Jesus Teaching His Disciples

Notes

1. Jesus no doubt expected at this time to see in the hearts of His disciples some evidence that they truly grasped His divine mission. The shadows of the cross were beginning to fall upon His pathway. His disciples had witnessed many of His mighty works, and their interpretation of what He had said about the leaven of the Pharisees was evidence that they but faintly comprehended who was daily in their presence. They failed to grasp and hold the truth that they had with them the Creator of all things—Him who had only to "speak" and it "stood fast." Jesus apparently from this time on sought especially to impress the disciples with His divine mission, thus preparing them for the dark scenes of His trial and crucifixion which were just before Him at Jerusalem.

2. Jesus approached the question of His divine Sonship with great caution. He knew that upon this question hung the destiny of a world; that around this truth the storm of the ages was already gathering, and would soon burst in relentless fury. Satan had assailed this point in the wilderness of temptation with, "If Thou be the Son of God." Jesus knew His foe, and the strength of the temptation awaiting the disciples upon this point. He desired to prepare them for it while He was still with them.

3. "From the first, Peter had believed Jesus to be the Messiah. Many others . . . now doubted that Jesus was the Messiah for whom they had looked so long. Many of the disciples who had ardently expected Jesus to take His place on David's throne, left Him when they perceived that He had no such intention." "On this day, before they were brought face to face with the great trial of their faith, the Holy Spirit rested upon them in power. For a little time their eyes were turned away from 'the things which are seen,' to behold 'the things which are not seen.' Beneath the guise of humanity they discerned the glory of the Son of God."—"Desire of Ages," pages 411, 412.

4. "Upon this rock.—This true confession of thine, that I am the Messiah, come to reveal and communicate the living God, that the dead, lost world may be saved—upon this very rock, Myself, thus confessed (alluding probably to Ps. 118:22 and Isa. 28:16) will I build My church, My assembly, My congregation, that is, of persons who are made partakers of this precious faith. Jesus Christ did not say, on thee, Peter, will I build My church, but changes immediately the form of expression, and says, upon that very rock, to show that He neither addressed Peter nor any other of the apostles."—Dr. Adam Clarke.

"'Thou art Peter.' Petros in Greek, Cephas in Aramaic. . . . 'And upon this rock [Petra] I will build My church. Petros usually means a stone, a piece of rock; Petra, the rock in mass, the foundation rock.'"—Peloubet.

The American Revised Version reads, "And I also say unto thee, that thou art Peter [Greek Petros, margin], and upon this rock [Greek, Petra, margin] I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it."

"Peter was not the rock upon which the church was founded. The gates of hell did prevail against him when he denied his Lord with cursing and swearing. The church was built upon One against whom the gates of hell could not prevail."—"Desire of Ages," page 413.

5. "The keys of the kingdom of heaven" are the words of Christ. All the words of Holy Scripture are His, and are here included. These words have power to open and to shut heaven. They declare the conditions upon which men are received or rejected. Thus the work of those who preach God's word is a savor of life unto life or of death unto death. Theirs is a mission weighted with eternal results.

The Saviour did not commit the work of the Gospel to Peter individually. At a later time, repeating the words that were spoken to Peter, He applied them directly to the church. And the same in substance was spoken also to the twelve as representatives of the body of believers. If Jesus had delegated any special authority to one of the disciples above the others, we should not find them so often contending as to who should be the greatest. They would have submitted to the wish of their Master, and honored the one whom He had chosen."—Id.

6. This rebuke of Christ's reveals still more clearly that Peter was subject to strong delusions from the enemy, and therefore could not be—which many desire to make of him—the rock on which Christ built His church. Before the interview was really over in which Christ commended Peter for His statement concerning the Sonship of his Master, the Lord found it necessary to rebuke him by saying in the presence of the other disciples, "Get thee behind Me, Satan." Jesus recognized the deceiver working through Peter, hence the rebuke.