Who Is Jesus? Part 2 - Mike Criswell

I thought about doing a little bit of whiteboard work tonight,

but I think I'll just stand down here and finish out this section

in Matthew, the 16th chapter because we began that this

morning and kind of just a verse by verse fashion.

And I want to do that again this evening.

So I'm going to invite you along with me to Matthew the 16th

chapter. And I'm going to review just

momentarily what we discussed this morning, but then also

hopefully discuss the rest of this little section.

That goes down to about verse 19.

Now, as you recall, Jesus has taken his Apostles to the most

northern limits of the land of Palestine.

Right at the base of Mount Hermon to a very paganistic

area. That had long been taken to a

place called caesarea Philippi, says area.

Philippi was the ancient city of Dan that we find in the Old

Testament and area that had always struggled with Baal

worship and false worship. And in Jesus day this Same thing

was going on. There was much false worship

into this environment. Jesus takes his Apostles and he

elicits from them, his identity. He wants them to make for sure

that they are willing to State who he is.

And so he does that in a very interesting way.

He asks them what the word on the street is who are people

saying that I am? And as I mentioned this morning,

after about three years, there were a lot of opinions.

Somebody was an old estimate profit.

Some thought he was the one that would bring in or Harbinger to

the Messiah, but then Jesus turns to his own and he says,

but who do you say that? I, the son of man a.m. in other

words, who do you say that I am? What is your conviction about

me? And, as I mentioned this morning

that indeed really is the essence of our study because in

reality, it matters, but it doesn't matter what the rest of

the Things. The rest of the world will do

what the rest of the world wants to do.

And while we try to convert the rest of the world, we are indeed

in need of converting ourselves before we try to convert the

world. And so Jesus asked who do you

say that I am? And it is, of course, at that

moment that we almost see Peter leaping off of, maybe The Rock.

He was setting on and saying you are the Christ, the son of the

Living. God now I want to analyze that

we've already Analyze what it means to be the Christ, you

know, Jesus is indeed the Christ, the Christos, the

Messiah, the same Greek concept of Christos is the same as the

Hebrew Messiah, but the Messiah means the anointed one.

It means the one who had in the Old Testament, the role of

prophet priest, or King. And Jesus, of course, today is

our Prophet. Our priests are King.

He is our messenger. He is our mediator.

He is our Monarch, he is the On that supersedes all other.

And that's really again. What Peter is acknowledging when

he says you are the Christ, the Old Testament had pointed toward

Jesus toward the Christ. The anointed one appointed to

the, to the kingdom that he would bring in.

In fact, Daniel chapter 2, 44, prophesize, that there would

Daniel 2 · chapter mention

come a kingdom that would never be destroyed and John the

Baptist. And Jesus had said, the kingdom

is very near its at hand and so the Jews had long looked for a

messiah I know, they misunderstood they thought in

many ways that Jesus, or shall we say the Messiah would be a

political figure Jesus was none of that Jesus came.

Of course, preaching, a gospel of the heart, and a gospel of a

relationship with God. Not a conquering gospel, that

would go and do all the world and make a territory of physical

Nations, but Jesus is the Messiah.

He is the one that they had longed for, and if he is not the

Messiah, Then, of course, we know of no other but Jesus, of

course, makes this statement. He says blessed, are you now?

Peter has said, you are the Christ, the son of God and now,

Peter is going to receive his own blessing.

Now, before I look at that blessing though, when Peters are

when Jesus says, Peter says, whether you are the Christ, the

son of the Living, God, let me just for a moment.

Focus upon that concept of the son of the Living God, you know,

when we think a son we think Gov Offspring and of course Jesus Is

Not The Offspring of God. The father he was not a created

being in fact Colossians 1 tells us that all things were created

by Christ of course in his pre-incarnate state.

So what then is Jesus getting at when he says or Peter is getting

out when he says, you know, the Son of God.

Well, what is a son? Well, ass on his one who Bears

the likeness of his father, a son is Indeed one who Bears, the

similarities and character and nature of the father, you know,

in Africa and in other nations that I go to, we use Matthew 16

so many times because it is the go-to passage to demonstrate,

not only the authority of Jesus, but also to demonstrate the

promise of the church that Jesus was going to build.

And so it's a great passage to go to to demonstrate that Jesus

did not come to develop denominations, he came to start

or to begin. His church, he is the Builder of

his church, but one of the things we say over in Africa, is

we say, you know, we are white men work what they call Mizzou

goo. And that's a little bit of a

derogatory phrase, but it's used in jest.

And we'll say, you know, we are massugu.

And I'll say, I have a son in America and you already know

something about my son and they'll say, I've never met your

son and I'll say no, but, you know, something about it, first

of all, you know that he's human.

Well me. Sometimes when he acts well but,

you know, he's human second of all, you know, that likely he is

a white boy. He is a massugu and also, you

understand that he has many of the same characteristics even

though you've never seen him. You can look at your child and

know that your children have your characteristics.

And so it's natural that he's going to have some of my

characteristics. Well I think this begins to hint

then at what Peter is, speaking of when he says you are the

Christ, the son of the Living God you know, This was dating.

That Jesus is not God. The father and God the father is

not God, the sun nor the Holy Spirit, but they all have

characteristics of similarity. They have the same stuff if you

will. So when Peter says, you are the

Christ, the son of the Living God, he is basically confessing

the deity. He's confessing the Heavenly

nature of Jesus. Now, that's very significant

because that was really the big question, who is Jesus, Who is

the Individual and of course, even today, in philosophical

question circles, the question is who is Jesus, who was he?

And this morning we talked about, you know, the various

opinions that you'll find on the street about philosopher and

enlightened one and teacher and all these are the things will

Peter Nails it when he says you have the same characteristics as

God you know, in John 14. Jesus says if you've seen me,

you've seen the father. You remember the apostles on

that occasion came to Jesus and they say Jesus show us the

father show us what God is like you know no man has ever seen

God. So show us God and Jesus says,

if you've seen me, you've seen God.

And of course that was again the thing that got Jesus into so

much trouble because he claimed to be equal with God.

Now I can talk a long time about this idea of sonship to because

today Sometimes some sonship carries, shall we say a

diminutive sort of position in the Jewish era, in the Jewish

times one son had the same Diaz's father.

In fact, you remember that Parable that Jesus gives about

the vineyard and the workers in the vineyard and it's time to

collect the goods from the vineyard.

And so he begins to send his servants, the owner does and

then pretty soon. All those servants are killed

and run off. And then he says, I've got one

more person that I'll send, I'm going to send my son and surely

they will reverence him. You see that son carried the

authority of the father. And so when Peter says you are

the Christ, the The son of the Living.

God not a dead. God not an idol.

Like there was all around them but living God, Peter is saying

you have the very characteristics and you have the

essence of deity. And so Jesus, then I think is

pleased with that because first of all Peter's, right?

But second of all, that's the very thing that Jesus was trying

to demonstrate and show the people his Apostles.

First of all, through his miracles, the Miracles were

designed to The word. They were not for his own

aggrandizement. They were not.

So he would be some great person that would get mega followings.

They were designed to prove and confirm the word.

And so, Peter understood, he had, obviously, got the picture

to some degree though, human, and the week, in many ways,

like, we are Peter understood the nature of God.

He had seen Jesus. And you know what?

Well, this is an aside, and I want to get on through the

technical part of the study. But, you know, we can See God

tonight, through Jesus and we can see God tonight through,

Jesus Will, how do we do that through?

Jesus works, when we look at how Jesus interact with people when

we look at how Jesus spoke. When we see what Jesus stood

for, when we see what Jesus said, We Come Away with a

picture, a clear picture of God himself, and I think that's so

wonderful because the creator of the universe while he gives us

so many, secondary ways to see him while he gives us General.

Mission. He gives us the clearest picture

specific Revelation in his word. So how does Jesus respond then

to this a confession that Peters made?

You are the Christ, the son of the Living.

God, your daddy will, you know, it's very important, how he

responds because Jesus says, blessed are you Simon bar-jonah.

Now, if you're using a more updated translation, if I need

something like, Simon son of John, that notice the contrast

their Of all Jesus says blessed, are you son of John?

Now, the word blessed there. By the way is the same word

that's found in. Matthew 5 verses 1 through 13

Matthew 5:1–13

where the Beatitudes are given, you know, blessed are the poor

in spirit blessed are the meek blessed, are those who hunger

and thirst for righteousness. It's the same Greek word.

And so, when Jesus is pronouncing a blessing upon

Peter, he's really giving Peter a compliment, really a pat on

the back, but notice what he does, he's not putting day Peter

down now. But he says, Peter, you're

blessed by You are the son of John.

Now contrast that what Jesus was Peter had confessed Jesus as

deity. Jesus now.

Professes flying Peter as Humanity.

Now that's so important because you see, we are not gone, the

authority that we give and give and yield to rather comes from

God. We are not our own authority and

even though there are religions in the world, in fact, one major

religion that It is based out of Rome that looks to Peter as the

authority of the church. Nothing could be further from

the truth. Because Jesus, here,

acknowledges Peter acknowledges, the statement gives him Kudos if

you will, but he says, Peter, you are a human, you are

fallible. You are the son of John.

But now Jesus does make a play in the Greek upon his name.

You know, Jesus was, I think an individual who obviously knew

the language of his And sometimes could make plays on

words. In fact, sometimes, even when

you read the scriptures, there's a little bit of humor, you know,

sort of woven into the text. But I think this is one of those

times where really we have what we might call a play on words

are upon. I'm not a funny pain in the

sense of that we might make puns today but let's analyze this

because this is very important, you know, back home I have a lot

of friends who are Catholic and a lot of Grants do, look the

Peter as the first pope and the first Papa of the church, the

head. Of the church the foundation of

the church. In fact, just a few weeks ago, I

was with Ronnie weighed over in Rome and we toured the bag gun

and we even saw the pope, he came by his little poeple, Bill

and he went up and down the island.

We were from here to Terry from him, it almost reach out and

almost feel the blessing and I'm not making fun of that, my

right? My friends in in, you know, in

Kansas City, who many of whom are Catholic?

You know, I respect them, they were great people, but they look

to the pope as as, you know, the final of order and the kind is

that Peter, was that Authority, because the claim is that Jesus

placed upon Peter, the church, and built upon Peter on this

rock Peter, the Great institution of the church.

Well, he's that the truth. Well, again, there is from the

beginning. The contrast Jesus is deity of

Jesus, is the son of God, but Peter is Humanity now with Jesus

build his church. Would Jesus build his kingdom on

Humanity? I don't think so because the

entire history of humanity is really a pretty disappointing

history from time immemorial all the way back to the Garden of

Eden. God would set something straight

and man wouldn't mess it up right on back to the Garden of

Eden. So I think already we're seeing

a bit of a problem. If we say that, you know, Peter

is going to be as human the head of a spiritual body.

The one that Jesus would die for it.

Secondarily, of course, Peter did not die for the church.

Did he Christ died for the church?

So what then is, does this next section me when Pete?

And when Jesus says, blessed, are you Simon son of John flesh

and blood has not revealed this to you.

But my father who is in heaven and then he said, and I say unto

you that you are Peter and Upon This Rock, I will build my

church. May, you know, Jesus, here

speaks of Peter and he speaks of raw.

Now obviously. Is going to build his church on

some, you know, Carrie. I were talking earlier in the

week yesterday or today. I can't remember about

foundations foundations are so incredibly important digging

down and having a foundation. And obviously the best

foundation, this seems to me would be on bedrock.

In fact, you have you 7 Jesus taught about the man who built

on the sand versus the man who built on the Rock and of course

the illustration there is. Are you going to build Upon

Jesus words? And Are you going to do them or

not? But the point is is that any

structure that's going to stand the test of time?

Has to be built on something solid?

Well, Jesus here says you know Peter you have confessed me as

the Son of God. He says I am going to build my

church upon that rock. Now, you know, when we look at

the name of pu, the thing that confuses folks, sometimes is

that Peters name does me rock pet, Ross, it's Now, and it

means I Stone know. When Jesus says Peter, you are a

rock, a stone, A Little Rock. If you will, he's not putting

Peter down Peter and D would have his ups and downs but Peter

was going to be a great spokesperson.

Would he not for the church? In fact, in Acts chapter 2,

Acts 2 · chapter mention

Peter is going to be the one who delivers the main sermon on the

day of Pentecost. In Acts chapter 10, he's going

Acts 10 · chapter mention

to be the one who takes the gospel to the Gentiles and House

of Cards. He has for the first time.

So when Jesus says, blessed are you Simon Peter or he says you

are Peter or you're a little rock, he's not putting him down,

but he's laying in a contrast. He says, Peter, you are a little

raw, but then he changes the word.

And he says, and Upon This Rock. And now he changes it from

Tetris, which is a, again, a masculine noun, which means a

little Stone to the word petrol. Petrol is a feminine noun.

And it is something that means a huge, massive outcropping, a

Bedrock if you will. So indeed there's two different

words. There's two different concepts

being woven together there in a pond.

Yes, there's a play upon Petros and Petra but Jesus is not

saying, I'm going to build my church upon you Peter.

He say I'm going to build it on something much more substantial

than a human being much more strong than a son of John.

I'm I'm going to build it on the fact that I am the Son of God.

You see, the idea of petrol there.

The rock, the Bedrock, surely must at least, in some way, go

back to that confession, that Peter made.

So Jesus is going to build his church.

What? Upon Peter upon a man.

No. Upon the fact upon that Bedrock,

true, that massive outcropping that would never be destroyed

that he was the son of God. Now, that's significant because

if Jesus Built his church on anything else and if Jesus is

not the Son of God. Then the church is no different

than any other organization, if the church is not built upon

Jesus, if it does not go back to his word as the authority.

If it does not look to him for the practices and the things in

the church, then it is no different than a man-made

institution. And of course, we know that the

church prophesied from old old was to be something that God

brought to this world. It was to be a divine Fine

institution, it was planned in the mind of God.

Jesus came and died for the church.

He gave his body and blood for the church.

Surely it is built on something founded upon something more

substantial. And more sure than simply a

human like Peter or any human, no matter how perfect he might

seem to be rather than upon the truth of God's son Jesus Christ.

So, when Jesus says, I will Build my church, he's looking in

the future, you know, at this point in time, Jesus had not

built his church. Jesus had not directed his his

church, or his called out people.

The word church comes from a Greek word.

That means the call-out and initially the word church or

ecstasy. As we sometimes, call it in

English was in reference to a political body or citizens, who

would be called out of their homes for a political purpose.

But, of course, when we think of it, spiritually it is.

Indeed, that we are called into our from our homes into assembly

and we can use the word Church in that way.

But it's the idea, I think spiritually, speaking of those

who have been called out of sin, you know, we are called by the

gospel. We are called by the message

that touches our heart about Jesus Christ dying for our sins

and were called out of the world of sin and were brought into the

Glorious sunlight of God's son Jesus Christ through the gospel.

If you obedience to the gospel, when we are baptized for the

remission of our sins. We become part of that church.

That is so evident in the New Testament on the day of

Pentecost. When Peter again, preached and

they cried out men and Brethren. What shall we do?

He said, repent and be baptized every one of you.

In the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and then

in Acts 2:47, it says that the Lord added to the church daily,

Acts 2:47

those that were being saved. How will it being saved through

baptism? There will be saved by a change

of life by repentance and by baptism.

Mmm. And then what they do after

that, we'll Acts 2:42 says they continued steadfastly in the

Acts 2:42

apostles Doctrine. Have you been inspired by the

Holy Spirit, the apostles, then begin to lay down those

doctrinal truths, that came from Heaven itself.

And so, you see, when we're talking about the church, when

we're talking about the foundational premise of what

God's institution was built upon.

Surely undoubtedly. He is not saying that he's going

to build this on a man. Every human institution has its

oils. It has its Achilles heel.

Every Human Institution will come and go, no Human

Institution, whether it be a country or whether it be a

business will ultimately stand forever, but the kingdom of God

will stand forever. It is an eternal Kingdom.

It is a kingdom that was again prophesied and made in God's

mind and then brought to the World by His prophets.

It's and ultimately by his son Jesus Christ.

And so then Jesus says blessed are you?

You are a rock, your your small rock, but I'm going to build my

church on this massive outcropping of rock.

This confession that I am the Son of God.

And then he says, I'll build my church and even the gates of

Hades will not Prevail against it.

Now if you're using the Old King James version which is fine, it

has some little quirks about it, he uses the word hell, it says

the game. Of Hell will not Prevail against

it. And of course, when we think of

hell, we think of damnation, we think a fire-and-brimstone we

think of, you know, those passages of Eternal punishment.

But the word here in the Greek is not hell as we think of it is

80s and the hadean realm or the word Hades refers to weird the

dead, go after they die, the hadean realm.

And of course, if you look at Luke 16 and this is quite

another study, but you'll find of course that Hadean realm in

that picture of the rich man and Lazarus divided into paradise

and then torment will Jesus says, you know, I'm going to

build my church and even the gates of the hadean realm will

not Prevail against it. I watched Jesus talking about,

you see what Jesus is doing here is he's really predicting his

resurrection. He's predicting his death, his

burial and his resurrection because you see just in a few

short months, Jesus is going to make that long Trek from up

there and Galilee down the road up the road to Calvary and there

he's going to give his life. He's going to shed his blood for

me and you and then he's going to go down and that hadean realm

as he is buried in the Tomb for three days and three nights.

But on the third day, Jesus is going to come forth, he's going

to come out of that. Part of the Dead, the paradise,

he had promised the thief Thief that he would be with him in and

he's going to come forth and he is going to be victorious over

the very thing that Satan I think has the dearest hold of

and that is death. You know, when we think of death

we can't think of death of how Satan thinking of Satan you go

all the way back to the Garden of Eden and of course who was it

that initially brought death, Satan cry.

Our God gave life to Adam and Eve.

He gave them not only in life but he gave them the ability to

have eternal life. He put the tree of life in the

garden and they could have had they not said it would seem

lived there forever, but Satan came and Satan brought death,

you know, God had warned them. He said listen, don't even eat

of the forbidden fruit because in that day dying, you shall

die, or you will die. You see, death is the product.

It is the friend of Satan. You see?

I believe that Satan, no doubt through his hardest, Arsenal at

Jesus. Has he crucified him on a cross

and he thought no doubt that he had Jesus subdued.

But God had other plans on the third day, Jesus arose.

And so when Jesus says here, even the gates of the hadean

realm will not Prevail against it.

I think he's talking about his resurrection, you know, this

idea of the gate is sort of interesting, and I don't want to

make too much of it because I think sometimes we can draw from

other passages in the scripture in the Old Testament parallels.

And We can stretch the analogy, but when you think of a gate,

what do you think of when you go back to the Old Testament?

The gate was everything in the city.

Now sure. They had walls it had great

parapets upon the edge of their walls where they could send

their archers out to fight, but the gate was really the main

thing you had to protect the gate and when the gate again was

broken down that's when the enemy encroached.

But there's another picture too and that is In a city sent out

an army, it sent it out from the gate.

In other words, the gate demonstrated, not only

protection, but it demonstrated a freedom as well.

Jesus says, listen, the gates of Hades that which would lock me

in Forever in death will not Prevail against my plan.

You see Satan and his armies. If you will, we can picture this

way, could not enter into that great.

Death and keep Jesus there. Now I realize we're taking some

license with our description tonight because we don't really

know all what it's about and what it looks like.

But nonetheless, Jesus could not be held in Haiti's, in fact, on

the day of Pentecost, when Peter stood up in Acts, chapter 2 and

Acts 2 · chapter mention

begin to preach, he goes to the very idea that Jesus was not

left in Hades. Neither did his flesh.

See corruption, you see? Jesus came forth, powerful.

Out of that hadean realm that Jesus had raised others from the

dead such as Lazarus but they were going to die again.

But Jesus came forth. As the first fruits, Paul tells

us in First Corinthians 15 of those that slept Jesus rose to

never die again. And so he sits now, eternally

Forever at the right hand of the Throne of God, his work is

finished. In fact, he is sitting down.

He will never die and isn't a wonderful blessing tonight to

know that our savior, the one Promised to build his church

will never die. His organization will never die.

You know, once in a while when I talk about church history,

people say well you do you think the church you know, maybe died

out somewhere in the Middle Ages or in the Dark Ages?

No. Now I don't know exactly where

the church went. Maybe it went underground, some

people believe that it was always an existence through the

seed principle that very well may be.

But the point is, is that the kingdom that Christ established

was an eternal Kingdom, Death would never Prevail against it.

Time would never Prevail against it.

History would never Prevail against it as long as there are

people today who are willing to give their hearts and Minds

Jesus. Because that's the, that's the

territory really, you know, a kingdom.

And I'm getting now into another subject, but the kingdom really

isn't reality. Composed of four things.

It has to have a king. It has subjects.

It has to have a territory and it has to have a wall.

You know, the territory of Christ's kingdom is our heart.

And as long as there are People who are willing and humble

submission to give their lives to Jesus Christ.

Like Peter was the affordable. And though, in in time made many

mistakes, the kingdom is secure. And I believe that God will

never allow a time while this earth goes on for the kingdom to

die. Well, let's go on very quickly

because Jesus says, I will then give you the Keys of the

Kingdom. Now, we've already talked about

gays, and I guess this leads into the next thought, but what

do keys do? Now, Jesus is going.

To give Peter the Keys of the Kingdom.

You know, when you're in Rome, by the way, you wander around

and you look at the opulent wealth of the organization that

builds the Vatican and of course st.

Peter's Basilica, and all the other great churches.

They're beautiful by man standards but almost every time

in fact I suppose every time you see a statue of Peter he has

keys in his hand. Now of course, was Jesus saying.

Peter I'm going to give you some physical Keys now.

Of course date. Trey the keys and Peter's heads,

because they believe that Peter is the Divine Authority from

from God. They believe, he is the vicar on

Earth or the one that is God. Spokesperson know Jesus, is

that. But what are these keys that

Jesus speaks of, I will give you the Keys of the Kingdom.

We know really, when you think about it keys, do two things,

you know, when I go home, I unlock the door keys, allow

interest, but then, of course, of course, if I'm inside, I can

lock the door to the same key. So Keys either allow or prohibit

interests, but I think in this case, the context, and as we

know of Peter, I think he is role in the church, is going to

be one of unlocking. In other words, Jesus is going

to give Peter a primal roll. A basic role that yes, a primary

role in the unlocking of the Kingdom.

That's not that Jesus is giving Peter a greater position

necessarily the church. In fact, the other Apostles had

the same keys. In fact, we have the key today.

The scripture that unlocks, The Plan of Salvation, but it was

Peter who physically and very verbally would stand up

literally on the day of Pentecost and preach and what

happened as Peter took that chi chi of the Gospel, the key to

the mysteries of Heaven, the Paul would later.

Speak up in Ephesians 4, as he took the key, and he unlocked

the door to the church. People porting 3,000 were

baptized on that day. And from that point on this

church began to spread that you know, just geometrically or

exponentially I suppose and it was a wonderful time in the

opening of The Doors of the Kingdom.

Well, you know, Peter had that job not only next to, but as I

mentioned, a moment ago in Acts 10 and acts 10, he receives the

call to go down to the Gentiles. The Gentiles, of course, at this

point, we're not part of that church.

That Jesus was establishing, they were outcasts.

They weren't even part of God's people in the Old Testament.

They were the ones who were the ones out there in the, in the,

in the darkness of sin. But now, through the gospel,

Peter goes and he preaches. And the household of Cornelius

is converted and from there on, as you read the book of Acts,

you'll find others like Paul making the missionary Journeys

that open up the gospel to even us today.

And, you know, I'm glad to have because I dare say that most of

us in this audience are Gentiles.

We don't trace our lineage back to Abraham.

We don't trace our lineage back to the physical lineage of

Abraham. Isaac.

Jacob and the nation of Israel. We are Gentiles and We threw the

Keys of the Kingdom. The gospel have been allowed to

enter in and be part of that relationship with the Son of God

with deity and be part of that institution.

That Jesus says, I will build on the truth that I am the Son of

God and that is a wonderful thought tonight.

Well, he says, I will give you the keys of the kingdom and he

says, whatever you bind on Earth will be bound in heaven and

whatever you loose on Earth will be loosed in heaven.

Another way that this could be translated is whatever you bind

on Earth will have already been bound in heaven and whatever you

loose on Earth or allow on Earth or disallow on Earth will have

already been in heaven. The point here is though is that

Jesus is not telling Peter, you can make up your own rules.

He's not giving Peter the right to speak by inspiration ex

cathedra just because but rather he is saying Peter Listen, you

are going to teach what heaven reveals what has already been

decided in heaven. How do we know that?

Well, of course, all you have to do is go and look at Jesus

Promised. You remember, right before?

Jesus went back to heaven in John, 14 15 and 16.

Jesus told the apostles that he would send the Holy Spirit and

the Holy Spirit would guide them into all truth.

Bring all things to their remembrance and of course allow

them to use the keys of the Gospel in a way that would bring

others. Sirs to Salvation and what they

taught began. Then to be that which the church

follow and continued to follow. And today, the true church

continues to follow that today, that's the reason.

Again, the passage I noted, a moment ago, you'll hear me,

coming. Back to this passage numerous

times Acts 2:42, they continued steadfastly in the apostles

Acts 2:42

Doctrine and of course it is. The apostles doctrine, that was

inspired literally. By the one who built his church

upon the fact that he is the Son of God.

And so while there are so many other things and so many other

nuances and so many other little rabbit Trails, we might look to

look at in this great passage in Matthew 16.

Basically, what we have is we have Jesus graduating, his

Apostles. Now, it's going to get tough

after this. He's going to send them out.

Literally to some, some of them to die for the cause, but he

brings them to caesarea Philippi.

Why they confess that he is the Christ, the son of the Living

God, they then are commissioned as later on to go into all the

world with that knowledge that it is the authority of Jesus.

The kingship Authority that his church will be founded upon

well, those are the thoughts this evening and again, we're so

privileged to be part of the Lord's Kingdom.

The church tonight. Well, how do we get into the

church? How do we become a part of that?

Called out body that the New Testament speaks of and that

Jesus promised to build. Well, how do we do that?

We obey the gospel. We do what they did on the day

of Pentecost, you know, on the day of Pentecost, they heard the

gospel, didn't they? Peter preached.

In fact, he told them that they with Wicked hands have crucified

the Lord Of Glory. They heard the gospel, they

believed the gospel, they believe the message about how

Jesus had not been left in the hadean realm.

How he Add rows over all obstacles.

They repented of their sins. We know that because they cried

out. And of course they were willing

to be baptized for the remission of their sins.

You see it's in the waters of baptism that we have our sins

washed away, you know, Peter says it's not the putting the

way of the dirt of our bodies or the filth of the flesh, but it's

the answer of a good conscience. Before God as we in faith, step

out, actively and obey. God in Salvation, in baptism.

We thank you for listening to our podcast, put on by the

Church of Christ at 22:15 plans. Road in Bakersfield, if you

would like any additional information or you would like to

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