Peter, Do You Love Me?

This sermon by Rev. Gilbert Jansen focuses on John's account of the events surrounding the disciples waiting at Galilee, after the resurrection, to meet the Lord Jesus, and of the famous post-breakfast questions of Jesus, "Peter, do you love me?"

The texts for this sermon were:

• John 21:1-17 (main sermon text)
• Mark 16:5-7
• Psalm 138

Some points of interest from the sermon:

• The differentiation between agape and phileo love is discussed extensively (trust me: it's not boring).
• Pointing out that John 21:5 is better-translated in the NIV.
• Quote: "I phileo my wife, alright!"

There were many memories evoked for me in the rest of this service, too.  I can hear my brother Peter coming over the top in the choir, and what I presume to be his six-week old son Danny crying throughout.  In the pastoral prayer, Dad prays for Dorothea Meyer and Jean and Jimmy Goodsell.

The apology about the problems with the delivery of the hymn books made me smile, and helped me date the sermon - Dad only labelled the tape "10/4", so the hymn books reference helped me be certain it was 1988.

I also felt, more than ever, the truth of these words for my Dad as I heard him sing them again:

I’ll praise my Maker while I’ve breath,

And when my voice is lost in death,

Praise shall employ my nobler pow’rs;

My days of praise shall ne’er be past,

While life and thought and being last,

Or immortality endures.

Links:

• The Sermon Only
• The Entire Recording

Not of Blood, Nor of the Will of the Flesh

Read John 3:1-21

This passage is interpreted by some to mean that a person is born again through the action of being baptised. Being "born of water and the Spirit" is taken to mean baptism. Because being born again refers to the process of regeneration, this doctrine (teaching) is called baptismal regeneration. I don’t think that scripture supports this understanding, and I’d like to outline why I think that.

1. From John 3 it is clear that you must be born again, or regenerated to see the kingdom of God. The first issue with connecting baptism to being born again is that the thief on the cross went straight to paradise, but wasn't baptised (Luke 23:39-43).
2. The saints of the Old Covenant weren't baptised. Does that mean that Abraham, Moses, David and Elijah are outside of the kingdom? Or are we to take it that Jesus meant, "from now on", or perhaps "from Pentecost"? But Jesus is speaking in the present tense. Unless Nicodemus was born again, if he'd died that night, he wouldn't have gone into the kingdom.
3. Jesus says to Nicodemus, "Are you a teacher of Israel and you don't know these things?" Jesus clearly expected a teacher of the Old Testament to be familiar with the concepts he was discussing. If being born again "of water and the spirit" refers to the new institution of baptism, then Jesus could hardly expect him to know this was a requirement of entering the kingdom. This phrase points to the Old Testament, and is also related to point (2) above. Being born again must be an Old Testament principle, not just a New Testament one.
4. Being born again "of water and the spirit", as prophesied in the Old Testament, points to (among other passages) Ezekiel 36:25-27:
   

   25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

5. The Ezekiel passage above points to cleansing and washing of past sins, and to being born again with a new heart. This process is linked to the Holy Spirit. This is consistent with Titus 3:5, which refers to "the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit". That is, being born again has two components: washing the filth of the old man, and "starting again" as the new man. There are similar themes are in Romans 6, Colossians 2:6-15.
6. The point of Jesus in John 3 is that the Holy Spirit is like the wind which blows where it wishes. In John 1:12-13, regeneration is said to be not of "the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God." Titus 3:5 further says regeneration is "not because of works done in righteousness."
   
   Baptism, however, is an action or a work - done perhaps in righteousness - and is performed entirely by human will. Humans decide when and how baptism is performed. The Holy Spirit is not confined to this, and is not forced into making people born again simply because someone baptises them, and will not be prevented from making people to be born again just because nobody has baptised them. The Holy Spirit is God, and is not a human puppet.
7. Baptism and being born again remain clearly and closely linked, but the first is a sign and seal of the second. There are very few good reasons for a believer not to be baptised on entering the covenant. One biblical example of a good reason to not be baptised is being in the process of being crucified: I do not doubt that the thief on the cross was born again. I am sure many men and women have been born again, coming to faith in Christ, in situations such that they weren't able to be baptised before their deaths. These will be in the kingdom.
8. Many other passages link being born again and/or adoption to faith, with no mention of baptism. 1 John 5:1 and Romans 8:14.

The Deity of Christ

Read: John 1:1-3

Believing that Jesus Christ is, always was, and always will be fully God is a fundamental teaching of the Christian faith. It's very important. The first few verses of John is one of the most significant passages in the Bible that establishes this doctrine: the "Deity of Christ".

Verse one is very plan; however, Arian heretics pose an argument based on the absence of an indefinite article in the Greek. Because there's no "the" in Greek, the verse could be saying - they say - "...and the Word was a God."

This is really a smoke-screen, and not worth arguing with, because verse three leaves no doubt. Verse three implies there are two categories of existence: things that were made, and things that weren't made. Jesus wasn't made, because without him was not any thing made that was made. He couldn't have made himself - he wasn't made - he's in the "things that weren't made" category. There was never a time when Christ was not. There was never a time when the Father did not have The Son.

We worship God who became man.

Which We Have Heard

Read: 1 John 1:1-3

Present day intellectuals are very proud that their post-modern rationalistic brilliance is above the primitive fairy tales of the Bible. This is nothing new. This mindset has been around a long time, and was in the world that Christ's apostles went out into.

Christ's coming, his teachings and his actions were real things, that happened to real people. John used his senses of hearing, sight and touch to make observations. Observations from which he drew conclusions about who Jesus Christ was. And then, he was compelled to share his observations: to proclaim it both verbally - and most importantly for us - in the written form.

Peter, another of the apostles, responded to the scornful reactions to the apostles' message when he wrote, "For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty." (2 Peter 1:16).

In the documents of the New Testament we have well verified, historical accounts of the man named Jesus, called the Christ. The information at your disposal is reliable. What you do with it is up to you. Try reading it first, before you reject it.

A not-so-new Commandment

Read: 2 John 1:5.

Have you ever noticed that it can be easier to get along with non-Christians in the world than the Christian brothers and sisters in your own church? As you love your Christian 'siblings' more and more, you get closer to them. Your lives become intertwined, the barriers come down and pretenses are dropped. Subtlety and diplomacy give way to frankness and honesty, with often brutal consequences.

How do we love our Christian brothers and sisters? There are a thousand ways. If you have a problem with someone, go and work it out, on on one (Matthew 18:15-17). Don't go and tell everyone else instead: that's gossip. We should forgive each other, then do it again, and then repeat this seventy times seven times (Matthew 18:21-22).

Why is it so important to love one another? First: we are told to. That's what commandment means. It's not an optional extra.

John said this was not a new commandment; but, it was a new one, once, when the Lord Jesus gave it. He said, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." (John 13:34-35).

The second reason it's important to love one another is that it is our mark of identification as Christians. It's not the cross, and it's not bumper stickers. People should know we follow Christ because we love one another. It should be that obvious.