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April 28, 2017 - April 13, 2019
Three times had Peter denied his Master; three times, then, did the Lord challenge his love. This was according to "righteousness." But in thus challenging Peter, the Lord gave him the opportunity of now thrice confessing Him. This was according to "grace." In His first question the Lord challenged the superiority of Peter’s love. In His second question the Lord challenged whether Peter had any love at all. Here, in His third question the Lord now challenges even his affection! Most searching was this! But it had the desired effect. The Lord wounds only that He may heal.
Men could see no signs of any love or affection when I denied Thee; but Thou canst read my very heart; I appeal therefore to Thine all-seeing eye. That Christ knew all things comforted this disciple, as it should us. Peter realized that the Lord knew the depths as well as the surfaces of things, and therefore, that He saw what was in his poor servant’s heart, though his lips had so transgressed. Thus did he once more own the absolute Deity of the Savior. Thus, too, did he rebuke those who would now talk and sing of their love for Christ!
If you love Me, here is the way to manifest it. It is only those who truly love Christ that are fitted to minister to His flock! The work is so laborious, the appreciation is often so small, the response so discouraging, the criticisms so harsh, the attacks of Satan so fierce, that only the "love of Christ"—His for us and ours for Him—can "constrain" to such work.
There is nothing in all this world nearer the heart of Christ than those for whom He shed His precious blood, and therefore He could not give to Peter a more affecting proof of His confidence than by committing to his care the dearest objects of His wondrous love!
"Feed my lambs" (John 21:15) answers to the first benediction in John 20:19: it is Gospel-exposition needed by the young believer to establish him in the foundation truth of redemption. "Shepherd" or "discipline" My sheep (John 21:16) answers to the second "Peace be unto you in John 20:21, which relates to service and walk. "Feed my sheep" (John 21:17) answers to the third "Peace be unto you" in John 20:26, spoken for the special benefit of Thomas, and has to do with the work of restoring those who have gone astray.
To "follow" Christ means to "deny self" and "take up the cross." In other words, it means to be "conformed to his death." This, in spirit; with Peter, in bodily experience, too.
May God awaken our hearts to test for themselves the expansive power of Scripture, and whether we can find a limit anywhere! Like the inconceivable immensity of the heavens, ever increasing as the power of vision is lengthened, we go on to find that the further we go only the more does the thought of infinity rise upon us; but this infinity is filled with an Infinite Presence; in every leaf-blade, in every atom, yet transcending all His works; and ‘to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ. by whom are all things, and we by Him’"
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When the chapter for your study has been selected, begin by asking, What is there here for my own soul?—what warnings, what encouragements, what exhortations, what promises?
