Sermon Tone Analysis

Series Introduction

Today we will begin a series that, Lord willing, will be 3 sermons in total.

This series is motivated, in part, by my increased sense that the church, that is, God’s people, are facing an increasingly hostile world against Christ and His followers.

This may be somewhat surprising to hear after the Supreme Court’s ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade and ruling that a football coach can in fact pray publically.

We rejoice when the laws of the land align with the cause of Christ.

We also recognize however, that the world, that is, all who do not recognize the Lordship of Christ, are as determined as ever to derail any effort to honor God.

These efforts seem to be intensifying, and regardless, we know that people without the redemptive intervention of Christ, reject Christ and rebel against Him.

And in the midst of these tumultuous times, the church needs to be clear on something.

We may be clear on the time we prefer our worship service to begin.

We may be clear on what temperature we prefer our sanctuary to be.

We may be clear on what we want the music for our congregational singing to sound like, what we want our children’s and youth ministries to look like, and how we want the sermons that we hear to come across like.

And while all of those concerns are valid concerns, there is something that is far more important for us about which to be clear.

FCF: And the fact of the matter is, if we’re not careful, in the midst of the chaos in the world and the stress and difficulties we experience in our own lives, we can loose sight of one fundamental truth about the church.

To get clear on this truth, we will spend today and the next 2 Sundays in Matthew 16.

Anyone who has been here for more than a couple of years will know that we spent a considerable amount of time working our way through the gospel of Matthew, but in light of what Jesus teaches His disciples and us in chapter 16 regarding the church, we will waste no time by revisiting chapter 16.

Context

When we come to chapter 16, Jesus had just spent some time in Jewish territory.

There He had a run-in with Pharisees and Sadducees.

They attempted to test Him by asking Him to show them a sign.

Of course, Jesus saw right through them and made it clear that He was going to unfold His plan in His way and in His time.

He was not going to submit to any demands they made.

After this confrontation was concluded, and after helping His disciples understand the conflict, they left and went north to Caesarea Philipi.

When they arrived, Jesus asked His disciples a very important question, and all that followed brought this very important truth about the church to the surface.

And again, this truth about the church is crucial for us to know.

So let’s get started on getting clear on this truth.

The title of this series is

This Church Belongs to Jesus.

What are the implications of this proposition?

Jesus is the supreme authority.

His Word is where we go to know what He commands His church.

Jesus has prescribed who the church is and how it is to function.

When trouble and challenges come, Jesus is our assurance and hope.

All our service in the church has as its aim to honor Christ.

Our primary concern must be to faithful to Christ in all that we do, and trust that He will bless us in that concern.

But we can easily loose sight of this fundamental truth.

So in light of this fact, that this church belongs to Jesus and in light of wha we see in our text today, I want us to consider the following:

We need to know it and so does everyone else.

We need to know that this church belongs to Jesus and everyone else needs to know that this church to Jesus as well.

So to think through this further, I want us to answer 2 questions:

1.

How do we know if we know it?

2. How do we demonstrate that we know it?

How do we know if we know it?

What we mean by know

So we know it if

We know who Jesus is (13-14)

Jesus identifies Himself as the Son of Man (13)

But He’s asking who others are saying He is

John the Baptist (risen from the dead as Herod Antipas suspected (14:2)

Elijah: some thought of him as a forerunner of the Messiah (3:1-3)

Jeremiah or one of the prophets

What do all these suspicions tell us.

That many did not know who Jesus was.

He was the Son of Man.

He was, in other words, the Messiah.

He was so much more than John the Baptist.

John himself understood this.

He must increase and I must decrease (John 3:30)

He was more than His forerunner Elijah.

Jeremiah suffered, but Jesus was the prophesied Suffering Servant who would suffer and die and thereby atone for the sins of His people.

Bottom line: Jesus is unequalled.

He is unique and there is no one greater.

So when it comes to knowing that this church belongs to Jesus, that begins with a right understanding of Jesus.

He is Messiah, KoK & LoL, He is the one true living Savior, He is God.

So how do we know if we know that this church belongs to Jesus?

We know who Jesus is.

We profess Jesus for who He is (15-16)

this is also addressing the question regarding how we demonstrate that we know this church belongs to Jesus, but professing here can also refer to our personal profession of faith.

Jesus is asking the disciples who they believe or profess Him to be.

Now He’s zeroing in on what they believe as opposed to what others are saying.

Peter responds as a spokesperson for the group in v. 16.

2 titles:

Christ (Messiah)

Son of the living God

So Peter, on behalf of the other disciples is professing Jesus to be the One promised in the OT who would come to save His people.

Emanuel - God with us.

So this goes beyond knowing who Jesus is to professing who He is.

Professing is the way we state what we believe.

You may profess Jesus to have been an important historical figure, a wise teacher, a prophet of sorts, but deny that He was the Messiah who came to save His people from their sins by dying in their place on the cross.

You may believe He was a real man, but He died like all men do, and did not rise from the dead nor ascend into heaven.

This might be your profession of Jesus.

But Peter’s profession was right, and we know this by how Jesus responds to His profession in v. 17, and that brings us to another part of our answer.

We know if we truly know that this church belongs to Jesus if

We have been shown who Jesus is (17)

Jesus call Peter, and by extension the rest of the disciples and those of us who possess this same profession, blessed.

This is to be favored by divine grace.

Professing Jesus as the Bible proclaims Him is to show our favored status by God.

In fact, that any of us profess Jesus this way is evidence of the gift the God given His children.

No one comes to know Jesus this way as a result of our own wisdom.

Notice how Jesus describes this profession (v.

17)

This comes by means of divine revelation.

Revealed here carries the idea of being provided knowledge that had been previously concealed or hidden.

There is a certain sense of privilege here.

Being in the know.

So

knowing who Jesus is

professing who Jesus is

being shown who Jesus is

Possessing this kind of relationship with Jesus is necessary to truly know that this church belongs to Jesus.

Anyone can agree that the church belongs to Jesus, but unless we know Jesus, that we belong to Jesus will have little impact on how we think about this church.

When difficulty comes (and it has and will), we will be much more vulnerable to despair because we ultimately relying on ourselves to do church and not the One to whom the church belongs.