Who Was Peter?
Part 1: Peter in the Gospels
Open
your Bibles with me to Luke 5. We won’t get there for a while but when we
start, that’s where we’ll start. We’re continuing our study in 1 Peter. We did
a flyover last week. Tonight we’re going to start with the first verse. The
first verse and the first word begins with Peter. It
says, “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the pilgrims or diaspora [resident
aliens] who are living in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.”
Now,
as we work through this salutation, especially in the Petrine epistles, I think
it’s important to stop, break it down word-for-word in order to understand some
of these areas and these people. We’re going to start with the first word,
Peter. We’ll do a fly-over, which will take us a couple of weeks, to go through
the life of Peter. This is really interesting. I’ve never broken down Peter’s
life before in this chronological way, and it was interesting to see some of
the patterns that show up there. I want to hit major events in the life of
Peter and some significant things.
We’re
going to start with that this evening and we’ll start with his background and
family. His background is that he’s a Galilean. He was reared
by his family in Bethsaida. His father’s name was Jonas or John. We
don’t know his mother’s name. He had one brother that we know of, and his name
was Andrew, who was also a disciple. He grew up in the small town of Bethsaida.
If we look on a map we see the Sea of Galilee which is
in the north. Samaria is in the south. The Jordan River flows from the north to
the south. North of the Sea of Galilee you have Lake Huldah, and then about 22
or 23 miles north of the Sea of Galilee, you have an area called Caesarea
Philippi. There were a lot of towns called Caesarea. That’s because when anyone
wanted to really suck up to the Emperor, they would name it after him. Then
these towns would have to be distinguished.
One
we’ve talked about before is called Caesarea-Maritima or Caesarea-by-the-Sea.
That’s where Cornelius, the centurion, lived and where Peter took the gospel to
Cornelius there. Caesarea Philippi is named for Phillip, the Tetrarch, one of
the sons of Herod the Great. So we’re looking at this area around the Sea of
Galilee. Almost on the north shore or just a little bit east of due north was
the location of Bethsaida. This was discovered, they thought, about a hundred
and fifty years ago; and recently it’s been confirmed that it’s probably the
site of Bethsaida where Peter’s family lived. We’ve driven past it on tours and
there’s not a whole lot there, maybe it’s just the size of this room. It’s
about a mile, or maybe a little bit less, from the water—probably a half
a mile from the water. Capernaum is another main area we’re going to talk about
in terms of Peter’s background.
So
Peter grew up in Bethsaida which was another large
fishing village on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. It was a family-owned business.
Peter and Andrew are spoken of as the primary owners in the Gospels, but when
Peter leaves to follow the Lord, he leaves it in the hands of his father. He
had a partnership with James and John, the sons of Zebedee. On a map, if you’re
looking toward the Sea of Galilee, Bethsaida would be located on the north
shore, and then Capernaum is nearby. Those of you who have been to Israel with
me in the past remember this long pier, which is the pier where the ancient
boat is located at that museum at Nof Ginosaur which
is where we stayed this last time at the kibbutz there. That gives you a nice
overview of what this area looks like.
John
1:44 tells us that Phillip was from Bethsaida. He was
a third disciple from there so what we see is that a lot of these young men
that followed Jesus knew each other and had grown up together. In Mark 1:16 we
read, “As Jesus walked by the Sea of Galilee He saw Simon and his brother,
Andrew, casting a net into the sea for they were fishermen.” In Luke 5:10 we’re
told that James and John, the sons of Zebedee were partners with Simon. That
gives us about as much background as we can get.
The
interesting thing is that when we study what we know about this area in
Galilee, it is that it was an extremely populated area during the time of our
Lord. If we just look at the Scripture we see several times it’s talking about
the multitudes coming to Him. He fed the 5,000; and in another place he feeds
4,000, and the text there says they were all men, so it didn’t count the women
and children. There could have been ten or twelve thousand people there. The
Scriptures indicate that there were very large towns and villages in the area.
Josephus, even though he may exaggerate a little, says that Galilee was just
covered with towns and villages, the smallest of which were all at least 15,000
people or more. I think he’s exaggerating, but even if he’s doubled the
numbers, that’s a very large population.
It’s
interesting that in this area, which the Scripture says is where Jesus did most
of his miracles and most of his teaching, many rejected his claim to be the
Messiah. As a result, it was going to be judged and wiped out. Very few of
these villages can even be found today. Those that have been found don’t look
like they were very large except for the eyewitness account of Josephus.
Peter’s
birth name was Simon, which was a Greek form of the Hebrew word Simeon, one of
the sons of Jacob, although most of the Jews weren’t named for that. It was a
name that was given probably for the same reason that Jacob named his son
Simeon because the root meaning of the word has to do with hearing and obeying.
It was a common Jewish name. There were some eleven different Simons in the New
Testament, so it was a very, very common name. He was called his full name; and
when Jesus wanted to get his attention he was called Simon bar Jonah, just like
your mom might call you by all three of your names when she wanted to get your
attention. So Jesus would call him Simon bar Jonah. The bar is the Aramaic equivalent of the
Hebrew word ben
meaning the son of. So it would be translated for us as Simon son of John or
Simon Johnson.
We
also know that Peter was married. In Mark 1:30 we’re told about a
mother-in-law. If you have a mother-in-law, you have to have a wife. 1 Corinthians
9:5 tells us Peter traveled with his wife. Paul talks
about that. He says, “The other apostles”, including Cephas, would travel and
take their wives with them and expect the Churches to support them. Paul said
that was fine. He chose instead to take another option.
It’s
a great passage for understanding some of the different gray areas in
Scriptures, or areas of non-absolutes. In terms of funding and financial
support for ministries, it’s up to each individual before the Lord. There’s no
one set pattern. Sometimes we get people who think that there’s only one way of
doing it and that’s the only right way of doing it; and yet the Scripture has
this clear example in 1 Corinthians 9:5 that Paul says no, there are many
different ways to do it and none of which is right. Supporting the pastor and
his wife, not supporting them, either one is fine. There’s lots of application
there.
So
that’s Peter’s background and an understanding of his family. What we do see is
that from his house, which they’re pretty sure of the location, it’s probably
fifty yards from the synagogue. In Capernaum he would have availed himself of
the instruction of the synagogue. Even though Peter was called by the Pharisees
unlearned, that simply meant that he hadn’t gone to the right schools. Some
people are that way in the United States. If you haven’t gone to an Ivy League
school, you’re not very educated. The Pharisees were snobbish like that. Peter,
though, was educated. The Greek of 1 Peter is a difficult Greek, indicating not
that he wrote very well and wrote with a sophisticated hand. That tells us
something about his background and that he would have availed himself of an
education.
The
other thing that we see is that his brother Andrew is specifically stated to be
a disciple of John the Baptist, as are James and John, the sons of Zebedee.
Peter may have been a disciple of John the Baptist. At the very least, he was
involved and listening to John the Baptist with his brother because as soon as
Andrew decided to follow Jesus when he saw that John the Baptist identified
Jesus as the Lamb of God, Andrew went off to get Peter right away. He didn’t
have to travel all the way up to Capernaum in order to get him, so it appears
that Peter was in the neighborhood where John the Baptist was baptizing near
Bethany across the Jordan. All of that tells us that Peter was very positive.
Peter, Andrew, James, and John were all very positive.
James
and John were part of the family. They’re cousins of Jesus also, as John the
Baptist was. They’re business partners with Peter and Andrew so they were all
very positive. They were interested in learning what John the Baptist had to
say about the coming of the Messiah and being prepared for the Messiah, looking
for and anticipating the coming of the Messiah. They had a strong positive
volition, long before John the Baptist or Jesus showed up on the scene.
The
first event that we see is when see Peter meets Jesus. This is described in
John 1:41-42. Now there’s a series of events that take place over a three-day
period that are described in John 1. We have one day, then another day, and
then the next day. On the first day the Pharisees came out to examine John.
This was part of this typical procedure. Whenever anyone was suspected to
making a claim to the Messiah, the Pharisees would come out and just watch and
listen for a while. After that first visit, then if they wanted more
information, they would come out and begin asking questions.
This
is what was going on at this point. They were asking questions of John about
who he was. They asked if he was Elijah, if he was the Messiah, just who was
he? So on the first day they came out to examine John. Then on the second day
Jesus showed up. This is the second time that Jesus showed up for John the
Baptist. He’s already been baptized according to the synoptics. Jesus came to
John who said, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”
John baptized Jesus, and then immediately Jesus is led by God
the Holy Spirit into the wilderness. There he was tested for forty days,
three major temptations by Satan.
Then
He came back to the area where John the Baptist was. This is where we pick up
the story in John 1. As Jesus showed up following the forty days in the
wilderness, John again announced, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the
sin of the world.” Then we come to the next day, and John the Baptist is
standing there with two of his disciples. We’re not told who one of them is,
but one of them is identified as Andrew. When John the Baptist saw Jesus he
said, “Behold the Lamb of God.” Immediately Andrew and the other disciple left
John and began to follow Jesus.
Then
we’re told in verse 41 that Andrew went to get his brother Simon. John 1:41 reads,
“He first finds his own brother, Simon, and says to him, ‘We found the
Messiah’. Then he led them to Jesus. Jesus looked at Simon and said, ‘You’re
Simon, the son of Jonas’.” This indicates that Jesus had never met Simon
before, so it indicates the omniscience of the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Christ goes on to say, “You will be called Cephas, which is translated a
stone.” That’s the Aramaic word for a stone, and it usually refers to a large
or massive stone, according to one source that I read.
Following
that we see on the map that we have Judea in the south, Galilee in the north, Samaria in the middle and running from north to south we
have the Jordan River from the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea. On the lower
left is Jerusalem, and just above the Dead Sea represents the area of Jericho
on the left; and on the right is the location of Bethany across the Jordan,
which is where John was baptizing. Then we see Sychar, which is in John 4 where
Jesus talked to the woman at the well. Then up north is Cana of Galilee where
Jesus performed His first miracle; and then we see Capernaum where Jesus lived
and where Peter and Andrew lived.
Let’s
get the chronology down. Jesus first showed up with John the Baptist in Bethany
across the Jordan. Then He’s baptized in the Jordan, goes up into the
mountainous desert area for forty days where He is tempted by
Satan. Then He comes back down to John. This is where we have the
conversation we just saw where John the Baptist identifies Jesus as the Lamb of
God to Andrew and another disciple. Then from there Jesus is going to leave and
He’s going to head back to Capernaum.
Then
He’s going to go back to Cana where he performs the first miracle there and His
disciples are with Him. Andrew, Phillip, Nathaniel, and Peter are with Jesus
there at Cana. Then they will go with Jesus down to Jerusalem for the first
Passover. Following the first Passover, they’re going to leave Jerusalem, where
Jesus had the first cleansing of the Temple at the end of John 2 and where
Jesus has His conversation with Nicodemus, telling him he won’t get into the
kingdom of heaven unless he’s born again.
Next
they left Jerusalem and they head back through Samaria where Jesus has His
conversation with the woman at Jacob’s well in Sychar. Then they are going to
leave there and head back up to Capernaum; and when they get back there, the
boys all go back to work. They all have jobs. They all have careers. They all
go back to work. Jesus hasn’t called them to be His disciples yet. They are
followers of Jesus. They already believe He is the Messiah but at this stage
Jesus hasn’t really developed His public ministry.
Somewhere
about that time, John the Baptist is going to be arrested and put into prison.
It is at that point, according to Mark 1:14-15 that John the Baptist is
arrested and Mark tells us that after John was arrested then Jesus began his
public ministry. We’re told that He first went to Nazareth, His hometown, and
He taught in the synagogue. The people rejected Him, and they took him to a cliff
and were going to stone him, but He disappeared in the confusion and the crowd.
After that, He left Nazareth and He moves to Capernaum, which is the home of
Peter and Andrew.
We’re
told in Luke 4:31–44 that Jesus began to teach on the Sabbaths in Capernaum.
So on the Sabbath Peter and Andrew and James and John are there. They’re
hearing Him preach. At that same time He cast out a demon, and He leaves the
synagogue and heals Peter’s mother-in-law on His way to Sabbath lunch.
It’s
after all of those things have taken place that we see the second major event.
The first is when He meets Peter, and this is in Luke 5. Turn there with me, if
you’re not there already. This is when Jesus begins to call His disciples. We
find out initially that Jesus is carrying on a ministry by Lake Ginosaur.
That’s the actual name; it’s still called that. In the New King James it’s
written as Gennesaret. It’s also translated Sea of
Galilee in other places but it’s Lake Ginosaur. He has a huge crowd pressed
against him to hear the Word of God [verse 1] and He is there on a beach by the
lake. He saw two boats standing by the shore. The fishermen had gone from them
and were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s
and asked him to put out a little from the land. He asked them to put out, and
then he sat down and taught the multitude from the boat. That’s a nice
platform, nice pulpit, and if it’s still, it’s not too bad. I can imagine if
the water was rough; it would be a little bit of a struggle to keep your
balance. So He is out in the boat talking to the group.
When
He finishes, He asks Peter to go out into the boat and to cast his nets into
the deep for the catch. We see a little bit of Simon’s character here. He’s a
little bit stubborn and he’s outspoken. He says, “Lord we’ve been fishing all
night long. We have worn ourselves out and we haven’t caught a thing. There
hasn’t been a nibble and we are exhausted.” He does agree to do it though, and
he puts down the net; and they brought in such a huge catch of fish that the
nets begin to tear. Another boat, which belonged to James and John, had to come
up next to them in order to help them. They filled both their boats with all
the fish.
Jesus
is teaching that He can supply all their needs beyond anything they can ever
imagine. What Jesus is about to tell them to do is to follow Him, and they’re
going to have to leave their businesses, and He’s making the point that when
you leave your businesses, you don’t have to worry about your logistical needs.
He’s telling them He’s going to take care of them. There’s going to be a roof
over their head, and everything will be taken care of.
Also
something very instructive takes place here in regard to Peter’s character. As
soon as the boats are filled up and he sees this massive catch of fish, what
does Peter say? He immediately makes a theological connection. He falls at
Jesus’ knees and says, “Depart from me for I am a sinful man!” Why would he say
that unless he understood the deity of Christ at that point? He understands
that Jesus is not sinful but is righteous. This is why Peter recognizes his own
sinfulness there. So this tells us quite a bit about Peter’s spiritual
perspicacity at this point. He’s not quite as dense as he appears to be later
on. He immediately recognizes his own sinfulness and the righteousness of
Christ and the righteousness of God the Father. Incidentally a miracle similar
to this occurs again at the end of John.
After
this, Jesus is calling His disciples to leave their occupations and to follow
Him, and they do. The promise in Luke 5:10 is “Do not be afraid for from now on
you will catch men. So when they had brought their boats to land, they forsook
all and followed Him.” Now following Jesus doesn’t necessarily mean you have to
go into vocational ministry, which is what they’re doing at this point. But it
does mean you have to be willing to give up everything. We have to come to
understand that everything we have is really the Lord’s. The job you have, the
cars that you have, the toys that you have; everything we have is from the
Lord.
We
have to relax and put the Lord in control, let the Lord have control of our
lives. He’s the one who is guiding and directing things. Peter comes to
understand this at this point and begins to follow.
As
Jesus conducts His ministry, this first tour of the Galilee, we usually find in
all of the gospels at this point a list of the twelve disciples. Matthew, Mark,
Luke, and then Acts all have lists. John doesn’t have a list. What’s
interesting is that Peter is always listed first in the list. This is a way of
presenting him as the leader of the disciples. What we’ve seen is that Peter
meets Jesus in John 1. He’s called to be a disciple in Luke 5:1–11. Then
he’s sent out with the other twelve to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom,
which is what we’ve been studying on Sunday mornings in Matthew 10.
The
next major event in Peter’s life is that he is going to walk on the water. If
that was like some of us, if we were on that boat, we
would all be jumping out of the boat because we want to walk on the water, too.
Whenever a new toy comes along, we’re always ready for that new toy and that
new excitement. But all the other guys are just sitting there. Peter is the
only one who seems to have the faith to even want to try walking on the water.
To
look at this episode, let’s turn to Matthew 14:22. Now it’s at night. We’re
told it’s between roughly 3:00 and 6:00 in the morning. That may be why they
didn’t want to jump out of the boat because they were still trying to get the
sleep out of their eyes. They’ve been fighting a storm. They’re tired. They
probably weren’t looking for any fun, so Jesus had sent them across to the
other side. They spend the night tossed by the seas and in the fourth watch of
the night, Jesus came to them walking on the sea. When the disciples saw him
walking on the seas they were troubled. That means they were upset. They
thought it was a ghost. But immediately Jesus spoke to them and told them to be
of good cheer and not to be afraid. Peter said, “Lord, if it’s you, command me
to come to you on the water.” This is the second thing we see of Peter’s
character. He is very gregarious. He’s out there and out-spoken. Sometimes this
gets him into trouble but he is certainly the one who’s going to be involved
and in front of everybody. So the Lord tells him to come and when Peter had
come down out of the boat he walked on the water to come to Jesus.
This
is a great episode because again it’s emphasizing that Peter is learning to
trust the Lord. Like most of us, we learn to trust the Lord, and then we
immediately stop trusting the Lord. We get our eyes on circumstances. That’s
what happened to Peter. He gets out and walks on the water and in the New King
James it says, “When he saw that the wind was boisterous…” I think boisterous
is probably what Peter was, but the wind was boisterous, and so Peter all of a
sudden got his eyes on the details. That’s what we do. We get our eyes on our
bank account. We get our eyes that maybe the economy’s not doing so good. We
get our eyes on aspects of our health instead of putting our focus on the Lord
and just relaxing and trusting in Him.
As
soon as he put his eyes on the circumstances, what happened? It didn’t take a
week or two. He immediately began to sink. I think that’s a good illustration
that as soon as we take our eyes off that walk by the Holy Spirit, we
immediately plunge into carnality and we’re walking according to the sin
nature. It’s instantaneous. As long as Peter is focused on Jesus, he is walking
on the water, but instantly when he takes his eyes off Jesus, Jesus rebukes him
and says, “O ye, of little faith. Why did you doubt?” When they got in the
boat, the wind ceased.
I
just love how these things happen. I wonder what people on the shore were thinking.
I’ve been on the Sea of Galilee when the winds have been up and the waves have
been up a little bit. I’ve been on other lakes when it’s been stormy. It
doesn’t just stop on a dime. One second it’s stormy and the next second it’s
stopped. If this was happening on the whole lake, people who lived around the
lake would be hearing all the wind howling and then, all of a sudden, it would
stop. Wonder what they were thinking? That’s beside
the point, though.
Those
that were in the boat came and worshipped Him, saying, Truly,
you are the Son of God.” What we’ve seen already is that Peter recognizes that
Jesus is God, that’s He’s righteous; and here, as a result of His walking on
water they all recognized that He is the Son of God. They are convinced of this
and there’s a growing understanding and conviction of this as time goes by. So
Peter’s faith and trust in the Lord develops in that episode.
The
next episode, the fifth major episode, is in John 6. This again illustrates
something about Peter’s character and Peter’s recognition about what is going
on. In John 6 which is a very long chapter including the feeding of the 5,000,
and the bread of life discourse, after Jesus sits down and states some of the
conditions for being a disciple and following Him, we’re told in John 6:60,
“Therefore, many of his disciples, when they hear this, said, “This is a hard
saying. Who can understand it?” Then they began to leave him. When we get down
to John 6:67, it says that many of them went back and walked with Him no more.
Jesus
said to the twelve, “Do you also want to go away?” He’s evaluating their
commitment and asked them if they’ve given up like everyone else. It’s Simon
Peter who answers again as a leader of the twelve. He said, “Lord, to whom
should we go? You have the words of eternal life.” Wow, what a statement. The
only thing that matters in life is that we know our lives have an eternal
significance and an eternal value. And you’re the only one that can tell us how
to do that, Peter is saying. No one else speaks about eternity. You’re the only
one who has the words of eternal life.
In
John 6:69 Peter goes on to say, “Also, we have come to believe [John’s key term
about salvation] and know that You are the Son of the
Living God.” Now it expands to He is the Son of the Living God. This term is
always used in the Old Testament to distinguish the God of Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob from all of the idols of metal, wood, and stone. So here Peter is saying
Christ is the Son of the Living God. Again, it’s an affirmation of deity,
recognizing that He is the Messiah and the Son of the Living God. He is deity.
The
next episode I want to go to is in Matthew 16. We’ll
spend a little more time on this because this is when Jesus explains Peter’s
nickname. He gave him the name of Cephas in John 1, but it’s in Matthew 16 that
He explains this. In Matthew 16:13 we read, “When Jesus came into the region of
Caesarea Philippi…” This is just a little north of the city of Dan. Whenever
you read a description in the Old Testament of the borders of the land, it
always says from Dan to Beersheba. Dan was the farthest point in the north,
just below Mount Hermon, and Beersheba is down in the Negev, far to the south.
Caesarea Philippi was a Gentile city built by Phillip the Tetrarch, and it was
a Roman city. So Jesus and His disciples had gone to a Gentile area, about
twenty-five or so miles north of Capernaum.
When
they get there, Jesus asks a question. He picks His location. Those of you
who’ve been there know that we sit there, and every year I have Dan Inghram
teach this section of the Bible study there. Jesus is going to use a word play
here, but it’s a word play that you miss a little of the pun because you don’t
see the area in the neighborhood. So Jesus asks who
men say that He the Son of Man is. He uses this title Son of Man, which comes
out of Daniel 7. It is clearly understood as a messianic title. Son of Man is
the one who is identified as the future king, the Messiah, to whom the Ancient
of Days, God the Father, is going to give the kingdom. When God the Father
gives Him the kingdom, the Son of Man will come and establish the kingdom. This
fits within this Messianic kingdom message that we have all through Matthew. So
Jesus says, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?”
Now
they say something. The “they” referred to here is the
twelve. They say that some say He’s John the Baptist because by this time John
the Baptist had died, so some people think it’s him. Remember John the Baptist
was put in prison before Jesus started His public ministry. So some people said
it was a resurrection sort of thing, but it didn’t make sense. But that’s what
they said. Who said people make sense? Read the paper. Others said Elijah, or
Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.
Jesus
said, “But who do you say that I am?” When Jesus says this, it’s an emphatic
you. Who do you say that I am? He wants to know what they believe. Now we’ve
already seen them say He’s the Son of God. Then we saw Peter say that they all
believed He was the Messiah, the Son of the Living God. Now Peter is going to
answer again for the group. He’s the leader. Simon Peter answered and said,
“You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.” This is another clear
statement that they recognize who Jesus is. Jesus answered, “Blessed are you,
Simon Bar Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but My Father
who is in heaven.” Blessed indicates, not some special status, but it indicates
that God has privileged him which Jesus says. You’ve been blessed, Peter, with
this understanding. God, the Father, has revealed this to you. He’s not saying
that God the Father only revealed it to him, but he is saying that for anyone
who comes to this understanding, it’s because God has made this clear to them.
Then
He’s going to introduce this little word play. Jesus says, “I, also, say to you
that you are Peter.” This is the Greek word PETROS which means rock. It’s one of the ways you can translate Cephas. “And on
this rock I will build my church and the gates of Hades shall not prevail
against it.” Now when He says this, you have to understand the background. Here
he is at Caesarea Philippi. This is a massive rock escarpment in the
background, so He’s playing off his location. [Picture, see slides] They had a
temple to Jupiter on the left of the escarpment and a temple to Pan, the figure
in Greek mythology.
Arabs
can’t say the letter “p” so they say the letter “b”. So Panias became Banias
and that’s why it’s called Banias today. Located behind the temple of Jupiter
is a huge black hole, which was believed to be one of the entrances to Hades,
and that if you wanted to satisfy the god Pan, you would throw a human
sacrifice down this hole. There was water down there, and if there was no
blood, then he accepted the sacrifice. If you saw blood float to the surface,
then he didn’t accept the sacrifice. So this is the location here with this
massive rock escarpment in the background, which explains why Jesus is bringing
out this point about the gates of Hades.
This
is a very important passage, as well. He’s not only making this
play on words in terms of the name PETROS and PETRA but this is the first mention of the word church and it’s in the future
tense. “I will build my church.” It’s not there yet. And then Jesus says, “On
this rock I will build my church.” Now there are three basic views, and you’re
probably familiar with one of them, which are taken, in trying to explain the
meaning of this passage. The first view identifies Peter as the rock.
This
is the view that is the official Roman Catholic interpretation: that here Jesus
is saying Peter is the rock that He’s going to build the church on, and he’s
giving Peter authority over the church. And that Peter is the first pope, and
that authority is going to be handed down from generation to generation. One of
the many problems with that, other than the exegetical one, is that up until
the 4th century, all you had were bishops in key cities, such as the
Bishop of Rome, the Bishop of Constantinople, the Bishop of Antioch, and the
Bishop of Jerusalem and the Bishop of Alexandria.
Those
were your five basic bishops. They competed with each other. They were in a
power struggle, but in AD 250 Steven the 1st who’s the Bishop of
Rome, is the first to assert that he has universal authority over the whole
church. Guess what the rest of the church did? They laughed at him. Who are
you? Those guys in Antioch, Jerusalem, Constantinople, and Alexandria weren’t
giving up any of their authority in Rome. How silly! But that’s in AD 250. Over
the next two hundred years you have four major Christological controversies
that develop calling for different councils to try to settle these theological
discrepancies: the Council of Nicea, the Council of Ephesus, the Council of
Constantinople, and finally the Council of Chalcedon; as they’re working on the
relationship between the humanity and deity of Christ and the relationship
between Jesus and the Father.
In
each of these different councils one of these bishops is going to really “flash
his drawers” and show how ignorant he is doctrinally. At the end of that period
the only bishopric that hasn’t gone on the side of a heresy is the Bishop of
Rome. At this point the Bishop of Rome begins to consolidate his power because
he can say, “All you other guys, obviously you don’t have the truth because at
one point or another you sided with heresy.” You really don’t have this idea of
the pope as it came to be emphasized in terms of his universal power in the
early Middle Ages at all in the early church. It’s just not there. History
doesn’t support it.
What’s
the Roman Catholic response to that? Probably the most common response is,
“Nobody claimed that authority because they were just too humble.” Peter was
too humble. The other bishops of Rome were just too humble to assert their
authority. Okay, so what you’re saying is that from AD 250 on, they’re too
arrogant. That’s the flipside. The other way to look at it is that they were
all really failures as leaders. Because if they were given this kind of
authority by the Lord and they didn’t use it, then they were failures as
leaders. The Roman Catholic argument really doesn’t hold any water.
It
certainly doesn’t hold any water when we look at what the Scripture says. When
Jesus talks about “on this rock” the first attempt to solve this is that he’s
talking about Peter personally. Some Protestants take it that way, but they say
he’s talking about Peter who is the obvious leader all the way through Acts. He’s
the one who opens the door to the church to the Samaritans and the Gentiles.
Peter is there every single time. He’s there at Pentecost; he’s there at the
Samaritan Pentecost; he’s there bringing the Gentiles into the church. He’s
obviously the leader. He’s the one who preached on the day of Pentecost. But
while that’s true, it’s probably not what this is talking about.
It’s
talking about a rock, and the rock that we see in Scripture is a rock that is
alluded to several times. He’s the rock of stumbling. Psalm 118:22, “The chief
cornerstone, the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief
cornerstone.” That’s Jesus. In 1 Peter 2:4, Peter recognizes this and he says, “To whom coming a living stone, cast away indeed as
worthless by men, but by God chosen. Yourselves, also,
as living stones are being built up as a spiritual house.” See? He’s connecting
this spiritual edifice of the church back to what Jesus is saying in Matthew
16. That’s the second view: that Jesus was really referring to Himself.
The
third view a lot of Protestants held to in the Protestant Reformation was that
this rock simply referred to the affirmation that Jesus was the Christ, the Son
of the Living God. But in light of Scripture and comparing Scripture with
Scripture, the broad Scriptural concept, what we see is that the rock the
church is built upon is the Lord Jesus Christ.
Then
the Lord says to Peter in Matthew 16:19, “And I will give to thee the keys of
the kingdom of heaven.” This is what gave rise to the idea when Revelation
talks about the gates like pearl in heaven; and there’s Peter sitting at the
pearly gates, and he’s got the keys, and he’s going to decide who gets in and
who doesn’t get in. But that’s not what this is talking about. It’s talking
about the keys of the kingdom of heaven having to do with power and authority.
This authority and power is to proclaim the gospel. These guys guarded the
gospel and were the foundation of the church. Ephesians 2:20, “The apostles and
prophets were the foundation of the church.” It’s referencing their power and
their authority.
Then
we have a bad translation because the Greek uses the perfect participle, and
it’s a little awkward to state it in English. “Whoever
you bind on earth [this is your authority, the authority of the apostles] will
have already been bound in heaven.” In other words, God establishes the
absolutes in heaven, and then they carry it out upon the earth. “Whatever you
have bound has already been bound upon the earth and whatever you loose on
earth has already been loosed in the heavens.” Then He enjoined upon His
disciples that they should say to no man that He was the Christ.” Here again we
have one of the places where Jesus tells someone not to tell anyone. He doesn’t
want to get the Pharisees all riled up ahead of time before it’s the right time
to be crucified. He has to be crucified according to the timetable given in
Daniel.
The
next episode, which is just a little further down in this chapter, is that
after He’s made this important statement to Peter and Peter has clearly
identified who Jesus is; then Jesus begins to teach them about His coming
crucifixion. Matthew 16:21, “From that time Jesus began to show to His
disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders
and the chief priests and the scribes and be raised the third day.”
Peter
took Him aside. Can’t you just see this? Peter just comes up and puts his arm
around the Lord and says, “Wait a minute. Before you go any further, let’s have
a little conversation about this. Far be it from you, Lord that this should
happen to you. We’re not going to let anything bad happen to you.” The Lord
then turns around and calls Peter Satan. Just a minute ago, He’s used a play on
his name and said the church was going to be built on this rock, meaning
Himself, and He praises Peter because He recognizes who Jesus is. But now He
turns around and says, “You’re Satan. Get behind Me. Get out of My way.” So Peter has to learn a little more humility. The
seventh incident is where Jesus tells Peter to get behind Him, Satan, saying
He’s an offense to Jesus because his mind is not on the things that are of God.
Let’s
have a little application here. If you’re not focused on God as the priority in
your life, then you’re a pawn of Satan. If you’re a pawn of Satan, then Jesus
can accurately refer to you as Satan because that’s who
you’re serving, that’s who I’m serving, when we’re out of fellowship. When
we’re not focusing on Biblical priorities and making the Word of God the
priority in our life, then we are Satan’s pawn. That’s what He’s saying to
Peter, “Get behind me, Satan.” You’re an offense because your mind is not on
the things that are of God but on the things that are of men. Your priorities,
your time usage, the things you’re spending your money on, your hopes and your
dreams, are not shaped by Scripture; they’re shaped by your culture. Therefore,
you’re a tool of Satan.
The
next episode is found in the next chapter, Matthew 17. We see a lot of Peter in
Matthew and this is a preview of coming attractions in that book. This is a
week later than the last episode. Jesus took Peter, James, John, and his
brother and led them up into a high mountain by themselves. Now Jesus had just
said at the end of the last chapter that among the disciples standing there
were some who would not see death until they had seen the Son of Man coming in
His kingdom.
Now
a week later they’re going to see Jesus coming in His kingdom. What happens is
that they go up on this mountain somewhere down near the Sea of Galilee. There
are a couple of traditional locations, but no one knows for sure where this is.
It was likely, because they were up north, on one of the ridges of Mount
Hermon. He takes these three guys up with Him on a high hill or high mountain,
and He’s transfigured before them; and they see His glory. His face shines like
the sun. His clothes become like white raiment. Not only that, but Moses who
represents the Law, and the Law was a witness of Messiah and the prophet,
represented by Elijah, who testified of the Messiah, show up, having a
conversation with Jesus.
Peter
again has to speak first. “Lord it’s good for us to be here. If you wish, let
us make three tabernacles…” Peter wanted to make three lean-tos, one for each
of them. What he’s doing is putting Jesus in the same category as Elijah and
Moses. Jesus is distinct, however, and God the Father doesn’t want Peter to
make that mistake. We’re told in verse 5, “While he was still speaking, behold,
a bright cloud overshadowed them and suddenly a voice came out of the clouds,
saying, ‘This is My Beloved Son in Whom I am well
pleased. Hear Him’.”
Now
just a side note: if Peter was given the kind of authority the Roman Catholic
Church said he was going to have, that he was going to be infallible, then it
didn’t last long. He makes a big mistake right away. We saw that when he told
Jesus He wasn’t going to die. Now he makes a second mistake. So the Scriptures
just don’t support Peter being infallible at all. God, the Father, interrupts
Him and says, “This is My Beloved Son in Whom I am well pleased, listen to
Him.” He’s telling Peter to shut his mouth that he can’t learn anything when
he’s talking, but he needs to listen.
When
the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces. They are greatly afraid. They
are trembling, and Jesus then came and touched them and said, “Rise up. Don’t
be afraid.” When they opened their eyes, Moses and Elijah are gone and
everything is back to normal. That’s the Mount of Transfiguration. Now Peter
learns another principle.
I
want to wrap up with two things. We have about five more minutes to go and I
want to hit both of these. In Matthew 18 the disciples get into an argument
over who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Now if Jesus had really
meant that Peter is the head honcho, then they wouldn’t be having this
argument, so obviously they didn’t understand Him to be saying that Peter is
going to be the main guy.
Jesus
tells a couple of parables, and then we come to Matthew 18:21 where Peter comes
to Jesus and asks, “How often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive
him? Up to seven times?” There’s a pattern here these last few times we see
Peter talking. He’s asking how many times he has to forgive somebody. Who’s
going to really need forgiveness in the next few weeks? It’s Peter. We see that
there’s a pattern of Peter being taught about forgiveness, what divine
forgiveness is all about, that we are to emulate. He asks, “How many times
should I forgive when my brother sins against me? Up to seven times?” That
sounds reasonable. He thought he was being generous. He wasn’t just going to
forgive him two or three times, but seven times.
Then
Jesus says to him, “I say not to thee, not to seven times, but to seventy times
seven.” Seven is the number of completion. Seventy times seven means you’re to
forgive forever. It doesn’t matter how many times someone offends you: you are
to forgive them as many times as they come and ask forgiveness, period; end of story. You have to understand grace, Peter. Grace
means you forgive those who sin against you. That’s the lesson in this
particular episode,
Then
we come to the next episode in John 13. This is an episode we have seen and
studied many, many times but let’s turn there very quickly. I’ll just hit the
high points there so you can understand what John 13 is all about. John 13 is
not about what a lot of people think it’s about. It’s not about simply serving
one another. The way you often find the point is to go to the end, which is in
John 13:34–35 where Jesus says, “A new commandment I give you that you
love one another as I have loved you, you love one another.”
If
you love one another, you forgive one another. That’s what he’s going to
demonstrate as the object lesson at the Seder meal. They come in to the Seder
meal. It’s the night before Jesus goes to the cross. They’re going to celebrate
Passover and Jesus is going do something different. He’s going to stand up,
take the basin, strip down to the waist, and start washing all their feet. In
verse 5, “He poured water in a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet.”
Now the Greek word for wash there is the word NIPTO, which indicates just washing part of your body. If
you’re going to wash your hands or wash your feet, the word NIPTO is there. If you’re going to take a
bath, the word LOUO is there.
But this is NIPTO.
Jesus washes the disciples’ feet, and wipes them down with a towel.
He
comes to the disciple Peter, and Peter says, “Lord, are you washing my feet?”
Again, we see Peter talking before he thinks. Jesus said, “What I am doing you
do not understand now but you’ll know after this.” So it wasn’t clear to these
guys what the point of this lesson is at this point. He’s just giving them an
object lesson. Then Peter says, “No, Lord. You’re not going to wash my feet.”
He used the word NIPTO.
Then Jesus answered and said, “If I don’t wash you [NIPTO], you have no part with me.”
This
isn’t a part like a part in a movie or a TV show or a play. This is MIROS, a part of an inheritance. Jesus is
saying that if Peter doesn’t let him wash his feet, he has no inheritance with
Him. In the Greek Septuagint, it uses these two words. The Hebrew word for wash
is one word whether it’s part or complete. If you go back to Exodus and you
look at the passages talking about the anointing of the High Priest, when Aaron
is inducted into the priesthood, he and his sons take a full bath. They never
again take a full ritual bath. They took regular baths, but they never again
take a full ritual bath. After that, when they serve in the temple, all they do
is wash their hands and wash their feet.
When
it’s translated into the Greek, that initial washing when they’re inaugurated
into the ministry [which is related to our positional cleansing at the beginning
of the spiritual life], is that they are fully washing. And it uses the word LOUO. The Greek Septuagint for all the
subsequent washing of the hands and feet uses the word NIPTO. Jesus is using that same kind of terminology. He
says, “He who is bathed [LOUO] needs only to NIPTO or wash his feet, but is completely clean. Here he’s using the word
“clean” as referring to positional at the beginning.
In
this episode He’s using it as experiential. So to recover your full cleansing,
you just have to wash your feet. Then He says, “And you all are clean [talking
to the disciples] except for one of you.” The John tells us in verse 11, “For
He knew who would betray Him. Therefore He said you are not all clean.”
One of them wasn’t a believer. He wasn’t positionally cleansed yet. And he
never was.
Then
in verse 12 it says, “When He had washed their feet and taken His garment, he
sat down.” Now He’s teaching them. He asked if they know what He’s done to
them. He says, “ you call me teacher and Lord and so I am. If I, then, your
Lord and teacher have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s
feet.” He’s not talking literally. He’s talking figuratively. The washing of
the feet is forgiveness. Every time we confess our sins, our feet are washed
metaphorically from the sin we’ve committed.
What
Jesus is now saying is that what you need to do is wash one another’s feet. You
have to forgive one another. “For I’ve given you an example that you should do
as I have done for you. Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is no greater
than his master nor is he greater than Him who sent him.” So He’s teaching
Peter again about forgiveness.
Guess
what? Peter is going to know about forgiveness, because the next major event is
in Matthew 26:34–35 where Jesus tells Peter he’s going to blow it and
deny Him but Peter doesn’t believe that he would do that. So we see this
warning. Luke 22:31–32, “The Lord says, Simon, Simon, Satan has asked for
you [plural] that he may sift all of y’all. He wants to sift all of y’all like
wheat.” Then he singles Peter out and says, “But I have prayed for you
[singular pronoun] that your faith should not fail and when you have returned
to me, strengthen your brethren.”
Notice
that little hint of prophecy, “When you’ve returned to me.” Peter says, “Wait a
minute. Even if all are made to stumble because of you, I’ll never stumble.”
Then Jesus says, “Assuredly I say to you that before the rooster crows this
night you will deny me three times.” And Peter answers, “Even if I have to die
with you I will not deny you.” That sets us up, because then we’re going to
have the crucifixion. Peter isn’t heard from; he’s off drowning in his sorrows
because of his guilt in denying the Lord. The next time we see Peter, he is
alone with probably the only friend he has left in the world, John. And that is
when they find out about the resurrection. And that’s where we’ll start next time.