Peter: A Lesson in Leadership

Matthew 10:2

This morning, again, we come to the tenth chapter of Matthew. I would draw your attention to that chapter, Matthew chapter 10. We have the happy, happy privilege today of looking at the chapter which details for us the sending of the twelve Apostles. We already have looked, last week, at some introductory thoughts in verse 1, and we have moved on this morning to begin to look at the names of these twelve individuals themselves. Although we will not be able to spend a message on each one because 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 none other than Simon who is called Peter. And I'd like us to focus, if we can this morning, on that particular individual in reference to the twelve.

But first, before we look specifically at Peter, some general introductory thoughts that might help us to understand the passage in its context.

When I was a young boy, my grandfather gave me a copy of a book entitled Quiet Talks on Service, written by a man named Dr. S. D. Gordon. And in that book Dr. Gordon paints a fantasy, if you will, that is most vivid. He shows Jesus walking down the golden streets of heaven. He has just returned from earth in His ascension. And heaven is eager to greet Him and welcome Him and the first to greet Him there is Gabriel and so He and Gabriel are arm in arm, walking along the golden street. And Gabriel engages Him in a conversation that in the fantasy goes something like this:

"Master, You died for the whole world down there, did You not?" "Yes." "You must have suffered much." "Yes," the Lord said. "And do they all know what You did for them?" replied Gabriel. "Oh no.. .no, only a few in Palestine know about it so far." Gabriel replies, "Well, Master, what's Your plan? What have You done about telling the world that You died for them, that You shed Your blood for all of them? What's Your plan?" And the Master is supposed to have answered, "Well, I asked Peter and James and John and Andrew and a few other fellows if... if they'd make it the business of their lives to tell others. And then the ones that they tell could tell others and then the ones that they tell could tell others and finally it would reach to the farthest corner of the earth and all would know the thrill and power of the gospel."

And Gabriel is said to have replied, "But suppose Peter fails? And suppose after awhile John just doesn't tell anybody? And what if James and Andrew are ashamed or afraid? Then what?"

To which Jesus says, "Gabriel, I haven't made any other plans. I'm counting totally on them."

That's a fantasy. But not far from the truth. Because that is exactly the way that God designed the plan to work. He would spend His time with twelve. The twelve would carry the message. The ones who heard it from them would tell others and others and others, and here we are two thousand years later telling it again. To this generation which shall tell the next generation. But it all began with twelve men.. .twelve men.

These twelve introduced to us in the first part of chapter 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. They are the foundation with Christ being the chief cornerstone. They were chosen. It says in verse 1 that He called to Him twelve disciples. They were sent. It says in verse 2 that they are Apostles, sent ones. They started out as learners and they became sent ones, after their training was over.

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. They were the ones who received the revelation. They were the ones who wrote it down so that the early church when it met together studied according to Acts 2, the Apostles doctrine. They were not only the ones who were the foundation in terms of leadership and authority, but they were the source of revelation, and they were the framers of theology. They were given to the church, Ephesians says, "To perfect the saints for the work of the ministry that the body might be built up." They were given to build the body.

But it wasn't only what they said that was important, it was what they were. They were the first set of examples, the first patterns for people to look to, to see virtue. They are called, and this is an important title, the holy Apostles. I believe that is a term which indicates the virtue of their life. And so they receive d revelation. Having received it they taught it. Having taught it they codified it, as it were. They framed it into a system of truth and theology. It then became the substance which the church taught, and from which it learned.

They also set the pattern of godly, holy, virtuous life. And all of their authority was confirmed by miracle gifts. It says in II Corinthians 12 that they had the signs of an Apostle which were signs and wonders and mighty deeds. But God confirmed them with miraculous powers.

So, they were the foundation. And it is essential, I think, for us to see how the Lord works with them and how He disciples them and how He trains them, how He sends them as the pattern for this in the twentieth century that we're called to do, discipling others and sending them to reach the world.

Now you'll remember by just looking back a couple of weeks, that the Lord had been looking on the multitude at then of chapter 9 and He saw them as sheep without a Shepherd. They had been mangled and mauled and devastated and beaten and bruised and left for dead. And He saw this mass of humanity as a harvest moving toward judgment. The inevitability of doom, the inevitability of hell, the inevitability of divine judgment, and He realized because of the compassion of His heart, that He needed some to help Him to reach them, to warn them, to preach to them. And so in verse 37 of chapter 9 He points out the fact that the harvest is so great that all of this mass of humanity moves toward judgment but the laborers are so few. And these people must be warned, and so he says to His disciples, "Pray that the Lord will send forth laborers into the harvest."

And then in chapter 10 He appoints the first laborers, who are the disciples themselves. And we learn throughout this chapter, how He basically instructs them in carrying out the ministry that He gives to them.

Now keep this in mind from our last study, there were four phases in the training of the _twelve. First He called them to Himself by way of conversion, you find that in John 1. By way of believing in Him as far as they could believe, as far as they understood. And after they were called to Him to be disciples, to express their faith, there was a second call in which He called them away from their living, away from their normal concourse to follow Him everyday in a permanent relationship. He called them, if you will, into full time training.

And now, in chapter 10, we come to a third phase where He sends them out as interns. This is not their final sending, this is phase three. They go out to get their feet wet. They've been instructed for maybe as long as eighteen months, they're going to have another period of many months of training but before that begins He sends them out. He wants them to experience some things. He wants them to hit the wall a few times. He wants them to fail as well as succeed. And they go out and then they come back. And they go out, and they come back. And He interacts with them in this teaching internship.

And then, finally, the fourth phase comes in Acts 1 when the Spirit of God is sent after the ascension. And they then are sent into the whole world to disciple the nations.

And so, we meet them in phase three here, in chapter 10. This is their first opportunity to go out on their own, they go two by two. And He stays very close to watch and see how they fare and then to teach them off of the experience they're about to have.

But, they are essential. And I want you to get that. They are essential for the future of the Christian faith. Because they are the only plan. The Spirit of God, ultimately, will empower them, they will go and the ones they touch will touch others and it will go like that. They have been already disciples, verse 1 calls them disciples. They are about to be Apostles, verse 2 calls them Apostles. They have been trained, now they're going to be sent. And that's the goal that God has for all of us, to be trained, to be sent. And so we looked at that, and we called that the initiation of the twelve.

Then we also looked at the impact of the twelve in verse 1. You remember He gave them power, it says. He gave them exousia which means power or authority or the right. And in that divine authority He gave them, they could do two things; they could cast out the vile, evil, wretched, unclean demons and they could heal all manner of disease and all manner of sickness. That was the gift of miracles which Paul calls the gift of miracles, it's the gift of dunamis or power, and if you look at the gospels it's power against the demons. So, He gave them the gift of miracles. He gave them the gift of healing. And they went out healing and casting out demons. And this was a confirmation of their message. The main thing they did was preach. Go down to verse 6. "Go," it says, "to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and as you go preach, saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand."

Their primary task was to preach. But if they came along and preached, why would people want to believe them? On what basis would people hear their message? The impact came when they did these marvelous works of casting out demons, showing they had power of the kingdom of darkness, and then healing showing they had power over disease. And so they went preaching. And while they were preaching they were healing and they were casting out demons as an affirmation that they were indeed representatives of God.

As Nicodemus had said when Jesus appeared, Nicodemus said:

"We know that Thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do the things You do except God be with Him."

And that was what Jesus wanted people to say when they saw these men as well. That's it's obvious you must be of God because of what you are able to do.

Now if you look at a very important verse, it might just help to summarize that thought. In Hebrews 2, listen to what it says in verse 3 and 4: "How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord." The first preacher was the Lord. He was the first spokesman. "But then it was confirmed unto us by them that heard Him." And now we go to the second generation. The writer of the Hebrews says we got it from those who heard the Lord. In other words, we got it from the Apostles. "And God bore the Apostles witness with signs and wonders and diverse miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit."

In other words, the word of the Apostles was confirmed miraculously as they laid down the foundation for the church. So that was their impact.

Now thirdly, and for this morning, we come to their identity... their identity. Who are these twelve who are sent? Having been trained and given this tremendous authority? Let's meet them.

Verse 2: "The first Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother. Philip and Bartholomew." Another name for Bartholomew is Nathanael. "Thomas and Matthew the tax collector, James the son of Alphaeus, and Lebbaeus whose surname was Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot who also betrayed Him."

Now frankly, folks, they're just ordinary men. The only one who may have had some special wealth was Matthew and he gained it by being an extortionist and working for Rome. None of them that we know of had any particular academic background. They aren't the resident Ph.D.'s of Galilee. As far as we know none of them have any social status. Not necessarily the highfalutin types, just common people. Some of them are still utterly unknown to us. All we know is their names. They were chosen from the common people to be the ones who would be the first line of agents of Christ to set in motion the advancement of the Kingdom throughout the history of the world.. .critical. There has been never in the history of the world, a task to equal the task these twelve were given, never. The most monumental, incredible thing that any man was ever, in the history of the world, asked to do was to finish the work that Jesus began. And that is exactly what it says in Acts 1 verse 1: "The former treatise have I made, 0 Theophilus, of all that Jesus began to do and teach." And what He began, you'll carry on. And that's why He appeared to His disciples for forty days until His.. .until His ascension, speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom. And then said, Now I've taught you, you wait until the Spirit comes, and when He comes He will empower you and you'll go into all the world and be My witnesses. And the plan was in motion. But it all depended on these twelve.

Now as you look at the list there are some fascinating things to learn just from the list itself. Let me tell you why. It begins this way. The first, Simon who is called Peter, there are four lists of these disciples in the New Testament. One here in Matthew 10, one in Mark chapter 3, one in Luke chapter 6 and one in Acts chapter 1.. .Matthew 10, Mark 3, Luke 6, and Acts 1. Now listen, there are some marvelous similarities. In all four lists Peter is always first. And when Judas is mentioned he is always.. .what?. . .last. That's interesting. Peter is always first. Why was he first? Was he the first one chosen? No. John 1 makes it clear that he was not the first one chosen. But look at the word there, it says the first Simon who is called Peter. You have to understand the word there.. .protos. That's an interesting word. In this context it means the foremost in rank.

You say, - Now wait a minute, I thought the twelve Apostles all had equal twelve thrones in the Kingdom. I thought the twelve Apostles were all equal in authority, equal in power, all told to preach, all told to heal, all told to cast out demons. You're right. They'll all sit and judge the tribes of Israel. That's right. Well how come Peter is the foremost? Aren't they all equal?

People ask us all the time when they ask about the eldership of the church. They say, - Well, if you have elders, don't you just have one pastor and he calls all the shots? How can you have all elders? I mean, are they all equal? Do they all preach and teach? And they're all equal and so forth, in every area? Yes.. .in terms of office. Yes.. .in terms of authority. Yes.. .in terms of essence. But no.. in terms of function. Peter was foremost.. protos.

Let me give you another place where that word is used. How about this? "This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance that Christ came into the world to save sinners, I Timothy 1:15, "of whom I am.. .what?.. .chief." That's the same word. Chief.. .you could translate it chief. The chief of the twelve was Peter. They had to have a leader, and he was their leader.

So, first thing to note in the list is that they had a leader. And there's nothing wrong with that. There are leaders among leaders. And their leader was Peter.

Let me take you to a second thought. In all four lists there are three groups.. .there are three groups. Group one, are you ready for group one? Peter, Andrew, James and John. Group two begins in verse 3; Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew. Then comes group three: James the son of Alphaeus, Lebbaeus called Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot. Always, now listen, each group always has the same four guys in it. They never get out of their group on all three lists, always the same four.

Their names may be in different order, but they're always in the same group. And let me tell you another interesting thing. If you look at the calling of the twelve, you'll find that the first four were the first ones called. The next four were the next ones called, apparently. And the last four were the last ones called. So, you have these three groups of four. The first group called, the second group called and the third group called.

What is also interesting is we know a lot about those in group one; Peter, James, John and Andrew. Right? We know a little more about group two; Philip and Nathanael and Thomas and Matthew. We don't know anything about group three, except for Judas. And what we know about him we wouldn't care to know. There's a decreasing amount of information. There's a decreasing intimacy. The first group, in it is Peter, James and John who were the most intimate of all. So that in these groups, I really think you get an insight, the Lord was very, 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 points up a very important factor in leadership. You can't be intimate with everybody. It's impossible. It's utterly impossible. Our Lord, even out of the four, drew to Him three. And out of the three He spent most of His time with.. .whom?... Peter. Frankly, He had to spend most of His time with Peter because He couldn't get Peter off His back. I've always believed that Jesus walked down the road each day and when He stopped, Peter ran into the back of Him. I think Peter just trailed Him everywhere. He was forever asking Him questions.

But there's no way in spiritual leadership that you can have intimacy with everybody. And so the Lord had the close ones, and then the next group and then He gave what He could give to the third group.. .even though their function was just as important, their ministry was just as wonderful in a sense. You'll notice that the writers, however, of Scripture came out of group one and group two, mostly out of group one. So, you learn a little bit about how they functioned together.

Now let me add another thought. Each of the three groups, the names will be mixed in the group in the different lists, but always the first name is the same. In every list it's first Peter in his group; it's second, Philip in his group; and it's third, James the son of Alphaeus in his group. And that's always the way it is. You know what that means? That means that even in the individual groups they had.. .what?.. .leaders. Now that's how leadership functions, you see. You have.. .you have Peter who is sort of chief over everything. And then under him you have the most intimate group, and then you have another group and they have a leader and another group and they have a leader. And everybody functions, and that's the way it it among the twelve. And so we gain some insights into that group.

When Jesus sent them out He sent them out the first time in their internship, two by two. So they went out in their groups of four only two twogether.

Now there's an interesting, I think, insight to look at the fact that they were all so organized. But it was a very comfortable, a very natural kind of thing. I mean, Peter James, John and Andrew were sort of all interrelated, they were brothers and they knew each other, and they were the fishermen in the group. So, they were probably very close and intimate. The next group, we only know one of them, was a tax collector and it tells us. 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 about what they did at all. So, it's.. .it's as if that original group all knew each other, they were all the initial ones called, they were all the key ones that the Lord wanted to use and then there was a sort of a fading away in terms of intimacy though not importance in apostolic ministry.

Now their temperaments were also different, and I just call this to your attention. Peter, for example, was a man of action. He was impulsive, he was eager. I call him the Apostle with the foot- shaped mouth. Peter was always sticking his foot in it. He was always blurting out, charging ahead in a mad hurry, and in his group was another fellow by the name of John. All John wanted to do was be quiet, and meditate, contemplate, loving heart, recline on the breast of Jesus. And.., and it must have been interesting in that li