Daily Devotional For Sunday, December 7, 2025
Good morning Southside! It’s Sunday and I pray all of you are going to worship the King of kings and the Lord of lords today. If you are young, you might not know or remember the significance of December 7. Eighty-four years ago in 1941, there was a surprise attack on our Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor. The ship that was hit the worst was the USS Arizona. 2,403 Americans were killed along with an additional 1,178 wounded in the attack. What 911 is to my generation, December 7, 1941 is to our oldest generation. This ushered the US into WWII.
We have been making our way through the Gospel of Matthew and today, we are going to pick up where we left off yesterday. Yesterday was part 1 and today we come to part 2 of the same passage. Look at Matthew 16:13-20:
“Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He was asking His disciples,’Who do people say that the Son of Man is?’ (14) And they said, ‘Some say John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; but still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.’ (15) He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?’ (16) Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ (17) And Jesus said to him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. (18) I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. (19) I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.’ (20) Then He warned the disciples that they should tell no one that He was the Christ” (NASB).
This passage deals with the most important question anyone and everyone has to answer: who is Jesus to you? Jesus asked His disciples who people said He was. Some said, John the Baptizer, or Elijah or Jeremiah or another prophet. Then Jesus asked His own disciples who they believed He was. Peter comes with the winning answer – “You are the Christ, the Messiah!” According to Jesus, such an answer did not come from Peter Himself, but from God the Father.
Then Jesus mentions the church. The Greek New Testament word is [ἐκκλησία, ekklesia]. This word refers to ‘ones who are called out by God.” This Greek New Testament word is only found in Matthew’s Gospel, though it is mentioned in other New Testament books. Peter will become the head of the church in Jerusalem and it is Peter who reminded them that the church was built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Jesus being the corner-stone (see1 Pet. 2:4-8). The Apostle Paul reaffirms this in 1 Corinthians 3:11.
Every single believer is joined into Christ’s church through this unity of Jesus being our foundation. And because Jesus Christ is our foundation, not even the “gates of hell” can prevail or overcome or destroy Christ’s church. “Prevail against” is one Greek New Testament word – [κατισχύω; katischuo]. This word means “to overpower, to have mastery over, to imprisoned.” The devil is impotent against the church of Christ. But Christ’s ultimate victory over satan’s power of death is so certain that the writer of Hebrews speaks of it in the past tense. Look at Hebrews 2:14 and Jesus’ words in Revelation 1:18.
And in the final verses of this section Jesus tells His disciples there is coming a time they will have the authority to declare what is divinely forbidden or permitted on the earth. Jesus reaffirms this when He connects such authority to forgiveness (See John 20:23). This is connected to Jesus’ teaching on church discipline and confronting an unrepenting believer in Matthew 18:15-17. Meaning, a duly constituted body of believers (ecclesia) has the right to tell an unrepentant brother that he is out of line with God’s Word and has no right to fellowship with God’s people.
“Keys to the kingdom” – what is this a reference to by Jesus? “Will give” implies after the Resurrection. Jesus gave Peter authority over the church at Jerusalem only as well as to be the leader of the other disciples (see Acts 1:15-26). Nowhere does the Bible teach Peter was the first pope or that papal authority derives from Peter. This tradition unfortunately developed later in the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) years later. We see this in Jesus’ own words. Had Jesus meant Peter would be the first pope then Jesus could have easily said, “On you Peter I will be My church.” Instead, Jesus said, “On this I will build my church.” This is a strange pronoun to refer to a person. So, what is “this?”
Peter, which means “rock,” which was a wordplay. Peter is the Greek New Testament word “petros.” It was Jesus’ way of saying, “On this confession of faith Peter, ‘Rocky,’ I will build My church.” What confession by Peter, Rocky? “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” The “rock” is Peter’s confession of Jesus as the Christ, the Messiah. Every single person who the Father draws to Jesus (see John 6:44) must make this confession. This is reaffirmed by the Apostle Paul in Romans 10:9-10.
All the disciples are told that Jesus is giving them these keys. “Keys” refer to administering the ministries of the church, exercising church discipline, sharing the Gospel and bringing into the church new believers regardless of their ethnicity (See Acts 15:7-9). The “keys” suggest not that he was a “doorman,” controlling who would enter or not enter the building; rather, they portray a “steward,” who would administer the building. This is why not even the gates of hell or death or persecution will ever stop the growth and spread of the church. New Testament Greek scholar Archibald T. Robertson writes this:
“Christ’s church will prevail and survive because He will burst the gates of Hades and come forth conqueror. He will ever live and be the guarantor of the perpetuity of His people or church” (Source: Archibald T. Robertson, Word Pictures In The New Testament, Vol. 1, “The Gospel According to Matthew & Mark,” p. 133).
Two promises by Jesus: first, nothing will stop the church. Second, Peter would be given the keys on the Day of Pentecost to invite unrepentant Jews into the church as well as Samaritans and eventually Gentiles. We see this in Acts 2:38-41 and Acts 8:14-17. Reading all these passages together, we can draw the following conclusions. Peter as well as the rest of the disciples were granted special spiritual authority—the same authority granted to all believers who gather as the church in the name of Jesus. All redeemed men and women are indwelled by the Spirit, and the gathered church is itself the temple of the Holy Spirit (see 1 Cor. 3:16, 1 Cor. 6:19; and Eph. 2:19-22). The Lord commissions and empowers believers to proclaim His message of forgiveness, to baptize, and, as a church body, to grant membership and dismiss from membership as acts of maintaining church order and discipline.
“Binding and loosening” were terms used by Jewish rabbis and they refer to two things: to establish rules and to enact church discipline. The disciples would have the authority to enact rules on behavior that is acceptable to God and then authority to discipline any in the church that did not honor God with their obedience. Peter comes through with the right answer, but as pastor and author Chuck Swindoll reminds us, it’s up in the air how much Peter understood the implications of his answer:
- First, though Peter was in way over his head theologically, he didn’t hesitate to state the truth. I’m not sure Peter was fully aware of what it meant that Jesus was the Messiah. Surely he understood its implications for Jesus’ kingship in relation to being the descendant of David, but whether Peter knew that Jesus was also the anointed Prophet and the anointed, eternal High Priest, we can’t be sure. And when Peter called Jesus the “Son of the living God,” did he have a full knowledge of Jesus’ divine Sonship as the second person of the Trinity, co-eternal with the Father? Certainly Peter understood that Jesus was greater than any human he had ever met, that He had been sent by God, and that He was the Son of God in the sense that He was the descendant of David destined to be enthroned as the Messiah. But it may very well be that Peter spoke more than he knew when he confessed Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God.
- Second, Peter wasn’t afraid to risk himself in front of his peers. Remember, due either to uncertainty or to fear, the rest of the disciples kept quiet. Perhaps they were waiting for somebody else to venture an opinion, and then they would read Jesus’ body language or wait for His response before either agreeing or disagreeing. For whatever reason, they played it safe and said nothing. But not Peter. Even though he was operating way above his pay grade, he went for broke and said what was on his heart” (Source: Charles R. Swindoll, Swindoll’s Living Insights New Testament Bible Commentary, “Matthew 16-28,” Vol. 1B, pp. 24-25).
Assignment: How would you answer this question – “Who is Jesus to you?” If you give the typical “church answer,” what is the proof in your life? Is your heart broken over sin in your life? Do you repent from that sin? Do you correct the wrong from that sin? Do you deny or get defensive about your sin? Are you condemning? Is your life personally marked by making and maturing people to be disciples of Jesus?
Scripture To Meditate On: Philippians 2:9-11, “For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, (10) so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, (11) and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (NASB).
Prayer To Pray: “Dear Lord, let everything in me live out the confession of Peter in my life. Convict me to make and mature others to be a disciple of you. Thank you for the authority You gave to Your disciples You have given to me also. I love You Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”
I love you Southside! – Pastor Kelly