“The Case for Christ: - Kingdom/God: Commitment”

‘Lovest thou Me more than these?’ Jesus asked Peter.

What was absolutely imperative as the basis for this kind of commitment about which Jesus was inquiring?  

It was the foundation it was on!

That is what animates the stewards of His kingdom - the foundation of the love of God ‘saturating, drenching, and thoroughly soaking up’ the hearts of His servants.

That love is essential for it is the love that must radiate out from them so the world sees, feels, and knows of our God through Christ Jesus.

It is the only foundation that will endure the quality and duration of service needed.

And that is why we come to the next question I posed last week of: how committed is our commitment to Christ?  

Just as there are two parts to the ‘stuff’ of which the commitment is made, so there are two parts to this
‘committed commitment’ unto Him.

The first has to do with the divine side: Christ’s pledge to His stewards. 

And, then, there is the other side: the depth of commitment in fulfilling Christ’s enterprises and the commitment to one another to do this for His sake alone.

I would like to consider these two sides of commitment tonight.

Let us start with Christ’s commitment to His servants first.

Back in John 20:21, Jesus said to His disciples: ‘Peace be unto you: as My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you.’

It is quite significant that Jesus did not use the same verb in each of the words ’send’.
 
In the first, He used ‘apostello’ which stands for delegated authority. That is, His Father delegated all authority to Him.

In Matthew 28:18, He said, just before His ascension: ‘All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth’.

Thus, He was given the authority by His Father over all things.

Then, as His Father sent Him, so did Christ promise to ‘send’ His disciples.

The second word Jesus used here for ‘send’ is the word ‘pempo’ which refers, not to delegated authority, but ‘to ‘dispatch under authority’.

That is, by His authority He sent.

The cardinal point of being sent was not for personal happiness and pleasure. 

But it was with Christ’s authority so that His ‘sent ones’ would work under Him with His sweeping goal in mind.

Since His representatives are on earth, they were to ‘Go, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost’. (Mt 28:19)

They were to live and spread the Good News, to dispatch it with His delegated authority - the authority that functioned in heaven and on earth. 

And His peace and His presence would be with them throughout all the duration of service.  

So, ‘Peace be unto you’, He said, ‘As My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you.’

And, ‘For I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.’ (Mt 28:20)

That is, ‘as My Father delegated all authority to Me, so now I dispatch you under that authority, which is Mine, to carry out My enterprises.

And you will always have My peace and My presence with you!’

And how were they to sustain the dispatching of His authoritative Word?

And, in v 22, ‘When He had said this, He breathed on them and said, ‘Receive ye the Holy Ghost...’.

They were to ‘receive’ or ‘take’ the Holy Spirit Who alone would be the resource at their disposal. 

That is, ‘The authority My Father delegated to Me is the authority under which you will go: but you cannot go except in one power, that of the Holy Spirit.’

Had He not also said, in John 15:26-27: ‘...when the Comforter is come, Whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of Me: And ye also shall bear witness because ye have been with Me from the beginning.’ 

And in Acts 1:8, He renewed the promise by saying, ‘But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto Me...unto the uttermost part of the earth.’

Was that not a wonderful moment of time! Was that not a wonderful word they were hearing from the Son of God!

Of course, it would not always be as they think it ought to be. 

But it would always be according to His desire under His authority alone!

But - it was so simple, so sublime, so provincial yet so universal.

And it was to such a few who were representing so many to be yet consecrated to this sacred Work down through all the ages!

And, then, to heighten this commitment, He had said: ‘You are My friends...henceforth, I call you not servants, for a servant does not know his master’s business, but I have called you My friends...I have chosen you, and ordained you, that you should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit may remain: that whatsoever you shall ask in My Name, He may give it to you.’ (Jn 15:15-16) 

Yes - Jesus elevated His servants to confidants, to friends who share in a mutual knowledge of God’s purpose.

His friends know where they are going - in life and in this work - and they know it will always be fruitful. 

So Christ’s pledge to His servants was made definite and sure to them.

They would appropriate His authority dispatched to them. 

And the work would be done with an ample and sufficient supply to carry out His enterprises under the Holy Spirit’s unction.

And the fullness of His peace and His continual presence were promised always.

And as His friends and confidants, the work would be fruitful and enduring!

What an earth-shaking pledge from Christ! What a commitment!

But why such a deep, deep commitment to His servants?

Listen - it was going to be very much needed to cover all of them under all the trying, difficult, and tempting situations that would come along the way! 

This blueprint of God affects the entire universe - all of humanity and all of the spirit world alike for all of them.

This is the divine enterprise - nothing short of all of God’s power in Christ and all His authority delegated to Christ dispatched to His servants will do to carry it out!  

But - are His servants equal to this calling?  

That is, how committed are we to this commitment unto Christ?

Now, we skip over to the post-resurrection scene of John 21.

What follows answers that question.

Let us look at Christ in verses 16 and 17 of that chapter.

What is revealed that is in His consciousness and in His thinking here?

What is the vision Christ had after His resurrection? 

How was He looking at humanity, in general?

He said to Peter: ‘Feed My lambs...shepherd My sheep...
feed My sheep.’

‘My lambs, My sheep, My sheep.’

Go back to John 10.

What does He talk about there?

Is it not about being the Good Shepherd - ‘the good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep’? (v 11)

There is where His mind and His heart were: His lambs and His sheep were His concern!

Did He not always look upon humanity in exactly this way?

‘When He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were distressed and scattered, as sheep not having a shepherd.’ (Mt 9:36)

Now, here He is, at the Galilee lakeside, and He is looking out upon humanity - way past Peter and John and the limitations of their vision!

He is looking all the world over - looking through all the decades and centuries ahead down to where we are right now and right down to the time of His second return.
 
For all of these people, in all time, [and it includes each one of us], He said, ‘Mine, My lambs; Mine, My sheep.’

He was moved with compassion about them.

Yes - now we see His Sovereignty: now we see His Saviorhood more clearly!

In His Sovereignty, He had all humanity, each one, in mind!

In His Saviorhood, He had died for each one personally!

But who would carry on His work with the depth of commitment with which He did His?

Who would be so committed to that?

It is from this standpoint, He approached Peter.

He was addressing His servants through Peter - Peter, the representative of all His servants!

All - all of His servants were to be absorbed right into His thinking - into His consciousness to help meet the need for all humanity.

But the Lord knew it would not be on a road of ease, of comfort, of fame, nor of applause!

Oh no! 
 
Tending sheep is not always the sweet, soft pastoral occupation of walking through fragrant fields of heather and violets and strolling beside cool, flowing streams and babbling brooks. 

Are you aware of that?

Sometimes it meant facing wild animals that were threatening to devour the nearest lamb and tear apart the sheep.

Sometimes it meant fighting them off single-handedly and being left bleeding and torn. 

Sometimes it meant hiking and wandering about under the hot, burning sun to find green pastures and cool water to drink.

This is what Jesus was revealing - the qualifications for this kind of work meant a devotion of sacrifice, suffering, and agony - a work that could not be committed to a hireling.

A hireling has no real depth of care for the sheep.

He would rather lie down in ‘green pastures’ to enjoy the lush, cool grass and the babbling brook.

He does not want to be led into ‘the valley of the shadow of death’ to really learn how to feed and tend the lambs and the sheep.

He runs away when the going gets hard, not realizing that the only thing that really changes when he runs is the scenery - it suddenly becomes desert!.

Oh - no! This kind of a commitment is not for a hireling! This work is too precious and far too valuable to commit it to such! 

The shepherding Jesus had in mind was a work in which the hands of the shepherd always stretch forth toward His sheep.

It is a work in which he must be girded by Another: the authority of Another must be about him.

It is a work in which he is carried to places where he would not necessarily choose to go: his choices are no longer his choices but the choices of the ‘Good Shepherd’ alone! (v 18) 

It is not one’s personal program - it takes a solid commitment to a commitment in which all personal programs fall by the wayside many, many times!

When His servants receive the new resurrection life, they are called to go by the way of the Cross.

And that is always the way of ‘death’ and ‘resurrection’.

How did Christ convey that to Peter?

He told Peter that when Peter was young, Peter did pretty much what he well pleased: Peter was self-willed, testy, independent, insistent on managing his own [and everyone else’s] affairs.

But, now, when he is mature, his self-centeredness and his self-serving is indefensible!

He is to submit to the Cross, the new principle of life, to transform him so that one day he could say: ‘[I am] Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ...elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ...’. (1 Pet 1:1-2)

Yes - Peter did meet the challenge of Christ’s heart as time went on!

But - right now, he faced the living, resurrected Christ as Christ challenged Peter to this change.

‘Complete devotion - no wavering, no turning back - are you ready for that, Peter?  

Are you devoted enough to be a ‘shepherd of the lambs and sheep’ that I place in your care?’

Obviously, Peter did not catch on to what Christ was saying for, immediately, he flared up.

‘What about this man?’, Peter asked of John who was now his ‘brother-in-Christ’. 

Peter still wanted to engineer some one else in this daunting enterprise of Christ’s call, be a ‘busybody in other men’s matters.’ 

‘Peter, lovest thou Me more than these?’ Christ had just asked him. 

But Christ had to answer him now with: ‘If I will he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?’

In other words, ‘That is not something that concerns you, Peter.’

‘You travel with Me and so carry out your life through the principle of the Cross and leave John to Me.’ 

For ‘My work needs a quality and a duration of service to complete God’s perfect salvation plan through Me.’

‘What I am asking you is this:

Can you lay down your life, so much so, that you can be entirely revolutionized to love others as I love?

Can you sidestep the need to be in competition with your
‘brother’?

Can you lay down your life, so much so, that you are content to serve Me, no matter where I place you and no matter how long I want you there?

Can you lay down your life, so much so, that you are delivered from running off on your own?

Are you willing to be built up into My house to become ‘a lively stone, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by’ Me?  

Are you willing ‘to live’ and ‘to do’ the absolute and divine way?’

And I ask every heart here tonight:

Can you?

Are you willing? 

So be it!

Let us pray!