Matthew 16:13-20

Built Upon the Rock
Book of the Bible
Matthew
Speaker
Tony Ferguson
Sermon Date

In this passage in Matthew, Jesus asks his disciples "Who do men say that I, the Son of Man am?" After they respond, he then asks them personally "But who do you say that I am?" This is a question that we all have to answer in this life. There are all kinds of opinions out there about who Jesus is, but only one opinion is fit for the citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, and those that wish to enter the Kingdom of Heaven must own Him as so.

Jesus then strictly commanded His disciples not to go out and tell anyone that He was the Christ. They had an understanding that He was the Messiah, but in the verses to come its clear that they didn't understand what the Work of the Messiah would be. Had they gone out and proclaimed Him as the Messiah, they would have proclaimed a cross-less Messiah.

Description of the book of Matthew

As you come to the New Testament the first three books you encounter (Matthew, Mark and Luke) are referred to as the "synoptic" gospels. They are called the "synoptic" gospels because for the most part, they have a "similar view" of the life and ministry of Jesus. Though they account for much of the same narrative regarding the life and ministry of Jesus, they are not identical, nor are they intended to be. They assemble the accounts in different contexts, and contain different amounts of detail, but they are all important. God always seeks to establish a matter on the testimony of 2 or 3 witnesses, so having these 3 synoptic gospels about the life an ministry of the Son of God is in no way redundant.

Matthew’s gospel communicates to us the life, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus in the fulfillment of the Old Testament Scriptures. From His lineage, to His birth, to His miraculous ministry, to His teachings, to His crucifixion, Matthew will time and time again point out that these things happened “that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet…”.