THREE QUESTIONS
DO YOU LOVE ME?
DR. JIM DIXON
APRIL 19, 2009
JOHN 21:15-17
In the northern part of Israel, there is a lake called the Sea of Galilee. This lake goes by many names. It is sometimes called the Sea of Tiberius, sometimes called the Lake of Gennesaret, sometimes called the Lake of Chinnereth. And people have asked, why does this lake have so many names in the Bible? It’s called the Sea of Tiberius because there is a town around the lake called Tiberius, named after the emperor Tiberius. It’s called the Lake of Gennesaret, or the lake of Chinnereth, which are two forms of the same word, because there was a town around the lake called Chinnereth, or Gennesaret. And the word means harp. Some people have thought, well, maybe the lake is shaped like a harp; and it does look a little bit like that. But you see, at this village of Chinnereth harps were made and had a special role, and that’s why it’s so named.
The Sea of Galilee means ring or circle. And some have suggested that maybe the lake is circular, and it’s called Galilee because of a ring or circle. But the ring or circle refers to a circle of towns and villages in the region. The truth is that the Sea of Galilee isn’t really shaped like a harp or like a circle, but it’s shaped like a heart. In fact, if you see a picture of it from the air, it looks almost exactly like a human heart—not like the kind of heart that you would see on a Valentine card, but a real human heart like the one that beats in your chest. And maybe that’s appropriate, because this morning, as we look at an appearance of Christ by that sea, we’re going to focus on love.
The question that Jesus posed to Peter was, “Do you love me?” We’ve looked at who Jesus is. We’ve looked at why we can believe, but now we look at how we should live. That’s what this question is all about. Do you love me? That has to do with how we live out our days, how we live our life. Do you love me?
This morning, I have two teachings, and the first teaching is this: Jesus says to us, “If you love Me, don’t deny Me.” Now, Jesus posed this question to Peter three times and then gave Peter three commandments. “Do you love Me? Do you love Me? Do you love Me? Feed My sheep, feed My sheep, feed My sheep.” But those questions and those commandments are actually fairly complex in the Greek because there is diversity of words.
In other words, the word love is sometimes “agape” and sometimes “phileo,” different words for love. The word to for sheep is sometimes “probata,” sometimes “arnia.” The word for feed is sometimes “boske,” and then other times “poimaine,” which means to feed as well as boske, but poimaine also means to shepherd—not only to feed, but to shepherd, to guide, and to protect. So these statements have great complexity.
Bible scholars, as you can imagine, constantly debate the intricacies of meaning. But this much is clear. Three times Jesus posed the question to Peter, “Do you love me?” And why three times? Why did He have to say it three times? Some have suggested, well, maybe because Peter had just denied Christ three times. And maybe so. Just the Thursday before, on Maundy Thursday of Easter week, Jesus had prophesied to Peter that Peter would deny Him three times before the cock crowed. And Peter did deny Christ. As Jesus was arrested, Peter was afraid that he too would be incarcerated or murdered as a follower of Christ. So he denied that he knew Christ. He swore he didn’t know Christ. He even cursed when accused of knowing Christ. He denied Christ three times. And so here Christ gives Peter a chance to say, “I love You,” three times. And certainly part of the meaning is if you really love me, don’t deny Me. Don’t deny Me.
Maundy Thursday comes from the Latin word “mandatum,” from which we get the word mandate. That Thursday night was when Jesus gave the mandate, the commandment. He said, “A new commandment I give unto you, that you love.” The call of Christ is all about love. If you love Him, don’t deny Him.
In the year 1953, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed by the United States government, and there were appeals for mercy and for clemency. In fact, Albert Einstein brought an appeal to the United States government on behalf of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg to grant mercy. Pope Pius XII brought an appeal to the United States government to grant mercy to Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. But the United States Supreme Court executed them on schedule. Dwight David Eisenhower, president of the United States, denied all clemency. And why? Because Julius and Ethel Rosenberg had betrayed their country. They had sold atomic bomb secrets to the Soviet Union. They had committed treason. They were traitors, and they were executed.
Now, in this room, at this time, in this place, I’m sure that all of us are grateful to be citizens of the United States of America. We want to live out our lives faithfully, faithful to our country. We don’t want to betray our country. We want to be faithful citizens as followers of Jesus Christ. As Christians, we acknowledge, however, that we have a higher allegiance. As followers of Jesus Christ, we acknowledge we have a higher kingdom. Ultimately, our commander in chief is Jesus Christ, and He is our Lord, and He is our King. We do not want to betray Him. We don’t want to deny Him.
We want to be faithful to Him as we live out our days, and I think most of us assume that we can go through our life and we’ll never actually betray Jesus. Most of us assume that we can go through our lives and we’ll never be asked to renounce Jesus. That has not always been true for Christians. During the Boxer Rebellion in the year 1900 many Christians were persecuted in China. The Boxers, we have seen before, were members of the White Lotus sect, and they, combined with certain representatives of the Manchu Dynasty in China, sought to eradicate Western influences in China, and part of the Western influence that the Boxer Rebellion was all about was Western missionaries come with a message of Christ. And so during the Boxer Rebellion many Christian missionaries were incarcerated, whipped, or executed and killed.
One story comes out of the Boxer rebellion of a group of a hundred missionaries that lived in a missionary compound outside of Beijing. The Boxers came in, members of the Manchu and the White Lotus sect, and they seized the compound, and they held all the missionaries captive. Then they did a horrible thing. They opened the front gates of the compound and they took a large cross and they spread it out on the ground beyond the gate. And then they asked the missionaries to come out one at a time, step on the cross, and renounce Jesus Christ or be killed. The first six missionaries, we are told, came through those gates, stepped on the cross, and renounced Jesus Christ. They wanted to live.
I think as a congregation we would all pray that somehow God would have mercy on their souls. The seventh missionary that came through that gate was a teenage girl. She was part of a missionary family, and she was now a missionary herself. She walked through the gate, but she would not step on the cross and she would not renounce Christ. She knelt by the cross and kissed it and died. The next 92 missionaries did exactly the same, following her example. They knelt by the cross, they kissed it, and they died.
We know that in our lifetime such a thing is not likely to happen to us, but we can look at Christian history and we can see many who died rather than renounce Christ. We can look in the Roman world, and we know that during the period of emperor worship many Christians were brought before Roman authorities in towns and villages and cities and they were told to renounce Jesus Christ and proclaim Caesar is Lord. Many Christians refuse to do that, and they confessed Jesus is Lord. And many of them were whipped and beaten and flogged. Some were incarcerated; many died.
Now, today, I think our denial of Christ is more subtle. Our denial of Christ certainly today is more subtle. I think it’s tied up with obedience and our failure to obey Christ as we live out our lives. Jesus said, “If you love Me, you’ll keep My commandments.” It’s not easy. Is it easier sometimes to just deny Christ than to obey Him?
I know you’ve all heard of Sylvester Stallone. Sylvester Stallone is a well-known Hollywood personality and actor. Many of you saw Rocky or one of the Rocky movies. Sylvester Stallone grew up in the Catholic Church, and as a child had made confession of faith. I just read the recording of an interview with Sylvester Stallone, and he makes a statement. He says, I went to Catholic schools and I was taught the faith, the Christian faith, and I went as far as I could with it until one day I got out into the so-called real world, and I was presented with temptation. I kind of like lost my way and made a lot of bad choices, and I sinned. And of course, it is true. I mean, Sylvester Stallone in his life in Hollywood has been known for promiscuity. But he has recently (I don’t know whether you’re aware of this) recommitted his life to Jesus Christ, and he’s now going to church regularly. He made this statement in the interview: “The more I go to church and the more I turn myself over to the process of believing in Jesus and turn myself over to listening to His Word and to having Him guide my hand, I feel as though the pressure is off for me now. I think it’s very important that everyone who believes in Christ go to church. You can’t train yourself.”
I feel the same way about Christianity and about the church. The church is the gymnasium of the soul, and that’s where you learn obedience. I hope that’s true. I hope that the church is a kind of gymnasium for your soul. I hope that when you come here, you feel like your soul gets exercised. And I hope that when you’re here, you learn obedience. I hope you learn to love obedience and to love Jesus and to begin to long to please Him as you come here and you worship Him.
I just as last week read an article by John Ortberg in Leadership Magazine. John Ortberg is one of my favorite pastors. He’s a great Christian leader and teacher. In this article in Leadership Magazine, John says that, as a pastor, many members of the church come to him and they acknowledge that they’re sinners and they acknowledge that they’re kind of messed up. Some of them have addictive sins with long and very hard addictions. They come to him as a pastor wanting to know how forgiving Jesus is and how many times He’ll forgive this addictive sin. They say, if I keep doing this, will Jesus keep forgiving me? Is His mercy that great? Is His grace that great? I repent and I say I’m sorry and I mean it, but then I do it again and I seem to keep doing it again. How deep is His grace? How great is His mercy? And of course, John Ortberg believes greatly in the mercy and grace of Jesus. But He points out that a lot of these people are asking the wrong question. They need to be asking this question, am I moving towards the light or am I moving towards the dark?
Am I moving towards the light of Jesus Christ? Am I moving towards His light, or am I going back into the dark? If you love me, don’t deny Me. Of course, we hope you know and understand that right here at the church on Sunday nights we have Celebrate Recovery. And if you’re a follower of Jesus Christ and you’re struggling with addictive sins or you just want some caring people, this is a great place to come on Sunday nights. We want to help you not only love Jesus but learn to obey and please Him. If you love Me, don’t deny Me.
The second teaching today is this: Jesus would say to us, “If you love Me, don’t compare yourselves with others.” Now, I know this might be kind of a strange thought for you, and a new thought, but I think Jesus makes this very clear. “If you really love Me, don’t compare yourselves with other people. Just follow Me.” Now, we’ve seen how Peter’s death was prophesied by Jesus in John chapter 21 as He walked with Peter by the Sea of Galilee. And asking him three times, “Do you love Me? Do you love Me? Do you love Me?” He then exhorted him three times, “Feed My sheep, feed My sheep, feed My sheep.” Jesus then prophesied Peter’s death, and He told Peter that he would die a martyr’s death. He told Peter how he would die by crucifixion. And Peter understood this, and Peter was also human. I mean, he was so much like us. And I think his thought process was kind of like ours. He’s walking there with Jesus by the sea of Galilee, Jesus tells him he’s going to die a martyr’s death, and it’s going to be by crucifixion. And Peter understands, and he turns around towards the fish fry, and he sees the beloved disciple following them, probably the Apostle John. Peter sees John following them, and he can accept the fact that he’s going to be martyred, but he’s kind of wanting to know about John. And so he turns to Jesus and he said, well, what about him? How about John? I mean, you told me how I’m going to die. How’s he going to die? Let’s make a little comparison here.
I love the response of Jesus. Jesus said, “If it be My will that he live until I come again, what is that to you? You follow Me.” That’s His call to us. “If you love Me, don’t compare yourselves. Just follow Me if you love Me.” Of course, throughout history there’s been a whole lot of comparison going on, and it leads to envy, jealousy, and death. In the 12th century, Philip II ascended the throne of France. Philip II did that in the year 1180. Historians regard him today as a great king of France. He expanded the boundaries of the French world. France grew in power. And Philip II took the title Philip Augustus. He was nominally Christian, as were most of the European kings and rulers of the Middle Ages.
Nine years into his reign, in the year 1189, Philip II decided to go off to the Crusades to fight for Christ. In the eyes of Philip II the Muslims for centuries had seized Christian territories and abused Christian people. So he would take the armies of France in 1189 off to the Third Crusade, and he would do this in union with England. The armies of France would be joined with the armies of England in battle for Christ. Philip Augustus would join himself in friendship with a King of England, Richard I—Richard Coeur de Lion, Richard the lion hearted. And so they went off to the Third Crusade. They went off to the Holy Land. They could not seize Jerusalem from the Muslims, but they won many battles. And they seized the City of Acre, which is north of modern-day Haifa, near Mount Carmel.
They won that city, as it were, for Christ, and they became friends. But in the course of their battles, winning and losing together, they had a huge argument. Many historians believe that Philip II became jealous of Richard I. And Philip II’s armies, even the French shoulders, were saying, wow, Richard is greater. This king of England is greater. Richard is Coeur de Lion. He’s the lionheart. He’s mighty in battle. He’s a great leader of men. He’s greater than our French king. Philip II became very jealous by that comparison. He became envious, and he left the Holy Land and took the armies of France back to France, declared war on England, and began to seize English territories around the nation of France. In 1894, when Richard the lion hearted returned to England, he found his nation at war with Philip II’s nation.
Richard I then joined that battle and died 1199. Historians debate whether Philip II was really jealous, really envious. We don’t know, but we do know comparison can lead to jealousy and envy and it’s deadly.
You move to the 16th century and you see Leonardo da Vinci. He’s great. Everybody knows he’s great. He’s so gifted, so talented; he is a great scientist, a great painter and artist—indeed, perhaps the greatest on earth. In 1501 at the very beginning of the 16th century, Leonardo da Vinci is summoned to Florence again because the leaders of the city had just built a great city hall in Florence and they wanted Leonardo da Vinci to come and paint battle scenes on the walls. So he came and he submitted his sketches, but other sketches were submitted by another individual—another artist, a younger man.
His name was Michelangelo. It was said that the authorities in Florence actually preferred the sketches of Michelangelo to those of Leonardo da Vinci. We don’t know for sure that that’s true. We do know that Leonardo da Vinci went ahead and painted some of the walls of the new city hall, and his paintings failed. He tried a new technique and completely failed. Michelangelo probably never went from the sketches to the walls; he probably never painted all those walls. But it is said that Leonardo da Vinci did become jealous and envious, and he lost much of his joy and the remainder of his life he had diminished joy because of his comparison with Michelangelo. What we do know for sure is that for both Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci Florence for those few years were great in their lives. In 1503, Michelangelo sculpted his David from a block of marble rejected by others. Just a year later, 1504, Leonardo da Vinci painted his Mona Lisa.
But if there’s any truth to the jealousy of Leonardo da Vinci with regard to Michelangelo and the diminished joy, we know that that’s typical of jealousy. We know that’s typical of comparison. It saps joy. If you start comparing yourselves with others and you don’t like the comparisons, it’ll begin to bring bitterness and it’ll sap your joy.
You come to the 18th century and you see Antonio Salieri. Antonio Salieri was the court musician to the king of Austria in the city of Vienna. He was gifted and talented and great. But then to the court of Vienna there came a young master, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Antonio Salieri compared his ability with Mozart’s abilities. He didn’t like the comparison. He became envious. He became jealous, and he became bitter, and he lost his joy. You can see the movie, Amadeus, that Hollywood movie made not that many years ago, and it’s all about this comparison of Salieri and Mozart and the jealousy and the envy and the destruction of it all.
History’s filled with this stuff. Life is filled with this. And if you compare yourself with people at work or in your neighborhood or even in your family and you don’t feel like the comparisons put you in a good light, you can begin to feel bad things–jealousy, envy, diminished joy, even bitterness. It’s an old story in the Bible. You look at Genesis chapter four, and you see Cain and Abel—the jealousy, the comparison, the envy, and the death destruction. You can even go back further to the dawn of time and look at Satan,high and lifted up, perhaps an archangel. And he has the audacity to compare himself with the living God. He doesn’t like the comparison. He falls from glory. It’s an old story. Satan is the archon of this world, and his mind is very present on this world. There’s a lot of comparison going on.
You see, Jesus really just wants us to love Him and serve Him. Don’t compare yourself. Have you read the parable of the talents? The parable of the talents in your NIV Bible is called the parable of the bags of gold. It’s probably a pretty good title for the parable. A talent was a monetary unit, but it was also a unit of weight. Each talent was equal to about 20 years’ labor. Five talents would’ve been like five bags of gold, two talents like two bags of gold, one talent like one bag of gold. But you see, if you understand the parable, the master, Jesus, really doesn’t care how many talents you have. It doesn’t matter whether you have five talents. It doesn’t matter whether you have two talents or one. Those talents represent wealth. They represent money. It doesn’t matter how rich you are.
They also represent abilities. It doesn’t matter what your abilities are. They can be seen as representing personality or looks or appearance. It doesn’t matter. None of it matters. What matters is, are you faithful to the Master? Do you love Him? You notice if you read the parable that it really doesn’t matter whether you’re the guy with a bag of gold that is two talents or the five talent bag. If you are faithful, you are equally blessed. And the master says, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You’ve been faithful over a little, I’ll set you over much.” It doesn’t matter whether you’re a five talent bag or a two talent bag. He’s just looking for faithfulness. “If you love Me, don’t compare yourselves. Just serve me.”
I grew up in a family where I’m the youngest of three boys. My mom and dad had three sons, and so I’m the third born son. In our family I think my mom and dad were just a little bit kind of like a Jewish family in that there was a certain right given to the firstborn and maybe a little less to the second born and third born. They loved us all the same. There’s no doubt they loved us all the same, but certain privileges were for the firstborn. When mom and dad were driving the car and the kids were in the back, well, the firstborn son was given the right to choose where he wanted to sit.
The firstborn son in our family was Gary. He took the left window in the back. The second born son, Greg, took the right window in the back. As a third born son, I took the hump in the middle. Now, we drove that way all through the years. In fact, it was kind of funny. I mean, I think even in our twenties when we were all grown and married, if we’d get together, if there was a reason to get into the back of something, my brothers would take the windows and I’d go to the center. It just seemed natural. But whatever that was about, it wasn’t about the love of my mom and dad. They loved us all the same, and therefore we were all happy. And my brothers my brothers and I, we’re like best friends and we love each other very much.
My brothers, Greg and Gary, come to this church. Many of you know that I’m very honored and humbled that my brothers would come to a church where their brother is the pastor. If Gary and I were honest, we would say Greg kind of was the more gifted. Greg was the more talented. Greg was the better looking and all of those things. But it didn’t matter, because mom and dad loved us all the same. So you don’t need to compare, and you can become best friends and you can be friends for life. The whole point is just to be faithful.
You understand Jesus, you understand God, you understand His love. He loves us all the same. You don’t need to compare. There’s no benefit in comparison. Just be faithful. I don’t know what kind of love you’re looking for in life. There are many different kinds of love on this earth. What kind of love are you really seeking?
Some of you have probably seen the movie Message in a Bottle. It’s kind of a love story. It’s about a woman, a fairly young woman, who’s dying. She’s cared for by her husband who loves her very much, and whom she loves very much, and they’re soulmates. She takes this bottle and throws it in the ocean. She has a message for the world: “To all the ships at sea and all the ports of call, to my family and to all friends and strangers. This is a message and a prayer. The message is that my travels taught me a great truth. I already had what everyone is searching for and few ever find: the one person in the world who I was born to love forever. A person like me of the outer banks and the Blue Atlantic mystery, a person rich in simple treasures, self-made, self-taught a harbor where I am forever home. No wind or trouble or even a little death can knock down this house. The prayer is that everyone in the world can know this kind of love and be healed by it. If my prayer is heard, then there will be an erasing of all guilt and all regret, and an end to all anger. Please God. Amen.”
Her prayer was that everyone in the world could experience the kind of love that she had found in her husband, the kind of love that they shared, if only for a few years of their life. She prayed that they could find that that one person who would be their soulmate, that perfect match, that perfect love.
I think most of us know that life doesn’t always work like that. I feel very blessed that God led Barb and I to each other. I feel like she is that kind of soulmate, that kind of perfect love for me. But I think we all know as we look around the earth many people don’t find that. Many people never experience that. And you might be struggling with that. You’re just looking for that one perfect love, that person that you could share your life with, that person who is truly a soulmate, and yet that’s not life for everybody. But I would like to suggest to you that there’s a greater kind of love. There’s a greater source of love. There’s a greater love re relationship, and it’s all bound up in Jesus.
We love because He first loved us. It’s love that brought Him here. It’s love that made Him willing to die for us. It’s love that leads Him to intercede for us. Now, Jesus is the groom and the church is His bride, and He loves her. Everyone who comes to Jesus, in a sense, is married to Him. He offers a healing that no other love relationship can offer. He’s the one who can take away guilt. Life. for those of us who love Jesus, is learning to love Him, and it’s learning to love each other in His name. This is the journey we’re on.
“Who do you say that I am?” Jesus once said. “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. You are King of Kings. Come reign in me. You are Yeshua. You are the Savior. Come save Me from My sin.” How can I believe? The evidence of the empty tomb, the evidence of 500 eyewitnesses, many of whom gave their lives the evidence of holy scripture, the evidence of the Holy Spirit, who bears witness in our souls. And if I believe, how do I then live? It’s all about love and learning to love, and developing this relationship of love with Him.
I think Peter ultimately understood this. As we close, I want to share a passage from Peter. It’s one of my favorite passages. 2 Peter chapter one, Peter writes these words: “Make every effort, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, virtue with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with steadfastness, steadfastness with godliness, godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. If you do these things, they will keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in your knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Whoever lacks these things is blind and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his sins. So, brothers and sisters, be the more zealous to confirm your call in election. If you do this, you will not fall. There will be richly provided for you an entrance and into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Now, I intend always to remind you of these things, though you know them and are firmly established in the truth which you have. But I think it right, as long as I’m in this body, to rouse you by way of reminder, since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me. And I intend to see to it that after my departure, you may be able at any time to recall these things.
“For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We were eyewitnesses to his majesty. And when He received power and glory, and the voice was born to Him by the majestic glory, ‘This is my beloved Son, in whom I’m well pleased.’ We heard this voice born from heaven, for we were with Him on the holy mountain. We have the prophetic word made more sure. Therefore, you do well to pay attention to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.”
It’s a beautiful passage. You see in that passage how Peter, this rugged fisherman, had come to understand the supremacy of love. This is the process. You supplement your faith with virtue, virtue with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with godliness, godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. It’s all heading towards love and learning to grow in love. So we have this final question, “Do you love me?” And, “If you love Me, don’t deny Me. If you love Me, keep My commandments. If you love Me, don’t compare yourselves with others. Just follow Me.” Let’s look to the Lord with a word of prayer.