This transcript of a sermon on Matthew 16:13-20 has been edited for ease of reading.
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As we continue our study of the Apostles’ Creed, I ask that you would take your Bibles and turn with me to Matthew chapter 16. And today, excuse me, goodness, today we will read verses 13 through 20.
In 1955, John Murray wrote a short but powerful book called Redemption Accomplished and Applied.
It came from a series of talks that he gave, and the first half of the book talks about what Jesus did to accomplish everything necessary for us to be redeemed. And then in the second half of the book, he talks about how God, through the Holy Spirit, applies the work of redemption to the life of the Christian.
We have studied so far the Father’s creative work, His might, His majesty, and His power. We have looked at the Son’s work of redeeming. And beginning last week, we started to look at the work of the Holy Spirit. And today we will see how that spirit works within the church.
It’s important for us to remember God saves individuals, but He doesn’t leave us alone. He places us in the family of the church. And so this week and next week, we will look at the work of the church and how we relate to each other.
This week, focusing on the foundation and some identifiers of the church. And then next week, looking at how we are united to Christ and how that union to Christ leads to a communion with each other in the life of the church.
Let’s begin today by looking at Matthew chapter 16, beginning in verse 13.
“When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked the disciples, who do people say the Son of Man is? They replied, some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets. But what about you, He asks, who do you say I am? Simon Peter answered, you are the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God. Jesus replied, blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my father in heaven.
And I tell you that you are Peter. And on this rock, I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Then he warned the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ.”
Let’s pray. To the great God and Father, you have promised that your Holy Spirit will help us to understand these words, that your Holy Spirit will shine your holy light through these words into our lives to make us more holy, to empower us to pursue that holiness to which you have called us. And so I pray, oh Lord, that your spirit would illuminate these words so that we might be changed so that we might be drawn closer to you. I pray this in Jesus name. Amen.
INTRODUCTION
In Matthew 16, Jesus, as it mentions, has come to the region of Caesarea Philippi.
He has interacted prior to this with the Pharisees and the Sadducees as they have asked him for a sign and he has told them that there are signs in the sky that point to who he is, and he has already done some miracles. He’s not going to do any more for them than what he has already done. He has warned his disciples not to fall into the trap of the Pharisees and the Sadducees teaching this trap that we can attain righteousness on our own if we just keep the law well enough, God will be happy with us. And then he retreats with the disciples for a time to this region just a little bit outside of Israel.
And as he’s there with his disciples, he asked them a question. He says, “Who does everybody else say that I am?” He’s been wandering around the countryside. He’s been teaching and he’s asking his disciples, “What are people saying about me?”
And the disciples answer, “Well, they say maybe you’re John the Baptist come back or maybe you’re the returned Elijah that we have been waiting for as a people or maybe you’re one of the other prophets like Jeremiah.”
And this answer is so close. We learned in Hebrews chapter one that Jesus is the Prophet of God. He is the word of God, that word with a capital W who not only was with God, as John tells us, but he also was God. He is the proclamation of God’s glory. He is the proclamation of God’s salvation. He is the one through whom God’s redemption will be accomplished, but also proclaim. So it is he is the prophet of God, but they were likening him to one of the human prophets who had come and gone.
After this, and in a way that is a bit of a test, Jesus looks at his disciples and says, “OK, that’s who they think I am. Who do you think I am? I’ve been walking with you for anywhere from one to three years. I’ve been teaching you about who I am. I’ve been teaching the countryside and the people of Israel who I am and offering salvation. Have you heard it? And who do you say that I am?”
And Peter, the unofficial spokesman of the disciples, says, “You are the Christ, the long promised Messiah, who was also God himself.”
The glory and the boldness of this statement, Jesus says, are given to Peter by God. This is not something he could have figured out on his own. He praises Peter for being open to what God has taught him.
But he doesn’t stop there with praising Peter. He goes on to make a declaration that upon this rock, Jesus will build, will establish his church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
Today we are going to look at that church. We’re going to look at the foundation of that church, the four foundational statements that we find in this particular passage. And then we’re going to look at some identifying markers of the church that we see not only in the Apostles Creed, but in the Nicene Creed as well. The parallel statement in the Nicene Creed to what we see this week.
And hopefully we’ll learn that since God is building his church, we should seek the peace, the purity and the prosperity of that church.
THE FOUNDATION OF THE CHURCH
First, the foundation of the church.
Albert Moeller points out for us four elements that make up the foundation of the church that we see in this word from Peter.
Founded on a Confession
And the first is that the church is founded upon a confession. And when Jesus says that he will build his church, he’s not talking about the rock of Peter. The language points us to the fact that the rock that Jesus is going to build his church upon is the confession, “You are the Christ. You are God’s Messiah. You are the son of the everlasting God who is God himself.”
And the church is founded upon that confession. We enter the church today in the same way by confessing the same thing.
Romans chapter 10:9-10. Paul says,
“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
All that is wrapped up in that term, Jesus is Lord. That includes the idea that he is savior. That includes the idea that he is prophet, that he is priest, that he is king, that he is the only way of reconciliation and salvation with God. All that is wrapped up in that confession, “Jesus is Lord,” is the foundation of the church.
If there is no Jesus, there is no church. There is no ability to be reconciled and to be called the people of God. And so the church, even today, is built upon the rock solid confession that Jesus is Lord.
Founded on Truth
The church is founded upon a confession. But the church is also founded upon truth because that confession is rooted in and is truth. Jesus said that the father had given Peter knowledge of this truth.
The church is founded upon the truth of the scripture. In Ephesians chapter 2:20, Paul talks about the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, of which Jesus is the chief cornerstone. When Paul talks about the apostles and the prophets, he’s talking about Scripture. That is the truth that we are founded upon.
You’ve heard me say multiple times as we’ve gone throughout this series, the study of the apostles creed, the creed, the confession that we that we subscribe to are all subservient to the truth of scripture. And wherever they disagree with the truth of scripture, it is the creeds and the confessions that change, not scripture.
The church is founded upon the truth, not only that Jesus is Lord, but everything that God says and reveals in his word is truth. We are also the defenders, the pillars of that truth. In First Timothy chapter three, Paul writing to Timothy about how to run the church, says in verse 15,
“…if I am delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and the foundation of the truth.”
How is the truth preserved? It is preserved in the church. How is the truth proclaimed? It is proclaimed by the church. The church is built upon the truth. It preserves the truth by the help of the Holy Spirit and it proclaims the truth by the help of the Holy Spirit.
Founded in Power
Thirdly, the church is founded in power. Brothers and sisters, individual churches, they grow, they shrink, they grow, they shrink, some of them even close, some of them abandon the truth for their own version, their own idea of truth.
And yet the church is founded in power. What does Jesus say about his church? He says, “I will build my church. And the gates of hell will not prevail against it.”
You know, I think we forget this power sometimes. In the American church, we we still have it relatively easy, even in the church that is still founded and still seeks to proclaim the truth. We forget that the church was established in power.
It becomes important like places in the Middle East or in Germany, where our missionaries for the month work with refugees. We have to keep their last name out of printed material because the refugees they work with, it could be dangerous for them potentially to be working with people from the cultures that they work with.
In China, in Africa, where the church is literally under attack, they know the truth that the church is founded and established in power.
Yes, we ask and invite people to come into the church. Yes, we do the work of evangelism, but it is not you and I who build Christ’s church. It is the power of Christ working through the Holy Spirit that builds his church. We look back to the pastors that have preceded us.
We look back to the history of this church oftentimes and we say, you know, look what so and so did or look what what A.K. did to build this church. Jesus built his church and he uses broken, fallen centers like you and like me to do that work. The church is founded in power.
Founded in Authority
Fourthly, the church is founded in authority. We have the truth of God. We have the confession that Jesus is Lord.
We are founded in the power of Christ and the church has authority. When I became a minister, I had to take a vow. I had to take a vow that I would submit myself to the authority of Virginia Presbytery and that if they came into my life and found a deficiency, whether it’s a theological or a moral deficiency, that I would submit myself to their authority and to their judgment.
The church has the authority not only to proclaim the word of God, but to apply the word of God to the people of God. And what does this look like? Well, this looks like brothers and sisters in Christ gathering together for the weekly worship of the Lord, of the church, the preaching and teaching, the communication of grace through the preaching and teaching of the word, through prayer and through the celebration of the sacraments, the Lord’s Supper and baptism.
The authority of the church being exercised in the life of the members of the church looks like brothers and sisters gathering outside the normal times of worship and walking with each other through the scriptures, walking with each other through the holiness that we are called to walk in.
And yes, sometimes it involves the application of those principles in Matthew 18. Those are principles of church discipline where truth is proclaimed, where truth is known, where truth is ignored. Sometimes the church has to take an official role in calling, in gathering people back to holiness, back to truth.
And so we see that Jesus, through Peter’s proclamation that Jesus is Lord, that Jesus is the Messiah, that he founds his church upon that confession, upon that truth with power and with authority.
DEFINITION OF THE CHURCH
As we look through the creeds and confessions of the church, we also find definitions of the church. Now, the Nicene Creed expands upon the Apostles Creed.
In this line where we say, “I believe in the holy Catholic church,” the Nicene Creed says, “I believe in one holy Catholic and apostolic church.” And since four seems to be the key number today, we’re going to look at those four areas as we look at some identifying markers or definitions of the church.
The Church is United.
First, the church is one. What does the Nicene Creed mean when it says that the church is one? Well, it means that we are unified. Now, I know if you were to Google “How many denominations are there in the United States, you’d come up with a number somewhere between 200 and 250.” So Ike, how can you say the church is unified? Well, in those denominations where their theology is defined by the truth that Jesus is Lord.
We are unified. There are churches that I cannot involve myself in worship services with because they do not proclaim Jesus is Lord. But there are churches out there that that stand on the truth of scripture, that stand on the truth that Jesus is Lord and Jesus is our only hope.
And yes, we can hold joint worship services with them at special occasions. There are distinctives, there are differences that keep us from fellowshipping on a regular basis, but we are still unified in our view that Jesus is Lord, Jesus is Savior.
On a local level, at the local church, within these four walls, we are unified around that same message. We are unified around the truth that we proclaim every week in the Apostles Creed or in the confessions on occasion when we use the confessions. We should be united. By the truth that Jesus is Lord, we should also be honest with ourselves.
You and I still struggle with the effects of sin in our lives, and so sometimes we let doctrine, sometimes we let decorations cause splits and divisions within the church, but we need to be aware of those things and we need to be beware of those things. We will not see the fullness of that unity until Jesus returns, but we are still unified around the truth that Jesus is Lord.
The Church is Holy
Secondly, the church is holy. The church has been set apart from the world. The church, the word church itself that’s found in the New Testament means a group of people that have been set apart or been called out. What have we been called out of? We’ve been called out of the world.
We began a study in Sunday school today of the book of Daniel. Daniel and his three friends, we know them by their Babylonian names, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, or, if you grew up in the same time frame that my kids did, you know them as Rack, Shack and Benny, but I don’t necessarily recommend Veggie Tales, but they’re funny sometimes. Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were taken out of their home and they were given every opportunity to just blend in with the Babylonian culture, and they chose to take a stand and say, “No, we are God’s holy chosen people. We are called and set apart by the act, by the call of God, and we are going to live in Babylon, but we are going to live as people who are called, who are set apart.”
Brothers and sisters, it is so easy to forget that we are called to be different from this world. You know, my generation, the generation before me, grew up in a culture that looked Christian. It looked Christian on the outside, and so it was easy to pursue holiness because, well, everybody kind of was, but we live in a culture now that it’s going to be harder and harder to keep separate from the world.
I’m not talking about going and joining a monastery and becoming a monk or a nun, but there are going to be times in our lives where co-workers, where friends, where family members even, are going to say, “I choose to live this way and follow the ways of the world,” and we are called to say, “No, God has called me to be holy, and I am going to be holy as he has called me to be.” We are to look different.
We look different now, today, right here, in this moment, because how many of your family members, how many of your friends slept in today, or out playing golf, or fishing, or doing those types of things, working around the house. We are called to be different, to look different from the world in every moment, every day of our lives.
The Church is “Catholic”
Thirdly, the church is universal, or in the words of both the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed, it is catholic. Now, two of the most frequent questions I get surrounding the Apostles’ Creed is, first, “What do we mean when we say he descended into hell,” and as we’ve talked about before, it means he was really dead, suffered all the pains of death, including the separation of the spirit and the body.
The second most frequently asked question I get is, “I thought we were Presbyterian?!?!”
What do we mean when we say “catholic?” Well, we mean that this is the universal church, that it is made up of every language, every country of origin, every economic group that you could think of. They can be part of the church when they profess Jesus as Lord. We live out today the reality of Revelation chapter 7:9-10.
“After this, I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count from every nation, tribe, people, and language standing before the throne in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands, and they cried out in a loud voice, salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.”
Every demographic category that you can think of, we divide people along the lines of ethnicity or race; we divide people along the lines of country of origin. We divide people along the lines of ethnicity. We have a tendency to divide people along the lines of Muddy Creek Mountain, eastern Greenbrier County, and western Greenbrier County.
God sees no distinction in humanity. We are all humans in need of salvation before him, and every human, regardless of where they were born, what color their skin is, how much money they have, every human being is invited and is welcomed into the family of God.
My fear is that some of us will be surprised, and if we could be, be disappointed that a certain demographic will be there in heaven when we get there. Brothers and sisters, everybody is welcomed into the family of God. It is not a Jewish religion. It is not an American religion. It is not a rich person’s religion. It is not a poor person’s religion. It is the hope for every single human being present, alive, to have been born in the past or will be born ever on this earth.
The Church is Apostolic
So it’s one, it’s united, it’s holy, it’s set apart, it’s Catholic, it’s universal, and it’s apostolic. Now what do I mean when I say apostolic? Well, what I don’t mean is that we can trace a direct line between Peter and Francis, and therefore we are an apostolic church.
In 2 Timothy 2:1-2, Paul says this, he said,
“You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.”
While we don’t look to a succession of popes to determine that we are apostolic, we do look to a succession of godly, faithful ministers who proclaim the same truth that the apostles proclaimed. As long as I stand before you proclaiming the truth of the scripture, this is an apostolic church. As long as our Sunday school teachers faithfully proclaim the truth of the scriptures, this is an apostolic church.
If in the future we have small groups or Bible studies that happen inside homes on a regular basis, as long as those are founded on the proclamation of biblical truth, we are an apostolic church. Our hope is not in Peter. Our hope is in Jesus, and that is revealed to us in the truth of these scriptures.
That is the foundation of what I seek to proclaim. That is the foundation of the theology that we are built upon, and as long as that remains true, we are an apostolic church.
CONCLUSION
Now, I get it. I know this sermon has been heavy on teaching. We’ll look a little bit more deeply into some application of this truth as we move into the doctrine of the communion of saints next week, but I do also know that a sermon without application is just a talk. So, what do we take away from this?
I think the most important thing we can take away from this is one of the few things that all of the commentators agreed on, and that is the greatest danger to the American church today is rugged individualism.
I am on my own as a Christian, and I’m going to do it myself. Man, we cannot do that, brothers and sisters. We need each other.
The author of Hebrews talks about, in Hebrews chapter 10, talks about gathering together at the worship so that we might encourage one another, not so that we might get encouragement, so that we might encourage one another. The fact that you are here today is an encouragement to everybody else in this room.
Many of us know what difficulties you came out of to be here today. Many of us know what joys you came out of to be here today, and it is good and encouraging to gather together. Just as our iron sharpens iron, we need each other in the walk toward holiness. And so don’t forget your church. Don’t forget that God has promised to place the lonely in a family, and the family that he places the lonely in is his church.
Several years ago on social media, a question was asked, “I’m a Christian, but I don’t go to church. Can I still be a Christian?” And of course, like everything else on social media, you get about 20,000 answers, but one of them kind of floated to the top.
And the answer was, “Yes, you can be a Christian and not go to church. In the same way that a single antelope surrounded by a pride of lions is still an antelope.”
Brothers and sisters, we need the church. It was founded in power. It was founded on truth, and it is our lifeline from the Holy Spirit in this world.
Let’s pray.
God and father above, we do thank you for the truth that Peter proclaimed. We thank you for the power that Jesus is building his church would help us to cherish it, to love it and to protect it more. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.
God promises to send us out with a blessing. And so I send that blessing, give that blessing to you today.
“Peace. I leave with you my peace. I give you, I do not give as the world’s give world gives. Do not let your minds be troubled and do not be afraid.”
He who testifies to these things says, yes, I am coming soon.
Amen. Come Lord Jesus.
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