The Epistle of Peter
Series Part 7- The Good News of Peter
Peter, like Paul, brought the good news to the Gentiles and preached the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. The good news of peace through him healed those oppressed by the devil and all the good things he did in the village of the Jews and Jerusalem. Though the focus of the apostles of Jesus Christ’s ministry was on the lost souls of Israel, it did not make sense to them, and their mindset was to reject the teachings. First, Jesus is not the Messiah to them; later, they sought death from the apostles.
God anointed Jesus Christ with the Holy Spirit and with the power to deliver His message that we should not be afraid to accept the difficulties of living today but instead advised us to stand firm and be encouraged that we are unshakeable like the stone built upon the rock, and that rock is Jesus the Christ. We are the living stone challenged and rejected by men who think we are brainwashed into believing that there is life after this life, that we are stones without life,e hoping to be a rock someday, and still, we have no life.
The lost souls can think it that way, but when we show them how happy we are to come to Jesus, the rock that will build our Church, the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Now, they will find out that the rock is made of stones. This is what Jesus meant by going to build his Church upon Peter, “upon this rock, I will build my church.” But Peter says, “No.” He was there. He ought to know. He says, “Jesus is the rock.” we are the stones living stones, and every believer who comes to Christ is a stone built upon that rock which is Jesus.
In God’s sight, we are chosen to be a precious stone with whom He planned to build His Church. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit within us made our body the spiritual house of worship. We are the Church and soon to be the kingdom; our domain is given to us and managed by God. Jesus spoke of the good news of God’s Kingdom: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand.” We bring the Church with us everywhere we go, so we must be aware that our behavior and attitude can get damaged when we do something wrong. We are the living stone, a holy priesthood, any stone or badmouthing thrown upon us to be ignored and treated as a spiritual sacrifice acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” .—1 Peter 2:4-5.
“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”—1 Peter 2:9 (ESV)
“Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” 2 Peter 1:4
Either Jews or Gentiles deserved to hear the good news. His message to the world is that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins. However, Peter claimed that it does not apply to all the people, but only a few who had chosen to witness when he (Jesus) rose from the dead and to testify that Jesus will judge the living and the dead.
When Peter was preaching, the gift of the Holy Spirit poured out to all who heard the word, even the Gentiles. Peter declared, “Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” The issue that we can bring is when Peter commanded either the circumcised Jews or the baptized Gentiles or bot, to have to do the Baptism in the name of Jesus Christ only, which was different from what Jesus commanded as recorded in Matthew 28:19. Here, Jesus instructed his disciples to go and make disciples of all nations and to baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” This issue had been resolved for those baptized in Jesus’ name only, who no longer needed to receive a 2nd baptism due to the belief in one Baptism. Those baptized after the resolution of the issue were baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
If we go back to the Baptism before, they resolved the issue after the apostolic age. This is how it happened; Luke and Mark’s teachings seemed to be influenced by the teachings of Paul that became popular during the 1st century AD, which was Baptism in the name of Jesus only rather than the Trinitarian blessing of “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” It became the Oneness movement which claimed that Jesus and the Father as one person and Jesus is the Creator. Oneness theology referred to Jesus Only and denied the existence of the Father and the Holy Spirit. In Colossians 1— Jesus Christ is the Redeemer, the Firstborn, and the Creator of all things. Philippians 3—Paul’s teaching focused on Jesus Christ and His good news. Paul encouraged the believers toward salvation, and Jesus would change their bodies into glorious bodies as he has.
Peter, like Paul, claimed that he received a revelation instructing him to accept Gentiles into the Church. Cornelius, a Centurion, was one to hear about Jesus Christ, experienced the power of the Holy Spirit, and was baptized. After being warned to stop preaching in the name of Jesus, Peter courageously rejected the request and boldly said, “We must obey God rather than human beings”—Acts 5:29.
God is all in all.