God Encounters / Do You Love Me?

In the last few  post we have been looking at the encounter between Jesus and Peter after Peter denied Jesus three times.  We talked about his intentions were not to deny Christ but he did anyway and how we are like this – we think others should be impressed with our intentions.  We looked at being sorry and about what it really means to backslid.  We are going to continue today by looking at Christ calling us and questioning us.  We saw the excitement in Peter when Christ came to visit him.  We are gaining all this by looking at John 21 – click here to read it.  We will now finish up on this encounter by really looking closely at the interaction between Christ and Peter.

Something else for us to learn in all this is that: we must serve Christ with our talents, even though He could perform our task without us. The Lord obviously created the fish in the net by a miracle. There were 153 large fish in the net when previously there were none. When the disciples got to shore, they found a charcoal fire with fish cooking for their breakfast. Jesus told them, "Bring some of the fish which you have just caught". Jesus had them add their fish to the ones already on the fire. Christ could have provided enough fish on their fire so the disciples did not need to add theirs. Jesus could have waited to eat their fish without providing His on the fire. Why fish from two sources? Perhaps the answer is in the law of the division of labor. God will do His part to assist us in serving Him, but we must properly use our talents in service. All too often we believe that Jesus should just do everything for us – we do not think that we need to do our part when we serve Him. We need to be serving Christ with faith be active. Let us be reminded of what Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 6:1 – And working together with Him. Paul is saying what Jesus showed us – it is about serving with Christ. It is not about serving and doing what we want and not about having Christ serve us but it is all about doing it together. Christ could do it all but His desire is to have us involved! Do you have the faith to step out and allow Christ to work with you?

Then we need to consider this when we have an encounter with Christ, we must honestly express our love to Christ. Jesus knew Peter’s heart when He asked Peter, "Do you love me?" The Lord when saying this used the deepest word for love, a word that meant sacrificial love. The Lord wanted to see how honest Peter would answer because the Lord knows the truth and knows how we really think and feel. To the surprise of many, when Peter answered, he did so with a shallow word and not a word of his deep love. In essence the Greek gives the idea that Peter responded to Jesus by saying something like: "I like you a lot." There are many of us who like to tell people how devoted we are to Christ but I see it as we must be like Peter because Peter’s response was honest. Just think, Jesus is asking Him if he loved and three times Peter responded, "I like you a lot." While we might wish that Peter would have used the deeper word, at least we know he was honest. How honest are you with Jesus? How honest are with others about your love for Christ. Sadly, many will not be honest about their feelings. I challenge you to honestly look at how you really feel about Christ. What is the truth? What is your relationship really like with Him?

Here is the point of an encounter with Christ and restoration: we can only be restored to service after we honestly submit to Jesus Christ. The Lord asked Peter, "Do you love Me?" When Christ got the right answer, He told Peter, "Feed my lambs." I see and believe this was Peter’s restoration to his former place of leading the disciples and then to go on and lead the church. He had his area of failure or backsliding but honestly submitted himself to Christ and that is what leads Peter to be able to be to be completely restored, His repentance and turning himself over to be used by Christ. Because of his restoration, Peter was able to preach the powerful sermon on the day of Pentecost. God restored him after his backsliding.

What do you think about this interaction between the two?  How do you think Peter felt after this interaction?

God Encounters / Excitement for Christ

In the last couple of  post we have been looking at the encounter between Jesus and Peter after Peter denied Jesus three times.  We talked about his intentions were not to deny Christ but he did anyway and how we are like this – we think others should be impressed with our intentions.  We looked at being sorry and about what it really means to backslid.  We are going to continue today by looking at Christ calling us and questioning us and we are gaining all this by looking at John 21 – click here to read it.

Sometimes we don’t realize when Christ is calling to us. The disciples had been fishing all night and caught nothing. In the morning Christ came to them and they saw him on the shore, but they didn’t recognize Him. This was not the first post resurrection appearance of Christ, they should have recognized Him; but they didn’t. Perhaps it was their sin, or their pre-occupation with their nets, or some other reason that they did not recognize Him. Perhaps we have missed Christ when He has called to us because we were preoccupied. What is it that you are preoccupied with? Maybe you are pre-occupied with good things but they are not the best thing. Are you preoccupied with family, or church, or sports, or something else that is a good thing? When we are preoccupied with these sorts of things and not Christ we miss what Christ is trying to say to us. The best thing to be is preoccupied with is Christ and when you are preoccupied with Him you will not miss what he is saying to you. What kind of things does Christ say or ask?

When we encounter Christ, He asks questions to get us thinking about failure and success. When Christ appeared on the shore, He asked, "Have you caught anything?" It was a question to reveal that the disciples efforts did not work when they were done apart from Christ. Then after breakfast, Christ asked Peter, "Do you love me?" Again, it was a question that made him think about his failure. We have to think about our backslidden condition before we will do anything about it. Let me ask you – have you ever had Christ ask you questions? Do you think about your failures? Are you one who then thinks about your failures and then changes them or do you just keep repeating them? What is it you need to change to be successful in Christ? If you have something you are doing that is sinful and you know the right thing to do – when you do not do the right thing – you are sinning according to James 4:17! Let us not live in sin but let us do the right things!

Something else to consider: We do impetuous things when encountering Christ. Think about the story and how impetuous Peter was when he saw Jesus. When Peter realized that Jesus was standing on the shore, Peter first put on his tunic, while most would remove heavy garments when attempting to swim a long distance. Then he dove into the water to swim to shore. He probably didn’t think about what he was doing, if anything, he was not thinking about his actions. He just automatically did what was natural. It was an impetuous response of love and excitement. When was the last time that you simply got excited about what Christ was doing or about Christ showing up were you were? If we cannot be excited about Christ – what can we be excited about?

What happens when we get excited about Christ and the encounter we have with Him? We do extraordinary things when we are excited about Christ. As we just saw Peter swam to the shore wearing his long tunic, then when the boat reached shore, Peter ran to pull the net filled with fishes to shore. John 21:11 tells us Simon Peter went up and drew the net to land, full of large fish, a hundred and fifty-three; and although there were so many, the net was not torn. This was an amazing feat, because previously seven men in the boat had a hard time hauling it in because of the great number of fish! Some say this was a miracle, others think it was simply Peter being so excited that he pulled the net to shore with a sudden burst of energy. Again, I ask you when was the last time you got excited about what Christ was doing. When was the last time you got so excited about what Christ was doing that you got involved in what He was doing? When was the last time you got so excited that you encouraged others rather than discouraged them? When was the last time you were like Peter and so full of excitement that the Lord was able to do something amazing through you?

What are the things that really get you excited when it comes to Christ?

God Encounter / Backslid

In the last post we started looking at the encounter between Jesus and Peter after Peter denied Jesus three times.  We talked about his intentions were not to deny Christ but he did anyway and how we are like this – we think others should be impressed with our intentions.  We looked at John 21 – click here to read it.

We will continue along those lines of intentions because  there is something in this encounter and that is;  being sorry does not automatically restore us to service. Here is what we know, Peter was sorry for denying Christ after he did it. Obviously, God forgives us after we confess our sin and ask for cleansing. But that does not necessarily restore us to our previous place of service. We think many times that all we have to do is say we are sorry and then move right back where we were but that is not the case. Sometimes trust has to be rebuilt in order for service to be restored. Just because you say you are sorry does not mean that someone will allow you to have their complete trust – sometimes you have to earn the trust back that is broken. When we say hurtful things to people – they may forgive and may try to forget what you have said but it is hard. To get that trust you have to take time and consistently do the right things, the right way. You need to practice obedience to Christ to earn the trust back.

When people do not get returned to service right away they make the mistake out of anger or ignorance or out of heart that is not in the right place and return to their old ways in backsliding. I used the term backsliding a few times so let me just take a moment and define backsliding for you – it means turning back to the old and sinful ways. A backslider is a saved person who falls into sin. A lost sinner cannot be a backslider. You have to go somewhere before you can slide back. But one, who is truly born again, a child of God who falls into sin, is a backslider. It may be outrageous and gross sin known to everyone or it may be merely coldness of heart, a lukewarm heart instead of the burning fire of love for God that one has had in the past. But when a Christian loses any of his joy, or loses part of his sweet fellowship with God, or falls into sin, then they are a backslider. Peter by his denial of Christ backslid into his old way of thinking and then went back to fishing but Jesus as we have see was not done with him. I am reminded of what of Hosea 14:4 which says in the New King James Version; "I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely, for my anger has turned away from him". God will heal your backsliding. If you have backslid – you have a gross sin, or grown cold toward God, or you have become lukewarm – God can and will heal it but as always you must come to Him and repent of it.

Peter backslid, he lied to people around the fire the night Jesus was being tried and denied Christ which is part of the way he used to be – even though he thought he was stronger than that and even though his intentions earlier were not to do it. After this backsliding and Jesus resurrection, Peter decided that he wanted to get away from ministry and go back to what he knew. Peter told the other disciples in John 21:3 "I am going fishing" and being a leader others followed. He went back to fishing because that is one thing that he could do and one thing he felt comfortable doing. However, as I see it, God in His sovereignty moved upon the waters and as John put it "that night they caught nothing". Peter went right back to what he knew and was comfortable doing and that was fishing but the Lord had other plans for him as well as the other disciples.

In his mind Peter, was going to be going right back to where he was before he ever met the Lord which was fishing but Jesus was calling on Peter to go back and do something for Him. The call was to return to the Lord because He is calling all of us to come to Him and look to Him and trust Him! Have you slid away from God? As I have said before – If there has been a time that you were closer to God than you are right now – God did not move! Is it time for you to get back to doing what you know you are to do. You are not to go back to the old ways but to move forward in Christ, of which He is calling you too. Christ calling you to be doing something and it is not the comfortable thing that he wants you to do but the right thing.

Have you ever found yourself in a place where you had backslid?  What did you do about it?

God Encounters / Good Intentions?

We are going to continue with the series of posts on God Encounters.  This week we are going to look Peter and how Jesus restored him after his denial and/or backsliding.  The first thing to see and remember is the Jesus predicts Peter’s denial of Him in John 13:36-38 which says: Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, where are You going?” Jesus answered, “Where I go, you cannot follow Me now; but you will follow later.” Peter said to Him, “Lord, why can I not follow You right now? I will lay down my life for You.” Jesus answered, “Will you lay down your life for Me? Truly, truly, I say to you, a rooster will not crow until you deny Me three times.

Then we see Jesus prediction coming true. John 18:15-18, 25-27 – Simon Peter was following Jesus, and so was another disciple. Now that disciple was known to the high priest, and entered with Jesus into the court of the high priest, but Peter was standing at the door outside. So the other disciple, who was known to the high priest, went out and spoke to the doorkeeper, and brought Peter in. Then the slave-girl who kept the door said to Peter, “ You are not also one of this man’s disciples, are you?” He said, “I am not.” Now the slaves and the officers were standing there, having made a charcoal fire, for it was cold and they were warming themselves; and Peter was also with them, standing and warming himself. Verse 25 - Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. So they said to him, “You are not also one of His disciples, are you?” He denied it, and said, “I am not.” One of the slaves of the high priest, being a relative of the one whose ear Peter cut off, said, “Did I not see you in the garden with Him?” Peter then denied it again, and immediately a rooster crowed.

Imagine how Peter must feel having denied the Lord three times and then Christ dying and raising again and he would still have these guilty feelings even though he is excited about what Christ raising meant. I imagine as passionate of a guy as Peter was – the guilt was probably eating him up inside and so he thought he should just go back to fishing and leave the ministering behind. The Lord though had other plans for Peter and came and approached Peter – look at John 21:4-8, 15-17: But when the day was now breaking, Jesus stood on the beach; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. So Jesus said to them, “Children, you do not have any fish, do you?” They answered Him, “No.” And He said to them, “Cast the net on the right-hand side of the boat and you will find a catch.” So they cast, and then they were not able to haul it in because of the great number of fish. Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord.” So when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put his outer garment on (for he was stripped for work), and threw himself into the sea. But the other disciples came in the little boat, for they were not far from the land, but about one hundred yards away, dragging the net full of fish.   Verse 15 – So when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He said to him,“Tend My lambs.” ¹⁶ He said to him again a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He said to him, “Shepherd My sheep.” ¹⁷ He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?” Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, “Do you love Me?” And he said to Him, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.” Jesus said to him, “ Tend My sheep.”

What we see here in this is that Peter was restored to his previous place of leadership after backsliding. He went on and preached the sermon on Pentecost that became foundational to building the church. Peter was the leader of ministry to the Jews, while Paul was leader of ministry to the Gentiles. Peter had a profitable life of ministry after he denied Christ and was restored. Tradition says he died in Rome sometime between 64-66 AD Peter’s reported last words to his wife, "Remember the Lord," are certainly consistent with his message to Christians in difficult times which we read in 1 and 2 Peter. So then the question for us is this: What can we learn from this encounter that Peter has where Jesus restores him to ministry after he denied Christ and backslid?

First thing is before a God Encounter we need to realize that: Good intentions are not enough to keep us faithful to Christ. Peter told the Lord that he would never deny Him. He even boasted in the passage, “Lord, why can I not follow You right now? I will lay down my life for You. Yet human strength alone was not enough, Peter denied the Lord three times. How often do we do the same thing? We think everyone should just be impressed that we did something with good intentions. We think our good intentions will keep us faithful to Christ. We believe that be we are strong people that we can stand because of good intentions. We have all heard the old saying – the road to hell is paved with good intentions. We need to be reminded of 1 Corinthians 10:12 which says, So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! Our good intentions will never hold us up – only Christ will. Your good intentions will get you nowhere, just like they got Peter nowhere, so stop trying to convince yourself and others about how good your intentions are and do things God’s way. It is always God’s way over good intentions – ALWAYS.

Have you ever struggled with thinking good intentions were what you needed?  Have you ever had someone who thought you should be impressed with their good intentions?  How did you handle it?

The Write Off

Today is the last day that we will be wrestling with Jesus first prediction of His death and Peter’s reaction  in Mark 8:31-33 which says:³¹ And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. ³² And He was stating the matter plainly.  And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. ³³ But turning around and seeing His disciples, He rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind Me, Satan; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.” 

In this last day of looking at this, let us take notice of is how often we fail to see that there is a very thin line between doing the Lord’s work and doing the devil’s work. Peter I am sure thought he was doing Jesus a favor by chiding Him. With this being the case we see why it is vitally important that every thought that we have be taken captive and brought to Jesus as we find in 2 Corinthians 10:5. We need to be making sure that in every action and thought that we do is screened through the filter of the Word of God and will of God. Keep in mind 1 Thessalonians 5:21 -22 which says; But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; abstain from every form of evil.

Thinking of Jesus and Peter here we something vitally important.  When someone appears to or does fail the Lord in a big way or small way, it is up to the rest of us to help them get back where they should be with the Lord, as we learn from Galatians 6:1-2. It says; Brethren, even if anyone  is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ.

We all have our moments of failures, but that does not mean that our usefulness and effectiveness are at an end. It simply means that we need to pick up the pieces and move forward doing what we know we need to do all for the glory of God! We believers need to restore others in a spirit of gentleness when they fail and not in a spirit of condemnation. Too often we just write people off – Jesus never does that – He never writes anyone off. He never writes Peter off who made many mistakes but He restores him on every occasion.

Have you ever written someone off?

Truth or Work of the Devil?

This week we have been wrestling with Jesus first prediction of His death and Peter’s reaction  in Mark 8:31-33 which says:³¹ And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. ³² And He was stating the matter plainly.  And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. ³³ But turning around and seeing His disciples, He rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind Me, Satan; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.”

Jesus quickly responds to Peter’s rebuke and He is very harsh in His response. He turns His back to Peter and looks at the rest of the disciples. They were probably nodding in agreement with what Peter had said the Jesus. Jesus looks at them all and He rebukes Peter. Jesus said; Get thee behind Me, Satan! Literally what that means is: “Get out of my sight you false accuser! You only care for fleshly things and not the things of the Lord!” When Peter tried to talk Jesus out of going to the cross to die, Jesus did not hear Peter but He heard the voice of another speaking. He heard in Peter’s words the voice of Satan. To Peter what he said made perfect sense but to Jesus, the things Peter said revealed that Satan was using Peter to attack the Lord.

Jesus is not calling Peter the devil here but He is pointing out the truth that Peter is speaking the words of Satan. He is telling Peter that He is being used as a tool by the devil. Jesus is not sending Peter away but He is commanding Satan to leave.

Jesus tells Peter here really that the real problem is that he is looking at His ministry through the eyes of men and not through the eyes of God. Most likely all the disciples were looking for power, glory and position but Jesus knew He had to suffer for sin on the cross and that God’s plan involved His death and anyone who opposed that plan was doing the work of Satan!

Keep this in mind; this is the same Peter who in the passage just before this happens called Jesus The Christ, in verse 29. One minute Peter is declaring deep the spiritual truth of who Jesus is and the next moment he is doing the work of the devil! Pretty amazing isn’t it?

Here is how we as human beings think as compared to how God thinks: Men care about the material; God cares about the eternal. Men care about prosperity; God cares about holiness. Men care about power; God cares about purity! Are you concerned with the eternal, about holiness, and about purity or are you concerned with material, prosperity, and power? Look deep into your heart to see! We need to be thinking how God thinks! It changes the whole perspective of life when we think like God and see the world and people through His eyes.

What do you to try to see the world from God’s perspective?

Do or Done?

This week we have been wrestling with Jesus first prediction of His death and Peter’s reaction  in Mark 8:31-33 which says:³¹ And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. ³² And He was stating the matter plainly.  And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. ³³ But turning around and seeing His disciples, He rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind Me, Satan; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.”

Today we are going to focus on Peter and his response to Jesus prediction of His death.  What we see is that while the rest of the disciples stood there amazed and shocked by what they have just heard, Peter took Him aside. This phrase here carries the idea of one person leading another person away to talk to them. Peter walks up to Jesus, puts his arm around the Lord’s shoulder and leads him away from the group. Then, we are told that Peter began to rebuke Him. The words here in the Greek means to “admonish or chide” and so imagine Peter is criticizing Jesus! Can you see it in your mind, Peter taking the Lord and leading Him aside and saying something like, “Jesus, be careful what you say! You are the Christ so don’t be talking about that dying, suffering and rejection stuff! You should be talking about victory and taking over Israel and getting rid of the Romans! We need a pep talk and not some discouraging words about death!”

Matthew tells us that Peter said this in chapter 16:22: “Heaven forbid! This will never happen to you Lord!” To Peter nothing could more foreign than the idea that Jesus might suffer and die. He just could not see a cross in the future for Jesus, he saw something very different.

Here is the thing though; this problem is not exclusive to Peter. Many people have problems with the idea of a suffering Savior. Paul writes this in 1 Corinthians 1:18, “For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”  When a lost world hears about how Jesus suffered and died on the cross many times they will shudder to think of it. To them, the cross and the death of Christ suggest weakness and failure. They cannot understand the truth that His death was necessary to provide salvation for those who believe on Him by faith.

The thing we fail to see is that the death of Christ was not a moment of weakness. It was a moment of triumph! God accomplished something on the cross that man had not been able to do in thousands of years. God accomplished something through the shedding of the blood of Jesus that man had not been able to achieve through the shedding of millions of gallons of blood from animals. When Jesus did on the cross, He forever paid for sin and provided a means of salvation for all who will believe on Him by faith! When Jesus died on the cross, one of the last things He said was “It is finished” in John 19:30. This was not the cry of a victim; it was the cry of a victor. He did not say, “I am finished.” He said “It is finished!” When Jesus died on the cross, He declared that God was satisfied and the way of salvation had been opened! By the way, it is in the perfect tense which mean it literally says: “It is finished, it stands finished and it will always be finished!”

If we try to remove the cornerstone of the cross and the suffering of the Jesus from salvation, the whole thing crumbles to the ground. There can be no salvation without the death of Jesus on the cross for sin. Do you know why people hate the message of the cross? It is because the cross spells the end of human self-sufficiency! If we believe that we can only be saved by receiving Jesus and trusting His death and resurrection, we are declaring our own helplessness before God. Man loves his religion. Man loves to “do” something religious to earn favor with God. The only problem with that is the fact that nothing will give any person favor with God but the shed blood of Jesus. We need to forget about “do” and replace it with “done”!

The question is this, is it finished in your heart? Have you looked to the crucified Savior and trusted Him for your soul’s salvation? You need to do that and you need to do it now if it is something that you have never done!

Anything you want to share when reading this today?