Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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recite poem
How does a middle class fishin' man
End up in the middle of God's mission plan?
He's a back water who walked on water.
One of the first to see Jesus in his authentic identity.
The Lord called this man the Rock.
The gates of Heaven are his to unlock.
He's a truth denier turned Spirit-filled testifier.
After the resurrection God gave him a new direction.
God used this ordinary to do something extraordinary.
He didn't become the man he was in a day.
So we need to look and see how he got this way.
Last week we started this look into Peter’s life.
There is so much we can learn from Him and I’m excited to continue that today.
Before we dive into Peter’s story, I want to prepare you for what we will be talking about today.
We’re going to be looking at Identity.
Our Search for Identity
That all important question of “who am I?” We start asking this question in our teenage years and continue to wrestle with it into adulthood.
Even later in life this question keeps popping up.
Who are you?
Who am I? What is it that defines who I am? I’ve noticed, maybe you too, that we’re really good at looking in the wrong places to find the answers to this question.
It’s true.
Here are some of our go-to answers when we try to determine who we are.
We say we are what we do.
It’s one of the first questions people ask when meeting/mingling: What do you do.
Oh, I’m a truck driver, a teacher, a medical professional, a graphic designer, or I’m a student now, but I’m studying to become a Physical therapist.
We wrap up a lot of our identity in what we do.
I understand that, We spend huge amounts of time (probably too much) in our professions.
But what we do should not and does not define us.
Sometimes we determine who we are by our relationship roles: I’m a husband, a father, a son.
Others may say a girlfriend, a sibling, a mother.
All those roles are incredibly important.
They do, in fact, shape your life.
But they should not and do not define us.
There’s so much else we like to cling to in efforts to define ourselves.
Our hobbies, interests, passions.
Many of those come with titles that we think helps aide our identity: If you like music you must be a musician.
If you like video games you must be a gamer, if you like sports you are an athlete.
If you like to give away your $ you are a philanthropist.
(if you’re like me, you thought philanthropy was an ingredient to salsa not a wealth management lifestyle).
Our hobbies, interests, and passions may have a part in our identity, but solely, they should not and do not define us.
So we have a problem.
We’re back to that question.
Who am I? What is it that defines you and me?
That’s what we’re looking at today.
We’re wresting with issues of identity.
Let’s jump back into Peter’s story as he will help us discover some of these answers today.
Let’s look at Matthew Chapter 17.
This is an incredible story where Peter, James, and John witness something truly extraordinary.
The Transfiguration
This is called the transfiguration of Jesus.
Peter was one of the first to see Jesus in his authentic Identity.
This is such an incredible opportunity.
These men get to see Jesus in his real appearance.
It’s not that Jesus changed into something he wasn’t before.
It’s more like Jesus’ identity is no longer concealed from them.That on the mountain side, is the real Jesus.
The Jesus who glows a glorious white because he is in the presence of God.
This story should remind us of when Moses came down from the Mt.
Sinai with the 10 Commandments his face with radiant with the glory of God.
This is literally a mountain-top experience that Peter will remember for the rest of his life.
He actually mentions in it in 1 Peter 5 that he writes years later.
It’s a huge defining moment for him.
Not only were Peter, James, and John the first to see Jesus in his authentic identity they are also among the last that saw or will see him like this until Jesus comes again on Judgement day.
WOW.
Extraordinary.
Here Jesus is displayed as God’s son! He’s fully clothed in God’s majesty and light.
In this moment, there is no denying who Jesus is.
He is clearly the powerful, son of God whom God sent to do his work.
So how does Peter get here?
Last week we started by looking at Peter on Pentecost boldly preaching, then we re-wound to look at Peter taking his first steps following Jesus.
This week we just looked at this incredible moment of clearly seeing the true Jesus, but now let’s back up a bit and see how this happened.
Let’s back up in the story to about a week earlier.
Back in Matthew 16 starting around verse 13.
This is pretty far into the life/ministry of Jesus.
Peter and the other disciples had been with Jesus for at least 2 years .
Jesus had performed so many miracles.
Healings, exorcisms, feeding.
Peter and the disciples have heard Jesus preach to the thousands and tell parables to the few.
Jesus has also had plenty of run-ins with the Jewish religious authorities.
He had caused quite the discussion among the Jews.
There was lots of speculation as to who this mysterious Jesus was and what he was up to.
Best guesses ranged from he was a religious teacher all the way to he was a radical nationalist who was going to lead a military rebellion and overthrow the Roman empire (even though Jesus spoke a message of peace).
People were confused about Jesus.
They wanted him to be what THEY thought they needed to be.
Jesus is very aware of this and so starts a simple, yet profound conversation with his disciples about this.
He asks them this: Who do they say that I am?
Let’s read the story in Matthew 16.
Who do they say that I am?
Who do they say that I am?
Now to be clear, Jesus knows who he is very clearly.
So he’s asking this to gauge the understanding of the crowds that follow him and to gauge the understanding of his disciples.
The crowds have a very diverse view of Jesus.
It looks like the further away from Jesus you are, the fuzzier the image of him you have.
So the people who only observe Jesus from a distance or only hear sound-bites from Jesus they have a fuzzy image of Jesus.
They seem to recognize that Jesus is important, wise, influential, and maybe even sent from God.
But they still have a fuzzy image of who Jesus is.
Is it possible that we, too, have a fuzzy image of who Jesus is?
Our culture definitely doesn’t know who Jesus is.
They throw his name around as a punch line to a joke.
Our culture definitely only sees a fuzzy image of Jesus.
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