Simon’s New Name
Ricky vs. Richard. My mother wanted Ricky. My dad wanted Richard in case I grew up to be a minister. Now that I’m a preacher I prefer Rick – or maybe “Flash”. Just kidding! That was Charlie Brown’s secret desire – to be called “Flash” by his friends and of course Lucy couldn’t stop laughing to poor Charlie Brown’s everlasting red faced embarrassment.
Names are important. They tell a lot about us – especially nicknames or handles. They speak of who we are, who we hope to be or even that we are an accepted part of the group.
President Bush has a habit of giving nicknames to people he works with…
• Attorney General John Ashcroft- Snake Hips
• Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld- Chickenman
• First Lady Laura Bush- Stretch, or Bushie
• Russian President Vladimir Putin- Ostrich Legs
• Vice President Dick Cheney- Hopalong, or alternatively, Crash-Dive
• There is also an aid Frenchy, there are Knuckles, Bones, The Eskimo, Skeezix, The Undertaker, Stilts, and a cabinet member Spinach Man. And Bush has a friend named Darryl whom he calls The Big Goober.
I’m not sure I’d like the nickname a sitting President might give me but wouldn’t it be nice to have someone who is that important give you a name? Preferably not the big goober!
Simon was given a new name by Jesus. It was a blessing and an encouragement based on what Jesus saw in Simon as a man and a follower. It all started when Jesus asked two important questions.
It’s important to note that at this point in Simon’s discipleship 2.5 years have passed for all the disciples including Judas. 2.5 years of teaching, of miracles and of sharing his life with them. 2.5 years and the confession is right even though the understanding was at best – fuzzy. It would not be until after the crucifixion and resurrection that their understanding would be correct also.
As I’ve studied the transformation of Simon, the ordinary fisherman, into Peter the extraordinary servant it’s been revealing to see the evolution of this massive change. It’s been helpful to me as I’ve related Simon’s journey with my own.
It began with a change from ignorance to amazement as Simon saw Jesus heal the sick, forgive the sinful, and teach the teachers.
When Jesus himself called for action we watch Simon evolve from an amazed spectator into a humble obedient man.
Last week we observed Simon as he moved from a life of simple obedience to “walk on water” faith.
This week we see the light bulb come on when Simon answers two very important questions and receives a new name.
Let’s read about it in Matthew 16:13-20
Simon’s New Name
Matthew 16:13-20
13 When Jesus came to the area of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his followers, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”
14 They answered, “Some say you are John the Baptist. Others say you are Elijah, and still others say you are Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
15 Then Jesus asked them, “And who do you say I am?”
16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
17 Jesus answered, “You are blessed, Simon son of Jonah, because no person taught you that. My Father in heaven showed you who I am. 18 So I tell you, you are Peter. b On this rock I will build my church, and the power of death will not be able to defeat it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; the things you don’t allow on earth will be the things that God does not allow, and the things you allow on earth will be the things that God allows.” 20 Then Jesus warned his followers not to tell anyone he was the Christ.
Who do men say that I am?
“Some say you are John the Baptist. Others say you are Elijah, and still others say you are Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
- the disciples
Luke 9.18 tells us that Jesus has been praying in private before he enters upon this discussion with his disciples. Having been in intimate fellowship with his Father in prayer Jesus then comes to his disciples and asks two very searching questions.
Jesus in a moment will ask them not what other people say but what they think of him. Matthew records four answers to this question.
Some believe Jesus to be John the Baptist – who had been beheaded by Herod, had come back to life. Herod himself believed this. However the stupidity of this answer is easy to see when we remember that John had actually baptized Jesus. Then some think he is Elijah, of whom it was said that he would appear before the Day of the Lord (Malachi 4.5). Again we know that Jesus had identified John the Baptist as the one who had fulfilled that prophecy. He was the voice in the desert preparing the way of the Lord.
Others thought he was Jeremiah one of the great later OT prophets. And finally the disciples say that others think he is one or other of the prophets of the OT come back again.
The one thing which is clear from all these answers – the people did not see Jesus as an ordinary man. There was something distinct, remarkable and different about Jesus. There was something which made him stand out from the crowd, which drew people to him and which compelled them to try and figure out who he was.
Nothing much has changed in the last 2003 years. Jesus still perplexes people today. He is still that enigmatic charismatic figure that attracts people. Many still put forward ideas as to who he was.
But it really doesn’t matter what others think here is the critical question…
Who do you say that I am?
“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
- Simon
There are two statements here. The first reflects Simon’s conclusion that Jesus was the Christ – that he was the Anointed One, the One God promised would someday come and that all Israel has been waiting for.
Simon proclaimed in a loud voice that Jesus was THE ONE!
In the movie “The Matrix” Neo was THE ONE who would save humanity from the matrix. That’s Jesus. The one who was sent from God with all the power, strength, and knowledge to rescue humankind from the web of sin Satan has spun – his own sticky web of deceit, lies, rejection, and selfish arrogance.
Simon gets it – Jesus is THE ONE! Now he doesn’t yet understand what it means! We see that in Jesus’ admonition in just a couple of verses when he has to tell Simon to back off and get behind him as he is speaking the very deceptive words of Satan.
There is a second part to this confession. You are the Son of the Living God.
That is Jesus is the only begotten of the Father. Let me be expressly clear here.
He is not saying that Jesus is another prophet in a long history of prophets or another teacher in a long linage of teachers. Jesus is God. To be a “son of God” made you into God. The Roman emperor Caligula claimed to be the son of God and deity. These words were not fuzzy or difficult to understand to those people any more than they are today.
Peter assigns divinity to Jesus with these words. That is an amazing statement to come from a monotheistic Israelite. In speaking this phrase Peter could, and would, be accused of blasphemy and of breaking the commandments of God. Yet he speaks with clarity, with precision and with force – You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.
It’s when Simon makes this landslide affirmation of absolute faith… that Jesus gives him his new name… and with it a blessing. I want you to see three things as we look at this blessing.
The knowledge of Jesus as Christ and Son of God is revealed by God himself.
“You are blessed, Simon son of Jonah, because no person taught you that. My Father in heaven showed you who I am.”
- Jesus
Christ Jesus points out in this statement a fact that might be otherwise missed. Simon’s confession is divinely inspired. All the wisdom of men could reveal is a confused list of dead people supposedly come back again.
Jesus wants Simon that day and us today to understand that human wisdom alone cannot reveal to the human heart who He is. For Simon’s heart to be opened to the reality of Jesus there was a spiritual dimension. Divine revelation is required.
If you are a rationalist you are going to struggle here because what I’m saying is that there is a spiritual witness that testifies to our spirit about who Jesus is.
In Mark 9:24 a man who asked Jesus for healing for his daughter was asked about his faith. He cried out in the anguish of a father with a deathly sick child, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”
I say to you simply today, If you are struggling with faith – as all do – ask God to testify to your inner being and then listen. As you watch, study, and spend time with Jesus – God’s spirit will testify to your own spirit in ways that cannot be understood, outlined, rationalized, or denied. This is the promise of Jesus.
The name “Rock” revealed the kind of man Simon would become
So I tell you, you are Peter. On this rock I will build my church, and the power of death will not be able to defeat it.
- Jesus
The name Simon is a Hebrew name which means: "to hear” The name Peter is the surname which Jesus gave him after Peter’s great proclamation of the person of Christ. Peter means: "a stone, or a rock". The word is petros.
When Jesus went on to say, “On this rock I will build My church” he used another form of the word – petra.
One is a rock you hold in your hand the second is the bedrock you build buildings on.
The ancient church fathers gave various interpretations of this statement.
Some said that the rock on which the church was founded was Peter. Others insisted that the name Peter (petros, which means “little stone”) could hardly be identified as a foundation rock.
Other fathers have argued that the church is founded on Peter’s confession: it is the faith in Christ which Peter professed which is the church’s foundation.
Still others have seen this as a reference to Christ Himself. Jesus the Christ, the Son of God, is the foundation.
The Epistles seem to support this third conclusion. “No one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 3:11). Christ Himself, the Messiah and Son of God, is the Foundation of the church and the kingdom.
Still we learn that Jesus sees in Simon a different quality that has been observed so far.
We see quick tempered, fast first impressions, a man of action on the one hand and indecision on the other.
Jesus saw a man who would be come solid and strong – even though it was not yet evidenced in his life.
Recently I heard a man tell about the time as a 15 year old he was called in to the pitcher’s mound to take over and finish the game. The other team’s winning runs were on first and third and there were no outs when the coach called him to the mound and handed him the ball with these words, “There is no one else I’d rather have up here to pitch right now than you.”
What’s remarkable is that 40 years later this man remembers the words and that he believed them. He pitched to three men – the first popped up to the catcher, he struck out the second, and grounded out the third.
The coach told the whole team later that he gave the ball to him because he always came through in the clutch. It was the defining moment in his entire life.
This was the defining moment in Simon’s life… You are “Rock” and here is the ball…
The responsibility was to hold the keys of the Kingdom
“I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; the things you don’t allow on earth will be the things that God does not allow, and the things you allow on earth will be the things that God allows.”
With the gift of the “keys of the kingdom” there was the promise that “whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven” (KJV)
What are these keys, and what is the loosing and binding? Here again there have been disagreements. To some these verses are clear evidence that the church, as made visible in the Roman pontiff, is the “Vicar of Christ on earth.” It is held that the power of making binding decisions has been delegated to Peter and his successors. But this idea came late in church history, after the bishop of Rome gained dominance over the other bishoprics.
It should be noted that these exact words were spoken to all the apostles in Matthew 18:18 so Jesus did not transfer to Simon – now Peter – some special exclusive power. No he gave him an assignment – a responsibility to go along with the blessing.
Responsibilities always go along with blessings!
Other scholars have noted that Peter was chosen by God to open the door of the Gospel to each of the two major groups of mankind recognized in his day. At Pentecost, Peter preached the first Gospel sermon to the Jews. Later still, God chose him to speak to Cornelius, the first Gentile to become a part of the body of Christ (Acts 10–11).
Peter opened the doors to heaven with the keys to the kingdom. Thomas took the keys of the Kingdom of heaven to India. Paul to the Roman world.
We take these same keys to the kingdom to
What are these keys? It is what we confess – that Jesus is the Christ the son of the living God.
What name would Jesus give you?
Before you answer this question consider the following:
Discipleship is a process of growth that takes time
Firstly, I was really challenged by the fact that it was 2.5 years into their journey with Christ before Christ asked them these questions. I was actually taken aback at how long it took the disciples to come to the conclusion that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the Living God. It opened my eyes to the fact that I sometimes am too impatient with people, and give up on people too soon, because they fail to see Jesus for who he is. If it took the disciples such a time with Christ beside them then I must persevere longer with people to win them for Christ.
Have you been growing?
Faith in Jesus requires your Spirit being open to God’s Spirit
Secondly I realized that a true confession of Jesus as Christ and as the Son of God can only come to pass by God the Father revealing such to the hearts and minds of people. Yes teaching, evangelism, etc are an important part but only under divine revelation and inspiration will such a confession come forth.
Have you been listening?
Confession of Jesus as Lord leads to a blessing with an expectation
God expects me to live up to my name – And that name would be commensurate with my gifts. Faith, Grace, Teacher, servant, encourager, friend, helper, partner, leader, preacher, or just plain “Rock”. All of these names are a blessing with an expectation.
Peter didn’t yet understand the blessing. He just received it but eventually he used it to open the doors of the kingdom of God to multitudes of others through the confession of faith and obedience.
What are you doing with the keys?
Billy Graham – One more trip down the mountain
June 12, 2005
Spirit Willing, One More Trip Down Mountain for Graham
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
MONTREAT, N.C., June 8 - After more than five decades spent preaching to 210 million people in 185 lands, the Rev. Billy Graham is all but marooned in his log house on a mountaintop ridge.
The evangelist shuffles with a walker down a small ramp into his living room. He has prostate cancer, hydrocephalus and the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, and last year broke a hip and his pelvis. He says he leaves the mountain only three or four times a year, and cannot even remember his last time down.
"When you get to be 86 years of age as I am, all of the world is passing you by," he said, sitting on his front porch for a rare interview.
Nevertheless, Mr. Graham is now preparing to venture down the mountain to travel to New York City for another evangelistic crusade - a three-day outdoor revival meeting beginning June 24 in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens.
"Maybe this will be the last crusade I’ll ever hold," he said in a conversation on his porch that lasted more than an hour...
I’ll never be Billy. God only needs one Billy and he needs one Rick Stacy and he needs you to do his will. Just do your best and serve Jesus well.
Grow...
Listen...
Serve...
And God will use you
Close with invitation
