Get Behind Me

Introduction

Well, have you ever just stuck your foot in your mouth? Well, maybe the better question is if you’re like me, when was the last time that you’re stuck your foot in your mouth? And maybe the one thing worse than sticking your foot in your mouth is saying something good and knowing you should have stopped there, but then following it up by sticking your foot in your mouth and just erasing that good thing that you just said. Like my good old friend Julian is here this morning visiting with us, and I could say it’s good to see Julian and his beautiful wife and adorable children, and I could stop there, but I could go on and say, I’m kind of shocked. You have a beautiful wife and adorable children.

When I probably should have just stopped with the compliment there.

If I told you to think about a biblical character who stuck his foot in his mouth, you would probably immediately think of the same person that I’m thinking about, and that’s Peter. Turn with me, if you will, to the gospel of Matthew, Matthew chapter 16.

And I want to start as you’re turning in your text there to say that maybe we’re not fair to Peter. Because I have toyed with the idea for probably 20 plus years of preaching a sermon entitled The Good Things Peter Said. Because we like to highlight the times that Peter did stick his foot in his mouth, and when Peter said something rash and quick and acted rash and quick and did something wrong. And that’s maybe not fair to just characterize Peter just by his mistakes, because the bulk of the life of Peter as an apostle of Jesus Christ is a positive one. And so maybe we’re not fair to Peter in characterizing him as just that guy who said the wrong things and spoke up too quick.

But here we go. We’re going to talk about it. In Matthew chapter 16, we have the famous story of Peter saying the right thing in what we often call the great confession. Jesus and his disciples come to the area of Caesarea Philippi and he asks them two probing questions. The first question is, who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? And they said, Well, some say you’re Elijah or Jeremiah or John the Baptist or one of the prophets. Now I just want to pause there. This has nothing to do with the lesson, but just make this observation. Those people, I’m assuming those are the same people that many, if not most of them reject him from being the Messiah. They don’t believe that he’s the Christ, the Son of the Living God, but they have no problem believing that he’s some dead, resurrected, or reincarnated prophet.

It seems to me that it’s as easy to believe that he is the Messiah, the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy, as it to believe, how can he be Elijah or Jeremiah or even John the Baptist? Those men are all dead. So it just seems strange to me that that would be their conclusion of who Jesus is. But Jesus probes them further. And ask a second question, because in these disciples, Jesus wasn’t preparing reporters, he was grooming disciples. And so a second question is even more important. Who do you say that I am? And we’re not surprised when Peter is the first to throw his hand up and say, Oh, oh, pick me, pick me. And Peter correctly answers, you’re the Christ, the Son of the Living God.

If I ever preach that sermon, the good things that Peter said, that’s going to be point number one. Because Jesus says, Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. You’re right.

And again, we often refer to this as the great confession. And famously, Jesus will follow that up by saying that you are Peter, and upon this rock, that confession, the fact that I am who you said. I am the Christ, the Son of the Living God. I am the Messiah. I am the one promised in the Old Testament. I am the fulfillment of the prophecy. I am the culmination of everything that God had planned from eternity. That based upon that, and upon that fact, upon that bedrock, Christ said, God will build his church. And the gates of Hades, death itself can’t prevail against it. If Peter had just stopped there, what a wonderful chapter this would have been in Peter’s life. But Jesus has now demonstrated, and Peter has demonstrated his correct understanding of the person of Jesus.

Who am I? You’re the Christ, the Son of the Living God. But because Jesus is preparing disciples and witnesses, he takes it a step further. You understand who I am, the person of Jesus Christ. Now let’s talk about the mission of Jesus Christ. And so there are you with me in Matthew chapter 16. It says, beginning in verse 21. From that time Jesus began to show to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised the third day. Because I am the Christ, the Son of the Living God, here’s what I’ve come to do. And you need to understand that. You know who I am, you know the person.

Now you need to know the mission. And so he begins to explain that. And Peter can’t help himself. Maybe it’s just because it’s the nature of Peter. He’s one of those guys that just has to blurt out what he’s thinking. Or maybe he’s emboldened by the confidence and the ego that he got that first one right. I’m on a roll. Why stop now? Verse 22 says, Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, Far be it from you, Lord, this shall not happen to you. The boldness of Peter to pull aside who he correctly identified as the Christ, the Son of the living God, and said, You’re wrong, Jesus. That’s not going to happen. In fact, I won’t let it happen. That boldness will continue into the Garden of Gethsemane, won’t it?

When he will draw his sword and try to put a stop to those proceedings.

For you’re an offense to me. You’re not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.

1. Even Believers May Become Adversaries

What a quick turnaround from blessed are you, Simon Barjonah, to get behind me, Satan. You’re an offense to me. So let’s talk about that phrase, get behind me, that Jesus rebukes Peter with, and see if there’s some lessons that we can learn from that phrase. What did Jesus mean? And what are some lessons that we can learn for ourselves and our own Christian lives from that phrase, get behind me. The first observation I would make is that even believers may become adversaries. Reading this short text as we just did, would you say Peter’s a believer in Jesus Christ? Sure you do it. You can’t come to any other conclusion. He said, You’re the Christ, the Son of the Living God. He’s a disciple of Jesus Christ.

He’s a believer in Jesus, but yet Jesus would identify him as an adversary. You’re in my way, you’re an offense to me. And so there’s a warning there for me. That although I can believe in God, I can believe in Jesus Christ, I can believe the Bible is the infallible word of God, it’s still possible for me to become an adversary to the cause of Christ. You know, things are more complicated than we normally like to think of them. We like to think in black and white. We like to think of us and them. Those people in the world, those that don’t believe in God, those who would ridicule our faith and mock God and religion and certainly Christianity, their adversaries, they’re on the wrong side of God, but not us.

We’re the good guys. But Peter had to learn that difficult lesson that I need to learn that even sometimes the good guys can be bad guys. That even though I’m a believer, that I can sometimes be an adversary. Another term that Scripture uses often is I can become a stumbling block. You remember the story in Matthew chapter 18 where Jesus would bring the little child to him and make a parable out of that child. Two parables, really, out of that child. He said, He would bring that little child to him, and he says, You need to become like this child. Now that’s a whole sermon in itself. Unless you become converted and like this little child, you’ll by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Then he tells another parable about that child.

He says, Anyone who would cause one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it would be better, remember, the millstones hung around their neck and they’re thrown into the depth of the sea. One thing we need to notice there that that is a parable. He wasn’t literally talking about that child. He wasn’t literally saying you need to become like a child. He doesn’t literally say you need to become where you’re drinking a bottle and wearing a diaper and being that was a parable. And neither was he saying you don’t harm a little child. Now, obviously, God’s going to punish those who harm little children, but the parable was that his followers are like his children. And if you cause one of my followers who believe in me, he wasn’t talking about a little baby, an infant, but my children who follow me, if you cause one of them to stumble, you’re going to incur my wrath.

2. We Cannot Accept Part of Jesus Without All of Him

And so it’s possible for us to become adversaries, as Peter did. Jesus became an adversary to Jesus Christ Himself. Again, Peter demonstrated that he understood the person of Jesus Christ, but not the mission of Jesus Christ. Another lesson that we can see from this encounter with Jesus and his disciple Peter is that we cannot accept part of Jesus, who he is, what his mission is, what he demands of us, without accepting all of him. Even a cursory reading of the New Testament should lead us to the conclusion that Christianity is a all or nothing proposal. We have to be all in. We can’t be just a little bit Christian. We can’t accept part of it. You know, back, I don’t know where the line ended there, but back in the day, we’re to say it that way.

Every preacher had a sermon that was entitled Cafeteria Religion. You remember hearing those? And the premise was you those went out of style probably about the time cafeterias went out of style. You remember a cafeteria, you go in there and you take your little tray, and you’d say, Yeah, give me that, and some of that, and none of that broccoli and cauliflower, but some of that. And so you got to pick and choose. You didn’t have to eat everything that was there. You got to pick and choose. And the premise behind those sermons was that’s the way many people treat Christianity. I’ll have some of that. I don’t want that. I’ll have a little of that, not much, just a little of that, and I don’t want any of that.

And that’s just simply not the way Christianity works, is it? But unfortunately, sometimes we want to treat Jesus that way. And Peter wanted to treat Jesus that way. I want to have Jesus, the Christ, the Son of the living God. I’ll embrace that. But I don’t want the Jesus that’s going to suffer and die. And we kind of get that. We wouldn’t wanted Jesus to suffer and die if we’d have been there in person. But Peter needed to learn to accept that part of Jesus. And we have to learn to accept what we might consider the difficult and the uncomfortable parts of Jesus, the difficult and uncomfortable parts of Christianity. And if we’re honest, well, let me rephrase that. If I’m honest with myself, when I do that picking and choosing, I’m really choosing the parts that come easy to me.

That I would have probably chosen anyway, even if I wasn’t a Christian. Because there’s sins and temptations that even if I wasn’t trying to live the Christian life, don’t appeal to me. And so I’ll gladly choose those.

But the ones I pass on are the ones that are difficult for me. That’s kind of what Peter was doing, wasn’t he? Notice, notice this. In Matthew chapter 23, this same Jesus with his familiar foes, the Pharisees, tries to teach them, I think, this same same lesson. In Matthew chapter 23, in his scathing rebuke, he says this to them. Matthew 23, verse 23. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you pay tithe of mint, anis, and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done without leaving the others undone. You know, illustrations help us to understand the point trying to be made. But you know what’s better than an illustration spoken is an illustration acted out.

So I’ve got a homework assignment for you. When you get home after you go out to eat today, when you get home, open up your spice cabinet and get out one of your jars of spices and pour it out on the countertop. And get a pair of tweezers or a knife, and if you’re like me, you’re going to need a magnifying glass and count. Count those pieces of spices that came out of that spice jar. And you might need a razor blade because a couple of them may get stuck together, and you’re going to need to separate them. Count those all out, and then count out 10% of those, because this was an old law, an old covenant principle. And that’s what these scribes and Pharisees were doing.

How exacting they were being in their tithing. And so the question is easiest question you’ll be asked today were those people good at tithing? Oh, yeah. Somebody that’s going to that detail, man, they were good at that. They excelled at that. But Jesus said, you’re good at that part of keeping the old law. But you failed miserably at this other part. And the other part, he said, is actually more important.

And so one lesson I learned from Peter’s exchange with Jesus here is I don’t get to pick and choose. I don’t get to pick the parts that I’m good at, that I like, that come easy to me. I’ve got to do it all. And I find it interesting. I’m not saying there’s a direct connection, but this same Peter would say in his epistle later, add to your faith virtue, virtue knowledge, the knowledge long. Peter is going to tell us later that our faith needs to be rounded out. It needs to be filled out. It doesn’t need to be one-dimensional. So I need to accept everything that Jesus demands of me. Not just the parts that I like, not just the parts that are easy to me.

You know, we could say it this way, and I understand that this is hyperbole, so please understand that. But when it comes to religion and Christianity, can we say it this way? Again, recognizing that there’s a good dose of a hyperbole in here. That everybody wants a savior. But nobody wants a Lord. Everybody wants a savior. Everybody wants somebody to die for my sins and wash away my sins and clean my slate so that I can go to heaven when I die. But nobody wants a Lord, which means master, who gets to tell me what to do. Who gets to tell me I have to do this and I can’t do that. But we must accept, if we accept him as Savior, we have to accept him as Lord.

3. We Got to Remember Our Place

Some want to accept the Jesus who would turn over tables in his anger, but not accept the Jesus who said, Suffer the little children to come to me. Some of us want to accept the Jesus who called the young child to him. But don’t want to accept the Jesus who said, not everybody who says to me, Lord, Lord, but he who does the will of my Father. If we get nothing out of this exchange with Jesus and Peter, let’s get this. We have to accept all that Jesus demands of us. Even when it makes us uncomfortable and challenges our preconception. And then lastly, and this is probably the main point of what Jesus was trying to get Peter to say. We got to remember our place.

Get behind me Satan. Let’s talk a little bit about that phrase. That’s a stinging rebuke, calling somebody Satan. Now, let’s look at this from an exegetical standpoint. The word Satan is a word before it was a name. The word Satan just means adversary. And so it’s possible, and that word adversary and the name Satan are the same word. And so it’s possible that Jesus is saying, get behind me, adversary. You’re an adversary to me. He goes on to say, you’re an offense to me. That’s still a rebuke, still a strong rebuke, to be an adversary and an offense to Jesus Christ. So that’s one possible way to interpret that. But it’s also very possible and maybe probable that he’s saying, Satan. Now, he’s not saying you are the person, Satan, you’re the serpent that was in the Garden of Eden.

But what he’s probably saying, if he’s using the title, capital S, Satan, Capital A, adversary, that you’re on the side of Satan. You’re acting on his behalf rather than my behalf. You’re on his team rather than my team. Get behind me, adversary. Get behind me, Satan. Now, what is he saying in that strong? Either one of those is a strong rebuke. Here’s what he’s not saying.

I want nothing to do with you. I’m going to go on without you. He’s not saying that. It’s not that strong of a rebuke. So what is he saying when he says, get behind me? I think he’s literally saying, get behind me. Because I think maybe literally at this moment, Peter was standing in front of Jesus, and I’m not saying Peter was literally doing these hand gestures, but he was by his words, he was doing this, wasn’t he? No. No, Jesus, you’re not going to go to Jerusalem and suffer many things and die on the cross. No. He was out in front telling Jesus what to do or what not to do. And Jesus was saying, that’s not your place, Peter. That’s not where you belong in this relationship.

You’re not supposed to be in front of me telling me what to do and what not to do. That’s not how this relationship works. Your place is behind me, not leading, not directing. Your place is behind me, following me. I’m the one that gets to say where I go, and also I’m the one that gets to say what you’re supposed to do. Let’s see if the text will bear that out. Matthew chapter 16. Verse 23 again. But he turned and said to Peter, get behind me, Satan. You’re an offense to me. You’re not mindful of the things of God, but of the things of God, of things of men. And then he said to all of the disciples, if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.

It’s lost in the translation, at least in my new King James. But I want you to observe this. In verse 23, the word behind, get behind me, Satan. The word behind is the exact same word as after in verse 24. And so to Peter, he says, get behind me. And then to all of the disciples, he says, if anyone desires to come after me, same exact same word in the original language. Well, he’s not saying to Peter, get away from me. I don’t want anything to do with you. You’re not my disciple anymore.

What he’s saying to Peter is what he said to all the disciples. If you want to be my disciple, come after me, follow me. You’re not the leader, you’re not the boss in this relationship. You don’t get to tell me what to do. I get to tell you what to do. And so, Peter, remember your place.

Conclusion

I follow up good things with bad things and end up erasing the good thing I should have said. But even worse than that, if I’m honest with myself, I can remember times when I’ve, although I’ve been a believer for a long time.

Maybe to you, and a stumbling block to maybe to you.

And had the audacity to think that I could tell Jesus what to do. You might say, when did you ever do that? Why would you ever do that? Every time I made a decision and what to do in my life that was contrary to what Jesus wanted me to do in my life. I had the conversation the other day with the most stubborn man I’ve ever met in my life. And I could see his stubbornness and his opposition to right and goodness and even the cause of Christ. And I started to get him told to his face. But then I thought better of it. And I thought maybe silence was the better choice. And I thought I’ll wait. And I’ll let God through his word touch the heart of that individual and soften their heart.

And I’ll just simply pray for that stubborn mule headed individual. And so that’s what I did. And I walked away from the mirror and sat on the edge of the bed and said a prayer for myself. And I could hear the words of Jesus.

Speaking to me as he spoke them to Peter. Get behind me. You want to be my disciple. Follow. Follow me. Take up your cross. Not only am I going to have to bear my cross, Peter, you’re going to have to bear yours. Come and follow me. May we learn the lessons that Peter had to learn the hard and probably embarrassing way of where our place as a disciple ought to be. To come and to follow him. Would you do that? Would you humble yourselves and follow him? Not your way, but his way by hearing the word of God, believing in it, repenting of your sins, turning your back on your own stubborn way and humbly following him, confessing your faith in Jesus Christ, not just once before an audience such as this, but every day of your life.

Proudly and boldly owning your faith in Jesus Christ. And to be baptized for the remission of your sin. Follow him.

And let it be known right now as together we stand and sing