Do You Love Me?

 

Text: John 21:1-19

Focus: Following Christ

Function: to help people see that loving Christ means loving others

21:¹After these things Jesus showed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias; and he showed himself in this way. ²Gathered there together were Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples. ³Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.” They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.

⁴Just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the beach; but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. ⁵Jesus said to them, “Children, you have no fish, have you?” They answered him, “No.” ⁶He said to them, “Cast the net to the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in because there were so many fish. ⁷That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on some clothes, for he was naked, and jumped into the sea. ⁸But the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, only about a hundred yards off.

⁹When they had gone ashore, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish on it, and bread. ¹⁰Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.” ¹¹So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, a hundred fifty-three of them; and though there were so many, the net was not torn. ¹²Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” Now none of the disciples dared to ask him, “Who are you?” because they knew it was the Lord. ¹³Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. ¹⁴This was now the third time that Jesus appeared to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.

¹⁵When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.” ¹⁶A second time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Tend my sheep.” ¹⁷He said to him the third time, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” And he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. ¹⁸Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.” ¹⁹(He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him, “Follow me.

The theme for today is following Christ. Jesus said it to the disciples, the third time He appeared to them after He was raised from the dead. He commanded them -as if He needed to- to follow Him.

What does it mean for us to follow Jesus?

Well, I can’t sum it up in one sermon, it is a vocation that takes a lifetime to fulfill, that is why we are told to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. But today we are going to look at from the perspective of the second time Jesus calls Peter to the task of service.

And the spirit behind it, the power that drives it, the force that compels him has to do with Jesus’ question with which I titled the sermon, “Do you love me?”

It is a question we ask ourselves when it comes the time for us to make a choice of obedience to Christ and the way that He showed us or going our own way.

Peter, after the third time Jesus asks him if he loves Jesus gets a little bit uncomfortable with the question and resists it by saying to the Lord, “you can look into my heart and know the truth, so why would you ask?”

By uncomfortable I don’t mean that Jesus was overstepping His boundaries, but I mean that Peter must have, I imagine, started to squirm because of the line of questions. I wonder if Peter began to question it himself?

And that comes from the reason why we believe that Jesus asked Peter three times.

You know the story of Maunday Thursday, how Peter bragged that He would never abandon Jesus and Jesus exposes his pride and Peter ends up denying Christ three times.

He wept bitterly because he failed Jesus.

I wonder if he had doubts that he loved Jesus.

Do you love Jesus?

I don’t want to shame anyone with the question.

I know that you love Jesus. And Peter gives a wise answer, he tells Jesus that Jesus knows better than Peter himself if he loves Jesus.

There is no shame in Jesus question.

We have to be careful not to shame with the question: do you love Jesus?

During the height of the Cold war when we were told that the Godless commies were going to come and take away our religion, we were asked in youth group if someone were to put a gun to your head and tell you to deny Christ or die, would you do it or not?

It was the extreme scenario and of course, we were not sure. And the Bible tells us we don’t have to be sure. Peter was sure he wouldn’t and yet he denied Christ. Luke 21:15 says that the ability to confess Jesus comes from the Spirit of God Itself and we don’t have to worry about our answer because Jesus promises to be by our side.

So, don’t waste my time on shame is my answer to the way the question was asked.

Again, Jesus asks Peter three times. Maybe not to see if Peter doubted, but to reassure Peter that Peter knew that He loved the Lord.

The lesson taught Peter that he was far from perfect and that they only way he can make this Christian life work is by depending on the grace, mercy and presence of the Holy Spirit in his life.

I notice something wonderful about Jesus’ answer to Peter’s response. Jesus does not say to him, “Then why did you deny me?”

NO!

After his failure and the lesson learned about pride, Peter is reminded that Jesus has called him. He isn’t reinstated, because he never lost his position in the first place. He was Jesus’ man in the middle of his triumph and in the middle of his disgrace.

When we come to Christ, we belong to Him.

He lives inside of us and promises to be with us to make us successful in our mission by the power of His Spirit inside of us.

Jesus doesn’t remind him of his failure. Jesus reminds him of his purpose, his calling, and most importantly, his Love for Jesus.

I feel assured that by the end of this conversation, Peter can begin to say that he has a fundamental understanding of the grace, mercy and patience of God.

As your pastor, I ask you, do you love Jesus?

And I am sure that your answer is, Yes!

So make sure you receive the gift of God’s grace every time you think that you might have failed in your love for Christ.

We are not perfect. Jesus is. And we come to Jesus for forgiveness of our sins and He loves to forgive.

And, He doesn’t remember the sins against us. He loves us and restores us to a proper relationship with Him.

Loving Him means that we obey Him. John 14:15. And that does not mean that we have to follow the letter of the law that never saved the Jewish people because we need grace, but it is simple. At least the scripture says so. 1 John 5:3, If we love Jesus (Him) we will keep His commandments and His commandments ARE NOT BURDENSOME.

It was never intended to be a burden to love our neighbor. But we are commanded to love each other as much as we love ourselves.

Have you failed God? God forgives you, forgive yourselves. And always live in love by forgiving others.