1, 2 Peter

Alright. Well, if you have your Bibles, turn to 1 and 2 Peter. I am promising I will not cry tonight. Last week, I don’t know what happened, but I cried and felt like a sissy. The only thing worse than crying once is crying twice, so it ain’t happening. Alright?

Now, I will say this: after last week’s message, it has been awesome getting feedback. I met with a dude this morning, and he goes, “Man, thanks for the kick in the throat.” Now, I typically do “kick in the face”—I like that one and use it a lot. But “kick in the throat”? I thought, Oh, I like that even better.

I asked him, “What caused that?”

He said, “Well, I’ve got a life group that meets on Sunday nights. We all go to morning services, and then we meet for life group. But I never really read my Bible. Literally, like, ever. So I go to life group and I just read enough that night while other people are talking to be able to carry on an intelligent conversation, but I never read it throughout the week.” He says, “Man, did you just kick me in the throat. So I shared with my group that I was a faker.”

I said, “Man, I love your candor.”

He goes, “Well, that’s what I am. I’m a total poser. I never read the Bible, ever. But I told them that’s where I was, and they all admitted to the same thing. So we decided together as a life group that we’re going to read through the Bible.” They got reading plans from the iHubs, and now they’re reading through the Bible in a year. And I was like, Yes!

Then one of the football guys at Fresno State leaned over at the game—this was before we were both crying watching the game—and he said, “Hey, why are you messing with me?”

I said, “What are you talking about?”

He says, “You started talking about reading the Bible, and I felt like out of the whole room, you were just talking to me. And I needed that, because I’ve gone passive. So I’ve started praying more, leading out more with my girlfriend, and I started reading my Bible.”

I was like, Yes, that’s the goal!

Look, let’s not be Christians who just come and let life happen. Let’s be Christians who lean in and say, “God, what do You have for us? I want to learn. I want to grow. And I’ll change things—if You lay it on my heart to change them, I’ll do it.” That’s where Christianity gets fun.

The Impetuous Disciple

Turn in your Bibles to 1 and 2 Peter, tucked into the end of your New Testament. Eight short chapters, but fascinating books. By the way, if you don’t have a Bible, we’d love to get you one. Pull it up on your phone or go grab one from the iHub, because we’re going to walk through some text together.

If you were to read through the Gospel accounts, there’s no figure other than Christ who gets more pub than Peter. Peter is the clear figurehead in the Gospels. He’s the clear striver to be the best disciple. If there was an MVP disciple award—I don’t think Jesus would have ever given one out, but if it was given out—Peter would have wanted it.

In the early parts of the Gospels, Peter has his name changed. He is often referred to as Simon, son of Jonah, or Simon, son of John. Make note of that, by the way. I don’t know what your life was like growing up, but when I got called by my full name, I usually braced for impact. I didn’t know if it was a stick, a wrench, or a pipe, but something was going to hit me. If I got my full name called, I was dead. In some ways, Jesus treats Peter the same way. You’ll see later tonight that when Jesus calls him “Simon,” that’s a bad thing. He starts as Simon, but early on his name gets changed to Peter, “the Rock.” And he spends the rest of his life trying to live up to the reputation that Jesus gives him right at the very beginning of the Gospels.

Now, we don’t have anything in the Gospel accounts regarding the physical attributes of Peter. We don’t know much about him physically. But my mental picture of Peter is massive, calloused hands, a big old leathery face, and a sweet beard like Duck Dynasty, but cooler. Being a fisherman, I imagine Peter was pretty fit—maybe without the Duck Dynasty gut—spending his days on the water. You just imagine squinty eyes, wrinkles, a hard guy.

While we may not know his exact physical attributes, his personality is undeniable. Peter is the consummate “ready, fire, aim” dude. He’s impulsive, impetuous, constantly the first to speak, and constantly getting punked. He’s the one who, in pride and ego, is fighting for that chief spot.

We see it several times throughout the Gospels. In Matthew 16, Jesus makes a fascinating detour with the disciples and heads north from the Sea of Galilee to Caesarea Philippi. We’ve talked about it quite a bit in previous weeks. It was an awful city—pagan to the core. They worshiped a half-goat, half-male deity called Pan, and in order to incite Pan to bring fertility to the land, men performed sex acts with goats. It was sick and wrong. For Jesus, the Rabbi, to take His disciples there didn’t seem to make sense. But He takes them there and asks, “Who do people say that I am? And who do you say that I am?” Peter is the guy jumping up: “Oh, pick me! Pick me!” So Peter answers the question.

We see it in the very next chapter at the Mount of Transfiguration. Jesus Christ is literally transfigured before Peter, with Moses and Elijah present—the Law and the Prophets. And the best Peter can say is, “It’s pretty good for us to be here right now.” Are you kidding me? Good for you to be there? Just shut up and enjoy the show! He basically says, “Hey, we should go to REI, get a couple sleeping bags, and just hang out here for a while. Wouldn’t that be great?” That’s Peter.

When the boat is on the Sea of Galilee and Peter sees Jesus walking on the water, he doesn’t say, “Lord, You’re walking on water! How cool is that?” He says, “Lord, if it’s You, bid me come.” Not all of us—just me. Because that looks cool and I’d like to try. Sure enough, he gets called out and starts walking on water. That’s Peter.

At the Last Supper, Jesus is breaking bread with His disciples over a Passover meal. Peter looks around the table and says, “Jesus, just so You know, even if he denies You, or he denies You, or he denies You—I won’t.” You snotty little punk! Who says that sitting at the table with all those people? You don’t do that unless you’re Peter.

What’s fascinating is Jesus looks at him and says, “Oh, is that right? They’re all going to deny Me, but you won’t? Bro, before your alarm clock goes off, you’re going to deny Me three times.” You can almost hear the other guys chuckling: Sucker. Sure enough, just hours later in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus is arrested, Peter bounces, and he denies Him three times.

The Maturation Process

At the end of the Gospel accounts, Peter is in a bad place. I’m sharing the backstory of who Peter is because to understand his books, you have to understand him. He has rejected Jesus, and he thinks he’s on the outs.

How do I know? Look at Mark 16:7. Jesus has gone to the cross, they buried Him, and He rose from the dead. The angel comes and says to the women:

Mark 16:7 (NASB)

’But go, tell His disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see Him, just as He told you.’’

No other Gospel account includes the “and Peter” comment except Mark. Why? Mark was the young man who went on the first missionary journey with Paul in Acts 12. They got to Cyprus, Paul called a guy a son of the devil, John Mark got terrified, said, “Forget you, I’m going home,” and left. While John Mark was back home, he began hanging out with burly, leathery-faced Peter. He asked, “Hey Peter, what was it like walking with Jesus?” Peter talked, and Mark wrote it down. That became the Gospel of Mark. So that detail—“go get the disciples and Peter”—came from Peter himself. He knew he felt on the outs because he had denied Christ.

John records his full restoration in John 21. Peter tells the boys, “I guess we should just go fishing.” They’re out on the Sea of Galilee, and Jesus hollers from the shore, “Did you catch any fish?” They say no. He tells them to throw the net on the other side. They catch a massive haul, realize it’s Jesus, and Peter swims to shore. Standing there dripping wet, three times Peter had denied Him, and three times Jesus asks, “Do you love Me? Do you love Me? Do you love Me?” John records the complete restoration of Peter.

From there, Peter enters a maturation process. Consider the Gospels like junior high. Remember how awkward junior high was? Is there a more miserable existence than those two years? Awkward pimples, your body changing—it’s weird. That’s the maturation Peter goes through.

When we get to the Book of Acts, Peter’s leadership takes over. In Acts 1, Peter steps up and says, “Judas hung himself; we need to replace him.” In Acts 2, Peter preaches on the Day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit falls, delivering a powerhouse message. Peter is mentioned over fifty times in the early chapters of Acts. You cannot read early Acts without seeing Peter everywhere—until chapter 15. After Acts 15:7, his name is never mentioned again in the book.

Fading into Obscurity

Here is where it gets interesting. In Acts 9, the Apostle Paul comes to faith in Christ—the brilliant, intellectual persecutor of the church. We might assume that with Paul’s education, he would immediately step into massive ministry success. Not at all. It was a swing and a miss. People tried to kill him, so he spent three years in the Arabian desert with his Bible, trying to figure out how he missed Jesus. Paul spent over a decade in obscurity. Nobody knew his name; nobody cared who he was.

Then Barnabas grabbed him in Acts 11 and 12, and they went on their missionary journeys. For the rest of Acts, the focal point is Paul, not Peter.

So what happened to Peter? After Acts 15, we only catch a glimpse of him in Galatians 2, where Paul mentions confronting Peter to his face because Peter shrank back from eating with Gentiles when certain Jewish believers arrived. After that confrontation, Peter fades from view. We don’t hear from him again until much later when he pens two letters.

Let’s follow the history. Paul went on three missionary journeys, was arrested, appealed to Caesar, and ended up under house arrest in Rome, where he wrote 1 Timothy and Titus. He was released, and then in 64 AD, a massive fire broke out in Rome under Emperor Nero. Nero was a monster who fed Christians to lions, impaled them, and lit them on fire to illuminate his garden parties. Nero blamed the Christians for the fire.

Romans already viewed Christians with deep suspicion for three reasons: First, they met in secret. If your roommate quickly shuts their laptop when you walk in, it looks shady; because Christians met privately to avoid arrest, Romans assumed they were doing something illicit. Second, Romans accused them of atheism because Christians refused to worship Caesar or the pantheon of gods. Third, Romans accused them of cannibalism because they heard rumors about the Lord’s Supper—breaking bread saying, “This is My body,” and drinking wine saying, “This is My blood.”

Nero arrested Paul again, and from death row Paul wrote 2 Timothy before being beheaded. The Roman public loved it. Seeing the political favor it brought, Nero arrested Peter next.

A Shepherd for the Suffering

From Rome, facing his own impending death, Peter wrote 1 and 2 Peter. Some critics have questioned how an “uneducated and common” fisherman (as described in Acts 4) could write such superb Greek with brilliant imagery. But 1 Peter 5:12 tells us he used an amanuensis—a secretary—named Silas, who had traveled extensively with Paul.

Look at how Peter opens his first letter:

1 Peter 1:1 (NASB)

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who reside as aliens, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who are chosen

Peter lists Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia—regions in modern-day Turkey. Peter wrote to the very churches Paul planted! Paul was dead. Timothy was pastoring in Ephesus, Titus was in Crete, and the believers in Asia Minor were facing brutal persecution without their founding apostle. Impulsive, “ready-fire-aim,” “me-first” Peter didn’t say, “Good riddance to Paul’s churches.” Instead, with a pastor’s heart, Peter asked, “Who is caring for those people? Silas, grab a pen. Let’s write to them.”

If Peter had ended his life the way he started, that never would have happened. It shows us that it’s really not about how you start; it’s about how you finish.

Peter wrote to comfort, strengthen, and encourage these believers to hang on during severe trials. Notice the parallel to the Book of James:

1 Peter 1:6-7 (NASB)

In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, [being] more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ;

He writes from “Babylon”—a euphemism for pagan Rome—urging them to stand firm.

1 Peter 5:13 (NASB)

She who is in Babylon, chosen together with you, sends you greetings, and [so does] my son, Mark.

Faith Lived Out Under Fire

Notice what Peter commands these suffering Christians regarding authority:

1 Peter 2:13 (NASB)

Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority,

He tells them to submit to human governing authorities—even to an emperor like Nero, who had just executed Paul! Peter explains that you don’t submit because the ruler deserves it; you submit “for the Lord’s sake.” You don’t have to trust the emperor; you trust the God who appoints and allows all authority. Peter reminds them that their conduct either affirms or erodes the faith they proclaim.

1 Peter 2:12 (NASB)

Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe [them], glorify God in the day of visitation.

He applies this same principle to marriage in chapter 3:

1 Peter 3:1 (NASB)

In the same way, you wives, be submissive to your own husbands so that even if any [of them] are disobedient to the word, they may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives,

Wives are called to win their unbelieving husbands not through nagging, but through godly conduct and prayer. Back off, honor the Lord, and let the God who made dirt breathe get ahold of that brother.

Then he addresses the men:

1 Peter 3:7 (NASB)

You husbands in the same way, live with [your wives] in an understanding way, as with someone weaker, since she is a woman; and show her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered.

Peter tells husbands: If you claim to know Jesus but you mistreat your wife, your prayers will hit the ceiling. If you want to love God, you love that wife and treat her as a fellow heir of grace.

In chapter 4, Peter tackles the reality of suffering directly:

1 Peter 4:12 (NASB)

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you;

We tend to treat suffering the way a child treats a hot stove: touch it once, get burned, and recoil immediately. When suffering enters our Christian walk, we recoil as if something is wrong. We’ve bought into a soft-handed Christianity that says, “If God is loving, life will always be awesome.” What Bible are you reading?

Scripture teaches that suffering produces strength and gives us perspective. When you watch someone walk faithfully with God through the ashes of tragedy, their faith carries undeniable credibility.

1 Peter 4:19 (NASB)

Therefore, those also who suffer according to the will of God shall entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right.

Peter says to lean into the trial and entrust your soul to God. Let Him break, shape, and mold you into what you need to be.

We love being in control, but trying to manage what was never ours to manage is pride.

1 Peter 5:5-6 (NASB)

You younger men, likewise, be subject to [your] elders; and all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, for GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE. Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time,

The word “opposed” means God sets Himself in battle array against the proud. God does not play around with pride; He will crush it until you tap out. When my dad used my full name, he’d say, “There’s an easy way and a hard way, but either way, you’re getting whooped.” With God, you can either humble yourself or be humbled, but you will end up humble. Peter knew this firsthand. He remembered the sting of the rooster crowing and catching Jesus’ eye after denying Him three times.

Honoring a Brother

Look at what Peter does for Paul near the close of his second letter:

2 Peter 3:14-16 (NASB)

Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless, and regard the patience of our Lord [as] salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all [his] letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as [they do] also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.

Peter takes Paul’s writings and elevates them as Scripture. Think about the humility in that moment. For years, everywhere Peter looked, Paul was taking center stage. It is hard being number two. Yet the pride and arrogance of Peter had been broken behind the woodshed of God’s discipline. The impulsive disciple was transformed into a wise, seasoned elder who could publicly honor and elevate his brother.

God gave Peter the gift of obscurity and suffering to shape him. And how did Peter finish? History records that when Nero sentenced him to crucifixion, Peter declared that he was unworthy to die in the same manner as his Lord, and asked to be crucified upside down. It’s not how you start; it’s how you finish.

Strengthening the Brothers

What are you going through right now? Are you crying out, “Lord, take this away! Don’t You see where I’m at?”

When I was in sixth grade at Dry Creek Elementary, I had Osgood-Schlatter disease—growing pains where your bones grow faster than the tissue around them. It hurt terribly, but it was just the pain of growth. How often do we tap out spiritually during growing pains, whining, “It’s too hard!”?

Do you really think God’s hand is so short that He couldn’t instantly fix your circumstances if it were best for you? He is entirely able, but He doesn’t always do it because He is not done shaping you. God has you right where He wants you. Don’t recoil from suffering—lean into it. The very trials wrecking your comfort today will be the tools God uses months or years from now to help you minister to someone else.

Look at Luke 22:

Luke 22:31-32 (NASB)

‘Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded [permission] to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.’

Jesus didn’t pray that Satan wouldn’t touch Peter; He prayed that Peter’s faith would not fail. And He added, “When you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” Jesus knew the crucible was coming, that it was going to sting, but that Peter would turn back and fulfill his calling.

How did Peter do? He left us two of the most encouraging, enduring letters on suffering and hope in the entire Bible. He strengthened his brothers.

In our culture, everyone wants to take over the world and do big things for God. But sometimes life is hard, and you feel like you can barely read your Bible. Understand that God has you in training, and the best training stings a little bit. Lean into it. Your faith will not fail. In the pain, He is forging you into who He needs you to be for His glory.

Let’s pray.

Father, as we worship You, we are grateful that You are faithful, sovereign, and loving. You know what is best for us, and sometimes the pain and hardship are exactly what we need. Shape us and make us more like Christ. Remind us that it’s not how we start, but how we finish. For those of us who feel like the impetuous Peter of old, bring us through the process of maturation so that we, too, may strengthen our brothers and sisters. We thank You for the journey, and we pray all this in Jesus’ name. Amen.