The Word Made Plain

Guest (Male): Welcome to the word made playing with senior pastor Tony Clark of Calvary Chapel Newport News in Virginia. Currently, pastor Tony is teaching in the book of John. Please open your Bible to John chapter 21 verses 15 through 16.

Tony Clark: All right, let's dive into the word of God together. Turn with me in your Bibles to John chapter 21 as we continue to go verse by verse and chapter by chapter through the gospel of John on Sunday mornings. And as you know, we're in the book of Deuteronomy on Wednesdays and just going through the word of God, but most importantly having that word go through us. And so I thought I was going to finish up the gospel of John today so we can go into the book of Acts, but uh it didn't work out that way once I got to studying.

So we're going to be looking at John 21 verses 15 and 16. And Father, thank you for this precious opportunity to speak into the hearts of your precious people. These are your people, Lord, and I pray that you will give us ears to hear what the spirit of God is going to say to us today. Lord, thank you for this opportunity in Jesus' name. Amen. John 21 looking at verses 15 to 16. The title of this message is do you love Jesus? Do you love Jesus? Now for most of us, our answer to this very important question is yes.

However, when Jesus explains to Peter what it means to really love him, I wonder how loudly we will say that we love Jesus. Now we left off with Jesus inviting his disciples to come and eat breakfast with him according to verse 12. Oh, they were amazed that Jesus wanted to eat with him. They were amazed that Jesus wanted uh uh to eat with them in their disobedient state. They were blown away by this because in this culture to eat with a person is to become one with them. And so Jesus inviting them to eat knowing that they were in a disobedient state, they were blown away by this and they they wanted to ask who are you?

Who are you that you are a God that will invite us to eat with you in our disobedient state? And they were blown away knowing that it was the Lord. And so we left off last week wondering about Peter. Oh, the last time we saw him was in verse seven when John told him that it was the Lord on the shore waiting for them. Oh, when Peter heard this news, he plunged into the water in a hurry to get to Jesus perhaps to see if he could be forgiven. Now I believe that the gospel of John ended in chapter 20 and verse 31 that says these things were written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and in believing you may have life in his name.

I believe the gospel of John ended at this verse. However, what's the purpose of John chapter 21? Two reasons. Number one, to restore Peter. To restore Peter. And number two, to correct a rumor. To correct a rumor. See, there will be those who heard about how Peter denied the Lord three times would wonder if he was still qualified to do ministry. And and there was a rumor going around that says that John, the author, would not die until Jesus returns, that he clears up at the end of this chapter that we would look at God's will next week.

Look what it says there in verse 15. So when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Peter, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me more than these? And he said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. And he said to him, feed my lambs. Now that breakfast was over, Jesus now turns his attention to Peter. Oh, I'm sure I can see the scene. I'm sure that Peter had a lump in his throat and heart was racing and sweat was running down his face. And Jesus turns to Peter and says, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me more than these?

Oh, there are three things I would like for us to see in this verse alone. And number one, the first thing I want you to see is how Jesus called him Simon instead of Peter. Oh, it was Jesus who gave him the name Peter in chapter in John chapter one and verse 42 which means rock. But whenever Peter went back to acting like his old nature Simon, which can be translated as shifting sand or something that is unstable, Jesus called him by this name Simon. Oh, we see this in Luke chapter 22 and verse 31 when Jesus said, Simon, Simon.

Oh, when the Lord calls your name twice, you know you're in trouble. Abraham, Abraham, Saul, Saul, Simon, Simon. You know you're in trouble. He says, Satan has asked for you that he may sift you as wheat. He said, but I prayed for you that your faith fails not. And when you return, strengthen your brothers. So here is Jesus addressing him as Simon. The second thing I I want to bring out is Jesus called him son of Jonah. Oh, yes, it can be translated as son of John, but I believe son of Jonah is appropriate too reminding Peter that his behavior lately was just like the rebellious prophet Jonah that he knew so well.

The third thing I want you to see is Jesus says, Peter, do you love me more than these? Now what are the these that Jesus is referring to? Oh, there are three possible answers. A, or perhaps Jesus was pointing to the disciples. Oh, you remember when Peter was boasting in Matthew chapter 26 and verse 33, he says, even if all are made to stumble because of you, I will never be made to stumble. Oh, Peter, confident in his own strength and abilities. As a result, he failed and denied the Lord not once, not once, but three times.

Beware when you are confident in your own strength and in your own abilities, resting in your years of being a Christian and your Bible knowledge because you like Peter will find yourself denying the Lord. Oh, I know many of you are probably thinking, I will never deny the Lord. Isn't that what Peter said? He said the same thing. So do you love me more than these can refer to A, the disciples. It could refer to B, the 153 fish that they caught in verse 11. Peter, do you love me more than fishing? Referring to his life before Christ.

You remember before they became followers of Jesus Christ, they were fishermen. So Jesus called them out of fishing for fish to become fishers of men. So here is Jesus saying, hey Peter, do you love me more than your life before you came to me? Oh, that's a question we have to ask ourselves. In other words, Jesus is saying, do you love me more than what you were doing before you came to Christ that you're constantly longing to go back to? Oh, you hear people talk about their BC days, their before Christ days, and they talk about it with such a longing as if they long to be back there doing those things again.

Failing to realize it was in that condition that you cried out to the Lord to save you and he rescued you out of that. But so often you hear people kind of longing to go back to those things. So do you love me more than what you were doing before you came to Christ? Or do you love me more than social media? Oh, now we about to get messy now. Now you know I 'm not against social media. I said, do you love Jesus more than social media? Do people see you more on Facebook and Instagram and Twitter more than they see you here at church?

Or are the these the these the these could refer to C, fishing boats? Do you love me more than your job that you're putting 50 and 60 hours a week into, but don't spend 50 or 60 minutes with the Lord or with your family? What are the these in your life? TV? Your phone? Oh. Oh, we really get messy now. Do we care more? And I can say yes before I even asked you the question. Do we care more that we left our phone at home than we leave our Bible? We freak out. We don't have our phone and life that we once knew has ended.

The end of the world has occurred. The apocalypse has arrived. We left our phone and we act like we have just gone back into the stone ages without our phone. But do we feel the same way about our Bibles? Do we feel the same way about the things of God that we do about it it's amazing. It's a running joke in my family whenever we go out to eat, we always look around at the table. There can be four or five of them there and everybody's on their phone flipping. No conversation, no talk. It's just it's just, you know, and it's just and it's just, you know, we just flipping, we just lay everybody, you know, and then to talk we send each other a text.

And and they just write across the table and We're too much. We're too much. Now, of course, you know, we all have phones and and and there's I know in the crowd this size, I know some of you still will have a flip phone. I understand. And God bless you. And you you want to hold on to the old days, you know, and you pull out that flip phone and everybody's looking at you like But do you love Jesus more than these? What are the these in your life? See, there's nothing wrong with these things, but do you do you love Jesus more than these things?

Or do you love these things more than Jesus? Only you can answer that question. So Jesus said, do you love me more than these? Then the Greek word Jesus uses for love is agape which is the highest expression of love. It is a love that gives and expects nothing in return. It is a love that gives with no strings attached. So Jesus is asking Peter, do you love me with this kind of love? In other words, Jesus is saying, Peter, love must be the motivating factor in serving me. Or you'll be serving me out of duty, not out of love.

Oh, Paul will later say in 1 Corinthians 16:14, he says that everything that you do be done with love. Then Paul lets us in on the secret that motivated him. In 2 Corinthians 5:14 he says, it's the love of Christ that compels me. Oh, I have to ask you, what compels you today? Is it money? Is it the next rank? Is it status? Is it to be known? What what what what gets you out of the warm blankets in the morning time and compels you out for the day? What is that? Oh, we have to ask ourselves these questions.

Paul says, it's the love of Christ that compels me, that gets me out of bed. My love for the Lord and his love for me. The love of Christ compels me. And Jesus said that it should be love, agape love, that motivates us. Now how did Peter respond to this question? Oh, look at the second part of verse 15. He says, you know that I love you. Now on the surface it will seem like Peter Peter is answering the the question with a yes. But when you examine what Peter is really saying, lets us in on the heart of Peter at this particular moment.

Peter uses the Greek word phileo from which we get our English word Philadelphia which is the city of brotherly love. And see, the Greek language is more expressive than the English language. All we have is one word for love. We we all know that there's different kinds and different types of love and the Greeks understood this and they had different words to describe those different kinds of love. You have number one storage and that describes the parent-child love. Then you have Eros that describes sexual sensual love. You have phileo describes brotherly love. And then you had agape.

Now this word agape was not a part of the classical Greek language until the apostles introduced it because it describes selfless love. So often human love is selfish. Agape is selfless love. It's God's love for us, something the Greeks knew nothing about. So Peter uses phileo. He he was saying, Lord, you you you you know I I I love you like a brother, you know, like a brother. We right here. And Jesus responds to Peter by saying, okay, feed my lambs. Feed my lambs. The Greek word for feed is bosko and it means to feed or to graze or to tend to.

And now we must understand that Jesus is restoring Peter back into ministry. And this chapter is so important to Peter and to the Peters throughout history that will fall in ministry. And if it were not for this chapter, how would we ever know that Peter was restored back into ministry? We would know without this chapter. Jesus is telling Peter to feed his lambs. The lambs are the little ones. This is why we believe that the best place for those called into ministry is the first feed the lambs in the children's ministry. Why? Because if you can teach children the word of God, you will have no problem with the adults.

If you are boring and a poor communicator, oh, they going to let you know about it. Oh, yeah. I honed in my teaching skills in the children's ministry. I used to have when I taught children's church, I used to have a little puppet. Hurry, kitties, you know, and I had little voices and puppets and all that kind of stuff and I would change the inflections in my voices and use different voices for different characters in the Bible animated because I had three-year-olds and all the way to third grade. And I had to make sure that I engaged the three-year-olds.

I had to make sure I didn't lose the third graders. And I honed in all these teaching skills. So when you hear me using different voices and all that all that stuff I learned in children's ministry. Learning in the children's ministry. Teaching the children. See, some people get up and they give and they think that teaching the Bible is like giving a boring lecture like in the universities. Boring boring 30-year-old notes teaching the same mess. No. You got you got to engage and especially when you come to children. Oh, they will let you know youth as well.

They sitting in, you know, head back on the seat half awake because if you're boring and I'm telling you if you can engage them, don't think you're going to be all that engaging to adults. And so I'm telling you the best place for preparation is in the children's ministry with the youth as children. They will ask you questions that will cause you to dig dig down to China. They will cause you they will ask you questions where you would even question whether you say deny. You got to engage these kids today. And if you're born and terrible, I'm telling you, they will let you know.

They will let you know. So those of you who are serving in the children's ministry, youth ministry, God bless you. God bless you. We I you have a special place in my heart. I know for back there feeding and pouring into those kids and they asking you questions and things and oh my good God bless you. Your labor is not in vain with the Lord. You're doing a great work that you're doing. And we just very thankful for you here at our church. So that's Jesus tells Peter to feed his lambs. Oh, look at verse 16 because it continues.

He said to him again a second time, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me? And he said to him, oh yes, Lord, you know that I love you. And he said, well, tend my sheep. Now Jesus asked Peter a second time, do you love me? Then he said, tend my sheep. Oh, that the word tend in the Greek language is an amazing Greek word is and it's a great word that means to tend to or to shepherd. And so Jesus is saying, feed my lambs, but also I need for you to for you to care for them, to to shepherd them.

See, it was the job of the shepherd to not only feed the flock, but also to shepherd or attend to their needs. See, sheep are not the smartest animals in the world. Thus their needs for a shepherd. And what animal does God compare us to? A sheep. Oh, for some of you your ego just took a hit because you think you all that, you think you're so smart and intellectual and have all the answer. You're sheep. You're sheep. Thus your need for a shepherd. All we like sheep have gone astray. That's what the scripture says.

So it is the job it is the job of the shepherd to make the sheep lie down in green pastures and lead them beside the still waters. There are times that sheep would fall into a ditch and get stuck in a rut and they will find themselves on their backs and they're unable to get back turned back over you know, unless the the shepherd came and turned them back over. They they will be left on their back and they can die that way. So it was the shepherd's job to make sure that he he restored their souls.

Or he leads them the sheep down the right path because sheep will go the same way, feed in the same area and end up getting sick by feeding on the roots and the dirt. See, it was the shepherd's job to lead the sheep because you let the sheep go on their own, they would just go in the same area and and after feeding on all the the grass that was there, they would just keep feeding on the roots and then they starting to eat dirt and they would get sick. So it was the shepherd's job to lead them by and beside still waters and greener pastures.

Oh, it also is the shepherd's job to protect them as they walk through the valley where predators could be lurking ready to attack them. Then the shepherd had a rod and a staff oh not only to fight off the predators, but also to guide the sheep, keeping them from the edges of the cliff. What will happen is that that the shepherd will take that little bow peep hook and he would take it and apply the to the side of the uh sheep. When he find the sheep near the edge of the cliff and gently apply pressure to get them away from the cliff.

Oh, there's time that which sheep have gone over and he's used that hook to grab them to bring them back over to safety. That was the job of the shepherd. And the shepherd would also anoint the heads of the sheep with oil. He would do this for two reasons. Number one, to keep the bugs and the ticks away, but number two, to keep the sheep from hurting each other when conflict would take place and they will behead butt each other, but with the oil on each other's hair, they'll just roll off each other. So it was the shepherd's job to to do these things.

Oh, Jesus Christ, you know it's called our good shepherd. He does the same thing in in our lives as well. Oh, David told us in Psalm 23 verse one, he said, the Lord is my shepherd. Whenever you can say the Lord is my shepherd, you can use that personal pronoun my shepherd, then and only then can you say I shall not want or have lack in my life. Then throughout the rest of the Psalm, David gives us what our good shepherd will do for us. Sometimes he has to make us lie down in green pastures.

Why? Because we get stuck and in a rut. And Jesus knows that we will get sick spiritually if we continue to feed in the same area. So he uproots us and makes us lie down in greener pastures. Oh, some of you came to Virginia kicking and screaming. And the Lord has brought you here kicking and screaming because sometimes he has to make us lie down in green pastures. And now you here at our church and you've been fed the Bible from Genesis to Revelation chapter by chapter, verse by verse, book by book. And you're like, I've never been taught like this.

I never heard the word like this. I'm growing so much. I'm taking notes. I can't believe my children how they're growing and we're just growing so much. And sometime God has to make us lie down in green pastures. Oh, he he leads us beside the still waters. Oh, still water speaks of a peace and a tranquility and a quietness of the soul. Many you came here with an unrest, unsettled in your soul. And you came here and Jesus through his word has settled your heart and given you a peace and a tranquility and a quietness about your life.

And we know all too well that we need Jesus to restore our souls. Oh, please understand who it is who restores our soul. Oh, you can easily go and lay on someone's couch for two or $300 an hour and they can and they can take your problems and tell you why your problem and put it on somebody else, blame somebody else. It's your father. It was your mother. And your father wasn't there. Your grandmother did this. Your grandfather did that. Your uncle did this when you were 12. And you can blame everyone else for two or $300 an hour.

He can take your problem and put it on someone else. But Jesus is the only one that can restore your soul. The soul is God's business. The psyche is God's business. It's always been God's business. That's the word that's used here for soul. It's psyche. That's God's business. But we've gotten so clever as mankind and we've gotten so clever that now psyche or psychology is not the study of the soul, which is its purest definition, now it's the study of human behavior because now we can look at how humans behave themselves and we can diagnose them and give you answers.

You don't need to go to God because we are the ones who can tell you what's wrong with your soul. When all the time I read here that God is the only one who can restore our souls.

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