The Body of Christ - by Rev Gilbert Wong

Texts: Romans 12:1-8; Matthew 16:13-20
21 August 2005

Four thoughts I want to share with you tonight.

1.  The Church exists in a Pagan World (16:13)

We cannot escape the fact that the church of God remains in this world.  We are called to be the salt and light of this world.  A church strives for its non-members!  It is interesting that the question Jesus asked of his disciples occurred not in a temple or in a synagogue but in as pagan a territory as one could find.  The place – Caesarea Philippi - is famous for the worship of Pan – a Greek god.  And public pagan rites continued there until much later.  It is very much like our Festival of the hungry ghosts. 

As church leaders, we need to try to answer the question Jesus asked Peter, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”  Unlike Mark’s gospel where Jesus was portrayed as a humble servant, here in Matthew, Jesus signifies his universal authority and power.  To acknowledge Jesus as the Son of Man is to acknowledge his right to rule our lives. 

As we shall see later that the world has a whole array of answers to the question of whom the Son of Man is.  For now, it is important to ask ourselves regularly who Jesus is to me. In fact all of your daily offices put you in that place to ask that very question.

2.  The Church recognizes Jesus as the Christ (16:14-16)

Whatever the world may perceive Jesus to be, the church must recognize that Jesus is the Christ.  There is a variety of opinions of who Jesus was but no hostile view was expressed of Jesus.  All of them affirmed Jesus in one way or another.  Some people thought of Jesus was John the Baptist as Herod did.  John must have made such an impression that there were some who thought that his death at the hands of Herod could not be the last of him.  A second group regarded Elias as more likely.  These people evidently saw Jesus as the fulfilment of the prophecy that Elijah would appear again (See Malachi 4:5).  It is not clear why others thought of him as Jeremiah.  There is a Jewish teaching that Jeremiah will come together with Isaiah before the coming of the End.  Finally, another group of people considers Jesus to be on of the prophets.  This is really a loose, general category.  The people who held such view were not prepared to identify Jesus with any particular prophet, but they held that he was great enough to be numbered among the prophets.  Clearly, many people were impressed by Jesus. 

Jesus then turns his attention away from the general public with its casual contacts and its imperfect loyalty and understanding and asks how it was with the men who were his closest followers.  They had left and followed him.  They had been with him now for quite some time.  They had seen what he did and they had heard what he taught.  In the light of all these, how did they view him?

Peter’s reply is, “You are the Messiah”.  It is unlikely that this is the first occasion on which the apostles thought of Jesus as Messiah.  Some such idea was surely in their minds from the beginning, and it was because they saw Jesus in this capacity that they left their homes and followed him.  But as they lived and worked with him, their understanding of “Messiah” enlarged. 

While we all study theological works about Jesus, we do encounter a great variety of opinions of who Jesus really is. Be that as it may, let us not forget the relationship with Jesus.  Our relationship is more precious than gold than all the theological works.  Such is the conviction of a scholar that he says that “he who is prays is a theologian and a theologian is one who prays”.  May we not forget that as we immerse ourselves in the intensity of research and study, prayer remains a pivotal point for your spiritual development.  Without this constant prayerful attentiveness, we are likely to enlarge our human intellect rather than enlarging more of our spiritual discernment.

3.  The Church depends on it for its life (16:17-18)

This revelation of Jesus’ identity was foundational for God’s purposes in history.  Peter did not receive his revelation from man.  Peter’s understanding of Jesus’ identity came by divine revelation.  Not only did Peter confess in Matthew 16:17 not out of his intellectual prowess.  Matthew 11:25-26 reveals that it is to the humbled that divine things are revealed.  Jesus said “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned, and revealed them to little children.  Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.”

Jesus then plays on Simon’s nickname, Peter, which would be roughly the English “Rocky”: Peter is rocky.  And it is on this rock Jesus would build his church (Matthew 16:18).  You and I know that this verse is hotly debated and I shall not delve into it.  It is well recognise that petros (Peter) and petra (rock) are used interchangeably and it is difficult based on this one verse alone to determine whether the rock referred to was Peter or simply an ordinary rock.  However the context is important.  Peter is the only one recorded here for us who confesses Jesus as the Christ.  It is not impossible then to say that anyone who confesses like Peter would share the same authority to build the church. 

If the church is built on this foundational confession that Jesus is Lord then this church belong to Jesus.  Once his, the church will prevail against all odds.  The gates of hell which suggest death cannot defeat the church.  Death will continue to assault the church bur death cannot crush it.  The church will endure until Christ’s return, and no opposition, no matter how great, no matter how widespread, no matter how many are martyred for Christ can prevent the ultimate triumph of God’s purposes in history.

Despite the confidence we all shared in Christ, the present work of redemption is still to be done for… 

4.  The Church Authorises People into the Kingdom (16:19-20)

The kingdom is not to be identified with the church.  The kingdom has reference to divine rule; the church to the people of God.  The authority belongs not only to Peter (16:19), but to all who share his proclamation of Jesus’ identity (18:18).  Keys opened locked doors or gates, but the carrying of keys especially symbolised the authority of the person who bore them.  Clearly Peter was delegated this authority to usher people into God’s kingdom.  And those who confessed as Peter did too have the authority to do the same.

This has to be understood in context.  Later in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus spoke of the Scribes and Pharisees as shutting up the kingdom before people and this preventing them from entering (23:13).  Peter, by contrast, opens the way.  We see him doing this in Acts 2 and 3, where his preaching brought many into the kingdom.  Peter in his use of the key in Acts 8:20-23 to exclude an impenitent sinner.  It is clear that Peter was given a certain primacy in the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles.  The right to bind and loose here  connected with the gift of the keys, is given to the disciples as a whole in Matthew 18:18; thus we are not to think of Peter as elevated to a plane above all the other disciples.

Now scholars have given many interpretations to the nature of this authority especially of this “binding and loosing” in Matthew 16:19.  In the Jewish contexts, it seems pretty clear that it refers to authority to interpret the law and therefore to evaluate a person’s faithfulness to the law.  It means that Peter evaluates not only those who are already in the community of God’s people but also those would enter it.  It functions to evaluating people wanting to enter as well as evaluating those already within the church.  If this is correct, then Peter must accept into the church only those who share his confession of Jesus’ true identity (Matthew 16:16).  Of course, the church should emulate Jesus’ practice of welcoming the unconverted (Matthew 9:20), but this is not the same as acting if all newcomers were true disciples of Christ regardless of their commitment. 

[Top]
[More Sermon Titles]