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Pearls from Peter part 3

Pearls from Peter: Part 3

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Pearls from Peter part 3

 

Welcome to the third and final part of the series of reflections on verses from 1 Peter. In a few weeks, I will be introducing a new series I have been working on for the last three months or so: Three Pillars of Truth, so watch out for this multimedia experience coming up.

1 Peter 3:15 ‘But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect …’

Reflection One

This instruction is to readers who were enduring various degrees of persecution. However, I also take it as a model for how we are to witness to everyone in all circumstances. Only some believers are called to the ministry of Evangelism (Ephesians 4:11), but we are all called to be witnesses.

A witness is someone who testifies to something they have personally experienced. In a court of law, witnesses tell the judge what they have heard, seen, or otherwise experienced. The judge does not accept second-person evidence. Our witness to Jesus Christ is also not accepted when it is hearsay; it must be personal to have any weight and influence.

The ‘reason for the hope that you have’ is not a structured argument or a slick sales pitch. We don’t have to attend a special course to learn how to witness. We just need to have experienced the things  we attest to. If I want to speak convincingly about what it means to be ‘born again’ then I need to have experienced this myself. And if I have personally experienced this miracle, then I should be able to explain it in simple personal terms. I will have also experienced the conditions of being born again and what follows from this new reality, and so be able to speak about these as well.

Salvation is not a matter of knowing the answer to questions a person might have, but of knowing the one who can answer them.

No, I am not referring to your pastor or the theologian you know; I am referring to the Lord Jesus Christ. The hope that we have in this life and for the life still to come is based on knowing Jesus and not a knowledgeable person or a book. To know Jesus means:

  1. Being born again of the Holy Spirit because we relate to him spiritually and not physically.
  2. Reading and comprehending what is written in the bible about what he said and did.
  3. spending time with him in prayer and contemplation.
  4. Finally, it is trusting and obeying him. This is, I think, what Peter meant when he wrote, ‘In your hearts set apart Christ as Lord.’  If you know Jesus, then you can certainly witness to this.

Reflection Two

I have an aversion to bible-bashing of any kind. By that I mean the mistaken idea that we can beat someone into the Kingdom of God by metaphorically whacking them over the head with bible verses. I have yet to meet someone who says that they were bullied into being genuinely born again. New spiritual life cannot be attained through knowledge or coercion because it is a miraculous gift of life from God and not just a change of mind or lifestyle.

Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect. So, to effectively witness, we do not need an abundance of knowledge or a slick technique. Rather, we need an experience of being born again, an ongoing relationship with Jesus, and the anointing of the Holy Spirit. When such a person speaks with sincerity and emotional integrity, the light of realisation dawns on those listening and they are prompted to ask how they too can have the reality of which you speak. This is witnessing, and this is what we are all capable of offering … with gentleness and respect.

1 Peter 4:11 ‘If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God.’

Refection Three

Peter wrote this in the context of the end times because he and the other apostles thought that Jesus would return in their lifetime. ‘The end of all things is near, therefore …’ Well, the end of this series of reflections is also near, so here goes with something really profound – well I think it is.

I don’t think that Peter, and the Holy Spirit who inspired him to write, had casual chit-chat in mind. The King James Version translators chose the words ‘oracles of God’, which best means inspired prophecy. I have long believed that preaching should be regarded as a form of prophecy because it is the speaking forth of the words of God. I get a shiver of annoyance every time I hear a preacher start with “I just want to share with you …” “No!” I cry out inwardly, “I don’t want to hear your conjectures. I want to hear what God has to say!” Sadly, my need is very seldom met.

I started preaching at the age of 30, and I am now 77, so I realise that I have to point back at myself when I level a criticism like that. I can only say in defence that I deeply desire to speak the very words of God every time I preach, and I pray earnestly for this during my preparation and before my delivery. I do recognise, though, that this does not always seem to be realised. There have, however, been many times when I have seen someone in the congregation crying, or sitting forward in rapt attention.

The highlight of my preaching career was when, many years ago now, a lady came up to me after the service to tell me what her daughter had said to her. “Mom, when I hear that man preach, it is like Jesus himself is talking to me”. Now that brought tears to my eyes.

I just wish that this would have always been the response to my preaching, but of course, it wasn’t. However, although I preach seldom now, my aspiration is still the same: “Lord, please let them hear your words today.”

So I end this series with a question for all preachers to ask themselves: ‘Although it is the highest of aspirations, do I truly want to preach as though God himself were speaking?’ Perhaps you think it’s presumptuous or prideful, but I don’t feel that way. I believe that every preacher is called to the highest standard; a standard that can only be attained with the help of the Holy Spirit.

‘Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus’. Philippians 3:13-14 KJV

 

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come and see

Come and See

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come and see

We all know the Great Commission and have heard it countless times from preachers. The Mark 16:15-18 version is “… go into all the world and preach the Good News”. Missions and evangelism, right? Who must do this? All of us of course. Well, how are we doing at this? According to the latest statistics from Barna and Bible.org, the answer has to be “Not so well, I am ashamed to say.”

  • Less than 2% of Christians are involved with the ministry of evangelism.
  • 95% of all Christians have never won a soul to Christ.
The reasons people have given for failing miserably to ‘evangelise’ are illuminating:
  1. Discomfort with evangelism.
  2. The feeling that it is disrespectful.
  3. Lack of training.
  4. Lack of relationships with non-believers.
  5. Fear of rejection.

What is the Problem?

So what’s the problem? Are we all lazy and rebellious? Or, perhaps we just don’t understand what we are actually called to be and do.

Ephesians 4:11 says that the Lord has “given some to be evangelists”. Some means ‘not all’ and so for most of us, the commission to ‘evangelise’ in a formal sense doesn’t seem to apply. Perhaps we should start with Acts 1:8 instead of the Mark passage. “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Some are called to be evangelists, just as only some are called to be prophets or Teachers, and so on. However, ALL of us are called to be witnesses … and I certainly do not mean Jehovah’s Witnesses!

A witness is a person who testifies to what they have seen and heard, first-hand (Ref John 3:32). So the real question is not ‘How do we evangelise’, but ‘What have we personally seen and heard of the Lord Jesus Christ, the one to whom we are called to bear witness?’ (John 4:39-42) So, perhaps the real reason Christians do not witness is because they have nothing to witness to. If we are born again of the Spirit and have a genuine relationship with the Lord Jesus, then we have something to share. If we do not, then how can we be a witness?

The ‘how to’ is natural and not difficult: ‘in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.’ (1 Peter 3:15) And here is a wonderful thought – Nobody can argue with your personal witness. They may think you strange, or ‘religious’, but they cannot dispute your experience. We often get rejected when we try to argue someone into the Kingdom of God, but sincere sharing is evidence of caring.  It might require special training to present a systematic version of the ‘gospel’ (i.e. EE3 courses), but witnessing does not.

So with that in mind, please allow me to present John 1:40 -50 to you from a new perspective.

John 1:40-50

‘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, when translated, is Peter).

The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, “Follow me.”

Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote — Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”  “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked. “Come and see,” said Philip.

When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, “Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false.” “How do you know me?” Nathanael asked. Jesus answered, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.” Then Nathanael declared, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.” Jesus said, “You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You shall see greater things than that.”’

This is the story of how Jesus called his first few disciples. However, if we change the perspective, we can apply it to ourselves. When we ‘make a disciple’, we should not consider them our followers. Of course not, because they are Jesus-followers and our role is to teach them to model on him. We often hear the term, “I lead him to the Lord” and this expresses what I am saying; we introduce people to Jesus and help them comprehend and apply what he says and does. The words my friend used in introducing Jesus to me were “I have found the Lord” I thought him daft at the time, but soon after this I visited him in his home and heard his ‘testimony’ to Jesus.

Andrew brought Peter to Jesus and Phillip brought Nathanael to Jesus with the words “Come and see”.

I just love the simplicity of it. “I have found the Lord”, “Say what now”, “Yes, come and see.” From there on Jesus made a disciple of each of them. ‘Come and see’ is the heart of evangelistic witnessing. Say we encounter someone having a hard time. Instead of offering our own Dr Phillesque platitudes, we respond with something like, “I know someone who can truly help you. His name is Jesus. May I tell you how I met him and how he has changed my life?” I certainly do not want to come over as crass, insensitive, or judgmental, but if you cannot say something similar then you have no witness. And if this is the case, then it is not because you haven’t received the right kind of teaching or learned a methodology, it is because you have not yet met Jesus. To put it another way, you have not been born again.

This idea probably sounds unpalatable to someone with a long-term relationship with a church or denomination. Some churches do not speak about being born again and Jesus plays a secondary role in their religion of good works and church loyalty. There is no getting around it though if you at least believe the bible is trustworthy. You see, just two chapters further on in John’s Gospel, Jesus says these words to Nicodemus: “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again”(John 3:3). Again in verse seven he says “You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again’”

Conclusion

So here is how I see it. So many Christians (95%) have never introduced anyone to Jesus either because they have not been born again, or they do not realise that their job is to witness, not evangelise. It is tragic that so many church-going or nominal ‘Christians’ have never been born again. It is almost as sad that so many of those who have, labour under the misconception that they must be Gospel salespeople, well schooled in the art of persuasion and able to answer all the deep questions of life.

I won’t leave you guessing what being ‘born again’ means. I have written a comprehensive article on this subject and highly recommend you read it.

Once someone introduces us to the Lord Jesus Christ with a personal ‘come and see’, the Holy Spirit convinces, convicts and performs the miracle of new spiritual life. Once we possess this life and enjoy an ongoing, real-time, relationship with Jesus, we have something to witness to and someone to introduce with the words “come and see”.

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2 prophets in Revelation 11

The Witnessing Church

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TITW 2 Leaders

The main responsibility of the church to the world is to witness: Not to reform society but to witness through words and deeds.

In Chapter Eleven of the book of Revelation the church is symbolically depicted as a temple housing two types of professing believers; those ‘having a form of godliness but denying its power’ (2 Timothy 3:5) in the outer temple court, and those in the inner court who are true followers of Jesus.

The true church, all who are genuine disciples of the Lord Jesus, are depicted in this chapter as two olive trees. This is a clear allusion to Zechariah Chapter Four where the prophet saw a vision of two Olive trees which the angel speaking to him interpreted as “the two who are anointed to serve the Lord of all the earth.” (Zechariah 4:14) In the context of Israel in that day these two anointed ones would have been readily identified as Joshua (the High Priest) and Zerubbabel. Joshua represented the people of God who, after returning from exile, would be given a new and glorious status, and Zerubbabel was the man who rebuilt the Jerusalem temple.

The two Witnesses of Revelation are then described as having the power to shut up the heavens so that it does not rain and to inflict plagues upon the earth. Two great figures from Israel’s history are alluded to here:  Elijah (1 Kings 17:1) and Moses (Exodus 7:17), two mighty prophets for Jehovah in the darkest situations. Elijah confronted the wicked king Ahab and defeated the prophets of Baal, and Moses confronted Pharaoh and defeated his army. Significantly, Jesus encountered both Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration (Mark 9:4).

If we apply this Old Testament imagery and meaning to the church (as is John’s intention in Revelation) then a picture emerges of a revived people of God witnessing to the world with devastating power and effectiveness. The connection to Jesus is obvious – He is the head of his body the church and we are expected to witness to the world as He did. The Two Witnesses of Revelation prophecy for 1260 symbolic days (that is 1260/30=42 months = 3 and a half years) and Jesus ministered on Earth for the same period of time between his 30th birthday and his crucifixion. So the burning question is ‘How did Jesus witness?’

Well, He didn’t call down fire upon his detractors and, in fact, rebuked his disciples from wanting to do this (Luke 9:54). Instead He spoke truth, healed, gave life, delivered the demonised, blessed, and taught. When He sent out his disciples to practice what He had taught them He said, “As you go, preach this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven is near.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give” (Matthew 10:7-8)

Let me be as clear as I can on this. Our task is not to conduct ‘spiritual warfare’ through ‘mapping’ or ‘binding and loosing’ or ‘praying in an open heaven’; our task is to WITNESS to the Gospel of Jesus Christ through what we say and what we do. Our task is not to organise ourselves into some ‘New Apostolic Reformation’ in order to take over the reins of power in the key sectors of society; our task is to speak and minister life in Jesus’ name. This is what the church through the ages has been doing and this is what it will do with even greater power in the years ahead.
Verses 7 to 10 of Chapter Eleven appear to paint a devastating picture of the defeat of the witnessing church, but wait for the next post in this series because embedded in ‘defeat’ is the most glorious victory possible!

 

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About Me

My name is Christopher Peppler and I was born in Cape Town, South Africa in 1947. While working in the financial sector I achieved a number of business qualifications from the Institute of Bankers, Damelin Management School, and The University of the Witwatersrand Business School. After over 20 years as a banker, I followed God’s calling and joined the ministry full time. After becoming a pastor of what is now a quite considerable church, I  earned an undergraduate theological qualification from the Baptist Theological College of Southern Africa and post-graduate degrees from two United States institutions. I was also awarded the Doctor of Theology in Systematic Theology from the University of Zululand in 2000.

Four years before that I established the South African Theological Seminary (SATS), which today is represented in over 70 countries and has more than 2 500 active students enrolled with it. I presently play an role supervising Masters and Doctoral students.

I am a passionate champion of the Christocentric or Christ-centred Principle, an approach to biblical interpretation and theological construction that emphasises the centrality of Jesus

I have been happily married to Patricia since the age of 20, have two children, Lance and Karen, a daughter-in-law Tracey, and granddaughters Jessica and Kirsten. I have now retired from both church and seminary leadership and devote my time to writing, discipling, and the classical guitar.

If you would like to read my testimony to Jesus then click HERE.