In my message last Sunday I talked about one of a teacher’s greatest teaching tools. What was it?
Right! ASKING QUESTIONS-
I pointed out that teachers USE questions either to REVIEW old material-which is what I just did-or to INTRODUCE new material-which is what I am about to do and I say that because this week I want to focus on another teaching tool that is employed by GOOD teachers-which is taking the necessary steps to insure the right classroom SETTING.
For example, I remember a time many years ago, when the Youth Sunday School lesson dealt with Christians in the early church who often met secretly in the dark catacombs beneath Rome-because during the reign of wicked emperors like Nero, it was illegal to proclaim a faith in Christ. In those horrible days Christians who would not renounce their faith were sacrificed to the lions in the Colosseum as a perverse form of entertainment or they were doused in oil, impaled on poles, and then set on fire to illuminate the pathways of Nero’s gardens.
Well, to help the teens get in the right mind set to study this era of church history, I bought a bunch of black plastic and used it to seal all the windows-such that the youth department space was pitch black like a catacomb. Then I lit a few candles and had teachers at the doors whispering-cautioning teens to be quiet. I did all this so that when they came in their Sunday School class that morning THE SETTING would be right to talk about early Christians who often gathered in dark places so they could safely worship the Light of the World. And it worked-the normal boisterous teens were quiet and those who usually acted bored were wide-awake with expectation.
Well, this helped me to learn that setting IS important-In fact, it can make or break a lesson. And, this is especially true when it comes to ASKING QUESTIONS. You see, WHERE a teacher asks questions determines to a great degree not only IF the students will answer but also HOW they will answer. For example the best place to ask a class full of aspiring marine biologists questions about the ocean is at the seashore. The best place to ask a class full of future astronomers questions about the universe is on a starry night with a big telescope close at hand.
Well, as the MASTER teacher, Jesus of course frequently used this powerful teaching tool-and a great example of this is found in Matthew 16.
Now, of course it would help our study of this text if we could actually experience the same setting this morning that the disciples did when Jesus originally taught this “lesson”-but we can’t do that so I’d like to attempt to describe the time and place such that you can build a fairly good MENTAL IMAGE of the setting. My goal is for us all to be able to imagine ourselves along side Peter and James and John and the others sitting at Jesus’ feet so that we can learn the same vital truths that they learned that day long ago.
Okay, the first thing you need to know to build your mental image is that this particular teaching took place about two and a half years into Jesus’ earthly ministry. That would mean that the cross was only six months away and knowing this Jesus realized that it was important for Him to have some quality time alone with His disciples to help prepare them for what was to come. I mean, time was growing short and He had to make sure they understood Who He was, why He had been born, and what was about to be done to Him.
Well, the setting Jesus chose for this crucial teaching time was the district of Caesarea Philippi, which lies about 25 miles north-east of the Sea of Galilee. I visited there with some of you back in 1994-and I remember it being up in the hills about 9,000 feet above sea level which made it a much cooler climate than the Galilean lowlands. Another thing to add to your mental imagery is this-Caesarea Philippi is where the Jordan river has it’s source as a babbling, spring-fed brook and so to me, the place was like the Smoky Mountains. In fact when I was there 9 years ago it was sort of a state park filled with evergreens. There were people grilling burgers and families enjoying picnics on the banks of the Jordan.
And with the cool, fresh mountain air and the stream and the spectacular views-well, even back then I imagine this was sort of a “weekend getaway” kind of place. So perhaps the disciples themselves were in a holiday mood that day-anticipating a couple days in the mountains alone with Jesus.
And they would indeed have been alone because back then the population in Caesarea Philippi was mainly non-Jewish so there would have been no interruptions by multitudes clamoring for Jesus’ attention nor would He have to worry about the Jewish religious leaders who by this time were looking for any opportunity to find and arrest Him. All this is to say that, by hiking up to Caesarea Philippi, our Lord would indeed have had much-needed, quality time with His “students.” Another thing you need to know to get your “mental picture” accurate is that in Jesus’ day the hills of the Caesarea Philippi area were scattered with TEMPLES of ancient Syrian Baal worship.
As many as 14 such temples would have littered the landscape. And, not only were Syrian gods worshiped there-there was also a cavern nearby that was said to have been the birthplace of the Greek god Pan-the “god” of nature. I remember seeing it myself and hearing our tour guide tell us that because of this, Caesarea Philippi was originally called “Panias.” And then, another huge temple would have stood there in Jesus’ day built out of white marble by Herod the Great and dedicated to the worship of Augustus Caesar.
Now-with all this information in your mind’s eye listen to the gospel record of what happened that day. I’m reading Matthew 16, verses 13-20.
13 – When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”
14 – They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; an still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
15 – “But what about you?” He asked, “Who do you say I am?”
16 – Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”
17 – Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, for this was not reveled to you by man, but by My Father in heaven.
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.
19 – I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
20 – Then He warned His disciples not to tell anyone that He was the Christ.
Now understand what Jesus has done. Our Lord stood in this setting-a place that was literally crowded with temples dedicated to the worship of Syrian, Greek, and Roman “gods” and He asked His students Who they believed Him to be-wanting them to realize that He was in fact the one TRUE God in the flesh-the long-awaited Messiah.
To me, it seems as if Jesus deliberately set Himself against the background of the world’s religions in all their history and splendor-and demanded to be compared with them and to have the verdict given in His favor. Do you see what I mean? With this setting as a backdrop, He forced His “class” to wrestle with vital questions like: “Who is the real God?” “Who is worthy of adoration and worship?” In essence Jesus said, “Guys, look around at the magnificence of all these temples to all these ‘gods’ and then look at Me. Who is right? Who is the truth-Me or the ‘gods’ of one of these temples?”
Does this help you to see the importance of setting for this particular classroom “session?” It was because coming here helped force the disciples to deal with this issue and they needed to do so because, as I alluded to earlier, this was the CLIMAX of Jesus’ teaching ministry. I mean, all the “lessons” over the past 2.5 years-all the miracles-everything that Jesus had done and said had been in preparation for this moment. So you could say that this “classroom time in the mountains” was in effect, the disciples’ “final examination” that consisted of only one question-worth 100 points. No pressure, but get it right you pass with an “A+”-get it wrong and you get a “0!”
Well, if you look back at your text you’ll see that Jesus eased them into this “final exam” with another question-sort of a practice test to get them warmed up for the real thing. In verse 13 He asked, “Who do PEOPLE say that the Son of Man is? What are the crowds saying about Me?” Now, Jesus knew the answer to this question (no teacher worth his salt asks a question unless he does!) And Jesus did. He knew what people were saying about Him but He wanted the Twelve to think carefully about those popular perceptions as a way of building a foundation for their own conclusions.
So, please understand, when Jesus asked this first question He didn’t do so as an insecure leader seeking to learn how He stood in the public opinion polls. No-it was a probing question designed to determine the extent to which His students had discovered the true nature of His ministry and message.
Well, I think there was a moment of silence that day as the disciples considered how to reply. I mean, all of them knew what the crowds were saying-and they ALSO knew that some people were saying things were not at all complimentary. Remember? Jesus had been called a wine-bibber and a glutton, a blasphemer, a false prophet-He had even been labeled a madman-but the disciples didn’t share any of these “negative reviews” with Jesus. No-instead they exercised some tact and only told Him the compliments people were paying Him. And don’t misunderstand me, MOST of the people were not criticizing Jesus. The multitudes who had witnessed Jesus’ miracles had high opinions of Him and this is what some of the twelve began to report.
For example, one disciple pointed out that many believed Jesus was John the Baptist reincarnated-come back from the grave to continue his ministry of announcing the Messiah while criticizing the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees. Another disciple shared the fact that many people believed Jesus was Elijah-considered by some Jews to be the supreme Old Testament prophet. The people knew that Malachi had prophesied (Mal. 4:5) that Elijah would return before “the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord.” In fact, to this day 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. Another disciple shared that some people said Jesus was Jeremiah. And they held this opinion because according to 2 Maccabees legend had it that Jeremiah had taken the Ark of the covenant and the altar or incense out of the Temple and hidden them both somewhere on Mt. Nebo in order to preserve them from desecration and destruction by the Babylonians. 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.
So the people who said these things were paying Jesus wonderful compliments-I mean they were comparing Him to the some of the greatest prophets and teachers God had ever sent. They were indeed giving Jesus high praise, but not HIGH ENOUGH because in their minds none of these three of prophets were the Messiah but rather just one of the Messiah’s forerunners who had come back to life with God-given miraculous powers.
And this way of thinking is nothing new. Since Jesus’ day much of the world has wanted to speak highly of Jesus without recognizing His deity and lordship.
I mean, most people in our day and age will admit that Jesus was a great man-that He was a great teacher-they will admire His Sermon on the Mount. But they will not concede that He was the Christ-the Son of God, the only Way to Heaven. A few years ago, Newsweek’s cover story was, “The Other Jesus” and it listed the opinions that OTHER FAITHS have when it comes to Jesus Christ. Here are some excerpts:
“MUSLIMS recognize Our Lord as a great prophet. They even revere Him as the Son of Mary-the only woman mentioned by name in the Koran.
Many JEWS see Christ as an “admirable Jew” but not as the Son of God.
BUDDHISTS depersonalize the Jesus Who walked this earth and transform Him into a figure more like the Buddha.
Some regard Him as a bodhisattva, a perfectly enlightened being Who vows to help others.
Many HINDUS are drawn to Jesus because of His compassion and His devotion to nonviolence but they find the notion of a single god unnecessarily restrictive.”
So, the opinion of the multitudes of Jesus’ day is not that different than the opinion of many people today. They thought that Jesus was great-but not great enough. To many of them, He was just another great teacher come from God. But that day in Caesarea Philippi, Jesus wanted His “students” to realize that in Him God had done something different. He wanted them to see that He was not just another teacher come from God. He was God come to teach! He was God in the flesh-the long-awaited Messiah!
And at first it looked like none of them had grasped this vital truth.
I don’t know about you but in my mind’s eye I see each of the disciples sharing an answer to Jesus’ question: “John the Baptist?” “Elijah?” “Jeremiah?” “One of the other prophets?” each expecting a “You’re right! You get an ‘A’!” response from Jesus but instead they got a look on His face told them their answer was not correct. Well, after an uncomfortable silence, Jesus spoke again and I think the intonation of the next question was almost impossible to capture. I mean, to me Jesus was demanding, yet reassuring-blunt, yet warm-confrontational, yet inviting as He asked, “What about you? Who do YOU say that I am?”
Now please understand-no one on the planet at that time was more qualified to answer that question than these 12 men. After all, unlike the multitudes, they had been with Jesus 24-7 for two and a half years. They had heard Him teach-seen all His miracles. I mean, they were the star witnesses of Jesus’ life up until that point. Over the past 2.5 years at times He had shocked them. At times He thrilled them. At other times He filled them with awe and wonder. Remember? The things He said and did led them to whisper to each other, “What manner of man is this!?” Well the time had come for them to CONFESS their opinion as to what manner of man He was-I mean it was time to fish or cut bait-it was time for them to take a personal stand-so Jesus looked each of His students in the eye and asked this all-important “final-exam” question.
And, I think that when He did, while the other disciples were still processing the question like scared schoolboys, Peter spoke up and said what? “You are the Christ-the Son of the Living God!”
And when He said this, I imagine a glow of pride showed on Jesus’ face that said, “YES! CORRECT! YOU GOT IT RIGHT PETER! YOU GET AN A+!” Now, think of it Peter-who usually opened his mouth only to change feet-Peter moved to the head of the class and got it right! For once he said the right thing at the right time!
And it was indeed the RIGHT THING because in his well-worded reply Peter forcefully, confidently expressed two foundational Christian truths. First he identified Jesus as the Messiah, the One Who was to reign forever on the throne of His great ancestor David. Second, and even more important, Peter identified Jesus as divine, the SON OF THE LIVING GOD! And I must point out that this was indeed a forceful confession. In fact the Greek it could not have been more so. This was no half-hearted reply. Peter obviously believed what He said that day! I mean it is only ten words but in those ten words Peter used the definite article four times. It would literally be translated like this: “You are THE Christ, THE Son of THE God, THE living One!”
Now, let’s move from that classroom setting to our own because Jesus question that day is one that we must answer as well. All of us must do so.
Jesus doesn’t care about public opinion on this issue-He only cares about YOUR opinion. He wants an answer from you on this and you can’t avoid giving it. I mean on some tests teachers tell you to skip over the questions you don’t understand and move on because answering wrong will hurt your score more than leaving it blank will. I think the SAT is set up that way. But this test is not like that-no, we all must answer personally. As Paul says in Romans 10-9-10, “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 moth that YOU confess and are saved.”
And we MUST consider HOW we will reply because this is the ULTIMATE QUESTION of life. I say this because how we answer determines so much: our relationship to God, our capacity to experience real, abundant life, our character and our conduct, our capacity to truly love, our courage in the face fo death, not to mention where we will spend eternity.
Now, I realize that most of you present today have made the same confession Peter made. You’ve answered the ULTIMATE QUESTION of life and you’ve done so correctly. You have affirmed that Jesus is indeed, “…the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” But I still want us to take a few moments to focus on this question a little longer for two reasons: First of all, many of you may have friends or family members who even now are struggling to answer this question and perhaps our study this morning will help you to help them. I pray it does! And second, there may indeed be an individual present today who has not yet confessed their faith in Jesus Christ-they’re still wrestling with this issue.
And if that applies to you I am praying right now that today will be the day of your salvation as you join with the rest of us in confessing YOUR faith in Jesus as Savior and Lord!
Now, as we continue our study, I want us to note that Jesus AFFIRMED Peter’s response-and in so doing He claimed to be the long-awaited Messiah-God in the flesh.
But, as the annals of History record, Jesus was not alone in making this claim. Others have stated that they were the Messiah as well. For example as Lee Strobel reports in The Case for Christ, there was a man named Sabatai Zebi, born in 1626, the son of a chicken farmer. Sabatai was manic-depressive with a mesmerizing speaking style and in 1648 he declared he was the Messiah, the one and only way to God. A few years later he married a Polish prostitute, and attracted thousands of followers with his teaching that sexual promiscuity and nudity were virtues. In 1666 however, he was arrested by Turkish authorities on charges of trying to overthrow the sultan. He was given a choice: be tortured to death or become a Muslim. Without batting an eye, he renounced Judaism for the faith of Mohammed and took the name Mahmed Effendi. So much for HIS messianic ambitions.
Another example is Jemima Wilkenson, born in 1752 to a Quaker family in Rhode Island. She used to tell people she had died when she was twenty years old but God had resurrected her. She ended up with more than 200 fiercely loyal disciples who believed that she was their ticket to God. One day she was on the banks of a lake and announced that she was going to walk across the water just as Jesus did. She turned to her followers and asked, “DO you believe I can? They chanted, “Yes! Yes!” Then she said, “Well then in that case there’s no need for me to actually do it” and she walked home on dry land. I’m not sure that bolstered the faith of her flock and it didn’t help with she died in 1820 and they followed her instructions not to bury her because she was going to rise again. As her body slowly decomposed, the remainder of her sect drifted away.
There were others. Henry James Price claimed to be God three years after being ordained as an Anglican minister in England but despite his claims of immorality, he died in 1899. And this was nothing new even in Jesus’ day, because there had been numerous false messiahs then as well.
But Jesus was different-and Peter knew that because Jesus not only CONTENDED that HE was the Way, the Truth, and the Life-He also had the CREDENTIALS to back it all up.
1. For example, every ATTRIBUTE OF GOD is found in Jesus Christ and you can’t say that about any other man or woman who has ever lived or ever will live.
The New Testament clearly teaches this. Let’s review the God’s attributes or characteristics and you’ll see what I mean.
A. Let’s begin with His OMNISCIENCE-the fact. Well, in John 16:30, the apostle John said to Jesus “Now we can see that You know all things.” In John 2:25 it says, “Jesus did not need anyone to testify concerning man for He Himself knew what was in man.” In Mark 2:8 Jesus was facing the criticism of the scribes and Pharisees and it says, “Immediately Jesus knew what they were thinking.” So, like God-Jesus was-and IS-omniscient or all-knowing.
B. What about OMNIPRESENCE-being all places at the same time?
Well, Jesus said in Matthew 28:20, “Surely I am with you always to the very end of the age” and in Matthew 18:20, “Where two or three come together in My name, there am I with them.”
Christians down through the ages would testify that they have experienced Jesus tangible presence all over this world.
C. Let’s move on to OMNIPOTENCE-was Jesus all-powerful like our almighty God?
Again, I would say yes because during His life Jesus demonstrated power over nature by stilling the stormy waves (Mark 4:39) and by turning water into wine (John 2:7-11). He showed that He had power over physical disease and power over the spirit world of demons. In fact Jesus both claimed and proved that He had the authority and power to raise the dead. In fact, He “ruined” every funeral He attended by raising the corpse back to life. And, of course we join billions of Christians around the world each Easter in celebrating the fact that Jesus Himself rose from the dead on the third day such that as the hymn says, “…death could not keep his prey: Jesus, my Savior! He tore the bars away, Jesus my Lord.” So, in His earthly ministry Jesus showed that just as He said in Matthew 28, “All authority in heaven and earth” had been given to Him.
D. Well, what about the ETERNALITY OF GOD?
I mean, like God almighty, has Jesus always existed? John 1:1 affirms that He has because it says of Jesus, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
E. ONE MORE-GOD’S IMMUTABILITY-the fact that He does not change.
This also applies to Jesus because as Hebrews 13:8 says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.” So, Jesus had all the attributes of God to back up His claim to be the Messiah.
2. And then unlike any other person claiming to be the Messiah Jesus fulfilled all the PROPHECIES concerning the Christ.
Now, these prophecies were very specific. They said the genuine Messiah would be born of a virgin in Bethlehem, that He would be a descendant of Abraham Isaac, and Jacob, from the tribe of Judah and the house of David..that He would be betrayed by a friend, that in His death He would be pierced in the hands and feet…and that the Messiah would rise from the dead.
By the way, the prophecy that spoke of His hands and feet being pierced accurately described crucifixion hundreds of years before it had been invented!
Well, in all there were 60 major Messianic prophesies with 270 ramifications-and each of them were perfectly fulfilled in the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus the Christ. As Lee Strobel points out this makes Jesus a perfect match for the Messiah just as conclusively as a fingerprint can precisely identify one person out of every other person ever born. Now, I know that many of you have heard of various ways to illustrate the statistical probability of one person fulfilling all these prophecies but this week I read of another one. And, it was developed by University mathematician Peter Stoner who has written a book entitled, Science Speaks. In this book he has conservatively calculated that the likelihood of any one person throughout history fulfilling just 48 of the Messianic prophecies would be one chance in ten to the 157th power. To comprehend the magnitude of this number-you need to understand that an atom is so small that it takes a million of them lined up to equal the width of a human hair. Well, the odds of Jesus fulfilling 48 of these prophesies would be the same as my being able to find one specific predetermined atom among a trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, billion universes the size of ours.
So, I would say that Peter was right to be so confident in His confession because all this PROVES that Jesus was Who He said He was-the Christ, the Son of the Living God!
3. But I also want to point out that in the end answering this ULTIMATE question correctly is not a matter of PROOF. No, it’s a matter of God’s REVELATION and our faith-filled RESPONSE.
You see, Peter’s conviction did not come through His figuring all this out. As Jesus said, it was Peter’s response to a revelation from God through His Holy Spirit. And it is the same with us. We don’t arrive at a proper concept of Jesus just through the reason of the mind. The truth is He’s too vast for our feeble minds to comprehend. No, instead we become aware of Him through the whisperings of the Spirit of God in our hearts. You see, the Christian religion is not DISCOVERED by man; it is REVEALED by God. We don’t come to know God by EXPLAINING Him but rather by EXPERIENCING Him. So-just like Peter we make our confession of faith in Jesus as a response to God’s voice in our hearts.
Now, what happens if we do? Well, we know the Bible teaches we are given forgiveness of our sins and the promise of eternal life…
…but that’s not all because Jesus told Peter there was more-Our Lord said that because of Peters confession Jesus would use Him to build His church!
Look once more at Jesus’ words in verse 18. He said, “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.”
Now, I would disagree with our Catholic brothers who interpret this statement to mean that Peter was the first Pope, because that’s not what Jesus said. No, the Greek word for “Peter” is “petros” and the Greek word here for “church” is “petra.” Now, a “petra” was a large ledge of rock and a “petros” was a small stone broken off the large stone and partaking in its nature. So Peter wasn’t the first pope-but rather the first Christian-the first building block in the building. As Peter Himself said in 1 Peter 2:7 the church is built not on him but on Jesus-Who is the Capstone. All Christians are building blocks of His church. That’s what we become them when we confess Jesus as Messiah and Lord! Ephesians 2:20-22 says, “We are built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus Himself as the chief cornerstone. In Him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in Him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit.”
As part of the church, Peter would have the privilege of being the instrument through which God’s will would be done in this world. And this promise applies to all Christians. We are given the keys to the kingdom, the privilege of sharing the good news of the Gospel. And there is no more exciting life to be had! Nothing is more fulfilling that being the hands and feet of God. You see as the church that is exactly what we are-His body-His hands and feet-we are the flesh and blood Jesus is using to accomplish His eternal purposes. Brian Harbour writes, “The church is heart through which Christ loves, the voice through which Christ speaks, the hands through which Christ helps, the body through which Christ works.”
God uses us-HIS CHURCH-to tell the world that Jesus has conquered sin and death-that He has provided THE WAY for us to have eternal life-and this is news that all mankind needs to hear for it frees them from the fear of death itself. You know, we live in D.C -the place most people think of as being the most powerful place on earth. But they are wrong. I mean, those congressmen and senators-those supreme court justices-even our wonderful president-all these politicians can to is rearrange the yard markers on the playing field of life. They can’t change a human heart. They can’t heal a wounded soul. They can’t turn hatred into love. They can’t bring about repentance, forgiveness, reconciliation, peace. Only one power on this planet can do these things-and it is the power of the love of Jesus Christ, the love that conquers sin and wipes out shame and heals wounds and reconciles enemies and patches broken dreams and ultimately CHANGES the world one life at a time.
And the thing that makes my life fulfilling and exciting is this knowledge that, as Jesus told Peter that day in Caesarea Philippi…this radical message of transforming love has been given to the church, to Christians-“petros” like you and me! The future of the world rests in the hands of local congregations like ours. We are where the rubber meets the road, people!
Okay-my watch tells me that this class session is about over. But as we prepare to leave, I would ask you all once more, WHO DO YOU SAY JESUS IS? Have you confessed with your mouth and believed in your heart that He is the Christ, the SON of the living God? If you haven’t then do so-right now-and in a moment come and tell me. Make your confession a public one just like Peter did. And then, you who have already answered this “final exam question of life” correctly, I would ask you, IS GOD CALLING YOU TO SERVE HIM HERE IN THIS CHURCH? If so, won’t you come and publically commit to do so by joining our fellowship? We stand and sing to give you an opportunity to make public decisions like these. Won’t you come now as God leads?