This will be on focusing this morning on Peter's confession. Matthew chapter 16, verse 13. When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Who do men say that I am? The Son of Man. Who do men say that I am? The Son of Man am. They said, Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. He said to them, but who do you say that I am? Simon Peter answered and said, you're the Christ, the son of the living God. Jesus answered and said to 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 also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. And whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Then he commanded his disciples that they should tell no one that he was Jesus the Christ. So we know from our studies that Christ knew the eternal destiny of all men was dependent upon their relationship with Him. A relationship with Him based on an accurate understanding of who He was. Though He was honored for His miracles and His teachings, only those who understood that He was the Messiah, the Son of God, could benefit from the work that He came to do. For this reason, He kept pressing men and women to essentially make up their minds about him. Though Peter had already recognized him as the Holy One of God, Jesus kept probing his mind and heart. He wanted the other disciples to clarify their own understanding of his person and his work. And he seemed to use Peter for that a few times. This was particularly important at this time because the hostility toward Jesus was building. It was clear by now that he was making waves, if you will, and being in the spotlight many times. It was the Jewish religious community, who the Jewish religious community will call that, that were the most threatened by him, and would shortly be making it, and it would be very clear shortly just how threatened that they were by him. His disciples, and obviously we know he told his disciples he would soon have to suffer and to die. He was cutting away Essentially, any misgivings or any misunderstandings the disciples had, the choice was clear. If he was God in the flesh, then serve him. If he's anything less, then it's just a passing interest and it's gonna fade away. Jesus, here in the text, was in the area of Caesarea Philippi, north of the Sea of Galilee. and about six months away or so from going to Jerusalem to die. Here, he asked his disciples a series of questions that would force them to clarify their understanding of him. He was not taking an opinion poll, nor did he ask these questions because he was seeking some kind of information for his own good. He was asking them these questions to show them and to be a part of their learning process. Now in verse 13, when Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, who do men say that I am? Who do men say that I, the Son of God, am? It's so hard, you want to read right through that. Who do men say that I, the Son of God, am? You notice that there are answers in verse 14. Some say John the Baptist. Some say Elijah. and there's Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. But what's missing there? No one referred to him as the Messiah. Now you think about that in light of the last, in the last few months that they're together, all that went on with the multitudes And many times it looks like the multitudes were convinced, from what we can see, that he was the promised one. It may be that they didn't answer that because of the growing opposition to him. Maybe they became fearful, maybe there was still some fear. And then it could be that some of them thought maybe he was mistaken, that they were mistaken about him. I think there's a better explanation than even any of those. Popular opinion held that the Messiah would be a resurrected figure from the past. And if you look at the people of the list that's given here, it seems as though they are all from the past. It appears that the people most likely were not rejecting Jesus the Messiah at all. In fact, they had gone beyond viewing him simply as their Messiah and were embracing the additional thought that Jesus was also, in fact, a resurrected prophet. Even though it would be reasonable to believe, even though you could reasonably conclude that the people had not rejected Jesus as their Messiah by their answers, they obviously continued to hold him in high esteem. They had not gone as far in their understanding of Jesus as they needed. They had not gone as far in their thinking as we will see that Peter and most likely the disciples had as we're going to see. But before this, we'll examine the list of people that they had identified Jesus with. John the Baptist. Why would they think he was John the Baptist? This rumor had begun with King Herod who had murdered John the Baptist. Recall that the king had put John in prison because the prophet had boldly told him that it was not lawful for him to take his brother's wife. He married her anyway, and when the daughter of his new wife danced at a party, Herod promised her anything she would ask to have to his kingdom. Her mother, now in the king's court, was so incensed about John the Baptist's petty moral judgment, she thought petty, that she requested his head. And so to please his new bride and to save face for what he had promised, Herod had John executed in John 14. Understandably, the king, as we know, had some sleepless nights about his shameless murder and was haunted by the possibility that John might rise from the dead. Christ's miracles make him think that this dreaded possibility had come true. When word reached him about the activity of Christ, he said, This is John the Baptist. He is risen from the dead. And that is why that is why miraculous powers are at work in him. So this. So then you have this rumor circulating through the people that this is John the Baptist. Others said Christ was Elijah. And this was based on a prophecy in the last chapter of the Old Testament in Malachi 4 5. Behold I am going to send I'm going to send you Elijah the prophet before coming before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. So many believed that Elijah would literally return. If they paid close attention, they would have realized that John the Baptist was the fulfillment of this prophecy. He was not the reincarnation of Elijah, but he had a similar ministry. The explanation of this prophecy is then found in the words So, yes, in this sense, Elijah had come, but they didn't realize it. Others said Jesus was Jeremiah. Why they have said this is not necessarily clear. In addition to these three, there were apparently other Old Testament prophets mentioned. Now, people in Christ's day certainly did have a positive view of Christ. People in Christ's day even understood some things about Jesus, but it was equally true that apparently at this point in time in Christ's ministry, just about six months before his death on the cross, people were still confused. Would the disciples be as confused as the people? It was very important to Jesus that they had a clear understanding then of who he really was. So we'll look at Peter's personal conviction. Like an arrow aimed for its intended target, Jesus turned to his disciples and asked a pertinent personal question in verse 15. But he said to them, but who do you say that I am? And Peter, being the one who likes to speak, answered and said to him in verse 16, Simon Peter answered and said, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. It is not as if Peter had just now come to realize what he had stated. But he had never stated this, as far as we know, he had never stated this conclusion that he'd come to so clearly, so briefly, and so memorably. Anytime you've read this, I think very few people, when they've read this passage of scripture for the first time, forget that phrase. You're Christ, the son of the living God. He stated clearly two things about the person of Jesus. First, he had come to know Jesus as Christ, as the Christ. Christ means the anointed one. He recognized Jesus to be the Jewish Messiah. He truly believed that it would be through Jesus that this nation, that his nation, would be delivered from their sins and from their present bondage to enter into the blessings of the Messiah in the messianic kingdom. Did he view Jesus, the Jewish Messiah, as a reincarnation of an Old Testament prophet? So consider the next thing that Jesus knew about the person of Jesus. Second, he had come to know Jesus not only as the Christ, but as he says, the Son of the living God. So how much more significance does that add to Peter's confession? When he spoke of Christ, when he spoke of himself, when Christ spoke of himself as a son and God as his father, the Jews accused him of blasphemy. Making himself equal with God, they said he was a blasphemer in John 5, 18. They understood that this kind of sonship implied equality with God. Christ's sonship does not refer to time, but to rank. God the Father did not exist before God the Son. Both the Son and the Father existed from all eternity. By asking this question, Jesus brought Peter's faith into its clearest public expression. Here, for everybody to see, was the truest response from Peter's heart. It was another one of Peter's finest moments. Jesus continued then in verse 18 about Peter, and I also say to you that you are Peter and on this rock I will build my church and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. This is the only prediction Christ made about the establishment of his church and a prophecy that went on to be fulfilled. This is the church of which he is the head, the church for which he died, and the church for which he will someday then return. Within Christ's prophecy concerning the church, which is yet future, there's three different features. First, Christ owns a church. He said, I will build my church in verse 18. If Peter, or any one of us for that matter, should ever use the church as a platform to enhance our own personal interests, our own personal hobby horses, whatever, then rather than the interest of Christ, then we ourselves are making a very, very grave error. Second, he builds the church He builds the church. He builds the church by granting eternal life to those who were chosen before the foundation of the world. Then he gives each of its members spiritual gifts so that they might, so the ministry then might flourish. If Christ's church is going to be built, each one who has been granted the gift of life through faith in Jesus Christ needs to be putting those gifts to work, the gifts that God has given to achieve all of his purposes. Third, Christ empowers the church. In verse 18 he goes on. He says, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church. And then he says, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. We're in a world that is ruled by the prince of the power of the air. The world, as it seems right now, it seems to be Satan's dominion, and yet Christ's church Yet we are Christ's church, we're being built, we're being sent out against the very strongholds of Satan in order that Christ's church might be built. And the question is, will that be successful? And the answer is yes. Yes, that will be successful. If we wholeheartedly give ourselves to this task and prayerfully move and do the things that is put before us to do into the scriptures, from the scriptures, then we will be victorious. There might be losses along the way, but the ultimate victory is going to lie in Christ. Peter's dramatic confession initiated a response from Christ, a very moving response from Christ. A personal affirmation that Peter was about to be, that the church was about to be built. Peter would also play a leading role in that. Verses 17 and 18. Jesus answered and said, And blessed are you, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. Jesus refers to Peter as Simon Barjona, which is simply another way of saying Simon, the son of John. This is how Jesus referred to him in their very first meeting along the banks of the Jordan River. The prediction that Christ made in that first encounter then becomes real and has been fulfilled as Christ makes the change in names official. The shifting sand then had became a rock. This raises two controversial questions. in this passage to look at. What did Christ mean when he said his church would be built upon this rock? So back to the original phrase when he says, you are, you are, let's see, where is it down here in verse? Yeah, 18. and you are Peter and on this rock I will build my church. Some would look at the difference between the word that's translated Peter and rock. They would conclude that there were obviously a distinction drawn being between the two, therefore they cannot be the same. This is intriguing but not necessarily true for the simple reason that the word, the common word for stone and rock being feminine had to be changed to be masculine. to indicate the name of a male person. So Peter, understandably, this would be reasonable to conclude that when Jesus said, upon this rock I will build my church, he was not referring to someone or something different than to Peter, but in fact he was referring to Peter himself. Does this separate Peter out from the other apostles and make them special in some way? No. Peter is simply serving as a spokesman. for this situation, for the apostles, he is saying what they have, he is saying what they themselves would have said when Christ therefore responds to Peter, he's ultimately referring to all of them. In Ephesians 2, if you want to turn to that, Ephesians 2. I'm having a really hard time today, I can't hear, I've had sick all week, I can't even hear myself. Ephesians 2. Verse 19. Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and the members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone The second controversial question then, found in verse 19, he says, and I will give you the keys, back in Matthew, and I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, wherever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. So what is the question? What are the keys which were given to Peter? The passage is clear. It's very clear the keys which we permit entry into the kingdom of heaven are referred to clearly and unmistakably in the passage. It's the gospel of Jesus Christ. Romans 1, verse 16 tells us, For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jews first and also to the Greeks. As before, Jesus is only addressing Peter as a representative of a larger group. Peter properly understood the church today can still exercise the responsibility of administering the keys by welcoming sinners into the church, affirming that if they believe in the gospel of God's grace, they will be saved. On the other hand, We can also affirm that they reject the gospel of God's grace, that they will be damned. Peter obviously had made an extraordinary statement, which very well sums up the teaching of the scriptures about the person of Christ, which led to Christ's response to Peter as a representative of the apostles and in a respect to the keys, even all future disciples of Christ. But what did Peter's faith confirm? In verse 17, Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven." Where did Peter's faith come from? Was it inherent within his own nature, just waiting to be drawn out at the right moment? Was Peter's conclusion the result of his own careful thought, consideration, his own investigation? Was he an evidentialist? Did he go find all this evidence and then he just believed the evidence? No, the origin of Peter's faith was not flesh and blood, but a revelation from the Father. All the natural endowments of human nature could never have produced this insight. His statement was the result of a miracle of personal enlightenment given to him by God himself. God was the origin of Peter's faith. Peter was not mouthing the words of a creed, nor even drawing some legitimate conclusions based on some kind of careful observations. This was a faith wrought in the depths of his being. It was literally a gift from God. It was nothing that Peter himself initiated. It was a faith that was personal and final. Nothing except a revelation from God can give us a view of Christ that fills our hearts then with adorning wonder and love. The darkness can only be dispelled by a miracle. That is, divine light that comes into darkness to cure our spiritual blindness, is truly just a divine work. So one more time, we'll read the passage again. When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? So they said, some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others, Jeremiah, are one of the prophets. He said to them, but who do you say that I am? Simon Peter answered and said, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. Jesus answered and said to 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 also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Then he commanded his disciples that they should tell no one that he was Jesus the Christ." So like Peter, when you consider who is Jesus, if you can answer that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God, then you can have Christ's assurance that he gives when he says, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my father who is in heaven. Today, when you look around and you see all these Christian cliches and you hear people talk about all of these things that make them feel good by saying something that seems spiritual or that, but they don't recognize the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, as their Savior and their only hope of heaven. Anything beyond that or anything that is not that, anything that includes anything else or that changes that in any way is not the gospel and they do not have the assurance that Jesus gave to Peter in verse 17. That's what we should be concerned with, is that people see the true Jesus Christ, the risen Savior, the one who is the fulfillment of all the things that were written of in the Old Testament, given to us in the New Testament, and continues on to this day and will until Christ returns. Today we see in the public discourse, you see all these things and people will include spirituality, religiosity, all of these different things that seem to soothe men's souls for a time being. We have to be very aware, even this whole idea of this evidentialism, this is all around. There was a time when evidentialism was a big fad in evangelical circles in the late 90s, early 2000s. There was tons of books and things that were arguing from all sorts of different perspectives to try to prove in some way or another God's word. Every one of them fell short because you do not have the work of Christ. You have all these other things trying to, those things should be a reinforcement. Once you know that God is the creator of the universe, you can look around the universe and you can see how complimentary that the universe is to God. It's not God is complimentary to the universe. So we need to be diligent in presenting Christ as the Son of the living God. So I'm gonna conclude this morning. So we'll close with a word of prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, for this day. We thank you for this profession that we have here in Matthew from Peter. I pray, Father, for everyone here that we could have this confession ourselves, that we would never waver from it, that we would stand fast, Lord, with all the assaults that come our way. Father, we'd help to not be apart, not join in with some misconceived ideas about our Savior, Lord Jesus Christ, that we would present Him clearly and plainly. We'd preach Him to every living creature. Pray for this church that you would help us to hold fast to the truths given to us in your word. Father, we pray for those who are away this morning and traveling. We pray you keep them safe. For those who are on their way here, we pray that you would deliver them here safely. We thank you for all the work that you're doing in our lives. We thank you for Brother Schuyler being here today to preach for us. We pray you'd bless him in this time together. In Christ's name, for his sake I pray, amen.