God Is Bigger Than Our Rejection!
In the last two weeks, we have looked at the two choices that is presented to everyone. We can either humble ourselves and turn to God as Nebuchadnezzar did, or we can ignore Him like Balthazar did. Everyone has this opportunity because God works in the lives of both the believers and the unbelievers. There is nothing that can stop Him from using someone to complete His work, if we believe something is outside of God’s power to change we are limiting God with limits that He does not have. But what happens if you are one of His and you turn away from the faith? Will He love you even then? For that answer, we need to look at one of Jesus Christ’s own disciples, we need to look at Peter.
Peter was a fisherman and one of the first to be called by Jesus Christ to be a disciple. One account of this can be found in Luke 5:1-11. Jesus had gotten into Peter’s boat asking him to go a little way from shore so that He could teach the crowd gathered there. When He was done, He asked Peter to place his net out who replied “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets” Luke 5:5. Peter was already beginning to see that there was more to this man, but he did not yet know who it was. When Peter let down the net, there were so many fish that the net began to break. Upon seeing this Peter responded to Jesus, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” Luke 5:8. Peter knew then that this was the one that was foretold about in the Old Testament. Even though Peter knew that he was a sinful man, when Jesus told him to follow he listened. “19 And he said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men’” Matthew 4:19.
From here Peter continued to follow Jesus throughout His ministry and was even one of the disciples who was there to witness His transfiguration as described in Matthew 17, and he was the disciple to recognize that Jesus was the Son of God, “13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say the Son of Man is?’ 14 They replied, ‘Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’ 15 ‘But what about you?’ he asked. ‘Who do you say I am?’ 16 Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.’17 Jesus replied, ‘Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.’” Matthew 16:13-20. In these verses Jesus Christ even states that Peter would be the rock that His church would be built upon! What an honor!
So how could a disciple such as Peter be the same one who would eventually deny Jesus Himself? Peter often looked at the short term of Jesus’s ministries, he failed to see that Jesus came to save the whole world from sin. This often caused Peter to be rebuked by Jesus, in one occurrence when Jesus was explaining the plan of salvation that God had, “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. 22 Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, ‘God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You.’ 23 But He turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.’”
Peter’s failure to see the bigger picture also caused Jesus to have a dire warning for him, “31 ‘Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; 32 but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.’ 33 But he said to Him, ‘Lord, with You I am ready to go both to prison and to death!’ 34 And He said, ‘I say to you, Peter, the rooster will not crow today until you have denied three times that you know Me.’” Luke 22:31-34. The man that Jesus was to build His church on, was being petitioned by Satan to be separated from the twelve! It was only through the prayers of Jesus that Peter was not sifted away. While that is a powerful statement alone, especially when we understand that Jesus is currently at the right hand of God petitioning for us even now, there is a bigger aspect to these verses.
If you look at verse 32 again, you see that Jesus knew that Peter would fall away. However, if you look closer, you see that Jesus knew that he would return! With that knowledge, Jesus was already giving Peter his marching orders for after His death, and that was to strengthen fellow believers. Peter did not understand the significance of what Jesus was telling him, he merely stated that he would never fall away and that he would follow Jesus to death. Again, Peter was looking at the short term instead of seeing the overall picture. Just as Jesus stated, Peter did deny Him and when “Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had told him, ‘Before a rooster crows today, you will deny Me three times.’ 62 And he went out and wept bitterly.” Luke 22:61-62.
Peter can be an example to those of us who have been following after Jesus for a while, but for whatever reason have turned away from the faith and now have a deep conviction about what has occurred. To make this clear, this type of conviction is only there for those who truly have made the 180 degree turn and have accepted the free gift of salvation that Jesus Christ offers to all. While being a born-again believer does not make us perfect while on this earth, we are found righteous before God through the actions of Jesus Christ on the cross and it is through the Holy Spirit that we have this conviction. It is this same conviction that caused Peter to go out and weep over his actions. Let us continue to look at Peter though to see what God made of the man who denied Him.
Once Jesus was resurrected, He met with Peter and the other disciples on the shores of Galilee (John 21:4). The men did not recognize Jesus at first but upon His command to throw the fishing net to the right side of the boat, and the amount of fish they brought in, John recognized that it was Him which caused Peter to jump out of the fishing boat to hurry to swim back to Jesus. (John 21:6-7). It was as they were all eating, that Jesus then puts a charge to Peter, to feed His lambs, to care for His sheep, and to feed His sheep (John 21:15-17). And this is exactly what Peter does. If you continue to read what Peter accomplishes, you will see that he had the ability to cause a lame man to walk (Acts 3:1-11) and raised a woman from the dead (Acts 9:36-43). But more importantly, Peter had the ability to go in front of a crowd but this time he was not denying Christ, he was preaching about Him (Acts 2:14-41). In this one occurrence, Peter led around three thousand to accept Jesus! He truly was the stone that God built His church on!
If a man who denied God’s Son could be used in this way, imagine what God can accomplish through you. If you are someone who may feel that they have ran from God, understand that God never leaves you. What is even more is that your sins have been forgiven already! Just as Jesus knew that Peter would deny Him, He also knew that Peter would return. We all have our orders, “18 Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’” Matthew 28:18-20 and this order remains even if we have turned away. We can be brought back and still be put to work by God.
Seek the Truth and encourage one another,
Alex