15 When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” 16 He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.” 17 He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. (John 21:15-17)
The Warm-up; A Charcoal Introduction
Back in verse 9, which was in our passage last week, John mentions that when the disciples got to the shore where Jesus was cooking fish, they notice that He had prepared a charcoal fire. Not just a fire, but John specifically notes that it was a charcoal fire. Why such a small detail? Is there any significance in that it was a charcoal fire? How could such a passing detail be significant? Well, if we were sitting down and reading through John in one setting, or atleast a good portion of the last of it, and if we were observant readers, it would catch our eye and immediately draw a connection that would set us up for what we read in our passage just now. You can look back just a little if you would like, but in John 18 as Jesus is arrested and taken to trial before the high priest at night, Peter of course followed at a distance and entered the courtyard of the high priest. The servant girl asked Peter if he was one of Jesus’ disciples and Peter denied it. After Peter denies Christ the first time, John 18:18 says this, “Now the servants and officers had made a charcoal fire, because it was cold, and they were standing and warming themselves. Peter also was with them, standing and warming himself.”
So John specifically mentions that when Peter denied Christ three times, he did so while warming himself by a charcoal fire. Now here in John 21 where Peter confesses that he does love Christ, he does so while warming himself at a charcoal fire. John mentions the detail of the charcoal fire to make the connection between these two events loud and clear. In the first, Peter was in the courtyard of the Jewish High Priest, trying to blend in, here he is in the presence of the Great High Priest, accepted and reinstated. In the first, Peter was associating with the servants and soldiers of the High Priest. Here he is associated with the servants and soldiers, his fellow disciples and apostles, of the Great High Priest. In the first, it was night where he fell. In the second it is morning where he is confirmed by Christ. In the first, he was warming himself from the coldness of the night and being alone. Here, he is warming himself from the waters which he swam through to be with Christ.
The first were coals of testing, where he failed. The second were coals of commissioning, where he was fed. This may draw a connection in our minds to the commissioning of the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah chapter 6. He confessed he was a man of unclean lips, and as the coal from the altar was touched to his lips was cleansed and commissioned. So Peter, a man of unclean lips who denied his Lord, was cleansed and commissioned as an apostle of Christ.
To think symbolically for a moment we can see that Peter was commissioned in the gospel, for it was the fish which, if you will, was the sacrifice on the coal altar, showing Peter could not atone for his own sin, but another must atone for him, and then the fish were brought to his lips as they were cleansed by the sacrifice of another. Peter, like all of us, could not take the direct heat of the holiness of God, but must be atoned for by another.
Furthermore, as Peter was warming himself by the charcoal fire in the courtyard of the high priest, it was at that time, the courtyard of the synagogue of Satan. As Jesus told the Pharisees in John 8, they were like their father the devil. And Jesus had told Peter earlier that Satan wanted to sift him. And I believe that Jesus was actually rebuking Satan when he rebuked Peter, saying, “get behind me, Satan.” So when Peter falls in the courtyard of the apostate High Priest, associating with his servants, it may have seemed like Satan indeed sifted him and won. But that was not the end. Jesus would resurrect. And so would Peter, as he came through the waters of death and resurrection to be with Jesus, in His presence, around the coals of the altar, in the morning light. If coals are associated with altars in the bible, and they are, then Peter was at the altar of the false gods and the kingdom of darkness in John 18, nearly being offered there to the Prince of Darkness. But the kingdom of darkness always thinks that it has won before it is over. By this new scene around the charcoal fire, John is showing us that the Kingdom of Light has defeated the Kingdom of Darkness. The powers of evil could not have Peter. Indeed, they can have none of Christ’s sheep, none of whom the Father has given to the Son. As John told us in the prologue, “The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.” The true altar of God, where the spotless Lamb of God was slain for the sins of the world, is the full and final sacrifice that overcomes and brings shattering and tumbling to the ground every pagan altar set up to false gods and powers of darkness. If Christ is your sacrifice, none other can claim you or have power over you.
“When they had finished breakfast…”
So in our text, verse 15 begins, saying, “When they had finished breakfast…” So they make the large catch of fish, they get to shore, they have breakfast and they finish breakfast before Jesus then turns to Peter and specifically begins this process of questioning him and then commissioning him to feed His sheep. That being how the text begins, that is how I want to begin. Jesus first feeds and nourishes Peter before He commissions Peter to go and feed His sheep, or even further in the text, to die. This is always the pattern for how God works. He first calls, feeds, nourishes, and strengthens His servants before they are sent and commissioned to go and feed others. We are first to be ministered to by Christ before we go out and minister Christ to others. This ought to be the pattern of our lives as we gather on the first day of the week to be fed, encouraged, and strengthened to go out as servants and soldiers of Christ to the world the rest of the week. It is so telling that the first thing Jesus does is not to tell Peter “go and do and go and work”, but to come and eat. That is what Christ says to each one of you every week – come and eat. Then as we close worship, He commissions you to go.
This teaches us that grace teaches and enables us to obey. Christ comes to us without any movement or goodness on our part and He gives us His Sovereign Grace, that we might be redeemed and restored and made to walk in the good works which He has predestined for us to walk in. It is God’s grace in Christ that comes to us first, before we do anything at all. Christ supplies us with the strength that we need to do what He has said.
“Do you love me more than these?”
So Christ feeds, nourishes, and strengthens Peter, and still before He commissions Peter, He then asks Peter a question. “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” Now we might ask, “What is Jesus referring to – ‘do you love me more than “these”?’” I am of the belief here that Jesus is referring to the love of the other disciples. In other words, Jesus is asking Peter, “do you love me more than these other disciples love me?” Now one of the reasons this makes the most sense to me is because of the very things that Peter himself has previously said. In the gospels, before Jesus is arrested He tells His disciples that they will all fall away in that moment, and Peter rashly says, “Even though they all fall away, I will not.” So Peter had emphatically maintained that He will love and follow Jesus more than all the other disciples. So here, after Peter fall, as Jesus said, like the others, after hearing the rooster crow at Peter’s thrice denial, as Jesus said, after having proved that He did not love Jesus more than the other disciples, Jesus again asks Him, “So Peter, do you love me more than these?” And notice Peter’s answer. He doesn’t say, “Yes, Lord, I love you more than these. I love you more than they do.” He doesn’t say that. He does say “Yes, Lord;” but he says “you know that I love you.” There is clearly a difference in Peter that he doesn’t want to boast in himself over the others, but instead humbles Himself before the omniscience of Christ who knows all their hearts.
Peter has been humbled. Knowing the sin of his own heart he still yet confesses his love for Christ, but does so in a way which shows that he is not confident in his own flesh, for he has experienced the depths of a fall. He confesses that Jesus knows his love for him, even implying that he knows he has done a poor job at showing that love when it was tested most. “Even if others do not know that I love you, because I denied you, you know that I do love you.”
How many times does our love for Christ fail to be strong? How many times have you lived, acted, or talked in such a way in front of others, that others don’t know you love Jesus? And oh how that grieves the true Christian when they are convicted of their sin by the Holy Spirit, when they realize what they have done, the betrayal that they have committed, the disgrace they have made to their profession, just as it grieved Peter. It may be a grief to us even when we have confessed our sin and repented of it to realize that there is nothing that we can do to go back and undo what we have said or done, or the lack thereof. And in such times what a relief and comfort it is to know that even if we have failed others, or have failed Christ in the presence of others, that Christ has not failed us, and Christ knows our hearts and knows that we do love Him, even if certain others do not. This love gives us strength to go out and face any bad reputation we have made.
Thrice Restored
So as a variation of this question and answer happens three times it is very obvious what Jesus is doing here. For every time Peter denied Christ in the courtyard of the high priest, Jesus asks him if he loves Him, and commissions him to feed His sheep. What is Jesus doing here? Is Jesus rubbing Peter’s denial in his face? Is He humiliating Peter in front of the other disciples? No, He is not. Jesus is doing the opposite. Jesus is doing the public work of restoration for Peter. Peter held a prominent position among the disciples, likely being the oldest among a group of very young men, and certainly a vocal leader. Then the disciples witness Peter forsake Christ and outright deny him in humiliation. You see if Jesus never would have addressed this issue in the presence of the other disciples, there always would’ve been that question in the back of the other disciples’ minds as to the validity of Peter’s apostolic office. But Jesus is putting those questions to rest, by publicly showing to the other disciples that Peter is thrice reinstated and thrice commissioned to tend Christ’s sheep by Christ Himself. Any doubt the other disciples may have had was done away with by Christ at this time. It was for Peter’s good and for his redemption that Christ dealt with him in this way. For every time that Peter denied Christ, Christ gives him the opportunity to confess Christ as many times. Jesus is healing Peter.
There is such redemption and healing in being able to confess your sins and confess the truth of Christ. In our flesh we don’t want to deal with our sin in this way. We would rather ignore it and not have it brought up to be dealt with. We do not like to be confronted with the humiliating reality that we are sinners. It is embarrassing to our pride what we do. Yet there is no other way. The apostle John would later write, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
Verse 17 tells us that Peter was grieved after Jesus asked the third time if he loved Him. There are some commentators who think this has something to do with the fact that Jesus used a different word for love the third time. The first two times Jesus asked Peter if he loved him he used a more intense divine word for love, yet Peter responds using a different word for love, a lower more brotherly word for love. Then the third time Jesus asks Peter if he loves Him, Jesus switches to the lower word for love that Peter was using. It is very difficult to know if that was actually significant or if it was just a common way of talking as we so often use synonyms to say the same thing in our language. I think rather the reason Peter was grieved was because after the third time of asking, Peter realized and knew what Jesus was doing. Peter was grieved because he realized Jesus was addressing Peter’s three time denial, and it was not pleasant for Peter to relive those dark moments in his life.
Even thus, Jesus was healing Peter. Dealing with sin is not an easy or pleasant thing. But it is good and necessary. There is a godly grief over sin which we must sometimes go through that is necessary for healing.
“Feed my sheep.”
But Jesus does not only question Peter three times, He also commissions him three times. “Feed my lambs.” “Tend my sheep.” “Feed my sheep.” Jesus is assigning Peter to minister to Christ’s Church. For Jesus to entrust to anyone the care of His people whom He purchased with His own blood a weighty and high calling. Certainly Peter had a peculiar role as an Apostle, but what is described here in Jesus’ commission to Peter is part of the responsibilities of every true pastor in Christ’s Church. Every pastor is to tend to and feed Christ’s sheep.
I find the way that Peter talks about pastors in 1 Peter 5 to be so fascinating and insightful in light of his own story, what Christ did for him, and the commissioning Christ gave to him.
So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed: 2 shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight,[a] not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you;[b] not for shameful gain, but eagerly; 3 not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. 4 And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. 5 Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, 7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. 8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9 Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. 10 And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. 11 To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
As we consider Peter’s apostolic and pastoral role in the early church, we can see his redemption and commission from Christ in John 21 as Peter’s ordination. He was ordained by Christ to feed His sheep in the presence of some other disciples, including John.
In thinking about how this relate to all pastors that God has ordained to pastor His Church, it is so important that we follow this same pattern that we have seen here. Peter was called to feed Christ’s sheep, but it was only after he himself was first fed by Christ. Pastors must first be fed, filled, and nourished by Christ before they can properly tend to their duties. A pastor must himself feed upon Christ if he is to minister Christ. In our modern evangelical landscape so many guys in pastoral positions are just running around on empty like a chicken with their heads cut off, exploring that next modern business practice that they can implement to grow their church. So spend so much trying to get their people to go and do this and that activity without ever feeding them on the word of God. And so many pastors do not spend appropriate time studying the Word of God, even for their sermons. The current president of the Southern Baptist Convention, Ed Litton was caught plagiarizing a massive number of sermons from other mega church pastors and nobody did anything about it, because so many of them are all doing it. This is treason to the call of Christ for His overseers. It was further exposed that there is a company called Docent Research Group that you can pay to have write sermons for you, and a number of evangelical elites were found to have hired their services. These guys are so busy acting like CEO’s and business executives that they have no time to be a shepherd, to sit down and be fed by Christ so that they can take and feed it to His sheep. Such men do not belong in the office of pastor and anyone in their churches must leave, and if we ever do that here, please leave.
Pastors must first be fed by Christ, that they may feed Christ’s sheep, but it is also Christ that they must feed to His people. Christ is the Bread of Heaven, the Bread of Life, the Living Water. He is our food and sustenance. In Him is life and light. There are other pastors who do spend time in preparation and study but yet they never feed Christ to their people. This too is a crime, no matter how well intentioned a man may be in it. You’ll find many pastors who talk so much about what they do for Christ, or even how much they love Christ, but they never actually talk about Christ, and what Christ is for His people. Such are not feeding Christ to Christ’s sheep, they are feeding themselves. Such is also the case for those who preach and teach all sorts of moral lessons and instructions from the Bible, yet never get around to actually preaching Christ from the text. We aren’t the greatest pastors here, and we stumble in many ways, it is only by the grace of God that we are what we are, but I pray it is true that no matter how we may fumble in the process we get Jesus Christ clothed in the gospel set before you each week. And may the Triune God of heaven forbid any elder of Hope Baptist Church to ever stray from that.
This responsibility of Undershepherds to feed Christ’s sheep also implies that each Christian is indeed to come to church in order to be fed. I’ve heard some pastors rant and rave about how church is not about coming to be fed, because you are supposed to be able to feed yourself. Church, one of the primary points of gathering together each Lord’s Day is to be fed. Do not ever stay at a church where you are not being fed the Word of God. Certainly there are those who complain about not being fed, not because Christ is not being set before them, but because they won’t partake. That is sin that you need to repent of if that is ever you. You are not to come so that you may be fed according to your own preferences, but you are to go where the pure Word of God is laid and offered before the people, and that necessarily means sometimes you won’t like it, but you need it, and such a pastor is doing his job.
It is our desire that the Lord’s Day be a day of absolute feasting on Christ and on His Word, for all of our sakes, and for obedience to our Great Shepherd.
Love
Finally I want to note here that pastors must love Jesus. Jesus asks Peter three times if he loves Him and then commissions him to feed his sheep. Obviously a pastor must fit all the biblical requirements for elders and be called to a specific local church, you cannot just say, “Oh he loves God so much, so he is God’s man for us.” There are some that do. But to us in our reformed circles who understand all that, it cannot be missed that an Undershepherd of Christ must love the Lord Jesus. There is no way they can be sustained to do the work of ministry if they do not love Christ. Christ so dearly loves His people that only those who love Him may tend to His sheep. I hope and pray that that is a painfully obvious requirement to each of you. And may it be so to all of Christ’s church in every place.
As we examine ourselves in light of God’s Word today, I ask you: what about you? Do you love Christ? I am not asking if it is a perfect love. I am not asking if it is a greater love than your neighbor. But can you honestly say that there is love for Christ in your heart? Is there, though it may be weak and unimpressive, a true love for the Lord? This is the greatest commandment to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength.
If you love Him, tend to what He has called you. Not many are called to pastor, but all are called to the Church, to love one another and serve one another. Every Christian man with a wife and children are called to tend to their homes, to feed and love those whom God has entrusted to their care. If you love Jesus, you will. Women, with husbands and children are called to love their husbands and children and tend to them in a godly motherly way. And you know what? You need Christ to be able to do that. You need to be filled with Him, to be sustained and nourished by Him, to tend to others God has given you. Oh that Fathers and mothers would be so filled with the love of Christ that our children would have no excuse at our expense before God.
Conclusion
While Peter’s love is questioned in our text, and by application our love is also questioned, the beauty of the gospel is that the love of Christ for Peter is never questioned for a moment in the text. The love of Christ for His people is absolutely unquestionable. Man’s love for God is unstable and oftentimes weak and shameful. But the love of Christ for His sheep is firmer than any mountain could ever be. The love of Christ toward His sheep who wander and stray and deny him and forsake him and fail him is not moved or changed one degree. John says of Christ’s love for His disciples that He loved them to the end. Man’s love can be questioned all the day long and will always be found wanting, but the love of Christ is utterly without question. And we love because He first loved us and gave Himself for us. And that is a firm foundation to rest in. In examining ourselves we know that we will come up short of what we ought to be, but in examining yourself, in no way do I ask you to rest in yourself or trust in your love for God. But look to yourself and however great or small your love may be, you will find every reason and need to look only to Christ, and rest and trust in the fact that we are His, we are forgiven, restored, and redeemed, not because of our love and profession of Christ, but because of His love for us, and His commitment to care for and sustain us. By God’s grace, may each of you rest there today and so be strengthened to love Him more. Amen.
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