Tuesday, May 22,
2012, 6:16 a.m. – I woke several times in the night, and each time the song
“Be Still” was playing in my mind: http://youtu.be/l004RIy2PR8. Then when I awoke this morning the song “Not by Might” was playing in my mind.
Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Matthew 16 (quoting verses 13-28 NIV 1984):
When
Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do
people say the Son of Man is?”
They
replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others,
Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
“But
what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
Simon
Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus
replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you
by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on
this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.
I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth
will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in
heaven.” Then he warned his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the
Christ.
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.”
Then
Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny
himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life
will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it
be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a
man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in his
Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according
to what he has done. I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not
taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”
My Understanding: The
religious leaders (and political leaders), known as the Pharisees and
Sadducees, helped comprise the Sanhedrin, the supreme ruling body of the Jews
of Jesus’ day, which had its own law enforcement, and had the authority to
arrest and to try people, but not to execute them, which is why they had to get
the Roman authorities to execute Jesus Christ. These leaders came to Jesus to
test him. They wanted a sign from him to show who he was or how he had the
authority to do the things he did. He told them the only sign they would
receive would be the “sign of Jonah,” because they were a wicked and adulterous
generation who knew how to interpret the weather, but could not interpret the
“signs of the times.” The signs to which they were obviously oblivious was that
Jesus Christ was the fulfillment of prophecy of scripture, that he was indeed
the promised Messiah, and that the promised kingdom of heaven was now upon
them. That day had now dawned.
Sign of Jonah
The “sign of Jonah” that they were to be given was explained
more thoroughly in Matthew 12:38-42. Jonah, because of disobedience to God in
refusing to call Nineveh to repent of their sins was thrown into the water and
was swallowed by a large fish (maybe a whale), which really was Jonah’s
salvation from certain death that would have come had he remained in the water
and had drowned. He was in the belly of the big fish 3 days and 3 nights before
the Lord had the fish vomit him up, after Jonah called on God in repentance.
Jonah then went and told the people of Nineveh that God was going to overturn
them in forty days. The people believed Jonah, i.e. they believed God, and
perhaps it was because they had heard what had happened to Jonah. The people
repented, and God relented.
Though Jesus Christ never sinned, he did, in death, take
upon himself the sins of the entire world. From his death to his resurrection
there was a span of 3 days. Jonah was a prophet of God, although a reluctant
one where Nineveh was concerned. Prophets were spokesmen for God, i.e. they
spoke the very words of God to the people. Jesus Christ was not merely a
prophet, but he was fully God and fully man – “God with us.” So, when he spoke,
he spoke the very words of God to the people, because he was/is God. He was
greater than Jonah because Jonah was just a man whereas Jesus was God and he
was the promised Messiah of the people who would bring in the kingdom of
heaven.
Jonah’s deliverance from certain death apparently served as
a sign that he was truly of God, i.e. that he was God’s chosen instrument to
bring God’s messages to the people. Jesus, although greater by far than Jonah,
would prove himself to be God, the Messiah and our Savior by dying on the cross
for our sins, and then by his resurrection back to life. The people repented at
the preaching of Jonah. Jesus was saying that the judgment of these religious
leaders of his day would be greater because they, unlike Nineveh, did not
recognize God’s voice, they did not believe Jesus’ words, and they did not
repent.
Jesus then warned his disciples against the “yeast” of these
religious leaders. Yeast was a word often used in scripture to describe, not
only evil and wickedness, but the way that evil worked its way into people’s
hearts and would often spread like gangrene (see 2 Tim. 2:17) to devour,
corrode, and consume its victims (evil over good), destroying what were the
healthy (spiritually speaking) parts of the body of Christ. This kind of
teaching would not only remove truth (eat away at it) but would spread and
continue to destroy or corrupt other truths. This is often done deliberately,
slowly and subtly in order to be unnoticed by the unsuspecting or the
undiscerning Christian. That is why we are given the picture of yeast, because
of how it works its way into the whole batch of dough. Paul said: “Don’t you
know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the
old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast—as you really are. For
Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed” (1 Co. 5:6b-7).
On this Rock
Jesus asked his disciples who other people were saying he
was. Then he asked them who they say he is. Peter answered very definitively: “You
are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus then told Peter he was
blessed because man did not tell him that, but God the Father did, which meant
he was listening to God.
Peter’s name meant “rock”, so when Jesus said to Peter, “You
are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will
not overcome it,” he was speaking of building his church on Peter himself, or
most certainly on Peter’s testimony for Christ. When the Day of Pentecost came
after Jesus had ascended into heaven and the disciples were waiting for the
promised Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit came, as promised, and the people
were amazed at what they were seeing, and some were accusing the disciples of
being drunk, Peter was the one who made the first proclamation of the gospel to
the people where thousands were saved and the church began (had its inception).
Although Jesus’ words were directed at Peter, they, perhaps,
have a much broader application. For one, Jesus is also called our “Rock” and
our Redeemer. He is our solid foundation. So, truly the church is built upon
Jesus Christ, as well as Jesus Christ is the builder and the capstone
(cornerstone). Yet, the apostles and disciples also laid a foundation of the
teachings of Christ, of the gospel, and they also built upon that foundation of
Christ and his word in helping disciple the church along to maturity. So, in
one sense Peter was the rock of which Jesus spoke, but in another sense it was
Jesus himself who empowered and filled Peter to be able to preach that message,
and who empowers us to preach the gospel, too. So, Peter represents all of
Christ’s disciples (us, too), and Peter represented Christ, as do we. Certainly
it was the convicting power of the Holy Spirit in people’s hearts and lives
that led them to salvation through Christ and thus the church began, and it was
not through the persuasive words of man that people were added to the church.
Keys of the Kingdom
This part of the passage (V. 19) about binding and loosing
and keys to the kingdom can be a little difficult to understand. If you have
keys to a house or a building, it means you have the authority to enter, so
first of all this meant that Peter had been given entry into heaven via his
faith in Jesus Christ, which he had just declared. Through preaching the gospel
of Jesus Christ, under the authority and inspiration of Christ and the Holy
Spirit of God, he was also opening the kingdom of heaven to all who would
listen, who would believe, and who would show they believed by their changed
lives. Peter began his sermon with the word “repent,” and in a subsequent
sermon he repeated the same message with these words: “Repent, then, and turn
to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come
from the Lord” (Acts 3:19). This message represented the “keys” into the
kingdom, i.e. Peter showed them the way into the kingdom – turn from your sins
and turn to God/Jesus in faith and obedience. This is the true gospel, and the
true gospel holds out the keys for anyone who will respond in faith. All of us
who have come to Christ through faith possess the keys to the kingdom of
heaven, and we have all been given the responsibility of sharing the gospel of
Jesus Christ with others that they may enter, too.
“Follow Me”
Jesus expanded on this idea of having keys to the kingdom,
and what those “keys” entail, when he told of his coming suffering and death at
the hands of the religious leaders. Peter was an interesting character. He was
so passionate! Yet, sometimes his passion was misdirected. He didn’t understand
what Jesus was saying. He didn’t understand that Jesus truly had to die, so he
wished it otherwise. Jesus took this as Satan trying to dissuade Jesus from
what he knew he must do, so he 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.” Sometimes we can be well-meaning when we try to tell people, “Oh,
God wouldn’t allow you to go through that,” or even when we pray sincerely for people
to be delivered from trials, because we don’t understand fully that sometimes
they need to go through those times so that God’s will can be accomplished in
and through their lives. So, perhaps we can sympathize with Peter’s plight.
Yet, Jesus knew the cross was a necessary reality in order for us to be saved
from our sins, and for us to be able to enter into his eternal kingdom.
Not only was the cross necessary for Christ, but it is also
necessary for us, though not in the same way it was for Christ. He took the
penalty for our sins so that we could go free from the final judgment of hell,
so we could be free from bondage to and control of sin daily, and so we would
be free to love, worship, serve and obey Christ/God (in relationship with Him).
He provided the keys, in other words. In taking the keys and in applying them
to the door to enter, though, we must also die, only not for the sins of
ourselves and others, but to our sins, leaving our lives of sin behind us, and
turning to walk in faithful obedience to Christ. That is what Jesus meant when
he said that if we are going to come after him, we must deny ourselves and take
up our cross daily (die daily) and follow (in obedience) him. If we try to hold
on to our old lives of sin, we will lose them for eternity, but if we willingly
die to our old lives of sinful passions and desires, and we turn to walk in
righteousness which Christ has provided through his death and resurrection,
then we will gain eternity in heaven. This is not works-based salvation, for it
is Jesus who provides the keys (the way) and it is he who gives us the faith,
repentance and the ability to obey in his power and his strength within us.
Not By Might / An
Original Work / March 29, 2012
Based off Zechariah 4
“Not by might, and not
by power,
But by My Spirit,”
says our Lord, God.
“Mighty mountain, O
what are you?
Before Christ you will
become level ground.”
The hands of our Lord,
Savior God,
Formed the foundation
of His church.
He alone will complete
the work
He began in His
servants’ hearts and minds.
Who despises small
beginnings?
Much can be done in
Christ’s strength within.
Be of courage, and
trust your Lord.
All sufficient He is
for all your needs.
Opposition and apathy:
Holy Spirit will set
us free!
We can be overcomers
in our faith
In our Lord, and our
Savior, King.
Don’t be troubled by
God’s timing.
He has ev’rything in
His command.
Hasten to obey His
commands fully,
Trusting Him to work
all for good.
Not by might nor by
human strength,
But by God’s power;
strength within;
My dependency now on
His working
His will in me in
righteousness.
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