THIS IS CHURCH PART 4

Announcements:

Intro:

We’ve been discussing what the church is these past few weeks.

We started this series off by stating that the church is faithful

As ambassadors of the gospel of Christ, because of what He has done for us, in showing us faithfulness again and again

We are called, as the church of Jesus, to be faithful to the mission of Christ

We said that the church is family

Justin did a great job of showing us through Acts 2, how the first church operated and they operated much like a family

Our faith is meant to be done side by side not at arms length

The family has it’s flaws but when done biblically it’s a beautiful picture of the love of Jesus

Last week we said the church is filled

As we looked back throughout creation and the OT and early church history what we see is God’s desire to be with His people

And so as Christ takes upon the cross, He paves the way for the H.S. to come and dwell with us

So, God in us.

This week we will look at how the church is forever!

It doesn’t take much critical thinking to realize that things are falling apart around us

playing football

Every day you are one day older

Evilness seems to just be getting more and more evil

Greed is more greedy

selfishness is more prevalent

And everything around us is frail and fragile

Except for the church

Let’s turn today to Matt 16:13

Matthew 16:13–19 NIV

13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” 14 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” 16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” 17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

pray

If you were with us and remember when we walked through the first several chapter of Matthew we saw how one of Matthew’s primary concern in writing his gospel is focused on showing the authoritative kingship of Jesus

So all throughout his gospel you see royal themes, writings, terminology and phrases, and an emphasis on Jesus as king

And the whole first part of the gospel really leads us to this moment we see with Peter

So we see Jesus step on the scene, we see him begin to preach and perform miracles, we see the sermon on the mount, feeding the 5,000, and he was beginning to have some opposition with the pharisees and sadducees.

and right before this moment Jesus is warning the disciples to watch our for the teachings of said pharisees and saduccees

Then Jesus asks this important and prompting question and begins to have a life altering, world changing conversation.

And there are 3 big things that stand out to me in this passage that are not coincidental

#1 the place it happened

Ceasarea Philippi

This was north. Very north of most everything. About 25 miles northeast of the Sea of Galilee in the domain of Herod Philip which he had renamed to Caesarea in honour of the emperor.

It was an amazing and beautiful place.

There was a cave underneath the mountain that was reputed to be the birthplace of the god Pan who was the most famous fertility symbol in all of ancient paganism.

He was the legendary pagan god of nature and his worship was important and prevalent in this town

That same mountain saw the source of the River Jordan and all around it was filled with temples of classical pagan religion.

And towering above them all was a white marble and massive temple to the emperor

This is the place Jesus chose to go to ask this question

It was against this backdrop that the Messiah would stake His claim

It was as if every various ancient religion converged here

And this is where Jesus asks, Who do people say I am? and Who do you say that I am

The place was incredible and so were the titles Peter used

Jesus begins by using the title for himself, “Son of Man.”

Son of Man was Jesus’ most favorite title for himself and the one He used most often

It was a form of Aramaic speech that was used to designate a particular human or group of humans. So it could be used in a similar way that we use ‘I’

But it could equally allude to the Son of Man to whom will be given the kingdom, power, and glory of God

It was a title open to personal interpretation which is why i think He loved to use it so much

to some it could have meant nothing

to others, it could have meant everything!

When Jesus moves the question from general to personal and ask “who do you say that I am?”

A question we should all wrestle with.

Peter speaks up and answers with “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

None of these titles are new to this gospel but the collection of them together in one place certainly is

Messiah - In Judaism it meant the one would come and fulfil the hopes of the nation.

As prophet, priest, and king.

As priest Jesus perfectly made way for God’s people to dwell with Him

As prophet Jesus perfectly showed everyone what God was like

As King Jesus perfectly exercised God’s rule and reign over everything

It’s an incredible place, powerful titles, and a remarkable insight

Being driven by all they had experienced and revealed to Peter by God himself, Peter declares that Jesus, this carpenter born in a manger is the Son of the living God.

Peter declares that Jesus, you aren’t just a good guy, you arent just a moral teacher, you aren’t just a prophet, you aren’t just a magician with some cool magic tricks

Jesus you are God in flesh

King Jesus, Son of God! There were no higher titles than these.

And this response from Peter was only given to him through revelation from God himself.

And this is our prayer and hope every time that we gather

That God would reveal himself to us and that we would understand more and more who He truly is

Then Jesus responds to Peter.

And few Scriptures attract more ill will among interpreters as these passages.

What is this rock which Christ will build his church?

Some believe it’s Peter himself.

They even go as far to say Peter controls entrance into heaven

Some believe it’s the statement itself

Some believe it’s the heart that Peter has in this moment

But the point is this: Jesus found in Peter a real believer and on that foundation he could and would build his church.

And this church would not nor ever be overcome

It will last and go on forever.

In fact, the Bible tells us that it will grow until it dominates every other kingdom

Daniel 2:44 NIV

44 “In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever.

The biblical church operates inside of the kingdom of God and for that reason it will never fail, it will go on forever until it’s the only thing left

Why is the church forever? Because it’s the kingdom of God and the kingdom of God has a King that can not be destroyed and who will endure forever and ever.

A church may fail, the Church never will.

Here is how I want to end this morning and this series.

My hope and prayer for us during this series is that we would get a better understanding of what the church really is and that when seen through a biblical lens we see a thing of beauty

But let me talk to some of us in this room for a second

The church is flawed.

And the church is filled with people and so it will always be flawed until Christ returns

But we’ve got to do better!

If we want to have an impact on the people around us.

If we want to expand the kingdom of God

If we want our kids and the next generation to love the church the way they ought to, we have got to do better!

And let me say, if you’ve been hurt by the church, I am sorry!

And I don’t know what happened, and I don’t know the details of your story but part of my testimony is watching the church do unhealthy, unbiblical, and sometimes even sinful and evil things but continue to put on a good face and say all the right things

And nothing hurts more than evilness covered with kindness

And little boys who want to strut around and pretend like their men and want to use religion to prey on the weak and vulnerable are cowards who need to stop hiding and find freedom in Jesus!

The church, in a lot of areas has failed, and if it has failed you, hurt you, abused you, stabbed you, cut you, I am sorry and there are no excuses.

But here’s what I’ll say.

There are people out there who are hungry for truth

Who are hungry for faithfulness to God’s Word

Who want to be in the family of God and who want to love on the family of God

Who are filled with the power of the Holy Spirit and who desire to see His kingdom come and His will be done

There’s a generation coming behind us, i’m telling you, they are hungry

And look they may be the microwave generation and won’t wait 30 seconds for nothing

But I’m telling you they don’t have time to play games

They aren’t interested in religion

And the world may be getting worse and worse but it’s only making that line drawn in the sand more and more clear.

And guess what, no matter what happens, no matter who the president is, no matter who controls the house and who controls the senate, no matter what men try to do

The church is forever because King Jesus is forever!

This means, we shouldn’t be afraid

And we shouldn't quit!

We belong to the one thing that is not decaying. Christ’s church