Episode Transcript
[00:00:03] Speaker A: Welcome to the leaders notebook with Dr. Mark Rutland. Dr. Rutland is a world renowned leadership expert. He is a New York Times best selling author and he has served as the president of two universities. The Leaders Notebook is brought to you by Global Servants. For more information about Global Servants, please Visit our website globalservants.org Here is your host, Dr. Mark Rutland.
[00:00:25] Speaker B: If you have your Bibles, if you'll take those and turn to the Gospel According to John the 21st chapter.
The gospel according to John the 21st chapter.
I'm not going to read one verse. I want to read a lengthy passage of Scripture. I know that's not as usual in the contemporary pulpit, but I want to read a lengthy passage because I want the whole story before us before we even begin. John, chapter 21. If you will notice, it says after these things.
What things?
It means the passion of the Christ, his arrest, his torture, his crucifixion, death, burial or entombment, I should say, and his resurrection.
So these things mean all of that. So this is in the wake of the resurrection. The disciples are confused.
They're upset. Some of them are discouraged, some are hopeful. They don't know what it means.
So all of this after these things means all of that after these things, Jesus showed himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberius, or the Sea of Galilee, as we call it, and in this manner showed He Himself. There were together Simon Peter and Thomas, called Didymus and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee and two others of his disciples. Simon Peter saith unto them, I'm going fishing.
They say unto him, we also go with thee. They went forth and entered into a boat immediately. And that night they caught nothing. But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore. But the disciples knew not that it was Jesus. Then Jesus saith unto them, children, have you any meat or food? In other words, have you caught anything?
They answered him, no. And he said unto them, cast a net on the right side of the boat, and you shall find they cast therefore. And now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fish. Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter, it is the Lord.
Now, when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, I want you to make a note of that. He does not see it or perceive it himself.
He hears it from John, who perceives it. Now, when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he girt his fisher's coat unto him, for he was naked and did cast himself into the sea. And and the other disciples came in a little boat. For they were not far from land, but as it were, about 200 cubits, dragging the net with the fish. As soon then as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals. Do you notice that? Is it on the screen? Please notice. A fire of coals. A charcoal fire. Mark it now. A fire of coals.
As soon as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals and fish laid on it.
Bread. Grilling fish and making toast. Jesus saith unto them, bring up the fish which ye have now caught. Simon Peter went up and drew the net to land full of great fish. And 153. And although there were so many, yet was not the net broken. And Jesus saith unto them, come and dine. And none of the disciples dared ask him, who art thou? Knowing that it was the Lord Jesus then cometh and taketh bread and giveth them and fish likewise. This is now the third time that Jesus showed himself to his disciples after he was risen from the dead.
So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, simon, son of Jonah, lovest thou me more than these. Look at that phrase. More than these.
The pronoun reference is obscure both in English and in Greek.
These. What?
It's not clear when you read that. What was Jesus talking about? Do you love me more than these? Was he talking about fish and bread? Do you love me more than food?
Does he mean, do you love me more than these other people love me, the other guys? Or does he mean, do you love me more than you love these other guys?
It's not clear even in Greek. He saith unto him, yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. And he saith unto him, feed my lambs. And Jesus saith unto him. Again, the second time, Simon, son of Jonah, lovest thou me? And Peter saith unto him, yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. And Jesus saith unto him, feed my sheep. Jesus saith unto him the third time, simon, son of Jonah, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, lovest thou me? And he said unto him, lord, thou knowest all things. Thou knowest that I love thee.
Jesus saith unto him, feed my sheep. Put your hands on your Bible and let's pray together. Lord, with our hands upon the word. Our hearts and minds as open as we know how to get them. We're asking you to do all the rest. Brush aside every barrier to divine communication.
Speak to us, O Lord. Heal us and we shall be healed. Save us and we shall be saved.
In Jesus, mighty name, the strong Son of God.
Amen. Amen and amen. I want you to imagine this, that there is somewhere in the world a ministry team.
A group of people that have been doing ministry together.
Highly effective ministry.
Earth shaking ministry, Miracles, signs, wonders, thousands of people saved, touched.
At almost the peak of this experience, three terrible things happen.
The leader of the ministry dies.
Two others in the ministry team fail and fall miserably as the result of their fall.
One of them, filled with remorse and guilt and unable to find healing, kills himself and commits suicide.
The other, filled with the same level of guilt, remorse and unable to heal himself, longs for some kind of healing.
But the leader of the ministry is gone.
The leader has passed away.
One of the most prominent members has failed, fallen into sin and committed suicide. And another has failed, fallen into sin, disappointed everyone and himself, and doesn't know how to get healed.
Does that sound like too far fetched of a story?
That is the story of the disciples.
That is exactly what has happened. Jesus has been taken from them, tortured, slain. Judas Iscariot has betrayed the Lord for money. He's unable to find resolution to it. He hangs himself. And Simon Peter, unable to find resolution for his, is so discouraged. He says, I'm through with ministry. I don't even know what to do. I'm going fishing.
I like it when I see humanity in the disciples.
It gives me hope for my life. Look how real this is. Where are the men in the audience? Look how real this is. He's discouraged, downcast, defeated. His solution is a fishing trip. I understand that my sort of my solution to almost everything in life is a fishing trip.
Simon Peter says, I'm going fishing. The other guys say, we're coming too. They go up to Galilee, where they began not as preachers, not as rabbis, not as miracle workers, but as professional fishermen. I don't know if we have any professional fishermen in the house, but I'm going to tell you, it's a tough group. It's a tough group of people. And they go back to their roots, back to fishing, back to professional. This is not sport fishing. This is net fishing all night on the Sea of Galilee. Their ministry has been fruitless. Their life is confused. They return to what they know, which is fishing. And it's fruitless.
Nothing is working.
You ever have those moments in life where every doorknob you touch falls off in your hand?
That's where these guys are right now. The morning is coming. The dawn is just starting to awaken. It's cold, it's chilly. And some guy shows up on the beach and he says, did you catch anything?
Well, that's a time honored question. You walk out a pier where there's a bunch of guys fishing. The most logical question in the world, you always ask it. You can't stop yourself. You did you catch anything? If they have a string or a fish to show, they welcome the question.
If they have nothing, they say, get away.
This guy says, did you catch anything? They say, no, we didn't catch anything. And he says, cast your net on the right side of the boat and you will.
What is not clear in the passage is why they obey that at that point they do not know it's Jesus. It's just some guy on the shore. Cast your net over here and you'll get it. But they do. Maybe it's just to get him away from, ah, just throw the net over there. Let's get this guy out of here. They throw the net over there and as they start to pull it up, the net bulges with fish.
Now, I want you to watch this.
This entire passage, the 17 verse. Verse 17 verses of John, chapter 21, is Jesus recreating scenes that. That all of these men have already been through? He is recreating a situation, taking them back into situations that they've been through in order for them to find the healing and restoration that they need.
Now listen to what I'm going to say here.
Everybody in this room, everybody at all of these in Livingston and at the Baker Camps, Mid City, everybody that's watching this on television, every one of us, we all are in the process of being healed from something.
Life. And life with Christ is the process of his restorative grace.
The 23rd Psalm. I've spent the last 10 years investing myself in trying to understand and comprehend and receive the blessing of the 23rd Psalm. If you ask 99 people out of 100, what's the most famous line out of the 23rd Psalm, they will answer, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. And however, having said that, as precious as that passage is, I do not believe. That's the heart of Psalm 23. It's not the quintessence. If you took everything away.
The one thing that is the greatest hope and promise of the 23rd Psalm is He restores my soul.
Every single one of us, at some point or another, and in fact throughout our lives, needs soul restoration.
We need mind healing, we need inner healing. We need deliverance, we need awakening, we need restoration.
Now, it may very well be that there's that. None of you have ever fallen, failed, flopped, disappointed. God, you hit a home run every single moment of every single day of your whole life. You've never struck out, you've never disappointed yourself, never disappointed anyone else. In which case, let us touch the hem of your garment.
The rest of us know that we have need of him.
Each of these scenes that are recreated here are part of the process of soul restoration.
Now, I want you to watch this. The first thing that is recreated is this one of fishing.
And they start to pull those nets up to the boat and it bulges with fish.
Do you remember, don't you? This is how they were called to start with, Remember, Jesus went into Peter's boat and said, launch out a little bit from the land. And he taught from the boat. And then he said, now let down your nets for a draught. And when they pulled the nets up, it was so much that the nets began to break. Had to call the other boats over to share the fish. And Jesus said, henceforth, I will make you fishers of men.
Jesus is reminding them in this scene of their initial encounter and call.
There will come times when you have so maybe not you, some people, heathens in galaxies far, far away, not in Louisiana, but there may be somebody somewhere that has failed so miserably that you think you are disqualified.
And Jesus will take you back to that moment where he says, remember, this is where we met and this is what I said, and I want you to remember it in the midst of that moment.
John, who later writes the Revelation, isn't it interesting how we see the gifts of God operative in other people's lives so consistently?
It is John who has the gift of revelation.
And he sees this moment. He looks at the fish, he looks at the nets, he sees the guy on the shore and he remembers that and he has a revelation. Peter doesn't. The others don't. John, who later writes the Revelation, says, that's the Lord.
That's Jesus over there.
That's Jesus. Now, when you are wounded and hurting and confused and disappointed in yourself and in life, it's hard for you to see Jesus in the moment.
Somebody else sometimes has to say to you, I know this is a bad moment. I know you failed. I know you flopped. I know you've gotten hurt. I know somebody else has hurt you. But Jesus is in this.
Jesus is in this.
And that's what John says, now watch this Peter grabs his clothes and dives in.
The other guys in the boat. So what?
We could get there in a few moments.
Now, what do we put that down to? Why does Peter suddenly jump out of the boat, just dive in and start swimming?
It could be that we put it down to his chronic impetuosity. Simon Peter simply was one of those. Do anybody know these kind of guys, they're just always out in front of everybody.
They fill up every room they walk into. They're just loud, big, you know, they talk when everybody else is quiet. They stand up when everybody else is sitting down.
Just one of these guys. Peter's just one of these great, big, loud, unpredictable, impetuous men. Remember, it was Simon Peter that walked on water.
The other guys all stayed in the boat. Jesus Peter's the one that walked on water. He's also the one that sank.
This is Simon Peter all over.
So he just dives in, and the other guys say, well, there he goes.
But I think there's something else here.
I think there's something else here. This is a youthful church. I don't see very many veterans. I prefer the word veterans to seniors.
I don't see very many veterans my age. But I wonder if there's anybody here that remembers if you misbehaved at school, you got a spanking. Does anybody remember that? And was anybody else here? I was raised by a paratrooper who had a very low sense of humor.
Anybody else here understand when I got a spanking at school? When I went home and told my daddy I got a spanking at school, he did not suck.
He did not sue the school. He said, you got a spanking at school. They did not finish the job.
He said, I'm gonna finish the job.
So I got spankings at school, at home, I got whoopings.
You probably don't use that at all. You don't even know. You all are so sissy. You say whipping. Whippings.
Anybody else here raised by a paratrooper? No. Let me tell you something. You know what I'm. I'm talking whooping.
When I got a spanking in school, I did not call a lawyer. I prayed until God, nobody called.
So what I know is this.
When Simon Peter dives in that wet, cold lake at dawn, there isn't anything colder than a lake right before the sun comes up.
And he dives in and starts going to shore. Why? Because he knows when he gets to the shore, Jesus is going to give him a tongue lashing.
He knows that he's going to Get a whooping. And he does not want to take his friends to watch you get sent to the principal's office. You don't take your best friend. Say, man, they're fixing to lay into me. I'd like for you to be there.
He clambers up out of that lake. He's sad, tired, discouraged, wet.
And we think of a beach on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. When you go with me to the Holy Land, you'll see there's no beach except man made ones. It's the. It's a rocky shoreline of round black volcanic basalt rock. And he comes up out of the lake, wet, cold. He's slipping on those wet rocks and he comes forward and he sees Jesus sitting over at a campfire. And he says, oh, I drew it this. I dread this. Because in his mind he thinks Jesus is going to say, you craven, gutless little coward.
I told you you would betray me. I told you you'd deny me. And did you do it once? No, that wasn't good enough.
Did you do it twice? Mm, three times after I told you you would.
Three times.
So you can come over here, but don't get close to the fire. Sit over there where it's cold.
And the other guys I've made fish and bread. You get none.
You know, what if that's your Jesus? Your Jesus is my devil.
Wouldn't it be awful if Jesus come to Jesus say, lord, forgive me of my sin, forgive me of my failure. And he says, well, all right, I forgive you, I forgive you. But I just want you to know how much you've hurt me.
I forgive you. But I don't know if I can ever forget this.
That's not your God. That's your mother in law.
What if you went to heaven? What if he said, all right, I forgive you, I forgive you. And you can come to heaven. You can come to heaven, but stay away from me.
And you're in heaven 10,000 years. And you walk through the throne room and Jesus is in there with Peter and Paul and some others, and they're telling jokes and laughing. And when you come in the room, Jesus says, hmm, shh, there he is.
That's not heaven, that's hell.
That is exactly what Peter thinks is going to happen.
He walks up to Jesus and he's making his speech up. He's trying to figure out all the things he's going to say. I didn't. I wasn't ready. How many?
There's nobody in this room that's ever committed the same sin. More than once. But there are lightweights, though, elsewhere. And you know what you say to yourself, isn't it? Isn't this it? If Fall wants. And you say, oh, I wasn't ready. I wasn't ready.
I'm ready. Oh, I've got to memorize the Bible verse. Let that come one more time. I'm ready now. Oh, I can't believe. Lord, please forgive me. That'll never happen again. I promise you. How many have made promise? Don't raise your hand. I don't want to.
Lord, I promise you that'll never happen again. Oh, I did it again.
And what happens is, at some point or another, that slimy, horrible, miserable voice says, now you've gone too far.
That's it.
You've gone too far.
Peter is worried that that's the voice he's gonna hear as he comes forward toward Jesus.
It says that Jesus is seated at a charcoal fire. Remember, I said there are scenes that are recreated. The first is the fishing scene where Peter is called.
The second is this one. There are only two places in the entire New Testament where a charcoal fire is mentioned by name.
Here and in Caiaphas Courtyard, where Peter is warming his hands the night he denies Jesus.
So Peter recreates the scene of his darkest failure so that Jesus may enter that scene and bring him restoration.
Now, I know that Dr. Andy here is the real expert on counseling, and I'm in alien territory, but let me just say this to you, that is actually the essence of Christian counseling, that we go to our darkest moment, that thing which we did, or I don't know who's here, I don't know what you've been through, but. Or that which was done to us, those terrible things that haunt us, those memories, that awful moment where not only our failure hurt us, but somebody else's failure and sin hurt us. And we are devastated, wounded. Christian counseling is the means by which we can invite Jesus back into that moment. As painful as it is to go there and remember it, Jesus comes into that moment.
So when Peter comes out of that lake, he comes toward that charcoal fire. It's the most natural thing in the world. You can't even stop yourself.
He comes toward that fire with his hands out when it's cold. You come in the house after on a cold night, and there's a fire in the fireplace. Do you ever have a cold night in Louisiana? I'm not sure that happens. But try to imagine you're in some godforsaken country somewhere, Michigan or someplace, and you come in a Cold night. And you see that fire in the fireplace. You can't even stop yourself. You'll go straight toward it like that, or depending on how cold it is, you.
And Peter starts toward that charcoal fire and he looks across the fire and he looks right straight into the eyes of Jesus. And he remembers that scene.
He remembers that scene of his betrayal and denial. The little maid said, do you know Jesus? No, I don't know Jesus.
Somebody else said, weren't you with Jesus? No, I wasn't with Jesus. A third person. You were with Jesus.
We recognize you. No, I wasn't. And says, he even cursed.
Do you know Jesus? No. Do you know Jesus? No. Do you know Jesus? Hell, no. They say, okay, now we believe you.
He denies him with a curse.
And he comes forward with his hands toward that charcoal fire. And the scene is recreated. And Jesus looks across the fire, looks him right in the eyes, and Jesus says, I'm still here.
I'm still here.
Listen to this.
When you reach your hands out and experience that moment of the memory of your failure or the darkest, most miserable, wretched thing that's ever been done to you, invite Jesus into the moment. Don't deny it. Don't back away from it. Say, lord, come and sit in this moment with me. That's the beginning of soul restoration.
Now, the third thing is this.
Then there's these three questions.
Jesus says, do you love me?
Peter says, yes, Lord, I love you.
Then Jesus says, feed my lambs.
Do you love me? Yes, Lord, I love you.
Feed my sheep.
Jesus asks him a third time, do you love me? He says, yes. He says, then feed my sheep.
I've heard preachers all my life speak on this passage of Scripture. I have preached on it, I've taught on it.
And I confess to you I missed one of the great points of this.
I am. I'm well over 21.
It hurts me when you laugh at me.
And after all these years in the ministry, a few months ago, I was reading this passage and I suddenly said a poem. I get it. Probably everybody else in the world knew this except me. But suddenly I saw it.
I heard preachers always make a distinction between the verb which Jesus uses in the Greek Bible, which is agape or agapeo, spiritual love.
I love you deeply from my heart, from my soul. And Peter answers with phileo, the Greek, brotherly love, from which we get the word Philadelphia.
He says, do you love me passionately? Do you love me from your soul? He says, I love you as a brother. The only problem is that neither one of these men were speaking Greek.
That's in the Greek Bible. But these men were either speaking Hebrew or more likely, Aramaic.
So that verb distinction doesn't really work very well. I see the distinction. Every man in the room understands the distinction. Every male in the room. You take your wife in your arms and say, baby, I love you. I love you more than anything in the world. I think you're the most beautiful woman, and I adore you. I worship the ground you walk on. And she says, well, I think of you as my brother in Christ.
You know, you're not hitting on the numbers, so maybe there is that distinction. But that's not the heart of this issue.
The heart of the issue is the three questions.
Listen to this. Jesus is recreating the three moments of his denial.
I heard you deny me. Do you love me? Yes. Then I reiterate your call.
You have not been disqualified.
Do you love me? Yes. All right, you're still called.
Second time, you denied me. Do you love me? Yes, Lord, I love you. You're still called.
The third time. Did you deny me? Do you love me? Yes. I did deny you, but I love you. Then you're still called.
Not only is Peter restored to fellowship, he is restored to responsible ministry.
Jesus recreates these three scenes. The initial call in the boat, the moment of his failure in Caiaphas courtyard, and then the restoration of his call at the three moments of his denial and failure.
And what does that mean to us in this room?
It means that no matter what that dark moment is in your life, I don't know who's here.
I don't know which women were molested as little girls. And that memory haunts the back hallways of your life.
I don't know who has failed in business or fallen morally or whatever else. What I'm saying is closing that up, locking it up, putting the seal on it. You will never, ever get healed. It will abscess and ooze poison out into your life. But if you will allow Jesus to open the door and take you by the hand and walk you back in there, the presence of Christ in that dark moment is the beginning of soul restoration.
Now, there's just one more thing. And here it is.
Jesus says to the disciples, I've been here cooking. The resurrected Christ spends a whole morning cleaning fish, building a fire, cooking fish, making toast, slicing the bread, making toast.
The resurrected Christ is cooking breakfast for these guys.
And when they walk up, Jesus says, I don't need to hear your speeches.
I don't need you to make Some big mournful confession.
Come on, sit down.
I read a magazine survey. Some years ago, a women's magazine in the United States sent out a survey to its the people who had subscribed to its subscribers list.
And they asked them a funny question.
What would you rather hear someone else say to you than anything in the world? What's your favorite phrase for another human being to say to you? And they got thousands and thousands of answers. They collated them all and came up with the top three.
I guessed the first one. What would Americans rather hear somebody else say to them than anything else? I know. The romantic country in which we live, and I guessed the first one. How many of you know what the number one most popular thing was?
I love you. Oh, yes. That was all women that answered, I love you. That's what we want to hear. I love you. I guessed that one. The second one shocked me.
Do you know what it was?
I forgive you.
We walk around with a load of guilt and condemnation, and we don't know what to do with it.
I believe you could stand on a street corner in downtown Manhattan and all day just say to people as they go past, I forgive you. I forgive you. I forgive you. And I think people would say, man, thanks so much. I'll never do it again.
I love you and I forgive you. The third one handed me a laugh. I mean, I laughed my head off. You're not going to believe what the third most popular phrase was.
Supper's ready.
Isn't that funny? I think that hearkens back to a time when women in this country actually cooked.
The other night, I said to my wife, I said, baby, this was a wonderful meal. This was delicious. She said, thank you. I may cook again next year.
I was laughing. I said, supper's ready. That's the third most popular sentence in America. Supper's ready. And then all of a sudden, I said, oh, my God.
That's the whole law and the prophets.
That's the whole gospel.
I could take those three sentences, and everything that's in this Bible is in those three sentences.
That's the reason whenever we serve Holy Communion, we really only have three proclamations to make.
Jesus says, no matter where you are, no matter what you've done, no matter how far you think you've fallen or how far away from grace you think you are, or no matter what terrible, terrible thing has been done to you, he says, I want to restore you because of three things.
I love you.
I forgive you.
Supper's ready.
Come and dine the Master calleth come and dine.
You can feast at Jesus table all the time.
He's not here to condemn us.
He's not here to exclude us. He has three wonderful announcements. I love you.
I forgive you. What is it?
Supper's ready, everybody. God bless you. And God bless Bethany Church. God bless you.
[00:31:24] Speaker A: You've been listening to the leader's notebook with Dr. Mark Rutland. You can follow Dr. Rutland on x@drmarkrutland or visit his website, Dr.markrutland.com where you can find information about his materials and his app. Join us next week for another episode of the Leader's Notebook.
