THE APOSTLE PETER
In our last chapter, we saw how the Spirit of God came down from heaven to carry on the work which Jesus left for his people to do after his ascension. And now, before leaving this subject, it is necessary to show what the Holy Spirit did to build up the Church on the foundation which Jesus had laid for it; and to make known to a world of lost sinners, the great salvation which he had prepared for them. The best way of doing this, would be to give a sketch of the lives and labors of the twelve apostles whom our Lord had chosen, and left behind him, to carry on the important work begun by him. But this would take more room than we can spare. There are only two numbers now remaining to finish this work. All that can be done, therefore, is to make choice of three of the principal apostles, and take their histories as fair specimens of the way in which the work of building up the Church was carried on by them and their companions after Jesus, their great Master, had ascended into heaven.
The three selected for this purpose are the apostle Peter, the apostle John, and the apostle Paul. All will agree in regarding these as among “the very chief of the apostles.” We begin then with
THE APOSTLE PETER.
And in considering the life of this great and good man, the two points of view from which we may look at it are the facts of his history; and the lessons which it teaches.
We begin then, with considering the facts of St. Peter’s history, as mentioned in the New Testament. We shall not attempt to give all the facts woven into this history. It will be enough for our present purpose if the principal facts are stated. The first fact to notice about this good man is that he was a native of the city of Bethsaida, on the northern coast of the Sea of Galilee, and that his father’s name was Jonas, or Jonah. The next thing known of him is that his occupation was that of a fisherman. It is a fact that he was first brought to Jesus by his brother Andrew, who had been one of the disciples of John the Baptist. Jesus spoke kindly to him, and told him that his name should be changed from Simon, as he was then called, to Cephas, which is the Greek word for a rock, or a stone. The Latin word, that means the same thing, is the word Petrus. And so Cephas, or Peter, is the name by which he was afterwards called. St. John i: 41, 42; St. Matt. xvi: 18. It is a fact that he did not continue to follow Jesus, as one of his disciples, immediately after this first interview with him, but went back, for a while, to his old employment as a fisherman.
It is a fact that some time after this he was called by Jesus to be one of his disciples. It happened in this way:—One day, Jesus was standing on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. A crowd of people were pressing around him, to hear him preach. He wanted a convenient place from which to speak to them. Peter was near at hand, in his fishing-boat. Jesus stepped on board the boat, and asked Peter to push it out a little way from the land. He did so; and Jesus made a pulpit of that boat, and preached to the people, as they stood upon the shore of the lake. When the sermon was ended, Jesus told Peter to push the boat out into deep water and let down the net, and he would catch a fine lot of fish. Peter said they had been fishing all night and had caught nothing. Still, he did as Jesus told him; and immediately they found more fish than their net would hold. This showed Peter the wonderful knowledge and power of Jesus. He felt afraid of him, and fell down at his feet, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” Jesus said unto him, “Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men.” St. Luke vi: 1-11. St. Matthew tells us that on this occasion Jesus said to Peter and his brother Andrew, “Follow me; and I will make you fishers of men.” St. Matt. iv: 18, 19.
It is a fact that some time after this, Jesus chose out from the rest of his disciples Peter and eleven others, to be his twelve apostles. They were to be with him at all times, to hear his teachings, in private, as well as in public; to witness his miracles; and be prepared, in this way, to take up and carry on his work when he should return to heaven. We have the account of this in St. Matt. x: 2-4; St. Mark iii: 13-19; and St. Luke vi: 13-17.
It is a fact that in these different lists of the apostles, the name of Peter always stands first. We are not told why this was so. One thing is certain, however, it was not because he was set above the rest of the apostles, or had any power or authority superior to what was given to the others. It was, probably, only because he was quicker to speak and more ready to act than his brethren were. Two occasions are mentioned in the gospels on which he did this. One of them was when some of the followers of Jesus were offended at his preaching. They went away and would not hear him any more. Then Jesus turned to his chosen twelve and said: “Will ye also go away?” Peter, speaking for the rest, immediately replied: “Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.” St. John vi: 66-69.
The other occasion was when the disciples had returned from one of the missionary tours on which they had been sent. Jesus asked them what men said about him. Different answers were given to this question; but none of them were correct. Then he asked them what they thought about him. Peter at once, answering for the rest, said: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” This was a noble confession. It showed that Peter had very clear views of the character of Jesus and of the work he came on earth to do. Jesus pronounced a blessing on him for this, and said: “Thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” St. Matt. xvi: 18. There has been great difference of opinion among good Christian people about the meaning of these words of our Saviour. They cannot mean that Peter, in his person or in his office as an apostle, was to be the rock, or foundation, on which the Church of Christ was to be built. This is certain; because St. Paul tells us that there is only one foundation on which this Church is built, and that is Christ himself. I. Cor. iii: 11. There can be no doubt, I think, that what Jesus meant here was that the noble confession which Peter made on this occasion was the truth on which his Church was to be built. And this we know is the case.