(upbeat music) - Hey, this is Pastor John Ryan Cantu from PNEUMA Church in Houston, Texas.

Thank you for listening to the message today.

I hope that it blesses you and all those that you share it with.

God bless you. (upbeat music) God is good. - Amen. - All the time. - All the time. - Amen.

Thank you, Lord.

Anybody happy to be in the house of God this morning?

(congregation cheering) Amen.

Praise the Lord.

It's always good to be among believers on a Sunday morning where we get down in the presence of God, in his presence, and we get into the word.

I love Sundays.

I love Sundays.

And I know we got some people out.

I know we also have some visitors.

If you're visiting, thank you for being here.

We already consider you family.

Once you're in, you're in, amen.

And there's no getting out.

I'm just kidding. (congregation laughing) But no, we're grateful for you and your life and really everything that God is doing.

And I wanna just take a moment to just recognize, I wanna say thank you to our team, to our leadership, to the people that serve, because man, I know maybe you only come here on Sunday mornings and you see just a service, but there is a whole machine behind PNEUMA Church, and I'm grateful for men and women of God who serve and are willing to meet.

And we have meetings, and we have times where people come and serve.

And Pastor Danny actually, he built this, he and his father-in-law. (congregation applauding) I know Pastor Renee also helped with some electrical, and he built this sound booth, so now that we can have weddings that aren't so awkward where the bride comes down the aisle.

And so I just wanna say thank you to everybody who serves, our children's pastors that are over there right now at work, and our worship pastor, our worship team.

Just give it up.

Just give it up and just honor our leaders and our volunteers and everybody who serves in this house.

Amen.

I wanna go to the Word this morning.

If you have your Bibles, I want you to turn with me to Matthew chapter 16, Matthew 16, and we're gonna read 15 through 23.

I hope you came hungry for the Word this morning.

Amen.

If you have it, give me a nice amen.

Matthew 16, 15 through 23.

We're gonna read it, and this is Jesus.

He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?"

And Simon Peter replied, "You are the Christ, "the Son of the living God."

And Jesus answered him, "Blessed are you, "Simon, by the Jonah, for flesh and blood "has not revealed this to you, but my Father, "who is in heaven.

"And I tell you, you are Peter, "and on this rock I will build my church, "and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

"And I will give you the keys to the kingdom, "and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, "and whatever you loose on earth shall be loose in heaven."

And then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was a Christ.

And from that time, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed and on the third day be raised.

And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, "Far be it from you, Lord, "this shall never happen to you."

But he turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan, you are a hindrance to me, "for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, "but on the things of man."

Amen, let's go to God in prayer.

Heavenly Father, I thank you for this word that you've spoken over your servant and to your servant, my God.

I pray, Lord, that as I have received it, my God, that your people here today would receive it, my God, with an open mind and an open heart.

I pray, Father God, against any distractions, my God, right now, Lord, I pray that your Holy Spirit would have his way 100% the way that you wanna have it, my God.

I pray that you would be on my lips, my God, and that you would minister to your people this morning in Jesus' name, amen.

Amen, go ahead and be seated this morning.

Man, this passage is so interesting to me because it shows two extremes of Peter.

We have first Peter speaking out of divine revelation, and then we have a Peter who is speaking out of his humanity, so much so that Jesus says, "Get behind me, Satan."

And so he's first speaking out of what the Father has shown him, and then out of kind of the devil's agenda.

But Peter wasn't possessed by the devil.

He was just speaking in a way that tempted Jesus to not carry out the mission that Jesus came here to fulfill, which was to go to the cross.

And so out of that temptation, Jesus rebukes Satan.

And this shows us just how many times we can be operating in the Spirit, and then at other times, we're operating in the flesh.

It's just like from one breath to another, we can be operating in the Holy Spirit, and then in another, we're operating in the flesh.

Peter failed to have the understanding of the revelation that he had just received from the Father.

And so he's rejecting this idea that Jesus even has to go to the cross and suffer and die, even though that's what Jesus is telling his disciples, must happen.

Peter confesses the Lordship of Jesus by recognizing that he is the Son of God, and then in the next breath, he says, "No, God, you can't do that."

Imagine coming to church and saying, "God, I give you my life, I give you my heart, "I give you my mind, I give you my will.

"Whatever you wanna do, I will do it."

And then when God's trying to take you through some things, you're like, "Hold on, God, that doesn't look right.

"That doesn't sound right.

"That doesn't feel right.

"You can't do that."

We often want the revelation of God, but then we move away from it when the revelation doesn't really make perfect sense, as if the revelation of God really ever makes sense when it's first revealed to us.

There's gonna be times where God reveals things to you that you do not fully understand, yes or no?

You don't understand that dream that you had.

You don't understand that word that pastor gave.

You don't understand the word that you even read in scripture.

You're like, "What the heck am I reading?"

You don't understand the season that God has you in.

You're not gonna always understand the revelation.

All we can do is continue to be obedient to the Lord and follow what he is saying.

The Bible talks about us being in a season of revelation.

We're in a season of revelation.

The mystery of the gospel Paul talks about has been revealed to all the world through Jesus Christ.

God has spoken through his word, and when he speaks today, it is backed by what he already spoke in his word.

God is not gonna give you a word that is completely contradictory to his word because he's not a God of confusion.

And we talked about this, that God, there's the logos word of God and the rema word of God.

Both are from the Lord, but one is what God has spoken and the other one is what God is saying, but both compliment each other on the established word of God.

God is not gonna contradict himself, but so many times we, because we're people and we have feelings and we have emotions and we have convictions and we have personal ways of thinking and beliefs and ways that we grew up, and many times we listen to those things and it clouds the judgment of what God has revealed.

And I want you to know today, if you're here in the room, you have a responsibility to the revelation that you've received.

You have a responsibility to the revelation you received.

Peter was speaking out of what he believed.

He was speaking out of what he felt.

He was speaking out of what he wanted to happen or what he didn't want to happen, not out of what God was showing him.

And so the title of my message this morning is Responsible Revelation, Responsible Revelation.

There is something about the revelation of God that I have learned to fear over the years as a believer and a preacher and as a pastor.

And I think in that order, it gets scarier and scarier because as a believer, the responsibility is to myself.

As a preacher, it's to the people that I'm preaching to, and as a pastor, it's to those that I pastor.

And so I've learned that the revelation of God is scary.

And it's not scary because of the revelation itself.

It's scary because of the responsibility of carrying that revelation.

People don't want to be responsible for a lot of things.

See y'all know.

Y'all quiet today.

I don't have some of my key ameners here.

That's what it is.

Y'all need to step it up.

One of the most annoying parts of leadership, and if you're in leadership, you know it, it's when another leader comes to you and they give you information that you really wish you hadn't heard.

Why did you just tell me that?

Because now I have the responsibility to do something with that information.

Now I have to have an awkward conversation about this person that you're bringing this situation to me about.

And so when information is given to you, you have to do something with that information.

Depending on what it is, you might forget about it, and I forget things all the time.

I have to make reminders for every little thing because I will forget.

I will forget.

Thank God for auto pay.

I wouldn't have a car or a house or anything right now if it wasn't for auto pay.

But that's not an excuse, right?

It's not responsible to just forget.

You don't get to tell your lender, I just forgot to pay my bill.

It's gonna cut your light off.

Now you might take in information and you might just ignore it.

It's not that important to you.

It's not important enough to do anything with.

Or you might take that information and do something necessary or useful with it.

Now when God gives you information, we call that revelation.

And can I tell you that God's revelation is always important?

When God speaks, he's not trying to do small talk.

He's not trying to ask you how your day was.

He's trying to go deeper.

He's trying to accomplish something in his purpose and he wants to use you to do it.

And you have a responsibility, man and woman of God, to that revelation.

When the gospel is presented to somebody, some people dismiss it, they reject it, they don't want anything to do with it.

Other people wrestle with it.

They kind of sit on the fence for a little bit.

This is the case with Nicodemus in the Bible.

Jesus is speaking to this rabbi, this very wise and well-respected rabbi about the truth of the gospel.

But he wrestles with it.

He doesn't really do anything with it.

The Bible doesn't tell us that he went to Jesus and accepted Jesus.

Or you have other people who accept the gospel and they embrace it.

But no matter what decision you decide to make, if God revealed it to you, he's gonna hold you responsible.

That's why it's scary.

Because the King of Kings, the creator of the universe, is telling you something today and he's telling you to hold you responsible to it.

That's why I've learned to respect the revelation of God.

And it gets even more scary, man, because in Paul, I'm sorry, in Romans chapter one, Paul opens up by talking about the revelation of God to the world.

And he says, "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven "against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men "who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

"For what can be known about God is plain to them "because God has shown it to them "for his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power "and divine nature, have been clearly perceived "ever since the creation of the world "in the things that have been made, "so they are without excuse."

You have a responsibility to your revelation.

And now, in this passage, Jesus asks his disciples a very simple but profound question.

He says, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?"

And the disciples kind of throw out some different answers.

Well, some people say that you're a second John the Baptist.

Other people say that you're the second coming of Elijah.

Other people say that you're the prophet of doom Jeremiah or another prophet.

But then Jesus gets to the heart of the question and he says, "Okay, who do you say that I am?

"You who have been with me, "you who have been walking with me, "you who have been witnessing all the miracles "that I've been doing, who do you say that I am?"

And Peter, for the very first time, he's speaking up for the rest of the disciples as a leader of the group.

And he says, "You are the Messiah, "the Son of the living God."

Jesus, you are the long-awaited one.

You're not just another prophet.

You're the one of whom the prophets spoke about.

But then he says, "But you're not just the Messiah."

He says, "You're the Son of the living God."

Can I tell you that a lot of people thought that Jesus was the Messiah?

A lot of people were calling Jesus the Son of David.

They even tried to make him king because they believed Jesus to be the Messiah.

But Peter adds something very profound.

He says, "You're not just the Messiah, "you're the Son of the living God."

And Jesus says, "Blessed are you, Peter, "because my Father has revealed this to you."

This isn't just something that you heard other people say.

This isn't just something that you're regurgitating of somebody else's opinions.

This is revelation from the Father.

And blessed are you because you received it.

It is a blessing to receive revelation from God.

It is a blessing to receive word of God.

It is a blessing to receive a touch from God or even a test from God.

Because when God reveals anything to you, what it means he meant for you to receive it.

You are not a byproduct of a revelation that was meant for somebody else.

You're not just here today because God wanted to speak to the person next to you and not to you.

No, God wants to speak to you.

God wants to have a moment with you.

God wants to get in your face today at the altars.

God wants to get into your situation and reveal a truth to you about your life, about your family, about your future.

God is purposeful in his revelation.

Jesus would reveal things all the time to his disciples that he wouldn't reveal to other people who weren't ready yet.

And so when God reveals something to you through his word, through his spirit, it's because he meant for you to receive it.

The word of God, this is the revelation of God.

This is the revelation.

When you open it and you say, Lord, speak to me, God will speak to you.

And that doesn't mean that you might understand it right away, but if he revealed it to you, the understanding will come later.

You are here today because God wanted to share something with you that testifies to the mindfulness of God.

It is a privilege.

It is a privilege to be here today, to listen to a word of God and to leave here with the responsibility of God's divine revelation that he meant for you to carry.

It's not by accident that you're here.

It's by no coincidence that you showed up.

God meant to reveal himself to you through his word and through his spirit.

And I just felt like preaching on that for just a second because so many times we come into the church and we're like, what am I even doing here?

Why am I here?

The only reason maybe you think that you're here is because somebody invited you to church.

They had been bugging you.

They'd been bugging you for weeks, for months.

Like my brother, Mike, he's probably, that's how he gets people in the door, which is by bugging them and say, I'm gonna pay for your lunch.

And you come in here, what am I even doing here?

I don't know these songs.

These aren't my jams.

These aren't my people.

I don't relate to these people.

There's nothing here for me.

There's no word here for me.

There's no revelation here for me, but I will speak the revelation of God to you today and tell you that Jesus loves you.

I will tell you that Jesus cares for you.

I will tell you that he died for you.

I will tell you that he saw your sins and saw you as more valuable, so he decided to come down in the form of a man and take on human flesh and die a painful death for you.

That is a word for the person next to you, but it's also a word for you.

And if you're here to receive that message, blessed are you.

It's a blessing, but it's also a responsibility.

Y'all still with me today?

Y'all still a little quiet?

It is a blessing to receive word from God, man.

But yes, it's a responsibility.

Do y'all remember, y'all know who Uncle Ben is?

Uncle Ben, he's America's second favorite uncle after Uncle Jesse.

Some of y'all have no idea what I'm talking about.

Just get to the point, pastor.

The first Spider-Man movie, this is probably my dad's favorite verse.

Uncle Ben says, "With great power comes great responsibility."

The revelation of God is power.

It's power.

These aren't just words.

These aren't just stories.

There's power in here.

There's power to save.

There's power to heal.

There's power to deliver.

There's power to transform.

If anybody is a product of this, can you just raise your hand and let the person next to you know that there is power in this?

There is power in the word of God.

When you open up the scriptures and you read of what Jesus did and the miracles that Jesus did and the letters to the churches that help us walk in godliness, man, there's power in these words.

And so the message today, you can leave and you can do nothing with it.

You can ignore it.

You can dismiss it.

You cannot care about it because it wasn't the word for you.

It wasn't what you wanted pastor to preach about today.

Or you can receive it and discern it and pray over and apply it and live it and hold fast to it.

Take the blessing.

Take the, tell the person next to you, take the blessing.

Peter's role in the church is crucial.

I shared this with our Wednesday class a couple weeks ago.

Jesus called Peter to be the foundation upon which the church would be built.

I heard one commentator say that Jesus is the founder, Peter is the foundation.

And so Jesus literally changes Simon's name to Petros, which means rock.

And so in verse 18, he says, you are Peter, you are rock.

And on this rock, I will build my church.

Jesus is like, Peter, because my father has revealed something to you is going to come with the responsibility.

This is why the revelation scares me.

Because when God shows you something, yeah, it's a blessing, but it's also a burden.

It's a blessing, but it's also a burden.

I tell Melissa all the time, baby, let's just go for the boy.

Let's just do it.

And I pull up these old videos of Layla when she was little and Ellie when she was little.

I'm like, they're so cute.

Look, we could cuddle with them and we can have a boy and I can bond with him.

And then she was like, yeah, but they're also a burden.

And they take your time and they take your money and they take your health and they take your social life and you got nothing to do for the first three years of your life, of their life.

It's a burden.

And I'm like, yeah, you're right, girl, thank you.

It's a blessing, but it's a burden.

You have to understand that.

You have to understand.

And when you're thinking about having kids, yes, it's a blessing, but it is a burden.

It always has to come with that caveat because you can't be a deadbeat parent.

You gotta take care of that living person.

You have to take, you gotta feed them.

Please, for the love of God, bathe them.

Some of these kids walking in like onions, making everybody cry.

You gotta take care of them because they're a responsibility.

Yes, they're a blessing, but they're also a burden.

And it's exact same way with the revelation of God.

We're like, God, give me revelation.

Show me your will.

Show me what you want from my life.

And I'm like, are you sure?

Because you gotta know what you're asking for because you're gonna be required to carry that revelation with you everywhere you go.

You gotta take care of it, just like a little baby.

And you can't get anybody to babysit your revelation 'cause revelations aren't cute.

And sometimes you're gonna forget about the revelation in the back seat and you're gonna forget that you have 'em.

And sometimes you're gonna wish that you didn't even have it.

And sometimes you're gonna be required to keep the faith because what you see physically is not what God showed you spiritually.

But if God chose you to have the revelation, it means that he also meant for you to carry the burden.

I used to get scared of telling people what God showed me.

Man, it's scary.

When I first started a pastor, that was a season of my life where God was placing all kinds of things in my heart, man.

All kinds of things, we're entering a new season.

And whenever you enter change and transition, if it's in the Lord's will, he's gonna reveal things to you.

And there was a lot of things that God was showing me that I was kind of uncomfortable with, and I was like, I don't know how people are gonna receive this.

What if they think that this isn't from God?

What if they think that this is just me?

What if they think I need to be more realistic?

Or this is the biggest fear that I had.

What do I say when they ask me how?

Because leaders need to have answers, right?

When you present something, when you present vision, the question is like, how are you gonna do that?

But sometimes God doesn't reveal the how.

He just reveals the what.

And you might be in a season of what, and you have no idea how it's gonna happen.

You have no idea.

You're just walking.

You're just being faithful.

Peter, you are the rock upon which I will build my church.

Peter had the what, he had no idea of how.

What does that even mean?

I'm gonna be the rock.

You're gonna build your church.

Jesus, come on.

Don't you wish that Jesus spoke a little bit more clear sometimes?

You know, like, come on, God.

If you're gonna reveal something to me in a dream, can you just, can you make it clear?

You know, like I don't need all these symbolisms.

I need it clear.

That's not how God works sometimes because a part of the revelation is faith.

And that if he said it, it will happen, not in your way, not with your understanding, not with your logic, not with your reasoning, not with your wisdom, but in his.

And so to Peter, you're still with me?

All right, I'm gonna teach you a little bit real quick.

Don't let me bore you.

To Peter was given administrative authority.

Someone say that with me, administrative authority.

That's what was given to Peter.

Jesus says, you are the rock upon which I will build my church.

And then Jesus says, I am gonna give you the keys to the kingdom.

Can I tell you, I don't have the keys to the kingdom.

And thank the Lord because I probably lose them.

I lose my keys all the time.

I got the keys to PNEUMA.

And I lose them.

I don't have the keys to the kingdom.

Jesus said, Peter, I'm gonna give you, you the keys to the kingdom.

Because Jesus knew that his time on earth was almost up.

He was gonna go to the cross.

He was gonna resurrect.

He was gonna hang out for a few days.

And then he was gonna leave.

He needed to know that the church, the body of Christ could be built upon someone that he could trust.

And so he says, Peter, I'm gonna give you the keys to the kingdom.

Not to John, not to Andrew, not to Thomas, not to Bartholomew, not to Mary, not even to Paul.

I'm gonna give them to you, Peter, because you are the rock.

Now this doesn't mean that Peter was more supreme than the other disciples.

It doesn't mean that he was holier than the other disciples.

The Catholics consider Peter to be the first pope.

But Peter was never the head of the church.

He just had a unique responsibility because he had a special revelation.

And one of the major responsibilities that Peter had was in declaring the Gentiles clean.

In Acts chapter 10, Peter has another revelation.

This time it's in the form of a dream.

And again, it's a wild dream.

Peter's seeing all kinds of animals.

And in the dream, Jesus says to Peter, rise, kill, and eat.

And Peter doesn't understand it.

He's like, Lord, I have never eaten anything that is unclean.

And Jesus says, do not call unclean that which I have made clean.

And so Jesus was directly calling out Peter's Jewish commitment, his Jewish religion.

Peter was a Jew through and through.

Yes, he loved Jesus.

He gave his life to Jesus, but he was still a Jew.

And he believed like a Jew.

He grew up as a Jew.

And Jews didn't really associate with Gentiles.

That was their thing.

And so in the dream, the unclean animals represented the Gentiles, the non-Jews, who the Jews thought were unclean.

And so Jesus had to tell Peter, Peter, the gospel is for everybody.

It's not exclusive.

It's for everybody.

The spirit of God is for everybody.

I am pouring my spirit upon all flesh.

Not just your type of people, everybody.

Anybody who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.

But Peter, as the chief administrator, had to bind and loose.

Jesus told the disciples, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven.

Whatever you loose on earth shall be loose in heaven.

That phrase, bind and loose, it was very common in Jewish legal literature.

It means to permit or prohibit.

That's what it means.

As a pastor, I can bind and loose certain things, certain issues when it comes to the church.

Not everything.

Some things need to be taken to the leaders or to the board or even the whole congregation.

But that is the same type of authority that Jesus gave to the disciples and to Peter.

And so when Peter receives this second revelation in Acts chapter 10, he has a responsibility of opening up the doors to the Gentiles.

And that's a big responsibility.

Because that's not a politically correct message.

This is not a message that even Peter is comfortable with.

This is a message that he's gotta take back to the Jewish church in Jerusalem and be exposed to criticism and having people question his ability to lead and people might even question his commitment to his religious beliefs.

Man, the revelation of God, it is a burden.

See what I'm saying?

It's a burden.

Because sometimes the revelation of God is not popular.

It's not popular opinion.

It's not what other people think you should do.

When God is pressing on you to be patient while everybody is just telling you to quit.

When God said to have faith, but that faith looks foolish to the rest of your family.

When God gave you a vision that other people think is too ambitious.

We had a board meeting yesterday and I told the board, I said, man, within three to five years, I wanna tear down this fellowship hall and I wanna rebuild it three stories up because we cannot get in the way of the growth that God has been bringing to this house that we're already feeling.

We're already having to try to make room and we don't have the room.

And so in about three to five years, I want a new building over there.

And you know what?

I also want a parking garage.

And this is like a $10 million project.

That's scary to say out loud.

But thankfully we have men and women of God on the board who are of the same spirit, the same mind.

But when God reveals something to you, it comes with a burden.

It comes with the responsibility.

And it doesn't matter who likes it and who doesn't like it.

It doesn't matter if it's not wise by human standards.

All that matters is that you trust the one who gave it to you.

The Bible says that Peter was receiving criticism from the Jews.

So if you know the story in Acts chapter 10, Peter goes to the house of Cornelius.

Cornelius is a Gentile.

He's not a Jew.

He's actually a part of the Centurion Guard, the Roman army.

And the Holy Spirit comes upon the house of Cornelius.

And the Jews are like, hold on, was he at least circumcised first?

Because that's how it's gotta happen.

He's gotta become a Jew before he can become a Christian.

Did you go through the proper steps, Peter?

Did you follow the policies and procedures, Peter?

Did you do it right?

And Peter's like, no.

And so he goes back to the Jerusalem council and he talks about this issue.

In Acts chapter 11, I don't even know if I have it up here, but it's 11, 17, Peter tells the Jerusalem council, he says, "If God gave the same gift to them "as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, "who was I that could stand in the Lord's way?

"When they received these things, "they fell silent and they glorified God, "saying then to the Gentiles, "also God has granted life through repentance."

So I want you to think about how this fulfills.

We're going a little deeper today, I hope I'm not boring you, but I'm trying to show you the theology of what Jesus revealed to Peter when he said, "You are the rock upon which I will build my church."

Think of how this fulfills what Jesus said about Peter, because it wasn't until the Gentiles started to accept Jesus that the church grew explosively, but it was upon Peter, the rock, the foundation that the church would be built, and it all started with the revelation that the Father gave to Peter, that you, Jesus, are the Son of the living God.

What God will do with even the smallest revelation, you still want the revelation of God?

You still want the responsibility of that revelation of God?

Are you still willing to have those uncomfortable discussions?

Man of God, priest of your home, when God speaks something to you, now you gotta take it to your wife, because wife is the boss, but in reality, Jesus is the boss, and you gotta get her permission, but you already got God's assignment.

God has revealed things to you that I'm sure you haven't even shared with anybody else.

Not even with the old members of your household.

He's placed burdens in your heart that you're not ready to share with your family.

When God called me to pastorship, man, I wrestled with it.

I wrestled with it for a while.

I didn't tell my wife right away, because that wasn't the plan.

We had a plan, had an agreement.

We ain't gonna do pastoral ministry.

That ain't for us.

But when God reveals it, he burdens, and who are we to stand in his way?

There's people today carrying a revelation, but you're not yet walking in it, because walking in it means that you're committing to it, and you're not sure if you're ready to commit to it.

There's other people who have welcomed the revelation.

There's some of you that are walking in that confidence, like if Jesus just gave you the keys to the kingdom, and you're telling everybody what God told you, just like Joseph told his brothers, everything that God showed him, and you're out here saying, oh yeah, I'm gonna be a pastor one day.

I'm gonna be a missionary one day.

Oh, God called me to start this business, and God called me to do all these things, but you're not even preparing for it.

You're not even getting ready for it.

You're not nurturing it.

You're not taking care of it.

Somebody say amen or don't say anything.

There's people that say, God said that he was gonna restore your family.

I know there's people here waiting on the restoration of their family.

And God said, if you just stay faithful, if you just stay patient, but you're ready to give up, I don't know what God has revealed to you, but I know that if he has revealed anything to you, you have a responsibility to it.

I'm almost done.

I wanna get the worship team.

I wanna go into the next portion of the text where Jesus, he begins to explain to his disciples that he has to go to the cross.

Jesus starts to explain that he has to die and he has to be resurrected.

Now, at this point in Peter's life, Peter's still not fully mature, right?

This is not the Peter of Acts.

This is the, chop your ear off, Peter.

And he takes Jesus to the side, and you know Peter, he's quick to speak, slow to understand, and he says, no, Jesus, you can't do that.

You can't suffer and die.

You're the Messiah.

You're the boss, you're el mero mero.

You reign.

You can't die.

And Jesus turns his back to Peter and he says, get behind me, Satan.

Get behind me.

If I'm Peter, I just want from here to here.

Here was Peter feeling confident, feeling anointed.

He's got the revelation, he's got the keys to the kingdom.

And then Jesus rebukes Peter in a way that is harsher than any rebuke he's ever delivered to another apostle.

The man who had the revelation of the Father is now being called Satan.

The man who was called to, I want you to listen.

If you haven't paid attention, you gotta listen now.

The man who Jesus called to be the rock is now acting as a stumbling block to Jesus.

Jesus says, you are a hindrance to me.

And the reason that Jesus had to be this harsh with Peter and maybe even hurt Peter's feelings a little bit is because Peter had such a great responsibility to his revelation that right now he was being careless with.

People read this rebuke from Jesus.

And I mean, I used to think it too.

Like Jesus, were you a little too harsh to call him Satan?

Like Jesus broke the rules of leadership.

You gotta take care of your leaders, gotta lift them up, gotta encourage them.

You don't call him Satan.

Imagine, Pastor Brandon messes up, Satan get behind me, imagine.

Never do that to you.

And so, I mean, you think about it and like, man, Jesus, why are you so harsh to call him Satan?

Why not just explain it a little bit more?

You know, people are slow sometimes, it takes them a while to get things.

But Jesus went from zero to 10 in a second.

The way that I understand the text is that this wasn't just a one-time event.

Verse 21 says that from that time on, Jesus began to show them.

He began to explain to them.

Jesus was continuously teaching what had to happen by his suffering and his death.

And one day, Peter finally gets up and he says, "Jesus, this can't happen."

And the last verse is the key to this whole message.

And I wanna bring it in here.

Where Jesus says to Peter, "For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, "but on the things of man."

Who is that for today?

Who is that for today?

Who is not setting their mind on the things of God, but on the things of man?

Who is not setting their mind on what is higher than what they can see physically?

That's the story of our lives.

Trying to make sense of divine revelation.

Trying to make it happen in our own timeline.

Just like Abraham and Sarah, when they got the revelation that they were gonna produce a son, and they got tired of waiting, and they try to make it happen on their own timeline.

How many times do we do that with the revelation of God?

Trying to insert human emotion and feeling instead of being just led by the Spirit of God. (gentle music) Human wisdom, listen, human wisdom has no place in divine revelation.

Human wisdom will mess you up.

It'll try to make you think logically about what God is trying to do miraculously.

Now, I'm not saying that it's okay to be foolish.

I'm not saying that you don't do your due diligence.

We've gotta do our best, and we've gotta operate in excellence and be stewards of things, but we also do this through prayer, and through seeking, and through discerning.

We do this by sitting down with like-minded believers who are there with us in one mind.

For every, listen, for everything that you do logically, you gotta do twice as hard spiritually.

Man, you didn't hear me.

Whatever you do logically, you gotta do twice as hard spiritually.

Because I don't wanna be operating more in my own intellect than I am in the Spirit when God has shown me something and I'm trying to happen, I'm making it happen on my own.

Listen, Peter was in a moment where he was thinking with human wisdom and not divine revelation.

Peter was thinking too small.

Peter was thinking in the here and now.

Jesus was thinking eternity.

Peter was thinking in the earthly kingdom.

Jesus was thinking heavenly kingdom.

Peter was thinking defeating Rome.

Jesus was talking about defeating hell.

The gates of hell, Peter, the gates of hell, Peter, will not prevail.

I don't care about Rome.

I don't care about Caesar.

I don't care about Pontius Pilate.

I came here to defeat the gates of hell.

I came here to tear down the bondage of sin.

I came here to restore human life back to me.

You gotta get your mind right, Peter.

You gotta get your mind right, Peter, because the revelation that I gave to you comes with such a major responsibility.

You can't do this on your own mind.

You can't do this on your own strength.

I need you to set your mind on the things of God.

Come on, church.

I want you to stand with me.

God has shown you things.

God has shown you things.

God has spoken to you things.

God has given you word for your life, for your family, for your future, and for your children.

He has given you word Sunday after Sunday.

If you're coming to church, you are getting revelation of God.

God has shown you things that are too important for you to be careless with.

God is saying, I am showing you something through this test.

I'm showing you something.

I'm revealing myself to you through this hurt and through this lack and through this divorce and through this pain and through this confusion and through this death.

But you're setting your minds on the pain and on the loss and on the why.

I'm trying to show you something more, says the Lord.

I'm trying to teach you something, says the Lord.

I'm trying to take you somewhere, says the Lord.

If you would only set your mind on the things of God and not your human moments.

Human wisdom has no place in divine revelation.

It's got no place.

Something was revealed to you.

I need you to close your eyes.

I feel the spirit of God this morning.

But Larry, Heather, God has revealed something to you.

And you are men and women of God who carry that revelation with care.

But there are times of confusion and there are times of hurt and there are times where there's issues with people and there's opinions of other people and there's times where sometimes you get in your own way, but God is saying, don't stand in my way.

Don't stand in my way.

I will make a way even when you think that there is none.

I will do something even when you think I'm not doing anything, I'm working, says the Lord.

I am working.

What has God shown you this morning, church?

What has God shown you this morning?

(soft piano music) I'm gonna ask the prayer team to come forward real quick.

I wanna make an altar call for anybody who is carrying a divine revelation, but you have been working with your own human intellect.

You've been using your human wisdom to try to make it happen.

Maybe some of you have forgotten about it and you're not even treating it with care anymore.

But if God gave you a revelation, it's because he meant for you to have it.

And I wanna call you this morning to come forward and have a moment with God where you say, Lord, I wanna be led by your spirit.

I don't wanna be led by my emotion.

I don't wanna be led by my intellect.

I wanna be led by you.

I wanna be led in Godly wisdom.

If that's you this morning, come forward.

And if you are in need of prayer this morning, if you say, God, I need help trusting in you more.

I need more faith.

I need more strength.

I want you to come forward and let us pray with you.

These altars are open, but I want you to know today that God is a way maker.

He is a miracle worker.

There is nothing impossible for him.

If God gave you the revelation, it will come to pass, even if you don't understand it. (upbeat music) - Thanks for listening.

If you'd like some more information on PNEUMA Church, visit us on our website at mynumachurch.org.

If you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe or share it with your friends on social media and tag us @mynumachurch.

Thanks again and God bless. (upbeat music) [MUSIC PLAYING]