Simon Peter The Twelve Apostles Sermon Series Part 2 of 14

Hello and welcome to Social Media Ministries, my name is Spencer Coffman. Thanks for being with us today. We’ve got a great sermon planned. If this is your first time you are in luck, we are diving into a sermon series. This is part number two, we’re in a 14-week sermon series.

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Like I mentioned, we’re in a sermon series. You can check out last week’s message by going to our YouTube channel and finding the channel playlist on the Twelve Apostles or going to our website and finding it there.

Today we are talking about Simon Peter. Now Simon Peter was perhaps the most well-known disciple. Last week we mentioned that less than 5 percent of the world’s population could only name six disciples, most of them can indeed name Simon Peter.

A lot of people just go by the books of the Bible, so they start saying Matthew, Mark, Luke, John… Well, there they got two out of the 12 because Luke and Mark are not in the disciple list. But they got two.

And then most of them can name Peter, and then pretty much everyone knows Judas – the one who betrayed Jesus. And so, those four are pretty straightforward giveaways. It’s the next two that they have some struggle coming up with, but by the time this series is done, you’re going to be able to name all 12.

Simon Peter. We’ve got two names there. Simon and Peter. Then he was also known as Kefas or Cephas, depending on how you pronounce it. So he’s got three different names and different translations.

Throughout the New Testament, those three names are in there over 200 times. About 209 times, 219-209ish times in the Bible, and it’s in about 178 different verses.

Now, of course, some people say, “Oh no it’s over 200 verses, I typed it in on Google.” Well, sometimes it might say in a verse Simon Peter so then they count that as twice but it’s really in the same verse, so you cannot count that twice.

So if you go individually, how many times is Simon Peter, even if he has two names in one verse, how many times is he mentioned in the Bible? It would be 182 instances with 178 verses and over 200 times are his names mentioned throughout the Bible.

What is the point of all that? The point is to show you that this guy was talked about a lot. Especially, when some of the other disciples are only mentioned five times throughout the Scriptures, Simon Peter — Cephas — over 200 times.

What does this tell us? This tells us he was important. They’re all important, but this guy was a lead role. He was the leader of the pack. He was the one that started it, that really helped keep everyone going. So let’s learn about him and see what you can find out and how you can apply his life to your life.

This is going to be a heavy Bible day. We got a lot of verses. A lot of scripture so bear with me as I am flipping through them all because it’s too many if I have all the bookmarkers. They’re all in the same areas. With all these bookmarks you cannot be flipping back, I’ll never know. We can only use so many markers. Then from there it’s gonna be page-turning, so get ready.

You are gonna be turning your pages. Warm up your fingers or get ready to type it in on your Bible app or your iPad or something. Now, of course, I could get an iPad if someone wants to donate one, I would be more than happy to quickly punch up verses like that and have them ready to go, but for now the old-fashioned way.

So let’s dive in. Who was Peter? Simon Peter. He was a Galilean. He lived in Galilee. Now what is that? Well, that is where a lot of these apostles came from. He was also the son of Jonah. Some translations of the Bible say “John” but we are pretty sure it’s Jonah because he was known in other verses as “bar Jonah” and “bar” means “son of.” So it’s a very good chance that his father’s name was indeed Jonah.

Let’s go to Matthew for starters. Matthew Chapter 16 Verse 17, “Jesus replied, blessed are you Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in Heaven.”

We will get to what that is later on, but son of Jonah. John Chapter 1 Verse 42 (John 1:42), “Jesus looked at him and said, you are Simon, son of John, you will be called Cephas, which, when translated, is Peter.”

All right the word “Cephas” is Aramaic and “Peter” is Greek, and both of those words incidentally mean “rock,” which is where our other verse was in Matthew when Jesus continued, “Blessed are you for I tell you, that you Peter, on this rock I will build my church.”

Well, because Simon Peter and Cephas mean rock, well not necessarily Simon, but Peter and Cephas mean rock. So, he was a fisherman who lived in Bethsaida and Capernaum, so he was all around that area.

Now let’s go back to a little bit of a translation. Why in Matthew was he son of Jonah, and why in John is he named John? Well, it’s very possible that Jonah was the Aramaic version and John could have been the Greek word for Jonah and so they just translated it.

In addition, his name could have had a John in it or they could have all been sons of Jonahs and his father could have been known as a John as well. As to why, does it really matter who his father was? We have it in two instances in the Bible, depending on your translation it could be different, but you can go from there.

Peter, we know that Peter was one of the apostles who was married, so that must have been very hard. For those of you who are thinking of joining the mission field and you say, “But I do not want to leave my family or my wife and my children.”

Peter was a married man. How do we know this? Let’s go to 1 Corinthians 9:5. It says, “Don’t we have the right to take a believing wife along with us, as do the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Cephas? Or is it only I and Barnabas who must work for a living?”

Now, you say, “That was very confusing. What’s all that about?” Well, we have Peter in here and it says, “taking a believing wife along with us,” so who is the believing wife? Well, they’re talking about Peter’s. We also know in other verses that Peter had a mother-in-law because they went to his mother-in-law’s house.

He was a leader in every list of disciples. Every list. He is mentioned first. Of course, I mentioned this, he had two other names due to the different languages. Simon was the Greek name and we see this in Mark.

So if you wanna go to Mark Chapter 1 Verse 16, it says, “As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen.’” So Peter was a fisherman. Simon — Greek name.

John 1:40, go there. John 1:40 says, “Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus.” So we have Simon there and then of course, in 41 if we continue on,

“The first thing that Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, ’We’ve found the Messiah, that is the Christ,’ and he brought him to Jesus.” We’ll talk about Andrew next week, so stay tuned for that.

All right we said Cephas is his Hebrew name. We see this in 1 Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 1:12, so you can check that out, 1 Corinthians 1:12 says, “What I mean is this, one of you says, ‘I will follow Paul.’ Another, ‘I will follow Apollos.’ Another, ‘I will follow Cephas.’ Still another, ‘I will follow Christ.’”

And then of course, if you go to the footnotes, that Cephas is Peter, however, you choose to pronounce it. Most of the time it’s a “C” from Arabic or Aramaic, the “C”, that was probably the “S” sound.

So in pronunciation, tt was probably Sea-fas because it would be with a “seen” letter which is like a “W” in English. If it was a “K” that would be like that harder sound and that would be like a squiggle, it’s like a “kaf” letter then it would be Kefas.

But because it’s a “C”, like for example, my name Spencer, the middle is a “C”. They use the first letter as the same and my middle letter is the same for that “C” for the “sss” sound. And so, um, that is why most people probably pronounce it as Sea-fas.

But in America, we like to read things with a bunch of different sounds and we have many words that mean the same thing or that are spelled differently and sound the same, or that are spelled the same and sound differently.

Read and read, for example, spelled the same. Or lead and led, two different definitions and two different spellings and all kinds of stuff.

So whether you want to pronounce it as Sea-fas or as Kefas is up to you and no one is going to judge you because they shouldn’t judge you. That’s not their place so do not feel bashful however you pronounce it. The point is who it is, you know who it is and that is Peter.

All right 1 Corinthians 3:22 is another one, we also see Cephas, or Sea-fas, his Hebrew name. I will read that for you, 3:22, we might as well dive into more of the Scripture here. So, “Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, or the world, or the life, or the death, or the present, or the future, are all yours.”

And basically, these are just lists of who are you following, what are you doing? It’s also in 1 Corinthians 9:5, it’s also in Galatians 2:9. There are other instances throughout the Bible.

If you want to know where each of these names is throughout the Bible, then I encourage you to check out an excellent website. It’s called Complete-Bible-Genealogy.com. There’s a hyphen between each word. Complete hyphen Bible hyphen Genealogy dot com. Excellent website.

You can type in Peter or Simon Peter and you can pull up all of the verses that have him in it. So that’s pretty cool. Greek and Arabic, both of those names, mean rock. Peter.

Basically, he was the foundation of the disciples. He was their leader. He was their backbone. Their spokesperson. He was Peter, the rock. The bold. He was out there.

Let’s go to Matthew 16 Verse 18, Matthew 16:18. Let’s see, 16:18, “Jesus rebuked the demon and it came out of the boy and he was healed from that moment.” That is Matthew 17:18 about the unbelieving generation. This is a different story on when there was a boy and the disciples couldn’t cast it out and Jesus says,

“Oh unbelieving and perverse generation.” He rebukes the demon and casts out the demon. And then his disciples say, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?” And He says, “Because you had so little faith.” So they needed more faith. That was their lesson.

But Peter was the spokesperson who would ask these questions, who was bold enough to say that, and if we go to the proper Verse, Matthew 16:18 is the Verse where it says, “‘And I tell you that you are Peter and on this rock, I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.’”

And so Jesus is saying, “Peter, on you I will build my church.” What is the church? Is He literally going to lay Peter down as a dead body and pour the foundation on top of him and build a church?

No, He’s saying, “Peter, you are the backbone. You are the rock. You are the foundation. You will build the church.” What is the church? It’s not a building, it’s a people. You will become the foundation of the church.

We had a sermon about what the church is and it’s the body of Christ. It’s a whole series, you can check that out on our YouTube channel or on our website as well. Peter was the one that asked the questions that everyone else was thinking.

In the instance of rebuking that demon, it would be Peter that would say, “Hey, why couldn’t this happen?” Because other people would be too bashful or too scared to ask Jesus. Peter was the guy that would ask.

He said in Matthew Chapter 15 Verse 15, he said, “Jesus explain this parable to us,” and then Jesus was like, “Are you guys still so dull?” And when they were out on the boat and Jesus would say,

“Hey, beware the yeast of the Pharisees,” and then the disciples would be muttering like, “Is He saying this because we forgot to bring bread? Is He saying it for this?”

Or when He says, “In a little while, you will see me, and in a little while, you will not see me, and you will grieve, and you will not grieve, and I will be back.” And they’re like,

“What does He mean in a little while you see me? In a little while, what is He talking about?” They just talked amongst themselves, but they were not really bold enough to present it to Jesus.

And oftentimes, Jesus just said, “Hey, are you guys still not figuring this out?” Because, obviously, Jesus was God and He knew that that is what they were doing.

But in some instances when it was just too much and Peter is like, “I do not want to sit here and talk to you guys about it, let’s just ask.” Peter would ask. He would ask the questions. He was bold enough to do that.

Matthew 18:21. We’ve talked about this Verse before, so maybe you recognize it. But it’s when Peter, he would ask, how often do you have to forgive? 18:21, “Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, ‘Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?’” And Jesus of course says, “No, seventy times seven.” As many times as possible.

In addition, Peter also asked a very daring question. He said, what is in it for those who follow Christ? Matthew 19:27, he said, “Peter answered Him, ‘We’ve left everything to follow you. What then will there be for us?’” He said, “Jesus, what is it going to be for us? We’ve left everything, what are you going to do for us?” He asked the bold questions.

Eventually, Peter realized he was the one who would ask Jesus these questions. He had more insight. He was the rock. He was the foundation. He was the leader. He was mentioned first and, guess what? Peter became proud.

He became proud and eventually, he was rebuked by Jesus. Matthew 16:23, “Jesus turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me Satan, you are a stumbling block to me. You have not the mind of things of Heaven but of this world.’”

He said, “Hey, get behind me, you are a stumbling block to me. You are thinking about this world, not Heaven and we want to be focused on Heaven.” Peter became proud because Jesus had said, “Hey, I am going to die and leave and suffer,” and Peter then took Jesus aside and began to rebuke Jesus.

“Never Lord,” he said, “This will never happen to you.” And Peter was probably doing it as a show of faith, like “No, it will never happen.” Jesus said, “Ah get away Satan.” He called him Satan because he knew Satan was on him.

And we also know that Satan had asked to sift Peter as wheat and Jesus said, “But I have prayed for you that you may prevail and learn from it and use it to further and encourage the believers.”
We know later, that he did get sifted and Peter ended up denying Christ.

Such a big follower of Jesus, or such an important disciple, and, all of a sudden, he started denying Christ. But that is because Satan was sifting him like wheat. Not a pleasant process in those days. It was real grinding and there’d be a lot of friction and tension and turmoil there. So Peter did, he eventually, he got sifted and, yes, he denied Jesus.

And we’re going to turn to Luke 22:56-62 to find out a little bit more about that. So I am going to read them quickly. 56-62, Peter disowns Jesus. “A servant girl saw Peter seated there by the firelight. She looked at him closely and said, ‘This man was with Him.’ But he denied it, ‘Woman I don’t know Him’ he said. A little later someone else saw him. ‘You also are one of them.’”

This is when they had taken Jesus away to be crucified or to be held for trial and all the disciples scattered. So they were laying low, they were cloaked and hidden. “‘You were one of them.’ ‘I am not,’ Peter replied.

About an hour later, another asserted, ‘Certainly this fellow was with Him for he is a Galilean.’” Oh, because all Galileans were with Jesus? “But Peter replied, ‘Man, I do not know what you are talking about,’ and just as he was speaking the rooster crowed.”

Now, whether it was a rooster or whether it was the morning call to prayer, with the call to prayer up on the rooftop shouting, whether it was a real rooster or call to prayer doesn’t matter. Some translations have it differently.

But the point is, Peter, over the course of the night, it said the first time it happened. Then, about an hour later, another time it happened. And then, a couple hours later, another time it happened. So over a period of like four hours, Peter denied Jesus three times and then the morning call to prayer happened which would have been at about dawn, or five in the morning over there.

So from maybe like say, midnight, or two in the morning on. If they arrested Him at midnight, or one in the morning arrested Jesus, then they fled. Peter denied Christ three times within that four-or-so-hour period.

And then, of course, he began to cry because he realized what Jesus had said came true and that Satan did indeed sift him as wheat. So then he, obviously later, goes back and strengthens his brothers. He writes a couple of books that bear his name, 1 Peter and 2 Peter, and he is out there doing good.

Eventually, Peter ended up dying a brutal death. He became crucified. He was crucified for following Jesus. However, when it happened, he obviously remembered that he denied Christ and so, when he was going to be crucified he said,

“I am not worthy to die like Christ, please crucify me upside down instead of right side up. I cannot die like Christ, I am not worthy.” Of course, they were happy to oblige and they crucified him upside down which I imagine must have been even worse.

But the point is Peter eventually did die for his faith, not that that is a great redeeming factor, but he was a great Christian. Peter followed Jesus. He lived for Jesus and he died for Jesus. All the way through.

He brought many more people into the Kingdom. He taught. He gave wisdom. He shared his gifts. He used his gifts and he even left us a lot to learn about.

So what are you going to do? You know who Simon Peter is. You know what he stood for. You know what he did. Now, you can apply that to your life, or you can simply go on with your life. And you say, “How do I do that?”

Well, applying it to your life, the most important thing, would be living for Jesus. He doesn’t want you to die for Him, because if you die then you are gone. You need to live for Christ. Share it while you are here, share, share, share. Tell more people about Jesus and keep living for Him.

You die for Him, it’s over, how many more people can you save? You live for Him. You can save a person every day. A lot more. So, I encourage you. Take Simon Peter’s example. Live after Him. Follow His footsteps. Follow Jesus, and live for Jesus.

Let’s pray. Lord Jesus, thank you so much for this message today. Thank you for the great example, not only that you gave us, but that you gave us through Peter and for the incredible Christian that he was. The incredible follower that he was.

Lord, I ask that you would inspire each and every one of us to be more like you and also more like Peter. Peter was fully human, so maybe some people can relate to him a little better, even though Jesus, you were human as well.

But please help us to be able to follow the examples to live like Peter. And I ask that you would inspire each and every person out there to learn more about these apostles, about these disciples.

That they would really dig in and learn more and then apply that to their lives and be a great example and a great follower of you. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

So that’s it. Next week, stay tuned. Come back. We’re going to be talking about Peter’s brother Andrew. God bless.