“Peter is Restored”Main point: The risen Christ meets Peter where he needs to be met in order to restore him to the mission Jesus originally called him to.BLESSING THE CHILDRENWhen you walked into the church building this morning you may have noticed you were surrounded by a school of fish. On the doors, fish! On the walls, fish! Everywhere, fish! Last night, the kids in Children’s Church had fun cutting out 153 fish - the specific number listed in our text - and hanging them around the church as they learned about Peter and the great catch of fish. Abundance. The bigness of God who provides for us everything we need.SERMONIntroductionIf you were with us last week you may recall that we learned from St. Thomas the Apostle about faith and doubt in the life of the Christian as we looked at the story of his encounter with the resurrected Christ. This week we learn from St. Peter’s encounter with the resurrected Christ about the way God works to restore his children when we are broken.First, let’s get to know Peter a little bit. Compared to Thomas, the story of Peter is much more prominent in our Scriptures. Peter pops up so regularly we hardly notice when he does.You may recall…Peter is the one to whom Jesus declared, “You are Peter and on this rock I will build my church.”When Jesus asks Peter, “Who do you say that I am.” Peter declares with confidence, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.”Peter is also one of three disciples who witnessed the Transfiguration of Jesus on the mountain and offers up the idea to build three monuments - one for Jesus, one for Moses, and one for Elijah - to commemorate the revelation of God’s glory.A couple of weeks ago, we saw Peter at the Last Supper who, when Jesus got up to wash the feet of the disciples, said, “No way, Jesus, you can’t wash my feet. I’m going to wash yours.” To which Jesus replied, “If I don’t wash your feet then you will have no part of me.” Peter only half understood what Jesus was saying so he, in turn, replied, “Well, if that’s the case, don’t stop with just my feet! Wash all of me!”Peter is also the one who stood up against the soldiers who came to the Garden of Gethsemane to arrest Jesus. Peter pulled his sword and cut off the ear of Malchus, the servant of the High Priest. But Peter didn’t get it right. Jesus tells him, “Peter, put away your sword. I could call a thousand angels to fight for me in a moment, but that’s not how my kingdom will come about.”From each of these encounters, we get a little taste of what Peter was like. We find: Peter is a man with gusto. He’s quick to speak but often doesn’t know what he’s saying. Peter is given to extremes. You can tell he’s eager to please Jesus. His heart is usually in the right place, but what he says and what he does doesn’t always perfectly match the situation at hand.Today, we encounter Peter in the middle of a twofold crisis.First, Peter failed in a big way by abandoning his closest friend in his time of need. Jesus said, “On this rock I will build my church,” but the rock crumbled under pressure. And not only did he crumble, He crumbled in public. The story of his failure made its way around the Christian community, so now, he’s a public failure too.Second, Peter recently watched Jesus die - and with the death of Jesus also died all of the hopes of the dreams they shared for a new world. Perhaps Peter blamed himself for Jesus’s death. Perhaps he said “If I was just more brave or if I would have done something differently… If I was just better than I am, this whole catastrophe could have been avoided.”Peter is broken. So what does he do? Peter goes fishing.

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