Sermon for Sunday, June 14th, 2026 at First Presbyterian Church at Unionville, NY (BPC)
Sermon for Sunday Evening, June 14, 2026 at Hudson Valley URC
Old Testament Reading:
[Isaiah 28:14-18 ESV] 14 Therefore hear the word of the LORD, you scoffers, who rule this people in Jerusalem! 15 Because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol we have an agreement, when the overwhelming whip passes through it will not come to us, for we have made lies our refuge, and in falsehood we have taken shelter”; 16 therefore thus says the Lord GOD, “Behold, I am the one who has laid as a foundation in Zion, a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation: ‘Whoever believes will not be in haste.’ 17 And I will make justice the line, and righteousness the plumb line; and hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and waters will overwhelm the shelter.” 18 Then your covenant with death will be annulled, and your agreement with Sheol will not stand; when the overwhelming scourge passes through, you will be beaten down by it.
New Testament Reading:
[1 Corinthians 3:10-15 ESV] 10 According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. 11 For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw– 13 each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. 14 If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.
Gospel Reading:
[Luke 9:18-22 ESV] 18 Now it happened that as he was praying alone, the disciples were with him. And he asked them, “Who do the crowds say that I am?” 19 And they answered, “John the Baptist. But others say, Elijah, and others, that one of the prophets of old has risen.” 20 Then he said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” And Peter answered, “The Christ of God.” 21 And he strictly charged and commanded them to tell this to no one, 22 saying, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.”
Sermon Text:
[Matthew 16:13-20 ESV] 13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. 18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
I. The identity of Jesus (v. 13-15)
The Identity of Jesus is a great recurring question throughout the Gospel of Matthew.
Matthew tells us that Jesus is the Son of David, the wise men come to worship him, and John the Baptist says Jesus is “one who is coming after me who is mightier than I.”
Yet, the people of Israel are not quick to conclude the truth of Jesus. Even though he preaches in a way that exhibits authority unlike the Scribes and Pharisees, and even though he performs many miracles, the people doubt and even reject him.
John the Baptist even had his doubts, sending messengers from prison asking “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” And Jesus said to them, “Go and tel John what you hear and see, the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the daed are raised, and the poor have good news preached to them.”
Who is Jesus?
When Jesus walked on the water and even rescued Peter from the storm, the disciples worshipped him and said “Truly, you are the Son of God.”
And the Canaanite woman, in her great faith, acknowledge the power of Jesus to bless her saying, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”
There are indeed numerous statements in this Gospel that show the divinity of Christ as well as his place as the messiah, the one who is to come.
Now we have Jesus asking the disciples that question. First, saying “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”
It is interesting that he doesn’t say “Who do people say that I am?” He says “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” Some 9 times in Matthew’s Gospel before this Jesus has called himself “the Son of Man.” But if a person doesn’t know that truth – that Jesus is the Son of Man, the promised messiah – then the question he poses is just a general Biblical question: who is the Son of Man?
The disciples answer: Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
Nowhere in that answer is Jesus.
Except, the question isn’t “Who WAS the son of man” (all of those prophets now being) dead, but who IS the son of man? So it is clear, because of the present tense that he is speaking about himself, and looking for the answer of what the people think of him.
Now, that answer (John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, one of the prophets) shows that the people are missing the mark. They’ve got it wrong. They think Jesus is ONLY one of the prophets. Indeed that is the error in Islam today; that Jesus was merely a great prophet.
Then we have the second question: But who do you say that I am? And it is this answer (and Jesus’s response to it) that will be the focus of this sermon.
Peter replied “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
And Jesus answer him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.”
We’ll look at three points in particular.
I. The identity of the Rock
II. The meaning of the Gates of Hell
III. The Everlasting Church
II. The identity of the Rock (v. 16-17)
What is the rock on which the church will be built?
You almost certainly know of the fanciful self-focused theory of the Church of Rome. They believe Peter is the rock, that Peter was the first pope, and that the church is built on him, at Rome. Therefore, everyone ought to do what they say as successors of Peter.
This is of course wrong on both the exegetical level when we look at the verse within the context of the passage, and on the level of comparing Scripture with Scripture.
The passage is all about the identity of Jesus. He asks the question and confirms the answer. It is simply not a passage about Peter, but about Jesus; about the recognition of his identity.
The grammar is hotly contested. What does “THIS” in “this rock” refer to? The Catholic argument is that it must refer to the closest antecedent which is Peter. But this is not convincing. It seems more likely to me that “THIS” refers to back to the last verse in which Jesus says “flesh and blood has not revealed THIS (the truth about Jesus’s identity) but my Father who is in heaven.”
Now, Peter is one of the apostles. His name “Peter” means rock in greek. He is also called “Simon Bar-Jonah.” “Bar” is the Aramaic word for Son. So Peter is Simon, son of Jonah. And he stumbles frequently. He denies Christ three times. He’s not a very good example of a rock.
But there a number of other places in the Scriptures that speak about a rock.
[Deuteronomy 32:3-4 ESV] 3 For I will proclaim the name of the LORD; ascribe greatness to our God! 4 “The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.
[1 Samuel 2:2 ESV] 2 “There is none holy like the LORD: for there is none besides you; there is no rock like our God.
[2 Samuel 22:32 ESV] 32 “For who is God, but the LORD? And who is a rock, except our God?
[2 Samuel 22:47 ESV] 47 “The LORD lives, and blessed be my rock, and exalted be my God, the rock of my salvation,
[Psalm 62:2 ESV] 2 He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken.
(and various other Psalms)
In EVERY case, “the rock” IS GOD. Even it is “he alone” and “none besides you.”
Then, in the New Testament, Jesus is called the foundation, the cornerstone, the rock.
[1 Corinthians 3:11 ESV] 11 For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
[Acts 4:11 ESV] 11 This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone.
[1 Corinthians 10:4 ESV] 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.
So what (or who) is “the rock” in Matthew’s Gospel?
There is none but Christ. (Luther, Zwingli, Kuyper, etc. All say “the rock is Jesus”)
Some will argue that “the rock” is not exactly Christ, but is the statement of Peter that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. (Calvin, Hodge, etc)
That is acceptable; the truths ABOUT Jesus are indeed “the rock” as much as Jesus himself is the rock, for the truths about him are essential to his nature.
Simon Bar-Jonah is then giving the name “Peter” because he has been blessed by God with knowledge of that truth about the Rock of Salvation who is Jesus Christ.
Jesus says, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.”
A great interest of mine for many years has been the study of epistemology, the philosophy of knowledge. And this is one of the most important Biblical verses on the subject. We find something so important for Christian epistemology. Peter does not come to a truth on his own or from others teaching him, but it is REVEALED to him by God! Not of flesh and blood, but of God who is in heaven.
And this revelational epistemology – this idea that God is involved (necessary and sufficient) for our knowledge – is fitting for our Calvinist understanding of the Sovereignty of God; and it is a truth that St. Augustine spoke of even 16 centuries ago. That truth is this: sin has corrupted not only our bodies but our minds, and to have the knowledge of God it requires that God reveal it unto us.
We cannot come to the truth that Jesus is Lord by ourself.
Indeed, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians: “No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit.”
So our very faith and knowledge is a product of God.
Peter is blessed, he is blessed of God. And Jesus recognizes that because Peter has faith in Jesus as the Son of God.
And it is THAT FAITH – not Peter professing the faith – but THAT FAITH itself (and the one in whom we have faith – Jesus Christ) that is the rock upon which the Church is built.
So we are not standing upon a man, but upon the Son of Man and the Son of God, the rock who does changeth not.
So the metaphor of a rock fits with the Lord, for men do change, but He is immutable.
III. The meaning of the Gates of Hell (v. 18)
There is then a second thing in our text to identify. That is “the gates of hell.” What does that mean?
Some say that this is a local reference. That in Caesarea Philippi there was cave that was the center of pagan worship said to be the entrance to the underworld. Indeed, Jesus may have used this as a backdrop, but we should look to Biblical references.
Here is Matthew is the only time in the ESV (or KJV) that the “gates of hell” are mentioned. Not even in the other synoptic Gospels. Just here in Matthew.
Clearly the “gates of hell” are something against the Church, but something over which the Church will always have victory. The Greek here for hell is “hades.”
It is used once before in Matthew; Matthew 11:23 where Jesus said “And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You will be brought down to Hades. For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.”
Clearly, with hades being the opposite of heaven, that hell is in view.
The phrase “gates of death” and “gates of the grave” are used in the Old Testament. (Job 38:17, Isaiah 38:10). This is certainly what Christ has in view. (I’ve learned that you want to prioritize Old Testament references over local history references, and Old Testament over Greek Philosophy, etc. Jesus was steeped in the Word, and constantly made reference to it. The Apostles did the same)
David Brown (a 19th century Free Church of Scotland minister who wrote commentaries) says “gates of hell” means “the gates of death” and the church shall never perish.
The grave shall not be our end.
Matthew Henry says even more fully that “the gates of hell shall not prevail against the truth (of Peter’s confession) nor against the church built upon it.”
Christ conquers death. Death has no chance. And that entranceway into hell, which is death, does not prevail for believers have life everlasting. Believers – the church – shall not be defeated by death.
I do indeed believe that the church here on Earth will exist in some way, even if only as a remnant, for as long as the Earth exists. And the Gospel will go forth and fulfill the plan of God to convert sinners to Christ, but these “prevailings” are not what is in view. The text is not saying that the church will take over and run the world.
But it is saying that believers with that same faith of Peter – saying that Christ is the Son of God – shall not go to hell but have everlasting life.
IV. The Gospel in this passage.
So the overall passage then is the pure gospel: it is through faith in Jesus Christ (that he is the messiah and the son of the living God) that believers are saved from death unto life.
So we are to take comfort. For no storm, no enemy, no trouble can conquer the church. Even death itself is defeated.
As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:55
[1 Corinthians 15:55 ESV] 55 “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”
Christ has conquered death, and come back to life. And all united with him shall have that same life eternal.
We are to plant ourselves firmly on that rock.
There are at least two great hymns that fit well with this passage.
“The Church’s One Foundation” (Is Jesus Christ her Lord
and
“On Christ the Solid Rock I Stand.” (All Other Ground is Sinking Sand)
Those indeed are great truths, for we do not follow Peter, but Christ. And the church will never perish for it is a church not built upon any sinful man, but upon the rock Jesus Christ, the spotless lamb of God, fully man, fully God, and with power to conquer death.
So who do YOU say that Jesus is?
Let us say with the Apostle Peter, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Let us pray.