Last year my friend Stephen Morefield and I published a devotional book titled Enduring Grace: 21 Days with The Apostle Peter. We’ve been encouraged by the positive feedback the book has received.

The audiobook was recently completed by David K. Martin, who also narrated my books, Struggle Against Porn and Don’t Just Send a Resume. The sample on Audible comes from a section in chapter 16, the famous scene where Peter meets Jesus on the shore of Galilee after the resurrection. I’ve pasted it below.

If you’d like to listen to our audiobook, you don’t have to buy one! I have a dozen to give away. The only thing you have to do is send me a message (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or email: benjamin@fanandflame.com) so I can give you the download code. Please don’t hesitate to ask. We really do want people to have them.

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From Enduring Grace, Chapter 16, “Hope by a Charcoal Fire”

When Peter gets to shore, the first thing he notices is the fire—and not just any fire. The Gospel of John is particular here. It was a charcoal fire, a kind of fire only mentioned one other place in the Bible. In John 13, Jesus asked Peter, “Will you lay down your life for me? Truly, truly, I say to you, the rooster will not crow till you have denied me three times” (13:38). To this Peter says something along the lines of, “I’m all in. I’m a rock. I won’t fail you.” But as you know, he wasn’t a rock. After the arrest of Jesus, Peter followed until he reached the courtyard where his denials took place. Then John gives us this detail: “Now the servants and officers had made a charcoal fire because it was cold, and they were standing and warming themselves. Peter also was with them, standing and warming himself” (John 18:18).

It’s funny how smells bring back memories. Peter jumps out of the boat, swims to shore to see his Lord, and when the wet sand under his toes becomes dry, he smells his own denial. Jesus, at first, simply says, “Come and have breakfast” (21:12). This wasn’t the first time Peter and Jesus had seen each other after the resurrection, but you can imagine that if the last time you saw Jesus alive before his death you had denied him, then you’d also know that when Jesus comes back from the grave, eventually he’ll want to talk to you about your sin.

But here’s the thing with Jesus: he doesn’t poke a wound to make it worse. If the risen Lord pokes your wounds, he does it so they will heal. Three times Jesus asks Peter if he loves him. Notice the way Jesus puts it the first time: “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” (21:15).

More than these? Does Jesus question whether Peter loves Jesus more than the other disciples love Jesus? Perhaps. If we only had the video footage we could see how Jesus gestured and know for sure.

But I don’t think we need the footage. When Peter gets to shore, Jesus told them all to get more fish to eat. They had, after all, just netted 153 of them. Peter was the one who leaped up and grabbed the huge net and dragged it to shore, so happy about his catch. Fish are great . . . if you’re a fisherman of fish.

Jesus looks at this huge catch of fish and says, “Do you love me more than these?” (emphasis added). It’s as though Jesus is asking, “Do you love me more than stuff? Is the calling that I’ve placed on your life to follow me, to fish for men and shepherd my sheep, enough for you?”

Jesus asks one time for each denial—three denials, three questions. The wound is poked, but the risen Lord is reinstating Peter. No longer must Peter pretend that everything is okay around Jesus because now it is okay. No, it’s more than okay. Peter is on mission again. He’s following Jesus. And not only will Peter spend his life as a shepherd of God’s sheep, but he’ll die a death that glorifies God. Jesus tells Peter, “Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go” (21:18). Then the narrator John adds, “This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God” (21:19). There’s certainly a heaviness to that. But there’s also gospel to it. After failing the Lord, Peter might have thought, I’ll never do anything again that brings glory to my savior. I love Jesus, I love Jesus, I love Jesus, but now how will I bring glory to him? But he will. In his life and in his death, Peter will glorify God.

In popular culture the story of Easter is about new beginnings: yellow tulips poking through the ground in the springtime sun, bunnies scampering across green grass, and the penitent turning over new leaves. But Easter is only generally about new beginnings because it is first about a particular new beginning—the dawn of a new age, the true spring. Easter is the story of how our sin dies with Jesus and he raises us to life with him. The roller coaster of transitions in our lives can cause us to drift from this, our core identity. But the good work Jesus begins in you, he promises to bring to completion (Philippians 2:6). If you are drifting, as Peter was, come home to Jesus.

* Photo by Frances Gunn on Unsplash