A HARMONY OF THE GOSPELS

OO. Discerning God’s View From Satan’s View

(Matthew 16:21-23; Mark 8:31-33; Luke 9:22)

I. Introduction

A. Soon after Peter’s great confession of faith in Jesus as the Messiah and Son of the Living God that Jesus said that God had revealed to Peter, Jesus surprised Peter by strongly critiquing him for stating a view of Satan!

B. This event provides invaluable insight on discerning God’s view from Satan’s view in our spiritual walk, so we study this event in Matthew 16:21-23; Mark 8:31-33 and Luke 9:22 for our insight and edification:

II. Discerning God’s View From Satan’s View, Matthew 16:21-23; Mark 8:31-33; Luke 9:22.

A. After Peter confessed Jesus as Messiah and God, Jesus began to predict His suffering and death, Matt. 16:16ff.

B. This prediction involved four events that fulfilled God’s plan: (1) Christ had to go to Jerusalem, the appointed place of sacrifice, (2) He had to suffer many things from the elders, the chief priests and teachers of the Law who represented Israel’s religious leaders, (3) He had to be killed as the substitutionary sacrifice for sinners, and (4) He had to rise the third day (J. Dwight Pentecost, The Words and Works of Jesus Christ, 1991, p. 253).

C. Peter immediately and strongly opposed this prediction by Jesus, Matthew 16:22:

1. He took Jesus aside from the other disciples to correct Him in private, and there Peter very strongly “rebuked” the Lord, Ibid.

2. Peter was convinced that if Jesus went to Jerusalem, it would lead to His death, and “conscious of the authority that had been conferred on him” by Christ following his confession (cf. Matthew 16:18-19), Peter “felt responsible to prevent what seemed to be a catastrophe” for the Lord’s kingdom program, Ibid.

D. Jesus responded by turning to address Peter with the shocking statement, “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,” Matt. 16:23 NIV.

E. Though Peter was obviously ignorant of the plan of God, he still had enough information available to him to have avoided adopting Satan’s view and to have accepted Jesus’ prediction. We explain this fact as follows:

1. First, since Peter himself in Matthew 16:16 had confessed that Jesus was God, he was obliged to submit to Christ’s authority as God rather than insubordinately try to correct Him!

2. Second, Peter had previously confessed that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God (Matthew 16:16), a claim to the full deity of Jesus according to John 5:17-18, and Jesus had previously condoned the content of that statement, Matthew 16:17! Peter thus should have accepted Jesus’ prediction that He would suffer, die and rise again simply because of these precedents of God’s leading in Peter’s own personal experience!

3. Third, Jesus had told Peter that his great confession had not been revealed to him by any human ability or merit of his own or that of any other mortal, but by the gracious ministry of God the Father, Matthew 16:17. Indeed, we learned in our previous lesson that even Jesus’ prediction that Peter would be given the keys of the Kingdom to announce God’s decisions on earth that aligned with God’s established will in heaven was based on God’s unmerited favor to Peter, Matthew 16:19. Thus, Peter went too far in assuming he had been given authority to correct Jesus’ prediction of his suffering, death and resurrection since everything of his past confession and his future ministry in the Church was based on God’s grace!

4. Fourth, after Peter’s great confession and Jesus’ prediction of building His Church and graciously giving Peter the ministry of announcing on earth God’s decisions from heaven (Matthew 16:16-19), Jesus ordered His disciples not to tell anyone that He was the Messiah, Matthew 16:20. That very order would fit His prediction of His suffering, death and resurrection and not the establishment of His kingdom at that time, so Peter should have been alerted by that order’s alignment with Jesus’ prophecy to accept its prediction!

5. Fifth, Peter’s effort to correct Jesus resulted from a failure to understand God’s plan as revealed in the Hebrew Old Testament. Isaiah 52:13-53:12 clearly predicted Christ’s sufferings, death and resurrection, and the purpose of His sacrifice to atone for sin, what Peter with all Israel failed to grasp at that time!

Lesson: Peter failed to discern God’s view from Satan’s view (1) by insubordinately trying to correct God, (2) by failing to align with God’s past leading, (3) by failing to recall that all he spiritually possessed had come by God’s grace, (4) by failing to align Christ’s “hard” saying with His other stated truth and (5) by not heeding Scripture.

Application: May we discern God’s view from Satan’s view (1) by subordinately heeding God’s Word, (2) by aligning with God’s past leading, (3) by recalling that all we spiritually possess we have by God’s grace, (4) by aligning God’s “hard” sayings with His other stated truths and (5) by heeding Scripture in thought and deed.