I Am Peter: Come, Walk with Me

By Dave Keim

I Am Peter is the story of Peter, the disciple and apostle, as told by Peter himself. I invite you to walk with Peter or perhaps just listen as he speaks to you about the segment of his life from the time he met Jesus through Pentecost in Jerusalem. Peter talks about learning to know Jesus, being called the “Rock,” walking on water, denying Jesus, the resurrection, and Pentecost. He talks about his doubts, fears, frustrations, joy, guilt, observations, reactions, relationships, and fishing. As you listen to Peter tell his story, you have the opportunity to walk in his shoes and think about what he said or did and imagine what you might have done.
Just remember that you are a Jew two thousand years ago and have no knowledge of anything you know today. You have personal contact with Jesus and His teachings, miracles, death, and resurrection. The book is fictional as to Peter’s thoughts and reactions, but the things that occur are based on the Holy Bible with actual quotes and references.
Peter as a person was an ordinary fisherman who enjoyed his work but over time became an extraordinary man. He was blunt, outspoken, and brash, but he also was curious, uncertain, and fearful to the point of denying Jesus. Through it all, Peter developed a great faith and passion to spread the Gospel of Jesus. Peter was touched by Jesus, and perhaps you will be touched in a different way after walking with Peter.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jul 27, 2023
• ISBN: 9798888326572

Book preview

cover.jpg

I Am Peter

Come, Walk with Me

Dave Keim

ISBN 979-8-88832-656-5 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88832-657-2 (digital)

Copyright © 2023 by Dave Keim

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

All scripture sourced from the Holy Bible, New King James Version (published by Thomas Nelson, Inc. © 1982 © 1985 © 1990).

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Foreword

Introduction

Hello, I Am Peter

The Calling

Getting to Know Jesus

Traveling with Jesus

Parables—A Different Way of Learning

The Sermon

Walking with Jesus

The Inner Circle

Jesus and Me

Time for Passover

Our Last Meal

The Night from Hell

Things Just Got Worse!

Oh! What a Day!

Day 2

Morning Has Broken

What's Next?

Back to Jerusalem

Shavuot

A Few More Stories

My Closing Thoughts

Postscript

References

About the Author

Foreword

Do you feel detached from the Bible? Many persons do. This book will get you involved with a personality in scripture. You will live with an experience of Peter's feelings. Peter is complex as a man, and so is his journey. He is often remembered for his failures early in his ministry. Yet there is so much more to know about Peter. When I was in seminary, I was taught that the first rule of interpretation is CIE. This stands for context is everything. This book is an opportunity to immerse yourself in Peter. Here you will find, as Paul Harvey used to say, the rest of the story.

The great value of a fictional story of someone is that you move beyond the rote words of text to thinking wholistically about someone's life. This kind of work breaks the blindness of our familiarity with a story. Some books are a reference work; this book is a journey. It is an inductive experience of one of the greatest persons who ever lived.

You will find serious biblical reflection here. All texts are cited, and the reference section will locate each individual story for you.

Do you feel detached from the faith? The questions at the end of each chapter are designed to bring your mind, heart, and feelings into the faith. These questions ask you to personally enter the story. These questions ask What do you think? What is your reaction? How do you reconcile? and How do you feel? This is a book about engagement. Here you engage the total biblical story. You will have to respond with your faith and personal answers. This is what an honest faith journey is all about.

—Stephen R. Hess, Pastor

Introduction

Peter as a man is often difficult to understand. He recognizes who Jesus is but then denies Him. He is an ordinary man better known as a hardworking blue-collar man in our time, a sinner who finds redemption and a man who has his low valleys. In Peter, there is a person who is like you and me as we journey through our own life experiences.

Depending upon your religious orientation, you may view Peter as just a character in the Bible, a disciple, an apostle, or a saint. From my perspective, this book views Peter as an ordinary man who, after he met Jesus, remained an ordinary man who did extraordinary things but was still a fisherman. After Jesus's resurrection, Peter and some of the other disciples went fishing.

The book is a fictional view of Peter as an individual with his story. Do not read it as a piece of theological literature but as a man named Peter who tells you his story up to a certain point in his life. While you are reading Peter's story, supported by biblical quotes and references, you should get a sense of Peter, the man and his life.

When you are reading Peter's story, take the time to think about some of the questions at the end of each chapter and put yourself in his place about two thousand years ago. Remember that you are either a Jew or a Gentile. If you are a Jew like Peter, you are going against everything that you have been taught when you follow Jesus. If you are a Gentile, you are hated and despised in Israel. By viewing Peter in this way, you may see Peter the disciple and maybe even Jesus in a different perspective.

There are many aspects of Peter that are in us today. The same hopes, fears, emotions, guilt, love, and forgiveness are in all of us in some fashion. Peter may be called a saint today, but he started out as a sinner who had a life-changing experience. He was touched by Jesus. Enjoy the book, keeping in mind that Peter's thoughts and emotions are fictional unless footnoted with a biblical reference. I hope you enjoy your walk with Peter.

Hello, I Am Peter

Hello, I am Peter, but my given name is Simon or Simon Peter. Yes, I have a story to tell, and I am one of Jesus's twelve disciples. Jesus first called me Peter, so now I am Peter. You may wonder why I want to tell you my story. Well, I don't know what might happen to me in the future, so I believe I should tell people at least some of my story.

To let you know where I am at this time in my life, some time ago, I finished my first big sermon on a day called Pentecost. John and I have been preaching and teaching here in Jerusalem, but the political tension is mounting with our Jewish leaders and the Romans. Followers of Jesus have been jailed and persecuted. One of Jesus's followers, Stephen, has been stoned to death. From my perspective, I want to tell you about Jesus and my life with Him. I know I'll mix other things into my story because I talk without thinking, and I get sidetracked. So please bear with me and hopefully you won't fall asleep like I did in the past with Jesus.

Before I get into my story with Jesus, I need to tell you a little bit about my background, family, and home. Jonah is my father, Andrew is my brother, and we are all fishermen. We come from Bethsaida, which is close to Capernaum, where we have our fishing boats on Lake Galilee. My wife and I have a house with an extra room for my mother-in-law. We did see a lot of people coming and going including my brother Andrew who was there most of the time.

Fishing was a tough life in terms of hard work. Sometimes there were high waves that could flip a boat in a surprise storm, and we were always repairing the boats, nets, and other fishing gear. Andrew and I worked together on the boat while dad worked on shore tasks since he was getting older. If the weather was really nice, Dad would come with us since he enjoyed being out on the water.

Andrew and I spent a lot of time talking while we fished. To be honest, that was good for me because he was my sounding board. He listened to my ideas or let me blow off steam when I was upset. In case you haven't heard, I tend to shoot from the hip when it comes to my mouth. Over the years, I have dug a lot of holes with my mouth because I open it without thinking. Anyway, Andrew was somebody I could talk to without getting into trouble.

Galileans were a tough, independent group of hardworking people. We didn't have much, but the sea did provide us with food and money for our other needs. We didn't like the Romans at all because of the taxes and the way they ruled. We didn't like their tax collectors either because they usually collected more than the required amount and kept it for themselves. They cheated us out of our money. We didn't care much for the people of Judea either, particularly the Pharisees and priests who seemed to be or were in cahoots with the Romans. We were always looking for a leader to get us out from under Roman rule so we would be able to live our lives the way we wanted—our version of looking for the Messiah.

The fishing community was pretty close-knit but also very competitive. If somebody needed help, we did not hesitate to help them, but when it came to fishing, you did not intrude on the others' fishing territory. More than once, I saw or was involved in fights, even on the boats, because we were all trying to make a living. To be honest about it, I was in a lot more fights than I want to admit, mostly because of my temper and not being able to keep my mouth shut.

We also had many friends in the community and the fishing business. Everybody knew each other. Since the community was small, a lot of us were related in some fashion. As an example, we knew James and John and even worked together by helping each other out. From time to time, we even worked together as quasi partners. Although we worked together, I can't say we were good friends, which may have been because of their father, Zebedee. He was always expressing himself loudly as he gave you his opinion, which was at times very irritating. He had a thunderous voice, and everybody knew when he was angry. Later on, Jesus started to call James and John the sons of thunder.

When you get down to the basics of our lives, people were hardworking and helped each other to survive. We didn't have any place to go or means to get anywhere except walking. The Romans controlled everything, and every time they needed more money, they raised our taxes. We were people who needed a leader to free us from our bondage, if you will. There was always talk about when the Messiah would come. Many people thought that John the baptizer might be the Messiah. Actually, Andrew left and went to see and hear John to learn if he might be the Messiah. Andrew came back and told me that he had met the Messiah, but it wasn't John. He said the man was Jesus from Nazareth, and he came back to tell me about Him. I was skeptical about the whole thing because nobody around Capernaum had ever heard of Him. I told Andrew we needed to get in the boat and go catch some fish.

I am going to digress for a moment and then get back to Andrew. As I mentioned before, I am married, and my wife's mother lives with us. Honestly, I was not the best husband in the world. Sometimes I even wondered why she put up with me. She probably would not have if her mother was not there to keep her calm. I was a rabble-rouser in my fishing days, and I could fight, cuss, and drink with anybody. More than once I came home in less-than-perfect condition. It was a well-known fact that nobody should mess with Simon when he was angry or had a little too much wine. Andrew did get me out of more than a few jams. Yes, I was Jewish, but I did do a very good job of keeping myself as a well-healed sinner.

Back to Andrew and fishing. We would go out on the sea and do our work as fishermen. We put in long days, which often started in the middle of the night, but it gave us a lot of time to talk. We had been talking about the coming of the Messiah more and more. To be