The Testimony Of The Apostle Peter

Title: Peter’s Testimony

Text: Mark 14:66-72

Date: 3/23/2008

Location: Sulphur Spring Baptist Church

Introduction: Someone once said that Christianity rises or falls on the Resurrection of Jesus Christ,’ and of course that is correct. The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of the Christian faith. Several good books have been written on the subject including the classic “Evidence That Demands a Verdict” by Josh McDowell. For centuries people have tried to explain away the resurrection of Jesus Christ. From the very beginning the Jewish religious leaders paid the guards to spread the rumor that the Disciples had come during the night and stolen his body to give credence to their claim that he had risen from the dead. Some skeptics have argued that Jesus wasn’t really dead when they took him down from the cross. Others have claimed that someone else took his place. In reality no plausible explanation has ever been given for the empty tomb.

Of course the gospels and the book of Acts tell us that literally hundreds of people saw Jesus following the Resurrection. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to hear the eyewitness testimony of one of the Disciples? After all eyewitness testimony is difficult to refute and usually carries a lot of weight with most judges and juries. So it’s my pleasure to introduce you to our guest speaker this morning. Ladies and Gentlemen would you please welcome Simon Peter. (Applause).

Oh my, this is a little embarrassing. I sent him an e-mail the other day and gave him specific directions on how to get here. Maybe I should just slip out and check and see if he’s out in the parking lot. Brian while I’m doing that would you please play that video I mentioned to you earlier.

Monologue: Good morning ladies and Gentleman, sorry I’m a little late, I’ve never been very good at following directions. It reminds me a little of the time that Jesus sent us out on our first Preaching tour. I wanted to go back to my hometown of Capernaum, which is in Northern Israel, but unfortunately I tried to take a short-cut and ended up in Jericho instead. I’m a fisherman and spent most of my life navigating the the Sea of Galilee. I know that lake like the back of my hand. But I must admit to you that I don’t do near as well on the land. But that’s beside the point, I’m not here to talk about me. I’m here to tell you about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who rose from the dead some 2000 years ago.

That may seem like a long time ago to you but to me it seems like just yesterday. I’ll never forget the things I heard Jesus say, or the things I saw him do.

I remember the day when my brother Andrew came running up to me and told me that he had found the Messiah. He told me about meeting Jesus of Nazareth. In fact, Andrew was so excited about Jesus that he insisted that I go back and meet Him as well. When I met Jesus, He looked at me and said, “You are Simon son of John. From now on you will be called Peter, which means ‘rock.’

Early one morning James and John, Andrew and I were sitting along the shores of the Sea of Galilee mending our nets when Jesus came walking by. As usual there was a large crowd of people following him. He saw my boat there at the water’s edge, got into it and asked me to take him out a few yards off shore so He could teach the people. I did what he asked me to do and when He finished teaching he turned to me and said, ‘go out a little farther into the deeper water and let your nets down and you’ll catch some fish.’

I looked at him and said, ‘Master we’ve fished all night and haven’t caught anything. Then I thought to myself, we’ll what’s it going to hurt, so I agreed to do it. I let the nets down and when they reached the bottom of the lake my brother Andrew and I started to bring them up. About half way up the nets started to get heavy and by the time we got them to the top of the water the nets were so full of fish that they were beginning to break. We yelled for James and John and told them to come and help us. We caught so many fish that morning that the boats were beginning to sink from the weight of the fish.

I spent most of my life fishing on that lake and I had never seen anything like that. I was amazed, I wasn’t sure how he had done it, but I knew He was responsible for it. I looked at Jesus and said, “go away from me, Lord; for I am a sinful man.’