The turn plays in the Gospel of John, John chapter 21. John approaches the life of Jesus differently from the other three Gospels. That's why it's not part of what is called the Synoptic Gospels. And there are incidents in this Gospel that are unique to John and John alone. And this is one of those found here in verse 15 chapter 21. Let me just read a section here. 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, feed my sheep, sheep or lambs. He said to him 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, ten my sheep. He said to him the third time, Simon, son of John, do you love me? Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, do you love me? He said to him, Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you. Jesus said to him, feed my sheep. Well, let's again look to the Lord. Father, we are again thankful that we can come to you, the God who knows us, who loves us, who has loved us, we who are yours from all eternity. We are thankful, Lord, that you love us and show that love to us in terms of the here and now. You have blessed us in your Son, Jesus. You have given us the Spirit of God that indwells us. You also, Lord, have given us this Gospel. You have given us your Holy Word that we can study and learn of you. And so we again ask you, Lord, to teach us more of who you are. Help us, Lord, to grow in our love for you, even as the apostles desired that they would grow. Help us to grow in our love and devotion to Christ. And we pray this in Christ's name. Amen. It had to have been pretty uncomfortable and even painful, but it had to happen. They had to have a face-to-face meeting. This is one of those post-resurrection incidents, breakfast on the beach. But here is Jesus sitting across his disciple friend, Peter, and he asks him a few questions. In fact, he asks him the same question. There's slight differences or variations each time he asks this, but in essence, the same question, do you love me? And clearly the background of these questions or this exchange is Peter's threefold denial of Jesus on the night of his arrest. Now, perhaps there was a measure of fear, apprehension in Peter. I tend to think there had to be. Remember, again, he'd betrayed his Lord. Is it irreparable? You know how that often feels when you sin? Have I gone too far? Have I crossed the line? Will I be put on the shelf for the rest of my life, forgiven but restored? Those are two different things. But the God who forgives does restore. At least we see that in this case. Before Peter is restored and given his new pastoral charge and reinstated, he has to learn a vital lesson about love, arguably the most important grace in the Christian life, love for the Savior. Just as sin turns us away from God or from Christ and often turns us into ourselves, self-focus, the same can be said of love. Love refocuses us. Love reshapes and redirects our lives. It turns us away from self to God and to Christ. Who serves Christ the best? Those who love Him the most. And that's where it starts. Love is like an engine that drives the Christian. If you are to faithfully serve Christ in your home, in the church, in the workplace, a key requirement for discipleship is love. Love is behind faithful pastoring. Love is behind faithful parenting. Love is behind faithful Christian living. We often talk about Christ's love for us, and we should talk about Christ's love for us. The Bible talks a lot about Christ's love for us, but we also have to talk about our love for Christ. And that's what's in view here. And so let me ask you, if Christ were to ask you this very question, do you love me? What would you say? Well, I hope you would say, like Peter, yes. Yes, Lord, I do, in spite of my sin struggles, in spite of my stumblings and failings. The one thing I know, Lord, is I really do love you. I don't know why you love me, but I do love you. Why do you love him? Well, tonight I'm going to try and answer that question in three simple ways. I love him because of who he is, or the excellency of his person. I love him because of what he did, or the efficacy of his work. And then, I love him because of what he does, the sufficiency of his grace. Again, here we, simple way, I love him because of who he is, I love him because of what he did, and I love him because of what he does. Let's consider these three ways, or three manifestations of our love for Christ, or why we love Christ, the rationale for our love for Christ. I love him because of who he is, the excellency of his person. To love Jesus, you have to know him. You can't love someone you don't know. And it's good to know that the Bible is all about Jesus. So, if you want to love Jesus, you have to read the Bible. You have to study your Bible. And it's good, again, to know that the whole Bible has something to tell us about Jesus. All of those mosaic rituals tell us about Jesus. They were pointing us toward Jesus. All of those Old Testament prophecies. You think of all of those offices in the Old Testament. Priests and prophets and kings, all of them. We're foreshadowing Christ himself, the Christ, who is the greatest of priests, the greatest of kings, and the greatest of prophets, greater than Solomon, greater than Moses, greater than Aaron. The whole Bible is about Jesus. Jesus could say the Scriptures testify of me. But we all know, don't we, the danger of picking up our Bibles and reading them in a kind of academic way. We read them critically, but we don't read them devotionally. And so the question you might want to ask yourself when you pick up your Bible, am I finding Christ in my Bible and am I seeing and savoring more of Christ? It was Spurgeon at the age of 20 who began a sermon with these words, the most excellent study for expanding the soul is the science of Christ and him So let's go back to the question, when you study your scriptures, when you read your Bible and learn more about Jesus, are you growing in your love for him? And here's another question. When you read your Bible and study your Bible and know more about Christ, what is it that captivates your heart or stirs up your affection more than anything else? Well, I think we can make an argument that the thing that stirs us up more than anything else is His love for us. But we have to understand that not only is Jesus the one who loves us, but Jesus is love. He's love. God is love. Jesus is God. Jesus is love. Jesus could say, He who has seen the Father has seen me. God is love. Jesus is love. If you want a portrait of Jesus, you can simply go to 1 Corinthians 13. Go there. And you can see love in high definition. This is that great love chapter of the Hymn of Love. It begins by telling us the superiority of love and then he uses a literary device called personification. So he's going to describe love here as a person. So, it's almost like you get to see love in action, love with eyes, love with ears, love with hands, love with feet. Really, it's a description of Jesus. Someone has actually taken 1 Corinthians 13, Dr. Philip Ryken, and has personified it Christologically. So, see, here's how it goes. He substitutes Jesus for love. 1 Corinthians 13, verse 4, Jesus is patient and kind. Jesus does not envy or boast. Jesus is not arrogant or rude. Jesus never insisted on his own way. Jesus is not irritable. Jesus does not rejoice in wrongdoing. Jesus bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Jesus never failed. Now, put your name in there. A little harder, isn't it? You read that in Can you say, I never failed? I never insisted on my own way? I wasn't arrogant, I wasn't rude? But he, he was perfectly, perfectly love. Never ever irritable, never ever self-seeking. follow him through the Gospels, and you can see that, can't you? Him in action, no one loved like Christ loved. He constantly loved poor lost sinners, the worst of sinners. He meets with a harlot there, I guess she might not even be described as a harlot, but a woman who had four husbands, and the guy she was living with was either a husband to be, or she's going to dump him. But it's that very woman that Jesus engages, and he loves her because he saves her. You see His patience with His disciple friends. They were constantly bickering and fighting among themselves as to who was the greatest. We witness His loving humility in the upper room. Remember, He washes their dirty feet. His loving submission there in that garden is captured in that prayer. Not my will, but your will be done. His loving forgiveness, or at least willing to forgive His enemies on that cross. Forgive them for they know not what they do. His loving endurance. Love endures all things. He endured the cross. He never insisted on his own way. Why do you love Christ? Well, you could certainly start here. Perfect love. We can also speak of Christ in terms of His excellency under this head. Perfect holiness or integrity. And that is something that comes through at least five times in the Word of God, that Jesus was without sin. 1 John 3, in him no sin. Hebrews 7, harmless, holy, undefiled, separate from sinners. 2 Corinthians 5, he knew no sin. Hebrews 4, tempted without sin. For us, sin is easy as breathing. Psalm 51, speaking lies from our mother's womb, but not Jesus. Even his enemies, even his enemies had enough sense to know that this man, we can't find fault with this man, they couldn't indict him. Because remember on one occasion he looked them straight in the eye and said, which one of you convinces me of sin? He never sinned. Think of it, it's mind-boggling, isn't it? Never sinned, that means he never had one moment of discontent. Never grumbled. Never shaded the truth. Never had anything come off his tongue that had an edge, a pride, or self-serving attitude. He never, ever sinned. Never, ever sinned. That's why he never shed a tear over his own sin. He shed tears over other people's sins. He wailed over Jerusalem. But he never shed a tear over his own sin. Because he never sinned. Perfect love, perfect holiness. Here's something else we can say, and we're still under the first head here, why we love him, the excellency of his person. We see another way in which Jesus was perfect. Perfect symmetry. Perfect symmetry of character. Someone has put it this way, there were no strong points in Jesus because there were no weak points. Moses was the meekest man on the face of the earth, at least During that time when he lived, Job is described as a man of great patience, you think of John the Baptist, his courage, but Jesus, you could say, he was the highest in all of those categories, to the nth degree, ten out of ten, no weak points. No weak points, no imbalances. I think that explains why Jesus, when he asked the question to his disciples, who the men say that I am, They remember their response. They pull in public opinion, and they say, well, some think you're like John the Baptist, and some think you're like Elijah, and some think you're like Jeremiah. There was something, you see, in each one of those prophets that reminded them of Jesus. You could say each one of those prophets had a strong point. Jeremiah, what was his strong point? He was the weaking prophet. Probably known for his tenderness gentleness and his compassion. And they're saying to Jesus, you're like Jeremiah. That's what they're saying about you. Others are saying you're like Elijah. He's sort of on the other end of the spectrum, isn't he? Elijah was was courageous, bold, fearless. He stands there on Mount Carmel and takes on those false prophets of Baal. Elijah didn't seem to be afraid of anybody. And others are saying, you are like John the Baptist. The way you preach, you're courageous. You denounce sin. And then there's Eliezer saying, you're like Isaiah. You're like Moses. But you see the fact that They couldn't line Jesus up with any one prophet. Tells us that he was superior to all the prophets. Every one of those great prophets captured something about Jesus. No one perfectly captured Jesus. He possessed a perfect humanity. A perfect blend of joy, and sobriety, and majesty, and humility, and wisdom, and simplicity, and dependence, and independence, and tenderness, and boldness. It's interesting how he's described in Revelation 5 under two figures, two pictures. He's likened to the lion. Right? Revelation 5, the Lion of Judah, that's what he's called. Revelation 5, 5. He's also likened in that same chapter, Revelation 5, the Lamb. So, he's the Lion and the Lamb. Now, can you think of any two creatures that are more unlike each other? A lion's not like a lamb, and a lamb's not like a lion. What's a lion noted for? Strength and power. Lions can devour. Lambs, well they're mean and they're gentle and they're weak. You see, you see the lamb. He's born as a baby. You see him wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. What weakness! You follow him during his whole earthly pilgrimage, and it's distinguished by humility and poverty. A sense, again, of weakness. Foxes have holes and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. And the closer you get to the cross, the more you see of the Lamb. The silent Lamb, before its shearers, afflicted, wounded, and then finally slain. But He's not just a Lamb. He's a Lion. You see that too, don't you? A lion casting out demons. It didn't matter how many there were, he could cast them out. A lion who can quiet a storm by one roar, peace be still. A lion possesses unspeakable power. He's the great I AM, the God-man, the lion, the lamb. Perfect love, perfect holiness, perfect in every respect of his character. Why do you love Jesus? Well, I hope you can say, I love him because of who he is. I love him because of the excellency of his person and character. Second thing we want to consider in terms of why do you love Jesus? And again, you could answer that question in a million different ways, I realize that, but these are major heads. You love him because of what he did. or the efficacy of his work. Past tense. Now we could say in terms of his past work, we could talk about creation itself, right? He made all things. We know that from John chapter 1 and Hebrews chapter 1. And really you can't understand his miracles unless you understand he's the creator. That's why he has power of all nature. That's why he can silence a storm and command wind and waves. That's why he can take five loaves of bread and two little fish and feed 5,000 people. That was a creation miracle. You see, he's a creator. That explains his power. But He's more than just the Creator. He did more than just make the world. He saved the world. And it's a finished, accomplished work on the cross. It was the greatest work that Christ did. It was the greatest work He did. You have to hear that again, because it's greater than creation itself. Creation didn't demand that He push against evil. It didn't demand that He resist evil and overcome evil. But to save the human race, he had to break the enslavement of the power of sin, the power of the devil himself. And also, that work of salvation involved grace. Involved grace. Grace came to the Lord Jesus Christ. And grace means you give of yourself freely and willingly. And he gives. And to give like he gave, he has to lose. He'll never lose his divinity. He's always God. But he becomes man. And he loses, doesn't he? He loses his reputation. Rejected and despised. He will lose his wealth. You could say the wealth of heaven. He becomes a slave that hangs on a tree. He'll lose his friend. You notice the closer he gets to the cross, the more he loses? They desert him when he needed them the most. He'll lose his dignity. The soldiers will toy with him and mock him and dress him up in the royalty of a king and blindfold him and spit upon him. He'll lose his life. Obedient even unto death. But there's more. You see, how could you lose anymore? Well, the greatest loss, the greatest, the most painful loss wasn't his life. It was his relationship with his father. That's why he's sweating those drops in Gethsemane. He knows he's going to lose what he always enjoyed from all eternity, fellowship with his father. He will lose his father. He will be forsaken by God. To understand the cross, you really have to understand that God-forsaken cry. What makes the cross the cross is not the cracking of the whips, or the scourge, or the nails, or the shame. No, what makes the cross so fearful for Jesus? What explains that piercing, shuddering cry, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? That explains the cross. He is judged. He is pierced. He is bruised on the cross by his Father. He bears the wrath of God. He loses fellowship with his Father. That was the only way to avert divine wrath. Only way to reconcile the world. He had to become sin for us. Just like His righteousness is imputed to us by faith, our sin was imputed to Him on the cross. He was bruised for our iniquity. Why do you love Him? Why do you love Him, Christian? I hope you can say, I love him because of who he is. I love him because of the excellency of his person. I love him because of what he did. I love him because of the efficacy of his work. And then thirdly and finally, you can say this too, Christian, you love him because of the sufficiency of his grace. Now we could go down a lot of different roads with this one, but I'm not going to go down too many, just a couple of them. But we need a Savior who died. We also need a Savior who rules and reigns. It's not enough just that He died. You need a Savior who lives. You need a Savior who's sitting on a throne. You need a Savior who rules and reigns. You need a Savior who can give you grace for everyday life. Isn't that what the Hebrew writer says? You can go to the throne of grace for Grace and for help in your time of need. You go to Christ. You go to the great high priest in your time of need. You need him every day. Why do you need him every day? Well, you sin every day. Right? You sin every day. So you need his forgiving grace. I sometimes like to ask this question. I won't ask the question, but when's the last time you confessed your sins? Last week? Were you perfect for a day or so? We need them every day. You need forgiveness every day. And you're tempted every day. You're tempted, you need His enduring grace, you need His strengthening grace. Well, we're on a pilgrimage where we're going to a place called heaven, so you need grace for everyday life, and you also need this grace. It's this grace that comes into focus in John 21. Go back to that text. What grace comes into focus? Not forgiving grace. That's not what's in John chapter 21. When Peter betrayed Jesus, that very night he betrayed, remember we find him weeping after Jesus looked at him? I believe there was true repentance and seeking forgiveness in the fresh moments of his sin. That's not what you have here in John chapter 21. Something else is taking place. It's not a matter of forgiving grace, it's restoring grace. He's being reinstated. You see, Jesus doesn't want Peter sitting on the shelf for the rest of his life feeling like he's a failure. Jesus wants to restore him to pastoral usefulness. He wants Peter to become a faithful shepherd. He wants Peter to be more useful, more fruitful. Tend my sheep, feed my sheep, feed my sheep. Remind you of David. Remember David? When David fell? David needed restorative grace. How did he? We know he got it because he says in Psalm 23, he restores my soul. David wrote Psalm 23, I think, at the back end of his life, reflecting upon restorative grace, forgiving grace, but also restorative grace. That's another reason why you can love Jesus. Not only does He forgive you, but He restores you. If you're sitting here tonight, I'm sure in one way or another you've been broken. Broken. Failed. Fractured. Broken marriage. Broken body. Broken relationships. A lot of brokenness. You can find it everywhere. And while some will never be healed from all of their brokenness or fractured, fractures this side of life, this side of heaven, there's a day coming when we will see a full restoration and a perfect restoration. But even in this life, even in this life, there is restoration. Joel the prophet could say he restores what the locust has eaten. There are people sitting on pews, even in this church, who've gone through the painful experience of divorce. And they've been restored. They have blessed second marriages. There are some who struggle with severe addictions. Their lives, you could say, were wasted lives. Like the prodigal son, they went into the far country, and yet Christ went after them, and he forgave them, but he restored them, and now they are living fruitful lies, but there are people who stood on pews who've experienced the brokenness of relationships in family, maybe father, mother, maybe with their own children broken and fractured and they feel a little bit like Humpty Dumpty, remember, who fell off a wall and suffered a great fall and nobody could put them back together again. The world can't. The best psychologists can't. But only Christ can. That's why He came into the world, to forgive, but also to restore. That's the Savior we worship. So let's not forget who He is and why we love Him. We love Him because of who He is, because of what He did, and because of what He continues to do every day in our lives. The question is, how could you not love Him? And what we should really be praying for is more love, more love for Christ.