Hello, my “Walking with Jesus” friends on this Tuesday,
History books and calendars are filled with calls to honor famous people and events. Even the life of Jesus has some of those special dates like Christmas or Easter.
But today, join me again at a place called Caesarea Philippi for an event that continues to be both celebrated and strongly debated 2000 years later, even though we don’t know the exact date on which it occurred. Matthew was the eyewitness disciple who gives us the clearest description of that day and we find his report in only a handful of power packed verses in Matthew 16.
Yesterday we looked closely at the first part of the remarkable exchange between Peter and Jesus. Jesus had asked who the disciples thought he was? Peter boldly responded: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” (Matt. 16:16) Jesus answered Peter with this powerful statement: “Blessed are you Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by My Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter…” (Matt. 16:17) I draw four significant conclusions from Jesus’ words:
First: that Peter’s declaration of Jesus’ identity was TRUE and was only known by Simon Peter because God opened Peter’s mind to understand Jesus’ divine identity! That is both spiritual ‘illumination’ and ‘revelation’.
Second: That the carefully chosen words Peter had proclaimed were foundational truth, but something is missing. Do you see it? God had given angelic instructions to name Mary’s miraculous firstborn son ‘JESUS’, which means Savior or Deliverer, because Jesus would save His people from their sins. (Matt. 1:21; Luke 1:32; Luke 2:11)
But Matthew did not say the name Jesus in his answer to Jesus’ question. That tells me Peter did not yet fully understand how Jesus could be Savior for our world.
Third: Peter had declared the truth that Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah for all Jews and also the Son of God for all Jews and Gentiles.
Even though Peter did not yet understand that Jesus would offer His life for the salvation of Gentiles, Peter was declaring that in the miraculous incarnation of God, Jesus had come to bring God’s truth to ALL people Jews and Gentiles.
For Peter and all these Jewish disciples, the ‘whoever’ global scope of Jesus’ love and message was very difficult to imagine. They, like almost all Jews, believed God was only loving toward and concerned about the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Fourth: That the name “Peter” which Jesus had given Simon when they first met, (John 1:42) would be Simon’s truthful identity the rest of his life, as ‘petros’ a disciple of Jesus the Christ, growing more and more into an apostle of Jesus!
Now today let’s watch closely as Jesus continued speaking, making one of His most significant statements of all time: “…and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” (Matt. 16:18) Three key questions rise up from this statement for me…
First: what is this ROCK Jesus is talking about that will be so significant Jesus would build His global ‘church’ upon it, through all generations?
Second: what is this word “church“? For this is the first time this word appears in the Bible and Jesus Himself is introducing this new word?
Third: what is the significance of this phrase ‘the gates of Hades’ and what power is Jesus describing that His church will be able to use to withstand any potential overcoming by Hades?
Oh my, those are very significant questions, aren’t they? Let’s look first at this new word Jesus introduced. Matthew was not writing his report of Jesus’ life in English. Matthew wrote in Greek, the business and official language of the Roman Empire in the first century. The word Matthew wrote is “ekklesia” and it means “people called out”. It means people rescued or delivered from something inescapable that held them.
When Peter was writing to suffering Christians across the Roman empire a few years later Peter, led by the Holy Spirit wrote these words which give us a very good understand of what Jesus was saying here with this new word “ekklesia”: “you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness and into His wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God…” (1 Peter 2:9,10)
Oh my, for those Jewish people who heard Peter’s words, of course they thought back to their ancestors delivered by God from cruel Egyptian slavery! (Exodus 14) And of course God spoke very similar words over His people when they arrived at Mt Sinai. (Ex.19:1-6)
For the Gentiles who heard Peter’s words, they thought of the harsh iron fist of Rome under whose domination they lived. But for all people in that turbulent 1st century, both Jews and Gentiles who had trusted in Jesus Christ for their salvation, they thought of the deliverance Jesus had accomplished for them… deliverance from living in bondage to the kingdom of darkness and deliverance from their sin condemnation!
Yes, my friends, Jesus was declaring that His redeemed followers, of all ages, both genders, from every country in the world, would be brought together to form His “Ekklesia”, His global Church! We are rescued by Jesus out of the darkness of our sin bondage and sin condemnation, and we are brought into the kingdom of God. A kingdom of truth rather than deceit. Of light rather than dark. Of hope rather than despair! Colossians 1:9-13 describes this glorious reality and as we close today, I urge you to read and meditate deeply on those verses in Colossians 1.
As always, very important ‘lessons learned’ notes are in the link just below; a wonderful worship Charity Gayle song will draw us to celebrate our Redeemer Jesus; and I’ll meet you here tomorrow, to continue this study!
Today’s Scripture: Matt. 16:18, Colossians 1:9-13
Choose below to read or listen.
Matt. 16:18
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Colossians 1:9-13
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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