More from Matt 16:18-20

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/9/2022 8:18 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  “More from Matt. 16:18-20”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Matthew 16:18-20

 

            Message of the verses:  “18 “And I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not overpower it. 19 “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." 20 Then He warned the disciples that they should tell no one that He was the Christ.”

 

            I continue with John MacArthur comments on this section which come from his commentary.  “Because they participated with the apostles in proclaiming the authoritative gospel of Jesus Christ, the prophets of the early church were also part of the church’s foundation (Eph. 2:20).  In fact, as Martin Luther observed, ‘All who agree with the confession of Peter [in Matt. 16:16] are Peters themselves setting a sure foundation.’  The Lord is still building His church with ‘living stones,…built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Christ’ (1 Pet. 2:5).

            “Therefore, whether one interprets Matthew 16:18 as referring to Peter as a small stone placed on the mountainous stone of his confession of Christ or as referring to his being one with the rest of the Twelve in his confession, the basic truth is the same:  The foundation of the church is the revelation of God given through His apostles, and the Lord of the church is the cornerstone of that foundation.  Because it is His Word that the apostles taught and that the faithful church has always taught, Jesus Christ Himself is the true foundation, the living Word to whom the written Word bears witness (John 5:39).  And ‘No man,’ Paul says—not even an apostle—‘can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ’ (1 Cor 3:11).  The Lord builds the church to the truth of Himself, and because His people are inseparable from Him they are inseparable from His truth.  And because the apostles were endowed with His truth in a unique way, by their preaching of that truth they were the foundation of His church in a unique way.

            “That the Lord did not establish His church on the supremacy of Peter and his supposed papal successors was made clear in short while after Peter’s great confession.  When the disciples asked Jesus who was greatest in the kingdom of heaven, He replied by placing a small child before them and saying, ‘Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven’ (Matt 18:1-4).  Had the Twelve understood Jesus’ teaching about the rock and the keys of the kingdom (Matt. 16:18-19) as referring exclusively to Peter, they would hardly have asked who was greatest in the kingdom.  Or, had they forgotten or misunderstood Jesus’ previous teaching, He would have answered by naming Peter as the greatest and probably would also have chided them for not remembering or believing what He had already taught (cf. Matt. 14:31; 26:24; John 14:9).

            “A short while after that, the mother of James and John asked Jesus to give her sons the chief places of honor in His kingdom, one on His left and the other on His right (Matt. 20:21).  We learned from Mark 10:35-37 that James and John were themselves directly involved in the request, one they would never had made had they understood Peter to have been given primacy as Christ’s successor.  Or, as with the previous incident, had James and John misunderstood His teaching about the foundation rock of the church and the days of the kingdom, Jesus would have taken the occasion to restate and underscore Peter’s supremacy.

            “Although Peter recognized himself as an apostle (see, e. g., 1 Pet. 1:1-2; 2 Pet. 1:1), he never claimed a superior title, rank, or privilege over the other apostles.  He even referred to himself as a ‘fellow elder’ (1 Pet. 5:1) and as ‘a bond-servant’ of Christ (2 Pet 1:1).  Far from claiming honor and homage for himself, the soberly warns his follow elders to guard against lording it over those under their pastoral care (1 Pet. 5:3).  The only glory he claimed for himself was that which is shared by all believers and which is yet ‘to be revealed,…when the Chief Shepherd appears’ (vv. 1, 4).”

 

            Lord willing we will look at point number two from Matt. 16:18-20 or feature number two of the features and characteristics of the church that He buids.

 

9/9/2022 8:49 AM