Ep 377 | "And Peter" - Lynwood Smith - April 1997

this is of course, after the resurrection of Jesus Christ and

out this is the message to the disciples, but go your way, tell

his disciples and Peter, that he goeth before you into Galilee

there, shall you see him as he said, unto you Obviously, we're

talking about the Apostle Peter this afternoon for a little

while something of his life. There's something special about

the very name of this impulsive Wayward and child hearted man,

that awakens our interest in him.

We know ourselves better when we know the Apostle Peter very

well, we study him in his failures and we grow discouraged

sometimes for we say if a man who could be so near Jesus

Christ as Peter with him in the house of jeremías on the

Transfiguration mountain and in Gethsemane, if he could deny him

then it's certainly not strange that we should fail in this

sinful and adulterous generation in which we live.

Are we starting him though? In his successes and we Rejoice?

But we say, if a man, like Peter, unlettered uncultured

fishermen as he was, if he could be loved and accepted back by

the Lord even after he had denied him.

Then there's hope for every one of us.

And so I hope we will look at it that way this afternoon.

Now there are many reasons why I like this man, Simon Peter.

And I'm sure that next to the Lord Jesus Christ of all the men

whose Names appear in the New Testament.

He would be one of the ones I should like most to meet in

heaven and see exactly what he's like.

I like to him because of his enthusiasm.

I like an enthusiastic person. I like a person who really shows

what he means, Peter had an artery about him that seemed to

radiate through everything that he did.

If he was right, he was enthusiastic the right if he was

wrong, he was enthusiastically wrong.

And I like such a man is that? But some of them might say,

isn't that the thing that caused him so much trouble?

But I would say that the world doesn't know Too much too rich

over cautious. People he was a brave man.

I'm sure though that somebody's about to say you mean Brave,

man. Didn't he deny the Lord in the

presence of a little girl when he said, I know he not and the

old habit of his profanity came back upon him.

And he denied the Lord with an oath and I last I'll say that's

true too, but then you have to remember that Peter had courage

enough to follow Jesus down into the presence of his enemies.

And Peter was one of the ones of the disciples near the master in

the courtroom. There are many reasons why I

think the Apostle Peter is an outstanding man.

But I want you to get our sermon this afternoon and Peter.

Now these words, which form an angel's message to the

Brokenhearted disciples percent, one of the sweetest pictures in

the whole Bible to us. And I hope you'll get this

afternoon. The crucifixion scene is over

now and the rocks have ceased their throbbings into crosses on

the hillside stand still and strange.

The text is the Angels message to the disciples who have

gathered themselves together after that dark dark day and are

seeking to comfort each other. They had always imagined that

the master whom they had loved and followed wants to be a king

of a temporal Kingdom. And they were to have positions

of power in that Mmm. You know, the mother of two

wonted, two of her sons to sit one.

On the right hand and one on the other.

But now, he's been crucified, and they don't understand their

hearts are, well, not breaking within them because it's an

oral, a mystery to them. How can he be a king after he's

died? It seems I can see them almost

as they sit in that little Upper Room in Jerusalem down this they

say to one another, we had trusted that it had been he that

should have redeemed Israel. And besides all this, this is

the third day since all this was done, but I'm sure that there

was one who was not in that company in Jerusalem.

I feel sure that that was a vacant chair.

This one's name was Peter. He must have felt that he was no

more of disciple and felt that he what did no more qualify to

the right of communion and fellowship with the other

disciples. I expect he was someplace on the

outskirts of the city and some Dark Lonely, Place far away from

any human eye. To look upon him for broken

hearted, man. Probably we've all felt somewhat

that way at times, but if Peter were not into company of the

disciples, I'm sure of one other thing.

Thing too. And that is that the other

disciples must have been talking about him human nature.

Hasn't changed that much. We have a great way of

remembering all about a person's failures, and downfalls, and

forgetting the strong points in their character, remembering

onto their weak places and forgetting and tired of their

virtues. And so, I suspect that these

disciples were speaking. Some?

What about Peter wondering why he wasn't here.

Can't you just hear them? We've all been in such setting?

And maybe we've been a party to too many of them.

Someone asked Wonder, where's Peter?

And they are all, of course, stare for a moment Peter said,

Ida says, you didn't expect him to be here, did you did you ever

know of him falling through without some kind of a slip-up?

Maybe another one says yeah, he's always great on speaking up

and watch and see if one of the first to put his foot in his

mouth, maybe they started mentioning some of the things

that Peter had done irrationally and wrong and they could have

mentioned a number. They sure could how probably did

his failures. They could have told about the

time that he started walking on the water and started sinking,

and that, cause that seemed to my mind to Jesus, Was coming to

them on the water. They were so afraid because they

thought he was an apparition, our spirit.

And then Jesus cried out. His voice.

Ringing like a silver bell in the midst of all the hurricane

and the winds and the Raging of the waters.

Be not afraid. It is I well after they had

calmed himself somewhat Peter said Lord, if it be thou bid, me

come unto thee on the water and Jesus answered with one word,

come. Jesus, cried out of that boat

and started walking to Jesus. And, you know, he just

accomplished that for some time he did.

All right. Until the waves, roundabout, he

became so boisterous and he began to notice them.

The Bible said he took his eye off Jesus.

Alright, we do sometimes and when he did, he is Faith failed

him and he began to sink down into the waves of the sea.

He said, Lord help me Jesus reached out his hand and helped

him and put him back into the boat.

Now they could have mentioned that and that certainly was a

failure own Peters part. But then, you know, come to

think of it. On the other hand, it took a

great degree of courage to climb out of that boat.

The others didn't I notice? They weren't perfect their legs

over the side of that boat. And walking across the water.

No sir they stayed put did indeed.

So if you're going to criticize feeder, there's a lot of things

to be said about those who never make an effort, those who never

make it effort are always quick to judge those who do make an

effort and sometimes fail into doing.

So they could have mentioned that if they had wanted to they

not have mentioned, sometimes the scene.

So recent when the Lord was washing their feet and all of a

sudden, Peter impossibly sprang up and said, Lord, thou canst

not wash my feet. Well now when you come to look

at it, that was because of a humility that was seizing.

Peter's heart the time he seemed to recognize the fact that this

is the master down there, doing the menial tasks of a servant

and he was about to let us the Lord placed servant around him

and wash his feet while he sat there, like somebody.

No sir. But Jesus wanted to prove a

point Jesus wanted to express something.

So he said, Lord, he said Peter, if I wash not that feet Dynasty,

the partner love with me and then of course, poor Peter

impulsive, Peter, Peter. So like we all are.

He said, well then, Lord not my feet only but my head.

Also, if that's the way it is, just take me off.

Take all of it. That's better.

Although they could have mentioned several other things,

too. You know, we don't usually

mention people's good things when we're putting them down.

Do we? You know, I wonder if there was

any kind of in one their kind enough to remember him and say

yes, but his love for, Jesus was so wonderful.

You never heard the master asked a question that Peter wasn't the

first one to answer it. He respected the Lord, his

mansur might not always be so might not be true but he would

try. He really would whom say ye that

I am Jesus said Peter spoke up. That's the way it was whom say

ye that, I am he answers and says so.

And so, we could mention some of the examples today.

It's a bad thing to dislike anyone so much that you can't

ever remember his good points. I hope I never get so hardened

until I can't ever see a good poet in someone even if I don't

like the person. That doesn't mean that they're

completely abandon because I don't write them, you know.

But if Peter were not gathered in the upper room and talking

about, but if they were gathered in the upper room, talking about

Peter, there's another thing of which I am most certain this

afternoon, he was the most utterly disconsolate man in all

the city of the king for Mark. You well, this one thing and

don't ever forget it. What once a man has been at the

Kings Table and taste you to the Kings meat, you can no more

expect him to find real pleasure in the world.

Then you can expect the I could go back and try to live on the

husk to satisfy himself with the company of the swine the second

time. So I think Peter was a very

broken hearted, man, this day. And I think he was in the

outskirts of Jerusalem. If there's one whom I pity, if

there's one in the world, I pity it is that one who stands like

Peter of old out of communion with his blessed Lord.

But I think maybe he finally says, I guess I've got to go and

get back with the boys and get it over with, we're thankful.

He didn't do like Judas. He did have some feeling left in

his heart. So I've got to go back and try

to fix this up somehow. Someway, maybe the fellows will

pity me and help my terrible feeling.

You know, the night that he was there to Garden in the y'all

rather in the courtroom. He was standing outside when he

went inside, when the Lord was taken inside to be tried, he was

out there warming himself around a thorn by the scholars.

Believe it was about midnight, it was cool and chill.

And here the soldiers were trumping about and the riprap

men about maybe and then all of a sudden, a damsel comes out and

sees Peter slinking In the Shadows over there.

Trying to Or himself around the part.

She said you're one of his disciples he said, no, I don't

know him. Jesus had told Peter, you know

that before the cock crows you will deny me Thrice.

Again she comes out and said you are sure one of his disciples

and he said no I don't know him and about this time that door

opens and a shaft of light pierces through the darkness of

the night and then they see Jesus bound and being led out.

And just about this time, she says, I know you were one of his

disciples, your speech betrays you, you are Galilean and Tsar

Peter take. His old habit, reverting.

He said he, the Bible says he cursed and swore and said I know

him. The agency said that remark

falls out on the air. Jesus has just walked out in

earshot and the Bible says he turned and looked at I don't

think that was a hateful look. I don't think that was a

spiteful, look. I don't think that was an angry,

look. I think it was a look of hurt.

Love, what did I tell you? So Peter type of a look And then

Jesus looked away. That look got Theatre.

The Bible says he went out into the darkness.

And cried aloud. He went out into the darkness

and wept. Now later translation gives that

this way he went out into the darkness and screamed aloud.

Now you know, the reason he did that was because it suddenly

dawned on him, he had done the worst thing that a human being

could ever do in this world. Now, that a lot of things you

might do, you might commit murder.

You might commit all kinds of mail you might do, but when you

deny the Lord, you've done the worst thing you've ever done in

this life. And Peter realizes that because

that look remind you, then he remembered the words of the

Lord. The Bible says, it all came back

on you. So I think he was still

somewhere out in the darkness of the night.

Are on the outskirts of town, the next day.

I don't think he just ran, got him a little hotel that night,

slept it, all wrong things, all over.

No sir, no way. So, I think now he tries his

best to go back and get what the apostles again.

I think maybe he turns and starts along the streets and

through the city and comes to the little room in the distance,

courage, fails, perhaps the time of to, I don't know.

Goes back to his old Retreat and sits with clenched fists and

bowed head biting. His lip tears streaming down his

face, but finally, he gets up and says, I will go and he did

go. However, he what happened.

He went, and with thankful for that, he reaches the stairway

leading up to the room. And as he, our sins we're really

dragging his feet. He reaches the landing and

reaches the latch. What does he Hear?

Voices Inside? Are people.

Talking about him inside? Are they say?

Saying those things about him inside that would hurt him and

drive him off again. He goes in.

I don't know what happened when he went he in.

I hope though that some brother someone of the group walked over

by in a manly way placed his hand upon his shoulders and

shook him. Good said Peter, We're Glad You

Came. We've been all missing you It's

never been the same since you left.

You know, you've always been our spokesman and we depended on

you. Where have you been?

We need you. The Lord won't you.

I hope that was the way it was, I don't know you know, show the

right attitude toward the area and it will do them good.

It'll bring them back. If ever, there is a time when a

man needs the words of sympathy, when he needs the warm class for

her hand, it is when he has stepped the first time out of

line. Say the right thing and do the

right thing and many a man will be brought back into the cause

of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we hope that's the case.

But listen, somebody else is coming.

Not wearily, dragging your feet, like Peter did, but she burst

into that room like a glare of sunshine.

It was a lovely married. Mary Magdalene who had been over

Yonder the tomb, Talking to Angels.

And she has received the greatest message of all times

and as she Springs into the company, to the disciple she

calls out, perhaps, he's risen, he is risen.

And then she says it Jesus is risen from the dead and he said,

he would, he would see you all over in Galilee go, tell my

disciples that I go before them into Galilee.

Is that what she said? No, and I'm glad that wasn't

what she said because if that's what she said, that man sitting

over here would have felt excluded because he already

feels the Vatican artist and it and if she had said that, he

would have felt left out. Out.

Just as sure as you can believe because the Lord thought that

too and the Bible says and putting it, right?

Here's what she said, tell my disciples and Peter.

That I go before them into Galilee.

What did the Lord name him particularly and especially

well, I'll tell you why. He was the only ones named Mitch

and and the only ones name mentioned is the only one who

had done wrong and felt that he would no longer qualify as a

disciple. I want to tell you today that

the Lord is the same yesterday today and forever. and he has an

invitation for every one of his children, but if there's one if

there's a special individual in all the world, That needs the

message to be sent to anyone. It's that one who gives out of

favor with the Lord and don't forget those words and Peter.

And Peter. It was not that the Lord didn't

love the other disciples he did. he loved him as much as he did

Peter, but he was Peter, that was the one who was lost then,

and that's the one he was thinking about the most, And at

that time, the Lord was grieving for him.

Now I heard a story told one time Someone foolishly asked our

old mother. Which one of her children she

loved the most a large family children.

She just really answered like that.

So, last morning every night Isn't that sweet?

That one would be the one of her concern at that moment and

that's the one who would be Out of the circle.

And she would be most concerned and grieving about him.

That's the one at that moment that she would love the most.

And that's the case with Peter right here and Peter, you know,

the Lord doesn't want to give up any one of his disciples He

doesn't have a single disciple that he would spare.

He loves you all in spite of our mistakes, in spite of our

failures. In spite of our weaknesses.

I've read a poem, long time. It's a classic written in

England and I'm going to read. It is one of my favorite poems

and it illustrates this, just so perfect.

As rather lengthy, the story is so you can get the thought real.

Well, two brothers lived in England, one of them was

childish. And he made it well in life, he

had it going real well. His other brother had married

and had a whole house full of kids 7.

I believe. But he didn't make it quite so.

Well, it seemed like it was hard for him to get along.

He'd Fallen upon hard times. You just could make end meets

meat. So the well-to-do brother, wrote

him a letter, and told him that I'll give you all, you need for

the rest of your life. If you'll just give me one of

your children, let's see what it says.

Here's the letter. What shall it be?

What shall it be? I looked at John.

John looked at me. This is the why dear patient

John who loves me yet. As well as though my locks were

Jet and when I found that, I must speak, my voice, seems

strangely low and weak. Tell me again, what Robert said?

And then I listening bent my head, this is his letter, I will

give a house and land. While you salil if in return

from out of your 71, child to me for a is given Under to John's

old garments worn. I thought of all that John had

borne a poverty and work in care which are the Willing could not

share. I thought of seven little mouths

to feed. I'm seven little children's

need. And then of this come, John

said, I will choose among them as they lie asleep.

So, walking hand in hand. Dear John, and I surveyed our

band first to the Cradle like this depth, For the new name,

this baby slept shall it be baby quest for John?

I took his hand and hurried on to Lily's crib, her sleeping

grasp. Held her old dog within.

Its her class her dark curls, lay like Golda like a goal

against the pill of white softly.

Her father stopped to lay his rough hand down in loving way

when dreamer whisper made her sister.

Then us Kelly said John not her not her We stopped beside the

trauma bed. And one long Ray of Lamplight

shed our thought, the boys faces their slow sleep in pity in

sleep. So, pitiful and fair are so

Jamie's rough, red chica T run dried Here, John could speak

he's but a baby to said I and kissed him as we hurried by hail

patient Robbie's suffering, angel face in sleep, still bore

sufferings Trace. No, not a thousand crowns, not

him. We whispered while our eyes were

dim for dick. That dick, our wayward son

turbulent. Restless either one, could he be

spared? No, he who gave bids us,

befriend him to the Grave. Only a mother's heart can be

patient enough for such. You see and so said, John, I

would not dare to send him from her bedside prayer.

Then stole we softly up above and they'll primary Child Of

Love, perhaps for hurts, would better be?

I said to John. Quite silently.

He lifted up a curl, a straight across her cheek, and willful

way. Then shook his head nail of not

to eat the flower of my heart, the all degree, only one more.

Our eldest LED trustee truthful. Good, and glad so, like his

father. No John, no, I cannot, I will

not let him go. And so we wrote in courteous

way, we could not give one child away and afterwards tall, like

for seemed thinking of what thinking of that for which we up

which we dream happy and true. That not one fakes we missed

from its accustomed Place thankful to work for all the

seven trusting, the restaurant in heaven.

That's just the way the Lord feels about the church at Fair

Oaks. With all of your weaknesses with

all of your troubles, with all of your problems, he doesn't

want to give one child away. well, you know That's the story.

And that's the reason why the Jesus when he sent his message

from Heaven back down here to Earth, he said, you go tell them

and Peter. I want Peter name.

And if you are stray this afternoon, if you're out of Duty

with the Lord, if he were sending a message down to this

old world, he couldn't, he couldn't be more impressed.

He couldn't be more interested in you that if he had really

called your name, he's that much interested in you though.

He's not talking to you audibly today, like you did.

Then he's talking through his word, but he means it just the

same You know, in spite of his failures, Peter had a met had a

message for us, that is rich in. Hope he tells us in the most

emphatic, way that the man who followed a far out yesterday may

enter into the intimacy of the Masters Fellowship today.

He tells us that there's a place at his side, even for those of

us who have denied him that look, but Peters heart that day,

you can have, you can hear Pathetic sobbing across the

centuries, he found his way once more into the Masters

friendship. Jesus could hardly wait to get

the door of that tomb. Open to send Peter, a special

message. Go tell my disciples and Peter.

There's it, a private interview that Jesus had with Peter.

Did you know that it's not explained in the Bible?

And it's not clearly stated in the Bible?

What took place we're not told but we can be sure of something

that he said, was said, Peter, proved that the, Peter poured

out, the whole wretched story before Jesus I think and Jesus

listened and forgot. And forgave the Bible says he

appeared on Unto Simon, he appeared unto some.

I don't know why that was no one knows what that was.

But isn't that something Peter comes forth from that interview

wearing the different Garb than he had ever worn before the Garb

of humility? MC commands that to you and me,

be clothed with humility. He writes for God, resisteth,

the proud and giveth grace to the humble wearing this robe.

Peter went forth into the ministry of the Lord.

It was in this costume that he preached in the house of

Cornelius in this Garb that he received his stripes.

And thought it owner that he was counted worthy to suffer for the

Lord. It was in this Garb that he went

into prison and he was in this Garb to the Garb of humility

that he was crucified. When Peter wrote his epistle,

when he was converted and brought back to the Lord, you

know. Peter wrote an epistle.

And there's encouragement in that epistle to everyone.

Listen, he says, but God is Not slack.

Concerning his promise as some men count slackness but is

long-suffering to us-ward listen to that long-suffering to

us-ward not willing that any should perish, but that all

should come to repentance something.

One, by the Holy Spirit, Peter Pan, those words back in the

Indy chamber of his heart, he could hear an echo. 70 and Peter

and Peter because those words were the sweetest words he had

ever. Heard in all of his life they

welcomed him back. Again somewhere down in North

Africa, probably was As he was Faithfully following his duty to

the Lord, and he never did go astray again.

His enemies apprehended him and they gave him the final

punishment. He was crucified, I like the

Lord. The only objection he had was,

don't crucify me in the normal way, crucify me upside down

because I'm not worthy to die like Jesus and they indulged

with him in that he was crucified upside down.

Wherever you are today. If you're out of Duty with the

Lord, remember these words and don't ever forget them, let me

be a encouragement and a challenge to you.

The Lord is calling for you to come back.

Now, he feels that way, just as much about you as he did Simon

Peter in the long long ago. I'm quite sure.

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