Heaven's Point of View

New Testament Words for Love

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Shelley Quinn (Host), Tom Shepherd

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Series Code: HPOV

Program Code: HPOV000024A


00:16 Hello, and welcome to Heaven's Point of View.
00:18 We are doing a series on love, marriage, sex, and divorce
00:22 according to the New Testament.
00:24 And our distinguished professor
00:26 who is our co-host for this program
00:29 and the teacher of this program,
00:31 I'm here as a student, is Dr. Tom Sheperd.
00:34 And, Tom, thank you again for being here
00:37 and doing this series.
00:38 Glad to do.
00:40 This is once again, a series that you do in seminary.
00:43 You are the professor for New Testament Interpretation
00:46 at the seminary.
00:47 You're also director
00:49 for the doctoral programs particularly--
00:51 Not all of them. All right.
00:52 So you do the PhD in religion and the ThD in religion.
00:57 That's right. That's right.
00:58 We have about-- What is the difference?
01:00 Well, the difference,
01:01 first we have six doctoral programs at the seminary.
01:04 We have the Doctor of Ministry.
01:06 Pastors will do the master divinity degree.
01:08 They will go out for some years and then many of them will do
01:12 the Doctor of Ministry, they call the D.Min.
01:15 They have a brand new doctor program
01:17 called the Doctor of Missiology.
01:19 Missions. Yeah, missions, D.Mis.
01:21 Then we have three PhD degrees in the seminary.
01:24 We have the PhD in religion that I oversee those students.
01:27 Now the PhD in religious education
01:30 and that's overseen by Dr. Kathy Beagles.
01:33 Then we have the PhD in archeology,
01:35 biblical archeology that Dr. Randy Younker oversees.
01:39 I also oversee the ThD program.
01:41 Now, that's the Doctor of Theology.
01:43 And the difference between the PhD in religion and the ThD
01:47 is the PhD focuses you in one particular area
01:50 like New Testament or missions or theology
01:54 with a cognate and another area we take a few classes.
01:57 But the ThD takes the same number of classes
01:59 that you would-- same number of hours or credits
02:02 that you would have in one area and divides it between two.
02:05 So it's an interdisciplinary degree.
02:07 So you could link together New Testament and Old Testament
02:10 or theology in church history
02:12 or New Testament in church history
02:14 and it's helpful for getting out some issues
02:19 that bridge between topics like,
02:21 for instance, the change of the Sabbath.
02:23 It would be a perfect study
02:24 between New Testament and church history.
02:28 Because the time period
02:29 when the change of the Sabbath occurs
02:30 is after the first century
02:32 and known into the second century and onwards.
02:34 So that's just an example of what people could do so.
02:38 So now I assume then your doctoral degree is religion?
02:42 It is the PhD.
02:43 I did my studies at Andrews actually about 20 years ago.
02:45 Wonderful. And you wrote your dissertation on what?
02:48 On Gospel of Mark.
02:49 Gospel of Mark which-- Sandwich stories.
02:51 We have been so blessed because Tom did the--
02:55 it's okay if I call you Tom instead of Dr. Sheperd?
02:56 That's fine.
02:58 But Tom did the series here
02:59 for Books of the Book on the Gospel of Mark.
03:01 He also did a series
03:03 that you're probably familiar with Books of the Book
03:05 and that was on 1 and 2 Peter which you are also an author
03:09 and you have released a new book
03:12 "Inside Out, Upside Down:
03:13 Surprising Lessons from 1-2 Peter."
03:17 And this is hot off the presses,
03:19 my personal copy that I just received
03:21 and I'm very excited about this book.
03:25 All right, last time we began this series
03:28 talking about four rare words for love in the Old Testament
03:33 and then we got to ahab,
03:36 which was one of the more common Old Testament
03:39 words for love.
03:41 This-- today,
03:43 we are going to go through the New Testament words
03:47 but first you have your favorite Old Testament word
03:51 that we didn't cover last time.
03:52 My favorite Old Testament word on love is--
03:54 On love. Hesed.
03:56 Try and say that. Hesed. Hesed.
03:58 You got to clear you throat.
03:59 That's a little bit like that, yeah.
04:01 And this is usually translated in many Bible translations
04:05 it says loving kindness or mercy.
04:07 And the interesting thing about this word
04:10 is that it is not associated with inanimate objects.
04:15 You can't have hesed
04:16 for a chair or for your house or something like that.
04:21 Hesed is a relational word between people.
04:25 So it always involves people.
04:27 Second, it's always--
04:30 it's requested or done for another person
04:33 with whom you already have a relationship.
04:35 So it's love and kindness you show to somebody.
04:38 Third, it's-- hesed refers to a specific action.
04:43 So it's something you do.
04:45 It's not just something, now it can infer like a feeling
04:49 but the--
04:50 Not necessarily an emotion.
04:51 It's like they say. Yeah, it's an action.
04:53 You help somebody.
04:54 Now there's between individuals
04:57 there's these four common characteristics of hesed
05:00 and the first is that somebody needs help.
05:05 Somebody needs help
05:07 and that help is actually really needed.
05:09 It's essential because if number two,
05:11 if they don't get help, then things are gonna get worse.
05:15 And number three,
05:18 there's one person in particularly,
05:20 who is uniquely capable of supplying their need.
05:23 And four which is a very interesting aspect of this
05:26 is that the person who needs help
05:31 cannot require it of the person who can give it.
05:35 In other words, the person has to freely give it.
05:38 So the giver-- it cannot be demanded,
05:41 it cannot be--
05:43 it has to be initiated with the giver
05:47 is the one who is giving hesed.
05:48 Right. Right.
05:50 Now, the other person can appeal for that help
05:52 but they cannot demand it.
05:53 So it's not a treaty.
05:55 Remember when we talked about ahab,
05:56 we talked about a relationship with God
05:58 and you are in His kind of treaty relationship with Him.
06:00 That is not hesed.
06:02 Hesed, you can't demand it you can only ask it
06:06 and they have to freely choose to give it.
06:09 So there's kind of an interesting aspect
06:10 of this loving-kindness and mercy that it shows.
06:14 And it's used many, many times in the Old Testament,
06:16 more than 250 times.
06:18 May I just tell you quickly one of my favorites, Psalms--
06:20 Okay, tell me one of your favorite.
06:22 Psalms 63, where David says,
06:24 "Because Your hesed, your loving-kindness
06:27 is better than life, my lips will praise You."
06:30 You know, he is talking about how he was thirsting for God.
06:34 Yeah, if you've ever been to Israel
06:37 and got down to the Dead Sea areas,
06:39 it is very, very dry.
06:42 So you can imagine somebody saying, this dry thirsty land.
06:45 Amen. Amen. Yeah.
06:47 Now, the wonderful key passage that kind of becomes a--
06:52 what should we say,
06:53 a over arching concept of this idea of hesed
06:57 is in Exodus 34:6, 7.
07:01 Exodus 34:6, 7.
07:04 Now, this is just after the experience
07:08 of the golden calf which was in Exodus 32.
07:11 And, you know how Moses intercedes for Israel.
07:16 In Exodus 33 then he asks, he wants to see God
07:20 and God says, "You cannot see my face or you will die.
07:25 But I'll put you in a cleft of the rock,
07:27 I will cover you with My hand and when I pass by,
07:31 I'll take My hand away and you could see my back."
07:33 That's the most of my glory you can see.
07:36 So when God does pass by Moses,
07:39 Exodus 34:6 and 7 is what he says.
07:43 So now read these verses. Okay.
07:45 Exodus 34:6, "And the Lord passed before him"
07:49 let me say, so Moses is asked to see His glory.
07:54 And now, "the Lord passed before him and proclaimed,
07:59 'The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious,
08:02 longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth,
08:05 keeping mercy for thousands,
08:07 forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin,
08:11 by no means clearing the guilty,
08:13 visiting the iniquity of the fathers
08:14 upon the children and the children's children
08:17 to the third and the fourth generation.'"
08:19 All right.
08:21 So see in verse 6 when he says that he is "abounding in"
08:25 well, yours says?
08:27 "His goodness and truth." Mine says, "Steadfast love."
08:29 And I like that better. That's a hesed.
08:32 And the difference is
08:33 that I'm reading from New King James Version
08:35 and you're reading from which version?
08:37 It's called the English Standard Version.
08:39 The ESV, English Standard Version.
08:41 ESV, nice literal translation. It's a quite good.
08:45 Yes. Enjoyed a lot.
08:47 So this is-- this concept of hesed,
08:50 this idea of the Lord God
08:52 that He is merciful and gracious,
08:53 abounding in hesed and truth.
08:56 What a difference though, as you are saying
08:57 goodness and truth compared to steadfast love.
09:00 Well, loving-kindness, steadfast love, God's mercy.
09:03 This becomes like a benediction throughout the Old Testament
09:07 where people, they say, well, we've done wrong,
09:10 we failed but God is a God of mercy.
09:14 And we can turn to Him and we can ask Him,
09:16 maybe He will turn
09:17 and He will forgive us, you see.
09:19 Amen.
09:20 Now one of the very beautiful places
09:22 where this idea of hesed shows up
09:25 is in the Book of Ruth.
09:27 You know, you read the Book of Judges
09:31 and it's just like, "Oh, it's so shocking."
09:33 You know, all these terrible things that happen.
09:35 And just at the end you know,
09:37 when they chopped that poor woman
09:38 up into 12 pieces and send her body parts
09:42 all over the, all over Israel,
09:44 the Book of Judges ends with a phrase
09:47 that its had over and over, said over and over
09:50 the last phrase is and no one,
09:54 everyone did what was right in his eye, in own eyes
09:56 because there was no king in Israel at the time.
09:58 So the time of the Judges seem so gory and violent
10:05 you get this beautiful little gem of a book
10:08 called Ruth
10:09 and it happens during the time of the Judges.
10:11 And everybody knows the story
10:13 that Elimelech and his wife Naomi,
10:15 they go with their sons over to Moab.
10:18 It's a drought and there in Moab,
10:22 the two boys marry Moabite girls.
10:24 Now, I mean, that's like
10:26 you are not supposed to do that.
10:28 And so they marry these girls and then Elimelech dies
10:32 and then the two boys die and Naomi is just heart broke.
10:37 I mean, there's no social security system.
10:39 Her social security has died.
10:42 The children are supposed to take care of her
10:43 and so she is bereft
10:45 and finally she decides to go back to Israel.
10:48 And, you know, the beautiful story
10:50 where the two girls want to go with her
10:53 and she says, "No, no, no, go back."
10:54 These are the two daughter-in-laws.
10:56 Yeah, the two daughter-in-laws,
10:57 they want to go with her and she says, "no, no.
10:59 Go back. Go back."
11:00 You know, if I were to become pregnant tonight,
11:03 you wouldn't wait until my boys were grown to be get married,
11:05 you know, and there is nothing for you.
11:08 And Ruth, the other girl goes back,
11:11 Orpah goes back but Ruth says,
11:13 you know, wherever you go, I'll go.
11:16 You know, your God will be my God.
11:18 She is very loyal to Naomi.
11:21 She goes back
11:23 and then of course, she ends up in the field of Boaz, you know,
11:26 and she is gleaning there
11:28 and Boaz is showing kindness to her in everything
11:30 and Naomi finally says, "Well, look,
11:34 I need to help you to get a husband."
11:36 And she tells her what to do.
11:38 She sends her to a threshing floor
11:40 where Boaz will be,
11:42 you know, lying down with the other guys
11:44 and sleeping and everything.
11:46 They had to protect their grain that nobody would steal it
11:48 during the harvest.
11:49 And she comes and lays down and just uncovers--
11:52 At his feet?
11:54 Yeah, at his feet and uncovers his feet.
11:55 Now I don't know if you ever had gotten
11:57 cold feet in the middle of the night
11:58 but it will wake you up, you know.
12:01 So he's in the middle of the night,
12:02 he wakes up and he turns over
12:04 and there is this woman lying at his feet.
12:07 And he says, "Who are you?"
12:09 And she says, "I'm Ruth."
12:12 Now this is where we have to read the story.
12:14 It's in the Book of Ruth 3:9-11.
12:19 Ruth 3:9-11. You read it for us.
12:22 Okay. So Boaz says to her "'Who are you?'
12:27 So she answered, 'I am Ruth, your maidservant.
12:30 Take your maidservant under your wing,
12:32 for you are a close relative.'
12:34 " So this would be the kinsman-redeemer.
12:36 Kinsman-redeemer, exactly. Okay.
12:38 And verse 10 "Then he said,
12:40 'Blessed are you of the Lord, my daughter!
12:43 For you have shown more kindness at the end
12:46 than at the beginning,'"
12:47 That's hesed. Yeah, that's hesed.
12:49 "You have shown more kindness" or hesed "at the end
12:52 than at the beginning,
12:54 in that you did not go after young men,
12:57 whether poor or rich.
12:59 And now, my daughter, do not fear.
13:01 I will do for you all that you request,
13:04 for all the people of my town know
13:07 that you are a virtuous woman."
13:09 Yes.
13:11 Okay now-- Isn't that-- that's beautiful.
13:12 It's beautiful and it's very interesting.
13:14 Now most people they say,
13:15 "Well, what in the world is going on here when she says,
13:18 you know, put your cloak over me."
13:22 Some people want to suggest that they had sex that night.
13:25 No, there's no--
13:26 you know, the whole book is all about
13:28 how she such a wonderful, virtuous, faithful woman.
13:32 That would be completely out of character.
13:33 Who even became part of the genealogy of Jesus.
13:36 She does.
13:37 So this is not what she is doing.
13:40 But she is actually proposing marriage to him.
13:42 She says--
13:44 And explain the kinsman-redeemer.
13:45 Yeah, kinsman-redeemer,
13:47 they had this thing called levirate marriage
13:48 in the Old Testament where--
13:51 L-E-V-E-R-I-T-E?
13:53 L-E-V-I-R-A-T-E, levirate marriage
13:57 and it was, the idea was that if a man died,
14:00 now we think that's just strange.
14:01 We don't do this in our culture but if a man died,
14:05 then his brother would marry his widow
14:08 in order that he would have children.
14:10 Any children that she bore to this brother
14:14 would be actually the dead man's children.
14:16 So when Ruth does this,
14:18 the kinsman-redeemer the idea is if Boaz marries her,
14:23 then the children become
14:25 the children of her dead husband.
14:27 And so the line of Elimelech does not die out
14:30 and his property does not die out.
14:33 So Boaz, to do this actually has the risk of losing money.
14:38 And so, you know, it's a noble--
14:39 And he had to be in kin to her husband.
14:41 Yes, but it was a noble thing for him to do this for her.
14:46 And so she--
14:48 the interesting thing though was in verse 10
14:54 when he speaks to her.
14:55 See, she is the person who needs hesed.
14:58 She is the person who is in the vulnerable situation
15:01 and she says, "Won't you help me?"
15:03 So the thing he is going to do when he gets down to verse 11,
15:07 he says, "Don't fear, I'll do what you've asked."
15:10 That is showing hesed.
15:13 But when he describes it,
15:15 he doesn't describe it that way.
15:17 Notice in verse 10 "And he said,
15:19 'May you be blessed by the Lord, my daughter.
15:21 You have made this last kindness"
15:23 this last hesed "greater than the first
15:28 in that you have not gone after young men,
15:30 whether poor or rich."
15:32 Now what was the first hesed that she showed?
15:36 Well, that was kindness to Naomi.
15:38 She didn't have to come back.
15:40 She came back and she helped Naomi.
15:42 She was to support Naomi.
15:44 She was the lost son or the son that--
15:47 she didn't have-- Naomi had nobody
15:49 but she had Ruth and Ruth took care of her.
15:51 So Boaz is referring back to the hesed
15:55 that Ruth showed to Naomi.
15:57 But that's not the end of it
16:00 because he says, now this last hesed that you've shown
16:04 is greater than the first.
16:07 And commentators are like scratching their heads,
16:09 they are like, now wait,
16:11 "She is the one who needs hesed,
16:13 how can she be showing hesed?"
16:16 Well, it's irony actually and Boaz is talking kindly.
16:20 He is-- we would put it this way.
16:22 You know, he said to her,
16:24 "You're awful sweet not to run after young guys.
16:28 You're willing to marry an old guy like me?"
16:31 You know, so he is making it
16:33 appear as though she is doing him a favor
16:36 by marrying him
16:37 when actually he is the one that's covering for her.
16:40 Right. Yeah.
16:41 So it's beautiful, beautiful description of hesed.
16:44 Well, we've got to move to the New Testament pretty quick now.
16:48 But I love this Old Testament stories.
16:49 Oh, yeah, our time is rapidly going, isn't it?
16:52 All right. Okay.
16:55 So in the New Testament,
16:58 in the Greek what are there, four words?
17:00 Four different words that are used for love.
17:04 And so we got to talk about these quickly
17:05 but the first is Eros.
17:07 We get the word erotic from this.
17:09 And that word doesn't even appear in the New Testament.
17:11 It doesn't appear in the New Testament.
17:13 It doesn't even appear in a vice list
17:15 in the New Testament which is a little surprising.
17:17 But the idea of Eros was, well,
17:21 you know, the kind of physical love
17:23 but actually the Greek god Eros,
17:26 the god of love was--
17:28 he was the son of two gods and the two gods,
17:32 the two gods in Greek mythology the two gods--
17:34 the goddess was Penia
17:36 and so that means poverty or a want or need.
17:41 And his father was Porus
17:43 which means resourceful, initiative and energy.
17:46 So here a combination of resourceful energy and need.
17:50 So Eros is actually the love for the beautiful and the good.
17:55 And when Plato talked about it,
17:57 he said it was love for the ideas,
17:59 the real world of ideas
18:01 that what's he thought as a duelist.
18:02 He thought of the real world being the world of ideas.
18:05 And the soul has this memory and this hunger for that world.
18:09 So--
18:10 Wouldn't he be shocked to see how we use Eros
18:13 because that is the real word of our word erotic.
18:15 Erotic, yeah.
18:16 And where did they make that change?
18:18 Well, it must have been--
18:19 Well, I mean, it was the god of love in those times
18:21 and so when it came into English,
18:23 you know, it's used as the love for that physical love
18:27 and it's today being used to speak
18:29 of pornography and things like that.
18:31 Well, that's about as far from the what Plato thought
18:34 as you could get.
18:36 Now the other words,
18:37 that word doesn't appear in the New Testament.
18:39 The other word that is,
18:41 another term that doesn't appear in the New Testament
18:43 is the verb for storge,
18:47 which means to be benevolent or to have affection for.
18:50 But the two words that do appear in the New Testament
18:53 are the words phileo, or philia or philos
18:57 those noun, verbs, adjective.
18:59 And agape and agapao.
19:02 And these two terms phileos means friend.
19:06 Brotherly kind of.
19:08 Yeah, and we have the word Philadelphia,
19:10 the brotherly kindness.
19:12 So phileos is a friendship kind of love.
19:15 Agape is the love that of God.
19:18 So when it talks about
19:20 "God so love the world" uses agapao,
19:22 uses the verb for love.
19:24 Now there's a very interesting place in the Gospel of John
19:27 that summarizes.
19:28 Well, now let's talk about agape means unconditional love.
19:32 It's a love that doesn't expect
19:35 that the other has to respond to you.
19:37 He is gonna love anyways.
19:39 It's going to-- it's an outgoing love.
19:40 It's a love that will help
19:44 even when there is not expectation necessarily return.
19:48 So when God loves the world
19:50 does not because the world loved God.
19:51 Yes. Love came from Him first.
19:54 And actually, we will study next time
19:56 in 1 Corinthians 13, another passage
19:59 and its all about love and we will talk about
20:01 how Paul describes in a beautiful terms.
20:03 But this is passage in John I want you to see
20:06 because it illustrates nicely the difference between
20:09 phileo and agapao
20:11 and it's John 21:15-21.
20:17 John 21 and verses, oh, yes, I know this story,
20:22 15-21 "So when they had eaten breakfast,
20:27 Jesus said to Simon Peter, 'Simon, son of Jonah,
20:31 do you love Me more than these?'
20:34 And he said to Him, 'Yes, Lord, You know that I love You.'
20:39 He said to him, 'Feed My lambs.'
20:43 Then He said to him a second time,
20:45 'Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?'
20:49 He being Simon or Peter said to Him,
20:53 'Yes, Lord, You know that I love You.'
20:55 So Jesus said to him, 'Tend My sheep.'
20:58 Then Jesus said to Simon the third time,
21:01 'Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?'
21:05 And Peter was grieved
21:06 because He said to him the third time,
21:08 'Do you love Me?'
21:10 And he said to Him, 'Lord, You know all things,
21:14 You know that I love You.'
21:16 Jesus said to him, 'Feed My sheep.'"
21:21 Keep going through verse 20.
21:23 Through verse 20, okay.
21:24 "'Most assuredly, I say to you, when you were younger,
21:27 you girded yourself and walked where you wished,
21:29 but when you are old,
21:31 you will stretch out your hands,
21:32 and another will gird you
21:34 and carry you where you do not wish.'
21:36 This He spoke, signifying
21:38 by what death he would glorify God.
21:42 And when He had spoken this,
21:43 He said to him, 'Follow Me.'"
21:45 Okay, stop there.
21:47 All right, now,
21:48 this is the restoration of Peter to ministry.
21:51 He denied Jesus three times
21:54 and this is after Jesus' resurrection
21:55 there at the Sea of Galilee
21:57 and Jesus ask him this question three times.
22:00 It's like he denied Him three times.
22:02 Now he has to profess his love for Jesus three times.
22:07 Interesting thing is that
22:08 there's two different words are used here.
22:11 Now, some commentators will suggest that
22:13 "Well, that's really just synonymous,
22:16 you know, and so it's back and forth this way."
22:18 But actually there is a pattern here
22:20 that seems to me that suggest something quite different.
22:24 Jesus asked the question with agapao,
22:26 the verb for of agape.
22:29 Peter answers with phileo,
22:32 the verb for of philia or philos, so friendship.
22:37 So Jesus says, first
22:39 "Do You love me?" With God's kind of love,
22:41 "Do you love Me
22:42 more than the rest of these disciples loved me?"
22:45 And Peter-- Do you agape?
22:47 Yeah. Yeah. You have agape, yeah, agapao.
22:50 He says, "Do you have this love for me?"
22:52 Peter doesn't answer with that.
22:54 He answers with phileo, "You know that I love you."
22:58 Now Jesus asks-- In that brotherly kind of love.
23:00 Brotherly kind of love. So then Jesus asks again.
23:04 Now He doesn't compare him to the other disciples.
23:05 He kind of brings the bar down a little bit.
23:08 He says, "Do you love Me?" Simply not more than these.
23:11 Just, you know, "Do you got that kind of love for Me?"
23:13 Peter responds with phileo again.
23:15 But here again, Jesus has used the agape.
23:18 The big one. Yeah, the higher one.
23:19 Now the third time,
23:22 Jesus comes down and He uses phileo.
23:25 And then it says Peter is hurt
23:27 because He asked him the third time,
23:30 if he loved Him and He uses phileo.
23:32 And he says, "Lord, you know everything.
23:34 He says, you know that I love You."
23:35 But he still uses phileo. Now this is weird.
23:40 When you--
23:41 when Peter responds to Jesus in this way each time,
23:44 Jesus will say, you know, "Tend My sheep."
23:47 "Tend My lambs." Tend My sheep."
23:48 "Feed My sheep."
23:50 You know, He does all this kind of thing.
23:52 He says, what in the world is going on here?
23:54 But when He talks about tending the sheep,
23:56 feeding the lambs, that's restoration to ministry.
23:58 He is gonna be a pastor.
24:00 He is gonna take care of the sheep.
24:01 He's gonna be a minister again.
24:04 And so you kind of wonder well, how does this work?
24:07 What's going on?
24:09 What's actually going on is this.
24:11 Jesus is testing Peter to see if he is humble.
24:15 Has he learned his lesson from going through the cross,
24:18 going through his denial and everything
24:20 because before that he would always insisted,
24:22 "Though everyone else deny you, I never will.
24:25 I'll always be faithful to you."
24:28 I love you unconditionally. I will put up with anything.
24:31 I will do-- I'm ready to die for You.
24:32 Right. He learned his lesson.
24:34 And so instead of responding with the high love,
24:37 you know, out of this world kind of love,
24:41 he doesn't dare do that.
24:42 That would be cheeky.
24:43 He instead, responds with a this low,
24:47 simple friendship love.
24:49 He doesn't dare claim agape.
24:52 I've never seen, you know, I have studied this out
24:54 and I've always thought that Peter just didn't love Him
24:57 in with all of his heart.
24:59 Oh, no.
25:00 He loved Him but he was-- he had learned his lesson.
25:03 That's so good. He was, he was humble.
25:05 He wouldn't insist that he-- you see when He asked him
25:09 "do you love Me more than these other men there?"
25:13 He doesn't respond with this, you know, bold, you know,
25:17 "everybody else will deny You but not me."
25:20 Oh, I like that.
25:21 And the second time He comes around now
25:22 what happens is Jesus drops the bar every time
25:26 and yet when He restores him to ministry,
25:28 He raises it every time. Yes.
25:30 He starts out with feeding the lambs,
25:31 we would say that was like,
25:32 "okay, you can teach children Sabbath school,"
25:35 children Sabbath school.
25:36 That's all right.
25:37 The new believers can comes and sit with you, okay.
25:39 When He says, "Now you'll tend my sheep."
25:42 Now we will send you out and let you go do some things.
25:45 But if you are gonna be the senior pastor,
25:47 feed my sheep at the very end.
25:49 That's like now you are at the top of the line.
25:52 What is that made the difference for Peter
25:54 was this humility, you see.
25:58 And so he stops depending--
26:01 the point of reference is shifted.
26:04 You see, he had a point of reference before of himself
26:07 "though everybody else denies You I will not."
26:12 I'm the best, there he is.
26:15 Now, you notice whenever he responds,
26:18 he says, "Lord, you know that I love You."
26:23 He always says, You know, You know that I love You.
26:27 Second time, "Lord, you know that I love You."
26:30 Third time, "Lord, you know, everything.
26:34 You know that I love You."
26:36 No longer depending on himself.
26:38 And that's-- you know, that's the whole gospel,
26:41 the gospel of salvation is to learn
26:44 total dependence upon God
26:46 and the whole qualification for ministry
26:49 is that same type of humility depending upon God, isn't it?
26:54 But when you see yourself as someone great,
26:58 that's where love starts to go out.
27:00 When you see yourself as someone
27:02 who can't make a mistake,
27:04 that's when you will make mistakes.
27:06 But Peter came to totally trust in Christ.
27:11 Now this is very interesting
27:12 because this is one of the greatest evidences
27:16 that Jesus rose from the dead
27:18 because this man would not have been restored to ministry
27:22 by anybody, except Jesus.
27:26 Excellent point.
27:28 So if he--
27:30 somehow you have to explain how is it that he became a pastor.
27:33 He became a pastor again because Jesus restored him.
27:35 Amen. What an excellent point.
27:37 Well, this time just has flung by
27:40 but this is a beautiful study
27:41 and thank you again so much for this.
27:44 I think that this is what Jesus is asking us all today
27:48 is to you...
27:49 Agapao.
27:51 Agapao, I'll say that right.
27:53 Do you agapao me
27:55 and I hope that He will increase our humility,
27:59 but to learn to be totally dependent upon Him.
28:02 Now our prayer for you
28:04 is that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
28:06 will be with you always.
28:08 Thank you for joining us.


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Revised 2016-02-25