Who Do You Say Christ Is?
Good Morning Friends,
Today we look at a question that is really an invitation to answer life’s most important question. And if Peter is right about the answer then everything hinges on us getting it right. I cannot answer it for you and you cannot answer it for me. It is that personal. Sure, we have said the Apostles Creed together and have heard things like, Jesus is a great teacher and prophet, a good and moral person. But, in our modern world very few would answer that he was the Son of God. And frankly few would know what a Messiah means. So, on this rainy day that could have been about Noah and the Ark, (for here in Florida and for my friends and family in Texas, it has been raining a lot,) we ask who is willing to get in the boat…who is willing to take a journey towards higher ground on the Glory Road. Who Do You Say Christ Is?
Scripture: Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.
Matthew 16: 13-20 (NRSV)
I will thrust you from your office, and you will be pulled down from your post. On that day I will call my servant Eliakim son of Hilkiah, and will clothe him with your robe and bind your sash on him. I will commit your authority to his hand, and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David; he shall open, and no one shall shut; he shall shut, and no one shall open. I will fasten him like a peg in a secure place, and he will become a throne of honor to his ancestral house.
Isaiah 22:19-23 (NRSV)
O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?” “Or who has given a gift to him, to receive a gift in return?” For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen.
Roman 11:33-36 (NRSV)
Message: If I to told you that Jesus is the eschatological manifestation of the Imago Dei who would have a clue as to what I believed? Well, maybe some of you, but we may have been blinded by the dogma in the process if we respond in this way. The thing is that Jesus’ closest disciples had trouble with this question, so take heart. This is not about one disciple making it to heaven on a confession and eleven others doomed to hell. It is more important that we know Jesus than understand some textbook answer. It is more important that we experience Jesus not just know things about Jesus. Sure, we could say he was a carpenter, but maybe he was a stonemason. We could have said that Jesus was the son of a Galilean, and a talented speaker and Rabbi. Peter could have answered that way too but he did not. Peter said that Jesus was the presence of God and God’s salvation to the people of Israel and by extension through the church to the whole world. And to this Jesus responds that not only the answer was correct but that it had been revealed to Peter divinely. And we too need that kind of divine revelation. From the days of the first apostles. The foundation is the same. What God asks of us is that we come to know Jesus. We are to proclaim him as the Messiah in our own lives and then we are to share that Good News with others. Peter was only able to answer that Jesus was the Son of God, the Messiah, the Savior because he knew Jesus, not just things about him. The Scripture records that this was revealed through the Holy Spirit. And we too need the Holy Spirit to reveal Jesus’ Lordship to us as well. And if we are caught up in the ecstasy of glorifying God we might just be living the answer. For the point of the matter is that the Westminster catechisms got it right: “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.” To those who do not know God that is perhaps the most foolish of all statements. But to those who do know God… who experiencing God’s majesty in a sunset and in inspiring music and wonderful relationships…to those who are in love and being saved, it is not only a right statement, it is a happy, wise, true, inescapable, and highly desirable confession. So, even though we do not have the same opportunity to walk alongside of Jesus as Peter did, the Good News is that we still have the Holy Spirit to reveal Jesus to us and in that relationship, grow together for God’s glory. No scare tactics, no threats, no pushing or shouting, just a simple invitation that begins with a question from the Master himself… Christians, what do you believe? How has God been revealed to you?
Pray we realize that all power and authority comes from Jesus. Pray we feel the penetrating gaze of Christ but also his love as we ponder all the divine attributes in the Word made flesh. Pray we focus on the penetrating purity of the holiness of Christ. Pray we are informed and transformed by the Holy Spirit. Pray our Heavenly Father helps us to be all that He has called us to be. Pray we introduce Jesus to other people through his image in us. Pray we yield every aspect of our being, of who we are, to the Trinity’s transforming love. Pray the veil between Heaven and Earth become so thin that we not only sense God’s presence but become an intimate place of communion with the transformative power of what God desires to change in the world through us. Pray we not fear. Pray we realize that our salvation is won though Christ for the glory of God. Pray we be a testimony of Peter’s faith affirming an answer to today’s question that comes from our heart not our head. Pray we enjoy the experience of love to the glory of God. Pray the Holy Spirit reveal the majesty of Christ into the experience of our lives.
Blessings,
John Lawson
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