Dysfunctional 5

ntro

Students we are finishing our series called “dysfunctional”

We have been looking at different people in the Bible who God used, despite some of the things that happened in their life

Joseph — seeing how even when you are betrayed and hurt God is still with you

Moses — waiting on the Lord trusting in his plan

Rahab — a literal prostitute who God saved, redeemed, and put in the lineage of Jesus’

David — despite his complacency, God still kept his promises

Today we are going to finish our series by looking at one of the most prominent figures in the New Testament

This is a man that led the charge for most of the NT

He preached the first gospel message

But before that, he was a man that consistently stuck his foot in his mouth

We are going to look at Peter

The good

Matthew 4:18–20 ESV

18 While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. 19 And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” 20 Immediately they left their nets and followed him.

Peter when he encounters Jesus immediately decides to follow Him

Peter as well as His brother dropped everything they had and left to follow the Lord

They didn’t hesitate

Now this may seem crazy

A man walks up and says follow me and they left everything

This is why the Gospel’s are so important because it actually wasn’t that simple, the book of Luke gives us the full account

Luke 5:1–11 ESV

1 On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, 2 and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. 3 Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. 4 And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” 5 And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” 6 And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. 7 They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. 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.” 9 For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, 10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” 11 And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.

When Peter experienced the Lord for the first real time he dropped everything and followed Him

Peter had no idea what this means or what it was going to ultimately cost him

He had no idea what he was signing up for, but he knew that Jesus was legit and started following Him

Peter then sees the miracles of Jesus first hand!

He helps pass the bread and fish that fed 5,000

He sees Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead

He sees Jesus do all these miracles

Then Jesus asks the disciples a question and Peter speaks up

Matthew 16:13–18 ESV

13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 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.

All the disciples are still unsure who Jesus is

Or they know and are afraid to speak up

But not Peter!

He steps up confidently and says I know who you are Jesus!

You are the Lord!

You are the Christ!

You are the Messiah!

This is the first time that anyone declared that Jesus is the Messiah, and Peter says it with his whole chest!

Here’s our first thing tonight:

Be confident in Jesus

We need to be confident in the Lord!

Peter with his whole chest declared that Jesus is Lord!

He had no issue trusting in who Jesus is

This needs to be us!

If you trust in the Lord you need to be confident in who Jesus is!

Don’t shy away from Him

Don’t shy away from the Lord! If he called you out of sin and darkness stand on it!

Be confident in the Lord!

This was Peter

Peter was confident in what he saw Jesus do

Confident in the miracles that Jesus did

Fear

But here’s the thing about confidence

It can waiver

Our confidence can drop in something and lead us to doing some dumb things

This is what happened to Peter

Once Jesus was arrested and heading off to trial Peter actually followed the events

Wanting to see what would happen

But at this moment fear started to creep in

To the point where Peter’s confidence started to get replaced with fear

Listen to what happens

Matthew 26:69–74 ESV

69 Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard. And a servant girl came up to him and said, “You also were with Jesus the Galilean.” 70 But he denied it before them all, saying, “I do not know what you mean.” 71 And when he went out to the entrance, another servant girl saw him, and she said to the bystanders, “This man was with Jesus of Nazareth.” 72 And again he denied it with an oath: “I do not know the man.” 73 After a little while the bystanders came up and said to Peter, “Certainly you too are one of them, for your accent betrays you.” 74 Then he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, “I do not know the man.” And immediately the rooster crowed.

Peter ended up denying Jesus 3 separate times

Here’s the second thing

Fear hurts our witness

Fear of others hurts our witness

When Peter was forced with a decision: either A) stand up for Jesus and potentially be punished, or B) deny Jesus and stay safe

Peter allowed the fear of others to stop him from following Jesus

The same thing happens to us all the time

I remember being in High School my senior year

I just got saved, and was absolutely on fire for God

I wanted to tell everyone I knew about Jesus and I routinely did

But then something happened

Someone I considered myself close to started making fun of me for believing in Jesus

He hated the Jesus and God and would routinely make me feel less than

What was the result? I did what Peter did

I stayed silent

I kept my faith private

Students I think we do this all the time

We get like Peter and get on fire for God!

We come back from Xtreme Conference and we are pumped for Jesus

Serve weekend is next week, by the end you’ll feel on fire for the Lord

But then something happens, you allow fear to creep in

“what will others think”

“what will they say”

“what could happen to me”

And suddenly the confidence we had in God is replaced with fear

Thats what happened to Peter

Peter’s redemption

Peter was one of the key disciples

He was in Jesus’ inner circle

He saw things others didn’t

He declared faith in Jesus first

YET

He allowed fear to creep in

For many of us — something like that happens to us and we cut ties

If someone rejects us, we cut ties and move on

The beauty though is thats not what happened

John 21:15–19 ESV

15 When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” 16 He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.” 17 He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. 18 Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” 19 (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, “Follow me.”

Jesus looks at Peter and three separate times ask Peter “do you love me”

This clearly is a parallel to the three times Peter denied Jesus

Jesus then gives Peter three commands:

“feed my lambs” “tend my sheep” “feed my sheep”

Jesus still gives Peter a mission — go and care for God’s people

Here’s the last thing:

Jesus doesn’t quit on us

Jesus doesn’t quit on us when we let fear step in

Jesus could have very easily looked at Peter and rejected him — I mean he denied knowing Him 3 times!

Yet Jesus instead offers him forgiveness and brings him back!

Peter then in Acts 2 goes on to preach the first sermon about Jesus as Lord! The sermon that brought 3000 people to faith in Jesus

Here’s the cool part!

Jesus still does the same thing today

We will constantly do what Peter did — we will allow fear to fear to creep into our life

We will miss up our witness all the time with people

Our sin will pull us away

But Jesus doesn’t give up on us when we fail — instead He is right there waiting on us wanting to come back to Him

He gives us second chances every time we go to Him!

Conclusion

Students we are going to fail — fear will creep in at some point in our life

We will find ourself like Peter multiple times in our life

When we do we need to make sure we go back to Jesus

He’s always waiting on us to come back to Him!

Discussion questions

What does Peter's immediate decision to follow Jesus teach us about faith and obedience?

In what areas of your life do you struggle to be confident in your faith like Peter was at times?

Have you ever let fear influence your actions regarding your beliefs? How can you learn from Peter's experience?

What can we learn from Jesus' response to Peter after his denial, and how does that relate to our relationship with God?