The Rock of the Kingdom

"That’s not what that’s made for” Is a common expression we’ve all heard and likely even said. But it’s something that happens all of the time, as we are all guilty of having used something for the wrong use.

For example, when it comes to ovens, despite common understanding, the small bottom drawer in the oven isn’t meant for pots and pans. It’s actually intended to be a warming drawer that keeps your brownies, muffins, and breads warm! And yet despite it’s intended purpose, most people today use it to store so many bulky and heavy pans that you basically need the jaws of life to open the drawer at all! It’s ridiculous!

Another common misuse, is a little device we all have in our cars called “The glove box” Which seems to have anything and everything in there EXCEPT GLOVES! In fact, I think we’d be better off renaming it to the napkin box, or the ketchup packet box, as that’s usually what’s in there. Speaking of Ketchup…

Another thing many people don’t know, is that these little ketchup packets are actually made to hold more ketchup than just 3 fries worth of ketchup.... “How” you ask? By using them rightly. Which remarkably then allows you to cut back from having to use 90 of them to only 9.

And so when it comes to using products wrongly - or not to their full potential. Whether that be outside plastic bag hangers on grocery carts:

Wrongly using sink plungers as toilet plungers

Or not using the spoon holders that are built into our sauce pans...

But the point is, If you don’t know what something is for, you won’t use it rightly And this also goes for the church, but in an infinitely more serious way.

See, when it comes to the church, a whole lot of people - probably most actually - don’t understand the purpose of the church. They don’t understand what it’s for. For example, some say a church exists to help those in need. Soup kitchens, food drives, and homeless shelters... Things like that. But is that what the church is for? No. Don’t get me wrong - those are certainly good things, but is not what the church is for.

Some people say the church exist to satisfy felt needs, whether that be emotional needs, physical needs, or relational needs. But… yet again - that too is not what the church is for: For the church does not exist to satisfy your felt needs. And if you think it does, you’re either going to be severely disappointed, OR - more likely - you’ll seek out a church with a bunch of other people who think the church exists to meet their felt needs.

BUT… if you view church this way, if you misunderstand it’s true purpose, you’re going to seriously miss out on the amazing and life-changing benefits that come from embracing the church’s true purpose.

So how do we know what that purpose is? By taking a vote? By doing survey’s to find out what people want in a church? But looking at current church-trends to see what works and what doesn’t? No. We find out the true purpose of the church by listening to instructions of the person who created it, And that actually makes sense, doesn’t it? After all, He made it, so He certainly would know the purpose for which it was created.

In our passage this morning we find the church’s purpose, and that purpose is clear. And so if we want to be a church that is effective in fulfilling our God-given purpose, then we had better pay attention to what this text says. And it says three things.

To be a purpose-driven church we must embrace Christ’s:

1. Identity (v. 13-18)
2. Mission (v. 18-26)
3. Return (v. 27)

Now when Jesus came into 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 Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.

Matthew 16:13-17 ESV

So far in our study throughout the book of Matthew, we’ve seen the disciples in a pretty pathetic light. Over and over again they seem to continually miss the point of Jesus’s mission and purpose. And yet here, the light shines through a little as Peter makes a profound recognition. And that recognition is who Jesus is. And who is He?

Is He a prophet like Elijah or Jeremiah? No.

Is He of miracle workers who performs His mighty deeds through the powers of hell as the pharisees said? No.

Then who Is He? And that my friends is the most important question of all. Who is Jesus? And there’s A LOT of answers out there to that question.

Mormons will tell you Jesus is a God - not THE God Jehovah’s Witnesses will tell you Jesus is the highest of the angels. Atheist will tell you he’s just a religious leader who stirred up too much trouble with Rome and was killed for it. Our society will tell you that He was a good teacher, and like any other teacher, some of what He said was good and some not-so-good And as Peter professes here, He says that Jesus is the Messiah - the Son of the Living God.

So what do you say? And I realize I’m asking that question to a church, but that’s a question we can’t take for granted anymore, even within a church. For a recent study shows that 30% of Evangelical Christians do not agree with Peter that Jesus is God! It’s quite remarkable. And outside of that, over 52% of Americans believe that Jesus was a great teacher, but not God.

But here’s the thing, if Jesus wasn’t God, then the one thing he was not, was not a good teacher. And why not? Because if Jesus wasn’t God, then the things He said weren’t good! In fact, they were evil! Think about it…

C. S. Lewis brilliantly explains why: He wrote: “I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg - or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

And so this right here really does matter church. For if Jesus was not as the Nicene Creed states:

The Son of God, begotten of the Father the only begotten; that is, of the essence of the Father, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father; by whom all things were made both in heaven and on earth; who for us men, and for our salvation, came down and was incarnate and was made man; he suffered, and on the third day he rose again, ascended into heaven; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

If Jesus is not that, then our sins are not paid for, our salvation has not been received and we are dead in our sins marching towards the eternal wrath of an angry God in a place called hell. So this really matters church, For without this creed - without Jesus being fully God - our faith is vain and we should be pitied more than all men as Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15.

But, according to the eye-witness accounts, which that passage tells us includes Peter, the twelve, and more than five hundred other Christians, Jesus is the Divine Son of God who died for our sins, was buried, and then rose again on the 3rd day. And many of these witnesses went on to die for this truth that they saw with their own two eyes. And here, even before they saw Jesus’s resurrection from the dead, Peter - with eyes of faith - comes to understand Jesus’s identity. Not fully to the extent that he eventually did, but here we see he gets it. Jesus is not just a great prophet or miracle worker, He’s the son of the living God. And it upon that declaration that Jesus turns to Him and says in verse 18, “upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall now prevail against it.” And why?

Because Christ’s church is not a place, but a people! And it’s a people who have, as verse 17 says, been given eyes of faith BY THE FATHER, in order to see Jesus’s true identity. But that’s not the only thing they come to see, for they also come to see His mission - which leads us to our second point.

To be a purpose-driven church we must embrace Christ’s:

1. Identity (v. 13-18)

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. 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.” Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ. 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. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?

Matthew 16:18-26 ESV

Well that’s pretty straight forward stuff, right? ZERO controversy there!!!

I wish.

Binding and losing, Keys of the kingdom of heaven You are Peter and upon this Rock I will build my church... Tell nobody I’m the Christ... Pick up your cross and follow me... I don’t know who’s idea it was to take all of these verses in one go, but right now I’m not sure I like him anymore.

Now, before we jump into this, I have to warn you - it’s time to drink from the firehose for about 5 minutes, So really try to stick with me here.

OK first off, what’s the rock? And for that we have 3 options. The rock is Peter The rock is Peter’s confession Or, the rock isn’t Peter at all, and it’s actually Christ - who is the solid rock we just sang about, and He’s doing some snazzy word-play here.

So is Peter the Rock, is he the foundation of the church that Christ builds upon? Now, Peter’s name in the Greek is Petros - which means rock. Which means Peter name was ROCKY Not Balboa - just Rocky Which means He’s The Rock - not Dwayne Johnson.

And so it could be that Jesus is just doing some creative word play here with Peter’s name in order to make a point. Which is, that He’s going to build His church upon Peter - the Rock’s - confession of faith. No popes No vicar of Christ, None of that kind of stuff is in this passage whatsoever.

BUT, grammatically it could be that Jesus is saying that Peter is the rock, and upon THAT ROCK He will build His church. That’s certainly a valid interpretation. But only if we QUALIFY it make it clear that Peter hasn’t taken Jesus’s position. What do I mean by that? I mean that there’s only one true foundation, and it’s not Peter - it’s Jesus.

For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 3:11 ESV

And in Acts 4, this is something Peter himself recognizes this when He speaks of Jesus being the cornerstone, which is perfectly brought together for us in Ephesians chapter 2.

Ephesians 2:19-22 (ESV) but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

So with this in mind, it could be the answer to our question is D. All of the above. Jesus is the rock - the cornerstone of our foundation, who builds upon that foundation through all those who profess faith in His name Which starts with Peter first, Then the apostles & prophets who make up the first layer of the foundation, Then the rest of us, which includes all of us today living 2,000 years later who make up the roof of this house that’s JUST about completed.

OK, so that’s it for the rock stuff. What about the keys of the Kingdom and the binding and loosing stuff? What’s that all about?

Alright, here’s the super, duper short version. There are two right ways to understand this.

It’s referring to the early launch of the church as found in the book of Acts.

So which is it? /SHRUG I’m honestly not totally sure... But… like with the Rock options, they both are true regardless of whether or not Jesus means the one or the other in here in this passage.

So here’s why. It could be speaking of the millennium, because we know that apostles are going to be doing just that in the millennium. They are going to be binding and loosing things as they are put in charge of a lot of stuff.

Then Peter said in reply, “See, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?” Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

Matthew 19:27-28 ESV

And if you find that shocking, then you’ll likely find this even more shocking, but we too will rule and reign in the Millenium, to the degree by which we are faithful servants of Christ during this life. 1 Corinthians 6:2 (ESV) Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world?

But the second option would be that the keys and the tying and untying of things is referring to the early church as seen in the book of Acts. And we know that’s true because God directed Peter to unlock the doors of the Kingdom of heaven for the Samaritans first, and then the Gentiles AND, Peter and the rest of the apostles, binded and loosed a whole bunch of things that were pretty important! I mean, half of the Bible was written by these guys...

Now, I know we’re doing a lot of heavier teaching here, but what can i say, it’s the nature of the text - but stick with me, we are almost to the “So what part” So here’s the thing. This binding and loosing stuff, it’s not us bossing heaven around and declaring stuff like a lot of these modern-false prophets try to do. It’s so not even close to that. But to show you why, we’d have to do a Greek lesson, and we just don’t have the time for it.

So instead of explaining it, I’m going to just give the NASB’s translation which get’s it right.

“I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.”

Matthew 16:19 NASB95

Do you see what that’s saying? “Whatever you bind & loose on earth, shall have been bound & loosed in heaven. That’s VERY DIFFERENT than what the modern-day “””prophets””” are saying, isn’t it? They reverse that entirely to basically say, “don’t question us, we’re God’s anointed prophets, and what we say is bound in heaven!” “So you better check yourself before you wreck yourself!” But that’s not what it’s saying, is it?

The determination of binding and loosing comes from heaven - not us! There’s one King, and it ain’t you or me - it’s King Jesus, and we are just His ambassadors! We are just passing the binding and loosing message on from the King! and what message is that? The message of the Gospel.

Which means, as a follower of Christ - and ambassador of the King - I can confidently say (based upon someone’s profession) whether they are a kingdom citizen or not. I can “bind and loose that” according to what heaven has bound and loosed already. I know this expression sounds mystical and mysterious - but it’s really not - it’s rabbinical saying that we’ll get to again in Matthew 18, So we can talk about this a little bit more in our Q&A hour, but for now we’ll leave it at that.

Alright, firehose is off. Ya’ll still with me?

Now what about that part in verse 20 where Jesus tells them not to tell anyone that He’s the Messiah? That seems like a pretty strange thing to say, doesn’t it? “Good Job Peter! You Got it!” “NOT KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT!” What’s that all about? It’s about the cross, which He immediately brings up then in verses 20-21. And how does Peter respond? Exactly how everybody would have responded to Jesus’s message that He was a suffering servant and not the conquering King they expected.

“Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” In which Jesus responds Matthew 16:23 (NASB95) “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.”

Well that escalated quickly! Sure Jesus got pretty direct with the pharisees, calling them white-washed tombs and stuff, But He never called them the DEVIL! Why does Jesus go from praising Peter for His confession, and calling him a Rock, to now saying He’s a stumbling Rock for Him? And the answer is because Peter’s mind wasn’t on the mission. What was His mind on? The things of earth, not of heaven. The things of things of man, not of God.

Peter, like the Devil in Matthew chapter 4 was tempting Jesus by trying to get Him off the path of the cross. He was saying the same thing that the Devil did: “You can have the kingdom without the cross.” But it’s NOT TRUE! There is no heavenly kingdom for us without the cross! And so as a church, we PREACH what Paul preached! We preach the foolishness of the gospel! We preach Christ Crucified!

And yet, sadly today so many “churches” do not preach Christ crucified. They preach a water-down, “just say yes to Jesus” gospel - which is no saving Gospel at all! They preach a seeker-sensitive gospel, which tells people all about the good news, but with none of the bad. And who wouldn’t want to say yes that?

“Really? The all-powerful God of the universe loves me and wants to give me good things?” “He wants to give me the desires of my heart if I just pay some lip-service to Him?” "Why on earth would I say no to that?” And they wouldn’t say no that kind of a gospel, because that kind of a gospel is completely devoid of the cross of Jesus, which a cross we to must pick up and carry in order to be His disciples.

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?

Matthew 16:24-26 ESV

In the Roman times, when a convicted criminal was being taken to be crucified, they were forced to carry their own cross - just as Jesus was. And why? Because it showed publically that they were under the submissive rule that they had been opposing and rebelling against. And by their carrying of their cross, they show that their will had been broken and defeated under the Roman Kingdom’s power and might. And so too church do all followers of Christ pick up their cross and show to all of the world that rebellion of their heart’s has been defeated under heaven’s rule as we are now in complete submission to Heaven’s King! But… remarkably - we don’t face a death that destroys us We face a death that we overcome just as Jesus did!

Which is why Jesus told Peter in verse in 18: Upon this rock I will build my church, and the GATES OF HADES WILL NOT PREVAIL!” Which has nothing to do with the church surviving an attack from hell’s armies.. That doesn’t even make any sense - no one attacks with their defensive gates.... What it simply means is that Hades - or SHEOL as it is named in the Old Testament, THE PLACE OF THE DEAD, who are gated in by death, shall not prevail against Christ’s church!

Which is why Paul could confidently say:

“O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 15:55-57 ESV

The purpose of the church isn’t to preach some watered down, bloodless, tame and timid Christianity it’s to preach loud and clear that the son of the living God has COME! He has defeated death upon the cross And because He has, we too, though we die, we shall rise to live forever with Him!

But the path to that involves us denying ourselves and taking up our cross and following Him. Not the things of this world, for what will it profit a man if he gains the WHOLE WORLD but forfeits his soul. Or what shall man give in return for his soul? So the question is, what will you give? A little bit of your time? A little bit of your money? it’s not enough. For as Jesus says: if anyone would be come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me!

Does this describe us? Ya know, I’m not sure if it does... I look around at all of the the professing Christians, and I’m afraid to say I think the American church is actually the greatest mission field in this country! Not atheists Not agnostics Not unbelievers But the church at large.

And why do I say that? Because so many - when it coms to the idea of suffering - even a little bit for their faith - simply refuse to. It’s entirely off the table. And why? Because they have set their minds on the things of man, not the things of God And that is a path that leads to forfeiting one’s soul.

Listen to me. This isn’t legalism. This isn’t work’s based salvation. For we are justified by grace through faith alone in Christ alone. BUT! Though we are not saved by works, We are saved by a faith that works! And it’s a faith that is willing to work so far as picking up our cross and following Christ.

Our death for the sake of the gospel? Gladly! Not because we are masochists, but because our minds are so set upon God that in comparison the things of this world grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace! And when in comparison to THAT! The glory of Christ Jesus - what on earth WOULDN’T WE TRADE FOR IT?

The reality is we’d trade anything for it - including our very lives - for we know that one day soon Christ will return and bring us life everlasting, which leads us to our final point.

To be a purpose-driven church we must embrace Christ’s:

For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done.

Matthew 16:27 ESV

We are out of time, so I’ll just say this. As this verse tells us, Christ coming back to repay each of us for what we have done. Are you ready for that? Are you living for that?

For those who have not denied themselves and picked up their cross and followed Christ, they will face an eternity of God’s judgment in hell. And for true followers of Christ, all those who have by God’s grace picked up their cross and followed Christ, they will face blessing and reward in accordance to what they have done. Crowns, Position of rule, Unspeakable joys we cannot even fathom! But that too comes in degrees to our faithfulness here in this life!

So my question for you is this. Are you ready for Christ’s return? Or, are you living for this life and this world?

As Diedrich Bonhoeffer once said: “When Jesus Christ calls us, he bids us come and die,” “And He bids him to come and die so that he might truly live!”

For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

Matthew 16:25 ESV

May we be a church that faithfully fulfills its purpose by embracing Christ’s identity, mission, and return.

This is the manuscript the sermon was preached from, so the recording may differ in places.