We're going to be in John chapter
21. On the night that our Lord was betrayed,
he was sent bound to Caiaphas, the high priest's palace, his
home there. And Peter was following behind
at a distance. And when he was led in through
the gate, he was led into the outer courtyard. and were told
that there was a fire of coals that was there. And there were
servants of the high priest warming themselves by that fire. And because it was a cold night,
Peter himself joined them, and he was warming himself with them. He stood with them and warmed
himself, it says. And we're told that three different
servants asked Peter, saying, aren't you one of Christ's disciples? Aren't you one of his disciples?
And three times he denied that he was his disciple. He denied
that he even knew him. And Immediately, the cock crew,
on that third time, the cock crew, just as the Lord said that
he would, that that cock would crow on that third time when
Peter denied him. And at this, Luke tells us that
Peter went out and wept bitterly. And then Christ, the King of
the Jews, was crucified. to redeem the sins of his people,
to redeem his people, to put away their sins forever, to deliver
them from the wrath of God, and to give them life, hope in himself. And he never saw corruption,
for God raised him from the dead, just as Christ said that the
Lord would raise him. And he began to build his temple,
just like he said. being delivered from death, delivered
his people. Delivered his people and gave
them life and built his temple, which is the church. And it's
through his redemption that our Lord does that. He builds his
church. He adds to the church as he sees
fit. He gives his Holy Spirit to give
life to his people, to give them a new birth, a spiritual birth
after the seed of Christ, and to to take that word which the
church preaches and declares of her Savior, to take that word
and to make it effectual in the hearts of the Lord's people,
His redeemed people, to make us to hear that word and to receive
that word and to believe the Lord Jesus Christ. And in preaching
that word, she's fulfilling the great commission that Christ
has given her. We've been seeing how that these
last couple of chapters regard the commission that Christ has
given to his church. And we see how he's teaching
her, preparing his church to go forth, to lay down her life
for Christ, for love's sake, to preach this glorious redemption
that Christ has accomplished for his people. Now it's been
at least a couple of weeks since Christ was raised from the dead.
And he's a couple of weeks now that the Lord's been appearing
to his disciples. And it tells us in John 21 verse
14 that this is now the third time that Jesus showed himself
to his disciples after that he was risen from the dead. And
it might even be the fourth time that he showed himself to Peter.
But right now, neither Peter nor Christ have said anything
about Peter's denial of the Lord. And if you've ever been in a
situation like that, where you know that some things were said
or done to hurt a person, to hurt someone that you care about,
you yearn, you long for that block that what's standing in
the way. You yearn for that to be removed and put out of the
way, to get past that and to reconcile with them. You want
that fault of yours to be dealt with, and can we move on? Can
there be reconciliation? Can there be forgiveness? And
so you can imagine that Peter was longing to speak to the Lord. And at the time, he was the only
one on the shore, on the land, with Christ. He made it there
first. He jumped into the sea, and he
made it there first. And the others were still coming
along in the boat, dragging that net behind them. But the Lord
said to Peter, when they stood there on the shore, the Lord
said to Peter, bring the fish which ye have now caught. And
so Peter went. That discussion, whatever Peter
was thinking, whatever he might have wanted to say would be delayed
a little longer, because now he went and grabbed that net
and was doing what the Lord told him to do. But when our Lord
does finally speak with Peter, we see the grace and the wisdom
of our Lord in restoring Peter. And he does this through a question.
question that he asks him three times, lovest thou me? That's how he does it, lovest
thou me? So here we are again around a
warming fire of coals. And it's just like when Peter
denied his Lord, except this time it's not dark, it's morning. It's morning. There's a breaking
of the morning light, and Peter's not surrounded by enemies, but
among friends. And he and the disciples have
eaten a meal, a good meal of fish, a meal of bread, prepared
for them by the Lord himself, who prepared that meal for them
to eat, their risen Lord and Savior. And it's here that Christ
restores Peter with that question, lovest thou me? Let's read this
in John 21, verse 15 through 17. So when they had dined, Jesus
saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me
more than these? And it's not necessarily clear
what he was speaking of. Is he referring to the ships
and the nets and the occupation of being a fisherman, literally
a fisherman? Or is he saying, Peter, do you
love me now more than your brethren, whom you boasted and said that
all others should betray you? I'll never betray you, Lord.
So it's not really clear what he means when he says, lovest
thou me more than these. But I'm thankful for that question,
because when the Lord asks us that question, it may be different.
It may be different. The thing that has our heart,
the thing that would take our heart away in the flesh might
be different from what it was for Peter. But the Lord asks
us, lovest thou me more than these? Whatever that might be.
whatever that might be. And he saith unto him, Peter
says unto the Lord, yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee.
And he saith unto him, feed my lambs. He saith 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? Not grieved with the Lord, but
reminded, reminded of how he had denied his Lord three times. And he said unto him, Lord, thou
knowest all things, your almighty God. You know all things, and
you knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my
sheep. asks his people questions in
the scriptures. There's a lot of questions that
the Lord asks his people in the scriptures. And it's not because
our God doesn't know the answer. He knows us better than we know
ourselves. But in wisdom, he asks us this
question because it makes us to consider who we are or what
we're doing. It makes us to consider ourselves
not as man sees himself, not as we see ourselves, but wait
a minute, if he's asking me that question, how does the Lord see
me? What does the Lord see in me? What is he exposing now by asking
me that question? And so the Lord uses questions
in the scripture to make us to consider what does the Lord see? because I'm not seeing it, but
now I'm seeing it, now I'm starting to think I see what he's saying
because something's not right, and he knows it, and now I know
it, and I know that he knows it. For example, in Genesis 3,
Adam, where art thou? And Adam was made to know, I'm
hiding, I'm hiding, I'm afraid of the Lord. Another question,
who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the
tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?
Now Adam was really made to think and to know his fault and what
he had done. Another question we saw recently,
Hagar, Sarai's maid, whence camest thou and whither wilt thou go?
He identified her, Hagar, you're the servant of Sarah. What are
you doing here? Where are you going? Where do
you think you're going to go? What do you think you're going
to do? You're appointed to minister to Sarah. And then our Lord asked
his disciples several times, what was it that you disputed
among yourselves by the way? And that must have struck them
in the heart. because the Lord knew that they were boasting
of themselves as he's going to the cross to lay down his life.
Him who is the greatest is taking the place of the servant to lay
down his life for the children, for the people, for his children. And they're arguing about who's
the greatest. He's the greatest. And they were ashamed when he
asked them that question. And so all these questions, they
reveal to us what we are in the sight of Almighty God, who knows
our hearts, and knows our thoughts, and knows what we have done,
and knows what we will do, and knows us better than we know
ourselves. And so now the Lord asks Peter,
Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Lovest thou me? The Lord's purpose in this is
one of grace. Our Lord is gracious. He's gracious
and he has a gracious purpose here to restore Peter. Peter has fallen. Peter is troubled. I can only imagine what Peter
was thinking of what he could do to restore himself, to gain
back the favor of Christ. I can only imagine it because
I know I've thought in my own heart foolish things. Foolish
things when I've sinned and when I've done something that I know
is wrong and feel horrible about it. Because we run here when
we run there and we look to fix it this way and to fix it that
way and to put our hand to it. And the Lord stops Peter. He stops Peter from his mind
racing You notice that Christ didn't ask Peter, Peter, what
have you done for me lately? What are you doing, Peter? What
are you thinking, Peter? Are you repenting, Peter? Are
you doing things differently now, Peter? How are you going
to show me that you're sorry, Peter? He never says that. He
never turns Peter to his flesh. He simply asks Peter, lovest
thou me? Do you love me, Peter? Because
where there's love for Christ, there's life. And you that love
Christ, we are weak, we are foolish, we are unable to save ourselves. But the Lord gives to his people
love in their heart for the Lord. They love him, they return to
the Lord, to love him. We love Him, John said in 1 John
4, 19, we love Him because He first loved us. That's why we
can say where there's love, there's life, because whom the Lord loves,
He gives life and He gives love in their heart for the Lord.
Not because we think we're something, not because we see ourselves
as we think we should see, All I know is that I was blind, and
now I see. All I know is I'm a sinner, saved
by the grace of God. Christ gave his life for sinners. And he's turned me and delivered
me from trusting my works and working to save myself. And he's
turned me to look to him, to believe Christ and rest there. And that's the hardest thing
for the flesh, to rest. in the faith that the Lord gives
his people in Christ. And yet, it's blessed, it's wonderful. And he does, he makes us to lie
down in green pastures. He makes us to lie down in green
pastures in Christ, to rest in him. And so, our Lord asks this
question, and in asking that question, he's putting Peter's
mind on what's important. He's making Peter to know What's
important? To know that he loves Christ.
He's making Peter to know that he loves Christ. He's putting
Peter's mind on Christ. And whatever Peter has done,
his love for Christ has not changed. And he's bringing that out. He's
pressing Peter in that to see and to know Christ didn't turn
me to the flesh. There's nothing I can do to turn
myself from this. And he's putting my heart, my
mind, my thoughts, on the love that He's filled my heart with
for Him. That's why it so troubles me to sin. And that's why for
Peter, for me, for you, we're affected by our sin. It troubles
us. We don't want to sin because
we know that that sin was paid for by Christ my Savior. He paid, he gave his life, he
shed his blood for my sin. And we don't want that. And his
love teaches us not to love our sin, to turn us from our sin
and to turn us from the flesh. The second thing we see in setting
Peter's mind on what's important, his love for Christ, is that
our Lord is lifting that burden of shame and guilt from Peter.
He's taking him out of that because he'd sit in that beating himself
up for a long time because we do that too, don't we? When we've
sinned, we will heap it upon ourselves and we'll, it's really
not much different from, you know, those stories of Martin
Luther, you hear of him climbing steps on his knees on concrete
and whipping his back and trying to purge himself of his sin. And that's what we do by heaping
on ourselves insults and just constantly telling ourselves
what failures we are. But Christ is lifting that burden
of shame and guilt off of him by turning him to what's important,
Christ, Christ. And we love Him. And there's
nothing we can do to deliver ourselves or to change the sins
that we've committed and the faults that we've made. There's
nothing we can do about it. But Christ doesn't... He turns
us to Himself. He turns us to Him. You can't
make it right. Christ, His blood made it right. His blood has put away our sins
forever. And there's nothing we can do
to make it go away even more. We rest in Christ. We trust Him.
We believe Him. that's his comfort to us and
so our Lord is lifting the burden he's not he's not asking this
question three times just to put his nose in it you know the
way you would take a puppy dog and put their nose in what they've
just done when they ripped apart a couch cushion or something
like that he's not putting his nose in it to say you you've
done wrong he's not petty our Lord isn't vindictive He doesn't
do that. He's not inflicting punishment
or hurt upon him. He's not giving him little digs
and doing mean things to make him feel bad. Peter needed this. Peter needed this. Peter needed
to know that there was nothing hidden from the Lord. The Lord
knew everything he did. The Lord knew exactly what he
did, and this is rooting out from Peter's mind, well, maybe
the Lord doesn't know I did this, or maybe he doesn't know I said
that. No, the Lord's saying, I know exactly what you did,
Peter. I know what you did. I know what you said. I know
how many times you said it. I know what you were thinking
and what you did so that Peter knows the Lord is, he knows everything. And yet he bids me come. And
yet he receives me. And yet he's merciful and gracious
to me, a sinner. It's not because he doesn't know
I'm a sinner. He doesn't know the half of it. No, he knows
everything that you and I have done And yet he says, come unto
me. All ye that hunger, and are weary,
and laboring, and thirsting for righteousness, who have no righteousness
of your own, come unto me. My yoke is easy. My burden is
light. I'll take care of you. I've provided everything you
need. You come to me." And so Peter's
learning the grace of the Lord just as he's learned the weakness
and the sinfulness of his flesh, how self-seeking the flesh is,
how we do the things that we do in this flesh because this
flesh is sin. This flesh is corrupt. It's ruined
in Adam. This flesh isn't any better.
This flesh isn't improving. We're not improving this flesh. Christ has saved us in spite
of what we are. And he's provided everything
for us. And he's given us life in the new man by his spirit,
by his seed, born of that incorruptible seed of Christ. And so he's He's
provided everything. And so, the Lord, to help him,
to make him, Peter, to know this, he asks him these questions three
times, and Peter now is helped and enabled to say three times,
I love thee, Lord. I said it three times, I denied
thee. Lord, I love thee. I love thee. Thank you for allowing
me to say that. Thank you for pressing me to
say, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. You know my faults,
but you know I love thee because you've done that. And he humbles
Peter. It humbles us. It is humbling to know that I
can't fix it and I can't make it right and I can't do everything
right and just be there all the time to do the right thing. The
Lord knows that we're weak and full of faults, that we are,
in this flesh, sinners. Sinners in this flesh. But He
makes us to know that, that we would confess our sin to Him
and cry to Him for mercy. not become so strong and so able
in ourselves that we don't need him, we're always going to need
the Lord. We're never going to outgrow
our need of the Lord. Even in glory, it's going to
be in Christ. We're going to worship God in
Christ. We're going to be in Christ always. Turn over to Romans
7. Romans 7, and let's look at verse
20 through 25. Paul says, Romans 7 verse 20,
now if I do that I would not, it's no more I that do it, but
sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law that when I
would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the
law of God after the inward man, that's that, that, that that
new man which is born of the seed of Christ in us, that believes,
that cannot sin, that can only believe Christ always. This flesh
can only not believe, but that new man, that work of grace in
us, can only believe Christ and cannot sin. But he sees that,
Paul sees, he's made to see that law, that he believes Christ,
but this flesh is full of sin, and this flesh doesn't believe,
and this flesh wars against that which is born in us of Christ.
So I see another law, he says in verse 23, in my members warring
against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to
the law of sin which is in my members. Oh, wretched man that
I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank
God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I
myself serve the law of God, the law of faith, the law of
love, and the law of liberty, knowing that I stand complete
in Christ, but with the flesh, the law of sin. I yet still see
sin in my members, waiting for that redemption when Christ returns
and raises this body anew. And I shall be made like unto
him, for I shall see him as he is. That's what he's saying.
And that's what we see and are made to know. And Paul would
go on to explain to the Philippians what the Lord taught him in regards
to his flesh. To have no confidence in it.
Philippians 3.3. And we have no confidence in
the flesh. No confidence. And so Peter was
being taught and the Lord was making this connection for him.
Peter, have no confidence in this flesh. I'm your confidence. I'm your all. And what you're
going to do in service to me and feeding my sheep, it's because
I'm your strength. I'm your righteousness. I'm your
keeper. I'm your provider. And you're
going to go and fulfill this commission, Peter, because I've
sent you. And you're my chosen vessel for
this work. That's what he's teaching, Peter.
And so the Lord strips Peter of his vain confidences. And
that's what he does for us. He strips us of our vain confidences. And Peter's focus is put on what's
important, love for Christ. Love for Christ. And so, the
Lord is showing us you cannot work down your debt, you can't
pay it off, you cannot beat yourself and whittle it down. He doesn't
call us to that. He simply says, lovest thou me. And he puts our eyes on Christ
because that's where they need to be. He is salvation. And then the other thing we see
there is that our Lord never forsook Peter. He didn't shun
him. He didn't put him out. He didn't
shun Peter. He restored Peter with love and
he assured Peter of his standing in Christ. And I know that he
was restoring him and assuring him of his standing in Christ
because he told him, feed my lambs, Peter. feed my sheep. Of all the disciples that forsook
the Lord that night, they all forsook him, and Peter went even
further in denying him three times. And to show that Christ
saves the worst of sinners, not only does he save the worst of
sinners, but he calls Peter out of them all. to labor and work
mightily in the church. Because remember, Peter was used
to preach that word on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit
was poured out and 3,000 souls were added to the church that
first day. And then think of Paul, and Paul
was a persecutor of the church. He definitely threw people in
jail, if not was directly responsible for their deaths, even believers. And yet the Lord brought him
in and showed him how great things he must suffer for the Lord's
sake, for the Lord's church and to do what the Lord would do.
And so we see our Lord's love for his disciples and we see
our Lord's power to change the hearts of his people and to put
them in service to his in his kingdom and it's a high honor
to preach the gospel to to feed the sheep of the lord with the
preaching of the gospel to his children and that's amazing because
when someone shows their colors and shows what sinners they are
the last thing we want to do is let them near our children
It's the last thing we want to do. And yet the Lord says to
Peter, you feed my lambs. You feed my most precious, tender
children. Feed them and feed my sheep,
Peter. And so that's the power of God.
We can't work that in the hearts of people, but the Lord Jesus
Christ is able. He's able. And this tells us
something about the first and the primary qualification of
a pastor, that he first loved Christ. that he first loves Christ. If he doesn't love Christ, then
he's got no business preaching the gospel. If he doesn't love
Christ, because it's going to be a labor of love, and you're
going to see how insufficient you are, and how weak you are,
and he's going to show you your faults, and he's going to show
you the faults of your brethren. and how slow we are to hear,
and I know because how slow I am to hear, and how thick-headed
I am in my own self, but I'm thankful for those times because
it teaches me to be patient with the Lord's people because I heard
it over and over. and over and over and over again
and it's only by the grace of God when he wills to give it
to you and he makes you to hear it and to walk in that way that
you hear it and it's little by little and it's little by little
and if he taught me that way well then certainly he teaches
you that way and so it sets my expectation because it's it's
a The Lord labored long with me, and so that's how he labors
with all of us. It's a labor of love. And so
the chief qualification, right? There's a lot of things that
men look to to decide whether someone's qualified for the ministry,
but the chief of them, according to what Christ asked Peter was,
lovest thou me? Do you love me, Peter? Do you
love me? And so he teaches us in that,
that it's not about driving the sheep of Christ hard, but gently,
because sheep frighten easily. From what I've seen they get,
most animals do, they get frightened very easily, especially by by
man. And so we drive them, we don't
drive them hard, but gently. Isaiah 40 verses one and two
says, Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God, speak
ye comfortably to Jerusalem and cry unto her that her warfare
is accomplished. It's done. What was needed has
been done. Your redemption has been made
by the blood of Christ. that her iniquity is pardon for
she hath received of the Lord, past tense, of the Lord's hand
double for all her sins. And verse 11 of that same chapter
in Isaiah 40, it says, he shall feed his flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with
his arm and carry them in his bosom and shall gently lead those
that are with young. And so Christ told Peter, feed
my lambs and twice feed my sheep. What is it to feed the lambs
and the sheep of God? What is it to feed? How do we
feed? How am I to feed Christ's lambs and to feed his sheep? Because he's saying you that
believe, you that the Lord gathers together, you're his lambs, you're
his sheep. He calls you lambs and sheep
who are to be led gently and to be carry gently in the arms
of your Lord. How am I to feed the Lord's lambs
and sheep?" What did Peter do? He stood up and he preached Christ. In Acts chapter 2, Peter preached
Christ crucified and Christ raised from the dead, that he is both
Lord and Christ according to the will of God. We're not sent
to teach morality to exalt and to preach Moses or Bible stories
as good as they are were sent to preach Christ. And that in
this word it's testifying of Christ. Why? Because Christ is
salvation, not your goodness. not your morals, not your ethics,
not your understanding of doctrine and memorizing this, it speaks
of Christ. Just as our Lord testified and
declared Christ in all the scriptures, that's what we are to preach.
That's how you are fed. That's how you are nourished.
That's how you are strengthened is with the Lord Jesus Christ. Peter was a man of great zeal. Great zeal, and yet he failed
miserably. He was a strong man. He was willing
to say and speak up and to call people out and call them to the
carpet, and he could say anything to anybody, but he failed miserably. And so the Lord turned him from
the strength of his own hand and the strength of his own nature
and what came easy to him and turned him to love, to love,
to love Christ, to love them. And in preaching Christ, we're
to declare Christ, not as you see yourselves. We're not to
speak to you as we see ourselves. but as our Lord describes us
and declares what we are in the scriptures, as the Lord sees
us. Even if, whoever you are, I'm to preach Christ faithfully
and to show you your need of Him always, and His sufficiency
always, because the Lord's always ministering that to us. He's
always showing us our need of Him, because it keeps us looking
to the one who saves, the Lord Jesus Christ, and takes our eyes
off of this flesh, which is only corrupt and a failure, and it
puts our eyes on Christ, our Lord. And so I was reading earlier
in John 6, and I'll just go back there to John 6 in verse 48,
I'll pick up. where our Lord says, I just want
to read it again. He said, I am that bread of life.
John 6, 48. I am that bread of life. Verse 49, your fathers did eat
manna in the wilderness and are dead. There's a lot of people
that partake of religious things and they die. They're dead spiritually
and they die in the way. They die in the wilderness. This,
he said, is the bread which cometh down from heaven that a man may
eat thereof. Remember, he told Peter, feed
my sheep. And he's saying here, this is
the bread which came down from, which cometh down from heaven
that a man may eat thereof and not die. I am the living bread
which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread,
he shall live forever. And the bread that I will give
is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. And
we know the Jews were upset by that. And they strove and argued
among themselves, how can this man give us his flesh to eat?
Then Jesus said unto them, verily, verily, I say unto you, except
ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, ye have
no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last
day. For my flesh is meat indeed,
and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father
hath sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth me,
even he shall live by me. This is that bread which came
down from heaven, not as your fathers did eat manna, not as
they ate of religious things, and are dead. He that eateth
of this bread shall live forever." To feed the lambs and to feed
the sheep is to preach Christ, to preach Christ crucified, to
preach what Christ has accomplished in His redeeming death and shedding
His blood to put away the sins of His people. You that this
day believe on Him, who have no righteousness of your own,
but look to Him and trust Him and believe Him that He is the
righteousness whom the Father sent. He is the Savior. He saves
His people to the uttermost. And so we declare what He has
done for His people. And He's the one in that preaching. He said, if I be lifted up, will
draw all men unto me. You just exalt me. You lift me
up and I'll draw all men to me. And our God teaches His people
He instructs his people. He heals the broken heart because
we are broken. We are messed up in this flesh
by nature. We are broken people, a ruined
people. We mess things up left and right
and get things wrong and things just don't work out the way we
like them to. And he heals that broken heart
and he reconciles those things. He reconciles us by reconciling
us to God. by making peace with God. And he gives us his spirit, and
his spirit teaches us to look to him, to believe him, to trust
him, to rest in him. And so it's a patient work in
preaching Christ because by the things I say and the things I
do, I don't affect anything. I don't make things happen. And
as we saw before, it's a gentle leading. It's a patient work. We continue to preach Christ
and preach Christ and preach Christ. And it's not by the will
of my flesh. It's not by the strength or my
abilities to speak well or not. It's not by those things. I can't
drive you and make you believe anything. I can't even make myself
believe anything. It's by the grace of God. And
so that's how the Lord teaches his people. He works this in
their hearts patiently. Our Lord, those disciples walked
with Christ for a long time and they still forsook him on that
night. And the Lord restored them. It's a long, patient, walk,
that the Lord teaches us and gives us and brings us along
carefully and slowly. As Peter said, and being taught
this, he says, not as being lords over God's heritage, but being
examples to the flock, being examples to the flock. And, you
know, I was thinking before, as I was finishing this up, and
this, Matthew records this, and so does Luke, and in Matthew
24, In verse 45, it just made me
think of this as I was putting this together. He said, Who then
is a faithful and wise servant whom his Lord hath made ruler
over his household to give them meat in due season? To feed my
lambs and my sheep, to give them meat in due season. Who is that? Blessed is that servant whom
his Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing. Verily I say unto
you that he shall make him ruler over all his goods. But and if
that evil servant shall say in his heart, my Lord delayeth his
coming, That means he's going to change his tactics and what
he does in teaching the people. He's going to stop preaching
Christ and he's going to start whipping them and beating them
with the law. He delays his coming and shall
begin to smite his fellow servants and to eat and drink with the
drunken. He, by another spirit, thinks
he's going to affect these things and work these things in the
people of God and so he'll beat them and whip them. Well, the
Lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not
for him and in an hour that he's not aware of and shall cut him
asunder and point him his portion with the hypocrites. And so not
to turn to any other thing, but to preach Christ. To preach Christ. He's the one who's going to teach
you and instruct you and He manifests them that are His by faith. By faith that looks to Christ
and believes Him and rests Him and so this love for Christ is
what causes us but drives us to to fulfill his commission
to go in and to make disciples declaring Christ preaching Christ
feeding the lambs and the sheep of God and and I've about run
out of time. So let me just quickly finish
up the chapter where he tells Peter how he's going to die and
that he's going to be stretched out. He's going to be crucified
like his Lord. And that's what the Lord does.
He calls all his sheep to follow him, to lay down their lives,
to take up their cross and to lay down their lives daily following
Christ, following them. And then Peter looked back and
he saw John and he said, well, what about him? How's he gonna
die? And the Lord said, what's that
to you? If he lives till I return again, what's that to you? And
the way I hear that, what he's saying is, we're not all called
to the same work. We're all called to this commission,
but we all are different members in the body, and some are going
to be afflicted more than others. Some will have different trials
and different hardships and different afflictions. And that's okay,
because the Lord's gonna give grace and the measure of faith
as is needed in the body, and so it's okay. If you bear more
than another, don't worry about them. You just trust the Lord,
and you do what the Lord has called you to do in ministering
this work and being fellow laborers in this fellowship, in this one
ship, preaching the gospel, declaring the gospel, getting this gospel
out, because we're doing all things for the elect's sake.
for the elect's sake, because that's how the Lord saves his
people, in feeding them. And verse 25 says, at the end
of the chapter, there are also many other things which our Lord
did. We see in this thing how the
Lord is showing us his commission and how tenderly he ministers
to his servants and his ministers to preach Christ. We see that
there in John 20 and 21. It's the commission. And there's
many other things that the Lord did that confirm this to our
hearts, that show us the preciousness of Christ, that show us our need
of Him, the which, if they should be written, everyone, I suppose
that even the world itself could not contain the books that should
be written. Amen. And that's right. I think it's Psalm 116 where
David says, I love the Lord because because and we all have been
taught graciously by the Lord, each one of us. Lovest thou me?
Yes, I love the Lord because, because he loved me, and because
he laid down his life for me. And so we all have a story, we
all have a testimony of what the Lord has done for us. And
so, lovest thou me? That's the testimony here of
John, just how precious the Lord Jesus Christ is, and everything
he did, all woven. I look forward to the day when
I come back and I'd like to preach through John again now that we're
finished here. I'd like to preach through it
again because it's so precious and so full of Christ and there's
so many intricate details that we never noticed and I'm sure
each time we go through it we'll see him more and more precious
but I pray the Lord Bless His Word tonight, and every time
you open it up, and every time we gather together to hear it,
that it bless your hearts and show you Christ, because He is
salvation. He's all that we need. Amen.