Do I Love Him?

”Listen carefully to my words. Don’t lose sight of them. Let them penetrate deep into your heart, for they bring life to those who find them, and HEALING to their whole body” ( NLT).

The God of creation, universe, universes has aimed His attention.

He spoke all that we see into existence. Planets flew from His mouth. Light and land and sky obeyed into their boundaries. He put fish in the oceans and they thrive there. He put birds in the sky and they soar! He created variety and wonder and beauty.

And then He reached down and picked up a few of the materials He created. Iron. Carbon. Hydrogen. Oxygen. He mashed them together and formed man. Then He did something special. He picked up this creature and breathed His very life into it! From that day until this, His attention has been on man. So much so that when man rejected what God had given him, He forecast, then sent a Redeemer. A Savior. Jesus.

Then after this special creature

When Jesus was between the death that provided redemption and returning to the glory He had known since before creation, there was a time He pointed His attention at one particular man. Simon son of John.

We see our bumps as horizontal and try to smooth them over when actually they are vertical.

It is in those moments when we acknowledge that our need is for God that we finally see He has been pointing His attention toward us the whole time.

John 21:15–25 ESV

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. 18 Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” 19 (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, “Follow me.” 20 Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them, the one who also had leaned back against him during the supper and had said, “Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?” 21 When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, “Lord, what about this man?” 22 Jesus said to him, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!” 23 So the saying spread abroad among the brothers that this disciple was not to die; yet Jesus did not say to him that he was not to die, but, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?” 24 This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things, and who has written these things, and we know that his testimony is true. 25 Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.

John 21:15-25

Jesus addressed Simon by name.

Maybe He wanted Simon to remember who he was.

Do you know by what name the master calls you?

Let’s look back at another time Jesus uses this name:

Matthew 16:15–17 ESV

He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.

Matthew 16:17 ESV

And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.

He gave a reason for calling him that.

Peter would make that same confession a few days later and thousands would agree.

?? Told not to proclaim?

Do you know by what name the master calls you?

I’d like to let you in on what He calls me:

Knowing what God calls me means rejecting what others call me. The voices from my childhood, from a failed marriage, from a poor work situation. The voices that try to tell me I am less than what He says I am.

Beloved.

Child. 2 Cor 6

Beloved.

Ambassador. 2 Cor 5

Handiwork (work of art). Eph 2

He asked Simon Peter a very pointed question:

Do you love me more than these others love me? You see, Peter had proclaimed that even if everyone else abandoned Jesus, he would not. But he did. And not only did Peter abandon Him, he denied even knowing Jesus.

“You think you love me more than anyone else loves me. You jumped off the boat and swam ahead to see me just now. But we need to examine your love for me.”

Three questions. Maybe you have studied this before and recognized the shift in original text from agape to phileo (love). At that time in history their usage was merging to be the deep, true love that was not romantic or sexual. So using either was not an issue. What was an issue for Peter was being asked the third time.

The third time was when Peter was greived by the question. As though it finally dawned on him the charcoal fire and questions posed were directly related to his denial.

The difficulty surfaced when Peter was forced to face his actions. He had to look in the mirror of the Word. Jesus was relentless in holding it up. He still is.

If the question is pointed to us, asking if we love Him more than (fill in the blank), how would we receive the question?