Upon This Rock

Introduction

I don’t know if you noticed, but today is a weird day in the life of our Church in that we have no senior pastor.

This person, this leader, this position that many so often associate with the ministry of the Church itself is for just a brief moment vacant.

Pastor Tim’s last day with us was last Sunday, and Pastor Danny will hit the ground running tomorrow.

But for now, we are without a senior pastor.

Yet we are all gathered here, today, as the Church.

I want to lead us in a thought experiment this morning that I hope gets our wheels turning on the topic of the Church.

For just a moment, throw away everything you know and have always known about the Church.

Throw out buildings, gatherings, programs, pastors, staff

Throw out strategy and worship and mission and evangelism

We’re starting from scratch here.

Now all you have is the New Testament. Nothing else.

It’s just you with your Bible.

And your task is to build a Church, whatever that means.

Think for just a second, what would that Church look like?

Do you read anywhere in the New Testament about buildings or programs?

Do you read anywhere the instructions for worship services? Anywhere that says, “sing three songs, preach a sermon, and then issue an invitation.... and pass the offering plate somewhere in there”?

You do see the words pastors, and elders, and deacons show up

You see a mission

You see the word disciple

Now, after only reflecting for a brief moment, let me pose this question:

If all you had was the New Testament, would you come up with the Church as it exists today?

There may be some similarities, but what would be different?

Well what I want to do in our brief time together this morning, on this weird Sunday, is get a firm grasp of what we mean when we say, “The Church.”

More importantly, I want us to see what Jesus had in mind for his Church.

Now I’m not here to suggest we should do away with programs and buildings and modern worship services and so on… those things can be good.

What I am here to suggest is that we, as the Church, need to take great care to keep the main thing the main thing, so as not to abandon our first love, as the Book of Revelation puts it.

How does that sound? Sound good? Everybody with me?

We’re doing important work here today.

Pharisees and Sadducees

Before we begin to take a look at what the Church is, it will be helpful to see what the Church is not.

In Matthew 16, we see two groups of people who are in opposition to Jesus: these are the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

These groups formed what was called the Sanhedrin, which was a Jewish council that ruled over all Jewish life.

They appear together here, but the truth is these groups were very different in their theology and idealogy.

The Pharisees were the conservatives who held to a strict observance of the law and tradition.

This group viewed themselves as the elite, and their piety made them better than everyone else.

The name “Pharisees” actually means “separated ones,” and that’s exactly how the Pharisees felt about themselves.

So this first group, the Pharisees, is marked by self-righteousness.

And even more than that, they felt that things should always go well for them and that they were always right since they kept God’s law to the letter.

Have you ever felt that way?

I know I have.

I remember times when things didn’t go my way, or the way I thought they should, and these thoughts would come up in my head like, “Why is this happening to me, and not them? Why am I the one suffering and not them?”

Church, I pray we heed the words of Christ when he says, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees.”

Now let’s take a look at the Sadducees.

This group was predominantly made up of wealthy Jews.

They were the ones vying for political influence and favor from the Roman government and all-around social approval.

This group denied the resurrection of the dead, so they lived by the YOLO mantra, “You only live once.”

So this group was marked by self-indulgence.

They loved to work around the rules so that they could justify doing what they wanted.

This is the mindset that says, “It’s not hurting anyone.” or “God wants me to have the best, most enjoyable life possible.”

Have you ever said things like that?

Maybe there’s times when you justified your own selfishness or vain endeavors because you weren’t hurting anyone.

Again, let’s take care to beware the leaven of the “beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”

So it should go without saying, the church is NOT marked by self-righteousness or self-indulgence.

So what is the Church?

What I want to lead us to see this morning, based on Matthew 16, is that at the most basic, fundamental level:

The Church is the community of people who know Jesus intimately, proclaim Jesus confidently, and obey Jesus sacrificially.

REPEAT

Let’s expound on that a little.

I. Know Jesus Intimately (vv. 13-15)

Beginning in verse 13, we see that Jesus is speaking to his disciples, and he’s differentiating between his disciples and the rest of the world.

Jesus asks his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”

The disciples respond with some common answers: John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, or some prophet of the like.

But then Jesus turns to his disciples and says, “But who do YOU say that I am?”

At this point, his disciples knew him better than any other person alive — They knew Jesus intimately.

And since they knew Jesus intimately, or rather, since Jesus related to them so intimately, they knew the truth about who Jesus was.

I don’t want us to miss one important point here.

It is likely that these “others” who Jesus was talking about could have been the very people following him around, the thousands of people that we mentioned last week.

If you asked these people if they believed in Jesus, they would answer, “Yes, I believe in Jesus.”

But the more important question is the question that Jesus himself asks, “Who do you say Jesus is?’

Approximately 85% or Americans say they believe Jesus was a true historical figure.

Among that 85%, so among those who believe Jesus actually lived, almost all of them around (more than 9 out of 10 of them) believe that Jesus actually rose from the dead.

So plenty of people believe in a man named Jesus, but I wonder how these people might answer if they were asked, “Who exactly is this Jesus you believe in?”

The truth is, who you say Jesus is will determine how you follow him.

If you say Jesus was a good teacher, then you will follow him like a good teacher, picking up bits and pieces of teaching that best apply to your life and ignoring the rest.

If you say Jesus lived an exemplary life, then you will try to live by his example, and possibly fail to give any thought to God or eternity.

However, if you believe that Jesus was and is the promised Messiah who came to the earth to redeem humanity to heaven, conquering sin and death, to reign and rule over us as Lord, then you will follow him as such.

The Church is made of up people who know Jesus for who he truly is and live in accordance with that truth.

The Church is the group of people who stand with Peter and say, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Which brings us to the next point:

The Church is the community of people who:

II. Proclaim Jesus Confidently (vv. 16-18)

Look with me in verse 16:

Matthew 16:16–18 ESV

Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 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. 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.

Remember back in verse 4 when Jesus rebuked the Pharisees and Sadducees for looking for a sign, and he said, “ no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.”

And then here, Jesus calls Peter Simon Bar-Jonah, which means Simon, son of Jonah.

Don’t miss this, Peter’s father was not named Jonah — it was John. Which is close, but I believe Matthew has stitched these stories together to tell us something.

The phrase “son of” appears all over the Bible, and often it does mean what we mean by son — male offspring.

But there are other times when the Bible uses this phrase metaphorically:

sons of destruction

sons of disobedience

sons of light

sons of God vs. sons of the devil

The Psalms mentions the sons of Asaph. Asaph was a musician, and so the sons of Asaph just refers to musicians in general

It would be as if we referred to all Alabama football fans as sons of Saban.

That makes sense, right?

So what Jesus is saying here is that the Pharisees and Sadducees missed it, but you Peter have grasped the sign of Jonah. You are a son of Jonah.

God has revealed to you the true meaning of the sign of Jonah.

And there’s more here:

Jesus says,” Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church”

On what rock? On Peter? Is Jesus making Peter head of the Church?

It would appear not, since Jesus says I will build MY church?

In fact, in the verses immediately following these, Jesus calls Peter a satan — which means an adversary — and he calls him a hindrance because he was trying to stand in the way of God’s plan, which was to die for the sins of man.

So what’s the rock?

It’s Peter’s confession: “You are the Christ”

Peter is actually the first apostle to confess that Jesus is the Christ or the Messiah.

Peter does go on to play a major role in the building of the Church, but it’s not Peter himself but Peter’s confession, his bold proclamation, that Christ uses to build his Church.

In Acts 2, thousands are saved after Peter’s bold proclamation. They are not following Peter, they are following Christ upon Peter’s confession.

The church is made up of individuals who proclaim Jesus confidently, who make it their personal mission to share the hope that they have in Christ with those around them.

Which leads us to the last part of verse 18, “and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”

What’s that about?

Well we read earlier in verse 13 that Jesus and the disciples had come to Caesarea Philippi,

and I’m told that one way that the people of this region would seek to appease their gods is through child sacrifice.

And there was a cave where the people would perform these child sacrifices (I’ll spare you the details, you can google it later if you really want to know)

But this cave was believed to be a portal to the underworld, so any guesses as to what was the name of this cave?

If you guessed the gates of hades, you would be correct.

So you can imagine Jesus and the disciples walking through Caesarea Philippi,

And Jesus says, “look around at all this evil in the world,

all the terrible things that have such a hold on these people and society

children are dying

people are devoting their lives to lies

But even the worst of these atrocities will not stand in the way of my Church

Let’s take a moment to let that sink in,

we have the supernatural power, through Christ and or confession of him as Lord,

to overcome the powers of the worst evil in the world

Our bold proclamation has the divine potential to alter the course of a person’s eternity

Think about that!

That is not something to be taken lightly.

Jesus has built an unstoppable force that

tramples sin and darkness

demons shudder

lives are changed

sinners doomed to hell are resurrected to eternal life in heaven

All through the power of the Holy Spirit, upon the confession of the Church — The bold proclamation of Jesus Christ as Lord

That brings a little more context to what Jesus meant when he said, “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Does that not excite you a little??

The Church of Jesus Christ is the community of people who know Jesus intimately, proclaim Jesus confidently, and finally...

III. Obey Jesus Sacrificially (vv. 21-24)

Jesus’s words are clear, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”

This is the Christian way. There is no other way to follow Christ without denying yourself.

Self-centered is the opposite of Christ-centered.

Now hear me, not one person in this room is perfect, including me.

But followers of Christ are daily seeking to fight against that tendency toward self-centeredness. Daily dying to self.

Remember the Pharisees and Sadducees.

Pharisees, marked by self-righteousness.

You know how you fight self-righteousness, you die to self.

Sadducees, marked by self-indulgence.

You know how you fight self-indulgence? You die to self.

Jesus says deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me.

The way of Christ, and the way Christ intends for the Church, is a path of continual self-denial and sacrifice.

Remember Philippians 2:3

Philippians 2:3 ESV

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.

In humility.

C. S. Lewis said humility isn’t thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.

Philippians 2:4–5 ESV

Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,

Jesus gives us the ultimate example of humility and self-denial.

It’s not a life of misery and pity because we’re not getting our way.

It’s a life of immense joy by serving and building each other up, that far outweighs whatever short-lived happiness we can get from living for ourselves.

Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.”

Living a Christ-centered life is living an others-centered life.

And it is a life of boundless, and ever-increasing joy.

So I invite you, Church, to remember your identity as the community of people who know Jesus intimately, proclaim Jesus confidently, and obey Jesus sacrificially.

I invite you to join in the vision that seeks to reach Saltillo with the gospel.

There are people less than a mile from this building who are

hurting,

at their wit's end,

lost with nowhere to go,

addicted,

trapped,

and worst of all, they do not know Jesus, so they are bound to an eternity in hell.

Church, please hear me this morning:

We can change that.

Jesus has commissioned us to do something about that.

Will you commit, with me, to be the Church — the community of people who know Jesus intimately, proclaim Jesus confidently, and obey Jesus sacrificially.

Let’s commit today to be the Church.

There are exciting days ahead, I fully believe it.

I believe the Church in Saltillo is poised to grow exponentially.

Let’s commit to do what we need to do to keep the main thing the main thing.

Keeping Christ at the center,

making everything we do about getting the gospel message out to our neighborhoods,

Thinking only of how we can be a blessing to our brother or sister.

That’s what a Church is, and by God’s grace, that’s what we will be.

I can’t help but wonder though if there is someone in the room today who is hearing my words,

maybe a little confused or put off,

but still, something is resonating

it’s like you hear about this man named Jesus who wants you to realize the life you’ve been missing,

and that’s exactly what you have been feeling, like there’s something you’re missing

Let me tell you what you may be missing,

The God of the universe created us for a relationship with him, but we decided to try things our own way.

We rebelled and caused a rift between God and Man.

This rebellion, this choosing to do things our way is what we call sin.

Romans 6:23 ESV

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Jesus died in our place, taking on the wrath and punishment for our sin so that we can be in right standing with God.

Now God is calling you to repent, recognize your sin and rebellion

Believe that Jesus’s death paid the cost

and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord of your life.

Martin Luther said, “All who agree with the confession of Peter are Peters themselves setting a sure foundation.”

I invite you today, be a part of the Family of God, the Church.

Don’t let anything stand in the way of you living the life you were made to live.

Come today, and let’s be the Church together.

PRAY