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in chapter 16. And when you get there to verse 13, for those of you who are willing and able, would you please stand out of reverence and respect as we read God's holy and perfect Word this morning and we submit ourselves underneath His authority. And this is what Matthew writes under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit beginning in verse 13. Now when Jesus came And to the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, who do people say that the Son of Man is? And they said, some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. He said to them, but who do you say that I am? Simon Peter replied, you are the Christ. the son of the living God. And Jesus answered him, blessed are you, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Let us pray this morning. Lord God, we thank you for your word. We pray, God, that you would do what you say you will in your word. You say it will not return void, but it will go forth and accomplish your purpose and your people. And so, God, we pray that you would do and have your way here this morning through your word. And we thank you for it, and I pray that we will listen now as you speak in Christ's name, amen. This morning, as we begin, I want you to consider a question. And the question is, who is Jesus to you? Now, I'll be honest, generally speaking, I don't know. don't like questions like that. I'll explain why. Because when we're studying the Bible, I don't think that's a good question at all, right? I don't think that when we study the Bible, I don't think the right question is to ask, hey, what does this text mean to you? I don't think that's the right question. The right and better question to ask when we study the Bible is, what did God mean when he inspired this to be written? Right, that's the better question whenever we're studying the Bible. But today in this text, the question that we have before us, the burning question of this text is very much so placed before us as something that we must deal with as individuals. It's the determining of whether or not we understand who Christ is or not. And so I do want to place this question. I think it's a great question for us this morning. Who is Jesus to you? Who do you say that Jesus is? Not who was he to grandma or grandpa. Not who was he to mama or daddy. Not who you have heard he is. I'm not even asking you this morning to tell me what you have heard the Bible say about Jesus. I'm asking you to truly consider who do you say that Jesus is? Because that's the question Jesus asked His disciples here in this text. That's the burning question of this text. And so I want that to be on your mind. Who do you say that Jesus is? As we begin here in verse number 13, the first question He asked is actually what are other people saying? Look at verse 13. When Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, who do people say that the Son of Man is? Jesus asked for a report of what others were saying about him. He's asking for the common opinion of the people. And as we've seen already in Matthew, there are many opinions about Jesus. And I'm sure that some would have had favorable opinions of Jesus. Imagine for a second being one of the parents of the children that Christ healed. I'm sure your opinion of him would be favorable. Imagine being one of the people that Christ healed. Imagine being one of the disciples who had walked around and watched Jesus do all kinds of miraculous things. Imagine for a second being the little girl who was raised from the dead. Imagine being that daddy. Imagine being the man with the withered hand or the man who was laying paralyzed at the gate. Imagine being the friend who was lowered through the roof. Imagine being the friend who lowered him. Imagine being the blind man who now saw. Imagine being the deaf man that now hears, the lame man that now walks. Imagine being in the crowd who ate the five loaves and the two fish. Just think about that for a second. I'm sure the opinion from at least those people was somewhat favorable of Jesus. But then there were certainly others who would have had less than a favorable opinion of Jesus. Remember the Pharisees and the scribes, back in Matthew chapter 12, they said that Jesus was casting out demons by the power of Satan. That's at least their opinion. In John 11, the chief priests and the Pharisees, they gather together because they believe Jesus is a threat to the nation as a whole. The Herod of this day wants Jesus dead because he thinks Jesus is John the Baptist reincarnated. The members of his own family, Jesus' own family, believed that Jesus was out of his mind. And so, as the disciples try, and think about this, as the disciples try and answer this question, there might be a number of opinions from which to draw whenever they're considering who Jesus and who people are saying Jesus is. I'm sure the disciples have no shortage of answers when it comes to what people are saying. It's just generally true. People say a lot. Amen? I think we can all agree on that. But Jesus asked his disciples, and the disciples, they only seem to speak about things from a positive light, right? They're just going to tell Jesus the good things. I'm sure they've heard other things, but they're just going to tell Jesus the good things. Look at what they do say in verse 14. And they said, some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. So here's what people are saying according to the disciples. The people think he's a prophet. They even identify him as one of the previous prophets. Some say John the Baptist, right? And maybe that's because that's what Herod was thinking. If you go back to chapter 14, you'll see where Herod was peddling that idea. But we see others were saying Elijah or Jeremiah or one of the prophets. And why would they say Elijah? Elijah, for one, he's unique. He was taken up into heaven while still alive. Also, in Malachi, in Malachi chapter 4, Malachi prophesied that there was coming a day when God would send forth Elijah before the great and awesome day of the Lord. And so, maybe through prophecy, they're expecting Elijah to come, and then Jesus comes doing some of the very same types of miracles that Elijah was able to perform. And so, that may have been a natural conclusion. Now, of course, we know John the Baptist was actually Elijah who was to come. Jesus actually told us this in Matthew 11, verse 14. He says, if you are willing to accept it, John is Elijah who was to come. They say that. They say he's Elijah. Then they also say, Jeremiah, and why Jeremiah? Jeremiah, of course, is known as the weeping prophet, but his ministry, Jeremiah's ministry, if you go read, his ministry was marked by prophecies against the religious rulers of that day. It was marked by prophecies against the temple and the things that were happening in the temple. And so those things are obviously very much a part of Jesus's ministry. And so you can see why they may have said that. And then there's this general idea that he could be any of those prophets of old. The point being, people are saying that Jesus is a prophet. Now I do think it's important to say that they are at least thinking along the right lines. Though they fall way short of properly identifying him, they are thinking along the right lines. And what I mean by this is they understand there is something different. Church, there's something different about Jesus. Jesus is not just an ordinary man for these folks. They say Jesus is a prophet. And they are partly correct, by the way. Being a prophet is a part of the threefold office of Christ. Jesus came to fulfill all the offices that we see in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, you have three offices that are mentioned. You have prophet, you have priest, and you have king. Jesus fulfills all of those office. Jesus is a prophet in that he delivers the word of God to us. He is a priest in that he intercedes for us and offers sacrifice for us. And he is king in that he has been exalted to the name that is above every name and all authority in heaven and earth has been given to him. But in seeing that, we have to understand Jesus is more than just a prophet, right? Getting back to the text though, this is the opinion of the people. And again, there is no shortage of opinions. Even today, there is no shortage of opinions as to who Jesus is. But just like here in Matthew 16, the opinion of today normally falls short of properly identifying who Jesus is. Most people today, if you talk with them about Jesus, they will speak positively. They have no problem identifying Jesus as a prophet or a teacher or a virtuous person, a good man even, a man of peace. But they will stop short of saying who he actually is. And we as believers tend to be too easily satisfied that people just don't speak ill of Jesus. But I want us to understand this morning that the point of this passage is that these people, they were saying Jesus was a prophet. Though that may have flattered a lot of people, they were vastly undervaluing who he actually is. In fact, the next statement he makes communicates the fact that they have gotten it wrong because now he turns from the opinion of the people to now his disciples to say, hey, what do you say? Look at verse 15. But he said to them, Who do you say that I am? Jesus looks into the eyes of his closest friends and followers. He says, okay, I hear what they say. What do you say? Over and against the opinions of the world, I want to know what you say. I want to know who you say that I am. By the way, I believe Jesus already knew what the opinion of the crowd was. Right, I don't believe he needed the disciples to tell him what they were, I believe he knows all things, he understood that, and I think he knew there was more opinions than the ones even the disciples gave. But I think him asking the opinions of the world was purposeful. Jesus is forcing them to think about all of what everybody else is saying, and he's doing that to set up this question, who do you say that I am? See, I believe this is one of those questions that penetrates to the very heart of His disciples because now they have to decide. They've watched Him do all the miracles. They've seen Him do all these things, but now they have been asked directly if those things have confirmed for them what the crowd says or what Jesus has claimed to be. And for the disciples, this is where the rubber meets the road. In fact, if they don't know who He is, how will they be able to follow Him? if they don't know who he is, they won't be able to follow him. Because I want to skip ahead a minute, I want to cheat a second, and I want you to peek ahead to verse 24 of Matthew chapter 16. Listen to what Jesus is about to ask them to do. And Jesus told his disciples, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. You see what he's about to ask them to do? You see what he's about to say, hey, this is what it's gonna cost if you're gonna follow me. So this question that Jesus asked here, who do you say that I am, it forced the disciples to answer this by virtue of him asking the question. It's really the question, and the answer that they give will determine the course of their life. If he's God, if he is who he says he is, if he's the son of God, if he's the Christ, then it's not too much for him to say, deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me. But if he's just a man, as the crowd is saying, then that's a whole different ballgame. So I would say this is the question that actually determines the course of all of our lives. Who do you say that Jesus is? So Jesus asked this question, and Simon Peter, who often, he assumes the role of chairman, right, of the disciples, he speaks up. He will often speak on behalf of the disciples. He answers Jesus, look at verse 16, and we can all maybe clap and rejoice, because he does finally get one right, amen? But look at verse 16. Simon Peter replied, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Peter answers, and what an answer, right? This is a powerful answer, but there are two parts to this answer. First, Peter says, you are the Christ. Now that word Christos there in the Greek is the Greek word for Messiah or Anointed One. And Peter says, you're Him. You're the Christ. You're the Messiah. You're the Anointed One. You're the One that we and our forefathers have long awaited for. You're the One that has been long prophesied about. You are the Deliverer that God has promised over and over again throughout the Old Testament. You're the one from the line of the woman in Genesis chapter 3 verse 15 that was going to crush the head of the serpent. You are the prophet from Deuteronomy chapter 18 who would be a true prophet that whoever listens to you will live, right? You are the king from the line of David who will sit on the throne of David forever in 2 Samuel chapter 7 in the Davidic covenant. You are not only prophet Jesus, you are prophet, priest, and king. You are the Messiah. You are the Christ. But there's a second part to his answer. He also says, you are the son of the living God. And in this statement, Peter has confessed that Jesus is God incarnate. God made flesh. The word made flesh. Peter here is going beyond prophet to God incarnate. You are the great I am, right? You are God, you are the son of God. Peter says, you are Messiah and you are my God. And don't miss this, right? Daniel Doriani says, Peter's answer here is the confession of every true Christian and every true church. When you think about this confession though, in light of the context, it really, really is amazing, amen? Because remember, the disciples had just been rebuked last week for worrying about Jesus being able to provide for their lunch. Think about the context here. Remember what Jesus just said just a few verses prior in verse eight. O you of little faith. And here just a few verses later after that, Peter makes the great confession that Jesus is Messiah, that he is God. Talk about going from the lowest of low, being told that you have little faith, to properly identifying who the Son is. He goes to the heights of heights, right? And if you think about this, this confession of faith is demonstrative of true trust and a love of Christ because his confession is not helped by the opinions of the world. The cultural winds are not at his back, as it were, in his help in confessing this. This confession actually stands in direct contrast to what everyone else is saying. J.C. Ryle says this, the glory of Peter's confession lies in this, that he made it when few were with Christ and many were against him. He made it when the rulers of his own nation, the scribes, the priests, the Pharisees were all opposed to his master. He made it when our Lord was in the form of a servant without wealth, without royal dignity, without any visible marks of a king. And so to make such a confession at such a time required great faith. But where does the confession like this come from? I think that's a fair question when you look at the context of chapter 16, right? How does Peter and the disciples go from doubting whether or not Jesus was going to be able to provide them with food for lunch to confessing that he is the Messiah, the son of the living God? Where did that come from? Jesus answers this mystery for us. Look at verse 17. Jesus answered him, blessed are you, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood. has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven." Don't miss this this morning. Peter is able to make this great confession because God in His grace has been merciful to reveal it to him. Peter has not come to grasp this on his own, naturally speaking. In fact, I think chapter 16 is ordered in this way in order to demonstrate this. Peter was a part of that same group that had little faith back in verse number eight, but now he makes a confession upon which Jesus says the whole entire church will be built. So Jesus says to Peter, you are blessed, meaning, Something outside of you, Peter, has blessed you. Being blessed, that's a passive thing, it's something we receive. I want us to understand that this kind of belief and confession, this genuine understanding of who Christ is, is not something that comes naturally. It's something that must be revealed and produced by a sovereign God Himself. 1 Corinthians 2, verse 14 says, The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. Naturally speaking, that's where we are. We don't understand. We don't accept them. John 6.44 says, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day. And Jesus here confirms this in our text when he says, blessed are you, Simon Barjona. He tells Peter that flesh and blood did not reveal this to you. In other words, Peter, you didn't get this because of just your superior intellect and your ability to think above others. This statement by Jesus erases any merit or glory from Peter. The blessing is directed towards God. He says, you are blessed, to understand this, by the Father who is in heaven, the Spirit of God, in other words, has regenerated your heart so that you can now see and you may see and understand that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. And I want you to understand, church, we must understand that this idea that Jesus is God is something, it's not natural for us to submit to that. It's actually an affront to man in general because every man, every man and woman, boy and girl, they want to be Lord of their own life. And to say that someone else is Lord is something that must be given to us by God. It's truly a blessing from God himself for Peter to be able to say this. Peter would have left this conversation not saying, look what I did. He would have left this conversation properly glorifying God for blessing him with this. This is true of every genuine believer, by the way. That when we are saved, we ought to leave glorifying God for what he has done in us. Because every true confession of faith comes because God has blessed the person who confesses. In other words, salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone. It's very important that we understand Jesus doesn't look at Peter and go, hey, congratulations, Peter, you finally did it. No, Jesus properly directs the glory to God for Peter's confession because it was not natural of Peter to do this, this was all of God. confession of Jesus as Lord and Messiah and God comes from God. And so let me just apply this here. If you say that this morning, if you can say submissively that Jesus is Lord, that He is Messiah, that He is the Son of the living God, and you say that in faith and submission to God, then you and I ought to be praising God for that, because that isn't something we came to on our own. That confession and belief is wrought from the very throne of God. The only reason we say that is because God in His sovereign grace has revealed that to us. To remember that Jesus already made it clear He's already made this clear, by the way, right? In Matthew chapter 11, that is the father's prerogative that reveals and conceals truth. Matthew 11, verse 25-27, at that time Jesus declared, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him. And so here, in His grace, Jesus says that the Father has revealed. Father has revealed. He's revealed this truth to Peter. Peter has been blessed. And I just want to just imagine this for a moment for Peter. Just imagine this moment right here. Because whenever you think about this moment for Peter, you know I always enjoy watching sports and particularly the sports videos where the kid who never gets to play gets to play. Y'all ever seen those videos? Where it touches my heart because you know I used to be that guy at one time. But I mean, he's on the team, right? He's got the jersey, but he sits on the end of the bench and he never gets a chance to play. Maybe because he's young or he's not big enough. Maybe the coach just wanted to be gracious and merciful and put him on the team because he needed somebody else to carry the water. He's not athletic. He's not talented. So he normally doesn't get a chance to play, but then the coach We'll let him play if the team is winning or losing by a large margin. And if you watch those videos, everyone is cheering for that little guy who never gets to play. In fact, everybody's like, pass it to him, pass it to him. And if he does get, if he does score or if he does get a hit or whatever, the crowd goes wild because no one is actually expecting him to do anything good. Whenever I read verses 16 and 17, this is one of those moments, we've all seen Peter get it wrong. No one is actually expecting Peter to say something good here, but when he finally gets it right, I wanna rejoice, right? As the crowd does, I wanna rejoice about it. He's had his low points, but here he finally does get it right. And Jesus says he's blessed to do so. In fact, all the other times showed us that this wasn't of Peter, it had to be from God. But Jesus moves on. He says, from this confession, he makes a wonderful statement. He says, blessed are you, Simon Barjona. And then he goes on, in verse 18, this verse of scripture has been the topic of a lot of debate. There's been a lot of books written and ink spilled on these verses, because ultimately, you have some people that are saying some very different things here. But look at verse 18, and we'll deal with this. He says, I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. First of all, you need to see, this is an amazing verse of scripture, and we'll get to why it's amazing. But first, the reason why there's so much debate is because people have formulated false doctrine that really has no grounding here. Roman Catholic tradition argues from this text what is known as the primacy of Peter. All right, and so essentially they believe that in this verse that Peter was made the first pope of the Catholic Church. They believe that he was made the visible head of the church. Let me read for you an actual quote from Roman Catholic teaching, and hear me, this is a quote from Roman Catholic teaching. This is not what I'm saying, this is what they say, okay? So I'm gonna read it for you, then we're gonna dissect it. They say this, it is a matter of faith that the blessed apostle Peter was constituted by Christ the Lord as the prince of all the apostles and the visible head of the whole church militant. And that he received immediately and directly from Jesus Christ, our Lord, not only a primacy of honor, but a true and proper primacy of jurisdiction. And so what they're saying here, translation, they're saying that Jesus is instituting Peter as the first visible head of the church. Basically that there is a visible on earth head of the church. And they basically teach that Peter became the first bishop of Rome and then passed on this office of apostle, they now call it pope, and so they believe that their pope has authority and they believe they can trace it back all the way to the authority of the apostle Peter. But church, I just want you to understand, there's a lot of problems that arise from this. And I really don't have time this morning to go through all the issues with the papacy. We'll get to some of that tonight. But the first thing we need to understand is that Peter is not the head of the church. And neither is the Pope. Jesus is the head of the church. Now they would agree with that statement. They would say Jesus is the invisible head, but the Pope here is the visible head, or Peter here is the visible head here on earth. But according to Scripture, here's what I want you to understand, that distinction does not exist. Colossians 1, verse 18 says, talking about Christ, it says, and he, talking about Christ, he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything He might be preeminent. We don't find in any place in Scripture that there would indicate there be a made-up distinction of a visible and invisible heads of the church. Now hear me, I don't want to diminish Peter's involvement in the life of the early church either. In fact, I believe part of what Jesus is saying here is that Peter is going to have an instrumental role in the foundation of the church, but Peter will be one among many in that. He will help build the foundation, but Jesus himself is the rock on which the church will be built. And I want you to see this. Again, I don't want to get too far in the weeds here, but I do want to finish explaining this. We see this in Ephesians 2, we just walked through this passage. Ephesians 2, verse 19-20, listen very carefully as to who is identified as the cornerstone of the church, but also I want you to see who it is that is helping build the foundation. Ephesians 2, 19-20 says, you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God built on the foundation of the apostles, of which Peter would have been one, and the prophets, that is, of the Old Testament, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone. Jesus is the rock. He is the cornerstone of the church. Peter is an important apostle, but he is not the head. Peter himself did not, even himself, did not view himself as having some kind of primacy or supremacy. Let me prove this to you. In 1 Peter 5, verse 1, listen to how Peter refers to himself. He says, I exhort the elders among you as the supreme pope of all the church. That's not what he says. I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is to be revealed. Peter says, I'm a fellow elder. He doesn't elevate himself. And again, there's a lot more that we can go after here. There's a lot of false doctrine with regard to Roman Catholic papacy, as far as they believe that the Pope is in error and different things like that. And we'll get to that tonight. but I don't wanna get so caught up this morning in what he's not saying that we miss what he is saying. So what is Jesus saying here when he says, I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I believe what he is saying here is that Peter does have a special role in the early church. In fact, if you go and read in the book of Acts, you will see Peter is one of the ones leading the charge in the preaching. And Peter does so with courage and tenacity as he takes the gospel to the world. And so I believe Peter's preaching and his inspired letters that he would have written were all part of his special way in which God would have used him. However, this is not saying that Peter is in any way the head of the church. It's saying that Peter is going to be used in a mighty way in the church. Also, The rock upon which Jesus says the church will be built here I believe is the confession and the content of the confession that Peter just made. That Jesus is the Messiah and that he is the son of the living God. That is the foundation of every church. That is the truth and that confession is the rock upon which the church will be built. And so I believe Peter in the office of the apostle will have a role and the foundation of the church, but you can't divorce the truth of who Christ is from the office of the apostles. So it's both, right? It's the confession and it's what the apostles teach, right? This is why in the early church, the church would devote themselves to the apostles' teaching, right? Because they taught Jesus as the Messiah and the Son of the living God. So this is what I believe we should understand here with regard to verse number 18 when it says, on this rock I will build my church. I do want to mention one thing as well as we kind of finish up here. The last thing I want to mention is the success that we are promised here from Christ. Jesus just told us he will build his church. I will build my church, that's what he says. He even goes so far as to say that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And so Jesus here is saying He is going to gather His people. He will call out His sheep. He as the sovereign Savior will not lose anything of what the Father has given Him. He will build His church. It's interesting, Jesus doesn't tell Peter that Peter will build the church. Jesus takes ownership of the church. He says, I will build my church, it's mine. which means, and let's bring this home here, Jesus takes ownership of the church and he says he's the reason for its growth, which means this here is not my church. And it's not my power as the pastor that grows it. The work of bringing about faith in the souls and lives of people, that's God's work. And I have to sit humbly underneath that. Now that doesn't mean I sit back on my hands and do nothing. I have to be obedient, and you and I have to both be obedient because we believe it is through the faithful proclamation of God's word, through the faithfulness of the preaching of the gospel that his people, and through his people that Christ does build his church, but this promise that he builds his church is something I'll just tell you just as a matter of transparency, this is supremely comforting to me as a pastor. This is what lets me sleep at night. So the expectation of me as a pastor is not that I would go and build the church. The expectation of me as a pastor is to feed the people of God, the word of God, and give proper glory to God when he grows his church. And here, yes, I believe he's clearly speaking about the universal church, but I think this is also true of the local church as well. And I would just say this as another matter of application. I truly believe that when God goes to church, that its growth is genuine. It's true. God doesn't produce false conversions. Hear that. God doesn't produce false conversions. If God converts someone, beloved, they are converted. Now, man can produce false conversions, false results through emotional manipulation or other means. This is why we see, I believe, so many people deceived because they were sold an easy-believism gospel of manipulated emotion that says, hey, just pray this prayer, sign this card, we'll dunk you and you're good. And most of them we never see again. I can't tell you how many people I've talked to that have the same testimony that I have. I prayed the prayer more than once. I signed more than one card, got baptized twice as a kid, but nothing changed. The only thing that changed in my life was my geographical location inside of a building because I was emotionally manipulated into coming down to the front to quote unquote nail it down. Nothing ever changed in my life. But I'll tell you this, When God, by His Spirit, opened my eyes to my sin, when He, through His Word, broke me over my sin and showed me the beauty and the glory and the sufficiency of His Son, Jesus Christ, and Christ alone, and by His grace He saved me, I can tell you it was real. There was a change in my heart. There was a change in my affections. There was a change in my mind. There's a desire now for the things of God. Because when God builds it, it's true. When God builds it, its growth is sustainable. It's not built upon the personality of one man. It's not built upon the pragmatic means of entertainment. Because if the only reason we have people coming to church is because we throw a carnival every couple of weeks, that's not true growth. True growth is when Christ builds it because it's built upon Christ and the truth of who Christ is. And when the church is built on that, that's a church that the gates of hell can come against and it will not fail. If a church is built upon a man or men, when that man or those men die or leave or something else happens, then it will become evident as to who was building the church. If man builds by its human invention, it will fail, but if God builds it, nothing Satan throws at it can tear it down. Satan himself and his gates, Jesus says, can come against that church and it will stand because it's been built by God. I believe Satan can never put out the fire of faith in the heart of true believers. He can't bring all he wants. He can't put out that fire. What God has fixed and built will stand against Satan's schemes. And what a blessing that is for us. Psalm 127.1 says, unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. There ought to be here among us, among myself, and the leadership of the church, and just all of us here in general as a church, there ought to be a healthy reliance upon our God who says what he'll do. He says, I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. I want you to understand, there's a lot of organizations that will fail. There is one holy thing that Christ has put his stamp on that says won't, and that's the church. So let's give our lives to what Christ gave his life for. and what he says will be successful. It will go forward. That's something worth living our life for. And let us say along with Peter, you are the Christ, the son of the living God, and as such, you deserve all authority of my life and in submission to you, I will do what I can to help grow this church. This morning as we close, I wanna close a little differently. I just want us to bow our heads and just sit here in a spirit of prayer and think very seriously about this question. Who is Jesus to you? Who is Jesus to you? What is Not what other people say, not what grandma believed, not what grandpa believed, not what mama, daddy believed, not what brother, sister. Who do you say? Who do you say that I am? Who do you say that Jesus is? Peter gave the proper answer. He is the Christ, the son of the living God. So consider if that is your answer this morning, and consider whether or not He is your Messiah, your Savior. If you have submitted to Him as the Son of the living God, that is who He is. The question is, have you submitted to Him in that? Father, I thank you for your word this morning. I thank you for the truth of who your Son is, God, that we find here. And God, I pray that we can properly say along with Peter that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And I thank you for your blessing God, the blessing of your salvation that you reveal that truth. And so God, I pray reliantly upon you now, God, that you would reveal that to people here. Maybe if there's an unbeliever here, don't know you, God, I pray that you would reveal that to them according to your will. May you draw them to faith, may you draw them to repentance, may you break them over sin. And God, may we rejoice that what you build is real, what you build is true and is lasting. everlasting, eternal. God, I thank you for Christ. I thank you for our hope that we have in Him. And God, I pray today as we close our service, God, that we could lift a song of worship and praise to you. In Christ's name, amen.
Who do you say Jesus is
Series Matthew
Sermon ID | 81124151351023 |
Duration | 43:54 |
Date | |
Category | Sunday Service |
Bible Text | Matthew 16:13-18 |
Language | English |
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