WHO DO YOU SAY THAT I AM?
Matthew 16. 13-18
It has often been said that ultimately, Jesus is the test for every man (meaning man, woman and child)
Scripture tells us that “There is one God and one mediator between God and men, The Man Christ Jesus”…… only one man, but in case that should frighten us or make it sound terribly difficult to be saved, it goes on to say “Who gave himself a ransom for all”
So there is only one person in the universe who can clear the way for you and I to be comfortable in the presence of God and avoid eternal judgement and he has already done what needed to be done in his death, burial and resurrection, and is just waiting for us to accept that, to trust him and put our faith in him.
You don't have to have a deep understanding of it. Our salvation is not dependent upon our grasp of these things. It is dependent upon what Jesus has done, which God has put his seal of approval upon. Just believe. It is so simple. Don't let pride get in the way. Have faith and if you feel weak in that department, ask God to give you faith. The man who said to the Lord “Lord I believe, help thou mine unbelief” is just where I find myself often.
When I was a kid you used to hear the preachers ask things like “How much do you love the lord? Do you value his sacrifice? Are you not moved inwardly when you think of Jesus?” and those things used to worry me terribly because I started to think of my feelings as the test of whether I was saved or not and although I had put my trust in Jesus in a very simple way, I obviously didn't have the same feelings as everyone else apparently had. I tried to conjure up these feelings and move myself to tears but that didn't work either.
And then I read something by JND and he said that if you were due to go to jail tomorrow because you couldn't pay a fine and then you were told at the last minute that someone else had paid it and you were free, what sets you free is that the fine has been paid not your appreciation or knowledge of the person who paid it (whom you may not know at that point), that would come later. Blessed relief! That short paragraph set me free.
You see, God has raised Jesus and set him at his right hand and is fully satisfied with the solution to what seemed an insoluble problem of how to punish sin but save the sinner. God is satisfied that his own holiness and righteousness have not been compromised, and through the same one who removed our sins, he can now dispense his love. Everything goes through Jesus hands you know, from God to us and from us to God and will for all eternity.
In the meantime, Grace has replaced law, there is no sense of condemnation for the believer and all three Divine Persons revealed to us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit are working together to prepare us for glory. Glad tidings indeed.
Now, coming back to this scripture, most religions accept there is one God but many deny the Deity of Jesus, the perfection of his sacrifice and indisputable right to reign over all.
The Lord asks his disciples “Who do you say that I am?” It is a question he would ask each of us at some time and I believe it will become the touchstone of great conflicts ahead especially those with religious undertones.
We are in a world where great tensions exist between huge power blocks and try as the politicians might, to take religion out of the equation, it is there and if we are honest, I suspect we all fear where it all may lead.
Islam, is the fastest growing religion today, with 1.2 billion people and is one of the major world religions, along with Christianity (1.9 billion) and Judaism (20 million).
Muslims as you may know, consider Mohammed to be the final prophet of God to the world after Jesus. Mohammed was born in 570 AD in Mecca and died in 632 AD. You may not realise that Muslims accept Noah, Abraham, Moses, Elijah and even Jesus as prophets and Godly men but they do not accept the truth of the Trinity nor the Deity of Jesus or the need for his atoning sacrifice. As with many religions, whilst there are many converging views in terms of our attitudes to one another and how life should be lived, the fundametal area of disagreement is nearly always the truth as to the person of Jesus himself.
There are one or two sites that provide very useful information about various religions and in an objective and unbiased way, among them, www.carm.org/index.html
Well, we are not here to denigrate any Religion or set of beliefs. Far from it. These are a few facts that can be easily verified and if I am found to be incorrect I will be quick to acknowledge it. We must always distinguish between these systems of religion and the people within them whom God loves and for whom Jesus has died, an attitude that should always always mark us.
The good news of the Gospel however, is that Jesus has removed the requirement of keeping the Law in order to obtain salvation and that through Jesus, we can obtain eternal life. Jesus has made it possible for people to receive the free and complete gift of salvation by faith, not works, and all the uncertainty that relying upon the balance of works brings.
Unfortunately, in the so called Christian world, our defences, morally and spiritually are weakening. Professing Christendom has largely given up the Gospel. A majority now believe that we all have rights and that these should no longer be governed solely by Christian teaching and values. Things that are expressly forbidden and discouraged by the Apostle Paul, the great architect of the Church under Christ, are allowed, even condoned. There is compromise everywhere especially by Church leaders. Genuine followers of Jesus cannot help but be confused.
It is called, 'Keeping up with times'. How absurd that is when God is from eternity to eternity and is already the other side of and ahead of what we call time. God and his word can never be out of date. Has God been overtaken by events? No, he controls events.
Real faith and the teachings of Paul have given way to tradition, ceremony, clericalism and a form of words with the power or presence of God made little room for. The truth of the Lords Supper as the focal point of Christian life is not held in the same way today and yet early Christians risked their lives to attend these meetings of remembrance and persevered in doing so. I expect the same was true of Bible studies and prayer meetings. They didn't need crosses on the wall. They carried their crosses with them as they risked their lives to follow the Lord's commandment and many still do today in countries where Christians are persecuted.
I leave it to anyone who has the temerity to do so, to explain to the Lord that he doesn't understand how inconvenient his commandments are these days. I'm certainly not going to.
In our schools, a whole generation is being taught Religion as though it is just another subject and something that has many branches and that there is nothing distinctive about Christianity. The politically correct trend towards not causing offence to other faiths may well lead, in our lifetime, to a situation where it is almost impossible to preach the Gospel as we can now and to stress the supremacy of Christ,
Many believers have been bombarded with so much from the media, scientists, biologists and so called experts from every field that they are no longer sure what they believe in.
It is all far removed from those early days and yet we are now so accustomed and conditioned to this culture and the proliferation of various denominations and sects, that we probably can't even recognise it all for what it is and our senses get dulled. It doesn't seem to hurt, and it should do. It will take the direct intervention of the Lord himself to open our eyes and restore the Church to its proper place and glory, beginning with the 'Rapture'.
So……when did each of us last really examine what we believe and who Jesus really is to us and whether we could stand for what we believe in if called upon to do so. I recall David (our Pastor) saying something similar a while ago in a preaching and that the time may come when each of us may have to take a stand. How would we fare? Peter's denial of the Lord when challenged would keep us very dependent upon God's strength and not our own, if that moment comes
So………..”Who do you say that I am?” is the burning question.
Peter says “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”
Do you believe that, do I? Who was Jesus really? What do you really believe?
Peter says “Son of the living God” it is that real to him. He saw the life of God there in Christ, he saw God alive in Christ and in that sense he saw the Son of the living God. God living in Christ, right there in front of him, before his very own eyes.
Jesus looked at him and said “That was revealed to you by my Father Peter” as though to say, “Did you realise that?”
We read of others who also grasped this truth, Nathanael, Martha and most telling of all, the Roman Centurion who was keeping guard at the foot of the cross.
This is not something that we can grasp mentally or religiously, it requires a revelation. Each of us needs to have that revelation. If you think of Jesus only as a good man or a prophet, you do need to ask God to reveal whom Jesus is to you and what that will mean for you and your life.
I am not speaking only of eternal salvation here based upon simple trust in Jesus, that is assured. This is something further. It actually links you with a living person with ultimate power and supremacy and one “In whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells” the scripture tells us. Jesus has been given all power and authority and he is in charge and we can't bypass him. Even 'eternal life' is actually inherent in him. We can't bypass him to get it. “Eternal life is in the Son” the scripture says.
So you begin to realise that you have got to deal directly with Jesus. Without him you have nothing yet with him you have everything and then it becomes personal. Get personal with Jesus today.
Well, you hear people say that when you get down to it there is not much to choose between different faiths. They are all about good works and they all accept God as the creator and that Jesus was a good man. “Yes, I am a Christian” someone will say. “I believe in God”
It is interesting in chapter 17, after this that Jesus takes them up into the mountain and appears to them with Moses and Elias, both recognised by Islam and other religions as Prophets ………but God speaks and he says of Jesus alone “This is my son whom I love and with whom I am well pleased. Listen to HIM” He said that of Jesus and only of him.
The disciples were frightened at the sound of the voice, they fell to the ground but Jesus lifted them up and it says “They saw no one except Jesus”…….. That is the point “No one except Jesus”.
I believe the day will come when the truth about the person of Jesus as presented in the inspired word of God and revealed to millions, will be a defining issue in the supposed Christian world and may well also underlie issues of conflict on a world wide scale.
In the meantime, it is Peter's confession, his realisation of who Jesus is that Jesus says “is the rock upon which he will build his Church” (as we know through Paul)…….not Peter himself. That rock is an understanding of who Jesus really is as revealed by the Father. That must be your rock, my rock.
Many are looking for a huge revival before the Lord comes and that would be wonderful but if you read the scriptures that particularly relate to the last days, Timothy, Peter, Jude and others, they seem to convey the opposite. They point to small groups of Christians meeting in simplicity and piety, and holding fast to the teachings of the Lord and the apostles, against a tide of false doctrine which to many will seem powerful, irresistible and possibly so like Christianity, that many may well be led astray.
More than ever, at that time, the central question of who Jesus really is, as Son of God, will be the test and it will be that rock to which each of us will need to cling. May God grant each of us a revelation like Peter had so that we are sure and fully persuaded of what we profess as Christians.
