1. NEVER once does God ever sugar coat the men & woman He’s chosen to use. Plainly he writes through the pen of Paul:
1 Cor. 1.27 But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty;
NOTE: Always on display is the wonderful glory of His grace and the wonderful power of His Spirit in ordinary, frail people.
a. When describing the wonderful gift of grace, I love how Paul ends that passage… let’s look at it! (Eph 2:8-10)
b. If salvation were of works, then we would boast in ourselves and not in the One who alone accomplished it!
c. If salvation were of our works, then we would work, work, work our whole lives never really sure if God is pleased.
d. If salvation were of works, we would never have the assurance of God’s love toward us… but it’s a GIFT!
e. A gift to be received, not a work to be earned!
NOTE: We’re not here today because we GAVE A LOT, or READ A LOT, or SUNG A LOT, or PRAYED A LOT.
• We’re here because of Jesus & all that He’s done for us!
• And all that He’s doing in & through us…
• We are His workmanship… Trophies of His Grace!
a. Original word is ‘poiema’ from which we get our word poem.
b. Every believer is a work in progress.
c. A sweet poem of God’s grace worked out in our lives!
d. You are His poetry… absolutely a thing of beauty.
NOTE: Someone once read this & thought about being God’s poetry.
• They felt more like a comic strip than a poem… Isn’t that true?!
• Life can be one comic episode after another…
• But God still loves us… stills stands by us… still sustains us!
APP: Oh, how we need to remind people who say that Christians aren’t all that great, aren’t perfect, aren’t much different…
• They see all sorts of inconsistencies and hypocrisies.
• Truth is though, they wouldn’t believe how bad we used to be!
• Where we might be if the Lord Jesus didn’t break in our lives.
• And today we’re saved, redeemed, justified, beloved, and on and on that list goes! – New Creations in Christ! AMEN?
And God shows us the trophies of His grace throughout the Bible.
We see the failures of faith in the Father of Faith Abraham.
We see the failures of love in the man whom God loved, David.
We see the mishaps of commitment in the men Jesus personally chose to make those first commitments in following Him, apostles.
NOTE: Sometimes I think we watch each other & look at each other say “Oh that’s not good”, how can you and why are you…
• And the Lord, our Potter… whispers, “Oh no they aren’t that bad considering where they could be, or would be, if My work wasn’t being done in his life…” – FLIP OVER TO PSALM 40:1-5
• How wonderful is the work of God in our lives…
• His great grace working through even our dumbest mistakes…
• To make us a trophy and crown of His Grace…
• Look at 1 Peter 1:1… let’s stop there.
• Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ! Not a failure, an apostle!
You Know there are many today who question the author of this letter. NO WAY, a fisherman couldn’t write this letter!
• It had to be someone else who forged Peter’s name.
• After all, they would say, don’t you remember what the religious rulers said back in Acts 4:13?
Acts 4.13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men…
OF COURSE… they will pause right there. Uneducated. Untrained.
• But we have to remember that Peter had the best education a person could have… 3 years with Jesus!
• Sure he wasn’t a PROFESSIONAL MINISTER, but he WAS a SERVANT OF THE Lord, an APOSTLE OF Jesus Christ.
• You see the verse continues on…
Acts 4.13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus.
I’M NOT AGAINST FORMAL EDUCATION.
• We have many young people in the Bible College right now!
• But I AM against the idea that education apart from the Spirit of God is not useful in Kingdom!
• We want 2 be known by WHO we kno not WHAT we know,
Oh how we can’t underestimate the training Peter had for 3 years at the feet of Jesus or minimize the power of the Sprit in his life!
IN all the Scriptures, I believe Peter’s life is recorded for us so that we might see a vivid example of a life that was changed by the Spirit of God in a wonderful way!
PLEASE GUYS, Don’t ever write yourself OFF the list of people God can use!
• Oh No, not me. I’ve blown here. Oh, I’ve stumbled there.
• I’m not educated. I don’t know that much. Maybe someday!
• Enter into that conversation PETER… He was called into the presence of Jesus from a fishing net…
We first meet Peter as a fisherman… determined & impetuous.
Matthew 4.18-20 And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. 19 Then He said to them, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men." 20 They immediately left their nets and followed Him.
I like that in v20, Matthew doesn’t use the word too much but with Peter, it makes sense. He & Andrew immediately followed Him.
Peter liked to jump into things, get involved, make things happen.
• Sometimes it was very good, exciting, fruitful!
I love the time where Peter sees Jesus walking on water.
• Let’s flip back to Matthew 14:24ff
• He’s the only person recorded in all Scripture to have walked on water! What an amazing experience!
And then are other times when we see him get in trouble, stumble, outwardly revealing his human nature and the frailty of his life.
• As the story goes, he was out there on the water alright but his zeal and impetuousness couldn’t sustain him.
• Because as soon as fear crept up, he sunk!
REALLY, he becomes a mirror image of myself so many times.
• Great times of seeing the life of Jesus lived out through me!
• Difficult times of seeing my flesh life prevail!
YET PETER WAS CHANGED into that FISHER OF MEN by the power of God’s Holy Spirit in him & upon him!
• He changed. He matured. He grew in grace & knowledge.
• Many people believe the purpose of the Holy Spirit is to just save us and leave us on our own. Ok, I’m done!
• But the Holy Spirit is in our lives not just to save us and leave us where we are, but to also change & mature us!
Here’s our problem. We like Peter, think we are already mature and that if only others could catch up, we could get this church moving! C’mon guys. Grow up.
• That’s one thing we see Peter doing often. It was a part of his flesh that plagued him. He often thought too highly of himself.
• Let’s flip over to Matthew 26.31-35
• Oh No, even if ALL (meaning his friends) deny you, I won’t.
• It was the beginning of the largest fall we have recorded from Peter’s life!
• He fell hard. Wept bitterly. But was sustained by His Savior!
• And restored!
NOW: When Jesus 1st met Simon, he had a new name for him.
John 1.41-42 He first found his own brother Simon, and said to him, "We have found the Messiah" (which is translated, the Christ). 42 And he brought him to Jesus. Now when Jesus looked at him, He said, "You are Simon the son of Jonah. You shall be called Cephas" (which is translated, A Stone).
Simon literally means ‘hearing’ or ‘God has heard’
• But from that day forward, he would be called CEPHAS or Peter.
• Which literally meant STONE or ROCK
WE wonder if his brother chuckled a little. Simon a Stone?!
• His life is more like shifting sands than a STONE!
• And yes, Peter’s life was very unstable at times, very much like water… as James taught us.
James 1.7-8 For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
Yet after spending time with Jesus He becomes stronger…
• So much so that he becomes a great leader in the church.
• Now it’s important to pause here and remember that Peter was not THE LEADER in the church.
• OR what some would say, the first POPE.
• And many times when someone brings up that false teaching, they will take you to Matthew 16:13-20. Let’s go there.
Look at v18… “On this rock, I will build my church.”
• This has become one of the most confused passages in all of the Bible as many have come to believe that the church is built on Peter. That he’s the one Jesus will depend upon!
First I want you to notice a word play in the Greek Language here.
• Peter’s name, changed from Simon, PETRAS means pebble.
• I also say you are Peter… you are a tiny little pebble Peter.
• And on this PETRA, this massive singular stone, I will build.
• SO What is the Rock? The confession that Jesus is Messiah.
Jesus says, I’m going to build my church on this truth, that’s how people will come in… by confessing that I’m Messiah.
NOW as we survey the book of Acts, we find that Peter was NOT the rock upon which the church was built…
• It would seem that James is the leader of the Jerusalem church.
• Peter submitted himself to the elders of the church.
• And Peter even submitted to Paul the apostle when he was caught living a hypocritical life.
TRULY if you were to build the church on the foundation of a man, Peter would probably not be on the top 10 list…
• BUT He was just a man, serving His precious Lord, Jesus.
• And as Jesus was building His church, he used Peter greatly.
One More THING before we go…
• After Peter denied the Lord, remember Jesus sought Him out, found him and began to encourage him.
• I LOVE THAT about Jesus. He’s always going after the lost, the wandering, the hurting, the straying, those who have stumbled.
• Flip over to John 21:15-19 (Feed, Tend, Feed)
• Those were his instructions. Peter shepherd my flock!
AND HERE HE is writing a letter about 30 years later, where he’s feeding the sheep that belong to Jesus!
SO WHAT MADE THE DIFFERENCE IN PETER’S LIFE?
• The Holy Spirit came upon him in power in Acts 2!
• It’s one of the most encouraging BEFORE & AFTER stories in all of the Scriptures.
• A man, A woman who is anointed with the Holy Spirit can do awesome and wonderful things!
Here’s what’s interesting to me… God took Peter’s weakest point and strengthen him.
• He took him as he was, weakened him to the point of surrender, and then rushed in with His power, His strength!
YOU KNOW how sometimes we say and we’ve heard it said, “God will not give you anything you can’t handle?”
• Well that’s not entirely true. Often that’s exactly what he allows into lives, things that we CANNOT HANDLE.
• Why? So that we would come to the end of ourselves and allow His Spirit and His life to be lived through us.
• He doesn’t want to strengthen our weaknesses, He desires to weaken us to the point where He becomes our strength!
2 Cor. 12.9 And He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
AND SO PETER & his letter serves as an encouragement to us.
• That no matter where you are, or where you’ve come from, Jesus Christ died so that you might have life!
• & have that life MORE ABUNDANTLY than we can even imagine.
• Read ahead & be ready for encouragement in troubling times.
