This chapter that we read together
tells us of the third occasion when the Lord appeared to his
disciples after his resurrection. And it was an occasion, as we
read, when the disciples had been fishing and had been unsuccessful.
And the Lord had come and had told them what to do and they
didn't realise who it was that was speaking to them. But they
did those words and they were very successful and caught a
vast catch of fishes. And when that was done then the
Apostle John realised who it was and told Peter and said,
it is the Lord. And what a wonderful truth that
was. But when they dined, the Lord
had prepared the food for them. When they dined, Jesus came and
addressed Peter. And he addressed Peter very forcibly
and very straightforwardly, and asked him three questions which
were really the same question. We should not forget, of course,
that Peter left himself just really only a few days before,
had denied his Lord on those three occasions. We're not told
whether Peter had had opportunity to speak to Jesus. Although the
Lord had appeared to them, we don't know whether Peter actually
said anything. But now we find the Lord addressing
Peter, and we find here the great compassion of Almighty God. Peter, no doubt, without any
doubt, was so sorry for what he'd done in denying the Lord
those three times. We know, of course, that he went
out and wept bitterly when that cock crowed, and the Lord turned
and looked upon Peter. So very quickly the the sword
of conviction had penetrated into his heart, and therefore
he was truly sorry for those things which he'd said in denying
the Lord Jesus. And again we shouldn't forget
that it wasn't just a nominal denial, because he denied the
Lord with oaths and curses, to emphasise that he didn't know
the Lord at all. And these are great important
lessons for us to recognise that we should never rely on our own
natural strength, our own natural ability to continue. We need the support, we need
the help, we need the strength, we need the grace of God to enable
us to continue and not indeed to turn away from the truth and
not to deny the Lord Jesus Christ. how important it is to continually
pray that we may not be left to ourselves. Again, Peter tells us, doesn't
he, in his epistle, those great and glorious words, kept by the
power of God. And we should only be kept by
the power of God, to let none of us, you young people, never
think that you can stand firm because of your belief that you'll
never deny the Lord. That's just what Peter said.
What was he doing? He was relying on his own strength.
And you and I must never rely on our own strength. We'll only
be able to not deny the Lord as the Lord helps us, as the
Lord gives us the ability to stand firm and strong for the
things of God. So with that background, we recognise
now the Lord comes and he addresses Peter, and he asked this great
and important question, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me
more than these? It's a great question that the
Lord asked him. And he asked him really that
question the same the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest
thou me? And then the third time he said,
lovest thou me? Well, what was Peter's response? What would we expect his response
to be? I suppose we would expect his response to be as we are
able to read it. Because he said, Yea, Lord, thou
knowest that I love thee. And the second time, Yea, Lord,
thou knowest that I love thee. And the third time he says, And
he said, Lord, thou knowest all things. Thou knowest that I love
thee. And so true it was. He was aware that God did love
him and that he did love God. But this is one of the most important
and vital questions for us today. Do we love the Lord or not? Do we love the Lord or not? And
the truth is that we will not love the Lord unless we have
some evidence that God loves us. And we shan't have that knowledge
that God loves us. unless we have been brought to
that position to recognise our need of God's love. And by that I mean this, to know
that God loved us so much that he condescended to die to take
away our sins. And what does that mean? That
means that we must therefore have known something and felt
the terribleness of our sins. To realise that our sins were
not something which were transient and just passing away, but they
were that which was to condemn us to eternal hell. Now when the Spirit of God leads
us and directs us and we can say quickens us, makes us spiritually
alive to recognise our true condition before our holy God, then it
is that we will come pleading for God's mercy. And when we
come pleading for God's mercy, then as the Lord may show to
us his mercy, it is because of his love toward us. He would
not show us his mercy unless he had a love toward us. And
so if we have felt his mercy, it is because of his great love
toward us. Now then, if the Spirit of God
has granted us such a favoured position, then in answer to such
a question, and it would be a good question if it's posed by indeed
the Holy Spirit into our hearts to ask us the great question,
do we love the Lord? Do we love the Lord? Lovest thou
me? What are we going to say this
morning? Are we going to answer with Peter, thou knowest that
I love thee? Now if you and I are going to
say that, as I've just spoken, there will be a reason for that.
It won't just be a haphazard comment. Well of course I love
the Lord. It won't be like that at all.
there will be a reason. And the reason will be as I have
explained. And therefore it will be a blessing
this morning if in answer to a question like this, if we do love the Lord, to be
able to answer in a positive way. And perhaps the Lord may
come and ask us three times. We may have to answer three times. And it's important to realise
how Peter answered in the last time when he said, Thou, Lord,
thou knowest all things. And isn't that a blessing? Because
God knows what he's done in our hearts. He knows whether he's
given us of his love. He knows what his love does for
an everlasting love. And with loving kindness has
drawn us And so what a blessing it is to be able to come. And
Peter came here with an open heart, with true confession,
knowing the power of God, and was able to come and say, Lord,
thou knowest all things. Thou knowest that I love thee.
Well, my friends this morning, it'll be a great blessing if
you and I can agree and concur with such a statement as this.
And it is, if it is so, It would be because of God's grace. It would be because of his great
favour toward us. And how very humbling that is. How very, very humbling to think
that God, the Almighty God, that one who is high and lifted up,
should have singled us out. And my friends, it is a singling
out. Yes, individually. Lord comes
and deals with his people individually. We each have a personal testimony
of God's grace toward us in alerting us to our condition before himself
and directing us to himself and showing us his love and drawing
us therefore out to him with love in return. Well, what a
great and glorious gospel it is. And therefore, that's the
position that we have. And then the Lord went on to
describe to Peter how he would die. And he said, he told him,
when thou walkest, when thou wast young, Thou girdest thyself,
and walkest whither thou wouldest. Obviously he was able to dress
himself and to go out and walk where he would, but there would
be that time come when he wouldn't be able to do that. When thou
art old, thou shalt stretch forth thine hands, and another shall
gird thee and carry thee whither thou wouldest not. Well we know
of course, historically in actual fact, Peter was crucified upside
down. So he did go to that place and
he was taken there to suffer that death. And then the Lord
and Peter then, having heard all this, he then turns about
and sees John. John and Peter of course were
very close disciples. And he asks the question to Jesus,
and he says, and what shall this man do? And we're not sure, of
course, why Peter asked that question. whether it was to just
know what was going to happen or whether he was concerned about
John, whether the Lord would indeed speak to him in a similar
way that he's spoken to himself. However, he asked this question
to the Lord and says, and what shall this man do? And how does
the Lord respond to that? Well, he answers it this way.
He says, if I will that he tarry till I come, that means should it be that John would
live on the earth until the time the Lord returned, well, why
was that a reason for John to inquire? It wasn't really any
of his business. Therefore he said, if I will,
that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? He shouldn't
concern himself with this kind of situation. But he does then
go on to direct him very pertinently and very positively to these
three words, follow thou me. Now that's a relevant question, a relevant answer we
might say to all of us today in our lives. whether we're young,
whether we're old, whether the Lord has called us by his grace
many years ago, whether he's just called us by his grace,
to realise that this is a word which is so important for all
of us, to desire to bring into operation, follow thou me. Well, we are thankful to know
of course that Peter did follow his Lord. And as we read together
recently in our meditation on the Acts of the Apostles, those
early chapters spoke so clearly how Peter was able and willing
to follow the Lord, whatever the consequences. And we know
there were severe consequences. Peter did have to suffer, we're
not of course told in the the New Testament of his death but
we are told of some of the things he had to endure as he did come
and followed the Lord. Follow thou me. Now this is a
word which is spoken to the whole Church of God and really there are none who
are excused from it. In our little way we should be
concerned to be found Following the Lord. Follow thou me. And we might think it's only
three words. In actual fact, it's very comprehensive. If you
just sit back for a moment and think, well, what does that mean? To follow the Lord. It means to follow the example
that he set before us in his life and in his word. And that has very deep consequences,
doesn't it, for us? And the Lord spoke these words,
you know, in love to Peter. And they're spoken to us today
in love. There is no better thing for
you and me to be found doing than to following the great and
glorious example of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now that may mean changing our
lifestyle. That may mean doing things that
we have not done before. It may bring opposition. I suppose I should say it will
bring opposition, but it'll also bring something else. It'll bring the answer of a good
conscience. Sure, there's nothing better
to be doing than to be found obeying the Lord Jesus Christ. If Jesus was to come and stand
in our midst here this morning, And tell us, perhaps individually,
to go and do something, what would you do? Would you say,
well, I'm not going to do that? Well, I believe if the Lord came
here in all his glory and power and looked at you and looked
at me with those piercing eyes, which you and I would not be
able to avoid, there'll be such power in those words that we
would automatically obey the great word and commands of our
God. Well, in truth, the Lord is here
in our midst this morning. And the Lord is looking into
my heart and your heart. And the Lord is speaking to every
one of us these great and important words, follow thou me. Sometimes of course people think
that only refers to following the Lord Jesus in being baptised.
Well of course it does do that and it's important to realise
that. Because the Lord does set before us his great and glorious
example of being baptised and we shouldn't forget That was
really the first thing that Lord Jesus did when he was shown to
be the Son of God. And how the Father acknowledged
that action by saying, my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. We should not ignore that tremendous
statement and to realize that if God gives us that grace to
follow the Lord in his example, in that beginning, to follow
him in that way of being baptised, I think that the Lord then is
well pleased with our action. And again, nothing that we will
ever regret, I'm absolutely sure. I've never met anybody who's
regretted being baptised. I've met many people who have
regretted not being baptised. And so here we have these words,
follow thou me. Now, let me not make you think it's unimportant,
and it's not at all, it's very important, because it's being
a true follower of the Saviour. And as the Spirit of God may
influence our hearts to realise that the Word of God is true,
and it is not to be ignored, and we're not to think, ah, but,
ah, but. There shouldn't be any but, should
there? We should have an open heart
to willingly receive God's word and to recognise that he speaks
these words in love to our souls and importantly for his great
honour and for his glory. Because what does it show? It
shows that we are openly professing The Lord Jesus Christ is our
Lord and Saviour. Openly professing, that really
is the wonderful direction. The Lord encourages his people
to be a true follower in this, so that it brings honour and
glory to his great and holy name, and it'll be a blessing for those
who do this. Now we're not promised any great
blessing. We are promised the answer of a good conscience.
I believe there are those who perhaps have a niggering conscience,
and they try to push it aside. And yet, you see, the Lord knows,
the Lord has spoken, and we should be desirers, shouldn't we? to
follow the gracious words of our Lord. Well, having just said
that before us, let's just continue to realise that when the Lord
speaks these words like this, follow thou me, what does it
mean? Well, the Lord did his Father's
will in all things. And surely God's will is displayed
to us in the Word of God. clearly displayed, isn't it,
from beginning to end, his will for his people. And his will
for his people is that they may follow his example and to follow
his kind and gracious commandments. There is a blessing in doing
that, in following that, to realise what Christ has set before us. And I believe, as we may be blessed
with this desire to do the will of our Father in Heaven, and
that will is to follow the example of the Lord Jesus Christ, and
to recognise that the great and glorious Saviour, in order to
fulfil the will of His Father, went to the cross and He suffered. that most painful
death, it was the will of his Father. My friends, whatever
the will of the Father is for you and me today, let us recognise
it will not be worse, it will not be more painful than our
great and glorious Saviour endured in order to redeem our souls. It's good if you and I have before
us every day the cost of our salvation, to thank the Lord
Jesus Christ so willingly bore the curse for us. That curse which we brought upon
ourselves, the soul that sinneth, it shall die. The curse of sin. The hymn writer says, O thou
hideous Monster sin. What a curse has thou brought
in. Well, it would be a great blessing
if you and I this morning understand something of the hideousness
of the monster of sin. How great it is. And to recognize
that all creation groans today, doesn't it? We groan, don't we? Aches and pains. Yes, evil thoughts. We groan under it, don't we?
because of sin, death has come upon all mankind. Oh, what a
monster it is. And therefore to realise that
the Lord Jesus Christ so graciously came and gave his life and shed
his most precious blood in order to redeem our souls. Now with that wonderful example
before us, the Lord Jesus says here, follow thou me. It is a personal exhortation. It applies to us individually. Don't think, well, I think it
applies to the person sitting next to me on the seat. Well,
it may do, but it applies to us also individually. Let's not
pass it off. Let's take such words to ourselves. And here we have this great example
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He did his Father's will. And we need to therefore examine
the Word of God to see what the Father's will is for us. The Lord Jesus Christ, he pleased
not himself. That was the will of his Father.
If you and I are to follow the Lord Jesus Christ, we are to
not please ourselves. How we like to, don't we? We
like to enjoy ourselves. We think, well, I can do that,
and I'm going to do that. Sometimes we may set our mind
on a certain course, but we were going to do this. Perhaps we
find the Lord has a different plan for us. And long-term, we
will prove that that plan was a better plan for us. We may
not realize it at the moment. Sometimes the Lord sends failures
into our life. Sometimes he sends illness into
our life. Sometimes he sends disappointments
into our life. And what we find is that our
will is frustrated. It's good, you see, then, to
be made conformable to his will. follow thou me to be concerned
therefore to do his will and the Lord Jesus Christ he went
about doing good he went about doing good didn't go about doing
evil he went about doing good and again it's good for us to
recognize and to ponder and think in our actions and our thoughts
and our words whether they are doing good. And when I say that,
I mean good for God's honour and glory. Some things we do
for our good, at least we think they're for our good, to kind
of bolster ourselves up. Well, that's not following the
Lord. Follow thou me. We're not therefore
to do good that we want to do. We want to do that which is good
in the eyes of God. And we know what's good in the
eyes of God, don't we? There are so many examples. Those things we can read of,
the fruits of the Spirit, you can ponder those. Those are things
which are good. And how good it is if you and
I recognise it and are willing to do those things which are
good. And then, what was the Lord Jesus'
example? He didn't have guile. He didn't
have guile. You might say, well, what does
that mean, guile? Well, it means perhaps pretending one thing,
but having another motive. We might perhaps think, well,
if I say that in that particular way, that may influence someone
to do this or that. Well, that's being guileful,
isn't it? The Lord Jesus was without guile. He was very straightforward. But remember, all that he said
and all that he did was in love to the souls of his people, and
it is so today. It's in love to our souls. So let us ponder, and before
we do things or say things, to just think, well, is there any
guile? Is there anything underneath,
as it were? Any other motive? Again, do we
have a Christ-like motive? Or do we have our own motive?
Follow thou me. Many motives can be wrong if
we carefully inspect them to see what our motive is and what
should be the result of our motive. What do you think? What do you
think, you young people? What do you think Your motive
should be in doing good. What should it be? It should
be to bring honour and glory to God. It shouldn't be to bolster
yourself up. We need to have a single eye,
that means a narrow vision to the honour and glory of God. When about doing good, follow
thou me. Well, how difficult it is to
have a right spirit in these things, because we're sinners. The devil is at our elbow, trying
to push us into wrong situations, wrong ways, trying to make us
excuse ourselves. The devil is very clever, you
know. He's very clever. And what he wants to do is to
dim our understanding, to dumb it down, so that we can pass
over the gracious words of the Saviour and to carry on in our
life, dishonouring God. Isn't it sad? But that's our adversary, the
devil. And you and I need to examine
ourselves carefully, that we're not playing along with him. without guile. And then we read,
the Lord Jesus, he reviled, not again, you know, what a test
that is, isn't it? People spoke so wrongly against
the Lord Jesus. Yes, they criticized him. They
said he told lies. And what did he do? Did he answer
back? No. He didn't, did he? He didn't
answer back. He didn't revile back. Follow
thou me. This is the gracious word of
the Saviour. Let us not then be found reviling. Let us take criticism. Let us
take opposition. We don't have to answer. We don't
have to answer, we don't have to justify ourselves. The Lord
can do that. We have to accept criticism and
accept opposition and accept nasty sayings. And so he reviled
not again. What did he do? He took on him
the form of a servant. Follow thou me. He was a servant. He served his father. You and I are servants today,
serving the Lord. Servants naturally have different
jobs to do, don't they? In a large house, perhaps we
could think in the king or queen's palace, there are many servants
there, aren't there? Some doing We might say important
jobs, some doing we might think unimportant jobs or not such
pleasant jobs. There might be those who wait
on the Queen very closely, perhaps serve her meals. There may be
others who do the dusting, others perhaps who clean her shoes.
But you see, they're all serving the Queen. My friends, you and
I ought to be serving the Lord. Follow thou me. Whatever job
the Lord gives you and me to do, we are to do it willingly. We are not to think, well that's
below me, I'm not doing that, someone else can do that. We
are to take the lowest place. The lowest place, the meanest
job as it were, that the Lord presents to us. Not to think,
well, I don't think I can do that. Yes, we should do that,
which the Lord causes us to do. Follow thou me. And then therefore
to be a servant. And the Lord Jesus Christ was
despised. Despised and rejected of men. That's not very pleasant, is
it? Not very pleasant. But if you and I are a true follower
of the Lord Jesus Christ, if we testify of whose we are and
whom we serve, then we can expect to be despised and to be rejected,
because that's what our Master was. And remember, he was the
great and glorious God, and yet people despised him. Don't therefore
be surprised if you and I are despised. If we're not following
the Lord, well, there's no problem, is there? We won't be despised. Why? Because, to use an expression,
we won't have nailed our colours to the mast. People won't realise
which side of the line we stand on. They'll think we're standing
on the worldly ground, rather than standing on holy ground.
See, all of us stand on worldly ground or holy ground. Holy ground
is to be a true follower of the Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. So this morning, to think of
that, are we amongst those who realize, yes, we're despised
for his sake. It's not very pleasant, is it?
But I'll tell you what it is. It brings joy to our soul because
we're counted worthy to suffer for his sake. There is the great
and glorious consolation There it brings union with Christ. There it is that we then enter
in to something of his sufferings. The Apostle Paul knew the value
of it, didn't he? He knew what a blessed place
it was. And God's people, who've been blessed with this experience,
also know what a blessed position it is to endure sufferings with
Christ, because we are following him. Follow thou me. Union with Christ. How can we
expect to enter into heaven and have union with Christ and that
heavenly throng, unless we've been a partaker of that union
with Christ and his people on this earth? You see, you may think, well,
I want to be friends with, I've got some good friends at school
or college or university or a business or at home with my neighbors
and they're good friends. Well, they may be good friends,
but they don't know what you stand for. Because you may have hidden your
religion. Because in reality, you've been
ashamed of the Lord Jesus Christ. Is it true? Ashamed of Jesus,
that dear friend, on whom my hopes of heaven depend. We don't want to be ashamed,
do we? Of the Lord Jesus Christ, that great and glorious friend
of sinners. We don't want him to be ashamed
of us, do we? And so, he was also then a man
of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Well, perhaps we have
to sorrow for our sin. I'm sure we will have to. Yes,
but the Lord Jesus also had great and glorious joy. Yes, for the
joy that was set before him. Yes, the joy of having his people
with him in glory. What difference that will make
to you and me if we view the end of the road, the eternal
joy which is to be found at God's right hand, the eternal joy in
heaven. Follow thou me in this path,
through this life, this little life, let us get a good perspective
of it, this little life. and this great eternity which
is before us. There's no real comparison, is
there? Try and compare it. You won't be able to do it very
well. Compare this little life with the eternal life. Follow thou me. Follow the blessed
Saviour in this life and realise there's that great joy to follow. Realise that yes, there may be
some cost to it. Yes, there will be. But in that
time of cost, there will also be union with Christ. What does
the Apostle say? What does the Saviour say? We
are to take up our cross daily, every day. That cross which the
Lord endured himself. We won't have to endure the same
cross that the Saviour, but in measure. To bring us into union
with the Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ. To have that fellowship
with Him. To take up our cross every day. And not think, well today I'm
going to leave it at home, I'm going to enjoy the world. No,
that's not being a true follower. A true follower is to take up
our cross daily. And to enjoy union, communion with
Christ. If you enjoy the world for a
day, you won't lie down in bed with peace in your heart. If
you've enjoyed communion with the Lord in the day, you will
lie down in bed with peace in your heart. And so the Lord comes and says,
follow thou me. Well, we have, don't we then,
a great and glorious example, because the Lord Jesus Christ
was received up into glory. And so would his people be received
up into glory. Eternal glory. That which the
Lord has reserved for his people. That great and glorious prospect
that the Lord has spoken of. That eternal inheritance which
is incorruptible and undefiled. What a great and glorious prospect
it is for the Church of God. Well, my friends, this morning,
let us hear the gracious words of the Saviour addressed to Peter,
that man of God. Yes, that true apostle, that
true servant, that one who was indeed able to stand firm for
the great truths of God as the Lord was with him and upheld
him. May we hear then the words that the Lord spoke to Peter
and may they be applied to us this morning as Jesus says, what
is that to thee? Follow thou me. Amen.