Life 101 - Part 1

Right now we are in the middle of Life 101, a series that it is taking us through the book of the Bible, 1 Peter. At our first two events we learned a little bit about who Peter was and we examined Scripture from the first two chapters of the New Testament book. We will spend the next two events studying the remaining chapters of 1 Peter.

Peter was an apostle of Jesus Christ, arguably one of Jesus’ closest friends. His original name was Simon and before following Jesus, he ran a fishing business in Bethsaida (present-day Israel). Simon's brother introduced him to Jesus, and that event is recorded in the gospel of John. John 1:40-42 reads, “Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother was one of these men who had heard what John said and then followed Jesus. The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother, Simon, and tell him, ‘We have found the Messiah’ (which means the Christ). Then Andrew brought Simon to meet Jesus. Looking intently at Simon, Jesus said, “You are Simon, the son of John – but you will be called Cephas’ (which means Peter).”

Right off the bat we see how important this guy was to Jesus. At their first meeting, Jesus calls Simon by name, and then goes so far as to rename him Peter. There’s no reason Jesus would have taken such a vested interest in someone for whom He had no plan.

After this meeting there are a ton of times Peter is mentioned in the Bible, all of which serve to demonstrate the kind of relationship Peter had with Jesus. In Matthew, this guy is walking on water -- well, that is until he starts worrying more about the waves than trusting in Jesus (which is probably an easy fault to have). Then we have two instances where Peter shows not only his loyalty to Christ, but also his human faithfulness. In John, there is a discrepancy when Jesus takes it upon Himself to wash the feet of those in attendance at a dinner party. In that time, since the primary mode of travel was by foot or animal – and they didn’t have Toms back then so they either wore sandals or walked barefoot – it was customary to have someone wash the feet of all those who entered a place of dwelling. This was typically a house servant, or if there was no one there you would wash your own feet. If you were a guest at a dinner party you would wash your feet and the feet of the people who arrived until someone of an appropriate (often lower) class got there and you passed the baton to them. So to have Jesus choosing to wash the feet of the disciples was appalling to Peter. Peter refused because he didn’t understand. He saw it as Jesus being a servant out of obligation, whereas Jesus sought to serve them out of love and to provide an example to the disciples of how to treat one another. And then later (and it is also recorded in other Gospels), Peter does what he thinks is defending Jesus by cutting of the ear off the high priest’s servant as soldiers arrive to arrest Jesus.

Looking at all of this we realize that Peter cared so much for Jesus and really cherished the opportunity he had to be one of Jesus’ disciples. Which is why it was such a shock to Peter when Jesus told him during the Last Supper that Peter would deny knowing him three separate times. Of course, Peter denied these future denials, and can you blame him? It wasn't that he didn’t believe Jesus or that he thought Jesus was lying, it was more like Peter couldn’t imagine himself denying this person he had grown so close to. He was probably like “there’s no way that can happen, are you serious? I walked on water with you! That was awesome. How can I deny that I know you? I mean you’re so great, I’d cut a man’s ear off if they stepped to you…literally.”

But he did. Peter denied Jesus three different times (recorded in Mark 14, Luke 22, John 18*), just as the Lord said. And he felt absolutely horrible. But just like with everyone, Peter was given a chance for redemption. Jesus demonstrated his love and forgiveness for Peter’s fleshly behavior in many ways: Peter is said to have been the first person to venture into the empty tomb where Jesus’ body rested after he was crucified, Peter played a very significant role in the early church, and he was put in prison by King Herod and later rescued by an angel (Acts 12).

It can be said that Peter’s prior experiences place him in a pretty great position to address the people of Christ.

In the next post, we’re going to take a look at what Peter actually has to tell us.