I Peter—Week 1

Authentic Faith

I Peter—Week 1
“When you have come to the edge Of all light that you know And are
about to drop off into the darkness Of the unknown, Faith is knowing
One of two things will happen: There will be something solid to stand on
or You will be taught to fly” Patrick Overton

Feb 19 — Feb. 25, 2009


Page 2 Authentic Faith
Day 1
Peter’s Progress
During this short series, we will be looking at the book
of First Peter to study the make up of what it takes to
be a devoted follower of Jesus. What kind of faith do
we need to persevere through the toughest of times,
including physical persecution.
Before we dive into the book that Peter wrote, I want to
share a few experiences that Peter had that helped
shape him into a dynamic leader for Jesus and the
church.
Peter was on of the 12 men that Jesus asked to follow
him and to become his follower or disciple. Jesus
waited until he about 30 years old to begin his ministry
and when he did, he rounded up a group of 12 ordinary
dudes to change the world.
Read Luke 5:1-11
Would you be willing to drop everything and follow Je-
sus as Peter did?
Dictionary
Page 15
Mark 5: 21. When Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side
of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him while he was by the lake.
22. Then one of the synagogue rulers, named Jairus, came there. Seeing
Jesus, he fell at his feet 23. and pleaded earnestly with him, "My little
daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will
be healed and live." 24. So Jesus went with him. A large crowd followed
and pressed around him. 25. And a woman was there who had been sub-
ject to bleeding for twelve years. 26. She had suffered a great deal under
the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting
better she grew worse. 27. When she heard about Jesus, she came up be-
hind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28. because she thought,
"If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed." 29. Immediately her bleed-
ing stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffer-
ing. 30. At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He
turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who touched my clothes?" 31.
"You see the people crowding against you," his disciples answered, "and
yet you can ask, 'Who touched me?' " 32. But Jesus kept looking around
to see who had done it. 33. Then the woman, knowing what had hap-
pened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him
the whole truth. 34. He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you.
Go in peace and be freed from your suffering." 35. While Jesus was still
speaking, some men came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue ruler.
"Your daughter is dead," they said. "Why bother the teacher any more?"
36. Ignoring what they said, Jesus told the synagogue ruler, "Don't be
afraid; just believe." 37. He did not let anyone follow him except Peter,
James and John the brother of James. 38. When they came to the home of
the synagogue ruler, Jesus saw a commotion, with people crying and
wailing loudly. 39. He went in and said to them, "Why all this commo-
tion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep." 40. But they laughed
at him. After he put them all out, he took the child's father and mother
and the disciples who were with him, and went in where the child was.
41. He took her by the hand and said to her, ""Talitha koum!"" (which
means, "Little girl, I say to you, get up!"). 42. Immediately the girl stood
up and walked around (she was twelve years old). At this they were com-
pletely astonished. 43. He gave strict orders not to let anyone know about
this, and told them to give her something to eat.
 Scripture References
Page 14 Page 3

Why do you think Peter followed Jesus? What was in it

for Peter?
Scripture References
Luke 5:1 One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, with
the people crowding around him and listening to the word of God, 2. he
saw at the water's edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were
washing their nets. 3. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to
Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down Read John 1:35-42.
and taught the people from the boat. 4. When he had finished speaking,
he said to Simon, "Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a
What was Peter’s
catch." 5. Simon answered, "Master, we've worked hard all night and original name?
haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the
nets." 6. When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish
that their nets began to break. 7. So they signaled their partners in the
other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so
full that they began to sink. 8. When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Je-
sus' knees and said, "Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!" 9. For
he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had
taken, 10. and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon's
partners. Then Jesus said to Simon, "Don't be afraid; from now on you
will catch men." 11. So they pulled their boats up on shore, left every-
thing and followed him.

John 1:35. The next day John was there again with two of his disciples.
36. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, "Look, the Lamb of God!" What name did Jesus give him?
37. When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. 38.
Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, "What do you
want?" They said, "Rabbi" (which means Teacher), "where are you stay-
ing?" 39. "Come," he replied, "and you will see." So they went and saw
where he was staying, and spent that day with him. It was about the tenth
hour. 40. Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, was one of the two who heard
what John had said and who had followed Jesus. 41. The first thing An-
drew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, "We have found the
Messiah" (that is, the Christ). 42. And he brought him to Jesus. Jesus
looked at him and said, "You are Simon son of John. You will be called
Cephas" (which, when translated, is Peter ).
 Page 4 Authentic Faith Page 13

Day 2
Miracles in Motion
Yesterday we watched Simon (Peter) go from fisher-
man to Jesus follower and he goes from Simon to
Cephas which is translated to Peter and literally means
rock.
Peter was not only one of Jesus 12 disciples, he was
also one of an inner circle of three people that Jesus
had.
Look at the following verses and imagine that you were
in Peter’s sandals.
Mark 5:21-43
If you could raise one person from the dead, who would
it be? Why?
Matthew 14: 22 Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the
boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the
crowd. 23. After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountain-
side by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, 24.
but the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted
by the waves because the wind was against it. 25. During the fourth
watch of the night Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. 26.
When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified.
"It's a ghost," they said, and cried out in fear. 27. But Jesus immedi-
ately said to them: "Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid." 28. "Lord,
if it's you," Peter replied, "tell me to come to you on the water." 29.
"Come," he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the
water and came toward Jesus. 30. But when he saw the wind, he was
afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, "Lord, save me!" 31. Imme-
diately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. "You of little
faith," he said, "why did you doubt?" 32. And when they climbed into
the boat, the wind died down. 33. Then those who were in the boat
worshiped him, saying, "Truly you are the Son of God."
Acts 4:21. After further threats they let them go. They could not de-
cide how to punish them, because all the people were praising God
for what had happened. 22. For the man who was miraculously healed
was over forty years old. 23. On their release, Peter and John went
back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and
elders had said to them. 24. When they heard this, they raised their
voices together in prayer to God. "Sovereign Lord," they said, "you
made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them.
25. You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant,
our father David: " 'Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in
vain? 26. The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather
together against the Lord and against his Anointed One. ' 27. Indeed
Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the peo-
ple of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus,
whom you anointed. 28. They did what your power and will had de-
cided beforehand should happen. 29. Now, Lord, consider their
threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great bold-
ness. 30. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs
and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus." 31. After
they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And
they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God
boldly.
 Page 12 Authentic Faith I Peter—Week 1 Page 5

Acts 4: 1. The priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sad- What is the closest that you have come to dying? How
ducees came up to Peter and John while they were speaking to the peo-
ple. 2. They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching scared were you?
the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead. 3.
They seized Peter and John, and because it was evening, they put them
in jail until the next day. 4. But many who heard the message believed,
and the number of men grew to about five thousand. 5. The next day
the rulers, elders and teachers of the law met in Jerusalem. 6. Annas the
high priest was there, and so were Caiaphas, John, Alexander and the
other men of the high priest's family. 7. They had Peter and John What can we learn about faith from this story?
brought before them and began to question them: "By what power or
what name did you do this?" 8. Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit,
said to them: "Rulers and elders of the people! 9. If we are being called
to account today for an act of kindness shown to a cripple and are asked
how he was healed, 10. then know this, you and all the people of Israel:
It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but
whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you
healed. 11. He is " 'the stone you builders rejected, which has become
the capstone. ' 12. Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no
other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."
13. When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they
were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took
note that these men had been with Jesus. 14. But since they could see Who are you most like in
the man who had been healed standing there with them, there was noth- this story?
ing they could say. 15. So they ordered them to withdraw from the
Sanhedrin and then conferred together. 16. “What are we going to do
with these men?" they asked. "Everybody living in Jerusalem knows
they have done an outstanding miracle, and we cannot deny it. 17. But
to stop this thing from spreading any further among the people, we
must warn these men to speak no longer to anyone in this name." 18.
Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or
teach at all in the name of Jesus. 19. But Peter and John replied, "Judge
for yourselves whether it is right in God's sight to obey you rather than
God. 20. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and
heard."
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God can equip you to do the work that he wishes. What is

Day 3 one thing that you never thought you could do that you ac-
complished with God’s help?
Peter Defends Jesus

Read John 18:1-11

Peter thinks that he is doing a noble thing to try and Can you keep yourself from speaking about Christ?
keep Jesus from being arrested. His problem is that he
does not yet understand the bigger picture.

What would you do if you knew that you were about to

die? How did they punish
the men?

What would you do with your remaining days?

What did Peter and John do?

How would you have reacted if you were on of the dis-

ciples?
What did they ask God for?
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Day 5 They came and forcefully take your leader and your friend.
Peter the Preacher What do you learn about Peter from this?

Read Acts 4:1-31

Why were John and Peter put in jail?

How many believed?

When was the last time that you overreacted?

What would you risk to share Christ?

How bad was it?

What message do they give to the judges?

Did you learn from it?

What amazed the judges about the men?

What was the cup Jesus was referring to?

 Page 8 Authentic Faith I Peter—Week 1 Page 9

Day 4 Why did he start to sink?

Peter walks on water

Read Matthew 14:22-33 Why does Jesus say he sank?

What did Jesus do when he sent the disciples across the lake
in the boat?

What do you learn about Peter

What was the weather like? through this interaction?

What did the disciples think when they saw Jesus on the wa-
ter? What has God ever asked you to do that was scary? Did
you do it? Did you sink or stroll?

What happened when Peter got out of the boat?