Here is my sermon on John 21. It struck me how much Jesus worked with Peter and helped him to have confidence that he would follow Jesus. I think Peter was afraid to make any promises to Jesus, considering how passionate he was about his devotion the night of the last supper.
Easter – A Defining Day
This is what it means to be genuinely human. Easter offers us the direct route to be the people we were made to be. God’s people. Jesus’ people. People of love.
N.T.Wright was the guy that said you should celebrate the 40 days AFTER Easter a ton more than you mourn and weep the 40 days before Easter. I’m going to try to think about the 40 days after more than I thought about the 40 days before. This seemed like a good quote to kick that off.
Round Trip
Jesus' Main Mission: Eternal Life
John 6:29 ¬? Jesus answered, ‚ÄúThe work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.‚Äù
John 6:38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.
John 6:39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day.
John 6:40 For my Father‚Äôs will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.‚ÄùJohn 6:43 ¬? ‚ÄúStop grumbling among yourselves,‚Äù Jesus answered.
John 6:44 “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.
John 6:45 It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me.
John 6:46 No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father.
John 6:47 I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life.
In light of these verses, it seems like Jesus’ mission on Earth was to do the will of God, which was that Jesus would not lose any of the people that God gave Him, but raise them up at the last day. Could it be that EVERYTHING Jesus did and everything the Father did before that is all to point to the resurrection at the last day? Wasn’t the resurrection the most incredible miracle that Jesus did? When Paul talks about Jesus, he does not say that His power was fully revealed in any of the other miracles except being raised from the dead. (Ro. 10.9, Eph. 1.19-20, and not Paul, but Acts 2.24)
I am very intrigued by this. The resurrection on the Last Day will be great, because it will be the end of death and those that are with God will be in un-obstructed fellowship with Him forever and ever. I am curious about what I would see if I read the Gospels from the perspective of the whole point of Jesus’ ministry being to point to knowing Him so that you would be raised w/ Him in the last day. This will take some more reading…