The Things Jesus Did

Transcript

I don’t know about you, but for me it’s actually somewhat sad to reach the end of this study. It’s been a sweet time of being with Jesus, of hearing from Jesus, of looking closely at the way that he loved and served and walked with and taught and performed miracles. His kindness, his grace. And so I’m kind of sad to be ending this study. We’ve had a chance to look closely at Jesus, have we not? To hear from him and to regularly be in awe of him, to learn from his example.

Now we arrive at the end. Our resurrected Lord, as you know if you were with us last week, just greeted seven of his disciples on a beach. And what he did when he greeted them was he didn’t berate them, he didn’t rebuke them for being cowardly and fearful and running away and hiding, but he called them back into fellowship. As he sees his disciples for the first time after the resurrection, after his crucifixion, he calls them back into fellowship, he feeds them breakfast, and then we saw last week that he restores and he recommissions Peter with kindness, with grace, with redirecting Peter’s attention back to what’s central for the disciple of Jesus, for the Christian, and that is a love of Jesus.

And so what we come to is how John after that scene ends his gospel account. So if you have your Bibles, I want to invite you to open them to John chapter 21 as we read these final verses beginning at verse 20. And if I could invite you to stand if you’re able for the reading of the word of God.

John 21, beginning at verse 20:

“Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them. The one who also had leaned back against him during the supper and had said, ‘Lord, who is it that’s going to betray you?’ When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, ‘Lord, what about this man?’ Jesus said to him, ‘If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me.’ So the saying spread abroad among the brothers that this disciple was not to die. Yet Jesus did not say to him that he was not to die, but ‘If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?’ This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things and who has written these things, and we know that his testimony is true. Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.”

This is the word of the Lord, saints. Thanks be to God. Please be seated.

Would you pray with me? Our gracious God, would you show us a picture of Jesus that will shape our worship, our walk, our witness. Lord, as we just sang in that wonderful hymn, would you turn our eyes upon Jesus this morning? We ask in his name. Amen.

Friend, what do you have to say about Jesus? Who do you say he is? As I say the name Jesus, does your mind instantly go to, he’s my Savior? Is he perhaps Lord, first and foremost, in your mind? When I ask you that question, do you think he’s my best friend? Looking beyond the personal relationship that a Christian would and should have with him, friend, do you maybe see him as a great teacher? When you consider Jesus, do you see a picture of mercy and compassion?

Do you think maybe, just maybe, that some of the broader world’s thinking about Jesus and what he taught or how he lived has influenced how you think about him? And the picture that you have in your mind when I ask you a question like, what do you have to say about Jesus? Is there maybe a picture in your mind of a great man of God, a picture of a gentle, kind-hearted nomad detached from the things of this world?

A lot of religions, a lot of spiritual movements, a lot of new age groups have a lot to say about Jesus. A lot of them have different ideas about who Jesus was, and often there’s a semblance of truth to those ideas, those claims. You hear things like he was a prophet, but he was so much more than just a mere prophet. You hear things like he was patient and he was kind to the outcasts of society, never rejecting anybody, always allowing room for the wayward and those who didn’t seem to fit in or belong in the religious establishment. And yes, he did do this, but never at the expense of speaking hard truths to these people.

You’ll hear that he was a great teacher, but he wasn’t merely just a wise man who thought deeply and who contemplated the things of God. Jesus never catered his teachings to his audience. He never backed down from a challenge with the religious leaders and the scholars of his time. You’ll hear that Jesus was a great man who lived an exemplary life, but Jesus was not just a man. Jesus was God—a very, very important distinction when speaking about Jesus.

Often when different religions or those coming from a non-Christian perspective speak about him, they’ll speak about him only in the past tense. “Jesus was blank.” But you see, beloved, Jesus is all of these things. And yet when we seek to describe him, when we seek to say all that he is, our words and our descriptions and our categories, they’re never quite sufficient to describe him, are they? And this is precisely the problem that John ran into as he came to the end of his writing of this incredible book. He sort of is flustered at the end and says if I tried to record everything, I never could.

So this is where we find ourselves as we look to the end of this book. We see this section where John is pointing us to Jesus and he wants us to see the things that Jesus did. And that’s the title of the sermon. First, in verses 20 through 23, I want us to look at the will of Jesus. Following that, in verses 24 and 25, we’ll see the works of Jesus.

As we studied the first 19 verses of this chapter last week, we saw the restoration of Peter—Jesus redeeming even his failure, Jesus redeeming even his three denials. The beautiful part of this is the fact that his restoration wasn’t this long, complicated, drawn-out process where Jesus is testing Peter in a variety of ways and saying, “Well, we need to allow for some time to pass before we can really see if Peter’s profession of faith and his proclamation of love is genuine and real.” No, it was just the Lord looking at his disciple and saying, “Peter, do you love me?” And that was it. Just Jesus seeing where Peter’s heart is, where his affections are.

And Peter was broken by this. He’s humbled, he’s brought low. But even in that moment of being just shattered under the weight of “How could I deny him?” Peter is so very loved by Jesus and he knows it. And yet as soon as Peter is restored, he takes one step towards Jesus. And when he hears those fateful words, “Follow me,” and he starts to take a step toward Jesus—and then, what does Peter do? He stops. He starts looking around at the other disciples, the broader scene. He takes his focus off of Jesus, and he starts looking around at everyone else and seeing what’s going on with everybody else.

Peter seemingly has the attention span of a goldfish. He’s still in the middle of this conversation. Jesus is still saying, “Peter, follow me. Do you love me? Are you ready to go after me? I’m calling you to a hard life.” “Yes, Lord, I love you. You know all things.” But wait. He’s just looking around and he’s engaging with everything else. Peter, why do you care what’s going on with John or anyone else for that matter, especially at this very moment? Why are you concerned with what God will do in and through anyone else? He just got done restoring you. He just got done forgiving you, making you whole.

J.C. Ryle, when he writes about this section of John’s gospel, writes the following in his commentary: “Peter had just received the most gracious restoration and the most solemn commission. And the first use he makes of it is to pry into his brother’s affairs.” “All right, you’re calling me into ministry? I guess I got to watch out for his soul now.”

Much like a lot of Peter’s life, we look at what he does or what he says and we’re amazed at how he could be so dense. And yet, aren’t we all a little bit like Peter? I know I am. There’s a reason he’s my favorite of the apostles—because I see so many of my own weaknesses and inadequacies and failures in him.

Saints, before we get too far into criticizing Peter, let’s acknowledge how we’re not all that much better than he is. Each of us, much like Peter, is prone to wander. Each of us, much like Peter, is prone to think about others and what they’re doing more than we think of ourselves, our conduct, our responsibilities. That’s exactly what Peter does here.

Peter’s restoration ends with Jesus saying the same thing that he said to him at the beginning of his ministry: “Follow me.” No sooner does Peter hear those words and start taking steps toward Jesus—truly in faith, because of a love of Jesus. He loves him. He wants to follow him. He wants to do the right thing. But he just gets maybe one step into that journey. “Well, what about him? What’s he supposed to be doing? Is he also going to have to have his hands stretched out?”—a euphemism for crucifixion. “Will he also have to suffer for you? Jesus, before I can keep going, I need to know that I’m not the only one that’s going to have a rough road. I want to have a better picture of what this whole following you thing looks like. Is that just all of us or is it just me? What’s your plan, Jesus? I need to know.”

Now was Peter asking about John out of concern for his friend? Was it just curiosity since John was always so close to Jesus, just like Peter was? Or could this have been an unhealthy bit of comparing himself to others? “Well, if I have to go down this tough road, what about this guy?” If it was that last reason, isn’t it fascinating that the conversation taking place during Peter’s restoration doesn’t even end before Peter starts being Peter again?

Now, saints, I think we have this idea that when a person is saved or forgiven or restored after a moral failure—a Christian who’s restored after a moral failure—then that means just a drastic 180 right away. But that’s not what we see here in our text. And I think we need to look at this and I think that this picture is recorded for us. This man that God would use in a mighty way—just jump ahead to Acts and start reading about how God starts using Peter—and he keeps tripping up. He keeps faltering. His faith is weak. He’s still thinking of himself. He’s still looking around at everybody else. He’s still not trusting Jesus.

And so this process of sanctification, of God chipping away at those sharp edges, of God making us more and more like Jesus, this is a process. Peter’s looking at Jesus. He’s still locked eyes with Jesus. And he can’t take his mind off of everything else going on around him. This is just like us.

Whatever the reason for his line of questioning, Jesus responds graciously: “Peter, that’s none of your concern.” “But if I’m going to suffer, why not him as well?” “Peter, that’s not your problem.” See, God’s plan for John’s life was a bit different than it was for Peter’s. John would be used by God in many ways. He would end up writing five books of the New Testament. He would invest into what God was doing using his gifts that God graciously gave to him, using the relationships that he acquired over the course of his ministry and apostleship. But history tells us that he’s actually the only one of the apostles who wasn’t martyred for his faith. And so God had a different path for John.

Now, John suffered in many, many ways, to be sure. Church tradition tells us that he actually had boiling oil poured all over his body as a form of punishment and to dissuade him from following Jesus and preaching the gospel. But he survived. And then he was exiled to the island of Patmos where he would continue to study and write and where he would ultimately receive that final revelation of Jesus which closes out our New Testament. But God willed that John would die of old age on that island. God didn’t want him to be martyred. God had a different plan.

But Peter needs to know if God’s will for John’s life, if God’s calling on John’s life is similar to his. You see, he’s still stuck in this comparison spiral. The plan of God for every disciple is different. The will of God for every disciple is primarily our sanctification, but the way that God accomplishes that is different. It may look different from the plan that he has for the person seated next to you.

And as we look around and we think about what God is doing in my life and how he’s using me and how he’s working to make me more like Jesus and to grow me, we look around and we think, “Man, that person has an easier life than me. Why does my journey have to be so hard? Why do I have to go through this trial and another trial and another trial and another loss? Why is my life so painful? Why is my life so uncomfortable?” And so we’re tempted to wonder why it is that some struggle, why others are more gifted, why others receive a different calling, why others are given different opportunities.

Comparing yourself to others, dear saints, just like it was with Peter, is essentially saying to God, “I’m not happy with where you have me. I’m not happy with how you’ve made me. You messed up. I wish your will was different. I don’t like what you’re doing.”

The thing is, dear saint, even in the midst of your struggle, even in the midst of your pain, even in the midst of your uncertainty and loss and confusion, God knows what he’s doing in and through you. God fashioned you in the way that he did for a reason. God wants to use you in that specific way. He knows how to use you for his glory. And that may not always be a pleasant journey, but God tells us that everything he does in the life of those who love him—don’t miss the fact that Jesus’ question was, “Do you love me?”—everything he does in the lives of those that love him are for their good.

So in response, Jesus says, “Peter, I know what I’m doing with you. And I know what I’m doing with John. These are my plans for each of you. You follow me. Don’t worry about John. I’ll take care of John. I’ll do what I need to with John in his life. You follow me.”

And so dear Christian, don’t be so focused on others. Have your eyes set on him. Don’t have your eyes wandering every which way on every other person so much that you lose your focus of Jesus. Be faithful to what God is calling you to. That’s what Jesus is graciously redirecting Peter to. Despite the fact that mere moments after Jesus restores him and forgives him, he’s distracted and thinking of stuff that’s none of his business. Jesus tells him, “Peter, I have my will for you and for him and for everyone else. I’m calling you. Trust me and follow me.”

And that’s what he’s saying to you and I this morning, saints. It’s not always easy to hear. There are times that I wish my life was going differently. But Jesus has called me in the midst of whatever trial I may find myself, in the midst of whatever pain, whatever confusion. “Andrey, follow me.”

And then the scene shifts from the will of Jesus for his disciples to the works of Jesus. Let me reread verses 24 and 25 for us:

“This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things and who has written these things. And we know that his testimony is true. Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.”

As John comes to the end of his book, this marvelous portion of scripture where he puts the beauty of Jesus on full display, he points to himself. It’s kind of odd. Why would he do that? And he says, “So that we may know that his testimony is true.” You see, we’ve talked about this a bunch over the course of our study, but it was very, very important to John that what he wrote about Jesus was heard and believed. He wasn’t just writing this as some religious artifact, as something to, you know, take up some time and just a personal project or an interest of his. He was writing this so that we may believe, so that he could be believed.

And consider what he writes in John 19

when he was speaking about Jesus’ crucifixion and the fulfillment of prophecy at that time. He writes in 19, “He who saw it has borne witness. His testimony is true and he knows that he is telling the truth that you also may believe.”

Or consider what he wrote in chapter 20 verses 30 and 31: “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples which are not written in this book, but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.”

He wants you and I to see the trustworthiness of this account, not so that we could trust John, not so that we could esteem John, not so that we could see him as more valuable among the disciples or more important. He’s writing these things so that we may believe in him of whom John writes. It’s all about Jesus. This book, John’s ministry, John’s life, John’s ultimate death—it’s all about Jesus. Everything. John is saying your very life depends on what you think of and believe about Jesus. “Look at what I’ve written of him. You can trust me. I was there. I saw it. I’m willing to die for this.”

So John is just emphatic that we need to see Jesus here. And if he could point to himself, even just for a second, it’s only for the purpose of saying, “I was there. I saw these things. I heard these things being spoken. What we have here in John’s gospel is the very truth of God. What we have is what we need to know about Jesus so that we might believe in him and in believing in him so that we might have life. This is what God saw fit to give us. This is what God saw fit to make his Son known and so that we might love the Son. It’s these things.” And John is writing that these things were recorded specifically for that purpose.

So what are these things? What is John referring to? I want to walk briefly through what these things are in the Gospel of John. What are these things?

It’s the proclamation of the Word becoming flesh and dwelling among us, as was recorded in the very beginning of this book. It’s John the Baptist’s testimony of the one whom his whole ministry pointed to, the one whose sandal he was unworthy to untie. And as he says in John 1

, “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”

It’s the calling of his disciples from their various walks of life. Him turning the water into wine at the wedding at Cana. Him cleansing the temple when he saw it being dishonored with commerce and trade instead of the worship that should have filled it. It’s the teaching on the need of the new birth and him telling us and Nicodemus, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life, for God did not send his son into the world to condemn it but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

It’s the unexpected and shocking salvation of the Samaritan woman. It’s the healing of the official’s son. It’s the healing of the handicapped man at the pool of Bethesda on the Sabbath and him showing that he is Lord of the Sabbath. It’s the feeding of the 5,000, the walking on water, the words of eternal life that he freely gave to all who would listen. It’s the challenging of the religious leaders and rebuking their sin and their hypocrisy. It’s the grace and the mercy extended to the woman caught in adultery. It’s the healing of the man born blind. It’s the fact that he is the good shepherd who never abandons his sheep. It’s the oneness with the Father. It’s the raising of Lazarus from the dead. The triumphal entry. The washing of the disciples’ feet.

The giving of this new commandment, as is recorded in John 13

and 35, “That you would love one another just as I have loved you. You also are to love one another. By this, all people will know that you are my disciples.” It’s the promise of the Helper, the Holy Spirit. It’s the last supper when he fed even the man who would betray him. It’s the high priestly prayer on behalf of all of his disciples for all time, including us. It’s the strength and the resolve despite his unjust arrest, mock trial, cruel and unusual punishment and torture, the betrayal of friends and ultimately his crucifixion. It’s the death in the place of sinners so that in him those sinners might have life. It’s the fact that for those who are in him, it is finished. It’s the burial in the rich man’s tomb. The resurrection on the third day, just like he said would happen. And here, at the end of John’s gospel, it’s the restoration of wayward, cowardly disciples.

All of this and so much more so that we might believe in him, in Jesus, the promised Messiah, the Logos, the I AM. There is life available in no one but him. And John is saying every single one of these things that I’ve recorded, it’s so that you would believe and it’s so that you would see his infinite worth, his majesty, his beauty.

And even with all of this, John still tells us that there are many other things he didn’t record. What might these other things have been? Do you wonder? Is it more miracles? Probably. More teaching, I’m sure. More conversations. But I imagine that it was also various kindnesses that he extended to people that society cast aside. I imagine it was more comforting words that he spoke to the disciples and others that he met over the course of his ministry. I imagine that in John’s mind he remembers humble acts of service, condescending to serve people.

Friends, can you just try to imagine what a perfect, sinless life lived entirely for the good of others might have looked like? Everything you do is good and beautiful and right. That’s what John is saying. How do you capture that on paper? How do you record all of that? How wonderful must it have been to see him do all of these things? To gaze upon the beauty of Jesus in every word spoken, every deed done?

And so the way that John ends his gospel is essentially by telling us you haven’t even begun to see the glory and the beauty of Jesus. This is just a small taste, but it’s enough so that you might believe.

As I studied the end of this beautiful book, I found it so interesting that the gospel of John ends with Jesus investing into Peter and with John sharing his eyewitness testimony about the Lord. But this is how the story of the gospel goes, beloved. It leads to Jesus’ followers. Ultimately, it leads to us. The Holy Spirit leading John in the writing of this gospel account led him to record this final restoration of Peter and the forgiving of his disciples for abandoning him. Then recommissioning those same wayward disciples back into the ministry. And this is how the gospel would ultimately spread. This is how churches would ultimately be planted, ministries built, missionaries sent—through these very disciples. This is how the gospel eventually gets to us here in Portland, Oregon in the year 2026. Isn’t that amazing?

As John ends his book showing us a glimpse of how the good news of Jesus would go forth, he tells us that there’s much more that Jesus did. Well, guess what? He’s continuing to do much more today. He’s still saving lost sinners. He’s still healing wounds of the soul and body. He’s still encouraging his people despite pain and difficult circumstances. He’s still opening churches and extending hope and salvation to people that have no business being in the family of God—people like you and me. He’s still freeing people from addictions. He’s still giving hope to the hopeless. He’s still opening barren wombs. He’s still giving hope of eternal life to people that have lived in such a way as to only guarantee their death.

Should the record of all his deeds be recorded, would it not fill more books than the whole world could contain? Just in this congregation, the testimony of Jesus’ goodness and his deeds. This is why, for all eternity, we will never grow weary of singing the praises of the one who rescued us and made us a people.

And John in his revelation on the island of Patmos as he looks to that future scene in glory, he writes in Revelation 7

that all of us dressed in white will sing, “Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever.” We’ll never grow tired of that because he’s done so much for us.

Beloved, as we consider all that Jesus is to us, we stand in awe of the one who loved us, who gave himself for us, and who regularly and continuously does good in our lives. I love that old hymn, “The Love of God,” which beautifully paints the picture of God’s great love for sinners, the love that would be evidenced by the fact that he would give his only son for those sinners, pardoning our sin while pouring out on him the wrath that we deserve. And that wonderful hymn ends with the same sentiment that John seems to be communicating as he closes out his book:

“Could we with ink the ocean fill and were the skies of parchment made? Were every stock on earth a quill and every man a scribe by trade? To write the love of God above would drain the oceans dry. Nor could the scroll contain the whole, though stretched from sky to sky.”

This is the love of God as is seen in the face of Jesus.

Would you pray with me?

Our Lord, our Savior, our best friend, our everything—Jesus, we love you. But we only love you because you have put so beautifully on display your love for us in coming to get us, redeem us, regularly restore us. And Lord, words fail us. We run out of ways to sing your praises that would seem sufficient. And so, Lord, we want for the whole of our lives, our ministries, our families, everything, to be lived out for your glory, putting on display your beauty. So would you help us do that? Would you help us to follow you in such a way as to put on display the one who is our very life? Because you are worthy of our lives, Lord. And we give you all praise, honor, and glory as we will continue to do for all eternity. Amen.