John chapter 21 tonight. John chapter 21. We're reading the entirety of the chapter and focusing on the text will come from verses 15 through 19. 15 through 19 of John chapter 21. Let us hear the word of the Lord, beginning at verse 1. Afterward, Jesus appeared again to his disciples by the Sea of Tiberias. And it happened this way. Simon, Peter, Thomas called Didymus, Nathaniel from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. I'm going out to fish, Simon Peter told them. And they said, we'll go with you. So they went out and got into the boat. But that night they caught nothing. Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus. He called out to them, friends, haven't you any fish? No, they answered. He said, throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some. When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish. Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, it is the Lord. As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, It is the Lord, he wrapped his outer garment around him, for he had taken it off, and jumped into the water. The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far from shore, about a hundred yards. When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it and some bread. Jesus said to them, Bring some of the fish you have just caught. Simon Peter climbed aboard and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish, 153, but even with so many the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, come and have breakfast. None of the disciples dared ask him, who are you? They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came, took the bread, and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. Now, this was now the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead. Now our text. When they finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you truly love me more than these? Yes, Lord, you know that I love you. Jesus said, feed my lambs. Again, Jesus said, Simon, son of John, do you truly love me? He answered, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. Jesus said, take care of my sheep. The third time he said to them, Simon, son of John, do you love me? Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, do you love me? He said, Lord, you know all things. You know that I love you. Jesus said, Feed my sheep. 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. Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, Follow me. Peter turned and saw that the disciple whom Jesus loved was following them. This was the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper and had said, Lord, who is going to betray you? When Peter saw him, he asked, Lord, what about him? Jesus answered, if I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me. Because of this, the rumor spread among the brothers that this disciple would not die. But Jesus did not say that he would not die. He only said, if I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down. We know that his testimony is true. Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that not even the whole world would, the whole world would not even have room for the books that would be written. Therein is the reading of God's word. Well, beloved, in the Lord, one of the more moving statements in the Bible comes from that man whose son Jesus stumbled on was demon-possessed. Jesus, of course, had made that statement, If you can believe all things are possible, to him who believes, the man replied, and this is one of those statements we never sort of let go of, the man replied, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. That, of course, is the cry of every true believer. It is absolutely true that there is not one believer who at some point does not experience this sort of deep fight within, this longing desire to believe everything that God has revealed in His Word, but then the very real struggle to find in practice that actions often tell a very different story. It is often the very real struggle the Christian faces because of sin that attacks the Christian's assurance and begins to ask that crucial question, how could Christ really love me? Well, to those who struggle with such attention, we come to a passage tonight that is probably one of the most beautiful and comforting that God could have ever given to us as struggling sinners. Just a beautiful passage. Peter had been through this struggle like no one else. And what he had come to learn was simply that Christ's resurrection had everything to do with the fact of being assured that his sins were forgiven and that he could be fully assured in this life that amidst all of his failures, that Christ's love was enduring and persevering and would bring Peter to his design and end. And the same is true for every believer in Christ. The question is, of course, do we know this and do we believe this? This evening, if you're taking anything from this message, it simply should be that the very fact of the resurrection is the greatest assurance to the believer that as a believer in Christ you've been fully justified now to serve your God, restored with a clear conscience in a right standing status. That's not always the easiest thing to grasp, of course, when you feel the weight of sin. It surely was not the easiest thing for Peter immediately to accept. You'll remember that he had made this bold statement in Matthew chapter 26. Even if all are made to stumble because of you, I will never be made to stumble. And soon after that, he had denied his Lord three times. Denial, of course, with an oath, denial with cursing, and denial with swearing. It was the worst possible outcome for someone who had been so intent to be loyal to his Lord. The last thing we read when we read about Peter after those denials is that he went out and he wept bitterly. Can you imagine the guilt? Can you imagine the shame that went with something like that? The emptiness, the aloneness, the feeling as if I'm done. I have denied the Lord of glory in the heart of His afflictions. I abandoned Him in the garden when He asked to pray. How could He love me? How could He want me to serve in His kingdom? Who am I to be a part of this? I wanted to be loyal, but the fact is, is that I failed miserably. And I mean, I denied the Lord of glory at the moment of his death. After this point of denial, of course, in the Gospels, we really do hear little about Peter. Jesus is now raised from the dead. Reports and rumors are, of course, all over the region about Jesus' resurrection. And we know from Luke, when Peter heard it, he immediately ran to the tomb to discover for himself what really had happened, but we could almost read right into his mind, Jesus has been raised. What does that mean for me? I abandoned him. I denied him. That really comes across in the text. Now that Jesus has risen, what would this mean for Peter who had abandoned him and denied him so terribly? Well, in John chapter 21, we get an immediate sense that this kind of thing was heavily upon Peter's mind. In verse 1, we read that Jesus had again showed himself to his disciples. And I would keep the scriptures open. We're going to be referring to a few verses here. This was the third time that Jesus had revealed himself after the resurrection. But before this revelation, I want you to see what was going on in the mind of Peter. In verse 3, we read a really jolting statement. Simon Peter said to them, I'm going fishing. I'm from Linden. Reverend Camming goes up there often. We really like to go fishing. But that's not the sense that Peter said it. I see that Jesus has been resurrected, but obviously, with my failure, surely I'm no longer part of this. How real is such a feeling? I mean, how often have we felt that some terrible sin has rendered us cast away from the living God and now unfit to do anything by way of service for him. That's exactly what Peter was going through. It was terrible guilt. It was terrible remorse and this sense of now being on his own. And here is Peter pictured as going back to his former life. His former occupation as a fisherman. I'm done. But in what follows, we have the greatest representation of Jesus restoring sinners to the power of his resurrection. And so it really becomes one of the most comforting passages to you tonight. It's here in Peter's restoration that we should see exactly what the Lord wants us and wants to communicate about the implications of the resurrection of Christ for struggling sinners. So verse 15 we pick up. When they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me more than these? Now from here, Jesus is going to do this three times. So we can't miss really what the biblical writers are trying. The biblical writer wants us to see. This is a direct response to Peter's denial of the Lord. If Peter had denied the Lord three times, Jesus would restore him three times. The connection really is unmistakable. Even the setting. In verse 9, we read that as soon as they had come to the land, they come onto the setting and this mysterious little inclusion is there. Fires of coal, of burning coal, were there as they came on shore. Somebody had prepared these fires of coal, burning coal. What is the scene? Well, if you remember back to Peter's denial, I want you to listen to just a few chapters back in chapter 18 at verse 17. you'll come across this very scene. Then the servant girls who kept the door said to Peter, this is John chapter 18 verse 17. Then the servant girls who kept the door said to Peter, you are not also one of this man's disciples, are you? He said, I am not. Now the servants and officers who had made fires of coals stood there, for it was cold and they warmed themselves. And Peter stood with them and warmed himself. Now what a scene. Peter, in denying the Lord in his afflictions, joins himself with the betrayers who had arrested Jesus. And as he warms himself, this very denial took place over coals of burning fire. Now it's post-resurrection. Peter's thinking, I'm done. I'm done following him. How could Christ love me? How could I be a servant of him? I'm going back to my former life. In chapter 21, he's fishing. And all of a sudden, he sees Jesus on the shore. And Jesus says, children, have you any food? The scene really becomes dramatic at this point. Because you remember back at the beginning of the Gospels, Jesus, of course, was walking and he saw these two brothers, Peter and Andrew, they were fishing because that was their occupation. And remember those beautiful words, follow me and I will make you fishers of men. But now, in light of what happened, in light of the denial, the death of Christ, it seemed that the whole calling had been forfeited. It's post-resurrection. And here's Christ again. And the entire scene is this reinstatement of Christ's original design for these to be fishers of men. This is what Jesus is saying. Do you think that your weakness and do you think that your failures and your denial will frustrate what I have called and separated you out to do and to be. The very resurrection means that now my purpose will be accomplished in you in full as you become my fishers of men and as the message goes out to the ends of the earth. And so Jesus says, cast in the nets and they were not able to draw in the nets. They were able to draw them in, but because of the multitude of fish signifying that the mission is underway. And so in verse 7, when Simon heard that it was the Lord, He put on his outer garment and he plunged himself into the sea after Jesus. Now we come to verse 9. When they had come to land, what did they see? As soon as they had come to land, they saw fires of coal there and fish laid on it and bread. What a scene. Peter had denied the Lord of glory over these fires of coals made by the very enemies of Jesus and now Jesus had prepared fire of coals for him and to feed his sheep. We can only imagine what had filled Peter's mind at that moment. Just that horrendous scene a few nights back where the horrible scene where he was betraying his Lord over the very same thing and now the risen Lord has recreated this scene to speak of his love for Peter. Now I want you to make the really important connection at this point. Turn back a few chapters to chapter 13 and look at verse 36. This is John's account of the predicted denial and you'll see here that there's a certain order that comes out that in our passage is remedy. Look at verse 36 of chapter 13. Simon Peter said to him, Lord, where are you going? Jesus answered him, Where I am going, you cannot follow me now, but you shall follow me afterward. Peter said to him, Lord, why can I not follow you now? So the very issue here first centers on, and I highlight this, following Jesus because there's going to be this point at which he will follow, but not right now. Then listen to what comes next. Peter says, I will lay down my life for your sake. Now the second issue then becomes sacrificial death. I will sacrificially die for you, Jesus. I will die for you, Lord. And then comes the third. Jesus said to him in verse 38, Will you lay down your life for my sake? Most assuredly, I say to you, the rooster shall not crow until you have denied me three times. What's the third issue? Denial. So you have following Jesus, the sacrificial death that he claims he will give, and then following. And then, of course, denying him. So following, death, denial. That's the order that's outlined there in John chapter 13. Now that's a problem. Now, you can't really follow Jesus and you cannot lay down your life for him if you're going to deny him. And that's where our text comes in. In John chapter 21, Jesus is dealing with each of these three things, but now in reverse order. And Jesus first deals with the problem of Peter's denial. The very last thing that was spoken of in Jesus' reference in John 13. So let's come back to verse 15. So when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me more than these? Now what was Jesus asking? Do you agapos me more than these? We know that word. It means to love. It means to cherish, to value, to long for. Do you love me, says Jesus, more than these, Simon? Now what was Jesus asking? Why the more than these? Well, in front of all the disciples, what had Peter said to Jesus in the denial? Even if all, even if all of these are made, remember, even if all your disciples, if all my fellow companions are made to stumble because of you, I will never be made to stumble. Even if all, all of these. Now Peter in pride had lifted himself up over the rest of the disciples. And even if, Lord, all I love you so much, Jesus, I will never be made to stumble. That was the sense of the statement. And what happens in the very first denial? Well, in the very first denial in the Gospel of Matthew, the servant girl came to Peter and said, You were also with Jesus of Galilee. Listen to this. But he denied it before them all. Saying, I do not know what you're saying. The one who said, if all are made to the stumble, I will never deny you. In the very first denial, he was doing it before all. Ashamed of his Lord. And Jesus begins, do you love me more than these? Jesus is drawing out this confession here. Right in front of his disciples standing there, right in front of the coals of fire, the very familiar scene in which he had rejected Jesus. Jesus is drawing out of Peter the very thing he had said to him in John 15, Apart from me, you can do nothing. But Peter had not learned that yet. And it was a whole sort of misunderstanding of the Gospel. A misunderstanding of his own inability. It needed to be confessed. He had in pride thought he would stand. He did not take heed how soon he would fall. He had learned that he had no strength in and of himself to follow his Lord. And that is something we all must be brought to. As followers of him. That our hearts are so weak and they are so corrupted that apart from him, we are done. And right there in front of the coals of fire, which he had denied his Lord upon, Jesus recreates this scene. Just a few days later, Jesus is asking, do you love me more than all the rest of the disciples as you said? And what comes out of his mouth? What would come out of your mouth? It's interesting how he responds. It's literally translated, Indeed, Lord, you know that I have affection for you. He won't use the same word that Jesus uses. And that's the immediate thing in the Greek. He won't use it. It's sort of the inward struggle of the believer, isn't it? Here Jesus is drawing out of the heart this reality of this inward struggle that goes on in the Christian. And he cannot say that he doesn't love the Lord because that would be untrue. Because in the heart of every true believer, there's this inward desire for Christ. Every true Christian knows what I'm talking about. There's this inward yearning for Christ, a desire to follow Him, a desire to some love Him, a burning that is there. I mean, he had just launched himself out of the boat after Jesus. He had said, Lord, let me come to you out on the water. And Jesus said, come. but Peter at this point had not yet learned the extent of his need for Christ. He had not learned how deep the abyss of his heart was in misery. Even though there was this inward affection for Jesus, he had not come to see that the death of Christ was the only way for the cup of God's wrath to pass from his own head. And his actions of denial at the heart of Christ's affliction prove that he did not have the kind of love that Jesus was here questioning him about. Surely, his actions spoke volumes that he did not love the Lord his God with all of his heart, soul, mind, and strength. And so, he refuses to say, I love you in the way that Jesus asked, do you love me? But that being said, it will not prevent him to speak of the desire of his heart. But here's a humbled Peter. Lord, you know that I have affection for you. You know that I have affection for you. And every Christian who follows this Lord comes to where Peter comes and he sees his sinfulness, his inability to do anything without Christ before he can really follow. And Jesus, of course, had said that in the Gospel of Matthew. Whoever falls on this stone will be broken, but whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder. Peter had fallen on this stone and was becoming broken, broken to then be lifted up. What happens next? He said to him, Jesus said to him, feed my lambs. We'll come back to that. Look at verse 16. He said to him again a second time, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me? Now Jesus is getting deeper here. He begins to really probe Peter's heart much further. Jesus is pressing him and he uses the same word for love again. But this time he leaves off the more than these. And he really accentuates the question as he says, as he sets it right out before him, as if to say, do you really love me, Peter? Do you really love me? What a question. How would you answer? Doesn't Jesus ask that today? Do you really love me? All of a sudden, we're taken back to Peter's second denial. And you remember what happened. You remember what must have raced, at least in light of the circumstance, through his mind at this moment. In the second denial, the servant girl came to Peter, and what did she say? This fellow was with Jesus of Nazareth. But again, he denied. With an oath. I do not know the man. This time, he swears an oath against the Lord. I mean, at least you could say he took the Lord's name in vain. Sometimes we think this question, do you really love me, has little meaning, but it has everything to do with what it means to believe in Christ. Peter had shown by his actions that he really didn't want to crucify Jesus. He tried to stop the whole thing. He was prepared to fight. He was ready to stop his path to the cross. And when it came right down to it, he went right into denial. See, what is really pictured here is Peter wanted a Jesus of his own making. But the issue is clear. What really was Peter's devotion to Jesus in light of his crucifixion? One pastor said, was he ready to love Jesus as he was and not as how he wished him to be? Such an important question, isn't it? Are we ready to love Jesus for who he is and not as we want him to be? Do you love me? Peter gives the same answer again. Humbled, broken, ashamed. The longing of his heart is Jesus, but his actions surely did not convey it. And he says, Indeed, Lord, you know that I have affection for you. Tend my sheep. Now Jesus does something very interesting. You won't pick this up in the English, but the Greek is fairly clear. Verse 17. Then he said to him a third time, Do you love me? It's an entirely different word in the Greek. It's the very same word that Peter's been using. And so essentially, Jesus comes right down to Peter's level and he questions the very word that Peter has been using to describe his love for Jesus. And he says, Simon, son of Jonah, do you have affection for me? And all of a sudden we're taken to the third denial. 26 and verse 73 and a little later those who stood by came up to Peter and said to Peter, surely you are also one of them for your speech betrays you. Then he began to curse and to swear saying, I do not know the man. Immediately the rooster crowed cursing and swearing. Do you really have affection? for me? Wouldn't you at least keep your mouth from taking my name in vain? Even more, really jolting is Luke. And we listened to Luke. Peter said, I do not know what you're saying. Immediately while he was speaking, the rooster crowed and the Lord turned and he looked at Peter. And you can picture the whole thing. They made eye contact. Peter, do you really have affection for me? We're probed into the heart. He goes right to the heart. It's kind of similar to the question this morning. Who can ascend the hill of the Lord? Who can stand in his holy place? Well, I guess it comes down with the real question. Do you love me? Says Jesus. That's a heart-searching question. Do you love me? Or even less, do you really have affection for me? At this point, Peter's in despair. He's grieved. NIV reads he's hurt he's asked three times and here he appeals to Christ's divinity and knowing that this was the desire of his heart and he says Lord you know all these things you know that I have affection for you so do you hear him you know this Lord but he refuses to appeal to anything in himself or anything that he had done at this point it's the exact reality of what Paul described in Romans I can't get away from it for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. Peter desired his Lord, but that desire had fallen so far short of the glory of God. Even though he could not find out how to perform it, the will and the desire and the affection for the Lord, and there was the appeal that Jesus knew this, and he responds a third time, Feed my sheep. You see, what Jesus was doing here was very clear. Jesus was giving Peter the opportunity to confess his commitment to Christ, to be restored to where he was and have a complete and fresh understanding that anything that he has been given and that he has by way of loyalty to Jesus Christ has been given to him by Christ and is sheerly by grace. And if he is to follow Jesus, he must be conformed to Jesus' design for ministry and not his own. And so each response by our Lord is sort of this reinstatement, this public restoration through the resurrection to the office that Jesus had given to Peter. And so Jesus was essentially saying, here's how you show your love for me, Peter. Now through the power of the resurrection and Paul often spoke of this power that is available to us in the resurrection of Christ. Read Ephesians 1. This power that is available. Here's what he says. Here's how you show your love. In the sense that I have probed your heart and that I have probed your mind, here is how it is to be revealed in your heart and life. Feed my lambs. Tend my sheep. Feed my sheep. Lambs were the weak and they were the immature of the flock. Sheep as we know are prone to leave. We sing it. Prone to leave the God that we love. They are ignorant. They are foolish. They run when they shouldn't. And they are in desperate need of a tender shepherd. So Jesus was essentially saying to Peter, you were the wandering sheep. You were the immature lamb. You departed from the fold. And look at what I've done for you. I've come after you. I've fed you. I've restored you to the flock and to your office. I nourished you the whole way amidst all of your failure, amidst your deepest denial of me as your crucified Lord. You despised me, you rejected me, and I came after you with an enduring and with a tender and restoring love. You do the same. And so in this grand moment of thrice denial of Christ, that chief shepherd comes with thrice restoration. Now, Peter, you show this to my struggling flock that I showed. That's the kind of compassionate Savior we serve. And Jesus wanted that ministry shown to you. He set it up this way, a relentless, restoring love. It's a beautiful, beautiful gospel when we think about all he's done for us. And you see, it's now that Peter will be able to do exactly what he said earlier in John chapter 13. Remember what he said. Jesus, we're now in reverse order. Jesus had dealt with the denial. And remember what Peter had said. I will lay down my life for your sake. And that's the very next thing that follows in the section here in verse 18. Most assuredly, I say to you, when you were younger, you girded yourself and you walked where you wished. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands. and another will gird you and carry you out where you do not wish. This he spoke signifying by what death he would glorify God. Had Peter said he would lay down his life for Christ's sake, now restored by Christ, he would. And what Jesus was saying is, when you were younger, you did your own will, but now that I have restored you, that I have forgiven you, that I have set you apart for this, That I have set you apart, now I will empower you to the very end, that your life will be a model of mine. When you are older, you will suffer your cross. You will lay down your life as a martyr for me. And so just as in the denial Jesus had said, most assuredly I say to you, you will deny me three times. Now Jesus says the same thing. Most assuredly I say to you, you will die on your cross, is his point. The Greek historian Ecebius wrote, But Peter seems to have preached in Pontus and Galatia and Bithynia and Cappadocia and Asia to the Jews of the dispersion and at last came to Rome. He was crucified upside down, for so he himself asked to suffer. Now what was the very last thing he said to Peter? When he had spoken this, he said to him, Follow me. That was the very first thing that was raised in John 13 when Jesus said, Where I am going now, you cannot follow, but afterward you will follow me after the resurrection. And here is Jesus, follow me. Now that you've been forgiven, now that you've been restored, follow me. And as I have fed you, tend my sheep. Follow me in the very cross I have appointed for you. And so this whole picture here is this grand picture of what the resurrection of Christ has brought for us. You see, if we really understand what the resurrection has accomplished, it is here in Peter that we see our story. You see, the real reality is that we denied the Lord of glory. We crucified Him because of our sin. And that's the sense of the first sermon out of Peter's mouth. A different Peter noticed that in Acts where he comes out and he says, Jesus Christ was a man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs you have taken by lawless hands have crucified and put to death whom God raised up having loose the pains of death because it was not possible that he should be held by it. We denied him. We crucified him as sinners. And every time we sin it's a denial of him. And he asks us three times today do you really love me? Do you love me? Do you have affection for me? And you see, beloved, here's where we come to learn what Peter had learned that day. There was a somewhat of an affection for Jesus, we might say. There was somewhat of a yearning. But in the reality of things, his actions had told a different story. He did not love the Lord as God with all of his heart, soul, mind, and strength. He thought he could. He thought he could climb Zion's mountain. And what Peter had learned through the death of Christ was just how dependent he was upon Jesus for everything. Every last breath. That's the theme that has really been woven throughout full sermons today. He had learned that without Christ's love, his love for Jesus would be nothing. He had learned that without Christ's death, he would have been condemned. He had learned that without Christ shepherding care over him, he would have been forever lost. And so Jesus did this purposely. For what end? The question really was not first, do you love me, Peter? Jesus did that purposely. Who was recording this? Who witnessed this? The disciple whom Jesus loved, John. What Peter had to realize first was that Christ loved him. The beautiful truth of 1 John. What does 1 John tell us? Not that we loved him, but that he first loved us. Where did John learn that? Where did he learn that firsthand? Watching Jesus restore this broken sinner. with a pursuing, restoring, relentless love. The whole account tells us that today because of the power of the resurrection, Jesus has been raised. He's come to us as the good and the chief shepherd and he is drawing out of our mouths a confession. He's drawing out of our mouths and our hearts a heartfelt admittance of our dependence and our commitment to him. He is our all in all. And so the question then is, do we feel the weight of sin, maybe of the past? Oh, I'm sure there are some here tonight who question, am I really forgiven? I've done this terrible thing in the past, and can Jesus really forgive me for that? All of us here have baggage. All of us. What has Peter shown you tonight? He shows us that through Christ's resurrection there's full restoration. That's what the resurrection is about. We would be in our sins had Christ not done this. But his resurrection guarantees that as Christ is raised we are raised with him as believers. And so the message then is don't look back. What did Jesus say? Like Peter, he's given us some cross to bear. And Jesus said this, there is some cross that we must bear. It may not be physical death. But He's restored us and set us apart that we may no longer go in the way that we wish, but that our lives might now be directed to His will and that we might now, in the power of His resurrection, follow Him. And so we must think carefully about He would have us to serve, how He would have us to serve in His kingdom. If we have received the same kind of tender love and the same kind of tender treatment as a sinner, As he has come to you today in the preaching of the word and as he has fed you and as he has nourished you and as he has lifted you up to Zion through Christ, you are compelled to show the same kind of love to one another. Do you? Do you? Now that we are forgiven, we are given freedom to follow him. In the resurrection, there is power and he expects us to walk in the newness of life with such redeeming grace to be brought under the yoke of Him being the Master of our hearts. He has said, sin shall no longer have dominion over you. That's what the resurrection brings. And so now, go forth. Follow Him. He has died for you. He's freed you. And He has restored you. Do you believe that? Go and follow Him. and afterwards we will go to be with him forever. Amen. Our Father in heaven, as we come to an account like this, we cannot help but be moved and humbled by the love that has been shown to us in Christ Jesus, our Lord. We are hidden in him. Our life is in him. Through the power of his resurrection, we thank you that we are restored to life. And so impress that upon us today to know of your forgiving power, to believe it, and to go forth knowing that our status has justified that on that day when Christ returns in the clouds of heaven, that we will be with Him and go to be in His presence. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.