Sermon Tone Analysis

! Beginnings of the Church

 

Matt.

16: 13-20

New Beginnings

 

Intro.

*   *

 

*I.

Where Christ is seen, leaders step forward.

(vv.

13-16)*

·Retreat

            (beginning in the last year of the 31~/2 years of Jesus’ public ministry there are recorded 4 retreats into the Galilee area.

This is the final retreat of the four.

Caesarea Philippi:

                        Retreat area: 25 miles north of Sea of Galilee – We are not told that Jesus goes into the city; He is in the villages (Mk.

8:27) of the region.

Luke says he is praying alone (Luke 9:18) when He asks His leaders a couple of questions.

·Reflection

*“Who do people say I am?”*  - people

            John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah or one of the prophets* *

*John the Baptist * was the predicted forerunner (Matt.

3:1-3; 14:1, 2).

*Elijah*  was to precede the “day of the Lord” (Mal 4:5, 6).

*Jeremiah*  was expected by some to appear and restore the ark he had supposedly hidden (II Macc 2:1-8).

15, 16.

Must be supernatural, but missing the significance of what is going on.

It is debated and people are divided.

·Response

*“But, who do you say I am?”*  -Leaders  

            Sometimes, it is easier being a person than being a leader.

People could enjoy agnostic uncertainty a little longer.

Jesus was leading His leaders to draw a conclusion that would change their lives and the course of history.

Courage of one’s convictions…

“A leader is one who lives true to commitments made at moments of high emotion.”

It is clear.

It is clear enough to risk your life on.

We have been shown things not everyone has seen.

Our eyes have been open to things that not everyone sees.

*II.

**Where leaders step forward, the church will prevail.

(vv.

17,18)*

They’d seen the feeding of the 5,000 and the feeding of the 4,000.

Jesus had walked on water before them.

He’d healed many people.

!!

The confession

In the musical “Les Miserables”, Victor Hugo builds the musical to a very powerful scene where Jean Valjean  who believes that his life is about to end makes his last confession.

It is the culminating spiritual moment of His life.

There was no less weight in these words.

*“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”  *

The Messiah – equal in essence with God

 

*“This rock” (16:18)*

Petros i.e. small stone (a good compliment – “a rock”)

- Petra (coming together of stones=builder)

Rock of division – protestant and Catholic

·Catholic:

            -Equates the name Peter (“Petros”) to the term rock (“petra”)

            -Peter is the appointed authority of the church to be handed down to succeeding leaders known as popes.

·Protestant:

            -highlights the difference between a small stone (petros) and a large rock or boulder (petra)

            -Three possible interpretations:

1.) the same confession

2.) followers who hold to the same confession

3.)    Christ is the true rock and foundation of the church

Because Jesus is the Son of God, Satan can never prevail against those who are His own.

It is not without significance that every cult that has departed from historic orthodox Christianity begins by denying that Christ is God or that Jesus is the Messiah.

“Regardless of one’s perspective, all three Protestant views lead to the same conclusion.

The confession itself, those making the confession, and the Christ of the confession Himself are all ingredients of a church that will be so powerful that the gates of hades shall not prevail against it.”-

Randy Pope

 

            I Peter 2: 4-8         The Stone

Welcome to the living Stone, the source of life.

The workmen took one look and threw it out; God set it in the place of honor.

Present yourselves as building stones for the construction of a sanctuary vibrant with life, in which you’ll serve as holy priests offering Christ-approved lives up to God.

The Scriptures provide precedent:

Look! I’m setting a stone in Zion, a cornerstone in the place of honor.Whoever trusts in this stone as a foundation will never have cause to regret it.

To you who trust him, he’s a Stone to be proud of, but to those who refuse to trust him,The stone the workmen threw out is now the chief foundation stone.

For the untrusting it’s… a stone to trip over a boulder blocking the way.

They trip and fall because they refuse to obey, just as predicted.

But you are the ones chosen by God, chosen for the high calling of priestly work, chosen to be a holy people, God’s instruments to do his work and speak out for him, to tell others of the night-and-day difference he made for you—from nothing to something, from rejected to accepted.[1]

!! “…I will build My Church…” (17,18a)

*            *First mention of the church by Christ.

*ekklesia* – called out assembly

 

*“…Gates of Hades…”*

 

!!! Hades

“to see” and “not”  therefore, “the unseen” realm of the dead

 

!!! Gates

1.)    Before there were city halls there were city gates.

Proverbs 31:31 “Give her the reward she has earned,

and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.”

2.)

Ancient cities were defensed most heavily at the gates

Archeology - Gates were inset so that there were walls leading back to the gates.

It is a metaphorical picture seeking to fan into flame the reality of the powerful credo that Peter has just confessed.

The metaphor is that the strategies of hell and the power of the armies of Satan in the unseen realm cannot hold off the church that builds on Christ.

*III.

Where the church prevails, the kingdom will reign.

(vv.

19,20)*

 

“Church” and “Kingdom” are not synonymous.

“This word refers not to a called-out body of believers, which is the church, but to God’s comprehensive rule over all of His creation.”

God’s kingdom is:

1.)    visible and

2.)    spiritual and

 

We will always be in error if we see ourselves as the complete “Body of Christ”

We are part of it.

Philippi

            Gave for the sake of other churches (Phil.

4: 14-19)

Corinthians: