The House That Jesus Built

Peace be with you.

Let’s Pray: Father may your will be done. Jesus, may your word be proclaimed. Spirit may your work be accomplished in us we pray. Amen.

I. The Old Promise (2 Sam 7:12-14)

- David wanted to build a house for God. Given permission at first.

- Then told: not you. Your son.

- Two promises to that son: **he builds the house**, and **his throne endures forever**. God will be a father to him, he will be a son to the Father.

II. The Question (Matt 16:13-16)

- Word on the street: prophet. John, Elijah, Jeremiah. Reasonable. He teaches like one, works signs like one.

- Then Jesus turns and asks the same question again. He does not want the report. He wants their answer.

- Peter: the Christ, the Son of the living God. Biggest confession in the Gospel so far.

> Their answer was not a lie. It was just short.

And then Jesus says something intriguing.

III. The Rock (Matt 16:18a)

- On this rock I will build my church. The rock is the confession.

- All who confess this get added into the house Jesus builds.

> Everyone who says what Peter said gets a room in the house.

Here is why that is more intriguing than it sounds. This is not a new idea. It is an old promise finally coming due.

IV. The Old Promise Fulfilled

> Peter says Son. Jesus says house. That is the promise, out loud, in one conversation.

- This is the moment the promise gets fulfilled. It is a big moment.

But he does not stop there.

V. Not A Siege — A Jailbreak (Matt 16:18b-19)

- Common hearing: hell attacks the church, the church holds. **Wrong image.**

- Hades is not hell. Hades is the place of the dead.

- A gate is not a weapon. A gate is what you shut when somebody is coming for you.

Robin Hood illustration — keep it brief and let it land.

- Robin and Little John take the keys off the sleeping sheriff, go cell to cell, every door opens.

> The gates of Hades will not prevail, because the Church is holding the keys and the doors are coming open.

- No longer do those gates refuse the Church access. The Church now possesses the keys to set people free from death.

>Jesus is going to build a house, and hand out the keys to fill it.

And then, right after all this, he says something that seems a bit off.

VI. Not Yet (Matt 16:20)

- He tells them to repeat none of it. **But why.**

- Back to David: anointed while Saul still sat on the throne (1 Sam 16:11-13). He went back to the sheep. Shepherd, armor-bearer, outlaw. **The anointing was real the whole time. It just was not announced.**

- Jesus is anointed and not yet enthroned. Caesar's name is on the city. Rome governs the region.

- He will be enthroned on the cross. Sign over his head naming him king. A Roman centurion says out loud what Peter was told to keep quiet: **truly this was the Son of God** (Matt 27:54).

- Then into death. Takes hold of the keys. Doors of bronze broken, bars of iron cut in two (Ps 107:16).

Until then, they are not to parade around with this information, just like David didn't.

But the silence has an expiration date, and it has expired.

VI. Promise And Purpose

- Promise: a son to build a forever house of God, a house that holds all his people set free from the grip of death.

- Purpose: that promise hands the Church its job — **fill up the house.**

- The keys did not stay with Peter. They did not stay with the twelve. They are still in the house.

May we wield the keys and storm the lives of the lost that death has hold of, and set them free, and welcome them into the house that Jesus built.