Welcome to Classic Christianity Radio with Bob George. Bob’s clear, timeless teachings on the complete forgiveness and unconditional love of Jesus Christ will transform your life as you learn about God’s amazing grace. Let’s join Bob as he teaches us from God’s Word.
SPEAKER 02 :
Now early in the morning, so this was almost a daybreak, Jesus stood on the shore and the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus at all. And he called out to them, friends. This is funny to me. Do you have any fish? He knew they hadn’t caught anything. He knew that. He said, have you caught any fish? No, they answered. So he said, throw your net on the right side of the boat and you’ll find some. And when they did… They were unable to haul in the net because of the large number of fish that was in it. Now, had they recognized Jesus when he said to throw the net over, you could almost hear them, you know, in their minds saying, this guy’s a carpenter. What’s he doing telling us how to fish? I don’t tell him how to build houses. He should be telling me how to fish. But they didn’t say that. Now it said, Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, It’s the Lord. They didn’t recognize this. It’s the Lord. And as soon as Simon Peter heard this, typical to Simon Peter, he wrapped his outer garment around him, for he had taken it off, and jumped into the water. And the other disciples followed Peter in the boat, towing the full net of fish, for they were not far from shore, about a hundred yards. That’s not a bad little journey either, about a hundred yards from shore. Now when they landed, they saw a fire and the burning coals there with fish on it and some bread. And Jesus said to them, bring some of the fish you’ve just caught. Simon Peter, it says, climbed aboard and dragged fish the net ashore so he jumped out of the boat now he climbed back aboard in order to help them with that huge catch of fish and dragged that huge catch of fish to the shore and it says it was full of large fish not just fish large fish but even with so many the net was not torn in other words there comes a point where the nets can’t handle the weight of certain fish. But these, even though they were large fish and numerous number of them, the nets still did not break. Now, Jesus said to them, come and have breakfast. None of the disciples, it said, it’s strange, isn’t it? None of them ask, who are you? He didn’t ask the question. Now, they had identified him. They said, it’s the Lord over there. But they didn’t say to him, who are you? In other words, is this for sure? Now, again, guys, think about this. They had seen Jesus, had they not? They had seen him die. They had seen the fact that the tomb was empty. They had seen a couple of appearances where Jesus showed up to them, walked through the wall. That should get your attention. and appeared to them and now this is later on a number of days later and they are still in somewhat of a state of confusion it says they knew it was the lord jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them and did the same with the fish And this was now the third time that Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead. So we’re told it was three times that he appeared after his resurrection. Now they had their fish dinner together, or breakfast. Had their fish for breakfast. Probably sat there speaking and talking with each other. And after they had finished eating, Jesus said, and he called out Simon Peter… because Peter was going to be the one that was ultimately going to take the message to the Gentiles as well as to the Jew. And so when they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you truly love me more than these? Now, guys, in the Scripture and in the Greek language in which the Scripture was written, There are three words for love. One is eros, which is never used in the New Testament. It was used in a classical Greek, but never in the New Testament. You know what an eros bookstore is. You’ve seen those type of things. That’s the sexual thing. There’s two other words. One is called agape, and the other word is called phileo. You have phileo, which is where you would get your word philanthropic. You would get the word Philadelphia, the city of brotherly what? Love, yeah. So that’s the phileo word. The agape, again, was never used in classical Greek. It was a word that, quite frankly, was only used in religious terms. Because the only kind of love that we experience or we have a point of reference in is what kind? Phileo, friendship love. And so agape is a step way above friendship love. It is not, I love you, Leroy, because, or I love you not only because you did something, but I love you because I just have to. It’s the fact that I love you unconditionally. I don’t love you because of what you do. I don’t love you because of what you say. I just plain love you. God so agape-ed the world. He so loves you that he gave his only begotten son. It is not a love that can be merited. It is not a love that can be earned. It’s a love that we can be the recipient of, but absolutely have nothing to do with it. I love you because I’ve chosen to love you. Agape. Are we together now? Agape. And then you have the word phileo. Now, you do not get the meaning of this passage of Scripture. You do not get that in the English language because we don’t differentiate the word love. But in the Greek language, it really comes out. I wish that when the translators would translate these things, that they would translate it with the explanation. It would be a great help to us. But here’s what it says. Simon, do you truly… agape me in other words jesus saying i agape you i love you unconditionally do you love me unconditionally and peter’s response was yes lord you know that i phileo you you know that i’m your friend jesus you know it’s like i said i didn’t ask you that question he didn’t say that But he could have. I didn’t ask you that question. I asked you, Peter, do you agape love me? Do you love me unconditionally? And your answer to me is, you know that I’m your friend. So he said, then feed my sheep. Now, do you think that who was the sheep that he was talking about? Who’s the sheep? People. People. People. Feed my people. Now, do you think he went out and cooked them a fish dinner? What does he mean, feed my sheep? Feed them on the Word of God. The only thing that he’s asking you and me to do, feed people on the Word of God. Teach people the meaning of the Word of God. Why? Why? Because that truth will do what to people? Set you free. And when the Son has set you free, you shall be free indeed. Do you want people to be free or remain in bondage? Go and feed my sheep. That isn’t just for a select group of full-time ministers. That’s for all of us. We are all ministers of the gospel, are we not? Amen. You see, we’ve differentiated the difference between laity and clarity. Nothing in the Bible does. And that’s why the clarity we put on robes and we reverse our collars and we wear dumb-looking hats and we don’t go through all of that kind of stuff in order to set me apart from you so that I can kind of indicate you don’t know anything but I do, so don’t bother to read because they’re not going to do you any good anyway because you’re not going to understand it. You’ve got to come to me to get the answers. That’s laity and deity separated. Not in the Bible. Not in the Bible. This is for all of us, guys. Every one of us have an obligation that if I’m in Christ Jesus, to get to know what he said. I say to people, if you engage to a girl and she was out of town and she wrote you a letter, you wouldn’t poo-poo it. I don’t think you’d also go to say, I wonder what that says in Greek. I think you would just read it and try to read between the lines and try to make her say things that you probably didn’t even say. But you’re going to engross yourself in that letter. You will become a child of God, guys, all of us. We are children of the living God. And God has written a love letter to you and me. And he says, read it and share it with other people. Feed my sheep. If you’re my friend… Feed my sheep, he said. Now, Jesus said, Simon, son of John, he said again, do you truly agape me? See, his first question is, do you agape me? He said, Lord, you know I’m your friend. Now he said, Peter, do you truly agape me? Do you truly love me unconditionally? And again, Peter said, yes, Lord, you know I’m That I’m your friend. You know that I phileo you. Are we together? See what’s going on here? Jesus is saying, do you love me unconditionally? And Peter’s answering, you know I’m your friend. Well, he said, okay, if you’re my friend, do what? Take care of my sheep. Look after them. Make sure that they stick into truth and don’t get off into fairyland. Make sure that… If you’re in any kind of a leadership role, make sure that your doctrine is correct. See, people again say, oh, what’s the matter about this doctrine stuff? Guys, listen. What you believe about God affects every area of your life. Every area of your life. Talk about separation of church and state. Our state looks like it’s been separated from church. Everything that you think and do is predicated on your idea of God. If you don’t believe there is one, you’ll act just exactly like a person who doesn’t believe there is one. And so, once again, Peter says, Lord, you know that I’m your friend. And Jesus said, then feed my sheep. Go out and reach out to others.
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SPEAKER 02 :
Guys, again, this kind of a message, you can sit there and get on a guilt trip. Believe me, I’m not trying to do that. But what I am trying to say is we’re missing a bet. When I came to Christ at age 36, and I was a businessman in California, I tell you, I drove people crazy. There was nothing that was more important to me than communicating the gospel to somebody. I’d have a salesman come in with a $20,000 order and say, that’s real nice, Tim, now let me tell you about Jesus. Because it became the most important thing in the world to me. I had searched for something, had no idea what I was searching for all of my life. And I found it in him. And so he says, go feed my sheep. The third time, he said, Simon, son of Jonah, Simon bar Jonah, do you agape me? No, he didn’t say that. This time he said, Peter, Simon, son of Jonah, do you even, in essence, phileo me? Are you even my friend? And Peter was hurt on this. You see, Peter knew what he was saying. The Lord was saying, Peter, do you love me unconditionally? And Peter was saying, Lord, you know I’m your friend. He was tiptoeing around it. He said, feed my sheep. He said, okay. Peter, do you really agape me? Lord, you know that I’m your friend. He said, and take care of my sheep. And then he finally said, Peter, are you even my friend? Are you even my friend? And Peter got angered with that. And he said, Lord, you know all things. You know that I’m your friend. He said, well, then feed my sheep. Now, do you think the Lord got his message across with those three questions? He actually did. He got his message across. Peter, I know that it is impossible for you to love me unconditionally until you understand that I love you unconditionally. Remember what it says? It’s not that we loved him, but what? He loved us first. So again, we’re not initiators. It’s not, I’m going to love you, Lord. It’s, Lord, you love me, and I’m going to respond loving you. And Peter knew that. And Peter also knew that when this took place, there was still something else up ahead called Pentecost, where he was going to get the power and the life to live in him, to do what God is telling him to do right here, go feed my sheep. And the Lord said, I tell you the truth, when you were younger and you dressed yourself and went where you wanted, and when you’re old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will dress you and lead you to where you do not want to go. Peter was also crucified. Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. And then he said to him, Follow me. Follow me. Peter turned and saw that the disciple whom Jesus loved was following them. That’s the apostle John. This is the one who leaned back against Jesus at the supper and said, Lord, who is going to betray you? So he’s talking about the apostle John. And when Peter saw him, he said, Lord, what about him? How long is he going to live? And Jesus said, if I want him to remain alive until I return, what is this to you? You follow me. Now, guys, here again, this is not a mass deal that he’s talking about. He’s not saying, let’s let’s us all get together and have big evangelistic campaign. And I can remember when I came to Dallas with Campus Crusade for Christ. and headed up the I Found It campaign. Some of you are old enough to remember that. Not too many of you. But it was a huge evangelistic campaign, and we were the template for it for the rest of the United States and into the rest of the world. And we pioneered that, and I was in charge of that whole project. It was a project of getting y’all come, and y’all do, and y’all go, And so we got y’all, and y’all went, y’all did, y’all did all kinds of things. At the end of it, I was exhausted. And I came to an understanding at that point that God isn’t calling us to say, come on, y’all. He’s saying, come on, Jim. Come on, Stacy. Come on, Ellen. I’m not calling a group to go do something. I’m calling you to do something. You. Not the group. See, we can hide behind the group. Look what we’re doing. And I’m not doing anything. I remember counseling with a guy who was a missionary. Missionary of the Southern Baptist Convention down in Brazil. And he came on furlough. And we was counseling. He was very upset over things. And I asked him, I said, Tim, how many Bible studies do you teach there in Brazil? Oh, he said, I don’t teach any. How long have you been there? 18 years. Have you ever taught a Bible study? No. Have you ever led anybody to Christ? No. Huh. And you’re a missionary in Brazil? Yeah. What do you do? I head up the bookstore. And I thought to myself, big hairy deal. Anybody could head up the bookstore. You don’t have to be a missionary to head up the bookstore. And you say, no wonder that you’re upset. No wonder that there’s no meaning and purpose to your life. You’re not doing what God said to do. He said, go out and feed my sheep. He didn’t say, let the Southern Baptist Convention go feed my sheep. He said, you go feed them. You may only have one person in your life. How would you like to have been the guy that led Billy Graham to Christ? He probably said, oh, my life’s a waste of time. All I did was lead that one young guy to Christ years ago. What was his name? Billy Graham. Hmm. I’d like to be the guy that led Dawson Trotman, the founder of the Navigators. We never know, do we, who we’re leading to Christ. We never know. We never know what’s going to happen. I’m sure that the last thing in the world that Bill Bright thought the day that he led me to Jesus is that I’d be doing what I’m doing today. And if he’d have known me as well as I knew me, I guarantee he wouldn’t have thought that. But any old bush will do as far as God’s concerned. He doesn’t care what you look like. He doesn’t care what you’ve done. He just said any old bush will do as long as God’s in the bush. And if God’s for you, who can be against you? So in talking to a group, he’s not talking to mass hysteria here, in my opinion. He’s saying, if what I do with John, that’s my business. What is that to you? I’m telling you, Peter, to follow me. That’s all, just you. You must follow me. Now, because of this statement that Jesus said, he said the rumor, this is natural, isn’t it, or the prayer chain, the rumor spread among the brothers that his disciple would not die. But Jesus did not say that he would not die. He only said, if I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You know, guys, there’s a passage in Scripture. It’s one of my favorite passages of Scripture. It says, lead a quiet life and tend to your own business. Don’t you love that? Lead a quiet life, tend to your own business. That’s in essence what he’s saying here. Tend to your own business. What I do with him, that’s not your business. And that’s why we don’t need to sit around and compare ourselves to other Christians. Because if I am comparing myself, the Bible says that man compares himself by himself as a fool. If I am comparing myself to you, there’s only two things that can happen. One, I’m doing better than you are. That’s pride. And the other, I’m doing worse. That’s self-condemnation. And both of them are the pit of hell. Only two things can happen when you compare yourself to another person. I’m better than they are. Pride. I’m worse than they are. Self-condemnation. Right or wrong? Neither one of those are of God. So he doesn’t want us sitting around comparing ourselves to one another. He just wants us to say, I want you to do what I’m asking you to do. That’s all I’m asking you to do. I’m asking you to do what I’m asking you to do. I want you to feed my sheep. I want you to reach out. Guys, we’ve got a message that if the world doesn’t need to hear, I’ll get out of this ministry in a New York minute. If I felt for a minute that what we’re teaching is just normal stuff, I’d get out of this. It gets too discouraging sometimes. But I want to tell you something. Teaching people that when God went to a cross and said, it is finished, that he meant it is finished. If that isn’t worth giving your life for, I don’t know what is. And all of this stuff that we hear, and we go to it and just accept it. Oh, well, yeah, I heard it just, oh, well, this, this, that. Come on. God took away your sins from the eyes of God never to see them again. But if you confess your sins, he’ll forgive you. Now, you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that doesn’t flush. That doesn’t work. That’s double talk, is it not? And yet the whole Christian world, the evangelical, everything, 1 John 1, 9, 1 John 1, 9, 1 John 1, 9, 1 John 1, 9. You can go out and do anything you want to, but if 1 John 1, 9, that you’re okay. And we wonder, you know what that is, guys? You know what the repercussion of that is? That all I have to do is just be sure I confess before I go to bed and hope that I don’t have a bad dream. You talk about your Catholics, quit raging against the Catholics with their priests. We’re doing the same thing without the priest. And in both cases, the Catholics said, oh, I go to my priest to get forgiveness. And the evangelical says, we don’t have to go to priests. We go direct to God. And God’s up there saying, it’s finished, morons. It’s finished. It’s over. Praise God. Praise God. Thank him. It’s over. If that message isn’t worth giving, I don’t know what is. If that message is not worth supporting, I don’t know what is. Because the other is wrong. I don’t care what anybody says. It’s wrong. And it’ll devastate. It’ll keep you preoccupied all your life with sin instead of life. It’ll keep you from praising Jesus for what he’s already done and putting the praise back on, well, I keep short accounts with God. Whoop-de-doo. Whoop-de-doo. Guys, this is a message that had God not given to us, I wouldn’t be up here. Teaching people that tithing Is not of God. Not in the new covenant. That’s a message worth giving your life for. Why? Because tithing isn’t of the new covenant. Paul devoted three chapters on how to give. And the tithing invention once. What is he an idiot? Did Paul forget something? Did he forget his roots? He could have saved himself all that writing.
SPEAKER 01 :
Just y’all tithe. Until next time, walk in faith, be good to one another, and praise the Lord. Amen.
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Put Jesus first in your life and turn your life around.
