Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1684
Delivered on Lord’s-Day Morning, October 15, 1882
“So when they had dined, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, do you love Me more than these? He said unto Him, Yes, Lord; You know that I love You. He said unto him, Feed My lambs.” John 21:15.
READ the whole chapter and observe the change of scene. First, they are on the lake fishing, casting their nets at Christ’s command, and dragging to land a multitude of great fishes. They have all come on shore and when they have breakfasted, their faces are not turned to the sea, but to the pastures on the hillside. These are clothed with flocks and the Master says no more about fishermen and fish, but speaks of shepherds and sheep. Herein lies a parable—the servants of the Lord Jesus are first, fishermen, and then shepherds. The first work of Christ’s servants is comprised in that commission, “Go you into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature,” or, “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a draught.”
They begin their heavenly vocation as fishers, even as Jesus said to them at the first, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Their earliest work is to preach the Gospel, which is like the letting down of a great seine net, enclosing life of all kinds. They are not to make a selection of characters so as to preach only to likely persons—that would be comparable to angling—a figure which is used in the Old Testament in connection with destruction—and not in reference to salvation, even as Amos says, “The Lord God has sworn by His holiness, that, lo, the days shall come upon you, that He will take you away with hooks, and your posterity with fishhooks.”
In Gospel fishing we let down the big net and thus encompass many of all sorts. In the act of preaching the Gospel, all are fish that come to the net—the sorting of the good from the bad is to be done another day. Our urgent work—I mean yours and mine, my Brothers—is to go out into the world and proclaim the blessed Gospel of salvation to all who care to hear us. We are to go into every place to which we can gain access—“into all the world,” “into the streets and lanes of the city, into the highways and hedges”—anywhere and everywhere the world over. Our one instrument as fishers for Christ is the Gospel of the Grace of God. God forbid that we should use any other. May the Lord help us to keep to our fishing and may we come and instantly receive Divine direction as to how and where to cast the net so that we may have a full net, and yet a net unbroken, with which we may fish again.
After this is done, and while it is being done, another art is to be practiced. Fishing is not all, as many seem to think. It is a great part of our service and would God it were more attended to, but after it has been attended to, shepherding comes in, and is a work of equal weight. Our Lord Jesus Christ would have His servants attend to this second task with all their hearts. If souls are converted, they have been brought up from the depths of sin and the scene changes—we see a flock, “the Church of God which He has purchased with His own blood.” This flock needs as much care as any other, yes, it needs to be tended with the utmost labor and watchfulness.
The Lord Jesus, Himself, is the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for the sheep, the Great Shepherd who is brought, again, from the dead and the Chief Shepherd under whom He has appointed shepherds to watch for the souls of men. He will have those of us whom He calls to His service to shepherd those who are converted—leading, protecting, feeding, comforting and succoring them. He will call us to account if we neglect this charge, for He will require His flock at our hands, saying, “Where is the flock that was given you, your beautiful flock?” This shepherd work is so important that three times the Savior bids us attend to it, saying first, “Feed My lambs,” then, “Feed My sheep,” or, as some old manuscripts have it, “My little sheep,” and then, again, “Feed My sheep.”
We are to feed the babes in Grace; to shepherd the young men in Christ Jesus; and to feed the older ones who feel many growing infirmities and need, again, the comforts of their earliest days. Three times over are we thus bid! Are we, then, so apt to fail in this? Jesus spoke but once to Death, and Lazarus came forth. Are we more deaf than the grave and
must we be thrice commanded? Let us no longer be disobedient to the heavenly mandate! We must never so evangelize the outside mass as to forget to fold and feed those within! We are to disciple all nations and then to teach them all things whatever Christ has commanded us!
Not every man that can haul in a net is ready, at once, to tend a flock. We need much Grace, for the Lord Jesus Christ spent years in most industriously educating the 12, training the 70 and getting ready a band of followers who were not only saved, but educated, so as to teach others. We must not be indifferent to this matter. The quiet work of building up Believers must be steadily pursued, even though those who sound a trumpet before them may despise such ministries.