Matthew 16 Sermon - September 6th, 2020 - Grace-Benson & Grace-Vail Some big questions in life get answered at key moments and then the answer gets lived out for a long time. Who to marry, for example? The wedding is a key answer to that important question. The married life is the answer lived out for years afterward. What treatment to take for a health problem? Big question. When the treatment is administered, the answer then gets lived out for better or worse afterward. What career to have? That one can get answered many times. But key moments like what college to attend, what company to start at, those answers get lived out for a time. Those are big questions but they’re not the biggest question. Sometimes we live like they are the biggest questions. Sometimes we live like the small questions are the biggest questions, what do people think of me, what is the dollar amount in my bank account; we can get wrapped up and think those are the biggest questions. This morning, we’re reminded that to find the biggest question in life, we need to stop asking, and let God ask his question. Jesus gives you one of the biggest questions, Who do you say I am? He asks so that you, like his disciples, can not only know the answer, but live it out for a long time to come. Jesus asked the question first indirectly to his disciples. Who do other people say I am? It’s been said that the biggest enemy of a great idea is a good idea. What are some of the responses? “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” Those were all good answers, but there weren’t great answers because they weren’t the right answers. John the Baptist had been a famous preacher, leading crowds of people in a revival back to listening to their God and obeying him. He had recently been killed by Herod, and the people were saying, this Jesus, he’s a lot like John. It was a compliment, but didn’t say enough about Jesus. Others thought of Elijah. There was a prophecy in the book of Malachi that said Elijah would come back before the Messiah would come. Some were saying, he’s the Elijah that Malachi talked about. Others thought of Jeremiah, a prophet who stood in opposition to the wicked kings of Judah, even when he was imprisoned, beaten, his life threatened. And the people were saying, “You know Jesus doesn’t seem to care if people threaten him or if the religious rulers don’t like him, he just tells it like it is. He reminds me of Jeremiah.” Those are all complimentary things to say about Jesus, flattering, but ultimately false answers to the question, “Who is Jesus?” People still say many complimentary things about Jesus today. Most would say he’s one of the greatest teachers this world has ever seen. He selflessly served others in a way that has never been seen. True, but if that’s all you have to say about Jesus, it’s flattery but false. Before you and I say, I agree with Peter and not the others, remember that your answer has more to do with just your words. Sometimes people can’t hear what you’re saying because your actions are screaming too loudly. Answering the Jesus question has as much to do with your actions, the attitudes of your heart, the inner desires. The truth is, you and I don’t always live and let our attitudes reflect what we say, that Jesus is the Christ. Instead you try to give Jesus part of yourself, part of your time, he gets this slice, I get this slice to do what I want and he should be happy with what I gave him. Part of your money that you give to Jesus, the rest is yours. Part of your desires, but you get to keep some of your desires to
want whatever you want. With our attitudes and actions, we act as if Jesus is a prophet, a great teacher; but less than God and master of my life. The consequence of that flattering but false answer means not just failing a quiz, but living out the wrong answer. Imagine if someone needed an answer to the question, how should I treat my cancer? And they got it wrong, they answered in a way that made the cancer spread more aggressively. That’s a little like getting the answer to “Who is Jesus” wrong. When we live as if he’s less that God, less that Savior, less that Lord, our own inner rebellion only spreads and gets worse. We have no answer for death later on, for guilt before God right now. We can only mask symptoms while the root problem remains unhealed. Jesus doesn’t only want to be teacher, prophet, or inspirer. You don’t need just another great moral teacher to push you in the right direction in life. You need a Savior to rescue you not from 50% of your wickedness, not 90%, but from 100% of your wickedness. You need a Savior not just for 3 hours a day or 20. You need a Savior for 24 hours of every day. So that’s what Jesus gave you. You needed a 24 hour Savior, so that’s what Jesus was, perfect 24 hours of every day he lived. You needed 100% of your rebellion transformed, so he gave 100% of his own blood until he was 100% dead. Then he came 100% alive so that he could be your 100% Savior. That’s what it means that he is the Christ, the Son of the living God. Christ wasn’t a title for just another prophet. It was a title for the one prophet who would also overcome your rebellion by dying and rising again. John the Baptist didn’t die for you, Jesus did. Jeremiah died and hasn’t risen yet. Jesus is alive. Jesus knew the answer to the question of his identity, he lived out the answer by his death. He lived out the answer by coming alive. That’s why Jesus told them at the end of this conversation not to tell anyone who he was. Wasn’t that strange? Jesus just got done complimenting Peter for his answer, heaping praise on him, and he ends with, by the way, don’t tell anyone what you just said that made me so happy. Jesus knew that the right answer to the question, the more it got out, the more his enemies would plot and carry out his death. He wanted to go to the cross on his own timing. He still had work to do, and part of it was preparing people like Peter. Even though Peter knew who Jesus was, he still didn’t understand what he had to do. Jesus needed to bring blessing to people like Peter by assuring them that he was the Christ, the Son of the Living God. We, like Peter, need to understand where the right answer comes from. “Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah. For flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but the heavenly Father.” To know who Jesus is, you need to go beyond a flesh and blood answer. Flesh and blood can answer a lot of useful questions, but this most important one needs the mercy and revealing of the Father from heaven. You have an identity that is highly reliant on your earthly father; but you need an identity given from the heavenly father, and he is a gracious, willing giver. He loves to bless by sharing his word so that people can hear, know and live out the answer, “Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.” If you know the answer and live it, you are blessed. This is a chance to thank God, not just for the blessings of sun and food and shelter and people in your life; but also for the blessing of knowing who Jesus is. He’s put people in your life to share the right information with you. He’s caused you to
have a listening heart at the right times. You can ask him to bless you more and more to help you live out the implications of the answer: Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. Because you know who Jesus is, that knowledge trusted in and lived out makes you a rock, like Peter. You’re not an isolated rock. You’re a rock who’s joined to other rocks in the church. You have an identity as a member of a special group, his called out followers, known as the church. And this group will never fade, even the gates of hell will not overcome it, though it has and will keep trying. Amazing to look at the times in history when the gates of hell have used world governments and massive persecutions to try to do away with the church. But time and time again, all that happens is rocks like Peter and countless thousands of followers of Jesus stand on their knowledge of who Jesus is, and the church only gets stronger at times like that, as they become more reliant on Jesus and more indestructible like him. Everyone wants to be a part of something bigger than themselves. And Jesus tells you that you are part of a group of people, God’s church, that is so much bigger than yourself. This church will endure far beyond what any employer, any club you’re a part of can boast. The gates of hell will not be able to disband this group of people, God’s capital C church. When we get together on Sundays, you get to tap into some of that power that comes from being a part of the bigger group as we live out tha answer, “Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.” When we do things like say the Apostles Creed in church together, you are confessing words that have been spoken by countless millions around the world in many languages at many different times. You are joined with all of God’s people. And it’s all because of that big question, “Who is Jesus?” God knows that more people need to be given the right answer to that question. He wants to make more people into rocks and he uses you to share the knowledge of who Jesus is. Notice that timing is a big part of answering this question. Jesus waited til the right time to ask even his disciples. They were on the way to Caesarea Philippi, and 6 days later Jesus would be transfigured on a mountain with 3 of his disciples. After that transfiguration, he would go down the mountain and begin the journey south to Jerusalem, where he knew he’d be killed. Jesus was confident that his disciples at this point had seen enough of him to deal with the question, Who do you say I am? You may have to wait for the right time to help a friend or family member or neighbor to answer the question. You don’t have to force it. You can wait and let God work in people’s lives until they are ready to deal with the question, Who is Jesus? God can use you to add more rocks to his eternal indestructible church. Because this is your identity: Jesus gives you incredible freedom as well; “I give to you, (and the you means you plural, not just Peter,) I give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” You possess something so powerful; the keys. Keys are important because they open doors, and make engines start. We don’t think much about them until they’re lost. We generally take them for granted, put them away, in a pocket or purse until we need them. But we are very concerned that we have them when we need them, we don’t want to lose them, and when we do, it disrupts quite a bit if it’s a car key or house key. Other keys, not so much, it all depends on what the key opens. What does this key open? The kingdom of heaven. What is that? Not just later glorified life, but here and now kingdom availability life. A new
way to live, a new power source, resource bank. The reigning of God, what he is up to in the world, the authority he has. God makes his kingdom available to you like the air you breathe. God invites you to be part of what he’s up to in this world. “Bind on earth, bound in heaven. Loose on earth, loosed in heaven.” Binding and loosing what? The availability of the kingdom to others. This key starts or stops the engine of forgiveness from sin and rebellion and guilt. How do you know you’re forgiven? God has sent people to give you the key that starts the engines of forgiveness through Jesus running in your soul. Now he gives you the keys to start that engine running in other people’s lives as well. He also wants you to be willing to stop the engine when needed as well. Sometimes you may think, who am I to walk around telling people that they are either in or out of the kingdom of God. If I see someone willfully defying God and clearly their sin is beyond a weakness of faith, if I see that, who am I to tell them they are removing themselves from God’s kingdom? Who am I to lock the doors to heaven on them? I’m just a sinner too? While it’s good to never exalt yourself above any other sinner, there are times when you need to call a sin a sin. God gave you his keys because people need to know the truth. Imagine a person outside the door of a house, and they’re setting up a table and chairs and a makeshift bed outside the house. You ask them what they’re doing, and they say, this is home. You ask them why they don’t go inside and they say, the key doesn’t open the door. Imagine if you could pull out of your pocket a key and open the door to a much better house for them. Or imagine a friend who is in a car and it’s being pushed by a few others, going very slowly. They don’t have a key that starts the engine, and you could pull out a key and start up the car and get them off and running. You wouldn’t hesitate to use those kinds of keys. So why not use the loosing key? You get to announce to burdened souls who realize the weight of their mistakes, that the door to heaven has been opened for them. What a gift. Jesus has chosen not to let people hear of their forgiveness from a voice booming from heaven, but through the human voices of friends, relatives, acquaintances. Use the keys Jesus has given. He wants people to know who he is and live out the answer to the question of his identity. And he’s given you his keys to getting it done. It’s simple: point out sin and point to your Savior. The question, who is Jesus, if you keep asking, you’ll keep finding the answer. It’s the right question to confront you when you need to be kept from going further astray. To shake you up out of your ease and comfort. To comfort you when you need comforting. To give you joy all of your days. Ever seen a couple who didn’t need to ask each other questions anymore? They have spent enough time getting to know each other and they just knew what the other needs without needing to ask. That’s what God wants with you. That’s the closeness he’s going for. So keep asking the question. “Who is Jesus?” Ask it until the day it doesn’t need to be asked anymore. With the right questions, there is no limit in the impact and enjoyment your life will have. This is the question. Who is Jesus? He is the Christ, the Son of the living God. Amen.