Okay, well I think Johnny's got a devotion here for us. Yes. This morning. From Matthew 16. Matthew 16, 13 to 16, if you want to turn there, for somebody to read it. Matthew 16. Yeah, 16 verses 13 to 16, a very familiar passage. Oh, sorry, 13 to 23. Anybody want to volunteer to read this? I didn't read it. He said Matthew 16, 13, 23. So I left my Bible, regular Bible at home, so we've got King James only right now. Excellent. When Jesus came into the coast of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples saying, Whom do men say that I, the Son of God, man am? Son of man am. And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist, son of Elias, and some others Jeremiah's, or one of the prophets. He said unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barger, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ. From that time forward began Jesus to show unto his disciples how that he must go unto Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed and be raised again the third day. Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord, that this shall not be done to thee. But eternity is set in the future. Get thee behind me, Satan. Thou art a defense unto me. For thou savorest not the things that be of God, but those that be of man. Amen. Let's pray and ask the Lord's blessing on our time. Father in heaven, we give you thanks for your word. We pray that you would in fact bless our meditations, our thoughts, and our conversation over this text. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. So the background to this account is quite significant. Caesarea Philippi is where they come into. And Philippi Caesarea is a place of great religious history and importance in terms of pagan worship. It's a beautiful area that overlooks lush orchards and agricultural fields. It's said to have some 14 temples. I think at this time when they're there, it's just a lot of the remains of the temples. But at one point, representing the many pagan gods that were worshipped and sacrificed to. Four of the major headwaters of the Jordan flowed out from this city. Beautiful, dark turquoise is how it's described. I saw some pictures as I was prepping for this, and I would encourage you to go and look up some of those pictures to see some of the beauty and magnificence of the place. There was a marvelous temple, I believe still standing at this time, of white marble built to the godhead of Caesar that would eventually be destroyed in an earthquake some 300 years later. And so all of this represents the splendor and glory and beauty of all the worlds of religions, whatever that may be. And it's against this backdrop that Jesus enters in with his disciples. for retreats and whatever they were there for on their way, and then ask them this great question, who do people say that I am? And eventually, they're going to give him an answer, this sort of stock answer, but he's going to ask them. He's asking the disciples to give their estimation of him in comparison to all of this. And he goes on, and we see that great confession given of Simon Peter here, as Simon is so prone to do, to burst out right away, and he gets it right this time. This great confession, what does this entail? What do we know about this confession? You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Anybody? What do we know about his confession? What do we know about it? What's significant about it? I mean, it's not a trick question, really. Well, you're right. He's right, for sure. He's the Messiah, the promised Messiah. But he's the Son of God, all right? The God-man is standing among them now. Peter makes this confession, whether or not they totally grab hold of that, but the God-man is standing among them. and asking them, what do they think of him? I don't know what they're starting to connect at this point. But this is massive. And he says, as we just discussed, that word, blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you but my Father in Heaven. Divine favor has been stowed upon Peter. It wasn't his own wits or his own smarts that he arrived at this conclusion. But the Father had made known the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ to him. It's an amazing thought, and he says, Blessed are you, John, sorry, verse 18. And I also say to you that you are Peter. And upon this rock, I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. So what is the rock? What is the rock? said. It's his confession. Turn to Ephesians 2. having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone. So it's his confession, but it's also Christ himself, I believe. I don't think we want to make a hard and fast distinction between the two, but we know the error that Rome imposes upon this text to say that Peter is the rock. I just think that's absurd, and especially if you look at what takes place just in a few verses. What does Peter do? He denies Him. He rebukes Him and then He'll later deny Him. So it's on this confession, it's on this great confession that Christ is going to build His Church. And He says that the gates of Hades will not overpower it. The gates of Hades. This is fascinating. They're literally standing at the foot, probably as they walk in, at the foot of the gates of Hades or the gates of the underworld. This is a mount where people had sacrificed to their pagan deities in the past, which were the deities of the underworld. And these pagan gods were etched into the mouth of this very cave where all these abominable practices would take place. We know with what fear and superstition people were struck with in regard to Hades. It's a place where people go and never come back. Unless they can appease their god in some way. So he's standing in probably this big mountain at the foot. I don't know if it's within, you know, looking distance, or what it is. But it says that even the gates of Hades will not overcome it, will not overpower it. And we have that passage in Ephesians 4, which we've looked at in the past. We won't turn there, but I believe, really, what we see in Psalm 68, if you look at Psalm 68, this will maybe be a study for later, Psalm 68 talks about God conquering Mount Bashan. And I think what Paul has done in Ephesians 4 is he has taken that in relation to Jesus' death, descent, and resurrection. What he's saying is he's going to emerge from that cave a conqueror. And that in conquering, because of his indestructible life, because he is both God's Messiah And his mission is to come and to destroy the works of the devil as God's natural son. He says, I will accomplish this by my own power. And you have that divine I will. Those divine I wills you see all over the Old Testament, particularly Jeremiah 31. I will, I will, I will. I think Jesus is giving us that. I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. And it's interesting because he's saying even death cannot stop me from building my church. He's going to talk about his own death in just a moment. If God has conquered the mount, if Christ has conquered the gates of Hades, if God in Christ is victorious over all the powers of hell, then what can stop him from building his church? Can anything stop him? Can the death of the apostles? Can the death of the martyrs? They cannot, because He has the keys of death and hell. And do we know any New Testament writers, any other New Testament writers who pick up on this theme of conquering? Any passages that come to mind? Romans 8. I think Paul picks up on this here, and I think This is a famous passage as well, we know this one very well. Starting in verse 31 of Romans chapter 8. Starting in verse 37. Oh, we can read from 31. or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword. No, none of those things will, because he will build his church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. Just as it is written, for your sake we are being put to death all day long, we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered. But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing that be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. I think this is just Paul appropriating that text to his letter here. Notice death, principalities, powers, those are the evolving things associated with Hades. And none of that. If you recall in Acts, what is Peter, the one who's rebuked here, the one who apparently doesn't really grapple with it, in Acts, what's the major theme in his first sermons in Acts? It's the resurrection, the fact that Christ is raised from the dead. And so now he's able to go forth with great boldness. And yeah, what a blessed meditation to think about our Savior, to think about this great confession, to think about him building his church.