The Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand—The Book of Matthew · Pastor Adam Wood · Matthew 16:13–18 · October 26, 2025

Transcript:
Alright, let's get our Bible and go to the book of Matthew. We're picking up from our study in Matthew, and we're in chapter 16 this morning. Matthew 16 will begin in verse number 13. I have to admit this passage, verses 13 through 20 is where we'll be this morning, is one of those famous passages in scripture. It is just extremely significant in the whole of the book of Matthew. It could be called, it could even be called the theme verse, some of these verses in this passage. And so as I come to them, I feel like I need something more substantial to say to you guys that's equal to the importance of this verse. But we're going to go at it. We're going to see what the Lord shows us anyway. Verse 13 of Matthew 16, the Bible says this, When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist, some Elias, and others Jeremiah's, or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father, which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ. Would you pray with me this morning? Lord, we come to you as a needy people. Lord, we know that we have needs sometimes, and other times you know that we have needs that we're even unaware of. We certainly need your word. If we're going to grow as your people, Lord, we're going to have to grow by the word of God. And that's what we come out to look at this morning. We come to your word. Lord, open our eyes and our heart that we might behold wondrous things out of thy law. Give us understanding, Lord, and teach us by your Spirit these truths. Guide me, Lord, to say the things to help and strengthen your people in their faith, in the truth, in the Scripture. But not only that, Lord, help us not to just go away with more knowledge or a knowledge that's been strengthened, but Lord, that we might apply the word of God and use it to help us to live uprightly and to walk before you unto all pleasing. So Lord, we just acknowledge we need your help in every way in Jesus' name. Amen. Now you've seen in the book of Matthew as we've gone through it, I do want to look at several verses starting in Matthew chapter 1. We'll just take a brief, very brief walk through various verses in Matthew. We've seen a recurring theme that's recurred and has been brought up a number of times in Matthew. And the theme is, who is this Jesus? Who is this Jesus? And that we've seen it over and over. The identity, the question of the identity of the Lord Jesus is a major theme in the book of Matthew, is a major theme in the book of Matthew. Now to you and to me, that question might seem like a settled issue. But if you peer beyond Greenville, South Carolina, you know, because we do get kind of a small world mentality, we do, we think everybody thinks like us and has the same beliefs as us, and that's just not true. When you leave even this area and you go to another part of the country, or especially when you leave this country and go to another part of the world, there are literally billions upon billions of people that have not settled this question. Who is this Jesus? Many, many people, you might be surprised to know that most people in the world have heard of Jesus. So I know we go to Romans 15 about, you know, striving to preach the gospel where Christ is not named, right? But there are actually few places on earth where the name of Christ has not at least arrived in some form or fashion, where people know the name of Jesus. Now I have met, as a missionary, I have met people who had never heard of Jesus, had no idea who Jesus was at all. So they exist, but by and large, even in Cambodia, which is definitely kind of on the fringes of that, most people are familiar with Pré-Jesu, they know who Jesus is, at least in broad terms. But the question of his identity is still an open question. And that's true in most of the world. And in Matthew it's true. When Jesus arrived on the scene, if you put yourself in that place, in that time period among those people, that's an open question. Here you see a man who is just a regular man, a regular Jew, no doubt, just an average guy by all accounts. He hath no form nor comeliness. There's no beauty in him that we should desire him, is what the scripture says. Probably a short man based upon the heights of the skeletal remains of people in the first century, probably about five foot three, just in all ways average. And so there's a lot of reason for questions regarding who he is to be in people's minds. Look at Matthew 1, even going all the way back to his birth, verse 20. But while he thought on these things, this is Joseph now, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. What is this angel Gabriel telling Joseph? He's telling him who this baby is. That's what he's doing. He's addressing the identity question. Right? Now let me say this, and we'll see it in just a minute, but the identity question regarding Jesus Christ is still a question in our day. And the identity question is, if you want to boil down the body of Christian doctrine, you want to boil down eternal life even, it is based upon this first kind of initial question. There's probably another one about who made the world, you know, where we come from. That's probably even more basic and elemental. But on top of that, the question of who Jesus is, is a foundational question. It's the foundation of the cross and the resurrection, because you can't properly understand the gospel unless you understand who this person is. You have to know his identity before you can understand who's on the cross and why that's so significant. It is foundational. You know, a Jehovah's Witness can believe that Jesus died on the cross for his sins, and because he has his identity wrong, it is ineffectual. He has the wrong Jesus. Right? He has a man parading around as Jesus with a mask that looks like Jesus, but it is not Jesus. No more than if a man put on a Donald Trump mask, like you probably will be seeing at some point in the next several days. You'll probably see some people with Donald Trump masks knocking on your door, ringing your doorbell. That doesn't mean they're Donald Trump. Say amen. That's right. That doesn't mean they're Donald Trump. So this identity question is very important. Let's look at Matthew chapter 3, as we just take a stroll through Matthew, chapter 3, verse 11. John the Baptist is speaking here. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear. He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. Right? This is, who is this one? And of course, we know later John the Baptist will say, behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away to the sin of the world. But again, even John the Baptist had questions. Who is this? How will I know him? This one who is sent from God. Look at chapter number 3, verse 17. And lo, as John baptizes our Lord, and lo, a voice from heaven saying, this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. This is the testimony o...