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Nobleton Community Church
29084 Sentinel Street PO Box 224
Nobleton, Florida 34661
Rev. Paul V. Lehmann, Pastor
813-389-8683
Nobletoncommunitychurch.org
info@nobletoncommunitychurch.org
OUR VISION IS:
To experience SPIRIT-FILLED WORSHIP AND PRAYER
To be involved in EVANGELISM, DISCIPLINING AND TRAINING PEOPLE
To use our SPIRITUAL GIFTS
To SERVE AND REACH PEOPLE FOR CHRIST, BOTH
“ACROSS THE STREET AND ACROSS THE WORLD”
Nobleton Community Church
Date March 1, 2026
Text Matthew 16:13-27
Pastor Paul Lehmann
The location of the discovery is Caesarea Philippi, where there were many pagan gods and statues, as well as some Jews, but very few. Syrian gods had their worship here. There was a great temple of white marble built to the godhead of Caesar. It had been built by Herod the Great. The place is called Panium, where there is the top of a mountain which is raised to an immense height, and at its side, beneath, or at its bottom, a dark cave opens itself; within which there is a horrible precipice that descends abruptly to a vast depth. The name was changed to Caesarea (Caesar’s town), and Herod’s son Philip added the name Philippi (of Philip). Anyone looking at this pile of glistening marble was reminded of the might and of the divinity of Rome.
It was here in the midst of pagan gods that Jesus asked the question, “Who do people say that I am? The disciples indicated to Jesus that some thought he was Elijah, and others identified him with Jeremiah. When they did this, they were, according to their understanding, paying him a great compliment and setting him in a high place, for Jeremiah and Elijah were none other than the expected forerunners of the Anointed One of God -The Messiah in Hebrews, and The Christ in Greek. When they arrived, the Kingdom would be very near indeed. Then the all-important question: “Who do you say I am? Then Peter made his great discovery and his great confession. Let’s look at three things about this vast passage that is packed full of all kinds of meaning.
First, we see:
PETER’S DECLARATION OR CONFESSION OF FAITH
He says, “ You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (He recognized Jesus as the Messiah).
Jesus knew that his work was safe because there was at least someone who understood. Peter’s declaration was definite, and yet he recognized the mystic element of Jesus being the Messiah, the promised anointed One of God. He recognized far more than others. He recognized something supernatural about this Teacher. He declared that he was more than John the forerunner, more than Elijah the foreteller, more than Jeremiah the watcher and the one who waited; Jesus was the one that they had been looking for.
With great relief and joy, Jesus pronounced a benediction on Peter. In fact, Peter is the only one to whom he said those words: “Blessed are you Simon, son of Jonah,” (verse 17). The blessing was not just because Peter gave the right answer, but because the Heavenly Father was able to use Peter as an agent for revealing the truth.
The blessing wasn’t because of his confession, but Jesus was rather describing the condition into which Peter had come by, the gain of this new knowledge, which he declared. Declaring that he was the Son of the Living God was the result of Divine illumination. It was out of the consciousness out of which the confession was born. How did the Father reveal that to Peter? Peter saw it in Jesus- that was what Jesus came to do- reveal to people the Father; however, others didn’t see it.
We do, however, misunderstand how the Holy Spirit worked in the Old Testament, and even here during the days that Jesus walked this earth before Calvary, before the resurrection, the ascension, and Pentecost.
( when it was finally possible for everyone to be filled with the Spirit), If we don’t understand that the anointing of the Holy Spirit was upon only certain individuals to accomplish what God had prepared for them to do.
Now, for Peter, at this point, it wasn’t something that he had to do yet, but something that he had to believe and understand. This great discovery, revealed to Peter by the Father, through the Holy Spirit, also led to a great declaration by Jesus in verses 18 and 19.
This great declaration was actually A GREAT PROMISE.
There are three main points to the promise Jesus gave to Peter.
- First, that Peter is a “rock” Petros, ( and upon this “rock” Petra. Jesus would build his church.) Petros was a piece of rock, a fragment of the rock nature, but Petra was the essential rock substance. So he was saying that, “You are Peter and upon this rock I will build my church.
He is saying, ” You are of the rock nature, and you shall be built upon the rock foundation.” Remember, he was speaking to people who spoke Hebrew. If we trace the figurative use of this word through scripture, we find that it is never used symbolically of a person, but always of God. So here it shows that the church is not to be built upon Peter.
Jesus used a symbol of Deity and said;
“Upon God Himself I will build my church. My Kingdom shall consist of those who are built into God, partakers of the Divine nature.” Peter had discovered the foundation and had touched God, and by doing that, he had become PETROS. Some say it is on Peter’s faith that the church will be built. In a sense that is true, but more clearly it is the fact that later when Jesus breached the Holy Spirit into them, and said “receive the Holy Spirit” (—-incidentally I submit to you that it was at that time —before Pentecost— that the disciples were “born again,” because then it was after the crucifixion and the resurrection.” –after Pentecost they received the power.
So now Jesus will build his church (ecclesia) on Peter. He represents the first member of the church. Jesus’ earthly parents were the first to believe in him for who he was, but now Peter is the first to represent what God will do inside a person, and when there are more who believe, they form a church. This word, ecclesia, which is translated church was also used for the Synagogue, because it represented God’s people who were different. But Synagogue also meant the assembling of God’s people in worship. But Jesus didn’t say he would build his Synagogue, he said ecclesia—(church), which marked the Hebrews as his selected people. A Theocracy—a group of God-governed people, not governed by policy or by human kings. This is the kind of church that Jesus was talking about. Peter may not have understood everything about this when Jesus told him, but later on we read in the epistle he wrote; I Peter 2:4-8, that Jesus Christ is the living stone, the chief cornerstone or foundation that the church is built upon, and all of us as believers, are his chosen people also living stones that are being built into a spiritual house.
The second promise is when Jesus told Peter that:
- “The gates of Hades shall not prevail against the church.”
This isn’t the strength of the church against attack. It might seem to mean that Hades will not be able to overcome the church, but an attacking force doesn’t come carrying its gates into battle to fight. It is not a figure of the defensive strength of the church. But it doesn’t mean that the church will be able to capture Hades. The Church has no desire to possess Hades.
We mustn’t miss the meaning being it is a figure of escape. It is a declaration of the fact that the Church will be able to make a way of escape from a beleaguered city, which is in harmony with t he perpetual outlook upon death in the life of the Christian. It is like we are able to tear down the gates of Hades because Jesus Christ destroyed death when he died on the cross and rose from the grave. We have this power over the gates of hell because of Jesus Christ His Church is the attacking force against Hades. The Church doesn’t try to possess Hell, but try to keep as many people as possible away from it. We have the power to do this, because, Jesus told his disciples that when the Holy Spirit comes upon them they will receive power to witness. Then the Holy Spirit draws those people to receive Jesus Christ into their lives and hearts.
If we sometimes feel defeated to fulfill the task of the Church of being an attacking force, it is because we have allowed Satan to disrupt our unity and to allow him to cause dissention in our body of believers. When we don’t fight against sin, Satan and our fleshly desires, we diminish the attacking power of the Church.
- Then the third promise has to do with:
Keys and Peter’s place in the kingdom and the Church.
What are the keys and in what sense does Peter have authority over sin, and this whole idea of loosing and binding?
To the Jews, these words “the keys” were perfectly familiar to them. They were the insignia of the scribe, the teacher of the law. This was the sign, not of a priestly office, but the office of the scribe. The keys committed to Peter, were not the keys of the Church but the Keys of the Kingdom When Jesus spoke to Peter, he spoke to him as a scribe. In chapter 13, we have the parables of the kingdom, and at the end in verse 52, we have the words, “…every teacher of the law who has been instructed about the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.”
Anyone who understands God’s real purpose in the law as revealed in the Old Testament has a real treasure. The Old Testament points the way to Jesus, the Messiah. Jesus always upheld its authority and relevance. But there is a double benefit to those who understand Jesus’ teaching about the kingdom of heaven. This was a new treasure that Jesus was revealing. Both the old and new teachings gave practical guidelines for faith and for living in the world. The religious leaders, however, were trapped in the old and blind to the new. They were looking for a future kingdom preceded by judgment. Jesus, however, taught that the kingdom was now and the judgment was future. The religious leaders were looking for a physical and temporal kingdom (by military rebellion and physical rule), but they were blind to the spiritual significance of the kingdom that Christ brought.
The keys of the kingdom were given to the illuminated, to those who understood the principles\ of the Kingdom, the laws of the Kingdom and the method of the Kingdom. When Jesus told Peter he was giving him the keys to the Kingdom, he was giving them to him as the first representative —the first one to gain the vision of illumination.
Today those keys belong to every one who proclaims that Kingdom. They do not signify a right for the priesthood, because each believer is a priest before God. That’s what we call the “priesthood of the believer”. They give a right for the “scribe” that is, one who the Holy Spirit has illuminated the word to, and instructed in the Kingdom and empowered to teach the meaning of the Word.
So that Christ said not merely; “My Church is to be an aggressive force, but My Church is to be a constructive force in the midst of our world, teaching the Kingdom, and holding the keys of the Kingdom, not to lock, or shut out or exclude but to teach and interpret, and give people the possibility to be empowered by Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit to witness and win others to be a part of His Kingdom.
The last part of what Jesus said about binding and loosing, had nothing to do with Peter arbitrarily making decisions about what was allowed or permitted, and what would be forbidden. The binding meant simply proclaiming with authority what God’s word says. Not what Peter would think or decide, but what the Holy Spirit led him to understand, and for us what the Holy Spirit leads us to understand in His Word.
Jesus tells us in Matt. 11:28-30 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. “
A yoke is a heavy wooden harness that fits over the shoulders of an ox or oxen. It is attached to a piece of equipment that the oxen are to pull. A person may be carrying heavy burdens of sin, excessive demands put on you, oppression or weariness in your search to know the Lord better and experience deliverance.
Let JESUS carry the burden you are carrying. It may be a sin in your life that needs to be forgiven, or it may be that you are burdened for someone else. Whatever it is, as a believer and a part of his Kingdom, the Church universal, you can find rest for your soul in Jesus.
Come to him and REMEMBER HIM and what he did for you.