Welcome to the Reign of Grace
radio broadcast. My name is Bill Parker. I'm the
pastor of the 13th Street Baptist Church in Ashland, Kentucky.
This program is sponsored by the members of Eager Avenue Grace
Church in Albany, Georgia, located at 1102 Eager Drive, Albany,
Georgia. I'll be bringing you a gospel
message of the sovereign grace and glory of God in the Lord
Jesus Christ from God's Holy Word. And now, the message. Now today I'm going to be preaching
from the Book of John, the Gospel of John, chapter 21, the very
last chapter of the Gospel of John. I'll begin the message
with verse 15. And this is a real instructive
passage here, closing out this blessed gospel of the glory of
God's grace in Christ. I've entitled the message, Following
Christ. Now whenever people speak of
following Christ, most people do not have a scriptural view
of that subject. For example, many people who
would talk about following Christ would simply talk about following
his moral example. Now certainly the Lord Jesus
Christ, who is none other than God the Son incarnate, we might
say it this way, He is holiness incarnate, He is perfection incarnate,
He is love incarnate, certainly He is to be followed as a moral
example for He is the highest example of moral purity and obedience,
perfect obedience, that ever was. In fact, he's really the
only example of that because no man who ever lived on earth
before Christ and no man who lives on earth after Christ,
on this earth, can say of himself that he perfectly kept the law
of God, perfectly does the will of God. Only Christ The Son of
God could make such a claim. So He certainly is to be followed
in His example of obedience to the Father. In His example of
love to the Father and love to the brethren. He loved like no
one else has ever loved. And that is the salvation of
His people because Christ's perfect obedience unto death on the cross
establishes the only ground upon which God can be just and save
or justify the ungodly. You see, Christ was obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross. And the righteousness
of God that is spoken of in the Bible so often, Romans chapter
1, 2nd Corinthians chapter 5, and then other passages, the
righteousness of God refers to the entire merit and value and
worth of the perfect obedience of Christ under the law and the
perfect work of Christ to die for the sins of his people called
his sheep, we're going to see in John 21, he died for his sheep
at perfect satisfaction to God's law and justice. Christ paid
the debt in full. And he established what the Bible
calls the righteousness of God. And that righteousness is freely
imputed to everyone for whom Christ died on the cross. And
they receive him by God-given faith. But now to follow Christ
means more than just following his example. It means to trust
him. and to rest in Him as our whole
salvation. And that's what we need to understand.
This is what following Christ is all about. It begins when
a sinner comes to faith in Christ. And that faith is the gift of
God. To believe in Him. Paul said,
I know whom I have believed and I'm persuaded that He is able. to keep that which I've committed
unto him against that day." It's faith in the glory of his person,
who he is, he's God in human flesh. It's faith in what he
accomplished at Calvary and what he is accomplishing now in the
preservation of his people unto final glory. He's coming again
to receive his church unto himself and to destroy this world and
all of its wickedness. He's able. He has overcome the
world. He saved my soul from sin, from
Satan, and from the curse. He gave me a righteousness that
will last through eternity. One that I didn't work out, but
one that He worked out. So to follow Christ is to believe
in Him. Also to follow Christ is to turn
away from the world. Therefore, you cannot follow
Christ and follow the world. You see, there'll be no rivals
to Christ and Him crucified. There'll be no comparisons to
Him. He'll be your all in all if you're
following Him. He's the Great Shepherd and you're
one of His sheep if you follow Him. He said, my sheep hear my
voice, they know me and they follow me. He said, another they
will not follow. So to follow Christ is to repent
then, to repent of our dead works, our pitiful, sinful, wretched
efforts to save ourselves by our law keeping. It's to repent
of idolatry all other idols, all other gods, all other rivals
to Christ the true and living God must be turned away from. And then to follow Christ is
to fellowship with His people. That is to edify and build up
our brethren in the faith. You can't follow Christ and not
be with His people. It's to love Him and His sheep. If God has redeemed your soul
and justified you by the blood and righteousness of Christ,
and if the Holy Spirit has given you life and liberty and regenerated
you by His power in the new birth. You will identify with Christ
as your Savior and Lord. You'll be His servant. You'll
be His follower. But you'll also identify with
His church, His people. And you'll want to be an influence
of building them up, helping to build them up. Christ builds
His church. He said, upon this rock I will
build my church. The rock is Christ and him crucified,
not Peter, not any man. But he preserves his church and
he uses human instruments, weak pitiful instruments like preachers
and members of churches to influence each other and help each other
and to build up each other in love. And then if you follow
Christ, you'll want to see others come to follow him. You'll want
to tell that gospel out. and pray that God will save sinners.
Now, that's the theme of this last message of the Savior to
his disciples. They had been fishing. We looked
at this the last time. They'd been fishing. They didn't
catch anything. And then he appeared on the shore.
And he shouted out to them to cast their nets on the right
side of the boat. And the nets were filled with
fishes. They couldn't even bring it up.
It was so full of fish. And when they came in the shore,
they sat and they ate And then the Lord spoke to the disciples,
He spoke to Peter specifically, the Apostle Peter, but in doing
so, He spoke to His disciples. And it says in verse 15, when
they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon son of Jonas,
lovest thou me more than these? And He's asking Peter, do you
love me more than these things of the world, these physical
fish, this occupation? What you've been doing here on
this earth, do you love Christ more than these? Now the scene
here is very similar to the same scene which a few days before,
Peter denied the Lord, set him by fire. And it was a very terrible,
horrible time for his disciples. They were in fear for their lives. And Peter was recognized and
he denied the Lord three times and so here by this thing the
Lord is going to ask him a question three times. He said, Peter,
lovest thou me more than these? And Peter saith unto him, Yea,
Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. Peter loved the Lord. Now his love wasn't perfect love. The Lord's love for Peter was
perfect love. But you know that's the way it
is with the redeemed of God. You see, we love Christ. If you're redeemed, if you're
regenerated by the Spirit, if you know Christ, if you follow
Him, you love Him. But there are times that you
recognize, well, I won't say times, all the time we recognize
that our love, our love is so pitiful. Lord, help me to love
Thee more. That's what we pray. And we thank
God that it's not our love for Him That is the condition or
cause of our salvation, for if it were, we'd be lost. But it
is His perfect love for His sheep. The Bible says He loved His own,
and He loved them to the end, to the fulfilling of the work.
He loved His sheep. The Good Shepherd gives His life
for the sheep. And it was his giving his life
for the sheep that manifested and displayed his great love
for them. And the Bible says herein is
love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and gave his
son to be the propitiation for our sins. So Peter loved the
Lord, but he appealed to the Lord's all-knowing mind. Thou knowest that I love thee.
I can't fool you. You know, we may be able to fool
each other. We may be able to fool ourselves,
but we can't fool the Lord. Peter knew that. Well, Christ
answered him. He said unto him, feed my lambs. Peter, if you love me, feed my
lambs. If you love me, you'll love my
people. If you love me, you'll love the
church, Christ's lambs. Some say that refers to immature,
new believers. And that may be so. But you know
what? Even sometimes at our best times,
we're still just little lambs who need to be guided and schooled
all the time. You know, we're sheep. That's
what believers are. That's what followers of Christ
are. They're sheep. He's the Great Shepherd. He's
the Good Shepherd. He's the Chief Shepherd. And
His followers are His sheep. And he's telling Peter there
that if you love me, if you love Christ, you'll feed his sheep. That's the calling of a minister. He's not called to feed himself.
That is with the world's good. He's not called to promote himself.
You know, that's a big problem in these days. It's always been
in the New Testament. Paul had to address that in the
book of 1 Corinthians where people were dividing over preachers.
Some preacher made a name for himself. And people attach themselves
to that preacher. And it's almost like he's their
Savior. But my friend, we're not here
to follow preachers, we're here to follow Christ. Now we hear
preachers, we listen to them, and we follow them in this sense,
in that they lead us to Christ. Now John the Baptist said that.
He said, I'm not the Savior, I'm not the Messiah, I'm not
the light, He said, here's one coming who is the light, who
is the Messiah, I'm not worthy to untie his shoelaces. He said,
Christ must increase, I must decrease. So the true preacher
feeds the lambs by exalting and lifting up and preaching Christ
and Him crucified to them. That's what the sheep feed on,
the truth of Christ. Christ said it this way, He said,
this is my blood. And this is my body. We feed
upon his blood and his body, not literally as if we're cannibals
or any silly thing like that, but by faith we rest in him. And that's what it is to follow
Christ. Verse 16. He saith to him again the second
time. Now remember Peter denied Christ
three times. This question is going to be
posed to Peter three times. And I think that's for Peter's
comfort. And it says in verse 16, He saith unto him again the
second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter saith unto
him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. And he saith
unto him, Feed my sheep. Now that may refer specifically
to all of his sheep, both Jew and Gentile. You know, Christ,
when he taught them this truth of the Good Shepherd in John
chapter 10, as recorded in John 10, he said, other sheep I have
that are none of this fold, them also I must bring. He was speaking
of God's elect among the Gentiles there. And he said, well, feed
my sheep. Oh, I tell you, the follower
of Christ, the true minister who follows Christ, has a great
concern for the sheep. Again, he's not so much concerned
for himself, but he is for the sheep. And I'll tell you what,
if we as ministers of Christ, true ministers now, if we won't
step out of the way, fade into the background for the cause
of the sheep, then that says a lot. He said, if you love me,
Peter, feed my sheep. And he goes on in verse 17, he
saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou
me? Well, Peter was grieved because
he said unto him the third time, and this is the humanness of
Peter coming out. I believe in the long run, as
I said before, this was for Peter's comfort because Peter could look
back on this. You know, we spend so much time
living in the past, and that's normally not a good thing. The
only time the Bible tells us to look to the past is to look
to Christ who died on the cross and saved his people from their
sins. And we'll never get beyond that.
Paul wrote, God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ. But I'm sure Peter looked back
on his life and he remembered that time when he denied the
Lord three times. And I'm sure that it grieved
him. But here he could look later on, he could look back at this
and see when the Lord commissioned him fully to preach the gospel
to his sheep. and it brought him comfort. You
think about this, and he said, lovest thou me? And he said unto
him, Lord thou knowest all things. Christ is God in human flesh,
and he knows all things. Thou knowest that I love thee.
And Jesus saith unto him, feed my sheep. The follower of Christ,
my friend, the one who loves him and trusts him and rests
in him, the one who is concerned for the glory of God, is also
concerned for the good of the church. Feed my sheep. And as I said, we feed them with
the Word of God, specifically Christ, the preaching of Christ.
Now look at verse 18. Christ said, Verily, verily,
I say unto thee, When thou wast young, thou girdest thyself,
and walked whither thou wast. When you were young, you put
on your clothes, and you walked where you wanted to walk. But
when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands,
and another shall gird thee, and carry thee, whether thou
wouldest not." Now think about this, he's saying, Peter, when
you were young, you put on your clothes, you went wherever you
wanted to walk, but when you're old, you're going to stretch
forth, your hands are going to be stretched forth, and another
will gird you, clothe you, and carry you where you don't want
to go. Now that doesn't mean that Peter was reluctant to go
and feed the sheep, because he did go and feed the sheep, he
traveled. But the Lord explains it in verse 9, or John by the
Holy Spirit explains the Lord's words in verse 19. It says, This
spake he, signifying by what death he, that is Peter, should
glorify God. And when he had spoken this,
he saith unto him, Follow me. Now what is the Lord teaching
here? Well, he's talking about Peter's death. And what he's
telling Peter is this, now he said, Peter if you love me, feed
my sheep. It is the responsibility of every
true minister of Christ to preach the gospel, to evangelize. And then God by his power and
his grace and glory brings the sheep into the fold. And then
it is the responsibility of a true minister of Christ to feed the
sheep by the continual preaching of the word of God. But in doing
so, in identifying with Christ, and in identifying with the people
of God, the sheep, and in preaching the message of God's grace in
Christ, how God saves sinners, the true minister will suffer
opposition, persecution, and sometimes even death for the
cause of Christ. And that's exactly what he's
telling Peter. He's saying, Peter, to follow
me. is also to follow against the
world. And it may be to follow Him all
the way to death. Christ taught His disciples on
that subject many times. He told them in the opening of
the Sermon on the Mount when He was pronouncing the blessings
of grace upon the people of God, the Beatitudes. He said, blessed
are you when men shall persecute you. and say all manner of evil
against you." He had told them that there was coming a time
when they would be brought up before councils, religious councils. They would be whipped and beaten,
persecuted. He had told them that the world
would hate them, but he said, don't be alarmed at that because
they hated me. If they hated Christ, they'll
hate the ones who follow Christ. He had told them that there would
come a time that they would be cast out of the synagogues and
even be murdered for the cause of Christ. So all of God's ministers,
all of Christ's sheep in some way or form or degree are going
to be persecuted by the world. But he's revealing to Peter something
specific about Peter's life in the ministry. And he's saying,
Peter, you're going to be martyred for the faith. He spake signifying
by what death Peter should glorify God. You notice how that's put. In Peter's death it would not
be a defeat. It would not be just a plain
martyrdom for a lost cause. But it would be a death that
would glorify God because it would be a death in the cause
of the love of Christ, the glory of God. Now some of you may be
familiar with the book Foxe's Book of Martyrs, and it's said
there that Peter, and he gives his account of how he believes
all the apostles were martyred except for John who was exiled
on the Isle of Patmos, but it is said that Peter was crucified
in Rome. Some say he was crucified upside
down because he didn't feel worthy to be crucified as the Lord was.
We don't know all of that and sometimes in church history it's
very, very hard to separate truth from legend. But here's the point,
and this verse would sort of indicate that Peter was crucified
because he says, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands and another shall
gird thee and carry thee whither thou wouldest not. Now, you see,
Peter was willingly a minister of Christ. And I believe in the
end he willingly went to his death, but it was in opposition
to the world and they stretched forth his hand. So that may indicate
that what Mr. Fox said in his book is true.
But the point is this, however Peter was martyred or killed,
it was for the glory of God and the cause of Christ. Now it may
be that some of us may have to face such a death in our lives. I've often said, I've told our
congregation, I thank God we live in a country where under
the providence and power of God we have a constitution that allows
us and enables us to worship God as God leads us without being
arrested, without being beaten, without being molested by the
powers that be. But you know that's not always
the case with the people of God in the New Testament times. Stephen
was martyred, Paul was martyred. Well, in verse 20 there's something
happens here that's very interesting. Again, Peter shows his humanness.
Then Peter, turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved
following. He turned around and he saw John,
that's who he's talking about. That's how John identified himself,
not by name, but by the one whom Jesus loved. And that's a good
identification for any child of God. I'm not anybody, I'm
just one whom Jesus loved. And he says, "...which also leaned
on his breast to suffer and said, Lord, which is he that betrayeth
thee?" John was the one leaning on the Lord's breast and he asked
the question concerning the one who would betray. In verse 21,
Peter, seeing him, saith to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man
do? Peter said, well, what's going
to happen to John? Now, Peter understood that the Lord was
saying, you're going to be martyred for the faith, following Christ.
Well, Peter, in his own sinfulness, you see, the flesh is still in
us. The flesh was still in Peter, and his jealousy, this rivalry,
he turned around to John and said, well, what's going to happen
to him? Well, listen to the Lord's reply. He says in verse 22, Jesus
saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is
that to thee? Follow thou me. Now what he tells
Peter is this, what happened to John is none of your business.
If I will that John last until Christ comes again, till I come
again, what is that to thee? You follow me. Ministers of Christ
are not to be rivals, they're not to be jealous, They're not
to worry about the ministries of others other than the fact
that we bless God and praise Him and thank Him that others
are preaching the gospel. But what happens to them and
in their congregation, that's none of our business. And there's
too many who try to put their nose into other people's business
and cause division and strife and rivalry. Christ said, it's
none of your business, you follow thou me. Well, verse 23 says,
Then went this saying abroad among the brethren, that that
disciple should not die. Yet Jesus said not unto him he
shall not die, but if I will that he tarry till I come, what
is that to thee? Now, even among the people of
God there's rumors and myth and some got a hold of that and they
said, well, that means that John was never going to die, that
he was going to last until Christ came. But John himself clears
it up. He said, no, that's not what the Lord said. The Lord
said, if I will. that John tarry here on this
earth, last here on this earth until I come again. That's none
of your business. Now John did die. He was exiled
out on the Isle of Patmos where the Lord revealed unto him the
book of Revelation and he did die at an old age. Well, verse
24, it says, This is the disciple which testifies of these things,
and wrote these things, and we know that his testimony is true.
This is the truth, John says, I'm a witness to it, I'm testifying
of it, I saw it. And he says in verse 25, here's
how the book ends. He says, And there are also many
other things which Jesus did, though which, if they should
be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could
not contain the books. that should be written. Amen.
He tells us that he was an eyewitness to them. He testifies of these
things. These things are true. And he
says he did not have the paper and the ink to contain all that
Jesus did. He said the world would not contain
the books that should be written. When we think about the glory
of all of the Lord and of all that he did. And I believe that
John's speaking more of his eternity, his eternal being, his eternal
workings than his just the 33 years that he was on this earth.
Now he was 33 years and I don't believe the books could contain
it all. But these are eternal things. And it's amazing, it's
amazing. There are things the Lord said,
the things the Lord did that are not recorded in this book.
But all of them, all that He said and all that He did was
to the glory and praise of the Father. It was for the good of
His sheep, the salvation of sinners and the edification of His brethren. There's no other way that our
Lord operated in eternity and when He was on this earth. And
that's why He said to follow me. Well, I hope this message
has been helpful to your understanding of the scriptures. If you'd like
to have a copy of this message, listen to the announcer. He'll
give you the details. The title of this message is
Following Christ. And I hope you'll join us next
week for another message from God's Word. We're glad you could join us
for today's message. If you would like to receive
a copy of this message, or if you would like more information
about Eager Avenue Grace Church, remember we are located at 1102
Eager Drive in Albany, Georgia. You can call us at 229-432-6969
or visit our Reign of Grace website at www.rofgrace.com. Thank you
and may the Lord be with you.