Matthew 16.18 NLT




'Now I say to you that you are Peter (which means ‘rock’), and upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it.'
Peter is a fascinating character. We know little about most of the disciples, but that’s not true of Peter who we get to know extremely well. Time and again he is the one who speaks first and on many occasions he gets things seriously wrong. It was Peter who
tried to walk on water on the Sea of Galilee and sank, and he who denied ever knowing Jesus on three occasions. We wouldn’t have been surprised if Jesus had compared him with jelly, but instead Jesus declares that, just like his name, he is a rock. Having declared the true nature of Jesus’ identity as the Son of God, he declared Peter to be the rock on which the church would be based and that not even the powers of hell would be able to conquer it.
And the wonderful fact is that that is precisely what happened. Peter became the leader of the church in Jerusalem and played a pivotal role in establishing the early church.
The story of Peter should give us all encouragement. Peter was very far from perfect, but God used him to play a crucial part in the foundation of the church. If you were appointing a key strategic leader for the early church you might well have passed over Peter in favour of someone with a steadier track record. But not Jesus. This was his chosen leader and so only a few weeks after his horrifying denials of ever having known Jesus, we find him boldly preaching to thousands of people on the day of Pentecost. And in the years that followed we find him leading the Jerusalem church with enormous faith and boldness in the face of constant pressure and violent persecution.


When we look at ourselves we will all see something that is far short of perfection. We are only too aware of our shortcomings and failures, and at times we wonder whether God could ever make use of us. The story of Peter tells us that we need wonder no longer. Amazingly, God is willing to work even through us and use us to work for him and to build his church.




Question: What personal encouragement do you get from the story of Peter?
Prayer: Loving God, thank you that you are able to work in my life even though I have often let you down. Amen

Released on 25 Mar 2022