Peter, An Apostle

Our goal here at Covenant Bible Church will be to preach through the text of Scripture, letting the text of Scripture guide us and lead us to where we're going to go. That doesn't mean that we'll never have a sermon that we call topical, where we have a topic that we think we need to investigate what the Bible says about it. But as a general rule, we're going to try to start in the first verse of a book, and go through those books that we choose one verse at a time.

Sometimes it may be multiple verses in a week. So if you want to read ahead, you can be reading 1 Peter on your own time and trying to understand it and trying to make sure that you come to know it. So let me start by reading the first few verses of 1 Peter. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood.

May grace and peace be multiplied to you. So this is the introduction that Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, writes in his first epistle. So let me switch my notes here. So let's start by asking, who is Peter? Apostle. Well, I'm not asking you guys.

I'm going to ask the questions and then I'll just answer them. But yes, Peter's an apostle. But first of all, who is Peter? Peter was called to be an apostle by Jesus. And let's look at Luke chapter 5. I'm going to make you turn in your Bibles to different passages, and then there are also going to be times I won't make you turn.

But I find that if I get up and I tell you what I think for a while, well, that's generally not as helpful, even if I happen to be right about some things, than if I actually cause you to open the scripture yourself and encounter it, so that you understand these things. So Peter wrote the book of 1 Peter. This is one of those things that sounds really obvious.

We'll just take a side note before we get into the text. But there are people who dispute that Peter wrote the book of 1 Peter. You can go and find articles by people who will be called scholars, and I'm saying scholars in quotation marks, where people will say Peter didn't really write it. And they'll try to say that it was someone else who wrote it, and that it couldn't have been Peter because of such and such reasons that they'll come up with, and it'll sound very plausible.

That means it'll sound like maybe it's true. Well, maybe Peter didn't write it. This stuff sounds really intriguing and really compelling. But the fact of the matter is that God is the one who is the ultimate author of Scripture. And God included the first epistle of Peter in his Scripture. And we just even read that it's one of the books that's in the Scripture.

And so we trust when God says that 1 Peter is part of the Bible that it is. And we trust that even scholarly men that may be able to know some things can be wrong at times. and so Peter wrote 1 Peter but I will draw you to 1 Peter 5 verse 12 it says by Silvanus a faithful brother as I regard him I have written briefly to you so Peter when he wrote the book of 1 Peter very likely dictated what he was saying that means he spoke the words to somebody else named Silvanus who is another name for Silas who was going around with Paul a lot on Paul's missionary journeys. If you remember Paul and Timothy and Silas, they did a lot of things together in the book of Acts.

And so what we have here is we have a situation where Peter spoke the words that he wanted written. Somebody else wrote those words down and then delivered the letter to the churches of Pontus, Galatia, Asia, Cappadocia, Bithynia. And what happened was that it was actually possible that this man Silas may have had a little liberty to change a little bit of the way Peter said things.

So it's like if I told you, tell somebody to close the door, and you went over and you told them, shut the door. You may use a different word to communicate the same thought, and under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, God controlled the thoughts of Peter and Silas to the point where we got what we're supposed to read. So we trust that Peter wrote the book of 1 Peter.

But let's see who Peter was. Let's find out more about him. Luke chapter 5. I'm going to read the first 11 verses to you. On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him, that's Jesus, to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret. And he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. getting into one of the boats, which was Simon's, so that's Peter.

You see the name Simon, or sometimes you'll see the word Simeon. Those are different names of Peter. He asked, Jesus asked Peter to put out a little from the land. So he went out on a boat with Peter, Jesus did. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.

So he tells them to go basically try to fish. Yeah they used a net That right And Simon answered Master we toiled all night and took nothing But at your word, I will let down the nets. And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. and they came and filled both the boats so that they began to sink.

But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees saying, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken. and so also were James and John sons of Zebedee who were partners with Simon and Jesus said to Simon do not be afraid from now on you will be catching men and when they had brought their boats to land they left everything and followed him so let's figure out a little bit about Peter Peter is a remarkable man a remarkable character if you would take that word, in the story of the Bible. If you make a movie about the Bible, and people have done this, and I'm not big on movies about the Bible, because normally they end up having images of Jesus, which I think are inaccurate, but when people have to make movies about the Bible, the selection of Peter as one of the characters is extremely important, because he's vital to almost every single story where we read about Jesus.

Peter was vital to several stories after Jesus ascended into heaven. And Peter was the apostle in the book of Acts who did a lot of miraculous things. So a couple things from Luke chapter 5 I want you to think about. One is that Jesus tells Peter, from now on you will be catching men. So Peter was a fisherman. This was what he did for work.

So a lot of us think about fishing as a fun activity to do. Like, hey, let's go get a boat and let's go fishing. Or we're going to a friend's cabin and they have a pond. So we go fishing and it's relaxing and it's just something that passes time. And maybe we do it with our dad or our cousin or uncle or somebody we really like to spend time with. And it may be a fun activity.

I don't personally like fishing, so in my illustration I'm trying to make it sound fun for people that like it. But a lot of people in 2020, fishing is just an activity that we enjoy. Fishing is just a recreational, joyful thing like playing basketball or swinging on a swing. Peter's job was fishing. This wasn't some retired guy or a guy on vacation who was just out relaxing on a boat fishing.

This was a man who had spent the whole night working, laboring to try to catch fish in the sea so that he could eat them and feed himself and his family and so that he could sell them or trade them for things that he needed. So it's just like when we work, basically. He just wasn't getting paid with money from an employer necessarily like some of us do.

And so Peter was a fisherman who had a business. we know that from the fact that he has a mother-in-law later in the Bible that Peter was married so he probably wasn't a super duper young guy some people think the apostles were pretty young men maybe even like teenagers, like 15, 16 even I don't know for sure but I would guess that if they were young Peter was one of the older ones he had this business fishing and he was married and it says here they caught nothing overnight but then they caught so many fish that the nets began to break and Jesus Christ himself was the one that commanded him to put the nets down and Peter listened and what Peter recognized when he brought these fish in when Peter had spent the entire night with no success catching fish Jesus Christ tells him drop the net and honestly I don't know why he did it other than the Lord because if somebody shows up at my house and tells me to go and do more work that I'd already just finished doing and wasn't successful, my response isn't, yeah, okay, I'll do it. But remember Peter said to Jesus, we toiled all night and took nothing, but at your word I will let down the nets. There was something about Peter that obeyed the voice of his master, even maybe before Peter knew it was his master in some sense.

Peter was obeying the voice of Jesus Christ. Jesus said, My sheep hear my voice, and they follow me. And Peter heard his voice and followed him. But he caught all these fish, and he was astonished, it says. And he fell down at Jesus' knees. And this is kind of strange to me.

Now that I've read it a few times, it shouldn't be strange to us. But it's strange. He caught all these fish, and Peter says, Oh Lord, depart from me for I am a sinful man. And I'm thinking this doesn't make sense. He just caught fish. If anything, you might think Hey, this guy is like a fish whisperer.

You might think he's a magician. There's any number of thoughts that could cross your mind other than, wow, I'm really sinful. I need to be away from this guy that told me to catch fish. It's really striking Peter's faith. It's really amazing the way God has granted Peter this faith, in fact. But let's think about Peter a little more.

Who was Peter? Peter was a Jewish man. So Peter, although he was a fisherman and he was considered somewhat unlearned, meaning he wasn't a scholarly type guy. Being a fisherman back in that day was rough work. He wasn out there on a boat reading all day He was dirty he was stinky he probably wasn allowed in areas with some of the people that didn like dirty stinky people He wasn sitting under Bible teaching all the time.

But Peter was a man who was raised as a Jew, and he would have known the Old Testament. He would have known the promises of the Old Testament that we believe in here, that God would send the seed of the woman, some descendant of Eve, who would one day get rid of the curse. He understood that God was going to send a Messiah who would come, whose body would not see corruption in the grave, and who would be raised even, and who would die for the sins of his people.

Peter understood what the Old Testament promised would come someday, and that was a Messiah who was going to be sinless. And Peter's response to Jesus, depart from me, for I am a sinful man, shows us that Peter understood who Jesus was, at least enough to know that Jesus was sinless. Peter, I think, understood that he was somehow or other in the presence of God.

I don't think Peter maybe understood the Incarnation quite yet, although he would have known the Scripture that said, the virgin shall be with child. but somehow by God's grace through faith Peter knew I'm in the presence of somebody who's sinless and I am hopelessly sinful at this point and that's where we all need to get to that point we all need to come to the point where our thought is I am a sinful man that is how salvation starts this is why when we preach the gospel on the street when we preach it in a church when we just talk about it in family devotions we say things that are very hard sometimes for people to hear. We talk about their sin. We talk about the things that people do wrong because we want to see the repentance that knows that in the presence of God we're sinful.

The other thing I want you to think about from Luke chapter 5 that was striking to me, and when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him. Peter left everything. Peter had this business, and Peter abandoned it to follow Jesus Christ. This isn't for me to say that's what we're all called to do in the sense that we all have to quit our jobs and go and do things for Jesus necessarily.

Or he's not commanding children to leave your families. Right now you're supposed to be listening to your parents and obeying them. But in Peter's case, Peter was relying on the fishing to take care of him. he was catching fish so that he could eat so that he could feed his family so that he could have future security and hope and he left it all because Jesus was just that much more worth it he had no as far as I know he had no fear of it Peter was an impulsive guy so my guess is he just left and there's other passages too we see James and John just sort of hop out the boat with their dad and they just follow him and so Jesus compels people to follow him and abandon all hope that there's anything else in this world that can bring you any pleasure or security in Luke 22 Jesus is speaking and he says to Peter something that's pretty interesting because we believe in Satan we believe in the devil But we don't see the devil.

We don't quite know what the devil's doing for us sometimes or around us. The devil is not omnipresent. That means the devil's not everywhere like God can be. So the devil can't be in Ohio and California at the same time. He's not like that. But the devil definitely is active.

And he is seeking someone to devour, is what Peter will tell us later in the book of 1 Peter, actually. And Peter knew this very well, because in Luke 22, verse 31, Jesus says to Peter, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you. So think of the pride and the boldness of Satan. He demanded to have Peter. Peter is owned by God. He was created by God.

He was made by God. He was born because God allowed him to be born. He understood who Jesus was because the Father in Heaven granted him the understanding. And Satan, who owns nothing, demanded Peter. Satan thinks he had a right to Peter in some way. He demanded him.

Jesus Christ says, Satan demanded to have you that he might sift you like wheat. But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. and when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers. Peter said to him, Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death. So Peter was, he loved Jesus. He told Jesus he was ready to go to him, go with him both to prison and to death.

So Peter proclaimed his own goodness, his own faithfulness. The Proverbs tells us every man will proclaim his own faithfulness. And I'm not against commitments. I want you all to make commitments to Christ. I want us all to think in our hearts, I will go with Jesus to prison or death. I want us to actually feel the same way that Peter felt.

But Jesus said, I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow this day until you deny three times that you know me. So first of all, Jesus said I've prayed for you that your faith may not fail and I'll tell you what if Jesus prays for you the Father hears his prayers and he going to answer his prayers the book of Romans tells us that the Spirit himself intercedes on our behalf because we don know how we ought to pray as we ought to but the Spirit intercedes with groanings too deep for words. So if you're a Christian today, the Holy Spirit himself, the Spirit of Christ, is actually going to God on your behalf and praying the things that you don't even know that you need to pray for.

The things you don't realize you need to be defended from. The things that you don't understand are coming. The things that you think you're strong enough to handle on your own. He's already making intercession for you. That means he's going to God for you because you aren't doing it enough yourself. And when Jesus prayed for Peter we knew that it was going to come true.

That God was going to answer that prayer. God answers every prayer and the old saying is he either says yes, no, or wait. But when Jesus prays to God the answer is yes. because Jesus prays according to the will of God because Jesus himself is God in the flesh. But Jesus prayed for Peter that his faith would not fail and I think what he means is that it wouldn't fail ultimately because then Jesus prophesies, I tell you, the rooster will not crow this day until you deny me three times.

And if you haven't read this yourself, you should. and I'm sure that most of the children here have heard this story but Peter denied Jesus Christ he followed Jesus after Jesus was kidnapped and after Jesus was taken so that wicked men could kill him and mock him and crucify him and spit on him and all the things they did to him and Peter followed along after making this commitment that I'm willing to basically die with you Jesus it's like you're not doing this alone I'll be by your side he's saying and then a little girl said weren't you with him? oh no, he denied it to a little girl because our strength that we have is not enough our strength, no matter how resolved we are it's not enough and Peter was no different so when I ask the question, who is Peter? one of the things I'm trying to show you is who Peter was Peter was a man he was a man like you and he was a man like me or I will say a human so for those of you who aren't men Peter was a man and he was weak and Peter had he had some resolve to do good and he didn't have the strength to carry it out on his own Peter denies Jesus after seeing the transfiguration he went up on the mountain and he saw Jesus transfigured and he heard the voice of God said this is my son in whom I'm well pleased and he saw that with his eyes so we were talking earlier about believing in Jesus by faith Peter literally saw Jesus he saw Jesus' body he saw Jesus do all the miracles of God he saw Jesus catch the fish in Luke 5 and he said I'm a sinful man, he acknowledged the truth earlier he says you are the Christ, the son of the living God Peter made all the right confessions of faith But in the end, Peter denied Jesus. He denied Jesus after walking on water. Peter spent his life on boats.

He probably knew boat safety. He probably knew how to swim. He probably knew that if he fell in the water, what kinds of things he could hold on to to not drown. Peter knew that when human beings go in water, they sink and die. And Peter had the faith at one point to step out of the boat and literally walk on the water toward Jesus Christ. He did that.

Because I think to myself, if I ever once defied gravity like that, I would never fear anything again, is what I think to myself. And that's just not what happened with Peter. Peter denied Jesus, even after the experience of walking on water. Now I know he eventually fell into the water, but he did it for even a moment. I can't even imagine trying that, to be honest.

He saw thousands of people fed with nothing. when I say nothing I'm being hyperbolic with five loaves of bread and two fish and it happened on multiple occasions where Jesus took a very little amount of food and Jesus fed gigantic numbers of people completely and totally a miracle no doubt in anyone's mind Peter saw Jesus heal people time and time again people that Peter knew had not walked for decades Jesus said get up and walk he saw Jesus dazzle the religious leaders of the day and the scribes and Pharisees. He saw him dazzle them with his wisdom and his perfect logic and his knowledge of the word of God. And then when it came down to it, after resolving not to walk away from Jesus, he walked away from them and abandoned them.

Just like you and I would have. So that's who Peter is. but turn to John because the story doesn't end with the denial Judas denied Jesus Christ and betrayed him and Judas felt bad afterwards says he did Judas even confessed I betrayed an innocent man and Judas right now is burning in hell because he never repented of betraying the Lord Jesus Christ or of his own sin. But Peter, Peter sees Jesus die on the cross.

Or at least he knew what happened. I'm assuming he had some viewpoint of it. In John 21, John tells us, after this, Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias. And he revealed himself in this way. Simon Peter, Thomas called the twin, Nathaniel of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together.

So a bunch of these guys got together. Alright? The disciples were together. Jesus had risen. They had seen him. Peter had seen the empty tomb.

He was the first one to walk into the empty tomb of the men. And he'd seen Jesus in person. And Peter said to them in verse 3 of John 21, I am going fishing. And to us that sounds so simple like, well, I'm having a tough week. a lot happened, I'm stressed out, I'm going to go blow off some steam is what it sounds like. I'm going to go ride my bike. I'm going to go read a book.

I'm going to do a crossword. That's what it sounds like Peter's saying. But remember what I said earlier. This was Peter's job. Peter didn't do fishing because it was fun for him, because it was relaxing. Peter didn't fish because this was the thing that he did to blow off steam.

Peter, after having left all and followed him, we read in Luke 5, says I'm going fishing, I think Peter had given up hope at this point almost. There was something about Peter that felt like he was either not able to be used by God anymore because of what he had done, or he was even in kind of a state of almost disbelief at this point. Even after he'd seen a risen Christ, I don't think he knew what to make of it.

And so Peter says, I'm going fishing, and they said, we will go with you. they went out and got into the boat but that night they caught nothing so they go out fishing overnight again and once again they toil all night and catch nothing it's the same as what happened in Luke 5 remember it says just as day was breaking so they're out on a boat all night this is not relaxation time this is not fun time this is well I guess I need to make some money because whatever I thought was going to happen maybe isn't happening or whatever part of it I thought I was going to play, maybe I won't play it. I think Peter was a bruised reed, if you will. And it says, Jesus stood on the shore, yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus.

I always find that funny. He must have looked different or they just veiled their eyes. God just veiled their eyes. But I always find it remarkable that they didn't quite know it was him. But Jesus said to them, Children, do you have any fish? Which I think is funny.

It also makes me think the apostles weren't really old men, especially because they lived a while after this. Peter dies, according to historians, around 64 AD. So Peter's got 30 more years in him after Jesus ascends to heaven. and it stands to reason Peter might have been in his early 20s maybe. Maybe even late teens. People got married earlier then. But he says, children, do you have any fish?

And they answered him, no. He said to them, cast the net on the right side of the boat and you will find some. Now Peter's been a fisherman for, I'm going to guess, his whole life. My guess is his dad was a fisherman and he taught him to fish and Peter sort of took over the family business and Peter knows how to fish and I think any of us here knows that if you're put your net on one side that the water on the other side of your boat is not that far away that the fish are going to be really different I think we all understand this concept this was not an expert fisherman showing up and teaching them the trick they didn't know that's not what's going on here Jesus just gives them some, it's almost like a test, right?

Are they going to do what I tell them? So they cast it, so they did it anyway. Again, remarkable though, that God granted them the faith to just follow what they were told. They didn't question it, they didn't decide, well, we might know better than this authority. They didn't decide, well, who is this guy? They somehow, in their hearts I think, heard the voice of Jesus Christ and they followed him because they were his sheep.

And they said they cast it and now they were not able to haul it in because of the quantity of fish. So the same thing happens. So many fish, they can hardly hold on to it. Then that disciple whom Jesus loved, that's John, the guy who wrote this, therefore said to Peter, it is the Lord. He realizes when the same thing happens. because when we read in Luke 5, I think John and James were there too.

And he remembers the same story happened. He says, it is the Lord. So it's Jesus. When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment for he was stripped for work and threw himself into the sea. He just, he's gone. He's going straight to his Lord.

He doesn't care about the boat. He doesn't care about the fish. He doesn't even care about the other people at that point. He needs to be by his Lord. I don't think he walked on the water either. He had to swim.

They must not have been too far out, because it's kind of hard to move in the old clothes they wore then. But it says, the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, but about a hundred yards off. It says, when they got on the land, they saw a charcoal fire in place with fish laid out on it and bread.

So they're out all night fishing. They catch nothing And they get to the shore and there a man there that they now understand is Jesus and he already got fish So like Jesus he can just make fish if he wants or he can go catch them if he wanted. Like, he could call them to just jump out of the water. I mean, Jesus has that power. We cannot have any hope in our own strength to be able to accomplish anything, and God has all power and strength to do whatever he wills.

And if God helps you, though, with the things that you're trying to do for his sake, then we shouldn't have any fear that we don't have the strength. Because if it's his strength that's empowering you, there will be complete success because of him. So Jesus said to them, Bring some of the fish you have just caught. So they bring them over. And Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, 153 of them.

And although there were so many, the net was not torn. I am not sure why we got a detail in Luke 5 that the net was torn. And in John 21, we get a detail that the net is not torn. I don't know why, but it just struck me. You know, there's something, there's some detail that God put in His Word, and all scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.

So all scripture is profitable. And so it's profitable for us to know that the net was not torn in Luke 5 and the net was torn in John 21. And I don't know exactly why. It might not be profitable for me to guess why. But I find it interesting. And one of the things that I found interesting is that when Jesus provides, Both times, he provides abundantly.

That there is an abundance when Jesus provides. He has more than we need. And he always will have more than we need. So you can ask and ask and ask Jesus to help you and to do things for you. And you never ask too much. In fact, it is moderately, at least, insulting to think that you've asked not according to his riches. let me rephrase it it's like an insult to who God is when you don't ask for big things now if you ask for big things for selfish reasons like oh I want a million dollars just because that's a different problem but if you ask for big things of our great God that shows him that you believe how great he is if you ask him grow this church I want us to plant 12 other churches before I die.

I don't know. Maybe that sounds small. You know what I mean? You ask God to save our country, to save our president. You ask God to end abortion. Do you ask God to end all the strife we have right now with the racism and some of the weird stuff going on in the United States or even in other parts of the world where Christians are being persecuted?

Do you pray for them? we don't ask God for enough our problem is that we ask for too much sometimes in a selfish way and we don't ask God for enough sometimes when we're actually finally trying to pray maybe for unselfish reasons and so we should go to God there's an abundance and you know what if God wants the net to break it's going to break and if God wants the net to hold it's going to hold and his strength is going to be able to hold on to whatever you hold on to and he told Peter, you're not going to fish for fish anymore, you're going to fish for men and maybe part of what it means is, look, if you catch too many fish your net will break, there isn't a net in the world that can hold all the fish but you go fishing for men you go out and giving the gospel to people and telling them about God's law and you tell them that they're sinners in the eyes of a holy God and that they need forgiveness and they need repentance and if every one of them gets saved, God's got room for them and the net won't break. He's not going to lose any of them. We might lose fish.

We might even lose converts that we make by our own ungodly means and our own cleverness and some of those things. But when God adds somebody to the church, he doesn't lose them. And we can rest in that. And we don't have to fear that he will. So the net was broken. but now after breakfast verse 15 of John 21 I want to look a little more at what Jesus says to them when they had finished breakfast Jesus said to Simon Peter Simon do you love me more than these and he said to him yes Lord you know that I love you and Jesus says feed my lambs and he said to him a second time Simon son of John do you love me and he said to him yes Lord you know that I love you and he said to him tend to my sheep so he told him feed my lambs he told him tend my sheep and he said to him the third time Simon son of John do you love me Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time do you love me and I think Peter was reminded of this three times he denied Jesus Christ and Jesus says truly truly oh he says feed my sheep well Peter says you know everything you know that I love you and I think Peter was reminded though of his denial and Jesus said you used to dress yourself and when you were young you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted when you old you stretch out your hands and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go And it says this he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God And then Jesus told him, follow me.

Peter followed Jesus once. He was impulsive and headstrong and he had, I think, some good intentions. But Peter was relying on his own strength a little too much. and he denied Jesus Christ three times. And if anybody in our lives denied us even one time, we'd just write them off. But Jesus Christ is not like we are. Jesus Christ knew Peter's heart because it was his spirit that had regenerated Peter's heart, given him faith.

And Jesus knew that Peter could follow him with the help of God. So Jesus tells him to follow me. He tells them, feed my sheep, tend my sheep, feed my lambs. That's what he tells them to do. And Jesus, this is a good example of we don't take the Bible strictly literally. There are times to do that, but Jesus isn't talking about sheep.

He's talking about his people. He says, my sheep hear my voice and they follow me. Peter is being commissioned by Jesus Christ not to be a pope. He's being commissioned by Jesus Christ to be a pastor, which is just an English word that technically should have just been called shepherd. Peter's being told to shepherd the flock of God which is exactly what Peter's going to tell other men to do in 1 Peter 5 which we'll get to eventually.

But that's what Peter's doing when he writes 1 Peter. Peter, an apostle who has seen the risen Christ sent by God. Peter worked miracles. The apostles worked miracles. Peter healed people. Peter wrote scripture none of us will ever write scripture because the book is finished but when Peter is told to feed his sheep Jesus' sheep Peter takes it seriously and what we understand though and this is what I want you to see when we talked about Peter's denials and we talked about all of the things Peter did that were maybe a little odd is that God can use anyone that He chooses, even somebody who has, we'll say, hopelessly betrayed Him.

Peter and Judas didn't look a lot different for a period of time there. But one of them had the Spirit of Christ. One of them had Jesus praying for them. Luke 22 remember what Jesus prayed I have prayed for your faith may not fail and when you have turned again strengthen your brothers Jesus prayed that Peter would turn from his betrayal and strengthen his brothers and that's what Peter does in 1 Peter so 1 Peter written by Peter we got through the first word of 1 Peter and then the next two words an apostle.

Peter's an apostle. He's seen the risen Christ. He worked miracles. We'll look at Acts 3 just briefly. The fact is, apostles are special and they're different and there's no more of them. In Acts 3, 6, but Peter said to this guy that wanted some help, he said, I have no silver and gold but what I do have I give to you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.

And he took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. Peter, as an apostle, was given the type of power by God to actually heal people in the same way that Jesus did. There would have been no difference in the way Jesus healed a guy and Peter did at that point. He was commissioned by God. He was a sent one.

That's what apostle means. He saw the risen Christ. He saw Jesus' baptism. These were requirements to be considered an apostle. So if you see somebody today that calls himself an apostle, the one thing you can know for sure about them is they're a liar. There may be more truth about them as well.

But there's no apostles today. At least not big A apostles. People might call themselves a sent one and try to take the word literally, but that's not the point. The apostles were the foundation of the church. Ephesians 2.20 Ephesians 2.20 it tells us but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God that was 19 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone so Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of the household of God the church but the apostles and prophets are the foundation of it and that's the word of God when we talk about the apostles and prophets we're talking about what's been written and given to us that's who wrote these things prophets and apostles Peter was sent by Jesus to feed his sheep Jesus predicted that Peter would die it says in John 21 the story has it that Peter was eventually crucified the story has it that first he watched his wife be crucified and as she was crucified he would say to her remember our Lord and that sustained her and then Peter was crucified and Peter did not feel worthy to be crucified in the same way that Jesus Christ was, and so he was crucified upside down.

That's the story. His wife was crucified? That what I heard as well that his wife was crucified and she held on to her faith So Peter who denied his faith to a little girl after resolving within 24 hours that he wouldn eventually goes to the cross for Jesus Christ and dies the same death in that sense that Jesus did. Peter writes to Jewish believers that were the elect exiles, it says. they were dispersed throughout Pontus Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia we'll get into being in exile more next week but if you look at Acts where Peter preached at Pentecost you'll see that these countries were represented in Acts, these were people who heard Peter preach the sermon that converted thousands of people in Acts chapter 2.

And you'll see that some of these people that Peter's writing to could be people that maybe were converted that day or maybe they'd started churches. So the key is this. Peter, as extraordinary... You know, Catholic Church calls him St. Peter. You know, and they made him like the first pope, which he wasn't. we can say very good things about Peter though Peter was a very important figure in the life of Jesus Christ on earth he was a very important figure in the church he was the original pastor and at the same time Peter was just like we are he was a man made of flesh and blood who had no hope that he could accomplish anything apart from the power of God and with the power of God was able to accomplish, at that time, miraculous things.

And we don't look for miracles and signs and wonders today like they had then, but we also want miraculous things to happen. We want people who are dead in their trespasses and sin to be changed by God's gospel that we give to them into people who are now made alive and quickened by His power, by His strength. That's the miracle that we not only want to see, but we expect.

We expect God to work through His Word. And I think sometimes the reason God doesn't is because we don't. I think in our hearts we think, well, we'll pass out the tracts, but nobody's really going to believe it. Or I'll preach on the street, but probably no one will believe it. Or I'll say this, we need to actually believe that God can and will do the things that he's promised.

So with Christ, there's abundance. With Christ, there's courage. There's boldness. There should be no fear. That doesn't mean you'll never feel afraid of a situation, but we should know that God is the one who's for us. so God can use anyone he wants by his strength. Let me leave you with this.

1 Peter 4, verse 10 and 11, Peter says, As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's very grace. So everybody who's a member of a church has a gift. Everyone who's a Christian has one, but unless you're the member of a church, your gift. That's how you work your gifts out, is in a church context. But he says, whoever speaks is one who speaks oracles of God.

Whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies, in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. So whether you are a person that speaks or serves, however you use your gift, you use it by the strength that God gives, and you trust that God is the one who will produce the results that he desires as the result of that. So let me pray.

Father in heaven, we thank you for your word. We thank you for Peter, this man who... Peter's easy to make fun of. He's a man who, when we hear sermons, he's easy to poke at because he did some things that seemed foolish to us now. Lord, we thank you for Peter. this man who loved God, this man who loved his Lord Jesus Christ, who left everything for him, and even though his faith faltered at times, he was prayed for that his faith would not fail.

So we thank you for the example that you give us of Peter, but even more so, we thank you for the perfect Christ that you sent into the world to do what Peter could not do, to do what we could not do, and we pray Lord that you would embolden us to preach your word as Peter did to love the saints as Peter did to write to people like Peter did to suffer for others as Peter did and ultimately if need be to suffer for Christ so help us in our walk may you exalt the name of Jesus Christ in our presence for the rest of our service and the rest of our evening, Lord, as we leave a worship service, let us not flip a switch, but let it be the means of grace that we need to continue to be worshipers throughout the rest of the evening and throughout our week. In Christ's name, I ask you to grant us these wishes. Amen.