A Man Called Peter

By Michael K. Farrar, O.D.

 

Mark 1:16-18

“As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen.”Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” At once they left their nets and followed him.”

 

The result of Jesus meeting Simon and his brother Andrew was the dropping of their nets and leaving their profession as fishermen in an instant to follow Jesus. This enthusiastic and impulsive action of these Galileans fits what is known of the character of the people who lived in Galilee. The Jewish historian Josephus, a governor in Galilee in the first century, described the Galilean temperament as “ever fond of innovations, and by nature disposed to changes, and delighting in seditions.” William Barclay states that Galileans were “Quick-tempered, impulsive, emotional, easily roused by an appeal to adventure, loyal to the end, Peter was a typical man of Galilee.”

 

Peter wrote two books of the New Testament; 1 & 2 Peter. In 1 Peter he begins by stating his qualifications; “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ.” The apostles were the specially called servants of Jesus Christ. They were eye witnesses of the presence of Jesus on the earth before and after His resurrection. They knew Him intimately and spent almost three years with Him in His ministry. Jesus personally called them to ministry and commissioned them to preach the gospel. They were the first generation of followers of Christ directly chosen by Jesus. They were the initial foundation of the church (Ephesians 2:20). Ephesians 3:5 tells us they each received direct revelation, which we have in our Bible. They verified their teaching by signs, wonders and mighty deeds (2 Corinthians 12:11-12).

 

Peter’s role among the disciples reveals that he enjoyed a place of prominence. There are four lists of the twelve disciples in Scripture; Matthew 10:1-4, Mark 3:13-19, Luke 6:12-16 and Acts 1:12-13. In Matthew 10:2 Peter is listed first. The word “first” in the Greek is “protos” and means “first in prominence,” not “first in order.” Peter is always listed first in all four scripture passages. It’s also interesting to note that the only person in the gospel record mentioned more than Peter is Jesus Christ Himself! Jesus speaks more to Peter than any other disciple. Jesus often praised Peter, but Jesus often scolded him as well. Peter was the only disciple who attempted to admonish Jesus (Matthew 16:21-23). No other disciple boldly confessed allegiance to Christ like Peter. No one was as encouraging and dedicated to the Lord as Peter, but no one also ever interfered and tempted the Lord as often as Peter. Peter was rash in action at times due to His dedication to the Lord, but at other times he was the first to cut and run. Jesus spoke words of praise and blessing to Peter, but He also at times had to be very harsh and blunt with him as well, even calling Him Satan one time (Matthew 16:23). In many ways Peter is reflective of us. He is portrayed in scripture as one of the most human disciples because he is often inconsistent, while he attempts to be very dedicated.

 

Because of Peter’s personality, giftedness and humanness, he quickly became the spokesperson for the disciples. His boldness led him to step forward with questions nobody else would ask. Peter asked the meaning of a difficult saying in Matthew 15:13-16 and Jesus called him dull. Peter asked Jesus how often he must forgive someone in Matthew 18:21-22. Peter asked in Matthew 19:27 what the reward was to be for him and the other disciples who left to follow Jesus. Peter asked why the fig tree had withered in Mark 11:21. Peter asked what the meaning of the things Jesus had talked about of the approaching end time in Mark 13. It was to Peter that the Jews came to ask if Jesus paid His taxes in Matthew 17:24-16. It was Peter who answered when Jesus asked who had touched Him in the crowd, Luke 8:45-46. It was Peter who was questioned by the risen Christ in an intimate discussion in John 21:15-19. It was also Peter who offered to build three structures to house Jesus as well as Moses and Elijah who appeared on the mountain at the transfiguration in Matthew 17:4. Peter was a born leader because he asked questions and was willing to learn. A good leader makes things happen. Sometimes Peter’s impulsiveness was a good thing and sometimes it didn’t work out so well, but at least he strove to implement ideas and concepts in a dedicated fashion. Peter was leadership material for sure and Jesus recognized that.

 

Originally Peter’s name was Simon (Mark 1:16, John 1:40–41). Peter was the son of a man called Jonas, or John, the two names are often interchangeable. Peter was a fisherman and we know he was married because of 1 Corinthians 9:5. When Jesus met Simon He changed his name to Peter which is a Greek name. Cephas is Aramaic for Peter. Both of these names mean “stone” or “rock.” It’s interesting that at times Peter is called Peter and other times he is called Simon, his old name. There are two possible reasons for these interchangeable names. First, the name Simon is used to refer to Peter’s secular identity before he was a disciple (Mark 1:29, Luke 4:38, Luke 5:3, Luke 5:10, Acts 10). Simon is used to identify Peter when there’s a reason to recognize his earthly identification. Secondly, he’s called Simon when he’s sinful. When he commits a sin or fails the Lord, he is referred to as Simon, not Peter. This was probably a good way to grab his attention when he did wrong. Examples are in Luke 5, 22:31, Mark 14:37 and John 21. There are even times (17 in all in the gospel of John) he is called Simon Peter! Possibly John was confused on how to name Peter because of his changing behavior at times, so he just gave up and called him Simon Peter. How like Peter many of us are as well at times, sometimes faithful and sometimes failing to obey our Lord.

 

Peter is a good example for us to view of how Jesus chose followers and leaders. They weren’t perfect. They had admirable traits, but they also had deficiencies. How like the disciples we are many times. We were chosen by God to be His children and chosen by Jesus to be His followers, but while we have valuable skills, traits and abilities that God has gifted us with when He created us, we also have imperfections that God continues to work on in our lives. We should not be too critical of Peter’s foibles and failings, for we often disappoint God with some of our thoughts and actions as well. We must also be patient with those that lead us, for just as Peter failed and made mistakes at times, those who lead us will make mistakes. Jesus poured His life into Peter to train Him in righteousness. Jesus will do the same in our lives, as the Holy Spirit, who lives in us, leads, guides, counsels and molds us according to God’s Word and Christ’s example.

 

One way Jesus worked with Peter was instructing and confronting Him with spiritual questions and concepts so that he could increase in his spiritual maturity. In John 6:66 Jesus was teaching about Himself and His death. Many of His disciples withdrew and were not following Him anymore. Jesus said to Peter, “You do not want to go away also, do you?” Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go, You have words of eternal life and we have believed and come to know that You are the holy one of God.” Here we see that Peter got it! He understood who Jesus truly was. He had grasped the importance of Jesus ministry and His very being. In Matthew 16:13 we see a similar revelation response where Peter states, “Thou art the Christ the Son of the living God.” And Jesus said, “Flesh and blood didn’t reveal that to you, My Father in heaven did.” Jesus gave Peter these opportunities of revelatory learning and spiritual growth to shape him into a leader, a more spiritual perceptive person. Jesus will do the same for us in our relationship with Him as well. Later in Matthew 16:18 Jesus continues His conversation with Peter by stating, “I say to you that you are Peter and on this rock I will build My church and the gates of Hades shall not overpower it.” Jesus sees that Peter grasped the spiritual concepts that He had been teaching and laying down to form the foundation of the church and its future. Jesus continues to do this as the Holy Spirit works in our lives by illuminating Scripture for us, by guiding us and counseling us in God’s will.

 

In Matthew 16:21-23 we see that Peter had a relapse in spiritual understanding and did not understand Jesus necessary death on the cross. Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke Him for saying such things. Peter’s love for Christ overcame his spiritual understanding and that’s why he confronted Christ, trying to encourage Him to evade the cross. In essence Peter was repeating the temptation Satan presented to Christ in the wilderness. Here we see Peter, a man dedicated to Jesus, fail in understanding and stumble in his faith in Jesus’ calling and ministry. Immediately before this Jesus was commending Peter for being spiritually astute and now He is chastising Peter and calling him Satan. What a turnaround. Before we state how critical we are of Peter at this moment we need to gaze upon our own lives. Are there times we have turned on Christ, our Father in Heaven or the Holy Spirit, criticizing them for how they are providing for us, what they are allowing to happen in our lives or for the ways they are testing our faith? Jesus was patient with Peter and He is patient with us as well.

 

But it gets even worse. In Matthew 26:31 we see Jesus tell Peter that he will deny Him. Can you imagine this tense emotional moment when Jesus tells this dedicated man who He has been grooming for leadership in His church that he would deny Him. Peter begins to argue with Jesus on this issue but the truth is Jesus knew Peter would deny Him. But we need to remember, Jesus had always known that Peter would eventually deny Him. So you might ask why Jesus even bothered training Peter for leadership if he would deny Him. The answer is that Jesus also knew that Peter would repent, return to service and become a great teacher and evangelist of the gospel. This is why Jesus is also so patient with us. He knows there will be times we will fail, possibly even betray our faith and sin, but He never abandons us. He’s always willing to forgive us, like He forgave Peter. Jesus never gives up on those He chooses and on those who choose Him. He is always willing to forgive, take us back and keep working with us, just like He did with Peter. There is no one that is hopeless in God’s eyes! We see this demonstrated in Peter’s life in another passage of scripture.

 

In John 21:15-20 we see Jesus re-commission Peter. Jesus approaches Peter and asks Peter if he loves Him with “agape, self sacrificing love.” Peter is probably rather submissive at this point, knowing he has failed the Lord. The best he can muster in answering Him is to say that he loves Jesus with “phileo, friendship love.” Jesus confronts Peter several times, probably in an attempt to encourage Peter that He has forgiven Him and that He wants to use him to minister to others. While this is a rather humble poignant moment for Peter, we do see he rises to his calling by Jesus later. In the first twelve chapters of Acts we see that Peter takes a dominant role in the early church. He made the decision in Acts 1:15 to find a replacement for Judas and Matthias is chosen. Peter is then the spokesman for the church on Pentecost and in Acts 2:14 he preaches a most powerful sermon and 3,000 people come to faith in Christ. In Acts 3:1-11 we see Peter heal a man who is cripple. In Acts 4 we see Peter confront the Sanhedrin! Peter also dealt with Ananias and Sapphira who were lying to the Holy Spirit in Acts 5. Peter confronted Simon the materialistic sorcerer in Acts 8 with his sin. In Acts 9 Peter heals Aeneas and raises Dorcas from the dead. In Acts 10 and 11 we see Peter being the primary person taking the gospel to the Gentiles. Historical records state Peter was crucified upside down for His faith. He felt he was not worthy to die like Christ.

 

Despite the times that Peter failed, we find that over time Peter learned how to restrain himself. He learned humility and grace. He grew in the ability to make sacrifices in order to love people. Satan sifted Peter like wheat, but God never gave up on him. There are times that we will feel sifted like wheat, crushed like grapes in a winepress, beaten down by the trials of life, embarrassed by how we have failed the Lord. But we must remember that God didn’t give up on Peter and He won’t give up on us. Peter is our example that despite our shortcomings and imperfections, we are in a constant process of being made holy and perfect for God’s glory. Be encouraged that just like Peter, God will use you to minister to others, bring glory to Christ and to arrive one day in that Heavenly home that Jesus has prepared for each and every one of us who call Jesus Lord and Master.   

 

Philippians 1:6

“He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”