Peter the Man (2)

Introduction to the Series and Peter's Background

0:03 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, December 14th, 1997, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:16 We turn again this morning to the opening words of the book that we call 1 Peter, 1 Peter chapter 1.

0:30 And as we take up this portion of the Word of God, we are immediately confronted with a man, 1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the elect who are sojourners of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, grace to you and peace. Be multiplied.

1:10 Now, as I indicated last Lord's Day morning, we are about to begin a series of studies in this portion of God's Word that we generally call the book of 1 Peter. It's a letter of Peter to real, live believers living in the first century in a section that we now would identify on our world maps as Turkey. A letter written somewhere probably around 1650. By an old man who in a very short time is going to be martyred for his attachment to the Lord Jesus.

1:48 And when we pick up such a letter and we are immediately confronted with the words Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, it is perfectly legitimate for us to ask such questions as these. Who is this man Peter? What is he doing when he identifies? He identifies himself as an apostle of Jesus Christ.

2:15 What particular credentials did he have to warrant his writing a letter to believers that perhaps he had never met, in whose areas he had never been perhaps in his person? And yet he writes on a host of intensely practical concerns and addresses matters of the highest moment that touch their eternal interest. Interest. Who was he?

2:42 In what way was he a fit instrument to write such a letter? From what perspective did he express the concerns and the perspectives and the desire of his heart with respect to these believers? Well, it is just such questions that I'm seeking to answer in these introductory studies as we focus for just a couple of Lord's Days on the subject Peter, the man. Now, my goal in these introductory studies is quite simple.

3:16 It is not to give an exhaustive exposition of all of the biblical materials that give us some stroke in the portrait of Peter, the man. There is no biblical character in the Gospels, human character, who is set before us in richer details than is the man Peter. More is written about him than any other man. More is written about him than any other man.

3:41 More is written about him than any other man. More is written about him than any of the other apostles, than concerning any other personage in the pages of the Gospels, our Lord Jesus Christ, the only exception. And so, therefore, in several introductory studies, we cannot give an exhaustive exposition of everything that relates to having a biblically painted picture of Peter, the man. Rather, it is my concern to highlight...

4:11 In a selective way, some of the facts and some of the incidents in the life of Peter that will help us to understand more fully this letter that he writes to the people of God scattered throughout Asia Minor. And if someone were to ask, well, how do we know that there's any connection between Peter, the man, and Peter, the author of this letter, I refer you to...

4:41 I refer you to the last week's sermon, in which I tried to demonstrate that in giving to us his words in the Scriptures, what we have in Scripture are the words of God given to us in the words of men. And when God gives us his words, he does not bypass the instrument through which those words are conveyed to us, but rather unto the mysterious but very real superintendent, the Holy Spirit, as with the Incarnation, and he who is truly God, takes to himself a true humanity, so that what we have is the God-man, not a mixture of God and man, something in between God and man, but we have the God-man, Christ Jesus. So it is with Scripture. We do not have just a divine book, we have a divine human book. As human as though it were not divine.

5:41 Divine as divine as though it were not human. And I hope you remember the illustration that we used, that when God, the great composer, has the notes that he would sound in our ears, he lays hold of an instrument, and every instrument that he lays hold of, in order to sound precisely the notes that he wants to be sounded, those notes coming through the various instruments take the character of the instrument. So that the precise same tune played upon a violin does not sound like that tune played upon a trumpet. And so God lays hold of Peter, the man.

6:23 He makes him his instrument. And the more we can understand the leading factors that made Peter what he was as a man, the better we will be able to pick up the nuances of the tone and the notes that come through when Peter writes. And so last Lord's Day I set before you a profile of the background of Peter as it was shaped in the all-encompassing providence of God. And we had occasion to note that he was a man born into a very strict Jewish home.

7:01 He was reared in the northern part of Palestine, in the Bethsaida, Copernican area, that he was, in that area, someone exposed to a bilingual, multi-cultural climate, even though he and his family were strict Jews. He was obviously one who learned the trade of a fisherman, and along with his brother Andrew had entered into a partnership with two men named James and John, and that in the light of those basic facts, we extracted some principles to see how they would influence what he would do in his life. and that in the light of those basic facts, we extracted some principles to see how they would influence what he would do in his life. and that in the light of those basic facts, we extracted some principles to see how they would influence what he would do in his life.

7:41 And so the Candle in theuent was as an old man when he sat down to write this letter to the elected sojourners in Asia Minor. And so the Candle in theuent was as an old man when he sat down to write this letter to the elected sojourners in Asia Minor. Now, today, having considered a profile of the background of Peter as shaped by the all-encompassing providence of God, I want us to take up a profile of the spiritual pilgrimage of Peter as governed by the all-transforming grace of God. God. We've looked at His background as that background was shaped and molded by an all-encompassing providence. Now we're going to look at His spiritual pilgrimage. For two Lord's Day mornings, tracing out His spiritual pilgrimage as governed by the all-encompassing grace of God. Now as we take up the subject, I must at the outset give a word of both explanation and caution, and I hope you'll listen carefully. Whenever we attempt to trace out a spiritual

Cautionary Notes for Studying Peter's Spiritual Pilgrimage

8:49 profile of anyone whose spiritual experience is recorded in the Gospels, or primarily in the Gospels, we must remember that we're looking at material that comes to us in a very unique, one-of-a-kind, place in the history of redemption. Now try to think with me that there's a big blackboard up here, and we're reading as Occidentals, not as Orientals, from right to left, but from left to right. And over here on the left side of the blackboard is creation. And as we pick up our Bibles and read the account of creation and speed read through, we see that creation soon gives the account of the fall, and then there is the presence of God. And as we read the account of Noah and the flood, and the calling of Abraham and the period of the patriarchs, and then the formation of the Jewish nation, their experience as a nation, they go into captivity, they come out of captivity, and then the book of Malachi closes with the statement of a curse. Then for 400 years there's no prophet. There is no living word from God. And then at the end of those 400 years,

10:04 there's a voice crying in the wilderness. And if we can shift everything over that I've painted way over here, and we've got creation out to the edge of the platform, we've come right up to the end of Malachi, and that period of 400 silent years, the silence is broken with a voice crying in the wilderness. And with the beginning of that voice of John the Baptist, until the descent of the Holy Spirit and the establishment of churches under the guidance of the apostles, there is a bracket that we call the transition period, during which time God is dismantling the old economy, all that pertains to the old covenant, and he is establishing all of the new covenant. And in that transition period, there are dynamics that are not normative for the rest of the age. So that when we pick up our Bibles and ask the question, how did Peter become an apostle, and a more basic question, how did Peter become a Christian? We've got to recognize in trying to answer that question, we're going into a unique period in the history of redemption.

11:26 It could very well be that Peter was what we might call an Old Testament believer. He was a believer who was a saved man at the time the Lord speaks to him in Matthew 16. But not only does he not know that Christ must die, he's determined that Christ won't die. Here's a man who is, quote, a Christian who doesn't believe Jesus should die on a cross.

11:54 Look at it in Matthew 16. Some of you look stunned. But that's exactly what we find in the biblical text. And that's why it's so crucial that I give this word of explanation and caution as we come to look at the biblical materials and try to see sketched in a profile of Peter's spiritual pilgrimage. Jesus is asked the question, who do men say that I am? Verse 13 of Matthew 16.

12:21 They respond with the various opinions. Then Jesus turns and says, who do you say that I am? Peter responds, you are the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God. Jesus answered and said, blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, for flesh and blood is not revealed unto you, but my Father who is in heaven. You are a man blessed with saving insight as to who I am. I am Messiah, Son of God. Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah. This has not come by means of imparting human knowledge. You have been the recipient of saving revelation from the Father. And yet, and yet, a few verses say, I am the Messiah, the Son of God. I am the Messiah, the Son of God, and I am the verses later, when Peter hears that Jesus as Messiah, Son of God, must go to Jerusalem and suffer and be killed and the third day be raised up, verse 22, Peter took him and began to rebuke him, saying, Far be it from you, Lord, this shall never be to you, trusting you as Messiah, Son of God, but I'm not going to have you rejected, killed, and crucified. Yet Peter, if I may say it reverently, if he had died right after those words, he'd have gone to heaven. He was a saved

13:43 man. Why? How could a man be saved and not be settled on so fundamental a truth as the crucifixion of Jesus? Because in this transition period, the gospel as we know it cannot be preached because the facts of the gospel have yet to occur in space-time history. When the gospel comes to us, this side of the transition, no one can be a Christian who rejects the notion of Christ dying on the cross for sinners. Paul says, this is the gospel we preached unto you, by which you are saved if you hold it fast to the end. Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and was buried and was raised again on the third day according to the scriptures and was seen and was seen and was seen. So just with that one simple tenet, and we could take many more, I hope I establish in your minds that we must be very careful when coming to any of the data from this transition period and seeking

14:51 to build up a doctrine of conversion at a time when the gospel as we know it in its clear proclamation of the person and work of Christ was not yet in hand to proclaim. Although the benefits of what Christ would do were not only applied to Peter before he even understood Christ must do it, it was applied to anyone who has ever been saved, for he is the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world. But the person's understanding does not determine the level of God putting to that person's credit the virtues of the work of Jesus. Now for any of you who say oh, well, did I come to church to get a lecture?

15:36 Dear friends, I'm a pastor. And for those who want to learn more about the Gospel of Christ, watch this video until the end. There are many more interesting facts and lessons to be learned in the future, but let it last. Those who believe in Christ are not illiterate.

15:37 And I have a responsibility to teach you the things that will keep you from being unstable as water, according to Ephesians 4. And I would much rather have plunged into the profile, but I would not be faithful to my task as a pastor to help perfect the saints that they might not be tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine by the slight of men. Beware of even earnest people extrapolating a full-orb doctrine of Christian conversion from that transition period. We've got to separate the things that were incidental to that period and the things that are abiding principles that carry on into the full establishment of the new covenant and will stand the full light of the full flowering of the truth of God in the book of the Acts and in the epistles. And so...

16:30 And so it's vital to keep that in mind, separating what is timeless principle from what is time-bound and passing because of that period of the transition. And then more briefly, a second word of caution is, we've got to separate what was involved in Peter's spiritual pilgrimage that was unique to him as an apostle and what was in common between Peter and all...

17:00 And then more briefly, a second word of caution is, we've got to separate what was involved in Peter's spiritual pilgrimage that was unique to him as an apostle and what was in common between Peter and all... And some things he did with Peter had primary reference to what he was doing to make him an effective apostle.

17:20 So when he would write Peter an apostle and someone says, big deal, an apostle, so what? What's that mean? We'd be able to understand. Well, it means...

17:31 Well, it means... Because Christ gave to him the unique prerogatives and the unique credentials and the unique power and authority of an apostle, things that he does not give to anyone in this settled age of the church since the death of the apostles, whose teaching is now part of the foundation of the church of Christ, Christ himself, the chief cornerstone, Ephesians 2.20.

17:59 So there's the word of caution. And the word of instruction as we come to take up now, begin to take up the profile of Peter the man, focusing now not on his background as shaped by an all-encompassing providence, but his spiritual pilgrimage as an apostle and as a disciple, a pilgrimage mapped out by the all-embracing, all-encompassing grace of God. And to sort out the material...

Peter's First Encounter with Jesus: The Renaming

18:30 We're going to look, as time permits this morning, at the before Pentecost events and, God willing, next week, at the after Pentecost. So we've got BP, and we don't mean British Petroleum, before Pentecost events, and then the AP, and we don't mean the Associated Press. We mean the after Pentecost events. All right?

18:53 We're going to look, as time permits, at six of these before Pentecost events, which were calculated... ...in the grace of God, to prepare Peter to sit down one day near to his martyrdom and write an epistle to those people of God in Asia Minor.

19:14 Let's look at his first encounter with Jesus, John chapter 1. His first encounter with Jesus. John chapter 1. In the context in which John is recording some of the details of the ministry of John the Baptist, we find that, in verse 19, and this is the witness of John, when the Jews sent unto him from Jerusalem, asking him, Who are you, etc.?

19:43 Well, in that setting of describing some of the details surrounding the ministry of John the Baptist, we come in the chapter to verse 35. And on the morrow, John, that is, John the Baptist, was standing, and two of his disciples. And he looked upon Jesus as he walked, and said, Behold the Lamb of God. Behold the Lamb of God.

20:03 Behold the Lamb of God. And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. And Jesus turned and beheld them following, and said unto them, What are you seeking? And they said unto him, Rabbi, which is to say, being interpreted, Teacher, where are you abiding?

20:19 And he said unto them, Come, and you shall see. They came therefore and saw where he abode, and they abode with him that day. It was about the tenth hour. One of the two that heard John speak and followed him was, was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother.

20:37 He finds first his own brother, Simon, and said unto him, We have found the Messiah, which is being interpreted, Christ. He brought him unto Jesus. Jesus looked upon him and said, You are Simon, son of John. You shall be called Cephas, which is, by interpretation, Peter.

21:01 Now, what do we make of this? Well, again, no detailed exposition, but just the obvious. Peter is introduced to us as one of those who in some way or another was in the proximity of John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness and administering what is called baptism unto the remission of sins. He is there in company with his brother Andrew.

21:28 We can infer, though we cannot dogmatize, it may well be, that before John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness and people from all over Palestine came to hear him, that Peter may have been what we would call an Old Testament saint. It may have been that the instruction of his godly Jewish home, the instruction to which he was exposed, and the attendance upon the local synagogue may all have been used of God to make him an Israelite whose hope was in the Lord, his God alone. We do not know, but he may have been a true Israelite, an Old Testament believer. But from this passage, it is clear that when he is personally introduced to the Messiah, he no sooner comes into the presence of Jesus, but that our Lord Jesus looks upon him and says to him, taking the initiative, You are Simon. Son of John. How did Jesus know that? He does not tell us.

22:37 And he says, You are now going to be called, or in the future, you shall be called Cephas. That is the Aramaic word for a stone or a rock, which is by interpretation Peter, Petros, the Greek word for stone or rock. Now what do we learn from this first encounter with Jesus? Well, you can imagine what happened to Peter when, as far as we know, someone whom he has never met personally before.

23:08 And there is no record that there was a formal introduction. Jesus, this is Simon, son of John. Simon, son of John, this is Jesus. There may be in this a hint that our Lord is from the very outset apprising Peter that he is in the presence of no mere man.

23:27 You are Simon, and I have not only picked up your name by overhearing conversation, but I know who your father is. You are Simon, son of John. And then he proceeds to do something that would have shocked Peter, that would have frozen him in his tracks, when he says to him, You shall be called Cephas. You shall be called stone or rock.

23:59 Now to whom was he talking? He was talking to a Jew whose mind was steeped in the Old Testament Scriptures. He knew the significance of a name. Furthermore, he knew the tremendous significance when God changed a man's name in adulthood.

24:20 He would have remembered his father Abraham was originally Abram.

24:27 Abram. Abram, which means exalted father. And in Genesis 17, God says, Your name shall no longer be called, Abram, but Abraham, father of a multitude. Peter would understand that when one's name is changed, this is not just a matter of a legal handle made up of a few Aramaic vocables.

24:54 This is making a statement about who he is and what he shall become, and perhaps an allusion to what he may be to others. He would have remembered Abraham, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. Thy name shall no longer be called Jacob, supplanter, deceiver, heel-snatcher. But your name will be called what?

25:19 Israel, prince with God. God says there at Peniel, because you have striven with God and prevailed, he would have remembered the incident of Gideon. That name changed to Jeroboam, the one who would take on Baal. And seek to be his enemy.

25:40 So for Peter as a Jew, remember, think as Peter would have thought when this relative stranger says, Simon, son of John, you shall be called a stone. You shall be called a rock. There is in that first encounter, however much Peter may have understood, however much the Lord Jesus may or may not have explained to him, he knew these two things about Jesus. He says as he thinks of Jesus, he knows who I am, and he knows who and what I will become in fellowship and in companionship with him. So in that initial encounter with Jesus, there is in a very mysterious way, if we isolate that incident, there is in a very mysterious way, if we isolate that incident, a conveyance of Peter's whole future history in that simple little exchange. Because we can read it now in the light of the full story, or as Paul Harvey would say, and now you know the end of the story. And we know the end of the story, that God did make of this man a mighty rock.

27:00 He made of him a rock-like man, who when we see him in the book of the Acts, is prepared to defy the very people before whom he quaked, and he is prepared to defy the very people before whom he quaked, and he is prepared to defy the very people before whom he quaked, like a feather in a storm. He is the one who facing martyrdom can talk now about his death, like he's packing up his tent on a camping trip. He said, I'm ready to have my tent dismantled. I'm about to have the tent dismantled.

27:26 I know that my exodus is coming soon. This is the man whom the Lord Jesus made into what he said he would become when he gave him this new name. Now then, when you pick up 1 Peter, and you read that the first word in our English translations and in the Greek text is Peter, I wonder, I wonder if he could ever write his name without at least subconsciously having an umbilical cord of the most fond remembrance in his brain going back to the first time he ever heard that name associated with himself. When yearning for Messiah, the forerunner of Messiah is preaching in the wilderness, and John and many others are drawn. And Messiah looks at him saying, Simon, son of John, you shall be called Cephas. But now we must hasten on to his initial call to follow Jesus. That's his initial encounter with Jesus.

Peter's Initial Call to Follow Jesus: The Fisher of Men

28:36 Now his initial call to follow Jesus. In Matthew 4, 18 to 22, and Mark 1, 16 to 20, we have the record of the initial call to follow Jesus. Let's look at the record in Mark 1. Read it without comment as we move over to a third passage, Mark chapter 1, verses 16 to 20.

29:00 After remaining with the Lord Jesus, we don't know how much time in the area where John was baptizing. He obviously returns to what is now his hometown in Capernaum, goes back to his fishing trade. And here in Mark 1, the Lord Jesus, having gone, up into that northern region of Palestine. Verse 14 of Mark 1, after John was delivered up, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God.

29:30 Remember, Judea, Samaria, Galilee, Sea of Galilee up here. Now Jesus is up in the area where Peter lives and where Peter plies his trade as a fisherman. And verse 16 says, in passing along by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew, the brother of Simon, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishers. And Jesus said unto them, Come after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.

29:59 And straightway they left the nets and followed him. And going on a little further, he saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, who also were in the boat mending the nets. And straightway he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and went after him. Now what is clear in this passage is that this was Jesus' first call to these men to be his full-time disciples, not apostles yet, but those who would spend their time following the Lord Jesus wherever he went, hanging upon his words, watching his miracles that he would perform.

30:38 The parallel passage is Mark, Matthew 4, 18 to 22. But now if you'll turn to Luke chapter 5 and hear the commentator's debate, is this, in this incident, what Genesis 2 is with the account of the creation of the man and the woman? Genesis 1 gives the broad strokes. Genesis 2 expands the details of God's creation of the man and the woman.

31:06 Is this in the complex of events described in Matthew 4 and Mark 1? Many believe no. There are too many elements that are different, fundamentally different, that this was a separate instance, instance, totally detached from that. Some say no, and it's expanded.

31:24 And for our purposes, it's irrelevant. If we put it in that same basic timeframe of the initial call to follow Jesus as a full-time disciple, you will notice the same emphases in terms of the call of Christ and then the implications of that call for Peter. And here, only Peter is in focus. We read in Luke chapter 1, chapter 5, it came to pass, while the multitude pressed upon him and heard the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret.

31:58 And he saw two boats standing by the lake. He entered into one of the boats, which was Simon's, and asked him to put out from the land. And from here on in, the focus is upon Simon. When he'd left speaking, he said unto Simon, put out into the deep, let down your nets for a draft.

32:15 Peter, Simon, typical response, Master, we've called all night, took nothing. May not do any good, but at your word I'll let down the nets. And when they had done this, they enclosed a great multitude of fishes, and their nets were breaking. And they beckoned to their partners in the other boat that they should come and help him.

32:32 There Peter and Andrew, now asking their partners to come and help them with this haul of fish. And they came and filled both the boats so that they began to sink. But Simon Peter, when he saw it, fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. For he was amazed in all that were with him at the draft of the fishes that they had taken.

32:54 And so were also James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said unto Simon, unto Simon, you see, focusing upon Simon, upon Peter, Fear not, from henceforth you shall catch men. And when they had brought their boats to land, they left all and followed him. Now when we put these things together, what do we see on the surface of the passage in this initial call to follow Jesus?

33:23 That came to Peter, along with his brother Andrew and his fishing partners, James and John. Well again, this much is clear. That the initiative to become attached to Jesus as a full-time disciple did not come from these men, but it came from Christ. Now that wasn't the way you did it in Palestine at that time.

33:49 If you were an ambitious father who wanted your son to get such and such a level of education, you would seek out a proven, well-known teacher, a rabbi, one to tutor your son. And then you would work out arrangements in terms of his living situation, in terms of the cost of this, and you would take the initiative to attach your son to a certain rabbi. But here you see there is no initiative on the part of these men. It is Jesus passing by, seeing them.

34:24 They are plying their trade to the glory of God. They are working what their hands are doing with all of their might as unto the Lord and not as unto men. They are those living out the implications of what they confessed in John's baptism as the new Israel of God that the Lord was constituting under the ministry of John, in which bloodlines mean nothing and all that matters, is fruits answering for repentance. And in that setting, the Lord Jesus takes the initiative and He calls them to follow Him, to come into a relationship of permanent attachment to Him as their rabbi.

35:09 Secondly, Peter knows what it is to attach himself to Jesus with the understanding it is going to result in the change of occupation. The others know this with regard to themselves. He had said, come after me and I will make you to become fishers of men. Here he says distinctively to Peter.

35:31 He says to Simon in verse 10 of Luke 5, fear not from henceforth you shall catch men. So he knows this second thing. Not only does Jesus take the initiative, but if I respond and attach myself to Him, in that attachment, I am going to undergo a change of occupation. I'm not going to spend my days until retirement, if there were such a thing, engaged in catching literal fish in the Sea of Galilee.

35:59 Whatever it means to catch men and to be a fisher of men, if I attach myself to Jesus, that's going to be the result. And then the third thing that is clear, in preparation for that great task with respect to Peter, he in a very special way is given a deep, disturbing, never to be forgotten experience of several critical things that we will see trickling out in his letter to the scattered saints in Asia Minor. He is given first of all an awareness of the awesome majesty of Jesus. He is given an awareness of the awesome majesty of Jesus. After the Lord Jesus has told him, let down your nets for a draft, and they toiled all night in taking nothing, and now the take is so large that the nets are about to burst and they need the help of their companions. What does this do to Peter? It so impresses him with the awesome majesty of Jesus that the text says, that he fell down at his knees, saying, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.

37:14 For he was amazed, and all that were with him at the draft of fishes they had taken. You see, in our Lord Jesus, there is that which is not only attractive and drawing to little children, an amicable disposition, a sweet, gentle, inviting face that little children were not intimidated by him, but there was also a dimension of our Lord that was shattering and awesome and overpowering. And Peter saw some of that there on that day in this occasion. And we'll see how that throbs through his letter, though his Lord has gone back to the right hand of the Father. He never speaks in all the intimate language of his relationship to Jesus in such a way that you'd get the impression that anybody can just sidle up to Jesus and snuggle and just feel very comfortable with Jesus regardless of the state of their heart. For coupled with this awesome, overpowering awareness of the majesty of Jesus, in contrast, was a new revelation of the horrific depths of his own sinfulness. He falls down and says, Lord, depart from me.

38:37 That's the last thing he wanted. He didn't want Jesus to go. But when you see the discrepancy between the holiness and the majesty of Jesus and what you are by nature and by practice, you say the only right thing is distance between Him. And at the point when we never need His nearness more, there's something in us that says depart.

39:04 Isn't that what Isaiah experienced when he saw the Lord high and lifted up? He didn't say, I ran up and hugged Him on His throne. He said, I cried out, woe is me, I'm undone. I'm a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.

39:23 For mine eyes have seen the King Jehovah of hosts. And in John 12, we are told that this He spoke when He saw His, that is, Christ's glory, a pre-incarnate manifestation of the majesty and the glory of Jesus. And this is being inlaid into the very texture of the soul of Peter so that when he writes an epistle to these saints scattered in Asia Minor and he speaks frequently of our Lord Jesus and of Jesus and of Jesus Christ, who is Jesus? Not the Jesus of modern evangelicalism.

40:05 Jesus with whom anyone can feel comfortable regardless of how they're dealing with sin and rebellion against God. He falls at His knees. Depart from me, Lord. I'm a sinful man.

40:29 But then there's a third thing. He comes to a new awareness of the mercy and the grace of Jesus. See how they're mingled? When Peter falls at His knees, and why His knees and not His feet?

40:41 Some commentators have a lot of fun with that. And they try to picture Jesus sitting in the boat and Peter got on His knees and His head was at Jesus' knees. But it's a little stroke that Luke gives us. And frankly, I'm not sure exactly what signified, except that he's taking the posture of humility.

40:58 He's not snuggling up. He falls upon His knees, at Jesus' knees, and says, depart from me. I'm a sinful man. But what does Jesus say?

41:08 Look at verse 10. And Jesus said unto Simon, Stop being afraid. He uses a form of the verb which means you're doing something. Stop it!

41:19 Stop being afraid. There's the word of grace. The word of mercy. Stop being terrified, Peter.

41:30 I'm here. I'm doing what I'm doing, not to put a distance between us, but to draw you into the fellowship of one of My disciples, whom I will make one of My children, and rejoice, fishermen. And so there is not only the word of grace and mercy, but there is this word of intimation again, that Peter is going to be used in the great work of fishing for men. And then the fourth thing he impresses upon Peter by this miracle is that the Christ who says, Fear not, from henceforth thou shalt catch men, is the Christ who can turn the countless night of labor into an amazing moment of success by the sheer word of His power. Do you think that did any good for Peter in the years that he preached? In times when he could say, We've toiled all night. We have labored for hours and days over the souls of men, and we see so little.

42:36 How could he forget the word of Jesus? Let down your net. I will make you successful in catching men. Your labor in this matter with the souls of men, and it will be a labor, will not be fruitless, Peter.

42:55 I've demonstrated My power, and as My word of power made you successful as a fisher of fish, so it is My word of power that will make you successful as a fisher of men. So you see how the Lord is drawing him along, preparing him for the time when as an old man, He's going to write words of confidence and tremendous encouragement to people facing tremendous opposition, and yet there's no note of pessimism in 1 Peter. There's a gutsy realism dealing with their present trials, and then he tells them, You ain't seen nothing yet. He said, Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is yet to try.

43:33 There's more to come. The furnace is going to get hotter, and the climate less congenial, but there's not a note of pessimism or discouragement. And here in these initial dealings with Peter, the Lord is weaving into the very texture of his inner life the consciousness that in fellowship with Jesus, his labor will not be in vain. But then we come thirdly, from his initial encounter with Jesus, his initial call to follow Jesus, to his appointment to the apostleship by Jesus.

Peter's Appointment to Apostleship: Conferred Authority and Power

44:07 And again, this incident is recorded in the three synoptic gospels, Matthew 10, Mark 3, and Luke 6. And let's just look at Luke chapter 6, since you may be there in Luke chapter 5, and verse 12. And it came to pass in these days that he, Jesus, went up into the mountain to pray. And he continued all night in prayer to God.

44:30 And when it was day, he called his disciples, those who had attached themselves to him in the way Peter, Andrew, James, and John had become attached to him, and he chose from them twelve. Now, lest it confuse you, sometimes in the gospel records, the word disciple is used synonymous for the twelve apostles. But here we see the technical distinction. All who were attached to him, who had become attached to him, embraced him as their rabbi, the one whose teaching they would hear and follow and seek to implement, he chose from them twelve.

45:08 So that's why you shouldn't be disturbed when you read of disciples who go back and follow no more, and whom Jesus eventually tells that they are sons of the devil. Well, they were outwardly attached to him, but they had never become savingly and inwardly attached to him. So from the masses of the disciples, he chooses twelve whom he named apostles. And then we read the list of them always in all three accounts, always begins with Peter and ends with Judas, and in between the names are switched around, they're shuffled.

45:45 So that again, something is being intimated to us in that initial appointment to the apostleship by Jesus. And what are the things that stand on the very surface of this initial appointment of Peter and the others to the apostleship that we're thinking particularly of Peter? Well again, several things are very obvious. Number one, Jesus initiates the choice of the twelve.

46:11 You didn't have a situation where the Lord Jesus said, now look, I want to choose out of the mass of you, my disciples, the most competent, the most potentially useful, so what I want to do is I want to have a runoff. And so I'm going to make this standard and this standard and this standard and we'll see who comes to the top and then we'll have a quarter final, then a semi-final, then we'll have a final and out of the finalists, I'll choose twelve. No, there was nothing like that. He didn't say, now you've all been mingling with one another and you have a pretty good nose for who's got some potential for greater usefulness and who's got the smarts and who doesn't.

46:48 I'd like you all to select the twelve best of your number. No, there's no common suffrage. There is no runoff and there certainly is not anyone coming forward saying, Lord, if you're going to choose someone for a special task, I think it ought to be me. And flexing his biceps and quoting his theorems to prove how brilliant he was.

47:07 No such thing at all. On every single passage, the divine initiative is painted. Jesus initiates the twelve, the choice of the twelve. When it was day, he called and he chose from them twelve.

47:23 Secondly, Jesus confers amazing authority and power upon them. And in Matthew 10, we have a little idea of what that amazing power and authority was, but the fact that it was all freely given, it was all graciously bestowed. We read in Matthew chapter 10, he called unto him his twelve disciples, the ones named apostles, gave them authority over unclean spirits to cast them out and to heal all manner of disease and all manner of sickness. Now let me pause and say, modern healers who claim to be heirs of the apostles have a great facility healing unseen diseases, gastrointestinal diseases. But when you see them, taking the man with the withered hand, I don't mean a hand that they've said, oh, one's a little shorter than the other, but one that is really withered. When they can speak to the paralytics and you see, then at least you're able to say there's something going on here beyond the natural. We're not going to answer where the power is coming from because the Bible speaks of lying signs and wonders.

48:40 But you see, the Lord conferred upon them not pseudo power to perform miracles, but to heal all manner of disease and all manner of sickness. And then the twelve are named, and then notice what he says in verse eight. Heal the sick. Raise the dead.

48:59 Raise the dead. Now stop and think for a minute. You've been hauling fish out of the Sea of Galilee. And when one of those critters lying on the bottom of the boat croaks, you might want to give it life for another couple of hours so you can take a little more fresh fish to the market.

49:20 But you know that there is nothing you can do to even give life to one of those fish you've pulled out of the sea. And now the Lord says, you're going out in my name and in my authority. You're not only going to cleanse lepers, heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease, but you're going to be able to speak or lay hands upon people who are dead. They've turned blue.

49:44 No brain waves. No vital signs. They're dead. Gone.

49:48 And you're going to raise them. You talk about amazing power. This is what He's conferred upon them. Cast out demons.

49:57 Cleanse the lepers. But now notice the end of verse 8. Freely you receive, freely give. You are receiving this appointment and this power and this authority in a wholly gratuitous framework.

50:13 You have received this solely as a gift, not for reward of anything in you, not as payment for anything you've given to me. Freely you receive, now freely give. As surely as it came to you all of grace, you confer it in a gracious manner. You expect nothing from those upon whom these marvelous powers are exercised.

50:41 So that's clear from the passage in this initial appointment to the apostleship. Jesus initiates the choice. Jesus confers amazing authority and power upon them solely by grace. And as we've already noted, in each listing, Peter is always first and Judas is last.

51:01 Would you say, all right, that's interesting facts and that's been nice to know, but what's that have to do with first Peter? Well, what are the first words that strike you? Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ. And make any difference how you listen to what he says?

51:18 Here's a man who in his attachment to Jesus Christ, who bears witness to the significance of who he is and what he has done, was not just taken in by a mesmerizing teacher. He saw that teacher confer upon him a rude, rough, Galilean, outspoken, energetic, passionate fisherman to raise the dead and cleanse the lepers. Dead people who could point to Peter and say, my mama tells me that I had died and when that man came into the room, he prayed over me and I was given back my life. I didn't hear him pray. I didn't see him come in the room, but when I woke up, I sure saw him there. And as we'll see later on in the book of Acts, there are others who are going to say, my mama took me out in a crowded place where people were just walking by and if that man's shadow touched people, they were healed.

52:22 Now folks, he didn't even throw out this Bible as a bunch of fairy stories. Well, when you pick up 1 Peter and it says, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, what he's saying is, I didn't just get a notion someday that I have a lot more insights than others about divine things, so I'm going to foist my insights upon some people far enough away who could never check out my credentials. He was a valid, bona fide, proven apostle of Jesus Christ with all of the unique, confirmant of authority and power that the Lord Jesus gave to those apostles. Well, our time is quickly getting away from us. I'd hope to get through all six, but they'll just have to wait because again, I feel it's crucial that in working through these matters, I don't just mumble them out in a hurried way but seek to preach them out and preach them in. Let me just touch on this fourth very quickly and then God willing we shall focus upon the fourth and fifth, I'm sorry, the fifth and the sixth in our next exposition and that is his unusual prominence and privileges among the apostles of Jesus. Now, it's 12.30, I'm going to stop.

The Divine Initiative and Efficacy of Grace in Peter's Life

53:43 I'm going to just pull together some of the application that I had hoped to bring at the end but we'll have to transpose it over to now and then bring some further applications when we handle the others. I hope the picture is beginning to be clear. It'd be much clearer if we'd gone through four, five and six, but we've seen enough to underscore two very vital principles. From the initial encounter with Jesus to the first call to attachment with Jesus to being set apart as an apostle of Jesus, Peter was being exposed to two very vital principles that I want to highlight as we draw our study to a close this morning.

54:26 The first is, the divine initiative in conjunction with God's grace and secondly, the divine efficacy of that grace. The divine initiative is seen in each one of the incidents we've already looked at. He is introduced to Jesus and it's Jesus who takes the initiative to say, this is your name. The name given to you for whatever reason would signify that you're a hearing one.

54:58 Simon, hearing. But in fellowship with me, in contact with me, Peter, you're going to be called Cephas, a rock, a stone, which is being interpreted Petros, a rock, a stone. The divine initiative. Jesus is walking by the Sea of Galilee.

55:20 The men are fishing. There's no indication that there was anything in their minds about being attached to Jesus. They may have reflected upon their previous interaction with him. There may have been a yearning, but the Bible is silent about that.

55:34 But one thing it's not silent about, that Jesus passing by along the Sea of Galilee, he called them. And they left all and they followed him. The same emphasis in their appointment to the apostleship. After a night of prayer, Jesus gathers his disciples and he chooses twelve.

55:57 You're beginning to get the message. Now when you pick up the book of 1 Peter, and you see that no sooner does Peter say, Simon Peter, apostle of Jesus Christ, what's the first way he describes all the Christians in Asia Minor? Elect sojourners. The word that comes out of his pen is elect.

56:21 I mean, isn't it rather crude to put a profound, mysterious, controversial doctrine like election into the opening words of your letter? Peter knew. The only reason he was Peter was because there was someone who said, you did not choose me, but I chose you. The only reason he was brought into the fellowship of Jesus was that Jesus said, follow me.

56:50 The only reason he was an apostle was because of the initiative of divine grace revealed in the Lord Jesus. So he can't think of anyone else who's a Christian without thinking of them in that category. So he writes, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to elect. There's the initiative of divine grace seen in Peter.

57:16 And we'll see it all the way through his letter. And hopefully, just sketching in this part will give us a deeper appreciation. But secondly, the efficacy of divine grace. You see the same Lord who said, your name is going to be Cephas, a stone.

57:34 I wonder, when Peter went back to Capernaum and began to engage himself in his trade again, how many times he may have drifted off to sleep at night scratching his head and his beard, saying, what in the world did the rabbi mean? No longer Simon, but Cephas. Peter, a stone, a rock. What did he mean?

57:56 What did he mean? Well, by the time we find him as an apostle, and surely, God willing, when we see his unique privileges as an apostle, and then his great and tragic fall and his marvelous restoration, God's dealings with him throughout the book of Acts, when we come to the after Pentecost, the AP events in Peter's life, then we see how dominant is this emphasis upon the efficacy of grace. Jesus doesn't just play with words and give him a new name and leave him the same man. The mouth that called him a stone came from the one whose grace would make him what his name was. And he would take this man whose faults, whose weaknesses, whose predisposition to say the wrong thing and to do the wrong thing, who dares to rebuke Jesus with respect to the central work that he needed to get saved. He makes of this man a stone. And when we read 1 Peter, we see a rock-like man seeking to impart the very perspectives that by the efficacy of grace, made him a rock, made him to be what his new name was.

59:18 You say that's very interesting with regard to Peter, but what's that say to me? My friends, strip away all the things that are unique to the period of transition, all the things unique to Peter as an apostle. Now you see why it was vital to spend that 15 minutes? And the underlining baseline is this.

Application: Hope in Divine Initiative and Efficacy of Grace

59:37 If there's any hope for you and for me, that hope is in me. In the initiative of divine grace and in the efficacy of divine grace. There's no hope anywhere else. No hope anywhere else.

59:58 You and I by nature are exactly what Peter was by nature. Joined to Adam in solidarity in his sin, for as in Adam all die. The carnal mind enmity against God. It is not subject to the law of God.

60:15 Neither indeed can it be. And whether grace began to savingly operate in Peter there in his pious Jewish home so that he was in that sense a New Testament believer and then grace flowers when he first is introduced to Jesus and flowers more when he's called into the fellowship of Jesus and flowers more. That's irrelevant. One thing is clear.

60:40 Peter tells you that his epistle focuses on this one attribute of God. Listen to his closing words in 1 Peter 5, 12. By Silvanus our faithful brother as I account him, I have written unto you briefly exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God. Stand fast therein.

61:09 This is everything I've set before you of rich doctrinal realities of intensely practical perspective suffused with gospel motives. The sum of it all is this. I've written briefly exhorting, encouraging, seeking to modify and solemnly declare this is the true grace of God. Grace was precious to this man because he knew left to himself he would have stumbled over Christ as did so many of his fellow Jews.

61:44 He would have been there at the vanguard had he been in Jerusalem at that time joining in the cry for his blood. But he knew that the initiative of grace was in the heart of God mediated through the person of Jesus and that that grace was efficacious. It wasn't a notion. It was a divine dynamic that transformed this man into the rock whom Christ greatly used.

62:13 And my friend, that's your hope. You with me are joined to Adam in condemnation, in guilt, in depravity. And your hope is not in the church. It's not in something you initiate.

62:27 You'd love for me to say if you do this, do this, do this, do this, then you'll have forgiveness. Do this, do this, do this, do this, and then you'll have pardon. Do this, do this, do this, do this, and then you'll have life. No, my friend.

62:39 Cease from your doing and throw yourself upon Him in whom all of the grace of God is extended to the needs of the neediest of sinners. And in so doing, know that you commit yourself to one whose grace is efficacious. It actually changes. It actually makes us what He intends us to be.

63:04 For by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, that no man should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus, undue good works. In the early hours of this morning as I was thinking of that, about privilege and responsibility of applying what I'd hoped would be the six incidents, and that I'm now trying to bring forward the weight of only the three, the thought occurred to me so clearly that there's, at the end of the day, there's really only one reason why some of you are not Christians.

63:37 Many of you. You've heard the gospel. You wouldn't deny that you have a need. But at the end of the day, isn't this the issue?

63:44 You really think you're better off without Christ, don't you? Is anyone here so deranged and psychologically twisted that you're continuing in the way you're continuing because you think it's going to be your ruin? Don't you really think I'm going to be better off running my own life, choosing my own friends, setting my own standards, living for my own goals, and if I become a Christian, I'm going to take second, third, fourth, or tenth best? Don't you all want the best for yourself?

64:14 Don't you? I do. I do. That's a genuine, legitimate, con-created self-interest.

64:23 Jesus assumes it when He says, you should love your neighbor as yourself. He assumes that all of us are endowed with a sufficient measure of self-love. And the reason, the reason you keep yourself at a distance from Christ, you hear Him offered freely, tenderly, lovingly urged upon you, you're warned to flee from the wrath to come, why, why, why do you still cling to your sin? It's because you really think you're better off.

64:52 May God use the experience of Peter to tell you that's a lie from the devil, my friend. Jesus said, He is a murderer and a liar. He wants to destroy your soul with His lies. Christ said, I'm come with respect to His sheep that they might have life and have it more abundantly.

65:15 Peter, as an old man about to be martyred, writes an epistle of joy and of hope. He's not a sour, bitter old man. He's a joyful man because he knew the efficacy of the grace of God in Jesus Christ. And my dear unconverted boy or girl, man or woman, that's what we preach to you.

65:38 We preach Christ to you. The Christ, the very Christ who there in that first encounter spoke to Peter, who by the sea of Galilee called Peter, who gave him that shattering revelation of His majesty and His holiness, who then marked him out to be an apostle. That grace in Christ is extended to you. Repent and believe the gospel.

66:05 And child of God, the same Savior that said to Peter, You are this, you shall be this. He hasn't spoken in audible terms to us. He hasn't changed our name, but He's just as committed to change what we are and bring us at last to where we perfectly reflect His image. For whom He did foreknow, He did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son.

66:29 And His dealings with you and me are just as particular and tailor-made, though not as dramatic as they were with Peter. You say, well, I can't see God working. That's not your business to see. In faith, know that He is.

66:41 Thank Him that He is. And pray to be sensitive to His ongoing disciplines to conform you to His likeness. Let us pray. Our Father, how we thank You for Your holy word.

66:59 We thank You for Your amazing grace to hell-deserving sinners. And we thank You for the grace that went forth to Simon Peter. And we thank You that that grace was not exhausted with him, nor the tens and millions to whom it has gone forth since that day. And we pray that that grace would be embraced this day in this place, that there would be those who see the folly of seeking to fashion and mold and shape and direct their own lives, that they may know what it is to give themselves up to trustful, loving attachment to the Lord Jesus, to be fashioned by Him into that which will bring glory to You.

67:43 Seal then Your word to our hearts, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.