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profitable is that which follows the chron ological order of Peter’s life history, which may be grouped as follows : 1. Peter’s pre-Christian life. Matt. 4: 18-19; Mk. 1:16-17. 2. Peter’s call to discipleship. John 1: 35-42. 3. Peter’s walking upon the water. Matt: 14:22-33. 4. Peter’s appointment to leadership. Matt. 16:13-24; 28:1-20. 5. Peter’s vision of the future kingdom. Matt. 17:1-13; Mark 9:2-10; 2 Peter 1: 16-18. 6. Peter’s fall. Matt. 26:69-75 ; Mk. 14 : 66-72. 7. Peter begotten again to a living hope. 1 Peter 1:3-5; Jno. 20:1-10 ; 21:1-23. 8. Peter the spokesman at Pentecost. 2 9. Peter’s miracles. Lk. 10:1-20; Acts 3:1-26; 9 :31-43. 10. Peter’s imprisonments. Acts 4:1-31; 12:1-19. . 11. Peter’s enlarged, ministry and fel lowship. Acts 9:31; Gal. 2:6-11; 1 Peter 5:13. 12- Peter’s .letters® 1 and 2 Peter. —o— P eter , T he M an Little is known concerning Peter’s early life, bur knowledge being confined to the fact that he was an uneducated fisherman of Bethsaida, a city of Galilee. (Mk. 1 : 14-18; Acts 4:13). The lack of advan tages and education as a rule is a hin drance to a person’s life work but not so with Peter.. His natural endowments and gifts by the grace of God thoroughly fitted and qualified him for the work to which God called him. The statement that “all things work together for good to them that love the Lord, even to those who are the called according to His purpose,” was true in his case. His poverty, fishing ex perience, and his knowledge of men con stituted his pre-Christian education. —o— P eter , T he D isciple In the latter part of the year 26—A.D. when John was at Bethany, east of the Jordan, preaching and baptizing in the Jordan, Jesus, returning from His wilder ness temptation, was approaching the place where John and some of his disciples were standing. John pointed to Jesus, saying, “Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.” Andrew, the brother of Simon, immediately followed Jesus. Then he brought his brother Simon (which means “hear”). Jesus, see ing great possibilities in Simon, changed his name to Peter (which means “a stone”), the changing of his name to Peter being a prophecy of the strong spiritual character into which he would develop. From this time on Peter enters thé school of Christ, the great Teacher, and for something like three and one-half years he follows his Teacher, His Lord and Saviour, and sees how the Master deals with the various situation and problems of life, hearing Him speak forth the wonder ful words of life to people of every sta tion and condition. From Bethany Jesus, together with His four or five early disciples whom he called on this occasion, went to Galilee and at tended a marriage feast in Cana where the water was turned into wine (John 2: 1-11) ; from thence Jesus went to Caper naum with His disciples, which became
the Pentecostal sermon and opened the door of the Gospel to Gentile believers. Let us not forget that this was the Peter who had been run through the mill of humiliating and disciplinary expe riences. It was a man taught in the school of Christ, a school where one learns the worthlessness of human nature. It was a man filled with the Holy Ghost, a man to whom Christ was now ALL. These are the secrets of power for God. May it not be necessary for us to have such a self-revealing fall as Peter had be fore we may learn to surrender all to Christ! May we truly say at once: “Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee.” It was this that made Peter what he afterward became. As Chrysostom says: “If John is the disciple Jesus loved, Peter is the disciple who loved Jesus.” 1 1 M m B y D. L. C ooper A REVIEW should be a re-view, or an- . '■other view. The lessons, for this quar ter have clustered around the, life and work of the Apostle Peter. He stands out ways of studying this subject., Among some of the suggestions for Study the following seem quite helpful. I. PETER’S CHARACTERISTICS: There are many sides to Peter’s charac ter, among which the following stand out very prominentlyl|jiS|i I. Impetuosity. 2. Leadership. 3. Loy alty. 4. Readiness. 5. Affection. 6. Cour age. 7. Cowardice. 8. Changeableness. 9. Perseverance. 10. Insight. 11. Out spokenness. 12. Lovableness. II. A SECOND IS THE USE OF THE ACROSTIC METHOD: P rincely E nterprising T imid E nthusiastic R eady P rompt E nergetic ' T rust E verchanging R obust together with Paul in bold relief in the New, Testament. It seems that he was especially qualified by nature and by grace for the prom inent position which he occupied in the early church. There are various
more than once cropped out, he took the leadership of the apostolic company and carried the Gospel banner on to a glorious victory. Dr. Plumptree says: “Through all the scenes of his life we see the natural char acter of the man breaking out ever and anon, showing its weakness and its good. He is foremost in his confession, and the first to retract; he alone throws himself into the waves to join his Lord, and then, his faith failing, he begins to sink; prom inent in all questionings and murmurings, impetuous, zealous, but also wavering and inconstant; in years a man, but in char acter a wayward boy, needing the educa tion of the Divine Guide.” Impulsiveness is his outstanding char acteristic. That may signify either a weak and restless nature or a strong and enterprising one. Peter seems impulsive ly strong, in danger of becoming merely stubborn. Jesus saw in- Him a nature worth disciplining, and so stood ready to overrule all the bad mistakes Peter made. Do you feel' you can do nothing for the Lord? The selection of Peter has its lessons. The Master has insight of our characters and possibilities. We have won dered how some men ever get into posi tions of high trust. The Master dis cerned something that we did not. To Christ, men are what they may become. He sees the end from the beginning. If we are ready, as was Peter, to follow Him, we •may cause our light to rise in obscurity (Isa. 58:10, 11).; Many things led up to a time of sifting for Peter. Reading between the lines, we see a tendency to want to make Jesus go Peter’s way. To a man of his disposition, it was no easy thing to play second fiddle. He would make up his mind what Jesus ought to do, and would be greatly disap pointed, and perhaps peevish, if Jesus did not go that way. When he saw Jesus taking a course that to him spelled failure, he no doubt had a struggle to keep faith in Christ. The last strain came when he was annoyed, disappointed, angry with himself and all the others. Nothing was going as he thought it might go, should his advice be followed. The Master reproved him in the Upper Room; he hated himself for falling asleep in Gethsemane after alb his boasted de votion; the Lord had replaced the ear he had slashed off with his sword. He was in a bad mood. Instead of going off to sulk, he followed the arresting party, got into the high priest’s palace, and then, caught unawares, he denied with oaths. He struck bottom, but he did not stay there. Only a strong man could fall so terribly as he did, and only a sincere man could have recovered himself so quickly. “Blessed is the man who can use his stumbling stones as paving stones in the way of success.” . Peter, sturdy man that he was, was not above shedding tears. He acknowledged the utter failure of his own ways, and threw himself upon the mercy of Christ. “More disastrous than any drouth in the physical world,” some one has said, “is that in the religious world caused by a dearth of penitential tears.” Peter stepped at once into the foremost place of service. No one ever thought of disputing his right to it, in spite of his dis grace. Neither John nor Paul ever pre sumed to take first place. Peter was the man eminently fitted for it. He preached
*S incere I ntrepid
M asterful O utspoken N atural P rayerful E xtreme T rue E mphatic R esolute
Other Scriptures may be added which will bring out these characteristics. Fur thermore, with little thought other char acteristics similar to these can be sug gested by any of the pupils with great profit. III. BIOGRAPHICAL REVIEW: A third method which would be quite
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