We Can Be Sure That Jesus Will Build His Church! - Part 2 Series

We Can Be Sure that Jesus Will Build His Church! - Part 2

The Gospel of Matthew

Matthew 16:13-21

Sermon by Rick Crandall

(Prepared September 2, 2022)

BACKGROUND:

*Please open your Bibles to Matthew 16. This chapter began with Christ-rejecting Pharisees and Sadducees trying to trap Jesus by asking Him for a sign from heaven. The Lord had already given them countless miraculous signs that proved He was the promised Messiah. But no sign would have been enough for those ungodly religious elites.

*By this time, Jesus was in the 3rd year of His ministry. J. Vernon McGee estimated the Lord was only six months away from the cross. Evil scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herodians had united in their murderous hatred of Jesus. Normally, the scribes and Pharisees were bitter rivals of the Sadducees and Herodians. Scribes and Pharisees radically enforced their man-made additions to God's Law. Sadducees rejected those laws. The divide was so bitter that in Acts 23:10, Paul was almost pulled apart during a clash between these two groups.

*The scribes and Pharisees were also bitter enemies of the Herodians, because they were supporters of the non-Jewish family appointed by Rome to rule Palestine. But all four groups mostly rejected Jesus. They were obsessed with His destruction, and had been plotting His death for months. (1)

*William Barclay explained that "the cross was coming closer, and Jesus needed some time alone with his disciples, so He withdrew to the region of Caesarea Philippi. It was 25 miles northeast of the Sea of Galilee. The people there were mainly non-Jewish, like the soldiers of the Roman Empire. Locals worshiped in temples dedicated to the demonic gods of the Syrians and Greeks. Caesarea Philippi also had a giant, white marble temple that was built to worship the Roman Emperor as god.

*John Phillips explained that there on the edge of the Gentile world, the Lord tarried with His disciples for about a week. There Jesus began to speak plainly about His cross. And for the first time, He spoke about His Church. That's why Phillips called this chapter "the great divide" of Matthew’s Gospel. (2)

*Last week, we began to focus on the sure truth that Jesus Christ is going to build His Church, and today we will focus on this same glorious truth. But what is God's Church. Basically, it is the growing group of all people who have believed in Jesus Christ, everyone who has received Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

*My favorite description of God's Church came from Pastor Russ Blowers when he was speaking to the Rotary Club in Indianapolis, Indiana. Each week, a different member told a little about his job. And this is what Russ said when his turn came up:

*"I'm with a global enterprise. We have branches in every country in the world. We're into motivation and behavior alteration. We run hospitals, feeding stations, crisis pregnancy centers, universities, publishing houses, and nursing homes. We care for our clients from birth to death. We are into life insurance and fire insurance. We perform spiritual heart transplants.

*Our original Organizer owns all the real estate on earth, plus an assortment of galaxies and constellations. He knows everything, and lives everywhere. Our product is free for the asking. (There's not enough money to buy it.)

*Our CEO was born in a hick town, worked as a carpenter, didn't own a home, was misunderstood by his family, hated by enemies, walked on water, was condemned to death without a fair trial, and arose from the dead! I talk with him every day." (3)

*God's Church is all of that, and much more! In the Book of Ephesians, the Holy Spirit led Paul to give us a multi-dimensional view of God's Church. For example, in Ephesians 2:19-22 Paul tells Christians that we are citizens of Heaven, members of God's family, and part of the growing, holy temple where God now lives through the Holy Spirit. Praise the Lord!

*In Ephesians 3:15, Paul confirms that we are part of the family of God. In Ephesians 3 and 4, he also stresses that we are part of the Spiritual Body of Christ on earth. And in Ephesians 5:25-27, Paul confirms that the Lord's Church is the spiritual Bride of Christ.

*There Paul wrote, "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for it, that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish." And in Ephesians 5:32 he added, "This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church."

*Thank God for the Church of Jesus Christ! But always remember that there could have never been a Church, without the cross of Jesus Christ! Please think about these things as we read Matthew 16:13-21.