Reading Assignment: Matthew 16:13-20
Truth: God reveals Christ
Key Verse: Matthew 16:17
Outline of this passage:
1. Question: regarding Jesus’ identity
2. Revelation of Christ: God reveals Christ to the hearts of men.
3. Church: The building up of the church is God’s will and purpose in this age.
Prayer:
1. Thanksgiving for faith
2. Commitment to build up Jesus’ church
Transcript
Let's pray and we'll begin our time of morning devotions. God, we worship You this morning. You are the awesome God who rules over all things. Our health is in Your hands as well as all the affairs of government, the rains that we've had recently and all the weather systems around the world. All of these are entirely in Your hands. Even the wars that are waged in this world, they don't happen apart from Your knowledge and Your sovereign will. Thus, we bow before You this morning to worship You and to confess that You are God and that we are Your creatures living in Your world. But through Christ the Savior, we are more than Your creatures. As Your word reveals to us, we are Your children through faith in Christ. That is a wonderful grace we don't deserve. Thank You that You don't deal with us according to our sins. You deal with us according to Your grace. Thank You for Jesus. Thank You for Your patience with us, that even in our moments of unbelief You patiently teach us and train us, out of Your great love for us. We pray that You would teach us this morning as we look into Your word now. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
The next passage to be read is Matthew 16:13-20. I'm going through this chapter at a little slower pace because there is so much important content here. We are indeed breaking up this chapter into three parts. The truth that I want to highlight from this passage is that God reveals Christ. And the key verse is found in verse 17 where Jesus declares this to Simon Peter, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjonah (I’ll explain this word in a little bit), because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.” We'll see the full meaning of this verse shortly, but suffice it to say, Jesus affirms that God reveals Christ to people. By God's grace, people’s hearts understand who Jesus really is and they place their faith in Him. There are three parts to the passage for this morning: question, revelation, and the church. These three seem somewhat unrelated, but they actually are all tied together.
First, the question. Jesus asked the disciples a particular question. They were in a remote place away from Galilee, in a place called Caesarea Philippi. There Jesus asked the disciples, “Who do the people say that I am?” And the disciples know the opinion of all the people, and so they gave the various answers. They said, “Some say You're John the Baptist (like Herod Antipus said about Jesus). Others say You're Elijah. And others say You're Jeremiah. And still others say You're one of the prophets.” So the people had all these varying opinions about who Jesus was. Then Jesus asked the disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” And at this juncture, Simon Peter answers and says, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” That is a loaded answer, and it is the right answer. Jesus is not merely a good teacher. He's not a just a miracle worker. He's not just a healer. He's not just a spiritual leader. He is the Christ. He is the Messiah whom God promised is coming to save His people from their sins (Matthew 1:21). But Simon Peter also adds that Jesus is “The Son of the living God.” This is to say, Jesus is the only begotten Son of God the Father, who is the living God. When Simon says, “the living God,” he distinguishes God from all the man-made idols of the world. You see, there were many religions in the world then as well as today; but all the deities of the world are man-made. These deities come from the imaginations of men's hearts. But the living God is different. He made us, not we made Him. The Bible tells us that the Lord who is revealed in the Bible created us, not the other way around. And as the Creator, He revealed Himself to us through His word, the Bible, and ultimately He was revealed to us in the person of Jesus Christ. And Simon recognizes that Jesus is the Son of this God, the living God. When Jesus hears this answer, He immediately shifts the focus away from Simon Peter to God who revealed this to Simon and gave him this understanding.
This brings us to the second part of revelation: God reveals Christ. Jesus explains this to Simon Peter. He tells him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjonah.” Let me pause there for a moment. Barjonah is kind of an odd word. You probably have never heard that outside of this passage. In Aramaic, “bar” is the word for “son” and “Jonah” is what it sounds like. It's a name, the name of Jonah. Simon Peter was the son of a man named Jonah. Jesus, knowing Simon and what family he comes from, points all this out and calls him by his full name. This is an important moment: Jesus is going to say something very important to Simon. He then adds this: “Blessed are you… because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.” What Jesus is doing here is attributing the knowledge that Simon has about Jesus to God. He doesn't pause to congratulate Simon for having figured this out on his own, as if he could. Instead, he turns all the glory to God because it is only when God has enabled a person to recognize who Jesus truly is, that he can come to believe in Him truly. And this is what has happened with Simon. It is because God revealed this to him that Simon has come to understand Jesus for who He truly is. This is remarkable because others did not share this same understanding of Jesus. As you just heard, the people had all sorts of different opinions about Jesus, but Peter did not share their confusion. Why? How is it that Peter understood the truth? It’s because God had set His eyes on Simon Peter and He had given him this revelation. This is even true today. Many people read the Bible, and they come to wild conclusions about Jesus. They often say that Jesus was a good teacher, a spiritual leader, or even a good example to follow, etc. Many people read the Bible, and they refuse to believe that Jesus is who He claimed to be. Instead, they dismiss Him as something else, something lesser. However, each person that God has chosen for salvation, He opens their eyes to see Jesus for who He truly is. They recognize that Jesus is God and that He is the only Savior who can deliver us from our sins. When God has given to a human soul that understanding, that is a wonderful blessing of God. It's no wonder that Jesus says to Peter, “Blessed are you.” Even though others would not recognize who Jesus truly was, Simon Peter did, by the revelation of God. Then Jesus turns the attention to how his faith fits into the bigger picture of God's will in this world, the purpose for which Jesus came into the world.
This brings us to the third part of the church. Now when I say church, you may be led to think of Sunday service when people gather together, and there is definitely a dimension of that, as to what the church is. But the word “church” is much more than that. Biblically speaking, church has more to do with the community of God's people, the community of those who truly believe in Christ as Lord and Savior. This community of God’s people is what Jesus is talking about, not just a Sunday event or a building or anything of that nature. In any case, this is what Jesus says to Simon Peter about the church. He says, “you are Peter, and upon this rock, I will build My church.” Now, when Jesus says, “you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church,” you could miss the point unless you know that the name “Peter” is a nickname Jesus gave to him that means “rock.” When Jesus says, “upon this rock (that is, Peter), I will build My church,” Jesus means that Peter is the very first believer with whom Jesus begins His church. Peter was the very first believer, the very first person to testify of Jesus’ true identity; but he was definitely not the last believer. He was first of many who followed afterwards. Jesus builds His church upon the rock which is Peter because Peter is a man of faith. Now, there's something important to be said about this. There is a particular misuse and a misunderstanding of this passage by the Roman Catholic Church, which they call the “Petrine doctrine” (Petrine is the Greek word for Peter), that Jesus was appointing Peter as the very first Pope, that Jesus was giving a special power and authority to Simon Peter, and that after Peter died, there was a succession of other leaders who were to serve as the Vicar (representative or substitute) of Christ, whom they call the Pope. They still believe this today, that there is one central leader for the church, the Pope, who has authority to give salvation and to withhold salvation from people. Here's the problem with that view. Peter was only the very first believer, but not the only believer. And the authority that Jesus gives to Peter here, Jesus will later give to the entire church. So, it turns out that what’s special here is that Peter was the first of many, not that Peter was the only recipient of this privilege and responsibility. That responsibility is described in terms of binding and loosening in verse 19. And this responsibility is given to the church in Chapter 18. The binding and loosening have to do with who is a member of God’s church or not. The church is to be a reflection of the heavenly citizenship, and that responsibility to properly recognize who is in or out is given not only to Peter but to the entire community of believers. Church membership, when it is done biblically, it reflects salvation in heaven. God intended the church on earth to be a reflection of the saved in heaven.
By the way, as we get into the next passage, you'll see that this is the purpose for which Jesus goes to the cross. He goes to the cross to pay for the sins of His people to establish them as His saved community of the church. This is something that's often missed in the preaching of the word of God today. People today think that Christianity is just a matter of my personal salvation, how I get to heaven. That's, obviously, very important— even Jesus talks about the kingdom of heaven in this passage. But God has a purpose in this age that is wider than personal salvation. It is to build a community that honors Him, that exalts Jesus and imitates Him. He wants on earth congregations that reflect the character of Jesus. That is what the church is for. We're here to be a shining light in the dark world. We are to manifest Jesus' righteousness, His love, His compassion, His grace, His gentleness, His patience, His obedience to the Father, His worship of the Father, His prayerfulness— we can just go on forever. The Bible describes this objective of the church in Ephesians Chapter 4, where we are told that the church of God is to attain to the measure of the stature that belongs to the fullness of Christ. That is God’s intent in this world, and this is what Jesus says He will do, to build His church. Therefore, once Peter has testified of Jesus’ true identity as the Christ, the Son of the living God, Jesus says, “That's great, that's great. You know what that means? That means I'm going to start building My church, because that's what God's plan is for this age.” And that is the wonderful gift of God for us in this age, that we too, can participate and be a part of the community of God's people on earth. There's so much more to be said here, but our time is up.
What can we pray about? First of all, we can give thanks to God for faith. You see, because flesh and blood cannot reveal who Jesus is to a human soul, only God can do that. And so if there is in your heart a living faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, you should absolutely give God the credit for that faith.
The second thing to pray about is to make a hearty commitment to the Lord to participate in the community of God’s church. You can tell the Lord that you will not treat the church as a spectator event, or something to visit, but as the community to be a part of, something to give yourself for.
That is the lesson for today. Let me pray for us and we'll wrap it up.
God, thank You that You can awaken souls to know and trust in Jesus for who He is. There is no Savior apart from Him. He alone is the image of the invisible God. He alone is the radiance of Your glory and the exact representation of Your nature. Therefore, to believe in Jesus is ultimately to believe in You. To embrace Jesus is to embrace You. To trust in Jesus is to trust in You, and not only this, but to have Your presence in us through Your Holy Spirit, who is with us. Thank You for this wonderful gift of faith. And thank You that all those who believe have the assurance that we will spend all eternity in the kingdom of heaven. Furthermore, we confess that in this world in this age, we have a purpose to be faithful participants and contributors in the community of Your people on earth, the church. Thank You, God, for including us in the household of the faith and this awesome project on earth to magnify Christ through the church. I pray for everyone here, that You would encourage each of them to, first of all, be filled with gratitude for what faith You have given them, and that they would also invest their lives in Your church, to build up the community which Jesus loved, for which He laid down His life. Thank You, Father, for Your wonderful and generous grace toward us. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
All right, Lord bless you all, and we'll see You next week.