Grace to You :: esp Unleashing God's Truth, One Verse at a Time

Peter: Learning from Life Experience

Code: B170728

The following blog post was originally published in July, 2017. —ed.

How did the Lord take Peter, a man cut from such rough fabric, and refine him into a leader? For one
thing, Christ made sure Peter had the kind of life experiences that would shape him into a godly
leader. It is in this sense that true leaders are made, not just born.

Experience can be a hard teacher. In Peter’s case the ups and downs of his experience were
dramatic and often painful. His life was filled with tortuous zigs and zags. The Lord dragged him
through three years of tests and difficulties that gave him a lifetime of the kind of experiences every
true leader must endure.

Why did Jesus do this? Did He take some glee in tormenting Peter? Not at all; the
experiences—even the difficult ones—were all necessary to shape Peter into the man he needed to
become.

He learned, for example, that crushing defeat and deep humiliation often follow hard on the heels of
our greatest victories. Just after Christ commended him for his great confession in Matthew 16:16
(“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”), Peter suffered the harshest rebuke ever recorded of
a disciple in the New Testament. One moment Christ called Peter blessed, promising him the keys of
the kingdom (Matthew 16:17–19). In the next paragraph, Christ addressed Peter as Satan and said,
“Get behind me!” (Matthew 16:23)—meaning, “Don’t stand in My way!”

That incident occurred shortly after Peter’s triumphant confession. Jesus announced to the disciples
that He was going to Jerusalem, where He would be turned over to the chief priests and scribes and
be killed. Upon hearing that, “Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, ‘God forbid it
Lord! This shall never happen to You!’” (Matthew 16:22). Peter’s sentiment is perfectly
understandable. But he was thinking only from a human standpoint. He did not know the plan of God.
Without realizing it, he was trying to dissuade Christ from the very thing He came to earth to do. As
usual, he was speaking when he ought to have been listening. Jesus’ words to Peter were as stern
as anything He ever spoke to any individual: “He turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind Me, Satan!
You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s’”
(Matthew 16:23).

Peter had just learned that God would reveal truth to him and guide his speech as he submitted his
mind to the truth. He wasn’t dependent upon a human message. The message he was to proclaim
was given to him by God (Matthew 16:17). He would also be given the keys to the
kingdom—meaning that his life and message would be the unlocking of the kingdom of God for the
salvation of many (Matthew 16:19).

But now, through the painful experience of being rebuked by the Lord, Peter also learned that he was
vulnerable to Satan. Satan could fill his mouth just as surely as the Lord could fill it. If Peter minded
the things of men rather than the things of God, or if he did not do the will of God, he could be an
instrument of the enemy.

Later, Peter fell victim to Satan again on the night of Jesus’ arrest. This time he learned the hard way
that he was humanly weak and could not trust his own resolve. All his boasting promises and earnest
resolutions did not keep him from falling. After declaring in front of everyone that he would never
deny Christ, he denied Him anyway, and he punctuated his denials with passionate curses. Satan
was sifting him as wheat. Thus Peter learned how much chaff and how little substance there was in
him and how watchful and careful he must be to rely only on the Lord’s strength.

At the same time, he learned that in spite of his own sinful tendencies and spiritual weaknesses, the
Lord wanted to use him and would sustain him and preserve him no matter what.

All those things Peter learned by experience. Sometimes the experiences were bitter, distressing,
humiliating, and painful. Other times they were encouraging, uplifting, and perfectly glorious—such
as when Peter saw Christ’s divine brilliance on the Mount of Transfiguration. Either way, Peter made
the most of his experiences, gleaning from them lessons that helped make him the great leader he
became.

So far we’ve considered two of the three key elements of leadership that we can see in Peter’s life:
He was made of the right raw material and shaped by powerful life experiences. But it is the third key
element that is foundational to everything else—the right character qualities. In the days ahead we’ll
examine those character qualities that are so evident in the life of Peter.

(Adapted from Twelve Ordinary Men.)

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