The Church and its confession

Introduction

Does it matter what a person believes about Jesus Christ?

In our passage we see that the Lord asks about these ideas. He then goes speak about his church.

Who is a part of the church? Is there something you must believe in order to be a part of the church? Who’s church is it? Who is ultimately incharge of looking after it and preserving it?

Can a person still be a member of his church is they make a false confession of who he is?

A church is made up of people who confess that Christ is Lord. People can go to a building each week on a Sunday called a church but if they dont have a true confession of Christ then they are not the church at the New testament describes the church.

In our reading the Lord Jesus tackled these questions head on.

During the earthly minsitry of the Lord Jesus people had some very mixed views of who he was. He asked his disciples about these views, then he asked his discples what they thought.

His disciples made a true confession of who he was and then he taught them about how this truth, this confession of him, relates to the church that he was going build.

Today we face similar issues to those addressed in our passage. People have all sorts of ideas about who Jesus Christ is. Today many go to a church on Sunday even though they make a false confession about Jesus, are these people really the church?

Who decides?

In our passage we find the answers.

I want us to look at this passage in three parts. Each part can be summarised with a phrase. The first part of our passage is v.13-14. This could be summarised by the phrase false confessions.

I. False confessions

In Chapter 15v.39 We read that the Lord and his disciples went into the region of Magadan. After leaving that region they entered into the region of Caesarea Phillipi.

Whilst in Caeserea Phillipi the Lord Jesus asks his disciples an important question.

v.13. “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”

The Lord Jesus asks about the peolpe’s opinion of the Son of man. The title Son of man was one that the Lord Jesus often used when referring to himself and the reference is taken directly from the book of Daniel.

“I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. 14 And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.”

and behold, with the clouds of heaven

there came one like a son of man,

and he came to the Ancient of Days

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.who do men say that I am?

and was presented before him.

14  And to him was given dominion

and glory and a kingdom,

This is the term that Christ chose to refer to himself by, showing that this prophecy was about him.

that all peoples, nations, and languages

should serve him;

his dominion is an everlasting dominion,

which shall not pass away,

and his kingdom one

that shall not be destroyed

The Lord knew that people had different ideas about who he was and so he asked his disciples about these ideas.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

The Lord knows that people have different ideas about who he is and so he asks his disciples about these ideas.

In response his disciples begin to list the different theories about the Son of man.

The list that they gave would have been quite a good recommendation if they were not so far short of who he really was.

The disciples respond in v.14 “And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

This is quite an honourable list.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

John the Baptist was recognized by most to be a prophet of God. Many had gone to him to be baptized. By this time he had been beheaded by Herod, maybe people thought that Jesus was the resurrected John the baptist. We see this is what Herod believed in

Elijah was another theory that people had. Elijah was predicted to come before the day of the LORD. says “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. 6 And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”

Elijah was a revered prophet of God, when you read the account of him in 1 and 2 kings you see that this is quite a compliment. The peolpe were recognizing that there was something special about Jesus.

The problem with this idea though was this prophecy was speaking about John the Baptist as the Lord had already taught in , John the Baptist was the Elijah who was to come.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

Ther Lord Jesus Christ is much more than the Elijah who was to come.

The list went on and others suggested he might be the prophet Jeremiah. This might have been because Jeremiah was known as the weeping prophet and he called people to turn back to God.

Again this was a compliment in many ways but still inadequate.

Finally others were more general in thier theories but still recognised Jesus as sent from God in some sense, some suggested he may be one of the prophets as it says there at the end of v.14.

The people had quite a mixture of views.

App-

Little has changed over 2000 years. You can ask peolpe today who they think the Son of man is and alot will reply with responses that are positive.

He was a good teacher. He is on par with Buddha, or Krishna, or Mohammed.

He was a true prophet sent from God, as the muslims say.

Others like Jehovah’s witnesses and Mormons go even further and say he was an angel who came from heaven.

These suggestions might be flattering if they were not all wrong.

The suggestions of the people in Jesus’ day were all complimentary, the issue was they were all inadequate, they were not enough.

Illustration-

To illustrate why this was wrong… Madam is quite a polite way to refer to a lady. You wouldn’t offend a lady if you responded to her by calling her madam. yes madam. But if you respond to the queen in that way then that is offensive, the proper way to address the queen is your majesty, yes your majesty.

So with Christ, maybe to a mere prophet or preacher these ideas would be quite complimentary. But to label Christ with one of these suggestions is wrong because he is so much more.

If a person today labels Chrsit as merely a good teacher, or even a true prophet sent from God. They are making a false confession of Christ and as we will see a false confession of Christ means you have no part in his Church.

I wonder do you believe something li

So if these Ideas are wrong, what was the correct answer. Who is the Son of man?

In the next verse we see the Lord Jesus asks what his disciples think. This section v.15-17, could be summarised with the phrase ‘a true confession’.

II. A true confession

After asking what other people think about the Son of man the Lord Jesus asks his disciples what they think.

a) Look with me at v.15 “He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”

After asking what other people thought he turned to his disciples and said “So what about you?”

App-

If the Lord Jesus asked you this question, how would you respond?

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

Who do you say that I am?

We see the correct response in the next verse.

Look at v.16 “Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Who is the Son of man? He is the Christ, the Son of the living God.

When we know that this is the right confession of who Jesus is it is plain to see why the others fall so far short.

The Son of man is the Christ.

The word Christ is the greek word of the Hebrew word Messiah, which means annointed one. Through out the Old Testament God promised a Messiah who would come and save his people.

We read in that the Messiah was going to die in the place of others to pay for their sin.

“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned- everyone- to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

By saying that JEsus is the Christ Peter is acknowledging that Jesus is the promised Messiah. He is the one spoken about in the Scriptures.

Ofcourse we know from verse 22 of our chapter that Peter probably didn’t have the right view of what the Christ came to accomplish, otherwise he wouldn’t have rebuked Jesus for speaking of his death and resurrection. Maybe Peter had a military view of the Messiah like others at this point in time. We know however that he did get a fuller understanding of what Jesus, as the Christ, came to do .

So firstly Peter acknowledged Jesus to be the Christ, the promised Messiah.

But then he goes further. He says “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Peter acknowledged the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the Jewish mind to say someone was THE Son of God was to make him equal with God.

In we read “This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

The Jewish people understood that to say someone is the Son of God is to make them equal with God. You are admitting they share the same essence as God.

Peter is acknowledging Jesus to be divine. He is not a created being, He is God manifest in the flesh.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

When this is understood it becomes clear why the ideas of the people fall so far short of who Jesus really is and instead of them being complimentary they are actually offensive.

To say that Jesus is just one of the prophets is offensive, it is blasphemous because he is so much more, he is the eternal Son of God. The Second person of the Trinity.

This is the truth about Christ, this is an accurate confession of who Jesus is.

App-

if a person does not confess these truths about Christ, they are not Christians. Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Is this your confessionabout Jesus Christ? Do you believe he is the Christ, the Saviour of the world. Do you trust in his death and resurrection to take away your sin?

Do you believe he is the Son of the living God, is he Lord of your life?

So Peter made a true confession about Jesus Christ, but how did he know? How did he get it right and all the other people got it wrong?

From the response of Jesus we see that Peter had nothing to boast about.

b)Look with me at v.17

“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.”

First the Lord Jesus calls Peter blessed. He refers to him by his other name, Simon son of John. Then he explain why Peter is so blessed.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.

This knowledge that Peter had of Jesus was not from human reason. The phrase flesh and blood was a semitic way of refering to a mortal person. Peter did not know this about Jesus because he worked it out by himself.

So where did it come from?

not flesh and blood… but my Father who is in heaven.

This knowledge of the truth came by divine revelation.

Peter knew it because God had revealed it to him.

Here we have a clear example of God’s sovereign grace. God was the one who opened Peter’s eyes.

The Lord is reminding Peter of what he taught elsewhere “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.”

A person cannot come to Christ with out God doing a work of grace.

The Bible describes people as dead in sin, unable to turn to God by their own strength. God must first do a work in that person by his Holy Spirit, he must must quicken them and work faith in their heart. This is the only way that people can believe.

This is why Peter knew this truth about Jesus; God had revealed it to him.

App-

App-

We could ask;

Why do we believe in Christ? Why do we know that he died for our sin on the cross and rose again the third day?

Why did we repent and believe?

It was not because of flesh and blood but because of the grace of God.

“But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”

This should cause us to be humble before God and deeply grateful.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

This knowledge of the free grace of God that he has shown to us should cause us to love him more and create in us a strong desire to serve him and live for him.

his knowledge of the free grace of God that he has shown to us should cause us to love him more and create in us a strong desire to serve him and live for him.

If it was not for his grace we would never believe, we would never be saved.

After this confession from Peter the Lord Jesus tells his disciples about the church that he is going to build based upon this confession that Peter has just made.

This is the final section of our text; v.18-20. This final part could be summariseed by the phrase a victorious Church.

III. A Victorious Church

After the Lord Jesus revealed the heavenly origin of Peters confession the Lord teaches his disciples about how this confession relates to the church.

Look with me at v.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.”

Here the Lord Jesus tells Peter along with his other disciples that this confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, is the rock upon which he will build his church.

This verse alone has probably been the cause of more debate in the western church than any other verse. The debate revovles around the rock that Christ build his church upon.

Who or what is this rock?

There are three main views.

The rock could be referring to Peter. The name Peter is very similar to the word for Rock. Peter is Petros and Rock is Petra. Petros means stone or pebble, Petra means a large mass of rock. Some argue that Jesus is saying that Peter is the rock and he will build his church upon this Apostle. This is the position of the Roman Catholic church and this is where they develop their doctrine of the pope from and also their doctrine of apostolic sucession.

The second view is the rock could be referring to Jesus himself. The Lord could be saying you are Peter and upon this rock, referring to himself as the Christ the Son of the living God, he will build his church. He will build his church upon himself. 1 Peter 2:6-8 is often cited in support of this view, this view was held by Augustine and by Martin Luther.

The third view is that the Rock is referring to the confession that Peter has just made. The Lord Jesus Christ will build his church upon this confession of truth, that he is the Christ the Son of the living God. All who confess this truth will be part of the church. This is the foundation that he will build his church upon. Those who confess this truth about Christ are admitted into his church.

This third view is the one I take and I believe it follows the most natural reading of the text.

The Lord Jesus is saying that he will build his church upon this confession. All who confess that he is the Christ the Son of the living God will be part of his church.

So this confession about Jesus Christ is the rock upon which the church is built.

The word church here is not referring to a building but to the universal body of believers. Every true believer is part of Christ’s church.

We learn two more facts about the church.

Firstly we learn that Jesus is the one who builds his church.

The Lord says “I will build my church.” The church belongs to Christ, it is his church, and he is the one who causes it to grow and increase.

The word church here is not referring to a building but to the univeral group of believers. Every true believer is part of Christs church.

This is an encouraging truth.

The success of the Christian church does not depend upon human beings.

The growth of the church does not depend upon the elders, or the evangelists, or the pastor. The Lord often uses people to build his church, but ultimately the growth and increase of the church depends upon him.

App- This is an encouraging truth for yourselves as a still fairly young church. Whatever you are experiencing whether encouragement s or discouragements you can trust that Christ is building his church.

He is adding to the church such as should be saved and he is making sure they grow in grace.

Christ is building the church .

The second fact about the church that Christ touches upon is an outcome of Christ building his church.

Jesus said “and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

The result of Christ building his church is that it will be victorious.

The powers of death and the attacks of the devil, will not and cannot over power the church or prevent its growth and increase.

An example of this is the persecution of the church, althought the church through out history has suffered persecution, the church is larger today than it has ever been.

Tertullian an early Christian apollogist once said “The blood of the martys is the seed of the church.” Persecution often aids the growth of the church rather than hindering it.

This is what John Chrysostom, an early church father, says about this verse “Walls are shattered by barbarians, but over the Church even demons do not prevail. And that my words are no mere vaunt there is the evidence of facts. How many have assailed the Church, and yet the assailants have perished while the Church herself has soared beyond the sky? Such might hath the Church: when she is assailed she conquers: when snares are laid for her she prevails: when she is insulted her prosperity increases: she is wounded yet sinks not under her wounds; tossed by waves yet not submerged; vexed by storms yet suffers no shipwreck; she wrestles and is not worsted, fights but is not vanquished. Wherefore then did she suffer this war to be? That she might make more manifest the splendour of her triumph”

John Chrysostom. (1889). Two Homilies on Eutropius, Patrician and Consul. In P. Schaff (Ed.), W. R. W. Stephens (Trans.), Saint Chrysostom: On the Priesthood, Ascetic Treatises, Select Homilies and Letters, Homilies on the Statues (Vol. 9, p. 253). New York: Christian Literature Company.

The gates of hell will not prevail against Christ’s church.

Christ buildis his church upon the true confession of who he is, in v.19 we read that he although he is the head of the church and is in charge of its growth, he does use his people to build his church.

Look with me at v.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.”

This verse has been the subject of much debate just like the one before it.

Here the Lord Jesus is addressing Peter, but a good case can be made that all the apostles are in view here, but Peter is addressed as their representative.

He says to Peter that he will give him the Keys of the kingdom of heaven.

This means that he will have the responsibility of opening up the door of the kingdom to people.

This does not mean that Peter and the Apostles can pronounce peolpe saved or damned but instead through the preaching of the Gospel they open the door to people, and if people believe and make this true confession of Christ they enter the kingdom but if they refuse the Gospel and reject Christ then they are excluded.

As we see from the context only those who make a true confession of Christ are to be admitted and those who make a false profession of Christ are to be excluded.

So Peter was given the keys of the Kingdom of heaven, he was to open the way of salvation by the preaching of the Gospel. This is what we see him do on the day of Pentecost.

What did the Lord mean by what he said next?

The Lord said “and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

what did the Lord mean by this?

The words binding and loosing have to do with permitting what is right and forbidding what is wrong. The Apostles had been given authority by Christ to make decisions on what was okay for the believing community and what was not okay.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

Ryle is helpful here “Beside this, they were to be specially inspired to lay down rules and regulations for the guidance of the church on disputed questions.”

We see a specific example of this in Acts 15, where the Apostles decided the gentiles did not need to be circumsised or keep the law but that they should abstain from sexual immorality, not eat blood, or things offered to idols.

This authority was given specifically to the Apostles.

App-

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

Peter and the Apostles were given authority to exclude or admit people to church membership. This centred around the confession of Christ upon which the Lord Jesus was building his church.

App-

The sad reality of our day is in many churches there are people who are in membership who make a false confession of Christ and even worst than that some are in leadership in some parts of the church who make a false confession about Christ.

After Christ had taught about his church we read in verse 20 that he commanded his disciples that they tell no one that he is the Christ. V.20 says “Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ.”

He didn’t want the people to know his true identity until he had been crucified on behalf of sinners and resurrected the third day.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

Conclusion

So we started with two questions in our mind.

Does it matter what a person believes about Jesus Christ?

Can a person still be a member of his church is they make a false confession of who he is?

From this passage of Scripture we see that it is absolutely neccesary for a person to make a true confession about Jesus.

The church that Christ is building is built upon this rock of truth, this confession that Jesus is the Christ the Son of the living God.

If a person does not believe this truth about Jesus they have to place in his church.

This is the foundation upon with Christ is building his church.

There are two main oints of application for us this morning.

Firsltly, Do you believe this truth about Jesus ? Do you believe he is the Christ the Son of thew lving God. Or do you say he was just a good teacher, a spiritual leader but no more?

Only those who make a true confession of Christ are his.

Secondly,

Those of us who are part of Christs church, we hold to a true confession of Christ, are we making this truth known like Peter and the Apostles so that others can believe this truth and become part of Christ’s church?

Are we opening the way of the kingdom to people outside, by sharing the Gospel with them?

Who is Jesus?

HE is the Christ the Son of the living God.

Who is a part of his church? all those who hold to this true confesion about him.

Let us pray.