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Name Change to Protect the Innocent

Name Change to Protect the Innocent
Words of Faith 9-14-16
Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy © 2016
Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com
Faith Fellowship Church - Melbourne, FL
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John 1
[40] Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. [41] The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, "We have found the Messiah" (that is, the Christ). [42] And he brought him to Jesus.
Jesus looked at him and said, "You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas" (which, when translated, is Peter).

Can you imagine meeting someone and introducing yourself only to have him change your name? How rude! How presumptuous! But Simon did not walk away.
The first thing that Andrew did after a day with Jesus was to go and get his brother, Simon. Andrew and Simon fished together for a living. Andrew was the more “faith-oriented” brother, spending his extra hours as a disciple of John the Baptizer contemplating the coming of Messiah. Simon was the hard and brash fisherman probably reluctant to take time from the nets to come and see this newest religious interest of his brother.
So why would Jesus change a man’s name upon meeting him? “You are Simon but I am going to call you ‘Rock’.” Was this more than just the playful attachment of a nickname “Rocky” to Simon?
Some have noted that when Jesus said, "You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas' (which, when translated, is Peter)" this was really more of a diagnosis of Peter's personality than anything else! It was both a confrontation and a prediction.
Remember that Simon, or Simeon, was the name of Jacob's second oldest son. Simeon, with his brother Levi, disobeyed his father and ruthlessly avenged the violation of their sister by one of the Canaanite princes (Genesis 34:25-31). This same rash and impulsive character of Simeon was evident in Simon.
Simon’s behavior as reported by all the Gospels often reflects the same reckless and even violent tendency (John 18:10). The point is that Jesus accepted Simon as he was but promised that he would more. He would become Cephas-- an Aramaic name, which, like the Greek "Peter," means "a rock."
So why such a brash introduction? We don’t know, but I suspect that Simon would have never followed Jesus except that he realized Jesus “had him pegged” as we sometimes say.
Jesus saw the rough, unpredictable, “foot-in-mouth”, sometimes violent Simon but he also saw “the Rock” that could be! Jesus gave Simon hope. Jesus loved Simon the way he was but too much to leave him that way!
The truth is, Jesus does the very same with every one of us. When we meet Jesus, He looks straight through the exterior and then He tells us who we can be. Jesus has you and me pegged, but He looks past the mistakes and unruly deceptions of our lives and tells us who He created us to be!
What Good News! No wonder Simon Peter followed. Jesus looks past every façade that we have attempted to construct, loves us, and then sets out to transform us into His image yet also into the unique creation He designed us to be. This is the life of discipleship.

Jesus, search me. Confront me with the truth of who I am as a sinner. Burn past my façades and then show me who You have planned for me to be in You. In Jesus’ Name.

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© Jeffrey D. Hoy 2002, 2016
Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy - Faith Fellowship Church (EFCA)
2820 Business Center Blvd.
Melbourne, Florida 32940 (321)-259-7200
Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com
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The Words of Faith devotion is published five days a week by E-mail excluding Federal holidays. Please feel free to forward this devotion to a friend who might be blessed by this devotion. Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture is quoted from the New International Version (R) of The Holy Bible. Copyright (c) 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. Words of Faith (c) 1997, 2010 Jeffrey D. Hoy. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to forward this copyrighted material or use portions of it with appropriate notation of the source for non-profit purposes.