Jesus Identity and What It Meant - Clover Sites



Jesus Identity and What It MeantText: Matthew 16:13–28 (ESV) A tale of two Toms. Tom Johnson and Thomas Cranmer (1489-1556)“As the flames drew around him, he fulfilled his promise by placing his right hand into the heart of the fire while saying "that unworthy hand" and his dying words were, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit...?I see the heavens open and Jesus standing at the right hand of God."The difference between these two Toms is simple. Thomas Cranmer saw Christ’s identity and what it meant with the eyes and ears of his heart. Tom Johnson saw rules, morality, escape from the sins which dominated him, and the hope of heaven. But the identity of Christ and what it meant was hidden from him. Today’s text contains many crucial, life-giving, foundational truths. It is about Jesus’ identity and what his identity means. It is one of those great turning points in scripture. God in Christ reveals himself to the twelve, but what that meant in terms of behavior was the exact opposite of what his disciples expected. It meant their life, their prosperity, and their happiness at his expense. Christ’s identity meant the principle that life always proceeds from death. (24b-25) “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.Billboard…Christ’s True IdentityContext: Jesus has just returned to Israel from a vacation in Phoenicia. He is now on his way to Jerusalem where he will suffer, die, and rise from the dead. It is time for him to talk to his disciple about what really matters. It is time for him to reveal himself to them. It is time for him tell them what his identity really means, not they want it to mean. He knows that they are confused about both his identity and what it means. The Confession of Jesus IdentityUp to this time the demons have confessed Christ’s identity. i.e. “We know who you are. You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” The disciples also admitted his identity in a moment of terror before Jesus calmed the storm, but Jesus is looking for a rational confession when fear is not pressuring them. 13b “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Peter confesses Jesus’ true identity. It is not clear that the other disciples see this yet. But Peter sees it clearly. He confesses two things. 1st Jesus is the Christ, i.e. anointed one promised by the prophets2nd Jesus is the Son of the Living God. i.e. Psalm 2 predicts that the Messiah will be God’s Son. “You are my Son. Today I have begotten you.” The Gift of Jesus IdentityThe Holy Spirit revealed Jesus’ identity to Peter. 17 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. In other words, Peter did not come to this by rational, deductive reasoning. The Father revealed it to him. The Father sent his Spirit to Peter and revealed Christ’s true identity to him. It is impossible to see the moral beauty of Christ, i.e. to see his identity, unless the Father chooses to reveal his Son to you. When this happens one becomes a new creation. You become one of God’s elect. (2 Corinthians 4:6) "6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."You can confess these words with your mouth and not be saved. Salvation is the divine insertion of a spiritual taste bud for seeing and savoring the moral beauty [the glory] of Christ. The Necessity of Jesus’ Identity18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”The rock referenced here is not Peter. That is the view of Roman Catholic Church. It is also the view of many high Anglicans. This interpretation is an ugly distortion of the intention of this passage. The church is and always has been built upon Christ. To say it is built upon a man (Peter and his successors) is to turn the Bible upside down. The “rock” that the church is built upon is the confession of Christ’s identity. Whenever and wherever the HS wants to initiate a church he reveals Christ to a group of people. This means that a church is not Christian because it calls itself one, e.g. ELCA, Unitarians, Mormons, etc. A Christian church exists whenever and wherever the Holy Spirit has laid this rock as its foundation. Because the gospel is a revelation of who and what Christ is, the more the gospel is preached the more stable, substantial, and durable the rock upon which the church is founded will become. This is what Paul had in mind when he wrote to the church at Corinth. (1 Corinthians 3:10–11) "Like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. 11 For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ."You can build a church on other foundations—relevance, popularity, politically correct, coolness, social action, community and friendship—but those who do so are not building Christian Churches. They are building religious social clubs. The Dissemination of Jesus’ Identity19 I will give you [Peter] the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven Jesus gave Peter the keys to the dissemination of Christ’s identity. In other words, he gave him the keys to open the identity of Jesus Christ to others. On Pentecost Peter used the keys to unlock Christ’s identity for the Jews (Acts 2), and the rock was laid. A church was born. In Cornelius house (Acts 10) he used the same keys to unlock Christ’s identity to the Gentiles. Again, the rock was laid. A second church was born. In summary, to be converted is to see with the eyes of the heart, and confess, something of the glory of Christ. No cannot see the glory of Christ unless the Holy Spirit reveals it. The revelation of Christ’s identity and its confession is the rock upon which the church is built. God gives the keys to this revelation to various leaders at various places and times throughout history. Application for us: The gospel is a revelation of the glory of Christ. The more a church preaches the gospel the greater the glory of Christ becomes and the more we see it with the eyes of our hearts. To the degree that this happens everything changes. What Christ’s Identity MeansThe confession that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God is a confession of his divinity. If Christ is God then he will act like God. Here is what God is like: He imparts life to others by dying. What Peter, speaking for the disciples, thought Christ’s identity meant: The Messiah’s glory at other’s expense21 From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. 22 And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” 23 But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” Peter assumes that the Messiah is going to change the world by force. He is thinking like a good Moslem, like a modern terrorist. He thinks the Messiah is going to install his kingdom by conquering, ruling, oppressing, or using others for his ends. Peter expects the Messiah, like all human rulers, to get rich at others expense. He expects the Messiah to use his subjects to magnify his power and glory. So when Jesus starts talking about suffering and death, Peter gets upset. He rebukes him. But Jesus rebukes Peter. “Get behind me, Satan. You are a hindrance to me. You are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”Jesus’ identity actually meant something completely different. It meant the world’s salvation at his expense. Although the Old Testament predicted this, it was hidden from the Jews. Why? They didn’t want to see it. For the Messiah it would mean suffering, death, degradation, humiliation, rejection, unpopularity, etc. However, it would also mean the salvation of billions at his expense. It would mean life for billions fueled at the cost of Christ’s life. By his life and death the Messiah would install the principle that the way up is the way down. It would mean finding life by losing it. The disciples didn’t hear this or understand it because they didn’t want to hear it or understand it. I’m wondering about us this morning. Do we really get what Christ’s identity meant? Are we like the disciples or are we like Jesus? What Christ’s identity Really Meant: God’s glory at the Messiah’s Expense24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? 27 For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done.” Questions? 1st To whom did Jesus say this? He said it to everyone who considers himself or herself a Christian. “If anyone would come after me.” To “come after” Jesus means to be one of his followers. It means to be a Christian. This way of life is not optional. This is not a command for the super saints, one that normal believers can ignore. It is a condition for salvation. 2nd What does it mean “to deny yourself, to take up your cross and follow Jesus, to lose your life and in order to gain it?”Let’s start with what it doesn’t mean. It doesn’t mean asceticism. Asceticism is the pursuit of pain, suffering, or deprivation as goals in abd of themselves. Asceticism is the deliberate pursuit of pain and trouble in order to grow in godliness. I.e. prolonged fasting, the pursuit of poverty, celibacy, etc.. Begging for food, voluntary virginity, going barefoot in the winter, depriving oneself of food and sleep. The Pillarites are a good example. Arthur Blessit Example…Christians do not seek suffering or pain. We don’t seek them because God doesn’t want us to. He wants us to pursue him not trouble. Losing your life and taking up your cross does not mean you need to sell all of your goods, quit your job, beg for a living, give up marriage, etc. It does not mean that there is something inherently wrong with things, with pleasures, or with creature comforts. Many rich men and women served the early church, and they did not have to sell everything to follow Christ. (1 Timothy 6:17–19) "17 As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. 18 They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, 19 thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life."You can be an ascetic and be far from God. This is why Paul warns us in the love chapter (1 Cor. 13) that you can give up your body to be burned and not have love for either God and man. So then, what does “denying yourself, taking up your cross, and losing your life” mean? I “deny myself, I take up my cross, and I lose my life” when I must push through resistance and trouble, when I must leave my comfort zone, to obey Christ. The cross is where God’s will and ours intersect. God wants me to identify with Christ, but I don’t want to be rejected. I take up my cross and obey anyway. God wants me to make my wife comfortable, but I want to make myself comfortable. I take up my cross and obey God. God wants me to give the credit to someone else, but I want to take the credit for myself. So I deny myself, take the low place and defer the credit and honor elsewhere. God wants me to tithe to the church, but I want to buy that new GMC Suburban. So I take deny myself. I lose my life to gain it. God wants me to make my husband’s favorite dinner, Rib Steak. But I want to make my favorite dinner, Keish Lorraine. So I deny myself, take up my cross. I lose my life to gain it. God wants me to get up early and read the Bible and pray, but I want to sleep in. So I say “no” to my flesh. I crucify it. I arise and serve God. God wants me to quit hanging around non-Christians that are a bad influence on me, but I like them. I enjoy their company. God wants me to obey my parents, but I want to do my own thing. When you obey you are taking up your cross. You are denying yourself. You are losing your life to gain it. Your “Life” is your reputation, the acceptance of your peers. It is your need to be understood. It’s your leisure time, your comfort, your material wealth, your sleep, and your self-image. This is what Jesus did. He did not seek suffering, death or pain for their own sake. He sought to do the will of God, and God’s will for him was to suffer and die as an atoning sacrifice for the sins of humanity. So Jesus obeyed. The discomfort caused by his obedience was his cross. Paul did not seek suffering or persecution. No, he pursued the will of God. God’s will for him was the evangelism of the Gentiles by church planting. For Paul taking up his cross meant embracing the suffering that came as a natural consequence of pursuing God’s will. Motivations to Lose our lives. Fear Fear of Punishment, or fear of rejection by God on the Last Day, is a secondary motivator, but it must never be ignored. 27 For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done.If I seek to gain my life, if I seek to avoid the cross, the Bible’s constant warning is that the Day of Judgment will come, and I will lose all that I really hoped to gain. That is what happened to Tom Johnson. This does not mean justification by works. Rather, it means that the willingness to endure this kind of discomfort is the fruit of real faith. It means Christ is your Treasure. Like Thomas Cranmer, you are willing to go to the stake for him. Again, my willingness to take up my cross, to deny myself, and to lose my life does not save me, but it points to the existence of the real faith that does. Joy Jesus does not appeal to our desire to suffer. Rather he appeals to our innate desire for happiness, our desire for joy, and our longing for self-fulfillment. God created each of us with that desire. Conversion does not erase it. God is no killjoy. Rather, real conversion amplifies it and redirects it. Now the object of our happiness is knowing God the Father as revealed to us through the life, death, and resurrection of his Son. At conversion the Holy Spirit reveals Christ to us, increasingly making him our Treasure. This was how Jesus appealed to Peter and the disciples in today’s text.25 Whoever would lose his life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? Each of us will obey this text to the degree that we really believe that God is good, that he loves you, that he is a liberal rewarder of those who pursue him, that he is your all-consuming Treasure. This is the nature of saving faith. (Hebrews 11:6) "6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him."Reward motivated Jesus to deny himself and take up his cross. (Heb. 12:2) “Who for the joy set before him endured the cross” Those who really believe that God is infinitely good will lose their lives to gain them. A God-inspired interest in their own happiness will motivate them. They are convinced that God’s goodness expresses itself as justice—a willingness to reward and a willingness to punish. They are convinced that God is a liberal Giver, he gives “pushed down and overflowing.” In the words of the contemporary philosopher/theologian, Toby Mac. I wanna lose myself…to find youI dont care how it soundsBurn it up to the groundYour kingdom, my desireI wanna lose myself, lose myself to find you..Application: To Christian Workers The preaching of the gospel always has two dimensions. First it means preaching Christ’s identity. Second it means preaching what this means for those who decide to follow Christ. The job of every pastor is to make the average Christian comfortable with being uncomfortable. To ParentsSpiritual life will come to your children through your death. There is no other way. To All Christians Christ makes it easy for us to take up our cross and follow him. He makes it easy for three reasons. First, Jesus set an example for us. Second, we live on the basis of Christ’s death. Third, Christ’s cross forgives us when we fail to take up our cross, to lose our lives, and instead pursue selfish, hedonistic, lifestyles. To Our ChurchEach church is like a corn stalk. There is a time to plant the corn. There is a time for it to grow. During the growing season the corn stalk is maturing its seed. But eventually, at harvest, the plant dies and casts its seed. Then the seed multiplies the plants fruitfulness hundreds or even thousands of times. For this to happen the corn plant must die. “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life” (John 12:24–26). Eleven years ago we planted this church. For eleven years this congregation has been growing and maturing fruit. It has many dimensions—a solid core of leadership, a culture of loving personal accountability through our HomeGroups, a gospel centered approach to all of life, i.e. a people enjoying the grace of God and expressing that grace by our willingness to serve God and our fellow man; husbands and wives that love each other. Now it’s time for us to cast our seed, and for that to happen our little church must experience some dying. In our case dying means new HomeGroups, it means seeing friends less frequently, it means for some a new Sunday venue, it means for some Sunday set up, it means the risk of failure, etc. Spiritual life is like a parasite. It feeds on people and congregations that are dying. It is the sweet smell of life wafting from congregations that are willing to deny themselves, take up their cross, and lose their lives. Our willingness to die is the spiritual compost on which the spiritual life of others will feed. The day after Jesus spoke these words he went to the cross and died, and behold the fruit—salvation for billions, the assurance of new heavens and a new earth, the reception of the promised Holy Spirit, etc. Have you ever faced up to who Jesus is and what it means? Which Tom are the most like, Tom Johnson or Thomas Cranmer? Are you hard of hearing? Three times Jesus told his disciples what his identity meant, and none of them got it until after he arose from dead. Why? They didn’t want to get it. Is that us this morning? God loved you by dying. All who understand how unworthy they are of this love, will want to extend it to others? Do you want a happy marriage? Lose your life. Do you want your children to follow Christ? Lose your life. Do you want more intimacy with Christ? Lose your life. Do you want this church to impact Spokane for the glory of God? Let’s lose our lives together. ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download