reminder that men and women are different.  Men can be rather simple minded, and women can be more complex…

In the same way, everyone is different.  We value different things, and sometimes our values change over time.

When I was young I valued a thinner sleeker me… now, not so much.  Now I value food and fellowship more than most things.
So how does this pertain to everyday life?  And how does this pertain to the Christian life?

I’d like to suggest to you this morning that -

Most of us base our Christian walk off of what we believe, and we rarely think about what we value…

Now beliefs are important, and yet beliefs and values, although appearing to be similar, are actually very different.

The Barrett Values Centre says it this way-

“Values unite, beliefs divide”

As a definition of beliefs, they write: “Beliefs are what we hold to be true. When we use our beliefs to make decisions, we are assuming that the life experience which led to the belief, will also apply in the future.”(BVC)  

So, for example: According to this church’s statement of beliefs, in regards to the Word of God, this is what we believe:

“We believe that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the inspired Word of God, inerrant in the original writings, complete as the revelation of God’s will for salvation, and the supreme and final authority in all matters to which they speak.  (2 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:20-21)”

Do we still believe this to be 100% true?
Do you believe the Bible to contain everything you need for life in Jesus Christ?  

So in other words, when we make decisions about our present life, about our future life in this culture, even about our eternal destination, what we are saying is that we do not need a new revelation, we do not need a person, priest, pope, or pastor to add anything else to the scriptures because the Bible is the final authority in every belief needed for the human experience.  AMEN?  

This belief will not change.  It is a truth that this church came to believe, and it will not change in the future.  It is a belief.
With that being said, those beliefs divide us from other religions of the world.  In fact, it divides us from every religion where the Bible is not considered the authority on all matters of life and salvation or entrance into heaven.

There are organized religions that use the Bible, but the Bible is not the authority, a person or groups of people are.  

I am not sure if you realize it or not, but America runs like this.  In one of the nation’s landmark cases -  Marbury vs. Madison it was decided that although “the Constitution is the supreme law of the land, the Supreme Court has the final authority for interpreting it.”

In other words, in the wrong hands, a person in authority could look at the constitution and come to a belief, through his interpretation of it, that is completely different than how we would interpret it.

In this church… we believe in the separation of Church and State.  Listen to the belief:

“We believe that each local church is self-governing in function and must be free from interference by any ecclesiastical or political authority.  We further believe that every human being is directly responsible to God in matters of faith and life and that each one should be free to worship God according to the dictates of his or her conscience.
(Rom. 12:1-2; 14:13; 2 Cor. 6:14-7:1)”

Do you still believe this?

Church...It is OK, that beliefs about God, divide the people of the world.  Beliefs do that.  

You need to know that as long as I am preaching, you will not have to worry about me preaching from any other authoritative book, the Bible is all we need.

Every other book that was written by man, or has been changed by the hand of man, or every other book not written by God himself is not “needed” for your life.  
I don’t care how many books they have sold or how many people love the book, the Pilgrim’s Progress, is just a book.  A Purpose Driven Life, The Prayer of Jabez, it doesn’t matter, there is only one authoritative book that we should be spending more time reading than any other.  It is the Bible. Amen?  

Listen to me now...
If you are spending more time reading other things besides this book, I will almost guarantee you, that you will come to believe a lie that will hurt your life.

You see, as imperfect beings, as sinners, as lost souls who do not always seek God, we allow false beliefs, based on false reasonings, that create errors, in our beliefs.

In life, because of our experiences, we come to believe many other things, which has an affect on how we live our lives.

“In a rapidly changing world where complexity is increasing day by day, many times we begin using information from the past to make decisions about the future which may not be the best way to support us in meeting our current or future needs.

Many beliefs are contextual: They arise from our learned experiences, resulting from the cultural and environmental situations we have faced.” (BVC)

Let me provide you with an example: as a life coach, I have worked with many people, but there was a certain married couple who was going through some pretty tough times.  The husband spent a lot of time playing video games, he had a hard time holding down a job, and the wife was becoming frustrated.  

She was a go getter, a hard worker, a person who had a very high estimation of herself which created some excessive criticisms towards her husband because he was not like her.

Both of these individuals fell into the fallacy of overgeneralizations of their beliefs.  Just taking one example, the wife came to believe that because he has never changed in the past, he will, therefore, not change in the future.  

Overgeneralization does that, it creates a false belief without considering all the variables.
If I believed in this kind of way, what hope would I be able to offer anyone as a Chaplain in the jails… “Oh, you are an addict who has relapsed 10 times, well, sorry to say, there is no hope for you.  You will always be an addict”.  

I can’t say that!!

One of the greatest variables is Jesus Christ.  If the person I am working with will turn their life over to the control and care of Jesus Christ, he, will, change.  Amen?

He may also relapse 10 more times before the change comes, but if his heart is serious, he can cannot help changing.

John Calvin once said, “To know God, is to be changed by God.”

All too often we do not challenge our beliefs.  We willingly allow our flesh to carry us off into the prisons of low self-esteem, low self-worth,  depression, anxiety, addiction, suicidal thinking, loneliness, because... we have come to believe through our human experiences, that we are not good enough to be loved.  

Folks, think back with me to Isaiah 53.  Christ had no attractive physical qualities and yet he did not have low self-worth.  He had to endure hardship, yet we do not read about a depressed Christ.

As humans, we reason to ourselves: if my wife really loved me, she would spend all her time with me, or if my husband really loved me he would pamper me, he would do everything for me,”.... whatever relates to you - you can fill in the blanks.  

But because of mistaken beliefs, especially ones based on an unsound argument, or because of the delusionment that exist inside of us, many times based off of a unchallenged belief system, we become victims of our own distorted belief systems.

We watch TV or read romance novels, and we allow our thoughts to take our beliefs captive as we see fake people, having fake relationships, who begin the process of entangling your mind into the cunning web that if only I was healthy, if only I was pretty,  if only I was from a better family, if only I hadn’t committed this crime, then… I would be whole person...

And all Satan has to do is whisper in your ear and say... “that’s right, if he really cared, if God really loved you - then you would be beautiful, or healthy, or… whatever”

We need to be ready to take the authority of the scripture and jam it down Satan’s throat when you hear that!

We need to divide ourselves from the faulty thinking, the false beliefs of this world that says your worth is wrapped up into how much money you have in the bank, or a woman’s beauty, a woman’s worth, is based solely on how she looks.  

We need to divide ourselves from the world’s belief that the right man is wealthy and affluent and romantic all the time.

We need to repent, we need to get back to believing only what God says about us, by the authority of His spoken word he has placed in the Bible.

Oh, how many fears, how many cases of depression, how many marriages would be saved, how many great works for God could be done just by claiming who we are in Christ.

Beliefs divide, but for good reasons.

Secondly, VALUES do not divide.  Values Unite

“Values are not based on information from the past and they are not contextual. Values are universal. Values transcend contexts because they are based on what is important to us: They arise from the experience of being human. (repeat)

Values are intimately related to our needs: Whatever we need—whatever is important to us or what is missing from our lives—is what we value.  As our life conditions change, and as we mature and grow in our psychological development, our value priorities change.

When we use our values to make decisions we focus on what is important to us—what we need, to feel a sense of well-being.

Our values are important because they help us to grow and develop. They help us to create the future we want to experience.

Every individual and every organisation is involved in making hundreds of decisions every day. The decisions we make are a reflection of our values and our beliefs, and they are always directed towards a specific purpose. That purpose is the satisfaction of our individual or collective (organisational) needs.


When we use our values to make decisions, we make a deliberate choice to focus on what is important to us. When values are shared, they build internal cohesion in a group.” (Barrett Values Centre)



Church your purpose statement says,

“The purpose of this church shall be to glorify God through public worship and the preaching of His Word, to make disciples by evangelizing our community, to incorporate new believers into the fellowship of the church, to lead them toward growth in Christian maturity, to train and equip believers for Christian service, and to promote and support educational and missionary activity both at home and abroad.”

Here is what I see as values because of this purpose statement:
Fellowship - you created a church;
God - bringing Him Glory;
Bible - by preaching it;
Community - wanting others to hear about Christ and be filtered in;
Learning - to be mature;
Service - to others because of Christ; and we could go on.

The point is, that in your purpose statement, the goal is to unify the believers here, by getting them to do something based off of their values.  

I would like to thank you for seeing the value in training and equipping believers for Christian Service.  Here a couple of weeks ago, you decided to bring me on as an Intern to grow, to train, to be equipped to be called as a full time pastor someday.

And that is what a Value does, it unifies people to a purpose.

Now, I am at a disadvantage, I am here to be an Intern and yet I am not totally convinced that I know you all that well.  So what I would like to do, is to have you think about what things you value about this church.

For example, you might say I value family.  I do not need to know why, but you could just write family.  
I would encourage you to think about the “why’s” however, because it helps to solidify what you value.  

For example, if you come to this church because you love worshiping with your Family.  Family then becomes what you value…

What I am going to do, is leave this here for a couple of weeks, and then I am going to take them with me so that I can really pray about how I can serve you in the best possible way.

So now that we have taken some time to talk about the differences between beliefs and values and how they relate to our overall purpose.  

Let me dive into some scripture with you.

I would like to suggest to you, that there is one core value above all others.  

Above honesty, above integrity, above faith, above any of the highest and most noble values... resides the most important, the most influential value of them all.
Love.

Everything we do here in this church, everything we stand for, everything that our faith is generated from, everything that God commanded us to do is all based on Love.

Mathew 22:36-40 A man came up and asked Jesus, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”


Dr. J. Richard Cookerly wrote:


“Certain social analysts have held that the more a society values love the more it prospers.  Conversely the less a culture values love the more it is in danger of decline.  It has been reasoned that love is the best connector and motivator of people bringing forth the best joint efforts for survival and advancement.  Thus, the society that loves best survives and advances best.”


He adds, “The same results are seen as true for mini-societies, tribes, clans, sects, neighborhoods, families and couples.  It is reasoned that any collection of people who truly hold love as a high value will study love, learn how to do love better, practice love more often, and will more greatly improve with love.  

Love’s ability to motivate and facilitate connecting, nurturing, protecting, healing and sharing the many joys of love are hard to come by for those who lack love.  Arguably the rise and fall of everything from couple’s relationships to whole civilizations may be explored by how they valued and dealt with healthy real love.”

In John 21:15 we read a story about Christ and His conversation with Peter.

“15 When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, 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.”

In this verse, when Christ says “do you love me” he uses the Greek word agapas or agape love.
This is the highest form of love.  The love that God has for man and hopefully man has for God.  

Agape embraces a universal, unconditional love that transcends, that serves regardless of circumstances.
Christ is saying to Peter, do you love me like this?  Do you value me above all else?

Peter responds with “yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” - But this is not the same word as Christ is using,

Peter responds with a different kind of love, He says I love you in a brotherly affection type of way.

The word in greek is: phileo - meaning I have an affection for you.  Brotherly love.  Best friends will display this generous and affectionate love for each other as each seeks to make the other happy.

The Scriptural account of David and Jonathan is an excellent illustration of phileo love:       In 1 Samuel 18:1-3 says, “After David had finished talking with Saul, Jonathan became one in spirit with David, and he loved him as himself. . . . And Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself.”

This is the love Peter is describing.


Let’s continue to verse 16 of John 21
16 “He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.”

Christ says “do you love me” he still uses the word agape love, and Peter’s reply does not change either, he still uses phileo, I have an affection for you.  “You are my closest friend…”

Verse 17 “He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, 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 everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.

This time Christ changes His sentence, he says do you phileo me, or do you have that deep brotherly affection for me?  Peter continues using the same phileo love way, but this time with heart felt emotion.  

I don’t see anywhere in the next verses or chapters or books in the New Testament where Christ condemns Peter for not using His word when describing his love for Christ.  But what I do get a sense of is that Peter commits his whole heart to telling Christ how he loves him.

Church, all I am trying to say, is that in whatever way you express your love for God, just make sure you are sold out.  If you can grasp God love, the unconditional kind of love, than that is great.  But even if you only see Christ the same way as you see a brother or friend, than that is ok too.

After all, we read in John 15:12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you.”

Christ considers you His friend.  He also says that no greater love exists than the love that lays down his life for his friend.

Perhaps you are already ahead of me in the text of John 21, but what does Christ tell Peter that his love will cost him?  

Verse 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.”

Stop and think with me, why would Peter follow Christ if he knew it was going to cost him his life?

Why? Because of his values.  Peter Valued Christ, Peter valued love above all else.  Like Christ in Isaiah 53, like God in John 3:16, Peter valued his love for Christ.

I would like to suggest that if we do not have love as a core value, our entire “religious experience” was nothing more than a big waste of time.

1 Corinthians 13 English Standard Version (ESV)

13 “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love,

I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love,

I am nothing.

3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love,

I gain nothing.”

And the chapter ends the way it starts.

“13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

Love is a greater value than faith, it is a greater value than hope, love is the greatest most foundational value that we must possess in our life.

So as we close this morning, and as you are coming to grips with why you do what you do, please consider these points:

#1 Most of us base our Christian walk off of what we believe, and we rarely think about what we value…


Knowing God’s will means nothing if you do not love Him.  Why would God want your righteous acts, without also owning your heart?

Hosea 6:6 Living Bible (TLB)

6 “I don’t want your sacrifices—I want your love; I don’t want your offerings—I want you to know me.”

If we value Him, then we will value His Word.  When we truly value Him and love Him, we will not fall into false beliefs about ourselves, we will believe what He says about us.

#2 Values unite people together for a specific purpose.

“So when Christ says, lovest thou me… The question should cleave down to the very core of your being, as it did for Peter.  Christ does not ask after Peter’s speculative faith, his conscience, his profession of what he believes, but is, thy, heart, mine?  

Is my kingdom enthroned in the soul as its central, governing power?  

Christ puts the same pointed, radical, searching question to every disciple here.  

Nothing short of the supremacy of the heart will satisfy Him.  

He has loved us with an infinite love even unto death and he demands our heart’s, best, affections, in return.

The sum and essence of Christianity is love.” (Homiletic Monthly)

After every question Christ asked Peter, he also gave a command.  Feed my lambs, Tend my sheep, feed my sheep.  He institutes an action, a purpose that Peter could fulfill.  

In the same way - as this church moves into this coming year, we need to be unified, fulfilling the purpose for why this church exists.

Let’s all come to grips with why today.