Epistles of Peter

Okay, so hopefully we've got our handouts, and we'll talk about those here very shortly. Now, when we talk about Peter, we're talking about probably the Apostle we know more about than any of the other of the original 12. Because, you know, there were so many stories during Christ's ministry. He might take Peter, James, and John, but Peter seemed like was always included.

And then when they would be having these dialogues, so often Peter was the one who had the courage to probably just speak up and say what maybe several of them felt, but it comes across like he was the one, in fact, I think John MacArthur was the one that referred to him as the man with the foot-sized mouth. Because he'd open his mouth and insert foot and open mouth and change feet and all of that. But with Peter, we know a lot of his stories. Gospels, first half of the book of Acts, then it shifts to Paul's story more so, and then, of course, we've got these two epistles that we'll look at of his.

The one hand out, all the men of the Bible. I don't know how many of you are familiar with that, but Herbert Lockyer has written a number. He's got a book, All the Women of the Bible. I'm not sure if he's the author. I've got one at home. It's All the Plants of the Bible, and another one's All the Animals of the Bible. But I know he wrote the one on men and women. And if we look at this one on the 272, the left-hand column toward the bottom, it says Peter.

And we can just skim through this and kind of refresh our minds as far as what we know about Peter. Peter says, a rock or stone, in Greek form of the Aramaic surname Cephas, brother of Andrew, son of Jonah. Now, The Man Who Fell But Rose Again. That's a pretty nice title. I like that one better than the other authors, The Man with a Foot-sized Mouth.

Because hopefully we can all be people, men and women of God, and we're going to fall many times, and we're not through falling. But hopefully we'll still get back up on our feet and go forward. But as it goes down, it mentions he was a fisherman.

He actually later lived at Capernaum. We remember where Jesus went there. I know at the end of Mark 1, Jesus went there after the Sabbath. Peter's wife's mother was sick, and that story. Andrew was his brother. They were fishermen. He calls it the Lake of Galilee, the Sea of Galilee. And we're evidently in partnership with Zebedee and sons. So James and John, Peter and Andrew, may well have been business associates as well as good friends.

But I think on top of the right-hand column, it's good to remember that Peter and Andrew were, first of all, disciples of John the Baptist. First of all, they were disciples of followers of John. And then Andrew first came across Christ and brought Peter.

And of course, that started a process where they then supported what Jesus was doing in his ministry. And let's see, he talks about his many facets of his character. He was naturally impulsive, tender-hearted, affectionate, gifted with spiritual insight. So I'm not going to go on through all of this. I think toward the bottom of that right-hand column, that Roman numeral four, is maybe the only part of it that we might question.

And we'll talk about that a little later. Just we'll field the question, was Peter in Rome? The Catholics, you know, it's a part of their teaching the Petrine theory that Peter was the first pope. The Catholics desperately want to book about 25 years from like 42 AD to 67 when he was martyred. They want to say that he was there. He was the resident pastor, raised up that church. But we're going to see a little later.

There are a lot of obvious problems with that because Paul was writing to Rome and sending greetings to all these people. And he doesn't mention Peter. And when Paul, later in life, when he says, you know, my first time, when he was the first trial, no one stood up on my behalf. And, you know, if Peter had been there, instrumental in the Church of Rome, you would have thought he would have been there at Paul's side.

But at any rate, that's that handout. Now, the second one, and I'm sorry I got the back page with the chart a little cock-eyed on the copier, but... And I've got this book, Twelve Ordinary Men, by John MacArthur. I don't know if any of you have read this. I read it two or three years ago. It's a pretty good read. Like anything, you've got to filter through a certain amount of it. But there was some good material here on Peter, and of course all of them, from pages 30-31. And mainly, I just want you to have this chart, where here you have in Matthew 10, Mark 3, Luke 6, and Acts 1, you have these listing of the disciples.

And it's just interesting to me that every time there's a listing, I think there was a certain order given on purpose. Every time, as you can see, Peter is listed first, all the way across all four of those. Now, MacArthur points out that you have these bands of four. So the first four names always mentioned were Peter, Andrew, James, and John. Peter was always mentioned first, the others, the order might be changed just a little. Then you had the second band, or group, of four.

You had Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, and Matthew. So you have those four. And then the ones that we really don't have that much about is James, the son of Alphaeus, and then Levius Thaddeus, the other Simon, and then Judasus Carid.

Well, you know, we actually have a little more about Judas, but it's negative. But the other ones, of course, Judas is not included in the list in Acts 1, because he's past tense. He's history by that time. But I just wanted you to have that as something I think is interesting as we start talking about Peter. Fisherman by trade, son of Jonah, introduced to Christ by Andrew, house and Capernaum, friend of Christ. Certainly a very talented man as far as natural qualities of leadership, became a disciple of Christ, was one of the kind of the inner core of three, like the transfiguration he took Peter, James, and John.

So Peter's a very known factor, a very known quantity for us. Now, last book when we started James, we spent a little, quite a bit more time, because first of all, you've got about five different James's, and we needed to narrow it down and come to the conclusion that James, the book, was written by James, the half-brother of Jesus Christ.

James, the son of Zebedee, had already been killed, and others just didn't really fit in. But with Peter, I mean, we know a lot about him, and we can take that for granted. I think it's good for you to realize that in the 1900s, there were some of the so-called biblical scholars who began questioning whether the one that wrote this book is Simon Peter or Cephas.

Why it took 1900 years to begin questioning that, I don't know, which to me smells a little fishy. But just be aware, as we get to, like, here's a commentary by F.W. Baier, and his commentary on Peter in 1947, he said, there can be no possible doubt that Peter, in quotes, is a pseudonym. You know, it was a pen name for somebody else. And he goes on and makes his case, but it just, I don't see any credibility there. And a lot of that, we've got some of the early writers, as early as 95 A.D., Clement of Rome.

Clement of Rome wrote, we have a letter, you know, it didn't make the Bible, but there is this epistle from Clement of Rome. And he refers to, let's see, the phrase is, the precious blood of Christ. And you'll see that in 1 Peter 1, verse 19, where Peter used that very phrase, but with the precious blood of Christ.

And there's not a phrase exactly like that anywhere else in the New Testament. But Clement of Rome obviously was quoting from Peter's phrase. You've got Irenaeus, a few decades later, mid-150s, and he quotes from this scripture, verse 19, once. He quotes from 1 Peter 2, 16, twice. You've got Polycarp in the mid-150s, 155 A.D., and he's quoting continuously from 1 Peter. So it seems that some of the earlier writers in their writing, they're quoting from Peter's epistle, which gives it, to me, a certain credibility early on from people who were there right on the heels of Peter's life having ended.

Now, I want to bring out something that just goes right over the head of all of us, because unless one of you hides it, I don't know of any of us who speak Greek. Anyone here hiding that fact? Okay. But I see it here in this William Barclay's commentary on letters of James and Peter. He brings it out, I've seen in other commentaries, that one of the reasons why Peter is questioned as being the author of the first epistle of Peter is that the Greek that is used is the Greek of a scholar, like we might expect Paul to use.

Peter was a Galilean fisherman. Remember when the Holy Spirit came, and they're speaking in tongues, and people said, you know, who are these Galileans? Are they drunk, and it's not hardly even noon? That was not Peter's first language. He would have been learning Greek later on, most likely. Second Peter is in a more rough, rugged type of Greek, apparently. And so, these biblical critics say, well, the second one was probably Simon Peter, who wrote that one, because the Greek isn't as precise.

The first one, they say, must have been somebody else writing. Well, I think we've got a... probably we have an easy answer here. Look at the end of 1 Peter 5. And as we get almost all the way through this book, verse 12, and I've got the King James, it says, verse 12, By Silvanus, a faithful brother to you, as I suppose I have written briefly, exhorting and testifying, etc. So he says... Paul says... I mean, Peter says, I've written to you, but I've done it by Silvanus.

Now, that's the King James. What does the New King James say? Silvanus or Silas? Silvanus. Generally, it's accepted that this Silvanus, that's the Latin form for the Greek Silas. Now, think of Silas in the book of Acts. In fact, let's go to Acts 15. Acts 15, we had the Jerusalem Conference and the question of physical circumcision for men from the Gentile world. Men, period, being called into the church.

Jew, Israelite, Gentile, whatever. And so a decision is rendered, and in verse 22, they got certain ones together to go to the congregations to let them know what the decision was made. So, Acts 15, 22, Alright, then here is a letter that is crafted that they are to take. If we go on down, notice verse 32. Now, Judas and Silas themselves being prophets also. So we do have a few in that role in the early church. You know, Agabus, Anna the prophetess, we did have a few.

Being prophets also exhorted and strengthened the brethren's many words. Then, as we go on to the end of this chapter, this is where Paul and Barnabas have their rift over John Mark. Young John Mark had apparently gone home. Paul said, I'm not going to take that young man with me anymore.

Barnabas was a relative. And, you know, thank God Barnabas was there. He was a son of encouragement, and he took John Mark. And we see Mark being used, and even Peter was calling for him there at the end of his life. Excuse me, Paul was.

So, verse 40, Paul chose Silas and departed, being commended by the brethren to the grace of God. So, Silas went with Paul. Now, as we get to chapter 16, we have them traveling, Paul and Silas. And here we're introduced to Timothy. But we find them in short order, in just a few verses, they end up at Philippi. Verse 12, from there to Philippi. And we have the story of Lydia. We have this slave girl who was demon-possessed, and Paul and Silas end up in prison. And so, in chapter 16, verse 23, they are given many stripes, and they're thrown into prison.

And they're in the inner prison. They're feet in stocks. Now, I always amaze when I get to that point, and we read verse 25, At midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. You know, if I'd just been beaten, if I'd been thrown into the inner prison, my feet shackled, I'd be a grumpy primate, you know, I'd be grumpy. I'd be feeling sorry for myself. I'd have a case of the woe is me. But Paul and Silas were singing hymns to God. And, you know, the earthquake and the jailer who's about to take his own life.

But as it goes on, we see that verse 37, Paul said to them, They have beaten us openly, uncondemmed Romans. So he's saying Paul was a Roman citizen, as we know. They were Romans. So Silas was also a Roman citizen. And one of the things that Roman citizenship afforded a person, as they desired, was access to education. And so Silas had access to education maybe about like Paul had.

So he travels with Paul in Chapter 18. He's mentioned in 2 Corinthians 1, but he's a Roman citizen. He is included when Paul would write his letters and give salutations to those of 1st and 2nd. Or 1st and 2nd letter to the Thessalonians. He would give greetings from Silvanus or Silas.

So Silvanus or Silas was a known man, a notable man, a man of high esteem in the church. He was a prophet. He was a Roman citizen. And when we look at 1st Peter, what we basically are probably looking at is that he telling him what he wants to write, but then Silvanus is writing it. Now, my wife works, as you know, at a small law firm. There are two lawyers, a couple of legal assistants, and then Denise basically runs the office. And one lawyer or the other may come and say, well, with this case, I want you to craft a letter to tell her.

Well, Denise is outstanding. She's been a secretary. I mean, she knows how to spell. She knows how to write. She will basically put together a letter of what they told her to write, but then she'll take it back to whichever lawyer it was. They'll read it, and if it meets approval, they'll sign it, and it'll be sent out. But it's from so-and-so lawyer. It's not from so-and-so lawyer written by Denise Thompson. And that's kind of what we have here. This is Peter's letter, but this case, he had Silvanus.

He had a man of training and education who was the one actually writing the letter. Okay. Dates. As I did with the book of James, I've been listening to Mr. Antion's ABC lectures on this book as well. Dates in the Church of God, I was told years ago, if you're going to write them in your Bible, write them in pencil.

Sometimes there may be archaeological evidence. There may be something where the date of the flood went up and down, the date of the Exodus went up and down. And the same with these. But what Mr. Antion gave was this window of the mid-60s, 63-67. It is the timeframe when this letter would have been written. Now, the audience is going to be similar to that of James' epistle. As he begins in chapter 1, verse 1, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers, James used a similar word, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.

Now, if you have Bible maps in the back of your Bible, the one I have that has Paul's journeys, and if you look at what is basically modern-day Turkey, or anciently it was called Asia Minor, just south of the Black Sea, here I look, and here's Bithynia and Pontus, and a little below it, you've got Galatia, and a little over to the southeast, you've got Cappadocia.

So, these are all provinces within that area of Asia, or Asia Minor, or modern-day Turkey. And so, there were church members there. As Mr. Antion pointed out, it had been over 500 years since the House of Judah was militarily overthrown, and they were taken off to Babylon, to Mesopotamia. Now, some of them went back in the days of Joshua and Zerubbabel, Ezra, more came the days of Nehemiah.

But a lot of them stayed there and began scattering and migrating. We also have things that have taken place in the Roman Empire. You know, the poor Jews, you basically got a couple thousand years where the world blames what was done to Jesus Christ on the Jews. You had Edyx, who was it? Claudius Caesar, who had commanded all the Jews to leave.

There's a statement in Acts about all Tiberius Caesar, all the Jews, get out of Rome. And that's when Priscilla and Aquila end up over toward Ephesus, where they came across Paul. So, you've got Jews who have scattered all over. And a lot of them that he's addressing are kind of localized there in this area of Asia Minor.

Now, verse 2, he says, elect. And that's all I'll read from that. Elect. He called them the elect. In all of that prophecy, Jesus got to the point when Christ said that if time of deception, and if it were possible, they would deceive the very elect. And so the word elect is used in reference to those of the body of Christ, that they were called or given that invitation.

They acted upon it. They were then chosen. They walked that path of repentance and faith and baptism and forgiveness. And they are the elect of God, as it would be accurate to say, we are among God's elect, God's saints. Let's consider where the book was written from, and it's a bit of a challenge. Once again, if we look right at the end of 1 Peter 5, verse 12, we read of Silvanus.

But verse 13, the church that is at Babylon, elected together with you, salutes you, and so does Marcus, my son. So this tells us that John Mark apparently had ended up there with Peter. Now, William Barclay says that Babylon, here as it's used, was probably a codename for Rome. But again, a lot of that is, you've got people who want to place Peter in Rome for an extended period of time, so they can say he was the first pope.

Is it possible that he was literally over in Mesopotamia, where of course ancient Babylon was destroyed, but you still had civilization around that area that had been Babylon. I've got another book here that, if anyone wants to look at it later, I lost my other one, so this one hadn't even been read. But The Search for the Twelve Apostles, William Stuart McBurney. That's a pretty good read, too. But with some of them, like Peter, James, John, Andrew, even Bartholomew, you've got more information that historians can follow as far as tracing where they went after Christ ascended to heaven. But for a while, they kind of hovered around Jerusalem. He had told them, you start here, go to Galilee, and go to the end of the world. But they hovered around Jerusalem until, well, frankly, Saul, who became Paul, and it said Saul was wreaking havoc on the church, and so the disciples scattered everywhere. So God used persecution to drive the church to get on and take the gospel to the world, as he had told them to do. But McBurney will bring out the fact that Peter can be traced across portions of northern Africa. He is also found over in the old area where Babylon was. And frankly, with Rome, there's a lot of evidence that if he was there, it was just being brought there, being captured, taken there, tried, and executed. But not some 25-year period of time where he was the resident minister and apostle and first pope, as they want to say. I think it's good for us. Let's look at Matthew 10. At one handout with the chart, you had the first disciple list, in verses 2, 3, 4 of Matthew 10. And so in verse 5, These 12 Jesus sent out and commanded them, saying, Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter a city of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and as you go, preach, saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Now, this was during Christ's earthly ministry. He sent them out, and he expressly told them, You are not to go to the Gentiles, and do not go to the Samaritans. You are to go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Now, they were from the house of Judah. And the Jews are just a little small portion of the overall house of Israel. And yet, we'll look in a little bit at where Paul, years down the line when he went to Jerusalem, he checked in with Peter, and I think James and John, anyhow, we'll see that, but that James will be the brother of Christ. And Paul checked in with those who were apostles before him, and they recognized Paul was given a responsibility to take the Gospel to the Gentile world, and they were to go to the circumcised. So, years later, Peter and others realized, you know, Christ gave us the primary role to go to the house of Israel. And that's something we'll tie in here in a little bit as we consider whether Peter was ever even in Rome. Rome was a very Gentile city with a little nucleus of Jews that kept getting kicked out. Why would Peter go there if he was the very one in Galatians 2 who said to Paul, you go to the Gentiles, we'll go to the circumcised? I think it's all we'll cover on written from. We really don't have enough information for me to be comfortable to just nail it down and say, he wrote from X. But I think it's very likely that he was over in that area of Mesopotamia, the old area of Babylon. Okay, two main things.

The first one, we can have hope through sufferings. We can have hope through sufferings. Now, when we started James, I pointed out, remember in the love chapter where Paul, he's talking about what was the greatest of these is love. But he said, these abide faith and hope. And the old King James says, charity or love. Faith, hope, love. Now, keep that in mind as we look at the general epistles. James, as we've already gone through, had a theme of faith. Chapter 2, he spent so much on that. I'll show you my faith by the way I live my life, by my works. Peter, as we get into it, we'll see there are a number of places. He talks about having this living hope, and he points them to the return of Christ, which I'm getting into the second theme. But there's hope. Christ is going to return. No matter what we suffer, God's in charge, and we can have hope. God is going to bring His plan to full realization. So that's the one side. Hope through sufferings. Or as chapter 1, verse 3, says toward the end, He has begotten us again unto a lively hope, or a living hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So hope. Hope through sufferings. And then secondly, Peter focuses, number 2, on the second coming of Christ. So we find that a lot more. James, he didn't even touch on it. John isn't going to touch on it much. But Peter, over and over and over, were looking to the time of his coming. So that is very much a theme. Chapter 1, verse 7, the latter bit here says that we might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. So at His appearing. Verse 13, the latter part. At the revelation of Jesus Christ. So repeatedly, chapter 2, verse 12, the latter part again. They may buy your good works, which they shall behold glorify God in the day of visitation. And that visitation refers to the time when Christ returned as well. So there are other places we will look at, but Paul, excuse me, Peter here very clearly has a theme that let's keep our eyes on that time when Christ will return. Okay, let's go on to the question, was Peter ever in Rome? And it's challenging to nail it down. But I think from scriptural evidence, we can pretty much discount Catholic teaching that he was there for 25 years. There's some fair evidence that he probably was. I don't know if we can just put the final nail in the coffin. But apparently he was condemned to die and taken there. Now, I mean, they say they've got his bones and all of this. I don't know. I don't know. It was beer, I think it was the Appian Way.

And when they discovered bones hundreds of years later, how do you know who those belong to? Yeah, they're taking a dive. How do you know who you match them bones up with? Don't think they're not. And even these images. Those images, yeah. Or like, you know, they've got the statue of Peter in St. Peter's where he's holding allegedly the keys to the kingdom. I remember when Dr. Dorothy, Charles Dorothy, went there and actually climbed up on that thing. And he said you could see where they added those keys in there later. Please, sir. You know, we'll see. Okay. Well, let me give you what Mr. Antion gave to the ABC class as far as we've got A through, oh, what? A through G here. As far as real questions. I mean, why we question that he was there, or certainly question that he wasn't there 25 years. We're going to need to turn to Romans for part of this because Paul wrote the church at Rome in the mid-50s, probably 55 A.D. He had not even been there himself. Paul had not. But when he writes, he was writing, saying he wanted to go there and establish them. You know, probably, like Acts 2 tells us at Pentecost, they were devout men from every nation under heaven. And then they went back home. Probably, that's where there were a few that went back and you had a little tiny nucleus. But there's no evidence that they ever had a pastor, and Paul writes in such a way that he feels, well, this is my area of responsibility. Point A, if Peter was there as a resident apostle, why would Paul even go there? Now, for that, if we look at Romans 1, verse 11, as he's kind of got through, Paul had his customary salutation, you know, I'm Paul, I'm a servant of Christ, you know, sometimes he gives greetings. But verse 11, For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, so that you may be established. Verse 13, Now I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that I often planned to come to you, but was hindered until now, that I might have some fruit among you also, just as among other Gentiles. See, that tells us this was a Gentile church. Paul wanted to go there and help establish the church as he had in other Gentile areas, which was where he was responsible. So again, why, if Peter were there as the resident apostle, why would Paul want to go there to establish that church? It would make no sense. Okay, point B, Peter and others went to Israel, Paul went to Gentiles. Now, keep your place in Romans, but let's look at the story over in Galatians 2. And you know, Galatians 2 is down, the way it's written here, it's down the road a ways. A number of years have come and gone, because as Paul described himself, he was as one born out of dew season. He came along a bit later. And then he kind of, we find him there with Barnabas, and then he kind of disappears for a while. People in the church weren't sure he had really changed, and that's understandable. But in Galatians 2, verse 1, then after 14 years, I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and also took Titus with me.

As I went up by revelation and communicated to them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to those who have reputation, lest by any means I have run, or had run in vain. Actually, we don't use the word headquarters in the United Church of God. We've got a home office, but in a lot of our years we had a headquarters, so it was kind of like Jerusalem was kind of the original headquarters church. That's where it all started. And so he goes and he checks in with people who were in line before him to make sure he's on track, that they're speaking the same thing. If we go on down to verse 7, chapter 2, But on the contrary, when they saw that the gospel for the uncircumcised had been committed to me, as the gospel for the circumcised was to Peter, for he, Christ, who worked effectively in Peter for the apostleship to the circumcised, also worked effectively in me toward the Gentiles. And when James, now again, this is James the half-brother of Jesus Christ, Cephas, that's one of the names for Peter, and John, and you know, John, we would know him as the son of Zebedee, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that had been given to me, they gave me in Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised. So again, Mr. Antion's point was that by this agreement, Peter was the point man in going to Israel, Paul and Barnabas, they were the point men in going to the other countries, the Gentile nations. Okay, point C, let's go back to Romans for this one. Paul wrote those at Rome as though he was their pastor. So point C, Paul wrote the Roman church as though he was their pastor. In Romans 15, verses 15 and 16. 15, verse 15, Nevertheless, brethren, I have written more boldly to you on some points, as reminding you because of the grace given to me by God. That I might be a minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God, that the offering of the Gentiles might be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. So that's just one example there. He wrote to them that he felt he was their minister or servant and was responsible to Jesus Christ for taking it to the Gentile world, of which they were a part. Okay, so let's see. Point D, just down a few verses, point D. Paul did not want to build on another minister's foundation. He made it very clear that he was the one who was blazing a new trail here in Rome. And then, as he had done many places, others would come along later. You know, he worked long and hard at Ephesus, but later we find Apollos was there. So Paul, as he said, he would plant. Others would come along later in water, build upon. So here in Romans 15, let's just go down to verse 20. Verse 20, And so I have made it my aim to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build on another man's foundation. So we lived up in far northeast Tennessee for 13 years, and when I'd go up through southwest Virginia and on into eastern Kentucky, going up to the church at London, Kentucky, we would go through Cumberland Gap. And I think it was 1750, Daniel Boone, he was a trailblazer. It was an old Indian path, but he went through with the men. They widened it. They showed the way. They showed others. And then, as others learned, they would lead groups through there. But as Daniel Boone went and blazed the trail, Paul went there. And he's writing as though he wants to go there and help establish. And he was not going to be building on what somebody else had already started.

Okay, point E. Paul greets 28 named people in chapter 16 and makes no mention of Peter. So in Romans 16, he says, Hi, hello, to one person after another. Verse 1, I commend to you, Phoebe, our sister. Verse 3, greet Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers. Verse 5, greet the church and their house. Greet beloved Epinetus. Verse 6, greet Mary. Verse 7, greet Andronicus and Junia, my countrymen and fellow prisoners. Greet Amplius. Greet Urbanus. And Statius. Verse 10, greet Apolis.

Greet those of the household of Aristobulus. Greet Herodian. The household of Narcissus. How many goes one after another after another? Any names, names, and give them greetings? And you know, he's writing here in mid-fifties, and if Peter had been there from about 42, 43, as the Catholics say, and Paul didn't even say, well, tell my brother Peter, I said, Hi, well, you talk about a slap in the face. So, surely, if Peter were there, of all people, he would have started his epistle saying, Greetings, Peter, and those with you, and then maybe name other names later.

Point F. Paul was in prison in Rome, and there's no record Peter ever visited him. So, if we back up to the last bit of Acts 28. Acts 28, well, from verse 11, he's talking about, you know, they're going to Syracuse, verse 12. Sicily. I haven't drawn a blank on that island off the toe of Italy. Regium, you know, at the end of verse 14, we made our way toward Rome.

Going up the Appian Forum, the three ends. Brethren heard, came and met them. The latter part of verse 15, when Paul saw them, he thanked God and took courage. And now we came to Rome. Well, of course, that leads to the story where he, there at the end of the chapter, verse 30, he dwelt two whole years in his own rented house, and received all who came to him preaching the kingdom of God and teaching, you know, etc.

If he was there in prison two years, or under house arrest two years, and if Peter were the resident apostle who had been there by this time, approaching 20 years, Peter would have been there to see him all the time. All right, now, point G, during, okay, in Paul's last book, 2 Timothy, he says, in my first trial, no one stood on my behalf. So, 2 Timothy 4, verse 16. 2 Timothy 4, verse 16.

Now, again, remember, Paul was in prison those two years. He did have his day in court before Nero. He was set free. He traveled for probably three years, maybe a little more. He was recaptured, brought in, tried, and he was given the death sentence. Then he writes 2 Timothy, his last book. You know, he writes in this book that I've run a good race.

I know the crown is laid up before me, so he knows he's just about to die. But, here in 2 Timothy 4, verse 16, he's referring back to the first trial. At my first defense no one stood with me, but all forsook me. May it not be charged against them. Back up a little further, verse 10. For Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world, and has departed to Thessalonica. Cretans for Dalmatia, Goliath for Dalmatia. Now, it's very clear that Demas forsook him. It's inferred, although maybe not necessarily, that Cretans and Titus abandon him.

But it does seem to read that way. Verse 11, only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you. He's useful to me for ministry, which is, I'm glad that phrase is there. Acts 15, this split between Paul and Barnabas is over young John Mark. And now, years later, he's not so young John Mark, but he has proven himself a valuable servant. And Paul, before he dies, he writes to Timothy, Come to me, bring Mark with you. Here, he says, during his first trial, no one stood in his defense.

But if Peter were in Rome, it's not the Peter of the Gospels, the man who fled, the man who even cursed, saying, I never knew that man. Now, I'm not with him. We're talking about the Peter who, after the Spirit of God, and God used Peter and John to raise up the man there in Acts 3, and they ended up in prison being questioned for that. And Peter's the one that says, we've got to obey God rather than man.

He says, judge whether it's right in God's eyes or man's eyes. So that Peter, I can only imagine, if he had been there, he would have stood up on Paul's behalf. But Paul says, no one did. Now, it's another story, but there was a Peter there. There was one that we have traced from Acts 8, Simon the Magician.

There was one, Simon Magus, who was traced there, and very likely, the Catholics, isn't it interesting, the Catholics traced their church to 33 AD, a couple of years after the events of the Day of Pentecost. And they may be right. A couple of years later, the false church started. Very little evidence that Peter was there, unless, when his time was up, he was brought in, condemned, and killed.

But not a 25-year ministry founding a church and all of that. Okay, let's see. We're already past 8, just a little. In Barclay, and you've got other commentaries, they'll talk about the Roman fire, the fire of Rome, 64 AD. Nero tried... You know, there's a lot of evidence that Nero probably was responsible for having it set himself. He wanted these old, trashy, tenement areas burned down, and he could rebuild this marvelous Rome. But he needed a scapegoat.

And so, Barclay quotes from Suetonius and Tacitus, some of the early historians, and they made it very clear that he blamed it on the Christians. And from that point, you were a criminal just for bearing the name of Christ. Earlier on, the Roman Empire viewed Christianity as kind of another strange little sect of Judaism.

But then it became clear that even the Jews were persecuting the Christians, and so it was something totally separate. Nero blames it on them, and then after that, they're marked people. And that's where you have them by the droves getting out of there. So, William Barclay points out... Let me just summarize this in closing, that the basic stand of the early church, and you had several facets.

They preached that we're in a new age. We're in the age of Messiah. And Jesus Christ is that Messiah. And they preached that that new age began with the events of the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. They also taught that He's been ascended, exalted to His Father's side, but He's waiting until the Father sends Him. And Peter is certainly one who teaches that world events are going to build to a crescendo, and it's all going to come falling down, and the Father will send Christ. And because of all the above, the church and its message takes the message that we better repent.

We better believe. We better be baptized, receive the Spirit, and be warned. And number our days. And most importantly, be about the work God has given us to do. I think that's all the time we have for background. The next time we'll take the first half, we'll take Chapter 1 and 2, and probably about half of Chapter 3. And then the month after that, we'll get the rest of the book, and the month after that, we'll zip through 2 Peter.

So the next three months, 1 Peter, then 2 Peter. Alright, thank you very much!