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"When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples,
saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? And they said, Some say that thou
art John the Baptist: Some Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. He saith
unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art
the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art
thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father
which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will
build My church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto
thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be
bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shalt be loosed in heaven"
(Matt. 16: 13-19).
It might be safe to say here that the kingdom of heaven is that future administration
when the Lord Jesus will return and reign during the millennium from Jerusalem, the
actual kingdom will extend to a limited surrounding area. The nations of the world will
be subject to Christ. If Israel had accepted their King at the first advent of Christ the
kingdom would have been established then. Now it is postponed to the not too distant
future. Peter was put in charge of his brethren during what would have been a short
waiting period for the return of their King (see Acts 3: 19-21).
Notice Christ emphasizing that God Himself had opened Peter's eyes to Christ's
Messiahship to which God's Son adds "I also say unto thee . . . . .". Now what Christ
says to Peter is an amplification of Peter's confession. Christ was going to make entry
into His church of whatever calling, a confession of faith in Himself as He instructed Paul
to write in Rom. 10: 9:
"If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart
that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved."
When the Greek grammar is applied to Christ's words quoted from Matt. 16: it is
this confession and not on Peter that Christ's church would be founded. Christ may well
have made play on petros a stone, moveable, but which had once been part of petra an
unmoveable rock which had always symbolized Christ.
Here then was an important position that Peter was to occupy and one that God had
ordained, knowing that he would respond and fill the part to which he was elected.
"Elect . . . . . through sanctification of the Spirit" (still 1: 2-).
Sanctification has a primary sense of being made holy by being separated unto God
through His Son, His Word and His Holy Spirit. Only God is Holy but we can become so
by God's ordained way of manifesting Himself by these three, His Son, His Word and
His Holy Spirit.
Our blessed Lord prayed to His Father in John 17: 17-21:
"Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth. As Thou hast sent Me into the
world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify
Myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. Neither pray I for these
alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word; that they all may