A Lesson in Leadership

RIVERSIDE INDONESIAN FELLOWSHIP
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A Lesson in Leadership

Riverside Indonesian Fellowship
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2012 · 23 September 2012

Let us study further Matthew 10. We have the privilege tonight of looking at the sending of the twelve Apostles. We already have looked at some thoughts in verse 1, and now we will look at the names of these twelve individuals themselves.

Although the Bible doesn't give us that much information about them, the first name is sufficient to preach many messages, for the first on the list is Simon who is called Peter. And let us focus on that particular individual in reference to the twelve. But first some general introductory thoughts that help us understand the passage in its context.

And this is the way God designed His plan to work: Jesus would spend His time with twelve. The twelve would carry the message. The ones who heard it from them would tell others, and here we are two thousand years later telling it again. And some of this generation shall tell the next generation. But it all began with these twelve men.

These twelve introduced in Matthew 10 are the foundation of the church. In Ephesians 2:20 it says that the foundation of the church were the prophets and the Apostles with Jesus Christ being the chief cornerstone. And it says in verse 1 that Jesus called to Him twelve disciples. It says in verse 2 that they are Apostles, the sent ones.

They received divine revelation. They were the ones responsible for writing most of the New Testament. They were the ones who were given the mysteries of the new covenant. They were the ones to whom it was promised that God would bring through His Spirit all things to their remembrance whatever Jesus had said.

It is very important for us to see how the Lord works with them and how He taught them and trained them, how He send them as the pattern for evangelism in the twenty first century that we are called to do, by teaching others and sending them to reach the world. That's the goal that God has for all of us.

And in that time Jesus gave them the ability to do two things. They could cast out demons and they could heal all kinds of diseases. Paul calls this the gift of miracles, it's the gift of confirmation power and if you look at the gospels it is the power against the demons. Their primary task was to preach. But the impact came when they showed their power over the kingdom of darkness and over disease.

Now for this evening let’s look at their identity. Matthew 10: 2-4, “Now the names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; 3 Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus; 4 Simon the Cananite, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed Him.”

Now they are just ordinary men. The only one who may have had some wealth was Matthew by being an extortionist and working for Rome. None of them had any academic background. None of them had any social status. Some of the disciples are still unknown to us and all we know is their names.

There has never been a task as difficult as the task these twelve were given. The most incredible thing that they were ever asked to do was to finish the work that Jesus began. Now as we look at the disciples there are some fascinating things to learn from the list itself.

There are four lists of these disciples in the New Testament. One is here in Matthew 10, one in Mark 3, one in Luke 6 and one in Acts 1. In all four lists Peter is always first. And when Judas is mentioned he is always last. Why was Peter always first? It says “first Simon who is called Peter.” We have to understand the word, “protos.” In this context it means the foremost in rank.

In all four lists there are three groups. Group one was Peter, Andrew, James and John. Group two begins in verse 3; Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew. And then there is group three: James the son of Alphaeus, Lebbaeus called Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot. Each group always has the same four guys in it.

Their names may be in different order, but they are always in the same group. We know a lot about group one; Peter, James, John and Andrew. We know a little about group two; Philip, Nathanael, Thomas and Matthew. But we know nothing about group three, except for Judas. And what we know about him we better forget about it..

The Lord was very close to group one. He was somewhat close to group two. We don't know that He was close at all to group three. And that is an important factor in leadership. You can't be intimate with everybody. Our Lord, even out of the first four, drew to Himself only three disciples. And He spent most of His time with Peter only.

When Jesus sent them out for the first time in their internship, He send them two by two. So they went out in their groups of four only two together. Peter, James, John and Andrew were interrelated, they were brothers and we know they were the fishermen in the group.

The next group, we only know one of them was a tax collector. We don't know what Philip did. We don't know what Nathanael did. We don't know what Thomas did. And the last group, we don't have any clue at all.

Now their temperaments were also different. Peter was a man of action. He was impulsive and eager. Peter always spoke up, and in his group was another fellow by the name of John. All John wanted to do was to be quiet and meditate and to act loving. They were quite opposites.

And then you have in group two a couple of other interesting guys. There was Nathanael, or Bartholomew. Nathanael believed everything. He accepted the facts about Jesus, John 1, just very trusting. And in his group was Thomas who didn't believe anything unless he could see it or touch it. Again they were opposites.

And then you had Matthew who worked for the Roman government extorting taxes. And you had Simon the Zealot who was a radical revolutionary always trying to overthrow Rome. And if Simon had gotten this close to Matthew anywhere but among the disciples, he would have stuck a knife in him.

So you had the political differences and spiritual differences and the emotional differences. And of all this conglomerate of people thrown together the Lord was going to make something to change the world. The wonderful story is that they still succeeded, and we can see the power of God in all this.

So how does God build leaders? Because Peter is the key person; the first twelve chapters of Acts revolve around him. He preaches the sermon at Pentecost. He does the first miracle at the temple. He faced the Sanhedrin. And we can see how God is going to make a leader out of this man.

And God has not stopped, because the Lord today is still building leaders in His church. And Peter is the key to understanding that lesson. The four gospels are filled with Peter. After the name of Jesus, no other name is used as much in the gospels as the name of Peter.

Let me just give you three ways. First, a leader always ask questions. People who don't ask questions seldom become leaders because they're not concerned about problems and solutions. In the gospel record, Peter asked more questions than everyone else combined.

It was Peter who asked how often he had to forgive. The Lord was talking about forgiveness and he says, “How many times am I supposed to forgive? Seven times?” The Lord says, No, seven times seventy times. By the way, in all of Peter’s questioning, he rarely got the answer he expected.

It was Peter who asked about the reward of those who have left all to follow Jesus. It was Peter who asked about the meaning of the fig tree when it withered away in Mark 11. It was Peter who asked the meaning of the things that Jesus said about the approaching end in Mark 13. And after Peter was told he was going to die as a martyr, he said, “Well, what about John?” See, leaders always seek solutions and ask questions.

Leaders always take the initiative. When the Lord asks a question, who answers it? Always Peter. Who touched Me? Peter answers, “what do you mean asking a question like that, there's a whole bunch of people pushing You all over here.” In John 6:67-68 Jesus says, “Will you go away too? And Simon Peter says, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”

Leaders are always right in the middle of the action. They make it happen, of all the disciples, who jumped out of the boat and walked on water? Peter. People say Peter denied the Lord. Right! But he was in the place where he was confronted with that because he had enough courage to follow Jesus to the house of the high priest. The other guys had split.

And when the resurrection came, who were the first ones there? Peter and John. Peter just passed John who stopped outside and went right in the place. We see him in the book of Acts, for twelve chapters; everywhere he goes, amazing things happen all over the place.

Now sometimes he is called Simon, his secular name. The name Simon is also used when he is being reprimanded for sin. For example in Luke 5, he was out there in his boat doubting the Lord when He says, “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” And when he pulled in so many fish that the net almost broke he immediately said, "Depart from me, O Lord, for I am a sinful man."

But the Lord also gave to Peter the greatest revelation. In Matthew 16, Jesus had just warned the disciples about the teaching of the Pharisees. And then in Matthew 16:15 He asked the disciples a specific question, “But who do you say that I am? 16 Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

“17 Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.” In other words, He said that's a revelation. He was transforming this man by letting him know that God could speak through him.

And then he received a great reward in the next verse. After this confession Jesus said in Matthew 16:18: "I say to you, you are Peter, you are stone but upon the rock of your confession, I will build My church and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. 19 And I'll give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.”

Who preached the first great apostolic sermon? Peter on the day of Pentecost. Who led the first Gentile to Christ? Peter in Acts 10, Cornelius. He unlocked the Kingdom to the Jews and Gentiles. And the Lord also gave that same promise to the rest of His Apostles and extended it all through the ages to all those who, by the proclamation of the gospel, open the door to the Kingdom.

But you've got to see his great mistake also. Matthew 16:21-22, “And so from that time forth began Jesus to show His disciples that He had to go Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and raise a third day. 22 Then Peter took Him and began to rebuke Him."

He was doing exactly what Satan had done in the temptation of Christ; he was trying to derail Christ from the cross. And that is a great lesson to learn for a leader. The more you get yourself into a position where God can use you, the greater the potential to be used by Satan. That's an important lesson.

Then we come to his great miscalculation. Matthew 26:33-35, "Peter answered and said to Him, “Even if all are made to stumble because of You, I will never be made to stumble.” 34 Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you that this night, before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.” 35 Peter said to Him, “Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!”

And we know that Peter denied Jesus three times. What a lesson and experience for Peter. And then he had an experience of great forgiveness in John 21. And at the end of verse 19 Jesus says, "Follow Me." And Peter did finally follow Him. In other words, he learned submission. It's important for leaders to learn that. There are limits.

Another lesson that Peter needed to learn was restraint. In John 18 the Bible says there was a fellow there named Malchus and Peter cut off his ear. And the Lord reached over and gave him a new ear and said, “Put that sword away. You live by the sword, you die by the sword.” Let God take care of these matters.

Another thing a leader needs to learn is humility. And he learned his lesson well because he taught in 1 Peter about submission to government, submission to masters and submission to each other in marriage and submission to God because in 1 Peter 5:5 it says, "God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble."

Also, leaders need to learn to sacrifice themselves. In John 21:19 Jesus says, someday Peter somebody is going to come and bind you and take you where you don't want to go and I'm speaking about the death you're going to die for Me, you're going to be a martyr.”

He also needed to learn love. You see, leaders tend to be task oriented rather than people oriented and they can just overwhelm people. Jesus said to him in John 21, "Do you love Me? Do you love Me? Do you love Me?" That's probably why Jesus hooked up John with him to teach him about that.

He also needed to learn courage. In John 21 Jesus said, if you're going to follow Me, it's going to cause your death. Are you willing? By then he learned. In Acts 4, he goes in front of the Sanhedrin and he says, I don't care what you say, I'll preach because I will obey God not men.

And tradition tells us that he was crucified, but before he was crucified he was forced to watch the crucifixion of his wife. He stood at the foot of his wife's cross and kept repeating to her, 'Remember the Lord.' And after she had died, he himself was crucified upside down because he felt unworthy to die like his Lord Jesus.

Peter's life can be summed up in the last words he ever said, they are recorded in the last verse of the last epistle that he wrote, 2 Peter 3:18. Here is his word to you: "But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ; to Him be glory both now and forever. Amen." He could tell you to grow because that's what he had to do.



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