Resurrection Evidence: Feed My Sheep, John 21:1-17

In John 21 we are going to see the third post-resurrection appearance of our Lord to His disciples. The first time He appeared to the disciples there were only ten of them. Thomas was absent. That was on the day of the resurrection itself. Then He appeared one week later to the disciples to the eleven. Now Thomas was present—the scene where Thomas said, "I'm not going to believe it until I can put my fingers into the nail prints, into His side".

Then maybe another week or so goes by before the third appearance. We don't know exactly how long it but it seems that it would have taken the disciples three days at least have made it up north to Galilee, so that would put it in the middle of the week—Tuesday at the earliest, Wednesday Thursday—and it almost seems as if they're getting a little bored waiting for the Lord, and Peter says that he wants to go fishing. Maybe it's motivated by need to get back into business, get some get some operating capital; we don't really know. The text doesn't bring out those things because it's not important. What is important is the lesson that is being taught here.

Jesus is going to appear on the scene, and after the disciples have had a frustrating night of not catching anything. The point in all of this is that Jesus is going to be on the shore and He will tell them to cast their nets on the right side of the boat. They brought in just an incredible load of fish, but that's not the point. The point is, when they come to shore Jesus is going to have a fire going and there is already fish there. It's not one that they caught because then He tells them to bring the load of fish onto the shore. Then Jesus feeds them; that's the point. Jesus feeds them and that transitions into this conversation that Jesus has with Peter: "Do you love me? Feed my sheep".

Jesus had just shown that He is the one who will feed them and is sufficient to provide their physical needs as well as their spiritual needs. Now He uses that to teach that their priority is going to be to feed the sheep. That's the connection.

What's interesting is it really shows the priority for the ministry of the apostles, and by extension the ministry of the pastor teacher: to feed the sheep. But second, because it's one of those passages where very few commentators—a lot of preachers get it right, but in the commentaries very few—really make these kinds of connections. They treat the first 14 verses as one episode and then the next one as a separate, and they botch that because of the way it's set up. Jesus is teaching in this that the priority for the church, for the leaders in the church, the pastor, and the priority for the apostles, was to "Feed my sheep."

The Gospel is organized around eight different signs that demonstrate that Jesus is the Messiah. He changes the water into wine; He heals the nobleman's son from a distance; there's the healing at Bethesda; there's feeding of the 5000; there is the walking on the water, the healing of the man born blind, the raising of Lazarus, and the eighth and final sign is His own resurrection. Those signs formed the structure and the argument that John is laying out here. Then we are told at the end of chapter 20 in a summary statement: "And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book…"

There were signs that were done prior to the crucifixion during the period of His ministry, but also signs that are done after the events of John 21. Because remember that what we are told by John is that the appearance of Jesus to the disciples on the Sea of Galilee is his third post-resurrection appearance. The first one we know about was when He appeared in the room and there were only 10 of them. Then He appeared one week later, so no more appearances during that one week. That's the feast of unleavened bread. He showed up the next Sunday when He confronted Thomas. And then they finally left and did what He had originally told them to do, and that was to go to Galilee where He said He would meet them.

I believe He did other things after that as well. This is John summary: "Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book, but these …" That word "these" refers to the signs. "… are written [that is, these eight that he has drawn from of all the many that Jesus did] are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ …" That is, He is the Messiah. He fulfills those signs. Of these miracles that Jesus performed—healing a leper healing certain diseases, giving sight to the blind and raising someone from the dead—were signs that the rabbis during the period of the second temple stated would be the indisputable evidence is of the presence of the Messiah. And yet when He showed up and did these things, they rejected Him. And the point is that no matter how many miracles Jesus could perform if you're not interested in learning about God or learning about salvation you will reject them as the truth.

You often hear people make statements along the lines that if Jesus would just appear and do X, Y or Z then my friends, my family, my whoever, would finally believe. And what the Scriptures articulate so clearly is the statement of Abraham in Luke 16 to the rich man who is in torment: "If they don't believe Moses and the prophets, they're not going to believe someone who rose from the dead".

The signs will convince those who are positive but not those who are negative. They demonstrate; they are not proofs. They demonstrate that Jesus is who He claimed to be—the Messiah, the Son of God—"and that by believing you may have life in his name". It's not by believing plus anything; that's the simplicity of the gospel. And I believe it is so simple because sin is so complex and the consequences of sin are so complex that for human beings to think that there's anything they can do to contribute to the process of their salvation is indeed arrogance. It minimizes what sin is and what it has done and it maximizes in many ways human ability and human goodness.

We are then told that after these things Jesus showed Himself again to the disciples at the sea of Tiberius. Tiberius was a Roman city that is located south of where these events took place. It was not a place where Jesus went during His incarnation, and Jews did not frequent it. Because of its presence the Sea of Galilee was often called the Sea of Tiberius. Actually, it's not a sea; it's a lake. The Greek word THALASSO can refer to either a freshwater lake or a saltwater sea. It was mistranslated by the early King James translators and in English Bibles as "sea".

John 20:21 ^NKJV "After these things Jesus showed Himself …" That is a translation the same word that we have in John 3:16. John 3:16 is translated "For God so loved the world", but the word that is translated "so" is the same word here that is translated "in this way". That's what it means: that God loved the world in this way, that He gave His only begotten Son. That word is translated correctly here and it introduces what will take place.

John 21:2 ^NASB Simon Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the {sons} of Zebedee, and two others of His disciples were together.

We read in verse two about Simon Peter, Nathaniel hasn't been on the scene since John chapter 1, when not Jesus to talked to him, the sons of Zebedee (James and John) and two others who are unnamed. It's typical of John not to name all the disciples who were present. Then Peter says to them, "I'm going fishing". Remember this is a commercial enterprise, and they had a large enough vessel to where they could at least get as many as this text indicates—153 fish, a large supply of fish. That was their commercial business so they say, "We will come with you". Remember, James and John were also in business with Peter and Andrew his brother. So they got in the boat and they went out at night. It's better to fish and night, the fish are feeding, especially when there is a full moon or a waning moon. Then in the morning you have fresh fish that you can take to market and sell.

But they didn't catch anything, and as the day was breaking Jesus stood on the beach. They did not know that it was Jesus. From about hundred yards off the shore, if somebody is standing there, you really don't see them very well; you cannot make out features enough to necessarily identify someone. But it's also interesting that in Jesus resurrection body every time He shows up he's not immediately recognized. A number of people have observed that it appears there may be something about the resurrection body that is enough different to where it may not be immediately recognizable, but there is enough similarity to where it is. It can also be that Jesus identity is being cloaked by God so they don't see Him. But the text doesn't make an issue out of any of those things, it just says they didn't realize who it was. And I think that it's easier just to take the simplest explanation that Jesus is 100 yards away and they just see a man there; they're not sure who it is at that point.

Jesus begins to question them. John 21:5 ^NASB So Jesus said to them, “Children, you do not have any fish, do you?” They answered Him, “No.”

They had smaller nets but they also had these larger nets. What the fisherman does there is take these nets which are weighted at the bottom and fold them a particular way. Then as he puts it over his arm, he throws it out, like you would be throwing a Frisbee. And as he throws it out it spreads out into a huge circle and then because it is weighted it drops down, and then it will capture any fish that are under it. Then he pulls back in to the vessel.

They used another net that they would drag behind the vessel, but the language here doesn't support that because they have been fishing on one side of the boat and Jesus is going to say, John 21:6 And He said to them, “Cast the net on the right-hand side of the boat and you will find {a catch.}”

Now some people say that because of the light refraction where Jesus was standing He could see what they could not see that there were fish on that side. I think that minimizes the supernatural reality that's going on here: a) Jesus that is omniscient; b) Jesus is the sustainer: c) Jesus is the creator and is omniscient, He knows where the fish are. He had those 153 fish there for a reason. He is in control of the situation because He has an important lesson to teach the disciples at this point.

At that point they cast and they were not able to draw it in because of the multitude of fish. It's at capacity. We are told later it doesn't tear the net but it's at capacity.

I think there are some differences that are brought out between John and Peter. We see the disciple whom Jesus loved, a reference to John, and he says to Peter: "It's the Lord". John has a little more spiritual discernment; he's a little quicker on it than Peter. Then we see Peter's response.

When you read through John one of the things that always has impressed me—and it does in this whole episode all the way down to the end of the Gospel—is that John is writing this when he is around 85 or 90 years of age near the end of the century. Some say he wrote it before he wrote Revelation; some people say afterward, we are not sure. But we are sure of is, that this is his mature reflection on Jesus ministry and teaching. He has had about 60 years to think about what Jesus taught. And he has been teaching this as part of his ministry as an apostle, and remembering what Jesus taught, and so when he writes this down it is interesting to think about his thoughts some 60 years later, as Jesus is teaching them to feed the sheep, and his 60 years of ministry as an apostle feeding the sheep, and seeing what has happened during that period of time. Because not only was there the enormous expansion of the church in response to the gospel on the day of Pentecost in the immediate weeks after that that are described in the first of five or six chapters of Acts, but also the expansion of the church because in his later ministry John is in Ephesus. He's the pastor of one of the congregations in Ephesus, just as Paul and been there before, as Timothy was there, and others had pastured. He could have written this while on the Isle of Patmos, along with Revelation, he could have written it afterward or before, but he knows what to focus on.

First of all, because he is under guidance by God the Holy Spirit and also because of how he has thought this through and seen it all work itself out. He understands in a richer way the implications of what Jesus is saying than he did when Jesus said it. He understands who Jesus is, identifies Him, and when Peter—hears he's always the impetuous one, the man of action—he put on his outer garment. So he would have stripped down, not naked, but stripped down to just his basic undergarments to have freedom of movement as he is throwing out the nets and fishing.

He put on his outer garment. Literally the word means to tuck it in, and so he takes the outer garment and he girds it. The King James translates it that way and some of the older versions do as well. It means he's gathering it up, tying it together and tucking it in so doesn't I get in the way, or get weighted down and hinder his is swimming into the shore.

In this area it's shallow for a long ways out, so I imagine that Peter didn't have far to swim before he could stand up and start running into shore. The other disciples came in the little boat dragging the net behind them, so this would have been quite heavy. I don't know how large these fish were but it was enough to strain the capacity of the net. Then we are told that as soon they had come to land they saw a fire of coals there and fish laid on it, and bread. So Jesus has already made breakfast for everybody. Where the fish came from we don't know but I'm sure that He could make that appear miraculously, who knows how he did all of that? The meal is already prepared for them and I think the implication, as a lesson, is that God has already prepared for us all that we need for our spiritual nourishment. Jesus has provided that for them and is going to use this to teach them about how they are to feed the sheep, just as He is providing for them and feeding them.

Then He tells them to bring some of the fish that they have just caught. I cannot help but read this and think about what is recorded in Matthew and Luke, that when Jesus called his disciples at the beginning He said, "I will make you fishers of men". There many times in the Gospels where there are things said in relation to the role of a disciple, making a disciple, and its relationship to fishing.

John 21:11 Simon Peter went up and drew the net to land, full of large fish, a hundred and fifty-three; and although there were so many, the net was not torn.

Peter goes up, not necessarily alone but the other disciples are struggling and with his help they are able to more easily drag the net to the land. It is filled with large fish, 153. It's interesting that whenever you have a number like that there are going to be many people come along and try to find some spiritual significance of the number 153. It just means there were 153 fish, that it! It's a huge number. I think the significance there is that the Lord has supplied them to the maximum. Any more and the net probably would not have been able to hold them. And again we see an underlying theme in this of the provision of God for the nourishment of the disciples that it is sufficient. It is abundant it; it speaks of His grace, and the same is true for us as believers. God has given us that which we need to sustain us spiritually, and that is the role of the apostle in carrying out the great commission. We don't have that stated in that way at the end here, as in Matthew, but when Jesus appeared to the disciples the first time he told them that He was going to send them out. So this was probably a constant theme during his post-resurrection appearances: that this is the mission that you have, as Luke puts it in Acts, to take the gospel from Jerusalem, to Judea and Samaria, and then to the uttermost part of the world.

There is a sufficient provision, and that is what we should trust in. When we come to whatever situation we have in life where we wonder about what we need to sustain our lives, remember God is always going to give us what we need to carry out His mission for our lives. The problem that we may be experiencing is because maybe we don't have his mission as our priority. And so what God is not providing for us is to get our attention so that we will focus on His mission for our life and not our mission. His mission for our life has nothing to do with your formal education, it doesn't have anything to do with your career; it has to do with how God uses those things in order to give you and me opportunities to fulfill the real purpose that we are here; and that is to give people the gospel, to witness, and to be a testimony to God's grace not only in salvation but also in the spiritual life.

John 21:12 Jesus said to them, “Come {and} have breakfast.” None of the disciples ventured to question Him, “Who are You?” knowing that it was the Lord. [13] Jesus then came and took the bread and gave it to them, and likewise the fish.

The point of this episode is that Jesus is feeding the disciples. That then sets the framework for the conversation that is going to come up in verses 15 down through 17. Let's look at the main teaching that comes out of this in John 21:15.

This is a situation where Jesus is going to have a repetitive conversation with Peter. If you read it in the English you miss a lot. When Jesus is talking here He uses is four pairs of synonyms. To me, the sad thing that I see in trends of exegesis today, and in interpretation of the passage, is that very few people think these synonyms are significant. In English one of the characteristics of good writing is that you don't repeat certain words within the context; you have to vary your vocabulary. If you don't vary your vocabulary then you are considered to be not a very good writer. But in the Bible a lot of times the Holy Spirit uses the same word over and over and over again. What you'll find is that exegetes will say, well when they translate this into English they will translate the same word for five different ways. You get the reverse problem here. They can't quite grasp what is going on here with these different sets of synonyms, and so now they will say this is just stylistic variation.

But when I come to the Bible and I'm doing my Bible study and start seeing something like this going on, the first thing that comes to my mind is, why is the Holy Spirit doing? What is significant about these word changes? How are we to understand the shift in these synonyms? They seem like they're very close together in their and their meaning, but maybe the Holy Spirit is leading the writers to use these synonyms to bring out different significant points. I believe that if we believe that every word of Scripture is inspired by God—every jot and tittle, which affects the forms of the words, of verb forms, whether it's a past tense or future tense, whether it's passive or active or middle voice—and that the even if it's the same word these variations become important.

And when we look at a passage like this is where there are these different synonyms that are that are there we have to understand what that means. So what we when we read the passage, when Jesus begins with his first question, “Simon, {son} of John, do you love Me more than these?” He uses the word AGAPE. When Peter responds and says, "Yes Lord, you know that I love you", he uses a different word; he uses for PHILEO. He doesn't respond, "Lord, you asked me if I AGAPE you?; he responds by saying, "I for PHILEO you." Why doesn't Peter respond with the same verb?

Jesus doesn't correct him right away but makes a point. He says, "Tend my lambs". The word tend here is a different word than the one you will find in the next statements where Jesus gives the command to feed my sheep. Tending and feeding are synonyms in English, and the words that are used in the Greek are synonyms; that are not the same. Then you have the word for lambs versus sheep—young lambs versus more mature animals. So what is going on in this passage?

In the second exchange Jesus says, “Simon, {son} of John, do you love [AGAPE] Me?” Peter says, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love [PHILEO] You.”

And now Jesus gives a different statement, He says, "Shepherd my sheep". He shifts from tend to shepherd and from lambs to sheep.

Then in the third exchange Jesus changes His verb and says, "Simon son of John, do you for PHILEO Me?" Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, “Do you love Me?” – I've answered this. You just keep asking me the same question. What you what you really want here? And he said to Him, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.” Jesus said to him, “Tend My sheep.

Peter uses two different words for "know" here. It's not just that there's one set of synonyms here, which you will get from a lot of people, which is what I've heard before, and have had heard this taught, that emphasize the difference words for love. But there are four different sets of synonyms. I don't know any other passage in Scripture that has is kind of use of synonyms, where there are four different ones used so close together back and forth. So obviously something's going on here.

What we have learned in our study together over the years is that there are two key elements for interpretation. One is context and the other is words. Words have meaning, and when you change from one word to another there's always some little shift of difference. But we have to come to understand something about the context and we can't really understand all that is going on in a passage if we don't really have a grasp of the context. In this you have to have the broad context of the message of John's Gospel as well as a slightly narrow context, that's which has been going on since John 13, and the even narrower context of what we have seen already in the first 14 verses of the passage.

We have to look at key words, and in this passage the keywords all relate to synonyms. We have the overall context, the immediate context, and then the third context is the context of a dispensational shift. We are moving from the era of the focus on Israel and the role of the priests and the Torah, to the church age and the leadership of the apostles, and the message of the gospel to all people, Jew and Gentile that is emphasized in the epistles of the New Testament.

Now when we look at John's Gospel, there are two major things that we have to take into account. The first is the message of life. This word "life" is used all the way through John again and again and again. For example, in John chapter 20:30-31 we see that that if we believe Jesus is the Christ, then we have life in His name. We have life; this is eternal life. This is talking about unending life; this is when we die physically and are absent from the body and face-to-face with the Lord and have life eternal. But then there is a second emphasis on life in John, and that is on what we called the abundant life, life abundant, the Christian life, the post-salvation life of the believer as we grow to spiritual maturity.

In John 10:10 Jesus said, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have {it} abundantly". That's phase one justification by faith alone; "and that they may have it more abundantly" is phase two, sanctification. John's Gospel focuses on both of these aspects: how you know that you have eternal life so that when you die you go to heaven, and how you can sustain and mature and nourish that new life that you have in Christ. That becomes the focus. This will become the focus in this episode because the feeding here, the sustenance of the disciples, is used to teach the importance of feeding the sheep and tending the sheep.

We see from the surrounding context of John that the believer must be consistently and frequently fed to be properly nourished and to grow spiritually. It doesn't matter how much money you have; it doesn't matter what house you live in; it doesn't matter what status symbols that you have. Think about eternity. How long does eternity last? Compared to eternity this life is less than a drop in all of the oceans, yet we spend so much of our time focused on taking care of ourselves and creating the kind of environment around us that we want to provide for our comfort and our security, that we are not nourishing ourselves for the long game. And the long game is really, really long. We spend all of our time on the short game.

Now it's important, especially if you're going hungry or you can't pay your bills and things of that nature, to have the immediate needs taken care of; but we get so wrapped up in taking care of the immediate needs and solving the immediate problems that were not spending time on the long game and providing for our long-term needs.

What is being emphasized here is the role of the apostle to those he will disciple, and the role of the pastors that subsequently follow through the centuries. It is to nourish the sheep so that they can grow spiritually.

Second, it is the growing and maturing believer that is going to be characterized by love for other believers. You see the keyword that we find in John chapters 13 through 21 in this context comes out of Jesus' new commandment: Jesus says, “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you". Notice He doesn't say everybody's going to know you are my disciples because of your control of theology. He doesn't say everybody's going to know that you are my disciples because you can unscrew the inscrutable. Nobody's going to know your disciples because you memorize so much Scripture that you can read it off of the top of your head. All of those are may be important, but the bottom line in this is what Paul said, that if I have all these gifts and all knowledge and all prophecy, and if I have enough faith to move mountains, but I don't have love I'm nothing. Love is the central foundational virtue that is developed in us as a fruit of the Spirit. That is foundational, and if were not doing that it doesn't matter what else where do we do in life, it's not going to count in terms of our spiritual growth and eternity. Remember love is the first virtue mentioned in the fruit of the Spirit.

John 13:1 states, "Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end".

Twice we have forms of AGAPAO here, and this sets the stage of what will be the under girding doctrine that is emphasized in subsequent chapters. And as we go through this we see this emphasis of love in that basic commandment in John 13:34, 35. Let me give you an idea of the proportion and emphasis that we have on love in John.

The verb AGAPAO is used in John only seven times before chapter 13, but from 13 to 16 inches 20 times. Its usage before is not always in relation to the spiritual life or God's love—it mostly is but there are other examples of people loving different things. So we see that there's an emphasis from 13 to 16 on AGAPAO. We see that there is the relationship also on not only the verb but also on the noun. The noun is used seven times in this section, but it's only use once before chapter 13. Love is a major theme, but it's not used at all in chapters 17-20. Now I wonder why that could be. Think about it.

John 17 is called Jesus' high priestly prayer. He is exemplifying love for the believer as He is praying for the believer to the Father in John 17. In John 18 and 19, what is Jesus doing? What was the command? That you are to love one another as I have loved you. Chapters 18 and 19 are focusing on Christ's love for us going through His arrest and crucifixion. The reason you don't see the word used after chapter 16 is because, 17, 18 and 19 are depicting what that love is that is to be the basis for our love for one another.

PHILEO is used 13 times—only four times before chapter 13, so that means eight times after chapter 13. The noun is used six times total: two times before chapter 13 four times after. That tells us that the emphasis that we have here in this latter part is on love. So Jesus is says certain things about love. John 15:9 He says, "As the Father love me, I also love you; abide in my love". That's fellowship; that is the basis for developing our impersonal love for others, our unconditional love for others. It is that we are abiding in the Father's love. That's what comes first. That's why when we organize the spirit spiritual skills it's that personal love for God the Father that precedes impersonal or unconditional love for others.

The reason we use that word "impersonal" is because it doesn't necessitate a personal relationship. It's not that it's cold or unfeeling or anything like that, it's that when that person cut you off on the freeway you don't know who he is; you don't know if it's male or female; you don't know what race they are, you just have to respond to them in love. That the person at the other end of the line in a customer service call when you're frustrated about your computer not working—you don't know who they are, it's impersonal, you don't know the person. It's unconditional in that it is not based not on how they respond or react to us, but upon God's character.

John 15:12   “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you." The pattern is Christ love for us, and this is exemplified in His substitutionary death on the cross. [13}Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends."

But what is the criteria for this? How do we know if we have love for God? It is obedience to the Word.

John 14:21 “He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.”

You can't love God if you don't know His Word, because you have to know His word and the commandments, the mandates, the prohibitions. We are not talking about the Torah, we are talking about the commandments in the New Testament. If you don't know them, you can't obey them. If you're not obeying them you are not loving God. That's the measure of our love for God.

John 14:23 Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him". If you don't know his word, you can't keep it. If you don't keep it you are not loving God. So that is why there's such a priority in the Scripture in knowing the Word of God.

John 14:24 “He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me".

John 14:31 but so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father commanded Me…" Jesus exhibited His love for the Father by keeping God's command for Him.

John 15:10 “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love"—that's fellowship, ongoing rapport with God. When we disobey the Word, break the commandments, then were out of fellowship; we are not abiding in Christ anymore.

Then Jesus gets to the real significant part of the statement in John 21. He says to Peter, "If you love me, then feed my lambs". So the command to Peter is to love Jesus. If we love Jesus but what are we going to do? We are going to obey the command. What is the command that is emphasized in these verses? "Feed my lambs".

What we'll see here in the synonyms is the lamb is a baby believer. So we have to nourish and feed the babies; we have to feed the sheep; that is, the maturing believers, the older believers. Too many churches aim everything at the baby believer and they don't provide anything for the older believer.

I learned something a long time ago when I went through education. If the professor was teaching a little over my head I would reach up to be able to understand it. But if a professor is teaching at a really simplified level, then I don't know about you but I get pretty bored. I want something that challenges my thinking and my understanding. If you target your teaching so that you are nourishing the maturing believers in the congregation there's a lot of food there for the babies; they'll get some of that. Some of it they don't get; that's okay, they set that aside and move forward.

What Jesus says here is that the role of the apostle and the role of the pastor is to feed the sheep. Well wait a minute, that's not what's going on in a lot of churches today. In a lot of churches what we have today is the idea that it's the role of the pastor to build a large congregation and an enormous ministry, and have multiple congregations around the city, and that it is the pastor's job and he is treated as the CEO, and he is the one who is to build the church. But that's not what Jesus said in Matthew 16:18 where we have this interchange between Jesus and Peter and He said you are Peter: "…and upon this rock I will build my church". Now I don't want to get into the other details of the interpretation here, I just want to focus on the one phrase. Who builds the church? It is not the pastor; it's not the evangelist. It is Jesus who builds the church; it is the pastor who is to feed the sheep.

But what we have today is pastors usurping Jesus role in trying to build the church and delegating the feeding of the sheep to untrained amateurs in Sunday school. The sheep aren't getting fed and the church is growing superficially in numbers but not spiritually in reality. The focus is on the Word. Jeremiah 15:16, "Your words were found, and I ate them …" That means to take it in and internalize it. "… and Your words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart; For I have been called by Your name, O LORD God of hosts". Old Testament, New Testament—it's the word of God that nourishes and feeds the believer.

Peter got the point. 1 Peter 2:2, "Like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation." We have to grow by the word. We don't grow by what we sing, we don't grow by being involved in programs; we grow by internalizing the word.

2 Peter 3:18, "but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ". That's how you grow. You don't grow any other way. And trust me, if you think that you can get nourishment by having a spiritual meal one hour a week, you're fooling yourself and you are playing games with God. Because you are in the world, all the rest of the time, being bombarded by the brainwashing methods of Satan over and over and over again, and if you think you can resist that by spending 30 minutes or 45 minutes a week at church, you're just playing games. It's not going to happen.

We need to absolutely overwhelm our thinking with the Word of God. We have jobs to do, we have all these other things that we have to do, but we have to carve out time every single day to be washed by the water the Word. That's the only way were ultimately going to grow and mature.

When we look at this passage we have these four pairs of synonyms. We have love—AGAPAO and PHILEO; we have feed or tend—POIMAINO and BOSKO; and sheep or lambs—ARNION.

When you talk about synonyms you have one word, which has this field of meaning; the other word has this field of meaning. They overlap, but just because there is a lot of overlap between two words, it's the area where they don't overlap that is being emphasized, so that one word.

For example, in the yellow circuit if it's in the yellow that's not being touched by the green then that's a different meaning. You can have a word on the far end of the green circle that has a totally different sense than the far into the yellow circle, but at some point the words overlap. And that's part of what we get with some of these words. With AGAPAO there's this kind of overlap with PHILEO, but PHILEO in many cases has a more intense passion or personal love for someone. AGAPE may include that but it also focuses on where there is not that intense personal relationship.

Sometimes you have other words like POIMAINO, which has everything to do with what you're doing to take care of sheep. And BOSKO is like the green circle, it just focusing on feeding the sheep, which is one aspect of what a shepherd does in leading and providing for the sheep. Then sometimes there is just very little in common, but that's maybe what's being emphasized.

So let's quickly go through this. John 21:15   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.”

If we expand this out to get the sense of it: "Simon, do you love me more than these others?" In other words, do you love me more than these other? Earlier remember, Simon was the one who said, "I will never desert you", all of this. There is an implication here where Jesus is checking his arrogance factor. Are you still claiming your better than all of the others? Remember it was it was a Peter and James and John that are that were vying to see who was closest to the Lord in the kingdom. "Simon, do you love me more than these?" In other words, have you learned the lesson of humility yet? He said to Him, "Yes Lord, you know from your omniscience …" Here is that word OIDA, which has to do with that that knowledge that would be intuitive, or the knowledge that Jesus has in His deity as omniscience. "You know (that is, from your omniscience) that I now have an intimate, intense love for you". Remember he's been forgiven at this point, so he's going a step further and he saying I have this intimate, intense love for you", now that I've been forgiven and understand grace is all about.

And so Jesus says, feed my little lambs. It's BOSKO, it's feeding; it's not POIMAINO yet, it's just feeding, nourishing the little lambs, the babes, the spiritual infants.

John 21:16 He said to him again a second time, “Simon, {son} of John, do you love [AGAPE] Me?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He said to him, “Shepherd My sheep.” So you first you feed the babies, now you're going to lead and direct the more mature.

Peter is really emphasizing his intense intimate love for the Lord, and so Jesus said him lead my sheep through the teaching of doctrine, to the teaching of the Word. Peter learns his lesson.

1 Peter 5:2, 3 shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight not under compulsion, but voluntarily, according to {the will of} God; and not for sordid gain, but with eagerness; nor yet as lording it over those allotted to your charge, but proving to be examples to the flock.

Peter is talking to the leaders of the church that he's addressing: "Shepherd the flock of God which is among you". This is POIMAINO, it has to do with leading through the teaching of the Word.

John 21:17 He said to him the 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.

Jesus said, tend my sheep, but this time when Jesus spoke to him He uses PHILEO. He says, "Simon son of John, do you really have this intimate, intense love for me?" Peter is grieved that He said this the third time, "Do you love me?" Peter replies and said, "Lord, you know all things", and he uses the word OIDA, which indicates omniscience—you know all of this in your omniscience. Then he says, Not only that, "you know", and he shifts to GINOSKO, which means something you learn from experience— you've learned from experience because you've seen with your own eyes my response to your forgiveness and the change in me because of the resurrection.

He says you not only do you know everything but you've seen it, you've see my change since you forgave me. And then Jesus goes back to BOSKO and says, "Feed my all my sheep". That is a word that you entails all of the sheep; the mature ones to the babies. This is the responsibility of the church.

Peter learns (2 Peter 3:18) that we grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior. You grow by the basis of knowledge. That's how you are fed.

This comes to pastors and teachers. Paul says in Ephesians 4:11 that we are given the gift of pastors and teachers. And what are they to do? They are to equip the saints for the service of ministry. Evangelists are not given to go evangelize, although that may be a secondary aspect of their gift. The primary purpose of the gift is to equip other believers to go witness. We saw that with Jean Brown many times and learning from him and having some workshops on evangelism. That's the biblical way of using an evangelists.

Acts 2:42. In the early church they continually devoted themselves to the apostles teaching. Are you devoted to the teaching of God's Word? Is that a priority in your life? If I look at how you spend your time, are you spending your time making a priority of the study of the word and internalizing it?

The result of this is wisdom: you're not tossed to and fro by waves of doctrine or the trickery of men. So the action items in ministry: we each so that the result is evangelism, prayer service, giving encouragement, and teaching. This is all part of ministry, but the foundation is being nourished on the Word, without which there is no growth. And you don't just nibble, you have to sit down and eat solid nourishing meals where you really learn the Word of God. This has to be the priority. If it's the priority for the pastor, for the apostle, then the private priority for those whom he's teaching is to spend time eating the food. My priority is to feed the sheep; your job is to eat the meal and apply.

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