SS08-01-04
STUDY THEME: PETER’S PRINCIPLES FOR SUCCESSFUL LIVING. 8-1-04
“KNOW JESUS.” JOHN 1:40-42; MATTHEW 4: 18-20; 14:25-27, 28-30, 31-33.
PLEASE OPEN YOUR BIBLE TO JOHN 1.
Since we will be learning the principles for “Successful Living” throughout August we probably should begin with a definition of success.
What is success? A general definition would be that success is achieving your goals. Nearly everyone would agree on this: but when people begin to list their goals, sharp differences emerge. Many people’s goals are focused on financial success. Wisest people realize that real success must be focused on other than financial goals.
Possibly no society in history has been more success oriented than our own, and too many of us define success primarily in monetary terms. Two men attended the funeral of a very rich man. On the way home one asked, “how much did he leave?” The reply was, “he left it all.” A father was bidding his son good-by as he was leaving for college. “Son,” he said, “Study hard how to make money. Make it honestly if you can but above all make money.”
In all the striving after success, we may lose sight of a central truth---Our peers cannot define genuine success. Only God can do that. When people enter into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, everything in their lives is transformed, including their definition of success.
During this study theme we will look at “Peter’s experiences as a disciple and his teachings in 1 Peter.” Each of the five lessons focuses on one of the biblical goals for true success. The first lesson, “Know Jesus,” is based on some episodes in Peter’s life from the Gospels of Matthew and John: his initial encounter with Jesus, his call, and his walking on the water. The opposite quality to knowing and depending on Jesus is self-sufficiency.
Have you ever heard the saying; “It’s not what you know but who you know that counts”? Often this has to do with gaining access to someone or something. When I was a student in O.B.U. I went home for the summer. My Dad called a fellow member of the Masonic Lodge who just happened to be the superintendent of the Conoco Oil Co. He told Dad to have me report for work at the refinery on Monday. I had never met this man but I had a job for the summer helping dismantle the large refinery that was to be moved from Seminole to another state.
Success in life can be measured in many ways, but as God defines it, it’s not what you’ve done or how much you have. It’s who you know. True success begins with coming to know Jesus. But knowing Him is much more than just knowing about Him. It involves spiritual transformation, just as Simon Peter, the Galilean fisherman, discovered.
When Mary and I attended the Billy Graham Crusade in Oklahoma City, the first night we had to go to another building and watch the crusade on large screen T.V. When Kathy learned of this she told us to come to Portland Avenue Church the next night and ride their van. When we arrived she told the man at the door that she needed to talk with her husband Walter Mullican who was in charge of admissions to the building. That night and the next we were ushered in and had excellent seating because we knew someone, who knew someone.
The Christian life is not about following rules. It is about living in a dynamic relationship with Jesus Christ. But what does that involve? We’ll consider the answer given to that question in three different texts in today’s lesson. Let’s look now at three N.T. passages to learn how to find a personal relationship with the living Lord and achieve success. Today’s lesson is designed to help us live in relationship with Jesus Christ.
PLEASE READ JOHN 1: 40-42.
In John 1:35-37, sometime after the baptism of Jesus, John the Baptist stood with two of his disciples. And looking at Jesus as He walked by, he said, “Behold the Lamb of God”, the One whom on the previous day he had identified with the words, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”
The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. The two disciples were John, the author of the Gospel of John and Andrew, the brother of Peter. We will see later, that Andrew did not become a full time disciple at this point. The two disciples visited with Jesus a short time and then Andrew went to find Simon that same day. I have no doubt personally that John found his brother James then.
On meeting Simon, Jesus gazed at him with a penetrating look. The word translated saw means “to look with deep discernment.” Jesus saw what He would do in Simon’s life. Jesus called him by his name, Simon, son of John. Then Jesus gave him a new name, Cephas. Cephas was an Aramaic name meaning “rock.” John immediately translated Simon’s new Aramaic nickname for his Greek speaking readers as Rock. The Greek word translated Rock here is the Greek word petros, the name by which Simon came to be commonly known. The Apostle Paul, however, called Peter by the name Cephas several time in his letters.
Jesus’ giving Simon his new name in Aramaic suggests that Jesus spoke Aramaic most of the time.
In Hebrew thought, to receive a new name meant a new reality had come to be true for the person. Jesus saw in Peter something others had not yet seen, and He would give Peter a new character. Clearly, Jesus changed Peter’s life! As in Peter’s life so also in our lives today a personal relationship with Jesus Christ involves spiritual transformation.
It would be a long time, however, before Peter would actually become a “Rock” among Christ’s disciples. For much of the gospel record and on into early church history, Peter was more like shifting sand than a solid rock. He showed more vacillation and instability than firmness of purpose. In time, however, Peter’s relationship with his Lord would transform him from the volcanic Vesuvius he was at first into a Rock of Gibraltar.
We don’t know much about Peter’s brother, Andrew. But on three occasions we find him introducing someone to Jesus. He is the patron saint of Scotland. John and James were called sons of thunder.
The next day, on his way to Galilee, Jesus found the man Philip who became the fourth disciple of Jesus. In vs. 45 Philip found his brother Nathaniel and led him to the Lord. These 5 were with Jesus in Cana of Galilee when Jesus performed the first miracle of His ministry. He turned the water into wine.
Thus we see them, the first men, the pioneers, striking the trail in the wake of the footsteps of Jesus: John the poet; Andrew the cautious one; Simon who was turned from shaly stuff to rock character; Philip the shy one; and Nathaniel, the guileless one. Now let’s us watch Jesus a He handles them.
PLEASE TURN TO MATTHEW 4.
In the Gospel of Matthew Ch. 3 we read of the Baptism of Jesus and in Ch. 4 we find he is tempted in every measure as you and I will ever be tempted. He did not yield but quoted Scripture repeatedly. “Then the Devil left Him and behold angels came and ministered to him.”
When Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he left Judea and came to Galilee.
PLEASE READ MATTHEW 4: 18-20.
This is the first encounter of Peter with Jesus that is told in the Gospel of Matthew. The events described in these verses apparently happened some time after the events described in John 1. This passage seems to assume Peter and Andrew already knew Jesus.
After his first encounter with Jesus, Peter returned to his family’s fishing business on the Sea of Galilee. Scripture is silent about when and why this happened. As a married man, perhaps Peter was simply feeling his natural responsibility to provide for his family’s needs.
When Jesus relocated His ministry to Galilee, He encountered Simon and his brother Andrew for a second time. Surely the brothers didn’t expect anything more than another opportunity to visit with Jesus when they saw Him walking along the Sea if Galilee. They were fishing according to the method preferred by commercial fisherman of that day, by casting their nets into the sea. It was a demanding but honest way to make a living.
The invitation of Jesus and the responses of Peter and Andrew make more sense if we assume the earlier encounter in John 1:40-42. That is the two fishermen already were believers in Jesus before the day He called them to be disciples.
A year had passed and those early disciples had returned to their nets. Now John the Baptist is dead, Jesus has been tempted and Peter and Andrew were called to leave their nets and become laborers alongside Jesus. Jesus called them to a change of vocation. He said to those men, “come with Me, and I will take the training you have and use it on a higher level.”
And how beautiful is the answer! It is the same in each case. “Straightway,” for Andrew and Simon; and “Straightway,” for James and John. Straightway they dropped their nets and went after Him. They left their nets and their father, and went off after Him to follow Him. At His command for service, they abandoned their daily calling. They did not do this until He ordered them to.
The vast multitude of Christian people, are not called to leave their fishing nets. They are called to abide in their calling with God; which is quite as honorable as leaving it. The honorable thing is to obey Christ, and the despicable thing is to disobey. He called them and they went straightway.
These brothers
were commercial-fishermen who earned their living by selling their
catch. Fish was one of the main foods of people in the region. The
brothers Andrew and Peter were partners with another
set of brother, James and John. Jesus came walking
along the shore. James and John were mending their
nets.
The basic challenge was Follow Me. This was an
invitation to go with Jesus and accompany Him, but it was much more
than this. Religious teachers gathered about them a group of close
pupils and companions. The two fishermen realized Jesus was inviting
them to be this kind of follower.
For some years I was confused to read how these successful business men would see a strange preacher passing by where they were working and just drop their nets and abandon their boats to follow Jesus to become “fishers of men.” It was at Falls Creek when, as a teen-ager, I heard a preacher point out that these men had been disciples of Jesus for a full year, awaiting his call to follow Him. I read the Scripture and this made sense.
These four disciples became the nucleus of the twelve disciples, whose names are listed in Matt. 10:2-4. The twelve were special disciples. They spent time with Jesus, heard His teachings, witnessed His miracles. After His resurrection, Jesus appointed them to preserve and proclaim the message of the gospel of His death and resurrection and the things He said and did.
Jesus promised the four that He would make them fishers of men. They knew how to catch fish. Jesus taught them how to catch people for the kingdom of God. Luke 5: 1-11 gives and expanded account of the events of that momentous day in Peter’s life.
The four fishermen had spent a disappointing night in which they had caught nothing. Jesus told them to go back out into deep water and cast their nets once more. Peter reluctantly obeyed, and they pulled in so many fish that the other boat had to come and help. The experience convicted Peter of his sinfulness, and he said to Jesus in vs. 8, “Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” Rather than leaving, Jesus said in vs. 10, “Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men.”
Peter became the instrument through whom thousands of people came to faith in Jesus Christ on the day of Pentecost. The two letters from Peter, written to early Christians show that he was still fishing for men 30 years later.
The word disciple is one of the names by which followers of Jesus are known. Peter and the rest of the twelve were unique disciples in some ways, but in other ways they were examples of what all disciples should be. Three characteristics of theirs fit all of us who follow Jesus. First, they were with Jesus. They were with Him in the flesh during his earthly ministry, and after Pentecost they knew Him in Spirit---the way all later disciples know Him. We need to live a life of prayer, and we need to practice Jesus’ presence. Second, disciples are students of the Lord. He invites people to learn of Him and to learn from Him. Because of our personal relationship with Him this role of disciples involves becoming more like Jesus. The third characteristic of all disciples is to go forth in Jesus’ name. His mission is our mission. He wants to work in and through us to win the lost and to serve others in His name.
Some people think of discipleship as an optional feature separate from salvation. Yet Jesus taught that anyone who wants to follow Him must be totally committed to Him and to His way of the cross.
Just as Jesus only hinted at what following Him would mean for Peter, so today He does not tell people in advance everything that the exciting adventure of following Him will mean. Yet just as surely as Peter’s life would never be the same after he obeyed the call to follow Jesus, so it is today. The call to come after Him is not limited to so called “full-time Christian workers.” All believers are expected to follow Jesus in this way.
PLEASE TURN TO MATTHEW 14.
PLEASE READ MATTHEW 14: 25-27.
By this time Peter had been a full-time follower of Jesus for a number of months. Jesus had designated him as one of the twelve apostles. Jesus reputation as a great teacher and a worker of miracles had resulted in great throngs of people crowding around Him. The climax to this was Jesus’ feeding of the five thousand using only five loaves and two fish. That evening Jesus asked His apostles to get on board a boat and launch out on the Sea of Galilee. During the night, a furious storm suddenly engulfed the lake with wind and waves that tested the skill and nerves of even professional fishermen, Panic overtook them.
Vs, 22 says that Jesus “constrained” or “made” His disciples to get into the ship, and to go before Him unto the other side, while he sent the multitudes away.
Then in vs. 23 Jesus went to a mountain alone to pray. Why did Jesus have to force the disciples into a boat and send them across the sea? The answer is in the parallel passage in John 6:15
After Jesus fed the 5 thousand the people tried to force Jesus to be their king. The feeding of so many hungry people convinced many that Jesus was the kind of Messiah for whom they had been waiting---one who would feed the hungry and defeat their enemies. Apparently His disciples were in the middle of this movement, or at least they were sympathetic with it. So Jesus got them into a boat and headed them away from the place.
For Jesus, this was a renewal of the temptations to use His power to achieve what the people wanted, but not what God knew they needed. So Jesus withdrew to be alone with His Father. However, while He was not with the disciples, a storm swept down on the Sea of Galilee. Sudden fierce storms are frequent on that body of water. The boat was far from land, the waves were high, and the wind was against them. We can easily imagine their feelings. In an earlier storm in Matt. 8:23-25 the disciples were terrified even when Jesus was with them in the boat. Now they were in a deadly storm, and Jesus was not with them---or so they thought. Life has its storms. Sometime we feel not only frightened but also alone. We think that we are alone and that the Lord either doesn’t know or doesn’t care.
It was about three in the morning, six hours or more since the disciples had last seen Jesus. Our imaginations may fill in a few of the blanks. The disciples likely worn out from rowing against the wind and too tired to think clearly. Perhaps a sudden break in the clouds allowed a bit of moonlight to fall on Jesus as he came toward them walking on the sea. We should not suppose that the disciples believe in ghosts any more than modern believers do, although there were Jewish superstitions about ghosts in the night. But the strain was just too much. What else were they to think of the moonlit figure walking on the sea?
Matthew portrayed their reactions vividly. Since the apostle Matthew was there, he recalled something that was no doubt still vivid in his mind as he wrote his Gospel years later. First, emotionally wrung out, they were terrified. Second, they gave voice to their fears. It’s a ghost! Further, they cried out in fear. Perhaps the lesson for us is that even when Jesus’ followers do exactly what He asks them to do, there may come a frightening---even life-threatening---experience. Jesus never promised that following Him would remove people from difficulties. Sometime Christ’s followers experience more trouble after they begin following Him than before.
In vs. 17 Jesus immediately sought to soothe them. He addressed the three fears the disciples had expressed. The words Have Courage! Spoke to their emotional frenzy. The term can be translated “cheer up” or “take heart”. In John 16:33 Jesus used the identical word when he said, “take courage! I have conquered the world.” On that occasion they could more readily believe His word because they had already seen Him conquer the stormy sea.
The phrase It is I is literally “I am, the phrase with which Jesus identified Himself on other occasions. This was no ghost but Jesus Himself, the “I Am.” It is probable that the disciples understood Jesus’ use of this phrase as a claim to be God, because “I Am” was the name of God that He had revealed to Moses in Ex. 3:14.
Note also that the disciples in Matt. 14:33 would worship Jesus as the divine Son of God when He go into the boat. Jesus words, don’t be afraid, spoke directly to their fears.
PLEASE READ MATTHEW 14: 28-30.
We aren’t told why Peter made this request in vs. 28: “Lord, if it’s You, command me to come to You on the water.” Although both Mark and John told about Jesus’ walking on the water, only Matthew described Peter’s bold action. Sine it really was Jesus (not a ghost) and since Jesus was showing that He was the master over the ordinary laws of nature (by walking over the waves), then why shouldn’t Jesus command that Peter walk out to Him on the water?
If I had been one of the other disciples present in the boat, I would have thought, He’s gone completely crazy! Jesus, however, would reward Peter’s faith. It wasn’t that Peter had great faith but that he had a great Lord.
Jesus command to come was all Peter needed. Peter began to do what no other mere mortal has ever done: he started walking on the water and came toward Jesus.
The Bible doesn’t tell how far Jesus was from the ship, nor does it say how far Peter walked, but it does say that for a while Peter walked on the water. This of course, was a miracle just as it was for Jesus to walk on the water.
As long as Peter kept his eyes fixed on Jesus, he was upheld from sinking into the sea. But when Peter took his eyes off Jesus and saw the wind boisterous, everything changed. The howling wind and the high waves reminded Peter that a human being couldn’t walk on water. At this point, he was afraid: and he was beginning to sink. By looking from Jesus to the storm, fear replaced faith.
Passages such as this one exhibit the integrity and reliability of the Gospel narratives. They describe the failures of the most beloved leaders just as they were, with all their weaknesses and failures, because that was the way it happened. Such fearless truth telling provides an objective evidence that readers can trust these narratives as accurate.
During the past two centuries or so, it has been fashionable for many “enlightened” people to ridicule this event as impossible. But Matthew meant to present this as a miracle from God. Jesus is Lord over nature’s laws, and He can bend them to do His will. If He chose for Peter to walk on water in faith response to the command to come, then His power would see to it that Peter would indeed walk on waster. Whatever Jesus commands, He enables. I wish I had been there to see Peter climbing out of the boat. Perhaps the other disciples began to think that Peter wasn’t such a foolhardy soul after all. Where was their faith?
Many sermons have been preached on vs. 30. Peter could only see the strength of the wind by taking his attention off Jesus. Jesus had told him to come and he came. Yet the negative circumstances made him afraid once more. His faith faltered and Peter began to sink. His attention instantly returned to Jesus. Just as surely as Peter had cried out when he thought he saw a ghost, now he cried out when he thought he was going to drown. No matter how challenging the circumstances, it’s never wrong to cry out to Jesus. No more heartfelt prayer was ever offered than, Lord, save me! He had just acknowledged Jesus as his Lord from inside the boat in vs. 28: now he called on Jesus as Lord from outside the boat.
PLEASE READ MATTHEW 14: 31-33.
Peter still had enough faith to cry out, “Lord, save me.” Jesus acted immediately. He stretched forth his hand, and caught him. Although Jesus called Peter a person of little faith and chided him for his doubt, Jesus did not reject Simon as an unbelieving doubter. He realized that Peter had shown courage and faith in asking to walk on the sea and actually leaving the boat and walking toward Jesus. Peter’s problem came when he focused on the storm and took his eyes off Jesus. Jesus’ rescue of Peter shows that He saw Peter’s cry for help as an expression of one who believed in Jesus’ power to save.
Peter’s faith faltered, but he at least had made the venture. And he called to the Lord for help. There is a big difference between the doubts of a real unbeliever and the faltering faith of a real believer. Doubt is the normal stance of an unbeliever; faith is the normal stance of a believer. But the faith of believers is seldom perfect. Sometimes we falter; but although the Lord rebukes us for our imperfect faith, He does not let us sink.
Even faith can be mixed with doubt. Doubt may indicate weak faith, but God still responds to the faith we do have, though it be as small as a mustard seed. What a comforting thought! My security is ultimately not in myself, not even in my faith, but in my Lord! Peter trusted Jesus, doubted, began to sink, and then trusted Him more.
Jesus came to the boat holding Peter firmly in His grasp---and when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased. The other disciples had witnessed all of this. They realized that Jesus was much more than the Messiah. They worshiped Him and declared Him to be the Son of God.
That day had been filled with miracles---from the feeding of the multitude to the two men walking on the water. There was one more to come. Peter and Jesus climbed into the boat amid the raging waves. The suddenly, the wind ceased. Not only was Jesus powerful enough to walk over the waves, but, He was also powerful enough to stop them whenever He wanted to. This was actually the second time that the disciples had witnessed Jesus’ power over a storm on the Sea of Galilee. (Matt. 8: 23-27).
Vs. 33 is not only the climax to the account of Jesus’ walking on the water, but it is also the fitting culmination to this study of Peter as he grew in a personal relationship with Jesus.
At the beginning, Peter literally went to Jesus in response to Andrew’s belief that Jesus was the long awaited Messiah. Later, Peter had become so persuaded of Jesus’ importance that he began following Him full time. After that, Peter was designated by Jesus, as one of the inner group of twelve apostles. In the present account, Peter had marvelously shown his trust in Jesus and had called Him “Lord” two times. Jesus was Peter’s “Lord” in the sense of “Master” or “Mentor” or “Teacher.”
Thus far Peter and the others—so far as is recorded--- had not reached the conclusion that Jesus was worthy to be worshiped. After this, however, there could be no doubt in their minds that the One who called Himself “I Am” was truly the Son of God. This is the first time in Matthew’s Gospel account that the disciples had made such an affirmation. They were beginning to understand what they had learned about Jesus. In the O.T. it was not perfectly clear that the promised Messiah would also be the Son of God. But now Peter and those in the boat reached the right conclusion. Later Peter would make this connection explicit in his famous confession in Matt. 16:16, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
NEXT SUNDAY FROM 1 PETER 1 WE SEE THAT AS CHRISTIANS WE CAN EXPERIENCE “CONFIDENT LIVING IN CHAOTIC TIMES.” A.V. DAUGHERTY
altav@swbell.net http://theweeks.org/av/