The wise shepherd will be helped in this task if he remembers that the people he feeds are the lambs of Christ. Did you notice how Jesus reminds Peter that the people he will feed are the Lord’s own people? "Feed my lambs," he said to Peter. "Feed my sheep." The flock is always Christ’s own flock. Consider for a moment the great lengths to which Jesus has gone to claim his sheep for his own. These sheep have been purchased with his own blood. He has paid for their sins with his own life - his sacrifice for their sins. He has truly been the Good Shepherd because he has laid down his life for his sheep, rescuing them from sin and death. So Jesus has the right to remind Peter that the sheep he is called to feed are still Jesus’ own sheep.

If ever there was a disciple after God’s own heart, it was Peter. It was Peter, you remember, who was the first to leave his fishing nets and follow Jesus, the first to get out of his boat and walk with Jesus on the water, and the first to confess Christ Jesus as the Christ. In the Gospel of John, chapter 21, verses 1-19, Peter is getting wet for Jesus once again. He is the first to tuck in his robe, the first to jump in the lake, and the first to swim to Jesus on the shore. Can there be any doubt that Peter loves the Lord Jesus? There he stands beside the Galilee, his dripping robes a testimony of his affection for the Lord.

In the words of the great hymn writer Isaac Watts, "Every power will find sweet employ in that eternal world of joy." But, of course, the difference will be that our work and our play will be unstained by sin. At present we're striving to become more and more holy and making slow progress of it. But we will not become completely and perfectly holy until we're glorified. Glorification is the perfection of our sanctification. In heaven we will be free from sin forever. We will be unable to sin. We will live as sinless creatures in deathless bodies. And God will glorify us so that we can glorify him for all eternity.