Restoration

John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were two men that God used greatly to help in the creation of the United States. Their friendship was forged in the furnace of revolution and that friendship would last some 50 years.

Adams and Jefferson were in total agreement as to the wording and ideas that filled the Declaration of Independence. They moved from writing that great document, to working side by side in France to ensure solid diplomatic ties. Each then took a prominent role in the administration of President George Washington, but their friendship was tested as they moved in differing directions politically.

They disagreed as to the path the new nation should follow. Adams and Jefferson’s political differences tore their friendship apart. It took 20 years for the two of them to put aside their pride and reach out to one another in reconciliation.

Once they did, their friendship lasted until their deaths twenty years later. In an amazing moment of God's dynamic timing, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both died on the same day. They died only hours apart on the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1829.

For 20 years, these two great men refused to put their personal feelings aside in order to rebuild a friendship that changed the world. To be honest, the fact that they did restore their relationship is a tribute to their greatness, but they did it in their own time, for their own purpose, and in their own strength, which is why it took them so long.

In the last chapter of the Gospel of John, our Lord showed what humility, forgiveness and true love in friendship really looks like. It took Jesus less than 40 days to restore His relationship with Peter. Jesus never holds a grudge. He is the very definition of restoration.

Pledge
Have you ever pledged to someone that no matter what happened you would love them, lay down everything for them, but when the rubber hit the road you failed to fulfill your promise?
I have done this more times than I can say, with my husband, kids, friends and especially my God. At the emotional height of a promise of loyalty and devotion, it is easy to say, of course, I will always be there for you, but in reality, it is often hard for us to lay aside ourselves for anyone else.

When we have failed at the greatest level we think possible, it is only the person that we have failed who can fully restore us. We can try to move ahead, we can choose not to think about what we did or did not do, but in the end it is always there hanging over our heads. We confess it, think we have put it behind us just to have it pop up when we least expect it.

Peter found himself in this exact position one spring morning. He failed Jesus in ways he never thought possible, and had no way to fix what he had done. He decided to get into his boat, and go fishing. He knew fishing, he was good at it, and it helped him take his mind off his failure. He threw the nets into the sea and waited, with no results.

In the early morning hours, just as he was about to give up, a man yelled out to him from the beach. The man instructed him to throw his net over the right side of the boat. Peter must have thought, why not, we have not caught anything tonight anyway. He followed the instruction the stranger gave him. Peter and the other disciples with him threw their nets on the other side of the boat, and right away, they caught 153 fish.

As soon as the fish filled the nets, John, the disciple Jesus loved, knew it was Jesus standing on the beach. Immediately upon hearing John say, "It is the Lord," Peter was in the water swimming toward Jesus for all he was worth. He wanted to be close to his friend. He missed Him and longed for that deep relationship so much so that he could not wait for the boat to get him back to the shore. He had to jump out of the boat and swim to the beach (see John 21:1-13).

Hurting
How many of you have ever had a close friendship that was hurt because of something you did? How many of you have mourned the loss of intimacy with someone you never intended to hurt, never thought you would be apart from? Is there someone that you miss because of something that happened between you? Is there a relationship in your life that you need to reconcile? If you know what I am talking about, you know how much Peter was hurting.

I have experience exactly what Peter was feeling many times in my life. I am not sure what that says about me other than that I am human. We as humans mess up. We hurt the people we love. One of the most recent examples of the need for reconciliation in my own life came several months ago.

I was speaking for the first time at a women’s retreat. One of my closest friends and ministry partners sat at the back of conference room running my Power Point slides. She and I had been disconnected the whole weekend. We worked together, but there was defiantly something going on between us. The night before I sat sobbing through worship and communion and she was not there to put her arm around me, not there to squeeze my hand, not even there to pray for me. She had always been there.

I knew something was going on between us, but could not put my finger on it. I thought she was moving on, finding others to love and walk with and no longer wanted our same level of friendship. Not until after I spoke to her did I discover she was thinking the same things about me.

The need to restore the relationship became very clear in the middle of my last session. I was speaking about the need to reconcile wounded relationships. I shared with the group a story of woman who had come back into my life after a time of deep division. I explained how that reconciliation had allowed me to understand the pain Peter must have experienced when he denied Jesus. As those words were coming out of my mouth, I looked up and saw her. My friend was fixing my lapel mic, getting batteries for it so I did not have to use the hand held. As she walked quickly out of the room, the Lord said, "When are you going to reconcile this one?"

Try putting yourself into my shoes for a minute. Imagine telling other women about their need to restore relationships with those who have hurt them or with those they have hurt, while the Lord is convicting you of the exact same thing. Not easy to say the least, I felt like a hypocrite. I thought to stop her in the middle of my talk and say, I am sorry and I love you, but it did not seem like the time or the place. I probably should have done it though, because my heart was soft at that point.

Following the session, we all packed up our cars, and headed home. It was a cold car ride back. At one point, I reached out to touch her knee in order to thank her for all the hard work she had put into the retreat and the women who attended, and as I did so, she recoiled from my hand. That was when I really got it. My lack of concern for her devastated her heart. I could see it in her body language, her curt conversation, the pain in her eyes. She was deeply wounded.
The other people in the car were talkative and we pretended well enough, but you know how that is, right. There is this huge elephant in the car with you, but you cannot talk about it. All you really want to do is work through things, but the distance is so great you do not even know where to start.

I dropped her off at her house, gave her a polite hug and said goodbye. Her distance and hurt put a wet blanket on my excitement over successfully speaking at my first women's retreat. I drove home mad, not humbled. When I walked in the house, my husband was waiting for me to tell him all my wonderful news, but all I could do was rant about how my friend had played down what I felt the Lord had done that weekend.

After I had cooled down, I realized that my pride was hurt. I asked the Lord's forgiveness, and sat down to write an email. I have no idea what I said; all I know is that that email started a conversation between us that was long over do.

It has been about six months, but I think we are starting to heal, starting to understand each other, starting to see that we do love each other.

Funny, I think that whole retreat was less about what I shared with all those wonderful women, and was actually about God restoring my friendship. The message of restoration may have hit many hearts, but it was intended for mine most of all.

Peter pledged never to leave Jesus, to go with Him even to death. He failed to keep his promise. He was all talk and no action. Peter had to be broken. He experienced pruning so God could remake him into the image of His Son. Peter suffered failure and separation from his best friend. His time of testing helped him identify with the suffering Jesus endured.

Unconditional
I realized as I studied His life that Jesus lost a great deal even before He went to the cross. His closest friends abandoned Him at the point of His deepest need. He was tried, beaten, spit upon, slapped, made fun of, and finally nailed to a cross, without the comfort of the men He lived with for three years. Jesus’ disciples did not simply abandon Him, they denied Him and they disowned Him. Finally, His Father, whom He had never been apart from, had to turn His back on His own Son. The sin of humanity would separate Them for the first time, because a holy God cannot look upon sin.

Remember, Jesus knew in advance that they would not be there for Him. He understood that they would reject Him and still He comforted them. He spoke words to them to help them get past what they would do to Him. Jesus understood their humanity and He loved them even in their failure.

Peter’s experience clearly reveals the unconditional love only Jesus offers. We can fail and He will not discard us. Jesus is our dearest friend, and He loves us even when we reject, ignore, disappoint and disown Him.

We are to love like that.

Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. (John 13:34-35)

Restored
John 21:8 relates that Peter arrived on the beach to meet Jesus just a little before the boat with the other disciples reached shore. Jesus prepared breakfast for them all, and after eating, He went for a walk with Peter and John. As they walked along the sand covered beach Jesus asked Peter, "Simon son of John, do you love Me more than these?"

I am sure Peter was hit with all the shame he had endured since the night he turned his back on Jesus. He probably looked down at his feet and said, "Yes, Lord, You know that I love you.”
Instead of rebuking Peter, or berating him, Jesus commissioned him, "Feed My sheep" (John 21:15).

Again, Jesus asks Peter, "Simon son of John, do truly love Me?"

Peter responded in the same way he had the first time, "Yes, Lord you know that I love you."
Jesus then commanded, "Take care of My sheep” (16).

A third time Jesus asks Peter, "Do you love Me?"

Peter must have answered with pain in His voice, because Jesus doubted his love. He said, "Lord, You know all things; You know that I love you."

Then Jesus gave him His final commission, “Feed My sheep” (17).

That morning Jesus brought healing to Peter through forgiveness. He entrusted him with His greatest possession. Jesus gave Peter His sheep.

Peter should not have been hurt by Jesus' three questions. When He asked Peter three times if he loved Him, Jesus was not condemning him. He was giving Peter a way to reaffirm his love the same number of times he had denied it. In each moment of affirmation, Jesus rebuilt Peter. With each yes, Jesus placed His trust in Peter. He fully restored Peter in his own eyes as well as in the eyes of the other disciples.

The pruning process Peter endured fit perfectly with the healing Jesus provided on the beach. Through first being broken, Peter was then rebuilt into the image of Christ. In the three questions came forgiveness, healing and restoration.

Once Peter became more like Jesus, he was able to love others as Jesus loved. The complete fulfillment of Peter’s restoration took place when God chose him to share the gospel with the world on the day of Pentecost. In Acts 2, Peter preached his first sermon, not in his own strength and wisdom, but through the power of the Holy Spirit. On that day, Jews from all over the Roman Empire heard him present the gospel in their own languages. The church was born that day. Peter faithfully carried out his mission to feed Jesus’ sheep.

Follow
As Peter and Jesus walked down the beach talking, they were not alone. John, the same one who wrote the gospel we have been studying for the past few weeks, walked with them.
We have not talked a great deal about John, but he was one of the inner circle of three that Jesus shared even more of himself with. In the garden, He took Peter, James (John's brother) and John with Him to pray. We have a detailed description of his last hours on earth because John was right there with Him.

So, as they are all walking together, Jesus tells Peter, "I tell you the truth, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go." After telling Peter to take care of the sheep for the third time, Jesus then told Him that his life was no longer his own.

In classic Peter fashion, he looked over his shoulder and pointed to John. In the paraphrased version he might have said, “hold up Lord, what about him. Is he going to have to suffer anything, or did you just save that for me?”

Jesus answered, "If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow Me" (John 21:22).

That is exactly what Peter did. He followed Jesus to the cross. Peter finally kept the pledge he made to Jesus so many years before, “I will lay down my life for you” (John 13:37). He could not fulfill his word the night he gave it, but once he was humbled, rebuilt into the image of Jesus he chose martyrdom over denying Jesus’ name again. Peter chose to be crucified, but refused to be put to death in the same way His Lord died. He was crucified upside down.

First Peter 5:6 says, "Humble yourself, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that He may life you up in due time." Peter was humbled under the mighty hand of God, and in due time Jesus asked him, “Peter, do you love me?” Peter did not just answer Him with words, but with actions.

Jesus is the only one who can take our total failure, and restore our lives to newness again. Jesus’ forgiveness is free. He is waiting for you, just as He waited for Peter on the beach one morning. He wants to show you the same humility, forgiveness and true love in his friendship that He showed Peter. Jesus came to restore humanity to Himself. He wants to restore you as well.

Is there someone you need to reach out to, someone you need to restore to wholeness? It might take 20 years as it did Jefferson and Adams, it might be in 40 days as it was for Peter, or it might be in an instant. Jesus is the only one who can bring about that kind of restoration, because He is more than enough.

Study Guide

Read John 21:15-17. What do you gain from a closer look at these verses? Why did Jesus ask Peter three times if he loved Him?

If Jesus walked up next to you today, made breakfast for you and asked you, “Do you love me?” What would your response be?


What commission did Jesus place on Peter? Why was this significant?


What has Jesus entrusted to you? Have you been faithful to care for those He has placed into your life?


Is there a relationship that you need to restore? Is there someone you need to forgive you? Is there someone you need to forgive?


What character trait do you need to display in order to reach out to someone who has rejected you?

What steps can you take to move toward that reconciliation?



Pray and ask the Lord to speak to your heart as He spoke to mine that morning when I was teaching. Ask Him to reveal to you anyone in your life that you need to rebuild a relationship with. Humble yourself under His hand so that He can bring about newness in your life.