PETER IS THE ROCK

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.