Peter's Life - Before CHRIST and With CHRIST

-

 The Apostle Peter is one of the greatest redemption stories mentioned in the Bible which shows the transformation of LIFE BEFORE CHRIST, WITH CHRIST and Transition from Being the Disciple to The Apostle. 


Peter’s Life Before Christ: 

Peter was born about 1 B.C and died sometime around A.D 67. He was the son of Jonah and was the brother of Andrew, who was a Galilean fisherman. Peter comes  from the village of Bethsaida (John 1:44). He was a Married (Mark 1:30), Uneducated and Untrained man (Acts 4:13). He was originally named Simon (Jesus had changed name as Peter). Simon is a common name, from Hebrew שִׁמְעוֹן Šimʻôn, meaning "listen" or "hearing".  

The fishermen of those days were usually considered mainly full of vigour and had boisterous tempers. They must have been somewhat fearless too because of the storms that come upon the Sea of Galilee were fierce and furious. There was a rough life, since fishing was a very physically demanding job. 

Peter, like all humans  before his calling, was a sinful man. In fact, we can see that  Peter realizes his sinful state and gives glory to the Lord before him by falling onto his knees and exclaiming, “‘Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!’” (Luke 5:8) (After he saw they caught such a large number of fish. . )

Yet Jesus looked at this wicked man and said, “‘Don’t be afraid; from now on,  you will fish for people.’” (Luke 5:10). After His words, Peter and the other three dropped  everything, including their very identities as fishermen, and began a beautiful journey with Jesus. Peter continued to make mistakes again and again, but Jesus, as is His nature, loved Peter wholeheartedly and continued to use him in His kingdom’s work.


Peter’s Life with Christ:

As we know, Peter was the first disciple who was called by Jesus and also Peter was the first person to call Jesus the Son of the Living God – the Messiah (Luke 9:20). During Jesus' ministry, Peter was a man who wanted a mighty faith but faltered often. 

  • He stepped onto the rough sea to meet Jesus’ walking on water, yet even after taking a few steps safely, he began to doubt and plunged into the waves. In this passage, Jesus saves him saying “You of little faith” (Matthew 14:31). 

  • Later, Peter even rebuked the Lord after He foretold of His death, saying, “Never, Lord… This shall never happen to you!” (Matthew 16:22). But  at the arrest and trial of Jesus he denied Him three times before the rooster crowed by the next morning (Matt 26:69-75). 

Yet, Peter was considered as a  part of Jesus’ inner circle because there are quite a few incidents where Jesus allows only Peter, John, and James to be witnesses. Like, when Jesus raises a dead girl (Mark 5:35–43) “he did not let anyone follow him except Peter, James and John the brother of James” (Mark 5:37). The second time was during the transfiguration, this was the time  where  Jesus’ physical appearance changed to reveal His divinity (Matthew 17:2) & Moses and Elijah appeared in “glorious splendor” before them (Luke 9:30), and the Father spoke from a cloud saying, “‘This is my Son, whom I am well-pleased. Listen to him!’” (Matthew 17:5) and Peter was also an eyewitness  to the many miracles that Jesus performed from the day he started following. 

We can consider the fact that  when Jesus told them (Peter and Andrew) to “follow me” they simply walked away and left everything they had (all of their fishing boats, their fishing nets, and all the accessories that came with their trade) without a second thought (Luke 5:9-1) and the other fact is that all the three of Jesus’ closest disciples (Peter, James, and John) were fishermen.


Moral:

Peter’s close-knit relationship with Jesus proves that JESUS  longs for a pure friendship/togetherness  with His followers—normal people…..like Peter, like you and me. Seeing how Jesus took an uneducated, doubting, denying and a sinful man and loved him infinitely gives us an assurance that Jesus loves us as well as he did for Peter.

The very changes that happened in Peter’s life was the growth we could see in his journey further from being a disciple to the Apostle.  

to be continued…..




 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What is the Covenant of Salt in the Bible ?

-
Image
Salt is understood to be the most preservative mineral which is know for its endurance symbolically. When God makes use of this metaphor, He is urging us to be faithful despite however circumstances appear on the earth because of his word which is absolutely sure like himself. The meaning of a salt covenant is an agreement that is meant to endure regardless of the circumstances. This type of covenant was an ancient symbol of unbreakable friendships and alliances that were to be preserved. Such agreements are solid, unbreakable and everlasting. We see this phrase "covenant of salt" mentioned only three times in the Bible i.e., (Numbers 18:19, 2 Chronicles 13:5 and Leviticus 2 :13 in ESV ).  In some translations it is mentioned as an “ unbreakable covenant ”.  Even though we read about it very few times, This covenant teaches us a lot about how we need to stand firm in every circumstance with faith.  As we know the story of Israllites, Grumbling was a common occurrence during
Read more

The Mysterious Childhood of King David - Unknown Facts

-
Image
  KING DAVID'S CHILDHOOD We see in the book of psalms by David, few chapters were written with lot of depression & calling for help.   Have we ever thought about it what could be the situation behind it? Why it is always King David feel so alone, so disgraced, and so undeserving of love and friendship? We don’t have a proper scriptures on David’s childhood in the Bible but history has it, that he was born under controversial circumstances. From historical source, we now know that he was born to Jesse by his wife Nitzevet , a name which is not mentioned in the Bible but which nevertheless was real. Jesse (Yishai) who has served as the head of the Sanhedrin (supreme court of Torah law), and one of the most notable leaders of his generation. At a stage in his life, he came to realize that, he was not qualified to marry Nitzevet since she was not from the same tradition. As a member of the judiciary, he believed that he had the moral duty to redress the situation even though sh
Read more

Different Ways Mentioned in the BIBLE - Bible Study

-
Image
We make decisions every day in our lives — like minor ones, such as what to eat for breakfast, what dress to wear etc., and major ones, such as whom to marry, which career I need to choose and so on. But we never thought how important it is to take decision on which way we should walk through or which path we should choose, to have eternal life? We have come across narrow way and broad way in the Bible many times and we understand that Narrow way is troublesome and Broad way is so much flexible. Also, we see there are other ways mentioned in the Bible, the ways which we need to follow and the ways which we need to avoid , to enter to the eternal life & to follow Jesus.    The ways which we need to AVOID 1. The way of Lazy (Proverbs 15:19)     The way of a sluggard is like a hedge of thorns, but the path of the upright is a level highway. 2. T he way of Wicked (Proverbs 4:19)      The way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know over what they stumble 3. 
Read more