John 21:15-17

When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?”
“Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”
¹⁶ 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.”
¹⁷ 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; you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Feed my sheep."


Perhaps the best way to open the study of this passage is to make a point about our relationships with Jesus Christ.
We say that we love Him.
Right?
Right.
Let's put this on a level that we call can relate to very well . . .

What if all of our husbands or brothers or dads were all in the same room. Picture that? OK.
Now let's pretend that we hear them saying . . .

Oh, sure, I love my wife. I love _________ (insert the name there).
There's times that I don't want to talk to her.....but I love her.
I might go for days without talking to her.....but I love her.
When I do talk to her, it's usually because I want to ask her for something, but I love her.
And when I do talk to her, I find my mind wandering, and I think about other things, but I love her.
She's not part of my everyday life -- I think about her more on Sunday mornings than any other day.
I meet with other husbands, and we sing songs about how much we love our wives.
Sometimes I will even talk publicly to the rest of them for a few minutes about how much I love her.
She writes me love letters. She's written enough to make a whole book! I don't read them very often, though.
I make sure that I give her a little pocket change every week. I just don't give her enough that it cuts too deeply into how much I want to spend on myself. But I love her.
I just don't care to make her a part of my life.
But I love her. Yep, I really do.

Now, if we heard our husbands saying those things, would we say that they really loved us? That they loved their wives?

Well, let's apply that to our relationship with our Lord Jesus . . .

We are all called the "bride of Christ," right? All believers.

And we say that we love Jesus. Oh, it's easy to say, isn't it?

But do we treat Him like the illustration above?

We'll talk more about this next time.




(A big thank you to Pastor Ray Scott for the illustration!)