Resurrection Love

Order of Service

• Call to Worship — Revelation 1:17-18
• Hymn — Come, Christians, Join to Sing
• Prayer of Invocation
• Confession of Faith — Westminster Shorter Catechism Q&A on the benefits of the resurrection
• Scripture Reading — Joshua 14:1-15
• Hymn — On Jordan's Stormy Banks
• Pastoral Prayer
• Offering
• Prayer of Dedication
• Hymn — My Jesus, I Love Thee
• Sermon
• Hymn — In Christ Alone
• Benediction

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Sermon Title: Resurrection Love

Scripture: John 21:15-25

I. Resurrection Love Is Sinners' Comfort

A. The context: Jesus restores Peter only after sharing a fellowship meal with him, demonstrating that hard words come wrapped in love

• The charcoal fire of John 21 deliberately recalls the charcoal fire of John 18 where Peter denied Christ three times
• Christ asks Peter "Do you love me?" three times, mirroring the three denials, grieving Peter in order to spur repentance

B. True repentance requires both grief over sin and apprehension of God's mercy

• Westminster Shorter Catechism Q87: repentance unto life involves grief and hatred of sin, turning to God with full purpose of new obedience
• The grief must be paired with the mercy shown in Christ's question — not condemnation alone, but an invitation

C. The searching eye of Christ both convicts and comforts

• Peter's response — "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you" — invites Christ's omniscient gaze as assurance, not only as judgment
• J.C. Ryle: wherever there is true grace, there will be a consciousness of love toward Christ
• The diagnostic question for assurance: not "am I converted?" or "am I sanctified?" but simply, "Do you love Christ?"

II. Resurrection Love Is Service to the Church

A. The commission to feed Christ's flock flows directly from love for Christ

• "Feed my lambs… tend my sheep… feed my sheep" — the flock belongs to Christ, not to Peter or any under-shepherd
• Elders and ruling elders bear special responsibility, but care for the flock is the calling of every believer who loves Christ

B. Jesus addresses Peter as "Simon, son of John," echoing his initial call in John 1, signifying a fresh start and a return to humble dependence

• The good confession — that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God — is the rock; Peter's ministry points sheep to that rock, not to himself

C. Martin Bucer's five categories of sheep provide a framework for caring for the flock

1. Lost sheep — must be sought
2. Straying sheep — must be restored
3. Injured sheep — must be bound and healed
4. Weak sheep — must be strengthened
5. Healthy and strong sheep — must be guarded and fed

• Ezekiel 34:16: "I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak…"

D. The test case of love for Christ is love for his people

• Matthew 25: those who cared for the least of Christ's disciples cared for Christ himself
• The high priest wore the names of the twelve tribes on his breastplate into the Holy of Holies — Christ our great High Priest bears his people on his heart; we are to reflect that care to one another
• The bridegroom and the bride go together; love for Christ and love for his church cannot be separated

III. Resurrection Love Is Submission to a Call

A. The call to follow Christ is a call to die to self and, if necessary, to die for the gospel

• John 21:18-19: "When you are old you will stretch out your hands…" — understood as a prophecy of Peter's crucifixion
• John notes this was said "to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God" — both life and death are to display resurrection hope

B. The English Reformers (Ridley, Cranmer) advanced the gospel more through how they died than through all their writings

• Richard Baxter in his final illness: "I groan, but I do not grumble" — a model of dying well in resurrection hope

C. Peter's question about John ("What about this man?") reveals a lingering tendency to compare himself with others

• Jesus's rebuke: "If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!"
• John clarifies the misunderstood tradition: Jesus did not promise John would not die, only spoke conditionally
• Ryle: we should not be over-anxious about the future of others, but trust God and focus on our own calling
• Matthew Henry: Scripture predictions are given not to satisfy curiosity but to direct conscience

D. The call of Christ is personal and individual — your relationship with Christ is not determined by how he deals with others, but by how he deals with you

• Comparison breeds spiritual blindness; we must fix our eyes on Christ alone and follow him