Church on the rock 2

I have walked away from a conversation before and thought man I wish I would not have said that. Has anybody here ever done that before? I mean you feel like what you said may not have come out right or that the person that you were talking to may not have taken it the way you meant it. And don’t even get me started with text messaging. You can never tell if they took it the right way or if they understood the tone that you were trying to convey. How about have you ever had a conversation with some body and when you walked away you thought “man I missed a chance to share the Gospel with that person”?

Tonight we are gonna talk a little about both situations. Now if we went back 2 thousand years ago, we would be about 9 days before the ascension and a few weeks from Pentecost. Can you just imagine all of the confusion and excitement and all of the emotions that would have been going around at this moment? Let’s look at one individual who was going through the same idea that we were talking about a few minutes ago. He would have been saying I wish I would not have said that over and over. He also would have been saying I wish I would have been stronger and bolder. Does anybody guess Peter?

Just a little over a month ago Jesus would have been with Peter and the other Disciples at Cesarea Phillipi and Jesus would have been telling Peter about building His Church.

Matthew 16:13–18 CSB

When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others, Elijah; still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” “But you,” he asked them, “who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus responded, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.

What rock is he talking about? Caesarea Philippi had a large hill, in which there was a deep cavern that was said to be the birthplace of the Greek god Pan, the god of nature, you know the half-goat guy with the pan flute. Also, there was a large temple to Caesar and other temples to Baal there. So was Jesus talking about building a church on top of this rock to put himself in place of all the Baal temples and pan worshipers and the temple to Caesar? )• Maybe since Peter's Greek name Petros means small rock Jesus was saying he was going to use Peter's name to build his church. • No Jesus is going to build his church on the fact that Peter said. That He was the Son of the living God. • Now he had retreated to this gentile area to be alone with His disciples to teach them. These guys are simple men. How are they going to be the beginning of the church of the Savior of the World? )• Jesus tells the disciples they will be the foundation of his church. This has got to be the bravest or craziest thing ever. Jesus is going to take ordinary fisherman and tax collectors and turn them into the founders. They are going to be trusted with coming up with the bylaws, and how this new movement called the way was going to look. This was a major undertaking. )Matthew 16:21-23 ESV — From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

This was a quick turn around, wasn’t it? Peter goes from speaking the Gospel in one moment and then being rebuked by Jesus the very next for standing in the way of the will of the Father. This was probably one of the first moments that Peter said I wish I would not have said that.

Then Peter tries to prove his devotion until Jesus is arrested in the garden and then when confronted again about being one of Jesus followers Peter not only denies Jesus once or twice but three times. Luke22:60-61

Luke 22:60–61 CSB

But Peter said, “Man, I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Immediately, while he was still speaking, a rooster crowed. Then the Lord turned and looked at Peter. So Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said to him, “Before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.”

Now that has got to go down in history as one of the worst cases of I wish I would not have said that!!

So here in just a short amount of time, Peter went from proclaiming that Jesus was the son of God, to standing in the way of the will of God and trying to redeem himself in the garden by even going as far as cutting off the ear of one of the high priest servant. But then when it really matters Peter says I don’t even know the man. Then when Jesus looks Peter in the eyes it was more than he could take.

This is the Rock. This is the one Jesus planned to start His Church.