Matthew 16 verse 18 the Bible says and I say unto thee thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build
my church. The title for the sermon tonight is I will build my church. Hey who's going to build
his church? Jesus Christ said I will build my church. Okay this is very important because
you can build a church two ways. We've seen many churches today. There are a lot of churches today
but how many of them are actually built on the Lord Jesus Christ? Say well they're not. Well
if they're not built on the Lord Jesus Christ what are they built upon? We'll have a look at
this later on. Let's start off with verse number one. Matthew 16 verse one the Bible says the
Pharisees also with the Sadducees came and tempting desired him that he would show them
a sign from heaven and that seems like a pretty nice request. You know these guys come to Jesus
can you show us a sign from heaven? Keep your finger there go back to Matthew chapter 12 please
Matthew chapter 12. I know we've covered this before but just as a reminder Matthew chapter 12
look at verse number 22. All right so the Pharisees and the Sadducees come into Christ
Matthew chapter 12 verse 22 the Bible says then was brought unto him one possessed with a devil
blind and dumb and he healed him in so much that the blind and dumb both spake and sore.
So you see Jesus Christ here performing an amazing miracle isn't it? He healed someone from a devil
there right? In verse 23 and all the people were amazed and said is this not the son of David?
So you see the people that saw the miracle of Christ that saw the work of his hands saying this
is the son of David this is the Messiah this is the promised one. But look at verse 24 but when
the Pharisees heard it and they said this fellow doth not cast out devils but by Beelzebub the
prince of the devils. So here we have the Pharisees once more you can go back to Matthew 16 now Matthew
take 16. So Jesus has already been doing miracles in that site hasn't he? He's been benefiting
others that have been struggling with sicknesses you know casting out devils the Pharisees are
there they've seen this they've seen how the people reacted to Jesus they saw they knew this
was the Christ they saw the miracle but here we are now you know four chapters later they're
saying hey show us a miracle show us a miracle you think their hearts are in the right place
you think they really want to believe on Christ no they do not want that they could have believed
that in fact they said he cast out devils by the power of Beelzebub which is the blasphemy of the
Holy Ghost which means they cannot be forgiven anyway what point is there for Jesus to show them
a miracle when these people will not believe anyway that these people are damned these people
they have blasphemed Jesus Christ or blasphemed the Holy Spirit I should say they're damned you
know Jesus Christ is not going to perform a miracle for them verse number two he answered
and said unto them when it is evening you say it will be fair weather for the sky is red and in the
morning it will be foul weather today for the sky is red and lowering oh ye hypocrites you can
discern the face of the sky but can uh but can you not discern the signs of the times so let's
just understand this a little bit Jesus Christ mentions twice in verse number two and then verse
number three about the sky being red now just just quickly when does the sky turn red it's during
sunrise or sunset right that's when usually the skies like that that bright orange that red that
purpley color sometimes that you see well let's understand this then when he says in verse number
two uh when it is evening you say it'll be fair weather for the sky is red so if it's evening if
evening is coming the sky is red what are we talking about here the sun's setting right the
sun is setting the sky is turning red and it says when you see that you say it's going to be fair
weather now let's understand this a little bit why would they say it's going to be good weather
or fair weather it's because if you can see the sky red then it's not overcast you know it's not
full of or full of clouds so it's a clear sky it's a clear night sky it's turning to evening
these people can say well it's going to be good weather tonight okay then in verse number three
and in the morning if it'd be foul weather the weather's going to be bad it's going to be you
know rainy or muggy or whatever it says here if you'd be foul weather today for the sky is red
so the sky is red and lowering okay now here's a challenging thing i looked up lowering in the
dictionary what does lowering mean you know what there's i couldn't find any dictionary that had
the word lowering but what i did find was that this this word lowering is an archaic form of the
word lowering okay lowering but we don't even use that so much today right well but what it
basically means is that the sky has lowered okay the clouds have come down so obviously when the
when the sky is overcast the clouds are a lot lower when it's when it's when it feels like
it's going to rain the clouds are lower they're heavier you know it might downpour and so when
they when they see yes it's time for the sky to be red but actually the sky is lowering then they
know it says oh sorry it says it will be foul weather say look it's probably going to rain
today and it's not going to be a nice day today so what jesus saying look you can look at the sky
and you can work out by the clouds and how clear the sky is you can work out how good the weather's
going to be for that period of time so and then what this says oh ye hypocrites you can discern
the face of the sky but can you not discern the signs of the times okay so what they couldn't
understand yes these pharisees can work out the weather but what they've not worked out is that
jesus christ was a messiah that he was a son of david he was there already performing these
miracles and these pharisees were so blinded they had such a hatred such an unbelief toward
jesus christ where they could not tell the times of the times the messiah was now walking on the
earth the lord god manifesting the flesh was walking upon the earth so you can see how blind
these pharisees these Sadducees are and this is what jesus says about these blind pharisees verse
number four a wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign and he calls them wicked
he calls them adulterous now look i think adultery is one of the worst sins i mean i'd put it up
there i mean i'd rather i'd rather be murdered by my wife than my wife commit adultery that's kind
of how i feel about it i mean adultery is such a wicked wicked uh sin but of course jesus christ
is using it here in a spiritual sense you know these pharisees they should have had the hearts
of the lord god and if they had if they believed the scriptures they would have believed on christ
but they had committed spiritual adultery they had gone out after other gods or or even just
self just made made an image of themselves and worshiped themselves that's why they're wicked
and adulterous it says a wicked adulterous generation seeketh after a sign but there shall
no sign be given unto it no sign how many people when you go out someone to say to you oh i've had
it said man if jesus just appeared right now i did a miracle i'll believe no jesus says hey if
you say that that's a wicked and adulterous generation okay they're not going to believe
you know even if jesus came and jesus was there in the presence performing these miracles and
people still did not believe on him and it says but there shall no sign be given unto it but
the sign of the prophet jonas and he left them and departed so that's what is the sign of jonas
you know that jonah was in the in the whale's belly for how long for three days and three
nights and what why three days because he came out of the welly out of the whale's belly okay
he came out of the whale's belly and he says this is the sign that they're going to receive
the sign of jonas obviously we who have the whole bible at our disposal we know he's talking about
his death burial for three days and three nights and his resurrection hey that's the sign that we
need to go and preach the gospel with okay when we go in fact the gospel is the death burial
resurrection if someone says hey give me a sign okay let me show you the gospel that's the sign
that's what we need to preach okay that's that's what we need to preach if you could perform
miracles it's it doesn't have the power the power of salvation comes through the gospel when people
understanding what jesus christ could do for them verse number five and when his disciples would
come to the other side they had forgotten to take bread okay so they needed bread for their journey
they forgot what for they maybe left it somewhere forgot to purchase some whatever but if you guys
have been here for the last two weeks what have we learned what did you do last week you know in
chapter what was it chapter 15 in chapter 15 he fed the four thousand remember that they had no
food he fed the four thousand in chapter 14 he fed the five thousand and remember these are just
numbers of men it doesn't include the numbers of women and children as well so do you think that
disciples after seeing these amazing miracles should be concerned about bread i mean jesus
can provide for them supernaturally god can provide food you know they shouldn't be too
concerned they forgot bread yes maybe a little bit irresponsible but they should know by now
twice that jesus christ is able to feed thousands on such little food you know but look at verse
number six then jesus said unto them take heed that means listen and beware of the leaven of the
pharisees and of the sadducees beware of the leaven of the pharisees and the sadducees so
what is jesus christ speaking about here okay he says that doesn't what doesn't make sense why is
he talking about the pharisees and sadducees could we just found out this this is a wicked and
adulterous generation okay you see the pharisees and sadducees these are religious leaders and
they're also their job is to feed the people and what they're feeding is hypocrisy what they're
feeding people false doctrines and and uh jesus comparing their teachings a spiritual lesson of
bread as leaven you know what leaven is it's like yeast it leavens the whole bread it uh it spreads
we've got to be careful with false doctrine if we don't shut it down if we just accept false
doctrine it can spread into our lives spread into our church spread into our homes we've got to be
careful of the leaven of the pharisees and the sadducees let's keep reading verse number seven
and they the disciples reason amongst themselves saying is it because we have taken no bread did
jesus say beware of the leaven of the pharisees because we forgot the bread is that what he's
talking about so are the disciples understanding it's gone over their head right the spiritual
lesson has gone over their head verse number eight uh which when jesus perceived he said unto them
oh ye of little faith why reason ye among yourselves because you have brought no bread
do you not yet understand neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand and how many
baskets you took up it was 12 baskets then they were leftovers neither that's number 10 neither
the seven loaves of the four thousand or how many baskets you took up there were seven baskets left
for the four thousand verse number 11 how is it that you do not understand that i speak not to
you concerning bread that you should be aware of the leaven of the pharisees and of the sadducees
so you see jesus christ he's kind of rebuking his disciples can you not understand these spiritual
lessons okay now let me say something about us we're all at different stages of our spiritual
growth some of us have read the bible more than others and i've read the bible a lot but i still
don't know i still don't know everything in the bible i still don't have an answer for every verse
okay so i the reason i bring this up to you because these are people that are walking with
christ they're seeing his miracles they're listening to his preaching that they've been
doing this for three years you know pretty much full time at the feet of jesus christ
listening to him and still when jesus christ taught certain things it was still difficult
for them to understand okay if something still went over their heads they couldn't fully
put it all together okay and you know the reason i say this it should encourage you
okay sometimes when you read the bible you are going to struggle you're just going to like i
don't know what that's saying well you know what if you don't know what it's saying sometimes the
disciples of christ didn't understand either what jesus christ said okay so that puts you in good
company it puts you in good company with these great men of god okay that struggle to understand
certain sayings of jesus christ but just because we don't understand should we should we just be
like well okay i'm not going to try to understand no jesus christ is instructing them and kind of
rebuking them hey why haven't you understood you know part of growing as a christian is reading the
word of god studying the word of god meditating upon the word of god you know uh memorizing the
word of god the more time you spend with the word you know the more you're going to understand it
the more you read through your bible the greater the truths are going to come to you the deeper
your understanding of the word of god is going to become we should study the word of god as well and
you know if you if you struggle with certain passages hey you're just like everybody else
but ask god for wisdom ask god for understanding or seek you know your spiritual leaders you know
your pastors or or other good men that are in the church that you can trust the judgment hey
ask them about certain passages i think that's that's really fruitful when people can come
together and discuss portions of scripture so don't get discouraged if you don't understand
keep trying jesus wants you to understand god wants to give you the answers okay but little
by little okay line upon line precept upon precepts as we learn the word of god let's
keep going verse number 12 then then understood okay once jesus rebukes them right you think i'm
talking about bread then understood they how uh that he bade them not beware sorry had he
bade them not beware of the leaven of bread but of the doctrine of the pharisees and of the
sadducees see that's what jesus christ was warning them on of the doctrines the teachings of the
pharisees and the sadducees because if you remember in verse number 15 when the pharisees
came to jesus just just last week how they were criticizing him and his disciples for not washing
their hands before they ate and the bible tells us that they were um making for doctrines the
commandments of men they were making things you know uh trying to force people to wash their hands
as a doctrine of god as a commandment of god which is which is it's not okay and so we need this is
the this is the the leaven of the pharisees and the sadducees people that teach things that are
not in the word of god okay that's the leaven and it can spread we've got to be careful of false
teaching all right and one thing i'll tell you guys right now something that's going to make
your bible reading life a lot easier is get settled on the fundamentals of the faith just
lock them in in your life you know salvation by grace through faith without works lock that in
okay because then when you read a certain passage of the bible it sounds like this is saying i need
works to be saved you'll be like no it's not because the fundamental of faith is salvation
by grace for faith so this must be teaching something else if you just lock in the fundamentals
you're going to find your bible reading a lot easier okay and comparing scripture with scripture
another great task another great tool you know uh to use but let me just really encourage you if you
haven't locked in your fundamentals you better do that you better do that who is jesus christ
the second person of the trinity the son of god we'll look at this later on the trinity that's
important okay the virgin birth you know creation six-day creation that's all important the second
coming of christ lock all these things in you know once you've got them locked in the rest of
the bible is going to come to life for you let's keep reading verse number 13 when jesus came into
the coast of caesarea philippi he asked his disciples saying whom do men say uh whom do men
say that i the son of man am now just for your information caesarea philippi if you remember
harrod the great the one that tried to kill jesus christ when he was a little child he when he died
he had four sons and the four sons basically took over his kingdom and so the four sons had
different areas of the kingdom and one of the guy one of the son's name was also harrod remember
harrod the one that beheaded john the baptist and why why did he hate john the baptist because or
why did his wife because he had taken the wife of his brother philip remember so philip was
another man and another man who who reigned uh after his father and this is where we're at this
is this is philip's uh area that he looks after that he looks over it's called caesarea named
after caesar and then philippi named after himself philip okay so obviously his wife was taken by his
brother harrod just for your information just thought that was interesting that jesus christ
is in that area verse number 14 and they said some say that thou art john the baptist
some say elias and others jeremiah and one of the prophets so there are some people that believe
you're just a prophet you're one of these old testament prophets that come back from the dead
or you're just some other prophet you know some other prophet of god and see that's true jesus
christ was a prophet but you see even today there are some religions that limit jesus christ to just
a prophet i mean think of islam you know think of the muslims they think of jesus christ they
don't believe he's the son of god obviously they don't believe he's god manifest in the flesh
they believe he's just a good man just a prophet hey that's not enough for you to be saved you need
to know who jesus christ is you must believe that he is the god that he's the creator of all things
that he became manifest in the flesh as the son of god that he lived that perfect life and died
on the cross for us you know rose again from the dead you know it's not just knowing that jesus
was a good person that's not enough to get you saved there's a lot of religions in this world
a lot of religions in this world that believe jesus christ was a great prophet a great man a
great teacher many of them but none of them are saved okay it's not enough to believe just that
look at verse number 14 uh 15 15 and he and he saith unto them but whom say ye that i am
hey this is a question we all at some point in our lives have to answer all of us jesus christ
asks from all of us god asks from all of us but whom say ye that i am who is jesus christ to you
okay is he just a prophet just a good man what is he to you heather simon peter answered verse
number 16 and simon peter answered and said thou art the christ the son of the living god you see
what peter says he says you're the christ that makes you the son of god the son of the living
god that's who jesus christ is this is one of the fundamentals of faith you have to lock in
who is jesus christ the son of god okay he's not god the father he's not the holy spirit
if you start doing that you you mess up the trinity you start messing up a fundamental
doctrine a huge problem we see the testimony of peter you are the son of the living god and i'm
just going to read some other passages matthew 14 verse 33 it says and uh then they that when
the ship came and worshiped him saying of a truth thou art the son of god hey these disciples knew
who jesus christ was the son of god and of course you know the story of philip you know the
evangelist or the deacon the evangelists were that that's uh that uh preached the gospel to the
ethiopian eunuch remember that and when the ethiopian eunuch um wants to get baptized
this gets said in acts uh chapter 8 verse 37 and philip said if thou believe us with all thine
heart thou mayest and he answered and said i believe that jesus christ is the son of god
is there any doubt who the bible tells us who jesus christ is he's definitely here the son of
god matthew 27 you guys are in math you can turn there if you want matthew 27 verse 54 matthew 27
verse 54 this is jesus christ that is crucifixion now when the centurion and they that were with him
watching jesus saw the earthquake and those things that were done they feared greatly saying truly
this was the son of god you see how important we have multiple testimonies of scripture you know
every word should be established with two or three witnesses so far we've got more than that
testifying of who jesus christ was the son of god all right i'll just i'll read to you from john 134
and i saw this is john speaking and i saw and bear record that this is the son of god that this is
the son of god and john 11 27 just quickly she's safe unto him this is martha after her brother
had passed away after you know lazarus up before jesus christ raises lazarus from the dead uh this
is what martha says to jesus she's safe unto him yea lord i believe that thou art christ the son of
god which should come into the world any doubt of who jesus christ is he's the son of god the bible
does not teach that he is god the father he is not the holy spirit okay this is a fundamental guys
and i'm driving this home because many of you guys know where you guys have some of you guys
have come from and some of the the the teaching you know some of the false teaching that that
makes jesus into something that he is not we've got to maintain what the bible clearly tells us
that jesus is the son of god it doesn't tell us that he's got the father nor the holy spirit
he's the second person of the trinity back to matthew 16 please verse 17 matthew 16 verse 17
okay and jesus answered so after he says you're the son of god answered and said to him blessed
art thou simon by jonah by jonah's simon's surname for flesh and blood have not revealed it unto thee
but my father which is in heaven you see if you today know that jesus christ is the son of god
you know who revealed that to you the father from heaven okay it's a spiritual work
a spiritual knowledge that has that you've received from the father to understand that
jesus is the son of god and it says in verse 18 and i say unto thee thou art peter and upon
this rock i will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it so jesus
christ says he's going to build his church right he's going to build it but upon what he said upon
this rock which rock and this is where the roman catholics really messed it up right i mean they
messed it up they see here thou art peter and upon this rock meaning they think upon the rock of
peter they're going to his jesus christ is going to build his church okay now i'll tell you one
major problem with that just um drop down to verse number 23 quickly verse 23 same chapter
but he turned and said unto peter this is jesus saying to peter get thee behind me satan thou
are an offense unto me for thou savourest not the things that be of god but those that be of men
man if jesus christ is building his church on simon peter it's already failed i mean in the
same chapter you see satan already you know uh uh misleading peter in his understanding all right
so how do we understand this what is the rock well if jesus said this to peter surely peter knows the
answer all right let's go let's keep your finger there let's go to first peter let's go to first
peter in our bibles first peter chapter two first peter chapter two so obviously first peter was
written by the same peter that jesus christ said these words to so surely he knows who the rock is
first peter chapter two verse four first peter chapter two verse four peter says all right to
whom coming as unto a living stone this allowed indeed of men but chosen of god and precious
ye also as lively stones are built up at a built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer
up spiritual sacrifices accepted to god by jesus christ wherefore also it is contained in the
scripture behold i lay in zion a chief cornerstone elect precious and he that believes on him shall
not be confounded he believes in who on jesus christ shall not be confounded right verse seven
unto you therefore which believe he is precious but unto them which be disobedient the stone which
the builders disallowed the same is made the head of the corner a stone of stumbling and a rock of
offense even to them which stumble at the word being disobedient where unto also they were
appointed so you see that peter here writes about jesus christ the one who he believed upon and he
calls him the stone he calls him the rock okay and of course jesus christ is that rock in which
this church is built upon okay new life baptist church is built upon that's my desire right i
wanted this church to be built upon jesus christ that's the rock that will never move all right
this church is not built on pastor kevin this church is not built on one of you guys this
church is not built on some movement or some online preacher no this church is built on the
lord jesus christ and if you make sure that this church remains built on jesus christ and it's not
going to fail okay it's not going to fail you know the only way this church can fail is if we just
give up you know or that's it okay because jesus christ is going to do his part jesus christ is
going to be a strong foundation so let's um let's go back to uh matthew 16 verse 19
actually verse 8 go back to verse 18 i haven't finished what i wanted to say there
he says upon this rock upon the rock of jesus christ he will build his church and then it says
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it okay now there's a lot of false teaching about
this okay and um let me just make this very clear i've heard a lot of pastors and i'm not i'm not
trying to bag about anything okay because i think this is the common teaching about this
a lot of preachers say well see when the gates of hell shall not prevail against the church
that's talking about the forces of satan you know the forces of darkness will not take down or
prevail or overcome the church of god is that really what it's saying you know what is hell
if you guys were here when i preached on hell who who owns hell is it satan that's god god created
hell you know for the punishment of the devil and his angels okay god created hell that's where he
cast the unbeliever okay god's in charge of hell and one day satan's going to be cast into the
lake of fire and he'll be tormented day and night forever and ever okay it's not satan tormenting
non-believers satan's the one that ultimately is the one that's going to be punished there in hell
and and or not touching hell but it gets thrown into the lake of fire haven't got time to go
through all of that right now so if god owns hell if god is the one who casts people into hell which
he does there's plenty of scriptures about that then what is it saying here it says let's read it
again and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it you see the church is a local
congregation of what believers okay believers we who have been saved we who have trusted on the
lord jesus christ and guess what when you place your faith on christ you're given everlasting life
you're born of the spirit it's called everlasting for a reason it's called eternal life for a reason
why is that because it's everlasting means it lasts forever eternal means it never ends once
you're saved once you've been purchased by the blood of christ you will never go to hell okay
you never have to have a fear of hell that's why the gates of hell will not prevail against this
church because if it's made up of local believers that's what a church is supposed to be made of
of course the gates of hell not going to prevail against that we've overcome hell because jesus
christ overcame hell for us right he overcame death he overcame sin you know you know we've
taken on his righteousness you know if we were to be cast into hell then jesus christ did not complete
what he was tasked to do now jesus christ was the one who rose up from the dead we'll look at this
later on that's why the gates of hell we should have no fear of hell you know we should not be
afraid that we will not make it to heaven if you've put all your faith and trust in jesus
christ because it's jesus that saves it's not yourself it's not based on your works it's based
on what jesus christ has done for us verse number 19 and i will give unto thee the keys of the
kingdom of heaven and what's over there shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and what's over
that shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven all right so peter here and of course
by extension all of us have been given the power to open the door of heaven okay we can we actually
have the power to prevent people from going to heaven or to go to heaven you believe that that's
what he says we've given the keys given the keys of heaven what's that power what again we just
covered it right the gospel the gospel message that's the key to heaven you know and here's the
problem if we hold back those keys if we don't open up those gates for others to come in what
are we doing we're withholding people from going to heaven is that what your life wants if that
what you want your life wants you know you want your life to be about you know someone that
withheld heaven from others or do you want to be someone that's known as opening you know opening
up heaven you know loosen up on earth which so people would be loosed up in heaven is that what
you want to be known for i hope i hope the the second one right being being loosed in heaven
i'm opening that passage to heaven for other people and again the roman catholics they mess
this up right have you guys seen the logo or the insignia of the pope it's like um these two keys
um one's gold and one's silver and um they say oh like you know the pope or the roman catholic
church they've been given because they believe peter was the first pope and so you know the
church is built on the first pope so you know the roman catholic church is the one true church which
has the keys to heaven and that's why they believe that the only way for you to be saved the only way
for you to go to heaven is through the roman catholic church because the roman catholic church
in their minds has the keys to heaven okay now here's the problem with that keep your finger
there turn to luke 11 verse 52 luke 11 verse 52 because this is not the only place that speaks
of these keys all right luke 11 verse 52 luke 11 verse 52 and while you're reading there
jesus christ during during this chapter i haven't got time to go through it all now
is destroying the religious leaders just absolutely wiping them in this chapter luke 11 but look at
verse 52 jesus says woe unto you lawyers for ye have taken away the key of knowledge
ye entered not in yourselves and them that were entering in ye hindered you see these lawyers
jesus christ says look you've taken away the key the key to enter where you see the context you
know if you look at this chapter is the kingdom of heaven is the kingdom of god they've taken
they've hidden that key away from other people and it says and them that were entering ye hindered
there were certain people that wanted to know the truth they wanted to know what must i do to be
saved and these lawyers these religious leaders stopped people from going into heaven hey that's
not what we want to be we want to make sure that we're people that guide you know others to heaven
that we open up those those gates right the gates of heaven through the keys of the gospel so you
see how here the key of knowledge you know that's what we have we have the key of knowledge okay we
have the gospel message we can allow people to enter into heaven look at verse number 20 back
sorry uh matthew 16 verse 20 matthew 16 verse 20 and before i go there just obviously the roman
catholic church with their so-called keys they're no different to these lawyers they're no different
hindering other people they're not going in themselves and they're hindering other people
from coming into heaven verse number 20 verse number 20 matthew 16 verse 20
then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was jesus the christ
now this is a really challenging verse to explain i'll be honest with you if you have your thoughts
please share with me i will give you my best explanation all right so why would he tell
his disciples to tell no man that he was jesus the christ isn't that what we're not what we do
don't preach the gospel we're telling hey this is the messiah this is the promised one this is the
son of god this is the one that died for your sins he's the christ you know so it's it's definitely
a challenging verse to explain but i think if we keep it within the context we just keep it with
what we've just learned okay i think it starts to make a lot more sense and so what i what i my best
shot at this if you guys have a better explanation i'm happy to hear it you know but my best
understanding of this if you go back to verse number 17 just look back at verse 17
verse number 17 and jesus answered and said unto him blessed art thou simon barjona for
flesh and blood have not revealed it unto thee but my father but my father which is in heaven
so you see jesus says to simon peter that it was a spiritual awakening a spiritual knowledge that
came to him the father the you know we'll say the holy ghost because obviously when you believe
the holy ghost you know um you're born again through the holy ghost okay it's a spiritual
thing that takes place it's not just a knowledge that you receive but when you when you do believe
on christ it's also a spiritual awakening uh for you and so what from what i can understand here
is that looks like god the father was doing work and i was working through the hearts of the people
opening their eyes up to who jesus christ was and of course as jesus christ was going through
and doing the great works doing the great miracles people were starting to realize wow this is jesus
this is the son of god this is the son of david this is the messiah people are waking up to this
truth it's almost like the work and the teaching of jesus christ was sufficient for the people in
this area to to know who he was okay but of course we have the pharisees we have the sadducees we
have these other people that even seeing the great works of god they still blinded their eyes they
still harden their hearts against jesus christ so it seems like to me at this point in time jesus
was just allowing people just to uh look watch and and come to their own understanding and
realization of who jesus christ was okay that's my best explanation if you guys have something better
i'm happy to hear it verse 21 verse 21 from that time forth jesus began to show unto his disciples
how that he must go unto jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and
scribes and be killed so jesus christ he prophesied of his death and be raised again the third day
then peter took him and began to rebuke him saying be it far from thee lord this shall not
be unto thee hey this science sounds nice this sounds like peter really wants to look after
jesus because jesus said look i'm gonna be killed but it says no way sounds like peter really cares
for jesus but how does jesus respond verse 23 but he turned and said unto peter get thee behind me
satan thou are an offense unto me you offend me peter wow for thou savourest not the things that
be of god but those that be of men so here's the thing that i believe what's going on here
it's not that obviously satan is not trying to stop jesus from going from being killed in fact
the other passage i haven't got the passages with me that basically say it was the forces of
darkness that were involved in getting jesus christ killed and crucified all right so it
wasn't like satan was trying to stop that from happening but i think jesus nails it down uh in
the last verses uh words of verse 23 uh for that service not the things that be of god but those
that be of men so it appears to me that simon peter was tempted by satan to have some great
you know ambitions in life maybe he wanted to be this great religious leader and he was looking at
you know the great success and the great you know honor that he may receive as being a disciple of
christ you know he was seeking the things that be of men he wasn't thinking about the things of god
at this point in time in his life okay maybe he was thinking himself too highly you know too
highly and the thought of jesus dying just shattered that dream you know if they're great
prophet if they're great preacher you know were to die you know it'll destroy as far as his concern
you know the thoughts that maybe you know this is a great movement that we can achieve but he doesn't
realize that by his death bearing resurrection the movement will grow greater you know there'll
be greater works the holy ghosts will come empower these men and preach all across the world you know
son peter was not aware of that and and of course we see this because when jesus christ was arrested
and killed we saw his disciples which we saw the apostles scattered and and fearful for for their
own lives so you see um that's what i believe what's going on here is that peter may have
thought too highly of himself you know thinking about this great you know uh recognition that he's
going to receive and i think if you're ever going to be a pastor or just just get up and preach
you've got to just remember that the work that you do is ministry you're ministering to the
saints okay it's not about elevating yourself it's about elevating jesus christ okay it's not about
edifying yourself it's about edifying the believers you know serving the believers not
about getting served served yourself it's about serving the believers with the word of god so
make sure you keep that in mind because i think when you start thinking too highly yourself
you know that's satan you know tempting you and you start to save save the things of men
rather than the things of god let's keep reading verse 24 then said jesus unto his disciples if
any man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me so i want you
to notice this he says it to his disciples okay um if any man will come after me let him deny
himself and take up his cross and follow me you don't know how many times i've heard when i when i
like i knock the doors on christian people maybe you've heard this as well and they say you know
you ask well what do you have to do to be saved has anyone ever said to you take up your cross
and follow after christ i've heard that a few times okay so they're taking this verse about
disciples about discipleship and they've applied this to salvation okay now think about this if
we're required to take up our cross you know to follow after christ you know walk in his ways
to keep his commands do the things that he's asking us to do is that salvation by grace
through faith or is that by works it's definitely by works right and we'll see later on that jesus
does describe this as works but let me tell you where a lot of uh christians mess this up okay
now when you think of the word disciple do you think of a saved person do you think of
discipleship as salvation because i tell you now a lot of churches teach that okay a lot of
christians have this mixed up okay now let me tell you why discipleship does not mean salvation
necessarily i mean largely it does but not necessarily okay because we know judas iscariot
wasn't he a disciple of christ he was right but was he saved no he wasn't saved right so people
there's a lot of disciples of jesus in this world but they're not saved okay because they're still
trusting in their works they're trusting in the discipleship they're following after christ in
order to be saved rather than his death burial and resurrection and the works fully done by
by jesus christ now let me explain this to you keep your finger there go to matthew 28 verse 19
matthew 28 verse 19 i'm almost done now but matthew 28 verse 19
let's read it together from the king james bible just read it out but see matthew 28 verse 19
go ye therefore and teach all nations is that difficult to understand i'll go to all nations
right and let you know it's preaching the gospel then baptizing them in the name of the father and
of the son of the holy ghost now keep your eyes in there matthew 28 verse 19 i'm going to read
to you from the other four the the four other main bible english bible english translations
and let's have a look at the differences okay i'm going to read from the niv just the first few
words therefore go and make disciples of all nations is that what your king james says no
it says teach all nations the new king james says go therefore and make disciples of all nations
the esv go therefore and make disciples of all nations the new living translation therefore go
and make disciples of all nations all right now if we compare scripture with scripture jesus christ
also says um go you into the into all the world and preach the gospel okay another time that he
gives the great commission preach the gospel so when we compare matthew 28 verse 19 it says go
ye therefore and teach all nations what are you teaching all nations you're preaching them the
gospel okay the gospel is the power unto god power of god unto salvation okay but what does
these what do these modern versions say what's salvation to them becoming a disciple okay works
okay this is why a lot of people get confused they think in order for me to be saved i have
to become a disciple no you become saved by believing on christ then once you believe you
can be a disciple okay but there's another thing that i want you to understand the word disciple
is only in the four gospels matthew mark luke and john and then in the book of acts
that's it that the word disciples not found in the epistles to the churches okay let me explain
this very quickly when jesus christ was on the earth it was three years of his ministry he was
calling on people to leave their jobs remember the fishermen left their boats you know matthew
the um or levi he left the table you know as a tax collector a publican he left and followed
after christ during those three years jesus christ was calling on disciples because he was
there for a limited time he needed to teach these things so then these men would go out and become
the spiritual leaders of the future churches to come the future new testament churches
all right now i'm not saying we should there i'm not saying this has nothing to do with us
but what i'm saying is when jesus christ is speaking of disciples he's speaking primarily
about those that would leave all and follow after him you see today we don't have jesus christ walking
the earth okay we don't have to leave all things and follow after him okay to learn other things
what does the bible call the church the local church because of the body of christ okay if
you want to be where the body of christ is then you've got to be at church gather with all the
other believers you make up the church okay so we can take the principles of discipleship and
apply that to our lives we should follow after christ we should keep his commands we should do
the things that he's asked us to do right of course we should strive to be a disciple in that sense
but we must always remember when you read the bible we keep the primary focus on discipleship
to those that were there during that time of jesus christ okay now let me just prove to you
that this is works okay let's keep reading verse number 25 matthew 16 sorry matthew 16 verse 25
for whosoever will uh will save his life shall lose it and whosoever will lose his life for my
sake shall find it so you might be thinking this must be salvation oh it's about discipleship okay
let's have a look at this let me just explain very quickly all right if you prioritize this life
okay if you make uh you know if you try to to build all your goals and and your you know your
ambitions upon this world you know being rich making money all these things you know if you
try to save your life here then you're going to lose it let's not lose your salvation it's just
that you're not going to have you're not going to take all the things that you've gained and earned
on this earth into heaven you're going to lose all those things okay but if you lose your life
here you put aside your ambitions to be this great you know rich man or whatever you know chasing
after worldly things worldly pleasures and you put your sights on heaven then you'll gain your life
over there that that's where it matters that's where your life will have extreme value okay this
is about prioritizing heavenly things versus earthly things verse 26 for what is a man profited
that he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul or what shall a man give in exchange
for his soul so we see in verse 26 that this is definitely a spiritual lesson that god is that
jesus christ is teaching here and look at verse number 27 let's keep this all together verse 27
for the son of man shall come in the glory of his father with his angels this is his second coming
and then he shall reward every man according to his works so what are the last few verses all
about works discipleship okay is salvation by works no okay be careful when you read the bible
don't take one verse and undo all the fundamental truths you already know keep it within the context
we see that jesus christ is very clearly speaking about his works should we have works absolutely
should we trust our works for salvation no you've messed it up as soon as you're trusting your works
you've lost the gospel message okay but should we have works yes that jesus christ want us to
have works yes why so then in verse 27 he can reward every man according to his works i want
to be rewarded by jesus i hope you have that desire that you too want to be rewarded by jesus
okay how by doing the works that he's given us verse 28 verse 28 verily i say unto you there
there be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the son of man coming in
his kingdom i don't want to expand on that i will leave that for next week because i believe the
answer to verse 28 is in the next chapter we'll leave it there let's pray