DiscipleshipCurriculum RaisingDisciples - Flipbook - Page 50
WEEK 8
Faith of Their Own
identity of this itinerant preacher. When the people wondered if he was Elijah or Jeremiah,
they were wondering if he was a prophet like those two men. Since John the Baptist’s
ministry overlapped with Jesus’, there may have been confusion among the people about
the difference between these two men.
The word Messiah is the name given to the leader the Jewish people were waiting for during
the time of Christ. They believed that a leader would bring deliverance from their captivity
under Roman oppression and become the king who would restore his rule and reign from
the Temple. Though the term Messiah is now understood to be the one who is to come to
restore all things in the final days, Peter, when he declared Jesus was the Messiah in
Matthew 16, believed that Jesus was going to become a political ruler on a throne in
Jerusalem like his predecessor King David.
Peter told Jesus on Thursday evening, during the Last Supper, that he would never betray
Jesus. But that same evening/early morning, he denied Jesus three times. (The rooster
crowing indicates it is early Friday morning at the time of the third denial.) The day of
Pentecost, when Peter preached to the crowd in Acts 2, took place fifty days after Jesus’
resurrection.
ENGAGE SCRIPTURE
Keeping in mind the preceding background information, as well as the context on pages
142-143 of Raising Disciples, guide a conversation to understand these passages:
Read Matthew 16:13-16 and 21-23
Peter correctly identifies Jesus, but how was his “good confession” incomplete in
understanding?
Read Matthew 26:34-35 and 69-75
How do Peter’s words conflict with his actions?
Read Acts 2:14, 22-24, 36-41
How do Peter’s words demonstrate his maturity of understanding?
What helped Peter grow in his faith between his first confession, his denials on the weekend
of Jesus’s crucifixion, and his confident belief on the day of Pentecost?
Say, “Peter’s discipleship demonstrates that the journey with Christ is a process of growing
in our understanding of what we believe and confess.”
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