Thank you so much worship team. I'm a big fan. I do like that song. It is very comforting
to hear who God says we are. But today we're going to cover the other side of the coin
and that is the question that Jesus asks his disciples. But who do you say that I am? Well
Jesus just might be the only person in history that everybody wants to claim. Right? He's
in campaign ads. He's in yoga studios. He's on coffee mugs, t-shirts, and at least one
bumper sticker outside right now. Everybody wants him on their side but nobody wants him
in the way. Ask any number of people who they say Jesus is and you'll get probably just
as many answers. He was a good teacher or a man of wisdom. He was all about love without
judgment. He stood up for the outcasts. All of those compliments of Jesus. But none of
them actually cost anything to say. It is absolutely free to admire Jesus. But C.S.
Lewis, I quote him a lot. One of my favorite books. Mere Christianity. He wouldn't let
people get away with that. He had a very simple point to make. Why don't we try looking at
what Jesus actually said about himself. He says, a man who was merely a man and said
the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be
a lunatic or else he would be the devil. You must make your choice. Either this man was
and is the son of God or else a madman or something worse. He wouldn't give a fourth
option because there isn't one. He is either a liar, a lunatic, or the Lord of all creation.
No room in between. This isn't a new problem. We see even in scripture that Jesus was running
into it himself. He takes his disciples all the way up to full-on Gentile territory, Caesarea
Philippi. It is a city full of shrines that are just carved into the rock face. And it
is there that he asks his disciples, who do you, or who do the people, say that the Son
of Man is? And they've been around the crowds, they've been out and about, so they have a
pretty good idea of what people are saying about Jesus. Some say John the Baptist, some
say Elijah, and others Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. But notice, if you will, there's
something missing from that list. See, John, and Elijah, and Jeremiah, every one of them
are men that come before. They're the kind of guy that shows up to announce that God
is on the move, that he's about to do something great. Nobody on that list is the something.
And that's kind of strange, if you think about it, because the last few weeks, we've gotten
some pretty good answers to that question. Just a few weeks ago, the disciples were soaked,
and they were on this boat, they were terrified, and they confessed, truly you are the Son
of God. Last week, we saw a Canaanite woman, someone that nobody expected this confession
from, calling him Son of David and refusing to turn away from him, for her faith. Outsiders
and fishermen have given better answers than the whole crowd in Galilee. So Jesus turns
a bit, and he makes it personal. But who do you say that I am? And Simon Peter answers,
you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And you know what? He is absolutely right.
And yet, he has almost no idea what he just said. So where did that confession come from?
Peter is not often thought as being the sharpest of the twelve. He may not be the one, reading
up to this point, that you would bet on to get it right in one sentence. And so Jesus
tells him exactly where it came from. He said, blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh
and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. So Jesus' response
is very direct. It's almost like he's saying, good job, but let's be clear, you didn't come
up with that on your own. You know, I can just see Peter sitting up at night, you know,
putting the pieces together, you know, like all the miracles and the teachings and the
water and he's figured it out. No, the Father handed it to him. Peter opened his mouth,
which he tends to do, and out came the truth about God. And if that sounds familiar, it
should because God has been building things out of nothing and nobody for a long time.
Isaiah points to it in our Old Testament reading today. Look to the rock from which
you were hewn and to the quarry from which you were dug. Look to Abraham your father
and to Sarah who bore you, for he was but one when I called him that I might bless him
and multiply him. He was but one man. No children, no vast inheritance, no reason to think that
anything would come of him. And God called him. And from that calling, he blessed him
and multiplied him. And then to the point where every last person that Isaiah is writing
to comes from that quarry. So here we have Peter. He's also but one man. A fisherman
with a temper and a habit of talking before he thinks, which I relate to. Nothing about
him explains what just came out of his mouth. So you have this one man given a gift he doesn't
really understand. He definitely hasn't earned it. And on that one man and everything he
just said, Jesus says he's going to build on something. And he says it in words that
quite honestly they've been argued about basically since they were set. Jesus said, 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.
So as I tend to do, I like to look in to see if there's some wordplay. And sure enough,
there is some wordplay that didn't quite make the trip from Greek to English. Where we get
the name Peter is Petros. Petros is stone, a stone, just a stone. However, when Jesus
says, and on this rock, I will build my church, it is on this Petra. And Petra sounds similar,
but it is different. It has a different context, a different association. And that different
association is bedrock, or like a large, almost like a mountain face. Something you
would build on, a foundation. Similar words, but not the same. And so initially to us it
might seem like Peter gets this nickname that sounds like he's the foundation, but he's
not the foundation because, I mean, we know, right? We've seen the rest of this story play
out. We've seen Peter denying that he even knows Jesus at all. And so really if Jesus
was going to build the church on the reliability of Peter, I'm not sure it would have gotten
very far.
No, the rock that Jesus is building on is that confession. This thing that was revealed
by the Father and spoken out of, Peter's mouth, you are the Christ, the Son of the
living God. That is the foundation and the bedrock of the church. And Jesus says he's
building my church, I will build my church. Not just one congregation, but the word Ecclesia,
the whole assembly of believers, everyone the Father has called in every place and in
every century. And so when Jesus says the gates of hell will not prevail, he's not making
a promise about this building. He's saying that the people gathered around this confession
will still be standing when everything else isn't. I go back to Isaiah for the same thing.
Lift up your eyes to heaven. Look at the earth beneath. The heavens vanish like smoke and
the earth wears out like a garment. But the salvation of the Lord is forever. What a promise.
The promise still stands. The promise that this church built on this confession will
outlast the earth that it's standing on.
Which is great, but it kind of makes the next part seem a little strange, right? Because
Jesus says, well Matthew tells us, that Jesus strictly charged the disciples to tell no
one that he was the Christ. And here I've got a feel for Peter, because he finally gets
it right and then he tells everybody, don't tell anybody what Peter said. But think about
it, what would the crowds hear if they heard this? I mean, they already think that he's
Elijah, or that he's Jeremiah, or that he's John the Baptist reborn somehow. Right? Tell
them he's the Christ and they'll fill in the blanks with everything else they want to hear.
We see it play out. What do they want from a Christ? What do they think a Christ is?
A king with an army who's going to kick Rome out of Jerusalem. They're going to take this
true title that belongs solely to Jesus and put their own meaning on it. Just like we
do when we filter him down to a moral teacher, or just a good man. Only one thing will ever
make the word Christ mean what it actually means. And at this point in the story it has
not happened yet. But Matthew tells us that from that time Jesus began to show his disciples
that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer and be killed and on the third day be raised.
Peter doesn't know it yet, but that is what Christ is. He said the word, he has this confession
without knowing what's inside of it, what comes with that word. And so do we. See here
in a few minutes we'll be standing together and we're going to confess our faith in the
words of the Nicene Creed and we'll say that I believe in one God, the Father Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth and of all things visible and invisible and in Jesus Christ,
the only begotten Son of God. And we'll mean it. But will we understand it? Probably not.
There's not a person in this room who grasps the full weight of what we're going to say together.
And further, some of us will be saying it with things falling apart at home or at work. Some
of us will still say it and quietly wonder if all of it's really true. Some of us are
going to say it because it's Sunday morning and that's what we do. But that's what confession
has always looked like. Remember, I mean Peter got it exactly right. But before it was all
said and done, that same mouth, the one that the Father filled with this true confession,
stood in a courtyard while Jesus was on trial for his life and took an oath saying,
I do not know the man. See, Christ didn't wait for Peter to understand. Only one man
understood what Christ meant. And he was the one saying it on the road to Jerusalem. He knew
exactly what that word would cost. And he said it anyway. He walked into that city knowing exactly
what was waiting for him. And he suffered and he was killed. And on the third day, he was raised.
That's what the Christ is. That's what the Christ does. That's what Peter doesn't know yet.
Jesus went to Jerusalem for the mouth that confessed him and the mouth that denied him.
Even the same mouth. Just like ours. Every service we come in and we admit what we are in confession.
And the answer to that, the only answer there has ever been is this. Your sins are forgiven.
Now it's not because you finally gained enough wisdom or because you said the right words in
the right way. It's because Christ took a hold of somebody who keeps getting it wrong and refuses
to let go of them. It's what he did for Peter. It's what he does for you. Every sin you carried in here this morning
is forgiven on account of Jesus Christ, crucified and risen for you. That's the rock. Not our understanding of it,
not how well we say it. Christ. So when we stand up in a minute and we confess our faith, it's not a test.
Do you really mean what you're saying? No, it's a gift. You're being handed a gift, the same thing that Peter was handed.
And that gift from the Father is bigger than anyone who's holding it. So may the peace of God, which suppresses all understanding,
guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Please rise.