Monday, January 25th, 2010

Finding Rock-solid Security

One of the longest running ad campaigns in history was the Chevy truck commercials that featured the song “Like a Rock.”

… I was strong as I could be
Like a rock, nothin’ ever got to me
Like a rock, I was something to see
Like a rock

Some of you this morning may feel that way.

• Maybe you’re young. Maybe you have energy. You feel as strong as you could be. Maybe you look like a rock.
• Maybe you’re financially set. You have all you need and plenty in the bank. And everything is insured. You feel like you’re on a solid foundation.
• Maybe you feel like a rock in your ethics. Verse 4 of the song, talks about feeling morally upright.

I stood arrow straight. Unencumbered by the weight of all these hustlers and their schemes.

I stood proud, I stood tall. High above it all. I still believed in my dreams.

This is how Peter felt.

Jesus was the One who nicknamed Simon as Petra, “Rock.”

When Peter confessed Christ as Messiah, Jesus said “You’re Peter and upon this rock I will build my church.”

And if we could visualize Peter, from what the Bible tells us about his occupation and personality, we’d probably picture him as a rock.

This guy was a rough, tough, muscular man who made his living out under the beating sun, rowing massive oars, casting nets and muscling in hundreds of pounds of fish.

Peter was a man’s man. He seemed like a rock physically.

And emotionally too. Peter never seems afraid to jump into anything. To speak his mind, to challenge others, to take the lead, even to walk on water.

And some of you may say “I can sympathize. I’m strong-willed, a natural leader, a type-A personality. I have a big mouth just like Peter.

Others of you may feel anything, but rock-solid this morning.

• Maybe you’re body type is more like a marshmallow.
• Maybe you’re an emotional wreck.
• Maybe you’re very insecure.

• Maybe you’ve just lost your job.
• Or your health and your income are on shaky ground.
  • Even late show host’s jobs are insecure these days.
• Maybe you’ve just lost a loved one.

Maybe you say, “Well, I used to feel like a rock, but not recently.” The 5^th verse of the song says

Twenty years now
Where’d they go?
Twenty years
I don’t know
Sit and I wonder sometimes
Where they’ve gone

Though there are some in this room who feel like a million bucks, like they’re on top of the world, who feel like a rock.

Others of us feel very unstable. Very indecisive. Very shaky.

Today’s message is for both categories. Those who are seeking security and those who think they already have it.

In verses 53-54, we see the contrast between two men who were referred to as rocks in the Bible. Peter (we already looked at why he was called a rock) and Jesus who in 1 Corinthians 10:4 is called “that spiritual Rock…that Rock was Christ”

Verses 53-54 introduce the scenes of two simultaneous trials.

⁵³ And they led Jesus away to the high priest: and with him were assembled all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes.

⁵⁴ And Peter followed him afar off, even into the palace of the high priest: and he sat with the servants, and warmed himself at the fire.

One rock would stand secure. The other would crumble.