Refocusing on Who Jesus Is!
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This morning we are continuing the series of Refocusing, last week we looked at refocusing our passion as we looked at the story of Jesus teaching from Peter’s boat.
This morning we will be in Matthew 16, Jesus is teaching and healing and a large crowd had gathered to witnesses the miracles, to hear him teach, and at the end of chapter 15, Jesus tells the disciples that he has compassion on the crowd as they have been with him for three days and have not had anything to eat.
Now back in chapter 14, Jesus had feed the 5,000 as they had gathered to listen to him teach, but that crowd had dispersed and this now is a different crowd, maybe some of the same people from that crowd, but now we are told that there is 4,000 men in this crowd in verse 38 of chapter 15 there in Matthew, Jesus used seven loaves of bread and a few fish, he prayed over them and broke them and handed them to the disciples to pass out to the crowd of 4,000 men, besides women and children; all the people eat and were satisfied and the disciples collected seven large full baskets of leftovers.
Then chapter 16 begins with the Pharisees and the Sadducees coming to Jesus trying to catch Jesus off guard and asked Jesus for a sign from heaven. Jesus a few verses down tells the disciples to watch out for the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees, but the disciples are thinking physical bread when Jesus was talking about spiritual matters.
What Jesus was telling them, was to be aware of false teaching, He was telling the disciples that the Pharisees and Sadducees come with false teachings.
On that thought Jesus then asks the disciples a couple of questions and then tells them what God the Father has to say about it all, and that brings us to our text this morning in Matthew 16:13-19, therefore, if you are able will you stand with me in honor of the reading of the Word of God.
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.”
Pray
I. Who do People say Jesus Is?
I. Who do People say Jesus Is?
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.”
Here we see Jesus ask the disciples a question, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”
Another words, we might re-word it like this, “Who does the world say that Jesus is?” or “Who does the people outside the church say that Jesus is?”
The disciples replied to Jesus, that some people refer to him as John the Baptist, others say that He is Elijah, while others say that He is Jeremiah or one of the other Old Testament prophets.
Well in today’s world, it all depends on where you are at, who you are talking to, and what their background is, you can be in the same country, withing just a mile of the last person you talked too, but the two people have totally different background, were raised differently and you will get two different answers.
Even right here in United States, a nation that is supposed to be Christian, that was founded on Godly principles, that was built with biblical guidance, and through prayer, there are people that do not believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
A survey conducted by Newsweek in August 2020, found that: A slight majority of American adults say Jesus was a great teacher and nothing more during his lifetime, which several Christian leaders say is evidence today's faithful are "drifting away" from traditional evangelist teachings.
As earlier reported by The Christian Post, the 2020 survey conducted by Ligonier Ministries, a Florida-based Reform Church nonprofit, found 52 percent of U.S. adults say they believe Jesus Christ is not God — a belief that contradicts traditional teachings of the Bible through the Christian church, which state Jesus was both man and God.
Nearly one-third of evangelicals in the survey agreed that Jesus isn't God, compared to 65 percent who said "Jesus is the first and greatest being created by God."
Therefore, the world is miss lead as to who Jesus is, but it is not just in our world today, it was even 2,000 years ago that the world was misinformed.
Another words, the world is blinded to the truth of who Jesus is, but we are told that in Scripture, in 2 Corinthians 4:4
4 In their case, the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
The god of this age that Paul is referring to there is Satan, he will do whatever it takes to keep the blinders on those that are lose in order that they cannot come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, Satan has blinded the minds of the unbelievers so that they cannot see the truth of the gospel message.
Jesus did not stop there, He went on to ask a second question
II. Who do You Say that Jesus is?
II. Who do You Say that Jesus is?
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.”
Now Jesus turns to the disciples and he ask’s them, if the world say that about me, then who do you say that I am?
The you there is verse 15 is plural meaning that Jesus addressed the question to all the disciples.
If the world thinks that I am just a prophet or a teacher, then who do you, the ones that have followed me around, seen me perform miracles, that have seen my quiet storms, walk on water, raise the dead, and also hear his teachings, who do you say that I am.
With this being plural, and Jesus addressing the disciples, we should see that Jesus is asking the church, who does the church say that Jesus is?
Well as we seen that right here in our own country that there is a lot of people that believe that Jesus is just some great teacher, not the Son of God, being part human and part divine - that is part God; that is there are people in churches that do not believe that Jesus is the Son of God.
After doing some research and looking at a survey that Barna group did back in 2015, shows that Americans, 92% believe that Jesus was a real person, but as younger generations come a long that percentage drops, with the Millennial generation it is only 87% of them only believe that Jesus was a real person who once walked the earth.
Now as we get into weather Jesus is God, that percentage drops across the board, as all adults drops to 56% with the remainder of people believing that Jesus was just a spiritual leader, but with the Millennial generation only 48% of them believe that Jesus is God and only 35% say Jesus was merely a religious leader.
Then in the survey was Jesus sinless, did Jesus live his life without sin, which when it comes to Him giving His life as a sacrifice for our sins, this is very important, in order for Jesus to give His life as a perfect, spotless sacrifice, He had to be without sin, in order for His blood to be the atoning sacrifice, that is in order for Him to be able to pay the price for our sins.
According to the Barna survey in 2015, there was 52% of Americans who agreed, either strongly or somewhat, that while he lived on earth, Jesus Christ was human and committed sins like other people. Now there was 56% of the Millennial generation that agreed, either strongly or somewhat, that while He lived on earth, Jesus Christ was human and committed sins like other people.
The survey showed that in 2015, that 60% of Americans were still committed to Jesus, or the act of making a personal commitment to Jesus, but when you get to the Millennial generation that percentage drops down to 46%.
A recent survey done by Barna group, in January of this year actually shows an increase in attendance by the Millennial generation. That increase is from 21% attendance to a 39% attendance for a total of 18% increase for just the Millennial generation.
So who falls into this Millennial generation, well first it depends on which website you look at, but the one I pulled up Millennial’s were born between 1981 and 1996, then generation Z was born between 1997 to 2012, and then the current generation is called the Generation A or Alpha.
You may be wondering why am I giving you all of this research, well, first, I want to point out that across the board that we have a problem here in America, and that is people are not really sure who Jesus is, and it really does not matter if they go to church or not.
That is a serious problem, if people go to church, they should not be confused by who Jesus is, or if He ever sinned, because if He sinned then He cannot be the perfect sacrifice that was required to take away our sins when He died on the cross. Therefore, people need to know the truth, and not be confused, and we know that confusion is not of God.
33 For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.
God does not create confusion but gives the truth to set us free.
32 You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
The second thing we need to see from the research is that the younger generations, really from my generation, the Millennial’s down, so anyone 41 and under has had a misunderstanding of who Jesus is, and also have been declining from the God, but in just the recent two years have shown a slight return to God, and we need to make sure that we allow God to use us to reach those around us that are seeking Him.
That we might be able to help them find that truth, so that they are not confused, but that they will know the truth of Jesus Christ.
Looking at these surveys one can see that from ages say 40 and under, so those with the young families have fallen by the wayside, and if we do not do something now, to help them see who Jesus really is, then we will not just lose those that are ages 25 to 40, but their children also, therefore, losing multiple generations and all the generations to come.
We need to refocus on who Jesus is, and what He has called us to do.
So Peter, responded to Jesus, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.”
How often do we live like Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, or are we living like He is just some guy in a book we come to talk about on Sunday.
As the survey mentioned, in 2015 60% of Americans say they were committed to Jesus, now I know when I worked outside of the church, like at the power plant, in underground utilities, there were people I worked with that, said they went to church, that they were committed to Jesus, but did they truly understand who Jesus was.
If they were asked the questions in this survey, I wonder how they would answer, a matter of a fact, if we were to send a survey to each of your house during the week, with questions on it, and have each person return it, I wonder how each person would respond.
Do you truly know who Jesus is, do you truly have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of your life.
III. What the Father Says!
III. What the Father Says!
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.”
After Peter responded that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, Jesus says to Peter, that he is blessed, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to him, but the Father in heaven.
Another words, no person has told Peter this, but he only knew that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, because God the Father has told him this.
Then Jesus says, I also to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church: we generally take that as that Jesus is telling Peter that He is going to build the church on Peter, but we need to look at it a little deeper, if we dig into this verse and look at the original wording, and the meaning of the words here, and remember that last week I mentioned that Jesus used play on words to get points across.
Well, here he is doing that, He is using a play on words, as the word for Peter is Petros, means a small stone, but then Jesus using the play on words, used the word Petra, which means a foundation boulder, and Jesus Christ is the foundation of the church and the head.
11 This Jesus is
the stone rejected by you builders,
which has become the cornerstone.
12 There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved.”
We would be mistaken to think that Jesus is giving the foundation or headship of the church to Peter, these roles are reserved for Christ alone, not assigned to Peter, the pastor, or any other leader in the church but Christ alone.
Ephesians 5:23B (CSB)
23B Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of the body.
So Jesus’ words here are best interpreted as a simple play on words in that a boulder-like truth came from the mouth of one who was called a small stone.
Peter himself explains the imagery in his first epistle: the church is built of living stones, who like Peter, confess that Jesus us the Christ, the Son of the Living God.
5 you yourselves, as living stones, a spiritual house, are being built to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
We are to allow God to shape us, to mold us, and to use us in order to be spiritual sacrifices to build the kingdom of God.
The Greek word for church is Ekklesia, and it means called out ones.
We are called out to be set apart from the world, we are to be different, in order that the world can see Jesus in us, and will be drawn to Jesus through us, and will come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, and therefore, the Kingdom of God will grow.
Jesus then says, the gates of Hades will not overpower it or prevail against it.
Hades is the place of punishment for the spirits of dead unbelievers. The point of entry for such is death.
Even death, the ultimate weapon for Satan, has no power to stop the church. The blood of martyrs, in fact, has sped the growth of the church in size and spiritual power.
Hades or hell was not created for people, it was created for Satan and the angels that followed him out of heaven, which we call them his demons.
Hell was and is not designed for people, but if you do not accept Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior you are then by default following Satan to hell, and will living in hell for eternity as an intruder.
Jesus says I give you the keys of heaven, what you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and what you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
Another words Jesus is giving the church authority here, to declare people bond in sin or loosed from their sins.
Are you in bondage to sin today, Jesus did live a perfect, sinless life, in order that He could go to the cross as the ultimate sacrifice to shed his blood so that we could have to forgiveness of our sins.
We are told in Romans 10:9
9 If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Do you believe this morning that Jesus died on the cross for your sins, that God raised him from the dead, if you believe that in your heart, come and confess with your mouth, you will be saved.