Devoted: Dedicated to Christ
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Last Night was amazing. God moved in so many ways. There was freedom, breakthrough, and Salvations. One of the biggest challenges of last night was to our devotion. Are we truly devoted to Christ. By being devoted we aren’t talking when it’s convenient. We aren’t talking about when it’s easy. We are talking full devotion.
Defined Devotion means
Giving all of ones time and resources.
I want to open with the Scripture when Simon got His name changed to Peter.
Matthew 16:16–18 (ESV)
16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
17 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.
18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
God asked disciples who does the world say that I am. They rattled off a bunch of names. Then He asked who do you say that I am and Peter responded with you are the Christ.
Peter has made this confession before. It’s not the first time and won’t be the last. There are many who speculate why the name changed and a lot of studying has been done comparing languages. We aren’t going to get into that this morning. Rather we need to learn something about Peter.
IN contrast to Peter: Man of Faith Simon was an uncultured swine. One theologian states:
Simon had a habit of revving his mouth while his brain remained in Neutral.
I can relate to Simon.
8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
Would clearly define Simon as Simon would say stupid things all the time.
Peter’s named is mention more than any other name in the gospels except for Jesus. No one is spoken of the Lord more than Peter and no disciple is rebuked more than Peter. No other disciples rebukes the Lord (not a good thing) but no one else confessed Christ more adamantly than Peter either, yet no other disciple publically rejects Jesus and no one is praised and blessed by Jesus the Peter was. Yet Peter was the only ever addressed as Satan.
Luke has a habit of showing Simon’s two personalities within his writing
When Simon was on the boat, prior to really knowing Jesus Luke wrote this about Him.
5 And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.”
But then in the same breath
8 But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”
It’s Luke way of saying the stupid man said this: The faith man said this. Jesus does this as well refrencing Simon when He fails and refrencing Peter when he is faithful.
31 “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat,
37 And he came and found them sleeping, and he said to Peter, “Simon, are you asleep? Could you not watch one hour?
38 Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
It came to Pass that at times Peter didn’t even know what to call himself
1 Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:
It wasn’t until Jesus’ resurrection. Peter got impatient and went back to fish
3 Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.” They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.
A double minded man is no good either to the world or to Jesus.
So Jesus in his wisdom breaks Simon down with three questions. Jesus did this because he had to steady Peter’s heart. After this altercation We never hear Simon refrecned as just simon.
He gets called Simon-Peter or just Peter. There came a point where Peter had to leave the doubt behind him. Where he had to embrace his new future. His new life. And his new calling. After the the very tense meeting with Jesus on the sea shore Peter took his place as leader of the pack.
1 And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction.
2 The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother;
The term first here isn’t a numbering list as Matthew doesn’t number the other disciples. The greek term used here is
Protos- Chief or leader
A Leader decides direction
In order to lead properly a leader cannot be in two places at once. He must be single minded. He must be convicted into one direction. No ones a war by splitting their troops. Only when one battle is engaged can we defeat the enemy at hand.
2. A Leader Possesses Self Awareness
At some point Peter had to embrace his new name. When we get saved and walk out our salvation there will be many people calling us by our old habits and behaviors and it isn’t until we embrace the new person under Christ that other people will begin to embrace the new person as well.
3. A Good leader is always learning and growing
We see in Peter’s life that he continued to learn how to work out his new name and faith.
Will you be a good leader of those Jesus gave you to lead? Will you be a good follower of Christ? Will you be a single minded in all you do?