Matthew 16:13-20

People talk. You know what I mean. It used to be that they talked over each other's fences and in neighborhood gathering places. Then the telephone was invented and they could talk over long distance. Then there were CB radios and then the internet. Now a days people spam and blog and tweet and post what they want to say on personal web pages. They are just talking.

And what are they talking about: whatever is different and exciting. The unique and unexpected catches people's attention. The sordid affairs of the rich and famous are the fodder for the modern cannons of chat. And people are always shooting their mouths off about this or that.

Well people were talking about Jesus. He was reported to have healed the sick, made the blind to see, fed the multitudes. There were even rumors that he had raised the dead and walked on water and cast out the meanest of demons. And he was always having run-ins with the authorities. So people talked.

Jesus knew that people were talking. So he did the 1st century equivalent of googling himself. He asked his disciples "What are they saying about me? Who do they say that I am?" I always imagine them sitting around the camp fire eating dinner. And between mouthfuls the disciples report what they have heard. "Some say you are John the Baptist whom Herod beheaded," "some say you are a prophet of old like Elijah or Jeremiah come back."

Then Jesus gets personal; "Who do you say that I am?" I imagine everything got quiet then. All the eating and chatter stopped. Everyone sat still waiting to see what the others would say. It was a pop quiz! What's the right answer? a. John the Baptist b. Elijah c. a prophet of old d. none of the above.

I imagine Peter leaning forward to look Jesus in the face to say, "You're the Messiah, Son of the living God." They had all thought it at one time or another, but was Peter too bold? Jesus said, "You're right, but you didn't come to that conclusion on your own. My Father in Heaven showed that to you."

Pop quiz: Who is Jesus? (The Messiah, son of the living God.)

People are still talking. Jesus is reported to have done a lot of strange and amazing and wonderful things, so people talk. Who do people say Jesus is today? Some say he was great moral philosopher. And he did say some great things like "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

Some say he was just an exceptionally great man. Some say he was a great prophet. That is what Moslems believe. They say Jesus was "a son of God." By that they mean he was a great person of God like Moses or Elijah. One contemporary rock opera even called Jesus a superstar.

Some say he was an apocalyptic madman. He did run around saying that the kingdom of heaven was at hand, that God's judgment was coming. Some would say he was an unrealistic idealist. I mean "blessed are the poor?" "Blessed are those who mourn." Poverty and grief hardly seem like blessings. Some would say that he was a tragic martyr for a lost cause. They would say that he died trying to lead people to love their neighbor. But the human race today is just as violent and hateful as it was back then. Just consider the holocaust or Dafur.

There are a lot of answers to the question "Who is Jesus?" But there is a right answer. And what was that right answer? Who is Jesus? "The messiah the son of the living God." And there's a lot riding on that answer. It's important who we believe Jesus is.

Jesus said that this answer was a revelation from above. The realization that Jesus is the Messiah is a gift from God. It is a gift that opens doors for us and others. When Jesus said "On this rock I will build my church" many believe he was speaking of the rock of Peter's answer not on Peter himself. There is play on words in the Greek. Jesus calls Peter "pretros" which means like stone that you might find on the ground and pick up and use as a tool. But when he says "On this rock I will build by church" he uses the word "petra" which means an immovable rock like bedrock. So Peter or "petros" was chip off the old "petra" which is the faith that Jesus is the Son of God.

But that is not all Jesus said. He also said that Peter has the keys that open gates to Heaven. That is why popular fiction always places Peter at the pearly gates. But does he have the only set of keys? Here I have keys to the church. But no one else has these keys. I am the only one who can open this church to let people in right? Now how many people here have keys to the church? I imagine quite a few. Perhaps the right answer to the question "Who is Jesus?" is the key. So if you have that key you can open the gates of Heaven to others by sharing that password to eternity with them. Those of them that accept and believe in Jesus as the Messiah the Son of God, will be saved and gates to heaven opened for them.

Who do you say Jesus is? Your answer is important. A lot rides on your answer. The right answer will open the gates of Heaven. The right answer is the rock that the church is built on.

And the right answer is? "the Messiah the son of the living God." Now I could ask you all to take out a piece of paper and I could give you a pop quiz. And everyone here could write down the correct answer that Jesus is the Messiah the son of the living God. And you could leave your papers with the ushers to be checked and kept on file here at the church. But that would make no difference.

Did you ever learn something in school just long enough to write it on a test and then forget it the next day? This is not that kind of answer. For this answer to open doors for you, you have to internalize it. You have to know it by heart not just bit memory. You have to not just know that "Jesus is the messiah" is the right answer you have the trust in Jesus as the Messiah.

Who do you say that Jesus is? Your real answer is in how you live your life. So if you say "Jesus is the Messiah" then go forth and live that answer. Make it the rock that you build your life on. Share it with others to open the gates of Heaven to them.

Romans 12:1-13

"Take one for the team." It is an expression used to describe an athlete who is willing to take a hit and feel some pain for the sake of the team. You know what I mean. When a punter sees the rush coming and allows himself (or herself) to get hit so that the team earns a 15 yard penalty, that is taking one for the team. When a basketball player takes a charge from a larger player driving to the basket, thus causing a turn over and taking the ball out of the hands of the other team, that's taking one for the team. That player took that charge for the benefit of team. They are willing to sacrifice their own bodies to give their team an advantage.

When I think of someone taking one for the team though I think most of baseball. Occasionally, a batter can tell that the pitcher has it in for him or her. And they stand in the box. And suddenly a pitch that is too far inside hit's the batter. The batter gets to walk to first. The batter took one for the team.

In the church it is a little different. For one the church softball league is slow pitch. According to the rules by which we play, you don't get a walk when you get hit by a pitch. But despite that the same principal or "taking one for the team" applies off the field of play and in the real life of the church.

Paul wrote: "I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship." (vs. 1) The idea of sacrifice goes way back. In Paul's day a sacrifice was not a pop fly into the outfield that allowed a runner on base to score. It was an animal that was burned to honor one of the Greek or Roman gods or to worship the God of Israel. But Paul tells the Roman Christians to present their bodies as a "living" sacrifice.

I can't help but think of the Christians in Rome who would give their lives for the Gospel. They were the first martyrs who were burned alive or fed to animals for refusing to worship Caesar. But Paul is not talking about martyrdom either. This is a "living" Sacrifice. Paul is telling the Roman, and Carolinian, Christians to live our lives as a sacrifice to God.

But how do we do that? First: "Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect."(vs. 2) It is so easy to just go along with the crowd. Peer pressure is not just an issue for teen agers. We all face pressure form the world around us to conform to it. But we are called to take the harder road of being transformed and live in opposition to the world around us. To sacrifice our bodies for the good of the kingdom - to take one for the team.

How can we be transformed and make our lives a living sacrifice? Paul says: "For by the grace given to me I bid every one among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think."(vs. 3) This is in direct opposition to the world around us. The world believes in looking out for number 1. "Have it your way" because "you deserve the best."

But we are called to think of others first. As Christians we are each part of the something larger. Paul says that we are parts of the body of Christ. We are part of a team - the ultimate team - a dream team beyond all dreams! And each of us has a role to play on that team.

And we each do our part, not for ourselves, but for the rest of the team. Some of us preach, some of us teach, some of us administer, some of us work, some of us pray, but we all do what we do for the best of all. Hey, there is no "i" in "team." In the same spirit we all think of others first for the greater good.

How else do we live out this transformation? Paul says, "Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good." (vs. 9) Paul goes on to describe that love in terms of loving one another. He also tells us to "outdo one another in showing honor." This makes me think of Chip and Dale.

You know the cartoon chipmunks who are always being polite to one another. Chip says, to Dale, "You first." Dale replies, "No I wouldn't dream of it you go first." Chip responds, "No, I insist you go first." They go on and on like this. We Christians should think first of other like that. We should be seeking not our own advantage but we should seek opportunities to sacrifice for others.

But it is not just those in the church. Paul also says we should "practice hospitality." It is our duty to welcome those who are visiting our assembly. We should reach out to outsiders and make them welcome so that they can become part of the community. In fact we should go out of our way and sacrifice to make others feel welcome.

It's the bottom of the 9th. The bases are loaded. There are two outs, two strikes, and only one ball. The pitcher has been tickling the inside of the plate all day. He throws the ball and you can see that it will hit you if you don't jump out of the way.

What do you do? Do you stand your ground and let the pitch hit you. Do you "take one for the team?" Do you sacrifice yourself to benefit the team?

Of course this is just an analogy. The question is more mundane. Are you willing to sacrifice your wants and yourself for the sake of others? Jesus sacrificed his very life on the cross so that we can know eternal life. Therefore we should make our lives a living sacrifice.

Matthew 16:13-20

Jesus and his disciple had been traveling together for a while. They had seen almost everything. Jesus had healed the sick. They had heard the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus had fed 5,000 people with only five loaves and two fish. He had even walked on water and raised the dead.

Then Jesus asked them a question. "What's the word on the street? Who are people saying I am?" The disciples replied, "Some think you are John the Baptist or Elijah or maybe one of the other prophets come back to life."

Then Jesus got personal. "Who do you say that I am?" It's one thing to report what other people are saying it is quite another to step out on a limb and say what you believe. There was probably a long silence as the disciples looked at each other wondering who was going to say what they all were thinking. Then Peter said it out load, "You're the Christ the Son of the Living God."

This is an important point so I want everyone to repeat after me.

The story is a familiar one to most Christians. In fact Mark and Luke tell basically the same story of Peter's confession. But Matthew adds some details that the others leave out and these are important details. Matthew records Jesus' response to Peter's confession. In that response Jesus says, "Simon son of John, you didn't figure that out on your own. God showed it to you." Then he says, "From now on I'm gonna call you Rocky cause on this rock I will build my church and the gates of death will not prevail against it."

Of course we don't refer to Peter as Rocky the Apostle, but that's what his name means. Peter is Greek for "rock," but there is more going on in this statement. In the Greek Jesus says you are "Petros" and upon this "Petra" I will build my church. In Greek "Petros" is a form of the word for rock and it means a stone, but "Petra" is the feminine form and means bedrock or "the mother or all rocks." So basically Jesus is telling Peter that he is a chip off the old block.

But what block? What is this bedrock that Jesus will build his church on that Peter is an example of? Some say it is the faith that Peter was expressing. In this case Peter's confession is an example of the faith Jesus will build his church upon. Namely the confession Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. Some say that the Bedrock is Jesus. In this case Jesus is saying that Peter in his confession exemplifies the spirit of Jesus. Jesus is the solid rock and Peter is like a little christ or a reflection of Christ. That is profound: Peter's confession makes him a chip off the Rock of Ages!

And what confession is that? Repeat after me:

I imagine the disciples were still trying to take all this in when Jesus went on. He said, "and the gates of hell cannot stand against it." Some of your Bibles say Hades or death. In Greek Mythology Hades was the place of the dead, both righteous and unrighteous. But in Christian thought Hades is often equated with Hell the place of eternal punishment.

So which is it death or Hell? Probably death but the operative phrase is really "gates of." Most people hear this phrase "Gates of Hell" and they think of "A mighty fortress is Our God" They think of the church being attacked by the Devil. Don't get me wrong that is a very good Biblical image, but if it is their gates that will not prevail against us then we are the ones doing the attacking.

So the church is to confront evil and attack the gates of Hell and those gates cannot stand our attack! With what do we attack? The confession of Peter. The faith that said, "Jesus is the Christ the Son of the Living God." Through that confession we defeat the Devil and death.

And what confession is that? Repeat after me:

But Jesus wasn't finished. All that is so profound but he went on. Jesus then said, "I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." I think this is one of the most misunderstood statements that Jesus made. One interpretation is that it means that Jesus gave to Peter and his successors the right to say who gets in to heaven and who doesn't. If this were literally the case then Galileo was somewhere other then heaven for a few hundred years until the church changed its judgment on him.

Making this a statement of ultimate authority over who is in and who is out makes God subject to the petty whims of humans, maybe even noble and sincere humans, but humans none the less. I think it is not a statement of authority but a statement of responsibility. It is our job to open the doors of heaven for people. And if we don't we have left them locked to them.

So how do we open the doors of heaven? We tell people about Jesus so they can believe in him and be saved. When we confess Christ to them and they believe the doors of heaven are opened. If we don't confess Christ and they never hear of him then they can't come to him for salvation. Then by our inaction the doors of heaven remains locked. And Peter's confession is the key!

And what confession is that? Repeat after me:

You know I usually write my sermons ahead of time. For instance I wrote the rough draft of next Sunday's sermon last Tuesday. I do this because I know the Holy Spirit sometimes needs time to get through my thick skull. But while I started writing this sermon over a week ahead of time I didn't get done until this last Monday. That was the day after the Vision Workshop last Sunday.

We talked about a lot of wonderful things last Sunday. We talked about reaching out to singles and families with children and youth. We talked about prison ministries and helping the elderly and disables. We talked about reaching out to the people in this area that don't know Jesus. And we talked about how more room would give us a place to house, host and launch these ministries.

How can we open the doors to heaven for people? How can we storm the gates and sin and death in our community? How can we be like Christ and bring his love and grace and forgiveness to people of all ages who need it?

Well, through Peter's confession. By confessing Christ through our actions. By confessing Christ in our prayers and in our works. By joining in Peter's confession of Christ!

And what confession is that? Repeat after me:

Romans 12:1-13

I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Since the earliest times people have asked themselves, "What should we give to please God?" Most ancient peoples decided that a divine being would want the most valuable thing on earth, life, so they sacrificed animals to gods. Some even Sacrificed human lives. God had commanded the Israelites to sacrifice animals. But God also revealed to them that it was not the lives of the animals that God wanted but the devotion of the worshippers hearts. In Paul's day people still sacrificed to the Greek and Roman gods and to the God of Israel. But in our lesson today Paul tells us "present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God." By "our bodies" he doesn't mean our physical bodies, but he means the lives we live in these bodies. The only gift God desires is a life given completely to doing God's will and worshipping the Almighty.

This would be so easy to do if it weren't for human pride. All too often our own self love gets in the way of making our lives an acceptable sacrifice to God. This is even true in the church. It was a problem for the people of the Roman Church to whom Paul was writing. Apparently there were many gifted people there. But some of the people thought that their gifts were more important than other people's. So, as Paul put it, they thought of themselves more highly than they should have. Pride has always been a problem in the church and it still is today. Sometimes preachers think more highly of themselves than they should because they are the called and appointed spiritual leaders. The church officers sometimes think their hard work is so important to the church that they must be important too. Then there are the hard workers who are at the church every time the doors are open. All these tasks are important to the church but none is more important than any of the others. But as a result of pride the very group which should be pleasing God by living for God ends up living for itself and its own pride.

We are not alone; even the Disciples had problems with pride. There were times when they asked who was the greatest among them. Matthew might of thought he was the greatest of the disciples. He might have thought to himself, "I left such a good tax collecting Job where I could make all this money and my knowledge of the people has helped the disciples in their travels." Peter might have thought he was the most important. He might have said to himself, "I am the one that Jesus said he would build the church on, so I am the greatest." Any of the others could have thought the same thing. They could have said to themselves I give up such a good fishing business with a large capital investment and my knowledge of the sea has made it easier for Jesus to get around so I am the greatest."

But then they all sat down at the table to eat one day. And Jesus served each of them. But it was no ordinary meal. It symbolized the fact that Jesus was about to die for them. His blood would be shed and his body would be broken so that they could have eternal life. Instead of thinking of himself Jesus was thinking of others. The only one who could truthfully claim to be the greatest in that group was Jesus. And he was the one who made himself the lowest. And as a result his life was a sacrifice Holy and acceptable to God as a payment for all of our pride and sin.

In Communion we see the opposite of pride and the cure for it. In it we all gather around one table. Not two or three tables depending upon the merit of your goodness. There is one table for all to eat at.

And there is one spiritual food which we all receive. Many churches use one cup and one loaf of bread. This represents the unity we have with God.

None of us are any better than anyone else. We are all equally in need of the salvation Christ offered through his death and resurrection. If we can humble ourselves and kneel before God and ask for the spiritual food which we need, our pride can be killed. And through Holy Communion we are joined together with all other Christians, all equal, all one in Christ and parts of each other through the healing and forgiveness of the Blood of Christ.

As Paul said we are transformed and our new lives are a sacrifice to God Almighty. So let's not think of ourselves more highly than we should. For our life comes from the same God. Our gifts are part of the same Holy Spirit acting in our lives. Just as there is one loaf and one cup, we, many as we are, are one in Christ. And if we are one in Christ there is no room for pride.

Matthew 16:13-20

Exodus 17:1-7

And they put the LORD to the proof by saying, "Is the LORD among us or not?" You know we don't trust what we can't see Once there was this little boy and the preacher was visiting his mother. She had known the preacher was coming and had made some cookies for them to eat while he was there. Of course that made the little boy very happy and he was eating away at those cookies while the grown ups talked. Then he came to the last cookie but as he was getting ready to put it in his mouth he dropped it. Well he was not going to let a perfectly good cookie go to waste so he picked it up and was going to eat it, but his mother stopped him and said. "Don't eat that it has germs on it." And the little boy stomped his feet at said, "Germs and Jesus Germs and Jesus that's all I ever hear and I haven't seen a one of them." We laugh but we are like that. We want to see things with our own eyes or we will not believe them.

But that is part of being human. Oriental thought speaks of the past as being in front of us and the future behind us. They image the human being as walking backwards into the future. We don't know where we are going. We can see the past clearly, but we cannot see the future. We are blind to what is going to happen to us. And many times it surprises us as if it came up on us from behind.

Because we can't see the future some of us try to let someone who can lead us into it. That takes a lot of trust. It take a lot of trust to say "O.K. God we trust you to lead us into the future to the good gifts you have for us. We would rather see the future for ourselves. Instead of trusting in something we can't see we would rather trust in ourselves. Human beings would rather grope in the dark. We would rather trust ourselves than trust in God.

The Israelites were like a person walking backwards into an unknown future. It was easy for them to look back into the past and remember Egypt. With its plentiful waters from the Nile. And the safety of the protection of Pharaoh. And the job security of being a slave. They weren't too sure about what awaited them out in the wilderness They could never find a place to settle and make a living. They could be attacked by band of thieves. They could even die of thirst.

So the people began to grumble. As they traveled through the desert they found no water waiting for them so the began to find fault with Moses. They said "Moses why did you bring us out of Egypt. At least we had water there. Our children had a hope for survival there. Out here we could easily die of thirst." You are our leader you find us water."

But it was not just Moses who they found fault with it was God. Moses was the one who God had chosen to lead them to the promised land. And it was God's purpose they were questioning. They couldn't see God. They couldn't see the future that awaited them. So they found fault and said, "Is God really among us or not?"

That is a good question. People have often asked it. As I said we don't know our future. We are blindly walking backwards into the future. Those of us who are worshippers of God have decided to let God lead us into that dark valley of the future. Sometimes when we walk into troubled times: like the people of Israel When we are led into a desert, We ask ourselves "Is God really leading us or not?" And that is natural. It is part of our nature to want to see where we are going. And it takes an effort to trust in something we can't see. So to ask, "Is God with us?" is perfectly natural.

It is a Good question. It's a good question because I know the answer, and I hope all of you do to. I believe the best example of the belief that God is with us is in the story of the Israelites in the desert. They were unsure of their future and God had led them into the desert. We know that God had led them there to take them to the promised land. But you see that is in our past, it was in their future and they couldn't see it as clearly as we can. So they worried, But God was with them. And to prove it God told Moses to go before them and to cause water to come out of the rock. God showed them that they were not alone. God also showed them that they would be taken care of.

In Jesus' day the children of Israel were still asking that question. They were still wondering "Is God among us or not?" They knew what God had done in the past. But they were unsure of their future. They were occupied by the romans and they were made to pay tributes to Caesar. And before Caesar it was the Greeks and before them someone else. The God who had led them to a land flowing with milk and honey had allowed them to the conquered so that the milk and honey had to be sent to Rome. God had led them into a desert and they saw no way out. So they asked "Is God with us or not?"

To answer that question God decided to come down and say once and for all time "I am here." So God was born in the person of Jesus who we call Christ, the only begotten son of God. Jesus is the final Word in answering that age old question. [no pun intended]

But people still asked the question. So one day Jesus asked his disciples, "Who do people say that I am?" They said some say you are John the Baptist or Elijah or some other prophet who has risen from the dead. Then Jesus got personal and said, "But who do you say that I am?" And brave Peter said, "You are the Christ the son of the living God" and you are here.

God is leading each of us to a promised land. God has a land flowing with milk and honey waiting for all of us. We can't see where God is taking us because we are walking backwards Sometimes to get there we need to go through a wilderness or a desert Since we have trouble allowing some one else to lead us we wonder "has God really led me here And we ask ourselves "Is God really with us or not?"

At those times Jesus sits us down and says, "who do people say I am?" And we say, some say a good moral teacher, some say a godly man, others say a man who knew God in a special way. But then Jesus gets personal and says, "But who do you say I am?" If we can say, "You are the Christ the Son of the living God," then we have our answer. Jesus is God in the flesh and he lived as we live and died as we will die. And he is here alive again leading us through the wilderness giving us living waters.