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Several years ago now, I was preaching a series on young heroes and looking specifically about the time during the Babylonian captivity. And so I talked about Daniel, I talked about Shadrach, I talked about Joseph and went back and talked about him as well over the course of several lessons since he had also been in a captivity.

Now remember, an older member came up to me after I'd been preaching several of those lessons and asked me this very pointed question. This person said, when are you going to preach on somebody that I can relate to? And I thought about that for a second. Well, I think Joseph, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, we see them even when they're young, and they have this almost perfect faith, right?

And his point, I think, on that occasion was, hey, you know, maybe we need to see some people who had to grow a little bit, who struggled some in their faith. And that's the great thing about the Bible, isn't it? But the Bible doesn't hide the flaws of its heroes when those flaws are there. Maybe David is the best example of all of that, all of these flaws.

And I've been pretty hard on David through the years, maybe because some of his flaws don't line up with my own flaws, and it's easier to judge in those moments. But the person in the Bible to whom maybe I relate to the most is Peter. Peter and all of his goodness, Peter and all of his flaws. And so let me Let me talk about somebody that we can probably relate to in that way.

And specifically, I want to think about the faith of Peter. When we consider Peter's faith I would describe Peter's faith this way. Peter was always committed. He was committed, wasn't he? He fell short, he denied, but Peter was all in. And he was willing for everybody else to see his commitment. This was not something that he hid.

This was something that was apparent to all. And I will admit, in regard to my own faith, that's something that I can I can really relate to this idea of I'm going to be committed to Christ. It's all or nothing. Either I'm for him or I'm against him. And yet, even though Peter was committed from a very, very very, very early on in his relationship with Jesus, did Peter have flaws in his faith?

Did he have growth that needed to take place in his faith? Absolutely he did. So the question I want us to think about tonight, and maybe it's implied already by what I've said, is a committed faith. Is just being committed to Jesus saying, I'm all in for Christ, I'm all in for him. Is that enough? And may I suggest tonight that commitment is an awesome start, but there is additional growth that needs to take place if we're going to have the kind of faith that God calls us to have.

Peter, I would suggest in many ways was always committed. But being committed is a great start. There's still some growth that needs to take place. Thank you for being here this evening. It's good to see all of you. If you have your Bible, turn to Matthew 4. If you would, Matthew 4.

And this goes along with what we have been considering. As we've gone through these Psalms of Ascent in this year of Ascent, in this first quarter we've considered the refuge of God's relationship while in the world, and for the month of March we're focusing on this idea of faith, that we trust God in the face of the world's temporary authority.

And I think that really applies to Peter. Peter was somebody who was committed, But it's obvious that Peter also was somebody who had an issue with authority and submitting to authority even in regard to his faith. And so I want us to consider for a few moments the growth of Peter's faith and let's trace that growth over the course of what we read about Peter.

So, number one, we see beginning with Peter's faith that he was committed enough to leave all for the reward. Are you there in Matthew 4? Look there in Matthew 4, beginning in verse 18. And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon, called Peter, and Andrew, his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen.

And he said to them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. I think we probably know what happens next. You've read this before in all likelihood. But imagine that you haven't, that you haven't ever read this before. Put yourself in their shoes. How would you respond to this? Sure, Jesus. It's awesome.

John the Baptist said you are the Lamb of God. We think you're the Messiah. We'd love to follow you. Let me finish up what we're doing here with these nets and this fishing and we'll get right on it. What time do you want to meet? You want to meet for supper tonight? You know, eight o'clock or so after we get off.

That sounds great. But that's not what happened, verse 20. They immediately left their nets and followed him. And going on from there we see the same thing happens with James and John. He calls them as well. Immediately they left their boat and their father and they followed him also. This is awesome. This is, this is a great beginning to faith.

But may I, may I humbly suggest that in some ways this was easy for, easier maybe for someone like Peter. Somebody who was passionate. Somebody who was all or nothing. Are you for me? Are you against me? Yeah, I'll leave. I'll follow you right now because I'm committed. And Peter was. He was committed enough to leave everything else for the reward.

I think we see this later on in the Gospel accounts if you turn over to Mark 10. In Mark 10 we find Mark's account of the rich young ruler.

This one who comes to him and asks him, Good teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus loves this young man for how good he is in so many ways, but he looks at him and says, One thing you lack, go, sell whatever you have, give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. And come, take up your cross, and follow me.

And we remember, The rich young ruler went away sorrowful because he had many possessions. But do you remember what happens next? Start reading with me in verse 23. Mark 10:23. Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, How hard is it? For those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God.

And the disciples were astonished at his word, but Jesus answered again and said to them, Children, how hard is it for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God? I don't know if he said it a third and fourth time as well, but Jesus is emphasizing this point, isn't he? It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.

And they were greatly astonished, saying among themselves, Well, who then can be saved? Amen. But Jesus looked at them and said, With men it is impossible, but not with God, for with God all things are possible. And you can almost hear the wheels turning in Peter's head. Because he says next, verse 28, Then Peter began to say to him, Hey, wait a second.

Well, that's not what the text says, but I can imagine Peter saying that, can't you? Whoa! Raises his hand. Wait a second. I'm hearing what you're saying, Jesus. Andrew and James and John and I, remember? Remember what happened when you asked us to follow you? Remember what we did? See, the text says, We have left all and followed you.

The parallel account says, What then shall we have? Right? So Jesus answered and said, Assuredly, I say to you, There is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my sake in the Gospels. The Gospels. who shall not receive a hundredfold in this time houses, and brothers, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.

But many who are first will be last, and the last.

Peter says, look, Jesus, we've left all and followed you just like you said with this guy. What? What then shall we have? We did it. And Jesus assures him that there will be a reward. And Peter had enough faith to do the math, maybe we can put it. It was worth it to be a follower of Jesus. And for many of us, I think that's where our faith began.

We did the math and realized it's worth it. To be a follower of Jesus, that I want to go to heaven, and I don't want to go to hell, and it's worth it to be a follower of Jesus. Eternity is longer than physical life. I can do the math here. But Peter is still likely thinking physically. He's thinking, what are we going to have?

Well, are we going to sit on a throne in your kingdom? Are we going to rule in your kingdom? We know that's the way they were thinking because later in the same chapter, beginning in verse 35, James and John come to Jesus, well, their mother comes to Jesus and says, can my boys sit on your right hand and on your left hand in your kingdom?

Hey, what are we going to have? Is there going to be a reward to this? We've left all, what's our reward? And Jesus last admonition, I believe in verse 31, is directed at Peter and the rest of the disciples. It can't just be about the reward and what you're gonna get. You have to humble yourself to serve me and serve others, even if you have to be last in those things.

And after James and John's mother comes to Jesus and makes this request in verse 41 of the same chapter, and when the ten heard it, including Peter, They began to be greatly displeased with James and John. But Jesus called them to himself and said to them, You know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.

Yet it shall not be so among you, but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all. For even, The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom. Make no mistake, brothers and sisters, ladies and gentlemen, there is a reward, and it is real,

and we can do the math. But what Jesus requires of us in our faith is to not just do the math on those things, but to have a condition of heart that is humble enough to say, it's not really totally about the reward, certainly not in this life. It is about what can I do to be a servant to all, like Him.

The And our faith has to grow in that way. But we see that early on, Peter's faith was committed enough to leave all for the reward. Well, what about when the world, the reward starts to wane just a little bit? We see Peter's faith grew where he was committed enough to be one of just a few. Peter's faith grew enough to follow Jesus when it became unpopular to do so.

Turn to John 6, if you would. John 6.

In John 6, the beginning of the chapter, Jesus feeds the 5, 000. And his popularity is at its height. He would never have more followers than what he does right here in this chapter. They want to make Him king. I mean, they are excited about what's going on with Jesus and His power and what He's able to do, the miracles that He works.

And again, they're thinking about the reward. This guy's going to feed us. They follow Him across the lake for just that reason. And in the second half of chapter 6, Jesus is really hard on them in many ways. You come to Me, He says to them, You come to me because you ate of the loaves and you were filled.

About these physical rewards, that's not what it's about. And so he preaches this sermon to them about the bread that comes from heaven. The bread of life discourse, sometimes we call it. And it's tough to hear. It's tough to accept. And in verse 60, Therefore many of his disciples, those who were following him, when they heard this, they said, This is a hard saying.

Who can understand it? The idea is who can hear it? Who can obey what he's saying here with all this stuff about You know, eating his flesh and drinking his blood and, and being concerned about spiritual things instead of physical things. And it's amazing to me that, that many walked with him no longer, verse 66.

From that time, many of the disciples went back and walked with him no more. And Jesus said to the twelve, Do you also want to go away? But Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe, and know, that you are the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God.

This is greater faith. Peter says, to whom shall we go? Everybody else is leaving, but But we're not going to leave. I'm not going to leave. And it was at this point in Jesus ministry that His words had become too hard for many to accept. He was no longer going to feed the crowd physically. And many were unwilling to live by the spiritual food that Jesus was offering.

Peter had been listening to the things taught by Jesus. And I don't know how much he understood of all that Jesus said, but He understood enough. We know Peter didn't understand all of the plans of Christ. And many of the apostles assumptions and expectations about both the Kingdom and the Messiah were being found to be untrue.

But he was convinced that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God, the Holy One of God. And that Jesus was offering something that was available nowhere else. That there was nowhere else to go, no one else who was worth following. And what I want to point out is that did not drive this decision with Peter.

It was not determined by the multitude. There was no fallback plan if this didn't work out. He was committed. And Satan was going to try and sift Peter like wheat, and would succeed in getting him to deny Christ, but it was clear that Peter's heart was set on following Christ. And we can learn something even from this one small step, improvement, growth in faith by Peter by this point.

Too many Christians have one foot firmly planted in the world that keeps them from this full kind of commitment to Christ. Thinking to themselves that they have an escape route if this Christianity thing doesn't work out. But not Peter. And what a wonderful foundation for faith that is. This is a big step in our faith.

When we are willing to serve God, when we aren't getting anything physically out of it, when we are reviled and excluded and even hated because we stand for Christ. And that's one of, I think, one of the most difficult steps.

When you realize that there are going to be some people in this world who will always keep you at arm's length because of who you are and what you stand for. To me that was, I think that was the hardest thing in high school that I experienced. Not the temptations to do all these things that I know a Christian's not supposed to do.

I think it was being excluded. I think that was the toughest thing. To have friends who were friends at school, and I knew and they knew that when school was out, that was, that was the extent of the relationship. And it was funny how those things changed, you know, early on it was that you didn't get invited to things because of, because of your standard of what was right and wrong.

And then by the end of my high school experience, I got invited to things because they wanted so desperately for me to fall. For me to not be true to my convictions and true to my faith. It takes some commitment to be committed in our faith, even if we are just one of a few. And Peter's faith grew to where, hey, you know, the reward's not always going to be physical, and it's not always going to be easy.

But I believe that Jesus is the Christ, and so I'm willing to stay with Him. We see that growth in His faith. I think the next step in Peter's progression of faith is that he was committed enough to give up his physical life. So, he goes from this idea of a physical reward to, you know, maybe this reward is a little bit different than what I've been thinking it was going to be, to even the point, well, I'm willing to die, I'm willing to give up this physical life entirely if that is what is required of me.

I want you to turn to Matthew 26. And again, sometimes our perception of these verses is impacted, I don't know how it can't be, by what we know is going to happen next. But I think Peter was absolutely sincere in what we see with him in Matthew 26 beginning in verse 31. Matthew 26:31.

And then Jesus said to them, All of you will be made to stumble because of me this night. So the night of his betrayal. His trials, He'll be crucified the next day. For it is written, I will strike the shepherd and the sheep of the flock will be scattered. But after I have been raised, I will go before you to Galilee.

Peter answered and said to Him, Even if all are made to stumble because of you, I will never be made to stumble. Jesus said to him, Assuredly, I say to you that this night, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times. Peter said to Him, Even if I have to die with you, I will not deny you. It wasn't just Peter.

So said all the disciples. Was Peter sincere in his faith in what he's saying there?

Was Peter willing to die for Jesus that night? Absolutely. It's interesting, just after this in Luke's account in Luke 22:38, upon hearing Jesus talk about the kingdom, and they perceived, hey, the moment is upon us, the kingdom's gonna start here pretty soon, they said, look, Lord, here are two swords.

And He said to them dismissingly, It is enough. Okay. You're not getting it. Fine. You got two swords. Good job. Was there any doubt which apostle would have one of those swords? We know Peter was gonna have one, right? And if you turn to John 18, we see that he did, and that he was willing to use it.

He was willing to go down fighting for his Lord, in defense of his Lord.

This mob, with lanterns and torches and weapons, with a detachment of troops, they come and they're going to take Jesus. And so, outnumbered, outgunned, with less experience, only two swords, Peter valiantly, in verse 10, having a sword, drew it, and struck the high priest's servant, and cut off his right ear.

And the servant's name was Malchus. And you can imagine Peter, with his courage, taking his sword out against this mob and all of these soldiers, and saying, Come on, I'm ready.

And instead of praising him, Jesus said to Peter, Put your sword in its sheath. Shall I not drink the cup which my Father has given me?

Matthew tells us that at this point, all his disciples fled, including Peter. Let's not dismiss his faith. He pulled the sword against the troops and the mob. He was willing to die if he could die fighting. But maybe that's not what Jesus needed from him. You know what the real question is? Giving up our physical life, I mean, that seems like the top.

But the real question is, are we willing to serve Christ, even die for Christ, if it can't be on our terms? If it must be on His? To confess Him the way He desires? To sacrifice? Peter was ready to confess. He was ready to confess greatly. He was willing to die. But Jesus didn't need, didn't just need his life or even his death.

What Jesus needed from Peter was his will, was his submission, was fully his heart. And I think the next step in Peter's growth of faith was this. He was committed enough to personally surrender his will to Jesus. Have you ever noticed how much Peter argues with Jesus? Have you ever thought about that? I mean, this is Jesus.

He believes Him to be the Christ, the Son of the Living God, the Messiah, all these sorts of things. He believes all this about Jesus. And yet, Peter's always arguing with Jesus. Have you ever, ever noticed that? I mean, how true is that? You know, Jesus says, you know, I'm going to go to Jerusalem, I'm going to suffer and die.

And Peter's like, may it never be, as long as I'm around, that's never going to happen. And Jesus has to say, Get behind me, Satan. Even what we read just a moment ago. Even if everybody denies you. I don't know about all these other jokers over here, these other eleven, but they might all deny you, but I won't.

I don't care what you say, Jesus, that's not going to happen.

And what Peter ultimately had to do in his faith was surrender his will totally to Jesus. After the resurrection, Peter believes enough to surrender totally to Jesus, even to die.

True faith is found when we are willing to come to Jesus without terms. Full and complete surrender. Nothing held back. Total, unconditional surrender to His will and His way. And if you turn over just a few chapters to John 21, Jesus has appeared a number of times by this point. But He appears to Peter and John,

and a few others of the disciples, Thomas, Nathaniel. They're all together. They, they fish, and they come back to the shore, and Jesus is there fixing breakfast for them. And we remember on this occasion, Jesus very awkwardly asks Peter three times, Do you love me? And then commands him to feed his sheep, or to feed his lambs.

And then in verse 18, after Peter pleadingly says, Lord, you know all things, you know that I love you. Jesus says to him in verse 18, Most assuredly I say to you, When you were younger, You girded yourself and walked where you wished. Now, you can imagine Peter. How was Peter as a teenager? Oh, my goodness. But when you were old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish.

And he spoke, signifying what death, by what death he would glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he said to him, Follow me. All right, Peter. You say you love me. You're willing to feed my lambs. Are you willing to follow me if it means you're not in control anymore? Are you willing to follow me if it means surrender and submission?

And I believe Peter was. Imprisonment and martyrdom was clearly in mind in these verses. And early church tradition says that Peter was crucified. But he was crucified upside down by his own request, apparently because he felt unworthy to die the same death This is Christ. For Peter, the issue was surrender and submission.

The issue was not fundamentally commitment. He was committed the whole time. And maybe for you, maybe it's different, maybe don't identify with Peter as much as I do. Maybe commitment is the issue rather than surrender and submission. But for Peter, it was not commitment, it was surrender. It was. And I think Jesus alludes to this even in verses 20 and 21.

Then Peter, turning around, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following, who also had leaned on his breast at the supper, that's John, and said, Lord, who is the one, and had said, Lord, who is the one who betrays you? Peter, seeing him, said to Jesus, But Lord, what about this man? Jesus said to him, If I will, That he remained till I come.

What is that to you? You follow me. It's none of your business, Peter. Quit worrying about all this other stuff. You know what your job is? Follow me. Do my will. Submit and surrender totally to me. Peter was willing to personally surrender. And he's personally willing to surrender his will to Jesus. And initially, this lesson was a four point lesson.

Committed enough to personally surrender his will to Jesus. And I will admit, I felt really good about myself at four points.

And then I was saying, well, how does this really fit in? You know, Peter, he's doing great. He's gonna follow him, he loves him, all this sort of thing. And then out of the blue, Peter's like, well, what about John? You know, what about that? I'm like, well, that doesn't seem like totally faith like we're supposed to have, right?

And so I think Peter's still concerned about the pecking order just a little bit. What about John? He's willing to submit to Jesus, surrender his will totally to Jesus. But you know, these other people, you know, that's, it's a little harder, isn't it? We have a song that we sing sometimes. One of my favorites, when My Love to Christ grows weak, win for deeper faith, I seek then in thought.

I go to the Garden of Gethsemane there, I walk amid the Stray, and it's while the. I didn't intend to quote the whole song. We go to the cross, we think about Christ, we think about His sacrifice, and that love and commitment to Christ all comes floating back, right? But you know the most difficult and convicting verse to that song is when my love for man grows weak.

For people.

And I think there was one more step in Peter's growth. The one that is maybe the most difficult for some of us. That Peter's growth of faith required him to take the final step To be committed enough to live and preach a life of full submission. Jesus had been hinting about that from the very beginning, right?

The first will be last and the last shall be first. And you gotta serve others if this is what you're really, if you're really talking about faith in me. You've gotta trust me enough that you're gonna submit yourself. And certainly we see in the book of Acts how, how, Peter had committed himself fully to Jesus and His will.

In Acts 4, for example, in verses 18-21 whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than God you judge, for we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard. And in chapter 5, Peter with the other apostles says, We ought to obey God rather than men. Man, he is committed to the will of Jesus.

And even when the will of Jesus goes against him, In chapters 10 and 11, we've studied this in our Bible class, right? With Cornelius's house, Peter in verse 34 says, In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality, but in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him. If this is God's will that the Gentiles now are brought in, So be it.

That's Jesus will. I'm gonna do that. And, and even in chapter 11, when he comes back and tells the other Jewish Christians about all of this. He goes to Cornelius house with words by which they had been saved, and the Holy Spirit falls on them just like it fell on us at the beginning. And he says in verse 17, If therefore God gave them the same gift as he gave us, and we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could withstand God?

He's committed and surrenders himself to the will of Jesus. That's young Peter.

But you know, we get a glimpse at old Peter a few decades later, in 1st and 2nd Peter. And if you want to turn over there, that will be the last place that we'll look. Now, Peter in the book of Acts was still not perfect in all of these things. We remember that Paul had to confront him to his face over his hypocrisy on the The Jew Gentile issue.

And we're still going to have times where we fall short. I mean, growth is an ongoing process, no doubt. But this is the kind of faith that we should have. A faith that submits totally to Jesus and the needs of others. And Peter finally got it. And it gives me hope. It gives me hope that I can get there too, and maybe you can get there too.

It gives me somebody that I can really relate to. Someone that I can see had to grow in his faith. And it got there before the end. The book of 1 Peter really is all about submission. Be obedient children, Peter says. Submit to the governing authorities, Peter says. Submit to your masters, even if they're harsh, Peter says.

Submit to husbands, wives. Submit to suffering, all Christians. And all of this submission, I think, asks the question, Do I have faith enough to come to Jesus on His terms, even if it means submitting to others besides Him? I'll submit to Jesus all the live long day, but does that mean submitting to others and putting their needs above my own?

Am I willing to have that kind of faith? Because that's what Jesus did, right? And Peter brings all of this, I think, to a great conclusion in 1 Peter 5. In verse 5, another submission passage, he says, Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, notice, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility.

For God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He might exalt you in due time. This humility and submission is the final step in Peter's faith. Where we submit to one another because we trust and have faith that Christ has given us that example.

And that by imitating Him in this way, we can not just show our faith, we can have an influence on others as well. So that they might know his faith better, too. Well, where are you? Are you somewhere on this list? One, two, three, four, or five? Let me tell you, if you're on the list, that's great! That means that you have an, an awesome start to faith wherever you are on this list.

But, like me, maybe there's some places where you need to grow in your faith. And Jesus, in His long suffering, has given us that opportunity. That opportunity to grow. And He has not left us alone. Amen. Amen. Where that growth just has to happen in a vacuum by ourselves, but he has given us others who can help us along the way.

And so if we can help you in your faith, if there's sin that you need to confess, or there's barriers to growth that you are striving to overcome, if we can pray for you, if we can pray with you, there's nothing that we would love more than to be able to do that with you tonight. But, maybe what you need to do is take this first step, that you need to commit yourself to following Jesus.

And if we can help you with that tonight, that would give us great joy. that you might come in humble submission, repenting of your sins, confessing Jesus as the Christ, to be baptized. And that's a commitment. That I'm going to rise to walk in newness of life, being made pure and holy by God, yes, but also committing myself to live my life under His will and following His direction.

And if we can help you tonight, won't you come while together we stand and while we sing. Amen.