Putting it Together

8/23/2026

Order of Service:

Announcements

Opening Worship

Prayer Requests

Prayer Song

Pastoral Prayer

Kid’s Time

Offering (Doxology and Offering Prayer)

Scripture Reading

Sermon

Closing Song

Benediction

Special Notes:

Standard

Opening Prayer:

Holy God almighty, we confess that we fail to live as Your body in the world connected by the peace of Christ. We neglect the gifts You have given us and shy away from proclaiming Your truth. Forgive us and renew us to be faithful witnesses to Your holy kingdom. We pray this in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Call to Worship

Leader: If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, the flood would have swept us away.

People: Blessed be the Lord, who has not given us as prey to their teeth.

Leader: Jesus said, “on this rock, I will build my church.”

People: We come to worship the one who is our refuge and strength.

Leader: Come, let us lift our voices to the Lord of all creation.

All: Alleluia! We rejoice in God’s providence and power!

Scripture: Matthew 16:13-20

Matthew 16:13–20 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.” 20 Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

Putting it Together

Movement 1

How many of you have seen the original Star Wars movies?

They all very famously start off by saying, "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away..." and if you only watched the first movie, you might think you had seen all you needed to see. The princess gets rescued, the people are saved from the bad guys, and there's a big happy ending. But if you happened to see the second Star Wars movie, The Empire Strikes Back, you know that there is one line, just a handful of words, that makes you rethink the whole first movie.

Today's passage is a whole passage in itself. If you know what happens next, don't spoil it for your neighbor.

In fact, don't spoil it for yourself.

Now, today our passage begins a long time ago in Caesarea Philippi. It was the Mt. Rushmore of the Roman Empire, north of Galilee. King Herod's son Philip named the city after Caesar and squeezed his own name into it to distinguish it from the Caesarea on the coast. There were niches carved into the great rock to hold images of pagan gods around the Temple of Augustus. There was a spring emerging from the caves, flowing into the Jordan River, which local tradition held to be a doorway to the Underworld. People came from all over the Roman Empire to visit this site, and marvel at their favorite pagan gods. Jesus brought his disciples to this place, way out on the edge of the Promised Land, the boundary between the clean and the unclean, the living and the dead, to ask them a question.

"Who do people say that the Son of Man is?"

Movement 2

"Who do people say that the Son of Man is?" “Son of Man” was the title Jesus used for himself.

Well, Jesus, that depends on who you are asking. The disciples had been around a lot of different people at this point. They had interacted with leaders from the Pharisees and Gentiles outside of Israel. They had been with the wealthy and the poor, criminals, Roman officials, and tax collectors. Jesus was gaining a reputation and everyone had their own opinions about who they thought he was.

Some thought he was John the Baptist back from the dead. That might have been the popular answer. After all, John had lived in the wilderness, away from sin and unclean Gentiles. He preached the coming of God's Kingdom to everyone, inviting them to repent, be baptized, and join God's people living according to God's ways. John was even so bold that he preached to King Herod, telling the king to repent of his sinful ways. He was very popular, and many people thought Jesus was somehow the continuation of his work.

Others thought that he was the prophet Elijah, come back from the dead. The prophet Malachi wrote that Elijah would return to announce the Messiah, and since Elijah did not die in a typical way, some thought he could return and rescue everyone again, just as he had during his lifetime as one of God's greatest prophets. The disciples also reported that some people thought Jesus was the prophet Jeremiah, or one of the other great prophets who spoke about the Messiah coming to set God's people free and teach them to live faithfully with Him again.

Jesus wanted to know what the world thought about him, and the disciples gave him the answer.

Then Jesus asked them a different question.

"But what about you? Who do you say that I am?"

Movement 3

Now that's an entirely different question on two fronts:

Jesus pointed the question not at what the world thought, but at what the disciples thought. But what was more surprising was that he dropped the third person reference to the Son of Man and asked them plainly.

"Who do you say that I am?"

There stands Jesus among the lifeless statues of foreign gods, out on the edge of the world. They have watched him perform countless miracles and cure every kind of disease. While the pagan world is marveling at the fanciful stories brought out by these decorations behind them and the Jewish world is arguing over who is going to save them, Peter finds himself standing face-to-face with the one who is saving them. He's not carved out of dead stone. He is the only true power here in this place of little gods.

"You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God."

(pause)

They had been whispering it and wondering it the whole time they followed Jesus. They bowed down and worshipped him in the boat and heard the sick and suffering call him the Son of David. But I wonder, in the midst of all the miracles, if it was a little like trying to see a polar bear in a snowstorm. There was so much goodness of God being spread around, sometimes even passed through their own hands as they fed the multitudes. But here, in this place depicting the boundaries of life and death and filled with unclean people worshipping false idols, everything that went against their beliefs — the contrast was tangible. This place that should have felt detestable, that Peter would never have gone to on his own, was the place where he saw the truth of Jesus shining through.

There was no more wondering and whispering. Peter claimed it. Jesus is the Son of God: the one they had been waiting for. He didn't know what tomorrow would hold, but everything Jesus had done showed him that he could stand on that truth.

Movement 4

Jesus looked at Peter and said, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven."

It was not because Peter was smarter or better than anyone else. It was because everything he had experienced with Jesus was leading him to this revelation. Not a feeling, not something he finally figured out. In this moment, when all of the past years following Jesus suddenly rushed into the present moment, Peter saw Jesus differently. Not just powerful. Not just good. Peter had seen that as Jesus healed others and walked on the water. Others had seen those things as well, and they all thought Jesus was a prophet. But not Peter. No, at this moment, Peter saw him with certainty strong enough to stand on. God showed him that Jesus was the one, the Christ, the Son of God.

"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." Peter would remember this moment for the rest of his life. Years later, he would write that we are all like little stones that God is building into a place to dwell... not a structure of wood, metal, or even stone as the name suggests, but made of people. God had come to dwell in his people, and Peter got to be one of the first ones to be laid down on the Solid Rock of Christ, and death itself could not stand against them.

"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.” Just to make sure Peter doesn't think his job is to just stand still and hold everyone up, like a stone in a wall, Jesus says I'm handing you the keys to the people of God. You get to open the doors that let others into God's kingdom, God's presence, and God's people. Peter saw Jesus do this with the Canaanite woman. Now he is given the keys to let others into what he has with Jesus.

Peter did not get a list of instructions on how to do this job. Jesus gave him the keys to the Kingdom, knowing the only thing Peter had to guide him was Jesus himself. And that was enough.

Movement 5

We have this big reveal, and then Jesus tells them to keep it a secret.

Peter had the right title, but he didn't know what that meant yet. He didn't know that it meant a cross outside of Jerusalem. None of them did. Peter needed his eyes opened to see Jesus more than this one time. Every time God showed him more of Jesus, Peter would have a bigger understanding of what the title Christ and Son of God meant. Jesus would build on this moment, forming Peter and the other disciples into his church. That church would open the doors for the rest of the world as God opened their eyes to see Jesus.

Like Peter, we need to see Jesus clearly, and we need to see him more than once. Peter made his confession at a wall of pagan worship, not a church revival. It was a place where it was not easy to see God.

Where do you find it difficult in your life to see Jesus clearly?

Most of the time, location is not as important as the people around us. So think for a moment:

Who are you with when you struggle to see Jesus clearly?

Remember, God revealed Jesus to Peter in a dark place, where Jesus was no longer like a polar bear in a snowstorm. He stood out.

So here is your challenge you this week:

When you find yourself in those places and especially around those people, I want to challenge you to pray that God would give you the eyes to see Jesus clearly. When you see him, I want you to claim him for who he is to you.

Make that claim, that truth you can stand on, even if you just say it to yourself and Jesus.

Peter's eyes were opened to who Jesus truly was. Jesus showed Peter what he was building, and that church was something bigger than he knew. Peter didn't have what it took to handle the responsibility that Jesus was giving him. All he had was Jesus, and that was enough.

Closing Prayer

Lord, thank you for walking with us, leading and guiding us, and being patient with us as our eyes are opened to who you are. You are our Christ, the Son of God, and God reveals you to us just as you reveal God to us. When we see you, we know we have seen the face of God.

Thank you for showing us who we are in you. Thank you for bringing us into your Kingdom, your people, and giving us responsibilities that are greater than we deserve. We need you every day to be the people you have created and called us to be. Help us keep our eyes open to you wherever we go, whoever we find ourselves with, and remind us that we hold the keys to open the doors to them as you reveal yourself to them too.

Help us to stand on the truth of who you are and allow you to build us into your people, in whom you choose to dwell.

In Jesus' name, Amen.