The Church: Her King and His People

Big Idea

Tension: What happens when the disciples are faithful to confess Christ as God reveals him?

Resolution: Christ will build his church.

Exegetical Idea: When the disciples are faithful to confess Christ as God reveals him, Christ builds his church.

Theological Idea: When the Church is faithful to her King, Christ builds his church.

Homiletical Idea: When we are faithful to our King, Christ will build his church.

Introduction

When we are faithful to our king

First, let’s look at all the ways that Jesus is described in this passage.

Son of Man: Who is the “Son of Man”? The Son of Man is a title from . And that title is a Messianic title and it was used regularly by Christ to describe himself. The title is used to describe the King, the Messiah, who has accomplished salvation. And he comes before the throne of God, who is called the Ancient of Days. And the Ancient of Days, who is the Father, gives him a kingdom, dominion, and glory. And all peoples, languages and nations will serve him. And his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed. And Christ regularly describes himself as the “Son of Man.” He is the Messiah whom God will give every kingdom over to.

Christ: This also here described as the “Christ.” The “Christ” is a title that Jesus is often called. And we think of it like it is his last name. But it is actually a title in Greek that means, “Annointed one” or “Messiah.” And the reason that is important, is before Kings could be coronated, they would have to be annointed. Even today, when Kings or Queens who are Christian take their thrones, they are anointed. So often, the Messiah, is the Lord’s annointed King, to show that he will be King and he will be anointed to take the throne and given a kingdom. And this was regularly used to refer to the Son of David who would take his throne. So not only is Jesus the Son of Man, who takes the throne from the ANcient of Days, eh is also the Son of David. He is David’s annointed Messiah who will rule on his throne forever.

Son of the Father: Jesus also here calls teh Father his own. He is the “Son of the Father.” Jesus and the Father share a unique relationship. The Father loves the Son, and the Son loves the Father. In fact, there are 22 different places in the gospel of Matthew where Jesus calls the Father his own. Probably the most tender is in … Jesus says, “Nobody knows me except for the Father, and nobody knows the Father except for me… and anybody who I choose to show him to.” Jesus believes that he is the only way to the Father, the only way by whic you and I can call his Father our own. ONly if we have faiht in Christ can God be our Father.

Son of the living God: But he is also teh “son of the living God.” For Jesus, God is the “living God.” He is not a dead God, his words are not just advice, his thoughts are not just wise. No, he is the living God. Every other God is false, and every other God is wrong, but God is true. What does Jesus say when he is tempted to turn the bread into stone, he says, “Man does not live by bread alone but by every word from the mouth of God.” So when jesus says, “I am his Son.” what he is saying is that because teh Father is the living God and speaks the words of life, I can speak teh words of life. Jesus views his relationship with teh Father to be true, and to be accurate, and to be unimpeachable.

Caesearea Philippi: Now you have to understand, Jesus says all this, and they are at the town called Caeserea Philippi. Caesarea Philippi was a town that was originally built by the Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus. And Caesar gave Caesarea to Herod, who passed it onto his son Philip, who renamed the town Caesarea Philippi. Now, Caesarea Philippi was a Roman place, and they had a huge temple there to the God Pan. So Jesus is here, walking in teh streets with all these priests of a foreign religion, he is here standing in teh midst of the place where there are all these idols. It is a dark, pagan place. ANd Jesus turns to the 12 who are with him, knowing who he is, and asks a few questions.

Who do men say: So Jesus’ question to the disciples is this, who do they say that I am? He is asking, “Do you think they get it?” Does mankind understand. He is asking this in front of Caesarea Philippi. And here he is, the Son of Man, the CHrist, the Son of the Father, teh Son of the Living God, and he is watching all these people sacrifice to these pagan gods. And Jesus says, “Who do those people think that I am?” And the disciples respond, “some say Elijah, others Jeremiah, still some, John the Baptist.” Now, what all three of those guys share is that they were prophets whose task was to call teh nation of israel back. So when the disciples say that, they are saying, “They think you are a jewish prophet for Jewish people.” In other words, they are saying, “They think that you are irrelevant in this place. That you are not Lord of this place.”

Who do you say that I am: So Jesus turns the tables and says, “So if that’s who they say that I am, who do you say that I am.” Now, here, the English language lets us down. Because see that word “you” there? That is a plural “you.” So Jesus is asking all of his disciples who they say that he is. Let me illustrate it like this, my Dad is from the West, right. So he uses Western slang like y’all and howdy. But my Dad says, well y’all is singular while all’y’all is plural. Right, well in my dad’s translation, this would be “Who do all’y’all say I am?” In other words, Jesus is asking who his disciplse as a group say that he is. What does the Church say about Christ. Does teh Church agree that CHrist is irrelevant, or does the Church think that CHrist is Lord even here? ANd Peter speaks up as teh spokesman for the apostles. He says, “Yes, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Peter says, “Jesus, they got it wrong. Pan is not God. Jupiter is not God. Zeus is not God. You are the Son of hte living God. All these other Gods are false, but you are teh true God.”

My Father has revealed this to you: Now, look at what Jesus says, he says, “Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.” In other words, “Peter, you didn’t come up with this on your own.” You’re not that smart. Why does he say this? Because he’s not asking Peter to make it up. He’s asking Peter to be faithful to what God has already revealed. He’s asking Peter not to try to make stuff up, or innovate about him, but he’s asking Peter to know what God has said and to say it.

Who do men say

What God reveals about Christ: So, let’s make this application as we’re walking through Scripture. The church’s job is not to try to make stuff up about Christ. No, our job is to look in Scripture and see what God has revealed about Christ and herald it with all the power we possibly can. this is why we study hard, this is why we look hard, this is why we’re trying to piece Scripture together to try to figure this out. We want to do as much as we can to be as faithful to Christ as we possibly can. We want to try to figure this out and figure this out.

Peter is the rock? Now, if you have a Catholic background, you probably have heard this saying to try to justify the papacy. They say, “look Peter is the rock.” So is that what this is saying? Well i think no, for a couple of reasons. First, earlier in the gospel, Jesus preached a sermon called the sermon on the mount. ANd in that sermon, Jesus told this parable about hte person who builds his house on the rock. And Jesus’ point in that is that he is the rock. Peter’s not the rock, Jesus is. So, what does this mean here, well, I think what Peter, is not hte rokc, but is named after the rock. So Jesus says, “Here is this foundational point on which the church is built, and I am going to give you a new name after this to show how your personal mission is to make sure that this truth is retained.” In other words, Jesus gives Peter his name to give Peter a mission to keep the church built on the right truths. Now, what’s interesting, is that in all four of the gospels, when Peter and the other disciples are mentioned, their function is actually primarily as a safeguard to the testimony and to the truth. In other words, Peter is not the rock, Peter is a witness to the rock, to Christ himself.

We need to be faithful to Christ: So, we need to make every effort as a church to make sure that we are faithful to Christ. I think that means a couple of different things.

Faithful in our beliefs: We need to first be faithful in our beliefs as a church. Which means that in our doctrine and in our theology, we need to make sure that we honor Christ as Lord. We want him to be supreme. We want to honor him as King. This is supremely important because in our culture, it is common for people to say things like, “Well, I just don’t want to believe that.” The problem is that we as a church, whether we like it or not, need to make sure that the thing we confess first and foremost is that Jesus CHrist is king. We don’t meld our beliefs based off of the winds of culture, we don’t meld our beliefs so we don’t offend others, Christ must be lord. As the hymn says, “My hope is built on nothing less, than Jesus’ blood and righteousness”

Faithful in our beliefs

Faithful in our words: Secondly, we want to be faithful in our words. In teh words that are preached from our pulpit, in our growth groups, in our worship services, everything we do needs to honor CHrist as Lord. There should never be anyone who walks into our church and says, “I wonder what they believe about Jesus.” WHich means that hte gospel is going to be forefront in everything. That Christ died for our sins and rose for our life. We put the gospel above everything. It is the foundation of our worhsip, it is the importance of our church, it is everything to us. The gospel gives us words, the gosple is our words, the gospel is what our words are about. Listen, we nee dto make sure that we are always encouraging people not to fall into legalism. Nobody should ever have any doubts at our church: we are saved not by good works that we do but by good works that Christ has done for us. And we need to make sure that we not falling into legalism. We need to make sure that we do not encourage people into sin. Rather, we want them, because they are saved by grace, to walk into holiness. We want them to bear the fruits of repentance.

Faithful in our actions: Finally, we want to make sure that we are fiathful in our actions. WHich means, when the world disagrees with the Bible, we side with thte Bible. Which means that ultimately, what we want to say is, “Is this faithful to Christ.” Let me apply it like this. When we see something that we don’t like, the most important thing in our mind should not be, “Well we’ve always done it this way,” or “well we need to change,” or “well tradition says this” or “I relaly like this” or even “Lots of people will come if we do this.” It’s not that those thigns are just total nonsense, the most important question we need to ask is, “Is this biblical?” Does this honor Christ as Lord? Is it in congruence with his word and his work and his person?

Christ will build his church

So what happens when a church does this? What happens when a church really is faithful to confess Christ is Lord? Well Christ makes this promise, he will build his church. When we are faithful to Christ, he will build his church.

Jesus says, “On this rock I will build my church” Now remember, who is the rock? Is it Peter? No, it is Christ. This truth,t hat Jesus Christ is the Son of hte living God, the Christ, the Son of Man, truly God and truly man. That is the rock. And when we are faithful to that, Christ builds his church. WHen we are sure to confess it, when we make sure that we are faithful to it, he will build his church. Matt doesn’t build the chruch, teh leaders don’t built this church, our friendships our programs our evangelism doesn’t build the church, Christ builds the church. If Christ is not the one building this church, then it is not worht building. Listen, we as a church cannot be built on tradition, we cannot be built on ourselves, we cannot be built on a great preacher, on great worship, on small groups, on anythign but Jesus Christ. We need to build our church on Christ. THis is the relationship between Christ and teh chruch. In fact, we see this in a number of different ways throughout Scripture.

gates of hell will not overcome it: And Jesus says that Hell will not be able to stop me building my church. What this literally says is that hte gates of Hades will not prevail or be stronger than it. What this is saying is that Hell will not be able to stop the triumphal entry of Jesus Christ over his Kingdom. In other words, Jesus Christ as King, Lord over all, cannot be stopped by the gates of Hell. We can be confident that as we proclaim Christ with everythign we have as a churhc, Hell cannot stop God overcoming it.

Wait a minute: Now, you might say, “wait a minute, is this really true? Does God’s kingdom continue to prevail over hell? Aren’t there plenty of unbelievers around?” And this is a legitimate thought. But we need to keep something in mind. God looks at things from his perspective. Which means that from eternity, God can see the full measure of the kingdom bearing fruits. So, sometimes it might seem slow and trudging in our persepctive, but from God’s perspective, he says, “no, I am building my church, you just can’t see it yet.” So we need to see things from God’s perspective.

keys to the kingdom of heaven: Now, here Jesus says, “I am giving you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.” And we’re like, wait, wait a second. What are the keys? What do they do? Well, let’s look at this. Jesus just said that the gates of hell could not withstand the kingdom. What unlocks gates? keys. SO what Jesus is saying is that he will give us the ways to bring people into the kingdom. He will give us the “keys” to open up the gates of Hell and plunder it. So what are those keys? Well, I think there are four primary “keys” to the kingdom of heaven, four primary tasks that Jesus gives his people to “unlock” the gates of Hell.

First there is preaching. Matthew records that Jesus sends his disciples out to preach. He says this in . The disciples were sent to preach the gospel of the Kigndom. That hte King is coming. So by preaching, faith is awakened and people recognize their sins and they put their faith in Jesus Christ. They hear the gospel and they respond in faith.

Second, there is baptism. When John the Baptist comes, he comes preaching in the wilderness “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” And this is inextricably tied up with his baptism. We see this in , ...

Third, there is communion. Communion sustains us in the kingdom as we await for it anew. We see this in .

Finally, there is church membership and discipline. You say, “wait a minute, what?” Well, look at that phrase “bound and loosed in heaven.” Alright, so that phrase is only used one other time in teh whole Bible. Do you want to know wehre it is? . Look what it says… You see, Church membership is a profound act by which God sorts out the sheeps and the goats. Church membership is one of the ways that we see the kingdom of heaven here on earth. In fact, I believe that church membership is the primary thing that Jesus has in mind here because there is this connection.

bound and loosed on heaven and earth

Bound and loosed here on earth: Now, by what I have said, you might think that I am saying, “being a member here is what saves us.” So, let me say that as emphatically as I possibly can, being a churhc member does not save you. Only faith in Christ will save you. It is only by his blood that our sins are washed away and by his life that we will have eternal life. There is no other name on heaven or earth by which man can be saved. So, the question is, so what does this phrase, “whatever you bind on heaven will be bound on earth, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed on heaven” mean? Well here is what I think this primarily means is. I think it means that as long as we are faithful to our confession, in other words, as long as a church holds up the person of Jesus Christ and the work that he has done for us on the cross, as long as Christ reigns as Lord on earth, you can trust that they are acting rightly in all of the keys, but especially when it comes to Church Discipline. Let me put it this way, and if you ahve become a member here at our churhc, you have heard me say this. Church memberhsip is how we make true visibly what is already true invisibly above. In other words, church memberhsip is how we “bind and loose” what is already bound and loosed in heaven. God knows who his church is, and through churhc membership, we reveal God’s knowledge of his people, as long as we are being faithful to his confession.

Objection: Church membership is not Biblical: So now, our brothers and sisters in the Church of God would disagree with that. And they would lovingly disagree with that by saying essentially that, “Because we all have membership in the universal church, membership in local churches is not essential.” Did you catch that? They would say, “Because we all are members of the universal church, there is no need to be members of the local church. In fact, Charles Brown, the author of A Handbook of Christian Doctrine, a professor for many years at AU says this,

“If the universal church is the eternal sea of the redeemed of all ages, then each true church of God is a gulf in that eternal sea. Now if you build a dam across the gulf so as to shut out the fish and the tides, then your gulf is no longer a part of the sea… It is the stern duty of every local congregation to keep itself open to every true Christian in the world… This means that the church, as the church, cannot be organized.” - Charles Brown

Answer: So, as lovingly as I can, now, I think that there are a lot of Scriptural arguments for the memberhsip of teh local church. And, in the weeks to come, we are going to address a lot of these things, and I am going to try to show why leaders in the church, church discipline, discipleship, etc. all imply something like church membership. But right now, I want to just answer this objection. SO we agree that everyone who has faith in Jesus is a member of the universal church. However, just because they are a member of the universal church does not mean they are not also a member of the local church. In other words, when we see “universal” patterns in Scripture, you can still see local manifestations of that universal pattern. So, to give one example, says that there are several unifying patterns. In particular, I point out where it says that there is “one baptism.” Now, that is a little silly because we have all these different baptisms. But our baptism unites us. So the universal pattern has local expression. Now, here is what I am trying to say, just because we are all members of the universal church does not mean that we should not be members of the local church. In other words, Dr. Brown’s objection that because we are members of the universal church we don’t need to be members of the local church is a false premise. This is not an argument for church membership, it is merely to say that this objection against church membership is not consistent.

Where we need to grow: Now, here is a member of genuine transparency from us. This is just an area where our church needs to adjust. So here’s what I’ve tried to say, as a Church is faithful to confess that Christ is Lord, Christ will build his church. That means that you can trust that as a church is being faithful to Christ, it’s membership will make visible what is already true invisibly. So church membership is all about making visible what is true invisibly. Now, here’s why I say this is an area where we need to grow. Currently, our church membership has 450 people on the roster. And the problem is that is not accurate for what we actually ahve. And it would be really nice to say, “Well let’s just remove the people who are not still committed to our chruch.” But the problem ist hat our bylaws don’t really make provisions for how our church can remove or take in members. So, as a church, we are just trying to say, “Hey, this is an area where we’re just trying to correct and make our membership accurate.”

We should all be faithful members of our church: So here is my big application. We should be members of the church. We should all be churhc members. If we call ourselves

Conclusion