“The Right Raw Material”

 

EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/16/2026 8:00 PM

My Worship Time                                                                     Focus:  “The Right Raw Material”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                                        Reference (None)

 

            This evening I begin looking at the first sub-point that begins to talk about Peter, the first Apostle that we will be looking at from the list of the twelve disciples, and I will use John MacArthur’s commentary to help us know about Peter’s apostleship.

            “The best answer to the question of whether leaders are born or made is that they possess certain innate abilities, which must then be shaped by their life experiences.  Apparently, Peter possessed at least three such leadership traits.

            “First, he was inquisitive.  Leaders understand that knowledge is power; hence people who do not ask questions do not make good leaders.  Unlike those who are willing to remain ignorant about what they do not understand, do not care to listen to others’ insights, are unconcerned about what they have not analyzed, and are content to leave problems unsolved, leaders have an insatiable curiosity.

            “Peter manifested his curiosity by asking more questions in the gospels than the rest of the Twelve combined.  It was Peter who asked the Lord to explain a puzzling statement He had just made (Matt. 15:15), to whom another of Christ’s teachings applied (Luke 12:41), how many times he was expected to forgive someone who offended him (Matt. 18:21), what reward the apostles would receive (Matt. 19:27), and along with James, John, and Andrews) about the end times and the signs of Christ’s return (Mark 13:3-4). Even after His resurrection Peter continued to pepper the Lord with questions (John 21:20-22).  His constant desire for more knowledge and better understanding marks effective leaders.

            “Peter also possessed a second crucial trait of a leader—initiative. According to the humorous saying, there are three kinds of people:  those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who ask, ‘What happened?’  Leaders are definitely those who make things happen, and Peter was no exception.  Not only did he ask the most by the Lord—mostly notably when he made the great confession that Jesus is ‘the Christ, the Son of the living God’ (see the discussion of the passage below).  When a woman with a hemorrhage touched Jesus and was healed, ‘Who is the one who touched Me?’  It was Peter who replied, ‘Master, the people are crowding and pressing in on You’ (Luke 8:45).

            “But nowhere is Peter’s initiative more clearly seen than in Gethsemane.  When a large detachment of Roman soldiers and Jewish officials arrived to arrest Jesus, Peter immediately sprang into action.  Without waiting for an answer from Jesus to the disciples’ question, ‘Lord, shall we strike with the sword?’  (Luke 22:49), Peter drew his, bravely but foolishly intending to hack his way through the entire detachment.  He attacked first Malchus, the slave of the high priest, and cut off his ear (John 18:10).  (Peter, of course, was after his head, not his ear, but Malchus’s quick reflexes saved him.)  In this case Peter’s initiative was misguided, and earned him the Lord’s rebuke (Luke 22:51; John 18:11).

            “Peter’s initiative could at times cause him to ask rashly without sensibly evaluating the situation. Yet it is easier to rein in someone who is overly aggressive than to attempt to motivate a passive, timid, hesitant person.  When molded by his life experiences, and controlled by the Holy Spirit, Peter’s courageous willingness to take the initiative would make him a bold and fearless preacher of the gospel (cf. Acts 2:14-40; 3:12-26; 4:8-12, 19-20; 5:29-32).

            “Finally, Peter was willing to get involved.  Like all true leaders, he had to be where the action was.  The classic illustration of that comes from the story of Jesus’ walking on the water (Matt. 14:25-34).  Terrified when the Lord appeared in the middle of the Sea of Galilee, the disciples assumed that what they saw was a ghost (v. 26).  When Jesus reassured them that it was He (v. 27), Peter impulsively exclaimed, ‘Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water’ (v. 28).  After the Lord told him to come, ‘Peter got out of the boat, and walked on the water and came toward Jesus’ (v. 29).  Leaving the other disciples behind in the boat mulling over whether the apparition was really Jesus or a ghost, Peter went to where the action was, where the Lord was.  Once out of the boat Peter’s faith abruptly failed (v. 30), and Jesus had to save him from drowning.  People remember that Christ rightly rebuked him for his lack of faith (v. 31), but forget  about the other disciples, who never even left the boat.”  I want to add that this story is not told in the gospel of Mark, and perhaps that was because Peter was the one helping Mark write his gospel.

            “Similary, while Peter denied the Lord, only he (and John) were in a position where that could happen; the rest of the apostles had fled for their lives (Matt. 26:56).  Peter, however, was too involved to abandon Jesus completely.  After the resurrection, that deep commitment to the Savior prompted Peter to go right past John, who had arrived at the empty tomb first but remained outside, and entered the tomb (John 20:4-6).

            “Those who refuse to get involved cannot effectively lead.  People will not follow someone who remains out of the fray, issuing instructions from a position of safety and comfort.  True leaders lead from the front, not the rear.”

6/16/2026 8:30 PM