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Peter and John, the sons of Zebedee, I'm sorry, Peter and John, brothers of each other, and the son of John, and older John. Would you just let me get that right? I'm sorry, I dropped a very bad stitch there. We will have this record correct now. Peter and Andrew, the sons of John, and James of John, the son of Zebedee, were called by the Sea of Galilee some little time afterwards. And it was about that time that we have a description of the first important episode in Peter's career, which if you like to turn to, you will find in Luke chapter 5. The editor of tapes is going to have quite a job putting that slip straight, but it won't matter. Luke chapter 5 now, verse 1. Now when they were gone out of them and were washing their nets, and he entered into one of the boats, which was Simon's, and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land, and he sat down and taught the people out of the ship. Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a draught. Now Simon, so far, as far as we know, has said nothing in the Lord's hearing, nothing that we've been told. Now he willingly places his boat at the Master's disposal as a pulpit to preach from, and the Lord preaches long and effectively. And now it seems the day is going older, and the preaching is over, and the Lord has something else to ask for. Go out into the sea, the Lord says to Simon, and let down your nets and catch some fish. Now we have the first of what you might think was Peter's hot -headed statements. Master, we toiled all night and took nothing. Nevertheless, at thy word, I will let down the net. Was it so hot-headed? They'd only recently met Jesus after all. They didn't really know him very well yet. They knew he was a good preacher. They knew he could see something of what went on inside the hearts of men. But fishing, why should a carpenter from Galilee, why should even the preacher sent by God, know anything about fishing? Let every man, Peter might have been saying, stick to his lust. Lord, you know about preaching and I listen to you. I know about fishing, you listen to me. There's no fish in this sea at this point. We know. We tried all night and we didn't catch so much as a solitary sprat. It could have been an upstart superior assumption of knowledge, but it might have been something better. Wrong, but quite sensible from a human point of view. Peter could have been saying, Lord, wouldn't it be wiser if you didn't run the risk? Everybody is listening to you preaching and they know your preaching is wonderful. But if we go out to sea at your command and we don't catch any fish, what will they think of you then, Lord? Your reputation won't be so good then, will it? Stick to your preaching, Lord, I would. Humanly speaking, extremely wise counsel. Not from the Lord. The Lord knew more than words. He knew God's universe. He knew what went on in the mind of his father. So put out for a draft, he says. All right, in effect, says Peter, I will do it. But remember, it's your responsibility. You're the captain from now on at thy word. I will let down the net. The thing is fairly and squarely on your shoulders. It says something for Peter's common sense that he did that, though he was wrong. It says something for the Lord's great confidence that he took that, what humanly speaking would have been, risk and went out. His reputation did hang on this. A failure and he might have been a failure too. Well, they let down the net and they got the fish and the amount was so great that the nets were about to break and the boat to sink and they had to have help from James and John to get the catch home. And Peter's reaction, depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. That was not to be the only time that people would ask Jesus to leave them. There was a later occasion by this very sea when the Lord had healed an incurable demoniac and the madness from that man had gone within the bodies of a herd of swine who had rushed down the steep place and been drowned in the sea. And the swine herds saw that cured man and they saw those lost pigs and they weighed them in the balances and decided for the pigs and decided, Lord, go away. They besought him that he would depart out of their coasts. They were sinful men who didn't want to change. Peter was a sinful man who knew that it would be painful to change but whose attitude was quite plainly not, Lord, don't stay, but Lord, I'm not fit that you should stay. A bit like the man who said, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof. Lord, I'm no fit company for the likes of you. Inside his heart was Peter saying, he knew about fish when I didn't. There weren't any fish there either, I knew that. How did he know? Did he bring them? There might have been, what manner of man is this that even the fisher bear him? In the thought of that, Simon Peter on his knees, depart from me for I am a sinful man. Whatever it was, he didn't want the Lord to go and the Lord didn't go and this man who said he can see the sea, he can see the fish, he can see what's going on inside me had confessed his sinful heart once and would be strengthened against the assaults of the sinfulness of that heart yet once and again. Throughout the long periods of the Lord's preaching, one of the most striking and as some would think the most shameful episodes in Peter's career was what happened just after the feeding of the 5,000. You will remember that 5,000 men besides women and children had listened to the Lord preaching and had stayed behind and the Lord had fed them miraculously from the multiplication of five barley loaves and two fish. You will remember too perhaps that at the end of that the multitude were so entranced by his power to produce food at the drop of a hat as it were that they were willing to take him by force and make him a king. And according to that record of the feeding of the 5 ,000 given in Matthew's Gospel Jesus sent his disciples away across the sea while he himself dismissed the multitude and you might ask why would he do a thing like that? Why couldn't he have kept his 12 around him? No sooner asked than answered. They wanted a kingdom too. They were still quite young in the experience of the Lord. It would be some time afterwards before they saw that the cross must come before the crown. Here was a golden opportunity for kingship. Why not let the multitude do it Lord they would surely have been there inward thought for that moment Jesus couldn't rely upon his 12 they would have been perhaps on the side of the multitude while thinking that they were on his side. Far better they go away. Far better he sends the multitude away himself. So in Matthew chapter 14 we are told that he did and then sapped of all strength himself that he too went up into the mountainside to seek for a renewal of strength and resource that whatever tomorrow's temptations might bring they might not find him yielding before the blandishments of an obedient multitude. And that night the disciples were part way across the sea when the Lord met them walking on the water and Peter once more spoke out of turn. Lord he said, Lord if it be thou bid me that I come unto thee on the water. Poor silly Peter we say. What a rash thing to do. Why couldn't he keep quiet? Why indeed? I would have kept quiet. So did the other eleven. So I suppose would most of you. And I would have kept quiet because I'd have been hanging over the other side of the boat for dear life. Or if I hadn't I'd have been groveling in the bottom trying to pretend the sea wasn't there. Walk on that water. They might walk an army on it but not me. I'd have been too afraid. So were they all. And if Peter could rise only so high as to say, Lord if it be thou bid me that I come he had spoken a gesture of faith which out topped by a mountain's height. The faith of anybody else in that company even though the Lord could later say, O thou of little faith. His faith was little in this matter. Theirs it seems was zero. He walked too for a while. His faith sustained him. Till a squall of spray hid the Lord from his view. Or a mighty wind buffeted him a little. Or a wave rose too high. And he looked at his feet, at the waves, at the spray. Heard the roaring of the wind and forgot the voice of his master and began to sink. Lord save me. I perish. Not a bad cry for a man in difficulty, is it? If he had to get into difficulties at all at least he knew where to ask for the answer. He was a man of little faith and not a man of none. He fell but he rose again. The Lord took him by the hand and they went together to the boat and all the multitude joined together in that small boat and said, truly this is the Son of God. And next day the multitudes were back. Next day, according to John chapter 6, they were ready to make him a king. And the Lord preached to them. Labour not, he said, for the meat that perisheth. But for that which endureth unto eternal life, which the Son of Man shall give unto you. The multitude rubbed their ears. Rubbed their tightening belts too, no doubt. Wondered when the barley loaves were coming on the menu. Looked around for the two fish. There were no loaves and no fish and very soon almost no disciples. There will be some here who have experienced a tight packed open air crowd, growing bored, thinning out, people in the outskirts vanishing, people nearer stepping back. This is what happened in that company that day and soon so many had gone away because all they were being offered was the bread of life and they didn't believe in that. Soon so many had gone away that the Lord must turn to his twelve and say, will ye also go away? I wonder, had they shown signs of going? Was their own faith disillusioned a little too? Had one perhaps turned and whispered to another and said, there's nothing for us here, he's not the kind of man we thought he was, we'd better go while the going is good? Was there perhaps a stepping backwards on the part of some or one of those twelve? If there was, there was somebody who wasn't doing that. Will ye also go away, the Lord said and Peter's answer was, Lord to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life and we believe and are sure that thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. That wasn't speaking out of turn. If Peter had had time to prepare that speech and write it down on his cuff, he couldn't have made a better one. Every solitary ingredient in that speech is just right. Lord, to whom shall we go? The others went going to anybody, they were just going away. The riffles grew bigger and bigger the further and further they got from their Lord, but there was no other focus for them, they were just vanishing. Lord, said Peter, we wouldn't go unless we'd somewhere better to go. There isn't anyone better to go as far as we can see. Lord, to whom shall we go? And then, thou hast the words of eternal life. He must have been listening very carefully while the multitudes were melting away, because those were almost Jesus opening words. Verily I say unto you, he said, ye seek me not because ye saw the signs, but because ye did eat of the loaves and were filled, labor not for the meat that perisheth, but for that which endureth unto eternal life, which the Son of Man shall give unto you. We're not leaving you, Lord, Peter says, we're waiting for the feast. Thou hast the words of eternal life. We know that you can make us sit down by fifty in a company, and give us the food which a man eats of and lives forever, and still there will be baskets full left over. That's not a casual, off-top remark of a superficial man. And then we believe and are sure that thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. It had already been said once by Nathaniel, you remember. It had really been said more or less the previous night when Peter and Jesus got into that boat. They all said, truly this is the Son of God. And if we have understood the tenses correctly, what Peter is really saying is, Lord, we have believed and we are still sure that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. We are not put off by a little thing like that, Lord. We meant what we said when we called you the Son of God. Perhaps they didn't all know they did. Perhaps the man, if there was one, who had beckoned with his thumb and said, let's get out, there's nothing for us here, didn't feel like that even now. Perhaps we could give that man a name. For Jesus, no doubt looking with loving satisfaction upon that prime confession of Simon Peter said, have that I chosen you twelve? And one of you is a devil. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who it was that should betray him. Was it Judas who had been suggesting there's nothing left for us? Jesus had noticed something anyway. We go a long way north to what is called in the chapter we read together, the coasts of Caesarea Philippi. I don't know whether I've ever asked you to do this before, but it's an interesting exercise. You've got the kind of Bible which has maps in the back which are on the same scale for both Old Testament and New Testament. Then one day take the Old Testament one and prick a pin through Dan. When you do you'll find you've just missed Caesarea Philippi by, on my maps scale, about a sixteenth or an eighth of an inch, a couple of miles say. What was Jesus doing near Dan? Only once before, as far as we know, had he been as far north as that, that was at Tyre on the coast. Now he's at Dan, or nearly at Dan in land. Dan of all Israel from Dan to Beersheba, the northern boundary. Jesus had gone a long way north. And was his faith still facing north, I wonder, when he said that? Did it look like exile? They were stirring up a hotbed of trouble for him. Much difficulty was being aroused. Spies were on his track. Disciples were being asked awkward questions. I'm sure that the public prosecutor's dossier was being nicely filled up with evidence against Jesus Christ. It could almost seem that he was leaving the scene of the unequal and unsuccessful conflict. And so, with one foot out of Palestine, as it were, he says to his disciples, whom say men that I am? Oh, they didn't mind telling him that. Some say John the Baptist, some say that prophet, some say Elias, some say, and they gave him quite a list. But they shouldn't escape that way. They may have wanted to escape, but they mustn't be allowed to. Whom say ye that I am? Peter blundering in again with, thou art the Christ, do you think? It doesn't read to me like blundering. That, some say Moses, some say Elias, some say Jeremiah, some say one of the prophets, seems to me like procrastinating. Shilly-shallying, trying to avoid the point. We don't mind telling you what they think, but just at the moment, we're too much in doubt to tell you what we think. After all, the Lord might have been going into exile. They might have thought. The disciples could have been mightily dispirited, and if in that disheartened company somebody could stand up and say, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God, that's a rallying call. He's not a careless utterance by a man who doesn't think what he says. Not by any means. And Jesus knows it isn't. Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. Blessed art thou is a rather heady statement. It's easily misunderstood. If I said to Christ, I believe you are Christ, the Son of God, and he said, blessed art thou, Alfred Ben Alfred, I should say to myself, he's congratulating me. I must have been pretty good. That was a clever remark to make. It wasn't, you know. It was right. It was timely. It was faithful. It wasn't clever. Blessed art thou doesn't mean congratulations. It means you are happy, or you have been blessed. Flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. Peter might have been asking for the revelation. If he is the kind of man I think he is emerging to be, I wouldn't be surprised to find that Peter, too, had been praying, Lord, make me sure. Let me know that this really is my Christ. Other people said, how long dost thou make us to doubt? That could well have been part of Peter's praying. And the prayer had been answered. Flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. But as I said, it's the same remark as Nathaniel made a couple of years ago. It's not very different from the one that Peter himself had made after the feeding of the 5,000. And yet he says it now again, and the Lord says, blessed art thou, Simon. Why had times changed so much that the same statement now meant so much more? Oh, because it was fairly easy to confess to Christ when everybody was waiting for him. That's what Nathaniel did. Because it was, though, more difficult, not as difficult as it was going to be, to say, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God, when he had fed 5,000 people. And because now, with the Lord face northward, going, it seemed, into exile, with everybody against him amongst the rulers, it was very hard to say the same thing now. And Peter said it still, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. The Lord's answer is more wonderful yet than Peter's confession. There are two men there, each with his several father, Peter the son of John, Jesus the son of God. And Jesus says, I say unto you that you are Simon, the son of John, just as he said to Jesus. You are Christ, the son of God. It was not flesh and blood that revealed this unto thee, but my Father, which is in heaven. You don't get that kind of thing from men. You only get that from God. If only Peter had been content to accept that at its face value, he might not even on this occasion have made any mistake at all. The Lord might have been able to go straight on from, and thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it, and explained in full what he meant by that. But for the moment, Peter did make a very bad mistake. He was to make more, but he made one now. The Lord turned back as Peter had wanted him to, set his face to Jerusalem in the way they all wanted, and said, the Son of Man goes to Jerusalem to be betrayed into the hands of sinners, and to be put to death, and the third day rise again. I've often been puzzled why it was that the disciples didn't hear that statement right out, and see death and then rising. They always seem to be worried about the dying. They never seem to take hope from the rising. But I wonder, would you have done in those circumstances? You can believe a man who says, let's go and be king, and takes the necessary steps, which Jesus didn't. You can believe a man who says, I'm going to go and be killed, and takes those steps, which Jesus didn't. You keep saying, Lord, this shall not be unto thee. After all, why not? I'm a good counselor. I've just told him he's the Christ, the Son of the Living God. I better see to it he doesn't make a mistake about it. You can see Peter saying that. And the Lord turns upside down all his blessings to him. Instead now of, blessed art thou, it's, get thee behind me. Instead of, upon this rock I will build it, thou art a stumbling block unto me. If you stay there, you'll trip me up. Instead of, flesh and blood hath not revealed this, but my Father, it's, I'll say, but it's not the things that be of God, but those that be of men. You know, had it been the intention of Matthew to set out and write poetry, he couldn't have put the thesis and antithesis of that discussion between Jesus and Peter more beautifully and more symmetrically than he has done. It's a marvelous piece of revelation. And Peter is crushed. And the Lord looks with sympathy and pity, upon that abject form who's told him is Christ and now see that he won't do anything Christ-like, and says, verily I say unto you, there is some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom. And those some were Peter, James, and John. The exceeding high mountain was the place. And the Lord with his raiment, white and glittering, and his face shining as the sun, with Moses and Elias flanking him, was the evidence. And Peter who, the record says, knew not what he said, struck up with, Lord, it is good for us to be here. Let us make three boons. One for thee, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. Not knowing what he said, I suppose, means at least not realizing the importance or the import of what he said, but it couldn't mean not knowing what he thought he meant. And I think Peter did know what he meant. It's a silly idea too, but very understandable in those circumstances. I should think it would be, Lord, here we are. There's you in glory. There's the lawgiver. There's the first and the chief of the prophets. We've got the leading team. Lord, don't let them go. We'll put them up for the night. We'll make boons for you all. We don't mind roughing it in the open air. And tomorrow, tomorrow let's set about establishing the kingdom. Not so? Moses and Elijah went. The mountain was empty of all saved Jesus, Peter, James, and John. The glory disappeared. It was the ordinary Jesus with them now. And as they trudged sadly down from that mountaintop, all the consolation they got from that vision was a strange glow that taught them that something one day would show what that meant. And for the moment, the warning, you are not to tell anybody yet. Not until the Son of Man is risen. They couldn't have done, could they? They didn't yet know what it signified. Just one stage further we go to the upper room. Make ready the Passover, Jesus said. Peter and John were sent to do it. Their sign, a man bearing a pitcher of water, that placed an upper room. The man takes his water pitcher into the upper room, leaves it, and goes away. And Peter and John make ready. And the 11th, the 12th perhaps, sit down with the Lord, certainly the 12th to begin with. The 12th sit down with the Lord and look at each other. There's the pitcher of water. Here all around are 26 road-stained feet. And nobody to do the washing. Nobody, no slave, no servant. Only the Son of God. Jesus, knowing that he came from God and went to God, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end and took a towel and girded himself and took water and washed his disciples' feet and they let him. That's a bad state on the record of 12 excessively proud men that they let their Lord do for them what they wouldn't do for each other. And I know it's Peter who spoke up and I know he didn't talk very good sense that he was the only one who protested. The others were just going to let it happen. Lord, I shall never wash my feet. Of course he should have said, give me the cloth, Lord, let me do it. But what he did say was better than nothing. I shall never wash my feet. That isn't what kings do. And though when the Lord said, if I wash thee not, thou hast no part in me, Peter went to extremes and said, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. It's part of that readiness to surrender that Peter always did show when the Lord showed him that he knew better. They weren't a very creditable company at all, I suppose. At that last supper, what with their quarrelings over chief places and the two swords they'd secreted under their garments and boasting about who would be most loyal to him and then this foot washing business, not a very creditable company. Well, only in the eyes of Jesus who said, ye are they which have continued with me in all my temptations. And that's no bad commendation, is it for a mothly crew of twelve rather misunderstanding men? They must have been a good deal better than we think. I sometimes feel, in fact, I don't know whether you do, but I sometimes feel that we rather like finding faults in the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, not for its own sake, but because if Peter was pretty faulty, then I'm not as bad as I thought I was. If they made all their mistakes, then God shouldn't think too badly about me. So the more mistakes we find in the twelve, the bigger we feel. It's not a very healthy exercise. It's far better that we should feel the right side and have the Lord perhaps smile in indulgence and forgiveness on our sins, but certainly not have us cover them up. And now they're going to the place where the Lord will be arrested and they've got two swords, and one of them I suspect is short of a waistcoat and is shivering a bit, for the Lord has said, he that hath no sword, let him sell his cloak and buy one. I suspect having seen through what they've been up to. They were brave men these twelve, silly though they were, and they were going to defend their Lord, even though they'd only got two swords, and they tried to do it in the garden after they'd had their sleep out, and Jesus had wet his great sweat with drops of blood. It was Peter who drew the sword and struck the blow. He was wrong, of course, put a thy sword into his sheath. All they that take the sword shall perish with the sword. But it was a brave thing to do for all that. Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee, he had said. And his only prize was one severed ear, not very good booty for one what could have been fatal blow for him. But then perhaps he wasn't a very good shot. Maybe he wasn't after Malchus's ear. Perhaps it was his pace and he missed, or Malchus ducked. But then again, Judas was the guide to them that took Jesus, and Malchus was the servant of the high priest. Judas and Malchus could well have been side by side. Did this faithful but sadly mistaken Peter see Judas and see Red and aim badly and going between the two heads just lop off one ear? We shall never know. But it might be so. And Malchus was healed and the Lord was arrested and the disciples all forsook him and fled. And within a very short time there was no disciple to be found except you know who it was? Simon Peter, of course. Simon Peter who had said, I will not deny thee and couldn't keep out of harm's way. The others said they wouldn't too and saw to it that they didn't, they weren't there able to do so. They were in an upper room where I would have been I suppose, with locked doors. But Peter found somebody in the high priest's court who could let him in. Tradition said it was John but I can't think why. Anyway he found somebody who let him into the high priest's court and there he stood by the fire warming himself according to the dreadful record to see the end. It looks as though Peter had nearly lost all hope in Christ now but marvelous man that he was. He hadn't lost loyalty. He was there in the very heart of his enemies to see the end warming himself that bitter night by the fire. But it was a fire and fires glow and they light as well as warm and in the flickering flames Peter could be seen. And a mate came. Surely thou was one of his disciples. Quick as a flash off the top without thinking. I was not the obvious emergency measure the safety thing to do. Nothing to make sure you weren't arrested. There went one denial. Only two wishes left now. And then another said thou art a Galilean for thy speech be rare see. And poor Peter who no doubt had been conversing as little as possible but conversing in the hard rough accents of that neighborhood of his Galilean neighborhood I mean all of a sudden became educated and refined and sought to disguise where he came from and said oh no I am not the disciple of Jesus Christ I don't know him at all. Talking in an accent of a hundred miles away to make them think he wasn't from Galilee. But worse than that he said I call God to witness I don't know this man. He denied with an oath. This is too dreadful too pitiful. The man who said I will never deny thee first denies in his own words and then calls the God of heaven to witness to a lie the man who had once heard Jesus say swear not at all. Neither by heaven for it is God's throne. Neither by the earth for it is his footstool. Neither by Jerusalem for it is the city of the great king said I call God to witness I don't know this man. Still one wish left. One crow two and now the kinsman of the man whose ear Peter had struck off comes upon the scene did not I see thee in the garden with him. And what was it all worth the Lord was there being cried for his life nothing could save him he didn't want to be saved everybody gone there was no hope left and the man just crumbled to pieces and ranting and raving recalled all the Galilean fisherman's oaths he'd ever known and cursing and swearing said I know him not. Dreadful. But he'd lasted a long time. And now the Lord turned and looked upon Peter. Jesus must have looked upon Peter and Peter must have looked back wasn't he? Jesus turned and looked upon Peter. Peter saw the look and it broke his heart. I don't know what the Lord looked you can't write down the look. It wasn't I'm sure you've let me down Peter. I think it was. Remember Peter. Satan hath desired to have you all that he may give you as wheat but I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not and when thou art converted strengthen thy brethren. And he went out and sobbed and hulked his sins away. Went out and wept bitterly. Went into hiding I suppose. Thought of himself as an outcast could hardly bring himself to think of himself as one of the company. Was restored by the Lord's own words who said go tell his disciples and Peter was in fact the first to see him amongst the menfolk. He appeared first on the keeper then on to the twelve. Then had to face the inevitable reckoning. By the Sea of Galilee again where he learnt the oath where he learnt to know the Lord in a boat again when he learnt to know what the Lord knew of what goes on beneath the depths of the sea and inside the heart of man. Where cast the net on the right side convinced John first and then quickly Peter it is the Lord. And this time there was no though how easily there could have been. This time there was no depart from me for I am a sinful man Lord. There was I think the painful pent up heart sinking waiting for the moment when the music had to be played. And it came the Lord said Simon son of Jonas love us thou me more than these more than what? It could mean do you love me more than you love these fish? Or it could mean do you love me more than these disciples do? Or it could mean do you love me more than you love these disciples? You can't tell from the text. I think you can tell from the obvious necessities of the case. I think Jesus said Simon are you prepared to say now that you love me more than the other disciples do? You have said that before didn't you? Though all men will deny thee yet will not I. Are you going to say that now? Not he. He will not compare himself with the other disciples at all. And as for loving the Lord has used two bigger words. Peter must use a smaller one. Lord thou knowest that I am thy friend. I will not claim to love you. And the Lord accepting that as far as it goes says, feed my lambs. That's only one though. And so the Lord comes back Simon son of Jonas love us thou me. Stepping down a step nearer to Peter's level leaving out the other disciples. Simon son of John tell me now will you claim to love me if we leave the others out? Not Peter. He will stay just where he is that's as high as he's willing to rise. Lord you know I am your friend. That's two. There must come a third. There had been three denials. There must come a third. And so after the Lord has said tend my sheep he now comes to the third one. And takes Peter at his own words Simon son of Jonas art thou my friend. Using the words that Peter had used. As though to make quite sure. Three times if you say that I will believe you. And Peter saw the inward import of this and was grieved that the Lord said unto him the third time Simon son of Jonas art thou my friend and said Lord thou knowest all things. Thou knowest that I love thee. Look inside Lord and see do you not find there friendship to you? And the Lord did. Feed my sheep. His third commission. Peter being prepared for greatness. Being made ready for the acts of the apostles. There is but one more. John in the background. Peter catching sight of him out of his eye corner. He seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved following behind and having been told by the Lord that when he is old one will bear him where he does not want to go and cause him to die says and what about John Lord? That's an old old and a new new story that is this. What about the other fellow? Peter's all alike Lord. They thought they should have received more. Equal pay for equal work. This is the world's philosophy. Not God's. Is it not mine to do what I will with mine own? Follow thou me. That's the call to all of us. Poor looking at rich. Plain looking at comely. Unmarried looking at married. Sick looking at healthy. What about these Lord? Why don't you treat us all alike? My grace is sufficient for these. Is the best answer for now. No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous but rather grievous, yet afterwards it worketh the peaceable fruit of righteousness in them that are exercised thereby. You have heard of the patience of Job and have seen the latter end of the Lord. How that the Lord is very pitiful and of a tender mercy. That must suffice for now. And for our present conduct wearing blinkers looking neither to right hand nor to left but for the joy that is set before him. Follow thou me.