Introduction

• In our passage today, nearly everyone has a dream and design for Jesus:
  • The religious leaders think he should perform a sign on demand.
  • The crowds think he’s just a great prophet.
  • Even Peter, praised for his confession that Jesus is the Christ, will think of Jesus as a king who should never suffer.
• Jesus rejects all these ideas of him and shows himself as the King we’d never have designed but most certainly need.
• A lengthy and fairly dense passage—the portions surrounding Peter and Christ’s interaction are some of the most hotly debated and studied in all of Matthew. We have our work cut out for us. Three movements.

1. He Is Enough (1–12)

1 And the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to test him they asked him to show them a sign from heaven. 2 He answered them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ 3 And in the morning, ‘It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. 4 An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.” So he left them and departed.

An unlikely alliance

• Pharisees and Sadducees disagreed on nearly everything, but were united in their skepticism of Jesus.
• They came to “test” him (1)—the same word that described what Satan did to Jesus in the wilderness (Matt. 4). Not used in Matthew since.
• Luring him to perform a sign from heaven. Healings and feedings could be faked, or chalked up to sorcery and a connection to the demonic realm. The voice of God from the heavens or a vision in the skies would suffice to make them believe.
• Their search for evidence was not sincere; it was a mask for their unbelief. Jesus threatened everything about their position, power and lifestyles—they were predisposed to disbelieve him.

Honest questions

• Let me be careful: some of you are exploring the faith and have honest questions. Jesus is not rebuking honest questions.
• When Thomas doubted, Jesus invited him to touch his wounds (John 20:27).
• What Jesus refuses is a demand for evidence that is really a way of keeping him at arm’s length.
• If you’re searching, bring your questions to him. He can handle them.

The sign of Jonah

• Good weathermen see the signs pointing to coming weather (2–3). They should have seen Jesus’ life, ministry and miracles as signs that he is the Messiah.
• The only sign he would truly give: the sign of Jonah (4; 12:39–40)—his death and resurrection. Three days and three nights in the belly of the fish; three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

5 When the disciples reached the other side, they had forgotten to bring any bread. 6 Jesus said to them, “Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” 7 And they began discussing it among themselves, saying, “We brought no bread.” 8 But Jesus, aware of this, said, “O you of little faith, why are you discussing among yourselves the fact that you have no bread? 9 Do you not yet perceive? Do you not remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? 10 Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? 11 How is it that you fail to understand that I did not speak about bread? Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” 12 Then they understood that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

Beware the leaven

• On the other side, the disciples realize they forgot bread (5). Then Jesus warns them about the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees (6).
• Leaven spreads—something in their teaching could have far-reaching effects in the disciples’ lives. Just a pinch of some facet of their teaching could spread into everything and ruin them. So, be on guard.

Spiritual amnesia

• True to form, they didn’t understand—they thought his words about yeast were a rebuke for forgetting to pack bread (7).
• Jesus rebukes their spiritual amnesia: how many leftover baskets after the five thousand and the four thousand? (8–10)
• As if to say, “Do the math. There are only twelve of you. As long as you have me, you’re fine. Remember my previous provision?”
• What has he already provided for you that you’ve forgotten? Our spiritual amnesia is so often the root of our anxiety.
• Not bread, but the leaven—the teaching—of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Then they began to understand (11–12).

“He’s not enough”

• They agreed on very little, so one would not normally think of their teaching in any combined way. But something about their teaching on Jesus they shared: they wanted Jesus to do more than he was.
• The desire for a sensationalistic sign in the skies was a way of saying, “He’s not enough. We must go outside of him, or get him to be more.”
• Paul was content to proclaim Christ alone, because in him “are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col. 2:3). Christ and what he’s done must suffice for our eternal fascination—we will never plumb the depth of the wisdom and knowledge found in him.
• This is how he changes us—not by getting us to move past him, but by getting us to look at him: “We all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (2 Cor. 3:18).
• We don’t graduate from Christ to something deeper. Christ is the deeper thing.
• One day the beholding will be complete: “We shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2).
• So he is enough. But there is a leaven—a thought or teaching—the Pharisees and Sadducees subscribed to: he’s not enough; he needs to do or be more.
• When we are tempted to say the doctrine of Christ is the elementary ABCs of Christianity, but what we really need to get into is—
  • the latest technique for self-improvement,
  • decoding how today’s headlines line up with the end times,
  • feelings of growth and transformation arising from more mystical, “higher” forms of worship—
• —we may be succumbing to the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. All those pursuits have their place, but none of them is the deeper thing. Christ is.
• Listen: beholding Christ—and being changed as we behold him—is an eternal and ongoing work, and it is his work in us (Phil. 1:6).
• Don’t be dissuaded from him. Be on guard against the leavenous teaching that says he is not enough. He most certainly is.

2. He Is the Son of the Living God (13–16)

13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Caesarea Philippi

• Some twenty-five miles north, to as pagan a territory as one could find.
• Historically a significant shrine to the false god Pan. Philip the tetrarch renamed it in honor of Caesar; the city became a center of imperial worship.
• There—in a setting dedicated to false gods, including the god of the empire, perhaps in front of a wall of idol shrines—Jesus asks, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” (13).

Not high enough

• John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, one of the prophets (14). From a biblical standpoint, honored figures—heralded in Scripture.
• These concepts were not good enough to describe Jesus. None of these opinions was high enough for who he truly is.

“But who do you say that I am?”

• Jesus pushes his disciples (15). An all-important question for everyone in the church.
• If you’re here exploring Christianity, this is the question. Not what you think of the church, or of Christians, or even of me—but who you say Jesus is.
• In one of his most glorious moments, Peter steps forward as a representative of the apostolic band: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (16).
• Not “I think you are,” or “for us, you are,” but “You are.” Settled truth for Peter. He believed with his heart and confessed with his mouth.

The Christ, the Son of the living God

• When we read the word Christ, we should hear the word King—the long-awaited, anointed King God promised would come from the line of David to rule forever.
• Not only that promised King, but the Son of the living God. All other gods are dead, but you are the Son of the living God.
• Peter’s understanding is evolving, but beginning to touch on reality: the second person of the Triune Godhead has come to be the Savior King, to rule and reign forever. The God-King come to dwell among us.

Who do we say he is?

• Last year, Ligonier Ministries’ State of Theology report: 28 percent of evangelicals agreed that “Jesus was a great teacher, but he was not God.”1
• Through the lifestyles of many, he is most certainly not their King. The inability to see Jesus as the God-King means you have a version of him that will do nothing for you.
• Most of us will not succumb to hostility toward him, but to polite admiration of him that stops short of worship and allegiance.

Scripture will not let us stop at polite admiration

1. The New Testament calls Jesus God. “The Word was God” (John 1:1); “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28); “our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13).
2. Jesus acts like God. He creates (John 1:3). He sustains the universe (Heb. 1:3). He forgives sin (Mark 2:10). He receives worship (Matt. 14:33)—angels and apostles refuse it; he does not.
3. He bears the names of God. Immanuel, God with us (Matt. 1:23); the name before which every knee will bow (Phil. 2:9–11; Isa. 45:23).

• He is not just “like God.” He is God (John 8:58). Because he is God, he is owed our total allegiance, and worship is the only right response.

The higher your Christology

• In a sense, the higher your Christology, the more human your life.
• The more worship ascends from your heart toward him, and the more allegiance to him as King reverberates, the more alive you’ll be. “Your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3).
• The more worship ascends from your heart toward him, and the more allegiance to him as King reverberates, the more you discover that he himself is the life you were made for.
• John or Jeremiah or Elijah or some other prophet might give you some of his good teachings, proverbs or parables to add to your life grid. But to see him as the Christ, the Son of the living God, is to flourish and to make him your paradigm.

3. He Builds His Way (17–23)

17 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. 18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” 20 Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ.

• This passage has produced truckloads of scholarship and commentary—I’ll do my best not to get bogged down.
• This King we would never have designed, but most certainly need, builds his way.

Four facets of the way he builds

1. His Way Begins with Revelation (17)

• Jesus declares Peter blessed for this confession (17). To be blessed is to be given something—not from flesh and blood, but from God the Father.
• God reveals God. Here, for a moment, Peter’s eyes were opened to the truth.
• As we pray for others and even ourselves: revelation is required.
• You can think about, consider, weigh and study the faith. But ultimately, revelation from God is needed. Spiritual sight must be given. Eyes must be opened that the door of faith might be entered.

2. His Way Builds through People Who Point to Him (18)

• Peter said, “You are the Christ.” Jesus responded, “You are Peter” (18).
• Some say Jesus means Peter’s confession is what the church would be built on. But that isn’t the way Jesus worded things: “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church” (18).
• Peter’s name (Petros) means “rock,” and the wordplay with petra, “rock,” is hard to miss.
• Some argue the two words mean Peter and the rock cannot be the same—but the difference is a matter of grammar: petra is the feminine word for bedrock, and a man’s name requires the masculine form.2
• Interpreters generally fall into three camps:
  • (1) Peter is the rock.
  • (2) Peter’s confession is the rock.
  • (3) Christ is the rock (1 Cor. 10:4; 1 Pet. 2:6–8).
• In a sense, all three must be taken together. Paul gives us the picture in a single sentence: “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone” (Eph. 2:20).
• Clearly, Peter had a foundational purpose in the early church:
  • He preached on the Day of Pentecost, when the church began (Acts 2).
  • He went to Samaria and approved of the work of God outside Jerusalem for the very first time, reaching the Samaritans, offshoots of the Jewish nation (Acts 8).
  • He preached the gospel for the very first time to the Gentile world, with great success (Acts 10).
• But Peter never saw himself as the foundation on his own. He called Christ the cornerstone (1 Pet. 2:6–7) and saw himself as one living stone among many (1 Pet. 2:5).
• Peter is foundational only as he points to Christ. We are joined to that foundation not by succession from Peter’s chair but by believing the apostles’ word (John 17:20).
• On a foundation like that, Jesus would build his church, and the gates of hell would not prevail against it (18).

3. His Way Opens Doors through the Gospel (19)

• He gave Peter—and, I think, the entire apostolic group (18:18)—the ability to bind and loose (19).
• The scribes had locked people out of the kingdom (23:13). Peter receives the keys and opens the door, using them in Acts 2, 8 and 10 to bring in Jews, Samaritans and Gentiles.
• Notice the grammar of verse 19. It can be rendered, “Whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven.”
• Heaven isn’t taking orders from Peter; Peter is announcing what heaven has already decided.
• In Matthew 18 the same language governs church discipline, so the keys carry real authority in the church—but it is always the authority of the gospel itself.
• So what are these keys? Not some mystical prayer power to loose and bind different things, but the gift of the gospel.
• We are called to use the keys, just as Peter did, to introduce and tell people about Christ. The keys are ours.

4. His Way Runs through a Cross (20–23)

• Before we get there, something strange. Right after Peter’s great confession, Jesus “strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ” (20). Why would he silence the truth?
• Everyone had already designed their own Christ—a political deliverer, a conquering king, a Messiah who would drive out Rome and never bleed.
• The title was right, but the design in people’s heads was wrong. Jesus wouldn’t let the word go out until he had filled it with its true meaning.

21 From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. 22 And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” 23 But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

• One of the great hinges of Matthew’s entire Gospel: “From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things…and be killed, and on the third day be raised” (21).
• Matthew has used that phrase only once before, when Jesus began to preach (4:17). Now the whole story turns toward Jerusalem.
• The word must: not a tragic possibility, but divine necessity. The Father’s plan of salvation runs straight through the cross.
• More than Peter could take. He took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him: “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you” (22).
• Jesus’ forceful rebuke: he saw it as the word and voice of Satan himself. Satan had already offered Jesus the kingdoms of the world without the cross (4:8–9). Peter echoes that approach: You will not die. You will not go to the cross. You do not need this.
• Jesus turns to Peter, who had so recently pointed to the glorious truth about him, and calls him a stumbling block: “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me” (23).

Different designs, same leaven

• Think how stunning this is. Moments ago, Peter spoke by revelation from the Father. Now he speaks with the voice of the enemy.
• Remember the leaven (6)? The religious leaders wanted a Jesus who was more—more spectacular, more signs in the sky. Now Peter wants a Jesus who is less—less suffering, less shame, no cross.
• Different designs, same leaven. Both want a Christ built to spec.
• Remember the sign of Jonah (4)? The one sign Jesus promised: his death and resurrection. The Pharisees and Sadducees demanded a different sign. Now Peter, who has just confessed him rightly, rejects that very sign.
• The skeptic and the disciple alike recoil from the one thing Jesus came to do.

Why must he go to the cross?

• We needed a King who would do more than rule us. We needed a King who would rescue us.
• “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (20:28).
• Isaiah saw it centuries before: “He was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace” (Isa. 53:5).
• A King without a cross could inspire us, but he could never save us. He could hand us a crown to chase, but he could never carry our sin.

Hope for all who get him wrong

• The man Jesus just called “Satan” stands up on the Day of Pentecost and preaches the crucified and risen Christ to thousands (Acts 2:23–24, 36).
• After Peter denied him three times, Jesus restored him three times: “Feed my sheep” (John 21:15–17).
• Jesus doesn’t build his church on people who never misread him. He builds it on people he rescues, corrects and restores.

Conclusion

• He is only the King we need if he goes to the cross to suffer and die on our behalf. But because he did, he is the King we need.
• So much better than any sign worker or prophet. He is the King of the cross. Because he went to the cross, he’s our Savior, and he is our life—our full and singular hope and ambition.
• So we come back to where we started. We can customize our coffee, our playlists and our workouts. But we cannot customize Christ—and aren’t you glad?
• The Jesus we would have designed would be smaller: a Jesus who performs on demand, or who is simply a wise teacher, or who never bleeds. He couldn’t save anyone.
• The Jesus who actually is—the Christ, the Son of the living God, the King who went to the cross and rose again—is better than anything we could have imagined.
• So don’t you dare try to design him. Behold him. “When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory” (Col. 3:4).
• He is enough. He is the Son of the living God. And he builds his way—through a cross, for you.