What Do You Truly Love?
John 14:23-27 John 21:1-14
Do you love your favorite food? Do you love going on vacation? Do you love your car? Do you love your pet? Do you love your children? Do you love your parents? Do you love your job? Do you love your freedom? Do You love your career.
Do you love your spouse? What is it about these things that cause you to think, yes I do love that, or this, or them? Is it a feeling they give you inside? Is it a desire to just go all out and do whatever you can for them? Or is it a mixture somewhere in between.
We all are able to say what we love, but what do our actions actually indicate we love. If somebody were given an assignment to follow us around for a year and they were totally invisible to us, what report would they given on what our actions say that we love?
Have any of you ever felt or said, “if you loved me, you would not have done that to me or said that to me.”
One of the things being stuck in our homes has done, has tested our love for each other, when tempers have flared, or things were not done in the way we expected or some family members have just been a lot lazier or a lot bossier that we had imagined.
That’s when we need to remember what love truly is. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 (NIV) 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.
Some of us being home alone has tested our commitment to purity in what we watch and whom we have invited over to spend time with us.
That’s when we need to recall Jesus’ words when He said, “if you love me, you will keep my commandments.”
Sometimes, because of our own actions, our love for God can at times seem all over the place and out of focus. How does my sin, my repentance, my love for God and God’s love for me all relate together?
We recently celebrated the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. God demonstrated His love and His power in a remarkable way. Jesus Christ had been murdered on a cross, buried for three days, and had now risen from the dead.
He promises salvation and eternal life to all who will believe in him. It would have been great if the moment we got saved, we were instantly changed into perfection and taken straight to heaven.
But that was not God’s plan. God planned for us to do some plain ordinary living, being slowly transformed right where we are, so that others could see Christ in us and believe.
Often times, the times we blow it has more of a lasting memory in their minds, than the times we do what God intended. Peter had seen the resurrected Christ, but like us, he still had to live in an ordinary world.
Let me introduce you to Peter. When Jesus was alive, he chose 12 people as his special disciples. Out of the 12, he chose three disciples that He truly invested himself in, and provided them with spiritual experiences that the others did not have.
One of the inner three was Simon Peter. Jesus went even further with Peter and told him he would be the leader among the 12. Peter would be crucial in the establishment of the church.
Peter was proud of Christ and committed to him. Then one day Jesus told Peter, “when I am arrested, all of you will run and turn your back on me.” Peter’s response was, “not me Lord, I’ve got your back no matter what.
Even if all the rest run away, if they take you to jail, they’ll have to take me. I am ready to die for you if that’s what its going to take.”
Jesus responded, “Brother I feel you, but before a rooster crows three times you will deny me.” In others words, your love for me is not as strong as you desire for it to be.
Sometimes when we make our commitment to follow God, we do not understand that God’s way of doing things are not our way of acting in a given situation. We might find ourselves saying, “to do that would be stupid. Noboby is going walk over me without a fight.”
The night came when the mob arrived at night to arrest Jesus and everything was about to go down. One of the disciples said, “Lord should we fight back with our swords.” Before Jesus could answer, “Peter must have yelled out “it’s on”, because he quickly drew his sword, and cut off one of the guy’s right ear.”
But instead of Jesus saying “ This is it! Let’s go for it! he tells them, “ put away your swords.” He reaches out and heals the ear of the man Peter just caught off.”
When the disciples saw that they were willing to risk their lives fighting and Jesus would not let them fight, they were out of there.
They must have thought, “Look if he’s going to give up without a fight then that’s on Him.” They didn’t understand that because Jesus loved them, He was willing to fight a greater fight through submission to the Father’s will. He was not concerned with simply winning an earthly battle.
Peter could not understand how Jesus would give up so easily when he still had the power to do miracles. Why not use those 12,000 angels at his disposal?
When they took Jesus away, Peter followed at a distance just to see what would happen to Jesus. Instead he found out what would happen to Peter.
My friend, has Jesus done something or not done something that has confused you, and so now you are following him at a distance.
Peter tried to mingle in with crowd as they also looked on from a distance. Somebody lit a fire to keep warm, and Peter went over to the fire.
But a woman was looking at him, and recognized him. She said, “this man was with him.” But Peter denied it and said, “Woman, I don’t know the man.”
A little later someone else recognized Peter and said, “You also was with him.” Peter shot back, “Man I was not”.
After hanging with the group for about an hour, Peter kept on talking. The more he talked, the more they picked up on his northern accent. Somebody said, “You most certainly were with him, because you are from Galilee.”
To prove his point this time, Peter says, “I swear to you, and if I’m lying let me be cursed, I don’t know the man you are talking about.” No sooner than he got the last word out of his mouth, he heard a rooster crowing in the distance.
The very thing he swore he would never do, he had done. He had denied Jesus three times. He looked at Jesus from a distance, and Jesus turned his head and looked straight back at him in a moment of truth.
Peter just fell apart and went away and wept bitterly. He was trying to figure where his love had gone. I wish I could have felt as deeply as Peter did, in the moments I have denied Christ. I never have wept bitterly over my denials.
You know as long as we try to follow Jesus at a distance and blend in with the crowd, our love for him will also begin to fade.
Will we admit we’re in the wrong place and repent as Peter did, or will we just keep pretending nothing has really changed.
Have you ever been in Peter’s shoes in which your whole world just seemed to be collapsing around you. Nobody expected us to be quarantined for this long.
You never thought you could lose your business that you had built successfully from the ground up. You do know you could be facing a collapse financially if this shut down continues.
Some of you are afraid of losing everything that’s precious and dear to you. You don’t even know how you got to the place where you are now. Being together has shown you how far you have drifted from each other as spouses.
When you woke up, it was just another day, but now your life seems forever changed in a direction you neither expected or wanted it to go.
You can’t believe that is actually happening to you. Like Peter, you thought you were stronger than you were in your faith to follow Jesus no matter what. You may be wondering, does God really love me.
When Jesus arose from the dead, he appeared to the disciples and they were overjoyed.
But Jesus did not stay with them . Instead he had appeared twice and then disappeared again. But there was a strain in the relationship between Jesus and Peter.
Do you know what it feels like to know that you’ve let someone down, but you haven’t had a chance to talk about it, or you were in an argument, but didn’t get the chance to fully resolve it. You can be happy for things that happen to the person, but you just don’t feel connected because of the break in the relationship.
You know and the other person both know you are in need of beginning again in the relationship, but so far it has not happened. You are going to have to talk about it. Try starting with the words, “I’m sorry our relationship is like this…..
Well there was this strain between Jesus and Peter. One day, when Jesus was gone and the disciples were not sure if Jesus was gone for the last time or not, Peter made a declaration.
He said to six of the other disciples, “Man, I’m going to go fishing.” The other disciples said, “ we’ll go with you.” When Jesus first called the disciples, many of them had been fisherman by trade.
But after their last big catch of fish, Jesus had told them, “from now on I will make you fishers of men and women.” So their choice to go back fishing was actually a decision to change the direction that Jesus had provided for their lives.
They wanted to go back to what was familiar, and what they thought would be an easy transition. They were starting to remember the good ole days. But the good ole days were never quite as easy or as good as we thought they were.
They had visions of eating a good fish meal and putting some extra money in their pockets from the extra fish they would sell on the market. It seemed like a good plan. The only problem was, this plan was not God’s call for their lives.
They got a boat and net from somewhere and went back to fishing. They may have gone into debt to rent it or to buy it. Just because a boat is available doesn’t mean it’s of God.
The fact that they caught nothing all night did not cause them to give up. If they had borrowed money, they had to keep on working. When the sun’s rays were making light possible, they were still tired, hungry and broke.
They heard a voice from the shore saying, “Friends you don’t have any fish do you.” They probably thought, “aw man, there goes our first customer.” They yelled back, “No.”
Jesus yelled out to them, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some there.” Reluctantly they tried it, and the net had so many fish inside of it they could hardly pull in the nets.
Do you see how close we can be to a blessing, but if we choose to ignore the word of God, we can miss it?
The fish were right there on the other side of the boat. That desire we want to see fulfilled at the end of this COVID -19 crisis may be far closer to us than we think it is.
Don’t stop saying I’ll do what God wants me to do. Believe God that, this is going to be your year. Notice that the disciples didn’t know where Jesus was, but Jesus knew exactly where to find them. Not only did he know where to find them, he was preparing for their needs.
The apostle John immediately recognized that this was Jesus on the shore. He said, “it is the Lord.” Peter jumped into the water to get to Jesus.
He remembered it was just like this before years earlier when they had caught nothing all night. Jesus had done a similar miracle.
Peter wanted to get rid of the strain in his relationship to Jesus. He wanted to begin again. He knew he missed the love he once he knew.
When he got to the shore, Peter discovered, Jesus already had some fish for them to eat, and not only that Jesus was cooking the meal.
Even after his resurrection from the dead, Jesus chose the life of a servant. He invited the disciples to sit down and eat with him.
As they sat and talked, they must have talked about some of the old times together. But talking about old times eventually would lead up to those final days.
That was a period in which no one was really that proud of their actions. All had deserted Him. Everybody knew they had failed somewhat miserably in the end.
But you know something, God always has a way or restoring us when we fail Him. God never says, “You dummy, you stupid idiot, how could you have done such a thing.” No God desires for us to begin again in our walk with him. As the song writer says, “we fall down, but we get up.”
We get up because God’s hand is reaching out to lift us up. God can turn our worst mistakes into opportunities for Him. God has nothing but grace waiting for you if you come home to Him.
Jesus did not say in front of the others, “You know Peter, you really blew it big time on those three denials. All that big talk and no action. Do you think you love me now.” No, when we need to work out something with someone in a broken relationship, the Christian way is to do it privately.
Jesus could see, Peter’s desire and probably said, “Come on Peter, let’s take a walk for a minute.”
In verse 15, Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you truly love me more than these?”
When Jesus asked “more than these”, what is he talking abou?. Is he pointing back to the fish and the money they could bring to Peter’s pockets? “Peter do you love me more than the comforts and pleasures that money in this life can bring?”
Is he referring to Peter’s former career, saying will I have to compete with your time because of how much you love your job, leaving so little time for my plan for your life.
Is he referring to Peter’s love in comparison to the other disciples, because Peter had boasted his commitment was stronger than theirs, and even if they all fall away, he’d be there for Jesus no matter what? Peter do you still think you love me more than the other guys do?
Is he referring to Peter’s love for his family and closest friends. Few people meant more to Peter than those 6 other guys back around the fire.
The bible does not tell us exactly which one Jesus meant or if he meant them all. Part of the reason is that Jesus is asking the same of us as we live in the midst of Covid-19. When He says “do you love me more than these”, what is it that we love so much in our lives that we dare not lose it.
What area is there in our lives that we let God know, “I know what your word says, but I just can’t turn this area of my life over into your control.” Is it a career, a dream, a person, our tongues, our money, our sexuality or our demand to live life as we want to live it?
Do you love me more than these Jesus asks? As long as we hold on to it, there will be a crack in our relationship to God. What’s the crack costing you?
Peter responded, “Yes lord, you know that I love you.” Peter probably expected Jesus to say, “then why did you do it?”. But instead Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.” Jesus was not talking about lambs but about people.
He’s saying, “Peter I’ve got a plan for your life, and I want you to take care of people who are young believers.” Peter was probably very happy to hear Jesus say, “I still have confidence in your ability as a leader and I’m restoring you to your position.”
But then Jesus asks him again, “Simon, son of John do you truly love me.” Now was it that Peter was going to be used by God that made him happy. Was he in love with being in the limelight once again or was it truly Jesus that he loved.
You see in giving Peter a new beginning, Jesus had to make sure Peter had his priorities in order. Peter was somewhat caught off guard that Jesus asked him a second time, but he responded once again, Yes Lord, you know that I love you.
With this second declaration of love came another responsibility for ministry. You see loving God always is going to involve meeting the needs of others. Jesus then told Peter “Take care of my sheep.”
When those lambs grow, don’t abandon them. I expect you to be faithful with the passing of time. God is telling us He’s not calling us for short time service, but a lifetime of commitment.
Then Jesus asks him a third time, Simon son of John, do you love me? This third time for Peter was a little too much. It hurt inside for Jesus to have asked this third time do you love me.
But Peter had forgotten that three times he had openly declared before the world he did not know Jesus.
As painful as it was, Jesus had presented him with three opportunities to boldly cross out those three earlier denials. Perhaps Jesus also asked this question to see if Peter could speak of his love for Christ, even when he felt that Christ had hurt him deeply without cause.
It’s easy to say we love Jesus when he’s giving us something, but can we say it when we feel hurt by him. When our prayers weren’t answered. When we did all the right things and things still did not go our way.
You know something, this is when we need a love for Christ the most. When we are hurt and not sure of which way to go. Peter was still able to say, Lord you know all things; you know that I love you.
Jesus gave him a third ministry assignment “feed my sheep”. Jesus was letting Peter know there would be no end to the call of discipleship upon his life. As the sheep aged, Peter was to age in service to them providing them with the teachings and word of God.
Jesus also revealed to Peter that not only did he have a plan for his life, he even had planned the way in which Peter would die many years later.
You see if Jesus does not know of our ending, how can we fully trust Him with our present. We were not born to make a difference for God in some other era.
We have been born to make a difference for God in the year 2020 in the midst of a worldwide pandemic called the coronavirus.
The most important question we still will have to answer again and again is still, “do you love me, more than these?” Each time we say no, we will drift further from God, but each time we say yes, we will discover the purpose God has for our lives this day.
For Jesus tells us, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. Which commandment do you need the Holy Spirit’s help with today to show your love? Are you brave enough to confess it and to invite God in and to leave the sin behind or to ask God to help you loves someone by receiving God’s victorious grace.
It’s amazing, we really don’t have anything to offer God and yet God chooses to love us with a love that’s everlasting if we will but accept it. If we were asked God what do you love, he would reply “You.”
