August 28, 2005 Proclaim Peace Through Jesus - in Love - based on John 21:15-19
After Jesus rose from the dead he asked Peter three simple questions - “do you love me?” When Peter answered with a resounding “yes,” Jesus then replied, “feed my sheep.” Although this reinstatement to ministry was primarily a message of Jesus’ forgiveness and love for Peter, it also shows us that love is more than words and more than feelings. Talk is cheap. All kinds of people will say “I love you,” from Oprah Winfrey to Pat Robertson. But ask them to give you ten dollars, and see how far their love goes. When Peter said “I love you,” Jesus wanted him to respond with actions. 1 John 3:18 says, “Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.” God calls out the hypocrite within that would like love to end with the tongue and not the hand.
Love is Sacrificial
I. Love calls for sacrifice
When you really love something or someone, you can’t help but do something about it. When a new book comes out from your favorite author, you eagerly await the release date. You buy the book. You read the book from front to back until you’re done. When you go out to eat and the waiter brings you your favorite baked potato, your mouth drools and you eagerly sink your teeth into it. When your child goes to Worlds of Fun and waits in line for the next ride, he can’t help but jump up and down, smile, and eagerly anticipate the next ride. When Stephen saw heaven opened, he couldn’t help but rejoice at the sight.
The opposite happens when you really dislike something or someone. You avoid it like the plague. When I tell my children to clean out the cat litter, oh man do they whine and moan and conveniently “forget” what I told them. When you see your neighbor outside that you really can’t stand to talk to, you do your best to wait until he or she is gone before venturing outdoors. When Jonah was called by God to preach to Nineveh, he avoided it like the plague, because he hated the Assyrians. These actions show whether you really love something or not.
Jesus told Peter to show his love for him by feeding His sheep and taking care of His lambs. Feeding sheep and taking care of them is not a glorious job. Sheep don’t say please and thank you. Sheep are timid and weak little critters. They get spooked very easily. Taking care of them means standing out in the cold and rain at times, going through hillsides and dangerous country just to try and find them. Jesus was not telling Peter to do an easy job or a fun job. He was calling him to do a necessary job. If Peter really loved Jesus, however, he would be willing then to take care of Jesus’ sheep by feeding them.
When I sneak into my children’s room at night and see them sleeping - little soft cheeks lying there on the pillow as peaceful as can be, I get a tremendous sense of love and thankfulness that God has given me these creatures. Sometimes I catch myself gently rubbing their cheeks and appreciating the soft touch of fresh skin. Do I love them? Yes. But five hours later, when those seemingly angelic creatures are running around, fighting, yelling, demanding - “I want berry milk, I need go potty,” and complaining, “why do we have to . . .” my love for them wanes. When this love calls on me to wipe bottoms and wash hair and put on clothes, my love is put to the test. Talk is cheap. Actions are difficult.
The fact of the matter is that love is not always fun or easy. It especially depends on what the object of your love is. It’s easy to love your recliner. All it does is sit there and give you a place to rest. You don’t have to talk to it. You rarely have to clean it. All you do is sit on it. It’s easy to love your television. It talks to you. It keeps you entertained. It becomes more difficult when you have to clean it, move it, and pay for it. Children are more difficult, because they are sinfully selfish. Pets are more difficult, because they don’t always listen. Bosses are not easy to love, because they can be rude and very demanding. Neighbors can be difficult to love - because they can be loud and obnoxious. Some of these - when we have a hard time loving them - we try to ignore. Do you stall coming home from work because you have a hard time loving your wife? Do you look for excuses as to why you can’t spend time with your kids, because it takes work to love them? Do you do your best to avoid phone calls from certain people because you have a hard time loving them?
Peter said he loved Jesus. Notice that Jesus didn’t tell Peter, “feed me.” Jesus didn’t need to be fed by Peter. Jesus said to Peter, “feed my sheep. If you really love me, feed my sheep. Be willing to get wet. Be willing to sleep on the ground. Be willing to run after the sheep when they flee. Take care of my people. Feed them with the word, even when they don’t want to eat. Lead them to pastures, even when they stray.” During Peter’s time on earth then, he had to constantly deal with sheep - God’s sheep. As Jesus’ chosen apostle, he had to go to Cornelius house and talk with this Gentile about Jesus. He had to eat with the Galatian Gentiles, something he previously thought to be disgusting. He had to put up with the criticisms of the circumcision minded Jews. He had to try and feed the Jews in spite of the accusations of being against the law of Moses. He had to feed the sheep in the midst of persecution, danger and sword. This is what Jesus said for Peter to do - to prove that he loved Jesus. “Do you love me? Feed my sheep.”
You and I can sit in church and say to Jesus, “I love you.” Then comes the test. Jesus says, “feed my sheep.” Think about the calling that God has given you. Jesus says, “do you love me? Take care of your children. Talk to your wife. Work hard at your job. Be a good student.” Jesus says to you, “if you really love me, show it to me by doing what you are called to do.” Jesus wants us to superimpose His face on the face of our children, our parents, our teachers, our employees and our employers. He wants us to show our love to him by being patient, kind, forgiving and showing genuine concern for these people. So when your teacher assigns you a lot of homework, Jesus asks, “do you really love me?” When your children demand you to constantly clothe them and bathe them and take care of them, and you find yourself getting angrier and angrier - yelling and becoming more and more impatient - Jesus asks again, “do you really love me?” When you find yourself talking about your boss behind his or her back, Jesus says, “I thought you loved me?” When you hear yourself not wanting to spend time with your spouse, Jesus asks, “are you sure you love me?” In reality, what do we answer by our actions? What do we say to Jesus? We say, “I love you when you make me feel good. I love you when you say what I like to hear - when you do things for me. But when you cause me work - when your sheep test my patience - when this house you put in my care breaks apart - when this spouse you gave me demands my time and my attention - I’ll have to admit - I’m just not feeling it.” If we don’t love Jesus’ sheep much, it means that we don’t love Jesus much.
Like I said, you can tell how much you love someone by how much time and effort you put into it. When you put this into the realm of spiritual matters, again, the truth comes out. Who do you talk more about? The Chiefs or Jesus? What do you spend more money on? Your cable bill or your Lord? What do you spend more time doing? Watching television or reading your Bible? When you are asked for an hour of your time on Sunday morning or on Wednesday night, does this seem like a big sacrifice, while reading your favorite book or going shopping is something you can seem to make time for? Your love is shown in your actions. Do you really love Jesus? How much you love him is reflected in how much time you spend doing what He calls you to do and how much you enjoy doing it when you do. Is your’s a weak love or a strong love?
Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13) The greatest love is found in sacrifice. If our friends find themselves in trouble, if we really love them, we may have to sacrifice some time and effort to help them. When Jesus asks us, “do you love me,” we can say it, but our actions betray the depth of our love.
II. Love is based on sacrifice
Here’s how Jesus responds. Romans 5:6-8 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. What greater love could Jesus show for us? God first of all became man - entered our sinful rotten and stinking world and walked and talked among us! What a sacrifice! Jesus gave us His Word! He explained the way to salvation in the right way. He didn’t follow the work righteous way of the Pharisees. He simply said,“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.” (Luke 19:10) Jesus didn’t just say it, He showed it. His love went so far as to put His own body on the line and allow Himself to be sacrificed under God’s wrath instead of us. 2 Corinthians 5:21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Jesus proved he loved us by becoming a man, living a perfect life in our place, proclaiming true salvation in Him, and providing salvation through His death on the cross - allowing Himself to be drenched in our sins. There is not one second of Jesus’ life that was not spent living and dying for us. There is not one second of God that He does not spend taking care of us - His sheep. This was no easy task for Jesus. Remember, he sweat drops of blood in Gethsemane just contemplating this task of love. Yet Jesus did it, because God is love. Period.
Nothing that we ever could do could compare to God’s love for us. Nothing. When we compare our love of God to His love for us - it doesn’t compare. The key to the matter here my friends, is that God does not base your salvation on how much YOU love God. He won’t ask you how much you love Him on Judgment Day - judging whether you go to heaven based on how much time you spent with your wife or how forgiving you were towards your boss. He bases it on how much HE loves US in Christ. This isn’t just a love of words. It isn’t just a love of feelings. It’s a love based on action. He bases it on the life and death of Christ on the cross. No matter how little you find yourself loving God - that won’t take back His love for you. Romans 8:38-39 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. As long as you believe in Jesus, you are connected with this action of God’s love - and you are loved by God - in spite of your flaws and your lack of love.
III. Love responds with sacrifice
Peter was disgusted at himself. He thought that if anyone would stay by Jesus’ side in the time of death, he himself would. He was embarrassed and deeply cut to the heart at what a lack of love he showed to have for Jesus. When Jesus asked Peter three times whether he loved him, the last time even asking Peter if he more or less liked him - less than sacrificially - Peter was hurt. He knew in his heart that he loved Jesus. He wanted to show Jesus how much he loved him. Jesus gave him that second chance. He told him to feed his sheep. He also then went on to say what this feeding would lead to for Peter. “When you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, “Follow me!” (Jn 21:18) Jesus very clearly told Peter that following Him would lead to death - a sacrificial death - on a cross. According to the Bible Peter did follow. He did feed. According to tradition, Peter did die - being crucified upside down - not feeling worthy to even be crucified like Christ. With this death, he was given another opportunity to show his love for Jesus - and He did. He was eager to prove himself - proclaiming Christ crucified to the end.
The devil’s ploy is to look at how unloving we have been - how we’ve failed with our family, our work, and our lives to show a proper type of love - and to throw up our hands and just give up - to say, “I’ll never love the Lord like I should.” A part of our old sinful nature likes to retreat to this guilty way of living. It’s a lot easier to just keep on being selfish and going to the cross than it is to actually try and do something about it. It’s easy to use weakness and sin as an excuse to keep on sinning - to keep on loving Him with only a feel good love. Another easy response is to get angry and say, “how dare you question my love of my wife! How dare you question whether I love my children! How dare you question whether I love God!” - and then keep on with a selfish love. That falls right into Satan’s trap - to get angry at such a question.
God would rather have us be cut to the heart with that question. He would rather have us recognize how unloving we have been, so that we cling to the love of God in Christ. He asks us that question so that we in repentance seek for ways to prove ourselves - to be better stewards of what we’ve been given - practicing a sacrificial love. Noah was called on to build a boat. For over a hundred years he built that boat and preached repentance through it. Abraham was called on to move to a new land - and live in a tent - sacrificing the comforts of home. He showed his love of God by doing it. These were not easy things these patriarchs did. Out of love to God, they responded. When Paul was called by God to be an apostle to the Gentiles, he went on missionary journeys. He wrote to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 4:1-4, “men ought to regard us as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the secret things of God. Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me.” Paul could honestly say - by the grace of God - that his conscience was clear. He was faithful with his calling. His conscience was clear. He was sacrificing himself out of love for what Jesus had done for him.
As we look at our own stewardship, regard yourself as Peter this morning - having been asked that tough question - “do you love me.” This is asked of you so that you repent of your lack of love. It is asked so that you rejoice at Jesus’ love for you. It is asked so that you now listen to His call. Instead of looking at God’s gifts as burdens to your free time - instead of ignoring the tough love and settling for the easy loves, take the call that Jesus gives you. Feed my sheep. Feed your children. Work for your boss. Obey your parents. Love your spouse. Keep free from the love of money. Help the poor. Use the gifts that God has given you to the glory of His name. Let God’s light of forgiveness and love shine through you. Be a good steward of your gifts. Make sacrifices of your time and your talents to the glory of God’s kingdom - no matter how much it hurts. Show some proof of your faith in the way you treat others.
Imagine that you just were given a brand new Cadillac Escapade as an inheritance and decided to take it on a Sunday drive. You go down the road, and the sun is shining off of the chrome and everyone is looking at you - admiring your new piece of machinery. You decide to go down the back highways. After a few miles, you notice someone who has been stuck in the ditch - waving his hand for you to help him out. Your Cadillac has 4x4 - and it could easily do the job - but it would get it all dirty. It would make your feet dirty. It would take time. It would take effort. What do you do?
You and I have been given a wonderful peace - a Cadillac of love - through Jesus death. We know that God loves us. Yet day by day we witness hundreds of people stuck in the ditch - screaming for help - looking for love and trying to find peace. It takes time to talk to them. It involves getting down and dirty in the ditch - getting to know them and try to proclaim Jesus’ peace to them. It takes love. You won’t ruin God’s love for you by loving others. You may get dirty and you may get hurt, but God will still love you in Christ. Proper stewardship means being willing to get down in the ditch with them and help them out. It recognizes that we have been given a wonderful gift in Christ - which He wants us to USE and proclaim. When you love this gift of peace, you don’t want to keep it to yourself. You want others to experience it. You want others to benefit from it. You want to sacrifice all that you have to proclaim it - because you love your Savior and you love your Savior in your neighbor. Amen.
