Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 3211
“He said unto him, Feed My sheep.” John 21:16.
THOSE whom the Lord addressed, and especially Simon, had become fishermen. “Simon Peter went up and drew the net to land, full of great fishes.” In the early part of your career most of you were fishermen, or men-catchers and, truly, to be fishers of men should be your ambition all your lives. But you have now become something more—the fisher has developed into a shepherd. The fisherman represents the Evangelist who casts the net into the waters and draws the fish to land, but it is not to him that Christ says, “Feed My sheep”—that is reserved for those of greater maturity and experience. Many of you have now for years been settled in one sphere and while you will continue to fish, I trust that more and more you will remember that you now have other duties to perform—you have to feed as well as to fish, to handle the crook as well as the net. We now leave the sea wherein we were drifted to and fro, and we abide among our own flocks, standing and feeding in the strength of the Lord. We cease not to do the work of an Evangelist, but we pay special attention to the duties of the pastor, for He who once said, “Cast the net on the right side of the ship,” now says to us, “Feed My sheep.” I am addressing disciples to whom the Lord has shown Himself—may He now at this happy season commission us anew and send us home with the Word which He spoke to Peter resting in our hearts!
I. This was a sort of ordination of Peter to the pastorate. He needed to be publicly recognized, for he had publicly offended. And his ordination commenced with AN EXAMINATION BEARING ON THE WORK. “Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, do you love Me?” Our Lord does not admit any to the oversight of His flock without first of all questioning them as to their inner condition. Neither should any man dare to accept such an office without great self-examination and searching of heart. Many questions should be put to our hearts and answered as in the sight of God, for no man rightly takes this honor upon himself but he that is called thereunto—neither is every man fitted for the work but he, alone, who is anointed of the Lord. You will observe that the examination was directed to the state of Peter’s heart—and so it touched the innermost spring of all his religion—for if love is absent, all is vain—the heart of godliness is missing where love is lacking.
Love is the chief endowment for a pastor. You must love Christ if you mean to serve Him in the capacity of pastors. Our Lord deals with the most vital point. The question is not, “Simon, son of Jonas, do you know Me?” though that would not have been an unreasonable question, since Peter had said, “I know not the Man.” He might have asked, “Simon, son of Jonas, do you know the deep mysteries of God?” He did know them, for his Lord had called him blessed for knowing that which flesh and blood had not revealed to him. Our great Bishop of souls did not examine him with regard to his mental endowments, nor upon his other spiritual qualifications, but only upon this one, “Simon, son of Jonas, do you love Me?” If so, then, “Feed My sheep.” Does not this plainly show us that the chief endowment of the pastor is to love Christ supremely? Only such a man as that is fit to look after Christ’s sheep. You will fulfill that office well if you love Jesus—your love will keep you in your Lord’s company, it will hold you under His immediate supervision and will secure you His help. Love to Him will breed a love for all His sheep and your love for them will give you power over them. Experience testifies that we never gain a particle of power for good over our people by angry words, but we obtain an almost absolute power over them by all-enduring love—indeed, the only power which is desirable for us to have must come in that way! I have had the high pleasure of loving some of the most objectionable people till they loved me. And
some of the most bitter I have altogether won by refusing to be displeased, and by persisting in believing that they could be better. By practical kindnesses I have so won some men that I believe it would take a martyrdom to make them speak evil of me. This has also been the experience of all who have tried the sacred power of love!
My Brothers, learn the art of loving men to Christ! We are drawn towards those who love us and when the most callous feel “that man loves us,” they are drawn to you at once—and as you are nearer to the Savior than they are—you are drawing them in the right direction. You cannot look after God’s people and properly care for them in all their sins, temptations, trials and difficulties, unless you love them. You will grow sick and weary of pastoral work unless there is a fresh spring of love in your heart welling up towards them. A mother tires not of watching by the bedside of her sick child because love sustains her—she will outlast the paid nurse by many an hour! Love props her drooping eyelids. Even so, “the hireling flees because he is an hireling and cares not for the sheep,” but, “the good Shepherd gives His life for the sheep.” If you really love the sheep, you will be ready to spend your life for them or even to lay it down for their sakes. Love, then, I take to be the chief endowment of the pastor—although having that, I trust you will not fall short in any other respect but be thoroughly furnished unto every good work. Do not forget what you have been told about study and culture, but remember at the same time that the heart has more power in pastoral work than the head. In this ministry, a humble, godly, ill-educated man with a great, warm, heart will be blessed far more than the large-headed man whose heart is a little diamond of rock-ice which could not be discovered without a microscope even if he were dissected!