A Guy Like Peter
I think the next Pastor should be a guy like Peter.
Can you imagine what it was like to hear him preach? It can be a wrestle to stay awake sometimes can’t it? It’s alright, I know, I’ve drifted off too!
Not in his sermons! Just imagine how it would be to hear him tell the stories, regaling Jesus’ acts and words of wisdom, he was there! There, when the fish had gone, the wine ran dry and the girl died… there too when the fish nets burst, wine vats broke and… the…girls… heart… started… beating… again.
“She’s not dead,” Jesus said.
We’re left to wonder about Jesus’ facial expression as he said it. Was it a poker face or a knowing smile? Peter would have told us, and pulled us nearer to the edge of our seat.
He would have told those stories and loads like them a thousand times, each repeat full of colour and realism, life and energy. Told like they’d just happened, like his life depended on it, like his listeners life depended on it. Each time with more gusto and urgency as the crowds got bigger and he got nearer his end.
Boy could we do with that witness today. People don’t listen, they’d listen to him!
He picked the toughest crowds too. Preaching can be tricky, even when everyone’s onside and wishing you well. You get nervous, mess up the words, suffer under the weight of the message. I know this as well as anyone! Peter preached to the people who’d just put Jesus to death, who’d happily put him to death. An ordinary fisherman stood before religious experts. An ordinary guy before a big crowd. But if he was nervous it didn’t show. He was on fire, the people either wept in repentance or sharpened their knives. The perfect preach!
How we could do with a guy like Peter.
It would be great to look him in the eye. Have him close enough to eyeball. Check he’s telling the truth.
Even without words he paints a pretty clear gospel message. He’s like the Charlie Chaplin of Good News. The cross he literally picks up, the huge bag of fish he carries out of the sea like a nautical dish of humble pie and faith that walks on water. At least for a while.
He pushes and reaches the heights and risks and experiences failure. He gets out of the boat! Who gets out of a boat on a lake? What faith. Then falls through the floor! What a disaster.
He’s a cautionary tale and hero rolled into one… and not just over his lifetime but moment by moment. Water carrying his weight miraculously then filling his lungs in fear within a second, declarations of undying love quickly followed by total denial.
Brave and strong. But never brave or strong enough to not need the help of his saviour. Pulling him out of the waves and picking him up off the floor.
Peter is a physical demonstration of someone being saved.
If we could hear him now, even just one sermon, a miraculous audio file from the past… Even if we could just look in his eyes to see if he was telling the truth.
I think what I like most though is the ‘realness’ of him. He denies Jesus, you wouldn’t make him up if you were trying to prove a point. It’s just him. He’s a ‘let down,’ he makes promises he can’t keep, he speaks before he thinks, he falls asleep when he’s tired, he loses his head. At the same time he’s brave as a lion, honest as the day, passionate, genuine, forthright.
It’s a normal brilliance Peter has. There’s something captivating about that, that we need! We need Peters.
One day Jesus looked at Simon and declared him to be like a rock. That’s what Peter means, it was Jesus that called him that, he changed his name. He didn’t start off like a rock, well actually more of a boulder or a pebble was what Jesus was saying. But God had plans for people like Peter. He was a good place to start, the kind of foundation you need to build on… and Jesus was into building, he still is.
Peter got what he meant… in the end. He realised what God was building and how he would build it. He passed on the wisdom in the letter he wrote. It was a bunch of ordinary people who received it, flawed yet focused, aiming for the stars yet capable of disaster. Fallen people who realised they’d need to be picked up. It was people like him.
‘You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.’ 1 Peter 2 :5
Boy could we do with a guy like Peter today.
What is it they say — be careful what you wish for. Do you recognise yourself in any of Peter’s traits?
We say, ‘we can’t follow that!’
Well Peter said that… and Jesus said, well it’s a good place to start.
Ash Gibson, Pastor, Christchurch Xscape
Listen to our series on 1 Peter.
