Just my convictions. I hope that they’re our convictions because we’ve taken them from the words of Jesus. They’re Jesus convictions about what a church should be. And we’re tonight, in verse 18 of our reading, where Jesus says, on this rock, I will build my church. So we’re thinking about church growing and the words of Jesus on this rock, I will build my church. And we’re just going to jump straight in. We’re jumping into Matthew’s gospel halfway through. And there is a fog of misunderstanding at this point in the Gospel. Jesus has done all kinds of miraculous signs to show who he is and there’s confusion. So Jesus has raised the dead, walked on water, healed the sick. He’s given signs of his authority to forgive sins. His divine identity has been right front and centre in front of everybody, but they’re lost in this fog of misunderstanding. So the religious teachers refuse to recognise who Jesus is. And the disciples are just confused. They don’t know who Jesus is, so he takes them to a town called Caesarea Philippi. This is where we pick our reading up, Caesarea Philippi, to ask who they think he is. And I guess ask any resident of Caesarea Philippi who was in charge. The clue is in the name Caesarea Philippi. And they probably would have said, didn’t you see the sign on the way in? Welcome to Caesarea Philippi. Caesar is in charge, he’s the king. So Jesus picks that place very provocatively, very deliberately, I’m sure, to ask his disciples, who do people say the Son of Man is? Who do people say I am? Have a look down. Who do people say the Son of man is? Verse 13, and it starts general, verse 14. Some say the disciples reply, some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. And I suppose it’s true. Jesus did call people to repent of their sins, to turn away, like John the Baptist. He did do lots of miraculous signs, like Elijah in the Old Testament, and he was rejected by the authorities, like Jeremiah. Everybody knew that Jesus was somebody extraordinary, but they couldn’t agree exactly who he was. They were lost in this fog of confusion. So then the question turns from the general who do people say I am? To the specific, to the personal. Verse 15. What about you? Jesus says, what about you? Who do you say I am? And I wonder if there’s somebody here this evening in exactly that situation. It’s all very well to say, well, all saints, they think this about Jesus, and my parents, they think that about Jesus as well. And you know, I’ve been brought up with this as well. And that’s fine. That’s all very well, we all start there, perhaps, but the question eventually has to get personal. Who do you say Jesus is? Who do you say Jesus is? For me, it was when I went to university and I’ve been brought up as a Christian, gone to church all my life, Christian family. It was when I went to university, it was my first term, I think, at university. And I faced all kinds of questions, doubts, ideas, different kinds of people that I’d not met before, different situations. And it threw it all up in the air and made me think, do I really believe this? Is it just what my parents told me or is it actually true? Do I, Do I believe Jesus? And for quite a few months, it was a hard time. It was so hard. So I was so desperate, I went to see the Anglican chaplain. Yeah, exactly. I grew up in the free church and we thought the Anglicans were barely converted. But he helped me. He said, keep reading the Bible, keep praying, keep going to church. And slowly things came into focus. And then I thought, it’s not just my parents faith or the church faith, it’s my faith. So I don’t know if you’re in that situation tonight. I just wanted to say lots of us have been there and we’d love to help you. And if you know a Christian here tonight, ask them. Ask them how they became a Christian. Maybe ask them the questions that are just nagging at the back of your mind. Be honest. We’re in a safe place. We’ve all been there. In fact, we should all be there because as Christians, we all want to be getting to know Jesus more and growing in our relationship with him, learning to follow him more and more. So we’re all on this journey. What a cliche. We’re on this journey together. Well, Peter speaks up in verse 16. He answers loud and clear, you are the Messiah. You’re the Messiah. The son of the living God, Jesus. Let’s think about that. Messiah is a Hebrew title and in Greek it’s Christos Christ. In English, the Anointed one. You’re the Anointed one, Jesus. You’re the prophet, priest and king that all the others prophet priests and kings in the Old Testament were pointing to. You’re the one who God the Father has anointed with his Holy Spirit promised throughout the Old Testament. That’s you, Jesus. That is you. And you’re the son of the living God. Walking around Caesarea Philippi with us today, you’re the son of the living God. You’re not just a prophet in the line of the prophets. You’re not just a messenger, you’re not just a man who can do amazing miracles. There is nobody who’s ever been like you and there never will be, because you are the Christ, the son of the living God. And what an amazing thing that Peter said. And what do you think? How did he work it out? How did he figure it out? Have you heard of Archimedes? Yes. Nobody at 9:30 had heard of Archimedes. Everybody at 11:15 had heard of Archimedes. And 50% of us tonight have. He was a Greek mathematician and the story goes that he had to solve a problem for the King. He had to work out how do you measure the volume of something? And the story says that he got into his bath one day, or the baths, I suppose, and as he lowered himself into the water, he saw the water level rise and he realised that the volume of the water that was displaced was equal to the volume of the thing that was put into it. Does that make sense? That’s your actual physics tonight, folks. And the story goes, he jumped out of the bath and he ran down the street stark naked, shouting, eureka. I’ve discovered it. I found it. Eureka. And so we talk about having a eureka moment. So is this Peter’s eureka moment? No, of course it isn’t. Peter hasn’t discovered it at all. It’s a revelation moment for him. So have a look at verse 17. Jesus says that. He says in verse 17, Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood. It was revealed to you by my Father in heaven. It’s a revelation. God the Father establishes the truth about Jesus, his son. Left to ourselves, none of us would be able to work out who Jesus is. None of us could. We need God the Father to help us. And he can reveal the truth about Jesus to a stubborn Pharisee, to a confused Peter, or to anybody in Linfield tonight who wants to. We just have to ask God the Father to show us who Jesus is. And he’s promised that if we do that, he will. He says, if you seek me with all your heart, you will find me. That’s a promise. So I don’t know if that’s your situation tonight. You want to find out more about Jesus, who He is for yourself, Ask God to show you. And how does he do it? He You? Well, he can do it any way he likes, but he usually does it through the pages of the Bible. He usually does it through his spirit inspired word. As we read it, think about it, try and understand it, maybe talk to other people about it, maybe in a small group, little inquirers group, or just with a Christian friend. And we ask his help. He’s promised he will show us who Jesus is. So we’re supposed to be thinking about church growing tonight. We haven’t got there yet, but I promise we will. There are three links in the chain or three steps along the road. They’re going to take us there. And that was our first. God the Father establishes the truth about Jesus. He always has done, he always will. Here’s the second step. The truth about Jesus establishes the church. Truth about Jesus establishes the church. Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God. That’s the truth. It’s foundational. Jesus builds his church and his identity guarantees that his church will be built. So look at verse 18 if you’ve still got the Bible open. Verse 18. Jesus says, I tell you that you are Peter and on this rock I will build my church. And the gates of Hades will not overcome it. Okay, we’re getting towards the building bit now. What is the rock that Jesus says he will build his church on? Well, Jesus is making play on words here because in Greek the name Peter, or Petros in Greek is linked to the Greek word for rock, Petra. Petros, the name Petra the rock. And there is something rock like about Peter. But is Peter himself as Peter the rock on which Christ’s church will be built down the ages and around the world? Some Christians have said, yes, yes, he is. And so there’s been a long tradition of saying that Peter and his successors as the bishops of Rome, the popes, are the foundation of the church. Well, we don’t have a lot of time tonight to explore that, except to say there is no evidence that Peter was the Bishop of Rome. And Jesus could have said to Peter if he wanted to, you are Peter and on you I will build my church. But he doesn’t. He says, and on this rock. He means on that statement, on that thing you’ve just said about me, about who I am, on that I will build my church. It’s because Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God, that the church that he’s building cannot fail. Fail. It cannot fail. A little while ago I was reading a book called the New Silk Roads by a historian called Peter Frankopan. Don’t know if you’ve read it, it’s worth a read. And he describes the shift in power in this world from the west to the east, and how the west can’t at the moment come to terms with what’s happening. And that’s very, very contemporary, isn’t it, what we’re seeing in the news at the moment. And he says that the global future is going to be shaped by four great powers. China, Russia, Iran and India. And what kind of world is it going to look like in the future? And how are they going to play and interact? Well, that’s what he explores in this book, the Silk Roads, the New Silk Roads. But as I came to the end of the book, I thought, well, it’s very interesting, but he’s missing something. There’s a hole in his analysis. And the whole is. He doesn’t mention the church. And it’s not just because I’m a vicar. I thought that he misses the fact that in those four countries the church is growing faster than ever before. And in the next hundred years, well, will China or Iran or India be Christian countries, whatever that means, but will the dominant faith in those countries be. Be the Christian faith? Maybe. Maybe. It’s not an exaggeration, though, to say that the church is the phenomenon of history. That is the big story of history, that Jesus is building his church. And I just think we have to hold on to that, particularly at the moment as we watch the news, we see what’s happening and it feels like everything is changing. We’ve got to believe that through it all, Jesus is building his church. Yet nations are going up and down and rulers are changing and everything we took for granted is being thrown up in the air. But in all that, Jesus is doing that, he’s allowing that. He’s working through it so he can build his church. That’s the story of history. And everything else is like a little footnote. But if you’re like me, we often forget that. And so I came across George Orwell, you know, George Orwell, who wrote 1984, that famous novel about a life under a totalitarian regime. And when it was published in 1949, his friend, another novelist, Evelyn Waugh, wrote to him to congratulate him on his new book just being published. Well done. But he had one criticism in his letter to George Orwell. This is what Waugh said. He said, I think it’s possible that in 1984 we shall be living in conditions rather like those you show. But what makes your version of the future spurious to me is the disappearance of the church. Isn’t that interesting? Even in war thinks, well, it’s not going to be like that because the church ain’t going to disappear. And Orwell would be right. The church would disappear. If it was just a human organisation, of course it would disappear. All human organisations disappear sooner or later. But I presume War knew that. The church is being built by Jesus Christ. Jesus, the Son of the living God. And it is the only thing that will last. The church is the only permanent thing on this earth. When Jesus comes again and all the empires and all the kingdoms and all the organisations and all the rulers have come to nothing, who will be left? The Church, God’s people will still be here when the dust has settled. So did you know that today the church in Africa is growing by 30,000 a day? A day. Now, a lot of that is population growth, but a lot of it also is through conversion. Church is growing or in Asia as well. My mum was a missionary in Nepal in the 1960s. I remember her telling us when she was there in the 60s, there were just a handful of Christians. And she told us about how they would do secret baptisms going down to the river by different roads, so not to draw attention, secret baptisms. But if a Nepali pastor was caught, he would be put into prison. And if somebody was converted, they would be put into prison. Now, the Centre for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon Conwell Seminary in the state says there are over 850,000 Christians in Nepal. Why? Because Jesus is building his church. He is building his church around the world. And what we’re experiencing in the west, where we don’t see that as much, is a blip. It’s unusual in the world’s terms. And where the church is growing quickest, it’s often being persecuted the most in totalitarian societies like that in 1984, George Orwell’s novel. But also in democracies, you know, the world’s biggest democracy, India, is number 11 on the world watch list for the countries where Christians face the most fierce persecution. That’s the biggest democracy in the world. But whether it’s democracies or totalitarian powers, those who are trying to stamp out the church will never succeed because Jesus said, I will build my church and the gates of Hades, death itself will not overcome it. So I don’t know. Do you sometimes feel like your back is up against the wall as a Christian? Do you feel maybe you are the only Christian at school, in your class, in your workplace, in your family? Do you feel your back is up against the wall? Well, these words of Jesus should encourage us. He is building his church and church growing is our conviction as a church, growing in number, growing in maturity, but it’s Christ who makes it grow. It’s not something we can manufacture. So I think this is great encouragement. It is to me as we sort of muster up a bit of courage to talk to somebody about Jesus. Maybe we think the conversation hasn’t gone very well. Doesn’t matter. Jesus has been building his church. He’s working through us and with us. He’s putting his power behind our weak little efforts, pushing them along. Jesus Christ, the son of the living God, is building his church. And I think it’s like a child helping their dad with a diy, you know when you can imagine a child has their hand on the saw and they think that they’re the ones sawing it, Sawing that piece of wood actually behind them is standing their dad with his hand around theirs, gripping it. And all the power and all the skill and all the energy and all the results are coming from the fact that somebody else is behind it. Jesus is building his church, folks, around the world and in this place as well, and it’s exciting to be involved. And that’s all we’re doing. We’re being involved in his work as he builds his church. So let’s go into this week on the front foot with that in our hearts and minds. A few years ago, I was part of a team that we went down to Plymouth to do an outreach mission and there are about 30 or 40 churches in Plymouth all working together. And a big team of us went down and we were led by a man called Michael Green, who died a couple of years ago. He was an evangelist and he organised it. And before we set off to go to Plymouth, he gathered us all together and he said, I’ll never forget it. He said, look, we have prayed. We’ve been praying for this mission for months and we’re going to go to Plymouth and do all kinds of events and all sorts of things and we’re going to tell people about Jesus and share the gospel and some people are going to become Christians. And I thought, yeah, that’s right, it’s exciting. And we went expecting it and we saw it. Why? Because Jesus is building his church. He’s building his church and we cooperate with him. So there we go, two links in the chain so far. God the Father establishes the truth about his son, the truth about his son, that he is the Son of the living God establishes the church. You can’t stop it. The truth about the church. Number three, the truth about the church. Establishes our purpose. Our purpose. Okay, I’m sure we’ve all got a bunch of keys in our pockets somewhere. House keys, car keys, work keys, whatever they are. You’ve got some keys, you’ve got some authority, haven’t you? You can open the door, you can let people in, you can close the door and keep people out. And Jesus says to his church, I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. He’s saying the authority that you have on earth corresponds with God’s authority in heaven. That is quite thought. Who holds the keys? Well, again, Jesus is speaking to Peter, singular. And again, some people have taken this promise and applied it to Peter as Peter. And in the window behind me, which you can’t see because of the screen, but when it goes up another time, you’ll see in the bottom left there is a figure dressed in yellow, I think, holding a key. It’s Peter, the Apostle Peter. Not as Ash Bent suggested earlier in the week, an early facilities manager. It is actually Peter holding the key. Now, we said that that rock that Jesus is building his church on is not Peter and himself, but Peter is the one who makes that statement. And in the same way, we should take Jesus words here, not applying to Peter, just as Peter, but as Peter, who makes that great confession. It’s a promise to the whole church. Jesus is saying, as a church holds out the message of who I am, Jesus, the Christ, the Son of the living God, as a church holds that out, and as we do that individually to our friends and neighbours and family and so on, it’s like we’re putting a key in the lock and the door to the kingdom of heaven can swing open if that person believes it. And if they won’t, the door swings shut. But we have been given the keys to the kingdom of heaven in that message about Jesus. Don’t you think that’s an amazing, amazing thought? What an honour and a privilege to have a key turns in the lock and God himself says to anyone who believes, come in, come in, join the church, be part of the kingdom, come into the family. And he entrusts that to us. Now, the church hasn’t always got it right. Sometimes we’ve misunderstood who Jesus is, what he came to do, and in some parts of the church have even changed the message. And that’s what’s behind verse 20, when Jesus warns his disciples not to tell anyone that he is the Christ, he’s saying, look before you start telling everybody who I am, just make sure you’ve really understood who I am yourselves. So he’s going to go on in the next few verses, which we won’t look at tonight, to talk about his suffering and his death and his rising again. He’s saying, until we’ve got that straight, let’s just keep it to ourselves. Once you know who I am, then go and tell the world. So, church growing. There are these steps or links along the way. God the Father establishes the truth of his Son. God shows us who his Son is. The truth about the Son establishes the church. He is the Christ, the Son of the living God. And the truth about the church establishes our purpose, why we’re here, which is to share Christ. We’re not just a pressure group, a political organisation or a human institution. I was on a zoom call a few weeks ago with a number of leaders from around the diocese and with some folk who work in the diocesan office in Hove. And they told us that 80% of the churches in this diocese are declining. 80%. But 20% of the churches in this diocese are growing. And nationally the picture is that the churches that are growing across this country are churches that are Christ centred, Bible rooted, Bible teaching, intentional about sharing about Jesus kind of churches, intentional about reaching out and sharing the good news of Jesus. Nationally, those churches are growing. It’s not really a surprise actually, is it? Because Jesus has said, I’ll build my church. Here are the keys. And as a church, we will grow in numbers and in maturity spiritually to the extent that our understanding about Jesus grows. So we want to be saying, heavenly Father, please show me more about Jesus. Because as we grow in our understanding about him and our trust of him, so we will be empowered and emboldened to share the good news of Jesus with those around us. And I just think think of the potential. As we look around the room tonight, we think, well, we’re what, 120 people here? Maybe more. There were same number maybe at 9:30, maybe slightly fewer at 11:50, but hundreds of us here. And we’re only one church. And there’s three churches in the village and there’s hundreds of churches in the diocese and thousands of churches in this country and hundreds of thousands of churches around the world. And think of the potential as we meet with Jesus, as we ask God to show us day by day, more of Jesus. And as we pray for opportunities as we go into a new week, we remember that we hold these keys, the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and we have behind our hands, the hand of the Lord Jesus Christ and his weight and his skill and his power and his direction building his church. I think that’s exciting. I pray that you are excited as well. And that’s your conviction and my conviction and our conviction as a church that we want to be church growing on this rock. I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. So before we sing again, shall I pray? And then we’ll praise the living God together. Heavenly Father, Almighty God, we thank you for sending your son, the son of the living God into this world. And we thank you for opening our eyes to see who he is. Heavenly Father, please open our eyes more and more to see who he is. And we thank you for the privilege of being part of his church here in Linfield and of having the keys of the kingdom of heaven given to us. Heavenly Father, forgive us where we’ve kept them to ourselves. And we pray as we go into a new week in hundreds of different places and different people will be meeting, different opportunities we’ll be facing to go in knowing that we are joining you, Lord Jesus Christ, as you build your church. And we pray that you would use us this week that more people will come to know you and see how wonderful you are, how great your love for us is. Father, we ask all these things in Jesus precious name. Amen. Amen.