Peter - The Follower

Peter the Follower

This summer we’re witnessing the journeys of men and women who followed Jesus—follower stories. Last time we talked about Philemon and Onesimus who both had moments where they had to make big decisions that could have cost them dearly.

Onesimus chose to made amends and heal the wrongs that he had done before he chose to follow Jesus.

Philemon chose to lay down his prejudices and cultural norms to embrace Onesimus as a brother and forgive his debts and his wrongdoings.

But most importantly, we saw the redemptive character of Jesus in the actions of Paul when he took on Onesimus’ debt as though it was his own, and gave Onesimus and Philemon the freedom to be brothers.

Today, we’re going to consider the journey of a charismatic and proud leader, the disciple, Peter.

Peter was likely born around 1 BC—just a couple years younger than Jesus. He and his brother Andrew worked in the family fishing business with their father, Jonah, also known as John. According to John’s Gospel, Andrew was one of John the Baptist’s followers and when John the Baptist pointed to Jesus and said, “Behold the lamb of God…” Andrew left John to follow Jesus. After hanging out with Jesus for part of the day, at 4 pm Andrew ran to find Simon Peter and said, “We have found the Messiah!” and brought him to Jesus.

In that moment when Jesus saw Peter he said, “your name is Simon, but I’m going to call you, Cephas, which means rock.”

This is an important moment in Peter’s journey with Jesus. At His first sight of him, Jesus knew him straight through to his heart. While Jesus knew him perfectly, Peter was was blissfully ignorant of his own heart.

Some time shortly after this initial meeting, Jesus came to the shore of Galilee and saw Andrew and Peter and James and John wrapping up their nets, having caught nothing the night before. He got on Peter’s boat and asked him to push off into the water so he had some room to talk to the crowds. After teaching or a bit, Jesus told them to cast their net and when they obeyed him, they got a huge catch that required the help of James and John. After the hard work of hauling in the fish, Jesus looked at Peter and said, “from now on you will catch men.” And in that moment Peter was all in. He said, “I’ll follow you, Jesus!” and he left his father’s business and became Jesus’ disciple.

From this time on Matthew records that Peter was the first among the disciples. Not the first to follow, but the de facto leader. He must have been charismatic. If the group was asked, “who among you will step up to lead?” Peter would have been the first one to step forward.

Walking on Water

Possibly the most dramatic and revealing moment in Peter’s story was the time when he walked on water.

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The story goes like this. They had been ministering to a large crowd for some time and they were all tired. After sending the crowd away Jesus sent the disciples accross the lake in a boat while he stayed back to be alone with His Father in Heaven. In the middle of the night Jesus walked accross the water and met the disciples in the middle of a severe storm. When the disciples saw him coming they cried out in fear, “It’s a ghost!” But Jesus told them to have courage. “Don’t be afraid!” he said, “Take courage, I am here.”

Peter called out, “Lord, if it’s really you, tell me to come to you, walking on the water.” (Matt 14:28)

The courage to walk on water makes it seem like Peter is filled with faith. But don’t miss the other side of this statement. It’s not just a, “I miss you Jesus, can I come meet you?” No, this was a test—If it’s you, tell me to come out.

Jesus said, “Yes, come” and Peter got out of the boat. For a few steps he was walking on water, but he clung to his doubts instead of clinging to his faith in Jesus, and so he sunk into the turbulent water and cried out, “save me, Lord!” Jesus picked him up out of the water and then said these critical words:

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“You have so little faith, why did you doubt me?” (Matt 14:31)

This story is a perfect miniature of Peter’s life: bold expressions of faith, faltering doubt, and rescue by Jesus.

Notice these some of Peter’s bold outbursts of faith:

When everyone was talking about Jesus as though he was another Elijah or some other prophet, Jesus asked the disciples who they thought he was and Peter boldly said:

Matthew 16:16 ESV

“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

When Jesus said a really hard thing to a large crowd, most everyone left, disappointed. Then Jesus turned to the disciples and asked, “will you leave to? Peter responded:

John 6:68–69 ESV

“Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”

When Jesus was washing feet, Peter was resolute that he wouldn’t let Jesus humble himself so low to wash his feet. But when Jesus told him it was necessary for him to continue to have any part with Jesus, he said,

John 13:6–9 ESV

“Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!”

And maybe the most audacious express of faith was when Jesus told the disciples that every one of them would abandon him that night. Peter boldly proclaimed,

Matthew 26:35 ESV

“Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you!”

And yet, for all his bold expressions of faith, Peter’s faith was NOT on solid ground.

Peter - fragment of a stone

Jesus called peter “cephas”, which is an Aramaic word for “rock,” and Peter is the english transliteration of the greek word, Petros, which also means rock.

It sounds solid—strong. But remember, Jesus knew Peter’s heart.

After Peter exclaimed in Matthew 16:16 that Jesus is the Messiah, Jesus said:

Matthew 16:17–18 ESV

“Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. 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.

This is the moment where Jesus switches his Aramaic nickname, Cephas, for its Greek Equivalent, Petros, which literally means, a detached fragment of rock. Then Jesus said, “upon this petra I will build my church.” Petra is the Greek equivalent for what we would call Bedrock.

A petros is a word used for a rock that a warriors might use to throw at their enemies in a greek war story.

But petra is the kind of rock that you dig down to and build a foundation for a house on.

Peter was strong like a rock, but like a stone he was movable and subject to his circumstances.

Some suggest that when Jesus made this statement in Matthew 16 he was pointing to Peter saying, “upon Peter, the rock, I will build my church,” meaning that Peter was the solid foundation of the church. But later in life Peter wrote the letter we know as First Peter where he interpreted Jesus words for us.

In 1 Peter 2:4 Peter calls Jesus the chief cornerstone in the temple of God. The chief cornerstone is the stone that establishes the square of the entire building. It’s the critical stone for structural integrity. And it’s the beginning and foundation of the entire building. He then puts himself with you and I, saying that we are “living stones” in the temple of God. And then he connects the dots between the cornerstone of the temple and the petra that Jesus said he would build his church on:

1 Peter 2:7–8 ESV

…but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock (petra) of offense.”

Peter, along with you and I, is one of the stones in God’s church, but Jesus is the petra—the cornerstone, the bedrock that the church is build on.

As I was thinking about this idea that a petros is a fragment of Rock, I thought about how God made us in his image. Like a petros, a fragment of rock, we are broken off of the bedrock of God. We are like him, to some small extent. But we should never look to our likeness of God and think that we can rely on ourselves, or build our foundation on our own selves. Jesus is THE ROCK.

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Peter built his audacious faith on his own sturdy platform. At least, he thought it was sturdy. But his expressions of faith in Jesus were really expressions of his own self reliance. And how reliable is a stone that can be picked up and thrown by circumstances?

Not very reliable at all.

Laodicea

In Revelation chapter three the apostle John introduces seven different churches. Each church reveals the characteristics of God’s people in different times in history. The last church, Laodicea, represents God’s church in the time shortly before Jesus’ returns. I believe the message to the Laodicean church speaks to our condition in this church. Notice the parallels between the laodicean church’s characteristics and Peters experience:

The laodicean church says, “I am rich and increased with good…”

Peter said, “though all fall away, I never will” (Matt 26:33)

Peter’s self-reliance gave him confidence, but it was paper thin religiosity.

Jesus said about the Laodicean church

“You are lukewarm…”

“you do not know that you are… blind…”

Peter was blind to his own weaknesses.

The critical moment in Peter’s journey with Jesus came when his master, the one he called Lord, and the man he believed to be the son of God and the Messiah, was arrested and taken to stand trial. After putting on a brave face and slicing off someone’s ear while they were arresting Jesus, Peter ran off with the other disciples, afraid for his life. Jesus hadn’t risen up to defend himself like Peter thought and Peter suddenly realized that he didn’t have the power to prevent Jesus’ arrest on his own. But then he snuck in to the trial of Jesus to watch from a distance. Something had shaken inside him. His confidence in Jesus was failing because Jesus hadn’t overcome his adversaries like Peter expected him to do. Was Jesus who he had believed him to be?

I picture Jesus up on an elevated porch at the end of the courtyard, while Peter milled around in the crowd that was watching from the lawn. Someone had started a fire and Peter came to get his hands warm. Three different times people addressed Peter, “aren’t you one of his disciples?” “You sound like you’re from Galilee, aren’t you one of his disciples?” “Did we see you following Jesus?”

Each time he was asked Peter denied it more and more forcefully. Finally saying, “I do not know the man!”

In that moment the rooster crowed and Peter remembered that Jesus had predicted that before the rooster crowed that morning he would deny Jesus three times. Peter came face to face with the reality of his own broken, sinful heart, and he was disgusted and disgraced by his denial of Jesus. He gave a fleeting glance at the porch where they were being so cruel and unjust to Jesus and he saw that Jesus had turned to look at him with pity in his eyes. That look made it even worse.

The moment was too much for Peter and he ran out of the courtyard straight for the Mount of Olives to the very rock that Jesus had prayed at before being arrested. There he prayed to God in agony, with little hope that He would receive mercy for his public rejection of Jesus. In fact, he wished that he were dead. That’s how bad this was in Peter’s mind.

While Peter wallowed in grief Jesus was led to Calvary and placed on a cross.

While Peter turned his betrayal and Jesus pitying look over and over in his head, Jesus cried out, “It is finished” and gave up his life in exchange for sinners, like Peter.

While Peter disconnected himself in his mind from his leadership role with the other disciples, Jesus lay in the tomb.

And then Peter heard that the tomb was empty and Jesus was alive again!

His heart had never left Jesus. His public shaming of Jesus was evidence of his hypocrisy and shallow spiritual experience, but he still loved Jesus. He knew that Jesus said,

Matthew 10:32–33 ESV

whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.

And yet he also knew Jesus. Maybe it was his desire to make things right that led him to race to the tomb. Or maybe it was just for pure love of His master. But he found the tomb empty and Jesus was nowhere in sight.

Peter had been lukewarm. Blind without knowing it. Naked while thinking he was well dressed. Hungry while thinking he was well fed. But now that his real self was out in the open. Now that he saw himself as Jesus knew him—vacillating and self-reliant—he was eager to reconnect with Jesus.

Heaven knew what was going on in Peter’s heart, so when the angels told the women to tell the disciples that Jesus was alive again, they specifically said, “tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee.” (Mark 16:7) They specifically wanted the ladies to talk to Peter. Peter was still important to Jesus.

Jesus appeared the the disciples… and Peter… a couple times after that, but it was that time when he fed them breakfast that made all the difference.

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You can find the story in John 21:1-17.

Peter and some of the disciples had taken up fishing again. Yes, Peter, the fisher of men, felt like he had so dishonored Christ that he could have no part in fishing for men any more. So he was fishing for fish. The problem was, he didn’t catch any. So, early that morning, as the dawn was breaking, Jesus called out to the fishing boat from the shore, “have you caught any fish?”

“No,” they replied.

“throw your net on the other side.” Jesus told them.

And when they did their nets were filled with fish. Immediately Peter knew this was just like the first miracle when Jesus called them to leave their nets and come with Him to catch men. They were about three hundred feet from shore but in Peter’s eagerness to be near Jesus he jumped out of the boat and swam and sloshed through the water to fall at Jesus’ feet.

Jesus served the disciples a meal of fish and bread there on the beach. And then he turned to Simon. Yes, Simon. Not Jesus’ pet name for Simon. Not Peter, “the rock.” No, he’s back to Simon, as though he had lost the privilege of being a disciple of Jesus.

“Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” (John 21:15)

“yes, Lord,” Peter replied, “you know I love you.”

Three times Jesus asked, “do you love me?” And three times Peter replied, “you know…” The last time he said, “you know everything!”

When Peter first met Jesus he understood that Jesus would make him do great things—fish for men instead of fish; cast out demons and heal the sick, preach the gospel of the kingdom of God. He was excited and confident in himself.

Now, Peter wasn’t so confident. He had learned through his denial and the trial of soul that he experienced afterwards that He couldn’t have confidence in himself. But he could have confidence in Jesus.

Each time Peter replied with an “I love you” statement, Jesus called him to:

“Feed my lambs.”

“Take care of my sheep.”

“Feed my sheep.”

With each question Jesus knocked at the door of Peter’s heart asking if he would let him back in. And when Peter confessed Jesus in front of his friends, Jesus called him to serve His people.

Jesus told the laodicean church, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock…”

Peter had stopped following Jesus—slammed the door with his denial—but Jesus doesn’t easily let go of His children. He came to Peter in the time after Peter had realized his own heart condition, and stood there at Peter’s heart door asking, “do you love me?”

Jesus told the laodicean church to “buy from me gold refined in the fire…”

Peter’s refinement came through the fire of his denial, the agony of his the days that followed, and the tenderness of Jesus’ restoration.

Conclusion

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In Peter’s journey we find a man who is absolutely, no question about it, following Jesus. And yet he is self-reliant in his following.

The message to the Laodicean church is clear that we too are self-reliant. Some of us are blind to the true nature of our hearts. We confidently, maybe even boastfully point to our place as a follower of Jesus. Or, we hesitatingly, uncertainly question whether we’ve followed well enough. Both overconfidence and lack of confidence are a function of self-reliance. We boldly point to our spiritual exploits… or else we eagerly seek spiritual activities assuming that our outward appearance of faith demonstrates our acceptance before God.

But Peter’s journey with Jesus is more about Jesus than it is about Peter. Jesus called Peter. When Peter was blind, Jesus saw everything. When Peter was self reliant, Jesus had pity and love. When Peter felt his actions had forfeited any relationship with Jesus, Jesus served him food, and called him again into his service.

Peter was a movable stone, but Jesus is the bedrock that we can build our faith on.

As we journey with Jesus, let’s do a heart check to make sure we’ve built our faith on Jesus the Rock, and not our own strength. Jesus told the Laodicean church to open their door and let Him in. When we are with Jesus we can ask him for the ointment to give us His vision, for the clothes of His righteousness, and for the refining experiences that will develop previous faith in us.

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I’d like to thank those who have joined us on youtube. We would usually continue recording through our closing song, but today I’m going to ask our livestream volunteers to turn off our recording so we can have a bit of a private moment with one of our members.

Invite elders forward

Phe and Justin are expecting a new baby boy in the next few weeks. We’ve prayed for Phe before as she went through quite a difficult time early in her pregnancy. Today we’re praying as a congregation for Phe and her unborn baby Aiden (Ari) because her baby has a condition known as vasculomegaly. There are a range of outcomes and there won’t be any clarity about what needs to be done until he is born. He may need a surgery on his head. He may not.

So, today we’re going to lay Phe and Justin and baby Ari on the solid foundation of Christ Jesus. Putting our trust in Him to do what is best. Asking that baby Ari be healed and God’s name be glorified.