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peter and john the sons of zebedee i'm sorry peter and john brothers of each other and the son of john and older john

will you just let me get that right i'm sorry i dropped a very bad stitch then we will have this record correct now peter and andrew are the sons of john and james of john the son of zebedee were called by the sea of galilee some little time afterwards and it was about that time that we have a description of the first important episode in peter's career which if you'd like to turn to you will find in luke chapter five

the editor of tapes is going to have quite a job putting that slip straight but it won't matter luke chapter five now verse one

and it came to pass that as the people pressed upon him to hear the word of god he stood by the lake of guinesses 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 boats which was simon's and prayed him 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

now simon so far as far as we know has said nothing in the lord's hearing nothing that we've been told

now he willingly places his boat at the master's disposal as a pulpit to preach from and the lord preaches long and effectively and now it seems the day is growing older and the preaching is over and the lord has something else to ask for go out into the sea the lord says to simon and let down your nets and catch some fish

now we have the first of what you might think was peter's hot-headed statements

master we toiled all night and took nothing

nevertheless thy word i will let down the net

was it so hot-headed

they'd only recently met jesus after all they didn't really know him very well yet they knew he was a good preacher they knew he could see something of what went on inside the hearts of men but fishing why should a carpenter from galilee why should even the preacher sent by god know anything about fishing let every man peter might have been saying stick to his lust lord you know about preaching and i listen to you i know about fishing you listen to me there's no fish in this sea at this point we know we tried all night and we didn't catch so much as a solitary strat

it could have been an upstart superior assumption of knowledge but it might have been something better wrong but quite sensible from a human point of view

peter could have been saying lord

wouldn't it be wiser if you didn't run the risk

everybody is listening to you preaching and they know your preaching is wonderful but if we go out to see it your commander we don't catch any fish what will they think of you then lord your reputation won't be so good then will it stick to your preaching lord i would

humanly speaking extremely wise counsel

not from the lord

the lord knew more than words

he knew god's universe

he knew what went on in the mind of his father so put out for a draft he says

all right an effect says peter i will do it but remember it's your responsibility you're the captain from now on at thy word

i will let down the net

the thing is fairly and squarely on your shoulders

it says something for peter's common sense that he did that but he was wrong

it says something for the lord's great confidence that he took that what humanly speaking would have been risk and went out

his reputation did hang on this

a failure

and he might have been a failure too

well they let down the net and they got the fish and the amount was so great that the nets were about to break and the boat to sink and they had to have help from james and john to get the catch home and peter's reaction

depart from me

for i'm a sinful man

oh lord

that was not to be the only time that people would ask jesus to leave them

there was a later occasion by this very sea

when the lord had healed an incurable demoniac

and the madness from that man had gone within the bodies of a herd of swine who had rushed down the steep place and been drowned in the sea

and the swine herds saw that cured man and they saw those lost pigs and they weighed them in the balances and decided for the pigs and decide lord

go away

they besought him

that he would depart out of their coasts

they were sinful men who didn't want to change

peter was a sinful man who knew that it would be painful to change but whose attitude was quite plainly not lord don't stay but lord i'm not fit that you should stay a bit like the man who said i am not worthy that i should have come under my roof lord i'm no fit company for the likes of you

inside his heart was peter saying he knew about fish when i didn't

there wasn't if he's there either i knew that

how did he know

did he bring them there might have been what manner of man is this that even the fish obey him

in the thought of that simon peter on his knees depart from me for i am a sinful man

whatever it was he didn't want the lord to go and the lord didn't go and this man who said he can see the sea he can see the fish he can see what's going on inside me had confessed his sinful heart once and would be strengthened against the assaults of the sinfulness of that art yet once and again

throughout the long periods of the lord's preaching one of the most striking and somewhat i think the most shameful episodes in peter's career was what happened just after the feeding of the five thousand

you will remember that five thousand men besides women and children had listened to the lord preaching and it stayed behind and the lord had fed them miraculously from the multiplication of five barley loaves and two fish

you will remember too perhaps that at the end of that the multitude was so entranced by his power to produce food at the drop of a hat as it were that they were willing to take him by force and make him a king

and according to that record of the feeding of the five thousand given in matthew's gospel jesus sent his disciples away across the sea while he himself dismissed the multitude and you might ask why would he do a thing like that why couldn't he have kept his twelve around him

no sooner asked than answered

they wanted a kingdom too

they were still quite young in the experience of the lord it would be some time afterwards before they saw that the cross must come before the crown here was a golden opportunity for kingship why not let the multitude do it lord which surely had been that inward thought for that moment jesus couldn't rely upon his twelve they would have been perhaps on the side of the multitude while thinking that they were on his side far better they go away

far better he sends the multitude away himself

so in matthew chapter 14 we are told that he did and then sapped him all strength himself that he too went up into the mountainside to seek for a renewal of strength and resource that whatever tomorrow's temptations might bring they might not find him yielding before the blandishments of an obedient multitude

and that night the disciples were part way across the sea when the lord met them walking on the water

and peter once more spoke out of turn lord he said lord if it be thou bid me that i come unto thee on the water poor silly peter we say what a rash thing to do why couldn't he keep quiet

why indeed

i would have kept quiet

so did the other eleven

so i suppose would most of you

and i would have kept quiet because i'd have been hanging over the other side of the boat for dear life

or if i hadn't i'd been groveling in the bottom trying to pretend the sea wasn't there walk on that water they might walk an army on it but not me i'd have been too afraid

so are they all

and if peter could rise only so high as to say lord if it be thou bid me that i come he had spoken a gesture of faith which out topped by a mountain's height

the faith of anybody else in that company even though the lord could later say hold our little faith

his faith was little in this matter

theirs it seems was zero

he walked too for a while

his faith sustained him

till a squall of spray hid the lord from his view

or the mighty wind buffeted him a little or a wave rose too high and he looked at his feet at the waves of the spray heard the roaring of the wind and forgot the voice of his master and began to sink

lord save me

i perish

not a bad cry for many difficulties is it

if he had to get into difficulties at all at least he knew where to ask for the answer

he was a man of little faith but not a man of none he fell but he rose again the lord took him by the hand and they went together to the boat and all the multitude joint together in that small boat and said truly this is the son of god

and next day the multitudes were back

next day according to john chapter 6

they were ready to make him a

king the lord preached to them

labor not he said for the meat that perisheth but for that which endureth unto eternal life

which the son of man shall give unto you

the most you've rubbed their ears

rubbed their tightening belts too no doubt wondered when the barley loaves were coming on the menu looked around for the two fish

there were no loaves and no fish

and very soon almost no disciples

there will be some here who have experienced a tight-packed open-air crowd

growing bored

thinning out people in the outskirts vanishing people near us stepping back

this is what happened in that company that day and soon so many had gone away because all they were being offered was the bread of life and they didn't believe in that soon so many had gone away that the lord must turn to his twelve and say will ye also go away

i wonder

had they shown signs of going

was their own faith disillusioned a little

had one perhaps turned and whispered to another and said there's nothing for us here he's not the kind of man we thought he was we better go while the going is good was there perhaps a stepping backwards on the part of some or one

of those twelve

if there was

there was somebody who wasn't doing that

will he also go away the lord said and peter's answer was lord to whom shall we go

thou hast the words of eternal life and we believe and are sure that thou art the christ the son of the living god

that wasn't speaking out of turn

if peter had had time to prepare that speech and write it down on his cuff he couldn't have made a better one every solitary ingredient in that speech is just right

lord

to whom shall we go

the others weren't going to anybody they were just going away

the ripples grew bigger and bigger the further and further they got from their lord but there was no other focus for them they were just vanishing lord said peter we wouldn't go unless it's somewhere better to go

there isn't anyone better to go as far as we can see lord to whom shall we go

and then

thus the words of eternal life

he must have been listening very carefully while the multitudes were melting away because those were almost jesus opening words verily i say unto you he said you seek me not because ye saw the signs but because he deleted the loaves and were filled labor not for the meat that perisheth but for that which endureth unto eternal life

which the son of man shall give unto you we're not leaving you lord peter says we're waiting for the feast

thou hast the words of eternal life

we know that you can make us sit down by 50 and a company and give us the food which a man eats our enlist forever and still there will be basketball left over that's not a casual off-top remark of a superficial man

and then

we believe and are sure that thou art the christ the son of the living god

had already been said once by nathanael you remember

it had really been said more or less the previous night when peter and jesus got into that boat

they all said truly this is the son of god. and if we have understood the tenses correctly what peter is really saying is lord we have believed

and we are still sure

that you are the christ the son of the living god we are not put off by a little thing like that lord we meant what we said

when we called you the son of god

perhaps they didn't all know they did

perhaps the man if there was one who had beckoned with his thumb and said let's get out there's nothing for us here didn't feel like that even now

perhaps we could give that man a name

for jesus no doubt looking with loving satisfaction upon that prime confession of simon peter said have not i chosen you twelve

and one of you

is a devil for jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not

and who it was that should betray him

was it judas who'd been suggesting there's nothing left for us

jesus had noticed something anyway

we go a long way north

to what is called in the chapter we read together the coast caesarea philippi

i don't know whether i've ever asked you to do this before but it's an interesting exercise you've got the kind of bible which has maps in the back which are on the same scale for both old testament and new testament then one day take the old testament one and pick a pin through damn

when you do you'll find you've just missed caesarea philippi by on my maps scale about a sixteenth or an eighth of an inch a couple of miles say

what was jesus doing near dan

only once before as far as we know it had been as far north as that that was the tower on the coast

now he's at dan ornelia down in land done of all israel from dan to beersheba the northern boundary jesus had gone a long way north

and was his faith still facing north i wonder when he said that did it look like exile

there was telling of a hotbed of trouble for him

much difficulty was being aroused spies were on his track disciples were being asked awkward questions i'm sure that the public prosecutors dossier was being nicely filled up with evidence against jesus christ

it could almost seem that he was leaving the scene of the unequal and unsuccessful conflict

and so with one foot out of palestine as it were he says to his disciples whom say men that i am

or they didn't mind telling him that

some say john the baptist some say that prophet some say elias some say and they gave him quite a list but they shouldn't escape that way

they may have wanted to escape but they mustn't be allowed to whom say ye that i am

peter blundering in again without the christ you think

it doesn't read to me like blundering

that some say moses some say elijah some say jeremiah some say one of the prophets seems to be like procrastinating

chilly shallowing trying to avoid the point we don't mind telling you what they think but just at the moment we're too much in doubt to tell you what we think after all the lord might have been going into exile they might have thought the disciples could have been mightily dispirited and if in that disheartened company somebody could stand up and say dart the christ

the son of the living god that's a rallying call

he's not a careless utterance by a man who doesn't think what he says

not by any means

and jesus knows it isn't

blessed art thou simon barjona

for flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee

but my father which is in heaven

blessed art thou is a rather heady statement

it's easily misunderstood

if i said to christ i believe you are christ the son of god and he said blessed art thou alfred ben alfred

i say to myself he's congratulating me i must have been pretty good that was a clever remark to make

it wasn't you know it was right

it was timely

it was faithful

it wasn't clever

blessed are thou doesn't mean congratulations it means you are happy

or you have been blessed

flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee but my father which is in heaven peter might have been asking for the revelation

if he is the kind of man i think he is emerging to be i wouldn't be surprised to find that peter 2 had been praying lord make me sure

let me know that this really is my christ other people said how long does that make us to doubt

that could well have been part of peter's praying

and the prayer had been answered flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee

but my father which is in heaven

but as i said it's the same remark as nathaniel made a couple of years ago

it's not very different to the one that peter himself had made after the feeding of the five thousand and yet he says it now again and the lord said blessed art thou simon why had times changed so much that the same statement now meant so much more

oh because it was fairly easy to confess to christ when everybody was waiting for him

that's what nathanael did

because it was no more difficult not as difficult as it was going to be to say you are the christ the son of the living god when he had fed 5 000 people

and because now with the lord faced northward going it seemed into exile with everybody against him amongst the rulers it was very hard to say the same thing now

and peter said it still

thou art the christ

the son of the living god

the lord's answer is more wonderful yet than peter's confession there are two men there each with his several father

peter the son of john

jesus the son of god

and jesus says i say unto you that you are simon the son of john

just as he said to jesus you are christ the son of god

it was not flesh and blood that revealed this unto thee

but my father

which is in heaven you don't get that kind of thing from men

you only get that from god

if only peter had been content to accept that at its face value he might even on this occasion have made any mistake at all

the lord might have been able to go straight on from and thou art peter and upon this rock i will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it and explained in pull what he meant by that but for the moment

peter did make a very bad mistake he was to make more

but he made one now

the lord turned back as peter had wanted him to

set his face to jerusalem in the way they all wanted

and said

the son of man goes to jerusalem to be betrayed into the hands of sinners

and to be put to death

and the third day rise again

i've often been puzzled why it was that the disciples didn't hear that statement right out and see death and then rising they always seem to be worried about the dying they never seem to take hope from the rising

but i wonder would you have done in those circumstances

you can believe a man who says let's go and be king and takes the necessary steps

which jesus didn't

you can believe him and he says i'm going to go and be killed and takes those steps which jesus look him saying lord this shall not be unto thee after all why not i'm a good counselor i've just told him he's the christ the son of the living god i better see to it he doesn't make a mistake about it you can see peter saying that

and the lord turns upside down all his blessings to him

instead now of blessed art thou it's get me behind me

instead of upon this rock i will build it there's a stumbling block unto me if you stay there you'll trip me up

instead of flesh and blood has not revealed this but my father it's not saying it's not the thing to be of god

but those that be of men

you know had it been the intention of matthew to sit out and write poetry he couldn't have put the thesis and antithesis of that discussion between jesus and peter more beautifully and more symmetrical than he has done it's a marvelous piece of revelation

and peter is crushed

the lord looks with sympathy and pity upon that abject form who's told him is christ and now seeing that he won't do anything christ like

and says

verily i say unto you

there is some standing here we shall not taste of death

till they see the son of man coming in his kingdom

and though some were peter james and john

the exceeding high mountain was the place and the lord with his raiment white and glistering and his face shining as the sun with moses and elias flanking him was the evidence

and peter who the record says knew not what he said

struck up with lord it is good for us to be here let us make three booths one for thee one for moses and one for elijah

not knowing what he said i suppose means at least not realizing the importance or the import of what he said but it couldn't mean not knowing what he thought he meant

and i think peter did know what he meant it's a silly idea too but very understandable in those circumstances i should think it would be lord here we are there's you in glory there's the law giver there's the first of the chief of the prophets we've got the leading team lord don't let them go

we'll put them up for the night we'll make booths for you all we don't mind reffing it in the open air and tomorrow tomorrow let's set about establishing the kingdom

not so much delay you went

the mountain was empty of all saved jesus peter james and john the glory disappeared it was the ordinary jesus with them now and as they trudged sadly down from that mountaintop all the consolation they got from that vision was a strange glow that taught them that something one day would show what that meant and for the moment the warning you are not to tell anybody yet not until the son of man is risen they couldn't have done could they they didn't yet know what it signified

just one stage further we go

to the upper room

make ready to pass over it jesus said

peter and john were sent to do it they signed a man bearing a picture of water

that place

an upper room

the man takes his water picture into the upper room leaves it and goes away and peter and john make ready and the 11 the 12 perhaps sit down with the lord certainly 12 to begin with 12 sit down with the lord and

look at each other there's the picture of water

here all around are 26 road stained feet

and nobody to do the washing nobody

no slaves

no servants

only the son of god

jesus knowing that he came from god and went to god

having loved his own which were in the world he loved them until the end and took a towel and girded himself and took water

and washed his disciples feet and they let him

that's a bad stain

on the record of 12 excessively proud men

so they let their lord do for them what they wouldn't do for each other

and i know it's peter who spoke up and i know he didn't talk very good sense that he was the only one who protested

the others were just going to let it happen lord i shall never wash my feet

because he should have said give me the cloth lord let me do it

but what he did say was better than nothing i shall never wash my feet that isn't what kings do

and though when the lord said if i wash thee not that has no part in me peter went to extremes and said not my feet only but also my hands and my head it's part of that readiness to surrender that peter always did show when the lord showed him that he knew better

they weren't a very credible company at all i suppose

at that last supper what with their quarrellings over chief places and the two swords they secreted under their garments and boasting about who would be most loyal to him and then this foot washing business not a very credible company well

only in the eyes of jesus who said

ye are they which have continued with me in all my temptations

not no bad commendation is it for a monthly crew of 12 rather misunderstanding men

they must have been a good deal better than we think

i sometimes feel in fact i don't know whether you do but i sometimes feel

that we rather like finding faults in the disciples of the lord jesus christ not for its own sake but because

if peter was pretty faulty then i'm not as bad as i thought i was if they made all their mistakes then god shouldn't think too badly about me so the more mistakes we find in the twelve the bigger we feel it's not a very healthy exercise

it's far better that we should feel the right size

and have the lord perhaps smile in indulgence and forgiveness on our sins but certainly not have us cover them up

and now they're going to the place where the lord will be arrested and they've got two swords and one of them i suspect is short of a waistcoat and is shivering a bit for the lord has said he that hath no sword let him sell his cloak and buy one i suspect having seen through what they've been up to they were brave men these twelve silly though they were and they were going to defend their lord even though they only got two swords and they tried to do it in the garden after they had their sleep out and jesus had wet his great sweats with drops of blood

it was peter who drew the sword and struck the blow

he was wrong of course

but of thy sword into his sheath all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword but it was a brave thing to do for all that

though i should die with thee yet will i not deny thee

he had said

and his only prize was one severed ear

not very good booty for one what could have been fatal blow for him

but then perhaps he wasn't a very good shot

maybe he wasn't after marcus's ear

perhaps it was his pace and he missed or marcus ducked

but then again

judas was guide to them that took jesus

and malcus was the servant of the high priest

judas and marcus could well have been side by side

did this faithful

but sadly mistaken peter see judas and see red

and aim badly

and going between the two heads just lock off one ear we shall never know

but it might be held

and malcus was healed and the lord was arrested and the disciples officer came and fled

and within a very short time there was no disciple to be found except

you know who it was

simon peter of course

simon peter who had said i will not deny thee and couldn't keep out of harm's way

the other said they wouldn't too and so to it that they didn't they weren't there able to do so they were in an upper room where i would have been i suppose with locked doors

but peter found somebody in the high priest court who could let him in tradition said it was john but i can't think why anyway he found somebody who led him into the high priest's court and there he stood by the fire

warming himself

according to the dreadful record to see the end

it looks as though peter had nearly lost all hope in christ now but marvelous man that he was he hadn't lost loyalty

he was there in the very heart of his enemies to see the end

warming himself that bitter night

by the fire

but it was a fire

and fires glow and their light as well as warm

and in the flickering flames peter could be seen

the mate came

surely that was one of his disciples

quick as a flash off the top without thinking i was not the obvious emergency measure the safety thing to do nothing to make sure you weren't arrested

there went one denial

only two wishes left now

and then another said darth galilean

but speech be wrath thee

and poor peter who no doubt had been conversing as little as possible but conversing in the hard rough accents of that neighborhood of his galilean neighborhood i mean all of a sudden became educated and refined and sought to disguise where he came from and said oh no i am not the disciple of jesus christ i don't know him at all

talking in an accident of 100 miles away to make them think he wasn't from galilee

but worse than that he said

i call god to witness i don't know this man

he denied

with an oath

this is too dreadful too pitiful the man who said i will never deny thee first denies in his own words and then calls the god of heaven to witness to a lie the man who had once heard jesus say swear not at all

neither by heaven for it is god's throne neither by the earth for it is his footstool neither by jerusalem for it is the city of the great king

said i call god to witness i don't know this man

still one wish left

one crow two

and now the kinsman of the man whose ear peter had struck up comes upon the scene did not i see the inner garden with him

and what was it all worth the lord was there being tried for his life nothing could save him he didn't want to be saved everybody had gone there was no hope left and the man just crumbled to pieces and ranting and raving recalled all the galilean fishermen's holes he'd ever known and cursing and swearing said i know him not

dreadful

but he lasted a long time

and now

the lord turned and looked upon peter

jesus must have looked upon peter and peter must have looked back wasn't he

jesus turned and looked upon peter

peter saw the look and it broke his heart

i don't know what the lord looked you can't write down the look

it wasn't i'm sure you've let me down peter

i think it was

remember peter satan hath desired to have you all that he may sift you as wheat but i have prayed for thee that thy faith pale not and when thou art converted strengthened thy brethren

and he went out

and sobbed and helped his sins away

went out and wept

bitterly

went into hiding i suppose

thought of himself as an outcast

could hardly bring himself to think of himself as one of the company

was restored by the lord's own words who said go tell his disciples and peter

was in fact the first to see him amongst the men poke he appeared first on the key fast

then unto the twelve

then had to face the inevitable reckoning

by the sea of galilee again

where he learnt the oath

where he learned to know the lord

in a boat again

when he learned to know what the lord knew

of what goes on beneath the depths of the sea

and inside the heart of man

where cast the net on the right side

convince john first and then quickly peter

it is the lord

and this time there was no though how easily that could have been this time there was no depart from me

for i am a sinful man

there was i think the painful pent up heart sinking waiting for the moment when the music had to be faced

and it came

the lord said

simon

son of jonas

love us dummy

more than these

more than what

it could mean do you love me more than you love these fish or it could mean do you love me more than these disciples do or it could mean do you love me more than you love these disciples you can't tell from the text

i think you can tell from the obvious necessities of the case

i think jesus said simon are you prepared to say now that you love me more than the other disciples do you have said that before didn't you though all men will deny thee yet will not i are you going to say that now

not he

he will not compare himself with the other disciples at all

and thus for loving the lord has used too big a word

peter must use a smaller one lord thou knowest that i am thy friend

i will not claim to love you

and the lord accepting that as far as it goes says

feed my land

that's only one though

until the lord comes back simon son of jonas love us dharmi stepping down a step nearest peter's level leaving out the other disciples simon son of john tell me now will you claim to love me if we leave the others out

not peter

he will say just where he is that's as high as he's willing to rise

lord

you know i am your friend

that's two

there must come a third there had been three denials

there must come a third and so after the lord has said tends my sheep

he now comes to the third one and takes peter at his own words simon son of jones are thou my friend

using the words that peter had used as though to make quite sure

three times

if you say that

i will believe you

and peter saw the inward import of this and was grieved that the lord said unto him the third time simon son of jonas are thou my friend and said lord thou knowest all things thou knowest that i love thee look inside lord and see do you not find their friendship to you

the lord did feed my sheep

his third commission

peter being prepared for greatness

being made ready for the acts of the apostles

there is but one more

john in the background peter catching sight of him out of his eye corner he seeth the disciple whom jesus loved following behind and having been told by the lord that when he is old one will bear him where he does not want to go and cause him to die says and what about john lord

that's an old old and the new new story that is this what about the other fellow

creatures all alike lord they thought they should have received more

equal pay for equal work

this is the world's philosophy

not god's

is it not mine to do what i will with mine own

follow

thou leave

that's the call to all of us

poor looking at rich

plain looking at conley

unmarried looking married

sick looking at healthy

what about these lord why don't you treat us all alike

my grace is sufficient for thee

is the best answer for now

no chastening for the present seemed to be joyous but rather grievous yet afterwards it worketh the peaceable fruit of righteousness in them that are exercised thereby you have heard of the patience of job and have seen the latter into the lord how that the lord is very peaceful and of a tender mercy that must suffice for now

and for our present conduct

wearing blinkers looking neither to right hand nor to left but for the joy that is set before him

follow thou me