Participants: Tom Shepherd & Deyvy Rodriguez
Series Code: PBOTB
Program Code: PBOTB00002A
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00:22 Hello, friends and welcome to "Books of the Book."
00:25 We are excited that you can join us 00:27 in being part of this fascinating Bible study. 00:29 I'm Deyvy Rodriguez and I'd like to invite you 00:31 to take your Bibles, grab a pen or pencil, 00:33 something to write on and let's be blessed 00:35 as we study the scriptures together. 00:37 With me is Dr. Tom Shepherd. 00:39 He's the professor of New Testament 00:41 interpretation at Andrews University. 00:43 Welcome. Thank you. 00:44 Dr. Shepherd, you're also a director of the PhD program 00:48 in religion at Andrews University, is that right? 00:50 That's correct. The PhD in religion and the ThD, 00:53 Doctor of Theology programs. 00:56 I was asked to guide these people. 00:58 We have about 100 people doing 00:59 the PhD in those two programs. 01:02 Okay, so you seem to be very busy then. 01:05 Yeah, pretty busy. I keep active. 01:07 When you're not busy or what you do on your time off 01:10 when you're not teaching? 01:11 Well, my wife will probably tell you 01:13 there's not much of that. Okay, lot of work. 01:16 A lot of work, but I'm a cellist. 01:19 I play the cello and so that takes up some of my spare time. 01:23 I also like to walk. Okay. 01:25 Walk everyday. So you're a musician? 01:27 I'm a musician. Wonderful. 01:29 Well, we're studying the books of 1 and 2 Peter. 01:33 And last time we talked about Peter. 01:36 He is the author of these books. So who is Peter? 01:40 You know, it's interesting how much we can find out 01:42 about this man just by reading the New Testament. 01:44 We particularly find out about him by reading the Gospels. 01:47 And there, of course, most people will realize 01:50 that Peter was a fisherman by trade. 01:52 He lived in the area of the Galilee. 01:57 Near the lake there was a town called Capernaum 02:01 where he lived, although that's not where he was born. 02:04 He was raised evidently in the town of the Bethsaida 02:07 which is a little further to the north 02:10 and on the other side of the river Jordon. 02:15 Today, actually Bethsaida is not next to the lake 02:18 because the area is prone to earthquakes. 02:21 And there was a mudslide and it all got filled in. 02:24 Bethsaida is now up on a little promontory 02:26 that's maybe couple of miles or kilometers away from the lake. 02:30 But he settled in Capernaum. 02:32 We know that he was a married man, 02:35 because Mark tells us that his mother-in-law was ill 02:39 and Jesus healed her. 02:41 And we also know his father's name was John. 02:45 And of course, he gets the name Peter. 02:50 His actual name was Simon, given name was Simon. 02:53 And it's Jesus who gives him 02:54 the nick name Peter, which means rock. 02:59 So his name is Rock and his name would be-- 03:04 today might be Johnson because he's son of John, Johnson. 03:07 So this is Rock Johnson. 03:09 And he has a brother named Andrew. 03:13 And so he becomes a very important person 03:18 among the apostles. 03:19 Whenever we have the 12 disciples listed 03:22 or mentioned in the New Testament, 03:24 Peter is always listed first. 03:28 We know that he talks more than 03:31 anybody else in the Gospels. 03:34 And to many of us he seems like 03:37 he sort of blurts things out before, you know, 03:39 he thinks about them. 03:42 But here's the first one to confess 03:45 that Jesus is the Messiah, 03:48 but he also has this great detriment to Him 03:52 that he denies Jesus three times. 03:55 So the man went through incredible, 03:59 you know, experiences. 04:01 His calling that Jesus gave him is interesting to look at. 04:06 So I want us to turn to Luke 5 and read verses 1 to 11. 04:15 Do you want me to read that? Yes, if you would. 04:18 "So it was, as the multitude pressed about Him 04:20 to hear the word of God that He stood 04:22 by the Lake of Gennesaret. 04:25 And saw two boats standing by the lake 04:27 but the fishermen had gone from them 04:29 and were washing their nets. 04:31 Then He got into one of the boats, 04:33 which was Simon's, and asked him to put out 04:36 a little from the land. 04:39 And He sat down and taught the multitudes from the boat. 04:43 When He had stopped speaking, He said to Simon, 04:45 'Launch out into the deep 04:48 and let down your nets for a catch.' 04:50 But Simon Peter answered and said to Him, 04:52 'Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing. 04:56 Nevertheless, at Your word I will let it down the net.' 05:00 And when they had done this, 05:02 they caught a great number of fish, 05:05 and their net was breaking. 05:08 So they signaled to their partners 05:12 in the other boat to come and help them. 05:15 And they came and filled both the boats 05:17 so that they began to sink. 05:19 When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, 05:22 saying, 'Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.' 05:26 For he and all who were with him were astonished 05:29 at the catch of fish which they had taken. 05:33 And so also were James and John, 05:35 and the sons of Zebedee-- or the sons of Zebedee, 05:37 who were partners with Simon. 05:39 And Jesus said to Simon, 'Do not be afraid. 05:42 From now on you will catch men.'" 05:45 Verse 11 as well. 05:47 "And when they had brought their boats to land, 05:51 they forsook all and followed Him." 05:54 So what kind of a person would you say Peter was 05:56 probably after this experience? 05:58 Well, sounds like he was a common man. 06:02 He felt that he was not worthy of getting-- 06:06 drawing closer to God. Yes, yes, he was a fisherman. 06:09 He was a fisherman. So he was a businessman. 06:12 We can say he was a businessman. 06:15 He seemed to know what he was doing, because apparently 06:18 he had experience fishing in this manner. 06:20 And in this case something spectacular happened, 06:24 some kind of miracle and he was very surprised. 06:27 Apparently he had not had such an experience before fishing. 06:31 Yeah. And he has partners so he's, you know, 06:35 he's a person within that culture who, 06:39 you know, knows how to have a livelihood, 06:41 makes his way in life, has a boat. 06:44 And that's, you know, he has some success in life. 06:48 He's not poverty stricken, you know, down and out. 06:52 So would you say he's like the CEO of himself, 06:56 I guess, fisherman? 06:57 I would say he's like a small business owner. Okay. 06:59 You know, today's small businesses would have, 07:03 you know, couple of employees. 07:04 And they'd have some inventory. 07:06 And they'd have a going concern. 07:08 And they would be making their life and they'd be, 07:10 you know, going through it. 07:11 So he fits in like a small business people today. 07:15 Now this experience that he has here in Luke 5 07:21 has the characteristics of something 07:22 we call a theophany and-- Sounds like theology. 07:27 Yeah, theology. It certainly got the word God in it 07:31 but at the end of that the verb 07:33 "pheno" is a Greek verb actually. 07:36 It means "to appear." 07:37 So a theophany is when God appears. 07:40 And when God appears in the Bible or a divine 07:43 being appears or an angel appears, 07:46 there's a very typical kind of response that takes place. 07:49 It has five parts, five steps. 07:52 The first step is the appearance of the divine glory, okay? 07:57 The second step is human fear, all right? 08:02 The third step is the angel or God 08:05 or whoever has appeared says, "don't be afraid." 08:10 Then there is some revelation that is shared. 08:13 The divine being came, God came for a reason 08:16 to share something. 08:18 And then the fifth step is human response, okay. 08:21 So we have divine glory. Then we have human fear. 08:27 Then we have don't be afraid. 08:29 Then we have revelation, and then finally human response. 08:33 Now my question is can you see those things 08:36 taking place here in this chapter? 08:39 Well, maybe you can help me out here. 08:41 Yeah. What is the first one again? 08:42 Glory. Glory. 08:43 So we're looking for glory in the calling of Peter. 08:47 Of Peter. And there's no reference. 08:48 The word glory doesn't appear there. 08:50 No, there isn't. Okay. 08:51 I'm gonna have a hard time finding out. 08:53 Well, the glory is the miracle. Okay. 08:55 When God shows something that it amazes people, 08:58 you know, that's the glory of His power. 09:01 It's linked up with His power. 09:02 I'm taking a guess here but it seems that the glory, 09:04 the miracle was that they caught a lot of fish. 09:08 Yep. But how is that a miracle? 09:10 Fishermen are used to catching a lot of fish. 09:13 Maybe one day wasn't a good day. 09:15 Maybe another day, you know? 09:16 Yeah, so this is a good day 09:18 because this is during the day time. 09:21 And you notice Peter reacts to Him when he says, 09:23 "let out and your nets down." 09:25 And he says, "we fished all night." 09:27 That's when you'd catch the fish. 09:28 The fish couldn't see the nets during the night 09:30 and so you could catch the fish, not during the day. 09:32 So he knows what he is talking about 09:34 because he's experienced? 09:35 Yeah. And he thinks, "oh, this is a carpenter. 09:38 He doesn't know what He's talking about. 09:39 But he says, "okay, Master, 09:41 because you say so I'll let down the nets." 09:43 And then they take fish they can't, you know, 09:47 they can't take care of them. 09:48 There's--it fills both boats to overflowing. 09:51 The boats are about to sink, you know. 09:53 Now when you see a miracle happen it's-- 09:59 it really strikes your life. 10:00 You're like, "whoa, this is like going to Niagara Falls 10:05 and being next to this huge water, you know?" 10:07 It's like--it's almost scary, you see. So-- 10:10 Especially if you're an unbeliever, 10:11 you don't really believe in miracles, 10:13 you've never seen one, and you're not used to that, 10:15 you've never heard of something like that and suddenly... 10:17 Yeah. So the glory is the miracle. 10:19 The second step is the human fear. 10:23 That's referred to in here. 10:25 Actually it says, "he and all of his-- 10:29 they were completely astonished," in verse 9 it says. 10:32 And in fact, Peter's response to Him, 10:35 "depart me--from me for I am a sinful man, Oh, Lord." 10:39 Here's that human fear, that's the drawing back 10:41 from that which is divine because it's too scary, 10:43 'cause it's too powerful, okay? 10:45 So that's the human fear. 10:47 Does the words "don't be afraid" appear? 10:49 I don't see it. Hmm. 10:51 Oh, wait, verse 10 does say, 10:53 Jesus said, "do not be afraid." Okay, that's here. 10:57 Yeah, you see. And then the next step is the revelation. 11:00 Now here's the revelation. 11:02 And it's the next words of Jesus. Read them again. 11:03 "From now on you will catch men." 11:06 Yes, so this is the revelation. 11:08 This is the reason for the catch of fish. 11:10 And this is the start of their ministry. 11:13 And how about the human response? 11:16 Well, it says here, verse 11, 11:18 "they brought their boats to land, 11:20 they forsook all and followed Him." 11:22 Yep. So there it is. Here's this human response. 11:27 So it's a typical theophany, 11:29 kind of a little bit hidden to our view. 11:31 It doesn't have some of the other characteristics 11:33 that, you know, people might usually think, 11:36 the reference to glory or something. 11:37 But all of them that are there and this is exactly 11:40 what the call of Peter is about. 11:42 It's the appearance of God. He calls them to a new life. 11:45 He changes the way they are. All right? 11:47 So this is this guy Peter 11:48 that wrote this book that we're reading. 11:50 Oh, you know, now it makes me think about 11:52 my experience regarding that theophany, 11:55 if I ever had that experience. 11:56 Well, there was a miracle and then eventually 11:59 I made that calling to accept Jesus and follow Him. 12:02 Have we all gone through something like that? 12:04 Yes. I mean, you sense God's presence in your life. 12:08 It's like me sensing the call to ministry. 12:10 It took quite sometime for me to really sense that yes, 12:14 I should be in ministry. This is where I belong. 12:16 But I remember going and praying one particular day, 12:20 taking time and praying about this 12:21 and feeling convicted that God wanted me 12:24 to be a minister of the Gospel. 12:26 And thanks to God, I've been faithful to that idea 12:30 ever since then and have had a wonderful ministry 12:34 that I've been involved in. 12:35 So that's where Peter starts, you know? 12:36 He gets this ministry involved. 12:38 And the most important one would be the human response, 12:41 you know, because God makes miracles all the time. 12:42 And do we see a theophany throughout the Bible, 12:45 not just the New Testament? Yes. 12:46 We've been watching for those theophanies 12:47 and then do we let them have that experience 12:50 of changing our life and moving us forward. 12:53 So Peter then is writing to these people. 12:56 Who are these people right? 12:58 We said last time, these are Jews. 12:59 Probably Jews and Gentiles. 13:00 They live in what is today present day Turkey. 13:03 That area of the world actually 13:04 became a very important center for Christianity. 13:09 It had a good growth of Christianity. 13:12 And early Christianity was very strong 13:15 in that area of the world. 13:16 So these are Jews and Gentiles. 13:17 They are living mainly in rural areas. 13:20 They are separate from the world around them, 13:22 because their practices are of 13:27 what we read in the Bible, you know? 13:29 They were not doing the kind of pagan practices 13:31 that were around them. 13:32 So they didn't fit in to the kind of people 13:36 that were their neighbors. 13:38 They didn't fit well with them. Okay. 13:40 And, Dr. Shepherd, I'm looking forward 13:42 to hearing more of these people 13:43 whom Peter is writing to. 13:46 We're gonna take a very brief pause. 13:49 After this just join us as we continue 13:51 studying the books of 1 and 2 Peter. |
Revised 2014-12-17