Simon Peter fell asleep in two crises:
Christians need to understand that:
God’s reality can’t be true when:
As true in:
We must not, as committed believers in Christ:
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Consider one of the lessons we can learn from Simon Peter’s experience.
Whatever happens in life, God can be trusted to care and provide. In Simon’s situation:
For us it means:
In his book Two Years Before the Mast, Charles Henry Dana told of his ship being hit by a night-time storm with him on watch. He described:
Then…suddenly:
He later wrote:
Nevertheless, to be a sailor meant, with his watch over, and the storm continuing to rage, he had to go below and sleep. He went below. He slept! If that’s true for a sailor in distress, it’s true for a Christian when life rages with meanness, imposing terrible trauma. We must in those times be at peace with God’s love. When we can say; when seeing trouble coming, “I trust in God, I will not be afraid” Psalm 56:4. We can also say; “When I am afraid, I will trust in you” Psalm 56:3, when adversity ambushes us. End Part III Under the angel’s tutelage, and sure he had been granted a Vision, Peter glanced at the two guards still in slumber on their mats. Then approached the two men at the door:
Exiting the door that opened noiselessly by itself, they entered a hallway:
Until, making several turns they could see ahead four more Romans:
The huge iron gate before them mysteriously and silently opened as they approached. Out of the jail they walked:
Walking one block in that order, when:
It hadn’t been a Vision, a Trance, a Dream at all. It had been God sending an angel to free him from certain death. As God had done in the past, did then and would continue to do throughout history:
Peter’s immediate awareness brought an immediate decision: he had to alert the brethren at Mary’s, the mother of John Mark. End Part II Based on Mark 14:37-38 and Acts 12:5-10.
On two separate occasions Simon Peter slept through crises: once with the Lord’s life in danger, once with his own. While failure characterized the first, success marked the second. For in the 11 years separating the two:
The Greek leaves no doubt that Simon slept so deeply that it took a:
His belief in a Vision/Trance included:
All this in a man who customarily questioned authority, even from Jesus:
Maybe more tractable when sleepy, Simon more quickly obeyed when ordered, more willingly came when summoned. Instead, however, let’s admit his 11 years in the apostolate had changed him. End Part I Once a year Americans gather in family circles to share the bounties of our land, many without praising God Almighty for his gifts that far outweigh turkey and dressing, pumpkin and pecan pie.
Thinking of some personal reasons to PRAISE GOD. FOR recovery from a fall months ago when:
It spelled an INTERRUPTION in service, not the END. FOR being 87 and counting, still going strong:
FOR the pleasure of not only counting my blessings, but seeking new opportunities to serve the Lord Jesus. FOR not only remembering victories won, but seeking new battles to wage in defense of Biblical Christianity in a defiantly anti-Christian society. FOR the defeats that remind me of humanity that ages and the victories that assure me of greater pleasures in ever-new experiences in Jesus Christ. FOR the sufferings of Christ that brought his PERFECTION To COMPLETION as the reason no cost in discipleship can ever be excessive. And on and on. May this Thanksgiving arouse greater appreciation than we have ever known in Praise of God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, the Three in One. A theophany is God’s literal appearance, always with Jesus Christ as his WORD speaking. Consider a few of the times God “came down” to earth visibly in Christ pre-incarnate. A summary, not an exposition.
Genesis 3:8-9, for fellowship with his original mortals. The Visible Person of God the Son walking with them. Genesis 11:5,7, for judgment on human pride in Shinar. Confusing the tongues, never again in agreement until Pentecost Acts 2:4-8. Genesis 17:22, to establish Isaac as the son of Abraham through whom God would open all humanity to Grace. Note: scripture says, “God went up from him.” “Going up” implies having previously “come down.” Exodus 40:34, II Chronicles 5:13-14, in a pillar of cloud filling the completed Tabernacle and Temple with his GLORY, that no mortal could share. Numbers 12:5, to impose judgment on Aaron and Miriam for coveting Moses’ position. Numbers 16:19, passing destruction on Dathan and his co-conspirators for insolence to Moses and Aaron. Exodus 33:18-20, John 1:14, passing his Glory before Moses hidden in a cleft of the rock, but only to see his former (Law) side, not his latter (Grace) side. We shouldn’t be surprise, then, that Jesus Christ would come as both God’s Grace In Truth when he had earlier periodically appeared as God’s Truth in Law! Eve’s single sin against God led immediately to a second sin when Adam sided with her against God. Which led to the third recorded sin when Cain murdered Abel. Leading Cain to commit the fourth recorded sin—building a city in direct violation of God’s sentence against him Genesis 4:12. Lamech then sinned when:
And on and on sin grew, in the Gentile world embracing homosexuality and all the other sins recorded in Romans 1:18-31. And in the Hebrew world, summarized in Exodus 20 and enumerated in Exodus 21-22, etc. All of which Paul brought God’s sentence of doom on all humanity Romans 1-3. The point is, a righteous may not be repeated, leading to consecutive holiness. But sin, once begun, and however small or apparently insignificant, rapidly expands in the DNA of all mortals everywhere. Leading Paul to declare we have a sin-nature Ephesians 2:1-3. Innocent at birth, and by the age of accountability choosing self-will over God’s word, NO ONE of accountable age is considered righteous. God’s gift to Adam and Eve in Seth began a restoration to God which only Jesus perfected in his life. Therefore, as Eve’s sin declared war on God, unleashing spiritual violence in humanity, Jesus re-established a pacific, perfected peace with God. Paul put it more brilliantly in I Corinthians 15:21-23. Ways Joseph’s experience can be repeated today.
First, consider where we live the place to begin our witness. We may need a fresh start somewhere else. If that isn’t possible, get started where we are. Remember…no accidents occur in a committed Christian’s life. God has us where we are for his reason. Second, consider the apostle Peter’s formula in I Peter 3:15-16, and the words of the apostle Paul in I Corinthians 6:19 and II Corinthians 3:18 our call to service. While it’s easier to hide Christ’s glory from unbelievers than to reveal it IN Christians, God has charged us to REVEAL Christ’s Glory. Third, and a hitchhike on Point Two, remember that Christians must sometime content themselves with being a Ministry of PRESENCE until we have opportunity to be a Ministry of ACTION. Paul proved a Presence in Malta, gathering wood to protect ship passengers from the cold before he started a revival throughout the Island. Included in the former could be:
Joseph proved the depth of his spiritual life in two ways. First, when he rejected the services of Potiphar’s wife. He based it:
Instead, God directed his behavior, and any moral failure would have betrayed GOD! Second, he waited for opportunities to bear a fruitful witness for God. Which came finally in the dreams of Pharoah’s cupbearer and baker. Only to be delayed two more years by the butler’s failed appreciation. It took Pharoah’s own indecipherable dreams to bring Joseph to influence and fame. When told Joseph could interpret dreams, Joseph left no doubt: he couldn’t but his GOD could. End Part I Jonathan, son of Saul, would later prove that coming in second would be remembered. He matured in a secular household. Joseph, son of Jacob, matured in a godly home, but spent years 17-110 in a secular culture, with values different from, and hostile to, what he knew as a youth.
Nevertheless, from the beginning of a catastrophic change in his personal life, he became a model believer in, and servant of, God. Slavery, the onus that by its very nature demeaned personhood, found in Joseph a man who ennobled any imposition laid on him. (An encouragement to Christians. We don’t have to like the adverse alterations in our status quo to rise above the debasement by improving it.) Adversity in Egypt created a better MAN of Joseph where prosperity in Canaan could have left him a broken YOUTH! Indeed, as his physical circumstances degraded, his relationship with God muscled him by inches and feet into a spiritual colossus! End Part I |
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