WEEKLY
SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON
An
international Sunday school lesson commentary
For
Sunday April 15, 2018
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FOLLOW
JESUS
(We
are called to be shepherds)
(John
21:15-25)
In John 18:27, Peter
denied JESUS for the third and final time. It was H.G. Welles who said, “A man can be a bad musician, and yet, be
passionately in love with music”. And so, for whatever Peter did, and no
matter how terrible his failure was, there was never truly any doubt that he
was passionately devoted to JESUS. He may have been overconfident at times, as
he was when he told JESUS that he would never deny HIM. However, sometimes when
a man says, “That’s the one thing I will never do”, then, that’s the very thing
that he needs to carefully guard against doing.
Satan often attacks a person
at a point where they seem most sure of themselves, because he knows that it is
there, where they are most likely to be unprepared. The shame of failure and
disloyalty may not always have to be chalked up as a total lost, because, often
it can serve us, with a lesson in sympathy and understanding, that, otherwise,
we may have never came to know.
“Do you love ME?” is what JESUS asked Peter, three times, here in
John 21, and I guess, the only way that we can ever prove our love for JESUS is
by loving others. Love is the greatest privilege in the world, yet, it brings
with it, the greatest responsibility. And for Peter, it brought a cross
(Vs.18-19), and he did die for the LORD, because he too, eventually died on a
cross, and according to Jewish tradition, he requested to be nailed “upside
down”, because he felt unworthy to die in the same manner as CHRIST (right side
up).
JESUS sought to teach Peter
and the other disciples, and us, here in the 21st century, that, “love”
always involves “responsibility” and it always involves a “sacrifice”. In fact,
we don’t really love JESUS, unless we are willing to take on HIS task (HIS “Great
Commission”), and, take up our own cross (repent and take responsibility for
our own sin).
After disclosing to
Peter by which manner of death he would glorify the LORD, Peter turned and
looked at the Apostle John and asked JESUS, “What about him?” JESUS then replied to Peter, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You
follow ME”. And so, because the people misunderstood what JESUS meant by
that statement, they started a rumor that the Apostle John would not die.
As Christians, it is
very important that we focus on where JESUS is trying to lead us, and not on
where HE’s attempting to lead someone else. The Christian Church is not a place
of hierarchy where rulers tell other people in the church what GOD’s plan is for
them. The Church, however, is an organism, where each member is connected into
a personal relationship with CHRIST, and we are each required to love and
follow HIM, all of the remaining days of our lives here on earth.
We may never be able to
write, or think, like the Apostle John, and in fact, we may never even be able
to travel to the ends of the earth and preach like Paul. But here’s where we
can all follow in the footsteps of Peter. If we love JESUS, each of us can help
someone else guard against going astray. And if we love JESUS, each of us can
love one another. And finally, if we love JESUS, each of us has an open
opportunity to feed JESUS’ sheep, with the loving and nourishing food, of the
“Word of GOD”.
A Sunday school lesson by,
Larry D. Alexander
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