Can Jesus restore you after you fail Him?

Yes. In John 21:15-19, the risen Jesus meets Peter — who had denied Him three times — and gently restores him. Dr. Toby Holt shows that failure is not the end for those Jesus loves.

Over a breakfast on the shore, Jesus asks Peter three times, "Do you love Me?" — one for each denial. Each time Peter says yes, Jesus gives a charge: feed My lambs, tend My sheep, feed My sheep. Love shows itself in faithful service. Jesus then foretells Peter would one day die for Him, and closes: "Follow Me."

Questions this study answers:

1. Why did Jesus ask Peter the same question three times? Peter had denied Jesus three times, so Jesus gave him three chances to affirm his love — a tender restoration, not an interrogation.

2. What did Jesus mean by "feed My sheep"? He was calling Peter to care for His people — to nourish and protect them. Real love for Jesus shows itself in serving others.

3. What does this say to us when we fail? Jesus restores those who fall and calls them back to service. The call is always the same: "Follow Me."

"Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?… Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.' Jesus said to him, 'Feed My sheep.'" — John 21:17 (NKJV)

Dr. Toby Holt is President of New Geneva Theological Seminary, and his sermons have been downloaded more than 1.9 million times on SermonAudio. Find more verse-by-verse Bible teaching at newgeneva.org; support this ministry at newgeneva.org/give.

On the night that Jesus was arrested, Peter denied knowing Him three separate times.

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And yet when Peter encountered Jesus on the beach, several days after His resurrection,

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our Lord was kind, gracious, and forgiving.

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And during their conversation, Jesus said that He had an important job for Peter.

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He told Peter to go and feed My sheep.

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This conversation will be the focus of today's study from John 21.

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You know, by the time we get to John 21, the Apostle Peter, he had had a long, long week.

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Now, on the one hand, it had to be tough physically.

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We don't think about that too much.

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We're worried more about the spiritual, emotional side of Peter.

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But he had to be just worn out.

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He'd had sleepless nights.

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He'd had to go into hiding in multiple cases.

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He was worn down.

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But on top of being worn down, there was the spiritual weight of what he had just gone through.

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Now, the irony is that as worn down as Peter was, this is the one that Jesus had called out and said,

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you are my rock. You are going to be the strong one amongst your brethren. You are the rock. And

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Peter took that word and he kind of ran with it. If you look at Peter across the course of his days,

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or at least across the course of the ministry that we see, Peter liked to be the rock and he

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acted in that sort of rock-like fashion. He acted strong and brave, or at least he claimed that he

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would be strong and brave. When push came to shove, it didn't always turn out that way. And yet,

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And yet, Peter had anticipated that he would be the one to outlast all of his brethren,

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that if all the others melted away, if all the others stepped back from Jesus,

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that he himself would stand.

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But that's not the way it turned out, as we saw a couple of weeks ago.

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Now, Jesus had warned Peter about his false pride and his false strength.

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He had said this to Peter back in the Gospel of Luke, Luke chapter 22.

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In the upper room, he had said this.

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He had said,

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Simon, Simon. Indeed, Satan has asked for you in order that he might sift you as wheat. But I've

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prayed for you that your faith should not fail. When you have returned to me, go and strengthen

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your brethren. But Peter said to him, Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death.

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Then he said, I tell you, Peter, I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow this day before

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you've denied me three times, three times that you know me. All right, so Jesus told Peter, Jesus told

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Peter that Satan wanted to get his hands on him. How daunting a thing is that? For what it's worth,

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the same is true of you and I as well. Satan would desire to sift all of us like wheat, and the only

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reason he can't or doesn't is because God protects and preserves his own. With that said, Satan's

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desire was to get his hands on this rock, this so-called rock, and mess his life up, mess his

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world up. And Jesus said, but I prayed for you that he would not be able to do so. I have prayed this,

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and yet, Peter, at the same time, at the same time as the enemy wants to get his hands on you,

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here's the thing. He doesn't even have to. You are weak and of yourself. We think the devil and

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the demons are the only things that we have problems with. Even if the devil or demon never

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messed with you at all, you have enough sin right in here to mess you up. And that's what Jesus

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tells Peter. Jesus tells Peter, you have a false understanding of who you are and what you would

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do when push comes to shove. Push is going to come to shove tonight. And before the rooster even

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crows, Peter. The one who says he's going to be with me until death and prison and all the like.

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Before the rooster even crows. Three times. You're going to deny that you even know me.

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Deny that you even knew him. You remember how that played out? As Jesus is arrested in the

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garden of Gethsemane, for a brief moment, Peter does show some impulsive courage. He cuts off the

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ear of one of those who came to find Jesus in the garden. And yet, and yet, shortly thereafter,

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as Jesus is led away and he goes through a series of interrogations that ultimately will lead him

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to Pilate. But as he goes through these interrogations, Peter's kind of in the shadows

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skulking. He's nearby, which showed some bravery, but he's not so brave as he will stand up and

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protect and defend and speak up for this Jesus when everyone's accusing him. In fact, when people

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would ask him, hey, do you know this guy? I thought I saw you with him. He'll say, no, no, no, no, no,

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no, no, no, no. That wasn't me. It was somebody else. The third time he's asked, hey, I thought

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I saw you with him. The third time he's asked, Scripture says not only does he say no, not only

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does he deny that he knew this one, but it says he cursed as he did so. It's the equivalent of saying

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I don't know the blankety blank man. That was the nature of his denial, and Scripture tells us that

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right after that last denial, what happened? Scripture tells us that Jesus looked at him.

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Can you imagine how that must have just cut to the heart of Peter? When we said he'd had

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sleepless nights. He'd had sleepless nights, and probably the biggest single reason was that look,

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that look. Jesus had warned him what he would do. He'd sworn it would never happen,

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then he had done it. He had denied his Savior. How many times did he replay that moment in his

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mind's eye, wishing, wishing that he could take it back? With that said, could Jesus forgive that

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sort of denial? Would the relationship between the two men ever be the same after that? Look,

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after that denial, well, we're going to find out in the first recorded conversation that we see of

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these individuals, Jesus and Peter, after that denial. Let's look now at verse 15, as we usually

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do. I'm going to read verse 15 and just kind of work our way through the balance of the text.

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All right, so verse 15. Now, when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter,

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Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me more than these? And he said to him, yes, Lord,

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you know that I love you. And he said to him, feed my lambs. All right, let's start there.

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at the start of chapter 21 which we're skipping over to get to the meat of the passage here but

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the start of chapter 21 you have Peter and some of the other disciples and they're out in the boat

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and they're fishing and it's not going so well it's not been a great night of fishing they end

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up getting closer to the land with that said as they get closer to land there's a man a man calls

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out to them from the beach and he says hey guys put down the nets over here and so they do so

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and they catch a bounty of fish and shortly thereafter they deduce that this one who called

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out to them and said, put down the nets, that this was Jesus. As an aside, had that ever happened

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before? Yes. Right when Peter was called, the same exact thing happened, the same thing. It's not a

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coincidence here. So here at the start of chapter 21, just before they're on the beach talking about

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feeding lambs and sheep and so forth, at the start of chapter 21, we see a recapitulation of what had

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happened earlier when Peter and Christ had first met. The same fishing incident takes place here

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later on. Now, with that said, the guys then see. They catch these fish. I think scripture says

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there was 153 of them or something like that, but they catch these fish, and the man realized that

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this is Jesus. Now, what's the reaction of the guys? Well, of course, there's excitement and

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enthusiasm, and so they, you know, take the boat, and they want to get back towards land. Not Peter.

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Not Peter. What did he do? He just dives on in. Now, does that remind you of anything? Does that

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remind you of anything? Of Peter seeing Jesus across water and deciding to jump on in to get

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to him. Why should you think it does? Because if you remember, Jesus is walking on water, and Peter

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is the one who thinks he can just accomplish the same thing. There's, again, a recapitulation,

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a symmetry between earlier events in the Gospels and what we're seeing here in chapter 21. Whatever

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the case is, Peter's excited. It's Jesus. He just dives in, swims out towards the Christ here, and

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then they have this reunion on the beach, and verses 1 through 14 say the reunion comes with

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breakfast. Jesus cooked up breakfast. How awesome is that? You know, sometimes people ask or wonder

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about when we get to heaven, you know, are the things we enjoy here going to be there? Like,

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will we eat? Is there going to be food in heaven? What do you think? They do call it the wedding

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supper of the lamb, you know. There is a supper there somehow. But what we see is that Jesus,

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he comes back in this glorified state, so to speak. He comes back, and when he first saw the

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disciples, he asked for some fish and honeycomb, and he enjoyed that. Here he's cooking up a meal.

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man, that must have been something else. When you have a divine chef cooking you breakfast,

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that's got to be pretty tasty. So this is what occurs. Breakfast is being cooked on the beach.

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The breakfast ends, and in verse 15, Jesus talks with Peter. Jesus talks with Peter. Peter had

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previously denied Jesus near a fire on the night he was betrayed. Well, here it's on fire again,

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but Jesus is in front of him, and he asks him this simple question. He says, do you love me?

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do you love me, Peter? Now, Peter had testified to his love before. It's not like Jesus had never

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drawn that out from him. You ever been in a relationship, perhaps with your spouse, where

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the first time you say the word love, it's filled with all sorts of weight and connotation and the

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like, you know? The first time you utter the L word, it means something just so profound, and you

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build yourself up to say it, and then you hope you hear it back from the other person and the like.

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Well, in this particular case, Peter said he loved Jesus plenty of times. That wasn't a shock. So

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Jesus asks him, though, he says, well, do you love me? And I'm sure Peter's, absolutely. You know it.

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You can take it to the bank. I love you, I love you, I love you. Love and devotion, that's what I'm all

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about. However, however, notice Christ's response. Christ says in response, well then, feed, feed

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my lambs. You know, the word love is not simply this abstract emotion. In this context, it's a

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verb. It involves action. You should do something. Remember elsewhere in the scriptures, Jesus asked,

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do you love me? If you love me, you'll do what? You'll keep my commandments. If you love me,

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you'll feed my sheep. If you love me, you'll tend my sheep. If you love me, you'll keep my

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commandments. The point is this, that when Jesus asked Peter, when Jesus asked you if you love him,

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and your answer is to say amen and amen, that amen should result or should be yoked to some

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substantive work on your part. If you love me, in this context, feed my sheep. If you love me,

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Peter, disciple, apostle to the stars, if you love me, then feed and take care of the people

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that I entrust into your care. If you love me, you'll do this. To the rest of us, we might have

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slightly different commissioning with God, but the same thing holds true. If you love him, there's

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some response, an outworking of that love from us to him that demonstrates it's true, that demonstrates

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it's substantive. So Jesus identifies in Peter's case what that action is in verse 15. He says,

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if you love me, then you will feed my lambs. All right, let's look at verses 16 and 17.

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Now he said to him a second time, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me?

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And he said to him, he said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you.

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He's thinking to himself, I just said that.

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You know that I do.

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And so Jesus said to him, then tend my sheep.

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And then verse 17, he said to him a third time, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me?

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Now Peter was grieved this time because he said to him the third time, do you love me?

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And he said to him, Lord, Lord, you know it.

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Lord, you know all things.

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You know that I love you.

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and Jesus said to him, feed my sheep. All right, verse 16. Jesus reiterates the same question from

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verse 15. He says, do you love me? Remember, in a Hebrew context, repeating anything is significant.

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Hebrew language in particular, when anything is repeated, it's repeated for emphasis. Like when

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Jesus says, truly, truly, I say to you, the repetition is significant. Well, here Jesus

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asked the question three times. We might lose sight of that a little bit, but here there's an

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emphasis that is suggested here. So he says in verse 15, do you love me? He asks in verse 16,

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do you love me? And again in verse 17, he says, do you love me? Now, why do that though? Why do

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that three times? And if we wonder that, Peter was wondering that all the more. However, the answer

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is pretty simple. The number three, guess what? It corresponds with how many times Peter had

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denied him. There's a symmetry, and it's not an accident, but there's a symmetry here by which

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Peter's earlier denials are being replaced by affirmations. This is the symmetry, and again,

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it's not an accident. However, verse 17 suggests that Peter himself, his heart is grieved by this.

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His heart is grieved by the repetition, which is something, again, I think we can understand at a

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human level. If your spouse were to ask you, do you love them? You say, yes, I do. Then they look

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at you and say, really? Do you love me? Yes, I do. Really? Do you love me? By the third time,

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you're like, don't you get it? Don't you understand? I've said I love you three times now. I've said it

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a thousand times before. You know that I love you. You don't need to keep asking. You know it. You

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know it. You don't have to ask me. You know it. With that said, Peter might have had a similar

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reaction. Whatever the case is, whatever he was processing, however he was thinking this stuff

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through, Jesus asked him this question three times. Peter says yes three times. And then Jesus does

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something interesting. After each occurrence, after each occurrence, Jesus again yokes his own

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response to Peter's response with some variation on feed my sheep or tend my lambs, as the case

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may be. Feed my lambs, tend my sheep, feed my sheep. Three slight variations. Now, is there any

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significance behind those variations? He says, feed my lambs, tend my sheep, tend my lambs and

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like her. Feed my sheep, tend my lambs, tend my sheep, right? Is there any significance to those

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variations? Well, some commentators think, yes. They say every word, we need to drill into it to

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figure out exactly what's going on here. Is there a difference between lamb and sheep? I don't see a

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lot of farmers out here. Yeah, there is. I mean, lambs are like the younger ones, right? So

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theoretically, theoretically, some have said that what's going on here is that Jesus is talking

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about two types of believers within the church of which Peter is going to have responsibility. On

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the one hand, he's supposed to look out after the lambs, the youngest among them, the children's

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choir age, so to speak. Look after my lambs. Look after the small. Look after the tiny. Look after

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the vulnerable, look after them. If you love me, you'll look after them, right? So that could be

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what he was saying there. And then when he talks about, you know, feeding my sheep, the idea could

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be, you know, on the other hand, it's not just the lambs, the small ones, but the whole mature body

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of saints. We want to look after everyone within the invisible body of Christ. So maybe that's what

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he was talking about. Maybe also there's a difference between feeding and tending. Feeding,

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on the one hand, suggests, in this case, you know, some spiritual nourishment, maybe feeding the word,

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preaching the word, sharing scripture and doctrine and so forth. Maybe that's what he meant by feed,

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and maybe by 10 that's protecting and discipling and the like. So it's very possible that these

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words meant different things and that's why Jesus used them. On the other hand, a lot of commentators

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think that this variation is just stylistic, really. If you have a babysitter come look after

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your children and say, look out after my kids, watch out over my children, you could say things

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slightly different and yet mean the same general thing. Take care of those I'm entrusting to you.

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In all likelihood, that's probably what we should take out of this text. Jesus is telling Peter,

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look out after those that I'm entrusting to you. So with that said here, Christ's greater point is

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that our love for him, if we say we love him, we say, Jesus, yes, I love you, I love you, I love you,

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then that love that we have for him should outwork itself in the love we have for others. We see that

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throughout, throughout scripture. How will they know that we're Christians? By our what? By our

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love, right? Love is the outworking of the faith we have in here. If you're a believer, if God has

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changed your heart. If you're regenerate, right, if you're born again, blood-bought, son and daughter,

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the most high king, then you will act accordingly. And the principal way that you'll act accordingly

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is you'll show love and grace to the people to your left and your right. If you're hard-hearted,

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you say, I love Jesus, amen and amen, but I'm going to be a jerk to these people, and I'm going

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to be difficult to be around in the life. That's not what he's talking about here. He says, if you

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love me, then you'll be tender with sheep. You will be tender with lambs. You'll show care and

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devotion. You'll feed, and you'll nourish, and you'll shepherd, and when need be, you can be

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strong. You can protect them from the wolves that are out there, but your sheep should know you

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on the basis of how you come alongside them, and how you tend to their wounds, and how you feed

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them, and the like. This should be the heart that you have, Peter, my rock. It should be a soft heart

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that's not like a rock at all. I notice here he calls him Simon, son of Jonah. He's not referring

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to him here, Cephas, as a rock. Whatever the case is, this seems to be what he's pointing to. If you

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love me, that love is going to be demonstrated by the way you take care of those people that I

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entrust to you. Now this, on the one hand, he's talking to Peter. By extension, of course, he's

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talking to those who lead elsewhere in ministry. The other apostles, the same charter was given

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to them. Elders, deacons, and the like throughout the years. Our responsibility is to protect and

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to love and to feed and to nourish those that God has given us. And I'll tell you right now,

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candidly, that's easier said than done. It's not hard when they ask you your ordination vows to

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say, yes, I'll commend myself to doing these things. Yes, I will look after those and entrust

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it to me. The reality is you fail. I know this very well. Peter knew it here too. Now one last

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note before we move on to verses 18 and 19. This mandate here is not just for leaders in the church.

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If you're a parent, if you're a caregiver, if you're a teacher, if you're a doctor, a nurse,

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If you're a friend, then you help tend, you help feed, you help nourish the people that are in your

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life. Some relationship has been entrusted to you to caretake those that God holds dear. So in a

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sense, we're all called to follow Peter's steps here. All right, let's look at our final verses

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now. Let's look at verses 18 and 19. Verse 18. Most assuredly, I say to you, when you were younger,

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you girded yourself, you walked where you wished. But when you're old, when you're old, you will

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stretch out your hands and another will gird you and will carry you where you do not wish to go.

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Now this he spoke signifying by what death he, meaning Peter, would glorify God. And when he'd

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spoken this, he said to him, follow me. Peter, you're going to die. A day is going to come when

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you're going to be taken somewhere you do not wish to go. When you were young and impulsive as he was

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at the time on the beach. When you're young and impulsive, you know, you're doing your own thing.

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You're a bucking bronco living life the way you think it needs to be lived. You're hard to reign

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in and the like. When you were younger, you acted in such and such a way. You girded yourself. You

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walked where you wished. But when you're older, as you get older, as you follow me in my footsteps,

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a day is going to come. A day is going to come, and it's going to be a difficult day indeed,

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but a day is going to come when you'll stretch out your hands and another will carry you and

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gird you and take you somewhere that you do not wish to go. Now, that was the euphemism for

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crucifixion. And lest we miss the point, John clarifies it there in verse 19. He said, this he

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spoke signifying by what death he would glorify God. It was understood what was going to happen.

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It was understood. But immediately after saying this, immediately after telling him that is going

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to be the outcome, he says, follow me. Elsewhere in the gospels, Jesus says this, take up your cross

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and follow me. Exact same principle here. Now again, Peter, as we've known him, as we've studied

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him in the book of John. He's been an impulsive guy. There's been moments of great strength and

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there's been other moments that have just been bad. Just been bad. Like the time Jesus had to

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chastise, you know, Peter, get behind me, Satan. Boy, you don't want that. You don't want to hear

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that phrase out of Jesus' mouth. So Peter made a number of mistakes and part of that came about

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because of his independent, impulsive mindset. I'll do this. I'll be that. I'm going to be the

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greatest. I will be the strongest to death and glory and the like, you know, lopping off ears

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and jumping into the water and so forth, that's the nature of Peter. With that said, with that said,

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Jesus says a day is going to come when all that impulsivity, you know, you're not going to be

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able to do the things that you want to do, that you are going to be consigned to this fate and

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even to this death. This is a prophecy, not just a prediction, but a prophecy of the death that

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Peter would ultimately face. Now, scripture does not record Peter's death, but history and tradition

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do. And history and tradition are pretty unanimous in this, that Peter did die. He did die as a

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martyr, and that he died specifically through the means of crucifixion. However, something's

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interesting is that Peter evidently, again, if history and tradition are to be believed, which

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take it for what it's worth, but if history and tradition are to be believed in this matter,

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not only was he crucified towards the end of his days in Rome under the reign of Nero,

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you know, that villain, not only did this happen, but Peter at this time asked to be crucified

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upside down because he couldn't bear to die in the same way that Jesus did. He was too

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unworthy. Whatever the case, this is part and parcel of what Jesus tells Peter is going to

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happen here. And yet it's not the most important words in this statement. Rather, the most important

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words, the last two words, and those are these two words, follow me. Peter, this is what's going to

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happen. Peter, if you love me, if you take care of my sheep, and if you lead the church, if you do

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these things, then you will face the persecution that faces those who love my people. The persecution

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that I face will ultimately fall upon your own head. This is going to happen. You can take it

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to the bank. And yet, yet, I want you to follow me unto that end, will you? This morning, remember

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we said earlier, we said earlier that it's not so much just when we look at this text that we want

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to study it in order to see what happened 2,000 years ago in a place far, far away. This morning

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in this text, we're not just studying what Peter did and trying to understand Peter better, even

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to understand just what Jesus did and said here to understand it better, although all that's

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important. This morning as we come to this word, the question is when you hear those words, follow

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me, directed at Peter, you should also hear them directed at you. You see, the charter that we have

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as Christians is also to live sacrificially, to give up our lives in honor of our king. The charter

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we have as Christians is also to lay down our life. The charter we have as Christians is to take up

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our cross and follow him. The same exact words, the same exact words that Jesus spoke to Peter

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apply to you. Follow me to whatever end. And the ends might be different. Peter's end was going to

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be different from John's. This we'll study next week. John's end is going to be somewhat different

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than Peter's. And yet the charter remained the same. Follow me, follow me. And the same is true

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for us. You and I are called to follow our King. Now Peter, and wrapping up this morning, Peter

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thought he understood that. Peter thought he knew what it looked like to follow Jesus. But the truth

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was, Peter, as is the case often with you and I, Peter was not so much following Jesus as he was

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hoping at times that Jesus was following him. Have you ever lived out your days or made choices?

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Maybe it was this past week where you're just off doing things. You're off doing the, you know,

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living your best life now, making decisions for all the things you hope to accomplish in the days,

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weeks, and in the months yet to come. You're off doing things, and what do you do with Jesus?

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You pray to Jesus that he'd bless the decisions that you've made, right? You make choices. You

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make decisions. You undertake actions, and then you say, oh Lord, please bless the decisions that

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I've just made. What are you doing when you do that? That's the equivalent of charging ahead and

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looking over your shoulder to see if God is following, to see if Jesus is following, and just

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hoping and trusting he is, that if you mess up and there's a cleanup on aisle five, he'll be right

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there to take care of it. That's not what the words follow me imply. The words follow me do not imply

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that Jesus follows you, that you do your thing and you look over your shoulder to see if he's

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cleaning up your messes. Words follow me imply that you are looking to him for guidance and

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leadership, and that the footsteps that he has trod before us are the footsteps that you are

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sinking your feet into. If you follow him, it will cost you. That's the final thing we can extract

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from this text. If you follow him, it would cost you. It would cost Peter. And yet, even as he gave

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up everything, he gained everything too. This morning, believer, Christ is inviting you to

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stretch out your hands to whatever end and to follow him at whatever cost. Let's pray.