Peter & the Rock

Peter and the Rock

May 21, 2016

Larry R Evans

Sabbath School Teacher

INTRODUCTION

If you’ve been in this class when I’ve taught in the past, you know that I’ve often referred to the two dominant questions found in the book of Genesis:  “Where are you?” (Gen. 3;9) and “Where is your brother?”  Questions have a way of stopping us in our tracks.  They can often cause us to challenge our assumptions and by so doing a deeper truth is revealed.

Throughout the gospels Jesus asked many questions.  I have a list of over 100 questions he asked.  Here are seven and I think you will agree that they are deep penetrating questions:

1. "Do you believe that I am able to do this?" (Matt. 9:28)

2. "Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?" (Matt. 8:26)

3. "What do you think about the Christ?" (Matt. 22:42)

4. "Do you love Me?" (John 21:17)

5. "Why do you call Me 'Lord, Lord', and not do what I tell you?" (Luke 6:46)

6. "What do you want Me to do for you?" (Luke 18:41)

7. "Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?" (Matt. 7:3)

These questions are still relevant today, aren’t they?  Our study today begins with another very important question.  It is often dealt with from a theological perspective and that’s certainly relevant.  Today, however, the 5 questions that I am raising as we study Matthew 16 and 17 all originate from one single question that Jesus asked his disciples:  “Who do you say I am?

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER

1.     Preceding testing or difficult times, Jesus often gives us an opportunity for us to have our faith strengthened so that we will be able to meet a future challenge.  True or False? (Matt. 16:13-20)

2.    Peter’s confession regarding Jesus being the Messiah was significant because his statement of faith would lead to  strength to meet the challenging days ahead.  True or False?  (Matt. 16:14-18)

3.    Satan will use well-meaning friends to try to turn us away from doing God’s will?  True or False (Matt 16:22-23)

4.    Like Jesus, we are often comforted by those who listen and who are personally acquainted with our pain, weakness and or temptation even though their experience might be different.  True or False?  (Matt. 17:1-8)

5.    In our haste to defend truth we may actually misstate truth.  True or False?  (Matt. 17:24-27)

STUDY AND REFLECTION

1.  Preceding testing or difficult times, Jesus often gives us an opportunity for us to have our faith strengthened so that we will be able to meet a future challenge.  True (Matt. 16:13-20)

Read:  Matt 16:13-20

Don’t skip over the location where this conversation took place:  Caesarea Philippi.  In this region idolatry prevailed. False worship, false gods dominated the land and such believes were indeed a threat to the hope and assurance God intended His people to have.  At the same time being in this region underscored the spiritual needs of the people –the world in which Jesus would be sending his disciples

It is often helpful to view large sections of Scripture before focusing on individual verses.  Once that is done, then individuals bring forth greater insights.  The discussion between Jesus and His disciples about who He was is positioned just before the section (Matt. 16:21f) in which Jesus shares the prediction of His death. This raises an important question or observation.  Why?  Why do you think it was important for Jesus to raise this question before He told the disciples about His coming death?  It is easy for us to get bogged down with the name of Peter while allowing us to miss some very important textual insights.

There was something about Jesus question, “Who do you say that I am?” that He felt was important to be asked before He made his announcement about His death. I believe there is an important principle there that applies to our own walk with Christ.  Could it be that there was something about a restating one’s faith that actually makes a person stronger?

2.  Peter’s confession regarding Jesus being the Messiah was significant because his statement of faith would lead to  strength to meet the challenging days ahead.  True or False?  (Matt. 16:14-18)

Jesus began by asking who “people” say He is.  Its one thing to say what others say but a whole different situation when you have to explain what you believe.  But Jesus doesn’t leave it there.  He says, “But what about you? “Who do you say I am?”

It is then that Peter speaks up –“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”  This is good theology but is that all that Jesus had in mind?

Notice the insightful statement by Ellen White in DA 411,

“He was about to tell them of the suffering that awaited Him. But first He went away alone, and prayed that their hearts might be prepared to receive His words. Upon joining them, He did not at once communicate that which He desired to impart. Before doing this, He gave them an opportunity of confessing their faith in Him that they might be strengthened for the coming trial. He asked, “Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?” { DA 411.2}

 I know that many times when we study this passage we give emphasis to Peter’s name which is in reference to a “rolling stone.”  Peter was not the Rock.  Christ is the Rock (Deut. 32:4)  Peter, himself, clarifies this in 1 Peter 2:4,5,

“As you come to him, the living Stone –rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him– you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

Roman Catholics teach that Peter is the Rock on which the church is built yet Peter makes it clear that Christ is the “living Stone” and that we who believe are being built into a spiritual house whose foundation is Jesus!

If Peter were the one designated by Jesus as having the greatest authority why would the disciples be arguing later as to who is the greatest! (Matt. 18:1)

While attention is redirected by some to the issue of “authority” the real focus of Jesus was to prepare His disciples for what was about to happen – something that would shake their faith if at all possible.  Jesus knew this and He cared deeply for His disciples and all who would go through the terrible ordeal of seeing their leader hanging as though cursed on a cross.

3.  Satan will use well-meaning friends to try to turn us away from doing God’s will?  True or False (Matt 16:22-23)

“From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.

 Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!”

 Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men

Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you.

Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”

Note these insightful words found in the Desire of Ages, p. 416,

“Satan was trying to discourage Jesus, and turn Him from His mission; and Peter, in his blind love, was giving voice to the temptation. The prince of evil was the author of the thought. His instigation was behind that impulsive appeal. In the wilderness, Satan had offered Christ the dominion of the world on condition of forsaking the path of humiliation and sacrifice. Now he was presenting the same temptation to the disciple of Christ. He was seeking to fix Peter’s gaze upon the earthly glory, that he might not behold the cross to which Jesus desired to turn his eyes.”

Is it possible that Satan uses similar means to turn us away from the mission God has given us.

Also found in the Desire of Ages, are these words:

“Love for souls for whom Christ died means crucifixion of self. . . . The Christian is ever to realize that he has consecrated himself to God, and that in character he is to reveal Christ to the world. The self-sacrifice, the sympathy, the love, manifested in the life of Christ are to reappear in the life of the worker for God.” (p. 417)

4.  Like Jesus, we are often comforted by those who listen and who are personally acquainted with our pain, weakness and or temptation even though their experience might be different.  True

(Matt. 17:1-8)

In this passage (Matt. 17:1-8) the words “after six days” is very specific.  After six days is unusually precise. It stresses the continuity of this episode with the preceding scene in 16:13–28, and perhaps echoes Moses’ mountain experience in Exodus 24:15–18.

Why do you think this event is even recorded?  Is there any significance in verse 3?

“Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.”

But why?  Note the following insights:

“Now the burden of His prayer is that they may be given a manifestation of the glory He had with the Father before the world was, that His kingdom may be revealed to human eyes, and that His disciples may be strengthened to behold it. He pleads that they may witness a manifestation of His divinity that will comfort them in the hour of His supreme agony with the knowledge that He is of a surety the Son of God and that His shameful death is a part of the plan of redemption.” ( DA 420-421)

Throughout Matthew 16 and 17 we see Jesus doing whatever He can to prepare His disciple and His followers for what is about to take place. They had no idea though prophecies had made it clear. The question before us now is is:  “What is Jesus trying to tell us now? Are we listening?  Are we preparing?

5.  In our haste to defend truth we may actually misstate truth.  True or False?  (Matt. 17:24-27)

There is a caution given in the experience found in Matt. 17:24-27,

“After Jesus and his disciples arrived in Capernaum, the collectors of the two- drachma tax came to Peter and asked, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax?”

 “Yes, he does,” he replied.

When Peter came into the house, Jesus was the first to speak. “What do you think, Simon?” he asked. “From whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes –from their own sons or from others?”

 “From others,” Peter answered.

“Then the sons are exempt,” Jesus said to him. “But so that we may not offend them, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four- drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours.”

Peter was honestly trying to defend Jesus but in so doing He misstated and even misrepresented Jesus.  In Christ’s day the priests and the Levites were still regarded as especially devoted to the temple, and were not required to make the annual contribution for its support.  In Peter’s haste to defend Jesus, he actually contributed to the false notion that Jesus was not a prophet and certainly not the One to whom all the Levites represented in their ministry.

Ellen White notes,

“Only a little before, Peter had acknowledged Jesus as the Son of God; but he now missed an opportunity of setting forth the character of his Master. By his answer to the collector, that Jesus would pay the tribute, he had virtually sanctioned the false conception of Him to which the priests and rulers were trying to give currency.” { DA 433.}

CONCLUDING THOUGHT

No doubt difficult times lie ahead.  Not just financial difficulties, nor difficulties of earthly calamities.  The challenges we face are similar to those for which Jesus sought to prepare his disciples in Matt. 16 and 17.

The words of Isaiah 50:4-10 are powerful, comforting and instructive words as we reflect back on our study for today:

“The Sovereign Lord has given me an instructed tongue,

to know the word that sustains the weary.

He wakens me morning by morning,

wakens my ear to listen like one being taught.

 The Sovereign Lord has opened my ears,

and I have not been rebellious;

I have not drawn back.

 I offered my back to those who beat me,

my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard;

I did not hide my face

from mocking and spitting.

 Because the Sovereign Lord helps me,

I will not be disgraced.

Therefore have I set my face like flint,

and I know I will not be put to shame.

 He who vindicates me is near.

Who then will bring charges against me?

Let us face each other!

Who is my accuser?

Let him confront me!

 It is the Sovereign Lord who helps me.

Who is he that will condemn me?

They will all wear out like a garment;

the moths will eat them up.

 Who among you fears the Lord

and obeys the word of his servant?

Let him who walks in the dark,

who has no light,

trust in the name of the Lord

and rely on his God”