Matthew 16:16–19

There was the usual answer of men, the uncertainty of human opinion. "He said to them, But who do you say that I am?" He asked because the very uncertainty of men brings out the faith of God's elect. So there is no time at all that God does not turn for good to the believer.

The public preaching of the kingdom to the Jews was now to stop. He no longer offered Himself to the nation as their Messiah or Christ. Instead He told His disciples to tell no one that He was the Christ. Instead of pointing to national acceptance and an earthly crown, He speaks of national rejection and an earthly cross. Instead of the old hope of the prophetic kingdom, He mentions a new thing which He was about to establish: the assembly or Church. He had set aside the name Messiah, which linked Him with the throne of David. In its place, for the Church, He takes up a title just made known and infinitely higher: the "Son of the living God."

He owns Him to be the Son of the One in whom is life and life-giving power. The life of God cannot be destroyed, and the Son of the living God cannot be overcome. In Him is that power of life which nothing can defeat. Satan had the power of death; the Son of God has the power of life. The unchangeable power of life, even though He goes into death, cannot be overcome by death. It is the very reverse. He annuls death. Every other man was overcome by death; the Son of the living God could not be. It is worth noticing the force of "living" here, because He goes on to speak of death, and of "the gates of hell," which mean Satan's kingdom. The Assembly is founded on the unchanging power of life in the Son of God. So the kingdom of death cannot touch it.

The resurrection of the Son of God, according to the power of life which was in Him, is the foundation and measure of the life and security of the church, and it was sheltered, and the church by it, from all the attacks of him who had the power of death. In vain the tomb wrapped itself in darkness — out of the middle of it came life more powerful than ever.

"Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah," said the Lord, "for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven." We all come to this same blessedness if we know our Lord as "the Christ, the Son of the living God." It is the Father's work to reveal Him to us this way. How wonderful it is! We have not only tasted that the Lord is gracious, equal to all our deep need. The Father in His grace has also opened our hearts to a new position, a new calling, a new place of favour, by revealing to us who His Son is.

If He had been only the Christ, the Messiah of Israel, that would not have been a firm enough basis for the Church. His Messianic dignity might have been rock enough for Israel, since it was their faith and hope. Psalm 2 also speaks of Him in that dignity as Son of God. But "the Son of the living God" was a revelation of His glory that went far beyond it. Once you know and confess the Lord in this His highest glory, He begins for the first time to announce His building of His Church.

That confession was the rock on which Christ would build His Church — not poor Peter, who so soon denied his Lord and Master. Peter was a stone — a living stone — built into the rock, but the foundation is the confession of Christ Himself.

Jesus Himself declares that the soul who knows Him as the Son of the living God is blessed of the Father. No doubt Peter had learned much from the Lord, as he had followed that lovely and blessed life of devotion and self-sacrifice. But the Father took hold of that uneducated, unlettered Galilean fisherman and taught him the truth. The blessed Man he was following was the Son of the living God. The Father Himself alone can teach you this blessed truth, my friend. No university course and no human teaching can give your soul this knowledge of the Son. But the Father loves to teach the willing soul that seeks Christ.

Here "flesh and blood" means everything that belongs to man as he now is. It means man in his present condition: a poor, weak, miserable creature... So here the Lord says, "Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you ... but My Father who is in heaven." You have no power to discover this by man's wisdom.

So we have no hope of convincing the natural man that the Son is God. Argument will not do it, and no proof of any kind will do it, apart from the work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said to an apostle, "flesh and blood has not revealed this to you." And we are also told that the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God.

We have tasted that the Lord is gracious and equal to all our deep need. But the Father in His grace has done more. By revealing to us who His Son is, He has opened our hearts to a new position, a new calling, a new place of favour. The revelation is from heaven, and God has made it not as the Almighty or as Jehovah, but as Father, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Was not this to emphasise his lowly position as a man? Apart from divine grace, was he not merely Simon, son of Jonah?... Here, at Caesarea Philippi, the contrast is between two things. On one side is what man is by nature, weak at the core. On the other is the high privilege given to the apostle: to declare the divine glory of his Master more fully than ever before. So we see there is a very pointed contrast between Simon Bar-jona and Peter.

A confession so remarkably rich drew out the Saviour's recognition of His Father's grace to Simon Barjona... He was the Son of the living God. If He had been only the Christ, the Messiah of Israel, that would not have been a strong enough basis for the Church. His dignity as Messiah might have been rock enough for Israel, since it was their faith and hope. But "the Son of the living God" was a revelation of His glory that went far beyond it.

Though he had just made the blessed confession of Christ which the Father had revealed to him... when the Lord spoke of His path of humiliation, as Son of Man, Peter could not bear it... Peter's flesh was not broken down enough to walk in the power of the truth he had received and rejoiced in. So it is with us.

The Lord now speaks to Peter by the name He had given him. Peter is petros, a stone. The rock He builds on is petra, the great rock foundation. And the gates of hell — the schemes and plots of Hades, the underworld — will not prevail against it.

By grace Peter had confessed what no one ever had: that Christ was the Son of the living God. The Lord acknowledges the grace given to him. He gives him the name Peter, a stone. So by grace, through his confession, Peter shares in the very thing he confessed. For it was on that truth — that Christ is the Son of the living God — that He would build His church.

Notice the expression. It is not, I have been building; but I will build My Church. He had not built it yet, nor begun to build it: it was altogether new. I do not mean that no one believed in Him before, or was born again of the Spirit. But it is a mistake to call all believers from the beginning to the end of time "the Church."

When the Lord spoke, He had not begun to build. "I will build" is future. That building could not begin until Christ had finished the work of redemption, until He had risen and gone up into heaven, and until the Holy Spirit had come.

Here we see what the church is for Christ. He says, "I will build my church." Many other Scriptures speak of the church as belonging to God. But here the Son of God speaks of it as His own, as something He Himself is building… Men can spoil, break and ruin what they build. What Christ is building stays perfect, and nothing can break into it.

So the gates of hades — the power of death, held by Satan — will not prevail against the church. For the resurrection declared Christ to be Son of God with power, above all the power of Satan. The church is built on this rock, on His being the Son of the living God. So Satan's power, the power of death, could not overthrow it.

Note, it is His church, and He is still building. No wonder then that the gates even of Hades shall not prevail against it. They shall not "prevail." The Lord does not say that His church will escape heavy and painful blows. He says the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. This should comfort us; for His church must stand.

So it is not enough to say, "I have Christ," however blessed that is. If I know that He is the Son of God, I must also believe that He is now building the church. Do I know my place in His church? Am I walking in the life of Christ, a living stone in my proper place in the house He is building?"

Did Christ give Peter the keys of heaven? Impossible. Men have painted pictures of the Lord and His apostles, and Peter with keys hanging at his belt, while a flock of sheep surrounds them. So many people think Peter has the keys of the Church. There are none such. This is a pure fallacy. Sheep are not fed by keys, and Christ does not build with keys. The value of keys is to open doors, and once the doors are opened the keys are of no more use.

People have badly misapplied these words, and have built the most terrible doctrines on them... The Lord did not say that He gave him the keys of heaven. And with the loosing on earth and loosing in heaven, the Lord never meant that the eternal destiny of one single soul was left in Peter's hands.

There is no deeper mistake than confusing "the kingdom of heaven" with "heaven." The kingdom of heaven is the rule of heaven over the earth... We must not confuse the kingdom of heaven with Christ's church. The kingdom of heaven is what He governs... it is the scene of profession, and so there may be all sorts of things there that are far from Christ; weeds as well as wheat.

"I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David"... A housekeeper, or steward, has the keys, and administers the household affairs as a trust. Peter did so in the kingdom and with full authority.

God chose Peter to preach the first sermon after the Holy Spirit came down from heaven. Three thousand people were brought to repentance, and were baptised at once in the Saviour's name. But these were Jews only. In Acts 10 the same apostle proclaims Christ for the first time to a Gentile gathering. Everyone in Cornelius' house believed, and they received Christian baptism straight away.

The promise limits itself to earth as the sphere of this binding or loosing... The earth is the only place where the binding applies. Heaven is the seat of authority for the kingdom, so "shall be bound in heaven" simply means that heaven would confirm the act of its representatives on earth. There is power on earth, and for earth, only. Yet whoever rebels against it rebels against the authority of heaven.

Does this authority given to the apostle pass on to successors? There is no hint of such a thing in Matthew 16:19. The Saviour's words give nothing beyond a personal commission. But in Matthew 18:18 the very same words appear in a completely different setting. Peter is not in view there, but the assembly of God's people, gathered in any place on earth and at any time... To receive into fellowship from the world outside is to "loose"; to put away a wrongdoer is to "bind"; to welcome the repentant one back again is to "loose" again.