Matthew 16 vs 1 to 20 The Solid Rock

This is a message I composed early in my ministry and reused several times over the years as I had occasion to speak in various churches. It assumes a Christian congregation needing assurance that Jesus is the Solid Rock on whom to build one’s life and faith.

One never feels very good about retreating from a confrontation. If someone has challenged something we’ve said or done and we’ve sort of pulled back into our safe protective shell, we feel sort of guilty, don’t we? We want to stand up for what we believe even if it is hard to do so sometimes. So, when that time of retreat comes, we feel hollow inside because we haven’t lived up to even our own expectations.

Well, we can take heart when we retreat. It was also something Jesus did. But his was for the purpose of being alone with his disciples. He wanted to leave his enemies behind. Just to go away and enjoy the quiet times for teaching his disciples all the things he knew they still had to learn. One cannot always be faced with the pressures of life; we need to have a break every now and then.

So Jesus planned this retreat he took his disciples on a little trip to the resort called Caesarea Philippi. This was a beautiful place and was filled with lots of impressive buildings. But it was also what the religious leaders of the Jews would call a Pagan city. So they would not go to the place. It was a place where no self respecting Jew would intentionally go to rest period for that reason, Jesus knew that he could have time there alone with his disciples.

As we read this morning, Jesus and his disciples sailed across the sea of Galilee and then walked the 25 miles to Caesarea Philippi. Jesus knew the end was coming now and so he had to take every opportunity to teach his disciples the truth of the Kingdom of God. In this little trip offered an occasion for some profound teaching. Because, you see, when we are going to teach one another, the context of the teaching makes a lot of difference. If you are going to teach your child what Love Is All about, you cannot have a home filled with hate. The context of learning begin the context of learning determines to a great extent what is learned. As a write pointed out in one of his recent articles, when he preached a sermon on the meaning of being born again in the context of a city wide revival, he got many positive comments from the audience. When he had preached that same message a year prior in a different congregation, there had been virtually no reaction. The context made a great deal of difference. So, when we read now in in the scriptures that Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, the name of the place is not just a casual note about a location on a map. So, what does this name tell us?

Just this, Caesarea Philippi had some of the most diverse of religious histories and associations within it. It is said that there were no less than 15 temples located in and around this city. Ancient religion breathed in the very air and atmosphere of the place.

It is thought that in the days of the Jewish settlement that the tiny tribe of Dan settled in this region. And that tribe then set up their own sort of worship there. Later, one of the one of Israel’s 2 golden calves were located there. Then as Israel’s territory shrunk, it was taken over by the Syrians who built several temples to Baal in the site. When the Greeks invaded and captured the land, they developed the cult of PANUS, the God of nature, whom they said had been born in a deep cave very near the place. So, there was a great temple to Pan in Caesarea. Finally, under the Romans a great temple of white marble was built to the God Caesar. It is no wonder that the Jews called it a Pagan place Baal worship, Pagan worship, emperor worship: all found  their temples in Caesarea Philippi.

One can almost hear the disciples talking excitedly and pointing to the beautiful sights and Caesarea as they toured the place and then all at once, Jesus says, who do people say that the son of man is? And it must have dropped like a bombshell. All these places of worship, now getting back to the subject at hand, who do people say I am?

Here is opportunity for powerful teaching. Here, in Baal’s territory, Jesus asks, who do people say the son of man is? Here surrounded by the stuff of the Greek gods, Jesus asked, who do people say the son of man is. Here in Caesarea Philippi in full view of the glistening white marble of the emperor’s temple, Jesus asks, who do people say the son of man is? All of these pagan elements were in direct opposition to everything which was related to Jesus, his person, his purpose, and the Kingdom of God. In such an atmosphere Jesus drops his big question.

There is drama also in the answer to his question. Notice first of all the disciples, with a fine delicacy, do not report the idle and thoughtless gossip of the slander of his day. There were some critics who called from a glutton and a wine bibber. Many mocked him as a friend of publicans and sinners. Others regarded him as a simple and dreamy Mystic. The disciples ignored all these characterizations. They reported rather only the serious talk they had heard in the marketplace, at the supper table, and at the door of the synagogue.

Some say you are John the Baptist. What the people found common to both Jesus and John was the note of fearlessness and absolute sincerity. John the Baptist was a preacher and in spite of the differences people saw Jesus as a preacher.

And such he was. From his lips came gems of literature, words of healing and life, messages of comfort and cheer, the good news of God’s Kingdom. Jesus preached until the people felt their sins were forgiven and their lives cleansed. Jesus preached until the storms in his listener’s lives were quieted and the surging billows of passion and emotion were turned toward Jesus. Jesus preached  until the lame man got up and walked, until the scales fell from the eyes of the blind. Jesus preached until the lame threw their crutches away and dead men got out of their graves. Jesus was a preacher.

Others say Elijah. the purpose of Jesus Christ was so plainly to call people to a new faith in God, and a new life, that some believed he must be that Elijah who should appear before the king came to restore the Kingdom to his people. Jesus and Elijah had something in common. On Mount Carmel Elijah had confronted Israel with a decision. Elijah said to the crowd if the Lord be God, then follow him and if Baal be God then follow him. Put the matter to a test, the God that answers by fire, let him be God. As Elijah confronted the crowd with a decision about God, so Jesus confronts people with a decision about himself.

Jesus confronts us with the decision, you must make a decision. You cannot remain the same when you come in contact with him. Here in Caesarea Philippi, Jesus says to the whole world, if the Baal gods be God, if the gods of the Greeks be God, yes, even if the emperor of Rome be God, then follow him. But if you want to know the one true God, and what he is doing in the world, then look at me. Listen to my words, see my concern for the poor, my concern for the wretched of the earth. Follow me. That’s a call to decision that not one of us can ignore.

Others say Jeremiah. it’s easy to understand why many passed the verdict that Jesus Christ was a second Jeremiah. They saw him as a man of compassion, that was Jeremiah also in his day.

Or one of the prophets. This was the wisest of the reports. Jesus was to these people a teacher come from God. One of that great line of prophets from Moses, through Samuel to Hosea, Isaiah, Daniel and the rest. Yet he is more than that.

For he goes on to ask another question. Who do you say that I am? The disciples answer, you are the Christ the son of the living God. Here where a Greek God was supposedly born, here in this locality which is capped by the magnificent marble temple to Caesar, and a tribute to his being born of God, here the disciples say to Jesus you are the Christ, the son of the living God. there is no other. These temples are meaningless.

Jesus said blessed are you Peter, and I say to you, that you are Peter, a rock, and upon this rock I will build my church. Caesaria stood on a large outcropping of solid rock. But in spite of that, its residents were subject to defeat and death each time the land was invaded. Jesus says remember that my disciples, anything that depends on the rock of this earth for safety can and does fall victim to death and hades but my church, my community of the chosen, will be founded on the solid rock of that confession just made. And the gates of hades, death, will never prevail against it. Only Judas Iscariot missed the message of Jesus as he taught that day.

Today the question, who do you say that I am? Still confronts us with its powerful call to decision. There’s no time for hesitation. In the midst of all our business, in the midst of a nation that believes that money is God, and if not money that then sex is God, and if not sex, then video games are the gods who will win our devotion. In the midst of this culture, Jesus asks you who do you say I am? Your answer to that question will be the most significant answer you will ever give to any question.

As one who can command the decision for or against himself, Jesus is here shown to be one who is divine himself. Jesus commands that decision without the slightest amount of hesitation on his part. And in fact, I believe it shows that he is the son of God and one with the father.

During this week take some time to be alone with Jesus retreat from your possessions of everyday life and from the midst of the clamor from so many corrupting gods, let his question stir your soul. Who do you say that I am.