the American novelist, if Scott Fitzgerald, who once famously said there are no second acts in American public life. By that he meant, if you fail, you're done. That's it. If you fall off the high wire, there's no net and you're done. I think he was wrong, I think. In America, we love a scandal, oh, we love a scandal. All I have to do is say, Tiger Woods and Woods or Wood, I'm not a big golf fan, Woods or Wood. Okay. We are following the scandal. Okay. Tiger Woods, yes, well, we love a scandal, but I think we also love to see it come back. We love to see a second act. We love to see people who come back from a great fall. Think of what we've just seen in recent, well, somewhat recent memory for some of you were born. Whereas King James would say, when some of you yet were not, Richard Nixon had the most public humiliating fall from public office in American history, and in his later years, it was widely regarded that he really was a brilliant statesman, especially an expert in foreign policy. Bill Clinton had his very public scandal and yet today, many people consider him to be high on their list of people that they look to as a great political leader. We've seen Tiger Woods. I think it remains to be seen what's going to happen with him. Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina, Senator John Ensign of Nevada, Governor Elliott, Spitzer New York, all these men who've fallen from grace. I think the jury is out on John Edwards, whether he can ever recover from the insult that he has given to his wife and his family. Fitzgerald said, there are no second acts in American life. There are second acts in the gospel. There are comebacks in the gospel. I'm going to read about one this morning, John 21 for 15 to 25. John writes, when they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you truly love me more than these? Yes, Lord, he said, you know that I love you. Jesus said, feed my lambs. Again, Jesus said, Simon, son of John, do you truly love me? He answered, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. Jesus said, take care of my sheep. The third time he said to him, Simon, son of John, do you love me? Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, do you love me? He said, Lord, you know all things. You know that I love you. Jesus said, feed my sheep. I tell you the truth, when you were younger, you dressed yourself and went where you wanted. When you are old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go. Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, follow me. Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved was following them. This was the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper and had said, Lord, who is going to betray you? Peter saw him, he asked, Lord, what about him? Jesus answered, if I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me. Because of that, the rumors spread among the brothers that this disciple would not die. Jesus did not say that he would not die. He only said if I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down. We know that his testimony is true. Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that could be written. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you again for the word, the written word, the sacred, inspired, infallible, and errant record of what you did in the acts of redemption throughout history, and especially in the incarnation of your Son Jesus. The grass withers in the flower falls, but the word of our God abides forever. This word is living and active, but we pray that you would make us as alive and responsive to it. My Father, this day, may ask you to take these words and to use them to mold us and to shape us and conform us more into the image of the living Word Jesus and whose name I pray. Amen. The gospel is about redemption. It's the very courts, a heartbeat of redemption that throughout time he is for God, for his glory, for his good purposes, called out for himself of people, redeemed out for himself of people. The Bible is the story of the redemption of God's people, for his honor and his glory. Through the power of the gospel, enemies become friends, persecutors become believers, masters and slaves become brothers in Christ. Particle sons are welcomed home by their long, suffering fathers, and a denier becomes a disciple again. Moreover, he becomes a leader of the other disciples again. The gospel is about restorations, about redemption, forgiveness, mercy and grace. A holy God reaches out to fallen men and makes them children of God. This passage is one of the most beautiful, most powerful images of redemption, restoration and all the Bible. This passage, we're shown that through the power of Christ, he enables us to serve him. He enables us to serve him regardless. No matter what, he enables us to serve him. Go back to verse 15. When they had finished eating, now the timing here is this. This week, we looked at breakfast by the sea of Galilee, breakfast with Jesus, hasn't been had been at fishing all night, caught nothing, Jesus is on the shore, they don't know who it is. He says, put the next down on the other side, cast your nest to starboard and they catch all these fish. When they come in, they have breakfast with Jesus, and then John says, when they had finished eating, we don't know how much longer. Could have been a few minutes, could have been a couple of hours, but some time has passed. When I get the impression, and we don't know for sure, I get the impression that maybe Jesus has asked Peter, Peter come take a walk with me. I think he's probably separated Peter out from the other disciples, for him to ask these questions, because I think it would have been excruciatingly painful for Peter. Had Jesus asked in these questions in front of the others, not explained that just a second. Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you truly love me more than these? Do you truly love me more than these? Now, the grammar and the structure of the sentence leaves it a little bit ambiguous as to what he means by this. There are really three possible things Jesus can mean by that. Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? Do you, Peter, do you love me more than you love these guys? Do you love me more than you love them? It's possible. Remember the setting? We're about to see a gallery. It'd been a fished all night, Peter was a fisherman, and in a time of distress and uncertainty Peter said, I'm going back to what I know, wasn't going fishing, and they'd gone with him. Given the context, it's possible that Jesus could be saying, Peter, do you love me more than these, pointing to the boat, and the net, and fishing here? Peter, do you love me more than you love your fishing? It's possible. The third possibility, Peter, do you love me more than these guys love me? Do you love me more than they do? And in the context of what we have here, I think that it's almost certain that that's what he means, Peter, do you love me even more than these guys love me? Then he asked him three times, three times, which makes me ask the question, why did he pull Peter out, and why did he ask him three times, and why did he change the wording a little bit? Let me explain that to you. Your NIV, and that's the translation we use here, and your NIV has him saying, Simon's son of John, do you truly love me more than these, and he says, yes Lord, you know I do, well feed my lambs. Then he asked him again, Simon's son of John, do you truly love me more than these and he says, yes Lord, and Jesus will tell my sheep, take care of my sheep. Then there's a third time when he says, Simon, do you love me? You know, as your NIV leaves out the word truly, Simon, do you love me more than these? And then Peter's hurt. Now scholars make a bit out of the fact that the first two times Jesus asks him, do you love me? The reason NIV says truly love me, he uses the Greek word agape. If you know any Greek words at all, you might know that word agape. He's come down to us from the Gospels as the word that means sacrificial, selfless kind of love. And that's an excellent translation of it. The third time he asked the word, asked the question, do you love me? He uses the word full out. Now you may not really know that word that well, but you might know about a filial kind of love, a brotherly kind of love. Philadelphia is the city of brotherly love. That's what it means. I know if you've ever been there, boy, you just feel that brotherly love, just exuding from the people. If you're from Philadelphia, don't be offended, but you know what I'm talking about. I mean, they booed Santa Claus at a football game one time. I mean, Philadelphia is a brotherly kind of love. So Jesus goes from to you agape, love me, to do you filetto, love me. And a lot of people make a big deal out of that. As though Jesus said to him the first time, do you truly, truly love me? And Peter says, yes, Jesus didn't satisfy, so it moves to third time. Well, do you at least love me like a brother? And that's why Peter's hurt and he says, Lord, you know, I do. That's possible. But I don't think that's what's going on here. I'll tell you why. I've got to be a little bit technical with you to stay with me on this because those words agape and filetto, they get used interchangeably throughout the scriptures, especially in John's gospel. Like in John chapter 3 and verse 35, Jesus speaking straight after John 3, 16, forgot so love the world. They gave his only son, whoever would believe in him, but not parish, but have everlasting life. In that same discourse where Jesus is talking to Nicodemus, Jesus says to Nicodemus, the father loves the son with an agape, love, and has placed everything in his hands. The father loves the son with an agape, love. And then in John chapter 5 and verse 20, Jesus says, for the father loves the son with a filet, oh, kind of love. The father loves the son with a filet, oh, love, and he shows him all that he does. They're used pretty much interchangeably. I don't think Peter's hurt because Jesus uses agape a couple of times in filetto, and we have to keep in mind, too, if you're still with me, I know it's kind of technical. Jesus and Peter may very well have been speaking in Aramaic. What was there of native language, and John is translated in Greek for us, that's possible too. Now, if you're not lost all together, what that means is there are two kinds of love on you here, but I don't think it's what Peter's heard. I think Peter's heard because Jesus is asking three times, and then it's brought back to Peter's mind, something else that happened three times, not long ago. Some weeks before that, I'm going to write that Jesus was betrayed and arrested and handed over to be tried and scourged and crucified. Three times Peter had denied Jesus, took up a servant girl and an old man. I don't even know who he is. I don't even know the man you're talking about. And I think when Jesus is asking those three times, it brought back to Peter's mind, he has threefold denial. There are three questions which would remind you of three denials, but there's also three opportunities here for redemption and for restoration. Three questions, three denials, three opportunities to be restored to what he had been before. Trivia question, does the name Lazlo Toth mean anything to anybody in here? If you raise your head, I'm going to call on you. Lazlo Toth, going once, going twice, I would have been stunned if he knew who he was. But you might know about something he did on May 21st, 1972, and the young people were saying, there's even a planet back there. May 21st, 1972, Lazlo Toth, an Austrian born, Australian geologist, was touring the Vatican. He came to Michelangelo's Pieta, the statue of Mary holding Jesus, Lazlo Toth, the geologist took out a geologist's hammer and he attacked the Pieta and he hit it 15 times causing significant damage to a priceless work of art. 15 times before the curator and the security of the museum surrounding grabbed him and took him away. I think I am Jesus, I am Jesus, and he thought that statue shouldn't be there. You know what they did? They looked at the Pieta, this priceless masterpiece. They hauled it up on a cart and it took it out back and they threw it in the dumpster. It's not what they did. Come on guys, if I say to you a straight face, will you believe me? You know that's not what they did, no, they hauled him away. They put him away in the place where let's just say the ha ha hotel for a while, okay? It took him away for a while, but as a technical term, they took him away, but the Pieta, no they took six months and they had master artisans loving and restored why? Because it's a masterpiece. It's a masterpiece that had been attacked and defaced and defamed. It had been vandalized because the master piece given to us by the master artist, what's the Pieta got to do with anything? Whatever you've done in your life that has defaced and stored and vandalized the image of God and whose image you are made, whatever has been done to you to distort and deface and vandalize that image in you, whatever has happened to you, whatever you've done to yourself, do you think God will then put you on the cart, take you out back and throw you in the dumpster? You're a masterpiece, whether you know it or not, whether you sense it, whether you feel it or not, you're created by the master craftsman when the artist who restored the Pieta and putting it back together, they found something they had never seen before that on an underside of it where nobody had ever seen before, there was an M from Michelangelo, the artist, they had never noticed, in every cell of your body, in your DNA there's a signature, God almighty, you're made in this image, no matter what's happening, no matter what you've done to yourself, he offered you a chance of redemption, restoration, do you love him? Peter was asked three times, Peter, do you love me? Do you love him? Do you love him? Do you love him? Then he offered you a chance of redemption, restoration, he forgives you, he restored you, he said, Lord, you know all things, you know that I love you and Jesus said, feed my sheep. Jesus gives Peter a threefold commission here, you love me yes, feed my sheep, you love me yes, take care of or tend my sheep, my lambs, do you love me yes and feed my sheep? I told you this before but I'll remind you again that the word pastor comes down to us from the Latin, it means shepherd, that's what the word pastor means, I mean shepherd, pastor is a shepherd of a flock, my job is a pastor, I do a lot of different things but my primary calling is to tend the flock, happens to be here at Campbell Presbyterian Church, to tend the flock, how do I do that, will I do it in prayer? The shepherd's tools is crooked and staff if you will are prayer and minister of the word. So my primary implement or tools for shepherd and flock are to pray for you and to teach you the word of God, to preach to the word of God, to counsel and the word of God, to listen to you as you tell me of your problems and your woes and then to reflect back to you what God's word would have to say to you, you on my opinion, I'll grade, I can give you my opinion, everybody's got one right, you don't come here for my opinion as wise and profound as my opinions are, you come, what are you laughing at? You come here to hear what God's word has to say and to hear as I try with all my heart's own mind to preach to you faithfully the word of God and to apply it faithfully to your deepest needs and your deepest wants and desires. Peter took this very seriously, he took this to heart, Peter loud mouthed, branched Peter, put in mouth always talking to you big and making a fool out of himself when he had been restored later on. He took very much to heart what Jesus has told him, this is what he wrote, Peter wrote two letters first and second Peter, this is what he writes, the first what we call first Peter chapter five verses one through four, these are words of me, a great deal to me, it does every elder in this place as well, to the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder Peter calls himself our fellow elder, a witness of Christ's sufferings and one who also will share in the glory to be revealed. These shepherds of God's flock is under your care, sharing his overseers, not because you must, because you're willing, this guy wants you to be, not greedy for money, but eager to serve, not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock and when the chief shepherd appears you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away. Peter the shepherd, Peter the elder, later on becomes Peter the writer, leaves those precious words, FF Bruce, he's come John, love his come John, the gospel John says, Jesus told Peter to put away the fisherman's hook and trade it for the shepherd's crook, put away the fisherman's hook and take for himself the shepherd's crook, and you need another somebody else involved in the story here, we're going to pick it up in a minute with the disciple whom Jesus loved with John, John's trailing behind close enough to at least hear what's going on, John doesn't feature his prominently in the book of acts known in church history as the figure of John the elder, he doesn't figure his prominently as Peter, Peter was the leader of the early church, but just like Peter John is an apostle, he is an elder, he's a writer, and where would we be in the church today without John's gospel? I think it's probably the most beloved of the gospels, without the gospel of John, that first, second and third John, those little pistols or letters changed my life as he un-Christian made it change years and the revelation which has stumped and mystified us for two thousand years, what did he mean by those visions? When will the bear rise up and the eagle will attack it and God will come and make it? Anyway, I don't know, but where will we be without John's writings? You see, Christ gives us the ability to serve him no matter what, but he calls us to serve in such different ways, and this is Peter ministered life and grace to those around him, John's writings of ministered life and grace, countless thousands of millions, even billions by now, where he called you to serve? Peter had one calling, John had another, both called, where is he called you to serve? What is he called you to do? He's the old saying you've heard him before, the great, the will of God will not lead you where the grace of God cannot keep you? What is he called you to do? And where is he called you to serve? Peter served his Lord as an apostle, as an elder, as a shepherd, as a writer, so did John. The redeeming, restoring power of Christ enables us to serve him, enables us to follow him no matter what. This is where Jesus tells Peter, words he probably didn't want to hear. I tell you the truth, we're safety, when you were younger, you dressed yourself, weren't where you wanted and you're old, you will stretch out your hands, someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go. Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God, and then he said to him, follow me, follow me, it's a present imperative, it means keep on following me, keep on following me, Peter, no matter what, legend has it, we don't really know, but legend pretty well it says it has this, Peter was crucified in Rome in the year 64 AD, and he died, as his Lord and Savior Jesus had died, Peter the man who had denied his Lord before a couple of certain girls, and an old man, he witnessed a good confession for Roman soldiers and Roman authorities and other hostels, and then Peter after these words, he turned and saw the disciple in Jesus' love was following him, this was the one who leaned back against Jesus at the severance that the Lord is going to betray, we know this is John's code name for himself, Peter saw it, said Lord, what about him? Jesus says to him, if I want him to remain like a Mac, what does that do you follow me? In Greek that is mindeth thine own beeswax Peter, mind your own business Peter, I'll give you your story, he's got a different one, don't compare, comparisons are deadly folks, comparisons are deadly, there's always someone around who has a lot better than you, if you focus on that you can become envious and resentful, there's always somebody around who's got a lot worse than you, if you focus on that you can either have false guilt, or you can become smug that God likes me better than you, comparisons can be deadly folks, when I was going to physical therapy on a daily and weekly basis that mind me physical therapy associates in coconut grove, and I would often take the train, if I focused on those around me, I could very easily say now why am I in a wheelchair and you're all okay, why me and not you, let me say by the way I have a very short list of people, yeah I'll say well I wouldn't wish this on anybody else, I have a short list of people that they got in transfers, my life is instead of me, it would have been okay, they have first names like Fidel and Mahmoud and Osama, if March of 99, if they'd gotten this instead of me that'd be all right, but if I focused on the people around me on the train and crossing 27th avenue, crossing US 1 or 27th avenue, a death-defying feat, and if I'd focused on them, why me and not them, I could have gotten envious in resemble, and then I'd go through the doors of that clinic, and I'd go into a clinic full of people, probably on any given day about a third of them would have given anything to be me, a lot of them were kids, and I would say you know I don't have a problem in the world, comparisons are deadly folks, if you focus on the ones without it, better than you can become envious in resemble, focus on the ones that don't have it as good as you, become smug and self-righteous or deal a false guilt. Why did Jesus allow or send Peter to a brutal violent death, and let John lid to be an old man, John was the only one of the original 12 who lived to be an old man, the rest all died violent deaths, Judas killed himself, the other 10 were martyred, and then John lid to be an old man, he suffered greatly, beating the scourgeings and the cast out of the synagogue, I'll exile on the island of Patmosa, I understand it's a wretched forsaken piece of rock where he had the revelation, but John lid to be an old man, spent his final days around Christians and Ephesus, why one and not the other, I don't know, it's God's business, it's God's business, he's got a different plan for each of us, why does he allow or send to you what you're dealing with, your affliction, your illness, your pain, your sorrow, your loss, of your husband, your wife, your parent, your child, why is he sent to you and that somebody, I don't know, he allows us to follow him, he enables us to follow him no matter what, regardless, he enables us to serve him, he enables us to follow him, he enables us to glorify him no matter what, Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God, and then he said to him, follow me, Peter said your life's going to be poured out for others in my name, and then you're going to die a violent death at the hands of violent men, just like me, Peter, just like me, you're going to glorify me by dying the same way I did, and I can imagine Peter thinking, I can't do it, I can't do that, I denied you three times, the night you were being taken away to be crucified, I can't do it, Peter couldn't do it until the resurrected Christ touched him and restored him, three questions, three denials, three opportunities for restoration, so Peter could become the disciple even, the leader of the disciples before, is there anything you can do, so horrible and so wretched, the God can't use you anymore, is there anything you can do that will put you beyond the reach of the grace of God, now some of you think that there is, and yet some are aware of the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, it's a separate category, is there anything you can do, is there anything you can do that God won't use you, put you beyond the reach of the grace of God, answer my friends as no, because the grace of God is bigger than the sins of any man, or a young person, grace of God is bigger than the sin of any person, if you don't believe that, you are either underestimating the grace of God, you're overestimating your own sins, my name's St. Tim Cohen, no relation, likes to say it this way, the bad news is you're more simple than you've ever dared to imagine, good news is you're more loved than you'd ever dared to hope, and that's the good news of the gospel, and then John says, this is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down, we know that his testimony is true, Jesus did many other things as well, if every one of them were written down, I suppose even the whole world would not have room for the books that could be written, allow for that to be a figure of speech folks, they used hyperbole and superlatives the same way we do, although we know about some of the things Jesus did here in the Incarnation, not all of it, imagine if John had been proving to all the acts of creation that Jesus the Lord of creation had done throughout the entire universe, you know, that would overwhelm the world, that would overwhelm us, Frederick Layman wrote this, could we with ink the ocean fill, and were the skies of parchment made, were every stock on earth a quill and every man ascribed by trade, to write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry, nor could the scroll contain the whole, the stretch from sky to sky. John's given us an incredible insight into the Incarnation, the minister of Christ, he didn't begin to scratch the surface, he said, I'm just giving you a snapshot of thumbnail, there's so much more that I couldn't begin to write it all down if I did it would overwhelm the world, and he ends up giving us Peter's story, Peter's story, it's my story, I've defaulted myself out of serving Christ, I don't know how many times, it's my story, maybe it's your story too, it's his redemption, restoration through the redeeming the story in power of Christ, there are second acts, not just in American life, in human life, there are second acts, there are comebacks, there is redemption, restoration through the power of Christ, he enables us, he enables us to serve him, he enables us to follow him, he enables us to glorify him, regardless, let's pray together, brother I know my own heart, the times that if my attitudes and my thoughts were made known would have scandalized everyone around me, I know my sins, I also know your grace which is greater than my sins, now father there's somebody here today, there's a man here who thinks he's done something that you could never forgive, there's a woman here who harbors some secret shame that she thinks could never ever be made right, there's a young person here who thinks that he or she is already defiled himself in such a way you could never use him again or her again, father I pray this day that this word will go out into each and every one of our hearts down to our various souls and remind us that your grace is greater than our sin, there are second acts and third and fourth and 20th and 100th, through the grace of God may manifest from the cross of Christ that we can be made new, made whole, new creatures in Christ, for that you would apply that grace to our hearts this very day, it's my prayer in Jesus' name, I'm in it, I remember.