Our Love for Christ
21 July 2013 PM – John 21:15-25 – Scott Childs
Introduction: Love is giving of us to meet the needs of another. It is sacrificing for another. It is setting aside personal agenda to aid another. Loving Christ is giving, sacrificing, and setting aside in order to do what He needs us to do.
Transition: This evening we are going to examine three facts about love for Christ that Jesus presented to Peter.
I. Love for Christ is a Choice
A. Jesus asked Peter if he love Him more than these.
This question has two possible meanings and the Greek allows for either. Context and opinion must decide.
1. Do you love me more than these disciples? This is the favoured interpretation by most commentators. Earlier, Peter had said, “Though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended.” Matthew 26:33. By this statement, Peter was claiming to be more faithful and perhaps more loving that the others. Perhaps this is what Jesus had in mind by “more than these.”
2. Do you love me more than these fish? Nearby on the shore the fish were still flopping in the net. The night before, Peter perhaps in a wandering moment, said, “I go fishing.” This with Jesus’ statements to “feed sheep” or care for Christians, leads me to believe that this is what Jesus had in mind by “more than these.”
3. However, Chuck Smith was right when he said, “We don’t know the ‘these’ because we weren’t there to see what Jesus was looking at, or beckoning or motioning towards.”
B. God wants our full love
1. Jesus said we are to love Him with our whole being.
Mark 12:30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.
2. Jesus said that in the last days love for God would decline.
Matthew 24:12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.
3. What might “more than these” be in our lives?
a) More than the things of this unregenerate world. Things of this world include materialism, sensual lust, devilish music, carnal styles, filthy movies, immodesty, alcohol, and popularity.
1 John 2:15-16 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
b) More than the pleasures of this life.
2 Timothy 3:4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
c) More than family and friends.
Luke 14:26 If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.
Love for Christ is a choice. Do you love Him more than these?
II. Love for Christ is an Action
We treat love lightly today. We say we love pizza, we love our dog, we love our hobby, and we close our letters “with love”, and yet we seldom think of love as an action.
A. Jesus gave Peter a threefold way to prove his love.
1. Jesus said, If you love Me, “Feed my lambs.”
a) The word translated “feed” means to provide food.
b) The lambs were the young sheep.
c) Jesus was speaking spiritually about providing spiritual food for those who are new Christians. To do this, he could no longer focus on fishing for fish.
2. Jesus said, If you love Me, “Feed my sheep.”
a) The word translated “feed” in this verse is broader. It refers to the whole office of the shepherd, the guiding, guarding, folding of the flock, as well as the finding of nourishment for it. Trench Synonyms
b) Jesus asked Peter to be a tender loving shepherd to His flock of sheep.
3. Jesus said, If you love Me, “Feed my sheep.”
a) This time He again uses the first word for feed, to provide food.
b) Jesus’ spiritual flock needs to be led to green pastures, and Peter was to lead them.
c) Jesus did not hide the cost of this task from Peter. It would cost Peter his very life (18). Jesus contrasted the freedom Peter had in his youth with the bondage he would have in old age. Many believe the phrase “stretch forth thy hands” described crucifixion. This agrees with the next verse (19).
It is reported in ‘Fox’s Book of Martyrs’ that: Peter was crucified at Rome.
B. Our love for Christ also requires action
I heard missionary Darrel Champlin preached a message on this text that he called “Loving with Your Shoes On”, because true love calls for action. If we love Jesus, we have work to do.
1. Love is meeting the needs of another, and ministry to other Christians is a need that Christ has for us to fulfil. He wants Christians to care for Christians.
2. While this is certainly a pastor’s job, it is also the job of every Christian.
a) Note what Paul wrote to the local body of Christ (church) at Ephesus.
Ephesians 4:11-12 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
b) The preacher is to perfect you through his preaching and pastoral care so that you can to do the work of the ministry (witnessing, teaching, guarding, guiding, helping), so that the body of Christ will be edified.
c) God ordained that local churches be the flocks over which pastors are to be the shepherds and the members are to be workers.
3. Love for Christ requires action. If we truly love Him, we must actively serve Him.
III. Love for Christ is Our Individual Duty
A. Peter felt the pressure and ask, “What about John?”
1. Dying as a martyr was not a pleasant thought. Would John also be martyred?
2. We find Jesus’ answer in verse 22. Peter was not to be concerned about John’s calling. He was to follow Christ’s plan for his own life.
B. God has a plan for each of our lives
1. Life is not fate. It is not luck. It is not do anything you want as long as it is good. God has a plan for your life that will honour Him.
2. Your greatest need after salvation is to find and follow God’s will for your life. It will not contradict the Bible. It will involve some biblical ministry. If you surrender your life to Him and pray for wisdom, He will make it clear to you one step at a time – not through dreams, visions, or revelations, but through Scripture, desire, counsel, and open doors.
3. The need is great. The possibilities endless.
a) The harvest is great but labourers are few (Lu 10:2)
b) Seek ye first the kingdom of God (Mt 6:33)
c) Set your affection on things above (Col 3:2)
d) Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel (Mr 16:15)
e) Let your light so shine before men (Mt 5:16)
f) Whom shall I send, who will go for us? (Isa 6:8)
g) Teach others (2Ti 2:2)
Conclusion: Love is a choice. Love is an action. Love is your individual duty. What are you doing to show your love for Christ? How are you loving with your shoes on? Are you living for now or for eternity? Does God want you to take another step? Is there something you need to surrender? Are you saved? Have you been baptised after salvation? Are you a church member?
Song: I Surrender All – 394