Why the Lord Jesus Gave the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven to Peter（Part 1）

My colleague nodded his head and continued on: “That’s right. Out of the Lord Jesus’ twelve disciples, only Peter received the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit and recognized that the Lord Jesus was the Messiah who was prophesied to come, that He was Christ. When the Lord Jesus said that He was the bread of life and that people need only eat His flesh and drink His blood to gain eternal life, quite a few people developed notions and gave up on following the Lord. Only Peter said: ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? you have the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that you are that Christ, the Son of the living God’ (John 6:68–69). From these two events we can see that Peter had a true understanding of the Lord Jesus from His work and words, that he was entirely certain that the Lord Jesus was Christ and the way to eternal life. So no matter how the Pharisees judged, condemned, and attacked the Lord Jesus, he never became confused, and whether or not others abandoned the Lord Jesus, he was never constrained and continued to maintain his devotion, following the Lord until the end. And after the Lord was resurrected and ascended into heaven, Peter shepherded the churches in accordance with the Lord’s command. He spread the gospel of the Lord and was ultimately crucified upside down for His sake, bearing a resounding, beautiful witness. We can see from all of this that Peter had a true understanding of the Lord and he possessed a genuine heart of love for Him. Otherwise, he would not have been able to give his entire life to following the Lord and spreading His gospel, and he especially would not have been able to bear the witness of the ultimate love for God and obedience to the point of death.”