Hello and welcome
to "Books of the Book."
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My name is Deyvy Rodriquez
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and with me is Dr. Tom Shepherd.
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He is a professor
at Andrews University.
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He teaches New Testament
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at the
Theological Seminary there.
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Dr. Shepherd,
welcome. Thank you.
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Before we begin
our study of 1 Peter,
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the last chapter
actually we're doing today.
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Tell us a little
more about your family.
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I married to Sherri Shepherd.
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Her maiden name was Bomb.
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And we've been
married for 38 years.
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And I've been blessed
by God with two children,
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Amy and Jonathan.
They are both grown.
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And Amy has
three little children
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with her husband Peter
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and they are Malachi
and Nadia and Isaiah.
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And then our son
Jonathan and his wife Laura
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have a little
grandson name, Nathaniel. Okay.
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And Amy and Peter are teachers
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down at Southwestern
Adventist University
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as biology professors
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and Jonathan
works with accounting.
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And they live in
the Berrien Spring area,
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so we get to see
little Nathaniel and Jonathan
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and Laura quite
regularly. Wonderful.
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And so, what are
we studying today?
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Today we're
looking at 1 Peter 5:1-4.
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This is the last
chapter of the book.
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And now he is going to talk
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to the Christian
community once again.
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So let's read 1
Peter 5:1-4. Okay.
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"The elders who
are among you I exhort,
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I who am a fellow elder
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and a witness of the
sufferings of Christ,
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and also a partaker of the
glory that will be revealed,
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shepherd the flock of
God which is among you,
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serving as overseers, not
by compulsion but willingly
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not for
dishonest gain but eagerly,
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nor as being lords
over those entrusted to you,
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but being examples to the flock
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and when the
Chief Shepherd appears,
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you will receive
the crown of glory
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that does not
fade away." All right.
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Now Peter opens this
section in a very unusual way.
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Why does he do that?
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Well, the interesting
thing is that he uses the term
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that's used nowhere
else in the New Testament.
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He calls himself a fellow elder.
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He says, "I'm
talking to the elders."
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And he says,
"I'm a fellow elder."
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You might expect that he would
actually call himself an apostle
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because that's what he did
at the beginning of the book.
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And apostle is so
much higher than an elder,
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you know, it's
like way up in the sky.
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And you wonder, why use a term
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that puts him on the same
level with each other's elders?
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I think the answer to that,
ties into the whole metaphor
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that controls these four verses
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and that is the metaphor
of the flock and the shepherd.
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He describes a variety
of things in this passage
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that have this overarching
kind of ring to them of,
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a metaphor of a
person taking care
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of a flock sheep or
goats or something like that.
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And the interesting
parallel to this passage
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is actually foundi in the
gospel of John Chapter 21.
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So we want to turn over
to John 21 to see this story.
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This is the last
chapter of the gospel of John.
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"And Jesus has
risen from the dead.
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The disciples have seen him,
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recognized him
as the risen Lord."
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And you read the
end of John Chapter 20,
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he tells you why
he wrote his book
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and you say, well, that's
a good ending to the book.
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And then he says well, I
have another story to tell you.
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And he tells the
story of the disciples
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going to the Sea of Galilee.
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The Sea of
Tiberias is called here.
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And they go fishing.
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You remember the story,
they catch nothing that night.
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And Jesus is standing
on the shore afterwards
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and He calls out
to them, "Children,
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do you have any fish?"
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And they said, "No."
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And He says, "Cast the net
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on the right side of the
boat and you'll find something."
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They cast the net and
they can't pull in the net,
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it's so full of fish.
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And John, the beloved
disciple turns to Peter
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and he says, "It's the Lord."
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And that's all that
Peter needs to hear.
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He throws on his clothes,
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he jumps into the
water and swims to shore.
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And then they all come
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and they eat
breakfast together with Jesus.
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The food is miraculously there.
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And He says,
"Bring some of the fish."
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And they have
this meal together.
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John says that, "No one
dares to ask Him who He is."
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He said, "They all
knew it was the Lord,
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it was Jesus, the risen Lord."
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Then there is this very
interesting interchange,
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exchange
between Jesus and Peter.
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We want to read about
it. It's in John 21:15-19.
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So I want you to
read this passage.
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And let's keep
track of things in here
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'cause there is
this set three questions
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and three answers
and so forth. Okay.
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"So when they
had eaten breakfast,
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Jesus said to Simon
Peter, 'Simon, son of Jonah,
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do you love Me more than these?"
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He said to Him. He
said to him, "Yes, Lord.
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You know that I love you."
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He said to him, "Feed my lambs."
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He said to him
again a second time,
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"Simon, son of
Jonah, do you love Me?"
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He said to Him, "Yes,
Lord. You know that I love You."
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He said to him, "Tend My sheep."
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He said to him the third time,
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"Simon, son of
Jonah, do you love Me?"
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Peter was grieved because
He said to him the third time,
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"Do you love Me?"
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And he said to Him, "Lord,
You know all these things.
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You know that I love You."
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Jesus said to
him, "Feed My sheep.
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Most assuredly, I say to
you, when you were younger,
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you girded yourself and
walked where you wished,
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but when you are old, you
will stretch out your hands,
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and another will guard you
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and will carry you
where you do not wish."
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This He spoke, signifying by
what death he would glorify God.
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And when He had
spoken this, He said to him,
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"Follow Me." All right.
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It's an interesting passage
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and there's this three
questions that Jesus asks him.
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We are reminded that
Peter denied Jesus three times.
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And here Jesus asks
him a question three times.
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Peter responds three times.
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Three times Jesus
gives him a commission.
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He has been a fisherman
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and he is not gonna
be a fisherman anymore.
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He says, "Feed my lambs."
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He says, "Tend my sheep."
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He says, "Feed my sheep."
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So we wonder what in the world
is going on in this passage.
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How does this
take-- What is Jesus doing
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and why does Peter
respond as he does?
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Well, you really
have to look at Greek
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to be able to
recognize this easily.
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Even then it takes a
bit of pondering to look at.
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There are several
different words for love
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and to love in Greek.
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The one that is very commonly
used in the New Testament
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to talk about the kind of love
that God has for us is agapao.
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We talk of agape as the
noun and agapao as the verb.
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There is another verb, philao
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which means
friendship kind of love, okay.
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And Peter and Jesus
are using these terms
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throughout this discussion.
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We have a graphic
here that displays it
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in a kind of a
chart form that shows
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what this love will
look like and the ideas.
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Now you'll kind have
to take a look at this.
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You got questions
one, two and three.
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You have Christ's
question on the left
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and then Peter's response,
then his ministry commission.
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You have level of love
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and the level of
ministry that are involved here.
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Now when Jesus
first asked him, He says,
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"Do you love Me more
than the rest of these do?"
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And he uses agapao.
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So, do you have
the highest love?
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In fact, do you have more love
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than the rest of
the disciples do for Me?
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Now before Jesus
died, Peter had said,
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"Yes certainly, I sure do.
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I have that love
more than anybody else."
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But now he is really humble.
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In fact, he doesn't even
dare to use the same word.
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He uses, you see
there on the graphic.
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He uses the word, philao
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which is a
friendship kind of love.
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Jesus asked them
again. "Do you love Me?"
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He doesn't say more
than the rest of these.
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He kind of lowers the bar a bit.
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but He still uses agapao.
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Peter again uses philao.
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The third time
around, now Jesus uses philao.
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It's like He has lowered
the bar down lower, you know.
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And Peter is hurt this time.
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And he says, but
He still uses philao.
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And people look at
this and they pointed,
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"What in the
world is going on here?"
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It's even worse when
you return to the ministry
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because the ministry commission
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seems to start
at the lowest level,
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feeding the
lambs, the near fights.
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And then it goes
up to a middle level,
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perhaps, caring for more mature
like taking them out, you know,
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and then feeding the sheep.
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Now this is like
the highest level,
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if you were the
pastor of a university,
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church or something, you know.
00:10:01.70\00:10:03.07
You don't just
put anybody there,
00:10:03.10\00:10:04.93
you choose a
person with the highest.
00:10:04.96\00:10:06.93
So Jesus conception of
what He is requiring of.
00:10:06.96\00:10:10.23
Peter seems to go down
00:10:10.26\00:10:11.63
from the highest
level down to the lower,
00:10:11.66\00:10:13.75
but His commission to him seems
to go from lower to higher,
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and it's very
strange, moving away.
00:10:17.43\00:10:19.03
So why does He do this?
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Well, He is testing
him. He is testing him.
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He denied him three times
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and so He is
testing him as well.
00:10:27.27\00:10:29.14
And He is saying He wants to see
00:10:29.17\00:10:32.22
how much Peter has repented.
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Now how would
Peter show repentance?
00:10:37.15\00:10:43.18
Well, if he were to
make-- If Jesus said,
00:10:43.21\00:10:45.13
"Do you love me more
than the rest of these?"
00:10:45.16\00:10:47.09
I sure do more
than anybody else here.
00:10:47.12\00:10:51.08
That wouldn't show repentance.
00:10:51.11\00:10:52.96
That would show the
same old brash Peter
00:10:52.99\00:10:55.29
who was very self-confident
00:10:55.32\00:10:57.96
considered himself
better than everybody else.
00:10:57.99\00:11:00.74
Peter has learned
an amazing lesson.
00:11:00.77\00:11:03.77
He went through the experience
00:11:03.80\00:11:05.26
of denying Jesus and the cross,
seeing Jesus die on the cross.
00:11:05.29\00:11:12.06
And we get inklings
from the other gospels
00:11:12.09\00:11:14.24
when we read the story
that Peter didn't feel like
00:11:14.27\00:11:17.25
he belonged anymore with
the rest of the disciples.
00:11:17.28\00:11:19.91
In Mark, the
angel says to the women,
00:11:19.94\00:11:21.81
"Go tell his disciples."
00:11:21.84\00:11:24.30
And Peter, that he is supposed
to meet them in Galilee.
00:11:24.33\00:11:28.37
So Peter felt
that he didn't belong
00:11:28.40\00:11:31.51
and probably the
other disciples did as well.
00:11:31.54\00:11:34.30
That he didn't deserve a place.
00:11:34.33\00:11:35.97
I mean, if we
have somebody today
00:11:36.00\00:11:37.86
who destroys their
ministry, you know,
00:11:37.89\00:11:39.69
they do some foolish action
and just do something terrible,
00:11:39.72\00:11:43.71
they won't be hired
by the church conference
00:11:43.74\00:11:46.31
or, you know, by
local churches too much.
00:11:46.34\00:11:48.48
They're pretty
much out, you know.
00:11:48.51\00:11:50.89
So Peter displays a very
sensitive concept of repentance.
00:11:50.92\00:11:57.86
He doesn't dare use
the wonderful word agapao,
00:11:57.89\00:12:00.59
that Jesus has used
that would be just cheeky.
00:12:00.62\00:12:03.23
That would be so
arrogant to do that.
00:12:03.26\00:12:05.56
He takes a very low, "Lord,"
00:12:05.59\00:12:07.36
he says, "Yes,
you know, I love you."
00:12:07.39\00:12:08.76
And Jesus is like
He is putting the knife
00:12:08.79\00:12:11.12
and He is just twisting it.
00:12:11.15\00:12:13.08
He brings the level down
and finally He comes down
00:12:13.11\00:12:16.09
to the level
where Peter started.
00:12:16.12\00:12:18.74
And He says, "Do you love me
00:12:18.77\00:12:20.14
with this fellowship
love, this brotherly love."
00:12:20.17\00:12:23.02
And that's like questioning
00:12:23.05\00:12:24.42
what Peter had
already been answering,
00:12:24.45\00:12:26.30
but Peter comes
through with flying colors.
00:12:26.33\00:12:29.53
He says, "Lord,
you know, everything.
00:12:29.56\00:12:31.92
You know, that I love you."
00:12:31.95\00:12:33.46
His point of
reference has changed.
00:12:33.49\00:12:37.46
His point of
reference has changed.
00:12:37.49\00:12:39.33
It's no longer
himself. It's Jesus.
00:12:39.36\00:12:42.89
He says, "Lord,
you know, everything."
00:12:42.92\00:12:45.13
And Jesus
restores him to ministry
00:12:45.16\00:12:48.44
gives him a commission.
00:12:48.47\00:12:49.84
In fact, this is one
of the greatest evidences
00:12:49.87\00:12:53.62
that Jesus rose
from the dead. What?
00:12:53.65\00:12:56.57
That Peter was restored to
ministry in the Christian church
00:12:56.60\00:13:01.00
because if Jesus had not
restored him to ministry,
00:13:01.03\00:13:04.00
nobody else would have.
00:13:04.03\00:13:06.13
They would have left him out,
00:13:06.16\00:13:07.53
if they even started there,
you know, their little group.
00:13:07.56\00:13:10.50
Peter wouldn't
have been part of them.
00:13:10.53\00:13:11.90
So Peter never
forgot this lesson
00:13:11.93\00:13:15.25
and when we turn to 1 Peter 5.
00:13:15.28\00:13:18.65
What concept of
ministry does he link in to?
00:13:18.68\00:13:22.62
The shepherd 0and the flock,
00:13:22.65\00:13:24.77
he calls Jesus
the Chief Shepherd
00:13:24.80\00:13:27.29
and he talks here
about being a fellow elder
00:13:27.32\00:13:30.30
down at that level where he knew
00:13:30.33\00:13:33.96
he belonged along
with everybody else.
00:13:33.99\00:13:36.30
He had true
repentance in his life.
00:13:36.33\00:13:38.35
Well, we're just starting
studying 1 Peter Chapter 5
00:13:38.38\00:13:41.74
and we'll come back and study
00:13:41.77\00:13:43.14
some more of these
verses after a short break.
00:13:43.17\00:13:46.06