We Are Easter People | Lisa Harper

We're going to start in Luke 22, so if you want to turn there this morning, we're going to talk about the brackets of Easter. But before we go there, I want to tell you a story before we get into the divine story. And Pastor Derek and Pastor Jess always say I can come down here because I'm old as dirt and they can see I'm 62. I want to get a little closer. Now, I do need to tell y' all I'm a spitter, and I don't mean to be, but I get so excited about Jesus, I tend to spew.

And so this is going to be baptismal row. Y' all probably won't get wet. Might be just a little sprinkling on the second row. So if you're Presbyterian, that'll be cool. If you're Baptist, it'll be real disappointing.

It won't be a full soak just to sprinkle. Before we dive into Luke 22, and we're going to talk about this literal historical time in Jesus life right before Easter. Then we're going to leapfrog and we're going to talk about what happened just about a month after Easter. And so I'm not going to spoiler alert, what pastor is preaching next next? Because it's epic.

So we're just basically, this is kind of the appetizer and the after dinner coffee. Are you still with me? Okay. Speaking of food, my daughter Missy, she's right over there. It's hard to tell she's adopted, but she's 16, and she is the single greatest child in the history of time, tied only with yours.

She's just a really extraordinary child. Missy's first mama died in Haiti when she was a baby. Got written into her story, and it's just a miracle I get to be her mom. And I'm still in the honeymoon season. Next month, we celebrate 12 years I've had her home with me in Nashville, and it's been amazing.

And she is extraordinary. Except for one or two days, about one and a half days a month. And I'm not going to explain that. But, gentlemen, if you're confused, just ask your wives or your daughters. And you can't talk to us about that either, by the way.

We can say we're grumpy. You can't say we're grumpy. Just back away. Back away. But there's about a day and a half.

Missy's a little grumpy. And I've learned that I can usually ply her with sausage biscuits because we live out in the boonies just south of Nashville. And there's this little mom and pop store on the way to her school where they sell sausage biscuits. And Missy loves sausage biscuits. They're gonna be in glory.

And so I just. It is just glorious to run by and get her sausage biscuit, because that usually dissipates the grump. And so this one day, this was a couple of months ago, and I realized this is an especially grumpy day, so I need to not speak in the car. She's not driving yet, so I'm still driving her to school. And parents, y' all know sometimes when just holy spirit says, just.

Just give them some space, but I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed. And so. And I'm a talker. I'm a windbag. And so I started talking anyway.

And, you know, you can tell they're just. Their body language is, you're bugging me. You're just bugging me. And so I see a mom and a daughter right now going, you're bugging me today. And so.

And that's really normal. That's not a bad thing. That's puberty. And so I'm like, lisa, just give it a rest. And I thought, okay, well, we'll get the biscuit, and then I'll be quiet, and I'll just have worship music in the car.

Because usually Lauren Daigle or somebody can get the grumpies out. So sausage biscuit, Lauren Daigle. I mean, that put everybody in a good room, right? So we get the biscuit, we're heading to school. Missy's still not having it.

I'm still on her last nerve. Now, she's been quiet this whole time. As a matter of fact, she hadn't spoken since the night before. And so, honey, is it okay that I tell this story?

Sorry, I'm halfway in now. I can't dig out of it. I have a fund at the bank for her therapy when she gets a little bit older. So anyway, Missy speaks for the first time, but she barely speaks. She says something real low under her breath.

And when she does, y', all, I don't care if. I don't care if you mess up my car. I don't care if you. I mean, you can do just about anything but disrespect. I mean, I'm a Southern girl.

I'm big on respect. So I bowed up like a boss when she said that under her breath. And I went, we are Harper girls. I just woke somebody up. I saw somebody Sleeping.

And there's only two of us. I'm not married. I've never been married. I got the baby before the daddy. And so I don't know why I act like we're some kind of Jewish tribe, you know, we're Harper girls.

Like, there's 45 of us. There's two of us. It's just Missy and me. We're Harper girls. And I said, and we have integrity.

Do any of y', all, when you're disciplining your kids. Talking in DJ voice why do we go there? I'll get these little balloons. They're like, why are you yelling? I'm like, I don't know.

I said, we're Harper girls. We have integrity. And then I said, if you're going to say something disrespectful, young lady, at least have the integrity to say it out loud instead of under your breath. So she did, and I was talking smack. I had no idea where I was going next as a parent, and so I just kind of panicked.

And Missy is very, very, very respectful, really kind kid. She's not a smart aleck. But in that moment, I told her to say it out loud, so she did, and I just got stuck. I was like, oops. And, yeah, sometimes you're talking smack as a parent.

You don't know where you're going next. And so I went, okay. So I pulled the car over the side, but we're almost to her Christian school. Lauren has been singing about Jesus. You know, I look at Missy, and I was so flustered.

We were parked right in front of Dave Ramsey's building. We drive right by the Dave Ramsey Ministries. You would think that would have sloshed from the Holy Spirit on us. But no, not me. I just was so panicked, I didn't know what to do.

So I grabbed her biscuit, and I just threw it out the window.

Who does that? I'm a Bible teacher. I grabbed my child's biscuit and hurled it on the interstate. And Missy went, you just hurled my biscuit. And I was like, I know.

I'm so sorry. And we both started laughing, and she was like, mom, I'm sorry. It's disrespectful. And I said, I'm sorry I hurled your breakfast. And I gave her my biscuits so she had something to eat because she had a history test, and I didn't want her to have a headache.

And. But after I dropped her off at the Christian school, I got so tickled, and I was like, lord, I've been studying your word for over 40 years. I've been in church since I was in utero. And I still sometimes am such a yahoo, it is so easy for me to forget. I want to encourage you this morning.

I want to encourage you that we are Easter people every day, all day, living in a Good Friday world. But the Good Friday part of the world causes us to forget we're Easter people. So if that gratitude for Jesus leaks through you like a colander, be encouraged. It leaked through the best of them. Turn to Luke 22.

This is right before Easter. Right before Easter, the disciples have been with Jesus for three years, itinerant ministry. They've camped with him. They've had all night slumber parties. They've had bonfires.

They've watched him speak and people were healed. They've seen him put mud on a blind man's eyes and the man could see. They've seen Lazarus come up out of the grave. They saw all that and they still did the equivalent of hurling biscuits. It's right here in Luke 22, Luke 22, verse 7.

Then the day. Then came the day of unleavened bread. So this is after Palm Sunday. Then came the day of unleavened bread. So they're already in Jerusalem, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed.

So Jesus sent Pete and John saying, go and prepare the Passover for us that we may eat it. They said to him, where will you have us prepare it? He said to them, behold, when you have entered the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him into the house that he enters. Until the master of the house, the teacher, says to you, where is the guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?

He will show you a large upper room furnished. Prepare it there. Upper room, we read in our Bible. Sounds fancy. It's Kataluma in the Greek, and it's basically an ancient Airbnb because there's three high holy festivals a year that Jews had to go to Jerusalem to celebrate.

And you've got Jews all over the modern world at that time. Fancy word for that is Diaspora. So you've got Jews that love God, Yahweh, living in Rome, you've got them in Egypt, you've got them all over. And three times a year, all of those Jews, New Testament scholars tell us at that point in history, there's probably about 3 million. Three times a year they caravan to Jerusalem because based on Mosaic law, they have to go to Jerusalem to celebrate the feast of Tabernacles.

Passover. Do you remember what Passover was? I'm not a pastor. Young talk back. That's when the Jews are remembering, when they are captives in Egypt.

And you remember, God told them, put blood on your doorpost and the angel of death will pass over your house and your children will not be harmed. But because the Egyptians are pagans and they hate God and they're not going to follow God's ways, their firstborn sons will die tonight. And so the Jews, all these years forward are going, oh, we remember what a good God. Oh, we remember what a good God. That's Passover.

And then 50 days after Passover, they celebrate Pentecost. Penta means five. So 50 days after Passover, they celebrate Pentecost. And those of you are Pentecostal, like me. I'm actually Baptistal.

Those of you are Pentecostal, you think Pentecost is all about what Holy Spirit, because that's the New Testament, Pentecostal. That's not what they were celebrating. They're celebrating the. The ancient Pentecost for Jews was when Moses received the law, Mount Sinai. And so that's what they're celebrating in Pentecost, in Acts, chapter two.

And so, because those are 50 days apart, because they didn't have planes, trains and automobiles back then, Jews would usually come to Jerusalem just twice a year. They'd come for Feast of Weeks, then they'd come for Passover because it was expensive. They'd stay for that month before they returned back to Egypt or Rome or wherever it was they were going. So they'd be in Jerusalem for a little over a month, and they would rent out ancient Airbnbs. We call them upper rooms.

That sounds religious and fancy. It's an Airbnb. Just imagine if twice a year right here, it'd be a bigger city than Martinsburg. But let's just say we all live in. Lord have mercy.

I don't want to think of that. Let's say we all live in Philly. So you're in a pretty big city. And twice a year, you know, if I rent out my garage apartment, if I make my kids bunk in one room and I have another guest room that I can rent out, I'm going to make some major bank because I've got people coming in for almost a month. So almost everybody in Jerusalem that had a home would rent out an upper room, a cataluma.

And so Jesus tells Peter, James and John, the three closest friends he has among his disciples, I want you to find an Airbnb, because we're going to Celebrate Passover there. It's a meal. Those of y' all that are new to the faith, it is so encouraging for me that Jesus calls himself the bread of life and not the kale of life. You gotta love that Jesus endorses carbs. I think that's just amazing.

I'd be so sad if he said he was the kale or the asparagus of life. And then another cool thing is every time we read the word that we translate for communion in the New Testament, it's the same word as just eating together. For us to just go hang out and get, you know, Indian food. Hallelujah. For us to go get pizza together.

Those of y' all that are leaving, go get brunch after this. We went to Founders founding fathers in D.C. day before yesterday. Oh, my goodness gracious. I mean, I could have just bathed in their biscuits. For us to eat together is congruent with remembering what Jesus did for us.

So he says, I want you to go get a place and then we're gonna eat. We're gonna have the Passover meal. So go get us a room to rent and then go to Costco and then we're gonna eat together. Taking the tiniest bit of liberty with the Greek. But I'm pretty close here.

And they say, ok, go get a Kataluma, an ancient Airbnb, for them to have that first meal to kick off Passover that will then lead into Pentecost, because remember, they don't know Easter is around the corner. Jesus has told them over and over and over and over and over again, I'm not going to always be with you. I'm going to go and be with dad. I'm going to prepare mansions for you and go. You're not always going to have my incarnate being.

And they're like, yeah, yeah, they are morons, just like us. We call them saints, but y', all, they hurl biscuits too. They don't get it. They miss the whole point. They love Jesus, but they're human.

They're oh so human. So they get together. He gives them the parameters for communion. And when the hour came, verse 14 of Luke 22, he reclined at table. And the apostles with them.

They didn't have tables back then the way we have them now. They didn't have a high table, they didn't have chairs. So all those paintings we have of the Passover meal are incorrect. Historically, they had very, very low tables. Tables in this era were more like a coffee table and a picnic table got hooked up on eharmony and got married and had a baby.

The very low, very rustic. And they did not sit in chairs. They sat on cushions. So when it says they reclined, they literally would sit on cushions and lean back. And Jewish men always, ever, only always ate with their right hands.

Why do we know that y' all can talk back? Because the right hand is the clean hand in Jewish culture, even today, if y' all ever get to go to Israel, but my friends in Israel have been there four times, will not greet me with their left hand, because left hand is considered unclean, the right hand is considered clean. And so you don't ever eat with your left hand. So we know definitively Jesus and his disciples are in an Airbnb, effectively, they're leaning on their left hip and they're eating with their right hands from a low table. And he begins to prophesy.

And he says in the future, he said to them, verse 15, I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God. And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he said, take this and divide it among yourselves. For I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes. And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, this is my body which is given for you.

Do this in remembrance of me. Do you hear communion there? This is the scaffolding of the communion we celebrate today. And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, this cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. But behold the hand of him who betrays me.

He's talking about Judas. Here is with me on the table. For the Son of man goes as it has been determined, but woe to that man by whom he is betrayed. And they begin to question one another, which of them it could be, who is doing this? A dispute.

We've inserted a title there. But actually the conversation that Luke is having, what he's telling us is there's no segregation there. It goes straight from their fussing about who's going to be the betrayer to a dispute also arose among them as to which of them was to be regarded as the. The greatest. Do you hear that?

Jesus has just said, I'm going to lay my life down from you. I'm no longer going to be with you in bodily form in the future. You're going to have Tangible elements. You're going to have wine if you're Catholic or Methodist or Anglican. You have grape juice if you're like the rest of us and we get nervous about the alcoholic content, you're going to have something you drink.

You're going to have a cracker or a piece of bread. And those are just tangible elements that remind you that you mean so much to me. That, that we the Trinity. This isn't something that was brought about by the Pharisees. This isn't something that was brought about by 1st century Semitic culture.

God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit from the very beginning planned that he would rescue us. After original. It had been planned since the very beginning. We pick that up again in Acts. He says, none of them were able to conspire to do this.

We had planned to do this. We already knew he was going to lay down his Life. Mark chapter 10. Jesus gives us his perfect purpose statement, I didn't come to be served. I came to serve and to give my life as a ransom for many.

They still don't get it, y'. All. They've got all those verses and they've been with Jesus for three years in that sober, precious moment. They basically start throwing breadsticks at each other going, uh, it's me. Uh, it's me.

I'm gonna be best. No, I'm gonna have more followers. I'm gonna be. I mean, you're like, oh, my heavens, Betsy, what is wrong with you? He's just about to go to the cross and they still don't get it.

And they're the disciples and they don't get it. Head to Acts, Acts chapter one. We love this one as Pentecostals too, because this is where Holy Spirit, we're told, is going to give us power. And we are all going to be witnesses to Judea and Samaria and the uttermost ends of the earth, including all those little towns I saw driving here. And so that's where right before Jesus ascends to sit at the right hand of God the Father.

He says, the Holy Spirit will come upon you, epicomy you. He's going to come next to you. It's amazing. Same word he gives Mary when he says, holy Spirit is going to apricot my you and you're going to get pregnant with Jesus. It's just this promise of relationship is extraordinary.

That's when he talks about we're all going to be his witnesses. And then Jesus shazam. And he ascends to the right hand of God the Father. And then you get another upper room, another kataluma. This is a tail between two rooms.

And most scholars think it's the same room. Because it was very, very common to rent out a room for Passover and to ask the guy, can I pay a little extra and can we come back in 50 days and have this same room? And because they want to make sure it's rented out, it's very likely it's the exact same room. So you've got Passover and you've got Pentecost. In the middle was Easter.

That's what Pastor is preaching about next week. But I want you to see the difference. In this upper room, they returned to Jerusalem. This is verse 12 of Acts, chapter one, from the Mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath's journey away. And when they had entered, they went to the upper room, the kataluma, where they were staying Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James.

And all these with one accord. Homo thumos. Homo means same. Thumos means of your spirit. In other words, they are in unity.

They are together. And they were devoting themselves to prayer together with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus and his brothers. So how in the world did they go from hurling breadsticks and just totally talking smack about who was going to be the most important, who was going to have the biggest platform on social media to homo thumos to one spirit? What happened between the two rooms? What in the world happened?

Most of you would say, the cross happened, y'. All. They still didn't get the cross. And the only one that watched the cross was John. The others completely missed it.

They were scared. Peter said, oh, just wash all of me. I'll never betray you. Right after Luke 22. And Jesus said, oh, you're going to betray me not once, but three times, and you're going to throw in a few expletives to convince the crowd.

You are going to absolutely throw me under the bus. And so, yeah, the cross happened, but they still didn't even really understand the cross. John 21 is this scene between those two rooms that most of us know the conversation. It's pretty familiar in church culture. That's where Jesus now resurrected.

I'm not going to steal Dr. Derek's thunder, but he's now resurrected. So this is between the two rooms. You still with me chronologically? So Jesus has died on the cross. He stayed dead for Three days.

Do you all know why? It was a big deal. He stayed dead for three days because in that era, there had been a lot of mistakes. And rabbis oftentimes function kind of like as the local nurse practitioner. And so rabbis had decreed somebody was dead when they were actually just in a coma.

And then that person came back to life. They're really never dead. And you can just imagine if you're like, oh, he was wonderful. Ah, he sat back up. And so it had startled a lot of people.

So they made a new rabbinic law that now nobody can pronounce anybody else dead until they've been dead for at least three days, because then we know they're dead dead. So even that. How kind of God to go, I'm not punking you. I wasn't in a coma. I didn't have some kind of low sugar.

He was dead. Dead behind a stone. And then Mary from Magdala, who had been completely oppressed by seven demons, is the one who sees him, and she confuses him for the gardener because it's early in the morning and nobody understood what was going on, much less the 12 yahoos. Now they're down to 11 because we've lost Judas. And Mary runs back and says, y', all, I saw the Christ.

He's not in the. I saw the Christ. And they didn't believe her. It was so unbelievable. They said, you must have had one too many mimosas this morning.

There's no stinking. Some of y' all have been taught that the Bible is a rule book. Some of y' all have been taught that this is hate speech. Some of y' all think it's boring because maybe you've had in your past a Bible teacher who was rigid. Y', all, the Bible is the antithesis of boring.

It really happened. Cover to cover. It really happened. And when you start digging deeper into these stories, you'll find not only what Pastor Derek preaches about all the time, which is. It's an overarching story.

Every single story we read hangs under this canopy of grace. This great God loves us so much. He's transcendent. He condescends to be like us so as to save us. But the story just starts getting bigger.

It gets bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger. And so Jesus not only is resurrected from the dead, but he knows we're prone to wander. He knows we're not the sharpest tools in the shed. He knows the miracle of Easter will leak through us. And so he stays in his resurrected body on this Physical, tangible, earth for a month so that people like Thomas could go, I'm not sure it's you.

I'm not sure it's you. You look like you. But what if I'm just having some type of an out of body experience? What if I've had too much caffeine? And he says, tom, touch the nail prints in my, in my wrist.

What a kind God that you would stay here with the likes of us so that we would believe bigger. What a kind God that he didn't immediately shazam after the resurrection, that he stayed. And in that period when Mary goes back and says, I saw the Christ, you remember what Pete and John did? Their testosterone addled. They would do this today.

They have a race to see who can get to the tomb fast enough, which I just don't. You just love that about men. Like y' all just never give up. Competing women, we go en masse to the bathroom. Men have contest of strength, so they have a race.

They get to the tomb, they find it empty and they start a revival, right?

They're still confused. And we would be too. Don't judge these humans. I threw biscuits out a window. And I've been a Bible teacher for 40 years.

And I prayed for that child for decades. I still can't believe God lets me be her mama. And I still am so prone to wander that a tiny bit of disrespect fueled by estrogen, just a tiny bit of disrespect and I lose my mind and I'm hurling breakfast foods on the way to the Christian school. What is wrong with me? I'm human is what is wrong with me.

And I'm not glossing over sin. I'm not saying sin isn't a big deal. Sin is a huge deal. If sin wasn't a big deal, Jesus could have just done detention. Jesus wouldn't have had to go to the cross.

His sin was no big deal. It separates us from the holiness of God. But oh, his grace is greater still. His grace is greater still. And so after Pete has totally betrayed him, just like Judas, at least Judas had coin as incentive.

Pete just had his own yellow bellied fear. Jesus stays. Pete goes. I don't know. I don't know what happened.

Let's go fishing.

And they go fishing. Do you remember how Pete's ministry with Jesus started? It's in Luke 5. Do you remember his baby brother Andrew had said, I think I've met the Christ. And Peter said, oh, Andrew, you're so gullible.

You've been Watching too much qvc, you know, you buy the Chia Pets. There's no way some dude from Nazareth. I mean, Nazareth is dinky doo. Martinsburg is New York City compared to Nazareth. Nazareth is 200 people.

They're all related. How could the Christ. How could the Messiah come out of Nazareth? That's what Pete says to Andrew. And Andrew goes, no, I think he's the Christ.

And Pete's fishing. He's fished all night. He's caught nothing because they caught for tilapia. It wasn't cast fishing. It was.

It was cast net fishing. So you only do that at night because the fish come up when the oil lanterns are lit and the insects are around the oil lanterns. You still with me? And so it's the morning, and Pete's bug is he hadn't caught a single thing. So just imagine you fellas who like to fish.

You fish for 12 hours, you've caught nothing. Your sunburned, your nets are ripped. You're like, dad, come this stupid boat. And Jesus says, hey, can I. Can I use your boat?

I'm doing a devotional. And the people, the back can't hear my voice because we haven't invented electricity yet. So if we get next the water, it'll amplify my voice and they can hear me. Luke 5. Pretty close.

And Pete goes, yeah, good that this boat is good for something. I mean, I didn't catch any fish with it last night. So just imagine this. This redneck man. So he's got a.

What would he have? A Oriole's cap, you know, and he's got khaki shorts with oil stains on it. He's wearing Tevas. And Jesus is in the front of his boat preaching to people on the shore. They're backed up, I don't know, 20 yards.

And Pete's in the back of the boat and he's got his legs crossed on the empty yeti. And he's like, this guy's not half bad. I mean, if my rabbi talked like him, I'd probably pay attention in church and wouldn't play Angry Birds. This guy's not half bad. And then Jesus ends the devotional and turns to Peter and says, let's go PITF fishing.

And Peter's like, city boy. I mean, you might have done Liberty Online. You know a few things about God, but you obviously don't know anything about fishing because you don't catch tilapia in the daytime. You only catch them at night. And you can just imagine Jesus almost winking.

He says, let's go in the middle of the lake and y' all know the story. They go in the middle of the lake and tilapia begin to catapult themselves into the net. It makes zero sense in the natural. And that's when Peter, just like us, he has to see it to believe it. And then he has a hard time hanging on to it even after he's seen it.

Don't you love that the people in this book aren't all perfect people? If all these people never messed up and Quito worked for them and they were always disciplined and they never fussed at their children and threw breakfast sandwiches out the window, I would go, the bar is too high. God, the bar. Over and over again, he says, all y' all need Easter, and you need Easter every moment of every day. And so I'm going to remind you every moment of every day.

You're worth it to me. You were the joy set before me that first encounter on the Sea of Galilee Peter had with Jesus. You remember Peter's response when he realizes this has to be the Messiah? Has to be, because the fish of the sea are obeying him. He has to be supernatural.

He throws himself in the bow of the boat and says, don't look at me. I'm a sinful man. Do you remember what Jesus said? Oh, Pete, I'm not mad at you. Get up.

I just want you to change your Facebook status. You're going to go from being a fisherman to a fisher of men. Three years later Listen to this. Happens all throughout Scripture. Theologians call it shadow and substance.

God knows us. He repeats grace over and over and over again because he knows it leaks through us. Over and over again, he repeats grace. Three years later, after Easter, Peter is still confused. I'm going fishing.

Mary said he's resurrected. That's what he had prophesied. Peter's like, he goes fishing. The ten go with him. We could preach for a whole year on that man the church has gotten.

We eat our wounded.

I have not in the last 10 years seen a crueler place. But Christians, we need to discipline our thumbs. I'm so sick of mean Christians. I'm old enough to say stuff like this now. Bullies who identify as Christians need timeouts.

They just need. I'm so sick of mean Christians. You cannot quantify unkindness and say, it's a Christian ethic. An ethic segregate from compassion is not a Christian ethic. Sorry, but that's just one of my.

Oh, I'm so tired of being Christians. I'm a punch somebody in the the throat before this is over. Not y'. All, Not y'. All just mean Christians.

I'm so tired of them. 10 go with Peter. He has not yet repented. Hadn't yet repented. And the 10 say, we'll go with you.

They don't say, if you'll go away to a 12 step program, you'll get well and you come back and you prove to us, maybe in a year and a half we'll let you back into our fellowship. He has not yet repented. And they say, we'll go with you. They fish all night. What are calling?

They catch nothing. Not a dadgum thing. And in the morning a stranger, John 21 appears on shore and hollers out, have you caught anything? And Pete goes, no, the yeti still empty. But you know what?

It's been so cool because I'm a betrayer and the gospel leaked right through me and I am a Benedict Arnold and I'm a yellow bellied sapsucker. But my brothers came with me and we've been eating Slim Jim and listening to country music and talking about how good Jesus is. And he says, throw your nets to the right side, verbatim, what he had said three years before. And guess what happens? Shocker.

Tilapia again begin to catapult themselves into the net. And that's when Pete goes. This feels like deja vu to me. And instead of leaving to clean himself up, he swims toward Jesus. He swim still absolutely culpable of betrayal.

But he notice he'll find mercy at the feet of Jesus. And they have a conversation. And y' all know this conversation, Pete, Simon, son of John, his formal name. Do you love me? Yes, Lord, you know I love you.

What does he say? Feed my sheep. This is the between the Katalumas conversation. This is the post Easter conversation with one of the three closest to the cross Price, who had effectively hurled biscuits. Simon, son of John, second time.

Do you love me? Yes, Lord, you know I love you. Feed my sheep. Third time. Simon, son of John, do you love me?

Yes, Lord, you know I love you. Feed my sheep. Why? Have you heard Jesus ask Peter the same question three times in a row? Young talk back because he denied him three times.

Thank you. And that's what we've all heard. It's not the best part of the story. The story gets better and better and better and better and better. They were speaking Greek, Koine Greek.

And the first time the verb Jesus uses is agapeo. Simon, son of John, do you agapeo me. Do you love me more than anyone. Do you love me with a sacrificial love? And Peter says, lord, you know me.

You know I fileto you. I love you like. Like a Facebook friend. I love you like somebody I've done a tick tock dance with. I don't love you with my whole heart.

I prove that by how I betrayed you. Second time. Simon, son of John, do you agapeo me? And Pete says, jesus, you know me. Can't you just imagine him just staring down at the sand, the weight of his sin still heavy on his shoulders, thinking, the last time I saw you, I was hurling expletives, trying to convince the crowd that I wasn't with you.

I was so afraid they were going to crucify me too. Jesus, you know me. You know the best I have is phileo. I don't love you sacrificially. Third time, Hallelujah.

What a savior. Third time. Jesus says, simon, son of John, do you fill me? He lowers the love bar, y'. All.

That's what happens between the two upper rooms. The cross happens, but if I can say, not more so than the cross, but the fall out of the cross is compassion. These very human disciples begin to go, oh. Oh. That's what he meant at Passover when he said, in the future we would drink wine and went, oh.

Oh. He was saying he would lay down his life for us. Oh. He came back not just to remind me that he loves me, but he came back to say, peter, even betrayal, even betrayal wasn't enough for me to kick you off the team. I'm not kicking off the team.

I'm naming you team captain. I'm going to build the entire New Testament church on your frail shoulders because you will never, ever forget how much you need my compassion. You'll never, ever think that you have to compare. Capacity to lead, you'll always recognize. Apart from grace, I'm going to hurl biscuits after my kid is disrespectful, too, because you don't have it in you to be perfectly Christlike.

You need to remember Easter every moment of every day. That at your worst, you were the joy set before me. What a good God. What a kind God. What an accessible king.

Y' all were Easter people, and we're never not Easter people. If you put your hope in Jesus. We are never not the people of God that he says. You were worth it to me. I love you today and I'll love you tomorrow, and I'll love you the day after that.

And Even when I have to discipline you to bring you back into intimacy with me, my discipline will be braided with mercy.