On This Rock
Text: Matthew 16:13 – 20
Well Praise the Lord. God is good isn’t He!
Well, if you were expecting Romans this morning, I’ve got some bad news for you. The Lord has put something on my heart and we’re going to spend some time on it for the next few Sundays. We will come back and finish up Romans later on, but for the next few Sundays we’re going to be talking about the Church.
If you will, take your Bibles and open them up to Matthew 16:13 – 20 (READ).
So if you really want to understand something, one of the best things you can do is study its origin… or its beginning. That’s true of nations… if you want to really understand the United States of America, what it’s laws and institutions are about, and how it’s identity formed, then we would have to go back and learn about its birth – The War for Independence, it’s ideal of equality under God, its pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness.
If you want to understand football you need to look back at how it began and how it was formed. Not many folks know that Football has its roots in the English game of rugby. And in the 1880’s the captain of Yale University’s rugby team was a man named Walter Camp. He introduced some rule changes into the game of rugby… like play from the line of scrimmage, point differences between touchdowns and field goals, set plays, an 11 man team, and things like that. Then later on; in 1906 he introduced the forward pass. So what Walter Camp did was took the English game of rugby and infused it with the American virtues of speed, daring, strength and imagination and combined them with the British virtues of strategy and stamina.
And so just like a nation, or sports, or anything really, if you want to understand a specific religion, then you have to go back where it began. So for example, if you want to understand Islam, you have to look at its founder Mohammed, and how the religion of Islam was formed by violence and conquest. And if you want to lay hold of the heart of Christianity, then we have to look at its founder, Jesus Christ.
Now let me give you the context of this passage we just read. Chapter 16 of Matthew is a pivotal turning point in the ministry of Jesus. After His baptism and temptation, Jesus came to Galilee where He taught on God’s kingdom. He performed miracles, and gathered disciples around Himself. That’s Matthew chapters 4 through 16. Then Jesus feeds the multitudes with only a few pieces of bread, and that is a demonstration of Him being the Messiah who leads His people and feeds them with manna from heaven – which demonstrates that He is God in the flesh. Now during this time the Pharisees rejected Him, and after the miracle He’s rejected even by the multitudes and only left with a small handful of disciples. And our text begins by telling us that Jesus takes His disciples to a place called Caesarea Philippi. Now this was the center of the Greco-Roman culture in Palestine. The nearby city had an ancient cave with an ancient shrine to Ba-al… yeah that pagan, demonic religion we read about in the Old Testament. The Greeks had actually began using it though and re-named Ba-al, calling him Pan. In-fact, many ancient writers called this area “Paneas.” There were also temples and shrines to other Greek and Roman gods. So what’s happened here is that Jesus has formed this small band of disciples and He’s going to challenge them, and so He brings them to a place where we see the idols of the world. And that’s where our text begins.
And so Jesus asks them, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”
Now that’s the issue of faith. It was then, and it is today. WHO IS JESUS? Is He a great teacher? A moral and intellectual philosopher? A revolutionary? And just like then, today there are a lot of answers that people give to that question.
They answered Him and said, “Some say you’re John the Baptist, others say Elijah, or Jeremiah, or one of the other prophets.”
So then Jesus makes it personal… He asks them, “Who do YOU say that I am?”
Now this is important, because it always comes down to the individual standing before Jesus. You know… others might say Jesus is this, or He’s that, but you are going to be the one standing before Him, giving an account for yourself… not for them. And they’re not going to give an account for you. And of course it’s Peter who speaks up and he says, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And this is what theologians throughout history have called “The Great Confession.” And there’s two elements to this confession by Peter. The first one is “You’re The Christ.” In other words, You’re the Messiah, you’re the Anointed One… you’re the promised Savior… the Seed of the Woman… the Seed of Abraham. You’re the One who was promised to us in the Old Testament, and the One we’ve been expecting and anticipating since the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
But then Peter goes on and says, “You are the Son of the living God.” Now that’s so important. Because this is showing us that Jesus isn’t just a man… He isn’t just a human teacher, or philosopher, or just a traveling Rabi. HE’S THE SON OF GOD! Now that means when Jesus says, “I will build MY Church.” Then it’s not being built by human means, or human ways, or even human effort. Jesus Christ is going to build His Church, and I’ll get to that in just a minute… but before I do, it’s important that we understand that this Great Profession is at the center of a saving relationship with Christ. Remember Romans 10:9 – 10, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.” So if you’re believing that Jesus rose from the dead, then you are in essence believing that He is; in-fact, God’s Son. And that He has done what He said He was going to do, namely – die for your sins, and in dying for your sins, He satisfied God’s justice and righteous requirements, and fulfilled the Law, and then placed His own righteousness into your bankrupt account so that you could be made right with God and stand before Him justified and clothed in Christ’s righteousness. IS all of that in that statement? Does the resurrection prove all of that? YES IT DOES. Because if Jesus wasn’t God’s Son, and if Jesus’ death didn’t meet Gods requirements, and pay your debts, and satisfy the wrath of God and judgment of God… God would not have raised Him from the dead. So when believe Jesus Christ rose from the dead, you’re saying all of that. Now Jesus had not yet died when Peter said what he said, so he said the next best thing… the appropriate thing at the time. Peter said, “You’re the Christ – the anointed One, and You’re the Son of God.”
And its very interesting what Jesus says next… He says in verse 17, “Flesh and blood didn’t reveal that to you. God did!” In other words, “Peter, the reason you know this is because God has opened your eyes so you could see it, and opened your mind so that you could understand it.” God has revealed it to you.
Why does God have to reveal it to Peter? Well, let me show you. John 3:19 – 20 (READ)… now turn over to John 6:44 (READ), and a few chapters more to John 14:17, and go a little further to 1 Corinthians 2:14… The Bible tells us over and over again that man is spiritually dead. Dead in trespasses and sin. That man by his very nature is a child of wrath. That he is spiritually blind, his mind is darkened to the truth. And that there are none righteous, no not one, and there are none who seek God. So God, through the preaching of His Word has to draw man unto Himself, remove the spiritual blindness from his eyes, give him ears to hear, break his hard heart, and give him spiritual life. And this is actually why Jesus gives His Church, the Great Commission. He tells us to GO into all the world and preach the Gospel, and make disciples from every nation by baptizing them in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit and by teaching them all that He has commanded. You notice Jesus never said, They’ll come to you… No… He says, “You go to them.” Which brings us back to the latter part of our text there where Jesus says, “The gates of hell will not prevail against His church.”
That’s offensive language… not offensive in the sense that it offends people, but offensive as opposed to defensive. So why is the Church supposed to go? Because men love darkness rather than light and will not come to the light… Because no one seeks after God. And because the world hates Jesus, and it hates His message, and it hates His Church. And if you have a Bible teaching, Bible believing, Christ honoring, God glorifying Church, people generally aren’t breaking down the doors to get in.
Now let’s stop right there and let me ask you a few questions… IF this is the origin of the Church, and Jesus Christ, the Son of God is the founder and originator of the Church… and if the origin of the Church tells us about how the Church is to continue to be built today then we need to take notice and take a good long look at some things right?
You see; the prevalent idea today is that in order to grow a church you have to change your worship music to contemporary, and you have to have just the right pews, and just the right lighting, and all the right programs in place. And the preaching has to be sensitive and tolerant of various views and ideologies. You can’t mention hell, or God’s wrath, or the fact that Jesus Himself said that He is the ONLY WAY to God. And you can’t preach out against sins because that’s offensive and will turn folks off. And so you have to make your church and your worship and your preaching into an emotional, rock concert type of experience so that it’s more “seeker” friendly. But what’s the problem there? Remember? Men love darkness rather than light and will not come to the light. No one seeks after God. The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God because they are foolish to him, and he’s not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned…
And if we are making the Church into something where it’s appealing to that kind of person… if we are making it into something that appeals to a worldly and lost person who sets his mind on the things of this world rather than the things of God… what are we doing? Or maybe a better question would be – what are we compromising? What doctrinal truth are we intentionally leaving out?
And so we can’t acquiesce to the worlds model… but guess what… the modern church movement has also developed and presented their own model. All the polls, statistics, and research out there tell us the same thing. The Church in America is shrinking. Overall membership in all denominations is down, attendance is down, baptisms are down, professions of faith and conversions – WAY DOWN. In-fact; the only churches that are growing in America are the large churches… but guess what… they’re growing, but not because they’re reaching the lost. They’re growing through transfer membership. People are leaving the smaller churches and going to the larger churches. We are seeing the canabalizing of the smaller churches. In-fact; it almost seems like many of the larger churches are purposefully targeting people from smaller churches who can contribute something that they feel they are needing more of, or lacking. So say for example you have a person whose a member of a smaller congregation… and this particular person is a talented singer and musician… or maybe they’re very good at doing videos and multi-media stuff, or they are a big giver… there’s a trend where the larger churches will learn of this person and begin to woo them away from the smaller congregation because they see what they can contribute. Now that’s one way this is done… the other way is that the larger the congregation, then the more programs and ministries they’re going to be able to offer. And the member of the smaller congregation looks at that and says to themselves, “Man, I’d like to be involved in something like that.” But they run into a problem… when they mention it to the other members of their small congregation, they get no interest in it… or they realize that to have something like that in the smaller congregation means they’re going to be the ones who have to do the hard work of getting it up and running, and it’s easier and less stressful to just go to something that’s already established and up and running.
Now don’t go thinking that I’ve got it in for the big churches. I don’t. I would love to see our congregation grow… Personally what I’d like to see as your pastor is for us to hit about 280 or so… and then take 50 to 80 of those and train them up to be pastors, deacons, ministers, Sunday school teachers, worship leaders, grounds keepers, and have them go and plant another church in our area. And then I’d like to see that new plant grow and repeat the same process while we do it again. That’s my prayer… but that can’t happen if we aren’t reaching the lost. It can’t happen if we aren’t actively and intentionally doing the Great Commission… individually and corporately.
And it may be the optimist in me… but I believe it’s going to happen. In just the last few months I’ve seen it taking place. More and more of you are taking the initiative and starting ministries, Bible studies, out reaches. You’re taking the initiative to invite your neighbors into your homes and begin discipling them. And that’s exactly what we want to see. We want to see it happening within the Church and we want to see it happening with individuals.
Let me close with this…
In Matthew 6:21, Jesus said, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
A great Church is one where the people’s hearts are set on Jesus. It’s one where their affections are set on Jesus. Where their desires are set on Jesus. Their minds and wills are set on Jesus.
