Simon Peter's Witness to the Risen Christ

Simon Peter, called the Rock by Our Lord, was among the first to answer Jesus’s call, and one of Our Lord’s most devoted followers.  He witnessed Our Lord’s Transfiguration.  He participated in the Our Lord’s Last Supper.  He kept watch sleepily with Our Lord in the Garden of Gethsemane, then denied Our Lord three times after Our Lord was arrested.  He was not there at Calvary but was amongst the few to witness the Empty Tomb and the Risen Lord afterwards.  

 
Our Lord had entrusted Simon Peter with a unique leadership role within the Church that he founded, a leadership role that is still exercised by his most current successor, Pope Leo XIV.  Even though Simon Peter denied him on that fateful night, Jesus forgave him and confirmed him in the Church leadership role.  

After receiving the Holy Spirit promised by Our Lord at Pentecost, Simon Peter became a powerful public witness to the Risen Christ.  The New Testament records his witness.

 
Having received the Holy Spirit, Simon Peter boldly preached the Risen Christ to those gathered that day:  “You who are Israelites, hear these words. Jesus the Nazorean was a man commended to you by God with mighty deeds, wonders, and signs, which God worked through him in your midst, as you yourselves know.  This man, delivered up by the set plan and foreknowledge of God, you killed, using lawless men to crucify him.   But God raised him up, releasing him from the throes of death, because it was impossible for him to be held by it.”  (Acts of the Apostles 2:22-24). 

 
The Third Chapter of the Acts of the Apostles records an event whereby Simon Peter heals a crippled beggar in the name of Jesus.   After the healing, Simon Peter boldly testifies to the astonished onlookers:  “The God of Abraham, [the God] of Isaac, and [the God] of Jacob, the God of our ancestors, has glorified his servant Jesus whom you handed over and denied in Pilate’s presence, when he had decided to release him.   You denied the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you. The author of life you put to death, but God raised him from the dead; of this we are witnesses.”  (Acts of the Apostles 3:13-15)

 
Incensed by Simon Peter’s healing of the beggar, the Jewish leaders arrested him and John.  The 4th Chapter of Acts of the Apostles records what transpired:

“Then Peter, filled with the holy Spirit, answered them, “Leaders of the people and elders:  If we are being examined today about a good deed done to a cripple, namely, by what means he was saved, then all of you and all the people of Israel should know that it was in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead; in his name this man stands before you healed.  He is ‘the stone rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone.’  There is no salvation through anyone else, nor is there any other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved.”  (Acts of the Apostles 4:8-12).    

 
Perplexed by the unprecedented situation which they are confronted by, the Jewish leaders issue a stern rebuke to Simon Peter and John and a warning to cease preaching about Jesus, but then release them.  Simon Peter and John ignore their warnings and continue to bear witness to the Risen Christ.  

 
What amazing growth for Simon Peter!  When Jesus is arrested, Simon Peter is fearful; when Simon Peter is arrested for healing in Jesus’s name, Simon Peter empowered by the Holy Spirit is eloquent, courageous and fearless in bearing witness to the Risen Christ.   

 
Simon Peter also witnesses to the Risen Christ in writing as well as in speech.   In his First Epistle, Peter declares:  “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in his great mercy gave us a new birth to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you who by the power of God are safeguarded through faith, to a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the final time.”  (1 Peter 1:3-5).

After Pentecost, Simon Peter boldly witnessed and testified for the Risen Christ throughout his life.  His most powerful witness occurred many years following Pentecost.  Simon Peter’s ultimate witness of the Risen Christ was to give his own life upon a cross as his Savior and Our Savior did.  This the Son of God foretold:  

Amen, amen, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to dress yourself and go where you wanted; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.”  He said this signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God. And when he had said this, he said to him, “Follow me.”  

(John 21:18-19).  

And Simon Peter did indeed follow Our Lord…through martyrdom and into Eternity.