11-22-23-ENG.

"[God] put all things in subjection under [Jesus'] feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church. "

Ephesians 1:22 
WHAT DO YOU SAY?
 
Read It: Matthew 16:13-15
If we're going to talk about the Church, we need to begin at the beginning. That's where we're starting this week. The passage before us, Matthew 16:13-20, contains the first mention of the Church in the New Testament, and in all of Scripture, for that matter. In fact, the word is only used two places in the Gospels, here and in Matthew 18:17. It's appropriate that each time the Church is mentioned in the Gospels, it's on the lips of Jesus. For He is the Head of the Church. And the Church will continue to be His until He delivers all things up to the Father (1 Corinthians 15:24), because no power on earth or below can take us out of Jesus' hands. So before we start looking at who makes up the Church and how it should operate, we need to be absolutely straight on the identity of its Head. Interestingly enough, that's exactly where Jesus began with His disciples ciples on this occasion when He revealed to them for the first time His plan for a brand-new entity called the Church. In the course of their travels, Jesus and the twelve came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, twenty-five miles north of the Sea of Galilee and actually the farthest north Jesus ever traveled in His earthly ministry. They had been up and down the land some by now, so most of the people ple of Israel had had time to form an opinion about Jesus.

The disciples had also had time to think about who Jesus was, and it was their view He was most interested in. So Jesus got this monumentally important exchange going by asking His disciples what the talk around town was about Him. Who did people think He was? Now as I pointed out before, Jesus never asked a question to gain information. mation. When He asked a person something, it was a test. That's what was happening here, as we know from reading the following verses. So the disciples offered a sampling of the current views about Jesus, and they were all pretty complimentary. But none of them was the correct rect answer, so Jesus asked a follow-up question-one every person must still face and answer today. Think About It How you answer Jesus' question will determine your eternal destiny.