Reading:
John 21:15-17.
"Lovest
thou me?"
In reading these
verses, it is difficult not to believe that the Lord
Jesus had in mind something that happened earlier, and
was probably referring to it. I mean the incident
recorded in Matthew 26:33: "Peter answered and said
unto him, If all shall be offended in thee, I will never
be offended." "Lovest thou me more than
these?"
There are four main
aspects of the Christian life - of course, with many
subsidiary aspects. We have been considering three of
them, and shall make reference to them again shortly.
These three lead up to the fourth, and find their
expression in it. This fourth aspect is service. Service
is the great inclusive issue of everything. You notice
that all four of the Gospels head up to commission and
service. Service is the issue, therefore, of the
three-and-a-half years of our Lord's ministry, and
especially of the relationship subsisting between Himself
and the disciples during that period. All that which He
had said to them, all that which He had allowed and
caused them to see, had this matter of service in view.
He was working toward the day when He would have gone to
Heaven and would continue His work through them. He was
laying the foundation for that service. Everything had
testimony in the world in view.
Now that word 'service'
is greatly misunderstood and misinterpreted. It is
usually confined to certain specific forms. People speak
of 'going into Christian service', or 'the Lord's work',
or some such expression, by which they mean some specific
activity - either to be a 'missionary' abroad, or a
'minister' at home, or some other particular form of
Christian work. But that is a misinterpretation of the
word 'service'.
In the New Testament,
service is contemplated in relation to the Church:
individual service is always a related matter. It is the
Church that is here to fulfil the ministry, and
individuals are never looked upon in the New Testament as
having detached, unrelated service. The great
comprehensive conception is that of the Church as the
Body of Christ. Immediately you contemplate that, your
ideas of service must be completely revolutionised. For
in a physical body the majority of the functions are not
specific at all, but are vital, essential, indispensable.
The whole service of the body depends upon them: the
comparatively few specific functions can only possibly
operate and fulfil their office by way of the countless
unspecified functions of the body. And that is the New
Testament conception of the Church and the Church's
vocation.
We need, therefore, to
reconsider this matter of service, because when we
relegate the work to certain people only, we forget, or
overlook, the fact that it is impossible to be in the
Body of Christ and not have a function. Everyone is
supposed to be a functional part of the Church. Nothing
is independent, unrelated, or separate.
Peter:
A Representative Servant
Let us now look at the
basis, constitution, and dynamic of service. In this we
are going to be much helped by Peter. You notice that the
fourth Gospel, the last of all to be written, closes with
an incident involving Peter in relation to the matter of
service. Peter is a representative servant: he embodies
all the essentials of a true servant of Jesus Christ. And
in a very real sense Peter represented the Church. We
shall therefore allow Peter to interpret this matter for
us, as we consider him - the man himself, his training,
and his dynamic of service.
It is possible, of
course, to allow Peter to be completely overshadowed by
the Apostle Paul. If that has happened, I would suggest a
very profitable piece of work: that is, to collect
together every passage in the New Testament where Simon
Peter occurs, noting both what was said to him, and what
he said. If you put all those fragments together, you
will find that you have quite a rich biography, and you
will have a very good manual of instruction in the matter
of service. Peter was the first of the disciples to be
called by the Lord; he always thereafter held the
foremost place among the disciples; and here he is the
last individual to be mentioned in the Gospels. Peter has
a very large place in the New Testament, a very important
place. Upon him hung some of the greatest crises in the
history of the early Church.
The
Man Himself
We look at the man
himself, because we can only recognise the spiritual
principles of service as we are able to recognise the
man. You will understand what I mean by that as we go on.
If you get a full-length portrait of Simon Peter, and
watch him with the Gospels in your hand, you will begin
to learn a very great deal about the principles of
Christian service.
Simon Peter could never
be present anywhere without it being known. If ever there
was an opportunity to speak or to act, he took it. His
tongue, his hands and his feet often ran away with his
judgment. His soul on the emotional and volitional side
predominated, and very often left his judgment waiting
for an opportunity to assert itself, later on, to his
discomfiture! Peter was capable of tremendous variations
- from height to depth - from the highest exaltation to
the lowest depression and despair. This man was never
neutral. He never dealt in neutral colours; you could
always distinguish him quite clearly. No man of all those
associated with our Lord was so often corrected, and yet
so irrepressible. His motives were right, his intentions
were good; but he was always just saying the wrong thing
and doing the wrong thing.
You notice that with
Simon Peter the personal pronouns were much in evidence:
and yet with all this there is no trace of vice. When you
sum it all up, you have to say some things that may sound
unkind; but it is just here that we are on the way to
understanding what true service for Christ will mean. The
things which stand out in the case of Simon Peter -
self-confidence, self-sufficiency, self-assertiveness -
are all because of self-ignorance. The Lord Jesus
Himself, at the end of this chapter in which our question
is found, puts it in three words: "When thou wast
young, thou girdest thyself, and walkedst whither thou
wouldest". Those last three words sum up Peter:
"whither thou wouldest". That is the man
in brief. Such a man, if he were going to be of any use
to the Lord, would have to go through a very hard school.
If he was to be constituted according to the greatest
Servant that God ever had - the Lord Jesus - something
very drastic must happen.
Need
for Self-Discovery
What was his greatest
need? To begin with, it was self-discovery, followed by
loss of self-trust. And those were the very things that
happened in the hard school of experience into which
Simon Peter was put by his Lord. For the truth is this:
that all who are going to be of real service to the Lord
must be brought, sooner or later, to the place where they
lose all trust in themselves. Before they can do the work
for which they have been brought into this world, the
work for God and the work of God, they will have to come
to the place where they have lost all self-trust. Peter
teaches us that lesson, perhaps, above all others, in
relation to service.
See this man on the day
of Pentecost. Is that service? Is he now a servant of
Jesus Christ? See him in the house of Cornelius - another
great turning-point in the history of Christianity. See
him in the Council of Jerusalem: hear what he says and
how he is deferred to. "Simon hath said..."
This man emerged as a great servant of Jesus Christ - but
only in virtue of having emerged from this deep and
terrible experience in which he lost his self-trust.
If you have read this
twenty-first chapter of John in a version that brings out
the different words that were used by the Lord and by
Peter for 'love', you may have wondered why it was that
Peter baulked at the word that the Lord was using, and
refused to use it. When the Lord Jesus said, "Lovest
thou me?", He used the highest word that could be
used for 'love', but Peter answered with another word of
a lower order altogether. Why would he not rise to the
word that the Lord was using? I think that he had lost
his self-trust; that he was remembering: "If all
shall be offended in thee, I will never be offended"
(Matt. 26:33) - and then the denial. Had something in him
been touched and weakened and broken, that made him feel,
'I dare not declare myself to be on that highest level of
love'? I may be wrong, but I seem to discern that. But at
length the Lord Himself came down to Peter's level, and
took him up on his own ground with the lower word, as if
to say: 'All right: if you can only go so far, well, go
as far as you can. Commit yourself to that! I will take
you up on that; I will go on with you on that.' Whether
that interpretation is true or not, there is little doubt
that Peter had been touched on his strong point of
self-assurance and self-confidence, and was a broken man
in that realm. And therefore, becoming the servant that
he did become, he says to us: 'That is the way of
service. That is the first law.'
That may sound hard,
but it ought to sound comforting. Are you having a bad
time? If as you aspire to be of some use to the Lord, if
you find yourself being emptied and broken, and taken
through a hard school where you feel that you cannot
stand up to it all, remember, that is the way of service.
If you have any degree of self-confidence, if you think
that you can 'do it', if you can 'do all the talking', if
you are the first to take things into your hands, let me
say: You will not be of service to the Lord until that is
dealt with! No; we have to come to the place where we cannot
and we will not, unless compelled by
Another and not driven by our own impulses.
Peter's need was of a
Master. But, in order to have a Master, a man like that
has to be utterly broken. And that happened to Peter. Not
only is it recorded that he went out and wept bitterly,
after his terrible failure and breakdown and in his
self-discovery, but it is recorded that the risen Lord,
after sending a message to His disciples, then specified
that it should be conveyed to Peter. The heavenly
messenger said: "Go, tell his disciples and
Peter..." (Mark 16:7). One thing that impresses you
in those resurrection appearances of the Lord Jesus is
how He knew all that was going on. He knew, for instance,
exactly how Thomas had been behaving and talking, even
though He Himself had not been visibly present. He could
tell them just what had been going on inside of them, and
all they had been doing. And so He knew about Peter, too,
and what had been happening with him. Somewhere, in his
brokenness, his humiliation, his despair, was Peter,
necessitating that the Lord should say: 'Go, tell My
disciples, and Peter...' Was he not a disciple? Why
specify? Surely the reason is obvious. The man needs some
special help: he is broken, he is shattered; a special
message must go to him - he must be mentioned by name.
'Say to Peter... The Lord has not only sent a general
message, but He has sent it to you - He has
mentioned you by name.'
Just think how you
would feel if you were in his position and condition.
'The Lord - the Lord! The last time I saw the
Lord was when He looked at me. It was that look that
broke me, that shattered me, as I was denying Him. That
look I shall never forget. He looked at me.' The word
that is used there about the Lord 'looking upon' Peter
(Luke 22:61) is a rather strong word. There are different
words for 'look', but this word means 'to look upon
attentively or fixedly'. His eyes rested upon him, held
him, went right through him. That was the last time Peter
had seen the Lord, and that look had done its work. Those
eyes knew him, and now Peter had come to know himself as
the Lord knew him. It is a terrible thing when that
happens. And to think that the Lord should say,
"...and Peter"! 'Could He ever think of me
again? Could He ever have anything to do with me again?
Do I still stand with Him in the company of His
disciples?'
The
Mastery of Christ
Now the point is this:
that this is the making of a servant - this
is the training of a servant of Jesus Christ. This came;
and, having come, it led to two things. Firstly, it led
to the mastery of Christ. The real mastery of Christ,
though we may call Him Master and Lord, is not
established until our own mastery of ourselves has been
shattered and broken. How often did Peter, who called
Jesus 'Master' and 'Lord', seek to dictate to Him, to
tell Him - the Lord - what He ought to do and what He
ought not to do - what He might do and what He was not
allowed to do! Yes, we can call Him 'Lord', and we can
call Him 'Master'. But the way of real service is that He
become Master in reality, and that necessitates our
brokenness.
Look at Peter on the
day of Pentecost, and afterward, and look right on to his
letters. Listen to him speaking; read what he writes.
Jesus is Master of this man, now. That is the first thing
that came out of this shattering. It is a law of
usefulness and service to the Lord - make no mistake
about it. If you aspire to service, if you are thinking
in terms of Christian work, if you are desirous of being
of real value to the Lord - put it how you will - you can
take it that the way is here 'writ large for all to see'.
This man Peter stands out as a servant of Jesus Christ of
no mean order, and the way by which he became that was
the way of Jesus Christ becoming his absolute Master. He
stands for the great principle of submission to Christ,
without which there can be no usefulness to Him. Our
value to the Lord really begins - not when He becomes our
Saviour, but when He becomes our Lord. Those two things
can happen at the same time, but with many they stand far
apart.
An
Overwhelming Appreciation of Grace
The second thing that
came out of this shattering was an overwhelming
appreciation of grace. The Lord Jesus, on one occasion
which you will recall, enunciated a great spiritual truth
and law, when referring to one who was pouring out
devotion at His feet. He said: 'Where much has been
forgiven, there is much love. She loved much because she
was forgiven much' (Luke 7:47).
Now Peter came into the
meaning of that spiritual principle - or it came into
Peter. What an appreciation of grace! Look at the first
letter that goes by his name. In that quite brief
document, which you can read through from beginning to
end in ten or fifteen minutes, Peter speaks of grace no
fewer than ten times, and in every case the context of
that word is tremendous.
Here, for instance, he
speaks of "the manifold grace of God" (1 Pet.
4:10). Grace is really the theme of his letter. It
governs everything - every department of the Christian
life. Yes, Peter knew what he was talking about: he was
speaking out of experience. It was this tremendous
appreciation of grace that made him the servant that he
became. But he had to be baptized into that: that is, he
had to be baptized into the agony of suffering, of
self-discovery - of the discovery of his own
unworthiness, weakness, failure. The waves of despair had
to go over his head, in order to bring him to this place
where grace was his theme, grace accounted for
everything, grace became the great motive of his
ministry.
A man cannot go through
an experience of that kind, he cannot go through a
spiritual history like that, he cannot go through such
depths, without being caused to reflect deeply. It is not
just our imagination, or reading something into the
story, to say that, when Peter was recovered, restored,
brought back into all the blessings of fellowship with
his Lord, and given his commission, he must have thought
something like this: 'Just imagine it - that such a one
as I am, and have proved to be; such a one as I, who have
done what I have done - could any man sink to deeper
depths of shame, disgrace, dishonour? - that such a one
as I should be called by the Lord at all, when He knew
all about me beforehand! That day when He came along by
the seashore, when I was engaged in my business, and He
called me - that day He knew everything that there was to
know about me! He did not have to spend three-and-a-half
years discovering it. He did not have to wait until that
judgment hall; He knew it all at the beginning, and yet
He called me!' Peter could indeed say with Paul: 'He
called me by His grace' (Gal. 1:15). That is consolation,
that is comfort, that is help; that makes service
possible for anybody.
The
Training of Grace
Anyone other than Jesus
would probably have washed their hands of Peter and said,
'I shall never make anything of this man - I can do
nothing with him: He is incorrigible.' The Holy Spirit
has caused to be written in fiery letters, for all to
see, all this blundering and blurting of Simon, all his
rebuking of the Lord, correcting the Lord, telling the
Lord, 'Thou shalt never...' All this - and then the
Lord's infinite patience with that man. When John writes:
"Having loved his own which were in the world, he
loved them unto the end" (John 13:1), there is an
immense amount behind that statement in relation to this
man alone, to say nothing of the rest of them. That is no
small thing; it is wonderful. Think of all the training,
all the infinite patience and care and kindness, and the
going on - just going on. This was the training of grace:
do you not think Peter remembered that? I am sure he
thought back over those three-and-a-half years, and how
they culminated in his denial. 'Oh, what patience He
showed with me! To think that I am here today at all, and
having a place of honour in His service! What does it not
say for His patience, His forbearance, His longsuffering,
His love!'
The
Endowments of Grace
But then, as though
that were not enough, grace brought endowments. First of
all, the mighty, inclusive gift of the anointing Holy
Spirit, and all that that implies! We have so often said
that the anointing of the Holy Spirit implies that God
commits Himself. It is as though He would say: 'I am
going to join myself with that man or that woman, and I
am going on with them, for my Son's sake.' That is the
basic meaning of the gift of the Holy Spirit.
But grace brought all
those other things, all those new capacities, which come
by the Spirit in the new creation. Are they not
marvellous in Peter? Remember, he was a fisherman.
Although that does not necessarily mean that he was an
uneducated man, they did say about Peter and John that
they were "unlearned and ignorant men" (Acts
4:13). At any rate, certain people, who considered
themselves to be otherwise, said that of him in
Jerusalem. Have you ever studied that discourse of
Peter's on the day of Pentecost? Many years ago I made a
list of all the subjects mentioned in it, and I was
amazed what a catalogue I had. Almost every sentence or
part sentence touches on something which, being gathered
into the whole, adds up to a most comprehensive
statement. There is great understanding of the Old
Testament Scriptures, wonderful insight into the Word of
God and the things of God. We have already referred to
that critical day in Jerusalem, when Peter's counsel,
supported by James with citation of the Old Testament
prophets, marked a turning-point in the history of the
Church.
And if that is not
enough, read Peter's letters. I do not know how, apart
from Divine revelation, Peter knew about the atomic age!
Long, long centuries before the splitting of the atom, he
talked, in language which we all understand now, about
'the heavens being on fire', 'the elements melting with
fervent heat', 'all these things being dissolved' (2 Pet.
3:10-12). That is very up to date, is it not? Where did
he get it? There are endowments by the Holy Spirit of
understanding, intelligence and knowledge. And there are
endowments of endurance. Here is a man who breaks down at
the taunt of a serving maid, and vehemently denies his
Lord. But look at him here - "when they saw the
boldness..."! And there are many other endowments
which we cannot now stay to tabulate. All this is the
work of grace. Yes, Peter came into a large appreciation
of grace.
The
Dynamic of Service
This leads us to our
sub-title: 'The Dynamic of Service'. What is that? Surely
it is the response of the heart to a love like that! That
is what made Peter the servant of Jesus Christ. It may be
that he was fearful about trusting his love, and so dared
not rise to the great word that the Master was using; but
he meant it. He was trying to go as far as he could, and
in the event he went further - he went beyond his own
language. His response turned out better than he perhaps
feared it would be. It was a mighty response to love -
and that is the dynamic of service.
Now the grace that lies
behind our being called by Jesus Christ into fellowship
with Himself, the grace that lies behind His training of
us, His dealing with us in longsuffering and forbearance,
the grace that lies behind His gracious gift of the Holy
Spirit, and all that goes with that gift, represents
endowment for us all! This is not exclusive to Peter or
his class; he is but representative. All these things are
for the Church; and we, as organic parts of the Church,
inherit the endowments, as we inherit the calling, of
grace. These things are true for us all. Because of the
grace of God, every one of us can be a servant of God.
To be called at all,
did we but know it, is the most marvellous thing that
could ever have happened to us. And He calls us, knowing
us through and through. I do not know how much you know
about yourself, but if you knew yourself as He knows you,
you would go out and weep bitterly, you would fall into
the depths of despair. And if He should then come to you,
in that day of self-discovery, in your despair and
brokenness, and should mention your name, showing that
you were still in His thought and love, would that not be
a great step of grace? - and would it not qualify you to
be a witness? Should He, moreover, with all His knowledge
of you, and all your despair of yourself, give to you the
great gift of His Holy Spirit, with all the wonderful
capacities that come with that, would it not be a
glorious thing? That is how witnesses are made, how
servants are made. How poor our service must be, if there
is not an answering love begotten in us by this
overwhelming consciousness of the grace of God!
That is the dynamic of
service. The Lord may take us through a hard school; but
"wisdom is justified of all her children" (Luke
7:35), and in the end you will say, 'He was right; He
knew what He was doing - He did the right thing!'