John 21:15-19

00:00:00:43 – 00:00:42:49
Clint Loveall
Hey, everybody. Thanks for, closing out the week with us as we continue. Very near the end of the Gospel of John, the 21st chapter. Today we pick up the story at the 15th verse. Jesus has made an appearance to some of the disciples. He’s offered them breakfast. He’s shared with them a meal, too, which has lots of overtones and now John gives us a very interesting we kind of like we dial the focus down a little bit into very specific as we get to listen in on a conversation between Jesus and Peter.

00:00:42:54 – 00:01:03:29
Clint Loveall
And I’ll jump in here, read all five verses or so, then we’ll come back and see what we can find in it. 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 I love you. Jesus said, feed my lambs.

00:01:03:34 – 00:01:26:39
Clint Loveall
A second time Jesus said to him, Simon, son of John, do you love me? He said, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. Jesus said, tend my sheep. He said to him a third time, Simon, son of John, do you love me? Peter felt hurt because he said to this to him the third time he said to him, Lord, you know everything.

00:01:26:43 – 00:01:45:09
Clint Loveall
You know that I love you. Jesus said to him, feed my sheep. I tell you the truth, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and go where you wished. But when you grow old, someone will stretch out your hands and someone else will fasten the belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.

00:01:45:14 – 00:02:12:24
Clint Loveall
He said this to indicate what kind of death by which he would glorify God. After this he said to him, follow me. I don’t think it takes a, a degree of any kind, but the general consensus here is that this story is the antidote or the answer to Peter’s three denials. Jesus predicted that Peter would deny knowing him three times.

00:02:12:28 – 00:02:39:45
Clint Loveall
And this is, in fact, sometimes this is called the reinstatement of Peter. So three times Jesus says, do you love me? Peter answers, yes. And Jesus on two of those occasions. Well, with each one has a tending metaphor. Feed my lambs, tend my sheep. Feed my sheep. And the idea here, Michael, is that John is painting a picture of Peter’s restoration.

00:02:39:50 – 00:03:11:39
Clint Loveall
And then we we end with the words follow me, a kind of restatement of the discipleship calling, the commitment, and that this text kind of functions. John has not been particularly shy to point out some of Peter’s failings, but here I think we have a moment in which the gospel lifts Peter up and goes out of its way to show us that Peter and Jesus have reconciled, that Peter is now ready.

00:03:11:43 – 00:03:30:24
Clint Loveall
In fact, there’s even an allusion to the sort of his dying to glorify God, his being faithful unto death. It’s kind of a celebration here of Peter’s ongoing role and his newfound faith as we move forward.

00:03:30:28 – 00:03:55:48
Michael Gewecke
I really think that coming towards the concluding notes of John here, one could argue that we’ve seen different waves of conclusion, and I think there’s different emphasis in every single one of those waves. I truly think that the idea of I’m writing this to you so that you believe is an important it’s an impact full way to see John resolving themes in the book.

00:03:55:53 – 00:04:20:51
Michael Gewecke
I think that this is another important and impactful way that John begins resolving themes, because in this book we are not. And in fact, this is true of the Gospels writ large. There’s not a lot of ink spilled on the manner of Jesus’s ascension, the idea that Jesus goes to be with the father. We have comments about that, but we have far more questions than we have answers.

00:04:20:51 – 00:04:46:10
Michael Gewecke
Certainly. And I think that what’s fascinating in John’s treatment of this text is that Peter is going to be a significant leadership figure in the early church. And here Peter is with all of his faults. To your point, Clint, with all of Peter’s qualms and his impetuous ness, his moments of getting it and his multiple moments of not getting it.

00:04:46:15 – 00:05:18:30
Michael Gewecke
Peter here is lifted up as a one who both receives grace and restoration, and also foreshadowing the one who’s going to give everything for the faith. And of course, the the church receiving this is themselves experiencing persecution. They know something about the brokenness of the world, and it’s, it’s set apart from the world. And I think what we’re discovering as we see this is that there’s work to do, right?

00:05:18:45 – 00:05:50:34
Michael Gewecke
Feed my lambs. It’s an action. Ten. My sheep. It’s an action that this idea that Peter’s being asked to go and do something for the sake of those that will follow. We just had that image, Clint, of the the fish being caught and brought in and huge number. Right. Now we have this idea of a far more pastoral image, the idea that here we have sheep that need cared for, tended, that there needs to be the daily work of sustenance, not just the catching, but the preserving, the feeding.

00:05:50:34 – 00:06:13:27
Michael Gewecke
And Jesus is the one who fed the disciples. Now he’s calling Peter to feed those who will come out. This is a beautiful handing off of the baton and a way that I think John sets up that there. No, there is a pastoral, even institutional kind of work being given here to Peter that he would continue to do this in the name of Jesus Christ.

00:06:13:31 – 00:06:42:16
Clint Loveall
So I think it’s important that this comes right on the heels of Jesus feeding the disciples. Right? They’ve just shared a meal. Now Jesus calls Peter, feed my lambs, tend my sheep, feed my sheep. Notice in each of those, and I don’t want to, you know, make too big of a deal out of a small detail. But my lambs, the idea that Peter is an under shepherd, he it’s not his flock.

00:06:42:21 – 00:07:12:43
Clint Loveall
Jesus is leaving him to tend Jesus’s sheep. Jesus, his people, that he’s calling him to do the work that glorifies the primary shepherd and, you know, I, I think that I don’t know if John’s done that on purpose. I suspect he has. But it’s a really nice reminder that whenever we do, whenever we do Christ’s work, we do it for his people.

00:07:12:55 – 00:07:41:03
Clint Loveall
They don’t belong to us. My sheep, my lambs, my flock and and yet, in these words, three times Peter finds a calling. Ultimately, culminating with follow me. And then there’s this. This business about you were young. You could do what you wanted. As you get old, you need help. And you, your choices are sort of out of your hands.

00:07:41:07 – 00:08:09:39
Clint Loveall
And then John helps us by adding parenthetically, he said this because of the kind of death by which he would glorify God. Church tradition holds that Peter was martyred. In fact, one tradition holds he asked to be crucified upside down. That’s not scriptural, but it may have already been in the collection of stories or in the the collective imagination of the people.

00:08:09:39 – 00:08:33:36
Clint Loveall
They may know that that Peter was reported or remembered for that kind of faithful act at the end of his life, and that this very one, the very one who had denied three times, would go on to give his own life, to share the gospel, to live out this calling. Feed the lambs, tend the sheep, feed the sheep, watch the flock.

00:08:33:41 – 00:09:00:51
Clint Loveall
And that he would do that even to the cost of his own life. And so, you know, for a gospel that has not been shy about pointing out some of Peter’s failings, this is pretty high praise. And I think ultimately, a word of celebration of Peter. We’re also going to see probably a celebration of John. But I think this is an important moment.

00:09:00:55 – 00:09:29:51
Michael Gewecke
There’s a kind of teaching moment in this also, I think because what we discover in this Gospels account of this restoration for Peter is that discipleship is always rooted in restoration and grace and forgiveness. And for every time that Peter denies Jesus, Jesus calls him to an act of service, to live out the faith in the very way that Jesus Christ embodied the faith in perfect form.

00:09:30:05 – 00:09:58:48
Michael Gewecke
And that leads us to, I think, the ultimate fulfillment. That’s how this section ends with this idea that his arms would be outstretched. If you notice that, stretch out your hands. If that is indeed a reference to Peter and to a crucifixion. There’s this idea that the servant’s not greater than the master, that our lives may be asked of us because of the faith that we hold, the name of the one who we serve, the sheep that we ten are ultimately the master Shepherd’s sheep.

00:09:58:48 – 00:10:30:09
Michael Gewecke
And that’s going to put us in positions of vulnerability that this cleanses. I think, all way that the gospel cuts against some of that temptation that humans have to say, well, I, I am a Christian. And so therefore they seek out persecution, they seek out the hard stuff of life that they’re really, maybe lightning rods on purpose, that this resists the that and I think a very intentional way that the, the task of the Christian leader is ultimately the task of feeding.

00:10:30:09 – 00:10:58:04
Michael Gewecke
It’s caring for, it’s nourishing. It’s a kind of self-giving that ultimately it might result in us glorifying God, even through the gift of our own lives, is simply a natural arc of what the gospel does. It puts us in positions of unsettling a world order, a different kingdom. Right? This is Jesus’s kingdom. We’re called to live in, and that is a kingdom which seeks to lift up those who are below that, to give voice to those who don’t have it, to feed those who are hungry.

00:10:58:04 – 00:11:23:38
Michael Gewecke
That this is built throughout Jesus’s ministry. What we’re seeing in concrete detail here is how Jesus is both inviting Peter to do that work, and how we see Peter without a lot of praise. I mean, this is not over the top. It’s sort of glorifying Peter’s life in action. The author clearly wants us to know that there’s an implication that Peter’s going to give his life, you know, martyrdom in a way of glorifying God.

00:11:23:38 – 00:11:41:49
Michael Gewecke
And yet that we’re not spending a lot of time talking about that. It’s almost as if that’s a natural. Of course he would, that that’s what a disciple would do. There’s both an honoring of who Peter is, but that’s balanced with a recognition that it’s not about Peter, it’s about the sheep that Peter’s called to feed, because those are Jesus’s sheep.

00:11:41:49 – 00:12:06:37
Michael Gewecke
This this story, though, Peter is the one, the character at the center of the dialog. Jesus is the main character of the story. And John is going to continue that throughout this whole. This is never about another disciple. It’s always about how we respond in to the center who is Jesus. And this is another way that we see Peter the Apostle, the leader, the one who was going to serve the first generation of Christians.

00:12:06:52 – 00:12:10:14
Michael Gewecke
He is being cast in light of that reality.

00:12:10:19 – 00:13:00:04
Clint Loveall
It’s pretty subtle, but I think there’s a lesson in here beyond Peter’s experience. It’s interesting. Each time Jesus asks the question, do you love me? Peter, of course says yes. And the third time even kind of forcefully so. And then Jesus always connects that with doing something with some form of action. Because I think of all the Gospels, maybe this one, most of all, is not going to let us sit with the idea that we love Jesus as some kind of philosophical commitment, that that loving Jesus is connected with doing Jesus’s work, feeding sheep, tending the flock, caring for the lambs.

00:13:00:09 – 00:13:27:03
Clint Loveall
Do you love me? Then go do my work right? You do love me? Then follow me. It is never enough to simply sit back and say, yeah, we all, we all love Jesus. John here at the end of the gospel as he has, I think, consistently, implicitly connects our love of Christ for our actions in Christ’s name. And I think that’s a that’s a great sermon.

00:13:27:03 – 00:13:43:46
Clint Loveall
I think that’s a great challenge. It’s a good reminder, a nice lesson for those of us who would consider ourselves disciples, that the call to love Jesus is also simultaneously, always the call to do what Jesus calls us to do.

00:13:43:46 – 00:14:13:39
Michael Gewecke
And we’re going to encounter this as we continue this study through the rest of John next week. The Follow Me theme is not just contained to Peter, but to the the disciple that Jesus love, likely John. And I think it’s worth noting here that as we’re seeing the book now come to its final conclusion the action to disciples, the action to the people to whom we’ve already had said that this book is written for you so that you can believe this is enough.

00:14:13:44 – 00:14:37:51
Michael Gewecke
Well, what is the fruit of that belief? Follow me. We should not miss the irony of the statement. Follow me for a Jesus who’s no longer going to be walking on the earth, who’s no longer going to be at the table serving the bread, the Follow Me has in it a kind of spiritual significance. If you have eyes to see, then you might understand what Jesus is talking.

00:14:37:51 – 00:15:02:52
Michael Gewecke
Here is about the continuing work of the spirit, which Jesus has already said there would be an advocate, a helper, who would come. Well, what is follow me look like? It looks like embodying that reality within Christian community. The the gospel writer John wants us to know that Jesus is not all about esoteric spiritual teachings. It’s not just about revealing some divine revelation that has no earthly good.

00:15:02:52 – 00:15:29:03
Michael Gewecke
John wants us to be honed in on the fact that if we hear the gospel rightly, then there’s following to do. There’s action that needs lived out. I think that we easily miss that in a world in which Christianity is on one pole, over identified with moralism, and on the other pole, it just becomes a pseudo vocabulary for a kind of social asset or social political idea.

00:15:29:07 – 00:15:50:58
Michael Gewecke
When Jesus calls the disciples to this new kingdom, when he reveals God’s way and by way in John, we mean like that the fabric of the universe. Jesus is that fabric. When we see Jesus, then the action of our life, the follow me is lived out in everything that we do, and it’s and it’s done communally. It’s done with other people.

00:15:50:58 – 00:16:12:37
Michael Gewecke
So therefore it touches Peter’s life. So therefore it touches John’s life. So therefore it touches Mary Magdalene’s life. All of these characters have been impacted in their own ways. And this book, I think, calls us to ask, how is this working within me and what is my follow me commandment look like in my life? And we know this about John by now, but let’s give credit where credit is due.

00:16:12:50 – 00:16:25:37
Michael Gewecke
Nobody lands us to this position accidentally. No, this is thoughtfully constructed. It’s been carefully written, and I think it’s effective in the invitation it gives to the reader at the end of a gospel.

00:16:25:42 – 00:17:08:49
Clint Loveall
Yeah, I think, I believe this is true. I hope that is true. Only John here gives us this kind of, restoration story of Peter. We all the book of acts is clear. Peter goes on to be a leader in the church. But this moment where Jesus on three occasions works to restore Peter and, move Peter past those moments of denial to moments of service and faith and ultimately even sacrifice, as he seeks to love the people that Jesus loves in the way Jesus loves them.

00:17:08:54 – 00:17:31:37
Clint Loveall
I think John’s done this a great service with this text. It is one that you could, I think, fairly easily read over, but to do so would be to miss a lot of wonderful themes that John has, kind of knit together here. And I, I think, I think there’s a lot that it offers us, no doubt.

00:17:31:46 – 00:17:45:34
Michael Gewecke
I hope that there’s been something maybe surprising to you in this study today. If so, give it a like helps others find it, maybe surprise themselves in their own study. Do subscribe for studies like John and others in the future. We look forward to having you as part of the conversation.

00:17:45:46 – 00:17:46:22
Clint Loveall
Thanks everybody.