In this episode of ‘The Sound of Faith,’ Sharon Knotts takes listeners on an in-depth exploration of Peter’s journey from denial to redemption. Reflecting on the poignant and personal question Jesus posed to Peter, ‘Lovest thou me?’ we delve into the transformative power of forgiveness and the importance of following one’s divine calling despite past failures. The conversation unfolds the events at the Sea of Tiberias, where Jesus renews Peter’s mission, moving him from being a fisherman back to his destined path as a fisher of men.
Greetings friends and new listeners and welcome to the Sound of Faith. I’m Sharon Knotts thanking you for tuning in today because we know that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Today’s message is one we can all relate to. Lovest thou me? This is the question Jesus asked Peter three times after Peter’s three denials of him at his trial before Pilate and his subsequent abandonment of his calling to preach the gospel and go back to his old life of fishing. Have you ever failed the Lord? I know I have. But Peter’s relatable and teachable experiences encouraged me to receive forgiveness and go forward. And you can too in this poignant message, lovest thou me. So when people fail God, see what happens then is the devil beats them up, beats them up, and then they just give up. Amen? And sometimes they give up to the point that they backslide. They actually backslide over the fact that they failed God. Amen? They allow that to drive them away from the Lord. And you know another reason why I believe that Peter failed, the obvious one is his self-boasting. Because the Bible says pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. But don’t you remember that when they were in Gethsemane and Jesus was praying, he took Peter, James, and John to go close to him, with him, apart from the others. And three times he said, pray with me. Watch with me. Can’t you pray with me one hour? Three times, in all three times, he came and found them sleeping. So you see, Peter failed three times. He did not take heed to Jesus’ warnings to watch and pray. Amen? And he denied the Lord three times. So that is what happened, the rest of what happened at the Last Supper. Now let’s go find out what happened at the last breakfast. Let’s turn to John, the 21st chapter. This is the last breakfast, and this is post-resurrection. Jesus has been crucified, buried, come out of the tomb. Amen? And the disciples were supposed to be the ones to go forth now and preach the gospel. When he was ascending up on high, he said to them, Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to all nations, teaching them whatsoever things I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. That’s Matthew the 28th chapter. In Mark 16, he said, he told him, this is what we call the Great Commission, as you know. And he told him, go forth and preach the gospel to every creature. Amen? To every creature, baptizing them in my name, baptizing them and making disciples of them. Go into all the world. This was the last thing that he had told them when they saw him going up in the clouds. And this was their commission. This is what he had trained them for three and a half years to do. Now the mantle of preaching and teaching and discipling had fallen on them. But what happened? John 21. Let’s read three verses to begin. After these things, Jesus showed himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias, and on this wise showed he himself. The Sea of Tiberias is the Sea of Galilee. It’s just that Tiberias is a little town on the Galilee. There were together Simon Peter… and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, that would be James and John, and two other of his disciples. So how many do we got here? We got Peter, one, and Thomas, two, and Nathanael, three, and the sons of Zebedee, four, five, and two more, six, seven. Ah, we got seven out of 11, because now Judas is dead. So we got 7 out of 11. That’s almost three quarters. Amen? So Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a-fishing. Do you see that? I want you to make sure I got a King James Bible, and I love it right now. I love King James. Your other Bibles aren’t going to have in there, I go a-fishing. You might even say, well, that’s not even proper grammar. Well, it is in King James. Amen? Because he’s not just saying, I go fishing. If he would have just said, I go fishing, that means for today, I think I’m going to go fishing today. When he said, I go a-fishing, it means I am returning to my occupation as a fisherman. Amen. It means I’m going back to fishing. It’s not a one-time, one-day deal. I’m going back to my previous calling as a fisherman. And when Jesus met James and John and Peter on the Sea of Galilee and said, follow me, what did he tell them? From henceforth, I will make you fishers of men. But now they’re going back to being fishers of fish. So when Peter said, I go efficient, it means I’m returning to my former occupation. And they say unto him, who’s the they? The seven guys we just read. They said, we also go with thee. And they went forth and entered into a ship immediately. When they said, we also go with thee, you have got to understand, they realized they didn’t mean we’re going today. Today we’re going to go charter a boat and go fishing. They understood that he meant we’re going back to our old job. And they said, you know what? We’re going back to our old jobs too. In other words, they quit the ministry. And if they quit the ministry and Jesus had trained them for three and a half years to take the gospel, then that means the whole plan has come to a grinding halt and we have an emergency on our hands. Because if they’re not going to follow through on their calling and preach the gospel, then who is? When Jesus hand selected them and chose them. Amen? So whenever you go back on your old calling or you go back on your old lifestyle or you go back to the things of the world, let me tell you something. You are going to fail. You’re going to fail. Let’s see what happens. But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus. Then Jesus saith unto them, Children, have you any meat? And they answered, No. And he said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and you shall find. They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it in for the multitude of fishes. So when Jesus, when they got close to the shore, now they had fished all night and they had nothing. See, that’s what happens when you go back on your calling. If you think you’re going to succeed at plan B. You’re not. You better stick to plan A. You better stick to God’s plan. So they went back to what they were accustomed, had done for decades before they became Jesus’ disciples, and they failed at the very thing that they were so good at. They failed at the very thing that had been their livelihood before. And so when they’ve been fishing all night, now that means they’re tired, right? They’re worn out. They’re wet. They’re cold. They’re hungry. And they are discouraged. Because they had quit on God. And now they had gone back to their fishing. And it had failed. And now as they get closer to the shore, they see a man standing on the shore. And he calls out, children, have you any meat? And it could be, have you any fish? And they said, all of them, no. Now here’s the thing. Jesus was really rubbing it in on them for a good reason. When he said children, the word in the Greek refers to an uninstructed child who’s got a lot to learn. He wasn’t saying children affectionately like we say, you know, children of God. No, that’s not what the Greek word means. It means you are a child who’s still wet behind the ears and you’ve got a lot to learn. And here he was saying this about the very occupation that they had all been successful at before the ministry. And not only that, in the Greek grammar, when he said, have you any meat, it only allows for an answer in the negative. What I mean by that, it would be like my saying, you don’t have any meat, do you? There’s only one really possible answer there because the person is saying that is pointing out the fact you don’t have it. You’re standing there like this and they’re saying, you don’t have any meat, do you? There’s only one way to answer that. No. That’s how it is in the Greek text. When he said, children, have you any meat? It only allows them to answer in the negative. And so he was forcing them. He knew they didn’t have any fish. He wasn’t looking for information. He was trying to rub it in on them that when you go after your own way and your own pursuits, you’re going to fail. And he made them say it out of their own mouth. No, we don’t have any fish. We fished all night and we have nothing. Amen? He was making it. You’ve got to say, well, don’t think of it in a mean-spirited way. Think about it in a crisis. He had to get to these guys because right now the gospel was in jeopardy of coming to a halt. Because they were all quitters. Amen? And so… He told them, cast your net on the right side. Let’s read that. Verse 6. And he said unto them, cast the net on the right side of the ship, and you shall find. They cast, therefore, and now they were not able to draw it in for the multitude of fishes. Therefore, that disciple whom Jesus loved, and you know that when you read this in the book of John, John is referring to himself. John said unto Peter, it is the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he girt his fisher’s coat unto him, for he was naked. That doesn’t mean he didn’t have any clothes on. It means he put up his outer garment and put it on him, and he cast himself into the sea. And the other disciples came in a little ship, for they were not far from land. They had to get a little ship to take them from the big fishing ship into the shore. as it were 200 cubits, dragging the net with the fishes. And as soon as then as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid thereon, and bread. Jesus saith unto them, Bring of the fish which you have now caught. And Simon Peter went up and drew the net to land, full of great fishes, and a hundred and fifty and three. And for all there were so many, yet was not the net broken.” So Jesus had said, have you any fish? And they all said, no. He says, well, cast your net on the right side. Amen? And then they got so many fish that they couldn’t hardly pull it in. Deja vu. Look at somebody and say deja vu. Deja vu. What am I talking about? We won’t go there. But don’t you remember way back in the beginning of their ministry? This is an exact replay of an earlier incident when they had fished all night and caught no fish. And Jesus had said, Peter, cast your net on the right side. And Peter, with this very perturbed kind of attitude, said, well, Lord, we’ve done fished all night. But nevertheless, at thy word, we’ll do what you say and drop the net in. And what happened? All the fish came. They could hardly bring it to land. And now all of the sudden, when John realized who it was, because they didn’t know in the beginning, and John said to Peter, oh my goodness, it’s the Lord. And Peter had deja vu. He remembered. He remembered how this had all played out before. Amen? And back then is when Jesus had said, from now on you’re going to catch men. And so now Peter, being rambunctious Peter, he has not changed his makeup. You can’t change a person’s basic personality. What the Holy Spirit does is try to refine it and work with it and use it for good. Amen? But Peter is still Peter. Amen? He jumps out of the boat and he runs up there and he beats everybody else up there. Amen? And so Jesus said, well, come on, give me some of the fish that you’ve caught. Now let’s read on. Jesus saith unto them, come and dine. And none of the disciples durst or dared ask him, who art thou, knowing that it was the Lord. Jesus then cometh and taketh bread and giveth them and fish likewise. This is now the third time that Jesus showed himself to his disciples after that he was risen from the dead. So Jesus now has these seven very tired, worn out, cold, hungry, wet, guilty disciples. Guilty disciples. Amen? They knew it was Jesus, and the Bible says nobody opened their mouth. They weren’t talking. They weren’t saying anything because they were under so much condemnation because they had been caught red-handed. Red-handed, not just going out a day to fish. But returning to their old ways, they were caught red-handed and they were under so much guilt and condemnation. But what I love about Jesus, now you see a picture here of Jesus, the compassionate, loving Lord and high priest. He didn’t jump all over them right off the bat. He saw, he knew that they were physically worn out and cold and hungry. And first he ministered to their physical needs. He had a fire going. He said, come on and sit down and get warm and dry off. He knew they were hungry. He fixed breakfast for them. How would you like Jesus to cook your breakfast? Well, I can’t promise you he’ll do it in the natural. But if you’ll get up in the morning and spend time with Jesus first thing, he’ll fix breakfast for you. Amen. He’ll give you bread. He’ll put some honey on it. He’ll make it sweet. So first things he did was out of his compassion, he ministered to their physical needs because he realized that this was not the right time to scold them. They needed to get… They needed to get warm. They needed to get food. You know, I love there’s one psalm that David said. I think it’s Psalm 103. Like as a father pitieth, and it really means has compassion on his children, on his son, so the Lord has compassion on his children for he knows our frame. He knows we’re but dust. And he understands the physical need. Just like when Elijah was depressed and down and ran away and was hiding, quitting on his ministry too. And the Lord met up with him and said, what are you doing here? And the Lord fed him. He sent angels to feed him and get him strengthened. And then the Lord dealt with him about, you need to stop having a pity party and get back out there. And don’t be afraid. Am I not with you? Amen? Now, Jesus knew that he had to deal with this situation. As I said already, if they would quit, then the Great Commission, who was going to fulfill it? And so he had to take care of it, and he dealt first and foremost with the ringleader. Amen? He started with the ringleader, the one who had started the desertion and everybody had followed after him. And that’s a lesson for us when we have problems in the church and we have divisions and schisms that come up. You know, it’s no point in going through. You need to go to the head. You need to go to the one who started the whole thing. You need to go to the ringleader. And start with them, and then see where it went from there. Amen? So let’s read on, verse 15. So when they had dined, now that tells me a lot. They had eaten, they had gotten warm, they had rested, they were feeling much better physically. Now, Jesus saith to whom? Simon Peter. Simon, son of Jonas, didn’t call him Peter. He doesn’t call him Peter like he didn’t before when he associates him with the flesh and with failure. He calls him Simon. Amen? He calls him Peter other times because Peter means you’re a chip off the rock and I’m the rock. I’m the rock of ages and you’re a chip off of me. But right now Peter was not manifesting or demonstrating that kind of behavior. So we call him Simon Peter. Amen? Lovest thou me more than these? And he saith unto him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. And Jesus said unto him, Feed my lambs. He said to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He said unto him, Yea, Lord, you know that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep. See, he feeds the lambs and the sheep. He feeds the baby Christians and the mature Christians. You need to be in a church where they can do both, where they can feed the lambs and they can feed the mature Christians. Amen? He saith unto them the third time, him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? And Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all these things. Thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus said unto him, Feed my sheep. Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast young, thou girdest thyself, and walkest whither thou wouldest. But when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thine hands, and another shall gird thee. and carry thee whither thou wouldest not. And this spake he signifying by what death he should glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he said unto him, Follow me. It’s the first words Jesus ever uttered to him on the Sea of Galilee way back over three years ago. Follow me and I will make you fishers of men. Now let’s look at this lovest thou me that the fact that Jesus asked him three times and the fact that he answered three times and the third time he was grieved or broke down and started to cry. So what is going on here? In the very beginning, I mentioned the word agape. The word agape, it means love. But it is the strongest, most intense form of love there is in the Greek language. It was never used outside of the Bible. Because really there was no call for it or no need for it. But in the New Testament, it began to be used because it signifies or it symbolizes the love that God had for us. Because it’s like John 3, 16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. Agape love will sacrifice itself for the one loved. Even at great personal cost. At tremendous personal cost, the one who possesses agape love will sacrifice their own desires and needs in order to meet the needs of the one or the object of his love. And that’s the kind of love that God has for us. Amen? So when Jesus said to Peter, Peter, lovest thou me? Do you love me? Jesus used… Agape. Do you agape love me, Peter? And Peter answered, Lord, you know I phileo love you. Well, what is phileo? Phileo is more like fondness. Friendly love. We’re buddies. You’re my friend. I’m fond of you. Amen? It’s a little greater than just an acquaintance, but it’s not agape. Amen? You married people, you may have friends, even of the opposite sex, that you’re really good friends with, and you like to talk to, and you like to be around, and you’re fond of them. But you don’t agape them. You agape your husband. You agape your wife. Amen? And so when he said, lovest thou me, Jesus said, agape. And Peter answered, phileo. And Jesus said, well, feed my lambs. In other words, he was saying, prove it. Show me. Feed my lambs. And then he asked them a second time. Now he did say the first time, do you love me more than these? How many know that the first time he said that? And there is a lot of different opinions amongst scholars who the these or what the these refers to. Was he saying do you love me more than these as meaning the other six disciples sitting there? Or does he mean something else? I am of the opinion that he meant something else. I’m of the opinion that he meant, do you love me more than these? The 153 fish. Because they represented what Peter was going back to. Do you love me more than you love your old lifestyle? Do you love me more than you do going back, being your own boss, doing your own thing, having your own business, running your own show? Do you love me more than you love these? And I believe that’s what he meant because then Peter Balch choked. He could not say agape. How could he say agape? I love you more than these. When he had just been caught red-handed going back saying, I go fishing, I returned to my old way. So Jesus asked him the second time, do you agape me? And the second time Peter said, I phileo you, Lord. You know I do. I’m sure by now he was getting a quiver in his throat. Amen. And then the third time Jesus asked him, do you philo me? In other words, the third time, Jesus actually took Peter’s words and threw them back at him. Oh, do you follow me? Do you follow me? Are you fond of me? Really, Peter? Are you really? And that’s what made Peter break down and cry. Amen? Because he realized that he was not demonstrating that he truly loved the Lord because he had failed him. Amen? He was going back. Amen? Going back to his own ways. Amen, what an inspiring and relatable word for us all. Lovest thou me. Peter had great zeal and passion for the Lord, but he also had a tendency for self-boasting. And Satan, recognizing this potentially fatal flaw, demanded to put Peter to the test. But oh, the difference the intercession of our high priest, Jesus Christ, can make in our time of testing. It’s true, Peter failed the Lord three times. Yet his faith did not fail because unlike Judas, he did not hang himself. but discouraged he quit the ministry and went back to fishing and six other disciples joined him the gospel was at a crisis if these hand-picked men who had been personally trained by jesus quit who would take up the baton to preach the gospel jesus had to handle this situation quickly and personally and he showed up on the galilee where they had gone back to their old profession they were guilty caught red-handed deserting their calling to be fishers of men addressing the ringleader peter jesus asked him three times lovest thou me But the Greek words for love that Jesus used revealed the true conditions of Peter’s heart and forced him to make a fresh start to fulfill his ministry. Lovest Thou Me is available on CD for a love gift of $10 or more for the radio ministry. Request SK-176. Mail to Sound of Faith, P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Or order online at soundoffaith.org, where it is also available on MP3. But to order by mail, send a minimum love gift of $10 to P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. And request SK176. Until next time, this is Sharon Knott saying, Maranatha.
