This Sunday is a packed one.  We are wrapping up our series on the wanderer, celebrating the Lord’s Supper, enjoying a fellowship lunch, and for many of us, attending community group.  And since we’re wrapping up our series on the wanderer, I hope that this series has caused you to pause and think about the role that you play in the lives of those around you.  I hope that it has caused you to pray with more understanding and hope for the wanderers in your life.  I hope that this series has caused you to run to the Lord because bringing back the wanderer and keeping from wandering is far more than we can do ourselves.

This week, we’re wrapping up our series by taking a look at Peter’s restoration in John 21.  We’ve talked extensively about the reasons why folks wander and what it takes to produce repentance and a return to the Lord.  But we haven’t talked much about what happens after they return home.  You see, the return and the welcome are the easy parts.  The hard part is the relational work that comes after they’re home.  Then, it is time to deal with sin with repentance, grace, and forgiveness.  Only after we have truly dealt with the fallout from our sinning against each other that we can see a true restoration and the full return of our wanderer.  I encourage you to read John 20 and 21 before Sunday.  There you will see a repentant Peter walk with the resurrected Lord Jesus through some ups and downs, setbacks and relapses.  It isn’t until John 21:15-19, our passage this week, that Peter and Jesus see the restoration of their relationship to the fullness of fellowship and intimacy following his triple denial.  And as we look at the hard work and fearful risks that come with attempting reconciliation and restoration, we will hopefully see how the Gospel enables us to step into broken relationships between wanderers and those that they have left so as to see the glory of reclaimed sinners restored by the grace of God.