Simon Peter

Introduction

Hello everyone, my name is Justin Wittkopf, I am 27 years old, just turned this week. I am married to my beautiful wife, Katie, and we have almost 3 month old baby named Ellie. We also have a Cavapoo named Griswold who we love just as much. Me and my wife are both from Lancaster, California. We were high-school sweethearts, and we waited till after I graduated college to get married during covid in 2020. Now, I am the youth minister here at Grace Hills Church.

I have the great privilege of sharing a message with you all today. This is the week after our Easter message, where we proclaimed to all of you the good news. That God came down, lived a perfect life in our flesh, and died an excruciating death at the hands of his very creation, that whoever would believe in Him might have everlasting life, instead of the death and destruction we deserve for our rebellion against almighty and all-righteous and all-loving God.

1 Corinthians 15:3–8 (ESV)

1 Corinthians 15:3–8 ESV

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.

After Jesus resurrects he appears to all his disciples, along with more than 500 others, as well as to Paul who is the one writing this.

So that’s what Jesus does and in general most of the gospels end on around the same note, which is that after Jesus appears again to his disciples, he gives the great commission, which is to go tell the world the good news about Jesus, and then He ascends into Heaven, promising He will remain with us in a new form, called the Holy Spirit which resides in the hearts of every believer.

Most gospels end on that note. Except John’s gospel. John’s gospel has basically two great endings.

The first ending he talks about Jesus appearing, and he tells us the story of Thomas the disciple who doubted it was the resurrected Jesus. Thomas said, I would have to feel the wounds on Jesus hands and side to believe it was really him. And so Jesus showed Thomas his wounds and let him feel them, and then Doubting Thomas believes, and Jesus says this last line in John 20:29 “Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.””

Which is a great way to leave the book because we all go, hey! he’s talking about us! We don’t get to feel and see Jesus resurrected but we’re blessed to place our faith in Him regardless. That’s great. Then John wraps up with this. John 20:30-31

John 20:30–31 ESV

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

Perfect ending in my opinion. John is telling us that out of all the things Jesus did, he wanted to be selective, not exhaustive. John wanted to tell us core things so that we would believe that Jesus is the Son of God and we may have life in his name. That’s a perfect ending!

But John, doesn’t end it there. John reminds us that Jesus is the perfect fishing guide.

What?

Now what?

That is the good news, that is the gospel, one could say it’s the gospels. God gave us 4 different testimonies of the gospel, called, gospels. The four gospels are written by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. They are the first 4 books of the New Testament, the second half of your Bible. These testimonies all end in a very similar fashion, just like our Easter service did, they tell us that Jesus rose from the dead, the disciples and others found the empty tomb, Jesus appeared to his disciples, and 500 others, and then he ascended into heaven. Giving us one last command, go tell the world the good news. So that they may believe and be saved, before he descends again and judges the world. One gospel ends a little differently. John’s gospel first wraps up perfectly by telling us why he wrote his gospel.

John 20:30-31 30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

Now some of you in this room still have a lot of questions and criticisms about that statement and whether it’s true. Some of you are only now coming to the understanding of all the good news truly means for you. You’re learning how to trust in Him, how to follow Him, and what the gospel means for your life. Some of you have long understood the good news you’ve known it since you were a child. Nothing said on Easter was new for you, you’ve long trusted in the gospel. For so long you’ve known that you’re saved.

With so many different types of people in this room, some are on the path of understanding, some are far down that path, and some are still on the sidelines questioning if the path is true, and good, and leads where you want to go. What can I tell each one of you that would helpful with where you are in your walk?

Now what?

John continues his gospel, his good news for us. He gives us one more chapter. He could have ended it there, and it would have been a brilliant ending, but he doesn’t. He wants to tell us a story. A story about his friend, his coworker, his co-disciple, his co-fisherman, Simon. He wants to tell us the day that Simon truly became Peter.

This is the story I wanted to share with you today.

Everyone in this room, is either a Simon, a Simon Peter, or a Peter.

Let’s start by telling you more about who Simon was.

The Call of Simon

Simon was a man that worked a fishing business alongside John. They also fished with their respective siblings, Andrew and James. They would go out on their boat at night, and fish until morning. Simon was an unschooled and ordinary guy in that day. He was not exceptional by any means.

His older brother, Andrew, was kind of like a conspiracy theorist in his day. He was listening to this really crazy strange guy named John the Baptist. John the Baptist kept telling Andrew that the long awaited Jewish Messiah was walking amongst them. The one day Andrew came running to Simon’s house to tell him that he finally met the Messiah. Simon followed Andrew to him, and met Jesus where he was staying. When Jesus saw Simon, he told him “You are Simon, your father’s name is John. You shall be called Cephas (which means peter)” Which meant, “rock”. Kind of an odd to get a nickname from someone you just met, kind of odd to pick a name that means rock. But that’s what Jesus said to him. You shall be called Peter. But it would be a few years before he truly was Peter. The next time Simon saw Jesus, there was a crowd gathering to hear his teaching, on the shore of Galilee. Jesus got inside Simon’s fishing boat, and told him to go a little from the shore, so everyone could see and hear his teaching across the water. When Jesus was done teaching, he turned to Simon and told him to take the boat further out to see, where the water was deep, and to let down his fishing net into the water. Simon told him, master, we’ve been fishing all night and took nothing, but at your word, I will let down the nets. When Simon lets down the net he makes a huge catch of fish, so much he has to call his friends to get the other boat and help, they had so much fish they filled both of the boats up, and the boats were so filled up that they began to sink! Simon was so astonished at Jesus’s miracle and abundant generosity he fell at Jesus knees, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” 9 For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, 10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” 11 And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.

Here are the three parts of Simon’s call.

1. His name was changed to Peter, which meant “Rock”

2. He was told he would be a fisher of men, instead of a fishermen, meaning he would catch people instead of fish.

Πέτρος (Petros) is simply Greek (naturally, because the New Testament was written in Greek) for the name Jesus actually gave him in Aramaic: כיפא (Kefa—Rock).