God’s Word Interprets God’s Word

Matthew 16:13

And coming into the parts of Caesarea of Philip, Jesus questioned His disciples, saying, Whom do men say Me the Son of Man to be?

Matthew 16:14

And they ( Disciples) said, Some say John the Baptist, and others Elijah, and others Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.

Matthew 16:15

He said to them, But you ( Greek 4771),( Disciples) whom do you ( Greek 4771) ( Disciples)say Me to be?

Matthew 16:16

And answering ( For The Disciples) , Simon Peter said, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Matthew 16:17

And answering, Jesus said to him, Blessed ( gifted) are you, ( Greek 1510) Simon, son of Jonah, for flesh and blood did not reveal it to you ( Greek 4771), but My Father in Heaven.

Comment – Please notice in verse 16 that Peter’s name was already Simon Peter and the name Peter was not given to him because The Father revealed to him who Jesus is. All the disciples would have believed this in order to go out into all the world to proclaim the Gospel to all the creation. Mark 16:15-16

Matthew 11:27- has already stated

All things were yielded up to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father, except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him .

Matthew 16:18

And I also say to you( Greek 4771) that you( Greek 4771) are Peter ( Greek 4074 – little pebble ), and on this rock (Greek 4073 Massive Rock) I will build My church (assembly of believing or called out ones), and the gates of Hades will not prevail against her ( The bride of Christ).

Comment– Now comes the interpretation of which rock the believing will be built upon or what foundation. Is the rock Peter or is the Rock what Peter said (when The Father revealed to Peter who Jesus was) that the believing ones will be built on? Revelation 19:7, 21:2,9, 22:17

Question: What does one believe when he becomes a believing one? Does he believe in Peter or does he believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ that saves? 1 Corinthians 3:4-11

Doesn’t it say in Mark 16:16 that he that does not believe the Gospel will be condemned? Is an unbeliever part of the church ( assembly) ? No, Does one have to believe through Peter to be saved? No, there are 11 more disciples plus that will deliver the Gospel that Jesus will use besides Peter.

Is Peter the only disciple that will go out into the world to proclaim the Gospel directed by Jesus? Doesn’t the name of Jesus Christ “ Thou are the Christ the Son of the living God” contain inherently in that name the Gospel, that saves, which is conditioned on the work and person of Christ alone? That is what the name of Jesus means He will save His people. Matthew 1:21

Isn’t belief in that Gospel the Rock that saves and that which the church will be built upon? The Gospel being that God promises to save His people from their sins conditioned on Jesus Christ’s atoning shed blood and His imputed righteousness alone. Romans 3 and Romans 4:3-8 Matthew 1:21 John 3:3,5,8 Acts 20:28 John 6:29 2 Thessalonians 2:13 Romans 1:16-17 Matthew 11:27-30 John 6:35-65 Revelation 5:9, 7:9 John 10:15 John 10:26 Acts 13:48 Romans 8:28-30 Romans 9:16 Luke 18:13 Luke 23:41-43 Hebrews 9:22

Matthew 16:19

And I will give to you (Greek 4771) the keys of the kingdom of Heaven. And whatever you ( Greek 4771) bind on earth shall occur, having been bound in Heaven. And whatever you ( Greek 4771) may loose on the earth shall be, having been loosed in Heaven.

Comment– Now we have seen the same Greek word 4771 ( for you) used in a singular and a plural contextual meaning by Jesus when talking to Peter in verse 18 and The disciples in verse 15

We know the meaning of you has to be determined by the context to determine if singular or plural.

So, is you (Greek 4771) in verse 19 singular or plural ? If you correlate Matthew 18:18 in context of the chapter, this verse should shed some light on whether you is plural or singular

Matthew 18:18

Truly I say to you (Greek 4771), Whatever you bind on the earth shall occur, having been bound in Heaven. And whatever you loose on the earth shall be, having been loosed in Heaven.

Comment– Jesus in Matthew 18:18 is talking to His disciples and not Peter alone which clarifies you to be plural in verse 19 Also, in Matthew 18:18 that whatever is bound on earth has already been bound in heaven which means from this perspective also that Peter is not the Rock that the believers are built upon. It has already been determined in Heaven.

Once again, was Peter the only disciple going out into the world to proclaim the Gospel? No, all the disciples were going out.

Were they all going to proclaim the Gospel of Grace where God promises to save His people Matthew 1:21 from their sins who were unconditionally chosen from before the foundation of the world Ephesians 1:4,11 Romans 8:28-30 solely conditioned on the atoning shed blood Romans 3:25 of Jesus Christ and His imputed righteousness alone. Isn’t this Gospel the key and the foundation or Rock or the foundation, to the kingdom of Heaven.

Didn’t every disciple receive this key when Jesus said I give you (Greek 4771) the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven? That key to the kingdom of Heaven that each disciple was given is the Gospel of Jesus Christ

Below are verses that refer to Jesus Christ as the Rock which within His name, inherently, contains His Gospel, His work and person.

1 Corinthians 10:4

And all drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank of the spiritual rock following, and that Rock was Christ.

Exodus 17:6

Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb. And you shall smite the rock, and water will come out of it; and the people will drink. And Moses did so before the eyes of the elders of Israel.

Numbers 20:10

And Moses and Aaron assembled the congregation before the rock. And he said to them, Hear now, you rebels, shall we bring forth water to you out of this rock?

Deuteronomy 32:3-4

because I will proclaim the name of Jehovah and ascribe greatness to our God.

He is the Rock; His work is perfect. For all His ways are just, a God of faithfulness, and without evil; just and upright is He

1 Samuel 2:2

None is holy like Jehovah, for there is none except You; yea, there is no rock like our God.

2 Samuel 22:47

Jehovah lives! And blessed is the rock of my salvation.

Psalm 18:2

Jehovah is my rock, and my fortress and my deliverer; my God, my Rock; I seek refuge in Him; He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my high tower.

Matthew 16:18

And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I ( Jesus) will build My church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against her.

1 Peter 2:7-8

Then to you who believe belongs the preciousness. But to disobeying ones, He is the “Stone which those building rejected; this One became the Head-of-the-corner,” Psa. 118:22

and a Stone-of-stumbling, and a Rock-of-offense” to those disobeying, stumbling at the word, to which they were also appointed. Isa. 8:14

Isaiah 51:1

Hear Me, pursuers of righteousness, seekers of Jehovah: Look to the rock from which you were cut, and to the hollow of the pit from which you were dug.

Romans 9:33

as it has been written, “Behold, I place in” “Zion a Stone-of-stumbling,” “and a Rock-of-offense,” “and everyone believing on Him will not be put to shame.” LXX and MT-Isa. 28:16; MT-Isa. 8:14

Psalm 18:31

For who is God besides Jehovah? Or who is a Rock except our God?

Daniel 9:35

Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were together broken to pieces, and they became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors. And the wind carried them away so that no place was found for them. And the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.

Comment– The scripture above is one more confirmation that Peter cannot be the Rock that the Assembly of God is built upon but only Jesus Christ.

Comment– I think it is clear that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is The Rock, that the assembly of believers are being built upon. It is the foundation or Rock that saves which causes the building upon to occur. The Rock of salvation is the work of Christ alone. He adds to the foundation through God’s work of faith John 6:29 which regenerates the heart unto the gift of faith Ephesians 2:8-9 in the Gospel to His promised people; The promised people that He said He would save. That is why the gates of hades will not be victorious in preventing.

The Catholic Church hierarchy promotes the office of Popery on the basis of their twisting scripture in Matthew 16:16-18 in their attempt to convince their followers Peter was the Rock that the true organization for Jesus Christ would be built; but the truth is Jesus is building His assembly (church) of believers that He promised to save by His shed blood and imputed righteousness alone through this gift by Grace received by faith through the preaching of His Gospel.

His promised people upon hearing this Gospel, will believe through His power of generating a new heart and spirit within them John 3:8 unto belief of the Gospel of Grace that saves. His people will love Him for what he has done for them and work to keep His commandments. Salvation is His work from regeneration to final glorification.

1 Corinthians 3:4-11

For when one may say, Truly I am of Paul, and another, I of Apollos; are you not fleshly?

What then is Paul? And what Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, and to each as the Lord gave?

I planted, Apollos watered, but God made to grow (builds). (Jesus said I will build my church…) Matthew 16:18

So as neither he planting is anything, nor he watering, but God making to grow.

So he planting and he watering are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor.

For we are fellow workers of God, a field of God, and you are a building of God.

According to God’s grace given to me, as a wise master builder, I laid a foundation, but another builds on it . But let each one be careful how he builds.

For no one is able to lay any other foundation beside the One having been laid, who is Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 3:22

whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours,

1 Corinthians 3:23

and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.

Comment– The foundation, The Rock, being built upon is Jesus Christ. The work and person, His atoning shed blood 🩸 and His imputed righteousness that ensured the salvation of His promised people who receive this gift by Grace through God given faith. That is what the church is being built upon.

2 Peter 3:15

And think of the long-suffering of our Lord as salvation, as also our beloved brother Paul wrote to you, according to the wisdom given to him;

2 Peter 3:16

as also in all his epistles, speaking in them concerning these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the unlearned and unsettled pervert, as also they do the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.

Galatians 2:11-14

But when Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was to be blamed.

For before some came from James, he ate with the nations. But when they came, he drew back and separated himself, being afraid of those of the circumcision.

And also the rest of the Jews dissembled with him, so as even Barnabas was led away with their dissembling.

But when I saw that they did not walk uprightly with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter before all, If you being a Jew, live as a non-Jew and not as the Jews, why do you compel the nations to Judaize?

Comment – There is no indication that Peter was over Paul as The Roman Catholic Church would have you believe. Consider the above verses in addition to the verses where the apostle Paul had to rebuke Peter and the verses where Jesus says none of the Apostles are to rule over another.

Matthew 20:25-26

But having called them, Jesus said, You know that the rulers of the nations exercise lordship over them, and the great ones exercise authority over them.

But it will not be so among you. But whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant.

In fact, there is no scriptural evidence for Peter filling the position claimed by the Roman Catholic Church It should be clear that Peter is not the foundation; but Jesus Christ and His Gospel that the church will be built on top of.

Galatians 2:11-21

Highlights and italics added for emphasis

Scripture- Literal Translation 1993 Jay P Green