Peter and Paul
Tom Shrader concludes a four-week series on faith by examining Peter and Paul as models of faith in action. Using Peter's denial and restoration alongside Paul's transformation and single-minded pursuit, Shrader demonstrates that failure is not fatal and that God equips each believer with exactly what they need to fulfill His purpose for their lives.
“Faith is our obedient response to the promises and commands of God.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Fundamentals of Faith
Recorded: August 02, 2007
Duration: 44 min
Themes: faith, failure, restoration, obedience, transformation, purpose, calling, discipleship, recovering from failure, new believer, feeling unworthy, pastor, struggling with past mistakes, seeking purpose, disciple, young adult
Scripture: Hebrews 11:1-6, Matthew 4:18-22, Matthew 14:22-33, Mark 8:27-30, Luke 22:54-62, John 13:36-38, Acts 2, Acts 4:12, Philippians 3:7-14, Daniel 3:15-18, Hebrews 11:33-39
Theological Themes: faith in action, biblical faith, apostolic ministry, divine calling, spiritual transformation, redemption, sanctification, christian discipleship
Full Transcript
We are finishing up what's been a brief mini-series, four weeks, looking at the topic of faith. If you have your Bibles, you can open to Hebrews chapter 11, and today we're looking at a guy that's become really one of my favorite illustrations and models from Scripture.
Hebrews chapter 11 is known by many as the Hall of Fame of Faith. It begins with the only definition of faith that we have available to us in Scripture. Here's what the author writes: "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen."
It's probably important to remind you that the word "hoped" or "hoped for" doesn't mean like we might use it frequently—"I hope the Diamondbacks win their division." The hope here means an anticipation for a certain future event. So faith is the certainty in our minds of these future events that will take place and also the conviction of things not seen. Around us and in our lives there are unseen realities just as real as this music stand—the truth that God will never leave you or forsake you, and if I confess my sin He'll forgive me. All of those things are certain realities.
Now we've taken that definition, and obviously we have to be really careful here because God's given us a definition, but what we've worked under is this. Just to get a hook or a handle around this idea of faith: faith is our obedient response to the promises and commands of God. Faith is our reaction to what God promises us and to what God commands us to do. So we begin to believe that God is who He said He was, He'll do what He said He would do, and then He expects and demands from us the things that He asked of us.
How important is faith? Hebrews chapter 11 verse 6 says this: "Without faith it is impossible to please God."
Meeting Peter: A Man of Immediate Action
I want to look at two guys this morning from the New Testament. They're not going to be in this Hall of Fame of Faith, but they really do model faith in action for us. I want to look at Peter and I want to look at Paul.
Turn to Matthew chapter 4. Let me give you just a little bit of background and get a sense here of Peter, who he is. Matthew chapter 4 verse 18 is Jesus' call to Peter. As I'm reading and we're dropping in these sections periodically, there'll be a pronoun there and I might insert the name—not to change Scripture, but since we're coming in a context here, just to insert that name so we get it.
"And walking by the sea He"—who's the "He" here? Jesus—"walking by the sea Jesus saw two brothers, Simon who was called Peter and Andrew his brother, and they were casting their nets into the sea, for they were fishermen." Jesus at this point has just been baptized in our story. He has moved into the wilderness and spent 40 days and 40 nights there. He has been tempted by Satan himself and now He's emerged from that.
"Jesus said to them, 'Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.'" You're fishing for fish; I will make you fishers of men. "And they immediately left their nets and followed Him. Going on from there, He saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother," and now He calls them immediately there. Jesus is gathering His guys.
But this is an introduction that we have to Peter. We have every reason to believe that this is probably not Peter's first contact with Jesus. But an operative word here that just jumps off the page and really begins to picture for us who Peter is, is verse 20: "immediately." Peter is not a guy who messes around. Some might say impulsive, some might just say that he's confident, that he has conviction.
By the way, it's contagious. Mark, who writes the gospel that bears his name, was a close friend of Peter's. When you read Mark's gospel, I'm just going to turn—I'm randomly picking Mark chapter 1 verse 5, and I'm just going to read the first word of these verses. Just listen: "And, and, and, and, and, and, and, therefore, and, and, and, immediately." It's boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. We don't have a lot of time for explanation; everything runs together. Mark's gospel is just going like this—just hang on. I would say that's probably a little bit that he picked up from Peter.
Peter Walks on Water: Faith in Motion
In Matthew chapter 14, we see another incident from Peter's life. Matthew chapter 14 verse 22: "And immediately Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side, while He sent the multitudes away. And after He had sent the multitudes away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. When it was evening, He was there alone. But the boat was already a long distance from the land, battered by the waves; for the wind was contrary.
"And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus came to them"—they're in the boat, stuff's going on, waves are crashing—"Jesus came to them, walking on the sea. When the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, 'It is a ghost!' And they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, 'Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.'"
Peter answered Him. At this point, almost a spokesman, certainly—I mean, it's just that type of personality, boom, it's there. "Peter said to Him, 'Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.' And He said, 'Come!' And Peter got out of the boat, and walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But seeing the wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, 'Lord, save me!' Immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and took hold of him, and said to him, 'You of little faith, why did you doubt?'"
We start to see now that Peter, not only is this driven guy, perhaps a bit impulsive, he is also the guy who has become, really, the leader of this group, the leader of this pack together.
Look at one more illustration before we get into, really, the meat of the story. Mark chapter 8, verse 27, an incident that was recorded...
Jesus is walking along, in Mark chapter 8, verse 27, Jesus went out with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi, and on the way, he questioned his disciples, and he said, "Who do people say that I am?" You know, I'm not sure they're going to tell me the truth, but you're out here with the people, what are the polls saying? What's going on out there?
And they said, "Well, some say you're John the Baptist, and others say you're Elijah, and others say you're one of the prophets." Again, we're not going to unpack all that, but he's saying, you know, you represent all these, you're the coming and the second coming of these, you could be. Jesus continued questioning them and saying, "Now, now, the operative question, who do you say that I am?"
The Essential Question Every Person Must Answer
Let me hit the pause button here, because that's a question everybody in this room needs to answer. Who do you say that He is? And your answer to this is absolutely essential. Your answer to this question will determine where you spend your eternity. It will determine, I think, the quality of life that you have here. Who do you say Jesus is?
And if your answer is, "Hey, He's a great teacher, He's a great guy, and He's a role model, and He did some really cool things," and that kind of stuff, but that's kind of it. If that's your answer—teacher, role model, good guy—if that's your answer, here's what I want to tell you. That is accurate as far as it goes, but it's incomplete. It's not enough.
He is God come in the flesh to do for His people what they could not do for themselves, to die in their place on the cross. And if we put our faith and trust in Him and in that action, that alone, we now are assured of heaven based on His word, His faith, the obedient response to His promise and His command. Who He said He was, who He is.
Well, Peter answers, "Who do the people say that I am?" Peter said, "You are the Christ." And He gives them an unusual warning. He warned them, and He said to them, "A man must suffer many things," but He warned him, He said, "Let's not tell anybody about that."
Now, by the way, this is important—that command is not in place for you anymore. It's not for you to not tell anybody. Your command now is to go and tell. But it wasn't Jesus' hour. There's a timing there.
Peter's Greatest Test
Well, I want to get at what for many becomes really the focal point of Peter's life, and that's too bad. It's the next gospel over, it's Luke chapter 22. Turn with me there, would you please? Luke chapter 22, verse 54.
Let me give you the setting here. Jesus has had His moment, intimate moment, with the eleven. Judas has left them, Jesus has been with the eleven. In the process of that, He has made known to them that He must suffer and die. John gives us just a little bit of detail about that. John says this, John chapter 13, verse 36: "Simon Peter said, 'Lord, where are You going?'"
So, Jesus has been talking about suffering and dying and going and it's still unclear to Him. It's a disadvantage really that we have in a way to read in retrospect because we know how it ends, so none of the mystery is there for us. It's still being unpacked for them.
"Lord, where are You going?" Jesus' answer: He said, "Where I go, you cannot follow Me now, but you shall follow later." And Peter said to Him, "Lord, why can't I follow You right now?" Doesn't that sound like Him? What you've just seen already? "Now, I will lay down my life for You."
Jesus said, "You'll lay down your life for Me? Truly, truly, I say to you, a rooster shall not crow until you deny Me three times." This very night, you're not going to make it through the night, Peter.
The Denial in the Courtyard
Now, I want to look at Luke's account and there's a reason for that. Luke has one observation that the other Gospel writers don't share. So, let's look at this. Perhaps a familiar story. If not familiar to you, then we're really glad you're here. This is new stuff and this is important.
Luke 22, verse 54: "Having arrested Him, they led Him away and they brought Him to the house of the high priest. And Peter was following at a distance. And after they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter was sitting among them. And a certain servant girl, seeing him as he sat in the firelight, looked intently at him, studied him. And she said, 'This man was with Him too.' But he denied it, saying, 'Woman, I don't know Him.'"
"A little later, another saw him and said, 'You are one of them too.' And Peter said, 'Man, I am not.'" Verse 59: "And after about an hour had passed, another man began to insist, 'Certainly this man was with Him, for he is a Galilean too.'"
About an hour had passed and I'm sure they're sitting around the fire and they're talking. And what's happening now is his dialect is giving him away. It's like you get a guy from the Bayou and he's up in Boston and the guys from Boston are going, "You're not from around these parts, are you?" Well, they're saying he's a Galilean. You can tell by his dialect. I'm sure he's one of them. Why else would he be here?
"And Peter said, 'Man, I don't know what you're talking about.' And immediately, while he was still speaking, a rooster crowed."
The Look That Changed Everything
Now that's the story, that part of it recorded by the Gospel writers. What Luke adds that just to me just intensifies this is verse 61: "And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had said to him, 'Before a rooster crows today, you will deny Me three times.' And he went out and wept bitterly."
I want to talk about Peter and faith just a minute and you might say, "Well, that's really an unusual thing to be talking about Peter and faith because this is not a great moment in Peter's life." I think Peter gets a bit of a bad rap and there's a sense in which we see some courage here. Let's just kind of talk this through.
John tells us that when they came to arrest Jesus, there's this Roman cohort and that could have been anywhere from two to six hundred men. So a lot of the commentators will kind of say around six hundred, but it can
Peter against all odds pulled a sword and began to lash out. Peter the fisherman became Peter the swordsman and probably missed the head and cut off a guy's ear. It would be absolutely reasonable to assume that at that point, these guys were going to kill him. Here's all these guys around and here's this one guy with a sword. So when Peter said, "I'll lay down my life," I think he meant it and I think he did it. He was ready to die right at that moment.
Then Jesus said, "Look at who are you guys after?" And so we're after you. He said, "Well, if you're after me, then let these guys go. Let these 11 guys go." And what happens is—and I want you to see this because I'm not denying at all Peter's failure—but I want you to see these nine guys because it tells us that Peter and another disciple, and we think it's John, we don't know for sure. But these other nine, when Jesus said let them go, these other nine are gone.
The Courage to Stay Near Christ
Did Peter fail? Peter failed, I got it. He denied Christ. But here's what I want you to get. The only reason he was in a position to fail is because he had the courage to stay near Christ. The courage to be there in the first place.
You all, as I look around this room, have had some years on you. You got some tread that's worn off those tires. So I don't need to tell you this. You already have that figured out. That in this life, you're just going to blow it. You're going to make miscalculations, honest mistakes. You're going to make deliberate screw-ups, sin. You're just going to have things in your life that just don't go the way they're supposed to. And ultimately, you're culpable for that, responsible for that.
But the biggest mistake is, in my mind, this is me now, the biggest mistake is not Peter. It's the nine that never got in the game to begin with. The Theodore Roosevelt line. It's the nine that never got into the arena.
Not Afraid to Miss
Years ago, I was doing an interview with Paul Westphal, and we were just talking about a whole bunch of things, the stuff I like to do, which is just talk about a thousand things that have nothing to do with anything you ever get in your interviews. Tell me about your mom, that kind of stuff. And I said, "When you were at the Celtics, it was clear that Havlicek always wanted the ball at the end of the game because he thought he could make the basket. He thought he could score." And Paul said, "No, that's not it. Havlicek wanted the ball at the end of the game because he wasn't afraid to miss." That's a huge difference.
I have, over the years, developed an affinity for Peter. When He first saved me, I'm like, I'm like Paul, that's what I'm like, I'm like Paul, I speak that. I'm really not, I'm more like Peter. I'm kind of in the game. I'm not good enough to just sit around, but I got mistakes and failures all around me. And what Peter tells me is that failure is not fatal.
Following at a Distance vs. Following
So I've heard all sorts of lessons. This passage we looked at, you know, verse 54, "Peter was following it at a distance." That's the problem with Peter. Peter was—come on, give me a break. Peter was following. He wasn't right there, I got it. Peter's driven by his love for the Savior, by this compulsive, determined desire to be near Him.
And I will tell you one of the most extraordinary events that I see in Peter's life is that he bounced back from this moment. That is an amazing thing to me. You know how people are, right? If it came out in the course of this lesson today that I had blown it in some huge way, if there was some—I don't mean some miscalculation, but if there was some giant moral failure on my part, you couldn't get to the car before you lit up your cell phones to call everybody and tell them about it. You couldn't wait to tell, right? "Hey, you're not going to believe this. Don't tell anybody," but that's exactly what you do. That's what we do. We love this stuff.
You know that this spread over. Peter, the big guy. "Oh, wait, I'm alive for you." Peter, crumble, folded like a cheap suit. Now, everywhere, right? I guarantee it was everywhere. The other nine were probably—the other nine probably started with, "Hey, Peter." And Peter, all Peter had to do was look at him and go, "Hey, boys, at least I was there."
Peter's Transformation
And what I love is that Peter rises out of this. So that when we turn to Acts chapter two, we see a whole different Peter, right? We see Peter who's filled with the Holy Spirit. He's the spokesman. He's the one that's speaking with such power and conviction that that day, 3,000 people were saved. Cut to the quick by his words.
So now in Acts chapter four, they call Peter in and they're saying, "Hey, Peter, these are the authorities. We don't want you to teach anymore." And he said, "I can't do that. I can't shut up about this." Isn't that interesting? "No, I don't know Him. No, I don't know Him. No, I don't know Him." Now he's saying, "I can't stop talking about this." Acts chapter four, verse 12: "There's no other name by which we can be saved."
They Had Been with Jesus
And it says by way of observation that the men looked at Peter and John. What had happened here is they healed a man that was sick and that's why they had him in there. They looked at Peter and John and they said, they realized they were untrained, uneducated men. But they realized, do you remember what they saw? What did they say? They realized what? They had been with Jesus.
Now, if you're a teacher, this is a beach ball. Man, it's like you're at home plate and you're waiting and this guy is throwing you fastballs and you know he's going to throw you a change of pace and he throws you a little off-speed thing just to change up, just a little bit of change. And he leaves it high, bam, that thing's gone.
Peter's Bold Witness After Failure
When they find out the tomb is empty, who do they go to first? Peter. He goes. He and John are running along. John is a little bit younger, and Peter can't keep up. But John, out of reverence and respect for Peter, waits. Peter goes in. He looks around. He can't figure it out.
Now Jesus appears. To who? Peter. And He says, "Peter. Three times. Do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me?" Faith is the obedient response to the promises and commands of God, and included in that is when we screw up and when we make a mistake and when we sin. It's an obedient response to know God will forgive us and God still uses us.
God's Restoration, Not Benching
It's not that God said, "You know what, Peter, here's the deal. You really screwed that up, but here's what I'm going to forgive you. There's no way I'm going to let you back in the game. You can come maybe haul the equipment around, but you don't get to suit up." When we get to the early church, we see we've got three pillars of the church, and Peter's one of them.
Here's how this applies to you and me, and this is so important. God left you here for a purpose, and this is really key: God has given you all the resources you need to accomplish that purpose. God's given you all the talent and the skill and the gift and the ability and the resources and the time to achieve that.
You Are Exactly What God Wanted
Here's the problem—you can miss it real quickly because we begin to get focused on our deficiencies. Here you are, just the right height for God. You're articulate enough for God. Some of you are way smarter than others—I mean, it just is. Somebody's really smart. Some of you are okay. And then some of you, it's not on the charts anywhere—it's not recognizable around here. Some of you are handsome. Some of you are pretty. Some of us are lower average. But here's what: you're exactly what God wanted.
He created you exactly the way He wanted you to be. You may be deficient—and this is very important—as you compare yourself to other people, but He didn't create you to compare yourself to other people. He created you to serve Him, to glorify Him, to please Him. And that's impossible to do without faith. That's impossible to do without an obedient response to His promises and commands.
To the extent that you're out there trying to figure out why I'm not this and why I'm not that, you're missing the whole reason that God left you here—and it's by faith.
Only You Can Stop You
I love this idea of Peter. Nothing could stop Peter. I see this determination in his mind, in his heart. And here's the deal: there's only one thing that can stop you. What is it? You. There's only one thing that can stop you from being the person that God designed you to be, and that's you. The only way that you can't be the person that God designed you to be is if you decide not to be.
Let me say it again: you've got all the gifts, all the talents, all the skills, all the package, all the intellect, and all the time you need to do what God called you to do.
Failure Is Not Fatal
I look at a guy like Peter, and I don't want to deny his failure, but I think it becomes a wonderful picture of how failure is not fatal. So you may be sitting here today saying, "I'm a loser. I screwed this up. God will never forgive me." That's nothing but pride and self-pity and Satan in the flesh working in your life. That's just your pride and arrogance that's in the way. You screwed up? Confess it. Let's go.
Paul's Transformation: From Persecutor to Proclaimer
Look at Paul's life. Look at Philippians chapter 3. Let me remind you a little bit about Paul. Paul's introduced to us in Acts chapter 7 as Saul. The men are gathered together to martyr Stephen. They're going to do it by stoning, and Luke tells us in the book of Acts that they took off their cloaks. In other words, they're going to take these stones and they're going after Stephen, and they want to be loose. They don't want anything binding them. So they take these cloaks, and it says they set them at the feet of Saul, who's in total agreement with this whole action.
Then Acts chapter 8 tells us that he is a zealot persecutor of the church. In fact, so much so that he's kind of dealt with the church in Jerusalem, and now he's on the way to Damascus to wipe out the church there—kill if necessary, imprison and bring them back, whatever is necessary.
God Saves Us, Not Our Seeking
Here's what I love about this: there's a whole sub-point to this because I want you to see Saul Paul. He's not looking for God. He's not out hunting around. He's not a seeker. He's convinced he's on God's team. He's not weighing the evidence. But God said, "Here's the problem. Here's how you're saved: you're saved by grace through faith, not by your seeking and figuring out."
And all of a sudden, Saul becomes Paul. What I love is when God saves you, rarely does your personality change. You just simply change jerseys. And now this persecutor of the church becomes probably its most ardent defender.
In Philippians chapter 3, Paul's been giving us a little bit of a resume of his life, talking to us about what's happened. You can read that—talking about what he was and what he is, talking about all these accomplishments that were in the flesh.
Paul had achieved everything a Jewish man could aspire to - his godly heritage and all the things that by every human standard, in terms of the Jewish mind, every human standard, he was God's guy. Godly family, right thing, Pharisees, zealot, persecutor. He said something happened there.
He says in verse 7, "But whatever things were gained to me, I count those things as lost for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be lost in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord." And now it's as though Paul begins to think about the rest of His life.
Look at verse 12: "Not that I've already obtained it or already become perfect, but I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which Christ laid hold of me."
Paul's Accurate Self-Assessment
Here's what I see in Paul's life, and it's important to you and me: He had a really accurate view of himself. He did not say, "I've already arrived."
I got a lot of quirky weird things I do, and I understand that. But when I'm by my computer now, somebody emailed me a great website. I'll probably screw this up, but I think it's called Mike's Radio or Mike's World Radio, something like that. You go into this site and there are 5,000 radio stations from around the world that you can just click to and listen to. So you can listen to Mandarin talk radio - I'm a little vague on what they're saying, but you can listen to it.
When Susan and I have been in California the last couple times, I have found a radio station that I really enjoy, and I think she does too. It's out of Carlsbad. So when I'm at the computer or in my office, coming to my office all the time, that's the radio station that's playing. It's weird. I don't know why. It's something like when they give the surf report, I feel like I'm there, I guess. I don't know. I have no explanation for this.
So I'm listening to it the other day and they're saying, "You know, we're excited here in San Diego because this weekend" - what happened in San Diego last weekend? Huge event. What was it? So we'll see how hip you people really are. What was it? World Cup? I'm talking about tryouts for American Idol next year. That's what I'm talking about. I'm talking about real events. You're talking about make-believe stuff. World Cup surfing - who cares? American Idol!
Well, here's the thing. Every time we do American Idol - I'd never seen the show until last year, so we babysit on Tuesday night, so it's on. Well, I discovered over the year, by far my favorite part of that show was not when they got it down to the final ten - couldn't care less. It's the moron who goes in who thinks he can sing, and I cannot get enough of it.
I'd never seen the show, so I mean, you know, they interview this guy. He said, "Oh, he's incredible." You know, his mom goes, "When he sings, it's like Elvis. It's like Elvis when he sings." His dad goes, "He has got this great big booming voice and he's incredible. He sings at all the weddings back in our place, and everybody in Walcott comes out to hear him, and he's incredible." I'm thinking, okay.
And the kid gets up and I mean, by any human rational standard, he's a one - because you can't give a zero. He's the worst you've ever heard. And he comes out and goes, "You know, no, no, no. You know, Simon sucks. They don't know anything."
I'm going, "This guy really thinks he's really good." I mean, one of the most difficult things for us oftentimes is to get an anchored view - not of how people perceive us, but who we really are.
Paul's Pressing Forward
And Paul's got it. Paul says, "Hey, I haven't already obtained it. I haven't already become perfect. I've got it. I'm not there. But I press on. I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus." In other words, God saved me for a purpose, for a reason, and I'm pressing on toward that goal. That's my objective.
"Brethren, I don't regard myself as laying hold of it, but this one thing I do: I forget what lies behind and I reach forward toward what lies ahead. I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."
Paul says, "There's this one thing I do. There's this thing that overshadows everything else. I'm pressing on." It's a Greek word that's used to describe - it's a great term - to describe a sprinter who's at the finish line pressing forward. Paul says, "That's what I'm living. I'm living that way. There's one thing that I do."
Now, throughout Paul's writing, he will use phrases similar to that. For example, he will say, "Here's what I preach: Christ and Christ crucified. That's all I preach. I preach one thing - Christ and Christ crucified."
Well, that's not right, because we see you preaching about all sorts of things - about sin in the church, we see you preaching about men and women and children and all that. Well, what do you mean? Hyperbole? No, no, no, no. Here's what Paul's saying: Whatever the topic is, it's painted in the context of Christ and Christ crucified.
Christ-Centered Living Applied
So He says, "When I'm talking about marriage, I'm saying to guys, 'Hey, listen, this is about Christ and Christ crucified.'" The best marriage advice - and I understand there are little quirks and things and helpful tips for marriage - but the best marriage advice that I could give anybody is to understand Christ and Christ crucified. Right? Sure.
There was a guy in my office a couple weeks ago, and His marriage has fallen apart. His marriage has been terrible. He's got all sorts of problems, and His girlfriend is pregnant with their second child. It's a mess. And He actually had a brilliant insight. He said, "Everybody's counseling me on marriage. Everybody wants to talk to me about my marriage and my problem with my marriage and fix my marriage. The problem's not my marriage. The problem's me."
And I said to Him, "I'm not going to talk to you about your marriage. You already got" - I mean, how hard is it? Do you think you really need to say to a guy, "Oh, don't have any sexual relationships with your girlfriend. It's probably not good to have kids with"
her. No, the problem is really simple. It's easy to diagnose. He's selfish. I just started going, bing, bing, bing, bing. The minute I hear him, that's me. I said, you're selfish, you're filled with pride, arrogance, all you care about's yourself.
He said, that's me. His problem isn't in his marriage. That's the least of his problems. His problem is he doesn't know Christ. He needs to know Christ and Christ crucified, and instead of being selfish, he becomes selfless, and now the marriage works. What's the problem in the marriage? He's a selfish pig, using his wife for whatever, and then he's out of there.
The Cross Before Me, The World Behind Me
Paul's saying, listen, there's this one thing. We sing this song, I love this song we sing at church. The cross before me, the world behind me. That's what Paul's saying. Before me is the cross of Christ, and all that it represents, in the context today, faith, the obedient response to the promises and commandment of God. That's all before me, and behind me is the world.
Now, unfortunately, we get those screwed up, don't we? Maybe we don't even need to say we, I'll just say I, because maybe this doesn't happen to you. I'll periodically let the world get ahead of me, the cross get behind me, and I'm going to win this dance. That's what Paul's saying. There is this one thing that I do. I forget what lies behind.
Now, encompassed in that, I'm sure, are all sorts of sinful, wrong behavior, all of that stuff. Easily could be guilt, easily, I'm convinced. Paul's going in to preach in house churches where, under his authority, maybe him himself, he's killed loved ones of the people that are there, or imprisoned them. But he says, I forget what lies behind.
I think while he's talking about those things, he's talking about the cross before him and the world behind him. I forget what lies behind. What was behind? Well, it wasn't just those actions, it was the whole belief system. It was the whole reason for living. In the context of that passage, what he's talking about is, I'm forgetting all these things that were relating to my trying to please God on my own terms. And my life now, Paul talking, my life now is driven by this idea of being like Christ.
The Two Sides of Faith in Hebrews 11
Let me make this point to you because I just want you to see it. If you go back to Hebrews chapter 11, there is a part of Hebrews chapter 11 that always makes me smile. I will confess, I mean, if we were at a group, 12-step group, at this point I would say, I'm Tom and I'm a cynic. There's something in here that makes me smile.
We're watching, Susan and I are watching Christian TV one night, and this guy is going on. He's working his way through Hebrews 11, and he's like, oh, verse 33, oh, by faith, they conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouth of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness they were made strong, oh, they became mighty in war, and they put foreign armies in flight, oh my. I said to Susan, watch how fast he stops when he gets to verse 35.
Women received back their dead by resurrection, oh, what a mighty story, and you know, bam, the Bible closes, oh, what a Bible story, and you too can have this and believe it, achieve it, blah, blah, blah. Here's the problem, look at the second part of verse 35. Here were all these men and women of faith, and all these wonderful things happened, but here's another group, men and women of faith, and it had the same happy ending.
Just as much people of faith, and they were tortured, they didn't accept the release, they'll say, no, I'm going to stay here. Verse 36, they were mocked and scourged and chained, imprisoned, stoned, cut in two, put to death. Verse 35, they're wandering around out in the desert, forsaken because they're following Christ, men and women of extraordinary faith.
Faith Doesn't Guarantee Earthly Outcomes
Because you follow the promises and commands of God does not necessarily mean that everything will turn out the way you want it to turn out. Daniel chapter 3, you don't need to turn there. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and I will tell you, this story hacks me off, because they go into the fire and they get out, and that bothers me, because I teach that, or can teach it in such a way that just believe and you go in the fire and get out.
I mean, it's kind of cool that these things work out, but it'd be really kind of cool if they went in and got burned up. They got to die anyway, and that'd be a good way to die, because then I'd have a better story. That's not how God did it, did He?
They're going into the fire, I just want to drive this point home to you, because they acknowledge this. Verse 15, Daniel chapter 3, I'll just read it to you. Now, if at the moment, and this is Nebuchadnezzar, and he's given to me, he said, when you hear this, here's what we want you to do. When you hear the harp and the flute and the lyre, all this stuff, when they blow, I want you to worship this idol. And if you don't worship it immediately, you'll be cast in the midst of the furnace of the blazing fire, and then, Nebuchadnezzar asked this, what God is there that can deliver you out of my hands?
Now we got the essence here of the issue. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said, oh, Nebuchadnezzar, we don't need to give you an answer concerning this, but if it be so, our God, whom we serve, is able to deliver us from the furnace of the blazing fire, and He will deliver us out of your hands. Nebuchadnezzar, you're saying, who can deliver us, and what gods, and I'm saying, there is a God, and He will deliver us.
But Even If He Doesn't
Well, what I love, and I want you, who consider priority living to be part of your life, I want you to love this concept as much as I do. I love Daniel chapter 3, verse 18. But even if He doesn't,
Even if He doesn't get us out of the fire, He's able. God can do anything. He's able. Even if He doesn't get us out of the fire, let it be known to you, O king, that we shall not serve your gods, or worship your golden image that you've set up.
In our life, God doesn't always do exactly what we want Him to do, circumstantially. I had to go to the doctor the other day, so I'm in for this test, and I'm nervous. I don't like to go to doctors, I don't like any of it. There's this young gal there, and I'm trying to make small talk, and she's asking me about a lot of things I really don't want to talk about, so we're going back and forth. I said, "How are you doing? Do you have a good summer?" She said, "How come? My grandmother died."
I said, "Oh, I'm so sorry. How old was your grandmother?" "90." Please don't misunderstand what I'm about to say. When you're 90, you die. I mean, what did you want God to deliver—to be what, 92, 93? I understand missing Nana. I'm all right with that. But this ruins your summer?
There's Never a Good Time
There's never a good time. Let's just use dying as a great example. There's just never a really convenient time for this. Susan and I have had this conversation many times. It was two years ago right now that we were at the lowest point physically in our whole three-year sojourn. It's when we were going to Flagstaff two years ago that she literally could handle about an hour a day. That was about all she had.
All she talked about, all she cared about was, "I want to see Brayden. I want to see the baby be born. That's all I want. God, just let me see the baby be born." And he was. And here you go. Now she's got to see not just Brayden be born, but boy, does Brayden love his grandma. She got to see way more than she asked for. She got to see Gracie. And in a couple of weeks, she's going to get to see Yale. She got Brayden, Gracie, and Yale.
Now, if Susan dies in the next two or three years, are we supposed to say, "Well, what kind of God is that? That doggone God"? Wait a minute. What we asked for was "God, just let us see Brayden." He's done exceedingly abundantly beyond anything we asked for. That's the whole point of this series. He's God, and I'm not. My charge in life is not to make Him like me, but to yield and submit myself to His will.
Part of Life
There's never a good time for a lot of these things that come into our life—pain, suffering. I met with the doctor the other day, and he happens to be an Indian. I don't do an Indian dialogue very well, and I never met this guy. But he's describing what needs to happen to me. I said, "How do you do that?" He described the procedure, and I said, "Wow, that doesn't sound good. Do we have to go in and get that out?" He said, "That's what they said." I said, "All right."
He said, "Well, we have another test we need to do." I said, "How do you do that?" He started describing it. I said, "Oh my golly, that's got to hurt." He said, "Well, you will experience mild discomfort." I said, "Well, OK." You know what? It's just part of getting old. It's life. It's the deal.
He's God, You're Not
God, who are You? He's God. He's God. You're not. I'm not. Here's what He says to you and me: "I want you to understand who I am. I want you to understand My promises. I want you to understand My commands. And I want you to live by them. Don't you worry about all this other stuff, because I'll take care of it."
Most of the time, I'm going to get you out of the fire. But if I leave you in there—really important—if I leave you in there, I leave you in there for a purpose and a reason. The purpose is your own good. It may not even be for you personally. It may be so those around you can watch you in the middle of a fire and go, "I don't know how he does it." And you go, "I don't know either. It's just Christ and Christ crucified."
Faith—we walk by faith, our obedient response to the promises of God. You're a man or woman of faith. Without it, you can't please Him. You cannot say, "Oh, I want to please God," but you're not a man or woman of faith. It doesn't work that way. He makes the rules. He sets down the guidelines, not you, not me.
Let's pray together. Father, thank You for Your Son, Jesus Christ, for His life and His death, for what was accomplished. God, we pray that we can live the words of that song: the cross before us, the world behind us.