Jesus Heals What His Followers Break
Notes
Transcript
Scripture Introduction:
I wonder this morning…would you say that you love Jesus? Would you say that you would lay down your life for him? Would you say, “I’ll go with you to prison or even death”?
Last time when we left Jesus and the disciples he was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. Praying so intently that he was perhaps sweating drops of blood. But the disciples…they were sleeping.
Then Judas comes and interrupts everything. It’s the time where Jesus is going to be arrested.
Now put yourself in Peter’s shoes for just a moment. You love Jesus, You would lay down your life for Jesus. So when these people—with Judas the betrayer with them come up against Jesus you do what you think you need to do. You grab that sword that Jesus told you to take and you start fighting.
We’ve got to fight for the kingdom of God or we’ll lose it!
But there’s a problem with all this. By doing this Peter is actually denying Jesus. He’s taking the kingdom into his own hands. He’s trying to bring it about through the wrong means. He’s succumbing to the very temptation that Christ just endured.
In the verses we read this morning the apostle Peter is off the rails. What happens when we go off the rails? What happens when we don’t follow the path of Jesus? What happens when we take his word and twist them, fight the wrong battles, or we fight the right battles with the wrong weapons? What happens when we think we’re defending him but we are actually denying the way of His kingdom as we do this?
Listen in...
While he was still speaking, there came a crowd, and the man called Judas, one of the twelve, was leading them. He drew near to Jesus to kiss him, but Jesus said to him, “Judas, would you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?” And when those who were around him saw what would follow, they said, “Lord, shall we strike with the sword?” And one of them struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his right ear. But Jesus said, “No more of this!” And he touched his ear and healed him. Then Jesus said to the chief priests and officers of the temple and elders, who had come out against him, “Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs? When I was with you day after day in the temple, you did not lay hands on me. But this is your hour, and the power of darkness.”
Then they seized him and led him away, bringing him into the high priest’s house, and Peter was following at a distance. And when they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat down among them. Then a servant girl, seeing him as he sat in the light and looking closely at him, said, “This man also was with him.” But he denied it, saying, “Woman, I do not know him.” And a little later someone else saw him and said, “You also are one of them.” But Peter said, “Man, I am not.” And after an interval of about an hour still another insisted, saying, “Certainly this man also was with him, for he too is a Galilean.” But Peter said, “Man, I do not know what you are talking about.” And immediately, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed. And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how he had said to him, “Before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.” And he went out and wept bitterly.
Sermon Introduction:
What do we see happens when Jesus’ followers go off the rails? Two things. We hurt other people (Peter lopping off the ear of that guard—we learn in the gospel of John is name is Malchus). And secondly, we not only hurt other people—we hurt ourselves.
And you know what I’ve seen in my years of following Jesus and doing ministry? There are two big things which keep us from following Jesus. The guilt over stuff that we’ve done. And the shame over stuff that’s been done to us.
Let me say that second one another way too. There is very real hurt that happens to others when believers go off the rails and don’t follow the path of Jesus. And that hurt is often a barrier to faith in Jesus. They see our hypocrisy…but not just a distant hypocrisy…a hypocrisy that causes real actual pain. And it makes them say, “If this is what Jesus is like…I don’t want anything to do with that...”
And so here is who I hope bends in a little and listens to this sermon. If you’ve been hurt by believers…believers who have gone off the rails. I want you to listen in. And if you’ve blown it…done something (whether recently or even many years ago) and you just don’t know how Jesus could forgive and heal that I want you to listen.
But before we jump in here I want to say who this sermon is not for. Or how you don’t get to listen to this sermon.
My major point today is going to be this: Jesus heals what his followers break. He heals the wreckage we create in the life of others, and the wreckage we create in our own lives.
Abusive people who want to continue to abuse and manipulate and harm others absolutely LOVE a message like this one. You like for others to hear these words because it is often the means to a quick restoration for you, so that you can continue that cycle of abuse.
But listen to me clearly. If someone is ever demanding restoration, or demanding that you forgive them, such a person is not repentant. And such a person is far away from restoration. They don’t get to use these precious words of Jesus—the precious gospel that when we repent, when we like Peter “weep bitterly” and come to the Lord Jesus for cleansing…we don’t get to use this precious gospel to further harm people.
And secondly, the truth that Jesus heals what we break doesn’t make us careless and unconcerned. It helps us as we grieve any pain we’ve caused. That’s what this truth is meant to do. So, yeah, if you’re trying to use this text to give you a license to keep abusing or harming or controlling or manipulating others. You don’t get to do that. You need repentance.
But we also need to be careful about not withholding forgiveness and even (with wisdom) restoration for those who like Peter are truly repentant and truly changed. Okay, now that I’ve said that let’s get to work on seeing Jesus’ work of restoration.
I. Jesus heals the wreckage we bring into our own lives
I actually want to start here with Peter’s outward denial and then we will circle back around to Malchus.
“Following” that’s an ironic term isn’t it. Peter’s not really following Jesus here is, he? He’s denying Jesus. He’s keeping his distance. Watching from a distance. Not wanting to be noticed. But he is noticed. He can’t help but be noticed. But he wants to hide. He doesn’t want to be seen with the Galilean that is being paraded through the streets as a criminal. But he is and so he has only one option left—deny reality. “I don’t know that guy”.
And as he’s still talking—trying to convince this onlooker that he’s not in company with this criminal—the rooster crows. You’ve got a rooster crowing in the background. His crow reverberates throughout the whole courtyard. What happens in Peter’s heart at this moment? Does he realize, yet. Or does it take verse 61? Our Lord turns…and looks straight at Peter.
The text doesn’t tell us what Jesus’ face looked like in that moment. Was it disappointment, pain? We don’t know but we know it was a look that communicated to both that Peter had just denied the Lord. And it’s that look that Peter cannot endure. He wanted to hide from the people—and now he wants to hide from the Lord Jesus.
I can’t get past these haunting words. “The Lord turned and looked at Peter”. Throughout the gospels such a thing would have always been good news. When Jesus looked upon people he had compassion—and likely this too was with compassion. But in the other account this is someone crying out to the Lord for healing, for rescue, for mercy. And the Lord turns and looks at them and they are healed. That’s not what this look is. It’s a look that absolutely breaks Peter.
It’s a look that says, “I know what you did. I knew from the moment that I called you out of that fishing boat what would happen. Your denial of me isn’t hidden Peter. The rooster is crying out”.
And he went out and wept bitterly. Peter is certainly wondering, is there any hope for me…? He’s got to be wondering how in the world did I just do that…How did this happen…is there any way that I can be restored…is there any hope…
He has done here what he said he would never do. we kind of chuckle at Peter and balk at his arrogance. We do that because we know the rest of the story. But I wonder if we don’t have our own list of things that we could never do. Maybe there are sins that we’ve conquered; no way we will ever fall back into those. You’d emphatically stand before us and say, “I would never ______________”.
I wonder, do you have any of those in your life right now. “I’ll never…”, but you did. And you’re ashamed. You want to hide it, you want to deny it, you want to pretend like it isn’t there, you want to cover it up with religiosity, other good things, etc. but it’s still there gnawing away at your soul.
What is yours? That thing that you thought you’d never do—but you did?
And here’s the picture. He’s put all of his chips in on Jesus. He doesn’t have anything left. He hasn’t held anything back. And it comes down to the moment of truth. The moment when all the cards are revealed and we see who has the winning hand. Peter folds. He walked away from the table.
That’s his despair. There’s nothing left. I’ve turned my back on Jesus. I believe in Jesus. But I’m not sure if I can believe in Jesus any longer. And so you have this terrible despair. You’re stuck. He denied Jesus—three times in one hour! Seriously, can you get any worse than that?
Is there any hope left for Peter. He left Jesus. Apostasy. Turned his back on the Lord, “For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance…”
There’s no way the Lord can forgive me for this. I’ve thrown it all down the toilet. I’ve abandoned Him and now I’ve got nothing left. That look—oh, that look. He knew it too. He knew that I denied Him. He saw it. I can’t hide from the Lord—but oh, God I want to hide from Him. There’s no hope left for me…
And he went out and wept bitterly...
This is depth of despair stuff. It might be beneficial for us to be at this place on occasion. This is where we end up when we go off the rails. We hit rock bottom of sorts. That’s a grace.
We had another despairing disciples a few weeks ago. Judas. Is there really a difference between these two men? They’ve both forsaken the Lord. One with his lips for fear of man, the other with his kiss for love of money.
Judas, like Peter, was feeling the weight of his guilt. He, like Peter, was crushed.
Yet, Judas, went and hanged himself. His was a sorrow that did not lead to actual repentance. His was as God’s Word says in 2 Corinthians 7 a “sorrow that produced death”. Judas’ sorrow did not lead him to Christ. It led him back to his own self-sufficiency. He tried undoing what he had done. He tried self-atoning. He tried making up for it. “Maybe if I give this money back—they’ll let Jesus off the hook and I’ll be okay. Maybe if I do good stuff then it’ll cover the really treacherous thing that I’ve done. Perhaps this will pay for my guilt. And when it didn’t work—Judas had no other recourse.
He couldn’t come face to face with Christ. He didn’t see redemption, He refused to give up his self-righteousness, and he hung himself—once again taking matters into his own hands. From beginning to end Judas played the role of god over his own life. It’s not suicide that damned Judas—it’s a self-righteous refusal to come broken to Christ.
And here we come back to Peter. There’s really nothing in Scripture that indicates why or how Peter came back with the other disciples. They’d all turned their back on him. But somehow they stuck together and when news of his resurrection came and Jesus appeared to him they were together in the upper room...
But there is a scene in the Bible that I absolutely love, it’s in John 21. You ever have an argument with a friend or loved one and you aren’t quire sure how to deal with it. And so you have this kind of awkward moment and tension in the air and you aren’t sure how to clear it?
The apostle Peter is a person just like you and I. I wonder what that moment was like. That awkward…uhmmmm…when he is face to face with Jesus again. What does he say, “uh, sorry ‘bout that. Blew it big time, Lord. Can you forgive me?” That conversation isn’t recorded in Scripture but we do know that Peter knew and experienced the Lord’s forgiveness. But I get the idea that it’s still a little awkward. Peter needs something more. Something that answers his question—“What now”.
Okay John 21, verse 7 and then we’ll skip forward a couple verses. You’ve got these fishermen, doing what they did before their journey with Jesus, that have made a serious haul…actually too big of a haul. They can’t get it in the boat. We read later that it’s 153 fish, that were able to get in the boat. And it’s all because there was a guy on the shore that said, “Hey, try the right side of the boat”. John, the beloved disciple is quick witted—he says, “It’s the Lord”. And I love what Peter does here.
That disciple whom Jesus loved therefore said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment, for he was stripped for work, and threw himself into the sea.
It’s quite possible that at this point Peter is naked, or at least really close to it. Totally different culture, yes. But he throws on his outer garment—so the picture is that he puts on clothes to jump in the water, which is hilarious. I love this scene. They are 100 yards away from shore and they have all these fish in the boat. What does Peter do? The same thing you’d expect impulsive Peter to do. He puts on his outer garment and leaps into the water. Leaving all of the other disciples to tend to the fish. He doesn’t care at this point. He sees the Lord and he’s desperate.
I just love this. That’s what happens when the Lord restores a man, when he takes him from that pit of brokenness and whispers those words to him, “I still want you. I still love you. You haven’t blown it, there is hope, there is forgiveness”. A beautiful picture of worship.
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.” 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.” 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. 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.” (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.”
Now much has been made in this passage about the different Greek words that Jesus uses when he asks Peter if he loves him. The pattern is that Jesus says, “agape—Peter says phileo”. Jesus says “agape—Peter says phileo”. Jesus says “Phileo and Peter says phileo”. The point being that Peter can’t bring himself to use that bigger word for love “agape” and so he keeps using the lesser word.
Problem is, those are interchangeable words. And John keeps switching up words in this whole section. Jesus switches from “lambs” to “sheep” but there isn’t many sermons on that. The point in this passage isn’t about the switch of Greek verbs. The point is that Jesus asks him three times. The same number of his denial.
Jesus is restoring Peter and he is doing it by probing down to the depths of who he is. His first question is, “Do you love me more than these”. Does he mean—“Do you love me more than you love the other disciples? Does he mean “do you love me more than this fishing stuff”? Or, and most likely, does he mean, “Do you love me more than these other disciples love me”. Peter had made brazen statements like this before so Jesus asks him the question.
Peter says, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you”. He banks on the Lord’s knowledge. There is something in this. It’s not the same prideful and arrogant boast. He’s going to the Lord’s knowledge now and not his own. He doesn’t say, “Lord, I know that I love you. Of course, I love you—that’s a stupid question—even if all these other disciples don’t love you—you can bet that I do”. Nope. He’s been broken.
The Lord accepts his answer. That is significant. And so is his charge. “Feed my lambs”. “Feed my sheep”. Jesus not only cleanses He also restores. He fixes what His disciples break…even the stuff in their own life.
If you’ve fallen, you’ve messed up, you’ve done that thing that you said you would never do. Get up. Repent. Turn to Jesus and find healing. It is as Tim Keller has said:
“The gospel of justifying faith means that while Christians are, in themselves still sinful and sinning, yet in Christ, in God’s sight, they are accepted and righteous. So we can say that we are more wicked than we ever dared believe, but more loved and accepted in Christ than we ever dared hope — at the very same time. This creates a radical new dynamic for personal growth. It means that the more you see your own flaws and sins, the more precious, electrifying, and amazing God’s grace appears to you. But on the other hand, the more aware you are of God’s grace and acceptance in Christ, the more able you are to drop your denials and self-defenses and admit the true dimensions and character of your sin.”
Yes, true disciples fall. And they fall hard. But true disciples get back up. And when they get back up they don’t just dust themselves off and say to themselves, “whew, thank you Lord for cleansing me”. They look back and strengthen their brothers.
II. Jesus heals the wreckage we bring into the life of others
I picture this scene a few weeks after the events of Luke 22:47-53.
You’ve got Malchus. That’s the Roman guard...Malchus, running his finger through his hair, makes contact with his ear.
His ear.
It shouldn’t be there. Just a few weeks ago it was lopped off by one of those Jesus’ followers. Peter was his name. This revolutionary saw the hoard and believed it was time to fight. Malchus, commissioned by the high priest, was doing his job. He was loyal to the institution. Peter believed that Jesus was building a different kingdom—one which stood against both Rome and the present temple leaders. For Peter it was time to fight.
Malchus bore the pain of Peter’s misapplied conclusions about the Messiah. He’d only been a few steps behind Judas, the betrayer, when he heard the question. “Lord, shall we strike with the sword?” Suddenly, Malchus felt a sharp pain while all the voices around him became faint and distant. Pain and confusion marked those moments as this Jesus-follower had struck him with a sword.
It’s what happened next that had Malchus remembering that day whenever he’d touched his ear. Jesus, the one who was supposed to be guilty of overthrowing Rome and the temple, picked up the bloody ear of this lowly servant and restored it. He restored what his disciple had wrecked.
Maybe you’re Malchus this morning. You’ve been struck by the sword of Christians. They’ve butchered verses, misapplied principles, or they’ve just been flat our hypocrites. And they’ve hurt you. Even in the name of Jesus.
We’ve lopped off your ear, so it’s hard these days to hear the word of God. We’ve pierced your soul, it’s hard to find joy. It’s hard to see things the way you once saw them. Now you have bitterness and cynicism where you once had hope. You’re Malchus with his ear on the ground...
Thankfully, Jesus is still in the business of doing what he did so many years ago. How many believers and unbelievers have endured harm at the hands of an aggressive and misinformed disciple of Jesus? How many have endured harm from those who are bearing the name of Jesus but wielding swords of their own fury and personal brokenness? It’s incredibly good news for those of us who have bloodied ears. Jesus even fixes what his disciples break.
So, there is a word for you this morning. That wasn’t Jesus who lopped off your ear. That wasn’t Jesus who did that. It was one of his misguided followers. It was someone doing something in the name of Jesus that didn’t bear the fruit of Jesus. It may be hard to accept…it’s a tough journey…but know that Jesus does heal. He fixes what his disciples break...
But we’re also Peter in this story. We know that Jesus is gentle and lowly. We know that when a hoard of evil-doers comes after His kingdom that he’s likely to turn the other cheek instead of ball up his fist. And so we fain asking for permission while we swing our swords. After all, the kingdom must be protected. When the gentle and lowly Jesus is attacked we assume it He who is vulnerable and not our own conceptions of Him, so we go into attack mode. We think we’re defending Jesus but really we’re defending our own insecurities.
It’s telling that only a few hours after this attack will Peter actually deny the very One he claimed to be protecting. It’s always easier to fight for Jesus than it is to follow Him to the Cross. When Peter himself was exposed and endangered at the hands of a mere servant girl he couldn’t bear his position. So he denied Christ.
When the rooster crows, Peter remembers pain and grace. Pain from his own foolish disobedience. Pain from his pride. Pain from his own betrayal. But grace from the one who touched Peter at the very core of his being and restored him. Grace to call such a betrayer to further kingdom by stooping and feeding lowly sheep and not lopping off ear lobes.
When he touches his intact ear lobe, Malchus remembers pain and grace. Pain from the hands of a Jesus-follower. Yes, even pain from being on the side of Judas. Pain from one bearing a sword in the name of the crucified. But grace from the One who heals even those on the betrayer’s side.
We’re probably all a mixture of Peter and Malchus. At times we’re the ones doling out the pain—at other times we’re the ones receiving. At times both are present even in the same action. But one thing in common, we need and receive Jesus and his healing.
Jesus heals what his followers break, even if it’s their own hearts.
Here’s my ear, Lord.
Here’s my sword.