You gotta love Simon Peter -
Jesus’s disciple who seemed to be a Rock head! LOL! Laugh out loud! There’s always one - among family and and friends who has to “figure it out on their own.” And that is what Peter did, with the help of God! And once again, it took three times! This seems to be the number that follows Peter around! This morning, when re-reading Matthew 15, I laughed out loud when the Holy Spirit showed me that Peter is a rock head! It was Peter who asked Jesus for clarification when He said, “It’s not what goes into your mouth that defiles you; you are defiled by the words that come out of your mouth.” Peter said, “Explain to us the parable that says people aren’t defiled by what they eat.” Jesus asked him, “Don’t you understand yet?” And I might add… “I mean really Peter, You are such a Rock Head!” LOL! Laugh out loud! Jesus laid it all out, and gave the explanation, “Anything you eat passes through the stomach and then goes into the sewer. But the words you speak come from the heart - that’s what defiles you. For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all sexual immorality, theft, lying, and slander. These are what defile you. Eating with unwashed hands will never defile you.” Matthew 15:12-20 But obviously Peter didn’t get it! Because later on, after Jesus returned to Heaven, God had to put Peter into a trance to give him a vision to reinforce the explanation of what Jesus said. Of all the disciples, Peter is the one who seemed to be stuck in cultural expectations and traditions of the Old Testament that pointed to Jesus, especially the ones that focused on food. For some reason, Peter did not fully understand that the old had passed away, and the new had come! And because God is good, He gave him a double dose of reinforcement! You see, God became flesh, and his name was Jesus. It was He who first explained to Peter what He meant when he said, “it’s not what you put into your mouth, but rather by what comes out of it.” But that was not enough to do it! In the Book of Acts, God had to put Peter into a trance just so that He could prepare his heart to be the vessel He needed to do His work. The scripture says, “Peter went up on a flat roof to pray. It was about noon, and he was hungry. But while a meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. He saw the sky open up, and something like a large sheet was let down by its four corners. In the sheet were all sorts of animals, reptiles, and birds. Then a voice said to him, “Get up, Peter; kill and eat them.” “No, Lord,” Peter declared. “I have never eaten anything that our Jewish laws have declared impure and unclean.” But the voice spoke again: “Do not call something unclean if God has made it clean.” The same vision was repeated three times. Then the sheet was suddenly pulled up to heaven. Peter was very perplexed. “What could the vision mean?” Just as Peter was puzzling over the vision, the Holy Spirit said to him, “Three men have come. Get up, go downstairs, and go with them without hesitation. Don’t worry, for I have sent them.” So Peter went down and said, “I’m the man you are looking for. Why have you come?” They said, “We were sent by Cornelius, a Roman officer (that means a Gentile, not a Jew) He is devout and a God-fearing man, well respected by all the Jews. A holy angel instructed him to summon you to his house so that he can hear your message. The next day Peter went with them, accompanied by some of the brothers from Joppa. They arrived in Caesarea the following day. Cornelius was waiting for them and had called together his relatives and close friends. As Peter entered his home, Cornelius fell at his feet and worshiped him. But Peter pulled him up and said, “Stand up! I’m a human being just like you!” Then Peter said, “You know it is against our laws for a Jewish man to enter a Gentile home like this or to associate with you. But God has shown me that I should no longer think of anyone as impure or unclean. So I came without objection as soon as I was sent for. Now tell me why you sent for me. Cornelius replied, “Four days ago I was praying in my house about this same time, three o’clock in the afternoon. Suddenly, a man in dazzling clothes was standing in front of me. He told me, ‘Cornelius, your prayer has been heard, and your gifts to the poor have been noticed by God! Now send messengers to Joppa, and summon a man named Simon Peter. He is staying in the home of Simon, a tanner who lives near the seashore.’ So I sent for you at once, and it was good of you to come. Now we are all here, waiting before God to hear the message the Lord has given you.” Then Peter replied, “I see very clearly that God shows no favoritism. In every nation he accepts those who fear him and do what is right. This is the message of Good News for the people of Israel that there is peace with God through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. You know what happened throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee, after John began preaching his message of baptism. And you know that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. Then Jesus went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. And we apostles are witnesses of all he did throughout Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a cross, but God raised him to life on the third day. Then God allowed him to appear, not to the general public, but to us whom God had chosen in advance to be his witnesses. We were those who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. And he ordered us to preach everywhere and to testify that Jesus is the one appointed by God to be the judge of all - the living and the dead. He is the one all the prophets testified about, saying that everyone who believes in him will have their sins forgiven through his name. Even as Peter was saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who were listening to the message. The Jewish believers who came with Peter were amazed that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles, too. For they heard them speaking in other tongues and praising God. Then Peter asked, “Can anyone object to their being baptized, now that they have received the Holy Spirit just as we did?” So he gave orders for them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Acts of the Apostles 10:9-48 By the way, there goes the doctrine of having to be water baptized before being able to have faith in Jesus and being baptized by the Holy Spirit. So there you have it! Our God knows how to get our attention, even when we are rock heads! LOL! Laugh out Loud! God has an amazing toolbox, and uses all kinds of methods and reinforcements to carry out His will. And sometimes, even with all that He does - we still don’t get it! But because God is faithful, even when we are not, He will continue to correct us! He will even send people to spread his message - A great cloud of witnesses who can testify to His greatness! And that is what God did with Peter, as He reinforced this message a third time! When Peter started to slip back into culture and tradition - and doubt the Word of God, God sent Paul. In Galatians Chapter 2, Paul approached Peter and confronted him on his faith. Paul said, “When Peter came to Antioch, I had to oppose him to his face, for what he did was very wrong. When he first arrived, he ate with the Gentile believers, who were not circumcised. But afterward, when some friends of James came, Peter wouldn’t eat with the Gentiles anymore. He was afraid of criticism from these people who insisted on the necessity of circumcision. As a result, other Jewish believers followed Peter’s hypocrisy, and even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. When I saw that they were not following the truth of the gospel message, I said to Peter in front of all the others, “Since you, a Jew by birth, have discarded the Jewish laws and are living like a Gentile, why are you now trying to make these Gentiles follow the Jewish traditions? “You and I are Jews by birth, not ‘sinners’ like the Gentiles. Yet we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law. And we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be made right with God because of our faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law. For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law.” But suppose we seek to be made right with God through faith in Christ and then we are found guilty because we have abandoned the law. Would that mean Christ has led us into sin? Absolutely not! Rather, I am a sinner if I rebuild the old system of law I already tore down. For when I tried to keep the law, it condemned me. So I died to the law - I stopped trying to meet all its requirements - so that I might live for God. My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die.” Galatians 2:11-21 Thank you God for your faithfulness! And forgive us for our stubbornness! Sometimes it takes more than one experience with you to teach us the truth! “For You alone are worthy, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power. For you created all things, and they exist because you created what you pleased.” Revelation 4:11
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