You Are Peter And On This Rock I Will Build My Church
In today’s Bible reading, includes Peter’s confession of Jesus’ divinity (“You are the Christ”) and Jesus’ statement, “You are Peter and on this rock, I will build my church.”
Jesus and His Disciples entered Caesarea Philippi, He asked them who people thought He was. They replied that some people thought He was John the Baptizer, Jeremiah, or Elijah.
Next, He asks, “Who do you think I am?” Simon immediately responded, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” Jesus praises Simon’s response and says that he couldn’t have come up with this on his own. The truth of that response was imparted by God. Jesus doesn’t tell us how God told Simon this awesome truth, only that He did. (Matthew 16:17)
Next, Jesus says that He’s changing Simon’s name to Peter (rock) and that He would build His church on this rock. Now, it’s important to note the different Greek words used in Jesus’ statement, otherwise, we’ll make the error that the Roman Catholic Church has made in attributing to Peter the title of the First Pope.
You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church.
Matthew 16:18 (CSB)
Actually, Jesus says, “You are a rock. And on this boulder, I will build my church.” What was the boulder? The boulder was Simon’s confession of Jesus’ Divinity. Jesus says that He would build His church on the confession that Jesus is God’s Anointed Messiah, the Son of the living God.
Jesus never said He would build His church on Peter — or any other person, for that matter! Instead, Jesus promised that His church — built on the confession of Jesus’ divinity — would prevail against the gates of hell.
And just seconds later, when Jesus told the Disciples that He would suffer and die. Simon rebuked Jesus, saying that He shouldn’t have to go to the cross. Jesus responds, “Get behind me, Satan for you are not setting your eyes on God, but man.” (Matthew 16:23)
Within a few seconds, Peter goes from being the toast of the party to being cursed like the devil. And the only thing that changed was his mindset.
Application
All of the Disciples may have thought the same thing, but as often was the case, Simon was the only one who spoke up. They were ready to reign with Jesus in Jerusalem as He overthrew the Roman occupiers. They were willing to fight to keep Jesus from going to the cross and dying.
Or so they thought.
They thought that Jesus’ ascent to Kingship over Israel would come easy. They rejected the suggestion that Jesus would have to suffer. And die.
How true is that for Jesus’ Disciples today? How many of us follow Jesus, thinking that He’ll just bless us with everything we could ever want? And the first time we hear anything about suffering?! What’s up with that?
But suffering and persecution are a part of following Jesus. Along the way, we have to give up a lot of idols — some of which we don’t know we even have — in order to follow Him more closely and walk into the destiny He is calling us.
But every idol we reject and every point of suffering and persecution is worth the all-surpassing worth of knowing Jesus Christ. (Philippians 3:8) Not His blessings that come from His hand, but Himself, Who He is.
Do you know Him?
This devotional was edited from another devotional, originally published on April 25, 2020.
* Chapters covered in today’s reading:
Matthew 16
Mark 8:11-38
Mark 9:1
Luke 9:18-27
This devotional was originally published on October 19, 2021.
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