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Who was this Peter guy?
When you hear the word “Peter” or “Simon Peter,” what is the first thing you think of? Is it Peter denying Jesus three times? Is it Peter walking on water and then falling in the water? Maybe it’s Peter’s address to the crowd in the book of Acts. Whatever the thought you have in your head about Peter, he loved Jesus. And you can tell from his writings.
To those of you who have social media. What is the first thing written in your bio? I’ll tell you Peter’s first thing in his bio. “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ.” Peter doesn’t say he’s one of the founding twelve of the church. He doesn’t have a link to buy any of his merchandise. Peter is to the point. He’s an apostle of Jesus Christ. He’s a disciple of Christ, a follower of Jesus. Peter loves Christ Jesus so much that he dies for Jesus.
What is the purpose of Peter’s letters?
My goal in this next series of blog posts is to help you get a deeper understanding of what Peter is writing. What are the letters about? Who did Peter write these letters to? When did Peter write these letters? Was it before Paul’s letters, or after? Was Peter in Jerusalem? Was he in Rome? Over the next few weeks, maybe months, I’ll try to help you understand a little more about these two epistles, or letters.
We first want to get some background on Peter. We know from the gospel writings. Peter was a fisherman by trade. Peter was called by Jesus as Peter was hard at work. Matthew 4:18 tells us Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee, and he called out to Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. Jesus said, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” What happens next is crazy to me. “Immediately they left their nests and followed him (Jesus).” Peter and his brother Andrew left everything behind to follow Jesus.
Meeting Jesus
Now, you may think this was Peter and Andrew’s first interaction with Jesus, but it wasn’t. If you look at the writings of the apostle John in the gospels, you will notice that Andrew (Peter’s brother) was a disciple of John the Baptist. Before Andrew and Peter were on the boat casting their nets for fish, days before, weeks before, I don’t know, it’s not clear, but Jesus was walking by John the Baptist and two of John’s disciples, Andrew (Peter’s brother) and another disciple not named, John the Baptist said, “Behold, the lamb of God!” So, Andrew (Peter’s brother) already knew from their teacher or Rabbi, John the Baptist, that Jesus is the Lamb of God. John the Baptist saw the Spirit descend from heaven and remain on Jesus (John 1:32). So, John the Baptist knew that Jesus is the Christ—the one who takes away the sin of the world.
When John the Baptist told Andrew about Jesus being the Son of God, Andrew went and got his brother, Simon. He (Andrew) brought his brother to meet Jesus. Jesus looked at Simon and said, “You are Simon, the son of John. You shall be called Cephas (which means Peter). John 1:35-42
Then after Peter had already met Jesus, Jesus was walking by The Sea of Galilee, and he called Andrew and his brother who Jesus called Cephas meaning Peter. I imagine, when Peter met Jesus, his heart was pounding a million beats a minute. Peter knew right away that Jesus was the Son of God. Even though at that time he probably couldn’t articulate it at that moment. Peter knew he was standing in the presence of God.