https://youtu.be/OS9THk4Vh9w




Matthew 16:13-20 What does it mean to bind and loose?



1. We bind and loose when we decide who Jesus is?V13-15This question right here is the most important question that anyone can ask in their life-Jesus comes to Peter- and says- what are people saying about me? Who do you say that I am?Now for many people- this question is not one that they ever answer- or should I say- they answer it without answering it by their choice to ignore who Jesus is-Now what interesting- is that these people around the region had an opinion of who Jesus was-John the Baptist? Elijah? Jeremiah? One of the prophets?And all of these thoughts about who Jesus was were centered around who he wasn’tAll of those mentioned were those who would announce the arrival of messiahJohn the Baptist preached repentance and returning to God- he taught baptism. He called out sinConsider John the baptist- They lived at the same time, related by blood, about the same age, had angel Gabriel announce their births, religious and political leaders didn’t care for them, wanted them dead, people followed both of them,John the Baptist had a ministry and it was an important one- but it wasn’t he ministry of JesusConsider Elijah- prophetic rebuke of Israel for idolatry that was pagan, baal worship, to turn back to God, Prophesying miracles of rain, oil and meal for a starving widow, raising a widows son from the dead, Message of promise to his followers before he departed, and then he left earth by a chariot of fire and did not dieConsider Jeremiah- Jeremiah prophesied God’s judgement on Israel and Judah, He pleaded with Israel to repent, the ‘weeping prophet’, Jeremiah was rejected by his own people- he told his own people that God was going to judge them for their sin and rejecting God, he had words of hope for Israel if they repented, that God would be with them-so the people at the time had a working knowledge of these three people-But here was the issue- they were trying to understand who Jesus was based on THEIR frame of reference instead of considering and listening to who Jesus actually was-This is human- this is what we do- we take a limited amount of information and make decisions about who we think people areWe do it on Social media, books, TV, movies, sports, we make sweeping statements about people on limited information- we don’t even know them- “I know who Justin Beiber is”We even do it with people that we somewhat know- we have a short interaction with someone and think that we know them- See at church, read online, You think u know me from the pulpitIt took me 10 years of deep emotional and physical intimacy with my wife and after 10 years I thought I was just starting to get to know her- but someone sends one tweet and you know everything about themI don’t know nothing about Russel Wilson that the news hasn’t told me- I don’t know what he eats, who his friends were in HS, what he’s afraid of, what makes him happy, what his hobbies are.But today- still- based on Limited information- people declare who Jesus is-Good moral teacher, condemner, prophet,



2. We bind and loose when we declare Jesus is the Christ



16 Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.Simon Peter answers the question with the correct answer- “you are the Christ, the Son of the Living God”What Peter saw- and what he knew to be true is that Jesus was the “Christ” the anointed one, the savior, the messiah, the promised one, the end all be all.This is the one that John The Baptist, Jeremiah, Elijah, David and all the OT prophets promisedThe one- The SaviorThis is what Martha declared- John 11:27 She said to Him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”This is what the centurion declared- Matt 27:54 So when the centurio...