The King We’d Never Design, But Most Certainly Need (Matthew 16:1–23)

[00:00:05] Thank you for listening to the Calvary Church Podcast. For more information about our church, please visit calvary.com. For more resources from our lead pastor, Nate Holdridge, please visit jesusfamous.com. Teaching today is our lead pastor, Nate Holdridge. Nate Holdridge Well, I know some of you guys are iPhone users and I know some of you are Android phone users and I know probably a handful of you are

[00:00:32] those super proud arrogant flip phone users, you know, you want everybody to know about it. But I am an Android person and I have been for a number of years. I'm that annoying green bubble that ruins your text thread, you know, with your friends, you know. And so one of the questions that people ask me because they're so frustrated by it is why? Why are you doing that to us? And one of my first answers is, well, they're cheaper. I don't know if you knew that.

[00:00:59] But one of my bigger answers is, I used to be an iPhone guy, but I discovered that I am a technological tinkerer. I love to tinker with my gadgets. I love to customize them just the way that I want them. And I was so tired of the restrictions that the man up in Cupertino was putting on me with the Apple devices. And I just liked that I could like make my phone exactly how I

[00:01:26] wanted it to operate. So part of what I'm trying to say is whom the son has set free is free indeed. So be set free if you need to be customization. You know, we are a people who can customize so many things in our lives. We can have a certain nutrition plan, a workout plan, we can hack our schedules, we can just do so many things to dial in life exactly as we would like it to be. And I think,

[00:01:56] unfortunately, we sometimes import that customization spirit into our relationship with God. People pick and choose. These are things that I like about him. These are things I don't like about him. This is how I like to imagine him. We should not care how we like to imagine him. We want to know who he is and receive who he is from his word. In the passage, we're about to look at the Pharisees and the Sadducees,

[00:02:23] even Peter himself, the disciples of Jesus, the crowds are going to think the wrong things about Jesus. They want him to be a certain way and he's just not that way. And he is going to step forward and reveal himself for who he truly is for us. And so I want to call this teaching the king we'd never

[00:02:47] design but most certainly need. All right? So we're going to look at three movements in the passage today, starting in the first one, verse 1 to 12, where I think we learned that this king, he is enough. Think about that word enough. We'll revisit it in a moment. But let's read the beginning of this passage. It says, And the Pharisees and Sadducees came. And to test him, they asked him to show them a sign from heaven.

[00:03:17] He answered them, When it's evening, you say, It will be fair weather, for the sky is red. In the morning, you say, It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening. You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. An evil and adulterous

[00:03:38] generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. So he left them and departed. What's happening in this opening little movement? Well, we read that the Pharisees and Sadducees come together against Jesus. That might not sound like a big deal to you. These

[00:04:04] are a couple of Old Testament, New Testament Bible groups coming against Jesus. But what you need to know is that by the first century, the Pharisees and the Sadducees taught and believed almost exactly opposite things. They were on totally different wavelengths and perspectives. But there's something

[00:04:26] about Jesus that brought them in a unified way against him. And they challenge him. Matthew uses the word test. They test him. This is a word that Matthew does not use often. He used it in Matthew chapter four to describe Satan testing Jesus. And he has shelved the word all the way until this moment. It's like

[00:04:51] he wants us to know there's something devious, demonic, devilish about this test that the Pharisees and Sadducees are trying to put before Jesus. What they wanted Jesus to do was to give them some kind of sign. Now this might be confusing to a lot of us here this morning because as we've been journeying through the book of Matthew, we know that Jesus has just recently fed 4,000 people miraculously in the

[00:05:20] wilderness. We know that he's before that fed 5,000 people miraculously in the wilderness. And on top of that, there's been a ton of healings and deliverances and cleansings that Christ has performed, not to mention things like walking on the water. So he's been doing major miracles, the kinds of

[00:05:45] miracles that it would be hard for Pharisees and Sadducees from anywhere in Israel not to hear at least a little bit about. But they come and they say, show us a sign. Probably what's happening here, as they've already said this to Jesus in Matthew 12, is that they're saying something to him like,

[00:06:09] look, these miracles are amazing. They're powerful. But miracles like that we think could be faked through sorcery or through demonic power. Remember, that's how they accredited Jesus' miraculous power. He's doing these things by the power of Satan, they said. What they might be saying is something like,

[00:06:32] but what we want you to do is some kind of from the heavens, proving your divine kind of sign and miracle of voice from heaven, a vision from heaven, a visitation from God from heaven. What I want to say is that this search from these Pharisees and Sadducees was not sincere. It was a mask for their

[00:06:58] unbelief. I say that because some of you do have questions for the Lord. You're thinking about him, you're considering him, and it's okay. You can ask him, you can investigate him, you can wonder about the truthfulness of Christianity. But what was happening in them was an insincerity in their search.

[00:07:20] They were looking for a way out of allegiance to Jesus, not a way into allegiance to Jesus. And so Jesus refuses to give them the sign that they're looking for. He tells them that good weathermen can read the sky, and they should have read his life and his ministry and his miracles, his signs that he's the Messiah. So he says, you're going to get one sign. It's the sign of Jonah. Just as Jonah was three days and three

[00:07:49] nights in the heart of the earth, so will the son of man be three days, three days and three nights in the belly of the fish, so will the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Jesus is pointing to his death, burial, and resurrection. And then that's it. Jesus leaves them and departs. But let's read what happens next in verse five. It says, when the disciples reached

[00:08:11] the other side, they have forgotten to bring any bread. Jesus said to them, watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. And they began discussing it among themselves, saying, we brought no bread. But Jesus, aware of this, said, oh, you of little faith. That's his nickname for his disciples, the little faiths. He says, why are you discussing among yourselves the fact that you have no bread?

[00:08:41] Did you, do you not yet perceive? Do you not remember the five loaves for the 5,000 and how many baskets you gathered? Or the seven loaves for the 4,000 and how many baskets you gathered? How is it that you fail to understand that I did not speak about bread? Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

[00:09:07] Then, verse 12, they understood that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. All right, what happens here? Jesus gets into the boat with his guys. He's still thinking about the interaction with the Pharisees and Sadducees, and he just begins teaching his guys. And he says, hey, watch out for the leaven of the Pharisees

[00:09:31] and the Sadducees. Leaven is something that permeates the whole structure. He's like, just a little pinch of their poisonous teaching will ruin everything. The disciples hear what Jesus is saying, and they're like, hey, what do you guys think he's talking about? And they're like, well, you know, we didn't bring any bread with us in the boat. He's probably pretty upset about that. And so they

[00:09:56] start stressing out about the fact that they forgot to pack a lunch. Jesus gets wind of this, and he's like, hey, yo, when I fed the 4,000, how many baskets did you have left over? Seven. How many baskets were left over when I fed the 5,012? How is it you don't remember that? How is it you don't yet understand? And then he says, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. He doubles down

[00:10:25] on the lesson that he was trying to teach them all along. Of course, the disciples here are demonstrating spiritual amnesia. They just don't remember. They're unable to recall the powerful things he's done in the past and apply it into their present day situation. Jesus is saying something like, do the math. I could take care of 4,000. I could take care of 5,000. I can certainly take care of 12

[00:10:51] in this boat. I'm here. I'm with you. You're good. You're good to go. Sometimes spiritual amnesia takes over us, doesn't it? You know, sometimes we look at the disciples, we're like, how are these guys so dumb? You know, but one thing we need to remember is, first of all, they didn't have the Holy Spirit yet. I'm as dumb as this even with the Holy Spirit a lot of times. They were transformed once the Spirit of God came into their lives. But at this point,

[00:11:18] they're still struggling, struggling, struggling to remember what Jesus had done. And I think a lot of times our spiritual amnesia is the root of the anxieties that we bring into life. But the thing I want to point out is this teaching, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. It brings up the question, what is it that Jesus was talking about? I mean, they understood by the end, he's talking

[00:11:45] about the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. But as I've already mentioned, the Pharisees in general taught something very different from what the Sadducees taught. So what in particular is Jesus saying? Is he just saying something general like, you know, the Sadducees teach bad stuff, Pharisees teach bad stuff. Don't listen to those guys. I think he's talking about something specific, something connected

[00:12:13] to what just happened back on the seashore when they said, show us a sign. What was the common overlap between the Pharisees and Sadducees? I think it was simply this, Jesus, you're not enough in your current state. What you're saying is not enough. What you're doing is not enough. Who you are is not

[00:12:34] enough. You need to do more in order for us to really follow after you. And I think Jesus, as he saw this happening in these Pharisees and Sadducees, some of whom, by the way, would become believers eventually. But as he saw this happening in them, he recognized that if that leaven gets inside my guys,

[00:12:59] it's going to destroy them. If they can't be content with who I am, with what I'm saying, with what I'm about, with what I'm teaching, and if they are perpetually distracted with wanting more than me, it will destroy the movement of the church that I'm trying to establish through these men. And I think

[00:13:22] the same thing is true for us today. We want to be a people who are enamored with, overjoyed with who Jesus is. The Bible says in Colossians 2 verse 3 that in Jesus, in Christ, are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. It's a big claim, man. The idea that all the best stuff

[00:13:49] is found inside of Christ and who he is and what he's done. But too often, believers treat Jesus and the doctrine of Christ like the ABCs of Christianity. It's just elementary. And then I move on to the deeper stuff. You know, I figure out who the Antichrist is and stuff like that. Those are the real important things in the faith, the deep things of Christianity. But that is not the case. Forever and ever and ever

[00:14:17] we will be rejoicing in who Jesus is. We just sang a song that points to the song that's sung in heaven. All the elders bow and cast their crowns down before the Lord. Forever. You know why I think they're doing that? I think it's because Jesus shows up. They got this crown that Jesus gave them and they're like, I didn't do anything to deserve this. Everything I did in my life was because of who you are and they

[00:14:46] give it back to them. That's what we're going to be doing for all of eternity. So often in the Christian life, one thing we need to remember is that more is so often less. You know, the people in the Old Testament, Moses went up to Mount Sinai and they're like, man, we need more than this. Let's build a golden calf. Yahweh is up on the mountain talking to their leader, giving them a law and commandments

[00:15:15] and a beautiful society that he's designing. And they think we need something more. Let's build a golden calf. Or years later, they said to themselves, look at all these other nations. They got kings that they get to follow. All we have is God. We need more than that. And they got the monarchy in Israel, which was terrible for them in many ways. So often when we want more, we're actually wanting less.

[00:15:44] We need to be content with who we have in Christ Jesus. He's the one that we want to center ourselves upon. So often we're chasing after things that we think are the deeper thing, but Christ is the deepest of all things. And we want to chase after him. All right. The second movement though is so powerful. And here I think we see that he is the son of the living God.

[00:16:14] And this is Peter's confession. So let's read it in verse 13 to 16. It says, now when Jesus came to the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, who do people say that the son of man is? And they said, some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others,

[00:16:38] Jeremiah or one of the prophets. He said to them, but who do you say that I am? Simon Peter verse 16 replied, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. All right. What happens here? Well, first of all, you have to note where this event unfolded. Matthew's very careful to tell us that it happened in the

[00:17:04] district of Caesarea Philippi. It doesn't mean much to us, but historically this place, which was 25 miles north of the Galilee was about as pagan of a territory as you could go to as a first century Jew. In Caesarea Philippi, there was a cave that had been dedicated to the worship of the false god Pan and many other

[00:17:30] false gods from that era and time. You can, in fact, when you go to Israel on a tour, still go to this cave and see the remnants of this idolatrous worship. And by the time of Jesus, notice this place is called Caesarea Philippi. It's been renamed after Caesar because it had embraced imperial worship. So in this

[00:17:56] place with all this false worship, false gods and imperial praise, Jesus asked the question, who do people say I am? The disciples respond with four answers. You know, all four of these answers, if you were to be like, you know, Nate, you remind me of one of these guys, you know, like you remind me

[00:18:21] John the Baptist, you remind me of Elijah, or you remind me of Jeremiah, or you remind me of any of the prophets, I'd be like, that's a feather in my cap, man. That is a huge compliment that you're giving to me. But when they applied it to Jesus, it fell way too short. They were believing some good things about Jesus, but not the right things about Jesus. They were not giving him the full credit that he is

[00:18:50] due. None of those opinions were high enough for who he truly is. So Jesus looked at his disciples and asked the most important question that you and I will ever answer. But who do you say I am? Who do you say that Jesus is? Not who do you think the church is, or what do you think of Christians, or what do you

[00:19:15] think of preachers, but who do you say Jesus is? And Peter steps forward in one of the highlight reel moments of his life. And he says, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. He does not hedge. He does not falter. He doesn't say something like, in my opinion, or I think you might be, or I think you

[00:19:41] are. He just says, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. When we read Christ, we should hear king. Because the people of Israel have been waiting for a Christ, king, messiah who would come to deliver them. They've been waiting centuries. It had been promised from time past, and they've been

[00:20:04] waiting for that figure. But then Peter says, not just you're the Christ, but you're the son of the living God. This was a radical new revelation or development that Peter had recognized. You are not like all the other gods that are dead. You are the son of the God that is living. This is a hint

[00:20:34] at the divinity of Jesus, which Peter is beginning to start to understand. But this question, who do we say he is, is an all-important question. I came across this last week, a study done by a ministry that stemmed off from the theologian R.C. Sproul called Ligonier. And every few years,

[00:20:57] they do a thing called the State of Theology Report, where they conduct a scientific poll, where they ask questions of all kinds of people from given nations. And America is one of those nations. And when they asked these different questions, they had four very specific questions that helped them identify who might be an evangelical within this larger group of people that they were questioning. And I can't remember all four of the questions that were asked, but they're highly

[00:21:27] biblical questions. Things like, do you believe the Bible is the inerrant word of God and the sole authority for your life? You had to say yes to be considered an evangelical in their estimation in this report. And what they found is that 28% of evangelically identified people agreed that Jesus

[00:21:51] was a great teacher, but he was not God. I mean, what are they saying? They're saying, he's in the John, the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, or other prophets category. They're not in the Peter, you're the Christ, the son of the living God category. But man, that's where we want to live. Because when we

[00:22:18] recognize him as king, and we recognize him as God, when we see him that way, what do we do? We give him allegiance, king. We give him worship, God. And when we give Jesus worship and allegiance, when that happens, we become more human than we could ever be. We start living in the ways that he's designed us to live.

[00:22:48] We start to, if I could use one word, flourish as people. Because we're in a proper, right relationship with him. We are aligned to him. If I could say it in this way, I'd say, the higher your Christology, the more human your life. A prophet can give you teachings, but to see Jesus as the Christ,

[00:23:13] the son of the living God, is to flourish. He himself is the life that we were made for. And this is what we want. We want to have that kind of revelation about who Jesus is. We want to see him as the big deal, the one to focus upon. You know, Isaiah, back in the Old Testament, he had a vision of God. And he saw the glory of God in his temple. And he was blown away. He falls before God's

[00:23:40] presence. He's cleansed by God, then commissioned by God. But did you know that in John's gospel, John said that Isaiah saw Jesus's day and proclaimed it? It's John's way of saying something like, when John saw the glory of Yahweh, he was getting a glimpse of the Christ who then came and dwelt

[00:24:05] among us. And man, when we have a Isaiah-like vision of who Jesus is, it just changes our lives. This is why Paul prayed things like, I pray you have an epiphany. I pray that your eyes are open, that you might comprehend the incomprehensible love of Christ. He prays these things because he knows it changes us. When like Peter, we say, that's who you are. You're the Christ. You're the son of the

[00:24:33] living God. A few months ago, Christina and I were up visiting Christina's oldest brother. And we were having dinner at their dinner table. And they've got the cutest little six-year-old dude you've ever seen in your life. He's the man. And you know, some kids like do not want to talk to adults and they can't handle conversation with adults for longer than 17 seconds. He is not one of those kids. He just

[00:24:57] like sits there at the table, cutting it up with you, like in the flow of conversation. And we're just chatting. And because he's there, the subject of dangerous animals came up, you know, and we start telling stories of like dangerous animals. And pretty soon it developed into everybody at the table telling all of the bear stories that are, that we ever had, you know, any encounter with a bear, any bear we ever

[00:25:22] saw, anything we ever heard a bear do. And he just kept peppering us. Do you have any more bear stories? Do you have any more bear stories? And we, you know, we're just like talking about bears. And at some point his dad starts bringing up another topic and the grownups were all talking and he's listening, he's watching, he's tracking. But I love this moment. He eventually interrupted all of us. And he's

[00:25:44] like, excuse me, can we get back to the bears? I loved it. And I think sometimes for us as believers, it's like, man, excuse me, can we get back to Jesus? Can we get back to celebrating who he is? The higher our Christology, the better our lives go in so many ways, because we live a more human life as a result

[00:26:07] of his lordship in our lives. All right. The final thing I want to show you though, comes from verse 17 to 23. And I want to say he builds his way. It says in verse 17, and Jesus answered him, blessed are you Simon bar Jonah, or Simon son of Jonah for flesh and blood is not revealed this to you, but my father

[00:26:32] who's in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter. So this is your name now. And on this rock, the name Peter means rock, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. And whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. All right. And we'll read the final few

[00:27:02] verses in a moment. But what I want to say here is, I'm sure many of you know this, there are truckloads of scholarly thoughts about these verses that we just read together. And I'll be honest with you, this last week, I went home last Sunday. And on Sunday night, I started feeling sick. And I have not gone anywhere until this morning. All right. So I spent my week trying to read all these scholars

[00:27:29] talking about this complicated little passage of scripture is just my way of saying like, I'm not really sure what's going to come out right now. Okay, so a couple of things. All right. First of all, how does he build? Well, I think one of the first things we need to see is that it starts with revelation. He begins with revelation. Notice what he says. He says, blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, or son of Jonah. Flesh and blood didn't reveal this to you, but my father in heaven.

[00:27:57] In other words, God reveals God. You know, theologically, the way this is working is, you have a spiritually dead person, Peter, understanding things that require spiritual life to understand. And so Jesus is like, how'd that happen? My father did that for you. He gave you

[00:28:21] some insight, man. You received that. This is what we need. We need in our lives and in the lives of others for Emmaus Road, the disciples walking along, Jesus revealing himself to them, and Damascus Road, Paul going to Damascus, and the Lord knocking him down and revealing himself to him. We need those

[00:28:43] experiences in life, and no one is beyond that kind of experience. His way begins with revelation, but number two, his way builds through people who point to him. What do I mean by this? Well, he says to him, after Peter said, you are the Christ, Jesus says, you are Peter, and on this rock, I will build

[00:29:10] my church. You know, these have been debated and words that many have fought over, in part because of the division between Roman Catholicism and the Protestant church. You know, Roman Catholicism seeing in these words that Jesus is building his church on a successive line of Peter's. Peter is Pope

[00:29:36] one, and there'll be all kinds of popes that come after him. And others, as Protestants, are so cautious about that concept and idea that they say, oh, when Jesus says, and on this rock, I'll build my church, he's not saying on Peter, I'm going to build my church, but on maybe on Peter's confession, or something adjacent to Peter's confession, or certainly on Christ himself. Really what you have, though, are three camps. There's people who say, no, he's saying he's going to build on Peter, just not

[00:30:06] like with a bunch of popes, but that he's going to use Peter's life. When you look at the book of Acts, that seems obvious. Peter had a special place in the early church. Day of Pentecost, spirit pours out, Peter steps forward, preaches the gospel in Jerusalem. The church begins to spread, goes to a place called Samaria, where people who aren't fully Jewish are receiving Jesus. Peter goes there with John and

[00:30:34] says, yep, this is the work of God. Then 10 years into the life of the church, he gets a vision from God telling him to go into a Gentile's house and preach the gospel for the first time to the Gentile world. Clearly, Jesus used Peter's life in powerful ways. Now, he wasn't acting like the supreme authority during any of that time. He was submitting all the other apostles, but it's him

[00:31:02] using this man's life. Others people think that, well, Jesus is just using Peter's confession. It's hard to see how, why Jesus would word it like that, if that's what he was saying. And others think, no, he's ultimately just pointing to Christ. I think you got to take all three together. It's not just Peter in general. It's the Peter that's pointing to Jesus who's pointing to the truthfulness of the

[00:31:28] gospel. As long as that is happening, yeah, Jesus is building on people like that. To take all three together, you get Ephesians 2 verse 20, where Paul said, the church is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone of that foundation. And so, as long as we're a

[00:31:51] people who are pointing to Jesus, this is so cool, we get to be used by Jesus, which leads us to verse 19. And a third thing, his way opens doors through the gospel. To Peter, and I think all the apostles, he says, you got the power to bind and loose. What does that mean? Does that mean that they have some mystical ability? I don't think so. I think what he's saying is something like, the scribes and Pharisees are

[00:32:17] locking people out of the kingdom. I'm giving you keys to open the door to invite people into the kingdom. And as I said, Peter used those keys in Jerusalem, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth, he used those keys to point people to Jesus. And this is the ultimate authority that the church receives

[00:32:42] in the gospel itself, to invite people into the kingdom of God. And brothers and sisters, that's what we want to do. We want to be a Jesus-sharing, gospel-proclaiming people. Amen? There's a story in 2 Kings where a city in Israel was under siege, and because of that siege, was experiencing a famine. The armies that were against them were right outside the city gates.

[00:33:08] People couldn't go in or out. They were dying inside, selling terrible sources of nutrition at exorbitant prices. They're starving to death. Four lepers were at the gate of the city. They'd made their living out of begging, but there was nothing for people to give. They came to a place of desperation, and they looked at each other and said, we know we're going to die here,

[00:33:34] so we might as well go to the camp of the Syrians and see if they want to give us food to eat. The worst that happens is that they take our lives. We're dying here anyways. So they go out to the camp only to discover that the angel of the Lord had freaked out the invading armies the night before, and they had fled in haste, leaving behind all their supplies, including all their food. And so these

[00:34:03] four lepers, they're going to town. They're just having the greatest day. It was like Thanksgiving times 10. They're just eating and eating and eating until they look at each other and say, what we are doing is not good. We must go back and tell the town of what God has done. And I think as God's people, as Jesus's people, we don't want to be a, man, we got Jesus. This is so

[00:34:31] great. We want to make sure that we're telling the world about the Lord that we love and his work in our lives. All right, let's go on to read the conclusion of the chapter though. It says, then verse 20, he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ. This was a temporary directive, obviously. They would tell the world that he's the Christ eventually.

[00:34:56] But at that time, the world's definition of the Christ did not include death, burial, and resurrection. So he didn't want word getting out that he was the Christ. He said in verse 21, from that time, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed. And on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside

[00:35:22] and began to rebuke him saying, far be it from you, Lord, this shall never happen to you. But he turned and said to Peter, get behind me, Satan. You are a hindrance to me for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man. So Jesus here in this closing movement,

[00:35:46] he starts telling his disciples, and this is actually a real pivot in the gospel of Matthew. We're going to go to Jerusalem and I'm going to suffer and I'm going to die at the hands of the religious leaders, but I will rise on the third day. He's just promising it to them. He's telling them this radical truth. Peter is feeling himself at this point. He's like, Jesus just called me the rock.

[00:36:12] I'm feeling good. And so he's like, you know, Jesus, I got something I need to share with you, you know, from this perspective of mine. And he pulls Jesus aside, maybe even literally takes him by the arm, pulls him aside to rebuke him. And he says, Lord, this will never happen to you. And Jesus responds with intensity. Get behind me, Satan. You're not thinking like God thinks.

[00:36:42] You're thinking like people think. What's happening here? In the wilderness temptation, Satan had said to Jesus, if you bow to me, I'll give you all the kingdoms of the world. I'll give you the kingdoms without you even having to go to the cross. And Jesus is hearing that same

[00:37:03] serpentine whisper through his rock, through Peter saying this thing to him. And he rebukes it forcefully. No, I've got to go to the cross. This is how Jesus built his way must run through the cross.

[00:37:25] And this is the reality. You know, he is a king who wants to do more than just rule us. He wants to save us. But to save us, he needed to substitute himself for us in death and judgment so that we could have forgiveness and live in right standing before God forever. And so his death and burial and resurrection

[00:37:54] were required for him to be the kind of God king that he was compelled to be. We need a king who will do more than rule us, but one who will rescue us. As Matthew will say later, the son of man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. Or as Isaiah said, he was pierced for our

[00:38:20] transgressions. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. This is the king that we may have never designed. It's part of why I believe the story of Christianity. Who would contrive this story? It's the king we would never have designed, but the one we most desperately needed. And that's who Jesus is.

[00:38:49] Thank you for listening. For more information about our church, please visit calvary.com. For more teaching from our lead pastor Nehal, please visit jesusfamous.com.