Sermon: Without Me, Nothing! (Part Two)

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Martin G. Collins
Given 14-May-22; 74 minutes

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There is a scene near the end of the gospel of John that must have imprinted permanently on the apostle Peter's mind, as Jesus looked at the other apostles and then said to Peter, "Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me more than these?" In other words, do you love Me more than your fellow disciples? Was Jesus looking back to the night recorded in Matthew 26:33, when Peter said to Jesus, "Even if all are made to stumble because of You, I will never be made to stumble." In other words, though they fall away because of You, I will never fall away.

Was Peter's promise to Jesus a conviction or merely a preference at that time? Yes, he was new, in a sense, in the faith and was still learning many things from Jesus Christ, but it was to take quite a few more years before he really understood what he had said. Was Jesus' question to Peter a gentle reminder of how Peter thought that he alone could be faithful and how his courage had failed?

In his answer in the last chapter of John, Peter did not make any more comparisons with the other disciples or with anyone else. He simply yet genuinely said, "You know that I love you." Jesus asked this question three times, probably because Peter had denied Jesus three times, and so it was three times that Jesus gave him the opportunity to affirm his love. Jesus is gracious in His forgiveness, so He gave Peter the opportunity to put his former denial behind him with a more earnest commitment.

It is significant that Peter's love brought him a responsibility, as Jesus predicted it would. Jesus said something like this: If you love Me, then give your life to shepherding the sheep and the lambs of My flock.

We can prove we love Jesus only by keeping God's commandments, which involves truly loving others, both in thought and action. As love is the greatest privilege in life it also carries with it great responsibility. It is also significant that Peter's love brought him martyrdom, as Jesus prophesied it would. "When you are young, you can choose where you will go, but the day will come when they will stretch out your hands and you will be taken on a way you did not choose."

According to the Archaeological Study Bible, "Post New Testament early church tradition remembered Peter as being crucified by Nero in Rome about 64 AD, as recorded by Tertullian, Lactantius, and Eusebius. Some traditions indicate that Peter was crucified upside down at his request." We do not know if that is factual or just church tradition that has been carried down incorrectly, but it is possible that it is true and that sure paints a strong picture of what Peter had to go through, where he was taken where he did not choose.

Love brought Peter a responsibility and it brought him martyrdom. Love always involves responsibility and it always involves sacrifice. We do not really love Jesus Christ unless we are prepared to accept His will and suffer with Him.

This is a continuation of my last sermon and we are picking this up where we left off in the last sermon. Jesus emphasized to Peter (and by spiritual relationship0 to the whole ministry, and to lay members, that the church's first responsibility is to "feed My sheep," which is repeated three times in verses 16 and 17 and with a slight variation in verse 15. And second, to "follow Me," which is repeated twice in verses 19 and 22. So Jesus was emphasizing these things because they are important.

The repetition grows out of the story, but it is significant. When God says something once we should listen, and when He says it more than once, the words should command our prolonged, undivided, and obedient attention.

John 21:15-17 So when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me more than these?" And he said to Him, "Yes, Lord; You know that I love you." He said to him, "Feed My lambs." He said to him again a second time, "Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?" And he said to him, "Yes, Lord, You know that I love You." And He said to him, "Tend My sheep." And He said to him a third time, "Simon, son of Jonah, 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 all things; You know that I love you." And Jesus said to him, "Feed My sheep."

Obviously the sheep mentioned here are followers of Christ because He says, "Feed My sheep." And they are His in two ways. First, by creation because He is the one who assisted God the Father, so to speak, in creating them. And second, and even more importantly, by redemption. On an earlier occasion, Jesus had said in John 10:11, "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep." In speaking to the Ephesian elders just before his final departure to Jerusalem, Paul said in Acts 20:28, "Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood." To the shepherd the church is similar to saying, "Feed My sheep," but it also involves other things.

Now, if the flock were ours, we could do with it as we thought best. But if it is Christ's, as it definitely is, then we must do as He instructs, recognizing our responsibility to Him. Peter understood this because years later when he came to give instructions to the leaders of the church, he spoke of their responsibility to the Chief Shepherd as a motivation for the faithful performance of their duties. That is, the congregation's duties, especially the ministry.

I Peter 5:1-4 [the caption in my Bible for this section is Shepherd the Flock] The elders who are among you I exhort, I who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed: Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly, nor as being lords 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 does not fade away.

There is nothing that will make us more diligent in Christ's service than the firm recognition that we are only under-shepherds of that Chief Shepherd, to whom the flock belongs and to whom we are responsible. The principles that apply to the ministry as under-shepherds may also be applied to parents as under-shepherds. You are responsible for your children, you are responsible for their welfare and their teaching as parents, and you can be considered as an under-shepherd. And it goes even further than that, as we will see.

At this point, we have a very large topic. We have the sheep, which is the flock of Christ, and we have the shepherd, and we have ourselves as under-shepherds. Even if we would only restrict our attention to our own role as under-shepherds, we could consider the many good character traits we must have to be effective in our own assigned duties and how to effectively accomplish them.

As far as the traits are concerned, we have the need for humility and hard work and self-control and temperance, and gentleness, the proper management of one's own household, devotion, and many other things that the New Testament mentions explicitly. Under any of these categories, we might consider being examples to the flock, exercising discipline, and effective oversight.

But the responsibility of this passage in John 21 and verses 15 through 17, while not excluding these other matters, is nevertheless more restrictive in its scope. It tells us that our responsibility as under-shepherds is primarily to feed the sheep which have been entrusted to us. So, the question is, how do we do that? (Now keep in mind that it is not only the ministry it is talking about. It is primarily talking to the ministry as under-shepherds, but it is talking to everyone in the church as well, which we will see as we go on.)

By teaching, sharing, and in any other way promoting the Word of God is the answer to that question, How do we do this? So our job is to teach the Bible both by word and example. Of course you cannot preach the word without a good example or you are just speaking to the air because no one will listen to you unless you set the example.

So when God speaks, He speaks for a purpose and He expects us to obey Him. And if we do, our lives and the lives of those to whom we are responsible will be changed and improved.

All this applies broadly because there are very few of us who do not have some degree of responsibility for someone. This is important. We are all usually under-shepherds in some way and we are all priests in training. The task of teaching the Word of God to the church membership is a minister's responsibility and it is the minister's responsibility to help train others, if they are willing and teachable, so that they may also go and teach God's Word. However, parents have the same responsibility to teach and shepherd their children.

The minister has many functions. We must administer, counsel, and wear many hats of responsibility, and similarly the parents do as well of their own children. But just as the primary responsibility of a carpenter is to build and a painter is to paint, so the primary responsibility of a minister is to teach the Word of God. And if he does not, how can he expect the other under-shepherds of his flock to fulfill their share of this duty?

Ministers above all men have been given the task of feeding Christ's sheep, by a careful, regular, and faithful teaching of the Bible. But we will never do this properly unless we are convinced of the truthfulness of every word we find there. It must be a conviction and not merely a preference. Ministers who are half-hearted will never be effective because it is a preference to them, where they prefer to do it. It is not a conviction, where they will do it no matter what, and they are committed to God.

All of us must be clear on the question: Is the Holy Bible the inspired written Word of God in whole or in its parts? Has God spoken infallibly in its pages? If He has, then we must promote this word by displaying God's way of life with all our strength—by example, by witness. It is precisely this problem with which the next section of Christ's conversation with Peter is concerned. Jesus revealed something of what is in store for Peter in his service for Him.

John 21:18-19 "Most assuredly I say to you, when you were younger, you girded yourself [this is Christ talking to Peter] and walked where you wished; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish." This He spoke, signifying by what death he [Peter] would glorify God. And when He had spoken this, He said to him, "Follow Me."

This is a prophecy of Peter's death by martyrdom, as John points out, and it is as much as to say that Peter's former claim which he had not been able to keep, "I will lay down my life for you," as he said in John 13:37, would be granted. Peter would die for Jesus, as Jesus prophesied.

John 21:20-21 Then Peter, turning around, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following, who also had leaned on His breast at the supper, and said, "Lord, who is the one who betrays you?" Peter, seeing him, said to Jesus, "But Lord, what about this man?"

So Peter turned around, saw John following, and in full accord with his impetuous curiosity, as he is so well known for, with which he was born, asked, "Lord, what about this man?" looking back at the apostle John.

John 21:22 Jesus said to him, "If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you? You follow Me."

The inference in Jesus' words is "Without Me you can do nothing. Also, John's form of service will be different from yours but that is not to be your concern. So we may say, based on this incident, that we are not to be overly concerned with, still less judge, another Christian's calling, but we are to get on with our own calling and make sure that our call and election is sure.

There are several differences in these verses either stated or implied. The first area is the difference between youth and old age. Jesus speaks of that in the case of Peter alone, because He contrasts his youth, in which he freely did what he wanted and He contrasts that with his old age, in which things would happen over which he had no control. In a sense, that is the case with every one of us. We will be facing things, and we already have, of which we have no control. (I thought the sermonette [Fear of the Unknown] was perfectly timed by God in that we have to be not worrisome, not fearful, because God has our back, so to speak.)

What are the characteristics of youth? One of them is confident preparation for action suggested by the words, "when you were younger" you dressed yourself and went where you wanted. So it is a period of life in which bright plans are made and first steps are taken to accomplish those plans. Most youth think they are invincible and do many felt foolish things.

Another characteristic of youth is self-reliance. Self-reliance is a gift and a stewardship given (as all gifts are stewardships) to the young. We all dream in early days that we are going to become great at something and we are going to show everyone how it is done. And then, as the old adage goes, "I was surprised at how much my father had learned from the time I was 18 to the time I was 25," or whatever the time was. Meaning that he came to understand more, enough that he could appreciate that.

The past generations have failed, but ours is full of brighter promise, is the way the youth look. But the oldest generations know only too well the disillusionment will come, the disappointments that will deflate the bubble. But for the present this self-reliant confidence is, in a sense, one of the blessings of youthful days.

There are weaknesses of youth, as we know. There is a lack of experience, and there often is foolishness. There are passions of youth which need to be disciplined and challenged. But for all the weaknesses, there are still dreams and energies without which we all would be much poorer. Therefore, when we think of God's gifts to the church, we should not forget the gifts of youth and appreciate them. Both the youth should appreciate them, and we, as older people, should appreciate them as well.

We should not attempt to put old heads on young shoulders, so to speak, but we should put wisdom into foolish minds. We should be teachers and teaching them what not do, just keep them from causing themselves undue suffering.

The other side of this contrast is old age, and the point about age that Jesus desires to bring out is that things will be done to us against our inclination. In this case, Jesus is speaking of Peter's martyrdom, presumably by crucifixion. This was not something Peter would have chosen for himself any more than we would choose the sickness, limitations of opportunity, disillusionment, or other problems that frequently come with advancing years. Yet these were given to Peter (as to us) and they are as necessary for the church as the dreams of the youth forms a sense of balance.

There is one very significant thing about the way John refers to the prophesy concerning Peter. John writes, "Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God" there in verse 19. John does not say this about the dreams of Peter's youth, but about his suffering, because it is not only by acting but also by suffering that the saints glorify God. When God spoke to Paul and Ananias, He said, "I will show him how much he must suffer for My name's sake." That is stated in Acts 9:16. So was in such suffering that Paul glorified God.

The differences between youth, young adulthood, middle age, old middle age, and old age are God-given. Each one has its place. We need the experiences of all age groups and should not attempt to force the patterns of one age group upon another, other than wisdom upon foolishness.

The second area of difference is temperaments. Here in John 21:18-22, there is a distinction between Peter, the impetuous disciple, and John. There is a definite difference between them. Every time we see Peter, we see him as a man of action and he is the first to speak and the first to act, but not always wisely, but always first. When Jesus asked in Matthew 16:16, "Who do you say that I am?" it was Peter who answered first, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." When Jesus was being arrested, it was Peter in John 18:10 who drew his sword and cut off the ear of the servant of the high priest. And here in John 21, after recognizing the voice of Jesus when He called from the shore, Peter immediately jumped into the water and made his way to Jesus. In a sense, Peter is a consistent activist.

John on the other hand, is rarely the one to speak. He owns no sword, cuts off no ears, and when Jesus appeared on the shore and Peter jumped into the water to swim toward Him, John remained in the boat and landed the catch that Jesus had provided. John is the thinker, yet Jesus had a place for him just as surely as He had a place for rambunctious Peter.

How does Jesus teach this?

John 21:22 Jesus said to him, "If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you? You follow Me."

That is a message to every last one of us. Do not worry about how somebody else is doing other than wanting to help them with their conversion. Be concerned about the flaws in your conversion and over the process of conversion that you need to work on and I need to work on. That is what we have to do. We cannot compare ourselves among ourselves because it is foolish, Paul says. And so we have to look at ourselves, try to overcome our problems, and not worry about what level another person is in the church, but helping them wherever we can.

This leads to the third area of difference among Christians. Namely, our callings or forms of service. These involve our spiritual gifts. Because the ministries vary, so also will the gifts of those who are called by God to fill them. And here is an interesting demonstration of this point. Notice Peter first of all. His calling is highlighted by the phrase "fishers of men." Peter's calling was to bring men urgently and in great numbers into the Kingdom in Jesus Christ's helping of him through the Spirit. That is, he was called to proclaim and teach the good news of the coming Kingdom of God.

It is true that all of Christ's disciples are called to this witness, but not all have this gift preeminently, but Peter did. Therefore, we find him used to bring 3,000 persons to faith in Christ at Pentecost and later 5,000 believed as a result of his preaching.

Next notice the apostle Paul. Paul's calling is described as that of a tentmaker. Peter was a fisherman and Paul was a tentmaker. This means the task of building up or ordering the church of God. Whereas Peter initiated things, Paul's task was to construct. God entrusted to him in a special way the work of building His church, or in other words, the task of presenting Christ in His fullness to those who God calls and the task of bringing the called together as one body into all that God had willed for them in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ doing the inspiration and the real work, Peter fulfilling by doing God's will.

Paul had glimpsed that divine will in all its greatness, and his commission was to build together the gathered people of God according to God's will.

So there are the advantages of the various distinctions already mentioned—the advantages of youth and age, those who are activists, and those who are thinkers, restorers, and builders. But to be balanced, we must also notice that each has its problems as well.

Those who are young tend to be foolish in their headstrong self-reliance. The old tend to become concerned with their own affairs and therefore selfish. The weakness of the activist is insensitivity to others who move at slower paces. The thinker can become lazy, the builder or restorer can become critical of those who he regards as inferior.

The advantages of each age, temperament, or calling can easily be marred by sin, but there is a solution. It is the solution Jesus told Peter and presumably John as well, "Follow Me." So why is this a solution? Why is "Follow Me" a solution? I think it is obvious in one sense, not so much in another.

First, because if we are following Jesus Christ, then our eyes will be on Christ and He will be seen as the standard of Christian service. And it is a standard of Christian service we can never live up to. The Spirit within us, the Holy Spirit that we have received, enables us to move on to perfection, as it says there in Hebrews. We will avoid following our own particular and imperfect form of it. If we have our eyes on ourselves, we expect people to measure up to us and we judge them to be inferior if they do not. Big mistake for God's people, and it happens over and over and over again.

Keep your eyes on God and His example, and do not look at yourself or ever use yourself as a standard. With your eyes on Christ, He becomes the standard for both us and them and he draws us together, rather than allow us to be driven apart. When there is disunity is in the church, it is when someone attending God's church sets himself up as a standard.

In the way of illustration, while walking down the street following a friend, if you turn aside to look at another person or another way, the distraction will cause you to stray and bump into someone or something else. Do not take your eyes off Jesus Christ as Peter did while asking about John's future. He looked back at John. Big mistake, and Jesus corrected him on it.

Second, if we have our eyes on Christ, we will see not only something about Him, but something about ourselves as well. What we will see about ourselves is that we are at best unprofitable servants. There will be no room for humble brag, no room for arrogant self-sufficiency. Jesus says, "Without Me . . . nothing." We are inadequate and unprofitable.

Luke 17:10 "So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, 'We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do.'"

I think one of the mistakes that people attending God's church over the years make is thinking that all they have to do is tithe and give offerings and they have no other responsibility in the church. Nothing else to do. Well, those are minimum requirements, absolute minimum requirements. We have to do far more than that. We have to be in service to God and to our fellow members of God's church. What we need is God and Christ, first of all, and then one another as brethren.

What are the last words of Jesus Christ as recorded in John's gospel? It is not that John did not know of Christ's teaching on these other points. The gospel of John contains more instruction about the Holy Spirit than any other gospel. And it contains its own version of the great commission found in John 20:21, which says, "As My Father has sent Me so I am sending you."

It is rather that John wanted to emphasize Christ's call to discipleship or Christian responsibility as the gospel closes. In John's gospel, the last words of Christ are "Follow Me."

John 21:22-23 Jesus said to him, "If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you [Peter]? You follow Me." Then this saying went out among the brethren that this disciple would not die. Yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but, "If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you?"

Amazingly, in verse 22, these are also nearly the first words of Christ in his gospel. John first quotes Christ in connection with the episode in which Andrew and the other unnamed disciple followed Jesus at the direction of John the Baptist. Jesus' first words to them that John recorded are found in John 1:38. "What do you seek?" But as soon as they reply by asking where He is spending the night, He answers by the first of His invitations in John 1:39, "Come and see." This is an invitation to discipleship but lest we should miss this, John's next utterance, an invitation to Philip is precisely in John 1:43, "Follow Me."

In a very real sense, then, these are the first and last words of Christ in John's gospel. They are a reminder that Jesus Christ is the only way to the Father and salvation, not just believing in some abstract sense, but believing in Him to the point of turning our back on all else and following Him. That means resisting Satan, resisting the world, and resisting our own human nature.

These last words of Christ in John's gospel may be difficult to obey as we will see, but they are not difficult to interpret if for no other reason than that Jesus Himself supplies the interpretation in other places. The key passage is Luke 9 and the parallel there in Mark 8:34-38.

Luke 9:23-26 Then He said to them all, "If anyone desires to come after Me [Jesus speaking to His disciples, that includes you and I], let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost? Whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father's, and of the holy angels."

So these words like John 21:19-22 are an invitation to follow Jesus Christ. And if you have been called by Jesus Christ, you can look at them as a command, an absolute flat-out command. This is what we are told to do, if we acknowledge the call and seek Him and then we automatically follow Him if we are in the right mind.

These words in Luke 9 are an invitation to follow Jesus Christ, but unlike the verses in John, they explain what such discipleship means. Specifically they teach that discipleship means: One, self-denial, and two, taking up one's cross, or you could say burden, in Christ's service.

The first point, self-denial, should not be difficult for any true believer of Christ to understand because this is where conversion begins. To be a Christian means to have turned our back on our sinful lives in the world, repentant of our sins, and to have accepted by faith what God has done in Christ for our salvation. Any attempt to please God through our own human abilities and efforts without Jesus Christ and the indwelling of His Spirit will fail. Jesus warns us, "Without Me, nothing."

Salvation is God's free gift. We cannot save ourselves. Saying "no" to our past worldly habits is our necessary responsibility and it requires self-denial. We are surrounded by a world that says "no" to self-denial, the very opposite of what Christ tells us to do. It tells us that saying "yes" to every desire and whim we have is not only good for us, but also good for others because we will be seen to be nicer people for them to know, and for the economy, because the world thrives on self-indulgence. The world looks at self-denial as a detriment to the world. It is a detriment to the Babylonian society, self-denial is, because it is what the Babylonian society feeds on.

Amid such a culture, the word of Christ seems unrealistic and austere. So what does it mean to deny oneself in order to be Christ's disciple?

The first thing it means is that we must renounce sin. That is, we must repent of sin and determine to live God's righteous way of life, which Christ set before us. Repentance and faith belong together and we cannot follow Christ without forsaking sin. Furthermore, repentance is a definite turn from every thought, word, deed, and habit which is known to be wrong. It is not sufficient to feel pangs of remorse or to make some kind of casual apology to God. That is what the world does. It is usually when they are caught. They are actually sorry they are caught, not that they are sorry they did it, usually.

Fundamentally, repentance is a matter neither of emotion nor of speech. It is an inward change of the mind and attitude towards sin, which leads to a change of behavior. There can be no compromise there. This change must be a conviction. If it is merely a preference, there will be no lasting change because preferences can easily be changed when under duress.

There may be sins in our lives which we do not think we ever could renounce, but we must be willing to let go of them, push them away as we ask God for deliverance from them. This is called overcoming sin and this is the proof of our repentance. This is not a general renunciation. It is as specific as specific sins. It is a renunciation of anything that is contrary to God's revelation of Himself. That is, anything contrary to the Bible, that is, God's truth.

The second thing self-denial involves is renunciation of anything that is not God's will for our lives. This is related to the previous point about sin, because sin is not God's will. He does not cause us to sin! He may allow us to and that sin must be rejected outright. But there are things that are not contrary to the Bible's moral code yet, because they are not God's will for us personally, they must be renounced too in order that we might do His will for us.

I Corinthians 6:12 All things [this is Paul speaking, of course] are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.

For instance, there is nothing wrong with having a profession. God has a plan for each life, and our responsibility is to discover it and fulfill it. On the other hand, God may want you to change professions at some point. He may want to develop other areas of your character in preparation for something He wants you to be prepared for in the future. And if He does, you must be ready to deny yourself, to deny your own desire.

Under things that may not be God's will for our lives we must give special emphasis to our possessions. This is true for two reasons. First, a love of possessions is something Jesus specifically warned about in His dealings with those who said they wish to follow Him. Second, the love of possessions is a particular snare for today's affluent Christians.

Please turn to Luke 18, verse 18 with me. We have already heard reference to this story in the sermonette. It is always nice to see the tie-ins between the messages. On one occasion, a rich young ruler came to Jesus and asked what he might do to inherit eternal life. Jesus told him to keep the commandments, not that it would be ever possible for him to keep them perfectly and receive eternal life by doing that, but to show him his need.

Luke 18:18-23 Now a certain ruler asked him saying, "Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" So Jesus said to him, "Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. You know the commandments: 'Do not commit adultery,' 'Do not murder,' 'Do not steal,' 'do not bear false witness,' 'Honor your father and your mother.'" And he said, "All these things I have kept from my youth." So when Jesus heard these things, He said to him, "You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me." But when he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich.

The young man was evidently a self-satisfied individual. He thought he was blessed, God loved him, and he had nothing else that he had to worry about because after Jesus had listed the commandments for him, the man replied ignorantly that he had done all these things his whole life. So he could not imagine what else he needed to do. He could not see that he needed to deny himself the affluent life he had been living if he was going to receive true spiritual blessings that would last for eternity. So Jesus showed that young man loved his material blessings too much and it had clouded his mind.

The possession of things is in the same category as marriage or career could be in the sense that they are not wrong in themselves. Our possessions may well be the gift of God to us to be used rightly. Still, although possessions are not wrong in themselves, they are a special snare, especially for American Christians. They so easily blind us to the needs of others and they occupy our time exclusively and make us self-satisfied and selfish. It is amazing how much money can solve a person's problems. Problems come up every day over and over and over again and quite often they are financial, something we want that we cannot afford. It is amazing, when you have money, how many of those blessings or how many of those financial difficulties can be solved just with money. So that is a pitfall. It is not wrong to have money or even a lot of it. It is how we use it and how we think of it.

Americans have more than anyone else in the world, but it has not made us more compassionate, it has made us indulgent. There are some people who have great talent, but they are useless in serving the church because they are completely wrapped up with either managing or enjoying their possessions.

So we come at last to the phrase with which we started, "Follow Me."

(Just one comment. I have been thinking about the men in the church quite a bit lately. I was wondering, are we all really doing what we should to serve God? Are we putting forth the greatest effort that we can to serve one another? We men should be leading that charge. But are we? How many will not do anything to serve the church?)

How do we learn the kind of self-denial and personal responsibility with which Jesus charges us? The answer is by following Him and constantly keeping our eyes on Him. They seem like such simple statements and comments, but we have to be reminded of them over and over again, even on a daily basis. Does this seem like circular reasoning? To follow Jesus we must deny ourselves and take up our responsibility, but we learn these things by following. It certainly is a paradox. So it is by degrees and by a continuous discipleship that we learn to follow, and by following, we learn.

How could it be otherwise if Jesus is our supreme example in all things? Where else could we learn self-denial but from Him who said "no," even to the glory of heaven, to become a man and die for our salvation?

Philippians 2:5-11 [the heading in my Bible for this is The Humbled and Exalted Christ] Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Following the Lord's example, the Old Testament heroes and the New Testament Christians humbly witness to their faith by their words and their faithful lives. Also, they were like spectators watching an athletic contest in an arena. They watched or witnessed the lives of the faithful. The author of Hebrews captures this when in the verses immediately following this memorable chapter on the heroes of faith, he writes about the race of faith.

Hebrews 12:1-2 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the glory that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Christ is our perfect example. It is an example of self-denial, of taking up the responsibility with which we have been appointed. We are not to have a grim determination to do the "undesirable" will of God but, by contrast, to do it joyfully. It was for the joy that was set before Him that Christ endured the cross.

Now He did something else too, though the disciples did not understand it at the time. He spoke of His resurrection, thereby teaching that discipleship, though it involves a true and sometimes painful death to our own desires, is nevertheless the way to the fullness of living, both now and hereafter. And we find this throughout the New Testament. The apostle Paul writes,

Romans 6:5-6 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection [we die to self, but we do so in order that we might live to Christ], knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.

We read the same thing in Paul's letter to the Galatians.

Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

So in the biblical scheme of things death is always followed by life, crucifixion by resurrection. This is truly exciting and should make us thrilled to follow Christ because without Him, nothing.

Self-denial means that we give up something. We give up trying to run our own life our way. We give up something that seems so precious and so entirely indispensable to us. Then, and only then, we suddenly find the true joy of following Christ and enter a life so freed from the obsession that we can hardly understand how it could have had such a strong hold on us.

This is the primary difference between a joyless and a joyful Christian; a defeated and a victorious one. A joyless Christian may have followed Christ in some general sense, he may have died in Christ abstractly, but he has certainly never known these truths in practice. On the other hand, the joyful Christian has found satisfaction in whatever God dispenses to him and is truly satisfied because he has said no to anything that might keep him from the richness of God's own presence and life.

Picking up where we left off in John 21:

John 21:24 This is the disciple [John] who testifies of these things, and wrote these things; and we know his testimony is true.

The final words of John's book are a closing attestation that identifies himself and declares his writing trustworthy. And then comes the interesting addition.

John 21:25 And there also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that not even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. Amen.

Apparently the author (or authors) of this verse felt the immensity of what could be written about Jesus and knew that the writer had recorded only a small part. There is a perfection or wholeness of the book expressed in a satisfying round off of its material. It begins with Jesus, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God" in John 1:1, and it ends with Jesus, "There are also many other things that Jesus did" written there in John 21:25.

It begins with the impressive testimony of John the Baptist:

John 1:15-16 John bore witness of Him and cried out, saying, "This was He of whom I said, 'He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me.'" And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace.

And it ends with an equally impressive testimony concerning the other John, the son of Zebedee, who wrote the gospel.

John 21:24 This is the disciple who testifies of these things, and wrote these things; and we know that his testimony is true.

Who is that we? "We know that that his testimony is true." There are two ways biblical commentators regard the plural of "we" in verse 24. Some have taken it as merely an indirect reference by the author to himself. Others see the word "we" as pointing to some official body of Christians who are adding their attestation to John's testimony.

The issue is not necessarily a big deal, but the second view seems best. Conceivably, the author of the gospel wrote the words, yet this is improbable. If John composed John 21, verses 24 and 25, then he is identifying himself as the beloved disciple, which he has avoided doing earlier in the gospel. Up to this point, he has been careful to remain anonymous.

Also, the first person plural of the final phrase in verse 24 is different from John's own way of referring to himself. For example, in John 19:35, he writes, "And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth so that you may believe." The earlier version is like these concluding verses in that it refers to the witness of the beloved disciple and affirms that it is reliable, but there the author refers to himself as he who has seen and who therefore knows that he is telling the truth. These last verses distinguish between the writer (or writers) and the witness, we know that his testimony is true.

So, these facts suggest that the "we" of John 21:24 should be understood as representing some official body, perhaps an official body of the church or churches of God that John served.

Now, they could identify the author with the beloved disciple, an eyewitness of many, if not all of the events described and of attesting to his character and the inherent reliability of his testimony. Verses 24 and 25 teach that the doctrines of Christianity—the doctrines of the church of God—rest, not on the unstable foundation of mere wishful thinking or speculation, but is based on facts observed by and duly authenticated by eyewitnesses of Christ's ministry.

They say three things about this foundation of facts. First, they affirm that the men who recorded the life and teaching of Jesus, in this case, John the beloved disciple, were eyewitnesses of the events they describe. The first phrase of John 21, verse 24 points to this by identifying the author of the gospel with the beloved disciple and he is described as present with the Lord in Galilee in the preceding verses.

This is of great importance in establishing fact. It would be important in any attempt to establish fact, as it would, for example, in a criminal trial. In such trials, facts must be established by eyewitness testimony, not by hearsay. The issue of fact is especially important for God's church more so than for virtually any other world religion. In other religions, it is usually the fallible founder's ideas and humanly-reasoned traditions that matter. In the church of God, it is the truth that matters.

Is Jesus who He is declared to be? Did He do what He is reported to have done? Did He teach what He has claimed to have taught? Did He rise from the dead?

Other religions may be content to live by untrustworthy ideas alone, but followers of Christ readily confessed that if Jesus is not the Son of God and did not speak with the authority of God, then His ideas have no more trustworthiness than any other teachers, and are in fact worse because He claimed divinity for Himself and was therefore either insanely mistaken or deliberately misleading at this point.

I Corinthians 15:12-17 Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up—if in fact the dead do not rise. For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!

That is showing what an idiotic idea it is of believing that Christ did not rise from the dead or you are not proving by fact that He did and all the other things that He did.

On the other hand, if Jesus is God and did rise from the dead, He deserves and certainly demands our allegiance and it is the height of foolishness and even rebellion against God to neglect Him. Even more, there is salvation in no one else! Without me, nothing.

Acts 4:12 "Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."

How can these facts be established? By the eyewitness testimony of those representatives of Christ specially appointed to bear such testimony. These are the apostles, the author of the fourth gospel being one of them.

No one knew the importance of such testimony more than John because in his first epistle he says of the apostles' testimony:

I John 1:1-3 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life—the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us—that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.

John could not have written that unless Christ was alive because we have fellowship—truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.

So why was John in particular concerned with such testimony? The answer lies in the fact that John, writing in the latter years of the first century, was among the last of the New Testament writers and was therefore addressing a generation unfamiliar with the eyewitnesses testimony to Jesus' life. This was in 90 AD. Christ had been dead for almost 60 years (if I have the math right). When Paul wrote back in the middle of that century, he could refer almost in passing to "five hundred" who had seen the resurrected Christ, most of whom were still living. That is, the ones that Paul were speaking to. But the 90 year old John could not because most were dead.

I Corinthians 15:6 [Paul writing] After that, He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fall asleep [or have died].

Paul, speaking at the time he was writing half in the mid-century, says that there were still that many witnesses of Christ, who had been risen and was seen before His ascension. So these have died in the meantime and John therefore found it necessary to stress this eyewitness testimony as the church of God's foundation. Besides, when John was writing, a form of Gnosticism was beginning to infiltrate God's church which denied the need for historical facts as a basis for religious belief. It denied that Christ had come in the flesh. And sadly, it considered human reasoning superior to the facts of history and it spiritualized them, and this threatened true faith.

So John, more than other writers, wants to emphasize the church of God's historical foundation as well. John guarded the truth by stressing the role of eyewitnesses in establishing the historical claims of the church of God.

Something that happened to me this week shook me up in a way. A friend of mine called and said that he was going to have a very, very serious operation and I tried to encourage him. He and I had grown up in the church together and he had left the church about the time, I think, that Worldwide went under Joe Tkach's leadership, and he has not really attended since (or it was hit and miss and that type of thing). I believe that he thought that he possibly would die from this operation. So he called me and he said, "How do I know that Christ was really resurrected?" I was stunned. And I tried to explain it to him and he just could not see it. I think the difference was that, looking back, maybe he had a general call, but maybe God did not really call him and when he was baptized did not give him God's Holy Spirit. I do not know, but he absolutely could not see it after all these years.

These writers in John 21:24 affirm a second thing. The writers of the concluding verses of John's gospel, whoever they may have been, affirmed that the author of the gospel not only was an eyewitness of the events he describes, but wrote these things down himself. We have in this gospel (and the others) an accurate account of what the companions of Jesus, led by the Holy Spirit, considered necessary for us to know concerning Him. Therefore we can read these words with the confidence that Jesus was indeed as they described Him.

These authors affirm a third thing. They have said that the author of the gospel was an eyewitness of the events of Christ's ministry. They have added that he personally wrote the gospel. That is, he did not merely communicate these stories verbally while allowing someone else to record them, but did the writing himself. This said, they now add that the one who has written these things is trustworthy. Their specific words are, "We know that his [John's] testimony is true.

Why should it be necessary to add this statement? Why? Why were they added? For this reason: It is possible that a person could be an eyewitness of the life of Jesus and then sit down to write a gospel about it, but for whatever reasons decide to write something other than what he had witnessed. He might hate Jesus and therefore invent stories to cast the shadow of doubt over His name.

On the other hand, he might admire Jesus to the point of blind faith and therefore eliminate anything that could be thought derogatory, and instead invent stories or false teachings to enhance His image. He might write a fiction based on real events, but which is not factual or true. We see what happens when they write movies or books about events that are based on fact. You can hardly find any fact in them because they are fictional and they are written that way.

These things are possible theoretically. But the authors of these last verses declared that this was not the case. They say instead that John was a man of integrity, that his words can be trusted, and that so far as they were able to verify his teaching, whether by the testimony of other witnesses or by personal interrogation, they have found it to be trustworthy.

We are in no position to verify the facts of Christ's life as they did. We live close to 2,000 years after the events. But we can note that many of these witnesses sealed their testimony by their blood. Many were martyrs. Would they give their lives for what they knew to be a farce? I do not think they would. If ever there were men of integrity, it was these men, and if ever a series of events of history has been ruthlessly verified, it is these events.

But thankfully we have God's Holy Spirit that nails it down for us, that enables us to be able to understand what is truth and what is false, and to recognize the truth of the Bible, of the inspired written Word of God, all the way from Genesis to the book of Revelation. It is all inspired, the written Word of God—all of it. Translations may have flaws in them, but as a whole, it is the foundation of the church of God, built on the apostles, Jesus Christ, and with the help of the Holy Spirit.

We recall that John himself said this in his own writing.

John 20:31 But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.

Let us begin to wrap this up. In the last verse of John's gospel, the author seemed to be saying that Jesus did many things, all of which are now past, and some people could almost interpret this as suggesting that the life of Christ was over. Of course, nothing could be farther from the truth! On the contrary, the whole last chapter, which does not even end with the ascension, is meant to show the living Christ in fellowship with His people within the ongoing life of His church.

Due to His union with the elect, there is a spiritual sense in which Jesus' life and works are not ended, but rather continue in the church as He accomplishes God's will through us. And although this gospel of John ends with a reference to the things Jesus did, past tense, the very first verses of the next book of the Bible speaks of all that Jesus began to do and teach.

Acts 1:1-2 The former account I [Luke] made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which He was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen.

In one sense, it means that Jesus' life, important and unique as it is, was only a beginning and it lives on dynamically through God's Holy Spirit in the life, deeds, words, and teachings of His church. Christ's work is still going on and it is our privilege and responsibility to be a network for it, each and every one of us.

John 14:12 "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father."

So Jesus begins that saying with the words "most assuredly," "verily verily," "amen amen," "truly truly," depending on which translation you have. It means that what I am about to say to you is vitally important! Jesus often began important sayings in that way.

Though the works we do are not greater in themselves compared with the magnitude of Christ and the apostles, yet in a sense, they are greater in how many people are reached with God's truth. Worldwide, to seven billion people almost. And many of those people have somehow, some way been introduced to God's truth. Many, if not most, have not, but many, many have.

Christ through His church has been able to reach more people and receive more extensive results thanks to God's Spirit and the power of Jesus Christ in us to be able to do these things that are great blessings to the world.

So we must continue to obey Jesus' commands to His church to: "Feed His sheep" and to "Follow Him." May God enable us to carry out this responsibility, because without Him we can do nothing truly meaningful.

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