Jesus, the Son of God
April 10, 2011
The Story - 25
Today, we’re going to focus on the most important question you will ever answer in your life. How’s that for an opening sentence? The question . . . WHO IS JESUS? That’s a huge question. And in reality it is the most important question you will ever answer. It’s more important than who you are going to marry, or what you will do for a career, or how you will serve others, or even what you will eat for lunch after worship.
The reason it is so important, is that it has to do with your identity, who are you? To whom are you connected? What are you grounded in? What’s the rock you can hold onto? It also has to do with your direction in life . . . What are your goals? What are your dreams? The answer to the question also determines your purpose in life. What on earth am I supposed to do with my life? And finally, it answers the question about our eternity . . . where will I go when I die?
So, there are lots of things wrapped up in this very question and our answer to WHO IS JESUS?
If we Google, WHO IS JESUS? We end up with 190 million results. Can you imagine that! That’s doing lots of research about that question. The top sight is called Who is Jesus. And it asks, “Who is Jesus of Nazareth? Is Jesus Christ Lord, Liar or Lunatic? Is Jesus God? Is Jesus the Savior?” It’s actually a quote from C.S. Lewis.
The 2nd sight says, “Who Is Jesus? - The Bible states Jesus was 100% man and 100% God. It teaches that there is only one way to Heaven.” Okay, only have 189,999,998 more to go.
We find this question at the beginning of today’s study in Chapter 25. If you have your Bible, you can find it in Mark 8. As Jesus and His disciples are traveling, He approaches them with this very same question.
27 Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way He asked them, “Who do people say I am?”
28 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.”
29 Jesus asked, “But what about you? Who do you say I am?”
Peter answered, “You are the Messiah.”
Peter gave the right answer, but there’s more to the answer than we might want to deal with. Along with that answer comes what it would mean for Jesus to be the Messiah. Right after this great proclamation by Peter, Jesus kills the moment. Jesus began to teach them —
31 the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.
32 He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
33 But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”
Oh, how we don’t want to go down that road. We don’t want to deal with suffering. We don’t believe we should have to suffer. We’ll do most anything not to have to suffer. Let alone, the thought of Christ suffering for us. But Jesus was very clear in saying this is what it will mean for me to be your Savior.
Now the Bible is very clear that Jesus was going to suffer. He told us, and there are many passages in scripture which also tell us, the Messiah was going to suffer. Why? Why would the Messiah, this man named Jesus, have to suffer? We need to be clear on this point, especially with Easter just a couple of weeks away. Because we’re going to see how suffering relates to forgiveness and reconciliation, which is the very purpose and act of God.
Let’s say you want to borrow my watch. So, I tell you how precious my watch is, but I still let you borrow it. You go outside with it, and you forget your wearing it. You work on some machinery and it breaks. We’ve got a major problem now. So, here are some of our options . . .
You come to me and apologize, you feel terrible. Well, I’m furious, you broke my favorite $10 watch, it’s irreplaceable. But you tell me you will buy me a $15 watch, and I’m all happy.
Or a 2nd option is, I can be kinda sorta angry, but I can tell you it’s okay, mistakes happen. Don’t worry about it, I’ve got 5 other $10 watches.
A 3rd option would be that we could split the difference, you looked at the watch and thought it was a $5 watch, so you give me $5 and I put in $5, and I’ve got a new watch.
A 4th option would be you never talk to me again, you avoid me, because you don’t want to admit you broke my watch. A final option would be after you tell me you broke my watch, I never speak to you again.
5 options in dealing with one small issue. Remember, we’re only talking about my watch. But most hurts in life don’t center around material things, do they? We may get beaten up (physically or emotionally), get hurt becaues of gossip, lies and slander; and the list goes on.
Ultimately, I believe it boils down to 2 options when it comes to hurt . . . the first is, I’m really mad at you, so being filled with anger and resentment, I try to settle the score with you, I’m going to get back at you for hurting me. I work off the principle, “an eye for an eye.”
But that deosn’t really solve anything, does it? It just puts more fuel on the fire. In the long run, it doesn’t help anything. It creates more distance and there’s no reconciliation, there’s no new beginning in the relationship.
Or the 2nd option would be for me to forgive you. But, there’s a cost to forgiveness. There’s pain in forgiveness, sometimes there’s more pain in the initial process of forgiving, because I don’t get to get even with you. I can’t settle the score, and have to let go of that. Forgiveness is always a form of costly suffering.
If you hurt me, I’m the one who has to pay the price. You can say you’re sorry, you can ask for forgiveness, and you can really mean it, but the distance between us is not finally closed until I finally say, and mean it, “I forgive you.” Now, there’s a chance for reconciliation. I’ve said it before, if someone’s hurt you, you need to work through forgiveness, but you don’t have to be in relationship with them.
And the same thing happens between us and God, doesn’t it? We move off the path He wants us to be on and we need to turn back towards Him, repent, turn back to Him, and ask for forgiveness. Because when we’ve sinned, we’ve created a distance between ourselves and God.
And that sin grieves God. We moved away from God, separated ourselves from Him, and now when we come to God asking for forgiveness, it is God who had to suffer for us, so that we could find forgiveness. God, the Father made that sacrifice when He sent His Son, Jesus, into the world, for us. So we could be at one with God, reconciled, a new beginning, a new day, a new life, resurrection.
But this has to be more than head knowledge, so let me give you a story. I saw a story about a pastor named Paul Daheegua. He’s a pastor in Uganda. The title of his talk was “From Genocide to Forgiveness: How do you do it.” He talked about growing up in Uganda, and saw his father being killed by a rival tribe, when he was 7 years old. Then he and the rest of his family lived in a refugee camp for 10-12 years. He saw women he knew and loved, assaulted and abused. He said, you may read about genocide, but you will never know genocide.
He said he felt God calling him into ministry. He traveled all over the country and people came to hear him speak, but he said, he was faking it. He said his heart was hard, and bitter. There was no love or joy. He said it was like he was carrying around a bunch of luggage, 24 / 7. He knew that, but he said, he wasn’t ready to let go; and one day, God finally dealt with him, when he heard God telling him, ‘do you see Paul, how I have forgiven you.’
And it was like the light came on, and the Spirit came, and he could finally set the luggage down and he could forgive. He said, my heart was free and it was a new day for me. And now, he said, some members of this rival tribe call me their spiritual father. He said, that’s a miracle.
For some of us, this is how we’re moving through life. We’re getting around, but it’s hard, we’re putting on that plastic smiling face, but life is weary and wearing us down. And maybe, today is the day when you could just set some of this down and let go of it. I’m not saying it’s easy, because we’ve talked in the past about the cost of forgiveness, but it’s the best way to get to reconciliation and your freedom.
Have you heard the saying, ‘unforgiveness or resentment is like taking a daily dose of poison and hoping the other person dies.’ It doesn’t work.
Here’s the other thing . . . for Jesus to be the Messiah, it meant suffering and Sonship. This is part of the story of the transfiguration. When Jesus goes up the mountain with Peter, James and John, and Jesus meets with Moses and Elijah. Finally there is this voice from heaven . . . 7 Then a cloud appeared and covered them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased. Listen to him!” (Mark 9:7)
We need to remember that our theology must always be relational. We must be in relationship with God to experience God. It seems so simple, yet it’s so true and sometimes so difficult.
In our American culture, we don’t always think we need to be in relationship, sometimes we don’t want anything to tie us down. Or maybe we want the relationships, but we don’t want the baggage or luggage that comes along with it. So, we keep our distance.
But one of our greatest needs and longings is to be in relationship, and I believe we were all created to be in relationship with God. That’s where it starts. How does that happen? Well in John 1:12-13 we read ~ 12 To all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God —
13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
When we say, Jesus, you are my Messiah, you are my Lord, then He says ‘come on in to the family. You are a precious son or daughter.’ And whether we know it or not, or believe it or not, that satisfies some of our deepest needs for belonging and identity and security. It’s like the Father wrapping His arms around you, and remember the word Abba, it’s like your daddy, the King, the Father, wrapping His arms around you and welcoming you home.
And now that we have that love and forgiveness, all we need to do is hold onto it for ourselves and maybe give it to a select few, right? NO! We are called to go into the world and give it all away, just as Christ gave Himself for us. I’ve said this before, we may be the only Bible someone is ever going to read, so what Bible are they reading?
Are we extending our arms, as Christ did on the cross? Giving our grace, our love, our joy, extending forgiveness, serving others. That’s what we are to be about. It might seem like a lot, but once we’ve accepted these gifts from God, when we really understand and cherish them, then we are more willing to share these gifts, because we want others to be as blessed as we are.
Let me close with this last story, or admonition. Beware of being the pharisee. Do you remember the story of the prodigal son? It’s a great story in Luke 15. A younger son asked his father and received his inheritance early. He goes out and blows the money and comes to his senses and returns home to a very, very forgiving father. This forgiving father is a picture of our forgiving Father, God. But there’s an older brother, who’s a prodigal. He hears the party and asked what’s going on, and the servant says, ‘your brother’s back, we thought he was dead, but he’s home, and your daddy’s throwing him a huge party. Come on.’
The older brother’s angry. He confronts His father and demands to know why he would throw a party for that no good rotten brother, while he’s never been given a party. After all, he’s worked hard, he’s never taken a day off, he’s followed all of the rules and regulations that he thought needed to be followed to gain favor from the father. And now he’s wondering why there’s a party for ‘this son of yours.’
Do you hear the pharisee coming out. The blaming and condemning. This son of yours, you throw him a party. But the father responds, “but son, everything I have is yours.” Everything . . . everything is yours . . . my son.”
Do you hear that? He was a son, living in the father’s house, but he didn’t have the father’s heart. I want us to be aware of the potential hazards, when the father’s love is always ready to be given out. I want this to be a place of tender hearts, always. Humility, patience, grace, forgiveness and celebrations when those who were lost, return and come home.
Well, I think we’ve bitten off a lot this morning. Life is short, it goes by quickly. The older we get, the more we are aware of this. So, let me close with this —
We can go through life with Jesus or without Him. If we have Jesus, then we will find forgiveness and freedom and reconciliation. And there will be joy and a celebration about a fullness of life that we don’t have to wait for. So, who’s Jesus for you? It’s starts right here and right now.
