1. "You can take all the SAT prep tests you want. That's not going to make you a Christian. You won't get into the church because you have a higher intelligence than the other people on your street. Peter didn't get this because he was best at math. Peter had this revealed to him by his Father, the heavenly Father, God in heaven."

2. "Do you realize the church was Jesus' idea, not the idea of a preacher's union, because we need some jobs. No, this is actually Jesus' idea. It's the creation of Jesus Christ. He loves the church as His own bride."

3. "The universal church, all Christians everywhere, all times, all places. That church has never assembled. It will only ever assemble finally at the last day, and then it will assemble forever, where congregations never break up."

4. "If we want to keep people out of the kingdom of God, then all we need to do is keep our mouths closed, not proclaim the gospel about Jesus Christ."

5. "Peter seems like a rock, but even this rock can be wrong. He has the audacity, the nerve, to correct the person whom he's just identified as the Son of the living God."

6. "Trying to keep Jesus from dying, seems like he's Jesus' greatest friend when he's standing in the way of the very point of his mission. And he's standing in the way exactly in the way Satan had."

7. "Zeal can never take the place of maturity. Zeal can be too misdirected, too self-protective, too rejecting of any being questioned or corrected itself. Zeal is good, but attached to the truth and to mature understanding."

8. "If you think you've found a way to have a loving relationship without ever giving or receiving correction, I'm afraid you're deceiving yourself. Jesus' rebuke of Peter here is not given instead of His loving Peter, but because of His loving Peter."

9. "Don't deceive yourself by telling yourself that you're continuing to make no decision to follow Christ, because that is a decision. Making no decision is a decision to not follow Christ. It's a decision assuming life will continue on better without Christ."

10. "The last thing I want to do is to pressure anyone into following Christ. I don't really even think I can do that. Maybe I could pressure you into a temporary reformation. But, friend, Jesus is not interested in you fobbing off some increased religiosity to him."

Observation Questions

1. In Matthew 16:13-14, what location did Jesus choose to ask His disciples about His identity, and what various answers did the disciples report that people were giving about who the Son of Man was?

2. According to Matthew 16:16-17, what specific confession did Peter make about Jesus, and what did Jesus say was the source of Peter's knowledge?

3. In Matthew 16:18-19, what did Jesus say He would build, what would not prevail against it, and what authority did He promise to give Peter?

4. What command did Jesus give His disciples in Matthew 16:20 regarding His identity as the Christ?

5. According to Matthew 16:21, what three things did Jesus say must happen to Him in Jerusalem after Peter's confession?

6. In Matthew 16:22-23, how did Peter respond to Jesus' prediction about His suffering, and what sharp words did Jesus use to rebuke Peter?

Interpretation Questions

1. Why is the phrase "Son of Man" significant for understanding Jesus' identity, especially in light of Daniel 7:13-14 where "one like a Son of Man" receives an everlasting kingdom from the Ancient of Days?

2. What does Jesus mean when He says that "flesh and blood" did not reveal His identity to Peter, but rather "My Father who is in heaven"? What does this teach us about how people come to truly know who Jesus is?

3. How does Jesus' statement about building His church and the gates of hell not prevailing against it connect to His subsequent teaching about His death and resurrection in verse 21?

4. Why would Jesus command His disciples to keep His messianic identity secret (verse 20) immediately after affirming Peter's confession and speaking about the authority of the church?

5. What is the significance of Jesus using the same words to rebuke Peter ("Get behind Me, Satan") that He had used to dismiss Satan during His temptation in the wilderness? What does this reveal about the nature of Peter's well-intentioned objection?

Application Questions

1. Jesus asked His disciples, "Who do you say that I am?" How would you personally answer this question today, and what evidence from Scripture and your own experience shapes your answer?

2. Peter's confession came through divine revelation rather than human reasoning. In what specific ways can you position yourself to receive God's truth about Jesus—through Scripture reading, prayer, or Christian community—rather than relying solely on your own understanding?

3. The sermon emphasized that Jesus deeply loves the church and calls it "My church." How might this truth change the way you prioritize involvement in your local church, especially when it feels inconvenient or imperfect?

4. Peter's zeal led him to rebuke Jesus because he was "setting his mind on the things of men" rather than "the things of God." What is one area of your life where you might be resisting God's ways because they seem too costly or don't align with your expectations?

5. The sermon concluded with three truths about following Christ: it is urgent, costly, and infinitely worth it. Which of these three aspects do you most need to embrace right now, and what concrete step could you take this week in response?

Additional Bible Reading

1. Daniel 7:13-14 — This passage provides the Old Testament background for Jesus' title "Son of Man," depicting a divine figure who receives everlasting dominion and a kingdom that will never be destroyed.

2. Matthew 26:63-66 — This passage shows Jesus' trial before Caiaphas where He explicitly claims to be the Son of Man seated at God's right hand, resulting in the charge of blasphemy that the sermon referenced.

3. Isaiah 52:13–53:12 — This prophecy of the suffering servant explains the mission Jesus came to fulfill through suffering and death, which Peter initially rejected but which was essential for salvation.

4. Acts 2:14-41 — This passage shows Peter using the "keys of the kingdom" at Pentecost, proclaiming the gospel and opening the door of salvation to thousands of Jews.

5. Ephesians 5:25-27 — This passage describes Christ's love for the church as His bride, for whom He gave Himself up, reinforcing the sermon's emphasis on how dear the church is to Jesus.

Sermon Main Topics

I. Breakthrough Information: The Climax of Matthew's Gospel

II. Who Is Jesus? (Matthew 16:13-17)

III. What Is the Church? (Matthew 16:18-20)

IV. What Did Jesus Come to Do? (Matthew 16:21-23)

V. The Call to Follow Christ

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Detailed Sermon Outline

Some information is breakthrough information.

This can be in large history-making ways or smaller personal ways. So on the larger scale, this is an age-old experience of inventors, of discoverers, of explorers. So there's a mountain range that seems impassable. And then the Cumberland Gap is found, where hundreds of thousands of settlers could come through walking with their wagons and animals and into the lands beyond the Appalachians. And then on the smaller, more personal scale, there's the clue and the mystery that finally comes to you.

And in that clue, all the confusing facts that didn't make any sense at all begin to come clear and they all point to one reasonable solution to the mystery. On the Wheel of Fortune, the spin is taken and the contestant asks for the D's and then they suddenly realize that the seemingly impossible verb was dodged.

As in he dodged that ball. Well, for most of His public ministry, Jesus was a puzzle to people.

His opponents misunderstood Him often. They misunderstood His goals. The crowds would use Him to meet their needs while they could. His own students were curious but usually misunderstanding of so much of what Jesus taught, especially about Himself. For a year or two, Jesus had wandered about, traveling and teaching, healing and delivering.

He performed miracles involving food multiplying and weather changing. It all seemed to point to only one conclusion about Jesus' identity, but it was precisely that conclusion that was unthinkable to devout Jews.

The first commandment had taught to the Jews that there was only one God. The Shema echoed this great truth. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your mind and with all your soul and with all your might. They were to use themselves up completely on loving this one God because there was no other God beyond that to love.

Jesus had been concerning the religious leaders and confusing His own followers on just this point. He taught that there was only one God, and yet He called this God His Father in a unique way, and Himself God's Son.

He regularly did things which would seem to be only within the power of God, such as stiLling storms, or miraculously feeding, or walking on water, or causing the blind to see, just to name a few. And even things which were in God's unique prerogative, in things like prioritizing God's commands, and even forgiving sins.

He kept doing things that people could be forgiven for asking, who but God could do this?

His popularity was too great to ignore him, but not so great as to cause Rome to act against him.

Furthermore, he seemed to largely stay up in the north of the country. His trips to Jerusalem have been few and brief. He would say things that sounded like the prophesied Messiah, but then show no interest in confronting Rome when presented with the opportunity or taking up worldly authority. He was too remarkable to be ignored, but too confusing to be fully understood and followed.

Until the day we come to in our passage this morning. The climax of the first half of the gospel of Matthew and the turning point of Jesus' public ministry where he moves from traveling around the north and teaching and healing to teaching explicitly about following him and explaining more and more clearly what he must now do, even as he began the journey on foot southwards to Jerusalem. Our passage is in Matthew chapter 16, verses 13 to 23. And you'll find our passage on page 822 in the Bibles provided.

While you open your Bibles, I'll just remind you that you'll find Matthew there as the first book in the New Testament. Much of what we find in his book is repeated in Mark and Luke. It's written by the disciple Matthew. It's His recountings, perhaps written in the 60's A.D., maybe just after Mark is written. Please listen as I read God's Word, Matthew chapter 16 beginning at verse 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?' 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 Barjona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I tell you that 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 youo.' But He turned and said to Peter, 'Get behind Me, Satan. You're a hindrance to Me. For you're not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of men.

Friends, we want to walk through this crucial teaching noting three questions this morning. One, who is Jesus? Who is Jesus?

Number two, what is the church? What is the church? And number three, what did Jesus come to do? What did Jesus come to do? First, let's see what we learn about Jesus.

Look again at verses 13 to 17, verse 13. Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, that's up in the north of Israel, it was a more thinly settled area for the Jews. The city there had been rebuilt in Roman fashion with a noted temple carved in the side of Mount Hermon. To the god Pan. Mount Hermon was the tallest mountain, the highest mountain in Israel, 7,000 feet.

Snow on the top which ran down and formed the headwaters of the Jordan River.

There were many worshipers of Greek gods there, especially of this god Pan, the god of the shepherds. The area as a whole was associated with paganism. Jesus pulls His disciples away from the crowds around the Sea of Galilee and around Capernaum, up north, 25 or 30 miles. And there He puts them this question, we read in verse 13. He asked His disciples, who do people say that the Son of Man is?

Now Son of Man was a common way in the Gospels to refer to Jesus. Indeed, they seem to have learned it from Jesus. He uses it of Himself like He does here. We find it 32 times in Matthew, 14 in Mark, 26 in Luke, 12 in John. The phrase obviously affirms His humanity, Son of Man, Ezekiel used it of Himself along with Son of Dust.

But it also, to Jewish ears, contained echoes of Daniel 7.

Verses 13 and 14: I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a Son of Man, and He came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. And to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His Kingdom one that shall not be destroyed. Friends, if you want to get a passage about the incarnation in the Old Testament, Daniel 7 verses 13 and 14 is one of the most remarkable things that you'll find. When Jesus would stand trial before Caiaphas and the council in Jerusalem, when He was commanded to tell them whether or not He was the Messiah, answer plainly we read in Matthew 26:64, Jesus said, you, have said so.

But I tell you from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven. When He said that, the high priests recognized that as blasphemy because Jesus, a man, was claiming to be God. So they led the council to pursue the death penalty for Jesus.

From the Romans because of how Jesus talked about Himself using that phrase, Son of Man.

All this to say, if we go back to our passage in Matthew 16, we see that Jesus' reference to Himself as Son of Man really had the seeds in it of understanding Jesus Himself both as human and as divine. Let me keep reading with verse 14. And they said, well, some say John the Baptist. Others say Elijah, others Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. That's very interesting, isn't it?

Just their recounting. I mean, widespread misunderstanding of who Jesus is is nothing new. Remember King Herod had thought that Jesus was John the Baptist come back from the dead. Elijah and Jeremiah, like all the prophets, had pointed to Christ. Anyway, verse 15.

He said to them, 'But who do you, and that's in the plural there. He's speaking to the disciples as a whole. 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 Barjona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. ' So Peter confessed Jesus as the Christ, the Messiah. No qualifying, I think that you are, or Some people have said, but just a robust, you are.

And friends, this confession is the climax of the first half of the book. If you're in your own Bible, you might want to just mark that there. This is what all 16 chapters of Matthew's gospel have been leading to, and this is the hinge of the book, the whole book. It hinges on Peter's confession. This is where it now turns.

You'll see in the way Jesus begins speaking to them, he's much clearer. He's more explicit. Physically, within a couple of chapters, so within a little bit of time, they begin walking down to Jerusalem. It's turning now to the conclusion. It's no surprise that it was God who really brought this about.

You see in verse 17 that Peter's knowledge came only by divine revelation. Jesus is clear that not only was Peter right, but that he was only right because my Father, as He put it, had shown Peter. And you see here Jesus' identity being clarified by Peter's confession, but also, by the way, Jesus is once again speaking of His relationship with God.

Throughout Matthew's gospel, He's been clarifying what it means for Jesus to be related to God the Father. So you have at Jesus' baptism, Matthew recounting in chapter 3, a voice from heaven said, 'This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.' and then in chapter 4 of Matthew's gospel, Satan had immediately tempted Jesus, reasoning with Him in distorted ways about what He Jesus should do because He was the Son of God. So given that you're the Son of God, Jesus would begin... Satan would begin His temptations of Jesus with. More recently in Matthew chapter 11 verse 25 and following, Jesus had prayed, 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.

Yes, Father, for such was yous gracious will. All things have been handed over to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him. So who comes to know God according to Jesus? Not the worldly smart, but those with God-given wisdom. These are the ones who come to know God.

You can take all the SAT prep tests you want. That's not going to make you a Christian. You won't get into the church because you have a higher intelligence than the other people on your street. Peter didn't get this because he was best at math. Peter had this revealed to him by his Father, the heavenly Father, God in heaven.

I can speak on behalf of Bobby and the other preachers here at CBC. We wanna point to Jesus' identity every week. We wanna be crystal clear when we preach. We wanna preach clearly about Jesus and the good news. We wanna help encourage and instruct you in all the riches that have come to us in Christ.

We always want to be clear about exactly who Jesus is. Not simply as a teacher and an example and an encourager, it's all those things. But Jesus is the Messiah, he is the son of the living God.

Now, this is a different congregation than we normally have. You'll note the ease of seating, you're welcome. We try to provide this for you two or three times a year. Much of our congregation is scattered across the eastern United States visiting their families, it's wonderful. Many of you here today are guests.

Some of you are here because you're not particularly religious but you're extremely polite.

You love your family or friends who fed you so well, for you, someone who may not normally be in church on a Sunday, I would just encourage you to think seriously about Jesus, about who he is. Who do you listen to when it comes to questions about Jesus? I submit to you this morning that this question of who Jesus is, which is at the very heart of the Christian faith, is worth your giving thought to. Careful consideration of. In the same way as when a case is in balance in the courts, they don't simply call anyone to testify.

They call those to testify who are qualified, who know the evidence. Let me encourage you this morning to not stop with wondering vaguely who people say Jesus might have been. But try to establish the facts, like here, with the testimony of the eyewitness, Matthew. And we begin here with this confession of Peter, Jesus' first follower, that he is the Christ, the Son of the living God. Which brings us to our second question, what is the church?

What is the church? And the answer is, the church is Christ's earthly representative. Look again at verses 18 to 20, In the light of this truth about who Jesus is, now what do we learn here that Jesus taught about? He taught about the congregation that He collects around Him, His church.

Verse 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.

Interesting that Jesus' identity being clarified leads to Peter's identity being clarified. And it's that way for us today. You figuring out who Jesus is very often leads to you figuring out who you really are.

Before yourself, before others, ultimately before God.

Anyway, Jesus speaks of His church here, not Peter's, Jesus' church, His own congregation, His own people. Christ is still the foundation of the church. I've had a few people this week try to fit together two or three different passages, one in Revelation, one in Ephesians, one in 1 Corinthians, about different architectural building images and metaphors that are used How do we put the foundation stone, the cornerstone Christ with the foundation of the 12 apostles and the rock Peter? Well, friends, they're different metaphors in different places. Just leave them alone.

Let them each serve what they do in their context, all right? So when Paul is writing to the Corinthians and he talks about Jesus being the foundation, well, yeah, that's theologically, of course, that's true. But here, Jesus is speaking historically, chronologically, about Peter being the first stone. The first rock in the edifice. Chronologically, Peter was that guy.

He was the first follower. He was the first confessor. The church that Peter is the first stone in is the latest appearance of the people of God. Very much like the Israelites gathered around Mount Horeb during Moses' time, hearing God's words. Or they're conquering children and grandchildren covenanting with God before Joshua in Joshua 24.

Jesus here is establishing the house of God that Isaiah long ago foretold that the nations would flow to. And many people would come saying, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths. This prophesied house of God in Isaiah, chapter 2, was not a building, but it was this people. And this is the people that Jesus was founding himself with Peter as the first member. This universal church would be represented by many local churches like the church at Corinth or our church meeting here right now in obedience to Hebrews 10:24 and 25.

We are the people who mean to submit to God's kingly rule through Jesus Christ which seems to fit with Matthew's stress on Christ as King. I hope you see something of how much Jesus cares about the church. As soon as his identity is so clearly stated, what does he talk about? The church. He calls it here my church.

Do you realize the church was Jesus' idea, not the idea of a preacher's union, because we need some jobs. No, this is actually Jesus' idea. It's the creation of Jesus Christ. He loves the church as His own bride. In Acts 20:28, Paul refers to the church of God which he obtained with his own blood.

Friends, the church is dear to Jesus, and if you love Him, it will become dear to you too. I'm encouraged by the stories many of you have shared with me over the years of how you've organized your life and plan to continue to around your life in your local church. Whether it's this one or wherever God may lead you. Having the local church at the center of your life, helping you with your family, with your job, will help you and help others as you honor the Lord by loving Him and loving His people. Here in Matthew 16 and verse 18, as the Messiah prepares to assemble His congregation, Peter is the first follower and this church Jesus is founding will not be defeated or stopped even by the gates of hell and death itself.

It will not fail.

But will succeed. Not even Jesus' own death, that gates of hell, maybe a reference to death, in which case Jesus' death would be the most fundamental and first trial for this beginning nascent assembly of people to get over. What about when the rabbi himself is taken, is killed? Well, this assembly will not fail, it will succeed. Not even Jesus' own death would defeat his people or his purposes for them.

In fact, That death, particularly Jesus' death, was essential to the church's existence and success.

Now that doesn't mean that no local assemblies would ever close down. Local churches have closed countless times throughout the history of Christianity. But others always spring up. God will not be defeated. Let's take as an example our friend Armon.

Armon was, on the one hand, born in sin, spiritually dead, lost in Adam. On top of that, there was a layer of Islam throughout Kazakhstan.

On top of that, a century ago, a layer of communism was added. So our friend Armon was in a very dark place in every sense. Grew up in a non-Christian family.

And yet, from everything we know, it seems that God the Father had elected Armon before the beginning of time, and that He sent God the Son to die for Armon. And God the Holy Spirit convicted him of his sins, and He also stirred a church in the United States to send someone to Kazakhstan. To share the gospel. And there God sovereignly determined that they would meet, and Armon got converted, and he was baptized, and he started the church there. And in fact, this morning he was preaching from 1 Peter, of all books, 1 Peter chapter 1 at Maranatha Bible Church that he helped start in Almaty.

So, friends, the church of Jesus Christ will prevail. Local churches closing down in God's sovereignty over time in no way suggests that Christ's church will fail. The universal church is being grown and prepared for its first and final and forever assembly around the Lord at the last day. All the local churches, like this one, are imperfect. But real and wonderful previews of that final forever assembly.

You understand the difference between the universal church and the local church? The universal church, all Christians everywhere, all times, all places. That church has never assembled. It will only ever assemble finally at the last day, and then it will assemble forever, where congregations never break up. We are an example of a local church, a preview, a part of that universal church.

And we assemble regularly in the first day of the week in celebration of Christ's resurrection. Now I thank God for the work He's done through this local church for over 140 years now. I pray that should a time come when He wants to close this work down, the congregation that meets here then will know how to use every last asset they have to further the gospel work for the Lord Jesus Christ. You know there are little congregations all around DC.

That are in a demographic sense dying. And yet they have assets that are extremely important for gospel work in DC because they have a building and a place where people can actually meet. And when we have a message that's increasingly opposed by the world around us, it's very valuable to have a place where we can meet and talk together and sing and pray and study God's word. Pray for these churches to not be manipulated by their denominations. So that their properties are just sold and their denominations are enriched.

That's what happens too often, even among Baptist churches. Let's pray that God in His kind sovereignty to the district will leave at least one saved, regenerate person who understands the truth of the gospel in that congregation at the very end so that those assets can be disposed of into gospel work, into maybe a new church being planted there in its facilities. Where the gospel is carried on until Christ returns. That's what I pray the Lord will do if He ever closes down this work here before Christ returns. Though Jesus asked the question in verse 15 to all the disciples about who He is, the you there is plural, after Peter answers, if you look there at verse 17, 18, 19, all the yous are singular.

They're all directed to Peter. That's because Peter would lead the church into the beginning of its ministry of representing Jesus through teaching and discipling. Jesus will talk about this more fully in chapter 18. So when we get to chapter 18, we'll get back to this topic. Well, we should just turn there for a second now, because it's going to be a few weeks.

Look over to Matthew chapter 18.

If you look at verse 18, it's very interesting. Jesus says, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. That's exactly what we read here in chapter 16, in verse 19. The difference is here in chapter 18, the yous are all plural. So the kind of power that Jesus had said Peter had in chapter 16, he's now saying this binding and loosing Belongs not just to Peter, it belongs to the congregation.

The congregation has this power. And really, friends, in the New Testament, the congregation has a unique role of authority. The congregation is the one to whom I'm answerable. I'm answerable to the Lord, I'm answerable to the elders, I'm answerable to friends, I'm answerable to my wife, I'm answerable to many people in many ways. I have a very profound responsibility to be answerable to the congregation.

The congregation has responsibility for each one of its members. We see that developed more in Matthew chapter 18. But we'll come to that Lord willing more when we get there. Back to chapter 16, Peter is in this unique position, which is not magical, but it is historical, it's chronological. Among the disciples, he's the one that God chose to be the first confessor of Jesus as the Messiah.

And Peter would use this unique authority that God gave him, these keys, this preaching of the gospel. And so open the kingdom of heaven for so many to come in. It would be through Peter that the Jews first in large numbers came in as he preached at Pentecost. Even the Gentiles, as he shared the gospel at Cornelius' home in Acts chapter 10, it would be through gospel preaching like Peter's that people would be reached out to and brought into the kingdom of God.

That's the keys he's talking about here. On the other hand, if we want to keep people out of the kingdom of God, then all we need to do is keep our mouths closed, not proclaim the gospel about Jesus Christ. Our services here every Sunday morning, as I said, are meant to lift up the Savior. We give thanks because he's given Jesus Christ his Son. We pray and we give in Christ's name and for the spread of his fame.

We read his word and study his life and teachings. We sing as we have this morning, Come, behold the wondrous slain by death, the God of life. But no grave could air restrain him. Praise the Lord, he is alive. What a foretaste of deliverance, how unwavering our hope, Christ in power resurrected, as we will be when he comes.

Friends, Jesus is the Messiah who's come to bring about all of this. But they shouldn't tell anyone. Do you see that in verse 20? They shouldn't tell anyone. At least not yet.

With all this talk of Simon being blessed for proclaiming the truth about Jesus' identity, verse 20 strikes people as strange. But Jesus' messianic secret would continue until His resurrection. The time would come after His resurrection to tell everybody. But trumpeting Jesus' messianic identity around too much now would simply be counterproductive. Think of it.

His most public announcement of himself as the Messiah is where? It's in Matthew 21 at the triumphal entry. And what happens? Within one week Rome has executed him. To announce you're the Messiah, and the way things were understood then, was to announce you're the rival king.

Jesus wanted to redefine in the minds of the people what deliverance He had come to bring. He was preparing them to see Isaiah 52 and 53 lived out, where the Messiah is the sin-bearing, suffering servant. So Jesus was doing things and telling them things that they didn't understand at that time, but that later they would come to understand. And it would be that understanding that He would use to shape and guide His church in her infant days.

Our third question, what did Jesus come to do? What did Jesus come to do? And we see in our last few verses that He came to save His people from our sins. Look there again in verses 21 to 23. 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 men.

So now was the appropriate time for Jesus to explain the rejection of the Messiah. That's why we see that phrase there in verse 21 at the beginning, From that time So now that Peter had clearly confessed Jesus as the Messiah, and Jesus had affirmed that to the disciples, and had even talked about the beginning of His church, it was time for him to be more explicit in talking about what would shortly happen to Him. So for the first time He was. In a couple of years of public ministry to this point, Jesus has not said these things, but now He begins to clearly describe the official action that the Jewish leadership in Jerusalem would take. So Jesus told His disciples how things would end in His crucifixion and resurrection.

He would return to those themes again in chapter 17 and in 20 and in 26. Interesting that from that time, that phrase, there's the same one He uses back in chapter 4 verse 17.

When Jesus had been baptized and suffered the temptations, then it was time for the public phase of Jesus' ministry to commence. Matthew uses this phrase, From that time. Well, so this is another marking point in Jesus' public ministry. What Jesus laid out here in verse 21 was utterly mind-blowing for people who had been so long wishing for a delivering Messiah. Little did they suspect that the cross and resurrection would be the definitive expressions of God's power over sin and death.

They were expecting less astounding results, like the defeat of Rome and the liberation of Jerusalem from foreign control. So in verse 22, Peter acts out his typically committed forward self. Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke Him. Peter seems like a rock, but even this rock can be wrong. He has the audacity, the nerve, to correct the person whom He's just identified as the Son of the living God.

The text doesn't tell us how Peter rebuked Jesus, but we can only guess that he was criticizing Him for being too pessimistic. Jesus, this is no way to start the great Messianic Kingdom. All this talk about suffering and rejection and death. Besides, Peter didn't want Jesus to experience such horrible fate. Friends like Peter, we can come to realize the uniqueness of Jesus and still be confused about exactly what that means.

And that's why we must give such careful attention to Christ's clear teaching about Himself like we have in this passage. I'm sure that when Peter is speaking to Jesus, he's doing it out of love. But Peter had clearly not understood earlier things Jesus had said. He hadn't understood what Jesus meant by the sign of Jonah or what His mission was in His first coming. Peter still seems to be sharing in the common first century mindset of the Messiah's mission, that the way that would be accomplished would be by overthrowing Roman rule.

Of course, Peter's response is thick with irony, trying to keep Jesus from dying.

Seems like he's Jesus' greatest friend when he's standing in the way of the very point of his mission. And he's standing in the way exactly in the way Satan had. In chapter 4, when he was presenting Jesus with these other alternative ways that he could do things without having to suffer, he was literally standing in the place of Satan in the way he was tempting Jesus.

He was trying to prevent the one thing that Jesus had to do to accomplish the mission of His first coming. Even the thing that Peter himself most needed Jesus to do for him.

Friends, zeal can never take the place of maturity.

Zeal can be too misdirected, too self-protective, too rejecting of any being questioned or corrected itself.

Zeal is good, but attached to the truth and to mature understanding. We can't achieve God's results if we reject God's methods. Now some of you may find the idea of Jesus suffering like this so terrible that it should have been avoided at all costs. But what if those costs include your condemnation for your sin? We understand that God in His good and holy love will never ignore any sin that we've committed.

Each of our sins are committed ultimately against God Himself. Furthermore, we realize that if these sins are to be forgiven, they must be atoned for, and that anyone who would atone for them must Himself have no sins if He would make a satisfactory atonement for others. Still more, Jesus says that God-man would be in a unique position, morally completely pure, unaffected by Adam's sin.

And yet at one with us by virtue of his taking on human flesh and being born of a virgin. Jesus then died in the place of all of us who would ever repent of our sins and trust in him. He displayed God's justice and mercy, his love and his wrath. And God raised him from the dead. He ascended to heaven to present his sacrifice to his heavenly Father.

And God accepted it and now holds out complete forgiveness for all of us. Who will repent of our sins and trust in Christ alone for our salvation.

And then we have this sharp rebuke of Peter in verse 23. If nothing else, this shows that whatever Jesus meant by calling Peter the Rock up in verse 18, it's nothing like what the Roman Catholic Church has misunderstood this to be. There is no infallibility of Peter represented in the very paragraph where he's called the Rock.

Let alone in the rest of the New Testament. Peter seems to be channeling those first temptations of Satan to Jesus to make the pathway easier. Jesus dismisses Peter in the same way he dismissed Satan, literally using the same words. Christians can be wrong, can't we? And isn't it amazing to watch the close concern, the delight, the love that Jesus had for Peter across this very short span of verses that goes from rejoicing to calling him a tool of Satan.

But all because he loves him. He wants him to understand what the truth is.

Of course, what Peter was doing was simply voicing the way the Messianic calling was commonly thought of at the time. Jesus was the Messiah. He was the conquering general. The Romans would be on their way out. Of course, the disciples were like, Peter, we've gotten in on the ground floor.

This is going to be a good time for us. But exactly what Jesus had come to teach, that He was now beginning to teach with more clarity and urgency, was that precisely because He was in fact the prophesied Messiah, He must, as He puts it here in verse 21, suffer and die and rise exactly so He could fulfill the Messianic work of delivering His people. If Jesus would save them, this must be the way. Honor and success are in God's hands. Jesus' words here are hard, but it seems like if we don't love Christ's sacrifice, then we aren't loving the things of God, but just the things of men.

We're just looking at things from the perspective of people. Perhaps we're in rebellion against an all-good God.

And Jesus loved Peter enough here to rebuke him. I wonder who you love that much. I wonder who's loving you that much.

Is God showing His correcting love to you in any way through this message? Friends, a love without rebuke would only be love in a perfect company. Like that of the angels or the redeemed in heaven. Here below in this life, rebuke is as much a part of love as medicine or any other life-giving correction. If you think you've found a way to have a loving relationship without ever giving or receiving correction, I'm afraid you're deceiving yourself.

Jesus' rebuke of Peter here is not given instead of His loving Peter, but because of His loving Peter. In fact, it's that kind of love that explained everything Jesus had come to do.

Well that's something of who Jesus is, what the church is, and what Jesus came to do. Now my friend, what about you?

What about you? God doesn't ask for special entrance exams, testing your cognitive grasp of the truths and highways merely checking on your passive orthodoxy or your recumbent religiosity. Friends, God wants your very self. He wants your soul. You should decide to keep following Christ.

You should decide to follow Him for the first time perhaps today.

In closing, let me say three things about following Christ, three simple things. One, the decision to follow Christ is urgent.

Some of you here today have often heard about Jesus Christ in the past. You need to realize that a decision must be made. Don't deceive yourself thinking that you know that you have time in the future to make it. You don't know who you have that time. All of life is a tale of life's surprising endings.

And don't deceive yourself by telling yourself that you're continuing to make no decision to follow Christ, because that is a decision. Making no decision is a decision to not follow Christ.

It's a decision assuming life will continue on better without Christ. Two, another thing though, the decision to follow Him is costly. We'll see that more in the passage we come to next in our study of Matthew. The last thing I want to do is to pressure anyone into following Christ. I don't really even think I can do that.

Maybe I could pressure you into a temporary reformation. But, friend, Jesus is not interested in you fobbing off some increased religiosity to him. He doesn't want you simply to appear more religious in the eyes of your Christian family or friends. He wants all of you. He wants you.

As a young man, Spurgeon wrote out his own covenant with God. I yield myself up to thee. As thine own reasonable sacrifice, I return to thee thine own, meaning himself. I would be forever unreservedly, perpetually thine.

Whilst I'm on earth, I would serve Thee, and may I enjoy Thee and praise Thee forever. He makes that covenant and then He goes out and gets baptized and joins a local church.

It's costly to follow Christ. He wants everything you have. So it's urgent, it's costly, but then a third thing. It's infinitely worth it. I've been following Jesus over 40 years.

It has been no means been easy all the time, but it has easily been worth it all the time. And I'm sure you'll speak to anybody here in this room who's been following Christ for decades, they will give you the same kind of testimony. Friends, for every high profile celebrity who apostatizes or stop following Christ, that gets a lot of publicity. There are thousands and thousands and thousands of people in their 40s and 50s and 60s and 70s who just keep following Christ. They do it quietly, joyfully, struggling, looking forward to getting home, but really and knowing that it's deeply worth it.

Charles Drelincourt was a reformed pastor in 17th century Paris.

He wrote a very famous book, often reprinted and translated, in English as the Christian Defense Against the Fears of Death. And in it he reflected on what to many people is their greatest of fears, the fear of death. Drelincourt said, Adieu, my dear relatives, my precious friends. I rise to God. I'm going to my Father.

The struggles are over. And I abandon my misery in exchange today the earth for the heavens. By faith, dry the tears from your eyes, banish from your hearts all bitter sadness. And if your love for Me was ever sincere, reflect on My joy and be happy for Me. Ah, but My lot is wonderful.

It is worthy of envy. By death, I pass to the domain of life, and in dying, lose nothing but mortality. Follow Me.

With vows of hope and zeal. If death separates us for a limited time, God will unite us in eternal glory. Friend, that's the kind of joy you can find in life and in death in Jesus Christ. Who do you say Jesus is?

Let's pray.

Lord God, we thank youk for your mercy in revealing the truth about Jesus to Peter. We thank youk for revealing that same truth to so many of us gathered here today. Oh Lord, we pray that yout would reveal that truth to each one gathered here. Lord, to others across this country and around this globe who hear this same gospel presented this morning. We pray, Lord, that you would give gifts of repentance and faith.

Bring many people to yourself. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.