The Rock

The church is not a charity. The church is not a social service agency. The church is not a fraternal club.

The church is a group of people called and centered around Peter's confessional claim at Caesarea Phillipi:

"You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God."

Matthew 16:16

Now, the church indeed does charitable things, serves the community, and draws people together. But each of those things derives from its identity; none of those things constitutes its identity. It is Jesus himself who gives the church its identity.

As long as we hold onto Peter's claim, the forces of evil and death itself will never prevail over Christ's church.

Herod is dead. Caesar is dead. Pilate is dead.

But Jesus is alive, and his church will never be defeated.

Amen.

As long as we hold onto Peter's claim, the forces of evil and even death itself will never prevail over Christ's church.

Some Quick Notes

• The English word "church" is a translation of a Greek word which means "called out." It was originally a political term that the early church co-opted.
• "Peter" is really just "Rock." Peter's given name was Simon--"Simeon"--but in this passage Jesus gives him his nickname and explains its significance--he will be the "rock" on which Jesus begins to build his church. (By the way, the Aramaic word for "rock" is "cephas," which is why Peter is sometimes called "Cephas" in the New Testament. It seems clear that Aramaic and not Greek was the first language of Jesus and the disciples--Greek was the language of commerce and politics.)
• Jesus's words to Peter are a bit confusing there at the end:

"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.”

Matthew 16:19

What does that stuff about the binding and loosing mean? I like how Grant Osbourne puts it:

"The church exists on earth but with a heavenly authority behind it. As the church takes the teaching of Jesus and lives it in this world both in terms of opening the doors of the kingdom to converts and opening the truths of the kingdom to the new messianic community, it does so with the authority and guidance of God."

Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament: Matthew, pg. 630.

Today's Scripture

Matthew 16:13-20

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"Immediately"

^18?While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. ¹⁹And he said to them, ?Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. ²⁰Immediately they left their nets and followed him. ²¹And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. ²²Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him. [Matthew 4:18-22]

I've always thought that the calling of Andrew and Peter, James and John was a strange story, but recently I read something somewhere that made a lot of sense to me. Twice, Matthew tells us that the brothers left their nets "immediately," i.e., when Jesus calls, they respond totally: they don't hedge their bets or halfway follow him. What's Matthew trying to tell us?Either we follow Jesus, or we don't: there is no place for a half-hearted discipleship.Jesus says, "Follow me." In response, what do you need to "immediately" leave, drop, or do today?