Well, I invite you to turn to Matthew chapter 16 this morning. We are continuing our study of Matthew 16. Set the context. I'll read from verses 13 to 28. Our text will be verses 21 through 28, found on page 977, 977 in the Bibles that are in front of you. And we're continuing our study of Peter confessing Jesus as the Christ. Let's give our attention this morning to the holy inspired Word of God, verse 13 of Matthew 16.
Now, when Jesus came to 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." 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 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. That's where we ended last time, and now our text.
"From that time, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and to 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 the things of God but on the things of man. 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 shall a man give in return for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. 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.
And there will end today the reading of God's Word.
Well, what a glorious passage today that we get to reflect upon and hear a sermon on that shows how living and powerful the Word of God truly is. How this word, think about it, how many hundreds of years ago, thousands of years ago, still speaks to us and is sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing and discerning into the heart, reaching into the deep parts of the heart to expose what's happening there. Well, that's exactly what this text does. It shows us today a beautiful commitment of our Lord to save us. It's really remarkable how relentless Christ is to save his people.
But I add today, with the surprising addition to that, even when we get in the way of this, even when we get in the way of this, at the core of what is revealed here today is our great struggle with Christianity. I think we come to the text that really shows us why people have a hard time connecting with Christianity. It's a sort of radical paradigm shift, you might say, from how we naturally think and how we look at the church. How many people are just disconnected from the church because they see no value in it? Why is that? Why would somebody just disconnect their life from the church of Jesus Christ?
Remember, R.C. Sproul asked that question to a bunch of young people years ago. "Can you refuse to go to church and be a Christian?" And of course, every young person there said, "Of course." He says, "Wait a minute, wait a minute. Can you tell me that you love Christ and not his body that he died for?" Silence.
Well, we're looking at important truths today, aren't we? We come here to this great message of Christianity that is one of suffering and cross-bearing. And the challenge for us is we all love what Martin Luther used to call the glory story, or the theology of glory. We love the glory story. Not one that says this life before we get to glory is preceded by suffering and cross-bearing and then death. Well, that's what's in front of us today. That's exactly what is in front of us, and the struggle of Peter to accept this.
We come front and center today to the sufferings of Christ. We come front and center to what Paul said: "When I labor to preach Christ and him crucified, woe is me if I don't do it." We come to the heart of what Christianity is about, why he came to this earth, and our response to this. And what our natural sinful response is in every way is to fight against this. But at the heart of it is our relentless Messiah, letting nothing stand in the way of his mission to save his people from their sins.
So that's what we're looking at from this text today in Matthew chapter 16.
You remember this grand moment last time of Peter's confession of Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus was drawing this out, remember. He gave one of the most important questions in his time of discipleship and training when he asked the question, "Who do men say that I am?" Important question. And of course, you remember that they responded by saying, "Well, everyone's running around saying that probably that you, Lord, are somebody like John the Baptist, or some say Elijah, or Jeremiah, or one of the prophets." That's the sort of common view that's going out among the people.
The multitudes in general just thought he was a good man, a good prophet. They had recognized this was a good teacher come from God. rich young ruler. But who knew him? Who understood him? And Jesus was concerned about this. So he drew it out, remember? "No, I know what other people are saying. We know he knew this, but he goes, I'm really, I want to know, who do you say that I am? What do you believe?"
And here comes this grand moment from Peter. "You are the Christ. You are the Messiah. You are the Son of the living God."
We looked at this last time. He just confessed his identity as the Messiah and the eternal Son of God. Think about that claim. Jesus made a big moment of it. "Blessed are you, Simon Barjona. blessed are you. Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail." That was all last week.
I don't know if we really consider what a treasure it is to know Christ who, think of it, this blessing by the Father, to know him and confess him, he has opened our eyes in the darkness to see him. And I want to encourage you that this means so much to him. What we saw this morning means so much to him. He loves profession of faith. This is important to encourage Allison and Olivia. This is beautiful. This is exactly what he's after: to confess that he is Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God.
Now, that's a good work begun in us. That's a good work begun in us. But we aren't just confessing who he is. We are also confessing why he came and what he came to do for us. This confession so far in Peter was incomplete. It was incomplete. not in terms of who he is, that had been given to him by the Father, but why Christ has come.
Now, my goal is to help you with this: to see how this shows up in the Christian life and the struggle for us. Notice this becomes the issue of the passage. This is the center issue of the passage. This is the real rub. This is where genuine Christianity is distinguished from all the false forms of it. Right here. This is how you can know whether your Christianity is genuine or whether it is false.
A few of you walked up to me last week and said afterward, "I noticed you didn't address one particular verse," and I didn't. And it was the very last verse there in verse 20: "Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ." And a few of you walked and said, "I don't understand that. I don't understand that. Why would he strictly warn the disciples not to go out and make him known?"
And I think the answer is clear: because no one yet understood the importance of why he came. If they went around preaching, "Hey, the Messiah has come And nobody understood why. Can you imagine what would have happened? Just think about it. The mobile food bank has arrived. The political redeemer has showed up. The government's on his shoulders. "Watch out, Rome." The healing dispenser, the slot machine. Jesus was willing to help people, but not to be treated like that. So Jesus was letting things take their course so that when the Holy Spirit came, this would be proclaimed with understanding.
But he's doing something very important here for us. He's tying together the confession with the mission. That is so crucial for Matthew 28 and what's coming in the Great Commission. He's tying together the confession with the mission. It's strategic. A mission at this point no one seemed to understand what he had come to do, why he came here. This is so important for Christianity. This is so important for us today.
As soon as Peter confesses, what does Jesus do? From that time on, verse 21, Jesus began, you'll notice this here, 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 raised. Confessing him as the Messiah comes right after this: an explanation of why the Messiah came, right? I mean, it's programmatic to Matthew 1: "Jesus came here. You shall give him the name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins." Jesus is focused on this. He is going to suffer. The Son of Man is going to suffer, and he is going to die on a cross, and then he'll be raised.
And that leads us now to this interesting moment in Matthew. As he's openly teaching this, all of a sudden, the great Peter pipes up. As soon as he hears about a cross, as soon as he hears about death, he grabs Jesus and pulls him aside. And we read in the word strong, he begins to rebuke him. I can just picture this thing. "You will not." He pulls him aside. Finger is out. You ever had someone do that to you? It's kind of humiliating, especially when they're wrong.
"Far be it from you, Lord, that this thing this thing will never happen to you."
Jesus responds. He looks at him, and all of them we know from the other gospels heard this. "Get behind me, Satan. You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your minds on the things of God, but on the things of man."
Whoa. That is about as worked up as I've hurt him against his own disciples. Peter must have said, "Oops. I really set him off with this." I'm kind of mind blown by the whole event. I have lots of thoughts on it. How long do you want to be here today?
How do you get in one moment commended for a profession of faith, a confession profession, I use them in somewhat synonymous terms; we can address that more later. But as a gift of God, you are blessed, Simon. This was given to you as a profession. And in the next moment, everything goes so wrong and you're called Satan?
What is that? Well, there's three applications I want to make here.
The first is a polemical one. As we defend our faith, did you notice what he calls Peter here? So at first he began by saying, "You are the rock on this rock I will build my church," and now he calls him a stumbling block.
So if Peter is the rock himself as many take it on which the church is built, we looked at confession last time. In the very next scene, the literally it means he's the stumbling block in the way. Now consider what's been taught for how many people across this world: that there is an unbroken succession of popes from which Peter, and on which the whole church is built. I find it fascinating that I get to land on this right now. Come on, you know? What an opportunity for me, isn't it?
Let me say this. I think we should be really offended by the whole thing. By the events that took place last week. Where a man is given that kind of glory? Are you kidding me? A sinner? I saw people weeping. And I talked to numerous Protestants who said, "Wasn't that just a neat thing?"
He's taken the title: the head of the church, the supreme pontiff, the sovereign pontiff. The pope by divine institution, listen to this, has supreme, listen to what they claim, full, immediate, and universal power in the care of souls. Is that offensive? Do you see Jesus doing anything like that with Peter here? If Peter's the first pope, did he put a little hat on him?
We have completely forgotten that there was a Reformation from this kind of abuse. And stumbling block. Most people don't know this: that there was a Reformation that dealt with all this stuff. You know, William Perkins, the father of Elizabethan Puritanism, said, "The bishop of Rome is Peter's successor. Not in teaching, but in denying Christ." That's the Protestant position. He only succeeds Peter in denying Christ.
How can I prove that? He's a stumbling block to many people in taking their eyes off Jesus. Because we can't see Jesus. This is what the whole book of Hebrews is about. And we want to see and touch and handle. "Give us a pope." Far be it from us to make this about Peter. I think the Spirit must have known well what would happen, and that's why this event followed throughout history.
Let's do the pastoral application. I do want to provide a pastoral one. Reformed people are cranky all the time.
Just as it was Peter's confession that was commended, Upon that confession, that the church would be built, so too, what happens? There's a direct attack on the mission that would build the church.
I think Peter was sincere here. I don't think he meant to get in the way. I think he loved Jesus. "I love the Lord. I'll die for him. I'll fight with him." Remember his sword? Didn't even know how to use it. "I'll fight."
You have to appreciate this was an awful thing that was just said to Peter. "I'm going to die by the hands of our leaders, elders, and our chief leaders, and these people. I have to suffer." Here it is.
We can confess Christ as Messiah. But what we can't put together is how suffering works and cross. Peter doesn't get it. He does not understand the Christian life yet. He does not understand the Christian life yet. And I say this to many professing faith: who go, "We know it takes time to understand the Christian life. And so our job is to help people with the Christian." That's discipleship. But it's this point that many people find themselves tripping up and falling down in Christianity. We make progress, but we haven't understood the whole plan. And so in the next moment of our lives, we stumble and we fall down. That's the Christian life. And the good news is Jesus loves Peter.
But I have what I think is the most important application here. It's the theological one.
Did Jesus really call Peter Satan? I don't think so. There's something happening here. Remember when Satan came to tempt Christ in the wilderness? And remember what he tried? Remember, Satan took him up on this big hill, showed him all the kingdoms and all the glory, kingdoms of the world. And he said, "Listen, I will give all this to you if you will fall down and you will worship me. You can have it all now. You don't go to this cross. Don't go to this cross." He was doing everything he could to prevent the road of the cross.
Luke said, listen to this: Luke said this. "Now, when the devil had ended every temptation, he had been defeated, he departed from him until an opportune time." When? I think this is it. At the height of Peter confessing the Christ, Jesus makes clear that the Messiah's work was one of a cross to lay down his life and then rise again, and Satan saw the moment. Opportune time. Here it was. Peter faces the very same temptation of Christ in the wilderness, and he fails.
"I have to do everything in my power to prevent the cross." And Jesus saw what was behind it: it was a satanic assault. And Jesus says, "Be gone, Satan. Get out of my sight."
Let's put this together. You can confess Jesus is the Christ, still completely misunderstand why he needed to come, and then you can get in the way of that, right?
So this has been the greatest perplexity to me: most people, if you ask them, "Why did Jesus come," cannot articulate the basic truth of the Christian gospel of why Jesus came to this earth. And this problem is a problem in the church. So maybe they've heard the message of the cross and that he died and that he rose again, but there hasn't been a bridge to understanding yet of why it's so necessary for it to happen. It's like it just doesn't compute for people. It's like it just doesn't get in there why this had to be so.
And so the predominant view of Jesus, even to this day, is that he simply came to give people a better life in the here and now. That's what most people want to hear. The glory story. They want the church to be a club. They don't want that. So, not a message that ultimately speaks of cross and death and blood and shedding and all that. And you see, it completely misses the single great purpose for which the incarnation happened.
He had to come. He had a mission to come from his Father. He had to do this. Why did he have to do this, beloved? Why did he have to do this?
Precisely because the wrath of God abides on every single person in this life without it. And without the atonement, without a propitiation, without sins being dealt with, without sins being paid, no one would be saved.
I feel like I'm giving the most basic truth of Christianity right now. I'm giving the most fundamental basic truth of Christianity that we all assume everyone gets. And yet we have proof in front of us that by nature, from Peter, we fight this to the core.
"Jesus is a great moral teacher." We love that. Someone who can give people a life of happiness, health and wealth, absent of a cross. Jesus, and the point is he is only known as Messiah in connection with his work of suffering.
Again, Sproul said something in his commentary I found interesting. "The rabbis of Israel were diligent to examine in close detail every dimension of the Messiah who was to come, right? As a king, as a shepherd, as a redeemer, but there was one element," he says, "they purposely overlooked all the time: that the Messiah would suffer." We struggle with that. Was it simply overlooked? Isaiah 53 was there. Psalm 22 was there. We're going to sing in a minute. Were they willingly blind to it? Peter wants nothing to do with it.
So that means, beloved, that Satan's greatest roadblock to this message is this: He doesn't want you to hear this. He does not want you to hear this. He does not want cross and resurrection preached. And Peter himself rebuked the idea of it. What does that tell you about your challenge as a Christian?
We don't connect the victory to cross and suffering. We won't do it. But we don't understand Christianity, we don't understand Christ until we appreciate this truth and accept this truth as part of our confession.
Christ became sin for us. Consider who it is who died on the cross for you. "Far be it that this should happen." And I think it's a beautiful rebuke here to Peter in a sense because Jesus will let nothing stand in the way as any obstacle to them seeing and understanding and believing what he's going to do. Nothing will stop them. And that's the same for you. Even when you get in the way. That's why he's so strong here.
Peter wants to prevent his own salvation. And Jesus gets animated about it. Think about that. He cares that much for you. He was that driven for you. When to this day, many of us are so still careless about it all.
And I think what Jesus ends this with today is to challenge and to have us think about what we are involved with as our path in life. It's as if he says, "What do you think this is? I'm going to challenge now how you look at life in light of my cross."
Then Jesus told his disciples, verse 24, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow Follow me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, and whoever desires to lose his life will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world if he forfeits his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his own soul?"
Doesn't that all make sense now? Doesn't it make sense? If you're going to be a follower of Christ, you have to accept the message that he brings. And that message includes who he is and what he came to do, right? For you. He did this for you. And when we have faith in that message and we believe that message, that will show itself in our lives that begin to pattern our lives by his grace and his work after his. That's his work in us.
That means this life is not a life of ease. It's not as we looked at a few weeks ago, working the first half of our life so hard so we just get the 30-year vacation and cruise in and play pickleball the rest of our life. I like pickleball. I think the court is great. Keep playing pickleball, okay? I'm going to come out and play with you and show you how it's done. But this is not about personal greatness, is it? This is not about the pursuit of our dreams and aspirations in life, you know, as we always hear.
This will not be about, what do you think the next big issue for the disciples is? "Do we get the best seats in the kingdom?" It's not about having a ton of stuff. It's not about fulfilling all our dreams in life. It's not about making us comfortable in the world. No, he gives us a lot of blessings and gives us a lot of earthly comforts, but he's formed us to carry some kind of cross, is what he's saying.
And what does that look like? Well, it's this: "I've been crucified with Christ, right? It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me."
In other words, to belong to him means that there is a cross-bearing path appointed for you too. And that means that you will be hated by the world. That means you will be considered all the things that the world values and loves. Contrary to. You will have trial. You will be considered powerless. You will be considered weak. You will not be considered great in the eyes of the world. You will not be a figure put up in the world and adored by everyone.
This is Christian life. And you can't be ashamed of me, says Jesus, because the day is going to reveal who is and who isn't.
See how deadly the omission of the cross would be to Christianity? You would create, listen, we're closing here in a minute, but you would create a bunch of nominal followers who were never committed to anything other than themselves and would never value the church. They just want to be entertained. They'd stand right in the way of a message of a cross. What a deadly thing to do for you and your children. I'm glad he desires to drive away all satanic influence like this. That's what this is. It's satanic influence who would want to stop us from seeing Christ and him crucified for us.
What must you know in this life? Three things. Go to our Heidelberg.
Number one: the greatness of our sin and misery.
Number two: how you're set free from your sin and misery. "You are the Christ, fill this out, the son of the living God. you are the Messiah and you came to complete it. How are we saved from our sin and misery? Because our Messiah came to die on a cross for my sins and rise for my justification."
What now am I to do with all that? What is the third way? What is the third way of gratitude? Well, how am I going to live thankfully? How are you going to live thankfully? Are you going to take up your cross and follow him? How could you not if he's loved you like this?
Nothing would stand in the way of his relentless love to save you. So follow him.
We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
Think of the gospel today. Think of the good news to you today. Think of your relentless Savior. I pray that your eyes are open to know him as the Christ, the Son of the living God, and to know that he came to die for you on a cross and rose again. And now he says to you, just like he said to Matthew that day at the textbook earth: "Remember what he said? Follow me. Follow me."
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, thank you for this glorious text today, and forgive us that we get in the way. But thank you for driving away the evil one who wants to sift us as wheat, and thank you for praying for us that our faith would not fail. Keep us, O Lord, in your will for us, and let us be a people who always have our hearts and minds and exercise to think about the great gift given to us, the indescribable gift of the righteousness of Jesus Christ because of the cross that he bore And the resurrection and may, Lord, we begin in this life as a small beginning, but as a beginning to begin to look like him in gratitude. We're so weak. We're so self-centered. We want it all about us. Thank you, oh Lord, for your relentless gift by the relentless Savior to die for us and set us free. May we be a people of praise and thanksgiving, celebrating the gift given of righteousness to deliver all your people from their sins. Hear our prayer in Jesus' name. Amen.