We're in Matthew chapter 16.
Let me pray for the reading and preaching of God's word.
! Let me pray for the reading and preaching of God's word.
! Heavenly Father, I come to this pulpit this morning with a gaping hole, a gaping hole, a sense of impotence.
Because I realize that unless you open the eyes of the blind, unless you illuminate the eyes of people's hearts, they cannot see you in your glory.
So Lord, I plead that we begin with prayer.
That you would, by your Holy Spirit, open the eyes of our hearts to behold the glory and the grace of Jesus Christ, your Son.
Fill us with faith and hope and love as we cling to your word.
Speak to us from your word as you always do.
They might be built up as the people of God.
The invincible church of Christ, against which the gates of Hades cannot prevail.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Please stand if we are able to honor God together as we read from his word.
Matthew chapter 16, verses 1 to 20.
And the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to test him, they asked him to show them a sign from heaven.
He answered them,
When it is evening, you say, it will be fair weather, for the sky is red.
And in the morning, it will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening.
You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.
An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.
So he left them and departed.
When the disciples reached the other side, they had forgotten to bring any bread.
Jesus said to them,
Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
And they began discussing it among themselves, saying,
We brought no bread.
But Jesus, aware of this, said,
Oh, you of little faith,
Why are you discussing among yourselves the fact that you have no bread?
Do you not yet perceive?
Do you not remember the five loaves for the 5,000 and how many baskets you gathered?
Or the seven loaves for the 4,000 and how many baskets you gathered?
How is it that you failed to understand that I did not speak about bread?
Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
Then they understood that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread,
but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
Now, when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi,
he asked his disciples,
Who do people say that the Son of Man is?
And they said,
Some say John the Baptist,
Others say Elijah,
And others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.
He said to them,
But who do you say that I am?
Simon Peter replied,
You are the Christ,
the Son of the living God.
And Jesus answered him,
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 tell you,
you are Peter,
and on this rock I will build my church,
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven,
and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven,
and whatever you lose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Then he strictly charged the disciples,
tell no one that he was the Christ.
This is God's holy and authoritative word.
Please be seated.
Throughout the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,
Jesus asks many questions.
In fact, he asks over 300 questions
throughout the course of the Gospels.
Far more frequently than the times that other people ask him questions.
This was Jesus' way of engaging people
and of teaching people,
of asking thought-provoking questions
and challenging their assumptions
and shedding light and exposing people's hearts
and revealing the eternal truths of God.
But of all the questions that Jesus asked,
the one that he asks in this passage,
Matthew 16, 15,
is the most significant one.
Who do you say that I am?
Life or death?
Heaven or hell?
Our eternal destiny hangs on,
in the balance of the way we respond to that one question.
Jesus has been called many things
throughout the Gospel of Matthew.
People have addressed him
with the Messianic title of Son of David.
The demons have called out,
saying, Son of God.
Even the disciples themselves,
in days' confusion,
after seeing Jesus walk on the water,
have declared,
you are truly the Son of God.
And here in this passage,
once and for all,
Jesus settles all the questions,
all the debate,
and declares who he is.
Who is Jesus?
And his answer is this,
he is the Son of the immortal God
who builds his invincible church.
Jesus is the Son of the immortal God
who builds his invincible church.
And we're going to first talk about
how Jesus warns us,
beware of the leaven of the false teaching
of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.
And secondly,
we're going to talk about
how we ought to share the bread of life,
which is Jesus Christ.
After a powerful ministry among the Gentiles,
at the end of chapter 15,
Jesus crossed back over
to the Jewish territory of Magadan.
And then immediately,
he is met with skeptical Jewish leaders,
the antagonistic Sadducees and the Pharisees.
He says that they came,
and to test him,
they asked him to show them a sign from heaven.
The Pharisees and the Sadducees
were the two dominant ideological groups
in the first century Judaism.
They together made up the Sanhedrin,
which is the highest ruling body
in the Jewish community.
It's the highest ruling religious body
and political body as well.
And the Sanhedrin was in cahoots with the Romans.
They argue,
the Sadducees in particular,
argue that there's no resurrection,
nor angel, nor spirit,
while the Pharisees believed in all those things.
So the Sadducees and Pharisees,
actually on many counts,
were at odds with each other.
The Pharisees were like the religious conservatives,
the constitutional originalists,
who wanted the people to return to the Bible.
The Sadducees were kind of the liberals of their day.
However, in this instance,
these two rival factions
make common cause
to oppose a single foe in Jesus Christ.
So it's not good news
that the Pharisees and the Sadducees
have joined up here to test Jesus.
We know that they're not trying to
ask a sincere question.
They're trying to trip him up
because that's the way the word test is used
whenever the Jewish leaders come to test him.
This is a bipartisan inquisition
into Jesus' teaching and ministry.
And they demand from him
that Jesus show them a sign from heaven.
If this were the first time
that these Jewish leaders encountered Jesus
or heard of Jesus,
maybe we'll think that that's a genuine request.
But the request rings hollow
in light of what we've observed so far
in the previous two chapters.
In Matthew 14, 9,
Jesus specifically looks up to heaven, he says,
and then prays over the five loaves of bread.
And then he goes on to feed 5,000 men
besides women and children on top of that
with that five loaves of bread.
Is that not a sign from heaven?
And then in Matthew 15,
Jesus repeats that miracle among the Gentiles.
The 4,000 Gentiles.
And then sandwiched between
those two multiplication miracles
are two summary statements
of Jesus' ministry among the Jews first
and then Jesus' ministry among the Gentiles,
both of which tell us that
they brought all kinds of sick and ill
and demonized people.
And at the touch of his hand,
they were all healed.
People came and they wanted to just touch
the fringe of Jesus' garment
knowing that they would be healed.
And they were.
And in the summary of Jesus' ministry
among the Gentiles in Matthew 15,
he says that the mute speak,
the crippled are healthy,
the lame walk in the blind see.
Are these not signs from heaven?
And yet Pharisees and Sadducees
ask for another sign.
And Jesus perceptively and rightly refuses.
The scribes and the Pharisees
in previous chapters had asked for a sign also.
And Jesus responded to them
in a very similar way.
Here there's a little bit of a meteorological,
a metaphor here.
When it is evening, you say,
it will be fair weather,
for the sky is red.
And in the morning, it will be stormy today,
for the sky is red and threatening.
You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky,
but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.
There's a rhyme that ancient mariners used often.
It goes like this.
Red sky at night, sailors delight.
Red sky at morning, sailors warning.
I am, I'm a no, I'm no weather scientist,
but I know how to search for things on Google.
And when the air is highly, highly pressured,
and it traps dust and particles,
and that filters apparently,
that filters out blue light,
so that all you see is the red and the orange hues
of a red sky.
And that kind of high-pressured air apparently is good.
But it creates fair weather,
because as the dense, stable air sinks down,
it traps moisture.
It dissipates clouds.
It inhibits cloud formation.
And because weather systems,
and I just learned this,
that generally they move from west to east,
if a red sunset means that where the sun is setting,
in the west, there is good weather.
And because weather systems travel from west to east,
that means the weather,
good weather is coming toward you.
It's ahead.
However, if you,
if you, a red sunrise is what you see,
then that means where the sun is rising in the east
is already behind you.
It's past you.
That good weather system has passed you,
so that means there's likely bad weather coming.
It's interesting that the same red sky,
depending on your orientation toward it,
which direction you are facing it,
could mean fair weather or foul weather.
Likewise, it is your orientation toward Jesus Christ,
the Son of God,
whether you come to Him in faith or unbelief,
that determines whether you have peace with God or wrath.
You face the wrath of God.
As it says in Matthew 3, 11 to 12,
those who turn to Jesus in faith
are baptized with the Holy Spirit and fire.
That represents God's gracious, powerful presence
indwelling His people,
the Holy Spirit and fire.
But those who reject Jesus, it says,
will be burned with unquenchable fire.
It's the same fire of God,
but it could mean God's gracious presence with His people
or the fiery wrath,
unquenchable flames of judgment.
These Pharisees and Sadducees knew how to interpret the appearance of the sky,
but they could not interpret the signs of the times.
They didn't know how to interpret and understand
what Jesus was doing and who He was.
They did not understand that He was the Messiah,
the Christ,
the Son of the living God.
And that's the question that Jesus poses to us this morning.
Who do you say that I am?
Jesus says in verse 4,
an evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign,
but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.
Jesus did, as I mentioned in the previous weeks,
perform signs sometimes to help people,
to prove His messianic identity.
And He did that for those who genuinely sought Him
and wanted to humbly put their trust in Him.
But He consistently refuses to indulge the testing of people
who question Him out of pride and unbelief
and evil and adulterous generation.
To such people, there is no sign that will suffice
because their questions do not stem from a heart of faith
that's seeking understanding,
but rather from an evil and adulterous heart.
So even though throughout the Gospels,
Jesus performs many spectacular miracles
that defy the laws of nature,
there are people who always stubbornly persist
in their unbelief.
And this is why, in this case,
Jesus refuses their demand for a sign.
Instead, Jesus points to a singular, decisive sign
that should be sufficient for all of us,
and that's the sign of Jonah
that Andrew preached on some weeks ago.
Matthew 12, 40-41,
For just as Jonah was three days and three nights
in the belly of the great fish,
so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights
in the heart of the earth.
The sign of Jonah is the death and resurrection of Jesus,
that Jesus died for the sins of His people,
He was buried in the heart of the earth,
and on the third day,
He was raised to new life for our justification.
That's the sign that God has provided,
and no more will be given.
That's the sign that you must reckon with and believe.
He says in verse 4,
So He left them and departed.
Because these Jewish leaders persist in their unbelief,
this is the end of Jesus' mission in Galilee.
Now He will resolutely set His direction toward Jerusalem
and toward His crucifixion and resurrection,
after which He will resume His ministry to the Galileans.
After their departure,
Jesus says to His disciples in verse 6,
Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
They had just had a confrontation
with the Pharisees and the Sadducees,
and Jesus is clearly warning them
about them and their teaching,
as Matthew explains in verse 12.
But Jesus' disciples are kind of clueless at this moment.
They don't understand.
They had forgotten to pack bread for their journey.
And so they think Jesus is talking about that.
Oh, I think Jesus knows that we forgot bread.
We need to go get bread somewhere.
But He says,
Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.
I don't know, maybe they have a bakery somewhere.
Be careful.
Let's not make sure to get the wrong leavened bread.
Honestly, it's a little hard to see
how they could possibly misunderstand this.
And Jesus shares my disbelief in verse 11.
How is it that you fail to understand
that I did not speak about bread?
Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.
Both the word understand and the word bread
have been recurring themes in the preceding chapters.
The word understand, if you might recall,
if you're with us in the parables of the kingdom in chapter 13,
in the parables of the sower,
it contrasts the seeds that bear fruit
versus the seeds that do not bear fruit.
The seeds that do not bear fruit
are those who hear the word but do not understand.
But the seeds that bear fruit are those who hear the word
and understand and bear fruit up to a hundredfold.
Jesus twice says in this passage
that his disciples did not understand.
The word perceive in verse 9 is the same word,
just translated differently, understand, as in verse 11.
Do you not yet perceive?
Even the 12 disciples do not understand,
apart from Jesus' kind explanations,
but with some help from Jesus,
it says in verse 12 that they finally understood
that Jesus was not talking about bread,
but of the teaching of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.
Jesus reminds them of the multiplication of bread
and the miraculous feeding of the 5,000 Jews
with five loaves of bread
and 4,000 Gentiles with seven loaves of bread,
that Jesus is the bread of life sent by God from heaven
to nourish the people of God,
both Jews and Gentiles, unto eternal life.
They've seen all that.
The disciples have been witnesses to all that.
The history-making, the world-changing,
people-saving, and kingdom-coming event
is unfolding right in front of their eyes,
and yet they worry about bread.
Do you see the absurdity of that?
Even at a basic logical level,
not understanding all that about who Jesus is,
like Jesus just fed 5,000 people
with five loaves of bread.
Do you think that you forgot bread
and now Jesus is like, oh no.
You forgot bread.
Now we're not going to have anything to eat.
How could you?
Come on.
Of course not.
Jesus chides the disciples in verse 8,
oh you of little faith,
why are you discussing among yourselves
the fact that you don't have no bread?
This ammunition, oh you of little faith,
is one we've seen earlier on in the Sermon on the Mount
in Matthew 6, 25 to 34,
and I think Jesus is intentionally invoking what he taught.
There, he says in there,
do not worry about your life,
what you will eat or drink,
or what you will wear.
Do not worry,
because he says,
look at the birds of the air.
Do not sow or reap or store away in barns,
and yet your heavenly father feeds them.
Are you not much more valuable than they?
Can any of you by worrying
add a single hour to your life?
And why do you worry about clothes?
Look at the lilies of the field
and how they grow.
Not even Solomon, king of Israel,
not even Solomon in all his splendor
was dressed like one of these.
If that is how God clothes the grass of the field,
which is here today
and tomorrow is thrown into the fire,
will he not much more clothe you,
you of little faith?
That's the exact same phrase,
oh you of little faith.
So do not worry,
saying what shall we eat
or what shall we drink
or what shall we wear,
for the Gentiles run after all these things.
And your heavenly father knows that you need them,
but instead seek first his kingdom
and its righteousness
and all these things will be added to you as well.
How often,
even though our heavenly father has promised
to provide for all of our needs,
do we worry about what we will eat?
And no matter how much we worry
and no matter how much we plan our days
and plan our budgets,
we cannot extend the length of our lives
by a single hour.
We will die exactly when God appointed for us to die.
But why does this happen to us?
Why do we worry?
Like why do the disworldly
and temporal concerns of money
and things and food and drink and clothes,
why do they feel so real
and so imminent and urgent
that we forget and lose sight
of these spiritual eternal realities?
Two failures, Jesus says,
account for this in verse nine.
One, a failure to remember.
Two, a failure to perceive.
First, we fixate on what we do not have
and we worry
because we do not remember
the five loaves for the 5,000.
So if you're worried about something
in your life today,
then take time to remember
how God has provided for you,
how God has come through for you
time and time again.
And secondly, there's a failure to perceive.
We get tunnel vision
because if we fail to perceive
that God is who he says he is,
we're so fixated on the bread
that we forgot to pack,
the bread that we're worried
we might not have,
that we forget
that Jesus is the bread of life
who gives eternal life
and that he is with us
and indwells us by his spirit.
We do not perceive
that the creator of the heavens
and the earth
is our heavenly father
who provides for us.
So let me ask you,
has your life recently been consumed
by your earning and spending
and saving the food you eat
and the clothes you wear?
Have the mundane realities of life
taken up the entirety of your vision
so that you are losing sight
of eternal realities,
of your heavenly perspective,
of seeking first the kingdom of God
and its righteousness?
Are you aware today
of what God is doing
in and through you
and in and through your neighbors
and your friends,
what God is doing
in and through your children?
Are you aware of these realities?
The bread that the disciples
forgot to pack
was the last thing
on Jesus' mind.
Instead, he was warning them
about the leaven
of the false teaching
of the Pharisees
and the Sadducees.
Leaven sometimes is used
in a positive metaphor
throughout the gospel.
We saw that in chapter 13,
but here it's clearly being used
in a negative way.
Leaven is fermented dough
from an old batch
of fermented bread,
like the way people
in our church make sourdough bread.
And you combine
that leftover batch
that you've set aside
with the new batch
and then it leavens
the entire batch
of new bread.
However,
this is an ingenious way
to save
and to continue the process,
especially when you don't
have yeast.
But if the leaven
that you're using
is contaminated,
it will also spread
contamination
through the entire batch
of bread.
The Pharisees
and the Sadducees
settled skepticism.
Their rejection
of Jesus
as the Christ,
the son of the living God,
is like leaven
contaminated
with bad bacteria
that spreads
through the entire bread.
Jesus' warning
about leaven
gets picked up
later by Apostle Paul
in two separate occasions
in the New Testament.
And these passages
helpfully illustrate
the two ways
that leaven
can taint
the bread of Jesus Christ,
the gospel
of Jesus Christ.
The first kind of leaven
is lawlessness.
When writing
to the Corinthian church
that's tolerating
sexual immorality
among their own members,
Paul commands them
in 1 Corinthians 5,
6-9,
Do you not know
that a little leaven
leavens the whole lump?
Cleanse out the old leaven
that you may be a new lump
as you really are unleavened.
For Christ,
our Passover lamb,
has been sacrificed.
Do not associate
with sexually immoral people.
Sin is like
an infectious disease.
It never stays put.
It always spreads.
It grows worse
if you leave it unattended,
if you do not repent of it
and turn from it.
This is why
we must decisively remove
everything that caused us to sin.
That's why Jesus
is so emphatic
in the Sermon on the Mount.
If your right eye causes you to sin,
gouge it out
and throw it away.
He's not saying literally
gouge out your eye.
He's saying remove decisively
the cause of sin
in your life.
This is why
we cannot tolerate
unrepentant sin
within the church of Christ.
As A.W. Tozer once wrote,
the vague and tenuous hope
that God is too kind
to punish the ungodly
has become
a deadly opiate
for the consciences
of millions.
Tolerating
unrepentant sin
out of so-called kindness
is a denial
of the gospel
of Jesus Christ.
God took sin
so seriously
He didn't just
say,
oh, that's fine.
Forget about it.
He sent His own Son,
His only Son,
Jesus Christ,
to die
to pay the penalty
for our sins.
That's how seriously
God took sin
and who are we
to look at sin
and just wink the eye
and say,
yeah,
no big deal.
No need for repentance.
That's a dangerous leaven
that contaminates
the gospel of Jesus Christ
with does not give life.
The second kind of leaven
is legalism.
Writing to the Galatian church
who had been deceived
by the Judaizers
into thinking
that Gentile converts
to Christianity
must get circumcised
and keep the Old Testament law
in order to be saved.
Paul says in Galatians 5,
for freedom Christ
has set us free.
Therefore,
do not let yourself,
do not submit again
to the yoke of slavery
if you accept circumcision.
circumcision,
this is what Paul says,
Christ will be
of no advantage
to you.
I testify again
to every man
who accepts circumcision
that he is obligated
to keep the whole law.
You are severed
from Christ.
You who would be
justified by the law,
you have fallen
away from grace.
Our little leaven
leavens the whole lump,
he says.
Anyone who suggests
that faith in Jesus Christ alone
is insufficient
for our salvation.
Anyone who denies
what we were just singing earlier
of the all-sufficient
merit of Jesus Christ
applied to us.
Anyone who adds
to the requirements
of the gospel
and suggests
that your standing
with God
does not depend solely
on what Christ
has accomplished for you.
No, no, no.
It depends on
your works,
your good deeds,
your performance.
That is a dangerous leaven
that corrupts
and spoils
the bread of life.
As a church of Christ,
we must guard
against these leavens
of false teaching.
The church of the living God,
it says in 1 Timothy 3.15,
is meant to be a pillar
and a buttress
of the truth.
That's one of the purposes
of the church.
We exist to uphold
and uplift
the truth of the gospel
of Jesus Christ
and that's why
we have to be vigilant
and beware of the leavens
of false teaching.
Not because we enjoy
being censorious,
contrarian,
and pointing fingers,
and correcting people.
No, but because
the gospel of Jesus Christ
is that precious.
Because apart from it,
there is no salvation.
We must guard it.
And that's now the point
that Jesus turns to
in the second half
of the passage.
He talks about
the bread of life
that should be declared,
that should be shared.
He asks his disciples
in verse 13,
who do people say
that the Son of Man is?
The Son of Man
is Jesus' preferred way
of referring to himself.
I think for a number
of reasons.
Two main reasons.
One, because of its allusion
to Daniel 7, 13 to 14.
But secondly,
because it was
an ambiguous enough title
that was not used
widely at the time.
So it's kind of
an empty shell almost.
It's not theologically loaded
like terms that the Jews
already used
like the Son of David.
So Jesus could kind of
supply the content,
the theological content
for that phrase.
And define who he is
and what the messianic mission is.
Obviously, it's not clear enough
what the Son of Man is
because people are saying
and debating
and speculating
who do people say
that the Son of Man is.
The disciples reply,
some say John the Baptist,
others say Elijah,
and others Jeremiah
or one of the prophets.
Remember a few chapters ago,
Herod Antipas'
kind of fanciful speculation,
Jesus doing so many miracles,
he conjectures that,
oh, this must be
John the Baptist
raised from the dead
because miraculous powers
are working in him.
Herod Antipas beheaded John
and now he's afraid
that Jesus is John the Baptist
resurrected.
Some people were saying
that about him.
The disciples,
some people thought
that he was Elijah.
There were expectations
of Elijah returning,
not only because he was
one of the most powerful
prophets of the Old Testament,
but also because he did not
die a natural death.
He was translated directly
to heaven by God.
And so because of the prophecy
of Malachi 4 or 5,
which prophesied
that God would send again
the prophet Elijah
before he himself
comes to save his people,
there was this feverish expectation
trying to find out
who this Elijah might be.
And so some people thought
Jesus was Elijah.
Still others thought
that Jesus was Jeremiah
or one of the prophets.
Prophet Jeremiah incurred
the wrath of his own people
by prophesying
of the downfall of Judah
and the destruction
of the temple of Jerusalem.
And Jesus does the same thing.
He denounces the Jewish leaders
in chapters 21 to 23
and then he prophesies
of the destruction
of the temple of Jerusalem
in chapter 24.
So he fits this pattern
of Jeremiah's ministry.
And because Deuteronomy 18, 15
prophesied that God
would raise up
another end time prophet
like Moses, he says,
there were many
prophetic expectations.
Maybe it would be a Jeremiah.
Maybe it would be another prophet
that will come.
So many speculations.
All that to say,
the crowd's estimation of Jesus
is not bad, right?
These are all good people.
All good godly people.
I mean, they could have
compared Jesus to Janus and Jambres,
the court magicians
of Pharaoh in Exodus.
No, they don't compare him.
They compare him to Elijah,
Jeremiah, John the Baptist,
whom Jesus himself said
is that there's no one
born of woman greater
than John the Baptist.
John the Baptist
is the greatest man
that lived under the Old Covenant.
This is a high estimation of Jesus,
but it's not high enough.
as we see in Jesus' response.
And that's true
in our day and age as well.
You are not likely
to meet people
throughout the world
that hate Jesus
and denounce Jesus.
Muslims believe that Jesus
was one of the highest ranked
and most beloved prophets.
the Sikhs believe that Jesus
was a high ranked holy man.
Jehovah's Witnesses believe
that Jesus is the highest
of all God's creatures.
Christian scientists believe
that Jesus was the first human
to manifest fully
the truth of Christian science.
Some political theorists
and sociologists believe
that Jesus was a social
and political genius
who revolutionized
and restructured society.
Many Buddhists and atheists
and secular moral theorists
openly declare that Jesus
was a great moral teacher.
These are wonderful,
lofty things
to say about any person.
But when it comes to Jesus
and your estimation of Jesus,
it is not good enough.
It's not high enough.
So Jesus turns to his disciples
because they're the ones
to whom the secrets
of the kingdom
have been revealed.
They've been privy
to Jesus' work
and to his miracles
and to his private explanations
and teachings.
So he expects them
to have a better reply
than the crowds.
And he asks them,
who do you say that I am?
Not what your friends
and family say about Jesus.
Who do you say that I am?
Have you,
if you're here
and you do not yet follow
Jesus Christ as your Lord,
have you open-mindedly,
seriously and honestly
considered and wrestled
with that question?
Who do you say that I am?
And that question was posed
to all of Jesus' disciples,
but Peter alone answers
because he's the leader
and the spokesperson
for the 12 apostles.
That's why he's always listed first
in the list of apostles
throughout the Gospels.
And we've seen him speak
on behalf of the apostles
many times
throughout the Gospel of Matthew.
It's a consistent pattern
throughout all of the Gospels.
This is also the only instance
in the Gospel of Matthew
where we're given Peter's full name,
Simon Peter.
So there's an added degree
of solemnity and formality
to this occasion.
Peter responds,
you are the Christ,
the Son of the living God.
The word Christ,
as I think all of you know,
does not,
it's not Jesus' last name.
It's a title that means
Messiah,
anointed one.
The Jews believe,
in accordance with the prophecies
in the Old Testament,
that God would raise up a king
from the line of David
who would represent him
and return the people of God
to their glory
in the presence of God.
And related to that concept
of Christ, Messiah,
was the idea of the Son of God.
In the covenant that God made
with King David,
he said in 2 Samuel 7, 12-14,
I will raise up your offspring
after you who shall come
from your body.
That's why messianic expectations
didn't expect from the Messiah
to come from the line of David.
And he continues,
I will establish his kingdom.
He shall build a house for my name
and I will establish the throne
of his kingdom forever.
I will be to him a father
and he shall be to me a son.
So that's fulfilled
in the immediate sense
by King Solomon,
but it waits its ultimate fulfillment
in Jesus Christ.
That's what gets picked up
in Psalm chapter 2,
verse 7-8,
where God says concerning
his messianic king,
you are my son.
Today I have begotten you.
That's why the title Christ,
Son of God,
are organically connected
throughout the Gospels.
Jesus' disciples,
if you remember,
have already declared,
kind of in a,
you know,
startled days
after seeing Jesus walk on water,
truly you are the Son of God.
That's when the truth
first dawned on them.
But since then,
they've had time
to ponder that weighty truth.
If that's what that means,
if that's really who Jesus is,
what are all the implications
of this?
So they've had the time
to process that
startling declaration,
and then the truth
is sinking in,
and now this is the formal,
considered answer
to Jesus' question,
who do you say that I am?
And Peter,
as a representative
of the 12,
says,
you are the Christ,
the Son of the living God.
God,
it's an awe-inspiring moment.
It's like a,
it's like a thunderclap
that rips and peels open
the heavens to reveal
who Jesus really is
to all of us.
And I think Son of God
is not merely a metaphor anymore,
a messianic title for,
for a king,
the king of Israel,
king of Judah.
No,
because Jesus said earlier
in Matthew chapter 11,
27,
all things have been handed over
to me by my Father.
And no one knows the Son
except the Father,
and no one knows the Father
except the Son,
and anyone to whom
the Son chooses to reveal Him.
who dares to talk like that?
That He has exclusive knowledge
of God the Father?
That He has the authority
to reveal the things
that have been handed over to Him
by His Father?
What manner of man
talks like that?
Who dares to say,
all things have been handed over
to me by my Father?
What do you mean all things?
God the Father is a sovereign ruler
and creator of the heavens
and the earth.
All authority in heaven and earth
resides with Him.
And you're saying,
all things have been handed over
to you by your Father.
This profession of faith
is more than affirming
a metaphor of Jesus
being the Son of God,
a king.
No, He's saying,
you are the Son of the living God.
Like an actual son.
The only begotten Son.
And this profession of faith
elicits an amazing commendation
from Jesus in verse 17.
Blessed are you,
Simon Bar-Jonah,
for flesh and blood
has not revealed this to you,
but my Father
who is in heaven.
Bar-Jonah simply means
it's Aramaic for son of Jonah,
which is Peter's dad's name.
Also rendered John
in other places.
In John 1.42,
he's called John.
John-Jonah,
variations.
And notice that Jesus
doesn't pat Peter on the back
saying,
attaboy.
You know,
I knew you were
the smart one of the bunch.
That's why I made you first one.
No, Jesus says,
for flesh and blood
has not revealed this to you,
but my Father
who is in heaven.
Jesus does not credit Peter
with this realization
by his own brilliant reasoning
and diligent study.
No, this truth
was revealed to him
by God the Father.
It's hard to overstate
the importance of this truth.
Christianity
is a religion
founded on revelation,
something that God himself
has disclosed
and revealed to us.
It is not
a product of human research,
ingenuity,
discovery,
or enlightenment.
enlightenment.
This is why
you can find people
who have PhDs
in Bible and theology
who have not a shred of faith
in the living God.
You don't arrive
at the knowledge of God
by human effort.
That knowledge
must be revealed by God
so that we might receive it.
1 Corinthians 1.14
says,
spiritual truths
are spiritually discerned
and the natural person
apart from the help
of the Spirit
enabling power
of the Holy Spirit
cannot understand
divine revelation.
That calls for a posture
for us
of humility,
of prayerful dependence,
and gratitude
toward God.
We know God
and we can call upon him
as our Heavenly Father
not because of our
superior intelligence
or superior diligence
compared to other people
who search for the truth,
but because God
in his sovereign grace
has revealed himself to us.
we cannot persuade
a single person
in the world
to trust in Jesus Christ
and become a follower
of Christ
with the sheer force
of logic or eloquence.
Not a single one.
Only supernatural revelation
!
makes someone born again
through faith in Jesus Christ.
And then Jesus
follows that up
with this commendation
up with an amazing promise
in verses 18 to 19.
And I tell you,
you are Peter
and on this rock
I will build my church
and the gates of hell
shall not prevail against it.
I will give you the keys
of the kingdom of heaven
and whatever you bind on earth
shall be bound in heaven
and whatever you lose on earth
shall be loosed in heaven.
And these two verses
have been the subject
of much debate
throughout church history.
The Catholic Church
uses this verse
to justify the Roman papacy,
the office of Pope,
and the argument
goes like this.
The name
that Jesus gives
Simon
in this passage,
Peter,
means rock.
Immediately after
renaming Peter,
I know you've seen
the name Peter
before in the Gospels,
but he's already
anticipating this event,
Matthew,
as he writes.
Immediately after
Jesus says,
I tell you,
you are Peter,
Jesus goes on to say,
and on this rock
I will build my church.
Jesus seems to be saying
that he will build
the church on Peter.
Jesus continues
in verse 19,
I will give you
the keys of the kingdom
of heaven
and whatever you bind
on earth
shall be bound in heaven
and whatever you lose
on earth
shall be loosed in heaven.
And here,
that second person
pronoun,
you,
is singular,
meaning Jesus is speaking
individually to Peter.
This is what we call
the power of the keys,
the authority
to include
and to exclude
people from
church membership
and by implication
membership
in the kingdom
of heaven itself.
This is an allusion
to Isaiah 22,
20 to 22,
where God declares
that he will make
Eliakim a steward
of the kingdom
of David
and give him
the key of the house
of David
so that he shall open
and none shall shut
and he shall shut
and none shall open.
That prophecy
is first and foremost
fulfilled by Jesus himself
and that's why
in Revelation 3,
7 to 8,
Jesus says to the church
in Philadelphia,
the words of the Holy One,
the true one,
who has the key of David,
who opens
and no one will shut
and who shuts
and no one opens.
I know your works.
Behold,
I have set before you
an open door
which no one is able
to shut.
So Jesus is the ultimate
and first fulfillment
of that prophecy.
He's the one
who holds ultimately
the key of David.
However,
here Jesus seems
to be delegating
that authority
to Peter.
Now,
I agree
with the Catholics
that Jesus is speaking
to Peter here
and that Peter
is the rock
that Jesus is speaking of.
The name Peter,
I said,
literally means rock
so it's like Jesus saying,
Peter,
sorry,
not Peter,
Simon,
from now on
your name is Rocky
and I built my church
on rock,
on this.
And so,
like,
it comes,
the logical sequence
is really hard to dispute
and there's an unmistakable
reciprocity here too.
Peter says,
you are the Christ,
he declares,
you are the Christ,
the son of the living God
and then Jesus turns to him
and says,
I say,
you are Peter,
you are rock.
Based on that profession
of faith
that you just gave,
I will now build
my church
on you.
So,
Jesus is,
according prominent
authority to Peter
as the leader
of the twelve apostles,
he will be the tip
of the spear,
to use an analogy,
as the kingdom
of heaven advances
in the book
of Acts.
Who is preaching
the gospel
of Jesus Christ
at Pentecost
when the Holy Spirit
first falls upon
the Jews
in Acts chapter 2?
Peter.
When the Samaritans
first receive
the word of God,
whom do the apostles
of Jerusalem
send to them
so that they might
pray over them
and so that they might
also receive
the Holy Spirit?
Peter
and John.
So,
not just Peter.
When does the Holy Spirit
first fall upon
the Gentiles?
When Peter
goes to the house
of Cornelius the Centurion
and ministers to them
and preaches
the gospel to them.
So,
I heartily affirm
that Peter
is prominent.
He's the tip
of the spear.
He lays the foundation
of the church
of Christ.
With that said,
I disagree
on a number of points
decisively
with the Catholics.
Yes,
Peter does have
a foundational role
but this is a role
that is given
not exclusively
to Peter
but collectively
to the twelve apostles
of Jesus Christ.
Jesus singles out
Peter
because he is
the representative
leader
and the spokesperson
of the twelve.
He's the first
among equals.
But he's not
the only one
who holds this power
of the key
and that is precisely
why the exact
same power
of the keys
is given
to all
of the apostles
and indeed
to the whole church
in Matthew 18.
Speaking of the process
of church discipline
and excommunication
sorry,
I don't know
what just happened.
Jesus says
in Matthew 18
17 to 18
that if a person
who claims
to be a Christian
and persists
in sin
and refuses to repent
we must confront
them one on one
and then if they
don't listen
you bring one
or two others
with you
so that
the testimony
may be established
on the testimony
of two and three
witnesses
and then he says
if they still
refuse to listen
we must tell it
to the church.
I think I have
this passage
to show
and if he refuses
to listen
even to the church
let him be to you
as a Gentile
and a tax collector.
Truly I say to you
whatever you bind
on earth
shall be bound
in heaven.
Whatever you lose
on earth
shall be loosed
in heaven.
Again I say to you
if two of you
agree on earth
about anything
they ask
it will be done
for them
by my father
in heaven.
It's the same
power of the keys
exact same
wording
and phrasing
but this time
the second person
pronoun you
is plural
because Jesus
is speaking
not only to Peter
who holds
exclusively
the power
of the key
but because
all twelve
apostles of Jesus
holds the power
of the key
and by extension
they lay the
foundation of the church
and the church
of Christ
holds the power
of the key.
That's why
in the gathering
of the church
we exercise
church discipline
together
to bind
and to loosen.
This is why
Ephesians 2.20
says that the church
of Christ
is built
on the foundation
of the apostles
and prophets.
This is why
in Revelation 21.14
the heavenly Jerusalem
which represents
the people of God
the church of Christ
is included in that
it says it has
twelve foundations
and on them
were the twelve
names of the twelve
apostles of the land.
The apostles
of Jesus Christ
make up the foundation
layer of the church
of Christ
and every subsequent
generation builds
upon that foundation
and not on another
foundation
and that's why
we speak of
the apostolic deposit
that we hold on to.
Nowhere does it say
in the Bible
or in Matthew
anywhere
that Peter
was the first
pope
or that Peter
will continue
to speak
after his death
through the bishops
of Rome.
Peter's foundation
laying work
is already done.
He does not continue
to function
in that way.
You would think
that if the bishop
of Rome
was intended
by Christ
to occupy
so prominent
a role
in the history
of the church
that you think
that Paul
writing sixteen
chapters
in his letter
to the Romans
would have something
to say about it.
He says nothing.
And when Peter
himself
addresses himself
to the elders
that he's writing
to in 1 Peter 5
verse 1
he calls himself
not the bishop
of bishops
or the universal bishop
or the pope.
No, he says
I write to you
as a fellow
elder.
It was not
until the fifth
century
when Leo I
argued that
the apostle Peter
continues to speak
through the bishops
of Rome
that the papacy
as we know it
came to exist.
They say that
pope,
the popes
are the vicar
of Christ,
the substitute
of Christ.
until that point
of Leo I
no one ever
claimed that
the bishop
of Rome
is the bishop
of bishops,
the universal bishop.
Sure, Rome
was always a
prominent city.
It was the
former imperial
capital
and because
of their
prominence
they did
have some
preeminence
and outsized
influence
not unlike
the ways
sometimes
large
flagship churches
of certain
denominations
have outsized
influence
and preeminence
among the
churches
that they
are equal
to.
But still
the bishop
of Rome
was still
one of
many bishops.
Sometimes
Christians
find the idea
of having
a single
leader,
a singular
authority
as the head
of the
church of
Christ
appealing.
They think
oh then
maybe we'll
have more
unity.
Maybe
they can
ensure
fidelity
to biblical
teaching
but this
is
demonstrably
false.
It's like
saying that
the United
States
of America
is a
very
united
country
because
we only
have
one
president.
No,
we are
as divided
as ever.
Ideologically
and politically
we're
splintering
in every
direction.
Governmental
unity
does not
equal
doctrinal
unity
or
spiritual
unity.
I can
give you
many
examples
of how
this
has
been
true
throughout
history.
There's
a book
called
Bad
Popes.
You guys
can look
up and
read.
It's a
scholarly
book
that I
think
Catholics
have read
too
so they
know.
Peter is
an important
figure in the
history of the
church and I
affirm that
without
reservation
but this
passage did
not begin
with the
question
who is
Peter?
No,
it began
with the
question
who is
Jesus?
Who do
you say
that I
am?
That's the
more important
question.
In verse
18,
Jesus doesn't
say on
this rock
I will
build
Peter's
church.
No,
he says
on this
rock I
will build
my
church.
Jesus
is the
builder.
Jesus
is the
owner.
And that's
why,
although for
the sake
of convenience
sometimes you
and I
will say
things like,
oh yeah,
Trinity
Cambridge
Church is
my
church.
By that
we simply
mean that
that's the
church to
which we
belong.
Not that
the church
belongs to
me.
No
pastor on
earth,
no bishop
on earth,
and no
pope on
earth can
claim this
is my
church because
Jesus declares
authoritatively
here,
this is my
church.
church,
the church
of Christ.
Church,
of course,
is not
referring to
a building.
It's speaking
of the
people of
God.
The word
church in
Greek means
congregation,
a gathering.
And God
gives us,
the church,
a bracing
assurance in
verse 8,
on this
rock I
will build
my church
and the
gates of
hell shall
not prevail
against it.
I always
wince a little
bit when I
read this
because it
doesn't say
hell in the
original Greek.
If you have
a footnote
in your
ESV Bibles,
you can look
at the
footnote and
it will tell
you that in
the Greek,
it doesn't
say hell,
it says
Hades.
This is an
important
distinction.
There are
two very
different
places.
Hell is
a place
of final
punishment,
what's called
in the
Bible the
second death,
the lake
of fire.
That's where
Satan,
the great
dragon,
and the
false prophet,
and the
beast,
they're all
thrown into
the lake
of fire,
into hell
later on
at the final
judgment.
According to
Revelation 20,
verses 13 to
14,
it's after the
millennial reign
of Christ and
after the final
defeat of
Satan that
God will judge
the world from
the great white
throne.
It's only at
that point that
death and
Hades yield,
give up their
dead,
and then those
people are judged
and they're
punished in
hell in the
lake of fire.
So right now,
there's no
occupant in
hell.
So Jesus is
not speaking
of hell.
He's speaking
of Hades.
The gates
of Hades
will not
prevail against
it.
What is
Hades?
That's very
interesting.
Hades is a
dark place.
It's the
underworld.
It's described
as the pit
sometimes,
the pit of
darkness.
It is,
the Old
Testament equivalent
of the Greek
word for
Hades is
Sheol,
which I'm
sure you've
seen many
times in
the Bible.
Sheol is a
deep place.
Isaiah 38
10 describes
the gates
of Sheol
as a
gate,
gates from
which no
captive ever
escaped.
It's like
Moronon,
the black
gates of
Mordor in
Lord of
the Rings.
It says
in Job
7,
9,
he who
goes down
to Sheol
does not
come up.
So how
can the
church of
Christ
prevail
against the
gates of
Hades,
against the
powers of
death?
That's been
the lament
of the
psalmists
in the
Old
Testament.
In
Psalm 89,
verse 48
to 49,
there's this
lament.
Who can
deliver his
soul from
the power
of Sheol?
Lord,
where is
your steadfast
love of
old,
which by
your
faithfulness
you
swore to
David?
There's this
faith,
this belief
in the Old
Testament,
among the Old
Testament states,
that only God
can deliver
from Sheol.
Because God
says in 1
Samuel 2,
6,
the Lord
kills and
brings to
life.
He brings
down to
Sheol and
he raises
up.
And yet,
God was not
raising up the
dead from
Sheol.
And so they
lament
throughout the
Psalms,
how long,
O Lord,
when will
you finally
raise the
people from
Sheol and
from death?
death.
And that's
fulfilled in
Jesus Christ
when he
comes.
Because the
wages of
sin is
death.
Why does
death reign?
Why does
Hades reign?
Because of
sin.
And so when
Jesus dies
on the cross
to make
atonement for
the sins
of his
people,
and when he
does away
and fulfills
the punishment,
the penalty
that is due,
and absorbs
the wrath of
God in
our place,
Hades no
longer has
any claim
upon the
people of
God.
And so
the gates
of Hades
will not
prevail
against
the church
of Christ.
Sometimes
people
misunderstand
this.
They think,
oh,
like the
gates of
Hades
are like
demons,
you know,
attacking us
and assailing
us and
surrounding us
and we're
like hunkered
down in a
bunker somewhere
and we're
just trying
to wait
it out
and patiently
endure.
That's what
it means.
You know,
we're not
going to be
broken in.
We're going
to endure.
We're going
to make
it.
No,
that's not
the image
here.
What's the
function of
a gate?
It's to keep
people out,
to protect
something.
The kingdom
of heaven
is not
described in
defensive terms
in the
gospels.
It is
described in
the offensive
terms.
Jesus is
the one
who comes
and binds
the strong
man so
that he
can plunder
his treasure
and take
them away.
That's why
it says
in Genesis
22,
17 to 18,
and your
offspring,
this is the
promise God
had given
to Abraham,
and your
offspring shall
possess the
gate of his
enemies,
and in your
offspring shall
all the nations
of the earth
be blessed.
Christ.
This is
fulfilled
ultimately
in Jesus
Christ.
So no,
saints of
God,
you are not
hunkered down
in the bunker
just trying to
weather the
storm of the
enemy's attacks.
We have the
battering ram
of the gospel.
We are the
ones storming
the gates of
Hades,
and we batter
it with the
gospel,
and we declare
the gospel of
truth,
and when people
believe in the
gospel of Jesus
Christ,
Jesus said in
John 5,
25,
the hour is
coming and
is now here
when the
dead will
hear the
voice of
the Son
of God,
and those
who hear
will live.
That's what
we do.
But as we
do that,
as we share
the gospel,
when we see
Jesus'
warning,
I know the
second part of
my sermon,
I titled it
Sharing the
Bread of
Life,
and you
might be
wondering,
okay,
well,
at the end
of this
passage,
Jesus literally
says in
verse 20,
he strictly
charges the
disciples to
tell no one
that he was
the Christ,
so how in
the world
do you get
the main
idea that
you're supposed
to share
this with
everybody?
Well,
that's because
of where we
are in
relation to
the cross.
The
disciples have
not yet seen
the cross,
the death,
and the
resurrection of
Christ.
We live on
the other
side of it.
Jesus tells
the disciples
not to tell
people that
he's the
Christ yet
because it's
so easy to
misunderstand the
role and nature
of his
messianic mission
that Jesus
came to
conquer.
Yes,
he did.
He's the
king.
He has come
to conquer,
but how does
he conquer?
We saw it in
the book of
Revelation very
clearly.
He conquers
by becoming
the slain
lamb of
God,
by dying
on the
cross.
So how
do we
conquer?
How do we
prevail against
the gates
of Hades?
Same thing.
We bear
suffering
witness to
Jesus Christ.
We die
as martyrs
for the sake
of Jesus
Christ,
and we
declare it
as we
suffer,
and as we
do this
as in the
following in
the footsteps
of Jesus,
that's when
the gates
of Hades
fling open,
and the
dead hear
the voice
of their
Lord,
Jesus Christ,
and come
to live.
Let's
pray.
Heavenly
Father,
grant us
faith.
Lord,
rally us
as your
troops.
Strengthen
our hands
that we
can boldly
declare
the gospel
of Jesus
Christ
that makes
the dead
live.
And Lord,
fill us
with fresh
gratitude
and worship
as we
remember
that you've
taken us
from death
to life.
We had
no way
of getting
out of
through that
gate of
Hades,
but you
did it,
Lord Jesus.
Christ,
you did
it.
And for
that you
deserve all
glory and
honor and
praise.
It's in your
precious name,
Jesus,
we pray.
Amen.
Thank you.