Lord, as we prepare our hearts to come to your word today, we ask that you would bless the preaching of your word. And we remember that if it were not for your Holy Spirit also helping us and leading us into the truth that we would have no understanding of your word. We could not understand spiritual truths apart from the Spirit imparting those truths to us. So we pray, O Lord, that you would give us ears to hear and eyes to see your glorious gospel today. Show us our need for Christ. Show us the sufficiency of Christ. Show us His power. Show us, Lord, our obligation to live for Him in light of Him dying for us. We pray, Lord, that you would use this time to meet us where we are. If we need to be stirred, that you would stir us. If we need to be comforted, that you would comfort us. Lord, you know the needs of each one of us, and we know that your word accomplishes your work. And so now we pray, use this time to feed us, nourish us with your word, that Christ may be glorified. In his name we pray. Amen. Well, if you have your Bibles with you, please turn to John chapter 21. If you guys remember on Christmas, Christmas day was on a Sunday this past year. And we actually came to the very verses in which Christ died. And we saw on Christmas how connected, actually, Christmas is with Easter. What a blessing it is that on Easter, the day when we celebrate, we celebrate the resurrection of the Lord every Sunday, but we recognize that Easter Sunday is Resurrection Sunday. And today by God's providence, we come to a passage that tells us of one of the most important encounters that anybody ever had with the risen Christ. I would say the only encounter with the risen Christ that might rival the encounter that Peter had with the risen Christ was Paul's encounter with the risen Christ. But we'll be looking at Peter's encounter with Jesus today in verses 15 to 17 of John chapter 21. If you need a Bible, we do have Bibles available out in the foyer. If you just raise your hand, we can make sure we get one to you. If you need a Bible, we'd be happy to put one in your hands, one for you to take home. That wouldn't be a problem at all. So today we'll be looking at John chapter 21 verses 15 to 17. The 21st chapter of John, what we saw last time is that the 21st chapter of John really flows out of the closing words of chapter 20. So if you've got your Bibles open and you want to just glance up at the end of chapter 20, we read this. It says, Many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book, but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name. Life in His name. Those last four words set the entire theme for what chapter 21 is all about. Chapter 21 is actually kind of an illustration, if you will, of what it means to have life in His name. What does it mean to have life in His name? In our previous lesson we saw that it means living a life of faithful service unto the Lord. We saw in our study of verses 1 to 14 that all who have been savingly redeemed, those who have savingly believed, on Jesus have been called into a new way of living, a new way of life, a life in which we deny ourselves, a life in which we serve the Lord selflessly with the gifts that we have been blessed with, knowing that each of us has received everything that we need in this life, to have life in His name. We've received, first of all, the Holy Spirit indwelling us, and the gifts with which the Holy Spirit has given to each according to His own will, equipping us for service with those gifts. He's also given us a new heart, having replaced the heart of stone that we read about in Ezekiel with a heart of living flesh. That is a heart that desires to please and obey God. So we've got the Holy Spirit dwelling within us. We have the right motivation, because we have the heart, and we have the gifts. What else do you need to live a life of service? Nothing. He has provided everything that we need to live a life of faithful service unto Him. Nevertheless, Everyone who has been a Christian for more than a couple minutes, maybe a couple years, knows that every few years, a well-known pastor someplace or a church leader someplace is forced to step down and to resign from his position due to some sort of scandal in his life. Sometimes that's a sexual scandal. Sometimes it's a financial scandal. There are all kinds of scandals, but every couple of years, you see this kind of thing happen. And the reason that it happens is because, well, the scriptures lay out very strict and detailed instructions, guidelines, which tell us of the qualifications that are necessary for a man to hold the office of pastor, or elder, or overseer, or however, whatever word you want to use there. And those guidelines that scripture outlines for us are not negotiable. So if a man finds himself being tempted and stepping outside of the boundaries for that position that Scripture provides, the boundaries provided by Scripture, it's important that he be removed from that position. Several years ago, we had a Sunday school teacher here who, right as service was about to begin, began screaming at another woman after this other woman had committed what was really a very minor offense against her. And instead of going to this other woman privately, as scripture instructs, she went on a loud verbal tirade right in front of everyone, right as service was about to begin. It was terribly distracting for everyone. It was sinful. And this woman happened to have been a Sunday school teacher. So Monday afternoon, the next day, I talked to the elders about the situation and we all agreed that I should call her. call this Sunday school teacher and tell her that she really needs to go to this other woman privately and to apologize for berating her in front of everybody. And when I asked her to do that, she begrudgingly said, well, I'll pray about it. Now, I had been a Christian long enough, even at that point, to know that A, when Scripture clearly tells us to do something, we don't need to pray about whether we're going to do it or not. And B, someone who says that about an issue that is very, very clearly outlined in Scripture is essentially only saying, I don't want to obey God, and they're postponing having to do it. So I had to tell her that I was removing her from her position of teaching Sunday school until she did it. And she never did, sadly. She ended up leaving the church. But as we discuss the subject of service as an essential part of what it means to have life in His name, it's important that we recognize the reality of biblical qualifications for certain positions. But it's also important that we understand that God has provided a pathway for us to follow which allows for restoration. That is to say that there is room for a person who disqualifies himself or herself from a position to repent and to become qualified again. In the Belgic Confession, one of the true signs of a true church is exercising church discipline. A church that doesn't exercise church discipline is not a true church. And so with that in mind we have to understand that this is going to happen sometimes, but there is a way back. There is a way to be restored. We're all very well aware of how badly Peter betrayed the Lord Jesus Christ. He did not fall into some small sin. He fell into a great sin. He had denied his Lord three times on the night of Jesus' arrest, just as Jesus had prophesied he would. And it is such a beautiful reality to consider that that wasn't the end of Peter's story. In fact, it was just the beginning of Peter's story. It's a beautiful aspect of Peter's story, because in the passage that we come to today, we'll see that he's not only reconciled to the Lord, that is, he's forgiven and received by the Lord, but we also see that he is restored to his position. His story teaches us in this passage, and this is the point of the passage, he teaches us that nobody has done anything so sinful that they cannot return to the Lord, that they cannot be reconciled and restored, and that our previous sins never have to prevent us from worshiping the Lord, from serving the Lord, and from being greatly used by the Lord. So in the passage we come to today, Jesus has appeared to seven of the disciples on the shores of the Sea of Tiberias and the Sea of Galilee. After catching no fish all night, Jesus had instructed them to cast their nets on the other side of their boat, and when they did, they caught more fish than they could possibly haul in. But upon realizing who it was that stood on the shore telling them to cast their nets on the other side. And the reason they recognized who it was is because of the results of acting in obedience to what he instructed them to do. Peter, who was still fully clothed, jumps into the water and he swims to shore where Jesus was waiting for him with a charcoal fire and some fish ready for the disciples for breakfast. Now what we know that Peter did already believe. The last time we actually saw him say anything in John's text, the last time we saw him speak was when he was denying the Lord. And Easter Sunday is a wonderful occasion to study this passage in which we see Peter encounter the risen Jesus, the risen Messiah, and to be restored both as a follower and as a leader of the church. If Christ had not risen, he wouldn't have had this exchange with Peter. And if he hadn't had this exchange with Peter, I suspect, it's at least very likely, that Peter's life would have gone very, very differently. So the encounter that he has with the risen Jesus in this passage, is monumental in his life. It's so important in his life. If he hadn't had this encounter, I suspect that Peter may have even spent the rest of his life just fishing and lamenting his fall from grace. But because Christ lives, Peter is restored. And if Peter can be restored, and if Peter can be used greatly by the Lord, friends, so can anyone. So can you. So our passage today, the text that we're gonna be looking at today is actually pretty short. It's only three verses, but the lessons are both plentiful and significant. Let's look together at John chapter 21, verses 15 to 17. John writes this, he says, So when 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. He said to him, tend my lambs. He said to him again a second time, Simon, son of John, do you love me? He said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him, shepherd my sheep. He said to him the third time, Simon, son of John, do you love me? Peter was grieved because he had 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. And Jesus said to him, it is my sheep. Now I don't think that it is mere coincidence that Jesus had prepared a charcoal fire for the context of this occasion. The charcoal fire establishes a setting in which Jesus can look Peter in the eye, asking Peter three times if he loves him. One question for each one of Peter's three previous denials of his Lord. Now sometime in the not so distant past Jesus had actually issued a warning to Peter saying Simon, Simon behold Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat. But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail, and you, once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers." That's from Luke chapter 22 verses 31 and 32. This guaranteed that Peter's fall, his failure, would not be final. It guaranteed Peter's future restoration. The fact that Jesus' prayer guaranteed this should be a source of great comfort for every Christian, because you should know that if you are a Christian, if you have believed in Jesus for your salvation, He's also prayed for you. And He continues to pray for you. He intercedes at the right hand of the Father on your behalf. Now Peter, when Jesus had issued this warning to him, Peter's response was to think that Jesus didn't know what he was talking about, that Jesus didn't know everything. He vowed that he would never forsake the Lord. He would never deny the Lord. He insisted that he would stand by Jesus, even if it meant dying with Jesus. So what a great paradox this establishes that Jesus, full of love for Peter, full of mercy and grace toward Peter, nevertheless allowed Peter to fail so miserably. Make no mistake about it, Jesus allowed Peter to fail miserably. this terribly. He granted Satan permission to sift Peter like wheat in order that Peter would learn the absolute worthlessness of his arrogant prideful self-confidence. Having an awareness of our weaknesses is a good thing to have. The less aware of our weaknesses, the more likely those weaknesses are to play out in our lives. So having an aware of our utter weakness, indeed our inability to do anything apart from Christ, just like he said in John chapter 15 verse 5, is vital. It is absolutely vital for survival in any form of Christian service. If you are going to serve the Lord, it's good to be aware of our weaknesses. What great grace it is, therefore, that our Lord would teach us to be humble and meek, just like he did with Peter. And he does that by sometimes allowing us to fail, so that we may see our weaknesses. and learn from them. It was Peter's pride, it was his self-confidence that he had throughout the Gospels that led him to denying Christ three times. In John 18, verse 18, we were told that this took place, his denial took place beside a charcoal fire. Isn't that interesting? Because the only other place where we find a charcoal fire in John's text is right here in the text that we come to today, here in John chapter 21. So Jesus had clearly organized all of this very intentionally, very deliberately. He had orchestrated all of this as a means of not only letting Peter know that he was aware of Peter's failure, but that he was even aware of where Peter was. He was aware of every minute detail involving Peter's denial. But he still had plans to use Peter for his service and for his glory. It's very common to hear people say that the key to understanding this text is actually to look at the Greek words that are used for love and to compare those to see exactly what is going on here. People will say that the different words for love indicate different things. And it's true that there are different Greek words being used here in this exchange. In Greek, there are three words for love. There is agape. We see that in this passage. Agape is the highest form of love. It's really a love that was invented by Christians, but it's a love which involves not only the mind, but also the will, and therefore the actions. It's a verb. Then there's phileo. That's another word for love that we find in our text. That's actually a lower form of love. It's a brotherly common love. We know for example that Philadelphia is the city of brotherly love. Maybe not today but once upon a time that's what they wanted it to be right? But the first two times Jesus asked Peter, do you love me? We see Jesus using the word agape for love and Peter responding with the word phileo. And the significance of this is supposedly that Peter refused to claim to have the higher, the greater love for Jesus, but was insisting that he could only have the lower form of love for Jesus, the brotherly, more common kind of love for Jesus, and that then when Jesus asked the question a third time, Jesus lowers the bar, asking if Peter had phileo love for him, supposedly showing that he was willing to work with the absolute lowest, most common form of love for him and that he would work to produce greater love over the course of time. Let me just tell you that this is not the lesson of this encounter. You don't have to be a Greek expert to understand this text. In fact, it has absolutely nothing to do with the Greek words for love. The Scriptures, first of all, never ever set a lower bar for us. They never lower the bar for us to accommodate us. The Scriptures never imply that it's not important to have a great love for Jesus, and that's certainly not being taught here in this text. Jesus never said, hey guys, you know, I know I said that the first and greatest command was that you love the Lord your God with all of your heart, all of your soul, your mind, and all of your strength, but I see that that's not working out so well for you guys, so here, let me lower the bar for you. Does Jesus ever say that? Of course He doesn't. The bar stays where it is. The bar stays high. You love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Now the conclusion of this text here is not that Jesus lowers the bar. See, the problem with this whole approach when we consider the meaning behind the Greek words being used is that John doesn't seem to see one form of love as necessarily being higher or greater than another form of love. And that much is made apparent when we consider the way that John uses these two words interchangeably and synonymously throughout his text. Think of it this way. Consider this, that when John refers to himself as the disciple whom Jesus loves, sometimes he uses phileo, sometimes he uses agape. Sometimes John uses the word agape while he says that, while other times he says phileo. In John chapter 20, verse two, we read that Mary Magdalene ran and came to Simon Peter and the other disciple whom Jesus loved, that's of course John referring to himself there, and there he uses the word phileo for the love that Jesus had for him. Did John think that Jesus had a low form of love for him? Absolutely not. No, elsewhere, like in, if you look just up at verse seven here in this chapter, John says, therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, it is the Lord. And there he uses the word agape. So what we see there when we study John's gospel is that he uses these words actually interchangeably. He doesn't seem to see any difference between these two words. So the words in John's mind mean the same thing. He does not make any kind of distinctions between agape love and phileo love in how he uses them. Now keep in mind that the conversation between Jesus and Peter here was very likely a conversation that took place in the language that we refer to as Aramaic. And in recording this conversation, not only does John use two different Greek words for love, but he also uses two different Greek words for, excuse me, for no. But it's clear that when he uses the word no, they're meaning the same thing. There's no difference between these two words. And so with all of that in mind, Richard Phillips notes this in his commentary on this passage. He says, quote, most scholars today doubt that the key to understanding Jesus's question lies in the difference between agape and phileo in John's use, end quote. So that leaves us wondering. What is the lesson then? What is this supposed to mean? What are we supposed to make of Jesus's questions? And how does this all apply to us? What difference does this make in our lives? Let's just start by making a real quick observation. The conversation begins with Jesus asking, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? Now, the only other time in John's gospel that Jesus has referred to him as Simon, rather than Simon Peter, was all the way back in the first chapter, verse 42, where Jesus said to him, you are Simon, the son of John, you shall be called Cephas. And John adds, which is translated, Peter. So there's a sense in which Peter is right back to square one. Right back where he started from. Back in the first chapter he is certainly still fallen in one sense. He at the very least hasn't been fully reconciled to Jesus and has not been restored to his position by Jesus. And note what Jesus asks him. He doesn't just ask, do you love me? He says, do you love me more than these? Do you love me more than these? There's quite a bit of discussion historically about what that means. What is these referring to? Now, some have argued that it's a reference to the fish. That's a possibility, of course. There's no question that Peter enjoyed fishing, right? He was a fisherman. He loved to fish. But the question is, did Peter love Jesus more than he loved fish or fishing? That's one possibility. Others have argued that Jesus was referring to the other disciples. Again, that's certainly a possibility. We know that in Matthew 26, verse 33, Peter proudly declared, even though all may fall away because of you, I will never fall away. And now here's Simon Peter, fallen, and perhaps Jesus is kind of asking him in a way, do you still think that you have more love for me than these other men do? Or also likely, maybe he's asking, do you love me more than you love the other disciples? Whatever the case may be, whatever these refers to, I don't think that it matters what they were. Because the question is really simply asking whether Peter loves Jesus more than he loves anything else. It doesn't matter what the object is. Jesus is saying, am I the greatest object of your love? compared to anything. And friends... There is a very important lesson for us in that. There's a very important application for us here. There's only one valid reason that anybody, anywhere, would serve the Lord, and that is out of love for Him. And I don't think that anyone can deny that we all know that there are church leaders who serve because they think that there's something in it for them. They think there's prestige to be gained. They think that it's a respectful position. Maybe they think that there's money to be made. Some do it for fame, some do it for money, which is exactly why our street preachers will be going out tonight to the Benny Hinn convention, the supposed healing convention, because Benny Hinn is a false teacher, and there's no question that Benny Hinn does it for the money. He doesn't even know the Lord. So of course he doesn't do it out of love for the Lord. Listen, there is only one, only one valid reason to serve the Lord, and it's because you love Him. And you at least strive to love Him more than anything else or anyone else. Are you okay with serving in obscurity? Are you okay with doing it for a little bit of pay? Are you okay with doing it for no pay and no fame? Are you okay with doing it in your prayer closet where nobody can see you? Or do you do it to make a name for yourself? Or do you do it to be seen? Or do you do it to fatten your wallet? Jesus' words for a person like that can be frightening. His words are, you have already received your reward in full. It's a point that Jesus will make three times in Matthew chapter six in the Sermon on the Mount, which we'll see in our study on the Sermon on the Mount. But now let me ask you, friends, do you love him? Do you love him? And do you love him more than you love anyone or anything else? Consider the warning that the Lord Jesus had for his church in Ephesus, which by the way is the healthiest church that he addresses in his letters to the churches in Asia Minor in Revelation. But we read his words to the church at Ephesus in Revelation chapter two, verses two to five. He says this, he says, I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance and that you cannot tolerate evil men and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles and they are not and you found them to be false and you have perseverance and have endured for my name's sake and have not grown weary but I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Therefore remember from where you have fallen and repent and do the deeds you did at first or else I'm coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place unless you repent. Now if you have a red letter Bible, those letters are in red. That is Jesus speaking. how easy it is for us as Christians to lose focus and to set our love on lesser objects, on lesser causes than Jesus. Now, we all know that Scripture warns us against loving the world. That's actually not that difficult. But you can set your affections, you can set your heart on a million, millions of things that aren't of the world and yet are lesser than Christ. If you and I were to have walked into the church in Ephesus, we probably would have had a very, very high opinion of them. Agreed? When you read the first three verses there, you're like, wow, this is a great church. What a healthy church. We'd probably be thanking that ourselves if we were to walk in. After all, they seemed, on the surface, to have been doing all the right things. They were toiling for the Lord. They were working diligently for the Lord. They were persevering. They weren't becoming worldly. They were holding fast to the faith. They had even exercised church discipline, excommunicating evil people and men who claimed to be apostles, and yet were preaching a false gospel, making sure that the church understood, so the church could clearly understand these were not apostles, they were false teachers. But we look at these things and we say, yes, Yes! Amen! Hallelujah! That's exactly what a healthy church is supposed to be doing. That's exactly what the church is called to do. Keep it up, brothers in Ephesus. Keep it up, sisters in Ephesus. Keep doing the good work that you're doing. But Jesus looks past the surface. Jesus looks to the heart and He sees the motivation. He sees the hearts in a way that we cannot. And He says to them, I have this against you, that you have left your first love. What is their first love? It doesn't mean their earliest love. It means their greatest love. It means their number one priority love. What is that love? It is a love for Jesus. It's a love for Jesus that they have lost in the midst of doing all the right things. They lost their love for Jesus. Other things became their priority. And let me tell you, that can happen so easily. I can imagine that the leaders of the church in Ephesus didn't even realize that it happened. Maybe when they heard this they would have been thinking, what's he talking about? We really need to examine our hearts. But that's exactly how easily and how sneaky it can be. But it underscores the importance of serving Jesus for the right reason. And that is because you love Him more than you love anything or anyone else, including yourself. Listen, we are all motivated to action by something. Something motivates us, right? And the reality is that being motivated to serve the Lord for any reason other than love, or trying to serve Him faithfully while loving something else or anyone else more than you love Jesus, that's going to be like putting sugar in your gas tank. It might look good on the surface for a few minutes, for a little while, but eventually you're going to come to a grinding halt. Things on the surface are going to start going wrong. Once the root of a tree goes rotten, it won't be long before you see that up in the tree itself. And so it might not have looked like anything was going wrong at the church at Ephesus on the surface. But if they continued to serve the Lord with a lesser reason than love, if they did not return to their first, their greatest, their highest love, eventually things on the surface were going to start going sideways. And Jesus would not be honored by that. And that's why the Lord instructs them to repent. He's not being mean there. He's being loving. He's pointing out a weakness that they don't know they have, but that they need to be aware of, lest he take action to remove their lampstand. In other words, he's going to come in there and shut the whole thing down if he has to. Back to our text here in John chapter 21. Simon Peter's response to Jesus' question, do you love me more than these? Is to say, yes Lord, you know that I love you. And it reminds us that it's not enough to simply say that you love Jesus. Anyone can say that they love Jesus. Benny Hinn says that he loves Jesus. No, it's to love the real Jesus, the Jesus of Scripture, the Jesus that says, if you want to follow me, you have to deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me. Deny yourself. That's where it starts. It's to love the real Jesus, the biblical Jesus, and to love Him, to strive at least to love Him more than you love anything or anyone else. When you love Him more than you love anything else, when He becomes your highest priority in life, listen, all your other priorities in life fall into line automatically, including your service unto Him. So Jesus proceeds to ask the same question two more times. Do you love me? Again, one for each one of Peter's three denials of the Lord on the night when Jesus was arrested. And by the end here, Peter, we see that he's grieving. His heart is chastened. The first two times, Peter gives the same answer. He says, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. John tells us that the third time, Peter was grieved, and the third time his answer changes. This time he says, Lord, you know all things. You know that I love you. He says, you know all things. What a great thing to hear Peter say, because he hasn't always thought that. He hasn't always realized that. Once upon a time, Peter thought that he knew something that Jesus didn't know. Once upon a time, he thought he knew better than Jesus knew. And so when Jesus had warned him of what would happen, Peter's response was essentially to say, no way, I'm not gonna leave you. My love for you is greater than you even know, Jesus. Yeah, right. Jesus knows all things. Peter has learned that. And so he knows better now. He understands that the Lord knows all things. The Lord sees our hearts. The Lord knows our motivations. The Lord knows our moments of failure, even before they happen. And he knows every detail surrounding our failures. No detail is ever overlooked. Jesus knows it all. And that grieved Peter in the moment because it meant that Jesus knew exactly what had happened when Peter had three times denied him. But let's understand something important here. Jesus isn't doing this to be mean to Peter. Jesus isn't doing this to just like pour salt in an open wound that Peter has. No, this isn't penance. We don't believe in penance. Penance isn't a biblical concept. This is a prompting to repentance. That's a biblical concept. See, repentance was necessary for Peter's restoration. Peter's brought to the point where he hates his sin. He absolutely hates his sin. Not because he got caught, but because his sin was against the greatest object of his love that he had, and that is Jesus himself. So Peter, having said three times, I don't know him, now three times says, you know, I love you. Proverbs chapter 27 verse 6 says, faithful are the wounds of a friend, but deceitful are the kisses of an enemy. And friends, we sing the song. What a friend for sinners Jesus is. What graciousness it is on Christ's part to walk Peter through this process of reconciliation and restoration. If it's true that the wounds of a friend are faithful, and it is true, how much more faithful are the wounds inflicted by our rescue from heaven? In A.W. Pink's words, quote, the Lord wombs only that he may heal, end quote. Jeremiah tells us of the false prophets of Israel, the false shepherds of Israel. He writes of them in Jeremiah 6.14, they have healed the brokenness of my people superficially, saying, peace, peace, but there is no peace. Friends, listen. False shepherds will heal superficially and say, peace, peace, when there is no peace, but Jesus will not heal. He will not restore his people superficially. He will not declare peace, peace, when there is no peace. Peter needed to be broken of his self-confidence, of his pride, but that alone wouldn't give him a sense of peace. In fact, that alone would only make him more insecure and less effective as a servant of the Lord. No, he needed to not only be broken of his self-confidence and his pride, but he also needed to have what we refer to as an assurance of pardon. He needed to know that he was forgiven. and that Jesus could still use him. In fact, Jesus still wanted to use him and wanted to be glorified by him. He needed an assurance of his forgiveness, of his pardon. And friends, if Jesus had not risen again, not a single one of us would have an assurance of pardon either. Neither would Peter. He would have gone through life wondering if Jesus could love him. Wondering if Jesus could forgive him. Wondering if Jesus could use him for his service. Wondering if it was possible for him to still glorify Jesus by serving him. And so praise the Lord. Jesus is risen. He's alive. And that's what this encounter, that's the significance of this whole encounter. Is that he has guaranteed that He has made the payment necessary to reconcile us to God and to use us, therefore, in His service. His life, which He laid down on His own as a sacrifice for sins, was acceptable by the Father. That's why Jesus rose again. And Jesus has all authority on earth and in heaven. And therefore, he has the authority to restore Peter unto his service. Praise the Lord, he's risen. Because if he hadn't risen, Peter might have just gone back to fishing. But after each one of Peter's affirmations of love for Jesus, Jesus assures Peter not only that he is fully pardoned, not only that he is forgiven 100%, but that he has also still called Peter unto his service. Tend my lambs, he says. Shepherd my sheep. Tend my sheep. Peter is simultaneously humbled here and encouraged. He's pushed down but lifted up. He knows that he's not only at peace with God, but that God was entrusting him with the greatest responsibility of all, which is to care for his sheep. Did his sheep matter to Jesus? Did Jesus care about how his sheep were treated and who's taking care of them and the way they're being treated? Of course He did. He would not be called the Good Shepherd if he didn't. I don't think it's possible to read through John chapter 10 where Jesus likened himself to a shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep and to come away from that chapter thinking that Jesus was even remotely ambivalent about each one of his sheep individually or collectively. He loved his sheep enough that he laid down his life for them. The fact is, friends, Every single one of us is called to serve the sheep in some way or another. God has instructed us to be actively involved in ministering to one another. That's what the one another commands that are found throughout the New Testament reveal to us. And sometimes it'll be easy, sometimes it'll be really fulfilling, but sometimes it might not be. And if you've been a Christian long enough, you probably know this. If you've been a Christian for more than a few minutes, you know that sheep aren't always easy animals to manage. They wander. Sometimes they bite. You can find videos on the internet of shepherds getting bitten by their sheep, getting knocked over by their sheep, getting trampled by their sheep, getting injured badly by their sheep. And so it is with serving Christ's sheep as well. But Christ loves those sheep nevertheless. You need to know that if you stick around in Christian circles long enough, if you're serving the sheep enough, it'll eventually happen to you too. You'll suffer some form of injury at the hands of a fellow sheep. Or maybe at the hands of someone who you thought was a sheep, but it turns out they were a goat. You can also find videos of people online saying, in essence, I left the church because of this or that sheep. You'll find people saying things like, I love Jesus, but I can't stand his church. If or when you suffer some form of injury while serving his sheep, don't forget that Jesus loved them so much that he laid his life down for them. They're not only His sheep, but they're also referred to in Scripture as His bride. And if you love the bridegroom, you can't hate the bride. If somebody tells me that they hate my wife, we've got a problem. Right? And so it is with Jesus and His Bride, His Church. If you love the Bridegroom, serve His Bride. Care for His Bride. And do it because you love the Bridegroom. Do it because you love Him more than you love anything or anyone else in life, including comfort and including safety. We love comfort and safety, don't we? Because the only way to really ensure that you will never get wounded by a sheep is to choose safety and seclusion instead of service. And that's not an option. Scripture never presents that as an option. You've been given a gift, what are you gonna do with it? Are you gonna bury it? Or are you gonna use it? You gotta use it. There's one more very important principle found here in our text, and it's one that has been cast aside, if not completely lost, by so many who hold the office of under-shepherd in our day and age. There's this terrible philosophy of worship that really started in the previous generation, but it continues today. It's called the seeker-sensitive movement. The idea behind the Seeker Sensitive Movement, the philosophy of worship behind the Seeker Sensitive Movement, is that if you want people to come to church, you need to cater to them. You have to conduct your worship services in such a way that your services will cater to non-Christians who are supposedly seeking God, so that they will find your services appealing. And let's just cut to the chase here. There is not an unregenerate person in the world who is seeking God. Not a single one. And Scripture is crystal clear about this. Paul writes in Romans 3, there is none righteous, not even one. There is none who understands. There is none who seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together they have become useless. There is no one who does good. There is not even one. Nobody seeks after God. The Bible teaches that it's only when a person's heart of stone is replaced by the spirit of God with a heart of flesh, that the individual is born again, and that that person will then seek God. The person who seeks God has already been sought and found by God. And so in the truest sense, there is really only one seeker, and that is God himself. And I am all about being seeker sensitive if we're talking about God being the one seeker. Our services are for him. He's the one we're here for. But my point is that we are not called to feed or to tend to goats. We are not called to cater to them. R.C. Sproul notes this, he says, quote, We are to do evangelism, engage in outreach, and be involved in ministries of mercy, but Sunday mornings belong to the sheep. It is the task of the pastor and of the church to feed the sheep. If someone who is not a sheep comes in, that's fine, but we're not going to change the menu to give the sheep goat's food. When the sheep of Christ are fed, nurtured, and filled with the strength of Christ and of His Word, they become a mighty army turned loose on the world." They don't become that mighty army by being fed goat food. And so to that end, the job of a pastor or of an elder is to do what? to feed the sheep. And as Paul says in Ephesians 4, verse 12, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service. There's a job description right there that the pastor has. How are the saints equipped for work of ministry? By being fed. Fed what? Not entertainment, not cotton candy, not worldly ideologies and worldly philosophies, not pep talks. No, they are to be fed the Word of God. Because the Word of God accomplishes the work of God in us. His Word doesn't return void to Him. You feed somebody nothing but cotton candy, something that's sweet, but has no substance, they're gonna die. But you feed them the meat and the milk of Scripture. and they become a mighty army. That's what we're here to do. That's what we want to do. Now you might be thinking to yourself, okay, whew, I'm not a pastor, I'm not an elder, I have no interest, thank you, so this obviously doesn't apply to me. Listen, all the one another commands in the New Testament are given to show that serving and tending to the Lord's people is the responsibility of every member of a church. As we consider this passage here in John 21, what a wonderful illustration of the reconciliation and restoration that's found in Christ. Let us never forget that for Christians who repent and renew their love for Christ, no failure, let me say that a little bit louder for those of you in the back, no failure is ever final. No failure is the last straw, not in Christ's economy. Will we fail? Will I fail? Of course. We all have moments of failure. We all fall into sin. Absolutely, but is there any sin that is so great that a person cannot be restored in their service unto the Lord? Don't ask Christians on social media, by the way. They'll give you the wrong answer. I was just in a discussion about this yesterday. where people were saying not only that if a person commits a certain sin while they're a Christian, can they not be restored to their position, but some people were arguing that if a person has committed X sin before they were even converted, they could never be a pastor. Scripture never says that. It never says that. So don't ask Christians on social media. I've seen good, faithful Christians say that once a pastor or elder has committed this sin or that sin, that they can never be considered to be above reproach again. But if we take what happens here in this text seriously, if we take Peter's reconciliation and his restoration to service unto the Lord seriously, we have to disagree. We have to say that there is no sin, no sin that is so great that a pastor or elder or anyone else can never be restored to their position again, because there's no sin greater than the sin that Peter committed against the Lord, right? Let's not pretend that denying the Lord and not just denying him one time, but denying him before men three times, let's not pretend that's some minor thing. What does Jesus say about those who deny him before man? He says that he will deny them before the Father. Oh, how great our sins are. But the grace and the mercy of Christ is always greater. It's always greater. And therefore, no failure is ever final. It never has to be. We have to conclude that for Christians who repent and renew their love for Christ, no failure is final. So therefore, let us all examine ourselves with this question. Do you love Him? Do you love Jesus? And do you love Him more than, fill in the blank, because you know what you struggle with individually. You know the things that you love. You know what your temptations are. Let me ask you this. Maybe you don't love Jesus more than those things. But do you want to? Do you strive to? Do you spend time in his word so that you can overcome your love for lesser things than Jesus? Praise the Lord he doesn't ask, do you love me the way I deserve to be loved? Praise the Lord he doesn't say, do you love me perfectly with your heart, soul, mind, and strength? Because if he did that, we'd all be disqualified from any kind of service unto him. If that was the requirement, we'd all be fishermen. We'd just go back to fishing. But do you want to love him that way? Do you want to love him the way that he deserves, the way that he is worthy of? Do you strive to love him that way? That's really the question. Nobody, friends, nobody has done anything so sinful that they cannot serve the Lord again, that they cannot be reconciled to Him, that they cannot be restored unto Him. In our previous sins, they never have to prevent us from serving and being used greatly by the Lord for His glory. There are only imperfect servants and under shepherds of the Lord on this side of glory, but we serve a chief shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ himself, who upheld all of the law, all that God requires, and whose perfect righteousness is credited, transferred, imputed to all who believe on him. So, when it comes to service, get in the game. Because you do stand in His righteousness if you believe in Him and love Him. Get off the sidelines. If you need to repent of sin, then repent of your sin. Don't delay another minute. If you love the Lord Jesus, then serve Him and glorify Him in your service of the sheep that He laid His life down for. Let's pray. Our Father, we do see ourselves in this story. And so we thank you for your grace, which is so much greater than our sin. You extend a grace to us that not only covers up our sin, but a grace that draws us close to yourself. A grace that reconciles us to yourself and restores us when we fail. We pray, Lord, that as we examine our hearts and strive to love you above everything, that by your power, by your spirit, you would help us, help us with our weaknesses, help us to know our weaknesses, help us to learn from them, and help us to avoid them. Help us, Lord, to be a people who serve the sheep, driven by a love for You and nothing else. And we ask that Christ would be glorified in that. In His name we pray. Amen.