The following is a sermon preached on Sunday morning July, 6, 2008, at Sunnyside Baptist Church.
There is no shortage of opinions today on how to build to a church. As a pastor I have received tons of mail and 2/3 of it all dealt with this topic… how to build a church. Some would say it is all about the style or quality of the corporate worship. In other words… sing this type of song in this way and the church will grow. Some would say that all that was needed was this new Sunday School curriculum. Start this class… with our materials… on sale this week for $99.99… and the church where you serve will grow. Some would say that it is all about the quality of your youth program. Some would say it is all about your small group ministry or your website.
There is no shortage of opinions on how to build a church…but what does the Bible say about it? According to God’s Word… who builds the church? What stands in the way of the church being built up? How is the church built up?
We will strive to answer these three questions today from God’s Word:
Matthew 16:13-21 (ESV) – 13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. 18 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. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” 20 Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ. 21 From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.
Our text picks up somewhere toward the midpoint of Jesus’ earthly ministry. He had committed Himself to going about proclaiming that the kingdom of God is at hand and He called men and women everywhere to repent of their sin and to trust in Him to save them from their sin. And to validate His message, He performed many signs and wonders. He healed the sick and cast out demons. He fed the hungry and demonstrated His absolute dominion over all of creation. As a result, He drew a lot of attention to Himself. That isn’t to say that everyone believed in Him and was saved. In fact, as we will see today, most didn’t believe in Him.
But people everywhere flocked around Him. They wanted to see what He would do next. They wanted to see what they could get out of this man who did these incredible miracles. But here it seems that Jesus has retreated from the crowds somewhat to Caesarea Philippi with His disciples. He is taking a moment with just them talk to them about the important matter of how His church will be built.
And He begins by asking them a question… “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”
Notice that there was a variety of opinions on this issue.
1) Some thought He was John the Baptist raised from the dead. This was the view of King Herod Antipas (Matt 14:1-2) and others as well.
2) Some thought He was Elijah. This was no doubt in response to the last words found in the Old Testament in Malachi 4:5-6 which predicted the coming of “Elijah” before the great and awesome day of the Lord.
3) Some thought He was Jeremiah. This is probably based on the Jewish belief that Jeremiah had taken the ark of the covenant and hidden it in a cave on Mount Sinai and that he would one day return the ark of the covenant to the temple and the glory of the Lord would come with it. (This is recorded in the apocryphal book of II Maccabees 2:1-8.)
4) Some thought He was “one of the prophets”… either one of the prophets of old raised from the dead… or one of a string of prophets which the Jews believed would precede the coming of the Messiah.
Now I want us to pause here for a moment and notice two things:
First… from a Jewish perspective… a lot of people thought a lot of good things about Jesus. To be compared to John the Baptist and Elijah and Jeremiah would be quite a compliment for most people. These men were the cream of the crop of God’s messengers. You didn’t get much holier than these men. But as we will see in moment… this wasn’t good enough where Jesus was concerned. As great as John and Elijah and Jeremiah were… Jesus is in a class by Himself.
Secondly… notice that no one got it right. There was no group of people… outside of the disciples… as we will see in a moment… who understood rightly who Jesus is. In other words, a right understanding of Jesus is limited to those who are His followers.
This is implied in Jesus’ next question for them…“But who do you say that I am?” Notice the word “but.” Jesus expects His followers to have a different understanding of who He is.
Simon Peter, acting as the spokesman for the disciples, answers Jesus’ question in a powerful way… “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus is more than a prophet. He is the Christ… and He is the Son of the living God.
When Peter calls Jesus the “Christ”, he is referring to Him as the Jewish Messiah. He is announcing the believe that Jesus is the promised and King and Savior which had been foretold by God all throughout the Old Testament period (see passages like Jeremiah 23:5-6, Isaiah 61:1-2 and Isaiah 9:6-7 to see what kind of a King the Messiah would be.)
This is who Jesus is… not just a prophet… He is the King of kings and Lord of lords, the One promised by God to right what is wrong and rule over God’s people forever and ever. And He would to this by dealing with the sin problem in this world. He would judge the wicked, but He would save those who belong to God from the judgment to come. And He would do so through suffering in their place.
Jesus makes this clear down in verse 21…
Matthew 16:21 (ESV) – 21 From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.
This is all part of His role as the Christ. He would not simply rule over His people… He would save His people from their sin. By dying in our place, He paid the debt that we owe God for our sin. He lived and died and rose again for us, so that we might have new life in Him.
Jesus is the Christ… the Savior and King of His people… but that isn’t all…)
Notice that Jesus is more than simply an earthly king… He is also “the Son of the living God.” Jesus is more than just a man. He is more than even a perfect man. He is also the Son of God.
This is a powerful declaration of His deity. He is, as the old Nicene Creed says, “very God of very God.”
Hebrews 1:3 (ESV) – 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power…
Colossians 2:9 (ESV) – 9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily,
The view of most people regarding Jesus is inadequate because they miss this point. He is more than a good man. He is more than a wise teacher. He is more than a prophet of God. He is God in human flesh, who came to suffer and die and rise again to save us from our sin and to reign over His people forevermore in a kingdom of perfect righteousness.
Who do you say Jesus is?
What comes forth from our lips?
Who do we proclaim Jesus to be?
The world around us is constantly proclaiming that Jesus is anything and everything but the Christ… the Son of living God. Who do we say that He is?
If we get this question right, then we should rejoice, because God has blessed us. He has been gracious to us in revealing to us who Jesus truly is. That is what Jesus says to Peter in verse 17…“Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.”
Simon Peter is a blessed man. God has smiled upon Him. God has shown Him favor. Not through giving him earthly blessings…but through revealing who Jesus is to him.
The knowledge of who Jesus is and what He has done is not something we come to on our own. In fact, we cannot come to know Him in our own strength. Scripture teaches that we are spiritually dead in our trespasses and sins (Eph 2:1.) None of us seek after God on our own (Rom 3:11.) We are spiritually blind and unable to see who Jesus really is… apart from the work of God.
Back just a couple of chapters in Matthew, after uttering woes upon Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum for not believing in Him, Jesus makes the following statement…
Matthew 11:25-26 (ESV) – 25 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; 26 yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.”
Notice carefully what Jesus says here. God has “hidden these things from the wise and understanding.” “These things” refers to the good news of who Jesus is and what He has done. For reasons known only to Him, God has sovereignly chosen to keep this knowledge from those who are noble and strong and wise by the world’s standards (I Cor 1:26-29.) But at the same time, God has graciously revealed who Jesus is to “little children”… meaning those who are unimportant by the world’s standards.
Peter knows who Jesus is… not because he is smarter than anyone else… not because he is more religious than anyone else… but because God has graciously chosen to reveal who Jesus is to Him. God overcame the spiritual deadness in Peter and made known to Him who Jesus is.
Anytime we try to tell others about who Jesus is, we need to realize that we have an impossible mission on our hands. We are speaking to men and women who cannot truly understand what we are saying because they lack the ability in and of themselves. They are spiritually lifeless. Apart from Jesus Christ, all human beings are spiritually dead… and there is nothing we can do to get a response out of them.
And if this wasn’t a big enough opposition to telling others about the gospel, the Apostle Paul in II Corinthians 4 tells us that the devil is working against us as well…
2 Corinthians 4:3-6 (ESV) – 3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. 4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Do you see what Paul is saying here? On top of our own spiritual deadness… the devil is working overtime to try and keep us from knowing who Jesus is. The only way he can be overcome is through the direct intervention of God Himself. In the same way that God caused light to shine in the darkness at creation… God must cause the light of the gospel to shine in the hearts of men and women… or we cannot see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
What does all this have to do with building a church? We need to realize that building up a church is impossible for us. We can’t do it. We can’t cause spiritually dead people to come to life and see Jesus Christ as He truly is. We can’t overcome the devil and his spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places in our own strength. It doesn’t matter what type of corporate worship we engage in. In doesn’t matter what Sunday School curriculum we use. It doesn’t matter how good our youth program is or whether or not we have a small group ministry. We can’t build a church. There is only one person who can…
Who builds the Church? Jesus says, “I will build My church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
Notice what Jesus does not say. He doesn’t say that the pastors build the church. He doesn’t say the congregation does either. He doesn’t say our denominational association builds the church… or Sunday School teachers… or youth workers… or anyone else.
Who builds the church? Jesus does. It is His work to build His Church.
Now I recognize that Jesus seems to be speaking of the universal church here. He is talking about all of the Christians of all time who are united together in Him. But this is also true of the local church as well. Each local church is simply a local expression of the universal Church.
If the church where we fellowship is being built up… then it is being built up by Jesus. Just as He is building His church in the Deep South… and in China… and in Africa and among those of every tribe and tongue and people and nation… if we are being built up, then He is doing His work here in our midst.
This is something that we can be absolutely assured of. He doesn’t say, “I might build my church…”… He says, “I will build my church…” The One who has all authority in heaven and earth… the King of kings and Lord of lords… He who is very God of very God… Who died for our sins and rose again the third day so that we might have new life in Him… He will build His Church and nothing can stop Him… not even the gates of hell.
I don’t know about you, but I find this incredibly encouraging. I can only speak for myself, but I know all too well that I am too weak and too sinful and too foolish to trust in myself to build Christ’s church. But, I am not the one who builds the church. Jesus is!
This is not to say that we are useless and our efforts at ministry are unimportant. We have a significant role to play in the building of the church. Jesus makes this clear in His statement to Peter in verse 18… “You are Peter… Πέτρος in the Greek (pronounced Petros)… and upon this rock… πέτρα (pronounced petra) … I will build My church.”
There has been a lot of ink spilled over this verse. What does Jesus mean when He says that He will build His church upon “this rock”?
I’m not going to go into all the various interpretations here. But I believe Jesus is saying that His Church will be built upon the proclamation of His people of the apostolic doctrine that He is the Christ, the Son of the living God (compare this to Ephesians 2:20.) Jesus is the Builder, but He builds upon our continual efforts to tell others who He is and what He has done.
I think this is supported in the next verse where Jesus gives “the keys to the kingdom” to Peter. Again, there is no shortage of ink spilled over this verse, but think with me for a moment… what do keys do? They open doors. And what opens the doorway to heaven? Nothing but the gospel of Jesus Christ.
When we proclaim who Jesus is and what He has done, sometimes the message is received and the person believes what we are telling them because God has revealed it to them and they are saved. The doorway to heaven is opened and they are saved. Sometimes they reject the message out of hand and the doorway to heaven is bound shut to them, because God has chosen, at least at that time, to keep the truth of Jesus hidden from them.
Although the phrase “the keys to the kingdom” probably has some reference to discipline within the church as well (see Matthew 18:18-20), it seems to also speak to the responsibility given to all Christians to preach the gospel, so that some might be saved.
Yet surprisingly, in this context, Jesus commanded His disciples not to tell anyone yet. He did so for a very good reason. The Jews were expecting a triumphant, conquering Messiah, but this was not yet His intention. He had come to die for our sin. It was not yet time for Him to be received as the victorious King.
But that was then… this is now. Today there is no reason for us to keep this a secret. In fact, to do so would be disobedient to the command of Jesus to go and make disciples of all nations (Matt 28:18-20.) We are to preach the gospel to every person… and watch as Jesus Christ powerfully builds His church.
What do we learn from this passage of Scripture?
Jesus is the One who builds the church. Not us. We can’t build the church. We don’t have the power… only Jesus can build His church.
So what is our responsibility in all this?
First… we must pray… and pray… and pray… and rely upon Him to do what He promised He will do in building His church. We must throw ourselves before the throne of grace and plead with God to save some. We must pray that Jesus will build His church… wherever we are… and trust that He will do so, for not even the gates of hell can stand against Him!
Secondly…we must tell others about who Jesus is and what He has done. This is the bedrock upon which all healthy churches are built. All other ground is sinking sand. There is no other foundation than that which has been laid… Jesus Christ… the Son of the living God… who died for our sins and rose again the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. We must repent of our sins and trust in Jesus to save us. Otherwise… we are part of His church.
Are you a Christian? Have you repented of your sin and are you trusting in Jesus Christ? Then in a sense, you hold the keys to the kingdom of heaven. God has been gracious in revealing to you who Jesus is. You are blessed by God and He expects you to share that blessing with others.
Third… we must resist any other method of building Christ’s church. It is easy to draw a crowd. We can do that many different ways. But it is impossible for us to build a church. God has given us His holy and inspired Word so that we might know Him and be equipped for every good work (II Tim 3:16-17.) We must trust in the One who builds the church to do His work through us as we engage in the ministry which He has entrusted to us.
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