Building Our Foundation

Introduction

Good morning and welcome to the first Sunday of 2025 at First Christian Church. I am Shane, the associate pastor here, and I again want to welcome you this morning to worship with us.

Since it is a new year, I want to introduce something new to us. This year, we are focusing on a theme for the year. Simply put, this is something to help guide us as we look forward to the year and to help shape what we are doing ministry-wise. We want to have a focus and purpose for ministry-wise what is done and be able to answer some of the ‘why?’ questions.

That said, last week I mentioned some of the stats around biblical literacy. And as a recap, from surveys done, there is a need for us to be biblically literate, even in the church. Now, I am not implying that we here at FCC are illiterate, but that we could always use Bible studies, sermons, conversations, and materials that help us to grow our knowledge and understanding of the scripture. And we want to be intentional to do that in all we do here. That is why we have started the two Sunday school classes. That is why we do women’s and men’s bible study. Why we have CR on Wednesday night, and Tuesday morning bible study during the week.

All of this is to sure up our knowledge, belief, understanding, and foundation in Christ. And that is simply put, our theme this year. Building our Foundation on Jesus. If you are building a building or a home, the foundation is vital. If the foundation is off, the whole building will suffer for it. In our world today, you have a lot of access to information, some good and some bad. But we want to spend the time to make sure that we have a solid foundation built on Jesus Christ, the only hope in life and death and the only path to salvation.

This doesn’t mean anything crazy is going to happen or change around here, but it does mean we want to focus our efforts on making sure that the foundation is sure and solid. We will be looking at who Jesus is, his teachings, why they matter, and how to study God's word all this year.

Today I want to start by looking at a passage that I think speaks to the importance and truth of our foundation. It may be a familiar passage, or maybe not, but I think it will give light to what we have talked about so far this morning.

Read Passage

Matthew 16:13–18 ESV

Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Pray

One thing that I find interesting is phrases that have snuck into our lives that may sound like they are from the bible, but in reality, are not. Or maybe they are a misquote from biblical statements. Things like:

“Cleanliness is next to Godliness.”

“Money is the root of all evil.”

“God helps those who help themselves.” (Aesop)

“God wants you to be happy.”

“To thine own self be true.” (Shakespeare)

All of these statements sound like they could be in the Bible, but they are not found there. A lot of Shakespeare could sound like it comes out of the KJV bible, just because they both use old English. These are examples of how things that are bible adjacent can swirl together with biblical truth and lead to confusion. The love of money is the root of all evil, not money itself, but by removing a word it changes the meaning quickly.

These are examples of what the world may think the bible says, or think what Christians believe. A misrepresentation of the actual truth. First, we need to be strong enough in our understanding of scripture to know that these are not from the bible (or be good enough at googling to know), and second, we have to be ready to give a defense of the hope in us.

In this passage in Matthew, we see a similar conversation. Jesus asked his disciples a simple question, Who does the world say I am’ and got an answer. So, let's dive in here to this passage and see how our foundation should be set.

Setting

The setting for this conversation builds up some of the importance of what is happening. The scriptures say that this area is known as Caesarea Philippi. This area, if we go back in the Old Testament to Joshua and the times of Israel conquering the Promised Land, was used as a place to sacrifice to false gods. In fact, in some ancient Jewish understanding, Mount Hermon was nearby was the place that fallen angels were cast down to after the fall of Lucifer, and from there began marrying human wives and creating the Nephilim and other races of giants we see described. Now that is another sermon for another day.

But this area would continue to be a place of worship of false gods throughout the OT and even into the time of Jesus that we see today. By the time of this passage, this area would have had caves dedicated to the worship of the god Pan, who was half goat and half man, and the god of panic or fear. There were carvings of this god likely Zeus, and caves that were believed to be the entrance to the underworld or hell. We even have evidence that there were altars to Molech and child sacrifice would have taken place here.

So, as we continue looking at this passage let us keep this in mind. Jesus, the son of God, has brought his disciples to the literal physical representation of Hell on earth. Probably the place farthest from where you would think you would find Jesus and his disciples. And it is here at this site that he begins asking about who the world says he is. I cannot imagine what it would have looked, sounded, or even smelled like there. I could see the disciples being uncomfortable being there. Maybe unsure of why Jesus had brought them to this place. I can imagine it would feel creepy or give an uneasy feeling being around this collection of pagan places of worship. And I want to be clear here, these places were not just some caves in the sides of mountains, I firmly believe that we fight a spiritual battle between God and the enemy Satan, and places like this were front-line positions where Satan’s demons had taken residence. There was some spiritually significant fighting taking place here.

Who Do People Say I Am?

Jesus starts with a pretty simple question here. Who do people say I am? Remember, while the Jews were looking forward to a Messiah coming, they were expecting an earthly king that would overthrow the earthly kingdoms and set up one here and now. They did not expect, or anticipate, that the kingdom would be spiritual at first. So when Jesus doesn’t immediately murder Caesar in Rome and set up this powerful earthly kingdom, there is discussion about it. He is healing people, performing miracles, teaching, and building a gathering that is causing a stir in the area.

When he asks that question, I am sure he is prepared for a lot of answers. In a moment we will look at the answers of the disciples, but I do find it interesting that this question is still asked today. Who is Jesus? If you were to pull out your phone and google it, you would get a million responses. You could go to a bookstore or library today and find books articles and documentaries trying to answer this question. A question that seems like it should have a simple answer has confounded the world. Especially when you try to answer that question with a worldview that eliminates the spiritual. Some will say a teacher, a guy with great teachings on morals, or a leader, maybe some may even say he was a figurative character created by people in the 1st century. Same question, same wonder, same misguided ideas of who this Jesus guy is.

Some Say…

I have said this before, but we sometimes view the disciples as somehow spiritually elevated. Yes, they are the closest earthly group with Jesus, but they also are human, and I think the answer from the disciples here shows that. They give three names to answer the question that Jesus poses.

First, they say John the Baptist. John the Baptist had died just two chapters before this. And in the 1st century in Israel, news didn’t travel well. You add this in with the fact that Jesus and John had a similar ministry, calling people to repent, and they were even family, there was an open door for confusion between the two men.

Second, they say Elijah. Now, this is a great guess. If you were to look at the ministry of Elijah there is a lot of similarity between him and Jesus. One problem, Jesus has already said in Matthew 11:14 that John the Baptist was the coming of Elijah. This was expected, that Elijah would come before the Lord would. Jesus is not Elijah, John the Baptist was, declaring the way of the Lord and that he was coming. We looked at this call on the life of John during our series last month on Joy.

Finally, they say Jeremiah. Jeremiah could have been described as a prophet of Judgment and repentance. He was also opposed by the religious leaders of his time. Again, a lot of similarities between Jesus and Jeremiah, but they are not the same person. They even kind of hedge their guess by saying he could be one of the prophets.

While these answers are not the ones that Jesus was looking for, they give us a clear understanding of something. The disciples recognized that Jesus was not just another teacher. He wasn’t just a rabbi, a carpenter, or a guy with great advice. There was something different about this Jesus guy, and the only explanation we can grasp is a prophet. You sound like Elijah, Jeremiah, John the Baptist, or one of the prophets. There is something about this Jesus guy and we want to follow Him.

But Who Do You Say I Am?

Jesus now narrows this field of the question. No longer what does the world say, but what do the men that are closest to me say? What is your response to who I am? I don’t care what the world says, I want to know what you say. Of all the disciples our friend Peter responds.

Peter answers. Maybe the most important answer to a question. His response, which I have been calling the great admission, is still the truth we build our foundation on. Peter tells us the truth of who Jesus is. He is the Christ, the son of the living God.

In Greek, the word is Christos which means Christ, Messiah, or anointed one. Jesus is not Elijah, Jeremiah, John, a prophet, or just a good guy. He is the Messiah, the promised one, the one that would come to redeem His people. He is more than a rabbi, he is the son of the living God. While the disciples sit amongst the world's response to things, sitting around altars to false gods and demons, Peter proclaims the truth. And today the answer stays the same.

What foundation do we want? The foundation of Jesus. The foundation is built on the Christ, the Messiah. My foundation can only be built on one person, on Jesus my savior. And your foundation has to be the same. He is the cornerstone of our faith.

On This Rock

Jesus responds with joy. He tells Peter this answer did not come from man but from God. And because of this Peter, whose name in Greek (language of NT) and Aramaic (spoken language at the time) is associated with rock, will be what the church is built on. Since this time people have had questions about what this means.

One way it has been interpreted is that the church is physically built on Peter. The catholic church built St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City literally on top of Peter. I am going to let you know, this was not the intention. Remember, our foundation is on Jesus, not man.

Next, there is the idea that the church will be built upon the decisions and leadership that the disciples and Peter have. The verses after the ones we have read this morning talk about binding and loosing things and some believe that the disciples will be entrusted to lead the early church and set the precedent for how things are done. We see that play out in the book of Acts and the other New Testament epistles. I think this is a worthwhile interpretation of it. We see the disciples doing those things, and we still follow the lead of the early church today.

The final interpretation though is I think the most important. When Jesus says that on this rock he will build His church, he is talking about the statement that Peter makes. This rock of truth, that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the Living God. This statement of truth is the foundation for the church, not only for the church but for us!

I think it is important to bring up the setting one more time. Here are Jesus and the disciples gathered in a region known only for the worship of false gods. There is a strong demonic presence here. The world knew this area as the gateway to hell. Old Jewish tradition taught that the angels fell to Mount Hermon in this area and from here bred the Nephilim we read about in the Old Testament. But, two important things happen here. First our story today of Peter proclaiming the truth of who Jesus is. Secondly, a story we didn’t teach today, but it is believed that this area would be the place where the transfiguration of Jesus takes place. The glory of Jesus is seen here. What a beautiful picture!

Application

Jesus makes a strong bold claim in the heart of the pagan worship area of his time. What does that teach us? The world may try to find salvation in other places. It may feel like, at times, that the enemy is winning. But Jesus told us, the gates of hell will not prevail. It may feel like the enemy is winning, but he won’t prevail. We know that Jesus is stronger, greater, and mightier than the enemy.

This is why our foundation is so important. Maybe you have a foundation built on Jesus already, and we just want to make sure it is sure. Make sure it is still strong. Maybe you have never built your foundation on Jesus.

But, we have to ask ourselves the same question Jesus asked his disciples. Who do you say He is? Is he just a teacher? A good guy? A person you talk about on Sunday and forget about the rest of the week? Is He your Savior? Would you say He is the Christ, the son of the living God? Today I am asking you, who do you say Jesus is?