Let us turn to the chapter we read here at the end of the Gospel according to Saint John, John chapter 20, and directing you to words that we have at verse 15 through 17. John chapter 20, reading again at verse 15 through 17. So when Jesus had dined, or rather, so when they had dined, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He said unto him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He said unto him, Feed my lambs. He said to 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 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. Jesus saith unto him, feed my sheep. And as we consider this portion, I'm sure not unfamiliar to most of you, probably all of you, I want to consider these three loves that we can discern in these verses. First of all, the love of the Lord Jesus Christ, and then secondly, Peter's love and then finally by way of some application to say something with regards to Christian love which is surely one of the marks of those who are in the Lord Jesus Christ what we have here of course is part of the Lord's ministry in the restoration of this man Simon Peter who had three times denied the Lord and denied him with oaths and the Lord had said it would be so back in Luke 22 we have those words where the Lord speaks to him Simon, Simon behold Satan hath desired to have you that he might sift you as wheat but I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not and when thou art converted strengthen thy brethren when thou art restored strengthen thy brethren and then the Lord goes on there to speak how he will in fact deny the Lord on those three occasions though Peter protest he would never deny the Lord but so it was so it was and the Lord then ministers to him in order to his restoration so first of all to try to say something with regards to the love of the Lord Jesus Christ and the manner in which the Lord ministers to his backsliding disciple and how the Lord is so careful in preparing the way He is that one who is the shepherd and bishop of your souls that's what Peter says there in 1 Peter 2 and verse 25 and doubtless Peter is saying that because he knew from experience that the Lord is that one who is the true shepherd the bishop of the souls of all his people how he has such a pastoral care and we see it in the way in which the Lord prepares Peter that he might yet be recovered and restored from his awful backsliding and there are different stages in the way in which the Lord restores the man In a sense the Lord begins immediately to restore him. No sooner is he denying the Lord that the Lord is already concerned to see him raised out of this sad, awful fall. I said it's there in Luke 22 where we have those words that Christ speaks to him concerning the sieve of Satan that is going to be put into And then later, of course, the Lord is taken. He's taken to the high priest's house. There is Peter. He manages to gain entrance. And it seems there was some sort of courtyard. And there's a fire. He's denying the Lord even as he stands warming himself by the fire. He denies the Lord so three times. And then what do we read there in Luke 22, 61? How the Lord turned and looked upon Peter. He's just denied the Lord for the third time and the Lord turned and looked upon Peter and he remembered the word of the Lord and he said unto him before the cock crowed twice thou shalt deny me thrice and he went out it says and wept bitter tears oh what a turning what a turning of the Lord the Lord turned and looked what a gracious look that was was the beginning really of his restoration, for the Lord to look upon him. The Swami says, There be many who show us any good. Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon me. The Lord looked upon him, lifted up his countenance upon him, beheld him. And he must have been a wondrous look because he broke the heart of the denier and he goes out and he weeps such bitter tears. But that's just the beginning the Lord will of course go the way of the cross he will fulfill all that work that he had undertaken in the eternal covenant he'll make the sin atoning sacrifice even for the sins of backsliders like Simon Peter and on the third day he will rise again from the dead and remember that those women we mentioned them this morning those favored women they were the first at the empty tomb and how the angel spoke to them and told them that they were to go and tell his disciples that he was going before them into Galilee. But what does it say there in Mark 16, 7? Tell his disciples and Peter. Peter's one of the disciples but he's mentioned quite specifically there in that text in Mark 16 tell his disciples and Peter or make sure you tell Peter in particular is going before you into Galilee and here of course this is where we find the Lord after these things Jesus showed himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias, the Sea of Galilee and on this why showed he himself They must go there because here he will continue in the restoring of this man. But he's not only one that the Lord is pleased to turn and look so graciously upon and to send a particular message to this man by the angels and the women who were at the empty tomb. But we know that the Lord actually showed himself to Peter. when Paul in 1 Corinthians 15 is mentioning all those multitude who were witnesses to the truth of the resurrection how for 40 days the Lord was showing himself by many infallible proofs to his disciples that they might witness to the truth of his resurrection and we have those remarkable words at the beginning of that 15th chapter and amongst others it says he was seen of Cephas or the Lord was seen of Cephas to those of course who come back from the Emmaus road where he showed himself to those two as soon as they arrived back in Jerusalem what is the message amongst the others the Lord is risen and has shown himself to Peter this is all part and parcel of the way in which the Lord restores and now He's completing the work of restoration. Thou knowest the way to bring me back my fallen spirit to restore, to take the ruins of my soul and make that a house of prayer. We just sang those lovely words of Charles Wesley in the hymn. Oh, what a shepherd, what a pastor, what a bishop of souls. is the Lord Jesus Christ, he prepares the way, he's so careful and he's so thorough in the way in which he ministers to his erring children but then also see how pointed the Lord is in the way in which he addresses Simon Peter what does he say? he doesn't use that name does he? he says Simon son of Jonas Simon son of Jonas Simon, son of Jonah, three times. He's reminding him, surely, of his base origins. He was one born dead in trespasses and in sins. He'd been given a new name. When his brother Andrew brings him to the Lord, there in the opening chapter of this Gospel, remember what the Lord says to him. He tells him thou shalt be called Cephas, which by interpretation is a stone. That's his name Cephas or Peter. Or when Peter makes his great confession at Caesarea Philippi. And the Lord tells him, you know, flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee, but my Father in heaven, what did he confess? Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. What an acknowledgement! This is God manifest in the flesh. This is the promised Messiah that the true Israel is ever looking and wanting and yearning to see. And then the Lord tells him, flesh and blood hath not revealed it but my Father which is in heaven and thou shalt be called Peter. Cephas, a stone, and upon this rock What is the rock? It's what Peter has confessed. Peter made the confession. Other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ the Lord. We deny the lies of Rome, the false church, that imagines it's built upon Peter. The true church is only built upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And now this man so graciously restored by the Lord Jesus. He's one of those stones built upon that sure foundation, even the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Oh, how pointed the Lord is here, though, as he forfeited that name. The Lord doesn't call him Cephas or Peter, but he repeatedly addresses him as Simon. son of Jonas John says in verse 15 when they had died Jesus said to Simon Peter but what does the Lord say Simon son of Jonas that's how the Lord repeatedly addresses him and he puts the three questions to him Peter had denied the Lord three times and as I said he denied with the most awful curses blasphemous and yet the Lord comes, he is so thorough the Lord, he is so pointed in the manner of his dealings and not only that, he is so persistent it's so persistent the Lord, there's a thoroughness to the way in which the Lord works you see he's not only the shepherd and bishop, he's the physician of souls and how he probes, how he probes the wound there will be a thorough healing and see the persistence in the passage and it can't really come out in the translation it doesn't come out in the translation but I think I've said this before but in verses 15 and 16 two different words are being used for love In the original, of course, the original, in a sense, the Greek is a richer language than ours. They have more than one word for love. You're probably familiar with the words. The great word is agape. But there's that other word, philo. Now agape is the purest form of love that we could imagine. It's the love of gods. When John says in his epistle, God is love, and he says it more than once, doesn't he? God is love, well that's the word to choose but there's his other word, philo and it's a good word and it's a noble love that is being spoken of when that word is used it indicates real affection and as I said there are two different words used here the Lord himself in verses 15 and 16 uses the word agape when he says Simon son of Jonas lovest thou me Simon son of Jonas lovest thou me but Peter doesn't use that word Peter doesn't use that word he uses the other word philem when he answers and says Yea, Lord! Though Noah said, I love thee. He's using that lesser of the two words. But then, when we come to verse 17, this is the difference. The Lord now begins to use that word philo instead of the more noble agape. He saith unto him the third time, Simon son of Jonas Lovest thou me? It's the same words. Peter was grieved. You see why Peter's grieved? Because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? Is the Lord questioning even this wonderful affection that Simon Peter has for the Lord? He can't quite attain to that nobler word. And yet the Lord, you see, is querying and questioning. How persistent the Lord is, how probing in the way in which He's dealing with this man. Or there's going to be a full restoration if there's any restoration at all. This is the way of the Lord. This is the way of the Lord. It's all done in grace. This is the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. What does He say? There in Deuteronomy 32, 39, see now that I, even I, am He, and there is no God with me. I kill and I make alive, I wound and I heal, neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand. There in Deuteronomy 32, the song of Moses. Job, Job 5, 18, he maketh sore and bindeth up, he woundeth, and his hands make whole. You see, What he does, he does it ultimately for the healing, for the restoring. And this is what the Lord is doing here for Simon Peter. He says, doesn't he, through another prophet, through the prophet Hosea, I will heal their backslidings. I will love them freely. Oh, the freeness of the love of the Lord Jesus Christ, the greatness of his love here as we see him dealing so faithfully with his erring disciple who had alas denied him. The love of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that's first, and that must be first, surely. What a ministry that Christ is pleased to exercise towards sinners. but let us turn in the second place to consider something of Peter and Peter's love and what do we see in Peter? well we see two things we see that his love is weak really but though it's a weak love it's a real love it's genuine that's the important thing throughout the whole episode, throughout the three verses, Peter continually uses that other word philo. Although Christ initially uses the word agape, Peter can't quite reach that. That's beyond Peter now. Gone is all his creature strength. Gone is all his self-confidence. He'd been in the sieve of Satan. He'd been sifted, you see. It was Satan's sieve, and yet, oh the Lord, these are the amazing ways of the Lord, aren't they? Satan will do his worst. And Satan, you see, is cunning and crafty. But God is wiser than his creatures. Satan is but a creature, a fallen creature alas, and a mighty creature. Now the Lord had addressed Peter, Simon, Simon, behold Satan hath desired to have you that he might sift you as wheat. that I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not when thou art converted strengthen thy brethren you know the significance of what we have in the authorized version because there's so much in the pronouns there isn't there the plural pronouns we've said this before the plural pronouns and the singular pronouns the Lord speaks to Simon Peter yes and he says to him Satan hath desired to have you, that's a plural, that He desires all the disciples that He might sift you, that's all of you as we but the Lord knows that this man is the most vulnerable I have prayed for thee, the singular that thy faith fail not it's there you see, it's so clear in our authorised version, it's lost in the modern versions lost in the modern versions but the faithfulness of the translators of our authorised version it brings it out the Lord is so concerned for this particular disciple because he is the most vulnerable and the Lord will pray for him in particular I do find it fascinating. When I was preparing, I thought, I wonder, just a little aside, I wonder how these verses that we're contributing tonight are translated in any of the modern versions. So I have there at home a New American Standard Bible. So I looked it up, and I thought it would probably distinguish the difference Greek words for love. But he didn't. I thought he might have agape translated as love and philo translated as affection. But he didn't. And I thought, well that's interesting. And it's good, it's right, it's proper because the proper translation of both of those words is love. There's no other English word really that's adequate to bring out the sort of love being spoken of in the word philo. It is love. It's interesting. It's not inaccurate in any sense in the authorised version and one is in many ways reluctant even to sometimes point out these subtle points of difference but they are important if we're going to understand the word of God. But again and again one is confirmed in one's love for the accuracy of our authorized version. And we see it there especially in that that the Lord says to Peter in Luke 22 where the Lord is clearly so concerned for this man he knows, the Lord knows, and the Lord knows what he's doing. the Lord is overruling and Peter won't fall through the sieve himself but there will be such a sifting that all is imagined strength or when he says, you know, they're all denied, he never will I deny them that's what he says when the Lord tells him he's going to deny him three times he's so full of himself but now you see he's a different man and now in a sense he's really confessing his weakness the Lord has used a deliberate word but Peter can't repeat that word he can't repeat that word he now confesses really his own weakness Lord it is my chief complaint that my love is cold and faint yet I love thee and adore all for grace to love thee more this is Peter He's a weak man now, but he still loves the Lord, and he longs that he might love the Lord even more. And what do we see here? We see the reality, really, of his love. What we have, you see, in verse 17 is interesting, isn't it? When Peter answers the Lord, we're told how he was grieved. He was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And what does he say to the Lord? Lord thou knowest all things. He can appeal to the omniscience of the Lord. Our God is omniscient. He knows all things. Nothing is hid from his eyes. He is omnipresent. He is in all places. Remember our The 139th Psalm reveals that blessed truth to us, doesn't it? There's no escaping from the presence of God. And when we come to the end of that Psalm, what does David say? Search me, O God. Know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. Well, isn't Peter saying something similar here in his 17th verse? Lord, thou knowest all things. He has a genuine love for the Lord, although he's been weaned, you see, weaned of everything of self, and he's so dependent upon the grace of God. All the important thing is reality, and that's what we see here. He's an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile. Look at those who were present there on the occasion. Verse 2, there were together Simon, Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two other of his disciples, but amongst them Nathanael. Remember the Lord's words to Nathanael back in that opening chapter of this Gospel. When he sees Nathanael coming to him, he says, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile. Wasn't that also true of Simon Peter? Guileless. As he appeals to his God and Savior. Yea, Lord, thou knowest all things. Thou knowest that I love thee. The love then of Peter. the love of the Lord. But let me close by just saying something with regards to Christian love. Isn't this the evidence or one of the evidences of those who are in Christ? Isn't the love of Christ shed abroad in the hearts of his people? Where is the evidence then that we know anything of that love? The love of Christ. Well there is a mark, isn't there? love for the brethren and see what Peter is told to do here to demonstrate his love the Lord says to him feed my lambs feed my sheep he has said Lord thou knowest that I love thee and the Lord says well feed my lambs if you love me feed my lambs feed my sheep In a sense, I suppose, we have to recognize he is addressing him as an apostle and he is speaking then of that work of an apostle, that work of an elder. Remember, Peter learns a lesson here because when we turn to his epistles, and there are two epistles, aren't there, of Peter's, and there in that first of the epistles, in chapter 5, he addresses the elders. He says, The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder and the witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed, feed the flock of God. Well, that's what he'd been told to do. Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly, not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind, neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being ensembles to the flock. And when the chief shepherd shall appear, you shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. He's an office bearer and he himself is to behave as that, as an elder, as a pastor. He's to shepherd the sheep of Christ, he's to feed the flock of the Lord Jesus. But surely there's also a more general application here. Yes, we recognize that this is a charge that's given to him. And the Lord says, doesn't he, back in that 22nd chapter of Luke, that when he is restored, when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. and when he was restored he did strengthen his fellow apostles and the other disciples and we see it in his great boldness on the day of Pentecost preaching Christ there we see how wonderfully he was restored as he bears testimony in the face of all those Jews present on that great day of Pentecost but there is this more general application surely Christ himself says earlier in the Gospel, By this shall all men know that ye are mine when ye love one another. Here in chapter 13 and verse 35, By this all men know that ye are mine by your love to each other that's what the Lord is saying His disciples are to love one another and sometimes we might be troubled as to whether we know anything about that love of God shed abroad in our hearts we may be troubled about the whole matter of salvation and whether or not we have a faith that is real and genuine and there are those who are many times beset by such doubts many fears but there is that verse isn't there in John's first epistle which is some comfort John says there in chapter 3 and verse 14 we know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren or do we love the brethren? not always easy to love the brethren We all have old natures. We all maybe rub one another's up at different times, we bounce it. It's not easy to love the brethren. It irritates us sometimes, if we're honest. But do we love the brethren? Well, if we can, from that we can deduce that we've passed from death unto life. That's what it says. We know! This is assurance. We know that we have passed from death unto life. We're born again. Why? Because we have a love for the brethren. We want to be in the service of God's house. We want to be in the company of God's people. We will not forsake the assembling of ourselves together. We look forward to the Lord's day and the ordinances. And amongst those, of course, the fellowship of the saints. And I'm sure sometimes we think, well, I think of those who I knew in years past and they're dead and they've gone to glory, but how we miss them. Sometimes we long and yearn after them, we think back and we... Now, the brethren are there, but they've gone before us. The great cloud of witnesses. I remember being at a minister's conference and one man, I don't know whether he's in conversation or something that he said in giving an address, but He said, you know, sometimes I sit in my study and I look at the books and I think, you know, I love the brethren. These men, these whole Puritans, all those many years ago, over 300 years ago, and I've read some of their writings and they've so ministered to me. I love them. These are the brethren. They're dead and gone, they're in glory, but One anticipates that one day, when I arrive in glory, why, I'll see them, I'll speak with them. I know the Lamb is all the glory, but what a blessed thing to be in the company of all the saints. To me amongst the brethren. The love of the brethren is such a vital mark, isn't it? Why do we love them? Because they're Christ's. What does Christ say to him? Feed, My lambs, he said, feed my sheep. They're the lords. And however strange and peculiar and difficult they might be at times, we can't help but love them. We have to love them. And how are we to love them? Well, we're to love them in practical ways. We're to love them in practical ways. That's what John says, isn't it? 1 John 3.18, My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth. We love them in deed. The things that we do, we love them in truth. There is to be that love for the brethren. But then, in particular, we're to love the weak. There are those who are the weaker brethren. those who are babes maybe, they'll grow, they'll grow into young men, they'll grow and they'll grow and one day they'll be fathers in Israel and mothers in Israel and see the order here, what does the Lord say the difference in verse 15 to what follows in 16 and 17 he says in verse 15 feed my lambs and then following feed my sheep and feed my sheep it's the same word but there is a difference because in verse 15 it's the diminutive literally it's it's my little sheep it's the lambs of the fall It's the lambs, the weak ones, the small ones. It's the least of them. Remember when in that solemn 25th chapter of Matthew, the great day of judgment and the Lord sets the goats on his left and the sheep on the right and he speaks of all that the sheep have done. They visited him in prison. administered to him when he was sick and so on and so forth and they say Lord when saw we the sick or in prison? and what does the Lord say? inasmuch as you've done it unto one of the least of these my brethren one of the least of these my brethren you've done it unto me all we're to love the we are to love the little ones and the weak ones and observe the order you see that comes first in verse 15 and there's significance in the order we believe that this is the word of God and we say that we believe in a verbal inspiration this is why we love the authorized version because it's such a faithful rendering almost a word-by-word rendering, as you know, and the approach that those translators had. And so we say it's verbally inspired. Every word in the original Hebrew of the Old Testament and the Greek of the New Testament is God's word. They're God's words. It's not just that men had wonderful ideas inspired in their minds and then expressed their thoughts in their own words. No, the very words are God's words. Verbal inspiration, but we also say plenary inspiration. It's inspired in all its parts. Even the syntax. The order in which the words appear. And so here, as significant, first of all, Christ mentions the lambs. They must have the priority. We have to love the brethren, but particularly let us love the weak brethren. Maybe those who we might think of the least spiritual of all. We're to love them, to encourage them, to see them the better established. We sang, didn't we, in that opening hymn, as though a lamb in all thy flock I would disdain to feed. Or do we want to see God's people the better established and strengthened? How the Lord was so concerned for this man, because the Lord, you see, saw how weak he was. But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not." And his faith didn't fail, really, ultimately. No matter the devil time and again overreaches himself. It was the devil, it was the, it was the sieve of Satan. And yet, how this man was profited by the bitter experience in the goodness of the Lord. We see it so wonderfully, of course, I suppose, in the book of Job. God is not the author of sin. God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth God any man, and yet God is sovereign. And the devil overreaches himself, and God turns it all for good. And the Lord Jesus Christ is our God and our Savior, and He's able to do all things. Love for the brethren, love for the weak. And lastly, just to say this, a preference for others. You know, Peter is so impulsive, so impetuous time and time again, and we see it here. They don't know this stranger is standing on the shore. But what do we read? John suddenly realizes who it is, verse 7, that disciple whom Jesus loved, the one who was leaning on his breast at the ordinance of the Lord's Supper. John said 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 he cast himself into the sea. And the other disciples came in a little ship, for they were, what, a hundred yards, two hundred cubits from the shore. Dragging the net with fishes. They have to do the dragging, but Elias Peter is so impulsive, he's before everyone else. But when the Lord asks that question, Lovest thou me more than these? Lovest thou me more than these? Lovest thou me more than these? no more is he going to speak of himself as one who is better than others he's not so forward now really he's learnt his lesson he was quick to boast, he'd never deny the Lord but now the Lord's dealt with him and humbled him and he's a very different man in many respects he's bettered really is bettered by the experience and so we see this man here so wonderfully restored by the gracious ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ what a privilege to know him that one who is ever always the good shepherd of the sheep who loved his sheep to such a degree that he gave himself for the sheep What a shepherd is that, the Lord Jesus Christ. What a privilege to know Him, to trust in Him. Oh, that we then might be those who, because we love the Lord's, we love His words, and we love all those who are the Lord's people, we will minister then to all His saints, we'll take account of their needs, We'll seek by God's grace that we might feed the lambs and feed the sheep. And the Lord be pleased to come and feed each and all of us from his holy word. Let the Lord bless his word to us. Amen.