Oh Peter!

There are several examples of pre-Holy Spirit disciple Peter as doubtful, impulsive, and scared even as he lived life with Jesus.  

Doubt  Matthew 14:25-32  And in the fourth watch of the night He (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 responded and 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 when he began to sink, he cried out saying, "Lord, save me!"  Immediately Jesus reached out with His hand and took hold of him, and said to him, "You of little faith, why did you doubt?"  When Jesus tells us to do something ("Come"), have faith that no matter how scary it seems, He will have us by the hand.

Impulsive  Some impulsive behaviors work out well.  Without even knowing Jesus, Simon (Peter) and Andrew impulsively dropped everything to follow Him.   Matthew 4:18-22   Now as Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers Simon, who was called Peter and his brother Andrew, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen.  And He said to them, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of people." 

Other impulsive behaviors don't work out near as well.  Jesus was none to happy when emotional Peter scolded Him as He explained the horrific events that were about to go down.  Jesus was furious and referred to the future rock foundation of the Church as a Satan stumbling block!  Matthew 16:21-23   From that time Jesus began to point out to His disciples that it was necessary for Him to go to Jerusalem and to suffer many things from the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and to be killed, and to be raised up on the third day.  And yet Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying "God forbid it, Lord!  This shall never happen to You!"  But He turned and said to Peter, "Get behind Me, Satan!  You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God's purposes, but men's."  

Scared  Peter followed Jesus after His arrest.  He was understandably scared for Jesus and for himself due to his known association with Jesus.  Our instincts are to self-protect when threatened, and the future rock crumbled under questioning and denied knowing Jesus three times, just had Jesus had told him he would do.  Matthew 26:69-75  Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard, and a slave woman came to him and said, "You too were with Jesus the Galilean"  But he denied it before them all, saying, "I do not know what you are talking about."  When he had gone out to the gateway, another slave woman saw him and said to those who were there, "This man was with Jesus of Nazareth."  And again he denied it, with an oath: "I do not know the Man.” A little later the bystanders came up and said to Peter, "You really are one of them as well, since even the way you talk gives you away"  Then he began to curse and swear, "I do not now the Man!"  And immediately a rooster crowed  And Peter remembered the statement that Jesus had made:  "Before a rooster crows, you will deny Me three times"  And he went out and wept. bitterly.

We learn in Acts 2 that the disciples and other believers received the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, 50 days after the resurrection of Jesus.  Acts 2:1-4  When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.  And suddenly a noise like a violent rushing wind came from heaven, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.  And tongues that looked like fire appeared to them, distributing themselves, and a tongue rested on each one of them.  And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with different tongues, as the Spirit was giving them the ability to speak out.

Empowered and transformed by this Spirit, Peter was a bold, wise, self-controlled leader with great understanding, love and passion for the Lord.  Later in Acts 2, after Peter's sermon, 3000 repented and were baptized.  Acts 2: 38-41  Peter said to them, "Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far away, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself."  And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on urging them, saying "Be saved from this perverse generation!"  So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls.  

Peter was hand picked by Jesus to be the leader to build the Church.  In Acts 10 he received the dream about foods no longer being unclean and officially converted the first gentile, Cornelius.  Acts 10:10-15  He (Peter) fell into a trance and he saw the sky opened up, and an object like a great sheet coming down, lowered by four corners to the ground, and on it were all kinds of four-footed animals and crawling creatures of the earth and birds of the sky  A voice came to him, "Get up, Peter, kill and eat!"  But Peter said, "By no means, Lord for I have never eaten anything unholy and unclean."  Again a voice came to him a second time, “What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy."  Peter ate with Christian Gentiles, no longer obeying the kosher laws per God's instructions in the trance.  

Jewish laws, including circumcision, were not to be barriers among believers. Gentile Christians were asked to abstain from only 4 pagan worship related things so as to keep Christian Jews and Christian Gentiles unified.

1.  Food polluted by idols.

2.  Sexual Immorality

3.  Meat from strangled animals

4.  Consuming blood

However, when Judaizers, a group of Jewish Christians who insisted that gentiles follow Mosaic Law, arrived in Antioch, Peter refrained from eating in the home of Gentile believers.  This certainly sent a conflicting message, causing the Christian Gentiles to feel unworthy.  Peter was still a flawed, sinful human being even having known and lived with Jesus, been filled with and living with the Holy Spirit, and been identified as the rock on which to build the Christian church.  

Paul corrected Peter in Galatians 2.  Galatians 2:11- 14  But when Cephas (Greek for "Rock" which was Peter) came to Antioch, I (Paul) opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned.  For prior to the coming of some men from James (the Judaizers), he used to eat with the Gentiles; but when they came he began to withdraw and separate himself, fearing those from the circumcision.  The rest of the Jews joined him in hypocrisy, with the result that even Barnabas (traveling with Paul) was carried away by their hypocrisy.  But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in the presence of all, "If you, being a Jew, live like the Gentiles, and not like the Jews, how is it that you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews"?

I take comfort in this because even though I have the benefit of the written gospels and most days feel pretty spirit filled, I too am flawed and sinful.  When my Methodist brother married a Catholic in a Catholic church, I was miffed that we were "not good enough" (my words) to take communion since Protestants believe the host (prayed over bread) of the eucharist is a symbol of Jesus' body, whereas Catholic's believe it is His actual body.  Catholics ask non-Catholics to not take communion because of this belief they hold to be sacred.  Like Peter, I needed to be reminded that God's gospel plan requires the free gift of Jesus' grace and nothing else.  Traditions such as what the bread represents is a "nothing else" and should not become divisive among the Church of believers.  I can refrain from taking communion in a Catholic church and love Catholics, and Catholics can understand that I am a believer and love me.

Jesus in the Torah

Seeing Jesus and His impact in the New Testament is super easy since it is all about Him.  In a previous blog, "Jesus is the Bible, " some direct messianic prophecy from the Old Testament was highlighted. Jesus shows up often in the Old Testament, just not by name and often not in human form.

Moses, who delivered the Israelites from Egyptian slavery as God guided him, wrote the first five books of the Old Testament, called the Torah.  These five books, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, are read and studied in weekly portions by Jews on a yearly cycle that starts in the fall after the festival of Sukkot.

Here are a few instances where the future Jesus is alluded to in each of these five books.

1.  Genesis  In a previous post, "The Sacrifice of Isaac", there is a section that compares Isaac and Jesus.  Three highlights: both Isaac and Jesus were conceived under miraculous circumstances; Isaac's halted sacrifice and Jesus' actual sacrifice both took place on Mount Mariah; a lamb substituted for Isaac as a sacrifice, and Jesus was the sacrificial lamb that substituted for us all.  Abraham uttered pretty prophetic words when Isaac asked about a lamb.  Genesis 22:7-8  And he (Isaac) said, "Look there is the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?"  Abraham said, "God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son."  

2.  Exodus  Sacrifice and deliverance from evil are the Jesus themes running through Exodus.  Moses was sent by God to demand that Pharoah let the Israelites leave Egypt.  Pharoah refused and God sent 10 plagues (see previous post "The 10 Egyptian Plagues and the Israelites"), number 10 being the death of all firstborn sons.  The Israelites were told to mark their doorposts with the blood of a lamb so that the angel of death would pass over their home and spare their firstborn.

The Passover lamb became a symbol of sacrifice that God told the Israelites to remember and celebrate every year.  And Jesus was the ultimate lamb sacrifice on Passover, over 1780 years later.

Just like Moses delivered the Israelites out of a life of slavery in Egypt and into the Promise Land, Jesus leads us out of the darkness of sin into the light of forgiveness and eternal life.

3.  Leviticus Jesus was not only a sacrificial lamb, but also a scapegoat. Leviticus 16:21-22  Then Aaron (high priest) shall lay both of his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the wrongdoings of the sons of Israel and all their unlawful acts regarding all their sins; and he shall place them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who stands ready.  Then the goat shall carry on itself all their wrongdoings to an isolated territory; he shall release the goat in the wilderness.

Christ is our atonement for sin. Christ bears our sin, just as the scapegoat bore the sins of the Israelites. Paul reminds us of this in 2 Corinthians 5:21  He made Him who knew no sin to be sin in our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.  After the sins were laid on the scapegoat, it was driven into the wilderness like an outcast.  Similarly, Jesus was crucified outside of the city.  

The hundreds of rules given by God to the Israelites in Leviticus were not to make things hard, but to make things clear so that they could live holier lives (be more like God).  Likewise, Jesus takes on all sin so that we are free to live more like our sinless Savior.

4.  Numbers  Numbers 19:1-3  Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron saying, "This is the statue of the law which the Lord has commanded saying "Speak to the sons of Israel that they bring you an unblemished red heifer in which there is no defect and on which a yoke has never been mounted.  And you shall give it to Eleazar the priest, and it shall be brought outside the camp and be slaughtered in his presence."  The red heifer would be burned and the ashes available to all Israelites to mix with water and bathe in after handling dead bodies so that they would be deemed "clean".  Numbers 19:9  Now a man who is clean (has not recently handled a dead body) shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and put them outside the camp in a clean place and the congregation of the sons of Israel shall keep them for water to remove impurity; it is purification from sin.

The red heifer was the only animal sacrificed outside the camp.  All other sacrifices were done in the tabernacle/later the temple.  The Israelites had open access to the ashes to cleanse themselves of sin.  They did not need to go through a priest.  

Impurity (uncleanliness) was associated with death and sin.  Purity was associated with life. Like the red heifer, Jesus was sacrificed outside the city.  And like the ability to go to the ashes and get what you need to remove "sin", we can all go to Jesus with our sin.  We do not need an intermediary.

5.  Deuteronomy  This is probably the most well known Jesus reference in the fifth and final book of the Torah.  Deuteronomy 18:18 (God speaking to Moses) "I will raise up for them a prophet from among their countrymen like you , and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them everything that I command him"  Jesus Christ fulfilled this prophecy.  Like Moses, Jesus spoke God the Father's words with authority, and performed signs and wonders. But Jesus is a greater prophet than Moses.  He is authority in heaven and on earth.  He is God.

Here is another Jesus reference.  Deuteronomy 30:6  (Moses speaking) "Moreover, the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the hearts of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul, so that you may live."  Circumcision to remove the foreskin was a physical sign of the covenant between God and Abraham, required of all male Israelites on their eighth day of life.  Circumcision of the heart refers to pure love, obedience and dedication to God so that you can live forever.  This is a spiritual circumcision, not done by humans, but by the power of the Holy Spirit, sent by God the Father, as promised by Jesus as He prepared His disciples in His final days on Earth.

Quoting Jesus from Matthew 5:17 "Do not presume that I came to abolish the Law of the Prophets I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill."