THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
John: Believing On The Christ, The Son Of God, For Eternal Life
Part IX: Believing On Christ Due To His Early Omniscience Regarding His Disciples, John 1:40-51
A. Believing On Christ Due To His Early Omniscience Regarding Simon Peter
(John 1:40-42)
I. Introduction
A. Since one must trust in Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of God to have eternal life according to John 20:31, it is important that we see evidences of His supernatural qualities as God even at the START of His earthly work.
B. John 1:40-42 records Christ's early omniscience as God as evident in His initial meeting with Simon Peter:
II. Believing on Christ Due To His Early Omniscience Regarding Simon Peter, John 1:40-42.
A. One of the two earliest disciples of Jesus who was named Andrew had a brother named Simon, so Andrew went to meet Simon and told him that he and [the Apostle] John had found the Messiah, John 1:40-41.
B. Andrew then brought Simon to Jesus, and Jesus renamed him "Cephas," the Aramaic word for "rock," John 1:42 NIV, ftn. [The Greek word for "rock" is Peter, Ibid., revealing the language Jesus and His disciples spoke at the time was the Aramaic that the Jewish people had brought back from their captivity in Babylon.]
C. This name change reveals that from future accounts in the life of Peter, Christ was predicting the great things He foreknew that He would perform through Peter's ministry relative to the Church due to Peter's future great confession of faith regarding the Lord Jesus recorded in Matthew 16:16-19 as follows:
1. In Matthew 16:18, Jesus predicted that due to Peter's confession of Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of God back in Matthew 16:16, Christ would build His Church upon "this rock."
2. The Greek word for "Peter" in Matthew 16:18 is Petros, and it means "a loose stone," where the word for "rock" in the phrase "upon this rock" in this verse is petra, and it means "a massive rock, like a cliff," John F. Walvoord, Matthew: Thy Kingdom Come, 1974, p. 123 in citing The Anchor Bible.
3. Since Scripture is the best source for interpreting itself, we learn that the word petra in this verse did not refer to Peter, but to Christ, which truth is gleaned from Peter's own testimony in 1 Peter 2:4-8, Ibid. Accordingly, in Matthew 16:18, "(w)hat Jesus said, then, was, 'Thou are a little rock, and upon this massive rock [pointing to Himself] I will build my church.'" (Ibid., Walvoord)
4. Peter, who had confessed this faith in Matthew 16:16, would be rewarded by proclaiming its truth in the Church era for others to believe; Acts 2:14 to Jews; Acts 8:14-17 to Samaritans; Acts 10:1-48 to Gentiles.
5. [Note: the tenses for the Greek words in Matthew 16:19 that are translated "shall be bound" (dedemenon) and "shall be loosed" (lelumenon) are perfect passives (The Anal. Grk. Lex. (Zond.), 1972, p. 85, 250), meaning Peter would not author the binding and loosing as a pope as is taught in the Roman Catholic Church, but simply herald what God had previously "bound" or "loosed" by His authority in heaven just as Peter had heralded his great confession of faith in Matthew 16:16. The keys of the kingdom given to Peter were thus not that of papal authority, but of heralding God's divinely established truths unto others that they might believe and thus see God open the doors of salvation unto the Kingdom of God for them.]
D. Amazingly, Peter had a rocky discipleship experience after this, showing God's grace in His even using him:
1. Soon after Peter's Matthew 16:16 great confession of faith and Jesus' Matthew 16:18-19 promises regarding his future ministry, Peter was used of Satan to rebuke Jesus so that Christ rebuked Satan behind Peter's words, Matthew 16:21-23, indicating Peter did not then have infallibility as a pope!
2. Also, just before Christ's crucifixion, Peter denied Jesus three times, and Christ had to work to correct him before the other disciples before Peter could serve the Lord, cf. Matthew 26:69-75; John 21:15-19.
3. Even later as an Apostle, Peter erred regarding the Gospel, and Paul had to correct him, Galatians 2:11-14.
4. Nevertheless, in spite of these failings, God in grace established Peter so he could proclaim the great truths he had uttered in Matthew 16:16 for hearers to believe, and that Jesus might build His Church upon the faith of many who would hear such proclamations by Peter, (cf. the references in Acts in "II,C,4" above)!
Lesson: Jesus foresaw the great, gracious ways He would USE Peter to herald the great truths of His identity, and that amid His awareness of Peter's future failings even as an Apostle, and so He renamed him accordingly.
Application (1) May we trust in Christ to be saved due to His great omniscience of His disciples. (2) May we take heart from Peter's discipleship, knowing God can graciously greatly use us like He did Peter regardless of our various human sinful failures and weaknesses, and that with God's knowing all about them beforehand!