We have had so many wonderful times of teaching that it is hard to imagine we could be hungry for the Word of God. We are so full.
But there is a little secret. I learned it long ago. As you can see, my wife is a good cook. Sometimes we go somewhere and have a meal, and I would be stuffed. I would not be hungry at all. But I would get home and smell something my wife was cooking, maybe one of my favorite things, and I suddenly got hungry again.
Now, we have received a lot from the Lord in these few days—more messages than our minds can contain. Maybe you feel a little bit overstuffed and unable to take anything in. But then, as we sing these songs, the fragrance of the Lord Jesus causes us once again to find this hunger: “Lord, can I receive just a little bit more?”
I hope we are able tonight to receive a little bit more of His Word as we focus on this matter of Peter and redeeming the time. I would like us to look at a few Scriptures by way of background, first beginning in Luke.
We need eventually to pick up Peter where we left him: there in the courtyard, having betrayed and denied Jesus three times. In Luke 22:61, we have the verse out of which came that wonderful song we sang yesterday: those eyes that melted Peter.
It was Jesus looking at him, even as He was being whipped and knocked around. Jesus looked out the window and saw Peter there in the courtyard, and they locked eyes.
The Lord turned and looked at Peter.
And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had told him, “Before a rooster crows today, you will deny Me three times.”
And he went out and wept bitterly.—Luke 22:61-62
Let us go to the end of Luke 24, beginning with verse 45.
Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures,
and He said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day,
and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
You are witnesses of these things.
And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you;
but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”—Luke 24:45-49
Then, over in Acts 1:6:
So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?”
—Acts 1:6
Ever the chronology going in their minds—this chronos thing, you know?
He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority;
but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you;
and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”—Acts 1:7-8
Finally, let us turn back to Ephesians 5. We will look one more time this weekend, beginning in verse 14.
“Awake, sleeper,
And arise from the dead,
And Christ will shine on you.”Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil.
So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Holy Spirit.—Ephesians 5:14-18
Lord, even as we sang the songs tonight, we know that the hungry heart is answered. They that ask receive; they that seek find; they that knock find an open door. We would come to You and ask once more that Your living Word would be opened to us by that precious Holy Spirit, who has been sent to be our special Teacher—to show us the things of Jesus and teach us how to walk in such a way as to redeem the time in these evil days.
Help us, Lord. We really need Your help as we get ready to go home now. Without Your help, Lord, we are done in. But with Your help, we are more than conquerors through Christ who loved us. Taking the stand of faith, we believe, and so we speak: our Lord is the Victor, and we are in His victory train.
Thank You, Lord, that we can gather together one more night. We pray that You bless us during this hour. In Jesus’ precious name, amen.
Our brother shared this morning about the seven churches in the book of Revelation. Who would have ever believed that God’s church, God’s people, could have fallen asleep?
Ephesus somehow had gotten sidetracked in all of their doings and had left their first love. Sardis is told that it is asleep. This is God’s church.
At least thirty years before that, our Lord Jesus, through the apostle Paul, sent the love letter to this church in Ephesus. This church had been born in spiritual conflict. That city of Ephesus had a principality, a great demonic power over it: Artemis. It cast a shadow over the whole city.
There were not only trinkets and idols, but temple prostitutes, oracles, demonic activity, magic books, and magic going on—every kind of thing in that city. Boy, when Paul got in there, there was a spiritual battle on their hands all the way. But people got saved, demons were delivered, and magic books were burned.
The Lord Jesus took His throne over Ephesus, and Artemis got mad and kicked Paul out of town through Demetrius the silversmith. The hardest thing to get rid of the devil in is businessmen.
Demetrius got his cohorts together, and somehow they railroaded Paul out of town. Five years later, Paul was in prison in Rome, writing this letter. Somehow, through all his feelings and burdens, the Lord said in a certain way, “Paul, you know that church that has first love for Me? I love them so much. Can I just open My heart through you and share things?”
“I want to show them the mountaintops of God’s purpose. I want them to see how great Christ is. I want them to see how important the church is in the whole plan. Paul, would you write that down? This church loves Me so. I just want to share the top stuff. Pull that out of the top drawer, Paul. Give it your best shot.”
Paul begins to write chapter 1, chapter 2, chapter 3, chapter 4—oh, that wonderful stuff about God’s purpose in Christ and the church. But then he gets to chapter 5 and begins sharing about walking as children of light. The more he shares, the more this theme of spiritual conflict, which marked the very beginning of the church, comes back into his mind.
He comes to verse 14, which we are using as part of our theme: “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” Suddenly Paul gets prophetic. No—the Spirit of God gets prophetic and says, “Church who loves Me with first love, wake up. Wake up. Something is making you sleep.”
“Something is encroaching among your children. Something is encroaching among you brothers. Something is encroaching among the sisters. Wake up, sleeper. Let Christ shine on you.”
That is all it really takes to restore our first love. Repent, and realize the times in which we are living.
Paul certainly realized the times in which he was living. One of the unique things in the book of Ephesians is that he shares about the heavenlies: we have every blessing in the heavenlies, we are seated with Him in the heavenlies, and there is spiritual warfare in the heavenlies.
I wonder if Paul, because of his prophetic sense of the parousia of the Lord—his sense of the Lord’s coming—even saw in vague outline that dragon waiting by the woman for the man-child to be raptured. But indeed, in the heavenlies there is spiritual conflict.
If we as the church are not aware of it, there is this encroachment into the Lord’s territory. The Lord is jealous for all His children. Ephesians ends with spiritual warfare: putting on the whole armor of God. Stand fast. Wake up. Come on, there is warfare going on. This is not peacetime.
As we are learning even in our modern age, there is spiritual terrorism from terrorists in our midst. If you do not step forward in victory battle, if you do not encroach on the enemy’s darkness, he will encroach on our territory.
You cannot just draw a line and say, “Well, here we are, the church. Now, devil, you cannot come in. But we are not going to go and shake the gates of Hades. We will make a deal with you: we will not fight you if you will not fight us.”
Well, the devil is a terrorist. He will encroach until he has taken every state of our church into devastation. So there is a great battle going on. But it is okay if we wake up and realize we are in the kingdom time zone.
The kingdom time zone is when we realize what time it is. What does your watch say? I mean, your kingdom watch. Do you have a second one?
We have a brother in our fellowship—I will not tell you his name—who is watch-crazy. He is even making a watch now. But Albert often wears two watches. I do not know why, but I hope one is set to the kingdom time zone, where he is awake and doing battle and realizes the importance of this time.
Do you realize the importance of this time? When you are in the kingdom time zone, doing the Lord’s will and encroaching on the darkness, it is not always firecrackers or bombs going off. It is not always warfare as though you are in an army. Sometimes small things are actually great victories.
I do not know what happened this year, in 2015, but something happened on the East Coast that stirred up the young people in Richmond, New York, Toronto, and here. It has been one of the best years I have ever seen in the enthusiasm and hunger the young people have for the Lord.
You know what we just did? We encroached on some of the enemy’s territory, and we bought back some of those kids. I say we did—the Lord did. It was a wonderful year, and I hope there is progress in this coming year, 2016.
You say, “Okay, that is not all bombs going off.” But that is victory. It may be a victory as small as this: perhaps you are in a small assembly, but every time one of your brothers and sisters allows the Lord to get in their boat, it changes their lives. We have seen another victory.
I do not want us to get all dressed up with uniforms and helmets on, but we need to be awake. We need to be awake.
Now we are looking at Peter, and we left him last time in the belly of the big fish, like Jonah. He ran away from Jesus. He denied the Lord three times, and then he saw that look of Jesus. It melted him into the ground.
Peter—those kinds of people who are such strong leaders and so strong-souled—are the ones who get devastated the most when everything goes wrong. I cannot imagine anybody who felt the pain of self-hatred and self-loathing more than Peter.
Probably, partly in his mind, he believed that if he had taken care of Jesus, He would not have died. It is like a parent when their child dies. The first year they spend saying, “If only I had done this.” But there is nothing you can do.
Peter must have felt a total failure, being the leader of the team, as it were. In the end, all the disciples scattered and Jesus died—the worst moment of his life. He betrayed his best Friend. He burned his bridges. There was no time any longer for repentance. It was done.
Who would ever have guessed that this death of Peter was necessary in order for him to meet the Jesus within?
Peter had followed Jesus. Peter had been awakened by the contrast. Peter had followed Jesus and seen the light of who Jesus was. But Peter could not enter in, redeem the time, and become what he was supposed to be until Jesus went through Calvary and Pentecost.
When Jesus did, Peter did too. It was the only way he could make it through. Peter was a lost sheep until Calvary and Pentecost brought Jesus not only back to him, but within him, as his Lord and Master.
Who would have guessed it took a death to bring Peter to real life? Who would have guessed that Paul had to come to a place where he said, “O wretched man that I am! Who can deliver me?” Who would have guessed that it would take that to bring him into the liberty of Galatians 2:20?
Here is the truth: all we have to do is follow Jesus. That is all Peter had to do to learn his lessons. If we follow Jesus, we will follow Jesus through Calvary to Pentecost.
In one way or another, we will come to the end of ourselves, as Peter did.
One of the main spiritual reasons Peter did not take his life was that Jesus was interceding for him. You remember what He said in Luke 22:31-32:
“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat;
but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail;
and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”—Luke 22:31-32
For what Peter did, he should have been sifted like wheat. What a betrayal. What a foolish man. But Jesus said, “I have prayed for you, that your faith fail not. And once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”
Peter heard nothing. He did not hear that. All he heard was, “I am going to get sifted. What is He talking about? I am willing to die with Jesus. I will be sifted with Jesus. Put us in the same sifter.”
Behind the Lord’s eyes, as He looked out upon Peter in the courtyard, all Peter saw was a broken heart. But there was a silent prayer going on in Jesus’ heart: “Father, keep him. Father, keep My dear Peter. Keep him, Lord, for what he is going to go through.”
Is it not amazing that the Lord, in the midst of physical agony, in the midst of being physically and psychologically abused, says, “Keep him, Lord. Keep him”? The Intercessor prevailed, and Peter was kept.
One strange sign, I suppose, that Peter’s faith did not fail was this: despite his complete and utter soul destruction, his disqualification from ministry, and his feeling that he could never follow Jesus again, when he heard the news from the women that something had happened and the tomb was empty, Peter ran.
Not unlike what he usually did, his heart ran ahead of his head. He got to the tomb first. John says he ran in, and all he saw were the clothes lying there. He said, “What is going on? What is going on? I do not know.”
He was hoping against hope. I do not know if thoughts came back to his mind about Jesus saying, “I will be raised again in three days.” John just went in and believed. Okay, see, that is the problem. We have some Johns in the fellowship, and they just believe right off. They do not go through the agony of Peter.
Peter had to wait and see what happened. “Sure, there are the cloths, but somebody could have tricked us. Somebody could have stolen Him. I do not know what is going on.” That is going through Peter’s mind. John just runs in and believes.
Blessed are those who believe. Well, that is not Peter. But Peter loved the Lord so much that, even though he knew he was unworthy of ever serving or walking with Him again, he just wanted to see that He was alive.
The One Peter probably felt he could not even get near because of his unfaithfulness—yet he would give everything he had just to see that He was alive. Peter had a heart for the Lord, and the Lord kept his faith because He knew his heart.
There are Christians who fail the Lord miserably and deserve to be disqualified on every count, according to righteousness. But do you have a heart for the Lord? The Lord has a wonderful way of reconciling hearts that are broken.
That is why, when Jesus started meeting the disciples, according to the apostle Paul, Jesus first went to Peter. He had to reconcile this thing. Peter’s heart was breaking, so Jesus revealed Himself to Peter.
We do not know anything about that meeting. We are going to look at John 21 in a moment, but that is not what this is talking about. This was between Jesus and Peter. This was a reconciliation. This was an “I forgive you.” This was an “I am so sorry.”
Somehow Peter could live again. He knew his Lord was alive, and that was good enough.
Then, of course, Peter did what he knew best to do: he went fishing. He had squared it with the Lord, but he knew he was not an apostle anymore. He knew he could not serve the Lord. So he said, “I am going fishing,” and he found six other apostles who had nothing else to do either.
Even after seeing Jesus, they still did not know what to do. They went fishing. Jesus knew right where to find them. He looked out from the beach, and there was that same boat, still with no fish after they had been fishing all night. Are we back to square one or what?
Then, of course, Jesus said, “Throw the net on the other side.” They threw the net, and there were 153 fish. Peter knew that meant it was Jesus. I have never quite understood that, but John immediately said, “It is the Lord. Only He knows where that stuff is. It is just like before.”
Peter, with his heart ahead of his head, jumped in, ruined his wallet, swam ashore, ran up on the beach, and stood there in awkward silence while the rest of them pulled up the boat and brought in all the fish. He just stood there. He had nothing to say. What can you say?
But this time Peter did not say anything. Peter is learning lessons now, is he not? Then comes that tremendous story. After they ate—boy, it was excruciating—Jesus made them eat first. He broke bread, and they knew who He was, though they were not allowed to say anything. I think He wore a hoodie or something.
After breakfast, Jesus asked Peter those questions three times. You all know the story. But the interesting thing is that when Jesus said, “Peter, do you agape Me?” Peter could not say it. He said, “Lord, I am fond of You. I have phileo love.”
Agape love is God’s love—great love. Phileo love is friendship and fondness. That is all Peter could say.
Now, I do not think there was a man on that beach who loved Jesus with agape more than Peter, but he could not say it. He was too ashamed. He had been chastened from saying stupid things. He said, “Lord, You know I am fond of You.”
Every time Peter answered, Jesus instilled in Peter a shepherd’s heart. This is a miracle. When somebody has a shepherd’s heart, it is a miracle, because we are all so totally selfish.
For anyone to be a caretaker for the flock and willing to lay down his life—that is a miracle. Every time Jesus said, “Do you love Me?” whatever Peter’s answer was, a little more shepherd’s love came into Peter. His life was changing right there in front of him.
It was Calvary bringing resurrection life where there had been no life. Whatever he was before—an apostle, a leader of the three, whatever, the big honcho—Jesus said, “Let us simplify this thing.”
“If you love Me, I want you to love the brethren, as our dear brother was talking about this afternoon. That is what I want you to do. I am not going to ask you to jump through hoops, Peter. I am just going to ask you: will you feed the sheep? Tend My lambs?”
Finally, the third time, Jesus said, “Well, Peter, are you fond of Me?” This was the first time Peter could say, “Yes, Lord, I am fond of You.” Jesus came down to his level. They embraced and hugged, and there he was: now a shepherd of the church.
It is a miracle. It is resurrection. In His resurrection, Peter was brought into a whole new life and hope.
Peter never expresses this change of life in the terms of Galatians 2:20: “I have been crucified with Christ.” But you can see in his experience that he came to the end of himself and found, on the other side, resurrection life.
Later, when he writes in 2 Peter, he says a couple of times, “We have been made partakers of the divine nature.” Is that not wonderful? Through faith, we are attaining to the salvation of the soul.
Peter knew what was going on in his own life: how the Lord was saving his soul-life—his mind from its jumpiness and unsteadiness, his will from not waiting for God’s will but running ahead. Peter understood that there was divine life able to enable us to do all things.
Peter came onto resurrection ground through Calvary. Of course, not many days later came the day of Pentecost.
When we look at Peter’s life, when we look at somebody who is redeeming the time, we have to see Peter after Pentecost. It was there that the opportunities opened up. It was there that they brought back the lost. It was there that they encroached on the darkness.
What happened on the day of Pentecost that made them able to redeem the time in their ministry as apostles? We all know that they received the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus predicted that they would, and Jesus told them to wait until they did.
But on the day of Pentecost they received the power of the Holy Spirit. This enabled them to be shod with the gospel on their feet—but that is only one foot.
When you look closely at the story, you see that the apostles and the church were empowered by the Holy Spirit, but they were also given the Word of God. This is how we walk in such a way as to redeem the time in this world.
We are like a monster with two feet. One foot is the power of the Holy Spirit. The other foot is the Word of God.
When you see Peter and the apostles as they lived their lives, you see that they walked and preached the Word, and then the Holy Spirit demonstrated. They walked in the power of the Holy Spirit, and then the Word of God came forth.
We just read in Luke 24 that before Jesus said, “Wait in Jerusalem until you receive power from on high,” He opened their minds to the Scriptures and explained that Christ must suffer, die, and be raised again the third day, and that through repentance salvation might come. They had to have the Word of God.
Today we have some preachers who are evangelists, but they are one-footed. They hop around in the power of the Spirit, and boy, they can hop. But there is a lot of heat and not much light.
They preach all kinds of crazy things. They are emotional and filled with the spirit, but they do not seem to have the Word of God. But we also have people who hop around on their right foot all the time with the Word of God. They even go out and preach the Word of God, but they do not have the power of the Holy Spirit.
They are not clothed. You can tell it. They speak the Word, but it only goes this far. No, no, no. If we are going to encroach on the darkness in this day, it has to be with the Word of God and the power of the Holy Spirit.
Think about how that worked out. We see Peter’s economy of effort when he went out and preached the gospel. That is quite a redeeming of the time, is it not? He preached one sermon, and three thousand people got saved.
Of course, Peter did not go on vacation. He kept preaching, and then two thousand more got saved. Boy, it sure makes a difference when you are preaching in the power of the Holy Spirit.
That sermon on the day of Pentecost—have you read it recently? You would have thought Peter was a Bible scholar. He brought in Scriptures from the Psalms and different places. It is amazing, that scriptural sermon he gave. It was not just fluff.
There was a famous evangelist down South who, if people were bored and he wanted to give an invitation, would talk at the end of his sermon about his dog, Fido—how he loved his dog and his dog died. Then he got everybody weeping, and he would call up people to get saved.
I do not know how many people believed in his dog instead of Jesus. It seems like a strange tactic. But Peter had the Word of God and the power of the Holy Spirit.
As they went out, you see this economy of effort as they preached in various places. After Saul’s persecution, Peter went up into Judea. He went to a village called Lydda, where there was a lame man named Aeneas. Peter said, “In the name of Jesus, stand up.”
He pulled up Aeneas, and the whole town of Lydda got saved. Of course, it was probably a small town, but that is a pretty impactful thing, is it not? He raised this man up, and people asked, “How did you do it?” He said, “I did not do it. It is Jesus, and you need to repent.” They all got saved.
Then he went to Sharon, because there was a wonderful Christian woman there who had died, named Dorcas. Peter went over and raised her up from the dead. Peter, by the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, with this transformation going on, was starting to look like Jesus.
He said the exact same words Jesus had said to Jairus’s daughter: “Talitha cumi.” And the little girl rose. It says that a lot of people in that city believed in Sharon.
Sharon was close to Joppa, so Peter went down to Simon the tanner’s house in Joppa. This whole economy of effort is really redeeming the time. What happened in Joppa? Peter got hungry one day and saw the sheet coming down. He said, “Oh, Lord, I only eat kosher. I go to a kosher deli only.”
The Lord said, “Do not you ever say that again. I am about to save some non-kosher food.” Just then, people knocked at the door downstairs and said, “Hello, we are non-kosher. Can we see Peter?” Peter immediately went with them.
Of course, the whole thing opened up in the house of Cornelius when the Holy Spirit came down. What I am saying is this: Peter was now redeeming the time. You can see his footsteps. This guy was a totally different guy.
He was not always going somewhere to do a miracle. He went with John to the temple one day, and there was a lame man. But Peter listened. He heard the Spirit say, “Ah,” and he raised up that lame man. The man was running, dancing, and praising God, and a couple more thousand people got saved.
There is something about the economy of being filled with the Holy Spirit and ministering the Word of God that you can see in Peter’s life. Are we surprised that Ephesians tells us, in terms of body life, “Be filled with the Spirit”?
What is Paul saying to the Ephesians? He says, “Look, when you get together to worship, worship full of the Holy Spirit. Worship in spirit. Be full of the Holy Spirit. If you are ministering the Word, be full of the Holy Spirit. If you have a prayer meeting, be full of the Holy Spirit.”
Do you know what happens when you do that? If you have a prayer meeting full of the Holy Spirit, I guarantee you, you are in KTZ—the kingdom time zone.
If you are worshiping and full of the Holy Spirit, you may be surprised how long you have been worshiping when you quit. A lot of our worship times, we sit there and say, “Oh, we are supposed to go from ten to eleven. This worship has been going on so long. What time is it? One-oh-nine? Oh no!”
Some people look at their watch every minute. We have people in some of our meetings who open up their phones and think, “Let me write a text or two during this thing.” Well, where is the Holy Spirit?
Be filled with the Spirit,
speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
singing and making melody with your hearts to the Lord;
always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.—Ephesians 5:18-20
Whoa. You have just redeemed the time when you went to church. Is that what your experience is? Or are you meeting at the sleepy Baptist church?
“Now we are going to sing a song. We are going to put the organ real low so you can start dozing off during the sermon.” One thing I must say for Ben: you can never fall asleep with Ben. He will have you all standing up and carrying on.
But may we be filled with the Spirit when we worship. It encroaches on the enemy’s territory every time, because we stand in who Christ is and all these wonderful things.
They were led by the power of the Holy Spirit and did amazing things. But they were also led by the still small voice.
I used to circulate among the charismaniacs who were always looking for wind to put in the sail. You know, we like wind and gusto. “Give us the blowing of the Holy Spirit—the wind. Just blow us across the lake.”
Did you see that beautiful sailboat out there today? When there is wind, that is beautiful. I had a friend with a sailboat, and we would go out when there was no wind. It was miserable—just dead in the water.
But people are looking all over the place for the wind of the Holy Spirit, and they have no idea about the still small voice of the Holy Spirit. That is why they will take their boat right over a waterfall.
The disciples not only had the wind of the Spirit; they listened to that still small voice. Otherwise Peter and John would never have raised the lame man by the temple. They could have said, “Get out of my way. I have to go to prayer meeting.”
But no, they listened to that voice. They were listening to that voice when Ananias and Sapphira said, “Here is our five thousand. Oh, how we sacrificed. We sold all our property and gave this five thousand. This is our offering to the Lord.”
The Holy Spirit said, “Peter, they are lying.” So Peter said, “Why did you lie to the Holy Spirit? Do you not know that the Holy Spirit who is in you is also in me? He tells me what you are doing.” Ananias fell over dead.
They were listening to this still small voice. If they had been too busy preaching the gospel when those Greek-speaking widows were having a real problem, they might not have stopped to listen. But the apostles got together and prayed: “Now, Lord, what should we do?”
What do we do in our fellowship when the widows are complaining? The responsible brothers redouble their efforts. They spend less time praying, less time preaching, and more time getting food. Somebody gets the plasticware. Somebody goes to Costco and gets the meal.
Who does that? The responsible brothers—or the most angelic people, the responsible brothers’ wives.
Would it not be amazing if, like Peter and the disciples, they said, “No, wait, wait. There is a real need here, but we need to pray. If we do not pray, we are not going to be in the kingdom time zone.”
“If we are going to preach and pray, there must be some other brothers who can handle this. There must be somebody.” Up to that point, it was Peter, James, John, Bartholomew, and the other guys whose names I cannot remember. But they said, “There must be somebody else.”
Sure enough, the saints said, “Well, there is…” They picked Philip, Stephen, and some other men. They were perfect for the job. They were full of the Spirit and knew just how to get to Costco. They had a card.
But listen to that still small voice. You do not find that a lot in our fellowship: people just doing the things at hand, the tyranny of the urgent. But they were listening for that still small voice.
Can you imagine Philip, after being a deacon? Persecution sent him out to the city of Samaria. He started preaching, people started getting saved, and they had a revival going. Peter and John had to come down to baptize these newfound Samaritans, because nobody else was going to touch a Samaritan.
Peter and John came down and then went back. Philip was preaching away. They had posters up all over the place: “Evangelist Philip preaching tonight. Come downtown.” It was a wonderful thing.
Then the Spirit said, “Philip, fold your tent. I want you to run into the desert and find one guy.”
It is a good thing Philip was not more concerned with the momentum of his evangelistic ministry, but was willing to obey the Holy Spirit. Sure enough, he was walking through the desert. It was not as though the Lord said, “You are going to meet a eunuch, and he is going to be on a chariot.” Philip was wandering through the desert, and suddenly, there he was.
Listening to the Holy Spirit is so important. These are things you can see in Peter’s life—how he redeemed the time. It really saves us a lot of time, and it enables us to do the right thing if we hear the Holy Spirit speaking.
So are we praying, “Lord, how can we reach out in our community?” Let us see if the Lord does not give us some indication, something to go on, before we just go out there.
Is it not good that the disciples waited? Even before Pentecost, they gathered in one accord and waited. While they waited, they not only prayed, but they studied the Word.
Peter understood, “Wait a minute, we need to appoint another apostle.” He found Scriptures in the Old Testament about Judas betraying the Lord, and, “Let another take his place.” He put Scriptures together, and they appointed Matthias as the twelfth apostle. That was all before the Holy Spirit fell.
All I am saying is that waiting on the Lord in prayer and these matters are so important.
What we want to see simply now is this: Peter, after Calvary and after Pentecost—who is this man?
He is still an outgoing, powerful, winsome person, but he is under the restraint and control of the Holy Spirit. That makes all the difference in the world.
The Lord’s goal in our lives is not to take away our personality. It is to harness it, restrain it, and pull it back so that He can use it for Himself.
Peter was still Peter. Sometimes he could disagree. But he also stood up to correction whenever he was corrected, because he had a new life living in him. The life of Christ was living in Peter.
When Paul met him in Antioch and Peter was acting a little too Jewish, Paul—being only this tall and Peter being this tall—stood up on a stool, looked Peter right in the eye, and said, “Peter, do not be a hypocrite.” And you know what? Peter took the correction.
There is a different man we are looking at here. You do not sense the challenge of an unbroken ego every time something happens. You find him in sync with the Holy Spirit and in sync with the other apostles. When he is going somewhere, he is usually traveling with someone else. He is not just his own man.
He understood something about life in the Body of Christ. Of course, this is still Peter. The Lord told him something about that sheet coming down from heaven, and he said, “Lord, I disagree.” Oh, that is Peter. That is his first answer.
The Lord said, “Whether you disagree or not, this is My will.” Peter stood corrected and went immediately with the Gentiles. Let us not paint a picture of Peter as though he were perfect.
But he learned how to embrace his wife in a loving way as joint heirs of the grace of life. He became more and more a shepherd, as we read in 1 Peter 5. As an elder and shepherd of the sheep, he understood all that people go through. You can see there was a change in his life.
Beyond Acts, in his letters, Peter says many things about redeeming the time. Let us mention a few and then let it go for tonight. Let us look at some verses in 1 Peter and 2 Peter.
The first is in 1 Peter 4. By this we see that Peter knew what time it was—very clearly. He understood.
Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose,
because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin,
so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.
For the time already past is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles,
having pursued a course of sensuality, lusts, drunkenness, carousing, drinking parties and abominable idolatries.—1 Peter 4:1-3
Now, let us stop there. Peter is reasoning with Christians, and he is saying, “You know what? The time is up on your fooling around.”
There are a lot of Christians who believe in the Lord and want to follow the Lord, but they are fooling around. They are fooling with the world, the nightclubs, the booze, sex, and pornography.
What Peter is saying is, “You know what? The time has long since passed for your fooling around.” We are on a holy way, where the Lord says, “Be holy, for I am holy.” It is time to put away that kind of stuff.
Do you know what time it is, brothers? It is time for you to put away fooling around. That is what Peter says, and he speaks as a man who knows what time it is.
But listen to the tenderness of it. He is not pushing something. He just realizes, in verse 7:
The end of all things is near;
therefore, be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer.—1 Peter 4:7
Why am I reminding you of these things—about holy conduct, about your soul being saved by the sanctifying work of the blood of Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit? Why am I bringing all these things to your remembrance? Because the end of all things is near.
It is time to be sober. It is time to take seriously this matter of the end times and the Lord being near.
Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins.
Be hospitable to one another without complaint.—1 Peter 4:8-9
Peter goes on with exhortations about loving and caring for one another, because in the end days darkness encroaches. The enemy begins to attack. If we do not have fervent love for one another, then we all have to survive on our own, and that does not work out well.
We really need one another. Peter is telling the precious saints, “Now the time is near, and there are some extra-special things you need to be aware of. The first thing is that you need to turn up the temperature of your love for one another.”
Stop being so judgmental and picky, because love covers a multitude of sins.
In the end days, perhaps you have had a spouse, brother, or sister whom you were picking on and picking on and picking on. Then they came down with cancer. They got sicker and sicker, and it came to the place where you just hugged them.
After you pick on people for a while, you realize you need to give them fervent love. In the end days, we do not know how soon the Lord is coming back. Would it not be wonderful if you could say, “Nobody has an account against me, because I have loved everybody during my time upon this earth”?
Peter understood what time it was. He understood that our walk needs to reflect the time when we realize what time it is. He is not merely asking you to be holy in your own strength, because he knows the life within you is able to cause you to increase spiritually.
We see that in 2 Peter, in that wonderful passage at the beginning of his letter. I am just going to read these fourteen verses, because they are a testimony of how to redeem these final days.
How long do we have before Jesus comes back? I cannot say. But if you are in the process of spiritual increase, Peter says you are in.
Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ,
to those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ:
Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord;
seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness,
through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.—2 Peter 1:1-3
Now, just stop there. His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness. Do you want to be godly? Do you want to know that overcoming life? That power is within you.
Peter would have you stand on this: we are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. Stand in that reality, and you will see the dynamics of that life working for you rather than standing in a place of unbelief.
For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises,
so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature,
having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.—2 Peter 1:4
Peter never said, “Christ lives in you.” He never put it in that Pauline way. But he says that we can become partakers of the divine nature.
How does that happen? Do we come up to an altar, kneel down, and it partakes? No. From the time we are born again, the Spirit comes to dwell within us, and He begins to build Christ in our hearts.
This increase is practically essential to redeeming the time and growing into this thing.
Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence,
in your faith supply moral excellence,
and in your moral excellence, knowledge,
and in your knowledge, self-control,
and in your self-control, perseverance,
and in your perseverance, godliness,
and in your godliness, brotherly kindness,
and in your brotherly kindness, love.—2 Peter 1:5-7
Peter has listed things necessary for our spiritual progress. Then he says:
For if these qualities are yours and are increasing,
they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins.
Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you;
for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble.—2 Peter 1:8-10
Have you increased a little bit today—in virtue, brotherly love, or faith? Just pick one of them. Have you increased? Has there been spiritual increase today?
If these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. If you are making spiritual increase, you will never stumble.
For in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.
—2 Peter 1:11
Is that not wonderful?
Whether it is Ephesians 5:14 speaking about, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead,” or these passages in Peter, these are exhortations for those who take seriously the fact that they are children in the kingdom of God.
Those who want to gain entry into the kingdom of God at the time of the millennium, when Jesus comes to earth and reigns upon this earth—if you want to be part of that kingdom, increase in these spiritual things, and you will gain abundant entrance.
The devil will not be able to blackmail you and say, “You are not going to make it.” Some people say, “Eh, I guess I am saved, but I will never be in the kingdom.” That is a lie from the devil.
Jesus is interceding for us and doing everything by His grace so that we may grow spiritually in such a way as to gain abundant entrance.
Peter goes on to say in verse 12:
Therefore, I will always be ready to remind you of these things,
even though you already know them, and have been established in the truth which is present with you.
I consider it right, as long as I am in this earthly dwelling, to stir you up by way of reminder,
knowing that the laying aside of my earthly dwelling is imminent,
as also our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me.
And I will also be diligent that at any time after my departure you will be able to call these things to mind.—2 Peter 1:12-15
So he says, “Brothers and sisters, my time of departure is almost at hand. I know what time it is, and that is why I am being so serious with you.”
“I want you to live in such a way that you are living in spiritual increase. Do not give me all the excuses about all the ways darkness is encroaching and all the things going on in the opposite direction. No, no, no. Here is what you do.”
Take hold today of faith. Take hold today of virtue. Take hold today of more knowledge of the Lord. Take hold today of patience. Take hold today of godliness. Take hold today of brotherly love. Take hold today of love.
Then you will have no problem when the end comes. You will abundantly find a place and reward in the kingdom.
I think that is all I will say tonight. I know everybody is tired. I am.
But Peter was, in the end, a testimony of how God can take a person who is always out of sync because his self-life is in the way, bring him under the restraint of the Holy Spirit, and by the indwelling life of Christ make him into such a man.
He was a leader. He was a tremendous brother. We will meet him one day, and we will see that a lot of the edge that was with him in the early days had been taken off.
You learn, walking with eleven other disciples, that you are a hexagon, because they are always knocking the corners off of you.
But Peter became an elder and a shepherd who was just feeding the sheep when it was time for him to go home. Is that not wonderful? I think he was the most impossible guy to change, but the Lord changed him.
The Lord brought him to the end of himself, then reconstructed him by the Holy Spirit. Did you ever think Peter would be such a prophetic Bible scholar? When you read 2 Peter, the man is really in touch with end-time prophecy and all kinds of things.
Not only that, he is aware of all the fakery going on, all the predictions people are making, all the naysayers and disbelievers, and the things they are mocking about. He knows about all that stuff.
All he tells the Christians is, “You just keep pressing on. Keep pressing on in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, and you will find that you are living in that light.”
So, brothers and sisters, I think this weekend the Lord is asking us to wake up.
Rise from the dead. Let that resurrection life be a functioning life within you, and Christ will shine on you.
Do not be ignorant. You know what the will of God is. Do not dissipate your life with nightlife, television, recreation, digital games, and all the other things that vaporize our money and our time.
Be filled with the Holy Spirit. Let your life be one that walks in the Word of God and the power of the Holy Spirit. This is the life of the apostle Peter that is here to inspire us tonight. May the Lord help us.
Lord, we do thank You so much. Our brother, who was so devastated by his failure, betrayal, and denial, was taken in.
Through Calvary and Pentecost, he was brought to a fullness. When he was crucified, he was so humble.