From Great to Horrible

From the moment that we are born we crave affirmation. We long to hear the words great job and you did good. These affirmations mean so much more too when they come from someone we look up too. There are also no other worse feeling than disappointing someone we admire either.

This occurrence is not an occurrence that we see happening all the time in our own Christian walk. We so often feel like we are walking closely with God then a week passes and we are failing miserably in that same walk.

We go one week praying and praising God daily to the next week completely rejecting everything that God does in our lives.

This exact scenario happened to our most relatable disciple “Peter”. Peter went from being praised by Jesus to being called Satan in the next paragraph.

Matthew 16:13–28 NLT

13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14 “Well,” they replied, “some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, and others say Jeremiah or one of the other prophets.” 15 Then he asked them, “But who do you say I am?” 16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” 17 Jesus replied, “You are blessed, Simon son of John, because my Father in heaven has revealed this to you. You did not learn this from any human being. 18 Now I say to you that you are Peter (which means ‘rock’), and upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it. 19 And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. Whatever you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven, and whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven.” 20 Then he sternly warned the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah. 21 From then on Jesus began to tell his disciples plainly that it was necessary for him to go to Jerusalem, and that he would suffer many terrible things at the hands of the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, but on the third day he would be raised from the dead. 22 But Peter took him aside and began to reprimand him for saying such things. “Heaven forbid, Lord,” he said. “This will never happen to you!” 23 Jesus turned to Peter and said, “Get away from me, Satan! You are a dangerous trap to me. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.” 24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. 25 If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. 26 And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul? 27 For the Son of Man will come with his angels in the glory of his Father and will judge all people according to their deeds. 28 And I tell you the truth, some standing here right now will not die before they see the Son of Man coming in his Kingdom.”

There is a drastic twist in this conversation from Peter being praised to him being punished by Jesus.

Isn’t this very typical of our own lives though, we go through moments in which we are extremely close to God but then a little time passes and we are in rebellion against Him.

Let’s begin by looking how Peter is praised for proclaiming that Jesus was in fact the Son of God.

1. Peter is SUPER

Matthew 16:13–20 NLT

13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14 “Well,” they replied, “some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, and others say Jeremiah or one of the other prophets.” 15 Then he asked them, “But who do you say I am?” 16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” 17 Jesus replied, “You are blessed, Simon son of John, because my Father in heaven has revealed this to you. You did not learn this from any human being. 18 Now I say to you that you are Peter (which means ‘rock’), and upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it. 19 And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. Whatever you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven, and whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven.” 20 Then he sternly warned the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

Jesus is sitting around with the boys and began asking them what do people say about me?

They began explaining that people look at him as a great guy and a reincarnation of a past prophet.

Then the question gets turned to them. Who do you say that I am?

Peter the disciple who always has something to say speaks up and proclaims that Jesus is the Son of God, the Messiah, and Savior.

This is the moment that Jesus gives Peter the Atta Boy that we all crave.

Peter is sitting on top of the world as he is now congratulated above the other disciples. Haven’t we all felt this way before though where we feel as if we are on top of the world because of God revealing himself to us.

Think back to any youth retreat where we are on a spiritual high so to speak and just feel closer to God.

Peter is given the satisfaction of being called the rock in which the church will be built on. This is a huge achievement and just imagine the pride that builds up in Peter at this moment.

He is the disciple that seems to be the most relatable so think about your own life. When you are congratulated what is the first thing that puffs up? Your pride.

We aren’t told this but can you imagine Peter talking to the others after Jesus walks away. Guys you think you are awesome but none of you are going to start the church.

This major feat in Peter’s life quickly turned into Peter being punished for speaking out of turn.

2. Peter is SATAN

Matthew 16:21–23 LEB

21 From that time on Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised on the third day. 22 And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, God forbid, Lord! This will never happen to you!” 23 But he turned around and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a cause for stumbling to me, because you are not intent on the things of God, but the things of people!”

Peter is now rebuked because of his passionate statement about Jesus not dying. How crazy is this though Peter just proclaimed Jesus is the Son of God and Messiah now Peter is telling Jesus that he doesn’t know what he is talking about.

Could you imagine this moment with me? Peter telling the creator of the universe that he is speaking nonsense and that Peter himself a mortal human is going to stop the whole purpose for Jesus coming to Earth in the first place.

Also imagine if Peter truly did stop Jesus from dying… What would have happened for us?

Jesus’s entire purpose for living was to die and since Peter knows that Jesus was the Messiah he also knew Jesus was sent to be the sacrifice.

But the biggest gut punch to Peter was the response that Jesus had towards him.

“Get behind me, Satan!”

Why would this be the statement Jesus says to Peter?

Peter was in total opposition to the will of God in this moment. Peter would rather Jesus live than for him to be the sacrifice for the world.

Peter did not turn into Satan at that moment but was acting in the way that Satan acts because his actions did not grow the kingdom of God.

Think to a moment in your life in which your actions were drawing people away from Christ rather than toward him?

When we are pushing people away from Christ in our lives and Actions we are legitimately doing the work of Satan.

Our purpose for Christ as Christians is to draw people to him and not away.

How in your daily life are you doing this?

Are you demonstrating a life characterized by Satan or Christ?

The last point that Jesus teaches is that we are disciples of Christ and that is not an easy process.

3. Peter is SCHOOLED

Matthew 16:24–26 NLT

24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. 25 If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. 26 And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?

The positive note to this situation is not that Peter was thrown away the moment he completely rebelled against Jesus but rather Peter was drawn in.

Jesus taught Peter and the others the importance of laying down one’s own plan for the plan God has for them.

For us to be a follower of Christ we must lay down our lives to him. That is not saying literally die the moment you are saved but it is saying that you lay down you own personal will to follow Christ. You are allowing God to dictate your life.

WOW that is insane. But think about this for a second God created the world perfect and sin destroyed the world. Giving up your life to follow Christ is the way that we were created in the first place. We were created to serve the creator but our lives drastically are different than that.

We live our lives serving ourselves but the way we were created was to serve the creator.

Jesus ends this discourse by explaining the worth of a human soul. There is nothing worth more than our souls because everything else will rot, fade, and be destroyed.

Our souls are eternal and are never ending.

What would you gain if you had all the money in the world, all the houses you could imagine, all the men or women you wanted, all the achievements possible, all the pleasure imaginable,

Only for 70 years....

You may think man that would be great but then you spend the rest of eternity suffering.

When we lay our lives down for Christ we are not guaranteed to live a perfect glamorous 70+ years but what we do gain is perfection for eternity.

Our lives are short but eternity is never-ending.

Our lives are going to be full of moments when we are praising and proclaiming Christ.

Our lives are going to be full of moments in which we are being in opposition to Him as well.

But the great news is that God doesn’t give up on us. God uses us and grows us and redeems us when we don’t deserve it.

But for redemption to start we must first give our lives to Christ. Why would you gamble with eternity when Jesus says that the most valuable thing that we can ever possess is within us.