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Read Matthew 16:13-20
Life is fleeting and it goes by at a breakneck pace at times. When we look back on our lives and reflect on a certain season, or the last 5 years or even longer, it can feel as though so much has happened and it has felt like a blink of an eye. Do you ever feel like you want life to slow down, or you even ask yourself—why am I here today? Sometimes we do things because we have always done them and it’s all we know and we forget to stop and ask the question, “why am I here?” “Why am I a Christian?” “Why I am a sitting in this church and what does all this really mean?”
Let us go to God’s Holy, infallible word with this question, this mindset.
1. Jesus is God.
At the beginning of this scripture, we see that Jesus and His disciples are in Caesarea of Philippi. We must ask two questions: What is this place? And why are they here? Earlier in this chapter we see Jesus getting questioned by the Pharisees and Sadducees.
“And the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to test Him they asked Him to show them a sign from heaven, He answered them…An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to them except the sign of Jonah.”
--Matthew 16:1-2, 4
The Jewish leaders and Rabbi’s clearly did not have faith in Jesus Christ, they did not believe in Him being the son of God and being God incarnate, God in the flesh. They need “proof” through a sign and wonder from God and even then, when Jesus would perform certain miracles, these same men would say that this power is not of God but it is from the devil—There was no faith in Jesus.
Jesus and His disciples go to escape the crowds and these Jewish leaders/ Rabbis by retreating to the district of Caesarea of Philippi. Jesus had just done some miracles, He healed the daughter of a Canaanite Woman and feed the five thousand with loaves of bread and fish. After performing these miracles, the word would have been spreading about this “miracle man,” or “this prophet that does signs and wonders” spreading around the land creating massive crowds and upheaval.
There is a pattern in scripture and the gospels of Jesus retreating from the crowds as not to cause riots or unrest. This is why they retreated to this district, a small city considered to be a retreat destination (or vacation destination).
The unbelief of the Pharisees and Sadducees then seeps into the disciples from Matt. 16:5-12, Jesus warns them of how powerful false teaching or lack of faith can be like leaven and grow within themselves—Jesus must remind them of who He is, He is God, when He reminds them of the feeding of the five thousand miracle they just witnessed not long before.
He then tests His disciples and Peter specifically:
“Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea of 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 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.’”
--Matthew 16:13-16
Jesus stands in this pagan district, a place that worships the pagan god, one of the most rebellious city districts in all of Rome and asks this to Peter: “But who do you say that I am?”
The disciples and Jesus had just heard the Pharisees and Sadducees questioning His deity and divinity—they had no faith in Christ being the savior of the world, of being God Himself incarnate. Jesus is testing His disciples, asking them “do you have faith? How does the world view me? How do you view me?” It’s easy to go to church. It is easy to do the motions of Christianity, but do you believe that Jesus is both God and Man, that He is God incarnate and the savior the world
2. The Church belongs to Jesus. Jesus is above all of our sin, all our lives, all the kingdoms of earth, Jesus’ kingdom has ultimate authority and control.
Ceasarea of Philippi:
-It sat at the foot of Mt. Hermon and was lush/ beautiful with natural elements like a famous waterfall, immense forests and Mt. Hermon itself was a beautiful mountain.
-This city used to be called Panias when the Greeks ruled it—named after the pagan god of Pan. When the Romans took it over, they named it Caesarea of Philippi.
-This city is the modern red-light district of Rome, the people here devoted themselves entirely to the pagan gods of Pan and Dionysos. Pan was a god that was half man / half goat. He was the god of shepherds and hunters. His realm and kingdom were the natural world such as the lush forests and animals themselves. The people would throw goats into the river in the cave of Hades (to the underworld), if they floated than Pan was upset, if they sank Pan took their worship. They would throw children into the river as a sacrifice to Pan also.
-to worship Pan people would have large parties where they had intimate relations with each other, there was a cave considered to be “the cave to hades or the underworld” where they set up the shrine to pan there with other idols placed in carvings of the wall.
-Other temples stood at this cave and along the main street of the city (leading to this area) including the temple of Caesar Augustus, Zeus and other Greek pagan gods. It was the center of pagan worship.
“To the pagan mind, then, the cave and spring water at Caesarea Philippi created a gate to the underworld. They believed that their city was literally at the gates of the underworld; the gates of hell. In order to entice the return of their god, Pan, each year, the people of Caesarea Philippi engaged in horrible deeds…it was a city of people eagerly knocking on the doors of hell.”
--Ray Vander Laan (thattheworldmayknow.com)
This is where Jesus and His disciples are standing, in the middle of this place, looking on to this cave of hades and where the shrine to Pan was built—a false god that encouraged the deprived worship of his followers, Satan deceiving people as Pan and this is what Jesus says:
“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.”
--Matthew 16:17-18
In the middle of this pagan place—the darkest place in Rome, the most vile, the most lost at the literal gates of hell Jesus stops, turns to Peter, and proclaims His future plans to Him—Jesus institutes the modern church.
There is an important note here: “I (Jesus) will build my church…” Jesus makes it clear that Peter will be rock on which Jesus builds HIS church. The Church, this church, the modern Church belongs to Jesus Christ, the one true God of the Universe.
The whole gospel of Matthew establishes the divine authority found within Jesus as the chosen Messiah. We see this in Matthew 1:22-23 when Jesus is born and Matthew proclaims that “they shall call Him Emmanuel (God is with us).” We then read on after this scripture and see that Jesus will foretell His death and resurrection (Matt. 16:21-28) and will transfigure into God’s glory in front of Peter, John and James (Matthew 17:1-13). Jesus is establishing Hiis divine authority, and the church is built on and under God’s divine authority.
We, as the reader, know the whole story of Peter’s life. In this moment we know Peter’s journey, we know about his denial of Jesus, we know about his repentance in John 21 and how Jesus forgave him, we then know that he will be baptized in the Holy Spirit in Acts 2 and will boldly preach the gospel giving birth to the modern church as we know it—TRUST IN GOD.
Jesus calls upon Peter’s name, “I say to you that you are Peter,” Peter’s (Πέτρος) name means “rock, piece of rock or stone.” Then Jesus continues saying “…and on THIS rock I will build my church…” The second word “rock” is “πέτρα” which means large rock or cliff. Jesus was proclaiming that Peter would be a stone, a part of the rock that will build Christ’s church on the solid rock of God, Jesus Christ, overcoming the pagan gods and their evil practices.
Psalm 118:22-23 also points to Jesus Christ as the rock foundation for the church and God’s people:
“The stone in which the builders rejected Has become the chief corner stone. This is the Lord’s doing: It is marvelous in our eyes.”
--Psalm 118:22-23
Jesus quotes this Psalm in Matthew 21:42 proclaiming that He is the foundation of the church, He is the rock on which we stand and His gospel is the engine that drives the ministry of the church in the world.
3. The Church must share the gospel with the lost world around it. God’s hope and glory shines through His church for the world to see.
“’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.”
--Matthew 16:19-20
“Jesus did not say that God would obey what they did on earth, but that they should do on earth whatever God had already willed. The church does not get man’s will done in heaven; it obeys God’s will on earth.”
God’s will, God’s plan for the church is for the church to bring the gospel to the world. To be a shining lamp on the lampstand, to be a city on a hill, and the salt of the earth. The church is to show and proclaim the love, truth, grace and mercy of Jesus to all the world. Whatever work the church has yet to do has already been loosed in Heaven, the work is cut out for us, God is already victorious.
Jesus lived a perfect life, sinless, Holy, as a God/Man He willing died on the cross…
We must share this love with the world around us instead of complaining, grumbling, fighting back. We need to be humble, stand for the truth when we need to and show mercy, grace in our lives.
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