Good Morning Friends,
Often in reading scripture whether it is Old or New Testament text I will consider where Jesus is in the storyline and I will consider the location of the story as well to gain insights from the backdrop. In today’s Gospel reading Jesus and His disciples ventured into the District of Caesarea Philippi, an area about 25 miles northeast of the Sea of Galilee and about 120 miles from Jerusalem. The region was strongly identified with various religions: It had been a center for Baal worship; the Greek god Pan had shrines there; and Herod the Great had built a temple there to honor Augustus Caesar. It is near the site of the Transfiguration and a place called the Gates of Hades. It was in the midst of this pagan superstition that Peter confessed Jesus as the Son of God. And it was probably within sight of Caesar’s temple that Jesus announced a surprise: He would not yet establish His kingdom, but He would build His church. Today we explore scripture from Numbers 20 and Matthew 16 and they both give us a wealth of images to engage our thoughts to align more closely with what God intends for us to experience. The scripture from Numbers is challenging for it starts out with the death of Moses’ sister, the complaints of the people and ends with Moses being told that God was not going to let Moses go into the land of promise. This seems an overly harsh sentence until we see Jesus in the scripture and the redemption at the Transfiguration. Here scripture interprets scripture and hopefully they combine to give us insight into the challenging nature of personal loss, bitterness, anger, redemption and authority in the life of the church today. And so we ask, Is Jesus The Rock Of Our Salvation?
Scripture: In the first month the whole Israelite community arrived at the Desert of Zin, and they stayed at Kadesh. There Miriam died and was buried. Now there was no water for the community, and the people gathered in opposition to Moses and Aaron. They quarreled with Moses and said, “If only we had died when our brothers fell dead before the Lord! Why did you bring the Lord’s community into this wilderness, that we and our livestock should die here? Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to this terrible place? It has no grain or figs, grapevines or pomegranates. And there is no water to drink!” Moses and Aaron went from the assembly to the entrance to the tent of meeting and fell facedown, and the glory of the Lord appeared to them. The Lord said to Moses, “Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink.” So Moses took the staff from the Lord’s presence, just as he commanded him. He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock and Moses said to them, “Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?” Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank. But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them.” These were the waters of Meribah, where the Israelites quarreled with the Lord and where he was proved holy among them.
Numbers 20:1-13 (NIV)
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 Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, 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 ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.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, the chief priests and the 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 concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”
Matthew 16:13-23 (NIV)
and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.
1 Corinthians 10:4 (NIV)
Message: In the world today, there are many kinds of people. There are many races, classes, occupations – languages and so on. Among a myriad of distinctions that qualify people in different ways to belong to one group or another there is a distinction of incredible importance. There are those who are part of the church that Jesus has built and those who are not. This morning, I would like us to think about what God reveals to us about the church and secondly to ask what we should be doing about it. Let me make three points. The first thing that is revealed about the church is that God is going to build the church on a rock, a solid foundation. And God chooses to use people to build the church. There are some things about Peter and Moses that reveal the character of the Church but more importantly there are things about Jesus that reveal what the character of the Church is to be. Peter had his faults and on one occasion Jesus even rebuked him to “Get behind me Satan.” On another occasion Peter denied Jesus three times and broken hearted he wept tears of bitterness and grief. On another occasion after being filled with the spirit – we find Peter being rebuked by Paul for siding with the world instead of with the people of God. If Peter is an example for the Christian church, then we should not be surprised to find the church faulted. People in the church make mistakes, they are human. I am a sinner and you are too but thankfully the truth is we are forgiven sinners even if we do not try to sin, we will make mistakes, it is part of the human condition and it is to such people that Jesus entrusts the church as stewards. So, we must allow people to make mistakes, and we must allow ourselves to as well. Because that was the condition of Peter. It is how we learn. But we also need to remember that Peter responded to the call of God and gave it absolute priority over his life. God’s call took priority – and so we find Peter being wonderfully used by God . Peter walked on water. He confessed that Jesus was the Messiah, the son of God. Peter called for people to repent and be baptized as a witness of belief in Jesus and the forgiveness of sins Jesus offers. The second thing we learn about the Church from this passage is in the words of Jesus. We are to resist evil and if we do the gates of Hades will not overcome it. Friends, the Christian church as a whole is incredibly enduring – throughout the scriptures we find incredible encouragement that there should be a local church, and we find much encouragement about how it is to be. In Revelation for example we find words from Jesus to the seven churches in seven different areas – no question is raised about the necessity of their existence – the scriptures are clear that where there is a local area with Christians there needs to be a church that lives out the precepts of God in that area even if specific churches fail. The third point is about who Christ is and how we see him revealed in scripture and how Christ, the chosen and the Church combine. When Peter speaks of Christ as the son of the living God, he not only describes who Jesus is but also describes at least some of the function of the church as well. In our pluralistic society we have been watering down the gospels and the name of Jesus for quite some time. In an attempt to not offend other people or their religion we choose not to speak of Jesus. We accept the idea of God and we admit to trusting Him but then we go our separate way. We believe we can control our own destiny. But Peter points to a better way. Jesus knew that Peter didn’t come to this conclusion on his own; it took a supernatural revelation from God. Just as the church today cannot come to know Jesus out of their own volition, it takes an act of the Holy Spirit to reveal the truth. Jesus must have swelled with joy to hear Peter utter these words; He knew it was time for deeper training of the disciples. The Lord knew that Peter and the disciples could now be led into new steps of deeper truth and service. Our Lord’s entire ministry to His disciples had prepared the way for this experience. So too the church.
And So, it must have been one of the saddest days in the life of Moses for he lost both his sister and the hope of seeing the Promised Land. He had been appointed by God to rescue the people of Israel out of Egypt and bring them to the promised land. He had spent a long 40 years leading them through the desert. He had gone up the holy mountain where God gave him the covenant, including the 10 commandments. He had, for the most part, been a commendable and faithful leader. He had just put up with the complaints of the rebellious people one more time. And now God spoke those few words to him that must have hurt him deeply. “You will not bring this community into the land I give them.” Wow! After all he did, God would take away his leadership before the work was finished. He did all the work to bring them here and now another would bring them into the promised land. It did not seem fair. He would not see or taste the fruits of his labor. Today we consider why Moses was punished so severely by God. And as we do, we see that his sin is also our sin. It is a sin that may lie hidden so deep within us that we do not know it is there. It is a sin that has plagued this congregation over the years and still plagues us today. It is a sin which prevents us from experiencing the joy of salvation, of crossing the Jordan and living in the promised land while still on earth. For Moses would enter into the promised land of heaven, but he would not experience the joy of these promises here on earth. This sin, because of the blood of Christ, may not prevent us from entering heaven, but we will not experience the taste of heaven, the joy and peace of salvation here on earth. It can even make life feel like hell at times. Today we look at the deadly sin of anger and believe me, it is a deadly sin. The Holy Spirit reveals Christ in our lives and the confession of faith we make is not the end of our journey, but the beginning. We are then supposed to read and study scriptures, have a daily open line of communication with God; associate with other Christians, worship together and we are to spread the Good News to others. We are to be the instruments that the Holy Spirit uses to reach others for Christ. Here we need to consider what it means to build a church on a rock and why God asked Moses not to strike the rock but to talk to it. Scripture teaches that the church is built on Peter’s confession… on Jesus Christ, the chief cornerstone. That we are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets refers not to them, but to the foundation laid in their teachings concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. the bride of Christ…the Body of Christ has a unique and heavenly calling and destiny.
Pray we reflect on the church today. Pray we realize that despite all the different perspectives, Christians still have the same rock to lean on as Peter and that Christ Jesus is the ruler of the world. Pray we see Jesus as the wise man who builds his house on rock. Pray we come to Jesus to drink in the experience of the streams of living water and that the water that is symbolic of the Spirit that flows with the blood of Christ from his pierced side at the crucifixion. Pray our hearts will not be hardened. Pray we not be stumbling blocks but instead used by God to build up others with encouragement. Pray for the sake of Christ, for the sake of His church, for our own sake, that we see our anger, what it can do and its potential consequences before it is too late. Pray we not become hard or bitter. Pray we not reject what Christ did for us. Pray we not fail to show that Jesus is in us. Pray we talk to the Rock. Pray we realize that Jesus is the Key.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 