Bible Text: John | Preacher: Pastor Joe Ricchuiti | Series: How to Serve Without Getting Your Nose Out of Joint, John

1.  Jesus restores Peter publicly, reassuring him of His love.  In the words of Dr. Edwin Blum: “No matter how great a person is [they] may fall (cf. 1 Cor 10:12).  But God’s grace and forgiveness will restore the repentant.” Regular examination of our lives should produce godly repentance and restoration.  A good prayer to pray in the process is:  “O God, search out the weak places in my life, the parts of me that are vulnerable and immature.  Establish Your rule there so that I may grow into wholeness, receiving Your strength and expressing it in the love You revealed in Jesus Christ. Amen.” (Eugene Peterson)
2.  Jesus’ challenge to Peter is to love Him above these other disciples, above his old life and vocation.  Out of love for Jesus should flow ministry to Jesus’ sheep.  All ministry flows from love for Christ (“wholehearted devotion to Jesus”).  The primary qualification, motivation and prerequisite for service is love for Jesus.
3.  “Just before Jesus left this earth, He instructed Simon Peter to care for the dearest object of His love—His sheep.  How could anyone care for them as Jesus cares?  Only out of love for Him.  There is no other way.  Three times Jesus asked Peter, ‘Do you love Me/’  He asked His questions to underscore the essential truth that only love for Christ would sustain Peter in the work that lay ahead—that arduous, demanding work of caring for people’s souls—perhaps the hardest work of all.  Jesus did not ask Peter if he loved His sheep, but if he loved Him.  Affection for God’s people in itself will not sustain us.  His sheep can be unresponsive, unappreciative, and harshly critical of our efforts to love and to serve them.  In the end, we will find ourselves defeated and discouraged.  The ‘love of Christ’—our love for Him—is the only sufficient motivation that will enable us to stay the course, to continue to feed the flock of God.” (Excerpted from Our Daily Bread)
4.  “Beware of any work for God which enables you to evade concentration on Him.  A great many Christian workers worship their work….A worker without this solemn dominant note of concentration on God is apt to get his work on his neck; there is no margin of body, mind or spirit free, consequently he becomes spent out and crushed.” (Oswald Chambers)
5.  Jesus instructs Peter to “keep on following Him.” This is the dominant issue in the life of every Christian.  We are not to look back, look around, look at others, look at the circumstances, or even look at ourselves.  We are not to deviate from concentration of Jesus and following Him.