Peter

The Rock Of Faith

READ Matthew 16:13–20

There are quite literally thousands of Christian denominations in the world, and we are well aware that they don’t all get along or even respect one another. You have likely heard a member of one Christian church disparage the faith or practice of believers in another Christian church. Perhaps they accused the other of being too liberal or too traditional, of focusing on social justice at the expense of doctrine, or of being more focused on dogma than on living out the love of Christ. Maybe they just didn’t like the music style in the other church, or they accused the church of being inhospitable. Christians have found seemingly countless reasons to separate from one another over the centuries. It begs the question: What is it that holds Christians together, if anything at all? What is the rock the Christian faith is built upon, across all its diverse communities?

The earliest creed in the Christian church was the simple declaration that “Jesus is Lord.” In a Roman world that declared Caesar to be lord, this Christian creed had political implications. Christians were not people of the empire; they were people of God. They didn’t place their hope in political or elected officials; they put their hope in Christ. The apostle Peter was the first of Christ’s followers to make that declaration of faith: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16). Consider for a moment what an astounding claim this was for Peter to make. Peter had been called to follow a rabbi, a Jewish teacher. Rabbis frequently called disciples to follow them; this was not original to Jesus. Yet Peter understood something deeper: Jesus was no ordinary rabbi; he was the very Son of God.

Peter made this powerful profession when Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” (v. 13). The disciples offered some answers they must have overheard from the crowds that so often followed Jesus. Some, they told him, claimed Jesus was John the Baptist returned from the dead. Others thought he was one of the great prophets of old, maybe even Jeremiah or Elijah. Clearly, the people marveled at Jesus, thinking he might be a prophet returned from the dead.

But then Jesus asked the more important question: “But what about you? . . . Who do you say I am?” (v. 15). This is the question we all need to answer. Who do you say Jesus is?

C. S. Lewis famously suggested that people offer three kinds of answers to this question. Some say that Jesus was a liar. He led the people along, allowing them to think he was something greater than he really was, even encouraging them in a delusion. Lewis said others might say Jesus was a lunatic. He believed what he said, but he was crazy. But neither accounts for Jesus’ miracles, witnessed and proclaimed by so many who died professing their belief that he was Lord.

In the end, Lewis wrote that if we reject Jesus as a liar and a lunatic, we must confess Jesus was and is Lord.^* Now, this provides a nice apologetic framework for Christians discussing Jesus. But each one of us needs to answer Jesus’ question in our own personal way. Jesus’ question to his disciples speaks from the pages of Scripture to us today: Who do you say Jesus is?

Peter’s answer—that Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of God—caused Jesus to say to him, “This was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven” (v. 17). Jesus went on to tell Peter, “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it” (v. 18). Christians have debated how to understand the “rock” upon which Jesus said he would build his church. Is the rock Peter himself? Certainly Peter was a monumental figure in the early church, the disciple who delivered the powerful Pentecost sermon that God used to supercharge the community of Christ followers (Acts 2:14–41).

At the same time, the rock upon which Christ said he would build his church was more likely Peter’s confession itself: that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. This is the belief that became the earliest creed of the church: Jesus is Lord. And in all the diverse communities of the church today, this remains the central creed. It’s the confession that each believer, following after Peter, must make—that Jesus is Lord. When this is our creed, Christ promises that even the gates of hell itself cannot overcome his church.