Sermon Tone Analysis

Feed My sheep

Disciples following Jesus

The disciples were where God had told them to be.

Many people see this section as them giving up and just going back to ordinary life, but really they are waiting for God.

What happens when Christ comes; there failure turns into great success.

All night they fish and yet have empty nets, but when they follow Christ the nets are full.

A lot of people speculate about the 153 fish caught, but the larger point is that the net was full, just as the mission of the church will be full or successful.

Luke 5 has a similar story yet the response of Peter is different- Luke 5:8 “ Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”

Here Peter jumps in the water not waiting to see His Lord and Savior

What had change?

it the very thing that changes in our life when taste and see the glory of our Risen Savior.

Christ had revealed Himself to Peter and the Disciples, and it is because of this that we the change in the very nature of who Peter is.

Some examples:

Abraham- From Idol worship to the father of the promise seed

Jacob- Who’s life was marked by Selfishness and deceit, to the father of Israel’s tribes

Moses- a man who ran and fled from Egypt to the voice of God to Israel, Pharaoh and all the nation

Gideon- From hiding in a wine press to warrior

Peter’s Restoration

Where Does Jesus Meet Peter?

Jesus Is waiting for Peter by the coals- right where Peter Left Jesus, denying Him for the third times.

Two times John references the fire made by coals:

One is where Peter turned for the Lord and Denied Him publicly, and this one where Jesus meets Peter a restores Him to minister.

John 21:9

Jesus says “If you love feed My lambs, tend My sheep, feed My sheep”

Three times Jesus asks Peter

“Do you Love me more then these?”

“Do you love Me?”

“Do you love Me?”

Peter’s response it to be grieved- Three times Peter stood by a fire and denied his Lord.

Now he stands by a fire again, and three times affirms his love for Jesus.

Restoration replaces failure

Peter says “ Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.”

(Jn 21:17).

Before his denial he zealously said “You obviously don’t know me!

I would never betray you, I would rather die.”

Here stands a changed man.

A man who has been humbled by the love a Savior.

A man who had felt shame cause he ran away from God.

Now Jesus says “follow me” -John points out that Jesus is talking about the death the Peter would face for the glory of God.

Peter at one point ran from Jesus when Jesus died so one day Peter would be in glory, now will follow Jesus to a cross himself for God to be glorified.

To parables show what happens when we see Christ revealed as the Messiah like Peter here:

Nothing compares to the supreme value of Christ our Lord

The Kingdom of heaven is worth more than any sacrifice we could make to obtain it- There is a sense in which the depth of our affection for Christ is inseparably related to the depth of our understanding of that which we have been forgiven:

Let us not trifle with God or trivialize his love.

We will never stand in awe of being loved by God until we reckon with the seriousness of our sin and the justice of his wrath against us.

But when, by grace, we waken to our unworthiness, then we may look at the suffering and death of Christ and say, “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the [wrath-absorbing] propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10).

Peter’s life would go to show this:

Acts 4- Peter and John are arrested and beaten they Glorify and praise God “We cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.”

Acts 5 they are arrested about to be killed before some says “council be careful you might just find yourselves opposing God.”

Then they are let go after being beaten and they rejoice because (Acts 5:41) “they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name.”

Tradition understands the death of Peter to have been crucified upside down.

What a hard word- “God am I able to endure suffering for your Glory?”

Peter would go to a cross and Jesus says here “This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God” “you will stretch out your hands” and He ends by simply saying “follow me”.

“Feed My lambs, Tend My sheep, Feed My lambs” This is the ministry that Peter was called to.

To feed the body of Christ.

With Peter’s confession of his love for his Lord comes the commission to feed the flock.

“Don’t starve them.”

The Bible says in our natural state, no one seeks after God.

It is only when a person’s heart is regenerated by the Spirit of God so that he is born again that he begins to seek God.

That is why Jonathan Edwards said that seeking after God should be the main business of the life of the Christian.

God has made us alive- We were dead!

Without God we are lost without hope, But God being rich in mercy made us alive.

R.C. Sproul writes “ We are witnessing a great tragedy in the revolution of worship in the United States.

Following the model of “seeker-sensitive” worship is harming the church.

The idea is that if you want your church to grow, you must design worship to meet the desires and the interests of non-Christians.

I believe in seeker-sensitive worship, but not in the way most modern worship theorists define it”

He goes on to state “Why did Jesus put so much emphasis on feeding the sheep?

When the sheep of Christ are fed, nurtured, and filled with the strength of Christ and of His word, they become a mighty army turned loose on the world.

Babies have almost no influence in a culture.

Before they can turn the world upside down, they have to grow up, they have to become mature, and that happens as they are fed the Word of God.

Nothing less will do.”