In his sermon 'Who Do You Say That I Am?', Scott Brown discusses the passage from Matthew 16:13-20, where Jesus asks his disciples about his identity. The sermon emphasizes the profound significance of Jesus’ question 'Who do you say that I am?' and how it serves as a pivotal moment for the disciples, particularly for Peter, whose confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, reveals divine revelation from God. Brown explains that this acknowledgment is foundational for the Christian faith and for the Church's establishment, as Jesus declares Peter a rock upon which He will build His Church. The discussion extends to the authority given to the Church through 'the keys of the kingdom of heaven' and the power to bind and loose, signifying spiritual authority in preaching and discipline. The sermon highlights the necessity of personal faith and confession in Jesus as the Christ for salvation and the role of the Church in the continuation of Jesus’ mission. The narrative also covers the broader context of Jesus’ ministry, including his impending journey to the cross and the preparation of his disciples for the Church’s mission.

The passage today is from Matthew chapter 16 verses 13 to 20. When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked his disciples, saying, Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? So they said, Some say John the Baptist, Some Elijah, and others Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. He said to them, but who do you say that I am? Simon Peter answered and said, you are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.

Jesus answered and said to him, Blessed are you, Simon Barajona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father, who is in heaven. And I also say to you that You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you lose on earth will be lost in heaven. Then He commanded His disciples that they should tell no one that He was Jesus the Christ. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, I pray that our hearts will be open to You. Lord, that as we hear Your words, that it will fall on good ground and yield a good crop. Lord, may Your Word come with power. Father, help us to empty ourselves now so that we may be filled by You in Jesus' name. Amen.

We've all come here today with many questions in our minds, questions about ourselves, questions about our future, our children, our work, our money. And this morning, we're going to be considering a question that makes all these questions not the most important questions. And for before us is the most important question that anyone can ever ask. And it really is, it's the question upon which all of life is determined. Heaven and hell hang in the balance.

Life on Earth and the way that it functions hang in the balance. On this question, who do you say that I am? And there are two things that you really have to understand in order to understand what is going on in this world. And the first one question is, what's the purpose of my life? Why am I here?

And the other question is, who is Jesus Christ? Those are the two most important questions and if you if you if you don't understand the answer to the second question who is Jesus Christ you will never be able to understand yourself and so here the Lord is is dealing with his disciples on this whole matter. And what we find here is who people think he is, who his disciples say he is, and then who he is. And then finally what's in this passage is what he will do for his church in this sense that the gates of hell will not prevail and what he will do for the church, he will give them the keys of the power to bind and loose. So that's sort of the range of what's here in this passage.

Now, I want to just pull back for a moment and get a snapshot of chapter 16 so we can just remind ourselves of how it flows. Now remember, our Lord has been giving his disciples many different pictures of what hypocrisy looks like. And in chapter 16, verses 1 through 12, he's warning his disciples about false teaching. And he uses the image of leaven. And he talks about the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

In Mark, he talks about the leaven of Herod. So there's this leaven, this false teaching that's there, and it's always expanding. And the Lord ends up telling his disciples that the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees needs to be perceived and identified and rejected. And then in verses 13 through 20, He's testing their confession of who He is, of who Christ is, and How do you know Him? And I mean that literally.

In what way do you know Him? What do you think about Him? And then finally, as we move past our passage for this morning, in 21 through 23, Jesus tells of his own death. He begins to make his way to the cross and he ends up rebuking Peter. After he's just praised Peter, he will now turn around and rebuke him.

And then finally, at the very last section of Matthew 16, Christ will speak of the Christian life and the denial of self that he calls his children to engage in. Now, so Jesus has been walking with his disciples now at this point for about two and a half years and they have heard him address the multitudes. They've seen him heal the sick and raise the dead and cast out demons. They've watched him go into places where everyone is healed. Nothing like this has ever happened in the history of the world.

And they were able to walk with our Lord and see all of these things taking place. And they've seen him with crowds, they've seen him in the lonely places together with him, they've seen him go to a lonely place, they've been walking, they've been in boats, They've been in so many kinds of situations here, both privately with him and then corporately with the crowds. And now it's two and a half years into his ministry. And so when we encounter him here in this passage, it seems that it's been several months before he's really been with multitudes. If you look at the harmonizations of the Gospels, it seems that way.

And during these few months, he has seemed to have preferred his disciples to the crowds, and he's ministering to them, he's preparing them. Notice, you know, this preparation is concentrating and really he's moving to greater and greater issues and then finally as he gains their understanding of who he is, then he sets his face like a flint to Jerusalem. So he's been preparing his disciples by instructing them, by demonstrating what the kingdom of heaven even looks like. And he's been doing that in so many different ways, but now just after this passage there's a change in the focus of all that's here because the Lord is headed for the cross. And we learned from Mark that it was after a period of prayer that the Lord asked this question to his disciples.

And this question is the most important question. Every human being must answer this question and everything rests upon it. In verse 13 it says that when Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, so they've now moved into this, the northernmost part of Israel. They're right at the foot of Mount Hermon, a 9, 000 foot mountain, a very beautiful mountain snow cap. Honestly it reminds me of Southern California in a lot of ways because they're only a few miles from the Sea of Galilee and then rising right above them is a 9, 000 foot mountain.

Well, that's what Southern California's like. There's an ocean, and then there's just a rapid rise. That's why when I was a boy, we were able to go surfing in the morning and skiing in the afternoon, because it's so close. But here, here they're in this area, Caesarea Philippi, the foot of Mount Hermon, which was a place of idolatry and temple worship. There's a temple for Caesar there and it's, it's, It's in this context that the Lord is asking these questions.

They can see down into the area that they will be going next to Jerusalem itself. And then The Lord first surveys the opinions of men. So he asks this question, who do men say that I am? Who do men say that I, the son of man, am? It's interesting to me that it's a question with the answer to the question in it.

You know, who do men say that I, the son of man, is? He's telling them who he is in one way, or at least one aspect of his identity. And wouldn't it be nice if all questions were asked that way, where the answer was actually in the question. But the title, Son of Man, is used many times, 80 times in the New Testament, and theologically the term shows the humanity of Christ. Remember he is not only the son of man, he's also the son of David, the son of Abraham.

These are also names that indicate that Jesus Christ is a man. And so the word being made flesh is loaded into this term, son of man. Do you remember the woman who cried out, have mercy on me, oh Lord, son of David? Remember in Matthew chapter 12, people were bringing demon-possessed people, the blind and the mute, that he would heal them and he says and all the multitudes were amazed and they said could this be the son of David? And then the Pharisees heard that and said, No, he's casting out demons by the ruler of demons.

In Matthew chapter 9 verse 6, there are these friends of the paralyzed man. They can't get inside the house because there's so many people there. And so they go on top of the roof, and they cut a hole in the roof, and lower him down. And the Lord says that this happens, that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins. And then he said to the paralytic, rise up and take your bed and go to your house." So this is the humanity of Jesus Christ that he is speaking of.

He is calling himself the Son of Man, the Word made flesh. And he was quoting Daniel chapter 7, verse 13, that great chapter in Daniel in his prophecy where he's watching in the night visions and behold, one like the Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven. He came to the ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. Then To him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom the one which shall not be destroyed." Daniel is prophesying of the coming of the Son of Man, and our Lord is referring to Himself as the Son of Man and connecting Himself with Daniel chapter 7 and the whole prophetic scheme of this God man who will come, the Messiah.

So, you know, various answers are given here. And it's interesting to me These are answers from the religious people of Israel. When the disciples answer the question, they're really only going to take from the religious people. So they said, some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. And so these are just the answers from the collection of religious people who are in the nation at that time.

And they're the most favorable responses. You know, it happens so often that people who have a religious mindset, yet they do not really know the Son of Man, they do not know the Son of God. They have appreciation for Him. They say, He's an amazing prophet. He's like Elijah.

He's like John the Baptist. He's like Jeremiah. Jesus is unbelievable. And people can, on the one hand, say that Jesus is unbelievable, but they do not believe Him. And because really He is unbelievable to them.

But at the same time, they have an outward presentation that Jesus is good, that he said good things, he is a good man, just like some of the prophets might be. So the disciples give this testimony of the religious people. Now many other things were said about him. He's a wine-bibber, he's a glutton, he's beelzebubble, and some of the religious people said that as well. So many people have given their opinions about Christ.

And here In this passage, the Lord first asks of the opinions of the world, who do men say that I am? And then after asking this general question, The Lord examines his disciples in verse 15, and he said to them, but who do you say that I am? And so now he's speaking to all the disciples, and he's using the second person plural. So he's speaking to all of them. And it's important in this passage to know when the Lord is speaking in the singular and in the plural.

But he's speaking in the plural at this point. And there's much to say about this, but I'm immediately drawn to the statement, I am, because that has so much meaning in Scripture. It's ego, ami. You remember when Jesus said before Abraham was, I am? You remember the times that the Lord said, I am?

I am is all over the Old Testament And the Lord Jesus picks it up and connects Himself with it in very, very specific ways. And there's some of the most beautiful and meaningful statements that have ever been made. There are seven of them in the Gospel of John alone. I am the bread of life in John 6.35. He said, I am the light of the world in John 8.12.

He said, I am the door of the sheet. I am the good shepherd, John 10-11. I am the resurrection and the life, John 11-25. I am the way, the truth, and the life. John 14, verse 6.

I am the true vine. John 15, 1. And so he says, but Who do you say that I am? And I just can't hardly get beyond those two words there, because they're so wonderful, they're so helpful to understand who this Jesus Christ is. Because this whole passage, I think, has its focus in disclosing who is Jesus Christ.

Who He is to you is the most important thing for you. And so here is this beautiful statement, I AM. And there's so much comfort in that statement. There's so much help for the soul. There's so much understanding about what's going on in your life and what will go on and what help you have.

And the kindness of the Lord Jesus Christ, His mercies toward sinners. It's all loaded into this statement, I am. And so, in this examination is the confession, verse 16. Confession is the confession. Verse 16, and Simon Peter answered and said, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God. At the beginning of our service we were singing, you know, show us Christ, show us Christ. Well here he is. You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Now, Peter is the only one that answers, at least as Matthew records this.

And, you know, Peter often was the spokesman. The Church Father, John Chrysostom, called Peter the director of the apostolic choir because Peter was often speaking for the apostles. And what this is here, this is one of the most important confessions of the Christian faith. And I want to break this down into two parts as we try to focus in on it. I would like for us to just sort of sink into this terminology and savor it, try to understand it.

And the first phrase is, you are the Christ. I'd like us to just think about that. And then secondly, the Son of the Living God, those two phrases. And you can understand so much about your own life, about the destiny of the world, and the condition of your own heart by meditating on those words. So you are the Christ.

This is Christos is the term that's used here. It's the great term that is equivalent to Messiah. And it means anointed one. And it was used in the Old Testament of someone who had been anointed. And there are different kinds of people who are anointed like this.

Prophets, priests, and kings were anointed. Things could also be anointed. The articles of the temple were also anointed. And so here he is proclaiming himself as the Messiah, the Christ. When you hear the term Christ, think Messiah, because that is the connection that He is making with the Old Testament prophecies of Him.

When He says, I am the Christ, He is saying that He is the Messiah. He is the Anointed One. And, you know, in John chapter 4, the woman at the well, she understood this. She had lived an immoral life. She had failed at apparently every relationship she was ever in.

And the Lord met her and gave her the water of life. But their conversation is so interesting because here's what she said to him, I know that Messiah is coming who is called Christ." She was making the right connection. When He comes, He will tell us all things. And Jesus said to her, I who speak to you and he." So he disclosed himself to this woman as the Christ, as the Messiah. And He is the anointed one.

The Lord Jesus Christ is the anointed Messiah. He is the one upon whom God's hand rests. And His anointing is for His people. In Luke chapter 4, the Lord Jesus quotes Isaiah 61, which uses this exact same language, where we read in Isaiah 61 verse 1, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to those who are bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of the vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, to console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they shall be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord that he may be glorified, that they shall rebuild the old ruins, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the ruined cities, the desolations of many generations." His anointing is to do all of those things for His people.

To what? To bring good tidings, to heal the brokenhearted, liberty to the captives, opening the prison doors, comforting those who mourn, consoling those, giving them beauty for ashes, and repairing the desolations that have built up for many generations. His anointing is for that. And when a person recognizes that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, the Son of God, and they believe on Him, and they repent of their sins, then what happens to them is that the anointing of the Messiah is transferred to them, and they have righteousness imputed to them, and they are made clean, they are set free. Their sins are as far as the east is from the west.

Because in their hearts they have made a genuine profession that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, the Holy One of Israel. If you believe that with your heart, then you will be saved. Saved. Calvin said, the confession is short, but it embraces all that is contained in our salvation. For the designation Christ, or anointed, includes both an everlasting kingdom and an everlasting priesthood to reconcile us to God and by expiating our sins through His sacrifice to obtain for us a perfect righteousness and having received us under His protection, to uphold and supply and enrich us with every description of blessings.

Thou art the Christ, you are the Messiah. If anyone wants to be saved, they have to ask themselves, do I believe that Jesus Christ is the anointed one? Is he the Messiah? Has he been sent from heaven to sacrifice his life for the sins of sinners? And was he raised from the dead?

And does he now sit at the right hand of God, mediating for his children? And have you repented of your sins and fled to Him as your only hope? If that is the real conviction of your heart, then you are saved. So, the first is Christ, that you are the Christ, and then the Son of the Living God. Now this was also, this was the confession of the Ethiopian eunuch as well.

You remember Philip opened his mouth in Acts chapter 8 and he preaches Jesus to the Ethiopian eunuch and they came to some water and the Ethiopian eunuch said, Here is water, what hinders me from being baptized? And Philip said to him, If you believe with all your heart, you may." So that's the condition of baptism, that you believe with all of your heart. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And then he was baptized. This was the preaching of the Apostle Paul.

After he had stayed in Ananias' house and was cared for there by probably the only person who believed in him, or believed him, it says, The Bible says that the scales fell from his eyes, and in Acts chapter 920, we read that immediately, he preached the Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God. So This was the heart of the apostolic preaching of the Gospel in the first century. And then the Apostle John says that this is the confession of the true believer. In 1 John 4, verses 14, we read, And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.

This is from 1 John, which was written to help people understand whether they had truly been saved. And John gives several ways in each of the chapters to help you know whether you have been saved or not. Like if you say that you love God and hate your brother, you're a liar. There are a number of tests that you have. So if you hate your brother and you say you love God, then you're not speaking the truth.

You have not been saved. But he says here in verses 14 and 15 in chapter 4, whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God. God abides in Him, and He and God. And this isn't just a surface confession of words. This isn't verbal assent.

This isn't just saying something. This isn't repeating a mantra. It's not like going into the confessional and saying a few words. It's that the entire content of your heart is saying, Yes, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And when that happens, John says, God abides in Him and He in God.

Now you've heard many testimonies about how people were saved and how they got there and things like that. The danger of testimonies is that you begin to think about the testimonies rather than what the Bible says about what it means to be saved. And so you always have to be careful when you listen to testimonies. Not that they're false necessarily. But your faith does not rest on someone's testimony.

Your faith rests only on the testimony of the words of Jesus Christ. And so if you have doubts about your salvation, You should take away in your mind testimonies and exalt what the Bible says. If your testimony, if someone's testimony has reminded you of an issue, test it with Scripture and ask yourself whether Scripture confirms that. And In this statement also is the deity of Christ. He is a son.

A son is one in nature with his Father. And of course, the Lord, the Lord Jesus was constantly emphasizing his oneness with his Father. How he always said what his Father said. He always did what his Father did. And He was one with his father.

He said, I and my father are one. And this term, son of God, also tells you who Jesus Christ is in relation to his father. He is the son of his father. He is of the same nature of His Father. This is a Trinitarian confession as well, because it declares the nature of Jesus Christ.

You know, in John chapter 1 we saw Nathaniel saying this. He called him the Son of God, the King of Israel. He had read his Old Testament scriptures. He understood what he was saying. I mean, even the devil addresses him with this title in Matthew 4.

He says, If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, he will give his angels charge over you. Even the devil acknowledges that he is the son of God, but he doesn't acknowledge that he is the son of God the same way that a believer does. It is true, yes, even the demons believe and they tremble. Yes, it is true that even the demons can have orthodox doctrine. Yes, that is true, but they do not have the same heart as the true believer who says that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

It depends on the condition of your heart when you say that. If you say it like a demon, says it, with fear and trembling and hatred and loathing in your soul, then it's a false confession. And He is the Son of the Living God. He's a Living God. You know how we were just talking a minute ago about the anointing, the Messiah, the anointed Messiah, and what He does in His anointed ministry.

He brings things to life, He raises the dead, He heals the sick, He binds up the brokenhearted. He strengthens muscles that have atrophy. He makes you well. That's what he does. He's the living God.

His life becomes your life. That's why Paul said to the Colossians, when Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then we shall be revealed in glory. Now, his life becomes part of our life. And he takes us to the place that he's going. He's the living God.

In contrast to the idols who cannot hear, they cannot speak, they're deaf and they're dumb. But He is living and He's active. His Word is sharper than a two-edged sword. And He is the living God. It's interesting that it's a present active participle to choose.

It means that there's action that has no end. It's just continuous. That's why David said in Psalm 42, my soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? That's why Jeremiah said, but the Lord is the true God, He is the living God and the everlasting King.

At his wrath the earth will tremble and the nations will not be able to endure his indignation." Another side of his life in the world is that he does He does mete out His wrath. So it's justice and mercy together, in the same person of the living God. And then in verse 17, the Lord replies, and he affirms the confession. And Jesus answered and said to him, Blessed are you Simon Bar-Jonah, For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven." Again I'm taken by the first words out of Jesus' mouth, blessed. This is the same word that He's used in many other places.

The first place that probably comes to mind for most of us is the Sermon on the Mount. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who mourn." And here he calls him blessed. It's the same word. And so Peter's answer gives us an illustration really of the greatest blessing that mankind can ever know.

And that is this, that God would reveal himself to you. This is the greatest blessing, that he would reveal to you, blessed are you, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you. And here what we find is that your only hope of understanding in your heart that Jesus is the Son of God is that He would reveal it to you. That's your only hope. You're not going to get it by your own study or your own self-flagellation.

You're only going to get it if God desires to reveal it to you. It's the Father who reveals, He draws, He opens up blind eyes, And it's not flesh and blood. It's not our knowledge, it's not our background, it's not our mental capacity, it's not our senses, it's not even our family that can open up our eyes. I know there are many of you who lived in families who heard the Gospel preach to you your whole life, and your eyes didn't open until the Lord desired to reveal it to you. In Matthew 11, 25, We read that Jesus said, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes.

Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in your sight. All things have been delivered to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, nor does anyone know the Father except the Son and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal him." So here is a picture of the Lord. He hides things and he reveals things. And no one can know the Father except if the Son wills to reveal Him to him. Flesh and blood cannot do it.

That's why James said in chapter 1, verses 16 through 18, Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Of His own will, Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth that we might be a kind of first fruits of His creatures. As we've said many times in this congregation, a man can receive nothing unless it's given him from heaven. The Apostle Paul spoke of the inability of the natural man to know.

In 1 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 14 he said, But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. That's why the Apostle Paul, when he prays, he prays for the Ephesian Church. He prays that the eyes of their hearts might be enlightened, that they might know the love of God. Because it's an action of God working on a person's heart. And that can happen anywhere at any time.

And every time we gather together, you know, my prayer is that God would reveal Himself somehow through the words of the songs, through the prayers, you know, somehow through the readings of Scripture, through the preaching, through the Lord's Supper, which is such a dramatic revelation of salvation that's in Christ. But that God would reveal Himself to His people, and they would know what is the height and the depth and the width and the length of the love of God. That they would know it in their hearts. That in their own hearts they would say, yes Lord, in my heart I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. I believe that I am a sinner.

I repent. I turn from this world. I turn to you, oh Lord Jesus Christ. Oh Son of David, save me. That's why we gather.

To proclaim the beauty of the presence of the Lord. Philip read out of Psalm 27, one thing that I have desired of the Lord that will I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life and to inquire in His temple. Why would you inquire? Because the Lord reveals Himself. That's why.

Because He's there. There is a God. He is there. He reveals Himself to sinners. That's why Paul said to the Ephesians, for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves is a gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." So in that confession, or in that affirmation of the Lord, "'Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven." This is the greatest blessing that anyone can ever know.

And Peter received that blessing. He knew. And then in verse 18, the Lord continues to speak, and He directs His voice to Peter. Remember, all the disciples are there. He has spoken corporately to the disciples.

And if you follow, he is speaking now to Peter in verse 18. And he actually is making a statement about him and his ministry and what would compose his entire life. And he says, and I say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. Now, Peter has just named the Lord Jesus the Christ, the Messiah. And now the Lord is going to name Peter.

And you notice there's a name change that's going on here. In verse 16, he's Simon Peter. In verse 17, he's Simon Bar-Jona. In verse 18, he's Peter. And it seems that he's saying, you were Bar-Jona, but now you are Peter.

This is what God does with men. He takes a man and He makes them something that he never was before. This is what God does. This is the beauty of His holiness on His people, is that He makes them into something they never were before. He changes their hearts.

He gives them a heart of flesh. And He gives them a new name. And He gives them a new life. And He gives them the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, and He makes them new.

And then he commissions him to exercise authority. Now the first time that Peter met Christ, This was already stated in John 1, 41. He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, this is of course Andrew, we have found the Messiah, which is translated the Christ. And he brought him to Jesus. Now when Jesus looked at him, he said, You are Simon the son of Jonah.

You shall be called Cephas, which is translated as stone. So this was nothing new. Jesus had already said this to Peter on the very first day that he met him. And now he's saying it two and a half years later again, and affirming what he said on his very first introduction to Peter. So what was said here in Matthew 16 was not a surprise.

There are people in Scripture who were renamed as a type, as a picture of what it means to be transformed by Jesus Christ. Abram becomes Abraham, Jacob becomes Israel. And now this has happened with Peter. And what, you know, Peter was foundational in the spread of the gospel. And what it seems, it seems to be a common thread, that those who sort of have foundational roles in redemptive history, their names change.

And so Peter, you know, in this foundational role, in Acts chapter 2, he brings the Gospel to the Jews. In Acts chapter 8, he brings the Gospel to the Samaritans. In Acts chapter 10, he brings the Gospel to the Gentiles. And from Acts 12 onward for the rest of his life, he seems to be going out to the uttermost parts of the earth, spreading the Gospel. And then at the end of his life, he writes two letters that we call 1 and 2 Peter.

And in 1 Peter 2, He says that he is one of God's living stones, being built up in Christ as a spiritual house. He understands who he is. He has a foundational role. He is a stone in the house. He is of the foundational stones of the apostles.

Now the big question is, is he referring to Peter? Now you've got three options. He's either referring to Christ, or He's referring to Peter, or He's referring to the confession that Peter just made. Those are the three big views. Is He referring just to the doctrine that Peter spoke?

Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Is he referring to the, is that the rock upon which the church is built? Or is it Christ? Is it Christ that he's speaking of? Now You have to just look really carefully at the sentence, because the sentence tells you what Jesus is saying.

And I say to you, verse 18, that you are Peter and, this is a term that's used to connect, and on this rock, and linguistically it's undeniable that the rock and Peter are the same. You have to be honest with the language. Does this now imply a Roman Catholic papacy? No, it doesn't at all. But Peter is this rock that He is speaking of.

That's what the text says. Peter is the rock. It does not say that Peter's confession was the rock. Question was the rock. And he's really just being consistent with what Jesus already said to him back when Andrew introduced him.

It's nothing different from that. So in what sense is Peter the Rock? So I'll give you thoughts. Peter is a rock in the foundation stones of the church. He absolutely is.

In Ephesians chapter 2 verses 19 through 22, you read, Now therefore you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets." There you have it. The church is being built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. Jesus Christ, himself, being the chief cornerstone. So there's a distinction here between a stone and the cornerstone in whom the whole building being fitted together grows into a holy temple to the Lord in whom you also are being built for a dwelling place of God and the Spirit. So there are lots of stones in this building.

Peter is of the classification of stones of the foundation of the apostles and prophets. And then there are all these leather living stones that are being built together, Christ is the cornerstone. That's the whole picture. This is not the Roman Catholic papacy. This is a completely different idea.

In 1 Peter 5 verses 5 through, I'm sorry, 1 Peter 2, 5 through 7. Peter makes this perfectly clear. Peter never believed that he was the Pope. He says, You also as living stones being built in a spiritual house into a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Therefore it is also contained in the scripture, behold I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone.

He lacked precious and he who believes on him will by no means be put to shame. Therefore to you who believe, he is precious. But to those who are disobedient, the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. So what kind of stone is Peter? Well, he was not independent nor was he preeminent.

He was even rebuked by the Apostle Paul. He wasn't Valbat preeminent. Peter does play a central role in the early church. He was the first to be called, and he is the first to declare Jesus as the Messiah, And he is the first to declare the gospel in a number of places. So Peter does hold a prominent role.

He's our hero. He's an amazing disciple, and we should follow in his footsteps. His love for Christ was so great. Remember Him in the boat? And when He was sinking?

He had such a great faith. He was the only one that was willing to get out of the boat. He was a man of faith. He had gigantic faith. Even though in the next text, Jesus was going to rebuke him.

He just wasn't thinking right. Peter is a builder just like all other believers are builders. In 1 Corinthians 3 verse 10 we see, According to the grace of God, which is given to me, a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Peter, Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ." So in that sense, Peter is like, in some ways, like the rest of his disciples, who also are builders.

And I was reading, D.A. Carson was pointing out that there are many things in Scripture where Jesus and the disciples are alike. Jesus is the firstborn. Christians are also firstborn. Jesus is the light.

So are His disciples, light of the world. Jesus is the son of God. Christians are also sons of God. Jesus is an apostle and so are Christians, sent ones. Jesus is the lamb of God.

His followers are sheep. Jesus is the builder of His church. So was Paul. So was Peter. So the text doesn't require a Roman Catholic papacy.

Peter was a steward. He was not a king. Peter couldn't have been a pope. He was married. He had a mother-in-law.

And he never taught that the church was built on him. He said explicitly, Jesus Christ is the chief cornerstone. And then he says in his own letter in 1 Peter 5, he says, Now I exhort presbyters, I exhort elders among you, I your fellow elder. He places himself right in the midst of the elders. He wasn't preeminent as an elder.

He was a fellow elder. He was even rebuked by another apostle. So we find Peter in this kind of relationship with the other leaders. He was a fellow elder among the other elders. And he said, when the prince of shepherd appears, you elders will receive the unfading crown of glory.

So that's the confession of Peter. And then what the Lord begins to do immediately after this is that He says, I say to you Peter on this rock I will build my church, I will build my church. Two things here. I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not prevail. That's what we want to focus in on here because here's what follows up, this great confession and the Lord's affirmation of the confession.

Now, there are four subdivisions that I want to speak of in this statement. First of all, the construction of the church. Second, the ownership of the church. Thirdly, the ability of the church. And fourthly, the authority of the Church.

And Jesus is going to teach Peter here how he fits into his Church, and what will happen to his Church, and what he will do for his church. And the first thing he speaks of is the construction of the church. I will build. I will build my church. In 1 Corinthians 3, verse 10, we learn that Paul is an expert builder.

We know who the foundation is, it's Jesus Christ. We know that the apostles and the prophets fit in that foundation and Jesus is the cornerstone. But he is building his church with living stones. And Jesus is using the same language as Zechariah. He uses in Zechariah 12, and he shall build the temple of the Lord, yes, he shall build the temple of the Lord.

He shall bear the glory and shall sit and rule on his throne. So he shall be a priest on his throne. And then skipping to verse 15, even those from afar shall come and build the temple of the Lord, then you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me, capital M-E, to you. And this shall come to pass if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God." So when Jesus says, I will build my church, He's stating that he is establishing an institution in the world called the Church. And it has some new qualities.

While it is consistent with the Jewish Church, it has invested in it many more things. The most prominent is the pouring out of the Holy Spirit. He says, I will build. So this should comfort us that God is building His church. You know, it doesn't mean that every individual, visible church will survive, But it does mean that Jesus Christ will build the invisible church.

And He does it through the visible church. And it needs that the church will never go away. You never have to wring your hands about really the state of the church. Jesus said, I will build my church. It's so easy to be so disappointed in the church.

And it's obvious why we would be disappointed. But Jesus Christ is saying, I will build my church. You can always have confidence in that. No matter what happens in the world to His church, you know that Jesus Christ is building it, that He causes all things to work together for good, all of them, and He uses all of them to build His church. You might have suffered different disappointments in his church and hardships.

You might have been mistreated in a church. But you'll never be able to be reconciled to that until you understand that it's Jesus Christ who's building his church. And what happened to you was part of that. It wasn't an accident. It wasn't an aberration.

It was something that Jesus Christ was doing to build his church. Like if we could just collect up all the disappointments that have taken place in people's church life in this room, there'd probably be a lot. But you have to ask, is Jesus Christ building his church or not? And he says here that he is, he says, I will build my church. Nothing can get in the way of it.

No church leader can get in the way of it. No sociological trend can get in the way of it. No government can get in the way of it. No ruler who tries to stamp out Christianity. No insane media barrage of ungodliness and filthiness will be able to stop Jesus Christ from building his church.

He's unstoppable. He says, I will build. So that's the construction of the church. It will be done. Then there's the owner of the church.

My church. He says, this is my church. Remember in the Old Testament, he would say, let my people go. He's very possessive. He loves his people.

They are his people. They are his possession. They are his precious possession. He calls his people his treasure. And So he owns the church.

This ecclesia, church, the first place that church shows up. This word church shows up in the New Testament. The next place is in Matthew 18, in the teaching on broken relationships in the church and even discipline as a result of that. So he used this word, ecclesia. It's my church and a church is a community of people.

The word never refers to a building. It always pictures people who come together, who come and gather together. They come out of their families, out of their communities, and they gather together. They are an assembly, an ecclesia, a gathering of people. That's what the Church is.

And then not only does he state the ownership of the Church, he states the ability of the Church. The gates of hell will not prevail against it. That's the ability of the church. So you have the gates of hell will not prevail against the church. And it's a confusing picture because what do gates do?

They don't. Gates don't fight. They don't seem to be aggressive. But Here's what I believe it means. The gates of Hades, they represent the work of Satan and the imprisoning power of death in the world.

That that power will not prevail against the Church. Their people will be saved. The power of death will be broken. That people will be raised from the dead in this world. You can always have hope for that.

That God is greater than all the powers of the devil and the angels. That God is greater than hell. He's greater than death. He conquers sin. He conquers death.

He conquers torment. That these things cannot prevail against the Church, that God is sovereign over the devouring attempts of the roaring lion, That God is invincible over the devil's attempts to thwart the Great Commission, and that the Church will prevail against whatever the devil throws at her. That's what this is saying. The gates of hell will not prevail. Now you might look around and say, looks like the church is losing.

That's not, that's just your perception. Jesus Christ has said, the gates of hell will not prevail against my church. That doesn't mean that the church will ebb and flow, but the gates of hell will not prevail. God will win this battle. You know, we were discussing this on Tuesday morning at our Bible study.

We were asking the question, is it appropriate for us to be sort of cowering before the forces of darkness. No! We are not besieged, we are besieging, I think is what Dan said. I like that. But there are these two things.

There's this besieging and there's being besieged. We are being besieged, but we have armor from God. We have put on the full armor of God in order to wage war. And they're both protective and they're aggressive implements that we are given. And I think this passage reflects both, the protective and the aggressive.

When we are sharing the Gospel, we have no reason to be fearful. The gates of hell will not prevail against us. We are more than conquerors. We should see ourselves rightly. We shouldn't see ourselves as the embattled, huddling, you know, hovering people.

That's not us. That's not what this passage is saying we are. We both have protective and aggressive armaments. And we have the Lord who says the gates of hell will not prevail. In John we learn that Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil.

So the church will be victorious. And so it matters how we act. Do we act like a fearful and cowering people? Or do we stand firmly on God and the words of His grace? Do we have no fear to speak of them?

Because we understand that God has said, the gates of hell will not prevail against His church. And then not only does the church have ability, she also has authority. And this is the authority of the church. The authority of the church is explained using two ideas. Keys, number one, and binding and loosing.

First of all, verse 19, the keys. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. So keys and binding and loosing, those are the two things that are given to the church, to Peter. Peter and those who come after him. Because he too is one of the living stones as well.

In Revelation chapter 1, we read that Jesus has the keys. So we have that same thing. Jesus has the keys, but he also gives the keys to his disciples. By the way, It's a future reality. I will.

This is something that will happen later on after the resurrection. The Heidelberg Cataclysm explains that the keys work in two ways, preaching and in church discipline. I'll just read it to you. Question 84, how is the kingdom of heaven opened and shut by the preaching of the gospel? Answer, thus, when according to the command of Christ it is declared and publicly testified to all and every believer that whenever they receive the promise of the gospel by a true faith, all their sins are really forgiven them of God for the sake of Christ's merits.

And on the contrary, when it is declared and testified to all unbelievers, and such as do not sincerely repent, that they stand exposed to the wrath of God and eternal condemnation, so long as they are unconverted. According to the testimony of the Gospel, God will judge them both in this and in the life to come." So The kingdom of heaven is opened and shut by the preaching of the gospel. Also, by discipline. Question 85 of the Catechism. How is the kingdom of heaven opened and shut by Christian discipline?

Remember it was preaching first and then the catechism handles discipline. Answer, thus when according to the command of Christ, those who are under the name of Christians maintain doctrines or practices inconsistent therewith and will not, after having been brotherly admonished, renounced their errors and wicked course of life, are complained of to the church, or to those who are thereunto appointed by the church, and if they despise their admonition, are by them forbidden to use the use of the sacraments whereby they are excluded from the Christian Church and by God himself from the kingdom of Christ and when they promise to show real amendment are again received as members of Christ and his church. So the keys have to do with the preaching and the discipline of the church, as the catechism explains. The people who hold the keys are stewards. They keep the keys for someone greater.

Keys in the ancient world were gigantic. You didn't see kings carrying around keys. They gave them to their subjects to open and to shut. The ESV study Bible states it like this. Jesus delegates authority to human leaders in the church who are called to govern his church on earth under his ultimate authority through the application of his word.

So this was not isolated to Peter. Matthew 18 makes that very clear, that this is how it works in the Church, that the Church has real authority. That's the whole idea. And then the second way that authority of the Church is expressed is in binding and loosing. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven.

Whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Now, it's things by the way, not people. Whatever, It's the things that are bound. It is for sins and for beliefs and actions that the binding and the loosening is engaged in. And of course, it's not an arbitrary and ungodly binding and loosening.

That is forbidden. But the church does not tell heaven what to do, but obeys what heaven commands the church to do. The church can only bind and loose according to the word of God. It can't bind and loose according to its own imaginations. He's quoting Isaiah chapter 22, which is a fascinating discussion about Eliakim and the nail.

And it's a long discussion and we won't engage it, but just know that here the Lord Jesus is connecting himself with Eliakim. Eliakim is a picture, the pig in this story, in Isaiah chapter 22, is a picture of the church. And Eliakim has governance over the treasury, and the Lord Jesus is connecting this office of binding and loosing and the keys to him. So here in this passage we have really a turning point in Jesus' ministry. And that's why we have the prohibition, I believe in verse 20, that He commanded His disciples that they should tell no one that He was the Christ, that He was Jesus the Christ.

Now whenever the Lord does this, we always ask why. The only thing that I would just really recommend is look at the context. Does the context help you understand anything about it? It's a cryptic phrase to me. Why would the Lord want His disciples not to talk about this?

And it's a very difficult question. But if you agree that the context might help you to understand why he would make this demand. Jesus is turning his face towards Jerusalem. It's a turning point in his ministry. He's making his way to the cross.

He's been an evangelist, and now he's a suffering servant. He does not want to be slowed down by the crowds. He does not want to be delivered by the people over to be a king. He has a completely different force and function of his ministry, from evangelist to suffering servant on the way to the cross. He has preached and now he is going to die.

Perhaps that's why he says that, so that more of the crowds will not throng about him. But who knows? That may not be the right answer. That's the best I can do, You know, at this point. What this passage makes so clear is that the most important question that anyone can ask is, Who do you say that I am?

And you have to answer that question. Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God? Do you believe that He died and rose again? Do you believe that He is the anointed Messiah who heals the sick and raises the dead and casts out demons, and that's what you need him to do in your life. That's what this passage is about.

That Christ is the center of Christianity. Man is not saved by a message. He's saved by Christ himself. He's not saved by an experience, but Christ himself. He's not saved by a moral system.

He's only saved when the heart turns in love toward him and says genuinely, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Would you pray with me? Oh Father, you have spoken very careful and powerful words in this text today. I pray that you would help us to understand it and that you would use it to grow our love for you, to help us to clarify where we are with you. Oh Lord, that you would fill us up with the knowledge of your will, that we might know What is the height and the depth and the width and the length of your love?

Amen.