“At the mount of transfiguration a voice came out of the cloud from heaven saying, ‘This is My beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. Hear Him,’” Matthew 17:1-8.
We welcome you today to our study of the life and teaching of Jesus Christ.
Today we're studying Matthew chapter 16 through 20. We encourage you if you haven't got your Bible handy, locate that Bible and be ready to study together with us as we're going to be thinking about the life and teaching of Jesus the King of Kings and Lord of lords in the gospel of Matthew.
As Matthew opens in Matthew chapter 16, we hear about the words of Jesus concerning building His church. I understand there a lot of ideas that folks have about the church. There are ideas that it doesn't matter what church you go to. There are ideas that any church is okay whoever's names on the church- that's okay as long as you love God everything's okay.
I want to challenge you today to think about what Jesus actually says in the word of God about the church.
Let's read this text together. Matthew 16:13-18 the Bible records, “When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi He asked His
disciples saying ‘Who do men say I the Son of Man say I am?’ So they said, ‘Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, others Jeremiah, or one the prophets.’ He said to them, ‘Who do you say that I am?’ Simon Peter answered and said, ‘You are the Christ the Son of the living God.’ Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Blessed are you Simon son of Jonah for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but My Father who is in heaven. And I say to you that you are Peter. And on this rock I will build My church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.’”
Jesus is curious. ‘Who do people say I am?’ What a great complement to John the Baptist, Elijah, and Jeremiah. But it wasn't true! He said to His disciples, ‘Who do you say I am?’ Peter spoke up and said, ‘We know who you are. You're the Christ. You're the Son of the living God.’ And Jesus says, ‘You're right Peter and flesh and blood's not revealed it to you, but God Himself.’ He said, ‘And I say to you, you are Peter. On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.’ Now there's a little confusion sometimes as to what the rock is there, and we want to make clear about this. Peter the word ‘Cephas’ represents a small stone or a pebble.
The rock that Jesus is speaking of here is not a small stone or a pebble, but it's a solid foundation. Peter wasn't that Peter sometimes said things and did things that he shouldn't have done. He denied the Lord later, so he's not that solid foundation that the church is built on.
What is that bedrock, solid foundation? It's his statement ‘You are the Christ the Son of the living God.’ That's with the church is built on- not on Peter. The fact that Matthew is all about this truth, Christ is Jesus is the Christ. He is the Messiah. He is the Son of God.
Now listen carefully on that monumental foundational truth, Jesus said to Peter “I will build My church on this rock. I will build My church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
Friend let's ask a few questions about Jesus statement here. How many rocks did Jesus say He'd build His church on? Look at Matthew 16:18 again, “Upon this rock,” singular. What is that rock? We've already noticed it's the foundational statement- Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and so one foundation- Christ being Jesus, being the Messiah, and
the Son of God.
Now a second question, how many churches did Jesus promised to build? Did Jesus say to Peter, ‘On this rock I will build My churches?’ Not what He said! ‘On this rock I will build My church,’ singular. Don't miss the import of what Jesus said there. It was never God's will to build the multiplicity.
God didn't build a multiplicity of denominations that exists today. They're contrary to His will. 1 Corinthians 1:10-13, God doesn't want division and denominationalism in men's names to exist.
Now let me ask another question, third question from this text: Whose church did Jesus promised to build? Remember there's only one rock. Jesus only built one church. Whose is it? Listen to Jesus statement again, “On this rock I will build My church.”
Whose church is it? Listen to Acts 20: 28. The Bible says, “Jesus purchased the church with His own blood.” You know it helps us to understand whose church is, not only by the fact that Jesus said “It's mine, and I will build it,” personal pronouns there of ownership- but to realize He had paid the price for it. Whose blood was shed for the church? Jesus’ When Jesus went up to Calvary, when He suffered on Golgotha, when He freely gave His blood for mankind, He purchased the called out people the church. It's His.
‘I will build My church.’ It belongs to Christ; therefore it ought to wear His name. It ought to give honor to Him. It ought to bring glory to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Here's what you don't find, friend we say this as kindly as lovingly as we know how, but you don't find the multiplicity of denominations in your Bible. You don't find Baptist. You don't find Methodist. You don't find Presbyterian. You don't find Catholic. You don't find that in the Bible.
Those names of various religious groups may give honor to the other things, but friend the Bible already identified who the church belongs to. “I'll build My church.”
You know something's ‘yours’ you don't have a hard time understanding that you own. A car- your name's on the title of that car right? You own a home- your name's on the title of that home. Are you going to let your neighbor on either side of you come over and put his name on the title? Course not! You worked for it. You paid the price. It was your blood, sweat, and tears. That's so practical, and yet it's so practical to the lesson about the church the church belongs to Christ. There's only one, and it needs to wear and carry His name.
Not only does Jesus in Matthew 16 teach us about the power and the name of His church in a singularity of it, but we also learn such a practical lesson about what's really important in this life. Listen to the questions of Jesus in Matthew 16:26.
The Lord asked these questions, “For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” Jesus is here emphasizing in a very dramatic way nothing is more important than my soul and yours. Don't underestimate the value of your soul. God created man in His own image. God breathed into man the breath of life, and man became a living soul- Genesis 2:7. I have a soul. You have a soul. This body 70 maybe 80 years if we're lucky, and it's going to perish and return to the dust- not the soul.
Ecclesiastes says the soul will return the spirit, and the soul return to God who gave it. My soul is the most important possession I. You could gather all the gold in the world, all the diamonds, all the money, all the wealth and it would pale in comparison to your soul. If that's the case, listen to what Jesus said in Matthew 16:26, “What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?”
If you can amass the wealth of the richest people in all the way, if you could have the wealth of Solomon, and you had that but then you died and went to hell- what would all that have been for? Nothing!
In fact we learn about a man who learned that the hard way, Luke 15:15-21. There's a man there who had a great crop year. He began to talk to himself ‘You've got many goods laid up for many years and tear down your barns built greater barns. Take it easy. Eat, drink, and be merry.’ He thought he had everything. One thing he left out. Jesus said, “You fool this
night will your soul be required of you.”
Think about the second question. “Or what will it profit a man he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”
On the Day of Judgment let's say you have amassed an unimaginable amount of wealth, but on the Day of Judgment are you going to exchange that for your soul? Are you going to say to God ‘you know I may not have lived for you, may not have lived right- hey I've got of got boatloads of gold. I got boatloads of silver.’ To the God who created all that what does that matter? You can't exchange anything for your soul. So here's the lesson: Don't let anything get in the way of your soul coming first in this life. That's what Jesus is trying to teach us.
We want to really drive this home of everything you possess; to the Lord nothing is more valuable than your soul. And if our time, our attention, and our focus is distracted from making sure our soul is our top priority, friend listen carefully, you may gain some things but in the end you'll lose it all.
Can you imagine? I want you to think about this, can you imagine if you are successful, if you're wealthy, and you are popular and you went to hell? What are you going to say down there? Are you going to say ‘Hey I lived it up.’? No! You're not going to say that. There's going to be torment. There is going to be anguish, and there's going be pain. To be the wealthiest, most popular, and most successful person in hell will mean absolutely nothing.
Make sure that your soul is right with God. That's what Jesus is trying to illustrate in this context.
Now we turn our attention then to Matthew 17 and the Mount of Transfiguration about verses 1 through 8. Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up on that high mountain. He is there transfigured before them. His clothes become begin to shine white as no launderer could make 'em the. He takes on new form, a bright form we can say. Something amazing happens! Moses and Elijah appear with Him, talking to Him, and so Peter as is usually the case speaks up. He's afraid. He doesn't know what to say.
So he says, ‘Lord it's good for us to be here. Let us make three tabernacles one for you, one for Moses, one for Elijah.’ What happened next illustrates a big part of this whole lesson. At that time then the Bible says, ‘A voice came out of the cloud.’ We know it's God's voice. “A voice came out of the cloud saying.” Not Moses, not Elijah, here's what the voice said, “This is My beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. Hear Him.”
What's that lesson all about? Again it illustrates it is the most illustrative it is the most dramatic sign of Jesus as the Christ the Son of God, and illustrates this Jesus is greater than Moses and the giver of the law and the old law. He's greater than Elijah, and the prince of the prophets- all the prophets greater than the old law, greater than the prophets is the voice and the message and the teaching of Jesus Christ. They look up and only Jesus remains. It's His law, His kingdom, His authority, and His power that men must submit to today.
I'm not living under the Old Testament nor are you. Don't get me wrong that was a good Law for good people, but it wasn't written to me and you. Deuteronomy 5 clearly illustrates that was for the Israelites. That law died at the Christ or at the cross, Ephesians 2:14-15 and Colossians 2:14-15. I cannot keep nor can I break the 10 Commandments, because it's not for me. I'm living under the new law and the new covenant of Christ. He's the one who deserves my authority and my supreme worship in this life.
Now as we think then about Christ kingdom, let's ask a very simple question. I want to serve God and that kingdom. I want to do the best I can in that kingdom. I want to really bring honor and glory to the Almighty. How do you get greatness in the kingdom of God? What's it really mean?
Look in your Bible in Matthew 18:1, and notice what the Scripture reveals to us here. “At that time the disciples came to Jesus saying, ‘Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’ Then Jesus called a little child to Him set him in the midst of them and said, ‘Assuredly I say to you unless you are converted and become as little children, you'll by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me.’”
What's it mean to really be great in the kingdom of God? It's not about being first place. It's not about telling others how great you are. It's about being childlike. What's that mean? A child trusts completely. A child, you know you got that submissive state, where you look up to the father, you look up to your parents- you will do whatever they said because you know you trust them. You know they've raised you. You understand they love you. Friend that's the idea. You’ve got to be converted and become like a child and be submissive. Recognize God, your Father, He has your best interest at heart and make sure we're not putting ourselves on a pedestal and trying to lower others in the process of doing that.
Friend let's also notice some other practical lessons in this section of Matthew. In Matthew 19 Jesus is also going to illustrate the type of relationships that God wants His creation to have.
Notice Matthew chapter 19 as Jesus is here asked about divorce. ‘Can a man divorce his wife for any reason?’ Look what Jesus says in Matthew 19 beginning in verse four. The Lord says and He answered and said to them, “Have you not read He who made them at the beginning made them male and female and said for this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh?” Relationships, marriages, what do we know about God's design for His creation relating to relationships?
Listen carefully now, “In the beginning God made them male and female.” What does that teach us? Don't get me wrong, I know the homosexual agenda is popular. I know people are pushing that. I know that's popular with society and the media. Please understand we want those involved in that to repent and turn to God. We love their eternal soul, and we want more than anything for them to go to heaven. God made them male and female. God did not make male and male. God did not make female and female. God with a specific purpose and a specific design for the relationship that is holy and right in His sight made them male and female.
And then He said, “This for this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined.” To who? “His wife and the two shall become one flesh.” God approves of relationships that are right in His sight according to His laws on marriage between a man and a woman- not two
men that's contrary to the will of God- not two women that's contrary to the will of God. The Bible says it's ‘unnatural.’ It it's carnal. It’s not something God approves of, Romans 1:26-29. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 that it is a sin that if people are not willing to repent of they will suffer eternal consequences. ‘Do you not know that such were some of you as fornicators, idolaters, murderers, revelers, homosexuals, and sodomites?’ But Paul says, ‘You were washed.’ Washed of what? That ‘ungodly immoral sin. You were cleansed. You were sanctified in the name the Lord Jesus Christ and by the spirit of our God.’
While we want people involved in homosexual practices to change, we also want them to know Christians are not out to do harm to them. They want them to see the love of God and know that God wants them to be saved and come to the right pattern that God has defined in Scripture for relationships.
Now do we learn anything else from this text in Matthew chapter 19? You bet we do! We learn that Jesus identified one and only one reason for scriptural divorce.
Notice Matthew 19:9 Jesus said, “And I say to you whoever divorces his wife except for sexual immorality and marries another commits adultery and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery.” What scriptural reason did Jesus give for adultery? Fornication. ‘Porneia’ is the Greek word for the idea the idea pornography, but not just the looking at what the sexual illicit, sexual activity outside the bonds of marriage. That's the grounds for divorce inside the Scripture, and then and only then does the innocent party have the right to divorce the immoral, ungodly mate involved in that and marry again.
There are not a hundred and one reasons. There are not alternatives to this idea. Jesus said it in Matthew 5:28-30. He said it in Matthew 19:9.He said it in Mark 10:11-12. Luke 16:18 in the gospel accounts Jesus mentions the only scriptural reason for divorce is fornication, and then only the innocent party may remarry in the sight of God with approval.
As we think then about the teaching of Jesus in Matthew 16 through 20, we also learn some practical lessons that Jesus illustrates in Matthew 19 from the rich young ruler's life.
Here's a man who comes to Jesus Matthew 19:16-22 “Good teacher what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus says, “Well keep the commandments.” “All these I've done.” “Do not murder. Do not steal. Do not.” “All these I've done from childhood.” “One thing you lack. Sell what you have, give to the poor, come follow Me.”
Mark tells us in Mark 10 “Jesus looked at that man with compassion and loved him.” That man probably makes one of the saddest statements in all the Bible. The Bible says, “That man went away sorrowful. He had great possessions.”
As we think about Matthew 16:26, “What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world loses his own soul?” as we think about this rich young ruler who comes to Jesus but isn't willing to give up, friend it takes sacrifice to follow Christ.
Jesus said, “Who does not love Me more than mother, sister, father, mother, brother, of the things this world, he cannot be My disciple. Who he does not leave all to follow Me cannot be My disciple.” Meaning that Christ is got to come first. He's got to be our top priority in everything that we say and do.
Then in Matthew 20:1-16 Jesus gives us an illustration of what the Lord's church is likened unto. Here we've got the church being likened unto a vineyard. Now you've got a vineyard and you can imagine the producing of grapes, the juice that will go with that, the process of trimming those vines, gathering the grapes, pressing out the juice, and what a laborious process that would be.
Jesus says the church is like a vineyard. Now what exactly is a vineyard? Well a vineyard is a place of work. You go to the vineyard there to work. You're going to work for a person who owns it. You're going to gather grapes. You're going to and then not only is it a place of work, but it's a place of work where fruit is produced and where fruit is harvested. Isn't that a beautiful picture of the church?
What's the church? It's a place of work where fruit is produced in harvest to Almighty God. That's the Lord's church. We didn't come into the
church to fill a pew. God's not looking for pew potatoes. That's not what the church is all about. You've not been called to fill a seat on Sunday morning and Sunday night and Wednesday night. We have been called be workers in the vineyard of the Lord. 1 Corinthians 15:58, “Be steadfast immovable always abounding in the work of the Lord knowing that your labor is not in vain.” And along with working Jesus said in John 15, “Every branch that does not produce fruit is cut off and thrown into the fire.”
We need to make sure we're producing fruit that we grow in the fruit of the spirit, Galatians 5:19-25, that we try to bring others to God and Christ, that we spread the gospel, that we live a good Christian life every day, and that we strive to do those things that please our Father.
As we think about this section of Matthew 16 through 20, it has dramatically emphasized the Lord's church. It has shown us the value of the soul. It has clearly pictured the church as a place where we bring honor and glory to God and that the greatest of all commandments is to love God and love your fellow man.
We ask you to consider today, are you a Christian? Are you a follower of Jesus Christ? If Jesus is King of Kings and Lord of lords, He requires my devotion and commitment, and He requires yours. Have you obeyed the gospel?
If not, we urge you to today. Are you willing to hear the word of God? “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God,” Romans 10:17. Having heard that message, examine the evidence seen it to be true would you believe in Jesus? Jesus said in John 8:24 “Unless you believe that I'm He you'll surely die in your sins.” Having believed in Jesus, would you be willing to repent of sin? Acts 3:19 Peter preached “Repent and turn again that your sins may be blotted out.”
Would you confess Jesus as the Son of God? Matthew 10:32-33. Would you do what Jesus said to be saved? Mark 16:16 here's what the Lord said in your Bible and in mine the Scripture says, “He that believes and is baptized will be saved. He that does not believe shall be condemned.”
If you've never obeyed the gospel, your soul is so important.
We beg you today; obey the gospel of Christ while we have time and while we have opportunity.
Study Questions for: “Matthew: Lesson 6”
1. In Matthew 17:1-8, what did the voice say about Jesus?
2. What does Jesus say will not prevail against His church in Matthew 16:13-18?
3. According to Matthew 16:13-18, how many churches did Jesus say He’d build?
4. According to 1 Corinthians 1:10-13, God doesn’t want what?
5. Whose church is it according to Matthew 16:13-18?
6. According to Acts 20:28, how did Jesus purchase the church?
7. What does Matthew 16:26 question show us is most important in life?
8. What does Matthew 18:1 say about who is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?
9. What is the only biblical reason for divorce according to Matthew 19:9?
10. What is the church compared to in Matthew 2:1-16?