01 From Fisherman to Apostle: How Peter Learned to Follow Jesus as Lord

Krisan Marotta: Hello, this is Krisan Marotta, welcoming you to today's edition of the Wednesday in the Word podcast. This is the first in our series on the book of First Peter. Thanks so much for listening. Well, I'm Krisan Marotta, and today we are going to meet the Apostle Peter as an introduction to the book of 1 Peter. Since you haven't read it yet, we're not actually going to get into the book itself. We're going to do that next week, so this will just be an introduction. And this book has really special memories for me because it's the first book of the Bible I ever studied for myself. When I became a believer, it was late in my high school career, and I knew nothing about Christianity. I grew up in an atheist family, so I had no biblical knowledge whatsoever. And my mom insisted that I attend an Ivy League college, and she thought she was sending me to Stanford University, but God was sending me to this church that sits right off the Stanford campus. And I remember everything I learned at that church. I don't remember anything from college. So anyway, I ended up volunteering to serve in the high school department at that church, kind of to look like a spiritual giant, but mostly because there was this really cute guy who was working in the high school group, and his name was David Morato. What can I say? So as we were planning out the year and we were all the leadership team was meeting, the youth pastor suggested that Dave and I lead a co-ed small group for the high school group. I was like, yes. So we got to see each other two to three times a week, usually in the company of about 50 high schoolers. But I got to see him every week without having to ask or wait for him to ask me out on a date or anything. And we studied 1 Peter together. So the Apostle Peter gave me my first real introduction to what it means to be a Christian, and my husband, too. So why ended up marrying him? So now, 33 years later, it's fun to go back and study again. Well, I actually know something. So that's why that's one of the reasons I'm very excited for this book. So since you haven't read it yet, probably, well, you've probably read it at some point in your life, but studied it, today we're going to talk about Peter himself and who he was. So the author of the book is the Apostle Peter. Scholars like to debate everything, including the fact of whether Peter actually wrote this book. So they like to debate is the Greek too perfect or too formal for a fisherman to have written or not. If you're interested in that, you can find pages and pages in just about any commentary. I think the evidence is overwhelming that Peter is in fact the author, that the Peter who was with Jesus from day one of his public ministry to his ascension is the author. He wrote the letter with Sylvanus, who is also known as Silas, and we know this from 1 Peter 5.12. He says, By Sylvanus, a faithful brother, as I regard him, I have written briefly to you exhorting and declaring that this is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it. So it's a question of whether Sylvanus wrote the letter as Peter dictated, or maybe he was just the mailman of sorts who carried it around to its destinations, or maybe he was both. I think there is evidence to suggest both answers. I don't see that it matters much of anything which you choose. And again, you can find that in the commentaries. He probably wrote this letter around 62 to 63 AD from the city of Rome. Now, how do we know that? At the end of the book, he says in 513, She who is in Babylon, who is likewise chosen, sends you greetings, and so does Mark, my son. So Babylon was kind of a code name for Rome among the early Christians. And we know from church history that Peter was in Rome at the end of his life, and that he wrote a letter from Rome. He was martyred by Nero in 64 A.D., so he had to write this letter before then. We also know that Paul was imprisoned in Rome around 60 to 62 A.D. And in Philippians, which is a letter he wrote from Rome while he was in prison, he says in 219 and 20, I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon so that I too may be cheered by news of you. For I have no one like him who will genuinely be concerned for your welfare. So scholars think if Peter was there at that time, Paul wouldn't have said, I have no one like Timothy. He would have said, I have no one like Timothy and Peter. So it's likely that Peter was not yet imprisoned. So since he doesn't mention him, that pushes the date of this letter past 62 AD. So that gives us this window of, or the end of 62, 63 A.D. I find all that stuff fascinating. How do we know these things? So we know that Peter wrote a letter near the end of his life, and we know that he was in Rome and imprisoned. It would be after Paul's imprison. And this is the time when all the persecutions under Nero are starting to grow and get more intense. And we're going to talk more about that next week. Okay, so let's meet Peter. It says in verse 1, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, so we need to know who Peter is and what it means to be an apostle. And that's what we're going to talk about today. There are four lists of the twelve apostles in Scripture. And in every one of them, Peter's name comes first. After Peter, there's no consistent order. But in every list, he's the first one listed. And most people think that's because he was the leader of the twelve apostles. Matthew introduces them like this. This is Matthew 10, verse 1. And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits to cast them out and to heal every disease and every affliction. Then Mark gives us a bit more detail, but notice the common theme. This is Mark 3, 13 through 15. And he went up on the mountain and called to him those whom he desired, and they came to him. And he appointed twelve, whom he also named apostles, so that they might be with him, and he might send them out to preach and have authority to cast out demons. Notice in each time he says, He called these men and he gave them authority. They were the ones he said, These are the people who will represent me. They can teach what I teach, they can speak about me, and he gave them the power to perform miracles to attest to that authority. And the apostles were unique in that group. They were specifically called servants of Christ. They lived and worked with him, they were eyewitnesses to his ministry during his public life and his public ministry on earth. They heard him teach publicly, they heard him teach privately, they saw his miracles, they saw his sufferings, they were with him in the resurrection. And like the Old Testament prophets who were given this unique authority to say, Thus says the Lord, the apostles were given this unique authority to say, This is what Jesus was all about. This is what he taught, this is what he said, this is what he meant, this is why he came. And that is the foundation of our faith, this of what Jesus came and said and did. So the apostles were specifically called and personally commissioned by Jesus Himself. They were found the foundation of the church, and they received the direct revelation from Jesus that they then have given to us through the pages of the New Testament and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And then they were able to confirm their authority by signs and miracles. So God gave them the ability to attest to their authority. So why would you believe an apostle? Imagine you're in the early church, there's no New Testament yet, so there's nothing to compare someone's teaching with. And if Peter came to town and said, I was with Jesus, this is what he taught, and ten other people came to town and said, No, no, I was with Jesus, this is what he really taught, this is what he meant. How would you know? Especially if you were a Gentile and you had no familiarity with the Old Testament, how would you know who's right and who's wrong? Who's got the real word from God? And we know actually from church history there are quite a lot of heresies springing up in the early church. How did you know? Because the apostles taught some pretty radical ideas for their day. They taught that the Gentiles were going to be part of the kingdom of God, that was new, that keeping the law was not possible, that that wasn't going to get you salvation, salvation was going to come through faith in Christ, also very new. They taught that the long-awaited Messiah had come and gone and was going to come again, and that was also this strange, wonderful revelation. So if you had all these teachers teaching these different things and they're all claiming, I have the straight scoop from Jesus, how do you know who is preaching the truth? Well, today we'd go to Scripture and we'd say, Does this person line up with what I know to be true from Scripture? But they didn't have that option, and that's why God gave them signs and miracles to perform to say, This is my this is the one I'm attesting to. This person speaks for me. So Peter is one of that group. In fact, he was the leader of that group. He has authority to speak by and for and about Jesus, and he was given the ability to do miracles to attest to that. Okay, so there are four gospel, the four gospels are full of things about Peter. He is the most frequently named person after Jesus. In some ways, he's the second leading character because he comes up. Jesus speaks more often to him than any of the other disciples. At least what Jesus spoke to him is recorded more than any of the other apostles. Sometimes he speaks to Peter in praise, and sometimes he speaks to him in rebuke. No disciple was so pointedly and directly praised by our Lord or reproved by him. And Peter's the only one we have recorded who ventures to reprove the Lord, which, if you stop to think about it, is quite an amazing feat of confidence. So he's the only one that kind of boldly and plainly confess, you're the Christ, you're the Messiah, and he's also the one who gets in Jesus' face and tries to, and as Jesus says, is tempting him. So, and it's almost in the same breath he gives him this wonderful praise and then this rebuke. And as students of the gospels, it's really easy to identify with Peter because he's always talking. His personality comes through. He seems to be either he was the chosen spokesperson or he was just a really talkative fellow. Because he's frequently the one we see asking Jesus a question or being the first one to answer when Jesus asks a question. So in Matthew 15, he says he asks about the meaning of a difficult saying. In Matthew 18, he says, How often do we have to forgive people? In Matthew 19, he says, What's the reward for those that have left everything to follow you? He asks why the fig tree withers. He asks about the signs at the end times. When the Jews want to know if they should pay their taxes, they go to Peter and they say, Peter, you asked Jesus. Ask him if we need to pay our taxes. When Jesus says, Who touched me in the crowd in Luke 8? Peter's the one who speaks up. And he's frequently the one we see questioning, answering, and speaking. So we learn more about him than we do the others. His personality comes through. He was originally named Simon. He was the son of a man named John or Jonas. The names are interchangeable. His brother was Andrew, and they were both fishermen by profession. They lived in Bethsaida and later on in Capernaum. And he was married because Jesus heals his mother-in-law. And 1 Corinthians talks about, this is 1 Corinthians 9 5. Do we not have the right to take along a believing wife, even as the rest of the apostles, the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas, or Peter? So church history records that Peter's wife came with him and traveled with him during his journeys. And church history says that she was martyred shortly before Peter was martyred, and that he was made to watch her martyrdom. Did you say that's his wife? His wife. They both mean rock or stone. So even after he's renamed to Peter, he's still called Simon. So it can get confusing when you go through the Gospels. John usually calls him Simon Peter, sometimes he's referred to as Simon, sometimes as Peter, and sometimes as Cephas, and it's all the same man. And there are other Simons in Scripture, so you've got to be careful and make sure you know who you're reading. But generally, Simon Peter, Peter, Simon, or Cephas are all referring to our author. So now we know what it means to be an apostle. It's one who's sent with the authority to speak for and about Jesus. And I've introduced you a little bit to Peter, but I wanted you to turn to Luke 5 and let's look at his calling. So I have that scripture on your, the, I think it's page 3 in your study guide, or you can look in your Bible. And this is Peter's first meeting with Jesus. So this is we're those of you that don't know me, my preferred method is we just go verse by verse through the text, and that's what we're going to do today. So we're going to look start with Luke 5, 1 and 2. On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him, that is 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 got out of them and were washing their nets. So these verses set the stage for us. They give us all the important elements of the story that Luke is about to tell us. So Jesus is there. There's a crowd around him who want to hear the word of God. We see the empty boats, the fishermen, and their empty nets, and they're by the lake of Gennesareth, which is another name for the Sea of Galilee. It's the same body of water. And the first thing we notice is Jesus has entered their world, not vice versa. So you notice this doesn't take place in a synagogue. This is not a you know a hushed crowd listening in rapt attention to a sermon on their favorite psalm. Instead, this is a fishing dock, busy, probably a busy daily life. The crowds pressing around Jesus on the smelly landing, and there's tired fishermen who've been working all night with their empty nets. And Jesus is there. Peter didn't have to leave his daily life to come to Jesus. Jesus came to him. He entered into his world. So the people are crowding around and they want Jesus to teach them, and they expect him to right there in the midst of their daily lives. This is not a church, it's probably not a Sunday. There's no special meeting or event going on. Instead, right in the middle of daily life, they come to hear the word of God, which is what we're doing here today. Although we are in a special place, but notice that this is just everyday life. So 5-3, getting into one of the boats, which was Simon, he asked him to put out a little from the land, and he sat down and taught the people from the boat. So the people expect to hear the word of God, and Jesus doesn't disappoint them. He climbs into Peter's boat and teaches them. And it doesn't, the text doesn't record that Jesus asked permission. It kind of implies he just climbed in and took the boat. And this is probably because Jesus had healed Peter's mother-in-law immediately before this. It's recorded in Luke 4, 38 through 39. And in New Testament society, honor and favors were a big deal. When someone did you a favor, then you were had a social obligation to return that favor. And returning that favor was a matter of honor. It was this integral part of ancient Middle Eastern society. So Jesus could have assumed that Peter would not object because Peter has the social obligation to him. Now the other thing to realize is most likely Peter is in the boat with Jesus. Because the boat in this large lake is not going to sit still in the water. It's going to drift. So for Jesus to effectively teach the people, he needs someone in the boat rowing it back and forth to kind of keep it in one spot. Otherwise, it would just, who knows where it would end up. It would drift all over the lake. And Jesus says he sat down to teach. He probably couldn't row and teach at the same time. So Jesus is meeting Peter right where he is in the midst of his daily life, asking for his common daily job skills, his boat, his rowing skills. And Peter has a front row seat. He can hear better than everybody else what Jesus is about to say. So Jesus is fishing from a fisherman's boat. But instead of catching fish and killing them in the process, he's going to catch people with the word of God and give them new life. And before our story ends, Peter is going to be doing the same kind of thing. He's going to be catching a new kind of fish. We're told that Jesus sat down to teach, and that was the posture of authority in that day. There was a teaching chair in the synagogue called the seat of Moses, and when a rabbi got up to teach, he would sit in the Moses chair or the seat of Moses, and that was assuming the authority to teach. So when Jesus sits down to teach, he's assuming that position of authority. Okay, Luke 5, 4 and 5. And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch. And Simon answered, Master, we toiled all night and took nothing, but at your word I'll let down the nets. So Jesus finished his teaching and we expect him to thank Peter, to uh say, You can row me back to shore now. And instead, we have this landlocked carpenter give orders to the professional fisherman on where to catch fish. So I think we can safely assume Peter's a little amazed at this. He's a little annoyed. He's exhausted. He's fished all night, he caught nothing. They work at night because that's when the fish feed. In the daytime, the fish would hide under rocks or would tend to congregate around the shadows and in the edges of the lake, but at night they came out to feed, so the fishermen would fish at night. And the Sea of Galilee drops off into deep water very close to shore. So it's not like we think of lakes where you can wade out a long way. This is like a cliff for most places in the Sea of Galilee. It's too dangerous for swimming. So you could fish two ways. You can cast from a boat because the water gets very deep, very fast, it's too deep to stand, or you can drag a net through the waters catching the fish. And that's typically what they would have done. They would have dragged, they have two boats dragging the net between them to catch fish. So all the good fishermen are gonna know the best places are to fish at night and where they are because during the day the fish are uh are hiding and asleep. So I think there's a bit of sarcasm in his reply. He addresses Jesus as teacher, which could also be translated like boss or chief. And I think he's kind of saying, like, okay, Mr. Carpenter, my partners and I are professional fishermen. We know where and when the fish feed. Now is not it. So why do you think we're out fishing all night? We didn't catch anything, we're dead tired, we stayed awake to help you teach and give your sermon. We want to go home, but if you think you know how to catch fish, well, let's just go see who's right and who's wrong, right? I think that's the effect of it. So what happens? Luke 5, 6, and 7. When they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish and their nets were breaking. They signaled to their partners partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so that they began to sink. So this is the climax of the story. Peter doesn't call to his partners verbally, he comes up, he beckons or gestures because sound carries farther over water than it does on land. And if he called to his partners, any other fishermen in the area would come, and there might be this sudden flood of competing fishermen taking to the waters because he has just hit the financial jackpot. And he doesn't want his competition to be on the secret. So for him, this catch is like winning the lottery. This is like the realtor selling the $10 million house, or a day trader who picks a stock that skyrockets, because he has a net tearing, boat swamping catch of fish. This is going to greatly enrich him. He's hit the jackpot. So he must have thought, well, Jesus must know about some spring on the bottom of the lake that would provide oxygen-rich water, and that's where the fish are. And so if you know where this secret location is on the lake, you can become rich in a matter of weeks. This is exactly what a fisherman needs. But it raises the question if Jesus knew about this jackpot location, why is he a penniless rabbi who's wandering around the region teaching people for free? I mean, why isn't he rich? He could have hired a boat, he could have cashed in on a fortune and lived life easy, you know, take it easy, he could retire. So, what is more important than living your life in a secure financial fashion? That has to be the questions going through through Peter's mind. Why is he still a penniless rabbi teaching people for free if he knows where to find financial security? And the answer is because he knows there's something better. There is something more valuable than all the riches in the world. And Peter just had a front row seat for it, and that's the word of God, that's the word of life. We don't know how long the teaching lasted or what Jesus taught about, but we could probably guess, based on his other sermons and the ones that are recorded in the gospel, we can guess that Jesus taught that we are all sinful, that left to ourselves we cannot overcome the problem of our sin, that we can't try harder, we can't earn it, we can't keep the law enough to justify ourselves, that if we are going to be saved, we have to be changed, and the only way to be changed is from the grace of God. Because all of us fall short of God's glory, and we will. Face judgment one day where we will stand condemned. But God, being rich in person in mercy, has done for us what we can never do for ourselves. So he sent Jesus into the world to teach us, to pay the penalty for our sins, to buy us out of slavery, and therefore God will forgive us and grant us grace. And that, having that, is better than all the wealth in the world. So Peter has come face to face with this man who challenges his deepest priorities. Because he could have had everything this life has to offer with financial riches. He doesn't want it, he's giving it away to these fishermen. Why would he do that? Because the words of life are more important. So this is Luke 5, 8 through 10. 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 cash of fish 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'll be catching men. I think at this point they're still out on the water. It's just Peter and his boat and his partners in the other boat. There's no peer pressure, there's no one pressing in on him. This is essentially a small event between Peter and his Lord and his brothers. And he has come face to face with the presence of holiness, and he knows I am not there. I am unclean and I am unworthy. And notice now he addresses Jesus as Lord, Kyrias. This is a radically different word than the one he used before. Before he said master or chief or boss, it was just a kind of a term of grudging respect. Now he uses a term that says, You have authority, you are my Lord. He's granting him authority and submission to that authority. So there's been this shift in the way he sees Jesus. Peter and his friends were amazed and afraid because before that moment Jesus was a traveling teacher. Maybe he was a particularly good teacher, but he was just another teacher. Now he showed himself to be something more. He is taught with authority that no rabbi or prophets before him claimed. He showed Peter this miraculous catch of fish when Peter knew there were no fish to catch, proving the authority of his words. And so now Peter addresses him as Lord, says, I am unworthy. I see. I thought I was good, I thought I was making it, I'm not. You're the one with the words of life, and he's afraid. And Jesus says, he answers again, Do not be afraid, from now on you will be catching men. And when they brought their boats to the lands, they left everything and followed him. So Jesus calms their fears. He assures them that you're still going to be fishing. All those skills you had in fishing, we're going to use them in a new way for a different catch of different kind of catch. So now Peter's going to be catching people. And instead of catching fish who are alive and in the process killing them, he's going to catch people who are spiritually dead and give them the words of life. He's offering Peter the chance to be part of something bigger than chasing financial freedom. Because his words, Peter, are not words of financial security, they're words of eternal security. And his offer is so compelling that Peter is willing to leave everything, to walk away from a business where he's just hit the jackpot and throw his lot in with this traveling teacher. And those are the words he's written to us. When he says in 512, I lost it here. Those are the words he wants us to have. He says, This is the true grace of God. This is what you're going to need to get through this life, to navigate these waters. Stand firm in it. And that's what we're going to be studying this fall. So, what does all this mean for us in our time in 1 Peter? Just want to leave you with a couple of ideas to think about this week. The first is I like the picture of discipleship this story gives us. I like the fact that Jesus calls Peter by walking right into his world and meeting him right where he is. Jesus puts himself in a position where he needs Peter's help and he wins Peter's loyalty and trust in the process. He needed his boat and his rowing skills, and he affirms his value before showing him his own sinfulness. And he reaches him apart from the glare and the curiosity of the crowd so that when he comes face to face with his sin, he's free to express what's in his heart. And faced with the holiness of Jesus, Peter realizes he's unclean. He tells Jesus to depart because he thinks his uncleanness is somehow going to defile Jesus. But Jesus says, No, I have another view. My cleanness is going to purify you. And from this point forward, they walk together and spend almost every day together until Jesus leaves this earth. Now we often think of discipleship as only one-on-one or some meetings, but there's also another way to do it, and that is to work shoulder to shoulder and side by side and serve together. And I've often found that those are great relationships where we're serving in the same ministry or working toward the same goal or working on the same task. And my prayer is that this study would be that kind of a place, that you would be studying together, learning together, and that you would be growing side by side, and that all the relationships that are built this fall and next spring would be those enriching, encouraging, building kinds of times so that we encourage each other. And these words are not just words of academic interest or theology or interesting facts about the Bible, but that we come to understand them as the words of life that change us. So as we pray for each other, we study together, we share our questions and our doubts and our comments and our concerns, that we would be words that are changing us from the inside out, encouraging each other. And second and perhaps most important, I my prayer for us this fall is that this book would change your life the way they change Peter. So if you're still in the stage where you're calling Jesus teacher, that you would learn to call him Lord, and that you would learn to love him as Lord. So in the boat, Peter was catching fish from a lake, but now he's going to catch people. And in some sense, you could say Peter was Jesus' first catch. So Jesus showed Peter this large miraculous catch of fish, promised that, and then promised that Jesus could use him to catch a large, miraculous uh catch of people. And in fact, we see that on Pentecost when Peter preaches a sermon and it says over 3,000 were converted in one day. So instead of catching fish who are alive and in the process killing them, Peter is now going to move into catching people who are spiritually dead and giving them the words of life. And those words of life are what we're going to study. And I pray that as we study them, they change our lives. So whether whatever we're chasing, whether we're chasing academic glory or financial freedom or the top rung of your career ladder or intellectual fame or praise and beauty or the perfect body or the perfect family or whatever, all those things that we get distracted with and chase, then instead of chasing that, we would chase the words of life. And that we would learn to drop everything to follow Jesus as Peter did, and to become one who loves and learns those words. And that each of us would be the kind of person who finds the hope and the faith right in the midst of our struggles, our tragedies, whatever life is about day to day. And that we would become those who cease to see Jesus as teacher and learn to love him as Lord. Let me pray for us. Father, thank you that you are a teacher who meets us right where they are, right where we are, that we don't have to be perfect, we don't have to get our act together to come to you. We don't have to find you in one particular place, but that you find us wherever we are, whatever our circumstances, our situations, and our needs. I just thank you for each woman here and her willingness to take time out of a busy life and busy days and lots of responsibilities to come and sit and learn from your word. And I just pray that we would all come with humility and joy and grace and excitement to see what you were going to teach us. And that as we teach and study this fall, that you would be building us in our relationships to each other and building us in our relationships to you. So we would be those who love you more, that these would not be academic words or things we have to go through to answer the to do, check it off our to-do list, but that we would see that these are the words of life. That this is so valuable that we would leave everything to follow it and study and learn more about you. In Jesus' name.