Personal Encounter of the Jesus Kind

Announcer:

This is Today With Derek Prince. The internationally recognized Bible teacher and author presents to you Keys to Successful Living.

In yesterday’s message Derek Prince began his series Laying the Foundation by outlining the importance of having the only foundation, Jesus Christ. As he continues this week’s message entitled ‘Founded On The Rock’ Derek gives us a check list to ensure that we are truly on a solid foundation through a personal encounter with Christ. Let’s join Derek once again as he continues his message Be sure to stay tune at the end of today’s broadcast for our address and this week’s special offer.

Derek Prince:

“In verses 13 and following Jesus is talking to His disciples and it says:
When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, ‘Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?’ So they said, ‘Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’
Then He makes it very personal.
But He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ And Simon Peter answered and said, ‘You are the Christ [the Messiah] the Son of the living God.’
That was a crucial moment in the life of Peter and in the whole history of Christianity.
‘You are the Christ [the Messiah], the Son of the living God.’ And Jesus responded, ‘Blessed are you, Simon Bar Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my Father who is in heaven. And I say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.’”

So Jesus uses this encounter with Peter to establish the way in which we can lay a foundation in Jesus Christ Himself.

First of all, I need to comment on some of the words that are used. In verse 18 Jesus says, ‘You are Peter,’ and the Greek is petros, ‘and on this rock,’ the Greek is petra, ‘I will build my church.’ It has often been suggested that Peter is the foundation of the church. I’d have to say if it were so it would be a very wobbly building, because a little later Jesus rebukes him and says, ‘Get behind me, Satan.’ Later still, he denied the Lord three times. And even after the resurrection Paul had to rebuke him for compromising with the truth of the gospel for fear of his fellow Jews. So, I’m just grateful that the church is not built on Peter, nor am I.

What actually emerges from this passage, which is very clear in the Greek testament, which is the original version that we have, ‘You are Peter [petros] and on this rock [petra] I will build my church.’ Now, petros in Greek means a stone or at the most a boulder, nothing bigger than that. Normally it would be the kind of stone that people would take up to stone someone with. On the other hand, petra means a jagged rock that extends from the bedrock. It’s often used of a cliff or something on that scale. But the important thing to remember is it is part of the bedrock. What is the bedrock? It’s just what Peter had been going through, the recognition of Jesus for who He is, revealed only by the Holy Spirit. No one can know Jesus, who He really is, unless God the Father by the Holy Spirit reveals Him to you.

And so this is the petra, it’s the bedrock on which our Christian faith must be based. It’s a personal encounter and a personal revelation of Jesus not as the carpenter’s son, not as a historical figure but as the eternal, uncreated Son of God. That’s where we have to come if we are going to build on that rock. The experience through which Peter passed must be parallel in our experience.

I’ve told people many times, you can join a church, you can go through a religious ceremony, you can say a prayer and not be changed. But if you really encounter Jesus you will be changed. No one encounters Jesus and remains the same. So, each of us needs to ask, ‘Have I ever had this life changing personal encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ?’

I would like to suggest to you four successive phases through which Peter passed in this encounter. First of all, confrontation. Jesus and Peter met face to face. There was no mediator, no priest, no one in between them. It was a direct, personal confrontation of Jesus. And that’s what we have to come to. Jesus said in another place, ‘I am the door. By me if any man enters in, he will be saved.’ There’s only one way into the kingdom of God, that is through the door. The door is not a church, it’s not a doctrine, it’s Jesus. ‘I am the door.’

Secondly, the confrontation was followed by a revelation, a revelation granted by God the Father through the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, ‘Flesh and blood has not shown you this.’ You cannot arrive at it by your natural senses, there has to be a revelation. Again, this is essential. No one can know Jesus as He truly is in His eternal Sonship of God without a personal revelation. You can study theology, you can go to a Bible college, you can even become a minister. But, without this personal revelation of Jesus you cannot know Him. This revelation comes from God the Father through Jesus Christ the Son.

Let me ask you, don’t respond, but have you had that personal encounter with Jesus? I have. More than 50 years ago in the middle of the night in an Army barrack room in World War II, I encountered Jesus. I didn’t have any doctrinal knowledge, I didn’t have any evangelical language, I couldn’t say I was saved or born again, I learned all that later. But I want to tell you, I was changed—radically and permanently changed. I wasn’t made perfect. In fact, let me confess to you I’m still not perfect, but I was changed, for the better.

Then there has to be an acknowledgment of what the Holy Spirit shows us. We have to say, ‘Yes, I believe. I receive.’ We have to make some kind of response. It’s not automatic, it requires something happening in us.

And fourthly, there has to be a public confession of our faith in Jesus. That’s what Jesus brought Peter to, ‘You are the Christ, the Messiah.’ He made it publicly. People speak about secret believers and I acknowledge there are secret believers, especially in countries where to acknowledge yourself as a believer would be to be put to death. But I don’t think anybody can permanently remain a secret believer. Let me read to you what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 10:32–33. Matthew 10:32 and 33.

“Therefore, whoever confesses me before men, him I will also confess before my Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies me before men, him I will also deny before my Father who is in heaven.”

So Jesus in His characteristic way doesn’t leave you three choices, only two. You either confess or you deny. And if you fail to confess in an appropriate situation, you are in effect denying. So, each one of us at some point has to come to the place where we openly acknowledge our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a critical moment for many.

I discovered in the army after I had become a believer that the best thing to do was to let everybody know the first moment you met them where you stand. Then you never have to go back and say, ‘Well, I didn’t really tell you at the first, but . . .’ So, I did something which is not a religious act but every night in the barrack room, wherever I was, I would kneel down at my bed and pray. That just told them that’s the kind of person you’re dealing with. It was much easier. I saw other Christians who waffled and didn’t come right out with saying what they believed and it was much harder for them to go back afterwards and make the right confession. So, I want to recommend that to you. You don’t have to stand on the street corner and preach, you don’t have to be a preacher. You can be a housewife, you can be a student. But wherever you are, let people know you believe in Jesus, He’s the Son of God.

So let me just recapitulate those four successive phases of this encounter which is so basic because this is how we lay the foundation of Jesus in our lives personally.

“First of all, there was a confrontation.
Second, there was a revelation granted by God the Father through the Holy Spirit. Third, Peter responded with an acknowledgment.
And fourth, he made a public confession.”

Now you might ask, and people could ask, ‘Is such a revelation possible today?’ Is it possible for people like you and me to know Jesus just as really and just as personally as Peter did and as the other disciples did? We need to see two important things. First of all, Jesus was not revealed to Peter as the son of the carpenter. He’d known Him that way for quite a while. He was revealed to him as the eternal Son of God. And the Scripture says in Hebrews 13:8:

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.”

There has been no change in Him, there never will be. So, it’s not a question of language or culture or clothing, but it’s a question of the eternal person of Jesus. That’s what Peter encountered maybe for the first time in his life. He really had a revelation who Jesus is.

Announcer:

Join us again tomorrow as Derek Prince continues his message ‘Founded On the Rock.’ He’ll give you two ways to build on your foundation in Christ and suggest several obstacles that first need to be dug out of the way in order to get to the bedrock.

This week’s message is available on audiocassette No. RC4160, and also on video. Our special offer this week is Derek’s book If You Want God’s Best, which explains the importance of listening to and obeying God’s word. To obtain your copy of ‘Founded On the Rock’ write today and include a contribution of $5.00 or more for the audio cassette RC4160 or $14.95 for the video. And please include a gift of any amount for the book If You Want God’s Best.

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