Matthew 16

₁There were Pharisees who came to Jesus and they wanted to test Him, so they asked Him to show them a miracle that came from God. ₂But Jesus said to them:

Then Jesus went away from them.

₅They went to the other side of the lake and the disciples did not take enough food with them. ₆Jesus warned his disciples and He said to them: ‘You must be careful. You must beware of the yeast_of_the_Pharisees and the Sadducees.’

₇The disciples talked to each other. They thought Jesus said this because they did not have enough bread. ₈Jesus knew what they were thinking and He asked them: ‘Why do you talk about the bread that you do not have? Do you still not see or understand what I taught you? ₉Don't you understand? Have you forgotten about when I gave the 5 loaves of bread to the 5 000 people? How many baskets full of food did you pick up after the people had finished eating? ₁₀And when I gave the 7 loaves of bread to the 4 000 people, how many baskets full of food did you pick up? ₁₁Don't you understand? I am not talking about bread or food. I am telling you to beware of the yeast_of_the_Pharisees and the Sadducees.’

₁₂Then they understood that Jesus was not talking about the yeast that people use to bake bread, but that He said they must beware of the wrong things that the Pharisees and Sadducees taught the people.

₁₃Jesus and his disciples went to the places near the city of Caesarea-Philippi. Jesus asked his disciples: ‘What do the people say about who I, the Son of man, am?’ ₁₄The disciples said to Jesus: ‘Some people say You are John the Baptist and some people say You are Elijah. Some people say You are Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’

₁₅Then Jesus asked them: ‘But you, what do you say? Who am I?’ ₁₆Simon-Peter answered and said: ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ ₁₇Jesus answered him and said: ‘Simon, son of Jonah, God will bless you. You did not hear this from another person. It is my Father in heaven who showed this to you. ₁₈And I tell you: You are Peter the rock, and I will build my church on this rock. Enemies will not defeat my church, and the power of death and hell can not stop my church. ₁₉I give you the keys of heaven where God is King and rules over all. Everything that you lock on earth will be locked in heaven and everything that you open on earth will be opened in heaven.’

₂₀Then Jesus warned his disciples and said they must not tell other people that He was the Christ.

₂₁From that day Jesus started to explain to his disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and the elders, the chief_priests and teachers_of_the_Laws would do very bad things to Him. They would kill Him, but on the 3rd day, God would raise Him and He would live again. ₂₂Peter took Jesus away from the other disciples and he told Jesus to stop talking like that. He said: ‘I pray that God will stop it. It will never happen to You.’ ₂₃But Jesus turned_around and He said to Peter: ‘Go away from Me, Satan. You do not think about what God wants. You think about what people want.’

₂₄Then Jesus said to his disciples: ‘If someone wants to come with Me, then he must forget about himself. He must live like a person who knows that he will die on a cross. That is how he must follow Me. ₂₅Because if you want to save yourself, then you will lose your life. But if you have to die because you love Me, then you will save your life. ₂₆If you get everything in the world but you lose your life, then you will have nothing. How much will you pay for your life? You can never pay enough to buy back your life. ₂₇Because I, the Son of man, will soon come with the angels to be King as my Father is King. I will judge everyone on what he has done. ₂₈I tell you this and it is sure: Some people who are standing here now will see that I, the Son of man, rule over all. They will see it before they die.’