Are we sailing
in the same boat when you wonder like me why Jesus had to tell Peter, ‘Get behind me,
Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the
concerns of God, but merely human concerns.’ Those who are Christians
are familiar with that verse I have just quoted. For those who are not, I
will give you a chance to read it in Matthew 16:23.
It will not break any arm if you read the whole chapter including the verse to
understand better. By reading it, it may even make more sense/or get the
gist to understand what I want to talk about. The concerns of God that
Jesus was talking about were the hidden things that we do not know about us,
but are revealed to us as mystery through Him (Son of God Jesus Christ).
These are called the Spiritual matters in other words.
I have been
going to church for many years and I have read that verse many times, but I
have never understood why Jesus had to tell a friend that. I felt somehow
he was too hash to Peter and every time I read that, I did not want to be
fooled that Jesus was calling Peter an enemy whereas I knew they were good
friends and actually one of his favourite disciple and i am happy i did not do
that as my Pastor through his preaching confirmed to me that, he was not trying
to pin him down as many of us would think. As I read more before, I
always felt that Jesus was unfair to Peter forgetting I was judging from my
human perspective and Jesus was judging from the Spiritual perspective, that
is, according to Gods interpretation and not my thinking and understanding.
Peter was just trying to convince him not to die as he is a good person and
does not deserve to die. Imagine a friend who you always walk with, eat with,
fellowship with, preach with and do many other things with, telling you such a
thing as, 'Get behind me, ....... I mean, I would feel very
offended. Many times our friends tell us things and we get so offended to
a point that we do not even talk to them anymore. Unfortunately, we do
not get the point or misinterpret them to be bad people yet may be they meant
it good for us telling us the truth who we really are but we never like being
told who we really are especially when we are doing wrong knowing or
unknowingly. Can I also make you ponder on what
Peter felt when he was called a Satan? As for me as I was not there, I
will guess that he felt so offended and no wonder we see him denying Jesus
three times later. Was he revenging because Jesus told him
all that, or was he just being human where he wanted to save his life so that
he is not implicated as we always do when we find ourselves on crossroads and
fear to be associated with our friends especially when they are in problems?
We cannot really tell but this story is not different from our day in and
out behaviors towards one another. Peter is not an exceptional nor are
you, as we are all human beings and we are bound to fall short of the glory of God.
Remember Jesus knew everything that Peter was going to do and as much as he
knew that, he did not put him aside and said, this one, will deny me at some
point I do not need him as a friend, or he is not someone I can trust.
Remember Jesus was doing everything with him even in His knowledge that he would
deny him at some point, cut someone’s ear and doubt him when he gets in the
middle of the water when he called him and many other things that are not
recorded in the Bible to get the gist even clearer. These are the things that
we do always in our daily life. Denying our Lord by mistreating others,
doubting God when we are going through storms, defending sin, or murmuring and
grumbling when things are not working our way just to mention a few. But
Jesus made Peter his best friend still even with all these struggles he had.
This applies to us too, as in, Jesus does not call you because you qualify, but
he calls you because you were disqualified but qualifies you as you walk with
him daily. To him it did not matter about Peter’s weaknesses
or shortcomings. What mattered is that the will of God would be
done as he had ordained it through him. We also see Peter's role and
presence was also ordained as we see he became one of the biggest teachers of
the word after Jesus died and resurrected.
There was to be
a story behind his dying on the cross and Peters role, plus Judas and
others were meant to be so that the prophesy can be fulfilled. Now I
understand why Peter was really against Jesus dying for us. As in, would
you want anyone that you love with all your heart dying for you in real sense?
Most of the time as human beings, we always want good for our family, friends
and those that really matter to us. For me, I find Peter a very good and
caring person who would never want anything bad to anyone and especially his
best friend Jesus. I still now understand from my Pastors preaching on
Sunday that, Jesus was not calling Peter Satan, but what the Satan was saying
through Peter. You will wonder can someone who knows God especially in
our case, someone like Peter, speak something from the evil one? Most of the
time we think as Christians, Satan cannot use us to carry his mission. I
will shock you, most of the times he does use us because when you look around
you, the evil that is there is too much and yet we claim to be Christians 80%
in case of Kenya for example. I can’t mention about other
parts of the world, as I can’t fathom the number of us who are Christians and
the things we do that are so evil instead of influencing the world positively
to curb the evil that is around us. May the Lord have mercy
on us! When you call yourself a Christian and you go
backbiting others, speak ill of others, analyze/judging others negatively,
lying, taking advantage of others, feeling superior than others, not taking
care of the weak ones and orphans, not respecting our elders and thinking we
are of the same age, not obeying God in the very many ways he speaks to us,
making this world a fighting ground, not respecting authorities, and being
corrupt and doing injustice things, not having mercy and compassion and many
other things we do that offend God, are we not being used of the evil one and
we claim to be children of God? Now get this, Peter was
innocently defending Jesus as a friend and responded to him just as a human
being. Just as we do defend one another whether they are in the right or
wrong as we always want good for our own. But Jesus death was
for a greater cause and mission that the devil knew very well and he could not
allow it happen because it would have saved even that Peter as we see Jesus
died for us all and not for some. Unfortunately, the devil has been lying
to most of us just as He was manipulating Peter not to understand that Jesus
death was for a good cause, and thus, many people fear salvation or even fear
to say they are saved/born-again when they are because they think to be saved
you have to be very holy forgetting that we can never be Holy it is only Jesus
who is Holy as he died for us so that we can be set free. We are only meant to
understand that He is the Son of God; He came to earth and died for our Sins so
that we can have a fellowship with God because when we (Adam and Eve) sinned
there was a gap that needed a bridge so that we can reach God. That
bridge was no one else but Jesus Christ the Son of God. That
mentality of thinking that once you receive Christ you should not slip has made
everyone scale Christians so highly posing it to look like if you are a
Christian, you should never fall and if you do then that is so bad of you and
people start talking about you and making it a big fuss. I am not defending sin
here my dear friends, but I want to put my point clear here and now that, you
can never be Holy on your own. It is only through Jesus that you can be
made Holy as you will always sin but our God is very merciful and willing
to forgive you and me as many times as possible as we work towards our
perfection through him who perfects us and not ourselves. This
attitude has made many people even those who know Jesus deny him just like
Peter as they can never say in public they are born again because of the sins
that are entangling them in fear to be judged. As I write this I will not tell you I am
writing all this because I am not holier than thou. I am saying this boldly
that I am a sinner and I also get short of the glory of God now and then, but when he
corrects me, rebukes me, I always go back to him and ask for forgiveness and my
God is so faithful, this far he has brought me from the dungeons of the evil
one to his best place of having a good and sweet fellowship with him personally.
I have come to realize most of the time when we are born again we think that
there are things we can’t do or rather you think you keep yourself away from
sin. I will tell you, that is a lie no man
that can save himself and walk holy even if they lock themselves in a room
where they will not mingle with sinners. As a Christian you
will fall many times but you will wake up, repent and go to your next level after you win the temptation.
It is only Jesus the Son of God who was assigned this mission to die for you
and me so that we can be called the righteous of God and live a Holy life.
Without him we can never be Holy. We face God because Jesus is our
righteousness as He died for us and now we have peace with our God and we can
face him directly through his Son Jesus Christ. There is a lie we have always clung on that there are some people who
are holier than others and we seek them to lay hands on us so that we can be blessed of the
lord and be healed from all our sickness, be forgiven our sins as we think when
they pray that is when God will hear them and forgive us. We have
been blinded so much by those who claim to be more holier or powerful making us
think their prayers are more heard than ours, and many many things we do in the
name of looking for health, wealth and forgiveness forgetting that Jesus is the
only way the truth and the life. No one goes to the Father except through
him. If you are his child you have all it takes to be used of the
Lord through his Power for his glory. If you know the power God has
given you, you would not go seeking for other people to do anything for you,
but have a personal relationship with him who will reveal to you many wonderful
things that he has in store for you that you can’t think of or imagine. You
are more than a conqueror in Christ Jesus. If you do not know Jesus as
your Lord, I wonder who helps you reach him because if you do it on your own,
then your prayers and works are futile and they will earn you nothing but hell.
Happy are
you who has given your life to the Lord not only your live but your will to him
as your Lord and Savior. Jesus did it for you once and for all on the
cross, and what you only need to do is to surrender yourself fully to him and he will direct the other things in place. Not
because when you do that you will not fall. No! But because he did or rather died for you 2000 years ago, then you should not walk in guilt and fear of the
unknown but walk with confidence that even if you fall, he will hold your hand
and bring you back on the track so that you continue with the journey. As
in, you won’t walk alone he will be with you in all you go through, that is, your falling,
your storms and all other things that you will meet on your way. He will
enable you overcome and crown you his servant. Even if
you will fall, you will realize your mistake and repent and seek him more so
that you overcome all your weaknesses. In the process of doing so, you
will understand it is not you who called yourself but he called you just the
way you are and as you continue having a fellowship with him, then, he will make you Holy
just as He is because every temptation that will come your way, He will deal
with it together with you and affirm you that it is over. Jesus telling
Peter go away you Satan did not mean he hated Peter or he had no value for
Peter, it was just that he was speaking to the Satan himself because he knew
the world (evil one and his agents) would have loved him not dying for his
people and continue keeping them captive not excluding Peter whom the devil was
taking advantage of. We see he never hated Peter because even after he
rose again, he appeared to him and other disciples confirming to them that
truly He was God and no wonder he gave Peter the mandate to take care of his sheep (people) and
proclaim Him all over the world that He is Lord. And because Peter was
set free he started a new journey with the Lord as a person who was set free
and ready to be used of him and continued serving God in a mighty way.
I guess
sometimes we ought to rebuke the Satan in our own lives so that we can be
set free as still, there are those who are in the world of darkness and
have not seen the light or ignored the light and sought to lead themselves.
Most of the time the things that hold us back, make us not enjoy life to the
fullest because we live a lie with the enticements from the evil one who makes
us lose the mark making things look like they are fine and okay whereas we are leading us to death/hell. For example you are born again but you still practice
things that are not good that have made you stagnate in your relationship with
God, can you rebuke them and say as Jesus said to Satan, You adultery! You
hypocrite! You gossiper! You liar! You intimidate! You
prostitute! You robber! You hater! You silent criminal! You cigarette! You brothel! You beer! You pornography! And many other
things that you know are hindering you having a relationship with Jesus. Can
you rebuke them now and tell God to help you. I know some might doubt if
this can happen just like that. I will tell you from deep
my heart, you can rebuke all that and others if you just accept you are not
walking right with God and ask for forgiveness. God is faithful and
just and will forgive you your sins and purify you from all your unrighteousness
because if we claim we have no sin we make him out to be a liar and his word is
not in us. So, we all need Jesus every day in our life. No one is
exceptional here. We need to have a personal walk with him so that he can guide
and direct us to walk in righteousness and be used of him for his purpose and glory. May
the Lord help you to know exactly where you stand so that you can start a fresh
with him. If you are a backslider or you have never accepted Jesus as your Lord
and Saviour then do that very soon. Do not waste any more time. Visit one of the Bible believing Churches and connect with other believers. Your life will never be the same. God bless you all.
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