Simon Peter 

The Apostle Simon, who Jesus renamed as Peter, was the second person to be named an apostle. He was the first to confess Jesus’s divinity as well as the first, save Judas, to deny him.

In following Jesus, literally and figuratively, he was either leading the procession or else trailing behind— “following afar off.” But he was the outstanding preacher of the twelve. He did more than any other man, aside from Paul, to establish the kingdom and send its messengers to the four corners of the earth in one generation.

When Simon joined the apostles, he was thirty years of age. He was married, had three children, and lived at Bethsaida, near Capernaum. His brother, Andrew, and his wife’s mother lived with him. Both Simon and Andrew were fisher partners of the sons of Zebedee.

The Master had known Simon for some time before Andrew presented him as the second of the apostles. When Jesus gave Simon the name Peter, he did it with a smile; it was to be a sort of nickname. Simon was well known to all his friends as an erratic and impulsive fellow. Later on, Jesus did attach a new and significant import to this lightly bestowed nickname.

Simon Peter was a man of impulse, an optimist. He had grown up permitting himself freely to indulge strong feelings; he was constantly getting into difficulties because he persisted in speaking without thinking. This sort of thoughtlessness also made incessant trouble for all of his friends and associates and was the cause of his receiving many mild rebukes from his Master. The only reason Peter did not get into more trouble because of his thoughtless speaking was that he very early learned to talk over many of his plans and schemes with his brother, Andrew, before he ventured to make public proposals.

Peter was a fluent speaker, eloquent and dramatic. He was also a natural and inspirational leader of men, a quick thinker but not a deep reasoner. He asked many questions, more than all the apostles put together, and while the majority of these questions were good and relevant, many of them were thoughtless and foolish. Peter did not have a deep mind, but he knew his mind fairly well. He was therefore a man of quick decision and sudden action. While others talked in their astonishment at seeing Jesus on the beach, Peter jumped in the water and swam ashore to meet the Master.

Peter’s inclination to be dramatic also played out in his dream life. While traveling to Bethsaida, he fell asleep on the boat with the other apostles and had a dream of Jesus coming to them on the boat, walking on the sea. Despite the fact it was a dream, he believed it to be real and convinced John Mark that it was real, explaining the partial inclusion of this fictional event in the Gospel of Mark.

Simon Peter was distressingly vacillating; he would suddenly swing from one extreme to the other. At the Last Supper, he first refused to let Jesus wash his feet and then, on hearing the Master’s reply, begged to be washed all over. But, after all, Jesus knew that Peter’s faults were of the head and not of the heart. He was one of the most inexplicable combinations of courage and cowardice that ever lived on earth. His great strengths of character were loyalty and friendship.

The one trait which Peter most admired in Jesus was his supernal tenderness. Peter never grew weary of contemplating Jesus’ forbearance. He never forgot the lesson about forgiving the wrongdoer, not only seven times, but seventy times and seven. He thought much about these impressions of the Master’s forgiving character during those dark and dismal days immediately following his thoughtless and unintended denial of Jesus in the high priest’s courtyard.

Peter really and truly loved Jesus. And yet despite this towering strength of devotion, he was so unstable and unpredictable that he permitted a servant girl to tease him into denying his Lord and Master. Peter could withstand persecution and any other form of direct assault, but he withered and shrank before ridicule. He was a brave soldier when facing a frontal attack, but he was a fear-cringing coward when surprised with an assault from the rear.

After his rash denials of the Master, he found himself; with Andrew’s sympathetic and understanding guidance, he again led the way back to the fish nets. When he was fully assured that Jesus had forgiven him and knew he had been received back into the Master’s fold, the fires of the kingdom burned so brightly within his soul that he became a great and saving light to thousands who sat in darkness.

Peter became the chief preacher among the apostles following Jesus' death, so this led to the assumption and common consent by others that he was head of the apostles. Peter was also the first of Jesus’ apostles to come forward to defend the work of Philip among the Samaritans and Paul among the gentiles; yet later on at Antioch, he reversed himself when confronted by ridiculing Judaizers, temporarily withdrawing from the gentiles only to bring down upon his head the fearless denunciation of Paul.

After leaving Jerusalem and before Paul became the leading spirit among the gentile Christian churches, Peter traveled extensively, visiting all the churches from Babylon to Corinth. He even visited and ministered to many of the churches which had been raised up by Paul. Although Peter and Paul differed much in temperament and education, even in theology, they worked together harmoniously for the upbuilding of the churches during their later years.

Something of Peter’s style and teaching is shown in the sermons partially recorded by Luke and in the Gospel of Mark. Mark wrote his record at Peter's request and the earnest request of the church in Rome. Although Mark was a young man who lingered over many of the scenes he depicts, his record is, in reality, the Gospel according to Peter. Mark made many notes before Peter died in CE 67, and he began writing soon after Peter's death.

Peter’s vigorous style is better shown in his letter known as the First Epistle of Peter, at least this was true before it was subsequently altered by a disciple of Paul.

Peter persisted in making the mistake of trying to convince the Jews that Jesus was, after all, really and truly the Jewish Messiah. Right up to the day of his death, Simon Peter continued to suffer confusion in his mind between the concepts of Jesus as the Jewish Messiah, Christ as the world’s redeemer, and the Son of Man as the revelation of God, the loving Father of all mankind.

Peter’s wife, Perpetua, was a very able woman. For years she labored acceptably as a member of the women’s corps and, when Peter was driven out of Jerusalem, she accompanied him upon all his journeys to the churches as well as on all his missionary excursions. The day her illustrious husband yielded up his life, she was thrown to the wild beasts in the arena at Rome.

And so this man Peter, an intimate of Jesus, one of the inner circle, went forth from Jerusalem proclaiming the glad tidings of the kingdom with power and glory until the fullness of his ministry had been accomplished. He regarded himself as the recipient of high honors when his captors informed him that he must die as his Master had died— on the cross. And thus, was Simon Peter crucified in Rome.