“We all have a need for a hero in our lives”
Looking at the life of Peter
Early Look at Peter:
· Matthew 4:18 As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 19 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” 20 At once they left their nets and followed him.
o Peter was without a doubt willing to drop everything to follow Jesus. (verse 20)
o The fact that he was a fisherman shows that he was a hard worker and one who was committed.
· Jesus request was simple as was the reward for his request.
o “Come with me and you will change other people’s lives”
o This showed that Peter didn’t need much to go on, he just wanted to make a difference.
The Training of Peter
· He was with Jesus for the healings, the resurrections, the teachings, the miracles.
o He was part of making a differences.
§ Jesus held true to his promise?
ú Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.
· One test: Who do you say I am
Matthew 16: 13When Jesus had come to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” 14They said, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. 15He said to them, “But who do you say I am?” 16Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!”
17Then Jesus said to him, “How blessed are you, Simon, son of John! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven has. 18I tell you that you are Peter, and it is on this rock that I will build my church, and the forces of hell will not overpower it. 19I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you prohibit on earth will have been prohibited in heaven, and whatever you permit on earth will have been permitted in heaven.”
20Then he strictly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ.
o After this moment of God-Given “brilliance” I am sure Peter had thought that he had arrived.
o How many times in our life that we get one thing right and we think that we are all that?
o The problem was that he was still in training mode and had the zeal but not the understanding.
The Fall of Peter
· After all that Peter had witness and learned he still in a moment he lost his strength.
o For a fisherman (one of the toughest professions of his time) you didn’t admit defeat or have weak moments
§ If you had a weak moment on the water then that meant death. In this case he has a weak moment on land and it can a different type death.
Matthew 26:69Now Peter sat outside in the courtyard. And a servant girl came to him, saying, “You also were with Jesus of Galilee.”
ú He was as close as he could be to Christ
ú One Question to consider, “Why was he not right next to Christ or fighting? Just earlier that night he was cutting people’s ears off
70But he denied it before them all, saying, “I do not know what you are saying.”
71And when he had gone out to the gateway, another girl saw him and said to those who were there, “This fellow also was with Jesus of Nazareth.”
ú At this point he was trying to disassociate himself with Jesus
ú In life there are times that people know that we walk with Christ, but we try to disassociate our self from him, even amidst of their accusations of our involvement with Him.
72But again he denied with an oath, “I do not know the Man!”
ú The ironic part is that with an oath Peter decided to follow Christ and now with an oath he denies Him.
73And a little later those who stood by came up and said to Peter, “Surely you also are one of them, for your speech betrays you.”
ú When we follow Christ from sometime and are close with Him, our live starts to look different and people take notice of that and it will give you away every time.
74Then he began to curse and swear, saying, “I do not know the Man!”
ú At this point his “old man” came back out to play!
Immediately a rooster crowed. 75And Peter remembered the word of Jesus who had said to him, “Before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.” So he went out and wept bitterly.
ú As many of us do when we realized that we have let down the very one you believed in us the most.
· All of these events took place in a relatively very short amount of time, which sent Peter to his darkest time since making the decision to follow Christ.
o How many times do we make haste decisions and choice and when we stop to realize what we have done it is took late to take it back?
§ Most of the time the hardest person on you is you!
“I Will Make You A Fisher of Men”
· Now here is the hardest part!
o When we fall to our dark time what do we do?
§ You can choose to sit in the despair, darkness, the grief and let that define you.
§ We can go back to what we were doing
John 21:1 Afterward Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Galilee. It happened this way: 2 Simon Peter, Thomas (also known as Didymus), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. 3 “I’m going out to fish,” Simon Peter told them, and they said, “We’ll go with you.” So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.
4 Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus.
5 He called out to them, “Friends, haven’t you any fish?”
“No,” they answered.
6 He said, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.” When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish.
7 Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, “It is the Lord,” he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water. 8 The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far from shore, about a hundred yards. 9 When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread.
10 Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish you have just caught.” 11 So Simon Peter climbed back into the boat and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish, 153, but even with so many the net was not torn. 12 Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” None of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. 13 Jesus came, took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. 14 This was now the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead.
· Or we can come broken to the one who can put us back together and let that define our Future.
15 When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?”
“Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”
16 Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.”
17 The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. 18 Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” 19 Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, “Follow me!”
· Here are two major traits of a hero
o #1 Peter: We can admit our mistake and go back to the one for forgiveness
o #2 Jesus: When someone wrongs us we are willing to forgive.
Final Point:
· Peter had to experience redemption to preach redemption.
o When we hit a spiritual roadblock we have to make the hero choice and go through it!
