Peter, What a Character

Matthew 17; 1 Peter 2

 

Peter – what a character! For Peter to be God’s man, he had to have the right character.  The simple truth is this, folks: character does matter.  We had quite a dialogue in our country 30 years ago about character, precipitated by a president in the 90s with no character that brought up the discussion about whether character matters.  Well it matters in leadership, it matters a lot. And just to prove that I mean it, I will add that our current president lacks in character and it shows. I won’t give him a pass just because I support many of his policies. The world is watching to see if we are consistent or just partisan. Previous to being in the national spotlight for the last 10 years, his morals would rival an alley cat. But our values show by simply opening our mouth. Our talk betrays our heart. Though I like so much of what he has changed, I do miss the honor of the office and look forward to it being restored. Though we are all entertained by his antics and even appreciate some of his digs he makes against the ridiculous and insane culture of the wackos out there, his lack of personal character gives the other side lots of ammunition to fire against conservatism. I reject the hero worship going on that gleefully overlooks glaring weakness and is afraid to speak out about the need for having a little class.

Simply understood, character causes people to respect you and respect causes people to trust you and trust causes good people to follow you.  Character makes leadership possible.  Where you have no character, you can't really be the leader. All you can do is make the other people who have no character feel better about themselves.  And that's what we've been living through for decades, leaders who just make bad people feel better about being bad.  They think, “Now THAT I can relate to.”

A good leader makes you think of adjectives like "trustworthy, respectable, unselfish, humble, consistent, self-disciplined, self-controlled, courageous."  And those are virtues that moral society recognize belong to real leaders, and certainly those qualities are a reflection of the image of God, for all of those things are attributes of God and Christ.  Christ is perfectly trustworthy, perfectly respectable, perfectly unselfish, perfectly humble, perfectly consistent, perfectly self-disciplined, perfectly courageous, and He has perfect integrity, that is to say absolute consistency with Himself so that all the truest and purest and highest and noblest attributes of mankind are simply reflections of the attributes of God, demonstrated in Christ.

So if one is to be a person of God, spiritually, then the objective is to be Christlike.  In order to bring other people to Christ-likeness, one must set an example for what those virtues are.  That's why the standard for leadership in the church is so high, because the goal is high.  The goal of all spiritual leadership is Christ-likeness.  If you want to lead people to be like that you have to set the pattern, like Paul who said, "Be ye followers of me as I am of Christ." 

We’re not talking about natural leadership, for it is characterized by self-confidence. Spiritual leadership is characterized by confidence in God and no confidence in oneself. Natural leadership – we look for somebody who knows people.  Spiritual leadership - we look for somebody who knows God.  Natural leadership, we want somebody who makes his own decisions.  Spiritual leadership, we want somebody who seeks to know the will of God.  In natural leadership we want somebody who is ambitious, who's driven.  In spiritual leadership we want somebody whose only desire in life is that God be glorified.  In natural leadership we want somebody who originates his own plans and methods, an original thinker.  In spiritual leadership we want somebody who understands the Word of God and obeys it.  In natural leadership we want somebody who enjoys commanding others.  In spiritual leadership we want somebody who enjoys serving others.  In natural leadership we want somebody motivated by success.  Spiritual leadership, we want somebody motivated by the love of God.  In natural leadership we want somebody who is independent.  In spiritual leadership we want somebody who is totally dependent on God.

Quite a difference.  So what I'm talking to you about here is not natural leadership.  To be a leader for the Lord requires some natural raw material.  And Peter had that but there's a very serious work to do to shape that into spiritual leadership and it comes through experience and development of character.

J.R. Miller wrote, "The only thing that walks out from the tomb with the mourners, and refuses to be buried, is the character of the man.  What a man is survives him. It can never be buried." 

Character traits to develop:

Submission

That's contrary to the world's opinion that a natural leader needs to be dominating.  In the spiritual realm we need to learn submission because everything we do as spiritual leaders is a submission to God, to His Word, His plan, His Spirit, His purpose.  Leaders tend to be confident.  They tend to be overt.  They tend to be eager. They tend to be aggressive.  They tend to dominate.  And Peter had that in him.  He was just fast talking, and fast acting.  He was the guy, he was the man, he was in charge, he could grab the bull by the horns.  And Jesus had to teach him the lesson of submission.

And He does it in an interesting way, I think, in…

Matthew 17:24 And when they were come to Capernaum, they that received tribute money came to Peter, and said, Doth not your master pay tribute?

It was bad enough for them to have to pay the tax to the idolatrous pagan Romans, but to imagine the Lord of glory, the Son of God paying tax to Rome was probably unthinkable to Peter.  And so it may have been hard for him to admit that he had to say yes. 

Matthew 17:25 He saith, Yes. And when he was come into the house, Jesus prevented him, saying, What thinkest thou, Simon? of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? of their own children, or of strangers?

He called him Simon because his thoughts were not good.  "What are you thinking, Simon?  I know what you're thinking.  You just got back from a conversation with the tax guy and what you're thinking is why should Messiah be paying taxes?  We're not a part of the kingdom of Rome, we're not even a part of the kingdom of this world?  He is my King, Jesus is my King and I'm a son of the King and I'm in a heavenly kingdom that's not of this world and why should I be paying taxes?" 

Jesus says, "Do the king's kids pay tax?"  No, no...the children of the king don't pay tax. All the rest of us pay tax, strangers pay tax, not the king's family. 

Matthew 17:26 Peter saith unto him, Of strangers. Jesus saith unto him, Then are the children free.

Peter thinks he knows where this is going.

Matthew 17:27 Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money: that take, and give unto them for me and thee.

Now this might be a little confusing to Peter.  He just made the point that the king's sons don't pay the tax.  Yeah, but that's an offensive thing, isn't it?  Doesn't it offend you that the king's family doesn't have to pay the tax that everybody else pays?  Doesn't it bother all of you when you know somebody is not paying their tax and you are? 

The Lord says, I am your King and you are My son and we are not a part of this kingdom and we shouldn't have to pay this tax, but we need to submit."  Peter learned his lesson. Turn to…

1 Peter 2:11-12 Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; ¹² Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.

In other words, what you want to do is make sure you live your life so men can't scandalize you and the gospel.  They can't really honestly slander you.  How do you do that? 

1 Peter 2:13 Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme;

It’s hard for a leader - naturally dominant, naturally forceful, naturally aggressive, naturally out front, on top, calling the shots - to submit himself, that is very hard to do, particularly to government.  I can even identify with that.  But a true leader is one who has learned to submit, even to the most unlikely authority and that is the pagan, secular authority.  If you can learn to submit there, you can learn to submit to that which is from God.

Restraint

Sadly, often leaders have anger issues.  They are trying to take a group of people from here to there but there’s so many obstacles. On top of that, they are herding turtles, and can’t move faster than the slowest of them. There’s so much red tape that it’s just frustrating…I’ve heard.

That's why marriages break up.  They go home and they're just as mad when they talk to their wife as they do at the office. 

That was true with Peter in John 18.  Here comes the 500 people, including the Roman soldiers, to take Jesus.  They come into the garden, and they're going to take Jesus captive and Peter gets angry at the thought of that, pulls out his sword and starts swinging.  He's just one ear into the crowd.  This is not rational.  This is 500 people and many of them are Roman soldiers armed to the teeth. They were skilled fighters.  The Lord reaches over and gives Malchus a new ear.  And the Lord says, "Put your sword away, Peter," this is not how you deal with these things.  "You live by the sword, you'll die by it, put it away. This is not the plan."

Peter lost his temper at that point. He was so angry at what was going to happen that he went into an irrational conduct.  He needed to learn to restrain himself.  He did. 

1 Peter 2:21 For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:

Sometimes we have to suffer.  Sometimes we have to be taken captive.  Sometimes we have to be put in prison.  Sometimes we have to be executed.  Sometimes you're not guilty of anything but you're being vilified and you're being thwarted or you're being hindered and maybe you're being imprisoned and maybe you're being tortured, or persecuted.  Well, so was Jesus. 

1 Peter 2:23 Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously:

He didn't pull out a sword, He didn't call a legion from heaven, He didn't do anything “He just kept entrusting Himself to the One who judges righteously," and that's God.  Restraint is a character quality very difficult for a leader to develop.  You want to grab your sword and whack your way through the opposition.

Humility

It is just kind of natural for leaders to be proud because they're followed, because they're praised, because they're lauded, because people look up to them, because they're admired.  And Peter had a tremendous amount of self-confidence. 

"If everybody else denies You, I won't do it. I'm not like the other people, I won't do that.”  In fact, he says “I'll die before I do that."  Tremendous pride.

He had to learn not to trust in himself.  He had to learn not to be proud. 

1 Peter 5:5-6^…be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. ⁶ Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:

Isn't this great coming from Peter? 

Love

Typically, natural leaders don't love.  People are a means to their end.  Leaders often use people.  They set people up in a structure that gets them to their goal.  It can even be true in church that people are simply pawns on the chess board, a means to an end.  Leaders tend to be task oriented rather than people oriented.  They plow over people to achieve their goals.  Peter needed to learn love and the Lord taught him that.  John 13 is one of the most beautiful scenes between Jesus and the apostles, in the upper room the night of His betrayal.

It didn’t look like daVinci’s painting. Actually, at dinner you reclined, sitting on sort of a reclining couch so that your head was near somebody's feet.  And in those days the roads were either muddy or dusty so feet were dirty.  And the common custom was that when you went into a house for a meal like this there was a servant who was the lowest servant of all servants who washed the feet, the least desirable of all jobs.  But there wasn't a servant there.  It was a rented room so nobody was there to do that. When they were prepared for supper, there hadn't been any foot washing which was very appropriate in that setting. “Wash your feet before supper!”  It hadn't been done.  So Jesus rose from supper, took a towel, wrapped it around Himself, poured water into a basin, began to wash the disciples’ feet and wiped them with the towel with which He was girded.

Now this is Jesus taking on the role of the lowest of slaves.  He's washing the stinking feet of these guys.  You know what they were doing, by the way?  If you compare the other accounts, they were arguing about which of them was the greatest.  That's right.  And in a time when they're arguing about who is the greatest, nobody is going to become the servant and wash feet.  They're all trying to convince each other that they should be elevated as the boss.  So in the midst of their self-pride and self-exaltation, Jesus does what none of them would do.  He comes to Simon Peter, and Peter said to Him, "Lord, do You wash my feet?"  What do You think You're doing?  This is, again, the brash Peter.

Jesus answered and said to him, "What I do you do not realize now but you shall understand hereafter."  You don't get it, Peter, you don't get My humiliation.  You think this is beneath Me. But you haven't seen anything - wait till you see Me arrested, wait till you see Me mocked and spit on and crowned and crucified.  If you think this is low, you haven't seen low. You don't yet understand the humiliation.

“Never shall You wash my feet."  This is...Peter is the master of the absolute statement. There's no gray in Peter's life, everything is absolutely black and white.

Then Jesus said, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another." 

It's hard for leaders to wash the feet of those who are perceivably below them.  But He said in verse 35, "If you do this people will know you're my disciples, if you have this kind of love for one another."

Did Peter learn to love?  He did. 

1 Peter 4:8 And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.

Compassion

As predicted, Satan sifted Peter like wheat, and he denied. But remember what Jesus said…

Luke 22:32 But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.

What was this about?  Well, leaders tend to be short on compassion. They aren’t the best comforters. They don't stop very long to care for the wounded as they go.  Peter, now you will have compassion for people who struggle. 

1 Peter 5:7-8 Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you. ⁸ Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

He says, I understand it, I've been there, I’ve been consumed by that prowling lion. This is a leader who understands human weakness.  This is a leader who has been to the bottom.  This is a leader whose weaknesses have been thrown in his face and he understands what men and women go through.  He’s like our Great High Priest, he's been touched with the feelings of our infirmities, he knows what it is to be human.

A spiritual leader like Peter had to be: submissive, restrained, humble, loving, compassionate, and

Courageous

In the end you must have courage to be a spiritual leader because you're going to have opposition.  The kingdom of darkness is set against the kingdom of light. Lies are set against the truth. Satan is set against God. The demons are set against the holy purposes of Christ. 

The price of preaching will be death for you, Peter, martyrdom.  So you're going to have to have courage.

Peter didn’t have courage the night of his betrayal.  But when you get into the book of Acts, something has changed.  In Acts 4, Peter and John come before the Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling counsel.  The Sanhedrin says you're not to speak at all or teach in the name of Jesus.  I think some of their descendants run the school system in America.  You're not to speak or teach in the name of Jesus, it's forbidden, Acts 4:18.  Peter said, Shall we obey you or God?  And he went ahead and preached.

In Acts 5, they were again brought before the Sanhedrin for not obeying their order to stop preaching.  To which they replied, "We ought to obey God rather than men."  Jesus developed courage in him.

Will the real Peter please stand up? Oh yes, he did. He’s not recognizable from the Simon he used to be. Peter's life could be summed up in the last words of the last epistle he wrote, [2 Peter 3:18] "But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ."  And that's what he did, and he became Rock, the great leader of the church.  What a Character!

 

pt. 2

 

The Making of the Man, Peter

Matthew 16, John 21

 

Peter had the raw material that God could use, very raw, and it had to be refined.  And the Lord is going to refine it by shaping his life through experiences to become the man he needed to be. 

He's going to have a tremendous, immense responsibility.  It's going to take dedication.  It's going to take resolution.  It's going to take endurance.  It's going to take clarity of thought, and self-discipline.  It's going to take a tremendous work ethic to do this and keep doing it against all hostility and odds, right on down to his death.  So the Lord has to put him through experiences that shape and mold him.

Revelation

Feeding of the 5,000

He makes the little boy's lunch of loaves and fish multiply and feed the whole crowd and have enough left to feed the apostles as well.  And after that He teaches them this is bread that perishes, this is physical food, but I'm the bread of life.  You eat this bread, you never hunger again.  And He turns the whole thing toward Himself and He's talking about you have to eat My flesh and drink My blood. And what He means by that is you have to take Me in totally, you have to receive Me totally if you want to have eternal life.

Well, some of the people who were following Him weren't ready for that.  They weren't ready to buy into Him totally and completely.  And so many left and didn’t follow Him any longer.  He had a split in His congregation.  The message got too serious, it got too complete, too demanding, too exacting, too singular and they said, "We're not interested in that," and they were gone.  No more.  Jesus said therefore to the twelve, Do you also want to go away?  Are you ready to leave Me because of the stringency of what I've said, because of the demands of what I've said, because of the total commitment that I've asked for, do you want to leave?

"Simon Peter answered, 'Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life and we have believed and come to know that You are the holy one of God.'"  Wow!  What an incredible statement.  It's my own feeling that Peter probably when he said that grabbed his mouth and said, "Where did that come from?"  I mean, that is a profound theological statement.  Whoa.  That was a revelatory experience and that's the first experience, his great revelation.

You know what the Lord wanted Peter to know?  That he was going to get his message from God.  He wasn't going to have to think it up, dream it up, scheme it up, make it up.  He's going to have material provided for him, revelation from God.  In Matthew 16 Jesus asked the disciples in verse 15, "Who do you say that I am?"  And immediately in verse 16 what does Peter say, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."  And I'm sure he had the same experience.  Did I say that? "And Jesus said to him, 'Flesh and blood has not revealed that to you, but My Father who is in heaven.'"

At the outset of his training Peter needed to know that he would be given a divine message.  You see, that's essentially what ministry is.  We just pass on a divine message. 

Peter might have said, "I'm not educated, I'm not trained, I haven't been to school, I haven't been to seminary, I don't know very much." Don't worry about it. You're going to get it from God, His great revelation.  What an incredible promise.

And then that great day came when he stood up on the Day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2, and three thousand people are converted.  He preaches again and thousands more and thousands more are saved.  He didn't have to worry about what he was going to say.

Some people say that the greatest fear that they have is the fear of public speaking.  I'll tell you why it's especially fearful because you don't know what you're going to say.  I don't have that fear because I don't have to make up the message.  And I can preach it with authority because it comes from God. 

Revelation

Reward

This is a very common fisherman.  This isn't some high priest.  This isn't some Pharisee, some scholar, some great rabbi in Israel. But I want you to turn to Matthew 16:18, I also say to you, you are rock, you're rock, petros, rock, and on this rock I will build My church.  A little play on words here: You are rock, petros, on this rock, petra, different word, I'll build My church.  You are rock but on this rock I'll build My church.

What's the difference?  Peter is a stone, but this rock, petra, means rock bed. It means a massive bedrock.  You're a stone, but on this bedrock I'll build My church. The bedrock of what? I think it's Peter's confession in verse 16, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." That's the bedrock of the church, isn't it?  The church is built on Christ as the Son of the living God.  And that the Father has revealed to you, and it's that bedrock truth that you've articulated on which I'm going to build My church.  You're a stone and you're going to be a firm and a strong stone and I'm glad for that, but it's on the confession that you've just made I'm going to build My church.

And then He says, "And the gates of hell shall not prevail or overpower it and I'll give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven and you're going to bind and you're going to loose." 

This common, plain, old fisherman with no training and no stature and no status is told here, the message that came out of your mouth is going to bar the gates to hell and open the gates to heaven.

People talk about ministry being the highest calling.  Why?  Because the truth of Jesus Christ shuts the gates of hell and opens the doors to heaven, doesn't it?  Can a man have a greater influence than that? 

It must have been satisfying to pull in a pile of fish, but that sure pales compared to this.  And Peter did unlock the doors of heaven for the Jews.  And then in Acts 10 he preached to the first Gentile. What was his name?  Cornelius, and he believed.  He threw open the gates of heaven, he opened the kingdom to the Jews and he opened the kingdom to the Gentiles.  This plain, common man; it had nothing to do with his technique, it had nothing to do with his education, it had to do with the power of the Spirit of God and the truth.

Revelation, reward…

Reproof

v. 21        Huh?  This isn't the plan, not in the minds of the disciples, anyway.  "Hey, the Messiah's here and it's just going to get better and better.  He's going to knock off the Romans and He's going to purge the people and we're going to have the kingdom and all of that.  And what Jesus is talking about, that's not going to happen." What is Peter's response? 

Verse 22: "Peter took Him aside.”  Lord, can I talk to You for a minute?  He didn't want to discredit Him publicly.  "Just come over here, you know, behind the tent.  Bad idea.  Can't let it happen, Lord, sorry. It will never happen to You, I won't allow it."  You give a guy a little bit of leadership and it really goes to his head, doesn't it?  I mean, he's talking to the Creator of the universe.  He's talking to the Messiah, the Redeemer, the Savior, God in flesh, unbelievable.

It's a real danger in leadership; you don't know where your limits are.  You get the feeling you're a bit invincible.  And then you wind up overstepping your bounds.  You're never going to lead effectively with God till you understand that your plan doesn't matter, His alone matters.  God doesn't want your better strategy. 

You just don't know your boundaries, do you, Peter?  You don't have a better plan than God.  How can people go into the ministry and think they do?  Just do the plan and this is the plan.  Well, the answer that Peter got must have rung in his ears until he died.  "He turned and said to Peter, 'Get thee behind Me Satan.'"  Pow!  See, Peter was just as available to Satan as he was to the Lord.  We all are, aren't we?  The greater your potential to be used by God, the greater your potential to be used by the devil. 

Peter starts to feel good about opening the doors of heaven and then oversteps his bounds and the Lord has to cut his legs out from under him. 

Revelation, reward, reproof…

Rejection

Turn to Matthew 26:31           This is on the night of the Passover, the night of the betrayal of Jesus.  They sang a hymn. They went out to the Mount of Olives.  That's a prophecy from Zechariah, that when the Messiah was taken captive, all the disciples would flee.  And He says, "You're all going to fall away, you're going to be run, scared to death and you'll come back and I'll lead you to Galilee," in verse 32.

Verse 33: I'm not like all men.  I'm a cut above the rest.  I don't know about these other eleven. I wouldn't do that.  Never would I do that.  Jesus said, "Yes you will, I'm telling you right now, this very night you'll do it.  You'll do it before the cock crows and you'll do it three times.  You'll deny Me."

Peter said to Him, "Wrong again, Lord.  Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You, and all the disciples said the same thing, too."  Do you think he was the leader?  Sure, they all quacked right after him the same way. 

You know, overestimating your spiritual strength is deadly.  The Lord says, "No, Peter, you've got to learn not to trust yourself.  I've already tried to teach you that your plans don't supersede Mine.

Go over to verse 69.  He had that funny Galilean accent.  This is really sad, verse 74, "Then he began to curse and swear"  And immediately a cock crowed. And he went out and he wept bitterly.

He should have, shouldn't he?  No man is ultimately useful to the Lord until he has absolutely no trust in himself.  He rose to the highest pinnacle of his own self-confidence. I will never deny You, I will die first, everybody else may deny You, I will never deny You.  And that very night, that's exactly what he did repeatedly, repeatedly, over and over again; so much for self-confidence.

This is called the breaking of the man.  This is the crushing of Peter.  And no man ultimately is useful to God until he has been so crushed.  Peter's failure was necessary.

He was never the same after this.  His great rejection was part of the experience the Lord used to shape him. 

I think he spent the rest of his life a humble, broken guy who probably said, "I only know what the Lord tells me. I can only function in the power of the Lord. I can only do the plan as God has laid it out."  He was broken.

At this point you could understand if the Lord said, "You know, I've had enough of this guy, I'm knocking him off the top and bumping up John one notch.  Really, this is getting old, Peter."  But that wasn't the Lord. 

Recommission

John 21            He expected if he ever saw Jesus again that he would be rejected. Instead, he is recommissioned to feed the sheep.

This is a recommissioning of a man who was once too strong for ministry and is now feeling too weak for ministry. But because he's too weak for ministry, he's exactly what the Lord wants.  When he was strong, he was useless.  Now that he's crushed, he's useful.  So the Lord picks him up to use him. 

verse 18           You know, you used to do whatever you wanted.  Put your clothes on, go where you want, do your own thing; that was you.  But the day is coming, you're going to grow old, you're going to stretch out your hands, that's an expression referring to crucifixion, and somebody is going to tie you up and take you where you don't want to go.  He said this, John writes, "Signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God."  He told him he was going to die, told him he was going to stretch his hands, be crucified. 

"Peter, you are going to be faithful, you are going to be faithful to the very end, you can do this.  When he's weak, he's strong. 

You say, triumphant moment, well kind of, you have to know Peter.  Peter takes about two steps and turns around.  He sees the disciple whom Jesus loved, that's John. “What about this guy?” 

Oh Peter, you are just relentless.  “None of your business.” And Peter did go on to do what Jesus said.

2 Peter 1:14-15

Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me. ¹⁵ Moreover I will endeavour that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance.

Let’s let God shape us, and let’s be faithful even unto death.