We've all been hurt.
We all carry scars.
We can all overcome these things and be healed through Jesus Christ.
Let's build that relationship together right here.
Welcome to Healing Scars with Pastor Burton.
Welcome back everyone and welcome to the second part of the Reluctant Leader series.
In the introduction to this series, I mentioned a few reluctant leaders that we'll be looking
at.
And the first was Peter.
We're going to take a little more of a look at him now.
And just to be clear up front, we're looking at his beginnings and why he was such a reluctant
leader and as much, I mean I could spend a whole lot of time so we're not going to hit
every little thing, but we're going to go over quite a bit and some of the biggest points
in his life that really stood out and that also we can take and see how it applies in
our daily living as well.
And we're going to come all the way around to see Jesus of course because when you look
at the Bible, it all needs to go towards Jesus.
All right, so to start, let's go to John 1 verses 35 through 42 and look at where we
are introduced to him and some of Jesus' first disciples.
All right, so again that's John 1 verses 35 through 42.
Now the Bible says, starting in verse 35, the next day John was there again with two
of his disciples.
When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, look, the Lamb of God.
When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus.
Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, what do you want?
They said, Rabbi, which means teacher, where are you staying?
Come he replied and you will see.
So they went and saw where he was staying and they spent the day with him.
It was about four in the afternoon.
Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who
had followed Jesus.
The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, we found the Messiah,
that is the Christ, and he brought him to Jesus.
Jesus looked at him and said, you are Simon, son of John.
You will be called Cephas, which when translated is Peter.
So let's break this down a bit.
So in this passage, we see John the Baptist teaching about Jesus and pointing the way
to him right away.
That is John the Baptist's calling.
That is what he did.
When you read through and look over the life of John, prior to his birth and after he was
born, that was his whole thing.
He was the one to come before and point the way.
Now the students here are Andrew, Peter's brother, and most likely John, the author
of this book.
Right away, they are drawn to Jesus and begin to follow him.
So needless to say, that is some intense magnetism.
There are not many people that can pull people into him like that.
Now there is something important to see here.
In verse 38, this is what the Bible says, Jesus said, what do you want?
Now this isn't the same as asking your sister, your mom, your daughter, your girlfriend,
or your wife what they want to eat and getting that dreaded answer, I don't know, whatever,
I don't really want anything.
No, Jesus was making a point here.
It's not enough to follow Jesus.
It's not.
We need to make sure that we are following him for the right reasons.
You can't just follow him for your own personal reasons.
That's basically putting him in the back seat and just bringing him along for the ride.
So we all need to ask ourselves, are we looking for his glory or are we looking for our own?
Because if we're only looking to build ourselves up, if we're only looking out for our own
good, we need to do some evaluation and we need to make some changes.
Because the Bible tells us that those who are looking to save their own life will lose
it, but those who give their life up for Jesus will be saved.
So continuing on, so in verses 40 through 41, we see that after spending a good part
of the day with Jesus, Andrew, he absolutely believes what John the Baptist had to say
about Jesus.
So much so that he had to go and get his brother Simon right away.
Now these guys all believed and they verbally said as much, we see it in the Bible, but
it would be much later and through their own personal experiences that they would truly
understand Jesus.
This can be seen in Acts chapter 2.
You see, it's real easy to talk the talk, real easy.
Now you can say you believe and anybody can say I believe, but it takes time and living
by faith to grow in a relationship and truly appreciate who Jesus is.
It is a relationship and just like any relationship, this develops over time.
Any relationship that you've ever had, that anybody has ever had, has a beginning where
things start off and you think okay this is good, but then you think about it and that
relationship grows, it evolves, it changes.
The passion that you have for someone, the love for someone, it grows and it grows deeper
and it takes time to get there.
Now I also just want to make a side note here.
Andrew wasn't just a believer here, alright?
The Bible tells us, he was really eager to introduce others to Jesus and that's passion.
Think about it this way, how many people do you know that have spoken to you about Jesus?
Or flip that around.
How many people do you know that you've gone and talked to about Jesus?
But when we look at Andrew here, like he was running out the doors, oh I got to tell people,
people need to know about this.
I hate to make the comparison as a little kid with a new toy, wanting to show off his
new toy, but it's that same kind of passion, the same kind of fire.
He's like hey, I've met the Messiah.
You've got to come and meet him.
This is wonderful and that's the passion we should all carry with us.
Now the Bible continues on in verse 42, this is where we finally see Peter coming into
the picture, but you'll notice he goes by a different name.
He goes by Simon.
Jesus knows this and gives him a new name, Cephas, which translates to Peter in Greek
and means rock.
So long before Dwayne Johnson took on that name, that moniker of being the rock, Peter,
aka Simon Peter, was the original.
That's the OG right there, okay?
Jesus not only saw him for who he was at this time, which certainly was not a rock, he was
about as far from it as he could possibly get.
However, he saw the man he would become.
By giving him this new name, he was already starting to introduce a change into who Peter
was and this is a change that would need to be had for later on, okay?
Just like a relationship, like I said, we're constantly growing and we're changing as individuals.
Now from here, take your Bible and turn to Matthew chapter 4 and we're going to be looking
at verses 18 through 22 and this could tell us a little bit more about who Peter is.
So again, that's Matthew chapter 4 and we're going to pick this up at verse 18.
The Bible says, as Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon,
called Peter, and his brother Andrew.
They were casting the net into the lake, for they were fishermen.
Come, follow me, Jesus said, and I will send you out to fish for people, depending on your
translation it might say send you out to fish for men, all right?
At once they left their nets and followed him.
Going on from there, he saw two brothers, James, son of Zebedee, and his brother John.
They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets.
Jesus called them and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.
So Peter and his brother Andrew, they were fishermen.
That was their trade, that was their career.
This was a common one and it was a good one to have at that time too, all right?
Now to give you an idea, in those days, looking at the Sea of Galilee, it was so large that
there were around 30 fishing towns around it.
That's pretty big, that's pretty impressive.
It was so big that there were around 30 fishing towns around it.
Now of course this being a trade and that many fishing towns, there's probably some
good competition too, but that just tells you how good it was, all right?
Now in verse 19, underline this or highlight it.
If you're taking notes, this is a good note to take, all right?
So the first thing Jesus says at this point, the Bible says, come, follow me.
He's officially telling Peter he's now one of his, all right?
This is the beginning for Peter as a disciple.
And what does he and his brother Andrew do?
They dropped everything.
They dropped everything to follow Jesus.
Think about it.
Here's a couple of guys with a good job, not just a career, and they just up and leave
because of one man, one man.
I don't know many, if any, who would do that.
Even say, you're staying in your career and you're looking at going to another employer
that, it's still the career, but it's a different employer.
Even something like that is a conversation.
If you're staying with your own employer, but looking at another position even, that
still warrants a nice conversation at home with your loved ones.
So to just drop everything and to walk off like that, that is incredible.
You don't see that very much today.
And this is not the same as just like, oh, I'm quitting my job.
I'm tired of it.
I want to find something else to do and leave it without a plan.
But that's exactly what happened here.
Why?
Well, the Bible tells us Jesus was calling them away from a productive career to be a
part of something bigger, to be productive spiritually.
And just like Peter and Andrew, we need to realize we're part of a much bigger picture.
And just like them, we need to share the gospel.
We need to share Jesus, our testimony, what he's done in our lives.
We need to draw people in around us, bring them in close, just like fishermen who are
pulling fish into their boats with their nets.
It warrants a sermon for another time because it's something I could spend a lot of time
on.
But going out and pulling people in like this and sharing that gospel, that's what we call
answering the great commission, which is something we're all called to.
So now that we know Peter's beginnings, let's turn to Matthew chapter 14.
And we're going to look at verses 25 through 42.
So Matthew chapter 14, and we're picking it up in verse 25.
And the Bible says, shortly before dawn, Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake.
When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified.
It's a ghost, they said, and they cried out fear.
Jesus immediately said to them, take courage.
It is I.
Don't be afraid.
Lord, if it's you, Peter replied, tell me to come to you on the water.
Come, he said.
Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus.
But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and beginning to sink, cried out, Lord, save me.
Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him.
You of little faith, he said.
Why did you doubt?
When they climbed into the boat, the wind died down.
Now, there's a lot going in here.
There's a lot to digest.
We're seeing a miracle at play here and we're seeing a whole lot of things.
This passage tells us about Jesus walking on the water, which defines all logic.
That in itself is a miracle.
Nobody else could do this.
Peter had doubts.
The Bible tells us this in verse 28.
He had enough faith to get out of the boat and start walking towards him, but for whatever
reason he decided to take his eyes off of Jesus and suddenly found his focus shifting
from the miracle that's in play in front of him.
Not only is Jesus walking on the water here, but he's walking on the water.
I don't know about you, but if I'm walking on water, holy cow, this is amazing.
But no, he took his eyes off of what was going on and he focused on the world.
When he lost sight of what God was doing before his very eyes, his focus shifted so that the
only thing he saw is what was going on in the world around him.
So he sank.
For us, it's the same.
That's how it is.
We have faith.
When things are going well, things are going great, we throw up that praise and it is so
easy.
Hallelujah.
But when things get rough and things get tough, our focus shifts and we lose the focus that
we should have.
We start to drown in that very sea that we're standing in.
We sink like the rock when he lost sight.
So we know he had doubts in his mind just like we do today.
There is not a person out there that does not have doubt in their life.
And doubt is treacherous.
It is treacherous.
Think of it this way.
You have that boat and you might have heard, most likely you've heard this analogy before,
but you have that boat and it's sitting out there and it's in the water.
And does it sink?
No, it floats.
It floats until something happens, until that water starts building up inside.
And as that water builds up more and more, that boat starts to sink a little more and
a little more until it finally comes down where it's completely enveloped by the water
and then it sinks and it drops like a rock.
And that's what happens to all of us.
That's what doubt does to all of us.
Alright, now from here we're going to flip over to Matthew chapter 16, so just a little
further back.
And we're going to take a look at verses 21 through 28.
This is where things really, really start to get heated and passionate for Peter.
So Matthew 16, and we're going to pick it up in verse 21 and the Bible says,
From that time on, Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem
and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers
of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.
Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
Never, Lord, he said, this shall never happen to you.
Jesus turned to Peter and said, Get behind me, Satan, you are a stumbling block to me.
You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.
Then Jesus said to his disciples, Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves
and take up their cross and follow me.
For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for
me will find it.
What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world yet forfeit their soul?
And what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?
For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father's glory with his angels, and then
he will reward each person according to what they have done.
Truly, I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son
of Man coming in his kingdom.
Wow, that's intense.
When Jesus predicted his own death, Peter, he wanted to protect him.
That's really what it is.
Peter wanted to protect him.
And we see that in verse 22.
Peter wanted to protect Jesus, rebukes what he was saying.
Now, Peter, while recognizing the Messiah, missed God's point of view.
He was looking at the situation as a human looking at another human, as if Jesus was
just another man.
He didn't have his eyes on the picture properly.
And since he wasn't looking at everything with God there, he wasn't looking at it as
if God was in the picture, that's where he made his big mistake.
So in verse 23, this is where the Bible says, Jesus said, get behind me, Satan.
Those are pretty harsh words.
Now, you think of some of the nasty things you could say to somebody?
And this is coming from the Messiah and he says, get behind me, Satan.
That's intense.
That's an emotion.
Could you say that Jesus was a little angry?
Absolutely.
So why would Jesus say this?
Well, if you look at the Bible, the Bible tells us when he was tempted in the wilderness,
one of the things that Satan told Jesus was that he could achieve great things without
dying.
And since Peter was looking at everything here from a purely human perspective, he essentially
reiterated this same thing.
This same thing.
You see, Satan wants us to leave God out of our lives.
So we have to be careful to make sure that we incorporate God into every aspect of our
life to ensure that we don't fall into that same trap.
All right?
Because as I said, Peter reiterated the same thing that Satan had said.
That's the way of the world, not the way of the kingdom.
All right?
Moving along.
Peter was impulsive.
He was quick to act.
He was quick to talk, but not so much to think.
In Matthew chapter 26 verse 51 and in John 18 verse 10, it tells us that when Jesus was
being arrested after his betrayal, Peter drew his sword and cut the ear off of one of the
men.
The rock laid the smack down.
And in Luke 22 verse 51, the Bible records that Jesus healed that man.
He healed the victim of this attack while telling Peter that he needed to stand down.
Hey, chill, dude.
I got this.
It seems to happen.
Back off.
How often do we act in haste?
Think about the last time you had an argument.
That's a really easy way to look at this.
When things get heated, especially when we get angry, we don't think about the right
thing.
We don't think about doing the right thing.
As much as we think we are, our focus shifts and we're all of a sudden more concerned about
being right at all costs.
That's when it gets real ugly.
All right?
So moving along, now we're going to see Peter's swan song.
So I'm going to have you turn to Matthew chapter 26 verses 69 through 75.
All right?
Matthew chapter 26 and we're going to pick it up in verse 69.
The Bible says, now Peter was sitting out in the courtyard and a servant girl came to
him.
You also were with Jesus of Galilee, she said, but he denied it before the mall.
I don't know what you're talking about, he said.
Then he went out to the gateway where there was another servant girl who saw him and said
to the people there, this fellow was with Jesus of Nazareth.
He denied it again with an oath.
I don't know the man.
After a while, those standing there went up to Peter and said, surely you're one of them,
your accent gives you a way.
Then he began to call down curses and he swore to them, I don't know the man.
Immediately a rooster crowed.
Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken, before the rooster crows, you will disown
me three times.
Then he went outside and wept bitterly.
He wept bitterly.
Jesus had been taken, he's in his last hours and the disciples are kind of scattered here
and there.
Peter is being confronted about knowing Jesus.
What we see here, what the Bible tells us is he denied it three times and in three different
ways.
First, he acted like he didn't know what they were talking about.
The second time he used an oath and the third time he cursed and swore he didn't know Jesus.
He pretended he didn't know him at all.
As soon as a rooster crowed, things came full circle.
He remembered what Jesus had predicted he would do and he cried.
He knew he messed up and he cried.
We're not talking like a few tears, we're talking sobbing, we're talking full on ugly
crying.
Think about the conversations you've had in your life.
Have you ever found yourself veering away from talking about Jesus?
Maybe even joking about him.
I've known a guy for years, he's a non-believer, and for years he used it as a joke.
Jesus loves you.
I'm telling you, stop.
You may very well be on a path to disowning Jesus.
It's a very slippery slope.
It's a dangerous place to be.
This right here, this is where the illusory truth effect falls in.
If you're not familiar with what the illusory truth effect is, simply put, it's you say
something enough, eventually you start to believe it.
Don't risk that.
From a rocky start, we can see why Peter was such a reluctant leader.
He was stuck and trying to figure things out.
He was leaning on his own understanding though, and not leaning on the Lord.
He wasn't leaning on God.
It wasn't until after all this had happened, the crucifixion, the resurrection, that things
became full circle for him, so he could become the rock that Jesus saw him to be.
You see, we compare ourselves to others, and what the world says about us, what the world
says we should be, instead of who God says we are, and what God says we can do.
John chapter 21 verses 15 through 22, the Bible tells us the last interaction that Peter
had with Jesus.
Really, this is a wonderful, wonderful chapter altogether, but for time's sake, I'm not
going to read the whole thing.
Actually, Peter at this point, he realized he messed up.
He saw himself as a failure.
He's like, that's it.
I'm done.
I don't know what to do anymore.
I guess I'm just going to go back to being a fisherman, because that's all I'm worth.
If that, I'm not even necessarily worth that.
When Jesus came out, and the resurrection and everything had happened, and pulls him
in and makes him a meal, and he challenges him, and he challenges him in a way that finishes
removing his denial and sets him on the course to serve.
If you recall, at the beginning of all this, when he changed his name, when Jesus changed
Peter's name, it was to start introducing that change into him, to help him start coming
full circle, because he knew that there wasn't a lot of time and things needed to change.
Then here, I said, that final conversation, Jesus asked him, not once, not twice, three
times, do you love me?
He's like, yes.
Jesus told him, feed my lambs.
Do you love me?
Yes, Lord, you know I love you.
Take care of my sheep.
Then the third time, do you love me?
At this point, Peter was getting pretty hurt.
Jesus asked him, do you love me?
He's like, Lord, of all things, you know all things.
You know that I love you.
He said, feed my sheep.
Feed my sheep.
This is what needed to happen.
Now, you think about that.
How many times did Jesus ask him, do you love me?
How many times did Peter deny Jesus?
Part of me wants to say, and this is just me personally, but that there's a reason that
three times, there's a little bit of a parallel for me.
Three times.
This is what needed to happen so that that change could finally take effect and he could
go and serve.
I know he went on and served.
I want you to take notice though of the very last thing that Jesus tells Peter.
If you recall, I told you to highlight or underline or make a note of something at the
beginning of all this.
Back in Matthew chapter four verse 19, the first thing Jesus said to Peter as a disciple
and the last thing was the same as what we see in John 21 verse 22.
In both instances, the Bible says, follow me.
Follow me.
This is not just a charge to Peter.
It is to all of us.
All of us.
Don't let doubt, don't let haste, don't let emotions or anything else take your focus
off of Jesus.
To keep with the old idiom, you got to keep your eye on the ball.
Jesus is the ball.
Don't take your eye off of it because you're going to miss out on so much when you start
focusing on the world.
I recently saw a meme and it struck home because I think it applies here.
That which gets between me and the Bible is my enemy and it absolutely is.
Thank you for tuning in to Healing Scars with Pastor Burton.
If you'd like to know more about our ministry, you can find us on Facebook at Be The Light
Sanctuary or you can visit our website at BeTheLightSanctuary.org.
Thank you so much for listening.
We'll catch you next time.
God bless.