Keep Focus

Good morning, First Baptist Church of Artesia. It's a joy to be with you this morning. My name is Bien. I'm a member here, and it's a joy to bring you the Word of God on this Father's Day.

If you have your Bible, go ahead and turn to John 21. We'll be finishing off the rest of the chapter that we started last week. If this is your first time here or you're visiting us today and you don't have a Bible, please grab a Pew Bible that's right in front of you. It's our church's gift to you. I'd love to have all of those who are here to be able to have a copy of God's Word in their home.

As you find your way to John chapter 21, I'll read for us verses 20 to 25. The big number is the chapter number, and the small numbers are the verse numbers.

So Peter turned around and saw the disciple Jesus loved following them, the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper and asked, “Lord, who is the one that’s going to betray you?” When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, “Lord, what about him?” “If I want him to remain until I come,” Jesus answered, “what is that to you? As for you, follow me.” So this rumor spread to the brothers and sisters that this disciple would not die. Yet Jesus did not tell him that he would not die, but, “If I want him to remain until I come, 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. And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which, if every one of them were written down, I suppose not even the world itself could contain the books that would be written. — John 21:20-25 (CSB)

Pray with me. Father, once more as we come to your Word, help us understand it. Give us understanding that it might be true for our lives, that we would be found among those who trust and follow You. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.

It's a joy to be back in John 21 this morning. But before we get there, I want to start with a hobby I picked up when I was in high school: rock climbing. I had a few friends who enjoyed indoor rock climbing. If you've ever been to a rock climbing gym, one of the first things you immediately experience when you get on the mat and put on the climbing shoes is that it's terrifying to go into a place where everyone can watch you once you get onto the wall. It’s not like a regular gym where some areas are partitioned off, allowing you to do your own workout in your own space. Typically, in a rock climbing gym, when you step onto the mat and see all the "problems" — as they call the routes you climb — everyone could be watching you climb and, essentially, make a fool of yourself from the get-go. So, starting there, and that being your first instance of trying this new activity, it was terrifying. I was dreadful, consistently thinking of what others would think of me as I climbed onto this wall.

Years later, I dropped it for a bit, but then in college, I picked it back up again, and it was actually enjoyable. Over the course of many months, repetitively doing this, it made me curious: what can I do with this newfound hobby? Where can I possibly take this? In Switzerland, there’s a place called Magic Wood, a beautiful forest with huge, gigantic boulders where people set climbing routes. One of the routes I found was called "Never-Ending Story." So, in my mind — I think I was 25 at the time, 24 or 25 — I thought, "I am going to make it part of my mission to one day go to Switzerland, to Magic Wood, and climb 'Never-Ending Story,' and get strong enough to do that." That became one of the reasons why it was easier to go to the climbing gym. I didn’t have to bother with what other people were thinking about what I was doing, even though I was falling off the climb itself, because I was focused on this idea that I was going to get strong enough to go to Switzerland, to Magic Wood, to climb "Never-Ending Story."

I am now 29, turning 30 tomorrow, and I am no closer to being able to climb that route. But there is something to the reality that when we have a goal and we know that we're headed towards it, seemingly all other priorities and all other things fall to the wayside. We can work at something and recognize that this is worthwhile. In a very simple way, that's something that we see in the passage before us: as John closes his Gospel, there is a picture we're reminded of, and that is to keep focus and focus on Jesus. As John winds down his Gospel, there is one thing that he wants us to recognize: this Gospel was meant for us to realize that Jesus is the Messiah, He is the Son of God, and we are to keep our eyes on Him.

So, in John 21:20-25, we see three progressions that compel us to focus on Jesus, the Son of God. We'll see this in three ways: Peter asks, then Jesus responds, and then John testifies.

If you were with us last week, we went over the beginning of John chapter 21, and we asked the question: Why did John write this chapter if chapter 20 ends so well?

Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. — John 20:30-31 (CSB)

What we found out is that chapter 21 actually expands this reality and answers this question for the disciples. Was the Jesus who was with them in the Upper Room the same Jesus who resurrected and was with them now on the other side? What we find out to be true is that Jesus met all of the disciples' needs, from filling the net they went out with into the sea, to filling their bellies as they made it back to the shore. Lastly, we see Him meet Peter's need and restore him in verses 15 through 18.

Just to cover some ground that we left off a little bit last week, verses 18 to 19 are the resolution to the conversation that Jesus and Peter have.

“Truly I tell you, when you were younger, you would tie your belt and walk wherever you wanted. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will tie you and carry you where you don’t want to go.” He said this to indicate by what kind of death Peter would glorify God. After saying this, he told him, “Follow me.” — John 21:18-19 (CSB)

We can move past that really quickly, but something that's happening again in the narrative is this: Peter and Jesus had just finished their conversation about Peter needing to be restored. How much of a comfort would it be to Peter? In reading verse 19, Jesus has just told him the way that his life will be given up for Christ's sake, meaning that though he had rejected Him previously and was now restored again to ministry, Jesus promises him that somewhere down the line his life will be given up, and yet his life will be given up for the gospel, for Christ, so that he finds himself on the right side of history. John writes and pens, "He said this to indicate by what kind of death Peter would glorify God." And verse 19 ends, "Follow me," calling back to the very first things that Jesus called out to the disciples and calling out Peter to follow Him.

So, where does that leave us as we consider now the rest of the verses in John 21? It brings us right back to Peter as we go into our first point.

Peter Asks a Distracting Question

Our first point is Peter asks. And surely we know that as we consider the Gospel story, it's always a good thing when Peter asks questions.

So Peter turned around and saw the disciple Jesus loved following them, the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper and asked, “Lord, who is the one that’s going to betray you?” When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, “Lord, what about him?” — John 21:20-21 (CSB)

After Jesus restores Peter and tells him to follow Him, this is after Jesus and Peter three times had a conversation where Jesus asked, "Do you love me?" Peter responded, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you." And then Jesus tells him that his life will be given up for His sake. Immediately, in verse 20, three words in, "Peter turned around" after Jesus said, "Follow me," and "saw the disciple Jesus loved following them."

Peter turned around after Jesus had just told him to follow Him. We could move past that, but John is doing something specific in the way that he's constructed the narrative. Notice how at the beginning of chapter 21, Peter and the disciples go back to fishing. Here in verse 20, Peter turns around after Jesus has just said, "Follow him," which comes back again in a later verse. But this is supposed to pinpoint us to this picture: even though Peter has just had this once-in-a-lifetime experience of being reconciled with Jesus, having this conversation, knowing that the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords has forgiven him and has reinstituted him for the work that he's called to do, Peter turns around and notices someone else: "the disciple Jesus loved following them." Where Peter has been told twice to follow Jesus, John, the disciple whom Jesus loves, has already been following them since they've been having this conversation, since they've gotten up and have been walking on the shore.

It's interesting the way that John could have possibly described himself right now as he's talking about Peter turning around and being with Jesus. He could have said that he was John, one of the disciples, John, who was part of the three that were always with Jesus: Peter, James, and John. He could have said that he was John who was able to be with Christ as He performed all of these miracles. And yet a specific description he gives with reference to Peter is "the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper and asked, 'Lord, who is the one that's going to betray you?'"

If we were to turn to John 13, what we find in the Upper Room discourse is that John isn't actually the one who begins that process of asking Jesus the question. Peter motions to him and asks him in some way, signing to him, to ask Jesus, "Who is the one that is going to betray him?" Mind you, for the disciples to ask that question, they would have been fully convinced that who among them could have possibly betrayed Jesus. They had no idea among the twelve who would ultimately fall away and be the one to give their Savior up to their enemies. So Peter and John appear to have a close relationship, especially at this point, and they were part of the three disciples that were closest to Jesus. John could have described himself as someone who saw the transfigured Christ. And yet surely the reason that John leaves this description as he's talking about Peter is that, in the same way the three times meant to call us back to Peter's denials, so John is planting another instance that's supposed to call us back to that night where Jesus was betrayed, that there is something of the story that's being told about the life of Peter. On the night in which Jesus was betrayed, so too Peter was thinking about himself when he had denied Christ. So John gives the description, "Lord, who is the one that's going to betray you?"

This leads us to Peter's question. When Peter saw him, in verse 21, he said to Jesus, "Lord, what about him?" "Lord, what about this guy?" "I know You've just finished having this conversation with me, calling me to Yourself, restoring me to my post. But Jesus, I want to know what happens to this other guy that's following You. What's going on with him?" And mind you, with them being as close as they are, there's certainly a sense in which Peter is concerned for John. There's a sense in which there's a right desire for him to want to know what's going to happen to my friend. And yet, as Jesus has just told Peter about his future, it would be a shock to then turn and ask, "Jesus, I know You've told me what's going to happen to me, but I also want to know what's going to happen to this other guy."

How does Peter's question and his asking compel us to focus on Jesus? Because it reveals the tendencies of our own wandering hearts. The reason that this is the first point we make is because Peter is all of us when our hearts desire to look elsewhere other than Jesus. How quickly did Peter move from Jesus telling him to "follow me," and then in the next breath to be able to wonder about other things that did not necessarily concern him, which we see in the second point.

Jesus Calls for Singular Focus

And so we go to then Jesus' response in verses 22 to 23.

“If I want him to remain until I come,” Jesus answered, “what is that to you? As for you, follow me.” So this rumor spread to the brothers and sisters that this disciple would not die. Yet Jesus did not tell him that he would not die, but, “If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you?” — John 21:22-23 (CSB)

Immediately, what we need to realize in this passage is that what Christ wills will happen, meaning that whatever God wishes to come to fruition, whatever God wants to happen in the world, there is nothing that comes to pass that God is frustrated by, and there is nothing that comes to pass that is outside of what He knows and what He does. Jesus promised that He would rise in three days, and He did so.

The initial response leads into the meat of what Christ is saying. He says first, "If I want John to remain until I come." The second part, "What is that to you?" Peter, why should that concern you? The thing that Jesus is trying to get across is not simply that by telling Peter and answering him that He is sovereign over the future of Peter. When He tells him that "if I want him to remain until I come," Jesus is appealing to His sovereignty both over Peter's life and over John's life. And not only that, but effectively Jesus is telling Peter that it's none of his business to know what happens to John. I mean, those are pretty bold things for Jesus to be saying for a disciple who simply wants to know what's going to happen to his friend. And if there's something important that John is trying to turn out over the course of this conversation, Jesus is telling Peter that you need to focus on something else, that your cares and your worries shouldn't necessarily be on these other things at this moment in this conversation.

In the way that Jesus responds to Peter, He's saying that whatever happens to John will happen to John; what I'm concerned with is you. And so His response continues, "As for you, follow me." Now, there's a difference between verse 19 and verse 22. Notice how Jesus in verse 19 says, "Follow me." And then in verse 22, it says, "As for you, follow me." "You follow me" versus just "follow me." The slight shift in language, we can see that the order is actually placing Peter as the subject. When we say "follow me" to somebody, when we give a command, if I just say "follow me" to First Baptist Church of Artesia right now, that could be everybody. Everybody could listen to that command, and it's not really a specific thing. And yet when Jesus says "you follow me," like if John were to look at me, speak to me, and say, "Bien, follow me," then I know immediately that he's speaking to me, and this command doesn't necessarily pertain to everybody else.

So, when Jesus is speaking to Peter, after having just said "follow me," and now repeats Himself, but adds the subject, there is no other way for Peter to turn. This command is for him to hear, and so it is with every disciple that hears the words of Jesus and calls him to follow Him. "You follow me" emphasizes the individual who's supposed to be following Jesus. I mean, if we're to recount Peter's story, he was the one who jumped out of the boat, he was the one who had a three-fold questioning and was restored and affirmed his love for Jesus. And then he asked Jesus about John, and immediately Peter's mind goes off to other things. Something important for us to see when we consider this passage is not simply Peter's failing, but for all of us as disciples. To be a disciple is to be a follower of Christ. To be a disciple is to hear Jesus say "follow me" and to follow Him, to actually do it.

There's a sense in which our discipleship is individual, in that nobody else can obey and trust Jesus on our behalf. We might have a long history of a Christian family. And yet our fathers, our mothers, our grandfathers, our grandchildren, in no direction can grace be dispensed from the top down, meaning that our family members cannot believe on our behalf, because Jesus's call is to individuals, and individuals to churches. At the same time that our discipleship is individual, we're called at the same time to be with others. And yet the focus of Jesus is that first part: "You follow me."

Yes, it's well and good to be concerned for other Christians. Yes, it's well and good to be mindful of other church members. That's why we pray through the church registry. That's why we care for one another. That's why we check on one another throughout the week. And yet Jesus's primary concern in verse 22 is Peter: "You, your life, that's Mine. And you're to give it up and you're to live it out for My sake." When we think about discipleship in that way, and that nobody else can mediate, apart from Jesus, our relationship with God, what does that do to the way that we live life, knowing that we don't have to compare ourselves to other Christians?

Something that happens if you've been going to church for any length of time: maybe you hear of somebody who's evangelizing more than you. You hear of someone who seems to be putting sin to death a little bit better than you, somebody who's taking better notes than you, maybe even more legible notes than you, on a Sunday morning. Maybe you've missed a few Sundays in a row and you know that there's this person who's never missed a day in their life. It's easy as Christians to both be the one climbing the problem in the indoor climbing gym and to be the ones off to the side pretending like we're not watching. But when Jesus calls us to give up our lives and to follow Him, He means for us to give up our lives and follow Him, to obey Him, to trust Him. That that command is not for just anyone else, but it is for you.

And that's an impossible task, even the following, if it were not for Jesus Christ. The focus of John's Gospel is and has always been that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. If you feel like Jesus calling out and saying "Follow me" is too difficult of a task to do, recognize that even in the Garden, and God giving His instruction to Adam and Eve, they themselves fell because they chose to be gods themselves in trying to pursue and form the Garden to their own image. In taking the fruit, Satan confusing them, all of those things contributing to the fact that we want to make gods of ourselves. That we would rather follow every other image and idol in the world, that we would rather follow every comfort known to man, that we would want to know what happens to other people who profess faith before we would ever jump into the ship with Jesus.

And yet for all of those who are wavering and weary, and maybe you're looking at the law and are burdened by it, at the same time that this Jesus tells Peter "follow me," He says so, having accomplished payment for sin at the cross. So the same Peter who turns around and sees another disciple, whose focus is elsewhere, is the same Peter whose sins have been eternally paid for on the cross. And that same offer of salvation to all of those who would believe in the name of Christ, that is the promise that there is rest in Him. That when Christ calls you to follow, you don't follow in your own ability. I don't follow in all of my willingness and power, but I follow because Christ gives me the ability to do so.

Then verse 23: "So this rumor spread to the brothers and sisters that this disciple would not die. Yet Jesus did not tell him that he would not die. But if I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you?" The way that verse 23 reads is a little bit of an editorial note. It's as though John is saying that when Jesus said, "If I want John to remain until I come," Jesus wasn't saying that for good that John wasn't going to die. He wasn't telling everybody that now John's going to live forever or he's going to live as long until the Second Coming. And yet the reason why John would leave a note like this, consider the way that he's thinking, is that so that when he does die — because death is imminent and it is coming — he doesn't want his own death to then be a shame or a discredit to the testimony of the life of Christ and the testimony of His disciples. So even that far along, John has already been thinking. And it's the transition by which we move on to the final section of John in verses 24 to 25.

For Christians, the measure of our lives are not our earthly accomplishments. If we trust that God has given each of us a lot for life, then we need to be faithful to what He's called us to do. Jesus would use Peter and John differently as redemptive history unfolds. Both were used for God's glory. Both were used for the Gospel. One was martyred for the sake of Christ's name; the other was persecuted and lived a longer life so that this book could be given to us some thousands of years later. Don't think that the lot that the Lord has given you is a small thing. Don't think that just because your name is not known, that you've done nothing for the kingdom. Remember that there are many Christians who have walked this earth, who have been put in the grave, who no one will know, and yet in heaven, their names are known, known by God. The only person, in one sense, worth being known by.

John's True Testimony to Jesus's Love

And so the third point. We see that Peter asks, that Jesus answers, and lastly, John testifies. John testifies. And what does he testify about? The one Peter was asking about when he turns and looks to somebody following them. The one that he asked this question about. It was none other than John the disciple testifying to these things and wrote them down, verse 24. But who was John?

In verse 7 of chapter 21, we see the disciple, "the one Jesus loved," said to Peter, "It is the Lord." In verse 7, we see the comparison that John is the one who among the disciples typically recognizes and understands first. At the same time, John's first appearance in his own Gospel, the one that he's written, is in John 13 when he leans over to Jesus. And yet this disciple, though not including himself in the book of John itself too often, he describes himself not by the name of John, not by the name of John who was there at the Transfiguration. He doesn't name himself; he gives himself a title: "the disciple Jesus loved."

And what kind of love did Jesus have for John?

Before the Passover Festival, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. — John 13:1 (CSB)

The one who has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. And the one who loves me will be loved by my Father. I also will love him and will reveal myself to him.” — John 14:21 (CSB)

Jesus answered, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. — John 14:23 (CSB)

On the contrary, so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do as the Father commanded me.“Get up; let’s leave this place. — John 14:31 (CSB)

So there's this kind of love that the Father and the Son have from before the world was.

“As the Father has loved me, I have also loved you. Remain in my love. — John 15:9 (CSB)

No one has greater love than this: to lay down his life for his friends. — John 15:13 (CSB)

When John labels himself as "the disciple whom Jesus loved," it's against this backdrop. The Father and the Son loved one another from before the world began. The Son became the incarnate Christ, and that same love remains, and this Son loves us with the same love that He has with the Father—an infinite love that poured itself out to be shared with others. That is the love that God pours on His creatures, particularly us, and that is the love by which John describes himself as "the disciple who Jesus loved." What other title could sufficiently describe who we are to our King, to our Redeemer, to our Shepherd? Is this not a sweet thing to be known by, that you are a disciple that Jesus loved?

And we know that John's testimony is true. In the same sense that John 1:14 says:

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. — John 1:14 (CSB)

That same "we" acknowledging that we know that Jesus has come, that He's revealed Himself both in His Word and to the disciples, that there is truth for us to see. John throughout his Gospel is testifying of the reality that Christ is, and was, and is to come.

Think about it in this way, as we read verse 25. John writes, "And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which, if every one of them were written down, I suppose not even the world itself could contain the books that would be written." I believe I would ask you, if you were to write a book, and some of you might, if you were to write a book about Christ and the ways in which He's known you, cared for you, and loved you, I wonder how long would that book be?

For reference, "The Last Lion" is a three-volume series, 3,024 pages, written about Winston Spencer Churchill, who was the Prime Minister, or who would become the Prime Minister, of Great Britain during World War II. So there was somebody out there who was able to write 3,024 pages worth of stuff about Winston Churchill. At Midwestern Seminary, home of the Spurgeon Library, of whom our pastor is a trustee, they posted an article recommending 12 books about Charles Spurgeon. I did the math, but one of the books didn't have a page number, so this is a little bit lower, but the page number of all of those biographies about Spurgeon added up is 3,500 pages, and that's not even including the sermons that Spurgeon himself prepared, of which there are volumes upon volumes of. The CSB Pew Bible, right in front of you, has 1,088 pages, according to Amazon; I didn't check while I was seated, so you'll have to confirm for me. But if people are able to write that many pages down about men, how much more the incarnate Word? How much more pages should be written of Him who was in the beginning and before the beginning?

I wanted to climb "Never-Ending Story" in Switzerland, but the pages upon pages that we could write of the Son is a never-ending story in and of itself. We should not lack for praise, joy, and thanksgiving for the Son who came and died.

The Enduring Purpose of John's Gospel

John 20:30-31, the purpose statement of John:

Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. — John 20:30-31 (CSB)

Brothers and sisters, focus on Jesus. If you're here with us this morning and you don't know Him, you don't believe in Him, read, go home and read John. John wrote this specifically so that those who would read this would come to the realization that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. May our lives, just as John's life, be a testimony to the watching world that the very Gospel that we proclaim and believe is one that can change our very lives, that it's worthwhile to focus on Jesus, to trust Him, and that all other things fall to the wayside.

And yet that very same Gospel is the same Gospel that turns enemies into friends, is the same Gospel that unites us to one another, is the same Gospel that for the Christians gathered at First Baptist Church of Artesia, turns us into something more than just a random group of people who gather regularly on a Sunday, but it's something that forms us and shapes us, that the Gospel of John is meant for us to know, to realize, to proclaim. That, beloved, Jesus is our Messiah, that He is the Son of God, and He came and died for us.

And "The Love of God," in its final stanza, says this: "Could we with ink the ocean fill, and were the skies of parchment made? Were every stock on earth a quill, and every man a scribe by trade, to write the love of God above, would drain the ocean dry. Nor could the scroll contain the whole, though stretched from sky to sky."

Brothers and sisters, let us think of Christ from now until glory and beyond, because there is nothing else that should capture our hearts and our focus other than Jesus, because He is worthy of it all.

Brother, we thank You that in the midst of our weakness, we have a great High Priest who knows all of our weaknesses, our anxieties, our woes. We thank You that there are saints, like the Apostle John, who came before us to write this Word that we might hear. And so be with us even this day, Father, sustain us with Your grace, help us look and focus at Jesus, and trust Him for all of our days. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.