Rock, Keys, and Cross
Introduction: The Great Collision
In every generation, the world and the church are locked in a great collision of worldviews. This is not a polite debate in a university commons; it is a war for the soul of mankind. And at the dead center of that war is one non-negotiable question: Who is Jesus Christ? Every other issue, every political squabble, every cultural controversy, is simply a skirmish on the perimeter of this one great battle. In Matthew 16, we are brought directly to the front lines. Here we see the battle engaged from three directions: the hostile unbelief of the world, the dull-witted faith of the disciples, and the glorious, world-altering confession that Christ Himself builds His church upon.
We see two groups of bitter religious rivals, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, who could not agree on the time of day, suddenly forming a united front. What could possibly bring the legalistic, tradition-bound Pharisees and the skeptical, aristocratic Sadducees together? A common enemy. When the true light of the world shows up, all the lesser darknesses recognize their common foe. They come to Jesus "testing Him," which is to say, they come not to learn, but to trap. They demand a sign, as though the thousands He had healed and the multitudes He had fed were somehow insufficient evidence. But their problem was not a lack of information. Their problem was a rebellious heart. They had eyes, but they refused to see. This is the perennial condition of the unregenerate world. It stands in a universe screaming the glory of God, surrounded by the signs of His covenant faithfulness, and demands that God do one more trick to prove Himself worthy of their consideration.
This chapter forces us to answer the central question for ourselves. We will either be corrupted by the leaven of the world's teaching, or we will stand on the rock of divine revelation. And if we stand on that rock, we must understand what it means. It means we are enlisted in an army that is storming the gates of Hell. It means we are given the keys of kingdom authority. And, most uncomfortably, it means we are commanded to take up an instrument of execution and follow our King to a place of death. There is no middle ground here. This is the hinge of history, and every man must decide which side he is on.
The Text
And the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and testing Him, they asked Him to show them a sign from heaven. But He replied to them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ And in the morning, ‘There will be a storm today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Do you know how to discern the appearance of the sky, but cannot discern the signs of the times? An evil and adulterous generation eagerly seeks for a sign; and a sign will not be given it, except the sign of Jonah.” And He left them and went away.
And coming to the other side of the sea, the disciples had forgotten to bring bread. And Jesus said to them, “Watch out and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” Now they began to discuss this among themselves, saying, “He said that because we did not bring bread.” But Jesus, aware of this, said, “You men of little faith, why do you discuss among yourselves that you have no bread? Do you not yet understand or remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets full you picked up? Or the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many large baskets full you picked up? How is it that you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread? But beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” Then they understood that He did not say to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He was asking His disciples, saying, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; but still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” And Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.” Then He warned the disciples that they should tell no one that He was the Christ.
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 be raised up on the third day. And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You.” But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.”
Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and WILL THEN REPAY EACH ONE ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS.
“Truly I say to you, there are some of those who are standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.”
(Matthew 16:1-28 LSB)
The Leaven of Unbelief (vv. 1-12)
The confrontation begins with this unholy alliance of Pharisees and Sadducees. They demand a sign "from heaven," meaning some kind of grand, cosmic spectacle. They want God to part the clouds and write His name in the sky. But Jesus points out their hypocrisy. They are perfectly capable of interpreting natural signs, "red sky at night, sailor's delight," but they are spiritually blind to the "signs of the times." What are these signs? The signs are that the entire Old Testament is converging on the man standing right in front of them. The prophecies are being fulfilled, the kingdom has arrived, the Messiah is here, and they are completely oblivious. Theirs is a willful blindness.
"An evil and adulterous generation eagerly seeks for a sign; and a sign will not be given it, except the sign of Jonah." (Matthew 16:4)
Jesus identifies their demand as the fruit of an "evil and adulterous generation." Adulterous, because they are God's covenant people, yet they have gone whoring after other loves: power, position, and the approval of men. He refuses to play their game. He will give them only one sign, the sign of Jonah. Just as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for three days and three nights and then was brought forth, so the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights and then be raised. The resurrection is the ultimate sign. It is God's final, unanswerable vindication of His Son. And it is a sign that will not confirm them, but condemn them.
He then leaves them and crosses the sea, where He warns His own disciples, "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees." And what do they do? They immediately start thinking about their stomachs. "He said that because we did not bring bread." Their minds are so fixed on the carnal, the physical, that they miss the spiritual reality entirely. Jesus rebukes them for their little faith. Have they already forgotten the feeding of the five thousand and the four thousand? He who can create bread from nothing is not worried about a forgotten lunch. The problem is not a lack of bread; the problem is a lack of understanding.
The leaven is their "teaching." Leaven is a powerful metaphor. It is a small, almost invisible agent that works its way through the whole lump of dough, corrupting it entirely. The leaven of the Pharisees was externalism and hypocrisy, a self-righteousness that measured spirituality by man-made rules. The leaven of the Sadducees was a skeptical materialism that denied the resurrection, angels, and spirits. Both are deadly. One makes you a proud rebel; the other makes you a sophisticated, godless one. We are constantly tempted by these same leavens today: the leaven of moralistic therapeutic deism on the one hand, and the leaven of cynical secularism on the other. Jesus says to beware. Doctrine matters. Bad teaching, even a little bit, can corrupt everything.
The Rock of Confession (vv. 13-20)
The scene shifts dramatically. Jesus takes His disciples north to Caesarea Philippi. This is not accidental. This was a place steeped in paganism, home to a great temple to the god Pan and a center of Caesar worship. It was, in effect, the heart of enemy territory. And it is here, against the backdrop of pagan idolatry and imperial power, that Jesus asks the most important question in the universe.
"He said to them, 'But who do you say that I am?' And Simon Peter answered and said, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.'" (Matthew 16:15-16 LSB)
After getting a survey of popular opinion, all of which was wrong, Jesus makes it personal. "But who do you say that I am?" Peter, speaking for the twelve, gives the definitive answer. This is not a lucky guess. Jesus immediately makes it clear: "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven." This confession is the result of divine revelation. You cannot reason your way to this conclusion through sheer human intellect. God must open your eyes. This truth, that Jesus is the Messiah, the very Son of the living God, is the foundation of everything.
And this brings us to one of the most contested verses in Scripture. Jesus says, "you are Peter (Petros), and upon this rock (petra) I will build My church." The Roman Catholic Church has built its entire edifice on the claim that Peter the man is the rock. But this is a grammatical and theological absurdity. Jesus makes a play on words. You are Petros, a small stone, a piece of the rock. But upon this petra, this bedrock, this massive foundation of the truth you have just confessed, I will build my church. The church is not built on a fallible man, but on the infallible truth about Jesus Christ.
And look at the promise: "I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it." Notice two things. First, Jesus is the builder. It is His church. The success of the project is guaranteed because of the builder. Second, the metaphor is military. Gates are not offensive weapons; they are defensive fortifications. Hades is not attacking the church; the church is attacking Hades. The church is the invading army, laying siege to the strongholds of Satan, and Jesus promises that the gates of hell itself will not be able to withstand the assault. This is a promise of absolute, certain victory.
He then gives Peter, and by extension the apostles, the "keys of the kingdom." Keys represent authority. This is the authority to bind and loose, which means to declare what is forbidden and what is permitted according to God's Word. It is the authority of the church, through the preaching of the gospel and the exercise of church discipline, to declare on earth what has already been settled in heaven. The church does not invent the terms of salvation; it announces them. It opens the door to the kingdom for the repentant and closes it to the unrepentant, all on the authority of Christ and His Word.
The Scandal of the Cross (vv. 21-28)
The moment this glorious confession is made and these magnificent promises are given, the tone shifts again. The disciples are basking in the glory of a conquering Messiah. But Jesus immediately begins to teach them the central, paradoxical truth of His kingdom: the path to the crown runs directly through the cross.
"And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, 'God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You.'" (Matthew 16:22 LSB)
Peter, who just moments before was the recipient of divine revelation, now becomes the mouthpiece for satanic temptation. His reaction is visceral, emotional, and completely understandable from a human point of view. "This shall never happen to You!" This is the wisdom of man. It is the theology of glory that wants victory without a fight, a crown without a cross. It is the very same temptation Satan offered Jesus in the wilderness: "I will give you all the kingdoms of the world, just skip the suffering."
Jesus' response is shocking in its severity. "But He turned and said to Peter, 'Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.'" Jesus does not say, "Peter, you well-meaning but misguided friend." He identifies the true source of the words. He calls him Satan. Peter has become a skandalon, a stumbling block, trying to trip Jesus up on His divinely appointed path to Golgotha. The issue is the fundamental conflict between God's interests and man's. Man's interest is self-preservation. God's interest is redemption through substitutionary sacrifice.
Jesus then turns this lesson on all His disciples. The call to follow Him is a call to share in His cross. "If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me." The cross was not a piece of jewelry or a symbol of mild inconvenience. It was a brutal instrument of Roman execution. To take up your cross meant you were a dead man walking. Discipleship is a call to die: to die to your own ambitions, your own rights, your own autonomy. It is a total, unconditional surrender.
This leads to the great paradox of the kingdom: "For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it." If you try to hoard your life, to protect it, to make it your own, you will forfeit it eternally. But if you surrender it, if you pour it out for the sake of Christ, you will find true, abundant, eternal life. What is the better bargain? To gain the whole world for a few short years and lose your soul forever? It is the height of insanity.
He concludes with a promise of vindication. The Son of Man will come in glory and repay every man. And then He says something that has confused many: "Truly I say to you, there are some of those who are standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom." This is not a mistaken prophecy about the final judgment. Jesus is speaking of a coming in judgment and power that would occur within their lifetime. This had a preliminary fulfillment just six days later in the Transfiguration, where Peter, James, and John saw a preview of His kingdom glory. But its ultimate fulfillment was in the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. That event was the final, cataclysmic end of the old covenant order and the public vindication of Jesus' reign over all His enemies. He came in His kingdom, just as He said He would.
Conclusion
This chapter lays it all out for us. The world, blinded by the leaven of its own wicked teaching, will always demand more signs while ignoring the one great sign of the resurrection. But for those to whom the Father gives eyes to see, the confession of Jesus as Christ and Lord is the bedrock of all reality. On that confession, Christ is building His church, and He has given us a military guarantee that His church will prevail.
But we cannot have the victory without the battle. We cannot have the keys of the kingdom without the cross of discipleship. The call is to set our minds on God's interests, not man's. That means we must deny ourselves, take up our own cross, and follow Him. It means losing our lives in His service. This is the only path to true life. The world thinks this is foolishness. But it is the wisdom of God. And it is the only way that the gates of hell will be stormed, and the kingdom of our God and of His Christ will be established over all the earth.