THE ROCK

Matthew 16:13-20

August 24, 2008

Is there a better story than this for this time in our lives?  When everything seems to be changing, it’s important to revisit those few things that never change.  Today, we are going back to the very center of our faith. When you wonder if anything is reliable, the truth of this story reminds us of that upon which we rely forever.

Jesus and his disciples have left what we would now call Israel and have gone to a Gentile city called Caesarea Philippi. We might say that he is now in pagan country. Why is that important?

If I tell you that I went over to Washburn University the other day and saw some students working on calculus, you might say, “So?” But if I tell you that I was over at the Juvenile Detention Center and there was a group of students doing calculus, you just might raise your eyebrows and say, “Really? They are doing calculus. Wow!” The setting always shapes the story.

So let me give you a brief word about Caesarea Philippi.  It was a worship center long before Jesus. They worshipped the ancient Syrian gods. And after that, it became a center of worship for the ancient gods of the Greeks. The Greek god, Pan, the God of nature is said to have been born there. And it had become a center for the worship of Caesar, the ruler of the Roman Empire.  Jesus and his disciples are visiting where all of the pagan gods of the world receive their worship.

Here where Caesar and all of the ancient gods are worshipped, here in the midst of magnificent temples and idols and reminders of the ancient gods, Jesus and his disciples gather for a time of instruction and reflection. Wouldn’t you love to have heard the entire conversation? We have only a bare-bones report.

Jesus asks, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” That’s easy. All he wants is a report of what people are saying and you can feel the disciples relax as they report, “John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.”  That is high praise. They are saying that you are a man who has come from God and you are a man with a message from God. If you use your imagination, you can hear the conversation. “Jesus, you have touched a lot of people. They know that you are authentic. You have healed many. They know that there is something distinctive and special about you.” And the more they talk, the more comfortable they become.

And then, at just the perfect moment, Jesus changes the subject. “What about you?” “Who do you say that I am?”  Suddenly, it’s personal. It is not private. This is a very public conversation. He is asking the disciples right there in front of one another to talk about their relationship with him. “What about you? Who do you say that I am?”

I can hear somebody say, “Here. You want me to talk about that here?” “You want me to share my deepest feelings here?  You want me to talk about my deepest commitment here?

The problem is not that they don’t love him. That would be easy. “You are a good guy Jesus. Yeah, you are one of the best and we are glad to be with you.” That would be easy. What is hard for most of us is to talk about our deepest loyalties and our strongest commitments.

Let me try an experiment. I will not ask you to speak out-loud. But let me ask you to personally respond with a prayer. Prayerfully imagine that Jesus is talking to you and the question is, “Who do you say that I am?”  How do you answer him? 

For as long as preachers have been preaching, we have drawn this distinction. It is one thing to know about a person. It is entirely different to know the person personally.  In this very moment, Jesus may be asking you, “Who do you say that I am?”  I believe that it is the most important question that you will ever hear or answer.

Peter has become the leader of the disciples and he is the first to answer. “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 

Let me give you a lesson in Biblical culture. James and John were called “the sons of thunder.” What did that mean?  It meant that they had stormy personalities. From time to time, they exploded like lightening and they boomed like thunder.  Barnabas was called the son of encouragement. He was an encourager.

Now, Jesus called himself “the son of man.” Or, in today’s world, we understand better if we say, “The son of humanity.” What might that mean? He had all of the attributes of a full human being. He really was one of us. That is the way that he identified himself, “The son of humanity.” 

Do you remember the Genesis story where God says that God will make human beings in God’s own image?  God created them, male and female, in his own image.  After the fall, because we all sin, I believe that Jesus is the only human being who has not sullied or distorted or dirtied the image of God. He was the only real human being to ever live because he was the only one to live as an “image-of-God” person.

Now listen to Peter. “You are the Christ (which means that you are the one that God has anointed), you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Now if James and John are sons of thunder and if Barnabas is the son of encouragement, who does that make Jesus, the son of God?  The attributes of God reside in him. 

What practical use is that to us?  If you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus because he is the son of God and all of the attributes of God reside in him. If you want to know what God wants, ask Jesus.

And Jesus answered, “Blessed are you Simon, son of Jonah.” There is that phrase again. Was his father’s name Jonah? I really don’t know. But I do know that Simon, like Jonah, had to struggle with his faith. A little later, like Jonah, Simon had his season of unfaithfulness. And like Jonah, he was restored to a faithful witness. As Jonah preached to the Ninevites, Simon Peter preached to the world.

Jesus said, “Your name is no longer Simon. It is now Peter.” All through the Bible, the rock is a good thing. Sometimes God is called a rock. And he said, “You did not figure this out by yourself. This was revealed to you by God.” Now, if it took an act of God for Peter to recognize Jesus, what does that say about us?  Friend, I can talk to you from now until you die about Jesus but the only one who can finally convince you is God himself. I am rather glad for that fact. It seems to take the pressure off of me. So my job is to point you in the right direction and ask you to open your heart to Spirit of God. Listen for that inner voice that identifies Jesus for you as God’s son.

“You are now the rock”, Jesus said, “and I am going to build my church on you.” What was the very first thing that Jesus did to Peter after his confession of faith?  He put him in church!   In America, we have a notion that it is possible to walk with God and ignore the church. You may think so but Jesus thought that the church was necessary to our spiritual well-being. As for me, I think that Jesus knew what he was talking about! Jesus did not intend for us to walk with him alone but to walk with him together.

“And”, he said, “The gates of hell shall not overcome it.”  This is a strange phrase, “the gates of hell.”  In the Old Testament, the city gate was the location of the city government. That is where community decisions were made and decisions were handed down and sometimes punishment meted out. So, what Jesus is saying is this, the forces of hell or the governments of hell or the forces of evil will not prevail against the church.

The whole thing is grounded in Peter and his confession of faith. There in Caesarea Philippi, where all of the idols of the world were worshipped, Peter said “You are the Christ, the son of the living God.” Those who make that confession are drawn together into the fellowship of believers called the church. And that church, grounded in that confession, cannot be overcome, not even by hell itself. That is a promise to remember.

For some of us, this is a time for anxiety. And that is perfectly natural. But this is a church that is built on the rock of the confession that “Jesus is Lord.” And we know that Jesus is Lord, not by hearsay, but by the witness of God’s own Spirit. And we have been drawn together into this part of Christ’s church. And by God’s own faithfulness, the church will survive and thrive. The ministry will go forward. The fellowship will grow deeper. We will teach and learn the ways of Jesus. New believers will come to know him and older believers will grow in his spirit. You will laugh together and sometimes cry together and play together and worship together and celebrate the gospel of Jesus together. That is the promise of Jesus himself. That is the rock on which First Baptist Church stands and not even hell itself can ultimately defeat her.

Amen.