By Sidharth Mohandas
Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
To make you familiar with the scene. Jesus asks His disciples who they think He is, and Peter speaks up and says, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God”. It is to this that Jesus says the above sentence. Many of those who read it come to believe that Jesus was saying that He’d build the church upon Peter. After all, Peter was the first person to preach the Gospel on the day of Pentecost. However, this assumption is simply not Scriptural. Paul said in simple words that there is no other foundation than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.
As I was studying this Scripture I found out that Jesus was rather playing with words and making an ironic statement. Let me explain…the Greek word for Peter is “Petros” which means “a small pebble” while the Greek word used for “rock” in the above Scripture is “Petra” which means a “massive rock or a cliff”. The church is built on the Petra and not Petros.
So many people today think that bringing people into the kingdom depends on how great a “pebble” they are. They think if they have high educational qualifications, or intellectual surpemacy or if they are a celebrity, they’d be able to inspire more people into kingdom of God. They may think persuasive and well-structured sentences are what brings people to the Lord. But let’s look what Paul had to say about it: My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power [1 Corinthians 2: 4-5]
I challenge you to put all your confidence on the power of the Gospel. Never let apologetics take the place of the Gospel. You can have logical and scientific answers to everything in the bible and still have none added to the church. Bank your confidence on the Rock and not on the pebbles.
Amen. Beautifully written and the info on the names is fascinating, I didn’t know that!
You do so much research on your work. I wish I could have payed you to do my homework in High school.
Sidhart, this is a message I really enjoyed reading not for that fact that it was well written alone but because of the fact that this is something I have noticed in many preachers especially in the Church and I also found even in my blogging experience that many make this error they think it’s all about the way they write and present their writing skills that would bring people to Christ and it is big error, hence I am making reference to this part in your article
“They may think persuasive and well-structured sentences are what brings people to the Lord. But let’s look what Paul had to say about it: My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power [1 Corinthians 2: 4-5]“
This is good. I love such messages.
Godbless
Yes, faith in our Lord Jesus Christ is the only true foundation.
I’ve noticed that the Holy Spirit brings the same message to more than one simultaneously on several occasions. I appreciated your comments…thanks for stopping by the other day. I’m looking forward to the second post you mentioned.
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!
What a relief. Luke 21:14-15 comes to mind. He gets all the glory that way.
Sid, another great post! short but very powerful
thanks!
SHALOM!
Once again, excellent. The cool thing about this passage is that Jesus was standing in front of a large rock face when he made the statement. “You are Petros,” as He points to Peter; “and on this Petra,” He then points to the rock cliff, symbolizing the revelation that He is the Son of God, “I will build me church.”
Revelation from heaven is the foundation of the church.
“For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” Revelation 19:10