 Let's pray. Ma'am, am I audible? Yes, yes. Go ahead, please. Thank you. OK, let's pray. Our grace is heavenly, Father. We thank you for this beautiful day, beautiful time, and beautiful moment to come together, Lord Jesus, and just glorify your name, Master. This time, Father, as we are going to study your word, Lord, we ask you that Lord Jesus give us your heavenly revelation, give us heavenly understanding for God, give us heavenly wisdom, and so that, Lord Jesus, we will understand things for the God. And we pray that, Lord Jesus, as Ma'am is teaching us, Lord, help her and guide her, Lord Jesus, so that she will bring a good content to us, Lord. Thank you, Lord. We submit all students to your mighty hand, and this time, in Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you so much. I seem to be having some notification here. Yeah, it's all right. So in John chapter 21, we reached the portion where there's a conversation going on between Jesus and Peter. And Jesus now begins to ask Peter whether he loves him or not. And we did not get into the words, the meaning of the words, and all of that, because we wanted to first look at some other aspects of this passage. So we just looked at the significance of feeding the lambs, and we looked at how Jesus is asking Peter to be a better shepherd than the shepherds in Ezekiel who were, the false shepherds were mentioned in Ezekiel who did not care anything for the flock. But here, he is giving Peter the mandate to feed his lambs and feed his sheep and to be a better shepherd to them. So we looked at how if we have made a commitment to the Lord, saying that, yes, Lord, we love you more than all of these other things, then we would need to be the kind of shepherds who are the exact opposite of the people in Ezekiel 36. So in fact, we looked at some of the aspects over there which are involved, what exactly would true shepherding mean. It would mean helping those who are weak. It would mean having to bring back those who are lost. It would mean actually going and seeking for those who have strayed away, all of those things. So we looked at those aspects of this passage and just another little thing that we can touch upon before we have a discussion regarding the terms and the words and all of that. There are three things that Jesus says to him. Jesus says to him, feed my lambs. Then he says, take care of my sheep. And he says, feed my sheep. So the wording over there is slightly different. It talks about feeding. And it also talks about taking care of them. And there are two different Greek words used over there. So the feeding basically means taking the sheep out to pasture and giving them pastures where they can graze. That is, of course, the basic general meaning of the word feed, bosko. On the other hand, the other word that Jesus uses, where he says, take care of my sheep. Poimino, that's the word over there. Over there, it's more in the sense of governing them, being a leader, leading them, taking care of all the matters which go with being a leader. So there are two aspects that Jesus is asking Peter to take on. Not only would he just be grazing the sheep as in providing nourishment to the believers, but he also would have to literally lead them. And he would have to shoulder the responsibility that comes with taking care of people and running an entire ministry and planting churches and all of that. I'm very sorry to have a very bad allergy. So we see that taking care of sheep involves not just sharing the word with them and nurturing them in the faith, but also taking care of all the other matters that would be involved. And later, we see that in the early church, where you have the leaders attending to the widows, taking care of the distribution of the food. They go from place to place for doing follow-up on the new churches that have been set up. So all that would be both Bosco as well as Poimino, both of those aspects of taking care of the sheep, get covered. Now, let's just come to the controversy that generally surrounds this whole idea of agape and filio. Now, actually earlier, there really was no controversy regarding these words. And they were just simply understood as synonyms. In some places, you just have the word agape being used. And in some places, you have the word filio being used. And it was just always understood that John almost uses these two phrases interchangeably. The same way we do in English, we try to use two, three different words instead of using one single word just to bring variety in our writing in the way that we are expressing something. So it was not considered to hold any inner significance these words. But then what happened was that in 1960, C.S. Lewis brought out a book called The Four Loves. I think that was, yeah, The Four Loves, in which he kind of graded the four words. And he said, see, this is the superior word. And then the other words are kind of inferior. And there were people who protested at that time and said, you see, this doesn't really match up with when we do a Greek study of the New Testament. It doesn't really match up with what you are saying. But then back in those days, his book went on to become very popular and very widely known. And the people who were protesting and pointing out the errors, they were not famous enough and their voices were not heard. So somehow this kind of teaching gained a lot of ground. But anyone who studies even basic Greek right in the first year of their education when they are studying biblical Greek, immediately they begin to see that in so many passages throughout the New Testament, the two words are almost used like normal synonyms, both meaning the same thing. Almost, of course, there is, of course, a slight variation. But nothing so significant where you would say that this is a superior kind of love and the other is an inferior kind of love. We don't see that kind of demarcation anywhere in our New Testament passages. So this was something that it was an artificial categorization that was brought in by C.S. Lewis. And it's not really quite applicable to the New Testament. And in fact, we will look at some scriptures to talk about this further. Now, when we look at the dictionaries which are there, which you have the wine's dictionary of Old Testament and New Testament words, you have the mounds expository dictionary of Old and New Testament words. When we look at these good solid dictionaries which have good data in them, in these dictionaries, they point out the fact that there is not much variation between these terms. And it is in the mounds dictionary that it actually says that when in back in those days during their times, in biblical times, when the word agape was used, it was just simply used as a synonym for the other two words, phileo and eros. There was no real meaning attached to it. And then biblical writers, when they began to use this word agape, they thought, let's use this mainly for God's love. So the meaning for this word does not really come out so much from the Greek language of that time. Rather, the biblical writers decided to start using this word agape mainly for God's love. So they gave it a special nuance which the word did not have earlier. So in many passages, you do see agape being used to talk about God's love for the people. However, in many of the passages in the New Testament, you have the word agape being continued to be used in the common sense in which that word was used back then in those days. And just to look at a couple of examples of that, John chapter 12, if someone could read out, John chapter 12, verses 42 and 43. Do I have the students with me? Could someone read out please? Oh, please go ahead. John 12, 42 and 43. Many, even of the authorities, believe in him. But for fear of the Pharisees, they're not confess. So that they will not be put out of the synagogue. For they love the glory that comes from them, more than the glory that comes from God. So over here, we have leaders who believe in Jesus, but they don't come forward and they don't acknowledge Jesus because they agape the human praise more than the praise from God. So the word over there is just used in the normal sense as a synonym of love. And so it's not some kind of divine love, nor is it some kind of pure form of love. It's just love. They chose to love the human praise more than God's praise. Now, when we look at 2 Timothy 4-10, we see something similar over there. It talks about Deimos who leaves the Lord. He leaves the faith and goes back into the world. And it says over there that Deimos, because he agape this world, he has deserted me is what Paul says. So over there, the agape is being used for love of the world. So it was just a common word, which was used in those times. But we of course see in many biblical passages where the word agape is being used for God's love specifically. If there is any difference between these two terms, it is mainly that agape focuses more on the object which is being loved. As in, you value that object and you consider that object important, like in the case of Deimos, he really loved the world. For him, the world was so attractive and precious and he was willing to make sacrifices. He was willing to give up God. He was willing to go back and backslide for the sake of this world which he loves. So agape maybe could be said as a love that kind of treasures the object that it is loving. So in that sense, the biblical writers began to use it for God's love because God instead of thinking about himself and his interests, he chooses to love this world, the people of this world and make a sacrifice on their behalf. Filet on the other hand is more an emotional kind of a thing where it's like a tenderness that you're feeling. So that is why if Iloyo is mainly used for friends, for family, people that you have a tender love towards. And so when we look at verses where it says where we are commanded to love the Lord, where we are commanded to keep his commandments and therefore show our love for him in these places, we have the word agape being used. So you don't really go on the basis of your emotions. You may be feeling tenderness or you may not be feeling tenderness but it's a decision that you make. You choose to express your love by doing a certain thing. And so agape love is commanded. Believers are expected and asked to show agape love to the Lord whether they feel like it or not. On the other hand, filio is more about emotions where you feel this deep tenderness towards someone because you regard them as your friend or your family member and which is why in John 14, 23, Jesus says, if anyone agape me, he will keep my word and my father will agape him and we will come to him and make our home with him. On the other hand, when the Lazarus sisters are sending a message to Jesus saying, you know, the one that you love is sick, there they say the one that you filio, the one towards whom you have such a tender affection, he is sick, you know? So because they knew that Jesus looks on Lazarus almost like a family member, like someone very dear and precious to him. So over there, they use the tender word and they say, you know, the one that you filio, he is sick. So filio is not an inferior kind of love and John 520 brings out that very clearly. So if, you know, if you could have one person, read out John 520, please. John 520, because as the Father raised the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to one who he will. Oh, that's right, John 520. Yes, 520? Oh, sorry. Yeah, yeah, if you could read out John 5, yes, please. John 520, for the Father loves his son and shows him all things that he himself does and he will show him greater works through these, if he may marvel. So here it's talking about the Father filio the Son. Okay, so he has this tender affection towards the Son where he's willing to show him all the things, you know, the hidden things, which maybe would not be shown to someone that he would not care for. So here we have this special love being expressed, the Father filio the Son and shows him all things that he himself does. He does not hold back anything. Jesus expresses the same sentimentally, I know in another passage where he says, now because you are my friends, you know, to a slave, I would not be revealing all the things, but then now that you are my friends, I will reveal everything to you. So it's that kind of a filio love that is being expressed over here. And in John 1627, it says the Father himself filio us, you know, the believers, the disciples and the believers, the Father himself filio you filio you, because you have filio me and have believed that I came forth from God. So we see God also expressing filio love towards Jesus and towards his people. And we see that this is just a more tender kind of a love that is being expressed. So John, it's interesting to see, you know, he always addresses himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved. He never directly refers to himself by name. And so in three places in the book of John, he, you know, calls himself the disciple whom Jesus loved. For example, John 1323, where it says one of them, the disciple whom Jesus agape was reclining next to him. So in three places, he addresses himself as the disciple whom Jesus agape, but then when you look in John 22 over there, you know, it talks about Mary Magdalene coming to the disciples, it says there, so she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus filio and said, they have taken the Lord. Okay, so he uses this term interchangeably. In some places he considers himself as being agape by Jesus. In some places he considers himself as being filioed by Jesus. Now, we took the effort to look at these terms because it kind of brings out the beauty of what is being, you know, expressed here in this conversation between Jesus and Peter. And later we will see something else which is also really, you know, beautiful about this whole conversation. But, you know, just to go back to the very first portion, which we looked at last week. So in the big, right in the beginning, the first time Jesus says to him, Simon, son of Jonah, do you agape me more than all of these other things? And immediately, you know, Peter replies and he says, you know that I filio you, you know, I have this deep affection for you Lord and you know that is what he says. So he's not just simply saying, yes, Lord, I filio you, but he in fact, you know says, you know that I do because if you can look into my heart and if you were to look into my heart, you would very openly see that I do have this deep tender affection, this friendship, this deep love that I have towards you. And then we come to the second question, where Jesus says again, he's asks the same question, do you agape me? And again, you know, Peter replies and says, yes, Lord, you know that I filio you, I have this, you know, deep affection towards you. And then Jesus says to him, then my sheep. And then we come to the verse 17, where now if for the third time, Jesus says to him, Simon, son of Jonah, he says, do you filio me? So the third time he asks him the question, he is not using the word agape, he's now using the word filio, and it says over there that Peter was grieved and it explains why Peter was grieved. Peter is not feeling grieved because now this time Jesus has kind of come down in his standards and is asking him, do you filio me? No, not at all. Rather, it explains over there that the reason why Peter felt grieved is because he is being asked for the third time. And he immediately understands why he, the question is being posed to him three times because obviously it is a reminder of what he has done three times earlier, where he has denied the Lord three times. And so it says here in 17, Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, do you filio me? And so his reply is this, it says in verse 17, and he said to him, Lord, you know all things, you know that I filio you. And then Jesus says to him, feed my sheep. And one of the commentaries brings out this point that in the entire gospel of John, there are just two Bible passages in the entire gospel of John, which happen in front of a fire, a charcoal fire. And the first is of course, in the courtyard when Jesus is being tried and Peter is warming himself by the charcoal fire. And over there in front of the charcoal fire, he denies Jesus. And now here they are at another charcoal fire, which Jesus has lit up so that, you know, they can, you know, roast the fish and have the meal. And over here, this time, you know, Peter, he says, Lord, I filio you. And here he's expressing his commitment. So we see a contrast between the two episodes where you have a charcoal fire happening. And one aspect of this passage, which always troubled me very deeply, is the fact that Jesus brings up this issue and kind of seems to be hurting Peter deliberately. And it just seems so out of character for the Lord to be doing that because we have always been taught that our God is a God. Once he forgives, he forgives. He doesn't bring up the matter again and again. He does not hold it in his heart against us, you know, and it's like, he doesn't nurse a grudge against us for what we have done in the past. He says, as far as the, you know, east is from the west, that far have I removed your sin and it's so comforting to know that our God is like that. And so it was always very, very, I don't know, very upsetting for me. And I could not really understand. I mean, there must be a reason why Jesus did this, but why, why would he, because it's very, very clear that Peter has repented and Peter has, you know, no longer is holding on to that kind of an attitude where, you know, he would want to continue denying Jesus. No, he has completely changed. So he has repented and Jesus has forgiven. And that is probably why Peter is now so grieved that Jesus is bringing up this issue once again. After it has been forgiven, it should have been forgotten, but now it's again being deliberately being, you know, the issue is once again being raised and moreover, Jesus who knows all things, who can now see inside Peter's heart so clearly and see that this poor man really does love the Lord and he is very much sorry for what has happened. Why would Jesus do something like this? You know, so we have Bible passages which actually talk about how our sins will not be remembered anymore. Hebrews 8-12, where it says, for I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more. We also have that in Hebrews 10-17, Jeremiah 31-34, in these passages, it talks about how once the Lord has forgiven, he will not remember our sins anymore. And it is basically, I just, you know, just finish off this thing and yes, we can definitely have your question. So it's basically the accuser of the brethren who tends to do this, you know, the one in Revelation 12-10, where you have the term being used, accuser of the brethren. He's the one who continues accusing us even after we have been forgiven. Jesus would never do that. So which means that Jesus had a very, very valid reason for bringing up this issue and we will see two points regarding that, you know, which brings out the beauty of what Jesus has done over here for Peter. Now, if your question is directly regarding this matter, then we could address it later. But if it is something else, then please go ahead. But this is something I have not yet completed because there are two things very clearly mentioned here in the passage, which explain why Jesus did this. Okay, and he did it for Peter, not against Peter. And it's a very beautiful thing to see because it's a lesson that we can carry away for our own lives. So please go ahead, if the question is related to something slightly different. Yes, please do an earlier sort of passage. Just note that the message to what Jesus told Peter when he asked the question, you know, do you love me? So in response to what Peter said, he first said, you know, feed my lambs, then the next time he said, tend my sheep. And the third time I said, feed my sheep. So I guess I'm going to go into the reasons to that. You know, feeding, tending, in one case it is lambs, in one case it is sheep. Yeah, so that is really my question. We kind of talked about it at the very beginning of the class. You were there from the very beginning, you know, we talked about Bosco and that other word, poemino. And we looked at the difference between the two and lambs of course, are the younger believers and the sheep would be the more mature grown up believers. So then we looked at the difference between poemino and Bosco. It's there in the beginning of the video. We did cover that it's there, it's already been discussed. Okay, just to go over it again. Yeah, I think you probably know, you can go back to the video and you know, you can look it up later, yeah. So yes, coming back over here to this passage. So Peter says, Lord, you know all things. You know that I filet you. And then Jesus says, very truly, I tell you when you were younger, you dressed yourself and went where you wanted. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go. Okay, so over here, Jesus is confirming the fact that one day Peter will be martyred. And so Jesus has raised this issue to clear up the matter once for all because probably Peter is still hurting on the inside, you know, still deeply shamed for what he has done and he has not recovered from this terrible sin that he has committed. And now Jesus wants to assure him, you know, whatever has happened, you can safely put it behind you because a day is coming when you will stand for me to the point of death. On that day, you will have to stretch out your hands and you will be willing to do that. So it's an amazing word of assurance that Jesus is giving him. So Jesus does not raise up this issue to condemn him, rather Jesus raised up this issue to bring healing, to help him know that he can move on from here. And he never needs to look back. And Paul also says the same thing he says, you know, forgetting what is behind. Whatever has happened in the past, whatever Paul has done in the past is done. But looking on to what is ahead because, you know, he has a master and a savior who is holding something special for him in the future, who will equip him to, you know, run the race and receive his reward. So it's a very beautiful learning for all of us that when we have committed a very serious, grievous sin against the Lord, when we repent of it truly, the Lord forgives us and he no longer holds it against us. And we can have the assurance that he is going to build us up in our inner man, that he is going to strengthen us and present us spotless before the Father one day. And we will go on into the future where we will probably have to face a similar kind of temptation in the future. And on that day, we will indeed be victorious because, you know, it says in 1 John 1 9, he cleanses us, he purifies us from all unrighteousness. So not only does he forgive, he also purifies. So it's a complete work which God does. It's not that he just accepts our sorry and says, okay, fine, you're forgiven and just leaves us at that place. No, he begins to purify us of that unrighteousness so that we are lifted to a higher level and one day we will indeed be victorious in that same area where we had once fallen. And so I think this particular story was placed over here in the Bible so that we can have the same assurance that was being given to Peter, that in him we can have complete restoration and then other lovely thing that came across to me as I was just meditating on this passage, that would be in verse 20. It says, Peter turned and saw that the disciple whom Jesus loved was following them. And then Peter says, Lord, what about him? So when after having the breakfast, it looks like Jesus gets up, takes Peter with him and they go for a walk and these three questions are posed to him in private. Do you love me? He doesn't rub it in his face, the mistake which he made. He doesn't rub it in his face in front of everyone. They go away walking by themselves and there's a private conversation which happens and in that conversation Jesus reveals, very truly I tell you when Peter says, Lord, you know all things Jesus says, yes, it's true. I know all things and I'm telling you what's gonna happen. This is how you are gonna die for me. You are going to be willing to take the step which you were hesitant to take earlier. So Jesus builds him up and Jesus does this whole thing in private between the two of them, he doesn't do it. So for the Lord, the way he treats our fallenness, the way he treats our failures, it is so amazingly beautiful. He is a God who cares very deeply in building us up, never in tearing us up. So he is the complete opposite of the accuser of the brethren. The accuser of the brethren only wants to condemn us and pull us down, shame us, but the Lord, he is so careful about our dignity. He's the one who's always guarding us, watching over us. And when he forgives, he forgives in such a way that we are lifted to a higher level. So these are some very beautiful teachings which come out of this passage. And I think it is important for us because we as believers, we tend to, even though we love the Lord, we tend to end up sinning, you know, and it's very painful when we do that, but this is how God wants to deal with our failures. When we repent, this is his attitude towards us. So we can draw great comfort from this, all right? So yeah, so Peter out of curiosity asks, he says, okay, Lord, what about him? What kind of a, you know, end will he have? And then Jesus says, that is not your concern, you know, because each person's story is their personal story. God never goes around revealing other people's personal details, even through words of prophecy, unless he wishes to do so. Okay, unless there is a purpose for it. So God never reveals, exposes our private lives, our private matters to others, unless there is some specific plan and purpose for that. And so we have the John chapter 21, you know, concluding with these verses 24 and 25, where it says, maybe we can actually read out verse 24 if someone could please read out, 24 and 25. John 21, 24 and 25 if someone could read out. This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things. And who has written these things? And we know that his testimony is true. Now there are also many other things that Jesus did where everyone of them to be written. I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. Okay, so there are two things mentioned here at the end of this Gospel of John. First, there is a testimony of its accuracy. Okay, we know that his testimony is true. Okay, so John is talking about himself, the disciple who has written it all down. And he says, you know, there are many witnesses. There are people who are still alive today who are reading this, what I have written down. And, you know, they are two witnesses of Jesus. They have been with him, they have walked with him. So we are all people who have actually seen these things. And so they will confirm that what I have written down over here is true because many of the people were still alive, right? The ones who had walked with Jesus and knew about the events which took place. They were still alive when John wrote down these things. And he says, we know all of us who can read this work, we can confirm that the things being said over here are true. So first, we see that the testimony given in the Gospel of John is accurate. And the second thing that we see is that the testimony given in the Gospel of John is incomplete in the sense. All the details could not be included. But enough was given for us to be able to, you know, place our faith in Jesus and be able to follow him. So it just kind of concludes in that way. Brother, is there another doubt for which you have raised your hand or is this the previous one? Please go ahead, yeah. It says that you have raised your hand. So maybe this was for the previous question, yeah, all right. Okay, then in that case, you know, we'll take a slightly early break. If we could come back at 9.54 and we will, you know, begin with an introduction to the first epistle of John. So at 9.54, if we can all know, log back in. Thank you.