Confession Foundation (Mat 16:18)

Let us Pray: Lord Jesus, we praise and acknowledge You to be the Christ, the Son of the Living God. We thank you for sending the Holy Spirit so that we believe in You and can make the good confession. Please continue to send the Holy Spirit, so that we are reinforced in our faith and trust in You, and gain a greater appreciation for the gift of the one holy Christian church on earth to which we belong. We bring this to You, Lord Jesus, who reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Setting: There is a map in your bulletin that illustrates where Jesus and His disciples were located in last week’s Gospel reading. In the upper left-hand corner of the map, you see where Jesus & team were in the circled area identified as the “district of Tyre and Sidon”[1]. That was unusual, because as Jesus stated, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”[2] The map of where the 12 tribes of Israel had settled did not include that district. Other events took place between then and today’s reading, where we find Jesus walking toward Caesarea Philippi.[3]
- While traveling, Jesus asked the disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” In v14, they responded with, “Some say John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; but still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.” If you or I would have encountered Jesus when He conducted His earthly ministry, we might have guessed similarly.
Confession: After receiving input from the disciples on what others were saying, Jesus asked them about who they say He is (v15)? I don’t know whether there was a sudden tension of silence due to the disciples being put on the spot. But I can imagine everyone wanted to give Jesus the correct answer. Do we say He is God? We know He’s a prophet sent by God. What’s the best answer? Peter, eventually answering for the group said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”[4]
- Jesus clarified in v17 how Peter was able to confess what he believed, taught, and confessed. Peter was in the condition of being blessed by God the Father who sent the Holy Spirit to work faith in Peter’s soul. Peter wouldn’t have been able to make the good confession that Jesus is Lord except by the work of the Holy Spirit to open the eyes and ears of the soul to accept and believe in God’s word.
  - We are no different than Peter. If you think about it, you wouldn’t be here today if it were up to your own flesh and blood. C’mon, Sunday is the day of rest, isn’t it? Well actually, Sunday in church is a celebration of Jesus rising from the dead on the first day of the new week. That makes Sunday more significant than just resting. As mentioned last week, we make Sunday holy by not only resting, but also hearing the word of God, and hearing of ways to put His word into practice. We have the same Holy Spirit testifying in our soul that Peter had when he made the great confession.
Misunderstanding: This brings us to v18 of the text that I repeat from an original translation of the Greek - “And I also say to you, that you are Peter. And I will build My church upon this rock. And the gates of Hades will not overpower it.[5] If you read this same verse on p.977 of your pew Bible, it will not sound the same. Let’s dig deeper to find out why.
- An early church father named Jerome[6], translated Hebrew and Greek manuscripts into Latin. That translation became known as the Vulgate. He lived from 340-420AD. His translation is what the western churches used for centuries afterward. In contrast, eastern churches continued to rely on the Greek Old Testament (OT) called the Septuagint. His abandonment of the Septuagint was met with widespread criticism including St. Augustine and Eusebius of Caesarea, primarily on the basis that many of the quotes from the OT by NT writers were from a manuscript of the Septuagint. Additionally, Jerome was known for inaccuracies in many of his commentaries and other writings. Nonetheless, his works gained greater acceptance as time went on.
- One major blunder was his translation into Latin that implied Peter was anointed by Jesus as the first pope. Jerome himself didn’t conclude this, but subsequent church councils did. I listed in your bulletin outline two translations of Mat 16:18 that are US Conference of Catholic Bishops endorsed translations:[7]
  - This is the 1st one, “And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.”[8] (NABRE)
  - And another, “So I will call you Peter, which means “a rock.” On this rock I will build my church, and death itself will not have any power over it.”[9] (CEV)
- Why is my original translation so different? There are a few reasons but allow me for a moment to provide two major ones. We need to remember that Jesus renamed a man named Simon as “Peter”. There was another disciple by the name Simon. Matthew made that clear in Mat 10:2-4 in his list of disciples. The 1st, Simon, who is called Peter, and the 11th, 4 Simon the Zealot.[10] To avoid confusion, Jesus renamed Peter in the tradition of bestowing a name on a person for who they were and what they were known for.
- A second reason for the different translation is in the grammar of the original Greek. English doesn’t have masculine or feminine nouns. However, like Spanish, Greek does. The word for Peter which translated means “rock”. It’s written in the masculine gender which matches with Peter being a man. However, the underlined word “rock” in your bulletin is an indirect object in the feminine gender. That rock is part of a prepositional phrase that starts a new sentence. In English, we usually place indirect objects after the verb of a sentence. This is why my original translation moved “upon this rock” in word order after Jesus’ usage of a future tense verb for building of His church.
  - There is scriptural backing for the underlined word “rock” to be in the feminine gender. Jesus’ bride, which has to be in the feminine gender, is the church. The clearest example of Jesus being the Groom to His Bride the church is in Eph 5:25-27 - 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, 26 so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.[11]
  - And the Bride, that is the church, is built upon the foundation of the Apostles with Jesus as the Cornerstone as noted in Eph 2:20 – [the church, composed of fellow saints of God’s household,] having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone…[12]
- Now, returning to Mat 16:18, we read the Gates of Hell will not prevail against the church. On Judgement Day, Jesus will toss both death and Hades into the lake of fire.[13] If He can do that as noted in Rev 20:14, we can conclude that neither the 1st death, which occurs when we breathe our last breath of this Age, nor the 2nd death, which is an eternal death in hell for those who denied Jesus; neither of these will have any effect on us believers in Christ.
- And we have proof that Jesus has power over death, because there were a number of witnesses who saw Him alive after He was crucified, died, and was buried. His resurrection from the dead demonstrated His victory over death such that we can defiantly say about death, “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”[14] And we can boldly confess that, because we are Jesus’ bride. And we are wed with Him, the Groom.
Keys of the kingdom: Continuing on to Mat 16:19, we see another gift Jesus gave to the one holy Christian church on earth. Jesus gave His Bride, the church, the keys to His kingdom. What are these keys and what do they do?
- Luther’s Small Catechism addresses these questions.[15]
  - One key is something we use at the start of each Divine Service. We confess our sins, and then the pastor, in the place of Jesus, absolves people of their sins. This key has the effect of opening heaven, because no one with any sin can enter heaven. When you are troubled by your sins, whether recent or from long-term memory, seek the loosening key. That key is contritely confessing sins and believing that Jesus has forgiven you of those sins.
  - The other key retains sins and closes heaven to those who are impenitent sinners. These are people who tell the Holy Spirit to talk to the hand whenever He bothers their conscience with their sins. Trust me, you don’t want to be bound in your sins due to impenitence. It doesn't end well, because you will be barred from ever entering heaven.
Keep secret: And finally, in v20, Jesus did something really strange. He commanded the disciples to not tell anyone He is the Christ. Yes, you heard that correctly – He told them *not* to tell anyone He is the Christ, the Messiah; the Messiah who was foretold of and would be coming to save His people from their sins.[16]
- I’ve often kidded about this command from Jesus. Was He utilizing reverse psychology? In other words, tell the disciples *not* to do something, so that in their rebellious nature, they go out and immediately do it. 😊 In all seriousness, I don’t think so. Jesus had reasons behind telling them not to identify Him as the Christ.
  - We get a clue at the end of John ch#2. The Apostle John noted that Jesus was not entrusting Himself to people, for He knew what was in the soul of people around Him.[17]
  - Additionally, everyone had their own thoughts on what Messiah would do. For instance, after Jesus fed 5,000 men and their families, those people perceived Jesus as a prophet from God. And so, they wanted to take Jesus by force and make Him their earthly king.[18] They liked the idea of unlimited free food and health care!
  - Another example is the woman at the well Jesus met while passing through Samaritan territory. The woman said to Jesus, “I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us.”[19]
  - And there was a diversity of opinions about the Christ during a Feast of Booths celebration Jesus attended. Some didn’t know where Jesus was from. Others were misinformed that Jesus was from Galilee, not realizing He was born in Bethlehem.[20]
  - These kinds of misperceptions still exist today. Some Christians are expecting Jesus to return to earth and rule for a 1,000yrs, because they’re literally interpreting a symbolic 1,000yrs in Rev ch#20.[21] They forget what Jesus said to Pontius Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm.”[22]
No longer a secret: Because of these varied perceptions of the Messiah, Jesus ordered His disciples to *not* identify Him as the Messiah while His earthly ministry was taking place. But after Jesus rose from the dead, He commanded them to preach the gospel, saying, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.”[23]
- The gospel includes preaching Christ crucified. This concept of Messiah coming to be a man who would be crucified Roman-style was totally out of the question for a lot of people. There’s no way God would send our savior to die a horrible death like that! This is why the Apostle Paul wrote - 23 but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, 24 but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ [is] the power of God and the wisdom of God.[24] Yes, this concept of the Christ that Paul warned would be a stumbling block and foolishness is something to be preached to Gentiles[25] as well as Jews. Be faithful with the preaching and teaching and let the Holy Spirit do His job in knocking on the door of the soul of those who have not heard that Messiah has come.
- Jesus ordered His disciples to tell the world the long-awaited Messiah has come. Those original Apostles in turn would go out and make more disciples by baptizing and teaching. That is the business of the one holy Christian church on earth. We in 2026, with such examples as our ESL program and running of a Lutheran school, build off from the foundation of the Apostles. As Peter wrote, we …are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God’s OWN POSSESSION, so that [we] may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called [us] out of darkness into His marvelous light.[26]
- Peter wasn’t the rock on which the one holy Christian church was built. His confession, reflecting the consensus of the Twelve, was made possible by God working through Peter. That confession is the foundation on which the church was built. We are branches anchored to that foundation. Thanks be to God for this gift! Amen.

[1] Reference Mat 15:21

[2] Quote from NASB95 version of Mat 15:24 at https://www.blueletterbible.org/nasb95/mat/15/24/t_conc_944024

[3] Reference Mat 16:13

[4] Quote from Mat 16:16 of the NASB95 at https://www.blueletterbible.org/nasb95/mat/16/16/t_conc_945016

[5] The Greek of the mGNT for Mat 16:18 at https://www.blueletterbible.org/nasb95/mat/16/18/t_conc_945018

[6] Facts about Jerome gleaned from https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08341a.htm

[7] See https://www.usccb.org/offices/new-american-bible/approved-translations-bible for the complete list

[8] New American Bible (Revised Edition) at https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=mat%2016&version=NABRE

[9] Contemporary English Version at https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=mat%2016&version=CEV

[10] Reference Mat 10:2-4 for the complete list

[11] Eph 5:25-27 from NASB95 at https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=eph%205&version=NASB1995

[12] To fully appreciate this quote from the NASB95 of Eph 2:20, one must start with v19 and continue reading through to the end of ch#2; Eph 2:20 copied from https://www.blueletterbible.org/nasb95/eph/2/20/t_conc_1099020

[13] Reference Revelation 20:14

[14] Reference 1Co 15:54-57 – quoting Isaiah 25:8 and Hos 13:14

[15] See Luther’s Small Catechism, Question 335: Why do we refer to this authority as the power of the Keys?

[16] Reference Mat 1:21

[17] Reference John 2:23-25

[18] Reference John 6:14-15

[19] Quote from NASB95 version of John 4:25 at https://www.blueletterbible.org/nasb95/jhn/4/25/t_conc_1001025

[20] Reference John 7:26,27,31,41,42

[21] Reference Rev 20:2-7

[22] Quote from NASB95 version of John 18:36 at https://www.blueletterbible.org/nasb95/jhn/18/36/t_conc_1015036

[23] Quote from NASB95 of Mark 16:15 at https://www.blueletterbible.org/nasb95/mar/16/15/s_973015

[24] 1Co 1:23-24 from NASB95 at https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1co%201&version=NASB1995