The Things of God Versus the Things of Man

[JohnD]

Matthew 16:13–23 (NIV84)
13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”
14 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
15 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.
18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.
19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
20 Then he warned his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ.
21 From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.
22 Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!”
23 Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”

A very familiar passage.

One that generally focuses on the good confession of Peter, Jesus naming him Peter, the controversial interpretation of the Roman Catholics who claim this is where Jesus commissions Peter as the first Pope, and so on...

An aside... I like to remind the Roman Catholic apologist that the first official thing this first Pope did was make a huge mistake, call Jesus a liar, and to be called Satan by Jesus himself for doing so... the first Pope (and all the claims to the infallibility of the Pope). But I digress.

However the underlying point the Spirit was making in this passage (which records this exchange and what the Lord Jesus was driving at) is:

The Things of God Versus the Things of Man.

1. Who do MEN say the Son of man is?
2. Who do YOU say I AM?

#1 the answers were all wrong.

#2 the answer was right WHEN the answer came from God... which Peter demonstrated the opposite of only six verses later.

In verse 23 Jesus revealed where and from whom human reason / rationale / so-called wisdom comes: Satan.

[JohnD]

It is unsettling to come to this truth.

By nature humanity is satanically influenced at best and pure evil at worst.

And even as believers we keep teetering back and forth which side to listen to:

• The Holy Spirit living in us
• The flesh / human "wisdom"

This can also be scary when you think of it.

Suppose you finally get a green light at an intersection and you are already late for work or whatever.

A huge truck in the crossing lane to the left obscures another car about to run the red light just as you are about to enter 

the intersection (probably cussing under your breath for the light taking so long to change)...

Folks, this is the human  condition. This is where the Holy Spirit / guardian angels / dumb luck has to kick in to stop us from

plunging right into disaster or worse (for relying on our wits, our perception, our opinion, the things of man).

Two places in Proverbs state "there is a way that seems right to a man but the end thereof is the way of death." 

[JohnD]

How many millions of times has the Holy Spirit guided us from similar disasters?

When we were sure that we were sure that we were positive we could handle a given situation...

forgetting our feeble senses, limitations, skewed perceptions, laziness, lack of sleep, inattention, or just plain ignorance

are factors that could lead to our demise or that of others in all aspects of life...

Even with God in control the fact that people vote for elected officials unsettles me... and as to being a jury of my peers (I think I'd flee to Mexico if I ever went on trial)...

Maybe then (returning as an illegal alien) I would finally get fair treatment from "the system." LOL

 

[JohnD]

Footnote:

Now I know some here believe I am sitting on judgment of others.

But I'm just showing what the Bible  says.

And those who sit on judgment of me do so because they disagree with what I have said in the past

or they have taken a disliking to me that I may or may not deserve (either way they have made it clear they will not change their mind

no matter what). I say this only to explain why I generally do not respond to them. Ignoring their endless quest is far less wearisome and I can

spend that time and energy on other biblical topics.

 

 

[JohnD]

1 Corinthians 2 (NIV84)
1 When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.
2 For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
3 I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling.
4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power,
5 so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.
6 We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.
7 No, we speak of God’s secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.
8 None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
9 However, as it is written: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him”—
10 but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.
11 For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.
12 We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.
13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.
14 The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
15 The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man’s judgment:
16 “For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

I would only caution that we have access to the mind of Christ because even we make the mistaken choice far too often to rely on ourselves or to do things our own way...

[JohnD]

These things are why we are to test / prove everything.

1 Thessalonians 5:21 (NIV84)
21 Test everything. Hold on to the good.

And especially the spirits (INCLUDING what we THINK is the Holy Spirit):

1 John 4:1 (NIV84)
1 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

And we do so by:

Acts 17:11 (NIV84)
11 Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.

2 Peter 1:20–21 (NIV84)
20 Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation.
21 For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

2 Timothy 3:16–17 (NIV84)
16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,
17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

See how this works?

It is because of our own evil nature and the influences of evil in spirits and other people PLUS the fallen world we live in that we must perform this formula to get to and confirm the truth.

 

 

[JohnD]

Notice I did not say follow me or what I say or the Church I belong to...

Follow Christ!

 

[JohnD]

I used to want to teach this regularly some time ago.

All I got was grief from believers.

Now I just want to aim folks (if I can) in the right direction and duck for cover.

Let the criticism begin...

[simplejeff]

1 hour ago, JohnD said:

we must perform this formula to get to and confirm the truth.

Sorry,  no formula..... 

if that worked, the scribes and pharisees, who Jesus said had the keys to get in to heaven,  would have gotten to heaven,

but they refused to enter in,  and they did all they could to prevent others from finding the way to heaven. 

And Jesus told His Own disciples:   I know you don't know how to live,  how to succeed,  how to have victory over sin and death and the devil,   how to save yourselves from your own sin,  and how to save yourselves from this wicked generation and even from your own lives..... 

and Jesus told them:  If you think you have it made, 

if you think you can accomplish your salvation yourselves (and remember Jesus is saying this to His Own Disciples who He had Taught and Trained and Lived With for some time)

then you have already failed;

but if you trust(like a little child fully active alive willing whole heart trust and rely on) your heavenly father to accomplish everything concerning salvation in this life now today, and every day, and in the life to come, 

then it is already done.