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[0:00] Please take your Bibles and go to Matthew's Gospel. Matthew's Gospel, chapter 16. If you're visiting with us, there should be a Bible in the chair in front of you, a black Bible.

[0:15] You can pull that out, go to the back. They renumber the New Testament. Find page 13, very bottom of page 13.

[0:25] There's like the first verse, I think it's verse 13, of Matthew, chapter 16, and then it goes to page 14. So page 13 or 14 in that black Bible, page 13 or 14.

[0:37] Matthew's Gospel, chapter 16. We'll do verses 13 through 20 this morning. Verses 13 through 20 in Matthew's Gospel, of chapter 16.

[0:52] Let me read. And coming into the district of Caesarea Philippi, Jesus was asking His disciples, saying, Who do the people say the Son of Man to be?

[1:11] And they said some, John the Baptist, and others, Elijah. But still others, Jeremiah, one of the prophets. He said to them, But you, who do you say that I am?

[1:22] And answering Simon, Peter said, You are the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God. And answering, Jesus said to him, Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not disclose to you, but my Father who is in heaven.

[1:43] And I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whenever you shall bind on earth, shall have been bound in heaven.

[2:00] And whenever you shall loose on earth, shall have been loosed in heaven. Then he warned the disciples that they should tell no one that he was the Christ. This past week, I just did a little bit of reading about the Kurds for my message.

[2:21] It's quite interesting about their history. To say the least, it's actually quite complicated. And then I thought, well isn't everything in the Middle East complicated?

[2:35] But one point stood out to me in the reading that I did. One writer said this, They are the largest ethnic group in the world not to have a state of their own.

[2:46] I didn't know that. The largest ethnic group in the world not to have a state of their own. And no doubt that's a foundational aspect to a people group.

[3:00] I mean, a place that you can call home. Language would be another thing, right? I mean, that's foundational. To be able to speak the same language. I mean, without these key foundational pieces, it's hard to unify.

[3:17] Things can unravel. As Jesus followers, we have one foundational piece by which we stand as a church.

[3:33] And I put the title, I changed it a little bit for you. Bow down and worship Jesus, the Messiah, Son of God, King of Israel. And today we see that this is the foundational truth of the church.

[3:48] This is the foundational truth of the church. That Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, the King of Israel. The Messiah, Son of God, King of Israel.

[4:02] This is the foundational truth of the church. I put in a statement for you. This is the foundational truth of the church.

[4:13] If this truth is in any way distorted, we will fall as a church. Yet the promise is that Jesus will build His church. Nothing will stand in our way.

[4:26] Nothing. He will build His church. We'll come to see that Jesus will build His church on Peter and the other disciples, apostles, because of His, or their, confession of His identity, the Messiah, Son of God.

[4:45] This is the climax of Matthew's gospel. The high point. Where you have a direct, flat out, crystal clear statement that Jesus was, is, the Messiah, the Son of the living God.

[5:03] You can't get around this. You can't say, well, that's just your interpretation. It is crystal clear. And of course, the only response to this truth is to bow before Him.

[5:18] If Jesus truly is who He says He is, we should have no other response but to bow down and give Him our lives. Flat out.

[5:30] If this really is true. If He is who He says He is. Something else too.

[5:41] The new community He would build would be given in Peter the authority to be the centerpieces in God's plan. The door of salvation is permitted or forbidden by Peter and the apostles because of His confession of the perfect, true identity of Jesus.

[6:02] Again, our response should be to give Him our very lives and follow Him. There may be some of you, this would be your very first time. You've not ever responded to Christ.

[6:14] You should respond to Christ. You should repent and trust Jesus this morning. If Jesus is who He says He is, you should turn from your sin and put your trust in Jesus. That's the response here.

[6:25] Your first response of worship is to trust Christ. But for the rest of us, it's a continuation. We keep worshiping.

[6:37] We keep praising. We keep thanking. We keep giving Him our lives. Our only response should be faith worship of Jesus.

[6:49] Notice how this begins, the first point. It's actually sandwiched in between verse 13 and then verse 20.

[7:01] You have the buns of the hamburger. Verse 13 is the top bun and verse 20 is the bottom bun. Verse 13, worldly distortions of Jesus' identity. Verse 13 and 14.

[7:12] Worldly distortions of Jesus' identity. They come into Caesarea Philippi. It's 25 miles north of the Sea of Galilee. It was rebuilt by Philip, Herod's son, in honor of Caesar and himself.

[7:28] And Jesus asks His disciples, who do the people say the Son of Man to be? What's the popular consensus about me? And notice He says, what do they say about the Son of Man?

[7:45] Who do they say the Son of Man to be? This was Jesus' favorite designation of Himself. And if the disciples had had their three-shot espressos from Starbucks, they would have figured out that Jesus was flat out calling Himself the Messiah.

[8:03] But they drove by Starbucks and they didn't get it. So they're really lagging today, okay? Except for Peter. Apparently he had his Starbucks.

[8:14] But only one shot. Because then you'll see next week, didn't go out so well. Anyways, but notice what happens. They say, verse 14, John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah, one of the prophets.

[8:26] John the Baptist, like Herod, remember? Elijah, the fulfillment of Malachi, chapter four, verse five. Jeremiah, one of the prophets. Well, that's kind of weird.

[8:38] Why is that? Well, maybe because of Jeremiah's oracles of judgment. Maybe because of Deuteronomy chapter 18 about the prophet coming that Moses spoke about.

[8:49] That's harder to explain. But this is what people thought about Jesus. The crowd considered Jesus to be a prophet, but they were fickle and superficial when it came to truly believe in Jesus.

[9:05] Their views about Jesus were total distortions. And that's exactly what you're gonna see today. Every other religion, every cult, they will falter right here.

[9:19] Consistently. Always. It will be who Jesus is. They will falter. There will be worldly distortions about Jesus. In other words, they'll get it wrong every time.

[9:33] Not to mention the fact the crowds had no action behind this. They definitely were not gonna believe in Jesus. There's always gonna be worldly distortions of the identity of Jesus.

[9:48] You're always gonna see that. Which is why it's so important that this passage is crystal clear with us. Because then you have this next point, the foundational truth.

[10:01] Parentheses, Peter's confession. 15 and 16. The emphasis here from the Greek is, he said to them, but you. Who do you say me to be or that I am?

[10:19] Jesus was asking all the disciples. Not just Peter. And Peter spoke up for them all. That's important to remember. Peter was the spokesman for them.

[10:33] Seeing all that he did, hearing all that he said, what saith you? Verse 16. Answering, Simon Peter said, you are the Messiah.

[10:47] The Christ, Christos in Greek. The Greek form of the Hebrew word Messiah, which means anointed one, which means the king. You are the Messiah.

[10:59] The son of the living God. A key verse in Matthew's gospel. It's right here. Jesus was, is, God's anointed one, the rightful king of Israel.

[11:09] He was sent by God to do God's specific will. Peter had identified Jesus correctly, perfectly. You nailed it, Peter.

[11:22] He was the rightful king of Israel, the very son of God. And as he said this, the very son of God, he's talking about him being deity.

[11:32] Jesus is God. The ridiculous notion that people say, well, he just said he's the son of God, he didn't say he's God. That's like saying, that's chocolate ice cream, but not ice cream.

[11:47] Like, what? What are you talking about? It's chocolate ice cream, it's not ice cream. Yes, it is. What do you mean? I think it doesn't make any sense. Right? If he says he's the son of God, he means he's God.

[12:00] It's pretty simple. And to call Jesus the Messiah is really to consider him as the son of God. I mean, Matthew started his gospel, the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

[12:15] He's the son of God. I mean, it just follows suit. So to think of Jesus in any other way is foreign to Matthew's gospel and really the whole New Testament.

[12:29] I put a bunch of verses up there for you. You can write those down or take a picture of it or take a little nap, whatever. In Matthew chapter three, verse 17, remember when Jesus was baptized?

[12:43] This is my son with whom I'm well pleased. Chapter four, verse six, even Satan himself. If you say you're the son of God, even he said it.

[12:54] In chapter eight, verse 29, the demons say it. We know who you are. You're the son of the most high God. Even they figured it out. They knew it. In chapter 14, verse 33 of Matthew's gospel, it's after the calming of the storm and the disciple says, truly you are God's son.

[13:16] John, I have John there, John's gospel three different times. Romans chapter one, verse four, we read part of that together, remember? Galatians chapter two, verse 20, I am crucified with Christ.

[13:31] It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me and the life that I live, I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and delivered himself up for me. Paul understood. Son of God, Christ together, it's the same thing.

[13:42] Hebrews chapter five, verse five. I did that on purpose to give a plethora of verses so we understand this is how the New Testament viewed Jesus from Matthew to Revelation.

[13:59] Messiah, son of God, they're together, they're the same, they're linked. And then from the Old Testament, the fact of being son of God, Messiah, 2 Samuel chapter seven, verse 14, the promise given to David.

[14:15] 1 Chronicles 17, verse 13, Psalm two, today you're my son. Psalm 89, finally what God had promised long ago has come to pass.

[14:31] The son of the living God, notice he says the living God that is the one true God, the God of Israel. There is no other God.

[14:43] There's not thousands of gods Mormons teach. There's only one God. His name is the God of Jacob. Jesus truly is the Messiah, King of Israel, who deserves all our praise.

[14:59] So for you to respond in praise, that's the right response for you to have. That's a good response for you to have. Now there's four different points I want to bring out from the text we're going to look at when after Peter makes the statement of Jesus' response in verses 17 through 19.

[15:20] Notice a first point that goes on with this. One, only the Father can disclose his truth. He didn't just come up with this on his own. I've got an idea, let's call Jesus the Son of God, Messiah.

[15:34] That's good, I like that idea. No, it didn't happen that way. Notice what Jesus says in verse 17. Answering, Jesus said to him, blessed are you, Simon Barjona. He blessed Peter, even though, for flesh and blood did not reveal this or disclose to you but my Father who is in heaven.

[15:53] The confession did not come from Peter. Jesus' Father in heaven revealed this true understanding of Jesus' identity.

[16:04] It's not from human wisdom. This is an important point. No one will come to this understanding of the identity of Jesus on their own.

[16:19] Only the Father by means of the Spirit discloses this truth to people. This is not the first time that Jesus has said this. Back in chapter 11, Jesus said the same thing.

[16:33] It's the doctrine of election. God will reveal himself to whoever he wants to. He's the one who discloses it to people. He's the one who makes it known. You don't come up with this on your own.

[16:45] It's not from human wisdom. So that's the first point we need to understand. Only the Father can disclose this truth. Second point, Jesus will build his church on Peter.

[16:58] Look at verse 18. And I also say to you that you are Petras. And upon this Petra I will build my church and the gates of Hedy shall not overpower it.

[17:12] Now as we come to this part, verses 18 and 19 of Matthew's gospel, a whole bunch of different interpretive issues come up. If you guys were in the first hour, the tishiary issues, there's a bunch of tishiary issues in this passage, okay?

[17:28] So for all you in the class, there's lots of tishiary issues. For instance, what does Jesus mean when he says the rock? What is the church?

[17:40] What are the gates of Hades? What are the keys? What does that mean? And what's this whole binding and loosing thing? We're gonna answer this question.

[17:50] Notice first, it seems that Jesus called Peter the rock. So, when he said he will build his church, Jesus was saying he would build the church on Peter, the foundational authority in the church.

[18:12] Now I know what you're thinking. Just hold on. Don't get excited. There's two other views. Another view is the rock is actually Peter's confession, not Peter.

[18:26] Some even take it to refer to Jesus himself from Matthew chapter 7. I'm under the persuasion. And you have every right to be wrong, but I'm under the persuasion.

[18:37] Just kidding. I'm under the persuasion that Jesus referred to Peter because of his confession.

[18:48] that's prepositional phrase because of his confession or the reason it has to be tied to that. Now, I know what you're thinking.

[19:02] Well, wait, that means that you're Roman Catholic because Roman Catholicism takes that view, right? If you're familiar, if you come out of Roman Catholicism, they take the view that Peter is the first pope.

[19:12] This is where they get it from. But the notion that because we take the view that Peter is the rock upon which Jesus builds his church, the notion that we embrace the Roman Catholic view that Peter was the first pope, that's ridiculous.

[19:30] Not to be harsh, but to be truthful. The argument that Peter was the first pope is absurd. It's unsubstantiated. You're reading that into the Bible.

[19:43] It's not true. Jesus didn't mention his successors or how those successors come into the picture. As a matter of fact, in the book of Acts, it was James, not Peter, who presided over the council of Jerusalem.

[20:00] If anyone had authority, it was James, the half-brother of Jesus, not Peter. There's no such thing as pope in the first century. That was concocted two, three, four hundred years later.

[20:17] Read into the text, leadership always resided in a plurality of elders or pastors. Not to mention, also, but to think that Matthew would endorse Peter to have some kind of infallibility or sole authority is insane.

[20:33] that he speaks ex cathedra. The Roman Catholic view that that's how the pope shouldn't speak or that he's the vicar of Christ. That's preposterous.

[20:49] He was the spokesman for the twelve. He spoke for all of them. Or one writer put it this, he was a representative leader.

[21:00] That's a good way to put it. Not some pope. No. Not to mention the fact, which we'll look at next week. It's like Peter's like, just nails it and then he just goes, oh no, no, no, no, Lord.

[21:16] That will never happen to you. You'll never go to the cross. And you just kind of go, wait, didn't you just say, you know, just kind of go, well, no. So that's what we mean when Jesus will build his church on Peter.

[21:29] Notice the church. I will build my church. What does this mean? This is the Greek word, ekklesia. Assembly means assembly or gathering.

[21:41] It was not a continuation of the nation of Israel. There's no telling what his disciples thought he meant at the time when Jesus said this.

[21:53] But, the church, assembly or gathering, it's the future community of Jesus' disciples, God's covenant people, Jews and Gentiles are one.

[22:04] and so this has a more global sense in this context. In other words, they're a universal church. That's how we classify it.

[22:17] And by the way, when Jesus says this word church, there's the only two places, there's two places in all the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, where the word church is used.

[22:29] Here in Matthew 16, verse 17, or was it 18? 18. And then also in Matthew chapter 18. That's it. You don't find the word church, ekklesia, in that context anywhere else in Matthew's Gospel or John or Luke or Mark.

[22:47] Jesus was talking about a local body in Matthew chapter 18, but the point is all those, it's all those who give the same confession and they follow Jesus' teaching.

[22:59] That's what he means by church. Okay, so, only the Father discloses this. Jesus will build his church on Peter. Third, death will not destroy his church.

[23:11] Again, verse 18. And the gates of Hades shall not overpower it. Now, what's the gates of Hades? It could refer to evil powers that may try to go against Jesus' church or it could be an Old Testament reference to Sheol or really death.

[23:27] which is, I take that view. It seems to me that the church, one writer puts it like this, will never die. Death will not be able to destroy Jesus' church.

[23:41] As a matter of fact, it will enhance it. They think that it can destroy us by killing us. We're just gonna build more churches. That's what Jesus says, and I don't mean buildings.

[23:53] This church is not building. I mean, we've talked about this. Just blow up the building, we'll still meet together. It'll be a little bit colder or warmer.

[24:06] We'll deal with that. But this is not, this is just a building. You can turn it into a bar, you can turn it into a dance hall, you can turn it into whatever you want. It's just a building.

[24:17] People, it's church. We are the church. And by the way, just a phraseology, we don't come to church. We come to a church service. You don't come to church. You don't come to people.

[24:28] We are the church. We are the people. You come to us. We come together. Jesus was saying here, since church is not a building, Jesus was saying that those who follow him will not be stopped even by death.

[24:43] Death has no victory over us. Why? Because Christ conquered death. He conquered the grave. That's why no one can, death, not even death can destroy us as a church.

[24:57] No one can stand in our way. Nothing, not even death. And death, why death? Because it's so final, right? It's closure.

[25:08] That's it. It's done. But Jesus says, not even death can overpower my church. By the way, notice how Jesus says this, my church.

[25:18] This is Jesus' church, not my church, Jim's church, not anyone else's church. It's Jesus' church. It belongs to him. Notice a fourth aspect.

[25:32] Jesus will give authority to Peter. This is where we talk about the keys and this whole binding and loosing thing. Verse 19, I will give you, that's singular, it's not plural, I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.

[25:49] And whenever you, singular, shall bind on earth, shall have been bound in heaven. And whenever you shall loose on earth, shall have been loosed in heaven. And we need to understand something about this church and about Peter.

[26:02] I'm gonna link these together. First I'm gonna separate, then I'm gonna bring them together for you. The agent of kingdom authority on earth is the church because Jesus would give the keys of the kingdom to Peter.

[26:13] The way that God brings his kingdom on the earth is through his church. One writer put it like this, quote, the church is the agency that extends the kingdom on earth.

[26:27] To think that church is separate from kingdom is wrong. So the agent of kingdom authority on earth is the church because Jesus gives the keys of that authority to Peter.

[26:42] And the way God brings his kingdom on earth is through his church. Okay, so what does the keys thing mean? Well, keys, they symbolize something, opening and closing, right?

[26:58] You need your keys to get inside your house, to throw in your car. But it also symbolizes authority. Thus it goes to the action of binding and loosing.

[27:11] What does he mean by binding and loosing? Binding, loosing, in other words, forbidding or permitting. Authority is exercise in forbidding or permitting on the basis of Peter's confession of the true identity of Jesus.

[27:33] It's tied to this confession. So what does Peter and the other disciples, what did they bind and loose? They forbid or permit that which is parallel to the confession.

[27:54] That's there in verse 16. What do you mean, Jim? In other words, I'll put it succinctly. they open salvation's door to the world.

[28:08] The disciples open salvation's door to the world. That's what they do. That's what they did. When the phrase is stated again, by the way, in Matthew chapter 18, which we'll get to in a couple weeks, Jesus would give his new community as faith followers the authority to deal with internal issues and to admit or exclude from his membership.

[28:35] But it's all on the basis of Peter and the apostles. They are the gatekeepers. And let me explain that a little bit more to you. Through the agency, the authority of agency of Peter and the other disciples, Jesus builds his church by the entrance of those who confess what Peter just confessed, the Messiah, the Son of the living God.

[28:57] The only way one has entrance into this kingdom is through them. But why is it about them? Because of what they just confessed. They just confessed Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of the living God.

[29:15] It's all tied to that confession. That's why Jesus says the whatever verbs, whatever you shall bind, shall have been bound, a future perfect verb.

[29:26] So what he binds on earth was something already bound in heaven. What he looses on earth was something already loosed in heaven. What they forbid on earth has already been forbidden in heaven.

[29:39] What they permit on earth has already been permitted in heaven. So, these men would be the foundational leaders of the church, which is God's means by which he extends his kingdom on earth.

[29:57] Thus, they are the gatekeepers of God's kingdom. Well, how are they the gatekeepers? By their very words in the New Testament canon.

[30:09] That's how they're the gatekeepers. They wrote everything down. And not just the apostles or those that were close to them, God's written word. It's all tied to this confession.

[30:22] That's why they're the gatekeepers. It's not about following a man. It's about following the very words of what these apostles wrote. That's why they're the gatekeepers.

[30:35] And they open salvation's door to the whole world. So, they, by their very presence, personally or verbally, direct the true proclamation of Jesus' identity.

[30:51] So, they are the ones who permit entrance into the kingdom to all those who do what? Who confess Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of God, the King of Israel.

[31:06] They confess it. They embrace it. So, all of these, it hinges on the true, perfect confession given by Peter.

[31:18] it all hinges on that, on what he just said. So, Jesus goes through all these. Peter gives his confession, I'm gonna build my church on you, Peter.

[31:34] Because of your confession, build my church, death can overpower it. You're gonna have the keys, you're gonna open salvation's door. And then you have here in verse 20, silence because of worldly distortions.

[31:50] Look at verse 20. Then he warned the disciples that they should tell Nolan that he was a Christ. Wait a second. So, Peter just says, you're the Christ and the living God.

[32:01] Yes, you're gonna open salvation's door. People are gonna come to Christ and build my church, but don't tell anybody I'm a Messiah. Wait, what? It's almost like it seems like a contradiction.

[32:11] What? What? What is crazy? We should tell everybody that you're a Messiah. Since the crowd saw Messiah more as a political figure than as the Old Testament described them to truly be, he warned them to tell no one who he really was.

[32:32] Jesus wanted less excitement, not more. Else he'd have mutiny in his hands. But, friends, it's because the world, they'll always distort the truth about Jesus.

[32:48] It's not by accident that Jesus says this. A distortion that takes place, that's why he says be silent about that in verse 20. The distortions that take place there in verses 13 and 14, some people say you're this, some people say you're this, some people say you're this.

[33:02] That's why we gotta get it right. In verse 16, chapter 16, verse 16, you're the Christ, the Son, the living God. All that to say, Jesus completely and totally agreed with Peter.

[33:22] He didn't tell them, I'm not the Messiah. He was. He himself knew he was the Messiah. And as we'll see next week, the first responsibility as God's Messiah son, his anointed one, was to die.

[33:45] And that's why this is also tied together. We'll see this next week. He's the Messiah, the Son of the living God, the King of Israel, who's meant to die for sinners.

[34:00] That's gonna be something that's gonna challenge the disciples. Even in this confession that Peter just made. Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God.

[34:11] This, this is the foundational truth of the church. If this truth is in any way distorted, we will fall as a church. If anything we don't want to get wrong, it's this.

[34:23] Yet the promise is that Jesus will build his church, nothing will stand in our way. Because you know, if this church folds and closes and everything, Jesus is still gonna build his church.

[34:34] It's not tied to you. Jesus has staken his own existence on him building his church. He'll do it just as he sees fit.

[34:50] Which is why the only response to this truth is to bow down before him. Our only response should be faith worship. Our only response is to respond to him.

[35:02] And there'll be different ways you can do this. We'll pray, you can give, you can sing, and then you can have conversations to honor Jesus.

[35:14] That's how we respond in worship. worship. And so we respond even now, Lord Jesus, thank you. It's so easy for us to get caught up with worldly ideas.

[35:35] Help us as your church to not be taken away from the distortions. But to hold fast to this truth. Jesus, you're the Messiah, the Anointed One, the Son of God, the King of Israel.

[35:52] This is who you are. And the only response we should have, if this truly is who you are, if you are who you say you are, we should have no other response but worship, thanks, praise.

[36:10] as we will sing never cease to praise. I encourage you at this time, just a few moments, times of silence for you to ponder, to think, to allow your mind to fill up with the truth.

[36:35] Just a few moments to do that. And we'll do our time of giving, we'll sing a couple songs. But take these few moments where you can let your mind and your heart ponder on these things, that it would fill up your mind, it would stir up your affections, and it would change your will to be driven towards greater love for Jesus.

[37:05] Thank you.