Keys to the Kingdom, Part 1
Matthew: The King and His Kingdom • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 36:12
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· 15 viewsChrist will build His church, and nothing will stop it.
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Call to Worship
Call to Worship
1 Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever! 2 Let Israel say, “His steadfast love endures forever.” 3 Let the house of Aaron say, “His steadfast love endures forever.” 4 Let those who fear the Lord say, “His steadfast love endures forever.” 5 Out of my distress I called on the Lord; the Lord answered me and set me free. 6 The Lord is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me? 7 The Lord is on my side as my helper; I shall look in triumph on those who hate me. 8 It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man. 9 It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes.
Adoration
Adoration
Confession
Confession
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving
Message
Message
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.
Christ will build His church, and nothing will stop it.
Christ will build His church, and nothing will stop it.
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?”
Like most places in the Ancient world, this area has a diverse background.
During the period of the OT when the Canaanites were in this region it was the place of Baal.
In later Greek periods, a shrine was dedicated to the Greek ‘god’ “Pan” the Canaanite days.
Herod Philip ruled over this region during the time of Jesus.
It was just as pagan as it had always been.
It was named “Caesarea” to honor the emperor of the time, “Caesar.”
And “Philippi” to honor the man who currently reigned over the region, Herod Phillip.
One of the primary Greco-Roman gods that was worshipped in this region was the god Pan.
The god Pan is recognized by his half-goat, half-man figure.
He was the god of fertility.
A feature that you can still go see today is the giant opening that has a natural spring coming from it.
This entrance was referred to the entrance to the underworld.
With this dark, ominous background of gross paganism, Jesus asks arguably the most important question so far in the Gospel of Matthew.
The Dividing Question – Who is Jesus?
The Dividing Question – Who is Jesus?
Who do people think that I am?
What are people saying about me?
What do they think of me?
Jesus’ question aims to draw out for the disciples their own confession.
Everyone recognized Jesus was different.
Confusion of the crowds
Confusion of the crowds
The crowds were confused about the identity of Jesus.
14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
They knew He was unique.
But they didn’t know Him.
15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
Jesus shifts the conversation from the crowds to them.
Matthew makes clear here that all the attention is on them!
Don’t focus on what the crowds say anymore.
Don’t tell me what the religious leaders think of me.
Tell me what you think.
This is the turning point in Matthew’s gospel.
The response were about to see is the center of the book of Matthew.
Everything that came before it points to it.
Everything that comes after it will point back to it.
Confession from Peter.
Confession from Peter.
As typically happens, Peter speaks.
He speaks because he’s the “first among equals.”
He’s the representative of the disciples.
16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
You are the Christ!
Christ as we have seen is the Greek rendering of Christ (Gk: Χριστὸς) from the Hebrew word of Messiah (Hb: מָשִׁיחַ).
The Hebrew origin is the idea of the Anointed One.
The One who will be the Anointed of God, filled with the Spirit without measure (John 3:34-35)
This Jesus is the One sent from God.
He is the One who has been conceived and anointed by the Spirit from before His birth (Luke 1:31-33, 1:41).
This Jesus is the One who will redeem the people of God for Himself.
Just so there is no doubt, Peter clarifies who this Christ is more fully.
The Son of the Living God!
Adam is called a son of God as a representative sense (Luke 3:38).
Israel is called a son of God in a corporate sense (Exodus 4:22-23; Hosea 11:1).
Even the Davidic kings are called a son of God (2 Samuel 7:14; Psalm 2:7).
This category of “a son of God” is used repeatedly in Scripture.
Which makes it all the most amazing when Jesus comes on the scene.
Because the Apostles apply all of those categories to Jesus in a Unique way that has never been or ever will be used again.
All of the types and shadows seen in Adam, Israel, and the Davidic king converge on this One man.
All of these others were called “sons of God” because of their role, or the covenant, or by the grace lavished on them.
Jesus Christ is referred to as the Son of God by nature.
It was not something added to Him, but revealed to us.
Jesus did not become the Son of God.
Instead the Son of God has been made manifest in the world.
18 No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.
Jesus is the Son of God by His nature.
3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.
Think of it this way…
What’s the difference between these two things I make: my child and a clay pot?
I certainly make both of them.
But one of them share my very nature.
They reflect something of my being.
They reflect what I am like.
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.
The Church that Christ Builds
The Church that Christ Builds
This is the first time the word “church” is used in the book of Matthew.
The term for “church” or “ekklesia” is a term for an “assembly.”
But Jesus here seems to be repurposing the term.
Not only is it an assembly but it will be His assembly.
The fellowship of the people of God from the OT is transformed and the law of God is now written upon their hearts.
The church will be the people of God who recognize the inbreaking kingdom of God on this earth.
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.
The church built from the revelation of the Father.
The church built from the revelation of the Father.
Peter’s confession is not from below, but above.
Nobody showed Peter this confession.
The phrase, “flesh and blood” is a way of saying that no human revealed this to Peter.
Paul uses this same phrase in describing his conversion experience Galatians 1:16.
People did not reveal this to Peter, instead the message is divine in origin.
The message did not originate in the mind of men, but has come from above.
Application for the uniqueness of the Church.
If the church is something that man made up, we did a pretty terrible job.
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.
Peter’s confession comes from above.
Jesus says that the Father revealed to Peter this confession.
Not from people, but from the Father is this message of Jesus Christ made known to him.
As Jesus said earlier in Matthew…
25 At that time Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; 26 yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.
The gracious will of the Father is to reveal to them the person of the Son and draw people unto Him.
The one who looks at Jesus and hears the beckoning call of,
“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28)
Application for the importance of the Church.
The church is not an optional add on of the Christian life.
The church are the people who willingly, joyfully submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
They submit themselves to the rule and authority of Jesus Christ.
18 And I tell you, you are Peter (Petros), and on this rock (petra) I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Jesus renamed Peter from Simon to Peter (John 1:42).
This is important because anytime God renames a person in the Bible their new name is significant for what they will be.
(i.e. Abram to Abraham, “exalted father” to “father of a multitude” Genesis 17:5).
The expression of “this rock” most naturally refers to Peter.
What is the Church built on—Peter himself, or the truth he confessed?
The question is not whether the Church has a foundation.
What kind of foundation did Christ give?
Is it a man and his successors?
Is it the confession that man made and all who follow?
Now the Roman Catholic church hold to a doctrine they call Apostolic Succession.
The RCC believe Jesus gave the keys of the kingdom to Peter.
And to all who come after Peter and those who hold the office that Peter held.
This is how you get the office of Pope, which they believe acts as the vicar of Christ.
Then the Pope when he speaks, Ex cathedra ("from the chair") means he’s declaring infallible authority.
They hold that Peter is the chief steward of the kingdom and all who stand in the line of apostolic succession hold this authority.
I think one of the largest problems in the way that modern evangelicals think boils down to a simple faulty way of thinking: the straw-man argument.
A straw-man argument is simply that you set up the other person’s argument, as if it were a man-made of straw, and you blow it down with great force.
We do not help ourselves by straw-manning other people’s positions.
We must deal with the best arguments presented in the best ways so that when we disagree with them, we’re not merely disagreeing with a made-up monster that we’ve conceived in our mind.
If you were to present their views to them, would they agree?
We hate it when other people present our views to us in the most uncharitable ways imaginable.
We need to take great pains Christian to not merely dismiss what other theological systems have said, but to deal with them accurately, charitably, and robustly.
Because if we do not, we will lose the next generation to ancient errors.
This came long before Protestants, but we must recognize that this was core to the Protestant reformation.
They argued that Rome was not the primary authority, but the Apostolic authority found in the Scripture.
The Church doesn’t authenticate the gospel by succession.
The gospel authenticates the Church through proclamation.
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.
The church built on a solid foundation.
The church built on a solid foundation.
Jesus is the church’s One foundation.
Scripture Attests to the Apostles and Their Confession.
19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.
The truths that Peter confesses and exemplifies truly are the foundation of the Church of Jesus Christ.
And Peter himself is referred to as the “first among equals” (1 Peter 5:1), but the foundation is not the man but the message.
42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
The earliest disciples devoted themselves not to Peter the man, but to the teaching of the apostles.
Scripture’s Example of the Apostles in Their Failures.
Peter fails some five verses later and Jesus calls him, “Satan” (Matthew 16:23).
If the man were merely the foundation, than literally the foundation was ruined five verses later.
And it would have been shipwrecked entirely when he rejected the Lord Jesus outright until Christ restored him.
8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.
Paul will later say that Peter became deceived from the Judaizer’s in Galatians (Galatians 2:14)
14 But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?”
We don’t say all this to condemn Peter as is sometimes communicated by Protestants.
But we should recognize that the Church doesn’t authenticate the gospel through succession.
The gospel authenticates the Church through proclamation.
Even in Peter’s restoration to the truth, we should hear Jesus say to him, “Feed my lambs” (John 21:15-19).
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.
The church built with guaranteed growth.
The church built with guaranteed growth.
Jesus will build His church.
There have been so many well-intentioned yet blissfully ignorant people that think they can build the church of Jesus Christ.
Any carnal man can attract a crowd.
Any carnal man can get people excited.
Any carnal man can laboriously teach and give any manner of well-attended lectures.
But the Lord Jesus Christ ONLY will build His church.
Growth comes through His appointed means.
Growth comes through His appointed means.
This means that the means we use for building the church of Jesus Christ must align with the God-ordained means Jesus has commanded.
Does this mean we do not labor?
Of course not.
4 Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. 5 Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, 6 who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit.
It’s not that Paul is making a distinction between the “Word of God” in the OT and now the Spirit of God as though they are separated.
When he says that “the letter kills” he’s referring to the OT law “carved in letters on stone” that demanded perfection but did not empower.
The Word of God believed, understood, lived out, and written on the heart by the Spirit empowers “the ministry of righteousness” because its a righteousness of God and not our own.
Unless the Spirit of the Living God move upon a person’s heart
Growth is moves toward His appointed ends.
Growth is moves toward His appointed ends.
Jesus isn’t looking for more people to be in His fan-club.
He’s not looking for more people to loosely profess about Him.
No.
He is looking to conquer those who formerly were in rebellion to Him, but not reconciled to the Father through Him and obedient to the faith.
Adopted disciples that radiant the glory of God.
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.
A church built that cannot be overcome.
A church built that cannot be overcome.
Jesus’s church will not be prevailed over.
Remember where Jesus took the disciples here.
He took them to the pagan city of Caesarea Philippi.
Christ will build His church, and nothing will stop it.
Christ will build His church, and nothing will stop it.
