Do You Love Me?

Good morning, Camelback. I am so happy to be back with you to start in this series. Last week that Pastor Wes kicked us off in our new series called Good Question, where we're going to be looking at questions that Jesus asked us. And I like this idea that Jesus doesn't ask us questions because He lacks information. He is asking questions because actually we need the answer. And so this morning, you know, when I'm thinking about Jesus asking us questions, when Jesus asks a question, Jesus has this way of making us feel safe when He asks a question. And now we understand that sometimes in scripture, Jesus actually makes statements and other times He asks questions. We know statements like John 3, 16. You know, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Jesus Christ would have eternal life. We know those kind of statements. And somehow we accept those statements that God loves us.

But here's the question this morning, and it's kind of quietly following the church for about 2,000 years now. And most of us have never really stopped to answer this question quite honestly. The question I want to ask you this morning is not... Do you believe in Jesus? The question is not, do you attend church? The question is not, do you serve or do you give or do you volunteer your time or do you show up when there is a need? No, the question is not even, do you believe that God loves us? The question I have for you this morning is, do you love God? Do you love Jesus? And this is kind of one of those questions that Jesus asked. Jesus asked this question of us. Not do you believe that I love you, but do you love me? And this is not kind of some kind of theological proposition that Jesus is making. It's not a doctrinal statement, but as kind of a real, honest, personal statement.

Answer that Jesus is asking of us.

Now, here's the problem. I think that most of us have kind of built our entire Christian life around the question that we've never asked. We have answered, do you attend? We've answered questions, do you serve? We've answered questions like, do you know your Bible? And somewhere along the way, we quietly assumed that answering those questions meant that we we had answered this one do we love Jesus and I don't think we have as the church and Jesus standing at a beach one day at dawn builds this little charcoal fire and is looking at his most prominent disciple Peter and he asks one question and one question only to Peter Peter do you love me That question still echoes down the ages to us today. Do you love Jesus? Now, I'd like to set the scene this morning for where I want to go and what we're going to talk about. And I need you to take the scene where, you know, most people have read this passage of Scripture and have really felt that, you know, the resurrection has now happened. The tomb is empty. Jesus has appeared to his disciples twice and kind of behind locked doors. And Peter, this impulsive, loud, boat jumping, extroverted Peter, cannot seem to stay still. He goes back into the water. He goes back to things he knows, back to fishing. Six other disciples follow him. But they catch nothing. But just about as day was breaking one particular morning, Jesus seems to appear on the shore. At first, Peter and the other disciples don't recognize him. And Jesus actually tells them, throw your nets on the other side. We read this beautiful story of how they catch 153 fish. And John turns to Peter and he goes, I think that's Jesus. When Peter hears those words, he doesn't stay in the boat. He literally jumps out of the boat. He swims to shore. And by the time he gets to shore, there was Jesus. Jesus had already built a little fire, a little charcoal fire, the Bible tells us. And there were little fish on the coals. There was some bread. It was breakfast that Jesus was preparing for his disciples. This was like a meal prepared by new hands, resurrected hands, a new body. It's like the first time Jesus is serving them in a new way.

Now, I need you to notice something that I think most people kind of read past right in this story. And that actually tells us that Jesus lit this charcoal fire. It's a beautiful word that is used there in the Greek because this word is literally only used twice. In both of those occasions, we find in this story in John. And both times, this story involves Peter standing around this charcoal fire. The first time we read about this charcoal fire that was lit, we read in John chapter 18. This was the night that Jesus was arrested. The servants and the officers had lit this charcoal fire because it was cold. And Peter was standing there himself by this fire. And three times the people came to him. Different people said to him, but aren't you one of the disciples? Aren't you one of those people following Jesus? And three times Peter said, no, I'm not him. I don't know this Jesus. Fast forward to this second time that Peter is now sitting at this charcoal fire. And it's here on this beach that Jesus has now prepared this breakfast. And Jesus, I don't think, chose that detail by accident. He built a fire. The kind of same fire that Peter was around that really framed Peter's worst moment in his life. That moment that he realized that he had betrayed Jesus. Because he was not just feeding Peter breakfast, what he was doing that morning. He was going back to the scene of Peter's greatest failure. And what he wanted to do is he wanted to rewrite Peter's greatest fire. The smell of that charcoal fire was the smell of Peter's shame. But Jesus came and turned that fire into a whole new smell, the smell of redemption. And after Jesus serves this breakfast, he turns to Peter and he asks this question. And I want to read you this passage then here in John chapter 21, verse 15 to 17. And he says this. When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than all of these? Yes, Lord, he said, you know that I love you. Jesus said, I'll feed my lambs. Again, Jesus said, Simon, son of John, do you love me? He answered, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. Jesus said, take care of my sheep. The third time he said to him, Simon, son of John, do you love me? Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, do you love me? He said, Lord, you know all things and you know that I love you. And Jesus said, feed my sheep. I want to be honest with you about something, you know, when I read this text. I think about this text that I have probably preached so many times in 30 years of ministry. I've spoken in churches and conferences in different parts of the world, different cities, and I know this text. I've preached this text. But somehow, even this morning, I still find this text a little bit uncomfortable. I find this question a little uncomfortable. Not because I don't love Jesus, but because this question has a way of kind of cutting past every defense that I probably have ever built. Past the sermon preparation, past theological training. It's landing somewhere a little bit quieter, a little bit more honest, a little bit more exposed. Because I have to be honest, there have been seasons in my own life, you know, and I suspect probably in your life as well, you know, where I was probably loving the work of ministry more than I was actually loving Jesus in that moment, more than I was supposed to be in love with something else than Jesus. There are seasons that I was so busy for Jesus that but not close to Jesus. Seasons where I knew more things about him than I actually knew him in that moment. Seasons where if Jesus had pulled me aside and asked me that question, I would probably have answered in the same way that Peter answered. Not with confidence, but with this raw kind of honesty where he says, Lord, you know all things. And you know that I love you. And this is kind of the most real thing I think Peter ever said in his life. And I know that there are people in this room, and I know that because I've sat in those same chairs in church, where some of you probably came into church today, and you were carrying something that you have never told anybody. Maybe there is a failure that you've been hiding. Maybe there is a distance you have lost. Because you've been performing your way through life. Maybe you had that similar courtyard moment that Peter had when he was denying Jesus. A time where you denied him. And you kind of drifted away from him or simply stopped showing up honestly. And you've been wondering, maybe like I have, just quietly in the back of your mind, whether you did or wherever you went disqualifies you from actually ever being used by Jesus. And whether the gap between the person people see on Sunday and the person you actually are during the week is too wide for God to bridge.

You know, sometimes we ask those questions whether Jesus would still want you on his team. Does Jesus still want me when I give him like a half-hearted, I love you kind of answer? Because I think we've all been, Peter, we've all been that kind of character where we've all made a bold declaration for Jesus and said, you know, I'm going to be on fire for Jesus. I will never fall away. I love Jesus with everything in my heart. We've all warmed ourselves a little bit around somebody else's fire. We've all had this moment or maybe it's a season or a place where the pressure got so high that we said nothing. Or we did nothing. Or we just simply walked away. Not only have we been Peter, I think we've all done what Peter did after that as well. After that, Peter went back to the things he knew. We also go back to the things, our old ways, the old ways of doing things. Back to the familiar spaces. Back to the life that does not ask maybe too much from us.

Now let me show you what it looks like maybe in modern terms today. Imagine there's a husband who says, you know, whenever I go out in public, I don't tell anybody I'm married. As a matter of fact, when I go out, I actually take off my wedding ring, put it in my pocket, you know, because I just don't want people asking me kind of any questions. And sometimes I don't act like I'm married at all. But make no mistake, I actually truly love my wife. If you heard a story like that, you're probably going to go, you know, I'm probably not going to believe you. And rightly so, because love that hides is not love at all. You know, it's convenience literally dressed up as a commitment. And yet, if we are kind of brutally, ruthlessly honest with your own soul today, with yourself, this is exactly how many of us have kind of been describing our relationship with Jesus. Sunday love. Private love. Love that is real on the inside, but it's invisible on the outside. Love that disappears the moment it's going to cost us something or that it needs to be shown.

Now, before I talk about this text, I want to ask you something specific. I want you to maybe sit with us. Has there been a social setting, maybe recently, when the pressure was too high for you and you stayed silent about your faith? Maybe it was in a boardroom. Maybe it was around a dinner table. Maybe it was at a family gathering where literally Jesus was on trial. And you warmed yourself at that fire and literally you said nothing. Has there been a time where it's just kind of been simply easier for you? Simply... To walk away. And not stand up. For what was biblically right. See that is our courtyard moments. That I think we all have. That is our little charcoal fire. That we've been standing around. And maybe your denial is even quieter than that. You know like months of choosing everything else first. Years of sitting in church maybe. With your mouth singing. And maybe your mouth is singing. But your heart is literally far from God. You're thinking about. Other things. Either way, you just get to this place where you feel like I've disqualified myself. Well, if you have ever felt like that, if you've ever been in that moment, this is exactly the person that John was writing this text for. Because see, Jesus does not avoid people at the scene of their failure. Actually, that's where Jesus shows up to cook us breakfast. This is where Jesus says, let me serve you in this moment. And until you can feel the weight of that, until you actually need that to be true, you will not feel the force of what happens next on this beach.

I love how C.S. Lewis, a famous Christian writer, said this. He says, Christ's love for us is a much safer subject to think about than our love for him. And today, we're not thinking about Christ's love for us. Today, we're answering this question that Jesus was asking. Do you love me?

And so when they had finished this breakfast and Jesus is having this conversation, I want to point out just a few things for us this morning from this passage of those three verses that we read. So if you have your Bibles, you're welcome to reference them back. But one of the things I loved in this is the first thing I noticed in this passage is how Jesus keeps calling people. Peter by his old name. Remember, his name was Simon and God changed his name to Peter. But all of a sudden, Jesus is not referring him to Peter. Jesus is referring back to his old name. He does not say Peter. He says, Simon, son of John. See, when Jesus first met this man, he said to him, you are Simon, but I'm going to call you Peter, this rock. See, that was that moment that his identity was redefined. That is the moment a fisherman became a foundation, a rock. But now on this beach, Jesus calls him Simon again. Not to demote him, not to degrade him, not to break him down, not to shame him, but to go back to where everything started, where everything went wrong. And this is not Jesus stripping his identity away. He was returning to the moment that his identity was given. He wanted to take him back to that moment to say, remember when I changed you. Remember when I started with you. I want to go back and start with you again. I want to start over. And there is a reason sometimes when you speak to a surgeon, a surgeon goes back to the original incision and makes that incision there again. It's like a counselor. A counselor takes you back again. So that you can go forward. And Jesus was going back to the root before he was going to restore the fruit of Peter's life again. He was calling Peter back to that moment before failure, not to stay there, but to heal him. And it's in this healing moment that three different things takes place. Three questions that reframes Jesus. Three questions that Jesus asks him. And it's not three different questions. It's the same question. And I think most people miss why Jesus asked him this three times. Three times Peter denied Jesus around that first coal fire. Three times Jesus asked this question. Three denials. Three restorations. See, for every no, Jesus turns this into a yes. For every I don't know him, Jesus turns this to a yes, Lord. You know that I know you. I love you. And Jesus was not really interrogating Peter. He was healing him. Literally one question at a time. And I think as we journey through the series and we're going to be asking these questions that Jesus is asking us, it's the questions that Jesus wants to ask us so that he can heal us.

Now, I need to show you something here in this passage from the Greek, from the original, that literally changes for me the weight of this entire conversation. See, when Jesus asked this question the first time, Jesus asks, Do you love me? And in the Greek, Jesus uses a very specific Greek word. And he says to Simon, Simon, son of John, do you love? agape me or agape me? Do you love me? That's the word, agape. It literally means the highest form of love in the Greek language. It means unconditional love. It means self-sacrificing love. This is the life of, this is the love that lays its life down. This is the love that overflows, the love that does not depend on feelings or circumstances. This is the kind of love that holds nothing back. This is the love that's not a decision, not an emotion. The love that God himself operates in. When God says, for God so loved the world. He's using that word. He's saying, for God so agape. He's so overwhelmingly loved. This is what Jesus was asking for. And he's saying to Peter, do you agape me? And Peter answers him. And Peter says, yes, Lord, I love you. But if you read that in the Greek, Peter is actually using a different word for love. He's not using the word agape. He's using just the lower form of that word love. And that word is phileo in the Greek. And as Jesus is saying, Peter, do you agape me? Peter is actually answering, he says, but yes, Lord, but I phileo you. Phileo is where we get the word Philadelphia, which means brotherly love. He's saying, Jesus, I love you like a brother. I love you with like a warm affection, a friendship kind of love. The love you have for someone that you kind of genuinely care about. The love of closeness and forgiveness. But not agape, Lord. Peter cannot bring himself to say that word. Can't bring himself to say, Lord, I love you unconditionally. See, after that courtyard, after that first fire, after the first three times he said no, he really knows what agape is going to cost him. And he's looking at his life and he says, I don't think I can carry that burden. Pain. I can't watch Jesus on the cross because my denial put him on that cross. So he drops it down. He says, Lord, I phileo you. And again, Jesus says, Simon, son of John, do you agape me? And a second time he says, yes, Lord, you know that I phileo you. And then after the third time, Jesus actually changes the word. And Jesus turns to Peter and he goes, He stopped asking, do you agape me? And he actually turns to Peter and says, but just for clarity's sake, Peter, answer this then. Do you phileo me at least? And that's when Peter just really got sad in heart. And Peter answers this because this was the only place left for him. And he says these words. He says, Lord, you know all things. You know that I phileo you. He says, I cannot prove it. I cannot perform it. I'm resting my entire case on what you already know about me. But see, here's what this reveals about Jesus. He did not walk away when Peter could not reach agape. He actually stepped down into Phileo. He met Peter at the only level that Peter could honestly muster, that Peter could actually stand on. And what did he do? He commissioned him from there. See, Jesus does not wait until our love is perfect before he puts you to work, before he engages with you. He's like... If you say that you phileo me, if there is some warm affection, I want to work with that. I want to walk into that space. Maybe you're sitting here today and church is new to you. Somebody invited you to church. You've been coming here for a while. You've been looking at us and going, you know, is this Jesus thing real? And you've been hearing us talk about how Jesus loves us and how Jesus wants to change your life. And you're like, you know what? I just don't know how to make that step. I just don't know how to make that commitment. But there's something in your heart that's stirring. There's a little warmth. There's a little affection. And Jesus is saying, that is more than enough for me. I can walk into that and work with that. Because you see, that was not the ending of Peter's story. This was really the beginning of something so extraordinary. This man who could not... Utter this word agape, but that he could only offer a phileo on that beach. This man who dropped this word because he could not claim it honestly. Later, when Peter writes one of the books in the New Testament, in the book of Peter, in 1 Peter 1 verse 8, listen to what Peter says. He says, though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with great joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory. I love he says, though you have not seen him, you love him. All of a sudden, the word that Peter uses there is no longer the word phileo. For the first time, Peter says, I now get it. It is now agape. The very word he could not say on that beach, he now spent the rest of his life fulfilling. I love this Jesus unconditionally because Jesus started a work in my life when I could only give him a phileo. And he moved that into the space of loving me so much. That I broke through into a whole new world, into a new realm of understanding my life, my spirituality, my life around that. See, phileo was not the end of Peter's story. It was just the beginning of it. And Jesus knew when he stepped into that, he was not going to just settle for phileo, excuse me. Because he knew that a man who is honest about where he is, is the man that he can take somewhere. Not only did Jesus walk into that, because love always follows or is followed by a commission. Jesus says, when you understand that, every time Peter says yes to Jesus' answer, do you love me? Jesus gives him a commission. Jesus commissions him to do something. He says, do you love me? Feed my lambs. Do you love me? Tend my sheep. Do you love me? Feed my sheep. Jesus does not end at the love declaration. He does not say, wonderful, that's all I need. You are cleared. You are now healed. No. He says, now go and do something with this love. Because this is the love that Jesus gives, this agape love that is so overwhelming. It encompasses everything about our being. It is literally so overwhelming that I can't keep it for myself. I really want to share the love of Jesus with every person around me. Because the love for Jesus is never just a feeling. The love of Jesus always has a direction. It moves us. First of all, the love of Jesus moves us closer to his heart, to his bosom, to his presence, to being intimate with him, to spending time with you. But I do want us to notice a progression in these three commissions that Jesus gives. The first one he says, well, feed my lambs. See, lambs are young ones. They're the new ones. They're just kind of finding their way. Jesus is saying, go and love those people that are just coming into the church. Go and love those people that are just finding out about my agape love for the first time. And then the second one, he says, well, tend my sheep. He takes that now to the broader flock. He says, your community, your family, your colleagues, that little space. He says, go show that love that I have now given you. Go show it to them as well. And then again, he says, now go. Feed my sheep. So sheep again. And this time he's incorporating the whole community, our whole city. Do we love our city? Do we love the people that God is bringing into our city? And Jesus was entrusting Peter, this man who had just collapsed with the most important responsibility in the history of humanity. He was giving the church to a man who was just denied Jesus three times. Jesus says, there's enough love there that I can work with this. And he was commissioning this future leader of the early church in spite of his failures. But through restoration, Jesus does something. Because God does not find people who have never failed. He finds people who have been found again and he sends them again.

I read this beautiful story in a magazine about this plastic surgeon. His name was Dr. Maxwell Maltz. He was literally considered one of the most gifted plastic surgeons of his generation. And he tells the story of a man who came to him who was severely burned by trying to rescue his parents from a house fire. But unfortunately, his parents died in the fire, and he died. He couldn't get them out in time, and so they passed away. But what happened is that this man was totally disfigured, destroyed by guilt and grief. And he went into kind of a complete seclusion, locked himself away. He refused to see anyone. Including his wife. And then one day his wife came to Dr. Maltz and asked him if he could restore her husband's face. And he said, yes, of course he can. And he probably could, but the husband refused any treatment. So the wife came back a second time, but this time her question stopped Dr. Maltz in his tracks. She didn't ask, can you heal my husband's face? She actually says, would you mind disfiguring my face so that I can be like my husband and feel the pain that he's feeling and so that he will let me back into his life? That's the kind of love that answers this question. Not that love that says, I love you when it's convenient. Love that says, I will go into the dark with you. And this is exactly the kind of love Jesus modeled when he built that charcoal fire. When he met Peter and that smell of his shame. He cooked breakfast before he ever made Pete, you know, when Peter ever made it to the shore. And he went back to the place of Peter's failure. And he says, do you love me? If you love me, you can start over. That's the beginning of that. And I want to bring the same question that Jesus asked Peter into your hands today. Not this question about your attendance, about where you serve, which life group you're in. Do you love him? Do you love Jesus? Do you really love him? But before you answer, let me be specific. Has there been a situation recently when the pressure was so high that you stayed silent? Time that it was easier to be politically correct than biblically right. That's your courtyard. Jesus is saying, what kind of love do you love me with? Can I step into that moment? Either way, Jesus is asking you the same question he asked Peter. Do you love him more than your comfort, more than your safety that has been protecting you, more than the life you've built following him before things got hard. The answer to that question is really going to determine the direction of your life. It's going to determine the commissioning that Jesus has. Do you love him honestly? Because Jesus can work with honest. He cannot work with performance. Do you love him enough to feed his sheep, to tend his lambs, to look after them? Because the love for Jesus that stays inside of you is not yet love. It's just settlement.

Now here's one thing I want us to do this week. Just one thing, maybe write down one name, just not a program, not a cause, not a general commitment to get involved, to be a better person. You know, I'm going to try better to love Jesus tomorrow. Just one person that you know that I can give my time to this week, that I can give my wisdom to, my encouragement, my presence, the gospel of Jesus to. Write that name and contact that person this week. Because every time Peter says, yes, Jesus, I love you, Jesus commissions him. He says, well, go take care of. I want you to discover the love of Jesus this morning that moves you to go and share that gospel.

Now, let me close by telling you what happens when people actually can answer this question honestly. Not as a program, not a strategy, not a campaign.

A few weeks after this beach encounter, it was the day of Pentecost. And on that day, Peter stands up in front of this big crowd in Acts chapter 2. The same man, the same voice, the man who said no to Jesus three times. I don't know him. He now stands up in front of 3,000 men. He stands in front of a city and he declares, I know him. He has risen. And 3,000 people say yes to Jesus before the morning is over. Not because Peter was talented or something special. Not because the strategy was brilliant. But because a broken man sat down by a charcoal fire, being honest with God and saying, God, this is the love I have for you. This is what I've got. There's a theologian, his name is Frederick Buchner. He captures Peter's journey for me so beautifully in one sentence. And he puts it this way, he says, from fisher of fish to fisher of people, to keeper of the keys to shepherd, it was the rock's final promotion. And from that day forward, he never let the head office down again. For me, that's the trajectory of a restored life. The history of men understanding the love of God. There was this great... Reformer in Scotland. His name was John Knox. We call him one of the church fathers who really sparked a revival in Scotland. And one day when John Knox was literally lying on his deathbed, he called his wife over to his bedside and he says, please read me that scripture again when I first cast my anchor. And so she started reading to him from John chapter 17. And as she prayed, as she read the scripture of John 17, something happened to this dying man. All of a sudden, his weakness began to change and he literally began to pray. And he started interceding for lost people. He started interceding that people would know the love of Jesus as he was explaining this in John 17. And literally as he was praying this prayer, He passed away and his spirit was taken up into heaven. At that time in Scotland, his greatest enemy was the Queen of Scotland, Queen Mary, Queen of the Scots. And this is what Queen Mary said about him. She says, I fear this man's prayers more than I fear the armies of my enemies. See, I think this is what the church can look like. Not a church of perfect people, but a church of broken people, who have experienced the love of God and said, the love of God is doing something with me. It has changed me and has now infused me. It's now empowering me. It's now moving me so that I can share this with other people as well. Imagine what God can do. I think with a room full of people who each wrote down a name this week, just to go share the love of Jesus. From this room, as we walk out, can you imagine that love becoming so tangible, so real as we feed his sheep, as we tend his flock? Why? Because Jesus works with the little love that we have.

So let me end this today. See, there was a beach. In Galilee, a charcoal fire, fish on coals, bread, a risen Savior cooking this. Jesus did not wait for Peter to deserve breakfast. No, he cooked it anyway. He set the table. He met him where he was. Three times in a courtyard, there was a no. This is kind of the attitude that Peter came to Jesus. Maybe you're coming to church this morning with a no in your heart. You're like, you know, I'm here today, but I don't know if I should be here. I don't know if Jesus still loves me. Jesus is turning the question around. He's saying, I've never stopped loving you. The question is, do you love me? Can we turn that around this morning and be honest? Can I pray for us this morning? Would you mind just closing your eyes this morning? And just for a minute, see Jesus standing in front of you. This Jesus that is bringing this agape love to you. If you can get to a place this morning where you say, Jesus, I surrender too. I'm going to have this agape love. I want to pray for you. If you're in this place now where you can just muster enough to say, Jesus, I have this affection to you. I have this kind of brotherly love to you. Jesus is saying, I'm going to take that. I want to do something with that love. Because see, I don't want you to walk out of this church this morning without making sure that you know, not only that Jesus loves you, but that you love him. That you had an opportunity this morning to come and sit with At your charcoal fire. And hear Jesus speak a new identity. Bring new healing. Come back to you and answer this question. Do you love me? Father, I pray that the love of God will be poured out in this room this morning. That it will be so real, so tangible, so amazing, so sweet. That this love would make us be honest with ourselves. Just real. Say, Jesus, here's where I am. I'm going to accept your love. But Jesus, I also want you to hear these words this morning. This is my declaration to you, Lord. I love you. Lord, I do love you. I love you with everything in my heart. I love you with a little in my heart. I love you with everything in my life. I love you with a little in my life. But Lord, I love you. Take that love. Grow that love. May that love bring my healing today. And may that love be the healing for other people around me as they see the love that Jesus has for us. I speak that over us as a church. I love you. Amen and amen.