In the sermon 'Living and Dying for Jesus,' Jason Dohm explores John 13:31-38, focusing on two major themes: the mutual shared glory between the Father and the Son, and the new commandment to love one another as Jesus loved. The sermon emphasizes that the glory shared by the Father and Son is inseparable, and glorifying one inherently glorifies the other. Jesus introduces a new commandment that His disciples should love each other with a sacrificial love exemplified by His life and death. The sermon also examines Peter's bold claim of loyalty to Jesus, highlighting his self-ignorance and lack of awareness of his own weaknesses. Dohm urges believers to recognize their vulnerabilities and cultivate spiritual strength through everyday practices and prayer, rather than relying on self-confidence. He concludes by emphasizing the importance of Jesus' life and death as the foundation for Christian faith, urging believers to focus on living for Jesus through small, consistent acts of devotion.

A sermon text for today is John 13 and we're going to start reading at verse 31 on to 38. So when he had gone out Jesus said, now the Son of Man is glorified and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and glorify him immediately. Little children, I shall be with you a little while longer. You will seek me and as I said to the Jews, where I am going you cannot come.

So now I say to you, a new commandment I give to you that you love one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are my disciples if you have loved one another. Simon Peter said to him, Lord, where are you going? Jesus answered him, where I am going, you cannot follow me now, but you shall follow me afterward. Peter said to him, Lord, why can I not follow you now?

I will lay down my life for your sake." Jesus answered him, will you lay down your life for my sake? Most assuredly I say to you, the roosters shall not crow till you have denied me three times. This week we're obviously finishing up John chapter 13. We have the luxury of just having three verses, so we will go verse by verse this morning because we don't have many verses to cover. Next week, Scott Brown will be here preaching on singing in the Scriptures.

That will be a sweet time, I'm sure, that I won't be here for, and Michael won't be here for, and Paul Carrington won't be here for. We'll actually be in Denver with Kevin Swanson and their church. They are hopefully formalizing a partnership for missions in Turkey. So praise the Lord for that. Then the week after that, I'll be back and we'll continue in our exposition of the Gospel of John starting in John 14, which is very much tied to today's text.

So it's a very uninspired chapter break. And so we'll try to keep all this married together without making it seem like there's a chapter break there, because there's not. Jesus might take a breath in between this week's text and next week's text, but there's not more than that there. The title of the sermon this morning is, Living and dying for Jesus. Peter makes claims about his willingness to lay his life down for the Lord Jesus, and the Lord Jesus cross examines him on that claim in this week's text.

But it presents an opportunity for us to examine how our hearts are, how we are willing or not willing to live for Jesus, how we are willing to die or not die for Jesus. So hopefully we'll take advantage of this opportunity. Last week the sermon title was, Glory and Love. It was easy to title it because you had these two towering thoughts in the text. The first towering thought was the glory of Father and Son.

I said that they have mutual shared glory. It's mutual glory in that the Father is actively doing things to glorify the Son, and the Son is actively doing things to glorify the Son, and the Son is actively doing things to glorify the Father. They have mutual glory. It's shared glory in that anytime the Son receives glory the Father is glorified right alongside him. It's impossible to isolate the Son and just glorify him without the Father receiving the reflection of that glory and vice versa.

So glorifying one automatically glorifies the other. The Lord our God, the Lord is one. They share all the glory. And then the second towering thought was the new commandment. Not that loving one another is new, but the target and the standard for the love is very specific in Jesus' new commandment.

The target is one another. It is a special, devoted love among the Lord's people, and the standard is one that you never could have understood before Jesus came and lived and died, which is, as I have loved you, You have to have the framework of the sacrificial life of Jesus Christ before that would ever make sense to you. Jesus came and brought the new commandment that His people would have a special devoted love one to another. You can't understand unless you see the life and death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Right in the middle of these two towering thoughts, the mutual shared glory of Father and Son, and the new commandment that the Lord's people love each other as Christ has loved us.

We have verse 33. Look back at verse 33. Little children, I shall be with you a little while longer. You will seek me. And as I said to the Jews where I am going you cannot come so I now say to you." In this week's text, Peter picks right up on that.

He heard Jesus say that between the two towering thoughts. He can't wait to get back and get more clarity from Jesus on what he means. It's interesting, he doesn't pick up on the New Commandment. The New Commandment really gets passed over. He wants clarification on where Jesus is going and why he can't follow.

As we go to the text, let's ask the Lord to help us. Our God, we come to you this morning asking you to give us zeal with knowledge. We see Peter with great zeal. And as the text plays out, we see it's such an ignorant zeal. And we confess We know something about that.

We know something about self-ignorant zeal. Zeal that really is blind to all of our remaining corruptions. God, I thank you for zeal. I pray for more zeal in my own life. I pray for zeal in our corporate life.

But let it be a zeal mixed, seasoned with wisdom. Pray for the help of your spirit. Pray in the name of your son Jesus, Amen. Verse by verse. Follow along as I reread John 13, just verse 36.

Simon Peter said to him, Lord, where are you going? Jesus answered him, Where I am going, you cannot follow me now, but you shall follow me afterward. In this verse, we have Peter's confusion and Jesus' limited clarification. So if you're taking notes on the handout filling in blanks, it's confusion limited. Peter's confusion, He doesn't understand what Jesus has been trying to say, and Jesus has limited clarification.

Though he doesn't tell Peter nearly everything he would like to know, he does give him a level of clarification which is very important. So in verse 33, Jesus said to his disciples what he had already said repeatedly to the Jews, where I am going you cannot come. I'm going to a place that you won't be able to follow me." Jesus had said this to the Jews in chapter 7 and he had said this to the Jews in chapter 8. In chapter 7 there was an undercurrent among the people. The people were seeing the mighty works that Jesus was doing, and there was a rising murmur among the people that Jesus might actually be Christ.

He might actually be the promised Messiah come to save the people. The Pharisees and the chief priests, becoming aware of this growing murmuring among the people, sent officers to apprehend Jesus. In chapter 7 verses 33 and 34, Jesus said to them, I shall be with you a little while longer and then I go to him who sent me. You will seek me and not find me, and where I am you cannot come." Those are almost exactly what he tells his disciples in the chapter that we are studying now, chapter 13. At that time in Chapter 7, the Pharisees and the chief priests speculated that he might be going to the dispersion.

The Jews that were left over from captivity in foreign lands in order to escape their grasp, to get beyond their power. That he might go to Jewish communities outside Israel where they would have no authority to apprehend him. That's what they speculate in chapter 7. Chapter 8, there are very similar circumstances. The Pharisees are pressing Jesus and Jesus is pushing back hard.

They're really calling each other sons of the devil. It doesn't get more pressing than that. Push back doesn't get harder than that. In chapter 8 verse 21, it says, Jesus said to them again, I think piggybacking on what he just spoke of about chapter 7, and Jesus said to them again, I am going away and you will seek me and will die in your sin. Where I go, you cannot come.

Again, words very similar to our text. And in chapter 8, instead of saying, is he going outside the borders of Israel, they speculate that he might be saying, I'm going to kill myself. Then you won't be able to get at me after I take my own life. They think you might be saying that. In our text, in John chapter 13, Peter doesn't understand what Jesus means.

So he says, Lord, where? Where are you going? Jesus says almost exactly what he had already just said in verse 33, where I am going, you cannot follow me now. And then Jesus adds this, which He had not said before to the Jews in chapter 7, and He had not said it before to the Jews in chapter 8, and He had not said it before, even a few sentences before here in chapter 13 verse 33, He adds this, this is new, but you shall follow me afterward. So again, Jesus doesn't tell Peter all Peter wants to know, but Jesus makes a very important distinction.

With the Jews, it's very clear from the context and what he says in chapter 7 and from the context and what he says in chapter 8 that when he was speaking to the Jews he meant these things in a permanent sense. My destination is heaven to be with my Father. You will never be there. You will die in your sins. We would say unless you repent.

But Jesus knows all things and we say that because we are acknowledging that we don't know all things. I'm going to heaven, you're never going to heaven. Heaven is not your destination. With Peter, and Jesus has narrowed to the singular you. We don't pick this up in the English because you can be either singular or plural in the English.

But in the Greek, in verse 33, where he says, where I'm going you cannot come, it's the plural. He's speaking to his disciples. And here in our text, he shifts and uses you in the singular, so he has narrated it to Peter. He's saying to Peter, it is not your time for heaven yet. I'm going to heaven.

I'm going to my father. It's not yet your time to go to heaven, but you will follow afterward. I should Note that there are actually two ways to understand this, and that the commentators are divided. One way is the way that I've just said. He means, I'm going to heaven, I'm going to my father's side, and You'll come later.

You can't follow me now, but you'll come later. You are coming to heaven, but not now. The other way to understand it is that the cross is in view. So Peter's martyrdom, spoken of in chapter 21, Jesus is actually going to make an allusion to Peter's eventual martyrdom in chapter 21, is in view. So the meaning is, I'm going to the cross.

You can't go to the cross now, but you'll go to the cross later. Church history has it that Peter was crucified. Whether that's true or not, that's what the historians say is true. And that actually he requested to be crucified upside down because he didn't believe himself worthy to be crucified in the same manner as his Lord. So again, that's not in Scripture, that's in history books, and it may or may not be accurate.

In any event, that's an awesome sermon, but I don't think that's the sermon for this text. I hope to preach an awesome sermon in John chapter 21. But there are two ways to view this. To me, the very natural meaning given the context is simply, I'm going to heaven, I'm going to my Father's side, you'll come later, you cannot come now. Now before I move on to the next verse, let me restate something that I said last week.

I said this last week, Jesus is breaking the disciples' addiction to his physical presence. So what we see is Jesus saying over and over again, a little while, a little while, I'm only going to be with you a little while, just a little more time and then I'm not going to be with you." He keeps saying it. In fact, if you look across all four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, it's an astounding amount that Jesus says He's going to die and He's not going to be with them. He says it over and over and over again. What is Jesus?

He is the Master Disciple Maker, and in advance, knowing what is coming, He is breaking the disciples' addiction to his physical presence. A time is coming in days where his presence will be with them by his Spirit. Can you blame the disciples for being addicted to Jesus' physical presence. I can't. I think it's sweet and wonderful.

I think if Jesus had been here for three years, we would be addicted to his physical presence. We couldn't imagine life without him physically present. Same with the disciples. But Jesus is making ready for what is getting ready to happen. He must die.

He must be raised from the dead. He must ascend into heaven. And he must send his spirit to be his presence on earth. Verse 37. Back to John 13, verse 37.

Peter said to him, Lord, Why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for your sake." The NASB and the ESV and the NIV just say, I will lay down my life for you instead of for your sake. I actually like that better. I can't figure out what the King James and New King James translators thought was the compelling reason to say for your sake. It's okay, but I think just, I will lay down my life for you, is better and more reflective of what you actually see in the Greek.

In verse 37, we have Peter's unqualified assertion. So if you're taking notes on the handout and filling in blanks, assertion fills in the blank. Peter's unqualified assertion. No ands, ifs, or buts. I will lay down my life for you.

The minute I'm called on to lay down my life for you, that's exactly what I'm going to do. No qualifications, no and, ifs or buts. What is an assertion? To assert is to state a fact or belief confidently and forcefully. That's what Peter is doing.

He is asserting, I will lay down my life for you. He is saying, he is declaring confidently and forcefully, Jesus, no ands, ifs or buts, I will lay down my life for you. In light of that, where could you possibly go that I cannot follow you? I know you've been saying that you must die. I know that you've been saying we're going into danger.

But I'm willing to lay down my life so there can't be anywhere I can't follow you, can there? Bring it on! I'm ready for that. You're going to death, I'll go with you. I'm ready even for that.

He's declaring that confidently and forcefully. I think that comes through so clearly in the text. All four gospels capture this encounter. As we work through John slowly, we keep seeing that John normally has things that aren't in the other gospels and the things that are in the other gospels aren't in John. This is one of those places where they converge and Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John all have something to say about this encounter.

This encounter is not missing in any of the gospels. We get an expanded view from Matthew 26. So turn to Matthew 26. Matthew 26 has some things that aren't in John about this encounter, and John has some things that aren't in Matthew 26 about this encounter, But it's one and the same encounter. You can't miss that.

So turn to Matthew 26. And follow along as I read verses 31-35. Matthew 26, 31-35. Then Jesus said to them, Jesus said to the disciples, All of you will be made to stumble because of me this night, For it is written, I will strike the shepherd and the sheep of the flock will be scattered. But after I have been raised, I will go before you to Galilee." Peter answered and said to him, Even if all are made to stumble because of you, I will never be made to stumble.

Jesus said to him, Assuredly I say to you that this night before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times. Peter said to him, Even if I have to die with you, I will not deny you. And so said all the disciples. That friends is painful. Knowing what we know about how all this will play out, weaving together Matthew and what Peter says there with John, and what Peter says there, is just painful to hear Peter declare so confidently, so forcefully these things, knowing what is just a few hours away and knowing that Jesus above all knows what will happen just a few hours later.

In Matthew, Jesus begins with all of the disciples as a fulfillment of prophecy. Jesus is saying, it's so sure what is getting ready to happen, the prophets foretold it. I will strike the shepherd and the sheep will scatter. Who is the I there? God.

God strikes the shepherd. This is an amazing truth of the work of the cross. It is God striking sin. And that the sheep would scatter. He quotes Zechariah 13 verse 7, which is a messianic prophecy.

It's a prophecy saying what will happen with the Messiah. Peter corrects Jesus. Wrong Jesus. As if Jesus could be corrected, the all-knowing, almighty, everywhere, all the time, God. And He exalts Himself among His brothers.

Jesus, let me correct you, And Jesus, I could believe it of these guys, but even if all are made to stumble, I will never be made to stumble. He exalts himself among his brothers. And then, after Jesus says what will really happen before the rooster crows, Peter will actually deny Jesus. That word deny used in Matthew and used in John means that you won't even acknowledge any association with. I don't even know them.

You won't even acknowledge any sort of association with me three times tonight. When Jesus says that, He corrects Jesus again. And the others join in. So said all the disciples. Yes, we won't deny you either.

In Luke's account, in Luke 22 verse 33, Peter is recorded as saying, Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death. If you go to prison, I'm going to prison with you. If you go to die, I'm going to die with you. Now we have what's in Matthew, Mark. Mark is just an abbreviation of what's in Matthew.

Luke and in John, the same encounter. Come what may, Jesus, come what may. I can come with you. The Gospel of John has no Gethsemane. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all record Jesus going to the garden to pray to agonize with his disciples.

John doesn't record what happened in Gethsemane, but consider Gethsemane. Jesus takes the disciples to the garden and he instructs the disciples to wait. He takes Peter, James, and John, the inner circle, further into the garden with him. And then he says, my soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with me.

He goes a little further in. He prays that the cup, if it was possible, the cup could pass from him, but not his will, his father's will be done. He comes back, he finds them sleeping. And here's what he says when he comes back and finds them sleeping. What could you not watch with me one hour?

Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. Peter, James, John, you have willing spirits, but you have weak flesh. Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. Temptation is standing at the door.

It wants to dominate you. Guard against it by watching and praying. This is exactly what Paul develops in Galatians 5 and Romans 7. In Galatians 5 and Romans 7, the Apostle Paul speaks of awareness of his remaining corruptions. As a parenthesis, the Apostle Paul who makes more progress in his journey than you are going to make.

I am confident of that. The Apostle Paul is far and beyond at the end of his race, where Jason Dome will be at the end of his, no matter how long I live, I am very confident of that. The Apostle Paul in Galatians 5 and in Romans 7 speaks of his acute awareness of his remaining corruptions. Paul felt his remaining corruptions every day of his life and it drove him to Watch and pray. Paul understood that his dead spirit had been raised.

He had been born again. That's the language of the gospels. You're spiritually dead. Not spiritually sick, spiritually dead. And God comes in His grace and He raises you to life, but that alive spirit is still within a body of death.

That's what he calls it in Romans 7. Who will save me from this body of death. I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Paul knew that these remaining corruptions, the fact that his alive spirit was still within a body of death meant that there was a war within him between flesh and spirit. That's what he says in Galatians 5.

War, there's war within the Christian. J.C. Ryle says a Christian may be known as well by his inward war as by his inward peace. Rila is saying you have both, if you're a Christian you have both. You have peace with God, you have a peace over circumstances and regarding your eternal destiny that transcends understanding.

At the same time, you have this war going on. The remaining corruptions in your flesh waging war against an alive spirit that is upheld by God. You can have victories in the war. You can win the war. But the most deadly thing is to be ignorant of the war.

At this point in his life, Peter was ignorant of the themes that Paul was developing in Galatians 5 and Romans 7. You've heard the phrase, ignorance is bliss, not here. Ignorance is vulnerability here. Ignorance is vulnerability here. Meaning his self-confidence, this bold, confident declaration, forceful declaration is actually the seeds of his downfall.

These are not unrelated at all. It's not that he happened to talk big and then happened to fall. They're related. The seeds of his falling are in his confident, forceful self-confidence. The seeds are there.

They come to flower in the same night. This should terrify you. They come to flower in the same night. Your self-ignorance can progress that far, that fast. So Paul says, Let him who thinks he stands take heed, lest he fall.

1 Corinthians 10, verse 12. I'll say that again. 1 Corinthians 10 verse 12. This is Paul again. Let him who thinks he stands, Peter, I will never deny you.

I'll go to prison and death with you, for you. Take heed, lest he fall." Whereas Jesus would say, watch and pray. Can you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray, lest you fall into temptation. The Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

Peter was boasting when he should have been watching and praying. Rather than contradicting Jesus, he should have looked inside and asked God for His grace. Peter was boasting of strength he didn't really have when he should have been taking heed lest he fall. He's saying, I stand. Paul says, watch out when you say, I stand take heed lest you fall.

You see, we're ready to die bravely as martyrs, we just can't get up out of bed to pray. Does anything sound wrong about that? I'm ready to die bravely before the world, to lay down my life and be a martyr, to be among the martyrs. I just can't get out of bed when the alarm goes off to pray. I just can't make myself do it.

We're ready to gloriously succeed in the big things, but we just can't quite get our arms around the little, everyday, mundane things that would actually give us real spiritual vigor. Hello? Are you with me? We're ready to conquer the world just like let me out a big thing. Well, not so fast.

The people who are ready for the big things are the people who have been quietly cultivating the little, not public, everyday mundane things, the things that actually give you spiritual strength, the ordinary means of grace. No one knows whether you are or aren't giving yourself to them. But it's the difference between being ready for the big hour and not being ready for the big hour. Friends, it's nothing but a delusion to think you'll be a martyr when you can't get out of bed to pray. Unfortunately, I have people who live with me here, who know that I'm not just preaching to you.

Don't think about dying for Jesus. Think about living for Jesus. Living for Jesus means attending to little, non-public, everyday mundane things that give you spiritual vigor. Can the grace of God overwhelm all of your inattention to the means of grace? Yes, it is so presumptuous to assume that he will.

He can! Is that your great hope? My great hope is that even though I've neglected the ordinary, everyday, mundane, non-public means of grace that he's given as a gift to His people, even though I have totally neglected, my great hope is that I know that He can overwhelm all that neglect in the hour when it is needed. Well, He can do that. Congratulations.

You have a hope. You have a hope. Verse 38. Last verse in the chapter. Follow along.

Jesus answered him, Will you lay down your life for my sake? Most assuredly I say to you, the rooster shall not crow till you have denied me three times." In this verse we have Jesus' knowing response. So if you're filling in blanks on the handout, knowing fills in the blank. Jesus' knowing response. Out of foreknowledge, Jesus already knows exactly how this will play out, Jesus responds to Peter.

Peter asserts Jesus knows. There's a talker here, and there's a knower. Peter's the talker, Jesus is the knower. Peter is the one who confidently forcefully declares things. Jesus is the one who actually knows what will happen.

Jesus begins with a question, will you Peter? Will you? Will you lay down your life for me? Do you indeed know how all of this will play out? Can you see it beforehand?

So that you can give a prophecy to Zechariah about how it will play out? Then Jesus says something shocking. Beginning with the double amen. Remember, we keep encountering this. Most assuredly, I say to you, the most assuredly is actually, if you would see it transliterated in the Greek, Amen, Amen!

Driving home how sure and how important what he is getting ready to say is before he says it. Amen, amen. Not an amen at the end, but two amens at the beginning. To say how sure, how important it is. The rooster, amen, amen, the rooster shall not crow till you have denied me three times.

In spite of Peter's confident, forceful declarations, in a matter of just a few hours, Peter would deny his master not once, not twice, three times a few hours later. Can you imagine, we looked at Matthew and what Matthew records Peter saying. We looked at Luke, what Luke records Peter saying. We're in John studying what Peter says. Can you imagine a more unqualified, confident, forceful declaration?

And within a few hours, in the same night, Jesus will not even acknowledge that he has any association with Jesus three times. Like last week, here again we see the master disciple maker at work. He doesn't ignore Peter's self-ignorance. Jesus knows what's going to happen. He could just let it play out.

He doesn't just let it play out. Jesus reveals Peter as he really is, and Jesus reveals himself as he really is. Right? Peter, you think you're the one who will go to prison and die with me. You're actually the one who won't even acknowledge that you have any association with me at all, three times before daybreak.

This is who you think you are, Peter. This is who you really are, Peter. He reveals Peter as Peter really is. And he reveals himself as he really is. Peter, you think I am one who can be corrected.

I know what's going to happen tonight. You don't know, but I know. I know every detail of what will happen tonight. Down to when the rooster will crow. This is who you thought I am, Peter.

One needing correction. This is who I really am. One who knows the details of every hour in the day. Peter, this is who you really are. Peter, this is who I really am.

Peter needed both. Peter needed to be corrected on himself, to have his self-ignorance confronted and set straight. Peter needed to know that The Master was really the Master and knew all things. We often need both. We often imagine things about ourselves that just aren't true and we need ourselves revealed to ourselves as we really are, Not as we think we are.

And we need to have the large, true, beautiful vision of Jesus as He really is. We shrink Him down. We make Him into almost nothing. We make Him into our peer. And he comes and reveals himself to us through his word and by his spirit as being who he really is.

Why do we need to be shown who we really are? Why do we really need to be shown who he really is? He does this with Peter. He's the master, disciple maker. This is a big part of our discipleship.

Self-revelation and the revelation of Christ as he really is. So, how did this actually play out? Well, the mob came for Jesus. And Peter was equal to the task. He takes out his sword.

He cuts off the ear of a man. One on who knows how many. And who cares? Peter doesn't care. Bring them all.

It would be a Hollywood action movie. Until Jesus restrains him. In that sense, at least that far you have to give Peter credit. He was there, it was one on a hundred, one on two hundred, we don't know, one on many, and they are armed and ready. And he unsheathed the sword and has at it.

He's acting on his confident, forceful declaration. So he does act on it. Jesus restrains him. He didn't count on that. And when Jesus restrained him, he loses heart and he doesn't get it back.

He didn't know. Jesus knew. He didn't know. He acted like he knew. He acted like no matter what, even if Jesus restrained him from having at the mob, he could persevere.

He didn't know. He would lose heart and not get it back. Jesus knew. The rest, as they say, is history. Before the rooster crows, he denies his Lord three times.

We're coming to that, it's in John 2. Applications. I have three. Number one. The foundation of the Christian is this.

Jesus lived for us. Jesus died for us. Brothers and sisters, Brothers and sisters, that is rock. You can stand on that and not be moved. That is bedrock.

Jesus lived for us. He laid aside His glory in heaven. He didn't consider equality with God a thing to be grasped. But He took on the form of a bond servant and came, became obedient to the point of death. Even the shameful death of the cross.

He came and lived for us. He came and died for us. This is a sure foundation. If you want to come and go, you want to be all over the map, you want to be on life's roller coaster, let your foundation be for this. I'm living for Jesus.

I'm dying for Jesus. Welcome to Peter's world. Should we live for Christ? Yes. Should we Say that we're going to live for Christ, we intend to live for Christ.

Yes! Should we be willing to lay down our life for Christ? Yes! Should you trust that? Never!

Trust Christ! He lived for you, He died for you. That is bedrock. What you say you will or won't do is nothing. You don't know what will happen during the rest of today.

You don't know what will happen during the rest of today. Don't let that be your bedrock. That is shifting sand. Peter found out it's shifting sand. The foundation of the Christian is this.

Jesus lived for us. Jesus died for us. However weak I may be, however sinful I may be, however stupid I may be, Jesus lived for me, Jesus died for me, I cling to him, that is bedrock. Number two. Consider for a moment, not Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Peter, but 1st and 2nd Peter.

And take heart. Here's some more from Luke 22, the same account, it is a parallel text, Luke 22, 31 and 32. And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, indeed Satan has asked for you that he may sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith should not fail. And when you have returned to me, strengthen your brethren." Peter, Satan has asked to grind you into powder, but I prayed for you that your faith wouldn't fail. When you return to me, when you have returned to me, not if you ever come back, when you have returned to me.

My Father always answered my prayers, I pray that your faith wouldn't fail. When you return to me, strengthen your brethren." When we preach through Matthew, Peter is left at Such a depressing place. Do you remember this? We preach to you, Matthew. He's left here.

He's left denying Jesus going out and weeping bitterly. And We couldn't stand it, so we went and studied immediately after Matthew went and studied 1 and 2 Peter, so that Peter wouldn't be left there. The bluster is gone. The confident, forceful declarations based on self-ignorance are gone in 1 and 2 Peter. There is a tenderness and a humility and a maturity and a self-knowledge in 1 and 2 Peter that are completely absent in Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Peter.

A phrase that we use over and over again in our study of 1 and 2 Peter. An older kind of boulder. Peter didn't lose his zeal. Life didn't beat the zeal out of Peter. Peter still had a zeal in 1 and 2 Peter.

You see it there, but it's an older kind of bolder. It's a matured, self-aware, tender, humble, mature boldness. Tender, humble, mature, boldness. Thirty years later, Jesus, the ultimate disciple maker, has done his work. Our weakness, our stupidity, our sins are not the end of the story.

If you're a disciple, Jesus is the ultimate disciple maker. And our bedrock is, our hope is that. That was number two. Consider for a moment, first and second Peter, take heart. Number three.

Watch and pray. Watch and pray. Take heed lest you fall. What? Could you not wait with me, watch with me for one hour?

Watch and pray, lest you fall into temptation. The Spirit is willing, The flesh is weak. Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he falls. Give yourselves, brothers and sisters, give yourselves to the little, everyday, mundane, non-public means of grace. If you do, you'll find your spiritual vigor growing.

God uses those as a channel to give you spiritual strength. And then when the big hour comes, the little hours of giving attention to the things that will make you spiritually vigorous will rise up and you will be bold when you need it. God thank you. Thank you for your word. Thank you for your goodness.

Thank you for the gospel of John. You are the ultimate disciple maker. We long to be growing disciples. For all who have repented and believed the gospel. Let us believe this, that you are not done, that you are working, that you will have your way.

For all who have not repented and believed the gospel. Oh show them the beauty of your son. Don't let them leave not knowing the beauty of your son and being his. I pray this in Jesus name, Amen.