FBC Daily Devotional – November 3, 2021

Faith Baptist Church

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Well, good morning, good Wednesday morning to you. I trust your week is going well. Today, we're in John chapter 21 and mostly

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I want to focus on Peter. That's easy to do in the gospel records. You know, if you're not focusing on Jesus, you can focus on Peter.

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Jesus, of course, is the focal point, but Peter plays significant roles in the gospel accounts.

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And here in John 21, he's a central figure as well. And what struck me as I read this, especially the first part of chapter 21, is the is the effect of failure on Peter's part.

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There are two key places where Peter failed in his area of specialty, in his area of expertise.

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And they begin, and those two occurrences of failure kind of bookend the gospel account of Peter.

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So the first expression of failure, first experience of failure, was he was out fishing, caught nothing.

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Fished all night, caught nothing. And the next morning, you know,

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Jesus said, cast your nets on the other side, cast nets on the other side.

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Nets were so full that they had to call help to come and and get those nets full of fish on board.

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And the ship almost, the boat almost sank because it was so full of fish. And the result, here's the thing, the result of that failure is that Peter became a committed disciple of Jesus, followed him from that point on.

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Well now, it's post -resurrection. Peter had earlier failed regarding the denial of Jesus.

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But here they are, the resurrection has occurred, and you know, Jesus and half of the other disciples are there, they're on the seashore.

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And Peter says, I'm going fishing. And the other disciples, okay, we'll go fishing with you.

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And so off they go in a boat to go fishing. And again, you know, they fished, fished, fished, fished, cast their nets, threw their nets, and caught absolutely nothing.

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Got nowhere. And then that morning, next morning, the resurrected

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Jesus is on the seashore, and he tells them from the shore, cast your nets again over on this side of the boat.

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And they did, and again, the nets were filled with fish. And John recognized that has to be

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Jesus. He says, that's Jesus. And Peter, as soon as he heard it was Jesus, he dove into the water and he took off to get to Jesus as quickly as possible.

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Brought the fish ashore, and so on and so forth. And here's the thing about this failure, of fishing failure.

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After this failure, it led to the rededication and commissioning of Peter as a shepherd, an under shepherd of Jesus.

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Jesus, remember, confronted him those three times, corresponding to the three denials, three times.

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Peter, do you love me? Yes, feed my sheep. Peter, do you love me? Yes, feed my lambs. Peter, do you love me?

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Yes, feed my sheep. So, he failed. First fishing failure resulted in becoming a committed disciple of Jesus.

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Now, he's defeated. Here in John 21, he's feeling defeated, feeling like, you know, he let

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Jesus down, and he did, he denied him. But Jesus comes to him in grace and mercy, confronts him.

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After performing this miracle for him, he knows Jesus hasn't given up on him, and you know,

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Peter re -establishes his commitment to be a follower of Jesus, and Jesus commissions him as a shepherd of Jesus' sheep.

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One thing I take from that is to not be so quick to think of failure as complete failure.

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What does Jesus want to do with me in my failure?

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What redirection, what refocus, what reorientation is he wanting to accomplish in my failure?

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Certainly, a very important line of thinking to consider when

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I think, or maybe I actually have, failed in some key area of my life.

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The other thing about Peter in this passage, I want to think about, want to focus on, is how after receiving that commission, he sees

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John, and he says, you know, well, what about him? What's going to happen with him? Jesus responds to Peter and says, hey, if I want him to live till I come again, what is that to you?

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You just do what I tell you to do. You follow me. You just follow me. And from this,

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I'm also challenged about our innate tendency to compare ourselves with others, to think about, okay,

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I think this is what God's got me to do, but what about him? You know, what's he supposed to do?

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And Jesus' message to us is, don't worry about him or her. You follow me.

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You focus on me. You focus on following my steps for your life, and I will take care of my other followers, my other servants.

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You focus on following me. So I accept that challenge, and I realize that it doesn't matter what your vocation is, whether it's vocational ministry, or, you know, in the business world, or a homemaker, or what?

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It doesn't matter what your calling in life is. There can be a tendency to look with a bit of envy or a comparison with others and wonder, well, you know, why are they gonna do what they're gonna do, you know?

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Why can't I be like them? Why can't I do what they're gonna do? And so forth. No, we don't want to go there. When what we want to do is just be sure that we are following our

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Savior step by step and be concerned about what he would have me to do.

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That's the focus. Follow him. All right, Father, I pray that from these examples of Peter, we would learn some things today.

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We need to keep our eyes focused on Jesus. We need to be committed to him, and if we have failed him, we need to recommit ourselves to him.

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We need to be determined to do what he would have us to do. Help us to be faithful in that discipleship, we pray.

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And we ask it in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen. All right.