JESUS THE ROCK, PETER THE ROLLING STONE!
--Petra & Petrus!                 DO 1946                    31/3/85

         1. WHAT DOES THE WORD "PETRA" MEAN? It's a Greek word for rock. We have a famous hero in the Bible that has a name similar to Petra--Peter! Jesus said, "Thou art called Peter" (Mat.16:18), & Catholics use this Verse all the time, they even base their whole church on this Scripture! "Thou art called Peter, & upon this Rock I will build My Church!"--And the whole Catholic church has misinterpreted that Scripture to think it meant that Peter was the Rock on which He was going to build His Church. But I've studied the Greek, & there are two words for a rock in the Greek language.
         2. "PETRA" MEANS A GREAT BIG SOLID IMMOVABLE ROCK LIKE JESUS & THE WORD! JESUS IS THE ROCK! The Lord says in many places that the Church is built on the Rock, Jesus is the Foundation, & there's no other Foundation!--Not Peter, nobody else, but Jesus is the Foundation, the Rock on which He builds His Church. And yet the Catholics say, "See, He said right there, 'Thou art called Peter, & upon this Rock will I build My Church.'" But do you know what it says in the Greek?--"Thou art called Petrus, & upon this Petra, I will build My Church."
         3. PETRA IS JESUS, THE BIG SOLID ROCK, BUT PETRUS IS A LITTLE TINY ROLLING STONE like you see rolling along on the bottom of rivers with the current, just whichever way the current's going.
         4. SO PETRUS IN GREEK IS A LITTLE ROLLING STONE CARRIED ALONG WITH THE CURRENT, whichever way the wind blew. Isn't that like Peter was before he got the baptism of the Holy Spirit? He couldn't stand any persecution, he denied the Lord three times while the Lord was under arrest! He was blown about by every little wind of persecution & accusation.
         5. WHEN JESUS ASKED THE DISCIPLES, "BUT WHOM SAY YE THAT I AM?", PETER SAID, "THOU ART THE CHRIST, THE SON OF THE LIVING GOD!"--"Thou art the Christ"--that means the Messiah--"the Son of God!" For once Peter got it right, once in awhile he hit it right. (Matthew 16:16)
         6. WHAT A CONFESSION OF FAITH! This is called Peter's great confession of faith! What did that make Peter?--A believer!--And he was also a receiver! He was receiving Christ right then. He believed & received Christ. He hadn't yet received the fulness of the Holy Spirit because Jesus had to go away for that to happen, he didn't have the power of the Spirit yet. Jesus said, "I must go away so I can send the Comforter to you." (Jn.16:7)
         7. AND WHAT DID JESUS ANSWER BACK? (Fam: "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona, for flesh & blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father which is in Heaven.")--In other words, "You have struck a great Truth, a great secret, a tremendous Truth!"
         8. HE WAS CONFESSING THAT JESUS WAS THE MESSIAH, THE SON OF THE LIVING GOD, & you're going to see in a moment what Jesus called this confession, this great Truth. Read it! (Fam: "And I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter.")--And here in the Greek He says, "Thou art Petrus", a rolling stone. "Right now, Peter, you're fickle, you're undependable, you can't be relied upon." But what does He say? (Fam: "And upon this Rock I will build My Church.") Now this is where the problem comes. It would make a little more sense if they'd put "but" there.
         9. "THOU, PETER, ART A ROLLING STONE, fickle, independent, rolling along with the tide & the current, but upon this Rock, Petra, I will build My Church!" What Rock was Jesus talking about then? (David: Jesus.)--Jesus! Isn't that what Peter had just said? "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God!" And Jesus said, "You didn't get this out of your own head, God My Father revealed it to you! Because upon this Rock, this great Truth, this Person that He was speaking of, this Messiah, Jesus the Christ, the Son of the Living God, upon this Rock I am going to build My Church!"
         10. SO WHAT JESUS REALLY SAID TO PETER WAS, "PETER, YOU'RE NOT STABLE, YOU'RE NOT DEPENDABLE, I CAN'T BUILD MY CHURCH ON YOU, YOU'RE PETRUS, A ROLLING STONE!" You can look it up in the Greek New Testament & I can prove it to you. He said, "Peter, you're just a rolling stone, but upon this Rock of what you just said & what you just acknowledged, that I am the Christ, the Son of the Living God, upon this Rock, upon Me, in other words, I am going to build My Church!" No other Foundation, no other Rock could hold the Church of Jesus Christ!
         11. WHAT A DIFFERENCE THAT MAKES FROM THE CATHOLIC INTERPRETATION! The Catholic interpretation is from the Latin & does not follow the Greek at all. Because the New Testament was written originally in Greek, not in Latin. It makes the Catholics look pretty sick then, doesn't it?--Claiming that Jesus said that He was going to build His Church on Peter!
         12. THAT INTERPRETATION BEGAN EVEN BEFORE THE NEW TESTAMENT DAYS WERE OVER.--AND DO YOU KNOW WHY? There was a great division in the Early Church. If the Devil couldn't stop them any other way, he divided & tried to conquer them. What was the greatest split that they ever had? (Fam: That the Gentiles had to be circumcised?) That was one of the symptoms of the division, whether the Gentiles would have to not just be circumcised, but whether they had to obey the Mosaic Law, the Law of Moses, the Ten Commandments. Here came the biggest split of the Church!
         13. WHO WAS THE GREATEST ADVOCATE, BESIDES JESUS, THAT THE LAW IS FINISHED, IT'S DONE, IT'S FULFILLED, that we no longer have to follow the Law, we no longer have to be circumcised, we no longer have to follow all these little shibboleths & little rules & regulations of Moses etc.? Saint Paul was the greatest advocate of what we call Grace, the opposition to the Law.--Grace, mercy, & what word do we like to use today?--Love!--As opposed to Law.
         14. SAINT PAUL WAS AN ADVOCATE OF LOVE & GRACE & THE MERCY OF GOD, that you couldn't earn Salvation by keeping the Law, & all that, nobody could!--In fact, Jesus & Paul both said that nobody could keep the Law! Nobody could be saved that way because nobody could keep it! God just showed through the Law of Moses how strict God could be & what they would have to do if they could be perfect & save themselves. All the Law did was be our school teacher to prove to us that we couldn't be perfect, we couldn't keep the Law & we couldn't save ourselves! (Gal.3:24) But instead the Jews took it & misinterpreted it to say that, "God's showing you how to save yourself, you've got to save yourself by keeping the Law!"
         15. BUT PAUL ADVOCATED GRACE! What is the most famous Verse on that subject that almost everybody should know? (Fam: "For by grace are ye saved through faith, & that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast." Eph.2:8,9)
         16. SO I WAS TELLING YOU ABOUT THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GRACE & LAW. Jesus Himself said He had fulfilled the Law, the old Mosaic Law therefore was ended, it was over. Now God's only Law is Love!--"Love the Lord thy God & thy neighbour as thyself." He said, "In this is all the Law & all the Prophets!" (Mat. 22:37-40)
         17. DID PETER & PAUL HAVE A DIFFERENCE OVER THIS?--They had a public falling out before the whole Church & the Disciples! The Church was split now. There were those who believed like Paul, that all you had to do was receive Jesus as your Saviour & you were saved. Whether you were Jew or Gentile, bond or free, black or white, male or female, it didn't make a bit of difference as long as you took Jesus!
         18. BUT PETER, THE ROLLING STONE, THE ROLLING UNSTABLE ROCK, PROVED HIS INSTABILITY ONCE AGAIN when he started hobnobbing with certain pious Jewish brethren who said, "To be saved, yes, you must believe in Jesus, but you must also keep the Jewish Law!"
         19. SO ONCE AGAIN TO ESCAPE PERSECUTION & REPROACH & EMBARRASSMENT, PETER FLOWED WITH THE CURRENT, THE TIDE OF THE LEGALISTS! They were called the Concision, which means "with the cut", & the other name was the Circumcision. They believed that all the new disciples had to get circumcised & had to become good Jews. Paul said, "This is ridiculous, it's not so! They don't have to keep any Jewish Law or any Mosaic Law at all, much less circumcision! You're saved by grace, just by Jesus, just by faith!"
         20. WHAT IS THE MAIN SLOGAN OF THE CHURCH WHEREBY YOU MUST BE SAVED?--"GO TO CHURCH ON SUNDAY!" That's the keeping of a law, that's the new church law! That's even more recent & more popular & more modern than the laws of the Concision & the Circumcision! That's the new law of the Gentile church, that if you don't go to church on Sunday you're not a Christian, you won't be saved. Isn't that about what the Catholics preach too?--You've got to go to Mass to be saved!
         21. SO ALONG CAME THE CONCISION & THE CIRCUMCISION & THESE LEGALISTS, these former Jewish friends that Peter knew who had now almost reluctantly received Jesus as the Messiah. They couldn't help but believe He had to be the Messiah, He'd fulfilled so many prophecies, but they said, "You must keep the Law!" So Peter the rolling stone went along with'm. "You've gotta still be a Jew, you've gotta still keep the Law, you've gotta still come to Temple, you've gotta still sacrifice, you've gotta still come keep the Sabbath!"
         22. THERE WAS JUST NO END TO THE LAWS THEY HAD TO KEEP! The Old Testament is full of them, books that most Christians never even read. They get so monotonous & so complicated you can't even understand them, the whole books of Leviticus, Deuteronomy & also Exodus.
         23. BUT WHAT HAPPENED?--JESUS CAME ALONG & SWEPT THE WHOLE THING AWAY! HE SAID, "IT'S ALL DONE, FINISHED, FULFILLED, NO MORE! You not only don't need the Law & all these rules & all these ceremonies & all these sacrifices any more, you don't even need the Temple any more!" That was blasphemy to the Jews! In other words, He was telling them, "We don't even need your religion any more!" He might as well have said to them, "We can do without you Jews!"--And that's about what Paul told them! He got so fed up with the Jews he finally said, "From henceforth I go to the Gentiles, because they believe & receive the Word gladly & with great joy! (Acts 18:6) They don't have to become Jews, they don't have to change their religion & keep all these crazy laws & everything, they can just be saved by saying, 'I take Jesus!'"
         24. BUT WHEN THE CHURCHY SCRIBES & PHARISEES CAME ALONG & STARTED HECKLING PETER & accusing him of breaking the Law & of not being a Jew & being a traitor to his people, poor Peter, he just couldn't take it, he went over to their side. Isn't that sad?--And you never hear very much about Peter after that, do you?
         25. SO IF THEY'RE GOING TO SAY THE CHURCH WAS BUILT ON ANYBODY BESIDES JESUS, THE TRUE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST, THE EARLY CHURCH WAS BUILT ON PAUL!--Because he was the greatest leader of the Early Church, not Peter. Peter fluked out! Peter rolled away!--The rolling stone. Peter had once confessed that great Truth. But in the long run Peter fluked out & rolled away! Isn't that sad?
         26. HE LOST HIS CROWN & REWARD & A LOT OF WHAT HE MIGHT HAVE HAD BECAUSE HE COMPROMISED WITH THE OPPOSITION, he tried to please too many people. He started out well & several times he said the right thing, even before he got baptised with the Spirit. In the early days of the Church he was the leader, because Paul wasn't even converted yet. God mightily used him & empowered him by the Spirit & he won thousands of souls to Christ! He miraculously healed people! He was the leader of the Church & filled with the Spirit!
         27. LET'S PUT IT THIS WAY, HE WAS THE LEADER OF THE REVOLUTIONARIES, THE NEW CHURCH, & he got along great & the Church got along great until he began to compromise with the Old Church, began to conform & listen to them & obey them instead of Jesus! It was right that Paul stood up & accused Peter of compromising with the Concision. But apparently Peter never got out of that, he couldn't stand a complete break with the old Jewish brethren. He couldn't stand to not compromise with people & roll whichever way the major current was rolling. At that time it looked like the Concision, the Circumcision, was going to win, because there were so many Jews! (Gal.2:11-21)
         28. THINK OF WHAT COURAGE PAUL HAD TO STAND UP AGAINST THE TIDE, against the current, & proclaim Salvation through Jesus Christ alone by grace!
         29. SO PAUL PREACHED THE RIGHT MESSAGE, & eventually, because he didn't just preach to the Jews, he went to the Gentiles, & thousands & thousands were converted to the church!--Gentiles whom the Jews wouldn't even receive, it was against the Law to even touch one, or then you were unclean. But poor Peter, he never could get completely out of the bondage of the old Law. So the split began right there, way back then, between those who said you've got to keep certain rules & regulations or you're not saved, & those who said you didn't!
         30. SO WHICH SIDE OF THE FENCE DO YOU THINK THE CHURCHES OF TODAY ARE ON--DO THEY FOLLOW PETER OR PAUL?--Peter! "Go to church on Sunday, you've gotta keep the rules, you've gotta keep the Law!" They still even teach the Ten Commandments.
         31. LEAVE IT TO THE JEWS! When they saw the Gentiles were going to follow God in such great numbers, they decided they'd have to do something about it to channel them in the right direction--"Now you folks are doing a lot of good things, you're good people, but you've got a few misconceived ideas & you're following that false prophet & you're doing wrong, bad, dirty things. You must come our way & do things our way & go to church & that's what makes you a true Christian, that's what'll save you!--Not just believing in Christ, that's not enough, you've gotta go to church on Sunday, you've gotta keep the rules!"
         32. SO THEY LED EVEN THE GENTILES ASTRAY into a false doctrine of having to keep the rules & the Law, & that group of Gentiles became what is known today as the Roman Catholic church!--Who actually persecuted the followers of Paul, the Grace people. The Law people have been persecuting the Grace people ever since the Beginning, ever since Cain slew Abel! Law is the Devil's own doctrine, Grace is God's doctrine!
         33. SO DO YOU SEE HOW THE CATHOLIC CHURCH GOT STARTED?--And do you see why they want to proclaim Peter as their foundation?--Because Peter was their foundation! Let'm have him! Let'm claim to be founded on Peter, that he's their rock.--That's why they roll so much! They have changed doctrines so many times it's pitiful! Don't ever say the Pope is infallible & the Catholic church never changes, the Catholic church has done nothing but change! It has changed & changed & changed from Council to Council! They've added new doctrines & done away with old doctrines.
         34. THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IS NOT GOING TO SAVE YOU! All those idols & images aren't going to save you, all those sweet talks from the pulpit aren't going to save you, going to Mass every Sunday isn't going to save anybody!--Not unless somebody in their simple little faith believes that all it takes is Jesus to save them. And if they really believed that with their whole heart, they wouldn't even go to the church! If they knew that all they needed was Jesus & they didn't have to go to church to be saved, why would they be there? I wonder sometimes if there are even any in those buildings who really are trusting Jesus alone for their Salvation, & not saying, "Yes, I believe Jesus saves me, but I've also got to go to church, I've also got to go to Mass." Isn't that what the Catholic church teaches you?
         35. SO THEY ABSOLUTELY NULLIFY & MAKE OF NO AVAIL THE DOCTRINE OF GRACE BY THEIR LEGALISM, BY THEIR LAW.--"By your traditions ye do make the Law of God of none effect!" (Mat.15:6) He might as well have said the Love of God! The Jewish religion was full of traditions that weren't even in the Scriptures! The Catholic religion is full of traditions of the church that aren't even in the Scriptures, they can't find a leg of Bible Verse to stand on! Isn't that sad?
         36. --JUST LIKE THE JEWS & THEIR MOSAIC LAW, THEIR LEGALISM & THEIR RULES, THEIR DO'S & DON'TS. They may be good do's & don'ts, a lot of the Mosaic Law is basically just & fundamental & according to good rules of behaviour etc., but it won't save you! Only Jesus can save you!--And Jesus is all you need to save you! You don't need to keep all those laws!--For the plain & simple reason that if you have Love, if you have Jesus in your heart, you will do better than to keep all those laws, you will love everybody!
         37. THE LAW OF MOSES SAID, "AN EYE FOR AN EYE, A TOOTH FOR A TOOTH!"--In other words, if somebody knocks your tooth out, you're allowed to knock theirs out! Is that love? Is that forgiveness? But Jesus turned around & said, "But I say unto you, love your enemies, do good to them" etc. (Mat.5:38-44) That's a harder law to keep. If your enemy knocks your eye or tooth out, it's easy to want to knock his out, right? That's the way you feel about it. Isn't it a lot harder to forgive him?--Well, not if you have Jesus in your heart & you have love. You can forgive him.--Amen? PTL! Actually, Jesus' Law is higher, but it's easier to keep, because if you have Jesus & His Holy Spirit, you have Love in your heart--it's not you, it's no effort, the Lord does it all!
         38. AMEN, LORD, BLESS THY WORD! May it sink into these hearts & may they realise that You're the only Way, the only Door, the only method of Salvation, the Way, the Truth & the Life! TYJ! Thank You we have You, Lord, to save us, because none of us could ever be good enough! But with You, Jesus, we could be just as good as we need to be & enjoy so much more than these people who are under the hard, iron-fast Law!
         39. THANK YOU JESUS FOR THIS FREEDOM & THIS LIBERTY TO SIT HERE WITH THY WORD & TEACH THE TRUTH!--To sit here & enjoy freedom, Lord--at least here in our house amongst ourselves--contrary to all the laws of the Jews & these silly rules of churches & religions. Thank You, Lord, that we found those don't save us, only You, Jesus, can save us!
         40. DO YOU KNOW WHAT THEY ASKED THE MISSIONARIES WHEN THEY FIRST GOT TO JAPAN? They said, "Are you Old Testament Christians or New Testament Christians?"--In other words, "Are you like the Catholics & the big churches that still worship idols & still have all these laws & have to keep them to be saved?--Or are you New Testament Christians & all we have to do is believe in Jesus to be saved?" Which are you? (Fam: New Testament!)--New Testament Christians! Hallelujah!
         41. WE BELONG TO THE NEW CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST, NOT THE OLD CHURCH! Praise God! Aren't you glad we can sit here in freedom, full of love, enjoy sex & have a wonderful time? PTL!--All of God's gifts, all of God's blessings, everything He's given us to enjoy in this World! Isn't that wonderful? Hallelujah! I like this kind of church, don't you? PTL!