Session 7 Sermon- Jesse "Chicano Knox" Gomez

I think this thing is on it is all right all right greetings how you guys doing

I am Jesse my name is Jesse I come from the great state of Colorado I'm holding it down I'm holding very hospitable very green very green

I never seen so much consistency of green lawns I'm kind of jealous but God is blessed to see right so you know

I covered this one topic I covered this one topic the church in theology we call it ecclesiology and it's a study of the church and I've been studying the church since 2015

I've been obsessed with it it's been my number one thought since 2015 and I felt like I was on like an epiphany where it was like I was in your seat at my church and it was like man

I wonder what God is doing around the world with other churches so that's how it kind of started and so I started like doing a podcast and you know from from my basement my room and all of a sudden it's like in 38 countries interviewing missionaries theologians book authors people who are experts or have hands -on knowledge about the church and I won't stop and I can't stop thinking about it so I today

I have a privilege of you know expounding on this one verse about the church so take it as one little piece of a giant puzzle called the church if you ever had the privilege to study in the church

I encourage you to usually in theology if you open up the theological systematic book the church ecclesiology is usually one of the last things and that's the only that that's one of the things that I have like I'm bummed out about I'm like oh man it should be like one of the first man because the church is such a

God idea it's such a God idea that it is so big so if you have your

Bibles with me with you let's go ahead and open up to the gospel of the letter the gospel of Matthew chapter 16 verse 18

I don't know if I'll go ahead I'll try my best to get through it but let's go ahead and see if we could get through it

Jesus says this and I tell you you are

Peter and on this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell cannot prevail against it amen so the grass withers and the flowers fades but the

Word of God endures forever let's go ahead and pray

Lord Jesus thank you so much for your word that is true and it endures forever and whether in Colorado or North Carolina where the rain and seasons change your word

Lord stays the same and your word is changing things changing world changing hearts right now as you speak so I pray that you would speak through me to speak your word father to those people here who need to hear this message about the church and I pray this in your name

Jesus in the name of the Father Son of the Holy Ghost amen so recording here in Matthew 16 18 you have several things and hopefully

I'll cover some of them this is actually you know if you read the Puritan this is actually one of the main verses that the

Puritan is used as they traverse the Atlantic Ocean and I don't think

I'll have the privilege to go through every single word here in this verse so I would like to focus most of my time in the first part of this verse and if you read it this first part of the verse is there is the confirmation of Peter and the second half of this verse is it's a prophecy so if you want to look at it from two parts you've got the confirmation of Peter then you got a prophecy so let's quickly talk about this confirmation of Peter real quick because I think you really do have to look at Peter here you can't just read this verse he will one of the problems when we read the

Bible it's kind of like the same problem that people have when they eat steak or meat they don't chew their food and I tell my son and my kids make sure you chew your food because I don't want you to get a stomachache and sometimes when you read the

Bible and you open up and read such passages like this one we don't read it slowly enough we don't chew on it long enough how about you chew on it for the next five years and see how it changes your life because I bet you it will so this is how

I think when we approach the Bible in hermeneutics how I was taught is slow down slow down so let's go ahead and slow down and look at this first part here

Peter the confirmation of Peter so let me ask you big have you ever thought about Peter like who he was and what he was it's a very interesting guy and Peter you know his name is wasn't originally

Peter right his real name was Simon not

Peter you know Jesus changed his name right later on in the text and his real name in the

Aramaic is Kefa and that means stone or little rocks so imagine your real name is little rocks yeah yeah so imagine he you know but hey how's your name my name is little rocks

Simon so so Peter like many of you will probably relate Peter was a fisherman so I know how many of you were like yeah so he was a fisherman by trade and and guess what he was also married so I know the

Bible doesn't speak much about that but from biblical records and other texts it hints that he was married in fact me some of the

Apostles were married and and guess what one of the most famous things that we see on Peter's resume is that Peter denied

Jesus three times also recorded for us in the gospel so imagine having that in your testimony hi

I'm Peter I'm a fisherman married and I denied

Jesus three times nice to meet you like whoa that's a pretty heavy load right there right but later on we know that Jesus forgave him like imagine the weight that he must have felt for Jesus to say

Peter forgive you I love you I'm with you imagine that forgiveness that feeling and we know something very interesting about Peter we know a lot this books upon books about Peter and here's one of the facts that I found out that I didn't know before about Peter Peter was not a fast runner he didn't run a 4 -3 he was a slow runner and we know this detail because in the book of John John says in chapter 20 verse 4 both were running and the other disciple which was

John outran Peter and reached the tomb first like I was you know

I was like okay so it's like it in heaven you know John gets to heaven and I can imagine

Peter just waiting you know to see John with his arms crossed and saying did you really have to write that in that you outran me like was that really necessary I was like you ran slow like I could imagine that but yes

Peter was a fisherman he was married Peter denied Jesus three times but he was restored by Jesus forgiven and he also ran slow and later on in church history we get the record of st.

Jerome who also wrote a great deal about Peter he said in very great detail that Peter also died a martyr's death in Rome so much so that he died upside down was crucified upside down in fact he requested the

Roman soldiers to crucify him upside down because he did not feel worthy to die in the same like image as his master

Jesus so imagine the Roman soldiers who do crucifixion from 9 to 5 and you get the strange request can

I get crucified upside down while you're at it oh oh wow okay let's go ahead let's we never done that before so that's

Peter this is the same Peter that Jesus is talking to in this verse like we got to slow down before we get to the exciting part of I will build my church and that gates of hell went out for death like he's talking to a person here he's having a conversation he is confirming the faith of Peter here those are some of the facts that I think we need to get to know this person

Peter Jesus confirms in the verse you see that Jesus confirmed

Peter to be part of the elect and if you read the entire chapter just verse 34 how do we know that he confesses

Jesus to be the Christ that faith is connected to a confession it's not just an abstract idea faith it's not just an imaginary thing like a shadow it's based on there's content and there's there's there's meat inside of these words that's why

Jesus says you Peter you are with me basically and what's going on here at the same time when you read this verse it's not just a name change it's not just a name change it's like hey

Peter I'm Little Rock you're not you're no longer Little Rock you're you're Peter so it's not just that yes there's a physical name thing so Peter probably had to get a new

ID but it's a status change it's a status change there's an identity change it follows you forever if you think about it your name follows you forever everybody called him

Little Rock growing up now everybody has to call him Peter so that's kind of weird so imagine changing your name in the middle of your life at 55 years old right everybody's like hey

John I'm not John no more I'm Josh what that's

Peter he had to like remind everybody hey don't call me that call me Peter I'm a new man

I'm a new creation creation is a new identity that Christ is essentially giving here and if you look at the whole scope of scripture

God does this only a number of times like physical name changes so God is like in the business of changing your name changing your identity changing your person forever and if you look at it there's like a like a pattern here you know you look in the book of Genesis God changed

Abraham right to Abraham and then he changes his wife Sarah to Sarah then he changes

Jacob into Israel and then here he changes

Simon into Peter kind of like a pattern God is in the business of changing your soul changing your name who you are and into one sense

Paul the Apostle kind of echoes this doesn't he and his testimony and his testimony used to be called like his old name was

Saul right and then Jesus changed him so much that he no longer refers to himself to a

Saul I don't go by that name I don't go by that character of who

I used to be I go by Paul so ever since then he refers to himself to a

Paul so here in this verse you have to say that Jesus confirms

Peter as a believer it fits into a unique pattern of God's character doesn't it

God changes your identity he changes your person he changes who you were and changes you into something different if you give yourself a new name it'll probably not be as great you know

I met I met people who changed their names before because I used to work in financial places and change their names and their accounts you know it's very hideous and it's like what's your name it's like this generated names

I'm an AI or something and it's like oh wow like is that the best to come up with so anyways however when you look at this verse this verse has been abused before hasn't it like all

Bible verses there's always room for abuse and specifically this verse when it comes to the church this verse is famous for abuse it has a long history of abuse and you know who

I'm talking about the RTC I like to call them the RTC and it's the Roman Catholic Church the

Roman Catholic Church they love to take this verse in fact they plant their flag on this one first they take this one verse and they say yes it's about the confirmation of Peter you're like okay yes and they say yes it's about the election of somebody about Peter becoming part of the church you're like okay well yes but that's not all they say that's not that's not how they abuse the verse actually we agree with them up to that point but it's how they manufacture what's coming next they say no this is actually a proof that Jesus himself appointed

Peter to be the head representative of the of the church on earth this is proof they say that Jesus actually appointed the first Pope it's kind of like King Arthur if that's how legendary this verse is to the

Roman Catholic the next time you see a Roman Catholic person or a friend you're like wow like you see

Peter like a King Arthur that's how like legendary this is oh yeah he's the first Pope that's so great you're just like man let's look at that let's look at that because when you're when you want to break down this verse you have to look at that you have to look at the good and the bad and ugly so was

Peter the first Pope is there evidence in the Bible that suggests that this verse is actually talking that the church should submit to one person on earth

I don't think so that's my opinion I believe by I stick to the

Bible they they believe they stick to the Bible but let's let's look let's let's look it up they say this verse proves it they go on to Acts chapter 15 and they say that text proves it see he spoke the most he spoke up and he carried the respect in Acts 15 look at how they respect

Peter throughout the whole book of Acts John even allows him to speak most of the time it's like well

I'm not sure if that really proves he's the Pope maybe John was an introvert what about that maybe

John didn't really he was the youngest one so he let the elder speak what about that no no these verses is the proof they say that he is the first Pope and I would argue that I think they're getting their conclusions partially from the biblical text because they're using

Acts 15 and they're quoting some Bible verses but I think they're leaning heavily on Roman Catholic tradition they have to be there and probably using some imagination along you know somewhere in there you cannot have

Disney without imagination you cannot have the Roman Catholic Church without some tradition imagination in there but if you just stick with this one verse if you if you just stick with the

Bible you will find no such evidence that that Peter was not the first Pope you can't there's no such office first you have to start with the office like let me go look up this office in Paul's letter oh it's not it's not an office in Paul's letter okay let me go look up some biblical references that Peter went to Rome and planted the church in Rome let me go look in the in the book of Romans the letter of Romans let me find that reference oh

I don't we don't he doesn't he or here are some people here are some questions about this issue that all

Christians are kind of unsure about both reform non -reform Catholic non -catholic right capital

C Catholic right so like how did he how did Peter ever get to Rome because St.

Jerome and most of church history says that he died in Rome how did he get there how did he get there we are unsure

Catholic historians Protestant historians are not really sure of the method how he got there you don't know he took like a like a 737 then he didn't you know we don't know was he was he a was he a slave and he got there as a slave you don't know why what did

Peter do by the way when he got there but he'd go to jail right away that he could beat up did he like escape this you know what

I mean so like some Christians some Roman Christians were like let's let's do a hike let's let's get let's get

Peter out of jail right a jailbreak did that happen we don't know did

Peter ever get a chance to preach the gospel for sure to Caesar for sure do we know this is there other is that is that the minutes of the meeting recorded in church history or secular history once again we are unsure that data that Paul ever know that Peter was the

Pope that's a biggie because when I read the book of Romans I'm like Paul doesn't ever reference

Peter as being a big guy in fact Peter's not really mentioned in the book of Romans so these are some of the questions you're going to ask yourself some of the investigative questions and by the way when you read any text of scripture it's a good habit to have a journal next to you a blank piece of paper to write questions down because when you write questions it helps you dissect and digest the text better and then you don't read it quickly do you when you think it like that right you're actually like wow that's a great question let me write that down I'm driving my kids to school and I'm still thinking about it

I don't know I'm still trying on it there's that chewing aspect so though you know the

RCC loves to play these historical games and you know like there's no fact -checking for them they assume they have to assume all these questions as a yes yes

Peter got there this way Peter did this and this is what happened and yes he signed to the church there's not what Paul didn't know about it there's no way he even well they just assume these historical events they have to when they read the same

Bible verse that we're reading today it's like they don't need a fact check they don't want to fact -check actually they they actually don't like that's what makes us

Protestant if you think about it why are you not a Catholic there's probably like a

Brazilian reason but one of the reasons is that you stick to the Bible that you read the

Bible that you actually ask questions of the about the Bible yes some traditions are good that's fine but you know what those things don't trump our

Bible that's what makes a Protestant a Protestant so about this

Pope thing listen to what Thomas Watson has to say about Peter being the first Pope these words as in the words of a young generational young kid they are lit the

Pope succeeds Peter only in his denial of Christ Wow those are fighting words and if you think about the don't get scared about Latin words okay they're only

Latin words worth about 25 cents okay so the first Latin word you look at it the word

Pope it's just a Latin word it means father just like Simon means

Little Rock right so it's just a little word Pope you're calling someone father now kids

I wouldn't recommend you call your your father Pope it doesn't sound right you know so I wouldn't recommend that for kids but if that word does mean father now here's another word in Latin that's a little bit more serious right and these words are worth about 50 cents in the market so if you look at these words

Vicarious Christi I'm sure you heard those the more serious Latin words you look up the even look up any translation in the

Bible you don't find those words in the exact combination and those pronunciations

Vicarious Christi and the translation that is very telling when you read it should have been here

Jesus should have said you Peter Vicarious Christi the debate should have been over with Jesus pronouncing the

King Arthur of the Bible Vicarious Christi they're not even found in the translation to the

Bible not even in the Latin Vulgate and you know just because some words are not finding the

Bible I'm not arguing well we shouldn't use these words right like the word hotdogs it's not in the

Bible and the word National Football League is not in the Bible so can we use those come on don't be silly of course not we could use those we could use those words and they like to play those games by the way let's just stick to the

Bible so what I'm saying is yes like we could use Latin words but let's just be careful not to use certain

Latin words to the Apostles because that's what they're doing they're taking the

Latin words and they're applying it to the Apostles historically when you read this verse it doesn't prove that Peter was the

Pope you look at the translation this verse doesn't prove that Jesus was confirming that Peter was the first father and you look outside of the

Bible you look at history when Peter was gone when Paul was gone and John after 90

AD or 99 some people say there he was gone you look at after all the Apostles none of the early church fathers from from the first second or third fourth century called

Rome as the capital of the whole church the church you look at the writings they didn't believe that the

Roman Church was the center of the solar system there's no evidence that that Rome became the capital of Christianity in the first three centuries actually just quickly going through these things you have to say man like the burden is on them isn't it the burden is on them how would they read this word

I you Peter I will build this church on you that's what they're saying you're the main man you're the

CEO from here on out the burden is on our neighbors

Roman Catholic neighbors or Roman Catholic friends right to prove this to us consistently with the

Bible with history with the translation all of that the burden is on them the

Pope actually didn't even start using the Vicar of Christ until like the fifth century and to the end of the fifth century why is that well there's much more history into that well in summary

I think in this one verse if you look at it Jesus is merely confirming that Peter professed his faith in him

I think it's simple as that like why do we have to play play a

Latin kung -fu with this why he's just a man it's simply we look at the man we look who

Peter was right Peter is just confessing his faith to Jesus that what

Jesus was the Christ Jesus doesn't make Peter the first pope of the church

Jesus is nearly changes his identity which is also falls into a certain pattern in history like he did to Abraham he doesn't really and in plus if you read this verse it shows you who really has authority over the church doesn't it

Jesus he changed his identity she's all Peter didn't say well I'm gonna call myself

Peter from now on is that okay Jesus you call me Peter from now on like no Jesus changes

Peter not Peter changes Jesus now because of time let's go on let's go ahead and move forward in this verse the second part of this is a prophecy of God but let me dissect this into a couple sub particles the promise of God Jesus says

I will build my church one of the most encouraging things you should hear this morning is that Jesus is building his church one of the greatest things that I that I that I do on my podcast is that I interview people yes but I get to I get to for for a one hour get to look into the window what

God is actually doing in that part of the world I talked to Muhammad Fahidi underground church builder in Iran perhaps the top 10 most wanted person in Iran the

Christian lives in Colorado Springs I have the privilege of meeting with him he built 38 churches on the ground all illegal every pastor's wanted thousand people each new converts right church houses another thousand church houses after that every one of those churches and every one of those

Christians they don't have the privileges like us many of those Christians don't have

Bibles many of those Christians don't have Psalms or Psalter or hymns to sing or Christian radios to turn on the radio to sing they don't have none of that they don't have the money they don't have the resources they don't have none of that and guess what and under the threat of death and betrayals those

Christians in Iran are is basically to use football language blitzing the gates of hell and if that doesn't excite you you need to reexamine your heart it could be that your heart is so cold so focused around your center here that you don't understand what

God is doing in Iran it's great the evil regime and Iran is evil and it is detrimental they killed many

Christians but guess what their days are numbered their days are shortened there are outnumbered by Christians it's only a matter of time that Iran collapses in the form of revolution however

God brings it and the Christian government predominant government takes over the country

Iran it's only a matter of time Jesus said

I will build my church now I don't have the time to get into the the the larger portion of the second house like I would love to but let me just say this to all the naysayers the

Christians who are pure spiritualist to this verse and they say you know what now

Jesus is not building a church like that like kingdom building and world building none of that it's like kingdoms all in heaven and not on earth kind of thing well part of that is true but let me bring it down to earth into a more reformed perspective for you if you look at this one verse

Psalms 33 chapter 4 you have to look at this one verse to connect it with Matthew what does

Jesus say I will build my church why how do we know because Psalm 33 verse 4 says that the word of the

Lord is upright and all his work is done in faithfulness that's how we know so in the course of history

God is has been faithful to his promise because his words are true his words are are never come back empty right so God's providence some people call this providence

God's providence is always done according to his will according to his timing and if you look at most of the historical reformed confessions if you want to further study it they do great explanations of it

I don't have that time to get into yeah but Jesse doesn't feel like God is building his church because look in North Korea man well yes

North Korea is the evil empire right now and in the current moment it's a nightmare it's a nightmare for Christians so how is

Jesus building his church there I would say God is faithful God is faithful well why would you say that man that's that's not very mean well not to under under guard

I mean like not to diminish the the the pressure points of people right that are there but did you know that there's a massive underground network of churches in North Korea the churches is not dead

I'll also interview somebody about that that's why they created a labor camp camp 13 the biggest labor camp in North Korea is the size of Los Angeles most they're not for political dissenters only oh no that's where all the religious dissenters go that's why they had the big such that that's why they had the big build the biggest camp in North Korea the size of Los Angeles and everybody there is pretty much a religious dissenter and many

North Korean Christians are born in labor camps because it's a generational thing you go against us your whole generation is cursed your mom your cousins like everybody goes to jail not just you not just the father not just the pastor like all his church and all their families family families everybody goes to the labor camp if you're

Christian he what I'm trying to say is that the church is sometimes more visible in history and then sometimes it's less visible in history like places

I ran like places like Iran and Afghanistan Yemen those are places where the church might be less visible here in North in North Carolina I think the church is really visible so in both places in history

God is faithful right God is faithful and if you want to just take a look at history and I know a lot of my wolf friends would say history is not perfect and blah blah the church is not perfect well well yeah the history is not perfect but look the devil is not winning history proves it just look at the pattern here look at the pattern let me see how fast

I can go through this the church suffers right but God he used the

Greeks to invade the world introducing the Greek language into Israel as a result and in that the translation of the

Hebrew Old Testament is translated into the Greek the same translation that Paul used and many

Christians used after that as a bad result a long time ago God built his church there using that one beautiful product and result of Alexander's conquest of the world the church suffers again but God uses the incarnation the death and the resurrection of Christ and the coming of the

Holy Spirit through Pentecost to fulfill the covenants of the Old Testament and the

Abrahamic covenant to bless every single nation out of that isn't God faithful and then oh well the church suffers yes but God uses the conversion of someone named

Paul and the results were amazing he's like the perfect messenger to go into the

Gentiles he understands Greek thought probably has a double PhD he says that's dumb and then he goes and calls himself a

Roman citizen to buy himself some time and preaches the gospel to Caesar the church suffers but God uses something horrible for something amazing he destroys the temple he destroys the temple of Israel and scatters his people out into the world no more centralization of religion no more priesthood no more temple

Ichabod of all that Jesus fulfills the ceremony the ceremonial laws and the priestly law the church suffers again in the form of martyrs but guess what like one church father said that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church

Christianity is spreading no matter what but the church suffers again but God converts the

Roman emperor into a Christian what in the world he converts him however that is it's not perfect like I said but he comes and brings a law of toleration now

Christianity for the first time has the potential to grow in a pro visible

Christian environment unlike before the church suffers again but God calls

Athanasius to go against the whole world to tell to bring what kind of message not only the gospel but to bring something precious to us that God is the trinity that there's a father there's a son and his holy ghost he holds back the tide like to use football language again keep saying

Athanasius it's the best offensive line and they try to sack Jesus and he didn't let them amazing isn't it

God the church suffers but God uses Saint Columba to travel to the furthest part of the

Roman empire to convert to Scott the last people group in the empire that are unreachable for you

Scottish people out there amen you're here if your Scottish background because of somebody had the audacity like Columba to pass that cross over the jumper wall to preach and reach the people group that are savages and if you're here because of Scottish background thank

God to Saint Columba the church suffers again and there's a massive people of invaders called the

Vikings and I'm sorry if your background is a Viking but they are a terror to Christianity killing pillaging not only the pagans and Christian alike but especially the

Christians they bring guess what the gospel brings those

Vikings to Christ the worst people group that the church has ever faced but the church suffers and God brings a reformation to Europe bringing the gospel planting the seeds of the

United States the church suffers again and brings the first great awakening to this

United States reviving it the church suffers but God uses many

Christians to bring an end to an evil institution called slavery and the church suffers again but God and I'll leave that blank there for you get that but God and I'll leave that blank for you to fill it out just where do you fit in right you're like man what's up there man look at Colorado look at California yeah the pattern but God is faithful Jesus is faithful he's building his church he's keeping his promise and it's not done with America or without America God doesn't need

America if he wants to use America that's cool if he doesn't want to use it that's cool look at the

Canaanites look at Pharaoh he didn't need them he doesn't need us to accomplish his faithfulness is that you

Vikings tearing up everybody I'm converting you why not you guys make church security guards anyway so if you're a

Viking background thank God that Christians preach the gospel to some of those guys and some of you who are coming from Viking backgrounds thank

God that God was faithful to bring your people heritage to Christ right otherwise you wouldn't be here some of you so in summary we talked about how

Jesus appointed Peter and the church is not losing and the church is on the winning end and there's moments in history that the church is less visible than others but God is faithful and this leads to the second part to the third part that you know church structure this does talk about church structure here in Matthew the congregation the church structure questions remember

I told you write questions when you study the Bible chew it slowly write questions and it'll change your devotion life trust me does the church have authority huh first of all an elder and a deacon are they little monarchs or are they limited in power huh question oh how should the church be run what are the standards if there are any standards right questions questions many questions like I said in the beginning

I don't have the time and I don't have the time to get into the structures of Anglicanism all the fun stuff and Presbyterianism and all the fun stuff instead

I want to devote this last piece of the time to to the need for structure actually the need for church structure and you know why here's my first point no matter the structure people are prone to error you know and and let me piggyback on that there's no hope outside of the church it's like a rock being stuck between a rock and a hard place right like people are prone to error in any structure but there's no hope outside of that it's the best we got

Christians can be wrong Christians can be wrong just because a Christian may be wrong though hold on doesn't make

Christianity a fault does it so the answer is yeah of course not

Jesus is faithful to build his church but he didn't promise notice what he did not promise he did not promise to make the church infallible he's like I'm gonna promise to make the church bulletproof no matter what no we live in a fallen world even when

Jesus is making promises and keeping them like in the face just look at this in the face of Jesus in the flesh his disciples are arguing there we are prone to error and look listen to what look listen to how

Jesus responds to his argument instead whoever wants to become great among you you must be servant and whoever wants to be first you must be a slave like isn't this a slap for a prize service word

Jesus yes because Christians are prone to error they are we are prone to abuse people use this as an argument all the time right in the colleges and and in the universities and in the media and in movies they love to make the

Christian the hypocrite in every single movie is don't they I said yes the church is not perfect but that doesn't mean you need to abandon the church because the church is not at fault