Grace Chapel Bible Ministries
worship Call 1130 What's Love got to do with it? - 2024/08/13
[MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] Welcome to worship call with Bible teacher Buzz Lullbeck. 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. [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] Welcome to worship call with Bible teacher Buzz Lullbeck. 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. All right, we had to do that again anyway. [MUSIC] This is the, let's start with this. Jesus is at the shore with his disciples, especially the Jesus, especially with Paul with Peter. And there is a jogging of the memory. And I think the scripture often brings up the memory, things that jog the memory, and Jesus is taking Peter all the way back to the time. Remember that the time of standing around that fire, the colds and the fire that's going, well, here he is standing at another fire there on the beach. And it was there that Peter denied Jesus three times, and now he has the opportunity of declaring his love for the Lord three times. This is the third day of the week, and God's created order. The 13th day of the eight month, 2024th year of our Lord, and this is another fine day in the Lord that's turned into our Lord in prayer. Father in heaven, thank you for this opportunity of fellowshipping in your words morning. We pray to Heavenly Father that God the Holy Spirit will enlighten us to the things that were about to study and continue to study as we go on grace and the knowledge of our Lord, David Jesus Christ, and whose name we pray. Amen. So we had a little bit of technical difficulty starting out this morning, and I had to, microphone, just stop working for some reason or don't know why. And, you know, try two times to get it going, and so we just had to go to alter the microphone on the computer. So regardless, it looks like the green light jumping up and down, so we've got some type of something going on already. So let's get to our lesson this morning up. The back and forth is very interesting, really, when you look at it with the words agape and felos. Jesus begins with Peter, do you love me? Do you, is agape, the integrity love, the love, the virtuous love, the integrity love. Yesterday we looked at the two loves, so felos in, and agape. And he's asking, he just agape, it is agape, and agape is virtue love. Agape is the verb, and agape is the virtue love. The love that maintains the integrity, it's the highest order of integrity. When we love someone, impersonally, our obnoxious neighbor, a tyrannical boss, those that persecures, those that hate us, we love them on the basis of who and what God is, that higher love. We love because he first loved us. Not only do we love God because he first loved us, but we are open to love even our enemies, and that's agape. Many churches are, you know, many churches are Christian. Shall I say Christians are confused? Because how do you love the obnoxious? How do you love those that are unlovable? And then that becomes a question of your integrity, the integrity that, let's just say not your integrity, but Christian integrity. The other one is felos, love, and felos is the selfish love. Not to say that you're sinning when you're felos, we're open to love, it's discriminatory. There are those people that, there are those that we love, and it's really conditional, it's based on who and what they are. It's based on attraction, there's something about this person that we love, our friends, and that's fine. There's not a sin on that, but we are commanded, we are always commanded to agape, we are never commanded to felos. We're never commanded that we should make friends and have that felos love for everyone. It's to your discretion, and again, it's not a sin to be lost this one and be lost that one. And so, we see the dialogue between Jesus and Peter, and Jesus says, "Do you love me? Do you agape me?" "Do you love me, Peter? Do you love me with the integrity, with integrity from above, with the unconditional love?" And we may be a little bit confused with this, because shouldn't we love God? But is God always, and this and this, I'm going to leave this open, I'm not going to be dogmatic on this, I'm maybe out on a limb, but is God always attractive? Is there times when God isn't so attractive to us? Is it time when we're going through persecution? Is it time when things are just not going right? When it's time when our health is deteriorating, when we are financially broke, when we're being drug across the colds by our enemies, does God look so attractive? Do you know people who have been mad at God? They're angry with God and spoke with a man some time ago, who actually outright said, "I'm mad at God, I don't have nothing to do with him, I'm angry with him." And he listed all the things why he was mad at God, namely the sin and the evil and the brokenness of this world he blamed God for. God was not so attractive to him. Job was God really attractive to Job when Job was going through all this. And so you see, maybe the felos isn't quite there, the attractiveness of God. But if we know God and we stand upon integrity, there's not about attraction, it is about who and what God is. The love outside of ourselves, loving God based on who and what God is and not who and what we are. And so you have this dialogue, Jesus says to Peter, "Do you love me? Is it a God bed? Do you love me? Do you love me with integrity?" And he says, "Yes Lord, I feel like you. You're my friend." And, okay, strike one. Strike one. "Do you agape me?" And he does not answer the question. You notice that? Peter does not answer the question. "Do you love me?" He avoids that question and he says, "You're my friend." And the first time he says, "Do you love me more than all of these?" Whether it's the fish or whether it's the other disciples, whatever it is. And it doesn't matter, really. It doesn't matter if it's fish or whatever. Do you love me more than anything else? Plus that's what God is. Is there something on your heart, Peter, that actually is more important than the love for me? Peter says, "You're my friend." Jesus asks the second time, "Okay, let's take the other things off the table. Let's take your disciples. Let's take the fish." Whatever it is. Let's take that off the table and let's just make a straightforward question. "Do you love me?" "Do you agape me?" There. Is it agape love? Is it agape? Oh. Peter? And Peter answers the same question again. "You're my friend. You're my friend. Each time there is, first of all is feed my sheep." Very important lesson. Feed my sheep. First time is feed my sheep. It's feed my flock. Care for my flock. Jesus is the high shepherd he wants care to be brought to. He's not going to be around. He's delegating his authority to the under shepherd, which is going to start with Peter, and Peter's going to train up pastors. And Peter's going to lay the first foundations of the church, which is going to include pastors. And Peter's going to have to have the right kind of love in order to rightly obey that commandment. The next one, he says, "Tend my care for mine." And it is pastor, teacher, Poymane, the Dostilos. The Poymane is the pastor to care for, to nurture, to take care of my flock. Men and men when they're broken, and help them. Do that for my flock. Then he comes down to that last time, and finally Jesus says, "Okay. Are you my friend, Peter?" You say, "Are you my friend?" And strike three. And Peter answers this. The Peter actually answers this one. He's already answered through times before. He says, "Yes, you're my friend." And at this point, he's grieved. He's grieved not because he thinks Jesus doesn't trust him. That was my nature. It was because he was brought back to the three times that he denied the Lord. So the third time Jesus then asked, "Do you love me? Do you feel ask me, Peter?" Or, "Are you my friend?" And Peter, the other guy says, "You're my friend." You see, when Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13, that love never ceases, or love never fails. What love do you think that Paul is talking about? Fearous or agape? Let's go there. Let's go to 1 Corinthians 13, and we'll drop down to verse 8. And verse 8 says, "Love never fails." First of all, that love right there is agape. Agape is the noun agape. And it never fails. It's word for failure. And it can be a word used to cease. And it's pepto. And pepto means to cease with possible implications of failure. To stop, to cease, to fail. Love never ceases, or love never fails. But fearless can. You see, the strength is not in fearless. The strength is in the agape. How did Biles work out when Jesus was rested? Oh, Peter was pouring his heart out. When Peter drew his sword and cut off the ear. That was pretty strong, and that was pretty bold. But Peter had something to say. He wanted to protect his kingdom. He was fighting for the kingdom. Was he really fighting for the Lord? That would be the question we must ask him. Maybe we can debate that until we meet Peter. I say, what were you thinking? What was on your heart? Was it the love for the Lord? Or was it the love for the kingdom to come in? Were you willing to die for that kingdom? But when it came to, when it comes to agape, that's the ticket. That's the strength. So here it was that Peter, under a fearless, folded like a cheap suit. Your fearless, though you are wrong, could not sustain you through your deal. The fearless, and this is the message I think Jesus is conveying to him. How did that work out for you, Peter? Your fearless, your personal love, for me, based upon your own attraction, did not carry you through, because when I was no longer attractive, you denied me. It wasn't so much, I wasn't so much attractive to you when you were under fear, when you were afraid of having to suffer, when you were afraid of being arrested. That fearless was removed. I was no longer your friend. You were a subjective reality of what was getting ready to happen to you, and therefore you protected your own skin. And here it is that you want again to declare friendship with me. It didn't work here. Can your friendships sustain you now? When I leave here, Peter, you want to declare it to be my friend? After I leave here and you begin to suffer for my name, well once again, your friendship with me, will it carry you next time? It didn't do it here. You remember the definition of insanity. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and over again and expect different results. It didn't work this time, Peter. It's not going to work next time. John 21 and 18. Truly, truly, this is amen, amen. When I see this, amen, amen, and John talks about this, he refers to this, and so often, I don't know if it's every time I was thinking to look back to see if it's every time, but Jesus will attach. Several times, a number of times, and John, he'll say, amen, amen. I say to you. This is me speaking with you. This is coming from me. This is coming from the authority. This is coming from the way, the truth, and the life. When you were younger, you used to gird yourself and walk wherever you wished. You were under a different authority. You had a certain freedom about you, and wherever you had freedom. But when you were grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will gird you, and bring you where you do not wish to go. Now, for us, if that verse stood alone, I couldn't understand it. I tried to look at this verse, standing on its own. What are we talking about? We know what happened, so we can say, well, he's going to die and all this stuff, but forgetting everything else you know, what's he talking about? But it goes on in verse 19. Now, this, he said, signify, let's look at the word signify, boom, and signify means samayon, samayon, samayon, nano, to cause something to be both specific and clear. He's planning this up to indicate clearly, to make clear. So he said this to make clear. Come back to our verse. That's it, bring the definition to it. He said this to make clear by what kind of death he would glorify God, and that he here is Peter. What kind of death are you going to have, Peter? This is going, your death is going to bring you around, and we may not understand it, but he makes it clear to Peter. Peter understands what he's talking about. By what kind of death he would glorify God, and in the language that Jesus spoke to Peter, maybe we lost quite a bit in the translation here. But the next verse clears it up in the communication, he's making clear to Peter, what kind of death he was, what he can look forward to. By what kind of death he would glorify God, and when he had spoken this, he said to him, follow me. And he, John 12, 32, 33, and I, if I lift it up from the earth, will draw all men to myself. But he was saying this to indicate what kind of death by which he was to die, Jesus. And John 1831, so Pilate said to them, take him yourselves and judge him according to your law. And the Jews said to him, we are not permitted to put anyone to death, to fulfill the word that Jesus which he spoke, making clear by what kind of death he was about to die. Now the signified, so he signified this and the, and let's, and he says, follow me, and this follow, let's come back to our passage is where we want to go here. He says, follow me, and let's look at the word follow, and this follow, this is where we get the word, which means disciple, to be a follower or a disciple of someone, in a sense of adhering to the teachings or instructions of a leader. And in promoting the cause of such a leader, to follow, to be a disciple of, you just listen, and this is an important definition, I'm going to leave this up here, this is an important definition, are you a disciple, am I a disciple? See, the teacher does not have to be in a room, and you sit in a chair with your Bible open to be a disciple, a disciple is going to carry on with the teachings that he has been taught. John 831, and John 831 says, so Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed him, if you continue in my word, then you are truly disciples of mine, and you will know the truth, knowing the truth, and the truth will set you free. And it is here that we find in Matthew 1624, and Jesus said to his disciples, if anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up the cross and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will, whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life, from my stake, will find it. And here it is, it's not later on when I saw this before, pick up his cross and follow me, and this follow right here is a present active imperative, that means we are continually doing it. We're living life with the attitude, that it's not what's going to happen to us, but that we already have an attitude of carrying the cross, of following him, and coming back to our passage. Fear loss, fear loss, which is a selfish emotional type of love is based on sentiment, close relationship, it's not strong enough to sustain the relationship. Our teacher did a beautiful job with the personal and impersonal love. The fear loss is more of a personal love, it's based on attraction. Personal love is conditional, and we can fall in and out of love. Even in marriages, this should be talked about in marriages, that you're not going to wake up every morning with this rosy glow that your wife or your husband is going to be the most attractive thing you've ever known. It may not be based on your husband or your wife or that relationship, it may be just because you're not feeling good that morning. It may be that you've got other things on your mind and the attraction is just not there because you're occupied and it's okay, but unconditional love is there all the time 24/7. It's not based upon who and what the object is, it's based upon your Christian integrity, who and what God is. It is the agape that will propel one to pick up their cross and keep preparing his cross through the trials and through the tribulations. It also carries one through the good times, the pleasurable times because you're still carrying a cross in that time. And carrying that cross, you're recognizing and you're having everything in the right perspective. Why? Because of love, because you're unconditional love for God, you do not allow yourself to be distracted. So I don't know this day if I'd be able to face the horrific torture that may come to even my life or the life of my life or the life of my loved ones in the time in which we live. But I do not, if that day does come, I do know this, that my love for the Lord will be the very thing that's going to carry me through the trials and the tribulations. If I don't know how to love my Lord now and carry my cross now through the good times and the pleasurable times, I certainly will not be able to carry my cross through that. And again, the strength of being able to do that will be the agape, not the felas, John 21-20. Peter turning around saw the disciple whom Jesus loved, following them. The one who also had leaned back on his bosom at the supper and said, "Lord, who is the one who portrays you?" This is looking back, I had to look at this a couple times, it was kind of hard, but he's looking back to the time of the last supper when Jesus said, "One of you is going to betray me." This is John who was laying on the chest of Jesus, and he's the one who asked that question, so all of this identifies John. So Peter says, "Okay, Peter, it made clear to Peter that you're going to have to suffer this kind of death." You're going to have to suffer a horrific death, Peter, and I see this now in such a setting that now they're walking along the beach. They're walking on that beach of Tavarius, and John's the youngest, he's the most impressionable, the younger one allows the two older men their conversation. I see a private conversation now between Peter and Jesus, just my mind died, and Peter kind of looks behind and he sees John trailing you, "What about him?" "Okay, you made it clear that I'm going to die, what about him?" "What's going to happen to John? I'm going to die such a death. What happens to the one who you love? Who you love so much? Are you going to also allow him to die a horrific death?" Peter knows, all of them knows the love that John and that shared between, you know, he can say the fear loss, the fear loss between John and Jesus, Jesus loved John, probably because he's so young and he's so impressionable, and John 21-22. Jesus said to him, "If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me? Listen, how many times do we wonder how God is handling our neighbor or our friends or somebody in church or something?" "Well, God deals with us as personal. Jesus makes this very clear to Peter. That's not your concern. What happens to John and how I deal with John is with John? I'm dealing with you. You follow me. This is my command to you." You know, basically, mind your own business there. Peter, yes, mind your own business. Peter, what is this to you? How God deals with somebody else? This is arrogance. This is eyes off God, eyes off Christ, and eyes on others and circumstances. Fix our eyes. This is our relationship, again, so important. It's a personal relationship. In that personal relationship, the Lord will deal with us personally in ways that are different from anybody else. And there will be places in battle. You see, he's the higher command. Jesus, he's the commander in chief, and he will direct some to go to their deaths. The commanding general will make orders that he knows will cause the lives of those that are in the battle. There will be those that are faced in any war. There's going to be those, and I remember in war, where was the battle was going on in Iraq? Where was I? I was in capture of June, gearing up people to go to the war. The commander, the commanding general says you're going to be here while this war is going on. These are the front lines of the commanding general put the front line, people on the front line, and I was in the rear with the gear and with the psychos and the pregnant ladies, and that's another story all together. But that's where I was, and I have to say that God had a sense of humor. But that's with our lives. There's some of us that are going to have to carry our cross all the way to cavalry, all the way to the point where we're going to be nailed upon it. There's others that's going to die comfortably in their beds. That's for the Lord to decide. It's in the Lord's providential hand where we're going to be. So how God deals with John is going to be different with how he deals with Peter. And let's finish this up now. Where are we? So then there's a misunderstanding here. There comes a misunderstanding, and this is not what God, and this is where we have to be careful with hearing God and hearing the Lord and hearing his word and properly discernment. Because we see that here is a misapplication, misunderstanding and misapplication here. Therefore, this saying went out among the brethren that the disciple would not die, which is not true. John will die. He just won't die in martyr's death. Yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die. But only if you, if I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? And John finishes out. This is the disciple who is testifying, and he's saying, "I am the one." This very disciple, this young one, again, John doesn't identify himself, but he says, and personally, but he says, "This is the disciple who is just testifying to these things and wrote these things, and we know that his testimony is true." And so back to 1 John, and he said, and 1 John, I don't see if he put that on here, but he said, "These things we have witnessed, these things that we have seen, we have seen with our eyes, we have heard with our ears this testimony." So he's testifying here. And there is also, so many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books, which Jesus did, or the things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. Even he had 40 days, there was so much to teach, there was so much to be written about in those days as he was preparing his disciples for his departure, and they were going to be sent out for much teaching that was yet to be done. And that closes out the book of John. Father in Heaven, thank you for this opportunities morning to fellowship in your word once again. We thank you for your love, your grace, your mercy, and your kindness. We thank you Heavenly Father that we thank you for the cross, not only to cross that, and mostly for the cross that your son died on, but we thank you for our cross. And we thank you for the sustaining power, your love, your grace, your mercy, unconditional love that helps us to carry that cross all the way to victory. Help us Heavenly Father open up our eyes through Easter as in Christ's name would pray, amen. All right, another fine day in the Lord, keep your armor on, keep fighting a good fight of faith. Tonight will be our finishing up with Hebrews 12, Hebrews 12, getting ready to go in the epilogue. We've got a couple more weeks, we'll be finishing out Hebrews. We will be also finishing up the life of Christ ready to clear the platform. Please be with us for the pastor and for the teaching for one another as we get ready to come into the new book of Revelation. As Becca would remind us to read it through, read it through from page one of Revelation to the last page, read it through several times, prepare a heart for the study as we're coming in. So, until this evening, stay motivated and Lord, keep your armor on, keep fighting a good fight of faith. Lord, will the spirit guide and rapture penning. We'll see you this evening. Thank you for joining us. You can hear this message again, as well as previous lessons and get notes by visiting us online at www.gchappell.org. . .