Upon This Rock I Will Build My Church
Download MP3If you have a bible, I invite you to turn to Matthew chapter 16 as we continue our study in the life of Peter. He's also there in your worship guide. Hello. Hey. Last week, as I was teaching about the church and how the church is Jesus' reward for those who follow him, I got to hear back from so many of you just telling stories about how the church has been that, how the church has been your hundredfold joy, how the church has cared for you.
Joel Brooks:Thank you for sending those my way. I I want to embarrass Christy Harman because she shared one story I thought was great. She shared that William's gone. He's for business. She's at home with all three kids.
Joel Brooks:It's been a very long day. You you mom's out there. You can imagine. And and her baby just had a blowout, a massive blowout, and so things couldn't get any worse. And, it's at that moment, she realized that home group was about to start at her house in a couple of minutes.
Joel Brooks:She had just forgot all about it, but the home group members were on her way, and she said, my first thought was, praise God, thank you. Help is coming. Rescue is on the way. And, I'm sure all of you home group leaders have these same thoughts every single Wednesday or Thursday night as people come and invade your home. I'm sure you're thinking, thank you.
Joel Brooks:What a gift. What a reward, Jesus, that all these people are coming. But I love that. I love that that's the attitude because the relationships that the Lord gives us is the reward. The church is a reward.
Joel Brooks:And we're gonna continue this theme about the church here in one of the most familiar passages of scripture in Matthew 16. So if you would, read along with me beginning in 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. And he said to them, but who do you say that I am?
Joel Brooks: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. 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.
Joel Brooks: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 things on the things of God, but on the things of man.
Joel Brooks: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 is a man or what shall a man give in return for his soul? For the son of man is going to come with his angels and the glory of his father, and then he will repay each person according to what what he has done.
Joel Brooks:Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the son of man coming in his kingdom. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You would pray with me. Father, your people are gathered together here to hear from you.
Joel Brooks:But, Lord, we recognize that we can't actually hear from you unless you open up our hearts and minds. So, spirit, would you come and do that? I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore, but, Lord, may your words remain, and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.
Joel Brooks:This story begins with Jesus pulling his disciples away to a remote location, and he asked them the most important question of their lives. Who do you say that I am? They've now been on the road following Jesus for over a year, so they've certainly heard him teach many things. They have seen with their own eyes all the miracles that he has done. And so now, he's pulling them together and he wants to know, what conclusions have you drawn about me?
Joel Brooks:But before that, he first, he says, first, tell me, what's what's the word on the street about me? You know, you're out there mingling with the people, the gyms, grocery stores, chat rooms, whatever it is, tell me, what is the world? Who do they think I am? And as expected, the world actually has high praise for Jesus. Some think that he's Elijah, some think that that he might be, I don't know, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.
Joel Brooks:Maybe he's John the Baptist risen from the dead, all all great things. That puts Jesus essentially as a a first ballot hall hall of famer. He's in the GOAT conversation for greatest human ever. It's it's high praise. Jesus says, okay, I don't really care about that now.
Joel Brooks:Who do you say I am? And it is here that Peter, he steps up and he speaks for all of them and he says, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. Peter gets a lot of things wrong, but he gets this right. And he doesn't water down his answer by saying something silly like, you know, I think you are the Christ or to me, you're the son of God, as if Jesus' identity depended on Peter's evaluation of him. No.
Joel Brooks:He boldly, he unapologetically, he declares that Jesus is the Christ, he is Son of the living God, whether he or the rest of the world acknowledges it or not. Now, Peter, along with all the disciples, they've already declared that Jesus is the Son of God. I don't know if you remember, but when Jesus walked on water and he got in the boat, we read that the disciples, they they worshiped him and they declared, truly, you are the Son of God. So they've already made that declaration, but this is the first time that anyone calls him Christ. He's the Christ.
Joel Brooks:That word Christ has become so familiar to us, it it kinda lacks its punch, if you will. I mean, I used to think when I was a kid, it was just Jesus' last name. I mean, it was just Jesus Christ. But, I was also in third grade before I learned to spell my own name. No lie.
Joel Brooks:My middle name is Eugene, and I thought it started with a u until the teacher corrected me. That would've made me Jub instead of Jeb. It's where Christ, it literally means anointed one or Messiah. It was the title that was given to God's final king, the ultimate final king. Since we don't really have powerful kings like this in our culture, we would probably say something like this, Jesus, you are the answer.
Joel Brooks:You're the answer. If you think the answer to what, it would be, well, the answer to everything, the answer to all my deepest longings, the answer to the meaning of life, the answer to what's going to fix this world, you're you're the answer. And Peter had already said something similar to this. Jeff preached on it earlier when when the crowds, they didn't understand who Jesus was, and so they started leaving, and so it was just Jesus and the disciples, and he asked Peter, are you going to leave also? Peter says, where would I go?
Joel Brooks:You have words of eternal life. Jesus, I I I don't really care what the crowds say about you or what they think about you, We all know that you're the answer, the answer to everything. That's very similar to what Peter's declaring here. When Jesus hears Peter's answer, he says, Blessed are you, Simon Bardshona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. Jesus knows, Peter, you didn't get this insight on your own.
Joel Brooks:This this was revealed to you by by my Father. And hear me, if you believe that Jesus is Lord, it's for the same reason. It's it's not because you were somehow smarter than the other people who don't believe that. You came to believe that Jesus is Lord because this was revealed to you. I mean, all of the crowds out there, they saw the same things that the disciples saw.
Joel Brooks:They heard Jesus teach the same things that the disciples heard and yet, they came to different conclusions about Jesus because the Father had not given them given them insight. I remember one time, I got a in an argument with a professor. Shocking, I know. I was I was arguing with him, and at one point, we're just going back and forth, and this isn't even over the gospel. It was just we're going back and forth, and finally, goes, Joel, I want you to know I understand your argument.
Joel Brooks:I actually see all the same things you were seeing, I just disagree with you. It's because his eyes were not open to see that I was right. But, you do that two people can look at the same evidence, they can hear the same arguments, they can come to two very different conclusions. The reason you came to know Jesus as Lord is because the eyes of your heart were opened and the Lord drew you to him. After Peter tells Jesus who he is, Jesus says, now let me tell you who you are.
Joel Brooks:These verses kind of mirror one another. Verse 18, 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. More has been written on verse 18 than on any other verse of scripture. You are welcome to go to the library, begin reading until you die, all of them, or I can just give you the cliff notes version right here. There's two main thoughts about what Jesus means when he says, on this rock, I will build my church.
Joel Brooks:Some say that this rock is Peter himself. So Jesus is saying he's going to build his church on the foundation of Peter. And, of course, this is what Catholics believe. Catholics will actually go a little bit further and say that Jesus is actually establishing an office here, and so that every pope is essentially the new Peter, the new foundational stone here. The other interpretation is that the rock that Jesus builds his church on is not Peter, but Peter's confession.
Joel Brooks:It's what Peter says that's the rock. It's built on the confession that Jesus is the Christ, he's the Son of the living God. So which is it? I don't think you have to choose. I think it is both.
Joel Brooks:I think it is both Peter and his confession that are the rock of the church. Earlier, if you remember, when Peter first met Jesus, Jesus said that you were Simon, but I tell you, you shall be Peter. You shall become the rock. Peter, Petros rock. When he first met him, he says, you shall be.
Joel Brooks:Here, he says, you are. You are Peter. In this moment, he has become the rock. So what we see here is Peter alone is is not the rock, but a Peter that points to Jesus as the Christ and the Son of the living God. He's the rock.
Joel Brooks:So it's both the person and it's where he's pointing. It's the confession. Those things together are the rock in which Jesus is building his church on. And Peter's not alone in this, he's a spokesman for the church or for the disciples, and when Jesus says this to Peter, He's saying it to all of the disciples. Paul later says in Ephesians two that the church is built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets.
Joel Brooks:They're all foundational stones because these were the first believers to point to Jesus as the Christ. Hear me, a church is only a church when we become a people pointing to Jesus as the Christ, as the Son of the living God. A church is not a church if it's just a group of people who gather together and they commit themselves to doing good works, not a church. A church is not a church if it's just a people who gather together and they commit themselves to some kind of social activism, not a church. A church is not a church if it's just a people who who join together and they just want to make the city a better city, they just want to improve life on the streets, that's not a church.
Joel Brooks:You might be a non profit, but you're not a church. A church is a people that gather together and they point boldly to Jesus and they say, he's the Messiah. He's the Son of the living God. He's the answer. That's what makes a church.
Joel Brooks:For for me, the the far more interesting part of this passage actually, it's not the discussion of of who is the rock or what exactly is the rock, it's the use of church. That word church is only used three times in the in all of the gospels. Only three times. It's introduced to us here. The word itself is not unusual.
Joel Brooks:It's just the common Greek word, ekklesia. Perhaps you've heard that. Ekklesia, because, you know, ten years ago, it felt like every church plant had to be called ekklesia or two forty two or Renaissance or something like that, some hip name. But it simply means assembly, called out, the called out ones, the assembled ones. What I find fascinating about this is this is what Jesus says he's going to build, the assembly.
Joel Brooks:He doesn't say, and I'm going to build my political party. He doesn't say, I'm going to build my school. He doesn't say, and I will build my nation. He doesn't say, I will build my kingdom. Even though he's been talking about the kingdom all of this time, the kingdom and the church are closely related, but they're not the same thing.
Joel Brooks:He says, I will build my church. It's through the church that he's going to save the world. I'm going build my called out ones, my assembly. And, he's emphatic about this statement. He says, I I will build the church.
Joel Brooks:Not you, Joel Brooks, not you, Matt Francisco, or any other pastor on staff or any elder, you're not going to build the church. I build the church. And because Jesus builds the church, that means nothing can stop it. I've been thinking a lot about this this week. And, guys, if building the church was up to people, up to us, there would be no church.
Joel Brooks:I mean, we would have destroyed that thing a long time ago. All you have to do is look at the last two thousand years, look at church history. We've done nothing but shoot ourselves in the foot time and time and time again. I mean, forget all of the scandals, infighting, the corruption, or the abuses of power, forget the church burning people at the stake. I mean, just go back to my youth group, we used to put on puppet shows thinking that's how you built the church.
Joel Brooks:I mean, we went to the streets of Chicago and Philadelphia, set up on the corner and thought, hey, this puppet show of the prodigal son, that's going to bring people in. I mean, the church dresses we dress up kids like in bathrobes as shepherds, and the church still grows. You see so called Christians out there, you know, posting the most hateful, harmful, untrue things all of the time and yet, the church is still here. How is this not destroying the church? Because people don't build the church.
Joel Brooks:Jesus builds the church and we can't destroy it. No one can destroy it. We have two thousand years of evidence that Jesus has been building the church. The greatest evidence, I think, that Jesus is who he said he is, is just the fact that we are still here. He must miraculously preserved us over the millennia.
Joel Brooks:So we have two thousand years of the church's perseverance, and it is what's unexplainable apart from Jesus building it. So this is the first time Jesus uses this word church. And the very first thing he teaches us about the church, the very first thing we learn is that the church has an enemy. And, immediately, he says, I will build my church, and he says, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Guys, have a really cheesy image that comes to my mind when I hear that, and I want you to share that image with me.
Joel Brooks:I mean, I want me to share it with you so we I don't have it alone. Now, it's tempting for me to go Lord of the Rings, Gates of Mordor, Aragorn storming it. I mean but I won't. But, I am going to do another movie, Endgame. I mean, you remember that that the scene where Captain America, he's there all alone, and it's all the armies of the the evil and the dark forces in front of him, all assembled together.
Joel Brooks:And, it's just him. And then, all those little portals open, and then, all of sudden, the good guys start coming in. They start assembling together. And, the battle is about to begin. Do you remember what Captain America says?
Joel Brooks:Avengers, assemble. Avengers, ecclesia. He's saying, guys, it's time to do church. That's what he's saying here, it's time for us to do church. Assemble to get there's a battle and we're getting after it, people.
Joel Brooks:That's that's the image here. That's the first thing we learn about the church is there's an enemy, there's a war we've been placed in. Jesus is calling us out not to, you know, sit around and hold hands and sing Kumbaya, he's he's calling us out to be part of a fight. Paul told Timothy he was to fight the good fight of faith, that he was to endure hardship as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. He told the Ephesians in Ephesians six that they were to put on the full armor of God and that they were to take on the spiritual forces out there.
Joel Brooks:He told the Corinthians in second Corinthians 10 that the church has been given weapons. We have weapons that have divine power to destroy strongholds. Jesus tells Peter, I'm calling you guys out. I'm assembling you guys together to fight. We're gonna take on the gates of hell.
Joel Brooks:Gates of hell is a unfortunate translation because it's not the word hell that's being used here. That's another word entirely. It's actually the word Hades, which everywhere else in your Bible is translated as Hades except for here. At least, the ESV put a footnote. Actually, it it bothered me so much.
Joel Brooks:I was like, why in the world you'll if you read why they translated it this, they said, because this was such a familiar and loved verse throughout history, and the King James version had it as gates of hell, they decided to keep it. I'm gonna use the word Hades. Hades simply means place of the dead. When the ancients, when they talked about the gates of Hades, they talked about both the place and the power of death. It's both the place and the power of death.
Joel Brooks:It was the place where the dead went, and it was the place of no return. Once people walked through those gates, the gates closed behind them, and you can never ever get out. No rescue. The gates were also the power of death because it's the weapon that the enemy holds over us, death. I know a number of you here, you're in the Bible study, whether it's men and women, you're both going through Hebrews.
Joel Brooks:And in Hebrews chapter two, if you remember, you actually read that the devil has the power of death. It's one of his weapons, the power of death. It's his largest, most powerful weapon he has, and he uses the power of death to forever imprison and to enslave the human race. Gates in this time were also just a symbol of power because in ancient cities, it was at the city gates where all the power brokers and the civil authorities, they gathered to make their decisions. Contracts were made there.
Joel Brooks:Deals were made there. This is another way of saying that the devil, he comes in, this is where he's plotting, he's planning, he is scheming against the church. But those plans will not prevail. The power of death will not prevail. The fortified place of death will not prevail.
Joel Brooks:That's a heck of a promise he gives to the church. There's a reason it's one of the most familiar and loved verses of the church. But you have to ask the question, how is that actually possible? I mean, this little band of misfits, the disciples here, as they're they're being called out, assembled together, they got be looking at one another, and they're like, really? It's not going to prevail against us?
Joel Brooks:They have to be thinking, you know, up to this point, the gates of Hades have got a pretty good track record, they're undefeated, actually. And you're saying that when we go to battle with them, they will not those gates will not prevail against us. How? Jesus is about to tell them. The gates of Hades will not prevail against the church because Jesus, he was about to go to those gates of Hades and kick them down.
Joel Brooks:He's gonna walk right through those gates of no return. The devil is going to slam those gates shut, lock the key, and then Jesus is just gonna turn around and tear it to pieces. And he's gonna walk right through and he's gonna say, Church, come on with me. That's why the gates of Hades cannot prevail against us. Jesus has taken the battle to it and he's destroying these gates.
Joel Brooks:It's an amazing promise, a promise that Jesus makes sure is fulfilled. Next, Jesus, he tells Peter that he's gonna give him the keys of the kingdom. Whatever he binds on earth will be bound in heaven, whatever he loosens on earth will be loosed in heaven. Once again, there's there's millions of words on just on that line. Let me just give you the the simple answer here, is the keys to the kingdom is simply the proclamation of the gospel.
Joel Brooks:When we point to Jesus, to the world, we say, he's our only hope, he's the Christ, he's the son of the living God, new life and forgiveness are found only in him, that's the key that unlocks heaven. And, we're gonna see in Acts after Pentecost, Peter's gonna go out and that's exactly what he's gonna do, boldly proclaim and point to Jesus as Lord and thousands will be saved. Heaven's doors are opened. Heaven's locked when we don't share that, when we don't tell people the gospel or the good news of Jesus. Salvation, it it goes through the church.
Joel Brooks:It's Jesus' plan a for the world and there is no plan b. We can either open the gates of heaven or we could close them. We were to go and we were to proclaim the good news of Jesus. Now, from this moment forward, we read that Jesus begins to teach his disciples exactly how he's going to take on the gates of Hades. Verse 21.
Joel Brooks: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. Seems pretty clear. I mean, Jesus just spells it out for them. I'm going go to the cross, I'm going to take the battle to the enemy, I'm going to go to the gates of Hades, but I'm going to tear that up, I'm going go to the place of no return and I'm going to return. That's what he says.
Joel Brooks:But Peter hears all of this talking about suffering, this talk about dying and he thinks, that's utter nonsense. That's nonsense. And so, he pulls Jesus aside and he's like, Jesus, you're the Messiah. Come on. It's time to get out there and start kicking tail.
Joel Brooks:That's what we do. That's what you do. We actually read that Peter rebuked Jesus. How do you like that on your resume? Aren't you the one that rebuked Jesus?
Joel Brooks:We read he began to rebuke, Jesus cuts him off. Peter goes from being the foundational rock of the church to becoming a stumbling block for Jesus. I mean, in about a minute's time. That's the kind of right he's trying to trip Jesus up. And, he gets a serious rebuke by Jesus.
Joel Brooks:Jesus actually calls him Satan. Get behind me, Satan. You don't just casually call someone Satan. But, Jesus called him Satan because because he's heard that before. He's heard that exact same thing before when Jesus started his ministry and he was out in the wilderness and the devil was tempting him, satan was offering him the exact same thing, you don't have to go to the cross.
Joel Brooks:You can have a kingdom without suffering, without dying. It was the same temptation. And, the thing is, satan wasn't lying about that. It's true. Jesus could have had the kingdom without going to the cross.
Joel Brooks:But, Jesus could not have had the church without going to the cross. He wouldn't have had us. That's why he must go to the cross because Jesus is saying, I must be with these people and they must be with me forever. Get behind me, Satan. I don't want a kingdom apart from them.
Joel Brooks:So, he goes to the cross in order to to bring and to loosen the church from death's grip. I love good old Peter, always the first to speak, to get rebuked. He helps me to understand things. After Jesus rebukes Peter and says this, he says, let me explain to you exactly how this battle's gonna unfold. Let me explain to you how the church is going to grow and how we're gonna be part of the redemption of this world.
Joel Brooks:Verse 24, he says, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Forever wishes to save his life will lose it. Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. Kind of a pet peeve of mine is when I hear people say, it's just my cross to bear. I'm a Cleveland Browns fan.
Joel Brooks:It's just my cross to bear. You know, no matter how much I I try to understand math pre cal, can't figure it out, it's my cross to bear. It's not what Jesus is talking about. Now, let's let's not trivialize what Jesus is telling the disciples here, the cost of following him. Jesus just said, I'm going to take on the gates of Hades, and to do that, I'm going to the cross.
Joel Brooks:And if you want to follow me, you've got to go to the cross as well. You've got to die. It says, that's how we do battle with the enemy. It's not just how Jesus does battle with the enemy, it's how his church does battle with the enemy. We do not pick up swords, we pick up crosses, and we follow him.
Joel Brooks:That's how the church exploded in growth throughout the century, is they refused to abuse power, they refused to hold on to that, they refused to pick up the sword, and said, fell by it. And, it was the blood of the martyrs that was the seeds of the church, it became this unstoppable force. These men here will give up their lives to follow Jesus. The whole flow of this text here is that Jesus is getting this small band of followers. He's calling them out.
Joel Brooks:He's assembling them. He says, guys, I'm going to turn you into an unstoppable force. It's going spread over this entire world. And you know what? I'm now going to set you free.
Joel Brooks:You're welcome to now lose your life for me, but I promise you, you'll find it once you lose it. He's he's out offering these disciples as not so much the sacrifice, but as they can now live in freedom. They can now not try to save themselves through their career, save themselves through money, save themselves through all of their relationships or their reputation. Those things are worthless. You don't have to try to save yourself through those things anymore.
Joel Brooks:You are free to let those things go. As a matter of fact, you can let go your very lives because I've gone to the gates of Hades and I've kicked them down. Death is no longer the weapon that the enemy is going to hold over you. It's freedom here to follow Jesus, to pick up our cross, and to follow him because we know that death is not the end. Church, that's how we do battle.
Joel Brooks:That's how the church has always done battle best, is by continually denying ourselves, taking up our cross, following him. And when we give our money, our time, our reputation, even our very lives away, you know what we become? We become like Peter, pointing to Jesus who did the same thing. That's our calling as a church. That's our hope that we see in the gospel.
Joel Brooks:Let's pray to Jesus. Jesus, I pray that through your spirit, you would galvanize us as a church to be a pointing Peter, that we would boldly, unapologetically, sacrificially, joyfully point to you as the answer, that you are the Christ, the son of the living God. Thank you, Jesus, that you did not take the crown apart from the cross because you wanted us. And we pray this in the sweet name of Jesus, our present and our future king. Amen.
