Peter The Rock And Roller Series

Disciple 1 Peter The Rock and Roller

Back in 1980, Denny Brauer was earning his living as a mason and pursuing his true passion on the side -- bass fishing. One day he revealed a desire that no doubt shocked his spouse to the core. He announced that he wanted to move from their home in Nebraska to a place where there’s "more water," so he could wet his line on a full-time basis.

No more bricklaying for Denny. From now on: professional fishing.

You can just imagine his wife’s delight: Yeah, right… As if… Comments Jack McCallum in Sports Illustrated, "Deciding that you wanted to make a livable wage as a bass angler in ’80 wasn’t quite as risky as deciding that you wanted to make a livable wage as, say, a marble shooter, but it was close."

But guess what? Denny’s wife said, "Let’s go," and moving to where the fish were was the right move for this fisherman and his family.

Two decades later, Brauer has a Saturday-morning fishing show on ESPN, The Bass Class with Denny Brauer, not to mention two instructional videos and a couple of books. He has endorsement deals with so many companies -- 12, according to his count -- that when he goes out to fish, he looks like a stock-car racer festooned with brand-name logos. In one recent year, Brauer fished in 15 tournaments and made between $600,000 and $800,000 in prize money and endorsements What if Denny had decided to stay where he was? What if Denny’s wife had said “your crazy, I’m staying right here!” Let’s look at the first disciple always mentioned in the lists of disciples; Peter. Peter was the only disciple that is known to be married and one day he had a radical experience to go fishing as well, and obviously his wife agreed to follow (1 Corinthians 9:5). Peter is always portrayed as the eager disciple.

Background

Who was Peter and what was it about him that he became on of the three closest disciples along with James and John? Peter’s original name was Simon which means “the hearer” and Jesus changed his name (Luke 6:14) to Peter which means “a mass of rock.”. Jesus saw in Peter a great strength of his character, even when He predicted Peter’s great fall (Luke 22:32). Jesus sees more in us than we do ourselves, He sends us to do great tasks many times we view as impossible. Peter the fisherman probably never dreamed he would be instrumental in changing the course of history. Many have been given a new purpose in life which their life counts for something forever. Peter would not be the one that the religious people of that day would have chosen to be a church leader much less a pastor.

Peter was a fisherman who was married (Matt 8:14) and lived in Bethsaida, on the western coast of the Sea of Galilee. Peter was in business with Andrew (his brother) and two other partners James and John (Luke 5:10). The father of James and John was a man named Zebedee who owned two boats (Luke 5:2) and had hired servants (Mark 1:20). It could have been possible that Zebedee raised Peter and Andrew because it would be highly unusual for the sons of the boats owners to have been partners in the family business. Perhaps Peter loosing his father at a young age is what gave him the zeal to live life to the fullest. Peter apparently was a good man just by the indication that his mother in law lived with them. This shows Peter having the character that he took care of the older folks.

Peter being a Galilean would be similar to a cowboy. The Galileans had a very distinct accent much like the way a cowboy speaks today. This accent gave him away when he stood within eye sight of the judgment hall where Jesus was being tried and a little slave girl pointed him out as a follower of Jesus. The third time Peter was accused the people said (Luke 14:70) “Surely you are one of them; for you are a Galilean and your speech shows it.” On the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit arrived Peter was preaching and the people said “Look are not all these who speak Galileans?” Peter had a very distinct accent and people knew it wherever he went.

Peter came to Christ through the concern of his brother Andrew (John 1:41). The point that Peter gave his life to Christ is found in Luke 5:1-11. Jesus is surrounded by a crowd so He gets in Peter’s boat and preaches to the people from the boat toward the land. After the preaching Jesus told Peter to go out to the deep water and drop their nets. Peter told Jesus “Master, we have worked all night and caught nothing, however, at your word we will do it.” After they dropped their nets they caught so many fish their nets started to break so they called for James and John to come and help them.