Finding Purpose in a Broken World | Sunday, January 10, 2021

When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked the disciples, saying, "Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?" So they said, "Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." ... Simon Peter answered and said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus answered and said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it." (Matthew 16:13-19)

The same fears that drive us to anxiety can be the very things that drive us to our knees—and to the question Jesus still asks: "Who do you say that I am?"

Welcome to 2021

Welcome to 2021. I look forward to the day we're meeting face-to-face again, and it's been great to see some of you on the patio on Sunday nights. I'd like to say this year will be a lot different than last, that there are signs making me positive about returning to normal. That can sound negative, but I don't mean it that way. The things that challenge our world, that cause fear, anxiety, and anger, are often the very things that drive us toward Christ—asking God not just why, but how, and what we should be doing.

This morning we're in Matthew 16, verses 13 through 19, and we'll jump around a little. Jesus asks a question of His disciples that you will have to repeat to yourself: Who do you say that I am?

The World Then Was No Easier Than Now

As we get into the Word, we need to realize what was going on when Jesus had this exchange. The current events back then were serious. People were afraid; fear was an everyday way of life. COVID is a real factor in how we live today, but in those days they had none of the modern medical miracles we have. Death and disease were an everyday reality. Their expectation was not ours. We expect to go to a hospital and be healed; they expected people to die, and they saw it frequently.

Finances? Many lived a hand-to-mouth, day-to-day existence. There were no long-term financial plans or 401ks. They weren't concerned with the finances of the nation—just their own meager survival. There were plagues, leprosy, and health issues that were death sentences. Politics? That's a joke. They were simply subject to whatever was put before them in Israel 2,000 years ago.

Many of the same concerns we have today were concerns they had then, but they were far worse off and had little power to do anything about them. Why mention this? Because the Bible is current. It addresses everything we're going through today. We are not experiencing anything our brothers and sisters did not experience 2,000 years ago, and we need to keep that in perspective.

The Setting at Caesarea Philippi

Jesus is at Caesarea Philippi, a beautiful spot today with trout ponds and a national park. But where He is speaking stands in front of a large cavern that local legend called Sheol, the gates to hell—the very shaft to hell. It wasn't, in reality, but that's what it was known for, and it would resonate with the people. When Jesus talks about His gospel, He literally says the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. That was not a defensive statement; it was that even the gates of hell could not keep the gospel out.

He has just fed the 5,000—a mighty miracle—and has warned the disciples to beware the leaven of the Pharisees. Part of that leaven was their legalism, but much of it was the expectation that a political Messiah would emerge to restore Israel to its former power and cast out the Romans. That powerful Davidic leader would somehow fix their political and day-to-day world. But that was their intention, not God's. What we learn here is that some of the things we want to do to make our world right are not necessarily right or beneficial in God's realm.

"Who Do Men Say That I Am?"

In verse 13, Jesus asks, "Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?" They answer: some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. These answers are hard to comprehend—they seem like reincarnation or another spirit indwelling Jesus—but none of them acknowledge Him for who He is and what He came to do. They're skewed. They relegate Him to the status of a prophet, giving Him no more credit than that, even after the mighty miracles He had done.

The religious Jews thought Jesus was a heretic, a loony, a cult leader. The Romans thought He was an insurrectionist who would lead a rebellion—one of the accusations used to push Pilate toward the execution.

Lord, Lunatic, or Liar

Here is a quote from Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis that is important, because so many people appreciate a Jesus who is a good teacher or a good man but won't accept His Messiahship, His being God in human form:

I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: "I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God." That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the devil of hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon, or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.

Powerful words that leave us with a choice. People have no problem with Jesus the "healing hippie"—the long flowing hair, the lamb, the children, the kind words. But when Jesus says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me," that is an exclusive claim. That is a claim of Messiahship, and people have an issue with it. When we look at the narrow road of salvation and what Scripture calls sin, so much of it can be construed today as hateful or hate speech. Jesus' claim to be Messiah leaves no wiggle room. He is either Messiah or He is not.

Jesus' Power Over Sickness

The Bible tells us that if we confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in our hearts that God has raised Him from the dead, we will be saved. In our day-to-day lives we see people terrified of being sick—right now it's COVID, and who knows what it will be in the future. People in Jesus' day were afraid of pestilence, plague, leprosy, and sickness too. But we need not be afraid, because Jesus has power over sickness and death.

In Matthew 8 a centurion—a pagan, not yet a Christian, but putting his faith in Jesus—comes and says his servant is sick and needs healing. Jesus gathers His things to go, but the centurion stops Him: "You don't need to come there. Just speak the word and my servant will be healed. I'm a man of authority. I say to a man, 'Go,' and he goes. I know what authority looks like, and I know You have authority over sickness and death." Jesus turns to the crowd of devout religious people and says, "I haven't seen faith like this in all of Israel." Then He reveals that people like that centurion will sit at the table with Him in heaven—a shocker for everyone in the room.

In Matthew 9 a ruler comes asking Jesus to heal his dying daughter. On the way she dies, and the mourners wail and lament. Jesus tells them to be quiet and leave, saying she is only sleeping. They mock and scoff, but He goes in and raises her from the dead—proving again that He is the Messiah with power over sickness and over death. His miracles should make us acknowledge who He is.

My Friend Jesus

The other day, during a Sunday evening devotion, my cell phone rang and the name that came up was "Jesus." A little advice: if Jesus ever calls your phone, pick it up. It turned out to be my friend Jesus, a sport fishing boat captain. He knew about God—he knew the claims of God—but had no personal walk or relationship with Him.

He had recently received a diagnosis of brain cancer. He had gone from a retired life, starting to enjoy the fruit and relaxation of retirement, into a diagnosis of cancer. As more bad news came, he began to call out for God, and we exchanged texts and calls. That call during the service was to tell me he had given his life wholeheartedly to the Lord. The things he described experiencing—God pouring into him—were none other than the Holy Spirit changing his life. As he walked through one of the most horrible medical trials anyone could face, God was doing a fantastic work in his heart and in those around him. He went from a man who knew about God to a man who deeply knew and trusted God.

Nobody would ever ask to go through cancer. But in God's economy, it was the greatest thing in the world, because it drove one of His children into communion with Him. Jesus, my friend, came to know how much God loved and cared for him. Remember: what is sometimes bad in our economy is not bad in God's economy.

Anger and the Kingdoms of This World

One only has to turn on the news to get very angry, most often about politics. We get discouraged by who's in power, who said what, and how things contrary to Scripture are taken for good while the good things of Scripture are called evil. It's frustrating—but we don't need to be frustrated, discouraged, and angry.

Jesus demonstrates His lack of concern for the kingdoms of this world in the garden. Betrayed by a friend, when the priests and soldiers come to take Him away, a sword comes out—Peter's—and takes off the ear of the servant. Jesus restores that ear and lets His disciples know this is not the kind of fight we're in. He had legions of angels at His disposal, but He didn't want them to fight. He was taken willingly to suffer at the hands of men, because this was not an earthly or political battle. It was a spiritual battle.

Before Pilate

Listen to the exchange between Jesus and the man who could have set Him free, in John 18:

Then Pilate entered the Praetorium again, called Jesus, and said to Him, "Are You the King of the Jews?" ... Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here." ... "You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice."

And in John 19:

Then Pilate said to Him, "Are You not speaking to me? Do You not know that I have power to crucify You, and power to release You?" Jesus answered, "You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above. Therefore the one who delivered Me to you has the greater sin."

Jesus had the power to escape the suffering at the hands of Pilate and the Romans, but He didn't. He wasn't about making His world or His experience better. He was about fulfilling prophecy, walking God's path, doing what was best for the kingdom of God His Father—and, thankfully, what was best for us. If we're not careful, we fall into a way of thinking where we try to sanitize our world, to make it more comfortable, and we forget that we are to be on mission to do what's best for God's kingdom, not our kingdom.

Pressed, Yet Fruitful

It's telling that Jesus—crucified, risen, seen by hundreds—somehow "forgot" to get rid of the Romans. I don't think so. He left us behind to deal with one of the cruelest governments that ever existed. The Romans took our people—yes, our people—and they were crucified, tortured, fed to lions, made to suffer in coliseums. They made the following of Jesus illegal and punishable by death. Not good for us in the temporal world—but what did it do for the kingdom of God?

When God's people are pressured and pressed, they get pushed into every nook and cranny of society. The harder you press us, the more the heat goes up, the more fruitful and substantial our presentation of the gospel becomes. The less hope we place in the world and our surroundings, the more hope we place in the future to come—heaven—and the gospel becomes the most important thing in our lives. Prosperity is not always great for us.

A Nation Born in Adversity

This 244-year-old nation was birthed in adversity. The people who came here were brave, with spiritual conviction. Some came because of pressure where they were—where they couldn't worship God as was biblically fit. Many came as evangelists and missionaries, with a conviction to serve God wholeheartedly. On that foundation the country thrived and prospered and became a place we love.

But sadly, under too much prosperity, when things become too easy, we can get lazy. Our convictions can become more about fixing what's around us than about spreading the good news of Jesus Christ. This nation, born in adversity, is changing.

An Optimistic View of the Future

All this can sound challenging. You may have wanted to be super encouraged this morning. Here's the truth: one of the values Cross Connection has as a church is an optimistic view of the future. You might not have put that together from the challenges I've described. But the reason we are optimistic is that we know Jesus is going to come for His church one day—and we pray it's soon. The trials, plagues, and sufferings here will be a distant memory.

Until then we need only do one thing: abide, and make disciples of all nations. Our optimism is that Jesus is on the throne, and nothing happens apart from His knowledge and His hand.

How Then Should We Live

So how do we think and act until that time? Philippians 4:8 says it well:

Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.

The most constructive thing we can do while ministering to others is to become what is true, noble, and pure, and to demonstrate those actions. Whatever we dwell on, our heart soon follows. If we can walk through a perishing world that is looking for answers and be the light and the answer to people, we will have done our job.

Think about it: if someone next to you complains about a plumbing problem and you're a plumber, you give them your card and tell them you can fix what's wrong. If you're a real estate agent and someone needs to sell their home quickly, you give them your contact information. How much more in a world of hurt, suffering, anger, and fear—where we have the answer, and we know the answer is Jesus Christ.

For ourselves personally, as we struggle with some of those same things, one of the best things we can do every day is sit down and consider Jesus' question—Who do you say that I am?—and answer it with the miracles, the joy, and the confidence He gives us in Jesus Christ. God bless you.