“WORKING WITH GOD”

(Matthew 16:13-26)

 

A lot of attention has been given to the task of “LEADERSHIP” during my years of serving as a Pastor. Often the major concern is the style or manner in which a leader comes across to his employees or co-workers. A whole industry has been developed where “EXPERTS” teach others the skill of being good leaders. Such training is not only a requirement for those in assigned leadership positions, but ongoing leadership training occurs on a regular basis in many walks of life.

 

Leadership training has presented people with a whole gamut of possibilities. Some leaders are extremely “hands on” in their style of supervision. Today it is called “micro-managing”. Other leaders utilize a completely different style. It is called “delegation”. Though the two methods of leadership just mentioned are probably the extremes found in the skill of leadership, everyone has their own way of motivating people under them.

 

In STAGE THREE of the “Spiritual Journey” a Christian is to get involved in ministry. As a review; in STAGE ONE someone enters into a personal relationship with God and gets to know Him. In STAGE TWO the same Christian now takes the time to learn the truth of the Bible by gaining data and applying it to life. (By the way, the stages of life never conclude. One keeps getting to know God better throughout a personal relationship AND also the same person keeps learning more of the Bible’s truth while applying it to life continually.) But, in STAGE THREE a person gets involved in ministry.

 

Look with me at Simon Peter in the Scripture passage we just read! Peter had already been a disciple of Jesus. The Lord initiated a relationship with this Galilean fisherman for the purpose of getting him into ministry. He already told him, “Follow me and I will make you a fisher of men”. (Matthew 4:19-20) God designed life for His people so they would be involved in others’ lives. God NEVER intended a person to be solitary or reclusive. People are made in God’s image! Why did God create mankind, since He knew humans would sin and be contaminated in every way? It is because God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) is social. The three-person God said, as recorded in Genesis 1:26, “Let US (plural=P) make MAN (singular=S) in OUR(P) image, in OUR(P) likeness,  and let THEM(P)  rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground. So GOD(S)created MAN(S) in HIS(S) own image, in the image of GOD(S) HE(S)  created HIM(S); MALE(S) and FEMALE(S) HE(S) created THEM(P).”

 

 You and I have several dimensions to our being. It has to do with the “Image of God”. We have an intellectual part to us. We have an emotional part to us. We have a physical part to us. We have a willful part to us. AND, along with all the other parts of us, we have a social part to us. I am sorry Mr. Thoreau: God never designed life so people could be hermits! That is because God intended people to be in relationship with Him and to be ACTIVELY INVOLVED IN MINISTRY WITH OTHERS!

 

STAGE THREE of the journey is all about entering into ministry with others. If that is God’s intention for human life (and the Bible clearly teaches that), then heaven help the people who independently do their own thing and avoid ministry like the plague! God, the Father has given God, the Holy Spirit to Christians in order that His children get involved in serving Him. When they are serving Him well, God is pleased and offers them the commendation we see Jesus giving Peter in verse 17, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.” He is saying to His disciple, “You have learned the lessons of STAGE TWO, even learning how to make truth a part of your life. Jesus is recognizing that with such practical knowledge of life Peter is ready to be involved in ministry. That is what the rest of the accolade of the Lord is stating. “I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock (the reality of faith in your life) I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not overcome it!” (verse18) He then finishes this praise of his disciple with the statement, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; (the secrets of my rule in your life). Whatever you bind on earth (agree with people in this earthly existence) will be held bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth (cancel with people in this earthly existence) will be loosed in heaven”.  (verse 19) The definitions inserted are mine based on the New Testament’s teaching.

 

Peter had graduated, in his Lord’s eyes from STAGE TWO to STAGE THREE. In light of our opening topic of thought (leadership) God has delegated Peter to learn how to walk by faith and Jesus now tells His servant, “You’ve done well, my son. You have taken something shown you by God, the Father and applied it to life!” (This is my paraphrase.)

 

Well, if that was the end of this passage of Scripture, we’d go home thrilled with what we have seen. But the plot thickens! Jesus proceeds to open up more truth to His disciples. He instructs them about His upcoming sacrificial death. Now the Bible tells us, starting at verse 21, “From that time on (the time of commending Peter) Jesus began to explain to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that He must be KILLED (emphasis mine) and on the third day be raised to life.” So the next interaction Peter has with his Lord does not occur immediately after his great confession of the Lord. These two incidents between Peter and the Lord are put together by Matthew in order for us to see a theme concerning the Christian life. It has to do with God’s style of leadership with us, while at the same time leading us into considering the place of ministry in our lives.

 

In this context, after Peter had heard the Lord mention over and over again His need to be killed, Peter finally pulls the Lord away from the rest and offers his rebuke of Jesus. Verse 22 tells us, “Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke Him. ‘Never, Lord! This will never happen to you!’” In one instance we have Peter applying the truth of the Lord’s instruction to his life. Now the same disciple is not open to ministry in the lives of others but he is intent on asserting his own way of running life. This even brings Peter to the place of criticizing what God is doing in his life. It doesn’t fit a servant of God’s agenda.

 

Jesus responds with a rebuke. God, the Son, who delegates ministry to His disciple, now becomes involved in “micro-managing” and rebukes His disciple. Jesus says, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men!” The issue develops into the true theme of this section of Scripture. This whole chapter of the Bible is all about ministry. It even portrays the view of Peter when the Lord talks of His own need to do ministry: to die on the cross. Peter is not open to ministry, period! He needs to be rebuked because he has no plans to do anything but rest in his relationship with the Lord. Jesus summarizes His criticism of this disciple with this statement; (in verses 24-27) “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me! For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in His Father’s glory with His angels, and then He will reward each person according to what he has done.”

 

Wow!!! The Lord, Himself, tells it like it is, doesn’t He? I would not want to be in the shoes of a Christian who has no ministry in his life. That will bring with it a micro-management of the God of the Universe in his life. A “well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21) will not be given to a Christian just living life, his or her own way, with their own agenda. In fact, God will directly step into life, as Christ did here, in rebuking Peter. God is committed to bringing His children into obedience with His will. God wants to enter into a relationship with people to lead them out of themselves, into such a maturity of knowledge that they end up committed and involved in ministry.

 

God, the Holy Spirit is actively working with ALL Christians to get them involved with other people in a redemptive, refreshing encouraging way. 1 Corinthians 12 tells us the Father brings such ministry about. The Son places a Christian in the specific arena in which the ministry is to be performed. The Spirit gives the actual abilities needed to get the task done. 

 

In summary, every one of us in this room has much to evaluate. How are we doing in the area of ministry? Do we have one? If not, why not? Either we don’t have a relationship with God, in which case we are in danger of spiritual death for eternity, or we have been actively learning the Word of God and applying it to our life. If while learning it, we are only learning the facts but not actually implementing it in our lives: again we are in serious trouble! And if we have learned the truth of the Bible (God’s owner’s manual on life) we had better have a ministry that Jesus has given so we can make a difference in other peoples’ lives. If you are removed from ministry and people (ONCE AGAIN) you are in serious trouble! There is no excuse! There is no season of life when ministry can’t be done! God, on the authority of His Word, (fleshed out in Peter’s life) does not let His people off the hook! He expects active ministry on the major part of His folk’s lives and will not hold back His harsh rebuke if no ministry is in place. Gone are the excuses of: no time, no energy, no interest or no convenience. May the Word of the Lord not become void! May it be our calling in life to allow the Bible to permeate in every area of our lives!