Built on This Confession

Why does Jesus ask the disciples who people say he is before asking who they say he is?

The crowd's answers are all names from the past: John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, the prophets. Every one of them is dead. Jesus turns the question from a report about history to a question standing right in front of them, and Peter is the one who answers it.

Now when Jesus came into the parts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?” They said, “Some say John the Baptizer, some, Elijah, and others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Matthew 16:13–16

Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.

Matthew 16:17

Jesus went out, with his disciples, into the villages of Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked his disciples, “Who do men say that I am?” They told him, “John the Baptizer, and others say Elijah, but others, one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered, “You are the Christ.”

Mark 8:27–29

At this, many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him. Jesus said therefore to the twelve, “You don’t also want to go away, do you?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

John 6:66–69

What does it mean that the gates of Hades will not prevail against the church Jesus builds on Peter's confession?

Jesus stands at a cave the region called a gate to the underworld and says the gates will not hold. Death is not a fortress the church huddles behind; it is a gate that cannot keep Jesus out. The rock is Peter's confession, and the promise is that death loses.

I also tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my assembly, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.

Matthew 16:18

From that time, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and the third day be raised up.

Matthew 16:21

But when this perishable body will have become imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then what is written will happen: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “Death, where is your sting? Hades, where is your victory?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 15:54–57

When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man. He laid his right hand on me, saying, “Don’t be afraid. I am the first and the last, and the Living one. I was dead, and behold, I am alive forever and ever. Amen. I have the keys of Death and of Hades.

Revelation 1:17–18

…and what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to that working of the strength of his might which he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and made him to sit at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule, authority, power, dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come. He put all things in subjection under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things for the assembly, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

Ephesians 1:19–23

What does Jesus give the disciples when he hands them the keys of the kingdom?

The keys Jesus took out of death's hand he puts into the hands of ordinary men, one of whom will be called Satan seven verses later. What they bind and loose on earth is bound and loosed in heaven. That is the authority the church carries into a world that keeps a score.

I will give to you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven; and whatever you release on earth will have been released in heaven.”

Matthew 16:19

Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This will never be done 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 the things of God, but on the things of men.”

Matthew 16:22–23

Jesus therefore said to them again, “Peace be to you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit! If you forgive anyone’s sins, they have been forgiven them. If you retain anyone’s sins, they have been retained.”

John 20:21–23

But all things are of God, who reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ, and gave to us the ministry of reconciliation; namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not reckoning to them their trespasses, and having committed to us the word of reconciliation. We are therefore ambassadors on behalf of Christ, as though God were entreating by us: we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

2 Corinthians 5:18–20

Most certainly I tell you, whatever things you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever things you release on earth will have been released in heaven.

Matthew 18:18