This document contains the text from a session at the Omaha Presbyterian School for Pastors in Hastings, 2012 on the topic of "Saving Peter". It examines several biblical passages that describe Peter's encounters with Jesus and his transformation from fisherman to follower and leader of the early Christian church. Key events discussed include Peter's calling by Jesus, his confession that Jesus is the Messiah, Jesus changing his name to Peter, Peter denying Jesus three times before the crucifixion, and their reconciliation after the resurrection when Jesus commissions Peter to "feed my lambs".

1. Omaha Presbyterian
School for Pastors
Hastings 2012
Session 4

2. Saving Peter

3. School for Pastors
Hear our prayer for the School for
Pastors, O Lord.

4. School for Pastors
We pray that you may grant, in accor-
dance with the riches of your glory, that
we may be strengthened in our inner
being with power through your Spirit.

5. School for Pastors
We pray that you will dwell in our
hearts by faith, as we are established
and grounded in your love.

6. School for Pastors
We pray that we may have the power to
comprehend, with all the saints, the
breadth and length and height and
depth of your love: to know this love
that surpasses knowledge.

7. School for Pastors
We pray that we may be filled with all
your fullness, O God.

8. School for Pastors
By the power at work within us you are
able to accomplish abundantly far more
than we can ask or imagine.

9. School for Pastors
To you be glory in the church and in
Christ Jesus to all generations, forever
and ever. Amen.
– from Ephesians 3:16-21

10. Saving Peter
Peter’s “First Encounter” with Jesus

11. Saving Peter
The Johannine incident
cf The Priority of John, J.A.T. Robinson

12. Saving Peter
The Lucan incident

13. Saving Peter
The Matthean/Marcan incident

14. Saving Peter
Three different glances at the question,
“How did Peter become a follower of
Jesus, anyway?”

15. Saving Peter
When does Peter get saved?

16. Saving Peter
When Jesus declares that Simon’s
name will be Peter?

17. Saving Peter
When Peter and the others leave their
nets and follow Jesus?

18. Saving Peter
Jesus using Peter’s boat as a pulpit

19. Saving Peter
Let down the nets for a catch

20. Saving Peter
Simon says:
Master, we have worked all night long
but have caught nothing. Yet if you say
so, I will let down the nets.

21. Saving Peter
Simon says (fervently):
Master, we have worked all night long
but have caught nothing. Yet if you say
so, I will let down the nets.

22. Saving Peter
Simon says (wearily):
Master, we have worked all night long
but have caught nothing. Yet if you say
so, I will let down the nets.

23. Saving Peter
Simon says (sarcastically):
Master, we have worked all night long
but have caught nothing. Yet if you say
so, I will let down the nets.

24. Saving Peter
Simon says (resentfully):
Master, we have worked all night long
but have caught nothing. Yet if you say
so, I will let down the nets.

25. Saving Peter
Miraculous catch of a boatload of fish

26. Saving Peter
Simon falls at Jesus’ knees

27. Saving Peter
Cornelius fell at Peter’s feet
(Acts 10:25)

28. Saving Peter
John fell at the angel’s feet
(Revelation 19:10)

29. Saving Peter
Jairus fell at Jesus’ feet
Mark 5:22

30. Saving Peter
Woman with bleeding fell at Jesus’ feet
Mark 5:33

31. Saving Peter
Simon fell at Jesus’ knees

32. Saving Peter
Simon fell at Jesus’ knees
facedown on top of a load of fish

33. Saving Peter
The ambiguity of Simon’s response:
“Go away from me, Lord, for I am a
sinful man.”

34. Saving Peter
Matthew 16:13
Now when Jesus came into the district
of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his
disciples, “Who do people say the Son
of Man is?”

35. Saving Peter
Matthew 16:14
And they said, “Some say John the
Baptist, but others Elijah, and still
others Jeremiah or one of the
prophets.”

36. Saving Peter
Matthew 16:15
He said to them, “But who do you say
that I am?”

37. Saving Peter
Matthew 16:16
Simon Peter answered, “You are the
Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

38. Saving Peter
Matthew 16:17
And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are
you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh
and blood has not revealed this to you,
but my Father in heaven.

39. Saving Peter
Matthew 16:18
“And I tell you, you are Peter, and on
this rock I will build my church, and the
gates of Hades will not prevail against
it.

40. Saving Peter
Matthew 16:19
“I will give you the keys of the kingdom
of heaven,

41. Saving Peter
Matthew 16:19
“and whatever you bind on earth will be
bound in heaven, and whatever you
loose on earth will be loosed in
heaven.”

42. Saving Peter
What does it mean, that the gates of
hell will not prevail against the church
of Jesus?

43. Saving Peter
What does it mean, that whatever we
bind or loose on earth will be bound or
loosed in heaven?

44. Saving Peter
Matthew 16:19
ὃ ἐὰν δήσης ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς ἔσται
δεδεμένον ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς, καὶ
ὃ ἐὰν λύσης ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς ἔσται
λελυμένον ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς.

45. Saving Peter
Matthew 16:19
ὃ ἐὰν δήσης ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς
ἔσται δεδεμένον ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς,
καὶ ὃ ἐὰν λύσης ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς
ἔσται λελυμένον ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς.

46. Saving Peter
Matthew 16:16
Simon Peter answered, “You are the
Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

47. Saving Peter
Matthew 16:17
And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are
you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh
and blood has not revealed this to you,
but my Father in heaven.

48. Saving Peter
Matthew 16:21
From that time on, Jesus began to
show his disciples that he must go to
Jerusalem

49. Saving Peter
Matthew 16:21
and undergo great suffering at the
hands of the elders and chief priests
and scribes, and be killed, and on the
third day be raised.

50. Saving Peter
Matthew 16:22
And Peter took him aside and began to
rebuke him, saying, “God forbid it,
Lord! This must never happen to you.”

51. Saving Peter
Matthew 16:23
But he turned and said to Peter, “Get
behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling
block for me;

52. Saving Peter
Matthew 16:23
“for you are setting your mind not on
divine things but on human things.”

53. Saving Peter
Matthew 16:17
Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah!
Matthew 16:23
Get behind me, Satan!

54. Saving Peter
Luke 22:31
“Simon, Simon, listen! [The] Satan has
demanded to sift all of you like wheat,

55. Saving Peter
Luke 22:32
“but I have prayed for you that your
own faith may not fail; and you, when
once you have turned back, strengthen
your brothers.”

56. Saving Peter
Luke 22:32
“but I have prayed for you that your
own faith may not fail; καὶ σύ ποτε
ἐπιστρέψας στήρισον τοὺς
ἀδελφοὺς σου·

57. Saving Peter
Luke 22:32
“but I have prayed for you that your
own faith may not fail; and you, when
once you have repented, strengthen
your brothers.”

58. Saving Peter
Luke 22:32
“but I have prayed for you that your
own faith may not fail; and you, when
once you have been converted,
strengthen your brothers.”

59. Saving Peter
Before There Were Chapters
Archbishop Stephen Langdon (1205)
Printer Robert Estienne (1551)

60. Saving Peter
Suppose there were no chapter break
between Matthew 26 and Matthew 27

61. Saving Peter
The Two Disciples Who Failed

62. Saving Peter
The Two Disciples Who Failed
Now Peter was sitting outside in the
courtyard.

63. Saving Peter
The Two Disciples Who Failed
A servant-girl came to him and said,
“You also were with Jesus the
Galilean.”

64. Saving Peter
The Two Disciples Who Failed
But he denied it before all of them,
saying, “I do not know what you are
talking about.”

65. Saving Peter
The Two Disciples Who Failed
When he went out to the porch, another
servant-girl saw him, and she said to
the bystanders, “This man was with
Jesus of Nazareth.”

66. Saving Peter
The Two Disciples Who Failed
Again he denied it with an oath, “I do
not know the man.”

67. Saving Peter
The Two Disciples Who Failed
After a little while the bystanders came
up and said to Peter, “Certainly you are
also one of them, for your accent
betrays you.”

68. Saving Peter
The Two Disciples Who Failed
Then he began to curse, and he swore
an oath, “I do not know the man!” At
that moment the cock crowed.

69. Saving Peter
The Two Disciples Who Failed
Then Peter remembered what Jesus
had said, “Before the cock crows, you
will deny me three times.”

70. Saving Peter
The Two Disciples Who Failed
And he went out and wept bitterly.

71. Saving Peter
The Two Disciples Who Failed
When morning came, all the chief
priests and the elders of the people
conferred together against Jesus in
order to bring him to his death.

72. Saving Peter
The Two Disciples Who Failed
They bound him, led him away, and
handed him over to Pilate the governor.

73. Saving Peter
The Two Disciples Who Failed
When Judas, his betrayer, saw that
Jesus was condemned,

74. Saving Peter
The Two Disciples Who Failed
he repented and brought back the thirty
pieces of silver to the chief priests and
the elders.

75. Saving Peter
The Two Disciples Who Failed
He said, “I have sinned by betraying
innocent blood.”

76. Saving Peter
The Two Disciples Who Failed
But they said, “What is that to us? See
to it yourself.”

77. Saving Peter
The Two Disciples Who Failed
Throwing down the pieces of silver in
the temple, he departed; and he went
out and hanged himself.

78. Saving Peter
This is the last time either Peter or
Judas gets mentioned by name in the
Gospel of Matthew.

79. Saving Peter
Excursus: Suppose Peter had heeded
Jesus’ warning.

80. Saving Peter
Excursus: Suppose Peter had heeded
Jesus’ warning.
Would Jesus have been OK with that?

81. Saving Peter
Excursus: Suppose Peter had heeded
Jesus’ warning.
Would we be OK with that?

82. Saving Peter
Excursus: the sequence of queries
“Weren’t you with Jesus?”

83. Saving Peter
Excursus: the sequence of queries
Matthew: a serving girl, a different
serving girl, the onlookers

84. Saving Peter
Excursus: the sequence of queries
Mark: a serving girl, the same serving
girl, the onlookers

85. Saving Peter
Excursus: the sequence of queries
Luke: a serving girl, a man, another
man

86. Saving Peter
Excursus: the sequence of queries
John: the woman at the gate, the
people around the courtyard fire, the
slave of the high priest

87. Saving Peter
Our last view of “The Rock” is a man
sitting in the corner of an alley,
weeping in despair.

88. Saving Peter
Matthew 28:16
Now the eleven disciples went to
Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus
had directed them.

89. Saving Peter
Matthew 28:16
Now the eleven disciples went to
Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus
had directed them.

90. Saving Peter
This forms an implicit-yet-hopeful
admonition for disciples who have
failed:

91. Saving Peter
falling by the wayside need not be the
end of the story, so don't give up;
instead, keep showing up.

92. Saving Peter
John 21:1
After these things Jesus showed
himself again to the disciples by the
Sea of Tiberias, and he showed himself
in this way.

93. Saving Peter
John 21:2
Gathered there together were Simon
Peter, Thomas called the Twin,
Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons
of Zebedee, and two others of his
disciples.

94. Saving Peter
John 21:3
Simon Peter said to them, “I am going
fishing.” They said to him, “We will go
with you.”

95. Saving Peter
John 21:3
They went out and got into the boat,
but that night they caught nothing.

96. Saving Peter
John 21:4
Just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the
beach; but the disciples did not know
that it was Jesus.

97. Saving Peter
John 21:5
Jesus said to them, “Children, you
have no fish, have you?” They
answered him, “No.”

98. Saving Peter
John 21:6
He said to them, “Cast the net to the
right side of the boat, and you will find
some.”

99. Saving Peter
John 21:6
So they cast it, and now they were not
able to haul it in because there were so
many fish.

100. Saving Peter
John 21:7
That disciple whom Jesus loved said to
Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon
Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put
on some clothes, for he was naked, and
jumped into the sea.

101. Saving Peter
John 21:8
But the other disciples came in the
boat, dragging the net full of fish, for
they were not far from the land, only
about a hundred yards off.

102. Saving Peter
John 21:9
When they had gone ashore, they saw a
charcoal fire there, with fish on it, and
bread.

103. Saving Peter
John 21:10
Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the
fish that you have just caught.”

104. Saving Peter
John 21:11
So Simon Peter went aboard and
hauled the net ashore, full of large fish,
a hundred fifty-three of them;

105. Saving Peter
John 21:11
and though there were so many, the net
was not torn.

106. Saving Peter
John 21:12
Jesus said to them, “Come and have
breakfast.” Now none of the disciples
dared to ask him, “Who are you?”
because they knew it was the Lord.

107. Saving Peter
John 21:13
Jesus came and took the bread and
gave it to them, and did the same with
the fish.

108. Saving Peter
John 21:14
This was now the third time that Jesus
appeared to the disciples after he was
raised from the dead.

109. Saving Peter
John 21:15
When they had finished breakfast,
Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son
of John, do you love me more than
these?”

110. Saving Peter
John 21:15
He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know
that I love you.”

111. Saving Peter
John 21:15
Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.”

112. Saving Peter
John 21:16
A second time he said to him, “Simon
son of John, do you love me?”

113. Saving Peter
John 21:16
He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know
that I love you.”

114. Saving Peter
John 21:16
Jesus said to him, “Tend my sheep.”

115. Saving Peter
John 21:17
He said to him the third time, “Simon
son of John, do you love me?”

116. Saving Peter
John 21:17
Peter felt hurt because he said to him
the third time, “Do you love me?” And
he said to him, “Lord, you know
everything; you know that I love you.”

117. Saving Peter
John 21:17
Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.

118. Saving Peter
John 21:18
“Very truly, I tell you, when you were
younger, you used to fasten your own
belt and to go wherever you wished.

119. Saving Peter
John 21:18
“But when you grow old, you will
stretch out your hands, and someone
else will fasten a belt around you and
take you where you do not wish to go.”

120. Saving Peter
John 21:19
(He said this to indicate the kind of
death by which he would glorify God.)
After this he said to him, “Follow me.”

121. Saving Peter
John 18:18
Now the slaves and the police had
made a charcoal fire because it was
cold, and they were standing around it
and warming themselves.

122. Saving Peter
John 18:25
Now Simon Peter was standing and
warming himself. They asked him,
“You are not one of the disciples, are
you?”

123. Saving Peter
John 21:9
When they had gone ashore, they saw a
charcoal fire there, with fish on it, and
bread.

124. Saving Peter
People asked Simon if he was with
Jesus, three times
and he denied this, three times

125. Saving Peter
Jesus asked Simon if he loved him,
three times
providing an opportunity to affirm
this, three times

126. Saving Peter
John 21:15
Σίμων Ἰωάννου, ἀγαπᾷς με πλέον
τούτων;

127. Saving Peter
John 21:15
Σίμων Ἰωάννου,
ἀγαπᾷς με
πλέον τούτων;

128. Saving Peter
John 21:15
Ναί, Κύριε, σὺ οἶδας ὅτι φιλῶ σε.

129. Saving Peter
John 21:15
Ναί, Κύριε,
σὺ οἶδας ὅτι
φιλῶ σε.

130. Saving Peter
John 21:15
Σίμων Ἰωάννου, ἀγαπᾷς με πλέον
τούτων;
Ναί, Κύριε, σὺ οἶδας ὅτι φιλῶ σε.

131. Saving Peter
John 21:16
Σίμων Ἰωάννου, ἀγαπᾷς με;
Ναί, Κύριε, σὺ οἶδας ὅτι φιλῶ σε.

132. Saving Peter
John 21:17
Σίμων Ἰωάννου, φιλεῖς με;
Κύριε, πάντα σὺ οἶδας,
σὺ γινώσκεις ὅτι φιλῶ σε.

133. Saving Peter
Three part commissioning:
Feed my lambs
Tend my sheep
Feed my sheep

134. Saving Peter
But when does Peter accept Jesus?

135. Saving Peter
When does Jesus accept Peter?

136. Saving Peter
How does Jesus commission Peter?

137. Saving Peter
How does Jesus commission Peter?
fisher-of-men

138. Saving Peter
How does Jesus commission Peter?
keeper-of-the-keys

139. Saving Peter
How does Jesus commission Peter?
foundation-of-conquering-church

140. Saving Peter
How does Jesus commission Peter?
shepherd-of-flock

141. Saving Peter
What’s the decision that really counts:

142. Saving Peter
What’s the decision that really counts:
our assessment of whether Peter’s
response to Jesus is sufficient?

143. Saving Peter
What’s the decision that really counts:
or Jesus’ assessment of whether his
call to Peter is sufficient?

144. Saving Peter
What do we learn, about God and about
ourselves, from there being multiple
stories, instead of just one, about how
Peter got saved?

145. Saving Peter
What do we learn, about God and about
ourselves, from there being more story
about how Jesus commissioned Peter
than there is about how Peter came to
faith?