Transcription
Morning. Good morning. It's good to be in the house of the Lord. Amen. Turn with me to your Bibles, to Matthew chapter 10. Uh, when last time I was here, I mentioned that, you know, there's this specialty in uh, standalone sermons. They, they're uniquely prayed over as you prepare for the Lord to bring a message for a single Sunday. Uh, so I figured that you guys, for some reason, continue to invite me back at your own travesty, um, that I figure we could do something a little longer than just a standalone sermon.
Years ago, when I was a youth pastor up in Maine, I preached this SE sermon series that has been one of my favorites to this day, and I thought we would dive back into it because it's been some time. But Matthew chapter 10 is we're going to introduce the series. So whenever you invite me back, I'm going to dive through these uh, next couple of uh, sermon series where it's just simply called the 12, where we're going to spend some time studying the lives of the 12 disciples of Jesus and seeing what their lives in scripture teach, teach us. So here in uh, Matthew 12, we see the summoning of the 12 disciples. Matthew 10:1, summoning his 12 disciples, he gave them authority and power over unclean spirits, to drive them out and to heal every disease and sickness. And these are the names of the twelve Apostles: first, Simon, who was called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alpheus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him.
Let's pray. Lord, Heavenly God and Father, I just thank you for this morning where we can come together into your house and worship your name. I pray that we would give you all the honor and the glory, Lord, and that as we study your word and the lives of your twelve Apostles, that we would just be encouraged ourselves in this new year and every day, how to be disciples after your own heart, Lord; how to be disciples that follow you. And I pray that we would learn from the first 12 how to be, or how not to be disciples as well, in our own lives. It's in your Son's precious and holy name I pray. Amen. Amen.
So, like I said, for the next couple times you guys invite me down here, we're going to go through some of the 12, live uh, the 12 disciples, uh, starting with Peter. Now Peter, I know he has an unfair proportion of scripture. Jesus not picking favorites, but picking special time he poured into his, his group of leaders. He had Peter, James, uh, and John were these three who he spent the most time with. So proportionally, Peter's got a lot more air time in the Bible than most of the other disciples. He's written a couple books himself, um, so we have a lot more events with Peter. So for the fairness of the other disciples, I won't go into everything specifically he's done in the Bible, uh, because some of them are going to have less proportional time than the others. But Peter is one we get a lot of time to see, and for better or worse, we, we get to learn from his life. So we, we know a lot about him. We know that he was from um, the area, the area of uh, Capernaum. We know that he was a married man. We know that he's one of the first disciples that Jesus called. We know he's in the inner three. He sees a lot of things that a lot of the other disciples don't see. He's there at the mountain of transfiguration; he's there in the Garden of Gethsemane; he's even there at the trial of Jesus. We see a lot of special things, the even at the empty tomb with him and John. So there's a lot of events that Peter is one of the few disciples privy to. So he gets a lot more, like I said, air time throughout the scripture. But we're going to look at three events in Peter's life through the course of scripture that really have a lot to say about his life as a disciple and what that means for us today. So we're going to, we're going to fly through a couple places in scripture this morning. So turn with me to Matthew Chapter 5, uh, 4, sorry, Matthew chapter 4, in verse 18-22. So this is where we first see Jesus meet Peter. This is, this is the calling of his first couple of disciples, as is beginning his earthly ministry. And he calls these brothers who are mending their nets on the side of the road, uh, on the side of the roof, as he was walking by the Sea of Galilee. He saw two brothers, Simon, who was called Peter, and his brother Andrew, and they were casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. "Follow me," he told them, "and I will make you fishers for people." In other translations, "fishers of men." And immediately they left their nets and followed him. This is how we first meet Peter. He is a regular Joe, blue-collar kind of guy, working his trade with his brother. And Jesus, who at this point is not a well-known name, he's not the Jesus of Nazareth yet, he's not the Jesus the Christ, he's just this guy walking on the side of the road and sees them fishing and says, "Come follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." And immediately they lay down their nets and they follow him. This is the first time we see Peter.
Now many of us have probably heard this sermon before, because our this piece of scripture before, because it's one of the most uh, popular ones, you know, being called the fisher of men. It's a great, great verse that has been used for years and will continue to be to encourage the saints to go and serve and to follow that calling to be fishers of men in our own day-to-day lives. So, like I said, a lot of what we're going to read about Peter could be sermons in every circumstance themselves, but we're going to kind of look at the life of Peter and what his discipleship looks like to us, cuz we are modern disciples. We are the descendants of these people. Um, our, our faith, our churches are literally the spiritual descendants of these men who 2,000 years ago stepped out in faith and shared the gospel. This church would not be here if not through a trickle-down of faith being passed on to faith. We would not be here today. So looking at the first disciples is a great way for us as modern-day disciples to learn how to be, be followers of Christ. CU, that's what a disciple is. So we see Peter, and Jesus comes to him and he says, "Come follow me," and that's the first part. Peter didn't, wasn't a critical student; he wasn't a scholar; he wasn't anything other than who he was. He was a blue-collar fisherman doing his day-to-day tasks. Now if you probably maybe have seen some of this in studies or some other preachers have told you this, but back in the day as a young Jewish man, boys would be brought to the synagogues, and they would be at young ages taught the basics of their faith and the basics of scripture and the basics of education. Um, girls would be too, but to a lesser extent. And uh, they would continue to do this in their training, and the cream of the crop would get pushed on to go become rabbis and Pharisees and Sadducees, and you know, clearly Peter did not make that cut. I don't know how Peter was as a student, but he did not get straight marks; he did not get pushed on to critical school; he was just a fisherman. Uh, so there wasn't anything upstanding about this man. In fact, we don't see any disciples who are religious men or holy men until we see Paul, and we kind of know how Paul's story went, was an best example of being on fire for the Lord, holy man. But we see Peter, just this regular guy, and the first thing we see in this interaction is, "Come follow me." There is that an example of, "Hey Peter, I saw your resume, you know, it got sent to me on Indeed, and I saw all the great things you've been doing, and I want you to be one of my disciples." That's not how that worked back in the day. In fact, they would have been really surprised that a rabbi was coming and asking for disciples, cuz the other wayed it was the other way around. It'd be like today, a college knocking on your door and saying, "Hey, I want you to come and, and come study here at Yukon or something like that," you know, the student went after the college, not the other way around. And that's here to see the, the teacher following, asking for a student to come to his and learn from him. In fact, a fisherman coming to learn from him was completely out of the ordinary and weird. This is how we see the beginning of, of this relationship with Jesus, as Jesus approaches Peter and says, "Come follow me." See, as we're going to look at Peter this morning, we're going to see that Peter's life honestly boils down to the gospel message that he lives out as a disciple for Christ, and it, his faith begins with Jesus approaching him. You know, the last time I was here, I may have mentioned that, you know, until we're on the other side of our relationship with Christ, we don't even notice it, that Jesus the entire time was sheep-dogging us to a place where we would come to put our faith in him and come to know him. He knew us before we knew him; he loved us before we loved him; and he was working that relationship from him towards us, not the other way around. So when we see this first interaction with Peter and Jesus, that's how it begins, as Jesus approaches Peter and says, "Come follow me." Peter wasn't in any upstanding, this, he wasn't holier than thou; he wasn't the best of the best, the cream of the crop; he was just a man, and Jesus came and approached him, and that's what we first need to see here is you and I have no upstanding, this, no great resume, no, um, nothing in of ourselves that makes God say, "You know what, I need them on my team." Jesus approaches us, all of who we are and where we are, and says, "Come follow me." Our relationship with God was initiated by him. Look at the, the verse we love to say about the gospel, John 3:16, "For God so loved the world," it didn't start with, "And the world so loved God," and all that. No, it's, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son." It's God approaching us, God coming down. We just celebrated Christmas, and the whole point of that story is Emmanuel, God with us. Man didn't summon God to him; God came and dwelt among them. It was the God initiating this, this relationship and this romance. And this is how we see it in the beginning of this discipleship with Peter, and that happened at some point with all of us, whatever we are in our relationship with God. God initiated it at some point. God, whether through a family member, a sermon, a, a, a track, some, however you came to know the Lord, Jesus approached you and said, "Come follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." This was initiated by Christ coming to you into your life. This is what we see verse in Peter. Then he goes on, he says, "Come follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." I have a quote here from Charles Spurgeon, as I told um, John, Jim, and uh, and Jeremiah uh, the other day when we had breakfast, um, I am a huge Spurgeon nerd. I love this uh, man, um, and there's a quote from him on Matthew 4:19. It says, "It is not, 'Follow me because of what you already are,' but 'Follow me because of what I will make you.'" Peter, John, uh, Andrew, all, all the first four disciples he calls, regular fishermen. It was not about where they were; it's about who I will come and make you to be. "Come follow me, and I will make you." That is the great part of the Gospel is not that, "Come to me when you have crossed all of these to-dos off your checklist." "Come follow me when you have finally arrived and you are better and you are holier than thou and you are perfect and you don't need work." "Come follow me, and I will make you." I will make you. That, that is the heart of the Gospel is that we couldn't do it in and of ourselves, that Christ comes and we are in this relationship, this seal. He will make us into his own, and that is the beginning of Peter's relationship with Jesus, not because of who Peter was, but because of who Christ was. And that is the same for all of us disciples. If you claim to be a follower of Jesus, it wasn't who you were, but who Christ is making you to be. And I love what it says in Philippians, "He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion." I love that. You are not an unfinished work; you are a, you are a masterpiece that God is still working on. Every, every up and down, every hill and valley is just another brush stroke on God's finished work in your life, and we don't see it all until the day of completion, but he will finish it. Cuz so many of us sit there, I'm like, "I'm not, I'm not, I'm not anything; I'm just me." Yeah, I believe in God, and yeah, I want to follow him in my life, and I, I want to go to church, and I want to live for the Lord, Lord, but I'm just me. But in God's hands, you are an unfinished masterpiece; you are his workmanship; you are his disciple. And at this side of glory, we won't see how every brush stroke works, but he is working in you, and you will be finished in the day of completion. You are not forgotten; you are his. So this is how we see Peter come to interact and be a follower of Jesus Christ. We see his faith, faith is begun in Christ, and like he says, he is one who makes us, not where we already stand.
Then flip with me to another chapter in Matthew 14. We're going to see another event out of Peter's life. Matthew 14, verses 28 through 31. Like I said, all of these events we see out of Peter's life that we're going to look at this morning could, by themselves, be sermons in uh, in and of themselves, because they're so powerful. You've probably even heard of them as sermons, but we're looking at the whole of Peter's life in the scripture this morning. So in Peter, uh, sorry, not Peter, Matthew 14:28 through 31, it says this, uh, actually I'll read the whole story starting in verse 22. "Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. And after dismissing the crowds, he went up onto the mountain to pray by himself. When evening came, he was there alone. Meanwhile, the boat was already some distance from land, battered by the waves because of the wind that was against him. And Jesus came towards them, walking on the sea, very early in the morning. And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified. 'It's a ghost,' they said, and they cried out in fear. And immediately Jesus spoke to them, 'Have courage! It is I! Do not be afraid!' 'Lord, if it is you,' Peter answered, 'command me to come to you,' uh, 'come out to the water to you.' And he said, 'Come!' And he climbed out of the boat. Peter started walking on the water and came towards Jesus. But when he saw the strength of the wind, he was afraid and began to sink, and he cried out, 'Lord, save me!' And immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught hold of him and said, 'You of little faith, why did you doubt?' And then when they got into the boat, the wind ceased, and they, the, the boat, wor, and those in the boat worshiped him. They truly, 'You are the Son of God.'" This scene is a powerful scene. I, I love it. I, I love, I'm not sure if you've ever watched the, um, the Christian television program, *The Chosen*. Um, this scene is one of my favorites in the series. It's a very powerful message of just seeing God in the storm, and Peter in faith stepping out of the boat. But I, I love this whole interaction. But here's where it begins is these are men, like I said, we just said, fishermen, most of them, who are out on the sca, and the, and the winds are tossing and the storm is raging, and you know, these are experienced fishermen, and we don't see any fear until they see Christ on the water, and then they're terrified. And, and when we see Christ approaching our lives, sometimes the natural reaction is to be afraid. You know, when, when God nears himself to us, sometimes there is a natural response of unease and, and fear, because what is happening is miraculous and outside of everything we've ever experienced. They weren't terrified of the storm here; they, they know how to handle some choppy weather; they were experienced fishermen. But Jesus walking on the water, who, who has a, who has a, who has a benchmark for that? Who, who's experience of that? This otherworldly, that's amaz, like it's got to be a ghost; it's impossible. And the things of God can shake us to our other course sometimes, you know, they, we don't know how to handle them, and often times that's why when we see angels or interactions with God in the scripture, we see, "Be not afraid," because God approaching our lives can be something that is outside of our norm, outside of our, our range of vision, and it can be scary. But here's where we see Peter's reaction, "Lord, if it is you, tell me to come out of the boat," and he says, "Come." Now, in Sunday school hindsight, a lot of people love to uh, kind of criticize Peter in this interaction because he took his eyes off Jesus and he began to sink, and we, we kind of see it through the, the hindsight I call of Sunday school, you know, every disciple in Sunday school looks like complete fools, and we're like, "Why did they do that? Why did they this so silly? Why would they not look to Jesus? Why would they doubt him? Why would they not—" In the sight of hindsight, every time we go through Sunday school and we read about the disciples, we're just like, "Man, those guys, how did they even tie their own shoes?" But um, we, we criticize Peter, but yet he was the only one to step out of the boat. He was the only one who said, "Lord, if it is you, call me, and I'll come," and he says, "Come," and he steps out of the boat. See what we see from this interaction with him and Jesus is that his faith walk began with Jesus calling to him. Every single one of us, like I said, began a, a relationship with God because Jesus, some point, said, "Come follow me," and it's no different than here when Peter's in the boat, God says, "Come," and Peter follows. But here we see Peter walking by faith on the water. His trust is in Jesus, and every step he walks is because his faith is in Jesus. But then he takes his eyes off uh, Jesus in the storm, and he begins to waver. You and I are walking by faith right now. The scripture says that we walk by faith, not by sight. We walk on the water in our day-to-day lives. We are walking in the, on the midst of a miracle. It doesn't feel like it because, you know, we got solid ground underneath us. But Peter walking on the water is just as miraculous as us walking by faith in our day-to-day lives, and every day, or every, there are moments where we will be like Peter, where we will see the storm; we will see the winds; and we'll begin to sink; we'll begin to be afraid; and we'll begin, you know, having those struggles. The storm will be up to our necks, and in those moments, Peter cried out. But how many of us try, "Hey, I was just walking fine a few minutes ago. I can, I can do this. I, I've walked on water. I, I can keep walking on water." What about the guys in the boat? They're going to see me struggle, and they're going to see me need help. They're going to think that, "Man, look at how far he's fallen. Look how, look what he's losing, his faith. He's struggling; he's just a man." That's the whole point of the story is he's just a man, but God is who he is, and that is no different in our faith walk through every day of our lives. We walk by faith, not by sight. We walk on the water every day of our lives. But when you struggle, you were not the one who was holding you up on the water; Christ was. You are not the one who walks with life on life and through faith; it is Jesus who is the sustainer of your faith and of your walk in life. But sometimes we feel so bad that we begin to sink, that we begin to see the storm, that we don't want to cry out because, look at the people in the boat, they're going to see me sinking, and they're going to say, "Where's your faith now?" Or say, "Well, look at Jesus. I, I said, 'Call me and I'll come,' and I'm coming now. He sees me sinking. I have to call out to him again. I have to ask him to save me again. He already saved me once; he can't save me again. I can't re-broke what he fixed." And we feel like we have to push through this faith walk in our own strength. But how can we walk by faith with a faith that was born completely in him? He is not only the beginner of our faith, he is the sustainer of our faith. At no point in the middle of that walk from the boat to Jesus did Peter all of a sudden have the power to walk on water. It was by faith in Jesus that that walk happened, and that is how we walk our day-to-day faiths as Christians, as disciples in Christ. And sometimes we begin to sink; sometimes there are struggles; family members die; jobs are lost; properties are lost; fights happen between spouses, between children; we see hills and we see valleys; and yet we think, "Through the faith, I am a Christian; I know Jesus; I, I know the scripture; I can do this." Not for one moment could you ever walk by faith without the one whose faith you have in. He is the one who keeps us above the water. And yet what Peter does is he cries out, "Save me, Lord!" There is no shame in crying out to the one who put you, put your faith in. There is no shame that the storms rage and you sank because you cry out to the one who you walk with, who's the one you walk on water with. And then it says he cried out, and immediately Christ snatched him out of the water. Now, for some of us, we're sitting here and say, "You say that, preacher, but I've been in the moments where I'm, I feel the world and the storm up to my neck. I feel like I, I'm, I'm, I'm barely keeping my head above water. You know, the, my, the mortgage is due; I don't know where things are coming from; I'm, I'm always at odds with my spouse; I'm at odds with my children; I'm struggling; I'm hurting; and I'm crying out to you, and I still feel like I'm drowning." That immediately, where's that immediately, Pastor? In those few seconds it took for Jesus probably to reach out his hand and grasp Peter from the waves, probably felt like an eternity to Peter as he was in the midst of drowning. Our timeline is not Christ's timeline. His nearness was never a question, but in the moments of his struggle and his doubt, probably felt like an eternity. Brother and sister in Christ, those moments for you probably feel like an eternity, and I wish I could tell you I understood the timeline; I understood God's timing, but I don't, because I'm not God. I walk by faith just like you do, but he is right there; he is reaching out; he will save you; he won't, he, he, he has not changed his opinion on you; he is not less of a God in the middle of the storm, and he will answer that same call with, I think, both as much of a correction as a, um, as a comfort, but, "Oh, you of little faith, why did you doubt?" I always picture that like a father when my children are scared and worried and they're wondering where I am in the middle of the dark, when it's dark out, they don't know where I am as they're sleeping or something like that, and I see, "I'm right here. I know you were scared; I know it was hard, but I'm right here." And that's how I always picture that conversation, "Oh, you of little faith, why did you doubt?" As he snatches him out from the storm and he walks him back to the boat. Brothers and sisters, our faith begins with Christ, and it is sustained by Christ. Every moment of our walk in faith is because of him. And when the storms rage, and when we feel like we're drowning, even when it feels like that immediately is taking a long time, he is near, and he is there, and he is able. You know, um, he does not change his opinion of you; he has not decided that you were going to be the first one that slipped through his fingers; he has you; he's there for you. Call on him. And then that's why the scriptures tell us, you know, "Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you." Our, our, our relationship with God and the promises of God are not dependent on our feelings of his presence, but in the, in the promise of his word. There have been whole denominations and whole movements where the basis of their relationship with God is about the feeling of him being there in the middle of the storm. When Peter was drowning and calling out to God, I'm sure those moments were terrifying and didn't feel like he was walking on water; it didn't feel like he was in the middle of the miracle; it didn't feel like he was in his savior's arms. But God was there, and his promises were never broken. And yet some of us, and even whole denominations and whole churches of people, get this confusion of, "Yeah, the, the feeling of God is great; I love to feel the nearness of God," but what do you do when it feels like he's a thousand miles away? That does not change a moment of his promises, and that is what is amazing, because does it feel great when God feels near? Absolutely! It is, it is like a warm hug; it's, it's encouraging; it's comforting. But God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He, he has never lied; the truth is always in him; his promises will never be broken; he's not starting with you; and it doesn't matter about our feelings about it. Those feelings are great encouragement, but even when you feel like the storm is up to your neck and God has abandoned you, the promises of God are true, and he is here, and he is going to reach out, and he is going to pick you up. Trust in the one who called you out into the water. He didn't call you into a relationship with him just to abandon you in the storm. You might go through the storm; you might have it up to your neck, but he is still the God who is with you, and he'll walk you back to the boat.
The next thing we're going to look at from Paul, uh, Peter, sorry, too many P's in the scripture, is in uh, Matthew 26. Matthew 26, verses 69 through 75. We see how Paul, uh, we see how Peter began his relationship with Christ, and we see the, the tail end of Christ's earthly ministry here in um, 69, verse 75 on. It says, "Now Peter was sitting outside the courtyard, and a servant girl approached him, saying, 'You were with Jesus the Galilean, too.' But he denied it in front of everyone. 'I do not know what you're talking about.' And when he had gone out into the gateway, another woman saw him and told those who are with there, 'This man was with Jesus the Nazarene.' And again he denied it."
With an oath, I do not know the man. And after a little while, they were standing there. And those standing there approached Peter and said, "You really are one of them; see, even your accent gives you away." And then he started to curse and to swear, with an oath, "I do not know the man." And immediately a rooster crowed. And Peter remembered the words Jesus had spoken: "Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times." And he went outside and he wept bitterly.
And other and other parallels of this interaction, there's this really poignant uh scene where, as Peter denies Christ, he locks eyes with Jesus across the courtyard and remembers what Jesus told him earlier that morning, as they were at Passover supper: "You will deny me three times before the rooster uh crows." Walking eyes with his savior across the room as he is being beaten and he's being on trial and he is about to be executed, he remembers these words, and Jesus looks at him. I, I can't think of a more powerful way to remember those words for Peter. And he left and he wept bitterly.
But then we go on—I, I know it's a weird place to end—but turn with me to John 21. The story doesn't end there. In John 21 verses 15 through 19, Jesus has been resurrected; he's been crucified, and the tomb is empty, and he's appeared to the disciples, and they are out fishing one morning, and they see Jesus on the side of where they're fishing, and they, they rush to meet him, and they have breakfast with him. And we have this interaction between Jesus and Peter. And when they're eating breakfast, Jesus asked Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?" "Yes, Lord," he said to him. "You know that I love you." "Feed my Lambs," he said to him. A second time he asked him, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" "Yes, Lord," he said to him. "You know that I love you." "Shepherd my sheep," he told him. He asked him the third time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" And Peter was grieved that he had asked him the third time, "Do you love me?" He said, "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you." "Feed my sheep," Jesus said.
Three times Peter denies Christ, and three times here Jesus says, "Do you love me?" And they have this reaction, this, this redemptive kind of interaction. Jesus knew that Peter was going to deny him; he, he, he prophesied over Passover supper; he knew what would happen; he looked at him in his eyes in the courtyard as he denied him. And yet, never do we see him—in any of the interactions between Peter and Jesus afterwards—Jesus say, "Why did you deny me? I deny you; I cast you out. You denied me; I deny you. Why did you deny me? Why did you, why did you deny me?" None of that conversation ever happens. Instead, we have this, "Do you love me? Then feed my sheep. You love me? Then shepherd my sheep. Do you love me? Then feed my sheep." There's this, there's this thing here where the redemp—this redemption—little story right here between Jesus and Peter. We see all morning that our faith begins in Christ, is sustained in Christ every step, but here we also see that it is kept in Christ. I, I, I've said a couple of times this morning that God has not changed his opinion of you. Um, before the foundations of the world, Christ knew you and chose you and loved you. He knew Peter would deny him; he knew Peter would do everything that Peter ever did, and still he chose Peter. Say, "Come, follow me." He asked him, "Do you love me?" Nothing ever changed, and he didn't, he didn't wipe his hands clean of him and say, "You denied me; I'm done with you. You had a moment of weakness; you failed; be gone from me." Our faith begins in Christ and is sustained by Christ and is also kept in Christ.
Peter goofed up royally; in the worst of his moments, he told his people that he did not know his Savior. And yet Christ never for a moment said, "I don't know my Peter." Not for a moment do we see that interaction happen. You and I will have highs and lows; we'll have moments where we, we look like we have just abandoned God, that we've spit in his face, that we have just continued to choose sin over our savior, because we are human, because we are flawed, on this side of Heaven, we will continue to do that. There is no perfect person; there is no perfect saint this side of Heaven. Our perfection and holiness is only because of Christ and in Christ. And there are so many people, denominations, like we talked about before, who believe that you know, you grew up, you, you, you screwed up, you got to get saved again. You know, you walked away from the Lord; you're going to have to put your faith in him all over again. And that's a longer conversation and debate, but Jesus Christ, the Savior and Giver of your salvation, is the one who also sustains it and keeps it. Doesn't matter how you stumble and fall; Christ picks you up again and brushes you off and says, "I love you. Do you love me? Let's keep going." He's the sustainer and keeper of that faith. We see Peter from high and low through the midst of his ministry here in the Gospels, and the, the whole part of the story is not how great Peter was, but how great Jesus was.
You and I are disciples of Christ just as much as Peter was. Yeah, we don't walk hand in hand with him in, in on Earth, but we walk with him in spirit; we have his word, and we know he'll come again. And now we have the Holy Spirit living within us. We walk—we are as much disciples as Peter. We might not walk on the water, but we walk by faith. And there will be moments where, "Are you with him? I never knew the man." Maybe it's as subtle as when you're at an interaction with some co-workers, like, "Oh, any Christians here?" I may not be said just like that, but you know what I mean, like there's a moment where you can stand up for Christ or you can say, "I don't know the man." And sometimes very easily we choose, "I don't know the man," but Christ never stopped knowing us, never turns his back on us, never forsakes us, and helps us get off our feet, brush off our knees, and say, "Come, follow me." Walk by faith; live out your faith. As we close, as we look at the life of Peter, he begins our faith; he sustains our faith; and he keeps our faith. Peter's life is down to the epitome of the Gospel lived out—all of his goof-ups and all of his successes. You know, we are just simply followers of Christ; we want to live that faith with him. And God is the great God who gives us our faith, and we could walk with him every step of the way—when we fail, when the storms are real. So go and be a disciple of Christ today. Go be like Peter, for better or worse, but remember that Christ is our better. Let's pray.
Heavenly God, Father, I just thank you for this morning, and I thank you for your word. I pray as we examine the life of Peter and some of the, the things he did in your scriptures, Lord, that we would remember that you are the giver and sustainer and keeper of our faith. And I pray, Lord, that in the midst of failures, in the midst of storms, trials and tribulations, we would remember that you are there to pick us up, to brush us off, to walk with us hand in hand. I pray, Lord, that we would follow you with all who we are, that we would live a little bit like Peter today and every day and be a disciple of you. We love you and praise you, Lord, in your Son's name, amen.