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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