The Gospel of John 21:15-25
John 21:15-25 · Randy Peterman · Oct 27, 2013
Gospel of John (2013), No. 41
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492645183808

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

All right, so we're here at the close of John. This is the very last set of verses, and as Stan asked, he said, what are we going to look at next? And I don't have an answer for that, but I do have a slight ring in the audio. My dad, I'm guessing based on other things, they might go over some highlights or some related material tied in with John, but my dad didn't say. I forgot to ask him, as I said. We'll have to have to wait and see.

Can you hear me now? Everything's good? All right. Yeah, okay. Topical survey. You are more informed than I am. So I can tell you what we're doing in the Holy Spirit class downstairs, but that's not useful here. So let's go ahead and we'll read all the way through John 21, 15 through 25. That's my preference. I'm not sure how my dad normally does this. It's been a while since I've co-taught with him.

But John writes, so 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 that I love you. He said to him, tend my lambs. He said to him again a second time, Simon, son of John, do you love me? And he said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him, shepherd my sheep. He said to him a third time, Simon, son of John, do you love me? Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, do you love me?

And he said to him, Lord, you know all things. You know that I love you. Jesus said to him, tend my sheep. Truly, truly, I say to you, When you were younger, you used to gird yourself and walk wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will gird you and bring you where you do not wish to go. Now this he said signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he said to him, follow me.

Peter, turning around, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved, following them, the one who also had leaned back on his bosom at the supper, and said, Lord, who is the one who betrays you? So Peter, seeing him, said to Jesus, Lord, and what about this man? Jesus said to him, if I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me. Therefore, this saying went out among the brethren, that that disciple would not die. Yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but only, If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you?

This is the disciple who is testifying to these things and wrote these things, and we may know that his testimony is true. I'm sorry, and we know his testimony is true. And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written.

And I think that's just a fantastic close. I love that one closing sentence of John. But we should start at the beginning of where we're studying. So picking back up in verse 15, So when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? And when we read 15 through 17, we have this exchange between Christ and Peter. And it's one that the first time I heard it taught through, somebody put a lot of emphasis on the Greek words for love that are in this passage. If you look at your handout, That first paragraph, or after the first paragraph, is the quotation. And you'll see that there's the insertion of the Greek words agapeo and phileo, so that you can see the different words that are being used for love there. So we have to ask ourselves, as the verses change, or as you read through, the word for love changes.

Do you love me more than these? Do you agapeo more than these? And then, do you love agapeo me? And Peter's response is, I phileo you. I love you like a brother, rather than the benevolent love. And so a lot has been made of those different uses of love.

The question is, is that the ringing on this audio is bothering me. I'm going to step back and see if that helps. I don't think it's going to. Does it matter that those Greek words change? Because there are people who've made a lot of it, and there's people who say ignore it. There's three bullet points there. There's three ways that we may understand this.

He may be saying, do you love me more than these other men? He may be saying, do you love me more than you love I'm sorry. Do you love me more than you love these other men? Or you may be saying, do you love me more than you love these things, the boats or the fish?

So which one is it? How do we understand these loves? Because we're going to circle back to the Greek, but we've got to make sure we can answer the question, how do we understand these loves? Anyone want to take a guess? Which one do you think is the one that we should understand that as it stands?

Well, I think when Jesus, the third time, went from Acapulco to Palaio, it kind of indicates that it goes from a deity distant love to a personal brotherly love. And I think that's giving Jesus, Jesus is giving Peter an affirmation that, you know, They're still relational brothers. And there's a relationship there. And so not to worry about three times that he denied him. And that's one of the fundamental things is we'll see that Peter denied Christ three times before the rooster crowed. But of the three ways that we may understand the love, we want to understand this in the first way there. Do you love me more than these other men do? Do you love me? Do you care for me?

If Peter, when he compromised and he had denied the Lord the three times, what was the strength of his reaction the third time? Was he just like, oh, no, I don't know him? Or what did he do? He cursed, he tore his clothes. This is a very strong reaction. In the Hebrew culture, that would have been a very outward sign of disagreement and an emotional response. That would be rage itself, that he would do that.

So when we look at the Greek here, it's important to understand that John used phileo and agape, or he used those interchangeably, actually. And so if we put a lot of emphasis on the Greek here, we don't really get a lot extra from understanding the love between those two different ways. But if we look at what is going on in the relationship, that's where the meat of this verse is. I've heard pastors, the first time I heard this taught, the pastor emphasized the Greek in a really strong and hefty way, only what he did is he wanted to use that for us to really love the Lord.

You better make sure that you both agape and you phileo the Lord, and you better make sure that you do it. And he wanted us to feel extra guilty, I think, to make sure that we really love the Lord. But when we understand this in the context of Matthew 26, if you want to go ahead, if somebody wants to turn to Matthew 26 and read 31 to 35 out loud, or you have it on your handout if you feel like not turning a page in your Bible. And if someone else would read that out loud. Or not. I can. That's alright, go ahead.

Then Jesus said to them, you will all fall away because of me this night. For it is written, I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered. But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee. Peter answered him. Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away. Jesus said to him, truly I tell you, this very night before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times. Peter said to him, even if I must die with you, I will not deny you. And all the disciples said this name.

So we have this interaction with Christ, and here's Christ and Peter, and I love that these two passages parallel one another in a certain way, where Christ and Peter have this interaction. Peter, as is typical, boldly makes a statement. I've never made a bold statement before, so I don't know what that's like. But Peter boldly says, I am going to do this thing.

And then what does Christ say? He says, you're not. You're going to actually not do what you're saying right now. And he gives them a very specific detail. But we get the same interaction with Christ and Peter in this passage here in John, where we see Christ is interacting. He says, hey, you're going to, or do you love me? And Peter says, I do.

And then Christ says, hey, and by the way, you're going to be crucified. Which would be a bit of a rough go, just on the surface of things, like, hey, you're going to die of crucifixion. But Peter, after having sworn that he would follow Christ everywhere, is probably at this time, after having seen Christ resurrect and everything, he's realizing that all of the things that he trusted in Christ are true. All of the things that are true of Christ are things that He's witnessed Himself. So, let's take a look, let's step back down into the text and see what's going on here in the interaction.

Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? He said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. Then he says, tend my lambs, or feed my lambs. He said to him again a second time, Simon, son of John, do you love me? And he said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. And he said to him, shepherd my sheep. And then the third time, Simon, son of John, do you love me? And Peter grieved because he'd asked him the third time, do you love me? And he said to him, Lord, you know all things. You know that I love you. And Jesus said to him, tend my sheep or feed my sheep. So, why the emphasis on the shepherding? Why does Peter need to be told about the shepherding and the sheep duties three times? When Jesus was going away, he wanted Peter to tend his sheep. He was assigning a responsibility for Peter. Here's the thing, I'm commissioning you to do this.

Of course, We can read too much into Christ having said this just to Peter. There's other exchanges that probably took place here. The Roman Catholic Church said this is part of why Peter is the rock and the foundation of the Roman Catholic Church. So I might be reading a hair too much into this. But after Peter denied Christ three times, Christ engages him and asks him three times. And Peter says, yes, I do.

Now that I've said we shouldn't worry about the differences between the phileo and agape love in the Greek there, I do think it's interesting at the last of this, Peter's response is he changes his word for knowing. There's two Greek words for knowing.

There's the oidos and there's also the gnosko. The oidos is to understand a concept. We have this understanding that's a highfalutin thing, but the gnosko is an intimate, experienced knowledge. And I think it's important to understand that Peter, when he responds, he says, Lord, you know the ideas, the oidos, all things. And he says, you know, gnosko, that I love you, that I phileo you. You know all things. You understand the ideal and you know the whole universe and you understand those things because you are God, but you gnosko that I love you. I understand these things. One of the things that I love about this exchange is that we get a little insight into the emotional aspect of Peter.

He says, that Peter was grieved, or Simon was grieved. Can anybody identify with that? Have you been doubted or questioned by someone that you love, and after you've been asked, it hurts a little bit? This part of the passages I was studying through and reading through this, this part always strikes me, because I know in my own life there have been times when I have hurt other people. But after I have apologized, I want that trust to be back again.

And here's Peter, and the Lord is commissioning him. Peter understands what's going on because the Lord is speaking in imperatives. He says, feed my lambs and shepherd my sheep and feed my sheep. There's a commissioning going on there, but Peter's having a bit of an emotional response. And the author, John, who's from the outside, can see the grief.

I always love those little personal connections. It makes the scripture real. So any other thoughts on this love? Yeah. What doesn't matter? We don't need to put a massive emphasis on it. Let's take a look at There's a list of places in John at the bottom of the first page where John uses phileo and uses agape in ways that are as though they are interchangeable.

For example, John 3.16 has the God so loved the world, God agape-ed the world.

But John 5.20 says that God phileo-ed Christ. Well, OK. If that was just one example, that wouldn't carry a lot of weight.

But also, God agapes and phileos men in John 14.21 and John 16.27. And so when we see that John uses those words interchangeably, it's not that they're useless.

It is just that we need to understand the author. And that leads to a really important question. When we interpret the Bible and we look at language, we have to have an understanding of how the language is used by the author. If the Holy Spirit inspired the text, and we definitely want to hold that the Holy Spirit inspired the text, how much of the personality of the author comes through?

Because Paul doesn't write with the writing style of John. Paul uses the Greek in a much more technical way, as far as I understand it. I have to confess to not being a Greek scholar, so I'm relying on the things I've learned from other people who are Greek scholars. But Paul uses the Greek in a much more technical way, and John writes in a simpler fashion.

And so he tends to swap out those words, whereas Paul tends to be much more technical in the way that he handles the language. If this was the only place where we saw the interchanging of the words from John, it would be a lot easier for us to say, there must be something going on here.

But instead it seems that John is carrying along the story and he's using those words in ways that let us know that there's not a massive significance to that, that should cause us to feel guilty whether or not we love God in a phileo or an agape way. I felt really good and guilty when I left the church after they had given me the phileo agape, which way do you love the Lord, sermon. So hopefully when you leave this morning, you won't feel guilty.

So the Lord has commissioned Peter, do you love me? And he's reminding, I mean, Peter has got to have in the forefront of his mind, the conversation that they had at the Garden of Gethsemane. And so what we end up, As we go through this, as we have the Lord commissioning Peter, he's speaking in imperatives that Peter should feed and shepherd and feed. And there's an appendix, if you look at your handout, there's an appendix one, unless you've had your appendix removed. But, and that's going to talk about the principles of shepherding. I'm not sure we'll have time to go over this this morning. If we wrap up the rest of this, we'll get into it more.

Stan? I was going to ask you, do you happen to know if that's a gospel where John constantly says that the disciples of Jesus loved? I'm just curious. I can check that real quick. Let me... Let me look at that, because I don't know that I have that. I'm guessing it might be that, but we'll see. It's easy enough to look at. My dad would probably know this off the top of his head. So verse 20, it is agape, or agapa in this case. So the one that he loved is agapa. All right.

Peter's been through this and then the Lord is not done communicating with him. He's going to hit him with another difficult message. So in 18 through 19, we see, Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to gird yourself and walk wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will gird you and bring you where you do not wish to go. Now this, he said, signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he said to him, follow me. So, obviously, Peter's been a pretty strong-willed fellow, right? If we go back and we look at the account of Peter's interaction with Christ.

When they're at the Lord's Supper and the Lord is washing their feet, what does Peter say? Yeah, and then the Lord says, no, I have to wash your hands. So Peter says, OK, I'll take a whole sponge bath. And then when they're out on the sea and the Lord is walking out, what does Peter do?

Well, he says, OK, I want to go walk with you. This is pretty cool. And then even earlier in John 21, John says to the other disciples on the boat, hey, that's Christ. That's Jesus. And what does Peter do? He throws his coat on and he goes swimming. So Peter is not a mild, reserved fellow. He's pretty intense. And he's definitely self-directed. So here we see that Christ says, hey, you gird yourself and you do what you want. And Peter, probably not too surprised by that, because he's like, of course I do. I'm a self-made man, right? Well, maybe he didn't say that. It's not recorded that he said that.

But the Lord says a time is going to come when you're going to be crucified. And the thing that's interesting, if you've got your Bibles, turn to 2 Peter 1 and we'll read verses 12-14. In 2 Peter 1, 12-14, Peter writes, Therefore, I will always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you already know them, and have been established in the truth which is present with you. I consider it right, as long as I am in this earthly dwelling, to stir you up by way of reminder, knowing that the laying aside of my earthly dwelling is imminent, as also our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. So Peter, even here, he's writing this epistle, he's writing to these believers, and he goes, hey, I know my death is imminent. Now, here's an interesting thing. How are we supposed to be living our lives? Are we supposed to be living our lives waiting to die, or are we supposed to be living our lives waiting for the rapture? Waiting for the Lord to take us and be with us? We're to have this anticipation.

Now, Peter, unfortunately, knows I don't get that anticipation. He still gets to be, he'll be raised up first in the rapture. Okay, we know that much. But Peter knows he is going to have to lay his life down and he knows this crucifixion is coming, which to me, that might change the way I lived a little bit. If you know those kinds of things, but Peter, It changes the way he lives in that he knows that there is an eternal place that he's going to. He just knows he's going to have to go out by way of the cross. Again, I'm not sure how I would handle that news if the Lord was walking with me and said, hey, just by the way, you're going to be crucified. That would hit you on a personal level in a pretty intense way.

We have documentation from Clement of Rome that Peter did die of martyrdom. There is a tradition that Peter was crucified upside down, but it is only a tradition. We don't have really strong evidence that he was crucified upside down. I'm not sure that either way would be extra. you know, more excruciating than the other, it's still crucifixion. That's pretty intense.

When Christ had invited Peter to follow him, in Matthew 4, 18-19, it says Jesus, or now, as Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who was called Peter, and Andrew, his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he said to them, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. And so Peter had already given up everything he had and was following Christ. This was just the next phase of following.

And I love through the Gospel of Acts, that's not the right name, through the Book of Acts, the Acts of the Apostles, that we see Peter goes through a number of different difficult situations, but he knows how he's going to go out, and he knows that God's called him. If you know that God has called you, but you don't know how the Lord is going to bring you with Him, whether it be by rapture or through death, but you've been called by the Lord to be in fellowship with Him, does that change the way that you live your life? Or He lives through you? So even though we can't personally identify with the idea of knowing how we're going out, we can understand that if the Lord has called us that there's definitely purpose and value that's added in to our daily lives.

So Peter has already said he's going to follow the Lord. He left everything behind. He's gone with the Lord for several years. And then the Lord was crucified and buried. Peter's run and seen the empty tomb. Then he went home. And then the Lord showed himself to the disciples. But they're here. He's back. He's with the Lord. And the Lord says, hey, I've got this really important commission to give you. But also, by the way, you're going to die by crucifixion.

Not your typical breakfast conversation. How about that? So Peter, after having been through this tumultuous bit of news, turns and sees John. or the one whom the Lord loved. And in 20, he says, Peter turning around saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them, the one who also had leaned back on his bosom at the supper and said, Lord, who is the one who betrays you? So Peter seeing him said to Jesus, Lord, what about this man?

Jesus said to him, if I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me. And therefore, this saying went out among the brethren that that disciple would not die. Yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but only if I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you?

So John, again, refers to himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved. And as we said, it's the agape love. I have never fully been able to grasp why you would write of yourself that way. It's one of those things where John is writing about an endearment and a relationship that he had with the Lord, but I think that's the only way I can understand that. I wouldn't want to write of my relationship with my dad as Randy, the son that Vern loved. You know, that sounds like there's an exclusivity to it, doesn't there?

But it is what it is. John wrote this letter the way he did, and so while I don't fully understand why he would choose that, that ringing is very exciting. I'm going to move, I moved the stand and it seems to have gone away. There we go. Roy, I moved the stand. I'm apparently causing echo myself. Now I just have to bend over awkwardly on occasion. Forgive me for that.

So Peter was looking for a prediction on John. Well, if you're going to tell us, this is, again, brash bull Peter, right? Well, you told me about me. Let's hear about John. What's John got? And the Lord says, OK, calm down. And the thing is that what do we know about John's life? and how he finally did pass away. What do we know? Anyone? He died of old age. To what we know, he did die of old age, but he was poiled in oil. He was imprisoned. The things that John went through were really extreme. Would John's knowing that have mattered?

All of the disciples understood that they had been commissioned by Christ to, as witnesses, go out and share testimony of who Christ was. So Peter knows, and the other disciples, at least by what is recorded, don't necessarily know how they're going to die. But they've been commissioned.

That's the thing that I think is kind of a key. I do think it's funny that folks would have this idea that, well, Jesus didn't say he was going to die. So therefore, he's going to live until the rapture. That's not what Christ said. And John, I love that John calls that. He's like, hey, listen, that's not what he said. And he clears that up. But we can understand that if I want, when Christ says, so Peter says, Lord, and what about this man? And Jesus said to him, if I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me. How should we understand until I come?

It seems reasonable to interpret that as the rapture. If we were to look at John 14 verses 1-3, he says, Do not let your heart be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me. In my Father's house are many dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have told you. For I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also. So here we have this reference that the Lord is saying, I will come bring you to me. I will come collect you. But Christ says, if I wanted it to be, if it was that so, then it would be that way.

Could it also refer to the revelation that John had of Atmas? In this case, I don't think that that was a direct relationship because he's saying, if, you know, he says, if I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? And he's saying, if that was something that I had planned, but that's not what I planned for you, and that's okay. So while there's definitely, we see with John, he got eternal revelation and he had a grasp of the rapture and what was going to happen, that didn't come until later. It makes me wonder if that is where the Peters come up with their doctrine that when John died, Christ did come back.

Oh, wow. I have not heard that before. Well, I haven't either, but I'm just wondering. It says that. And they believe that Christ came back. Oh, the Preterists. Yeah. Oh, I thought you said the Peterists. I did. Sorry. OK. I missed the. OK. OK. That I've heard before. Yes. OK. So that's interesting that he says that. And that's kind of their contradiction. Yeah. That is an interesting observation that they might have taken that a different direction. Totally. Yeah.

We want to be careful when we interpret that we're taking things as much as possible at their face value. Had Christ come in John's lifetime, that would have been OK. That would have been the fulfillment of whatever God had planned. Of course, we wouldn't be here. That's different. But we see that there is a sense of, this is true, and here's how we're going to... This does not apply to you, Peter. So he doesn't get any insight into John's death, or not death, if that were the case. So that is there.

Now, the close of this Or the last two verses, this is the disciple who is testifying to these things and wrote these things, and we know that his testimony is true. So John is saying, this is true. And these are reliable statements that reflect. And when we say these are reliable statements, it's not just this. What is it referring to when he says these statements are this? He wrote these things. What's the context for these things?

The whole epistle. Yeah, the whole gospel of John. So we have the whole thing, and we know that it is true. And then we go into what's called epistemology, and how do we know what we know. But it's kind of a key detail to have an understanding that the Holy Spirit inspired the book of John. If God, through the Holy Spirit, inspires the book of John to record what is true, what does that mean for us in our ability to trust it? Everything is reliable.

Now, if we have recordings of John where John was a really shifty guy, it might raise some suspicion. Here's the super shifty guy. I mean, he was a fisherman. Maybe that's questionable, right? But it's true, it's reliable. And the reliability of Scripture, I think, is an important thing.

If the Holy Spirit inspired the Scripture, do you think He would also preserve it? So that the Bible that we have today, because there's attacks on the Bible all the time. Hey, you believe in the Bible, but the Bible is an ancient document and it's been messed with over and over. And people with agendas have edited it. No. The Holy Spirit inspired it and has preserved it so that it is reliable.

It has veracity so that we can believe and trust in what has been revealed. There are entire books that have been written on the veracity of scripture, and we've even had some classes here. It should be its own other topic, so we won't rabbit trail on it. But if you've got questions about the veracity of scripture and how reliable it is, I can point you to some lessons on the church website where we can talk about it. Now, as it turns out, the next lesson in the class downstairs on the person who worked at the Holy Spirit is on inspiration and how the Holy Spirit provided the Word and has preserved the Word. I'm not suggesting you jump classes, you shouldn't do that, otherwise our handout printing counts will be off, right? But it might be worth listening to the recordings also for that, if it interests you.

The last verse here, verse 25, and there are also many other things which Jesus did which, if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written." This is, to me, one of the sweetest sentences. Here is the disciple whom Jesus loved. writing, and he's trying to write what is basically a concise recording of things, including some of the doctrinal parallels that he's observed. Because this was, of course, not written two days after these events transpired. But he says, if they were all written down, even the world couldn't contain it.

And I've often, this is where my, overactive imagination kicks in. And I've often wondered, what are those stories? And we don't know. So I wish I could tell you. It wouldn't be really cool if we had even more. There was a legitimately Holy Spirit-inspired fifth gospel, not the ones that the secularists keep trying to insert, that told us more stories. Like, what was the interaction when the children came to Christ and the disciples were trying to push him away, and Christ says, no, no, no, bring the children to me. What did he say?

We don't know. What were some of the other exchanges that happened between Christ and Lazarus? I mean, Christ came and called Lazarus out of the grave. That's a pretty sweet and deep relationship if Christ comes and draws him from the grave. What happened?

We don't know. But John writes, hey, we could have, there's not enough space. Just imagine the environmentalists that are cutting down trees to write down little things. But John says, hey, this is the clause of things as I've got time to write. And here's where we're at.

But I cannot wait till eternity because maybe the Lord will reveal more things. Maybe he'll tell us more things and reveal more stories of the work of Christ. I don't know. It says we're going to be learning for eternity in Ephesians, right? Ephesians 2-7. The Lord is going to be revealing this grace continually in eternity, so maybe that will include some stories and we'll get to learn more. Any other thoughts or questions?

I'm wanting to clarify the definition of agape. Agape is benevolent, unmerited love. We did not earn God's love. His love, his agape love, is his love that was to us. One way I would describe it is indiscriminate. OK, discriminatory love is love that has certain contexts in which it's applied. Agape love is the love that God gives that we couldn't have earned it. We couldn't have been rewarded God's love by the things that we did. I associate agape love with grace. Grace is the unlimited, unmerited blessings of God due to the totally adequate work of Christ on the cross. then it's got to be the unmerited aspect of what's going on there. Excuse me. That's going to be awesome on the recordings when I cough like that.

It's a big spike. What time is it here? I should look at the clock because if there's time to talk about shepherding. Brian, how many more minutes do we have? I should ask you. You're the official timekeeper. Five minutes? OK. Let's talk about shepherding, the ministry of shepherding. That's the appendix. It's page 505. One thing I think is that it's not right here, but I think is interesting.

The principle of shepherding was something that actually came in the Old Testament. And I'm not talking just about the shepherd with sheep. I'm saying the relationship of someone who has stewardship over a group of people. So it's something that existed in Old Testament context, but also exists in New Testament context. And it doesn't mean that shepherds today should be administering the law. So we're good with that. Shepherding the flock. which will entail speaking figuratively, protecting, guiding, leading, seeking out pastures and waters, selecting paths.

And we could talk about these for quite some time. The elders at Holly Hills are our shepherds. And hopefully, at all churches, that's the case, that the elders are our shepherding. But if we talk about things like protecting, how do the elders at Holly Hills or any church, how should they be protecting the flock? Okay, false doctrine.

Sometimes there'll be outside influences. It's not uncommon today in our American culture for there to be really popular books that get sold to Christians. And sometimes those books will sell millions and millions of copies and it'd be like, okay, listen, this book is all about you pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps. This is for you to love Jesus more intensely by your own strength. Or you need to cause your flesh to suffer in some way more, and it would be more righteous than the next guy. Some of those books that are sold in the Christian bookstore, and I worked at one in college, I worked at a Christian bookstore, and it was remarkable, the interesting books that we sold.

They were labeled Christian, but some of them were pretty whacked up. So protecting the flock would be being careful about what doctrines are shared, Also, sometimes even if someone comes and they're new to a church body, I've observed here at Holly Hills that the elders will come and try to get to know that person. Who are you? Because sometimes those weird, strange doctrines that try to leak in come in from a new person. I was at one church that was a church split formed because a group of people came in from a church that had another split and they brought in a bunch of doctrine. The shepherds weren't protecting and it caused yet another church split. So those things can compound and it will get worse and worse.

So we have protection, we have guiding. Guiding, leading, seeking out pastures and waters. Now, pastures and waters, how would that be? Because I haven't noticed at Holly Hills that our shepherds are constantly telling us to move. Mike's in real estate. Any thoughts on that? Pastures and waters. How would that apply in parallel to shepherding in the church today? That's talking about the Word, isn't it? The Word. That's right. Where are we getting food? How are we being nourished?

I love that we have three Sunday school classes at Holly Hills. I love it because you can come here and the shepherds, our elders say, Where are there some doctrines that the body at Holly Hills would benefit from? I always hate it that I get to only be in one class instead of three. And you can listen to the recordings, but the participation level is different. The elders are constantly thinking about what are we going to do next? As they mingle with the flock, what are the things that the body needs for growth and development? Selecting paths, correcting paths of some.

I will confess, this is going on the internet, so my mom and dad will hear this as well, other people. But every time the phone rings and it's Mike Doyle or the Henderson, Roger Henderson's number or my parents' number, even though they're my parents, I'm always like, I hope it's not the elders calling to correct me. It's not like I'm fully expecting that they're going to come sweeping in like, Randy, you're a heretic, but more that I respect their position in my life as the teachers that have been placed over me, and I have actually been corrected before. I have actually taught wrong things and had the elders say, hey Randy, this is how we understand God's Word.

And guess what? I wasn't bleeding when they were done or anything. It was quite phenomenal. It was encouraging and I was corrected and I understood God's word more deeply. So even when those corrections come, it's for the edification and building up of the body.

So rescuing, that's the next one that's on the list. Stan? I think it's also interesting, if you read the 23rd Psalm, in reference to this, because that's basically what David's saying, correct? There is a tremendous number of parallels in there, because David is a shepherd. He gets shepherding. That's what I love about having a king over a people who is a shepherd, and then a warrior, and a musician. And so it's like, and his son's a philosopher.

So you have this family where it's like, wow, you guys have got all kinds of qualities and skills. But yeah, the shepherding aspect of their You have to understand, we have dogs, and I thought yesterday, we went to the Denver Zoo, and I thought, I can handle taking care of dogs, but I'm glad I don't have the responsibility of any of the other animals, because it would be like, wow. You have to understand the animal. You have to grasp the environment and the things that they need.

Courtney Hemingway is fond of saying this, sort of a concept that the worst part about being a shepherd is the poop that the sheep leave behind. And he doesn't say it quite like that. I think I've adapted that a bit. But shepherds get to be in the business of the body, and sometimes that's the less glamorous parts of things. But the rescuing is part of that.

Sometimes, even in my own life, there's times when it's like I am totally lost about how to deal with the situation. And I will go to one of the three elders and I will say, I don't know what to do with this." Often their advice is something where I go, oh, that was so obvious after they said it, but I needed their wisdom that the Lord had put them in my life to give me help. So the rescuing could be any number of capacities.

It could be way more than just me asking for help. Sometimes the sheep wander and they don't come looking for help. So sometimes the shepherds have gone after mending wounds and illnesses. As it turns out, sheep get some really interesting wounds and I won't try to draw parallels to those kinds of things. But at Holly Hills there's been a number of people who've gotten counseling, there's people who have had various damages in their marriages, damages in friendships, and the shepherds have to step in.

Do you think I might have been part of Peter's question when he was asking about John? So you assigned me as a shepherd, and you also told me how I'm going to die. And this disciple that you love, What is your job for him? And could you let me know how you would like to? And I think Jesus just said, you know, just take care of what I've assigned you.

That's your business. And what John, I've assigned John, is his business and my business. Yeah. That's not a bad parallel. I mean, obviously, Peter wanted to understand some things. The specific commissioning of Peter, I think, was definitely related to what happened in Gethsemane.

And so this is a distinct difference where all of the disciples had been commissioned. When you look at Matthew, right? If you look at Matthew chapter 28, you see the In verse 19, because he's speaking to all the disciples, "...go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you. And I am with you always, even to the end of the age." So he had said more broadly to all of them, this is your commission, but with Peter there was a specific quality. But Peter did want to know more. I think that's interesting. He's like, I'm prying, I gotta know. So anyways, with shepherding, Brian rang the bell a second time, so we should stop.

But shepherding has a lot of facets. Some churches make being an elder a little bit more glamorous than it really is. I'll say this one last thing. As a body, it's really valuable for us to be praying for our shepherds, be praying for the elders. Because you don't know what kind of mending, you don't know what kind of shepherding the Lord has in stock for them today, or what they've been doing.

So, it's an opportunity there. Well, let's pray. We'll close in prayer. And then next week, it sounds like there will be some exciting new opportunity that my dad's going to teach on, but I don't know what it is exactly. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the truth of your word. Thank you for the time that we have to be gathered together here. We just ask that you would be preparing our hearts and minds for the lesson during the main service, and we thank you for all that you've done. In Jesus' name, Amen.