SIMON PETER FROM WEAKNESS TO STRENGTH
LESSON FOR THE JUNIOR CLASSES
STUDY SCRIPTURE:
MARK 8: 27-29 LUKE 22:31-34 JOHN 18:25-27 JOHN 21:15-17
Key Verse
“Jesus said unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, Lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus said unto him, Feed my sheep”.
John 21:17
INTRODUCTION.
People will often ask you what is your name because they want to find out how to place you. They want to know whose child you are and which particular family is your family. Because of this common practice it is very important that you know your name for your name identifies you to everyone. That is why people name their children soon after birth and keep calling them by that name.
In times past a particular name given to children meant something important. Children were given names because parents felt that this would encourage children to to live up to to what their names meant. Part of the names given would identify you with a particular family. But sometimes names were changed to reflect something about the person’s personality and the talents that they seem to have. So for example Abram’s name was changed by God to Abraham, for that meant that he was the father of many nations.
People therefore in those days regarded their name as summing up who they were and what they are like. Nowadays of course people don’t take the names that people have seriously and the names you have might not mean anything in particular except it might just sound good to the parents or be the name that some famous person had. It’s better to have a name than just to have a number assigned to you for for that makes you feel you’re less than a person.
But for Jesus it was different because He was name meant “ Savior”, for God intended that Jesus would save the people in Israel from their sins. So when Jesus and His disciples were walking along the road after Jesus had healed a deaf and dumb man, Jesus continued to teach them about who He really was. Jesus asked the disciples to tell Him, Who do men say that I am? The disciples told Jesus that some people thought that He was John the Baptist, a famous preacher who baptized a lot of people after giving them a stern lecture about their misbehaviors, while others thought that He was Elijah, the famous and brave prophet that had warned the people of Israel about terrible things that would happen to them if they continued sinning. The disciples told Jesus that some people also thought that He was some other prophet that had lived a long time before.
But the disciples knew that Jesus was not what other people thought about Him, and so they were not surprised when Jesus asked them, Who do you say that I am?
Peter was a disciple and he was one that always asked Jesus questions and came to Jesus with other difficulties that the other disciples might be having. He was behaving as if he was the representative of the disciples and so he was regarded as a kind of a leader type. So Peter piped up and told Jesus that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God, that God had promised to send to the earth to save the people of Israel from the oppression that they were under.
Jesus complimented Peter for what he had said. But Jesus had to remind Peter that he should be careful for Satan would be trying to destroy him for following Jesus as a disciple. But Peter insisted that he would never do anything against Jesus and he would always follow Jesus no matter what.
So Peter though he was weak in many respects really loved Jesus and he was not afraid to tell Jesus that he would never do anything that would hurt Jesus. Unfortunately, Peter was put to the test when Jesus was arrested and instead of supporting Jesus Peter denied that he even knew Jesus. But he knew what he had done and he wept bitterly at his failure.
Jesus knew everything about Peter and after Jesus was resurrected He met the disciples with Peter and restored Peter’s faith in Him. Jesus wanted Peter to understand that despite the fact that he had failed to support Jesus at a critical time in his life he should not stay depressed and feeling guilty but instead should strengthen his belief and become a bold supporter of Jesus. He had the job of feeding the people of God by giving them the word of God.
Our Lesson shows us that even though you might not do things that a strong person would do, God understands your weakness and He will do whatever it takes to build you up, encourage you, strengthen you and develop you into a strong child of God. Remember that God loves you. Jesus understands you. Jesus wants you to love God and to be kind and compassionate to other people who are weak. Jesus wants you to help them to learn about God for God will strengthen them. So keep on doing everything that you can to help others.