Okay, well let's turn in our Bibles to John 21. John 21, and this morning I'd like to read from verses 15 through 19. As we come to a close, we're soon to be finished with the Gospel of John after exactly five years. So let's stand together and read from John 21, verse 15. So when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me more than these? He said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him, feed my lambs. He said to him again a second time, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me? He said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him, tend my sheep. He said to him a third time, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me? Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, do you love me? And he said to him, Lord, you know all things. You know that I love you. Jesus said to him, feed my sheep. Most assuredly, I say to you, when you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you wished. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish. This he spoke, signifying by what death he would glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he said to him, follow me. Amen. You may be seated. Two observations before we get started this morning. First, as you read the Gospel of John, you find such basic truths. It's so fundamental, isn't it? This is 101. This is the trunk faith. And let me just say this. One of the reasons that I've gone through the Gospel of John over five years as carefully as I have is because I don't think this congregation is ready for the book of Romans. And sometimes I don't think I'm ready for the book of Romans. I went through the book of John for my own sake. Brothers and sisters, I'm part of the same body here. I'm talking about myself. I'm not talking about you and not me. I'm talking about all of us. You've got to get John down. before you move on to Romans. I'm not saying that we don't eventually move into Romans or that we don't read through Romans. But if you're really going to get something down well, shouldn't you have the Gospels down well? So in 19 years, this is the first time we've gone through a Gospel as carefully as we have in the last five years. Jesus gives us the basic trunk faith. And if you don't have the trunk down well, what are you doing in the leaves? This is the root of apostasy amongst those who are conservative, and they tend to think of themselves as those very mature in the faith. They have all the distinctives down, but they're just floating in the leaves. And they don't have the trunk down well. They don't have the basics down well. And Jesus gives us the basics. And that's what I like about this, this book, the Gospel of John. Secondly, the second observation is that the Bible doesn't really have a great deal to say in terms of application, or at least very specific forms of application. You don't find that much in Scripture. especially in the New Testament, perhaps more so in the Old Testament. The New Testament has very little in terms of application. Two verses on child raising. And maybe 12 on marriage. Okay, 15 on marriage. Does that give you any insight? How many books have been written on marriage and child raising from cbd.com? How many books? I don't know, hundreds? Thousands? Not sure, but the Bible actually has about two verses on child raising. Not very much, and yet there is something here. There's something very fundamental here in this passage. We're going to get to it in just a moment. But first, I'd like you to see something of the background to Peter's exchange with Jesus. So let's go back two weeks, and let's follow the story of Peter and Jesus from before the crucifixion over, I'm going to say, roughly two weeks. in terms of detailing the relationship of the Apostle Peter to Jesus. Back up to Luke 23 and verse 54. This happened a week or two earlier, so let's do that. Let's follow this through quickly. I'll give you the references. We'll just run through it. Luke 23, 54, having arrested Jesus, they led him and brought him into the high priest's house. But Peter followed at a distance. Now, when they had kindled a fire in the midst of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat among them. And a certain servant girl, seeing him as he sat by the fire, looked intently at him and said, This man was also with him. But he denied him, saying, Woman, I do not know him. And after a while, another saw him, Peter, and said, You also are of them. But Peter said, Man, I am not. Then after about an hour had passed, another confidently affirmed, saying, Surely this fellow also is with him, for he is a Galilean. But Peter said, Man, I do not know what you are saying. Immediately, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed, and the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And then Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said to him, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times. And so Peter went out and wept bitterly. Now on to John 20. John 20, verse 20. Now the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. And then she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved and said to them, they have taken away the Lord out of the tomb. And we do not know where they have laid him. Peter therefore went out and the other disciples and were going to the tomb. And so they both ran together and the other disciple outran Peter and came to the tomb first. Then on to John 21 verse five. But let's back up to verse one of John 21. After these things, Jesus showed himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias. And in this way he showed himself. Simon Peter, Thomas called the twin, Nathaniel of Cana and Galilee's sons of Zebedee and two other of his disciples were together. Simon Peter said to them, I am going fishing. And they said to him, we are going with you also. They went out and immediately got into the boat, and that night they caught nothing. But when the morning had now come, Jesus stood on the shore, and yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Then Jesus said to them, children, have you any food? And they answered him, no. He said to them, cast them in on the right side of the boat, and you will find some. So they cast, and now they were not able to draw it in because of the multitude of fish. Therefore, that disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, it is the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment, for he had removed it, and he plunged into the sea. Now I want to ask you a question. Here's the question. Does it appear that Peter loves Jesus? Based on everything I've read. Does it appear that Peter loves Jesus? He ran to the tomb, he saw Jesus on the shore, he jumped into the water, he obviously swam towards Jesus. Does it appear that Peter loves Jesus? I think the answer is probably yes. Now, this passage is typically referred to as the restoration of Peter. You might see that as the description. In fact, I have it in my Bible. Jesus restores Peter. That's what it says here. That's not inspired. But it is interesting as we read this that Jesus does not say in this passage, I forgive you, Peter. Did you notice that? Did anybody notice that? He doesn't say, I forgive you, Peter. He says, follow me. Now what's the difference between I forgive you and follow me? Follow me has more to it. I think that's the best explanation for it. Follow me. Yes, I accept you, but walk with me. I accept you into my fellowship. Stay with me, Peter. Stay with me, Peter. Rather, what we see here in this passage is that Jesus is questioning Peter's love. Is it appropriate for him to do so? Do you think that Jesus should question Peter's love? Two weeks ago, what happened? Two weeks ago, what happened? He denied Jesus on the toughest day of Jesus's life. Is that loyalty? Does that sound like friendship to you? Is Peter a friend of Jesus? Does Peter love Jesus? I don't believe he stood up. I don't believe that he was pointing at Peter. I don't believe any of that. I believe it was just a simple looking up from the food and saying, Peter, do you love me? And that's the question he's asking you. He's asking me the question. Do you really love me? Should he ask the question? The problem is there's so much fakery in the world, isn't there? Inauthenticity around. It's easy to fake this love business. But you know what? There is no more clear demonstration of real faith and real love for Jesus than your love for His sheep. Let me say that one more time. This is the point. Believe me. Believe me. You guys are really hard to love. Believe me. Believe me. Listen. Everybody listen right now. Just take a moment. I am really hard to love. Y'all can say amen now if you'd like. You know how hard it is to love the church? Everybody say impossible. But for the grace of God. It is so easy to fake like you're a Christian. But when demonic temptations come upon us that think evil of our brothers, and believe me, they come! Do you know how hard it is to love your brothers and sisters through the demonic temptations to think evil of your brothers and sisters? Do you understand this? It's time to realize that we're in real spiritual warfare in this body. Amen. I mean, most of you are going, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know all this. Okay, so Jesus gets to the core of it. He gets to the trunk of it. He says this is the heart of it, the real incarnation, the real deal. Here it is. What is love? See, these days, you know, I noticed that everybody hugs everybody today. You notice that? Even the President of the United States, it was like Nixon was running around hugging people. But Trump does. Everybody's hugging these days. Everybody hugs. Even Judas hugs. He doesn't just kiss, there's hugs going on too. So what is love? Love's not hugs. Love is not emoticons. Love is not emotion. Y'all know that. Jesus didn't say, I love you men. In fact, Jesus never says I love you to anybody. You know what he does instead? He goes to the cross. He takes 40, 60, 80 stripes of the catinine tails, digging down His back, such that His back is scarred and bleeding. And He takes the nails in His hands and His feet, and He dies on the cross for us. That's what He does. That's love. And then on the cross, do you notice on the cross, he doesn't say, I love you, mom. You know how people say that when they're being interviewed by CNN or whatever it is? They say, I love you, mom. He doesn't say, I love you, mom, on the cross, does he? He says, rather, John, take care of your mother. He doesn't say, I love you. He loves. And if that doesn't encourage you, if you're not seeing the authenticity this morning, friends, you need to stand at the cross for another hour, and see Him, and watch Him, and understand what He's doing on the cross out of sheer, infinite, eternal love for me and for you. That's Christ. And, you know, I don't think we've ever seen an era in which there have been so many love songs written, a billion love songs for a billion divorces. Isn't that interesting? Wow, never so many divorces in the history of the world. Never so many love songs. No, and never so much talk about love. Are you getting tired of the world's love? Love me tender, love me true, make all my dreams come true, et cetera, et cetera. I don't want the world's love. I want the miraculous, supernatural, amazing, incomprehensible, indefinable love of God in me like I see it on the cross. God's love with nails through the hands. That's it. That's the picture. It's beautiful. Well, there are two Greek words used in this exchange between Jesus and Peter, and you know the words phileo and agape. The phileo word is the love of a friend. It's the desire to be with somebody, to run to meet somebody, to jump in the ocean, and to swim hard in order to meet that person at a coffee shop. The problem with phileo love, it's very fickle. It's even more fickle today than it's ever been. Sometimes people go to church because they can hardly wait to see their friends. But when they don't like being with them anymore, they stop going to church. That's kind of that phileo love. And man knows what it is to have friends. Unbelievers know what it is to have friends. But see, that's phileo love. And Jesus comes back and talks about agape love, which is what? Agape love is divine love. It's a word used, a special word for love. And I don't believe you can use any of the secular Greek interpretations for that word, except that God takes that word, that special word, and uses it to describe his own love, and the agape love that's shed abroad in our hearts as well. So effectively, agape love is whatever you see with Jesus on the cross. Our brother has been giving us exhortations on it, but if you want something simple, I would encourage you to just gaze at Jesus on the cross. He loved his disciples. He agaped his disciples to the end. He loved us to the end. And so that's really the definition of it. I don't think there's any better definition of love than what you see in Christ on the cross. So for the first two times, what happens here is Jesus asks Peter, do you love me? Do you agape me? For the first two times, Jesus asks, do you agape me? But Peter's response is, yes, I phileo you. So Jesus asks twice, do you agape me? And Peter answers twice, I phileo you. He does not agree. He does not say that he agapes Jesus. And then the last time Jesus asks, do you really phileo me? Yeah, let's go this way. He says, do you agape me, Peter? Do you agape me, Peter? Peter says, yes, I phileo you. Yes, I phileo you. And then finally he comes back down and says, do you really phileo me? And Peter says, yes. I phileo me but not once does Peter admit to a gap paying Jesus Well phileo is not a miracle that happens in the world all the time Agape is the miracle in biblical reference. It is that supernatural agape love of God That is shed abroad in our hearts Now Peter actually does use the word agape several times in his epistles So he evidently he gets it by the time he writes first and second Peter. Well, let's ask this question then. We'll end with this question. How does the Lord present love in this passage? He presents it in three ways, because what Jesus is doing is he's saying, Peter, you're a fisherman, you hang out with the guys, and you love the guys, and you love me, you flail me, but I'd like to introduce you to agape love. So there are three things about agape love that I want you to understand from this passage. Jesus is getting to it. He's saying he wants something sincere. He wants something real. He wants to be authentic. What is it? Well, number one, it's sincere. First thing about love is it's sincere. Agape love is sincere. That's why Jesus asked the question three times. He's testing Peter for sincerity. The third question, he comes down to Phileo and he's really asking the question, do you really, obviously you don't really agape me, but do you really aphileo me? He's coming down to Peter's level and he's saying, you know, not very much love, I get it. I get it. Peter, not very much love for me. I understand. But Peter, do you really sincerely phileo me? And Peter says, yes. You know that I do, Lord. You know all things. So the first test of love or the first way in which agape love expresses itself is by sincerity. Again, some of you say, well, I don't see a lot of sincerity in the world around me. It's rather rare to see sincere love. And yes, that's true because Love is a miracle of God. This agape love is a supernatural power of God that's working in us. So if some of you are saying, you know, I want this love, I want to see this love in myself, I would love to see it more in my family, et cetera, et cetera. Brothers and sisters, just be aware that this is the love of God. This is a special love. And it is truly a miracle of God when we see it in ourselves and in others. So Jesus is pressing on this matter of sincerity, and it is important for us to do this as well. Really come down to the point where there's some self-counsel going on. I recommend some self-counsel, not all the time, but at times in your Christian life, maybe for an hour a week, not for 140 hours, but an hour a week, or an hour every two weeks, where you set yourself down, you say, self, how did the day go? How did you interact with others? How was your relationship with your wife today? How did you communicate with your husband today? Just spend an hour drilling into yourself. And presumably the Holy Spirit will do so through the Word of God. And you're hearing the words of Jesus by the Holy Spirit this morning. Are you really loving? Are you a loving person? Have you loved others? Is this really love? It's worth it, brothers and sisters, because it's painful. Because you're going to find out that you are just the opposite of everything that Josh Hueso has been exhorting about for the last 10 weeks. And you're going to realize it's just so much puffed up, so much self, so much this, so much that, and you're just... What do I do? And then you cry out to God, oh, have mercy on me, the loveless, self-centered, rich that I am! And God says, thank you. And he has mercy on us, and he gives us love. I have no other explanation, I have no other encouragement, I have no other solution for you than that. Come on, brothers and sisters, you're not the paradigm of love. Ask yourself, did love really endure all things in that relationship? Did you come to the point of even a little bit of pain in the relationship? Did you forgive 490 times and make that 49 times? I mean, did you make it to 49? Did you make it to four? You make it to one. You see, isn't it important to be honest with yourself? Again, this kind of surgery is difficult. But the Holy Spirit, He's there and He's drilling you and He's saying, you've got problems and you need the salvation of Jesus and you need the love of God shed abroad in your hearts. And we turn to God for this. Still amazed by the fragility of human relationships. I think it's harder today than ever before. The snowflake quality to relationships unlike anything I've seen in my lifetime. Just, you know what a snowflake is? It just melts pretty fast. The fragility, the pure fragility. Somebody called me and said his relationship with his church broke down in Texas over some super minor, minor, minor thing. He had to leave the church over it. The elders were up in arms. You had to get a microscope out to identify. And so much, I'd say 97% of conflicts are communication issues. 2.999% of microscopic faults. I'm just telling you, friends, do you really love? How loving are we? Ask ourselves this question. We find that our love is not as sincere as it should be. And Jesus is pointing this out to us. Do you love me? Do you love me? Do you really love me? That's the question he's asking this morning. So first, love is sincere. Secondly, love is a commitment and a duty. But did Jesus say, Peter, give me a hug? Come on, come on. Give me a hug. Is that what Jesus said here? No, he didn't say that. I don't need a hug, I don't need emoticons on your text messages. What does he say? Love is action. Love dedicates itself to duty and to action, not mere affection. Throughout the Gospels, what do we find? That Jesus is moved with compassion. such that He immediately grabs the dirt, puts it on the blind man's eyes, and heals the blind man. He's moved with compassion. He sees the demoniacs. He sees those who are blind and lame and dead, and He just can't help but raise the dead here and heal the blind. He's moved with compassion. And the very next words is, and then He, and then He went and died on the cross for our sins. We simply cannot sit back and look at the worst hurricane that occurred Western Hemisphere in the last ten years and see a hundred percent of a GDP wiped out and say, whoa, those poor people. Oh, I feel so bad for those people. I have so much compassion on those people. Somebody get me another cup of coffee. I need a latte. That's not Jesus. That's not Jesus. Jesus doesn't hardly talk about it. He hardly talks about love. He demonstrates it. He's a man of action. He goes and does something about it. He's driven by compassion. He's moved by compassion. He does things by compassion. Love acts. Love is action. Love does things. Love picks up the phone. Love goes there, visits the widow in her affliction. Love acts. Love doesn't sit there and think about it. Love doesn't cry about it. Love acts on it. Love is action. Love is action. Paul says, if any man does not love the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be cursed. But what is it to love Jesus? Jesus says, here's what you do, you care for my sheep. That's his answer. Now, listen to this. Life's priorities will belie your love for Christ. That is, ask yourself, do I love Jesus? Well, are you following up on his priorities? That's the question. And here's the deal, you can't fake this. You can't fake this, guys. Against all of the devil's discouragements to do family worship, to come to church, to read the word of God, will the love of Christ constrain you? The rubber always hits the road on your daily habits and practices. You can't fake love for Jesus. You simply can't fake it. You can fake it for a while, maybe a week, two weeks, maybe a year max. But your priorities in life will be driven by your love for Jesus or lack thereof. You know, people can be coerced to do certain things for so long, like they can be cheer-led into family worship for the next year, you know, sign them up to a family-integrated church, put the pressure on them, you know, keep sending them family Bible study guides every three months. Whatever it is, you can cheerlead, you can peer-pressure it, you can cult leaders yelling at them and so forth. But at the end of the day, you know what? People are going to do what they're going to do. Their lives, habits, and priorities are going to be set by the love that's in their heart or not in their heart. People can do things in spurts. Once every two months, we'll do family worship. But their true priorities, ergo, entertainment and making money, eating and drinking, et cetera, eventually manifest themselves One way or the other. So friends, this is not a mystery. This is very basic. This is where is your heart? Where's your love? It will be manifested in your life, in your priorities and your habits. And then remember the urgencies of life. Does your phone ever ring in the middle of family worship? I get a kick out of this. You're doing family worship, the phone rings. It's usually a really important call too. And there's always this test, are you going to grab the phone or not, right? Again, you know, life will give you the urgencies of life, the diversions of life, the irritations of life, the interruptions of life. All these things will test our love for Jesus. But Jesus stands here today again saying, do you love me? Do you really love me? Peter, do you really, really love me? That's the question he's asking. John brings this out really strongly. These two points that we just talked about here that are obvious in John 21. Jesus is past the faking it. He says it's got to be sincere. There's got to be action. And John 3, 1 John 3, 6, we read, this we know love because he laid down his life for us and we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this world's goods and see his brother in need and shuts up his heart from his brother, how does the love of God abide in him? Now listen, this is Jesus talking here in verse 18. This is exactly what Jesus is saying here in John 21. Listen, my little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. There it is. Cut to the rubber on the road. Let's stop faking it. It's it's gonna be a sincere love. It's gonna be an action love. It's gonna be a love that expresses itself in in deeds in action Do you ever get to the point at which you're tired of talking about love? Where somebody says I think we need is another 47 exhortations on love from first Chris 13 when Josh is done the this series is great and But, you know, once we're through that, we need to talk about 1 Corinthians 13, you know, and just keep talking about 1 Corinthians 13. That's what this church needs. We just need to keep going over 1 Corinthians 13 147,000 times. Does anybody say, I think I'd rather just do something and start loving the brothers? I think it's time to pick up the phone and call a brother with whom I have had a broken relationship over the last three years. I think it's time to call somebody at Emmanuel Church, somebody who is part of Christ the King Church from four years ago when something didn't work out quite right in your relationship. I think it's time to pick up the phone. Or maybe we should go through another 147,000 exhortations on 1 Corinthians 13. What does Jesus say? Brothers, it's time to stop talking about love and just love in deed and truth. Brother, continue your series. So, my brothers and sisters, let's take action. Let's write the check. Let's drive over to help the brethren in need. Let's just pick up the phone. Now, what is the specific duty that Jesus brings to us in verses 15 through 19? What does he keep coming back to three times? Feed my lambs, feed my sheep. This is the special duty. He's primarily looking at pastors here, but I think also fathers and mothers as well. This is rather unusual. I think many of us are stepping back and saying this is very odd, that the quintessential demonstration of the love of God and our love for Christ is to teach your children God's word as you sit in the house, as you walk by the way, as you rise up, as you lie down. That's why I don't want a family integrated church. I want a church where fathers love God. Can we join that denomination? Can we do that? Thechurchwherefathersandmotherslovegod.com Go and get the URL. Can we get that church to give you part of that? Let's do that. That's it. That's all it is. George Barna told us, a bunch of homeschool leaders about five years ago, somebody asked him, how many American born-again parents do family worship? He says one in 20 have ever tried it. 5% of born-again American fathers and mothers have tried family worship, 5%. But why not? The answer is simple. They don't love God. They don't love God. It's just that simple. And there are times at which we need to admit ourselves that, you know, our love for God is rather flimsy, and we've gone over that already. We need to be self-examining here as well. So let's not just, you know, point fingers, but there are four back at us. But friends, this is the issue. It has to begin with this. Do you love me? Then feed my sheep. If you love God with your heart, soul, mind, and strength, God's word abides in your heart, and then you'll share it with your children whom you love. See, this is a test of your love for your children, yes, but also for Jesus, for God. Why don't these fathers teach their children as they sit in the house, they don't love God, but why don't they love God? Because they don't have the love of God in them. They don't know that God so loved them that he gave his only begotten son, that's it. This is the fundamental sin in America. Probably more so than lust and pride and selfishness. The problem is, in America, people don't understand, haven't received the love of God that's presented to them through the gospel message, and they're attending church. Evidently 95% of them attend church. And they don't know the love of God for them, and they don't love God. And they won't teach their children God's word. I have the same question brought up, not just in America, but everywhere else. I think the last two years, Uganda. I hear it in Mexico. I hear it in South Korea. You're in a Q&A session. We heard this in Uganda last year. Some of the guys are with me. Remember that we had the Q&A session. There's always the lady or the ladies. They'll step up to the microphone in the Q&A. Doesn't matter which nation it is. I could just fill in the blanks. We had the phone call yesterday, too. My wife talked to her for, what, two hours. Same thing. Uganda, Mexico, America. They're always coming forward. My husband won't get off the sofa, turn off the television set, and read the Word of God to my children. And my answer is always the same. Don't nag him. What you're asking for is a miracle. Don't minimize what you're asking for here. You're asking for a resurrection from the couch and from the dead. You're asking for a resurrection. You're asking for the lights to come on. You're asking for a man to realize what's at stake. You're asking for a man to know the love of God at the cross. Providing interposition for us such that we would not receive the damnation of God upon ourselves for all eternity They don't know the love of God for them. They need to see it. They need to be alive to it Let me ask you this what father in his right mind wouldn't Jump into the way of his two-year-old running out in front of a semi in the highway. I or that two-year-old's running towards a boiling pot of water, tipping over to scar him for life. What father wouldn't intercede with his life to prevent that from happening, and yet they won't open the Word of God to save their children's souls from hell. No urgency. Oh, there may be a hyper-Calvinist father who's saying, don't worry about the kid. God's gonna save him from the boiling water, so be it. Sovereignty of God here. Come on, guys. Do you understand what's at stake? Are your eyes open to the realities of heaven and hell? For your own dear children whom you love? You would give your very lives for your children and you won't share with them the words of life on a daily basis? God forbid, God forbid that you're dead to the truths of God's Word. Oh, we're praying for resurrections here. But don't minimize this either. Don't underestimate the opposition here. Feeding lambs and tending sheep is extremely difficult. I love what John Calvin writes on this passage in his commentary. Listen to this. This blew my socks off. Listen to this. John Calvin, on this verse, here's what he says. This task of feeding the lambs and tending the sheep is extremely laborious and troublesome. Listen, Todd. Nothing is more difficult in the world. Nothing is more difficult in the world. Josh, nothing is more difficult in the world. Do not underestimate power of the demonic opposition to that opening the Word of God. Do you understand the discouragement to family worship on a Monday morning? Do you understand it? All of the demons in hell are against you. Some of you are having troubles on Tuesday morning doing family worship. Some of you are having a hard time. Two of you told me in a Bible study this week, I hope this is okay, brothers, if I share this, am I going to tell your names? But you said that it was a knockdown drag out trying to get to church last Sunday. And by the way, it was a little difficult for us too. Our wet water went off last week or last night. We had a hard time getting ready. But understand that the devils are going against dads and the discouragements are intense. Now you say, yeah, but it was just I had to do this and I had to do that. The phone rang. They're the demons from hell standing against you, opening this word and sharing it with your children. Nothing is more difficult in the world, John Calvin. Don't, oh I plead with you brothers, don't underestimate the opposition against you in all of this. Calvin again, listen, Satan brings forward as many causes of offense as he can that he may destroy or weaken the courage of a good pastor. And I add, Father, no man, therefore, will steadily persevere in the discharge of his office unless the love of Christ shall reign in his heart in such a manner that, forgetful of himself, Todd, and devoting himself entirely to Christ, Josh, he overcomes every obstacle. Oh, my heart resonates to that. Brothers, anything for Jesus, amen? Anything for Jesus. And after watching 80, 90% of elders I knew back in the 80s and 90s just sort of melt away, brothers, I am more appreciative than ever, get this, of old pastors worth their weight in gold. Hey, I have one application to y'all right now. I did not say this 25 years ago. But I say it today. God bless old pastors. And these guys, I saw some struggles and faults with some of the pastors I sat under in the 1980s, 1990s. I was a little critical like every young person is, you know? Stupid. You know what I'm saying? Young guys, just say amen to that. Be a little humble. Yeah, we're stupid, right? I was too critical, and I look back at those guys, and some of them, I know a couple of these old pastors, they're in the 70s, 80s, and 90s now, and I'm saying, okay, let me give you an analogy, this hit me. Watched a war movie last week, and this war movie, these guys were in one of the most intense firefights of World War II for like nine hours. And you know, while I was watching that, here's what I thought. I thought, if they stay in that fight for 50 years, they'll know what it's like to be an old pastor. Nine hours. Big deal. That's my view of it. You looking old pastors been through 50 years of that? Listen to John Calvin one more time. No man, therefore, will steadily persevere in the discharge of his office unless the love of Christ shall reign in his heart in such a manner that, forgetful of himself and devoting himself entirely to Christ, he overcomes every obstacle. That's why Jesus looks at Peter and he says, okay, big boy, you love me? Feed my sheep for the next 60 years. Beautiful. Beautiful. Now back to dads, back to moms. And moms, you're in this too. But I would say dad's first, because Ephesians 6.4 is the single verse where fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord. And yes, moms show up in Proverbs 31. She's teaching her son some important things. So don't negate moms in this either. But every day, brothers, we need to be exhorting each other, lest any be hardened with the deceitfulness of sin. Now, let me ask you this, Dad, have you tried missing family worship? Maybe you just did for 24 hours. You know what happens? People do harden with deceitfulness of sin. It's amazing how quickly that corrosive stuff begins to gang up in your family life. But there's one more thing, and that is, you've got to be very careful about this traditional element of Bible reading in American families. I asked my dad about 10 years ago, Grandpa, disciple you. It's a very interesting question to ask of people who'd grown up in a traditional American religion, Baptist religion, in the 1940s and 50s. And my dad's answer was interesting. What he said is, my father would read the Bible every day, but he didn't have a relationship with us, and he didn't disciple us. Now what does that mean? I thought about that for a long time. Here's what we got to be careful of, that we don't slip into a rote, hypocritical, mechanical reading of the Word of God every day. But this is the living Word of God. This is the breath that we breathe. This is the water that we drink. This is our very life. And if we don't present it that way, we're contradicting the message we're giving our children by the way that we're presenting it. So brothers, let's be careful. Let's confess this is our truth. This applies to me. This is the faith lesson for me because I've been a little quivery. There's been some fear and anxiety about me losing my job this week. And here, take no thought for tomorrow. Tomorrow will take thought for the things of itself. Jesus is gonna take care of our family, kids. You see, now that's real. That's the real stuff. That's confessing it. That's accepting it, showing how it applies relevantly to our lives, and praying that word. Let's not contradict the truths by our disinterest or our roteness. Let's sing it. Let's pray it. Let's apply it. Actively engage it and meditate upon it. Come back to it. You know, it's interesting. We read something yesterday or we heard a message yesterday. There's this habitual practice that happens in the church where people are training their own minds to hear a sermon and then to quickly forget the whole sermon. And they have no idea what it was about the next day. Again, this is rote, this is roteness. So we need to be... sinking into it. It needs to not just float out there in sort of this tacit assent to whatever was said, but that it sinks into us. We abide in the Word, and the Word abides in us, and it has a fruitful result in our lives. I think I've used this illustration before, but sometimes it seems like you come to a church and you get a tank of water. Let's say you get one of these huge water tanks. We've got one up the hill here for fire purposes. You fill that with 600,000 gallons of water, and so you have 600,000 gallons of sermons and reading the word that just sits on the soil in the desert for 20 years, and it never really sinks in, and so there's never any fruit. Oh, that's what we do not want. Let's absorb it, and perhaps sometimes we read too much. Feed the lambs, break the food down to bite-sized portions, make it chewable, make it understandable and relevant. All right, that's it for the application. Let's move on to the third and final. way in which Peter is introduced to agape love, and that's the remainder, verses 17 through 19. Jesus then said to Peter the third time, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me? Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, do you love me? And he said to him, Lord, you know all things. You know that I love you. Jesus said to him feed my sheep most assuredly I say to you when you were younger you girded yourself and walked where you wished but when you were old you will stretch out your hands and Another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish This he spoke signifying by what death he would glorify God and when he had spoken this he said to Peter follow me What's he saying what he's saying is Peter is going to be nailed to a cross and And they're going to carry that cross. They put that cross down, and he's going to die a very painful and torturous death on a cross. And Peter, as you know, in history, tradition, we read that he was crucified upside down because he did not feel he was worthy to be crucified as his Lord was crucified. Now, I want you to know that this is the last of the assuredlies. You're 17 of the most important things Jesus said in his ministry. We've gone over all of them. We come to the last one now. This is the last of the most assured lease. And he says, Peter, it is all about love. Peter, it's all about you loving me. Peter is about you loving me with an agape love. Not a flair love, but Peter, you need to love me with an agape love. as I loved you with an agape love. Love your brothers with an agape love, but love me, Peter, with an agape love. Assuredly, Peter, you will know what love is. You will come to know that love is not just a phileo, I love you man, hugs all around. This love is an agape love Peter. You will come to know assuredly I say to you Peter You failed the last test, but by God's grace, you will be given another opportunity to love me to the death Assuredly Peter truly Peter really Peter you are gonna be crucified for me And then he ends with these words follow me Peter You want to be with me, Peter, you seem to be running towards me. You want to sit around the fire with me. Peter, you're welcome to follow me. But Peter, you're going to follow me to suffering, into pain, into death. And you will enjoy the fellowship of my sufferings. I wanted to send a message to a friend. who was interested in ministry, and I felt that his concept of ministry, well, he was a young man, perhaps somewhat given to pride, as young men are. And so I was coming home from Castle Rock, and I thought for a long time, how can I explain this to my friend? And then the idea hit me. I put together a picture. I framed it. I went to Walmart. On the way home, I bought a frame. And I found the picture on the Internet of a man who had been beaten with a cat and nine tails. And there were huge ribbons of agonizing stripes down his back. Maybe half an inch to an inch deep running down his back. and of course the blood dripping to the ground. I put that picture in the frame and then I captioned it with one word, ministry. A servant is not above his master. If Jesus took the stripes for us, Then brothers, those of you in ministry, you will take stripes too, as Peter did. There is the picture of Jesus washing his disciples' feet, but there is one more picture. It is the bleeding furrowed back of our Savior. He loved us that much. Now, do we love him with that same love? Father in heaven, we're in awe. We are struck by the humility of Christ, by the compassion of Christ, by the intense suffering of Christ, by the death of Christ. His suffering, Father, His suffering ten million times worse, ten million times more agonizing than anything we would ever That's how much He loved us. Father, our love for You will never come close to the love that has been shown to us throughout all eternity and certainly there at the cross. Oh, that we would know the fullness of it. Oh God, that we would be filled with the fullness of the love of God, that You would pour it out richly upon us. that we would understand what it is to love with a supernatural miraculous love. The world is turned off by the back of those who are suffering for Jesus and those that are suffering for the sheep. But Father, oh, it would be a privilege to suffer for you and to live out that passionate, true, sincere, agonizing, and yet sacrificial compassionate love that Jesus loved us with. Oh God, that you would fill us with this love. We pray, oh we see ourselves not nearly as loving as we wish we were. Oh God, so shallow, so little. Oh we're so convicted to stay that our love is so shallow. Oh God, we pray, we plead with you that you would teach us your love. We pray that this love would empower us. We pray that it would drive the fathers and the pastors to, yes, under great oppression and difficulty and resistance, satanic resistance, whatever it is, that we would still lovingly love Christ and share Christ, share his word with our children and with others. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Our Lord Jesus Christ was tortured and killed by sinners for sinners. That's amazing. That is amazing. When Jesus came to his disciples, the thing that isn't presented immediately here but is obvious that he comes to Peter with a nail prints and nail scars still in his hands. He tells Peter that you're going to be crucified for me. But what is he telling him? He's telling him I was crucified for you. You see that part of it is undeniable. So We are overwhelmed that God, the Son, should go to the cross for us. We are the sinners that killed Him. But He died for us on the cross. These are amazing considerations that we, the unworthy, have been redeemed by the blood of the worthy. I wish I had more words to describe this. I wish there were a million, a billion amens. I wish we were more attuned to what happens, you know. How much love did the Father show to us? How much love did Jesus show to us? I'm just trying to get my Mind around this. Listen to Romans 5.5. Now, hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. For when we were still without strength, that is when we were still dead in our trespasses and sins, In due time, Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely, for a righteous man, will somebody die? Yet perhaps for a good man, someone would dare to die. But God demonstrates His love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. And it's the love of God that is poured out upon us. I want one more passage here before we approach the Lord's table. just before we get into the application of fathers loving your children, discipling your children, husbands love your wives, just before all of that, Paul has one prayer, because he realizes we can't get into this, us loving Jesus and His body and His church, we can't dare get there until we understand the magnitude of His love for us, until the love of God's been poured out upon us. Listen to Ephesians 3, again the prayer here, before we get into the nurture the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace, love one another in meekness. Before we get to that, he realizes there's got to be a prayer here because this is a supernatural thing we're going for. Listen to the prayer. Being rooted and grounded in love, you may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge then you may be filled with all the fullness of God. And for those of you who say, you know what, loving my brothers and sisters is impossible. Yes, a thousand yeses. But when the love of God has been poured out in your heart, but when you understand the height, the depth, the breadth of the love of God, suddenly this supernatural love begins to take place and take shape. And at this table, we taste the blood of Jesus, as it were. We come so close as to taste the flesh of Jesus, as it were. That's intense. Why? Because the body and blood of Jesus is what we need for our very life. He died on the cross to provide us his life. He interceded for us. He reconciled the father to us. Now, my point is this. It's one thing to know this intellectually. Intellectually is not enough. I mean, we can estimate what it would be like for somebody to love somebody from all eternity. We can think what it would be like for the father who loved the son more than we love our son to sign his son up for torture and crucifixion for rebellious sinners who hated him. Intellectually we can say wow, that's that's that's pretty amazing But friends then we have to add this he did this for you and for me It has to be a personal experiential knowledge of where we experience the power of the love of God, the assurance of the love of God, the personal application of the love of God. where we are there standing at the cross and we can hear the words of Christ ministered to us by the Holy Spirit, not this preacher or anybody else who stands up and said, God loves you, has a wonderful plan for you. No, no, no, the Holy Spirit must say it to you. You must be by the cross listening as Christ looks in your eyes and said, I do not give my life up reluctantly. I give my life up willingly for you, son. I am giving my life up willingly for you, my daughter. I have loved you with an everlasting love. These wounds are for you. The aches, the agony right now, for you. My love for you. These wounds for you. This blood is offered for you, for your very life. And if you receive this, if you hear this by the Spirit, then now the love of God is poured out in your heart too. Amen. Father in heaven, we come before you to this table where the blood of Jesus Christ is poured out for us. the very life of Christ through His blood, ministered to us by Your Spirit this morning. But, Father, more than this, the love of God poured out through this service, poured out by Your Spirit. We appeal to You, Holy Spirit of God, by the Father, please pour out upon us now that we would know the love of God and be filled with the fullness of God, we ask for a miracle. We ask for the supernatural love of God in us. Oh, that we would further know the love of God. Incomprehensible, unknowable, yes. But then Paul says here, Father, we can still know it. How do we know the unknowable? I don't know. But please help us to know the unknowable love of God. shed a rod in our hearts now at this service. In Jesus' name, amen.