Following Jesus Can Be Extremely Costly
In the Bible reading I gave us just now, I deliberately included at the beginning the end of the reading we looked at last time. I thought it'd be helpful just to set the context for us. Jesus predicts how, for Peter, following Jesus will lead him to an extremely painful and involuntary death.
Now, if you're not yet a Christian, why would you follow Jesus if doing so could be so costly? Why would you ever start on a journey like that? And if you are a Christian, what will you do when something happens and that cost suddenly becomes real? How do you keep following Jesus at that point and not give up? Why would you continue on such a journey? That's what we're going to look at this morning.
Slightly different structure for the talk this morning. If you're used to hearing me open up the Bible, you know that I often find two, three, maybe four things that I think the passage is saying to us, and I'll sort of unfold them one at a time. I think the passage this morning is really just saying one main thing, so I've got one main point for us this morning, but then there are two reasons in the passage why that main point is true and to encourage us to live out that point. So I've still got three things to say, but it's one main point and then two supporting reasons to strengthen our ability to live in the light of this.
Follow Jesus, wherever he leads
So here's the main point for us this morning: follow Jesus wherever he leads. Follow Jesus wherever he leads.
So Jesus has just predicted Peter's death. Peter then notices that John is following them down the beach, and we're reminded that John was the one who asked Jesus at the Last Supper who it was who would betray him. And you remember Jesus answered, "The one who dips his hand into the dish with me." Jesus knew exactly. But Peter asked John to ask Jesus, so Peter said to John, "Ask him which one he means." It just reminds us that Peter and John were really quite good friends. You remember they knew each other before Jesus called them — they were both fishermen who worked the same section of the Sea of Galilee. They would have known each other very well.
It's understandable, therefore, that as Peter hears that for him following Jesus will lead him to an early and painful death, he's concerned for his friend. What about him? What would it mean for him?
Jesus' reply is brief and sharp, almost to the point of being rude. He says, "If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me." Or, to paraphrase: none of your business.
And then John just pauses to deal with the rumour that spread, because people misquoted what Jesus said. Apparently people were talking about the fact that John himself would not die, so he just takes the chance to correct that.
But the point is this: for Peter, following Jesus meant caring for Jesus's sheep and then an early and painful death. But for John, following Jesus would mean writing John's Gospel, as we will see in a minute, and then a long life. Following Jesus leads different people to different places, and it's a distraction to compare yourself to other people. It's very easy to find people where the sacrifice Jesus is asking them to make is one that you would prefer to the sacrifice he's asking you to make. It's very easy to do. It's also totally irrelevant, because Jesus asks of you what Jesus asks of you, and you don't get the option to choose their hand instead.
And unlike Peter and John, we don't know what following Jesus will cost us. They know, because Jesus tells them where this is going to end — but we don't know. We're in the dark. Which means it's also futile to compare what Jesus asks of you today with what he asked of you, for example, a year ago. You're not living a year ago; you're living now.
So here's how it works. We sign up to follow Jesus — our first loyalty now is to him — and we do not know when we say yes to Jesus which areas of our life he is going to touch, except I can tell you now that it will be all of them. We just don't know. As you listen to his word, as you read it for yourself, as you come to church and hear it taught, you will find Jesus putting his finger on areas of your life that he wants you to change, and you don't know what those will be. It could relate to your work. It could relate to how you use your house. It could relate to where you live, to your friendships, to your family, to your relationships. It could relate to how you spend your holidays. It could relate to how you spend your weekends. It could relate to money. It could relate to any of a whole load of things. You don't know in advance what they will be.
We also don't know, when we say yes to Jesus, what persecution and hardship may follow as a result of going down that path. That's in the future; we don't know what will come until it comes. But knowing that we don't know, we sign up to follow him whatever it costs. And it won't take you on exactly the same journey that it takes others.
Follow Jesus wherever he leads.
The question is: why would you embark on such a journey, and why would you continue on such a journey when you discover that the cost isn't theoretical? John in this passage gives us two reasons to go on a journey like that with Jesus.
1. John is trustworthy
Number 1: because John is trustworthy.
Here's verse 24: "This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down. We know that his testimony is true." That's to say, the same disciple walking down the beach with Peter and Jesus is the one who wrote John's Gospel. "Testifies to these things and wrote them down" isn't just talking about chapter 21; he's not just talking about the account of a picnic on the beach. He's talking about the whole of John's Gospel, because this disciple whom Jesus loved pops up many times in John's Gospel, not just here at the end. The same disciple with Peter and Jesus is the one who wrote John's Gospel, and we can trust him.
And in this passage there are two reasons why we can trust him. The first is from within this very verse: "We know that his testimony is true." John's references are in order. Now, we can't be quite sure who "we" is. "We know" could be the other apostles, the ten disciples, giving their stamp of approval. It could be the leaders in the church that John is in at the time that he wrote this. It doesn't matter exactly who — the point is John didn't write on his own authority. Other leading figures have checked his manuscript; they've checked it carefully with attention to detail, and they can verify that what John writes is accurate.
It's like the blurb on the back of a book. If you buy a non-fiction book from an author that you've never heard of — especially if it's from a publisher you've never heard of — the publisher will usually try and find someone you have heard of who can tell you on the back that it's a good book, because that way people will buy it. So if, for example, someone writes a book on how to plant spring bulbs in your garden and it's somebody that nobody's ever heard of, if the publisher can get on the back of the book that Monty Don said "this is the book to get on planting bulbs," suddenly everybody will actually buy it after all. And that's what you've got here on the back cover of John's Gospel — some words commending the book from other people that you've heard of. So there is, on the back of John's Gospel: "Totally trustworthy account of the life of Jesus" — the Apostle Peter. "Depend on this account, stake your life on it" — Simon and Andrew. John's references are in order.
That's one reason why we can trust the John who wrote this book. The other reason comes from verse 20, and it's all about how close John was to Jesus. Here's verse 20: "This was the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper and had said, 'Lord, who is going to betray you?'"
John was close enough to lean into Jesus and whisper in his ear. Now, two weeks ago, when we talked about breakfast on the beach with Jesus, I got all excited about the thought that one day we'll be able to actually sit down and have a meal with Jesus face to face, person to person, and how wonderful that will be — that will be good. But just imagine being close enough to Jesus that you could not just eat with him but lean across and whisper in his ear and share a private joke or ask a personal question. Wouldn't that be wonderful? And yet that's the kind of access to Jesus that John had during his life.
In fact, the person who wanted to know who would betray Jesus — remember — was Simon Peter, but John was Peter's go-to guy. When you want to ask Jesus a question but you're not quite sure if you can ask it yourself, go on, John, ask him which one he means. So John's access to Jesus was so close that when Peter wanted to ask Jesus a question, he got John to ask him for him.
Now, you might have thought Peter was close to Jesus — well, John apparently was even closer.
If a new biography comes out of some famous person — I'm not talking about some figure from history; there are new biographies publishing shortly on figures like King Arthur and Oliver Cromwell — forget those. Biographies of people in the present day: what I want to know is, how well did the biographer know the person they're writing about? Did they even actually know them personally, and if so, how well? Because the biography is a lot more credible if it's not just been researched, but actually was written by somebody who knew the person.
John's Gospel is not some second- or third-hand account. John knew Jesus, and knew him intimately. John is trustworthy.
And that's the first reason why you would go on the journey with Jesus that could lead you to costly places: because this account can be trusted.
Many years ago I was leading a Bible study group that worked its way through John's Gospel over the course of a year. There were a number of other groups — it was a larger church — a number of other groups that would work through John's Gospel in the course of a year, and because of that all the leaders of these different groups would meet together to encourage each other and equip each other to lead those groups well, because we were all starting the same thing. I remember we got to this passage at the end, in John chapter 21.
There was also a thing at the end of the year when we as leaders had to work out what we were going to do next year: were we going to lead another group of people through John, or lead a group through some different part of the Bible? What were we going to do? Now we've finished John.
I remember one of the leaders, as we read through chapter 21, said, "Oh yes, I remember this bit — this is the bit that makes you want to go back to the beginning and do it all again." Turned out this leader was stuck on the carousel, really. He'd led a group through John's Gospel, got to John 21, discovered that the take-home point from John 21 was "John's Gospel is fantastic — you can depend on it and stake your life on it, spend more time in John." So he'd take this literally and apply it. Next year he would lead another group through John's Gospel, get to chapter 21, and try and work out what it means, and back to the beginning again. It's just going round and round.
Because that's what John 21 is designed to do — send you back to the beginning and read it again, because it's so good, it's worth it, it can be trusted and depended upon. There's a really good reason to embark on a journey with Jesus, to continue on it when the cost becomes clear. John is trustworthy.
2. Jesus is limitless
Here's the second reason: Jesus is limitless.
You see, it's important to know that John can be trusted, but that would be the wrong place to end John's Gospel. John's Gospel is not a book about John — it's a book about Jesus. That's why John calls himself throughout "the disciple whom Jesus loved." He could have written his own name in the account, but he doesn't want to draw attention to who he is. It's all about Jesus.
You might remember back in John chapter 3 there was another John — John the Baptist — and some people come and tell John the Baptist that his followers are beginning to desert him. "John, they're all leaving you — they're going to follow that new guy, Jesus." And they told him this expecting him to be bothered, to be jealous somehow, that he was losing his disciples to Jesus. And John says, "No, I'm delighted." He says Jesus is like the bridegroom at a wedding; "I'm just like the best man. My job is to shine the spotlight on him. Nothing brings me greater pleasure than to see people abandon me to go to him. That's the whole point." And then he says these wonderful words: "He must become greater; I must become less." And that's the Apostle John's view as well.
He deliberately leaves his book on the note of Jesus. Remember, his Gospel began with majestic words about how wonderful Jesus is: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning." Amazing words about how glorious Jesus is. And his closing words are on the same note.
Here's verse 25: "Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written."
Now that might remind you of John chapter 20, verse 30: "Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book" — except this verse goes beyond that. It's not just that Jesus did more signs; it's that Jesus did more things, signs and other things. It's not just that there's no space in John's Gospel for them; it's that there isn't space in the whole world.
Now, maybe at that point you think John's exaggerating a little. Maybe he just lived in the wrong period of history. Maybe that's because he lived before the days of copyright libraries that get a copy of every book ever published and have huge underground vaults to store them all. Perhaps John just didn't know that one day those would be invented. Or perhaps John's problem is he lived before the invention of the e-book, and if he knew about e-books he would know that there is no limit to the number of books you could write. Perhaps John's just exaggerating and lived in the wrong time.
Maybe. But one writer actually suggests that there are a number of points in John 21 where he deliberately echoes his prologue — chapter one of John, the famous Christmas morning reading. He's deliberately echoing it in a few places in this chapter.
Chapter one, remember, reminds us that Jesus' story did not begin at his birth. Jesus is the Word of God who has always existed, who has always been with God, who always was God — the one without whom nothing was made that has been made. So Jesus is the one who made every bluebell, every raindrop, every star, every leaf on every tree. Jesus is the one who made all that, and he actively sustains every star, every breath, every molecule. That is Jesus.
Now, if that's in John's mind as he writes verse 25, then this verse actually is no exaggeration. Because if Jesus made every tiniest corner of this world, and everything in the universe beyond this world as well, then definitely the world would be too small a library — because he made the library. If you try to fit it into the world, you would need a way bigger library than this world to fit in all the other things that he has done. Jesus is limitless.
There's the second reason to embark on a journey with Jesus, to continue with him when it becomes costly.
Just imagine that you get the opportunity to work directly with Elon Musk or Alan Sugar — you've been hired — and they're going to train you in business. Or imagine that you're going to do a PhD in physics, and it's a few years ago so he hasn't died yet, and you get the chance to be one-to-one supervised by Stephen Hawking. Or you're going to make a film — you want to make a film that's going to hit the cinemas — and over your shoulder, guiding you every step of the way, will be James Cameron. Or you want to learn the piano or the organ, but you live in history, so Ludwig van Beethoven is going to give you three years of one-to-one private lessons, opportunities to learn how to play. Or you're going to learn to paint, so Claude Monet is going to be your master — you're going to be his apprentice for five years in his studio, helping him and learning the craft from him.
What an honour any of those things would be. Everyone's dream. You'd be nuts to turn it down.
Well, you have the option to do an apprenticeship with Jesus — to live your life for his honour and glory, to be taught and trained by him, to let him take the wheel of your life. What an honour that would be. Everyone's dream. You would be nuts to turn it down.
Jesus is limitless.
Conclusion
So we've reached the end of John's Gospel. Jesus came to bring life — L, I, F, E — in big bold capital letters, life in all its fullness. He's risen from the dead; he was seen alive by many reliable witnesses. John says he had so many signs he could have recorded, but he's chosen just the ones he did for his book, such that there are more than enough here to bring us to believe that Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of God, and so to have that life that he came to bring.
We have a reliable book about a wonderfully limitless Jesus, who calls us to follow him wherever he leads us and whatever it costs.