TOPIC:‌"Serving the Sovereign Savior"

                 by Rev. Dr. Reg Dunlap

 

TEXT:‌St. John 21:15-22

 

"Lovest thou me" (v. 15); "Feed my sheep" (v. 17); "Follow me" (v. 19)

 

‌I want to begin my message with this question: As Christians what should be the deepest desire of our hearts? Is it not to please Christ and then to serve Him? If it isn't, it should be for the very fact that Christ died to be our Savior and He reigns to be our Lord.

 

‌In the Bible verses before us we find the reinstatement of Peter by Jesus into full fellowship with Himself. And here within our Lord's heart to heart talk with Peter we find Jesus laying down three indispensable qualifications for serving Him. Let's look at each one of them.

 

I.

 

‌First of all, there must be a DEVOTED LOVE for Christ. Three times in verses 15, 16 and 17 our risen Lord puts this question to Simon: "Lovest thou me?"

 

‌Now before we go any further let's look a little closer at the words of Jesus in verse 15: "Lovest thou me more than these?" When Jesus used the words "these" He was probably referring to the other disciples in light of Peter's boastful declaration about being faithful: "Even if all fall away, I will not" (Mark 14:29). But Peter himself had fallen away by denying Jesus three times. Therefore Jesus was asking Peter, "Do you really love me more than these other disciples love me?"

 

‌That was a very important question Jesus put to Peter. Everything depended on Peter's answer to it. And everything depends on our answer to it. Our fellowship with Christ is totally determined by the degree to which we genuinely love our Lord. The first thing which makes us a true disciple of Jesus Christ is not our wisdom, or personality, or eloquence, or even our work for Him, but a passionate love for Jesus Himself. Nothing, I say, can take the place of that.

 

‌Now Peter really loved Jesus but his confidence in himself was greatly shaken through having so recently denied his Lord. Like all of us in such circumstances, Peter felt unworthy to express his love to Christ. So when Jesus asked Peter if he loved him by using the strong word "agapa" which means "to love deeply," Peter used the weaker word "phileo" which means "to be fond of." It was a lesser degree of love as between friends.

 

‌Jesus now condescends to Peter's self-evaluation of himself by using the lesser word for love which Peter used. He was saying in effect, "Even though you failed me, I still love . . .