John 21:12-17 -"Do You Love Me?"

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This message was given by pastor Braden on John 21:12-17. Soli Deo Gloria

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Praise to the Sovereign King, hear, hear His people sing, solely and wholly saving
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His own bride. There where the Lamb has died hard, the
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Christ is crucified, washed by the blood of that great high priest.
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I think some of the best hymns were just sung right there. Those ones were beautiful. Wonderful, wonderful songs. Well, church, we're going to do a normal service for the day.
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We're going to continue on in the Book of John, and then afterward, we're going to have some dialogue about some upcoming dates that we need to talk about.
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So if I forget to mention those things after church today, I need everyone to help me remind myself of those things.
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So anyway, let us go ahead and begin with a word of prayer. We're going to be in John Chapter 21, so if you want to start turning that way, that would be wonderful.
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But let us begin with a word of prayer. Lord God, what a privilege it is to come to a place that is meant to worship
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You, Lord, and to sing praise to You and to think and consider things that are truths about You, Lord.
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God, let us recognize Your love in this text, Lord, and let us be reflective of that love and demonstrate love towards our fellow man and our church here,
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Lord, that we might care for each other, that we might seek to glorify You in those things. And Lord, let us just adore
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You through these things, God. Let us give You glory in these things, Lord. God, we give
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You glory because You are worthy, Lord. You are worthy. Your attributes are worthy to be worshiped,
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Lord. Your love, Your knowledge, Your power, Your might, Your faithfulness, Your truth,
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Lord. God, let us worship these things today. Let us recognize these things today in Your text.
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And Lord, above all things, let Your glory be done. And let Your will be done for Your glory. And we just say these things in Your holy name,
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Jesus Christ, amen. So we're gonna be in John chapter 21, specifically verses 12 through 17.
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So let us read over this text and then we'll go ahead and do another word of prayer and we'll talk a little bit about the context as well as some speculation that is made.
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So let us read here in verse 12 through 17. It says, So when they had finished breakfast,
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Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?
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He said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him, tend my lambs.
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He said to him again a second time, Simon, son of John, do you love me?
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He said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him, shepherd my sheep.
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He said to him the third time, Simon, son of John, do you love me?
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Now Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, do you love me?
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And he said to him, Lord, you know all things, you know that I love you.
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Jesus said to him, tend my sheep. Let us go ahead and pray over this text.
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Lord God, what a wonderful, wonderful encounter that has taken place in here,
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Lord. After providing a breakfast to sheep that had just scattered,
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Lord, after being gathered, Lord, you have provided these things for them. And God, let us just love you,
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Lord. God, let us love you. Help us increase in loving you better today, Lord. And let us once again,
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God, as was mentioned before, Lord, let us love each other. Let us glorify you in doing these things.
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Let us look after each other's needs. Let us care for one another. Lord, the question, do you love me?
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That was posed to Peter. Let us ask ourselves these things today and let us answer them, Lord, by saying
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I do love you, Lord. God, we just say these things in your name, Jesus Christ.
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Amen. So once again, church, we're after the post -resurrection.
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This is after a little bit of time has taken place. And this just says the context as we read prior to this.
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Peter and six other disciples have gone fishing in a boat. And they are terrible fishermen, apparently.
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And they caught no fish. They caught nothing. And this is, likewise, the very day that Peter met
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Jesus, three and a half years prior to this, caught no fish that day either. And so, once again, terrible fishermen, apparently.
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But the thing that we see in here is that once they are commanded by Jesus, that we see his sovereignty in all things to cast the net on the right side, their net is full with 153 fish.
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153 fish. And not only this, when they come to the shore, Jesus himself already has a meal prepared for the disciples.
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He has a whole breakfast lined out for them. He has fish and he has bread there for them. And it says in here that they ate with him this stuff.
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And we'll look a little bit more in this. But the important things to take note of in this text is, once again,
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Jesus Christ has physically been resurrected. It's important to remember that when the disciples are looking at Jesus Christ, we cannot forget that this is a body that has been stricken for them, that has been stricken for you and I, and he bears those wounds.
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So, when you imagine, when you look and think about this text that is before us, imagine sitting across from the chair or wherever they were sitting at along this bank of this beach, of this lake here.
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Remember that they're sharing breakfast with the one that was pierced before them. They're seeing those wounds as they're eating.
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So, just remember these kind of things and do not add to this text, is not what I'm saying, but remember what the context is for us to paint a better picture for us here.
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So, Jesus has prepared this meal for them, that is fish and bread. Let us read here in verse, we'll read verse 8 here, just to see in this.
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Verse 8, but the other disciples came in the little boat, for they were not far from the land, but about 100 yards away, dragging the net full of fish.
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And so, when they got upon the land, they saw a charcoal fire already laid and fish placed upon it.
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And Jesus said to them, bring some of the fish which you now have caught. And Simon Peter went up and drew the net to land full of large fish and of 153.
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And all together, there were so many, the net was not torn. And so, those things are all specifically recorded for us for reasons.
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And I think that I want to just make mention of really quickly the application that we can see from the text last week.
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This is absolutely literally taking place, but we see an application that has taken place, that who is providing the fish, both the fish that is cooked and the fish that are in the net?
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Well, Jesus Christ himself is providing both those fish, those groups of fish.
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But we see that Christ has a smaller amount of fish than that of the apostles, that of the disciples.
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And so, this is really shadowing and really taking a picture of what took place in the life of Christ.
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That very few men followed him, but when he ascends, that there are thousands that are added in one day in Acts chapter 2 with Peter.
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And so, we see that that is the symbolism that is taking place here, the importance that was taking place here.
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That though there was a thousand that came to Christ on the day of Peter through that message he gave, it was still
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God that was providing those men that message. But we see that the numerical value was much greater than those that actually followed
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Jesus during his public ministry. Now, let us look here into verse 12. I want to take notice of some special things that we see in this text.
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And as we spoke of last week, that we need to also remember in this text, there is a lot of commentaries, a lot of theologians, a lot of teachers that write on this, and they disagree with each other on these things.
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And so, I hope that through this, we'll talk about the disagreeings on this text, and I hope that you can kind of see why people have different opinions over some of the wording that's in here.
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And maybe even have your own opinion once we leave here, but let it be based in Scripture, and let us not go outside of those guardrails.
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But just know that there's a lot of people that view this text differently. So, in verse 12, it says,
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Now, let us read a little more. And it then says that after they had finished breakfast, in verse 15,
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Church, this is significant. This is amazing to be thinking about. You have
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Jesus Christ, that it doesn't tell us how He caught these fish, but He has fish here, and He prepares a meal for them, and they enjoy it.
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Do you think that they glorified God while eating that meal?
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I only hope so. Could you imagine sitting across from Jesus Christ, eating a meal with Him? Seeing that Lamb that died for you and I, and not only that, but He's handing you the fish to eat.
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He's giving it to you. Do you think they savored every single one of those bites?
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I only hope so. When I was reading this, and as we were driving to Utah the other day,
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I was really trying to picture this here, and how does this apply to us today?
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Church, God has blessed us with so many things that we neglect to acknowledge
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Him for. I know that this is true in my life. I go to the grocery store to get my food, and I don't even think about the hard work that was put into gathering that food, the farmers that went about to raise the cattle, or any of those examples.
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I very rarely think of those things, and wrong on me for doing that. Wrong on us for doing that.
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How much more meaningful is it that when these apostles that just caught no fish come to the table with Jesus Christ, and they realize that it is
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Him that has provided all this food for them, it is Him that has given this thing to them, and they're satisfied by it.
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They eat the breakfast with Jesus Christ. I hope that today, when we go and we do anything, whatever it might be, whatever the example is, that we glorify
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God in doing so. That we take time to take every thought captive that's behind our mind.
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That when we go and we drink the water from the sink, we're not quick to forget where that water comes from.
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That when we drink the cup of coffee, we're not quick to forget where the coffee comes from. That when we go and we eat the fish, we're not quick to forget where the fish comes from.
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Whatever the example is, let's glorify God in everything that we do, and remember it is
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God that has provided these things for us. It is God that has given these things for us.
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Because just as we have seen that when the disciples were fishing, they didn't catch anything.
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So everything that we have and everything that we own and we participate in, it comes from God.
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And so let us glorify Him in those things. And so it says that they come and they eat breakfast, so come and have breakfast.
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Jesus invites them to come and have this meal that He has prepared for them, and none of the disciples, this is amazing, because as we have seen previously that the disciples are scared or frightened when they first see
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Jesus with His resurrected body, this stricken body that they assume that He's a ghost, this spirit, and Luke is what it says.
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But now that they have seen Jesus so many times, and they know that when somebody tells them to cast the net to the right side of the boat, now they just have 153 fish, what does it say in here?
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They acknowledge Him. They don't question Him any longer. They don't sit there and say, who is this man that I'm sitting across from?
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They don't say these kind of silly things anymore. They just now know. There is no questioning it anymore.
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Jesus Christ is the Lord. There is no question anymore in the back of their minds.
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This is the Lord. So it says, they do not question
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Him by saying, who are you, like they have previously done in many, many chapters. But it says, knowing that it was the
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Lord. They know Jesus Christ is the Lord. They know that He has power over all things.
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And the reason that they can say this is, once again, they just fished for many, many hours through the night, and have yet to catch one single fish, and at the command of Jesus, they catch 153.
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They know that it is the Lord. There is no question about it anymore. The works of Christ have made
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Himself manifest. The works of Christ have told us who He is, and that He is the
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Lord. It's so important for us to profess
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Jesus Christ as Lord. All the disciples do it, my Lord, my God.
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They don't question Him any longer. They know that it is the Lord. Let us know that Jesus Christ is the
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Lord today. Verse 13, it says that Jesus came and took the bread and gave them and the fish likewise.
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So Jesus Christ has not only provided a means for them to catch fish, has not only prepared the fish, but now
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He is serving them. Church, this is so reminiscent of how
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Christ has always acted. In chapter 14 of the same
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Gospel of John, John 14 verses 4 through 9, if you remember this, we probably preached on this approximately a year ago as we went through this, but John 14 verses 4 through 9 says this.
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It says, You know the way where I am going. Thomas said to Him, Lord, we do not know where You are going.
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How do we know the way? Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the
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Father but through Me. And it then says in here,
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If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also. From now on you know Him, and have seen
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Him. I believe I am reading from the wrong text right now. I think it's from chapter 13, sorry. Yes, it is 13, excuse me,
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I wrote that wrong in my notes. That is a great text. Chapter 14 you should all read as well, but chapter 13 verses 4 through 9 says this.
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Rose from supper. So Jesus Christ had rose from supper and laid aside His garments, and taking a towel,
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He girded Himself about. Then He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel with which
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He was girded. And so He came to Simon Peter and said to him,
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Lord, do you know, Lord, do you wash My feet? Peter's questioning
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Jesus for this. And Jesus answered and said to him, What I do you do not realize now, but you shall understand hereafter.
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Peter said to Him, Never shall you wash My feet. This is Peter again putting his foot in His mouth.
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And Jesus answered him, If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.
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And Simon Peter said to Him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.
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Jesus Christ is continually serving His disciples, continually serving them, loving them, caring for them, providing for them.
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In fact, in Philippians chapter 2, this is one of my favorite texts. I know as a church we've read this several, several times, but in verse 5 to 11 in Philippians chapter 2, it says,
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Have this attitude in yourselves. So this is something that is applied to us that we need to do.
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It says, Which was also in Christ Jesus, who although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied
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Himself, taking the form of a bondservant, being made in the likeness of men, and being found in the appearance of man.
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He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
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Therefore also God highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is
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Lord, to the glory of God the Father. The attitude that we are to have in ourselves is humility.
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Christ has just bore their sin, has just paid the penalty of them.
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Years prior He humbled Himself and became flesh. He took upon Him man's nature.
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He's doing this in a humble and humility way, and He serves us.
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And not only this, after His death, burial, and resurrection, He still is serving us.
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Where is Christ at right now? He's at the right hand of the Father. He's our mediator between God and man.
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Christ is still serving till today. What a blessed
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Lord we have. He provides for the apostles. He gives them bread and fish.
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He continues to do these things. Now in verse 14 it says, this is now the third time that Jesus was manifest to the disciples after He was raised from the dead, in John 21, verse 14.
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Now this is giving us the context of why John has written this last chapter in the
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Gospel of John. Because in John 20, as we made mention of last week, in verse 31, it seems like that would be a great place to end the book, that these things have been written that you might believe.
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And that by believing in Him, you might have eternal life in His name.
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But John has written this because it is the third time that Jesus was made manifest, and there's important things in here for us to take note of.
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It's for us in this text to remember what Christ has said. He's recorded it for us in this way.
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Jesus was manifest to the disciples after He was raised from the dead. Once again, this is a common way that John is referring to Jesus, that He was raised from the dead, that death did not hold our
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Savior bound, and that it was a physical resurrection. It was a physical thing that took place here.
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I want us to remember that a spirit cannot just hand fish and bread to something.
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That this is a physical hand of Jesus that is handing the fish and the bread to the disciples.
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Now, why is that important? Because there are many cults and false religions that say that Christ never was truly physically resurrected.
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And I'm pointing this out because it's so obvious that when we read things like this, it's obvious that Jesus was physically there with the apostles.
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And in fact, in Acts chapter 10, verse 40, I want to read this for us real fast.
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Acts chapter 10, verse 40 to 43, Peter actually calls back to this event that we're reading about in John chapter 21.
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But Acts chapter 10, verse 40 through 43, it says, God raised
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Him up on the third day and granted that He should become visible. That's important, that word.
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Not to all the people, but to the witnesses who were chosen beforehand by God, that is to us.
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Now, listen to this next part. Who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead.
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Jesus Christ was eating with them and drinking with them. It says in here that He appeared, that He appeared not to all people, but to witnesses who were chosen beforehand by God, that is to us, to us.
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Who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead. Jesus Christ appeared to His disciples.
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He came to them to show continual love towards them, to validate His resurrection bodily.
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And that's what Peter is saying here in this message. He's saying, look, He truly rose from the grave.
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We were witnesses to Him. He appeared to us. And not only this, but we actually ate and drank with Him.
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That these things happened, they took place. And in verse 42, and He ordered us to preach to the people and solemnly to testify that this is the one who had been appointed by God as judge of the living and of the dead.
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Of Him, all the prophets bear witness that through His name, everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins.
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Once again, this is Peter in Acts chapter four, preaching a sermon about how someone has salvation through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ and have faith in Him for the forgiveness of sins, that He was truly resurrected.
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We have no hope if He did not rise from the dead. Now, when we look here at verse 15 to 17, church,
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I wanna read really quickly from Matthew chapter 26, verse 31.
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And as we're turning there, Matthew chapter 26, verse 31. This is where there's a lot of speculation about the wording that's used in here in multiple different areas in verses 15 to 17.
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And I hope that we can explain some of these things out and really think about what's going on here. But it's important to remember,
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I think the context of why these things are happening. Greg reminded myself, he told myself this last
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Bible study about this wonderful experience and it all came together quite nicely.
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Why Christ says three times, Peter, do you love me? I want us to look at three times that Peter has had an opportunity to declare
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Jesus Christ. I wanna read in Matthew chapter 26, verse 31 through 35. It says, and Jesus said to them, you will all fall away because of me this night.
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For it is written, I will strike down the shepherd and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered.
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Now, this is coming from the mouth of God himself. If Jesus says that you will all go away, what does that mean?
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You will all go away. And not only this, but pay attention to the pronouns in here.
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I will strike down the shepherd. Who is the shepherd? Jesus Christ.
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I will strike down the shepherd and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered.
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What happened to all the apostles after the death of Christ? They all scattered. They all went and locked themselves in their rooms, yes?
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And in verse 32, it says, but after I have been raised, I will go before you to Galilee.
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But Peter answered him. This is once again, Peter putting his foot in his mouth and said to him, even though all may fall away because of you,
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I will never fall away. And Jesus said to him, truly, I say to you that this very night before a cock crows, you shall deny me three times.
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And this is what Peter then responds with. Peter said to him, even if I have to die with you,
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I will not deny you. All the disciples said the same thing too. Peter isn't alone in this boat of this, but Peter has been recorded for us as being the one that is saying this very much in a proclamation of a way.
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That Lord, other people might fall away, but not I. I will even die with you.
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And what happens when Christ is got at the Garden of Gethsemane, when they come and get taken, he denies them.
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He denies him three times, fulfilling the prophetic utterance of Jesus Christ.
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Now, if you were to put yourself in Peter's shoes, I just denied
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Christ three times. He died. I hid myself from him. I hid myself from the world.
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And now he's appeared. And I look really foolish right now. I'm, I'm, I'm broken.
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I'm, I'm guilty. I'm, I'm hurt at the thought that I did actually deny Jesus Christ. I actually denied him.
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And now we see maybe that might be the reason that Peter says, I am going fishing. Could be. Regardless, he goes fishing and now he's before Jesus Christ again.
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The third time that Christ has been made manifest. Remember that Peter denied
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Jesus three times. And when you look at this text, remember these things. So let's start in verse 15 and we'll break these things down as we go.
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So when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon, Peter, so after they have enjoyed this meal prepared by Jesus Christ, Jesus asks
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Peter, this Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?
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So the first point of contention in this text that I, not contention, there is no contention in here, but the first point that people will try to explain in different ways is who are the, these in this text.
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And there's usually two different options or ideas that people will try to teach from this.
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One would say that he is speaking about the other disciples around him at that time.
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The other six with Peter, do you love, this is Jesus speaking. Do you love me,
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Peter, more than these? And he's pointing his hand essentially at the six other disciples around that breakfast table.
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And the reason that the people would say this is because right after it says tend my lamb. So Jesus might be saying, look, if you love me more than you love these other disciples of mine, you will actually care for these disciples.
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You will shepherd the sheep. You will tend the lambs. You will take care of them. And some people, once again, we cannot add words to the words of Jesus Christ.
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And it's, it's important for us to understand this context in here. Some people would say, well, if that's the case, that would be really a strange conversation to have.
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And could you imagine not being Peter any longer, but being maybe John, the disciple whom Jesus loves sitting at that table and Jesus saying, look, do you love me more than them?
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But that sounds almost greedy in that way. Once again, he says, tend my sheep after that.
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So he's still saying care for these people. If that's the case, if that's the, do you love me more than these?
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I'm trying to get at in here that there's a case to be made for that argument. The other example of, do you love me more than these?
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The other idea of the these is the fish they just ate. The fish that would have been pulled up upon the shore by Peter.
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And this would make sense because the whole reason that they're at the sea of Galilee, the, the lake of,
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I'm going to have a hard time pronouncing it. The sea of Tiberius, the whole reason that they're there is to go fishing.
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This is the first place Jesus met Peter and some of these other disciples. And so maybe what
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Jesus is doing in here is they just ate this meal and that's why it records us for it this way that they, after they eat breakfast,
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Jesus then asks Peter who has made a wage and an earning and a living and a trade off of fishing is saying,
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Peter, do you love me more than these fish? I think I've gone back and forth over the years.
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And when I read this text on my understanding of this today, I would say, I think it's the fish that he's speaking of in there. I think that's contextually what's going on here.
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I think it makes sense that he would say, look, you have gone and done your hobby this way.
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You've gone fishing. I've provided the fish for you after being discouraged all night long at not catching anything.
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Now you caught 153 in one, one draw of the net. Do you love me,
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Peter more than these fish? Do you love me more than these? I think that's what's going on here.
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Your takeaway might be different today, but just know that those are the two common ways of understanding who are the these in this text.
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The second thing that we need to take note of in here is the word love. Now I have very limited understanding of anything
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Greek, but there's seven words in the Greek language for the word love and they all express different ideas and different contexts of how they're used.
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Now in the, in, in the new Testament from my understanding is there's only three words for that Greek word love that is used.
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One is Eros, which is a romantic love and that is not the word that is being used here.
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There's also the word, I'm going to mispronounce it as philia, which is once again, we'll talk about the meaning of these words here in a second.
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And another one for the word love is agape. Now the word that Jesus Christ says in here to Simon, son of John, do you agape me more than these?
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Do you love me more than these? And he uses that word agape. Now Peter responds by saying, yes,
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Lord, you know that I love philia. He responds back with philia.
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Let's go through this text and then we'll make note of, of different understandings of what the reasoning of those words being used in here.
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It says, so first we'll just read it as, as we would read in the English. Do you love me more than these?
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And then we'll come back and pay special attention to those words being used there, I think is the best way to break this down.
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And he said, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. And he said to him, tend my sheep. Now this is the first time that Christ asks
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Peter this, as you already know, as we read previously, he asks him three times. There is no coincidence that he asks him three times this question, because what happened just a few days prior, he denied
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Christ three times. And so this text is commonly called the restoration of Peter.
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This is him being restored, not, not, not saying that he lost his salvation, not saying this, but that when he is being this, this head of this, these apostles, he's the one that's, that's kind of taking the charge in this way, that this is a restoring of his, of his gladness, his joy, his realization of what he's being called to do.
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And this is to the benefit of Peter because Peter is heartbroken over denying Christ three times.
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That's the commonly thinking of this text. So he says to him, yes,
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Lord, you know that, you know, I know that you know all things, Lord, I love you.
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And he said to him, tend my lambs. Now this does not mean that Peter is a
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Pope. Some people would say that this is, this is, this is giving Peter the authority to be the
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Pope in this text. No, that's not what's going on in here. And we'll take mention of this in a little bit, but Peter specifically has denied
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Christ those three times, and he needs to be reminded, look, Peter, do you love me?
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Peter, do you love me? Peter, do you love me? This is a reminder for Peter that yes,
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Lord, I do love you. And so Jesus then says, if you do love me, then you tend my sheep.
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This is your calling, Peter. This is what you're meant to do. Shepherd the sheep, tend the lambs, take care of the church.
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And then we go into the book of Acts right after the gospel of John in our, in our most common 66
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Bibles on how it's set up for us. We go right into the book of Acts and we then see Peter doing what?
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Tending the lambs, shepherding the sheep, tending the flock. He's doing this in a pastoral way of writing letters, taking care of them, visiting churches, doing evangelism, preaching in the public square.
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He is doing the work of a pastor, an evangelist, an apostle. Peter does these things.
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He listens to the command of God by hearing what Jesus says in here. Tend my lambs.
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It says in here in verse 16, and we'll make mention of those words once again that are being used.
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And he said to him a second time, Jesus says to him a second time, Simon, son of John, do you agape me?
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And he said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I philea, or love you.
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And he said to him, shepherd my sheep. And he said to him the third time,
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Simon, son of John, this is Jesus speaking again, do you philea? Now he switched from using the word agape to the word philea.
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Like I said, I'm probably pronouncing all these words wrong when I try my hardest to. Just take note that now he's switched his wording to use the word that Peter has been using for the word love.
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Do you philea me? Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, do you philea me, do you love me?
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And he said to him, Lord, you know all things. You know that I philea you.
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Jesus said to him, tend my sheep. Now, I'll tell you what today's common reading of this text is.
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Today, and why I would say that is that years ago, people didn't see this text in this way from what
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I have studied and researched. A lot of people will come to the conclusion, which if this is your conclusion today, you were in the majority of reading this text, and that's okay.
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Many people would say that agape is defined as divine, unrestrained, unconditional love.
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That that's what that word agape means. They would say that the word philea is more of a brotherly, knowing love.
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Now, once again, if we go back many hundred years, they would have some different definitions a little bit for those words.
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Now, the common reading that we have today is that if we apply those definitions to these words in here, it would appear that Jesus says, do you agape me, do you agape me?
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And now, since Peter's responded back by saying, I philea you, that he's saying, look,
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Jesus, I know last time that you asked me, in Matthew chapter 26, that the sheep would be scattered,
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I put my foot in my mouth by saying, no, I won't ever do that. Now Peter's saying,
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I don't know if I agape you, but I philea you. I know that I've already, it's within my nature to deny you,
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Jesus, and I don't want to do that again. What many people would say is the reasoning why Peter has chosen to use this word love.
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Is that a possibility? Absolutely, it is. If that's what the definition is. Now, in verse 17, then,
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Jesus switches the word from agape to philea. Now, this is what people would say is that's the reason that it has grieved
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Peter, because now, because Peter said, I philea you, I philea you, and now
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Jesus is questioning if he even phileas him. And so Peter's grieving, so he just reassures himself by saying,
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Jesus, you know all things. Jesus, you're omniscient. Jesus, you are God in this way. You have those attributes, you are deserving of being loved, and you know that I love you.
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I'm not denying this anymore. But you know that I have this brotherly, mental love towards you.
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Now, this is where I would probably be under the influence today of saying
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I don't think that that's what's going on in here. I don't. And the reason I don't think that's used in here is because the gospel,
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John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, the one who wrote this book for us, has actually used the word agape and phileo several times from the beginning of John 1 to the end of John 21.
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And guess how he uses those words? Synonymous with each other. In fact, he says that to the
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Pharisees, it's recorded that the Pharisees agaped the approval of men. Do the
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Pharisees have a divine love that they can express towards the approval of men? I don't think that the...
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If that's the definition of the word agape, I think that that's a bad definition because the Pharisees aren't by nature not divine, and they can't express divine love.
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So that takes that definition in my book out of question. Now, not only this, but it says in John...
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I have it written down here. So if you want to study these things out, I'll make mention of these if you'd like.
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But John 5 20, John 11 3, John 11 36,
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John 12 43, and John 16 27 uses those words synonymously with each other.
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It says in one of those chapters that the Father phileas us.
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Does the Father express brotherly love? No, he has divine love, right?
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He has the perfect love. So once again, these words, I'm saying today, and once again, this is not the common reading of this text today, but I think in the context of how
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John has written the gospel, he uses those words synonymously with each other.
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And if we take those words, if that's the definition, absolutely, we can have problems throughout the rest of the text.
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So it's my concern if that's what our takeaway is from this. In my opinion, that these words are synonymous with each other.
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And there are different ways of saying... Jesus is saying, do you agape me? And he's saying, responding back by saying, yes,
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I do. I do love you. I am loving you in these ways. Yes, Jesus, that's how
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I'm viewing this text. And so the reason then that it grieves him the third time is that then it's recalling to the question, now
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I know why Jesus is asking me three times, because I denied him three times, and I'm grieved over it.
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And yes, Jesus, I do love you. You know that I love you. So that's the contention that people have in here, is those words love and the these that we see in this text.
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So just be noticing of those, be scholars in these things, and please study these things out for yourself and come to your conclusions using the word of God.
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But church, I want us to take special note of some things. These would be,
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I would say the conclusions that when we look at these three verses in here that we can make about who
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Jesus Christ is. Who is worthy of being loved in this text? Jesus is worthy of being loved in this text, is he not?
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Amen and hallelujah. Why is he worthy to be loved? Because he possesses all the attributes of it.
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He has never wronged me. He's always been faithful to me. He's the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
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And he is worthy of being loved for those reasons. His nature is transcendental.
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It transcends all things around us, and we are to love him for those things.
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That's one thing I take note in here. Another thing that I think we need to take special note of is what are some of the attributes that are spoken of in here, of reasons that we should be loving
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Jesus. Jesus, you know all things. Jesus, you know I love you.
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Can any of us say something like that unless it was to God who knows all things?
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No. And so, once again, this is an attribute of omniscient, excuse me, omniscient, that Jesus Christ knows all things.
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He knows them all, because why? He is God in flesh. So that's one application we need to take away from this.
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And another thing that we need to look at in here is that, one, in Ephesians 4 .11,
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Ephesians 4 .11, this is how Christ has set up his church. This is how Christ has set up a way of running the church, a way of operating as the church.
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And he gave some as apostles and some as prophets and some as evangelists and some as pastors and teachers.
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Christ has set up his church in a specific authority way so that we can glorify him in those means.
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And so we see in here that Peter's call in this text is to have a pastoral ministry of tending and caring and shepherding the sheep.
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Church, if you ever have a pastor that doesn't love
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Jesus and doesn't tend the sheep, are they even a pastor?
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Anybody that claims to be a pastor, you should see these things true in their life, that they love the sheep and they love
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Jesus Christ. They fight for his attributes. They care deeply and are concerned about who he is and want to worship him as such, and thus they serve the church in such a way.
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They care and tend for the sheep and the lambs. Another application that we need to take away from this, that Jesus provides all things.
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Is Jesus tending and providing for his sheep by setting up this form of authority in his church?
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Absolutely. He has set up under shepherds. He has set up for pastors to be there for his sheep.
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He cares for the sheep to do this. He tends the sheep. Jesus himself does.
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And not only this, but Jesus desires that our love for him is being directed as energy towards others.
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That means serving. That means coming alongside of and carrying each other's burdens and loving on one another and tending each other in these ways.
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So church, I think the final thing that we need to ask ourselves, and this is going to be the final question for us.
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And in fact, if you say no to this question, do not participate in communion today. Church, do you love
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Jesus? Serve him then.
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Care for each other then. Love on one another then. And worship him then.