Tag Archives: Cephas

CLAY FEET

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CLAY FEET

“When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned, For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.

“When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, ‘You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?'” Galatians 2:11-14.

Even Peter! How strong are the traditions that enslave a person’s conscience!

Peter was far from Jerusalem. There were no scrupulously traditional Jewish believers in the vicinity of Antioch, so he freely mixed with Gentiles according to the dream which had led him to enter Cornelius’ the centurion’s house in Caesarea and eat with him (Acts 10). But when a group of Jewish believers came from James, the leader of the church in Jerusalem, he slipped back into his old Jewish attitude of exclusivism.

For Peter, it was not a matter of conscience or conviction. He had long dealt with the right or wrong of eating with Gentiles – which was an expression of reconciliation; the Holy Spirit had seen to that. Here it was a matter of the fear of man and Paul was quick to rebuke him, even publicly, for going back on his conviction to appear loyal to his Jewish heritage. He wasn’t even honouring the word of God but rather Jewish customs which contradicted God’s intention.

In his defininition of the gospel of grace he preached, Paul referred to this incident to convince his Galatian readers that he had actually stood up to the great Peter whom he had just described as one of the “esteemed” leaders of the church in Jerusalem.

By Peter’s behaviour, he had inadvertently dishonoured the gospel of Christ which was the good news of salvation through Him alone. Peter was insinuating that Jesus had not really destroyed the barrier between Jew and Gentile through His death; that Jews were still superior to Gentiles and showed it by their refusal to eat with fellow Gentile believers. In the end, he was saying that he had to uphold the customs of his forefathers which took precedence over the truth of the gospel.

For Paul this was unthinkable. He had given up too much for the sake of the gospel and suffered too much at the hands of his fellow Jews because of their fanatical loyalty to useless traditions to sanction Peter’s hypocrisy by keeping quiet. To say nothing meant that he was allowing Peter to lead others, even his companion Barnabas, astray. If it meant publicly exposing Peter’s cock-eyed thinking, so be it.

Paul does not record Peter’s response. Did he defend himself? Did he make excuses? Did he graciously acknowledge his error? We do not know. All we know is that Paul clearly understood the message of the cross and he defended it fearlessly even to standing up to Peter himself. It was not his intention to belittle Peter or to show himself better than Peter. It was always and only his motive to hold Jesus up as an all-sufficient Saviour for both Jew and Gentile.

Paul had long since come to understand that, at the cross, everyone stands on level ground. There is no longer a difference between Jew and Gentile. All the differences that existed were artificial and man-made. The Jews, as God’s covenant people, were chosen, not to make them exclusive, but to set them apart for a divine purpose – to show the world that their God was the only and true God by the way they lived.

They failed dismally, anyway, and all they did was to show how impossible it was to be like Him by following rules and rituals, most of which they made up, without having their hearts changed. It took the Son of God to show them how to love like the Father, and then to die in the place of sinners to reconcile them to the Father. Where, in all that, were they better than anyone else? They stood on level ground with every other human being in both their sin and their eligibility to receive God’s grace through the death of His Son.

Thanks to Paul’s understanding and clear presentation of the truth, Peter and his companions received correction and we have this letter which presents Jesus to us as the all-sufficient Saviour of sinners plus nothing.

How true it is that anyone, including Peter, can have “clay feet”!

Acknowledgement

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

WHAT’S IN A NAME?

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WHAT’S IN A NAME?

“Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, ‘We have found the Messiah’ (that is, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, ‘You are Simon, son of John. You will be called Cephas,’ (which, translated, is Peter).” John 1:40-42

Why did John go into so much detail in relating this little incident? Didn’t Jesus call these two brothers from fishing in the lake to follow Him? I cannot answer these questions because the Bible does not connect the dots. However, we get some interesting insights into the character of these two brothers.

Simon and Andrew were two very different characters. Andrew seems to have been the more serious one, a disciple of John and keen to find out about the Messiah John was introducing. Together with an unnamed disciple of John, he sought Jesus out and spent the day with Him. Convinced that He was the Messiah, Andrew hurried off to fetch his brother and bring him to meet Jesus.

Andrew was more contemplative and less vocal than Simon Peter. He was very much part of the Twelve but stayed in the background while Peter was the spokesman and always in the forefront of the action. Perhaps, after this introduction to Jesus, the brothers went back to their nets until Jesus was ready to call them.

Jesus’ response to Simon needs some comment. Why did Jesus change his name? In Hebrew thought, a name was a prophetic utterance of character. Babies were often named according to the circumstances of their birth, or as an expression of their prophetic destiny. John the Baptist was not named after his father, Zachariah, but called John which means “grace”. He would be ushering in, through Jesus, a new era of grace.

The name Simon means “to hear” or “reputation”. Jesus saw him, not as merely a hearer but as a rock – Petros in Greek, Cephas in Aramaic — one who would become steadfast and dependable. Isn’t this typical of the way God sees people, not as they are but as they would become through His grace?

There were important implications for Peter in this way of viewing and treating him. Jesus had to endure some questionable ideas and behaviour from this volatile and outspoken disciple. Peter often spoke first and thought afterwards. He said the first thing that came into his head. He had inflated ideas about himself and then crumbled when the test came.

Jesus knew Simon. He knew his character. He knew the way he was thinking and the way he would respond to Him, but He also knew what he would become. On the strength of His knowledge of Simon,, He renamed him Peter. On a few occasions, when Simon really exasperated Him, He would revert to his old name but, more often than not He addressed him Peter. Every time Jesus said “Simon”, He was rebuking him and reminding him of who he was — just a hearer. And that’s what he often proved to be. Simon suffered from “selective hearing” just like the rest of the disciples did!

However, it was not Jesus’ intention to tie him to his past. There was no value in reminding Peter who he was. In changing his name, Jesus was declaring His intention to change his character, and every time He called him Peter, He was drawing him towards his future.

There are valuable lessons for us in the example of Jesus. First of all, we learn that God is more interested in what we will be than in what we are.or what we have been He has called us His sons and daughters. Our role in life is to learn to become what we are — holy and beloved children of God. True faith is taking possession of what we already own. We are heirs of all that God has promised. It is our job to inherit His promises with faith and patience (Hebrews 6:12).

The second lesson is equally important. Just as Jesus saw Peter as a rock, so we must view people according to their potential rather than their actual. Instead of criticising them for what we don’t like about them, call them “Peter”. See them as holy and beloved. This attitude will push them towards their future instead of anchoring them to their past.

Release them from the past by cancelling their debt just as God has done, and they will be set free to become what God already sees them to be.

Will you do that? That’s what Jesus did.

Acknowledgement

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Persecutor Turned Preacher

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PERSECUTOR TURNED PREACHER

“Then, after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Cephas and stayed with him fifteen days. I saw none of the other apostles – only James, the Lord’s brother. I assure you before God that what I am writing is no lie. Then I went to Syria and Cilicia. I was personally unknown to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. They only heard the report: ‘The man who formerly persecuted the church is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.’ And they praised God because of me.” Galatians 1:18-24.

Paul’s story takes some beating! How could this happen? “The man who formerly persecuted the church is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” It doesn’t happen every day. It’s like Hitler turning Jewish! And yet it did.

If ever there was a reason to believe that Paul had the right to defend the sufficiency of Jesus’ death for salvation, it was his own story. He had discovered for himself that all his efforts to satisfy the requirements of the law to gain access to God’s favour, were useless and futile. He spelled it out clearly in his letter to the Roman church. The harder he tried to change himself on the inside, the more he was sucked into his sinful ways. Trying to obey the law could not break the power of sin within him.

Paul knew what it was like to struggle with guilt, but he also knew the reality of God’s peace. Out of his own personal experience he could write:

“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Romans 5:1

“…and the peace of God which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds through Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:7.

This peace was unknown to him until he came face to face with Jesus and received by faith and without lifting a finger, the righteousness he had tried so hard to earn. How could he ever go back to the old way and how could he sit by and say nothing when others were trying to persuade Gentiles to buy into a life of futile self-effort? He would fight the false teaching with every breath and with every ounce of energy in his body.

Paul was a man with a brilliant mind. He could think and argue like an astute lawyer. He was trained as a rabbi and a Pharisee under the best religious teachers of his day. Just as he once contended for Judaism, now he contended for the faith which he clearly understood from the Scriptures he knew so well. From the moment he met Jesus, everything he had learned as a rabbi fell into place. He did not invent a new faith. He preached with conviction what was already proclaimed in the Old Testament and fulfilled in Jesus, the Messiah.

He did not need Peter or the other disciples to teach him the truth. His three years in Arabia alone with the Holy Spirit, entrenched God’s Word which he had memorised from childhood and now understood. The truth became so deeply embedded in his spirit that he became God’s replacement for Judas, the betrayer. He paid a brief visit to Jerusalem to introduce himself to Peter and to reassure him that he, Paul, was no longer a persecutor but a preacher of the one he tried to destroy. He met none of the other apostles, only Jesus’ half-brother, James.

Then he returned to Damascus and back home to Cilicia. Paul did not record here that he became a danger to the church in Jerusalem because of his fiery preaching, so they shipped him back home to Tarsus (Acts 9:28-30). The church had rest for a while after he left until the next wave of persecution hit them when God opened the door of faith to the Gentiles.

The outcome of Paul’s encounter with Jesus and his years of training in Arabia was a convinced and loyal apostle of Jesus and colleague of the men whom Jesus commissioned to take His message to the ends of the earth. After Peter’s initial visibility in the first few chapters of Acts, Paul took centre stage, and the rest of the book is his story. He became the champion of Jesus, not only in the work he did across the empire but, even more, in the legacy he left the church down the ages through his letters.

What an encouragement to know that, if God could change a vicious persecutor, He can change anyone!

Acknowledgement

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.