Matthew 16:13-20, #1

Matthew 16:13-20 #1
At this point in Jesus’ ministry He will spend a large percentage of His time with His apostles alone. The time is growing near that He will give Himself up to be crucified and preparing His inner circle for this occurrence is now a priority.From the time Jesus came on the scene rumors had abounded as to who He really was. The apostles correctly gave Jesus a list of the different theories. Some said John the Baptist (Herod thought John had risen from the dead), others, a literal reincarnation of Elijah, and still others, one of the prophets. Jesus knew all of this, but the important question was, “Who do you say that I am?” Peter immediately replies before the rest: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” In calling Jesus the Christ, he was confessing that Jesus was the prophesied Messiah. In calling Him the Son of God, Peter was saying that Jesus was God Himself in the flesh. Peter had not come to this conclusion because the conjecture of men, he had drawn the conclusion based on the evidence given him through the miracles and teaching of Jesus. It is the process by which we must come to the same conclusion.

Once Peter confessed Jesus, Jesus in turn confesses Peter. Peter’s name in the Greek is petros, meaning stone. However, the “rock” upon which Jesus would build the church is the Greek word petra, meaning large foundation. Some believe that Jesus was saying that the church would be built on Peter. Even if this were so, it would do no real harm to the context because Jesus taught that the church was built upon all the apostles, Jesus Himself being the chief cornerstone (Eph. 2:20-22; Mt. 18:18). However, it is more likely that when Jesus uses the word rock, He is referring to the fact of Peter’s confession, namely, that He is the Son of God. To confirm this, we notice later that Paul plainly states that Jesus is the foundation and Rock (1 Cor. 3:11; 10:4). The key to this statement is that every disciple who is built into that spiritual building is to be patterned after Jesus, the chief cornerstone and is to follow the teaching of the inspired apostles and prophets whom Jesus established as the foundation of His church.
Berry Kercheville