A Restored Masterpiece

Many years ago, when I was still a young man, I visited the city of Rome, and after taking in all the usual tourist sites like the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, and the Colosseum, I visited Vatican City to see the Sistine Chapel, with its famous ceiling painted by Michelangelo. Perhaps some of you have been there as well. But what made this particular visit so momentous was the fact that I was one of the first visitors that year to see the ceiling, after it was newly restored for the first time in several hundred years.

My, how the vibrant colors gripped the eye! It seemed as if the great artist had just finished his masterpiece, and the paint was freshly dry. A restored painting is a lovely thing to behold, and so too is a restored follower of Christ. Our story today is about one such man, the Apostle Peter.

The title of my message today, friends, is Restored Masterpiece, and my text can be found in the Gospel of John, in Chapter 21. You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends. We will be in verses 3 and following.

Here now is the Word of God, and may the Spirit of the Lord be pleased to attend the reading of His Holy Word. Simon Peter saith unto them, Go a fishing. They say unto him, We also go with thee.

They went forth, and entered into a ship immediately, and that night they caught nothing. Let me pause here, friends. They went forth, our text declares, like so many men in ministry today who went out in their own strength, their own personality, and education, but they didn't wait God's call on their life for ministry, so they catch nothing.

Here before us is the scene of the band of disciples, but the picture is somewhat altered because their master is no longer amongst them, no longer teaching them and walking beside them. Jesus is missing in their lives at this juncture. Their world as they know it has been shattered.

Christ was taken from them, beaten and arrested, and publicly humiliated, and judged and crucified. Their entire lives are now out of kilter, and they feel stripped, robbed, confused, ashamed, and discouraged, and they are left to deal with their own personal failures and unbelief. Here we find them, in John 21, in the opening chapter, as they hang out together, having no specific guidance, and they decide to go fishing, but even this labor is unfulfilling to them as they toil all night and catch nothing, and this typifies their own empty lives right now at this juncture where Christ is no longer with them, and the Holy Spirit has yet to be given to them.

They are in an empty place, a disoriented place, a discouraged place, a place of discontent. They are not doing what they were called to do, and all seems like a great mystery to them, but Christ does not leave them there, and he won't leave you there either, friend. I remember the frustration I had years ago before I received God's call to preach.

I knew in my heart of hearts that God was preparing me to serve him in a unique way, but I had not yet received God's call on my life, and I had evangelist friends who were active in ministry who were called of God, and they shared their testimony with me, but I had no testimony to share with them. God had yet to call me. I was in a place of great discontent.

I felt that my life was in a desert of disorder. I was ready to go and preach, but I could not go. Like the disciples here in our story, they were between the time of responsibility and serviceability.

They had just completed three and a half years of the best seminary training in the history of the world with Christ as their personal professor, but here by the seaside that day, they're yet in limbo as to knowing what to do with all their training. Perhaps you are in limbo today, friend. You feel like God's been preparing you for years now to serve him in some kind of public capacity, but he has an issue to you, the call on ministry as of yet.

Don't make the mistake like so many do, friend, of going into ministry without the call of God on your life. If you rush things and do that, you will surely be like the disciples who labored in the flesh all night and caught nothing. The main problem with the church today is that there are too many men standing in pulpits who have no call of God on their life, and they have to rely on humor and personality and charisma to hold their audience, but there's never any spiritual transformation taking place because these men are empty stars with no heavenly authority.

Listen to me, friends. Had Peter gone out to preach instead of to fish without waiting on Christ to both restore him and commission him, there would have been another disciple bringing the message at the day of Pentecost. Peter would have been a flop without Christ restoring that masterpiece of a man.

He will come to you and restore you and give you a purpose and equip you to be greatly used to him if you keep your eyes on him and wait God's call on your life. The disoriented disciples needed to be re-centered and put right again. Only the presence of Christ could achieve this, so Christ appears to them on the seashore.

He comes to visit with specific and special purposes to perform. He has a seaside breakfast awaiting them, a miraculous provision for them, and a wonderful restored fellowship with them. Jesus restores Peter with the thrice-repeated piercing questions, Peter do you love me? Jesus gives Peter specific purpose and ministry, feed my sheep, feed my lambs.

3. Jesus foretells Peter of things yet to come, in his life a testimony to him. Verily, verily, I say unto thee, when thou wast young, thou girdest thyself, and walkest whither thou wouldest. But when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee, whither thou wouldest not.

4. Jesus reaffirms Peter's call to service and discipleship, follow me. Perhaps God has spoken to you, friend, with certain promises in his word to be played out in your life, but you have yet to hear God's call to preach. Do not despair, don't let the devil discourage you either.

God's word is true, and God is true to his word. When Jesus comes and stands on the shore of your life, friend, you can rest assured that he is coming with a special blessing for you, and a specific purpose for you. Christ is preparing you to be ready to receive what he has for you.

If Christ had foretold Peter's future to him back before his arrest and crucifixion, back before Peter's boast and accompanying denial of him and failure for him, I don't believe Peter would have accepted it. Rather, he would have said, Not so, Lord, like he rebuked Jesus earlier. But Peter and the rest of the disciples had to be brought to the place of emptiness and hopelessness and deadness to self before they could enter into what Christ had for them, which was to proclaim the gospel, and with the exception of John, die violently for him.

Here on the seashore that misty morning, where they see a figure on the beach they cannot yet make out, God was working in them to will and to do as the Son of God stood on the shore of their lives. God was working on his restored masterpieces on an individual basis. And as the disciples sit in their boat and gaze at their empty nets and look up at the horizon, they are ready for an encounter with the risen Christ, because they are hungry for the reality of Christ.

They want purpose in their life. And with all these things in mind, you see how vitally important it was for Christ to appear to them here on the seashore and spend quality time with them, strengthening them, encouraging them, fortifying them for what was to come. Soon the Holy Spirit would come and anoint them for ministry.

After they tarried in the city, they'd be anointed from on high with the power to proclaim the gospel, and then they'd go out and turn the world upside down for Christ and the gospel. Christ has to bring each of his followers to that place of being able to both hear and accept what he has for us, to bring glory to the Father. Are you out of kilter in your walk with Christ, friend? Are you confused about what is taking place in your life right now? Do you feel like a wave-tossed boat with no certain destination? Be of good cheer.

The Son of Man will come and set things right and speak peace to your soul. The Master Craftsman wants to place you on his powder's wheel and make you again, to give you his purpose for you to serve him. You are the work of his hands, and in his eyes, and from his perspective, when he looks at you, even with all your human flaws, why, he sees a masterpiece, a masterpiece he can restore, and a masterpiece he can use to bring him glory and to be a means of blessing to others.

Let us pray.