Grace Abounding

I spoke at The Well on 6.30.09 and i thought i would share my outline and the audio version with you.

For a link to my sermon click [HERE] Title: “What About You?”

The outline follows…

Introduction

1. 1. Thank friends/family who came attending, Nursing Program, Tully’s in the morning
   2. Quick fact: Do you know why your pits stink? Its not because you sweat, sweat is good. It’s because when you seat, bacteria gets caught in it and then dies!
2. Context: Before we dive into what Jesus asked his disciples we must look at the context of what is going on before this special revelation happened. As we read the passage before we see that Jesus is very active with people. Chapter 15 writes that he was in Jerusalem where he dominated the Pharisees about what is clean and unclean and how what comes from your mouth makes you unclean, not the food you put in it.  From there he moved to Tyre where he healed the daughter of a Canaanite woman because of her faith. He proceeded to walk along the sea of Galilee where he feeds four thousand people who have been traveling with him the past three days. He then took a boat to Magadan where he again dominated the religious leaders about their need for God to show his power. He then took another boat to Caesarea Philippi where he finally sits down and has an intimate moment with his disciples.
   1. By the way – this is important to note that you can have God moments with people around but the time will come where you need to sit by yourself and just have an intimate moment with God where you bear your true feelings and true heart.
3. Passage: Matthew 16:13-14 – Jesus and crew have been around people for the past couple days: healing, preaching, rebuking and now they get a chance to sit down together and have an intimate moment. Jesus asks them who people think he is and they told him.
   1. John the Baptist – He was beheaded by Herod and it was circulating that John was raised from the dead (With or without his head?) and was performing miracles. Herod thought Jesus was a Ghost, an ethereal being. This was not completely uncommon thought in the Greek world since they were already superstitious with Ghosts.
      1. i.      This can be thought in modern times and people thinking Jesus is some sort of Ghost or a ‘spiritual’ being. A spirit guide that can lead someone to the next ‘realm’
         1. Back in Junior high I was told that if I put a crystal next to my bed when I slept, my soul would enter it and be safe from the evil spirits that came and visited me while I slumber. This is not from God, this is from Satan!
   2. Elijah – As we know Elijah was taken up by a chariot of fire and tradition thinks that Elijah will be one of the two witnesses as written in the book of Revelation in the end time. But as for why they said Elijah here, it was said that in Malachi that Elijah will be sent before the Messiah comes. This of course is actually John the Baptist ‘preparing the way of the Lord.’ People thought Jesus was preparing the world for the real messiah to come.
      1. i.      Important to note that Judaism still does not recognize Jesus has the coming Messiah. They are still waiting for the “day of the Lord.”
         1. Which makes me wonder – how many people here are still waiting for God to come to them? For God to perform miracles to prove that he exists? When I was younger I used to sit in bed and tell God, “If you are real, please close my blinds or move my curtains” and I would fall asleep waiting for them to shutter. Are you waiting for God to show you a sign? Sometimes God reveals himself through other people.
   3. Jeremiah and other prophets – Still, others chose not to recognize Jesus’ deity by writing him off as just another prophet or good teacher.
      1. i.      This is not far from what most of our world does today, if not outright mock Jesus, they write him off as a “good teacher” or “another way” to get to heaven. They lower him to the same level as Mohammed, Buddha, Confucius, Shiva, Joseph Smith, and other false teachers.
   4. It is important to note that whatever the world thinks of God or Jesus, they are wrong and is in direct conflict to what truth is. Which leads me to question, what else the world thinks that would be in direct conflict with what God thinks? The view of marriage, sexual purity, adultery, pornography, relationship, modesty. Surly, we have all bought into some of these lies at some point in our lives. No more.
4. [Movie: Hook – Peter draws Line][Draw line with tape] Passage: Matthew 16:15-17 – It is easy to say what other people think of something or someone but now Jesus makes this question personal. “What about you? Who do you say I am?” In this intimate moment he takes the question and presents it to the disciples in a way that they must make a conclusion about Him. And who else would answer but the same man who jumped out of a boat to walk on water and shortly after his confession of Christ would then be rebuked for trying to hinder Jesus’ mission – none other but the non-filtered-speak-whatever-comes-to-my-mind Peter.
   1. By this time, Peter has been elevated to status of being the spokesman for the twelve. He says what no one else will say and what everyone else is thinking. I can relate to him. Sometimes he says the wrong thing and gets a mouthful for it, but here, he got it right!  “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!
   2. An emphatic statement! As Spurgeon says, “The disciples had arrived at their conclusion solemnly, thoughtfully, carefully, each one for himself.” There was not waiving or guessing. It was concise, direct, and definitive!
   3. Peter makes this statement and Jesus replies in a unique way. He tells Peter that he didn’t learn this from men, but God revealed it to him. Showing that God personally reveals himself to each person. A relationship with God is intimate and personal. The only way to see God in his fullest capacity is to spend time with him.
   4. On the other side – you cannot save someone. Its only by God’s grace and movement that someone will be called to salvation. As the scripture says, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him” (Jn 6:44)
5. [Have everyone stand and come forward to the line on the ground] So God draws the line – He asks you the question, “What about you? Who do you say I am?” What then, shall you say? Are you for God or against him? Are you on his side, or not? Do you believe that he is the Messiah or just another teacher? C.S Lewis makes a profound statement when he speaks about Jesus,

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him:”I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.” That is the one thing we must not say. 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—on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

1. As I was reading my Bible and seeking God last week I came across a profound statement that I want to share with you. A man named Paul writes to the Roman people and says this about salvation, “That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord.’ And believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.”
2. Jesus brings this question personally to you.
   1. What about you? Who do you say I am?
   2. Will you choose to fall at his feet and confess with your mouth and believe in your heart. Or will you stand there and walk out of this building missing yet again, another opportunity to experience true love and true friendship?