2.12.16 3.16.2025 Matthew 16.13-26 Calling the Church

Start:

 Mid-series transition towards Easter…

         Much of my preaching career I was in a hurry to get to the next series from the next Biblical book. No longer. In general, I like to spend as much time as needed to understand a Biblical book. For some epistles that may take a few, short weeks. A Gospel Like Matthew? I could preach the next 20 years from Matthew and feel like I had only scratched the surface.

          As rich as those meals would be it would not be a very balanced diet. We need variety not only to make sure we consider the whole counsel of God but to keep the congregation and the preacher “fresh.”  I do intend to continue through June with this Gospel. After long years of study, it has become my favorite.    

     Having made it through the Sermon on the Mount we will skip forward and accelerate our pace a bit to arrive at the Cross and empty tomb during the season of Easter. Afterwards we will move back into the book to consider more of the teaching of the Master. I think that it is appropriate for His Church to consider our origin, and His first mention of the Church and our role in redemptive history as we move through late winter and early Spring towards Easter.

     Entice: Each of us experiences the Church as a specific localized body. As we learn more scripture and become more mature, we learn of the universal Church, yet when we use the term Church we mean “My Church.”

     Engage: Don’t you often think of your home Church? The people you knew the teachers who taught you, the preachers and elders who led you. I certainly do. And now this is my Church. We always experience The whole body of Christ, here and now.

     Expand: Yet we know that it is the divine purpose of Jesus that creates the Church. In the Church His vision for the Kingdom is given tangible shape and form. Because it is local and specific each individual congregation will have its own personality, yet an effective Church, gazing through history, even all the way back to Jesus’ first mention of it shares some basic features.

Matthew 16:13–26 ESV

13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 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. 18 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. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” 20 Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ. 21 From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. 22 And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” 23 But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” 24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul    

Explore: Jesus designs and builds His Church, and our mission is built on focused discipleship.

Expand: With the earliest Church we share some distinctive features.

Body of Sermon: The first feature is that we live in a world filled with

1  Confusion about Jesus.

1.1 Common Misconceptions.

    All religious people are basically alike.

    Religious leaders are interchangeable.

 1.2 Cultural Expectations.

      Jesus is understood to be “a holy man”.

       Jesus is thought a prophet.

Here is an essential issue. The expectations and misconceptions Jesus dealt with prevented His audience—disciples, debaters, or deserters from ever seeing Him as new, different and revolutionary.

          This is Still an issue. When everyone knows about Jesus but does not know Jesus there will be misconception and confusion around us. Which is fine...as long as it is not within us.

  With that we come to the next feature which is that we are a people defined by our

2 Confession of Jesus.

    2.1 Biblical Expression.

    2.2 Biblical Expectation.

    2.3 Biblical Expansion.

In breaking free from the expectations, misunderstandings, and errors of the world and boldly confessing the Lordship of Jesus we are then ready to accept the hard work, the final feature of the Church which is it’s

3 Commitment to Jesus.

Commitment to Jesus can be uncomfortable because it is far beyond “natural” religious expression.  To be committed to Jesus means we are committed to

 3.1 Jesus’ Suffering.

Being committed to Jesus’ suffering means we need to look at things from

  3.2 God’s Perspective.

Peter’s objection was more about what Jesus’ suffering implied. It amounts to a fundamental shift in how we view God’s saving work. If Jesus intended to work through the powerlessness of the Cross, then none of the advantages of power mattered and seeking power, prestige, and influence were not only pointless they were made sacrilegious by the Cross.

For God the Cross was the full realization of the great reversal Jesus was constantly talking about.

When we see as God sees and keep the cross of Christ before us that clarifies the requirements of

 3.3 Our Personal Investment.

A crucified Lord is followed by cross-bearing pilgrims whose place in this world is to be displaced immigrants, exiles, unwanted aliens who are not aligned with the values of the world. What else could we give, beyond and in place of our whole being?

Shut Down

     The Biblical viewpoint sounds radical. Because it is.

In an individualistic age it appears to be wrong. Yet it is what Scripture clearly teaches. There is no salvation outside of the Church…not one of the individual, local manifestations of the Church—but the Church of the firstborn, the Church of those who have pledged their all to Jesus.

    We must be a cross-carrying bunch. That is the inheritance of our faith. Not popularity, not power, not wealth, no form of earthly splendor. Just splinters and pain.

     For all of us who are a part of His Body, His Church, discipleship means a cross.

     As parts of His body, we share the pain and sorrow, as well as the joy of victory. It is appropriate for disciples to remember who we are as we make our way to the foot of the cross.