 Well, good morning everyone. It is a joy to be with you. I am thrilled to be back here in Steubenville. As Scott said, being here was a great joy and a blessing. And you heard Scott's not only been a great mentor and friend and really just an elder brother in the Lord, but he was also the best man at my wedding. And I met my wife here at Steubenville. So it's just such a joy to be here, to go down to the port and pray at that little chapel, and it just brings back a lot of great memories. So it's a joy to be here. I want to begin in prayer. That way, at least you can say he began well. So in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen. Gracious, loving Father in heaven, you have confirmed your prophetic word from of old, in Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord. Help us follow the light of that prophetic word with deeper faith, and allow us, Lord, by your grace and the gifts of the Spirit, to be your prophetic witnesses in a world darkened by error and falsehood. Help us to shine your light. And, Lord, to do that enlighten our minds by the grace of your Spirit in order to encendle in our hearts a deeper love for you. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. In the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, amen. Well, I love the topic that Scott put out for this conference on the prophetic word, and my talk right now is going to be Jesus as prophet. Now, I'm going to not, I'm going to talk about this Jesus as a prophet in a little bit different way than you've heard. We've heard a lot about Jesus as the object of prophecy, that is the Old Testament being fulfilled in Christ, in his life, in his words, in his deeds. But I'm going to now take us that next step and look at Jesus as a prophet. Jesus speaks prophecies that will be fulfilled outside of the New Testament. And we're going to look at Jesus as the subject of prophecy, that is, Jesus as prophet. And the prophecy I'm going to look at in particular, and there's many, but the one I want to focus on is his prophecy about Peter. Now, Christ, as Saint Augustine said, is the head of the church, but the church is the body. And so, prophecy relates to the head, that is Jesus Christ, but it also relates to the church, which is Jesus' body. And so, we're going to look at Peter and the church as the object of prophecy, both in the Old and in the New, and afterwards in the life of the church. And I think what that'll do is give us a sense that the church isn't simply something that follows after Jesus, but that the church follows from Jesus' divine will and mission. And that will be an important distinction, because today, many people think of the church as organized religion that's not that great, flawed with all kinds of sinners and scandals. And yet, the church, in spite of our sins, has a divine vocation and foundation. And that is what this prophetic word that I want to follow, this thread, illustrates and demonstrates, which will confirm our faith and show us and remind us, hopefully, of our divine vocation as the church. So I'm going to follow this theme of Jesus speaking about the sign of Jonah and how that's going to relate to Peter. But before I do that, I want to start with an Old Testament passage that talks about the importance of prophecy for faith, because there is a predictive element to prophecy, although it doesn't exhaust the meaning of prophecy. And that predictive element is unique, because as God will say through the prophet Isaiah, who can declare a thing before it happens, but God alone. And when we see prophecies spoken and fulfilled, only God can do that. Only God can do that. And so one of the themes throughout the second half of Isaiah, starting in Isaiah 40, verse 18 and following, is this theme of who is like the Lord God of Israel? The gods of the nations are no gods, they're idols, because what distinguishes the God of Israel from all other gods and idols, from all other wise men and women, is that God foretells an event before it even happens. And so I'll just pick up that thread in two passages now. One is from Isaiah 41, verse 26 and 27. And God says, who declared it from the beginning that we might know and before time that we might say he is right? There was none who declared it, none who proclaimed, none who heard your words, but I first have declared and declared it to Zion and I have given it to Jerusalem to be a herald of good tidings. So God declares what he is going to do beforehand, and who does he declare it to? Zion, Jerusalem, in other words the people of God, the church. And that's why the people of God is to be a herald of good tidings, basar in Hebrew, which means euangelion in Greek, good news, gospel, right? So the good news before it is an event is predicated and foretold by God. Now all journalists compete with one another to break a story. And the best news companies are those who have breaking news. Well guess what? You have to break the news after the news has happened, unless you're God. You kind of have the early scoop. And this is what God says over and over again in these early chapters in the 40s of Isaiah. And in chapter 42, verse 8 he says, I am the Lord, that is my name, my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to graven images. Behold, the former things have come to pass, and the new things I now declare. Before they spring forth, I tell you of them. I tell you of them. Now Saint Jerome said that Isaiah was the fifth gospel because it describes so detailed in such a precise and powerful way the life of Jesus Christ. It is striking to read the Word of Isaiah and to see the life of Jesus is to have your faith confirmed. But there's more. But this gives us the principles. Before something takes place, I, I declare it. Now I want to turn to Jesus as a prophet because Jesus as a prophet won't be simply like a prophet like Isaiah. Because Jesus himself will speak in the first person, predicting things. In other words, Jesus will take the voice of Yahweh. And just as Yahweh declared things beforehand in the Old Testament foretelling the new, Jesus himself in the New Testament will foretell and predict what will happen in the new covenant era in the life of the church. He will foretell. Now one of the things he foretells is the destruction of the temple. Which again seems impossible even to his disciples to foretell that the greatest building structure ever built is going to be cast down one stone upon another. And that happens exactly 40 years after Jesus predicts it. In 70 AD the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and the temple. Fulfillment. But there's another prophecy of Jesus that I think is even bigger and more audacious. And that is his prophecy about Peter. And to talk about that prophecy I want to take us to Matthew 16. And I'm going to take us to a couple passages that you've heard a lot. Peter gets the keys of the kingdom, but I'm not going to talk about the keys because you know about that story. I'm going to talk about a small thread that prophetically foretells Peter's destiny and the destiny of the Catholic Church. But let's start with the beginning of chapter 16 because the Pharisees and the Sadducees have gathered together and they've asked Jesus for a sign. Show us a sign that we may believe. And Jesus' response in verse 4 is rather stunning. A bit politically incorrect you might say. He says a sign an evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign. Ouch. Right? Wow. An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign shall be given this generation except the sign of Jonah. Now first off let's just reflect on what does it mean? I was always taken aback by an evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign. That always kind of arrests me because I like signs. Right? But reflecting on that, why is it that an evil and adulterous generation seeks a sign? Well first off, those who are adulterous are not pure in heart. And Jesus already earlier said in the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes in Matthew 5 that the pure in heart shall see God. And here they have show us a sign, but Jesus says you don't even read the signs of the times. In other words, this adulterous sinful generation doesn't see the signs that Jesus is manifesting. Why don't they see it? Because they're an adulterous generation. Because of their impurity they can't discern in the interior the movements of the Spirit and the voice of God. And so they're blind even to the external signs. They can't see in the external events the true meaning of what God the Father is doing in the life of Christ. So what sign can Jesus show them who are blinded by their impurity and their passions? By their sin. Sin blinds us. In fact, that's one of the major themes of Isaiah 40 through 45 is how Israel is blind and deaf because their hardness of heart. So how do we see and hear? How do we discern these signs? Well the one sign that will be irrefutable to these blind and deaf and hard-hearted folk will be the sign of Jonah. And Jesus here leaves the crowd. He goes into the boat with the disciples. And then later on in verse 13 he comes to Bethsaida and he heads up from Bethsaida up to Caesarea Philippi. And as he goes up the valley of the Hula Valley which goes from Bethsaida straight north to Caesarea Philippi. And this is in the district of Philip, the brother of Herod Antipater, the two sons, two of the surviving sons of Herod the Great. And as he goes up the Hula Valley there's a road that goes down that valley that follows the Jordan River. And they're following all the way up to the district of Caesarea Philippi where the Jordan River has its source. And as they're going up Jesus asks them a question. Who do people say the Son of Man is? And then you get the first Gallup poll on Jesus. Right? Some say a prophet. Some say John the Baptist come back from the dead. 15% undecided. Right? And of course the Gallup poll completely wrong. And then Jesus turns the question says who do you say that I am? And Peter pipes up and Peter says you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Now the meaning of Peter's answer struck me when I first went to Israel. And I had studied summer there at Hebrew University to take my couple of crash courses in Hebrew. And when I got up to Caesarea Philippi I was excited because I heard that there's a big rock and that there's a great abyss of a cave right where this happened. And when I got there being as Saint Jerome says in the fifth gospel opened my eyes in a way that study and reading passages about this couldn't do. Because I saw that there wasn't one rock but there was a cliff. And right along this cliff there was a cave, a small cave from which a spring came that was the font of the Jordan River. But that cave wasn't a great abyss. It went down about 10 feet. So I was like wow that was a little bit of a disappointment. But then I realized that in Jesus' day they wouldn't have seen the cave because there was a big building in front of the cave and that building is in ruins now but I had read about that town of Caesarea Philippi and the archaeology and I reflected on it and all of a sudden it dawned on me the significance of what Peter said because there was a big, big building there. In fact it was the pride of Philip's territory. Philip put on his coins after his second coin and his second coin that he meant it on all of his coins had the image of this building on every coin he did after his first. And what was that building? His father built it, Herod the Great. Because in 20 BC Caesar Augustus visited that territory and he gave that territory as a gift to Herod the Great. And Herod the Great was so grateful to his great Roman patron Caesar that he built a temple in honor of Caesar Augustus in Caesarea Philippi naming the town after Caesar as well. And there was this great temple and in the temple was a statue of the goddess Rome and Caesar Augustus. Two pagan statues, idols, to the Roman imperial cult. And of course the Roman imperial cult had started about seven years earlier in 27 BC when the Roman senate voted Caesar Augustus as Augustus and gave him the title Augustus which means one worthy of worship. Because he had taken the title Son of God because he got the Roman senate to vote that his uncle Julius was a god, his adopted father. And the Roman senate didn't think that Julius was a god but they said he's dead so what difference does it make? So they voted him a god. And Augustus who was the most savvy politician of the ancient world got the Roman senate to vote his adopted father a god and then after they did that he said well guess what that makes me? Son of God. And he took that title and he put it on his coins. Devephilius son of God. Temples then were erected in honor of him one of which was erected in Caesarea Philippi. Now Jesus takes his disciples up to the district of Caesarea Philippi and he asks the question who do you say that I am? And as they get to the district of Caesarea Philippi what would they see? It dawned on me standing there that the dominant building was the temple to Caesar Augustus. And what does Peter say looking at that temple standing in this district and in the city outskirts? What does Peter say? You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Now living God is interesting and I know from my studies that living is a modifier used in the Old Testament and used by Jews to show that the God of Israel is a true and living God unlike the idols that are carved and made of wood and stone and gold. They have eyes but they don't see, they have ears but they don't hear as Isaiah says, Isaiah 45 and 44. So the point is living is always a modifier for God when there's a contra distinction to pagan idols. So Peter uses the term living God, why? Because there's pagan idols at hand, idols that worship Caesar and the imperial cult that worship Caesar as a Son of God. And notice what Peter says, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God unlike Caesar who's the Son of a dead God. We, you are the Son of a living God, Rome and its emperor is the Son of a dead God. Wow, do you see the difference between a living God and a dead God between Jesus and Caesar? And Jesus, I believe, asked this question prophetically, not when he's down in Jerusalem, not when he's in Galilee but when he's up at Caesarea Philippi. That's when he asks the question to the disciples and Peter professes in the face of the Roman imperial cult that Jesus is the true Son of God, not Caesar. That is why Jesus asked the question there before the temple because Jesus knows prophetically the mission he's going to have for Peter, to send Peter ultimately to Rome, to send him to evangelize the Roman Empire where the fastest growing religion in the first century is the Roman imperial cult, the worship of Caesar as the Son of God. And he's going to send his disciples out and Peter to proclaim a different Lord and a different Son of God in the face of Rome. And Jesus knows that that will lead to persecution and hostility but here Peter makes the profession in the face of the imperial cult. That will be prophetic of Peter's destiny but there's more. And I want to look at the phrases that are used here. Of course Peter professes, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered him, blessed are you Simon Barjona for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my Father who is in heaven. Notice Peter's perception of who Jesus is comes interiorly from the Father. Peter has the purity of heart to see and hear God. Unlike the scribes and the Sadducees and the Pharisees at the beginning who look for outward signs but can't discern and hear the voice of the Father. Notice that Peter stands in contradiction to the leadership at the beginning of the chapter. Now notice by the way that Jesus said no sign would be given but the sign of Jonah and Matthew a master storyteller here leaves it open to what the sign of Jonah means but then just a little bit later in the story later in the chapter Jesus says to Peter, blessed are you Simon Barjona. Here we have the name Jonah again. What does that mean? Well I used to read this thinking that well Simon Barjona that Jonah was the name of Peter's father but I was wrong because we know from the Gospel of John the name of Peter's father and it's not Jonah. What's the Peter's father's name? It's John in the Gospel of John chapter 1 verse 42 when Jesus first meets Peter he says so you are Simon son of John. You will be called Caphos, Rock and the Aramaic and then later on in John 21 verse 15 Jesus at the charcoal fire after the resurrection Peter comes in from fishing and Jesus says to Peter, Simon son of John do you love me more than these and he says it again in verse 16 Simon son of John and he says it again in verse 17 Simon son of John so clearly the father of Peter is John and Jonah is not a shortened form of John. Yehanon when it's shortened is Yehanai so Jonah is not the shortened form and Jonah is an extraordinarily rare name for Jews believe it or not. Now there's the prophet Jonah but there's very few Jews named Jonah in fact you could go in the Old Testament era all we know is Jonah who's named Jonah and then if you look even up to 300 years from the first century all of Second Temple Judaism 300 years after Peter we don't know of a single Jewish male named Jonah the only Jews that we know named Jonah two of them are females because Jonah Jonah means dove in Hebrew and I guess a lot of Jewish men did not want to name their their sons dove so Jonah is an extraordinary rare name and so when and notice what we get in the gospel of Matthew in the Greek it preserves the original phrasing of Peter in the Aramaic or of the words of Jesus to Peter in Aramaic blessed are you Simon bar which is the Aramaic word for son Simon bar Jonah bar Jonah why bar Jonah son of Jonah because Peter will be a son of Jonah now we know that the sign of Jonah relates to Jesus because in Matthew 12 Jesus said a greater than Jonah is here referring to himself so Jesus is the new Jonah but guess what Peter gets associated closely with Jesus the church is always close to Christ so Jesus will be the new Jonah but Peter and the church will be the bar Jonah the son of Jonah what does that mean bar Jonah well let's think about that when we know that Jesus as he says and other times will be like the like Jonah was in the belly of the well for three days and three nights the belly of the fish so will the son of man be in the belly of the earth for three days and three nights and rise referring to the resurrection but there's more to the story of Jonah and this is where Peter comes in Peter will compliment and fit Jesus is the head the church is the body together there's the fullness of the picture as Augustine says now Jonah was a prophet sent by God to Nineveh the capital of the enemy of Israel and Jonah was a prophet from Galilee which is interesting and unique now later on in John chapter 7 I think it's around verse 42 the Pharisees say how could Jesus be a prophet no prophet has arisen out of Galilee actually there was Jonah so they don't know their Bible very well so Peter is from Galilee like Jonah and Jesus is calling Peter to a prophetic mission he will be a bar Jonah a disciple in the spirit of the prophet Jonah and Jonah sent to Nineveh and Nineveh is the capital the enemy of Israel and God says I want you to preach repentance unless I destroy them and Jonah thinks about this okay that's our enemy God's going to destroy him unless I preach I think I'm going to go in a different direction so Peter heads off the opposite direction of Nineveh which is to the east he heads west and he goes to a town called what Joppa where he gets a boat and he heads west as far west as he can in the Mediterranean to get as fast and as far as possible away from Nineveh now that's interesting because that's the only time in the Old Testament that the town Joppa has mentioned but we find Joppa in the story of Acts and who's in Joppa in Acts 9 Peter the bar Jonah now you have to think about that so let's turn to Acts chapter 9 and see what happens there now there's two stories that happen first in Laita which is in the outskirts of Joppa where Peter heals a paralytic named Aeneas and he rises him up who could not walk which is an echo to the resurrection and then he goes to Joppa because a disciple who's famous for her acts of charity and her almsgiving has died and of course her name is Tabitha which or Dorcas and they call they asked Peter to come and Peter comes and her body has been washed and laid out in the upper room and then Peter goes up there and he sends everybody out Peter prays and what happens he says Tabitha rise and she opened her eyes and when she saw Peter she sat up and he gave her his hand and lifted her up then calling the saints in the widows he presented her alive and it became known throughout all of Joppa and many believed in the Lord and he stayed in Joppa for many days with Simon a tanner so notice we get resurrection which is a theme of Jonah Jonah three days in the belly of the well will be a sign of Jesus's resurrection Peter as a bar Jonah now is showing the sign of Jesus by raising up the paralytic but even more than that raising up the dead woman Dorcas right so we see resurrection and rising and then the next story in chapter 12 chapter 12 well actually chapter 10 I want to start with chapter 10 we're at Caesarea Meritima another city on the coast where Herod the great built a temple to Caesar Augustus on the seaport and there there's a Roman centurion Cornelius who's known for his almsgiving and his prayers he's a godfarer he believes in Judaism even though he's a Gentile and he's stationed there at Caesarea and Cornelius is praying and an angel appears to him and says go send to Joppa for one Simon Peter who's staying at the house of a man named Simon the tanner send for him so Cornelius sends a couple of his soldiers down to Joppa so then by the end of the next day Peter is there and in the midst of the story of Cornelius we have a vision that Peter has as he's in Joppa and Peter has this vision of a great sheet and in that sheet are all these unclean animals for Jews and he hears a voice from heaven saying kill and eat in other words eat uncosher food and Peter says Lord I've never eaten uncosher food before and then God has to say it again slaughter and eat and Peter says again no no I I've never eaten anything uncosher in my life and then God has to say it a third time Peter's a little thick now the word for sheet by the way Othone in the Greek means a sale now that's significant because that's a hint because Peter's having this vision of Gentiles being made clean by Christ's death and resurrection in Joppa the very place where Jonah took a ship with Gentiles in a boat heading west and Jonah's prophetic mission was not to Israel but to the Gentiles and not just to any Gentiles but to the enemy the very enemy of Israel and there there's a sheet a ship sail with all this unclean food and Peter sees this vision and then at the end of the vision God says someone's coming at the door go with them and then all of a sudden there's a knock on the door there's Roman soldiers that would cause a bit of a panic and they're looking for Peter panic but Peter's calm because he's got the word from the Lord to go with them so Peter goes with them up to Caesarea to the household of Cornelius and the next day he's presented before Cornelius and Cornelius says you know I had this vision I was told to send for you and the Lord asked me to send for you so please tell us you have a word from the Lord a message and so Peter begins to preach and Peter says uh you know he's amazed by this and he says I perceive that God shows no partiality between Gentile and Jew now right and so uh he says in verse 34 of Acts 10 truly I perceive that God shows no partiality but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable you know the word which he sent to Israel preaching the good news of peace by Jesus Christ he is the Lord of all a title by the way used for Caesar notice Peter is unafraid to use the great acclaims of Caesar that show forth his divinity to claim divinity for Jesus he is the Lord of all the word which was proclaimed throughout all Judea beginning with Galilee and Peter gives him and he Peter gives him the whole story of Jesus and then they see that the spirit has fallen upon Cornelius in his household and Peter says can water be kept from baptizing them and so the first Gentiles are baptized the first Gentiles are baptized right there at the end of chapter 10 of Acts now in chapter 11 Peter goes back and tells the crowds in Jerusalem everyone's astonished that Gentiles are now going to be included in the people of God and baptized and received the Holy Spirit which is the prophetic promise to Israel that Israel's sons and daughters and Joel would prophesy and be given the gifts of the spirit but now we see that God's liberality knows no bounds the spirit will be given to the Gentiles as well now what's significant is in chapter 12 Peter gets arrested maybe this word of Gentiles really upsets the Jews so much that they go to Herod Agrippa the successor of Herod Antipater and Herod Agrippa arrests Peter and throws them in jail and the angel of the Lord comes at night as you know that story and even though there's many many soldiers even though Peter's chained to them they all fall asleep the angel takes Peter out they go to the house of John Mark where the community's gathered and they give thanks and praise and it's an exciting escape but they know Peter is hunted so then we're told in Acts 12 verse 7 that Peter goes to another place now it's odd that Luke who loves to tell you about geography and location throughout the story of Acts Luke is always saying and then they went from there to you know Joppa to Lida to you know back to Jerusalem he's always giving you geographical details I think Luke who was a physician and a scholar loved maps he's one of those map nerds right and he loved geography in place but here he doesn't tell us a place that's extraordinarily odd for Luke why doesn't he tell us where Peter went well Saint Jerome and the tradition all says there's a reason why he doesn't name the place because Peter's a wanted man and the place he goes to is Rome the capital that's where the tradition picks up so tradition picks up from Scripture that Peter goes to Rome but I would say I know I want to pick up with the tradition but I want to show that the tradition is rooted and confirmed by the word of God in the scriptures we have a couple clues that Peter goes to Rome in the scriptures for example in 1st Corinthians we're told that there's divisions and rivalry in Corinth in the church and Paul says look some are saying that they're from the party of Peter others are with the party of Paul but notice how could there be a party of Peter in Corinth well we know that some of the Christians in Corinth came from Rome when Claudius had an edict against the Jews and all Jews and Jewish Christians had to leave Rome in 49 AD and a couple of those Christians were Aquila and Priscilla they worked in Rome and then had to move to Corinth and so we know that there's this Peter party what does it mean the Peter party Priscilla and Aquila were probably baptized and evangelized by Peter so you have the group that belongs to Peter and it seems to belong with who is baptized by who seems to be part of the factions as as Paul describes it in 1st Corinthians chapter 1 verse 18 and following but there's other elements in Paul's letter to the Romans he mentions that he wants to go to Rome not to lay a foundation where another man has built reference to Peter being in Rome before him but he wants to go to Rome on his way to Spain to new mission ground right so in Romans 15 there seems to be a reference to Peter already being ahead of Paul in Rome but then let's take the Roman tradition in Rome there's a church that I love to go to when I do pilgrimage there that's built over a first century home where Peter lived in Rome according to tradition and it's the church of Santa Pudenziana now senator pudins was one of the hundreds of Roman senators at the time one of the 400 one of 400 Roman senators and the early Christian tradition says that pudins became a Christian and that he received Peter and he hosted Peter now when people go to Rome they always go to St. Peter's Basilica which is where Peter died he spent maybe an hour breathing there no one goes to the church where he lived it did his ministry in Rome which is Santa Pudenziana's which is just down the hill and a short walk from St. Mary majors now the fascinating thing about this church it's a gem a hidden gem you go in there and it has the oldest mosaic of any church in Rome that is not Byzantine mosaic but it's Roman ask mosaic dating to about 390 and the artists had been to the holy land because the artist in the mosaic shows all the churches of St Helena that she had built after the conversion of her son Constantine and it shows all these churches in the holy land but the more important thing it shows is all the disciples the 12 apostles in Roman senatorial togas because the church is built over the house of senator pudenz and you can do a scabby tour and see the ruins below now the fascinating thing about those ruins below is that they found a brick and they dated that brick to the first century all that brick of the foundation so it was a first century home of a wealthy roman and we know in the second century the roman baths of this estate were turned into a baptistry with ancient christian mosaics so we know in the early second century this was a christian hub of activity but they found a brick from the first century with a name pudenz and that was the custom when you built a house to put the name of the builder at the foundation and in the corner you would print that you would put the name and burn it into the brick and i've seen that brick and i've touched it with the name pudenz now i was giving a teaching there years ago and i had a great italian guide with me asked her who had a doctorate in art history and history and she had been a guide her whole life and i was describing this and she got him from my group she goes but this is just a tradition we don't really know if pudenz was a christian it's just a tradition and this is unfortunately how a lot of people now view tradition with great skepticism but i said no ester it's not just a tradition that pudenz was a christian and hosted peter we have a first century source that mentions pudenz as a christian she said no no no no no no i've i've studied here i got a doctorate i've guided here i know the pastor here there's no no there's there's no evidence that pudenz was a christian i said no no ester i i've got it with me i've got a first century source that mentions pudenz as a christian and she's like no way i said i opened up my bible to 2nd timothy chapter 4 verse 21 paul writing from roam in captivity sends a letter to timothy his right hand man is an emphasis and paul knows his end is at hand so he writes to timothy for him to come back to roam now timothy had been with paul earlier in roam and paul's first visit to roam but now at the end of his life with nero's persecution paul writes to timothy and he says make every effort to come before winter because he can't sail around greece in the winter in the Mediterranean it's too dangerous make every effort to come before winter and then he says and ubalus sends greetings to you as does pudenz and linus and claudia now that's an interesting group of roman christians linus you ever hear that name besides snoopy where does linus come in he's the second pope he's the second pope and as pope you gotta host the church you gotta have a big house he's a roman aristocrat who's a convert linus the second pope and who's mentioned right before linus pudenz the roman senator who is a christian who hosted peter and paul whose house and home became the center of activity in roam now how would peter get to know a roman senator how would he do that that's the question and it dawned on me thinking and reflecting on this and praying about this that all of a sudden it hit me ax chapter 10 gives us the clue it gives us the answer i believe ax chapter 10 peter meets a very important roman who's a roman aristocrat who's a very powerful wealthy roman he's not just a roman centurion but remember he's famous in all of israel for his almsgiving he was a very wealthy man in fact julian the apostate mentions that the christians exaggerate their influence on roman aristocrats because there's only two major aristocrats who became christians surges paulos and cornelius so even julian the apostate gives witness that cornelius was of the equestrian rank and of a high roman family now cornelius hosts peter because peter baptizes him by god's providence and peter baptizes his disciples cornelius peter is in jerusalem he has to flee after he escapes from prison thanks to god and he goes to another place well where would he go he would go to cesaria because he has a friend there who's powerful and influential cornelius and what does cornelius do cornelius is from guess where luke tells you cornelius is from the italian cohort a little detail in other words cornelius is from rome and we know that he's a godfare so what that means is cornelius who is from rome wealthy and powerful a roman officer probably beginning his career up the ranks and he wants to be stationed in the in palestine and in the holy land because he believes in judaism he was a godfare in rome and we know that the jewish population of rome was very significant and that they proselytized many wealthy romans in fact cistero says has any roman not been proselytized by a jew so cornelius was a godfaring roman aristocrat and i suggest to you that when peter goes up to cesaria flipi or cesaria maritima to cornelius wanted as a wanted man and a death sentence by herod agrippa cornelius says i'll send you to rome on the next ship and i'm going to send you with a letter of recommendation to my friend pudins that you have to meet and all of a sudden scripture takes us right up to the point of tradition and they fit together scripture and tradition fit together hand and glove now i believe peter then goes to rome cornelius sends him along and then when he gets there he meets pudins thanks to cornelius pudins probably also was a godfarer he hears the word of god he converts and he becomes the center of activity for the christian faith growing in rome and it grows quickly in rome so quickly in rome that nero can scapegoat the christians see them as a threat and does a major persecution so that's how peter gets to in fact pudinsiana the church is named after senator pudins daughter pudinsiana who because she's a powerful roman aristocratic family of a senator can bury the dead christians that nero persecutes and she's protected and in that church is a system where they buried many of the first martyrs under nero but there's more to the story because now we find peter in rome and that that fulfills the tradition shows us the history of christianity shows us that jesus's prophetic prophecy was fulfilled because jesus said back in caesarea felipi the city in palestine named for caesar with the temple to caesar where peter professes you are the christ the son of the living god and jesus says blessed are you simon bar jonah because jesus is saying to peter peter you are going to be a prophet like jonah and i'm sending you not just to the gentiles but i'm sending you to the capital of the enemy of israel like jonah and you are going to preach at the capital of the enemy of israel and they are going to repent and believe and cornelius who's from rome and pudins who's in rome become the first fruits the first of the new neneva to be converted at the preaching of the new jonah and that is why in the catacombs there's over 300 images of the prophet jonah being swallowed by the belly of the well and in all the earlier burial places one of the most popular and favorite images of the early christians is the prophet jonah because jonah being thrown out of the belly of the well naked signifies divinity for the greeks and romans nakedness but now this new nakedness signifies new birth of baptism because the christians would be naked when they stripped for full immersion and that nakedness of baptism shows us the new birth of resurrection so jonah coming out of the belly of the well became an emblem of baptism and death and resurrection and it became a popular image but not only a popular image when they found the tomb of peter at the end of world war two there was two images from the early early second century probably some of the oldest images of christian art next to the tomb of peter and one of those images was a man fishing and two fish with a line and of course that's peter the fisherman and then the other image was a man being thrown out of a boat with a great big monster fish swallowing him up and that's jonah because the early christians knew that death and resurrection was a sign of jonah and jesus was the new jonah but peter was the bar jonah and this imagery of jonah was most popular in Rome you don't find in other cities and other places of christian worship and christian fellowship as much and predominantly as its dominates in Rome why does the image of jonah dominate in Rome because those pagan romans who were converts to christianity knew that they were the new ninova and that peter sent to them was the new jonah and they knew that that church was a witness because it's a remarkable prophecy of jesus it's a ridiculous prophecy that the capital of Rome was going to convert for jesus to say that and all document in all four gospels in the first century that Rome would convert is ridiculous prophecy and it's irrefutable no historian no scholar in the world can contradict the historicity of jesus predicting this in the first century and it's fulfilled by the fourth century the church in Rome knew that they were witnesses to jonah and so in the sistine chapel the greatest catholic artist of all time michael angelo as he does the chapel for the pope and as he designs it the largest of the seven prophets the largest figure of all the sistine chapel is the prophet jonah because michael angelo went to the catacombs and he studied early christian art and he was also on a bible study with a cardinal some thought he was at protestant tendencies because he was in a bible study but when the cardinal is leading the bible study it's kind of hard to think that right so here's the image jonah looking back over the ceiling and jonah has the fish and jonah is the largest figure why because it's death and resurrection which is the heart of the gospel and the call for repentance which is the heart of the gospel and as he's looking up jonah's kind of admiring michael angelo's sistine chapel you could look at it that way but michael angelo isn't that vain jonah's looking at the sistine chapel he's looking at salvation history from genesis all the way through and he's seeing god's plan of salvation prophetically fulfilled and what's more if you look at where jonah is he looks like he's about to slip off and fall down and he's on the southeast corner of the chapel and on that southern part there's one place right below jonah liturgically situated and where is jonah liturgically situated in the chapel he is right over the chair of peter michael angelo knew his story now esther i want to end with just this last minute esther when she didn't believe about this when i explained the story of pudin's being a christian and since second timothy she was blown away and she went through a deep conversion and six months later one of my uh one of our faculty who was with me who was studying in rome ben acres ran into her on a bus in rome and she said oh how is tim the biblicist dr tim the biblicist that's the italian word for scripture scholar and he's always he's doing fine she says oh please tell dr tim that since his trip i went out after his trip and i bought a bible for the first time in my life and i've been reading it every day since and it's changed my life my friends she had a doctorate and she's a catholic in rome and she didn't know the catholic story from scripture to tradition from jesus to peter the sign of jonah but she discovered it and her heart came afire and she went back to the word of god and she read the tradition in a different way and that's what michael angelo painted on the ceiling and that is our story we have to regain our catholic story because the prophecy confirms your faith so that you can be witnesses to the good news of jesus christ that is what god the father has called you here this weekend for this week that you may hear and have faith and not fear in an isaia 44 verse seven and eight god says i am he who calls things from the beginning i foretell them that you may not be afraid amen let's conclude him for father son holy spirit amen lord god you have made clear you have declared beforehand what you would do both in the old for the new and the new for the now give us faith lord a faith that gives us courage to be your witnesses to know our catholic story and to proclaim it to the world we pray this in jesus christ our lord amen