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The Gospel of John, The Epilogue Part VI, John 21:20-25 - Lesson 208
Peter was now restored because of Jesus Christ and he was told by what manner of death he should glorify God.
Jesus then told Peter "Follow me" which means to be in the same way with Jesus Christ.
This was not just a command to get up and follow Jesus Christ because he was now going to some new place.
No, this was a command to Peter that his new life was to be a life of following Christ who is the way.
That is to be typical for a disciple of Christ.
Jesus Christ had denied himself and had allowed himself to be crucified.
He had gone the way of the cross and he now tells Peter to Follow him.
Follow me Peter in the way of the cross.
This is the beginning and the end of the Christian life.
We are to deny ourself and be crucified with Christ if we follow him.
We are to be conformed to his death.
Deny yourself-take up your cross and follow me.
Deny yourself means to say no to your will and say yes to God's will.
Thy will be done, not my will but thy will.
The Lord had a specific life of service for Peter.
He had a specific life for each one of his disciples as well as a specific life for each of those who follow him.
No two lives are to be the same in Jesus Christ.
But all lives are to be following Jesus Christ.
John 21:20,21 Then Peter, turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved following; which also leaned on his breast at supper, and said, Lord, which is he that betrayeth thee? Peter seeing him saith to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do?
How soon we stumble.
Here was Peter fully restored to communion with Christ and now called to follow him.
Following requires ones eyes to be fixed on the one being followed.
Peter immediately took his eyes off Christ and curiosity caught him.
He now knew what his future held but that was not enough for Peter.
Peter turned about and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved, the same disciple who asked the Lord which is he that betrayeth thee.
This was John the writer of this Gospel.
Peter, Andrew, James and John were partners in the fishing business and were from the same town, Bethsaida.
Most likely they grew up together.
Jesus called these four to follow him at the same time.
Peter, James and John were his inner circle.
Peter and John gradually paired off as they were told to go out two by two.
They were sent to prepare the passover, they sat next to each other at the Last Supper, Peter and John were the first toenter the tomb where Jesus was lain and just before this event John told Peter it was the Lord on the shore of the Galilee.
Peter and John were close and since the Lord told Peter of his death it was natural of Peter to ask about John.
What about John?
What is going to happen to John?
What shall John do?
Simon said this. Jesus had bidden Peter to follow him but the Simon of Peter took over.
The battle of the flesh of Simon, the natural man and the spirit of Peter, the spiritual man was still fiery.
If Peter had been told of his future why not John?
Peter was concerned about his friend and naturally asked of his future.
But the Lord did not need to discuss John's future.
Peter had no need to know.
Notice the action of John when Jesus told Peter to follow him.
John immediately got up and followed Jesus.
John did not need the same discussion that Peter needed.
John seemed to understand without being told while Peter always had to be told.
Peter was the kind that always had to know what was going on.
Jesus here in this passage says you don't always need to know what is going on.
If you know things you don't need to know will that help or hurt your service to the Lord Jesus Christ?
Usually you don't get all the information you need to make a proper conclusion so it is best not to know anything you don't need to know.
So Jesus rebukes Peter for asking.
John records in John 21:22, Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me.
Follow thou me Peter.
Get your eyes on me and not John.
John has his mission and you have your mission.
Both are based upon my will.
Both require following me.
Paul caught the spirit of Peter when he wrote to the Corinthians in:
2 Cor 10:12 For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.
Too much curiosity about other servants of Christ will cause us to compare ourselves among ourselves.
That will affect our devotion and our service to the Lord.
If the Lord gives us a row to hoe we must stick to that row and not adjust our hoeing by the actions of another.
Do we measure ourselves among ourselves and adjust accordingly.
Do we cause others to adjust to our slovenly ways.
Don't make me look bad! I'm doing just as much as anyone else!
In other words a servant of God is to mind his own business and not gear his loyalty and devotion to that of other servants of God.
There is only so much time to serve Christ and there is no time allotted to mind the business that others are appointed to mind.
There was no reason for Peter to know the future of John.
It was simply idle curiosity with no benefit to the cause of Christ.
Paul captured this in 1 Th 4:11 when he wrote: And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you;
When Peter asked about John's future Jesus said Follow thou me which means emphatically, Peter! You follow me!
Jesus Christ deals with each Christian individually in ways that other believers may not understand and about which they should not ask questions.
John 21:23, Then went this saying abroad among the brethren, that that disciple should not die: yet Jesus said not unto him, He shall not die; but, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?
This incident started a rumor.
People love rumors much more than truth.
And rumors that are farfetched are loved even more so.
Word was soon circulating that John was not going to die, even though that was not what Jesus had said.
They took as a factual statement a supposition that had been said by Jesus Christ.
They interpreted from that, that Christ's second coming would be in their own and John's generation.
John wrote this Gospel after 50 years had passed and the rumor was still in circulation.
John's great age gave it the greater credence but John by mentioning it here wishes to state exactly what Jesus said.
In this, John teaches that the exact word of God is to be believed and not the traditions or suppositions of men.
We are not to accept the sayings of men without studying the word to see if that is so.
We are to be as the Bereans who were noble because they searched the scriptures daily, whether those things that Paul preached were so.
John 21:24, This is the disciple which testifieth of these things, and wrote these things: and we know that his testimony is true.
John comes to the end of his Gospel and in effect validates his Gospel.
John is a credible witness.
He had been with Jesus from the beginning of his public ministry.
He was his cousin and had known him for years.
He was always at his side, close to his heart.
He was loyal throughout, from beginning to end.
He was an eyewitness of the manifestation of God in human flesh.
For fifty years he had stored up the sayings of Jesus Christ.
He had been in on the beginning of the church.
He had followed its progress and suffered for the cause of Christ, and he had supported and preached Christ's doctrines.
John had known all the principal men in this great age.
He had now taken pen to paper and under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit had written this Gospel.
He wrote these things and says without contradiction that his testimony is true.
What he wrote was inerrant, God breathed scripture, a testimony of Jesus Christ that is to be believed.
Concluding Verse: John 21:25, And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen.
God has so blessed us with a single inerrant book that is manageable to the human frame.
John tells us of the magnificence of the life of Jesus Christ.
His Gospel scratches the surface of his life and if all of his life was recorded the world itself could not contain the books.
God knows our capacity for knowledge and he has compressed into one book what we need to know.
Most of us can barely manage the one book in our lives and we many times neglect the one book that He has given us.
But even though he has only given one book, that book is sufficient for us to occupy our lives in its study.
Its depths are un-fathom-able and will never be reached.
We may study without any limits except what our own weak faith imposes.
A man named Schaff wrote:
Though but little has been written on the life of Christ by the Evangelists, that little is of more account than all the literature of the world, and has been more productive of books, as well as thoughts and deeds, than any number of biographies of sages and saints of ancient and modern times. The Gospels, and the Bible generally, rise like Mount Ararat high above the flood of literature; they are the sacred library for all nations, the literary sanctuary for scholars and the the common people; they combine word and work, letter and spirit, earth and heaven, time and eternity.
In conclusion of our study listen to this concluding excerpt from Bishop Ryle's exposition of the Gospel of John
Reader, I have now set before thee thy Savior the Lord Jesus Christ, that very Son of God, who was begotten of the Father by an eternal and ineffable generation, consubstantial (of the same substance), and coequal with the Father in all things;-but in these last times, according to prophetical oracles, was incarnate for us, suffered, died, rose again from the dead, and was made King and Lord of all things. This is He who is appointed and given to us by God the Father, as the fullness of all grace and truth, as the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world, as the ladder and door of heaven, as the serpent lifted up to render the poison of sin harmless, as the water which refreshes the thirsty, as the bread of life, as the light of the world, as the redeemer of God's children, as the shepherd and door of the sheep, as the resurrection and the life, as the corn of wheat which springs up into much fruit, as the conqueror of the prince of this world, as the way, the truth, and the life, as the true vine, and finally, as the redemption, salvation, satisfaction, and righteousness of all the faithful in all the world, throughout the ages. Let us therefore pray God the Father, that, being taught by His Gospel, we may know Him that is true, and believe in Him in whom alone is salvation; and that, believing, we may feel God living in us in this world, and in the world to come may enjoy His eternal and most blessed fellowship. Amen and Amen. |