Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Good morning, church.
[00:00:04] Speaker B: What a joy to be together today.
We are. We're doing something a little different today. We're going. We're going to continue in the Gospel of Matthew, but we're actually going to do a short kind of series in the Gospel of Matthew that I'm calling who is Jesus? If you want to turn your bibles over to Matthew 16, we're going to be picking up in the 16th chapter today.
[00:00:30] Speaker A: And I think as we get into.
[00:00:32] Speaker B: This chapter, like these next four sermons or this next just little chunk of text, we're going to see this question really fleshed out.
[00:00:42] Speaker A: Who is he? Jesus seems to really want to know.
[00:00:48] Speaker B: What people think about him, and more importantly, what his followers think about him. What we're gonna see in our text today to kind of set up this whole thing is that Jesus is, in fact, the messiah. Spoiler if you haven't read ahead in.
[00:01:00] Speaker A: The book, the problem we'll discover is that even though Jesus's followers know this, they have no idea what that actually means.
They've seen enough to know Jesus is.
[00:01:12] Speaker B: Connected to God, that he must be this long awaited messiah. But that is just not what they have built up in their minds.
[00:01:21] Speaker A: As I was prepping this week and.
[00:01:22] Speaker B: Kind of thinking about this whole series, I kept just mentally coming back to the cinematic masterpiece that is the Princess Bride. You guys have all seen this movie, right?
[00:01:33] Speaker A: I'm assuming at this point, most of us have seen it. Any of our.
[00:01:37] Speaker B: Anyone under 25 not seen this movie? Is that a thing? Is there anyone in the room?
I said under 25, Wayne.
[00:01:46] Speaker A: Here'S the thing. If you haven't seen this movie, that's fine.
[00:01:49] Speaker B: But what I need the young people in the room to know is that this movie came out at this really important time in american culture where there weren't such things as memes yet. And so all you could do was just watch this movie a hundred times and then quote the lines to your friends at school.
[00:02:04] Speaker A: Like, that's what we had, instead of memes was just quoting lines from this movie. Anyway, I was the perfect age for this movie. We had this on vhs growing up. My brothers and I wore out this movie. I was so much the perfect age for this movie that I had no.
[00:02:23] Speaker B: Ability to interpret or critique the story.
[00:02:26] Speaker A: Like, I was just all in. I followed the narrative through every twist and turn. I took it all in stride. When Princess Buttercup discovers the dread parrot.
[00:02:35] Speaker B: Roberts is Ashley Wesley. Again, spoiler alert, that's the second one today.
[00:02:39] Speaker A: I was shocked right alongside her, right like that's.
[00:02:42] Speaker B: Where I was at in my watching of this movie.
[00:02:45] Speaker A: But here's the thing.
I think one of the most striking.
[00:02:49] Speaker B: Things about this film legitimately, like, thinking about it as a story, as an adult.
[00:02:53] Speaker A: I think one of the most striking.
[00:02:54] Speaker B: Things about this film is how hurt and angry Buttercup is with Wesley. At first, when she first realizes who she is, she's been longing for him to return ever since he left.
[00:03:05] Speaker A: And when he does return, he's not.
[00:03:08] Speaker B: The Wesley she remembers. He's a hard man. He's been through a lot of suffering and hardship.
[00:03:14] Speaker A: It's not until he goes rolling down.
[00:03:16] Speaker B: The hill yelling as you. Right?
[00:03:19] Speaker A: Like, it's not until that. That it even clicks to her that this even is her Wesley. It's such a.
[00:03:26] Speaker B: It's such a great scene.
[00:03:27] Speaker A: But the reality is she just wasn't prepared to understand what her true love.
[00:03:34] Speaker B: Returning would actually mean. Right?
[00:03:37] Speaker A: She didn't. She didn't have a mental category for Wesley the pirate king, right?
[00:03:43] Speaker B: She remembered Wesley the stable Boyden.
[00:03:45] Speaker A: He was exactly what she was waiting for, but not in the way that.
[00:03:49] Speaker B: She was expecting it. And so, again, a little bit of a Jesus duke.
[00:03:53] Speaker A: But today, as we dig into this text, we're going to spend time talking about Jesus's title in scripture. Jesus Christ.
[00:04:02] Speaker B: FYI, not his last name, in case you hadn't heard that bit yet.
[00:04:05] Speaker A: Jesus Christ or Jesus the messiah. What does that title mean? What does that tell us about who Jesus is? And as we go through this series over the next four weeks, we're gonna see that Jesus answers this question himself.
He does so both through his direct teaching and through his actions. In the following text, Jesus tells us and shows us exactly who he is. And really, guys, as he's doing this, he's defining what it means to be Messiah.
[00:04:41] Speaker B: And ultimately, what we're gonna see in this, guys, is that Jesus's identity as MessIah fundamentally forms our identity as his followers.
It's such an important truth here, guys.
[00:04:56] Speaker A: Understanding who Christ is is going to.
[00:05:00] Speaker B: Give you an absolute depth of clarity about your own identity as a creation of Jesus and a follower of Jesus.
[00:05:08] Speaker A: That you will not obtain otherwise.
And so our main point today is Jesus is messiah.
[00:05:16] Speaker B: He's the king of his church, and because of him, his church will triumph over the curse.
[00:05:24] Speaker A: Jesus church operates in his power and in his authority.
[00:05:29] Speaker B: And if you think about it for.
[00:05:30] Speaker A: Like, 2 seconds, like, that's nuts. That's really nuts. His triumph and his reign means that we triumph and reign over the curse of death. And, guys, this is true in the eternal sense of follow Jesus, go to heaven. But this also speaks to how christians are to live out our faith here and now. Today, when you leave this space, when you go to work, when you interact.
[00:05:59] Speaker B: With your spouse, your family, your kids, your friends, the messiahship of Jesus speaks into your life.
[00:06:06] Speaker A: Who Jesus is, beloved, is the singular, most important truth about who you are.
[00:06:15] Speaker B: Christ's identity forms your identity.
[00:06:20] Speaker A: So pray with me, and we're going.
[00:06:22] Speaker B: To jump into this text in Matthew 16. Jesus, we ask today that you would be our discipler. Speak to us, Lord. Lord, give us clarity, Lord, we ask that you would be our discipler today, that you would challenge us, convict us, encourage us, remind us that each and every one of us today would hear from you in the way our heart actually needs, and that we would get to leave this space today having met with you, having been challenged afresh to do work with you.
We need you to do this work, spirit. So we pray it in your name, Jesus. Amen.
[00:06:59] Speaker A: Matthew 16. We're going to start in verse 13. By the way, if you don't have.
[00:07:04] Speaker B: A bible with you, we have house bibles around the room. You just look under the chairs in front of you. There's one around there somewhere.
Matthew 16. Starting in verse 13, we read this when Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi. He asked his disciples, who do people say that the son of man is?
[00:07:24] Speaker A: So as we step into this section of text, into this narrative, let's remember what's kind of generally been going on.
[00:07:31] Speaker B: In Matthew's telling of this story.
[00:07:33] Speaker A: Jesus ministry over the last several chapters has been growing in notoriety. Jesus has been gaining followers, both jewish and Gentile. He's increasingly facing rejection and hostility from his neighbors, his family, and now even religious leaders from Jerusalem who've all kind of rejected him. One of the results of this is that Jesus has now been moving around a lot more. He's kind of using the sea of Galilee as this way of sort of keeping the paparazzi at bay, as it were. They jump out into the sea in.
[00:08:05] Speaker B: Their boats and go from kind of city to city.
[00:08:06] Speaker A: But even this is not terribly effective. Like crowds of followers and angry religious leaders, they seem to find Jesus wherever he pops up. Really quickly, our text picks up with.
[00:08:18] Speaker B: Jesus visiting this region that's called Caesarea Philippi.
[00:08:22] Speaker A: And I'm going to bring up this map that I've brought up a lot.
[00:08:25] Speaker B: Over the time we've been in Matthew.
[00:08:27] Speaker A: Because it kind of zooms us in.
[00:08:29] Speaker B: Here on the geography of Jesus's ministry.
[00:08:32] Speaker A: And I think the map really does.
[00:08:33] Speaker B: Kind of help us understand the narrative a little bit.
[00:08:35] Speaker A: So if you're looking at this map here, you see that kind of blue jelly bean? That's the sea of Galilee. The vast majority of Jesus's ministry takes.
[00:08:44] Speaker B: Place on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee.
[00:08:47] Speaker A: He's spread out now to the northeastern shore. But that kind of top half of the blue jellybean, like, that's where Jesus has spent 80, 90% of his time. The way Matthew has told the story, Matthew has not recorded any stories of Jesus heading south into the region of.
[00:09:05] Speaker B: Judea, except for his baptism.
[00:09:07] Speaker A: Now, we do know that Jesus, like.
[00:09:09] Speaker B: Many jews of his day, would visit Jerusalem during certain special feast days.
[00:09:14] Speaker A: But his public ministry, at least, has been almost exclusively played out in Galilee.
[00:09:21] Speaker B: He's gone to the jewish cities and.
[00:09:23] Speaker A: Villages and even spread out to the surrounding gentile cities. But now he heads really far north. I don't know if you see, like Caesarea Philippi, like, it's up there in the middle.
[00:09:35] Speaker B: He heads really far north, and he's.
[00:09:38] Speaker A: Headed into, again into a region that is almost exclusively gentile. Now, we just read a little bit.
[00:09:45] Speaker B: Ago that he wandered into the region.
[00:09:47] Speaker A: Of Tyre in Sidon, not to the.
[00:09:49] Speaker B: Cities, but into that region along the coast. But this region of Caesarea Philippi, it spreads up around the same area, but just even much more separate from jewish culture.
[00:10:01] Speaker A: It is away from the familiar jewish.
[00:10:04] Speaker B: Haunts of Galilee, away from his closest.
[00:10:06] Speaker A: Friends, and away from what I can only imagine is a pretty wild couple.
[00:10:10] Speaker B: Months of ministry as Jesus has had these different challenges.
[00:10:15] Speaker A: And it's in this context, away from.
[00:10:18] Speaker B: Everything that Jesus asks.
[00:10:21] Speaker A: This question, who do people say the son of man is? Now, remember this phrase, son of man. This is Jesus most common form of.
[00:10:31] Speaker B: Self identification in the context of his ministry. At this point with his followers. This is a synonym for the word I with Jesus. Like, this is how he refers to himself.
He's using this phrase that the prophet.
[00:10:46] Speaker A: Daniel used, and he's not so much using it in a way of messianic.
[00:10:49] Speaker B: Connection at this point. It's really just saying person, and it's a way of referring to himself.
[00:10:54] Speaker A: So he's saying, what do people believe about me?
[00:10:58] Speaker B: Who do people say that I am?
This question, guys, is really important.
[00:11:04] Speaker A: See, Jesus has been saying from the.
[00:11:06] Speaker B: Beginning of his ministry that people would not understand him.
[00:11:10] Speaker A: I mean, think about when he quotes the prophet Isaiah, saying, these people will.
[00:11:15] Speaker B: See but not see. They'll hear but not hear. People won't get me.
[00:11:22] Speaker A: And what we see in this is that Jesus understands that his person and.
[00:11:27] Speaker B: His work, these things aren't actually self evident.
[00:11:32] Speaker A: I mean, you can't hang out with Jesus and not form an opinion.
[00:11:35] Speaker B: But the truth of who Jesus is and what he's doing, it's not self evident. You can't just hang around him and figure it out.
[00:11:44] Speaker A: But that's a problem because I don't know if you remember this, guys, but Jesus is the hinge upon which humanity turns to. Right. Like he's the linchpin of human history. Jesus is incredibly important. We need to understand who he is.
And so Jesus is concerned with figuring.
[00:12:06] Speaker B: Out what people think about him as a result of encountering him, right.
[00:12:11] Speaker A: And we kind of see like, this.
[00:12:13] Speaker B: Is a big deal. Jesus even sees it's a big deal. Read on with me. In verse 14, they replied, some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.
[00:12:25] Speaker A: But you, he asked them, who do.
[00:12:29] Speaker B: You say that I am?
And Simon Peter answered, you are the messiah, the son of the living God. And Jesus responded, blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my father, who is in heaven.
So the disciples give their answer.
[00:12:50] Speaker A: They've been traveling with Jesus for years. At this point, they've heard it all. Jesus has been doing literal miracles. Guys like, remember, like these twelve guys have watched Jesus heal sick people without medicine or surgery. They've watched him speak with authority over demons and command spirits who listen to him and do what he says. Everyone who interacts with Jesus, an opinion about him, because you can't see stuff like that and not be struck by it.
[00:13:22] Speaker B: But the disciples have had the front.
[00:13:24] Speaker A: Row seat, so you notice their answer to his first question.
[00:13:28] Speaker B: What do people say about me?
[00:13:30] Speaker A: Is they basically just kind of name.
[00:13:32] Speaker B: Prophets, either modern ones, to them, John the Baptist, or the ancient cultural prophets, Elijah or Jeremiah. It's important, by the way, to note.
[00:13:39] Speaker A: That the folk who are saying this are not likely insinuating that Jesus is.
[00:13:44] Speaker B: A literal reincarnation of these prophets. So that's possible, but it's not probably what most people were saying. Really. What was probably being said is that Jesus ministry is in the tradition of.
[00:13:53] Speaker A: The prophets, is that Jesus is, the.
[00:13:56] Speaker B: Consensus seems to be that Jesus is a great prophet. He is like John the Baptist, he's like Elijah, he's like Jeremiah. That seems to be what people say and that the apostles have eyes on this.
[00:14:08] Speaker A: But then we get to one of.
[00:14:10] Speaker B: The most striking verses in all of the New Testament. But you, Jesus, asked them, who do you say that I am?
[00:14:18] Speaker A: Jesus zeros in the general scuttlebutt about.
[00:14:23] Speaker B: Him is only of so much value.
[00:14:25] Speaker A: He wants to know what these men who've had this front row seat, not just to his miraculous ministry, but to his life, to his relationships, to the way he speaks, the way he lives, what do they think about him?
[00:14:43] Speaker B: And here's the deal, friend.
See, we're about to transition into a part of this text that is famous and powerful and good.
But I would be remiss if I did not linger here for just a.
[00:14:56] Speaker A: Moment like, I think we know this.
[00:14:59] Speaker B: But just to say it out loud as a reminder, right? Jesus is the singular most influential human being in human history.
[00:15:07] Speaker A: That's not like me as a christian pastor saying that. That's like pretty much an objective historical fact.
[00:15:14] Speaker B: Regardless of your religious persuasion, there are thousands upon thousands of opinions about Jesus and you've likely heard a lot of them. And if you haven't, wait till Christmas or Easter. A whole lot of blog posts and news stories will come out with all different sorts of opinions about who he is. But the reality is, guys, you cannot rest upon someone else's opinion of Jesus, period.
[00:15:48] Speaker A: You can't.
You cannot take someone else's thoughts about.
[00:15:54] Speaker B: Jesus and rest in theme.
[00:15:57] Speaker A: See, this question from Christ wasn't just.
[00:16:00] Speaker B: For the twelve standing there. This question is for you.
Jesus asked this question of each and every one of us. It's the same question. Who is Jesus and you, beloved?
[00:16:18] Speaker A: Each and every one of you and.
[00:16:20] Speaker B: Me has to answer this question and we must answer it on our own.
You must answer it. It's not good enough for your parents to tell you who Jesus is.
[00:16:33] Speaker A: It's not good enough for a beloved.
[00:16:36] Speaker B: Pastor to tell you who Jesus is.
[00:16:39] Speaker A: It's not good enough for me.
[00:16:41] Speaker B: Notice I put me in a separate category from beloved pastor.
[00:16:43] Speaker A: It's not good enough for me to tell you who Jesus is.
You have to look at him, consider.
[00:16:51] Speaker B: Him and decide your answer.
[00:16:54] Speaker A: You must. There's this famous quote from CS Lewis.
[00:16:58] Speaker B: From his book Mere Christianity, which is pretty well known.
[00:17:01] Speaker A: You've probably heard some version of it.
[00:17:03] Speaker B: At some point, but I think it's helpful. And so I'm going to put it.
[00:17:05] Speaker A: Up here and I'm going to read.
[00:17:06] Speaker B: It to us in its fullness. It says this.
[00:17:09] Speaker A: I'm trying here to prevent anyone saying.
[00:17:12] Speaker B: That really foolish thing that people often say about him, him being Jesus.
[00:17:17] Speaker A: I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I won't accept.
[00:17:21] Speaker B: His claim to be God.
[00:17:22] Speaker A: This is the one thing we must not say.
[00:17:26] Speaker B: A man who was merely a man.
[00:17:27] Speaker A: And said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic on the level of the man who says he is a poached egg, or else he would be a devil of hell.
[00:17:39] Speaker B: You must make your choice.
[00:17:41] Speaker A: Either this man was and is the son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a and you can spit at him and kill him as a demon, or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.
You must answer the question.
[00:18:11] Speaker B: Most influential human being in human history has made a wild and audacious claims.
And you don't get to just be neutral about them.
He's either nuts, evil, or God.
[00:18:27] Speaker A: You've got a way through that.
[00:18:31] Speaker B: We must answer this question for you. You must answer it. For those that you love, they must answer it. They must be confronted with it. All of us must look upon Jesus and answer, who is this man?
And look how the disciples answer it.
[00:18:50] Speaker A: The text tells us that Peter is the one who's bold, who steps up with his answer. Now, you have to remember, Peter kind.
[00:18:56] Speaker B: Of often stood up as the leader of the twelve and spoke for all of them.
[00:19:00] Speaker A: But in this moment, Peter's boldness to step out in faith and say what has been burning in all of their hearts, it's important, and Jesus is going to single in on it.
[00:19:11] Speaker B: Look what Peter actually says.
[00:19:13] Speaker A: You are the Messiah, the son of the living God. Now, there's something we have to understand.
[00:19:21] Speaker B: Here about this phrase and kind of how this plays out in the next few texts.
[00:19:26] Speaker A: This term messiah was a well established.
[00:19:31] Speaker B: Concept in first century Judaism.
[00:19:34] Speaker A: The Jews of Jesus day were eagerly expecting and looking for their messiah. They had searched the scriptures and had built up a theology of expectation around this person. And it essentially goes like this. The word that we read in English as Christ or messiah, same word, could literally be translated as anointed one. And it refers to God's practice of anointing leaders, both with literal physical oil.
[00:20:01] Speaker B: And with his spirit.
[00:20:03] Speaker A: Think back in the Old Testament of the judges who were anointed in the spirit before they led Israel into freedom. Think of kings anointed with oil poured over their faces and beards, or high priests. David was a messiah because he was an anointed leader of Israel. And because of God's promise to king David that one of his line would.
[00:20:27] Speaker B: Rule over Israel forever.
[00:20:29] Speaker A: The conquered and exiled Jews developed an expectation that God would raise up a new anointed one to lead them. And the prophets spoke of this coming anointed king throughout their ministry.
And so by the time we get to the first century, because there is a rich body of messianic prophecy that the religious leaders of Jesus day had built into a tightly formed theology, they.
[00:20:59] Speaker B: Had an expectation that God would send a new Messiah and anointed king.
[00:21:05] Speaker A: They were eagerly awaiting, and they knew what they were looking for.
They were looking for a king.
[00:21:14] Speaker B: But when they said that, they meant they were looking for a new David, someone who would stand up to the Romes and Goliaths and lead Israel to victory and independence.
[00:21:23] Speaker A: When they said that, they meant they were looking for a new Solomon, someone who would make their country important and prosperous. When they said king, they were looking for a new Hezekiah, who would lead their nation to faithful worship in the temple and the rejection of false gods.
They weren't looking for the Son of God.
That's a phrase that up until this point in jewish history was not really.
[00:21:47] Speaker B: Connected to their understanding of Messiah.
At this point, Messiah was a super earthly expectation, a new king, a new general, a new priest who would throw off the Romans and help Israel be strong, independent, and holy again.
And so Peter's declaration here, guys, it's interesting.
[00:22:08] Speaker A: It's interesting because first and foremost, he's right. Like, Peter speaks. The thing that's been hovering in the background for 16 chapters of Matthew. Like, matthew doesn't play around this idea the way Mark does. Like, mark kind of, like, tells the story and leaves you going, no, where is this going? Matthew? Like, every couple chapters is like, just.
[00:22:28] Speaker B: So you know, this was to fulfill the prophecy spoken by isaiah.
[00:22:31] Speaker A: Like, he lets you know exactly where this thing is going, but no one in the narrative has said it. And so when, when it comes out of Peter's mouth, you, as the reader, get this. Yes, finally, you guys see what I've been seeing this whole time I've been reading. But here's the problem. Peter is also dreadfully wrong.
He's dreadfully wrong. See, all the twelve have been with.
[00:22:54] Speaker B: Jesus long enough to know he's not just a teacher, and there's no way he's just a prophet.
[00:23:02] Speaker A: He knows there's something going on here. He knows God himself is among them, that Christ is the son of God. He must be messiah.
[00:23:12] Speaker B: But for Peter.
[00:23:14] Speaker A: That term is connected to so much.
[00:23:17] Speaker B: Baggage that, if we're honest, had basically nothing to do with what Jesus is actually planning.
[00:23:24] Speaker A: And we'll see this next week as the text continues. Jesus has no intention of throwing off Rome and rallying an army of Israel to establish their independence again. In fact, Jesus is fully planning on being brutally killed by Rome and rejected by the religious leaders of Jerusalem. And when Jesus plainly says this to the twelve, Peter is the first to rebuke him.
[00:23:51] Speaker B: And according to Jesus, speak the words of Satan. Right?
[00:23:56] Speaker A: So here in our text, Peter, on behalf of the twelve, taps into the most fundamental truth of Jesus identity.
[00:24:03] Speaker B: You are the Messiah.
But he also fundamentally has no clue what he's saying.
He knows Jesus is Messiah. He knows Jesus is God, but he does not know what it actually means. And not to be too on the nose with Princess bride quotes, but we can't go any farther without saying it, right? Like, do not think this word means what you think it means.
Come on. Come on. It was worth it, right? It was worth it.
[00:24:29] Speaker A: I know.
[00:24:29] Speaker B: It was a distraction.
[00:24:33] Speaker A: This is why Jesus goes out of his way to say that Peter didn't.
[00:24:36] Speaker B: Arrive at this truth on his own.
God has revealed this truth to him.
[00:24:43] Speaker A: The reality of Jesus messiahship, his anointed kingship, his ruling authority. This, according to Christ, is revealed truth.
No one looked at the poor, borderline homeless carpenter and thought king, much less looked at him and thought, you know, not just kingdom, king of all of existence and reality. That's what I'm looking at right now.
[00:25:11] Speaker B: I mean, as the Prophet Isaiah said, he had no form that we should consider him.
[00:25:16] Speaker A: It takes the revelation of God himself.
[00:25:19] Speaker B: To see the truth of who Jesus is.
And beloved, we've got to stop here for a second. Again, can we just take a moment to be reminded of how amazing the gift of the gospel of Jesus is?
Beloved, God has chosen to reveal the messiahship of his son to you and to me, to let us know the truth of what is going on in reality, that we might be saved of our own sin and our own brokenness.
Like, it's important to remember, guys, one day Christ will return.
[00:25:56] Speaker A: And when he returns his identity, his kingship, will not be veiled.
He won't return as a poor, quiet, borderline homeless carpenter.
Tex says he will come in the clouds in glory. He will ride upon a white horse of victory with crowns upon his head and a sword coming forth from his mouth with his cloak drenched in blood and his name tattooed on his thigh.
A weird image, I know, but when John penned that vision in revelation, what he was saying is this, when Jesus comes back, not a soul on earth will miss it.
Everyone will know who he is according to the Christ. Him in Philippians, all creation, all of it, physical and spiritual, will bow down before its king, and they will all confess his lordship, some to their chagrin in their rebellion.
[00:26:53] Speaker B: Because the problem is, for those who are not in Christ, that submission will be far too late.
When Christ returns without the veil completely revealed and all of creation bows down to him in submission, it will not be a submission unto salvation. For those who are outside Christ, the time for that will have passed.
It will be too little, too late.
And, beloved, Christ has revealed this amazing truth of the gospel to you and.
[00:27:24] Speaker A: Me, here and now, today.
[00:27:26] Speaker B: That is a gift we're celebrating.
Praise God that he saw fit, that the likes of you and me might be drawn into his kingdom while there is still time.
It makes me think of the parable of the feast, where the host of the feast says, go out into the alleys in the countryside and the roads.
[00:27:44] Speaker A: And compel them to come in.
[00:27:46] Speaker B: That my feast may not be empty.
[00:27:47] Speaker A: Like you and I were, the people.
[00:27:49] Speaker B: Hanging out in the alleyways with no clue, and Christ came and compelled us in.
What a gift we're celebrating. We should not ignore that truth.
[00:28:01] Speaker A: In fact, it should move us, urge us, challenge us, encourage us to share that truth.
[00:28:10] Speaker B: Which, by the way, is exactly what our text points to.
Understanding Jesus messiahship doesn't just give us greater knowledge of his person.
[00:28:17] Speaker A: It does that, but it also invites us and compels us to share this wonderful revelation with everyone we possibly can.
[00:28:28] Speaker B: Look how the text continues starting in verse 18.
[00:28:32] Speaker A: And they also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the.
[00:28:37] Speaker B: Gates of Hades will not overpower it.
[00:28:40] Speaker A: And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. And then he gave the disciples orders.
[00:28:48] Speaker B: To tell no one that he was the Messiah.
[00:28:51] Speaker A: Now, in this chunk of the text.
[00:28:54] Speaker B: It'S really easy to just get distracted by a couple secondary issues and miss the absolute fire of the power of this text.
[00:29:02] Speaker A: If you don't know, I can just.
[00:29:04] Speaker B: Like, get us all on the same page here. This text that we just read has caused a lot of controversy because the Roman Catholic Church uses this text as a primary proof text to justify the.
[00:29:15] Speaker A: Unique authority of Peter.
[00:29:17] Speaker B: And through Peter, the bishop of Rome, and through that, the office of the pope.
[00:29:21] Speaker A: And for the last 500 years, good.
[00:29:23] Speaker B: Protestants have argued that the rock upon which Jesus will build his church is.
[00:29:26] Speaker A: Not Peter himself, but the faith inherent.
[00:29:29] Speaker B: In Peter's confession of Christ. And here's the thing, guys, if you.
[00:29:32] Speaker A: Want to dig into the nuance of.
[00:29:34] Speaker B: The theology and the Greek there, it's interesting.
[00:29:37] Speaker A: But I would argue that a grammatical.
[00:29:40] Speaker B: Nitpick is not a good thing for any church to build a doctrine of theology.
[00:29:47] Speaker A: Is Jesus saying that he'll build his church on Peter or on Peter's faith? I'll be honest, I don't think you.
[00:29:52] Speaker B: Can answer that question as easily as most people would tell you you can. I think if someone says that's an easy grammatical thing to settle, they probably have a theological chip on their shoulder to prove. I think it's a little more. A little more gray. Hard to read that.
But the real issue here, guys, is that entire debate misses the point of this text.
[00:30:13] Speaker A: Because here's the deal.
[00:30:15] Speaker B: Peter was a leader among the twelve.
[00:30:17] Speaker A: And he did have a unique role.
[00:30:18] Speaker B: Within leadership of the early church.
[00:30:20] Speaker A: In many ways, he was this authoritative.
[00:30:23] Speaker B: Foundation upon which the Jerusalem church was built, from which the global church poured out.
[00:30:30] Speaker A: In many ways, Jesus does build his church on the foundation of Peter's leadership.
[00:30:35] Speaker B: But that's not an excuse to justify an office we call the papacy.
[00:30:39] Speaker A: On the other hand, we already know that Peter is in. This text is a representative of the twelve. And it makes complete sense here. Regardless of your take on that bit, to see Jesus commands here as not just applying to Peter in his unique role, but to the church as a whole. In other words, Jesus is putting special emphasis on Peter because he's likely doing so as an exemplar of what it means to be a fully committed member of his church. Jesus would build his church upon believers who step out in bold faith and leadership like Peter.
[00:31:14] Speaker B: And if you take that take on it, what you see is that because of who Jesus is, Jesus church will do amazing things in this world. That Christ's identity, that our faith, our connection, the revelation of the truth of who Christ is, empowers the church to do amazing things in this world.
[00:31:35] Speaker A: The phrases that we read in here about the keys to the kingdom and binding and loosing, I'm not going to dig super far into this because you.
[00:31:42] Speaker B: Can google it really quick, but essentially.
[00:31:43] Speaker A: This is just an incredibly jewish way.
[00:31:46] Speaker B: Of saying that Jesus gospel message will go out through his church, that who.
[00:31:51] Speaker A: Jesus is and what the messiah means and what the work of Jesus means for new life and forgiveness from sins, that his church will proclaim that message to the world in an effective way.
This means, by the way, that us right now, his followers, those who walk in the footsteps of Jesus, by walking.
[00:32:13] Speaker B: In the footsteps of the apostle, who.
[00:32:14] Speaker A: Will or the apostles will take the kingdom into the world, joining with God to bring this amazing revelation of the messiahship of Jesus to more and more and more and more.
[00:32:28] Speaker B: That's what the binding and loosing bit means, what the keys to the kingdom means. It means his church is going to go out in his power and authority and effectively proclaim his gospel.
[00:32:37] Speaker A: And I want to zone into one.
[00:32:38] Speaker B: Of these images here for just a minute because I think there's some real just power for us, encouragement for us as the church here.
[00:32:45] Speaker A: Notice Jesus says the gates of Hades.
[00:32:49] Speaker B: Will not overcome his church. This is warfare imagery.
[00:32:54] Speaker A: In ancient times, important cities and people.
[00:32:57] Speaker B: Groups were fortified behind walls and fortified.
[00:33:00] Speaker A: Gates and a city's gates were one of its most important weapons. You need to hear that, like, city gates were a weapon, they were a defensive weapon. They were a weapon, and you could.
[00:33:12] Speaker B: Do some pretty brutal things to an invading army with a good set of gates. They'd have tunnels and gates built in and holes for archers and chutes to.
[00:33:21] Speaker A: Pour boiling oil down and zigzags that.
[00:33:23] Speaker B: Created kill zones for rocks to be.
[00:33:25] Speaker A: Dropped on people's skulls.
[00:33:27] Speaker B: You can read all about that nasty stuff in a whole lot of texts in the Bible.
[00:33:31] Speaker A: Gates were a really important weapon for a fortified city to protect itself.
Guys, notice that Jesus says the gates.
[00:33:42] Speaker B: Of Hades will not overcome the church.
[00:33:45] Speaker A: That word Hades or hell, depending on your translation, it's referring less to some.
[00:33:50] Speaker B: Like, big, spooky spiritual battle with, like, orc demons coming after us. It's more about the reality of the curse of sin and death.
[00:34:00] Speaker A: Beloved, since Eden.
Since Eden, death has rained upon this earth.
Every human that has lived apart from Enoch and Elijah has died.
The holiest men of God, from Noah to Abraham to Moses to David, the men who the author of Hebrews tells us, trusted the promises of God to fix the problem of death. They died and did not see the promise fulfilled.
They aged, they wilted, and their life ended. Because the gates of death are strong.
[00:34:37] Speaker B: And they have always held humanity from.
[00:34:41] Speaker A: The moment the fruit of the tree was eaten.
[00:34:45] Speaker B: But Jesus says no more.
Jesus says no more.
[00:34:49] Speaker A: Beloved, there is a new king in town.
There's a new army around because Jesus isn't the kind of Messiah who's going to raise up an army of Israel to overthrow Rome and establish his country. He's the kind of king who will establish a church, who will collectively overthrow death itself.
[00:35:11] Speaker B: Beloved, Jesus is Messiah.
[00:35:14] Speaker A: He's king, he reigns. And because of this, his church here, in that you and me, brother and sister, will triumph.
Even if we taste death in this.
[00:35:29] Speaker B: Life, Jesus work on the cross has already fired the last shot.
Any suffering, any death that you experience in this world, when loved ones, when friends, when family dies, everything the worst the curse can throw at us now. Guys, it's a death rattle.
It's the equivalent of the chicken running around with its head sitting on the butcher's block.
Beloved, Jesus has already won.
[00:36:00] Speaker A: And in him, you and I win as well.
[00:36:05] Speaker B: So what do we do with this?
It's an awesome truth, right? What do we do with that truth?
[00:36:13] Speaker A: Well, first we praise God for how.
[00:36:15] Speaker B: Good his gospel is.
But 2nd, 2nd, you stand in your identity, beloved.
[00:36:23] Speaker A: If Christ is Messiah and you are in Christ.
[00:36:28] Speaker B: Then you are a new creation. The old has gone and the new has come. You are something brand new.
You are of the Church of Christ.
[00:36:37] Speaker A: You are of the family of God. Your identity is new. You've been bought, you've been called, you've been sent.
The church of Jesus gets to charge the gates of death itself. We get to proclaim the kingship of Jesus and invite even more to be freed from the shackles of the curse. We get to join Jesus in his cosmic victory march.
Come on, church.
This is who you are in Christ.
You are alive, you are bought, you are saved, you are triumphant.
So live like that.
Live like that's actually true.
Proclaim the truth of the gospel. Look in the world around you where you see the effects of the accursed when it is within your strength to do so, kill it.
Stomp the curse out everywhere you can. Step out in boldness and tell the world who its king really is.
[00:37:39] Speaker B: Because the world was not ready for the kind of messiah Jesus. Washington, God's own people weren't ready for the kind of messiah Jesus was. The world wasn't ready then. And newsflash to no one here, the world still isn't ready for the kind of King Jesus is. But, beloved, are you?
Are you ready?
Are you ready for the kind of king that has actually called you? The kind of kingdom he's called you to, to the identity he puts upon you, the call he places on your life? Are you ready to answer that call?
And if you want to come back.
[00:38:21] Speaker A: Up, here's what I'd like to do.
[00:38:24] Speaker B: I know we do this kind of thing every now and again, but I think it's really helpful as we're in this series. We're going to spend the next three weeks zoning in meditating on this truth.
[00:38:35] Speaker A: Who is Jesus and what does that.
[00:38:38] Speaker B: Mean for us today?
[00:38:40] Speaker A: By the way, if you are in.
[00:38:42] Speaker B: This place today and you haven't trusted Christ as your savior man, please hear this moment as your invitation to consider his call to you afresh.
[00:38:52] Speaker C: Christ is so much good for you.
His work is accomplished for you, and there is nothing but cursed and thoroughly able to overcome the power and authority of Christ in your life. You can find freedom in the today for those of us who are in Christ.
[00:39:09] Speaker A: I think it would be really good.
[00:39:10] Speaker C: For us to take a few minutes in prayer before we end our gathering of communion, just to reflect on the reality of Christ, the truth in the messiahship, but also reflecting the truth of the call on you believer.
[00:39:25] Speaker B: I put cards at the end of the row with pennies and I want.
[00:39:28] Speaker C: To encourage you guys, actually, each and every one of you, to grab one of those cards because here's what I.
[00:39:33] Speaker B: Think would be a really good thing to do today. As you think about your call the.
[00:39:37] Speaker C: Son daughter of Christ to join the.
[00:39:39] Speaker B: Kingdom, I would encourage you to take.
[00:39:42] Speaker C: That card and write down a name or two people in your life that you love, that you care about, whether friends, family, co workers, children, grandchildren, someone.
[00:39:54] Speaker B: You know who is not in crack.
[00:39:55] Speaker C: Who needs Christ, someone you know who really resists or has not heard of that call does not know the truth of who their king is.
[00:40:06] Speaker B: I'd invite you to write, write that.
[00:40:08] Speaker C: Name down, those two names there. Put that card in your bible.
[00:40:13] Speaker A: What I think would be a really.
[00:40:14] Speaker C: Good practice for us over the next.
[00:40:16] Speaker B: Three weeks as we go through this.
[00:40:17] Speaker C: Series is just man, every time you open your bible, take 30 seconds and pray over that thing.
Pray for God to move in that heart.
Pray for God to move in.
[00:40:28] Speaker B: You get to be a part of.
[00:40:31] Speaker C: That person's eternal story.
Make that person a part of your daily prayer life.
Beloved, we when the church of Christ commits to this sort of work, like famously church has said a long time, that prayer is not how you prepare for the word. Prayer is the word pray.
When we commit to this, we seek God together for the loss in our lives.
You will see.
[00:41:03] Speaker A: He'S already won.
So let's take a few minutes church to meditate, pray.
[00:41:10] Speaker B: Consider our poll, consider who we might.
[00:41:13] Speaker C: Add to our prayer burden.
[00:41:16] Speaker A: A few minutes.
[00:41:17] Speaker C: We'll continue. Our response to giving.
