I came to Minneapolis, and Bethlehem, and started TBI (The Bethlehem Institute) in the fall of 2003. I found myself in a cohort of twelve sharp, able, Reformed twentysomethings with vocational ministry ambitions. Of course, it was easy to compare ourselves with each other. How could we not? Often, I pondered how God made and shaped us differently and wondered how he might use the various men in the room in different ways in the decades to come.

Our two-year program ended twenty years ago, in the spring of 2005. Over the years, it has been a great joy to see how Christ has led and employed us differently as we’ve fanned out from the Twin Cities. Several brothers have been overseas for years in hard places. Several have pastored and still do pastor. Some went on for further grad studies and earned PhDs. One works among youth in the Twin Cities. Another serves as a deeply invested layman in his church in Iowa. One pastors in Asheville, North Carolina. Another in Texas. Another in Wisconsin. Some here in Minnesota. Others elsewhere.

That comes to mind for me in this Bethlehem College and Seminary setting because of the glimpse we get into the greatness of Jesus in John 21:20–24:

Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them, the one who also had leaned back against him during the supper and had said, “Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?” When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, “Lord, what about this man?” [Can you resonate with Peter here?] Jesus said to him, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!” So the saying spread abroad among the brothers that this disciple was not to die; yet Jesus did not say to him that he was not to die, but, “If [that’s a big if!] it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?”

This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things, and who has written these things, and we know that his testimony is true.

What I needed to hear as a TBI student twenty years ago, and what I still need to hear today, and what you may need to hear as a Bethlehem college or seminary student, is Jesus say, “What’s that to you how I mean to use your peers in my global work? You follow me.” Don’t swell with conceit about your perceived abilities. And don’t melt in discouragement about others’ abilities. “What’s that to you?” Jesus says. “You follow me.”

The Greatness of Jesus

How I’d like to proceed through this last section of the Gospel of John is for us to enjoy three aspects of the greatness of Jesus in John 21:15–25. John has seen the glory of Jesus. And John has filled 21 chapters with the glories of Christ. And now we come to this final chapel of the semester, and the final section of the Gospel of John, which is fitting. Let’s watch three fireworks of John’s grand finale.

The first is what we’re already seeing in verses 20–24.

1. Jesus puts his farmhands to different uses in his global harvest.

This is the glory of a master farmer, who knows his work, and his workers, and how to put them to best use.

Peter would preach at Pentecost. And Silas, among others, would help Peter get his thoughts in writing in 1 Peter. And instead of stiff-arming Paul, Peter would be the one to extend the right hand of fellowship. And in humility Peter would receive Paul’s public words of rebuke after his miscalculations in Antioch. And Peter would be crucified, like his Lord, as Jesus foretells in verses 18–19.

And what about John? He would live a very different, and much longer, apostolic life. John would live to be an old man and be exiled on Patmos. John would write this Gospel, one of the great gems of all Scripture. And Jesus would appear to John on Patmos and give him the revelation about his second coming, the capstone of the New Testament.

And of course, neither Peter nor John was Paul. And none of them had quite the literary ability they would discover in Luke, who was a doctor and had the best Greek in the New Testament — save only whatever skilled Greek preacher wrote Hebrews.

So, Jesus’s different uses of Peter and John in verses 20–23 make for the transition into verse 24, with John in a humble, self-effacing way putting his name on this masterpiece of a Gospel. That’s a first firework here in the grand finale: Jesus the master farmer puts his farmhands to different uses in his global harvest.

BCS students, hear this, know this, anticipate this, and love this in your king. Love his multifaceted global mission, look for his tough and tender promptings to your particular callings, and be as free as you can from deflating or inflating comparisons with your fellow farmhands.

2. Jesus restores a humbled disciple with toughness and tenderness.

I say “a humbled disciple” instead of “disciples” because Jesus knows how to handle each of us. Apparently, Jesus knows what sort of toughness and bluntness Peter needs. (He seems to handle John differently.)

And Jesus is surprisingly tough here. This is the man to whom he once said, “Get behind me, Satan!” He asks him three times if Peter loves him, to match Peter’s three denials. In doing so, Jesus pushes Peter to the point of grief. Verse 17 says,

Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?”

He was grieved. And Jesus was not afraid to grieve him. Jesus does not make a mistake or miscalculate in grieving Peter. He means to prick Peter, to pierce him, to cut him, and so to heal and restore him. The failed disciple will not be memorably, solidly, convincingly restored without being grieved. And, brothers and sisters, let’s hope that we are truly his and that Jesus loves us enough to grieve us.

Those whom he loves he trains. And “for the moment all [training] seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Hebrews 12:11). So, then,

Do not regard lightly the [training] of the Lord,
     nor be weary when [grieved] by him.
For the Lord [trains] the one he loves,
     and [grieves] every son whom he receives. (Hebrews 12:5–6)

But Jesus’s toughness isn’t done yet. Peter is already grieved, and then Jesus tells him that he will die painfully for Jesus’s sake. And when Peter asks about John, Jesus says, “What’s that to you? You follow me.”

Verses 15–22 are Jesus’s tough and tender recommissioning of a humbled disciple. And we’ll give the most focus to verses 15–19:

When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.” He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, 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 everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, “Follow me.”

Mark four ways that Jesus handles his humbled disciple.

Humble Name

First, Jesus calls him by his humble name. Three times, Jesus calls him “Simon, son of John” — not Peter, not Rock, but “Simon, son of John” — which echoes Jesus’s first words to him in John 1:42: “You are Simon the son of John.” Now, Peter having genuinely failed Jesus three times, Jesus moves to reinstate Peter, and do so publicly (with the witness of six other disciples), and he brings Peter back to this early, simple moment of their first meeting and Peter’s first response of faith.

Jesus would not have his disciple forget those early, simple, faith-filled moments. Do you remember yours? Don’t forget them. Don’t ever presume to get beyond them. (I can’t help but think of John writing in his first letter, “Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you,” 1 John 2:24.)

Hard Question

Second, Jesus asks the hardest question. Jesus has a way of doing this. To the woman at the well, he says, “Go, call your husband” (John 4:16). He puts his finger on the pain point in the soul and he pushes. For Peter, he says, “Do you love me more than these?”

I take “more than these” to refer not to the fishing gear, or to Peter loving the other disciples more than he loves Jesus. I think Jesus is referring to Peter loving him more than the other disciples love Jesus. That’s the pain point, the historical weakness, the bent to comparison — to be first, to take the lead, which Jesus is still working on in verses 20–23.

Peter is that type. He’s the guy who wants to be the guy. Are you like Peter in this? You’re prone to compare yourself to others. You’re constantly aware of others — whether to lead them or surpass them. Verse 15 is Jesus’s way of asking Peter, whom he knows so well, “Simon, son of John, natural leader that you are, have you been humbled yet? Has your failure served its purpose?” (And it was purposeful, because he was sifted like wheat).

“The glories of Christ are endless. You will never run out of glories to enjoy and tell about Jesus.”

Peter is the one who says, “I’ll come out to you on the water” (Matthew 14:28). He’s the one who says, “You shall never wash my feet” (John 13:8). He’s the one who insists, “Jesus, I will lay down my life for you” (John 13:37). He’s the one who draws his sword and strikes the servant of the high priest (John 18:10).

I’m assuming Peter was at the center of the following accounts:

• Mark 9:34: “On the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest.”
• And Luke 9:46: “An argument arose among them as to which of them was the greatest.”
• And Luke 22:24 (same Gospel, another instance!): “A dispute also arose among them, as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest.”

And in this very context in Luke 22, Jesus turns to address Peter:

Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers. (verses 31–32)

Peter responds, “Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death” (verse 33). In other words, “The others may fall away, Lord, but not me. I love you more than these.”

So, Jesus goes right there: “Simon, son of John, have you been humbled? Are you still the greatest in your own mind? Do you still surpass the others in your love and loyalty?”

If you’re at all like Peter, be encouraged. Jesus doesn’t give up on this guy. He makes him the Pentecost preacher!

Heart Matter

Third, Jesus goes for the heart. Jesus’s question to him is about his love. “Do you love me?” Love! He’s saying, “How do feel about me, Peter? Your emotions, Peter. Your affections. Your heart. Talk to me about your heart.” Jesus goes to the heart, the very core, the very center — the person at his deepest and truest.

He doesn’t say, “Do you know the truth?” or “Do you fight for the truth?” or “Do you embody biblical manhood?” or “Do you stand unashamed for me?” Peter didn’t stand unashamed. He failed. And Jesus takes it to the heart of the matter, which is Peter’s heart. My heart. Your heart. Do you love him?

John paints this scene so well for us. They’re fishing on the Sea of Galilee, and there is a huge catch of fish. Impulsive Peter jumps into the water (to outshine the others?). There is a taste of breakfast, and the smell of a charcoal fire (which has only one other mention in the New Testament: John 18:18, where Peter denies Jesus). John draws us into this scene, at the close of his Gospel, to ask us the question Jesus asks Peter.

This is not just to Peter. This is to every reader, every hearer: Do you love Jesus?

Restored Mission

A fourth and final aspect of Jesus’s tough and tender handling is this: Jesus gives Peter a mission. We see Jesus’s tenderness to restore a failed disciple and give him meaningful work to do. Given that he feels love for Jesus, how should he respond? Feed Jesus’s sheep.

It’s worth observing what Jesus does not say when he gives Peter work to do. He does not say, “Work to impress me.” He does not say, “Serve my needs.” But he says, “Care for my sheep.” “I’m the good shepherd. I’m going, and I’m leaving you to care for others. Be my hands. Be my mouth. Be my heart embodied. I don’t need your work, Peter, but others do.”

Brothers and sisters, you have been loved by Jesus. He demonstrates his love for us in that while we were yet sinners — deniers, faithless, foolish — he died for us. And you love him — not perfectly, and not apart from the daily help of his Spirit. But it is genuine love. Real love. You love him and want to love him more.

Do you love him? Feed his lambs.

I say, do you love him? Tend his sheep.

Do you love him? Are you grieved to hear that a third time? Feed his sheep. Love him; feed them. Receive from him; give to them. First feel; then feed. If you love him who first loved you, then in that love seek to be his tool of grace in the feeding and loving of others.

And so, we close with one last glory in the Gospel of John: the last firework in the grand finale. And it’s a big one. One that never fades.

3. Jesus never runs out of glories to see and savor and share.

Don’t you love how John ends his Gospel masterpiece? How would you do it? The final glimpse he gives us of Jesus’s glories is this: You’ve only begun to taste the glories.

And so, we end our chapel series where the Gospel of John ends:

Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. (John 21:25)

And that’s the end of one of the greatest books ever written. There are 21 chapters of glory, and as the last note, John says, “Oh, this is just a taste!”

There are 21 chapters full of glory and three more Gospels full of glory. And there are 39 old-covenant books preparing the way for his glory. And there are 23 other new-covenant writings telling the story of his ongoing work through his Spirit in the early church, and teaching us to observe all that he commanded, and celebrating his glory now in heaven on the throne of the universe and awaiting the glory that is to come. The glories of Christ are endless.

Brothers in the room who aspire to preach, and others who want to teach and write and feed his sheep in various ways, and Christians who hope to enjoy him and feed your own hungry soul on him for the rest of your life, the glories of Christ are endless. You will never run out of glories to enjoy and tell about Jesus. We will never tire of his glories. We will never be bored with his glories. His riches are unsearchable (Ephesians 3:8). In the tune of Psalm 40:5, in Jesus, God has multiplied his wondrous deeds and thoughts toward us. None can compare with him! We will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told. As we feed his sheep, we serve them inexhaustible glories. And first we feed our own souls on them.

What Shall We Say?

We end with Romans 8:31. After Paul seems to have said it all — all things work together for our good, and we are foreknown, predestined, called, justified, and glorified, in this golden, unbreakable chain — then he says,

What shall we say to these things?

You might expect him to say, “I’ve said it all. What more can be said? That’s it. Can’t top that.” And what does Paul do? He keeps saying glories. He goes on to write perhaps the nine most glorious consecutive verses in the Bible. And that’s after saying, “What more shall we say?”

Brothers and sisters at Bethlehem College and Seminary: What is it to you what plans Jesus has for your fellow students? You follow him.

He will handle you just as he needs to — however tough, however tender, and all the while working on your heart, to love and treasure him, the wellspring from which ministry flows.

And whatever your calling, whatever your assignment on the farm, whatever your failings as a disciple, the glories do not end. Jesus will show us his glory, and thrill our souls, and give us words to speak in praise of his glory, for the rest of this life, and throughout eternity.