Jesus Raises Peter to Prominence
History reveals that Simon Peter was the head of the early Christian church. In every list of the Apostles he is listed first. He’s the one that leads the inclusion of a new Apostle to replace Judas. He’s the one that speaks for the team. Bottom line – Peter is the man that Jesus chose to lead.
But he’s the most mentally unhinged member of the group!
The selection of him as the leader seems absurd and the process to get him there is crazy.
What was Jesus thinking? I think it’s the same thing that the Holy Spirit revealed to Paul and wrote to the Church in Corinth:
1 Cor 1:20-29 - “Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. 26 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.”
God knows what He can do with a jar of clay. He can make a miracle.
How did Jesus do it? – That’s our devotion for the day…
5 Points; 2 Applications - I have 5 points and each one will have an application for you as a leader personally AND an application for you to use with the people you lead to raise them up to be leaders along with you.
1.) Jesus Picked Peter; Peter didn’t Pick Him (Peter was called) – whether it was the first time that Andrew brought him to meet Jesus or the second time that Jesus borrowed his boat to preach, or the third, official call to make him a ‘fisher of men,’ Jesus initiated it. Peter was called. Calling is critically important because difficult times are going to come and a “career idea” of ministry will not sustain you through the hardest of times, only a call will.
- For You = Are you called? Or did you become a leader because becoming a Christian leader looked like a good career move?
- For Those You Lead = Who in your ministry or sphere of influence needs to be called into the ministry through you?
2.) Jesus Breathed Vision into Peter – Jesus knew what He was working with. Peter was impulsive and although he was likely the oldest of the team, certainly didn’t have all the respect that he needed to take over the team. But Jesus turned that around. He harnessed what Peter was and made him who he needed to be. Jesus took Peter from a Mess to a Masterpiece – from a guy who said too much, thought too little, acted to quickly, promised too much, thought too much of what other’s thought of him, jumped too fast and caved too easily….God made a…leader who led through danger, spoke boldly before leaders, walked on water, raised the dead and chose to be martyred through crucifixion upside-down.
- For You = Are you operating through a Holy Spirit Inspired Vision?
- For Those You Lead = Prophetically Breathe Vision into Them – tell them what you see that is not yet true of them. Cast a vision for them to chase.
- Raise your Expectations of People – “People rise or fall to meet our level of expectations for them. If you express skepticism and doubt in others, they'll return your lack of confidence with mediocrity. But if you believe in them and expect them to do well, they'll wear themselves out trying to do their best. And in the process, both of you benefit. If you've never been one to trust people and put your faith in them, change your way of thinking and begin believing in others. Your life will quickly begin to improve.” John Maxwell
3.) Jesus Gave Peter the Holy Spirit with Power – Jesus didn’t ask Peter to do the impossible with no resources. God gave him the Holy Spirit and He made all the difference.
- For You = Are you operating in the Power of the Holy Spirit? Are miraculous things happening in your ministry through your leadership? Is there evidence that you are anointed by God? (miraculous can be defined as anything that can’t be done without God’s help – i.e. conversions, transformation, changed lives, healing, prophetically inspired words, etc.)
- For Those You Lead = Give Leaders a Significant Job with Significant Resources – Strong people don’t want to do busy work. Worker bees are necessary but as helpful as they are, they can only bring addition, not multiplication. We need all of our ministries to expand and it’s not likely that you have more bandwidth to use. Therefore, you need to have other people work for you while you are working already. Those are usually strong people, motivated people, leaders. They want something to own and advance, but to do that they need resources.
- What resources do you have? – Your number one resource is your confidence/faith in them. Believe in them. Give them appropriate respect. Demonstrate honor. Talk them up. It doesn’t more than encourage, it changes them.
4.) Jesus Worked Through Peter’s Mess – Peter was all over the place. One moment he was promising to die for Jesus and the next he was denying Him 3x’s. He went from hacking a guy’s ear off to cowering before a little girl. But Jesus didn’t give up on him.
- For You = Appreciate God’s Patience and Process with You – You need grace for yourself sometimes. Especially you Type-A leaders. You are only human. There’s a learning curve. If you are doing everything right, every time, your vision is too small. Big visions demand significant development. It’s a process.
- For Those You Lead = Give your people patience and work through their process – people are crazy-weird. But if you believe in them, give them patience and work through their process with them, you see incredible results. However, they aren’t going to do it right the first time. They aren’t going to understand it all immediately. They aren’t going to make all the right decisions. They have to do some things wrong. They have to be allowed to do things in ways you wouldn’t. All of that is necessary for them to learn the skills they need to take their ministry to the next level.
5.) Jesus Brought Him Close – Peter was one of the Inner-3 of Christ’s Apostles along with James-and-John, the brothers. Peter was there at some of the most intense miracles. He was there at the Mt. of Transfiguration. He was closest to Christ when He walked on water. He was on that intimate reinstitution-to-ministry walk on the beach. He was close enough to tap John who was leaning on Jesus’ chest at the Last Supper. Jesus brought Peter in close.
- For You = Are you close enough to Christ to do Big Things? – How is your time with Christ? Are you pursuing Him? Are you learning more and more or stuck in a rut? Are you seeing significant change of your demeanor, personality and lifestyle to demonstrate that you are close enough?
- For Those You Lead = Bring your Biggest Leaders Closest – Not everyone can have close access to you. There’s not enough time in the day. But the bigger the leader the closer they need to be to you. Why? Because you rub off on them. You are discipling them even when you don’t realize it. And then encourage them to bring their biggest leaders closest to them.
Conclusion
- I probably wouldn’t have chosen 80% of my Leader friends to be leaders, because I wouldn’t have thought them equipped, but God did. Why? He knows what He can make. He knows His power. He’s not afraid of what I’m afraid of. He’s not limited by what I see as limitations. He has the gifts, talents and skills to get the job done in His back pocket. And He has proved Himself right time and time again with massive amounts of ministry pouring out of my friends. And we all know that the more crazy and impossible the scenario, the more glory rises His way.
God’s Doing Something In You and Through You.
