Pastor Dan Eddy
John 21:15-17
“Do you really
love Me?”
10-31-10
With Confo
Creeds:
THE GOSPEL
READING………………………….………………John 21:15-17 NIV
P: The Holy Gospel according to Apostle,
C: Glory to You, O Lord.
15When they (Jesus and His Disciples) had finished eating, Jesus
said to Simon Peter, "Simon son of John, do you truly love me more than
these?"
"Yes, Lord," he said, "you
know that I love you."
Jesus said, "Feed my lambs."
16Again
Jesus said, "Simon son of John, do you truly love me?"
He answered, "Yes, Lord, you know that
I love you."
Jesus said, "Take care of my
sheep."
17 The
third time he said to him, "Simon son of John, do you love me?"
Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the
third time, "Do you love me?" He said, "Lord, you know all
things; you know that I love you."
Jesus said,
"Feed my sheep.
C: Praise to
You, O Christ.
I.
Introduction…challenge, restoration,
assignment
Three things are
going on in this text to help us to answer the question, “Do you really love Me?” …meaning, “Do you really love Jesus?”
Jesus is offering
a challenge, providing restoration, and giving an assignment. (Repeat)
II.
The Challenge…realizing we fall short when
it comes to love.
First,
the challenge. Married
couples…when your spouse starts a conversation with the words, “Do you really love me?” You know
you’re in trouble. You’ve done something to get your spouse to question or
doubt whether or not they think you really love them.
That’s what Jesus
is doing here. Days before this Peter vowed to die for Jesus but ended up
denying him three times on Maundy Thursday night. Can you imagine if your spouse did that to
you…denied they were your spouse. So when Peter was asked by Jesus, “Do you truly love me more than these,”
Peter knew he was in trouble.
But what’s not
clear in English translations is what Jesus is really asking Peter. He’s not
just asking if Peter loves him with every day love. He is asking Peter is he
has agape love for Jesus. The highest form of love. In
other words, Jesus was saying, “Do you
love Me like God loves you?”
This Greek word
agape is used in verses like John 3:16 “For
God so agape loved the world that He gave His one and only Son.” Or the
word agape is used every time in our Epistle reading from 1 Corinthians 13: “Agape love is patient. Agape love is kind.
Agape love always preserves.” Or in
Matthew 22:19 when Jesus said, “Agape
love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. And agape
love your neighbor as yourself.” That’s what Jesus’ challenging question
was here for Peter.
But what was
Peter’s response? Not that he loved Jesus like God agape loves him. No, John
records Peter’s response using another Greek word for love. Philos…brotherly love …as in
So Jesus asked
the same question again, and Peter responses exactly the same.
Jesus: “Peter, Do you love Me
like God loves you?”
Peter: “Almost Lord, I love you like a brother.”
So Jesus asked
the third time, “Okay Peter, do you love
Me like a brother? Do you have affection for Me,
Simon, son of John?”
Peter was hurt,
not because Jesus asked the question Simon, son of John, had answered twice,
but because he knew deep down inside he had not loved Jesus even as a brother.
He thought more of his fellow disciples, and occupation of fishing and his
family more than he did for Jesus. Peter denied Jesus three times to save his
own skin from being arrested. With Jesus’ questions, Peter was convicted of his
own sins. It revealed his lack of true love for our Lord.
For the past
three years, these Confirmands, Sammie, Becca, Jake and Lindsay have been
challenged with this same question over and over and in a variety of ways, “Do you really love Jesus?”
As they have
studied the Creeds, the Lord’s Prayer, the 10 Commandments, the Sacraments, and
other areas of the Bible, through their study and living of God’s Word, they
realize like I hope you and I realize, we all fall
short of loving God in any form. Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Like
Peter, we’ve denied Christ in our own lives by our words and deeds.
We are challenged
by Jesus through His Word to realize that our love for Him is not the same as
the love He gave to us unconditionally from the cross. Like Peter, we are
convicted for our own lack of love.
III.
Restoration: Being forgiven by God
And that bring us
to the second thing Jesus is doing in this text….restoration.
When Peter was
humbled by Jesus’ words as he reflected on his past actions, Christ was not
there to drive nails into Peter’s hands. That had already been done to Him a
few days before in the greatest act of agape love ever shown.
So because Jesus had
already endured excruciating pain on the Cross…He wasn’t going let Peter being
grieved with his sins any longer. He restored him. Jesus gave Peter the agape
love that Simon, the son of John, was lacking.
Three times Peter
denied…three times Jesus restored.
Where
sins were, only God’s undeserved love for you remains.
And my prayer is
that Sammie, Becca, Jake and Lindsay know that agape love every time they
remember they were baptized, every time they hear me or another pastor pronounce
their sins are forgiven, and every time they eat and drink Christ’s body and
blood, they are restored with Christ’s agape love.
My prayer for
them extends to you…that like Peter you can know you are forgiven, healed, made
whole again in Christ Jesus.
IV.
Assignment. Feeding God’s lambs
Our Lord and
Savior’s instant restoration was evident with an immediate assignment. A great assignment. Jesus wanted Peter to take Christ’s
ongoing agape love He gave Peter and keep-feeding it to others. If He hadn’t forgiven him, He wouldn’t have
asked Him to “feed His lambs.”
In other words,
be a witness for Christ, care for those who don’t believe in Jesus as their
Lord and Savior. Joyfully proclaim His Word to convert hearts. Speak His Word
to strengthen others’ faith. And show it with His actions. Don’t just philo
love people, agape love them.
Only with Jesus
in our hearts can we truly love God, and truly love others. Because
God is the very essence of love at 1 John 4:7-10 states. We want, no, we
need to be loved and to love others.
So that brings us
to our Confirmands. They were given an assignment to write a Creed that
expresses their love for God in Christ Jesus. This morning the Holy Spirit is
using them to feed you, God’s Lambs, Christ’s love.
Let’s first hear
from Lindsay Zappolo:
Psalm 147:3-5 NIV
3 He heals
the brokenhearted
and binds up their wounds.
4 He
determines the number of the stars
and calls them each by name.
5 Great
is our Lord and mighty in power;
his understanding has no limit.
God understands
everyone’s thought feelings and actions. I have my times where I feel like no
one understands. I think everyone has, but this verse reminds me that The Lord
always understands. It’s comforting to know there is always someone there. That
someone is God. He is leading my path, tucking me in at night, and waking me up
in the morning, whether I know it or not.
I believe in
Jesus Christ my Lord and Savior, but what does that really mean?
To me, it means
not being eternally guilty for my sins. To me, it means someone always has my
back. To me, it means that this awesome guy some 2000 years ago saved me from
eternal damnation. That’s a pretty nice thing to do. And if He decided to just
be a normal person, live a normal life, and not be crucified on the cross to
save our sins, who knows what our world would be like now. He saved me from
chaos! And because of Him, we are saved.
Sometimes, when
I’ve done something wrong, like not listen to my parents, or gossip, I feel bad
about it. But the fact that Jesus forgives those who sin, I ask for forgiveness
and feel okay. I learn from my sins, and try to live the kind of life God wants
for me, but I’m not perfect. I sin, and I always will sin until the next life,
but it’s Jesus’ forgiveness that makes me motivated to be a better person, not
sin, and do good works. I don’t understand every part of our faith, but I hope
to grow in my faith and keep God in my life. I love Jesus Christ my Lord and
Savior and I know He loves me as well. God is, and always will be, enough for
me.
Samantha Francis:
God has given me
many blessings that have helped me throughout the past few years.
One of those
blessings is my best friend Becky. Becky and I became friends when I didn’t
really have a friend close to me, not counting my family. My past best friend
and I had grown apart and had started hanging out with other people. I used to
ask myself “Why?” After hanging out with Becky, I found out. It was because God
had another person in mind for my best friend and I probably never would have
hung out with Becky if I was still hanging out with my past best friend. Even
though I have only known her for about two years, I can say that we are just
like sisters. I can talk to her about almost everything and we are always
inseparable. We have nearly all of the same interests and have loads of inside
jokes that no one else would get. Becky also encourages me, even if she doesn’t
know it. For example, at a theme park I probably would have never ridden a ride
I did if Becky hadn’t convinced me to go on. In the end, I really liked the
ride and had so much fun on it, even if it was a short ride. Also, throughout
my confirmation classes, Becky has indirectly helped me move smoothly along to
the spot where I am right now. Overall, Becky is my best friend and though we
are not blood related, I still consider her my sister.
Another one of
the Lord’s blessings for my life that has helped me through the past few years
is my sister Kerstin. Kerstin has always been my sister and one of my best
friends for as long as I can remember. I can also talk to her about everything
from my day at school to my secrets. Kerstin helps me with everything including
homework or problems going on in my life. She has always been there for me to
lean on through every step of my life. We also have nearly identical interests
and rarely have serious arguments. We do lots of things together and we have
tons of inside jokes. I cannot ask for a better sister than Kerstin.
It’s because of
these special, God-given relationships I see Him in my daily life. Because of
that, I can confidently say:
I believe in the
one Lord God: the Almighty Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, His Son, my Lord and
Savior, and in the Holy Spirit. The Lord God lives in all who believe in Him. I
believe that God exists and that he gives us eternal life by faith alone. Our
Heavenly Father sacrificed His only Son for me on the cross who three days
later rose from the dead. He forgives me of all my
sins and protects me from the Devil. I also believe that I am saved by His
Spirit only through His Word at my baptism and by His Word in Holy Communion,
not by my good works.
To end my creed,
I would just like to say to God, the people I mentioned earlier Becky and
Kerstin, my family, friends and everyone else here thank you for the amazing
years I have had so far and the many more to come. Amen.
Rebecca Foote:
I frequently find
myself obsessing over the future. In many ways I run my life based on what I’ll
be doing, or want to be doing, in a year, in five years, ten years... whenever.
I’m terrified of not accomplishing everything I’ve been planning for. So I let
my life revolve around those plans. I base my class choices on what will look
best to colleges, striving to be in honors and AP classes and filling my
schedule with academic electives. I find myself putting excessive importance in
what I myself am doing to make my idealized future a reality.
When we had the
first meeting to start writing our creeds most of us began by finding a verse.
I had no verse in mind but the word ‘hope’ seemed relevant enough so I went with
that, looking through every verse the index told me had ‘hope’ in it, I found
Jeremiah 29:11. “I have good plans for you, not plans to hurt you. I will give
you hope and a good future. Then you will pray to me, and I will listen to
you.” Like everyone else I forget sometimes that I always have someone, the
Lord God, guiding my plans. I forget that it isn’t all up to me to make my life
happen, that there is always someone else, God, there to help who knows better,
if I ask.
I know that
because Jesus lived, died and rose again to pay for my sins, I can ask for that
help. Because of the love Christ has for all people, God the Father is always
willing to help me, not hurt me.
I know I won’t
stop obsessing over my future; it is part of who I am and why I achieve
anything at all. But it’s comforting to know that the Lord already has a plan.
Of course I hope it coincides with my own, but whatever happens, I know it will
be the best option.
Jake Herth:
Philippians
chapter 1 verse 6 (NIV) says , “Being Confident of
this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until
the day of Christ Jesus.” As many people I tend to strive for perfection
whether it be in sports, school, or everyday life. Yet
this is a goal that is unattainable, as hard as we may work for it we were born
with sin and continue to sin everyday of our lives; we cannot help it, its
human nature to sin, but if we truly believe in our saviors message of grace
than our sins will be forgiven when we are truly sorry.
Although we are
not perfect, our Lord is, Deuteronomy 32 verse 4 says, “He is the Rock,
his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a
God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.” I believe that He has a plan for all of
His children He put on the Earth, and it is to spread His Word and follow in
His Son’s footsteps as closely as possible and strive for perfection with His
help. God is the only perfect One who completes everything flawlessly, as
we’ve read in Genesis 1 since our first Sunday school classes, whether it was
Heaven and Earth or species of creatures and humans, “…and it was good.” For us He is patient. He is willing to give me time to develop into
the person He intended me to become.
I am just like the people around me, my friends, and my family, we are
not perfect, but our Father is patient with us and acknowledges that we will
only achieve perfection once we reach Heaven. Every day I realize how much God
has blessed me by the fact that He gave His one and only Son’s life on the
cross so that my sins are forgiven; and when I see that other countries on the
news are struggling with war and poverty, and the hundreds of thousands of
people in America who are jobless because of the recession. With the help of
God these reminders inspire me to go on trips like the Appalachian Service
Project to help rebuild houses and communities of those less fortunate.
We were forgiven at our baptism and at Holy Communion every week. The
Lord is forgiving and compassionate, and “by your grace I’ll live, by your
grace I’ll see, for my life and my salvation is in You.”
V.
Conclusion
Hebrews 11:6 says that without faith in God, it is impossible to please
Him. Our faith we were given at our baptism is our only proof that we have been
given agape love God through Christ Jesus.
This morning through the power of the Holy Spirit, you heard the agape
love of Christ being expressed by the Confirmands through the troubles we face
in life, through the close friends God gives us, through the challenges we will
face for the future, and through the ways we are called to serve others on this
planet.
Praise be to God for these Confos testimonies
of love.
It reminds me of another confirmand who was much older than these
students. He had a doctorate degree in theology. And yet he was one who in his
early 30s realized the church had stopped teaching the true of love of God. For
it was on this date 492 years ago that Martin Luther started the Reformation to
challenge the Church’s view on faith
and works, to have Christ restore
His true love, so that all believers could complete their assignment, feeding that love to others.
(Look at Confirmands) Guess what guys? Your assignment is not done, and (look
at congregation) neither is yours, till the day we breath our last breath in
this Earth, we are be challenged by God, continually restored by Christ, so
that by the Holy Spirit we may live and feed others God’s love.
Christ asks “Do you really agape love
Me?” And our response: “Yes, Lord, by Your grace, through the faith You
give, because of what you have done for me.”
God’s blessings as leave here to today to speak and express His true agape
love. Amen.