Aaron Capito
For more than a year, our students have walked through the Gospel of John. They watched Jesus heal, teach, disciple, confront, die, and rise. This week was the final message in the series.
The question at the center: when the story is over, what does Jesus want to leave His people with? Matthew gives us the Great Commission, Jesus' charge to go and make disciples. John gives us a conversation between Jesus and Peter. Jesus asks one question, "Do you love me?" Then He gives one command: "Follow me." Loving Jesus is more than words. Our talk has to match our walk.
Passages: John 21:15-25
The message opened with a familiar feeling: finishing a long show like The Office, or a movie like Avengers: Endgame that wraps up years of stories. When it ends, we wonder what happens to the characters after the cameras turn off. John's Gospel ends too. But Jesus' account ending does not mean His commission ended. It still stands today.
After breakfast on the shore, Jesus speaks one-on-one with Peter. Their friendship was close but complicated. Jesus had named him Petros, Greek for "rock," and marked him as a key leader in the future church. Yet in John 18, Peter denied Jesus three times, and it wrecked him.
Jesus asks, "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?" (This John is Peter's father, not the apostle.) "These" points to Peter's old fishing life and the friends around him. In other words: Am I your priority?
Jesus asks three times, matching Peter's three denials. He does not rebuke or correct Peter. He does not say, "You passed, you can be my disciple again." Each time Peter answers, Jesus gives him work:
Jesus gives Peter restoration and responsibility at the same time. His failure did not cancel his role.
Notice the pattern. Jesus never says "feed my sheep" without first asking "do you love me?" No one can feed the sheep without first loving the Shepherd.
Students were reminded that many of them carry things they are embarrassed about: a lie, words they regret, someone they treated badly, a season they drifted. They may think God could never use them now. Look at Peter. He denied Jesus three times, and Jesus still came looking for him. Jesus did not ask, "Peter, have you been perfect?" He asked, "Peter, do you love me?"
By the third question, Peter is grieved: "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you."
The leader shared a story from his own childhood. When his dad sensed something was wrong, he would ask, "What's wrong?" The answer was always "Nothing." His dad kept asking. Eventually the frustration or the tears came out: "Dad, I told you I'm fine." Persistence brought the truth to the surface. Jesus does the same with Peter.
Each question drives the nail further. Peter likely did not trust himself anymore. Jesus makes sure Peter knows his failure does not define him. Christ defines him. On his own merit, Peter was not enough, and neither are we. Because of Christ in us, we become enough. He takes us and shapes us into His children.
In verses 18-19, Jesus tells Peter what kind of death he will die to glorify God: "you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go." Peter was later crucified. Church history holds that he was crucified upside down because he did not feel worthy to die the same way as his Lord. Peter likely did not understand Jesus' words in the moment, but they surely echoed at the end of his life.
So the question deepens. If our answer is "yes, I love you," Jesus follows up: Even when it costs you everything?
Peter's arc in John shows a new beginning:
That is our story too. We have all failed Jesus, doubted we were good enough, and wondered if He really loves us. He stays right beside us anyway. He does not promise it gets easier. He does promise that even in death we can glorify God.
Students heard plainly: you may not die for your faith, but you could. You may not suffer for your faith like believers in Nigeria, but you could. Following Jesus is still worth it. Jesus is mightier than our sin. He defeated it on the cross. Jesus is mightier than death. He rose from it. What else does He have to prove?
Peter turns, sees John, and asks, "Lord, what about this man?" Jesus' answer, in short: focus on yourself. Peter had always been comparative. He wanted to know who was greatest and how things would shake out. He had just received his mission, and his first move was to ask about someone else's.
We do the same. We get jealous of someone, worried about someone, or bitter toward someone over what God has given them. God's plan for each of His children may be unique, but the different roads lead to the same destination: eternity.
The leader shared his own story. In college, he interviewed for a role on a university's spiritual development team. The interviews went well, and he was affirmed as the right man for the job. Then he was told no: the right man in the wrong season. It hurt, mostly because the decision was out of his hands. Around the same time that door closed, the door to serving here at Landmark opened. Two years later, he sees that trusting the Lord's plan was hard, but the more he focused on what God set before him and less on the doors God closed, the more he understood God's purpose.
The takeaway: spend more time on your own commission than wishing God had given you someone else's, in mission and in life circumstances.
A rumor spread that John would not die before Jesus returned. John corrects it: Jesus only said, "If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?" Then John identifies himself as the disciple in the story and the eyewitness who wrote it down. His testimony is true.
The Gospel closes by saying that if everything Jesus did were written down, the world itself could not contain the books. That line means two things:
Imagine a church bold enough to be loud and proud about what Jesus has done in their lives. That is the charge from the end of John: go and tell what Jesus has done. Our students are young, but if they are born-again believers (people who have trusted Christ and received new life from Him), Jesus has already done so much in them. He has forgiven them and given them His Spirit, so they can have joy in any circumstance and confidence to tell others who need it. Their testimonies are new pages in the story of what Jesus is still doing to save the world.
So we keep being faithful: listening for what the Lord wants for our lives, loving Him and keeping His commandments, and telling everyone we can through our words and actions.
These are the questions students discussed in small groups, with the answer the message pointed toward.
A few easier openers if you want to start smaller: