"Do You Love Me? Feed My Sheep" (Librae Jackson, Deacon)

On Sunday, March 14th, my pastor, Heshimu Colar, will be preaching in Ohio at Gospel of Grace Church, near Cincinnati, where Scott Price pastors. In Heshimu's absence, I've been entrusted with the great privilege and responsibility to preach that Sunday at The Gospel Church in Sunnyvale, CA (1095 Dunford Way, Bldg E8, at 11am). The following note describes some of my meditations on the subject, as I prepare to speak.

"Do You Love Me? Feed My Sheep." A lesson on Living and Preaching

He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?” Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, “Do you love Me?”
And he said to Him, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.”
Jesus said to him, “Feed My sheep. (John 21:17)

As I prepare to preach, I'm encouraged by this reminder of the singular priority and one great aim of God-sent preaching. It is to feed The Lord's sheep. This liberates me from the anxiety that comes with trying to preach for any other motive. If I love Him, I will feed His sheep, whom He loves.

 

Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him. 

By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments.(1 John 5:1-2)

 

If we love God, we love Christ and His people. If we love Christ, and his people, we will exalt Christ for the benefit of His people.

"Do you love me?"

If I love Christ, it will show in my life, and in my preaching. 

I. First, in my life, what I truly think about Christ will be revealed. If I love Him, my life will be lived in such a way that I honor Him in my behavior. I'm told to let my light shine, so that others may see my good works and glorify Him. I've been spared from wrath and taught the Gospel for this purpose: that people would see by my life that this Christ I believe is to be trusted, and that His power is able to save to the uttermost - to make sinful men like me upright, and faithful, and fruitful. If I love him, I will be diligent not to dishonor His name, so as to give people an occasion to blaspheme. I will repent of my own ways, and turn to Him all the days of my life. I will seek from Him the strength I need to be obedient.  

Like Lazarus' sister Mary, I'll sit at His feet, attentive to His word, as a forgiven sinner, finding all my needs met in Him & Him alone. I'll choose "that good part, which shall not be taken away" (Luke 10:39, 42).

If I love Christ, I will seek Him in His word, to make me clean, by the Gospel. 

"How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word." (Psalm 119:9)

If I love Christ, I'll constantly turn away from all my hypocrisy and pretense, and look to Him, to be productive in this life. 

 "...let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God". (Hebrews 12:1-2 ) 

If I love Him, I'll lay aside all the things about myself that are contrary to Him. I'll run my race and fulfill my ministry. I'll do this by looking to Him, who gave me faith, and is able to complete my faith, by virtue of His death for me. This is what my life will show, if I love Him.

II. Secondly, in my preaching, what I truly think about Christ will be revealed. If I love Christ, I will seek that His name alone be exalted. If I love Him, I wont' preach to exalt myself, to have my own name recognized, or be applauded. If I love Him, I'll seek to focus all attention on Him. If I love Him, I will love my hearers. I'll seek to glorify Christ before them,  lifting Him up that people may be drawn to Him - that His lost sheep would find in Him a Good Shepherd. If I love Him, I won't preach anything else but Him. I won't rely on humorous stories or interesting anecdotes. I won't lean on empty emotionalism. I won't preach moral philosophy or dry biblical history. I won't seek to appeal to the intellect of dead sinners. I won't seek to amuse or entertain, but to feed and enlighten. God willing, I'll preach Christ as the one great subject, worthy of all consideration and praise. If I love Him, I'll preach Him as He is, in His entire character and person - not caricatures of Him that exalt one trait above another. I'll preach the whole counsel of God. I'll preach Him as the sovereign king and mighty ruler that He is. I'll preach Him as Lord AND Savior; I'll preach His wrath AND His tenderness. I'll preach His love AND His hatred. I'll testify of His meekness AND His almighty power. I'll preach His promises AND His commands. I'll preach His encouragements AND His warnings. I'll preach the forgiveness AND the repentance that He gives. If I love Him, I won't hold back from revealing Him in all His fulness, identifying Him on His rightful throne; lifting Him up as high as I can. If I love Him, I won't preach my own thoughts, but simply proclaim what He says in His word, not fearing anything, but to dishonor Him. My sermon should be extremely clear about who The Master is.

"Feed my sheep."

If I love Christ, I will seek a word for His people. Those in the audience that know Him, I will seek to encourage them; to strengthen their faith, with magnificent portrayals of Him from The Scriptures. Those that don't yet know Him - His lost sheep who may be visiting, or who will listen online, I want to feed them! I want to honestly tell them the truth about themselves, and their need of Him. I want to clearly and accurately proclaim Christ, in all His beauty and glory, so that people would fall in love with Him and follow Him; that His lost sheep would come to Him and find rest! If I love Him, and have confidence of His love for me,  I won't fear people's faces, or worry about how I'm coming across, or how I look. All that's required of a steward is faithfulness. With this great stewardship, I'll look to Him for the ability to faithfully preach this Gospel that has been committed to my trust.

I'm encouraged by the fact that if God wants me to exalt His Son, He will be with me as I endeavor to do so. This is so liberating! If God Almighty and I are on the same page, and I am in alignment with His purpose to deliver His message, He will help me! He will give me His Spirit to glorify Christ! I'm thankful that He has given me this aim and determination. I look forward to seeing what He will do.

I pray for myself and the other brethren at my church, who will read Scriptures, and possibly speak a word in season on that day. I also pray for my pastor, as He goes to Ohio - that he would feed Christ's sheep. I pray that God's Spirit would be with my brother, so that people out there would be saved and encouraged by his message.

Like Peter, we know that if we love Christ, it is because He first loved us. In the context of John 21, and the previous chapters, Peter was restored after he had denied The Lord, and then later went about his own business, with no regard for the ministry. Christ came to him again, in loving kindness, and with gentleness, taught him what the purpose of his life was about. By then, Peter knew that his love for The Lord was nothing to brag about, but that he indeed loved Him. All he could hang his soul on was the fact that Christ knew all things. Similarly, all of God's people know that we are loved by Him, and as a result, we do love Him. Our love will be revealed in our commission to feed His sheep; take care of His loved ones; preach the Gospel so that others would know Him and be saved, and blessed. In this work, we know better than to put confidence in ourselves. We look to Christ as the only source, reason and provider of all blessings.  As Peter would go on to preach mightily, though still a weak, cowardly sinner, in himself, we go on to live for Christ, being helped in our infirmities, and continually taught by His grace.

Librae Jackson, Deacon

www.thegospelchurch.com