When Peter was introduced to Jesus for the first time, Jesus said, “You are Simon; you shall be called Cephas (which translated means Peter).” What’s up with the name change?
Names in the Hebrew culture had and have much more significance than they do in our western culture. Names speak to the identity and roles of a person. Jesus changes Simon’s name to Peter for He is casting a new vision for Peter’s life. This is where life transformation starts — with our identity.
In the Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, Witch and The Wardrobe - four children named Lucy, Susan, Edmund and Peter are renamed by Aslan the Lion when he crowns them as Kings and Queens of Narnia. Aslan did not see them as children but as kings and queens fulfilling their roles in the land of Narnia.
Even so, Jesus does not see Simon as Simon. He sees Simon as Peter (Petros - a fragment of a rock). Jesus sees Peter differently than Peter sees himself. Jesus sees Peter as a man of God who will have great impact in advancing the Kingdom of God to the world.
I make three observations about Peter’s first encounter with Jesus. #1. Jesus casts a new vision for the fisherman Simon into a fisher of men. Every Jewish boy growing up dreamed of being a Rabbi/teacher of Israel. Obviously Peter did not make the cut so he was following in the footsteps of his father the fisherman. Simon was used to casting nets to catch fish but now Jesus casts a vision for Peter that caught his heart and Peter follows in the footsteps of the Master.
Jesus wants to do the same for you and me today. He wants to catch our hearts for the Kingdom. He has a new name for each one of us who follow Him; a name that gives us a new identity and a new role in this age and in the age to come.
#2. Jesus sees Peter differently than Peter saw himself. Jesus sees us as we will become not just as we are. Do you see yourself the way God sees you? How does God really see you. Read these passages, memorize, meditate on them so that they become the essence of your identity: Rom 8:15-16, 2 Cor 5:17, Gal 3:26, Eph 2:10, Eph 5:1, 8 …
#3. Jesus transforms an ordinary man into a man of God who became a world-changer. Peter was an uneducated and an untrained man in the ways of the Rabbincal school but he was a man who hung out with Jesus and the result was a supernatural transformation of a life.
Names in the Hebrew culture had and have much more significance than they do in our western culture. Names speak to the identity and roles of a person. Jesus changes Simon’s name to Peter for He is casting a new vision for Peter’s life. This is where life transformation starts — with our identity.
In the Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, Witch and The Wardrobe - four children named Lucy, Susan, Edmund and Peter are renamed by Aslan the Lion when he crowns them as Kings and Queens of Narnia. Aslan did not see them as children but as kings and queens fulfilling their roles in the land of Narnia.
Even so, Jesus does not see Simon as Simon. He sees Simon as Peter (Petros - a fragment of a rock). Jesus sees Peter differently than Peter sees himself. Jesus sees Peter as a man of God who will have great impact in advancing the Kingdom of God to the world.
I make three observations about Peter’s first encounter with Jesus. #1. Jesus casts a new vision for the fisherman Simon into a fisher of men. Every Jewish boy growing up dreamed of being a Rabbi/teacher of Israel. Obviously Peter did not make the cut so he was following in the footsteps of his father the fisherman. Simon was used to casting nets to catch fish but now Jesus casts a vision for Peter that caught his heart and Peter follows in the footsteps of the Master.
Jesus wants to do the same for you and me today. He wants to catch our hearts for the Kingdom. He has a new name for each one of us who follow Him; a name that gives us a new identity and a new role in this age and in the age to come.
#2. Jesus sees Peter differently than Peter saw himself. Jesus sees us as we will become not just as we are. Do you see yourself the way God sees you? How does God really see you. Read these passages, memorize, meditate on them so that they become the essence of your identity: Rom 8:15-16, 2 Cor 5:17, Gal 3:26, Eph 2:10, Eph 5:1, 8 …
#3. Jesus transforms an ordinary man into a man of God who became a world-changer. Peter was an uneducated and an untrained man in the ways of the Rabbincal school but he was a man who hung out with Jesus and the result was a supernatural transformation of a life.
The key to a transformed life; hang out with Jesus.
in the grip of His grace,
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