Sermon Tone Analysis

Sermon Title: THE Question

Passage: Matthew 16:13-20

Date: January 20th 2008

 

Intro and Background:

This is the climax to the teachings of Jesus with His disciples.

In fact, you might say that this is like a final exam of all that Jesus has been trying to get across to them.

This final exam has but one question.

I’m not sure I like tests with only one question.

If you miss it, you fail.

If you know it, you pass.

It’s all or nothing.

If there is only one test question, you better know it.

For some two and a half years Jesus had been moving to this moment-teaching and reteaching, affirming and reaffirming, demonstrating and redemonstrating, building and rebuilding the truth of who He was in order to establish it completely and securely in the minds and hearts of the Twelve.

As Jesus spent more and more time alone with the Twelve, Jesus went more often into Gentile territory and stayed longer.

He withdrew to the fringes of Palestine in order to be free of the of the multitudes of people only looking for one more sign or miracle, and the growing hostility of the Jewish religious leaders.

Passage:

*13When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”*

Caesarea Philippi was at the very northernmost area that Jesus and His disciples traveled.

It is also a very beautiful place, as you can see from the picture.

Today the city has not been worked very much by archaeologists, but we know where it is and where the basic structures were.

But across from it at the base of mountains there is this enormous mountain side of rock, like a solid wall stretching straight up to the heavens.

It also was a place where idol worship was very dominant.

Actually, there were places for idols carved right in the rock in the landscape.

It was here that Simon, Paula, and Randy judged who would be the next Idol.

Actually it was here that Jesus chose to test the disciples to see if they understood who He truly was.

It wasn’t that Jesus didn’t know what people were thinking, but He was using this as a teaching time for His disciples.

“Son of Man” was Jesus’ most common title for Himself and is used of Him some eighty times in the New Testament.

It was recognized by Jews as a title of the Messiah.

*Daniel 7:13-14 *was commonly known to refer to the coming Messiah:

*13**“In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven.

He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence.

14**He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him.

His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed./

/*

It also emphasized the humanity of Jesus.

Jesus liked it because his mission was to come and live as a man to bring salvation to mankind.

But Jesus was much more than a mere man.

*14They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

*

We can learn something of the person of Jesus just by who people thought He was.

John the Baptist was filled with the Holy Spirit from birth, never drank any wine, was a fiery preacher who confronted sin head on.

John the Baptist didn’t play the political correctness game at all.

In fact, it was John the Baptist who was beheaded for confronting Herod about his adulterous relationship with his brother’s wife.

Jesus said of John the Baptist that no one born was greater than John the Baptist.

Jesus must have been like him in many ways, but yet Jesus was much more.

Others said that Jesus was Elijah come back to life.

Elijah was one of the great Old Testament prophets that stood against the evil king Ahab and his wife Jezebel.

Elijah took on all the priests of the false god Baal and proved that Yahweh was the one true God.

God did many miraculous things during Elijah’s ministry.

In modern Jewish Passover celebrations an empty chair is reserved at the table for Elijah, in the hope of his one day coming to announce the Messiah’s arrival.

Elijah, like John the Baptist, was a great man, but also was thought to be a forerunner to the Messiah, not the Messiah Himself.

It is interesting that Jeremiah is also mentioned as a possibility.

Why did they think that Jesus was Jeremiah?

Again, Jeremiah was considered one of the greatest prophets.

Some Jews thought that before the Messiah returned to establish His kingdom, Jeremiah would return to earth and restore the Ark and the altar to their proper places in the Temple.

Interestingly, another forerunner to the Messiah, not the Messiah.

One of the things that Jeremiah did was that he brought God’s message to Israel even when the leadership was against him.

Known as the weeping prophet, Jeremiah also had a heart for his people, Israel.

All three of these men were great men, but fell short as to identifying who Jesus really was.

Jesus continued:

*15**“But what about you?” he asked.

“Who do you say I am?” *

Jesus here emphasizes the word “you.”

“Who do YOU say I am?”

This is the ultimate question that each person must come to ask themselves.

Those that thought that Jesus was simply a great prophet, teacher, even a political Messiah come to free Israel from Gentile control, were so close, and yet so very far from the truth.

There are entire churches that teach the Bible, the teachings of Jesus, and yet do not believe that Jesus was more than a man.

It’s amazing to watch around Christmas time as the Television specials try to answer the question, “Who is Jesus?”

Yet they never really answer the question.

The disciple Peter, the outspoken spokesman for the disciples, knew the right answer:

*16**Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” *

Peter, in the midst of the statues of dead, false gods lining the rocks as they walked by, Peter declared the ultimate truth – Jesus was the Christ, but not just a political Messiah, but the Son of the Living God.

Jesus was God! Peter, and I believe he represented the disciples here, finally was beginning to understand what Jesus had been teaching all along.

It seems so simple to us today, yet even today so many miss the true meaning of Jesus being both fully man and fully God.

Jesus was the only one who could bridge the gap caused by sin, and bring mankind back into relationship with a holy God.

*17**Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.

*

Peter might have initially have been proud of himself, giving himself a pat on the back for passing the test.

Jesus, however, puts it in perspective for us.

Actually this was God’s doing, not Peter’s.

Without God’s help, we can’t understand spiritual truth.

*1 Corinthians 2:14 says:*

*14**The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned./

/*

It is mind boggling, but God gets all the glory for Peter knowing the truth.

It is God that makes it possible to know the truth about Jesus, and it is through Jesus that we are able to know God.

Think about that for awhile.

The main thing to remember is that God always gets the glory, not us.

This really helps to understand the next verse:

*18**And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.

*

Here Jesus used a play on words.

Remember that they are at Caesarea Philippi, probably viewing the amazing rock formations and caves near there.

Now that the disciples have learned this key truth, Jesus was going to then teach them more.

The name Peter is Greek is Petros, meaning small stone.

The word for rock here is Petra, meaning a huge rock mountain.

In the midst of the rocks of Caesarea Philippi, and in view of Mount Hermon nearby, Jesus was making a reference to the massive truth that Peter and the disciples have finally understood.

On the truth that Jesus is God, Jesus will build His church.

This is the foundational truth of the church and the reason we are here to worship at Grace Bible Church this morning.

The truth that Jesus is God.

God Himself came, lived and died, and rose again so that we might know Him and receive eternal life by trusting Jesus as Savior and Lord.

There has been over the years a misunderstanding of this text, and the idea that Peter was somehow the foundation of the church.

Peter was a leader, but there is no evidence that Peter was the first pope, or that the entire church leadership was given to him or passed down from him.

These views give Peter the glory, which Jesus clearly did not do this.

The truth that Jesus is God is the foundational truth that Jesus then builds His church upon.