John 21: Jesus, the God of the Next Chance

Introduction

"For a long time, I believed God was the God of the second chance. But I came to realize I was wrong." This is how Daniel Elvelyck opens his message at SOS Lyon Church. God is not the God of the second chance, or the third, or the fourth: he is the God of the next chance, "again and again."

The Bible is not a book about perfect people. We all have flaws, and we all make mistakes. The Bible tells the story of a perfect God who keeps showing up for imperfect people. And of all those who failed, no one illustrates it better than Peter.

The preacher follows Peter from his denial beside a charcoal fire to the shore in John 21, where Jesus lights another charcoal fire. He points out the reasons behind Peter's fall, which are also ours, and then the way Jesus comes looking for him and restores him.

Message Outline

1. A Bible Full of Imperfect People

Peter walked with Jesus for three and a half years. He belonged to Jesus' inner circle.
At the last Passover, Jesus announces: "All of you will be made to stumble because of me tonight." Peter answers: "Even if all will be made to stumble because of you, I will never be made to stumble" (Matthew 26:31-35).
Jesus tells him he will deny him three times before the rooster crows. Peter insists: "Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you." And all the disciples say the same thing.
For Daniel Elvelyck, this passage already shows why Peter is going to fall. And these are the same reasons we keep falling.

2. Two Reasons for the Fall: Thinking You Are Better and Wiser

The first reason is placing yourself above others. Peter essentially says: "Even if everyone else denies you, I never will." He sees himself as stronger than the people around him.
The Bible warns us: "Pride goes before destruction, and an arrogant spirit before a fall" (Proverbs 16:18).
Pride makes us say "I know," and even "I think I'm better than you." When we think we are stronger than others because we judge them, we have already failed.
The preacher's question: "Over whom have I secretly decided I was better?" Walking into church believing you are better than someone is a dangerous place to be.
The second reason is believing you know more than Jesus. When Jesus announces his denial, Peter answers, "No, Jesus." He thinks he knows better than Jesus' own words.
Proverbs 3:5-6 calls us to trust in the Lord with all our heart, to acknowledge him in all our ways, and not to lean on our own understanding. It takes faith to believe it and courage to submit to it.
Daniel Elvelyck admits that every time he has failed in his life, it was for one of these two reasons. He thought he was stronger than he was, or he thought he knew God's Word better than God himself.
"No one here knows better than Jesus. I have learned that Jesus knew me better than I knew myself." His question: which part of God's Word have I decided to ignore, thinking it does not apply to my life?

3. The Charcoal Fire and the Smell of Shame

Jesus is arrested. Peter follows from a distance and hides among the servants. "Now the servants and the officers were standing there, having made a fire of coals, for it was cold. They were warming themselves. Peter was with them, standing and warming himself" (John 18:18).
They ask him whether he knows Jesus, and Peter, who had just sworn he would never deny him, answers: "I don't know him." An hour later, at the third denial, the rooster crows. "The Lord turned and looked at Peter," and Peter remembers his word (Luke 22:59-61).
The preacher invites us to see the sadness in Jesus' eyes and Peter's heart sinking: he has just publicly denied the one he loves, and he is overwhelmed with shame.
All of this happens beside a charcoal fire. Smell, he explains ("I am not a doctor"), is the only sense that bypasses the thalamus and goes straight to the hippocampus, where emotions arrive. A smell does not just recall a memory, it makes you relive it: the scent of a grandfather you have not smelled in twenty years, the smell of your first school.
Peter's failure soaks into the smell of those coals and brands him "like a hot iron." The denial becomes a real inner trauma, and Peter leaves that place full of shame.

4. A Leader Who Had to Ask for Forgiveness

"We have all carried shame," says Daniel Elvelyck, and he shares one of his own failures. Early in ministry, he served in Sweden at an organization that had sent out 160 missionaries.
One day, a couple came into his office in tears, hurt by one of their missionary couples, a faithful young couple coming home after eighteen months in Thailand. He believed everything he was told, without calling the missionaries, without asking for their side, without protecting them.
He wrote them an angry email with "all the marks of someone who thought he was an excellent leader." When he clicked "send," he felt good and justified. That couple never came back.
Months later, the Holy Spirit pierced his heart. He had a choice: protect his ego or repair the wound he had caused. "I would rather be humiliated than carry a heavy heart."
The couple first refused to see him, then gave him ten minutes on a Friday at 9 p.m., three and a half hours away by car. He canceled everything, drove alone while praying, and told them, without making excuses or explaining anything: "I was wrong, I hurt you. Please forgive me." The young man answered that he had expected justifications, but because of his humility, he forgave him.
"I felt the freedom of forgiveness." On the drive home, all he had left were tears of gratitude. "Jesus came to meet me in my mess, and today he wants to meet you in yours."

5. The Shame That Sends You Back to Your Nets

Shame does not just block us, it pushes us backward. We go back to our boat and our nets, to where we were before Jesus came to transform us.
That is what happens to Peter: "I'm going fishing" (John 21:3). He spent three and a half years with the Master, but shame pulls him back.
When we do not deal with our failures, a voice eventually says: "You are not good enough. He invested in you and you failed. He gave you a chance and you wasted it. Jesus doesn't want you anymore." And we go back to our past life and our old habits.
In the middle of shame, God makes a promise: he is near to those who have a broken heart and saves those who have a crushed spirit (Psalm 34:18).
"Peter was not looking for Jesus, but Jesus came looking for Peter." We worship a God who does not wait for us to sort out our problems on our own: like a shepherd, he is already searching for us.

6. Jesus Lights a Charcoal Fire Again

Jesus finds Peter in his boat and calls him to the shore. "So when they got out on the land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid on it, and bread" (John 21:9). Jesus invites Peter to breakfast.
The Greek word for this charcoal fire, anthrakia, is used only twice in the whole New Testament: in John 18, at the moment of the denial, and in John 21, when Jesus prepares the meal. As he reaches the shore, Peter smells the coals, the smell of his trauma.
Jesus did not light this fire to say, "Remember what you did?" He lit it to redeem the smell Peter had carried. Sometimes God brings us back to the places that hurt, the places of failure, to heal us from the trauma.
This also applies to wounds that do not come from our own faults: in a marriage, a friendship, at work, or in the church. "Someone who claimed to represent God left you bleeding. I know what I'm talking about, it is what I did to that young couple." Wounds caused in God's name were not caused by God himself.
A marriage slowly dying, a habit that costs you everything, an image on social media that looks nothing like the person you are alone at home, a bill you cannot pay: whatever it is, it is your charcoal fire, and Jesus knows what smell it has for you. He does not ask you to pretend nothing happened, he asks you to believe that he is different.

7. Agape, Phileo: Jesus Comes Down the Ladder

Sitting by the fire, Jesus asks Peter the same question three times, just as Peter denied him three times (John 21:15-17). "Do you love me more than these?" Peter, who once claimed to be stronger than the others, no longer compares himself: "Yes, Lord; you know that I have affection for you."
New Testament Greek has several words for love. Jesus asks: "Do you love me with agape love?", the divine, perfect, unconditional love. Peter answers with phileo, brotherly love, the love of friends, a love on a human scale.
The preacher puts these words in Peter's mouth: "You know everything. You know I failed, that I ruined everything. I am neither pure nor strong. Phileo is the best I can give you today."
The third time, Jesus changes his question: "Do you love me with phileo love?" The perfect God comes down to Peter's level. "Jesus does not wait for you to climb to the top of the ladder. He comes down the ladder to meet you where you are." He does not raise the bar, he lowers it: "that is called grace."
Peter came back from his failures, became a hero of the faith, and led the early church. "If Peter could come back from his failure, we can all come back from ours."
Jesus is already on the shore, he has already lit the fire. He does not wait for you to be better, he only asks for your next "phileo" step: joining a life group, saying yes to baptism, or telling him for the first time, "I receive you." "Come as you are. I am here to take care of the rest."

Key Takeaways

God is not only the God of the second chance: he is the God of the next chance, again and again.
Peter falls because he places himself above others and because he thinks he knows more than Jesus. These are the same traps for us.
Unresolved shame sends us back to our nets and whispers that we are no longer good enough for Jesus.
Jesus comes looking for Peter and lights a charcoal fire again, not to accuse him, but to heal the place of his failure.
By moving from agape to phileo, Jesus comes down to Peter: grace lowers the bar to meet us where we are.

Personal Application

Over whom have you secretly decided you were better?
Which part of God's Word have you decided to ignore, thinking it does not apply to your life?
Is there someone you have hurt and need to go to for forgiveness, without making excuses or justifying yourself?
What is your charcoal fire, that place or memory that still carries the smell of failure or hurt?
What is your next "phileo" step this week: a life group, baptism, or receiving Jesus for the first time?

Verses Cited

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does Daniel Elvelyck talk about the "God of the next chance"?

He long believed God was the God of the second chance, then realized he was wrong: God is not only the God of the second, third, or fourth chance, he is the God of the next chance, again and again. The Bible is not a book of perfect people, but the story of a perfect God who shows up for imperfect people.

Why is the charcoal fire important in Peter's story?

According to the preacher, the Greek word translated "fire of coals" appears only twice in the New Testament: in John 18, when Peter denies Jesus, and in John 21, when Jesus prepares the meal by the lake. Jesus does not light this fire to remind Peter of his fault, but to redeem the smell Peter had carried from his failure.

What is the difference between agape and phileo in John 21?

Agape refers to divine love, perfect and unconditional, and phileo to brotherly love, the love of friends. Twice Jesus asks Peter whether he loves him with agape love, and Peter answers with phileo. The third time, Jesus himself uses phileo: he comes down to Peter's level. For Daniel Elvelyck, that is grace: Jesus does not raise the bar, he lowers it to meet Peter.