John the Beloved is called the apostle of love, but Peter did not do too badly on that subject, either. What Peter said about love was very important, and this message will build upon it. We cannot say that we love God and not become deeply involved.
When we refer to our walk with God, we are really talking about the love of God. Nothing else would cause people to do what they do when they come into it. It is without any other motivation than our love for the Lord. What else can we get out of a walk with God? We can say we are in it for all the joy, but it is not for what we can get out of it. Although there is a sustaining joy, there is a great deal more to be considered.
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.” John 21:15
In the New American Standard Bible a little star beside many words means that for the sake of emphasis the Greek often takes a past event and voices it in the present tense to make it alive for you. In other words, Jesus is saying, “Are you loving Me more than these?”—bringing it into a present action so that it becomes real to you.
I will revert back to this Greek tense: He is saying to him again a second time, “Simon, son of John, are you loving Me?” “Yes, Lord, you know that I am loving You.” Then He is saying to him, “Shepherd My sheep.” Again, Jesus is saying to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?” Peter is grieved because He says to him the third time, “Do you love Me?” And he says, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.” Jesus is saying to him, “Tend My sheep” (John 21:16–17).
Two Greek words are used here for love: one speaking more of divine love and another speaking more of brotherly love or human affection at a high peak. When Jesus says, “Do you love Me?” He is speaking of a high divine love and Peter is answering back, “Yes, Lord, You know I am just as fond of You as I can be.” And that is why there is a repetition.
The third time Jesus lowers it to the same word phileo, used by Peter in his response, instead of the word agapao. He says, “Peter, are you really affectionate? Do you think you are really deeply affectionate for Me?” It grieves him when the third time Jesus says, “Are you really affectionate for Me?” Peter thought that was assured. But the Lord is trying to show that no matter what kind or what degree of love you have it still means an involvement with God. Whether your love is perfected, or whether you are just starting out in love, you are going to become involved with the Kingdom of God. Whatever you do, however you respond, you are going to go out and feed sheep.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to gird yourself and walk wherever you wished; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will gird you, and bring you where you do not wish to go.” Now this He said, signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God (this, again, is mystical language). And when He had spoken this, He said to him, “Follow Me!” Peter, turning around, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them; the one who also had leaned back on His breast at the supper, and said, “Lord, who is the one who betrays You?” Peter therefore seeing him is saying to Jesus (the Greek tense is making it live again), “Lord, and what about this man?” Jesus is saying to him, “If I want him to remain (or stay around) until I come, what is that to you? You follow Me!”
This saying therefore went out among the brethren that that disciple would not die; yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die; but only, “If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you?” This is the disciple who bears witness of these things, and wrote these things; and we know that his witness is true. And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books which were written. John 21:18–25.
Tradition says that one time the Apostle John was put in boiling oil and came out without a blister. Repeated efforts to kill him had left the persecutors fearful. He had been banished to the Isle of Patmos before this Gospel was written. We would assume that the book of Revelation was written after the Isle of Patmos, but it is still among the first of his writings. The epistles were probably second and the Gospel probably last.
The Gospel is the deepest of all John’s writings. That might be open for question. You may think, “The Gospel seems so simple.” But the deeper you look under the surface, the deeper that word becomes. There is no end to the symbolic picture in the book of John.
Apostle John’s life is a beautiful picture of love. It is said that John lived well over a hundred years, and when he was very old and feeble they would carry him in and set him on a chair in the midst of the brethren. And in his old voice he would say, “Little children love one another.” The message stayed clear—this message of love—even through the last days of his life.
He goes so far as to say something very difficult to understand, “God is love” (I John 4:8). Then we begin to wonder about it. We can understand John 1:1: In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. We understand God projecting Himself in everything that He says. That is so different from what a man would speak; man speaks a word, and it conveys a thought to the hearer. But when Jesus speaks a word, He conveys Himself to the hearer. “My words are spirit and they are life,” Jesus said (John 6:63b). We can understand that. But how can we understand that when God sends His love, He actually projects Himself in that love? He also reveals Himself in His emotions. This is difficult for us to grasp because individuals do not do that. When they love, they still retain their own identity. But when God loves, He distributes Himself in His emotions, so that anyone who opens up to the love of God literally receives God. And if you say, “I have received God,” and you do not love, you are a liar (I John 4:20), because God projects Himself in His love. He cannot divorce Himself from His feelings, from His great plan, from His purpose, or from His Word. When God says, “I love you,” that means He is filling those words He speaks to your heart with Himself.
That is why, when we say, “O God, I want more love,” we are saying, “I want more of the Lord,” because He is all wrapped up in that. God is love, and the one who loves is made perfect in God (I John 4:16–17).
We have been talking about John, but now we will switch to the principal character at the end of his Gospel. It was Peter with whom he was dealing. Did he feed the sheep? Oh, he did! He fed the sheep.
Do not forget that Peter had gone fishing and had not really felt himself obligated any longer to discipleship, and the other disciples had gone with him. Jesus encountered Peter and had a nice breakfast of fish on the fire for them that morning. Then He started dealing with Peter. Three times Peter had denied the Lord on the night of the crucifixion. Now three times on the resurrection morning, he had to confess his love for the Lord and accept a recommission to feed the lambs, to feed the flock of God.
I wish you could have a fresh repentance and a fresh dedication for every time you have gone astray in your walk. Every time you back off from anything of God it would be good for you to reaffirm and restate your position. Although you will not be heard for your much speaking (Matthew 6:7), yet repetition is very valuable when it comes declaring your emotions and your involvement with the Lord.
Peter said, Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart.… I Peter 1:22. Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins. I Peter 4:8. We will analyze this love somewhat deeper. We want to see love as the motivating force for Peter.
Jesus said, “Peter, when you were young, you clothed yourself, and you went wherever you wanted to go. But as you become older you will reach out your hands, and another will gird you and take you where you do not want to go.” He said this speaking of the manner of death he was to die (John 21:18–19a).
Is it death to dress an old man and take him somewhere? No. He was talking about the death that comes with spiritual maturity. There is a deep meaning here. When you are younger and less mature in Christ you have more independence in action than you will have later. A few years ago I was much more a free man, in some respects, than I am now. People have been praying constantly for the freedom and liberation of this end-time ministry. That is good, but they are praying for it with a qualification that I be loosed from every tie or hindrance that would keep me from becoming totally involved with God’s purpose in this hour. The commissioning of Christ does not bring liberty; it brings the bondservant principle into action.
Jesus said to Peter, “When you become older someone else will gird you. There will be others who will minister to you. They will take you where you would not.” Likewise, every year I find a freer flow of the word, but less independent action in the ministry. In the ministry, in the leading of the Lord, and in the very love with which God is filling your heart, He is saying, “Do you love Me,” just as He said to Peter, who answered, “Yes, I am very fond of You.” And so the Lord said, “But Peter, when you get beyond that point and have this love which is a wholly engulfing love, then you are going to feed the sheep, and then you will take care of the lambs.”
Love has to become the motivating drive, because it lifts a man completely out of his self-life and lifts him right into something else. Look upon love as the motivation in a walk with God. Several things happen when the love of God fills your heart. First is the deep involvement. Three times it comes in John 21: “If you love Me you are going to feed My sheep. When you love Me, you will do what I want you to do, not what you want to do. You will become addicted to this ministry God has for you.” That is what God was saying to Peter. Not only that, but Peter voiced it again from his own epistle. It had to be a fervent love. He was not just feeding the sheep as a hireling, but he became so deeply involved, that out of that sincere love he loved the brethren fervently (I Peter 1:22).
You must grasp that, for in a walk with God, the more you love God, the more intense the meetings become. It is easy for people to come in and be critical of the services: the freedom we have, the way we sometimes sing with almost a violence, the way we pray, the way we prophesy. They are not accustomed to anyone having that intensity, especially in this generation. People are not as intense in this hour as they have been in other periods. Consequently, they are coming to a place where patriotism will be at a much lower ebb than it was in former years or former generations. The love of many shall wax cold. Matthew 24:12b. People become truce breakers (II Timothy 3:3); they will not be able to sustain themselves because human love with the intensity of human emotions is running at a lower level than it ever has before. Human love is becoming bankrupt. Although we profess to becoming much wiser, more scientific, and more advanced, something that was in the human being before is missing.
You may not believe this. You may think people are getting better and better. No, they are not. Although we have some great patriots, and we have had men in wars who showed themselves to be most heroic, the truth of the matter is that if you go back in history, you will find there was an intensity even greater than that found today. They were capable of much devotion. Look at David and the men in Bible days.
You will still find this among less civilized people: men are not ashamed to cry. Now men become conditioned and do not cry. People have conditioned themselves to something less intense in funerals. It would seem unbecoming to lift up the heart and wail, throw ashes on one’s head, wear sackcloth, and be very concerned about the death of a loved one. In our society we do not do that. We are less intense about it.
Some of the young people who want to get married are being thrown back into the fire. They are only half-baked, because they do not love each other enough. There should be more intensity. If they halfheartedly say they love each other, something has to thaw them out so they become more intense and more involved.
Peter said, “Let’s love one another with a pure heart fervently. See that you be fervent in your love with one another.” That is exactly what the Lord wants. To be so intense will class you as a fanatic. This generation will definitely label people fanatics who come up to the standard of Bible love. Look at David dancing before the Lord. Look at the intensity with which he mourned for his loved ones and the way he worshiped God continually. When the watchmen came to the palace where David lived he would write his psalms. Each watch of the morning when they awakened him he would arise and seek the Lord. Because of that intensity he actually would be termed a fanatic at the present time. No one would be able to stand David in modern life. They would not be able to endure him.
People want a relationship, but they do not want it that intense. With many young couples, if she becomes a little too intense in her love, he runs in the other direction. However, if you love someone you should be delighted to be loved in return with that same intensity. But people cannot bear a relationship that intense.
I have good news for you: you are going to be that intense. You are going to love your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength (Mark 12:30). And you will start responding in the name of the Lord. The young people are doing this constantly in the services. Their wholehearted response can be heard repeatedly as the message is being spoken. The Word is hardly spoken before they start “amening” it. Are they fanatical? No, they are not. They are only coming to the normal thing prophesied that the sons and daughters should move in (Joel 2:28).
Peter was speaking about his involvement with the flock and with what God had for him. When God speaks to you, it will be involvement, but it will be an intense involvement. It cannot be anything less. How will you walk with God through these coming days except there be an intensity of love? Answer that in your heart. If you have no more than you had in the past, and that means a rather shallow involvement with the Lord and a rather shallow display of emotions, what will you do? Still some will like the old services where they come in and sit quietly. They have the bulletin that tells them when to stand and when to sit down and what to do at each step, and they run through it.
If you would like to make a comparison you could go from church to church, measuring the percentage of people who are asleep in churches that have a so-called reverence. They say, “Oh, we want the presence of the Lord,” but the great percentage of them are sound asleep. But measure how many sleep in churches being restored to the New Testament pattern. They would have to be somewhat sick or spiritually defeated to fall asleep, because this is alive. You vibrate with it, and you begin to feel the intensity of it.
Do not be afraid that you are going in the wrong direction. You are coming alive to the love of God. You are becoming aware of it. When you talk about your walk with the Lord, you are talking about an opportunity to worship Him with love, to feel it intensely and deeply. And it is no surprise that we come to feel that way toward one another. It is good to be very fervent in our love for each other.
We have talked about involvement, and we have talked about intensity. Let us go on to talk about channeling. Every life needs to be channeled. We assume that we can direct our own lives, but I do not think we always can. Without any disturbing factors in your life you could channel it in a selfish route. Marriages which get into trouble are those marriages where they have not allowed themselves to be influenced by each other’s love. The man will say he loves his wife, but he goes about his own business, not letting that love become a force that pulls him on another course for his life. As long as you can direct your own course very selfishly and personally you are not mature in your love, and you will have difficulties with it.
As it was with Peter, so also when you become older and more mature, others will clothe you and take you where you would not go, where it would not be to your self-interest to go. And then you will become involved with the Lord. All the young pastors coming forth are becoming involved with something that does not look as if it is for their interest at all. They are working very hard. They could go out and make more money and feel more important in some other channel, but they are content to throw that aside and say, “I want to walk with the Lord.”
I know a man who does not know much about pastoring, as far as former training is concerned, but he will become one of the good pastors. The reason for it is that he is dedicated. He wants to be semi-retired, just having enough money to live on, so he can be that pastor. That does not mean he has no enjoyment from working in his profession, but he wants to shepherd the flock of God. God is calling him. He is not going to make much money, but he will do the will of the Lord as he walks along and comes into full involvement. His life is actually being rechanneled. The first time he walked into a New Testament church, something started happening; and the more he matured, the more he was drawn into total involvement. Those who begin walking with the Lord are drawn into something they would not have done otherwise.
The channeling of your life by the love of God is the most precious thing that can happen to you. Love will divert you from your independent, selfish course and will lead you into the perfect will of the Lord.
Perhaps you desire wisdom that will enable you to do the perfect will of the Lord. Love will divert you from your selfish course and direct you, channel you into the perfect will of God. As you open up to the love of God and just love Him, you will find yourself walking in the perfect will of the Lord. The revelation of it will come perfectly. Love becomes the key to revelation. Love can bring things so much greater than yourself into your life that it automatically makes you a bigger person. It shrinks the self and spiritually makes you greater.
Suppose a young man visited his sweetheart and said, “Oh, darling, you are the most wonderful person in the world. I would swim the broadest ocean for you; I would climb the highest mountain; I would fight wild tigers for you. There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for you.” Then he said, “I would like to come over and see you again next Wednesday if it doesn’t rain.” If he really loved her that much he would not worry about the rain. Love does something to your spirit. Love will bring to you goals that are greater than yourself. The goals you have may often seem unrelated to you. It may not seem to be an important part of your life at all, yet tremendous goals are set before you. That is the way God does it.
Love will bring in your life efforts that are more consistent than you are capable of otherwise. Love is the sustaining emotion. Joy comes up, and then it goes down. People have times when they are disturbed in their emotions, one way or another, but the sustaining emotion is love. If you want the consistency in your life, open your heart up to the love of God. Many of our young men in the church never knew what they wanted to do in life. Parents of some wrote letters, saying, “It is really amazing! This son of mine never used to be able to stay with anything. Everything he started he dropped, but now he is doing fine. He has his feet on the ground.” They do not realize that he opened up to the love of God. That will bring you to efforts that are more consistent than you are capable of otherwise because love puts the foundation under your life. It gives consistency to your life that it should have. When you come to the conclusion that you need more love from the Lord, open your heart to Him.
Love will also bring emotions that are more intense than you are capable of otherwise. The human capacity for love diminishes, but in the grace of God that capacity is restored by the love of God, and you are able to arise to emotions more intense than you ever dreamed possible.
A real divine love, an intercessor’s love, will lead to intensity and consistency. When God brings forth certain ministries He has to bestow His love upon them, but if He brings forth an intense ministry of intercession, He has to bestow a double portion of love upon that person. You cannot even be an intercessor with any consistency unless God puts His love on you and calls you to it. Who wants to miss all that sleep; who wants to be that dedicated day and night to interceding and praying, to becoming a channel of blessing to other ministries? You would not stay with it. You would drop it. But He gives a double portion of love in order to produce a consistent ministry of love and blessing.
There is no use in backing off from it, because God is going to have those who will pray and back up the ministries that have to come forth. There has to be that intercession. The ultimate goal of God’s purpose is that the whole Church should be overwhelmed with this love, so that intercessory ministry would not be considered a rare thing or a ministry for just a few. In this hour of travail for the sons of God to come forth, intercession should be consistently upon every individual.
As soon as the intensity of this love comes, you will be a consistent intercessor. Day and night you will be crying unto the Lord because that burden will be in your heart. It will happen because God’s love will make you capable of efforts and emotions that are far more intense.
When the love of God fills your heart you have interests that are beyond yourself. You are vitally concerned with them, and they become your whole life. I look at a number of our ministries who are involved with publishing, and I am amazed that those people work in areas they would not otherwise be concerned about. They learn trades. They learn how to do things and become concerned with the little details. They develop themselves into fantastic ministries, because by the love of God they have interests that are greater than their own self-interests would require.
The Lord spoke to Peter, “Are you loving Me, Peter?”
“I am loving You, Lord. I am very fond of You, and I think it is good to serve You.”
“Feed My sheep. Become involved; begin to feel it.” Years later, Peter said, “Love the brethren fervently. Love each other with that depth of love.”
What makes people cynical? They are like that because they have had a human love which has been discouraged or disillusioned, or they have had no love at all. And when they look at the love of God, they get cynical. People are bitter for the same reason.
If you want to please God, open your heart. Do not fight this love nor try to reason against it. Do not say you are not going to get that involved. Open your heart, because we do not love enough yet. There are lives to be laid down for Jesus, lives to be spent wholly and completely for the Lord in the next few years. There will be efforts greater than you are capable of giving. You will have to be sustained consistently in a dedication and a motivation that is beyond the human realm. It will have to be God’s love that fills your heart. You cannot get along without this love. It is not like some optional trimming on the standard model car. This is the motor itself. This is what motivates and drives us. But love is not only the motor, it is the fuel, the wheels, and the steering gear. It is everything. With this love you are channeled in a way that is unbelievable.
You should pray for the Lord to give you that love. Have you ever had it reach your heart and been almost afraid of it because it was so intense? Do you find sometimes that you are ready to draw back because you cannot understand your own feelings? Are there moments you would abandon your whole life and see it completely rechanneled in a different way? That just shows you are growing up. When you were young, you went where you would; but as you get older, someone takes you where you would not (John 21:18). You cannot love without finding the channeling of your life. Sometimes it seems so foolish, so unreasonable. A world champion athlete became a preacher and started a little orphanage, though he could have made millions of dollars with his ability. An astronaut became a preacher also. God’s love leads people to go in ways they never dreamed of.
How much more is this pure love of God which flows in your heart going to cause you not to be offended, not easily disturbed, but set on a course. You are going to walk with God and be one of His people. You are going to be His voice in the earth and the expression of those deep emotions God has for His people. He will love through you with a consistent, perfect love.
God is bringing a new flow of love to our hearts, and we are reaching in for it. Why is it that we seem to limp into the Kingdom? We are always chastened so thoroughly, and out of it we learn to love. We love Him more than we ever loved Him before. We may be going through things, but we are ready to move ahead in the Lord, into a fresh new level of love we have never been in before.