Witnesses to Jesus Risen! – Peter

“Come and have breakfast,” Jesus told them.

None of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” because they knew it was the Lord.

John 21:12 CSB

3 Questions & more..

John 21:

• 15 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.”
• 16 He said to him again a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?”
  • He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.”
    • He said to him, “Shepherd My sheep.”
• 17 He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?”
• John now adds his personal understanding of his fellow Disciple, Simon Peter:
  • Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, “Do you love Me?” And he said to Him, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.”
    • Jesus said to him, “Tend My sheep.

Questions & Answers of Love

Last time we noted from the Greek a mismatch between Jesus’ questions and Simon Peter’s answers.

1. John 21:15 Gr agapao
2. John 21:15 Gr phileo
3. John 21:16 Gr agapao
4. John 21:16 Gr phileo

Furthermore, in the Lord’s first question to Simon He asks him about the others, who Peter ignores in his self-focused reply.

And I pointed out a possible motive for Jesus switching up His third question of love to Simon Peter.

3 Commands – Leading in Love

With all of this as background (to this 2-part post about Simon Peter), now we can view Jesus’ three commands to His Disciple He named, The Rock.

Let’s look at the Lord’s three commands to Simon Peter [Simōn Petros].

1. Tend My lambs.
2. Shepherd My sheep.
3. Tend My sheep.

All three commands of Jesus to Simon are similar. In Jesus’ first question the Lord’s reference to the others suggests to Peter a metaphor. His lambs (the others) require a comparative tenderness, even more so than simply watching vulnerable sheep. (Do not be the hired hand who flees the danger of the one that devours them.)

βόσκω – to feed, portraying the duty of a Christian teacher to promote in every way the spiritual welfare of the members of the church

ποιμαίνω – to feed, to tend a flock, keep sheep; but also to rule or govern

ποιμαίνω – again, the same verb for Shepherd, from the Noun ποιμήν for a herdsman, esp. a shepherd

And in Jesus’ parable, he to whose care and control others have committed themselves, and whose precepts they follow.

This applies metaphorically to any presiding officer, overseers (i.e. bishops, elders), kings and princes, and of course to Christ as head of the church.

“I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me, even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.

John 10:14-15 NASB – The Lord Jesus, Son of Man Sacrificed for our sins.

John’s understanding of Peter

Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, “Do you love Me?”

John 21:17b – NASB

I asked at the beginning of this two-part post about Simon Peter:

• What does a DEATH have to do with GOOD NEWS?

John tells us that ‘Peter was grieved,’ but as I mentioned before John has a great understanding of Peter’s heart.

For when John writes his Gospel sometime after A.D. 85, Simon Peter has already ‘taken up his cross’ and literally followed their Lord, Shepherd and Master to be crucified on a cross.

John grieves for Peter. He misses his own dear friend as he does his own brother James who also had been martyred for their Master, Christ Jesus.

Matthew confirms their reaction

The Apostle Matthew had used the same description of what all the Disciples felt when Jesus revealed that one of them would betray Him. “Surely not I, Lord?”

John explains Peter’s own grief of rejection for his failures of the flesh, breaking through an apparent hardness of The Rock who cannot answer his Lord directly about his commitment to love.

You will weep & lament.. and you will grieve

“Truly, truly, I say to you, that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will grieve, but your grief will be turned into joy.

John 16:20 NASB – Jesus’ prophesy of the Disciples grief, but joy for the world

Grief & Grieving result from things other than death. [see definition]

λυπέω from sorrow – λύπη

• be sorrowful (6x), grieve (6x), make sorry (6x), be sorry (3x), sorrow (3x), cause grief (1x), be in heaviness (1x)
• to affect with sadness, cause grief, to throw into sorrow
• to grieve, offend
• to make one uneasy, cause him a scruple

There’s a relationship between grief and love,

And there is no grief where a soul has not love.

Have YOU ever experienced grief in a loving relationship with another?

Simon Peter had.

John’s heart for their friend Peter (even after Peter’s death) desires to share the Disciple’s grief over his failings of their friend and Lord, Christ Jesus.

Jesus & Peter

NOTE: All these things had taken place in just three years, many events within the weeks just prior to Jesus’ Crucifixion, and now His Resurrection appearances to Peter, John and the Disciples.

Peter follows Jesus

All the Gospel writers except John testify how Simon Peter and others came to follow the Lord. (Many had previously been disciples of John the Baptist who baptized Jesus.)

Luke 5: – an earlier fishing encounter

MATTHEW 4 & MARK 1 also witness this important event

Now it happened that while the crowd was pressing around Him and listening to the word of God, He was standing by the lake of Gennesaret.. And He got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s.. When He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.”

Simon answered and said, “Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but I will do as You say and let down the nets.” .. they enclosed a great quantity of fish, and their nets began to break.. their partners in the other boat .. came and filled both of the boats, so that they began to sink.

• Does this sound at all familiar?
  • It was from when Jesus first called His Disciples, which must have been a most memorable moment to both Peter and John.
  • And listen to Simon Peter’s response to Jesus choosing him as His Disciple:

But when Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus’ feet, saying, “Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!”

Luke 5:8 NASB

For amazement had seized him and all his companions because of the catch of fish which they had taken; and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon.

And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not fear, from now on you will be catching men.”

These three become Jesus’ inner circle and closest earthly friends. This is the Simon Peter for whom both Jesus and the Apostle John show compassion. “Tend my lambs…” and Simon’s surviving friend witnesses to the Church Peter’s heart for Christ Jesus.

When they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed Him.

Peter’s Confession of Christ

Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He was asking His disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”

Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon [Son of Jonah] Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.”

– Matthew 16 excerpt

At The Last Supper

Then Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away because of Me this night, for it is written,

‘I WILL STRIKE DOWN THE SHEPHERD, AND THE SHEEP OF THE FLOCK SHALL BE SCATTERED.’

Matthew 26:31 NASB – note the Lord’s metaphor of the Shepherd & the sheep

“But after I have been raised, I will go ahead of you to Galilee.”

Matthew 26:31 NASB – Jesus to the Disciples of His flock

Peter said to Him, “Lord, why can I not follow You right now? I will lay down my life for You.”

Jesus said to him, “Truly I say to you that this very night, before a rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.”

Peter said to Him, “Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You.” All the disciples said the same thing too.

We unfairly convict Peter but forget that all of the Eleven also promised the same. And after this Matthew witnesses:

And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved and distressed.

Then He said to them, “My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death; remain here and keep watch with Me.”

Matthew 26:37-38 When the Lord was grieved in Gethsemane

Returning to Galilee’s shore

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And even though the Disciples had met the risen Lord Jesus in Jerusalem behind locked doors, here He fed them once more at dawn on a Galilee beach near Capernaum.

The Disciple Jesus loved testifies the Good News to the Church. It was here that Christ restored The Rock upon which their Living Stones have been built.

Simon, Son of Jonah, was also crucified when he took up our Shepherd’s Cross. The Disciples and Peter live in Christ Jesus!

In Him Christ has restored sinners like Simon — sinners like me, the one Jesus loved would say — and because like Peter you follow Him, sinners like you.

John does give us GOOD NEWS about death, yet most urgently the Gospel of Jesus Christ who died to give sinners like us eternal LIFE.

P.S. – John’s post script

The Apostle closes his Gospel with a brief explanation to Christians who know him and have heard ‘church rumors’ that are untrue. (Have you ever heard something untrue from a fellow saint of your church?)

We will hear John’s clarification of truth next time and briefly mention the importance of truth in our witness for the Lord Jesus.

To be continued..