Sure Foundation Baptist Church.
If you guys wanna go ahead and take your hymnals,
we're gonna turn to page number 424.
400 and T4, O come all ye faithful.
Number 424, 124.
If you haven't gotten to it by now,
thank you everybody, please help us up in a word of prayer.
If you wanna take your hymnals, turn to page number 426.
It's number 426, I heard the bells on Christmas Day.
Thank you everybody, at this time,
we will have our announcement.
- Morning, everyone.
- The verse of the week is Matthew 16, verse 18.
Matthew 16, verse 18.
And I say unto thee, thou art Peter,
and upon this rock I will build my church,
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
That's Matthew 16, verse 18.
Service times are 10.30 this morning
and 3.30 this afternoon, with Bible study at 6.30 p.m.
On Wednesdays, and our soul wedding times
will be 1.00 p.m. this afternoon.
10.30 yesterday.
And what was the, soul warning yesterday?
So December was so far one, and November was six.
We're total of 91 for the year so far.
All right, upcoming, well first, let's just give thanks.
I heard it was a beautiful event yesterday for the ladies.
So really glad that I was able to go on.
Just so you know, next, next Saturday
will be the Christmas party.
So that'll be here next Saturday.
So that'll be at 4 p.m.
There'll be pizza, drinks, and games.
So looking forward to have everyone here.
Just, you know, good to always have family,
you know, our church family all together.
On the Sunday, next Sunday will also be
our Christmas service.
So if we wanna bring those Christmas, Easter only,
or just invite more people, you know, to church,
hey, that'll be our Christmas service.
So looking forward to it, hoping to have everyone here
and to just see a lovely event.
After that, we're gonna have on February 14th,
a married couple sweetheart banquet.
That's on February 14th, which will be at 4 p.m.
And that will be, we'll determine the location,
whether that'll be at a house or here when we get closer.
But so just coming up, 'cause hey,
we're already moving on into the next year.
I mean, it happens quick.
So looking forward to those things, upcoming events.
Kids, if you wish to receive a reward
for memorizing a verse,
if you can tell Miss Kylie, Psalms 34, 13.
Psalms 34, 13.
Keep thy tongue from evil
and thy lips from speaking guile.
All right, rules are all about the same.
Tithing information is down below.
Wait until Wednesday for birthdays.
And then after that, I think every service
until the end of the year, we will have a birthday song.
So if you have any other,
actually one other announcement.
So for soul winners, and the beautiful thing
about this church is everybody's a soul winner.
Even if it is just a silent partnership,
being discipled into that, but it's one thing great.
And we all know, or at least many of us know,
it is so less awkward if we have something to hand people.
It's just an icebreaker that, oh, I'm trained.
Do you think after years I'd miss that?
But man, when I don't have that, I just feel awkward.
So one thing we're gonna try to do
is we're gonna have bundles of 20 or 25 bulletins.
The soul-willing leaders will send people out with them.
And you'll see that there is now a big cardboard
box on the front table.
All we're requesting is when you come back, if you have extra,
just drop the extras in there, or we'll re-bundle it up.
Because we all know-- and I'm a big criminal of this, too--
is you get more than you need.
And let me tell you, I don't care
where it's stored in the car.
I don't know why.
After a couple of weeks, you don't
want to have that as something you hand out to people.
It's gotten wet.
It's bent.
It's wear down.
So we're just trying to keep it nice and make sure
that, for as long as possible, we have
stuff to hand out to people.
So a little change there, not a big problem.
Obviously, if you want to keep a couple with you,
for co-workers, random encounters,
we just don't want hundreds in cars anymore.
And we all know that happened.
So just the big thing, if you make that change.
And if you have any other prayer requests,
please just let the Thompsons know.
They'll get it into the bulletin.
But let's go ahead and turn the Lord.
- Wanna take your psalm books, turn to psalm number 119.
Psalm number 119, and if you do not have a psalm book,
give you a page, psalm number 119.
Pray for the offering.
- Everybody, the Scher Foundation Baptist Church,
if you could take your Bibles and turn to Matthew 16.
Matthew 16 is the text this morning,
and as always, we read the entire chapter
before the preaching.
Matthew chapter 16, the Bible reads,
"The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came,
"and tempting, desired him that he would show them
"a sign from heaven.
"He answered and said unto them,
"'When it is evening, ye say, it will be fair weather,
"'for the sky is red, and in the morning,
"'it will be foul weather today,
"'for the sky is red and lowering.
"'O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky,
"'but can ye not discern the signs of the times?
"'A wicked and adulterous generation
"'seeketh after a sign,
"'and there shall no sign be given unto it,
"'but the sign of the prophet, Jonas.'
"And he left them and departed.
"And when his disciples were come to the other side,
"they had forgotten to take bread.
"Then Jesus said unto them, 'Take heed,
"'and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees
"'and of the Sadducees.'
"And they reasoned among themselves, saying,
"'It is because we have taken no bread.'
"Which when Jesus perceived, he said unto them,
"'O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves,
"'because ye have brought no bread?
"'Do ye not yet understand, neither remember
"'the five loaves of the five thousand,
"'and how many baskets ye took up?
"'Neither the seven loaves of the four thousand,
"'and how many baskets ye took up?
"'How is it that ye do not understand
"'that I spake it not to you concerning bread,
"'that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees
"'and of the Sadducees?'
"Then understood they how they bade them
"not to beware of the leaven of bread,
"but of the doctrine of the Pharisees
"and of the Sadducees.
"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 thou art John the Baptist;
"some Elias; and others, Jeremiah, 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 Barjona,
"'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
"'shall be loosed in heaven.'
"Then charged he his disciples,
"that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ.
"From that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples,
"how that he must go unto Jerusalem
"and suffer many things of the elders
"and chief priests and scribes,
"and be killed and be raised again the third day.
"Then Peter took him and began to rebuke him, saying,
"'Be it far from thee, Lord; this shall not be unto thee.'
"But he turned and said unto Peter,
"'Get thee behind me, Satan; thou art an offense unto me.
"For thou savorsst not the things that be of God,
"but those that be of men.'
"Then said Jesus unto his disciples,
"'If any man will come after me, let him deny himself,
"and take up his cross, and follow me.
"For whosoever will save his life shall lose it,
"and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
"For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world,
"and lose his own soul?
"Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
"For the Son of Man shall come in the glory of his Father
"with his angels, and then he shall reward every man
"according to his works.
"Verily I say unto you, there be some standing here
"which shall not taste of death till they see the Son of Man
"coming in his kingdom."
Brother Jason, could you pray for the preaching?
- Heavenly Father, I thank you for this day, Lord.
I thank you for everything you've done for us, Lord.
I pray that you please open our hearts to the preaching
of your word, and so for the worship of various preachers.
- Amen, you guys are there.
In Matthew 16, we're gonna look in at verse number 15,
when the Bible says, "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 Barjona,
"for flesh and blood hath not revealed unto thee
"by my Father, which is in heaven.
"And I say unto thee, Thou art Peter,
"and upon this rock I will build my church,
"and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."
The title of my sermon this morning
is "Rocks, Pebbles, and Stones."
Let's pray.
Dear brother God, thank you so much for this wonderful day.
Thank you so much for everything that you do for us, God.
Thank you so much for this church, God.
Thank you so much for the Bible
and this wonderful chapter out of it, God.
I just pray that you would help me to preach,
identifying some of the people that are here today.
And thank you so much, everybody that came, God,
that are sacrificing time out of their weekend, God.
And thank you so much for the people that I know would come
if they didn't have any other troubles hindering them.
I just pray that you would fill me
with your Holy Spirit right now, God,
and help me to say what you want me to say
and help me to clearly teach what the Bible says
about this passage of scripture.
In Jesus' name I pray, amen.
Tell my sermon again, like I said this morning,
is rocks, pebbles, and stones.
We're here in Matthew 16,
and this is a very interesting subject to me.
It's a subject that's relatively controversial
and that is kind of hard to get to the bottom of,
in my opinion.
And that is the topic of who is the rock here
in Matthew chapter number 16.
And for anybody who would be unaware,
there's basically two main camps on this issue.
There are the people that believe that Jesus Christ
is referring to himself here, like he's like,
"Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I'll build my church,"
like he's pointing back at himself.
And then there's people that also believe that, you know,
Peter is being referred to as the rock here.
And in my life experience, I'd say that most of the time,
the average person I've run into that's, you know,
a Baptist or even just not a Catholic really,
believe that Jesus Christ is referring to himself here.
And it's usually like the Catholic church that it will say,
really cleave to the fact that this is Peter,
because they use that to teach a bunch of weird stuff.
Like they'll say like, this is Peter becoming
the first Pope right here,
and Jesus is giving him all authority.
And that's why we know that the Catholic church
is the one true church
and the one true authority on the Bible.
And because people teach that, or they, excuse me,
because the Catholics and basically the Orthodox
would teach this, I think it causes people
to naturally be distanced from that side
and be like, "No, no, no.
This cannot be talking about Peter.
This must be about Jesus Christ."
But I do think it's important that we're careful
that we don't just derive our beliefs
from whatever the opposite of the Catholic church is.
We need to go with what the Bible says.
Because the reality is, is that there are some things
that we agree with the Catholic church on,
like the Trinity, for example.
Just because the Catholic church believes the Trinity,
that doesn't mean that we go to the opposite of that
and be like, nope, Jesus isn't God.
Or we say like, oh, actually it's modalism
or something like that.
You have to just go with what the Bible says.
So if the Catholics get it right, I mean,
a broken clock's right twice a day, right?
So that is what it is.
And also I would say that when it comes to subjects like this,
you couldn't agree with one part of an interpretation
without going down the whole rest of the slope.
Like a slippery slope policy kind of thing.
Like people will act like if you believe
that Peter is the rock right here,
that means you just have to believe everything else
that the Catholic Church uses that to teach.
But that's nonsense.
You can believe that Peter is the rock,
but that the Pope isn't real
and that the Catholic Church isn't the one true church
because that's not what the rest of the Bible teaches.
So we don't want to fall into a trap of just kind of
going the opposite of what the Catholic Church teaches.
That's not how we build doctrine.
We build doctrine from what the Bible teaches.
But also I want to bring this up because this is funny.
My dad, because I think he's kind of changed his position on this.
I think he used to kind of believe more that Jesus was the rock.
And he's pointing to himself.
And now he thinks more that Peter is the rock in this passage right here.
But I remember one of these trolls made a video about him.
Because when you're explaining this story,
it's natural to preach with your body language.
You want to kind of act it out.
That's why I'm doing gymnastics up here sometimes.
But he was explaining this.
He was like, my dad was preaching the sermon online in Canada.
I was watching it.
And he was like, thou art Peter and upon this rock,
I'll build my church.
And one of these trolls got on there and they were like,
why is he pointing to himself?
He's saying he's the rock.
Come on now.
That's so lame.
Go, if you would, to 1 Peter 5, verse number 1.
1 Peter 5, verse number 1.
So just-- I've written that out just so you know.
That if I do that in the sermon, I don't think that I'm actually the rock.
I'm just kind of narrating the story, if you would.
It helps people understand what's going on.
But something that I do want to make abundantly clear again
is that no matter who you think the rock is here,
that doesn't prove that the Roman Catholic Church is the one true church,
and it sure as heck doesn't prove that Peter was a pope at all.
Because if you compare the rest of the Bible with this story,
you'll find out this, that the idea of there being a pope is nonsense,
because it's not in the rest of the Bible one time.
Not the word, not the office, not the description of it.
The pope is a fake position created by the Catholic Church.
There is no such thing as a pope.
You guys are going to 1 Peter 5 verse number one.
You should realize, because the Bible points to everything opposite to this,
that there is no such thing as a pope.
And it also, it doesn't take getting past the name pope itself
for you to realize that this is a fake position.
Because what does pope mean?
Father, yeah, papa, that's what it means.
It means father.
You know the one thing that Jesus Christ said, call no man?
The Catholic Church was like, let's call every priest father.
What a great idea.
It's so stupid though.
Jesus Christ says, and call no man your father upon earth for one is your father,
which is in heaven.
I guess they just missed that in all their secret church teachings.
But they'd say this about this.
They'll say, well, don't you call your dad your father on earth?
Explain that then.
Here's the thing though.
There's nothing to explain about it.
It's just this.
What is the context that Jesus Christ is talking about in Matthew 23, 9?
Is it about your earthly parents?
No, he's talking about religious leaders and spiritual leaders.
That's who he's talking about.
Not your literal flesh and blood father at your house.
The Catholic Church wants us to believe that they have the secret true teachings of Jesus Christ,
but then they teach the opposite of what we can clearly see from Jesus Christ in the Bible.
How are we going to go with them on that?
It's no wonder that they were putting their mass in Latin for so many years,
because if you can actually understand what they're saying,
then you can realize how dumb they are,
because none of the things that they teach are from the Bible.
Maybe I should say, almost none of the things that they teach
are actually from the Bible.
They don't even really teach the Bible in church anyways there,
but I'm not even going to get into that.
But it's even that, like itself, teaching Latin mass.
It's like in First Corinthians, he specifically says,
you're supposed to preach words that are understood to everybody in church.
And then the Catholic Church is like,
let's teach words that nobody can understand.
Like I said all the time, it's a joke.
Like the Catholic Church goes to something in the Bible
and they just do the opposite of it.
But it's like almost true.
It's actually insane how often that really is true.
But here's the problem with Peter being a pope, okay?
Go to 1 Peter, you guys are there in 1 Peter 5.1.
The first and chief problem of this
is that Peter is never referred to as a pope.
He's referred to something else though in the Bible,
a real position that we see in the Bible.
1 Peter 5.1 it says, "The elders which are among you,
I exhort who am also an elder
and a witness of the sufferings of Christ
and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed."
When Peter's referring to himself here,
this would be the perfect time to be like,
"Hey guys, remember, I'm the pope.
I'm the head of everything right here."
What does he say though?
He's like, "I'm an elder just like all of you guys."
Wow, like he calls himself an elder,
which is a real position, but not the pope,
because that's a fake position.
That's what I want you to understand from these verses.
And wouldn't you refer to yourself
as your highest role of authority
when you're addressing yourself?
Like he didn't like go down to level of pastor,
but a pope would supersede everybody
besides Jesus Christ, technically.
And they really do supersede Jesus Christ anyways.
But again, that's neither here nor there.
Go to Matthew eight, verse number 14.
Matthew eight, verse number 14.
Maybe I should say they make the pope supersede Jesus Christ
because truly Jesus Christ
should have the preeminence in all things.
But the Catholic Church will go up and teach
contrary to Jesus Christ under the authority of the pope.
The second reason why Peter couldn't have been a pope
is because Peter was married.
And I know some Catholic would say to this,
"Well, there used to not be these qualifications on the priests
and on the popes for marriage."
And I would say, "I agree with you guys on that."
Because here's the reality of that.
They added that in later on,
contrary to the teachings of Jesus Christ.
Because most of the goofball teachings from the Catholic Church
come hundreds, if not thousands of years after Jesus Christ.
And I bring this up to show you that the Catholic Church,
they'll really bank on just being like,
"Oh, we teach like the most ancient things from the Bible.
We're just teaching the exact things that the apostles believed,
but they're lying to you when they say that.
It's nonsense."
Because even themselves, they'll admit that the idea
that a priest or a pope had to be celibate
comes way later after Jesus Christ.
And it's contrary to Jesus Christ because Jesus Christ says,
"Forbidding people to marry is a doctrine of devils."
But here's a goofball example that they use though.
Like I said, teaching that priests must be celibate.
This was first found, I just was doing research about this
because I thought it was interesting.
At the council of Elvira, so in 305 A.D.
So that's definitely way after Jesus Christ.
So this is not an ancient teaching.
This is their own little teaching they came up with later about Jesus Christ.
But listen to this canon because when I was trying to find out
like if they like believe everything from this council and all,
they give 81 canons here.
Not like gunfire canons, okay?
But like a belief, okay?
So canon 33 though, they have, excuse me,
they have 81 of these canons in this little council.
And it seems like from what I saw online,
that they say that the whole church
wasn't subscribing to these,
like the bishops would at some time
kind of reign over areas and make rules.
But the fact that this bishop is making the rules
I'm about to show you in this,
we should show you that the Catholic church
didn't just have some pope designating over them
from the beginning, they lie about that.
When they say that Jesus,
or when they say that Peter was the first pope,
they're lying to you.
Peter was never a pope.
Canon 33 though, listen to what this says.
This is the council of Elvira,
which was in 305 AD.
It says bishops, presbyters, and deacons,
and all other clerics having a position in the ministry
are ordered to abstain completely from their wives
and not have children.
Whoever in fact does this shall be expelled
from the dignity of the clerical state.
So again, straight up a doctrine of devils.
And they don't even like,
they couldn't even just like grandfather this rule in
and be like, okay, if you're married just next time,
nobody else is gonna be allowed.
But they're like, no, no, no.
Starting today, if you're married,
you can't even be with your wife.
Contrary again to the teachings of the Bible.
'Cause what have we been learning about
in 1 Corinthians 7?
You owe your spouse your body, right?
That's what the Bible teaches.
So they're going against the teachings of Jesus Christ.
They're going against the teachings of Paul here.
Certainly not passing them down.
But I gotta admit to you guys though, okay?
I got lost in this a little bit
because these canons are crazy.
Like I was like reading them to Kyle
and I was laughing my butt off on the couch
because these canons like,
I was just gonna go for this one right here,
but let me just read some of these other ones to you.
This has nothing to do with the sermon,
but I just thought they were crazy.
Cannon 34 says, "Candles shall not be burned
in a cemetery during the day
for the spirits of the saints are not to be disturbed."
Those who do not observe this
are excluded from the communion of the church.
But it's like, isn't that ironic too?
Because what else did the Catholics teach about the saints?
That you're supposed to pray to them, right?
So they're like, don't light a candle in the cemetery,
have some respect for the saints.
But then they're like, but then go and bug them
and pray to them the whole time.
Doesn't make sense, but that shows you again,
that praying to the saints was not a foundational teaching.
That's something they added in later on.
Canon 35, it says women are forbidden.
Listen, this is crazy, okay?
It says women are forbidden to spend the night in a cemetery.
Why would they want to?
Since often under the pretext of prayer,
they secretly commit evil deeds.
What in the world?
No, so this is our church rule,
no spend the night at cemeteries, okay?
And it makes me wonder what was really going on
at the ladies Christmas party yesterday, okay?
The ladies Christmas party, huh?
Super weird, this one's for brother Jason,
though I found this one.
Canon 49 says landholders are warned not to allow the crops
which they have received from God
with an act of thanksgiving to be blessed by Jews
lest they make our blessing ineffectual and weak.
I was like, let them cook on that one.
I was like, what?
That's super funny.
Yeah, exactly right.
Canon 50, it says this,
"If any clergy of the faithful eat with Jews,
"he shall be kept from the communion
"in order to be corrected as he should."
It's like how the turn tables.
It's like the Jews are like not eating with the Gentiles
and then here they're like,
"We gotta get back at them now.
"We're no eating with the Jews now."
Super stupid.
That's like what's happening nowadays
with the racism in America, but I'll spare you.
Canon 71, you guys will probably like this one though.
It says, "Men who abuse boys,"
and I'm dropping a word there just for your sake.
"Men who abuse boys shall not be given communion
even at the approach of death."
Amen to that, because if you don't understand,
the Calvin Church believes without communion,
you're going right to hell.
So what they're basically saying is like,
if you're found abusing a little boy,
they're like, you don't get no communion
until the day you die.
So what are they doing?
They are sending that person to hell.
Not really, 'cause communion doesn't save you,
but it's the heart that counts, right?
The spirit that they have right there.
I can level with that.
Canon 36, it says, "There shall be no picture."
This is the Catholic church, listen to this.
"There shall be no pictures in the church
lest what is worship and adored be depicted on walls."
The Catholic church saying that.
And I was looking up online how they explain this away,
and they like pull out the whiteboard,
and they're just like going to crazy town to be like,
this doesn't mean what it really says,
but truly that shows you that guess what else
wasn't from the beginning of the teachings of Christ?
Worshiping saints and icons.
In fact, the teachings on that go all the way back
to the 10 commandments, if you could believe that.
But they can't get that right either.
What else we got here?
Oh, this is the last one.
I just thought this one was hilarious though too.
Canon 52, it says, "Those who have been caught
placing derogatory writings in church shall be anathematized."
And that's a pretty crazy word right there.
That's what we should refer to people now.
Just they've been anathematized, just thrown out of the church.
That's what it's talking about right there, like the anathema marinatha.
Anyways though, where do I have you guys go?
Matthew 18 verse 14, yeah.
That's enough for the canons, your little laugh for the day.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
Okay, so back on topic with that,
because I was saying that Peter was married, okay?
And that shows that he wasn't a pope.
I mean, there's no position as pope anyways, but it definitely shows that.
But a lot of Catholics will concede that Peter was married.
They'll say, "Yeah, he was married, but you know,
things were different back then," or whatever they say.
But some of them will say, "No, no, no, no.
You cannot prove that Peter was actually married."
It's like, "What?"
And I'm going and finding these things online, what Catholics will believe.
Not just like making up stuff right now, okay?
You guys are there in Matthew 18, 14.
It says, "And when Jesus was coming to Peter's house,
he saw his wife's mother laid and sick of a fever."
Looks like you can prove that Peter was married right there.
But then they'll say, "Well, there's some people that,"
because it breaks off here into little dumb branches.
Some people will say, "Well, Peter was married,
but you can't really prove that he was married at the time
when Jesus made him the Pope, made him the rock of the church."
Oh, but how are you wrong? You are on that too,
because here's the thing. If you read the Bible in English,
you're not just hearing Latin mass, but you can't understand,
you can actually discover what the Bible teaches.
Because if they go to 1 Corinthians 9,
you guys can go there too, 1 Corinthians 9,
verse number three, you'd see that you can absolutely prove
that Peter was married at the time that Jesus Christ says this to him
about being the rock, it says in Matthew 9.3, it says,
"Mine answer to them that do examine me is this,
have we not power to eat and to drink?
Have we not power to lead about a sister,
a wife, as well as other apostles,
and as the brethren of the Lord and Cephas?"
So he was married, and chronologically,
it's 1 Corinthians 9 after Matthew 16, absolutely it is,
which proves again that he was married.
Some of them will concede right there,
but then the most extreme that I saw was like,
"No, no, no, no, no."
They're like, "You're getting it all wrong here."
So let me just ask you this before I even get into that.
We have a clear verse that says that Peter's married right here.
What are the Catholics gonna do to explain this away?
Take a guess.
Back to the Greek is what it was, exactly right.
Back to the Greek, 'cause that's what they do all the time,
and they say, "No, the word wife right there
isn't really the word wife," but here's the thing,
they can't save themselves here,
because even nowadays, modern Greek,
the word wife here is still the same.
It's "yineka." It means woman also,
but it's also the primary word for using a wife,
and my wife knows this because they teach you
that on Duolingo from the get-go as well,
so they're buried right there.
You can't go anywhere, like they're like,
"Technically, it just means woman."
It's like, yeah, because that's how a lot of languages
will refer to a spouse or to a boyfriend or girlfriend.
Like, I don't know if Spanish does this or not,
but I forget which language I do know for sure does this,
but when you refer to your wife,
you use the word woman instead.
Spanish does this? Yeah, okay, I got a witness up here.
So, it's the same thing in Greek,
'cause even for boyfriend and girlfriend,
you can do this as well.
If you say, like, (speaks in foreign language)
or like, (speaks in foreign language)
be like boyfriend or girlfriend, okay?
But it literally means boy or girl,
but the context tells you,
and the context clearly shows you here
that this is a wife, not just a woman,
'cause why would Paul just wanna be like,
"Yeah, we're refraining from just leading women around."
It's like, that doesn't exactly sound like a treat, okay?
But whatever, where are we at even here?
Oh, go to Matthew 16 again, Matthew 16, verse number 17,
just leading random women around.
It's like Paul, that's what Paul's saying.
It's like, no, he's talking about your wife.
That's what makes sense in context.
That's the power that he's,
that's the thing that he's abstaining from
to demonstrate that he is all in for Jesus Christ
is what Paul the apostle is doing.
Where are we at?
Oh, I was gonna say this
'cause you guys are going to Matthew 16 as well,
that the main focus of the New Testament
that shows why Peter wasn't the Pope
is after the death of Jesus Christ
on the apostle Paul, not on Peter, truly.
If you think about it, like,
I just had a coworker the other day to me
like say in the car when we were driving,
he was like, wouldn't you really say
it's more accurate to say that the apostle Paul
is the founder of Christianity
and not Jesus Christ himself?
And obviously I kind of like was correcting him on that.
I was like, no, I was like,
because Paul was being used by Jesus Christ
to do all these things.
He's being used under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost.
So God uses men all the time,
but God gets all the glory.
And I explained that to him.
But isn't it interesting here that he says
Paul is the founder of Christianity, right?
That's what he's kind of trying to submit there.
It's because the New Testament, in the New Testament,
after the death of Jesus Christ,
Peter is kind of the protagonist for a little bit.
But after Paul comes on the scene,
it truly is like the Paul show for the rest of the whole Bible.
And it doesn't really make sense that if Peter's the pope,
like wouldn't you think you'd get like a deep insight onto his life?
Like, or showing his pope power or whatever throughout the whole Bible.
But you never see this.
Anyways, going back to the main idea of this,
I kind of tangented on that for the pope for the Catholic Church.
Matthew 16, verse number 17, we'll read one more time.
It says, "And Jesus answered and said unto him,
'Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee,
but my Father, which is in heaven, and I say unto thee, Thou art Peter, and upon this rock
I'll build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."
So what I'm going to do with these verses, I'm going to do something very similar to what I did
with my first Corinthians seven part one sermon where I'll talk about the touching of woman.
I'm going to lay out both sides of this argument here because here's the thing about this,
I am truly like split almost right down the middle in this. Like I cannot tell you how like,
I was like, I even called my dog on the phone last night. I was like, will you tell me your
arguments again? And I'm like, listen, arguments online. Cause I'm just like, there's like,
I literally could like flip either way on this. It's very close. Like I'm like right down the
middle, maybe like 51% like leaning just barely towards another way on this because there are
good arguments for both sides. And I bring that up because people kind of will say this sometimes
it's like, it's just super obvious what this is saying. I really don't think that though.
I think it's confusing. I think it's been controversial for centuries
because it's a confusing passage of scripture. Yeah. Um, you guys are there in Matthew 16 verse
number 18 though. So what is the first argument about this is that people will say that Jesus
Christ is the rock. He's referring to himself here in Matthew 16 verse number 18. And before
I say that, I want, I just want to say this, I just want to break down a straw man that people
bring up sometimes very clearly in the Bible, Jesus Christ is the rock period. End of story.
At the end of the day, he is the rock. Nobody's arguing against that. But what they're saying is
in this analogy here, is he referring to Peter or is he referring to himself? Because there's
other rocks as well that are tinier rocks that are on the foundation of Jesus Christ that I can
show you later on. But I just want to get that out of the way so that nobody is confused by that.
Jesus Christ is the rock. And that's the first point of this is that Jesus is referred to
as the rock more times than anybody in the Bible. Go if you would to Ephesians 2 19. Ephesians 2
19 because again I said people that believe that Jesus Christ is speaking about himself they say
like thou art Peter and upon this rock I'll build my church and he's pointing back to himself like
I'll build my rock on this church and there's multiple reasons why they believe this. But the
first and chief of these is that Jesus Christ is referred to as the rock multiple times in the Bible.
I'll read for you guys 1st Corinthians 10-4 it says and all did drink the same spiritual drink
for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them and that rock was Christ. 1st Samuel 2-2 it
says there is none holy as the Lord for there is none beside thee neither is there any rock like
our God. Romans 9-32 says wherefore because they started not by faith but as it were by the works
of the law for they stumbled at that stumbling stone as is written behold by land sign a stumbling
stone and rock of offense and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. And in Ephesians 2
19 where you guys are at Ephesians 2 19 it says now therefore you are no more strangers and
foreigners but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God and are built upon
the foundation of the apostles and prophets Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone.
And truly that's only like a fraction of the verses I could show you Jesus is called the rock
all over the Bible okay so you can definitely see just by even that alone how people could
definitely come to the conclusion that Jesus Christ is pointing to himself here right if
you're being honest if you're being objective makes a lot of sense and that's why a lot of
people that are saved come to this conclusion. But number two with this that they'll use as a
proof is that Jesus Christ is used as the head of the church in like almost every analogy that we
see and you guys can go to John 2 19 or go to go to Matthew 21 42 I'm gonna read for you guys Colossians
1 18 because in Colossians 1 18 it says this and he which is referring to Jesus Christ is the head
of the body the church who is the beginning the firstborn from the dead that in all things he
might have the preeminence that's Jesus Christ that's talking about right there so not just in
this one analogy but in every analogy Jesus Christ is used as the head of the church which
makes a lot of sense the only pushback I could see people giving for these things is saying like
it's a different kind of analogy but you know that's just to throw that kind of thing out there
because I'm going to be giving you a little bit of pushback on different things if I can
to find out like the truth of the matter number three though about this is that Jesus Christ
does use this to refer to himself in the Bible as we'll see right here we'll see in two spots
you guys are there in Matthew 21 42 it says Jesus saith unto them did ye never read the scriptures
the stone which the builders rejected the same has become the head of the corner and what who is
that stone Jesus Christ right says this is the Lord's doing it is marvelous in our eyes therefore
I say to you the kingdom of God shall be taken from you and give a donation bringing forth the
fruits thereof and whosoever shall fall on this stone is what it says right shall be broken but
on whosoever shall fall it will grind him to powder that's a pretty compelling one I think but
John 2 19 if you want to go there real quick as well one more time John 2 19 is is a better
proof text for that and it definitely shows that sometimes Jesus Christ does refer to himself with
this okay John 2 19 you guys are there it says in John 2 19 it says Jesus answered and said unto
them destroy this temple and in three days I'll raise it up then said the Jews forty and six years
was his temple and building wilt thou rear it up in three days but he spake of the temple of his
body so when he says this temple who is he talking about himself he's pointing back to himself right
destroy this temple and he'll raise it up in three days also when it comes to the subject I'd say
this Peter never refers to himself in the Bible as the rock by any means in fact in first Peter
when he's talking about the lively stones which he makes himself and all of us and the apostles
he makes Jesus Christ still the chief cornerstone in that analogy that he uses
because that's what the Bible teaches over and over again so you can see there that that's pretty
compelling I think a lot of those things are very compelling about this side of the argument
but I want to bring up one side of this argument that's terrible to bring up okay and if if you're
if you believe that Jesus Christ is the rock you're doing yourself a disservice by bringing this up
okay um go to um where are we at go to John 142 John 142 and this argument people because here's
the thing the Catholics know this pretty well because this is like one of their most important
scriptures to them so what people try to do and they'll get fancy on this is they'll go back to
the Greek but I'm getting a little bit ahead of myself on that but I'm just gonna tell you this
there's a lot of arguments you can use in English to prove that Jesus Christ is the rock if that's
what you believe but going back to the Greek on this one does not help you it buries you it really
does and it's a really dumb thing to do you have way better shot of winning someone over by explaining
to them that Jesus Christ is the rock in English rather than going to Greek because you don't speak
Greek and I you know don't speak Greek either but before I do this I want to do the Bible Tribute
okay what's another name for Peter in the Bible Cephas what language does that come from anybody
know not Greek who knows who knoweth Aramaic yeah that's what it is okay yeah and what does
the name Cephas mean we see right here it says in John 1 42 it says and he brought him to Jesus
and when Jesus beheld him he said thou art Simon the son of Jonah thou shalt be called Cephas which
is by interpretation a stone so what does Cephas mean means a stone so Cephas means a stone but
what does Peter mean means a stone too a trick question I got you guys because the name Cephas
and the name Peter are the same name they're just in different languages so I also wanted to bring
that up too I brought that up before but like you can see that names can vastly change in different
languages you have Cephas and Aramaic you have Peter you have really Petros in Greek and then
you have Peter in English you have Pedro in Spanish I think that's all I got for the Peters
though for the languages okay but oh this is another thing I wanted to show you as well before
I get into this go to first Peter 2 8 first Peter 2 verse number 8 so Cephas means stone and Peter
also means stone it's just his name in Greek it's Petros in Greek is uh it is his name that they
would speak it even nowadays but I wanted to show you before I get into the bad argument that people
use to prove that Jesus Christ is referring to himself here that um what the naming of Peter is
what it means and that the word rock and the word stone are entertainable in the Bible okay because
I know some somebody's gonna listen what I'm saying right here and they're gonna be like no no no
Peter means stone not rock but these are the same thing okay let's be real even in English it's
basically the same thing okay uh in um first Peter 2 8 it says this it says and a stone of stumbling
and a rock of offense even to them which stumble at the word being disobedient weren't you also they
were appointed so talk about Jesus Christ here he's a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense what
does that mean these are the same thing there's no difference there right stone and rock are they
mean the exact same thing but I just yeah but going back to the go back to Matthew 16 verse number 18
Matthew 16 number 18 I bring that up because an argument sometimes that people will bring up to
prove to prove quotes that Jesus Christ is referring to himself is they'll say well the
Greek word here for rock is two different words they're like they're two completely different
words actually okay Matthew 16 18 I've heard dozens of people say this but it says Matthew 16 18 it
says and I say unto thee thou art Peter which is Petros which means rock stone right and then he
says and upon this rock and he says Petra which sounds a little different notice that says I will
build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it so people will look at that
and be like well Petros and Peter are two different words and then they'll go up and look this up
online and they'll find some biased sources that'll say yeah actually Petros means like a little tiny
stone has anybody heard this before this is it Petros means like a little tiny stone or like a
little pebble like a little kind of rock or a stone or whatever but then Petra completely different
word they're like this is like a giant foundational huge stone this is just not true though because
the reality is this these are the same word one's just masculine and one's feminine that's the
difference okay so when people do this it's like doing this okay like in Spanish I'm sure you guys
don't know this the word for dog is Pero yeah so it's masculine with the o right there it'd be like
going to Spanish and having Pero and then Pera which would be like a female dog and being like
so the word Pero what this means is like a little tiny dog like a little ankle biter like a little
chihuahua if you will okay I wonder how you say that in Greek that'd be kind of fun to know
but like a Pero is a little tiny teeny little dog but then they're like but a Pero this is a
massive dog this is a rottweiler this is a great dame but this is silly because the reality is
the word has nothing to do with the size it's just masculine and feminine okay so I'm bringing this
up because people try to get fancy right here and they'll bring this up but it's a dumb argument
because petros and petra are the same word one's just masculine and one's feminine and the reason
they're different here is this is because Jesus Christ is deriving Peter's name from a feminine
object because feminine petra is feminine so he's changing it when he's giving him this name to be
petros which is natural right they still do the same thing going back to Spanish as well because
one of the things that stuck with me from du lingo for some reason was la piedra which means
like a stone yeah can I get a witness witness Spanish witness la piedra yeah when you put the
name Peter into Spanish though do you say piedra or do you say you know pedra no what do you
render Peter as Pedro right so it becomes masculine so you see this is natural so that's all that's
happening here is that is that that Jesus would be taking that word rock and making it masculine
because Peter's a man it makes a lot of sense yeah so that doesn't prove any and again I want
to pause this and just say this this doesn't prove either way anything all I'm saying to you is this
is that going to the Greek here doesn't save you because the Greek is as ambiguous as the English
is that's all I'm going to show you doesn't save you doesn't that you can't say either way
definitively here because Peter's a man so the natural change there doesn't matter it's irrelevant
to the teaching so all that to say is this is that if you do believe that Jesus Christ is referring
to himself just don't bring up this argument use any other argument that I said before but going
to the Greek doesn't help you here go to Revelation 2 17 Revelation 2 verse number 17 we kind of do
this in English too as well I was thinking about this as well like uh with Peter if you're going
to name a girl you know basically after Peter you're not going to name her Peter what are you
going to name her Petra right so we do that in English as well that's kind of the only way to
kind of relate it with English we have Peter for a boy Petra for a girl you feminize or you
masculinize things based on you know the gender that you're naming that thing but so all that
to just say is that yeah if you bring this to a Catholic you're going to get toasted on that so
don't do that I'm trying to help you on this one and on top of this you're going to get toasted
for another reason because the second reason is that if you go to the Greek here they're going to
one-up you and they're going to go to the Aramaic this is like super fun I'm dead serious too like
all the articles on like Catholic answers they'd be like yeah people will know that the word Petros
is here but they're like but if you go back to the Aramaic there's no difference for the word
for stone it's just kifas and you know that means that when the the New Testament author is rendering
it into Greek he's just using Petros because he has to and yada yada yada and they just explain it
away okay so they're going to one-up you uh going back to the Aramaic and then I can't help you
because I don't know nothing in America okay but um also you're going to get triple roasted on this
if you bring this to the catholic because there is a word for a smaller stone in the Bible and
it's not Petros we see it here uh Revelation 2 to 17 it says this it says he that hath an ear
let him hear what the spirit say then of the churches to him that overcometh while I give
to eat of the hidden manna and I'll give him a white stone and in that stone a name a new name
written which no man knoweth saving he that received it and the word right there is different
than all the other basically words it uses in the Bible it uses psiphon which is a small rock is
what it's basically saying right there okay it doesn't say small there but it's implying that
it's small basically so that's another reason why you can't say that Petros means a small rock
because there's already a word that means small rock in Greek and it's not used in that text okay
so just stick with the English because there's a lot of compelling arguments that you can use
in English go back to Matthew 16 18 though Matthew 16 verse number 18 I laid out the arguments there
why I understand 100% why someone would come to the conclusion that Jesus Christ is pointing to
himself because there is a solid argument to be had there this is not just a nothing burger this
is not just like you know just a bunch of speculation there's a lot of good stuff right
there that I just showed you for why this could definitely be Jesus pointing to himself but I'm
going to lay out the other side of that argument which is that Peter is being like he's like thou
are Peter and upon this rock I'll build my church yeah I'm not no longer pointing to himself the
first reason why someone would probably believe this is this is that at the most basic reading
of the text here most people would probably come to the conclusion that he is speaking to Peter
like again I was about people being biased to text and that's why they're kind of
going to the opposite end but if you put this in a vacuum and you don't know anything about
the teachings of the catholic church you're just reading this story I feel like the most logical
reading that someone would come to from just reading this is that he is speaking about about
Peter if you're kind of being objective about it and okay and and that's like even in the next
verse we'll get verse number 19 because you kind of see this as well it says and I uh and I will
give unto you that or excuse me and I will give unto thee which is the singular yeah the keys of
the kingdom of heaven and whosoever thou or whatsoever excuse me thou shalt bind on earth
shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven
so it's kind of like if Jesus Christ is referring to himself here you have to answer the question
like if this is the case then why in the next verse is he saying and I'm going to give to thee
the keys of the kingdom heaven right you're gonna have to answer why that is because if you play
that out again like out in real time he's like thou art Peter and upon this rock I'll build my
church he points to himself instead this time and he's like you know on the gates of hell shall I
proclaim against it and he's like and then I'll give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven and
whichever you shall bound on earth I'll bind in heaven kind of a little awkward when you kind of
think about it don't you think it's kind of like because you have to think about this is my second
point about this you have to ask yourself why is he even saying Peter's name at all like it's kind
of random if you think about it it almost seems kind of meaningless to bring him up here if he's
just pointing to himself he's like thou art Peter and on this rock I'll build my church it's like he
kind of could have said anything there he's like thou art Peter and Mount Everest is the tallest
mountain it's like that has about as much connection as what he just said in the former thing right
there okay and also I want to say this about this uh wouldn't you expect the conjunction
but here instead of and if Jesus is referring to himself because if you make a comparison that's
kind of how you usually do things like if I said well I'll just do this again with Peter and Jesus
it's like if he says like thou art Peter and he says but on this rock I'll build my church that
seems to flow a lot more naturally doesn't it because that's how you make comparisons
but when you say and it doesn't seem like you're making like a comparison anymore
because if I said this let me say this if I said hey brother Paul is good and I'm the best kind of
like disconnected right how would you actually say you'd say brother Paul is good but I'm the
best right that's how you'd naturally say this you can probably find a context where that would
work grammatically but it just seems so random for him to just thou art Peter and I promise
why I built my church it's like why does he why does he even say Peter there in the first place
you have to kind of because again I said there's a good argument for both sides but these are things
that people would have to explain for it to make sense why does he say thou art Peter if it means
nothing that he's about to it has nothing to do with anything he's about to say right there
doesn't really make sense to me um what else are we out here yeah because I would expect a
conjunction right there I would expect the conjunction for but not just and right there
because then it seemingly makes Peter there for no reason and I was going to say this about this
as well go up to verse number 17 as well verse number 17 we're getting towards the end of this
sermon so just hang on there little doggies a lot of talk about rocks okay I'm sorry about that
that's why I named it rock, pebbles, and stones um Jesus deliberately switches from using the name
Simon which is what he's called most of the time right or until he gets renamed yeah to going to
Peter seemingly again for no reason because he says right there verse 17 he says and Jesus
answered and said to him blessed art thou Simon bar Jonah for flesh and blood have not revealed
unto thee but my father which is in heaven Jesus could have eliminated all confusion here about
who he's talking about the rock is if he would have just said again thou art Simon and upon this
rock I'll build my church but it seems like he puts the word Peter there to make it like a wordplay
because Peter means rock or a stone right so he's like thou art Peter thou art Petrus right upon
this rock I'll build my church it seems like it makes a lot more sense or again you'd have to
explain kind of why he's throwing Peter out there at all thou art Peter but upon this rock I'll
build my church it doesn't make sense to me go to acts 238 acts 238 and the fact that he again
deliberately switches from using Simon there to using Peter makes me think he like there it's
there for a reason like it's a hard sell because Peter literally means rock it literally means
stone so it's just a really hard sell to be like yeah he is saying Peter's name here he switches
from Simon to Peter but you just basically have to say it's just kind of a coincidence though it
doesn't really mean anything can you also answer this as well why is Peter's name Peter in the first
place why did he name him Peter presumably for no reason it doesn't make sense if you take Peter
as the rock right here though you guys are going to Acts 2 38 um the last kind of point about this
for this side of the argument is that Peter is the leader of the apostles and the disciples at first
after Jesus Christ passes away and he does the very first giant works for that we see for the
church yeah Acts 2 38 is one of them it says then said Peter unto them repent and be baptized
every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you shall receive the
gift of the Holy Ghost for the promise is unto you and to your children and to all that are far off
even as many as the Lord our God shall call and with many other words did he testify and exhort
saying save yourself from this untoward generation then they that gladly received his word who's
preaching here it's Peter right were baptized and the same day they were added into them about
three thousand souls so you can definitely see that if you're taking the interpretation that
Peter is the rock here in this specific analogy that he's being he's being called that because
this is like foundational to the beginning of the church because this is like because obviously
there's not just a ton of churches at that time they have like the synagogues right but when we're
talking about like the christian church this is going to be the very beginning he's getting all
these people saved at pentecost you see peter doing that you also see peter being the leader
of the apostles basically and then you also see peter focused on throughout basically the whole
book of acts and tell or excuse me halfway through the book of acts until paul gets on the scene and
then when paul gets on the scene it does switch over to him but go to aphesians 2 20 this is the
last place i'll have you go aphesians 2 20 so if you're going to take the interpretation that peter
is being referred to as the rock here it'd be basically jesus christ saying that he's going to
be the one who starts like the first initial push for the church right here because no matter what
you have to take this as a metaphor in some way yeah so i don't think that that would be too crazy
of a stretch but this shows us right here about it calls the uh the apostles part of the foundation
of christ right it says and are built upon the the foundation of the apostles and prophets jesus
christ himself being the chief cornerstone so like i said earlier jesus christ is the chief
cornerstone he's at the bottom he is the foundation period but it could lay out here that if the
apostles and prophets also are part of this foundation that we're built upon that peter
would be like the the next thing under that for like the beginning of the new testament church
yeah so i definitely think that there's a big possibility for that and kind of in in summary
for this i just say this i really do think both arguments make good um compelling thoughts and
and they and they bring like good verses and everything like that i do like and i said this
is just a barely split hair i slightly lean towards peter just because again it just seems
awkward it's like the same thing with first crinthian seven it just seems awkward when you
take it one way it just it just seems kind of hard for me to believe that he's like
that weren't peter and on this rock i build my church and he just kind of like and then he just
switches back to peter in the next verse it's like why bring peter up at all it doesn't make
sense if someone has a good explanation of why i'd like to hear it because i do like to hear these
kind of things and i did spend a lot of time because i really did try to like comb through
a lot of the stuff on this online and i did sift through all this catholic garbage at least some
of it was fun though at least the canons were fun okay but but um i think i'd say this as well our
pastor slightly i i'm not slightly he does believe that peter is the rock right here
but again people get weird about this and they're like if you say that that means you're a catholic
heck no if there's anything i'm not it's a flipping roman catholic give me a break okay
i will go up in here and rip on them for a whole series if you want me to okay to demonstrate that
i'm not a catholic okay i'm just like just being kind of like with the text but again i could flip
on that i just think that it is hard to explain away there's some things that are just hard to
to explain away right there. But if someone has a good explanation, I would love to hear
it. But again, in summary, we should not just believe things just because a different religion
believes them, right? Or excuse me, we should not just go to the opposite side of something
just because another religion believes them. We should go with what the Bible says. And
I think there is a very compelling argument on both sides of this. So I'd be interested
to hear what you guys think about that after the sermon. But with that all being said,
let's pray. Dear Father God, thank you so much for a wonderful day. Thank you so much
for everything you do for us, God. Thank you so much for this church, God, and for everybody
that showed up, God. I just pray that I was clear, God, in what I said today, God, and
I just pray that I taught people some things new out of the Bible, God, and I just pray
that you would help us to continue to search through the Bible and verify things and not
to just believe things because people tell them to us, God, and I just pray that we would
put your word above everything else at the end of the day. And I pray that you'd help
us to keep it. We'll say it when we go out selling later. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.
Page number 432. Angels from the realms of glory. Page number 432. Angels from the realms
of glory. Sing everybody for the rinds you please close this with a word of prayer. Amen.