The Christ Matthew 16:13-20

Perspective is a funny thing. If I were to ask you today, “Who am I?” most of you would have the same answer: My pastor. The truth is, I wear a lot of different hats. My parents would identify me as their son. My children would identify me as their father. My wife would identify me as her husband. Some of you know me as a friend. Each perspective is slightly different, but there’s a central identity at the heart of all of these perspectives. In the same way, we have seen and do see a lot of perspectives on the identity of Jesus, but the most central title of all is that of Christ. It is at the core of His identity and mission. But, today we have to ask, “What does this mean?”

Jesus is the Christ and that truth transforms our present and future

I. A Question: Who is Jesus? vv. 13-15

When we pick up our passage, Jesus asks His disciples a question: “Who do the people say that I am?”

Their answers vary slightly, with different personalities, but they are essentially the same

They identify Jesus as a prophet, in the same vein as Elijah, Jeremiah, or John the Baptist; this is not an insult at all, as they are classing Him with the foremost religious men they knew

They consider Him another voice who is speaking for God, but this view is deficient; Jesus speaks for God, but He is more than a prophet

Jesus turns the question to His disciples and makes the matter personal: “Who do you say that I am?”

This is, in many ways, the same key question that we are facing today: Who is Jesus?

Is He a good teacher who taught truths about God and the righteous life?

Is He a miracle worker who brought healing and did good deeds?

Is He a champion of the poor and oppressed?

Yes, He is all of those things, but if He is only those things, we are missing out on the fullness of His identity

How we answer this question of Jesus’s identity impacts everything about our relationship with Him:

He claimed to be much more than these things, His disciples identified Him as more, and the power He has exercised in and through His people prove that He is more than a prophet

He is our reason for future hope, our power in the present, and the redemption of our past; But, we must know Him for who He is to experience this

Meaning no disrespect to the religious convictions of others, I still can't help wondering how we can explain away what to me is the greatest miracle of all and which is recorded in history. No one denies there was such a man, that he lived and that he was put to death by crucifixion. Where...is the miracle I spoke of? Well consider this and let your imagination translate the story into our own time -- possibly to your own home town. A young man whose father is a carpenter grows up working in his father's shop. One day he puts down his tools and walks out of his father's shop. He starts preaching on street corners and in the nearby countryside, walking from place to place, preaching all the while, even though he is not an ordained minister. He does this for three years. Then he is arrested, tried and convicted. There is no court of appeal, so he is executed at age 33 along with two common thieves. Those in charge of his execution roll dice to see who gets his clothing -- the only possessions he has. His family cannot afford a burial place for him so he is interred in a borrowed tomb. End of story? No, this uneducated, propertyless young man who...left no written word has, for 2000 years, had a greater effect on the world than all the rulers, kings, emperors; all the conquerors, generals and admirals, all the scholars, scientists and philosophers who have ever lived -- all of them put together. How do we explain that?...unless he really was who he said he was."

Ronald Reagan

II. A Confession: Jesus is the Christ v. 16

Peter speaks up and identifies Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the Living God

I believe that it is important that we digest all that Peter states here:

Jesus is the Christ- a title identifying Him as God’s chosen servant, anointed for a specific task

He is the Lamb of God who will take away the sin of the world

He is God’s appointed Savior for mankind

Jesus is the Son-

He is uniquely begotten by the Father and is completely one of a kind in personhood

He is also unique in His relationship with the Father

He is fully human yet also fully divine, of the same substance as the Father; the fullness of God dwells in Him

Jesus is from the Living God-

God is the source of all life and Jesus carries that life out into the world

The only hope that we have of experiencing the life found in God is through Jesus

We must know who He is and believe it; if Jesus is who He says He is, it changes everything and is a call to reorder our lives in light of His personality and presence

John 1:1–4

[1] In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. [2] He was in the beginning with God. [3] All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. [4] In him was life, and the life was the light of men. (ESV)

John 5:25-26

[25] “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. (ESV)

John 11:25–26

[25] Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, [26] and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (ESV)

John 14:6

[6] Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (ESV)

III. A Commitment: The Confession Endures vv. 17-20

Peter hits a home run here; he gets it exactly right!

In Jesus’s response to Peter, we see three commitments from God that we can carry with us as His people:

God reveals the identity of Christ v. 17

When we think about spreading the Gospel, we feel a great weight of expectation: How can we convince people that this is true

However, the Father has been working to reveal the identity of the Son.

It takes more than a flesh-and-blood logical or emotional argument to convince the world of the identity of Jesus

The Holy Spirit moves in our hearts and reveals Him as part of His work of drawing men to salvation

We do not bear the weight of this task on our own!

The Church is built on the identity of Christ v. 18a

The language here can be a bit confusing, but Jesus uses a play on words to contrast Peter, the rock, with His confession, the rock on which the Church is to be built

The Church’s one foundation is Jesus Christ, the Lord.

If He is less than Christ, He would not be a worthy foundation

If we seek a foundation that is other than Christ, we do not have a worthy foundation

Churches have attempted to organize around geography, ethnicity, cultural affinity, and political affiliation for centuries now. Two things are true about these churches:

They will be popular for a season

They will ultimately fail!

However, when we invest ourselves in what He is building on the foundation of His position as Christ, we must never fear its failing

People are freed by the identity of Christ vv. 18b-20

Jesus goes on and says that the gates of Hell will not prevail against His church

There is no soul locked into the bondage of sin that cannot be loosed by His people on His mission

The church is on the move and is called to go to places of darkness and to set people free

Likewise, Jesus grants to His people the keys to the Kingdom

We are not only setting people free from the clutches of sin, but we are opening the gate to heaven

The presence of the key is a sign of authority:

We have been entrusted with the message of the Gospel

With it, we open the door for people to enjoy eternity with Christ

Lives are transformed by the identity of Christ

The language of binding and loosing here feels a little foreign, but I believe that it is important:

We share the truth of what is bound (forbidden by God from heaven)

We share the truth of what is loosed (allowed by God from heaven)

Our Lord Jesus has given God’s truth to His people and gives us authority to proclaim God’s design and to invite people into the life He intends for them; there is hope, not just for a good life, but for the best life in Christ

You can put your trust in Jesus completely and He will never fail you!

In the nineteenth century the greatest tightrope walker in the world was a man named Charles Blondin. On June 30, 1859, he became the first man in history to walk on a tightrope across Niagara Falls. Over twenty-five thousand people gathered to watch him walk 1,100 feet suspended on a tiny rope 160 feet above the raging waters. He worked without a net or safety harness of any kind. The slightest slip would prove fatal. When he safely reached the Canadian side, the crowd burst into a mighty roar. In the days that followed, he would walk across the Falls many times. Once he walked across on stilts; another time he took a chair and a stove with him and sat down midway across, cooked an omelet, and ate it. Once he carried his manager across riding piggyback. And once he pushed a wheelbarrow across loaded with 350 pounds of cement. On another occasion he asked the cheering spectators if they thought he could push a man across sitting in a wheelbarrow. A mighty roar of approval rose from the crowd. Spying a man cheering loudly, he asked, “Sir, do you think I could safely carry you across in this wheelbarrow?” “Yes, of course.” “Get in,” the Great Blondin replied with a smile. The man refused. That makes it clear, doesn’t it? It’s one thing to believe a man can walk across by himself. It’s another thing to believe he could safely carry you across. But it’s something else entirely to get into the wheelbarrow yourself.