Say, “Goodbye, Father Abraham,” and “Hello, Simon Peter”

There is a lot of misinformation about the idea of church lately. Some people have been upset that the government shut down churches in some regions. Others celebrate the idea of live-streaming church and having online church. Still others talk about how wonderful it is to have a church to attend.

I’ve got some mind-bending news for them:

• The church isn’t something the government can shut down.

• Church isn’t something that can be live-streamed or put online.

• You can’t attend church.

I know, I know. We all know the church is not the building. But defining something by what it isn’t doesn’t really help us understand. Do you want to know what Jesus calls “church”?

Let’s look at the first time the word “church” appears in the New Testament. It happened in a conversation with His disciples and in an intense moment with one named Simon.

“Now I say to you that you are Peter (which means ‘rock’), and upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it.”

Matthew 16:18 NLT

What Jesus said at that moment was breathtaking for a descendant of Abraham. Shocking, actually. Let’s look at some of those major thoughts packed into a short verse and how this ties into “Father Abraham.” 

When Jesus said “My church,” He distinguished this congregation/assembly from the church/congregation of Israel. In the wilderness and at the Temple, the people of God were gathered together as descendants of Abraham and followers of his same faith. Jesus would now have a distinct congregation/church that stood out from the Jewish religious system.

He also said, “I will build.” That’s powerful. So many church planters and church growth gurus would benefit to know that He builds it, not us. We join Him in what He is doing, if we understand what His church is.

He followed this up with “the Gates of Hades will not prevail against it.” That means there is no such thing as a church split. A congregation can split, but the church is solid. Jesus builds it and Satan cannot destroy it. The government cannot shut it down. If we got past our shallow idea of church being a meeting with songs and sermons, we would see the power of this machine that Jesus is building. But our entertainment culture wants their weekly show and emotional high rather than to pick up a cross and be built by Jesus. There’s more to say there, but let’s get back to the hot topic.

Jesus also said something else outlandish. He said He would build His church on a “rock.” Here’s where it gets interesting. You might not like what I say here, but that’s never stopped me before. Listen to what He says as if you were a Jewish person who grew up in the first century hearing the Bible and taking it to heart.

He said “this” rock. When a person says “that” they mean something far away, but the word “this” means something close enough to touch. So He is referring to a rock close at hand upon which He would build His group/congregation/gathering.

Now, some would say that this means Simon Peter. Some would say it means the truth that Peter just stated. And some would say it means something else as I will attempt to explain.

Before we deep dive into this, let’s be sure we all understand that Abraham was the patriarch of the Hebrews, who came to be called Israel and later called Jews. The DNA came from him and they were taught to remember their origin and identity.

A prophet emphasized the importance of this truth several hundred years after Abraham was dead: 

“Consider the rock from which you were cut, the quarry from which you were mined. Yes, think about Abraham, your ancestor, and Sarah, who gave birth to your nation.”

Isaiah 51:1-2 NLT

The Jews were not to forget their ancestor, their rock, Abraham. That was then. Now? Forget about him.

What? How could I say such a thing? I didn’t, John did. Are you upset with me? I hope so. John the Baptizer’s words were even more shocking than mine. He said, “Do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’” (Matthew 3:9 NKJV).

Who was this John guy? Some random dude starting a rebellion? Nope. Isaiah also told about him before he came (see Isaiah 40:3-5).

So, Isaiah said not to forget that their father was Abraham and John said to not claim him as their father? Yep. Isaiah was reminding the people where they came from and what they were built on—a man of faith who believed when there was no possible way God’s promise could happen. That was their foundation. However, the people came to trust in their DNA to save them rather than to have the faith of Abraham. John told them to not count on their genetics and ancestry. 

John also said, “For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.” (Matthew 3:9, NKJV). So God had begun carving from a new quarry. The “that rock” was Abraham, but who was the “this rock”? Simon.

When Jesus first met Andrew’s brother Simon, He told him, “You will be called ‘Rock’” (See John 1:42). Now, He says, “You are the Rock.” It was not just a name but an identity that was bigger than Simon’s actions.

When the Lord began to interact with Abraham, he had a different name. The Lord changed it to “Abraham” which means “father of a multitude.” He called the man “father of Abraham” when he had no children. Abraham became what God called him. 

Simon was an unstable fellow. He was not solid, like you would think a rock should be. But Jesus called him as He saw him.

Peter had just spoke words of revelation from the true Father when he said, “You are the Christ.” He saw clearly that Jesus was the long-awaited Jewish King whose Kingdom would take over earth.

In response to Simon’s “You are the Messiah,” Jesus said, “You are the rock.” The more we see who Jesus is, the better we will understand who we are and how He sees us. “And on this Rock I will build my church.”

Some Bible readers instantly footnote Jesus’s words by thinking He couldn’t have been talking about Simon Peter being “the Rock” because the man was patently unstable. How can you build the church on that?

Abraham was not very rock-like either. I get angry reading about how he treated his wife and some of the crazy decisions he made. Yet we are not meant to copy all the actions or reasoning of Abraham, just his faith. 

Is Simon the new rock cut from a new quarry? Yep. On “this rock” Jesus builds His people.

Now, here’s the deal. The Roman Catholic Church believes Peter was the key person to start their religious tradition and that his baton gets passed on to each succeeding pope. However, if you read the rest of the New Testament, you see that Peter was not the sole decision maker and he received strong rebuke at times for his mistakes and fumbles. That doesn’t sound very solid to me.

So, is the Rock just the truth that Simon spoke? Well, there are many who believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God who are not the church. The Lord explained that there would be those who used His name to do powerful miracles who would be kicked out because they were not part of Him. So, it has to be more than accepting a story about Him or a truth about the identity of Jesus. Even the devil knows who Jesus is, but that doesn’t put him in the Church.

Jesus did not say, “You are the rock and on you I will build My church.” He said, “This rock.” Now, I know that the name “Peter” is the masculine form of the Greek word for “rock” and when Jesus said “this Rock” He referred to the standard noun form of the word which is feminine (if you understand how other languages use masculine and feminine forms of words for inattimate objects, you’ll get this, but if not read on). Some have tried to make this to mean that Simon was the little rock but Jesus was referring to some larger rock. Yes and no.

I know that looking at the details of this story can seem tedious, but trust me, it was an eye-opening and perspective-changing moment for His followers. They did not walk away struggling with definitions of words or Greek grammar. They walked away in shock that something new was happening that would change the way they thought about the world and their role in it.

If we zoom out a little, we see that prior to this story, the religious leaders of Israel had rejected Jesus. These were the anchors of their faith at the time and Jesus told them they were fakes. He did that in front of His disciples who had been taught to trust and respect those leaders. Jesus warned His disciples to not catch their disease of false teaching (see Matthew 16:1-12).

Then, He began to probe His followers’ thoughts as they travelled outside the country of Israel. Walking past heathen temples, Jesus asked them who others thought He was. They threw out names of some big people in Hebrew history.

It would be a big deal if some said you were like the greatest Christian ever known. What if someone said you reminded them of the Apostle Paul or that you had a love for Jesus like Mary? That would be pretty cool. However, putting Jesus on the level of Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, or John was a put down, not up.

So, Jesus asked, “Who do you say I AM?”

Simon spoke up and won the quiz.

What happened here moves me deeply. A common guy who had no religious training answered correctly. This dude who made impulse decisions, didn’t know what he believed some days, and zigged when he should have zagged—this guy saw Jesus.

“You are King!” Peter said to the man who had been laughed out His capital city.

“You are Rock!” Jesus said to the man with a shakey past—so bad he once asked Jesus to just leave him because he had been so sinful.

That guy is me. Simon is you. Jesus sees something solid in you. He will build His church on you. The forces of the underworld will not be able to stop it.

Directly to Simon the Rock, Jesus said He gave him the keys of the Kingdom. Whatever he locked on earth was locked in heaven and whatever he unlocked on earth was unlocked in heaven (see Matthew 16:19)

What did He mean by “keys” and this locking/unlocking or “binding” and “loosing”? The religious leaders (scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees) were the ones with the key of knowledge—they were the ones teaching the congregation of God, the Hebrew church. Jesus pronounced doom on those theologians and Bible teachers who took away the keys from the seekers and thus locked them out of His Kingdom (see Luke 11:52). They did this by not teaching the truth of Scripture and/or by misapply passages of the Bible to say what they wanted them to say.

But Simon got through. He unlocked this mystery of Jesus’s true identity without depending on the religious power-brokers. The Father revealed it to him. Not father Abraham. Not religious fathers. The Father in the holy and unseen realm.

That’s the only way the church will be built. Simon Peter is exemplary for us all. He’s not the first pope nor a legendary person. He was a common guy who got close enough to Jesus to see His true identity. That’s what the church is built on.

Churches are not built on programs.

The church does not depend on a building or a schedule (although the church needs one another and must gather together).

So, how did Peter unlock the Kingdom to others? By giving the keys of knowledge. His first sermon unlocked understanding in so many people it was hard to count them. On that day, thousands of Bible-believing people had gathered to worship the God of their father Abraham. But a tradesman with probably less than a third-grade education got up and moved 3,000 of them to see Jesus.

Through Peter’s words, the Father opened their understanding and they came to him saying it felt like they had been stabbed in their hearts. All the professional clergy had never said such things to them. They didn’t realize they had celebrated the death of their promised King. They did not realize that Jesus was the Lord God in the flesh. What should they do now?

Turn from their old assumptions and ways of thinking. Identify with Jesus as not just another prophet but as their King and Lord—taking His name as their primary identity. And they, too, would be filled with the Spirit of revelation, the presence of God Himself living in them. And this promise is not just for those with the DNA of Abraham but for all who are from many different gene pools.

Many churches today are locking people out of the Kingdom like the Jewish religious leaders did during Jesus’s ministry. They’ve footnoted Peter’s teaching to say what they want to hear. Jesus will still bypass the prestige and pomp of modern religion and work with the common people no one would tend to listen to.

Has He opened your eyes to see Jesus clearly? Are you cut from the quarry of Simon Peter? Or are you just a chip off the old block of tradition?

If you see Jesus, the keys are in your hand. Will you keep your mouth shut and lock others out of the Kingdom? Or will you open the door for others to enter by sharing what you see so they can take another look, too? 

One easy way is to start sharing with others is to simply tell them about the free ebook “Seeing Jesus” by Daniel Koren.

May the Lord open your eyes continually and fill you with boldness to tell others.