Matthew 16:13-20
Paonia United Methodist Church
August 21, 2005
Ever had a job evaluation?
What goes through your mind when you walk in
To your annual evaluation?
I still get the same butterflies that I did
When I was 10 and mom and dad left for
Meet the creature night at elementary school.
What are they going to say about me?
How long am I going to be grounded when mom and dad come home?
That was the real question.
I wasn’t’ so much worried about what the teacher thought,
After all, it was my God given right and duty to torment them on a daily basis,
My concern was the consequences when my parents came home.
Now that I have had the chance to be on the receiving end of that recently,
I feel like going to see all my old teachers and apologizing to them.
But, the awkwardness of the annual evaluation is always there.
You never know what to expect when you open the door.
Will it be fair?
Will it be more about the evaluator than the evaluatee?
Even if evaluations have always been good,
That childhood sense of doom still is there when
You are waiting for the jury to return.
Thankfully, this is one more experience that Jesus had as well
so when we pray to him , he understands it at a personal level.
This morning, we get to listen in on his job evaluation
From the disciples.
Matthew 16:13-20
13When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?"
14They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets."
15"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?"
16Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ,[a] the Son of the living God."
17Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. 18And I tell you that you are Peter,[b] and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades[c] will not overcome it.[d] 19I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be[e] bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be[f] loosed in heaven." 20Then he warned his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ.
This is the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Well, there is was…
The big interview.
The disciples had all seen the miracles, the feeding of the 5000, walking on water,
Healing the Caananite woman’s daughter, etc. etc. etc.
Well, what do you think?
Have you been paying attention?
Actually, he starts off easy on them.
He doesn’t just ask who am I…
But he asks, who do others say I am?
Have you ever noticed how people talk about themselves in the third person?
It is a lot easier to speak of yourself in the third person because
You do not have to own your own words.
Its one thing to say…
People really struggle with their faith.
Its something else to say…
I struggle with my faith.
The thing is, it usually means the same thing.
When Jesus asks, who do people say I am?
And he gets…
John the Baptist, Jeremiah, and Elijah as the answer,
You can just about bet that these were their answers.
That’s the best they could come up with.
So far, the job review isn’t going too well.
So, Jesus bumps it up a notch.
Who do you say I am?
Take ownership.
Make a statement.
Make a claim for your own faith life.
Own your own words.
And, something wonderful happens.
The bumbling buffoon finally gets it right
Peter actually says something right for a change!
You are the Christ, the son of the living God.
Go Peter!
Finally got one.
And, he is the only one who gets it right of the 12.
The rest are still suck on the first question.
And, here is what Jesus says…
Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. 18And I tell you that you are Peter,[b] and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades[c] will not overcome it.[d] 19I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be[e] bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be[f] loosed in heaven."
Pretty good Peter.
Looks like you have finally come into your own.
The guy who is always goofing up finally professes Jesus
As the Christ.
Jesus responds by saying upon this rock he will build the church.
Wouldn’t it be great if the conversation ended there.
Unfortunately, Peter couldn’t leave well enough alone,
And three verses later Jesus is calling him Satan.
We will deal with that one next week.
Poor Peter, finally gets a break, and finds a way to
Mess that up too.
But, for this week, we are going to stick with his good moment.
He gets it right, and Jesus is happy with him.
However, if we walked away from the story here,
We would miss the point of the whole thing.
This really is not about Peter.
Yes, he gets the question right, but how?
How does he get what the others seems to have missed?
What makes him special?
Think about it.
If you were to ask this same question today…
Who do you say that Jesus is?, what kind of answers do you think you
Would get?
Perhaps, a great teacher or prophet – maybe a strange doctor, a rebel.
Some might say that Jesus was not sinless or perfect but a good, moral person.
Most would say he was an all around great guy,
But bow many would claim him to be the Son of God,
The Messiah, the one sent to redeem the world from it sin?
One of the questions asked in seminary was,
“what is the absolute threshold, the minimum belief and faith
to call oneself a Christian?”
One person answered, “The incarnation and resurrection.”
Actually, I was impressed.
Not a bad answer.
God came to earth through Jesus,
Was killed, and was raised to life.
That would be the minimum.
Sadly, there were a number who chimed in…
“I don’t believe that.”
What?
You are the future clergy!
What do you have to offer if not the living Jesus?
A philosophy?
There are plenty of those around.
Some really good ones actually.
Some philosophies that make a lot more sense than Christianity.
I think I would choose Buddhism over Christianity’s substitutionary atonement
If it was just about choosing a world view philosophy.
The problem with that is God has chosen to reveal himself
Through Jesus and still does to this day.
He isn’t playing “Let’s make a deal”
When it comes to worldviews.
He offered us Jesus and said, “This is the deal.”
Peter figured it out.
How did he do it?
Well, this is really at the heart of this text.
Something did indeed set apart Peter from the rest of the disciples.
He managed to get something that they didn’t.
He is the first of the disciples to figure out
What the rest of them had missed.
How did he do it?
Well, we are given that in the text as well.
“Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man,
but by my Father in heaven.”
Did you catch that?
Even though Peter is being praised here,
Guess what?
He isn’t even responsible for it.
He does not even get to claim ownership of the right
Answer.
Jesus tells him that it wasn’t something he put together,
But it was a gift from God.
A gift.
Everybody catch that?
There is a word for gifts from God.
Know what that word is?
Anyone?
Its called Grace.
It’s a word that gets used often enough that we sometimes
forget the depth of its meaning.
A gift from God is grace.
A gift from God is a miracle.
Grace is a miracle.
If you ever thought that grace was cheap,
Let me dispel that for you right now.
It’s the only way to come to know God.
Think being a good person is enough?
You aren’t reading the text.
The only way to be a part of the rock on which
God will build his church it to open yourself to his grace.
We, as Methodists, even have a word for it.
John Wesley called it Prevenient Grace.
Prevenient Grace is the grace that God gives to the lost
That they might recognize their needful state and repent.
No one is self righteous before God.
We all come as beggars.
We are so helpless in our needfulness, that we do not even
Recognize the depth of our need.
God has to do even that for us.
Prevenient grace.
Say it with me one time.
Take it home with you.
That’s it.
Sounds easy right?
So, why does only one in 12 get it?
I mean, if a successful job review means getting everyone on board,
1 in 12 is not so good.
Obviously there is a problem.
Something is getting in the way.
What?
This is the biggy.
The grand daddy pooh bah sin that we all struggle with and God hates the most.
It’s the one that got Lucifer voted off the island with a third
Of the holy angels bringing up the rear.
Know what its called?
Let’s hear it.
Pride. Hubris. Arrogance. Smugness. Conceit.
Oh yeah. The big one.
If you have to tell people who you are,
Than you are not.
If you have to tell God how great you are,
You are already doomed.
Pride hardens hearts,
Cuts off communication,
Blinds us to our own fallibility.
And, ultimately, keeps us from finding our savior.
Peter, the bumbling boob, manages to get his confession right,
And suddenly he is the rock the church will be built upon.
Think that is a coincidence?
I think Peter got it right because he was the bumbling boob.
Talk about a guy in need of grace.
And, the good news, is that he knew it too.
You know, that’s the funny thing about Christianity…
The greater you think you are, the less likely you are
to ever meet your maker on good terms.
Am I telling you that you are called to self loathing?
No.
You are created in the image of God.
God created the world, and it was good.
You are a part of that.
But the humility to recognize your need for your savior
Is absolutely required in order to meet him.
Think you got it all together?
You don’t.
Think you are in control of your world?
Your not.
Think you are a good person and that is enough?
You can try it, but I wouldn’t advise it.
Want to experience God?
It begins by recognizing and confessing your need first.
Jesus asks, “Who am I?”
What is your answer?
