The Church is Founded
Notes
Transcript
Over the next two weeks, we will be taking a closer look at the first 14 chapters in Acts. The title of the book leads us to understand that this book details the actions of the Apostles after the Ascension of Jesus Christ and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on all believers, which both are detailed in chapters one and two consecutively.
The philosopher and poet George Santayana once said “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” You may have heard this saying, or one of its various forms stated before. Many times, it comes as a warning, which could be for all of us. If we don’t know what didn’t work well and why, we are doomed to make the same mistakes as those who came before us. Many of us, in our day-to-day lives, create new things and envision new projects of various kinds. A wise person will research to see how such a thing may have existed before, how it was created, and what the result was. For anything to grow, it must also change. That also means that just because something is going well or working fine doesn’t mean that it can’t change. Projects and ministries grow, develop, and change all the time. Things can be improved. But the reasons, basis, or foundation, if it is good, never completely changes.
Pray and Read Matthew 16:13-20
13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” 17 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” 20 Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.
Jesus and the disciples are in a pagan village, where the temple of the woodland deity Pan was worshipped. Yet it was here that the divinity of Christ is declared by Simon and Jesus hands the keys to the Church over to him as well as the new name of Peter. This is the first time he is called Peter by Christ or anyone.
Peter in means Rock, or Stone. Peter is a name you give to someone who you may consider strong. Remember what Jesus said about building a foundation, that a strong foundation is built on rock. We say Jesus is our rock because He is solid, steadfast and true in a chaotic and shaky world. So Jesus must trust Peter to lay a strong foundation for the church.
Peter is the Rock of the Church. He acts a security of the Truth, or Gospel and order of the church. In Jewish tradition, one of the highest positions for a servant of a house was gatekeeper,or keeper of the keys. They maintained the order and safety of the house for the owner. For Peter to be given this position was a high blessing. He is trusted to lead the church with the true gospel and excel falsehood.
When I think about foundations, I think of two things: one being our church history and the other being more personal and spiritual. Knowing where we have come from and where this wisdom leads us will lead us toward a future that is good and wise.
In Acts, we read that Paul started many churches, and Peter taught many the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We have the Desert Fathers and Mothers and the Council of Nicaea from there. Then we have the foundation of our Parent Church, the Catholic church, and Martin Luther and his 99 Theses of things he saw wrong with the Church and nailed them to the Sanctuary door. This historic event is said to have started the Protestant Reformation.
From this major change and division in the Global Church, Protestant Reformation, John Wesley saw things wrong with his denomination, the Anglican Church, and sought to do things a little differently. There is another foundation. And here we are, on the layer of John Wesley’s foundation. The people called Methodist have had and still has multiple denominations and trains of thought or beliefs, although the belief in Christ is still relatively the same.
We as a local church have gone through a huge change over a year ago. It is hard for us, yet this type of change is common when looking over the history of Christ’s church all over the globe. There have been, since the beginning of the Christian faith, thousand of sects, families, and separate churches. Christian people have had disagreements on what we believe since we first started. A complete reading of Acts tells us that not even the Apostles agreed with each other all the time. Sometimes, ministry pairs had to go their separate ways because of disagreements. Yet, history tells us, this is how the gospel spread.
The one thing that cannot change, that is the foundation of our faith which is on Christ. Peter made be named the “Rock” but it is on his work of spreading the Gospel and organizing the early church that we have our earthly foundation. This is why