Saturate: More Jesus in More of Life (The Church) - Matthew 16:13-20

Chad Richard Bresson

The Table of Los Fresnos

Sermons • Sermon • Submitted 4 months ago • Presented 4 months ago

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Trust in Church at an all-time low

The percentage of U.S. adults who say they have confidence in organized religion or the church is hovering near all-time lows. Currently, 32% of Americans express a great deal or a lot of trust in the church. That’s only one percentage point above the all-time love of 31% in 2022. Americans’ trust of pastors is also at an all-time low. If you want to feel good about those numbers… Americans trust of Congress is at 9%, television news at 12% and newspapers at 18%. So it’s not THAT low.

But why is it low? There’s a direct correlation between the trust plummeting and the sexual scandals that have rocked just about every denomination, especially the catholic church. And unethical pastors, pastors more interested in lining their pockets than serving the sheep. Millennials and Gen Z have a very dim view of the health, wealth, and prosperity gospel charlatans who are fully of bad theology that only serves themselves.

That’s the state of the church in America right now.

The Table as “church”

I don’t know if you noticed during the Christmas parade this year… when you enter a float in the parade, you are making some statement about who you are. I love our floats. We had a really good one this year. Many of you worked really hard to pull that off. It was one of the best evenings of the year. There was one thing that happened that night that got me thinking about The Table in 2025. As the Table’s float passed the judges table, the emcee talked about The Table. A lot of the information in the emcee’s comments came from a conversation we had had earlier in the week. But I noticed as they talked about The Table and what it means to our community, they never used the word “church”.

That’s not always a bad thing. The church isn’t simply a worship service on Sunday. And I’m not being critical of the emcee or the great people at the chamber that make our parade a great event. But that’s happened more than once over the past few years. “The Table. What is that?” Jose and I even had this conversation before the parade and use of the word “church” on the float. Much of the struggles is that the word “church” is a bad thing for a lot of people. A trigger. “Church” causes anxiety for people. Something to be avoided for all the wrong reasons. And too often, I’ve heard people in our tribe suggest the problem isn’t with “church,” it’s with people who are claiming the bad stuff as an excuse. We’re not going to do that here. That’s like blaming the victim. The anxiety is real. And the collective church needs to own it.

I still struggle with this. But in year 5, maybe this is the time to put a little more emphasis on “church”. As we move through 2025, one of the recurring themes that we’re going to be talking about here at The Table is “church”, as well as mission. We’ve already talking about praying the 938 for the 956… praying that the Lord of the Harvest will send workers into His harvest. And that he would use us in that mission.

Matthew, mission and church

We’ve been in the book of Matthew and we’re going to continue coming back to the pages of this first biography of Jesus that we find in our New Testaments. Over the next few weeks, we’re going to spend some time talking about what it means for The Table to be a “church”.

We get to the middle of Matthew’s biography and the action stops. It’s as if Matthew brings all of the activity and teaching to a standstill and points the camera at a conversation between Jesus and his disciples. And Jesus asking his disciples the question that Matthew’s audience is asking:

Matthew 16:13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”

There it is. That’s the question. Matthew’s audience wants to know.. is Jesus THE GUY? And they are about to hear the answer to that question. Jesus asks his disciples “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” Jesus’ question comes in two phases. Who do people say that I am? What is YouTube saying about me? What are people saying on Twitter? And the disciples give the popular answers of the day… some say you’re John the Baptist. Others say you’re a great prophet… like Elijah or Jeremiah. That’s the popular take on Jesus.

But then Jesus narrows the question and the conversation.

Matthew 16:15 “But you,” he asked them, “who do you say that I am?”

The people who’ve spent the most time with Jesus. His best friends. What do they say to this question: Is Jesus really THE GUY? And Peter, the spokesman of the group says this:

Matthew 16:16 “Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

There is a lot to unpack here and we’re not going to do a deep dive into all that is involved with this great confession of Peter’s. It really is a great confession. And it’s the reason that Matthew stops all the action in his biography. He wants his audience focused on Peter and Jesus. Jesus asks. Peter confesses. Yes, you’re everything we’ve been waiting for in the Messiah.

That confession is not the end of the conversation. Jesus then says this:

Matthew 16:18 “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.”

This has been, over 2000 years, one of the most controversial statements of Jesus. And we’re certainly not going to fix it here. When Jesus says “this rock”, what is he referring to? What I will say about it, briefly, is that Jesus is not making Peter the first pope. There’s no evidence that Peter was ever in Rome. The interplay between Peter and rock is pointing to something else: Peter’s confession. This is ground zero for the gospel. Jesus is the Messiah… everything the Old Testament says he is… the Son of God himself. That confession is what Jesus is pointing to.

But in all the controversy and all the hubbub over just what the rock is, we tend to miss something else here that Matthew’s audience would not have missed. Jesus says,

On this rock, I will build my church.

If you’re in Matthew’s audience, that’s the showstopper. I will build my church. This marks the first time in not just Matthew’s biography, but the entire New Testament, that anyone uses the word “church”. And for all we know, it’s the first time Jesus uses the word with his disciples. At least that’s what Matthew wants us to hear. We’re so used to the word, we just race right past it… we’re so pre-occupied with whether or not Peter is the rock or the first pope to miss what Jesus is saying.

I will build my church.

If you’re the disciples, you’re thinking… you’re going to build what? The word “church” itself, wasn’t uncommon. It meant “assembly” or “gathering”. Any meeting could be considered a church… a gathering of people. But here, Jesus is using it in a religious sense. Matthew’s church gathering knew what this meant… but the disciples… what do you mean that you are going to build your gathering?

Jesus is saying… remember that Harvest we’re praying about? Remember the prayer about sending more workers into the harvest? This is where we’re going. This is what we’re building. This harvest is where I’m building my church… and Peter’s confession is at the heart of it all.. I am The Christ… the one you’ve been waiting for… and I’m gathering the harvest of desperate people who want hope into a church… into a large assembly of people, not just here, but, as we’ll find out in Matthew 28, all over the world.

Church is central to Christ’s harvest. All that stuff going on in Matthew 9 and 10, Jesus teaching, preaching, healing, and then sending his disciples to do the same thing, it’s all about church. The harvest is being gathered into “church”. This is the kingdom of God come near. Church is central to Jesus’ mission of saving people from their sins. Church is central to Jesus’ plan to send workers into the harvest. All of the threads of Matthew’s focus on Jesus being THE GUY find at their center Jesus building his church.

Just to be clear, before we say any more.. Matthew uses the word “church” in his biography two different ways… here, Jesus is talking about the large, worldwide assembly, the universal assembly of the harvest, which includes all the saints who have died and are currently with Jesus. In chapter 18, Jesus uses the word “church”, to refer to the local assembly of believers, which is an expression or outpost of the largest, universal assembly. The two are interconnected. What Jesus is doing at the local level, he is doing at the worldwide level.

So, what is “church”? At the very least, the church is a gathering of people. That’s what the term church, or Ekklesia, actually means: gathering. But what makes this gathering different than the Rotary Club? Or the Essential Oils monthly get together? Jesus answers that question here in Matthew 16.

Matthew 16:18 “On this rock I will build my church”

On Peter’s Confession… on the Gospel, I will build my church. This harvest is being gathered into a community where Jesus is confessed as The Messiah, the One who saves his people from their sins. They gather to hear the Word of forgiveness and to hear that in Jesus, the kingdom of God has come near FOR THEM. These words, harvest, kingdom, church… all referring to the same reality: a gathered people of forgiven sinners who desperately need Jesus.

This passage in Matthew 16 and others in our New Testament, lead us to this definition of church:

Where God’s people have gathered around the Gospel faithfully preached and the Sacraments rightly carried out.

These are the basics. God’s people have gathered. The Gospel is faithfully preached. The Sacraments are rightly carried out. If these things aren’t happening, we cannot call ourselves a church. And you’ll notice… church isn’t a building. Church is anywhere God’s people have gathered. Church is anywhere God’s people have gathered around the Gospel and sacraments. This is what it looks like for God’s kingdom to be near in Christ.

Two other things to point out about Jesus’ statement, “I will build my church”.

I will build MY church

This isn’t Peter’s church. This isn’t a Peter-centric church. This isn’t Bresson’s church. This is Jesus’s church. Just like the harvest is His harvest, this church is His church. The belongs to no one but Jesus. It’s easy to think because we have organization and we put a lot into the church service and mission that this is our church. We act like this is just a human effort. But Jesus is saying it’s His church. There’s a spiritual and heavenly reality that makes “church”, even The Table, something that is not of this world.

And the other thing we can’t miss here…

“I WILL build my church”.

This is a Promise. Not only is this His church, He Promises to build it. He’s promising to use Peter and His confession to build His gathering of people, His kingdom, His harvest. Church is where you’ll find Jesus. He Promised. He promises to gather His people around Word and Sacrament to give us life and salvation and forgiveness. He promises.

This is Jesus’ plan for people without hope and people desperate for Good News. And I realize that as I say that, there is a tough swallow going on in our throats. That’s hard to hear for many people. Jesus’ plan to be all over the world for all people everywhere involves the church. And we live in a day where many don’t want to hear that. And I get it. You look at the crowds of Matthew 9 and Jesus’ reaction to them..

Matthew 9:36 “When Jesus saw the crowds, he felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dejected, like sheep without a shepherd.”

Jesus answer out of compassion for those distressed and oppressed crowds is gathering them together as a people… where He gives them mercy and grace and forgiveness. They are distressed because their religious leaders, their pastors, are not so nice. They are oppressive. Always harping about behavior and holiness. There is no life there. No grace. So Jesus want to gather them into something new…

And we look at that and say, nope. I want Jesus, but I don’t want the gathering. I want Jesus, but I don’t want what he’s saying in Matthew 16. I don’t want church. These are the people who need The Table. The very thing they need, they don’t want. And I get it. They’ve been hurt by church. They have been burned by church.

“Church” is among the least trusted institutions in the United States. Some of that is due to the scandals over the last 50 years. Some of it is personal experience. And we can say The Table is different, but that claim will fall on ears that don’t believe it, no matter how much we say it. What we can do is talk about Jesus, talk about grace and forgiveness.

Our constitution and by-laws here at The Table begins with our mission statement:

The mission of the Table of Los Fresnos is to proclaim the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ to every man, woman, boy, and girl in Los Fresnos and surrounding communities.

We want to saturate Los Fresnos with more of Jesus and his Good News. We want to saturate our own lives and personal spaces with more of Jesus and His Good News. In Jesus’ grand design, Jesus is using the church to fill every area of life with the great news that Jesus died and provides life and forgiveness for desperate people.

This salvation isn’t just for us. It’s for the world. Not just the message for everyone. Salvation itself is on mission through the church. The reason we gather together each week, the reason that we have this physical location, and this organization is so that you and I can be launched into this world to make an eternal difference in the lives of those around us.

That’s church. In 2025, Jesus is using The Table’s confession of The Gospel to build his church as we saturate our community with Jesus. There’s a lot more to say about The Table as church. We’ll come back to this again next week.

Let’s Pray.

The Table

The church is where God’s people have gathered to hear His Gospel and receive His sacraments. This Table is what God is using to create church. We don’t create the Supper. The Supper creates a people… Christ’s people… The Word working with the Supper creates the church. So as we receive this morning, Jesus is again calling us His people, His church.

Benediction

Numbers 6:24–26

May the Lord bless you and protect you;

may the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you;

may the Lord look with favor on you and give you peace.

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