Encouraging, Empowering & Equipping Ordinary Christians To Live Powerful Missional Lives!
In Acts 8:26-40 we have an amazing story about an ordinary christian by the name of Philip who was used by God in an amazing way. From it we learn some powerful principles for shining the Light of Christ brightly in our part of this dark world. Watch and see what you might learn.
Take a few moments and share your thought as a comment.
During one of my house church meeting we were reading the story of Jesus when he was telling his disciples plainly that he would be arrested, beaten, killed but on the third day would rise from the dead. We had an interesting discussion about how Jesus' disciples responded to this very clear and frank revelation that Jesus was making about what was to happen to him. Here's what the verse says,
"From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law,and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 'Never, Lord!' he said. 'This shall never happen to you!' Jesus turned and said to Peter, 'Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.” Matthew 16:16-23 (NIV)
It is quite obvious from the passage that Peter wasn't happy with what Jesus was saying. I mean Jesus wasn't trying to be obscure about the meaning of what he was talking about. He wasn't sharing this spiritual truth in some parable that required you to sit down and contemplate the deeper meaning behind it. No, Jesus was talking quite plainly and sharing with his disciple exactly what was going to happen him and Peter made it very clear he didn't like it at all.
Picture the scene. Jesus has just finished sharing about his death, burial and resurrection and Peter doesn't like what he heard, so he asks Jesus to speak with him off to the side and, according to the Bible, begins to REBUKE Jesus. REALLY? What audacity for Peter to think that he could pull aside and rebuke the Son of the Living God! Is he for real? Who does Peter think he is?
Now I know some of you are wanting to come to Peter's defense by thinking that maybe he really didn't know exactly that Jesus was the Christ the Son of the Living God! I mean if Peter didn't understand Jesus' true identity that would be a reasonable excuse for his disrespectful behavior, right? But wait a moment! Is that accurate? Did Peter not know who Jesus was and that he was the Son of Living God ? The truth is that Peter did know exactly who he was talking to and what Jesus' true identity was! Let's take a look at the verse right before the ones we just read:
"When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, 'Who do people say the Son of Man is?' They replied, 'Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.' 'But what about you?' he asked. 'Who do you say I am?' Simon Peter answered, 'You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.' 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. 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. 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.' Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah." Matthew 16:13-20 (NIV).
There it is right there in front of our faces! After Jesus asked the disciples, "Who do you say that I am?" It was Peter who said, "Your are the Messiah (Christ) the Son of the living God." It hadn't been more than ten minutes between Peter great confession and Peter's great stupidity. Peter knew exactly who Jesus was. It was God the Father, himself, who had revealed that spiritual truth to him. Now, we see Peter feeling as though has the right to pull Jesus, the Son of the living God, aside and REBUKE him and all because he didn't like what he's hearing!
Now I don't think that Peter's intentions were bad! I think that Peter loved Jesus with all his heart, mind, soul and strength. I think Peter was only looking out for Jesus' best interests and actually thought he was doing the right thing! But with all of Peter's best intentions, Peter was still being a stumbling block to Jesus because what he wanted wasn't in line with God's will!
"What?" You might be asking, "Peter became a stumbling block to Jesus?" Please understand those aren't my words, that's what Jesus said. Jesus said that Peter's best intentions was used to be a stumbling block to him. Jesus actually called Peter Satan. "Get behind me Satan." Right there at that particular moment Peter, who loved Jesus, was being an instrument that Satan was using to try and tempt Jesus not to go to the cross. Even though Peter had the best intentions he was not only a stumbling block to Jesus he was also being the instrument of Satan!
Why was Peter a stumbling block and why was he able to be used by Satan? Because even though Peter's intentions were meant to be good they were based from man's concerns and not God's concerns.
In order for God to actualize his concern and save the world, Jesus had to die and Peter actions based from his concern became a stumbling block. The lesson that Peter was learning was that it's not about his will being done but all about God's will being done!
How many times have we been Peter?
For me the number is to hight to count. As I look back over my life and ministry I realized that so much of what I tried to do was based from my own concerns and interests and not God's at all. It's strange to think about but how many times have I prayed for God to do something because that's what I really wanted to happen but never took into account what God was trying to do? It has been a humbling lesson to learn that even my prayers can become a stumbling block for Christ's mission to move forward!
So, what do we need to do? I believe it all starts with two things: Faith and Revelation.
We need to get to a place in our spiritual walk where we have no will of our own except to do the will of God. Faith is the emptying of ourselves from our own personal desires so that we can wholeheartedly believe and accept God's desires.
God's will is never discovered as though it is some hidden treasure. No, God's will is always revealed by God to us his people. We need pray that God will give us eyes to see and ears to hear when God is telling us what he's about to do. This is where Peter failed. Peter was receiving a clear revelation of what was to happen to Jesus through his death on the cross and resurrection but Peter didn't have the faith to surrender his personal desires over to God and die to them so that He would be able to accept what God's will really was.
Let us all begin to pray that we don't act upon our BEST INTENTIONS but that we always have the FAITH that we need to act upon GOD'S INTENTIONS as he reveals them to us.
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