Dear and precious Son, we pray
in His name and for His grace upon us, our Father. We pray
in Jesus' name, Amen. So turn back on your Bibles with
me to John Chapter 21. We're coming to the end of this
remarkable book of the Bible. John is called by many the Apostle
of Love. I love the fact that this is
a book which defines the character of God so clearly and speaks
so wonderfully. speaks so wonderfully about the
work of the Lord in the hearts of his people. I love how he
began his last evening before the crucifixion. He said, Now
before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour
was come, that he should depart out of this world unto the Father,
listen to this, having loved his own which were in the world
he loved them unto the end he loved them to the uttermost so in john chapter 21 we come
back to our text when they had dined So when they had dined,
Jesus saith unto Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou
me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord,
thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs. He saith unto him again the second
time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea,
Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed
my sheep. He saith unto him the third time,
Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved, because
he had said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou
knowest all things. Thou knowest that I love thee,
and Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep. Lovest thou me? The question is intensely personal,
isn't it? Lovest thou me? So it's not related to other
people's love for the Lord Jesus Christ. This is God dealing with
us, particularly It's a question with extraordinary depth, isn't
it? It reaches to the very depth of our being in the simplest
of words possible, and in the simplest way possible, because
it's a question that's asked, which then puts us in the seat
where we have to be made by God to answer this question from
our hearts. It's a deep, deep question. It's
a broad question, isn't it? Do you love me And you may be talking about
the remarkable catch of fish that they caught. You might be
talking about the boats. You might be talking about men.
But I love the fact that there's a sense in which it's indistinct. Because there are so many things
in this world and so many objects. So much about our nature and
our fallen nature in Adam that says, I need to be loved, I need
to have these things, I need to cling to them. We want to
take to ourselves a need. There are so many things that
call on our affections. And the extraordinary thing is
that those that are most worthy in the eyes of men and most worthy
in the eyes of religious men are the most dangerous. We'll
talk more about that, Lord willing, later. But there's so much in
this world, isn't it? There's so much in this world.
There's so much in all of our relations in this world. The
Lord is saying, do you love me supremely? There are so many
other things that draw your heart in love. He's saying, do you
love me? Does my beauty, my glory, Does
it charm you? Does my grace draw you? Does
my cross in the revelation of the depths of my love and the
wonder of my faithfulness, does it attract you? Is, as Peter
says, is my blood precious to you such that you love it? Have my sufferings And my death
brought you to a place of repentance and faith and love, as it brought
you down from all of your vaunted views of self, as it just brought
you low. The great issue of salvation
is that God is God. And we are sinners. And Peter has just revealed yet
again, and I think there's something in the three times the question's
asked because the Lord Jesus Christ is reminding Peter that
just not so very long ago you fell appallingly. But he doesn't
say Peter denied he even knew the Lord in Matthew's Gospel.
He says, I don't know that man. He could have asked, do you know
me? He could have asked, do you know about me? He could have
asked, do you know all the things that I do and have done? Do you
know my future? And he just asked, do you love
me? Do you love me? Am I the one who has made himself
so dear to you that nothing else matters in this world but his
love for me? Do I love you, O my Lord? Behold
my heart and see, gently oust each idle fence which seeks to
rival thee. You know I love you, dearest
Lord, but oh, I long to soar far from the sphere of mortal
joys and learn to love you more. So here we have this extraordinary
question in its great depth. We have an extraordinary answer
from a child of God. I love Peter's answer. It's in
verse 17. I love the fact that Peter's appeal
is not to anything in Peter, but what the Lord knows. Again and again, We see people coming into the
presence of the Lord and they are made by the power of the
Spirit and His work in the lives of those that He saves that they
immediately declare something about the glory of God and the
character of God. Our God is omniscient. He knows everything, all the
time. One of my favorite verses in
the Bible is in Isaiah chapter 46, verse 10. He declares, Isaiah
46, 10, he declares the end from the beginning. Everything that happens in this
world is known unto God. Psalm 147 verse 5 says, Great
is our God, and of great power His understanding is infinite. He never learns anything. He's
never surprised by any of the circumstances of life. He ordains
all. He declares the end from the
beginning. But it's personal for us, isn't
it? I don't know about you, I love the fact that God is everywhere.
He's omnipresent, and He's omnipotent, and He is omniscient. He knows
all things. Listen to what Isaiah says in
Isaiah 65 verse 24. His omniscience is very, very
deep and amazing. Ezekiel 11 verse 5 says, The
Spirit of the Lord fell upon me, and he said unto me, Speak,
thus saith the Lord. Thus have you said, O house of
Israel, for I know the things that come into your mind, every
one of them. What's going on in your mind
now is an open book to God Almighty. But I find that wonderfully comforting
because Peter is brought into the presence of God Almighty
here and he's exposed for what's in his heart. And yet, as much
as these questions wound Peter, Peter is given the most extraordinary
token of love from the Lord Jesus Christ. He says three times,
feed my sheep. You feed my lambs and you feed
my sheep. I'm putting you in this great
responsibility for those whom I've loved the most, for those
for whom the wounds on my hand, in my feet and in my side, all
that precious blood were shed. So it's a glorious, glorious
story. And I want us to be reminded
that John has given us these stories, not so we all feel sorry
for Peter or that we might believe. These are written. that you might
believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing,
and that believing, you might have life through his name. Do you love me? Love is just such a vital part
and it's a necessary consequence of saving faith. Eternal life
is knowing the Lord Jesus Christ. As he's revealed in the scripture,
it's believing on him and to know him is to love him as he
reveals himself in all of his glorious attributes. God is love. God gives love and God creates
new hearts that love him and his people. The love of Christ
constrains and motivates us and causes God's people to take up
their cross, deny themselves and follow him. If you read on
in John 21 you'll see that the Lord revealed to Peter something
that I don't want revealed to me ever. He told Peter how he
was going to die. He says to him, verily, verily,
I say unto thee, verse 18, whence thou wast young, thou girdest
thyself and walked, whither thou wouldest. And when thou shalt
be old, thou shalt straightforce thy hands, and another shall
gird thee and carry thee, whither thou wouldest. This he spake,
signifying what death he should glorify God. Peter, you're gonna
be crucified. Did Peter run away? No, he stayed. He thought it such a glorious
honor to be a child of God. That's why those verses In 1
Peter, and if you get to read 1 John in light of all this,
I'm sure as those questions were being asked there were six other
fellows there thinking, I'm very, very pleased he's not asking
me these questions, but the questions resonated to all six of their
hearts. I'm sure they were quivering
in their boots as they sat there on that shore, listening to that. That's why
Peter, in 1 Peter, writes, his remarkable epistle and he speaks
so much of the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he talks about
the trial of his faith and he talks about how he's kept in
verse 3, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
which according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again into
a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead
to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that fadeth not
away. And don't you love this next
phrase? Reserved in heaven. It's already there. It's already
appeared. to be a child of God, to live
with him forever. And then he says, who are kept
by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed
in the last time, wherein you greatly rejoice. Though now for
a season it need be, you are in heaviness through manifold
temptations." Peter knew what heaviness was. He knew what temptations
were. He knew what it was to fall in
those temptations. Three times, three times in those courts, and before a
little girl, he denied even knowing the Lord Jesus Christ. And when
he was challenged again, he swore and cursed and used language
which was meant to reveal the fact that someone as foul-mouthed
as him could never have been one of the Lord's disciples.
manifold temptations, that the trial of your faith be much more
precious than of gold that perishes. though it be tried with fire,
might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing
of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen your love, in whom Though
now you see Him not, yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable
and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, even the
salvation of your souls. Precious, precious Saviour, what
a precious meeting this is. What a remarkable statement the
Lord asks Peter. What a remarkable statement he
asks us. There is something interesting
in the text if you come back to John chapter 21. We don't have a lot of time to
look very deeply into this and we might come back to it another
time, but I just want us to go through the nature of the questions
and the responses and see how this has a glorious flow
and it teaches us wonderful, wonderful lessons, I think. So
when they had, verse 15, so when they had dined, Jesus saith to
Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas. He doesn't address him as Peter,
he addresses him as Simon, his name before he was converted. Simon, son of Jonas. Simon means
to hear. Jonas is a dove. Peter wasn't
hearing and he wasn't acting like a dove earlier on. And then
the Lord says, Simon, lovest thou me? And the word love there, and
I don't like talking about these things, as you well know, because
God speaks very powerfully and plainly to his people in English,
but there is a word here that's used, and it's the word agapo,
and I don't like talking about these things, but let's go with
it for a little bit, because it means a deep-seated, thoroughgoing,
intelligent, mindful, purposeful, a love in its entirety. It's the love that God has into
Tinutarin and the love that he has for his people is called
this love. It's the highest form of love,
for want of a better word. I know they're used interchangeably,
so please bear with me. And he says to him, Peter replies
in verse 15, yea Lord, thou knowest that I love, and the word there
is a different word, it's the word phileo, it's a word that
says I have tender affections for you. So he says in a sense
to Peter, do you love me supremely? And Peter's response is, I have
a tender emotional affection for thee. And he saith unto him,
feed my lambs. You feed the young of my flock. You feed the ones, you begin
your care of my flock with the ones who are the most vulnerable,
the lambs. You nurture these, then all the
sheep will be fed. Second question. He saith unto
him the second time, Simon son of Jonath, lovest thou, and the
Lord uses that same agapo word there, and he drops the comparison. Do you just love me? Think about
everything else. Do you really love me? And he
saith unto him, and Peter responds in exactly the same word, Lord,
you know that I have tender affection for you. And then he says to him, you
feed. The first feeding is you nourish
my lambs. The second feeding is you tend
my sheep, as a shepherd, effectively. And then the third time he says
to him, Simon son of Jonas, lovest thou me? And here the Lord brings
the word love down to the very word that Peter had used in his
response. Do you have a tender of affection
for me? And Peter was grieved. Peter was grieved, he was deeply
sorrowful because he said unto him the third time, do you love
me? Do you have any affection for
me at all? And Peter is brought to a place
where all he can say and all he can rely on is the character
of God and God's knowledge of him. He said, Lord, thou knowest
all things. Thou knowest that I love thee. And he goes back and he says,
you nourish my sheep. You nourish my sheep. with us. He's going to bring
us down to a place where we are completely and utterly dependent
and that we know that we're nothing but sin. He did it with Saul
of Tarsus on the Damascus Road and left him for three days in
blindness. He did it to Isaiah and Isaiah
met the Lord Jesus Christ. Isaiah had an esteemed position
in Israel and he was woeing all the nations around and then he
meets the Lord Jesus Christ in the temple. You can read about
it in Isaiah chapter 6. And the first words that come
out of Isaiah's mouth is, woe is me, I'm undone, I'm unraveled. I am unraveled. If we're going to be used of
the Lord, He is going to bring us down, and he's going to bring
us down, and he has plenty to work with when it comes to bring
us down. He's going to strip us before
he clothes us. He's going to humble us before
he uses us. He's saying to Peter, you wounded
yourself by your words of pride and your actions of sin. The
question is, Can you, in this state, with
me wounding and opening your heart before me and to yourself
and others, can you love me in that state? Can you love me when
you have absolutely nothing in yourself? when you are nothing
in yourself but sin? Can you love me in this state
when you're weak and you're helpless, you've been unprofitable, you've
been leading others astray? Can you now love me? Love me
for who I am in this state. Not love me because of what I
do, but love me as I am. I know our emotions are like
the sea that Peter and the apostles have spent that night on. Our
emotions go up and down and we are tossed around. But if we're
really going to deal with God, or if God, a better question,
a better statement is that if God is really going to deal with
us, then we're going to be brought low. And he's going to do it
again and again and again. How gracious is the Lord in stripping
from us all of our fleshly confidence. He has to again and again and
again. That's why Peter said, when his
faith was trialled, that was the precious thing, was the trying
of his faith. And so that faith, a tried faith,
is resting on the goodness and the character and the grace of
God. If we have to be in a better
state, to love the Lord, then we don't really love him, but
we love what he rewards us for doing or for not doing. We have
to love him. This verse is saying, do you
love me as I am? I've wounded you. Here you are,
Peter. Yet again, you were exposed before
me in that garden. And in Luke's gospel, it says
the Lord looked at him after he denied him three times. He
looked at him. And people say that it was a
look of rebuke. I think it was a look of love.
And Peter went outside and he wept bitterly that night. How
must his heart have been wounded by these things? How gracious
is our God to take this one whom he will entrust his church into
the hands of. And before he uses him, he strips
him right down. Before he uses him. If you turn
back with me to Isaiah, it's amazing Isaiah's response to
being stripped. Stripped and healed by the graciousness
of God. I'll just read these first five
or six verses because I think it's just so wonderful. Isaiah's response is wonderful. One had six wings, with twain
he covered his face, with twain he covered his teeth, and with
twain did he fly. And one cried unto another, said,
holy, holy, holy. is the Lord of hosts. This is
the Lord Jesus Christ that I saw. I saw John 12 makes that abundantly
clear. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord
of hosts. The whole earth is full of his
glory. And the posts of the door moved
at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with
smoke. Then said I, woe is me, for I am undone. You can hear Peter saying this,
because I'm a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst
of a people of unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen the King,
the Lord of hosts. Then flew one of the seraphims
unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken
from the tongs of the altar. And he laid it upon my mouth,
and said, Lo, this has touched thy lips, and thine iniquity
is taken away, and thy sin purged. Also I heard the voice of the
Lord saying, Whom shall I send? And who will go for us? And then
he said, Here I am. Now you can send me. I am in
a fit state to be sent. The Lord had a fire of coals. Peter betrayed the Lord beside
a fire of coals. The Lord had a fire of coals
and he took that bread from that fire of coals and he gave it
to Peter with hands that were wounded. With hands that revealed,
the one source of Peter's salvation was completely outside of him,
and it was all the grace of God coming to him. What a great question the Lord
asks us. May we find ourselves in Peter's
shoes. Do you love me? Do you love me? Even when my words rebuke. God's children love him. It's as simple as that. I love what John, who was looking
on, says about love, and we'll close with some of these verses,
but I want us to see love is absolutely vital to salvation. Herein is love. This is love, 1 John 4.10. Not that we loved God. but that
He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our
sins. The wounds on the Saviour's hands
were the propitiation, the marks of the propitiation of our sins.
They are washed away, they are gone. And the Lord can come to
his weary, wandering, straying sheep, and he can gather them
to himself. And he can make them to realize
that all of their salvation is entirely in him. All of their
salvation is entirely by grace. And all of their usefulness to
him. is gonna have a starting point
within, usefulness to him is gonna have a starting point in
them being brought to a place where they will have to say with
Peter, Lord, you know all things. Lord, you know all things. You
know all that's before me, you know all that's happened to me,
and you still love me. You still love me. What a God we have that loves
as the Lord Jesus Christ loved. He loved them to the end. He
loved them to the end, to the uttermost, to the uttermost of
his life. He loved them from the guttermost
to the uttermost. May the Lord bless his word to
our hearts and may not just his questions but Peter's answer
And the extraordinary grace that the Lord showed in the rest of
Peter's life caused us to be encouraged. And when we brought
low, when we brought low, when this surgeon is wielding the
knife that cuts to the heart, this same surgeon wields a knife
of healing with extraordinary love. What a great God.