Lesson Five - Gun-Hoe Spontaneity

Lesson Five - Gun-Hoe Spontaneity

Class. I wanted to say thank you for putting up with my long-windedness, today we will do more discussion. As you can tell I like to talk. But I hope the Lord has been good to you as he has been good to me. I have been learning a lot from Peter, as I hope you have too. The lord has been dealing with me and it is good. Your homework from last week, we too look at Peter and Paul’s conflict in Gal. 2. I want to briefly go over this as we have great stuff to cover today about Peter. We will see Peter’s “Gun-hoe spontaneity.” He truly was the leader among the twelve. His passion for Christ was spectacular.

Discussion: Would someone please summarize what happened in these passages? Thanks _____. That is correct. Paul reproofs Peter for being hypocritical.
What does Paul correct Peter for? Peter's offense was public, so he publicly reproved him for it: He said unto him before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of the Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews? Let’s see the AMP translation:” If you, though born a Jew, can live [as you have been living] like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how do you dare now to urge and practically force the Gentiles to [comply with the ritual of Judaism and] live like Jews?”
What is this dispute about? hypocrisy. Does it matter? How important is it? It was important that Paul pointed this out. As Christians we can give off bad signals and turn away non-believers by our hypocrisy. This scenario was appropriate for Paul to reproof Peter. And we see that the situation was well taken by Peter. And they left the situation as friends and not divided. Peter agreed that he was wrong.

One last note that I found interesting in research is about the personalities of Paul and Peter. The two could not have been much more different. Camille suggests that conflict issues between the two might have had something to do with this mismatch in background and personality. Camille says they were “a match made in purgatory.”34 In short Peter was a humble, local fisherman who never strayed too far from the Sea of Galilee. He was a warm-hearted, conservative with a little education that everyone knew and liked, even Jesus. Paul on the other hand was more liberal, well-educated, a world-traveler who never got a chance to met Jesus. Peter merely betrayed Jesus, as Paul persecuted and killed Christians.

Peter might be most well-known for his enthusiasm and gun-hoe spontaneity in the passages that we look at today. We learn a lot about faith and loyalty in these two key passages: Jesus walking on water (Mat 14:22-33 NASB) and Peter with a sword in Gethsemane (John 18:1-13 NASB).

_______ would you open us open in the Mat 14 passage? Thanks.

Immediately He made the disciples get into the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side, while He sent the crowds away. After He had sent the crowds away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray; and when it was evening, He was there alone. But the boat was already a long distance from the land, battered by the waves; for the wind was contrary. And in the fourth watch of the night He came to them, walking on the sea. When the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, "It is a ghost!" And they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, "Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid." Peter said to Him, "Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water." And He said, "Come!" And Peter got out of the boat, and walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But seeing the wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, "Lord, save me!" Immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and took hold of him, and *said to him, "You of little faith, why did you doubt?" When they got into the boat, the wind stopped. And those who were in the boat worshiped Him, saying, "You are certainly God's Son!"

(Mat 14:22-33 NASB)

Men have imperfect faith. Notice Jesus does not say “no faith,” but “little faith.”

We see in this passage, despite Peter’s willingness to follow and his love and affection for the Lord, he is first off not willing to go unless commanded, (although this is more initiation than the other eleven.) And then despite the fact hat Peter does go somewhat spontaneously, somewhat in fear, we see his faith and fear collide.

Notice that he was afraid; although it is likely he was a good swimmer, being a fisherman. 35 And also he was afraid despite the fact, he saw Jesus walking with his own eyes!

Adam Clarke brings it all together for real life application: “Every moment we stand in need of Christ: while we stand - we are upheld by his power only; and when we are falling, or have fallen, we can be saved only by his mercy. Let us always take care that we do not consider so much the danger to which we are exposed, as the power of Christ by which we are to be upheld; and then our mountain is likely to stand strong.36”

Let us take faith, strong faith in the Lord on a daily basis.

____ would you please read John 18:1-13? Thanks.
When Jesus had spoken these words, He went forth with His disciples over the ravine of the Kidron, where there was a garden, in which He entered with His disciples. Now Judas also, who was betraying Him, knew the place, for Jesus had often met there with His disciples. Judas then, having received the Roman cohort and officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, *came there with lanterns and torches and weapons. So Jesus, knowing all the things that were coming upon Him, went forth and *said to them, "Whom do you seek?" They answered Him, "Jesus the Nazarene." He *said to them, "I am He." And Judas also, who was betraying Him, was standing with them. So when He said to them, "I am He," they drew back and fell to the ground. Therefore He again asked them, "Whom do you seek?" And they said, "Jesus the Nazarene." Jesus answered, "I told you that I am He; so if you seek Me, let these go their way," to fulfill the word which He spoke, "Of those whom You have given Me I lost not one." Simon Peter then, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest's slave, and cut off his right ear; and the slave's name was Malchus. So Jesus said to Peter, "Put the sword into the sheath; the cup which the Father has given Me, shall I not drink it?" So the Roman cohort and the commander and the officers of the Jews, arrested Jesus and bound Him, and led Him to Annas first; for he was father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year.

(John 18:1-13 NASB)

In Luke 22:49 When those who were around Him saw what was going to happen, they said, "Lord, shall we strike with the sword?"- Some of the other disciples ask the Lord if they should attack, then out of no where, Peter smites his sword and slices Malchus’ ear off. This is just a reflection of Peter. He does not wait, stop to think, or hear what Jesus says, he just cuts off the ear!

And again, Peter is the one of the disciples who takes action out of loyalty for Jesus as the other disciples are slow to action. This time the others are at least thinking about taking action, as we see in the question that they ask.

Discussion Questions:
What can we learn from Peter and his gun-hoe attitude?
we learn to think before we speak. We learn to have Peter’s faith - when we are on Jesus Christ's errands, there is no time to stand up for ourselves. We should set all of our inhibitions aside and follow, as Peter did better than the other disciples.
What are the pros and cons of this type of behavior for Peter?
For Peter, his loyalty got him into Jesus’ inner circle of friends. His gun-hoe attitude also brought him some humility and embarrassment.
What are the pros and cons of this type of behavior in your daily life?
In our daily lives, in our culture this attitude is looked at as extremism. People say “‘wow’ you are one of those Jesus freaks, weirdo.” It is a good thing in the sense that people know where you stand and what you believe, (if they actually do actually know what the tenants of Christianity are.) But the negative side is that people might look down on you, not really understand what you believe because of stereotypes, or people might think that you sold out to Christianity. Other might think you are radical in your faith. The point is that having this much devotion to the Lord sometimes scares people away or turns them off, mostly because they do not understand. We as Christians should be fully devoted to the Lord but we have to communicate love and Christ, grace and peace. We have to explain what we are to others clearly.
Have there been moments in your life recently where you had a strong desire to live for the Lord, but the realities of fear and temptation caused you t o wimp out of fail in your desire to “die for Christ?” Anyone willing to share a moment with us?

Tonight we looked at Peter and Paul and their conflict. Then we examined more about Peter and his famous incidents: walking on water and playing with a sword. Peter displayed lots of loyalty and a little faith. The Lord calls us to follow with the same amount of loyalty and even greater faith…Are you up for the challenge? Take some time this week to examine where your faith is lacking. The Holy Spirit will sure guide you if you ask him to.

Okay, thanks class for another great night. You are always open to talk and share insights and experiences that really enhance these lessons and our small group. I appreciate all of your own thoughts, the time and energy you are putting into studying God’s Word and making this small group better. In my appreciation there are no reading assignments for next week. I will tell you what we will be looking at, in case you over-achievers need some thing to read for next week. Next week we will be looking into the writings of Peter. His Sermon in acts 2, 1st and 2nd Peter, and the Gospel of Mark (indirectly). Thanks, see you next week!