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Jesus Met Peter (2)
In the last message about Peter meeting Jesus, we ended with these words from Peter himself about where his faith stood in Jesus: “Wherefore girding up the loins of your mind, be sober and set your hope perfectly on the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1.13). The destiny of Peter’s faith, as well as ours, brings us to the same place - heaven. Sometimes that faith is extremely tested by temptation and sin.
Peter’s hasty behavior was one of the earmarks of Peter to which all of us can relate. One instance was the night of Jesus’ betrayal. In Matthew 26.31-32, Peter states to Jesus even if others were offended by Him, Peter would not be. In John 13.36-38, Peter said he would go with Jesus wherever Jesus went, even to death. Those are heavy, committed words. How many people do you know have said the same thing about themselves? “Ill be there.” “I’ll do it.” “I’m not going to.” “I’ll never leave the church.” “I’m not going to lie to anyone.” It is when you read 1 Peter 2.20-22 that you understand Peter yielded to a temptation when he never though he would and experienced the sad consequences: “For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein and overcome, the last state is become worse with them than the first. For it were better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy commandment delivered unto them.”
When the pressure was on Jesus, Matthew 26.56 says all the apostles fled, Peter followed at a distance (v. 58), then warmed his hands by the fire, surrounded by the enemy as Jesus was being questioned. Surrounding yourself with those who are against righteousness increases the possibility of compromise and sin. So it was with Peter. Peter left that day in sorrow (v. 75), because he had denied the Lord three times in one day. A day he may have wished he had back.
Thanks be to God Peter turned and preached the lesson in Acts 2, which brought 3,000 souls to salvation. For Peter, it took courage to repent and renew his relationship with God instead of saying, “What I’ve done is too bad,” “It’ll never be any better,” or “I’ll never forgive myself.” Peter’s sin was terrible. Forgiveness of sins for him was wonderful.
At one point when Jesus met peter, the church was the topic. Matthew 16.13,16,18 discuss the impact of Peter’s confession of Jesus being the Christ, the Son of God. That confession became the foundation of the church Jesus planned to build. Unless a foundation is solid, all that is built upon it is subject to fall easily. Therefore, the church cannot stand upon the ideas and philosophies of men.
Peter may not have always understood everything about the planning God had for the church. Although he made his confession, when Jesus said He must go to Jerusalem to be crucified, Peter rebuked the Lord (Matthew 16.21-23). Peter did not understand why the “founder” of the church would be killed. A founder often lives to oversee what they have built. Jesus would live after His resurrection to oversee it (Ephesians 1.22-23), but it was something Peter may not have considered.
In Matthew 26.51-54, when the mob comes to take Jesus, Peter uses a sword as a defense, but Jesus tells him to put it up, that what is happening is to fulfill prophecy. In Acts 2.30-33, Peter speaks with the voice of conversion and conviction about Jesus. He proclaims that the risen Christ sits upon the throne of a kingdom not of this world. He is the foundation of that kingdom, which will never be destroyed by Satan, death, or Hades. What a wonderful blessing Peter had in teaching others how to be saved and become a member of the church Jesus built.
Having met Jesus and been a part of the beginning of the church, it was later in the books of 1 & 2 Peter where Peter spoke of hope and trust in the Lord.
Peter spoke of this hope in 1 Peter 1.3,13,21 as living, desirable, and a motivation to be devoted to faith in God the Father. This hope needs to be fastened strong, because there are trials to face before that hope is obtained (vv. 6-8). In other words, Satan wants to “sift you as wheat,” just as he did Peter.
It is in Peter’s letters where we define hope and a find a discussion on how to obtain that hope. The world in which we live can be viewed as spiritually lacking, pessimistic, or miserable. Wherever strife exists, where violence occurs, where churches dissolve, where a job is lost, where friends abandon you, where people refuse to hear the truth, or where people are not faithful or responsible, hope needs to be firmly held.
What would Peter say to us in the circumstances which cause us sorrow, pain, agony, or frustration? He would say as he wrote, there is hope. He wrote, “Gird up the loins of your mind” and let your hope “be in God” (1 Peter 1.13,21). We could not have such a hope were it not for Jesus Christ the Son of God.
