■
E0S$P
I p î
jm***'' ÉS»
VANCE HÄVNER
Tiberias, on the Sea o f Galilee
7 HERE are two very significant “Follow me's'1 in the life of Simon Peter. The first was spoken by our Lord at the Sea of Galilee which Peter obeyed by leaving his boats and nets to become a disciple. The second was expressed beside the Sea of Tiberias after Peter’s denial, when our Lord asked him, “Lovest thou me?” Now, geographically, the Sea of Galilee and the Sea of Tiberias are one and the same. But in the experience of Peter there was a great distance between them. Some saints never reach the second "Follow me” where they will leave, not boats and nets, but themselves. Subsequent to this Tiberias incident, there is a sort of postscript. Peter sees John following and asks Jesus, “Lord, and what shall this man do?” Jesus answers, “If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me.” It is easy for the Christian to be sidetracked on ir relevant issues. Peter’s one responsibility was not John’s future, but his own faithful following of Jesus. Bother ing about John, we lose sight of Jesus. The good be comes the enemy of the best. Peter’s concern about John was not evil; it may have been commendable. But it was a secondary affair of his, and our Lord sets him right. The burden of His message to Peter was: “You follow Me yourself!” We are all in grave danger of being sidetracked by the secondary. At least, we can be so taken up with it that we neglect to follow the Lord ourselves. Sometimes this concern assumes great proportions. We may be di verted from our chief business by wondering, not about John, but about God Himself. “Why does God do as He does?” We become so perplexed over the dealings of God that we stop following Jesus. Christians need to learn that God does not always explain His actions. We
waste time trying to understand God’s providences and seeking to make Him tell His secrets. Habakkuk and Job and the Psalmist and Jeremiah and others had spells of questioning God. “Why do the righteous suffer and the wicked prosper?” God never gave any of them an explanation, but He gave them revelation. When they had a new vision of God, they did not need explanations. They learned to rejoice in God Himself in spite of circumstances. There is no use denying it: God often does things in strange ways that do not seem to make sense from our, viewpoint. He seems to delay; He seems to waste His servants; His methods just do not coincide with our text books. The old Negro mammy who said, “God works in mischievous ways His wonders to perform,” may have used the wrong word because she was frankly puzzled by the Divine procedure. His ways are not our ways nor are His thoughts our thoughts. “For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been His counselor?” There is no point in trying to explain some things that take place in our lives; we shall have to await better light. But one thing we can do. We can see to it that we let God run His universe, and that we follow Jesus. “What is that to thee? follow thou me.” It is not our respon sibility to figure out God’s ways, but it is our business to be disciples; That will take all of our time! Sometimes this question of Peter’s becomes very real when we begin to wonder, not about God, but about peo ple. “Lord, and what shall this man do?” Why is this preacher so successful while that one, equally conse crated, never seems to arrive? What will happen to this movement? What is the future of that project? How much thought and energy we spend talking about John! He predominates in many a ministerial conversation. This is not necessarily criticism; Peter was not criticiz-
T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
4
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker