How Much Do You Love Jesus? Show Him

A sermon based on John 21:1-19

I have just posted this sermon on my blog Proclamation.  An excerpt follows, if you want to read more, then click the link here or at the end of the excerpt.

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John, chapter twenty, which is right before our reading this morning, ends with verses 30 and 31,
which read:
“Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples,
which are not written in this book;
but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,
and that believing you may have life in his name.”

These verses provide a logical conclusion to John’s gospel.
Nothing more remains to be said, it would seem.
But then we have a whole other chapter tacked on after this.
Those who study the scripture tell us that chapter 21 is an addition to the gospel - an epilogue.
Now an epilogue is something added to the conclusion of a story,
the purpose of which is to complete some lines of thought or ideas or a narrative strand left unfinished.

And this got to to wondering what would have caused John to take up his pen and write another chapter to his book,
after he thought he had finished it.
What else needed to be said?
What story had he left out?
And the answer to that question for me has to do with Jesus and Peter and their conversation about love.

To read more, click here.