Let us begin, shall we? When we left off, Jesus had just finished warning
His disciples about the doctrines of the Pharisees and Sadducees, and
then He went to Bethsaida. People there brought a blind man to Him and
begged Him to touch the man. Jesus took the blind man by the hand, led
him out of the town and when He had spit on his eyes, He asked him if
he saw anything.
The man looked up and said, I see men, like trees,
walking. Then Jesus put His hands on the man's eyes and made him look
up again, and his sight was fully restored and he saw every man
clearly. Jesus sent the man home and told him, Don't go into the town,
or tell anyone.
Let's take a small Peter the Rock Bible field trip ... It's a funny thing when you think about it, that
each and every one, of us at one time or another in our life, has been
blind to something. We all have different degrees of clarity
(understanding) about things and we think we've figured
things out and we can see again, but in fact, things are still blurry but Jesus is the only lens that can make everything
crystal clear for us. Now, back to our story on why Peter is the Rock.
Then Jesus went into Cæsarea Philippi with His
disciples and asked them, Who do people say that I am? They answered Him, Some say that you're John the Baptist, some say
Elijah, some say Jeremiah, and others say one of the old prophets
is risen again. Jesus asked them, who do you say that I am?
Peter answered, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.
Here is the Peter the Rock Bible quote we have been talking about where Jesus says that Peter is the Rock and why ... Jesus said, Blessed are you, because this wasn't revealed to you by man, but by my Father in
Heaven. You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and
the gates of hell will not prevail against it. I will give you the
keys to the Kingdom of Heaven and whatever you bind on earth will be
bound in Heaven and whatever you free on earth will be free in Heaven.
Well, that last Peter the Rock Bible paragraph has a number of things in
it for us to discuss. First of all, Bar means son of, so Bar-jona
means son of John (Jona = John), it was not Peter’s last name. If
you'll notice, most people didn't use a middle name or a surname (last
name) in those times, but they often times identified people by saying
whose son they were.
Next, Jesus says that God gave Peter the inspiration
to know who Jesus was, which must have made Peter gain confidence in
himself again since the walking on water, then sinking incident. Being
an Apostle was full of ups and downs (no pun intended), as you can
imagine. Don't forget their whole lives were devoted to Jesus. They
had to learn everything they possibly could about Him during the 3½
years that they spent with Him so they could spread the Gospel to the
entire world. That sure doesn't sound like it was easy.
Let's delve even deeper into this Peter the Rock Bible event as to discover more about the specific reason why Peter is the Rock. Jesus went on to say, You are Peter, and upon this
rock I will build my church. Now, remember that when Jesus first met
Peter, He said he would be called Cephas, which means, A stone. Peter
did indeed build Jesus' church. Not a physical building, but the
foundation of Christianity.
The next thing Jesus said was, and the gates of hell
will not prevail against it. This is a good time to point out an
interesting fact. Did you know that satan MUST surrender to Jesus?
Have you ever heard of Jesus casting out a demon that wouldn't do as
He said? Nope! And that's why they often said, What do want with us,
Jesus? Because they know that Jesus' power is above all. They
cannot disobey Him.
Next in our Peter the Rock Bible adventure ... Jesus continued His conversation with Peter by
saying, I'll give to you the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven and
whatever you bind on earth will be bound in Heaven and whatever you
free on earth will be freed in Heaven. This is where people get the
notion that St. Peter is standing at the gates of Heaven with the keys
in his hand as if he makes the decision as to whether a person is
admitted or not. He certainly does not make that decision, only God
makes that decision. What Jesus meant was that whoever's sins Peter
forgave on earth, would be forgiven in Heaven, and whoever's sins he
retained, or found unforgivable on earth, would be found guilty in
Heaven.
After Jesus told these things to Peter, He told His
disciples not to tell anyone that He was Jesus the Christ. From then
on, He started to tell them that He had to go to Jerusalem and suffer
many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and
scribes, and be killed and raised to life again on the third day.
As our Peter the Rock Bible research continues, we go from Jesus saying that Peter is the Rock to Jesus saying that Peter was being used as Satan's mouthpiece. Let's check it out ... This wasn't very welcome news to Peter, and he took
Jesus aside and started to debate with Him, saying, God forbid, Lord,
this can't happen to you. Jesus turned around and faced His disciples
with Peter behind Him, and He rebuked Peter sharply saying, Get behind
me Satan. You're an offense to me. You don't understand the things of
God, but only the things of men.
Now, if you take this literally, then, you're gonna
misunderstand it, just like Peter did, so let's look at this a little
closer. Here we have Jesus, revealing to His friends a very important
matter. In order to save the world from sin, and set the New Testament
in place, He must die as the sacrifice for people's sins because God
saw that there was no other way we could make it to Heaven living by
the Old Testament. Think of the New Testament as a will. God sent
Jesus as the testator (someone who leaves a will) of the New
Testament, but the death of the testator (Jesus) is what brings the New Covenant to life.
Jesus wasn't really calling Peter ... Satan, when He
said, Get thee behind me Satan. He just knew that Satan was trying to
get Peter not to believe that this very important sacrifice really
needed to happen, so Jesus was talking to Satan out loud to reveal the
TRUTH and remove all doubts. This was truly a thing of God, and Satan
would surely love for the Apostles not to understand it. Wouldn't that
be a smart move on his part?
You see, up until now, the Apostles knew
that Jesus was the Messiah, but they didn't know that He had to die.
They thought He was gonna be the new King of Israel at that time and
that they would sit around with Him at an earthly table and run this
new Kingdom! Can you imagine, the Messiah that the world has waited
thousands of years for, and now He's finally here, but He tells you,
His plan for leading the people, is to die for them. It was very
confusing so Satan probably thought that was the perfect time to place
doubt in their minds.
Put yourself in Peter's place for a moment, now.
Your Lord has just told you that you've been inspired by God, you're
the rock that His church will be built on, you get the keys to Heaven
and get to make executive decisions, and in the very same
conversation, be told that Jesus was gonna suffer, die, and rise from
the dead, and that satan is talking through you. It must have been a
very emotional experience, but the Apostles had seen and heard so many
extraordinary things which gave them steely determination, and that's
what counts. It's that kind of determination that we need too, as
Christians in today's world, to be able to hold on when confusing or
difficult situations arise. Be strong like a rock ... Like Peter.
When Jesus called the people to join Him with His
disciples, He said, If any man will follow me, let him deny himself,
and take up his cross daily, and follow me. Did you hear that? It's a
daily sacrifice to be a Christian. What is your sacrifice to Him? Your
Faith and your time. Time with Him and for Him.
Jesus went on, Whoever will save (value their life
over TRUTH) his life will lose it, and whoever will lose (sacrifice)
his life for my sake, will find it. Okay, now when you read this, does
it make you feel like you should be sad about it? The word lose, or
sacrifice, makes it sound like something that you don't want to do,
but look at this with a different attitude for just a moment. Let's
take the first part, If your worldly life is very precious to you,
you'll lose it.
As we see in
James 4:4,
A friend of the world is an enemy of God ... So if you deem your life
more important than the cause, you will lose it. Every hero you admire
in books and movies has surrendered all for a cause. Jesus surrendered
His life and experienced unimaginable pain and suffering for YOU.
So how will this apply to our lives? It is simple.
If the world asks you to defy Jesus by word or deed, it should be in
your mind and heart ... That it would be better to die than to trade up Jesus.
If the End Times occur while you are still living, you may get first hand knowledge of what this means.
PETER THE ROCK BIBLE ABC'S
PETER IS THE ROCK AND REPENTING
Now, the second part, A sacrifice is a gift. If you
give your life to and even for Jesus if necessary, you
will find eternal life ... It sure doesn't sound sad anymore, does it?
How do you give your life to Jesus? Once again, you give Him
your faith, and your time. Spend time alone with your Father. Trade up
some of that worldly time for Jesus time. Commit the things you do to
Him. Change your priorities.
Make a list with every letter of the alphabet of things you can do for God today. Start with the letter A.
For example ... Adore
Him, Becon
Him, Cherish
Him, Devote
yourself to Him, Educate
yourself more about Jesus, etc. Hang your list up where you can read
it once a day, and most importantly, do something on the list! Now,
back to our story. You’ll FEEL the change within you.
Then Jesus said, How is a man better off if he gains
the whole world, but loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in
exchange for his soul? In the end, there are only two places that your
soul can go ... Heaven or Hell.
There's an interesting study about this that
you're sure to learn a lot from, called Fear of Death. That should answer a lot of questions about your
soul in case you were wondering.
As we continue, Jesus said to the people and His disciples, The Son of
man will come in the glory of His Father with His Angels, and then
He'll reward every man according to his works. So, whoever is ashamed
of me and of my Words in this sinful generation, I'll be ashamed of
them too, in front of my Father.
But, I tell you of a truth, there be some standing
here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Kingdom of
God.
What does this mean??? I’d like you to remember back
when Jesus was describing the Kingdom of Heaven and telling in
parables that the Kingdom is within us. For a moment, let’s assume
that the death that Jesus is speaking of is not the death of the body
or the end of anything, it’s the realm of Paradise ... The continuation
of our path to eternal life, once our earthly bodies expire.
Have you experienced the Kingdom of God? Weren’t all
those parables describing what our lives are like once we invite Jesus
into them? Let me follow that question with some more questions. How
have people in the past experienced the Kingdom? Do you think that the
children of Israel experienced the Kingdom while they were in the
wilderness? Do you suppose a cloud by day and fire by night to guide
them, manna, the waters of Meribah, their shoes and clothes not
wearing out and not a feeble person among them ... Do you suppose this is
experiencing the Kingdom? Do you suppose the people who witnessed all
of Jesus’ miracles experienced the Kingdom?
How about the Holy Spirit working in our lives
today? What about when you witness something and you know in your
heart that it couldn’t possibly have happened without God’s hand?
Aren’t you experiencing the Kingdom then? You may have even
experienced the Kingdom while reading something in one of these
stories of Jesus ... Maybe a parable that you never understood before
suddenly has new meaning and it makes sense to you now. You experience
the mysteries of the Kingdom so often, yet don’t realize it. So
perhaps what Jesus was referring to, was that unless the Kingdom is
within us ... Unless HE is within us ... We will not get a taste of
what Paradise is.
Now, let’s assume that the death Jesus was speaking of is ... Death eternally. Once you’ve experienced the Kingdom, if you are overcome by the evil of the world and reject Jesus forever, you
will taste this other death. Just remember, that we all are faced with
trial and tribulation and sometimes we fall, but when we repent, the Grace of God by the death of Jesus Christ, is the sacrifice and the promise that He made to us, which gives us the hope of eternal life.
A wise friend of mine always says, You haven’t really lived, until
you find something worth dying for. My friends, I hope you find that
something ... And I hope that something is Jesus.
The Peter the Rock Bible summary on why Jesus said that Peter is the Rock is clear now. Peter is the foundation (beginning) of the Christian Church of which you are now or can choose to be a part of ...
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