Peter’s Great Confession (Matthew 16:13-20)

We can see from the passage that Jesus asked his disciples regarding opinions people had of him. His first question assumes that they would know, which means that he was aware that they had opportunities to find out. We are not to assume that Jesus was ignorant regarding their opinions, so we must deduce that he asked the question to test his disciples. Jesus expected his disciples to be informed about public opinion about him. And there is no reason why he should not expect the same of us.

The Saviour called himself the Son of Man. This is an Old Testament title for the promised Messiah. One place to see where it is used of Jesus is in the Book of Daniel in a prophecy about the Messiah receiving a kingdom from God the Father (Dan. 7:13-14).

In that vision, the Son of Man comes to the Ancient of Days, which is a title of God the Father. It is a prophecy of Jesus appearing there after his ascension, and he is there to receive the reward due to him for his work on the cross. The reward is the bestowal of universal authority, of the assurance of subjects, and of the permanence of his kingdom. Jesus’ disciples should have known about that promise, even although they did not yet understand the significance of the cross.

It is clear that people had a high regard for Jesus – they thought that he was a prophet. They probably came to this conclusion because of the teaching role that Jesus engaged in. Yet their assessment fell far short of who Jesus actually is. We are familiar with something similar happening today. Many people can speak of Jesus in positive ways connected to him being an example and being a teacher of religious behaviour. Yet that is not enough. There is much more to appreciate about Jesus, and those other details are essential to hold if we wish to be regarded as genuine disciples.

The Second Question

On this occasion Jesus was not primarily interested in what other people thought about him. What was of interest to him was a public confession of him by his disciples. And one was given by Peter when he said who he thought Jesus was. His answer reveals that he had grasped two important details about Jesus.

The first detail that Peter confesses is that he believes that Jesus is the Christ. In using this name, Peter was stating that he believed that Jesus was the promised Messiah, which causes us to think back to how Andrew described Jesus when he witnessed to his brother for the first time about Jesus. This confession does not mean that Peter understood everything about Jesus because shortly after he would object to the statement that Jesus would be arrested and put to death (Matt. 16:21-23). Yet he had grown in his learning about Jesus.

We can see more of that growth in the second title that Peter uses when he confesses that Jesus is the Son of the living God. Other passages indicate that for someone to claim to be the Son of God was a claim to deity, of being equal with God. So we can see that Peter has made real progress in his understanding of who Jesus is. As a Jew, Peter would have held tenaciously to the doctrine that God is one, but while still holding to that belief here he is stating that he now believes that there is more than one person in the Godhead.

Some may wonder why Peter wanted to describe God as the living God. One reason might be their location. Caesarea Philippi was near to a pagan temple and its existence could have caused Peter to be thankful that he knew that the true God was not like the idols connected to that temple.

The titles that Peter uses remind us of the greatness of Jesus. Peter was discovering more and more about how great Jesus is, even although he had a lot more to discover. And he is still discovering how amazing Jesus is.

Importance of Peter’s confession

Jesus responded to Peter’s confession by teaching him new truths. The first concerns how Peter knew so much about Jesus. Maybe Peter had imagined that he had worked it out for himself, that over the last few months he had been thinking hard about Jesus and now he understood. It is interesting that Jesus does not claim to have revealed those details about himself. Instead he links the instruction to the Heavenly Father. This does not mean that Jesus was not involved in teaching Peter, nor does it mean that somehow Peter was taught heavenly truths without the Holy Spirit. Instead we have an example here of how the Trinity works in harmony to communicate their intentions to the apostles, and then through them to us.

The way that Jesus speaks to Peter here is striking because it is possible that he is saying that the old Simon has now become the new Peter. Jesus first calls him by his old name and then says to him that he now is Peter who has become a very different person from what he was when he first met Jesus.

What did Jesus mean when referred to a rock? Personally I would say that Jesus’ words point back to the conversation that he had with Peter. The rock is the words of the confession that Peter made when he said that Jesus was the Son of the living God. The confession is a rock because it is true. We can see that the confession is reliable because it is connected to the truth about Jesus who is both God and man (the Son of the living God and the Messiah). The other opinions that were expressed by different people were not rocks because they were untrue, which meant that no one could build anything on them.

Peter and the church

Peter discovered that Jesus was going to build something, here called the church. Needless to say, we know that Jesus was not referring to a religious building. The word translated church is ecclesia (from it we get words like ecclesiastical and ecclesiastic), but in itself the word is not about a religious gathering. Instead it refers to any kind of official gathering that occurred when people were summoned to meet together. Jesus here indicates that he is going to summon people to form a community that belongs to him.

Who is going to summon people to join this group? Jesus is, but in the main he is going to do it through his servants and through his people as they witness to who he is. When is he going to build his church? The answer to this question is that he will do so throughout the subsequent centuries as sinners are brought into his kingdom, and he is still doing so today. How will he build his church? He will do it as people discover who he is and what he has done for sinners. Simple statements like the one Peter had just made, even although it contained profound truth. After all, the speaker may be Peter but the teacher would be the triune God, as we see on the Day of Pentecost and afterwards.

Jesus would be opposed in his building project by those he calls ‘the gates of hell’. There is more than one suggestion as to what is meant here. One view says that the gates of a location were usually the places where the city rulers met to discuss matters connected to the town. Here Jesus says that the powers of darkness will engage in efforts to stop the growth of his kingdom. Another view is that the gates of hell refers to the power of death, and death is an opponent who always seems to win. Yet Jesus, under this meaning, is promising resurrection for those who belong to his church.

If I have to choose between the two options, I think it is probably the first because Jesus’ use of the word ‘prevail’ suggests an attack made by enemies of the church. Moreover, the word ‘prevail’ suggests a close conflict, almost like a wrestling match, but Jesus will ensure that his church will be built. The opposition will not succeed in preventing one of Christ’s people from being delivered from the state of sin.

Then Jesus says that he later will give to Peter and the other disciples what he calls the keys of the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven is another name for the church. The apostles would be responsible for who should become members of the church and we see in the Book of Acts that they did set up a visible church and they indicated who could be in it. This does mean that they possessed infallible insight into whether or not a person was converted. All it means is that they let people into it or prevented them from entering. This is what is meant by binding and loosing. And that authority is still given to those who rule in the church on behalf of Jesus.

This incredible statement about the community of Jesus is followed by one that seems surprising initially because Jesus ‘strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ’. Of course, Jesus is only referring to the immediate future and the likely reason is that, while the apostles now knew who he was, they did not yet appreciate what he had come to do. We can see this was the case from the way Peter objected to the teaching of Jesus that he had come to die (v. 22). They were not yet fully ready to be his witnesses, but they were making progress.

Lessons

There are several lessons we can take from this incident. The first is that we cannot simplify doctrine, but instead we have to keep teaching it. While it is true that obscure teaching should be avoided, it still remains the case that the gospel has concepts that people find hard to grasp and they often need to be told about such concepts many times before they grasp what is being said.

The second lesson from the incident is that we should first focus on who Jesus is, before thinking about what he has done. This is the way that Jesus taught his disciples – he wanted them to appreciate his dignity before they moved on to consider his death. We must always remember who died for us. As Paul later wrote, it was the Son of God who loved him and gave himself for him.

Third, we should remember that Jesus is in charge of the growth of the church. Whatever role Peter had, whatever roles his fellow apostles had, and whatever roles we have in spreading the faith, it is always Jesus who furthers his kingdom.

Fourth, we should be thankful that Jesus arranged for his apostles to provide guidelines regarding how his church should be administered. Their guidelines and other instructions are found in the New Testament, which is why we insist that all we require must be taken from the Bible.

Preached on 7/8/2016