Feed His Sheep
Jesus: Meet Him Again for the First Time • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 1:19:39
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Have you ever felt like…I’ve blown it. Perhaps it was in a friendship or a relationship, maybe at your job, maybe as part of a team…the feeling is intense. And yet, that likely pales in comparison to how Peter felt watching his friend, and mentor, the one he’d watch do multiple miracles and had caused him to be far better than he was - be tried, crucified, and die.
When it came down to it Peter denied Jesus not once… not twice…but three times after professing his undying commitment to his rabbi. Now Peter has seen him alive, but one can imagine Peter feeling like things are not quite the same. Yeah, Jesus did that, but ...
You can only imagine the list of reasons he had for why he should be disqualified from anything to do with Jesus cause. Over the last week his head has been spinning with all that happened over the past few years. From that first encounter on the beach when Jesus called him to be a “fisher of men”, to the healing of his mother-in-law, to all those times he, James and John had been called to join Jesus in instances the other’s were left out.
Just this past couple weeks from Jericho to Jerusalem, the blind man healed that came with them, their time at the temple, the upper room and celebrating the Passover, their time in the garden and then his arrest when Peter whacked off Malchus’ ear and Jesus healed him. It just snowballed from there.
Peter had told Jesus that even if all the other’s deserted him, he would not. And yet not only did he deny he knew him twice, then he had had sworn that he did not know him. And a rooster crowed. Now, every single morning as the sun comes up and the roosters crow Peter is reminded of his failure.
He’s seen Jesus risen, but those darn roosters continue to crow every single morning. He’s got to get away, So he tells his friends - “Guys, I’m going fishing,” his friends see nothing wrong with that.
Note who goes:
John 21:2–3 (ESV)
Simon Peter, Thomas (called the Twin), Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together. Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.”
We know Simon Peter was a fisherman, but so were James and John (the sons of Zebedee), Nathanael is from Galilee - a fishing village - at least four of these seven that go were professional fisherman. And just adding to Peter’s frustration they catch nothing.
As the day is breaking they come towards the shore, and Jesus is standing there, and asks if they’ve caught any fish. “No” they answer.
He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, because of the quantity of fish.
This is reminiscent of when Peter went out after Jesus preached to the masses from his boat, we spoke about in Luke 5. we read:
And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.”
But notice this time, there’s something missing. There’s no protest and I can imagine Peter just going through the motions until John cries out, “It is the Lord!”
Upon hearing this, despite his feelings of self defeat gets dressed and throws himself into the sea. The other disciples come in the boat, and they get to shore and Jesus already has a fire going with fish and bread laid out on it. He invites them to bring some of the fish they’d caught and to join him for breakfast.
This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.
It’s what happens next that I want to focus on. After Breakfast Jesus said to Peter:
John 21:15 (ESV)
“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.”
After the past week, I can imagine that Jesus’ question stung a bit.
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.”
Ouch, twice? I can imagine Peter thinking, is Jesus ever going to forgive me? But Jesus is not through...
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.
Peter denied Jesus three times before his crucifixion.
Jesus appears to the disciples (including Peter) three times. The upper room without Thomas, 8 days later the upper room with Thomas, and now on the shore of Galilee, again with Thomas.
Finally, Jesus, questions Peter three times:
“Do you love me more than these?”
“Do you love me?”
“Do you love me?”
Each time Peter answers:
“Yes Lord, you know that I love you.”
“Yes Lord, you know that I love you.”
“Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.”
And Jesus responds to his answers:
“Feed my lambs.”
“Tend my sheep.”
“Feed my sheep.”
Now, if you’re a greek scholar, or perhaps you’ve been in the church a long time you may have heard much made of the fact that Jesus uses the greek word Agapao in the first two questions and then switches to Phileo, where as Peter usese Phileo all three times. Agape is considered a self-less love and is often recorded as the highest of loves. Phileo is love in a brotherly sense, thus Philadelphia. The truth is this is most likely a stylistic choice by John and it’s noted that John often uses the terms interchangeably.
Yet when Peter proclaims “You know everything,” in its full sense it is an affirmation of Christ’s omniscience which is consistent with his deity! And of course if he knows everything, just as he knew where the fish were after preaching from Peter’s boat, and just now from the shore, Jesus know’s Peter’s heart.
And he gives Peter a command, “Feed my sheep.” Initially Jesus uses the term lambs.
We read in the Psalms:
Psalm 95:6–7 (ESV)
Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
For he is our God,
and we are the people of his pasture,
and the sheep of his hand.
And of course the Shepherds Psalm
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
And I encourage you all to read through both these Psalms in light of our passage today.
Jesus command is to feed his lambs, his sheep. He is the shepherd, his people are the sheep.
Feed… It’s an interesting word to choose. Back in John 4 the disciples are trying to get Jesus to eat something. He’s been travelling for a day and was tired, but his response is telling. He says,
But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.”
They are confused, has someone brought him food?
Jesus responds, John 4:34
Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.
So let’s consider this. If Jesus food is to do the will of him who sent him and to accomplish his work, one can then recognize that this must be food for those that follow him as well. It is a rewording of the Great Commission.
Matthew records the Great Commission as:
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Making disciples is calling others to follow Jesus.
I would think that discipleship or feeding is the latter part of the commission, “teaching them to observe all that I have commanded...”
Jesus does not call us to make converts, but to make disciples. What does it mean to follow Jesus?
It means trusting that Jesus is Lord.
It means knowing what Jesus commanded.
It means working to obey all that he commanded.
As you and I read this Great Commission as recorded in Matthew it’s not difficult to see the circular part of it. We are to teach everything that Jesus commanded which includes this very command.
If we are going to feed and tend the lambs and sheep of Jesus we have to be equipped to so so, which means we have to be growing ourselves.
Are you feeding on God’s Word? Are you sharing His word with those around you? Just as Peter was, we are called to feed Jesus’ sheep.
As you are called, you are commissioned. Let me pray for you.
Feed My Sheep
Feed My Sheep