(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

All right, now you probably wouldn't get this from John chapter 1, but the subject I'll be preaching on tonight is actually we'll be focusing on the apostle Peter. Okay, Peter is a main character in the Bible and we're going to be doing this from time to time. I'm going to be focusing in on one specific character in the Bible and we're really going to look at their life and look at a lot of things that they did and just kind of examine it because there's a lot of things that we can learn. Peter is an extremely interesting character in the Bible and he's got a lot of positive attributes, but he also had a few, you know, I don't know, called personality flaws, but he had a few flaws too, I mean like all of us do. So hopefully we'll be able to learn from studying his life and learn about a lot of the good things that he did that maybe we can use and improve our lives on the good things that he did and also look at maybe some of the aspects that he was not as proficient with and, you know, kind of see what he was doing and use that to improve ourselves as well. So we're going to be spending the vast majority of our time tonight though looking at the four accounts of the gospel, the Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. That's where most of the stories happen that Peter is participating in. I know, you know, the apostle Peter also is responsible for penning down the books of 1st and 2nd Peter, those epistles, and he also, there's a lot in the book of Acts about Peter, but just for sake of time, I mean I've found so much content that we're going to study his life that we're going to just kind of stick to the gospels. And the first thing that I want to point out is that Peter was a fisherman, okay? Peter was a regular blue-collar worker. He was a fisherman. He, you know, he toiled by bringing a fish and that's what he did for his job. And, you know, as we saw in Acts chapter 4, if you're here for that, you know, he was an unlearned man. He was not some scholar. He was not some highly educated person in the in the minds of the people of the world. He was a regular guy, a fisherman. Now each of the four gospels give an account of Peter becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ and this is what we see here in John chapter 1 is what we'll be focusing on here. Now Matthew chapter 4 and Mark chapter 1 both give an account of Jesus coming and basically calling unto Peter, calling unto some other disciples, and tell them to follow him. And they give pretty much the same story, but we get a lot more information in Luke chapter 5 and in John chapter 1. So as we go into this, this is something to help you. If you want to, it's one thing to read the Bible and the first thing you ought to do if you've never read the Bible is read the Bible. Read it through cover to cover. The more you read the Bible though, the more you're comfortable with it and you've read it already, the next step is going to be to start studying the Bible. And a really, really good way to do that is you look for things because you always want to compare scripture with scripture. The more you, you know, if you want to learn about the Bible and about different things, compare different sections that are talking about the same things, that talk about the same subjects and look up. And then, you know, that's part of what I do as a pastor is, you know, I'm studying the Bible and I'm looking and saying, okay, this is dealing with the same thing. This is dealing with the same thing. And I'm going to try to put it all together for you, but also in your own personal time, it's a good thing and you're going to have it to, to pick a subject or whatever. I mean, whatever it is you want to do, study the Bible in that way. Now the four gospels are great. If there's something you're having a hard time understanding, try to find where, where that same thing happens in one of the other books, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, because they all have a, they all have a slightly different perspective on it. You get a little bit more information on one versus another. They kind of reveal different details. And the cool thing is, is that there's no contradictions at all. You can read it and it's like, oh man, I didn't even know that. This is like all this extra information, extra content. And we're going to see a little bit of that right now, because, and this kind of blew me away. I never really studied so in depth on the apostle Peter, but I learned a lot when I was, when I was preparing for the sermon. And so let's look at John chapter one, where we first started reading there. Okay. We're going to look at verse number 35, because even this, I kind of, it totally passed me up every time I've ever read the Bible. I never really understood this, but it's pretty cool. In verse number 35 of John, chapter one, it says, again, the next day after John stood and two of his disciples and looking upon Jesus, as he walked, he said, behold, the lamb of God. So here we got, we have John the Baptist. There was this John, there was something about John the Baptist. John the Baptist came preaching and teaching before Jesus Christ came and started his ministry. John the Baptist was the one who was supposed to prepare the way of the Lord. So he was getting people ready. He's preaching about Jesus Christ. He said, okay, you know, like, like we need to get ready. Christ is coming. And he knew Christ was coming. So he's out preaching. He's out baptizing. He's doing his ministry. Jesus comes, right? Jesus gets baptized in John the Baptist. So John had a bunch of disciples and followers of him, right? There's a lot of people that were, I guess you could say part of John's church, right? John the Baptist. And they were following with him. And what his job was, he was trying to point people to Jesus because Jesus obviously is the Christ. He was way better than John. So he said, look in verse 36, behold, the lamb of God saying behold, meaning like, look at him. He's right there. Like there's the lamb of God. So it says in verse 37, and the two disciples heard him speak and they follow Jesus. So they say, okay, oh, that's the lamb of God. Okay, well, we're gonna go follow him then. Right? Of course, that's what you should do. Follow Jesus. Verse 38 says, then Jesus turned and saw them following and said unto them, what seek ye? They said unto him, rabbi, which is to say being interpretive, master, where dwellest thou? He said unto them, come and see. They came and saw where he dwelled and abode with him that day for it was about the 10th hour. And this is in verse 40, one of the two disciples, one of the two which heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. So, you know, in the beginning of this where we started reading 35, it just says two of John the Baptist disciples. Well, now we get a name for one of them. One of those two disciples that was a disciple of John the Baptist that started following Jesus was Andrew. Now, Andrew was the brother of Simon Peter. That's the apostle Peter who we're studying tonight. Okay. And in verse 41, it says, he first findeth his own brother Simon and said unto him, we have found the messiahs which is being interpreted the Christ. And he brought him to Jesus. And when Jesus beheld him, he said, thou art Simon the son of Jonah, thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation of stone. So right away here we see, you know, Andrew is pointed to Jesus by John the Baptist. He goes, he spends some time with Jesus. You know, he gets to know him a little bit. So, you know, ask him where he lives. Jesus, you know, brings, okay, I'll show you. Spends some time with him. And then the first thing he does, he goes, hey, I need to go get my brother. I'm going to bring my brother to Jesus. And this is great. I mean, like first Andrew finds Jesus and he's following me. He's like, I'm going to go get my brother. And he brings his brother Simon to Jesus. And we see right here in verse 42, this is where Jesus actually gives Simon because that was the apostle Peter's name. He gives him his new name and he calls it Cephas. So one thing to remember when you're reading through the Bible, if you ever see the name Cephas or Simon and Peter, it's all the same person, generally speaking. I don't want to say just in every single instance, but Cephas definitely. And there are a couple other Simons in the Bible, but Simon Peter or Peter is all talking about the same person. So, and the reason why he has the name Peter and Cephas, basically Cephas and Peter both mean a stone. It's just different languages. So we're just recording that that's his name in one language versus another language. Not a big deal. Okay. So we see here in John chapter one, between all four gospels, I think this is what happens first. This is as far as chronology goes, as far as time goes, because obviously when you're reading the Bible, you read Matthew first and Mark and Luke, but what happens, these events in John chapter one, I think happens first in Peter's life where Peter is brought to Jesus by Andrew's brother. And we're going to get some more information. I'll turn, if you would, to Luke chapter number five, because here we just see where basically Andrew introduces Peter to Jesus and Jesus gives him his name. Luke chapter number five, there's one book back in the Bible right before John is Luke. Now we're going to read this account of Jesus Christ with Peter. Now this, what we just saw that's only in John, like that section where he gives Peter that name and Andrew brings him to Jesus. That's only in the book of John. Now Luke chapter number five, look at verse number one, it says, and it came to pass that as the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he stood by the lake of Gennesarin and saw two ships standing by the lake, but the fishermen were gone out of them and were washing their nets. And he entered into one of the ships, which was Simon's, and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people out of the ship. Now, when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a draft. And Simon answering said unto him, master, we have toiled all the night and have taken nothing. Nevertheless, at thy word, I will let down the net. And when they had done this, they enclosed a great multitude of fishes and their net break. And they beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other ship, that they should come and help them. And they came and filled both the ships so that they began to sink. When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, depart from me, for I'm a sinful man, O Lord, for he was astonished and all that were with him at the draft of the fishes, which they had taken. And so it was also James and John, the sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon. And Jesus said unto Simon, fear not, from henceforth thou shall catch men. And when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all and followed him. Now, this is interesting too, because I remember reading the Bible, I just kind of think like, man, that's kind of weird. Like Jesus just walks onto this guy's boat that he like doesn't even know because you got to get what's happening here. So basically what's happening is that a lot of people said the people trust upon him to hear the word of God. Jesus was teaching, and there were a lot of people following him and listening and just want to know what Jesus had to say. So he's walking by and he's by this lake. He's by the Lake of Nazareth. And he's teaching these people, but they're really kind of, they're crowding them and there's not a lot of room for them to preach. So he gets up on one of these boats and it was Simon's boat, Simon Peter. And he asks them, hey, can you push off from land a little bit? Just get me out in the water a little bit. Cause then he's got his whole audience on the shore, right? And it makes sense that he could preach from this boat on the sea and it kind of carry his voice and everyone could hear him and everyone could see him and they can learn, right? So it kind of makes sense for where he was at, especially having such a great multitude. It made a lot of sense for him to do this. And I always thought it was a little funny, again, like reading this in my mind, I'm just thinking like, that is kind of strange. Like he's just teaching and he just walks on this guy's boat and then says, hey, hey, can you just push off? He's probably thinking like, uh, okay. You know, whatever. But I think in the context, especially like at job one, I think Peter already knew who Jesus, I think he was already introduced to Peter. I think, I think Peter was introduced to Jesus Christ from Andrew's brother before this even happened. So Jesus was walking up and said, oh, okay, there's Peter. I'm going to get on his boat and ask him to do this for me, which again, I mean, that's not some mind-blowing thing, but it's just kind of interesting for me. It was interesting from the way that I had read it all my life. And, um, so he teaches the people, then he tells, and then he tells Peter, he said, okay, you know, now go out, go out into the deep. So before they're just kind of hanging out by shore, he's like, now, now go out a little bit farther and, um, and let down your nets for a draft. So he's saying, you know, cause there are fishermen saying, okay, I want you to let down your nets now. And Simon answers them in verse five. He says, and Simon answered and said, master, we have toiled all the night and have taken nothing. He said, look, we worked all night. We were out fishing all night and we didn't get anything. Nevertheless, at thy word, I will let down the net. Now notice what he said there. Jesus said, launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a draft. Nets plural. Peter's like, all right, look, we've been working all night. Jesus. I'll go at your word. I'll go. I'll let down the net and look what happens. And when they had done this, they enclosed a great multitude of fishes and their net break. Now, if you wouldn't let down the nets, I don't think they would have broke, but because he let down the net, Hey man, Jesus told him like, look, let down the nets. He knew what was going to happen, but, you know, here's okay. You know, just, just to humor you, we'll go throw a net down. And then that break, it says they enclosed a great multitude of fishes in that break and they beckon under their partners, which were in the other ship that they should come and help them. And this is also where we, where we find out that, um, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, they were partners with Peter. So like they all knew each other beforehand. And of course, James and John also become disciples of Jesus Christ. So Peter, James, and John are also known as the top three, where you get to get into that a little bit. They're kind of like, they're kind of like Jesus's top disciples, the people who like follow him closely. And then you hear about the most in the Bible and they got to do some extra special things that none of the other disciples got to do, but they were all partners here in their fishing business. And, um, we see that when they snag all of those fish, right? I think Peter realizes that he didn't do for what he didn't quite do exactly what Jesus asked him to do. And we saw that they broke and he humbly falls down at Jesus feet. And he says in, um, in verse eight says, when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus knees saying, depart from me, for I am a sinful man of the Lord. So we see right away this, and this is kind of a, an attribute of Peter that's pretty good. He had a humble attitude. He saw this and he was just like, okay, look, you know, I'm a sinner. I didn't, I didn't listen to what you said. I should have listened to what you said. He falls out at Jesus peak. But, but one thing he does here that, that I don't like, I don't think he probably should have done is he said, um, I mean, it's good for him to be humbled and pulled out of Jesus knees, but he says, depart from me for I'm a sinful man. Now thing about it, right? What are you doing right there? He's asking Jesus to depart from it. And I don't think any of us should do that. I don't think anybody should be asking Jesus to part from now I could understand, I can see where he's coming from. I mean, you might be ashamed or embarrassed. Maybe you commit a sin. You do something wrong. And you know what? I don't even want you to look at me, you know, like I'm just a sinful and you just need to get away from me because you're a holy, you're a great person. I'm not just, you just shouldn't even be here, but I could see where you could have that attitude. And I'm not saying that's a bad attitude to have, but we ought to be careful. I mean, you don't want to be pushing Jesus away at the same time. I mean, you need Jesus when you have problems or whatever. Don't go, you know, kind of saying, Hey, we, uh, you know, just apart from me, you never want to say depart from me, Lord Jesus. Right? So this is an attribute of Peter that we're going to see. I think throughout many of the other stories that we're going to look at, he has a tendency to speak and act a little quickly. He kind of responds real fast to the situations that he's in. And he'll have a tendency to open up his mouth and speak a little bit too quickly. In my opinion. Now he's got a great heart. Peter's got an awesome heart. He's got this heart and he's just, I mean, he's, he's really a disturbed gut and he's kind of real, um, all in and real gung-ho with what he does. And we're going to see that in many other aspects, which is why another reason why he's a pretty cool, uh, person to study. But, um, he, he has a tendency to speak quickly. It is a tendency to be a little bit impulsive with his actions. So we're going to see a little bit more of that here. Now we're going to, we're going to look at the accounts given in Matthew and Mark, and I'll just read them for you on the turn there. Matthew chapter four, verse 18 says, and Jesus walking by the sea of Galilee saw two brethren, Simon called Peter and Andrew's brother casting a net into the sea for they were fishers. And he said, follow me and I will make you fishers of men. And they straightway left their nets and followed him. Now that's a lot shorter than all the other details that we've gotten to this point. If you notice that he says nothing about him going and teaching and, you know, dragging up all the other fish and doing all this other stuff. Um, it's, it's real quick into the point. Mark is the same thing. Mark chapter one says, now, as he walked by the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew's brother casting a net into the sea for they were fishers. And Jesus said unto them, come ye after me. I will make you to become fishers of men in straightway. They first took their nets and followed him. Now it's important to note this again, I kind of brought up a little bit in the beginning when we studied the Bible, none of these accounts are contradictory to one or the other. Now they don't all necessarily include the same information, but it's not false or inaccurate or anything like that. Matthew and Mark, it's pretty quick into the point and they just skip over a lot of the stuff that happened, but they go into more detail with other events and other things that happened. I mean, you can't give every single piece of information and every single account of the gospel. Otherwise there'd be no point of having different ones, but, um, they're not contradictory whatsoever, but we learned a lot more when we studied them from all these different angles and you can see what they're, what they're doing. And the different information is provided in these different accounts, I think, because they're trying to focus on different things and teach us different things. So what we see here in Matthew and Mark is that it was important to just show that like, when Jesus said, because they're, they're out there, they're working, they're fishers. Jesus said unto them, come ye after me and I will make you become fishers of men. It says in straight way, they forsook their nets and followed him straight way. That just means right away. Jesus called and they responded. Jesus said, Hey, follow me and I'll make you fishers of men. They said, done, let's do it. And I think it's repeated in both of those accounts because it's showing us one. I mean, that's trying to teach us a little bit, something different than the extra details teach. This is teaching us, look, when Jesus calls you, you should just go, just do it. When he, when he asks you to do something, he wants you to follow him. Hey, straight way, forsake your nets, forsake your job, whatever, whatever it is you got to do, whatever it is that he's asking you to do, and whatever requires you to do to follow Jesus, just follow him. Don't worry about it. And I think it's important to follow Jesus, just follow him. Don't worry about it. And I think that's what's being taught here in these accounts. Whereas in Luke, and it's in the account of Luke where it talks about him, tell him to let down their nets. That's going to be really important information later. We're going to see when we get to John 21, because that's almost that same exact scenario is going to come up again. And it's amazing how the Bible just works together in all these different facets and across the gospels and across the different books. I really hope you follow this because it's going to blow you away when you, when you just kind of get the whole picture of everything. In John chapter one, we saw that, that I believe that Andrew was already, you know, he was already a disciple of John the Baptist and he leads his brother Peter to Christ. And Peter answers a call to follow Jesus then. And he's, and he, and he, you know, he's introduced to them. Jesus comes, he gets on a ship and then, and tells them, okay, look, I want you to follow me. You're going to be a fisherman. And he, and he does. And it's also important to note too, before we get off of this story, we were getting into something else. You go ahead and turn to, I don't have to turn anywhere just yet. I don't know what we're going to do. Before we get off of this point though, Jesus Christ said, follow me and I will make you fishers of men. And I think this stands for us today too. He wasn't just, I mean, you're saying that to, to Peter and James and John when you're asking them to follow him. But if you follow Jesus Christ, if you become a disciple, if you decide you want to follow him, he says, I will make you fishers of men. He will make a soul winner out of you. If you decide to follow Jesus, you want to follow through, he'll make you to go out and catch men and to, and to, and to bring men into Jesus and to direct them to Christ. But you have to follow him. But Jesus is going to be the one that's going to do that. He'll make that for you. He'll make that happen. He'll make the change in your life. He'll make you to be able to do that, but it's up to you to follow him. It's up to you to do your part. And, and that's, that's reassuring. And he says he will do that for us. Now, another aspect of Peter we see in, in, you know, if you turn to Matthew 8, 14 says that when Jesus was coming to Peter's house, he saw his wife's mother laid in sick of a fear. Peter was married. Peter had a wife. And that's something you don't hear much of at all because Peter basically left and was following Jesus all over and doing the stuff that he was doing. But, um, it's, it's also, it's important to note this because there's a false religion out there called the Catholic church that teaches that Jesus, that Peter was the first Pope. And of course they have all the rules for the, for the Popes and for the religious leaders that they're, they have to be celibate. They can't be married. Well, they're very, if they are gonna call Peter their first Pope, their first Pope was married because it says in Matthew 8, 14 says, and when Jesus was coming to Peter's house, he saw his wife's mother laid in sick of a fear. Peter's wife's mother's mother-in-law was sick. When Jesus Christ came and Jesus, of course, Jesus healed her and she gets up and ministers unto him. But, um, Peter was married and it's, it's a small detail, you know, not the biggest thing in the world, but it's, it's an aspect of Peter's life. And it shows that, look, Peter was not the first Pope and it's, um, it's one of these false doctrines. I mean, people try to tell you that, Oh, if you're going to be an apostle, if you're going to be a man of God or whatever, and it's, it's totally distorted and totally alive. When the Bible actually says the exact opposite, that you're supposed to be, the Bishop is supposed to be the husband or the husband of one wife. Yes, I did get that right. And it wasn't the wife of one husband. The Bishop is supposed to be the husband of one wife. And that is part of the requirements laid out for the pastor, for the, for the Bishop, for the Deacon that you need to be married. Whereas a Catholic church now is saying, well, no, they can't be married. They're not allowed to be married. It's just completely contradictory description. Now, one thing you'll notice about the, um, I kind of alluded to this earlier with the disciples that Jesus seemed to have a top three in, in Peter, James, and John and many places where I look at a few of them right now, where they get access to these special events and see special things that the rest of the disciples just didn't get to do. In Luke 851, the Bible reads, and when he came into the house, he suffered no man to go in save Peter and James and John and the father and mother of the maiden and all wept and bewildered. But he said, weep not, she is not dead, but sleepeth. This is a miracle that Jesus Christ did on a, on a young girl where he brings her back to life. She actually died in Jesus. He brings her back to life from the dead and everyone else. He didn't sell, he didn't allow them to go into the house. He said, Nope, Nope. None of you guys can come in here. Of course the mother and father were in there, but he did allow Peter and James and John also to be in there to witness this miraculous event. So that was one cool thing that they got to be a part of that no one else did. Mark 9, 2 says, and after six days, Jesus taketh with him, Peter and James and John and leadeth them up into a high mountain apart by themselves. And he was transfigured before them. This is a cool event again. He takes just those three and they go into a mountain. And what it means when it says Jesus was transfigured at that moment, Jesus Christ was in his glorified body. So you and I today, we're in, we're in bodies of flesh. Jesus Christ was in a body of flesh and blood when he was walking around on this earth. One day at the resurrection, we are going to get a new body. We are going to be transfigured. We're going to get a brand new body. It's not going to be flesh and blood like we have now. It's going to be a slightly different body. It's going to be one where we don't have aches and pains. It's going to be a perfect body. It's not going to have the sinful lust of the flesh. It's going to be a perfect body. And we're going to receive that. Now, Peter, James, and John, they got to see, they got to behold this vision of Jesus Christ in his glorified state, transfigured into his new body, which again, it was something really cool. And they didn't even understand it at the time what they were witnessing, but they got to see that. And then also in the garden of Gethsemane, if you remember, right before Jesus was crucified, he went into the garden and he was real heavy. And that's where he prayed to God and was real sorrowful. And I mean, he was really just going through agony because he knew that his hour was come. He knew he was going to be delivered up and he would have to suffer all the things that he suffered. And we talked about another sermon where, you know, just the pain and agony and suffering that he went through for us. But he, right before all that stuff happened, he went into this place in his garden and he brought with him, it says in Matthew 26, 37 says, and he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee and began to be sorrowful and very heavy. So the people that he wanted with him in that hour of trouble and his time of need, those top three, again, throughout the Bible, you'll see that in the New Testament, that they were special people. So Peter was a special person. He was special to Jesus Christ. He was kind of seen as one of the main people, one of the main followers of Christ. Now we're going to look a little bit more, a little bit more into his impulsiveness. Go ahead and turn to Matthew chapter 14. We're spending a lot of time in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. I'll just keep you in Matthew for a while. Most of the verses that we're looking at are going to be in Matthew. So anytime we turn to Matthew, go ahead and flip there and I'll read the rest of them for you. Matthew 14, we're going to see a story here, and this is a really neat story. This is a really cool story about what Peter does here. Matthew 14, we're going to start reading in verse number 25. It says that in the fourth watch of the night, Jesus went unto them walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled saying, it is a spirit, they cried out for fear. But straightway, Jesus spake unto them saying, be of good cheer at his eye, be not afraid. And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And he said, come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid and began to sink. And he cried saying, Lord, save me. Immediately, Jesus stretched forth his hand and caught him and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? Now this is really cool. This is where we see Jesus Christ is walking on the water. He's walking out into the middle, just the middle of this lake. They're on the boat and they get scared. They get freaked out because they see this guy walking on the water. They're thinking like, is that a ghost? Is that a spirit? What is that? Jesus realizes this and he's like, okay, look, don't be afraid. It's just me, right? It's Jesus. I'm here. And so Peter, Peter pipes up and he's thinking, okay, Jesus, if it's really you, call me out there to you because he knows Jesus is going to lead them astray. So he said, if it's really you, Jesus, bid me to come out there with you. And he does. He says, come. So Peter, I mean, that takes a lot of boldness and just, I mean, think about that. Like even to just cross his mind, I think it's one of the things I love about Peter. He's just like, it came across his mind. He says, Hey, you're walking on the water. I want to walk out there on the water with you. Call me out there to you. And he did. And he starts walking on the water. Peter is the only apostle that got to walk on the water with Jesus Christ. Now, of course he got a little scared because there was like waves and summer on him. He looked at it. It's like, Whoa. Like, and he began to sink, but Peter got the chance to walk on water. That took a little bit of impulse, a little bit of, you know, he was thinking like, but his heart was in the right place. I mean, he's looking at, he was looking at Christ and saying, Hey, if you tell me to do this, I'll do it. If you call me out, I'll do it. And I think that's really cool. Another story about, about Peter here and a little bit of how he's got a little bit of an impulse, not necessarily always bad. And we see here, I mean, there's nothing wrong or bad with what he did there. It was, it was pretty cool. It was pretty neat that he was able to do that. John chapter 18, verse 10 says, then Simon Peter, having a sword drew it and smote the high priest servant and cut off his right ear. The servant's name was Malchus. Then said, Jesus, Peter put up thy sword into the sheep, that cometh my father of Britain, shall I not drink it? So here we see that's right when they come to arrest Jesus Christ. They come to arrest Jesus. And again, Peter, James, and John were with him in the garden of Gethsemane. And they come and they have all these swords and spears and stuff. And they come to take him. And Judas led him, of course, was the traitor and betrayed Jesus Christ. They come to arrest Jesus. And Peter's just like, boom, he pulls out his sword and he swipes it and cuts a guy's ear off. And again, not saying that that's bad, but Jesus says, okay, look, you know, we're not, we're not fighting with swords right now. You got to put up your, your sword. There's a reason why he's going through this. And there's a reason why he has to do this. So, you know, he kind of tells him to back off, but hey, Peter was the first one. He's just like, boom, I'm right there. I'm going to defend Jesus Christ. You know, I'm going to, I'm right here. He was, he was being solid there, but, but it was impulse. I mean, he was just like, boom, I'm ready to go. And then in John chapter 13, verse six, I'll read this for you as well. Go ahead and turn to Matthew 16, if you're still in Matthew. It's the Bible reads, Then cometh he to Simon Peter, and Peter saith unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet? This is at the last supper where we see, you know, Jesus humbles himself and he gets down, he decides to wash all the disciples feet. And then when he gets to Peter, Peter has asked him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet? Jesus answered and said unto him, what I do thou, what I do thou know is not now, but thou shalt know hereafter. Peter saith unto him, thou shalt never wash my feet. So Jesus already said, look, you don't know what I'm doing now. You understand it later. But, but Peter kind of answers pretty quickly. And again, we've seen this before. I think Peter has answers real quick. He says, thou shalt never wash my feet. Don't, you know, don't take apart from me, Jesus. Don't when Jesus is about to wash your feet, washing everyone else's. And Jesus says, look, you don't understand this right now, what I'm doing. Don't tell him never wash my feet. He's doing it for a reason. Jesus answered him, if I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me. So then we see the exact opposite. Peter says, Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. Like, Oh, if that's the case, then wash me everywhere. You know, I don't want to be missing out at all. But this is kind of like the way Peter acted. This gives us a little bit about the personality of Peter and how he was just, I mean, he really, with all of his heart was kind of, you know, one way or the other, and that's the way he went. And if you're in Matthew 16, look at verse number 21. It says from that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples, how that he must go into Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised again the third day. So he's explaining to him, look, I'm going to have to be killed. And the resurrection is going to happen. This is what's going to happen. Then in verse 22, it says, then Peter took him and began to rebuke him saying, be it far from the Lord. This shall not be unto thee. Again, he's saying these things, all these stuff that he's saying, he's got a good heart, right? I mean, we tell Jesus to depart from me. I'm a sinful man. He's got a good heart. When he tells Jesus, you know, not to wash his feet, he's thinking, Jesus, you shouldn't be washing my feet. I'm a sinner. You know, like he's looking at it from that perspective. And when he says here, you know, Oh, be it far from me. No, you're not going to be killed and be crucified and all that stuff. Like, that's not going to happen to you. His heart's in the right place, but look at what Jesus says to him in verse 23. He says, but he turned and said unto Peter, get thee behind me, Satan. Thou art an offense unto me for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men. Obviously, Peter should not have said that and reviewed Jesus Christ the way that he did. It was wrong for him to do that. But, and you can see why also, I mean, if your heart, your heart can be in the right place, but it doesn't mean you always do the right thing. Peter's heart may have been in the right place, but he shouldn't have done that. He shouldn't have spoke that way. And we ought to be careful with the words that come out of our mouth. We ought to be careful not to react too quickly or too rationally in a given situation. Sometimes situations call for quick action. I get that. But, you know, a lot of these answers, I mean, you see, you see Peter doing this, you don't really see the other disciples doing this like the way that he does. And this is something that we learned about him. Again, I mean, he has this great heart and he was definitely a leader. It's evidenced in the book of Acts and other places. Peter was looked up to. He got, he was able to get people to follow him. And, and he was definitely like a natural leader and he did many, many great things. And it's interesting to see his quick reactions in these situations. Now, as we saw earlier, he did some really cool things like walking on water. He was ready to fight for Jesus. He cut off that ear of Malchus, but I mean, he also rebuked Jesus. So this, this impulsiveness kind of has worked out, you know, I guess like in a couple of different ways for him. The last story we're going to look at is when Peter denied that he knew Jesus. Okay. This is, this is a low point for Peter. If we're in Matthew, go ahead and turn to Matthew chapter number 26. It's right near the end of the book of Matthew. Matthew 26. We're going to see here in verse number 33, I'm going to start reading. It says, Peter answered and said unto him, though all men should be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended. Again, he's kind of saying things, you know, I'm never going to be offended. He's kind of just, just making a blanket statement. Though everybody else is offended of thee, yet will I never be offended. Jesus said unto him in verse 34, verily I say unto thee that this night before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me, Christ. Three times he's going to deny him. Peter said unto him, though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee. Likewise also said all the disciples. Everyone's saying, look, we're not going to deny you Jesus. We're with you. We're with you to the end. And that's it. But look what happens in verse number 56 of the same chapter, Matthew 26. Everybody said, look, we're not going to forsake you. We're not going to leave you. We're with you. Verse 56, but all this was done that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Then all the disciples forsook him and fled. Everybody loved him, just as Jesus said what happened. He said, they all left. Verse 57, and they that had laid hold on Jesus and led him away to Caiaphas, the high priest, where the scribes and the elders were assembled. But look at verse 58. It says, but Peter followed him afar off unto the high priest's palace and went in and sat with the servants to see the end. So the words in verse 58 are really interesting because it says that that same phrase is used in the other gospels as well. The same exact phrase where it says, Peter followed him afar off. And Mark 14 54 says, and Peter followed him afar off, even into the palace of the high priest. And he sat with the servants and warmed himself at the fire. Luke 22 54 says, then took the him and led him and brought him into the high priest's house. And Peter followed afar off. I think it's important to note that that same phrase was used that Peter was following afar off because we're going to see what happens when Peter, see, he's still following Jesus. Now he fled, he ran away when they came to rest him, but he still is following Jesus, yet he's following afar off. It says he wanted to see what the end would be. So he's not getting too close. I just want to follow and just kind of see how things are going to play out, right? I'm just going to, I'm going to watch from back here. Let's see how that works out for him. Go ahead and turn it to Mark. I know I had you in Matthew. Turn real quick to the book of Mark. It's just one book over. Mark chapter 14. And we're going to see what happens here, how following afar off works out for Peter. Mark chapter number 14, right near the end, verse number 66. It says, the Bible reads, and as Peter was beneath in the palace, there cometh one of the maids of the high priest. And when she saw Peter warming himself, she looked upon him and said, and now also was with Jesus of Nazareth. But he denied saying, I know not, neither understand I what thou sayest. And he went out into the porch and the cock crew. And a maid saw him again and began to say to them that stood by, this is one of them. And he denied it again. And a little after they that stood by said again to Peter, surely thou art one of them for thou art a Galilean. And I speech agree it thereto, but he began to curse and to swear saying, I know not this man of whom you speak. He denied him three times, just like Jesus, again, as Jesus said he would, but look at the lack of boldness. Now this is the same Peter that just drew out his sword and cut off that servant's ear to defend Jesus, right? He had the boldness to do that. But when he did that, he was right next to Jesus. Jesus was right there with him. He had the boldness to pick up his sword and cut off that servant's right ear. When he's following afar off, he's way off, way away from Jesus, still following, but far off. He doesn't even have the boldness to say he knows Jesus to a maid. And more than one, a maid, a maid in the Bible, okay, a maid is a young girl. It's a virgin. Okay. We're not talking even about a grown, like a, like a, I don't know. I mean some, some higher up woman or something. The Bible's talking about maid. We're talking about a young girl. A young girl confronts Peter and he denies Jesus Christ to a young girl. He doesn't even have the boldness to say to a young girl, yeah, I am one of Jesus' servants. Couldn't even do that. And it gets even worse. I mean, he does that twice. Both, there's two maids here. And we see, I'm not even going to get into this with the whole other sermon of itself, in the different accounts of the gospel, with the cock crowing, Peter denied Jesus more than three times. It's clear. He denied him way more than three times. But we see in each of the accounts, three of the times that he, that he denies Jesus. Two of the times here is to a maid. It's to, to a girl. But then we don't know who it was to, it's because there was a group of people the third time in this, in this account that he, that he denies Jesus. But then it says, but he began to curse and to swear. So now you have someone who was, I mean, a disciple of Christ, following, doing the work. I mean, heavily involved with Jesus Christ, his whole ministry. And this is at the end of Jesus Christ ministry for three years. He followed Jesus Christ and he was doing all these great things. And I'm sure, I mean, he learned a lot. He, he was living righteously and do his good things, but then he began to curse and to swear. This is what happens if you say, well, I don't want to completely not follow Jesus, but I'm just going to follow a far off. You decide to follow a far off. You're not going to have the boldness that you need to do anything worth anything. Your, your conversation that the words that you use, you might begin to curse and to swear. Look, if you, if you're going to follow Jesus, you're going to be a disciple, don't follow a far off. It's not going to get you anywhere. Get as close as you can to Jesus. Get right up there with him. Then you'll get that boldness. Hey, then you'll be able to do great things. You'll be willing to pull out your sword and do, you know, and do whatever because you're gonna be right there with him. When Jesus is a far off, you're just not going to have that strength. You're not going to have the boldness. How close are you to Jesus? Let's, let's work on getting closer to him. Now, after all the niles, it says in Luke, Luke 22, 62, you have to turn. It says, and Peter went out and wept bitterly. He knew what happened. Jesus told him this was going to happen. Jesus told him he's going to deny him. I can't, it's hard to imagine how horrible he must've felt because he already said, I will, I will never, you know, leave you. That's not going to happen. I won't deny you. I'm with you to the end. Jesus said, you're going to deny me three times tonight. And he did it. Thought about those things. And he saw Jesus too. Like right after this happened, Jesus looked on him after the, after he had denied him three times. And Peter went out and says he wept bitterly. Now I've wept bitterly maybe once or twice in my life. Bitter weeping. That is, that is some serious, I mean, that's you when you're brought down really low. Some people, I don't even know if they've ever wept bitterly, but that's, that is, that is an extreme low point in your life. And, and you know, I don't wish on anyone's, it's a horrible thing. I mean, just to be that sorrowful and that sad. But Peter went through this. So he, he hit this, I mean, he hit this low point where he realizes, look, I just denied Jesus Christ. He is with him and serving with him. And he denied him three times. Very low point. Go ahead and turn to John chapter 21. I'm going to be wrapping things up here. So the last story we're going to do. John chapter number 21, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. We started in John one. We're going to finish in John 21. Last chapter of the book of John. Because now, of course, after, after this happens, after Peter denies Christ, you know, Jesus is crucified. He's buried. And then he's, he's resurrected again from the dead. And Peter's a witness of Jesus Christ after he was resurrected. Peter witnesses this, but this even, he's even a witness of that before we get to this story in John chapter 21, look at verse number two. The Bible says there were, there were together Simon, Peter and Thomas called Didymus and Nathanael, Cana and Galilee and the sons of Zebedee and two other of his disciples. Simon Peter said unto them, I go a-fishing. They say unto him, we also go with thee. They went forth and entered into a ship immediately. And that night they caught nothing. Verse number four, when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus. Then Jesus said unto him, children, have ye any meat? They answered him, no. And he said unto them, cast the net on the right side of the ship and ye shall find. They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw for the multitude of fishes. Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved said unto Peter, it is the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he girt his fisher's coat unto him, for he was naked and did cast himself into the sea. Now does that story sound a little bit familiar from what we just saw in the beginning of the sermon, but you know, Jesus had already told Peter, he said from henceforth, thou shall catch men. And this goes all the way back to where we started. When Peter was first became a disciple of Jesus, when he first decided to follow him, Jesus Christ said unto him, from henceforth, that means from now on, you're going to catch men. He was saying, you're done fishing for fish. You're done with them. They were not supposed to go back to their fishing jobs. Okay. Jesus had a different plan for them to do. You're going to go out and catch men. This is what I have for you to do. This is what I want you working on. But as we see here in verse three, it says, Simon Peter says unto them, I go a fishing. So he's already just saying, no, we're going to go back. And look what he does too, because it wasn't just him that went, it was basically everyone else that's here went with it. Peter was a leader. He was able to lead people about. Now as a leader, you can lead people to do good things, or you can lead people astray. And, and here he's kind of leading them just to go back out fishing is not what they're supposed to be doing. And his backsliding brought others with them. You got to watch out for that. The people that you spend time with and the people that you're around and you yourself, I mean, when you get into sale, when you get backside, there's people that are going to be looking to you. Even if you don't realize that you might not understand that you might think, why would anyone in the world want to be looking at me as an example? But you know what? There might be somebody, especially when there's kids around and stuff. You never know. I mean, kids get little, get heroes. They get people that they like, you know, like people that come to church or whatever that they just, they like someone for whatever reason. And they look up to them and you might not even realize it. You might have people that look up to you and they're going to be watching you and looking at an example that you're setting. And, um, it's important to know that because you can be part of dragging out. When, if you decide to get into statements, our backside, other people can look at that and you can bring them with you. And that's, that's not a good thing to do. Again, here, we see a repeat of what happened when Jesus first called them to follow him, which is really cool. Because, um, you know, he asks them, Hey, did you catch anything? Oh, we'll try it on the other side. Just like you told Peter, Hey, let down your nets for a drop. Here he's telling them, okay, let your nets. And sure enough, Jesus tells them to do it. And of course they get so many fish, you know, it's just a multitude of fish. They're not even able to pull it up out of the water into their boat because they get so many fish. And again, it's the same thing. They were, they were out all night and they didn't catch anything. Um, they were, they were working all night, got nothing. And, um, again, that's showing when they're, when they're doing the work in the flesh and relying on their own strength and their own power to do this stuff, you're not going to catch anything. You're not going to do anything, but when you're listening and following the commands of Jesus and Jesus is with you, Hey, you can catch, you can do all kinds of great things if Jesus is blessing you. Now, um, this is the last event to receive this impulsive behavior by Peter because Peter hears that it's Jesus. John, John realizes, John's in the boat. He said, look, okay, I remember what happened a few years ago. I remember when he told us to let the nets up. That's Jesus. That's Jesus on the shore. That's talking to us and telling us to let the net down. And the multitude of fish is like, there's no way. So Peter hears that he's just like, I'm not even gonna wait for these boats to row in the shore. He just jumps right in the water and, and swims to shore. Now, um, and that's just, I think that's one more thing where he's just like, Oh, it's Jesus. Boom. I'm there. And, um, it's also important to note here that the Bible says that he was naked and it's not in there by accident. It's not just some little detail that just like that's there for no reason, right? There'd be no reason to say it. It wasn't there for a reason. And it says he girt on his fisher's coat onto him for he was naked and it cast himself in the sea. And we'll, you'll see throughout the Bible, many places that, that basically being naked is a sign of, of, you know, when you're ashamed and when you're in sin, um, the Bible correlates that with being naked. Peter was in sin here. Peter was backslidden and basically he was naked and open and I'm not going to get into that very much, but, um, it's definitely not there by accident. Now, Jesus had a conversation with Peter in chapter 21 here. We're going to see, they get to shore, they see Jesus Christ, they know it's him. And Jesus has this conversation with Peter. I close with this in verse number 15, he says, so when they had died, Jesus said to Simon, Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, love is thou me more than these. He said unto him, Yay, Lord, now knowest that I love thee. He said, it done him feed my lambs. He said unto him again, the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, love is thou me. He said unto him, Yay, Lord, now knowest that I love thee. He said unto him, Feed my sheep. He said unto him the third time, Simon son of Jonas, love is thou me. Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, love is thou me. And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus said unto him, feed my sheep. And I think it's important to note that here too. Jesus asked him three times if he loved him. And that grieves. The third time he said it, it really just kind of stuck Peter in the heart and just said, you know, ouch. He just asked me three times if I love him. And how many times did Peter deny him? Three times. Peter denied Jesus Christ three times. Jesus came back and he asked him three times, do you love me? Do you love me more than these? You say, look, you know, I love you. The third time though, it had really stuck to grieve a little. But you know what? Sometimes, sometimes you need to hear that. Sometimes you need to hear God's word to pierce your heart. And, and you can say, look, God, you know, I love you, but sometimes you need to be reminded of some of the things you've done so that you can fix them going forward. It wasn't, Jesus wasn't saying that to him just because he hated him. He just loved him. Jesus definitely loved him. But he's saying, look, I want you to get right. I want you to stop this backslide. I want you to get back on track. And after this, we see Peter does, he gets right back into the swing of things and he gets on fire for serving God probably more than he ever was. And he ends up being martyred for the cause of Christ. He ends up, you know, giving up his life and not denying Jesus in the end. Even someone like Peter can backslide. Peter was a great man of God. We're not going to take anything away from that. He did a lot of great things. He was a very close disciple of Jesus's and he did many wonderful things, but he still backslid. He still had that happen. So whatever you do, whatever you do, if you backslide, don't let that take you out of the race for serving God. You may face a setback in your life. Don't quit. Don't quit. Peter could have quit at this point. I mean, he was, he was pretty much on that course of quitting when he, when he started up fishing again and doing this stuff, but Jesus called him back. He said, look, I want you, I meant what I said, or I want you to be a fisher of men. I want you to keep doing that. Don't let these setbacks get you out. Don't let, don't let that make you quit. Jesus or Peter went on to do amazing things as we're seeing in the book of Acts. I mean, he was healing people. People were coming. I mean, he was doing so many things for the glory of God after all of this happened. Whatever has happened in your life, you can, you don't know what's in store in front of you. Don't let the past bring you back down. Peter is an extremely interesting character. He definitely had a great heart. He was a little impulsive as we saw, but another thing that you may notice is that in this, something you might ask, I didn't really get into this a whole lot, but he asked Jesus a lot of questions. And that's, I think that's a good thing. He wants to know more about Jesus. He asks him a lot of stuff. He had many great attributes and many great acts. Let's try to learn from his strong qualities as well as from his weak qualities. You know, not, not to be so impulsive, not to be quick to speak, not to spout off the mouth real fast and quick to answer, but slow to speak and slow to wrath like the Bible says. Take things in, be careful with the things that you say. And again, I mean, Peter had a really low point yet that didn't knock him out of the race and Jesus wasn't done with him yet. Even though we had that problem, Jesus was not done using him. So let's, let's stay focused on Jesus. Let's learn from Peter. The Apostle Peter is an amazing character in the Bible. And hopefully you all were able to pick up a little bit of something here and, and we're able to learn more and we can apply that in our life. So let's, let's bow our heads and pray.