Moving Forward (2)

Matthew 16:13–20 CSB

13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others, Elijah; still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 “But you,” he asked them, “who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” 17 Jesus responded, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father in heaven. 18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will have been loosed in heaven.” 20 Then he gave the disciples orders to tell no one that he was the Messiah.

This passage is normally looked at from the stand point of how Christ chose to build His church.

We often see this passage come up in debates with our Catholic friends about Peter being the first pope…Which he was not!

But what if we look at it in its actual context. What if we looked past the way we have been taught to read scripture in our westernized, traditionally idolizing baptist way and we looked at where they were, what was going on in the region and what they were asked.

That is what I want us to do today.

Background

At a critical point in His public ministry, the Lord Jesus led the disciples on an usual departure to the northern region of Caesarea Philippi. Like a modern day resort, this city offered beauty, relaxation, and hedonistic pleasure. Located 150 miles north of Jerusalem, Caesarea Philippi was as far removed theologically, morally, and socially from the strict Jewish culture of the disciples as it was in physical distance.

Each disciple must have felt like a fish out of water. They would have been shocked to learn that they going with Jesus to the "forbidden city."

The closest comparison would be planning a deacons' retreat to Las Vegas. While Vegas offers some quality entertainment and conference facilities, "Sin City" earned its reputation through gambling and immorality.

Caesarea Philippi is located at the confluence of two rivers. Melting snow from Mount Hermon provides water plunging from rocky cliffs, giving the city a majestic presence. The area is surrounded by vegetation such as grape vines, mulberries, and fig trees. Visitors could spend days admiring the beautiful scenery.

But, Caesarea Philippi also had a dark side. It was a place of pagan worship and political power. The original name of the city was Paneas, in honor of Pan, the pagan god of shepherds and flocks. Herod the Great built a temple here for Caesar worship. After Herod's death in 4B.C., his son Phillip renamed the city Caesarea Philippi.

Like many pagan gods, Pan was famous for his sexual exploits. Numerous drawings and statues depict Pan as a half-man, half-goat having sexual relations with nymphs, maidens, men, and animals. Worshippers of fertility cults or agricultural gods engaged in sexual relations with temple prostitutes in a sordid attempt to stimulate divine power and blessing upon their crops or herds. Pan is still considered by some pagan groups such as Wiccans a symbol of male virility.

Many, if not all, the Old Testament false gods had disappeared by the time Jesus began his public ministry. Yet, paganism and polytheism continued to thrive through the Greek and Roman cultures during the first century. For example, the temple of Artemis played a key role in the apostle Paul's ministry in Ephesus. In Athens he used a shrine to the "unknown God" as an introduction to his powerful sermon about God's creation and judgment. But even with Greek and Roman influence, only one fertility cult is mentioned during the ministry of Jesus.

The lone "surviving" fertility god was Pan, whose temple was carved into the cliffs of Caesarea Philppi.

An understanding of the physical scenery provides a greater appreciation of why the temple was called "the gates of Hades". Rivers flowing out of the temple caves and mist from waterfalls created an eerie presence. When Jesus declared that the gates of Hades could not prevail against His church, He and the disciples may have been looking at the pagan temple and listening to the roar of waterfalls. Imagine the impact of this moment as the King of kings stood in the presence of evil and proclaimed His superiority over the forces of darkness.

So I want to give you 3 observations about the significance of Where Jesus has brought his disciples, Pray that the Holy Spirit will bring us to the same place, and then give you 3 applications on HOW TO MOVE FORWARD.

I. A Place of Interrogation

This story has more significance than only Peter's great confession. In fact, this was not the first great confession by one of the disciples. We often approach this story with the misunderstanding that Peter was the first to accurately understand and express the true identity of Christ. But, the more likely scenario was that Peter was the last one to grasp the significance of Christ's ministry.

The apostle John shares in his Gospel a brief but insightful account of the calling of Nathanael. When Jesus said that he had seen Nathanael under the fig tree, Nathanael declared, "You are the son of God; you are the King of Israel" (Jn. 1:49).

The story of the allegedly vegetative woman Terri Schaivo ended in tragedy in 2005 as her husband won his court case and allowed her to starve to death. Nevertheless, it was refreshing to see such major issues receive substantial news coverage. In an ABC News article by David Crary entitled "Schaivo Case Sparks National Discourse," he stated, "It was the most profound national discourse we have had about death, family, medical ethics - and the seriousness of purpose - that every family must face at one time or another."

One of the keys to applying this passage is allowing the Holy Spirit to search our hearts through questions. Most people drift through life without seriously considering major issues affecting our existence.

Who am I?

Why am I here?

Who is God?

What does God require of me?

What influences my life more - society or the Savior?

Unfortunatly we have adopted this concept of Salvation and that’s it, which shares no responsibility for following Jesus, only running to him when we are in trouble.

Everyone needs visit the Caesarea Philippi of their soul. It is the place in our spiritual landscape where we face some of the most pressing issues of life and faith.

II. Past Failures and Future Threats

Again, when we think about the context of where Jesus brought them we can understand how that Among the scenic beauty of Caesarea Philippi, Jesus confronted the past failure of Israel and the future threats to His kingdom. Israel had failed in the area of idolatry more than any other sin.

This is STILL the predominant sin in most modern churches.

FFA, BASEBALL, HUNTING, YOUR FAMILY, TRADITIONALISM, A PEW, A TABLE, CARPET, PAINT.... AND SO MUCH MORE CAN BE COME AN IDOL IN YOUR LIFE AND FOR THIS CHURCH AS WELL AS MANY OTHERS IT IS.

Combining sexual immorality and worship seems bizarre to those of us who grew up in a Christian culture. We view the Old Testament from a systematic or comprehensive advantage that was unavailable to the children of Israel.

We must remember that the unredeemed are blinded by Satan (2 Cor. 4:4).

Many embrace a belief system that sees human satisfaction as the elevation of one's soul to encounter a divine being.

When the Israelites entered the promised land, they discovered a land of agricultural challenges they had not experienced as herdsmen in the wilderness.

The Canaanites attributed their fertile land and agricultural success to their gods. Many in Israel thought they should worship both deities in case the God who delivered them from Egypt was not the god of fertile crops.

Before jumping to an easy condemnation of Israel in her forsaking God, consider some contemporary examples.

If you inherited a million dollars, would you seek the advice of a financial expert before seeking the Lord in prayer to determine what God may want you to do with the money?

Where do you turn when you receive a bad report form the doctor?

If your relationship with your spouse or children needs help, where do you seek advice? Would you listen to Dr. Phil, or search the Scriptures?

I am not suggesting that you reject medical care or financial counseling.

The Bible teaches that wisdom can be found in counselors.

But we demonstrate the same sinful tendency as the Israelites by trusting other sources before turning to the Lord.

In EVERYTHING WE DO we must FIRST turn to the Lord.

Turn back to the bible!

Identity of FBC Colmesneil

First let me tell you that hope is not lost. Yes, people in this community and even some who were a part of this church have allowed the wickedness of this world to infiltrate their minds and guide their tongues and actions but that doesn’t mean that the devil has won.

Jesus still wants FBC Colmesneil to be a lighthouse of hope to those who are traversing this dark and lonely world.

There are 3 things that you are going HAVE TO DEAL WITH if you are going to see God’s blessing fall upon the church

A. Distinguish Reality

Reality Defined:

the world or the state of things as they actually exist, as opposed to an idealistic or notional idea of them

B. Decide Your Destination

only after you have accepted reality and know who you actually are, can you set a destination where you would like to be.

Where do you want to be as a church?

Do you want to be a church that has $100,000+ in the bank at all times? (For some of you that is what is important)

Do you want to be a church that is reaching people with the Gospel and seeing people baptized every week?

Do you want to be a church that new families can wait to be a part of?

Or

Do you want to remain a church who is grounded in Traditionalism? (Defined as the Dead faith of the Living)

Do you want to remain a church that has more maintenance needs than anyone would like to know about? It grows daily. (No young family will desire to be a part of that.)

Do you want to remain the church that has an average pastoral turnaround of right at 3 years over its 100+ year history? (By the way, if this was 2 or 3 pastors then you could say that you just got a bad pastor here and there…but thats not the case....there is a common denominator)

C. Determine How to Get there.

COUNT THE COST OF GETTING THERE!

I WOULD TO BE IN AND GO TO TURTLE ISLAND FIJI. I CANT AFFORD THE COST!

Lets talk Cost.

Remaining Who you are.

Stay comfortable

Plenty of Money in the bank

NO CHANGE

NO GROWTH

NO FUTURE.

Becoming a Lighthouse of Hope

EMBRACE CHANGE

GET UNCOMFORTABLE

Walk by faith, (This is where the “financial, banking, and business minded people will get uncomfortable.)

It will cost members

It means you don’t let people who are not faithful to attend your church, have ANY say in what goes on in your church.

Philippians 4:5 KJV 1900

5 Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.

This concept is to yield your preferences without compromising your principles. (you have to have principles in order to keep them.

This means if you set a bar or a standard for your church and the rest of the county laughs at you or laughs at the church…GOOD FOR THEM! YOU STAND ON THE BAR YOU SET IN A WORLD THAT IS CONSTANTLY LOWERING IT!

It will cost you your preferences sometimes.

These are some of the costs.

These are the things that you MUST DO and you must do them before you can call a new pastor because if you don’t then you are simply setting your self up for failure again.

Repeating the same actions and expecting different results is the definition of chaos.

Finally, once you have Distinguished Reality, Decide on a destination and determined a path to get there, put it on paper and communicate it to any pastoral candidate that you bring in.

Make sure that they fully understand where the church is AND where it wants to go.

DECIDE TO BECOME INTENTIONAL ABOUT DOING MINISTRY AND GOD WILL BLESS YOU AND THIS CHURCH WILL DO AMAZING THINGS FOR THE LORD.

JESUS WANTS TO WORK THROUGH FBC COLMESNEIL, BUT YOU HAVE TO LET HIM.