2006년 3월 12일 시몬 베드로 갈대냐 반석이냐 John 1:40?42 Simon Peter?a Reed or a Rock? Today, I would like to share with you a message titled, "Simon Peter, Are You a Rock or a Reed?"When we talk about a reed, we remember that it sways in the wind. We frequently use the phrase, "A person who is like a reed in the wind." We say, "He is like a reed," of a person who is indecisive, faltering, wavering, and constantly changing. However, a rock is not so. We say, "He is like a rock," of a dependable person, who does not move or change even though history and people change. But, can a reed change to a rock? In the man’s mind, this is absolutely impossible. However, the Lord says that He can make this happen. Simon Peter, a brother of Andrew, was a "reed-like" countryman living in a fishing town of Galilee. But later, by the grace of God, he was changed to the rock of the Christianity, the rock of accomplishments of Peter. First, what we would like to find out is the Lord who had chosen a reed. The Lord did not choose a person who is like a strong rock but a person who is like a reed that sways in the wind aimlessly. Simon Peter was a fisherman who lived depending on his fishing nets day to day without a goal and hope. He was a person who was just living his life as it was without a purpose, direction, and value. In Mark 1:16-17, "And as He walked by the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. Then Jesus said to them, ‘Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.’" Lesley Clique said about Peter: "He is a person like the Sea of Galilee." People called the lake of Galilee as "the Sea of Galilee,"since it was constantly changing. It may be calm for a moment, but when a sudden storm blows, giant waves surge in. Lesley Clique made this metaphor since Peter was unpredictable like the Sea of Galilee. When Peter was told to be silent, he was stirred up; when he was told to be patient, he angered; and when he was to accept Christ, he denied Christ. Likewise, a fisherman, Peter, was full of emotions of joy and sadness, and he was a person with a severe personality change. However, God called this reed. In John 1:40-42, "One of the two who heard John speak, and followed Him, was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his own brother Simon, and said to him, ‘We have found the Messiah’ (which is translated, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus. Now when Jesus looked at him, He said, ‘You are Simon the son of Jonah. You shall be called Cephas’ (which is translated, A Stone)." That is, he is called a rock. The Lord knew that he was a reed. But the Lord prophesied that, in the future, he will become a rock. Congregations! He was a constantly changing person who accepted the Lord in his heart without calculating, and followed the Lord, throwing away his lifelong career. When he tried to catch fish all day, he did not catch any; when he tried to catch fish all night, he did not catch any; when he was washing his nets in the morning, Jesus borrowed his boat for a short while, and after preaching the word there, he said, "Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch." Peter answered, "Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing." But since the Lord was staring at him, he said, "Nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net." And when he cast the net into the deep, he caught a great number of fish; so knowing that Jesus is God, he knelt down there and said, "I am a sinful man. I am a lump of sin. Depart from me." At that moment, Jesus said to him, "From now on you will be a fisher of men." He left the boat full of fish that he had caught, and followed Jesus. In Luke 5:10-11, "And so also were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not be afraid. From now on you will catch men.’So when they had brought their boats to land, they forsook all and followed Him." In the shores of the Seoul’s Han River at Yang Wha Jin, there is a grave yard of the foreign missionaries who were martyred working as missionaries in Korea. Among them, there are graves of Dr. William Hall’s family; this epitaph is written on the tombstone in front of the grave: "For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s (Rom 14:8)." Dr. Hall and his wife, while praying in the U.S., they heard this: "Go to Chosun. Proclaim the gospel to the people of Chosun." After hearing this commandment, they quit their jobs. And leaving their parents and siblings, they came to Chosun. When they came, many people were dying due to the widespread of Cholera in the region of Pyongyang after the Sino-Japanese War. Dr. Hall passed away, having a heart attack due to stress, while treating Chosun people with Cholera day and night. His wife Rosetta Hall served Chosun not succumbing to the death of her husband. She raised the first Korean woman doctor, Park Esther, and she established the first Korean women educational institution of medicine, Kyong Sung Woman Medical Specialist School (today’s Koryo University Medical School), and for the disabled blind people, she made the learning of Braille’s reading widely available. Following the steps of his parents, her son, Sherwood Hall, also took care of many patients in Korea after finishing his medical school. In Hae Joo, he ran the Tuberculosis Recovery Center, and created "Christmas Rice" that we buy during Christmas, putting all his strength to eradicate Tuberculosis. As so, because of the God’s calling, this entire household served giving their lives. In the U.S., they could have lived comfortably, and lived with their family and relatives; at the time, for a primitive nation called Chosun, which was not even clearly denoted in the map, as soon as God called them, entire family served giving up their lives; and they are buried in the tombs of Yang Wha Jin. They did not calculate when God called them. They accepted God’s calling regardless, put aside all things, and followed the Lord. The Lord expands the Kingdom of God through the people who are sacrificing themselves, obeying immediately without calculating. Second, looking at the life of Peter, we cannot discern it because it looks like both a reed and a rock. Today, it looks like a rock and tomorrow it’ll look like a reed, but next day, it’ll look like a reed again, and then next day, it’ll look like a rock again; Simon Peter had an unpredictable life. Once, he confessed his faith wonderfully at Caesarea Philippi. Jesus asked his disciples, "Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?" They said, "Some say Jeremiah, a prophet of tears, others Elijah who performed great miracles, or Elisha, or one of the prophets." But then Jesus asked, "But who do you say that I am?" Peter stood up and said to Jesus without even taking a breath: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." It was an amazing confession of faith. Congregations! At that time, everyone ignored, mocked, and disrespected Jesus. He was born and worked in the Galilee, and people recognized him as a son of a carpenter of Nazareth but not as the son of God. However, Peter said boldly: "Simon Peter answered and said, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’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 (Matthew 16:16-18).’" In Matthew 16:18, "And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it." Congregations! Peter earned his name "rock"through this great confession of faith, and the Lord complimented him that the church will be built on this rock. After this, when Jesus said,"Later Imust go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day,"Peter again stood up suddenly and said this. In Matthew 16:22-23, "Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, ‘Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!’ But He turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.’" He was at one moment a rock and then the next moment Satan. This is mind-boggling. A little while ago, he confessed, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God," receiving a revelation from God, and later, he confronted Jesus when He was explaining the plan of God that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed on the Cross, and be raised the third day. "Lord, this cannot happen. Lord, you must reign as the King of Kings and as a Prime Minister who will rule over the twelve tribes; how dare can you say this?" Instantly, he said this not by the Holy Spirit but by the flesh. When he was speaking in the flesh, Satan has used his flesh. Jesus seeing Satan who was speaking through Peter, "Be gone, Satan! How can you disobey the work of God and be mindful of the things of men?" A moment ago, he received compliments from the Lord and was proud, but now he looked pitiful, being discouraged. People were envious of Peter a little, but now, they were laughing and pointing fingers at him. He changed so much. A little while ago, he was a rock, but now he became a reed that changes constantly. What did Peter say, when Jesus said that everyone will betray him and leave him?" He boldly said that he will go with Jesus to the prison and to death even though everyone else betrays him, but he ran away as fast as he could to save himself when Jesus was captured in Gethsemane. He spoke like a rock but he acted like a reed. However, while running away, he thought, "I am, at the least, his best disciple, how can I run away, leaving Jesus. Since I told him that I’d go with him to the prison and to death, I should go back." So he bravely followed the people to the high priest’s courtyard. Boldly, he went after the Lord to the high priest’s courtyard, but while he was warming himself in front of a fire, a servant girl came out and said, "You were with Jesus. I saw you drawing your sword and cutting an ear of Malchus in the Gethsemane." In Matthew 26:70, "But he denied it before them all, saying, ‘I do not know what you are saying.’"Since he came after Jesus, he should have done as he had said that he’ll go to the prison and to death together, but he trembled by the words of the servant girl and denied Jesus. When he went to the front gate, another servant girl said, "Surely, you were with Jesus. I saw you." But again he denied with an oath, "I do not know the Man!" He even took an oath. Moments later, some said, "No. You are from Galilee. Listening to how you speak, you speak with the native tongue of Galilee." He was totally gone crazy this time. "Then he began to curse and swear, saying, ‘I do not know the Man!’ Immediately a rooster crowed." After this, his eyes met with the eyes of Jesus. Jesus was beaten so much that he couldn’t tell the differences between eyes, nose, and ears because they were swollen. His hair was untidy, his clothes torn, and the blood ran down on him. As soon as his eyes met with the eyes of Jesus, He remembered the word of Jesus: "This night, before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times." He ran outside, throwing his body to the ground, and cried with his body trembling. "Dear God, dear God, What have I done? Why am I like this? I was a rock a moment ago, then little later, I became a reed; I was bold a moment ago, then little later, I became so weak; why am I like this?"He could not understand himself. He cried shaking violently. However, third, what we would like to find out today is that, in the end, Peter became a real rock. Becoming a rock is possible only through the grace of the Lord. Look at Simon who was disheartened. Jesus was taken away right away, nailed to the Cross, died, and buried. Simon was totally disheartened. "Now, I am not qualified to be his disciple. I am rejected. I am no good. I am useless." So, he sat in his room, not moving. Now, his future was bleak. But hearing the words from the women who went to the tomb but could not find the body of the Lord, he ran out of the room where he would not leave; he ran to the tomb with all his strength. Dashing into the tomb, indeed, he saw the tomb empty; after seeing remaining linens that had wrapped Jesus, he lowered his head and he returned home being disheartened and hopeless. The biggest surprise is that Jesus visited Peter first of all his disciples after Jesus was resurrected. In Luke 24:34, "Saying, ‘The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!’" Congregations! I have been talking about Simon Peter, but this story is not about Simon Peter the story is about me and you. We are like Simon Peter. When we feel good, we are a rock, but when we feel bad, we become a reed; we become not only a reed, but later, we become a weed. We should not forget that the Lord has not rejected us, but searches for us who are like this. Look at the endless love of the Lord who searches for us regardless. The Lord who has torn his body on the Cross, shed blood, sacrificed on our behalf; even though we are in a situation where we are disheartened and hopeless, hating ourselves and not accepting ourselves, the Lord will not reject us but searches for us. In spite of this, Simon Peter who met the Lord suffered all the more when he met the Lord. It may have been better for Him not to come; since He searched out for him who was rejected, he was shaking violently in his guilt all the more, so he said, "I go out to catch fish." He could not bear his guilt so he went down to the Galilee, returning as a fisherman. He prepared an old fishing net, dusting them, and then went out to catch fish; but even though he cast the net all night, why couldn’t he catch any? It was because his heart was not with the fish. He could not endure the pain of his guilt in his heart. "Whew, what a life I have. I am no good! I should have died! How can you be living? Die! Die!"He was casting the net saying like this, so the fish mocked him, and none of them come into the net. He caught nothing despite casting the net all night. In the morning when the fog started to come in with the morning light, a person standing in the midst of the fog said, "Hey you! What’s out there?" "There is nothing." "Throw the net to the right side of the boat." When he cast the net to the right side of the boat, the net was about to tear up since there were so many fish. Then, John said, "It’s the Lord." Peter immediately put his clothes on and jumped into the water. Why? He was too embarrassed to walk out from the boat. Since he "lost his face," he didn’t know whether he could stand before the Lord with water dripping down all over looking like a drenched mouse, so when all other people came to the shore rowing the boat, he jumped into the water, and on that cold morning, he swam and came out of the sea. He came before the Lord; the Lord was waiting for him with burning firewood, toasting the bread and roasting the meat. Others looked clean, but Peter trembled with water dripping down; his hair was soaked and hung loose; he stood before the Lord looking like this, in his despicable appearance. Moreover, the wood was burning bright, and the disciples warmed themselves around the fire with their hands stretched out; so what did he remember? He remembered his three denials while he was warming himself in front of burning wood in the high priest’s courtyard: "the fire is my foe, my foe." For he could not bear his previous memories seeing the fire, he writhed in pain; so, to give him a room to breathe, Jesus said, "Simon, go and bring me the fish you just caught." "Yes." How good it is that He gave Peter a room to breathe. He ran and gathered the net; he counted the fish; it was 153. He brought a few fish from it; the Lord told him, "Put it over the fire and cook it." And then, he gave out the bread, and gave out the cooked fish, he said, "Eat it. Eat the fish." He didn’t say anything but to eat it first. After Jesus finished feeding his disciples with the fish and the bread, the Lord assertively started to make conversation with Peter. "Simon, do you love me more than all these people?" He used the word "love" with "Agape." Agape. Agape is the love that we love with our life. At this, Peter lowered his head and said, "Lord, I phileo you."Phileo is not agape. It is not loving him with his life, but loving him as a friend. Why? In the past, he betrayed him after saying, "Agape love." Since he was not sure of himself, when Jesus asked, "Do you agape love me?," he said, "No, I phileo love you. I love you as a friend." The Lord said, "Good. Shepherd my sheep!" A little while later, the Lord said again, "Simon Peter, Do you agape love me more than all these people? Do you love me sacrificially?" He lowered his head again and tried to swallow his food, but the food didn’t go down. So after coughing, he said, "Lord, I phileo love you. Lord. I love you as a friend, not loving you sacrificially." "Shepherd my sheep." Mulling over it, he said to himself: "In spite of what I’ve said that I cannot love him with my life but love him as a friend, why is he giving me this major task? Feed the sheep. Shepherd the sheep. The Lord did not reject me." Then, the Lord spoke for the third time. "Simon Peter, Do you phileome more than all these people? Do you love me as a friend more than all these people?" "Oh, this is a major problem. I told him that I love him as a friend. If I tell him that I love him as a friend again, I may betray him. I can’t trust myself." He just grab unto him with an "about-to-cry" look. "Lord. Lord knows that I love you, but I don’t know. Once, I told you that I agape loved you sacrificially, but I denied you three times; now I told you twice that I love you as a friend, and you asked me again that do I phileo love you; how do I know that I will not deny you as a friend again? Lord I do not know." His tears rolled down on his face. "Lord, I do not know. Now, I do not know who I am. My determination and fame is of no use. Only the Lord knows me. Only the Lord knows me." Lord said, "SoI know. Shepherd my sheep." Since Peter denied three times, the Lord made him to confess that he loved Him three times, and the Lord embraced him in His endless love, and gave him the responsibility to take care and shepherd the sheep; and the Lord said, "Now you follow me. You will live only if you follow me. Your wisdom, intelligence, craftiness, talents, and knowledge cannot lead you. Your determination and resolution have failed you. I will love you, and give you grace; so follow me fixing your eye on me." Congregations! Many people are fighting with the ghost called the past. They are the people who say that everything is finished, suffering from the worry and the guilt of the defeatist mindset. Charles Swindol who is a famous tele-evangelist and the senior pastor of the First Evangelical Church of California is charging like this to them. "The past is over a second ago. From this moment on, you can be clean, and be filled with the Holy Spirit, and you can be used in many other ways for the glory of the Lord." Because Peter could not bear the guilt of denying Jesus, he went down to Galilee and returned to the past as a fisherman, but Jesus came to Peter, and to him, He granted grace and gave love again; He told him to follow Him, fixing his eye on the Lord through the Lord’s grace and love; then a reed transformed into a rock. When you depend on yourself, fixing your eyes on yourself, believing that you are self-assured and are living on your own, then you will not become a rock. You think you are like a rock but a reed; you think you are like a reed but a rock; you are unpredictable; when you cannot trust yourself, if you give yourself up, depending on the grace and love of the Lord only, and follow the Lord, then the Lord turns us into a rock through the power of the Holy Spirit. Fourth, we’ve looked at the steps of becoming a rock; for he has denied three times, he confessed the love three times, and the Lord said, "Feed my sheep. Shepherd my sheep." He has accepted him. Thus, he was grateful of the love and the grace of the Lord. The love and the grace transform a person. Although Peter has denied Jesus three times during a crisis, Jesus in turn said positive words to him three times, and the Lord helped him to free himself from the guilt; He poured endless love and grace on him; He guided him, saying, "Follow me." So he was inevitably transformed from a reed to a rock. Congregations! When we put ourselves aside and follow the Lord, we change into a rock. If we stand self-centeredly, we will never be a rock. In this entire universe, only Jesus is the rock. When we follow the Lord, we transform into a rock along with Christ. In the end, he died on the cross upside down in Rome. When they tried to execute Peter and hang him on the cross, he said, "Since I have a sin of denying Jesus, I cannot be nailed standing up like Jesus; so hang me upside down."So he passed away, hung on the cross of the letter "X". It is true that we are lost between Simon the reed and Peter the rock. We are so much alike the reed, no matter how hard we think with our hands on the heart. Being lost, we go through a life cycle of being a reed one day and being a rock later. We are always a reed when we believe according to our flesh and believe self-centeredly. But if we follow the Lord and realize how weak our flesh is through many hardships and sufferings, depend on the Lord wholeheartedly, then we are transformed into a rock. Philip Yancy said, "When there is nothing for us to lean against, even when we cannot even trust ourselves, God is also there, and we become a rock when we depend on this God." George Muller who had received answers to all his 50 thousand prayers confessed like this: "I am nothing. It is better for me to be nothing. But in Jesus, all things are possible."All of us are lost between Simon the reed and Peter the rock. But if we realize how vulnerable our existence is, and depend on the Lord wholeheartedly, the Lord helps us to experience the endless grace and love, making us a rock. The stripes of the Lord do not make us a rock. Rebukes and reproach do not make us a rock. The suffering we face does not turn us into a rock. Although we sin, are unrighteous, wicked, rejected, cannot follow the Lord, are lost, deny, and are fallen, we turn into a rock from the moment when, realizing the grace of the Lord is in our hearts, we are determined to follow the Lord who follows us and loves us to the end. If you accept the grace and the love of the Lord into your heart, you will follow the Lord, and you will no longer change constantly like a reed that sways in the wind, but turn into a solid rock; you will become a person who will glorify the Lord.