WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.560 So, I'm delighted to welcome all of you to this church, especially if it's your first time. 00:00:07.360 --> 00:00:11.359 ! Just saying the word church is interesting because I feel like the word church is a loaded 00:00:12.160 --> 00:00:18.879 ! word these days. Maybe it always was, but the word church tends to conjure lots of associations. When 00:00:18.879 --> 00:00:23.519 I'm out and about and people ask what I do and they find out I work for a church, it always provokes 00:00:24.239 --> 00:00:30.320 lots of interesting responses. And that's because I think the word church, I think the word church kind 00:00:30.320 --> 00:00:37.519 of has powerful emotional associations for people one way or another. Some people hear the word church 00:00:38.079 --> 00:00:45.039 and it immediately conjures sense of warmth and belonging and connection. They think of their 00:00:45.039 --> 00:00:50.320 church home, people who love them and invested in them, and some of you have that experience and 00:00:50.320 --> 00:00:56.640 and praise God. I hope everybody in our church has those memories looking back. But I can 00:00:57.679 --> 00:01:00.880 be sure that you know as well as I do, there are lots of people out there with very different 00:01:00.880 --> 00:01:05.040 associations. People, when they hear the word church, they immediately think of disappointment 00:01:06.079 --> 00:01:14.480 or they think of pain or they associate church with scandal or abuses of power, leaders falling from 00:01:14.480 --> 00:01:18.719 grace, grace, stories that we've read about in the news or things that you've experienced personally. 00:01:20.719 --> 00:01:26.320 And because of that, I think it's more and more common for people to have the sentiment that, 00:01:26.320 --> 00:01:31.760 you know, if I want to have a relationship with God, if I want to follow Jesus, why do I need the 00:01:31.760 --> 00:01:36.640 church for that? The church has only ever brought me frustration and disappointment and hurt. 00:01:37.280 --> 00:01:45.200 Why would I go back? Why would I go to the trouble to be involved? Why get up on a Sunday? Why sign up to 00:01:45.200 --> 00:01:53.120 do things? When I can download sermons at home, when I can read my Bible, when I can pray, when I can do 00:01:53.120 --> 00:02:00.560 all that on my own time and my own schedule, why church? So, we're here this morning to ask, 00:02:00.560 --> 00:02:07.519 what would Jesus say in response to these questions? Not just pastors, people who work for the church, 00:02:07.519 --> 00:02:13.280 but what would Jesus say? We're going to look at Matthew chapter 16 this morning. This is in our 00:02:13.280 --> 00:02:19.199 lectionary reading, so we come to this passage providentially. I think it speaks to a lot of 00:02:19.199 --> 00:02:24.480 these questions. This is a conversation between Jesus and His disciples where He, for the first time 00:02:24.480 --> 00:02:30.480 in this gospel, uses the word church. He's teaching them about church. And so, we're going to see 00:02:30.479 --> 00:02:35.679 what according to Jesus is church and why does it matter? Why does it matter to us? Or should it 00:02:35.679 --> 00:02:42.000 matter to us? And we're going to see that church is more than just one thing. You know, if you look 00:02:42.000 --> 00:02:48.000 at this passage, we can sort of think of three words to describe church. Church is, of course, a community. 00:02:50.000 --> 00:02:55.439 Church is not just a community. It's also an institution. And then on top of that, it's not just 00:02:55.439 --> 00:03:00.399 a community or an institution. It's also a movement. So, please join me in prayer and then we 00:03:00.400 --> 00:03:07.040 will open God's word together. Let's pray. Our Lord, Heavenly Father, thank You for not only the 00:03:07.040 --> 00:03:11.200 fact that You've given us the freedom to gather here, but thank You first and foremost for Your 00:03:11.200 --> 00:03:17.360 presence here. You're the one we seek to hear from this morning. It's Your voice. It's Your presence 00:03:17.360 --> 00:03:23.360 that we seek and most need. We pray that, Lord, as we open Your written word, we would encounter the 00:03:23.360 --> 00:03:27.920 living word, that we would come to a deeper understanding of who You are and what Your desire is for us, 00:03:27.919 --> 00:03:34.799 and what it means how we might glorify You. We pray this in Your Son's name. Amen. 00:03:36.479 --> 00:03:41.679 So, the first thing that we're going to see as we open this passage together is that the church is a 00:03:41.679 --> 00:03:50.359 community, which shouldn't be a surprise to many of us. It's a community of faith, a community of faith 00:03:50.360 --> 00:03:57.560 in Jesus as the Messiah. In Matthew chapter 16, verse 13, we're told that Jesus comes into the region 00:03:57.560 --> 00:04:02.760 of Caesarea Philippi. And this is a place where there's a lot of confusion at this point in the 00:04:02.760 --> 00:04:12.300 gospel around Jesus' identity. Who is He really? And so, He asks His disciples, who do people say the Son of 00:04:12.300 --> 00:04:18.220 Man is? And I want you to notice that right off the bat, Jesus begins His teaching on the church by 00:04:18.220 --> 00:04:23.860 asking a question about His identity. So, there's a connection between what we believe about Jesus' 00:04:23.860 --> 00:04:30.700 identity and the church. So, the disciples say, well, some say He's one of the prophets, and they name 00:04:30.700 --> 00:04:38.380 a few of the prophets, and they represent traditions of expectations around what God was going to do to 00:04:38.380 --> 00:04:45.480 save and rescue His people. And they say, well, some say that He's one of the prophets. And I think many 00:04:45.480 --> 00:04:50.060 people today would say something similar. Yeah, you know, I think Jesus was probably real. Most scholars 00:04:50.060 --> 00:04:56.280 agree that He was real, and He was more than likely just a great man, a great prophet, a social reformer. 00:04:58.400 --> 00:05:05.520 Then Jesus asks the real question, but what about you? Who do you say that I am? 00:05:06.960 --> 00:05:13.259 And Peter answers on behalf of the disciples, right? He's asking all of the disciples. It's a plural you. 00:05:13.259 --> 00:05:22.519 Peter, as the representative, answers. And He says, you are the Messiah, the Son of the living God, 00:05:22.719 --> 00:05:29.860 the Messiah, the ultimate prophet, priest, and king, the one we've been waiting for. And Jesus responds, 00:05:30.039 --> 00:05:35.240 blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my 00:05:35.240 --> 00:05:40.779 Father in heaven. This is the answer that He was looking for. And I tell you that you are Peter, 00:05:40.779 --> 00:05:47.799 and on this rock I will build my church. Now, a lot of ink has been spilled over this verse. 00:05:49.479 --> 00:05:56.579 And there's a lot of disagreement over what exactly Jesus means here when He says this 00:05:56.579 --> 00:06:04.139 back to Peter. We really obviously don't have time for a full deep dive into this discussion. 00:06:04.139 --> 00:06:10.759 But after praying about this a bit, I decided it would be worth addressing briefly for this reason, 00:06:10.839 --> 00:06:16.939 because in our church, a lot of us, a number of you come out of a Catholic background, and that 00:06:16.939 --> 00:06:20.899 there's going to… a Roman Catholic background, and you're going to have a different way of reading 00:06:20.899 --> 00:06:25.759 this. Some of you come from very other… you know, on the other end of the spectrum, and maybe you've 00:06:25.759 --> 00:06:30.279 never even thought about what this means, or maybe you've never even looked at this verse closely. 00:06:30.279 --> 00:06:34.459 A number of you go to Roman Catholic school. You're going to be starting this week. And so, 00:06:34.779 --> 00:06:39.259 this is one of those areas of difference that is meaningful and significant, and it helps us 00:06:39.259 --> 00:06:47.179 understand some of the differences between Roman Catholics and Protestants and the Eastern Orthodox 00:06:47.179 --> 00:06:53.459 Church and various groups. And so, I think it's worth spending a little time on. But I do want to say, 00:06:53.539 --> 00:06:56.639 you know, as a principal in this church, we don't normally talk about other Christians, 00:06:56.639 --> 00:07:01.680 and when we do, we like to focus on the things that we agree on. So, this is a bit of an exception. 00:07:02.159 --> 00:07:06.219 And if you're sitting here thinking, you know, this has nothing to do with me, bear with me, 00:07:07.019 --> 00:07:10.079 and hopefully I'll make it clear in a few minutes why this matters. 00:07:12.339 --> 00:07:19.159 The Roman Catholic Church tends to say that Peter himself is the rock, and what this indicates is that 00:07:19.159 --> 00:07:26.300 Peter here is being kind of instituted as the first leader of the church, the bishop of Rome, 00:07:26.300 --> 00:07:32.439 which becomes essentially the first pope, the supreme leader of the church. And then along with 00:07:32.439 --> 00:07:39.420 that belief is the idea that that authority and that seat transfers to all future bishops of Rome. 00:07:40.379 --> 00:07:45.540 So, that's the claim. Now, I have obviously great love and respect for my Catholic brothers and 00:07:45.540 --> 00:07:50.060 sisters and many Catholic friends, and some of you here are Roman Catholics. I say this 00:07:50.060 --> 00:07:57.639 just by way of illustrating some of the differences. One of the reasons that I'm not a Catholic priest 00:07:57.639 --> 00:08:02.019 and that this isn't a Catholic church is because I see nothing in this passage that would indicate 00:08:02.019 --> 00:08:08.800 that Peter becomes the supreme leader whose authority then transfers to his successors. 00:08:09.860 --> 00:08:15.180 This interpretation, if you look back in history, that interpretation only shows up centuries after 00:08:15.180 --> 00:08:21.660 this was written. And if you look back for the first roughly thousand years of the church, 00:08:22.259 --> 00:08:28.819 what you see is that the bishop of Rome was given a place of honor. They were given a place of primacy, 00:08:29.139 --> 00:08:36.180 right? They were recognized as a uniquely honored role, right? But had no supreme authority, 00:08:36.179 --> 00:08:43.959 right? So, for centuries you never see the bishop of Rome acting with this kind of supreme authority. 00:08:44.979 --> 00:08:49.459 Instead, when we ask how was the church governed, how did decisions get made, how did doctrines get 00:08:49.459 --> 00:08:56.679 worked out, it was conciliar, meaning councils of bishops from the various areas of influence 00:08:56.679 --> 00:09:04.120 gathering together and working out these differences and disagreements and establishing practices and 00:09:04.120 --> 00:09:12.279 doctrines together, a conciliar fashion, right? Over the centuries, though, the authority in Rome began 00:09:12.279 --> 00:09:17.840 to grow. Rome was the center of the world. It was like the Washington, D.C. or the New York City 00:09:17.840 --> 00:09:25.919 of the world. And so, after a thousand years, the authority in church began to…in Rome began to be 00:09:25.919 --> 00:09:32.500 asserted more strongly over the Christian world. And so, they began to insist that Christians everywhere 00:09:32.500 --> 00:09:38.879 not just recognize the bishop of Rome as having primacy, but actually as having supremacy. 00:09:39.879 --> 00:09:47.820 And with that shift, something very significant happened. In the 14th century, it was decreed that 00:09:47.820 --> 00:09:54.500 anyone who does not recognize and submit to the pope as supreme is not in saving relationship with 00:09:54.500 --> 00:10:02.860 God. And so, this became a point of division between the church, right, what we call the schism 00:10:02.860 --> 00:10:12.299 and the first great schism. And so, what we see here is this difference of interpretation. 00:10:13.679 --> 00:10:17.000 And we have to figure out, and it's hard, and people have debated this for centuries, 00:10:17.120 --> 00:10:22.139 what did Jesus really intend here? And so, when we ask what was the intent of this, 00:10:22.139 --> 00:10:25.620 the best thing that we can do is to go back to the early church fathers. What did the early 00:10:25.620 --> 00:10:32.319 Christians in the first few centuries read in this passage? And what we see from church fathers such 00:10:32.319 --> 00:10:41.639 as John Chrysostom or Ambrose of Milan or Augustine is while they don't agree on every aspect of their 00:10:41.639 --> 00:10:48.500 interpretation, they all share this important conviction. Peter cannot be separated from his confession, 00:10:48.500 --> 00:10:57.740 and his confession cannot be separated from Christ. And so, what we have is Peter in his confessional 00:10:57.740 --> 00:11:05.600 capacity almost standing as a representative of the church as he represents the disciples responding to 00:11:05.600 --> 00:11:14.120 Jesus' question. If we understand it that way, what we see is that Peter is not the foundation because 00:11:14.120 --> 00:11:20.259 of some strength or authority that he possesses. Only a few verses later, and Pastor Hillary is going to 00:11:20.259 --> 00:11:27.779 take us through this next week, only a few verses after this, Peter horribly misinterprets 00:11:27.779 --> 00:11:34.299 the meaning of the cross, and Jesus rebukes him as being in league with Satan, which one would not expect 00:11:34.299 --> 00:11:40.620 to be the first act of the supreme leader of the church. So, Jesus rebukes him. So, what we see is that 00:11:40.620 --> 00:11:47.120 Peter has a foundational role because God reveals Christ to him, and then he confesses that truth, 00:11:47.259 --> 00:12:03.240 and he becomes a leading witness to it. Amen. And as we… Just kidding. And as we look at what happens 00:12:03.240 --> 00:12:10.980 after this, right, we see these events unfold at Pentecost, where Peter essentially preaches a 00:12:10.980 --> 00:12:17.860 sermon that is a longer exposition of this conversation in Matthew chapter 16, where Peter 00:12:17.860 --> 00:12:22.379 preaches a sermon where he essentially says, no, Jesus is not just one of the prophets. 00:12:23.580 --> 00:12:30.840 Jesus is God's Messiah, right, the Son of the living God. And the people hear this, and thousands of 00:12:30.840 --> 00:12:36.040 people repent and put their faith in Jesus, and guess what? The church is born. The church is born 00:12:36.040 --> 00:12:40.500 on the rock of Peter's confession of faith in Christ. 00:12:44.019 --> 00:12:49.940 I believe Peter never thought of himself as the rock on which the church is built. If you look at 00:12:49.940 --> 00:12:57.080 his epistle, the letter that he wrote to his people, in chapter 2, he says that Christ is the cornerstone 00:12:57.080 --> 00:13:02.040 of the church. And he says, well, who are we? Well, we're all like living stones that are 00:13:02.040 --> 00:13:08.660 knit through faith together. We're built together into a spiritual house but built on the cornerstone 00:13:08.660 --> 00:13:14.000 of Christ, right? Now, what difference does this make? You just endured kind of a more, 00:13:14.660 --> 00:13:18.420 you know, church history lesson here, but what difference does this make? Well, 00:13:18.419 --> 00:13:28.679 what makes you a Christian? What makes you a Christian? Is it submission to Jesus 00:13:28.679 --> 00:13:39.519 and a human leader? Or is it just Christ? Or is it that you grew up in a Christian family? 00:13:40.379 --> 00:13:44.259 Or is it that you grew up in a Christian culture and so by default you're a Christian? 00:13:44.259 --> 00:13:50.779 Is it that you pray? Is it that you go to church? Is it that you serve and volunteer? Is it that you 00:13:50.779 --> 00:13:57.659 try your best to live as a good person and you're in the upper 50% of good people, right? What is it 00:13:57.659 --> 00:14:03.159 that makes you a Christian? And I would say if we read this correctly, it is your confession of faith 00:14:03.159 --> 00:14:10.480 in Jesus as the Messiah. That's what makes you a Christian. And what's beautiful about that 00:14:10.480 --> 00:14:20.120 is that it doesn't rely on anything other than faith in Christ. And so, everyone who confesses faith 00:14:20.120 --> 00:14:24.320 in Jesus is welcomed into the church. You have people who grew up in the faith and people who 00:14:24.320 --> 00:14:30.080 didn't. People who grew up in this culture and people who didn't. People who are morally upstanding 00:14:30.080 --> 00:14:34.879 in the upper quartile and people who you would never expect to see in a church. And they are all here 00:14:34.879 --> 00:14:41.320 together like living stones built upon the cornerstone of Christ. So, the church is first 00:14:41.320 --> 00:14:47.419 and foremost the community of people who confess Jesus as the Messiah. We're going to come back to 00:14:47.419 --> 00:14:53.000 that. The church is also more than that, though, not just a community. This is where you're going to 00:14:53.000 --> 00:14:57.059 get nervous, right? Well, some of you just got nervous. Now, others of you are going to get nervous, 00:14:57.139 --> 00:15:00.659 right? This is going to make you… If you come from a Roman Catholic background, thank you for 00:15:00.659 --> 00:15:05.139 bearing with me. I'm really sorry for the… If it was abrasive in any way, but if you come from a 00:15:05.139 --> 00:15:10.059 very low church Baptist or you've never been to church background, now you're in the crosshairs, 00:15:10.219 --> 00:15:18.559 okay? The church is also an institution. It's the I word. It's a bad word. Grounded in the apostles. 00:15:19.639 --> 00:15:23.719 Jesus goes on to say, 19, verse 19, I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. 00:15:24.459 --> 00:15:28.319 Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed 00:15:28.320 --> 00:15:33.440 in heaven. You know, some people say, well, he's giving that to Peter, right? Well, no. Two chapters 00:15:33.440 --> 00:15:39.060 later in Matthew 18, he gives this same authority to all the disciples who become apostles. So, he's 00:15:39.060 --> 00:15:46.200 giving this to all of his disciples. The language of keys is about access. It's about access. 00:15:46.960 --> 00:15:54.800 So, think of Hagrid and Harry Potter. Do you remember what Hagrid's actual title was? Anybody know? 00:15:54.799 --> 00:16:02.699 Keeper of the keys, right? So, Hagrid was more than just kind of a groundskeeper. Hagrid was the 00:16:02.699 --> 00:16:09.120 keeper of the keys. He could determine who was allowed into Hogwarts, right? He had the honor 00:16:09.120 --> 00:16:16.439 of escorting people like Harry, first-time students, into this magical world that they could never 00:16:16.439 --> 00:16:22.339 otherwise gain access to because he was the keeper of the keys. He had the ability to grant access, 00:16:22.340 --> 00:16:27.320 but very importantly, Hagrid didn't do this in his own authority. Hagrid wasn't sitting there saying, 00:16:27.480 --> 00:16:33.340 I want you, but not you, right? Hagrid was only acting with the authority that had been delegated 00:16:33.340 --> 00:16:40.139 to him by Dumbledore, who's the head wizard, the headmaster of the school, right? And so, what we 00:16:40.139 --> 00:16:47.300 see here is that Jesus is delegating authority to his apostles to open the way to the kingdom of heaven, 00:16:47.299 --> 00:16:55.139 to have the great honor of granting people access into this world that they would never otherwise 00:16:55.139 --> 00:17:02.639 be able to enter. And you say, well, how? And it is through the preaching of the gospel to those who 00:17:02.639 --> 00:17:10.399 need to hear it, as Peter does at Pentecost, right? This contrasts with Jesus' criticism of the local 00:17:10.399 --> 00:17:14.740 religious leaders of the day who were slamming the door to the kingdom in people's faces. 00:17:14.740 --> 00:17:22.220 And so, Jesus is saying, now we're giving the keys to you. Go preach the gospel. Welcome people 00:17:22.220 --> 00:17:28.380 into the kingdom. And the language of binding and loosing is related to this. In the rabbinic 00:17:28.380 --> 00:17:35.859 literature, binding and loosing describes the authority that the rabbis had to teach and to 00:17:35.859 --> 00:17:42.539 discipline and to declare what was forbidden and what was permitted, right? And it's connected to 00:17:42.539 --> 00:17:50.119 whether or not we are able to declare that God has forgiven people or not. So, the way we determine 00:17:50.119 --> 00:17:56.839 what does and does not belong in the church is by asking whether or not it aligns with the teaching 00:17:56.839 --> 00:18:05.180 and the tradition of the apostles. And that apostolic authority was passed down to future generations 00:18:05.180 --> 00:18:12.240 generations of clergy. This language shows up in our ordination service and in particular to bishops. 00:18:13.539 --> 00:18:20.480 And that's how we see the church functioning for centuries, right? So, Jesus is establishing the 00:18:20.480 --> 00:18:26.120 church not just as a community but as an institution. And I just want to be clear, what's the difference? 00:18:26.340 --> 00:18:32.340 Well, what He's saying is that human beings have been entrusted with spiritual authority to act in His name. 00:18:32.339 --> 00:18:41.679 Makes us nervous. He's laying the groundwork for authoritative teaching, for doctrinal standards, 00:18:42.179 --> 00:18:48.699 for established practices and boundaries, for processes for decision-making and church discipline, 00:18:49.159 --> 00:18:57.819 and for ensuring continuity beyond any particular member or leader. Now, I want to say with 00:18:57.819 --> 00:19:05.899 deep understanding, I understand not only that this makes a lot of people these days nervous, but why it makes 00:19:05.899 --> 00:19:10.939 people nervous. I mean, I think all of us love the idea of community. There's nothing offensive about community. 00:19:11.079 --> 00:19:19.200 It's warm. It's fuzzy. We want community. But the idea of institutional authority, I don't know many people who 00:19:19.200 --> 00:19:27.480 gravitate towards, maybe some people do in D.C., but a lot of people makes us nervous, which is understandable. 00:19:27.720 --> 00:19:37.640 I know so many of us, myself included, have been deeply hurt, deeply hurt because of experiences we've 00:19:37.640 --> 00:19:42.519 had in the church and because of fallible leaders. And the idea of giving anybody like that power makes 00:19:42.519 --> 00:19:50.319 us incredibly nervous. I totally get it. But here's the thing. If the church were merely a community, 00:19:50.319 --> 00:19:54.420 but not an institution, you would never be able to trust it. 00:19:58.000 --> 00:20:04.779 Do you want to know why? Because without any guardrails, every new generation of Christians 00:20:04.779 --> 00:20:11.440 would reinvent Jesus in their own image would redefine the gospel according to their ideas. 00:20:13.000 --> 00:20:21.079 Listen, Christianity is constantly in danger of being co-opted by kings, by politicians, 00:20:21.079 --> 00:20:29.139 by personal agendas, by cultural trends. Without any guardrails in a generation, 00:20:29.140 --> 00:20:38.180 Christianity would be unrecognizable. Jesus has established the church as an institution 00:20:38.180 --> 00:20:44.460 grounded in the teaching and tradition of the apostles in order to preserve and transmit 00:20:44.460 --> 00:20:52.980 truth from one generation to the next. And the apostolic tradition gives us a standard by which to 00:20:52.980 --> 00:21:00.799 measure ourselves. As we look back 2,000 years, are we still worshiping the same Jesus, preaching the 00:21:00.799 --> 00:21:07.500 same gospel, right? So, our confidence, friends, is not in the perfection of church institutions 00:21:07.500 --> 00:21:18.539 or human leaders, which will, myself included, always be flawed and deeply imperfect. That's not where 00:21:18.539 --> 00:21:25.599 our confidence lies. Our confidence lies in Christ and in the apostolic tradition that continually calls 00:21:25.599 --> 00:21:34.279 the church to repentance and reform. Perhaps our greatest capacity as a people is our capacity for 00:21:34.279 --> 00:21:40.539 self-correction. And we are only able to do that because we have a standard by which to measure ourselves. 00:21:40.539 --> 00:21:47.940 So, whenever and wherever the church stops looking like Jesus, we need to reform it. We need to repent. 00:21:48.539 --> 00:21:54.180 Whenever and wherever the church preaches any gospel other than the one given to us by Jesus, 00:21:54.180 --> 00:22:00.779 we need to reform and we need to repent. So, the church is a community, but it's also, 00:22:01.779 --> 00:22:08.059 the good news is, an institution. We have the structures that we need to self-correct, 00:22:08.059 --> 00:22:18.539 right? Lastly, the church is a movement. It's a movement. Jesus makes this amazing promise in verse 18, 00:22:19.179 --> 00:22:25.500 on this rock I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. What we see here is 00:22:25.500 --> 00:22:33.879 that the church is a movement that shares in the victory of Christ. The gates of Hades represent the 00:22:33.880 --> 00:22:39.800 power of death which exists because of human sin and rebellion. And what this tells us is something 00:22:39.800 --> 00:22:45.380 very important, especially if you're here and you're not a Christian or this is… you don't normally go to 00:22:45.380 --> 00:22:53.100 church and hear things like this. Our deepest problem is not financial stress. It's not loneliness. 00:22:53.099 --> 00:22:59.839 It's not injustice. It's not poverty or violence or war. Those are serious problems. Scripture takes them 00:22:59.839 --> 00:23:07.039 very seriously. We should too. But it says they are all symptoms. Our deepest problem 00:23:07.039 --> 00:23:10.480 is that we are cut off from the source of life, 00:23:11.480 --> 00:23:22.000 that we're cut off from God Himself, and that we're held captive, right? We're in a cage. 00:23:22.000 --> 00:23:27.900 Right? The gate has been closed in our face. We're trapped. 00:23:30.420 --> 00:23:36.599 Jesus says the church is a movement that is sweeping across the world, setting people free, 00:23:37.000 --> 00:23:44.920 and that death no longer has any power over this movement. Now, that is extraordinary. And this 00:23:44.920 --> 00:23:50.460 promise becomes even clearer in the following verses. Jesus immediately, as we follow in this passage, 00:23:50.460 --> 00:23:55.840 He immediately goes on and tells His disciples that He's going to go to Jerusalem, that He's going to 00:23:55.840 --> 00:24:00.940 be killed, and that He's going to rise again. So, He says, the power of death no longer has any power 00:24:00.940 --> 00:24:06.720 over you. And then we keep reading, I'm going to go to Jerusalem, and I'm going to be killed. 00:24:07.420 --> 00:24:14.240 Now, why would He say that? Well, then He says, I'm going to rise again. And this is how Jesus 00:24:14.240 --> 00:24:21.900 builds His church. It's through His death and His resurrection. He breaks the power of sin. He breaks 00:24:21.900 --> 00:24:28.779 the power of death. And then through faith in Him, the church shares in His victory. We're joined with 00:24:28.779 --> 00:24:35.380 Him, and we share in that freedom. The gate is thrown wide open, and we're invited to come out into 00:24:35.380 --> 00:24:41.359 the light of freedom. So, the church is not merely a community. It's not merely an institution that exists 00:24:41.359 --> 00:24:45.579 for its own sake. We're not just sitting around coming up with new policies and trying to ensure 00:24:45.579 --> 00:24:54.279 we survive. We are a movement, right? We are a movement. We exist to set people free by preaching 00:24:54.279 --> 00:25:00.819 the gospel to those who need to hear it. If we lose sight of that, we have forgotten why we are here. 00:25:02.479 --> 00:25:08.240 We are a movement that exists to set people free by preaching the gospel to those who need to hear it. 00:25:08.240 --> 00:25:15.019 So, let me sort of pull this together. I want to apply it briefly, just to ask the question, 00:25:15.160 --> 00:25:18.880 okay, we looked at this and what it means, but what does it mean for me? What does it mean for you? 00:25:21.759 --> 00:25:26.799 I would say, first of all, the importance of a personal confession of faith. 00:25:28.259 --> 00:25:35.980 At some point in your life, we have to move from public opinion to private personal confession, 00:25:35.980 --> 00:25:43.400 right? So, Jesus asks every single one of us the same question. He says, you know, I know what your 00:25:43.400 --> 00:25:50.500 co-workers think. I know what your family thinks, what they raised you to believe. I know what your 00:25:50.500 --> 00:25:57.640 friends think. I know what your neighbors think. What about you? Who do you say that I am? 00:25:59.380 --> 00:26:04.860 You know, if anybody who knows my story, you know I sort of grew up and one Christian parent, 00:26:04.859 --> 00:26:09.719 one non-Christian parent, went to church sometimes, just called myself a Christian because I just 00:26:09.719 --> 00:26:16.319 thought, you know, I was in the Christ-haunted South, a lot of cultural Christianity. But I found 00:26:16.319 --> 00:26:22.179 it very easy to shed that label by the time I got to high school because I just, you know, 00:26:22.919 --> 00:26:26.559 it had no relevance for me, didn't have any impact on my life, didn't seem to make any difference at 00:26:26.559 --> 00:26:33.599 all. And it wasn't until my last year in college when a friend said, have you ever actually sat down, 00:26:33.599 --> 00:26:38.299 read the Gospels, and decided what you believe about Jesus? He was asking me the same question. 00:26:38.519 --> 00:26:42.500 I know what your family thinks. I know what the church taught that you grew up in. What do you think 00:26:42.500 --> 00:26:48.399 about Jesus? And I had to admit, I'd never done that. And only when I did that, that I come to faith 00:26:48.399 --> 00:26:53.659 in a way that actually began to change the course of my life. Some of us, I think, feel this sense of 00:26:53.659 --> 00:26:59.279 emptiness in our faith, and you feel that your faith doesn't make a difference because you've never 00:26:59.279 --> 00:27:06.299 really moved from the public opinion of Jesus to your own personal confession. What do you believe? 00:27:08.299 --> 00:27:13.779 This is the most important question of your life, and friends, everything else hinges on that answer. 00:27:16.240 --> 00:27:22.539 Number two, I would say this shows us and kind of highlights and underlines and bolds the importance 00:27:22.539 --> 00:27:29.220 of a local church, the importance of a local church. Confessing faith in Jesus is not just something we say, 00:27:29.720 --> 00:27:37.339 it is something that we are called to live out every day. And our chances of living faithfully 00:27:37.339 --> 00:27:47.500 and following Jesus if we go it alone are almost zero, almost zero. You need the support of a community. 00:27:47.500 --> 00:27:54.740 I need the support of a community. And this is why Jesus has established the church as the way to have 00:27:54.740 --> 00:28:01.160 a relationship with Him. I'm not saying you can't connect to God by opening your Bible or by praying 00:28:01.160 --> 00:28:09.640 in your house. Of course, you can. But Jesus makes it very clear when two or three gather, He, in His name, 00:28:09.680 --> 00:28:16.059 as we do, He's uniquely present. When we share the meal at this table, He is uniquely present. 00:28:17.500 --> 00:28:22.440 That He is meant to be experienced in community as we gather around His Word and table. 00:28:23.460 --> 00:28:28.859 And as we said earlier, the only way to know that as I go in my life day to day, week to week, 00:28:29.140 --> 00:28:34.619 trying to follow and be faithful to Jesus, the only way I know whether I'm staying on track, 00:28:34.940 --> 00:28:38.740 whether I'm worshiping the real Jesus as opposed to a Jesus of my own making, 00:28:39.259 --> 00:28:43.680 is by being part of a community that is rooted in the apostolic tradition. 00:28:43.680 --> 00:28:48.299 Having brothers and sisters around me who can help me course correct if I need it. 00:28:49.799 --> 00:28:54.980 So, when you hear Hillary, when you hear me, when we encourage you to do things like 00:28:54.980 --> 00:29:02.200 come to church and worship every week. Join a ministry team and serve and serve others in the 00:29:02.200 --> 00:29:09.460 community. Come and make sure that you are praying and being prayed for, you know. Come to the classes 00:29:09.460 --> 00:29:14.480 that are helping us go deeper in our faith and understand why we believe what we believe. 00:29:14.680 --> 00:29:19.880 Join a core group so that you'll have brothers and sisters throughout your life and throughout 00:29:19.880 --> 00:29:24.900 the weeks to encourage these things to go deeper in your heart. These are not options on a buffet table. 00:29:25.660 --> 00:29:31.380 These are not polite suggestions. This is the way to have a relationship with God, 00:29:31.380 --> 00:29:37.000 right? This is the way we've been given by Jesus through the church. 00:29:39.900 --> 00:29:44.800 The last thing I would say is that this gives us, I think, tremendous hope for the church. 00:29:45.380 --> 00:29:52.960 Hope for the church. For all who have experienced disappointment or scandal or deep hurt in the 00:29:52.960 --> 00:29:57.600 church, I think it can be very tempting just to give up altogether. As I said earlier, I get it. 00:29:57.599 --> 00:30:09.619 But Jesus says, the gates of Hades will not overcome the church. All other institutions will one day 00:30:09.619 --> 00:30:19.379 crumble and fade away, but the church is eternal. It is the only institution that will last into eternity. 00:30:19.380 --> 00:30:30.100 Even marriage will end, but not the church. You know, Dallas Willard was a philosophy professor who 00:30:30.100 --> 00:30:36.460 wrote widely, many of you know him, on spiritual formation in the church. And he really spent much 00:30:36.460 --> 00:30:40.780 of his life addressing these kinds of questions. Why isn't the church doing a better job of producing 00:30:40.780 --> 00:30:46.280 people who look like Jesus, you know? And so, near the end of his life, not long before his death, 00:30:46.279 --> 00:30:50.619 he was interviewed. And it was a really long interview. If you've seen it or read it, it's 00:30:50.619 --> 00:30:56.839 really worth your time. But they asked him, you know, they talked all about the challenges facing 00:30:56.839 --> 00:31:00.899 the church and all of that. And the interviewer asked him, you know, when you look at how off 00:31:00.899 --> 00:31:07.399 track the church is, do you ever just throw up your hands in despair? And Willard just smiles and says, 00:31:07.500 --> 00:31:15.299 never. And the interviewer says, well, how can you not? How can you not? And Willard says, 00:31:15.299 --> 00:31:22.480 because I know Christ is the head of His church, and He knows what He's doing. Let's pray. 00:31:27.180 --> 00:31:33.579 Lord, anything that is not of You, would You let it fade in Your mercy? Whatever in this we need to 00:31:33.579 --> 00:31:40.399 hear on a personal level, we pray that You would root it deep. Lord, we pray that as we respond by 00:31:40.400 --> 00:31:47.680 confessing our faith, by singing, by praying, by coming around Your table. Lord, we pray that in 00:31:47.680 --> 00:31:53.540 our opening ourselves to You, that we would receive You who offer Yourself to us, Lord. And we pray for 00:31:53.540 --> 00:32:00.040 those who have a hard time doing that, that Lord, in Your grace, You would soften and open our hearts, 00:32:00.160 --> 00:32:05.420 make us receptive to You, Lord. For those who need to be challenged by this, I pray that You would stir us 00:32:05.420 --> 00:32:11.580 up and give us a holy discomfort. For those who need to be comforted, I pray that You would encourage us. 00:32:12.640 --> 00:32:16.120 And we pray all this for our good and Your glory. In the name of Jesus, amen.