The Principles of Peter

In 1969, a man wrote a book, became a bestseller. The book was called The Peter Principle. Anybody heard of The Peter Principle?

It was written by Dr. Lawrence J. Peter, hence The Peter Principle. And one of his most quoted parts of the book, and I will quote here, he said that observation, that in a hierarchy, people tend to rise to their level of incompetence. Let me read that again. Observation is that in a hierarchy, whether it's a company, whether it is the military, whether it is politically, no matter where it is at, in a hierarchy, people tend to rise to their level of incompetence. Thus, as people are promoted, they become progressively less effective because good performance in one job does not guarantee similar performance in another. I hope you can understand that from a business perspective. Anybody that's worked with, say, incompetent people, and a lot of times, this was actually written because the incompetent people, a lot of times, would be promoted above those who are more competent because they would work the system or knew how to work the system. So it became known as The Peter Principle. Hence, we have Hillary Clinton. Hence, we have Donald Trump. Mr. Trump is a good businessman, obviously. A very wealthy one at that. He's been successful in quite a few ventures. But does that mean he will be successful as a president of the United States? Hillary Clinton has been Secretary of State, a senator from New York State. He's also been First Lady. But does that assure people that she will be a great president? Track record doesn't always give you the entire truth. Or does it? If you look at Luke 16, verse 10, it says, "...he who is faithful in little will be faithful in much." So there's a Bible telling us something that we need to know here. "...he who is faithful in just a little will be faithful in much." But it also says that, "...and whoever is dishonest in a little will be dishonest in a lot or in much." With that in mind today, I would like to profile a man in Scripture that had a roller coaster-like ride in his spiritual growth. Someone that started here but through a lot of trials and tribulation ended up here. And all of us tend to want to be successful. I haven't met many, well, yeah, I did meet one person. In fact, I worked with this individual one time. And he said, I don't want to do anything but come to work. At the time I'm supposed to come to work, I want to leave just the minute I'm supposed to leave to work. And I want to do as little as possible and still get paid for it. I don't want to become anything. I don't want to be a boss. I don't want to do anything. But that's not like most of us. Most of us, if we have a job, we want to think we're trying to be as best we can, best we can be at that job. Correct?

Well, I'm talking about the life, physical, spiritual, mental, psychological world of Peter. So that's what we're going to be talking about today. And so the title of the sermon is The Principles of Peter. The Principles of Peter. If you were to define the word principle, it's defined in the online as a fundamental truth that serves as a foundation for a system of belief or behaviors. To put it simply, a principle is some kind of basic truth that helps you with your life. Let's give an example. Most of us have basic principles that someone has taught us, the world has taught us, parents or even the Bible or certain books you may have read, gave you certain principles. Most of us would like a world where most people living in it has a basic principle of being honest or be fair. That would be a principle if people were to be honest and you took someone at their word. You knew people were going to be fair. That's not really how it goes today, is it? See, principles can and do change. And I wanted to look at Peter today before Pentecost. He was a major player in 31 A.D. on Pentecost. He was a major player that day with the Holy Spirit. That's why I asked you to read Acts chapter 1, 2, 3, and 4 tonight. You get a real insight, hopefully after the sermon today, of what it was like to be in the mind of Peter and all those changes that happened during his recorded three and a half years with Christ. We all think about how we have changed over the years, not just physically, but mentally. Have we matured? Have we grown spiritually? Have we grown more mentally strong than we were, say, 10 years ago, 20 years ago? Are we, as we said, sober, more sober-minded than we were 10 years ago? We change in life. You're going to change again. There are going to be changes that happen in our life, and your principles will change because at one time you may think this is how you always look at something, and then you find out years later, I don't really look at things that way anymore. And your principles change. And I want to look at today the Apostle Peter and how he is so different, as you can read in his writings that we just went over, how different he was as the Apostle Peter and the disciple Peter.

So I'd like to go into that life. So let's look at some of the principles of this fisherman. Turned disciple, turned apostle, and ended up martyr, known as Simon Peter. I'd like you to go back to the very first time he's mentioned in Scripture. And I want to just get a background. We're not going to speak about these things today, and basically you can go back and check your Scriptures and so forth. But we're just going to hit on a couple of the points and understand the mind of Peter and begin to realize that he's a lot like us, more than we probably want to admit. And as I studied his life, I began to realize he had lessons to learn, just like I do. So let's go back to John. The Gospel of John, as you know, was written 30 to 40 years after the other Gospels. So John is filling in the blanks on some of the Gospels that he had in front of him that had already been written by Matthew, Mark, and Luke. But in John 1, let's go to verse 35. John 1, verse 35. Again, the next day John stood with two of his disciples. What John? John the Baptist. And looking at Jesus as he walked, he said, Behold the Lamb of God as he saw Jesus Christ walking.

And the two disciples heard him speak. The two that were with John the Baptist, right there. Two of his followers. They heard him speak, and then they followed Jesus. Then Jesus turned and, seeing them following, said to them, What do you seek? So here Christ is, and they started the ministry, and all of a sudden two of John the Baptist, and he had many followers, were going to leave him and follow Christ, because they believed what John the Baptist said, Behold the Lamb of God. And they said to him, Rabbi, which is to say when translated teacher, Where are you staying? And he said to them, Come and see. They came and saw where he was staying, and remained with him that day. Now it was about the tenth hour. One of the two who heard John speak, and followed him was Andrew. And followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother.

And he first found his own brother Simon, and said to him, We have found the Messiah, which is translated the Christ. And he brought him to Jesus. Now when Jesus looked at him, he said, You are Simon, the son of Jonah. You shall be called Cephas, which is translated a stone or a pebble. Now, many people, and you will hear theologians, and I don't know what your concept of it is, if you've read that many times. And I was actually taught by various teachers that it said that Peter was a follower of John the Baptist. Does it say that? No. No. It says his brother Andrew was a follower. But it didn't say that.

I'd like you to turn over to Mark now, the first mention in Mark. I think you will find this interesting that there is a time, a little bit of a time delay from the time that Peter first met Christ and when he became a disciple. A lot of people just put it all together and think it all just happened that day. Let's go to Mark. Mark 1. Mark 1 and let's go to verse 14. Mark 1 and verse 14. Now, after John was put in prison, this gives us a time sequence here, a little bit. Now, after John was put into prison, Jesus came to Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, saying the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. And as he walked by the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew, his brother, cast in the net into the sea, for they were fishermen. Then Jesus said to them, Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men. And immediately they left their nets and followed him. And when he had gone a little farther from there, he saw James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, who also were in the boat mending their nets. And immediately he called them and they left their father, Zebedee, in the boat with the hired servants and went after him.

So we see that John 1 and Mark 1 are two different accounts. First there was a meeting and now there was a leaving. But I'd like you to go with me to Luke. Let's fill this in with another testimony here in Luke 4. Luke 4. That's why it's important to be able to read all Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. They fill in the blanks for each other in many cases. But we see after they had left their nets and everything, their boats, and they went and in Luke 4 and verse 38 said, Now he arose from the synagogue, which was Christ, and entered Simon's house. So we know Simon Peter had a house.

But Simon's mother's, Simon's wife's mother, was sick with a high fever and they made request of him concerning her. So he stood over her and rebuked the fever and it left her and immediately she arose and served them. So here we know that Peter, as we're beginning to build this profile of Peter, he was married, had a home, and he had a fairly successful fishing business.

But I'd like you to go down to Luke 5 as Luke chronologically follows the story. And he tells us something. He fills in the blanks here.

In chapter 5 and verse 1, Now, so it was at the multitude pressed about him to hear the word of God, that he stood by the lake of Genesorot and saw two boats standing by the lake. I think they phrase it wrong. I don't know how you'd find boats standing by the lake.

But the fishermen had gone from them and were washing their nets. Then he got into one of the boats which was Simon's and asked him to put out a little from the land, and he sat down and taught the multitudes from the boat. So here he knew Simon. He had went to... Andrew was one following him. So he went with, obviously, to Peter's house and healed his mother-in-law. Still doesn't say here that Peter was like this big follower of Christ. The only thing we know is Andrew was, and so were the others. So he got into this boat. So obviously, Peter still had the boats and wasn't following him yet. In verse 4, now when he stopped speaking, he said to Simon, launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch. But Simon answered and said to him, Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing. Because he was a professional fisherman. That's what he did for a living. They'd been fishing all night. They didn't catch a thing. And that's what he did. Which obviously, Peter had probably done more than once before. Nevertheless, at your word, I will let down the net. It's almost as if he's saying, okay, you think he knows that? I'll just go ahead and let you down. Because here it already is. The sun's up. It's kind of hot. Fish ain't biting. The fish aren't coming up. It ain't schooling together. It's not going to happen. But I'll tell you what, I'll appease you.

So what happened? Verse 6. And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish and their net was breaking. So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats so that the boats began to sink. There's so many fish. When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, what? Depart from me. For I am a sinful man, O Lord. Doesn't sound like much of a follower of John the Baptist, does it? Can you remember what John the Baptist's, what his message was? Repet! Repet!

So, verse 9. For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish which they had taken. And so also were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, Do not be afraid. From now on you will catch men. So when they had brought their boats to land, they forsook all and they followed him. So here you have Peter admitting, these other guys may be different, but I am a sinful man.

Anybody relate to that when you were called by God?

Can you kind of relate to Peter saying, wait a minute, I don't know that this is for me. I've never been a religious person. You know, wait a minute, I got to go to church every week. I got to do this and this and wow. I don't know that I really fit in this area. And for three plus years, this uneducated, married man from Bethsaida would follow and be taught by Christ. Just like most of the people I'm looking at here in these seats today. Yeah, you're taught by Christ when you read His Word. So I've always stressed since I've been here, read the Word of God.

It empowers you. It will change you. It will teach you. Christ Himself will teach you through the Holy Spirit out of this book, just like He taught Peter. It is believed that Peter could read and write very little.

Very uneducated because obviously he had been a fisherman since and probably took the business over from his father. That's how it typically was done. So about the age of Tafari back there, he would have started with his father and sat there and ran errands. And by the time he was 12 or 13, he was expected to carry a man's load and would be working. And he'd have that trade. And this was Simon Peter. His father's name was Jonah. That's what bar Jonah means, son of Jonah. It's a good name for a fisherman, isn't it? Or is it? I don't know if I'd want to be named Jonah and be out there with some big fish. But he was.

You know, Christ called us when most of us did not have a lot of biblical training. Paul was different. Paul was different than probably most of the disciples. Paul was very educated in the law. Spoke five languages.

Not so with Peter. Peter didn't know a lot, but Peter was going to learn a lot, just like all of us. He was a natural leader. He had a home. He had a business. He had a wife. It is believed that he was actually perhaps three, four years older than the other disciples.

Can you imagine leaving your profession? Something you had done since you were a kid. There's a hand. You were a grown man supporting a wife, had a house, a business, and you just walk off and you leave that business. Not many of us would do that, would you?

So Peter, there was a little different. Now, you look at the other guys. They didn't appear to have business other than James and John, and it was their father's kind of business. He was partners with them. They left it to their father. What it shows from Peter is he has walked off and left it. That's a different kind of personality.

And what he was about to see was going to shock this fisherman, this uneducated man from Bethsaida, this fisherman. For he had to have seen in those three to three and a half years thousands of people being healed. Can you imagine that?

An unseen thousands. Because you look at the thousands who showed up to listen to Christ, you can go even before the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5. You can actually go and read at the end of chapter 4. And Matthew describes all the areas around and how people came from all areas, all walks of life, just flocked in there for one thing, to be healed. And it said he healed them all. Can you imagine them standing in line? Can you imagine today if we put a sign that you will be healed out here and said, word spread, his fame spread all over the territory. Everybody that had anything. You would have 500,000 people probably right out here. If you knew you were going to be healed of anything and everything, and that's what it was, thousands of people. And Peter was right there. Had to say, wow, what would that have done to your mind? How would you have felt to see that here this poor person that may have had all types of disease couldn't even bend over, couldn't even talk, blind, deaf, everything, and you're sitting there, you've been a fisherman all your life. All you had to do was go out here and you would go, oh, that's sad that guy just has to beg because he doesn't have any arms or doesn't have any legs. That's sad, but I've got a fish. No, this was his life now. He was right there. If you had 2,000 people out here today, and God had granted me the gift of healing, which I wish he would, but he has never done that. And all of a sudden, there's 2,000 people of every type of person you can imagine out there, people crawling, people who had to be taken off in beds, and they brought this out here to this parking lot. How is it going to be administered? You would administrate, right? It just says you're going to have to because you realize, oh, wait a minute, I'm following this guy, so I know that it works. Here, let me help you. So all these thousands of people would have to be worked with and put in order and find out everything and organize and administrate it, right? This was Peter's job. A lot different than going out, throwing out a net, and didn't catch anything today. Can you imagine, as Peter is, you know, here he's 30 years old, 35 years old, and he's helping this little child, as he's pulling this little child who is blind or whatever, and he's taking him up to Christ, and he's holding him, and he's like, hmm, that's so pitiful. And all of a sudden, Christ touches him, and the child comes alive in his arms and can see. And just, can you imagine that? What impact that would have on you? Would change your whole perspective! It would be like, wow, I did, I did make the right decision. Who is this incredible man? And then, after you had that mindset for a few days, a few weeks, even a month or two, and even if a year went by, you saw all this, and your principles are changing. Because what was so important before may not be important anymore. Isn't that how God's Spirit works with us? Sometimes we look back and saw what was so important to us a year ago, two years ago, it's not that important anymore.

But all of a sudden, Christ is there. He knows, he is being so impacted by the Spirit, he doesn't have it yet, it's working with him. Peter looks and he sees Jesus Christ walking on water. And none of the others said it, did they?

Let me come to you. And he said, Peter, walk. Peter was a fisherman for decades. He knew you couldn't walk on water. If anyone knew, a principle had been changed. With Christ, all things are possible. Don't we say that sometimes? Don't we use that? If you don't, maybe you should become more like Peter, right? Right? So he walks out, had to be the greatest moment in his entire life, up to that moment because he was doing something that was out of this world. Something that was impossible. It would be a good lesson, almost like you kind of wonder when he was there watching those thousands of people being healed, did he ever think, wow, would I be able to do this someday? How about you? Have you thought about that? Have you thought about it in the kingdom of God, the power to heal? It's there. It's real. It's a part of it. And it's going to be our responsibility to even raise the dead. Powerful. Powerful lesson. And so Peter's out in this water, and all of a sudden, just like us, if he keeps his eyes on Christ, everything goes good. But when we kind of take our eyes off Christ, what happens? We sink, and he began to sink. And it had to be because the waves were probably rough at that time. It was night, and all of a sudden, he reaches out. What does he do? What does he say? Save me! So here he went from the greatest moment of his life to this poor, pathetic, helpless, almost childlike, save me. Do you remember? Not only that, but one time they were going through the city, and the tax collector comes by and goes, wait a minute, you've got to pay this tax.

Christ didn't really believe they should pay it, but he said, I'm going to pay it anyway. So he told Peter, remember how to fish? Well, yeah, I'll never forget how to fish. Go out there and throw your line out there. Go out there and catch his fish. And when you catch this fish and you open up its mouth, there is going to be the exact coinage you need to pay this temple tax. What impact must I... You know, did Peter actually go, um, are you crazy? Probably not at that time, but could this really happen? And he went out and caught that fish and the exact... What's the odds of that happening? How must that impact to him? Because he had caught probably tens and hundreds of thousands of fish up to that time. Not a one had a coin in its mouth, I'll bet, and if it did, it wasn't the exact tax.

And then something that must have really shocked him was he was actually chosen by Christ. And you must remember, he was chosen with James and John. Three fishermen. Three fishermen. Out of all, they had a tax collector in Matthew. They had other people and so forth. Nathaniel, no guy was found in his mouth, but here Christ said, wait, I want to take you three up here. You three fishermen. And Peter was always had been the leader. He always seemed to have something to say, right? He was that alpha male personality. He was a take charge, maybe because he was older, maybe because he was married, maybe because the guys looked to him, maybe because he already had a business at home. But they did. They took him up there. And when they took him into this room, because there was this, the leader, the Jewish leader, Jarias, he had a daughter who had come to him and said, I want you to come and heal my daughter. She's going to die. And somebody said, she's already dead. She was about 12 years old, if I remember the story right. Can you imagine having a daughter that age? And so you would, even though you were a leader who despised this new Christ and his entourage of 12 men, but you were desperate. So you would have gone to him. You would have said, just come. And when they went into the room, they said, it's no use. As they got to the room, she's died. She's dead. It's no use. And then you were standing there as Peter. As Peter, you stood there as this teacher, the Messiah, the one you were following, he looks and he says to all these people who had been there and checked her out. I'm sure a dozen people were there because the room was basically full. She's not dead. She's just sleeping. And the people actually laugh. It says that they laughed in the scorn. You were Peter and you wondered, why did he say that? And what happens next? He goes over and he raises that little girl from the dead. You were there in that room as Peter. Imagine seeing that. Because you'd seen all kinds of things, but this is the first time you'd seen anyone raised from the dead. And it was like nothing at all. Christ just said, rise. Would that have changed your life? That this man was going to teach you how to raise people from the dead or give you the faith to be able to do it? That you were going to be able to change lives? What would that have done to your mind? Imagine that. I'd like you to go with me to Mark 8. Go with me to Mark 8. Mark 8 and verse 13.

He said, and he left them getting into the boat again and departed to the other side. And you can see there were, they actually had an issue with a couple of things. And he didn't even understand what they were talking about as he was teaching that.

And as you come down to verse 27, he said, now Jesus and his disciples went out of the towns of Caesarea Philippi. You must understand what Caesarea Philippi is. It's at the very north end of where Israel takes place. And the beautiful thing about Caesarea Philippi is it's a beautiful country because there's water that comes down from the mountains. It's very mountainous. And at this huge place outside of where Caesarea Philippi is, there was this huge mountain and water would flow out of this mountain that came from the higher mountains that were above it. And so this water would just flow through this and people would come up there to take baths. They would come up there to get their food, get their water. And it was this amazing sight. You can even see pictures. I saw pictures of it even today. And it's this huge mountainous part of rock that is there that water comes out of. And so they were up near this thing. It says, and Jesus Christ asked his disciples saying to them, who do men say that I am? And they answered and said, well, you're John the Baptist. But some say, Elijah and others, one of the prophets. And he said to them, but who do you say that I am? And Peter answered them and said, you are the Christ. Wow! Nobody else said that. Had he seen enough by this time? In verse 31, he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the priests and scribes and be killed. And after three days, again, will rise. He spoke this word openly and Peter took him aside. Come here. Took him aside, away from everybody. And what does it say? He rebuked him. Now, if I'd have seen a man raise people from the dead, cast out all these demons, and do all these things and never sinned, I'd have a hard time rebuking him. But not Peter. Doesn't remind us sometimes we are so spiritually strong at times and then other times we are so weak. That's why we should be able to relate to Peter's writings.

And he began to rebuke him. And if you know Peter, how you understand how he was, he was very opinionated. Verse 33, but when he looked, but when he had turned around and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. So Peter pulled him aside to tell him this, and Christ, uh-uh, he looked to the other disciples and let Peter have it. And said, Get behind me, Satan. He can call it a lot of things. Satan's not one of them. But here, Peter had this epiphany of who was, who was he? The Son of God, the Christ. And five minutes, two minutes later, Christ was telling me, Get behind me.

For you are not mindful of the things of God, but of the things of men, telling him you're so spiritually immature. Like you turn over to Matthew. Matthew tells the same story.

Matthew 16. Matthew 16, verse 13. Matthew 16 and verse 13. And when Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Who do men say that I am? And so they said, some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, others Jeremiah are one of the prophets. And he said, But who do you say I am? And Simon answered and said, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And you can imagine, he said it with fervor.

And Jesus answered and said to him, Blessed are you, Simon Bar-John. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. How many times do we realize that God gave us something from heaven that didn't come from this earth? Knowledge, power, understanding, peace, something that we needed.

And then he said something interesting that's been talked about a lot in verse 18. And I say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And many people said, well, that's why Peter was the first pope, which he wasn't, but they say the Catholic Church says he was.

And he said, I will give you the keys of heaven, keys to the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth, be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loose. It's interesting there that when you look at the original Greek, I want you to realize that they are standing in front of this huge pillar of rock, Caesarei Philippi. And is he saying, I'm going to build my church on you, Peter? A lot of people say that, oh, well, that's why we get this. I want you to understand in the Greek that the rock he is relating to, he relates this statement to Peter's statement of saying, what? That Christ is the Son of the Living God. See, he gave a rock-solid answer. But when you see it translated, it's kind of like, I'm going to build it on here. But I want you to read through that quite a few times, and you begin to see that it's built. His church was built on Christ. This church was built on Christ. The chief cornerstone, which makes sense. But get behind me, Satan! Boy! In verse 22, then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. Far be it from you, Lord, this shall not happen to you, telling Christ God in the flesh, oh no, I'll take care of you, I got your back. You may not be able to take care of yourself, but I can take care of you. Pretty cocky. Verse 23, but he turned and said to Peter, get behind me, Satan. You are an offense to me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but of the things of men. So here he had this incredible high and now this low again. And it isn't long after that, in chapter 18 of Matthew, that you actually see that Peter has this question again for Christ. Remember it? We talked about it last week or a week before. Because Peter never has a problem saying things. And he sometimes has a chip on his shoulder. Some of us do too, sometimes, many times, too many times. It's me that has to be knocked off. Humble us down a little bit. But in Matthew 18, he turns across, he goes, when my brother offends me, how many times do I have to put up with that? He said, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him up to seven times? And you know what? Peter probably said that to put one of the disciples in their place. And he was sure, I'm sure, knowing Peter, Peter just knew Christ was going to be on his side. But Christ gave the answer that's not the answer he wanted to hear. Up to seven times? No! Up to 70 times seven! Peter's going, wow, I got to do that. He was learning again.

It's interesting that his name appears first in the list of the disciples and also the apostles. You remember the story in John 13? We all had it near Passover. Perhaps we find that we would be a little bit like Peter too. You're at this Passover meal, you've had the meal and all of a sudden now Christ gets down and he takes off his coat and he's washing the disciples' feet. Just like a common servant. And he looks over and goes, none of the men, none of the other disciples said anything. And I'm like, oh, he's washing my feet. Peter's like, I guess I got to be a leader. You're not going to wash my feet! Right? That's so Peter. That's so us at times, isn't it? We say something and go, oh man, why did I... Can't I just keep my mouth shut? Just like Peter, like us. Like us. But he was being changed. All of a sudden Christ said, well, you know, here, because of what the actual words meant. Okay, if I don't wash your feet, you have no part of me with this work. Oh no! And then what does he do? No, no, no, no, no, not my feet. Wash every... I imagine he started taking his clothes off. Now when Peter... Right? He was learning, just like we learned. Just like that time you fell down this week spiritually. And every one of you, I bet you, fell down the time that you were going, hmm, oh, why did I do that? Right? This is Peter. That's why it's right. It's poignant. And then you remember the transfiguration? This is six months before... This is like six months before Christ is killed. The transfiguration. He takes the same three guys up there, and they get to see what glimpse of the kingdom of God in this vision. They got to see Elijah. They got to see Moses, and they got to see Christ glorified in a glorified state. Wouldn't you just be... And they got to hear the voice of God that actually said, this is my son whom I'm well pleased. Wouldn't you just be like...

You're just in awe? Not Peter. He had to say something. Here, let me build a sukkah.

In the scripture, one of the scriptures say, because he didn't know what else to say. He hadn't learned. You can just keep your mouth shut. Which is a great lesson for all of us.

You remember the denying of Christ three times, as we talked about earlier? What lesson? What that look, his name has brought out that look, he looked back. How must he have felt? Can you imagine? He had been so, I'll never deny you. All these others can leave you, but I never will.

And now, he can't do a thing. And he's denied. And he did it while cursing and being the worst example he could have been. And you know, even before that, remember the Malchus servant came up and Peter draws out the sword and cuts his ear off. And he was either a very bad aim, or the Holy Spirit just would not allow him to cut that guy's head off.

Because his intent was to cut the guy's head off. He was going to put a stop to that right here. And you remember what Christ had to have looked and thought, and he had to think, you're not doing that. And he said, get behind me. He had let the things of man take over. He had let Satan say, I'll handle this instead of Christ.

What must he have thought? You know, after the resurrection, he was the very first apostle to see Christ risen, first apostle. And he didn't write about that. Luke wrote about it. And even Paul wrote about it in 1 Corinthians 15. But one of the most interesting things I think you'll find as we begin to wrap this up, well, I have so much more stuff I could have two sermons on this. His life was so interesting. You find it in John 21. And it's the famous, feed my lambs, feed my sheep.

Do you love me? Do you agape me? I feel you. Do you love me? I feel you. And finally, Peter had to say, well, you know everything, which is the smartest answer he could ever give. But I want you to think about that in John 21 because scholars have argued this for a long time because Peter goes there and what does he do?

He finds the other men, they're waiting. They've already seen Christ, but now there's a waiting time. And here it's already been like 30, 40 days. And so it says that Peter gets a boat. And he says, I'm going fishing. Now scholars have said, well, he was just looking for food. I believe it's Peter again. And he just decided, I'm not going to wait around here.

Let's go back and catch fish. I'll just go back. I thought I was going to actually do something, but out of sight, out of mind. I want you to read that. 21 and see what your take on it is, because I can find no other reason that Christ would be so vehement and say, feed my lambs. Telling, this is your job. This is what I want you to do. And in Acts 1, it's Peter who calls for the election of the next apostle to take Judas place. And then in Acts 2, which I hope you will read tonight, the incredible sermon given by Peter as he was filled with the Holy Spirit.

And now you begin to see this man that was not afraid, not backing off, not cursing, not doing this, but all of a sudden he's filled with the Holy Spirit like us. And this begins to make that transformation that he could never have believed. And he gave such a message on Pentecost that it had to be just like one of those days. Because see, the rest of them, they were up in that upper room because they were afraid that they were going to be put up and killed too. But then the Holy Spirit was given.

And all of a sudden, these people who were fearful are no longer fearful. They're empowered. They realize. And Peter goes out and delivers his sermon to thousands of people. And we know there were thousands and thousands of people standing there to hear him because he said 3,000 were baptized that day. How long is it going to take 12 people to baptize 3,000 people?

You're talking about a working day! Get in that water! Get in that water! 3,000 people! That's a powerful message. And God used Peter and the Holy Spirit.

And then a man comes up to Peter and he's begging for money. Silver or gold? And what happens? Silver or gold? I have none. But I will give you this. Get up and walk by the name and the power of Jesus Christ. And the man walked. And you can read about in, I think it's chapter 4, all of a sudden there were thousands of people and they were called in and hauled in. And the man told not to do this, not to preach this, did anyway.

And when he left there, Peter was so empowered that 5,000 men were baptized. That became so powerful that even his shadow, when it was cast upon sick people, would heal them. All because he let himself be used by God and the Holy Spirit. Brethren, it's time that we do. Tomorrow is the anniversary of the giving of the Holy Spirit in Mass. We have the opportunity to have that miracles performed in us.

God used him to bring the salvation to the Gentiles with Cornelius. He was released from prison by an angel. And you go back and read about as he's released from prison by an angel, I found one unique thing. He didn't ask any questions. No longer did he say, oh, wait a minute. Oh, wait a minute, who are you, angel? Who sent you? Kept his mouth shut and he followed the lead that the Holy Spirit gave him. According to historians, Peter was killed, crucified upside down. But first, they wanted to get to him. And I actually heard this when I was in Rome, St. Peter's Square, where he was supposed to be killed by a historian there. They said before they killed Peter and brought him out there to crucify him, he said it wasn't worth it, so he needed to be crucified upside down. They actually took his wife, and they took her out to be killed. And they brought her by him, and it was his chance to recant what he believed in. Instead, he just gave encouraging words to his wife and watched her be executed as they cut her head off.

Powerful example of a man.

Like the charnel, as we close now in 2 Peter.

2 Peter.

His final words to us. 2 Peter 3, verse 17. You therefore beloved, since you know all these things beforehand, beware, lest you also fall from your own steadfastness. Being led away with the error of the wicked, he knew it was possible. It's what he had to fight. But grow in grace and knowledge, just like he had to grow. He grew in grace and knowledge, and the Holy Spirit just overwhelmed him and controlled him to where he did these incredible things. What is God waiting on you, the Spirit in you to do? What incredible things is he waiting on us for? But grow in grace and knowledge to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory, both now and forever. Incredible man, incredible insight into the man called Simon Peter. We have such incredible lessons to learn. How about our principles?

I hope mine are as strong as Peter's in his last days.