January 21, 2024
TEXT: Matthew 16:13-28
Introduction:
- >Foundation of Truth (v. 16)
- >Blessed Revelation (v. 17)
- >Personal Promise (v. 18)
- >Determination (v. 18)
- >Intentional (v. 18)
- >Purposeful (v. 18)
- >Declared Success (v. 18)
I. The perpetuity of the Lord’s churches (v. 18)
- Individual churches may come and go
The Guardian Jan. 22, 2023
About 4,500 Protestant churches closed in 2019, the last year data is available, with about 3,000 new churches opening, according to Lifeway Research. It was the first time the number of churches in the US hadn’t grown since the evangelical firm started studying the topic. With the pandemic speeding up a broader trend of Americans turning away from Christianity, researchers say the closures will only have accelerated.
- The Lord’s churches will always be in existence
- The Lord’s churches will prevail until He is done
- Satan will not ever completely defeat them
- Sin will never totally destroy them
- Those that make them up can give up on them (Colossians 1:15-21; 2:17-20; Romans 8:1, 4; Galatians 5:16, 25; Ephesians 5:23-27, 32)
II. The authority of the Lord’s churches (vv. 19-21)
- The authority of churches is received from Jesus Christ (v. 19a) (Matthew 28:18-20)
- We bind things on earth by failing to do the will of Christ (v. 19b)
- We loose things on earth through the spreading of Jesus’ message (vv. 19c-21)
- Spreading the message of the Gospel; His death, burial, and resurrection
- Sharing with others the love of God displayed in the suffering of His Son
- Proclaiming the liberating truths of Scripture to those around us (John 8:31-38)
III. We can be a help or hindrance to the Lord’s work on earth (vv. 22-23)
- Peter went from being a voice of truth to a voice of deception (v. 22)
- Peter went from being a tool of God to a tool of Satan (v. 23a)
- Peter went from being praised for righteousness to chastised for evil (v. 23b)