Jesus Christ Research Paper

Jesus Christ, by deliberate intention founded a visibly organized Church. When Jesus selected His Apostles, He had plans for the them and He intended them to be the leaders of His Church. While Jesus was revealing Who He was, He was also preparing the Apostles to teach this revelation to the world. Jesus often preached to crowds of people. However, much of His teaching was to the Apostles. Christ founded the Catholic Church as the Kingdom of God on Earth, and He gave the Apostles the power to teach, sanctify, and to rule the members of the Church in His Name. Jesus also gave the Apostles a special commission and special powers that He gave to no other person. Jesus gave them the power to forgive sins, to baptize, to change bread and wine into

He knew that without a leader, His Church would break up into smaller groups. The leader who Jesus appointed was Peter. In the book Life of Christ, by Bishop Sheen, Peter's name appeared more than 190 times in the Scriptures. All of the other Apostle's names together appeared a total of 130 times. Jesus declared Peter's primacy three times. The first was in Mathew 16:18-19: "And I say to thee: That thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give thee the keys to the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven." Jesus declared that He would organize Church and that Simon Peter would be its leader. The second Scriptural reference was during the Last Supper. Jesus foretold the desertion of His disciples, especially Peter's denial of Him. However, Jesus also declared to Peter He had prayed that Peter's faith would not fail. After the Resurrection, Peter atoned for his denial of Jesus by making avowal of love of Him (John 21:15-17). Using the image of lambs and sheep, Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, gave Peter authority over His Church. Lastly, after Peter's death, he was recognized as having authority over the