The Lord of the Church and His Mission, part II
Matthew 16:13-20

From last week:
1. Knowing Jesus is a Gift of God.

2. The Gift of God is the Foundation of the Church!

3. The Church is Given Great Influence and Great Responsibility. (Matthew 16:19)

Albright and Mann say, “The church on earth carries out heaven’s decisions, not heaven ratifying the church’s decisions,”

“The periphrastic future perfects are then perfectly natural…Whatever he binds or looses will have been bound or loosed, so long as he adheres to that divinely disclosed gospel. He has no direct pipeline to heaven, still less do his decisions force heaven to comply; but he may be authoritative in binding and loosing because heaven has acted first (cf. Acts 18:9–10). Those he ushers in or excludes have already been bound or loosed by God according to the gospel already revealed and which Peter, by confessing Jesus as the Messiah, has most clearly grasped.” (Carson, D.A., The Expositor’s Bible Commentary Volume 8, Zondervan, Grand Rapids Michigan, Matthew 16)

Ezekiel 33:6-7, However, suppose the watchman sees the sword coming but doesn’t blow the trumpet, so that the people aren’t warned, and the sword comes and takes away their lives. Then they have been taken away because of their iniquity, but I will hold the watchman accountable for their blood.’ “As for you, son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. When you hear a word from my mouth, give them a warning from me.

4. Who Do You Say that Jesus Is? (Matthew 16:20)