Introducing an Old Fisherman, Part 2

The smoke from the burning of Rome is still lingering in the air and to the ear of those believers they're needing a word from God and Christians are preparing for greater, more organized persecution. In fact, Peter will be executed in the wake of it.

So picture a man with calloused hands and gnarled fingers from years of tending nets and cleaning fish and rowing with wooden oars, calmly writing to encourage the believer. During the trial of Jesus, Peter failed to live up to his bold claims and he denied the Lord. Jesus restored Peter and Peter went on to be an important early church leader.

It wasn't long before Peter and the church in general was experiencing its own persecution and many, including Peter, faced death for their faith. We're looking at the life of Peter as we begin a series through an epistle he wrote called 1 Peter. This is part two of a lesson Stephen Davy began yesterday. Stephen's calling this lesson, Introducing an Old Fisherman.

What I want to do is drop into several different scenes and I'm going to give you a caption to write next to each picture and if you want to try to keep up and turn with me, you can. The first snapshot is in Matthew chapter 16. Matthew chapter 16. And you could write the caption underneath this text, insightful. This is one of the high marks of Peter's development.

We're not covering these chronologically. The Lord is asking the disciples who people say he is. He says, give me the word on the street. Who do people say I am? And then verse 14, you can hear the answer.

The disciples were found. Well, some say you're John the Baptist. Others say you're Elijah. Still others, you know, Jeremiah the weeping prophet because you weep a lot. So you must be Jeremiah or one of the other prophets.

And now comes the major question on this examination. Jesus says to them, but who do you say that I am? Verse 16, Simon Peter answers and you're thinking, oh no, please, Simon, put your hand down.

He has it up. Yes, Simon Peter. And Simon Peter says, you are the Christ.

Notice that. You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Wow. He got it right. Jesus goes on to tell them, you know, only God the Father could put that revelation into your heart and out of your mouth and that little pebble, Peter, will become the bedrock, the confession upon which the church will be built, who Christ is. Now you think that's so great. Peter speaks with such wonderful insight. Out of his mouth comes this great declaration that is the early creed of the New Testament Church, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. Let's just put a period here and say that's great. Peter grew up.

We're done. The problem is you just go two verses later. And Peter filled with insight becomes Peter filled with arrogance.

And that's the caption, arrogance. Verse 21, from that time, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised up on the third day. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. God forbid it, Lord.

This is never going to happen to you. Can you imagine? Peter took him aside. What did that look like, Lord?

Can you step over here? All that discussion about dying and rising from the dead, God forbid that that would ever happen. That's not the will of God for your life. Trust me, I speak with insight. And Jesus says, well, you're actually Satan right now.

And get behind me. You are following not the thoughts or the intentions of God, but the intentions of man filled with arrogance. Peter is rebuking Jesus for the same reason we rebuke Jesus. He doesn't meet our expectations.

He doesn't follow through like we think he ought to. It isn't Peter's plan. There are no crosses in Peter's expectations. There are no nails.

There's no empty tomb either. Peter expected Judaism to be reformed. In fact, Peter is going to be one of the slowest disciples to catch on. Eventually, God's going to give him a vision of a sheet coming down with all these animals. And he's going to say to Peter, it's okay to kill him and eat him. Oh, no, no, no, Lord.

You know, I know better than you. He does it three times. It takes him a while because he wants to see Judaism reformed and cleaned up, revived. And Jesus sees the ending of Judaism and the creation of the church. Peter expected nice little fish dinners where Jesus broke the bread and the fish and everybody always had their tummies filled up. And Jesus is envisioning the future marriage supper of the Lamb once we get past all this. Peter sees synagogues packed with listeners, with Jesus teaching, and Jesus can already see a nation screaming for his crucifixion. Peter is looking forward to one miracle after another and Jesus is looking forward to defeating death and crushing the head of the serpent and conquering the grave. It's a little surprise then that you can turn to John chapter 18 and you can write in the word that you've come to know Peter by.

The caption can simply read failure. Three denials. Jesus had warned him about it.

Peter was filled with self-confidence. And now a rooster signals his crushing defeat. It doesn't take long for any of us to take our eyes off the Lord and demand of him our own expectations. We don't deserve this valley. Why are you taking me through it?

I planned on something different, something better. It doesn't take long for any of us to turn our thoughts against him who loves us. Filled with self-confidence, filled with our own selves, filled with promises. And it isn't long before the grace of God, and we thank him for it, that our promises crumble and they break apart at our feet in the dust of regret and we go back to reliance and not self-confidence. William Carey, the man we call the father of modern missions, whose biography I've enjoyed reading, and I noted this in the flyleaf of one common of one biography. You may remember or know that he was used by the Lord tremendously in India. He wrote these words in his journal during days of inconsistency.

In fact, his journal is spotted with these kinds of comments. This particular entry is marked 1794 and it reads, my soul is a jungle when it ought to be a garden. I can scarcely tell if I have the grace of God or not. I am perhaps the most inconsistent, cold creature that ever possessed the grace of Christ. If God uses me, none need despair from the father of modern missions. That's Peter.

That's you and me. But if anybody was finished with Peter, it would have been the Lord. Peter had so stunningly, so quickly, after his promises, denied him. And soon after his denials, Jesus dies. He dies. That's it. I mean, look, if the Lord did rise from the dead, and we know he did, he'll find somebody else, some more worthy apostle to write inspired letters to encourage the church to stand firm, written by a man who didn't. Now, wouldn't you change things up a bit?

Not the God of grace. This isn't the end of the snapshot. Go to John chapter 20, where we're given a life-changing photograph, and we'll just simply caption this one, eyewitness.

Eyewitness. Peter and John are racing toward the tomb. The news has reached them that the body is gone, and they don't immediately connect the dots. Verse 6 tells us, Peter and John kind of do a little foot race, and they reach the tomb, and they go in, and it says, they saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the face cloth which had been on his head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up.

You could render that folded neatly. That's entirely significant. In fact, it's so significant that it'll say that they saw and believed. What did they see? Well, the grave clothes are not torn apart by a resuscitating man, which is the theory of liberals to this day. He just swooned on the cross, and he came back in the coolness of the tomb. He ripped through those linen strips. They're not ripped to shreds by grave robbers who are stealing the body, and they're lying there, literally in their folds. Imagine now by this time, the spices had begun to harden, that are interlaced between the overlapping of these linen strips that they would wrap the body with. They're still lying in their folds, which means what Peter and John are struck with is the fact that these linen wrappings are still in the form of a body, and they would wrap them from just the armpits down, and here they are still wrapped, and then the feet.

But it's empty, like a cocoon, perhaps slightly sunken in in the middle. And then John is careful to mention that there's this face napkin folded neatly. I mean, why did Jesus fold the napkin neatly? Is he just tidy? Is he just doing what your kids never did?

Mine did, yours didn't, that's what I've heard. But is he just sort of folding the laundry? You know, I want to tidy up the tomb before I leave, so I'm going to just fold the napkin.

Oh, no. One New Testament author commented that in the ancient world, when royalty ate a large meal that would be several courses and take several hours, they would often pause from their courses and rise from their couch and mingle with people and walk in their gardens. If they took that napkin, wiped their mouths and wadded it up, it meant they were finished and they would not return to eat. But if that napkin was folded neatly at their seat, it meant they were coming back. Peter saw that napkin, he and John so carefully placed their Y because Jesus had not only risen, not only was Jesus alive, but he was signifying he was coming back. If there was ever any doubt, Mark records the words of the angel in Mark's Gospel, and I want to have you turn for the sake of time, delivering the news of Christ's resurrection to the women who had come to anoint the body. And the angel said, don't be amazed.

In other words, why are you amazed? This is Jesus. You're looking for him, right? The Nazarene? He's been crucified, but he's risen. He's not here. Behold, look, here's the place where they laid him.

Take a look. Now go and tell his disciples and Peter. I love the expression. Go tell the disciples and Peter. Almost as if to imply that Peter doesn't think he belongs anymore in the company of the disciples. Maybe he's withdrawn. We do know he went back to fishing. Maybe he didn't feel like he's going to be rejoining them. He's out of it. Go tell the disciples and make sure you tell Peter. He is not discarded.

His failure is not final. In fact, he is now going to be an eyewitness. He's now going to be an eyewitness for Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, those precious words that inform us that Jesus made several appearances to witnesses, sometimes to as many as 500, and he made one to Peter. We're not given that conversation, but I would have loved to have heard it. But I think we have the scope of it. Peter, I'm not finished with you.

I'm going to make you more rock-like than ever as you follow me. The next snapshot is on the day of Pentecost. I'll turn your attention to in Acts chapter 2 where Jerusalem is swelled into millions of Jews who've come from all around the world and the disciples are given those miraculous abilities to speak in known languages to those who gathered from other parts of the world and Peter becomes the main spokesman.

And you can write under that photograph the caption courage. He's denying nothing now. He denied it to little servant girls and just a few people. Now, in front of tens of thousands of people, he's delivering the truth. He tells Israel without pulling any punches, you murdered the Messiah.

The rest of the world is guilty as well. And then he makes that reference as he delivers the truth and he says in verse 36 that he is both Lord, that Jesus is both Lord and Christ. There it is. He is both a man and he's the divine Lord who happens to be the anointed Messiah. And 3,000 people said, I'm going to sign that confession of faith and believe in him and the church is born. Now, there are many other snapshots that we could give. It's been more than 30 years by the time you arrive at the last snapshot which is simply the book of 1 Peter. If you go back to that, I want you to imagine this man whom the God-man changed. Here's this old fisherman, this old church statesman.

It's been 30 years since his first encounter with the Lord which puts him right around the age of 75. And you can write the caption underneath this letter and all around it with simply the word grace. Peter, can you hear the grace in this? An apostle. Can you hear the grace of God in this?

An apostle of Jesus Christ. Peter will never forget the grace of God. Let me ask and answer quickly three questions and then our introduction to the letter is finished.

The first question is this. Did Peter learn the importance of prayer, transparent, open prayer? I mentioned how the Lord prayed on two different occasions. Well, Peter slept thinking he didn't need it as much as the Lord evidently. The Lord, in fact, on one occasion warned Peter of his future failure. And the Lord said this to Peter. This is an amazing text and I'm just going to give it to you and make a comment.

We got to move on. But in Luke chapter 22 and verse 31, he says to Peter, Peter, the devil wants to sift you like wheat. He wants to throw you up in the air.

He wants to turn you upside down. But I have prayed for you. I find it interesting that even though Jesus prayed for him, Peter failed. Does that mean that the prayers of Jesus failed? No, Jesus prayed with perfect understanding that Peter's cowardice was not the conclusion of his biography. In fact, we learn from this that prayer doesn't always prevent failure. Maybe you're thinking, well, I just keep failing. I ought to quit praying. In fact, failure, we learn from the life of Peter, can be used by God in providentially developing someone's character and life so that now as an old man, he has learned the value of prayer to the point where he says to the believer, you need to cast all your care on him.

Because let me tell you, he cares about you. Did Peter learn, secondly, how easy it is to fail and how damaging self-confidence is? He'll write in this letter, clothe yourselves with all humility.

Peter wasn't one to talk about humility in his earlier years. Now clothe yourselves. Put on the clothing. What's it look like? Oh, humility.

Put it on. Why, Peter? Because God is opposed to the proud.

You're working in different directions. But he gives grace to the humble, 1 Peter 5. Listen, Peter will write, don't be self-assured.

Don't be overconfident. There is a devil who, like a lion, is roaming around the perimeter of your life waiting to pounce. Christianity has no room for self-reliance, only dependence. One more, did Peter replace hot-headed reaction with calm, clear thinking? I mean, he was the man who took the sword and started hacking away in the garden. He was the one who jumped out of the boat. He was the one who promised uninterrupted success.

Yes, he did. In fact, three times he will write to these believers to be sober. That's a word for us today, to be sober. Now in the Greek language, it simply means to avoid drunkenness. However, every time it's used in the New Testament, and by Peter, it is used as a metaphor to being clear-headed, to being what we would call calm, cool, and what?

Collected. Don't panic. Remain with a calm and collected perspective so that you remain focused on what's important. And the church, beloved, needs this attribute now more than ever. Calm, clear thinking on what matters most.

What is eternal? The Gospel and the Lord we represent. This is not a time for the church in this culture to panic or pitch a fit or spend our time complaining over all the losses that we are coming to understand in this country we love.

As one author put it, let's not sing that we're standing on the rock of ages and then act as if we're clinging to the last piece of driftwood. Beloved, one of the best lessons we can learn from 2,000 years of church history is that the church does not need to be appreciated in order to advance. The church doesn't even need freedom in order to be fruitful. And our brothers and sisters from lands where they are not free prove that because their regions are fruitful and ours is not so much. The church does not need a seat at the table of power in order to be able to sow the seeds of the Gospel. If anything, I would agree with one author who wrote recently that God, among other things, is humbling the believing church whose hopes and petitions have been directed more toward Congress over the past fifty years than to Christ. That doesn't mean you can't petition Congress or run for a seat in Congress or pray that someone in Congress will put on their thinking cap.

Exercise every right and privilege that we have. But the Christian has absolutely no right to panic or complain or resent what God is ultimately doing in his purposes as he moves planet earth and every nation on it over whom he has designed the times of their existence and the boundaries and borders of their nations, Peter preached. And he's moving it all right on time to that point in time where ultimately the glory of the Lord will fill the earth like the waters of the sea. The question is, will you be part of that?

Can you make that statement, that creed, that to you Jesus is your Messiah? Let me add quickly, as God moves our world in that direction, sometimes in history God gives a nation a leader who is better than they deserve. Israel, just read their history. On one occasion they were given the godly king Josiah. They didn't deserve Josiah, a godly king, and God stayed as judgment on that nation. Josiah was a better king than the nation deserved. Sometimes God gives a nation leaders who are far worse than they deserve.

We'd be hard-pressed to say that Germany deserved Adolf Hitler or the former Soviet Union deserves Stalin and the bloodbath and the tens of millions of people he killed. Sometimes God gives a nation a leader or leaders who are far worse than they deserve. But sometimes God gives a nation leaders they actually deserve. The nation is immoral and decadent and deceitful and arrogant, openly rejecting the gospel, spurning the truth they know and have had centuries of foundation, ignorant of the Bible, brazenly defying God's created order for everything from gender to marriage.

I haven't attached the name of a congressman or a presidential hopeful to that. I have described our nation. Sometimes God gives a leader to a nation that that nation deserves. What do we do? Well, we dive into 1 Peter, where we'll spend a month or two or three or years. We refocus our mission. We realign our expectations. We return with greater passion than ever to eternal things. We demonstrate the grace of God out there to a hopeless and wandering and confused world. Listen, the smoke from the burning of Rome is still lingering in the air and to the ear of those believers.

They're needing a word from God and Christians are preparing for greater, more organized persecution. In fact, Peter will be executed in the wake of it in a couple of years. So picture your mind, however, at this point, a 75-year-old man. I picture a man with calloused hands and gnarled fingers from years of tending nets and cleaning fish and rowing with wooden oars. A man calmly writing to encourage the believer. And he writes with ink that in my mind is mixed with grace and hope and joy and forgiveness. And he says in this letter, you can entrust your life. You can entrust everything about your heart, mind, and soul to your creator, God, who will always do what is right. In a world gone wrong, he is making sure it will all turn out right. The madness of Rome is under divine management.

The chaos of culture is under his sovereign control and he is in control today. As Christians, we take great comfort in the fact that God is in control of all things. It's good news from God's word today. I sure hope this Bible message has encouraged you. This is Wisdom for the Heart with Stephen Davey.

Today's lesson is called Introducing an Old Fisherman. In addition to being our daily Bible teacher, Stephen is the pastor of the Shepherd's Church in Cary, North Carolina. He's also the president of Shepherd's Theological Seminary. You'll find our website at wisdomonline.org. If you'd like to learn more about us or if you want to access the other resources we have available, please visit there anytime. Again, it's wisdomonline.org. I also encourage you to install the Wisdom International app to your smartphone. Once you do, you can take the teaching you hear wherever you go.

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