Sermon preached at Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church by Pr. Benjamin Tomczak.

"In our Gospel, after Peter makes his faithful confession, “You are the Christ,” Jesus said, “Blessed are you…for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.” In other words, Peter, like Paul, didn’t invent this or come up with this. He didn’t lay the foundation. God did. God laid down the rock, the 'petra,' not 'Petrus,' which is the nickname Jesus gave to Peter. And that 'petra,' that rock, is no man, but the Word of God the Father gave Peter. It didn’t require a Reformation to know this. Many early church fathers knew it. A man named Hilary wrote, 'The building of the Church is upon this rock of confession.' Our Lutheran fathers saw the same truth and built upon the understanding many had in the first centuries. In one of our Lutheran confessions describing the power of the pope, we say, 'Certainly the Church has not been built upon the authority of a man. Rather it has been built upon the ministry of the confession Peter made.'"

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To listen: http://www.bethelwels.com/home/180012820/180012826/audio/ConPeter_2015.mp3