Sermon Tone Analysis

Sermon

In our Gospel text today, Jesus calls Simon “Peter”, meaning “rock”.

So is Peter really a rock?

No, but his faith is.

This faith, although not perfect, seems to be stronger than that of the other disciples.

But is his faith like an immovable stone?

No, unlike Jesus, the sure foundation, Peter’s faith is movable.

What do I mean by Peter’s faith being a movable rock?

I mean that his faith wavers like ours.

Just look at what he did during the questioning of Jesus, where he denied Jesus before the cock crowed!

In fact, just a few verses after our text, Jesus scolds Peter for his unbelief!

And like him, we are far from perfect.

As a result, just like Peter, we doubt and we sin.

But even so, our faith is a little stone by the grace of God.

So why is Peter now a called a rock?

He is given this new name as an honour for saying something world-changing.

He called Jesus THE CHRIST.

Christ is a title, not a name.

Peter recognized and called out Jesus as the Messiah, which is Hebrew for the anointed one.

This means that Peter recognized that Jesus is the one who will redeem God’s people, that Peter saw Jesus as the one fulfilling the holy scriptures, everything that had been written, from the promise to Adam and Eve when they were kicked out the Garden of Eden, to the final prophecies of the coming messiah written after the exile in Babylon.

This knowledge, as Jesus mentioned, was not something that Peter came up with on his own - this was a gift of the Holy Spirit.

That faith in Jesus as the Christ that Peter exclaimed, that is the true rock.

What did Peter say?

He called Jesus THE CHRIST.

Christ is a title, not a name.

It’s the Greek word that means the anointed one.

Peter recognized and called out Jesus as the Messiah, which is Hebrew for the anointed one.

This means that Peter recognized that Jesus is the one who will redeem God’s people.

This means that Peter saw Jesus as the one fulfilling the holy scriptures, everything that had been written, from the promise to Adam and Eve when they were kicked out the Garden of Eden, to the final prophecies of the coming messiah written after the exile in Babylon.

This knowledge, as mentioned by Jesus, was not something that Peter came up with on his own - this was a gift of the Holy Spirit.

That faith in Jesus as the Christ that Peter exclaimed, that is the true rock.

So in our text, after Jesus renames Simon to Peter, he then says “on this rock I will build my church”, referring to the faith in Himself as redeemer and Messiah that will form the foundation of the church.

Christ, as both man and God, is a foundation firmly anchored both to earth and to heaven.

Sadly, sometimes we think we don’t need a foundation like this.

But as Paul explained in his letter to the Philippians, our own works, no matter how great, pale in comparison to the value of knowing Christ.

Truly we are rocks, but very movable ones we need to stay with Jesus, the only reliable foundation!

And how is this faith offered to us?

The same way Peter realized that Jesus was the Christ - by the workings of the Holy Spirit through Baptism and the word of God.

So be reassured, and be strong, for no matter what happens in this world, the Christian Church will endure, just as Christ’s love for you will never end.

Our lord Jesus Christ is our true rock.

He endured all the spiritual suffering we deserve, so that we don’t have to.

We are now offered eternal life through His works on our behalf, by being made into little rocks like Peter.

Our foundation of Jesus means that we can be assured of a place in heaven.