You're listening to audio from Ascend Church. For more information about Ascend or to access more gospel-centered tools to grow as a disciple of Christ, visit ascendkc.org. At this point I'm going to invite our ushers forward. If you don't have a Bible with you this morning, let me just invite you to be able to get their attention. Just let them know that you would like one of these Bibles that they're passing out. You can keep this as our gift to you if you don't own a Bible. But if you do and you just didn't have it today, hopefully you can use this and then next week bring your own. But we want to be people of the Word because it points us to the Word, who is Jesus Christ. And so this morning we're going to be anchoring in the Gospel of Matthew. And so right now you can be making your way to the first book of the New Testament, the Gospel of Matthew. And we are continuing our series that I've entitled, Who Are We? Because as many of you know, we are advancing rapidly toward the launch of our new building, our new location, our new church home. And all the set up and tear down team said, Amen. That's exactly right. And so it is coming along. And let me just share with you just a couple of things. Number one, I want to remind you that it is not in a new building that we find our identity. In fact, the song that we just sang a few moments ago reminded me of that, is that when God goes with us, that is where we find our identity. We won't move unless he is with us. And I'm reminded of that passage in Exodus where Moses said, is it not in your going with us that we have our identity? And so it's not a building that gives us our identity. It is the presence of Christ in us. And so we are in laboring over the last few weeks as well as the next several weeks leading up to our launch to further equip us with an understanding of what that means. And so let me also remind you that we are not an isolated church. We are a member of the Great Commission Collective and hopefully you got a bulletin as you walked in and just draw your attention to the backside of that bulletin down at the did you know section and you will see that several other GCC churches are launching today. And we celebrated our ninth year anniversary. I celebrated with Adi and his family in Bucharest, their third anniversary. And then I actually was texting with him this morning. He was at Timișoara and celebrating their launch of their church. And so, so much excitement is going on in the church, not just locally, not just regionally, but globally and specifically within the Great Commission Collective. And so we have much to celebrate as a church. Well, the last couple weeks we have been unpacking the foundation of the study, answering the question, who are we, by defining we. What is the church from a New Testament standpoint? And in the last two weeks we've talked about the bedrock, as it were, the essentials that we anchor our whole doctrine and belief system and philosophy into. And so what we're going to be doing over the next few weeks is moving from that foundation to a very practical application. We're going to be getting extremely practical, and you'll see that beginning this week. And over the next several weeks, we'll be studying specific topics of the church, such as the Lord's Supper and baptism and membership, which, by the way, we have a membership class that is taking place during Second Service. And if you didn't sign up for that, that's okay. You can make your way over to our offices, which it's a really complicated direction that I'm gonna give you here. Can you get to Minsky's? Because if you can get to Minsky's from here, our office is just up a few office suites. And so if you want to know what membership looks like here at our church, I would encourage you to go to Ascend Essentials. Did I say Harvest Essentials? Oh, I shouldn't have even brought that up. Ascend Essentials to learn about our membership process. But we're going to be unpacking these topics over the next several weeks, leading up to our launch Sunday, Lord willing, in November. Well, Matthew is where we will be anchoring this morning, and I want to set it up this way. When I was growing up, my dad worked for the Royals, and I remember going to the ball games as a little boy, and my brother and sister and I, after the game, would let dad work, and our job was to go around to the different stadium seats and look for the cups. We would collect those cups, and I don't see kids doing that anymore. I don't know if it's outlawed, but we used to have these massive stacks of cups, much to the chagrin, I'm sure, of my mom. But we would collect these treasures, and there was one game in particular, after everybody had left, that I was looking for cups, and I looked down, and I saw something that was different than the cups. In fact, I had to do a double take, and I looked down, and there before me was a pair of beautiful binoculars. And these binoculars were a treasure. They were nicer than any binoculars I had ever seen. And so I grabbed those, I celebrated with my brother and sister, and I took it home. And my little elementary mind was working. It was working overtime. I mean, eBay didn't exist at that point, but I'm already thinking, can I sell it to one of my friends or one of my friend's parents and buy Star Wars figures? And so I'm already working through, what are these binoculars going to provide for me? These are a treasure. And so when I got home, what I realized is that those binoculars smelled. They smelled like beer. And so I thought, okay, well, I'll just wash it off and we'll be all set and I can go ahead and take care of selling these. And so I took the caps off the lenses and I realized it was hollow. And some of you know what I'm about to say. It was not a pair of binoculars, it was a flask to hide alcohol. Worthless to an elementary student, frankly worthless really to anybody. But here was the problem, is it looked like something that it was not. Beloved, what I want to set up this morning is the gift that the Gospel of Matthew provides us, and that is that the church, the local church, is the authenticator of Christ's followers. That is the gift that Jesus gives us. And in fact, he gives us teaching, yes, but he leaves even more than his teaching. He gives us the gift of an authenticator. Look at your notes and see the big idea. It says, the local church is the authenticator that affirms and equips its members what true Christ followers look like. That is what we want to set up this morning. That is what this passage that we're going to study reveals. And frankly, beloved, listen, as a sin church, we need to be living this out. And so let's grab our pens, let's grab our Bibles, let's grab our notes and let's document what God's word has to say about we as a church being authenticators. Number one, we are authenticators to distinguish his people. We are authenticators to distinguish his people. We set this up by explaining the gospel of Matthew. And let me just say that the gospel of Matthew is written by a unique disciple. This disciple is not just unique in that he had two names, but he was unique in his occupation. So let me explain his names and then lead into his occupation. His birth name was not Matthew. His birth name was actually Levi. We can see this elsewhere in other gospels. You can write down Mark 2 in verse 4. Levi grew up in a Jewish home. He himself was a Jew. But as he got older and as he chose his career path, he chose the career path of a tax collector. Now, if we were in the first century and we were in a Jewish synagogue and you would have heard me say that, you would have heard some hisses. Boo! Hiss! Because tax collectors were despised by the Jews. Tax collectors were turncoats or betrayers of their fellow Jews. Why? Because the Romans could care less if tax collectors gathered more taxes. All they cared about was the baseline. They said, you have to give us this amount, anything above that you can keep. And so tax collectors were also extortionists. And so Levi was one of these tax collectors. But as we see the name that I believe Jesus gave him, we see that there was a transition that took place in Levi's life. His name Matthew in Hebrew means gift of Yahweh. And I believe Jesus changed his name to show Matthew that his identity was no longer in the extortion of taxes, but in the transformation that would take place in Jesus Christ. What Matthew was doing was writing a gospel account or a historical account of this historical Jesus. And he was writing to the church of his day. Now, that's important. Because he was writing to a church that would have been made up of Gentiles, Hellenist Jews, and Hebrew Jews. And so that equips us with an understanding of why Matthew wrote in the way that he did. And what Matthew was primarily doing is explaining to that church that Jesus, his historical character, was the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. That Jesus Christ is the King that was prophesied in the Old Testament, and that is so important to the Jews as well as to the Gentiles. Now for us today, the whole concept of king is not something that we're readily aware of. I mean, we know that there's a king over in England, sort of. But pretty much his role is to wave to people and take tours and show up at places and draw large crowds. I know there's more to that, but that's essentially our American understanding of what kings were. But in the first century, a king or an emperor was the supreme sovereign. And yes, even Rome had a quasi-democratic republic going on, but if the emperor gave his thumb up or thumb down, guess what? It was thumbs up or thumbs down. And so in the first century, they would have understood a king much different than we know today. And so Matthew is explaining that this is the promised king. This is the king of kings. He supersedes any emperor, any king that we know of in the first century. It's fascinating how he does this. He does this from the opening verses through the genealogy, and I won't spend a whole lot of time here, but the genealogy is intentional. Even the 14 generations are intended to elicit awe in the original audience, and he proves that Jesus, the historical character, comes from the line of David, therefore he has rightful claim to the throne. But what's fascinating is I believe the thesis of the entire Gospel of Matthew is found in chapter 1 in verse 21. Would you look at that with me? Matthew is explaining what the king accomplishes. Referring to Mary, Jesus' mother, it says in verse 21, she will bear a son. And you shall call his name Jesus. Listen to this. This is the thesis. For he, Jesus, will save his people from their sins. Would you underline that? That is the thesis of the Gospel of Matthew. That is the thesis of Levi turned Matthew, is that this historical individual, the King of Kings, has as his primary role for humanity to save his people from their sins. That phrase is so important, his people. Now for the early church, what they would have heard when they heard his people is they would have assumed that that was an ethnicity. And what ethnicity would they have assumed Jesus was referring to when he talked about his people? It would have been the Jews. And so what Matthew is going to do from this point forward is to open and broaden the minds of that original audience to understand his people is not an ethnic issue. His people is a spiritual issue. And so over the next several chapters, Matthew is going to give stories and accounts and plots and subplots to show that this is the king who saves his people. So both the king as well as who his people are. There's a recurring phrase throughout the gospel of Matthew. That recurring phrase is the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven or the kingdom is at hand. Would you write that down? That is so important, because as we look at Old Testament prophecies, we see a constant theme, and that is that a kingdom is one day coming. The prophets of old told the Jews, look forward to a kingdom. In fact, we can look at Hebrews 11, and we see that the hall of faith, or the faithful saints of Hebrews 11, were looking forward to a city that did not have foundations built by man. All of the Old Testament prophecies are whetting the appetite of the generations to look forward to a kingdom. And so Matthew says that when Jesus arrived, he proclaimed that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Now what's fascinating about this is that the original audience to Jesus still thought in terms of ethnicity. And so you had the Jews who were constantly thinking, okay, now is our time as Jews to basically throw off of Rome, throw off oppression and be the ultimate kingdom on the earth. We see this come to a head in Matthew chapter 12. Would you turn over there? Matthew chapter 12 is a fascinating chapter and I believe the hinge on which redemptive history turns. This is a significant point, not only in Jewish history, but in all of redemptive history. Look at Matthew 12 in verse 22. It says, then a demon-oppressed man who was blind and mute was brought to him. And he, Jesus, healed him, so that the man spoke and saw. Now what's fascinating about the next verse is that these people had seen miracles with Jesus before, hadn't they? But look at what it says in verse 23, and all the people were amazed. For some reason, this particular miracle elicited within the audience an amazement. And look at the statement that the crowd makes. They say, can this be, underline this, the son of David? That phrase was clearly a messianic reference. It was clearly an acknowledgment that the crowd was realizing there's more to this man than what we might have thought. And in fact, they were so close to acknowledging that this man standing before them could in fact be Messiah, the son of David. Now this is what the crowds were saying, but look at what the religious leaders of Israel said. Look at verse 24. But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, it is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons. This is significant. Because in the ancient world, in the first century especially, the leaders often spoke for the people. And so in this statement by the leaders, the people or the nation of Israel, as it were, began to reject Messiah. Up to this point, the jury was still out. But at this point, the tide of the jury begins to switch from, could this be the son of David to, no, no, no, he's acting on behalf of the devil himself. And beloved, at this point and moving forward, things change. Jesus no longer proclaims that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Turn over to chapter 13. From chapter 13 on, we now begin to see that the kingdom is compared to parables. And from this point forward, instead of Jesus saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand, he is now going to say the kingdom is like, and he's going to say it in parables, which, beloved, we know the parables are earthly stories with heavenly meanings, but the meanings are hidden. And they are only revealed to those to whom the father and the son intend to reveal it. No longer is the message going to be clear to the Jews. Now it is going to be shrouded in parables. And now there's a transition that takes place. Turn over to Matthew 15. And this really sets up the passage that we're going to be looking at this morning. Matthew chapter 15 and verse 21, it says, And Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out. Let me just stop right there and say how significant this is. If you studied the Old Testament, you know this is a significant description. This woman was, underline this, a Canaanite woman. She was a woman of Canaan. That was the promised land. That was the area that God had instructed Israel to extract all of the existing people. And yet here you have a descendant of the very people that God had instructed the Israelites to extract. So this Canaanite woman comes to Jesus and was crying, have mercy on me, oh Lord. Look at this phrase, son of whom? Remember that? Son of David, my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon. But Jesus, he did not answer her a word and his disciples came and begged him saying, send her away for she is crying out after us. And he answered, I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And we see that throughout the early parts of the gospel. Jesus' primary focus was on Israel. You can write down chapter 10 and you see that Jesus instructed his disciples to go out, not to the Gentiles, but to the Jews. And so Jesus is just reviewing facts here. Verse 25, but she came and knelt before him. Listen, beloved, underline that. That is a posture of worship. She knelt before him and saying, Lord, help me. And he answered, is it not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs? She said, yes, Lord. Yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from, look at this, their master's table. This woman is making statements that I will further clarify in just a moment, but she is making statements of her profession, of her confession. She is calling him the son of David, Messiah, and she is recognizing him as her master. Look at Jesus' response in verse 28. Then Jesus answered her, O woman, great is your faith. Okay, just stop right there. Eyes up here. You see the significance of this? The Jews had just been asking, is this the son of David? And the religious leaders, as the representatives of Israel, have said, no, no, no, no, no, he's doing this on Satan's behalf. And then you have a Canaanite woman who her entire ethnicity should have been extracted generations before, who stands and says, you are son of David. And Jesus responds to her and says, great is your faith. Be it done for you as you desire. And her daughter was healed instantly. Now, why did I take all of this time to backtrack through the Gospel of Matthew and haven't even gotten into the verses that your bulletin says we're going to be studying this morning? Because listen, beloved, and please write this down, there is a distinction between his people and those who are not his people. Beloved, we have to remember John 5, 29. There are people that when they draw their last breath will be raised to eternal death and those who will be raised to eternal life. And so His people versus not His people is not a matter of ethnicity. It's a matter of eternal destination. And this is significant. So first of all, beloved, we need to remember that as authenticators, we need to distinguish between His people and those who are not His people. Which leads us to number two. We are authenticators to make the confession of His people. To make the confession of His people. And I'll set up verse 13 by just walking very quickly through the first 12 verses. The Sadducees and the Pharisees come to Jesus and they say, what are the signs that this is going to happen? Now it's interesting that they partially got it. They partially got what a lot of Christians don't get. And that is that the Bible is a big story. And Matthew, through what he wrote in the gospel, as well as the teaching of Jesus, has been dropping hints, been dropping different points, that if you trace them together, you can see there's actually something bigger going on than just Jesus' ministry here. The Sadducees and the Pharisees at least got that, but they don't get the big picture. And so they're wanting a quick fix. They're wanting to know when will this happen? What are the signs? And Jesus rebukes them for that. And then he turns to his disciples and he explains that they need to be aware and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. And what's interesting about that analogy is that leaven is very subtle. It infiltrates very subtly, but then it impacts the whole lump. That's an important analogy that Jesus is drawing out by the terms that he uses here. And what he's saying is that the subtleties of the Pharisees and the Sadducees are like leaven. Beware of that. Listen, beloved. Beware of leaven today. And Levin today shows up the same way that it did with the Sadducees and the Pharisees. Listen, the Sadducees' agenda was political. Write that down. They were willing to buy into and proclaim anything that advanced them. The Levin of the Pharisees was a misunderstanding of theology and an unwillingness to learn. Would you write that down? The leaven of the Pharisees was a misunderstanding of theology and an unwillingness to learn. And beloved, listen, those two agendas are present today in the church. There are those that want to use the church and use Christianity to advance themselves. Amen? I pray not here. Then there are others that have the leaven of the Pharisees where they might have traditions, they might even have vocabulary. I think it's fascinating to hear of heretical churches that say it's all about Jesus, but they don't define Jesus biblically. Beloved, we need to always be instructed by God's word and the theology that we hold must be accurate biblically. And so Jesus is saying, beware of these leaveny, that's a new word I just invented, the leaven of these agendas, because it is subtle. And listen, Jesus is weaving together the big story like no other teacher in history had ever done. And people were beginning to get it. The disciples were beginning to get it. And it was like this newly sprouted young plant. And Jesus is saying, beware, because these agendas have great potential to impact the doctrine of the big story. And that's what brings us to verse 13. Look at verse 13 of Matthew chapter 16. Now, when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, there's so much richness with that, but we'll move right past it. He asked his disciples, who do people say that the Son of Man is? Would you just look at that statement? Look at that question. It is rich in the words that Jesus chose. Who do people say that the Son of Man is? Now, remember back to chapter one, verse 21? says that Jesus will save his people from their sins. And so Jesus is asking, who do people say that the Son of Man is? Now what he's doing is he's putting a massive softball about the size of a watermelon on a tee. I love watching little kids play tee ball because they have a hard time hitting the thing that's just sitting right there in front of them. I mean, they spin around, their helmet flies off, they hit the tee itself, and it's like the ball, it's right there. I mean, this is a massive watermelon ball, and it is on the tee, and Jesus sets up the disciples and the people who are listening by saying, who do people say the Son of Man is? Now listen, this question, write this down, is both irrelevant and crucial. Doesn't that sound like an oxymoron? How can a question be both irrelevant and crucial? Let me explain to you why this question is irrelevant. Because it does not matter what the people say, it doesn't change the facts, does it? I mean, we are such an opinion-based society. We are a culture that whatever popular opinion says is what we believe is fact. But write this down, opinion doesn't change fact. That's what makes this question irrelevant, but it also makes it crucial. Why? Because here's what makes this question crucial. How you answer this question will determine whose people you are. Would you write that down? How you answer this question that Jesus was asking the disciples will determine whose people you are. Listen, or said another way, how you answer this question will determine your eternity. It is both an irrelevant question, but it is also a crucial question. So, how do the disciples respond? Well, they say, some say that you are John the Baptist. John the Baptist was the last great prophet of the Old Testament era. Others say that you're Elijah. You can write down Malachi, chapter four, verses five through six. This is why Elijah would have been important, because at the end of the prophecies of the Old Testament, Malachi promises that Elijah will come, and that when Elijah comes, that will signal the end. And so the people were looking for Elijah, so some are saying, you are Elijah. Others, verse 14 says, you are Jeremiah, which that's a whole fascinating observation. Jeremiah was one of the most despised prophets of his day, and yet the immediacy of the fulfillments of the prophecy showed that he was authentic. And then there's others that just punt, or one of the prophets are what others say. Jesus had an agenda, and it wasn't just to hear what the others thought, but he did want to identify that there are some that are his people and some that are not. Listen, beloved, the people don't get it because it is spiritually revealed. Would you write that down? The people don't get it because it is spiritually revealed. In fact, listen to what Jonathan Lehman says about this very passage. He says, it wasn't clear who the man was to the crowds. They saw strange sermons. They heard strange claims to authority. There were strange associations, but listen to this. The world does not immediately recognize the perfect incarnation of God's love and authority when it comes. It's so true. Some things, Lehman goes on to say, about God's love are unexpected to naturalize. But listen to this. True love needs to be explained to fallen sinners when it shows up. That's awesome. And it's true. Listen, a lot of people in our world today say that they don't believe in God because they say the God that they hear about in the Bible isn't a God of love. Have you ever heard that? Maybe some of you think that, that are here today. The problem with that observation is that we are ascribing our definition of love to God instead of responding to His definition. And when we read scripture and we learn about the God of the Old and New Testaments, and we see how His love is displayed, it does not match Hallmark love. Yes, there are instances of Hallmark love, and the world's love, and the love that we hear about on the radio. There are instances where we're like, yeah, that is biblical love. But it's only because they get that right when they agree with Scripture. The fact is is that God's love does not make sense to the natural mind. It is spiritually revealed. Would you like me to prove that with Scripture? Write down 1 Corinthians 2 in verse 14. The natural man does not understand the spiritual because they are spiritually appraised. Beloved, this is so important for us and it will set up what Jesus says in response to Peter's confession. But listen to the confession that Jesus is going for. Look at verse 15. Jesus said to them, but who do you say that I am? Now would you underline that word you and write out to the side. This is important. This is where I'm going to geek out with grammar. But he says, who do you, plural, say that I am? That's very important. There's a lot of controversy over this passage. Like, is Peter the first pope? And what is the authority that is given here? And people will draw out that there's a singular and there's plural. Let me just say right now, and put a pin in this, that Jesus asks the disciples, who do you, plural, say that I am? Listen to what Peter says as the leader of the group and as the representative of the group. Remember, the representatives of Israel had rejected Christ. Peter, as the representative of the disciples, is going to affirm what his other disciples believe. Listen to what he says. He says, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. Beloved, that statement will determine whether or not you are his people or not his people. That right there. Let's pick this apart just very briefly. Look what he says. He says, you are the Christ. That means you are the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies. You are the king that Isaiah 9, 6 prophesied. That he will be called Wonder Counselor, Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. You are him! Isaiah 53, the suffering serpent that will be bruised for our sins. He will be broken for our transgressions. You are Him! He says, you are the Christ, the Son. And we see the Son all throughout the Old Testament as the prophecy of the Anointed One. In fact, you can write down Daniel chapter 7. Daniel chapter 7. is where we see the Son of Man reference pointing the original audience toward Jesus Christ. Daniel chapter 7, the Son of Man, all throughout the Old Testament we see that the Messiah will be the Son and Peter affirms that you are the Son of whom? Of the living God. Now that word living God was so important because it distinguished the God of Israel, the creator God, from all other gods. Because what did the Old Testament say? Is that compared to the living God, all other gods are dead. Remember that? And so Peter's confession here covers it all. You are the promised Messiah. You are the son. You are the anointed one. And you are the son of the living God, the one true God. This is the confession that Jesus was looking for. This is the confession that reveals if you are his people. Look at Jesus' response in verse 17. Jesus answered him, blessed are you. Now that word blessed is important. Write down Psalm 1, 1 through 3. Blessed is the man who does not, blah, blah, blah. But the one who is blessed is his delight is in the law of the Lord. And on his law, he meditates day and night. This is the one who is an authentic follower of Yahweh. Write down Matthew chapter five, verses one through 12. This is the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus is saying, if you are genuinely a disciple of mine, blessed are you when you reveal that through your behavior and your thinking and your speaking. Jesus is acknowledging that Peter is, his confession was accurate and that he is a genuine follower of Jesus. He says, blessed are you, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. Love that. Let's remember that. In fact, beloved, this is a great application point before we move on to the final point. Let's remember this phrase at two levels. Let's remember it in our evangelism, first of all. Would you write that down? Remember this phrase in our evangelism. Remember that it is not us who convince. Remember, it is not on us. It is not us to somehow elicit a response. It is not flesh and blood. It is not Peter saying, oh, yep, I guess this makes sense. It is not Jesus, ooh, he gave just the right formula and now it unlocked Peter. What Jesus is saying here is that your confession that reveals that you are an authentic follower of Christ is a gift from God. Man, that takes the pressure off of us, doesn't it? No, it doesn't. Because the second part of our evangelism is that we need to be teaching this truth. In order for a sinner to respond with this confession, they must understand the truth. They must understand that Jesus is Messiah. They must understand that He is Son. They must understand that He is of the living God. They must understand why that is important. And it is that He will save His people from their sins. That's what we must do in evangelism. But this should also be a reminder for us, the second application is in our own salvation. Remember this phrase, in our own salvation. Listen, salvation should not elicit pride. It should always cultivate humility. That's the beauty of the doctrines of grace. Listen, we uncompromisingly and unashamedly teach the doctrines of grace here. The reason for that is A, that it's biblical, and B, that it humbles us and exalts Christ. If I can look at my salvation and say anything that I did accomplish that, pride. But when I realize that even my understanding of the gospel is a gift from God, not of flesh and blood, that is humbling, isn't it? But it also reminds us that it is a confession that is based on truth. It's not just a feeling. That's why when people say, yeah, pastor, I know I'm saved because I just had this amazing experience. I want to pause. I know there are some conversion times when they are amazing experiences and then there's emotion involved. There's nothing wrong with that, but we do not affirm our conversion on emotion or experience. We affirm it on truth and the evidence of a transformed life. Amen. So beloved, listen, as the church, local and individual, we are authenticators to make the confession of his people. That's what Peter did. And it leads us to number three. We are authenticators to affirm the authenticity of his people. We affirm the authenticity of his people. Listen, just because someone claims to be something does not mean that they necessarily are. Anybody have experience with that? No one knew that better than Jesus himself. And so here's what he did. He gave a gift to his followers that when he left would provide authentication. And we see that in these final verses. Look at what it says in verse 18. I tell you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church. Now, I would love as an expositor to spend a significant amount of time working through all of the different positions on this and telling you where I land, but I just want to weave through this what is important to our topic. What Jesus is saying here is a play on words. He says, you are Peter, which does mean rock. And he says, upon this rock, which is Petra, the Greek word, which is a derivation of Peter, he says, I'm going to build my church. So which is it? Is it on Peter or is it on his confession, what Petra is referring to? And the answer, I believe, is both. And the reason I can argue that is because listen to what he says in verse 18. I tell you, this is singular. I tell you, singular Peter, upon this Petra, your confession, I will build my church. But let me explain how that actually plays out. Who is the first apostle to be preaching the confession after Jesus resurrects and ascends? It's Peter. So Jesus was right. It will be Peter who is the first mouthpiece. And what does Peter proclaim to the Jews in Jerusalem? This confession. that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God. And so Jesus is exactly right that it will begin with Peter, but I would argue to you that it is not setting him up as a pope. It is not setting him up as the authority that he then bequeaths to others whom he will. It is simply saying that God is going to uniquely use Peter and his confession to be the foundation of the church. Look at how he unpacks this in verse 19. He says, I will give you the keys of the kingdom. Would you underline that phrase? The keys of the kingdom of heaven. The keys are often referenced all throughout scripture as symbols of authority. And what he goes on to say here will explain what these keys are. It says, I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatever you bind on earth. Now I'm going to read it how the original actually communicates it. It says, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven. You see in your ESV the footnote there? It just goes to show you that the original language does communicate how I just read it. Now, why is this important? Because write this down, beloved. Jesus is saying, I'm going to give you the authority to affirm on earth what has been concluded in heaven. Would you write that down? Beloved, listen, please write that down because this is crucial, not just to the Catholic debate, but to who we are as a church. What Jesus is saying here is that the authority that he is giving to Peter is the earthly affirmation of what has already been concluded in heaven. That's what the keys to the kingdom of heaven are. Verse 20, it says, then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ. What he's doing there is alerting us as the readers generations later that he began with Peter because Peter is the one who made the confession, but he's extending this authority to all the disciples. And if we look at Matthew 18, which we will in a few weeks, the same vocabulary is used again. When we look at Matthew 28 in several weeks, we will see that this concept is advanced. And what Jesus is saying, listen to this, beloved, is that he is given the authority to the local church to affirm on earth what has already been concluded in heaven. And that is, who are his people that Jesus has saved from their sins? In 1945, the plane crashed. Decades later, it was discovered that there were books on that plane that were of historical significance. There were 62 books written in old Gothic German that were claimed to have been the personal diaries of Adolf Hitler. There was a German magazine that purchased these books, paid $3.7 million back in 1983, and began to sell off the rights to access these diaries to different news outlets. Well, of course, these news outlets wanted to know, OK, is this authentic? And so they started having forensic experts evaluate it. And what they determined quickly is that it was a fraud. And what this fraud had done is used tea leaves to stain the papers to make it look older. He had used modern ink. And he actually had mistaken the Gothic A for the Gothic G. And so when you understood the language, it was actually said to have been written by G. Hitler, probably his younger brother. Just kidding. The point is, beloved, is that not everything is as it seems. And listen, I want you to hear this because, don't shut off yet, because this is so important. I hear people say so oftentimes, well, the church is full of hypocrites, not Christ's church. Okay, did you hear that? It's not something to just blow off and say, ha ha ha, that's funny. No, no, no, Christ's church is not full of hypocrites, why? We are inconsistent, yes. But a hypocrite is someone who knows they are one thing, but passes off themselves as someone else or something else. That's what hypocrisy is. The true church of Jesus Christ is not a church of hypocrites. We do not pass ourselves off as something that we know that we are not. Yes, we do not live up to the perfected head of our church, which is Christ. We are striving for that. And there are inconsistencies, and we call each other out, and we encourage one another to say, okay, let's get better, let's grow, but we are not hypocritical. But what we are, beloved, as a local church, is forensic experts on what this book says authentic followers of Christ are. And God has given us ordinances, he has given us instruction, and he has given us leaders. to be able to authenticate. And that's what the next few weeks are going to impact. So you bow your heads and close your eyes. I just want to ask you this question before we sing and close and go out to whatever activities God has for you today. Beloved, listen to this. Eternity hangs in the balance with how you respond to this message. You are here for some reason today. Maybe you believe that you're a Christian. Maybe your spouse or friend invited you, and they want you to hear about the gospel and what it means to be a Christian. And so whatever your reason or motivation for being here today, God has wanted you to hear this sermon, and he's wanted you to understand what it means to be an authentic follower of Christ. And what it means is not that you come from a certain ethnicity or that you attend a certain church. What it means is that you as an individual have made the confession that Peter made, that the Canaanite woman made, and that is that Jesus is who he says he is. That what God's word says about your spiritual condition is accurate, that you are a sinner that cannot save yourself. And because of the combination of Jesus' perfect works and your unrighteousness, you have opportunity this morning to embrace the cross and receive forgiveness. And so my exhortation, my pleading with you is, will you receive it? Pray and ask him to forgive your sins. Pray and commit your life to him and own the gospel as the gift that you receive.