Session 7 Sermon- Jesse "Chicano Knox" Gomez

I think this thing is on. It is? All right. All right. Greetings. How are 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 it down.

I love North Carolina. You guys are very hospitable, very green, very green. I've never seen so much consistency of green lawn. I'm kind of jealous. But God has left the state, right? So I covered this one topic.

I covered this one topic, the church. In theology, we call it ecclesiology. And it's the 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 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 doing a podcast 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 today, I have the privilege of 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 theological or systematic books, the church, the ecclesiology, is usually one of the last things.

And that's one of the things that I'm bummed out about. I'm like, oh, man, this should be 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 you, let's go ahead and open up to 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 can 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 fade, 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.

It endures forever. 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 worlds, changing hearts right now as we 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, and Holy Ghost.

Amen. So recorded here in Matthew 16, 18, you have several things. And hopefully, I'll cover some of them. And this is actually, you know, if you read the Puritans, this is actually one of the main verses that the Puritans use 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 the confirmation of Peter.

And the second half of this verse is a prophecy. So if you want to look at it from two parts, you've got the confirmation of Peter, then you've 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. See, one of the problems when we read the Bible is 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 it 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, have you ever thought about Peter, like who he was and what he was? He's a very interesting guy. And Peter, you know his name wasn't originally Peter, right? His real name was Simon, not Peter.

And you know, Jesus changed his name later on in the text. And his real name in Aramaic is Kefa, Kefa. And that means stone or little rock. So imagine your real name is Little Rock. Yeah, so imagine he said, hey, how's your name?

My name's Little Rock, Simon. So Peter, like many of you will probably relate, Peter was a fisherman. So I know many of you were like, yeah. So he was a fisherman by trade. 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, some of the apostles were married. 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 Gospels.

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. You're like, whoa, that's a pretty heavy load right there, right? But later on, we know that Jesus forgave him.

Imagine the weight that he must have felt for Jesus to say, Peter, I 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.

There's 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 like, OK, so it's like in heaven, John gets to heaven. And I can imagine Peter just waiting 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? He's like, what? 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 nine to five.

And you get this strange request. Can I get crucified upside down while you're at it? Uh, oh, wow, OK. Let's go ahead. We've never done that before. So that's Peter. This is the same Peter that Jesus is talking to in this verse.

Like, we've got to slow down before we get to the exciting part of, I will build my church. And that gate from hell went up. Like, he's talking to a person here. He's having a conversation. He's 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 this verse, you see that Jesus confirms Peter to be part of the elect. And if you read the entire chapter, just verse four, 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 is not just an imaginary thing, like a shadow. It's based on a, there's content. And there's meat inside 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, Little Rock, you're no longer Little Rock.

You're Peter. So it's not just that. Yes, there's a physical name change. So Peter probably had to get a new ID. But it's a status change. It's a status change. It'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, everybody's like, hey, John, I'm not John no more. I'm Josh. What? That's Peter. He had to remind everybody, hey, don't call me that. Call me Peter. I'm a new man. I'm a new creation.

It's 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 in the business of changing your name, changing your identity, changing your person forever.

And if you look at it, there's like a pattern here. You look in the book of Genesis. God changed Abram, right, to Abraham. And then he changes his wife Sarai to Sarah. Then he changes Jacob into Israel.

And then here, he changes Simon into Peter. It's kind of like a pattern. God is in the business of changing your soul, changing your name, changing who you are. And to one sense, Paul the Apostle kind of echoes this, doesn't he, in 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 as 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, a new part would not be as great. You know, I met people who changed their names before because I used to work in financial places and change their names in their accounts.

You know, it's very hideous. And it's like, what's your name? It's like there's generated names from AI or something. And it's like, oh, wow. Like, is that the best you could 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 verse. They take this one verse and they say, yes, it's about the confirmation of Peter.

And you're like, OK, yes, yes, that's it. And they say, yes, it's about the election of somebody about Peter becoming part of the church. And you're like, OK, well, yes. But that's not all they say. 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 church on Earth.

This is proof, they say, that Jesus actually appointed the first pope. It's kind of like King Arthur. That's how legendary this verse is to the Roman Catholics. The next time you see a Roman Catholic person or a friend, you're like, wow, you see Peter like a King Arthur.

That's how legendary this is. They're like, 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 want to break down his verse, you have to look at that.

You have to look at the good and the bad and the 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 I stick to the Bible. They believe they stick to the Bible. But 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 elders 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. And probably using some imagination along somewhere in there. You cannot have Disney without imagination. You cannot have the Roman Catholic Church without some tradition and imagination in there.

But if you just stick with this one verse, if you just stick with the Bible, you will find no such evidence 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, there's not. There's not an office in Paul's letter. OK, 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 Book of Romans, the letter of Romans. Let me find that reference. Oh, I don't. We don't. He doesn't. Here are some questions about this issue that all Christians are kind of unsure about, both reformed, non-reformed, Catholic, non-Catholic.

Right, capital C, Catholic, right? So how did Peter ever get to Rome? Because St. Jerome, in 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. We don't know. Did he take like a 737? We don't know. Was he a slave? Did he got there as a slave? We don't know.

What did Peter do, by the way, when he got there? Did he go to jail right away? Did he get beat up? Did he escape? You know what I mean? Some Christians, some Roman Christians were like, let's do a hike.

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 that the minutes of the meeting recorded in church history or secular history?

Once again, we are unsure. Did 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 is 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 to 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'm still chewing on it. There's that chewing aspect. So the RCC loves to play these historical games. 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 climbed to the church. And Paul didn't know about it.

There's no way he even, blah, blah, blah. 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 a fact-check, actually. 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 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 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 cult 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, OK?

They're only Latin words, worth about $0 .25, OK? 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 father pope. It doesn't sound right, you know? So I wouldn't recommend that for kids. But 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 $0 .50 in the market. So if you look at these words, vicarious Christi. I'm sure you heard those. The more serious Latin words, if you look up any translation in the Bible, you don't find those words and the exact combination and those pronunciations, vicarious Christi in 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 vogue. And you know what? Just because some words are not found in the Bible, I'm not arguing, well, we shouldn't use these words, right?

The word hot dog is 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. Like, yeah, no, no, let's just stick to the Bible. So what I'm saying is, yes, 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 word, 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 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, he was gone. You look after all the apostles, none of the early church fathers from the first, second, 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 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, our 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 popes actually didn't even start using the vicar of Christ until like the fifth century, until the end of the fifth century. Why is that? Well, there's much more history into that.

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 as simple as that. Like, why do we have to play Latin kung fu with this?

Why? He's just a man. 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 merely changing his identity, which is also falls into a certain pattern in history, like he did to Abraham. He doesn't really. And plus, if you read this verse, it shows you who really has authority over the church, doesn't it?

Jesus. He changed his identity. Peter didn't say, well, I'm going to call myself Peter from now on. Is that OK, Jesus, if you call me Peter from now on? Like, no. Jesus changes Peter. Not Peter changes Jesus.

Jesus Will Build His Church

Now, because of time, 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 do on my podcast is that I interview people, yes, but I get to, for one hour, get to look into the window of what God is actually doing in that part of the world.

I talked to Mohammed Fahidi, underground church builder in Iran, perhaps the top 10 most wanted person in Iran. He's a Christian. He lives in Colorado Springs. I have the privilege of meeting with him.

He built 38 churches underground, all illegal. Every pastor's wanted. 1 ,000 people each, new converts, right? Church houses, another 1 ,000 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 betrayal, those Christians in Iran are basically, to use football language, blitzing the gates of hell.

And if that doesn't excite you, you need to re-examine 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 in Iran is evil, and it is detrimental. They killed many Christians. But guess what? Their days are numbered. Their days are shortened. They 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 of 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 larger portion of this second house like I would love to. But let me just say this to all the naysayers, the Christians who are pure spiritualists, to this verse.

And they say, you know what? No, Jesus is not building a church like that. Not kingdom building and world building, none of that. It's like kingdoms all in heaven, 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. Why 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 has been faithful to his promise, because his words are true.

His words 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 it. Yeah, but Jesse, it doesn't feel like God is building his church. Look at 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 not very mean. Well, not to under guard, not to diminish the pressure points of people 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 also interviewed somebody about that. That's why they created the labor camp, Camp 13, the biggest labor camp in North Korea. It's the size of Los Angeles. They're not for political dissenters only.

Oh, no. That's where all the religious dissenters go. That's why they had to 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, everybody goes to jail, not just you, not just the father, not just the pastor, like all his church and all their family, family, family.

Everybody goes to the labor camp if you're a Christian. 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 like Iran and Afghanistan, Yemen, those are places where the church might be less visible.

Here 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, blah.

The church is not perfect. Well, yeah, 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? 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 a trinity, that there's a father, there's a son, and there's a holy ghost.

He holds back the tide. Like to use football language again, say Athanasius is 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 St. Columba to travel to the furthest part of the Roman empire to convert the Scots, the last people group in the empire that are unreachable to you Scottish people out there.

Amen? You're here, if you're Scottish background, because if somebody had the audacity, like Columba, to pass that, to cross over the Jumper Wall, to preach and reach a people group that are savages. And if you're here because of Scottish background, thank God for St. 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 Christians 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 in the 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 for God. And I'll leave that blank there for you. Get that? But God, and I'll leave that blank for you to fill out, because where do you fit in, right? You're like, man, we're suffering, 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.

He's like, 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.

Church Structure, Authority, and Discipline

And this leads to the second part, to the third part, church structure. This does talk about church structure here in Matthew. The congregation, the church structure. Questions, remember I told you to 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, question mark. 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 the need for structure, actually, the need for church structure. And you know why? Here's my first point. No matter the structures, people are prone to error.

You know, 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. We are prone to error.

And look, listen to how Jesus responds to this 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 to our pride?

Servanthood, Jesus? Yes. Because Christians are prone to error. We are prone to abuse. People use this as an argument all the time, right? In the colleges and in the universities and in the media and in movies.

They love to make the Christian the hypocrite in every single movie, don't they? Yes, the church is not perfect, but that doesn't mean you need to abandon the church because the church is not at fault.

Jesus never promised a perfect church like that. We are hypocrites. We are progressing more and more to be like Jesus, right? But that doesn't mean there's hope outside of the church. There is no hope.