From Shifting Sand to Solid Rock [Part 2]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright.

When Peter says, this one thing I now know, you are the Messiah, the Son of the living God, and that's where Jesus gets excited and says, this is what I'll build my church on, anybody who sees who I am, because the Church of Jesus Christ is not built upon what you do for Jesus, it's built upon what Jesus has done for you. That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Britt, excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series, Life of Peter, as presented at Reynolda Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire broadcast, I want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. It can be yours for your donation this month to Alan Wright Ministries. So as you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you this special offer available today. Contact us at PastorAlan.org. That's PastorAlan.org.

Or call 877-544-4860. More on this later in the program. But now, let's get started with today's teaching.

Here is Alan Wright. Real change, I mean real change, takes place in your life when you know who you are. It doesn't just inspire you to change, it changes you.

It does. If we do every Christmas, we all hunker down one night, snug it up on the couch, and show the timeless it's a wonderful life. Just at the end of it, everybody's crying. I'm looking over there at my 21-year-old boy. I'm like, what's that coming out of your eyes over there, son? We're all just sitting there, you know, because it's just so touching. You don't know the story.

It's a wonderful life. George Bailey knew what he was going to do when he was a young boy. He knew what he was going to do. He was going to shake the dust off his feet, get out of that crummy old town of Bedford Falls, and he was going to see the world.

He had his suitcase packed and ready to go. It was nothing for him in Bedford Falls. He sure didn't want to run that shabby old savings and loan. He wanted to get away from that town where old cruel Potter had taken over everything, owned all the stores, almost all the real estate, and all the banks except for the savings and loan. George Bailey was going to get out of there. One reason or another, he never could leave.

His father died and they asked him to take over the savings and loan. He said, well, he'd do it for a little while until his brother could come home and take it over. But then his brother came home, got married, and went off to a high paying job in another state. And George Bailey once again was stuck in Bedford Falls.

And then he thought, well, he'll get out of all of this. But then his brother goes off to war. There's all kinds of reasons that keep him there in Bedford Falls.

And George Bailey, we can all see it by looking at him, is one of the most remarkable men. He's married to the love of his life. He's got these beautiful kids. They're in this old house that they're trying to renovate over time. But he always wants to get away from there.

That's his dream. And then there's this scandal. His uncle, who works for him in the savings and loan, loses the big deposit for the day. And actually it's fallen into the hands of cruel old Mr. Potter.

And so it is that they're going to have a scandal and probably George Bailey is going to go to prison because they can't give people their money back and have deposits with them at the savings and loan. And on a cold rainy night, he just can't take it anymore. It comes to his end. And everything in his life seems like it's just cursed. He's mad at his kids, frustrated with his old house, just thinks he'd be better off dead than alive.

At least he has an old insurance policy. And he's ready to throw himself off of a bridge. Except God sends Clarence the angel to come save him.

He's kind of a pudgy little angel that doesn't have his wings yet. And how does Clarence save George Bailey? Does he come down and tell George, George, listen, you've got plenty to live for.

Buck up, son. Does he come down and say, George, no, you can make it. It's going to be all right.

Quit worrying so much. No, he's got to find a way to save George Bailey. So Clarence himself dives into the freezing water because he knows George is always helping.

People will jump in to save him. And he says, you feel like your life would have been better if it never even existed. He said, I want to let you see what Bedford Falls and the world would be like if there were no George Bailey. So he gets a glimpse of what it would have been like. Nobody recognizes him because he never existed. His brother died when he was young because actually George Bailey had saved him from drowning in an icy pond when he was a boy.

And all the people that his brother had saved in the war in battle and gotten in the Medal of Honor, all those men would have died because his brother wouldn't have been there. And on and on it goes until he sees that his life, though stuck in Bedford Falls, has been a life of extraordinary blessing to so many people. And he sees that the things that matter most to him, he already had right there in Bedford Falls. And when he finally is allowed to come back into his real life and the circumstances haven't changed, but he is so excited. Now the kids he was so frustrated with, he can't wait to hug. Now that old crummy old house he's been renovating, you know, that knob on the stairwell, the rail that he comes up, he hates it all the time because it falls off. He sees it and he kisses it.

Loves the old house, old dusty old musty house, walks by old crummy old savings and loan and it's a blessing to him. And he's like, I'm probably going to prison, but it doesn't matter. It's a, it's a wonderful, it's a wonderful life. And then finally all the friends that he's been blessing all his life, they come in, they, they save the day, they contribute their money and George Bailey's brother lifts the toast to George Bailey, the richest man I know. And that's where you cry because, because it's a beautiful thing for somebody to discover who he really is.

And my point is this, is that when George Bailey discovers who he is, that discovery changes him. Nobody has to say, you ought to be happier. You ought to be more thankful. He just simply got a revelation of who he really is. This is what Jesus is doing for Peter. And this is what God wants to do for you, to let you know who you really are. So he's looking at Peter and he says, Peter, you are a rock. This unstable man. He said, that's not what I see in you.

I see a rock. Now in this, he is linking the confession of faith in Jesus Christ as the Messiah, the son of the living God to Peter. What he's saying is it's not, it's not, it's not Peter, the unstable guy. It's not the Peter who sinks in the water and denies me.

That's not what I'm building my church on. He's saying, but I'm building my church on this, this, this man with his confession of faith and anyone who is like him, this is what's going to build the unstoppable church of God. And there were so many moments in Peter's life that Jesus could have paused and, and, and said, this is what I'm going to build my church on, but he sure didn't, except for this confession of faith.

I mean, think about it. When, when Peter, when Peter steps out on the water and he walks a few steps, that was pretty remarkable. And, but Jesus didn't say, wow, what faith that's amazing.

You walked on water and you're just a human being. He said, this is the kind of faith I'll build my church on. He doesn't, he doesn't say that. And when Peter comes to and says, though, all will fall away.

I never will fall away. Jesus doesn't go, wow, what commitment I'll build my church on this kind of commitment right here. And when people that is sorted lops off a soldier's ear, trying to defend Jesus when he was being arrested and Jesus doesn't say, wow, such loyalty. This is the kind of loyalty I'll build my church on. Why does Jesus say that never say about any of those things?

Because those things were about Peter. But when Peter says this one thing, I now know you are the Messiah, the son of the living God. And that's where Jesus gets excited and said, this is what I'll build my church on anybody who sees who I am because the church of Jesus Christ is not built upon what you do for Jesus. It's built upon what Jesus has done for you.

You're a rock. When you have seen Christ, there's something that comes of strength into your life that is transcendent and glorious. And he says to him, the gates of hell will not prevail against this.

It's an interesting image because gates, we normally would think of something that you storm and so gates are there to protect something from coming in. But in this particular image, what Jesus is referencing is a phrase, the gates of Hades is often a phrase that's used to speak of death, the place of death. So what Jesus is saying is something here that is probably larger than just saying that hell's powers won't triumph against you. But it is saying that you will live your life in Christ in such a way that the surging of hell and fear and death will not be able to prosper against you. That in other words, he's saying you are a victor because you in Christ overcome sin and fear and death itself. And so it is that he is announcing to Peter who will fail and is very frail and unstable and the natural that he sees what absolutely comes to pass in Peter's life is that he becomes victorious in Christ.

I want you to hear God saying that to this year that you are a living stone in the unstoppable church of God. So in Christ, you're a rock and that makes you a victor against whom the gates of hell can never ever prevail. It doesn't mean that we're not going to go through adversities. It doesn't mean that we're not going to face difficult things. But it means that there is no way that the powers of hell and the fear of death will ever hold you back from the destiny that God has given to you. It's really important to know that.

That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. Ever feel like the pressure's always on? Do you find it hard to say no, worried that you'll disappoint someone? The Bible tells us only one thing about Adam and Eve's relationship in paradise. They were naked and felt no shame. But as soon as sin entered the world, they became anxious, plagued with a gnawing question. What must I do to be accepted? There is only one solution, the grace of God that lifts our shame. In a new six-week video masterclass, Pastor Alan exposes the dynamics of shame and shows the path to freedom. Whether as an individual or in a small group, the video series is sure to bring healing and hope. When you make your gift to Alan Wright Ministries this month, we'll send you the digital masterclass videos and study guides as our way of saying thanks for your partnership.

In a world so quick to say shame on you, it's time to let God's grace take the shame off you. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860. That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org.

Today's teaching now continues. Here once again is Alan Wright. Along with this, he says, I give you the keys of the kingdom.

Really? You're going to give the keys of the kingdom to Peter? Yeah, the keys that open up heaven's doors.

I was reading this week of a pastor who said his first job as an associate pastor. And when he took the job and came in the first day, they gave him a key to the church, a key to his office, a key to the church office, and a key to the Sunday school rooms. So he had four keys. Well, one day he needed to go get into a storage pantry or something. And so he asked the secretary, he said, how do I get that? Where's that key? And she said, oh, you need to see Lewis. He was the property and grounds guy.

Been there forever. So he went to Lewis and said, Lewis, how do I get into other rooms? And he said, well, he said, I tell you what, he said, are you having to carry around a bunch of keys? He said, all the keys of the church are in the church office, in the desk, such and such, in the top right-hand drawer.

You can get it right there. So he goes back and goes in the church office. He opens that drawer. He buys it.

And sure enough, there's a big, big ring of 75 keys, all of them marked with exactly where they go. And this associate pastor laughs. He turns to the secretary and said, well, he said, this isn't very secure. He says, anybody can just waltz right in here, get a key to anything they want to. And she said, well, you just talk to Lewis.

And she smiled. So he goes off to go get in the pantry or whatever. And it's a key that says pantry or whatever. And he works it, works it, and it won't open. And he's like, this key doesn't work. So then he takes the key to the youth room. And he goes there and tries it. And it won't work. He tries several of these.

It works, it works. And finally he comes back to the secretary and says, none of these keys work. She said, see, Lewis. And so he goes and sees Lewis.

And Lewis says, well, now that you're on board, I'll just go ahead and tell you. All those keys are mislabeled. And only 15 of those keys actually open anything.

All the rest of them are decoys. Let me tell you, the youth key actually is to the pantry. And the pantry key actually fits the parlor.

And he started going. He said, here's the code of how they all fit on the thing. And then Sergeant Fashner made a great point. He said, evidently to get into these rooms, you not only have to have the keys, you need to know the one who made the keys. To say to Peter, you're being given the keys is not to say you're going to have special spiritual insights that are going to be like moralisms that are going to be little keys that open up a better life for you. It stands in contrast to Matthew 23, where Jesus says to the Pharisees, you shut the kingdom of God in men's faces.

It's a really strong statement. But what he was saying was when you bring your legalism and you bring your religiosity and your hypocrisy, and this is what you give to the people that want to come and experience the kingdom of heaven and the treasures of God, you're literally shutting the kingdom in their face when you're announcing that their religion is just this list of rules for them to keep. So in contrast to those that shut the gates, he's saying to Peter, I give you the keys that are going to open up heaven's doors.

I give to you the grace of God. That's who Peter becomes, a recipient of the gift of grace. He received what he never could have earned. So he becomes a key bearer. And finally he says to him that not only do I give you these keys, but he announces to him an authority that must have completely, completely strained Peter's imagination.

This has been written about a lot. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound, whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. What does this really mean when he says this to Peter? It's not so much limited to what we often talk about, the binding and loosing of demonic powers.

It's not just about the spiritual battle, although it may incorporate that. But one thing is very clear about what this is addressing, and Peter would have known this, and any Jewish man in the first century would have known this. This was an idiom. This was a figure of speech that was used in connection with the rabbis.

And this is how it was used. A rabbi was responsible for interpreting law for people to follow. So you had all these laws in the Old Testament, but you take a law, something like Sabbath. Well, if you're supposed to not work on the Sabbath day, then there become a thousand questions attached to that. What does it mean to work? If I'm cold, can I make a fire?

If my ox has fallen into a ditch, can I get the ox out? What things am I bound to keep on the Sabbath day, and what things am I not bound to keep? Now, that's an oversimplification of it, but because of this, there was all of this mid-ration, all of this discussion about the law, and the rabbis, therefore, were the ones who were known to be able to bind or loose according to the laws. You would see the rabbi, am I bound by this? And the rabbi might say, yeah, you're bound by such and such law in such and such way.

Or he might say, no, you're loosed from that. And so if the rabbi said you're loosed from that, then you wouldn't be breaking the law because he had given his interpretation of what was right or wrong in that situation. And that's really what Jesus is referencing here. And he is saying to Peter, you, in understanding what you are now going to be put into the position of what formerly was only an authority given to the rabbi. And the language here, most scholars agree, really should be translated this way.

The tent should read this way. Whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.

What is he saying to Peter? He's not just saying that you're going to have a spiritual authority and the spiritual battle, although that is included in this. But what he's going to say is, Peter, in this new covenant, you are going to be an authorized representative of God on earth and the spirit of God, my own spirit, Jesus is saying, is going to live inside of you and fulfillment of Jeremiah 31, wherein the prophet had prophesied that the day is coming and which will be a new covenant, not like the old, not when people will say, know the Lord and each say to his neighbor, do you know the Lord? But instead, my word, my law will be put inside their hearts, that there will be something that happens on the inside of you, that you will be led in a different way.

Instead of by an external code, there will be a way in which the law comes inside of you. This goes far to explain John's intriguing words in the first epistle of John, in the second chapter, when he says something very strange, he says, you don't need a teacher because you have an anointing. Is he saying we don't need teachers? Of course not, because we know there's a spiritual gift of teaching.

We know that John himself was actually writing the letter to teach. What was he saying? He's saying you don't need any longer a rabbi to bind you and lose you. You have something greater. You have the spirit of the living God inside of you. And as you continually grow up in the Lord, here's what happens is what you, led by the spirit know is the right thing to do, will have already been bound in heaven. And the very thing that you know that you're loosed from is already loosed in heaven.

In other words, he was saying to Peter something so incredible as my representative on this earth, you are the body of Christ and you're given the mind of Christ. And so your life will ever increasingly match up to the life and the will of God. It's something that's like, wow, the thing that used to feel like you had to always go to the rabbi, try to figure out, I said, no, you're going to be led by God. And your life increasingly will be whatever you say, it's going to be consistent with what God's already said.

And that's where the power and the spiritual life comes. It was an extraordinary moment at Caesarea Philippi. It was just a revelation that came to Peter. He saw what flesh and blood can't see. You're Jesus and you are the Messiah, the son of the living God. And Jesus just smiled. He said, oh, what a blessing.

Flesh and blood did not reveal this to you. Blessed are you, Simon Barjona. Blessed are you.

You are a rock. Beloved, you're a living stone in God's unstoppable church. It means you're a victor and the gates of hell cannot prevail against you. You also are a key bearer filled with the grace of God that opens heaven's doors. And you are a representative of God, bold with spiritual authority on the earth. That's who you are. And that's the gospel.

Alan Wright, today's teaching from Shifting Sand to Solid Rock. And I find inspiration in that message. Stay with us. Alan will be back here in a moment with additional insight on this for your life and a final word in this series, The Life of Peter. Ever feel like the pressure's always on?

Do you find it hard to say no, worried that you'll disappoint someone? The Bible tells us only one thing about Adam and Eve's relationship in paradise. They were naked and felt no shame. But as soon as sin entered the world, they became anxious, plagued with a gnawing question. What must I do to be accepted? There is only one solution, the grace of God that lifts our shame. In a new six-week video masterclass, Master Alan exposes the dynamics of shame and shows the path to freedom. Whether as an individual or in a small group, the video series is sure to bring healing and hope. When you make your gift to Alan Wright Ministries this month, we'll send you the digital masterclass videos and study guides as our way of saying thanks for your partnership.

In a world so quick to say shame on you, it's time to let God's grace take the shame off you. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. Alan, it's just like the message title of today's teaching says from shifting sand to solid rock. We saw that transformation in Peter and for someone listening right now that feels like the shifting sand part of this equation. There is some assurance in knowing our identity in Christ now. Well, what Peter receives from Jesus here is really blessing. That's what we call the power of blessing, where Jesus is speaking a vision of who Peter really is destined to be, even though his life doesn't show it yet. And that's what I just want the listeners to hear right now.

Just if you have that sense or you're struggling, I feel like my life's nothing but shifting sand and I've been unreliable. I just think that it's so important for you to hear the words of Jesus. Him telling you who you really are. And once you're in Christ, you accept Him. You're engrafted into this body, which He gives this image, Daniel.

It's like living stones. And so in a very real sense, God says to every one of us in Christ, you are a rock. If you only caught part of today's teaching, not only can you listen again online, but also get a daily email devotional that matches today's teaching, delivered right to your email inbox, free. Find out more about these and other resources at pastorallen.org. That's pastorallen.org. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Allen Wright Ministries.