Now, let me just say this right now, before I even get into the sermon, I've heard this
preached so many times, and have you ever heard preachers who say, "We need to go back
to the Greek"?
Have you ever heard people say that?
Put up your hand if you've heard somebody say that.
Okay.
Sometimes you've got to go back to the Greek because this isn't translated, right?
And I've heard people talk about this, and if you've been in churches that like to correct
the Bible with the Greek, you'll have heard this before about agape and phileo.
Two different words for love, agape and phileo.
Unfortunately, us poor English speakers, when we read the Bible, we just see love.
We don't really see what's going on here.
But the Pope who's standing behind the pulpit, who interprets the Bible for us, he's going
to tell us what it really means, because he goes back to the Greek.
Because you're not, I'm sorry, you're not smart enough to understand the Bible yourself
this morning, you dumb English speaker, you.
You need me to stand up here and tell you what it really means, right?
Well, no, that's not true at all, because the Bible says you need not let any man teach
you, but that the same anointing teaches you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie.
And even if it has taught you, you shall abide in it.
Hey, the Bible's clear that the same Holy Spirit that I have is the same Holy Spirit
that you have.
The same Bible that I have, God willing, is the same Bible that you have.
And so, you don't need to go back to the Greek.
You know, the funny thing is, I actually studied Greek a lot when I was younger.
And I looked up, I wanted to see if this was really true, this thing about agape and phileo.
I looked up these words, agape and phileo, and they both mean love, okay.
And I looked them up in different places in the New Testament.
And did you know that the Bible says that Jesus loved the Father with phileo, which
is supposedly the lesser.
You know, because they say that like, well, phileo is the lesser kind of love words.
It's just kind of a friendship kind of a love, and agape is the unconditional love of God.
So Jesus loved the Father with phileo, according to the Bible.
And the Pharisees, when they loved the seat, the uppermost seats at Beasts, they had agape.
They had unconditional burning love of God for these special seats that they sat in.
That doesn't make any sense, does it?
And did you know that you can look at the exact same quotes out of Jesus' mouth between
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and sometimes it'll be phileo, and sometimes it'll be agape,
and he's saying the exact same thing?
Let me just break it to you.
Ready?
I'm going to shock you.
They're both the same word.
They both mean love, and that's why it's translated as love in the English language.
And it's proved here, because I've heard preachers say, "Well, the first two times Jesus asked
him, he says, 'Phileo,' but then the third time he says, 'Agape.'
And that's why it grieved him, because he said, 'Do you agape me?'"
Okay, well look.
Look down at your Bible in verse number 17, and let's see what the Bible says.
Let's let the Bible be our authority, not Dr. Fatbottom theologian somewhere.
The Bible says here, "He saith unto him the third time, 'Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou
me.'"
Is that a different question or the same question for the third time?
It proves that it's the same word, because it's asking the same thing for the third time.
Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, "lovest thou me."