37 16.13

INTRODUCTION

What do you call Jesus? What does Jesus call you?

Everyone has a name, but then we give them other names. We may have a nickname for someone. There are lots of names we use to describe someone’s personality, looks, or character. But there also names that aren’t very nice. For example, I would get in trouble for calling my brother “stupid.” We use these nicknames because names are powerful. Think about the word ugly. No one wants to be called ugly. It’s a powerful word.

So what do you call Jesus? What we call him has a direct connection to our spiritual identity. Listen to some of the things people in the gospels called Jesus:

1. John called him the Lamb of God

2. Son of God

3. Savior of the World

4. King of Israel

5. Christ

6. Son of David

7. The carpenter’s son

8. Beelzebub

9. Rabbi

10. John the Baptist

11. Elijah

12. Jeremiah

13. One of the prophets

14. Friend of tax collectors and sinners

15. Deceiver of the people

16. Sinner

17. Demon possessed

18. Galilean

19. Samaritan

20. Glutton and drunkard

21. The prophet Jesus, from Nazareth in Galilee

22. Blasphemer

What do you call Jesus? What we need to know is that what we call him today will help determine what he calls us on the day of Judgment.

SERMON

Turn with me to Matthew 16. I’ve mentioned a couple of times how Jesus takes the disciples away from the crowds to be alone with them. He usually does this by going to places most self-respecting Jews wouldn’t go – areas populated mostly by Gentiles. Our passage this evening is no different. Jesus takes the disciples to an area known as Caesarea Philippi. It’s Caesarea Philippi as opposed to Caesarea Maritima which was located along the Mediterranean Sea. That’s where they took Paul when he was arrested in Jerusalem and the Jews were trying to kill him. Caesarea Philippi is located about twenty-five miles north of the Sea of Galilee.

Caesarea Philippi has one of the largest springs which feeds the Jordan River. Perhaps because of the abundance of water and therefore vegetation, it became a popular worship spot for different cults. Even today you can see where they placed their idols. Jesus takes the disciples to this place where he can get away from the crowds because he has a very important question for them.

Video

SLIDE 1 This story found Matthew 16 is found near the end of Jesus’ earthly ministry. His last journey to Jerusalem is at hand. Soon he will be arrested and will face the cross. Over the last three years the disciples have observed Jesus as he:

Taught and preached

Healed the lame the sick and the blind

Cast out demons, and

Raised the dead

But in spite of all this the disciples still weren’t quite sure who this Jesus was.

They knew he was a great teacher, a healer, and a prophet equal to any in the Old Testament, but they had never really talked about who Jesus was before this. So when Jesus asked his disciples to tell him who other people said he was, I think he was giving them a chance to safely give their own opinions. So, when they admitted that others had said that Jesus might be:

John the Baptist

Elijah

Jeremiah, or

One of the prophets

. . . it could be that they were giving answers they had thought that at one time or another.

Jesus gives them this chance. He brings it closer to home by asking: “Who do YOU say that I am?”

I picture the disciples getting very quiet, like what happens in a classroom when no one knows the answer to the question and everyone is afraid the teacher will call on them. But, as always, Peter has an answer even before the question is asked. And while Peter was prone to put his foot in his mouth, this time he was right.

16Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” (Matthew 16:16)

Peter’s response has become known as the “good confession” – Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. It is essentially a theological statement and it was the answer Jesus was looking for. Jesus drives that fact home by patting Peter on the back.

17Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.” (Matthew 16:17)

We should understand that this was not the first time someone referred to the deity of Jesus or that he is the Messiah – though we find them in the gospel of John.

In John 1 Philip finds Nathanael and begins telling him about Jesus. When Nathanael hears that Jesus is from Nazareth he wonders how credible Philip’s comments are. After all, what good thing could come from Nazareth. But Philip convinces Nathanael to come and see for himself. As Nathanael approaches Jesus, Jesus comments that he saw Nathanael while he was sitting under a fig tree before Philip called him. SLIDE 2

Then Nathanael declared, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel.” (John 1:49)

In John 6, after feeding the five thousand, Jesus tells them that he is the bread of life and that if they want life they must eat him. We know that Jesus was speaking spiritually not physically, but the crowds took him literally and began to leave him. Jesus wondered if the twelve might leave as well. SLIDE 3

68Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. SLIDE 4 69We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.”We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.” (John 6:69)

In John 11 we have the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. As Jesus is talking to Martha he says that he is the resurrection and the life to which she replies: SLIDE 5

“Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.” (John 11:27)

It’s interesting then, that Jesus would commend Peter at Caesarea Philippi and ignore these other three. Perhaps it was because the others were wrapped in the emotion of the moment and Jesus didn’t want a confession of faith to be based on emotion. Perhaps it was because it was time for the disciples to be absolutely sure who he is. If we do not understand who Jesus is, if we do not understand that he is the Christ, the Son of the living God, then we have missed it entirely.

SLIDE 6 It’s at this time that Jesus changes Simon’s name to Peter. It’s also the first time that Jesus mentions the church. I don’t want to spend a lot of time on this issues, but they are important. Peter’s role in the church has been the focus of great discussion. The Roman Catholic Church points to this verse for the authority of the pope. They claim that Jesus was making Peter the leader and each pope since then draws authority from that. But what Is Jesus really saying? The words Jesus uses are similar, but what makes the biggest difference is their ending. When Jesus changes Simon’s name to Peter, which means “rock,” Jesus uses a masculine ending. When Jesus says he will build his church on this “rock” he uses a feminine ending. A feminine ending in Greek is used for an idea. A teacher may be male or female but the teaching, that which is taught, is always feminine. That’s what Jesus is saying here. The church will not be built on Peter, but Peter’s confession.

A young naval officer had proven himself to be responsible and efficient on his first tour of duty. Because of that he was given the opportunity to take command of the ship as it made its out to sea again. As the ship was to pull away from the dock, the ensign gave a series of crisp commands, and before long he had the decks buzzing with men. The ship left port and began steaming out of the channel. The ensign’s efficiency had been remarkable. In fact, the deckhands began to proudly acknowledge that he had set a new record for getting a destroyer under way. The ensign glowed with pride and was not all that surprised when another seaman approached him with a message from the captain. He read the following message:

My personal congratulations upon completing this exercise according to the book and with amazing speed. In you haste, however, you have overlooked one of the unwritten rules of seafaring – make sure the captain is on board before leaving the dock.

He hadn’t meant to leave the captain at the dock, but he had been so preoccupied with his own agenda that he hadn’t given the captain a second thought.

When Jesus asked his disciples to tell him who they thought he was the main lesson was this: this is the Son of God, the Captain of your ship, do not leave him behind. But how could anyone possibly leave Jesus behind?

First, the most obvious way to leave him behind would be to be wrong about what we believe about Jesus.

This confession that Peter made is basically THE statement of our faith. In fact it is so central to our faith, that when we baptize people into Christ, we ask them to repeat that “good confession.” There is no mistaking the importance and the meaning of that confession.

Charles Colson said that after he made his conversion to Christianity he discovered that one major US daily newspaper, as a matter of policy, would not print the two words Jesus and Christ together. The reason for this was the editor said those two words combined “represented an editorial judgment.”

The newspaper editor was right. To say Jesus Christ is to acknowledge that Jesus was who he said he was. He was the Christ – the Messiah – the Son of the Living God.

In case there was any question about what the good confession meant, Peter put it to rest when he preached: SLIDE 7

Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:12)

In other words, there is no assurance of salvation to anyone who doesn’t accept that Jesus is the Christ the Son of the living God.

SLIDE 8 One problem is there have been people who have claimed to be Christians, but have denied the essential truth of that confession. Over fifty years ago Redbook Magazine (August, 1961) did a survey of those in seminaries, and they found that (at that time):

56 percent rejected the virgin birth of Jesus Christ

71 percent rejected the idea of there being a life after death

54 percent rejected the bodily resurrection of Jesus, and

98 percent rejected the doctrine that Jesus Christ would physically return to earth

I’m not sure what seminaries they surveyed, but those people had left Jesus wayyyy behind. It’s possible to leave Jesus at the dock because of bad theology. But it’s possible to be theologically correct about who Jesus is, and still leave him behind.

And second, it’s possible to leave Jesus behind when we fail to serve him.

Near the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus commented: SLIDE 9

Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 7:21)

In other words, you can have your doctrine down pat and still leave Jesus behind. How is that possible? Well, Peter did it. We’ll look at this passage in more detail next week, but right after this Jesus began telling the disciples that he was going to die when he reached Jerusalem. Then Peter, who finally got a right answer, gets the wrong answer again. Peter insisted that he would never allow Jesus to die. And what was Jesus’ response? He called Peter a stumbling block and said, “Get behind me, Satan!” (Matthew 16:23)

WOW! In the blink of an eye Peter went from, “blessed are you Simon, son of Jonah” to “Get thee behind me Satan” What happened? What happened was that Peter had his theology right, but he wasn’t prepared to put his theology into practice. Peter was willing to say the right thing – that Jesus was the Son of God – but he wasn’t willing to follow through and let Jesus BE the Son of God in his life. He wasn’t willing to let Jesus be Jesus, and as a result he would have ended up standing in Jesus’ way.

Turn to 1 Corinthians 3. The good confession – Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God – means nothing if we’re not willing to ACT upon what we say. That confession is the foundation of our faith. What do you do with a foundation? Well, you build on it. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 3: SLIDE 10

10By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. 11For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 13their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. 14If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. 15If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved – even though only as one escaping through the flames. (1 Corinthians 3:11-15)

Jesus is our foundation. That means we are to build on him. That also means we need to DO something to further his kingdom.

SLIDE 11 An elder was confronted by his preacher one day. This was an elder who was faithful in attending, gave his tithe every week, greeted people at the door, and prayed during the service, but one day he got a visit from the preacher. The preacher sat down with the elder, talked with him a little while and then asked, “Are you going to wither on the vine?” “What do you mean by that?” the elder asked. “You’re not doing anything. You’re just coming and sitting in church. When are you going to DO something with your faith? When are you going to step up to the plate serve Jesus?”

Another way of asking that would have been, “When are you going to start building on the foundation of Jesus?”

Going to church is important. In fact, if you weren’t faithful in coming to church, I’d have no one to preach to. Praying is important. Praying is what we do because we’re God’s people. And tithing is important. If you and I don’t give our tithes, it’s going to be hard to keep the doors open, and pay the staff. But building on the foundation of Jesus means doing more than that. It means being able to step back and say: “You know, I personally helped build the Kingdom. I helped put it together.”

Let me explain what I mean by that. Let’s say, I bring a builder over to my house and have him build a shed out back. After the foundation has been laid he starts to work. Whenever he’s there, I’m there. Whenever he wants to talk, I talk to him. When he gets done, I pay him. Did I help build the shed? No. I was there as it was being done, but I didn’t really help do it. I didn’t help build on the foundation.

Now, I’m not particularly skilled at building things. I do good if I can cut a half-way straight board. However, while I was out there talking to the builder I could have asked if he needed a tool, or some hardware, or help in carrying some of the wood. I could have told him that when he left for the night I’d be willing to put up the shelves inside. Every little bit I could have done would have lightened the load of his work and made it go quicker and smoother. Then, when the shed was finished, I could have said I’d helped build on the foundation rather than sheepishly said I just sat back and watched.

Saying “Jesus is the Christ the Son of the Living God” means more than having the right theology. It means “doing something.” It means building on the foundation of what I say I believe about Jesus. And it also means that this isn’t so much an obligation, as an opportunity. It’s privilege not a punishment. I get to help Jesus build his kingdom because I really believe that he is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, and he wants to entrust me with a part in his plan.

So saying Jesus is the Christ the Son of the living God is part theological belief and it’s part physical involvement – acting upon what we say we believe.

When Peter declared, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus patted him on the back and said:

17Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.” (Matthew 16:17)

On the Day of Pentecost Peter told the crowd what they needed to do to be accepted by God. SLIDE 12

Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2:38)

In other words, if you want to be saved you must believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of the living God, and that means:

Repenting of your sins, and

Being baptized into Christ

But once you’ve done that, once you’ve believed and then do something with that belief.