SPEAKER_00: Alright, I'll ask you to please open your Bibles to Luke chapter 9 verses 18 through 22.
SPEAKER_00: As Presbyterians, we believe that elders like me have an obligation to the loc not just the local body, Hickory Grove, but also the broader church.
SPEAKER_00: So Nashville Presbytery, the General Assembly, the Presbyterian Church of America.
SPEAKER_00: We have a kind of regional understanding of our duties.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the ways in which I serve the broader body is that I serve on our Presbytery's Leadership Development Committee and I teach at Reformed Theological Seminary.
SPEAKER_00: This past Thursday, I started teaching a new course on Christian thought and philosophy.
SPEAKER_00: And philosophy classes are a lot of fun because you get to conduct thought experiments where you ask silly questions like, What is this wooden object right in front of me?
SPEAKER_00: And you just watch as the students squirm to try to give the right answer.
SPEAKER_00: Now, let's say we do that right now.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine I hand out a pen and a pad to every person in this room, and I ask you to identify and define this wooden object right here in front of me, and then pass your answer up to me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm willing to bet that if we did that, we would end up with 150 different answers to the question, 150 definitions.
SPEAKER_00: Sure, they would agree in plenty of ways, but they'd probably disagree in others.
SPEAKER_00: Like, is this a pulpit or is it a podium?
SPEAKER_00: Or is it a table?
SPEAKER_00: Or is it a lectern?
SPEAKER_00: Is it brown?
SPEAKER_00: Is it tan?
SPEAKER_00: Is it some kind of yellow?
SPEAKER_00: Honestly, I'm not sure.
SPEAKER_00: Does it look good or does it look ugly?
SPEAKER_00: Is it the kind of thing you want to see in a pulpit or whatever it is or not?
SPEAKER_00: And so on.
SPEAKER_00: I think we're safe to say that not everybody in the room would agree about their definition of this wooden object.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: Now what should we conclude from that disagreement?
SPEAKER_00: Should we conclude that this thing doesn't exist?
SPEAKER_00: Because clearly, if it did exist, we would all define it in the same way.
SPEAKER_00: Well, that's silly, right?
SPEAKER_00: Here it is.
SPEAKER_00: It exists.
SPEAKER_00: Even if we disagree about what exactly it is.
SPEAKER_00: Or should we become skeptics?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, sure, okay, it exists, but we really can't know what it is.
SPEAKER_00: We really can't know what it's like.
SPEAKER_00: We are just too limited for that.
SPEAKER_00: Well, that's silly too, right?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, come have a look.
SPEAKER_00: Investigate it for yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Run some tests if you need to.
SPEAKER_00: You can come to know the pulpit.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so should we maybe maybe we should become relativists?
SPEAKER_00: Any definition is as good as another.
SPEAKER_00: You you have your truth about the pulpit, I'll have my truth about the pulpit, and we'll all just get on with our lives.
SPEAKER_00: And at this point, you're probably asking, can you just get on with the sermon?
SPEAKER_00: What's all this about?
SPEAKER_00: Like, what am I getting at here?
SPEAKER_00: There are a whole lot of people in the world with a whole lot of ideas about who Jesus is.
SPEAKER_00: There's a ton of disagreement.
SPEAKER_00: Some think he uh he was just an exemplary human being.
SPEAKER_00: Others think he was a great religious teacher.
SPEAKER_00: Jews think he was a charlatan, Muslims think he was a prophet, Mormons think he was the firstborn spirit child of the heavenly father and heavenly mother.
SPEAKER_00: Lots of different ideas.
SPEAKER_00: Lots of different lots of disagreement.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what should we conclude from that disagreement?
SPEAKER_00: Should we conclude that Jesus didn't and doesn't exist?
SPEAKER_00: Should we conclude that we cannot know him as he is?
SPEAKER_00: Or that any definition of Jesus is as good as another?
SPEAKER_00: You see the connection, right?
SPEAKER_00: You see the connection between Jesus and the pulpit.
SPEAKER_00: Just because different people have different things to say about Jesus, that does not mean that he doesn't exist or that he hasn't given himself to be known.
SPEAKER_00: And it certainly doesn't mean that any diff definition of Jesus is as good as another.
SPEAKER_00: In today's passage, we uh Jesus, he's he's going to ask his disciples what the world has to say about his identity.
SPEAKER_00: But more importantly, he's gonna ask them who they say he is.
SPEAKER_00: And when he asks them that question, they're not gonna throw up their hands in the air as if there is no answer to the question, they're going to give an answer.
SPEAKER_00: And when they give the right answer in the wrong way, Jesus is going to take the time to correct them.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because at the end of the day, all of our definitions of Jesus come short.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, even though we cannot know him comprehensively, even though we might fall short in ways, even though we might get things wrong on the periphery, we can know him truly.
SPEAKER_00: We may not be able to explain who he is in exhaustive detail, but we can still know him as he is, the Christ of God and the suffering servant who died to deliver his people from all their sins.
SPEAKER_00: We can know him, even in the midst of disagreement about him.
SPEAKER_00: So, with that said, I'll invite you to rise as I read today's sermon passage for us.
SPEAKER_00: This is Luke 9, verses 18 through 22.
SPEAKER_00: Now it happened that as Jesus was praying alone, the disciples were with him.
SPEAKER_00: And he asked them, Who do the crowd say that I am?
SPEAKER_00: And they answered, John the Baptist.
SPEAKER_00: But others say, Elijah, and others that one of the prophets of old has risen.
SPEAKER_00: And he said to them, But who do you say I am?
SPEAKER_00: And Peter answered, The Christ of God.
SPEAKER_00: And he strictly charged and commanded them to tell this to no one, saying, The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.
SPEAKER_00: The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.
SPEAKER_00: Father, send your Holy Spirit now, we pray, to help us understand what you've revealed in your word.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: You may be seated.
SPEAKER_00: So our passage begins with the words, now it happened.
SPEAKER_00: And that's a fairly indefinite way of introducing the story that serves to untether it from what's come before.
SPEAKER_00: We don't know.
SPEAKER_00: Luke kind of makes it indefinite.
SPEAKER_00: And the reason that matters is because when we think about the setting for this exchange between Jesus and his disciples, we shouldn't be thinking about the miracle Jesus just did so much as we should be thinking about what it says in the next few words in verse 18.
SPEAKER_00: Now it happened that as he was praying alone, the disciples were with him.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus' prayer.
SPEAKER_00: That is the jumping off point in this passage.
SPEAKER_00: And when we see Jesus praying, we're meant to recall all of the other times in Luke's gospel where Jesus was praying and what he was up to.
SPEAKER_00: Like in chapter 3 after his baptism, as Jesus prayed, the heavens opened up and the Spirit descended upon him in the form of a dove, and God spoke from heaven, You are my beloved son.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 5, it says he would retreat to desolate places to pray as a kind of respite from in preparation for his heavy work of healing.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 6, when he retreated to the mountain to pray, all night long so that God would prepare him to call the twelve.
SPEAKER_00: We'll see plenty more prayer in Luke.
SPEAKER_00: As I've said, this gospel is the gospel of prayer, because in it we see Jesus pray more than in any of the other gospels.
SPEAKER_00: Prayer is where Jesus communes with God.
SPEAKER_00: Prayer is where Jesus receives guidance.
SPEAKER_00: It's where he's encouraged and empowered permission.
SPEAKER_00: And most importantly, for today's passage and the one that follows it, prayer sets the stage for divine disclosure.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is going to reveal himself.
SPEAKER_00: He's going to reveal something about himself that is crucial to the disciples' understanding of who he is.
SPEAKER_00: He is about to let them in on a secret that really they should have known all along, that he is the Christ, and the Christ must suffer.
SPEAKER_00: As we'll see, Jesus has two questions and a qualification for his disciples.
SPEAKER_00: Who do they say I am?
SPEAKER_00: Who do you say I am?
SPEAKER_00: And let me tell you what that really means.
SPEAKER_00: And surprise, surprise, this text is going to point the same three questions in our deck in our direction.
SPEAKER_00: Who do the crowds, who does the world say Jesus is?
SPEAKER_00: Who do we say Jesus is?
SPEAKER_00: And what does that really mean?
SPEAKER_00: So, first question: who do they say I am?
SPEAKER_00: Who is Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: You say, preacher, you're supposed to answer that question, not ask it.
SPEAKER_00: Who is Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: That's been an important question so far in Luke.
SPEAKER_00: And of course, the gospel starts by answering it for us through the various speeches of the angel Gabriel and the Virgin Mary, the old man Simeon, the prophetess Hannah.
SPEAKER_00: So the right answer is front-loaded in Luke for the reader, but we learn more of it.
SPEAKER_00: We learn more of the reality of it as we watch people in the narrative grapple with his identity.
SPEAKER_00: Like in Luke 7, when Jesus dared to forgive the scandalous woman, and the scribes and Pharisees sitting at Simon's table murmured among themselves and asked, Who is this that even forgives sins?
SPEAKER_00: Or chapter 8, when Jesus calmed the storm, and the disciples were so awestruck and freaked out that they asked in verse 25, Who is this that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?
SPEAKER_00: Most recently in Luke 9, verse 9, when Herod caught wind of this gospel movement sweeping across Galilee, and he asked himself, Who is this about whom I hear such things?
SPEAKER_00: And so people have been asking the question, who is Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Again and again and again.
SPEAKER_00: But in today's passage we see something new.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus asks the question.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not because Jesus doesn't know the answer to the question.
SPEAKER_00: It's not because Jesus is having some sort of identity crisis and he doesn't know who he is.
SPEAKER_00: No, Jesus is just like a trial lawyer.
SPEAKER_00: He never asks a question unless he already knows the answer.
SPEAKER_00: And so his questions throughout the Gospels are not inquiries, they're rhetorical devices.
SPEAKER_00: He's leading the disciples somewhere, specifically toward a better understanding of who he is.
SPEAKER_00: And to do that, he's got to go through the crowd's misunderstanding.
SPEAKER_00: When the disciples answer his question in verse 19, they essentially repeat what Herod had heard in verses 7 through 8, nearly verbatim.
SPEAKER_00: Who do the crowds say Jesus is?
SPEAKER_00: Some say he's John the Baptizer, not the Baptist, John the Baptizer.
SPEAKER_00: Others say Elijah, and others say that he's one of the prophets of old that has arisen.
SPEAKER_00: Now, notice how Jesus doesn't correct their answer here.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't outright say it's wrong.
SPEAKER_00: And part of that is because he's driving the disciples somewhere.
SPEAKER_00: And he's more concerned with their understanding and correcting that rather than dealing with the crowd.
SPEAKER_00: But it's also because the crowd's answer, their answers aren't entirely wrong.
SPEAKER_00: When the people identify him as John the Baptist or Elijah or one of the prophets of old, they may be off in terms of his specific identity, but they're not entirely wrong in terms of his role.
SPEAKER_00: We talked about this a couple of weeks ago.
SPEAKER_00: In Malachi 3.1, God said, Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me.
SPEAKER_00: Malachi 4.5 specifically named that messenger as Elijah, who stood as a representative of the prophets in the prophetic tradition.
SPEAKER_00: This became a popular idea in Second Temple Judaism that God would send a prophet before him.
SPEAKER_00: If not Elijah, then maybe Moses, maybe Jeremiah, maybe Isaiah.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why in Luke 7, when Jesus raised the widow's son, the people glorified God, and they said, A great prophet has arisen among us, and God has visited his people.
SPEAKER_00: And so the crowds, they aren't speaking lies about Jews, about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Slow down, Kenny.
SPEAKER_00: Ruby beforehand in Sunday school told me I'd make a bad auctioneer, and I agreed with her.
SPEAKER_00: They've not yet fully grasped who Jesus is in his fullness.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is subtly and patiently using their incomplete understanding to lead the twelve to a better one.
SPEAKER_00: Now, before we go on, I think the Spirit means to use this story to ask us the same question about the crowds that we have in our world today.
SPEAKER_00: Who do they say Jesus is?
SPEAKER_00: And there are a number of contemporary options on the table.
SPEAKER_00: Just to name a few of them.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the model of compassion.
SPEAKER_00: He's one of the kindest human beings to ever live, right up there with Gandhi and Mr.
SPEAKER_00: Rogers.
SPEAKER_00: And by following his example, we can become better, kinder people.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the model of compassion.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe Jesus is the profound religious teacher.
SPEAKER_00: He's like Confucius or the Buddha.
SPEAKER_00: He had an exceptional depth of wisdom about spiritual matters, and we should pay attention to him if we want to get in touch with our own spiritual side.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe Jesus was a political revolutionary.
SPEAKER_00: That's another kind of model you'll encounter today.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus stuck it to the man, even at the expense of his own life.
SPEAKER_00: And if we follow his political program, which just so happens to mirror whatever political program we happen to hold, then we can save our city.
SPEAKER_00: We can save our nation.
SPEAKER_00: We can save our world.
SPEAKER_00: Here's another model.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, the unconditional lover.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus loved everything I love.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus condoned everything I condone.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus wasn't as tuned up and stuffy about sin and righteousness as all the Christians say he was.
SPEAKER_00: Live and let live, that's how Jesus rolled.
SPEAKER_00: Those are just a few.
SPEAKER_00: There are many more out there.
SPEAKER_00: It's just a few of the most prominent understandings or definitions of Jesus that you'll find out there today.
SPEAKER_00: And the reason they gain so much purchase in our world, the reason people actually believe them instead of rejecting them out of hand is because they contain glimmers of truth.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was and still is the preeminent model of compassion.
SPEAKER_00: He was and still is a profound religious teacher.
SPEAKER_00: He was and is a political revolutionary in that he upends our political expectations and systems of the world.
SPEAKER_00: If you have any doubt about that, read Revelation.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was and is the ultimate gift of God's love.
SPEAKER_00: Individually, these things are all true, but when you fix on one aspect of Jesus to the exclusion of all the others, you end up trading the whole truth for a lie.
SPEAKER_00: You come to know a figment of your imagination rather than the actual Son of God and Son of Man.
SPEAKER_00: But that's not what Jesus wants for us.
SPEAKER_00: He's not, it's not what it what he wants for any of us.
SPEAKER_00: And certainly not for his core group of disciples who he was training up to serve as the human foundation for his church.
SPEAKER_00: And so he turns from the crowds to the 12 in verse 20 and he asks them, Who do you say I am?
SPEAKER_00: The question starts with the word but, which is a very subtle indicator that the crowd's response didn't quite hit the mark.
SPEAKER_00: And the order of the words in Greek places a really heavy emphasis on the word you.
SPEAKER_00: And so the force of Jesus' question is this.
SPEAKER_00: That's what the crowd say about me.
SPEAKER_00: But what do you guys have to say about me?
SPEAKER_00: Who do you think I am?
SPEAKER_00: Now this is where Peter speaks up for the twelve.
SPEAKER_00: He was something of a leader and a spokesman for the apostles, but that's not because he was more important.
SPEAKER_00: It's not because he would carry an inordinate amount of authority in the early church, it's not because he was the first pope.
SPEAKER_00: Peter was more like a first among equals.
SPEAKER_00: And on behalf of the apostles, Jesus, Peter responds to Jesus' question with probably the four most important words that he uttered in his entire life.
SPEAKER_00: The Christ of God.
SPEAKER_00: If you've only got one word to describe not just who Jesus is, but who he is for us, then that's the word.
SPEAKER_00: He is the Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Christ is not his last name, Christ is his title.
SPEAKER_00: And that title contains within it all the promises of God to redeem his people.
SPEAKER_00: Christ is the Greek translation of the Hebrew word Messiah, which quite literally means the anointed one.
SPEAKER_00: Anointing was a big deal in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: It was how you set people apart for specific roles, particularly roles in the temple.
SPEAKER_00: And in the prophets, especially in the book of Isaiah, you have this promise of the ultimate anointed one, this royal priest and servant king from the line of David, who would be anointed not just with oil, but with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: This promise of a Messiah, this promise of a Christ, anointed with the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And do you remember?
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember what Jesus did in Luke 4 on the first day when he turned up in the synagogue to proclaim the kingdom of God?
SPEAKER_00: He read from Isaiah, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.
SPEAKER_00: He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives in recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.
SPEAKER_00: And as soon as he finished reading those words, he rolled up the Isaiah scroll and he said, This scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.
SPEAKER_00: So Peter is echoing what Jesus has already said about himself.
SPEAKER_00: He is the Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He is the anointed one of God, sent to deliver Israel from their Roman captivity.
SPEAKER_00: Most importantly, for Jews and Gentiles, he is the Messiah, came, come to save everyone who would trust in him from their bondage to Satan's sin and death.
SPEAKER_00: That's who he is.
SPEAKER_00: Do you believe it?
SPEAKER_00: Do you agree with Peter?
SPEAKER_00: Because once again, this the word and the spirit are taking this question and they're pointing it right at us.
SPEAKER_00: Who do we say Jesus is?
SPEAKER_00: Who do you say Jesus is?
SPEAKER_00: As much as our post-modern, post-truth, post-everything world may disagree, there is a right answer to that question.
SPEAKER_00: You and I, we don't get to define Jesus according to our own sense of what we would like him to be.
SPEAKER_00: He's not a figment of our or anyone else's imagination.
SPEAKER_00: He's not a social or religious construct.
SPEAKER_00: He's not a literary figure invented to control people.
SPEAKER_00: He is the Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He is the eternal Son of God who stepped down out of eternity into our creaturely reality so that people like John could say in his first epistle, we've heard him with our own ears.
SPEAKER_00: We've seen him with our own eyes.
SPEAKER_00: We've touched him with our own ears or with our own hands.
SPEAKER_00: We've looked upon the word of life, and that word of life is what we proclaim to you.
SPEAKER_00: See, that's the reality that lies behind the entire New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: The apostles who wrote it were men who encountered Jesus directly.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't make him up.
SPEAKER_00: They saw him, they heard him, they walked with him, they lived with him, they learned from him.
SPEAKER_00: And they were inspired by the Holy Spirit to write down exactly what needed to be said about who he is and what he's done.
SPEAKER_00: And we have those words right here in this book.
SPEAKER_00: I get it.
SPEAKER_00: We have not personally seen Jesus in the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: We have not heard him speak audibly in our presence.
SPEAKER_00: We haven't touched him.
SPEAKER_00: We haven't walked with him.
SPEAKER_00: And yet he has given us his word and he's reminded us that we don't walk by sight, we walk by faith.
SPEAKER_00: And as Hebrews 11:1 says, that faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things unseen.
SPEAKER_00: And so through the inerrant word of God and through the illuminating power of the Spirit who helps us to read his word, we can know who Jesus really is.
SPEAKER_00: Not the Jesus of our imagination or anyone else's, but the real Jesus who was and is and is to come, just like Peter and the apostles knew and confessed him truly as the Christ of God.
SPEAKER_00: We can know him as he is because he has given himself to be known in his word.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the thing: as right as Peter's answer was, in a formal sense, it still came up short.
SPEAKER_00: Because even though Peter knew him truly, he did not yet know him fully.
SPEAKER_00: He had the right words to describe Jesus, but something was still missing.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus needs to help Peter and the disciples to understand what it really means for him to be the Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And that brings us to our third heading.
SPEAKER_00: We've heard Jesus' two questions.
SPEAKER_00: Now we get to hear his qualification.
SPEAKER_00: After Peter's confession, you might expect Jesus to praise him for giving the right answer.
SPEAKER_00: And he does something like that in Matthew's version of the story.
SPEAKER_00: But here, Luke cuts straight past that part.
SPEAKER_00: He cuts straight to the part where Jesus tells the twelve to keep their mouths shut.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, verse 21 says that Jesus strictly charges his disciple.
SPEAKER_00: And the word for charge there in other places in Luke is translated as rebuke.
SPEAKER_00: It's a strong word.
SPEAKER_00: We see it in Luke 4, when Jesus exercised the demons, and they came out of the man crying out, You are the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: And then what did Jesus do?
SPEAKER_00: He rebuked them and said, quote, he would not allow them to speak, because they knew that he was the Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That's an interesting connection, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: When it comes to identifying Jesus, Peter gives the right answer.
SPEAKER_00: But then again, so did the demons.
SPEAKER_00: And just as Jesus told them to keep it under their hat, so he tells the disciples.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Why would he do that?
SPEAKER_00: Why would he ask them to keep the secret?
SPEAKER_00: Well, think about it.
SPEAKER_00: What did the Jews expect the Christ to come and do?
SPEAKER_00: They expected him to conquer the Romans.
SPEAKER_00: They expected him to take his seat on the throne.
SPEAKER_00: They expected him to seize power in the same way they'd seen all the other kings of all the other nations do before.
SPEAKER_00: That's what they thought it would look like.
SPEAKER_00: That's what they thought it would take for the Messiah to deliver them.
SPEAKER_00: And what they didn't realize was that their struggle was not against flesh and blood.
SPEAKER_00: Their struggle was against the cosmic powers and spiritual forces.
SPEAKER_00: Their true oppressor was not Caesar.
SPEAKER_00: Their true oppressor was Satan.
SPEAKER_00: And in order to be delivered, they needed Jesus to win a victory that would look a whole lot like defeat.
SPEAKER_00: This is what he tells them in verse 22 the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed, and on the third day be raised.
SPEAKER_00: This is the first time in Luke that Jesus explicitly refers to his suffering.
SPEAKER_00: And you can imagine the disciples' confusion.
SPEAKER_00: It's a confusion that shows up again and again in the Gospels, especially after Jesus' death.
SPEAKER_00: On the road to Emmaus in Luke 24, Jesus appears to these two disciples as they're walking along and they're lamenting their dashed hopes for a Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: But do you know what Jesus says to them in the midst of their confusion and despair?
SPEAKER_00: You find it in Luke 24, verses 25 through 27.
SPEAKER_00: Oh foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.
SPEAKER_00: Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?
SPEAKER_00: And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, don't be confused, guys.
SPEAKER_00: Don't despair.
SPEAKER_00: This was a part of the plan all along.
SPEAKER_00: It was necessary for the Christ to suffer.
SPEAKER_00: So do you see, Peter and the disciples, they they were right to name Jesus as the Christ.
SPEAKER_00: But even though the Old Testament spoke of these things, even though it envisioned the Christ's suffering, they still could not see or understand that dimension of him until it finally happened.
SPEAKER_00: They could not comprehend a crucified Messiah until Jesus actually hung on the cross and rose again on the third day.
SPEAKER_00: That's why Jesus told Peter to cool it when it came to the Messiah talk.
SPEAKER_00: Not because it was wrong, but because it was incomplete.
SPEAKER_00: And people needed to see what the real Messiah would do before they could appreciate what that word really meant.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what does that mean for us here today?
SPEAKER_00: How does Jesus' qualification of this understanding of him as the Christ apply to us here and now, 21st century Mount Juliet?
SPEAKER_00: Here's how.
SPEAKER_00: And so if you are one of his disciples, you can stand and you can speak.
SPEAKER_00: The opinions will swirl, the crowds will offer up their different definitions, people will continue to disagree, and they'll tell you so to their face.
SPEAKER_00: But you know the truth.
SPEAKER_00: You know him as he is, and not simply how you or your team imagines him to be.
SPEAKER_00: You know him because he has revealed himself to you by his word and his holy spirit.
SPEAKER_00: But maybe you're here today and you're not a disciple, or at least not yet.
SPEAKER_00: You're still in the crowd.
SPEAKER_00: You're still trying to sort it out.
SPEAKER_00: You're still trying to figure out who this Jesus is and how you would define him for yourself.
SPEAKER_00: If that's you, then I want to encourage you.
SPEAKER_00: Come out of the crowd.
SPEAKER_00: Bring your questions, bring your doubts, submit the glimmers of truth you've witnessed to the fuller picture of Jesus painted in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Resolve in your heart, right here, right now, to do everything you humanly can to figure out who this Jesus is and what he has done for you.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is every bit as real as this pulpit.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, he is more real than this pulpit.
SPEAKER_00: And he has given himself to us.
SPEAKER_00: He has given himself for us.
SPEAKER_00: And he is inviting us, he might be inviting you right here, right now, for the first time, to know him.
SPEAKER_00: And in knowing him, to know your heavenly Father.
SPEAKER_00: Don't play this skeptical game.
SPEAKER_00: Don't play this relativist game where it's like, eh, whatever, Jesus, you know, whatever.
SPEAKER_00: No, Jesus is real.
SPEAKER_00: He has come once and he's coming again.
SPEAKER_00: And he is calling you right now.
SPEAKER_00: Believe in me.
SPEAKER_00: Come to me.
SPEAKER_00: You're weary and heavy laden, come to me.
SPEAKER_00: I'll give you rest.
SPEAKER_00: Rest for your body, rest for your heart, rest for your soul, rest for your mind, rest.
SPEAKER_00: That's the invitation that the real Jesus makes to everyone.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we thank you that you have revealed yourself to us in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: You've not left us to guess about who you are and what you want or what you've done.
SPEAKER_00: But you've sent Jesus in the flesh to walk a mile in our shoes and then some, to live as we were meant to live, to die as we were meant to die, to rise into newness of life and to ascend to your right hand.
SPEAKER_00: Father, help us always to submit our ideas, our notions, our misconceptions to the bar of your word.
SPEAKER_00: So that you can school us in the school of Christ, that you can teach us who he is and what he's like, and that you could encourage us in knowing that the real Jesus is better than any Jesus we could ever divide for ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: Help us in this, Lord, we pray.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to invite our ruling elders forward and one of our deacons to prepare the Lord's table.
SPEAKER_00: If you see him, you'll know why.
SPEAKER_00: This table is Christ's gift to his people.
SPEAKER_00: We've talked about knowing Jesus mostly in an intellectual sense.
SPEAKER_00: And we tend to think about knowing Jesus in a purely intellectual sense.
SPEAKER_00: To know Jesus is to be able to recite a creed or a catechism, to be able to say all the theological things and use all the big words.
SPEAKER_00: But at the end of the day, knowing Jesus isn't just about knowing about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It's about knowing him relationally.
SPEAKER_00: Knowing him the same way we know one another.
SPEAKER_00: Even more intimately, though, than how we know one another and our spouses.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus invites us to this table to come and know him, to come and relate to him, to break bread with him, to experience real communion with him.
SPEAKER_00: It's not that the bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It's that the Holy Spirit uses this bread and wine to bring us into the presence of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And so if you have put your trust in Christ, if you've been baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, if you have joined yourself to an evangelical, Bible preaching, Bible teaching church where you can know and be known, then Jesus says, come forward, come to this table, whether that church is Hickory Grove or another, come to this table and be strengthened, be encouraged, have fellowship with the true, crucified, risen, and ascended Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: But if that's not your story, if you've not yet put your faith in Christ, if you have not yet submitted to Him in obedience by joining His body, then Scripture says, hold on a second.
SPEAKER_00: We got to discern the body before we come to the table.
SPEAKER_00: Whether that means discerning the actual physical body of Christ or discerning the spiritual body of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And if you want to know more about what that looks like, please don't hesitate.
SPEAKER_00: Come to see me, come to see one of these guys.
SPEAKER_00: But for now, I'm gonna pray.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna ask the Lord to bless this meal.
SPEAKER_00: And after I do pray, you can come forward and receive the elements, take them back to your seats, and when everybody's been served, we'll partake together.
SPEAKER_00: Father, thank you for this meal.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for this reminder that the Jesus we hold on to is not some abstract idea in our heads, but he is every bit as real as the bread and wine in our hands.
SPEAKER_00: Help us to remember that he truly did come for us to die on the cross and to shed his blood for the forgiveness of our sins.
SPEAKER_00: Help us to know this morning not just about that, but to know it in our bones, to know it in our mouths, to know it in our bellies.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for this gift that enables us to do that.
SPEAKER_00: Would you bless it to that end?
SPEAKER_00: We pray in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.