15 When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?”
“Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”
16 Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.”
17 The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. 18 Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” 19 Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, “Follow me!”
20 Peter turned and saw that the disciple whom Jesus loved was following them. (This was the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper and had said, “Lord, who is going to betray you?”) 21 When Peter saw him, he asked, “Lord, what about him?”
22 Jesus answered, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me.” 23 Because of this, the rumor spread among the believers that this disciple would not die. But Jesus did not say that he would not die; he only said, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you?”
24 This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down. We know that his testimony is true.
25 Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.
MacArthur rephrases the section where Jesus restores Peter (publicly, in front of the apostles) quite beautiful - using phrases that correctly explain what the Greek was intending, and adds some more thoughts as well (emphasis mine)....
when Peter came into an encounter with Jesus, he was a new man, Jesus gave him a new name, but now he was acting like the old man. And so Jesus pinpointed the problem right there when He called him "Simon" and not Peter....
"Simon, son of John," and then He says this, "Lovest thou Me more than these?"..... I believe that what He was doing was sweeping His hand over all the boats and the nets and the fish and the whole regalia that went with it and saying, "Peter, do you love Me more than you love this profession? Peter, you've gone back to fishing again." And Peter loved fishing. And Jesus says, "Peter, do you love Me more than you love the fish and the nets and the boats and the sea here and you're daily routine and your profession and your career which you're successful in doing? Do you love Me enough, Peter, to say goodbye to every bit of it? Do you love Me enough to just write it off? All your successes, all your chosen career, all your direction, just write it off, do you love Me enough, more than all of that to do just what I tell you to do? You claim to have great love, Peter, is it for real?"....
He says, "Peter, do you really, really love Me in the fullest sense?"...
"Jesus," [Peter] says, "You know in my heart I have a deep affection for You. I can't claim to love You like that. I can't claim the fullest kind of love. My life doesn't back it up."...
[Jesus] says, "Peter, if you're humble enough to acknowledge that your love isn't what it ought to be, that's exactly where I want you to be. Take over the job. Pasture My lambs."..
The Lord never expects us to love Him in the fullest sense of divine love before the service begins. He only expects us to acknowledge that we don't love Him enough. That's where we begin. Did you get that? If you're willing down in your heart to get on your knees before God and say, "Lord, I want to tell You right now I don't love You enough," at that point...if God will break you at that point, then God will build you again to use you. But you've got to come to the place in your life where you recognize you don't love Jesus Christ like you ought to love Him. And Peter was there. And God said, "On that basis, do the job." And so He says, "Pasture My little lambs, deal with My babies." And all of the disciples at that point were immature lambs. And the word "feed" here is a durative present which means it's a keep on word, keep on shepherding My sheep. ...
And so, the Lord says, "Peter, I'll accept you on that basis, now you pastor My little lambs." And that means you protect them, that means you feed them. That's what it's all about. So the Lord accepts him....
how many times had Peter denied Jesus? On three occasions, so Peter's going to get three shots to restore himself. Verse 16, "He saith to him again the second time, 'Simon, son of John, lovest thou Me?'" Again He uses agapao. "He saith unto Him, 'Yea, Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee.' He saith unto him, 'Feed My sheep.'" Not only My little lambs, but keep on feeding My little lambs and when they get to be sheep, you feed them, too. Keep on doing it, continuing to minister. So He accepts him again.
Then as if that's not enough, the third time so that Peter can be restored once for each occasion, when he denied Him, "He saith unto him a third time," watch this, this is a change, and this is the point I want to get at, "Simon, son of John, lovest thou Me?" Peter was grieved because He said unto him a third time, "Lovest thou Me." "And he said unto Him, 'Lord, Thou knowest all things.'" Did you hear that? That's Peter's faith that Jesus was God in human flesh, did you hear it? That's another sermon. "Lord, Thou knowest all things. Thou knowest that I...what?...I love Thee." Jesus saith unto him, "Feed My dear sheep." That's the most mature believers....
Peter breaks down and when it means grieved it means he was aching and he was hurt. You say, "What's making him grieve?" The fact that Jesus changed the word. When Jesus said to him the third time, "Do you love Me?" He didn't say agapao, the fullest sense, He says this, now watch the intonation. He says, "Peter, you've said two times you really have affection for Me. I say to you, do you really even have affection for Me?"
You say, "What's He saying?" He is putting even Peter's phileo up to suspect. Do you see? He's saying, "Peter, is this affection you say you have for Me even verified by your life?" You see? That's what hurt Peter. Peter had twice boasted again, "Lord, You know that I have a great affection for you," and Jesus said, "Oh really? Does your life really show that you even have affection for Me, let alone supreme love?" And that shattered Peter's heart because Peter, as he looked in his life, thought that he had that kind of affection, but Jesus says, in effect, even your...even the love that you acknowledge on a limited level isn't evident by your life....
My friend, don't you say you love Jesus Christ if you're not busy doing His will. And some people will claim to love Jesus Christ and no way He would ever know it except by omniscience cause there's not any evidence in their life. I can always tell the people who love Jesus, I can tell. They're the ones who are busy doing things for Him....
And that hurt Peter. And it should have hurt him. And Jesus meant it to. You see, because Jesus only wounds in order that He might heal....
what Jesus is establishing in Peter's mind is the priority of love. He will never be effective in serving Jesus Christ unless he loves Him. For whom you love you serve, do you not? It doesn't matter what relationship it is. When you love somebody you serve that somebody....
the wonderful thing about it is Peter got the message of loving Jesus and he did do it. He fed the sheep....
He fed that flock until he died. Why? Because he loved Jesus. But he didn't know what his love had to be until he knew what it wasn't. When you really love somebody, it determines your life. Does your life say, "I love you" to Jesus Christ?...
[Jesus] says, "Peter, I'm going to give you another chance, you're going to live a full life and then at the end you're going to hang in there, it's going to come down to a life/death issue and you're going to stand up and say I believe in Jesus boldly and you're going to die for it."..
Now don't you think that's good news to Peter who last time he had a chance to die for Jesus blew it?...
Peter committed his life to Christ and Christ said, "Peter, you'll live for Me and you'll die nailed to a cross." That's the destiny that God had designed for Peter. That's a beautiful promise. O Peter I'm sure in his heart just was saying over and over again...if I only had another chance...if I only had another chance to show the Lord I could be faithful in a crucial situation...if I only had one more chance to show Him my love in a life/death thing, O I'd do it, I'd do it. And so the Lord says, "Peter, you'll do it...you'll do it." And, you know, it's a good thing He told Peter cause Peter would have lived his whole life a nervous wreck thinking that every time he came to a real issue he'd blow it. And a leader with no confidence is no leader at all. And the Lord knew that Peter would worry himself about this so the Lord says, "Peter, you can relax through your whole ministry. When it comes to the end, you'll proclaim My name, you'll die a crucifixion death, don't worry about it."
Isn't that beautiful, the way Jesus fully restored Peter?
And in so doing, He gave us a very clear picture of how a genuine Christian will/should live.
We will serve God as an expression of love, we will trust that God's plan is the best plan for our life, we will follow Jesus no matter what the cost (and not worry about whether someone else is following God the way they should, like Peter did when he asked Jesus about John - we're responsible for ourselves, not them) and our conversations will be about Jesus because He's what's important to us.
And that concludes the book of John! Tomorrow we begin Ecclesiastes - I'm looking forward to it!
Tomorrow's scripture focus: Ecclesiastes 1:1-11
1 comment:
I did read this yesterday, but didn't comment. I do really love this passage. Three times Peter denied Jesus, and three times Jesus gives him opportunity to restore himself. How loving and compassionate he is! Simon, the thoughtless, headstrong, put-his-foot-in-his-mouth disciple becomes Peter, the earthly shepherd of Jesus' sheep. Beautiful. Doesn't it give all of us hope? We all have our failings and weaknesses. If God could use Peter as the rock on which to build His church, what can He do with us if we will just love Him and serve Him?
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