It’s possible that right now you feel like Christ wants more from your life. Similarly to Peter, you are on a journey that requires sensitivity to God’s leading as His demands for your life increase.

 

Peter’s journey began as he was minding his business in the flow of his everyday life. A story that isn’t elaborate or fancy, but a man doing what he did every day; catching fish. He had no idea that one day, one encounter with one man would absolutely change the trajectory of his life.

 

This is the case for us all. That whilst in the busyness of everyday life, one day, we would encounter one man and begin our journey in love, salvation, and destiny.

 

The Peter that Christ called onto Himself isn’t the same Peter that we see in the epistles. Here we see Peter the Apostle, the bondservant of Christ. The one whom Christ so boldly declared years prior would be the rock upon which he would build His church. Yet in the early accounts of the gospel, all we see is a fisherman. We have to ask ourselves… How on earth did he get there?

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Peter’s first encounters with Christ

 

Matthew 4:18-20, Mark 1:16-18, Luke 5:1-11, and John 1:35-42 provide us with the first accounts of Peter’s first encounters with Jesus.

 

Matthew, Mark, and Luke tell the story in comparison to John. The first 3 gospels show us how Christ called Peter and Andrew to be ‘fishers of men’. This was their call to evangelism. The call that every believer answers the moment they are saved - drawing people out of darkness into God’s light. However, in John’s account, we witness Peter’s call first to Christ himself.

 

John 1:40-42

‘40 One of the two who heard John speak, and followed Him, was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. 41 He first found his own brother Simon, and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated, the Christ). 42 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).’

 

Jesus identifies Peter by his name (which was Simon at the time) and as he does so he calls Peter onto himself before he makes him a fisher of men. Before Peter was given his mandate to become a fisher of men, he was first called unto salvation, to receive life from Christ in order to be the fisher of men that Christ knew he could be.

 

But Peter’s story doesn’t end there, as Peter continues to journey with Jesus, there are different demands placed on him by Christ in different stages of his life.

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Christ demands more from Peter

 

In Mark 3:13-16, Jesus places a demand on Peter and the twelve disciples to go into different territories to establish the ways of His kingdom. This is Peter’s call into Apostleship. Not just to preach the gospel, but to assume authority to establish doctrine, and challenge churches to a holy life and fruitfulness in the knowledge of Jesus through his letters and leadership.

 

Peter’s life is a clear example that at different stages in our walk with Christ, He places different demands on us to draw different aspects of our purpose and destiny out of us. Aspects that we can so easily ignore because we are comfortable in the present season.

 

Imagine if Peter was satisfied with the call to salvation, but refused the call to be a Fisher of Men… Imagine if Peter was so satisfied with the call to be a Fisher of Men, that he wasn’t ready for God to expect more from Him as an Apostle…

 

If Peter was not aware of the new demands in different seasons of his life, who else would God have had to raise to answer the call?

 

Reflect on this…

 

How sensitive are you to Jesus’ calls to greater responsibility, and how willing will you be to sacrifice what is necessary to accept God’s call?