John 21:16

The Message

He then asked a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” “Yes, Master, you know I love you.” Jesus said, “Shepherd my sheep.”

Cross References

Psalm 100:3

Know this: God is God, and God, God. He made us; we didn’t make him. We’re his people, his well-tended sheep.

Zechariah 13:7

“Sword, get moving against my shepherd, against my close associate!” Decree of God-of-the-Angel-Armies. “Kill the shepherd! Scatter the sheep! The back of my hand against even the lambs! All across the country”—God’s Decree— “two-thirds will be devastated and one-third survive. I’ll deliver the surviving third to the refinery fires. I’ll refine them as silver is refined, test them for purity as gold is tested. Then they’ll pray to me by name and I’ll answer them personally. I’ll say, ‘That’s my people.’ They’ll say, ‘God—my God!’”

Matthew 26:72

Again he denied it, salting his denial with an oath: “I swear, I never laid eyes on the man.”

John 18:17

The young woman who was the doorkeeper said to Peter, “Aren’t you one of this man’s disciples?” He said, “No, I’m not.”

John 18:25

Meanwhile, Simon Peter was back at the fire, still trying to get warm. The others there said to him, “Aren’t you one of his disciples?” He denied it, “Not me.”

John 21:17

Then he said it a third time: “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was upset that he asked for the third time, “Do you love me?” so he answered, “Master, you know everything there is to know. You’ve got to know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. I’m telling you the very truth now: When you were young you dressed yourself and went wherever you wished, but when you get old you’ll have to stretch out your hands while someone else dresses you and takes you where you don’t want to go.” He said this to hint at the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. And then he commanded, “Follow me.”

Acts 20:28

“Now it’s up to you. Be on your toes—both for yourselves and your congregation of sheep. The Holy Spirit has put you in charge of these people—God’s people they are—to guard and protect them. God himself thought they were worth dying for.