Ponderings on the Church and the Rock it was built upon

When Peter made his declaration that He belived Jesus was the Son of God...Jesus named him Peter (rock) and said "on this rock I will build my church"

Why Peter?

Dude did stupid stuff all the time. Said the wrong things, tried to stop Jesus from his destiny, messed up so bad on one occassion that Jesus called him Satan. Tried to kill a Roman Soldier....even messed that up and only cut his ear off. Denied Jesus three times the evening he was arrested. Messed up the walking on water thing. He is well known for always putting his foot in his mouth. Why would Jesus choose him?

Tonight at fusion church my friend Mark preached on the miracle of Jesus walking on water. He made a great point about that miracle. You see...I never really saw the point of that miracle...but Jesus never did, and never does, anything randomly or without purpose. Mark pointed out that Jesus sent the disciples on ahead of him and told him he would meet them in the town across the lake. Then in the middle of the lake, a huge storm came up...to the point that all 12 of the men in the boat were terrified and were sure they were going to sink. Add to this...they see a figure coming towards them walking on top of the water and they all thought it was a ghost.

You see...in the ancient world....water, specifically large bodies of it...created great fear among people. It was the great unknown...there were no scientific expedition submarines to explore the mysteries of the deep. They were a mystery...and a terrifying one at that. Tales of great sea monsters...like the leviathin in the book of Job were enough to keep even the bravest fisherman close to shore.

The interesting thing is...the point of the miracle...was to show these guys that Jesus had total dominion and authority over their greatest fears. That compared to Him...their fears were a literal walk in the park (or the pond as the case may be) He showed up literally walking on top of their fears.

Then, Peter says, "if it's really you, tell me to come join you"

Side note...I don't think Peter was very smart. I mean...if Jesus HAD been a flesh eating beast from the depths trying to trick them...and Peter said that...wouldn't the beast have just said "uh, Peter, get out of the boat"..I don't know..doesn't seem like the greatest truth gathering strategy to me.

Anyway...Jesus says get out of the boat.....and I'll be danged if Peter didn't do it. Got out of the boat to get into the thing that he was most scared of!!! I think that is why Jesus wanted to build his church on that rock. Cause it takes ACTION!!! Perhaps as a modern church...we should look back and take a lesson from Peter. Jesus wants action...doesn't want us sitting in the boat scared of what' s gonna happen...He wants us to get out there with him. I can relate to Peter....he was the only one of the 12 that was inspired to step it up and pursue greatness. But...just the way I do....He panicked and couldn't sustain.

Sure is encouraging that Jesus still wanted to establish His church on this rock.

The great ending to the story is that after Jesus' crucifixion...Peter and the disciples went back to what they knew....fishing. When Jesus rose from the tomb he went out to the shore. From the boat Peter immediately recognized Jesus (didn't need reassurance this time) and that sucker jumped off the boat just like Forest Gump when he saw Lieutenant Dan on the pier. He knew he could walk on water if he kept his eyes on Jesus.

Problem was he didn't walk on water. He sank.

He had the same inspired leap of faith....then he encountered the same "failure" as before. Only this time he didn't get back in the boat....he just swam to Jesus. He realized it didn't matter what his approach looked like, as long as he was moving towards Jesus. Maybe we need to swim thru resistance and perceived failure and remember that our goal is to move towards Jesus at all costs.

Sounds like the actions of a rock worth building a church on.