May 11, 2025 • 28 mins
This week we look at Peter's denial of Christ and ultimately his restoration and how this is warning and comfort for us.
Main Scripture:
Matthew 26:31-35
Additional Scripture:
- Zechariah 13:7
- Romans 8:9-11
- Matthew 26:69-75
- Joel 2:25
- John 21:1-6
- John 21:7-10
- John 21:15-19
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
UNKNOWN (00:00):
Bye.
SPEAKER_00 (00:08):
Hello and welcome to A Path to Redemption, the
podcast.
My name is Daniel Arona and justremember this simple truth.
The Father loves you, Jesusloves you, and the Holy Spirit
loves you.
Once again, I hope that you'vehad a great week.
I hope that you've had time tospend with the Lord in prayer
and also once again in hisscripture.
Again, I know I stress it everysingle time, but you have got to
put in the work.
You have to put in the work.
Make sure that you are studyingto show yourself approved unto
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God.
Make sure you're fostering thatrelationship.
Make sure that you are being ledby the Spirit.
Amen.
Because that's what it's goingto come down to, particularly in
these last days.
As we can continue to navigatethe things that are going on in
this world, and particularly ina post-Christian society, which
is one thing that I truly dobelieve that we live in.
We live in a post-Christiansociety.
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I think we need to accept thatas Christians.
The morality of society is notbased upon biblical principles
anymore.
It's based upon kind of do as Iwill, if you will.
So at that point, we have tomake sure that we are holding
fast to the principles ofScripture, to Jesus Christ, to
the Father, to the Holy Spirit,making sure that we are doing
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the things that he is asking usto do.
Amen.
And making sure that we areabout his work.
So last week, we saw how theLast Supper was kind of a bridge
between the long grace and as ithappened between the time of the
rejection of the Jews and theacceptance of the Gentiles.
The next thing we see after thisis where Jesus predicts that
Peter would deny him.
And this interaction isinteresting and should be a
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warning to us all.
And that's what we're going tofocus on.
So we're not going to gonecessarily verse by verse by
verse.
As we have been through Matthew,we're going to look at this
singular event about the falland restoration of Peter here
today and what it truly meansand how it, one, should be a
warning for all of us, but thenalso shows the graciousness of
our Lord Jesus Christ.
(01:56):
But before we get into that,again, all of our scripture
comes from the New King JamesBible.
If you'd like a copy of the NewKing James Bible, feel free to
drop me a note atPastorRedemptionOhio at
gmail.com.
More than happy to get one intoyour hand.
Also, my book's out, GraceAbounds, if you'd like a copy of
that.
Email me at the same place,pathsofredemptionohio at
gmail.com.
Again, more than happy to getone into your hands.
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And then finally, do not take myword for it.
Make sure you stay to showyourself approved unto God.
That's how you get close to Him.
That's how you get intimate withHim, is by putting in the work.
That's got to be the focus.
That has to be the focus for allof us is that we are putting in
the work that we may be usedaccording to what he wants in
our lives.
Amen.
(02:40):
So with that, again, we are notgoing to go verse by verse like
we have, but we will solelyfocus on Peter.
And before we kind of dive intothe scripture here, I want to be
clear.
You know, Peter was part of theinner circle.
It was him, James and John thatformed Christ's closest
confidants.
He walked with him.
He talked with him.
He had an intimate relationship.
And it was Peter that reallydeclared Christ divinity at the
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outset when he said, you know,when Jesus was asking his
disciples, who do you think Iam?
And Peter says, you know, thatyou are the Christ, the son of
the living God.
And Jesus says, you know, it'sbecause the father that has
revealed it to him.
And it was on that rock that hewould build his church, not the
rock of Peter necessarily, butthe rock of the revelation that
Jesus Christ is the son of theliving God.
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So with that being said, youknow, Peter had a closer
relationship and intimacy, thenA lot of people did, even at
that time.
And that is where Peter started,which frankly is a much better
place than most of us are now,even in terms of our intimacy
and how we go about ourrelationship with Jesus Christ.
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So let's go ahead and jump in.
Matthew 26, 31 through 35.
Then Jesus said to them, All ofyou will be made to stumble
because of me this night.
For it is written, I will strikethe shepherd, and the sheep of
the flock will be scattered.
But after I have been raised, Iwill go before you to Galilee.
So here, Jesus is clear that thedisciples wouldn't be made to
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stumble.
This means that they would leavehim, and we know that that's
exactly what happens.
They're going to leave him anddepart from him because he's
arrested by the that he ishanded over to the Romans
ultimately to get crucified.
And this is really thefulfillment of Zechariah 13, 7,
where it says, This is thefulfillment of the scripture,
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and it was set by the word ofGod.
And I want to be clear aboutthat.
Jesus was, again, talking aboutthe prophecy that had been set
by Zechariah Uriah 400 yearsearlier 400 plus years earlier I
should say and ultimately sayingthat look it's already been set
in stone that once I am killedonce I am crucified that the
sheep are going to scatter thatyou will be caused to fall
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because of that tonight and whatwe have to understand is that
when God makes a decree or whenit's set in stone like this just
kind of the same way that thenext age is set in stone with
the millennial kingdom and thesame way that there are certain
prophecies that have to befulfilled you know when it's
time for those to be fulfilled,there's nothing that we can do
to stop it.
And to think that we can, Ithink is honestly arrogance and
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it's in pride and iniquity, youknow, and because we see that in
the disciples here too, in theirown pride and iniquity, they
deny that they will be scatteredand that they would leave him.
It had been set in scripture andJesus said, told them, look,
this is what's going to happen.
Again, they have walked with himfor over three years.
They should know by now when hesays something's going to
happen, it's going to happen.
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So it's ultimately Peter thatreally leads this.
Again, Peter was one of theclosest to Jesus.
He was one in the inner circlewith him.
Yet, look at what he says inverse 33.
Even if all are made to stumblebecause of you, I will never be
made to stumble.
You know, Peter always had thischip on his shoulder relative to
the rest of the disciples.
He was pushing to be greater orat least to make sure that he
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was closer than the others.
You know, this would not changeafter the resurrection as we see
it in the text.
the episode next to the Galileewhen they are having the fish
and those things, and some ofthe things he says about John,
which we're not going to addresstoday.
But he's always kind of had thischip on his shoulder around
this.
And Jesus even told them that hewould ultimately go before them
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in Galilee and tells them thatthis would happen after the
resurrection.
You see, the issue here is thearrogance when Jesus tells Peter
something.
The same thing happens to us.
I can tell you of countlessstories of people telling me
that the Lord would take themcertain places or that certain
things would happen and theydenied it.
They said the Lord wouldn't dothis.
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And sure enough, that's exactlywhat happened.
See, the Lord, I'll give you aperfect example.
The Lord told my mom that shewas going to get breast cancer,
but that he would walk herthrough every step.
And that's exactly whathappened.
And she was ultimately fine.
You see, regardless of what itis, when the Lord tells us
something, we have to beprepared for what is coming,
regardless of what we think.
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We must just walk with itaccording to his plan and then
recognize the trust that has tohappen and also ask him, Lord,
what work are you trying to getin me?
What are you trying to get me todo?
Are you trying to humble me?
Are you trying to get a piece ofmy life that I have not freely
given over to you?
Is that what you're trying todo?
Ask him.
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Ask him what his purpose is.
He will not hide it from us.
He absolutely will not.
Because at the end of the day,he wants us to learn.
He wants us to grow.
But sometimes the trials of ourfaith are the way that he does
that.
And that's ultimately where ourflesh can die and we can be
resurrected into the newness ofhim in that area of our life.
But if we don't go with theprogram and we begin to deny his
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work, then that's ultimatelydenying the work that he wants
to do in us.
And why would we ever want to dothat?
We don't.
So you see, Jesus told themplainly that, look, I'm going to
get struck.
At the end of the day, you'regoing to scatter and you're
going to fall.
But don't worry, I'm going to gobefore you into Galilee and I'll
see you there, basically is whathe's saying.
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Yet they're saying, oh, we'renot going to leave you even if
you have to die.
That's arrogance.
That's pride and iniquity.
Accept what the Lord is tellingus and go from there.
But it was immediately afterthis that Jesus says that Peter
would deny him three times.
But again, Peter doubles down.
He says that even if he has todie with Christ, he will not
deny him.
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This is all pride and arrogance.
So many times people say that ifI was in that situation, I would
do things differently.
But the fact is that until youare in that situation, you have
no idea how you're going to act.
At this point, Peter isself-righteous and sure of
himself, but he is about to behumbled tremendously.
And you see, this is why we haveto make up our mind now to
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follow Christ and ask for thegrace to face the situation.
You see, ultimately, when we'rein the situation, and you know,
my pastor puts it this way.
He says, you don't get martyr'sgrace until you're about to be
martyred.
And I completely agree with himwhen it comes to that.
But we can pray and have thatintimacy so that when we get to
wherever we need to go, thegrace is there and And it's
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already sufficient.
I'm struggling with that myself.
Because I've got some thingsgoing on.
Particularly with the Lord.
And I'm trying to trust Him.
I'm focusing on trusting Him.
And He's trying to get me tolive day by day by day.
Follow His will today.
If I follow His will today,everything else will take care
of itself.
All I need to do is focus on Hiswill today.
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And I'm really trying to dothis.
But at the end of the day, theHoly Spirit is going to have to
work this in me.
And I need the grace.
I need the grace for thesituations that I'm in and I
pray about it and I ask him forit.
But at the end of the day, Ihave to get with his program and
I have to make sure that I'm theone that's humbling myself and
telling him to take whatever itis from me and that he's
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ultimately going to still be theLord and ruler of my life.
So before we kind of get intothe scripture regarding Peter's
denial, I want to set a stagehere.
Jesus had just been betrayed andarrested in Gethsemane.
He was questioned and beaten bythe Sanhedrin and he was called
a black That's the situationthat Peter finds himself in.
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That's the grace that Peterneeded in order to deliver him
to the Romans.
to get through this situation,but Jesus had already said that
he was going to deny Christ.
And ultimately, he did, right?
And look, I don't excuse thedenial, but I will say this,
that one, Christ hadn't diedyet, okay?
Because at the end of the day,you don't have that redemption,
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you don't have that gracewithout grace and truth coming
through the death andresurrection of Jesus Christ.
So Peter wouldn't have been ableto have the grace for the
situation.
You know, two, it was prophesiedthat he would deny Christ.
I mean, Jesus So the moment itcame out of Jesus' mouth, it was
going to happen.
Again, the context of what washappening with the Sanhedrin and
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also Rome.
And the other thing here is thatthe Holy Spirit had not come
yet.
And I think that's a reallyimportant part here.
Because if we have the HolySpirit, it's the Holy Spirit
that will continue to push us,continue to guide us and lead us
even when things get difficult.
Romans 8, 9-11 says, It's aninner strength that pushes us
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and draws us to do all thesethings for him.
What separated the disciples inthe first century church from
the other ages was the HolySpirit in the fullness of the
indwelling.
And it's really funny that Iwrote this because I actually
wrote this before I went tochurch on Saturday with a friend
of mine when we were on a trip.
And we go to his church and hepulls out a quote from A.W.
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Tozer, which I found reallyinteresting.
He said, you know, If you removethe Holy Spirit from the church
today, 95% of what we do wouldcontinue on.
But if you remove the HolySpirit from the first century
church, you know, that 95% ofwhat they did would stop.
And we would all notice.
And I think that that's telling,right?
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That's telling how important theHoly Spirit is and how we've got
to get back to that level.
And it was just interestinghearing that confirmation as I
had just written this even rightbefore church, right before we
went to church with our friends.
But this is going to have tocome back in the end as the last
day's remnant will be as thatfirst century church was.
So we're going to have to havethat type of Holy Spirit.
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We're going to have to have thattype where it's going to quicken
us and push us and get us to gothat extra mile the way that we
are supposed to.
So now let's look at Peter'sfull denial of Christ.
So Matthew 26, 69-75 says this,Now Peter sat outside in the
courtyard, and a servant girlcame to him, saying, You also
were with Jesus of Galilee buthe denied it before them all
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saying I do not know what youare saying and when he had gone
out to the gateway another girlsaw him and said to those who
were there this fellow also waswith Jesus in Nazareth but again
he denied with an oath I do notknow the man and a little later
those who stood by came up andsaid to Peter surely you also
are one of them for your speechbetrays you then he began to
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curse and swear saying I do notknow the man immediately a
rooster crowed and Peterremembered So he went out and
wept bitterly.
Now Peter denied Christ againthree times.
The first is flesh.
Remember that God works from theinward spirit of man to the
soul, then to the body.
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Sin works the other way.
We saw this with Eve, right?
Because she saw that the treewas good to eat.
She saw that it looked good.
And then ultimately that wasgood to make one wise.
So the lust of the flesh, thelust of the eyes, and the pride
of the eyes.
That's how sin works, outsidein.
And that's what we see here withPeter.
A servant girl sees him andPeter simply says, I don't know
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what you're saying.
This small sentence was adenial, but not the fullness of
it.
It's like the first initial sinbefore you go down the full
road.
This is the carnality in fleshfor Peter to save himself.
The second is the soul.
This time Peter was gone.
Why do I say that?
Because ultimately he is seen byanother girl and Peter denies it
with an oath and says, I do notknow the man The fact that Peter
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denied it with an oath shows thesoulish fall in what he did.
He swore before the girl and Godthat he did not know Christ
after walking with him for overthree years.
Once the soul aligns with theflesh, the spirit will
completely fall.
There's no possible way for thespirit to overcome both the
carnality and the soul, or yourmind, or your will, your
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thoughts, and your emotions.
Once you think that way, thenultimately you will fall that
way.
And after that, we see the lastone for the spirit.
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at the price and toll that it'sgoing to take.
I wept bitterly over my denialof the Lord, but I can tell you
that experience and therestoration by Christ made me a
better follower of him.
My restoration took three years.
Peter's would take about 30days.
You see, the great thing aboutGod is that when we come back to
him, he is still willing torestore us.
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In Joel 2, we see what happensafter repentance.
We see that God restores theland and ultimately that is us.
Joel 2.25 specifically says, soI'll restore Now look, I don't
recommend leaving the Lord orgoing out in the world and you
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know, as my mom used to call it,sowing your wild oats that's not
what I'm saying stay close tothe Lord stay intimate to the
Lord in these last days but whatI am telling you is that if you
do if you do that there is a Godthere is a Jesus Christ who is
an advocate to the Father youknow who is constantly waiting
for us to turn back to him therewere things that I did that I'm
not proud of and things that Iwon't be proud of but it also
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makes me realize what I've beensaved from and the redemptive
work that Christ has done in meyou know my son this weekend he
asked me you know he said daddywhy do you cry sometimes when
you're praising the Lord.
And I told him, I was like,buddy, it's because I'm happy.
I'm crying tears of joy becauseof what Jesus Christ has done
for me.
And I love him with all of mybeing because I'm so thankful
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for what he's done for me.
And it was at that point that hestarted asking about sin.
He started asking about theredemptive work of Christ.
And he said he wanted to besaved.
And ultimately he got saved thisweekend.
And I praise the Lord for thatso much that he believes and I'm
going to do my best And I'vealready asked the Lord for
wisdom to train him up and toteach him how to fall in love
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with Jesus Christ.
Not just about the do's anddon'ts, but how to really fall
in love with Jesus Christ.
And that's what I want for myson.
And as an answer to a prayer,I've been praying since he was
born, since my other son wasborn, that the Lord would save
them at a young age and that hewould fill them with the Holy
Ghost at a young age.
And I'm just so thankful andgrateful for what the Lord has
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done in my son.
But But ultimately that years ofrestoration happens and you
become thankful, more thankfulfor what God has done for you
and the restoration that he'sdone for you.
Okay.
So we're going to look at whathe did for Peter because he did
restore Peter.
And for this, we're going toturn to the gospel of John to
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show what happened with Peterand his restoration.
John 21, one through six says,after these things, Jesus showed
himself again to the disciplesat the sea of Tiberias.
And in the way he showedhimself, Simon Peter Thomas
called the twin, Nathaniel ofCana in Galilee, the sons of
Zebedee, and two others of hisdisciples were together.
Simon Peter said to them, I amgoing fishing.
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They said to him, We are goingwith you also.
They went out and immediatelygot into the boat, and that
night they caught nothing.
But when the morning had nowcome, Jesus stood on the shore,
yet the disciples did not knowthat it was Jesus.
Then Jesus said to them,Children, have you any food?
They answered him, No.
And he said to them, Cast thenet on the right side of the
boat, and you will findsomething.
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So they cast and now they wereable to draw it in because of
the multitude of fish.
So here again, we see thedisciples that are ultimately
going fishing.
So they had already seen Jesusand they had known that he had
risen.
And I think that's key here.
So they knew what exactly he wasdoing.
They knew that he was alreadyrisen.
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They knew that all that wasgoing to happen or that had
already happened, I should say,but they didn't know what to do.
You see, instruction had notbeen really given to them.
And frankly, And frankly, intrue Peter fashion, he could not
just sit and wait.
So he's like, I'm going fishing.
They're like, all right, well,we'll go with you because we're
just sitting here.
We don't really have anythingthat's really going on here.
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So at the end of the day, that'swhy they went.
And this was ultimately thethird time that Jesus showed
himself to his disciples afterhe was raised from the dead.
We see that in John 21, 14.
But at the end of the day, theyhad to do something.
So they toiled all night andcaught nothing until Jesus comes
and asks if they had any food.
And we saw this once before whenhe told the disciples to feed
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the 5,000 before the miraclethat Jesus did.
You see, they had food from histeaching, and he wanted to show
them this.
He wanted to show them that theycould feed the flock, that they
could feed the church, that theycould be the ones to do this.
He told them where to fish, justas he would lead them to where
they would go when it was timefor them to go into the world.
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You see, I constantly talk aboutus being in a post-Christian
world.
Well, they were in apre-Christian world, and God was
going going to set the wateringhole, if you will, for them to
actually go and fish in so thatthey could go and get the fish
of men and basically get peoplesaved and begin to build the
church.
So that's exactly what we'regoing to have to do.
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We're going to have to listen tothe Spirit.
We're going to have to moveaccording to the Spirit,
according to the leading, andmake sure that we are doing and
going where God wants us to go.
And then when we do it exactlylike He wants it to, then there
will be fish.
But John 21 John 1, 7-10 saysthis, Peter was so overcome by
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the presence of the Lord and hisdesire for him that he jumped
out of the boat and swam to him.
The others stayed in the boat,but for Peter he jumped in the
water.
You see, the boat representsChrist, it represents safety,
while the sea represents thesin, and that's where Peter was.
You see, this was what he did inhis denial of Christ.
But he was swimming to Christ.
He desperately wanted out ofthat water and to be restored
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back to the one that he loved.
You know, this was the thirdtime that Jesus appeared to the
disciples.
The first was the redemptionWhen we saw the stone rolled
away and they see him for thefirst time.
And ultimately, that was thefirst time.
It was for redemption.
It was after their resurrection.
The second was for theindwelling of the Holy Spirit,
which comes after redemption orat the point of redemption.
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The third was for restoration.
This happens after the HolySpirit changes us.
And now we see this with Peter.
He had redemption.
He had now had the Holy Spirit,the indwelling, but it was time
for his restoration.
And that happens in John 21,15-16.
So when they had eatenbreakfast, This is an important
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interaction here.
And John ends his gospel withit.
And that's how important it is.
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Because again, just as sin andiniquity work flesh to spirit,
Christ works spirit to flesh.
So the first time we see therestoration of the spirit for
Peter.
He wants Peter to reaffirm hislove, but how does he do this?
By feeding his lambs.
Lambs are new Christians.
They are the ones that need themost help and also can be the
most challenging due to theircarnality.
(24:24):
But Peter is being told todemonstrate his love for Christ
by doing this work.
This is the labor of the spirit.
The second time Christ is askedfor his soul.
Here Christ tells him to tendthe sheep.
The action here is to be ashepherd tending is much more
than feeding tending includesgetting in the mud and the muck
with the sheep it's leading themin the right direction
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protecting and watching overthem and being mindful of them
the sheep are mature Christiansthat still need to be led and
watched it is the responsibilityof the shepherd to do this and
ultimately that's a work thathas to be done frankly in the
spirit and in the soul becausethere are practical matters that
have to be dealt with and thenthe final time is for his body
every time we get to this pointour flesh is going to be grieved
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whenever we are being restored,and I can attest to that
personally.
Anytime that Christ works on us,it grieves our flesh.
That is what we see here.
He is to demonstrate this byfeeding the sheep.
This is the call of Peter andalso his work for the
restoration.
When we are restored by Christ,we will have a work to do as
part of that restoration.
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It was only because of hisrejection of Christ and the
subsequent restoration of himthat he was able to preach the
sermon that he did on the day ofPentecost.
It wasn't John that did it.
It wasn't James that did it.
It was Peter.
Why?
Because Peter was so gratefulfor the redemptive work, the
indwelling of the Holy Spirit,and ultimately the restoration.
(25:48):
And you see, it's funny becauseJesus directly addresses Peter
saying, look, I'm going to gofishing, right?
Even at the end here, because hesays, most assuredly, I say,
when you were younger, yougirded yourself and walked where
you wished.
But when you were old, you'llstretch out your hands and
another will gird you and carryyou where you do not wish.
And we ultimately know thatPeter was would be crucified
upside down because he did notfeel that he was worthy enough
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to be crucified right side up asJesus was.
But for all of us, though, wehave got to understand that that
the work that we are called todo.
We must walk through the sameprocess.
We must see the redemption workthrough our faith in Him, the
acceptance of the indwelling ofthe Holy Spirit, and then the
restoration by Christ.
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I would also argue that if youwant to do what God has for you
no matter what, and to be mosteffective on it, you need the
baptism of the Holy Spirit, andthat would come on the day of
Pentecost.
That is not about salvation, butabout the execution of the work.
You see, Peter could not Do thework and preach the message he
did without the baptism of theHoly Spirit on the day of
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Pentecost.
You have to have all of it.
You have to have all four ofthose pieces.
You have to have the redemption,the indwelling of the Holy
Spirit.
You've got to have therestoration, and then you've got
to have, I believe, the baptismof the Holy Spirit.
We're not talking aboutsalvation.
We're not talking about going toheaven.
We're not talking about thatstuff.
We're talking about beingeffective to do the work of the
calling that God has called youto do.
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And all of us need to be mindfulabout that, particularly as the
day Amen.
So look, I hope you gotsomething out of this.
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And everyone listening, I reallyhope that we are focusing on him
and on his work and on thethings that he would have us to
do.
But until next time, justremember this simple truth.
The Father loves you, Jesusloves you, and the Holy Spirit
loves you.
God bless.
Bye.
SPEAKER_00 (00:08):
Hello and welcome to A Path to Redemption, the
podcast.
My name is Daniel Arona and justremember this simple truth.
The Father loves you, Jesusloves you, and the Holy Spirit
loves you.
Once again, I hope that you'vehad a great week.
I hope that you've had time tospend with the Lord in prayer
and also once again in hisscripture.
Again, I know I stress it everysingle time, but you have got to
put in the work.
You have to put in the work.
Make sure that you are studyingto show yourself approved unto
(00:30):
God.
Make sure you're fostering thatrelationship.
Make sure that you are being ledby the Spirit.
Amen.
Because that's what it's goingto come down to, particularly in
these last days.
As we can continue to navigatethe things that are going on in
this world, and particularly ina post-Christian society, which
is one thing that I truly dobelieve that we live in.
We live in a post-Christiansociety.
(00:50):
I think we need to accept thatas Christians.
The morality of society is notbased upon biblical principles
anymore.
It's based upon kind of do as Iwill, if you will.
So at that point, we have tomake sure that we are holding
fast to the principles ofScripture, to Jesus Christ, to
the Father, to the Holy Spirit,making sure that we are doing
(01:13):
the things that he is asking usto do.
Amen.
And making sure that we areabout his work.
So last week, we saw how theLast Supper was kind of a bridge
between the long grace and as ithappened between the time of the
rejection of the Jews and theacceptance of the Gentiles.
The next thing we see after thisis where Jesus predicts that
Peter would deny him.
And this interaction isinteresting and should be a
(01:35):
warning to us all.
And that's what we're going tofocus on.
So we're not going to gonecessarily verse by verse by
verse.
As we have been through Matthew,we're going to look at this
singular event about the falland restoration of Peter here
today and what it truly meansand how it, one, should be a
warning for all of us, but thenalso shows the graciousness of
our Lord Jesus Christ.
(01:56):
But before we get into that,again, all of our scripture
comes from the New King JamesBible.
If you'd like a copy of the NewKing James Bible, feel free to
drop me a note atPastorRedemptionOhio at
gmail.com.
More than happy to get one intoyour hand.
Also, my book's out, GraceAbounds, if you'd like a copy of
that.
Email me at the same place,pathsofredemptionohio at
gmail.com.
Again, more than happy to getone into your hands.
(02:19):
And then finally, do not take myword for it.
Make sure you stay to showyourself approved unto God.
That's how you get close to Him.
That's how you get intimate withHim, is by putting in the work.
That's got to be the focus.
That has to be the focus for allof us is that we are putting in
the work that we may be usedaccording to what he wants in
our lives.
Amen.
(02:40):
So with that, again, we are notgoing to go verse by verse like
we have, but we will solelyfocus on Peter.
And before we kind of dive intothe scripture here, I want to be
clear.
You know, Peter was part of theinner circle.
It was him, James and John thatformed Christ's closest
confidants.
He walked with him.
He talked with him.
He had an intimate relationship.
And it was Peter that reallydeclared Christ divinity at the
(03:03):
outset when he said, you know,when Jesus was asking his
disciples, who do you think Iam?
And Peter says, you know, thatyou are the Christ, the son of
the living God.
And Jesus says, you know, it'sbecause the father that has
revealed it to him.
And it was on that rock that hewould build his church, not the
rock of Peter necessarily, butthe rock of the revelation that
Jesus Christ is the son of theliving God.
(03:24):
So with that being said, youknow, Peter had a closer
relationship and intimacy, thenA lot of people did, even at
that time.
And that is where Peter started,which frankly is a much better
place than most of us are now,even in terms of our intimacy
and how we go about ourrelationship with Jesus Christ.
(03:47):
So let's go ahead and jump in.
Matthew 26, 31 through 35.
Then Jesus said to them, All ofyou will be made to stumble
because of me this night.
For it is written, I will strikethe shepherd, and the sheep of
the flock will be scattered.
But after I have been raised, Iwill go before you to Galilee.
So here, Jesus is clear that thedisciples wouldn't be made to
(04:25):
stumble.
This means that they would leavehim, and we know that that's
exactly what happens.
They're going to leave him anddepart from him because he's
arrested by the that he ishanded over to the Romans
ultimately to get crucified.
And this is really thefulfillment of Zechariah 13, 7,
where it says, This is thefulfillment of the scripture,
(04:54):
and it was set by the word ofGod.
And I want to be clear aboutthat.
Jesus was, again, talking aboutthe prophecy that had been set
by Zechariah Uriah 400 yearsearlier 400 plus years earlier I
should say and ultimately sayingthat look it's already been set
in stone that once I am killedonce I am crucified that the
sheep are going to scatter thatyou will be caused to fall
(05:17):
because of that tonight and whatwe have to understand is that
when God makes a decree or whenit's set in stone like this just
kind of the same way that thenext age is set in stone with
the millennial kingdom and thesame way that there are certain
prophecies that have to befulfilled you know when it's
time for those to be fulfilled,there's nothing that we can do
to stop it.
And to think that we can, Ithink is honestly arrogance and
(05:38):
it's in pride and iniquity, youknow, and because we see that in
the disciples here too, in theirown pride and iniquity, they
deny that they will be scatteredand that they would leave him.
It had been set in scripture andJesus said, told them, look,
this is what's going to happen.
Again, they have walked with himfor over three years.
They should know by now when hesays something's going to
happen, it's going to happen.
(05:59):
So it's ultimately Peter thatreally leads this.
Again, Peter was one of theclosest to Jesus.
He was one in the inner circlewith him.
Yet, look at what he says inverse 33.
Even if all are made to stumblebecause of you, I will never be
made to stumble.
You know, Peter always had thischip on his shoulder relative to
the rest of the disciples.
He was pushing to be greater orat least to make sure that he
(06:22):
was closer than the others.
You know, this would not changeafter the resurrection as we see
it in the text.
the episode next to the Galileewhen they are having the fish
and those things, and some ofthe things he says about John,
which we're not going to addresstoday.
But he's always kind of had thischip on his shoulder around
this.
And Jesus even told them that hewould ultimately go before them
(06:43):
in Galilee and tells them thatthis would happen after the
resurrection.
You see, the issue here is thearrogance when Jesus tells Peter
something.
The same thing happens to us.
I can tell you of countlessstories of people telling me
that the Lord would take themcertain places or that certain
things would happen and theydenied it.
They said the Lord wouldn't dothis.
(07:03):
And sure enough, that's exactlywhat happened.
See, the Lord, I'll give you aperfect example.
The Lord told my mom that shewas going to get breast cancer,
but that he would walk herthrough every step.
And that's exactly whathappened.
And she was ultimately fine.
You see, regardless of what itis, when the Lord tells us
something, we have to beprepared for what is coming,
regardless of what we think.
(07:24):
We must just walk with itaccording to his plan and then
recognize the trust that has tohappen and also ask him, Lord,
what work are you trying to getin me?
What are you trying to get me todo?
Are you trying to humble me?
Are you trying to get a piece ofmy life that I have not freely
given over to you?
Is that what you're trying todo?
Ask him.
(07:44):
Ask him what his purpose is.
He will not hide it from us.
He absolutely will not.
Because at the end of the day,he wants us to learn.
He wants us to grow.
But sometimes the trials of ourfaith are the way that he does
that.
And that's ultimately where ourflesh can die and we can be
resurrected into the newness ofhim in that area of our life.
But if we don't go with theprogram and we begin to deny his
(08:06):
work, then that's ultimatelydenying the work that he wants
to do in us.
And why would we ever want to dothat?
We don't.
So you see, Jesus told themplainly that, look, I'm going to
get struck.
At the end of the day, you'regoing to scatter and you're
going to fall.
But don't worry, I'm going to gobefore you into Galilee and I'll
see you there, basically is whathe's saying.
(08:27):
Yet they're saying, oh, we'renot going to leave you even if
you have to die.
That's arrogance.
That's pride and iniquity.
Accept what the Lord is tellingus and go from there.
But it was immediately afterthis that Jesus says that Peter
would deny him three times.
But again, Peter doubles down.
He says that even if he has todie with Christ, he will not
deny him.
(08:47):
This is all pride and arrogance.
So many times people say that ifI was in that situation, I would
do things differently.
But the fact is that until youare in that situation, you have
no idea how you're going to act.
At this point, Peter isself-righteous and sure of
himself, but he is about to behumbled tremendously.
And you see, this is why we haveto make up our mind now to
(09:08):
follow Christ and ask for thegrace to face the situation.
You see, ultimately, when we'rein the situation, and you know,
my pastor puts it this way.
He says, you don't get martyr'sgrace until you're about to be
martyred.
And I completely agree with himwhen it comes to that.
But we can pray and have thatintimacy so that when we get to
wherever we need to go, thegrace is there and And it's
(09:29):
already sufficient.
I'm struggling with that myself.
Because I've got some thingsgoing on.
Particularly with the Lord.
And I'm trying to trust Him.
I'm focusing on trusting Him.
And He's trying to get me tolive day by day by day.
Follow His will today.
If I follow His will today,everything else will take care
of itself.
All I need to do is focus on Hiswill today.
(09:50):
And I'm really trying to dothis.
But at the end of the day, theHoly Spirit is going to have to
work this in me.
And I need the grace.
I need the grace for thesituations that I'm in and I
pray about it and I ask him forit.
But at the end of the day, Ihave to get with his program and
I have to make sure that I'm theone that's humbling myself and
telling him to take whatever itis from me and that he's
(10:11):
ultimately going to still be theLord and ruler of my life.
So before we kind of get intothe scripture regarding Peter's
denial, I want to set a stagehere.
Jesus had just been betrayed andarrested in Gethsemane.
He was questioned and beaten bythe Sanhedrin and he was called
a black That's the situationthat Peter finds himself in.
(10:35):
That's the grace that Peterneeded in order to deliver him
to the Romans.
to get through this situation,but Jesus had already said that
he was going to deny Christ.
And ultimately, he did, right?
And look, I don't excuse thedenial, but I will say this,
that one, Christ hadn't diedyet, okay?
Because at the end of the day,you don't have that redemption,
(10:56):
you don't have that gracewithout grace and truth coming
through the death andresurrection of Jesus Christ.
So Peter wouldn't have been ableto have the grace for the
situation.
You know, two, it was prophesiedthat he would deny Christ.
I mean, Jesus So the moment itcame out of Jesus' mouth, it was
going to happen.
Again, the context of what washappening with the Sanhedrin and
(11:23):
also Rome.
And the other thing here is thatthe Holy Spirit had not come
yet.
And I think that's a reallyimportant part here.
Because if we have the HolySpirit, it's the Holy Spirit
that will continue to push us,continue to guide us and lead us
even when things get difficult.
Romans 8, 9-11 says, It's aninner strength that pushes us
(12:12):
and draws us to do all thesethings for him.
What separated the disciples inthe first century church from
the other ages was the HolySpirit in the fullness of the
indwelling.
And it's really funny that Iwrote this because I actually
wrote this before I went tochurch on Saturday with a friend
of mine when we were on a trip.
And we go to his church and hepulls out a quote from A.W.
(12:35):
Tozer, which I found reallyinteresting.
He said, you know, If you removethe Holy Spirit from the church
today, 95% of what we do wouldcontinue on.
But if you remove the HolySpirit from the first century
church, you know, that 95% ofwhat they did would stop.
And we would all notice.
And I think that that's telling,right?
(12:56):
That's telling how important theHoly Spirit is and how we've got
to get back to that level.
And it was just interestinghearing that confirmation as I
had just written this even rightbefore church, right before we
went to church with our friends.
But this is going to have tocome back in the end as the last
day's remnant will be as thatfirst century church was.
So we're going to have to havethat type of Holy Spirit.
(13:19):
We're going to have to have thattype where it's going to quicken
us and push us and get us to gothat extra mile the way that we
are supposed to.
So now let's look at Peter'sfull denial of Christ.
So Matthew 26, 69-75 says this,Now Peter sat outside in the
courtyard, and a servant girlcame to him, saying, You also
were with Jesus of Galilee buthe denied it before them all
(13:42):
saying I do not know what youare saying and when he had gone
out to the gateway another girlsaw him and said to those who
were there this fellow also waswith Jesus in Nazareth but again
he denied with an oath I do notknow the man and a little later
those who stood by came up andsaid to Peter surely you also
are one of them for your speechbetrays you then he began to
(14:04):
curse and swear saying I do notknow the man immediately a
rooster crowed and Peterremembered So he went out and
wept bitterly.
Now Peter denied Christ againthree times.
The first is flesh.
Remember that God works from theinward spirit of man to the
soul, then to the body.
(14:24):
Sin works the other way.
We saw this with Eve, right?
Because she saw that the treewas good to eat.
She saw that it looked good.
And then ultimately that wasgood to make one wise.
So the lust of the flesh, thelust of the eyes, and the pride
of the eyes.
That's how sin works, outsidein.
And that's what we see here withPeter.
A servant girl sees him andPeter simply says, I don't know
(14:47):
what you're saying.
This small sentence was adenial, but not the fullness of
it.
It's like the first initial sinbefore you go down the full
road.
This is the carnality in fleshfor Peter to save himself.
The second is the soul.
This time Peter was gone.
Why do I say that?
Because ultimately he is seen byanother girl and Peter denies it
with an oath and says, I do notknow the man The fact that Peter
(15:10):
denied it with an oath shows thesoulish fall in what he did.
He swore before the girl and Godthat he did not know Christ
after walking with him for overthree years.
Once the soul aligns with theflesh, the spirit will
completely fall.
There's no possible way for thespirit to overcome both the
carnality and the soul, or yourmind, or your will, your
(15:33):
thoughts, and your emotions.
Once you think that way, thenultimately you will fall that
way.
And after that, we see the lastone for the spirit.
(16:08):
at the price and toll that it'sgoing to take.
I wept bitterly over my denialof the Lord, but I can tell you
that experience and therestoration by Christ made me a
better follower of him.
My restoration took three years.
Peter's would take about 30days.
You see, the great thing aboutGod is that when we come back to
him, he is still willing torestore us.
(16:28):
In Joel 2, we see what happensafter repentance.
We see that God restores theland and ultimately that is us.
Joel 2.25 specifically says, soI'll restore Now look, I don't
recommend leaving the Lord orgoing out in the world and you
(17:06):
know, as my mom used to call it,sowing your wild oats that's not
what I'm saying stay close tothe Lord stay intimate to the
Lord in these last days but whatI am telling you is that if you
do if you do that there is a Godthere is a Jesus Christ who is
an advocate to the Father youknow who is constantly waiting
for us to turn back to him therewere things that I did that I'm
not proud of and things that Iwon't be proud of but it also
(17:29):
makes me realize what I've beensaved from and the redemptive
work that Christ has done in meyou know my son this weekend he
asked me you know he said daddywhy do you cry sometimes when
you're praising the Lord.
And I told him, I was like,buddy, it's because I'm happy.
I'm crying tears of joy becauseof what Jesus Christ has done
for me.
And I love him with all of mybeing because I'm so thankful
(17:51):
for what he's done for me.
And it was at that point that hestarted asking about sin.
He started asking about theredemptive work of Christ.
And he said he wanted to besaved.
And ultimately he got saved thisweekend.
And I praise the Lord for thatso much that he believes and I'm
going to do my best And I'vealready asked the Lord for
wisdom to train him up and toteach him how to fall in love
(18:14):
with Jesus Christ.
Not just about the do's anddon'ts, but how to really fall
in love with Jesus Christ.
And that's what I want for myson.
And as an answer to a prayer,I've been praying since he was
born, since my other son wasborn, that the Lord would save
them at a young age and that hewould fill them with the Holy
Ghost at a young age.
And I'm just so thankful andgrateful for what the Lord has
(18:35):
done in my son.
But But ultimately that years ofrestoration happens and you
become thankful, more thankfulfor what God has done for you
and the restoration that he'sdone for you.
Okay.
So we're going to look at whathe did for Peter because he did
restore Peter.
And for this, we're going toturn to the gospel of John to
(18:56):
show what happened with Peterand his restoration.
John 21, one through six says,after these things, Jesus showed
himself again to the disciplesat the sea of Tiberias.
And in the way he showedhimself, Simon Peter Thomas
called the twin, Nathaniel ofCana in Galilee, the sons of
Zebedee, and two others of hisdisciples were together.
Simon Peter said to them, I amgoing fishing.
(19:18):
They said to him, We are goingwith you also.
They went out and immediatelygot into the boat, and that
night they caught nothing.
But when the morning had nowcome, Jesus stood on the shore,
yet the disciples did not knowthat it was Jesus.
Then Jesus said to them,Children, have you any food?
They answered him, No.
And he said to them, Cast thenet on the right side of the
boat, and you will findsomething.
(19:38):
So they cast and now they wereable to draw it in because of
the multitude of fish.
So here again, we see thedisciples that are ultimately
going fishing.
So they had already seen Jesusand they had known that he had
risen.
And I think that's key here.
So they knew what exactly he wasdoing.
They knew that he was alreadyrisen.
(19:59):
They knew that all that wasgoing to happen or that had
already happened, I should say,but they didn't know what to do.
You see, instruction had notbeen really given to them.
And frankly, And frankly, intrue Peter fashion, he could not
just sit and wait.
So he's like, I'm going fishing.
They're like, all right, well,we'll go with you because we're
just sitting here.
We don't really have anythingthat's really going on here.
(20:19):
So at the end of the day, that'swhy they went.
And this was ultimately thethird time that Jesus showed
himself to his disciples afterhe was raised from the dead.
We see that in John 21, 14.
But at the end of the day, theyhad to do something.
So they toiled all night andcaught nothing until Jesus comes
and asks if they had any food.
And we saw this once before whenhe told the disciples to feed
(20:41):
the 5,000 before the miraclethat Jesus did.
You see, they had food from histeaching, and he wanted to show
them this.
He wanted to show them that theycould feed the flock, that they
could feed the church, that theycould be the ones to do this.
He told them where to fish, justas he would lead them to where
they would go when it was timefor them to go into the world.
(21:02):
You see, I constantly talk aboutus being in a post-Christian
world.
Well, they were in apre-Christian world, and God was
going going to set the wateringhole, if you will, for them to
actually go and fish in so thatthey could go and get the fish
of men and basically get peoplesaved and begin to build the
church.
So that's exactly what we'regoing to have to do.
(21:22):
We're going to have to listen tothe Spirit.
We're going to have to moveaccording to the Spirit,
according to the leading, andmake sure that we are doing and
going where God wants us to go.
And then when we do it exactlylike He wants it to, then there
will be fish.
But John 21 John 1, 7-10 saysthis, Peter was so overcome by
(22:09):
the presence of the Lord and hisdesire for him that he jumped
out of the boat and swam to him.
The others stayed in the boat,but for Peter he jumped in the
water.
You see, the boat representsChrist, it represents safety,
while the sea represents thesin, and that's where Peter was.
You see, this was what he did inhis denial of Christ.
But he was swimming to Christ.
He desperately wanted out ofthat water and to be restored
(22:31):
back to the one that he loved.
You know, this was the thirdtime that Jesus appeared to the
disciples.
The first was the redemptionWhen we saw the stone rolled
away and they see him for thefirst time.
And ultimately, that was thefirst time.
It was for redemption.
It was after their resurrection.
The second was for theindwelling of the Holy Spirit,
which comes after redemption orat the point of redemption.
(22:52):
The third was for restoration.
This happens after the HolySpirit changes us.
And now we see this with Peter.
He had redemption.
He had now had the Holy Spirit,the indwelling, but it was time
for his restoration.
And that happens in John 21,15-16.
So when they had eatenbreakfast, This is an important
(23:41):
interaction here.
And John ends his gospel withit.
And that's how important it is.
(24:03):
Because again, just as sin andiniquity work flesh to spirit,
Christ works spirit to flesh.
So the first time we see therestoration of the spirit for
Peter.
He wants Peter to reaffirm hislove, but how does he do this?
By feeding his lambs.
Lambs are new Christians.
They are the ones that need themost help and also can be the
most challenging due to theircarnality.
(24:24):
But Peter is being told todemonstrate his love for Christ
by doing this work.
This is the labor of the spirit.
The second time Christ is askedfor his soul.
Here Christ tells him to tendthe sheep.
The action here is to be ashepherd tending is much more
than feeding tending includesgetting in the mud and the muck
with the sheep it's leading themin the right direction
(24:44):
protecting and watching overthem and being mindful of them
the sheep are mature Christiansthat still need to be led and
watched it is the responsibilityof the shepherd to do this and
ultimately that's a work thathas to be done frankly in the
spirit and in the soul becausethere are practical matters that
have to be dealt with and thenthe final time is for his body
every time we get to this pointour flesh is going to be grieved
(25:08):
whenever we are being restored,and I can attest to that
personally.
Anytime that Christ works on us,it grieves our flesh.
That is what we see here.
He is to demonstrate this byfeeding the sheep.
This is the call of Peter andalso his work for the
restoration.
When we are restored by Christ,we will have a work to do as
part of that restoration.
(25:28):
It was only because of hisrejection of Christ and the
subsequent restoration of himthat he was able to preach the
sermon that he did on the day ofPentecost.
It wasn't John that did it.
It wasn't James that did it.
It was Peter.
Why?
Because Peter was so gratefulfor the redemptive work, the
indwelling of the Holy Spirit,and ultimately the restoration.
(25:48):
And you see, it's funny becauseJesus directly addresses Peter
saying, look, I'm going to gofishing, right?
Even at the end here, because hesays, most assuredly, I say,
when you were younger, yougirded yourself and walked where
you wished.
But when you were old, you'llstretch out your hands and
another will gird you and carryyou where you do not wish.
And we ultimately know thatPeter was would be crucified
upside down because he did notfeel that he was worthy enough
(26:13):
to be crucified right side up asJesus was.
But for all of us, though, wehave got to understand that that
the work that we are called todo.
We must walk through the sameprocess.
We must see the redemption workthrough our faith in Him, the
acceptance of the indwelling ofthe Holy Spirit, and then the
restoration by Christ.
(26:33):
I would also argue that if youwant to do what God has for you
no matter what, and to be mosteffective on it, you need the
baptism of the Holy Spirit, andthat would come on the day of
Pentecost.
That is not about salvation, butabout the execution of the work.
You see, Peter could not Do thework and preach the message he
did without the baptism of theHoly Spirit on the day of
(26:55):
Pentecost.
You have to have all of it.
You have to have all four ofthose pieces.
You have to have the redemption,the indwelling of the Holy
Spirit.
You've got to have therestoration, and then you've got
to have, I believe, the baptismof the Holy Spirit.
We're not talking aboutsalvation.
We're not talking about going toheaven.
We're not talking about thatstuff.
We're talking about beingeffective to do the work of the
calling that God has called youto do.
(27:16):
And all of us need to be mindfulabout that, particularly as the
day Amen.
So look, I hope you gotsomething out of this.
(27:49):
And everyone listening, I reallyhope that we are focusing on him
and on his work and on thethings that he would have us to
do.
But until next time, justremember this simple truth.
The Father loves you, Jesusloves you, and the Holy Spirit
loves you.
God bless.
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