Grace Chapel Bible Ministries
worship Call 1129 Do You Love me? - 2024/08/12
[MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] Welcome to worship call with Bible teacher Buzz Lawbet. Buzz is the pastor of Grace Chapel Bible Ministries located in Duncan, South Carolina. This ministry is dedicated to the verse by verse teaching of God's word and discipleship programs aimed at strengthening the faith of God's people. Now here's today's message. Peter's having some hard times here. He had seen the resurrected Christ two times prior to meeting him here on the beach here. And neither case that Jesus that we know brought up the fact that of this denial, it had to be eating at him. And I believe that, and by conjecture, I believe this is why he considered himself failure. There has been no Jesus had mentioned nothing about it. He knows that Jesus knows about it. And so he makes the declaration that he's going to go fishing, John 21-3. Simon Peter said to them, "I'm going fishing." And they said, "We will also come with you." And they went out and got into the boat and at night they caught nothing. Well, he made this declaration to go fishing and it was like, "Okay, I'm kind of washed up on this apostle thing. Jesus is no longer, I've been fired. I'm no longer in running for being anything in relation to this ministry or establishing the church or anything." So there's going to have to be some type of closure. There's going to be some type of conflict, or not conflict, but there's going to have to be some counseling on a part of Jesus. It's time to bring this together. This is the second day of the week in God's created order, the 12th day of the 8th month, the 24th year of our Lord, and this is another fine day in the Lord. Let us pray. Father in Heaven, thank you for this opportunity this morning. Fellowshiping in your Word, and we pray Heavenly Father, thank you for a new week. Thank you for your love, your grace, your mercy. Open up our heart this morning for the study of your Word as we continue to grow in it. We pray these things in Christ's name. Amen. Nice to start another week. Thank you Lord for another great day. So as we said, Peter, remember going back to that place that Peter said, you know, even though all these will fall away, and basically I think they can affect that even all fall away, including those that are around him. Even though these will fall away, and this comes back to our conversation later on, I'm going to be with you. I'm going to be right with you. And so coming back to the denial, Peter's love for the Lord was based on attraction. And that's, and that's not going to do. Let's go, let's go on to our passage here where we are at. And John 20 is it? Yeah, let's go to John 21 3. All right. As some of Peter said to them, I'm going fishing and let's go on. They didn't catch us. We got to that. And why not? All right. After these days, he's manifested himself. And again to disciples at the Sea of Tiberius, and he manifested himself in this way that Simon Peter and Thomas called due to Miss and Nathaniel of cana and Galilee and the sons of Zebedee and the two other of his dust lipels were together. Matthew is not with them. He's not a fisherman. Simon Peter said to them, I'm going fishing and they set them. We will go. We will come with you. And they went out and got into the boat. And that night they caught nothing. But when the day was now breaking, Jesus stood on the beach. And they, and yet the disciples did not know it was Jesus. So Jesus got to them, or Jesus said to them, children, you do not have any fish to you and they answer him. No. And he said to them, cast your net on the on the right side of the boat and you will find a catch. So they cast and they cast and then they were not able to haul in because of the great number of fish. Therefore the cycle whom Jesus love said to Peter is the Lord. So when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment on and threw himself into the sea. But the other disciples came in the little came in the little boat where they were not far from the land. But about one hundred yards away, dragging a net full of fish. So when they got out of the out on the land, they saw the charcoal file already laid and the fish placed on it and bred. Jesus said to them, bring some of the fish which you have now caught. Simon Peter went up and drew the net to land full of fish, large fish, a number of hundred and fifty three. And although there were so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, come and have breakfast. None of the disciples ventured to question him who you are knowing that it was the Lord. And Jesus came and took some bread and he gave it to them and the fish likewise. This was now the third time that Jesus was manifested to disciples after he had raised from the dead. And when Christ was arrested and was going to the cross and Peter's life was threatened and his hopes that this was the one Messiah, it was shattered. And there was the, we're going to talk a little bit today about agape and phyllis. Because the love that love currently that Peter had was just not enough to keep Peter from sticking with Jesus. It wasn't enough to die for Jesus. It wasn't enough to prevent him from denying him. And it didn't mean that Peter hated Jesus. Of course not. But it means that the friendship was no longer a sense. And this is where we're going. Let's come back to our passage. John, I'm a little lost here on this morning. But that's all right, we'll get back. Let's look at this. I don't know where the, all right. So when they had finished breakfast, you see, there was some, there had to be some reconciliation getting ready to happen. And first of all, first of all, they had the breakfast. And it was good. This was a, a, a, a present time. It wasn't, it wasn't, it was, it was something when Peter, come back to my thoughts here, when Peter had denied, as we said earlier, when Peter had denied Jesus, he thought it was all over. It was, it was it. And, and this was weighing on the heart of Jesus. It would, you know, in fact, it would weigh on our hearts, wouldn't it? But there had to be. But, but if you remember back. We're doing that, during that, during that, Peter, or Jesus had said to Peter, that once you have been restored, let me see, we'll find that, but basically all my notes are, and all my thoughts are scattered just more for some reason. Let's look back at Luke 22, 31. Luke 22, 31, he said, 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, when once you have turned against, strengthen your brothers, Jesus had already seen these things coming. And the fact is, he says, he says that, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. Did Peter's, did faith fail? You know, faith doesn't fail. I was thinking about this this morning. And Jesus's prayer was that his faith would not fail. Peter's faith did not fail. Faith does not fail. And so Peter's, so Jesus's prayer was answered completely. His faith did not fail. It is just that Peter failed to use the faith and faith is the victory. And Peter had said, and that's with us, we have the faith. And we have the shield of faith and we are told to put on to pick up the shield of faith. And as long as we have that shield of faith, it's, we're unstoppable. We press forward to the objective. And, and we are in God's plan, we are in God's plan, we're being used and we're pressing forward. But how many times have we set the shield down? It's not that the shield failed. It's, it's that we failed to, to pick it up. We failed to use it. And here it is a beautiful time here that Peter's going to have the opportunity to pick that faith back up. And what does Jesus say here in, in Luke? He says, but I had prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And you, when once you have been turned again, once you have, once you have, and the word here, turn it. Epic Torah though. Once you turn again, once you've turned back, strengthen your brothers. And Peter is going, and this is going to be a remarkable thing. Peter has had a failure. He, he, in a fact, he needed this failure. He, because when he was back with Jesus, when he was telling, even though everyone else will fall away from you, I will not fall away from you, Peter was going to have to recognize two things, his own weakness. Maybe three things, maybe more things. His own weakness. He's going to have to recognize that the, the love that he had for Jesus was the wrong type of love. It was, it was not the love that's going to carry one through the biggest challenge. He's also going to have to recognize the way he has failed Jesus is going to, is going to bring him into a place of compassion for others that's going to fail the same way. Maybe all of those who were shouting crucify him, crucify him. Those, he's not the Christ, you know, and, and those who have rejected and denied him. There's going to be many of those that Jesus, that they're going to be down on themselves. You recognize that? And Peter's going to have to be counseling them. He's going to recognize his own failure and the fact that he's able to, to come down and, and console those who have failed in really the same way. And, so there's going to have to be some, it's, it's time and, and first of all, there's breakfast. It's a time of, it's a time of great fellowship. They had just called it Big Catch. They had just come and, and here there are, with, with Jesus, the resurrected Christ and things are good. I could imagine, you know, just in my mind, I, I could imagine here's Jesus, or here's Peter for, for one, through all of this, for the last, for the last days, since the resurrection that Jesus remained, or Peter remained quiet, kind of like kind of kicking the can down road. I'm a failure, but, but Jesus going to address this. This is what this is all about. And so, John, coming back to our passage here. And so, the disciples there, this, and I think this meaning here, is specifically for Peter, is specifically for it. This dialogue is going to be right there for Peter. And, but the other ones necessary for the other ones to be there, that they may know, you see, Peter's going to be the leader of these, of the, the apostles. His name is always going to be the first one mentioned in any grouping of the disciples. He is, he is going to, and they're going to have to know that he has been reinstated. Also, but this dialogue is directly with Peter. And so they finished breakfast. So when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon, Peter, Simon, Son of John, do you love me more than these? Let's look at this word love. And this love here is Agapato. And Agapato is to love for someone, or something based on sincere appreciation in high regard to love, to regard with affection, love, and concern. I don't know if I, I don't know if I fully go with that definition from Blue and Nida on there. But let me just say that Agapato or Gape is integrity love. It is a love that's based on, you got two types of love that we're going to deal with. You got Filetto, which is a love for friendship. It's, are you my friend? You know, you have, it's based on the attraction of the object. There's something about this person that is attracted to me. It may be, and that attraction may be a certain relationship. Like Mike, you're my brother. I love you. Tim, but you know, same way. And Tim mean you go back and we're fellow Marines. And you know, the, the attraction I had for my wife was, you know, first time I met her, it was Filetto. I was just, she was, you know, she was, and still is, and, and everything about her personality wise and everything's beautiful inside. There was Filetto there. You know, but Filetto is, it's, if it's, I could say selfish, nothing wrong with Filetto. It's discriminatory, and that's okay. We can pick our friends. That's okay. And we're not commanded to Filetto anybody. This will have problems with churches that, and Christians who don't know better. Because my neighbors are obnoxious. I, and not my particular neighbor, but let's just say any, my neighbors are wonderful around here. But just as an illustration, your neighbor may be obnoxious. You may just not like him. You may be. So you don't have to filetto them, but you have to agape them. Because agape is based on the integrity of the subject. It's the integrity love. And if you will not look at it today, but you can look at 1 Corinthians 13. And, and what is love? Love is. And none of that it has, you go down through that list. None of it is affection or, or all that. But agape is based upon integrity. This is how we love our neighbors, even when our neighbors are unattractive. And so, it is agape that we are commanded to. Coming back to our passage. So agape is the, so when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Pierce, Simon, the son of God, do you love, do you agape agape me more than these? The question again is these. Is he speaking of the fish? He's got all these fish over 100 fish. Do you love me more than these? Do you love me more than your career? That might be the answer. But, but I think it's, and, and, you know, I could be wrong. I think he, I think he's talking about the other disciples. Do you love me then? Then how much they love me? Do you love me more than these guys? And I say that taken back to the conversation again that Peter had with Jesus, even though all the, including these, I think, even though all will fall away from you, I will, I will not. Okay. But that's the matter to bait. And remember, you're not the bait because I don't think there would be, I don't think that there's really an answer to that. Is he talking about the fish, or he's talking about the guys, or what? Is he talking about the Peter's career? Do you love me more than these? And he, Peter, said to him, Yes, Lord. Okay. The Lord is Kurios, Lord, Master. Recognizing the rank of Jesus. Yes, Lord. You know that I, what do we have here? Filetto. You know that I, I filetto you. Yes, Lord, you're my friend. Yes, Lord, you, you have, you know, I am, there is the attraction. Peter, remember, Peter had lost that attraction at the, at the cross. He loved, he loved Jesus in a Filetto matter all the way up to the time that Jesus was arrested. And, and again, that Filetto, that friendship was not strong enough to carry that relationship, to keep Jesus from denying it, to keep Peter from denying Jesus. And, so now he's back. Jesus is back and he's, he's happy. He's happy that Jesus is there. But he has, he still has to learn this lesson. That, yeah, you're my friend. Yes, I have affection for you. You know, Jesus, you know, in, in times of trouble, when we go through times of trouble, in times of good, we may have an affection for the Lord. We may have an affection for God. But what happens when, when the, when we, for a period of time and we haven't heard from God? And I've heard so many people say, Oh, you know, you know, I've, I got my new car and I got, you know, I got, you know, I got, I got, you know, this, I was going through this and this happened, and I came through this, and I was having a financial problem. Somebody put $500 in my account and they'll say, Hey, God, good. And I don't mean to be critical of them. And God is good. But is he good? And is my affection tied to him because God did something for me? You see what I'm saying? God did this and, and God answered this prayer. And God is, and I often say so many times that I've said, well, if God didn't do that, if you didn't, if you didn't receive that money, or if you didn't get that card, you weren't able to get this problem taken care. We've got still not be a good God. And I kind of do it lightheartedly, but it still, it still makes the point that I have affection for God when everything's going right. Do I have affection for God when everything's going wrong? Do I still have that love? And, and it's that agape love, that integrity love, it's not based on feeling, it's not based on passion, but it's based upon integrity. So, Peter, he said, do you, Jesus said, do you agape me? Is your love based on integrity? That integrity based upon knowledge of your God, they're based upon your, your knowing the Lord, and he knowing you, is that what it's based upon? Is it based, or is it based on some emotional or some passionate thing? He said, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. You know that I, you know that you're my friend. He said to him, ten my plans. This, this word here is, um, Bosco and Bosco is to cause animals to eat, particularly pastoring animals to feed, to cause to eat. And it literally, it is feed my sheep. If you love me, if you love me, then feed my sheep. And it is Peter that's going to establish the church within those churches there are going to be those with, with a gift, a pastor, teachers, pointing the desk to us. And the number one, the number one and the highest calling for the, for the pastor teacher, is the disaster last part, is to teach, is to equip, is to feed the flock. And it is, it is the word that becomes the nourishment of, of every Christian, of every Christ follower. And it is the pastor, and Ephesians 4, 11 tells us that he gave some pastor and teachers, pastor teachers, and the pastor has a dual, dual gift. He is a pastor, that he tends to flock, he cares for the flock, the dasclos, and the dasclos is teacher, and he feeds the flock. And so important is teaching that this is where the deacons came from, and actually read about the establishment of the deacons, that their, their purpose was to take on the role of caregivers, to help, to care for the flock, and while the pastor, to free the pastor up, to study. And a lot of Baptist churches, they have lost that, that notion these days. So, so he said, okay, response to the love of loving me, feed my lambs. And Jesus is the good shepherd, he's going away, so there are going to be under shepherds. And this culture, and this world, that you would have a senior shepherd, you have a, you have the head shepherd, and he will have subordinate shepherds to take care of different flocks. And this is the connotation that he's, he's passing on the delegated authority, which is great news for Peter. I haven't given up on you. I haven't given up, you are still a part of the ministry. All right, got so much more to go here, let's, let's move on. And he said to him, let's go to second time, and he said again, a second time, Simon, John, son of John, do you love me? And again, this is a gape. And again, he said to him, yes Lord, you know that I feel lost, you're my friend, I feel lost you. And he said, and then he said to him, shepherd my sheep, couple things here. First of all, he brings it down, he said, not more, he doesn't put a lab on it, he just, he takes out more than these. Just the basic, do you love me? Do you, do you love me with integrity and with virtue? And he said, yes, I love you with, with, because you're my friend, because there's something about you that, that, that steers my heart and my soul. So, so they, then he says here, okay, as a response, shepherd, shepherd, and this shepherd is poimeno. And poimeno is to, to her, to tend the flock to sheep, to shepherd, to take care of, to tend. So the pastor also has the responsibility, the pastor part of the pastor teacher is, is a leadership function, is the caring for the flock. It's not excluded, the pastor's not excluded from, from counseling, younger believers, new believers, that's going through some trials. The, the pastor can visit hospitals, that's okay too, they, they're, is attending. I didn't know it, the colonel did a lot of this. He did, the colonel did, I remember the, I remember I heard somebody said talk about, um, um, Messler. And Messler spent the summer, actually spent the summer, a lot of time with the colonel, um, at his house. And Messler said that, um, that the colonel was up late night one night, just counting someone over the phone. And I've just heard recently a Robbie Dean, Dr. Robbie Dean was talking about, uh, he, he, uh, on, uh, he was talking about how the colonel, we didn't know. We, we didn't hear that much from the colonel about it, but he did visit. He did a lot of visitations to hospitals and stuff and visiting the sick. So there, there is that which the pastor does and, and taking care of his flock. And so you have a dual, you have a dual role there, you have the pastor and you have the teacher. And so as a response, he sounds shepherd, mind, sheep, shepherd, take care of them. Jesus loves his flock, he loves these, these, okay, let's go on to the third one now. And he said to him the third time, Simon, son of a John, do you? And look at what Jesus, look at the turnaround here, this little turnaround. Do you, are you my friend? Gee, Simon, are you, do you feel ask me? Do you love me? And, um, are you my friend? And Peter, Peter was grieved to pick up because he said to him the third time. This was driving home the point, the third time. What does this bring to mind? How many times did Peter reject or deny Christ? Three times. Here's the third opportunity. He was grieved because the third time, because it drove the point home. Peter, you denied me three times. Here's three times the, the, here's three times that you're going to have to come back and you're going to have to face this. This is a facing of our failure. That's what 1st John is. 1st John, 1st John 1 9 is a, is a, um, coming face to face with our personal sin. Sin is a rejection of Christ, each and every time. And, and when it says name your sins, it's not a blanket statement. When we name our sins, it's not, well, I've sinned Lord and carry on. No, it's coming face to face personally with your failure. Coming face to face with, with, with your sin. And bring it to the Lord. Yes. And laying it open. We may not like to do that. You know, I don't know about you, but I do have these times. When I look back on things of my past and I just wince. I said, I said that. I did that and it's, it's just ugly. It's something I'd rather forget. Sometimes people bring it up or brings up something. Sometimes Becca brings up something and I wince. I said, I, I wasn't like that was I or whatever. And this is, this is a wincing moment for Peter. His heart was grieved and, and it, it brings him face to face with the sin. And before we can be resolved of that, we do have to come face to face with our short comment, with our failure so that we can name them. Get it behind us and push forward. Okay. I think, I think from the time that Jesus was resurrected, he didn't bring it up. Peter didn't bring it up. So there was that bone of contention, not with Jesus, but with Peter to forgive himself. And for the third time, Simon Peter, do you love me? And this time it's, are you my friend? And Peter said, because this friendship thing is what got him in the heart. He loved, he loved Jesus before, but that love was not able to carry him. And at this point, he said, are you my friend? Well, you, my friend. I was your friend before and I denied you three times. What a, what a sorrowful soul. I can't say each time that, that Peter, Peter confessed that I'm your friend. I'm your friend. And I think here is kind of like Peter. Are you really my friend? And 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. And, and both, and that's fear loss as well. You know that you're my friend. And Jesus said to him, go back. He, we emphasize this the first time. Back to the same word. You've been restored. You're restored. And now it's time to go strengthen your brothers. Now it's time to, you're still in there. And, and sometimes folks, we, we have to remember. Yes, we've failed. And we're not out of the ballgame. We're not out of God's plan. He doesn't say we're you're fired. He will turn around and he will pick us up where we are, despite our failures. And, first John 1-9, if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just forgive us our sins. Forgive off the enemy. That's cleaning the slate. That's the first of all cleans the slate. And yes, he remembers them, but he don't consider them. That's a difference. God doesn't forget anything. He remembers, but he doesn't consider. It's not part of the equation. Him serving, you serving the Lord. I'm serving the Lord. It's not based upon our failure. It's not when we name our sins, he no longer considers our sins. And we can pick ourselves up, as Becca said, pick ourselves up, dust ourselves up, and continue to follow him. And not only will Peter be reinstated, he's not going to be demoted. It's not going to be James, John, and Peter. And when we see the list, we're going to see Peter, James, John, which means that he still has his rank. He hasn't been demoted. He hasn't lost any ground. He comes back and he repents. He brings it, and now he's reinstated, ready to do service that the Lord has for him to do. Father in heaven, thank you for this time together. And we pray heaven, follow that. These things, and let us recognize, we have a forgiving God. We also recognize how often that we've denied Christ by our own sin. Whether it's a mental attitude sin, whether it's a lack of faith, whether it's whatever it is. But the promise is that we have been forgiven, that based, and justly, that those sins were judged upon the cross. And we simply name them, and bring them to the docket. And at that point, the Lord will consider them no more. It frees us up to do, and to serve thee. Thank you for your love, your grace, your mercy, and all of these things. In Christ's name we pray, amen. All right, it's another fine day in the Lord, another fine weekend in the Lord. Keep your armor on, keep fighting a good fight of faith. And Lord Willensford, guide, and wrap your opinion. We'll be back here in the A.M. Pointing us. You can hear this message again, as well as previous lessons. And get note by visiting us online at www.gchapel.org. [silence] [silence]