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In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Dear Saints of God, dear Christians, Jesus has been traveling around with the disciples now up north in the region of Tyre and Sidon, over to the Decapolis, the Ten Cities, and now all the way up to the foothills of Mount Hermon, to Caesarea Philippi, to the pagan city that was based around this cave where the Jordan River came out of the ground and there was a temple to Pan and another temple to one of the Caesars there. Jesus takes his disciples up into this region by themselves and he asks them the question, who do men say that I am? They give the answer, some say John the Baptist, risen from the dead. Some say Elijah or Jeremiah or one of the prophets. But then Jesus asked, who do you say that I am? And unfolds before us this beautiful conversation between Jesus and Saint Peter. In fact, we just have the first part of the conversation this week and we’ll have the second part of the conversation next week. Peter says, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. The first time Jesus is recognized and confessed as the Christ by a man. And Jesus gives Peter this beautiful blessing. Blessed are you, he says, blessed are you, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And you are Peter. He changes his name after this confession. And this confession changes you.
You’re Peter, and on this petros, this rock, I’ll build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. You’ve got the keys, the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind is bound, whatever you loose is loosed. God be praised.
And there’s so much in this text. I mean this is like an all-you-can-eat buffet of knowledge and wisdom and comfort. We’re gonna pick out three things here. I’m not sure if they’re connected one to the other, but I’ve been brain damaged for six weeks, so you’ll have to excuse it. We’re gonna pick out three things here, heap up our plates, and rejoice in what happens.
First this, the confession of Christ is always a contrary confession. Notice how Jesus does not just ask who do people say that I am or who do you say that I am. He asks both questions and he wants them to be set against one another. Now Jesus asked the disciples about who people thought he is and they give a good answer. I mean it’s hard to imagine how Jesus could have been more highly thought of than the answer that the disciples give. So that people think that you’re one of the prophets. John the Baptist, the last prophet, the greatest prophet. They think that you’re John the Baptist back from the dead, or Elijah, or Jeremiah, or one of the other prophets. It would have been difficult to be thought of any more highly than that by the Jewish people. I mean just contrast that to what the Pharisees thought about Jesus. They thought he was Beelzebub, the lord of the demons. They thought he was the devil incarnate. That’s what the Pharisees thought, but the people thought that Jesus was good. In fact, they held him in the highest esteem. You’re one of the greats, but that’s not enough. It’s not enough for Jesus to be considered one of the prophets. Even though that was kind and generous. It wasn’t right. Jesus is more than a prophet.
So Peter’s confession of Jesus does not stand in contrast to a bad opinion of Jesus. The confession of Peter stands in contrast to a good opinion of Jesus, to high esteem of Jesus. Most people, and this is for us now, most people think well of Jesus. There are some people who think that Jesus was a scoundrel or he didn’t even exist, but most people think well of Jesus, that he was a good teacher, that he was a wise man, that he was a prophet. But that is not enough. Having good thoughts about Jesus is not enough.
You are the Christ, says Peter, taught by our Heavenly Father. You are the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus is more than a prophet. Jesus is the second person of the Holy Trinity, the Son of God, very God of very God, begotten of the Father before all worlds. He is true man, born of the Virgin Mary, and also true God, begotten of the Father. Jesus is unlike anyone else. He is the Son of God, who took on our human flesh and blood, so that he might bear our sins, die our death, and save and rescue us. Jesus is a prophet. In fact, he is the prophet that Moses promised, but he is more than that. He is the Savior. He does teach heavenly wisdom as the prophets taught and revealed the will of God, but more than that, he lives and dies and is raised up on the third day in order to save us. And we confess with St. Peter these truths, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God.
This confession of Jesus will always be in conflict with popular opinion, and it’s supposed to be, because this truth is the narrow truth that leads to life everlasting. This truth is revealed only from heaven. This truth runs contrary to everything that we think on our own that is revealed to us in nature. This truth comes to us only as a gift of God the Father through the Spirit and the Word of God. And we rejoice that this contrary confession is given to us.
First point. Now point two, there is a lot of comfort in Jesus’ reaction to this confession of St. Peter and the comfort is found mostly in the pronouns. Listen to what Jesus said, blessed are you Simon Barjona flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my father who’s in heaven and then this on this rock I says Jesus I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. I and my. This church, this building project, this kingdom of Jesus is his work. Three times in the Gospels, just three times, we find the word church and every time it has that little pronoun in front of it, my, it belongs to Jesus. It’s his church, his kingdom, his people, his building, his work. There’s so much comfort in this. The church is not our church. It’s his. We do not belong to ourselves. We belong to him. We are the people of his pasture. We are the sheep of his hand. Our life, our death, our life eternal, our existence in this world is the work of Jesus.
So many times we think, I mean, this is just our sort of default thought that if something has to be done we have to do it. When it comes to faith, when it comes to life eternal, and when it comes to the church, that is not the case. We belong to Jesus. It’s his kingdom. It’s his church. Your life and salvation is his work and that is comforting because the one who does the work matters.
I think I told you guys the story of when I fixed the serpentine belt in Carrie’s van. It was broken so I went to the store and I got a new serpentine belt and I put it in there and I drove it home and I parked in the garage in the driveway triumphantly and told Carrie it’s fixed and she comes out to look at it and says well why is it squealing so much? I’m not sure, but it works, it’s fine, it works. And she says, I’m not gonna drive it until someone who knows what they’re doing fixes it. I couldn’t believe it. So we took it to the store and the guy magically made it stop squealing. It worked just the same, I’m sure. But here’s the point. The person who does the thing matters. The one who builds the church knows what he’s doing because it’s Jesus. The one who saves you knows what he’s doing because it’s Jesus. It’s not you, it’s not me, it’s not us, it’s Him. I, says Jesus, will build my church.
And that’s why the third point, which is we know the future, is the gates of hell, the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. But here’s point three, we know the future. Now we have to be careful when we talk about how much of the future we know. We have to be careful when we, you know, it’s a danger, it’s a temptation, it’s the temptation of witchcraft. We just want to know more about the future than we’re supposed to, and we try to guess the future and look into the future, and so many troubles result from that. So we have to be careful, but we should remember that we do know the future. A few things that the Lord has told us about what is going to happen, and he’s told us those things for our comfort.
Jesus has told us that on the last day he will return for us. Jesus has told us that in the last times there will be trouble and Jesus has told us right here in this text that hell will fight against the church but it will not prevail. That on the last day of the world when Jesus comes back the Lord’s Church will still be standing. There will be Christians in the world who believe in Jesus and are looking for His return. We know that the church will be assaulted but we know that the church will stand until the end. The church will stand.
Now dear saints, I just there’s a lot here for us to consider but how much comfort the Lord has given us in these times of uncertainty by giving us just a few things just enough to know about the future. I mean for example just you have to consider that our world that doesn’t know God and doesn’t have his comfort and his promises has no idea what the future holds. I mean if you don’t know the promises of Christ it could be that the world could come to an end by global warming or be struck by an asteroid. It could be you have to think if you don’t have the promises of Jesus you could think that this pandemic the coronavirus could actually destroy humanity and there’s no more civilization left. You don’t know anything about the future so it’s all open to speculation, to wild dreams, either utopian dreams or dystopian nightmares. It’s wide open but not for you. You know, we know the future. We know that nation will not rise against nation. We know that nation will persecute the church. We know that the church will preach the gospel to the ends of the earth. We know that the gates of hell will fight against the church. And we know that the church will stand.
So that from now until the end of the world, there will be keys that are loosing you from death, loosing you from sin, loosing you from despair, and delivering to you the comfort that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. That word will be preached and you will be able to hear it preached until your last day and the last day of this age. In these uncertain times, when people have no future and no hope, we have this certainty. We stand on this rock. We cling to this promise that Jesus has built his church and it will prevail, it will stand.
And so, this is so great, you know that you will have a place to hear this promise and to delight, and to delight in his gifts. From the moment that Peter confesses Christ, until the moment that Jesus’ glorified feet hit the Mount of Olives in his return, the name of Jesus will be preached, the kingdom of Jesus will stand, and we Christians will delight in it. This is his promise. So rejoice. Rejoice in the certainty that Jesus is the one who’s built the church. Rejoice in the confidence and in the strength of this confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. And rejoice in the blessings that the Lord has given in revealing that to us from heaven itself.
May God grant us this confidence, this wisdom, and this peace by his Holy Spirit in the name of Jesus. Amen.
And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, guard your hearts and your minds through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.