Sunday, February 4- What is the Church?
2024-02-04
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OMseImg9fU

Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray.

Good morning. We are glad to be able to gather to worship this morning. And as we do, we're going to begin with a word of prayer. Father in heaven, we just ask this morning that you would turn our eyes to you, that we would see your goodness, your greatness, that we would see how you care for us in times that are good and times that are difficult. As we turn our eyes to the church, we ask that you would correct us, that you would correct us. That you would encourage us, that you would strengthen us. Be with us this morning in our worship. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. We're going to begin this morning by reading from the 61st Psalm together. So if you would go ahead and stand as we read together about how God is our solid foundation and our rock.

Hear my cry, O God. Listen to my prayer. From the end of the earth, I call to you when my heart is faint. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I, for you have been my refuge. A strong tower against the enemy. Let me dwell in your tent, for let me take refuge under the shelter of your wings. And that word, Selah, we're not 100% sure what it means, but it is likely a musical connotation for a pause. And in the Psalms, it's often used to, as the psalmist brings to our attention and to our mind, something about the goodness and the greatness of God to cause us to pause and reflect. And so as we sing this morning, we want to reflect on the fact that God is the one who is our rock, that he is bigger, he is greater, he is our refuge, he is our strong tower, and he is our shelter. We're going to start by singing, "How Great Is Our God?"

The splendor of the King Hold on. I stopped it. Are you ready for me to start again? I tried moving up that master. The splendor of the King Hold the majesty Let all the earth rejoice All the earth rejoice He wraps himself in light How are you in this novel? The darkness tries to hide And it turns out the face we put into that He of itself was All right, I'm going to restart this song. Go ahead and turn that on. The amp down at the bottom under the...

The splendor of the King The cloth and majesty Let all the earth rejoice All the earth rejoice He wraps himself in light The darkness tries to hide He trembles at His voice He trembles at His voice How great is our God Sing with me How great is our God All will see How great How great is our God And age to age He stands And time is in His hands Beginning and the end Beginning and the end The Godhead through and one The Father, Spirit, Son The Lion and the Lamb The Lion and the Lamb How great is our God Sing with me How great is our God Oh, see how great How great Is our God How great Is our God Sing with me How great Is our God Oh, see how great How great Is our God Name above all names Worthy of all praise My heart will sing How great Is our God

Name above all names Worthy of all praise My heart will sing How great Is our God How great Is our God Sing with me How great Is our God Oh, we'll see How great How great Is our God

Blessed be your name In the land that is plentiful Where the streams of abundance flow Blessed be your name Blessed be your name When I'm found in the desert place Though I walk through the wilderness Blessed be your name Every blessing you pour out I'll turn back to praise When the darkness closes And Lord, still say Blessed be the name of the Lord Blessed be your name Blessed be the name of the Lord Blessed be your glorious name Blessed be your name When the sun's shining down on me When the world's all as it should be Blessed be your name Blessed be your name On the road marked with suffering Though there's pain in me offering Blessed be your name Every blessing you pour out Turn back to praise When the darkness closes in door

Still I will say Blessed be the name of the Lord Blessed be your name Blessed be the name of the Lord Blessed be your glorious name You give and take away You give and take away My heart hurts you in Blessed be your name You give and take away You give and take away My heart hurts you in Well, blessed be your name Blessed be the name of the Lord Blessed be your name Blessed be the name of the Lord Blessed be your glorious name Blessed be the name of the Lord Blessed be your name Blessed be the name of the Lord Blessed be your glorious name You may go ahead and be seated. Blessed be your name Blessed be your name Blessed be your name Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray. Amen. Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Let's pray. As we begin to prepare our hearts to gather around the table, I want us to draw our attention to hope, specifically to answer the question, "What is our hope in life and death?" And the historical answer to that from the church is that my one hope in life and death is that I am not my own, but I belong body and soul to Jesus Christ. And so we're going to sing that, we're going to read a little bit from Romans, and then we will celebrate that with the Lord's Supper.

What is our hope in life and death? Christ alone, Christ alone. What is our only confidence? That our souls to Him, Christ alone, Christ alone. What is our only confidence? That our souls to Him belong. Who holds all days within His hand? What comes upon from His command? And what will keep us to the end? The love of Christ in which we stand. Oh, sing hallelujah. Our hope springs eternal. Oh, sing hallelujah. Now and ever we confess Christ our hope in life and death. What truth can cause the troubled soul? God is good. God is good. Where is His grace and goodness known? In our grave, Redeemer's blood. Who holds our faith when fears arise? Who stands above the stormy trial? Who sends the waves that bring us nigh unto the shore, the rock of Christ. Oh, sing hallelujah. Our hope springs eternal. Oh, sing hallelujah. Now and ever we confess.

Christ, our hope in life and death. Unto the grave, what will we sing? Christ, He lives. Christ, He lives. And what reward will heaven bring? Everlasting life with Him. There we will rise to meet the Lord. Then sin and death will be destroyed. And we will feast in endless joy. When Christ is ours forevermore. Oh, sing hallelujah. Our hope springs eternal. Oh, sing hallelujah. Now whatever we confess, Christ our hope in life and death. Oh, sing hallelujah. Our hope in life and death. Oh, sing hallelujah. Our hope in life and death. Oh, sing hallelujah. Our hope springs eternal. Oh, sing hallelujah. Now whenever we confess, Christ our hope in life and death. Now whenever we confess, Christ our hope in life and death. Now whenever we confess, Christ our hope in life and death.

It is, I think, so easy to put our hope in so many things that ultimately will not satisfy the needs of our hearts. And I think maybe God's been teaching me that lesson a little bit this morning because it seems like in all the things we've tried to do from our Bible study this morning, there's always been something that says to me, "Maybe, Brandon, you're not as in control of things as you would like to be." And that's what our world does to us, right? And it's been a lot of small ways this morning. But think about all the big ways in life: the surprise illness, the struggle in a job, the relationship problems that arise, the difficulties, the sickness, the hurts, and difficulties of just living in this world are a constant reminder to us

that we need to hope in something that is bigger than ourselves. Our best efforts ultimately come up short. In Romans, the fifth chapter, it begins like this: "Since, therefore, we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." And through Him, we have obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand and we rejoice in the hope and glory of God. And Paul begins Romans 5 by saying, "Your hope is not in yourself, but it is in the glory and the greatness of God." And then he's going to begin to unpack the road that this hope leads us down, the road that sometimes walks through suffering. And Paul will say, "Suffering will teach you endurance as you trust in the hope of God." And that endurance is going to help lead you into character, and then that character is going to lead you back into hope.

That hope is both the beginning, but it's also what sustains us in the midst of the storm, and it's also what's produced in our character as we come out the other side. And then he says this, "And our hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us." And I hear that, and I say, "Well, how is God pouring the hope through the Holy Spirit into our hearts?" And Paul, in a way that I love so much, will give us the answer to that. He will say this, "Because, or for, while we were still weak, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die. But God shows his love for us,

and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. While I was at my weakest, and while I was at my most hopeless, God didn't look at me and say unworthy and unbroken, even though, and broken even though I was. He sends Christ into this world to take my brokenness, to give me his righteousness. You see, for us as Christians, the hope that we see, whether in good times or in trials, as we move through life, is not found in us. It's found in the good news of the gospel, that God shows his love for us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And so as we remind ourselves of the foundations of this hope, we are going to partake together in the Lord's Supper. Let's pray. Father, bring us to hope this morning. Calm our troubled and weary souls. Give us strength.

Give us peace. Help us to see your goodness. Point us to Jesus as we break this bread and drink this cup. Remind us of your love for us. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. If you would, take the bread with me as we are reminded of how Jesus' body was given for us. And if you would, take this cup together as we are reminded of the blood of Jesus that was given for our sins. As we partake of this meal together, we proclaim our hope, not in ourselves, but in Jesus. And we proclaim it together with our brothers and sisters in Christ. And to sort of cement this into our hearts, before we dive into Matthew, the 16th chapter, let's stand. We're just going to sing very quickly, "Jesus Loves Me." So let's go ahead and be standing.

Maybe. So we're going to dive into the Word of God. This is what I was talking about this morning when I said a constant reminder of our hope is not in ourselves and in our technology, kind of a silly reminder, but one that I think is so necessary to our hearts. Let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you for Jesus and grace. Thank you for your Word. Be with us this morning. Help us with this text. We just thank you for the grace that you have poured out in our lives. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You may be seated, unless you want to stand for the sermon, and my monitor up here also is still stuck on the very first slide, so we're going to leave it there, unless they want to follow along back there, but that can be difficult sometimes. So, one of the

interesting things about watching kids learn to read, specifically when it comes to words, and I have always forgotten how confusing English can be, because we have a lot of words that kind of mean the same thing. They're spelled the same way. They sound the same way, sound the same, but they mean something different. And so our kids, last week were getting ready to go play dodgeball for the first time, and so some of you will understand this, some of you won't, so I was giving them the proper schooling for dodgeball, right, the five D's, like dodge, duck, dip, dive, and dodge for dodgeball. And when I wrote the word duck, one of our kids goes, "Dad, that's not how you spell duck. Duck is a bird that goes quack, quack," right? And it's spelled the exact same way, right? But it means something very different, right? So if you yell at somebody, duck,

and they look around going, "Where is my aquatic feathered friend?" And then they get hit in the face with the baseball, right? You've misunderstood the word. Although if you go duck and they drop to the ground and they miss the duck walking along or waddling along the street, right, those words, while they're spelled, they're spelled the same, pronounced the same, they mean very, very different things. And so this morning we are going to attempt to begin an answer to the question, "What is the church?" And one of the things about the word church is that it can mean a lot of different things depending on the context in which it's used. And when I say that, I don't mean necessarily biblically, I mean in terms of our understanding. So for us, when we use the word church, we use it in terms of . Sometimes people

will call me and say, "Hey, are you at the church or are you at home?" I say, "Well, it's kind of the same thing. I can be either place depending on where you need me to be." We view the church as a location. But we also sometimes view the church as a gathering at a specific time in a specific day of the week where we get together and worship. So we say, "Well, what time is church in the morning?" Or, "Are you going to church? Are you going to be at church tomorrow?" And then we can use it in kind of a general religious sense for sort of summing up an entire system of belief. We see it oftentimes in the news or in politics where we talk about the church and the state or the separation of the church and the state.

We use "church" in a lot of different ways. In fact, if you go to the dictionary, there's like 14 variations. A lot of them similar. But we use the word "church" in a lot of different ways. And so what I want us to try to do this morning is to begin to clarify what we mean when we say "church." Right? And this is important for us as a church, as we think about what it means to be the church, as we seek to grow together in the church and reach out as the church. We need to understand and to be on the same page with what we are talking about. And throughout church history, people have brought up a lot of different and very good and very biblical definitions of the church and patterns by which we can identify what the church is and things the church should have. But I want to start

this morning in the very first place that you find the word church mentioned in the New Testament. And that place is in Matthew, the 16th chapter. And I love this text. And at the same time, as I'm preparing to preach through it, I'm a bit frustrated by this text, not because it's necessarily difficult, but because this is a deep well of wonderful truth about the church that Jesus' bell, Jesus' bell, Jesus sends out, that Jesus strengthens, and there is so much here. I'm just, there's a lot happening in this text, and it's all good, and it's all wonderful. So let's read it, and then I'm going to try not to say everything that I'm thinking about in these verses. Matthew 16, 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 say, some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, others say Jeremiah or one of the 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." 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 to the kingdom of heaven. And whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." And then he strictly charged

his disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ. And so we begin this morning in a remote location in the district of Caesarea Philippi. This town is 25 miles north of the Sea of Galilee, near the base of Mount Hermon, at the base of this river, which becomes one of the sources for the Jordan River. And the question that is raised about this location is why is Jesus here? And I think there's a very good reason for it. We'll see it in here in just a minute, but Jesus likely, in the midst of preaching and teaching through all the towns of Galilee, comes to this region that is very small, not a lot of people, but there is a lot of idols and a lot of false worship, and brings his disciples here in part for a break from the strains of ministry, but also

founded by spiritual opposition. This is a thoroughly pagan region. In the Old Testament, the towns in this region all had the prefix Baal for the false gods that the tribes of Canaan worship. In the 4th century before Jesus, there was a shrine belt to the pagan God Pan in this cave out of which where the river flowed. Some viewed this as the gates to the underworld, which shines some light on what Jesus is saying about the gates of hell. He's standing in this region where people believe the gates of the underworld went, surrounded by pagan religion, going all the way back to the beginning of the Canaanites in this land, and in the 4th century with the Greek God Pan, and then later on a temple is going to be built to worship the Roman Empire, and about the year Jesus was born,

and then Philip, the ruler of this region, will rename this town Caesarea Philippi after the Roman Empire, Emperor, and after himself. It is a thoroughly pagan place. And in the midst of this place, the worship surrounded both the temples of the emperor and this shrine, which is a cave cut into the walls, and if you go back and look at this, you can see the ruins of temples built on either side, and the giant rock or the giant cliff that surrounds this cave is filled with little niches where idols were placed, right? This is a and a pagan region that is filled with false gods. And I think it is no accident that it is in this place where the church is first mentioned. And Jesus starts with a difficult question. He actually starts with an easy question, because he'll say

to the people as disciples to say, "Who do those people say that I am?" And it's always easy to answer for somebody else. And they'll begin to answer with what they've heard from the crowd. Some say you're John the Baptist. Some say Jeremiah. Some say Elijah. Some say this prophet or that prophet. And then Jesus is going to ask the hard question, a personal question, a question that for his disciples requires a decision and also a commitment. He's going to say, "Who do you say that I am?" Right? It's harder to answer for ourselves. Especially a question like this because when we say it, it's our belief. When we say it, it's our commitment. And Jesus answers this question. And Peter simply replies this in Matthew 16:16. "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."

And what Peter is doing in this very simple confession, what's known as the good confession or the great confession, that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God, he is declaring that in Jesus there is hope. And not just a hope, but in Jesus is the hope for all people. We bring it back to Adam when the snake crusher came. The first gospel who would come and crush evil. The one to whom Abraham said, "Through you all the nations of the earth will be blessed." The descendant of David who would sit on the throne of his father forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end. When Peter says, "You are the Christ." He's saying, "You are the Messiah." "You are the promised one." But Peter goes even further than saying that Jesus is the promised one.

He says, "You are the Son of God." That you are God in the flesh. In Isaiah chapter 9 it says, "For unto us a child is born, and unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon his shoulders, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace." And Peter says, "You're not just the one sent to save, but you are God in the flesh." And then he goes a step further. He says that you are the Son of the Living God. And understand what Peter is saying. He is in this region that is utterly and thoroughly saturated with false worship to the emperor, to these idols, maybe even to the old Canaanite gods. A giant mountain of a boulder surrounding a cave. And Peter says, "You are the living God."

This amazing contrast. That these idols sit in their little holes, in their little shrines, and nothing happened with them. Isaiah will say this, "They do not know, they do not discern these idols that do nothing." And in the midst of these false, deaf, dumb, blind idols, Peter says, "You are the living God." And I want you to understand this morning, this is not just a remarkable and wonderful confession of the truth. It's not just a theological exercise. This is transforming. Right? Peter's confession is not simply a theological statement for us to repeat, but it is a world-changing, life-changing, transforming truth that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus then begins to address Peter's confession. In doing so, he's going to tell us something about the church. The first thing we see in these verses is that Jesus is the center of the church. The church is built on Jesus, by Jesus, and for Jesus.

Jesus is the foundation of the church. When Jesus says, "This rock," and we'll talk about this more in a minute, he's not referring to Peter, although Peter is incredibly important. He's talking about this confession. That he is the one who comes to save God in the flesh, in the power of a God who is alive, in contrast to these dumb, broken, blind, lifeless idols. That this is the foundation that the church is built upon. That Jesus is our savior and that he is God in the flesh. Not simply existing, but living and active. And in Romans 8, we see Jesus interceding for his people. And in Revelation 1, walking among the church. The church must be built upon the foundation that Jesus is our savior. And he is the living God. The second thing that Jesus says is that I will assemble or build my church.

The word ekklesia here that is used for church. In fact, it's pretty popular in churches naming themselves, you know, ekklesia. And if you Google churches near you with that name, you'll find churches all over name this. It simply means assembly. A group who is gathered together. And Jesus says, "I am gathering together a group." Not just throwing out a loop and dragging people in, but this assembly is those who have built their lives upon the truth that I am the Savior, that are built upon the rock of Christ. This assembly is made of those who are saved by Jesus. And so Jesus is the foundation of the church, but Jesus is also those who save those who are gathered together in the church, and then he doesn't just save and gather, he then builds the church. And I don't know how we can say this any more clearly. Jesus says, "I will build my

church." That the church belongs to me. This gathering of people that I have saved, I will then build. And this has such incredible practical implications for us in our church. It's not about us. We're not the foundation. We're not the gatherers. We're not the builders. It is Jesus. He is our rock. He is our savior. And he is the one who empowers and strengthens the church. Now there's two things about this. One is that for us, this truth can be a little bit difficult. Because our tendency and the world in which we live reinforces this in so many ways, telling us that we are the center, that it's about me and my abilities and my opinions and the things I like and the things I've always done. And in this picture of the church, we see that we are not the center, but that Jesus is. And in one sense, this is humbling and is

difficult for us. But in another sense, this is remarkably freeing. It's not all on my shoulders. I don't have to worry about all of it. I fix my eyes on Jesus. He's the one who saves me. He's the one who helps me. He's the one who gives me strength, direction, and purpose. And in one sense, understanding that Jesus is the center is an attack on our pride. And it's also encouragement for our weakness. So to the proud among us, Jesus says, "I'm the center, not you." And to the weak and discouraged among us, Jesus says, "I'm the center, not you. It's on my shoulders and my strength. I will be the one who builds the church." And so the church, centered on Jesus, is also empowered by Jesus. Jesus's statement that I will build my church is a testimony that the strength of the church does not come from us, right?

It's so easy for us to rely on our own strength. And I love the story of Gideon, and it's such a familiar story to many of us. But it is a picture of the strength of God in the life of a person who is not strong enough. And Gideon, as they're being oppressed by those nations outside of Israel, is hiding in a winepress threshing wheat, the angel of the Lord comes and says, "Hail, mighty warrior." And Gideon says, "You have the wrong address," and immediately lists all the reasons why he's not a mighty warrior. The angel of the Lord will deal with those, and Gideon will be sent on a mission, first to pull down an idol and then to face the opposing army. And as Gideon gets ready to face this opposing army, he draws up an army of Israelites, thirty-five thousand, or thirty-two thousand men.

Alright, that sounds like a good army, to stand there with thirty-two thousand men at your back, about to go into battle against the enemies of God. The problem is, the army that faces him is a hundred and thirty-five thousand men. And, I'm not great at math, because I went to Bible college, but I can use a calculator. And if you go into battle with thirty-two thousand men, versus a hundred and thirty-five thousand men, and you're using hand-to-hand combat and bows and arrows, that means each of those thirty-two thousand men is basically going to have to kill, and I'm rounding up, four and a quarter enemy soldiers, right? So you have to go into battle, and before you die, because you're overwhelmed by the amount of people coming at you, you have to kill four and a quarter enemy soldiers. And you know what God does?

He looks at Gideon and this army, this army that I'm sure Gideon goes, is far too small. And God goes, "You know what? Your army is too big. Anybody who's scared gets to go home." And twenty-two thousand people leave. He's now left with an army of ten thousand. And so now, if you're part of that ten thousand, you've got to kill thirteen dudes before you die in order to win. And then God goes, "That's still too many." And they reduce the number all the way down to three hundred men. What that means is these three hundred men facing an army of one hundred and thirty-five, you have to kill four hundred and fifty enemy soldiers before you die in order for Israel to not be defeated. It's overwhelming. We don't have enough strength. You know why God does this? He says it at the beginning of Judges chapter seven.

I did this so at the end of this battle you won't say, "My hand saved me." He does this because our tendency is to look at us in our victories and say, "Look what I have done." And God says, "I'm going to put you in an impossible battle, so at the end of it you know that I am your only hope and I am your only strength." And when Jesus says, "I will build my church," He is testifying to this fact that the strength of the church does not come from us, but it comes from Him. Jesus is saying, "I am your strength, I am your hope, I am the one who fights for you in the face of overwhelming odds." What you find is that Jesus is at work. Jesus then makes this statement, "I will give you the keys of the kingdom."

And now this, not only is Jesus our strength, He's empowering the church, He's now going to give the church authority in terms of the keys of the kingdom. And we think about this, we understand this pretty well. Keys unlock stuff, and they lock stuff. And when you are given keys, you are given a measure of authority and a measure of responsibility. If it's your house, it's your responsibility to lock and unlock your door. If you're working at a business, and you're given a key to the door, right, it's your job to lock and unlock and to be responsible. And so when we hear keys to the kingdom, God is giving the church authority. So two things, right? What does it mean when Jesus says these keys bind and loose in the kingdom? Jesus is using legal terms from the Jewish people that speak of allowing or forbidding.

Just like we unlock a door to allow people to enter, or we lock a door to forbid people from coming in. And this is not the church acting on its own accord, saying we're going to allow this, we're going to forbid this. What we are doing is acting in accordance with the will of God, just like you pray in the Lord's Prayer that your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. The church, through these keys to the kingdom, is allowing or forbidding, not of our own preferences, but through the will of God making his will known on the earth. And when we talk about loosing with these keys, that simply means proclaiming the good news of Jesus. When we proclaim the good news of Jesus, what we are doing is we are unlocking a door and throwing it open,

and inviting people in. But when we are binding with these keys, what we are doing is talking about the judgment of God. We're saying that sin is not a part. It's used in church, in the gospel. It's not judging someone. It's simply saying that there is a standard. And when the church exercises this judgment of locking or unlocking, we're declaring the gospel, or we are declaring God's judgment. And we look at these keys to the kingdom, and we say, "Isn't this just for Peter?" Right? Peter gets the one who gets to unlock, and he gets to lock. What's interesting is two chapters later, Matthew chapter 18, Jesus will say the same thing to the church as a whole. In Matthew 18, 17 and 18, he will say, "To the church, you can bind and you can loose, because to you who are given the kings of the kingdom."

What that means is, as a church, we've been given the authority to say the things that Jesus says, not to add to it, not to make it our own opinions, but rather to declare the good news of the gospel, and to declare the judgment of God. The church is centered on Jesus, empowered by Jesus, and sent by Jesus. We're given a message to proclaim. As you hear Peter's declaration of who Jesus is, it's not simply his own conclusion. Jesus says, "Flesh and blood have not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven." Peter's message about who Jesus is, is a declaration of God's truth by God's power. And God has done this in the church, that we are called to declare the message of who Jesus is. And then we are given a plan for advancing. "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. Over the past couple years, I have gotten a whole bunch of experience with gates. And what I have found is that some gates are easy to unlock. Some gates are harder to unlock. Some gates kind of stick. Some gates you have to lift. Some gates you open and the horses are trying to get out. Some gates you open and they simply don't care. Here is what I have never had happen. I have never had a gate try to attack me. I have never woken up with a gate. Beating on the front door of my house. Gates are simply there in general to keep things in. And when we hear this about the gates of hell, one of the ways the church has taken this is that we are to hide and we are to hunker down because the gates of hell are coming for us.

That's not the picture of a gate. A gate doesn't attack you. Gates are passive. Don't worry that a gate is waiting outside to bring its revenge. Right? We've gotten this verse so very backward. We frequently see this as a promise that hell won't overwhelm the church. That's not what Jesus is saying. Jesus is saying that the message of the church is to overwhelm hell. That the gates of hell will not and cannot stand against the church. The church has a mission that's not to be hidden in and hunkered down, but charging the very gates of hell. And the promise is that when the church gets there, those gates burst open. The gates of hell are not attacking the church. The church is attacking the gates. I want you to see in all of this, centered on Jesus, empowered by Jesus, given a mission by Jesus, I want you to see the marvelous power of an unshaking foundation.

In Matthew 16:18, Jesus says, "As 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." And what Jesus is doing is he's using this kind of funny, very clever play on words to tell Peter and us something wonderful. What he is saying is that you are Peter. The Greek word is petros. It means a small stone. If you walk in the gravel around behind the church, those little rocks that make up the driveway, that's a petros, a little stone or a little pebble. And Jesus is saying, "You are Peter, Petros, little pebble, and on this rock, Petra, which is a cliff or like a giant house-sized boulder, I will build my church." Jesus looks at Peter and says, "You little pebble,

I'm going to build my church on this big rock." And Peter, this little pebble, is remarkable. He proclaims the solid rock of Christ, like ours, and sometimes march with his faults like we do. For example, just like five verses down, maybe more. Don't quote me. It's just like the next section down. Jesus is going to look at Peter and go, "Get behind me, Satan." And he's not like, "Hey, hey, you're acting like Satan." In a word of judgment, Peter will deny Jesus three times. Peter in Galatians will turn his back on the gospel. But this same pebble, this little Peter, with all his faults, through the power of the Holy Spirit, the pebble, he is going to throw open the door of salvation in Acts 2 to the Jewish people, and a little later to

the Samaritans, and then to the Gentiles, that Peter will throw open the door of the gospel. This little pebble to the Jews, to the Samaritans, and to the Gentiles. And this little pebble on top of a big rock is such a powerful picture of God working in the brokenness of our life. It's not just a promise for Peter. Two chapters from now, these keys to the kingdom are given to the church. And Peter, later in his life, in 1 Peter 2, will write to the church saying that you're a bunch of little stones, built upon the living stone of Christ. There is this marvelous power in the unshaking foundation that is found in the cliff and the rock of Christ, that he takes all of our little pebbles, and he makes our little pebbles strong for

the good news of the gospel. Our world can seem pretty stormy. One of my core memories, I have absolutely no idea how old I was. I remember that we were going on the ferry that crosses Lake Champlain, which is a pretty good-sized lake, and it was night, and we were in our car, and I don't know if we were going toward New York or coming back to Vermont, but all I remember was that it was dark, and it was stormy, and it was really wavy, and we're sitting in this car in a boat, and the whole boat is shaking and rocking, and I imagine my dad was probably enjoying it, and I'm sitting in the back terrified because I know cars don't float, and I don't know if I said anything to my parents, but I just remember

in the darkness of that storm being so absolutely terrified, because you can't tell which way you're going to rock. You look next to you, and there's a tractor-trailer truck, and you're like, "Well, that's not going to help us float." And there is this uncertainty, and I remember the depth of that feeling. I don't remember any of the other details other than the storm and how I felt in the midst of it. And here we are as a church. We live in a pretty stormy world, a world just like Caesarea Philippi that is filled with false gods and false hope and the darkness of sin and the brokenness of the world in which we live. And the call for us is there is a rock of Christ, and he will take us and he will build us and he will empower us and he

will send us out on this mission. But there's also a call for those who are lost in the storm without Jesus. And it seems like you're about to go underwater and everything you've tried doesn't work. And it seems like no matter how hard you try, it never gets lighter and it never gets calmer. The invitation is here if you are not a Christian. In the midst of that storm, let me tell you, there is only one rock that can take the weight of your brokenness and your fears and your sins and your hurts. And that rock is the rock of Christ. It's Jesus, the Messiah, Son of the living God, come to save, restore, and build, both in our lives and in our church. Let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you for Jesus and for hope. It's easy for us sometimes to be discouraged in the darkness of

the world to feel small, to feel underpowered and overwhelmed. May you direct our eyes to you, that you will see that you have a mission for your church, and that mission is found, and the strength is found in you. Help us this morning. Direct us to your goodness and to your grace. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. We're going to stand and sing "Cornerstone."

My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly trust in Jesus' name. Christ alone, cornerstone, weak made strong in the Savior's love through the storm. He is Lord, Lord of all.

When darkness seems to hide His face, I rest on His unchanging grace. In every high and stormy gale, my anchor holds within the veil. Christ alone, cold as snow, weak made strong, and the Savior's alive through the storm. He is Lord, Lord I am. When He shall come with trumpet sound, O may I then in Him be found, dressed in His righteousness alone, faultless than before. I stand alone, call us low, weak and strong, in the same as love through the storm. He is Lord, Lord of all. Christ our Lord, call us low, weak and strong, in the same as love through the storm. He is Lord, Lord of all. Thankful that you are here with us this morning. We are here Wednesday night for our Wednesday evening Bible study. If you are unable to make it on Wednesday night, we also meet Sunday mornings at 9:15. So if you would like to join us for that, we'd love to study the Scriptures together with you.

Today is our monthly kids' church, and so we are excited and thankful for that. I'm going to pray and read just a couple verses from 1 Peter 2, and we will sing the doxology. Father in heaven, thank you for hope and strength. May our lives and our church be built upon Christ as we seek to live out practically the mission that you have given us, and as we think about that and pray about that and talk about that in the coming weeks. May you guide us to act and work in your guidance and wisdom and strength, and not in our own. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. 1 Peter 2 says this, "As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men, but in the sight of God, chosen and precious, you yourselves, like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house. To be a holy priest, to offer spiritual sacrifices

acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures here below. Praise Him above ye heavenly hosts. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen. Amen. Amen.