"Knowing Jesus!"

 "Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter, It is the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he girt his fishers coat unto him, (for he was naked,) and did cast himself into the sea." (John 21:7 KJV)

  "My dear brothers and sisters, if someone among you wanders away from the truth and is brought back, you can be sure that whoever brings the sinner back will save that person from death and bring about forgiveness of many sins." (James 5:19-20 NLT)

 Changing the direction of this, just a little; I wanted to illustrate the picture we see here today, making the point that I said before, how John had stopped trying to compete with Peter, and turned towards loving him and seeing him get restored. If you recall, it started at the tomb, as he had raced Peter to the tomb, but stopped short of going in, after seeing the grave cloths laying there empty; and then seeing the napkin that had covered His face folded and neatly, sitting on the slab of rock. 

 Maybe there are things that help you to know Jesus in your own personal way; as you discovered the way He encourages you, as if you can feel His hand upon your back, edging you forward, saying, "You got this!" Maybe, like John, you know the signs and gestures Jesus uses, as if to say, in just, "I got this!" 

 I absolutely believe that John was very concerned about Peter, hoping and praying that he would get his boldness back and really feel secure about his relationship with the Lord. As we shall see, he doesn't stop; as a matter of fact, Peter and John became bolder, the pair; turning the whole region up-side-down, in the name of Jesus! 

 Sometimes we really need to do whatever it takes to just get to know Jesus! Not just by what we read about and hear in messages; but by what He does for you; how He makes things happen, or not happen, when you least expect it. It's really all of those little things that make our relationship personal and feel so real; especially the stuff that makes you laugh, like telling skilled fishermen to cast the net to the other side...

"It was nearly time for the Jewish Passover celebration, so Jesus went to Jerusalem. In the Temple area he saw merchants selling cattle, sheep, and doves for sacrifices; he also saw dealers at tables exchanging foreign money. Jesus made a whip from some ropes and chased them all out of the Temple. He drove out the sheep and cattle, scattered the money changers' coins over the floor and turned over their tables. Then, going over to the people who sold doves, he told them, "Get these things out of here. Stop turning my Father's house into a marketplace!" Then the disciples remembered this prophecy from the Scriptures: "Passion for God's house will consume me." But the Jewish leaders demanded, "What are you doing? If God gave you authority to do this, show us a miraculous sign to prove it." "All right," Jesus replied. "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." "What," they exclaimed. "It has taken forty-six years to build this Temple, and you can rebuild it in three days?" But when Jesus said, "this temple," he meant his own body. After he was raised from the dead, the disciples remembered he had said this, and they believed both the Scriptures and what Jesus had said." (John 2:13-22 NLT)