4-21-15 Faith and Faithfulness

Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. 18Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” 19Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, “Follow me!” (John 21)

The passage below illustrates Peter's faith and Christ's call upon that faith

Luke 9:20“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

Peter answered, “God’s Messiah. 

21Jesus strictly warned them not to tell this to anyone. 22And he said, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.”

23Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. 24For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. 25What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self? 26Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.

Thoughts: Those who have faith are called to be faithful.  Peter in Luke 9 confessed Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God,  Jesus' response is to say those who follow Him must lose their lives- and take up their cross and follow Him.  After the resurrection, when Peter confessed his love for Christ and a promise to feed the sheep, Jesus warned him that he would die for his faith.  When Christ bids us come- He bids us come and die.  Strong tradition says that Peter died at the hands of Emperor Nero in the circus maximus- what is now St. Peter's Square.  Tradition also says Peter asked to be crucified upside down because he felt he was not worthy to be crucified like his Lord.  The great thing is that if we believe we are raised, our death, which is inevitable is secondary.
    This also is a lesson about the ministry..  Christian ministry is not a call to make a living.  It is a call to give of yourself fully- all in.  Too many today want to make a living from doing the Lord's work and that will not work.  Going into ministry is hard.  Being crucified is not easy- and Peter, the leading minister was.  Those who enter the ministry should expect blessings- great blessings- but not in this world (as I often say the benefits are "out of this world").  Those who are not willing to come and die should never enter it. The ministry fails when people just try to keep their jobs and do not give their lives.  There are other important callings in life.  But this passage illustrates the price that is paid for those who seek to "feed [His] sheep."

Prayer: Help me, Lord to make the good confession and to stick to that confession in death and in life.