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Welcome to the Bridge Church VB Podcast, your weekly source for uplifting and transformative Sunday messages! Each episode features insightful, practical teachings rooted in Scripture, designed to inspire and guide you on your spiritual journey. Led by our passionate Lead Pastors, Archie and Tangie Callahan, we strive to create a welcoming environment that encourages individuals from all walks of life to connect with the person, power, and purpose of Jesus Christ.
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I want you to take out your bibles turn to Matthew chapter 16 we continue the series called chiseled but
built by Jesus, built by Jesus.
And our series verse is Ephesians 2.10 that says, for we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works that Christ or God prepared in advance for us to do.
It's amazing how Paul slides that verse into verse 10 there after he talks about salvation that comes to us by grace through faith, not by works lest any man should boast.
So Paul talks about the salvation that we have.
It doesn't come by what we do.
It comes by grace and we place our faith in what Jesus did.
However, at the moment we get saved, we become God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus.
We become a new creation for what?
Good works.
Meaning Paul was trying to get us to realize that our works do not save us, but our salvation will produce good works.
The works that God prepared in advance for us to do.
God is constantly preparing us for what he has prepared for us.
God has a good work for you, but you need to get into the plan of God.
I need to get into the plan of God.
We're going to talk about chiseled by correction.
Last week we talked about chiseled by the call.
We're looking at the life of Peter in the Gospels and we're tracking with his life and seeing how Jesus took an unrefined man and refined him through the chiseling process that we call sanctification.
That God did a work in his life.
Last week we talked about chiseled by the call.
by correction.
When I talk about correction, I'm not talking about correction for the destruction of a person.
When I talk about biblical correction, I'm talking about lovingly and humbly just helping somebody navigate and see the error of their ways and bringing them back into alignment with God's purpose and plan for their lives.
I'm actually talking about being intentional in doing that because correction is not for your destruction.
It's for your construction.
God is constantly trying to build us and form us into the image of his son.
And oftentimes he will use a loving correction.
Anybody ever in here been corrected before?
Anybody ever given somebody correction?
How many of you like correction?
I ain't seen no hands go up.
I ain't seen no, nobody likes being corrected.
There's a few, there's a few, uh, humble, prideful people that love it.
Yeah.
You know, a few people that love correction.
I remember I was preaching at my pastor's church 20 some years ago.
I was a young whippersnapper back then.
And, uh, and I was preaching.
I said something a little weird and, you know, I sat back down and he lovingly corrected me from the stage.
Some of y'all said, oh, oh, oh.
You know, when you said, oh, you're talking about, that's a little bit of pride speaking.
I knew he loved me.
I'd been in relationship.
He'd been my pastor for years.
In fact, he was my pastor for 45 years before he passed away four years ago, three years ago.
So I knew he loved me.
He didn't do it.
He didn't do it in a mean spirit.
He just did it.
I mean, when you pastor a church 52 years, you can just do it.
You've gained some level of respect.
And when you walk for 52 years in a community with character and integrity, people know your heart.
And he corrected me.
There were two things I could have did.
I could have rebelled against that correction and said, I'm never going to speak to you again.
I could have been that spoiled child who walks out and throws the whole relationship away.
Or I could humbly receive the word of God and plant it into my soul, which is able to save me.
See, the wounds of a friend can be trusted.
Correction without relationship creates rebellion.
But correction within the boundaries of relationship is life-giving grace.
How did I respond to that correction?
I responded in humility and surrender and I wrote him a letter and I thanked him for correcting me and I humbly apologized and I put it in the mail and he got it.
Why?
Because I understood that correction is for my construction and not my destruction.
So Matthew chapter 16, verse 22 through 23, it says this, Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
Never, Lord, this is Peter speaking, he said, this shall never happen to you.
Jesus turned and said to Peter, get behind me, Satan.
Wow.
You are a stumbling block to me.
You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.
Merely human concerns.
Did you know God builds people not only through affirmation, but through loving correction.
Loving correction.
God's correction in our life is a blessing that leads to abundant life.
And so I have to position myself to humbly receive correction.
That's why small groups are so important.
Like I said...
Correction without relationship leads to rebellion.
But small groups within the confines of church creates relationships.
And those relationships begin to be something that God uses to correct my spirit.
Sometimes even when you open up the word of God, the word of God will hurt you before it heals you.
Sometimes God will correct your spirit in order to save your soul.
And so as we look at Matthew 16, we begin to understand that Peter is one of the apostles.
Peter is a disciple.
Peter becomes a follower of Christ out of Matthew chapter 4.
We see where Jesus calls Peter.
He calls him Simon called Peter.
He says, come follow me.
Peter had to throw down his nets that represented his livelihood.
He had to throw down his boat that represented his workspace or workplace, his livelihood.
And he had to leave from where he was at to follow Jesus.
But you got to understand that Jesus understood that sometimes Peter acted like Simon.
In John chapter 1 verse 42, Jesus renames Peter.
He says, your parents basically have named you Simon, but I call you Cephas, which means Peter.
Jesus renames Peter because he is speaking to his purpose and his destiny and his call and role in the kingdom of God.
Jesus, while looking at Peter, understood that Peter would sometimes act like Simon, right?
Say, what are you saying, pastor?
I'm saying this.
Simon was an immature person.
Simon operated out of his flesh.
Simon was up and down emotionally.
Simon often put his foot in his mouth.
Simon represents carnality and represents rebellion against righteous living.
And Simon was the old identity.
It was the old way of living.
It was the old man.
But Peter was the rock.
Petros which means rock.
Peter was his new identity.
Peter was mature.
Peter was stable.
Peter was steadfast.
Peter was willing to follow Jesus.
Peter was willing to die to his flesh.
And go into newness of identity with Jesus Christ.
And God in his sovereignty.
In the renaming of Simon to Cephas or Peter.
Was wanting us to see that all of us have a dual nature.
sometimes that sometimes I act like Peter but you know on Monday sometimes I fall back into Simon Simon says we've all played the game the little kids game Simon says touch your nose Simon says jump jump Simon didn't say it don't do it and so we play the game the spiritual game of church on Sunday and and we put on plastic and we come into a building and we act like Peter
But come about 2 o'clock Sunday afternoon, come on, we take the mask off and we put the other one on.
And we act like Simon from Monday all the way to Saturday.
And Jesus is saying, I want you to mature.
I want you to grow up.
Get out of plastic Christianity and come into the real thing.
Simon, I call you Cephas.
He called him Peter before he ever started acting like Peter.
God calls you into your new identity before you ever start acting out your new identity.
Because at the point of salvation, the new birth experience, Jesus gives you a new heart, transforms your spirit.
And Paul says, 2 Corinthians 5.17, If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation.
The old identity.
The old is gone.
Behold, all things become new.
So here's the problem.
old address he gives us a new identity but we hold on to the old identity I gotta have this just in case
I'm going to need it.
I'm going to need that old identity one day when somebody says something stupid to me so I can pull Simon out of the casket and act out of my old identity.
Anybody want to act out of your old identity?
Somebody cuts you off on 264.
Somebody says something to you at the gym.
Somebody says something to you at Walmart.
Somebody questions your authority and automatically you dig down there and you find Simon and you pull him out and you put him on and you cuss.
Simon cussed.
Peter cussed because he was acting out, Simon says.
You know, Simon says a lot.
Jesus was transforming his life.
Can I tell you, when you're walking with Jesus, if you're off one degree, eventually you're off by miles.
Yes.
If you're walking with Jesus and you're off one degree in your understanding of what it means to follow Jesus or biblical correction or biblical guidance or biblical discipline.
If you're off one degree, you can be walking and you can find yourself in a place you would never think or have thought that you would be in.
Why?
Because you were a little bit off and correction does this.
It gets you back into alignment with the purpose and will of God for your life.
But you've got to be willing to humbly receive it.
And sometimes correction will come from people that you don't like.
But can you hear the voice of God in a person you don't like?
Sometimes God will speak through a jackass.
You just got to be willing.
Sometimes the voice of God sounds like your husband or your wife.
And you got to be able to discern, is that God speaking through?
Or am I just going to be stiff neck and say, I ain't taking nothing from her.
I'm mad already.
And because of that, you end up multiple degrees off course.
And you end up in the wilderness of a place like the children of Israel.
You're circling around the mountain multiple times.
And God says, you just won't listen.
You just won't listen.
For instance, big ship.
It's got a thousand mile journey.
And that compass or that GPS is off just one degree on that ship over the course of 1000 miles.
That ship at the end of that destination will be 17 and a half miles off course.
Just one degree, not five or six degrees, just one degree.
So God uses this loving correction to keep me on course, to keep me following Jesus, but gotta be willing to give, to receive correction.
I gotta be willing to humble myself.
I like what Proverbs said.
Solomon was the wisest man to ever live.
He said this, "'Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge.'"
Proverbs 12, one.
But whoever hates correction is stupid.
I didn't say that.
Solomon said that.
But if the shoe fits.
Proverbs 15, 31 and 32 says, whoever heeds life-giving correction will be at home among the wise.
You want to be wise?
How many of you want wisdom?
Hang out with wise people.
Stop hanging out with fools.
Stop hanging out with ignorant people that are going nowhere fast.
Hang out with wise people.
That's just simple teaching, isn't it?
If I want to be wise in the area of finances, I'm not going to hang out with somebody that don't pay their bills.
Let's keep going.
That's not where I want to go.
Those who disregard discipline despise themselves, but the one who heeds correction gains understanding.
Proverbs 27, 5 and 6.
Better is an open rebuke than a hidden love.
Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses.
He multiplies kisses.
So in our text today, Matthew chapter 16 says,
We see Peter again.
And Jesus is teaching.
The Pharisees and Sadducees in the first part of that chapter come to Jesus.
And they want a sign.
Jesus says only a perverse generation wants a sign.
He says I'm going to give you the sign.
The sign of Jonah.
Which is death, burial and resurrection.
And then he turns to his disciples and he says beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.
yeast is something that is put into bread.
It gives us a picture of yeast being put into bread, the fermentation process of that bread.
Just a little bit of yeast will fermentate a whole lump of dough.
Meaning this, this is what Jesus said.
If you get a little bit of bad information and it stays with you long enough, it will pollute your whole life.
He said, beware of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.
Don't hang out with those dudes.
They're trying to put you back under legalism for righteousness and for salvation.
They think the 613 laws and plus the laws they add on top of this brings you to salvation.
The 613 laws that God gave Moses was not for their salvation.
It was to show them that they could not live up to the law and would need Jesus who was coming into the future.
So it was a pointing to Jesus.
Guys, you can't do this by yourself.
You can't obey the 613 laws.
Not one of us in here strictly obey speed limit signs.
If it's 35, you're going to test it and go 36.
The most righteous person in here will go 36.
And when you see a cop, you automatically hit what?
The brake.
It doesn't matter what speed you're going.
And sometimes I'll be going down 95 and my wife will say, there's a state trooper.
And I will just hit the brake.
And I got it on cruise control.
I'm okay.
It's just a natural thing to do.
It's this reaction.
You know what I'm saying?
And sometimes I can be going 85 down 95 and it's 70 and the cop passes me.
I'm like, bro, you ain't got your lights on.
So we're both lawbreakers.
So he says, beware of that.
And then he goes on with this.
He's in Caesarea Philippi, and he asks this question.
Who do men say that I am?
They blurt out, some of them say you're John the Baptist.
Some of them say you're Elijah.
Even others say you're Jeremiah, one of the prophets.
Some say.
How many of you know you have to watch out for what some say?
I hear it all the time.
Some are saying, I said, one?
One.
Okay.
Out of thousands, one.
Some say.
But Jesus turns it around and says, who do you say that I am?
The some say the majority can be wrong, but who do you say?
And Peter gets this revelation from God and he says, you are the Christ, the son of the living God.
Notice what happens.
He says, you are the Christ, the son of the living God.
Peter moving forward.
From Simon to Peter to maturity from immaturity is actually creating this movement toward the church and the establishment of the church because movements create movement or movements start with movement.
And in this, I want to give you three things right quick.
Number one, Peter gets revelation but still lacks maturity.
Just because you can get a revelation, just because you can operate in a spiritual gift doesn't mean you're mature.
Doesn't mean I'm mature.
Peter gets this divine revelation from God.
He says, you are the Messiah.
Verse 16, the son of the living God.
You are the Messiah, the Christ.
The Greek is Christos.
The Hebrew is Mashiach, Messiah, anointed one.
You are the Messiah.
You are the Christos.
You are the Mashiach.
You're the son of the living God.
Notice he says son of the living God.
He ties Jesus together.
to God the divinity and the humanity are tied together you're the son of a living God that didn't come from people it didn't come from the Pharisees the Bible says that Jesus said flesh and blood did not reveal to this to you Peter but my father who is in heaven and notice what he says to Peter upon this rock I will build my church now you gotta understand this is where the Catholic church misses it
They interpret this scripture right here upon this rock as Peter being the rock to the church.
But the rock Jesus is talking about is not Peter, even though his name is Petros, which means rock or boulder.
He's talking about the revelation that Peter got from God.
That is the rock, that he is the Christ, the son of the living God.
And upon this rock, that revelation, I am going to build my church and the gates of hell will not be able to prevail against it.
Look what happens.
He gets this divine revelation.
Revelation.
I believe Peter felt a little bit like Simon and he poked out his chest.
Look at me, boys.
I got it.
I got it.
Look at me.
I bet you in his mind he heard angels singing.
I bet you he felt like he was glowing in the dark.
I think he just became prideful and arrogant.
Look here, boys.
I'm it.
I'm the rock.
This thing called the church is going to be built on me.
I think he was kind of confused.
Number two, Jesus corrects Peter's thinking.
How many of you know, oftentimes when you open up the Bible, it's the constant correction of the way you're thinking.
Jesus said in Matthew 4, repent for the kingdom of God is at hand.
That word repent means to change your mind.
Bring the level of thinking of your mind to the kingdom of God.
Why?
Because all behavior flows out of an attitude.
All attitudes come from thinking.
So Jesus corrects, not for his destruction, because he understood Peter's role in the kingdom.
He was not trying to destroy Peter and
He was trying to lovingly correct Peter for instruction and construction of his life.
He was trying to build Peter.
The reason God puts you under authority, whether it's at work, whether it's in the home, whether it's government or in church oftentimes, it's for your instruction and construction, not your destruction.
But it depends on how I, come on, receive the correction.
Amen.
Somebody can give me correction, but my receiver be broke.
And if my receiver is broke, I will rebel against the correction and I'll go back into the flesh and I'll just cuss and I'll just rant on Facebook and I'll put everybody down and gloom and agony and despair on me.
Everybody's against me and I'll have this pout and I'll have this, I'm against the world and I'll be like Rocky trying to fight everybody.
not understanding that God is trying to give me some instruction for my construction.
Have you ever met people?
They're so hurt.
They can't receive correction.
Oftentimes God will process you until you're healed to the degree that you can receive construction and that you can receive correction.
He does that in our lives.
So he corrects his thinking.
Say correct.
So he corrects his thinking.
Look here.
He just receives this revelation.
He goes from revelation, divine revelation, to divine rebuke.
Revelation to rebuke, all in one chapter.
Why?
Because we see the dualism in Peter.
Sometimes he's Simon, sometimes he's Peter.
Verse 23, Jesus turned and said to Peter, get behind me, Satan.
This is the guy that just received divine revelation and said upon this rock, he said, you are the Christ, the son of the living God.
And now Jesus turns to him and says, get behind me, Satan.
Jesus is not saying he is Satan.
Satan actually means, in the Greek, adversary.
He's not saying he's the adversary, but he has become the mouthpiece that Satan is using to abort the plan of God on Jesus' life.
Did you know your mouth can be a gate of heaven or a gate of hell?
Your words can produce life or death.
Your words can curse or bless.
James, the half-brother of Jesus, said this.
Why do we praise God with our lips and then we turn around and curse men who are made in his image?
This should not be so.
So he says, get behind me, Satan.
Did you know your flesh left to its own?
Your fallen man, your fallen nature can mimic the work of Satan.
Peter at his best was Peter.
Peter at his worst was Simon.
In this chapter, we see Peter at his best.
Man, get in this revelation.
We see him at his worst trying to stop Jesus.
And Jesus says, get behind me.
Satan, look what he says.
You are a stumbling block to me.
He says, you're trying to keep me from fulfilling the purpose for which I was sent to the earth to accomplish.
You're trying to keep me from the cross.
You're trying to keep me from suffering.
Peter didn't do it in a way that was, he was trying to help Jesus.
He was doing it out of a good heart, but he was doing the wrong thing.
Get behind me, Satan, you are a stumbling block to me.
You do not have in mind, look here, you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.
Look here, you do not have in mind the concerns of God.
You do not have in mind what God has in mind.
You do not, therefore repent.
How many of you know repentance is aligning your mind with God's mind?
What Jesus was telling Peter, you've got to shift your human thinking to divine thinking.
You've got to come up in the way you think, Peter.
If not, you've become a stumbling block to me.
I know you just got a revelation.
I know you think you glow in the dark.
I know you think you're pious and you're religious.
And man, you're the next Billy Graham.
But Peter, your mind is concerned with earthly things.
Don't become a stumbling block to me.
I got to go to the cross, Peter.
I'm going to suffer, Peter.
I'm going to be nailed there.
I know you've liked it when I...
Fed those 5,000 with five loaves and two fish.
I know you like the miracles and you like me getting money from a fish for provision to pay taxes.
I wish God would do that to me one time.
Amen.
I know you like all that, Peter, but hey, there's much more to this than what you see, Peter.
I've got to go here.
All of humanity is dependent upon me getting to that cross and dying and being buried.
And that's not going to be the last of me.
I'm going to rise again.
And if you're going to experience
experience newness of life, Peter, you're going to have to follow me.
You're going to have to follow me because you will never experience life until you experience death.
And some of you need to experience death in baptism, death in salvation before you experience true life.
Some of us try to gain life by religious activity and it only produces death because we have not followed Jesus to the point of dying to our old man and being raised to newness of life.
Man, that's good preaching.
Thank you, pastor, for preaching.
For the second time.
Point number three is this right here.
Peter wants Jesus without the cross.
Peter wants the crown.
A gold one, not thorns.
Thorns.
He wants a crown without a cross.
So he tries to hinder Jesus.
He tries to keep Jesus from going to the cross.
I want you to understand what he does.
In our passage today, in our text today, he does not call him Simon, even though he's acting like Simon.
Why?
Because Jesus saw the potential of Peter.
Jesus looked beyond his frailty, his weakness, his inconsistencies, his ups and downs, his failures.
He looks beyond that and calls him Peter.
God is always calling you what he wants you to become.
He sees it.
He sees you out doing crazy stuff.
He still calls and speaks to your destiny.
And even in the midst of this open rebuke, he says, Peter!
Peter!
He doesn't say Simon.
He says Peter.
I think he's trying to shake him.
Peter, wake up.
You've become the mouthpiece of Satan.
You've become a suddenly block to me.
And I've got to go to the cross.
And you want a crown without a cross.
But if you're going to follow me, sometimes you're going to suffer.
Sometimes you're going to be feeling the pain and the lashes of a whip.
Sometimes you're going to feel the thorns, the crown of thorns on your head.
Peter, Peter, wake up, Peter.
You've been walking with me for years now.
Peter, I saw you step out of the boat, but as soon as you saw the waves, you became Simon.
Peter, be that rock.
Live up to your name, Peter.
Petros, rock, boulder, be strong, be steadfast.
Be a man, Peter.
Act like a man.
Don't just want me when everything is good and money's good and banks are good and your business is good and your wife's good and your kids are acting okay.
Will you walk with me until you feel the suffering that I feel?
Peter, you've had it easy.
You obey me when it's easy, but when it's hard, you're gonna flee.
You're gonna not deny me three times.
Peter, don't prevent this.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer once said, cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without repentance.
We want forgiveness, but we don't want to change our mind.
Baptism without church discipline and communion without confession.
We want to partake, but we don't want to confess our weaknesses and our downfalls and be vulnerable enough to say, Lord, I need you.
Matthew 16, 24, he brings him to this point.
He says, Peter, if any man wishes to come after me, he must deny himself.
Peter, you gotta take up your cross and you gotta follow me.
Peter loved the teachings of Jesus and the miracles of Jesus.
but he didn't want the cross of Jesus.
And I'm afraid in the American Western church, we love the miracles and we love the teachings and we love the idea of Jesus, but we don't want the cross of Jesus.
But you will never receive a crown without a cross.
You will never receive a crown.
People online, you will never receive a crown without a cross.
What does that mean?
What does that mean, take up your cross?
It means surrender to the will of God.
Jesus plainly told his disciples, if you give up all this, father, mother, and this life, you'll be blessed in this life and the life to come.
But he has to be willing to know that you're willing to give up to go up.
Jesus never would have ascended to the Father if he didn't go down into the grave.
He would have never rose on the third day without the cross, death, and burial.
My friend, if you want to go up, you got to go down and allow God to shape and mold you through the chisel of the call and the chisel of correction.
Let me tell you something.
The word of God is for correction, reproving and discipline.
It makes us fit for the master's use.
But if you just want a little feel good message, this is not the right Sunday to be in church.
It's not.
It's not.
At the movies is coming in August.
But if you want something that will mature you and grow you, you're in the right place.
Right Sunday.
90 degree weather.
Feels good in here.
Maybe to you.
I'm a little warm.
I've been preaching.
But it calls us.
See, God's building process in our lives includes confrontation, which is the correction of God.
The correction of God.
I want you to stand.
If you want to move higher with Jesus, you want to walk with Jesus, you've got to embrace correction.
I'm not talking about correction that's harsh or
That's mean-spirited.
That's far from what I'm talking about.
I'm talking about just the daily process of hearing God's voice.
He might speak through a person.
He might speak through a spirit.
He might speak through his word.
But understand, God is speaking.
He is a speaking spirit.
And he speaks to us to correct us, not for our destruction.
Hear me.
When you leave here, don't misunderstand what I'm saying.
Correction is for instruction and construction to build you into the image of Jesus.
But I have to receive it.
I have to hear it.
And I have to apply the word of God to my life.
Let's bow our heads.
Lord, I just thank you that your word is true.
can be applied to our lives, every situation, every circumstance, every situation.
I thank you for the power of your word, the power of your cross, the power of your love.
God, help us to be a church that can digest the hard sayings of Jesus.
Help us not only to embrace the love of Jesus, the teachings of Jesus, the miracles of Jesus, but help us to embrace the cross.
And on the other side of that cross is resurrection, newness of life.