:: By Andrew
I want you to come for a walk this morning.
A walk with Jesus and his disciples.
And we’re on our way to a great city.
Like Beijing!
(colourful, historical, olympic… impressive)…
It’s the capital of an area within Israel.
It’s a place known as Caesarea Philipi.
Walks are terrific opportunities for thinking and talking…
(pause)
And its on the way, that Jesus asks a question- v 27 (read).
“Who do the people say that I am?”
(pause)
In verse 28, the DISCIPLES answer him (read)
Herod was one who thought John had been raised from the dead.
Elijah was one of the great prophets of the Old Testament… said to come back before the end of the world.
(pause)
Well, we’re there too… who do people say Jesus is?
Q…. who do people say that Jesus is? – (Ppt- someone snoring) there are probably a whole lot of people who just don’t care?… so irrelevant.
- (Ppt- eg.) An example.
- (Ppt- preacher) For others, a teacher. A moral teacher. He taught about love and telling the truth.
And to give to the poor.
He taught about …ahh… social justice.
- (PPt- guide) Jesus the leader. Charismatic… incredibly influential. Able to inspire and persuade…socciologists have done lots of studies on this.
- (Ppt- Genie) A magician or Genie…. Maybe there are some today who think that.
You pull him out of the cupboard when you need him.
He’s there when you need him.
When nothing else works… when all else fails.
- (Ppt- fairies) There are some weird ones….If you’ve been watching too much TV, you might have seen on Discovery channel a documentary about Jesus… a Hindu novelist has written a book called the Unknown Story of the Messiah. He believed that Jesus survived crucifixion, and later traveled to India with his mother Mary, and learnt Buddism and Hinduism before dying.
Off with the fairies!
(pause)
Next Jesus get’s personal and says… OKAY what about YOU?
… enough about what other people think-> what about you?
(BLANK SHEET on board)
Write your answer down if you’ve got a pen. If you haven’t hold it in your head!
“Who do you say that I am?”
You could hear a penny drop.
This is the question that the disciples have been struggling with. The identity of Jesus.
Who is this man?…
They’ve lived with Jesus. They’ve experienced his compassion. They’ve heard him speak. They’ve witnessed his miraculous powers over creation.
And yet so many times they don’t get it… they are afraid, they lack understanding. They can’t put the pieces together.
They lack faith.
And you wonder whether they will ever understand.
-> Before you can give the right answer, Peter plucks the courage to say, and launches himself into the vacuum – “You are the Christ” he says.
I wonder how he said it?
“YOU and the Christ”
“you are the CHRIST”.
“you are THE Christ”.
“you ARE the Christ”.
(pause)
Wow!.
What does he mean????
He’s obviously right, cos Jesus stops right there.
And he tells them not to tell anyone about him.
(pause)
But what does this title mean?
Who is the “Christ”? What makes someone the Christ?
What’s expected of ‘the Christ’????
(pause)
If we were to go back in time…we’d see that…
Israel were really longing for the Messiah or Christ (it’s the same person) to come.
And the Christ was like a prophet priest and king all rolled into one.
Cos all those three were anointed- “Christ” means ‘the anointed one’. Anointed was the way that God chose someone for a special purpose.
The Christ-King was the one promised in the Old Testament that would descend from the line of David.
Who would rule all the nations. His throne would be established FOREVER, and he would restore Israel to be the centre of the world again.
So we’ve just arrived at Caesarea Philippi. With it’s big stone columns and gold filigree.
There’s a temple to Caesar.
They worship the emperor here.
The emperor is the king…
But Peter says “You- Jesus- are the Christ”.
And then there are the prophets. They were also anointed, they were also ‘Christ’- they were God’s mouthpiece. They spoke the words of God.
Isaiah 61:1-2 (read)
And there were the priests- they also were anointed.
And they worked in the temple to prepare the sacrifices for God. That’s another whole story.
The Christ was the prophet, priest and king, all rolled into one.
So I wonder if the way Peter said it was “You are THE Christ”… cos there were lots of Christs!.
(pause)
How much Peter actually understands of this, it’s not clear but he’s definitely on the money.
And it really is a major climax in the gospel, that the disciples realize this.
(pause)
Now, remember you are there too.
Do you agree?
this is bigger than all these titles and descriptions!- (see paper answers on board!)
Who do you think Jesus is? Is he the Christ?
-> Think of how you’ve treated Jesus in the last week… cos if this is true it’s going to have to affect how we live. It’s going to affect everything!… What does the way we’ve lived in the last week tell us about the answer that is really on our hearts?
(pause)
Well, let’s read the next bit to see what Jesus says next, for he starts to then unravel exactly what the Christ has come to do.
We read in verse 31…, – read vv 31- 33.
Notice that Jesus speaks openly now.
Pretty much up til now he’d been speaking in parables, in riddles… but now it is plainly.
This is exactly how it’s going to be.
And he says he’s going to be rejected and die.
Peter refuses to believe it.
And you’ve got to sympathise with Peter.
To be the “Christ” is to be more powerful than the Emperor.
He is the greatest and most impressive person ever to walk the face of the earth…
Psalm 2 says he will rule the world with an iron scepter.
The nations will be his footstool… and YET-> before Jesus has done anything much he’s talking about dying… come on!!!!!
(pause)
…Jesus rebukes Peter… he says-> “Get behind me Satan!” … “you are not setting your mind on things of God, but on things of man”
Jesus must die.
It is the “thing of God” that Jesus must die. It is paramount to God’s plan from the creation of the world.
->
3 times in the next 2 chapters Jesus will repeat these words.
“The Son of Man must suffer and be rejected”
“The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men and they will kill him. Chapter 9:31.
“See we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over, to be condemned to death”. Chapter 10:32
This is central, fundamental, absolutely necessary, to the mission of the Christ.
(pause)
Notice Jesus refuses to use the term “Christ”.
He uses the term “son of man”. In fact in verse 30… Jesus didn’t want Peter to tell anyone that he was the Christ. This is not because he isn’t, but because “Messiah” or “Christ” is such a loaded word.
Many people saw the Christ as a political revolutionary or freedom fighter…
But Jesus, although he is the Christ, he is not that sort of Christ.
Jesus will not fight Rome.
Jesus comes to die. And of course, after 3 days rise from the dead.
(pause)
Jesus calls in the crowd in verse 34. There’s more people now….
And it’s a reminder to us that what he has to say now applies to everyone. To you and me as well!… to anyone who will listen.
And he lays before us a choice.
It’s getting even more personal now…
> read vv 34 9:1.
He has told us who he is and what he’s come to do.
Now he’s tell us what’s in it for us….
(pause)
He says to us if we want to follow me.
You’re going to have to die.
“I will die… but also you …. If you are to live as a follower of me and the gospel it will mean persecution. It will mean you’ll be tempted to be ashamed of the gospel.
But most importantly, it’s going to mean you will probably death.”
… For the first century Christian (and I think at this point we’ll be glad we’re not there now!)…“Taking up your cross” would be understood literally.
Remember Jesus is speaking plainly.
It would mean execution.
(pause)
After getting rid of ourselves from the story, we need to bring ourselves back.
For this is written for us.
We probably won’t die for being Christian in Australia. So what does it mean for us?
It means that following Jesus with our whole life.
Everything.
- for example… Jesus wants us to take the gospel to our friends, to our family, to the people we sit next to on the train. To the man who cleans the office, to the nurses on my ward, to my mates in my football team.
What’s that going to mean… it’s going to mean turning the TV off and praying. Asking God to fill our hearts with a love for the lost.
It’s going to mean getting to know people whom otherwise I wouldn’t bother to talk to. Who might not be Asian!…who might be Asian!
It’s going to mean changing our routine so we can have them over for lunch or dinner, if it’s our neighbour. And they might cancel on us…they might forget to turn up…
It’s going to mean filling out our diary (planning), for the evangelistic event. Rearranging the day which I was going to visit my parents, because on that day because on that day it’s going to be a really important one for me to hang around after church.
It will mean asking them to the Gingerbread House making event coming up in December, and coming ourselves if we’re a woman…or it may mean not coming, cos there are so many people wanting to come, and you’re NOT going to come so others can come…
These things are not easy!!
We’re hoping to have a kids holiday programme in December…
We want to teach Scripture in more schools and run lunch time groups.
We run one play group… we need at least 3 or 4 I reckon…
Have you thought of taking a day off a week for church…? Or a week off without pay, once a year….?
Now you may not be able to teach Sunday school- have you thought about being on Parish council, or… signing up for the next working bee at church, or volunteering to go visiting people once a month, or helping organize another men’s dinner…
(pause)
Read v 34b.
(pause)
But here is the wonderful thing…
You save your life = you will lose it.
But you lose your life= you will save it.
You live for yourself, and you will never find it. You live for Jesus and not yourself, and you will find true life.
Jesus says.. you might be so lucky as to gain the whole world. You might have more companies than Kerry Packer.
You might of got the University Medal or the Nobel Peace Prize.
You might be more successful and more popular than …Mary Princess of Denmark. You might have a beautiful home by the sea… and a yacht moored out the front/ a top of the range BMW… but all this is NOTHING compared to the life which Jesus offers… eternal life.
In fact we are crazy if we think THAT ALL THE SUCCESS in the world is of any value if we forfeit our life…
Cos the truth is all that will one day go.
You may enjoy it for 50 or 60 years. You may be comfortable, and have all your weekends and all your holidays, and all your home, and all your money for yourself.
You may have all your SELF, for yourself.
But look at what you gain, compared to what you lose???
Do the maths.
For there’s a choice that’s yours… living for Jesus or living for yourself.
(pause)
Are you prepared to miss out on the kingdom of God… “the glory of the Father and the holy angels”… Jesus’ way of saying…The grand final party… if you want to be there, you’ve got to follow the captain.
(pause)
Now you might be thinking, c’mon Andrew, that’s a bit over the top- “To take up my cross”- “To DIE!”… but, that’s what Jesus says isn’t it??
They are HIS Words…. This is the real Jesus!!
Sometimes we’ve got to ask ourselves- do we have the right Jesus. There is in the end only ONE JESUS!.
I think Peter and the others would be still scratching their heads and thinking he’s off his rocker!
Peter’s got one out of 3 right- “ the who” of Jesus- tick…
He didn’t get the “what”…the “what” Jesus came to do”
And after that,… “taking up our own cross”… nowhere near it!.
(pause)
(End)
Well we’ve digressed ->
Back to us…
“Who do YOU say that I am?”
That’s the question.
It’s going to mean change. It’s a Copernican revolution- everything doesn’t revolve around you anymore, but around Jesus.
You are not the messiah… Jesus is.
But it’s also going to mean an eternal joy that is beyond our wildest imaginations.
-> What will it be, Caesarea Philippi, or the kingdom of God?
Let’s pray.